Getting almost no wink of sleep the previous night, Vy was in shambles trying to explain to her two older sisters what had happened to her in the last two decades. Their window to catch-up was brief ― almost nonexistent, even ― since it was mostly Ashula who was worried about Vy's health. She understood the burden her eldest sister shouldered after their mother's disappearance, as she watched the once bright and cheerful 1st Princess grow more and more distant. The shoes their mother left unfilled was something she wished Saphira should not push herself to fill.
Since leaving her two siblings behind, she regretted not talking more with them beforehand. There was the slightest chance she would not see them again, perhaps, for the rest of their long lives, and to leave on silent unspoken words between her and Saphira pained her young heart. Even the sibling disarray between Viridi and her own sisters was something the elfling wished the three siblings had. The formal structure of her family line stripped away any chance of any of them ever having a relationship resembling that of true siblings.
Viridi and Gratia were to stay in the capital with her sisters until Eos and Vy returned, although the extent of the ancient elf's plan was something she wished she knew more of. Traveling blindly through the forest was not the fastest way, especially now with the heavy armored titan leaving footprints in the bare dirt. Thankfully, as soon as their view of the elven castle was obscured with leaves, the familiar deep purple irises filled the corners of Vy's eyes.
"Good morning, Eos, Princess Vy," Nanami greeted, concealing herself within the shadow of a tall tree.
Even with the dark vision gifted to her through the magical equipment, Vy could barely make out the coloration of the youngest Noble Sister. The usually silent girl was practically a walking ghost as far as she knew. During her brief stay within the Parthenon, under direct light of the artificial sun, Nanami's presence was more akin to a phantom ― only there to observe, but not to be seen.
"Good morning, Lady Nanami," Vy replied with a respectful bow. A brief silence followed for an entire minute of just Vy keeping her head bowed, waiting for any kind of acknowledgement.
"Hahaha!" Eos snorted as she lightly slapped the elfling's back in surprise. "Don't take it the wrong way, princess Vy. Our baby sister isn't much of a talker. I'm surprised she even remembers your name!"
The sudden jolt caused Vy to fumble forward, losing all of her regal composure. There was no verbal confirmation from the violet irises staring her down, so she took the strangeness as a result of Toreii's disappearance at some time during their upbringing. Trying to understand the slightest bit of what Viridi's grand plan was for her and the oncoming orc army, she started with a small question, "I'm afraid Lady Viridi has not said much to me in terms of what she expects me to accomplish in these next two days. What exactly am I to do with you, Lady Eos?"
"Ah, I see now. That sounds exactly how my big sis usually is when it comes to these kinds of things," Eos explained through countless experiences. "Trust me when I say everything is on a need-to-know basis with my sister, and no one but her needs to know. I'm just along for the ride… and to make her as miserable as possible for the next couple of weeks," the hulking titan laughed through her thick armor.
The unusual backtalk between siblings was new to Vy, as she never thought about disrespecting her older sisters in such a manner. Eos' casual ease in which she can fire off as many mean things to say about Viridi made Vy unsure of what to make of the godly bloodline. Even through the brilliant façade of heavenly demeanor, the childish squabbling she saw now between Viridi and Eos made her realize the faint humanity remaining in each of the demigods.
"I've located the foremost front of the alliance. I can take you two there now," Nanami softly replied after a short pause.
"I'm ready when you are, Princess Vy," Eos said. She reached out with an open hand ― one large enough for the other three girls to stand on with comfortable spacing remaining ― welcoming the young elf.
In a complete 180° turn from the usually hostile and rushed attitude Viridi always showed her, Eos was not only friendlier, but also made a nice change in pace. Taking the titan's gloved hand in good gesture, she felt her cheeks burn rosy like she was being whisked away by a knight in shining armor.
For the briefest moments, she thought she was back in another fairytale.
Expecting the eerily sudden but usual flash of purple light before being teleported, Vy was unprepared for Nanami's method of transportation with the sigils. Whereas the [Greater Teleportation] felt more like she was moving in place, whatever method Nanami was using caused Vy's ears to pop from the shift in airspace. With both hands on her pointy ears to recover some semblance of her enhanced hearing, her eyes tried to compensate by quickly gathering as much information about her new surroundings.
Under the low glow of candle light, orange was spread across every surface she saw. A makeshift wood table was placed in the center of the room, but it was missing the stone floor she expected of a normal room she's used to. A pair of leather boots, covered with patches of dried mud, was the first thing Vy noticed. The second one was the fact their new surrounding was a leather tent, something propped up in an army's campsite. Her eyes followed up along the boots' owner's body, revealing the visage of a grizzled old elf, draped in commanding, fine clothing fit for a leader.
