"The Bridge Princess of Houyi, embracing a tachi, entered the sea. Her tachi drifted to a place that was neither land nor ocean, and thus a floating island appeared."
Even if Avalon was a decoy, what if this legend was true—
Guinevere's dying mind thought hazily. Her consciousness was blurred, and even her divinity was dissipating.
Her life had reached its end, but for some unknown reason, she had yet to enter the space between reincarnations.
Vaguely, she sensed it might have something to do with Seiya. Was it he who was holding onto her life?
But there was still some buffer time. Guinevere's consciousness ascended infinitely, vaguely thinking of the Sword of Salvation, the God-Slaying Beast, and the Last King she had pursued through both her past and present lives, yet had still not found. Was this to be a tragic end?
Just as her heart filled with sorrow, her spiritual vision saw it.
Being on the verge of death, her inspiration was sharpened to its absolute limit.
It was a yet-unborn being, reflected within an Intelligent Stone Fetus.
Suginami, Tokyo. Suddenly, Stella shivered.
"I feel like something bad is about to happen." She tightened her clothes, completely certain of her premonition.
For a playful and self-righteous waste of a goddess like her to have lived such a carefree life to this day was entirely due to her great trust in this spiritual sense.
What could it be? The pursuers of the White-Armed Goddess? That old spinster Athena? Or perhaps a Heretic God related to herself? Stella couldn't pinpoint the source of her sense of crisis. Not until the Wheel of Friendship turned, and Seiya's figure suddenly appeared before her.
Without any hesitation, she turned and tried to run… but was grabbed by the collar from behind by Seiya and lifted up.
"What are you running for?" Seiya looked at his subservient goddess.
Indeed, Stella, the Goddess of Love and Beauty, Aphrodite, was his chosen second target. If an ordinary witch required over ten thousand, and a witch of the highest terrestrial rank required twelve, then only three of the Divine Ancestor level were needed. And if the target was an Earth Mother God? Perhaps one would be enough.
Of course, Stella was still in an incomplete state. At the same time, Seiya wouldn't plunder too much from this subservient god of his; he would certainly control it to a suitable level.
"It's just instinct… Fine, you definitely want to do something naughty to Lady Goddess, so do as you please."
"So frank?" Seiya was a little surprised by Stella's reaction. In his mind, this goddess of love was supposed to resist fiercely. But looking into those brilliant golden eyes now, Seiya felt a little embarrassed.
"After all, no matter how much I resist, you'll stubbornly try to take my life essence as an Earth Mother God, won't you? It's better to be frank and cooperate, to at least minimize the loss." Stella showed a mischievous smile. In truth, another reason was that she sensed a crisis approaching, and in the face of that crisis, she had to rely on this currently strongest God-Slaying Beast.
Then, under Seiya's gaze, Stella began to chant the kotodama of love and beauty.
"Oh, Youth, obey the Queen of Cyprus, the princess born from foam! Display your most beautiful form at every moment!"
Seiya knew that Stella had taken root in Japan, devouring the power of reverence generated from this land as her nourishment; he had even tacitly approved of it. He also knew that compared to when they first met, Stella had already recovered a portion of her authority. And the Authority that now made her shine so brilliantly caused her beauty to break through a certain threshold of rules—
—Time was shattered.
All sensation was lost in that instant. No, even a cliché term like 'instant' was sent flying.
It was as if Seiya's pupils were mythical golden jewels; the ideal bridge of her nose must have been a work carved by a sculptor of heaven who had wagered his soul; her closed lips brought to mind the petals of paradise, glowing with a youth that would never fade. Just looking at the goddess before him was enough to cause one to fall captive; her beauty made every description laughable.
It was something at the end of all adjectives, where all description was lost.
At the very least, it was not something a human could easily speak of—one could only describe it with Venus, the Goddess of Beauty, as the final word.
Only at this moment did Seiya realize he had been affected. It was a certain charm that operated beyond the five senses, exerting a peculiar power.
For instance, the senses of smell and taste developed to avoid poison, while sight and hearing were honed to avoid danger. However, beyond these five senses, since before we humans established the ability to think, beauty has existed as a sensation that "brings pleasure."
For example, the murals of the Lascaux Caves in France.
For example, the Paleolithic nude statuettes excavated from the Willendorf ruins.
These works, called primitive art, clearly show that humanity and art have an inseparable relationship. Regarding the function of beauty, magic seems to believe that—to look upon a beautiful thing is to make oneself beautiful.
The reason even Seiya could be influenced was that in the process of looking, he himself was trending towards perfection. It was because of this subtle atmosphere of benefit that Seiya realized this was a rather outstanding Authority.
However, Seiya wondered if it was just his imagination, but he felt that Stella, who already had the face of a loli, now looked even younger.
But beauty alone wouldn't make him show mercy. "Has anything changed?"
Seiya looked at the loli goddess before him. Putting aside her captivating charm, even if she was more youthful, her appearance was still the same.
"Foolish human, your eyes can only perceive the crudest surface, so you do not know the goddess's true transformation." Stella puffed out her chest proudly.
"Something more internal? Your divinity?" Seiya pondered.
"No, I've gotten tighter."
Needless to say, some things were still unexpected.
Seiya looked at the Magical Holy Grail, which was still a small part away from being full. The Grail he thought he could fill in one go was ultimately still short by a little.
It seemed he had to activate his backup plan.
Kakuriyo Eientei. Princess Ruritama looked at the figure descending from the sky.
"Great Lord Rakshasa, I have been waiting for you for a long time." Princess Ruritama was dressed in a jūnihitoe, the most formal of kimonos, composed of twelve different silk layers, its colors changing from the inside out like layers of clouds and mist.
"You came for me, did you not?" The princess bowed slightly.
"Please do not misunderstand. I only wish to fill the essence in this divine tool." Seiya's face was expressionless, not because he was being cold, but because he felt that if he didn't explain it this way, it would only invite misunderstanding.
He truly had no such thoughts about the Princess Ruritama before him.
Princess Alice got what she deserved, and he had no qualms about bullying a cheeky little goddess like Stella, but Princess Ruritama was his subordinate, technically a concubine, and thus not within his range of interest.
It was just that, as the last remaining Divine Ancestor, she only needed to provide a portion of her power to make the Holy Grail overflow. Even without using that method, just by relying on the Holy Grail, it would be fine despite some loss.
"You need not say more, I understand everything." Princess Ruritama smiled casually. "Please, come with me."
Seiya followed Princess Ruritama into the pavilion. As they ascended layer by layer, the original Japanese-style interior gradually transformed into the rich colors and fluid lines of ancient Indian style.
Even her clothes had imperceptibly changed into a silk sari with an ancient Indian flair.
"It must have been Lady Stella who sent you to me. In truth, you should have come to me long ago, for my power is the most suitable offering to summon the Last King." From her large sleeve, Princess Ruritama took out a magatama. It was a lapis lazuli magatama of the same color as her eyes, containing the Divine Ancestor's power accumulated over many years. "I am the progenitor of the Japanese Hime-Miko, but in my past as a goddess, my true name was Sita. This is a secret I have kept for a thousand years."
"Then why have you stopped hiding it now?" Seiya did not immediately take the magatama from her hand, but instead looked at the Divine Ancestor before him.
"Because my spiritual sense has already felt it. The Last King is about to awaken. There is no longer any meaning in hiding."
Sita is a household name that runs through the entire Indian epic.
This figure had already appeared in the Rigveda, worshipped and prayed to as the goddess of agriculture; in the Yajurveda, she was personified; in the Taittiriya Brahmana, she was said to be Savitri; in the Paraskara Grihyasutra, she was considered the wife of Indra; and in the Ramayana, she was the daughter of Janaka, found by him in a furrow, making the earth her mother, which is how she got her name.
Sita ultimately became "the goddess who sacrificed herself for the fertility of the earth." Myths of this type are, at their root, stories of "a slain god sleeping in the earth, from which abundant crops grow to feed humanity." Some sacrificed gods were burned to death, a metaphor for slash-and-burn agriculture. Furthermore, before descending into the earth, Sita was also burned by fire to prove her purity.
