So I wrote another story, but this is for Campione! I thought that the universe was incredibly interesting the first time I read the light novels and I thought: "What if Godou wasn't the (hypocritical) pacifist he was in the novels and actually got some training after he became a Campione? So after a little brainstorming, I had the beginning of this chapter. I used the basic premise as in the novels: Godou is returning a tablet that has the ability to steal a god's power, but I altered it a lot. I hope you'll enjoy the first chapter. There will soon be more.
And before you start complaining that I made up certain parts of the goddess's legend, remember that most gods in the Campione have done the same. I just made it so it got interesting when he got his powers and how to use them.
December 10…
Unlike Japan, the winds of Sweden were excruciatingly cold in the winter. The winds that blew felt like pure ice as it froze him to his core. The snow got in his eyes and forced him to look down in an attempt to shield them from the onslaught of snowflakes, but it did little good as the wind made the snow get in his eyes no matter what.
Kusanagi Godou was not a happy camper. Normally he wouldn't be a camper at all, but his grandfather had asked him to deliver something to the family of his old friend. Apparently the man had passed away recently and before he took his final breath, he had asked Kusanagi Ichirou to return an old artifact. It was an old tablet depicting a large wolf in the sky, hardly a decorative piece, but Ichirou had agreed. The only problem was that the family had been quite greedy in their request. They insisted in selling it off to a collector and wanted the thing sold as soon as possible. That meant getting the tablet to an old mansion in the middle of Sweden's nowhere when the snowstorms were at full force. While Ichirou was quite fit for his old age, especially for someone who has such a reputation among the old widows, he was not fit enough to brave the winter of Scandinavia.
That meant they had few options. They could send it by post, but the mansion didn't have postal service for some absurd reason, meaning they would have to go in person. So either Godou or Shizuka would have to fly all the way to Scandinavia to deliver it. Neither of the Kusanagi men gave even the slightest consideration to sending Shizuka; the twelve year old girl was quite responsible for her age, but who in their right mind would send a girl who wasn't even a teenager on a trip, alone, around the globe? So naturally it fell to Godou to ensure the heirloom was delivered to the rightful owner.
Unfortunately, the greedy bastards who wanted the tablet didn't seem to give a flying fern about who made the delivery as they didn't bother mentioning that there were no trains, buses or taxis that made the trip to the mansion and they couldn't be bothered to pick him up. He actually had to call them several times before they admitted that he would have to make the delivery on foot.
So now he was in the northern parts of Sweden, also known as fell, with a crappy tent and a stone tablet and stuck in a snowstorm. He honestly didn't know how he got into this situation, but obviously somehow, a god somewhere out there wanted to punish him for something he didn't know he did.
Somewhere…
Verethragna sneezed for some reason. Odd, gods such as him do not sneeze, not unless divine arts were used to affect him.
Nevermind, he needed to focus on his battle against Perseus. The blonde warrior looked quite excited about the duel.
Perhaps he could have some fun while he was at it.
In the middle of Sweden's nowhere…
He secured his backpack and started skiing his way to the valley the mansion was supposedly built in. Despite the horrific snow and blistering wind, Godou had made surprising progress. While most of his athletic ability came from his time as a baseball player, he practiced quite a few sports with his grandfather. One of them happened to be skiing, though that had been downhill under a blue sky while this was cross-country in a blizzard. It was still a good experience and he doubted he would have made it this far if he hadn't learnt the sport.
Reaching a hill, he started speeding up. He had been using nothing, but his own power to propel himself for hours so the chance to let gravity to the work for him was too great to pass up. When he reached the edge, he gave one last push and dove down the mountain side.
As most people would tell you, alpine skiing in a blizzard with a free heel is not a wise thing to do. Downhill skiing is dangerous under normal circumstances, due to the high speed and relatively little protection. Attempt of doing the same with free-heel bindings and low visibility while exhausted is generally considered to be idiotic.
For Godou however, it was a blessing. His muscles were aching from overexertion and every single movement felt like acid was being poured into his bones. To finally allow his legs a much needed rest was a feeling beyond description. He could almost feel the tears fall down his face, only to freeze from the blistering cold. It was such a heavenly feeling that he totally ignored all the hallucinations he might have thought he was suffering from, only focusing on the white landscape in front of him. As such, he ignored the entity racing down the mountain side next to him. He didn't care that it started pulling up in front of him, only to back up and turn when Godou turned away from the entity.
In the end, Godou left the otherworldly existence behind as he accelerated even more, hoping that when he reached the mansion he would be able to rest. He could not have known that his little slalom had left a god's pride appropriately wounded.
When he reached the end of the hill, he was able to see the house. It was hard not to, every single light in the mansion had been lit for some reason. It looked like a Christmas tree that had fallen down with the bright lights, wooden roof, stone walls and crust of snow. Though why the owners had decided to light every lamp in the house was a mystery. The electricity bill would have been enormous if a mansion that large had to be illuminated like that every day of the week. More than even a wealthy family could afford.
He trudged forward, his sore muscles protesting against every step, or slide, he made. Honestly, if he didn't get some sleep in a real bed soon, he didn't know what he would do!
He was so tired that he didn't think of looking up. If he had he would have seen the being he had left behind earlier. He would have noticed the horse standing in the sky, as if it was solid ground. It was so white it could have been mistaken for snow if it wasn't clad in flames staring from its mane, tail and hooves. It was larger than any horse bred by man; even an elephant would cower before the monstrous behemoth the rider was mounted upon. But the really scary part was the rider on its back.
