Allasaria completely misses the point of Maisara’s thinking. The woman is so afraid of the fact she is not good by her own action but rather by her nature that she does not realise that this deterministic thinking merely an excuse. I care not for when my atrocities are brought up to me. If my opponents did not want to be annihilated, then they should have won the game or not played at all. For the Goddess of Order however, it very obviously is a sore-spot. Deterministic nature is an excuse that gives her the justification for her assault against standard morality.

Personally, I have little opinion on this question of determinism. Whether it be true or false does not change who I am. I have lived for thousands of years at this point, if Allasaria ever wishes to engage in serious change to Divine thinking, then my honest advice would be to ignore this nature versus nurture debate and start working on thinking styles that can counteract millennia of habit.

Allasaria won’t though. Allasaria won’t because that is a real challenge and because it is not a glorious job. It is a slow process of chipping away at the walls which have become entire fortresses of learned behaviours. As much as the Goddess wishes that the fortresses in our minds were to reveal secret passages and weak points, the simple fact of the matter is that those whose fortresses had weaknesses were lost to madness. Thousands years is a long time, insanity only needs to slither in once before it takes hold. The Divines that are still standing are those who have fortresses unassailable. Allasaria knows it’s a job impossible. That is why she won’t do it.

That is the central difference between her and Arascus.

Excerpt transcribed by Goddess Helenna, of Love, from a conversation she had with Goddess Kassandora, of War, whilst the latter was imprisoned in Olympiada’s prison cells.

“CATCH US ELASSA!” Kavaa heard Kassandora’s scream as she fell a cloud that bore the managed to simultaneously have the consistency of crushed gravel, of custard and of the clearest air imaginable. Wind pushed against her even though she felt as if she falling at the full speed a person was capable of. She heard Kassandora’s shout and that awoke to the fact she was falling. Above was a sky of such perfect deep violet-blue that it could have been from a painting. Below was an ocean that was green with a smattering of every colour known to mankind.

And suddenly, Kavaa felt wind become rope, air harden into concrete fingers that were invisible grab her arms or wrap around her stomach. For a moment, Kavaa wanted to vomit as she felt the acid of her stomach bounce up to her throat when her body came to a standstill in the air.  And after a few a seconds, Kavaa finally looked around at what was happening around her. Kassandora was by her side, in her black uniform. Her red hair waved in the wind like a cloak of crimson. War’s Orchestra was not playing for now. Elassa was close and above them, all the gemstones she had in her jewellery shining as the Goddess of Magic maintained their altitude. Neneria was high above, coming close as countless tiny ghosts grabbed at her harms or made floors for her high-heeled shoes on which she could stand on. “Take us down.” Kassandora said as Kavaa blinked her consciousness awake.

The grey Goddess of Health looked around the environment around them. Her eyes focused on the ground that Elassa was lowering them to. Kavaa was smart enough, or at least she thought she was, to realise that they had been pulled into Baalka’s soul. And yet even though this was the supposed Goddess of Disease, the land below them did not look as if it knew the existence of such a word.

It was a pristine plain, a jungle that melded into a temperate forest, with oaks that had thick canopies resembling the wool of fluffy sheep, with meadows that stretched on forever, they somehow managed to touch the horizon even though the horizon was perfect, forested rolling hills. There were lakes aplenty that gave way into swamps and streams, and yet those swamps were filled with tall reeds and swarms of perfect insect and from above, they looked like splashes of vivid dark green rather than the usual dull brown Kavaa usually associated with swamps. There were trees that had branches which stretched up to the sky, the ground itself was a duvet of soft grass, vines stretched like snakes or veins, insects and wild animals roamed everywhere, all of them as huge as trees yet shrinking as the party of Divines got closer to the ground. Sweet smells wafted up from the surface, of sweet sugar and sweet drink and sweet honey and the wind was warm. The sun above shone perfectly orange.

There was only one word to describe what Kavaa was looking at.

Paradise.

And so the Goddesses fell. Elassa’s magic managed to catch to catch and slow down the falling Kavaa and Kassandora. The two Goddesses incapable of flight slowed down as Neneria hovered above them, carried by a thousand different ghastly fairies. All of them were vaguely opaque yet they were so numerous that Neneria looked as if had a sun of emerald directly around her.

Kavaa prepared to heal, she pre-emptively grabbed hold of her power and sent it spiralling through her body as her boot touched the ground. She reached out for Kassandora. And she realised she was not falling ill. The air here was noxious and thick, the swampy smell of warm, still water was decorated with sweet tones of honey or wounds. The nausea of rot about too, although from where, Kavaa could not exactly see. Above them, a bird flew overheard, burned up, and shot off into the sky to become a burning sun of orange that only brought more contrast to the twirling violets up there.

