At the wound Aglaea had slashed open, dense muscle tissue immediately began to regenerate, resembling the severed end of a lotus root. These muscular strands connected the severed halves of Vic's body, seemingly attempting to fuse the fractured halves back together.
Simultaneously, Vic's upper and lower halves became entangled in a dense web of Golden Threads, forcefully pulling in opposite directions. After a brief moment of stalemate, Aglaea swiftly turned and slashed again, severing the regenerating muscle tissue. The two halves of Vic's body were flung in opposite directions.
Helena finally arrived, landing with a thud. Her first words were, "Amazing!"
She quickly added, "But this won't kill Him. We need to find His core and shatter it!"
Just as Helena predicted, after the bisected Vic failed to regenerate, massive quantities of muscle tissue erupted from the severed edges. Within seconds, the upper half had sprouted a new lower half, while the lower half grew a crimson, toothed maw, resembling a carnivorous plant from Plants vs. Zombies.
Aglaea asked, puzzled, "The core?"
But that wasn't the main point. The real question was: Why did Helena seem so familiar with this Evil God?
Helena explained, "Yes, the core. It's somewhere within its body, but it's not fixed. It can appear anywhere and move at any moment! It's incredibly tricky!"
Hearing this, Aglaea continued her questioning while remaining vigilant against their enemies, "How do you know all this? And... do you know that Artemis has been corrupted by the Mother of Flesh?"
Helena fell silent for a moment before replying, "Of course I know. We all witnessed it with our own eyes."
Normally, the Twelve True Gods should reside within the Divine Realm. The unwavering faith of the masses makes the Divine Realm impenetrable—a place isolated from the world and utterly secure.
It's like a peach and its kernel. Unless you strip away all the flesh, you can't see the kernel. The Divine Realm is that peach kernel.
Within this 'Peach Kernel,' the Twelve True Gods constructed another barrier to protect their world. In other words, if you couldn't shatter the kernel, you couldn't reach the succulent flesh inside. This interlocking system of mutual protection was nearly flawless.
However, there were a few exceptions: the Sun and the Moon. They resided not within the world but outside it.
Their shields protected everyone behind them, while they stood at the forefront of the barrier.
Then, one fateful day, this tiny bubble of a world—drifting through the pitch-black sea—was finally discovered. Between the Sun God and Artemis, the Sun God possessed vastly greater power. Thus, the Outer God turned its gaze upon the Moon, secretly corrupting her.
The process was so covert that by the time the other True Gods noticed, it was already too late.
In Tribios's eyes, the Moon turned red a century after Okhema's founding, exactly two hundred years ago. But this was merely the time the corruption completed, not when it began.
"Actually, it started much, much earlier," Helena said. "Perhaps as early as five hundred years ago."
In other words, when Tribios warned Artemis long ago that "the Moon would turn red," Artemis had already been targeted for quite some time!
This contamination was incredibly subtle, like a disease with both extreme stealth and lethality. In her final moments of lucidity, Artemis proactively severed her connection to this world.
This act was akin to a ship sailing in the vast, boundless sea, only for Artemis to suddenly leap overboard—a certain death!
But if Artemis hadn't jumped, everyone else would have been doomed. True to her words, she chose to embrace her destiny.
However, the Outer God Mother of Flesh, having already set its sights on this world, would not easily relent. Normally, Artemis's "leap into the sea" should have left the world without a Moon. But after completely corrupting Artemis, the Mother of Flesh manipulated the Moon to pursue her.
Then, wielding some form of Authority, the Outer God warped everyone's perception of reality. As a result, everyone came to believe that the Moon had always been red—even the other eleven True Gods shared this delusion.
In the Goddess of Love's memories, she had even conversed normally with Artemis, exchanging ordinary greetings and casual conversation. She detected nothing amiss.
But all that changed a month ago, the Goddess of Love said gravely. "I don't know why, but from that moment on, when I tried to recall the past, I realized I hadn't been speaking to Artemis at all! I'd been talking to a mass of red flesh!"
The eleven True Gods' perceptions snapped back to normal. They immediately realized the Moon shouldn't be red.
Hearing this, Aglaea realized instantly: a month ago was precisely when Tribios had entered the Time Travel Magic Circle!
While Aglaea didn't fully understand why the time loop had broken the cognitive alteration, the result was clear: since a month ago, the Goddess of Love had been frantically gathering intelligence on the Mother of Flesh. Because of her close relationship with Artemis, she had had the most contact with the "moon goddess" during the cognitive alteration, and thus possessed the most knowledge.
But this also meant that the Goddess of Love had likely been corrupted as well. Helena herself said, "It took Artemis five hundred years to become completely corrupted. I first came into contact with the fully corrupted Artemis two hundred years ago, which means, conservatively speaking, I only have three hundred years left."
"Before that happens, I will find a suitable end for myself."
Perhaps this was why the Goddess of Love cared so little about Aglaea's Divine Authority over Romance. From her perspective, having someone capable of succeeding her as the Goddess of Love might actually be a good thing.
Despite their lengthy conversation, they were still in the midst of battle. The lower half of 'Vic'—the carnivorous plant—opened its bloodstained maw, releasing a swarm of crimson locusts that blotted out the sun.
Meanwhile, the fully restored upper half of 'Vic' charged toward the pair.
Aglaea stared at the enemy before her. If, as the Goddess of Love had said, only shattering its core could kill it, there were only two options: either annihilate the creature completely in a single strike, leaving not a trace behind, or find the elusive core hidden somewhere within its body.