Valhalla Saga

Episode 58/Chapter 5: The Goddess of the moon (5)

TL: Tsubak

ED:

The body of the black dragon destroyed the walls. The walls that had Artemis’ blessing in it couldn’t endure the roll of a dragon that was 100 meters big.

Consecutive earthquakes shook the polis. Nidhogg spread down because she had clashed against the wall too strongly but she had successfully accomplished her role and more.

The soldiers of Artemis trembled as Adenmaha and Rolo fired their respective breaths. The breath fired by Drakon Ismenios swept away everything in the hole that Nidhogg created and established a new road.

Tae Ho glared at the center of the city with his ‘eyes of the dragon’. There was a hidden room in this polis that could be considered the core just like Delphos had.

[Saga: The warrior that had a Goddess meet him]

[Saga: Equipment of the dragon knight]

Ten Valkyries got summoned next to Tae Ho. They all grabbed a weapon and charged forward. There were still a lot of Artemis’ forces but already half of them had been intercepted by the dragons.

Tae Ho followed the path created by the sword of the Valkyries and concentrated on his ‘eyes of the dragon’. He finally discovered the hidden room when he reached the center of the city.

“You villains! Where do you think this is that you misbehave!”

A woman that was estimated to be Artemis’ maiden took out a big bow and stopped the path of the group. It seemed like what she was showing wasn’t a bluff that Artemis’ aura swelled up among the maidens and tried to devour the group.

But Tae Ho’s dark blue divinity surged up to block Artemis’ divinity. He could easily defend against it as it wasn’t Artemis herself that activated the divinity but one of her maidens.

“What misconduct are you talking about!”

Ismenios let out a roar and attacked the maidens. Almost all the citizens were under Artemis’ control but they weren’t born as beings wanting to destroy the world in the first place so Tae Ho had said to minimize unnecessary sacrifices but they weren’t in a situation to be at ease.

Tae Ho closed the distance with the place that was connected to the room underground and mumbled.

“I suddenly miss McLaren.”

‘I was about to forget his name.’

The rock serpent that should be in the residence of Idun. He was the best when it came to digging the ground.

Tae Ho remembered of the times he spent with McLaren and then slammed the ground with his conquering divinity. He turned to look at Adenmaha and Rolo that were stopping the army of Artemis from the rear and in the air and Ismenios that was blocking the maidens and grabbed Gae Bolg.

He called out a name at the end of his pondering.

“Ismenios!”

“Master!”

Drakon Ismenios got moved and yelled and then spread his wings and flew up. Tae Ho got on top of him by leaping in the air and activated ‘the one that conquers dragons’. He surged up vertically and prepared to also descend vertically.

What he would use is the ‘dragon cannon’.

“Master! Please, ‘the warrior that rode on a Goddess’ too!”

Drakon Ismenios spoke with an earnest voice but Tae Ho didn’t listen to him. The power would be enough even if they didn’t do that!

[Saga: Dragon cannon]

Draconic Ballista!

The attack that fell from the sky hit the ground. The several layers of the ground crumbled down and the hidden room finally appeared.

“Artemis.”

Tae Ho spoke in a low voice and jumped down from Ismenios’ back.

&

Artemis couldn’t return to her sacred force. Part of it was because of the distance but it was also because there was someone obstructing her.

Echidna handed over the commanding right of her army to her children and chased after Artemis stubbornly. Atalante tried to help her but it was impossible. She couldn’t even move her fast feet properly because of the joint attack of Siri and Bracky.

Bracky pressured her closely and if she tried to make some distance Siri would pour down arrows at her and hinder her movements. Bracky would close the distance once again.

It was simple but a hard combination to get out of.

Dionysius called out Artemis name in the middle of the battle. It was because it wouldn’t be late if she got a hold of herself at least now.

But Artemis’ thought was different. Dionysius didn’t know what she had seen and what Idun’s warrior was doing.

“Artemis!”

The one that yelled this time was Echidna. Artemis, that was only thinking of getting away from the battlefield, cursed out and glared at Echidna. She raised her bow to try to shake Echidna off as she was sticking to her persistently.