Vertigo still rang loud in her ears, but her eyes locked with a pair of heterochromatic eyes: a pair of red and purple just like hers.
"Where have you taken us, Nanami?" Eos questioned near the front entrance of the tent.
"I was tracking the alliance, and this was the best I could do in a couple of hours. I believe this is the leader of the elven part of the alliance," Nanami said, trying not to disappoint her older sister. "Viridi needs me for another assignment ― a missing person, I think. If you need anything, just [Message] Viridi."
The sibling's conversation went into Vy's deaf ears as her entire focus was still on the old elf with his hands sprawled across the table covered with parchments and maps. Her mind raced against itself, gears twisting and turning madly in a destabilizing machine, as she tried her hardest to realize the identity of the man before her.
"Alert the garrison! There are assassins in the King's quarters! QUICKLY!"
Eos heard shouting outside of the tent she was transported to, as she rescanned the room if there were others there beside herself and Vy. Given Nanami's tactful nature to be perfect, she doubted anything could have gotten past her younger sister's watchful eyes and ears. Too focused on her current mission to search for assassins, she failed to notice the soldiers outside of the tent preparing to stab her with her pointed spears, as they thought her figure fit the description of a de facto assassin.
~Clink! ~Clink!
Two of the metal points bent and the shafts shattered under the driving force of the elves who wielded them, but the black armor protecting Eos neither budged nor produce any sparks from the metal-on-metal contact. Just like her armor, the titan did not even bother to give a reaction to the elven guards behind her, still continuing to ponder who the assassin was and who the king was.
"[Lightning]!" The King's guards shouted from outside. Twin arcs of blue lightning crackled through the air from the fingertips of the elven guards, aiming directly at the black, armored being blocking the entrance to their King's tent.
Striking dead center, what should have been an effective attack against metal armor and leaving two smoldering white-hot holes… instead was no more effective than a basic static shock. The vantablack armor was left unschathed, without a single blemish on its chromatic shine and its user none the wiser of her attackers. The elven guards looked onward, still waiting in disbelief their attack had no effect whatsoever.
Back in the tent, Eos, like water on a duck's back, had not even felt the attacks. Having been born with such high resistances and the tankiest gear Toreii could equip a frontliner, she also had spell damage negation against anything below the 6th-Tier. As Viridi sometimes liked to call her sister, Eos was very much a one-track mind kind of girl, only able to give her full attention to one thing at a time. Completely unaware of what her sister's apprentice was staring at or how she was reacting, only the sound of the other person in the room got her attention started again.
"My daughter…? Vy…?" The raspy King mumbled.
"Hmm…?" Eos asked to herself.
The duo walked in silence towards the battlefield, a towering titan and a young elf child in tow. Since leaving the campsite of the alliance, Eos had not heard even the tiniest peep from Vy. Although she was unsure what caused it, she knew enough it was about the strange man standing in the tent with them when her younger sister warped them. Without looking down at the young girl beside her, Eos humbly asked, "Do you want to talk about it?"
Using her years of experience under a royal upbringing, Vy easily masked her inner turmoil without letting it affect her voice, "Whatever do you mean, Lady Eos?"
"I live with 3 other sisters, Princess Vy, one of whom thinks she's a better liar than she actually is; I'm also an older sister. I know when something is troubling Nanami, even if she doesn't say it ― and I assure you, she is better at hiding things than anyone else," the old god interjected with her overflowing optimism.
After spending most of her time with Toreii's family dealing with Viridi, the sudden change in demeanor between demigods was jarring. To think these people were somehow related to one another made Vy's head spin. From Toreii, to Viridi, and now Eos, not only did each of these apples fall far from the tree, but they might as well be oranges or bananas for all she knew.
Although Ashula was always protective over her, Vy was never brave enough to openly talk about her troubles with others. The social prison of being the Third Princess always made her keep the appearance of a perfect family, always smiling and being the obedient girl she was taught to be. Now, she understood why Toreii was not revered by any modern-day government. The deity's entire bloodline had defiance written into their genealogy, never obeying any kind of social norm.
Mulling over what to say, she had learned to drop the formalities around Toreii, but had to reapply her manners with Viridi. In the presence of Eos, like the warmth of the rising sun, Vy certainly felt infinitely more comfortable with this demigod. The titan kept to formalities only because Vy was also keeping to them, but she was kind enough to respect Vy's wishes and privacy. Despite her otherworldly origin, Eos was by far the easiest and most welcoming of the gods she had met.
