The two goddesses reappeared in the room where the members of Orniskem were waiting for them. When they saw Ana covered in blood, they could not hide their horror.
“What happened?!” Tania shouted in fear, but Menrva said the most important thing was healing Ana as she laid her down on the bed.
Menrva immediately looked at Loki.
“Loki,” she said. “There are spiritual marks on our bodies. Please remove them!”
The Norse god looked at Menrva’s and Ana’s bodies, and indeed, both goddesses had a kind of target painted on their chests. It was something only he could see.
Loki, with a lustful look, moved his hands closer to the two goddesses’ breasts, but Tania struck him.
“Filthy degenerate!” the Punic goddess said.
“Take this seriously, Loki!” Menrva shouted angrily. “They are markings from our enemies so they can find us!”
The Norse god then made the two invisible targets on the goddesses’ bodies disappear with a movement of his hands.
Tul quickly took medicine from her bag and offered it to the Irish goddess’s mouth. Ana made a disgusted face, but the wound on her neck quickly recovered.
When Menrva saw that Ana was already better, she sat on one of the beds and breathed deeply while joining her hands.
“As expected, Lel had set a trap for us, but Bellona warned me before everything happened, and we barely managed to escape,” Menrva replied.
Ana then sat up on the bed while rubbing her neck and coughing a little.
“Are you better now, ch’úupal?” Tul asked Ana in a soothing voice.
Ana nodded.
Ana then looked at the Etruscan goddess and shook her head.
“I’m sorry, Menrva. I got too confident, and I put you in danger because of it,” she said.
Menrva then began to laugh.
“Do not worry, Ana,” the Etruscan goddess replied. “No one expected Lel to have such a troublesome goddess as that empress. Fortunately, Bellona was able to detect her despite her Good Fortune protection.”
“Empress? Who are you talking about?” Anpiel asked, and then made a mocking expression. “Surely you do not mean the former queen of Constantinople, do you?”
Ana and Menrva were surprised that the angel had guessed it, but judging by his expression, he had said it as a joke.
“Wait a moment, I was not serious,” Anpiel added. “Do not tell me that…”
Ana looked down at her lap, then immediately raised her gaze.
“Yes and no, Anpiel. We saw the former queen of Constantinople before us. The deposed Irene,” Ana said gloomily.
“One moment,” Anpiel interrupted again. “Irene died more than a century ago. Why would a goddess usurp her identity?”
“My theory is,” Ana replied, “Irene was the first woman Lel placed as empress, and she has simply served as either queen or consort while ruling from the shadows.”
“It is possible they murdered the real Irene,” Menrva added, intrigued.
“I heard that Irene tore out her son’s eyes and exiled him,” Anpiel continued. “Do you think he might have discovered that his mother was false?” he asked.
Ana nodded.
“That’s very likely.”
Everyone stared at Ana in surprise. No one had expected the former queen of the most powerful empire in the world to be a deity.
“Damn bastards! So that is how they have controlled the Eastern Roman Empire!” Tania said between her teeth, furious.
“Wait a moment,” Freyja interrupted.
“I know that Constantinople place is neighbors with the Kingdom of Rus, a kingdom Vidar had been building together with other local gods… but he’s been missing for at least a month,” the Norse goddess said.
“Do you think Vidar’s disappearance has something to do with Lel controlling the throne of Constantinople in this way?” Anpiel asked.
Menrva nodded.
“It is terrible. It is terrible how deeply those bastards have inserted themselves into the human world,” Epona added, disappointed.
“It was fortunate that I avoided teleporting here. Otherwise, Byzantium would have undoubtedly declared war on the Papal States just to look for us,” Menrva said.
Everyone remained silent for a moment, until Ana interrupted that instant.
“Menrva, when you attacked Irene, I felt like you knew who she was and how you could hurt her,” the Irish goddess said to the Etruscan goddess.
Menrva shook her head.
“Bellona is the one who knows all the details. She simply asked me for permission to use my body, since I did not know what to do,” the Etruscan goddess added.
Then Menrva heard Bellona’s voice and nodded to her request.
“Bellona will speak with you about it,” Menrva said.
Menrva then closed her eyes and lowered her head.
“I don’t much like talking to that bastard, honestly,” Epona said, somewhat annoyed.
“Do not worry. Menrva has her completely under control,” Freyja added when she saw the worried face of the equine goddess.
Menrva raised her head and smiled from ear to ear.
