Titans are the greatest beings of Arda. Older than divines and older than mortals, some say they are the first creatures to exist. One thing that is for certain though: the titans are Arda’s, just as the greatest archdemons belong to Tartarus and seraphim to Paraideisius. These creatures served as the foremost guardians of their respective worlds when conflict between them emerged. The titans of Arda aligned themselves with Arascus due to the White Pantheon’s acceptance of interplanetary help.

Some lands are filled aplenty with them. Some lands lack any. Alanktyda has the monopoly on the aquatic kind. But Alanktyda does not match us.

What we possess is not a titan, it is not of this world.

– Translated excerpt from an Uriamel scholar, thought to be some historical work.

“How fucked are we?” Iniri quietly asked Kavaa as the Goddess of Health looked over at the fires in the distance. Kavaa had her own doctor’s tongue, but Iniri swore once in a blue moon. Still, the Goddess of Health did not comment on it. If there was ever a time that demanded a swear, it was right now.

The Highway they had travelled down did not have a single split, not one junction. The most cover it had were the supply rooms built into the walls. The long emptied supply rooms, although the ones here looked as if they had never been touched. Kavaa and Iniri rested in that lake of darkness, the shore behind them blocked by the Jungle’s maddening roots, the shore ahead with flames of campfires and people walking about it.

Kavaa slid her hand down to the sheathed blade on her hip. It was still there. As was her shield on her back. She unhooked it and strapped it to her arm as Iniri watched. “Do you need armour?” The Goddess of Nature asked. Kavaa looked down at her battered chest-plate, dented from being gripped so heavily by the vines.

“It’s good enough.”

“Alright.” Iniri said as the living wood branches on her green started to expanded in the darkness. It was too dark to watch, but Kavaa had seen Iniri graft the armour over her clothes more than enough to recognise the quiet sound. “I don’t want to fight them.” She whispered with quiet hesitation.

“I don’t think we have a choice Ini.” Kavaa said.

“Mmh.” Iniri said. “I mean, we have to, I just don’t want to.” Kavaa rolled her eyes. If there was one thing that annoyed her, it was this hesitation. Did the woman think she was morally superior to Kavaa? Iniri had done more than her fair share of killing back then. When it came to Great War reputations, there was Allasaria’s purges, there was Fortia’s peacekeeping and there was Iniri’s pacifications. Mere Forces like Sceo and Zerus did not even hold a candle to Mother Nature back then.

“You can do it.” Kavaa made her voice as supportive as she could. “I’m here if you need.”

“Mmh.” Iniri said, there was something warm in her tone. “Honestly, I’m excited.”

“Are you now?”

“Feels like back then.” Iniri’s eyes started to shine emerald-green, she took a step forwards. Kavaa heard the cracking of stone and the slithering of stone as she drew her blade and kept close to her friend. “They’re dwarves.” Iniri said as strolled forwards.

“Have they noticed you?” Iniri did not reply, Kavaa only the campfires in the distance with dwarves walking around. Standing around now actually, standing as still as statues. In massively thick plate armour that covered their chests, and then long scale-skirts clad the lower half of their bodies. Block helmets, two small cut-outs for eyes that Kavaa could not make out. Each one stood and faced them.

Have they been seen already? But it was only dwarves at the end of the day. “You ready?” Kavaa asked. Iniri did not respond, but Kavaa heard the ground next to her break apart as the Goddess of Nature struck more roots from her dress into the cold stone that surrounded them. And she watched those dark silhouettes, all facing the Goddesses suddenly be flung up into the air.

Vines burst out of the rocky ground around the campfires like lashing snakes. They hissed and swiped and threw the bodies of the dwarves upwards. Some were launched high into the darkness, other were strangled, yet more simply were torn apart by Iniri’s vines. The vines entered them, and then ripped them apart from the inside. It lasted only a few moments, but in those few moments, all that was left of the silhouettes were simple mounds on the ground. “That’s all of them.” Iniri said as she settled back down on the ground next to Kavaa. “Really, we can go forwards.”

“It’s your call.” Kavaa said. She knew she could fight, but she was simply talented with the sword. She could beat Helenna, but that was about it. Any Divine with any power would be able to obliterate her in a battle.

“Okay.” Iniri said timidly as she started walking forwards. Kavaa did not know what got into the Goddess. She was strong enough to eliminate a whole platoon of dwarves like that. She could rival Zerus and Sceo at the same time, and yet she had such a low opinion of herself. If the woman was even a tiny bit more confident, she would have been a pillar of the Pantheon in the same manner that Maisara was. “Let’s go then.”

Kavaa smiled as Iniri took some initiative. It was forced on her, it wasn’t real initiative, but every one had to learn somehow. Iniri knew too, Kavaa was sure that she did, else she would have no had such a terrible reputation in the past, but it was simply a case of reminding the Goddess what she was capable of. They closed the distance to the campfires.

There was nothing here. Kavaa looked around, hand ready with her sword and shield drawn for combat. There was a campfire, there was dead dwarves, their square tower shields and long pikes lying on the ground. Nothing else. Kavaa blinked. There was dead dwarves and there was no blood. She looked at Iniri, the woman had noticed too. They both nodded at each other, and one of Iniri’s vines pulled a helmet off a thick, dark chest-plate.

