Were those really the only two options we had? Use a cursed sword, obviously a bad idea for any damn number of reasons, including the whole cursed bit. Or face Arfoire head-on with what we had access to. Neither of those options was great. A cursed sword was just bad. And the idea was just.

  No.

  I liked to say I could totally crunch the numbers on how, anyway, breaking down all the math, but it came down to one simple thing. Just using the sword to do what Nepgear wanted to would just.

  Let Arfoire win long-term anyway.

  There was no other way to swing it. Oh yes, whoever used the sword would win now, certainly. But the long term made it so that one would simply lose over time. That time would be measured in decades. Maybe up to a century if one really pushed it. But eventually, the good times would come to an end. Only the last Goddess standing would remember Arfoire's threat, passing out of human memory.

  From there?

  Hypothetically speaking, a long game should play just as much to Arfoire's favor as ours. But that wasn't how she operated. She may have fed off faith but her faith came from, a lack of faith. Share's were the people's faith in us as Goddesses. Her faith was a twisted sort of, failure. Everything's shit, everything will be shit, might as well get our kicks in where we can before we all die.

  That is where Arfoire drew power. From people feeling helpless, powerless, and just saying, fuck it. And part of what breeds mindsets like that was.

  Stagnation.

  The lack of things getting better. Not moving forward.

  Of course, none of us had the Shares to beat Arfoire on our own. So the idea of unifying the Shares behind one nation should have merit, right?

  It did. Having all the Shares behind a single nation could end Arfoire. But then you have to ask the question of, what happens next?

  And that was the trap of the sword. Yes, it allowed one nation to win. A single nation. A single nation would survive. And with no other nation to challenge it, no other nation to act as a rival, friendly or otherwise? There was no reason to improve. Businesses that had less competition, who would buy up smaller competition until there was no one to outcompete them stagnated.

  This nation would have people from all the other nations. One hyper nation with nobody to compete for Shares? Even the best of us would get complacent, lazy, or hell, even possibly, move into a position where there would be little we could do to check the fat slugs the companies would become without wrecking the system completely, resulting in massive economic downturns.

  And with no external help, the only way to get out of those is to spend, spend, spend. Which put you in a debt hole that you had to increase taxes to get out of. Which could be offloaded onto the corporations, but you've possibly had to put them back in their place, so they aren't doing so hot. That, or they're running amok without a care in the world.

  Even if you could keep them on track for a few decades, the threat of Arfoire looming of their heads the first time. Slowly, the people who were too young to remember her, or hell, those born after she had been defeated the first time around, would grow more and more prominent in society. Until the only person that remembered was the last Goddess standing.

  And humanity would forget the lessons of the past, as it always tended to do. People forget the price that was paid for what they enjoy. That the world they enjoyed didn't just exist by happenstance. That someone paid and fought for it. And when people didn't realize that the way things were didn't come about by magic. Or weren't sustained through wishful thinking that things just, sustained themselves.

  The truth was that if things weren't moving forward, then they were eroding at best, actively being undercut at worst. That's how it worked back in my world, and I'd yet to see any evidence that it was any different here. And that is where Arfoire thrived. That little, slow regressiveness that people felt powerless to stop, or worse, were completely apathetic or simply too lazy and uncaring to even attempt to fight against.

  And don't even get me started on the idiots who outright encouraged that sort of thinking, because they either thought they'd be able totally survive in the world that would result, or just wanted to watch things burn. I don't know which of the two mindsets generally pissed me off more on that front. Both were a specific type of stupid that I simply couldn't put into words.

  All in all, the sword was just a long-term loose condition all on its own. Sure, Histoire might be correct, and there might be a way to purify the sword by feeding it a Sharicite Crystal made from the Shares of all four countries. I mean, it certainly could work. How a cursed sword like that even worked wasn't exactly my wheelhouse. Generally, when a cursed sword was out and about, the best thing to do was to leave it alone. And if that didn't work?

  Find some place to bury it. Accept no other substitutes on that front. If breaking it wasn't available, that is.

  Still, use a cursed sword that could easily just damn us all into a loss state even before whatever else the damn thing wanted to use as a toll. Thankfully, the story of Frostmourne and Arthas made it clear to everyone there was going to be a price, likely too big of a price to be paid.

  Going from noble paladin and Prince of a kingdom to 'I'm going to give less than a single shit about desecrating my father's remains after I'd already killed him' is not the character turn I doubt they were expecting. It wasn't like Arthas was the only person who made the mistake of touching a cursed sword that they shouldn't.

