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Earth-199999.
~3195 BE (Before Emergence) ~ 1170 BCE (Before Current Era).
'My sweet Little Snake, I'll share my vision with you. This is the second part of my three-part present,' Aragorn said to the soul of Medusa inhabiting his heart.
'You never told me you were this beautiful, Aragorn,' Medusa said, focusing on Aragorn's form instead of commenting on the line-up of most of the Olympians.
'I normally don't operate in this form,' Aragorn replied.
'What changed?' Medusa asked. 'Not to be dismissive of my gender, but being a woman brings nothing but trouble!'
'Divine to the Divine, mortals to the mortal; it's the law that was supposed to be running as per the Council of Godheads,' Aragorn said. 'In practice, although they keep to their believers, the deities on Earth don't follow it.'
'You tell me, I died a "Gorgon" due to their very divine interference!' Medusa complained.
'A few eras ago, the Council of Godheads tried to judge my Therions for interfering with mortals. It was all a farce. They wanted to show their place to the minor local deities and have them fall into line.
'That ambition came crashing down when they understood they could not match our might without heavy losses. By the Primoright—being the firsts on this world—my pantheon had the rights to it. By right of power, we could have sent them home,' Aragorn explained.
'Maybe you should have,' Medusa muttered.
'They knew it, but we didn't claim that right. Instead, it was pacted that all souls belonged to me first, and that later they would transition to their soul repositories—Heavens, Hells, Limbos, and such—and that we would follow the law of physical intervention: mortals to mortals, Divine to Divine.
'Since I've been mostly operating in the Levant, the Lands of the Nile, and the coasts of the Red Sea, my presence here has been mostly about collecting souls.
'This meant that these deities—Olympians mostly—have grown comfortable doing as they pleased with the mortals. I cared not for that; their interference was needed for the future of humanity—'
'—I doubt it,' Medusa interjected.
'But, some time ago, there was a threat to the entire Universe that I had to participate in quelling. I accompanied a pantheon of the North in battle. As a result, the then-prince—now king—of that pantheon grew to see me with fear, apprehension, and hostility.
'This God King manipulated Zeus into his agenda, and the result was the hostile disposition of the Olympians toward me. Hostility or not, I disliked them since before they were eaten by Cronus. But I kept to myself because all of their atrocities were not happening in my presence. My SplitSelves—soul collectors—only arrive for the souls and then go their way.
'Things changed. You appeared in my path, and for the next era, their believers would be of importance, so I would be forced to tread "their" lands. Why not address the problem beforehand? I asked myself.
'Though, it wasn't easy, Medusa. They had a smart fear of me, so they would have never attacked me. And for future endeavors, I needed to keep my status of neutrality in the eyes of humanity, so I couldn't go attacking them first.
'I needed them to attack me. Which is why I provoked them by poking where it hurt—[Fate]—'
'—Wait, didn't you attack Athena back then?'
'No, Medusa. I retaliated after she interfered, causing your death. And I didn't "attack" her. In a way, I gave her the relief she desired, so even she didn't see it as an attack.'
'Relief? What relief? Is the bitch a masochist bitch?' Medusa asked.
'She provoked me. If I had not retaliated, then Athena might have correctly believed I was plotting to use that spite to attack Olympus. That's what her [Wisdom] would have told her. Then, she would have told Zeus, and like the coward he is, he would have chosen to make his pantheon fall in line with the policies until the danger passed.
'This wouldn't have worked for me. I needed to put them in line now, before their believers gained importance—before the consequence of the battle that is about to happen could destroy the important civilizations of the next millennium.
'So I had to "react." I had to act as if I was showing my displeasure to Athena and nothing more. As if the torture I subjected her to was the end of our clash. All of it so that her divinity of wisdom didn't pick up that I was accruing slights to then plot the current circumstances,' Aragorn explained.
'And what does this have to do with you being a woman?' Medusa queried.
'It's all to push Zeus to the edge of rationality and reactivity. See, I spit in their faces with all of my previous actions. I nullified Aphrodite's charm over Helen, making her fail her vow of giving Paris the love of the most beautiful woman in the world.
'I gave Thetis the chance to save Achilles from his inevitable fate, breaking the prophecy of his death.
'I prevented Artemis from punishing Agamemnon and getting Iphigenia as her sacrifice.
'I stopped Protesilaus, the first Greek to leap ashore, from dying as the prophecy had foretold.
'I helped the Aegeans make it to Troy without divine intervention.
'Troy didn't fall due to Paris, as the prophecy foretold—it fell to the Sea People.
'The curse of the house of Atreus won't work with Agamemnon dead and Clytaemnestra sitting securely on her throne.
'Athena's blessed plan—the Trojan Horse—failed due to my Sea People.
'Poseidon didn't get to sink the ships of the Aegeans returning from the battle of Troy—my Sea People did.
'I took Cassandra from Apollo and cured her curse, while also stopping her fated death.
'Helen didn't return with Menelaus to Sparta, as was intended.
'And lastly, Aeneas, probably the most important figure due to his future descendants, Romulus and Remus. All of my Sea People who didn't follow the Path—women, children, and the old—are awaiting him in his destined land, his future subjects. Instead of Aeneas creating an empire due to divine providence, the myth will say that he created an empire due to my providence.
'In conclusion, in the face of their believers, in the face of [Fate], the Olympians are naught but a joke! ~Hahahahahahah! And now, look at their faces—they are about to attack me. Oh, but why am I a woman, you asked?
'Simple—because Zeus is almost there, he is about to attack me. But the final push he needed was the possibility of claiming me as his spoil of war—and bedding me.
'You probably don't understand how beautiful my current form is, Medusa, because to you, I might look "unnaturally" beautiful—but that's because of the difference in our level of existence. To them, I'm like a succubus born out of Aphrodite and Helen. So, lust—the lust of the most lustful god I know—that's the reason I've been parading in my female form. And look,' Aragorn pointedly stared at Zeus' eyes, 'What do you see?'
'... Wrath, and lust. The same evil lust Poseidon had for me,' Medusa said, disgust escaping her tone.
'Yes. As my PuppeteerSelf predicted, lust was the final straw,' Aragorn smiled, pleased with herself beyond measure—because as he explained to Medusa what led to this outcome, Zeus pulled his hand holding the Masterbolt back and shot her. 'Otherwise, their rage wouldn't have been enough to overpower their fear of me.'
CRACKLE!
Aragorn ignored distance and appeared slightly to the left of her initial position. Zeus' lightning missed her and continued to Troy, which had been standing behind her.
The lightning, moving at about a third of the speed of light, struck the heart of the city. The air turned to plasma where the Masterbolt passed. At 30,000 K (53,540°F), loaded with 1 billion volts and running 100,000 amperes, it should have lasted less than a second—but divinity came to play, and the city burst into an electrostatic explosion.
