7 Chapter 7 - Resolute Path
(Apollo POV)
I tightly held my golden bow as I looked at Hecate in front of me.
Hecate was in her normal black outfit, but what stood out most was that she was holding a black staff in her hand with a blue orb embedded in the top.
We were both in the farthest part of Delos, far from my sister and mother.
Since today would finally be the first day of my sparring with Hecate.
Well, technically this can also be considered training, but completely focused on practice.
In short, this will be sparring with a goddess much stronger than me.
This goddess was standing in front of me with a stoic expression, it was kind of obvious to both of us that I wasn't a threat to her.
My goal in our first sparring session was to at least get her tired.
Hecate, who was silent, opened her lips.
"You can make the first move." There was complete confidence in her voice.
"No need to say it twice."
My hand quickly passes over the quiver full of incandescent arrows.
I pick her up and place her on the bowstring aiming at her, and I release where the arrow travels through the air towards her face.
Hecate raises her staff as her dense divine power is released.
"ψηλή γη." With her words, the block of earth on the ground rises up like a pillar.
Surrounding the earth pillar was a faint dark aura.
My arrow begins to penetrate the pillar, leaving a trail of fire, until the arrow embeds itself in the pillar, stopping in the middle of it.
Well, that's a bit redundant, but the magic of the goddess of magic is no small feat. This pillar is definitely not just a normal block of earth.
I thought, rushing to the side pulling two arrows from my quiver, and placing them on my bowstring.
Hecate tapped the tip of her staff on the ground as she said:
"κούκλες από γη." The earth began to contort and bodies began to form from it.
They looked like human bodies, but without faces and formed from the earth with the same dark aura surrounding them.
There are 5 earth dolls, and they are all around Hecate as if they were shields.
I released the bowstring, shooting two arrows. The two arrows destroy the dolls' heads, but thanks to this interference, the arrows change course, passing without even touching Hecate.
When I thought there were two fewer dolls, Hecate shakes her staff, and your heads are restored, using the land of the bodies, slowly decreasing in size.
Hmm! Dirty game.
I thought, with a smile, taking my hand to the quiver.
But the moment I move my hand, the dolls quickly move towards me.
The first doll was already in front of me, without thinking much, I held the bow tightly and swung, hitting it on the head.
The doll goes sideways on impact as another doll jumps towards me.
With my hand on the arrow, I take it out of the quiver, stick it in the doll's head, destroying it, and remove the arrow, kicking its torso, and sending it flying backward.
Placing the arrow in the bow, I shoot the torso of the doll next to me, the arrow pierces it leaving a fiery hole.
But they started to regenerate, while the rest of the dolls were coming towards me.
Seeing that it would be a closer fight, I threw the bow away.
The two damaged dolls recovered almost completely while the other 3 ran towards me madly.
I move my hand in front of my body, leaving them together, and a luminous sphere begins to form between my hands.
My divine power is fully released as the sphere of light takes shape.
The light on my hand was golden, but unlike when I used the sun, it was a light gold color and not an incandescent gold.
"[Earth's Wrath]." With these words, a pillar of light is released from the sphere.
When the light hits the dolls they are pulverized and the pillar of light continues towards Hecate while the dolls are destroyed without the slightest resistance.
This is a pure light attack, with no solar power.
Hecate, who was looking at me with stoic eyes, began to divide into several black butterflies that spread through the air.
My attack doesn't completely hit them, only destroying some butterflies, but the rest of the butterflies gather on top of a rock-forming Hecate.
"An attack worthy of the god of light, but very predictable." She says moving her staff, and 6 purple circles are created in the air.
And without saying anything she just lowered her staff causing the circles to shoot purple rays towards me.
Tsk!
I close my arms as a blinding light appears behind my back.
"[Ángelos]" The light on my back turns into a pair of wings of light and completely surrounds it forming a shield.
The purple rays hit the luminous wings. I could hear the sound of the wings creaking as the lightning tried to destroy them, but they resisted.
Realizing that the shower of purple lightning was over, I unwrapped the wings that covered me just to see, Hecate in front of me pulling the rapier from her waist.
I move my broken wings and use them to defend myself from her strike.
The tip of Hecate's blade hits my wings, which break even more.
I jump back, gaining momentum with the broken wings, lifting my hand upward.
Particles of light formed around me, and these particles began to merge into 6 orbs of light.
"[Heaven's Wrath]." The 6 orbs in the air begin to shoot rays of light towards Hecate.
With the rapier in one hand, Hecate raises the staff towards the rain of rays of light.
"Μαύρη τρύπα." A small black sphere forms over her staff and this same sphere begins to rotate, creating a suction force.
The light beams are pulled and centered toward the dark orb, and when they hit, the dark orb begins to absorb the light beams.
And with a movement of the staff, the black orb disappears.
Summoning something similar to a black hole should be prohibited.
A smile formed on my face seeing that everything I threw at her was always canceled, counterattacked, or deflected.
So let's go with this.
Even though this skill is still incomplete, I flap my broken wings and gain some distance.
I raised my hand towards Hecate, and a large circle formed over my hand, and 5 circles began to form in a row over the large circle.
The enormous amounts of my divine power are used as solar energy is directed into the great circle which begins to burn in golden flames, just as the other 5 circles begin to glow incandescently.
"[Solar Radiance]." With my words, more solar energy begins to gather over the great circle and the 5 circles begin to rotate at high speed.
