Ishtar and the Bull of Heaven: As some readers have pointed out, Ishtar does not have the 'real' Bull of Heaven. It is the Ishtar of Strange Fake that has this Noble Phantasm. Nevertheless, Our Ishtar has a Noble Phantasm invoking a 'fake' Bull. But, the Mistress of Heaven is far from being idiotic. She claims that she received the authentic Bull from her father in hope that Godou overestimate her. Disinformation is a normal tactic in the Grail Wars... and Rin/ Ishtar is a veteran of this kind of confrontation.
And Ishtar as 'daddy girl' is not an invention of the author. This passage is directly inspired by Mesopotamian mythology (yes, she really shouted at her father and terrorized the other deities to get the Bull of Heaven...). Sincerely, read these old texts. I myself was surprised to have a lot of fun treading ancient Babylonian poetry. Do you think that people living 4,000 years ago had no sense of humor?
About the use of the Bull of Heaven in the Epic of Gilgamesh, do you think Ishtar used it to destroy everything? Not at all. Her plan was... to make the Bull devour all the grass of the plains around Uruk and that the herds died of hunger triggering a 7-year famine... but also that the Bull of Heaven leaves large heaps of stinking dung in all the fields... And arrived at this passage of the Epic of Gilgamesh, each time, I start laughing at the top of my lungs Imagining Gilgamesh pulling out a gas mask from Gate of Babylon because of the stench. Yes, this is the kind of underhanded and stinking tactic loved by Ishtar, she is 100% evil.
Ereshkigal and Persephone: It seems that some did not understand this passage, despite all my explanations. Yet others pointed out to me that I was explaining too much...
Ereshkigal does not usurp the Divine Authority of Persephone. She performs an exorcism ritual (Formalcraft). A ritual is always based on symbolism. For example, in the ritual of the "Lost Word" in Freemasonry, the Freemasons make a real piece of theater telling the assassination of Hiram by his apprentices, one freemason playing the role of Hiram, others ones his apprentices turned murderers, and one of them his only loyal pupil who hides the secrets of his master so that the murderers do not find them. Here, Ereshkigal identifies herself with Persephone to banish the Furies.
Divine Authority and Noble Phantasms: Generally speaking, the Noble Phantasms are not Divine Authorities. In fact, the Divine Authorities exist in Fate and function almost like in Campione. It's even one of the reasons for the existence of this FanFiction.
In Fate SOME Noble Phantasms (like those of Ereshkigal and Ishtar) and SOME Skills are Divine Authorities.
In order to invoke Divinities as Servants, the Fate System (FGO) TRANSLATES (and degrades) the Divine Authorities as mere Skills and mere Noble Phantasms. Originals Fate's Divine Authorities are much more powerful.
But this does not imply any form of reciprocity. The Noble Phantasm of a Servant who was a mortal in life did not become some sort of Divine Authority.
The Black Thunder and the Warrior
The long corridors formed a labyrinth plunged into the darkness and which was dimly lit only by braziers. The walls were covered with ancient frescoes. There were marine scenes with dolphins, athletes jumping over bulls, women styling themselves holding bronze mirrors, or processions of men carrying goats and sheep to offer as sacrifices. The walls would have fascinated historians and archaeologists because they offered fascinating testimony on the daily life of Minoans, a people that disappeared because of a volcanic eruption more than 3,000 years ago.
A blonde pigtailed teen dressed in a red brocade cape and black clothes was walking in one of the corridors. She held a Crystal Ball where a sinister green glow emanated in her hand.
Behind her, a young Japanese girl was following her. Her long hair and eyes were the color of milk chocolate. She has a blank face, showing no emotion.
Suddenly, in a stone scrape, the wall in front of the blonde girl pivoted and closed the hallway. Simultaneously, several openings appeared in the side walls...
Once again, the Labyrinth of King Minos had changed configuration...
Ereshkigal stomped on the ground, betraying her growing frustration.
