Early Evening - Early Winter : Elder Hall, Bahamut

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- Myles Kalfas ~

"Haah..." I let out a deep, foggy breath as I continued to look over the long-since-cooled remains of the Elder Hall. -Just how strong is that kid to not only kill Tyr but take a serious blow from him like it was nothing...-

The scene had been repeatedly replaying in my mind ever since I saw it, and my awe had yet to fade even slightly. -To kill him is one thing... I could have done it if I caught him properly.. but that blow...- The feeling of the whole town sinking beneath my feet as Vasilias was hit remained fresh in my mind. -Could I have walked away after taking that to the head?-

Tyr was a god I had fought several times over the years, but I only ever let him land a hit on me once, and it was a moment I couldn't forget even if I tried.

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- Flashback ~

It was only around a decade ago when we first met. At the time, I was lying down in my estate, condensing more divinity while futilely attempting to comprehend a space rune.

*vwooowowoom* -Hm?- Looking toward the noise of mana rippling, I met eyes with his indescribable figure; a man with no aura, no mana, and no physical body, standing there and staring at me lifelessly.

At first, even though his presence was odd, I simply assumed he was some lost spirit, a being that usually could not interfere in the physical world, and ignored him.

But that only happened once. *crackle* Feeling the intangible presence of the man appear next to me as if having teleported, my instinct took over, and I flapped my wings.

*FWOOOOOSH-BANG* My room exploded from the air pressure as if a massive explosion spell was cast, and I immediately found myself in the air over a kilometer away.

-W..what?- I felt nothing but confusion as to why I reacted like that at first, but that was when he appeared in front of me again, this time with a black fist. -A mere lost spirit dares!-

I immediately moved up to parry him with one of my claws, but his fist was equivalent to an unstoppable force.

*CRRACCKLEEE* The feeling of a bone-shattering into fine bits was a feeling I had long since forgotten; after all, it had been over five hundred years since someone had managed to hit me through my scales, which were akin to mythril, but that day gave me a brutal reminder.

*FWOOOOOSH-WHHAAAAMMM* The mix of pain and confusion sent me into a daze as I ricocheted off the ground several kilometers away. -H..huh?- My confidence to claim I was the strongest being alive immediately started to waver.

But that was where I drew the line.

*CRUNCH* Spreading my wings as I slammed into a small cliff, I instantly came to a stop and locked my eyes on the cloudy figure in the distance. *Crackle-FWOOSH* I started running through my options as I threw myself out of the cliff, but no matter how fast my eyes or mind could move, I still couldn't follow him.

*vwooom* He appeared behind me in an instant.

But this time, I was ready. *FWOOOOSH* Tilting my head to the side as I threw myself backward, his fist narrowly missed me.

But as my head passed him, and I opened my mouth to retaliate, I noticed his posture completely lacked any kind of reaction, even though his head followed me.

It immediately reminded me of a fight I had 300 years prior. -He's fast, but his attacks are slow...- I opened my mouth as I passed him. *cra-BBAAAAANNNGGG* With a casual thought, a blinding yellow and red beam erupted from my mouth, clearing the clouds out to the horizon in an instant.

But I simply used it as a cover and made a dash for the estate again.

It was an attack that could destroy nations, even if it was toned back, and yet there I was running toward my estate knowing he would come out completely unharmed.

-Amphitrite was right... The gods really are waking back up...-

- (End of Flashback)

It was only the second time I had ever run into a god, the first resulting in a month-long brawl with a bratty kid named Loki, but my fight with him was the only thing that prepared me for my fights with Tyr-.

"Haah..." -I somewhat miss the thrill of fighting the unknown back then... But regardless...- I looked down at my long-since-healed leg with a dark expression.

"What has you so deep in thought?" Amphitrite's familiar voice snapped me out of my thoughts immediately.

"That kid... What else would it be?" I slowly set my leg down as I glanced at her.

"Hoho~, are you that interested in him? You haven't mentioned anything else for the past hour... Do you perhaps want to take him in as a disciple?"

I felt my whole body tense immediately. "I may have slowly become crazy as I have grown older, but I haven't grown senile..."