The resulting charges ionized the air, and positively charged ions and free electrons birthed plasma. Purple, blue, red, orange, and white mixed within Troy, and divinity created a semipermanent cluster of continuously exploding lightning.
Troy was no more. Bronze melted and evaporated, rock turned to molten, bubbling lava. The humans disappeared far faster than they could fear death.
The Sea People observed the night turning to day from even beyond the horizon. The Middle East (Anatolia, the Levant, Egypt, Northern Africa...) and Europe saw the horizon light up.
In Egypt, Seth—against the orders and counsel of the Ennead—marched to the battle but was stopped by Bastet. In Mesopotamia, Ishtar successfully prevented her pantheon from sending reinforcements to the Olympians.
"You should have asked Artemis to enchant it to not miss," Aragorn said with a mocking smile.
"It's instantaneous movement, Zeus," Hermes, God of Speed, said.
"That's problematic," Athena said. 'We should lure her to the seas, have Poseidon limit her mobility with water, Zeus can limit her in the air, and as she said, Artemis should make sure none of our ranged attacks miss,' Athena said through the communication channel Hermes created for them as the God of Communications.
Ares understood his role implicitly and marched forward—a shield on his left, and a spear on his right, all divinely crafted by Hephaestus.
"War is where I thrive, Aragorn," Ares declared, picking up speed as he marched—his body breaking the sound barrier purely by running.
"But this is no war, is it? From your point of view, maybe a hunt. That would make it Artemis' domain, right?" Aragorn ignored the marching Ares and glanced at the goddess aiming with moonlit arrows, Apollo by her side, adding his divinity to the arrows.
"War is what I declare it to be!" Ares shouted as he set his shield facing forward and his spear locking on Aragorn's head.
CLANG
Like two steel I-beams clanking against each other. The spear was stopped by the claws on her left hand, while the shield bash was held in place by the blade of her tail.
Sparks flew from both points of contact, illuminating in flashes the battle-thirsty grin on Ares and the expressionless face of Aragorn.
Like nails on a chalkboard, the atmosphere rippled in agony as the divinity of war tried to overpower Aragorn with his berserk strength—and Aragorn stood her ground with ease. The task of holding her ground against the behemoth of a man Ares was looked positively contrasting with her feminine figure.
"Your ride is here," Aragorn passively commented.
Not even a moment later, Hermes appeared behind Ares and pulled him back. Instants later, an arrow—charged and blessed by moonlight (Artemis) and sunlight (Apollo)—broke the air apart as it flew to Aragorn's face. It shone bright like lightning just before exploding on her face.
The explosion came with no sound but with such a flare of light that even the attackers themselves shielded their eyes.
"Ares, brave forward, don't give her a chance!" Athena, standing next to Ares, blessed him with her divinity of combat and pushed him gently to Hermes.
Hermes carried Ares back into the frying pan and, like a missile, shot Ares into the explosion—aiming for the shrouded-by-light figure of Aragorn.
The moonlight and sunlight burned him, but he cared not. Ares' spear—once more taking point—paved the way for his charging figure.
Ares ran in the air in invisible steps, keeping up with the momentum Hermes' shove gave him.
CLANG
This time, what followed the clash of Ares and Aragorn was not a contest of strength, but the figure of Aragorn flying away from the explosion of light into the cluster of divine lightning previously known as Troy.
All the while Aragorn was flying away from the clash, her eyes were passively observing the Olympians—and they could feel it.
"She allowed herself to fly in that direction," Athena said.
"I can't incite rage in her... I think," Ares said.
"You think?" Athena asked.
"I felt her rage grow, but then it stopped," Ares explained.
"I felt control over all her emotions but love. But like Ares, there's a maximum level of emotion—not enough to interfere with her decision-making," Aphrodite said.
"She doesn't appear in my prophetic sight. I can only see us beaten. And much less can I say of plagues—I can't get her sick because she doesn't even appear alive to my divinity," Apollo said.
"Beaten? Not death?" Zeus asked, his eyes tracing the flying figure of Aragorn.
When Aragorn neared the lightning cluster, he commanded his divinity to raise the magnitude of the lightning's explosive power. Aragorn's figure was swallowed by the plasmatic light of the growing explosion.
"I see we survive this, but I can't see her at all," Apollo explained.
"Aragorn has never appeared in visions of the past or future. We'd better not base our judgment on visions," Athena advised.
"What should we do? She is letting herself be carried by Athena's plan—that doesn't bode well with me," Aphrodite said.
"Poseidon is already awaiting her. We should keep moving with Athena's plan. One more Olympian on our side is never a disadvantage," Zeus said.
The Olympians followed Zeus and flew toward the lightning cluster.
The sound was deafening. Not only was there a cacophony of countless lightning strikes, but the explosions caused by each strike added to its impossible clamor.
Zeus gazed suspiciously at the center of the lightning cluster—then his eyebrows shot upward in alarm. He pointed his arm forward and summoned his Masterbolt.
"What are you doing?" Athena asked. This was not part of her plan.
"She can absorb the natural lightning," Zeus said.
Within the cluster, divine flashes and natural lightning bolts intermingled. Aragorn's absorption had been of the natural type—but what alarmed Zeus was that he felt her move toward his Masterbolt. He wasn't about to find out if she could absorb divine lightning as well.
"Aww, why did you stop it, Zeus? It was quite the feast," Aragorn coquettishly said, as if she had been tasting a succulent treat.
'Aphrodite, what about love? Did you not feel her love?' Athena asked.
'I felt existential fear when I attempted to control it. Last time I couldn't even feel it. I think she is letting me control her emotions just to show me how futile it is,' Aphrodite said.
'You can't fight. You're useless here if you can't even control her love as the Goddess of Love,' Athena said harshly.
'Ah, tomboy Athena is still mad she didn't get my golden apple,' Aphrodite replied.
'Do it!' Athena commanded.
Aphrodite didn't immediately try to manipulate Aragorn's love. She looked at Zeus for a second opinion. Zeus nodded.
Just as she was about to attempt to control Aragorn's love—against her better judgment and instincts—Apollo shouted, "STOP!"
With her hands overextended, aiming at Aragorn, Aphrodite froze. Her body was dripping cold sweat, her heart pounding, her breathing ragged, and her eyes darting in a panic attack. But even in that state, she stopped as soon as Apollo's shout reached her.
'What did you see?' Athena asked. Her wisdom told her that other than a prophetic vision, Apollo would have no reason to stop Aphrodite.
'She dies, or something. I don't know what it was, but she definitely wasn't alive in the vision I saw,' Apollo said, his own heart pounding like Aphrodite's.
"Lustful Goddess, you won't try to steal my heart?" Aragorn's voice reached Aphrodite like a death sentence. No matter how sweet it sounded, to Aphrodite it might as well have been the voice of Moros—the personification of impending doom and the force of fated deaths.
"I-I... t-think I-I'm leaving-g," Aphrodite said, her voice breaking with the pounding of her heart.