"Definitively, this Black Prince Alec is only a cheater," cried she, before crossing her arms on her chest, pouting.
Finally, the Lady of the Great Land closed her eyes and did some breathing exercises to regain her composure.
She looked inside the Seer's Crystal Ball and nodded.
"Hakuno, let's go back and take this hallway. It looks more promising."
Hakuno Kishinami nodded without saying a word, but after a while, she accelerated to walk next to Ereshkigal.
"Do you have a plan?"
...to fight Alexander Gascoigne, understood Ereshkigal. The Queen of the Underworld was accustomed to the phrasing of her friend. The Inheritor of the Moon was a teen of few words.
"Not yet, but I'm thinking about it." Her forehead folded as she remembered her brief fight with the Campione. "The problem is that I don't see how I can attack an individual who moves at the speed of light."
Like Hakuno made another Head Tilt, Ereshkigal coughed in her fist and turned her eyes away becoming red.
"Cu... cutie!"
"Sorry?"
"Uh... nothing... you want me to tell you about my last fight?"
As the Sovereign of the Moon agreed, the Goddess of Death told everything she remembered.
The two teens had just arrived at a crossroads and Ereshkigal stopped for a moment to look inside the Cristal Ball.
Next to her, Hakuno's impassive face did not betray the intensity of her reflections. She nodded...
"Alec is like a Master."
Surprised that Kishinami suddenly spoke, the Queen of the Netherworld turned around.
"Sorry?"
"Alec uses his Authorities like a Master use is Servant."
"Yes, it's true" admit the Sumerian goddess. "But that doesn't solve his moving speed's unfair advantage."
"It's is first Authority?"
Ereshkigal nodded, remembering what Athena had said.
"Indeed. The first Heretic God defeated by King Alexander was Ramiel, the Fallen Angel of Visions and Lightning."
Turning to Kishinami, the Queen of the Netherworld was surprised to see that her friend had lost her usual impassiveness. In fact, she seemed very thoughtful.
"Hakuno?"
"That means a magician was able to defeat Ramiel, right?"
The Sumerian Goddess jolted... Yes, it's true. Initially, Alexander Gascoigne was certainly a gifted magician, but... just an ordinary mortal. This meant that Alec had defeated the Fallen Angel with ordinary magic.
The Queen of the Great Below raised her eyebrows.
"But how did he do it?"
She had asked the question aloud without expecting an answer, but the Victor of the Moon replied:
"He framed Ramiel."
Ereshkigal remained briefly with her mouth open and eventually acquiesced. In retrospect, it even seemed obvious. Black Prince Alec was an ambusher. The Godslayerplanned all his battles to trap his opponents.
"Ereshkigal, tell me about your skills."
"Is there something in particular that interests you?"
"Yes..."
And as they advanced through the labyrinth, Hakuno discovered the weakness of the Authority that had earned Alexander Gascoigne the nickname 'Black Prince'.
As Hakuno Kishinami had guessed, Alexander Gascoigne behaved almost like a Master of a Grail War. Many of his Authorities were autonomous. He would summon them, give them the magical energy they needed to manifest, and then once their victim was identified, the Black Prince could let them act.
After Ereshkigal had fled the center of the Labyrinth, pursued by the Furies, King Alexander had begun the study of his booty... the famous Regalia.
Alas.. it turned out to be more difficult than expected.
He had placed the ring in the center of a pentacle of analysis and had used an elaborate spell to learn more. Except the circle didn't detect anything... Alex saw the ring placed in the center of the drawing decorated with glyphs and magic formulas but the analysis did not detect any object, any form of magic known to mankind.
For his analysis spell, the golden ring simply did not exist.
Of course, this first failure had a bit annoyed the Devil King. Nevertheless, his smile reappeared very quickly. Long before becoming a Campione, he was a magician and a scholar. He was fascinated by an enigma like this. He was a very gifted magician, and few people would have been able to create such an effective analytical circle. He was not mistaken, which meant there were only two possibilities.