“Hi, guys! Did ya miss me?” Menrva asked with Bellona’s voice.
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Everyone rose from their beds, somewhat worried. Only Tul did not know exactly who that girl was and remained sitting on the bed.
“Bellona. So you found a way to keep living like the parasite you are,” Tania said angrily.
Menrva shook her head.
“I was only following orders, Tania. You should not resent me for fulfilling my duty. But now I want to help you, because I have decided to bet on you,” Menrva explained with Bellona’s voice.
“I do not know whether we should trust you. You already betrayed us before in Duendede,” Tania added, annoyed.
“Denendeh, Tania,” Menrva replied with Bellona’s voice, making a mocking smile appear on the Etruscan goddess’s face.
Everyone began to laugh then.
Ana placed her hand on Tania’s shoulder.
“Let’s trust Menrva,” the Irish goddess said.
“Indeed. Thanks to her assimilation, Menrva has awakened an incredible power,” Anpiel added.
All the other gods nodded and sat back down on the beds.
“Well, all right. Better to leave the past behind and think about the present,” Menrva said with Bellona’s voice, then stood.
“That Empress Irene is a fraud. In truth, she is the goddess of Good Fortune from Olympus,” Menrva said with Bellona’s voice.
“Good Fortune?” Epona asked, confused. “How does that work?”
“It means everything she does goes her way,” Loki explained. “It’s one real freaky ability.”
Menrva nodded.
“Precisely. She is not very strong, but that ability makes her incredibly dangerous,” Menrva replied with Bellona’s voice. “I do not doubt that she continues controlling Byzantium at will by using that ability.”
“Is that why, even though I dodged her attacks, they still hit me?” Ana asked.
Menrva nodded again.
“She can strike key points to prevent ichor from recovering. She can hide her presence to avoid being detected. She can evade attacks without being harmed,” Menrva said with Bellona’s voice.
Then Menrva made a wicked expression.
“She could be here, listening to our conversation,” she said.
Everyone quickly looked all around, believing that deity might be listening to them, but they saw nothing. Menrva then merely burst into laughter using Bellona’s voice.
“It was a joke! I made sure she could not follow us,” the Etruscan goddess said with Bellona’s voice. “And Loki erased the marks Artemis placed on us when we arrived.”
“Artemis?” Epona asked, frightened upon recognizing that name. She was a very powerful goddess and quite well known in the world of the gods.
“Do not worry. Ana had no trouble with her,” Menrva said proudly with Bellona’s voice. “I knew I had to bet on you.”
Epona was surprised and more relieved by those words. If Artemis could not defeat Ana, it meant the other gods of Olympus might not be as threatening as they had believed.
“Besides,” the Etruscan goddess added with Bellona’s voice, “I erased part of Artemis’s memory so her recollection of us would be blurred, and so she would be unable to reactivate the mark.”
“But then, how were you able to hurt her?” Ana asked Menrva. “I couldn’t even touch her.”
Menrva placed her hands on her waist and smiled.
“I met that bastard many years ago. Basically, while she is under her Good Fortune protection, it is impossible to attack her,” the Etruscan goddess said with Bellona’s voice.
“But her ability has one flaw: she can only perform seven miracles in a row. Her eighth action will bring her bad luck,” Menrva added with Bellona’s voice.
“Seven times?” Ana asked, confused.
“Indeed,” Menrva continued explaining with Bellona’s voice. “While Menrva was wounded, I devoted myself to counting the miracles that bastard performed. When I counted the seventh, I knew she had run out of resources.”
Menrva then stared fixedly at Ana.
“If she had used one of her Good Fortune miracles, she would have made you sing when she interrogated you, even if you did not want to betray your friends. That is why she had to resort to trying to kill me in order to blackmail you,” Menrva said with Bellona’s voice, very seriously.
Ana was stunned when she realized how vulnerable she had been that entire time, and how dangerous that empress could be.
“In fact, because of her bad luck, she will take longer than normal to recover,” Menrva added. “But even though you left them locked inside your pocket dimension, it is very possible that she will be able to escape that prison together with Artemis and heal her without difficulty.”
Ana gnashed her teeth.
“Do not worry. No matter how much good luck she has, she cannot recreate things she has neither seen nor experienced. She was surely using her gaze to share it with Artemis,” Menrva added with Bellona’s voice. “We are safe here, for now.”
“Then let us continue using this room as our meeting point,” Anpiel said. “However, we must avoid teleporting here directly. In that way, if we are tracked, Lel will not be able to find this specific location.”
