Nemesis frowned at the figurine goddess before her. What was the use of calling for the distant God-Slaying Beast now?
But in the next second, amidst the flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder, she saw Stella's face show expressions of grievance, pain, complaint, and joy... No, there was nothing, but the oppressive aura that loomed from behind had already completely enveloped her.
Whoa! This kind of aura—it's a world-shakingly powerful being, retreat!
Nemesis entered a state of Divine Speed. Her Divine Speed was not exceptionally fast, unable to compare with Alexander's, and far inferior even to Sun Wukong's Somersault Cloud technique. Yet, with this very maneuver, she managed to evade Seiya's Royal Demon Rose.
Hmm, Seiya let out a soft sigh. From his perspective, the movements of this goddess of retribution were particularly interesting.
It was like a reversed scene from an old cartoon—Tom and Jerry—the light before him was moving backward. But Nemesis herself, the subject, seemed to be running toward the future.
Then Seiya saw flowering vines crawl up from his own feet, covering his entire body.
Seiya's own Royal Demon Rose was now being used by the goddess of retribution, through a method of wielding her Authority that inverted causality, to envelop his entire body. But with a mere thought from Seiya, the deadly Royal Demon Rose dissolved into nothingness.
"O God-Slaying Beast manifested from the Strong Wind, you have arrived in our God's Domain without permission. Begone, your arrival will only bring disaster to this land."
Perhaps sensing the ridicule in the God-Slaying Beast's heart, Nemesis remained expressionless and pointed a finger toward the sky and the sea.
"And that destruction... will surely affect your world as well, becoming the key to triggering an unprecedented calamity. Look, just like this."
Raindrops pattered on his cheeks, making Seiya look up at the sky in surprise.
The rain had begun to fall, and its intensity finally grew stronger, a downpour hammering the earth. A strong wind rose, accompanied by thunder. The tempest came suddenly, with thunderclaps roaring.
This natural disaster bore no trace of any Authority or ritual; it was simply a calamity triggered by his own arrival.
What was the reason, the principle? Was it because of him, or was it a special rule of this world?
Seiya raised an eyebrow. Truly worthy of the goddess of retribution. Although her power wasn't known for its outstanding offensive capabilities, she had pointed out what Seiya cared about most in just a few words. With words alone, she could compel him to feel the urge to return to his original world.
But the more this was the case, the more it made a cold smile appear on Seiya's face.
He raised his right hand, then retracted his thumb and index finger, leaving only three fingers held straight and tight. "Three...!"
This goddess of retribution didn't listen to a word. Seiya had just uttered a single number when she re-entered that profound and mysterious state of special Divine Speed. Simultaneously, she waved her sleeve, wrapping up Stella, who had been shrunk to the size of a figurine by the golden net, and sped towards the sky.
She couldn't care less if Zeus noticed. Stella had to be delivered into Lady Hera's hands. A strong premonition of death had already appeared before her eyes.
"—Weapons are wholly unnecessary. A true warrior kills with their eyes!"
A Gaze of Death, belonging to the same domain of causality, locked onto the divinely unpredictable goddess of retribution. To be seen was to be locked on; there was no escape, even if she fled to the heavens or burrowed into the earth.
However, though the sure-hit attack did land, what appeared before Seiya's eyes were three different figures.
"The future arises from the causes of the past. O Fate, reveal the connection of causality," Nemesis chanted her incantation.
In Greek mythology, during the era when the second God King, Cronus, held power, Cronus had become the second God King by overthrowing his father, Uranus. And when he overthrew Uranus, the furious Uranus uttered a prophecy like a curse to Cronus: Cronus would also be overthrown by his own child.
Cronus was terrified of this prophecy, so with his sister and wife, Rhea, for every child they had, Cronus would eat one, swallowing his own children into his stomach. When the Great Mother Goddess Rhea gave birth to their sixth child, Zeus, in a cave on Mount Dicte in Crete, she wrapped a stone in swaddling clothes to pass it off as the infant, giving it to her husband Cronus to swallow. She then entrusted her beloved son to her attendants, the Curetes, and the servant nymphs, the sisters Nemesis and Ida of Mount Ida, to be raised.