The first, the most logical and most likely, was that this 'Regalia' had a kind of protection system prohibiting any analysis of its capabilities. But it seemed a bit strange to Alec... why would this hypothetical protection system hide the existence of the ring itself? Anyone could see it on this... kishinami's finger. If the ring did not appear in a magical detection, this enigma would attract the attention of magicians rather than guarantee the anonymity of this 'Sovereign of the Moon' or whatever ridiculous title she wears.
The other possibility was less likely and it was even a somewhat absurd hypothesis that Alexander Gascoigne would not have dared to utter aloud. What if... if the Regalia didn't exist? Taking the ring, Alec bounced it in his palm. He didn't feel anything... he didn't feel the weight of the object, although the Regalia behaved like a ring of its weight (and the gold is heavier than it seems) and its size. Maybe, the ring was just some sort of alchemical creation not made of metal or regular mater. Alec was certain that he would not have weighed anything on the shelf of a scale.
Yes, that was a good answer. The Regalia was not made of matter.
Objects made of protoplasm existed... Alice Louise, the Speaker of the Witenagesnost was even able to create an ectoplasmic double of herself.
However, his analysis circle would have discovered if the Regalia was made of protoplasm, it was known magic, after all... So what was Regalia made of? (1)
It was probably a major discovery for magic. And it was normal for a magician of his level to do... the acquisition. It was much more reasonable for an adult, wise and experienced, a Devil King, to make use of the Regalia, rather than a child.
The King of Thieves always explained very logically and with perfect arguments... when he took a brilliant object. However, the truth was that Black Prince Alec had no sense of ownership, and -when a magical artifact caught his attention- he could no longer think of anything other than his acquisition. A true flying magpie incapable of resisting shiny baubles.
King Alec had reached this point in his reflections when... his connection to the Erinyes suddenly disappeared.
Certainly, it was disturbing, but not completely unexpected. Far from being stupid, Alexander Gascoigne had never blindly believed in the victory of the Furies. Mathematically, the Sumerian Goddess had little chance of winning a battle against the three sisters. However, he would have died long ago if the victory of the fittest was assured.
Alexander Gascoigne had obviously planned a plan B in case of failure of the Furies.
And if ever Ereshkigal took the advantage... in an inside pocket of his jacket, he had a teleportation potion that would instantly bring him back to England. No, once again, he had perfectly planned this fight, anticipating even an (improbable) defeat.
Taking the Regalia, he handed the ring to a figure that waited outside the circle of light generated by the cups filled with burning coals.
"Hide and defend the Regalia. Be also ready to intervene if needed, but your top priority remains the ring."
The Faceless Queen did not answer, but she took the Regalia before going back to hiding in the shadows. The Campione simply nodded. He did not plan to use the Faceless Queen in combat, but she was a loyal goddess and capable of taking initiative. She was another card up his sleeve during the next fight.
Alec smiled. It was time to prepare to receive his guests. He had kept his ace in reserve... his best Authority. In fact, every time he used that Authority, his opponent was dead. Moreover, he had taken care not to leave any witnesses of its use. He could not allow his future opponents to learn the existence of his best attack and discover a way to counter it. Normally, the Godslayer could only use this Authority once every six hours but... Alec was a cheater. He obviously had another card in reserve, allowing him to circumvent this limitation. He could attack several times, several unpredictable attacks, almost unstoppable, capable of killing Ereshkigal in one shot.
Despite the defeat of the Erinyes, Alexander Gascoigne was perfectly calm. He still had the advantage.
When Ereshkigal entered the large room in the center of the labyrinth, Alexander Gascoigne briefly frowned, noting that she was again dressed in black with a red cape.
"Welcome, O Queen of the Great Below. It's an honor to have you back. I hope that..."
He stopped when he saw that the teenager... this Hakuno something had followed the goddess. Then Alec sighed.
