Between Saints - Ravel

The morning was calm as it always has been in the palace. Well, at least until Ella arrived, everything was in perfect calm despite everything that was happening around.

"Seriously, what's the limit of your abilities?" Ella asked while pouting like an annoyed child.

"It's not a skill, you just leak mana like a broken faucet."

"Faucet?" Ella turned her head with interest. "What is a faucet?"

"Forget it. What did you come for?" Athena asked as she turned her eyes to some documents Mifa had left behind.

"I went on an adventure for you and just got back."

"??" Athena cocked her head to the side. "What do you mean? I vividly remember a powerful presence arriving in Basilian and you spent all day wandering around town and then you went off somewhere."

"Eh?! Did you feel her too?!"

The moment Lucifer set foot on Basilian, Athena, who was working on the affairs of the empire, noticed her presence. But since she was with Ella, she figured it would be someone the dragon knew and didn't mind as much despite keeping her vigilance active the entire time the presence was in town.

"Who was that person?"

Ella pondered it with a frown and then smirked. "She's someone I want to introduce you to."

"I don't like that smile. What are you up to?"

"Nothing..." Ella looked away as she sipped Athena's apple juice and then looked back at Athena. "She's someone who needs help. Her brother is chasing her."

"And I imagine her brother is as strong as she…"

"He is stronger than me." Lucifer responded by appearing in the window.

Surprised, Athena looked at the woman who had black hair and intense red eyes. Unlike the day Ella had left on her adventure, Athena felt nothing coming from the woman.

"No need to be on guard with me. As that dragon said, I want your help." Lucifer said as she noticed the mana flow suddenly change and gather around Athena.

Athena saw the sincerity in the woman's gaze, yet she couldn't blindly trust someone unknown when she was at such a critical time as now.

That woman could be sent by either Gion or Asherah. Being taken by surprise by either of them could be fatal and Athena could no longer take risks when Fotiá's life was also at stake if something happened to her.

Athena kept her guard up and Lucifer sighed.

"Alright, allow me to introduce myself." Lucifer approached Athena with her hand raised towards the woman, but the hand was not accepted, causing Lucifer to blush slightly and clear her throat in her closed hand. "My name is Lucifer, the Morning Star."

Athena looked coldly at Ella, who devoured cookie after cookie as she kept close eyes on Athena and Lucifer.

"What?" Ella asked with her mouth full.

"Are you making fun of me?" Athena asked in an cold tone.

"??"

"You read my mind a while ago and now you're using some of the otherworldly legends to tease me, right?" Athena asked and Ella cocked her head to the side in confusion.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Ella replied. "I met this woman a few days ago in the tavern on the avenue behind the fair. She is a demon lord."

"That reaction… are you from my father's world?" Lucifer asked.

"Huh? Your father?" Athena looked at Lucifer. "Ah! Yes- No, wait! Are you serious? Are you that Lucifer?"

"Yes." Lucifer reaffirmed. "I am Lucifer the archangel."

"..." Athena furrowed her brows and narrowed her eyes. "You weren't supposed to be a man?"

"!!" Lucifer widened her eyes at the unexpected question and then gave a hearty laugh. The ones that make you breathless and have pain in your sides. "With everything in human history about me, are you worried about it?!"

"A devil or an archangel at this point is no big deal." Athena responded with disinterest. "What do you want with me?"

"Straight to the point, huh..." Lucifer pulled out a chair and sat at the table next to Athena and Ella. "I want your help to kill my brother."

"..." Athena narrowed her eyes further, staring into the woman's red eyes. "Why?"

"Huh?"

"Why do you want to kill your brother?" Athena asked. "Besides, which one are we talking about? You have several..."

"I want to kill him because he set me up after what he did…" Lucifer frowned with a humiliated look. "He caused my downfall so he wouldn't get punished for what he did to me."

Lucifer started to tell her story, but then a shriek calling for Athena echoed through the palace and Athena ran, through closed doors and walls until she reached the library, where Anemus was standing ecstatic.

"Anemus!" Athena screamed, but she didn't respond.

Athena could see the cause for the lack of response. As if it were floating in midair, two arms reached out and touched Anemus on her head and chest.

(Hm? Who is this chimera?) Asked Yggdrazil, who did not let go of Anemus. (Part god, part dragon, part demon and part human, no... part high-human! The disgusting race that took and defiled thousands of my daughters!)

Her floating lips curled down in disgust as she uttered several curses, but her hands still held onto Anemus.

Athena quickly crossed the space between Anemus and herself, but when she tried to touch Anemus, the fairy was intangible and was beginning to turn translucent.

(Stay away from my daughter!) Yelled Yggdrazil and a wave of energy came out of her mouth and hit Athena who responded with a wave just as powerful.

"Your daughter? She is my woman! Who are you?"

(I am Yggdrazil, the queen and mother of all fairies. Now that you know who I am, step aside, you filthy thing! I will cleanse my daughter of this evil mana.)

"Yggdrazil?" Athena ground her teeth. "Get your hands off her now or I'll make Anemus the last fairy in this world."

Yggdrazil looked at Athena. The woman's green eyes gleaming intensely as the mana circulated fiercely in her body, signaling the use of magic or skill in her eyes.

Yggdrazil laughed.

The queen was sitting on her throne in the forest of the green dragon clan and she thought it would be impossible for Athena to locate her, and even if she did, she couldn't touch her for two reasons.

