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Chapter 88: The Goddess Spoiler: 10 chapters of hardcore fighting. Enjoy! Artemis seemed to have become dormant once she entered my body, but I could still sense her powers. "You didn't have to do that so suddenly......" I moaned, quickly getting up and picking up Artemis's bow. I quickly donned her white robe, scowling at it as it didn't reveal as much as I wanted it too. Without warning, it changed into a white swimsuit that covered pretty much only my breasts and hips. "Nice." I pulled the side strap of the bikini. It slapped back into place. "Maybe I'll keep it this way." I smiled, looking for an exit. Instinctively, I walked towards the waterfall, thinking of Henesys. I walked through the waterfall and found myself on top of a mushroom house overlooking Henesys. Already, a few Tauroswords were in the town, and one had already taken notice of me. I gritted my teeth and raised my bow, taking careful aim at the head. My right arm drew back the Soul Arrow as I closed my left eye. My right eye's vision seemed to interface with the bow, marking the point of impact and zooming in on it. Whenever I moved my arrow, the marker moved. "You're dead." I whispered, letting the arrow fly. The recoil blew my long silver hair backwards as the arrow blasted through the air so fast, the beast didn't have time to block or dodge it. The arrow impaled the ten-storey tall Taurosword right through the cranium and through the brain. Instantly, it froze, then toppled over in slow motion. I flexed my right hand's fingers. "Wow. Normal shots don't recoil like that." I noted, tensing my legs and jumping backwards as a black lightning bolt hit the roof I was previously standing on. I unleashed another arrow in mid-air, and downed another Taurosword with a headshot. Utilizing the momentum from the jump, I swiveled backwards and fired a headshot at another demon. I continued hopping between rooftops, marvelling at my agility. Alexis, Ares and the others soon came into view, cornered by four Tauroswords. Alexis was in her Siren form, but she wasn't doing much damage to those monsters. Kagome wasn't firing, she had a large gash on her right forearm and was clutching it. I nocked four Soul Arrows to the bowstring, and multiple markers appeared on those Taurosword's heads as I changed the point of impact with miniscule movements. "Take this!" I yelled, firing all four shots. Four Tauroswords down, a hundred more to go. I landed right in front of the others with my back facing them. All they could see of me were my silver hair, arms and bow. "Thanks for saving us." Alexis said, but I ignored her for now, instead choosing to aim my bow right behind me and firing off two shots. Two Tauroswords that had been charging up behind me were dispatched without even looking at them. "No problem." I turned towards the others. Jakito was healing Kagome's wounded arm with a smile on his face. It wasn't often we saw him smile. "Ummm, have we met somewhere before?" Alexis asked. I shook my silver hair out behind me. "Did you forget me after I was gone for a few hours?" I asked. "I'm pretty sure I haven't seen you before, yet you look familiar..." Alexis mumbled. I groaned. "Artemis?" Ares inquired. "At least my husband remembers me." I planted a wet kiss on his lips. "Wow." Timmias simply stared. "Long story, don't ask. I've got some demons to dispatch." I turned my back to them again and hopped onto a rooftop to headshot a few more Tauros. They were all charging after me soon enough, bulldozing a path through Henesys's fragile mushroom houses. I cursed and changed rooftops as another bolt of black lightning nearly hit me. Even Artemis's powers couldn't contend the raw firepower of a hundred Tauroswords. For every one I killed, two appeared to take it's place. "These guys won't stop coming!" I moaned, blowing a Tauro to bits with a supercharged Arrow Bomb to the heart. I noticed movement in a corner of the city and went to have a look. "Oh my god." I whispered. A few vampires were flying around, looking for prey. The remains of what had been the Potion Shop's owner were scattered around. A discarded arm lay in a garbage can as the vampires chewed on a severed leg. Swords with gleaming silver edges hung on the vampires's sides. I quickly returned to the others. "We've got to get out of here now! Vampires are flying around!" I yelled, taking a potshot at a vampire who had flown too close. Not just vampires, colossal golems were lumbering in. Looked like someone was overdoing the invasion. Even Artemis's piercing arrows had no effect on the iron-hard golems, and explosives weren't doing much either. I closed my eyes and relaxed, letting the energy flow from my heart. My hair extended by another metre, and the white glow radiating from my body intensified so much, it shone through the fabric of my swimsuit. "Now, you'll pay." I whispered, eyes blazing with power. I let loose a barrage of arrows that mowed down anything they hit. For the golems, I used a gravity distortion field to increase the