"No, you can't leave," Aragorn said. "If you do, I will... love you."
"Hiek! I'll s-s-stay!" Aphrodite shrieked, muffling the sound as best she could at the threat in Aragorn's words.
"Useless!" Athena and Zeus said at the same time.
"S-SHUT UP!" Aphrodite shouted as she flew away—not to escape, but to clear herself from the battlefield.
"Well, that is to be expected from a Titaness. She's got better instincts than you upstarts," Aragorn mocked.
'Ares and I will engage in close-quarter combat. You'll follow Athena's lead. We need to get her to the sea,' Zeus commanded.
With the lightning bolt in hand, Zeus and Ares moved forward—their steps impossibly sounding as they walked on air through Zeus' divinity of the sky.
"AHHHHWRRRRR!" Both divine men shouted a battle cry.
Zeus's Masterbolt clashed first with Aragorn's tail blade.
Aragorn deflected Ares' spear with the back of his wrist.
While maintaining the clash with Zeus' Masterbolt and deflecting Ares' spear, she kicked straight forward on the ample surface of Ares' shield.
The God of War was launched backward, carving a trench in the smoldering grounds of what was left of Troy.
With her lifted leg, she took a powerful step forward, pushing Zeus back but not launching him away. While her tail blade fought for supremacy with the Masterbolt, she twisted her hips and extended her right arm back. With the assistance of her telekinesis, she twisted her right hip forward and drew a sweeping motion with her right hand's claws.
Zeus gave up on the confrontation against her tail blade and arched backward to avoid the sweeping claw attack. Despite his dodge, her claws left five bleeding wounds on his chest, cutting through his divine armor.
"Argh!" Zeus cried in pain.
Just as he was about to fall prey to the second attack of Aragorn's claws, Ares reached him with his shield facing forward.
At the same time as Ares, at the same speed, another moonlit-sunlit arrow came flying just above his head.
"Take cover!" Ares shouted.
Zeus pivoted in a circular motion and took cover behind Ares—just in time to find refuge from the explosion of light.
As the explosion engulfed Aragorn, Hermes made his move.
Hermes was the God of Speed, Travel, Communication, and Thieves. He used the opportunity, while Aragorn was dealing with the explosion, to try and steal an ability from her.
Aragorn felt the pull from inside the explosion and couldn't help but shake her head mockingly and let it happen.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!" Hermes fell from up high to the ground. When the Olympians turned to him, they saw him kneeling on the ground, bleeding from all orifices, his body spasming.
What his divinity tried to steal was the most 'natural' ability of Aragorn. It could not have been her void energy. The abilities of her body were not 'abilities' that could be targeted by Hermes' divinity, so it defaulted to her Psionic Nexus.
Could a deity who was barely at the level of power of an omega mutant handle a Psionic Nexus of at least the universal level?
And that was only the part limited to this current Self. The Psionic Nexus, like his soul, was something that all Selves shared, so when Aragorn allowed Hermes to tap into it, Hermes also tapped into the Nexus of the Self outside the Multiversal Barrier of Marvel and the Self travelling through the Void.
Obviously, Hermes was in no way equipped to handle this, and his divinity reached the same conclusion—if only a tad bit later than necessary to protect its wielder from sensorial informational overload.
Unlike on Earth-5H1N3, Aragorn kept her psionic field running free on this Earth, so at all times, her mind was collecting information and adding it to the Grand Repository of Knowledge. Not thoughts, but raw information about what her psionic field came in contact with. The poor god was taken as the end terminal of this information, and suddenly all the data Aragorn usually processed automatically was filtered through Hermes.
"That was a terrible idea. One less," Aragorn's voice unnaturally reached the Olympians, who were shocked to see Hermes collapse.
Under the growing anxious eyes of the deities, they watched as Hermes' unconscious body flew to where Aphrodite had taken refuge.
They were not idiots... They were not that idiotic to not understand the meaning of that. It meant Aragorn had been using only her body to attack and defend—not her long-range abilities.
Aphrodite, her heart still pounding, sweating hands, and contracted pupils, opened her arms to receive the unconscious Hermes flying her way.
When her eyes landed on the white eyes of Hermes, bloodied tears streaming non-stop down his face, his mouth open in a frozen cry of anguish, she didn't know what to do.
"This is why I told you to behave," a calm voice came from behind her, the sound of soft steps accompanying it.
"Hestia, can you do something?" Aphrodite asked. She recognized the voice in an instant.
"You are always fighting each other, and now you start to care about the fate of your fellow Olympians?" Hestia asked. "Maybe I should have asked Aragorn to rough you up a long time ago."
Even while reproachful, her words carried warmth. Hestia kneeled next to Aphrodite and Hermes and held a warm flame to his bleeding body.
"His mind was damaged. It'll take some time to fix," Hestia said, lifting her eyes to Aphrodite. "You also need healing."
"No, I was not attacked. This is just dread—I felt like I almost died a million times," Aphrodite commented with a faltering smile that only served to make Hestia wince.
"No, Aphrodite. Your soul was harmed." Hestia created another flame and floated it forward to Aphrodite's chest.
"My soul?" Aphrodite asked, panic seeping into her voice—more than there already was in it.
"I think she did it as a warning," Hestia said. The flame brought a sense of comfort Aphrodite didn't know was missing.
"Aragorn? I thought she was not attacking us, only reacting," Aphrodite commented.
In the distance, they saw Zeus fly from a strike into the sea, and Ares soon followed.
"At least you had the mind to notice that, but no, I meant Lady Death," Hestia pointedly looked to the other side of Aphrodite.
As if fear itself had gripped her heart, Aphrodite robotically turned to look at where Hestia was pointing. There, not too far, not too close from her, was a woman sharing draconic features with Aragorn, except her theme was darkness.
Her face, as she followed every move of Aragorn while he mowed the floor with the Olympians, was enthralled in an emotion Aphrodite couldn't mistake: obsessive, possessive, desperate, needy, disgusting, and beautiful love.
"My Love was right, it's as if someone was creating your siblings and after the eleventh, they said, "I think I created too much excrement, I feel filthy with myself, maybe I should try my best to create something else, let's switch thematics and go with good instead of filth. Ah! I know, let's create Hestia!" Your soul is just like the type My Love likes," Death said all of this in a monotone voice without turning away from Aragorn.
"Thank you, my lady. I'm grateful for the compliment and for sparing Aphrodite's life," Hestia said with a bow.
All the while, Aphrodite was stuck solid, like one of Medusa's statues.
"It's fine, she didn't cross the line. And to be honest, I don't know if I spared her life or if My Love did," Death said. "You see, My Love takes care of that emotion zealously."
Hestia nodded. She turned to Hermes, who needed her full attention.
On the battlefield, Aragorn kicked Athena as if taking a penalty shot in football (soccer). The kick caved in her ribcage, burst her organs, and broke her spine before sending her flying to the sea.
