by Heretic God
Past, is the spreading of heavenly wisdom from the enlightened goddess!
One pledges, Athena shall soon return to the Athena of origin!
Divine songs weaved forth from the mouth of Athena.
Like hymn, like prayer, like praise.
With the chant's continuation, Athena's figure began to change.
Her height increased, her limbs lengthened, and the looks of a delicate girl gave away to a lady of divine excellence.
The immaturity vanished from her features.
From appearances alone, she looked like she was seventeen or eighteen, her modern clothes having transformed to white robes of antiquity.
"Defiant... Athena—!"
Seeing Athena at such a close range, Yuri's instincts realized Athena's nature.
Here was the descendant of mother earth.
Here was the dominating leader of death and gloom.
Here was the forlorn goddess of the skies, the earth, and the darkness.
Even so, she must still be resisted, because this street was not owned by the gods, but built by the people, as a city for humankind.
"Athena! Please stop joking. You still have an opponent here!"
Yuri ignored her trembling body, frightened by the prospect of challenging a god, and shouted with all her strength.
"O miko, thy words amusest me. Speakest his name, for one may think the same."
"The one to fight you is the personification of godslaying, one recognized as a king of mages—Kusanagi Godou! Until you defeat him, please stop abusing your powers and causing trouble as you please!"
Facing the amused Athena, Yuri suppressed her fear to answer.
Yuri had received the special education of a hime-miko since childhood, so she understood divine might more than anyone. Despite this, she continued on without holding back:
—No.
Her trembling wasn't caused by fear.
Yuri realized that her temperature was dropping, because she stood near the Athena who now had the Gorgonieon.
Affected by the chill of the underworld that spread from the goddess, Yuri's body was nearing its death.
"Ah... truly apologetic; although one retrieved the strength of antiquity, full control has yet to be regained."
Athena's voice contained her amusement.
Compared to earlier, the spiritual power held within her words were immeasurably stronger.
"Yet, this baptism by death's breath, thou receivest not alone. Kusanagi Godou has already experienced. If he can escape the abyss of death to stand before one, one may yet grant thy wish—"
"If that's so, then there's no problem. That person is still alive. For my sake—definitely, to protect me, he will definitely arrive soon! Just watch!"
Her legs were trembling so much that even standing was difficult.
Yet Yuri continued to stand with all her strength.
She hadn't received a response from Kusanagi-san; she only told him to hurry here before hanging up the call.
Plus, she didn't know if his power could actually be used.
If it could, Godou Kusanagi would fly here. If not, she would hopelessly die here.
Just which was it? Should she trust him? Should she not?
Casting aside all confusion, Yuri shouted with all her strength:
"Kusanagi-san! Kusanagi Godou! Come! Athena and I are here! Hurry up—your strength is needed now. Hurry!"
The wind began to blow.
The gentle night breeze quickly rose to a mild wind, then grew to a powerful whirlwind.
Athena was stunned.
Within the whirlwind stood the figure that caused her expression.
—Kusanagi Godou
Kusanagi Godou had arrived with the wind.
Her sight had connected with his sharp eyes.
As Yuri saw the devil king that was her age, she collapsed onto the ground as her knees gave out below her.
The most surprising thing was, Yuri wasn't nervous at all.
No matter how immature he was, no matter how troublesome he was, he would accomplish what he had to do.
Protect those weaker than him, rescue his friends from danger—without such a will, it would be impossible for a normal person to receive the Campione title.
Godou would definitely come.
That was what her intuition had told her, and she calmly nodded towards Godou with her trust.
Part 4
Before this, Godou had been at the West Kasai station.
Athena sought the Gorgoneion, so she should be moving towards the Nanao Shrine, thus he rode Anna's crazy car once again, hoping to return to Tokyo in haste the entire time. But...
Kasai area had already fallen under Athena's influence.
"I sleep for just a bit and this happens, such a troublesome goddess."
Godou complained.
Within this district consumed by darkness, lighting equipment and cars were unusable.
As they arrived on the edge of Kasai, Anna sharply stopped her hellishly fast car. Although he had been lucky to stay alive, he must still press on.
Vehicles lined up around them, every one of them disabled; they were no different than steel boxes with wheels.
"Eh, regarding the relationship between owls and Athena... because they were birds of wisdom, so they became the messengers for the goddess of wisdom... right?"
A tiny shadow flew past just as Godou looked out the window.
Since he had very good night vision, he knew it was an owl.
Most Japanese had only seen those birds on illustrations or on TV, so these were probably summoned by the silver-haired goddess.
Athena seemed to have the alias of 'Brilliant Goddess'.
Meaning 'one whose eyes sparkled with light'.
But Godou had finally realized that this alias really meant 'one who possessed the eyes of an owl'.
"That's not all. The nocturnal owls were seen by people of ancient times as the embodiment of the death gods, who traveled from the underworld to the real world. So of course they would also become the servants of Athena, who had once been a god of the netherworld."