arrow's penetration. Once everyone was outside Henesys and had found safe cover underground, I rejoined them. The moment I walked into the cave, I was barraged with questions regarding my sudden increase in powers. "And I thought that underground river was supposed to lead to Henesys." I sighed, sitting down on the ground and accidentally squishing a lizard under my butt. "Well, it was, but I think a shockwave blew you into a fork. We came out from the hot spring exit expecting to find you, but you weren't there." "That was close." I breathed, lying on the ground with my body forming an X. The swords had pierced through the ground near my head, between my legs, slicing open the bikini, and beside my stomach. The swords beside my stomach were lined up with my body, and were right on the sides. The cold feeling of steel filled my insides with horror as a Taurosword with a free sword glared down at me with unforgiving and merciless eyes. The swords were rendering me immobile, so I couldn't dodge this next sword. However, there was a slashing sound, then a sword was sliced off. I wasted no time getting back up and shooting the Tauro. "Thanks, Ares." I breathed. His sword had sliced through the Tauro's sword diagonally, causing it to slide off to a side without endangering me. I sighed and the bikini reconnected itself. "We'd better go. They're probably taken over "Hello there." An unfamiliar voice sounded, and I shot the owner point-blank in the face. A vampire. I'd rather commit suicide than say hello to a vampire. The entire demon army had stopped, and was waiting for us. "You gotta be kidding me..." I groaned, then flipped backwards to dodge a bolt of black lightning. Whoever was coordinating these demons was doing way too much overkill. Alexis slithered out, still in Siren form, and nicely blended in with the grass, changing the pattern of her skin to the same colour as the grass. I smiled and lifted my bow, locking onto multiple targets. "DIE, BASTARDS!" I roared, unleashing a firestorm of arrows. "Ready to give up now?" A couple of vampires gathered around my immobilized body. A few nicely thrown knives had found their mark and hit my legs, effectively decapitating me. The entire demon army was gathered around me. "I'd rather kill myself than let myself get killed by you idiots." I managed a weak moan. "Then again, I'm not going to die here." I smiled. "Why?" A vampire that was already bending over my chest asked. "Because I'm gone." I chuckled, then my body was enveloped in an aura of blue magic. The next instant, I was in Ares's arms. The escaping group quickly stopped and Ares set me on the ground gently. "What the hell happened?" He demanded. "Too many... of them..." I moaned. "We need to get you to Ellinia fast." Ares said, and picked me up again. The ten of us were running as fast as we could now. Ellinia had transformed from a peaceful tree town into a fortified castle of magically strengthened wood. Archers lined windows in hollow trees, searching for targets. They trained their bows on us as we approached, then, confident we weren't hostile, dropped a ladder down from the wall. Ares climbed up with me lying on his back while the others followed. Once we were up there, a couple of Bishops gathered around me. "They're coming." Ares told a nearby Hero. The Hero nodded and shouted, "THEY'RE COMING!!!" at the top of his lungs. An alarm sounded in the castle, and Archers ran to their designated spots, wielding powerful magical bows. The Mages were higher up on the towers. Most towers were equipped with magic-boosting telescopes, and they were usually manned by the Fire and Poison Archmages. There was a Bishop on every battlement acting as healer along with a Dark Knight for the Hyper Body skill. The rest of the Warriors lay in concealment at the base of the castle walls. Grendel himself was manning one of the magic-boosters along with a few of his best students. I recognized three as the Heaven's Elite Mage triplets. Ares waved at them, but they were too busy scanning the surroundings. I shook off a Bishop that was trying to heal my legs, opting to do it myself instead. I quickly went to a battlement. A cloud of dust was visible in the distance, and multiple magic cores the size of a Horntail could be sensed. I brought my bow up, pointing it at the oncoming invaders. "You're crazy! None of us can hit a target that far away!" A Crossbow Master yelled. "You're yourself. I'm myself." I responded, and a Soul Arrow appeared in my hand. He shrank back at the look in my eyes. "Nova Shot." I smiled. A globe of red fire appeared on the arrow tip, then the space around the tip was distorted. Beside me, Athena Pierce was doing the exact same thing. The rest of the stunned archers followed. The glowing tips of Nova Shots soon blinked to life along the battlements. "NOW!" I yelled, launching my own supercharged shot. The Nova was the size of a human body when I fired it. Only Athena's Nova Shot could keep up the pace with mine, since her's was also coated in a distortion field. The others simply fell