The dragons would not allow it and she was the queen of the faeries. Before Athena could reach her, she would have to pass an army.

Well, this was all just what Yggdrazil believed, as the reality was different.

Athena wasn't looking for Yggdrazil, she was looking for ripples, openings in the magic Yggdrazil was using to manifest there, to take control of it.

When she finished doing what was necessary and found the opening. Athena walked past Anemus and thrust her arm into the ripple between the floating arms, and Yggdrazil had no chance of reaction.

Athena snatched her from her throne, bringing Anemus, who fell to her knees as Yggdrazil, who was pulled into the library, released her because of the surprise that was taking over her mind.

Athena was furious to the point that she lost a little of the control over her mana that was spreading everywhere, making the place vibrate and the ground crack.

Platinum horns grew from her head and curved back like a crown, her teeth sharpened, scales spread over her skin, and around her body gleamed a dark blue layer of mana that rippled with ferocity.

"I warned." Athena said in a noisy voice and threatening. "Now you're going to pay the price for touching someone you shouldn't!"

"W-who… what are you?" Yggdrazil asked as she tried to free herself from Athena's grasp as her wings fluttering in frenzy.

Athena pulled the woman closer. The kaleidoscopic-haired, thin-faced, rainbow-eyed woman struggled, but unlike her concentration of mana, her strength was truly miserable.

"Dead don't need information!" Athena said and grabbed the fairy's neck as she tried to free herself at all costs.

Yggdrazil cast several other spells on Athena, causing lightning and distorted waves of mana to spread through the library, but Athena had covered Anemus and herself with a powerful shield that even Yggdrazil was unaware of.

The fairy was starting to lose consciousness when Anemus interfered. "Don't kill her, Athena!"

"Huh? But..."

"I screamed because I was scared and couldn't move, but she wasn't hurting me!"

Anemus explained what was happening to Athena and as she understood the situation, with a complicated expression, loosened her grip around Yggdrazil's neck.

Yggdrazil was replacing the dark mana that was in Anemus with pure mana which had the element of wind and this, even if forcefully, was helping Anemus to be complete.

"Why didn't you tell me my mana was hurting you?" Athena asked with a complicated look.

"There's so much going on that I didn't want you to worry about one more..."

"How would I not worry? I want to worry when it comes to one of you three! Let me worry?" Athena said and hugged Anemus. "If my mana is bad for you, throw it away!"

"But…Mifa has your mana in her and…" Anemus said through her lips, almost in a growl.

In the end, that was what it was about. Anemus didn't want to lose the mana Athena gave her and just like Mifa, have a part of Athena inside her.

Yggdrazil, who was massaging her own neck with a pained expression on her face, looked at the two woman and couldn't understand it all.

(Anemus is a fairy who had someone's mana inside her? How was that possible? Is that what she meant at the time? That this mana was from the woman she loves?)

The fairies and nymphs who fell into darkness in the past did so of their own free will, using dark and demonic magic, becoming imps, succubi and even erinyes.

(But how?)

It didn't make sense to Yggdrazil that one could implant mana in another being.

(That shouldn't be possible unless...) Yggdrazil's eyes widened. "What god are you?"

"Huh?" Athena and Anemus looked at Yggdrazil and Athena asked. "What are you talking about?"

"It's no use hiding, I can see your divine part, but I can't identify which god." Yggdrazil rose from the ground where she had fallen when Athena released her. "I've seen thousands of gods and with the exception of the gods out of nowhere, I could identify the essence of all of them, but you... You are a mixture of so many things.... What are you?

At that moment, dozens of knights in heavy armor, Serien, Mifa and Hercules appeared in the library after following the trail of destruction left by Athena. But none of them said anything, with the exception of one voice that came from behind the crowd.

"I would like to know too." Lucifer said as she pushed her way through the people along with Ella. "I didn't say anything before because we're just getting to know each other. Initially I thought you were just a mutated dragon, but..." Lucifer narrowed her eyes. "You have other things in you..."

"What kind?"

"Essence of creation, something that borders on omniscience, demonic power, draconic power, power of the end and essence of two worlds... Are you trying to ascend to a primordial goddess? Your soul is old enough, it just needs some more power... Maybe if you devour this world, you'll get stronger than-"

"I don't want to devour this world, I like it." Athena said, interrupting Lucifer. "I will get strong by another method."

"Ah, Ella told me about Faena and Lhia. Here." Lucifer raised her hand and from her palm came a mana crystal with a more mature version of Faena. "You... What is this face?"

"Helena?" Athena was pale at the sight of the familiar face trapped in the crystal.

***

Far from Basilian, in the castle in the desert, Gion was admiring Ytria in her eternal sleep. The crystal the woman was in had new cracks from where expelled dense white mana.

"Soon we'll see each other again." Gion said with a longing look.

Behind the druid, Neu and Eun tended to an inert Nimo, with a static gaze.

They always wondered if Gion would abandon them when Ytria returned, but even so they remained faithful to the man who gave them life.

The women were busy brushing Nimo's long silky hair when they heard Gion scream.

"Athena! What are you doing?" Gion stared into space as he shouted those words. "No! Stop! You can't! You don't know what you're doing! No!"

Gion plucked his staff out of nowhere and disappeared em um feixe de luz azul, leaving behind worried Neu and Eun.