Just like with the horse, the rider followed a colour scheme. She was clad in white, from head to toe. The woman on the white horse wore a white dress. It looked like a priestess garb with one notable exception; the seams were on fire. Her entire outfit was burning in fact, from bottom to top, but she didn't even seem to notice. Even though the flames licked her skin and hair, her face was solely focused on Godou.
Her face was quite beautiful. Her skin was as white as alabaster, not sickly pale as one would think, but she looked radiant with warm energy. Her hair was a golden blonde and it was difficult to tell where the flames started and her hair ended. In fact, her hair looked like it was made of fire at the ends. Her lips were a bright scarlet, outshining any gemstone you could find. On the other hand, her eyes were a deep green and shone with barely concealed power. All of these traits gave her the visage of a queen, a wise and benevolent ruler gazing down on her subjects.
She was quite small compared to her mount. The behemoth she rode was larger than any land-living creature so any human riding the horse would look small. Even by human standards, the lady was built quite petite. Some would even say she looked fragile. However had they known that the rider was several hundred meters away, they wouldn't be so quick to judge. Had the rider been standing next to them she would tower over the humans with their height of twenty-something feet. Despite her size, she didn't seem monstrously huge or ugly. It seemed as if her abnormal stature was completely normal, like she was perfection itself.
Even so, no man would ever make the mistake of trying to approach the beautiful anomaly now because of the rage emanating from her like heat from a fire. It was in her eyes, a deep burning wrath was visible in those green crystals. It was terrifying to witness, but as it was, no man was there to witness it.
Kusanagi Godou had already left her as he reached the house where he was hoping for shelter. He knocked on the large wooden doors with his mitten-covered hand. As soon as his hand touched the door, his arm exploded with stabbing agony. It felt as if a thousand needles were stabbing his arms all at once, simply by knocking on the door. Had he really let his arm freeze to the point of feeling pain at the simplest touch? He needed to get some warm food and clothes quickly. He might even die if this continued.
A butler opened the door and let him in. He was one of those old-fashioned butlers, with a suit that had long tails. He even had a monocle and a mustache. Though the monocle made it hard to see, he did catch the look of disgust the man gave him as Godou took of his skis and placed them and his ski poles against the outside wall. That wasn't a good sign, did he do something wrong He hoped not, it would make it difficult to convince them to let him rest here. He didn't fancy his odds in the blizzard at the moment so his only hope was to rest inside the manor.
When he got inside, he removed his outer clothes and hung them on the clothes hanger. As he didn't know where else to put it, he let his backpack rest against the wall. He then turned around to the butler, who was still giving him the evil eye, and asked.
"Umm, is it possible for me to sleep here for a while until the weather gets better?" He stuttered from the cold, making his broken English even more obvious. "The blizzard is supposed to continue for a few days and I can't go out there without rest." He tried to get his point across by emphasizing the snowstorm as much as possible.
The butler looked him in the eyes before giving a short reply. "You'll have to ask the Herr Silverström about that." before turning around and leaving. After removing his soaked boots, Godou followed him. He stopped, ran back to his backpack and removed a large package from it and ran after the rude butler. He caught up just as the man opened a large door with intrinsically carved images on the wood. He motioned Godou to enter, though with the impatience and subtlety of a brick. It looked more like he was twitching his head to the entrance while his arm was trying to poke a hole in the air.
Godou decided that he didn't have the energy to bother and just walked through the door, ignoring the butler.
Inside was a man sitting in a large armchair. He was dressed in a red velvet morning robe, Godou thought it was called a smoking jacket, and was smoking from a large white pipe. When he looked up and saw the boy, his face broke out a large smile. He put his pipe down, stood up and walked briskly over to the boy. When he reached Godou, he stopped. This of course made Godou nervous. What was he thinking? Just as Godou was about to introduce himself, the man ripped the package from his hands and walked back to his chair. He gave Godou a slight glare and then turned back to his package which he ripped open with greed evident on his face.
Godou was shocked. He had thought the butler was rude, but the master of the house topped even that. Godou just braved a blizzard just so the man could get his stupid tablet in time and he didn't even get a word of gratitude. The man wasn't just rude, he was a downright bastard! Godou wanted to let his anger show, but he suppressed it. He had to ask the man for a place to stay while the storm passed. Taking a deep breath, he opened his mouth to speak for the second time in a week.
"I'm sorry to ask you this, but is it possible for me to stay here for a few days? I can't go back until the storm stops and I need to sleep. The tent couldn't handle the winds so I had to move when the storm arrived." He tried to make the obviously arrogant man realize his situation. The man looked at Godou again and he saw the disgust in his eyes. He really didn't like foreigners it seemed.
"Sure, as long as you don't touch anything important. This mansion has been my family's home for generations and I don't want you breaking anything." He turned back to the tablet again and traced the outline of the wolf. Suddenly he froze before he turned back to Godou again. Sniffing the air, he held his nose and waved his hand in front of his face. "And take a bath or something! Didn't you shower before you got here?" he said angrily.
Godou flushed. "N-no, I didn't have the chance to. I-I'm going to go… and take a shower then." `It's not like I had to ski across miles of snow for a week in order to get you that damned thing so cut me some slack!´ He marched out of the room, now fully aware of the stench his sweat-drenched clothes were giving off. He asked the butler where the bathroom was and went to get his reserve clothes.