A skeletal head. Wide and bulky, as dwarves typically were, but without any eyes, without any muscles or skin. Simply bone engraved with runes Kavaa did not know. Iniri narrowed her eyebrows and looked at Kavaa. Kavaa looked at Iniri. The Goddess of Health asked first. “What is this?”

“Am I supposed to know?”

“I don’t…” Kavaa was interrupted by another voice from the darkness.

“FIRE!” A voice from out of nowhere. A voice Kavaa swore had been killed more than a thousand years ago. She heard the release of springs, the lashing of ropes, the pull of gears turning. Immediately, the Goddess of Health raised her shield to cover her face. Iniri launched into the air, arms outstretched, eyes shining green once again as vines ripped out of the ground to make a barrier around the two Divines.

Kavaa, at the end of the day, only had her shield. She felt something impact it, and she felt something smash against her back. Iniri on the other hand was too slow, her wall of greenery had only gotten to the two Divines’ knees before the hail of sharpened iron came. From deeper in the highway, from all angles in the darkness, as if the two had wandered into a semi-circle.

And as Kavaa felt the hail of iron, she got a flashback to the past. To the Great War, when she or her Clerics would be caught in the traps set in Erdely. They had been single shots first, designed to impale and incapacitate with massive blows. Kavaa had been hit a few times by them, and each time she had healed herself out of the damage. Her Clerics could too, men could lose an arm or be impaled by a massive bolt, and still function to heal enough to save their lives in those few moment after the adrenaline spiked but before the pain kicked in. And then, they had slowly changed. To massed arrow traps, and finally to this shrapnel of iron.

It was less damaging than the large bolts, but it was far more destructive. Kavaa it crush into her armour, and she felt the tiny shards embed themselves in every crack in her armour. Pain flared from within her armpits, pain shout from the backs of her knees. Kavaa fell and felt herself coughing up blood as her neck was cut by the iron shards. Her palms, the insides of her elbows, her thighs. Kavaa took a step, looked down and blinked as she watched some glass vial head towards her from the darkness.

Kavaa’s healing is powerful however it lacks the finesse of natural regeneration. The pain it causes makes it difficult for one to self-heal from shrapnel or remove foreign objects from one’s body. Our mentality should be changed on how to counter the Goddess of Health and her Clerics. Ultimately, there is no difference in a battle between a total incapacitation and outright death. The Clerics can be simply forced out of combat and executed after the battle is finished, instead of trying to kill them instantly. Whereas wood is light and plentiful, I propose iron or steel shards.

– Excerpt from “Miscellaneous Strategies”, written by Goddess Kassandora, of War, during the Great War.

Kavaa heard Iniri grunt as the woman’s battle dress and face were shredded by the hail that cut and tore at her dress and skin. The woman’s wooden clothes weren’t armour, and parts started to fall away as the hail of iron started to shred into her. Iniri lifted her arms, her barrier grew as Kavaa smelled the noxious fumes from the vial that had smashed on the ground. She did not need to be in a lab to identify toxin. Sometimes, the bitter smell simply gave it away. And then Kavaa saw a large arrow, a ballista bolt, rupture through the air like lightning.

Dreaded Iniri is rather simple to defeat. Wood is a strong, especially her ever-growing barks, however wood pales against the might of modern machinery. Over the long-term, wood may no doubt defeat steel and stone, however battles are fought on an instant-to-instant basis. To crack wood, we simply need to apply force. Likewise to crack Iniri, we simply need to apply enough force. Nothing more needs to be said.

– Excerpt from “Miscellaneous Strategies”, written by Goddess Kassandora, of War, during the Great War.

The Goddess of Health, bleeding on the ground as she moaned in pain and used her healing energies to push out the shards of steel caught within her body, yelped as she saw Iniri get flung back. She felt her breathing stop to process the sight of the little Goddess screaming out as a tall pole impaled her to the stone wall. Blood discoloured her green dress into a sickly almost-black and roots immediately sprouted to cover the wound and try and force the spear out. It had no effect. Kavaa realised she wasn’t breathing and inhaled.

She wished she hadn’t. She had come across enough poisons in the past to know one by smell. And this smelled like a terrible one. Immediately, her eyelids became her, her muscles became weary. Kavaa started using her own healing on herself, then realised she was breathing in more of the poison. It would take a while to settle from that vial. All she could do was speed up the regeneration of her own body. It didn’t hurt, but she felt her cheeks grow hot, her heart start to madly beat, her fingers quiver, as her body cleansed itself of poison in with each second, and took in more poison on the next.

Kavaa looked up as she saw black heels click forwards to her. Her vision was fading. Not death, drowsiness. Her arm hurt. So did her chest. She looked down. No blood. Paralyzing poison then. Her body should be able to clear it. She looked at Iniri. The Goddess of Nature was still impaled half way up to the wall of the tunnel as she clung onto the ballista bolt that went through her gut. The living wood on her dress was fighting to push it out and then another bolt burst into the wall next to her. It vibrated next to her head as Iniri looked up in horror. The message didn’t have to be said to be clear, stop moving.

Kavaa grit her teeth as she felt herself about to throw up. She used the very last reserves of her strength to push herself into the recovery position as her stomach emptied itself onto her arm. Better this than dying. And she looked at those black heels. Pale legs. Black dress. Kavaa felt her vision dim even more.

A black dress and precious, snow white hair. Kavaa collapsed.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep