The least loved goddess.

The appearance of the woman completely surprised Shiruo and this made him nervous. The woman exuded such an imposing presence that Shirou couldn't understand how she managed to elude his senses even if he was distracted by his fight with the ghosts.

There was no doubt the creature was a powerful and dangerous being, probably the toughest adversary man had had the misfortune to encounter since coming to this world, the kind of foe that would require Shiruo to use his maximum effort to defeat it.

"What a fiery gaze, I feel melted just to receive it," said the woman in a sultry tone seductively caressing her chest as if to give herself some air

"Who are you?" the man asked involuntarily repeating the question he had been asked earlier, the woman was a supernatural creature most likely a goddess but Shiruo didn't have the slightest idea of which one.

"Everything in good time honey. Let's put the children to sleep first" With a snap of the woman's fingers Reyna and Hylla collapsed to the ground like puppets whose strings had been cut.

"What have you done?" growled Shiruo enraged that the goddess had dared to touch her charges

"Nothing, don't worry, they're just sleeping" the woman simply replied, not at all worried by the hero's anger

Not completely trusting the word of the goddess Shirou allowed himself to launch a Structural Analysis on the girls to make sure of their health, to his enormous relief the girls were in perfect health.

Having set aside the problem of the girls for the moment the hero allowed himself to concentrate all his attention on the enemy in front of him, the dangerousness of his enemy demanded at least this.

"Now that Bellona's daughters can't disturb us we can talk quietly" After revealing the mysterious identity of the girl's mother as if nothing had happened, the goddess lay down even more languidly on her throne of clouds.

It was a sight that would make even the purest of hearts reel, with her disarming beauty and alluring attitude the goddess was many a man's wet dream. The woman was a temptress born to ensnare the dreams and desires of men to cause discord and chaos in them.

Thankfully Shirou was immune, his soul was steel impervious to any outside interference protected by a world full of Noble Phantasms. While his mind had been tempered in the fires of countless battles, so fortified that during battle it was more like that of an automaton, a computer trying to calculate and predict every opponent's move, unable to be distracted by low-level libido.

It also helped that Shirou was used to beautiful women, none of his wives had anything to envy the goddess being just as if not more fascinating than the aspect that the divine being in front of him had decided to assume.

"When I heard the death of my children I did not expect to find such an interesting sight when I arrived" The woman did not seem at all disturbed by the death of those she called children, indeed she seemed almost excited by their disappearance.

"Usually when the children in Bellona's procession die, I'm just faced with some boring demigod or snotty war god." the woman said annoyed, shivering at the memory of those encounters.

"You are in for a pleasant surprise," added the goddess with a smile worthy of the Cheshire Cat.

The more the woman spoke the more serious Shiruo became realizing that his opponent was even more dangerous than he had originally thought. For a less experienced man, the woman would have passed for a simple chatterbox, so lost in the sound of her voice that she didn't notice the information she was giving.

But Shiruo could see behind the smoke screen that the woman was throwing at him, the goddess spoke and acted to create as much chaos and discord as possible, visibly taking pleasure in the chaos she created.

Of all the deities in this world's many pantheons, Shiruo could think of only one goddess who could fit this description.

magus said confidently revealing the identity of the goddess.

Instead of being shocked or surprised that her true identity was so easily revealed Eris was ecstatic she almost looked like a kid in a candy store.

"Bravo, bravo, you guessed right" applauds the goddess

"Although to be more precise in this form I would be Discord" As if to underline the difference the woman's eyes and skin changed for less than a second showing Shiruo her Greek appearance instead of her Roman one.

"Not that there are many differences between one aspect and another, the instilled Chaos while it can have many forms has the same nature and is not influenced by trifles such as cultural changes or other" Once again the goddess revealed secrets hidden to the great part of the world.

The division into several aspects of divinity was a peculiarity of this new reality, the real proof that mortals had power over the divinities, that to cope with the various ideals that mortals sewed on them they were forced to change their shape and personality.

Thus an arrogant and arrogant deity like Ares for the Greeks became an honorable warrior like Mars for the Romans, even the smallest changes were possible when the differences between the various forms were minor.

But Eris/Discord showed no real change from one aspect to another her personalities were perfectly blended and in tune, and no boundary or barrier was separating the Greeks from the Romans who acted and lived as one being.

