The World Below - Mana Puzzle

Hercules stared at Athena for a long hour.

Athena dodged the question of what she was and left the hut to test her wings. Which was a total failure.

Two years ago, when Athena was flying, she could control her wings perfectly.

But that was only possible because of the Akashic Records, which helped Athena with a pseudo motor memory that the Akashic Records provided her.

Now that the Akashic Records were locked, Athena could barely stand upright with her wings spread and a tail at the base of her spine.

"At least tell me where you hid those wings and tail..." Hercules said seeing the woman struggle against her own body.

"Tsk! I don't know either!" Athena said as she dropped to her knees, exhausted. "I... I give up."

"Can you tell me what and who you are? Like, I'm kind of your savior. Couldn't you be a little more grateful and reciprocate?"

Athena sat down in the snow and unknowingly slapped her tail, raising a small wave of earth and snow. "My name is Athena, I am h... Honestly, at the moment I don't know what my race is. I am the queen of the kingdom of Basilica and a saint." Athena tried to fold her wings without success. It was like if the wings were a foreign body attached to her body. "Sa…satisfied?"

"You? Queen?" Hercules scoffed as he looked at the rag of a dress that Athena wore for two years in a row, in addition, to all the dirt on her beautiful body. "Tell another lie."

Athena raised an eyebrow at the young man's doubt and followed his eyes. "I see. There's no way a queen can wear so little, huh?"

"I don't know how queens dress, but I've met one…" Hercules pursed his lips as the memories began to flow in his mind.

Athena saw the shadow on the young man's face. He resembled someone, but Athena couldn't remember. Though she knew what that inflamed expression was.

"It's only worth living for revenge if you can achieve it. Since no one knows about the future, it's not worth living for revenge."

Hercules looked at Athena with a cold gaze. "Nice words. I will remember them when I kill Mammon and Azazel."

"Mammon? The demon lord?" Athena asked with a smile.

Hercules frowned. "Yeah, what's so funny?" He asked in a voice filled with hostility.

"Well, I guess I owe you an apology." Athena said on a laugh. "I killed Mammon."

Hercules' frown became even more wrinkled. His mouth was open as if he had been anesthetized and his eyes were bulging as if they were going to pop out of their sockets.

"Huh?"

The young man thought he had heard something wrong.

He spent six years of his life in this strange world, and half of that he spent in revenge.

He was so close to it two years ago. Or at least he thought he was.

"H-he went to the islands in the sky that day... Haha!" Hercules began to laugh and then cry.

The distant moons in the sky lit up the night that showed his tears.

"Wait- No need to cry!"

He had gone through so much to earn his revenge. But now it was as if a part of that burden had never existed.

"Urgh…" He tried to hold back from crying, but… "Waaaaaaah!!!" That relief was stronger than him.

***

"Aaaaaaaaaaarrgh!"

Serien screamed with all the air in her lungs. She had already given birth two and the last one was being more difficult.

"M-Mifa! I- Uuuuurgggaaaaar!!!" Serien was pale and exhausted. "I won't..." Tears flowed.

She was scared.

"Serien, hang on a little longer!" Mifa said. At this point, Serien wasn't the only one scared.

"No... Please! Enough... It hurts a lot." Serien cried. "I... I can't... Not anymore..."

"How not? You've already put two out, one more is nothing!"

Serien let go of Mifa's hand and pulled her close by the shirt. "Shut up! It's nothing? These kids are ripping me apart! Aaaaaargggh!" The princess looked more like an angry gorilla than a woman giving birth.

Mifa was surprised by the strength Serien showed when pulling her.

(Perhaps when a woman gives birth, she gains super strength...)

***

Anemus and Fotiá were in a tavern, alone for the first time, and they weren't drinking juice or water.

"Why do people like this thing?" Fotiá complained about the beer. "So bitter and there are these weird little bubbles... I hated it."

"I warned you." Anemus said with a glass of wine in her hand. "Wine is much better." Anemus looked at the table behind Fotiá and leaned toward the girl. "He's been following us since earlier..."

Fotiá nodded. "I think we should get rid of him..."

Anemus straightened in her chair as she faced Fotiá. "Who did you learn this from?"

"With Aunt Lunnia. She said Mom killed men who harassed her in the town of short smiths."

Anemus breathed in exhaustion. "Even with Athena away, she was a bad influence on you..."

"Huh?"

"I'm saying the apple doesn't fall far from the tree." Anemus said and Fotiá cocked her head to the side. "Like mother, like daughter." Anemus insisted on the sayings, but Fotiá was hopeless.

All that Fotiá learned from Lunnia was to fight. She has never picked up a book herself and has never been interested.

"Forget it, Fotiá. Let's go."

"But..." Fotiá looked at the man who had followed them halfway through the day and made an expression of disappointment. "I could..."

"You will not!"

"Bossy..."

***

"Calmed down?" Athena asked when Hercules shut up.

"Y-yes...Thanks."

"Why were you crying?" Athena asked as she got her wings retracted and tried to do the same with her tail. "At first I thought it was because I stole your revenge but..."

