Heleno her knees, her mouth agape. What had she done?

  Kassandora took a breath. The air was filled with magic here. She had been in a scorg desert for the past millennia and a cooling monsoon had finally e. She took another breath as the sensations ran through her throat, her arms, her chest, to her feet and fingers. Everands of her hair felt as if they were alive.

  A thousand years had passed and she had got her goal. Freedom. A thousand years of smiles and jokes, a thousand years of iving thoughts, a thousand years without a single misstep. Where every move had been pnned out and theorized in her mind as she waited in this cramped cell. Kassandora tore the grey prison clothes off herself and reached forwards with the hand that had just sent her greatsword, Joyeuse, into the crowd of men.

  A bck gau formed around her fingers, it travelled to her wrists, spikes embedded into it, then down her arm. A cold chest-pte touched her skin. A bck helmet covered her head. Kassandora tied her hair back with a sliver of torn cloth as she tightehe straps around her armour. The feeling was simply euphoric but something was off. It was her armour, but it felt heavy. A millennia of being all but naked, and now…

  The dust at the end of the corridor cleared and kneeling Helenna whispered something in shock. Bodies were ying there, strewn as Joyeuse had torn through them. The sword had pierced a man’s chest and pinned him into the wall. Kassandora reached her arm forward, the bde disappeared, the body fell to the ground leaving a red trail on the wall. Joyeuse reappeared in her hand and Kassandrunted with the weight. She had indeed grown weaker.

  Of ut her hand on Of Love’s shoulder. “Stand.” Kassandora said. Helenna’s hair had grown pale as she shook her head. “What did you think was going to happen?” Kassandrabbed the scruff of the woman’s dress and hoisted her into the air. “Stand Helenna. Stand.”

  Helenna gurgled some words a her arms fall as Kassandora dropped her. The woman was a whole-half head shorter than without armour, in it, Kassandora towered over her. “Did you think this would be bloodless? Are you a child?”

  “I didn’t… Did you see… Iniri has… Kavaa’s Clerics…” Kassandora rolled her eyes. These three were far easier to hahan Maisara and Fortia, that had pyed a rge role in her decision to support them but maybe Alsaria had been correct. Maybe they were is. Kassandora turned and looked at Helenna. The Goddess had retreated bato herself, arms ed around her chest as if she needed a hug.

  What to do with Helenna? What to do with the Goddess of Love? Bdes turned in Kassandora’s mind and castle gates fell. Very easy. Helenna had been given tough love for the past millennia, she needed someoo support her. The Goddess of Love was the Goddess of Retionships and everything that came with them. Kassandave Helenna a hug. “It will be alright.” Helenna sniffled.

  “Will it?” She asked.

  “You have me, of course it will.” Kassandora said and dropped the hug. She grabbed Helenna’s arms tightly. “But you ’t be like this.” Kassandora wished she could sp the stupidity out of Helenna, but she kept her eyes soft, she even threw in a little smile. Sometimes a smile was the deadliest on in her arsenal. Helenna brushed her tears away and shook her head in a frantiod. “Good, now follow.”

  Essa hovered above the childish brawl below them. Zerus was obviously holding back, Iniri was filing rapidly. Kavaa had secured the courtyard with her Seekers. Sceo was simply hurling winds about. Alkom’s great sun was a small of fire. This was a fight among Gods? Essa raised her hands down at Iniri’s oak.

  The wave birth to nature, and nature quered the world. Then nature gave birth to magic. It was simply the cycle of these things. “MAGIS!”

  Iniri looked up when she heard Essa’s shout. The massive oak that cast a shadow over Olympiada stopped filing. Alkom’s sun calmed down and stopped iing her leaves, Zerus’ lightning faltered and the wind died down. Essa hovered in the air, high above them, two dozen mages around her. And then, Essa, Goddess of Magic, shouted again. “FIRE!”

  Pure energy poured from Essa’s hands in a beam. Fire burst from her magis, lightning cackled and danced, bdes of ice materialized in the air, winds howled and the air densed into daggers of water. Essa’s beam crashed down upon them like a sword. A huge branch, its thiess twice the height of a man, creaked, tore ao the ground. It cascaded down, losing leaves and then dropped onto one of the broiled roofs of a nearby pace. A cloud of pale marble dust submerged the Cleri the courtyard as magic fell upon them.

  From within the branches, a scream came. “ELASSA!” Iniri unched herself out of the tree like a bullet. Branches curled around her feet and creaked as she poured her power into them. “YOU WITCH!” Leaves swirled around her, made a shield against the bsts of magic p in. They were peeled away, yer by yer by the magis, with id fire and bdes of wind and bombs of air. They regrew with all of nature’s wrath.

  “Better a witch than a traitor.” Essa replied as she wiped her hands on her dress and readjusted her posture. Both arms were raised at Iniri as storm clouds roared overhead once again.

  “Alsaria’s DOG! NOTHING MORE! NOTHING LESS!” Iniri screamed out again. “FORTIA WAS RIGHT ABOUT YOU!”

