Pantheon Peace is the first real attempt at f the genie bato the bottle. Ultimately, the thought of annihiting victory had to be removed for the sake of the world. Kassandora’s theories of scable war were also denounced along with magical militarization. All were ideas that simply should have never been thought of. The War College of Arcadia was rehe reframing of War bato the Age of Heroes aling national grievahrough champions rather than armies, the sing of Sorcery and the capture of on-Divines are the foundations of the Post-Great-War Era.

  I find Fortia and Maisara annoying, but there is ohing all three of us agree on. None of us will fet Kassandora’s ges. Her mentality is an ideological pgue we o produtibodies to. Already, I fear her pragmatic paranoia setting in, the doubt of whether Peace with Paraideisus and Tartus will st, the o prepare for a flict should they stab us in the back. I push these thoughts away, the White Pantheon will lead Arda until powerful Divines naturally emerge from Pantheon Peace ideals, the reins will be handed over then.

  Excerpt from ‘My Thoughts on the New Era’, written by Goddess Alsaria, of Light, kept within the White Pantheon’s Closed Library

  Olonia gripped her sword as the rank smell of sulphur invaded her nostrils. Lubska had sulphur mines in the mountains, every decade or so there’d be an avanche. She would be called to help out, and the smell had ingraiself into her memory. A pu aroma that seeped into clothes and everything she had on her.

  Saksma went for her bde. Agrita started to shake, she gripped her spear in both hands and took a step back. Olonia took a deep breath as she recalled her thoughts from training. She had stood up against Fer. It was true, that it was only training, but it was Fer still. The pinnacle of what a Goddess should be in melee. Just as Fer had said, if Olonia could get a cut on her, she could get a cut on anyone. Aliana pulled her bow off her shoulders. Paida drew her bde and started to get the shield ready.

  But none of them were fast enough, nor brave enough. Olonia saw a red circle appear oones of the ground as if a magi had suddenly drawn it with magma. It bubbled a alight with fmes. And Olonia felt her legs go as hard as stone. Her hand tightened around the hilt of her bde until her knuckles turned white, she felt her breath catch, and couldn’t force herself to expel the cold underground air from her lungs.

  The circle on the ground grew to the size of a table. Five points, each equally spaced from it each other, started to shine brightly on it. Straight lines expanded from them, joining together to make a cursed five poiar. “Ihh…” Olonia tried to get the elf’s . She hated herself that she was still so weak that she o call for help, but call for help she did.

  Fer left the room first. animal skins and a skirt, her legs exposed and a tail lightly swishing from side to side. She simply did not fit the mood, it was as if they were all in a horror movie, and she had e out of one of those a flicks Aliana ehe woman she air, her ears bounced, she actually turned her back to the burniagram on the ground and looked deeper into the corridor. The tor her head shining brightly onto the walls of smoothed stone.

  Iliyal was the sed, Kavaa came close behind him. They both stared impressed at the symbol on the ground. And Olonia finally saw their faces. Kavaa was merely watg, her grey eyes looking almost bored. There was nothing in them, she was merely waiting for whatever it was to happen. One hand was on her sword hilt, the ripped her shield, but it was loose.

  But Iliyal though? The expression he was making was the exact same as when Waramunt had been killed by his hand. His emerald eyes danced excitedly over the red symbol on the ground as he waited. One hand on his sword, the other on his pistol. In that dark suit, he almost faded into the darkness around them. “Looks like they’ve not ged portalling then.”

  “They haven’t.” Fer said as she finished her iion of the tunnels ahead of them. She turned back towards them and Kavaa took a step back. Fer… that was the Goddess of Beasthood indeed. Her iris’ had gre, teeth extended from her jaws, her nails had grown into cws and thick golden fur was bursting out of her skin. “Been a while since I saw one of these.” Kavaa shrugged her shoulders.

  “So what now?” She asked.

  “So noait and see what es out, this firms that the first rune wasn’t a fake.” Iliyal said as Kavaa looked to Olonia and her four friends.

  “You’re about to see a demon, whatever it is, we will kill it.” Olonia blinked as Saksma let out a mirthless, panicked ugh. Agrita took aep back, Kavaa noticed it immediately. “If any of you run, you are putting yourselves in danger, you are safest around us.”

  “Kavaa is correct.” Iliyal said. “Fer, it’s your kill.”

  “That wasn’t iion.” Fer merely growled as she circled around the portal. Olonia took a step back to give her room. She was scared of whatever was about to e out of that portal, but that expression Fer was making, the impatieement, was just as terrifying. That was the differeween them. Olonia did not know if she could get into that mentality, even if she lived for a thousand years more.

  Fer’s tail dragged along the ground as she found a spot, opposite the wall. She gave a single gnce up, at Iliyal and Kavaa, who were oher side, and moved her hand to shoo them away. her made ent, they simply moved. That was something else, that level of teamwork… Did they even like each other? Fer and Kavaa had been on opposite sides in the Great War, and now they moved as if they had ten thousand years’ worth of experieogether. “Anything we should know?” Iliyal asked. Olonia blinked. Was that question for her?

  “I am supposed to ahat?” Kavaa said.

  “You are.”

  “I assume you know everything.”

  “You fought with them.”

  “You fought against them.” Kavaa replied just as dryly. “Let’s not pretend that I’ll be better at killing them than Fer.”