Kavaa almost threw up when she heard Elassa scream. The wind that was holding her in the air blew out of existence and she started cascading towards the ground again. It was a fall that was the distance of skyscraper and yet it lasted for only a moment. Kavaa blinked and suddenly she was on the ground again. Kassandora immediately scrambled onto her feet. Elassa groaned as she closed and opened her fingers with their thousands of rings. Neneria was high above them, however they had managed to fall instantly did not seem to affect her. The Goddess of Death was a black statue in the air being carried down by the loving arms of ghostly fairies.

Kassandora’s clothes gave way to her black armour as Joyeuse appeared in the Goddess of War’s hand. Scraps of coat and the high colour, along with the low edges that would hang past her knees fell onto the green ground that felt like a sponge fashioned out of grass. And then the black scraps of cloth fell into the ground. Kavaa didn’t exactly even know what she saw. “Are you alive Elassa?” Kassandora said as the two Goddesses turned on the Goddess of Magic.

“Ahhh…” Elassa just moaned. Once again, she opened and closed her fingers. Once again, she stretched her arms out. Once again, the air gave no reaction to its mistress. “Ahh…” Elassa moaned.

“Are you hurt?” Kass bent down to snap her fingers before Elassa’s face, when she did not respond, the crimson eyes turned to Kavaa. “Is she hurt?”

A hand placed on top of the woman’s head revealed not a single piece of damage whatsoever. Kavaa just stood there, trying to figure out what was wrong with the woman. “Nothing’s wrong.”

Elassa just mumbled as Kassandora flicked the woman’s head. “Hello? Hello? Talk?” The Goddess of Magic angrily swiped away at Kassandora’s fingers to Kavaa’s amusement. “We’re in danger, what’s happening?” Elassa opened her mouth, she made some incredulous gurgle, and then she thrust her hands forward again. The jewellery and rings, all interconnected with small chains to almost resemble gloves, all clattered about when she moved. The gemstones glinted in the sun, all sapphires or diamonds and…

Kavaa and Kassandora both looked down at the woman’s hands. Kassandora, straight to the point as ever, said it outright. “Have you lost your ability to channel or what?” Elassa moaned and Kassandora nodded to Kavaa.

“I don’t…” Elassa said. “I can do it! I have to!”

Kassandora rolled her crimson eyes and leaned down to give her hand to the woman. “Stand up and don’t dirty yourself at least.”

“One moment.”

Kavaa intervened. She didn’t even know why, she just did. Maybe because Kassie had said it. “Stand up Elassa. I don’t know whether the grass is poisonous or not.” Elassa moaned again, but slowly got to her feet with the assistance of Kassandora pulling her up.

“Do you…” Elassa trailed off as she raised her hands. The sadness had been paved over by anger. Her eyebrows darted downwards and her blue eyes burned with fury. Her movements became fast. Kavaa was surprised that this reaction had taken so long in the first place. Her opinions on Elassa’s character were one thing but the Goddess had still survived countless conflicts in the past. That sort of person did not just panic.

“Neneria might know.” Kassandora said. “I have no clue. It’s not my demesne.”

Neneria took two whole minutes to come down as Kavaa and Kassandora watched the landscape. It shifted whenever no one was looking. Birds flew out of trees, a single glance at them and a look away from the flora they escaped from would make the trees change from oak to ash to birch or pine or something else. The horizon became rolling hills, a mountain formed just when Kavaa turned around. It was lush and covered with vegetation. And then it was gone. Elassa kept on waving her arms and beginning to curse that she could not channel. “I am slow.” Neneria brought attention to herself. “Apologies.” She hovered in the air, the fringes of her dress that hung down past her boots ending at Kavaa’s shoulders.

Neneria did not touch the ground. Kavaa, Kassandora and Elassa all looked to the Goddess of Death as the woman was carried in the air by her minions. Tiny fairies, their mad wings flapping so rapidly they could have been soundless bees all grimaced as finger grabbed at black thread or pushed up directly against Neneria’s body. All silent, all opaque, all a sickly shade of pale green that had more in common with disease than the world around them. “The ground’s safe.” Kassandora said. Was it annoyance? Surprise? Kavaa did not know.

“I know.” Neneria replied.

Kavaa saw Kassandora glance in exasperation at her, and then focus back on Neneria. “You don’t have to expend energy.”

“I do.” Neneria replied.

“Why?” Kassandora asked and Neneria did not reply. Instead, she simply showed off why. The countless tiny ghosts that bore the Goddesses’ weight slowly flew lower as they came down.