The newborn Zeus was hidden in his birthplace. The two sisters, Nemesis, fed him with the honey of Melisseus and the milk of Amalthea; the Curetes performed a war dance to create noise and cover his cries.
In the Orphic hymn 'Hieroi Logoi,' Nemesis is considered one of the three aspects of the Night Goddess Nyx. Nyx simultaneously possessed three different identities, her three aspects being: Ananke, the Goddess of Inevitable Destiny; Nemesis, the Goddess of Natural Law; and Momene, the Goddess of Causal Fate.
The figure manifested from the past, Ananke, the Goddess of Inevitable Destiny, had a body covered in cracks like shattered porcelain, but she also tore open this fatal destiny for Nemesis.
"Very good, but not good enough—" Seiya raised his straightened fingers.
At almost the exact same moment, Nemesis, hidden in the night, made the same gesture.
A combat technique belonging to the God of Death of the Twin Gods—Ultimate Heavenly Might!
The gates of hell swung open, and countless mournful, vengeful spirits carrying the concept of death howled as they dragged the goddess of retribution, already hidden in the darkness, into the depths of hell. It was an impossible technique to replicate. On the verge of death, Nemesis called out her ultimate incantation, "The cause of every phenomenon lies in the past. O Fate, let me see the entanglement of karma!"
Phantoms of gods appeared by her side one after another: the white-armed goddess Hera, the brilliant Apollo, Athena holding her golden staff, and even a phantom of Stella.
The techniques of these gods had all been stored in the past by Nemesis, and now they were all summoned forth.
These gods unleashed their techniques in unison, transforming into a shining divine pulse that carved a path to hope for Nemesis.
In such a state, there was no longer any hesitation. With such a huge commotion, Nemesis could no longer guarantee that Zeus's gaze had not been cast over. She had to escape, to flee to Hera's side, only then could she fight for that sliver of a chance at survival!
"—Pegasus Meteor Fist!"
At this moment, a panicked expression finally appeared on Nemesis's face.
Karmic retribution ineffective, technique replication ineffective, attack storage ineffective, the protection of the righteous ineffective, the entanglement of the wicked ineffective, the concealment of the night ineffective... A mighty pulse of light from behind destroyed all the divine phantoms. No matter how Nemesis struggled, she could not avoid this certain death.
The condensed brilliance completely pierced through Nemesis's chest. From within her torn clothes, a small goddess wrapped in a golden net fell from her embrace.
"So that's how it is... because of her, the immense karma... I could not be protected...!"
At this moment, Nemesis realized she had made a grave mistake from the very beginning. If she had abandoned Stella, she might have had a slim chance of survival with her causality-based Divine Speed.
But if she abandoned Stella, then there would be no meaning in any of it.
"No need to be so hard on yourself. To have fallen under my God-Severing Thunderbolt only after three moves, you are already much stronger than many of the main gods who are nothing but figureheads," Seiya never spared praise for his opponents.
"Who's a figurehead!" Stella, who was in the process of untying herself, got angry, instinctively taking it personally.
Nemesis's face returned to its cold expression. She interlocked the fingers of both hands, making a fist, and pressed it against her empty chest.
"Evil shall be met with the sanction of justice, and kindness with the blessing of justice. May her kindness receive the goddess's protection."
After saying this, Nemesis's will vanished. With the sound of a slowly turning golden discus, Nemesis, the goddess of retribution, returned to myth.
And at this time of harvest, Seiya pushed his temporal perception to its limit, looking at the crude images revealed on the discus.
[Authority—The Inevitable One: Hesiod described Nemesis, born of deadly Nyx, as an affliction to mortals subject to death. In myth, Narcissus, who arrogantly rejected the goddess Echo, was forced by Nemesis to fall in love with his own reflection, leading to his tragic demise. All who do evil, all who approach death, cannot resist this Authority.]
[Authority—Weaver of the Thread of Fate: In the Orphic hymn 'Hieroi Logoi,' Nemesis is considered one of the three aspects of the Night Goddess Nyx: Adrasteia, the Goddess of Natural Law. Anyone who violates the natural order, such as breaking the boundary between gods and mortals or overstepping fate, will naturally incite the punishment of Adrasteia.]
