Chapter 97: Queen's Wrath - The Feelings in the Dark
Of all the magical elements, the dark element was the only one that exerted influence on people's minds, corrupting their souls little by little with strong negative feelings.
The reason for this was because the dark element came from the feelings and memories of those who had died and fallen to hellish damnation.
The feelings and memories of souls became demonic energy and from demonic energy came the dark element.
So in the end, the dark element was just negative memories and feelings that tried to corrupt Athena just like it had done with Faena.
However, instead of being corrupted, Athena made peace with herself, defeated her demons and forgave her past. She got rid of her negative feelings, her anger and rancor, and with that she acquired a power that could shake the world. But this power was aggressive and Athena did not have complete control over it.
There were so many feelings at once that if she didn't pay attention, she would easily go crazy.
Ever since she took it from Faena, Athena had been keeping the darkness in check, but...
Athena was trapped in darkness, in the deepest part of her mind where she only heard the turbulent beat of her raging heart.
She was in that state because of her own feelings.
The sadness that the fight with Anemus brought her, the anger and the thirst for revenge for what Veron did to Serien and Mifa.
These feelings fanned the darkness within her and made it overflow, trying to drown the mind of Athena who resisted as she made her attack against Mizhar.
However, when she was calming down while torturing Veron, Athena lowered her guard and upon seeing Mifa injured, the fury flooded her mind and the darkness intensified that feeling.
In that darkness, as she was held captive by her own power, Athena remembered a phrase someone in the distant past had said.
There is no feeling more harmful than anger.
Athena laughed as if she mocked herself and realized the presence in front of her. "Have you come to see how I drown in my own feelings?" Athena snarled angrily.
"..."
Athena lifted her head and looked at the creature in front of her. The creature had her face, her beauty, her body, but its eyes were nothing like hers. Athena narrowed her eyes, staring into the large black eyes of the creature made of darkness.
It was like looking into a mirror that showed the worst version of her.
"I will get out of here..."
"When?" Athena widened her eyes at the creature's macabre voice. "When are you going to get out of here?" The creature smiled. A smile as macabre as its voice. "After everyone you love die?"
That thing until then had never spoken, just stood there, in the dark, silent with only the noise of a violent heartbeat filled with rage.
Athena was stunned.
"Or maybe when we kill everyone you love?"
Athena didn't answered.
The moment she heard those words, she felt her anger grow stronger and soon realized what that thing that mimicked her appearance was trying to do.
"We will kill everything and everyone!"
"No, I will control you again! This body is mine and you are just my power!"
The thing broke into a wide smile. "I'm you..." The thing said and disappeared, melting into the darkness.
Those words stayed with Athena, echoed in her mind and made her understand. The feelings were hers, purely hers. All the dark element was doing was intensifying it and using Athena's body to externalize those feelings.
Athena saw a way out of that situation, oblivious to what was happening to her beloved ones.
Outside, while trying to find a way out of her situation, in the form of a raging dragon, Athena still continued her furious attack against the ground, not caring if the target of all those attacks was alive or not.
At that same moment, three of the most important people to Athena were facing their impending deaths.
In fact, they weren't "three of the most important people to Athena".
They were the most important people.
No one else in that world mattered as much to her as those three women.
Anemus...
She was lying with her face being pressed to the ground by an angel while others held and broke her wings and arms.
Fotiá...
She had three angels holding her and beating her as she cried out for Athena and protected Serien's children. She also held Faena who was pulled and cried for help. Besides, an angel was about to cast some kind of magic against Fotiá.
Mifa...
She was unconscious, her yellow dress was wet, red, bloody, marking her body. Around her, a group of angels watched her carefully so that she didn't get up and attack again as she had done just minutes ago. She had become a symbol of threat to their mission.
Anemus, Fotiá and Faena shout Athena's name in their urgencies.
They fought bravely and skillfully, and slew hundreds or perhaps thousands of those bastards. But the angels had a unique mechanism that as long as an archangel is around, even if millions of angels die, more will continue to arise.
This was possible because the presence of an archangel made the place part of the Garden. And the Garden always created more angels with the mana of dead angels.
It was an unfair fight and impossible to win from the beginning.
In the dark of her mind, Athena was still fighting her own anger. She was trying to calm her fury, at least the mental one, and take control of her body again.
This was like swim in a sea of boiling, muddy water. It was painful, infuriating and tiring, consuming every mental strength Athena had.
Athena was alone and the pain she felt consumed her. She was ready to give up all that shit and drown in that sea of hate. But then she heard something, a voice coming from somewhere in the middle of that rage and the rumbling noise of her heart.
"Mommy!"
Through all that thundering noise of her angry heart, Athena could hear Fotiá's needy voice.
Fotiá's voice echoed in Athena's mind and a light appeared. Athena gathered her pain, her anger and ran, swam, flew through that darkness, chasing the voice of her beloved daughter.
"Fotiá!"
"Mommy, help me!"
"I am going!"
However, the reality was different.
Athena was not going.
She was still an insane dragon attacking the ground repeatedly while her daughter screams and cries her name.
Fotiá looked at the hand in front of her eyes and could see that the angel's magic was ready. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes with a smile.
"Mommy, goodbye."
She felt the light in front of her eyes intensify and prepared to never wake up again.
Within the darkness, Athena stopped running and start thinking about Fotiá, about her silly jokes when she was still a child. The happy times they spent together during the trip to Sigma, her insatiable hunger and even her antics.
This brought peace to the heart of Athena who took a deep breath feeling happiness take the place of fury.
As soon as Athena opened her eyes fixed on the cloud of dust that covered the ground, still in dragon form, she looked for Fotiá and when she found her, the dragon disappeared along with all the angels around Anemus, Fotiá and Mifa.