Erica responded smoothly.
...So that was how it is. Godou's felt like an examinee who only knew half the answer.
"You can't defeat Athena if you don't even know something of this level. We've been rushing so much that I didn't get to teach you much this entire time."
"N-no, that's alright; the current situation is way too disastrous."
Godou hastily separated himself from the disgruntled Erica.
Thanks to his partner, Godou at least learned quite a bit of knowledge regarding Athena.
The information passed into his mind through [Endowment] will eventually disappear, but it should at least stay for one day, so there were no immediate problems.
The problem was that the information wasn't complete.
It was probably enough to summon the [Warrior] form, but not completely, and there was no way to bring [Sword] to its full potential.
Because the car was shaking violently, it had been impossible for him to concentrate on the learning.
"Anyhow, Anna-san, I'll get off here, thank you very much."
Godou thanked her as he opened the rear door and got out.
He would get to Nanao Shrine even if he had to walk there; it was better than shuffling about here.
"Alright, I wish you good luck. Godou-san, please return safely. If you do, I'll make delicious meals for you again!"
"I can't wait already; I'll have to trouble you then."
Anna bid goodbye to Godou with a smile. She really was a lady that served knights.
Even at a moment like this, there were no tears in her eyes, only hearty smiles as she made promises for next time.
"...I'll say this now, if you wish to eat Arianna's personally cooked meals, you have to go alone; I won't be tagging along."
Erica said after following Godou out of the car and moving to stand beside him, with an expression that
claimed her response is to be expected.
Her serious tone made Godou's feelings waver.
"That's to say, you once said that she couldn't stew vegetables; is it really that bad?"
"No, Arianna's cooking is very good, but if you let her make pot stew then it'll be dangerous, guaranteed to give you an unprecedented feeling of peril. Since it would be a meal to celebrate your victorious return, of course it would be a hot pot stew[1G 11]."
Erica, who was afraid of neither gods nor devils, was this cautious in regards to Anna's meals.
It must be really serious.
But, rather than worrying about a meal in the future, they should be worrying over the situation right now. Erica and Godou continued to walk, neither of them bothered by the darkness.
"...Anyhow, seems like Athena had already started doing whatever she wants."
"Maybe it's because she already won once, so she no longer feels the need to guard herself against you."
They walked down the pitch black streets one step at a time; this was going to be a boring journey.
—Or not.
As Erica moved closer to Godou, he changed his mind. With this person around, it was impossible to be bored.
"To stop Athena's brutality, we should make more preparations for the [Warrior]. So let's get back to what we were doing."
"No need! This is already enough. You see, I'm not going to fight, I'm just going to negotiate for her to leave, so I only need enough to make her wary of me."
"You're far too naive. You think Athena will care about any weapon that couldn't kill her?"
"If you really believe that, then tell me some more about Athena."
"No, too bothersome. Godou, why don't you just say that you want my lips; do it passionately, let my heart flutter. Come on, hurry~~"
"There's no way I can say something so embarrassing! If our foe wants to bring trouble to these streets, we could use [White Stallion], we can do something either way!"
Earlier, Godou could vaguely feel the direction towards [East].
It was an instinctive feel, like that of migratory birds.
This made it possible to use Verethragna's third incarnation. But even though he could, it wasn't a power he wanted to use, since it was an overwhelmingly powerful technique.
Therefore Godou was able to calmly reject Erica's tempting jokes.
Even though it was better to have more armaments, it couldn't be helped. That preparatory method was far too exhilarating in Kusanagi Godou's opinion, and could only be used with considerable emotional readiness.
—The two of them continued to talk as they walked.
As they arrived at the West Kasai station, they realized that the place was even more rowdy than usual.
There were far more people than any other place here.
Since the metro stopped, many people were stuck and couldn't settle down.
Since nobody knew how the power cut, the East-West line and the Sobu line were both temporarily stopped, while station workers and security tried to explain the situation using their microphones.
People in the middle of their way home gathered about, anxiously listening for an explanation.
"Power outage; that excuse is stretching it."
"Forget it, at least radios and phones still work, but how are they going to explain this if this happened in Italy or Europe?"
Erica and Godou chatted as they watched the gathering crowds.
Gods who descended and revealed themselves always brought odd phenomenons about. To normal people who knew nothing of mages, this was nothing less than a disaster.
"They could claim it's a tornado, earthquake, or viral outbreak, and warn everyone to stay inside. But regardless of the explanation, people will always sense that something was abnormal, even after they calm down."
"Sense?"
"Europe—especially Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, and England, are all places where magic is widespread, and could be considered the homeland of the devil kings. If a [Heretic God] or godslayer appeared, it would be known quickly, because there would be tons of unusual events."
Even in Europe, mages wouldn't dare expose such events openly.
But most cities had secret organizations similar to Erica's [Copper Black Cross], and most people connected to magic had an organization they belonged to.
