Valhalla Saga

Episode 51/Chapter 4: Clash (4)

TL: Tsubak

ED: SlowAsLightning

When Zeus came out victorious in the Titanomachy he climbed to the seat of king of Gods by himself and split the world in three.

The sky, sea and the underworld.

Zeus chose the sky for himself. It was because there was no other place more suitable for the king of Gods as the sky covered all the world.

Poseidon and Hades, that were particularly strong among Zeus’ brothers, pulled straws and decided on the world they would rule.

The result of that was that Poseidon got to rule the sea and Hades the underworld.

The God of sea Poseidon.

He was a great God that wouldn’t fall behind even Zeus if you took away his title of king of Gods.

Excluding Zeus, there was no one stronger than him among the 12 Olympians.

Tae Ho couldn’t speak easily.

The scene reflected in his eyes was really overwhelming. He could clearly feel Poseidon’s strength with just a few seconds.

The walls of the fortress became meaningless in front of the huge hail. The forces Athena gathered couldn’t even fight properly and lost their lives.

No, it wasn’t only that. The only thing Athena lost wasn’t her force.

Athens itself was about to get erased in the maps. The most important city in her sacred force was disappearing from the world.

Athena wasn’t a weak God either. She was the only one in all of Olympus that was born with the potential to surpass Zeus.

She would have been able to stop Poseidon’s hail however she could with her divine power.

But she couldn’t do it now. And that justified how weak Athena had become.

[Athena’s strength is weakening drastically.]

[Poseidon is erasing Athens from this world.]

Apollo spoke with a trembling voice.

It wasn’t because he got dispirited at Poseidon’s overwhelming authority.

An action of erasing a polis from the world.

Artemis had only conquered Delfos, she hadn’t destroyed it. It wasn’t due to consideration for Apollo but to take Delfos for herself but whatever the case, she didn’t erase Delfos from the world.

But Poseidon was different. He was acting as if he could erase one or two polises from this world if it was to inflict damage to Athena.

It was certain that he had completely switched sides. They could only think like that.

“Master-nim? What do you mean that Athens is getting erased? Did Poseidon-nim become an enemy?”

The only one that saw the image was Tae Ho. Adenmaha asked urgently and Patroclus looked at the direction Athens was with a pale face.

Actually, they didn’t even need to answer this question. Everyone had already understood the situation with the words Apollo had spewed. Adenmaha’s question only remarked how serious this situation was once again.

[-me.]

It was at that moment. The voice of a woman came out of Patroclus’ mouth.

[Help me.]

[Whoever.]

[Save me.]

[Protect me from the hands of Poseidon and Ares-]

“Athena-nim!”

The voice of the woman changed to Patroclus’ in the middle. Apollo was certain of the voice that came out of the hero of Athena, Patroclus.

[She’s certainly Athena.]

[She has almost squeezed out all her power. It’s clear she’s not in a good state.]

She had sent down a divine message indiscriminately to all the ones connected to herself and where her strength reached.

It was an ignorant and inefficient method that the usual Athena wouldn’t have even thought about it.

[Athena requests for salvation.]

[Rescue Athena-nim that has escaped from Athens and is fleeing.]

[Athena says that she will pay whatever price.]

The voice of the Gods was heard in their heads. It was certainly a quest from Athena but she hadn’t given it down directly like Apollo. No, she couldn’t.

“What’s wrong?”

“Is Athena-nim in danger?”

Bracky and Siri, who arrived late, checked everyone’s look and asked. Nidhogg, who was located in the heart room, remained silent and just tilted her ear.

[We must save Athena. If we also lose Athena now that Poseidon has become our enemy, we won’t have any hope at all.]

How many Gods of the 12 Olympians would have remained as beings wanting to maintain the world?

Demeter, Hephaestus, Hermes, Aphrodite, Dionysius.

They were the Gods that they weren’t certain of yet.

There was the possibility they remained as beings wanting to maintain the world but there was also the possibility they had turned.

The Goddess of warfare Athena.

The Goddess of Olympus that requested help from Asgard.

Tae Ho didn’t delay anymore. He glared in the direction of Athens.

“Rolo!”

[Saga: Master of flames]

Rolo transformed into Shootingstar. Apollo traced the place where he sensed Athena’s divine power and told them the direction.

Poseidon and Ares would also chase Athena. So they had to find her before they did.

[Strengthened saga: The charge of the warrior is like a storm]

[Strengthened saga: The one that controls dragons]

He strengthened his sagas with Bragi’s runes. He didn’t carry Adenmaha and Nidhogg, whom he could call with the summoning rock, to lessen the weight. He only carried Siri and Bracky and left a favor to the Valkyries, Sybilla and Patroclus.