On the sea, a hand-shaped body of water received her, breaking away some of her momentum.
"Heal her, I'll heal through battle," Ares told Apollo, who was healing his mangled body.
Apollo didn't need to be told twice. He rushed to Athena and began using his divinity to heal her.
"She i-is co-ming!" Athena said through her teeth as Apollo's healing snapped her spine back into one piece.
"I'm just missing Hades, am I not?" Aragorn said, her honeyed voice making the Olympians shiver. "But well, Hades harmed no mortals—maybe Persephone, but she is no mortal. He and Hestia are the only deities in your pantheon who are professional. What a total disappointment you are, only two out of I don't know how many. Three if we include Demeter—then again, her tantrums tend to fuck with the mortals."
"Don't use the mortals as an excuse. You hated us from the start!" Zeus shouted, his regal attire bloodied and divine armor broken, as were the others'.
"Zeus, tell me someone aside from Hestia who would not take the shot should they have the chance to end you?" Aragorn questioned, his eyes not on Zeus but on the sea.
"We were used," Athena said, catching her breath after Apollo was done fixing her.
Her statement was not argumentative. It was one of realization. She had just connected the dots.
The hostility of her pantheon toward Aragorn was there since before they met him/her. After some thought, she also realized how Aragorn was avoiding them. He found Medusa specifically at the furthest end of what they considered their territory—a place where, to that point, no one had died, so Aragorn had no reason for knowing Medusa was there.
It was after meeting Medusa and her that Aragorn began to move inside their lands, Athena realized.
"Used?" Zeus asked.
"The Little Owl realized it? All other pantheons knew, by the way. That's why they've been keeping at bay from you, Cronus' children," Aragorn revealed.
And that revelation was the clue Athena needed to know who was using them. The only pantheon with which they interacted.
"Odin used us to test you?" Athena asked.
"Yes, but don't blame the kid for all of it. I would eventually become more active around what you call your lands, and with how egotistical and proud you are, you would not have tolerated my presence for long, and this," Aragorn pointed at the destruction around them, "would have been the same result. I just chose to get it over with now, while also sending a warning to Odin," Aragorn looked above.
She pointed with her hand, her fingers stretched, then clenched violently and pulled with all of her body.
From Asgard, Odin was pulled and brought while ignoring distance. His body, armored and Gungnir in hand, appeared and followed Aragorn's motion and fell like a meteor next to the Olympians.
BOOM!
Odin should have been able to avoid this movement because, as Aragorn and Gaea had once said, it should not have been fast enough.
But a combination of Aragorn's growth after he became the Abstract of Paradoxical Existence and the dread Odin felt when his eyes crossed with Aragorn's granted her the chance to pull him from Asgard.
The addition of another helper granted the battered Olympians no peace of heart. It was not because they realized that Odin had been manipulating them and that hurt their pride. It was because, after seeing Aragorn pull him out of the 'safety' of his realm, they understood this was not a hunt—they were never hunting Aragorn.
It was a beating.
An adult versus a handful of children.
"I've been discussing with my Selves whether to warn you or not. I decided to spare my secretary the work and to honor the wish of my Fluff to not engage in divine war with Asgard. Hence, I'll warn you now, and maybe that shall prevent a future headache, Odin," Aragorn said.
"This is your definition of warning?" Odin coughed out water as he used his divinity to emerge from the sea.
"Yes, because you'll make it out of it alive. That's how it works with children, right?" Aragorn asked.
"Children?" Artemis asked.
"You virgin manhater wouldn't know, but when a child is learning, pain is often a good teacher. The mother tells the child not to go near the warm fire keeping their abode comfortable. The child goes near it anyway and an ember burns them. The child cries, sure, but at the same time, a trauma occurs in their developing minds regarding fire. I plan to instill that trauma now, before you grow too old to learn anything new," Aragorn smiled motherly.
But that's where the trouble began. That smile... that damned smile. The Olympians bristled, their minds panicked, and their hearts throttled like racehorses on steroids.
"Don't risk your lives on her words, attack to kill!" Odin shouted.
"They shouldn't risk their lives on my words, but it's alright if they are yours?" Aragorn said.
Odin poised his Gungnir at Aragorn, channeled the Odinforce of his realm and divinity, and two things happened. The first was a yellow ray being shot from the tip of his spear, and the second was that the current Guardian of the Bifrost Bridge dropped the Bifrost on Aragorn.
Gungnir's shot was enhanced by Artemis to never miss—just like any long-range attacks had been so far—so it flew true to Aragorn's face—specifically her third eye. Odin figured it looked important enough.
Aragorn had been fighting all along with an invisible void barrier curtaining her body, so the shot did as much damage as any of the Olympians' previous attacks.
As for the Bifrost, Aragorn could have opened an Astral Path and returned the attack, or she could have turned it against them. Instead, she manipulated the space-time mesh, and the falling rainbow pillar of Yggdrasil's energy curved to miss the planet's surface while flying away into space.
"That was useless," Aragorn said. "Like your resistance to my teachings."
Artemis and Apollo, both with divine bows at hand, turned into Phalanx CIWS's. They were shooting divine arrows so fast their fingers were bleeding nonstop. Aragorn was tanking each shot as if they were cotton candy.
Zeus, Ares, and Odin attacked in close quarters. Aragorn made a grabbing motion, and two devices appeared in her hands.
"I have no divine weaponry to my name, but I have these," Aragorn said, before activating her weapons.
Ffffkrrrrshhzzzwooooom...woom...woooom
Two white lightsabers came online.
CLANGSHHHH
Gungnir and one white blade locked in. Odin immediately saw how his Uru spear, forged with the fire of a neutron star at about ten million kelvin, began melting almost immediately upon contact. He had to channel his Odinforce through the spear and onto it to protect it.
Initially, these lightsabers were not over a thousand times hotter than the surface of the Sun, but over time, while he was in the Carboniferous period, Aragorn got bored and decided to pick up and upgrade some of his tech.
Her other lightsaber parried Zeus' Masterbolt to the left, and then with her tail blade, she parried Ares' spear to cross and collide with the Masterbolt.
"AGHZZZZ!" Ares shouted as he got electrified by divine lightning.
He had to jump back and drag himself to Apollo for immediate healing.
With her tail blade now free, Aragorn began to swing it erratically at Zeus and Odin. Her lightsabers kept their weapons occupied, and her unnatural ability of ignoring distance made it impossible for both GodKings to pull away.
And as more surface-level cuts began to appear over both gods, they began to wonder why none of the cuts went deeper. The answer followed.
"[Laceratio]" Following her casting, all the surface-level cuts began to grow larger and tear deeper.
"AGHHHHH!" Zeus—unlike Odin—couldn't keep the pain back and fell to the ground, channeling his divinity to forcibly close the wounds. Yet, it served no purpose. The wounds couldn't be closed and couldn't be stopped from growing larger and deeper.
