Chapter 304: Dated Confidence

Late Evening - Mid Winter : Atlas, Bahamut

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*MMMMMmmmmmmmmm-blub* *hummm* The muffled hum of superheated metal met my ears as the roar of the spell slowly died down, and my body sank into a bath of mana-rich liquid rock.

No longer feeling any presences, my body relaxed, and my mind fell into a fog, but while a wave of fatigue tried to take over my body, an immense pain coming from my head was combatting it. "Ugh..." The pain was akin to an extreme migraine and forcefully stopped any idly thoughts. -But pain means.. I'm alive...-

Gently unfurling my wings, they almost immediately pierced into a semi-molten wall, halting my descent and letting me gently dig my claws into the wall without slicing through it like jelly. 

*Crackle-Crumble* -There it is...- Finally getting a grip in the solid part of the wall, I leveraged it with my wings and started the arduous climb. Without the energy to flap my wings with any strength or the brain power to use a spell, I was left with no other choice.

*Crackle* *Crunch* *Crunch* *blub-Crrumble* -This must be the top...- Feeling it suddenly level out, I used my little remaining energy to hop out in one push, but the walls crumbled before I could move much. 

*SPLASH-splat* "Haah... Fuck..." As my head landed on the flat ledge above the magma, I gave it one more try and forced myself up, but left my hind legs and tail still submerged after a surge of pain rushed through my brain. -Holy shit, my head hurts...-

It felt as if the world was in a fog. My memories were fuzzy, and my senses were numbed. -I can't even think...-

But that was when adrenaline ripped through my body.

*cr-r-r-r-r-RACKLE-VWOOM* Dozens of deafening noises met my ears the moment I tried to relax, instantly throwing my mind into a panic, but as my eyes jolted open, I didn't see any dragons. Instead, I just found countless shattered and dissipating pieces of massive mana cores sinking into the shallow magma around me. -W..what?!-

Looking up in a rush, adrenaline focused my blurry vision, but I only realized just how needless my worries were. "Ah..."

Surrounding me were half-molten walls of rock and metal towering almost twelve kilometers over me, with an opening at the top about fifteen kilometers wide. -Were those the mana cores of.. the dragons up above?- Not seeing anyone around the edge of the hole, I looked back at the ground and quickly found a few larger cores that remained intact before sluggishly crawling out of the magma and eating them.

*tink-VWOOM* *tink-VWOOM* *tink-VWOOM* With each core, a wave of relief washed through me, settling the pain and fog in my mind, but even with the help of several cores, my reserve refused to start a suction like when I abruptly regained consciousness just a moment prior. "Hooh..." -But it's alright... Although only barely.. I have enough mana to stay awake...-

Thankfully, destroying Poniria's core kickstarted a massive, albeit short-lived, mana suction that let me regain consciousness shortly after breaking it. Had that vortex not happened, I never would have even made it to the void to take time to absorb the mana trapped in my body, let alone think of my horrifically stupid plan.

-But all that matters is I'm alive.. and that that god is gone...- Unfortunately, I had no way to check if he was still alive; I barely even had the brain power to calculate how deep the hole I made was, let alone try to use that new sense to such an extreme degree.

But just because I couldn't didn't mean no one could.

"~ARE YOU INSANE?!~"

Wincing slightly as her yell shot a pain through my head, I glanced toward the red-dressed goddess with a slightly annoyed expression. "I won't deny it this time..."

Her form was slightly more defined than usual, with her dark feathered wings on full display. However, her anger was clearly what I should have focused on. "~Not only did you nearly reduce yourself and the whole city to ash, you even announced your presence to the WHOLE FUCKING WORLD!~"

-Ah.. yeah... I don't remember how much antimatter I even used...- Momentarily giving the seemingly small sky a glance, I subconsciously tried to calculate it, but my mind screamed in pain before I even started. "Ack..." -But it was a lot...- "In any case, while you're right about the spell, most onlookers shouldn't have been able to even see me from outside the academy with how dark it was. At worst, there should-"

She immediately teleported closer to me, setting her hands on the top of my snout as if leaning over a table. "~Not your identity! I mean your 'presence'!~"

-Huh?- Confusion washed over my face in an instant. "I'm not sure I follow..."

"~Your 'divine presence'!~" She stared into my eyes as she spoke as if she thought it'd help me understand. "~I felt it right when you killed Freya. What happened then?~"

"Ah..." -When time seemed to stop?- "I just made some divinity, but rather than letting it crystalize in my body, I spun it to keep it more.. fluid-" My voice was cut short as her expression shifted to one of shock and fear. -Did I.. say something wrong?-

"~L-liquid divinity amplifies the presence and general strength of souls; that's why it's called a divine presence. But that connection will invert if the soul is too weak. Without a soul strong enough, the divinity would literally shred your soul...~"

"Oookay? But-"

"~Vasilias.~" She immediately stared into my eyes with a slight craze. "~Your soul is literally halfway across the planet. Right now, all you have is a fragment that is barely any stronger than your sisters, let alone one that could withstand the amount of divinity you used.~"

-Oh...- I hesitated as I glanced down at myself. "But I feel fine..."

"~Do you feel anything abnormal?~"

"N..nothing that couldn't be explained by something else... The only thing is maybe my hunger..." -It's only gotten worse from when I made the divinity... Is it just from my reserve being so starved?-

"~Are you sure? You seem a little...~"

"My skull was just shattered by an attack that should have turned my brain to mush... Am I supposed to be totally normal already?"