"I wish this girl wasn't involved in our fight. You're putting her in danger."
Ereshkigal frowned.
"So Hakuno wouldn't be in danger alone in the maze?"
"Goddess Ereshkigal, we are enemies and it is quite natural that you speak of me with contempt. Nevertheless, it is not my custom to endanger innocent people. I am a defender of humanity against the threat represented by the Heretics Gods."
"Threat?" Ereshkigal seemed sincerely surprised. "I have no interest in humans. Living things are simply sickening, after all. I wouldn't care about you when you're dead... before, it's just not my problem."
Briefly, Black Prince Alec felt uncomfortable... he had never met such a calm Heretic God. Normally, a heretical deity just coming out of its legend behaved like a hurricane or an earthquake, destroying everything in its path. It was because humans could not reason with the Heretics Gods or fight them that the first Campiones appeared.
"What are your intentions, goddess Ereshkigal?"
"Out of the Labyrinth."
"And what are your goals after getting out of my maze?" insisted the Godslayer. "Do you want revenge on humanity?"
"Revenge? Why?"
"Revenge because your cult has fallen into oblivion, of course."
Ereshkigal had a sad smile.
"Yes, I understand that many gods and goddesses are furious about men. The gods created men. They educated them. They protected them and... men forgot them, abandoned them, rejected them." She nodded. "Yes, I understand... I too suffered the same thing. At my birth, the Mesopotamian gods banished me to the Netherworld. The Annunaki exiled me. They forbade me to come out of the Underworld. They made me an eternal prisoner in a place where there is neither light nor joy. So yes, I understand what my brothers feel. Because what they feel about the man is what I feel about them. I have no reason to take revenge on humans, but I would probably take revenge on the Annunaki if given the opportunity."
King Alexander was surprised... it was the first time he had a coherent discussion with a Heretical Goddess.
"I... I'm almost tempted to believe you and let you go. But... "He shook his head." I'm sorry, I can't take that risk. If you tried to abuse me, if you lied, millions of humans will die. I am a child of Pandora. I defend the world against the Heretics Gods. If you have told the truth... I doubt that apologizing will do anything... but I can offer you nothing but my regrets. So forgive me for not being able to believe you!"
Ereshkigal looked at him for a few seconds and then had a dreamy smile.
"I see. You remind me of someone I once knew... he was a member of an organization that was tasked with protecting humanity, a field operative. He too carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. But he always chose to trust the people he met and even talk to his enemies... some thought he was incredibly naive. I thought he was incredibly strong. He gave me a life lesson... the first life lesson of the Queen of Death, actually. You know, you would never give up on seeing people in their best light. Of course, it is naive and often you will suffer from it... but the alternative is to accept that the world we live in cannot become better. Is there anything worse to imagine?"
"Sorry, I won't change my mind, so prepare to die."
Alexander focused. He was going to use Black Thunder, a variant of the Lightning Avatar. Instead of using it to evade Ereskigal's attacks, it would attack in the form of a gigantic discharge of energy. And if Goddess would survive, he would use another of his Authorities (Time Reversal) to reuse several times his best attack... a perfect move.
He noted that the goddess had materialized a black metal cage while doubles of her lance appeared around her in the air. With a gesture of her hand, Ereshkigal planted the spears in the ground.
At that moment, Black Prince Alec shouted:
"Be thou faithful unto death! And I will give thee a crown of life!"
A massive discharge of black energy came out of the body of the Campione, heading towards Ereshkigal at the speed of light. An attack impossible to dodge.
The discharge of energy blinded everyone present. When King Alexander regained his sight and looked toward Ereshkigal, an expression of disbelief appeared on his face.
"Impossible!"
The goddess looked at him calmly. Around her the red spears were still shrouded with black lightning, which sometimes flashed from one spear to another, gradually dissipating.
He suddenly understood.
"Lightning rods!"