"You have 2 minutes before the tears reach your bones in your limbs, 3 for your organs," Aragorn commented offhandedly while handling Odin's increasing flurry of attacks.
That's when it happened—the attack that Poseidon had been loading since the beginning. Massive walls of water began growing all around the horizon. These walls were composed of horses made of water, galloping fiercely to the battleground.
Phobos and Deimos—sons of Ares—were seen riding two of these horses.
"FATHER!" Phobos shouted, divinity allowing the message to reach Ares despite the distance.
"We brought everyone useful!" Deimos yelled.
Triton—son of Poseidon—was riding another of these horses, blowing on a conch to stir and enhance the apocalyptic waves.
Helios—Titan of the Sun—rode a golden chariot, making his way ahead to reach Apollo and help him enhance his power.
Selene—Titaness of the Moon—rode a silver chariot next to Helios. Like Helios, she was aiming to assist Artemis.
The walls of water reached the clouds and moved with enough speed to create pressure within the enclosure. Aragorn observed all of this passively.
"No flying," Zeus declared through gritted teeth. He used his authority over the sky to deny Aragorn the chance of flying away.
Aragorn, who so far had been standing on the surface of the sea, said, "You do know I can open portals, right?"
Odin wasted no time and used dark magic to lock space around them. Massive dark red magic circles appeared around him. Hecate—a chthonic deity of the Olympian Underworld—Goddess of Magic, used her divinity to enhance Odin's magic from her realm.
Although Hecate—and other chthonic deities—was a combatant, like those deities of the Drachantheon Therion affiliated with dimensional realms, she couldn't step past the dimension shield Agamotto left behind.
"How ingenious," Aragorn commented. She had taken a look at the magic circles and used her eyes to peer through the magic flow in Odin, effectively copying his magic. So, her comment was not a compliment about sealing space—Odin's dark magic wasn't enough to seal an Astral Path should she choose to open one—her comment was a compliment for whoever was the creator of the spell.
Athena, who had been the commander so far, wasn't just shouting orders up to this point. She also coordinated with the other Olympians who were supporting them from Olympus by enhancing their attacks or granting blessings when needed.
For example, she instructed Hera on when to cast enhancements on Artemis and when to focus on Zeus' authority over the sky.
She was also coordinating all of the boosting and healing-type deities to either boost Ares or his attacks, depending on when the most damage could be made or healing was needed.
She had Nike—Goddess of Victory—and Tyche—Goddess of Fortune and Luck—bleeding their blessings out as if they were Black Friday merchandise. Athena also had Harmonia—daughter of Ares and Aphrodite—using her divinity of harmony and concord to ensure their fighting compatibility and attacks didn't clash against one another. That's why divinities of the Moon and Sun could seamlessly meld.
"You're just giving me more Olympians to impart my teachings on," Aragorn said.
Zeus—while his wounds were still enlarging—jumped back into the fray. Ares—now supported by his sons—began to siege Aragorn with attacks coming from all around her.
Odin—under the influence of the blessings of half of Olympus and the Underworld—was fighting with the Olympians as if they had been battle comrades for eons.
But Aragorn, although she considered herself a caster, due to the way her mind, soul, and body operated, could learn any fighting style she observed. With telekinesis, a nigh-indestructible body, her eyes allowing her to see whatever she wanted, like herself from multiple angles and different POVs, and her mind processing information at unthinkable speed, she was both the puppet and the puppeteer.
She could see attacks coming from the left, right, back, and below, and know which limb would be more effective for defending, parrying, or counterattacking.
She could see her supposed own blind spots. She could feint a blind spot to have her enemies fall into a disadvantage. Unlike any martial artists—whose movements are born from their feet—she didn't need her feet's support to exert force; she used her telekinesis.
In fact, she didn't need gravity, or the friction of her soles with the ground—or water surface in this case—to move. She only needed her telekinesis and will to move to create forces and counterforces.
So, even with Deimos and Phobos joining the fight, she could still dedicate one arm to Zeus and Odin, a tail to Ares, and her legs to the newcomers, because she didn't need her legs for support.
There was no logical extrapolation to be done based on her body's 'tells.' For example, she didn't need to pull back an arm to attack. She could punch forward with the same power whether she pulled back her fist and used her hips and torso to add weight to the punch, or simply jabbed forward. And this made it impossible for her opponents to read where the next attack would come from.
"It should be apparent that there's no positive outcome in this fight for them. Why are they still fighting?" Hestia asked. She had finished healing Hermes, but he remained unconscious.
"It's like she is dancing, or like an erratic spinning top, and they are doing their best and failing to predict where the next hit is coming from and where to hit," Aphrodite commented.
"And this is My Love keeping her humanoid form," Death commented. Her voice made Aphrodite jolt and let out an involuntary shriek.
"You mean to imply she can morph into other forms, my lady?" Hestia asked. Hestia was a dutiful goddess, she remained in Olympus taking care of her flame at most—if not at all—times, so was not aware Aragorn could shapeshift into a dragon.
"Yeah, this is not even My Love's combat humanoid form. She is limiting herself to two arms and no tentacles, and she is not wielding her hair. Also, should she choose her dragon form, then some of them might have already keeled over in despair," Death replied.
Aphrodite was numb to this information. She knew—ever since she laid eyes on Death—that this fight was utterly futile.
Hestia couldn't help but ask again, "Why are they being so stubborn?"
"My Love is reflecting the emotional manipulation that the empath deities are casting on her," Death said.
"I thought Ares understood it was fruitless," Aphrodite murmured timidly.
"Phobos, Deimos, and the other deities I can't see but that are assisting from Olympus or your Underworld probably can't do else but hope that their efforts wear My Love down. They mistakenly believe it is a matter of attrition, when in reality My Love is at the same peak condition as during the start of the battle.
"She is also enjoying herself—no matter how much she claims to be a caster instead of a brawler—so she is using her empathy to keep their spirits high and stubborn in response to the attempts at emotional manipulation," Death explained.
As the Olympians continued their Sisyphean task, the massive walls of galloping water horses arrived.
Poseidon emerged from underwater and blessed the deities to tread underwater as they did the surface, and when the last deity was blessed, the walls of water fell upon them all.
The deities ran desperately through the water as they would on the ground and escaped the massive aquatic enclosure. Once outside, Zeus poured all the divinity he had left into his Masterbolt and rained down a pillar of yellow lightning on the water enclosure.
Poseidon raised his trident, as did his son, and both began to compress the incompressible liquid. Apollo and Artemis, assisted by Helios and Selene, put their all into one last arrow. The arrow turned completely into a conceptual energy-form attack. It shone with such brightness that the atmosphere nearby was being eroded by the photons.
Made to never miss by Artemis, the arrow ignored the water in its way and found its intended target. Aragorn saw it coming with a smile. "Finally, one good attack," she said.
Odin commanded the Bifrost to be shot again, and the rainbow pillar descended onto the shrinking blob of water.