  “Let’s not.” Fer agreed excitedly. She adjusted her posture, one leg behihe other bent forwards, arms hanging loose at her side. “This wait always annoyed me.”

  “I always liked it.” Iliyal said.

  “You had to prepare for it.”

  And Olonia stared at them, barely able to move. She finally took a breath, a her hands start to shake. Whether Iliyal noticed or not, he had nothing to say. He was only looking at Kavaa. “I thought you would have more…” He searched for a word. “Unwillio fight them.”

  “I’ve told you about the Pantheon.” Kavaa said.

  “You did.” Iliyal said.

  “Imagihe Pantheon, now imagihree of them. That sums the three world alliance up.” Kavaa said. She turo the Goddesses and finally decided to expin. “This is a portal rune.” She poio the red pentagram in a circle behind her. It set alight, the fmes growing tall. “It takes about a minute or two to move someo’s not particurly dangerous.”

  Olonia blinked. Saksma let out her scared ughter again. Agrita grabbed onto Paida, the Goddess of Rancais ged her posture, one hand holding Agrita’s, the other trying not to shake her as she hefted the sword to protect the two of them. Aliana reached for an arrow, her fingers missed it and she dragged ay bow ready to shoot. “You’ll see now. This is good training.” Kavaa said. “If it bleeds, it dies. Divines bleed, we die. Far easier than you would think. Demons.” She turo the portal. “There’s fmes and howls, but that’s about it.”

  Iliyal said nothing, he merely crossed his arms across his chest as Fer remaiill. Olonia did not know if the woman had frozen and her eyes had gzed over, or whether she really had just adapted into a silent snake ready to strike.

  The rune of fire in the middle started to glhter, the fmes simmering on it spiralled upwards. Higher and higher, until they made a pilr as tall as Iliyal. Bright es and yellows ahat silently danced in the cold darkness of the dwarven underground highway. They slowly became brighter and brighter, the fire growing so hot that Olonia felt the heat hit her like an avanche. And they kept on growing, Iliyal took a few steps back, Kavaa only one, Fer remained fixed ihe fires turo blue, from the fme of a dle to that of a gas stove.

  And Olonia saw a woman of appear in the middle of them. She was in mid-air for only a moment, looking down at her shoes as she dropped from the tre of that fme and into the middle of the magical ruwo horns, pure bck, stuck out of her head like a flowing . She had a thick red tail that popped from just above her derriere. Eyes like magma, bright e, perfect white teeth. Her hands burst with fmes. She didn’t notiyone around her, simply looking down in a careful expression as the fmes cooled and she fell the towards the stony ground.

  But she ouched the floor. Fer was faster.

  Olonia did not blink, but she missed it anyway. One moment, Fer was stood there, the , she simply wasn’t. Both her and the demoness had disappeared. Olonia heard the impact first, a thunderous sound of a onball as the stoo her left cracked. Dust fell from the ceiling as Olonia turo Fer.

  She was holding the demoo the wall, a crater around it as if one of the artillery pieces Kassandora used that Olonia saw on TV had just fired point-bnk into it. The demoness squirmed for a moment, her arms filing, her tail madly grabbing as Fer. The Goddess of Beasthood merely closed her grip on the woman’s throat. Bones cracked, arms fell loose, legs stopped kig, the tail followed the legs. And Fer let of the woman. She slid down the wall and colpsed into a heap of stone.

  And Olonia stared. That was it? Just like that? She had seen Iliyal shoot men dead in Drayim. That was slower than this attack. She remembered the training. Had Fer just let them wiime? How would it be even possible to go up strength and speed such as that? Iliyal clicked he tongue in annoyance. “I would have preferred if you didn’t kill her immediately.” Fer she ear, her ears bounced, she straightened her back, her tail waved from side to side.

  And that monster was gone, repced with a smile and warm golden eyes again. “Well you should have said so!” She said it so early aily, she may as well have been enting on the fvour of her favourite sweets.

  “I suppose so.” Iliyal said with a sigh. “I’ll remember for ime.” Fer merely chuckled as Kavaa blinked and turo look at the corpse, she took oep forwards, held out her hand, and pulled it back.

  “That was fast.” Kavaa said.

  “I aim to please.” Fer said happily. Olonia stared at that corpse in disbelief. That was it? Fer had just… Just like that? Iliyal seemed to notice her staring.

  “That’s how it’s done in battle.” The elf spoke to the five National Goddesses. “Take that as a first-hand demonstration. You aim to kill, children fight, adults kill. That’s what separates the two. The only you be sure of your own survival is to eliminate all threats immediately. Every sed you give is an infinite amount of openings which the oppo may or may not see.”

  “This is what fighting Leona does to a man.” Kavaa said dryly and the elf shook his head.

  “It’s merely Goddess Kassandora’s philosophy. There is no such things as raising stakes in warfare, you go with everything you have at all times.” He said and took a breath.

  “Are we going in?” Fer asked. “Or should I carry the corpse back? It’s proof of what we came to find.”

  “Proof it may be.” Iliyal said. “But it could just be a rogue succubus who was left behind a thousand years ago.” He smiled at Kavaa. “That’s what fighting Leona does to a man.” The Goddess shook her head in exasperation. Iliyal turned and shone his light deeper iurned around, towards the entrance, aurned back, fag the depths once again. And for all the respect Olonia had for him, sometimes, she wished he just wouldn’t say anything. “ Leave the body, we’re going deeper.”