ACT VTHE FINAL YEAR

  CHAPTER 77THE DWELLER OF CAUSALITYGoddess Aadya had given the same blessing of ‘knowing the ends of what they cherished most’ to Reina, Bernard, Aredhel, and even Samson.

  The tter followed her words and ended up dying by the hands of the woman he was infatuated with. Bernard ended up betraying Samson for the life of his eldest son. Aredhel ended up losing her love of a lifetime and was set to lose him permanently by the hands of none other than Hans.

  Upon hearing those words again, the prophesied people contempted. She had once again spoken, and it was the end of the Parvian imperial lineage. Knowing one’s end beforehand and doing everything to avoid it, even when it was unavoidable. This was the true curse which the goddess humourously called her blessing.

  The people in question remained silent while some who were not bothered kept buzzing among themselves. Hans was the prior one, silent. Delimira, who always believed we are the makers of our own future, darted her gaze towards the goddess high above and spoke up, “Don’t believe in her lies, Hans.”

  Surprisingly, Aadya remained silent even when she heard her spiteful words. She was preoccupied with meeting the gazes of the Council. “So, you all agree with the division. Anyone who is itching to stand up?” Her pressure increased twofold and people’s knees dug themselves into the ground.

  “Anyone?” She asked again, amused. Her eyes scanned the whole war ground, searching for anyone eager to face their fate. When some courage began to stir within the council members, her act of abruptly exploding the two ancients like balloons extinguished their rising resolve.

  “I interpret your silence as an agreement.” She nodded, and her amused face suddenly took an opposite turn. Her eyes darted to a single person, and her beautiful face contorted in disgust as she saw something repulsive.

  “Now, I’ve settled the urgent issue, let’s get this second thing over…” her voice turned louder, “Xandor, you sick son of a bitch—appear right now?”

  A shadow emerged from the ground where she was staring. “My goddess, Aadya,” he said.

  “You are still masking your real face. You are one tenacious cockroach, aren’t you?”

  “Thanks for the compliment, goddess.” Xandor’s voice was cheery.

  Hearing his words, Aadya narrowed her eyes. “Don't you ever fear me, Xandor?” She asked as her eyes locked onto the undead husk behind him. “And, you’ve finally done it. You turned someone like him into an undead. You know he was the only mortal I ever respected. I’ll ask you again, don’t you ever fear me?”

  “What is fear to a dead, my goddess? You are the one who bestowed me the very power to rule over the dead. And quite frankly, I believe my pot of sins is still not filled enough to summon your wrath.”

  “Tsk, damn it. You were always perceptive of causality. My intervention saved your life. What a letdown… but even if I wasn’t here, you’d have found a way to save your rotten ass anyway, right?”

  “Hmm… If it makes you happy, I lost four of my captains, goddess.”

  “Ooh! Golden Griffins don’t disappoint.” Her eyes darted at the Parvian commander. “You should’ve gone for that bastard, Homar Garuda. When are you going to serve me his head? I’m really itching to see his dead eyes.”

  “Forgive me, goddess.” Homar apologised.

  “So, how many have you lost?” She asked, looking at the exhausted golden Griffins’ order.

  “We have a few injured, but thanks to your benevolence, no casualties.”

  “GOOD.”

  She folded her fingers, “One, two… I still have one more thing to do.” Her eyes pinpointed Hans as if a predator had found its long-lost prey. “It’s only right I should take back what's mine.”

  Her hands motioned towards Hans. “Woosh!” However, a sharp pressure cshed, cancelling her grasp before it could reach Hans.

  “Well! Well! Well! Can’t say I'm not surprised, foreigner.” Aadya blew over her hand as if she had just touched something hot. It wasn’t like no one could fight the reigning goddess, but none had the courage to do so. Yet Delimira attacked her head-on, but her strongest attack that almost broke the Glory Wars shield st year could only get a humorous comment from the moody goddess.

