Vara sat across from a crying woman trying her best to maintain a sympathetic look on her face. What she really wanted to do was scream in rage at finding Magni’s most recent conquest. The goddess had thought or more precisely hoped his lustful ways were now focused on willing harlots. But when one of his newest avatars turned out to be a woman, he preyed on her without a second thought. Now the poor girl, some recently dead thunderer named Thora, had no choice but to call on Vara thinking there was something the goddess could do.

Thora was wrong of course. Vara might rule as queen in her golden city but she had no authority over the others that wrongly called themselves gods. Those heathens simply did what they wanted, letting Vara take charge of the afterlife they didn’t bother to maintain. If she was still known as Michael with a legion of angels at her back, if Yahweh still bothered to bless the world, she’d have them all killed, even her husband. Sadly, she was alone, forced to couple with a man she’d have killed without a thought in the last age of men, but at the very least the Aesir were human heathens.

“Thora, to ask this of me goes against my teaching,” Vara said gently. “You might have died once, but now you live again as an avatar. It is a great honor, one not given lightly. I know your situation is... difficult, but as women, we must be resilient and above all remain devoted. I too have difficulties with my own husband.”

“Magni is not my husband,” Thora whispered with a visible tremble of fear running through her.

Vara could hardly believe this was the same woman that ascended three years ago. Her death had been especially horrifying. While trying to prevent Bitarr from gaining a summoner, she and the rest of her fellow thunderers were killed by the creature and who Vara now believed to be an agent of Hel. Thora, as an elemental cultivator, suffered the worst. Bitarr used a spell so destructive the energies that made up her body was dispersed across several miles.

In most cases, an elemental would simply collect themselves in a day or so, but Thora was unlucky enough to be spread so far apart coming together would have taken months. In that time, she suffered the unending sensation of dizziness and nausea along with being forced to stay conscious the entire time.

After the first week, Thora’s symptoms grew worse. Her sight returned, but as a muddled mess stretched out across several miles. Random sensation battered her mind the week after that. Most would have given up by then, but Thora clung to life for a whole month before her mind couldn't take anymore and she drifted into the afterlife. That's when Magni found out of her valiant death, he made her one of his avatars. Even so, Vara remembered her being a strong outspoken women, not the withdrawal person before her.

“But he is still your god,” Vara continued. “Surely his attention aren’t-”

“He’s not the only one,” Thora said. She shrank in on herself before speaking again with disgust in her voice. “He hands me over the other avatars, his children too. If I refuse-” a shudder ran through Thora. “I can’t refuse.”

Vara was stunned into silence as her mind raced. There was nothing she could do. If she killed Thora, her soul would once again be amongst the dead in Gimli putting her under Vara’s preview, but Magni would be enraged. He already hated her and had far more influence with the other Aesir. If she essentially stole one of his avatars, worse a rear female one, he would cause problems far worse than one abused girl was worth.

Vara was saved when she felt a gentle tug in the back of her mind. She inwardly relaxed having found a way out of the discussion.

“I’m being summoned,” Vara said, holding in her relief.

“Goddess, I thought you couldn't be summoned.”

“I can,” Vara corrected. “But I refuse to be summoned by an unworthy Bryer. That family was filled with nothing but degenerates until recently. One of them has finally accepted me as their savior so I allow her to summon me.”

The Goddess smiled as an idea came to her. “Why don’t you come with me?” She may not be able to confront Magni, but thunderers tended to be bloodthirsty and by the urgency Vara felt in her summoning, there would be violence.

Vara stood, unfurling her snow-white feathered wings. They stretched out to around a wingspan of 20 feet before folding over her. In an instant, they morphed into silver and gold armor stronger than any found in the mortal realms. She then offered her hand to Thora which she took without hesitation. It seemed the avatar could not wait to leave the city of paradise and be embroiled in another battle.

Without feeling a transition, Vara closed her eyes, followed the summons, and opened her eyes to a pink sky. Thora stood by her now dawned in light leather armor with her eyes glowing with tendrils of lightning.

They both took in the scene around them taking some time to realize they were in a city. The crater they were standing in with dust obscuring their vision made the landscape seem like a rocky desert. Sprinkled around the obvious battlefield were several Bryers and other onlookers steering in awe at the goddess walking among them. Vara noted a blue skin man but had something more important to take care of.

“There she is,” Vara said when she spotted Sibley sprawled out on the ground, her eye still shining with a large pink creature over her. It was clearly her summons trying to protect. When Vara neared her, it gave a high pitched growl.

