"I've been waiting for you!"
Hebe had been on guard long before the monster struck. As the creature was flushed out of the swamp, a pair of dark green claws lunged toward her face.
With a sharp kick against the ground, Hebe's figure blurred, dodging nimbly to the side. In the blink of an eye, she drew her Jade Bow. Purification energy condensed into a silver shaft, and she released, the arrow shrieking toward the Swamp Witch.
The Jade Bow was a divine artifact Hebe had specifically commissioned from her brother Hephaestus, the God of Fire and Forge. It was crafted to accelerate the gathering of divine power and imbued every arrow with the traits of Swiftness, Sharpness, and Explosion.
The silver arrow moved like a lightning strike. Mandrake had no time to evade. The shaft tore straight through her shoulder, and the purification energy detonated. Intense agony rippled through the witch's body, forcing a shrill, piercing shriek from her throat that shattered the surrounding branches.
"Quiet!" The wailing grated on Hebe's nerves. She drew and fired another shot.
Clang!
Arrow met claw with the sound of grinding metal. This time, Mandrake managed to parry the shot with her talons, but she seemed to have forgotten one crucial detail: these arrows exploded.
Sure enough, the purification energy detonated again. Mandrake let out another howl as the divine power corroded her palms. The searing pain slowed her movements, giving Hebe a chance to truly see the horror born of the Abyss Marsh.
Mandrake, the Swamp Witch, earned her title of "Witch" rather than "Beast" because she was not hideous. On the contrary, her form was lithe and shapely, her features alluring. Long, seaweed-like hair clung to her delicate frame, her skin was a singular shade of dark emerald, and her claws glinted with a cold, lethal light. Her eyes, pitch-black without a hint of white, radiated an eerie demonic aura. Unlike the sacred nobility of the goddesses and Nymphs on Olympus, Mandrake possessed a sinister, treacherous beauty.
Hebe thought to herself that it was a good thing she was the one sent to purge this monster. If her "dear father" Zeus had spotted her, who knew if the King of Gods—a man with no moral bottom line—would have added a monster lover to his collection.
"KYYAA! #@&...!" (Monster Tongue: Damned outsider! You dare desecrate my domain? I will tear you to pieces!)
Her territory ruined and her ambush thwarted, Mandrake shrieked in fury. Born of the Abyss Marsh, she was innately repulsed by anything sacred or pure. The dense aura of purity radiating from the girl before her was so thick it made her want to vomit.
Hebe couldn't understand the language of the abyss. Despite Mandrake's alluring appearance, her voice was harsh and grating, laced with a magic meant to incite agitation in the heart.
Hebe frowned. For the sake of her own ears, she decided it was best to end this quickly.
A chalice-shaped sigil manifested above the girl's head. A torrential aura of purity surged from the vessel, condensing into countless silver arrows that hovered behind Hebe. Lacking a fully solidified Godhood of Purification, she had to rely on her artifact, the Chalice of Youth, to rapidly extract and refine the necessary divine energy.
The golden-haired goddess spun and lunged, her movements as swift as a lightning bolt. In an instant, she reached the witch's rear flank. She drew her bow in one fluid, decisive motion.
Volley after volley. Sharp silver arrows rained down like a storm of pear blossoms. Every time Hebe drew her bow, she shifted her position, using the massive trunks as cover to maximize her advantage as an archer striking from the shadows.
Before her foe could react, a literal rain of silver light descended from the sky. It was a vision of breathtaking beauty, though Mandrake certainly didn't see it that way.
The witch was fast, but she couldn't contend with the sheer volume of arrows. Furthermore, Hebe had saturated the swamp with purification energy, preventing Mandrake from diving back into the muck to hide.
Despite her desperate attempts to evade, silver arrows carved jagged wounds across Mandrake's body, even marring her seductive face.
"KYYYAAAA!!!"
Mandrake screamed in agony. To a creature of the abyss, the purification energy was like sunlight hitting snow—an endless, searing pain of dissolution. The divine power prevented her wounds from closing. Her pitch-black eyes turned blood-red with hatred.