From Olympus, and even Asgard, blessings rained down on the attacks.
All the attacks and the body of water began to meld and fuse. Under the divinity loaded into the attacks, and the wishes and desires of so many deities—even those from other pantheons following the fight from their realms—the water began a transformation from matter to energy. This energy began to be polluted by the divinity of Zeus, Apollo, and Artemis' attack and started to turn conceptual. The dimensional energy of Yggdrasil in the Bifrost added the final push needed.
And so, what initially was a prison of water being bombarded by multiple attacks, under the authority of so many divinities, became a [Mortal Entrapment]—a purple sphere glowing dangerously while expanding, contracting, and changing forms like ferrofluid under an electromagnetic field.
The energetic discharge was such that the Eternals—who were almost a hemisphere away—detected it. In a rush, thinking that humanity was about to end, they made their way to the Aegean Sea on the Domo only to see the last part of the fight.
"Stupids," Druig said.
"Foolish," Thena said.
"Idiots," Gilgamesh said.
"Pitiful," Sersi said, looking away from the Olympians as if they were tragic victims of a fire and were now going through burn wound debridement. {A/N: When they remove necrotic tissue (skin) without anesthesia.}
"Marvelous!" Phastos commented, his tech and equipment collecting as many samples as possible of the transformation of matter→energy→concept.
'Ignorants,' Makkari signed.
"You've gotta give it to them, they have guts!" Kingo said.
"Or maybe they lack brains," Sprite added.
"Will this attract Deviants?" Ikaris asked.
"There aren't any humans left in the area, so it won't be a problem even if it does," Ajak replied after reading the results of the scans from the Domo.
The Domo flew to where they located Death, and the Eternals descended to join her to watch the spectacle.
"Mistress," Ajak said with a respectful curtsy.
"Ajak, did My Love's game interrupt your work?" Death asked.
"We were concerned for the humans of this hemisphere, but it appears it was an unwarranted concern," Ajak said.
The Eternals—amazed and curious—Hestia—curious and intrigued—Aphrodite—about to suffer from a divine heart attack—and Death—enthralled by the visage of her loved one that only she could see—paused to observe how barriers—almost translucent—of void began to grow around the [Mortal Entrapment].
The [Mortal Entrapment] compressed once more before exploding into the expy of a supernova.
The light was enough to burn everything in its path and to boil the sea below where the [Mortal Entrapment] stood.
The deities—aside from Apollo and Helios—blistered and their hair caught fire. They all sought the water instinctively, only to jump out after boiling in it.
Burning by solar radiation or boiling in water were the only options they had, since Odin had sealed space and Zeus the sky, so they couldn't flee.
Then, with a rumble that shook the waters, air, and coasts—what remained of them—Aragorn, in her draconic form, roared.
Her roar, laced with void, cleared away what remained of the temporary supernova.
Odin immediately lifted the space lock, and Zeus recalled his authority over the sky. It was time to flee.
The terror inflicted on them by the presence that leaked from Aragorn dispelled any influence in their minds and broke any pride.
But Aragorn didn't allow it. She grabbed them all with her telekinesis, and no matter how much they fought, they couldn't oppose it.
"For the Olympians, their childhood trauma should do for punishment," Aragorn stated, and then opened her maw wide.
One by one, the Olympians were swallowed.
"NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" They all pleaded, cried, shouted, howled, or simply went into shock. Regardless, all of them—even the ones who assisted from Olympus or the Underworld—were swallowed into Aragorn's stomach dimension.
"For the Asgardian, an eye, and the confiscation of the Bifrost." With a pulling motion, Odin's eye was ripped away.
"AAGHHHH!" Odin cried. He reached for his floating eye, trying to grab it, but Aragorn disappeared it into her storage.
And with the sway of her tail, the Bifrost was space-locked. Now Odin had no choice but to find his way to Asgard via old passages or dark magic.
"For the other pantheons, only a warning for now," her eyes looked in the direction of the other pantheons, her voice reaching their minds and ears despite the barrier of distance and obstacles. "Know that ignorance or stupidity is no more an excuse to do as you please on my planet. Know that humanity belongs to me, and that my magnanimous self is allowing you to mingle with them. Know that I hold mortal humanity in higher regard than immortal divinity. Know that there'll be no more warnings, and understand that this is a threat."
From under the sea, at the exact location the [Mortal Entrapment] had been, a tall wall of Dragon Ore emerged. The SoulSelf—the Self fused with the planet—had it prepared years ago and was now pushing out through the sea floor. On the wall, there was a depiction of what had happened, just like Aragorn had done when he received a sacrifice or when a mortal tried to tax him millennia ago.
With that announcement taken care of, she turned to where Death and the others were. Her form shifted back to humanoid form, but this time it was Aragorn's male form.
(I made this last one as a joke, I tried to give the attire of the female form to the male form, and it came out strange, but oh well!)
He ignored distance and appeared hugging Death from behind, sinking his face in the nook of her neck and planting kisses with a signature soft bite. He said, "You should have told me you were gonna visit, Noona. I would have included you in the plans so that you had a shot in their teachings."
"~Hehehehe!" Death chuckled, squirming under the warm feeling of Aragorn's affection. "I don't think they would have survived me. I lack the finesse and control you have with pulling punches, My Love."
Aphrodite's heart was beating hard and pumping divine blood. Her body returned to a state of panic upon hearing the couple's comments. She was still wondering why she had not been eaten like the rest.
"Could I inquire about the future of my siblings?" Hestia asked. Aphrodite glared at her, wondering what was wrong with Hestia's mind and what gave her the courage to interrupt the couple of primordial monsters in their frolicking.
"Ah, hello Lady Hestia. Nice to meet you," Aragorn said.
Contrary to what Aphrodite expected, Aragorn addressed Hestia while following a form of neutral etiquette. The difference in treatment between them and Hestia left her shocked—more so at how different Aragorn's demeanor was in his male form than in her female form.
"I find myself fortunate to meet you, Achíla. I wish it were under different circumstances," Hestia replied.
Aragorn's gaze landed on the Eternals, and he waved at them. They nodded in response.
"Concerning your siblings, I'll imprison them for the rest of the millennium at least. I'll release them later," Aragorn replied.
"The millennium?" Hestia asked, with a confused expression.
"Ah, right! We don't follow the same calendar conventions," Aragorn said. "Give or take 200 years—Oh! I'll also steal Aphrodite for a while." His gaze landed on the Titaness.
"HIEK!" Aphrodite shrieked and passed out. She didn't fall to the ground though; Makkari sped to her side and caught her.
"Thank you, Makkari," Aragorn said.
'Instinct,' Makkari said in her mind.
"Allow me, dear," Hestia said and took Aphrodite from Makkari's hands. Then she laid her next to Hermes.
"What about Hermes and the rest?" Hestia asked.