Neneria’s boot touched the grass and the flora was wiped away as if some giant had brought a tablecloth with which to clean it. Grass and flower and root and stem and petal all bended into ash and then the ash became dust which withered away in the cool breeze. It was replaced with wooden floorboard. Creaking plank of dark-red, horrendously precious wood yet completely plain and unadorned spread out from where Neneria’s shoe touched the ground. “I cannot touch anything here.”

“So she’s stronger than us?” Elassa asked.

“I know what I am, and I am overwhelming.” Neneria replied. Once again, she raised her arms away from her body as hundreds of tiny ghosts materialized around the Goddess of Death.

“And what does that mean?” Elassa bickered backed as the countless tiny ghosts once again pulled Neneria into the air. The last piece of the Goddess was her black dress of shiny silk or whatever material it was made out of. Kavaa did not know exactly. After that happened, grass and flowered and soil exploded and overtook the wooden planks that the Goddess of Death left behind as if the nature was flora of its own.

“Baalka is a child compared to me. That’s what it means.” Neneria replied dryly as her ghosts carried her so high that her dress did not even reach Kavaa’s waist. The other three Goddesses all shared dry looks. Kavaa didn’t know what sort of response or explanation she expected but it certainly wasn’t one that was so… So dry and professional. The woman sounded as if she was reading off a manual. Kavaa supposed this was her field. Still though, how could Neneria not be nervous?

The other Divines all looked at each other. “So?” Kassandora asked. “And you know this how?”

“I’ve talked with Anassa about this land before.” Neneria said, turning to Elassa. “As I am sure you have.”

“You don’t have to tell me we’re in Baalka when I can work that out.” Kassandora. “What? Do we have any uses or not? Can you out-imagine her?”

“I don’t know.” Neneria said.

“So you can’t pull a mountain of the ground?” Kassandora asked and Kavaa watched Neneria actually turn and look off at the horizon. In the time they had been talking, somehow the trees around them had fallen down and become an endless waist-high thicket of thorns. Neneria’s black hair fell from one side of her face to another as the Goddess of Death looked around and tried waved her arms around. “What are you doing?” Kassandora asked again.

“I don’t know.” Neneria. “I’m trying to imagine.” Kavaa just watched her friend take control of the situation. She actually took a step and got out of Kassandora’s way. If the woman started going off the rails, then she would stop her, but not now.

“And it’s not doing anything?”

“This fucking ground is fucking biting me!” Elassa yelped and jumped up and away from the spot she was standing on. A moment later, the grass started to move and twist and turn and everything moved away. Kavaa squinted at the terrible, circular ball with tendrils that was rising out of the ground. “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?” Elassa screamed.

Kassandora adopted a fighting stance, gripped her sword in both hands as Neneria started to float away. “I could kill it most likely.” Neneria said.

“THEN WHY DON’T YOU!?” Elassa shouted as the huge ball grew larger. It was fleshy and smooth, as if it was fashioned out of sinew or… Kavaa blinked. Or jelly? She looked at those tendrils flying off in all directions. And she saw something move within it. The whole creature was opaque at the edges but its centre was pitch black. And yet something swam around within it. A series of smaller orbs and.

“That doesn’t have a soul.” Neneria called out from above. Kassandora took a step towards it and the movement finally brought Kavaa out of her stupor. That was impossible but then they were in an impossible land. It slithered towards them like some sort of balloon, growing larger and larger as the Goddesses backed away.

“Are we running or what?” Elassa said.

“I’m thinking on it!” Kassandora shouted.

“Then think faster!”

And it was Kavaa that moved. She pulled upon her power. In a similar manner as what happened under Neneria, the grass around Kavaa’s feet turned. It arced away from Kavaa as her sheer presence wiped out the disease nearby, leaving only dry soil as everything was burnt away. But Kavaa did not stop to look. Instead, she placed her hand on that thing that had sprouted to attack Elassa.

Well, it wasn’t a thing or an animal but Kavaa knew exactly what it was. The touch confirmed her suspicion. She had faced this disease countless times before. Each time, it took a mere moment to exterminate. Right now was no different. Her power of pure health flowed through her arm into the ginormous plague cell and Kavaa saw its huge cell wall crack. As if the bacteria itself was developing a cancer, it started to bubble and retreat and move away from the Goddess of Life, but it was too late. Even after Kavaa had let go, she had already healed it to the point of collapsing. The cell took another movement. “What was that?” Kassandora asked.