After having a nice soak in the bathtub, a nice, soak which he used to clean his grimy hair more than three times in order to get rid of the dirt that had developed, he put on his clothes. Simple jeans and a shirt covered with a thicker sweater were not ideal for winter camping, but he had planned to use it in town. He didn't have anything else to use as he had to throw his hiking clothes in the washing machine (the butler had been adamant in refusing to touch them). He was currently in his assigned room, a small square room that was obviously made for the lowest servants as it only had a bed and a dresser.
He thought back to his response to the man, Herr Silverström he remembered the butler saying. He had not been prepared for the rude reception and had lost his temper. He had meant to ask him a few questions, but it was hard to do that when the guy kept insulting him. He wanted to ask what the tablet represented. He hadn't bothered to ask his grandpa, but during the time he traveled with it he grew curious. Now he had to wait until he got back to japan to figure it out.
He decided to go to sleep after eating his dinner. Dry bread and powdered milk had been the ordinary meal he had during his trip so he had been looking forward to eating something proper, but the butler had told him if he had food with him he should eat it.
Godou shook his head. There was rude and there was Rude. This was neither, it was just plain evil.
The next day…
Godou woke up with a smile on his face. For the first time in a week he had slept in a proper bed! His back didn't hurt after improper sleeping positions and he could finally feel his fingers and toes again. He threw of the covers and started wiggling his toes, only to wince as the skin which had become cracked as it dried sent small flares of pain up his legs. It looked like it would take some time before he could recover enough to return. He didn't like his chances of surviving another blizzard in his current condition.
He stood up, careful not to aggravate his sore feet and started dressing himself. It took significantly longer than he had expected due to the wounds on his hands and feet. Just as he finished, he heard a knock on the door. Before he had the chance to answer, the door swung open and the butler walked in. He saw the bed Godou had slept in and sneered, probably disliking the fact that he would have to wash the sheets later on. He turned back to Godou and sighed.
"The mistress returned last night and was wondering whose clothes were hanging to dry. When she found out there was a guest she told us to inform her when you woke up. Seeing as you are awake, I shall take you to see the mistress now." He said in a tone that meant there was no discussion about it. He started walking, expecting Godou to follow.
Godou did his best to keep up, but every step made him wince. It seemed the butler took some sort of sick pleasure in keeping a pace he knew Godou could not follow with his damaged feet. He thought he even saw the mustached man sneak a peek at him in order to make sure he wasn't catching up.
`That rotten bastard!´ Thought the teenager. He was at his breaking point with the old man and he was sincerely hoping that the `Mistress´ was not like the butler or master of the estate.
They entered a large room, though the design differed greatly from the rest of the mansion. While most of the rooms in the house were designed with walls covered with dark tapestries, this room had bright colors instead. In the center of the room was a large table. It looked exactly like one taken from a movie in which the occupants were sitting on the opposite sides and had to yell at eachother to be heard. Godou had to repress a snicker at the thought of Herr Silverström and his wife having to scream at each other in order to have a normal conversation.
His eyes were drawn to the woman standing at the end of the table. She was a beautiful woman, with blonde hair and blue eyes. The dress she wore concealed her curves mostly, but gave the illusion that she was curvier than most women. She appeared to be somewhere around twenty-five years old, but he couldn't be sure. When she saw him she gave him a smile, not the smile Herr Silverström gave him the night before, but genuine smile.
She approached him with a rapid pace. When she was in front of him she reached her hand forward in order to shake his hand. Godou shook it, surprised at the strength in her grip. He let go and she introduced herself.
"I'm sorry I couldn't greet you before, but I was just returning from my trip. Let me make amends for my tardiness. My name is Rosa Silverström and I'm the head of Silverström family. You met Niklas before, didn't you?" She motioned to the butler. Godou nodded and she continued. "My husband told me you arrived last night during the blizzard. Why didn't you call him so he could pick you up?" he noticed how the butler, Niklas, stiffened. Godou felt a twisted joy at the possibility of making his day ruined.
"I did, but they told me they were busy with something. And since there weren't any buses or trains I had to ski the way here. It took a week to make it, but then the blizzard showed up and… well, my clothes weren't the best on the market so I asked if I could stay here for a while." He finished. He took a look at Niklas and the butler shot him a hateful look.
Rosa stiffened. She had apparently not been told this little fact. She whirled around to face Niklas and ordered him to bring her husband to her. He hurried out of the room, eager to get out of his mistress's wrath. The door shut itself behind him as he left.
Rosa turned her flushed face back to the boy, now more in control of her temper it seemed. "I'm sorry you had to see that. It's just that… recently Johan has been getting more and more enthusiastic about collecting my family's heirlooms. I've never been able to figure out what he does with them, but he's behaving suspiciously. I'm worried that he's making plans to divorce me in order to take my money." She told him, her tired faces showing traces of the strain of living with the man Godou met yesterday. The memory from the night before reminded him of his question.
"Umm, miss Silverström? Do you by any chance know what the tablet I delivered was? It's been bugging me for some time now and I can't seem to be able to figure it out. Is it supposed to depict a wolf deity or something?" Godou was given the chance to see the fury return to her eyes, though this time it was far more powerful.
"Tablet? I don't remember him saying anything about a tablet. I thought you brought a book my father lent your grandfather. Are you sure it wasn't a book?" she asked him in turn.
"Yeah, it was a large stone tablet. About the size of a book, but it was made from grey stone and rectangular. It looked like it was a large wolf in the sky chasing the sun. I thought it was a picture of Fenrir, but that wolf was supposed to chase Odin, no the sun. So I thou… umm, are you okay?" He had stopped when he saw her expression.