Letting out the silent words she practiced a thousand times inside her mind, she finally was able to vent her frustrations onto the world, "The old elf in the tent with us… He's my… father," Vy admitted with a sigh. Eyes downcast, her shoulders felt lighter with every word, "I thought… he would say something… anything… but I guess my father will always be my father. When I heard… of my… death… I didn't realize being declared dead meant he just stopped looking."
Each word was spat out bitterly as Eos continued to listen as attentive as she could. Never once has she had a problem with her mother, nor had she ever felt a day where her mother would ever neglect or abandon any of the Noble Sisters. Unable to speak from experience, the best she could do was to lend an ear to the child who no one seemed to listen to. "I'm sorry about your father's… attitude," she tried to console.
"Don't be; he clearly isn't sorry either," Vy coldly said back. The palms of her hand were clenched shut with each fingernail unknowingly digging in her skin. There were many things she wanted to say to him and many more she wanted to hear from him. She thought the sight of a long-lost daughter might have invoked some kind of parental instinct in the elven king, but she was sorely mistaken.
"Perhaps not today, or tomorrow, or the day after that," Eos said, agreeing with the child's grief, "but cities and towns and feelings people have for each other are not built within days. It took many years for me to be able to achieve the level of pettiness my sister and I share for one another," she joked, trying to lighten the mood. "However, without Viridi, I wouldn't be who I am today. Without Viridi… I would have no one to prank or fight with or have fun with. Although our sibling fights are petty and childish compared to what you and your father have, I know you're not the type to hold onto a grudge forever. People grow and change; I'm sure if you saw yourself a month ago, would you not say you have grown in the slightest amount?"
Listening to the demigod's words, Vy slowly shifted her attention away from the hate surrounding her father and looked back at herself. A month ago, she could barely hold together her band of elves running away from the orc invasion. Each day was a struggle to keep everyone safe, and ultimately, she did fail to protect her people. If not for Toreii's divine intervention, she would have found herself nothing more than a lowly slave sold to the highest lecherous bidder. The days she spent in the Parthenon were by far the most amount of peace and happiness she had seen in a long time, but she knew those days would not last forever. In the last day alone, Vy had transformed from a peaceful scholar to a seasoned executioner in such a short span of time.
"I guess I have," Vy said, after taking some time to think.
When the duo left the makeshift outpost of the alliance, spears, swords, hammers and magic were fully aimed – and a lot of them launched – at Eos, but Vy watched carefully as the demigod did not even bother to give the armed guards a second from her time of day. Although she would like to believe they were not attacked because her father had ordered everyone not to, she knew better than to doubt the divine presence Toreii's children carried themselves with. What she did doubt was her father's remaining affection for her – would he have stopped the attacks if she came alone unannounced?
On the way out, Vy saw dwarves, elves, humans, and other humanoid races throughout the campsite. Despite their racial differences, it seemed everyone had gathered under the same banner to push back against the invading horde.
Still, it was more than just Eos walking the walk. Vy saw the indestructible nature of the abyssal armor the massive titan adorned. If she could compare the demigod to anything, it would be like watching a gentle giant ― or, more precisely, a walking mountain of godly proportion. After quickly leaving her father's tent, she saw several dozen [Fireball] and [Lightning] fired simultaneously at her guardian. Any normal person would have been dead when the first spell made contact, and an experienced warrior would've thought of a way to minimize damage instead of counter attacking… but for Eos, she simply stood idly on standby. Facing all of her attacker's spells head-on, every second afterwards were tense for the elven guards on duty. Believing she would also get hit with the residual effects of their spells, Vy had thrown herself behind Eos, trusting the immortal nature of the demigod.
Like she had internally said before, Eos didn't even register she was being attacked. Instead, she looked like a lost child taking in her new surroundings, innocently scanning around and not taking even her father with the slightest iota of respect.
For whatever reason Vy had yet to understand, the titan was immune to practically any form of magical attacks flying her way. Although their pace to get out of the camp was slow, the elven guards pursuing them realized the fruitlessness of wasting mana on a being who did not even care about their meager performance. Vy was still in awe at the prowess of Toreii's daughters, wondering if she might have overstepped herself in the deity's own home. Even if all of her daughters were only half-gods, their powers and strange magic far surpassed anything her mortal eyes had ever seen.
Trekking on slowly along the dirt path, the trees surrounding them thinned more and more the further along they travelled. It was not by normal means which caused the number of trees to dwindle, but instead, Vy saw the timber cut roughly at the base, chopped down, with trails in the dirt where logs were dragged away nearby. Their pace slows down to a full stop when Eos stands at attention, looking forward to the distance.
"We are almost there, Princess Vy," Eos said. "I think… It's going to be 10 million vs. two? I'm liking these odds."