"Yes... I felt relief. Now there's only one left." Hercules said and looked away to the west as if he could see someone leaving after saying goodbye. "Why did you kill Mammon? Revenge too?" Hercules asked while looking at Athena and then looking away with wide eyes.

Athena was playing with her wayward tail when Hercules looked at her. Her ass was in the air with her tail between her legs, hiding the important parts.

"He was connected to someone who hurt my lover. That's why I killed him."

"Huh? Just for that?"

Athena curled her tail like a snake and sat cross-legged on it. She looked at Hercules and smiled at him a friendly smile. "I've already killed for a lot less."

Hercules frowned at the beautiful and ominous sight Athena passed. (For someone with such a mindset about death... She must have been here in this world for a long time but... She is so young...)

"What? Why are you staring at me like that?"

"How long have you been in this world?" Hercules asked.

"Hm...One year? No, I was in a coma for two years, so...Three years? I'm not sure." Athena said and Hercules stood up with wide eyes.

(How? She's at least eighteen! But she said she was reborn here... How old is she?) Hercules swallowed in surprise. "How-How old are you?"

Athena thought for a moment and Hercules' expression twisted as he listened. "Three hundred and forty-two—no. Forty-four years."

"Wait, wait, wait! It makes no sense!"

"I know." Athena smiled and said no more.

Hercules understood that this was meddle too much and ran his hand through his black hair as if it were a way of sweeping the subject into nothingness.

(But if she came from the same world as me... Unless she was a psychopath, she shouldn't talk about killing so easily... Especially for being here for such a short time.)

Athena looked up at the moons and let out a sigh. "I want to go back soon..."

"Where?"

"Didn't I say I'm a queen? There are people waiting for me or thinking I'm dead..."

Hercules narrowed his eyes. (Is she really a queen? How unfair. I've been in this world longer and she's the one who becomes royalty...)

"Basilica must be much bigger now..." Athena commented. "Now that the Emperor is dead... If Serien was smart, she took all of Elsna's territory." Athena smiled anxiously.

Hercules sulked and stood up again. "I'm going to sleep. We'll leave early tomorrow. I suggest you do the same."

He knew the envy he was feeling was ugly, but he couldn't do anything about it. His life has never been easy since he arrived in this world.

Everything he experienced could be summed up in one little word. And that word is "sadness".

Obviously not everything was like that in the beginning. After all, a person cannot always be sad.

When the young man rose from his depression after being summoned, he fell in love.

When he saw the second princess, it was love at first sight.

She had long, curly red hair and beautiful green eyes that were a perfect match with her small nose and smiling lips.

However, the princess, at the age of fourteen, was already married, and when he heard about it, it was too late.

He had already approached her and built a friendship and loved her even more. He was ready to take her from her husband, but she died never knowing his feelings for her.

Athena, as far as he could deduce, had a relatively easy life.

(She has a boyfriend, is the queen of a kingdom and she are powerful enough to kill Mammon.)

It was inevitable that he would feel jealous.

Hercules let a sigh run out of his mouth as he paused for a moment at the hut door and disappeared into the place's darkness.

Athena watched the young man disappear and said. "I'll stay a while longer." She tapped her fingers on her tail. "Now..."

Athena took a deep breath and sat down in the snow again. Cold air invaded her lungs and she relaxed her shoulders as she exhaled the warm air.

(If I can fix this mess...) Athena closed her eyes. (But how?)

She looked inside herself and saw the same thing. White mana attacking golden one, and the golden attacking the blue one.

But this time the blue one was shaped like an awake dragon, with its head up, looking at the white and golden.

That's when Athena had an idea. (What if I can get the dragon to attack my mana?)

***

"Who the weirdo in the alley?" Lunnia asked as she cleaned her sword.

She was looking out the window and surreptitiously looking at the slender, dark-haired man.

"I don't know, but he's been following us since early afternoon." Anemus replied as she looked at the things she bought.

"And you didn't kill him?" Lunnia looked at Fotiá. "Athena wouldn't have left a pervert following you."

"Anemus didn't let me..." Fotiá said. She was upside down on her bed. In her hands, a black dagger she had insisted Anemus buy.

"We're leaving tomorrow. We don't need a fuss." Anemus replied as she shook a vial of blue liquid. "Here, Fotiá. This is that new thing that helps you regenerate mana faster."

"Well, if you say it's okay..." Lunnia looked directly at the man who quickly hid. "But if we stay here any longer, we'll have to kill him. He looked like he was drooling."

***

Inside Athena it looked like a cockfight. Athena made her mana attack the draconic and ignore the golden one.

But now the draconic attacked the other two at the same time like an irate dragon.

(Come on! This is not how I wanted it.)

The golden mana, in turn, had gone into hiding and using Athena's mana as a shield.

It was as if those energies actually had a consciousness of their own.

Inside the hut, Hercules could not sleep. It had been four hours since he had gone to bed. However, because of the noise Athena was making, he couldn't close his eyes even for a second.

Ever since Athena had started trying to organize her insides, the flow of mana had exploded around her.

This caused loud bangs and furious drafts of air that whistled a high-pitched, irritating sound.

Unable to take it any longer, Hercules rose from his rest.

He dodged the children, who were strangely sleeping peacefully, and hurried outside only to be openmouthed.