She had a murderous look on her face, as if she was imagining someone being cruelly tortured to death. Her hands were clenched into fists and he was sure he saw blood flow between her fingers. A grinding noise was heard and he realized it was her teeth grinding against each other. Her entire body screamed of murder so much that Godou had preferred it if he hadn't asked the question. Just as he was about to ask what made her so mad, she grabbed his hand and started walking towards the door.
"Whoa- wait! Hold on! What's happening? Miss Silverström?" Godou asked the woman who was dragging him down the hallway. His feet protested against the pace the woman was using, but the rapid turn of events made him forget the pain. It seemed he had made some sort of mistake in mentioning the tablet to her as she held his hand in an iron grip. The way she stalked to the room he had met the main in smoking jacket made him nervous. What was going on?
"Listen up because this is important; when we go in there, I want you to find the object that you brought. It's a very important piece of history; one my husband has no right laying his hands on. He is merely a member of this family by marriage so he can only call himself Herr Silverström in my absence. That's why he's searching for a way to take over the household from me and that's where the tablet comes in. It's a long story, but the short version is; that tablet has certain properties that can give him the ability to usurp me from position as head and more. That's why he can't be allowed to keep it, do you understand?" she asked him as they reached the door.
Godou nodded, nervousness replaced by open at the chance to pay Johan for the night before. Rosa turned back to the door and opened it…
Only to be blasted back by the shockwave that emanated from the miniature sun in the room.
Godou was flung back until he hit the wall, stars dancing in front of his eyes. Any thoughts of payback gone, he tried to make sense of what had happened. Did he deliver a bomb or something? No, that wouldn't explain why Johan would set it off inside his house with him in the room. Whatever it was, the blast looked like it was burning in mid-air.
Hold on, it was burning in mid-air. It wasn't a blast though; it looked like a… woman riding a burning horse? He shook his head; the hit he took had obviously messed with his head. When he looked back, it would just be a large fire burning in the middle… no, it was a woman riding a burning horse. Great…
Rosa had also seen the woman and dropped to her knees, an act of subservience. Why, he didn't know, but he felt as though he shouldn't do the same. Whoever the woman was, he didn't feel like bowing. Why should he for that matter? She was just a figment of his imagination, brought forth by the trauma to his head. Rosa was probably just experiencing a different hallucination.
This was apparently the right thing to do as the woman started smiling. He might have been hallucinating, but that smile was both beautiful and terrifying at the same time, but more importantly, it was challenging. He suddenly felt a desire to wipe that smile off her face and look down upon her the same way she was looking down upon him. He had no idea where the feeling came from, but he knew he trusted it with his life.
"So the humans had the audacity to summon This Radiant One? While I admire thy courage, don't think this means I will spare thy life, witch. The only reason thine body hasn't been incinerated by the flames of Skinfaxi is because I'm curious on what thee have summoned This Radiant One for." The woman told them, but the way her gaze was fixed on Godou told him she was asking him for the reason. Rosa answered the woman, clearly not seeing the way the rider had asked Godou.
"We do not know why my foolish husband summoned someone of your stature, Oh Great One. We believe that he intended to slay you to become a godslayer and take control of my family's empire, but we have no such intention. And as you can see, my husband and his servant have already been burned to death by your steed." She was right. Beneath the hooves of the burning horse were two skeletons, badly burnt and smoking. One of the skeletons was holding the stone tablet Godou had painfully brought with him. When the woman saw the bones beneath her mount, she pulled the reins slightly. The horse understood the gesture and reared before slamming its front hooves down. The results were two skeletons smashed to dust beneath the horse's flaming hooves.
The goddess, as he decided to call her, turned her eyes back to Godou and smiled with glee when she noticed his own challenging stare.
"I see thee have recuperated from thine travels." She said. Godou would have answered her if he knew what she meant. He still hadn't recovered enough to walk more than a few feet without wincing. "Excellent, now we can have our rematch!"
Godou was dumbfounded. Rematch? He had never met this woman before and she claimed they had competed against each other. Ridiculous, she was just a figment of his imagination! He was about to voice his objection when the woman started speaking again.
"Though this time, we shall not race down hills and mountains, nor shall we race with speed. Indeed, the only reason thee managed to win against This Radiant one was because of the difference in methods. This time it shall be different. That's right, thee still haven't told This Radiant One your titles. Young one, what is thy name?" she asked him and despite his earlier reluctance, he felt his competitive streak flare up at the woman's arrogance.
"Kusanagi Godou." He introduced himself. The goddess smiled at his tone, amused by his antics.
"Ah, thy name is unfamiliar to This Radiant One's ears. It seems as though thee would have been a promising warrior if thee hadn't challenged This Radiant One to a race. Kusanagi Godou, I will take great pleasure in making thee admit defeat in front of the world. It seems This Radiant One is quite fortunate as well; to have been summoned to the same household the challenger resided in. Consider thyself fortunate as well that it was I who killed thee, and not another."
Godou felt his pulse rise at the way she was speaking, though if it was from fear or anger he didn't know. The hallucination was looking more real by the minute and his skin was hurting from the strange source of heat. If she wasn't an hallucination, then what was she?
"And who said I accepted your challenge? The way I see it, I win more by not accepting. I get to live and know that someone of your stature could not win against me, while you have to know that you lost against a fourteen year old kid. On the other hand, I gain nothing from accepting, only the possibility of death." He told the rider.
She frowned, obviously not happy with the thought of him rejecting her challenge. And then she gained a sly smile. "If thee do not accept, I will burn this land and everyone who dwells in it to ash. That includes the insignificant one next to thee." He saw how Rosa had stiffened at the thought of being burned alive, like her husband and butler. Godou agreed with her line of thought, incineration was not how he planned to go to the other side.