And the name of the slumbering Last King is Rama.
The strongest Demon King of a thousand years ago was her savior, while the Last King, Rama, who subjugated the Demon King, was her husband. Trapped between the two, she ultimately chose to flee. The result was that the ten-lived Demon King and Rama fought to the death. The Demon King was completely destroyed, while Rama reached this island nation of the Far East and chose to fall into a long slumber here.
For some reason, when Sita saw the Seiya before her, she couldn't help but worry. Because from him, Sita sensed the power of concepts like Demon King, god, Steel of Rebellion, infinity, and more.
Just like that, Seiya easily obtained the information and power that Guinevere had desperately sought. He took the lapis-colored magatama before him, bowed slightly, and vanished from her sight.
With just a single step, he returned to Avalon.
The lapis-colored magatama before him disintegrated, and the divine power of Sita within it transformed into essence, completely filling the remaining void. Seiya then arrived before Guinevere's breathless body.
"Do I need to recite some incantation? Something like, 'Heeding the call of the Holy Grail, if thou wouldst follow this will, this reason, then respond,' or something of the sort," Seiya muttered. Then he saw the Magical Holy Grail leave his control and slowly hover above Guinevere's head.
Then, the Magical Holy Grail began to dissolve, sprinkling over Guinevere's body in the form of golden liquid. Her originally shattered divinity was restored, her broken body was refilled with divinity, and her entire form was being remolded.
And within Seiya's senses, an invisible connection linked him to the Guinevere before him. But before he could carefully sense the changes, the Divine Ancestor vanished before his eyes.
Not long after Guinevere disappeared.
In the Forest of Brocéliande, which she had used as her base, two items manifested.
One was a disc of gold and iron, and the other was a Golden Cage—the vessel known as the Holy Grail.
On the cliffside where Seiya had thrown countless punches in the past, a few moments passed after the two divine tools appeared.
Slowly, the form of the Holy Grail began to change. The Grail, which had until now been a golden construct, gradually transformed, gaining soft, human-like skin and taking on a human form.
"Hmm, to awaken the Hero of Steel sleeping in that place… it seems that is my mission—"
In human terms, she appeared to be about twelve or thirteen years old, the form of a young girl.
Her short hair was a silver like the moon, her pupils a漆 black that seemed to hold the darkness. Her delicate beauty, though young, possessed a sacred quality and was filled with a queenly majesty. Her newborn body was filled with a power impossible for a human child.
"Although I have this mission, what exactly should I do? It seems in that direction, in my heart—there is also an existence I must meet."
She pursed her lips slightly and smiled.
Closing her eyes, she could see the face vividly etched upon her eyelids—a youth with black hair and black eyes. But he was definitely no ordinary person.
He should possess a caliber that could make her blood boil with excitement. She was certain of this for no reason at all.
"Never mind. I need to rest for now. Sooner or later, I will begin my journey and show the heavens and the earth a queen's majesty and courage. For now, I will let this newborn body rest well…"
The girl born from the Holy Grail sank into the lake.
Olympian God's Domain. An owl landed before a white temple and transformed into a young girl holding a golden scepter. She stared at the rival with whom she had been entangled in grudges since the beginning of myth—the white-armed Queen of the Gods, Hera.
But Hera did not look at the girl beside her. Instead, she gazed down at the world below.
"You felt it too, didn't you? That stirring fate. The Fourth Generation God King is about to be born. Do you think it will be you, Athena? Or will it be me, Hera, the mistress of all things?"
"Zeus is still at the height of his power. Don't indulge in such absurd dreams," the youthful Athena said.
"This decaying world can no longer allow humanity to survive. I will reshape the world, and in that new world, there will be a place for you, Athena, provided you help me."
Athena said nothing, simply transforming back into an owl and disappearing from the sky.
Hera smiled without a word, for her Goddess of Causality had already tracked down the fleeing Goddess of Love, and her Belt of Friendship would become the great covenant by which she would rule the gods.
But for some reason, she had recently been thinking of a vision she had glimpsed in a dream not long ago.
It was the figure of a young boy throwing punches by a cliff, an image that appeared before her eyes, uncontrollably.
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