“Die!”

The arrow of the God of hunt flew directly to Echidna’s forehead. Artemis took out her second arrow after a moment of hesitation and then inserted a stronger divine power into her arrow.

Echidna gulped dry saliva. Athena was indeed one of the 12 Olympians. In addition, she had gotten stronger after she turned into a being wanting to destroy the world so it wasn’t easy to overcome her.

If she was inside her city of monsters, that was her sacred force, she was confident even when facing one of the 12 Olympians but she was outside of her city.

In addition, she had handed over her sacred force completely to Tae Ho so she had become weaker than before.

Could she also block the next arrow? Could she buy time like Tae Ho had ordered her to?

Echidna didn’t have time to think. She just concentrated her divine power and raised a barrier.

Kwagang!

The second arrow destroyed the barrier. It didn’t stop there and also destroyed Echidna’s scales and carved in her flesh.

This arrow was really small compared to Echidna’s body but the shock couldn’t be described with words. Echidna gulped her scream and pain and glared at Artemis. She had activated the power of her evil eyes and Artemis hesitated a moment but then fended it off. She rather nocked her third arrow.

“This is the end.”

She would kill the big snake and charge towards her sacred force with all her power.

But it was at that moment.

Artemis felt a pain in her chest and screamed in pain. Echidna, that had flinched, drew a smile.

The divine power of Artemis was weakening.

&

The hidden room was filled with Artemis’ divine power. The moment Tae Ho entered the room that had the same structure as the room of Apollo in Delphos, felt like he had been trapped deep in the sea.

Artemis’ divinity opposed Tae Ho. It wanted to kill Tae Ho and disperse his divinity.

But he had already expected this. He pushed away Artemis’ divine power after covering himself with the dark blue divinity. He released his divine power in an instant and placed his hand on a yellow sphere that was at the center of the room.

If he couldn’t take it he would destroy it so no one could have it.

The divinity of the God of conquer dug inside the nucleus of the sacred force.

&

Artemis staggered. Her sacred force still existed but the connection became worse. She was sure one of the polises inside her sacred force got destroyed completely or got taken over.

“She has weakened.”

Echidna said and Artemis let out an enraged roar at her voice. The urgency took away her sense of judgement.

Artemis fired arrows in consecution. Echidna giggled at that and just focused on defense.

She would buy time.

She would wait until Artemis became weaker than her.

Nasty flames came out of Echidna’s mouth.

&

Tae Ho staggered after he destroyed the nucleus of the polis. Destroying the nucleus of a sacred force that Artemis made with much labor wasn’t easy at all. He ended up spending a lot of divine power and stamina.

But this wasn’t the time to stop. Tae Ho took out an entire golden apple and called Hermes after he devoured it.

The God of Olympus Hermes looked at Tae Ho with fear, joy and disgust. It was an obvious thing to show rejection as he had seen the sacred force of a God of Olympus get destroyed forcefully.

But Hermes knew how to differentiate effort and company. In addition Tae Ho was an ally now.

Hermes grabbed Tae Ho’s hand and he entrusted his everything on Hermes’ divine power.

“To the next polis.”

Hermes flew with Tae Ho with his winged shoes Talaria.

&

Artemis wasn’t the only one that got weakened. Atalante had also become weaker. All the heroes of Artemis had part of their strength cut off.

Dionysius understood immediately what happened and also understood why Artemis had done something mad.

This battle was a complete mistake. He couldn’t have imagined that Echidna and her children would be at the same side of Idun’s warrior.

‘Did Hermes too?’

It was understandable then. If he was with Hermes he would be able to attack all the polises of Artemis. Not only that but they could also add the polises of Dionysius into the fray.

Dionysius felt anxiousness. He turned his head to look for Artemis.

Artemis was fighting against Echidna.

And that battle wasn’t advantageous to her at all.

&

“I’m – rolling!”

Nidhogg destroyed the walls once again and collapsed. But it was enough like always.

The order was as followed. Adenmaha, Rolo and Ismenios created commotion and stopped the attacks of the enemy and Tae Ho found the hidden room.

‘How many can you break?’

‘At least four. That’s what I promised.’

[Saga: The warrior that rode on a Goddess]

[Saga: Dragon cannon]

Rolo- no, Tae Ho rode on Lilly and destroyed the ground with the draconic ballista. Drakon Ismenios grumbled saying that it was favoritism and Lilly put a displeased face.

‘Really, why are you like that? Do you have some emotions towards Rolo?’

‘I’m lacking strength.’

Simply looking at strength, Ismenios was the best. But Tae Ho had ended up spending too much of his strength and divine power while taking over the first polis. He needed to be faster to destroy the ground.

WHatever the case, the important thing was that the hidden room had appeared. This room didn’t only have Artemis’ divine power but also moving statues as guards but it didn’t matter. Tae Ho destroyed them in an instant and placed his hand once again in the round sphere.

God of conquer.

The dark blue divinity covered the second polis.

&

“Ack!”

Artemis ended up dropping her bow and clenched her chest.

Echidna didn’t miss that moment and fired out poison and Artemis hurriedly threw herself and rolled on the ground.

The blue wolf got covered in the poison so it let out a pained scream and rolled on the ground and it passed away not long after.

Echidna laughed. Artemis had surged up her golden divinity once again but she had become considerably weaker.

“How long can you hold on?”

Echidna licked her lips. She had the eyes of a cat playing with her food.

Artemis cursed out and grabbed her bow with trembling hands.

And right at that moment.

Tae Ho and Hermes were heading to the third polis.

&

Apollo was looking at the battlefield through the eyes of her maidens.

The situation was flowing like they had first planned. Artemis’ strength was getting drastically weakened as she relied on her sacred forces too much, especially among the 12 Olympians.

Apollo felt pain while looking at her sister being in pain.

His hands trembled because he wanted to hit and kill Echidna, that was harassing his sister.

But he had to endure it. He had to wait for the moment.

Apollo raised his hands and covered his eyes but he couldn’t completely block Artemis’ screams.

&

Dionysius sensed a dense sign of defeat. The battlefield was still being maintained because the forces he had brought were a lot but it was only to that point. They couldn’t win and it was impossible to take most of his forces and retreat.

Atalante couldn’t win either. The Goddess of the foreign world that had ears of a wolf aimed for her lower body really stubbornly. Atalante couldn’t run properly as she had been hit in her thighs and calves by several arrows.

‘Isn’t it glad that i’m not here?’

Dionysius’ shinsoo was the one at this place instead of him.

Dionysius gritted his teeth and turned to look at Artemis, and then frowned.

Artemis was sitting down while clenching her chest after firing an arrow. Tears fell down from her poor eyes, and her divinity that had become a mess wasn’t a flashy gold anymore.

She had suffered damage as her sacred force got destroyed but it was seen as she failed operating her divinity because of the drastic change in emotions.

Echidna fired strong poison towards that Artemis. Artemis rolled on the ground hurriedly and dodged the poison but it was really pitiful to see a Goddess rolling on the ground.

The nucleus of four polises got destroyed. But it wasn’t simply four. They were the most important places of Artemis sacred force.

Echidna looked down at Artemis and giggled. She transformed into a Goddess and wrapped Artemis with her tail and gave her pain.

Artemis made breathtaking sounds. Echidna wrapped her with more strength and in the end Artemis ended up dropping her bow. It seemed like the parts of her body that got infected with Echidna’s poison was screaming.

“It’s up to there.”

Echidna turned her head at the voice filled with grief. The God of light Apollo was standing there and it wasn’t an illusion but the real deal.”

“As you wish.”

Echidna smiled in a fishy way and released her. Apollo hurriedly received ARtemis with his arms.

“Apollo?”

The one that spoke in a bewildered way was Athena. She felt uneasy because of Apollo’s sudden appearance while she was fighting with the Valkyries.

“Are you planning-.”

“No.”

Apollo cut off Athena’s words. He knew what Athena was thinking about. Aren’t you going to betray us because of your love towards your sister, or take Artemis and flee?

