Chapter 656: Masters of the Past. 2
"Hestia… This is…" Nike stared in horror at the sight in front of her, corpses of Demons and women on the ground.
"A genocide," Hestia replied.
"Just how many Amazons died?"
"I don"t know... The last time I contacted the Amazons, their number was around 50 thousand, and that was years ago." Hestia replied.
"Even with the G.o.ds" support, they could not rule over 200,000. It would simply take too much logistics and food, something that this small community would be unable to nurture." Nike rationalized.
"..." Hestia nodded when she heard Nike"s a.n.a.lytical voice.
This place, the refuge of the Amazons, was created by the G.o.ddesses. In total, this place was the size of an average city with the capacity to support between 60 and 80 thousand inhabitants, a knowledge that the Queen herself had. Hence, she prevented the population from growing beyond its bearing capacity.
The Amazons were a special group; they had superhuman physical conditioning and could live up to 200 years. When they reached their full maturity, they would age slowly to maintain peak physical condition. They were a warrior Race, and that Race lost this way.
"A High-Level Demon was behind this. It doesn"t make sense if it were anything else; if it were an ordinary Demon or even hordes of ordinary Demons, the Amazons wouldn"t suffer so many casualties..."
"Hestia, it"s not that… Look." Nike pointed to the corpses of Demons.
"They are Low-Level Demons."
"... Huh? Are you sure?"
"Yes, I am."
"…Then why did they lose so many members like that?"
"A large-scale war is not decided by who is stronger, and many factors interfere with the winner of a war. A group of villagers can beat a group of armed soldiers if they know what to do and have a competent leader." As the G.o.ddess of Victory, Nike was quite knowledgeable about the causes of "Victory"; because of that, she understood how the Amazons could lose so many members.
"You mean..." Hestia opened her eyes wide.
"Yes, the leader of the Demons is quite competent."
"..." Hestia was silent, and a worried expression was visible on the beautiful face of the G.o.ddess.
"Anyway, let"s not waste time here. Scathach and the other two women can handle whoever the Demon is; let"s help as many as possible." Nike said.
"Yes."
...
Not far away, hidden by a veil of "Night", was a group of G.o.ddesses.
Nyx, Hera, Artemis, and Athena.
"Nyx, why aren"t you letting us out?! Why are we standing here!? I have to kill these motherf.u.c.kers! Look what they did!" Artemis screamed.
The G.o.ddesses had arrived here by the time Meya Neyku, the Queen of the current Amazons, had been defeated, and they immediately went to help, but Nyx stopped them.
Nyx looked neutrally at Artemis and spoke in a voice that sent s.h.i.+vers down Artemis"s spine:
"Do not speak to me in that tone, Artemis. Or I guarantee I will teach you the meaning of the word "respect" that your rotten brain seems to have forgotten."
"..." Artemis just gulped and fell silent.
"No matter what you do with Artemis-"
"Oyy!" Artemis yelled.
Athena ignored her and continued: "But she"s right about one thing, why are we standing here? What made you make that decision?"
Seeing that Hera also shared Artemis"s thoughts, Nyx sighed:
"... Haha, I forgot that you don"t see the world the way I do."
"Close your eyes."
"... Why?"
"Just obey me."
"..." The three G.o.ddesses looked at each other and nodded; they were already here. What else could happen to them? They thought and took a leap of faith.
The moment the three G.o.ddesses closed their eyes, Nyx pointed her palm at the G.o.ddesses, and Energy dark as night flew towards them, soon they heard Nyx"s voice.
"You can open your eyes now."
The moment the G.o.ddesses opened their eyes, their eyes changed to the same shade as Nyx"s.
"That"s..." Athena opened her eyes wide.
"How I see the world."
Before the G.o.ddesses, instead of a destroyed city with several bodies on the ground, there was a city covered with white Beings with holes for eyes wandering around.
These Beings closely resembled the dead Amazons on the ground.
Another thing they saw was other completely dark Beings flying towards a deep s.p.a.ce of darkness and entering that s.p.a.ce in the sky.
"The dark Beings are the Demons that died and are returning to h.e.l.l."
"The white Beings are the Souls of the dead Amazons who still wander without life."
"The oppressive and dark atmosphere is the negative feelings of everyone present here."
"… Do you see this all the time?" Hera asked in disbelief.
"Yes, this is my Authority. After all, nothing can be hidden from me; if I want to know something, I will know. I am The Mother of Concealment for a reason... But unfortunately, I cannot interact with this "part" of the world. Only specific Beings can, Beings like my son Thanatos, the Rulers of h.e.l.l, and a Mortal species called the Progenitor of Vampires."