Ereshkigal nodded and smiled as an accomplice to Hakuno. It was the idea of the girl with milk chocolate hair after all.
"The spear in my hand is the blazing soul of Meslamtaea, a grace that was only given to me in this materialized form. This is the light that warms the depths of the earth. The original like the copies can block or channel energy. But it's not their only use."
With a gesture of her hand, the Lady of the Great Land brought out a dozen more spears.
Without wasting time invoking this Authority by a verbal incantation, Alec called Time Reversal... 'canceling' his previous use of Black Thunder to be able to reuse Lightning Avatar.
Turned into black lightning, the Campione easily dodged the attack and the next but...
Ereshkigal continued to create spears and throw them at him. The room was now filled with spears planted in the ground... and it was getting harder and harder to move, as the spears of the Goddess of the Underworld had the ability to repel energy.
Discovering a straight road between the spears, King Alexander sprang in his black lightning form, dodging a new burst of spears that planted in the ground where he had stood.
Except it was a trap.
As he passed near Ereshkigal, the power of the cage she was holding was activated.
Even the speed of the Lightning Avatar could do nothing against the attraction force of this prison created for imprisoning immaterial beings, such as ghosts or the souls of the dead.
The goddess raised the oblong cage and smiled as she saw the sphere of black lightning bouncing against the bars. Alexander Gascoigne seemed furious...
"Bravo Hakuno, once again you found the Achilles heel of an enemy."
Hakuno nodded her head.
The compliment did not particularly touch her. It was obvious to her. The Campiones were famous because of their powerful protection against magic. Nevertheless, this protection extended to the surface of their skin. Transformed into the Lightning Avatar, Alexander Gascoigne no longer had this protection. The rest was easy.
Hearing a noise, Kishinami turned around.
The strange woman who had stolen the Regalia from her had just reappeared.
For any ordinary person, her movements would have been too fast to be seen. Of course, the Victor of the Moon was nothing ordinary...
The Faceless Queen was a loyal and intelligent follower, capable of initiative.
Seeing that her king was imprisoned, she did not hesitate and slipped from one shadow to another, both discreet and quick. Sinking into the ground, she resurfaced behind Ereshkigal. However, just before launching her surprise attack...
"Why are you hiding your face?"
The elemental goddess jumped back.
The question was... blunt to say the last.
Indeed, this Faceless Lady hid her face under her long hair.
Surprised, the elementary goddess protected herself by raising her hands in front of her face and turned to find out Hakuno Kishinami looking at her with her usual blank face.
"Why are you hiding your face," asked the Sovereign of the Moon for the second time. "You're pretty, though."
Realizing that Hakuno had actually seen her face, the Faceless Queen uttered a cry of terror and fled.
She was incredibly shy!
It was an important weakness, but Alec Gascoigne accepted it philosophically. It took unusual perceptions to discern the Faceless Queen... and seeing her face was a real feat.
At first, surprised by the escape of the goddess, Hakuno looked down.
The Faceless Queen had dropped the Regalia on the run.
The most ironic thing was that the Inheritor of the Moon managed in a few minutes to defeat two of King Alec's Authorities... two of his best Authorities. To defeat the Heretics Gods who had been the original possessors of these Authorities, King Alexander Gascoigne had shown a genuine form of genius for planning, patiently preparing, and searching for the weaknesses of his opponents in old scrolls. It took him weeks. And everyone admired him. Everyone praised the intelligence of the Godslayer, his scholarship, and his perseverance.
Without any preparation and in just a few minutes, Hakuno Kishinami had done the same.
The Prince of the Black Lightning was given its nickname because it could move at the speed of light in the form of a black lightning bolt.
But Hakuno's mind was working at the speed of light... or almost.
Outside the Labyrinth of King Minos.
After the Boar's failure against the Bull of Heaven, Godou Kusanagi was... disgusted.