That won’t happen. He didn’t think like that. Apollo was the God of rationality.

Athena opened her eyes widely and glared at Apollo. Echidna fell back obediently to the point it was unexpected and then watched Apollo and Artemis embracing each other. It seemed that compared to Athena, she had kind of expected this situation.

“You became really weak.”

Apollo said. Artemis barely opened her eyes and looked at Apollo with resentment, enmity, killing intent and endless affection.

“Athena, remember what I said.”

About not trusting Asgard too much. That they had to protect Olympus.

Athena opened her eyes roundly. It was because she understood what Apollo was about to do. She also understood why he had talked about what would happen after the battle even though the counterattack had just started.

“Let’s fall asleep together. Let’s wake up together believing that all of this was a nightmare.”

Apollo spoke gently and stroke Artemis’ cheek. He covered the plentily weakened divinity of Artemis with his own divinity.

Hades chose to fall in a deep slumber to not get seduced by the voice.

And Apollo had also decided to do the same. He used all his strength and chose to fall asleep with ARtemis.

Apollo was the God of rationality. He knew that his choice wasn’t favorable for his allies. Killing Artemis and restoring Apollo’s strength was much more favorable.

But Apollo couldn’t kill Artemis. He couldn’t see her be killed.

That’s why he negotiated with the master of Asgard.

‘It’s enough if there are no damages even after I fall asleep.’

Apollo smiled bitterly and placed his lips on Artemis’ forehead. The two golden divinities got mixed into one and Apollo and Artemis started to transform into rock.

Apollo placed down his divinity.

He had conceded his seat to another God just like the previous God of sun Helios had conceded his seat to him.

‘I’m sorry Athena. I will leave Olympus to you.’

The seat of the God of sun was handed over to Athena and at the same time a necklace was held in Tae Ho’s hands.

It was a necklace that had the authority of the God of sun.

It was the result of Apollo having conceded his seat of God of sun of Olympus to Athena and Tae Ho, a God of a foreign world.

Apollo fell asleep with Artemis. Athena felt her divinity that got stronger and closed her eyes and Echidna frowned while looking at Apollo and Artemis having turned into stone.

ARtemis didn’t die but she fell asleep completely. Her sacred force became an ownerless throne and the countless being under the control of the Goddess of moon got liberated.

It was something that couldn’t happen normally. It was a miracle that occurred thanks to Apollo having sacrificed everything he had and falling asleep with Artemis.

Dionysius breathed roughly. He admitted that this battle had ended in his complete defeat.

But it was at that moment. Dionysius felt a strong and unfamiliar divine power. It was because Tae Ho’s lesser God, Siri, had arrived in front of the black panther.

Siri didn’t attack the panther. She just glared it and then transmitted the voice of the upper God as his lesser God.

[Dionysius.]

Tae Ho spoke from a far place. Dionysius shrank down at the dark blue divinity that surged up in a threatening way.

Tae Ho looked at the black panther through SIri’s eyes and warned him from a distance.

[You come next. I will go find you soon.]

That’s why prepare for it.

Guard against me if you can.

The God of conquer that came from Asgard will go to you to stab a knife in your sword.

The conversation ended. Dionysius gave up on his shinsoo. The divinity of Dionysius that was in the black panther disappeared and the mad soldiers of the God lost their madness and toppled down.

And once again in a far place, Tae Ho sat in a hidden room in one of Artemis’ polises.

He sweated as if his threat to the God of madness was all an act and let out a sigh of relief. Cuchulainn asked him.

‘But hey.’

‘Yes?’

‘Are you really going to attack Dionysius?’

‘That’s obviously a lie.’

He had no reason to warn him of an attack as it wasn’t even a telephone punch. In addition, striking first and ambushing was the best way of attack in a battle.

He had scared him plentily so he would hide and make his defenses solidly. That’s why he would leave aside Dionysius and focus on the next thing.

The thing he had to do next. The most important thing of the things that remained.

“Demeter.”

Tae Ho spoke in a low voice and clenched the necklace that had the authority of the God of sun.

< Episode 58 – The Goddess of the moon (5) > End