"But that is not why I stopped you from advancing, that is." Nyx pointed to a location.
The G.o.ddesses followed the Nyx"s gaze and saw something that made their eyes widen.
"... W-What is that?" Athena stammered in disbelief.
"It"s pretty obvious. That"s hundreds of thousands of Magic Circles, and each of those Magic Circles has other smaller Magic Circles with structures that support the larger Magic Circle." Nyx explained.
"This is a variation of Strategic Magic used by the Queen of Witches, Evie Moriarty."
"I"m not talking about that! I obviously know what that is!" Athena lost her composure.
"I"m talking about this "Evil", this "Miasma". Why were these Magic Circles leaking this Cursed Energy!?"
The concentration of Energy held in those thousands of Magic Circles made Athena feel like she was in h.e.l.l at the lowest levels possible; it was insane.
"Don"t ask me something I don"t know. I was trying to figure out what it was, but all my Divinity tells me is that it is a variation of Magic."
"Magic shouldn"t be this evil... Magic is a more neutral and pa.s.sive energy, not raging and destructive like Miasma." Hera explained with obvious shock in her voice.
"That"s right, which is why I think it was created by the Demon that invaded this place."
"I-Impossible! A Demon shouldn"t be able to use Magic!" Artemis spoke.
"That is what the G.o.ds said when they realized that a group of humans were using a "special energy" in the past and doing similar feats to the G.o.ds."
"...." Artemis fell silent.
"Times change and talented people are born, capable of changing how we see the world. You"ve seen it many times."
"So something that was "impossible" in the past can be done in the future if someone talented enough comes along." Nyx"s eyes gleamed like the starry night, and she looked out over a scene.
The scene of three female Vampires looking at a giant Demon.
"... Oh? Merlin, this is unexpected. I thought he had died in his Mortal life." With just a glance, the Mother of Concealment had immediately identified the individual.
Her gaze s.h.i.+fted to the Vampires, specifically the blonde and white-haired ones.
"... It seems their interaction with the Progenitor made their Souls more refined, huh... That"s interesting, is this caused by the World Tree? Looks like I have to keep an eye on him even more."
"It"s a shame that wh.o.r.e Aphrodite withdrew my Blessing. If he had my Blessing, I could watch him from anywhere, anytime, regardless of the dimensions."
Nyx clicked her tongue in internal annoyance, and with a snap of her finger, she withdrew the "vision" she gave the G.o.ddesses.
"Do you understand now? That Demon hid a Strategic-Cla.s.s Spell all over this dimension. So if you directly interfere with him, I"m afraid he won"t mind using that Spell and putting this place on lockdown."
"..." The G.o.ddesses nodded their heads.
"But we can"t just sit here!"
"That, I agree with you, therefore." Nyx gestured with her hand, and soon the G.o.ddesses found themselves flying towards the ground.
"B-Bastarrrrrrd," Artemis screamed as she flew towards the ground.
"Help the people who have received your Blessings." She spoke with a gentle wave of farewell, completely ignoring Artemis"s cries.
"Now, let"s see what"s happening with the Demon and the Vampires." She flashed a small smile and disappeared from where she was.
...
Nyx appeared in front of the group, still hidden in her veil.
"…Oya…?" The Demon smiled widely, a satisfied smile, and he looked at Scathach as if he had seen an old friend:
"I thought you wouldn"t recognize me, Scathach Scarlett... After all, I"ve changed quite a bit..."
The grip on Scathach"s Spear grew even tighter, and her wary gaze rose by several levels:
"…Now, I understand why you were teaching this girl a "lesson". Even after turning this way, you still deeply hate the act that her people commit as a culture, huh."
"Those who enjoy this heinous act, whether they be men or women, must be burned in h.e.l.l forever." He spoke in disdain.
"And yet, you allowed that Lesser Demon to exploit her," Scathach spoke with sharp eyes.
"That"s the fun, Scathach. The sinner must experience the sin committed on the victim." The Demon"s smile grew.
"Spoken like a true Demon." Scathach flashed a smirk.
"You see, Scathach, when I became this, I made a point of a.s.suming the position of commander of h.e.l.l responsible for sinners who commit these kinds of acts."
"Normally, I would just sweep this filth off the land." He spoke with disgust as he looked at Meya as if her very existence was one big pile of garbage.
.....