The nonchalant and enthusiasm in Eos voice made Vy think twice about whether the titan was joking. She had heard of dragons slaughtering armies in the hundreds of thousands, but for a demigod to fight several kingdoms' worth of able-bodied warriors had Vy second-guessing herself. Even with her elven age, she doubted she could ever meet a million different people, let alone 10 million! Vy knew very little about Toreii's bloodline, or plainly about gods for that matter, but surely, if dragons had their limit… gods did too?
Time to mull it over was cut short as Eos reached out to a black void, similar to what she saw Toreii and Viridi do, as Vy watched her pull out a small brownish cup, certainly ceramic in nature. Patches of lighter brown showed its original color, but due to age it had almost completely faded away as Eos handed it to the elf child for closer inspection. In her eyes, it was nothing more than a normal cup ― perhaps more suitable for a beggar than an actual relic ― certainly something she was surprised someone of godhood would have in their possession.
"This is one of the great treasures entrusted to me from my mother," Eos proudly explained, remembering the day Toreii dumped her inventory onto the NPCs to make room for more material gathering. "It can take in and hold the strength and power of those fallen in battle around you."
Although her daughters thought the world of her, Toreii had unloaded many of her unnecessary items onto her 'living bank spaces' without giving it much thought. "They're just NPCs anyway," she used to think before this world happened. Every one of them believed the deity to be a supreme being, thus the action was akin to giving them all valuable treasures to safeguard, but in reality, it was very much the items and materials Ai was too lazy to sort through at the moment.
The brownish cup… it was a consolation prize for when she rolled to get Eos' [Crissaegrim]. Several dozen paychecks were spent trying to get this singular item, with Ai eventually having to dip into her grant money from the university to satiate her addiction to playing Yggdrasil. In the end, this simple chalice was no more than one among several hundreds of similar consolation prizes.
The only reason she kept it around was because it was a dollar store brand version of [Avarice and Generosity]. Unlike the World Class item, the brown chalice could only hold experience points from low level creatures, up to 5 levels at a time. Since she did not have a great way to store exp for spells which would actually cost her levels, these shitty chalices were the best solution Ai happened upon.
Vy clearly heard Eos spoke of the small cup as a treasure from Toreii, but the titan kept pulling out more and more cups for the child to hold. With both arms held tightly around eight different cups, she clutched them against her chest, trying her best not to let a single one fall onto the ground. She knew very well now the importance of the precious items given to her, after seeing her own power increased from Viridi's gifts.
"Eight should be enough to hold all the experience we can farm now," Eos said, as she restarted her march.
Barely able to keep eyes forward and the chalices steady, Vy hobbled along at a slower pace than before, hoping an ambush was not staring her down an arrow shaft.
The hot swelling heat of the sun beat down hard on the overcrowded campsites of leather huts. Some fire pits were still burning, slow-roasting whatever game was caught, while others were smoldering under ceramic cauldrons. Brown and green orcs alike sat around their tents, talking in their native tongue, drinking and eating the day away before their chieftain sounded the horn to start moving again.
Most of the population here were demihumans, made up of trolls, orcs, ogres, harpies, cyclops, centaurs, nagas, imps, goblins, and whatever kind of creature who wanted to join their cause. A small part of their horde was made up of magic casters ― natural-born ones like witch doctors or shamans and nurtured ones like demons, ghouls, and even some undead. It was not a peaceful banner which brought all of them together, but their mutual need to simply consume.
For hundreds of years, humans were the ones to control their once-sacred land, killing each and every one of them off under the assumption they're no different than wild beasts, until their eventual great gathering. While the one who had originally gathered all these different races together was still unknown, their conglomeration swept the countryside, wiping out small towns at first, then villages, to cities, and finally entire kingdoms. Like a giant landshark, going wild and consuming all they could, they needed to be that in order to sustain their great numbers, now towering in the several millions.
Now on their last legs, the humans had formed a loose alliance with whatever remaining races they could cobble together in their last-minute desperation attempt at self-preservation. Not only were the demihumans faster, stronger, and bigger than those puny humans, but they could bolster their numbers far faster than any human can. Their races were bred to grow fast and learn fast, knowing how to hunt and kill by their first year.
It seemed in their hubris, the humans had made enemies of every possible race they could, hunting and killing everything which did not meet their idealism of a 'civilized species'. Now forced into a corner, they showed their true colors: a creature desperate for survival and willing to do anything, just like any other race here. Many of the intelligent demihumans found it poetic to finally see the humans limping from the hole they dug themselves, while others simply wanted revenge or found it sporting.
Whatever it may be, history will be made, not by the humans — not spoken by them, written by them, or falsified by them. Soon, history will be written by the new victors, ones who shall write of the selfishness and hubris of the human race. Today was-
~Woohah! ~Woohah!
