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Early Morning - Early Winter : Northeastern Bahamut

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"SKULD YOU LYING WHOR-" *FLASH* *BBBbrRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM* The whole planet shook violently as a beam so hot it could turn steel to gas instantaneously reached far out of the atmosphere.

But it quickly died down. *MMMMmmmmm* As the beam thinned, a glowing pillar of plasma that stretched to the edge of the atmosphere was revealed and remained still and unchanging like a beacon.

"Hooh..." I let out a quick breath as my head fell toward the ground.

*TSSSSSSS-blub-THUMP* The pool of molted rock I stood in splashed as I caught myself from falling over.

"Haaaaah..." My breathing was heavy, and my head was still spinning after turning nearly my entire reserve into divinity, but after using that antimatter spell, I was essentially running on fumes.

-Thank goodness antimatter is so efficient. ..-

Quickly thinning my reserve as much as possible, a colossal stream of mana started flowing into me, but it could barely be considered a drop every few seconds. -But as long as no one else picks a fight I can't settle physically... I should be alright...-

Finally taking a moment to look at my unfamiliar, molten surroundings, I noticed I was embedded in a crater nearly a hundred meters deep and several hundred meters wide.

"Haah..." But while it was huge, a part of me was surprised it wasn't bigger.

-I guess the crater was purely from residual heat though. ..-

Not feeling energetic enough to fly, I looked around to try and orient myself before starting to walk out of the crater. -I wonder how many people survived the heat wave...-

*thump* *thump* *thump* Finally cresting the edge of the crater, I was immediately met with the stares of the several dozen dragons still at the edge of the courtyard only a couple hundred meters away.

Surprisingly, almost none of them looked like they had any kind of injuries from the heat, with only a handful having char marks that were likely from Holcyons group's breaths. -Did the fires from those breaths end up protecting them?-

Quickly scanning over the crowd, I checked to make sure no one else was going to pick a fight before looking toward where I left Holcyon, somewhere only a few dozen meters from the edge of the crater.

-He really is like a cockroach...- After watching him desperately crawl away with his last functioning leg for a moment, I finally made my way over.

*thump* *thump* *thump* *thump* But as if he couldn't even feel the vibrations of my steps, he didn't stop to look toward me.

"I knew you acted and fought like a bug.. but to think you'd even crawl like one." *CRUNCH* His last remaining leg snapped like a twig as he pushed extra hard on it.

"Mmm..." *thud* I stood over him as he fell to the ground, only noticing that his melted scales had locked his mouth, nose, and eyes shut after another moment.

-That's no good...- *crackle* Holding one of my claws near his mouth, I thoughtlessly used the residual heat around my body to melt his scales again.

It was only an instant later that his mouth shot open with a gasp for air. *GASP* "ACK-" Almost instantly after gasping though, he vomited up a pool of crimson blood that boiled the moment it touched the ground.

*tsssss* But my heartless expression remained unchanged. "Even if you were not injured at all, you couldn't run from me... Give up."

The weight on his broken leg eased almost immediately. "You.. monster..."

He looked like he was finally accepting his fate, but I had no plans to let him die so soon. "Call me whatever you like. I couldn't care less about how you view me." I paused and looked at him like I was looking at a bug before deciding to continue. "That god. What was his name?"

"Hah.. hah.. T..Tyr..." His voice was incredibly strained and sounded completely different from earlier, likely from the heat wave burning his passageways. "The.. god of war..."

-The god of war, huh?- "So I'm guessing you got those 'city killer' artifacts from him?"

"H..he told us.. where to find them..."

I twitched the instant I recognized what he said. "And where would that be?"

"I-in a small mountain.. a few dozen kilometers north of the ancient wreckage..."

-The ancient wreckage again...- Instantly committing the directions to memory, I sat down and decided to ask some more timely questions while I waited for Myles's eventual arrival. "What were you trying to achieve with this?"

"Huek-" He threw up more blood before continuing. "Power... I was going to rule over everything this world had to offer..."