Enduring the torment, she searched frantically for Hebe's hiding spot. Eventually, she found it. With a wave of her hand, the Swamp Witch commanded the vegetation of her domain. Thick, black vines, shimmering with demonic energy, lashed out at the tree where Hebe was perched with the speed of a striking viper.
Hebe leaped clear just as the tree was smashed into splinters. Under the influence of the corrosive magic, the wood melted into charred, foul-smelling sludge.
Hebe kept drawing her bow, firing silver arrows to intercept the vines. The arrows deflected the black tendrils, sending them crashing into the ground and surrounding trees. The earth cracked, and vegetation withered instantly upon contact. The sheer force and toxicity were staggering.
"Good power, but your speed is too slow. You'll make a perfect catalyst for my ascension!"
The Chalice above Hebe's head pulsed with light. Divine power flowed through her hands as she condensed even mightier arrows. She drew the bow into a full moon. Thrum! A rain of silver light shrieked through the air, hurtling toward the witch's summoned vines with the momentum of a thunderclap.
Silver met black. The air was filled with the sound of constant impacts. The surrounding forest bore the brunt of the collision, ground into ruins as fissures spider-webbed across the earth.
Though Mandrake summoned hundreds of vines, Hebe's arrows held their ground. As she continuously condensed her power, Hebe's understanding of the Law of Purification deepened. Her arrows became faster, more numerous, and began to exert an overwhelming pressure.
Watching from the shadows, Ares rubbed his chin. It seemed he wouldn't need to intervene; his sister's growth was faster than he had anticipated.
The combatants traded blows at an ever-increasing pace until the individual arrows and vines became a blur—a chaotic dance of silver and black light.
"In the name of Purification, sweep away the filth before me. Godhood of Purification—Solidify!"
Divine light erupted in Hebe's eyes. At her heart, the once-ethereal Godhood of Purification snapped into a solid state. A brilliant silver crystal formed, and a torrent of divine power flooded her body.
The sensation of ascension was intoxicating. At the moment she mastered the new law, a profound clarity washed over her mind, giving her the illusion of looking down upon the world with absolute control. It was a sweet, hallucinatory dream that beckoned her to surrender.
"Wake up!"
Ares's sharp shout shattered the trance, snapping Hebe back to reality.
Her mind cleared instantly, and she felt a cold shiver of dread. She had almost let it go to her head. During ascension, if a deity cannot maintain a clear mind, they risk being consumed by the law itself, becoming its mindless puppet.
The process of gaining power felt like ages but had passed in a heartbeat. The newly formed Godhood of Purification instinctively merged with Hebe's original divinity.
Under the flowing light of three offices—Youth, Purification, and the near-complete Healing—the surging power pushed the golden-haired goddess past the boundaries of the third tier. She had ascended to the rank of a Second-tier deity (lower).
Though the gap between the peak of the third tier and the start of the second seemed small, the difference in actual power was vast.
As the newly ascended Hebe looked back at the Swamp Witch, the benefits of her rank were immediately apparent. The witch, who had previously fought her to a standstill, now looked utterly pathetic.
Too slow. Too weak. Magic too crude. Every flaw in Mandrake's form was laid bare.
Hebe felt a sudden wave of boredom. This battle could no longer teach her anything. There was no point in wasting more time.
The goddess stowed her Jade Bow. Eschewing long-range combat, she opted for a direct strike. Purification energy enveloped her body like a suit of armor, shielding her from any demonic corruption.
Hebe moved like a lightning strike. With a single strike, she severed the tentacle-like vines Mandrake had summoned. In the blink of an eye, she was standing directly in front of the witch. Chains of purification energy erupted from the ground, binding Mandrake so she had no hope of escape.
"Hah!"
With a light cry, Hebe condensed her infinite purification power into a silver spear. It radiated a terrifying aura capable of inflicting irreversible damage to abyssal life.