A war horn was blown.
Heads peeked up across the hundreds of thousands of tents sprawled out over the land, some reluctant to move away from their food, while others perked up at the thought of action. Starting from the eastern wing, every demihuman who did use a weapon grabbed whatever equipment at their disposal, while the others made a beeline straight for the fight endowed with their natural deadly appendages.
Uldric Hogar was the chieftain of his merry tribe before being roped into this mess. A roundish table made of lightly-sanded wood was in front of him, occupied by several other chieftains. Before him sat a minotaur, whose physique was aptly defined with bulging muscles throughout his entire body. Next to him was a naga, slender and nimble, the fastest among them and also the most cunning in the heat of the moment. Another was a centaur who always wore his platinum-plated armor wherever he went, even in the safety of this war council room. There were other orc chieftains like him, but he was here solely as a representative of his race, even after he had declined.
Those were all of the leaders he was willing to trust his life with. The others were… of the demonic inclinations, which left him with unease and restlessness every passing moment. Their peace was a fake one, built around the need to focus their group effort against the humans who had gone to war with all of them. However, now as the lead chieftain, he had to consider the consequences of the aftermath of this war. What exactly happens after the humans are defeated? Should they just go back to their regular lives? No one had brought up the question in fear of angering the other party and leading to infighting.
Among the evil allies he had unwillingly made was a beauty too good for the eyes to look upon without being bewitched and eaten afterwards. A succubus in her pure cardinal nature had used whatever unknown, special magic of the demonic kind to snatch a body and use it as her own. Thankfully, she was the only one not at the current meeting, but the others were.
An overly outspoken haemomancer, whose lack of discipline was obvious from being the only person with his feet on the table, laying back as if this war was a joke for him. Similar in magical prowess was a plague doctor, dressed in all black from head to toe. Unlike the loudmouth beside him, the doctor never spoke, letting his cursed magic speak for him. Uldric often saw the doctor after the battle, carrying off bodies for who knows what. The last of them and the most powerful being in the entire alliance was the elder lich, cloaked in torn garbs, with a strong desire to spread death and nothing more. Unlike the basic stools of cut-off logs everyone else was seated on, the undead had made himself at home by sitting upon a throne of bones.
Uldric's gut told him to put as much distance as he can with the lich, never speaking with him unless absolutely necessary. Today was worse than others, as the ulcers in his stomach had gotten more painful the more he stressed about the wellbeing of his people. All he knew about the lich was his ability to raise the dead after every battle, bolstering his own numbers every time. After meeting the chilling skeleton, Uldric had made it his top priority to leave the alliance as soon as the war was over. He might anger some long-standing war enthusiasts among the orcs, but any treasures secured from the humans was not worth either eternal servitude to the death lord… or worse: dying and coming back to hunt their families.
In the middle of their usual meeting to plan their advances, Uldric heard the faint sounds of the war horn being blown in the far distance. It normally meant it was time to move out and to start their march forward, but with almost all the council members here, there was no order to blow the horn. The only other reason he could think of was the humans had launched an assault on their main forces, but doing so would be nothing short of suicide for them. Even if it was a last-ditch attempt to fight, surely, there was no valor in an unwinnable fight.
As the chieftain, it was now his due diligence to be on the battlefield with his warriors. Bowing respectfully to the other members, he grabbed his great war axe on the way out. Not sticking around to see their reactions to the horn, the only other person to follow him out was the minotaur. Having been through countless battles now, Uldric was grateful he had at least made a friend on the uneasy alliance.
"Leaving for battle so soon, my friend?" Asterion asked.
"Any excuse to not be around that undead is good enough for me," Uldric answered, trying his best to ignore his ulcer pains.
The minotaur could not help but let out a hearty chortle at his friend's expense, playfully slapping the orc in the back. "Have you seen the doctor about your ulcers? You can't go around fighting without being in top form."
He could go to the plague doctor to ask for medicine, but he was deathly afraid of not coming back as the same person ― pun intended. There were rumors all doctors put in a new problem with your body after fixing your old one to force people to keep using their services. Uldric had not personally experienced such a rumor, but he was not brave enough to find out. The thrill of battle was enough to distract his mind from his other duties and the constant pain inside him.
Before he could reply, the blue sky swirled with arcane magical glyphs, right from the direction of the war horn.
"Tell me, Princes Vy, what is the highest tier of magic?" Eos asked. They both stopped in the middle of the dirt road, about half a league away from the encroaching horde. Without any plant life in sight and every tree around them cut down, she could clearly see the spiked outer walls of their army base.