-With your strength?- I squinted my eyes immediately. "And how did you expect that to happen?"

"Siratha... Siratha was the key..." His eyes slowly lost their life the longer he talked.

"Siratha's strength is second only to the Holy Kingdom and the Forgotten Islands, and with my case against Amphitrite, I was going to get control of the merfolk.

.. All that was left was for us to take control of Siratha and groom the population into a military force capable of conquering the continents. .."

-You're severely underestimating Vilulf...- But honestly, I couldn't even trick myself to believe it would get that far. "Myles and Amphitrite would most definitely stop you, let alone the many other ancients who still respect world order."

"But I had Asgard and the Holy Kingdom behind me... They said they would protect me..."

"As if." My voice turned dark instantly. "Humans in power would never do anything that lessened their position. You were being used like a puppet."

"But-"

"Holcyon." Myles's voice quickly cut him off before he could spew more bullsh*t. "I never imagined I'd see you stooping this low." *WHAAAAAM* The ground shook violently as the massive body of a large ancient limply slammed down next to me.

I recognized its turquoise scales instantly. -This must be the ancient that was fighting Leander...-

"To think you were here too..." Holcyon looked at Myles with a hint of anger in his eyes.

"Things really would have been perfect..

. We could have killed you today as well.

.." His eyes slowly lost their fire as he looked back at me.

"If only the devil himself didn't descend.

.. If only.. the Goddess of Oracles didn't lie. .."

I squinted my eyes again as I looked back to see him on the verge of passing out. -The Goddess of Oracles, huh...-

"Holcyon, think about it..." *CRUNCH* The rubble-covered ground crunched like gravel as Myles landed. "If I am an obstacle in Asgard's way, then why am I alive?" Myles's bloodlust oozed out of him as he reached down and picked up Holcyon by the head. "I'm not on their side, so how could that be?"

His look turned crazed for a moment, immediately giving me a chill.

"It's because they're afraid of me. And this incident will only fuel the fire.

" *Crunch* He dropped Holcyon's unconscious head back to the ground before letting out a quick breath and turning to the crowd of dragons still watching from the sidelines.

"Haah... No one is allowed to say a word about a black dragon relating to this incident.

Those of you who were with Holcyon, I know who you are, but I will not push capital punishment, but if something gets out related to this incident, I will personally wipe out the existence of each and every one of you, along with your families. I believe I have made myself clear."

A deafening silence filled the air almost instantly.

-

- Skuld, The Goddess of Oracles ~

*fwoooooosh* A steady breeze blew through me while I looked over the ocean, but I couldn't feel a thing.

It felt horrible. Having not felt a cool breeze or even a mortal's touch in well over ten thousand years, there was nothing I wanted more than to feel something besides emotion.

But such was the cost of being a god. -'Losing everything that makes you mortal', huh... I didn't really think about it back then...-

Pulling up and hugging my legs, I set my head on them and watched as the black horizon was slowly lit up by the rising sun behind me. -I wonder if any of my family were in that first group to reincarnate...-

*Vwoop* An odd noise cut off my thought as a heavily suppressed presence appeared behind me.

"You look guilty." Her voice was smooth and soothing.

"It's not about what you think..."

"Hoh? You aren't guilty about sending Tyr to his death?"

Slowly looking over my shoulder, I met eyes with a black-haired woman with beauty that rivaled Freya. "I told him the oracle I saw at the time... That oracle was simply wrong..."

"Huhu~, how could that be? Your Oracles view the fate of the future, don't they?"

I gave her a look of skepticism before turning back to the horizon. "Why are you here..."

She paused before walking up next to me. "I came with a proposition."

-Hm?-

"There is a young demihuman girl that has been making quite a name for herself in recent years."

"I'm not going to kill her if that's where you're going."

"No, not quite. She just recently arrived in the Holy Kingdom." A smile crept onto her face as she spoke. "Convince Odin to take her in as the hero..."

"You know how much Odin hates demi-"

"..and I will help you create a body that can feel."