Immediately, Menrva sat back down on the bed.
“Well, that is the information I have on the matter. You will have to handle the rest,” the goddess said.
“See ya!” Menrva said with Bellona’s voice while waving her hand goodbye, and the Etruscan goddess lowered her head again.
“It seems there will be no problems with her,” Tania said, intrigued.
Menrva raised her head again and smiled.
“It is me again,” the Etruscan goddess said.
“So?” Epona asked. “Do you think it is a good idea to keep using this fief as a meeting point? Do you not think Lel could attack here?”
Menrva nodded.
“We will do as Anpiel suggested. We will teleport in parts or enter the fief on foot, just as we did before,” Menrva suggested.
Everyone nodded.
Freyja then interrupted.
“Well, with this information, we can leave a mite more calmly.”
Menrva and Ana became thoughtful and asked what was happening.
“The truth is, I hoped we would have a meeting point, because Loki and I want to return to Yggdrasil and learn what has happened,” Freyja replied.
Menrva was surprised that she had forgotten both gods still had that pending matter.
“That is true, Freyja,” Menrva replied. “I hope that madwoman Anat has not already escaped.”
Freyja shook her head.
“Though my brother hasn’t reported anything strange to me, I’d still like to know things are still all right,” the beautiful blond goddess said. “Once everything is in order, Loki and I will return to support you against Olympus… maybe with extra help.”
Menrva smiled and hugged Freyja very tightly.
“This will always be your new home,” the Etruscan goddess said.
Freyja thanked her for the gesture.
Loki then stood and raised his arms.
“Well then, my gorgeous Ana,” the god said to the Irish goddess. “Don’t worry, ’cause I’ll be back, and I’ll keep the promise I made to you and Tania.”
Ana smiled then.
“Thank you for everything, Loki. I’m happy to see how much you’ve changed in this little time we’ve been together,” the goddess said with a smile.
“I still see him as just as cynical and rotten as ever,” Epona interrupted with her cheeks puffed out.
Everyone laughed at that moment.
Ana then hugged Loki.
“Come back soon, and be careful with Lel,” Ana said, smiling at him.
Everyone then said goodbye to the Norse gods as Loki held Freyja’s hand, they dressed themselves in their totemas, and both disappeared from the room.
Then Tania stood as well.
“I will go to Ibiza. I need to speak with Nabu,” the Punic goddess said. “But I would rather no one follow me, since Lel could trace our steps.”
Ana shook her head.
“I’m sure Lel would think we’d use Ibiza to gather. It’s probably the most dangerous place we could be,” Ana said.
Tania nodded.
“Even so, we need, at the very least, information about what happened, and whether Nabu knows anything about it,” Tania replied.
Menrva approached Tania and took her hand.
“Very well. I will take you,” the goddess said. “I was at the feast you held on that island, so I remember the location.”
Tania smiled and took the goddess’s hand.
“Forgive me for asking something so dangerous of you after you escaped such a difficult situation,” Tania apologized.
Menrva shook her head.
“Do not worry. We will save my master no matter what,” the Etruscan goddess said.
All the other gods said goodbye to the two goddesses and wished them good luck. Then both goddesses disappeared.
Meanwhile, Loki and Freyja appeared before the gigantic planet Yggdrasil. Everything looked exactly the same, as if nothing had happened. The gigantic leafy tree still stood, and its cities were illuminated in such a way that they could be seen from outer space.
“Judgin’ by this, looks like nothin’s happened,” Freyja said.
However, the two gods immediately felt a gigantic power that horrified them. It was approaching so quickly that they could not even react when that person appeared before them.
“Well, what a coincidence… two disgusting Norse gods who should be in Vinland right now,” said the mysterious person, who had a woman’s voice.
Loki then turned pale in that moment.
“You’re… the woman who freed me from my prison,” he said nervously.
The woman turned to look at Loki and smiled at him.
“Loki, it’s been a long damn time!” the woman said, revealing a smile with her devilish teeth.
“Do you know this woman?” Freyja asked, frightened.
Loki made his staff appear and stood before Freyja in a combat stance while watching the woman approach, floating with both hands extended. She had a golden crown with the figure of a sun and two enormous ostrich feathers on the sides. She wore a Carthaginian breastplate and a purple cape. Her eyes were blue, and her hair was long and blond.
“She is Baalat Gebal, the eloah who almost killed Father Odin,” Loki replied.
Freyja’s face then turned pale.