Rolo fluttered his wings. The gale and thunderbolts opened up a path and the red dragon transformed into a meteor like his name.

&

Athena was running. Screams were heard endlessly in her ears, as she ran in tattered clothes.

‘Save me.’

‘Rescue me.’

‘Oh, Athena.’

‘Our Goddess.’

‘Don’t throw us away.’

‘No! Save me!’

‘Mom!’

They were the voices of the ones that served Athena. They were voices of men and women.

It was the tragedy occurring in Athens. Poseidon hadn’t simply generated a hail. Countless sea monsters were along it.

The ones that lost their lives in the hail died in a rather happy way. The ones that barely managed to survive suffered a more terrible a painful death by the sea monsters.

Athena didn’t close her ears and didn’t shed tears.

It wasn’t because she was heartless or she treated the humans like tools or playthings like certain Gods of Olympus did.

Tears didn’t help her.

Just ignoring the tragedy occurring in Athens was a really coward thing.

Athena gritted her teeth. She felt like a self ridiculing to herself would come out at any moment.

What did being a coward mean when she had already left her heroes and believers and escaped alone?

The moment Poseidon’s hail swept Athens, Athena requested for help in her surroundings with the little divine power she had. After that, Nymphs that were dressed like her appeared and left Athens.

She felt like her chest would erupt. It was the result of having spent all of her remaining divine power on flying to escape Athens.

Even so, she couldn’t get that far and she just ran with her two legs after that.

‘Kyak!’

‘Athena-nim!’

The cries of the nymphs was heard from between the despair of the residents of Athens. They were the nymphs that had disguised as herself and scattered to all directions.

Athena gritted her teeth. She thought calmly even inside the heart tearing rage, sadness and humiliation.

The only thing that had killed the nymphs wasn’t the authority of Poseidon. Some of Ares’ authority was mixed in between.

The army of Sparta still hadn’t arrived on Athens but regardless of that, looking that the nymphs got killed by Ares’ dependents meant that he had sent a detached troop.

‘Patroclus.’

Athena thought of a hopeful truth.

She sensed Patroclus when she sent her help request.

Patroclus wasn’t just alive. There were many divinities at his side. Most of them were really small but there was a nice to see divinity that she couldn’t ignore at all.

The divinity of Apollo, the God of light.

Apollo was someone wanting to maintain the world. He hadn’t turned like Artemis.

Because of that, she started to flee in the direction Patroclus was at. She held onto the thread of hope and kept running.

She felt short of breath and her legs felt like they would explode. Her body soaked with sweat was really hot.

She couldn’t hear the voices of the citizens anymore. She couldn’t know if it was because she was too far away or more time than she was aware of had passed.

Athena stopped for a moment and decided to catch some breath. Now that she was this far, she would attract more attention if she ran.

It was when she thought like that.

Athena’s running was stopped forcefully. A sharp throwing spear that flew from her back pierced her thigh.

Athena collapsed. She gritted her teeth at the pain that was like carving fire to her wounds.

It was a throwing spear that had a divinity in it. Athena grabbed the throwing spear with her hands trembling because of the pain. She gritted her teeth once again and pulled the weapon out.

It was an overwhelming pain. Blood flowed out endlessly from her white skin.

Athena panted and squeezed out some of her divine power. She barely stopped the hemorrhage as she couldn’t heal it completely and staggered to her feet.

But she was at her limit now. Her will of not giving up until the end was excellent but she was at her limit.

Kwagang!

A loud sound exploded in the sky. There were beings that descended from the sky along the throwing spear.

Athena knew who they were.

The God of defeat Deimos and the God of fear Phobos.

The two of them were children of Ares.

The two of them were outstanding handsome men as expected of the children Ares, who had an outstanding beauty even among the Gods.

Deimos, who was holding a spear, had a black beard and sharp eyes and Phobos, who was holding an axe, didn’t have any facial hair and had a long and beautiful golden hair.

But the only thing that shone was their looks.

The two of them were cruel and savage like the God of war Ares.

“Found you.”

“The smell of defeat was riveting.”

Deimos and Phobos glanced at Athena upside down and snickered.

“I tracked the one that faced the biggest defeat. My acting power is really good by the way. If it wasn’t for me we would have lost her by now.”

The God of defeat Deimos could smell defeat. Just like he had said, Athena wasn’t a shining Goddess of victory but a miserable loser.

“Why don’t you say something? You usually talk a lot, right?”

Phobos snickered once again and said. He was also a God of war but the relationship of Athena, that prioritized refined strategies, and Ares that cared more about frontal assaults had a really bad relationship.