[Authority—Guardian of Causality: There is a famous Greek proverb, Nemesis's judgment is never absent, only waiting for the right moment. The axis of her spindle is the celestial pole, and its rotational path is the Twelve Houses (Orphic fragment).]
[Authority—Collector of Time's Debt: The Trojan princess Cassandra foresaw disaster but was seen as a madwoman. Nemesis caused her to age rapidly before the fall of the city, forcing her to witness her prophecy come true while being powerless to stop it...]
Although according to the God's Domain's classification of deities, Nemesis was not considered a main god. However, her several Authorities all possessed extremely strong potential. If Seiya hadn't already locked onto his needed target, he might have chosen the "Weaver of the Thread of Fate" when it appeared, an Authority that greatly suited his tastes.
The figure in the golden robe appeared before Seiya, but his gaze did not linger on her for a single moment.
It was unclear if it was intentional, or perhaps a turn of karmic fate, but just as the discus was about to stop spinning and passively assign an Authority to Seiya, the image for the final Authority flashed past.
But in that brief instant, that Authority was already seized in Seiya's grasp.
The strongest mechanism-type Authority—Karmic Retribution.
Only then did Seiya raise his head. The torrential rain poured down, and the figure of the golden-robed goddess materialized in the rain-swept scene.
Her arms were as white as lilies, and a head of beautiful curly hair escaped from beneath her crown. She wore a magnificent golden robe that shimmered even in the gloomy rain, woven with intricate peacock feather patterns. Neither dust nor rain could truly approach the goddess standing before Seiya.
Hera, the Queen of Heaven, appeared before Seiya just like that.
With her appearance, even the arrogant Stella fell silent. Because her presence was more imposing than anyone Seiya had ever seen. To use a popular phrase, she was a powerful woman who, with just a glance, could unconsciously compel people to want to call her "Mother."
The goddess of goddesses, the woman of women, a mother-level figure!
Her expression was solemn and slightly stern. She did not linger on the goddess of retribution, Nemesis, for long. She gave the struggling Stella in the golden net only two extra seconds, and her final gaze fixed upon Seiya.
"It seems the God-Slaying Beast fated to make Stella submit is you. As expected, you possess an extraordinary aura unlike ordinary people."
No one would have expected that Hera's first words upon seeing Seiya would be praise. However, Seiya did not let his guard down, because he felt that as Hera's gaze scrutinized him, her aggressive aura grew ever more powerful.
"Pegasus, I can call you that, can't I?"
"Of course you can, my lady. A name is just a title."
In ancient Greek, the name Hera meant "lady," "mistress," or "noble woman," which literally highlighted her status as the Queen of Heaven, the mistress of all things.
"Judging by the aura on you, it seems that traitor Pandora has already helped you complete the god-slaying usurpation ritual."
Up to this point, Hera's expression still hadn't changed much. "Nemesis was my right hand. Her departure is an unacceptable matter to me."
So a fight is inevitable after all, Stella intensified her efforts to tear the golden net. "But if you can agree to become my son, this matter is not impossible to move past."
Stella's action of tearing the golden net stopped again. She looked at Hera before her, then at Seiya standing beside her, her gaze repeatedly darting between the two, wanting to speak but hesitating.
"Move past? You are easily satisfied." Seiya chuckled.
"Is that a refusal?" Hera said.
"Actually, I feel like it could work..." Stella muttered in a low voice, sidling up next to Seiya with the face of a treacherous courtier. At that very moment, a gale descending from the heavens interrupted her words.
A white, winged Pegasus pulling a chariot of white oak appeared. An aura incredibly familiar to Stella permeated the space between heaven and earth. Familiar, too familiar; just sensing this aura made her fighting spirit soar relentlessly.
The figure revealed in that chariot was a goddess both familiar and strange.
She looked to be about thirteen or fourteen years old, clad in a deep green robe, but without a hood. Her short silver hair held a radiance as if infused with moonlight, and her eyes were like jet-black onyx.
Her beauty needed no further words. However, the most startling thing was her gaze. Though she had a pair of pitch-black eyes, they gave the illusion of shining with an intense light. That sharp gaze and sacred aura made one think so.
With that soaring emotion, Seiya already understood the other party's identity.
—The goddess of wisdom of the God's Domain, the eternal virgin goddess, the bright-eyed Athena.
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