"And if I win? A bet is no bet unless both sides have something to win. If I lose then I die and you get your pride back. But you still haven't said what I will get if I win." Honestly he was hoping she wouldn't want to bet anything and just give up. Unfortunately, he didn't get his wish.
"If thee win? Hah, thee make an excellent jester! Nevertheless, thy point is valid. A winner should always have his prize. If it is thy victory, This Radiant one will surrender her might as is fitting for a goddess of the race to forfeit her chariot when in defeat." She told him, clearly not believing in the possibility of her defeat. Godou wouldn't either, but his pride as an athlete wouldn't let him admit defeat
"All right, fine! So how do we race then? I only have my skis with me and I don't know any other sports that are useful in this weather." He asked, sighing at the inevitability. All he could do now was damage control. Hopefully, make it out alive. Come to think of it, he didn't feel the panic he had expected. He thought that most people would snap if faced with the possibility of their death, but he didn't feel anything. Was this perhaps the acceptance that people spoke of?
"It's quite simple; we try to survive the longest while trying to kill one another." She told him with the same smile as before.
Godou's jaw dropped. That was just murder, plain and simple. He was about to protest when the horse reared and started galloping towards him. He had less than a second to dodge, a feat he managed only due to his experience as a baseball player. He rolled to the side, just barely making it out of the way of the stampeding stallion. He turned his head just in time to see it destroy the wall in its way and disappear out of sight. The fire from the horse covered the edges of the hole in bright flames which started spreading to the walls. He turned to Rosa, expecting an answer. Her face was blank and her eyes had a vacant look.
"What the hell was that?!" he yelled. This seemed to snap her out of whatever daydream she had. She focused on him.
"Apparently a goddess wants to kill you for having beaten her in a race! What the hell did you do to her in order to win?!" she yelled back. She was just as astonished as he was it seemed.
"I don't know and I don't care! How do I beat her?" He honestly didn't care a single bit about how he supposedly had beaten her when she had that monster of a horse to ride on. How did she even control it?
"I- it's not possible to kill a goddess just like that! Only a few people have managed it and I don't know how to contact them. It's impossible for us to kill her!"
"Then why can't we send her back? Johan had summoned her, right? So it should be possible to de-summon her." He was grasping at straws here. He didn't even know gods existed until a few moments ago, but he needed to find some kind of weapon.
"I- I don't know. Johan used the tablet, but I don't know how he activated it. Like I told you, we can't… where are you going?!"
Godou had started running towards the spot he had seen the tablet last. In the hands of the skeleton the horse had crushed. He reached the miniature crater and started digging through the ash that had been an arrogant bastard. He felt dirty from touching a corpse, even if it had been sterilized to the highest degree. The ash was hot to the point of burning his hands and causing blisters to appear. Finally he saw a large block of stone in the center of the crater. He reached out to grab it, only to flinch back as the heat emanating from it burned his fingers. He should have expected that really, the flames from the horse must have heated it up to this point.
He ripped his sweater off and wrapped it around his hands. Carefully he lifted the stone tablet up I order to get a good look at it, trying to make sense of it. It showed a large wolf standing in the sky. It was chasing after the sun, its maw wide open. It looked as if it wanted to devour the sun and the horse pulling it. The horse pulling it… was it the same horse the goddess was riding. If so, could he use it to kill the horse? He would never be able to stop her if he didn't get her off the horse first.
It was when he decided to try the theory out that the horse burst through the wall again. He didn't have much time to figure out how to use it, but the moment the stallion reached him and touched the flat piece of stone, he wanted to make the horse go away.
There was a moment of complete silence as the three people in the demolished room realized what had happened. The horse had vanished! The rider, who had been in mid-air when it had been disappeared, fell down on the ground when gravity took a hold on her. Godou hadn't believed his eyes, it had actually worked! He hadn't thought it would do anything, but to destroy it completely? That was beyond amazing! No it hadn't been destroyed, it had been absorbed. He felt the stone tablet in his wrapped hands increase in warmth as his sweater started to smoke.
He was about to cheer when the goddess, because he didn't think there was a word more suitable to describe her, stood up again. He realized that despite her horse gone, she was still a goddess and he was a human with a crippling shoulder injury. He would be hard-pressed to defeat a normal adult woman; to try to defeat a goddess would be suicide. There was no question about surrendering as she began to speak.
"So thee has stolen my horse thinking thee could defeat me? Thee would have me stand on the ground, I who belong in the heavens?! Know thy place, Thrall!" She screamed. All of a sudden, her body was engulfed in flames and her eyes which had been green before had turned into two blazing embers. She raised her hand and a beam of pure-white light shot forward to strike him.
Godou dodged in the last second. He dove out of the way and just in time, the spot he had been standing on had been turned into a mess of molted stone and fire. A streak of orange lava had been carved along the light's path. He felt the heat burn the hair on his unprotected arms and he knew that if that beam got even an indirect hit, he would dead before he knew what hit him. As the goddess changed her aim, he raised the tablet again and this time instead of wishing he could make her light vanish, he wanted to attack her in turn.
The tablet glowed orange as the heat increased immensely. His sweater, which had been able to contain most of the heat until now, burst into flames as the horse which had been sealed away galloped from the stone. It met the brilliant light head on, resulting in an explosion that knocked Rosa and Godou back.
Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Painpain. Painpainpain. Painpainpainpain. Painpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpain.