"The highest tier? I knew of the existence of the 6th=Tier from my father… but Toreii- *ahem* sorry, Great Goddess Toreii told me the 7th- and 8th-Tier could slay even dragons," Vy replied.
"So is the 8th-Tier the highest form of magic there is?" Eos asked once again.
Vy paused to think, remembering the incredibly remarkable first meeting with the dragon-slaying god. Back then, the elven child merely asked what tier was needed in order to kill a dragon, not the highest tier of magic possible. Her musing ran alongside her imagination, each battling to one-up the other in what godhood is able to achieve. If dragons in their world neared gods, and Toreii was an actual god, was the 9th-Tier the highest possible in this world, then? If her father's 500 years of life only amounted to the 6th-Tier, did Toreii's 10,000 years of age and wisdom mean it got harder and harder to achieve higher tiers… or was it the other way around? Viridi's and Eos' actions and words seem to suggest the opposite ― that as long as one kept battling and winning, it would only take 3 days to achieve the 6th- or 7th-tier. If that is the case, was Vy lowballing the highest possible tier of magic possible? If Toreii had been battling her entire life for 10 millennia, did it mean the 10th-… or maybe… the 20th? Was she still lowballing? Vy's mind raced as fast as her aching heart when she entertained the thought of the immortal young girl being able to cast a 100th-Tier spell. A world-ending spell? Was that what the dragons feared about Toreii?
Unable to give a definite answer, Vy tried her best to control her childish imagination, "Is… Is it the 10th-Tier?"
"Ahh, good guess! Maybe my sister can become a school teacher, after all of this is said and done," Eos joked. She reached into the black void again, searching through her mother's treasures for the proper item. Although Vy's current ones were perfectly fine for her level, Eos' first spell might inadvertently kill the child. Grasping a metallic ring from the void, she pulled out an illustrious gold ring with Latin inscribed on the inner side and a pictorial of an angel on the outside. "I'm going to need my trusty partner going in there, but I'm afraid calling it might accidentally kill you. This ring blocks instant death effects, so you should be fine."
Vy did her best to keep up with the terminology Toreii and her children used, as ancient godly magic tended to be outdated. She would have to ask for clarification later, but for the moment, she gingerly accepted the ring like her life depended on it. The gold ring had the most beautiful and intricate piece of craftsmanship she had ever seen. Putting it on only emboldened her, giving her a sense she could cheat death… or at least do it just once.
Bowing her head like she was taught to, Vy thanked, "Thank you for considering my safety."
Slightly nodding to the child, Eos began her procedure for battle as her mother would.
"[Boost Magic - Body of Effulgent Beryl], [Boost Magic - Body of Effulgent Aquamarine], [Boost Magic - Body of Effulgent Heliodor], [Widen Magic - Complete Vision], [Counter Detect], [Widen Magic - Delay Teleportation], [Widen Magic - Drifting Master Mine], [Boost Magic - Energy Immunity: Electricity], [False Data: Life], [False Data: Mana], [Delay Magic - Fox Sleep], [Greater Full Potential], [Greater Resistance], [Greater Magic Seal - Time Stop], [Widen Magic - Life Essence], [Widen Magic - Mana Essence], [Extend Magic - Regenerate], [Delay Magic - Time Accelerator]."
In the middle of the road, Vy thought there would have to be extravagant rituals the demigod had to perform, considering the grand scale of the attack previously implied, but instead, Eos rattled off more than a dozen spells in the span of a minute. Vy observed in breathless anticipation each time, inscribing the spell names into her memory permanently to be asked about later. A brief glow of light and an influx of mystical patterns encompassed the vantablack armor of her guardian after every chant.
She knew her maximum mana was nothing but a puddle compared to the ocean Viridi wielded, but seeing it now, right before her eyes… the child of a demigod. If Toreii's children were all this capable with magic, then the goddess herself must have had a mana capacity the size of a planet, for all she knew. She could only muster enough mana enough to kill a dozen orcs in her raid at the tiny outpost, yet someone at Eos' prowess might as well be able to take on more than just this army horde before even tiring out.
As she casted the last of her buffing spells, Eos began the long wait to release her Super-Tier spell. A kaleidoscope of pure white, magical runes and glyphs encircled her, forming a dome which changed shape and speed as the unknown arcane sigils spread further and further up. Against an army 10 million strong, Eos would take a considerable amount of time to finish her slaughter of them. Being the least agile of all her sisters, even if her sword somewhat made up for her lack of mobility, 7 kills per swing would take a year to kill even the first million.