  But given just how much of a role that Warcraft played in my life during my high school and early college years? Yeah, it was safe to say I was obsessed at the time, as my abandoned Warcraft fanfic could rightfully attest to.

  Still, it got the damn point across. Cursed swords were no laughing matter, and always took a price. Always a heavy price.

  But that was the hand we were dealt. It was a terrible, awful hand, but it was the hand we had.

  Still, if I had to make the choice between dying on the slow slide into the muck of obscurity and most certain death, or going out with my teeth sunk deeply into Arfoire's throat?

  Well, if anyone would be surprised by my answer being putting my teeth in her throat, they haven't been paying much attention to how I rolled.

  x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

  Oh, I did not like how big she looked on the horizon. A bigger target was an easier and slower one. But a bigger target also meant it was simply taking less damage in proportion.

  "Think you can hit it from here?" Uni was grinned at me, a taunt and a challenge.

  Well, if this was one last ride hurrah, then I was going out in style.

  "Watch me," plus, I was basically an ICBM launcher. I had a reputation to maintain.

  I send off a few arrows, arcing up into the sky. They weren't moving particularly fast. Yet.

  "No sense in letting her get prepped for us," I grin back, even as Uni rolls her eyes, line up a few shots.

  Only for her eyes to widen, and for very, very good reason.

  For the record, I would like to say she probably fired those before I'd done anything.

  Everyone scattered as a few lasers ripped through the sky. Well, if I had no more reason to pull my punches.

  As I weaved, I fired off a few more arrows, loading them with energy and letting them fly at full speed. No collateral to worry about? Each blast erupted shortly afterwards, peppering Arfoire's monstrous body. It looked like.

  Honestly? I don't even think I could attempt to describe it. Some would probably consider it some sort of dragon. But that could describe most things that were just big and scary. All I was saying as that for a deity of sin and piracy, she damn well looked the part. And the thing was, I don't even thing she had managed to fully form yet.

  A terrifying thought. If this is what she was capable of at a distance and not even close to full power, we had an uphill fight ahead of us. That, and I really didn't like how the Graveyard was looking. More so than usual.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Please tell me that the Graveyard isn't folding in on her?" I asked, mostly to myself.

  Because it was. It totally was. I had no clue what that meant beyond a general not good, which described our present by default.

  "We need to defeat it before it gets stronger!" Everyone else began putting on the speed, and I followed. Though I threw in a few more full powered shots. If nobody was going to be feeling the fallout aside from Arfoire, why not?

  x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

  Explosions bloomed along Arfoire's body with each impacting arrow. I think a few cracks were forming on its body. But given that was a massive body?

  Our biggest advantage was that we could fly around it like a swarm of gnats, biting at a much larger beast. And unlike gnats, we were doing damage. But it was healing quickly, and while it was slow, its attacks were powerful, leaving craters and canyons in the Graveyard.

  Which itself seemed to be healing from the blows at a lethargic but noticeable rate.

  "Rom, Ram!" I shout, firing several arrows into one of its tentacle, tail, whatever, knocking back toward the ground. Which gave the twins just enough time to erect a magical barrier, holding for long enough for two arrows to arc down.

  The explosion disrupted the laser, giving us enough time for us to scatter again, Rom and Ram throwing out their own parting shots. Flame and ice erupted along Arfoire's well. It looked like that mane of feathers a peacock had on its butt.

  Didn't know the exact terminology, but that's what it looked like to me. That, or someone had stapled a weird moth to its back.

  "I do think it is weakening," Vert threw a large spear into it, puncturing into its armor but not too deeply.

  "Really? I honestly can't tell," I frown, firing a few arrows into what could be Arfoire's face. Couldn't honestly tell with how she looked. There was a really obvious head with a single eye that looked spot on for a console controller. The one that had four arms coming out of it.

  No, I was talking about white body that looked almost, imprisoned above the.

  I really had to tell what it is, don't I?

  Above the crotch mouth.

  You know, the fact that I was being reminded about designs straight out of a children's card game wasn't something I wanted to be doing while fighting for my life.

  The wings on its head gave me the impression of some type of rabbit. Don't ask me why, but it did.

  But based on the roar of pain, that being the real control center may have been on the money.

  Arfoire brought its fists up, swinging at us blindly as we weaved out of its lumbering rage. Even as we dodged, I winced, a lance of pain going through my foot.