Total and utter agony coursed through his body. It felt like his entire core was burning and his veins were filled with molten iron. There were not enough words in human tongue to describe the soul wrenching torment he was going through. Any movement whatsoever brought him waves of excruciating pain. He had forgotten how to breathe until he noticed his lungs burning with a different ache. He forced himself to take a slow breath, but in the end all he got were short gasps. It took several seconds before he could take a normal breath again, but even those were more like wheezing gulps.
Godou slowly got to his feet, the adrenaline flowing in his veins keeping him on high alert. He took in his surroundings. The blast had done a lot of damage to the wing they had been in. The ballroom looked nothing like it had before. The roof was nonexistent as he could see the sky, or at least the night sky. Winter in northern Sweden was unlike that of japan. It was night for an entire month and the only light left was from the stallion trotting around. Small pieces of the roof rained down like the snow, no piece larger than a fist. It seemed Godou and Rosa had been lucky. Most of the explosion had been directed towards the goddess as the stallion had shielded the humans from the blast while at the same time focusing it on the enemy. That meant that their side of the room had been left relatively intact. The walls had at least been left standing. The opposite side was not in the same condition.
The walls had been decimated, letting Godou see out into the snow covered valley. Though most of the snow had been melted from the intense heat, new snow was quick to cover the drenched fields. The roof, walls and floor had been ripped apart; making it look like someone had cut the room in half and left with the one part, leaving the other standing with a great view. He tightened his grip on the tablet; not caring about the sizzling sound that was produced as the hot stone burned his abused hands. It seemed to have grown even hotter after the explosion. Did he absorb even more of her power?
Godou was about to let out a sigh of relief, when he heard laughter. Insane laughter filled the air, ominous enough to give him goose bumps. He searched the field for the source of the laughter, already knowing who it was. He had hoped the last attack had finished the goddess, but it would apparently take more than that to kill her.
From the edges of his vision emerged a figure. It was large, larger than the goddess herself. It was two giant horses, slightly smaller than the stallion that had had stopped to stare at the newcomer. Behind the two horses was a two-wheeled chariot with blades attached to the center of each wheel. The chariot itself was richly decorated; the armor-plating was made of gold with silver symbols, the blades were coated in blue flames and the wheels resembled a sun, each ray of light sharp enough to pierce the ground.
And in that chariot stood the goddess. No signs of injuries or blemishes on her clothing, her visage made him think an explosion of such caliber was not enough to faze her . Her clothes had changed even, the white fabrics nowhere in sight. Gone were the priestess garb and instead she wore the clothes of a warrior-huntress. Long leather boots covered her legs and she wore a skirt made from leather and plated with steel. Her shirt was similarly made from animal hides, but was made from several pieces of black leather overlapping each other like scales. A long black cloak, edged with white fur, made from some beast's pelt hung from her shoulders. She held the reins with her left hand and in her right was a long spear, similar to a lance. The spear forked into two sharp points, just a centimeter apart. The handle of the spear was red and near the tip of the spear hung a long piece of black fabric.
The new outfit, weapon and chariot, added with the fact that she had taken the blast without injury were all reasons for Godou to fear what came next. Despite all those warnings, the one thing he did not like was the smile on her face. For she was not the furious or arrogant goddess she had been just moments earlier. She was wearing a grin that threatened to cut her face in half and her uncontrollable laughter was deafening even from a hundred meters, but there was no malice in her eyes. Just pure joy and exhilaration…
"I have to admit…" She began as she twirled her spear around. "… That This Radiant One did not anticipate thee to hold out for this long. I thought this would be an easy win, with thee lying dead at my feet within seconds. Now look at what has happened; thee have stolen two of my authorities and have forced me to use two of my strongest as well. Even if This Radiant One loses here, I won't regret a single minute of it. Now!" she yelled as she gripped her reins, making the horses rear. "…Let us have an honourable race to the death!" She finished with an honest smile.
Despite his reluctance to fight, he could not find it in him to hate the woman for her wish to kill or be killed. She seemed so innocent in her desire that disliking her was impossible.
"Idiot, if someone wins a race to the death that means he would be the one to die. If you want to then you can win this little race of yours." It might have been the pain making him delirious or it might have been his grandfather's lessons in dealing with women, but he really didn't want to leave empty-handed.
She laughed a normal laugh you would expect an ordinary woman would give after being complimented. Her eyes were filled with mirth as she returned his offer.
"I'm afraid not. I can't let thee go after having come this far in the battle, though I am tempted to take thee on as a pet, Kusanagi Godou. It is not often This Radiant One meet such an outstanding male specimen such as thee."
He grimaced; he did not like the thought of being treated like pet for the rest of his life.
"Unfortunately, I will have to decline, although you never did give me your name. I've been thinking of you as a goddess or hallucination until now, but it would be nice to have a name for you. It's not fair if you know my name, but I don't know yours."
She thought for a moment. It couldn't be that hard to give him her name, could it?
"Very well, I shall give thee the honour of hearing This Radiant one's name before we duel. I go by many names, but I shall give thee the one used still. I am Sòl, rider of the sun and huntress of wolves. I have many others, but my core is the herald of the sun. Is this enough to satisfy thy curiosity, Kusanagi Godou? I have many more, but they have been lost in the eons passed." She put on a polite facade, but there was no question about it. There would be no more discussion or arguments after this, only the death of one or both combatants.
"Indeed it is. Thank you, lady Sòl." He said no more, but braced himself for the inevitable clash.
He felt the tablet in his hands, the smoke coming from it ensuring that there was still some power in it. What should he do? He could use the blast like earlier and hope she was hit, but he doubted it would work. Not when she had a new mount to ride on. He had caught her off-guard earlier, but if the chariot was as fast as her previous ride then it wouldn't be fast enough to score a fatal wound. On the other hand, if he let himself be bait in order to lure her close enough then the blast would tear him to bits.
He was trying to come up a successful plan when he felt a nudge on his shoulder. He looked up. The stallion he had used to blast Sòl earlier was beside him. It was staring at him, like it wanted to tell him something. He didn't understand though, he had never had the opportunity to learn how to ride before. The horse lost its patience eventually and bit his collar, lifting him up and planted him on its back. He was astonished. Had the horse just let him ride it? Why? He had stolen it from its rightful owner and used it in an attack against said aforementioned owner. It didn't have a reason to aid him.
"Are you sure about this? I don't know how to ride, you know." He said. The horse neighed, as if trying to say `Oh please, you don't need to know how to ride with me. I'm too awesome for that! ´ He grinned. He let go of the tablet with his left hand and gripped the reins that had naturally appeared when he sat on its back.
"Are you ready, Kusanagi Godou?" Sòl asked from the opposite side of the field. Godou checked his equipment. He only had the tablet and the stallion, but Sòl had a chariot as well as a spear. He needed something to level the playing field. The tablet carried a powerful attack, but it was most likely only capable of one round. If he missed then it would be over for him and he couldn't use the tablet to block her spear. He needed a close ranged weapon. Something like…
His eyes narrowed as he knew what he needed. Could he make it back to the entrance before she caught up to him? There was a chance, but that was only possible if his stallion was faster than her steeds.
"Yeah, I'm ready! Come and get me then!" He yelled over the storm brewing above them. Then he pulled the reins and rode… straight through the house…
Sòl had been so surprised by the action that she hadn't even thought to follow him. It wasn't until he crashed through the first wall that she seemed to wake from the shock. She flicked the reins, urging the horses to follow the rider. The delay in action seemed to be all Godou needed.
Godou felt at home riding the flaming stallion. At the same time, he had never before felt such a rush as riding. Despite the fact that he had never ridden before in his life, except for that one time he had the chance to ride a donkey as a child, he knew exactly how to ride the steed to its destination. The flames from the mane, tail and hooves didn't seem to burn him, but they protected him from the blistering cold instead. The reins in his hand were long, smooth and made from otherworldly leather with supernatural effects as he didn't feel any pain from holding it with his bleeding and scorched hands. The debris from the walls he was breaking down didn't seem to hit him, as though there was an invisible shield protecting the rider from such mundane obstacles. The tablet in his hands was still searing his right hand as he held it, but the pain was no longer there. Either the magical properties of the stallion were healing him or the heat had charred his pain receptors, but either way, he could finally see a way to end this battle.
The last wall was finally broken down when Sòl caught up to him. That was to be expected though; his horse had taken a beam of scorching light head on while her stallions were fresh and fit for fight. That didn't matter however, he had found what he wanted. The door he smashed through had flown in all directions in small pieces, but it was what was next to the door he had been searching for.
As Sòl swung her spear at him, he brought up his makeshift weapon to block it. It succeeded and the spear was stopped just centimeters away from his face. Sòl's eyes widened once more in surprise at his weapon, bursting out in laughter. Godou used this time to pull his stallion away from her chariot with his right hand holding both the tablet and the reins.
"Thy actions never fail to amuse this Radiant One. Who would ever consider blocking a celestial weapon with a ski pole of all possible things?" Her laughter was hysterical and she brought her hand to her mouth as her laughter was too much to bear.
It was true; in his left hand was his aluminum ski pole he had used to travel here. It was the only thing he had used before and he knew where it was. It was natural for him to try and find a way to block her divine weapon. Unfortunately he didn't have a magic sword like Excalibur or Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi so he would have to improvise, hence his current lance/sword. He had a hunch that the magic from the stallion would bleed over to the pole, but he hadn't expected it to block her strike completely. Though with the power the goddess used to swing the spear she was using, he didn't think the makeshift polearm would hold for long either. The aluminum was already bent from the previous strike and the only reason Godou could hold his own against Sòl was because of the adrenaline pumping through his veins and the boost he got from the stallion. If this tuned into a war of attrition, he would lose. He needed to end this within the next three minutes or he would die from exhaustion and blood loss.
Finding his resolve he aimed his lance at the goddess, intending to turn the battle into a jousting match. He didn't know any of the rules nor did he have experience of it, but he knew that it would be difficult for her to hit him as he was in a higher position. Though he didn't know if a mundane object would affect a goddess he figured it was worth a shot.
"It's not like I had a choice. You came at me with a spear so of course I had to arm myself and since I don't have a spear or sword with me, I had to find something to use. Unless you're willing to give up your own spear, I'll be keeping this." He responded with a grim smile. Honestly, he didn't know if the smile he was wearing was from the pain making him lose his grip of reality or if he was starting to hallucinate inside his hallucinations. Either way, this looked like it was the end of their fight.
It seemed this would be the last, and technically the first, charge. His stallion would not survive a direct confrontation with the chariot and Godou was at his last legs as he would pass out in a few minutes. He flicked the reins at the same time as Sòl did, their steeds galloping towards each other. In terms of positioning, Godou had the upper hand. He was higher up and would have an easier time hitting his opponent. Sòl would have to pierce through his horse in order to strike a fatal blow while he could just aim at her head.
Unfortunately, Sòl did not need to strike a fatal blow. She would just have to strike his legs or arms and the shock would take care of the rest. She also had the advantage of wielding a celestial weapon while he was wielding a mundane object. There was no question about who was more likely to win.
The charge was over faster than he had expected. Though he really should have expected it… they were both riding divine beasts, beings stronger and faster than any animal. They had reached each other in less than a second and he trusted his weapon towards her belly, knowing his awful timing would make the strike higher than what it should have been. His aim was true. His aluminum pole, strengthened by the power of the stallion, had struck her chest, the bladed tip sticking out through her back. Despite that she didn't seem too bothered by it. It was himself he was worried about.
He had been right about the fact that she would have to strike through the horse in order to pierce a vital spot. He hadn't known she would be able to do it with such ease. The red spear had struck the stallion's throat and protruded from the back of its neck. That meant it had gone straight through Godou's chest as well. However the sheer power behind the thrust had made sure the spear had gone through him and over half of the lance was sticking out of his back. He coughed up blood. Luckily, or whatever it could be called as having a spear in his chest was not lucky, the spear had pierced his right side which meant his heart was fine, but his right lung was demolished.
"It seems as though this race was my win, Kusanagi Godou." Sòl lamented. Was she feeling sad that she had killed him?
"Yu..yup." Every word was a struggle, but thanks to the stallion and his own stubbornness, he managed to give his final words.
"You're the one… who's going to die first."
Sòl turned to look at him curiously before she realized what he had meant. He still had the tablet left and he now had her weapon as well. They were also closer to eachother, close enough for Godou to be able to fire and not miss. She tried to flick the reins in order for the horses to pull the chariot out of the way, but it was too late.
Godou felt the tablet give off a heat that burned his face, but he still aimed it towards the goddess. At the same time, he ripped the spear out of his body and threw it. The spear was engulfed in the same white light Sòl had fired earlier and the beam was turned blood red as it struck the goddess. There had been no chance for her to escape.
The lance pierced the same place the pole had struck, but unlike the small wound she had received earlier, this strike was magnificent to watch.
A large explosion was visible to anyone in the valley, even during the storm. When the light faded away, one could see a woman standing in the middle of a crater.
The woman had a spear in her chest and copious amounts of blood dripping down her armour and onto the ground, and yet she had a magnificent smile on her face, one filled with satisfaction and joy. Had anyone seen her they would have thought she had just received the greatest joy imaginable.
Kusanagi Godou saw her and she stared back. He had never thought she was real, only a figment of his imagination, but the pain in his chest was too real to be true. The power in her eyes was also more than he could ever imagine.
"Kusanagi Godou, never before in the history of This Radiant One have I felt such joy after a battle. I thank thee from the bottom of my heart. Know this, Rider from the East, thee shall not die tonight from the wounds This Radiant One has given thee, for the curse of Pandora shall revive thee and turn thee into a king. Use This Radiant One's power and authorities as thy shield and lance and make the world shudder at the name of the slayer of Sòl. However remember, Rider from the East, many of my kin will seek thee out to battle as well. Forge thy steel and harden thy armour, the gods of old shall seek you out to battle." Blood began to flow from her mouth as the wounds proved fatal. A sigh escaped her lips.
"Truly a shame, to find such a promising warrior only to die after a bout. Had thee been older I wouldn't have hesitated in making thee my bedding companion. Truly a shame." With that, her body burned in purple flames until there was nothing, but ashes left.
Godou, to his credit, didn't fall off the horse. The horse, to its credit, didn't collapse either. It stood proudly on its feet, even as the golden blood flowed from the hole in its throat. It wasn't until it finally died that the stallion dispersed in an intense show of fireworks. As Godou had lost his mount, he fell onto the scorched earth in disarray. His arms had been broken, burned, ripped apart and cauterized. His lungs and been pierced and burned and his skin had been seared of from the heat of the attacks he had stolen and unleashed. His face and hair had melted into a mess looking nothing like the human he had once been. His consciousness had long escaped him and his heart was losing strength.
Soon after landed, his heart stopped beating once and for all.
The goddess Sòl:
The goddess known as Sòl appeared several thousand years ago as an unnamed goddess of the sun and hunt. She was a huntress who rode on a stallion of flames and whose favorite prey was the wolf. She rode through the sky searching for her prey and when she found it she would strike with her spear which had been said to never miss. She wore the hide of her prize as armour, protecting her from the blades of her foes. The armour was said to be scorched black from her fire and any blade that touched it melted from the heat.
She was later evolved to the Scandinavian god, Dagr. Time had changed her into male god who brought the dawn. Dagr rode the white stallion Skinfaxi and was the most beautiful god in the northern pantheon. The horse had been a gift as her beauty could not be that of a mortal. As such, Dagr became a god with the mount of divinity.
But Dagr was also a hero named Svipdagr. He was son of Gròa, a shamanic priestess. He searched for his bride, and found her to be Freya, the goddess of love, gold, magic, fertility and death. The goddess-turned-god assimilated the legend of the Freya and Sòl became once more a goddess.
Years later her legend would change once more, but this time she would become a goddess of the sun. She gained the name of Sòl or Sunna and she carried the sun once more. She would have an antagonistic relationship with Skòll, a giant wolf who would one day devour the sun. As Sòl was the goddess of the hunt, she tried to chase the wolf down while the wolf tried to hunt her down in turn. They would chase eachother until Ragnarok, when Skòll would devour the goddess, but Sòl would be reborn as her daughter and slay her prey. She would then continue her chase of the wolves across the skies.
Like all gods, Sòl is a collection of several gods who have assimilated and discarded other traits over the ages. These legends are the only known examples of her origins.