"Same as with Aphrodite. In reality, you as well. The Drachantheon Therion lacks some divine fields that you guys have, while we also share some. My Queen Goddess asked to borrow a few of you for something like an exchange—except no Therion will be going to Olympus," Aragorn explained.
"I understand. I find no problem in that. I'm personally quite curious about what dwells behind those two walls," Hestia said.
Aragorn coordinated a few remaining issues with Hestia, and then she returned to Olympus to get on the deities that didn't participate in the battle—the ones not sealed in his stomach—on the program.
Then they—he and Death—spoke with the Eternals for a few hours. They hadn't seen each other for a few centuries—a short while by their standards—and were interested in sharing stories, something that had become a tradition between them.
Druig asked for a refill of his supply of hydromel. He had taken a liking to the Halo Hydromel over the local varieties.
"Are you sure you can't tell me how it's made?" Druig asked. He wanted to be able to make his own Haloan Hydromel.
"I told you, it can't be made without a fabricator. You should wait until Phastos creates his own version," Aragorn explained with a chuckle.
"That guy—ever since he started receiving commissions from the Imperium, he began giving priority ratings to his tasks. Sadly, my hydromel is at the lowest level. I'll have to wait like 800 years or something," Druig dramatically lamented.
Phastos was eager to exchange tech with Aragorn. Since Phastos didn't need to worry about the interference his tech would have with Aragorn or the Imperium, he was hired for commissions by the Imperium to optimize tech.
The Imperium would then work on this optimized tech and send their findings back, creating a feedback loop of progress between them and Phastos.
"Is this the new smart textile? Sadly, I've hit a wall in certain aspects due to the lack of my own kaiju spider to work with. Are you sure I can't get a specimen?" Phastos asked. Eagerness—with a certain amount of fixation—could be heard in his tone.
"Those are protected as patrimony of the Duskari. The spider-chans can't exit the Imperium. They are even treated as military assets due to their silk. They have a protective detail entirely composed of the ShadowClad. There's no way you're getting your hands on one of them outside the Imperium," Aragorn said, shaking his head.
"Tch!" Phastos clicked his tongue like a child.
Thena was eager to spar with Aragorn, especially after she had been shown the memory of the fight. She fell in love with the lightsabers at first sight, so Aragorn shared with Phastos the first design he made for his lightsabers. He would later create his version inspired by it and craft a lightsaber—or two—for Thena.
"Could these be used as arrowheads?" Thena pondered.
"Possibly, but such expensive arrowheads better be used to take down a spaceship or something of that caliber," Aragorn said. He had a twitching smile after hearing about the exorbitant uses Thena was considering for the lightsaber tech.
Gilgamesh was happy to share recipes with Death. She had taken to cooking in the past, with a focus on desserts and a specialization in flans.
"This is called a chocoflan, or the Impossible Cake. It's a Mexican dessert—Ah! Mexico is one of the nations that will be created in North America," Death explained.
"Impossible cake? I hear a challenge in the name," Gilgamesh said.
"Yes, how is your chocolate cake baking practice coming along?" Death asked.
"It's hard to practice because there's no chocolate outside your continent, so I can only work with the little tree I planted inside the Domo," Gilgamesh confessed.
"Mmm... Okay, I'll lend you some of my stash of processed cacao. It should last you a couple of years fresh in storage," Death said after a moment of thought.
"Thank you, Mistress," Gilgamesh smiled gratefully.
As was tradition, Aragorn treated Sprite like a child, and this one tried to retaliate.
"Stop petting my head!" Sprite yelled.
"Come on, act cute!" Aragorn said with a shit-eating grin.
"Agh! I hate you! Kingo! Help me!" Sprite began running around Aragorn, throwing kicks and punches here and there—mostly aimed at his crotch, although he usually morphed away his reproductive organs when not in use, so her attempts were only comical.
"Hahaha! I'll help!" Kingo shouted as he aimed and shot at Aragorn from a distance, assisting Sprite.
To anyone else, it might appear like a mortal battle; to them, it was the equivalent of laser tag.
Sersi was one who couldn't help but bicker with Aragorn every time they met. This time, she was mad about the death toll that his 'game' had brought upon humanity, but she relented when Aragorn explained that they were already killing each other and that his interference with the Olympians should improve living conditions for humanity for the next millennium.
"Right, and you couldn't have done anything else to prevent more deaths?" Sersi narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously.
"Technically, I prevented a lot of deaths," Aragorn said.
"Explain," Sersi said with a huff.
No one would catch him saying it, but Aragorn had grown to find Sersi's softness comical and somewhat cute. It reminded him of Jean before he corrupted her. Jean was still softhearted, but not as much as in the beginning—or as much as Sersi.
"So, the city was going to get sacked. Women were going to be taken as war trophies, slaves, or left to die in a fallen city. The children of the warrior class would have been killed—possibly thrown out from their walls—to prevent vengeance.
"The men would have all been killed or taken as slaves; undoubtedly, far fewer men than women would have survived. Then, the Aegean ships, carrying loads of slaves and warriors returning to their kingdoms, would have been attacked by Poseidon, which meant even fewer would have survived.
"But under my interference, most women, children, and the old—at least those with pure or good souls—were kidnapped and moved to the northwest. And the men, the civilians—those with good souls, obviously—were included in the package deal.
"If initially 80 out of 100 were supposed to die, after my intervention, 50 died and 50 disappeared out of 100 due to my kidnapping. See? I'm quite the benevolent dragon, right?" Aragorn preened.
Sersi was focused on the fact that he could have saved 100, but Ikaris intervened.
"Sersi, you know they are their greatest enemy and ally. It's not fair to expect Aragorn—or us—to fix all of their problems," Ikaris said while rubbing her back.
"I understand, but you know I just can't help but think of the ones who had their lives ahead of themselves and lost all that possibility," Sersi said. "I'm sorry, Aragorn. I know I should not place my personal expectations on you. It's selfish," she apologized.
"It's alright. Jean was just as softhearted as you. This is nothing different. If it makes you feel better, I blame the deities for all of this," Aragorn said.
Ikaris was mostly to thank for Sersi's capitulations. He had gotten used to calming his girlfriend whenever Aragorn set her off. Aragorn was thankful for this and gave him a special ticket. Ikaris coughed awkwardly when he read the inscription on the ticket.
Makkari later joined Gilgamesh and Death in their culinary exchange. She and Thena were his designated testers.
"Thank you for dealing with the problem of the deities, Aragorn," Ajak said. She and Aragorn were sitting by the side, enjoying some of the chocoflan Death, Gilgamesh, and Makkari had cooked in the Domo.
"Oh, were they getting in your way too?" Aragorn asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Not exactly. Deviants can be deadly to them, so they stayed clear of our way. But you know how my children can be—especially Druig, Sersi, Phastos, and Makkari. They had difficulties staying their hands when they saw the cruelties firsthand," Ajak said with a downcast look.
"Oh, so you guys spent some time here, in the Olympians' lands?" Aragorn asked.
