“Idiot, wait!” Bellona’s consciousness shouted inside Menrva’s mind as she teleported.
It should be noted that when Menrva teleported, from her perception, she had to cross in seconds through a brief tunnel of dimensional interconnection, where she decided in what place and in what position she should appear in the area she had chosen as her destination. Therefore, in that reality, only the Etruscan goddess could move and think, while time froze for everyone outside that funnel.
Menrva stopped abruptly inside the dimensional tunnel as she heard Bellona’s voice shouting at her.
“What happened, Bellona?” Menrva asked, worried.
“Didn’t you feel that presence watching you?” asked the Roman goddess who lived inside Menrva’s mind.
“Pre… presence? I didn’t feel anything!” Menrva said, confused.
But Menrva could not stop for any longer. She had to reach her destination because the dimensional tunnel was making her move forward automatically.
“Change route, idiot! Right now!” Bellona shouted imperatively.
Menrva forced her body as much as she could. Gouts of blood poured from her torso while her bones could be heard cracking. Her face became distorted the moment she changed the route of her teleportation.
The goddess then appeared in a gigantic snowy tundra while still holding Ana’s hand. The two goddesses fell violently onto the snowy ground of that region.
The sky was growing light with an orange glow, while the gigantic pines covering the area looked dark beneath the precious light produced by the dawn in that region.
“Where the heck are we?!” Ana asked, confused, since she did not recognize the place where they were and because of the violent fall they had suffered upon returning.
But Menrva turned to look at her companion with concern.
“Cast an alternate dimension now!” Menrva shouted imperatively.
Ana, not understanding what was happening, agreed without complaint. A new dimension formed in the snowy tundra where both goddesses had fallen.
At that moment, a rain of arrows illuminated like beams of light fell upon the goddesses, which they immediately avoided. The attacks tore apart the region where they were, leaving an enormous sea of cracks across the entire area.
Then Menrva’s body burst with blood, and the goddess fell to the ground. The sudden movement of avoiding the attack had damaged her already wounded body, caused by changing the route of her teleportation.
“Did they hit you, Menrva?” Ana asked, terrified, as she ran to see her friend lying in the snow in a sea of blood.
Menrva raised her head and looked at Ana while still lying on the ground.
“It was a trap. Lel set a trap for us,” the goddess said, and then ordered Ana to flee, but the goddess refused.
Immediately, a new rain of arrows covered the sky. They shone like tiny moons as they rushed at full speed toward where the goddesses were.
Ana quickly invoked her shield Dubán to stop the next onslaught of attacks, while Menrva could not recover, and it seemed her ichor was not healing her either.
Thanks to the magical shield, the arrows did not harm the two goddesses, but they devastated the entire place where they were. Of what had once been a snowy tundra, only dead earth filled with craters remained, similar to the surface of the moon.
The area where the two goddesses stood had been completely destroyed. However, it had become a valley, while the pines still surrounded the disaster zone.
Ana stood angrily as she made her sword Gram appear and looked in every direction.
“Show yourself, you bastard!” the Irish goddess shouted furiously. “We already know Lel sent you!”
Then a woman’s voice was heard in the distance:
“Why should a huntress show herself to her prey?”
At that moment, Ana felt a powerful impact right in her heart. A silver arrow had pierced her without her realizing it. The arrow was as white as snow and was loaded with sacred power.
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“I couldn’t see where the attack came from,” Ana thought, worried, as she looked at the arrow right in her heart.
However, the goddess held the arrow and ripped it out of her chest, while it disappeared in a beam of light.
“How strange. I was told you were weak against sacred power, being a Saturn,” the female voice was heard again in the distance.
Ana began to smile cynically while continuing to breathe deeply. Although the attack had not killed her, it had made her spend quite a lot of ichor.
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me,” the goddess answered.
Ana then calmed herself and looked toward where she felt the voice was coming from.
“You calculated Menrva’s teleportation and tried to set a trap for us, didn’t you?” the Irish goddess asked. “That’s why you made her force a change of route.”
But before the goddess could keep speaking, an arrow pierced the Irish goddess’s skull. Yet, to the anonymous sniper’s surprise, Ana ripped the arrow out of her head again.
“If you don’t tell me where you are, I’m gonna drag you out of wherever you’re hiding,” Ana said as she once again threw the white arrow to the ground, where it immediately disappeared.
“Fuinneamh dorcha (Dark Energy)!” Ana shouted at the top of her lungs as her sword Gram filled with dark energy, and with it, she made a swift slash in front of her.