It was cute that as smart as Kassandora was, there were some things out there that she was still wholly ignorant about. “That was a cell of the black plague.” Kavaa said. “Obviously it was too large to exist but the structure was the exact same. It wasn’t a body, it was a single cell.”

“So you just healed it?” Elassa asked.

“I did just heal it.” Kavaa replied proudly and shrugged.

“The ground.” Kassandora said. Kavaa looked down at the ground and saw the sands of a cracked, dried out desert had formed around her. She blinked and then realised she was still healing the environment through her boots. The moment it was shut off was the moment that sand was devoured by swampy soil which sprouted countless new plants again.

Kavaa gave the report for everyone else to know. “I was healing it, I didn’t realise.” The other three Goddesses looked down at the ground at then at each other. Kassandora went back to Neneria immediately. She did not even seem to care about the fact that the corpse of that huge cell had already been swallowed by vines.

“Can you drag us out of here?” Kassandora asked.

“No.” Neneria replied. “I don’t know actually. Most likely no.”

Elassa timidly got closer to the other Goddesses, her eyes downcast as if she was a beaten dog. Kassandora turned to her. “Can you?” Kavaa took a deep breath and looked around the world again. Now, the horizon was all forested mountains. In the distance, something was moving.

“I could.” Elassa said. “But not without magic.”

“How?” Kassandora asked. Kavaa saw Elassa open her mouth pre-emptively, before her mind could form a word. Her cheeks suddenly went red and she shook her head. “I don’t know. I just cut through the paper.” Kassandora’s fists made a crash of metal on metal as they landed on her hips. The woman took a deep breath.

“Did Anassa tell you that one?” Elassa nodded. “It sounds like her.”

“She created this entire art of soul-entry. But…” Elassa trailed off. “Well, you know Anassa.”

“I do.” Kassandora said.

“So it is all just like that. I know what to do, but what I do is cut through the paper. But then you reach through the painting and just walk through. Anassa says you step through the portrait, you get to the elder’s room and then they send you off.”

“And that’s it?” Kassandora said. Elassa nodded and the Goddess of War took another breath. “How do sorcerers return then?” She was speaking faster. Elassa pursed her lips, her cheeks once again going red and Kassandora sighed. “You don’t know.” It was a statement, not a question.

“Do you think Anassa is one to tell?”

“I know she’s not and that’s why I’m asking you.” Kassandora said and then turned around, her arms falling to the ground as she kept a tight hold of her massive greatsword. “Alright.”

“Do you have an idea?” Kavaa asked.

Kassandora said. “It’s the best I can do right now.”

“What is that?” Kavaa looked around and saw some of the mountains moving in the distance. More germs? Killing that plague-cell had been as difficult in here as it would be out in the material world, so not hard at all. But that? What was that anyway, a worm?

“If you said that was the black plague then the thing in the distance is probably a parasite.” Kassandora replied and Kavaa smiled. It was cute to think that Kassandora was trying to give her advice on health.

“I meant the plan.”

“The plan is to do nothing.” Kassandora exclaimed. “Arascus and Anassa are outside, they’ll get nervous and get us out.” Elassa made a horrible gargle of a sound and Neneria came in from above. Kavaa turned instinctively at that sound, just to see whether the other woman was choking or ill or what. It was nothing, Elassa was just being stupid.

“I was going to suggest the same.” Neneria said quietly.

“Are you serious?” Elassa asked. “And if they won’t?”

“They will.” Neneria said.

“Are you sure?”

“It is family Elassa.” Neneria said. “Even if you don’t trust them, I do.”

“I do.” Elassa said. “But.”

“Doesn’t feel good to wait.” Kassandora said from ahead. “But it is what it is.”

“They’ll come for us.” Kavaa said to calm Elassa down. Of Health and Of Magic weren’t part of Kassandora’s and Neneria’s family, but Kavaa had seen how the Empire treated its own. If there was one thing that Kavaa was sure about, it was that Arascus would come even if it was just Kavaa and Elassa in here. His pride would not let him lose someone. That completely shallow reason was more compelling to Kavaa than any grand ideals. It was one that she understood.

“You sure?” Elassa asked nervously.

“I am.” Elassa smiled at that.

“If you can think of a plan to get us out faster then go ahead but there’s something more ur-KAVAA!” Kassandora’s voice became faster and louder until was a panicked, commanding scream. The Goddess of Health turned around and saw that parasite which had been so far in the distance suddenly bearing down on them. And it was no tiny little creature that inhabited one’s gut. It was a black line of illness and disease that shot out of the ground and into the air.

Kavaa channelled her healing and her eyes grew wide.

Not one parasite.

Billions, trillions of tiny cells.

It was disease manifest.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep