Chapter 18: To Sigma - Part 4 - Final
In Reiden, Serien pestered Charle for Athena's location almost every day.
"She went to the bank today?"
"No, your grace. She didn't go to the bank the day before yesterday, she didn't go yesterday, and she didn't go today either."
The reason Serien went to Charle for this was because the Bank Erdenleint vaults were bewitched and if you had one, they would travel to the bank where you are.
Well, not the vault itself, its contents.
"Be sure to let me know when you hear something." Serien said and walked away.
Charle looked at the sky through the window. "Ah~... Miss Athena, please go to a bank."
***
In the Fog Forest, Lunnia was preparing to leave after spending a week with Nimo. During her stay, Nimo taught her how to transform into mist and helped her to tame a flying mount.
They had become good friends and Lunnia spent hours listening to Nimo's stories and the night of bargaining with Athena. Lunnia never fell in love and hearing Nimo talk about Athena was sweet to the point of getting sickening.
"Here's the map. She must be around here if Gion hasn't changed his address."
"Thank you Nimo. One day I'll be sure to repay your kindness."
The two embraced and Lunnia mounted her pegasus and flew, leaving the clear lake of the Fog Forest behind, heading north.
***
Meanwhile, in an oasis, Athena, her nymphs and grimera were refreshing themselves from the stifling desert heat Sigma had become.
"How does an entire sea disappear in three hundred something years?" Athena asked again.
In the game, Sigma was a country under a sea of fresh water and was a favorite place for players who liked to mine.
Sigma was also the largest supplier of mana crystal, also called starstone, shooting star or meteorite.
Players used mana crystals as fuel to cast ultimate spells, as no one could cast such a spell with their own mana.
These crystals had now become large, deformed turquoise pillars that emanated waves upon waves of pure, toxic mana.
"It was a demon lord..." Anemus said again. "How many times are you going to ask that?"
"I still don't believe there are demon lords..."
"I was shocked when the fairies told me he had just done it because the king of Sigma refused to mine mana crystals for him." Anemus dipped her head in the water.
"Aaah..." Athena looked at the grimera wetting its wings. "That reminds me."
"What?" Asked a voice behind Athena.
"I still haven't named it."
"Hm... How about Lio? He's a lion and everything..."
"Hm... It's a good name. What do you think Anemus?"
"But isn't that very normal? You know, he's handsome, has majestic fur, and he's smart. I think Kima suits him well." Anemus replied.
"Kima... 'Wise King' huh?"
"I like it. Kima! Better than 'Achilles'."
"Achilles? What a strange word."
Athena turned around. "Look here, Achilles is one of my… Gion?"
On the shore of the lake was a man in a loincloth. Gion appeared to be in his mid-thirties, with defined musculature, long purple hair, and heavenly purple eyes.
"Hello." Gion smiled. "Who are you? How do you know my name? Ah! I found you the moment you entered this desert."
"Huh?" Athena was a little scared.
Gion in the game was one of the strongest NPCs.
In fact, he was impossible to shoot down. Gion looked with an almost menacing seriousness at Athena.
"Your mana is pretty dirty. When are humans, I understand why there are some with so much darkness and rancor in their mana. But you're not human, are you?"
The pressure on Athena was enormous. Gion's mana was almost as pure and dense as a mana crystal pillar.
It made Athena's heart and breathing quicken with fear.
It looked like the desert had turned into a great ice desert as Athena trembled. She looked around for her sword and saw it beside her armor in the shade of a palm tree.
Maybe if she ran... No, that wouldn't work. She could feel that somehow, Gion would kill her even before he turned toward her equipment.
Athena no longer knew what to do, since she arrived in this world, this was the first time she had felt true fear.
She would vomit if she didn't control herself. Her face was contorted in terror as Gion had returned to smiling.
He was the real monster there.
Athena was about to pass out when she heard Anemus' voice.
"You old man idiot, can you control this stupid mass of mana? It's hurting her!"
"Huh? Anemus?" Gion's eyes opened wide in surprise and he began to look around with a wide smile. "Hades is here?"
"Hades died..."
Anemus' expression was serious, showing the truth of what she said.
"Oh? It can't be? Who killed that demon?"
"Himself. And look at the surprise, three hundred years later he came back." Anemus continued, enjoying hermself.
Gion's eyes sparkled again. "Eeh? Where is he then?" He went back to looking for Hades.
In addition to being amused by Gion's reactions, Anemus was buying time for Athena to calm down.
"He is here."
"Where? Behind the grimera?"
"Not, here." Anemus pointed at Athena.
"Where?" Gion walked around Athena.
"Here! Here! Can't you see her? She's Hades!" Anemus exploded when she saw Gion looking at Athena's naked body.
"Eh? Really?"
"Serious."
"BAHAHAHAHA!!!!" Gion fell into the water and began to roll with laughter. "Hades became a woman! Hahahahaha! What's more, he lost all the demonic power he had! Hahaha! Got what you deserves!"
As Gion laughed, Athena calmed down, got up, dried herself, and put on her armor. It was like all the tension had melted away after hearing Gion chuckle.
Gion's voice was exactly the same as that of his voice actor and Athena had always hated the Druid's laughter and personality. She couldn't believe she was scared of an asshole.
After a while, Gion's laugh had stopped being irritating and had become inconvenient.
"How much longer are you going to laugh?" Athena screamed as she kicked sand at the druid.
Gion sat facing Athena. "Ah~... So how did this happen?"
"Well..."
Athena began to tell truths, half-truths and some lies.
Athena said that she was tired of all that death and destruction, so decided that she would die and then come back as someone new.
However in the process of magic, something went wrong and her soul escaped to another world, where she was reborn and lived as Arthur, who died young.
"Got it... So where is this magic now?"
"I don't know. It was imprinted on Hades' body. Must have disappeared or if some demon didn't copy. But I doubt."
"So why did you come looking for me? Is it anything to do with the absurd mana load on Anemus? I warned you she needed the growth ritual." Gion said as he looked at Anemus playing with Fotiá and Kima in the water.
"Is that... No, what? What are you talking about?"
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