Before I can gather more solar energy, I can tell from her eyes that have turned extremely serious that Hecate felt tremendous power from my next attack.
"Μετατόπιση." She slammed her staff on the ground.
And at the same moment, I feel her divine power moving behind me.
In the blink of an eye, her body disappears, and in the next instant, I feel a pair of legs being wrapped around my waist along with a soft pair of breasts being pressed against my back.
And with these good sensations, the tip of a blade is pressed against my neck.
"It's over!" Hecate just says it.
There was no way to react, so with a sigh, I waved my hand as I slowly descended to the ground.
All the circles dissolved, and the sun energy I gathered returned to the atmosphere.
"I lost." Upon hearing my words, Hecate lets go of me and jumps back as my feet hit the ground and the glowing wings disappear.
She circles me, standing in front of me.
Our eyes met and she held out her hand. Without her saying anything, I already understood what Hecate wanted.
I waved my hand using some of my divine power and suddenly a golden lyre with the sun engraved in the middle of it appeared in my hand.
As my lyre was bathed with my divine power, I could call upon it with a wave of my hand, using just a little of my divine power.
The moment I handed the lyre to Hecate, she took it and sat on the ground, using her divine power.
I could feel her rummaging through my lyre with her divine power.
With a slight smile, I also sat on the floor next to her.
Just when I thought we were going to spend this time in silence, I heard her voice.
"What's with that technique of yours at the end?" She asked with her eyes focused on the lyre.
"Hmmm." I murmured a little surprised, I didn't expect that question, but I saw no reason not to answer it. "This is a technique I've been thinking about for a long time, where I use my divine power to gather the sun's energy into the great charged circle for a destructive solar attack."
"I see! But even though this technique of yours is quite powerful, even I felt danger the moment I saw it, but still, your ultimate technique is kind of useless." Her cold voice sounded as her slender fingers passed over the frame of my lyre.
"Why?" I asked, raising one of my eyebrows.
"For the simple fact that your technique is slow, giving me more than enough time to react to it." A slight smile formed on her lips.
I crossed my arms when I heard her words.
Well, she is right, one of the reasons I lost was because it gave her time to react to my technique.
In fact, she managed to react to everything I threw at her, but especially to my [Solar Radiance] technique.
It was a bit ironic that the god of light didn't have enough speed.
"I need to work on that." I said with a smile.
"That's a good way to go." Hecate said with her eyes still focused on Lira, but with a smile on the corner of her lips.
Meanwhile, my thoughts were focused on speed.
Speed.
God of light.
Hmmm!
I think I have an idea for a new movement.
Formulating this idea in my head, I suddenly heard Hecate's voice breaking me out of my thoughts.
"By the way, what is your objective in this quest for power? After all, you are accelerating something that could easily happen over time." Hecate ran her finger across the first string, making a sound as her eyes looked straight at me.
For a few seconds, I thought about giving a vague answer or simply hiding it.
But to be honest, I didn't want to lie to Hecate who was helping me along this path, plus I wanted to talk about it with someone.
"Retribution."
"Retribution?" Hecate tilted her head to the side in confusion.
"Yes, you must know that my mother was hunted down and humiliated when she was pregnant with my sister and me, right?" I asked with a cold smile on my face.
"Logically I know…" she began to speak until understanding dawned on her face. "Don't tell me you want revenge?" She asked.
"Exactly."
Her eyes became complicated.
"I'll give you a warning, if you've ever thought about taking revenge on Hera, the queen of the heavens, I strongly advise you to give up, it could end up causing pain and suffering for your mother and sister." Hecate said with her purple eyes looking deeply at me, but there was a hint of concern in her eyes.
The concern in her eyes was genuine, causing a grateful smile to form naturally on my lips.
"To be honest, I really want to return all the suffering my mother suffered to Hera, but I know the consequences, so I will keep this grudge within myself."
Hecate, upon hearing my words, let out a light sigh.
"But the same won't happen with Python, that serpent chased my mother everywhere and hurt her, at least the serpent will have its head cut off, no matter who its creator is." My eyes went cold.
For someone like me, who during my past life lacked maternal love, knowing all my sweet mother's suffering was something I couldn't and didn't want to leave aside.
Even though Python wasn't entirely the main cause of my mother's suffering.
I still had to repay someone, so this serpent would be the perfect target.
Hecate continued to look into my eyes as if studying the determination in my gaze.
Obviously, she knew who the creator of Python was, there was no way she wouldn't know considering how important Gaia is in Greek mythology.
But when she looked at me, a smile formed on her beautiful lips.
With that beautiful smile, she threw the lyre into my hand, where I caught it a little confused.
"I like the determination in your eyes and how nothing could make you deviate from the path you set for yourself." She said releasing her divine power.
OK! I confess I'm a little confused.
"As the goddess of the path, I will help him on his path." Her divine power began to grow denser, she even seemed excited.
Seeing her monstrous divine power pressing down on me, there was only one thing I could say.
"Thanks." I said, standing up and releasing my divine power.
There was a smile on her stoic face, which made her even more beautiful and charming.
I will go further than the original Apollo should go, I will never let my mother suffer, or my sister, again. In this era where strength means everything, I will do my best to protect what is important to me.
With this resolution, the smile on my face increases along with my divine power.
Without thinking twice, I advance towards Hecate, the goddess of magic, witchcraft, the path, the night, ghosts, and necromancy.