There were many people within the cities who knew of how to connect with these organizations.
Erica said that they would spread their knowledge on how to recognize other mages, as well as their fear of gods and godslayers, through the cities as rumors and folklore.
"But won't Tokyo become like Europe in the future? After all, Godou was here, and now even a [Heretic God] has come."
"I don't want the people of Tokyo to become aware of such things."
Godou replied nonchalantly as he wondered if there was a shortcut to Nanao Shrine.
Without any other means of mobility, he could only rely upon Verethragna's power.
"...Of course the best method is to use [Wind] power, but I still don't completely understand it, so I'd rather not use it."
Verethragna was a god of victory, yet also a god that dominated over kings.
Under the widespread worship of Parthian and Sassanid Empires[1G 12] in ancient Persia, Verethragna had become a patron saint of the people. Yet the incarnation that most represented Verethragna was [Wind].
Transforming into a gust of wind to protect the people—especially travelers.
It was said that ancient Persians would often recite the prayers of Verethragna to pray for a safe journey, or place small figures of him on the streets for protection.
"Can someone call upon you by using the power of [Wind]?"
"I think only Mariya-san can, although I don't want to give her any trouble. What should I do...!?"
Just as he answered Erica, Godou's cell phone began to ring.
"Eh?"
[It's me, Mariya. Kusanagi-san? Where are you right now!?]
Just as he spoke of Mariya, the actual person called him.
After reporting his status, he wanted to see if he could obtain Mariya's help, yet she unexpectedly agreed.
Even though he was relying on Mariya, he could only accept success from himself right now. Failure was unacceptable, and the responsibility was heavy.
"Was the call from that woman?"
Erica asked Godou who was looking glum.
"Don't say 'that woman'; her name is Mariya Yuri, say her name properly."
"I know I know... her name should be Bait. I never thought that girl would have so much courage."
"You say it's courage, but I think it's more like her sense of responsibility... I regret it now. I really shouldn't have said anything. If she dies in vain like this, I'll have to carry a cross on my back for the rest of my life."
I could imagine Mariya Yuri sighing deeply while taking it upon herself when no one else was in the position to play such a potentially disastrous role.
It was because she was a very serious girl with a strong sense of responsibility.
Although they had only met for a short time, he had a very clear understanding of this fact.
"Hey, Godou, I guess I should take this opportunity to tell you something. Despite how I look, I'm a very generous and open-minded girl."
"What? I really don't have time for chitchats right now."
"I'm just offering you my generosity. Although I'm your lover, I could still turn a blind eye if you want a second lover. You're still young, so it's not surprising for you to be attracted to other girls."
Erica spoke these strange words.
Just what was she talking about?
"Wait a second. I don't even have a wife... could you speak frankly?"
"Then I'll be blunt, you should try to make that Mariya girl your second lover. She really is a rare talent, has a compatible personality with you, not to mention plenty of courage. You should spend some time developing her, you know?"
"...What?"
Godou froze as he stared at Erica.
The blond devil was advising him with a completely serious face.
"It's rare to find such a powerful spiritual seer... later on, if we have to fight a god whose origin we don't know, that girl's spiritual sight would be able read the god's various divine attributes. She's a gifted individual that would make your [Sword] even more effective, so make sure you don't lose her."
"Don't joke about something like that! How can I ask Mariya to do that kind of thing!"
"I'm serious, otherwise who would make this kind of stale joke? Ah, I'll state up front, she can only be your second lover at most. No matter when it is or who it is, your number one lover should always be me—Erica Blandelli, remember? If you forget, I won't forgive you."
Erica nagged on as she held onto Godou's hand.
I didn't know why, but my feelings felt like they were just captured by a pair of cuffs.
"If you forget... I think I will definitely kill you, so never ever forget that. I may be generous, but I am not patient."
Erica said as she smiled softly.
Unlike her usual devilish grin, her smile was completely innocent.
Godou found this cute smile deathly terrifying; it was so innocent that it only made him feel like he would truly be in mortal peril.
"Eh, wait up. Haven't you already attacked me seriously before!"
"That was merely a game. If I really hate you, I'll definitely seize just the right moment to kill you. There will be no escape, followed by a single sure-kill strike. Simple, isn't it?"
Erica moved even closer as she continued to speak.
Godou hurriedly pushed Erica aside, an act of immaturity as his fear overcame his conscience.
"D-don't say stupid things and leave me; I'm going to use the [Wind] power now. Since I'm still unfamiliar with this incarnation, I need to concentrate."
Godou sat down on the nearby railing.
He closed his eyes and focused his thoughts.
He must make his ears more sensitive than ever, not to miss a single sound from the distance.
A middle-aged man complained angrily about the metro being stopped.
A small child was crying.
The people nearby were comforting him.
A person was whining to the police about a completely unrelated matter.
—Godou ignored these voices. What he needed to hear weren't these sounds, but a voice from far away, the voice of someone he must protect.