The spear drove through Mandrake's neck without resistance. Hebe twisted the weapon with a sharp movement, her violet eyes filled with a cold, martial resolve.
"AAAAAGGGHHH!!!"
Agony consumed the Swamp Witch. A moment later, her vision tilted and blurred before plunging into eternal darkness. Her head was severed, and her body disintegrated into countless fragments across the muck.
"Well done. Congratulations, Sister, on joining the ranks of the second-tier gods."
The office of Purification wasn't the most prestigious, but it possessed a respectable combat edge. With this godhood, Hebe now possessed the strength of a lower second-tier deity.
"Once you solidify your Healing godhood, you should reach the middle rank of the second tier," Ares noted.
"Middle rank... it's not enough."
While the ascension brought her joy, it was a far cry from her ultimate goal. To have a voice among the Olympians, she needed at least first-tier strength—or perhaps... the power of a Sovereign God.
"A soldier isn't made a general in a single day," Ares comforted her. "In the future, I'll petition Father for a few combat-oriented offices to give to you. Reaching the first tier won't be difficult then."
"Thank you, Ares." Her brother's care warmed Hebe's heart.
"Now, we have several more dens to clear. We can't waste time. Purify this area so we can move on." Ares summoned his chariot and beckoned her.
Hebe stepped onto the chariot. The demonic horses beat their white wings, ascending into the sky under the protection of the North Wind. Looking down at the ravaged land, Hebe waved her hand and summoned a massive white cloud. Since her parents were the rulers of storms and lightning, she possessed a natural degree of control over the weather.
With her ascension, her Chalice had become even more ornate. She poured the pure, untainted divine spring into the white cloud. The cloud began to glow, becoming heavy and shimmering with silver light.
Moments later, a sacred rain began to fall, drenching every corner of the polluted marsh, washing away the filth and restoring life. In the silence, a nameless force enveloped Hebe, and her Godhood of Purification seemed to grow slightly stronger.
Hebe's heart stirred, and she narrowed her eyes.
In the days that followed, the siblings remained busy, driving their chariot across the lands to purge monsters and cleanse the earth. Through the constant practice of healing herself and her brother, Hebe successfully solidified her Godhood of Healing, reaching the Second-tier middle rank.
The benefits of purging these dens exceeded Hebe's wildest dreams. Just as with the first swamp, she found that whenever she performed an act that benefited the world—like cleansing the land—she received a boost in power. It was remarkably similar to the "Merit" described in the myths of Huaxia.
He who follows Heaven's will gains great Merit; he who has great Merit possesses vast powers, is untouched by evil, and is immune to a thousand tribulations.
The Titanomachy had ended not long ago, and the number of fallen gods was high. Their lingering resentment had spawned countless dens of monsters. Furthermore, there were the many monstrous children of Typhon and Echidna.
These were all prime locations to "farm" Merit!
This realization thrilled Hebe. She dragged Ares along, tirelessly roaming the earth for forty years.
"Hebe, we have been away from the mountain for a long time. It is time to return. We can deal with the remaining monsters next time."
Ares had never expected Hebe to be a more fervent battle-maniac than himself. Not only was she always the first to charge, but she insisted on purifying every den inside and out, top to bottom. Her level of service was thorough enough to make a monster weep.
"But... there are still several dens nearby..."
And so much Merit...
"Sister, I understand your determination to grow stronger, but power that grows too quickly without being mastered is not always a blessing." Ares sighed. He, the God of War, was actually the one trying to avoid a fight for once. He counseled his sister, who was showing signs of becoming a true combat addict. "You need time to familiarize yourself with your new offices. Build a steady foundation."
"Fine..."
Though she loathed leaving such easy Merit behind, Hebe decided to follow his advice. As the God of War, Ares truly had unique insights into power and combat.
Suddenly, a vulture flew from the sky. It was Ares's familiar. It perched on his broad shoulder, its sharp beak whispering into his ear.
Ares's expression became grim and volatile. His dark red eyes flared with murderous intent.
"Hebe, we return to Olympus immediately. Something has happened to Mother."