Stella didn't even have time to get the rest of her sentence out before a hand appeared from behind and slammed her head into the table.
"A lewd and lowly goddess like you living in this world will only make the price of rice go up," the goddess holding Stella's head said, weaving her words flatly.
Stella might be a dignified, magnanimous, and arrogant goddess in front of others, but after spending some time with her, one couldn't help but see her malicious female gremlin nature emerge. Therefore, whether it was the Heretic Athena before him or the war goddess Athena from the divine realm, their way of dealing with Stella was always incredibly simple and crude.
A misbehaving female gremlin just needs a good beating.
Athena slowly walked to the Saint's side. As she slowly stretched out her hand, she recited the curse of the night. "In the true name of Athena, I command. O Dark Night, manifest here, disperse the grace of the sun, and annihilate the fire of Mithra. O myriad stars, O pitch-black wind, for the serpent of Naples, bestow a secret blessing!"
At this moment, the young dragon nestled in the Saint's arms lifted its head, instinctively drawing closer to the darkness of the night. As a true earth mother goddess, the holy mother who had reclaimed her ancient people, the dragon-serpent was by its very nature Athena's kin.
Parthenope's pale cheeks quickly flushed with a healthy rosy hue, but then her brow furrowed in pain, and her face returned to a deathly pallor. On her small chest, the wound pierced by the sun arrow, like a hideous brand, was still clearly visible. Seiya immediately turned his head to look at Stella on the side. This fellow earth mother goddess was now whistling and feigning ignorance, trotting all the way back to her room.
Her hair, bathed in the droplets of the moon, shone with a silver light. And her pupils were blacker than the night itself. From them, one could feel a powerful divinity of the earth and darkness being irrigated into Parthenope's body through Athena's arm. But soon, she withdrew her palm again.
As long as the wound from the dragon-slaying hero-god remained on its body, its essence would continuously flow out. But for now, it was temporarily out of danger.
"The arrow wound it bears is precisely an extermination mark aimed specifically at dragon-serpents. I have temporarily sealed it," Athena said. "You can rest assured for now."
A look of joy appeared on Seiya's face. As expected of a complete earth mother goddess; she wasn't on the same level as a half-baked character like Stella. And the simplest solution was to kill the Heretic God who had caused the damage, and the wound would naturally heal on its own.
However, Athena did not leave. Instead, she walked to Seiya's side and gently cradled his head in her arms.
Seiya was slightly startled, but he did not resist this sudden intimacy, obediently following her guidance. In the end, the back of his head was resting on a soft surface—Athena's joined knees. A warm sensation came through the thin white robe, bringing with it a strange sense of peace. "Is there any meaning to this?" Seiya couldn't help but ask.
Although the scent of orange jasmine filling his nostrils was quite comfortable, Seiya nuzzled into her lap, and suddenly felt that his action just now was like that of a piglet.
"This humble one was passing by a mortal's dwelling, and such a scene appeared on their screen," Athena's tone was as flat as if she were stating the weather. "So I thought I would give it a try."
She just did it because she felt like it... Seiya was speechless for a moment, but this was indeed Athena's style—direct and pure.
"The moonlight illuminates the sky,
Spilling a swath of light to adorn the ocean..."
Athena's fingertips had a cool touch as she gently stroked Seiya's brow. She began to hum in a low voice, her song ethereal and soothing, like the night wind blowing through a silent forest.
"Whenever a meteor falls from the sky,
The dreams in my heart all drift with the wind..."
A shallow sleepiness, like a gentle tide, quietly washed over Seiya's consciousness. In this moment, he suddenly understood—the television scene the goddess had seen must have been a mother lulling her child to sleep. What she really wanted to do, perhaps, was just like this, to learn from the scene on the television and hum a lullaby for him.
How should he put it? This feeling... wasn't bad at all. Stella, I'm doing something greedy.
The Authority belonging to secret darkness slowly covered his body. In less than a moment, Seiya's eyelids began to flutter. A feeling of secure warmth flowed through his heart, and he closed his eyes.
Just like that, the Saint Seiya lay on Athena's lap, the goddess's palm gently stroking his cheek.
A beautiful boy with blond hair and blue eyes strolled through the rainy night of Tokyo. The knights of the Bronze Black Cross slept with beautiful prayers for the future. The staff of the Meteorological Agency were still working overtime. The exorcism officers of the Onmyo-ryō were still mapping the spiritual power points of Japan's ley lines.
The battle hadn't started yet, the tragedy had not yet played out. Everything was still before the final battle.
Japan, the San'indō region.
This place stands as the westernmost sentinel on the Sea of Japan side of Honshu. Standing on the peak of a mountain and gazing into the distance, the layered mountain ranges rush to the west, the undulating ridges like a giant serpent lying dormant upon the earth. And the Oki Islands in the sea are like a bright pearl held in the giant serpent's mouth.
The wind howled on the mountaintop, but it did nothing to dampen their enthusiasm. Erica Blandelli held a tablet computer, standing solemnly behind Seiya. What was displayed on the screen was the conclusion reached by the meteorology experts and the Onmyo-ryō exorcism officers after several days and nights of sleepless, repeated calculations: this place was the absolute core of the ley line anomaly in Japan!
"I should have known it was here all along." Ena Seishuin looked at the gap in the mountain range ahead with a map in her hand. The three-thousand-meter crater had already formed a bay-like lake at its bottom under the continuous torrential rain. And looking further towards the Oki Islands, one could see a straight, vertical gorge that stretched all the way to the sea.
"Holy crap, Musou no Hitotachi," someone in the meteorology expert's team suddenly blurted out. Then, seeing the gazes of the crowd on him, he sheepishly retreated back into the ranks.
In ancient times, this was Izumo Province, the site where Susanoo slew the Yamata no Orochi. In modern times, it was the site of a God-slaying battle, the battlefield where the Saint had defeated Susanoo. If one were to speak of the core of the ley lines, the greatest possibility was here.
To ordinary people, it might just be a magnificent sight. But to the onmyoji and knights, they could feel the magnificent aura remaining in this valley and gorge. The traces of the sword, the traces of the sun, the traces of light were all intertwined. One couldn't help but think of the terrifying giant beast with eight heads and eight tails from a thousand years ago, slowly opening its eight pairs of scarlet, lantern-fruit-like serpent eyes under the deep night sky. One could hear the sharp whistle of Susanoo's Totsuka-no-Tsurugi tearing through the air, and the dull thud of the great serpent's heads rolling onto the earth.
And today, was myth to be reenacted?!
But everyone's gaze was gathered on the one at the head, Seiya. Only he, only this Great Sun-Illuminating Avatar, had the right to decide the fate of these ley lines.
But he, instead, looked at the little girl holding his hand.
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