“Get out of here and keep her safe,” Vara commanded. The bear seemed to understand forming a furry ball around the girl and rolling off at high speed. Vara then turned to the blue man. “Why do you wear the illusion of a jötunn ?”

“What?” the blue-skinned man said.

Vara’s eyes narrowed as the air around her rippled with divine heat. There was something missing in the way the man spoke. There was no fear in his words, just honest confusion. Even if he worshiped one of the other Aesir, there should at least be a hint of reverence in his heart. If he followed Hel or some other heathen god, then terror or disdain should be coming off him in waves but Vara felt nothing. All she could tell was that he was human; one of Yahweh’s chosen people.

“How can you see through my illusion?” he asked curiously tilting his head to the side in contemplation. “Is it a goddess thing?”

“I think he’s responsible for whatever happened here,” Thora said while lifting began crackling around her fingers.

“I do too,” Vara agreed taking a step forward. Then she suddenly spun in the opposite direction bearing her teeth in rage. Her godly persona gone replaced by pure hatred.

“That damned monster is here!” Vara raged.

“Who?” Thora asked

“Bitarr!” Vara bellowed her voice releasing a shock wave that cleared any dust from the area like a hurricane.

A long sword appeared in the goddess’s hands. It glowed as if taken from a forge and released streams of fire that would have incinerated any other wielder. When Vara lifted the fiery blade above her head its heat and fire intensified forcing Thora back, but the goddess didn’t notice. All that mattered was destroying her pantheon's bane.

Vara swung her sword down releasing a jet of flame higher than any building in the city and wider than most of its streets. It continued at staggering speeds not slowing in the slightest when it came to the edge of the crater and burned a trench through the city. Several structures seemed to vanish under the intense heat. Those in its path never felt its heat instantly turning to ash before pain could find them. Within moments, the fiery blast broke through South Bastion's outer city wall continuing into the grassy plains only stopping when confronted with a mountain just beyond the horizon reaching halfway up its length.

Vara barely took notice of the scar left in the landscape by her actions. She reached out with her awareness trying to find if there was anything left of Bitarr. Her scowl deepened when she realized there was but with a few more swings of her divine blade she'd fixed that.

*********

Bitarr dodged a clawed swipe from Leo. “Can you just stop?” he asked Tanya.

She was still stumbling in the dark while using Leo to vent her frustration. So were Carr, Asta, and Garland with Carr handling himself the best thanks to him being a cultivator. He still didn't have what it took to battle Bitarr in the dark when the god could see just fine. Leo could too, but it hardly mattered. Even with the augments Bitarr gave him, the werelion’s reactions were far slower than Brand’s body, at least until Amra’s blessing disappeared bringing all eye back to Bitarr.

“Where are they?” Tanya asked slowly with a translucent blue claw extending from her fingers.

“They’re safe,” Bitarr answered holding his hands up. “Mildrith and Alda would have just gotten in the way.”

“In the way of what!” Tanya shouted.

“They would have gotten in the way of this little house cleaning project.”

“He’s with Fenrir,” Garland said with a gasp.

Bitarr scoffed. “I’m not with Fenrir.” He pointed to the headless demigod corpse everyone seemed to forget was there. “Vara’s priest wants you dead so I got some folks to handle them. Your sister and that speedster would have fucked everything up so they had to go. But don't worry. They’ll be back in a day or so.”

Tanya looked like she was considering Bitarr’s words when an explosion in the distance grabbed her attention. “Wait. wait. Wait.” Bitarr said quickly. “You stay the hells away from that mess.”

Tanya turned back to Bitarr. “I don't want to hear anything you have to say! You knew that darkness was coming! Whoever is attacking used it to ambush us!”

“To ambush everyone but us,” Bitarr corrected. Instead of berating his methods to Bitarr's surprise Tanya turned and ran towards the far off explosions.

Bitarr cursed and took off after her. Even though Brand was the one attacking, he couldn't let her run wild with potential assassins still looking around. There were still two demigods unaccounted for and both would be looking for blood after their sister was killed.

Bitarr spotted one of them flying far above Tanya a moment later. He couldn't tell which one it was but that didn't matter. He throttled his mana quickly coming within arms reach of Tanya only for Carr to pounce on him from behind.

The wide-eyed youth was gone, replaced by a ferocious werepanther. Carr was a head taller with broader shoulders. His face elongated along with his fangs and a sleek layer of black fur grew over his skin. his strength skyrocketed eclipsing what a forth rank cultivator should be capable of. The werepanther augment Bitarr gave Carr made him a real threat despite his age and experience.