His only goal was to save this moronic Ishtar and instead to let him do it, she fought him! The arrogance of the Heretics Gods had no limit... Of all the Campiones, he was the only one who wanted to protect the gods as much as he wanted to protect the humans. But with idiots like Ishtar, it was an impossible task.
The Japanese Campione reached out.
"Using words of power, I bring forth justice in this world! Powerful and eloquent are these enchanting words. For they are powerful and bring forth victory! For they are powerful and bring forth healing! "
A circle of light appeared on the ground. A golden sword rose from it until its pommel touched the palm of Godou. This golden sword was the incarnation of one of the Ten Avatars: the Warrior.
He was the Devil King's greatest asset and his best chance to defeat Ishtar without having to kill her... maybe the only one, by the way.
When he touched the sword... the world changed. The ground and the sky were now golden. Golden swords identical to the one held by the Campione were planted in the ground, while others were floating in the sky.
Ishtar seemed briefly surprised, looking around her.
"A Reality Marble!"
For some reason she turned to the teenager named Shirou Emiya, they exchanged a surprised look, then the redhead shook his head as if answering an implicit question.
"You are known as Ishtar, goddess of the planet Venus, and crescent moon, goddess of war and love. You have been worshipped since before the invention of writing and your name disappears only with the disappearance of cuneiform writing, you have undoubtedly been venerated for more than five thousand years."
Ishtar turned, surprised that Godou had begun to speak. He had taken the Golden Sword in hand and was now pointing it at her.
"What are you trying to do, Godou Kusanagi?"
But without answering directly, the Campione continued his lesson on mythology.
"What a strange goddess are you, Ishtar. Your worship seems to feed on contradiction and opposition. In Babylon, under the name of Mullissu, you were the goddess of prostitutes. All women were forced to prostitute in your temples. They couldn't get married until a man threw money on her lap."
Ishtar sighed.
"Those idiotic Neo-Assyrians... I absolutely didn't approve of this 'innovation'... hey, are you listening to me?"
But the Japanese continued:
"On the one hand, Ishtar was the August Queen of Heaven seated on a throne with a star border. She was the Pure, the Holy, the Innocent, the Wise, and the Virgin Daughter of the Moon or 'Ishtar of Wisdom', a veiled bride whose primary characteristic was purity, chastity, prudence, wisdom, and great beauty. Ishtar was associated with the planet Venus and her most common symbolic representation was the eight-pointed star. Moreover, Ishtar also appears as a witch, a prostitute, and a pimp at the head of a brothel. In the sixth tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh, she is at the head of an army of prostitutes and approaches Gilgamesh as a seductive, voluptuous woman, burning for the beautiful hero."
A furious expression appeared on Ishtar's beautiful face:
"Gilgamesh," she says spitting out that name as if it left her a bad taste. "King Godou, I already told you that it didn't happen like that! It's propaganda! You were there? No? So shut up!"
Still not troubled by Ishtar's answers, Godou continued to use the power of words to dissect the origin of Ishtar.
"Ishtar is the one who combines the features of the Madonna with those of the prostitute and the warrior. She is a paradox and a coincidence of opposites."
The Mistress of Heaven folded her eyes, suddenly attentive. But her voice was very ironic when she spoke.
"I see... you seek the origins of my myth in search of the source of my Divine Authority. And this great, very masculine, bad Golden Sword is here to violently cut my delicate flower... oh naughty boy." She pretended to shudder, rubbing her arms. Then her expression of false terror was replaced by a cunning look and a Machiavellian smile. "But... I am a primordial goddess. My origin goes back before writing."
Godou focused on the Sword of the Warrior and the words he spoke, but a little red soothing on his cheeks. Next to him, Erica shook her head while massaging her forehead while Liliana hid her face in her hands.