  “You’ve been fooling others, don’t you? Ancient’s pressure, the ws of this world don’t work properly on foreigners. You are just like your father. Then how about this?” Aadya closed her eyes, and several fluctuations started to pulse from her.

  “Zzzing!” Her eyes opened, now as slitted as Delimira’s. And if the imitation wasn’t enough, the antlers started to grow on her forehead, scales resurfacing on her soft skin. Her ebony hairs turned darker than the night, and she hung high, staring down on Delimira. She looked the same as her, yet far more domineering.

  “This… this is not possible.” Delimira was out of words, yet she reluctantly spoke, “You can’t just imitate my bloodline.”

  “Of course I can. Wanna see something else… how do these rotten Parvians do?” She patted her heart, and the beats became louder. It made everyone clear that she was using imperial bloodline.

  “Wanna see something else too.” She wasn’t done surprising as she summoned the light spirit, a soaring bird with a wingspan of tens of metres, screeching behind her. Everyone knew that to contract a light spirit, you had to enter Cndorian’s spirit gateway.

  “See.” She pointed at herself, “I’m a god, you little thing. I can create, modify, and execute anything as I will.”

  “Even if you are.” Delimira muttered, “You can’t completely imitate me.” She released everything she was hiding and holding in. A huge serpentine body covered the Central pin, coiling and turning, her cws huge and sharp as if capable of cutting the air itself.

  She stared at the goddess above and roared, “Now try imitating this.”

  “No, thank you. It’s ugly.” Aadya quickly denied. But confusion clouded her eyes, so she asked her puzzled, “I just don’t get it. Why are you trying to stop me, knowing well you can’t?”

  “You are a liar.” Delimira roared once again. “You are not taking him anywhere.”

  “Jeez! Just what is wrong with you?” Aadya asked, her puzzling face even more confused, “I’m his god, he is the Parvian prince. What do you not understand? I’m taking back what’s mine, so back off, little foreigner.”

  “No, you are hiding something.” Delimira pointed, “Causality—it’s just a vague concept of time; how much an individual’s existence affects the world. You… you can’t kill us all, can you?” Delimira smirked, adding, “Especially those who bear a huge causality. That’s why Xandor is alive even though I clearly feel your intentions of killing him.”

  “Haa! Just as I’ve known you. You were always the sharper knife, Delimira Winters.” Aadya’s face turned genuinely satisfied. She just met her, and when everyone was busy scaring for their lives, the little girl was observing her closely, and she almost figured her out.

  “You speak as if you know me?” Delimira asked, curious herself.

  “As I’ve said, you were always the sharper knife. So, I’d like to give you a chance. Up you go.” She flicked her hand, and the gigantic serpentine body came to her level, “A ‘long’ belongs to the clouds, not to the grounds. It just looks bad.”

  “What chance?” Delimira asked in a reverent voice.

  “I won’t move an inch.” The goddess smirked with arrogance, “Strike me with everything you’ve got, and if you manage to even scratch me, I won’t take your boy with me.”

  “Consider me included,” another rose, with his loud heartbeats drumming hard, “I’m his first knight.”

  “Hmmm…One or hundred. It’s the same anyway. Homar, you want to join in too?” She pointed at the Parvian commander.

  “I’m good, goddess. ”

  “Wise choice.”

  When several people were deciding on Hans’s fate, he thought, “Man! I ain't a fan of these odds” and his mind led towards the thumping sound.

  “Thud thud thud!” Chris ran or more likely fshed as he climbed Delimira’s gigantic body and came towards her mane. Leaning on the support of an antler horn, he said, “Deli, I don’t know what is fearing you. She is his god, I think we met before but all she did back then was just scare us in a very convincing manner. She won’t harm him—”

  “That’s not what I feel, Chris.” Her voice echoed inside Chris’s head, but he had no time to be surprised. “I feel this would be the st time we’d see Hans. She has to have some ulterior motive— I just know it.”

  “Then, we only have one chance. She is the Parvian god, so she’d stay true to her words. We need to exploit that. Put your everything in a single attack.” Chris said readying himself.