As the two wrestled on the ground, Carr laughed in a deep voice brought on by his transformation. The werepanther was obviously having fun getting in Bitarr’s way turning the god's worried it to angry. This wasn't the time for fooling around. He had a job to do and this stupid cat was getting in his way.

“Oh crap. I think I’m becoming a responsible adult. It only took me half a millennium.”

Carr’s grip went slack as a pillar of fire erupted in the direction Tanya was heading. “What is that?”

Bitarr stopped struggling for an instant as his eyes landed on the fire. He then grabbed Carr’s neck and smashed his fist into his face without caring for the boy’s safety as long as he survived. The werepanther instantly went limp then was thrown as far as Bitarr’s borrowed muscles were capable of. He then moved like the wind never giving Tanya a chance to react.

Bitarr said nothing as he wrapped an arm around her in an iron grip receiving four deep cuts on his face but not reacting in the least. He’d been punished so many times for his many dalliances the god's tolerance for such thing bordered on the supernatural. Tanya’s cursing was also ignored along with the pain and anything that would slow Bitarr down. When Asta arrived seconds after Tanya’s capture, Bitarr moved before she could cast a spell holding her with his free hand. Garland was left standing alone forming some spell that wouldn't matter in the next few seconds, but as a human, he wouldn't need protection.

Tanya raged on and Asta cried to be released but both went quiet when a roaring flame rose into the sky and shot forward in a flash. Bitarr barely had the time to shift his fortress aura to better absorb heat before being engulfed by divine flame that struck like a title wave.

********

Wide-eyed and speechless, Brand stood shaken to his very core from witnessing a god’s power firsthand. There was nothing to measure, analyze, or piece together when Vara swung her sword. She was simply power on an unimaginable scale given purpose and direction.

Brand suddenly felt small like a single drop of water in an endless rainstorm. Even Ragnar seemed pathetic compared to the goddess. Any mortal seemed to be at the foot of the mountain that was godhood. Titania had warned that she could have ended his life with a single thought. At the time Brand had not believed, her but now the truth of her words was all too clear and that made him surprisingly angry.

“I’m going to steal every god’s damn drop of magic she has,” Brand thought greedily. He’d lose much of it, but there was a way to contain most of the mana he felt coming off her.

Brand’s thoughts came to an end when Vara next spoke. “Bitarr managed to avoid me, but I'll get him next time,” she said positioning her sword to take another swing.

The striker cursed and ran towards the goddess all fear and greed forgotten. If Tanya was anywhere, she was with Bitarr. There was also South Bastion to consider. Vara had killed hundreds with her first attack and would kill many times more if she continued.

In a flash of lightning, the red-headed woman accompanying the goddess appeared right beside Brand swinging her hammer towards his face. “I don't have time for this!” Brand growled sending out his fortress aura as wave thanks mana he’d stolen up until now.

The hammer shattered instantly charging him with several times more mana than the archbishop. The woman then screamed as the aura destroyed the hammer's shaft and raced up her arm. Cracks oozing with blood on mana spider-webbed across her features as more of the magic holding her together fell apart. For Brand, it was intoxicating.

Her mana was pure and unfiltered like it had never passed through another living being. It practically begged to be taken raising Brand to new heights of euphoria the longer he fed. Time began to melt away. His troubles seemed to matter less and less, aches and pains he never noticed until now vanished, and the screams of the woman wrapped in his power fell on deaf ears. All there was in the world was her perfect mana. But when the avatar’s well of power neared its end, something jumped out at the striker, something he couldn't ignore.

Brand could feel the enneagrams making up the avatar’s body crumbling and to his horror, he realized what he was doing. At the very center of the woman's being was a pattern, one more complicated than any he'd ever seen. Somehow he knew it could only be her soul, laid bare and in danger of being engulfed by his Fortress Aura. There was only one thing the striker could think of to stop what was already happening.

He reached out grabbing onto the woman's soul just before it dissipated and forced it into a beast core embedded within his chest. A moment later, her empty shell of a body disappeared in a cloud of mana that he devoured with gusto.

Vara pointed her red hot sword at him. “What did you do to her!?”

Brand looked toward the shouting goddess and realized at some point he dropped to his knees. He stood with confidence the illusion around his body washed away by the red tornado of mana and lighting swirling around him giving his dark skin a violet shine. He could hardly believe the power at his fingertips. The mountain that was the goddess’s might now seemed the least bit climbable, but he wanted more.

“I ate the bitch,” Brand replied with a cold smile. “I think I’ll eat you too.”

By the time Vara raised her sword to unleash another world scaring blast of flame Brand had already used a massive amount of mana to quickly cast his trump card. “Tower of Ruin!”