Chapter 1002 Prologue of The Final Act
Manato's consciousness is fading while he is being carried by Almira. Queen Tanya rushes to her side and Almira hands over the young man to the former.
"Take care of him for now. Also, drag the others a little far from here, better if you bring them back to the mansion for safety purposes. They might be dead right now but they can still be brought back."
"What are you..." Queen Tanya is confused.
"No time to explain. I will handle it here. Take care and heal up Manato, his mother should be there to help."
Despite Queen Tanya's questions still lingering in her mind, she decided that it was not the time to talk about it. She carries Manato to the area where everyone has collapsed after she knocks all of them out and activates a Mass Teleportation before disappearing from the battlefield. As for Almira, after she sees that the rest have already escaped, looks at the goddess who is now looking unsightly more than ever.
"It's been a while, Sis."
"You...why are you a human now... You should have been mortally wounded by me back then..."
"Yes. You did happen to do that to me and I suffered a lot because of that. But that doesn't mean I would just give up and die there."
"Heh...you survived but you became a human now? Pathetic...as if being a human is enough to fight against me."
A sword materializes behind Almira, revealing that it is her sword, the Clarent. She then extends her right hand, and another weapon materializes which is also revealed to be the sword that was currently in Izmir's possession before, the Blood Morgan.
"Even as a human, I have no trouble defeating you, sister. You shouldn't underestimate a human's potential of felling down gods like you," Almira then points her weapon.
"Really? Then why does the person who is supposed to defeat me doesn't even have the slightest ability to stop me?"
Almira smirked. "Because he is not yet ready to fight you. The appearance of the tree is something that we haven't even considered as part of the plan to complete the recipe to defeat you. But since it seems something has happened, it is enough to say that our plan was almost broken due to you."
As she speaks, Almira disappears from where she is standing reappears above the Goddess of Life, and swings down her Clarent downwards. The Goddess of Life blocked it with her chains but Almira casually spins quickly to force the destruction of the chains and stop blocking them.
"Your style of fighting is the same as ever, Sister. Pretty predictable," Almira shatters the chains appearing and tries to slice down the Goddess of Life. Of course, the Goddess of Life dodges her attack but Almira is not yet done with just that attack, her other sword, the Blood Morgan is trusted by the Goddess of Life, and since the Goddess of Life just dodged the first attack, she barely managed to block the second attack, causing her to bleed.
The Goddess of Life then tried to repel Almira by sending a shockwave that forced Almira to take a bit of distance.
"Where are your powers now, Sis? And here I thought you were going to defeat me?"
The Goddess of Life is pissed but she is also having trouble breathing as well. As for Almira, she looked at the Goddess of Life with contempt and after a while, she shook her head and darted straight to her as she slashed multiple times to the Goddess of Life.
"You...!" the Goddess of Life didn't anticipate the actions of Almira.
"Compared to you who has been stuck with your body as a goddess, I am here able to understand what being a human is and how fragile they are. Understanding them allowed me to adapt and expand my ways of viewing anyone who is a human. You don't know that even if we are not the strongest race in this world doesn't mean that we are the weakest people who exist."
Almira then performed multiple quick slashes that were so quick that even the Goddess of Life couldn't properly see and started wounding her with every slash. She couldn't fight back and she decided to retreat.
"I will retreat for now...I can't even activate what I needed due to the destruction of the altar but it won't take long before I will acquire that power I desire. Just you wait, Sister. You won't be able to stop me."
As soon as she said those words, her body faded, and she disappeared before Almira. As soon as she disappeared, Almira slumped to the ground and huffed as blood started to flow all over her body and wounds started to appear one by one. Not only that but all of them are made from sword cuts.
"Huh...that curse is still active even like this huh, damn it..."
Almira took a glance at the shattered altar for a bit before she limped away back to the mansion to get her wounds treated.
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Queen Tanya, Izmir, and Manato's Mother helped settle everyone on the floor. Because there is no big bed that is capable of moving the bodies of everyone, they can only line them up on the floor. All of them are dead.
"I don't know what to say and I don't know if what Almira said is true but she said they can still be brought back to life?" Queen Tanya scratches her head as she glances at everyone who lay cold on the floor.
"By what? Necromancy? Even though I hate my sister, I am not so heartless for me to convert her into a walking undead and let her remain as a zombie for the rest of her life!" Izmir angrily said but she promptly stopped when she saw Manato's mother crying over her husband's death. She silently weeps and Izmir can only stay quiet. The two elven children hugged Manato's mother and she weeps harder as a result.
Izmir is now devoid of emotion, but she still felt sad and wanted to also cry after seeing both her grandparents and sister die but she can't do anything as she felt powerless.
Then...Almira opened the door to the mansion as she limped entering the room.
"Don't weep and grieve just yet. They might be dead but they can still be revived."
"How? This is the first time I have heard that a dead can be revived aside from what you people call "players" who can resurrect themselves after being killed."
"Since they didn't die from natural causes and died due to The Goddess of Life, their death isn't something that cannot be reversed. They died because their souls have left their bodies due to one of the Goddess of Life's skills, [Soul Harvest]."
"Is that the reason why my soul seems to be about to be pulled by an unknown force when everyone collapses?"
"Perhaps. But if that is the case, then you almost fell victim to it as well. Souls who have a very strong grip on their bodies are one of the only ones who can resist the attack or completely nullify the effect. Both Manato and you, Your Majesty have a strong grip on your bodies so the spell didn't have any troublesome effects and you two didn't die immediately. It must be also due to the blessings that you two got from the Goddess of Death which allowed you two to escape the attack as well."
"So...what does all of that supposed to mean?" Izmir is looking confused.
"Since the Goddess of Life has stolen their souls, we needed something that can allow us to forcefully recall their souls back to their bodies. Confronting the Goddess of Life is not an option here as she will just proceed to crush their souls if she desires which is why we will have to resurrect them our way instead of begging the goddess herself."
Queen Tanya then stood up from the sofa and turned to look at Almira.
"Wait just a moment, before you explain further. How about you tell us who you are first?"
Izmir and Manato's Mother frowned at Queen Tanya's question.
"What are you talking about, Your Majesty?" Manato's Mother frowned.
"Earlier when the Goddess of Life is close to killing Manato in the process, she appeared and stopped the Goddess of Life in the process. Not only that but I also heard she called the Goddess of Life, her sister."
"Sister?" Izmir frowned and her gaze turned to Almira who looked at them and sighed.
"Huh...guess things are not as I thought they would be and I wouldn't even be introducing myself for a while. Alright...let me reintroduce myself to you lot. I am Almira. A blacksmith that is being trained by the Elder Treant, and also one of the fragments of the Goddess of Death. Technically, the Goddess of Life is my sister."
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