"Hoh? I thought him killing a god you've been hunting would make you want him even more." She walked up in front of me with a playful grin on her face.

-This woman...- Her being right only made me more annoyed. -But...- "If you saw what he did, you wouldn't consider it either. Saying he simply killed Tyr does not do it justice."

But she simply shrugged her wings. "Killing a god automatically puts him on the same level as us, but that doesn't mean we still couldn't teach him a thing or two. We have lived for nearly two millennia, Myles. Is that head of yours truly so empty you can't think of anything to teach him?"

-Her tongue is as sharp as ever...- But unlike usual, it was the least of my worries. "That is not the problem, Amphitrite. He didn't simply kill Tyr.. he erased him... The breath he used made my advanced magic feel like child's play..." I looked at her like she was crazy. "Magic like that doesn't come out of thin air."

She stood in silence as her smile slowly faded. "You are worried.. aren't you..."

"Haah..." I let out a stress-filled breath seeing that she had already noticed. "Are you telling me you aren't?"

"Of course I am." She responded without hesitation. "The sudden appearance of Heimdall and Loki 300 years ago was one thing since they were minor gods, but Tyr and Magni were gods that actually fought in the Great War, and were confirmed by Atlas to have fallen during Ragnarok.. they should not still be alive." Her voice had a hint of anger in it as she spoke. "But even if Bahamut doesn't return, and even if Vasilias isn't here, are you seriously trying to act like we are powerless?"

I looked down at the ground with a dark expression. "Just because we have the artifacts of our forefathers does not mean we are strong."

"And just because we have to use those artifacts to land a killing blow doesn't mean we are weak. Of anyone, you and I should know that best." She held up her foot to show me the familiar mythril band with innumerable runes carved into it around her ankle. "I fought Heimdall for two months before I managed to kill him, and during that time, I brought him to the brink of death nearly a dozen times, but every chance I got to kill him, he would just scamper off like a rat to recollect himself, and the fight would start over... I'm sure you had the same experience with Loki. All we are missing is the method to deal that final blow"

"But that is precisely why we are powerless without the artifacts..." Without any way to stop them from recovering the damage we dealt, it would turn into a battle of stamina, which we as living beings would inevitably lose.

It wasn't like I hadn't learned anything during or since my fight with Loki either. Tyr fought in a very similar fashion and gave me a decade to come up with and test the innumerable ideas I had come up with over the years, but after all was said and done, I was still essentially empty-handed. That feeling of powerlessness only worked as a motivator for so long. -Can I really do nothing but depend on the strength of other dragons?-

Amphitrite clearly didn't have the same view as me though. "If you are that worried, why don't you give one of your artifacts to those magic-crazy bastards in Atlas? Just because we cannot understand what exactly the artifacts do doesn't mean no one else can. Even if they can't reproduce the artifact itself, they may be able to explain what it does in a way we can understand and replicate ourselves."

"Tch... You know that isn't an option."

"With the Elder Hall gone, it is." She glanced back at me momentarily. "Who is going to stop you- Huh?" She abruptly cut herself off as her foggy breath crystallized in the air. "Since when did it get this cold?"

-Huh?- I was taken aback as well. "Today has been a cool day, but-"

*vwowowoooom* I was immediately cut off by an all too familiar rhythm of mana ripples. -SHIT!- *fwip* Immediately ducking my head without a second thought, a horrifyingly sharp blade of air passed over me. *CRUNCHHHH* As it hit the ground behind us, it dug out a deep cavity, immediately causing the town above it to cave in. *CRUMBLE* -What the hell?!-

Not giving the being another chance to attack, I lunged back and looked up to meet eyes with a woman, half monster, half human, staring at me with a long black sword in hand.

My whole body tensed up instantaneously.

Even without looking closely at her presence, her heavily bandaged, half-porcelain, half-decayed body with white hair and two curved, dark grey wyvern horns told me exactly who she was.

Referred to by humans as the goddess of the underworld and referred to by dragons as 'the researcher' she was a genius born a human but turned monster as a cost of her research.

She was known as the only non-human god in Asgard, the Goddess Hel.