  “About me?” Essa’s voice wasn’t even a shout but it reached the ears of everyone, from the Seekers on the ground to the Divines in the air. “About me sweet Iniri? Goddess of Food & Bounty? What did she say about you?” Iniri did not let respond. She raised her arm, the great oak twisted and the branch holding Iniri in the air split into two, then four, eight, sixteen, a hundred different tendrils that uhemselves at Essa.

  Alkom stepped iween them and the Goddess of Magic. He lifted the sun in his hands above his head and then hurled it downwards. The wood fshed alight, ied a moment ter and another roar of wind blew the ashes away. Iniri jumped backwards ao the ground, a single half-sed ter and Essa’s beam would have taken her along with the she stood on. Of Magic taunted again. “Remind me Iniri, a Goddess of Food & Bounty repced by fertilizer. What was it again? By actual shit?”

  Iniri smmed into a roof as bsts of lighting caught her. She let out a half-scream, half groan as leaves flourished to cushion her fall. Bronze roof tiles cut into her as branches encased her. “Iniri! Iniri! Iniri! LET ME IN!” Kavaa’s voice called out. Iniri could barely lift a hand, branches slowly groaned and twisted as Inri saw Kavaa’s bde cut through the wood. Of Health id her hands on Iniri and Iniri started to scream.

  Her body started to move faster, her heartbeat quied, her bones reformed, blood spurted out of the cut iomach as fresh blood pushed it out. Her muscles stitched themselves together, each strand on fire as if a thousand needle were retying into one again. Her visio bck, a sp woke her back up. “Stand Iniri.” Kavaa lifted pulled Iniri up and forced her out of the ruin.

  The Clerics were there, their armour beaten but their skins untouched. Some had holes in their pting where they had been stabbed, the flesh underh looked untouched. They formed a shield wall around the two Goddesses as Essa, Zerus, Sceo and Alkom slowly desded to them. In silver and golden armours, Zerus with lightning crawling out of his eyes, Alkom with his sun floating behind him, Sext to her husband, her hair twirling as if in a breeze and not the storm that engulfed Olympiada. “Iniri, Kavaa.” Essa said, she was still, untouched entirely by the elements. “This has been fun. Alsaria will be unhappy she missed it.”

  “Don’t look down on me!” Iniri shouted, but the strength in her voice was gone. She fell to her knees as the oak sprouting from the ground once again started to twist.

  “Don’t fool yourself into thinking you defeat us.” Essa said. “It is fainst one.” She did not even look at Kavaa as she said that.

  “I am the Goddess of Nature.” Iniri croaked. The oak moved, its roots shooting out of the ground, its branches crashing down again. A flurry of razor-sharp leaves spewed from it towards the four in the air. Alkom and Sceo took the leaves, half were blown away by hurrie winds, the other half ied. Essa took the oak itself. She raised her hands again, a staff materialized in her hands and she swung it like a scythe. A bst of blue magic took off the rooftops and split the tree at the base. It stopped moving and slowly started to fall, Of Magic turned back to the two Goddesses on the ground.

  “You are a Goddess abandoned. We gave you a title because we felt sorry for you Iniri.”

  “No…” Iniri’s exhaustion finally started to catch up with her.

  “Of Nature is no longer needed in this world, Of Food & Bounty.” Essa ughed. “It was more humao leave you as a Goddess of Agriculture than fet you.”

  “No…” Iniri colpsed onto her hands and knees. Kavaa took a step forwards, sword and shield drawn.

  “Don’t humiliate yourself Kavaa. You are nothing.” Essa said. “Signal for your men to retreat, or I will kill every single one of you.”

  “I will not stand for this.” Kavaa said. “If you want to kill her, you will kill me.”

  “I will kill her of you, Alsaria will not allow it.” Essa bit back. “She will decide your fate, I will merely hold you for her.”

  “Then you will have to defeat me.” Essa looked to Zerus. The old God shook his head, his beard rolling from side to side as he floated further down, just out of reach of the Cleric’s spears.

  “Kavaa, I am sorry for what I will do but you have broken a thousand-year peace.”

  Kavaa spat on the ground and stamped the spot with her boot. “I SPIT ON YOUR PEACE!” Zerus nodded sadly, raised his hands as thunder and lightning crashed overheard. Sparks of electricity burst from his eyes again. Kavaa pulled every strain of hidden power she had in a bid to withstand the magic. She raised her shield a Zerus’ gaze. Essa merely crossed her arms and shook her head.

  “Get on wit-“ Essa never finished her words. A sword sprouted from her chest, a bck bde, a massive edge of steel. A bde with a name: Joyeuse. Zerus raised his arms as Iniri looked back up, beasts of lightning danced along his fingers as Iniri’s hairs stood up. Lightning was ing… A foriri had never matched with.

  And then the lightning never came. For all the thunder in the clouds overhead, it was Zerus who fell. A figure in spiked bck armour, tall enough to match him smmed into his back. A fist hit spihe God shouted in pain. The figure twisted, kicked off Zerus in mid air and towards Kavaa as Sceo rushed to catch her husband.

  Kassandora nded before Kavaa and Iniri. The great sword disappeared from Essa’s chest and re-appeared in her hand. It smmed into the ground, crag marble tiles us sheer weight.

  And silence desded on the Pantheon again.