It was an unheard-of feat an ability that revealed power and wisdom beyond words, the goddess of discord and chaos had managed to find perfect harmony within her, a state in which she was able to accept and merge every aspect of the various selves. It was a result that not even Zeus, king of the gods, had been able to achieve.

"But stop talking about me so you don't tell me a little about yourself, hero" An endless curiosity was present in the woman's voice as she leaned over from her throne to get a better look at Shiruo.

"Your soul sings of steel and blades more than that of Hephaestus himself, while your eyes scan the battlefield with an intensity that would make Athena envious. Not to mention how I can smell war and love on you "One by one Shiruo 's qualities were revealed by Eris and all without even crossing blades.

"In all my life I have never met a being like you. Whether they are Titans, Gods, monsters, demigods, or mortals I can't find in my memories anyone who is your equal" The goddess's voice was full of joy as she admitted her ignorance and leaked her interest.

Boredom the greatest curse that afflicted the immortals for beings who had seen and lived it all experiencing something new and unknown was almost orgasmic and Shiruo 's company was this for the goddess a pleasant distraction in a life of tedious routine.

And like a drug, the mystery that was the magus had made the goddess addicted after the first taste making her almost obsessed with him.

"But that's not all I feel something hidden deep in your soul of even more mysterious" Eris's curiosity was too strong to be silenced or withheld

"Enough" screamed Shiruo tired of the woman's constant ramblings, the magus up until now had heard the goddess continue to blurt out secrets but the more she delved into her rants the more the air became heavily saturated with her pure presence.

The divine aura was the greatest weapon of an immortal a poison that especially affected mortals who could not even resist the full power that a deity emanated in its true form by turning into ashes in front of this.

The demigods were more resistant but not even they could bear the aura of a god at full strength and little by little during her rant Eris had released more and more of her aura thus threatening the two girls sleeping behind Shiruo.

" Ohh " the goddess simply said realizing her actions

"What are your intentions?" Shiruo asked who, as a man of action, couldn't stand beating about the bush too much and preferred to get straight to the point.

"I don't want to harm you or your protégés" the goddess promptly replied understanding what the man meant by her question to demonstrate her point she withdraws her aura thus making Shiruo breathe a sigh of relief who did not perceive more danger to little girls.

"Then why send your children to torment my friend and attack me?" this was the question that Shiruo had been asking since the first moment he had discovered the existence of the shadows that haunted Julian.

Shiruo would understand if the ghosts would torment or attack the girls, the demigods were cursed to attract monsters and enemies of various kinds, but from the beginning, the shadows had ignored Hylla and Reyna preferring to torture their father.

This was not typical behavior of monsters who normally leave mundanes alone in preference to those with powerful blood coursing through their veins. It was behavior that could only be explained if the shadows were obeying someone's orders and Eris had called these her daughters making herself the prime suspect in Shiruo 's books.

"I didn't do anything," Eris immediately justified herself

"The children you killed were part of Bellona's procession and obeyed her orders, not mine" With a deft move the goddess casts the blame at someone else's feet

"If this is true why would Bellona torment her past lover with whom she had two daughters?" the skeptical magus asked, not believing so easily in a goddess who was famous for having given birth to one of the bloodiest and longest wars of ancient times.

"I don't know," the goddess simply shrugged

"I'm not Bellona so I can't answer for her" was such a logical answer that Shiruo couldn't argue

"but taking into account how he reasons I wouldn't doubt it was all a way to test him so that he could prove his worth" a blunt and brutal hypothesis coming from what many would call the least reliable goddess around but Shiruo couldn't help I am happy to believe him.

It was a harsh truth but such an attitude was in line with the way of thinking and acting of an immortal who cares nothing for mortals and is still tied to the old ways, of a time when overcoming trials and suffering was necessary to be worthy of the gaze of the gods.

Bellona could very well have regarded the sending of the ghosts as a gift and not as a curse a way for the man who claimed to love her to prove his worth to her and thereby make himself even more worthy of her.

"Well if things are like this we will go" This solved the mystery that tormented him Shiruo no longer had the intention of remaining in the presence of the goddess, he just wanted to take the girls and put as much road as possible between them and what by now had become a place of pain and sufferings.

"Not so fast honey." Eris moved quickly to block the magus not wanting her new interest to disappear yet.

"We have nothing to discuss," Shiruo said abruptly wanting to simply disappear and not draw attention to himself anymore.

Since he had set foot in this new world Shiruo had lived according to a dogma trying in every way to avoid attracting the attention of the Gods. All too aware of how the Immortals especially the Greeks behaved towards those he deemed a threat the magus had done everything possible to fly under their radar so that they would not become a possible threat to himself and his family.

