Darkness. Fear. Terror.
Those three words described the immense power of the goddess, Moiraxys. Arinthal and Aetheris would have been crippled permanently if they had not covered themselves with layers of velori. Even still, they could feel the weight of her aura, making their legs do their best not to buckle under the pressure.
She walked forward, her sensuous figure swaying, her eyes crimson with delight. Her black hair reached her knees, and the black gown which had mysteriously draped her body was revealing.
"So, you two were foolish enough to follow my dear girls here?" she said, her voice as smooth as silk.
Arinthal gritted his teeth but didn't reply. He silently cursed the old man for dragging them into that whole mess.
"No answer, huh? Give me a reason why I shouldn't end your miserable lives this instant," she questioned, each word she spoke giving out power.
"Because we'll kill you first!" Arinthal said through gritted teeth.
"Really, elf? Because your kind held its own against us during the war of the Sundered Skies doesn't mean you stand a chance against me in battle," she sneered.
"Why would you do this to them? Your people," Aetheris managed to say.
"Young girl, I am worshipped from the Sunspire river to the Aberon sea, and many kingdoms between. These are not my people, they're just a means to an end," Moiraxys laughed.
"You're a monster. You're not fit to be called a goddess!" Arinthal screamed at her.
She cocked an eyebrow and disappeared in a black mist. A split second later, Arinthal felt the soft touch of her fingers on his shoulders and her voice whisper:
"But you see Arinthal, I'm a god. That's the whole difference."
Arinthal immediately drew his sword and slashed backwards but she had disappeared and was standing back in her initial position.
"She's fast!" Arinthal thought, subconsciously taking an offensive stance.
" Alp..." he started to summon the demigod power.
"No you won't," Moiraxys said.
She gathered a dark orb of velori and shot it with a flick of her finger. Arinthal immediately felt every ounce of Alpheus' power inside him deactivating.
He saw a thin line of dark matter connecting his body to her right hand. She gently pulled on it and a dark mist suddenly covered his upper body and started to leave, taking Alpheus' power with it. Arinthal's body was frozen and he couldn't move an inch. Aetheris quickly stepped into action, activating a burst of dark power and shooting it in a beam at Moiraxys. The latter just raised her left hand and stopped the attack mid journey.
The beam was redirected with twice its velocity and hit Aetheris squarely in the belly, causing her to fall down on the stone cold floor.
In a flash of an eye, she was done draining Alpheus' power, which came to being as an unstable orb of blue hue, encased in a dark spherical cage.
Arinthal fell to the ground, exhausted and velori depleted.
"Come on, elf. Using a beast created by Aquatoryx to try and defeat me. Use your wild velori, your useless power. Come on, I'm expecting more from you two!" Moiraxys taunted, but both of them lay on the ground.
"Let me tell you, both of you have guts to threaten me, the impersonation of dark fate.
I am the mysterious binding of the running time's affairs. I am every terrible thing that happens in your wasted lives. Every misfortune, every little pup dying, every bad day, I reign over it. I am a primordial goddess, a force of nature. Even now, I am in the body of my oracle, and can only use a quarter of my true power, yet you can't stand in my presence."
"Hasn't any of the bastards in Elyria told you you talk too much?" Arinthal asked, raising himself off the floor.
Streaks of lightning snaked across the ground around him and on his body. His velori activated on its own, which he was glad to channel.
"Oh, you still have some power left, huh?" she said, nodding in approval.
"That was the power of a demigod, a creation of your lot. That wasn't my power. Let me show you what it is." Arinthal staggered a bit, still exhausted from the power drain. He took a deep breath, focused on the goddess in front of him and attacked. He moved faster than he ever had, taking hold of all the speed he could muster. He held out his sword for an attack and clashed horizontally, hoping to at least draw blood.
In that split second, he saw her mischievous smile before she disappeared and struck him from behind. She struck gently, just placing her palms on his back. Suddenly, her enormous power coursed through Arinthal's body, tearing apart a good number of the veins in his body. He was blown away, blood seeping out of his nose and mouth.
"Well, if you're that weak, I'll be going to accomplish what I descended into Calyndor for," she sighed and started to float out of the temple, the six women following her step.
"Tell me, Moiraxys, why would you descend into the outskirts of a backwater town, not even close to the Virethana Federation? Is it that you're so desperate to get what you want or you're a coward?" Arinthal taunted, spitting blood out in the process.
That did it. She stopped at the mouth of the cave, and Arinthal could have sworn he saw a nerve on the nape of her neck twitch.
"Oh, you foolish elf!" she laughed. "Wait, I recognize you. You're from the royal family of Eldrida, huh? Didn't your sister leave the continent of Aetheria and come here for a diplomatic mission?"
"So what about it?"
"I heard she returned dead. Such a shame. But if you studied her body carefully you would have seen a string of runes on her right hand. A mark of a god."
She even proceeded to show Arinthal a line of runes drawn on her forearm. Arinthal's eyes widened as the shock of reality hit him.
"If you're smart enough, you'll get what I mean. But all that drama was supposed to be you, am I right? That narrows it down to one thing, boy. You are special, a catalyst to something great. But I don't see that greatness in you," she said with scorn in her eyes.
Arinthal, however, had other plans. He knelt on the ground, his eyes staring at the tall stalactites on the roof of the cave.
"Are you telling me that Naudra was killed by a god?" he questioned silently, his pupils slowly whitening.