Seeing a spell beyond the 6th-Tier for the first time in her life made Vy's young heart ache with excitement. After seeing Eos fire off a rapid succession of support spells, she assumed they must have all been greater than anything her father could ever hope to achieve in his lifetime – no, in his dreams, even. Now, she was right next to a demigod about to unleash her full potential. The speed and frightening amount of mystical runes and sigils flying around Eos made her wonder what it all meant – though it all boiled down to one thing, really.
Would it take one shot or two?
Locking her sight on the far horizon, faint shapes came into her view. Eos watched the shadowy figures come into focus as they marched closer. With no order or cohesion, their formation lacked any sort of consideration for strategy or tactical ranks. Flying humanoids circled above as leather armored orcs marched side-by-side with what looked like goblin hog riders. Although they advanced slowly, Eos could clearly see their attention was not focused on her, but on the elf child right beside her. Despite being the one to cast the Super-Tier spell, she was confident in her resistances to withstand any sort of long-range magical sniper shot from the enemy. However, her attackers had mistaken the original caster, thinking Vy was the one who started it. She had wanted to hold the spell for longer, but it seemed the oncoming army would attack Vy instead of her. Gazing at her sister's apprentice, she lightly nodded for Vy to stand behind her for protection.
The glowing white glyphs sped up even faster before deteriorating as Eos released her spell, "[The Dream Witch's Gift]!"
Vy immediately shut her eyes, worried her mortal mind would not be able to comprehend the godly powers being used before her. She expected some eldritch abomination would come out and blast negative debuffs all over the place – to use some of Toreii's phrases – and thus braced her senses shut. While she's now an experienced killer, slaughter was another thing entirely.
And that's what she expected Eos' spell to do. No matter how kind and chivalrous this titaness was… any kind of full-powered attack from someone of her level wouldn't be anything but total decimation.
However, the first thing going past her tense body was… the scent of the earth?
Refreshing, floral, sweet, rich, cool… All the things she associated with Viridi's skillset, but far more pleasant and lacking the inherent ruthlessness running through that elven goddess's deeds.
She dared crack her eyes open… and what she saw made her abandon all earlier thoughts of shutting down her sense.
It's just… a single beautiful woman. The opposite of Viridi's graceful and elegant figure, or Eos' powerful and comforting presence, or Nanami's adorable and demure attitude… this woman was full in all the right places.
To be honest, she looked more like a high-class whore than a divine beauty. No, that's precisely it – this woman was earthly, not divine. The culmination of worldly desires… of health, wealth, comeliness, etc. was represented in her appearance.
The fact she was naked stunned both Vy and the incoming army, stopping the latter dead in their tracks.
Then, a split second later, they really did die.
It was too far for Vy to make out what actually happened, but her honed magical senses told her there were countless thin threads burrowing through the ground and spreading right towards that conglomeration of inhuman creatures. Having experience with Viridi's spells, her narrow mind rationalized this must be a similar effect – only on a far, far larger scale.
Every single creature in the horizon fell forwards, like puppets with their strings cut, before their comrades from the back row ran over them, not knowing what's going on. The process repeated itself – the newcomers stumbled forwards, breath stopped – creating a small wall made of flesh which grew in size with every passing moment.
She gasped aloud when blue spheres rose above each and every one of their corpses from their bodies, slowly floating towards them. No, they're quite a bit smaller – more in line with Viridi's spore-based floral attacks – as Vy watched eagerly for any signs of alarm from her guardian, but Eos stood calm as always, as if she's expecting this outcome. One of the chalices in her arms floated away from her grasp, hovering mid-air as all the blue orbs condensed, before entering the empty brown cup. Had she known any better, Vy's best guess was the cup was gathering the souls of those who had perished.
Amidst all the blue souls being vacuumed up, grotesque, colorful trees bloomed in seconds, growing nearly as tall as the elven castle Vy remembered, instantly transforming the landscape into a nightmarish paradise full of fantastical flora. Man-faced sunflowers, bone trunks covered with barks made of entrails and blood, glowing porous cones eerily similar to tripe in texture but not color… and many other things Vy felt she must not look must not look must not look must not look must not look must not look…
Then, the earthly yet foreign woman turned towards the two women, casually walking over, her eyes locked into Vy's heterochromatic pair, full of desire.
Vy could not move.
She had to move.
She had to run RIGHT NOW!
Her legs would not budge an inch.
Tears trickled down her pale cheeks and her eyes wide from the initial shock, yet her pupils were already contracting to be as small as possible.
Vy wanted to go back to Viridi.
It was too late.
Everything so far was going as Eos had intended, save for releasing her spell early to save Vy from being attacked by the naked woman's hidden tendrils. Remembering the elven child, she turned around to check up since the princess had gone completely silent since. Cowering in shock and tears, Vy's pin-sized eyes told the titan all she needed to know about the child.