  “I’d try to break her defence,” Delimira’s voice again rang in Chris’s head. She added, “you take the strike—”

  “Haa kids, you ready.” Goddess Aadya taunted, “I don’t have all day.”

  “Me neither, honour your words.” Delimira rose with renewed vigour, her dull scales regained the lustre. She shimmered like liquid sapphire, coiled through the air. Mist and spray followed in its wake, veiling the scene in a mystical haze. Her eyes, glowing with an azure light, locked onto Aadya.

  “I always honour my words,” Aadya responded.

  “Argh!” With a mighty roar that echoed through the valleys, Delimira opened her mouth, summoning all its elemental might. Water from the rivers and kes surged upwards, spiralling and converging ahead of her open maw. It created a massive vortex of razor-sharp churning waves and frothing currents. Following the otherworldly scene, the sky darkened as clouds gathered, drawn to the epicentre of her power.

  The goddess raised her hands, taunting her to do her very best, a smug smile still etching in her face. But Delimira’s attack was no ordinary strike. It was a manifestation of the very essence of water – a foreign concept to the nd of magic.

  As she unleashed its strongest move, a torrent of water surged forward, transforming into a colossal tidal wave that crashed towards the goddess with the power to reshape the nd itself. Looking at the magnitude, one could easily say a warlock was performing his best spell.

  “Ah! Shit! I should’ve added that I’d defend at least. Whatever.” The goddess welcomed the huge attack as a gentle wind.

  The impact was cataclysmic, the ground shook and the air filled with the deafening roar of the deluge. But amidst the chaos, Chris moved with deadly precision. Nestled within the serpentine flowing mane, an imperial sword art, a consteltion move, waited for the perfect moment. His eyes were locked, his strike ready.

  As Delimira’s attack reached its peak, Chris unched himself forward, using the cover of the cascading water and Delimira’s serpentine presence to mask his approach.

  Imperial Sword arts: Sirius

  With a swift, silent motion, he descended upon the goddess, his bde glinting with lethal intent. All of his aura converged in the sword point and in an unimaginable speed, he struck, the bde slicing through the air with a whisper of steel.

  “Ah! The children’s have grown.” The sword’s edge met her cheek, leaving a thin, crimson line.

  Startled, she recoiled, her eyes widening in shock as she stared at the undead husk of Xandor. “You still have some sense left.”

  She was surprised; meanwhile, Chris formed a crater as he crashed like a meteor, unable to contain his speed. Struggling, he turned his head, his eyes satisfied. He was never able to imitate the ‘Sirius strike’— one of the consteltion moves from Imperial sword art that only the pure-blooded Imperials were taught.

  The battlefield fell silent for a moment, the air thick with tension. The goddess, now marked by Chris’s bde, gred at the struggling Chris.“It looks like you are using the Book of Heroes quite well, Christopher Hodges.

  But you are still centuries away from doing more than this.” She wiped the crimson trail, and her scratch instantly disappeared. “But that was impressive…throwing me off with my own creation. Its name was a homage to the brightest star in another world.”

  While she was expining, Hans looked at both of his friends. It was not only him that had improved. “So, that’s why Grandpa said I’d not be able to take Chris lightly. He could use Father’s moves… but what… Book of Heroes. I never saw him reading a damn thing. The Book of Heroes is with him… well, cheeky bastard is very good at keeping things to himself.”

  Delimira was forced to turn back. She suffered a huge recoil in summoning that much energy. Gasping, she looked at the domineering figure still floating in the air. “You ordered a scratch, you got it. Now honour your words—”

  “Honour? Here is an expensive lesson for you— don’t trust a word of god.” She shamelessly grinned. “I follow no man but one, and spoiler alert, he is not Samson Parv. He demanded that little hypocrite’s presence, and there is no stopping me from fulfilling the order.”

  She csped Hans in some invisible force and disappeared, leaving some in relief and some in agony.