Over the years thanks to skillful use of bounding fields, runes, and Noble Phantasm Shiruo and his family had managed to remain hidden from the eyes of the gods, but now Eris with his obsession was seriously endangering their anonymity.

"But there's still so much I don't know about you," the goddess whimpered, not at all happy that the magus already wanted to end their meeting, but Shiruo didn't care about the goddess' displeasure.

Men have limits, they are bound by them unceasingly, shackled by the chains of their mortality, since the end of the age of myth these chains had only grown thicker the time of great heroes had come to an end, and with it, there were no more individuals capable of going against the supernatural.

If in the past there were few exceptions capable of performing feats worthy of being engraved in legend, today even the same demigods who were blessed with the gifts of their divine parents were unable to replicate those deeds.

So today it was unthinkable to even think about going against the gods without the assistance of another deity or a creature that had the same degree of strength, and even in those cases we tried as much as possible not to make enemies of them too much.

Shiruo was doing right now in a rude and unwelcoming way towards a goddess was taboo especially when dealing with a fussy and vengeful deity like Eris.

The goddess of discord wasted no time in proving that her reputation was not entirely made up, it was a surprise attack with no visible sign to anticipate it, Eris did not even move a finger; yet, the world still bends to his will.

The shadows surrounding Shiruo moved according to Eris' will, what were once harmless silhouettes transformed into bloodthirsty spears aiming for the life of the magus.

Surrounded and without warning Shiruo should have been completely defenseless against the seemingly perfect attack of the goddess, it was the kind of move that would have stumped even the strongest of demigods of this age.

Eris was certain that her move would at least seriously injure the man who had captured her interest the logic so badly wanted yet in her heart was the hope that the mortal would somehow surprise her again.

Like serpents, the shadows rushed at Shiruo their points so sharp that they could pierce even steel, but their evil blades could not even touch the robes of the magus, with a flexibility and agility that went beyond the human realm. Shiruo writhed his body to pass unharmed between the spears that threatened him.

Eris's hope had paid off, the impossible had become possible, and for the first time since time immemorial a mortal had not only survived a deity's onslaught but was preparing to attack her as well.

Shiruo 's hands filled with his favored swords as he lunged at the goddess while dodging the vines of darkness trying to catch him, his glaives almost seeming to emanate light as they drove away the shadows that menaced him.

Shiruo was displaying strength and speed that went against all common sense, his every step shaking the ground, his every swing tearing the air. The blades of a mortal were closing in to threaten an immortal, Eris felt no anxiety or fear at her adversary's approach but only joy in witnessing the impossible accomplished.

Shadows at the goddess' command shattered against the cold steel wielded by the man, and circles of black and white swirled around the magus as more and more copies of the wedded swords were summoned to assist their master.

The distance separating the two contenders was not much but in the space of a few seconds, it transformed into a forest of shadows and steel as the god and the mortal clashed over the territory.

Shiruo didn't show it but he was clearly at a disadvantage, the presence of the girls behind him limited his movements not allowing him to be able to bring his blades to the throat of the goddess. A goddess who for the moment wasn't taking advantage of her obvious advantage but Shiruo couldn't risk it even more the battle went on the higher the chances were that Eris would use this card.

To prevent his charges from finding themselves in danger, Shiruo had to end this fight quickly

"Trace On" pronouncing once again the mantra of a lifetime the magus raised his limits for a moment saturating his body even more with mana, his speed was doubled as well as the number of blades that surrounded him.

Now more than a dozen swords swirled around him in ellipses and orbits as they made their way ever faster and more deadly.

Thanks to the attraction and repulsion properties that distinguished them, every time the swords met their double, the strength of their motion increased but at the same time, they became more difficult to control.

With nearly thirty swords Shiruo hadn't reached his limit but he was getting very close to it and didn't dare increase the number even more in fear of accidentally hurting the girls.

Kanshou and Bakuya weren't powerful enough to kill a deity but Shiruo 's purpose wasn't to eliminate Eris aware that this action would only lead to unnecessary complications and problems.

The goal of the magus was to force the divinity to retreat without injuring her too seriously to allow him to escape with his protégés without risking many repercussions for his actions, to accomplish this task the married blades were perfect as they were made from a meteorite they were poisonous to any supernatural being but they weren't strong enough to even accidentally threaten the life of the goddess.