short of their target, releasing relatively harmless explosions. Both Athena and my arrows burst forward at supersonic speed, engulfing the entire demon force in an explosion the size of a nuclear explosion. The smoke didn't clear for a few anxious minutes, while we waited for results, bows primed. The screech of a vampire was all it took to get spells and arrows blazing. A few Night Roads had joined the battlements, and were giving the invaders all they had to throw at them. Athena took me aside for a while as the shrieking defenders gave the demons all they had to shoot with. "The demons will come endlessly unless the Demon Gate is destroyed." She whispered. "The Demon Gate?" I asked, confused. "Kerning City wasn't named after it's founder, as most people think so. It was named after a white demon, Kuh'ning, who closed a Demon Gate under the city, sacrificing himself in the process." She explained. "I take it the Demon Gates allow demons to directly travel into our world through a Gate in their world." I said. Athena nodded. "I cannot go myself, I must assist the others in protecting Ellinia. The Demon Gate is at the end of the Kerning subway." It wasn't going to be easy to get to Kerning. The warp points had been disrupted by the demonic energy from all over the place, and teleporting via magical scrolls was impossible. Reportedly, someone had tried and ended up stuck in the ground. Normal teleporting was also pretty much impossible. I walked over to Alexis and Ares, who were resting on a sturdy branch, and pulled them aside. "I need to go to Kerning to stop those demons from coming. Can you help?" I asked. They readily agreed, and Alexis sprinted off to find Jullian and Jakito. They came a few seconds later. "The others are still too weak to go for the source. We'll have to do it ourselves." I said, then "Harpies." I noted, hearing a loud screeching sound from the skies. "Gryphons too. Looks like the demons are bringing everything they got." Jakito looked up at the sight of a tiger with a hawk's head and wings soared overhead. "Wait. Gryphon?" I asked as the thing swerved around. "Yes. Oh no." Ares gasped. "RUN FOR COVER!" I shrieked. Gryphons didn't just have the head and wings of a hawk, they had eyes as sharp as eagles too! A high-pitched shriek sounded from behind us as the gryphon skimmed the ground, flying towards us. I dived into a gap between two trees growing close together and the Gryphon wisely chose to break off and approach from another direction. The Gryphon's shrieking was drawing the attention of other demons, and a few Tauroswords soon appeared. "Oh brother..." I moaned, drawing my bowstring back and firing a Soul Arrow at the errant Gryphon. It screeched and dodged it. "I hate flying monsters." I sighed, dashing aside as it came in for another pass. I narrowly missed getting my hair caught up by the beast's talons. The others were staring at me as if they wanted to help. I shook my head and pointed in Kerning's direction. I could hold my own here. Kyrios hesitated for a moment, then Alexis dragged him off. I took out the two Tauroswords running towards me with two well-placed arrows to their heads, and aimed for the stupid Gryphon next. However, I heard another screech and quickly vaulted aside. Another Gryphon had joined the party. "I've got enough on my hands trying to take one down already!" I yelled, releasing a storm of arrows at the Gryphons. They all dodged them, but one was struck on the wing and forced to land. I quickly took out the disabled Gryphon and focused on the other bugger. It was flying in a circle over my head, occasionally swooping down to try and nick me. Smart guy, but still a nasty little bugger. These things were too quick for my arrows to hit them! Suddenly, I heard a grunting sound behind me and moaned. A Tauro had gotten behind me while I was distracted with the damned Gryphon. I whirled around to shoot, but it grabbed my hair and yanked me up forcefully. My shot arced off into where the beast's groin could have been. It suddenly keeled over, clutching itself with both hands, releasing me in the process. I blinked in surprise, landing on the ground with two feet and a free hand. "Guess monsters have their weak spots too." I chuckled, taking it out and whirling around, catching the Gryphon by surprise and impaling an arrow straight down it's spine. "Bullseye." I smiled as the thing fell to the ground. Momentum carried it forward and the carcass plowed into my legs, pushing me off balance. "Bastard." I moaned, crawling out from under the carcass. My silver hair was stained with the Gryphon's blood, and the sharp talons had opened a gash up my legs and buttocks along with scratching my bikini to shreds. I couldn't stand without feeling extreme pain. "Heal." I bit down the pain. Green light bathed me, and the wounds were healed. I stood up, eyeing the pieces of the shredded bikini on the ground. "No choice." I shrugged and set off at a brisk pace, trying not to catch the demon army's attention. |
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