"Mhmm," Ajak nodded. "That's why we left as soon as we finished our work. Had we stayed longer, maybe this battle would have been waged by us," Ajak said.
"I see. Don't worry. Like I said, dealing with them would have happened whether I had taken my pettiness out on them or not," Aragorn commented.
"Thanks, anyway," Ajak said before taking another bite of her chocoflan. "Mmmm, this is delicious. Do you always eat like this?"
"Food in the Imperium can be lavish, yes, but you could say that flan is one of the Therion's specialties," Aragorn said with a chuckle.
"Flan?" Ajak asked.
"My daughter, Seraph, loves flan. So we, Noona and I, worked hard to perfect our flan-craft—hence most things related to flan are this delicious. After millennia of it, the rest of the Therions picked up the tradition," Aragorn said.
"I would love to meet Seraph. You and Mistress always speak with eyes filled with love when it's about her," Ajak said.
"She's busy with her Star System, so I don't know if she'll have the time to drop by, but in a few millennia—when you guys finish with the whole Deviant ordeal—you can definitely visit the Imperium," Aragorn said.
It wasn't until later that night that Hestia contacted Aragorn to inform him that they were ready to follow him to their new temporary residencies.
Like that, the day that Troy fell ended.
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OC Character Sheet #6
Elyseas Dracosnisfilia
Race: Homobestialis Magicae Faebornis.
Beast: Fae/Elf.
Tails: N/A.
Ears: Elven.
Hair: White.
Eyes: Aquamarine.
Affinity: Light and Nature.
Divinity: Goddess of Stories and Music.
Background:
Elyseas is the only child of a family of two. Her mother died shortly after her birth. Her father, Alysees, raised her while also fulfilling his duties as the clan leader.
Elyseas, like Elara, didn't inherit a last name from her father. Elves, instead of sharing last names, tend to name their offspring with an anagram of one or both parents' names.
Elyseas, like Elara, was one of the concubines sent to Aragorn to strengthen their bonds with their overlord.
Her clan was one of the descendants from the kingdom of elves that perished due to a combination of Morgan le Fay's mute curse—a deadly curse for a magical species that used chant magic—and an interspecies war in Otherworld.
Elyseas is one of the oldest members of the Drachantheon Therion. Leaving aside Aragorn—who can't reliably calculate his own age—Gaea, who is about as old as Earth (4.53 billion years), and Death, who is as old as the Seventh Cosmos (13.8 billion years), Elyseas is the fourth oldest, being 1,863 years old by the time she joined Aragorn.
Elves, like faeries, are virtually immortal. As long as they are not killed, they can continue to exist indefinitely, provided they find sustenance. Their physical appearance freezes at its prime after 10,000 years.
Like all immortal species, their natality rate is abysmally low. With the need to wait about 7,000 years to reach sexual fertility, elves—along with faeries—are among the rarest minorities from Otherworld.
Elyseas, unlike the rest of her species, reached physical maturity and sexual fertility after Aragorn evolved her. He also removed her species' innate weakness to iron.
Personality:
Elyseas used to be a cheerful and calm elf. This didn't take away from her the joy of joining her sister maids in causing trouble for Aragorn.
She was a glass-half-full type of person.
This all changed when she was deciding which divine field to specialize in and Aragorn suggested music. Initially, she declined, as her culture forbade singing. However, after Aragorn explained to her that she had been a victim of indoctrination and had no reason to feel grateful to Morgan le Fay, Elyseas turned sarcastic and slightly vengeful.
Traits and Quirks:
Elyseas is the only deity of the Drachantheon Therion with divine fields not directly related to combat who nevertheless specialized her divinities for combat.
Her stories can become thought-form creations that fight alongside her until destruction. Her music can cast an assortment of curses, debuffs, buffs, sonic attacks—perfected with Natalia's (the Goddess of Sound and Silence) help—and auditory hallucinations that pair well with her psionics.
Aside from her divinity's offensive capabilities, Elyseas is also the biggest star in the Pop industry of the Imperium and has been uncontested for the past two eras.
Elyseas has been in charge of the music for every sword dance battle between Elara and Aragorn.
She is also one of the main figures behind the industries of movies, series, animated shows, manga, anime, games, and virtually every other medium that exists thanks to the telling of stories.
Elyseas, like most of her species, is bisexual. However, for elves, there is no such thing as heterosexual, bisexual, or homosexual. For them, there is reproductive sex and non-reproductive sex. While some may only engage in non-reproductive sex with the opposite gender, there is no term for this tendency—just as humans have no term for a preference for ice cream over cake or vice versa.
This isn't because their culture is made of enlightened individuals, but because their abysmal natality rate and immortal lives have twisted some of their basic reproductive nuances.
Dislikes:
She hates Morgan le Fay.
She dislikes that her species refuses to sing, even after she explained the truth behind their tradition.
The church, because she was on Earth during the witch hunts, and her clan was forced back into Otherworld when they sought refuge on Earth.
Selene, whom she blames for Aragorn's first death.
Believers and Territory:
Elyseas' star system is named Yesseal, an anagram of her name, because she said it shall be like her child until she has one of her own.
The star is an ultra-cool red dwarf type, roughly the size of Jupiter, and only about 0.05% as luminous as the Sun—making it a dim star.
Seven Earth-type planets, tightly packed, orbit the red dwarf. They are so tightly packed that all would fit within the orbit of Mercury in the Solar System.
Due to the configuration of these orbits, the planets are visible from one another as bright disks larger than Earth's Moon. They are gravitationally tuned—in a chain of near resonances—meaning their orbital periods are interlocked.
All planets are likely tidally locked—one side always faces the star, and the other remains in darkness. This creates extreme day and night sides, with only a habitable twilight zone in between—on the surface, at least.
Most of Elyseas' believers' civilization is built underground, featuring specially designed light tunnels made with mirrors and fiber optics to channel light from the bright side to the underground.
The planets of Yesseal are among the few that didn't require terraformation but instead demanded high planetary redesigning.
The seven planets and the star itself were artificially modified—by magic and technology—so their radio-wave emissions could sing to Elyseas' tune. She designed it this way so that, should it ever be invaded, her music could reach the enemy's ears even through the vacuum of space.
Elyseas' believers are closely interconnected with Elara's, given the obvious symbiotic relationship between Arts, Music, and Stories. In the Imperium, it's almost certain that if a Duskari worships Elyseas, they also worship Elara.
As expected, most of Elyseas' believers work in the entertainment industry. However, due to her divine field of stories—and the need for religion to tell the 'story' of their deities—almost all production of Divinicom copies of the Drachantheon Therion is overseen by her believers, regardless of the church it goes to.
Aspirations:
Punishing Morgan le Fay.
Starting her own family.
Repaying the unpayable debt she feels toward Aragorn.
Breaking her species out of their psychological and social cage and having them join her in singing.
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{A/N:
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}