A gigantic piece of the Earth split apart from the impact, while the woman’s voice was heard in the distance, screaming in agony.
The pines, along with the earth, were lifted by Ana’s attack, while she continued swinging her sword all around the forest. In the end, only an inert surface remained.
“Did you think you could hide forever in those trees while hiding your divine presence? Coward!” Ana shouted furiously.
Then the goddess saw a slight movement among the debris floating in the gigantic crater she had made. Like lightning, she traveled there and delivered a swift slash. Indeed, behind the stone was a woman whom Ana split in half without mercy.
The line of asteroids disappeared from the impact of Ana’s slash, clearly revealing outer space through that opening, since with her attack, she had also destroyed the atmospheric layer.
“Impossible! No one warned me you had this strength!” said the agonizing woman split in half, though Ana could not see her well because of the darkness. However, Ana was able to realize that, whoever she was, she was not wearing a totema.
The woman joined herself back together thanks to her reserve of ichor and remained floating in space while Ana tried to see who she was.
“I assume you must be Artemis, the Hellenic huntress,” Ana said while looking at the woman, who could be seen to have long silver hair.
The woman began to laugh while placing her index finger on her mouth.
“Sure, I’m honored to know that barbarians from primitive islands like Ireland know of my existence,” the woman said mockingly as she approached Ana.
The Greek goddess indeed had beautiful silver hair and rosy skin. Her eyes were almost white, as were her eyelashes. The goddess carried a simple Greek bow and wore a white tunic that ended in a miniskirt, showing her shapely legs.
Artemis’s head was adorned with a silver bandana, with which she tied her hair into a ponytail.
“I think you’re underestimating me by not wearing your totema,” Ana said, and then pointed her sword at the goddess.
“How did you track us?” she asked furiously. “Menrva had to change her route when she teleported.”
Artemis began laughing again, placing her index finger on her mouth.
“I’m a huntress, Morrigan,” the goddess replied. “I follow my prey.”
Artemis pointed toward where Menrva lay. The Etruscan goddess had lost consciousness, but she was already recovering her lost ichor.
“In the ruins of Pallas, we had an informant planted who told me Menrva had teleported. So I mentally marked her as my prey and teleported here along with her,” the goddess replied. “Now you will never escape from me until you defeat me.”
Ana was surprised by how quickly Artemis had been able to act, within the millionth of a second that Menrva’s teleportation lasted.
“I want you to answer one thing,” Ana ordered while gripping Gram with both hands. “Where is Athena? What happened to the members of Orniskem?”
Artemis laughed again.
“Why should I answer that, you uncivilized barbarian?” the Greek goddess replied.
“Then I’ll get it out of you with my sword,” Ana answered.
Immediately, Artemis took from within her clothing a necklace shaped like a silver deer. It was her totema.
“You talk a lot of shite just because you managed to beat me in my base state, but my power with my totema will be enough to crush you,” Artemis said.
Ana then smiled.
“Go on. Do it,” she said.
Artemis recited a few words in Greek, and a moon appeared behind her. A blinding light covered the entire ruined scene, but Ana did not blink before that phenomenon.
When the light dissipated, Artemis appeared before Ana wearing white and silver hoplite armor. Instead of a helmet, the goddess was crowned with a diadem set with white jewels. The image of a moon was drawn on her chest. Her pauldrons bore the figure of a deer, while her boots bore the figure of a dog’s head. The goddess’s small bow had now become a large white composite bow as well.
“Do you remember how much damage my swift arrows did to you, Morrigan?” Artemis asked.
Ana said nothing.
“Now imagine how powerful they will be with my current power. One will be enough to kill you and take your head to Lel,” the goddess replied.
Ana then looked at the goddess with a cynical expression and said:
“Go on. Do it.”
Artemis frowned, and with astonishing speed, she pierced Ana’s neck with a silver arrow.
“Farewell, Morrigan,” Artemis said triumphantly.
But to the Greek goddess’s surprise, Ana ripped the arrow out without any problem.
“That’s impossible! That attack hurt you badly when I wasn’t wearing my totema!” the lunar goddess shouted in horror.
“Oh, that?” Ana asked cynically. “I can control my divine power whenever I want. I just lowered it to the minimum when we were fighting.”
Ana once again took Gram with both hands and shouted:
“And stop calling me Morrigan! My name is Ana!”
And without warning, Ana split Artemis in half again while the goddess looked in horror at Ana’s enormous power.
“I think… we got way too strong,” Ana said triumphantly. “Thank you, Master Athena.”