Gently placing her hand on Vy's chest, Eos casted another spell, "[Courage of Achilles]."
A golden cloak so thin it was see-through loosely veiled around Vy's rigid body. The bleak cold aura overwhelmingly telling all her instincts to run had been replaced by a warmer and hopeful light. Regaining her ability to think, her first thought was to run once again, but seeing the creature up close now, she didn't give off any of the fright it gave her earlier ― though soon she realized it's because of the help of an external spell, instead of this thing suddenly becoming cuter or something.
"Sorry about that. I forgot children get scared of monsters easily," Eos apologized. Offering a hand to the princess once again, Vy hesitantly accepted. The titan's spell had worked as intended, eliminating all of the child's fear and hopelessness. "When I said I was calling my 'partner' earlier, I should have clarified better."
Yidhra's avatar smiled and silently bowed, extending one hand to caress Vy's long ears and eliciting an inadvertent sensual moan from the inexperienced elfling.
"N-No… I w-was just surprised, is all… Please excuse my rude behavior. I knew of inexplicable creatures living among us … I had never seen or heard of anything like this before," Vy said, blushing at her outburst, squirming away from the hand which feels great feels good feels great feels good feels great feels good feels great feels good feels great feels good feels great feels good…
"I'll be sure to keep all my future spells age-appropriate," Eos said politely. "It's one of my skills close enough to Viridi's… and thus I have the least compatibility with, despite its power." Had her older sister been here, she was sure there would have been an hour-long lecture or two about releasing a Super-Tier in front of someone who did not know of any higher-tiered spells. Still, Viridi wanted Eos to quickly grind for experience points. Channeling Yidhra's power was the fastest way if she was able to hold onto her casting for longer and got more of them to spawn. Even if things were not exactly going to plan, the stunning beauty was sure to make a huge dent in the horde's numbers.
The rhythmic sound of three sets of footsteps preoccupied Vy mind as she wondered what exactly she had gotten herself into with these 'gods'.
Yidhra, the Goddess of [Harvest] and [Bounty]. Unlike most of her more… macabre Super-Tier spells, this was the most suitable to quickly extract experience points from a large number of enemies. The others were simply designed to kill, no questions asked… and thus something Eos rarely used because they took the enjoyment out of everything she did.
The mana consumption was terrible, though. Eos wasn't joking when she said this was the spell she's least comfortable with to use. The top of the hour neared… and the spell will end by then. Half of the chalice had already been filled, but they had cleared so little of the main army. Although she should be focusing on what to do after her 'partner' disappeared, Eos was more occupied with the mental well-being of the elven child in her guardianship. Even with her spell for encouragement, Vy was not as outgoing as she expected a kid to be ― but then again, not many kids are happy to be next to a child of an outer god.
Staying as close to Eos as she could, Vy desperately clung onto the titan's hand, trying her best to stay out of Yidhra's avatar's line of sight. Every now and then she would hear the cries of the orcs ― weak, desperate ones; the final death throes of a soon-to-be corpse. She had thought the toxins produced by Viridi's plants were an inhumane way to train her magical skills, but after seeing the full impact of what it cost to give her power ― to sacrifice millions of souls into these chalices ― Vy began to fear for her humanity.
Between the rough crunch of bones forcibly torn apart by the plants growing from their insides or the fountains of blood spurting into the air, to the sickening sweet scent she was somewhat immune to after inhaling so many of Viridi's spores, Vy wished she could forget it all, but to come so far, she wondered if the powers she was offered were worth seeing all the suffering around her. The only price she had to pay to gain higher-tiered magic was to be patient and wait out all the massacre surrounding her, yet the beings below had to pay with their very lives. As a princess, she thought she lived a privileged life before, but hearing the constant deaths around, she knew now there were gods… and then there were everyone else.
Then the plants around them began to talk, causing Vy to scream and shriek every now and then, much to Yidhra's avatar's gleeful smile.
Looking back now, Viridi had tried to mentally prepare her for the shock of systematic slaughtering, but Vy refused to leave her bubble of fantasy to see reality. There was a cost for everything in this world, including the power Vy had been hampering for. She wanted to leave this scene as fast as she could, to not be a part of it, but it would show the world – and to herself – her inner cowardice. Her only way to cope was to believe all these orcs would have died anyways at the hand of the alliance and their grand army. So, Eos starting the fight early had not only secured her power, but also saved the lives of many elves, humans, and dwarves. It was a believable lie, very convincing too, yet… her heart still ached for what was all around her.
This was not the victory she expected.
A/N: Next chapter will probably be the end of this misadventure. I won't intend to explore the New World for a while unless it involves Thor and Loki.