"..." Fotiá opened her eyes when she didn't feel the pain of death and a smile of true happiness bloomed on her face.
"Sorry! I took so long..." Athena said as she hugged her daughter. "I'm sorry. Thank god! I made it in time." Athena kissed Fotiá's hair several times in a desperate way as only a mother would and hugged her tight. "I almost lost you..."
N/A: I couldn't think of anything better than "Thank god". If you have a better expression for the situation, let me know. :)
"I'm okay now, mommy." Fotiá said, consoling Athena. "I am fine."
It was a lie, she wasn't fine.
Fotiá's wrist was broken, blood was running from her nose, and her left eye was swollen, with the size of a golf ball. On top of that, she had two broken ribs.
Fotiá couldn't be okay with all this, but she coped magnificently. She just needed to recover some mana and could cast {Flames of Life} to heal herself. For her, all that was trivial and she didn't want to bother her mother with something so trivial.
However, Athena was not blind and could see that every time her daughter moved, a new grimace appeared on Fotiá's face. Seeing it, Athena quickly cast {Total Heal} on Fotiá and kissed her another dozen times.
After this, she healed Faena without showing any concern for her. Faena was the healthiest there after Serien's children.
Athena walked to where Anemus was and crouched beside her. "Anemus..."
"You took so long..." Anemus said with a smile on her lips.
"I know... Forgive me..." Athena said and healed Anemus.
Things between them were better, but they were still awkward with each other and didn't know how to behave, what expression to make or what to say.
They had a lot to say, but none of them couldn't and after healing Anemus, with a complicated expression Athena walk away.
As for Anemus, she bit her lip and just watched Athena walk away towards Mifa.
Athena's heart shuddered at the sight of Mifa's condition. She wondered if her beloved was still alive and was afraid to find out. This opened several gaps for the darkness to take control of her feelings again, but Athena remained steadfast as she took a deep breath, calming herself, and knelt beside Mifa.
"Look what they did to you, my sweet..." Athena took Mifa in her arms, bringing the young woman's head to her chest and realized that she was still breathing. "You are so strong..." Athena sighed in relief.
Hugging Mifa, Athena caressed her lover face and cast {Excelsis}, an unclassified healing spell.
Athena could have used divine or origin magic, but she didn't have time to search through the Akashic Records in her mind.
She didn't want to waste any more time.
As soon as the magic was activated, a golden, blue and white light originated from Athena and Mifa, and painted the world with its colors.
The light felt a strange sense of security, comfort, and warmth, healing everyone it touched. No matter how old or severe the wound was, if the light touched the wounded, it was healed almost instantly.
When the light went out, a slight smile took place on Mifa's lips. Her wounds had disappeared as if they had never existed and Athena sighed in relief again.
"I was dreaming about you…" said Mifa with her eyes half closed.
"And what was the dream like?"
"We were at the edge of an endless lake and you kissed me." Mifa played with Athena's hair. "Athena, your hair..."
"!!!" Athena looked at the lock of her hair Mifa played with and widened her eyes in surprise. "White... My hair is back to white..."
Athena had taken full control of the malevolent power within her. It may even sound too cliché, but that was only possible because of the love she felt.
The proof of that was her appearance. Athena's hair had returned to being platinum-white blond and her eyes shimmered in emerald green as they were in their originality.
Anemus looked at them from afar and noticed the change in Athena's appearance, as well in her mana.
Until then, Athena's mana made her appear to be swimming in a gooey black mud that kept rippling violently around her. Now it was as if Athena was expelling a thick black smoke that lazily surrounded her body.
Anemus felt a bitterness in her mouth at the thought that Mifa had caused this change in Athena and flew towards them.
"How long do you intend to stick together?"
"Anemus, look, my hair is back to normal!"
"Does not matter." Anemus lied turning her face to the angels in the sky. "What are we going to do with them? I don't have enough mana to fight."
"Me too, Mom, I don't have mana to keep fighting." Fotiá informed as she approached with Faena and the babies in her arms.
"And you took my powers…" Faena grumbled.
"What are you doing here then?" Athena asked and the girl with long black hair looked away.
Faena didn't want Athena to know that she was afraid of being alone and dying if anyone found out her identity.
Athena looked at the angels and then at the hole in the ground away from them, where the archangel lurked like a marmot.
"I'm going to kill them all." Athena said softly as she rose from the ground with Mifa in her arms.
"Athena, I can still fight." Mifa said as she jumped from Athena's arms to the ground.
"It won't be necessary."
"But..."
"It's okay, I won't lose control anymore." Athena smiled. "Nevermore."
After that, began an endless massacre of angels that died and appeared more and everything repeated again.
The angels didn't even have a chance to fly towards Faena. Every time they tried, they were bombarded with spells and skills that, before touching the ground, disappeared as if it had never existed.
Angels fall to their deaths in many different ways.
Athena plucked their wings, arms, legs and heads using only her hands or destroyed them to the nothoness with skills and spells that if a scholar saw, he wouldn't know what spells and skills they were.
Seeing his brothers and sisters being once again massacred by Athena, Doutrina could no longer stand grief, sadness, fear and hatred. He swallowed all these feelings and with his eyes bright and filled with tears, he flew into battle with his spear of light in hand.
"Stop killing my brothers and sisters!" Shouted Doutrina. "Leave them alone, damn you! I'm going to kill you!"
Unfortunately for the archangel, Athena did not hear or pretended not to hear and continued the endless one-sided battle.
At a distance long enough for an attack, Doutrina spun his upper body and hurled his spear that cut through the air like a beam of light and hit Athena in the back, exploding in golden light.
"""Athena!"""
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
All_J
All_J This arc is finally nearing its end. I think the next one is a lull... I don't know.
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See ya soon!
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