"Ishtar, you have been known by many names and epithets. And many goddesses are only echoes of what you have been. But fundamentally, you are Inanna, the goddess of the bond. You are the one who connects the world of men to the world of gods because you married a mortal. You are the daughter of heaven that connects the Earth to the firmament. You are the goddess of love and you link the father to the son as the lover to the lover. You are also the one who slices this bond, the goddess of discord. You are the mother and the one who kills. The wife and the witch. You symbolize all the bonds that create society as their break-up."
Godou brandished the Golden Sword...
... but the Golden Sword held by the Campione was only a form of golden light, blurred and unstable that was constantly twisting, unable to assume a form.
The moment of silence was broken by a burst of hysterical laughter.
Still floating in the air, Ishtar wiped her eyes while pointing to Godou.
"You... you... come here... you give me this long speech ... and when you want to take action..." Her hilarity doubled "... bam there's no one here anymore! You know boys should not treat girls like that. When a boy makes big statements to a girl, he has to make them happen. Otherwise... well..." She stopped suddenly unable to hold back from laughing any longer. But with her hand, the goddess made a gesture, as if she measured something very small, and her laughter did not stop.
She coughed in her fist, looking at the Campione with a demonic smile.
"Sorry, I'm sorry... I know it's easy to say... it can't be controlled. But you have to understand my disappointment. Look, maybe you should talk to someone... there are doctors who specialize in these kinds of problems. It's very curable these days."
Under the effect of the goddess' insinuations, Godou blushed, blushed, unable to decide whether he was mad with anger or dying with shame.
She was... she was... the very worst of the WORST kind of she-devil!
Erica wasted no time comforting her king.
"Why doesn't the sword work?
It was impossible. She had already seen the Golden Sword become unstable, but only when Godou invoked the Sword of the Warrior against an Authority and tried to forge it again another god's Authority. Yet, Lilianna and she had given to the Japanese Campione all the information they had. Why did the Sword not 'recognize' the divinity of Ishtar?
Oddly enough, it was the Mistress of Heaven who answered. The Mesopotamian goddess had regained her seriousness... although she keep griming.
"Well, I didn't know this Authority before and I only deduced how it works from the context but... I'm not surprised. You have made many mistakes. First of all, I am the daughter of Annu, the God of Heaven and not of Sin, the God of the Full Moon. In addition... the Epic of Gilgamesh is entirely written to glorify a sort of balloon inflated with vanity that has his name in the title. You made many other mistakes, to quote them all would be very long..." she interrupted by rubbing her chin. "But I think the real reason is that I'm an avatar."
Maybe it was also because she came from another universe. But that was probably better not to talk about it at the moment.
"Huh?"
"What?"
" Couldn't you have explained that to us first? "
Surprised by the reactions of Godou's 'wives', Ishtar blinked.
"And why should I have talked about it?"
Erica Blandelli made an effort to remain calm. She spewed a series of swearing, in low-voiced Italian, before speaking again in Japanese.
"Respected Goddess Ishtar, an avatar is not a Heretic God!"
Ena Sheishuun spoke.
"It's true, as a Hime-Miko, I sometimes let myself be possessed by Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi."
She showed her black-blade katana, a subordinate god.
Ishtar turned to Athena. The Goddess of Wisdom confirmed with a simple nod. The stupefaction disappeared on the face of the Goddess of Venus...
"So... there was no reason to fight?"
"No," replied Godou, finally recovered from his self-mortification.
The Campione let its Golden Sword disappear, meaning the end of the fighting. Then, together, all those present turned to Luo Hao. Everyone, at the same time, had just remembered WHO had started the fight... The young Chinese girl was now confused.
"It seems that someone attacked without even checking if Ishtar and Ereshkigal were really Heretics Gods."
Author's note: poor Godou... Well, this time, I don't think I'd have any comments about the big bad Campiones being too mean to the poor goddesses.
(1) The Regalia is made of Moon Cell Automaton's programming codes... thus of Spiritron, that is to say, particles that form the soul. Unless I am mistaken, the materialization of the soul (like with Heaven Feel, a True Magic) is unknown in the Campioneverse.