  To say that all the stressful maneuvering was not doing the fracture any favors might be an understatement. Part of me wanted to scream whenever I pulled into a sudden turn.

  I fired a few more arrows into Arfoire's arms before someone landed a blow into its back, distracting Arfoire enough for me to create some space. If there was an upside to this, it was at the moment, Arfoire seemed, dumber than I expected. She seemed to be acting more out of instinct than anything else.

  One of us could get her attention, riling her up, then someone else could step in, taking the heat off. All of us were getting our hits in, but, and Arfoire could multitask.

  But it was like she was operating in a fog. Then again, what need did an earthquake or hurricane have for brainpower? Just ravage and ruin. Arfoire was possibly hardly any different than any natural disaster.

  Still, something didn't feel right about that. How self aware Arfoire even was had been an, interesting thought experiment. But given the ASIC, I figured the answer would be yes, rather than something like this.

  Or maybe she was just waking up?

  Lining up a few more shots, I dived in, strafing and going for the tube that connects the eye stalk to the rest of the body. The explosions were pretty, but the damage was fairly negligible as I pulled up.

  Rocketing up, I put a single powerful shot into the stalk, more cracks showing for my effort.

  Maybe Vert was right. We were grinding it down slowly but surely.

  "Can someone help me take out its eye?" I shouted, dodging a few more energy blasts as a few more shots hit the back of its eye, drawing Arfoire's attention to me again.

  The intermittent energy blasts became a laser light show, filling up the sky in a barrage of nope beams. I yank myself around violently, nearly crashing my leg into one of the beams. Take a guess, it was the same damn leg that was already hurting like a bastard. Letting out a hiss as the blasts ended, I pulled back another arrow, hoping to continue plucking away at the offending limb, but.

  Nepgear had nearly lobed the thing off cleanly with her sword. Arfoire's flurry of counter attacks drove her away, leaving me free to take a shot that managed to sever the last bit of connecting flesh.

  I gave a slight grin at the partial victory as Arfoire roared in pain. Only for a whole lot of lights to start blinking into existence along her back.

  She was going Shin Godzilla on me. Us.

  Either way, I put on the gas, hoping that she was actually just blind now and going to be burning through energy like mad. I looked down, despite not really wanting to, but.

  Probably saved my life. Even with the last second evasion, one blast got so close I could feel it rattling in my bones. Heat likely singed off my eyebrows, leaving a tingly sensation in its wake.

  I'd probably claimed several hundred feet by the time the attack ended, only for more flashing lights to come from below. Firing off a few more arrows, I scowled. Could someone just kill her already?

  Multiple blasts of energy erupted along Arfoire's face, sending her staggering back. Oh, please tell me that got her. Please tell that's she's dead already!

  From my vantage point, it looked like Arfoire's body was crumbling away like dust. A good sign, but.

  Why did it look like the Graveyard is crawling towards her?

  "Guys! She's not dead yet!" I shouted into the communicator, rocketing back down towards them. "She's doing something with the Graveyard!"

  As if by signal, Arfoire's body roared to life, the crumbling giving way to regenerating mass. Depending only gave me a view of multiple attacks that would have normally slammed into her body just, phase through.

  Oh come on, she couldn't be touched now? What bullshit was this?

  "If we can't destroy her core, then," Vert's voice was full of worry. If we couldn't even hit her, then we certainly couldn't destroy her core. And if we couldn't destroy her core, then she'd keep doing this.

  Whatever this actually was.

  I had an idea though.

  Pulling back and firing an arrow into a hill, it still impacted.

  "I have an idea," it wasn't a great idea, but damn it if it wasn't one I'd wanted to pull off for years now. "But I'm going to need everyone to clear the blast zone."

  x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

  The blast zone being the entire island and then some. I didn't think the explosion would get that big, but it was better safe than sorry.

  Below, the Graveyard writhed, as if in pain. Arfoire sat at its heart like a cancer. Did it know I was there? Did it care? Did it have the capacity to notice?

  Or was it so convinced of its superiority that it knew nothing I could do would hurt it?

  I mean, it was right. There was nothing I could do to hurt Arfoire directly. Indirectly?

  Every ounce of spare energy I could was put into my arrow. My bow was almost humming from the strain, not a good sign.

  There was no way this lived up to what I had named it after. I didn't have that much power. Not even close. But it was the damn most powerful shot I had, as I was going to name it after one of the largest explosions I could think of.

  "Chicxulub!"