With the preparations completed and the weapon loaded Shiruo only had to pull the trigger to start his shower of steel and without the slightest hesitation, the magus did just that as he threw the blades he was holding.

Like sheep chasing their shepherd, the remaining swords followed those thrown by Shiruo creating a steel barrage sharper and more lethal than any tusk and claw of monsters and beasts.

Shiruo 's attack was like a piercing roar as he advanced more and more towards the goddess the shadows invoked by this could not even slow down the advance of the blades.

"Magnificent, truly magnificent and to think that a mortal possesses so much power" Instead of being frightened by the magus ' move the goddess was delighted, marveling that such a level of strength belonged not to a demigod or immortal but to a simple man ignored by the benevolence of the gods.

Shiruo 's whirlwind of blades might not have been the pinnacle of his power but it already surpassed what most demigods could do nowadays. Even so, a clap from the goddess is enough for the swords to break their formation failing even to touch the clothes of this one.

The swords were still intact but they hadn't managed to reach their goal, it hadn't been wind or pressure that had deflected the blades. For anyone else, it would have been a mystery to understand how Eris had achieved this result but thanks to her eyes and their ability to analyze Shiruo had understood what trick the goddess had used and he wasn't calm at all.

"Subvert the laws of this world and make the impossible possible," Shiruo murmured astonished, unable to believe his eyes. What the goddess had done was beyond ridiculous and divine was the power to make white black and black white. The attractiveness that was inherent in the wedded blades and their legend had been overwritten, no longer allowing them to maintain their training.

"I am the goddess of discord after all," Eris smiled seductively

"This is not even the limit of my powers discord and chaos are similar" was a declaration of no small importance with these words the goddess was saying she possessed a power at the same level as a progenitor the strongest divinities of a pantheon.

Whether the goddess' words were real or not, the fact remained that Shiruo had to escape her clutches anyway. His favorite blades had proved useless forcing the magus to raise the bar even further and summon an even more powerful weapon capable of going against the power of Eris.

Shiruo didn't lack weapons capable of this feat, even without using his strongest cards he had many ways to counter the goddess Greek mythology itself had legends capable of helping him in this situation, but the magus didn't just want to defeat his opponent but also send a message all without being very dangerous.

Shiruo realizes that in his madness of wanting both the full barrel and the drunk wife, he risked making innocent souls suffer and put them even more in danger.

"Trace On" once all the doubts and uncertainties had been eliminated, it was much easier for the magus to act. His instinct tempered in the fire of a thousand battles knew which were the right tools to succeed in his enterprise.

The air froze as the whole world began to shake with the power of the magus's new summons. It was the first time that Shiruo summoned a Noble Phantasm higher than the C rank in a place not protected by Bounded Field and the hero could feel the attention of numerous deities awakened by the appearance of a weapon capable of threatening them.

Eris could only gasp as the man who had so captivated her still surprised her by conjuring a weapon worthy of Ares' sword and Athena's spear.

Two identical but different twin spears appeared in Shiruo 's hands one as golden as dawn the other as red as blood, one two meters long the other a little more than a meter and a half. Only looking at them Eris could perceive the danger that derived from them for the first time in her existence the goddess feared it and was ecstatic.

"Yes, yes that's what I still wanted, show me even more" raving in ecstasy Eris while she wanted even more it was a behavior that bordered on insane it was as if the goddess with her words was inviting Shiruo to hurt her.

The hero doesn't even try to try to understand the way of thinking of the goddess all too aware that the immortals were bizarre and inscrutable creatures capable of concocting plans and ideas that for anyone else even other deities bordered on insanity.

And Eris was famous even among the deities for not being the most stable, capable of anything in her myth that had set in motion the events that had given birth to the Trojan War because she hadn't been invited to a wedding.

One if not the bloodiest war of antiquity was born for a futile reason, the fruit of the revenge of the least loved goddess, a sweetened retaliation if one considers that the original plan of Eris according to the myth had been to liberate the Titans and put fire and iron Olympus.

"After this, there will be nothing left to show," Shiruo warned before launching the assault.

If before Shiruo seemed fast now he was just a blur not even visible to untrained eyes, if before his way of fighting had been focused on technique and misdirection now it was focused on pure power as he charged forward in a straight line leaving behind only a trail.

The shadows that blocked his way dissipated as in contact with the sunlight once pierced by his red spear, they were not simply destroyed they completely ceased to exist.