Athena took a breath and pulled out her sword instead of answering. It was a hopeless situation but she kept trying to think of ways to escape.

Deimos grabbed his belly and laughed. He raised his head at some point and closed the distance with Athena. He stabbed his spear towards Athena’s face.

Athena reacted calmly. She was a great God. She could still fight even though she had suffered a heavy injury and had depleted her divine power.

Deimos’ spear stabbed the air. Athena dodged the spear with a gap of one step and tried to close the distance with Deimos smoothly.

But Deimos wasn’t easy to handle either. Even though he was a lesser God, he was still a pure God born between Ares and Aphrodite. In addition, he was also a God of war.

Attacks were exchanged in close distance. Originally Deimos wasn’t even an opponent for Athena but Athena was the one being pushed back now. The exchange of attacks turned to become a one sided attack and defense at some point.

And Phobos also putted in.

At first, Athena could endure the first attacks but she soon reached her limit. Deimos aimed for her left thigh obstinately as it was pierced by the throwing spear and Phobos aimed for her back.

Athena dropped her sword in the end. At the same time the tip of Deimos’ spear stabbed Athena’s stomach. Phobos smacked down Athena with the handle of his axe as she lowered her head at the attack.

She couldn’t even sense what happened after that. Deimos and Phobos unleashed merciless attacks to the crumpled Athena.

The wound in her thigh opened up again. Her clothes were torn and became rags and her lips swelled up. The blood flowing from between her lips soaked her chest.

Deimos grabbed on Athena’s long and black hair and made her raise her head. He slapped Athena’s cheek, that had a beauty that could contest with the Goddess of beauty Aphrodite and said.

“Defeat is really pathetic. For the great Athena to be like this. You shouldn’t have even tried to escape. You would have some divine power remaining then.”

“It would have been the same either way. Her injury was too serious when she escaped the Mount Olympus. Poseidon even swept away Athens. Well, if Athens had been safe it wouldn’t have turned like this. The army of Sparta still has a long way to arrive so you suffered an unexpected surprise attack.”

Phobos slapped the other cheek of Athena and snickered. The fact that they could look at her properly when they couldn’t do so normally stimulated their desires.

“It isn’t bad having turned into beings wanting to destroy the world.”

“It’s rather refreshing. I don’t know why he didn’t turn before.”

Athena couldn’t even open her eyes properly but she still didn’t give up. There was still light in her blue eyes.

Bang!

Deimos hit Athena’s stomach and blood poured down her mouth once again.

Deimos didn’t like Athena’s eyes. He glared at Phobos that was pestering about the blood that spurt out and then whispered in her ear.

“We won’t kill you and won’t make you turn into a being wanting to destroy the world.”

“Father told us that you will bring us many siblings.”

“We come next after father. Isn’t it time for us to get lesser Gods too?”

Phobos started to speak at the same time.

“Next are the soldiers. We will make you face dozens of them in a day. Ah, How about giving you to the limp? I mean, he has been dying for you.”

“That’s right. Will he listen to us better saying that he’s grateful?”

Athena tilted her ears at the curses.

The limp.

She could only think of one face.

The God of fire Hephaestus.

The God of blacksmithing that had courted her and even proposed marriage to her.

He was the older brother of the Gods and Ares’ brother even though they didn’t have a good relationship. But what did it mean that they spoke like that?

Hephaestus hadn’t turned. He was someone wanting to maintain the world.

It was good news heard in the middle of despair. But if it was like Deimos and Phobos had said, there was a big possibility for Hephaestus to be captured by Ares.

She had to save him. She had to transmit this news to Apollo.

Athena smacked her lips. She opened her eyes forcefully and scanned her surroundings. Deimos and Phobos had dropped their guards completely. She had done well on not using the last of her divine power even though she was exposed at the merciless violence.

Only one moment.

When they were trying to retrieve her and return.

Athena had given up on escaping, that had a low chance of succeeding. Instead, she decided to transmit her thoughts to Apollo.

Please reach him.

Let it be transmitted.

Actually, it wasn’t that useful of an information but it was the best she could do right now.

She looked at the direction she felt Patroclus. She opened her mouth while she was raised up forcefully by Deimos and Phobos.

But right before she released the last of her divine power.

The thing that came out of her mouth was a completely different thing.

“Asgard.”

The neighboring world. The place she had thought was the only hope.

Deimos and Phobos turned to look back and Athena said as if whispering once again.

“Asgard.”

Along with the sound of thunder that tore the sky.

A red meteor fell down.

< Episode 51 – Clash (4) > End

TL note: Thanks for reading~