"~Ah.. right...~" Glancing up at the top of my head, her demeanor slowly eased.

"Regardless of that, what happened to that god? Did my spell reach him?"

"~Vidar?~" She immediately shook her head before continuing with a shocking lack of concern, "~I think it may have, but he ran away long before the spell finished.~"

"Haah..." -Well, shit...- It was the one thing I wanted to avoid the most.

But thankfully, the goddess continued before I could try sinking into thought. "~Regardless, don't worry about him.~"

"Huh? Why?"

She paused before glancing to the side. "~When he ran, he flew east toward the Elder Hall, likely to regroup with a group of dragons he was sent to.. assist.~"

-The Elder Hall? WAIT WHAT?!- It took me a moment to realize, but when I did, I broke into panic. -Were they targeting Myles?!-

"~But he is dead now.~"

My thoughts froze instantly. -Huh?- "M..Myles or-"

"~Vidar... His presence disappeared the moment he got there.~"

A conflicting mix of relief and confusion filled my mind instantly. As far as I knew, Amphitrite was the only one capable of killing a god, but she was supposed to be in the forgotten islands. -Did she come back? Or was he weak enough that a different ancient killed him?-

But little did I know then, neither of those ideas were right...

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- Vidar, The God of Vengeance ~ (Back two minutes)

"~W..where did he-~" Tightly gripping my blade, I looked at the ground in confusion, but before a single second could tick by, the ground was engulfed in a wall of light, and my soul was filled with something I had not felt in countless years.

The fear of death.

*flash-ZIP-BRRRRRRMMMMM* The instant I bolted backward, an unfathomable column of light over a dozen kilometers wide engulfed the academy, instantaneously devouring every spec of crystalline divinity I had. 

-Im..possible…- Had I not disconnected myself from it all, I most certainly would have been devoured as well, but there was one thing I couldn't look past... 

-To destroy divinity like that…- My eyes widened as I backed away, unable to take my eyes off the towering wall of light engulfing everything in its path. "~T..the Ancient Fenrir…~" 

Slowing time as much as I could, I darted over the horizon in a complete panic. *TWOOM-ZIP* -If I can regroup with Pýrgos, I can possess one of his subordinates…- Glancing behind myself, I did everything I could to hide my presence while looking for the Fenrirs'. -Maybe I can get away…-

*VWOOM* The ground below began to blur as I continually sped up until eventually arriving over a town of rubble and ash and darting toward the closest aura I could sense.

But the moment I stopped, rather than looking down on a massive dragon standing over leveled buildings, I saw a small crater in the ground coated with blood, chunks of organs and flesh, and fragments of scales and bones with a large exposed mana core interwoven with divinity at its center.

It was an unrecognizably mutilated corpse, something I expected to see, but rather than the brightly colored, mythril scales of our target, they were a dark matte green. -W..what...-

Finally looking around, I saw exactly nine other 'bodies' in a similar state, with the mythril-scaled ancient between them all, still absorbing mana as if completely untouched.

-Something.. slaughtered them…- My mind raced as I looked over the western horizon in a hurry. -It must have been one of the Fenrir…-

However, after not sensing either of their presence nearby, I darted over to the largest of the mutilated bodies, a red-scaled dragon named Pýrgos.

His body had simply been torn to pieces. His hind legs and tail laid scattered on one side of the crater, and his front legs, neck, and head laid on the other with nothing left to connect them besides tiny strings of divinity.

But regardless of his state, he remained alive, left with only the ability to stare through his blank, unmoving eyes and think to himself while his mind slowly consumed its little remaining mana.

-Fucking undying lizard…- Immediately reaching out for his mana core, I tried to connect a tether to it, but was stopped by his divinity before I could even start. -Shit.. now isn't the time for this…- "~Allow me to form a tether, and I may be able to save you…~"

It was a blatant lie. Even Father himself couldn't have saved him at that point, but even if he was savable, I could not have cared less.

*Vwoom* Finally managing to connect my tether, a flood of memories came to mind. Memories of gathering around the mythril dragon in silence, waiting for my order to attack when several plumes of ash and rubble blew into the air, and the detached limbs of the cloaked dragons were scattered across the ground.

In a single moment, they were all killed. Eviscerated by a power they could not react to.

But I knew exactly who it was. -To die to the swat of a dog… How befitting of dragons who believe they can own the world…-

But the instant that thought passed through my mind, my tether was severed, and I was surrounded by a wall of flesh, ash, and rubble, exactly as I saw through Pýrgos's memories. -H..huh… Is this.. an illusion?- *VWOOM* My thoughts were instantly cut short as a shockwave of mana blasted through my soul, momentarily crystallizing every bit of my divinity and freezing me in place.

The next thing I knew, the snout of a white fenrir poked through my stomach.. it's teeth gripping onto the crystallized core of my soul like a feral beast. -W..wait...-

Whether it was simply the materialization of my fear, or truly one of the fenrir gripping my soul, my mind couldn't tell.

But it didn't matter.

*CRUNCH* Before I could push a single thought through the heart-gripping fear, I felt the memories of who I was turn fuzzy, the visualization of my surroundings go dark, and every ounce of knowledge accumulated over countless years vanish in its entirety.

The next thing I knew, I was listlessly floating in a dark, cool liquid, wholly surrounded by a thick wall, when a flood of foreign knowledge poured into my head.

None of it made any sense at all, as if it were a simple conglomeration of unrelated information, but the moment it finished flowing, the view of a tall, scaly creature came to mind, and I opened my eyes. 

-Ma..ma?-