Amused that her defenses were so easily dispersed the goddess also stepped up a notch to keep up with the magus' new offensive eager for the fight to continue.

Spheres of pure power rose from the goddess's hands, each one containing enough strength to destroy a small fortress. It was the kind of attack a deity would use against a being of the same level.

For Eris to use the orbs meant she was considering Shiruo a threat tonight despite her excitement at fighting him, many would consider it an honor for Shiruo it was just a nuisance.

The spheres were not only powerful but also fast as they hurtled full force at Shiruo, but the magus didn't hesitate even as a barrage of death collapsed on him.

Imperturbable was I didn't even slow down as his race transformed from a shooting star into a tornado as he swirled his spears around him.

It was an incredible sight it was as if Shiruo had transformed himself into the lord of the winds while with his spears he left red and gold streaks in the air creating what seemed like real storms.

The golden and scarlet winds produced by Shiruo weren't just for show every time the currents produced by the red spear hit the orbs they dispersed as the orbs hitting the golden currents were repelled and thrown into their death which was the red current.

Shiruo 's spear skills were so vast that he was even able to repel some of the spheres thrown by the goddess and send them back to the sender, forcing Eris to block and dodge her attacks.

Shiruo 's charge had been so overwhelming that despite the goddess's barrage the distance between the two had shortened so much as to be less than ten meters, Eris at the end was a few steps from the magus just beyond the range of his spears.

Seeing that his target was finally within range Shiruo smiled knowing the fight was finally coming to an end

" Gae Buidhe," the magus yelled as he finally summoned the name and power of the golden spear before hurling it at the goddess a few feet away from him.

Eris only saw a golden arrow coming at him as bright as the sun and as fast as Zeus' lightning, instinctively the goddess knew that lightning was dangerous; therefore without hesitation one of the great immortals who ruled this world chose the path of the coward by teleporting away.

A peaceful silence descended on the ruins that were once the home of the Ramírez -Arellano family, of the two contenders who had started an epic fight only one remained, the mortal seemed to have prevailed over the divinity.

No longer detecting a trace of his enemy Shiruo allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief, happy that finally all this ordeal had come to an end the magus turned to the girls who were still sleeping peacefully unaware of the battle that had taken place around them only to stiffen when he sensed a great power rising behind him.

From a cloud of purplish smoke, Eris reappeared if it weren't for a slight cut on her cheek, the goddess would have seemed to have emerged unscathed from the previous clash.

"Incredible you managed to hurt me and use a weapon unknown to me I didn't believe this was possible" the goddess sincerely complimented

"But as you can see, your maximum is still not enough," the goddess said disconsolately as if she were suffering together with Shiruo for the failure of the attack which had caused him only a very small wound

"Are you sure?" Shiruo asked with a cheeky smile on his face.

Instinctively the goddess brought a hand to her face to cover the small imperfection that the man had caused on her otherwise perfect skin.

"That's nothing," Eris defended, downplaying what she had previously considered a success on the part of the magus. To underscore the point, the goddess circulated some divine energy on her cheek intending to seal the small cut.

The goddess's face glowed as she poured her aura onto the wound. But seconds ticked by and the small cut remained unperturbed, unchanged despite the ever-increasing power Eris was using to erase it.

"What?" the goddess of discord asked confused for the first time.

" Gae Buidhe: The Yellow Rose of Mortality. Any wound inflicted with it cannot be healed either naturally or supernaturally." The smile on Shiruo 's face was worthy of a white-haired Counter Guardian.

A single drop of blood fell from the cheek of the incredulous goddess as if to remind her that she was now mortal.

" AhhhhAHHH " With a scream that sounded like a half laugh Eris puffed up before bursting into a cloud of purple smoke.

"Remember mortal you belong to me, not to Zeus, not Hades or Thanos. You belong to me and no one else remembers mortals" With this last warning the disembodied voice of the goddess stopped signaling her final departure.

Shiruo remained silent for a few seconds, almost expecting the reappearance of the goddess only when he was sure that she would no longer show up, allowing himself to wearily pass a hand over his face.

This time it was over, as he walked towards his new protégées the magus hoped that with his actions, he hadn't created more trouble than he had solved.

Considering Shiruo's luck with women, his first encounter with a goddess didn't go too bad.

Releasing one chapter here means two more are available on my P. a treon, if you want to read ahead feel free to visit.

P a /RedArcher739

P a treon . com(slash)RedArcher739