“Ready?”

Faith gives me a nod. We’re back down at the docks where Faith and Ingrid laid the trap for me months ago. It’s been a weird year. I came here expecting somewhat of a normal life, with a tiny bit of divine missions, but things didn’t go according to plan. Here I am, about to take down an undead Angelic Succubus, while I’m almost ascending to godhood myself. Not how I saw my year go. Hopefully things will calm down a bit soon.

Letting myself surrender to the bond between me and Athena, the familiar feeling of becoming one, connecting, becoming whole fills my very being. I can tell the amount of her divinity in my body has increased, it’s teasing at my own dormant divinity, and my divine constitution. I can’t tell if it’s speeding up my own ascension, but it doesn’t really matter. It’s going to happen soon anyways.

After a few minutes of waiting, I see something flying towards us in the distance. In theory this should be simple. Mystica is lying in wait, planning to use her spatial shackles to restrain her for a few seconds so Faith can lock her down with the special chains. The problem comes after. What to do with her.

“Nia, you see her?”

“Mhm. Mystica you ready?”

I hear her answer through the earpiece, looks like we’re good to go for angel hunt.

Only a dozen seconds later and Helena lands in front of us, as  me and Athena disconnect. We don’t want to overstrain my body when it’s just newly reconstructed, even though we probably could have held the connection for a lot longer than we previously could.

The second she lands I can see her expression turning confused, she’s locked up, even though we can’t see Mystica’s ability. I give Faith a nod and she rushes forwards and places the chains around her feet and arms. So far so good.

Helena is trying to struggle free of the chains, but they’re doing their job. I can feel the gravitational pull from here. I think we might have overdone it, but at least they’re not subpar.

I’m walking up to Helena, and I’m about to knock her out when she breaks free. I don’t know how, but she did. A brilliant light blinds me, and I can feel the heat of something pulsing towards me at rapid speed, until the impact. I don’t need to see to know what just happened, I could feel my stomach ripping apart and the flesh and tissue searing and burning due to the high heat of her attack.

I can vaguely hear Faith shouting, and Mystica talking to me through my ear, but that’s not what I’m focused on right now. I don’t pay attention to the hole in my stomach, the light, my girlfriend or Mystica. All I can stay focused on is the familiar warmth filling my body, guiding me, telling me what to do. 

I raise my hand towards Helena. I feel her hand withdrawing from my body. My sight is back, it’s better, it’s nothing I’ve ever felt before. The world is moving in slow motion as the blood flowing through my brain is improving, filling itself with this other force that’s raging inside my body, begging to be let free. I turn to look at Faith, but she’s standing still. I can feel the heat of Helena’s next attack, and I follow it as it moves millimeter by millimeter, creeping closer to me at an extremely slow speed.

My body is shrinking, my hair is turning to it’s familiar blood red, but strands of gold are creating highlights throughout my hair. I turn to look at my claws, extending on their own. Instead of the usual cold, black, colourless claws they used to be. They are now reminiscent of my fight with Ifrit’s avatar. They’re a solid gold colour, shimmering with an ethereal hue. I can feel power surging through my body, the dormant god essence coming to life, filling me. Combining with my life force.

I turn to look at Helena, and I let the world resume at its normal speed. I can hear the continuation of Faith’s words, telling me to look out, but it doesn’t matter. My hand still raised, I let my golden blood seep through my palm, erecting a translucent wall of divinity, dissipating the heat from the attack. Turning it into nothingness, as it dies. Death.

“[Kneel].”

A single command, a language I forgot, but now remember. Bringing the Angelic Succubus to its knees, as I command my blood to chain her down. To obey me. I can feel the life force of the entities around me. Life.

Mystica is moving closer, but it doesn’t matter. She cannot defy me, a goddess. I can tell it’s not all me, I can feel my sister’s divinity mixing with my own, the remnants of our descent. 

With Helena unmoving, tied down with my divine blood, forced to obey, to surrender. I close the distance between us. I can feel two unnatural substances mixed in with her life force. They do not belong. Commanding my blood to bring out her arm, as if she’s offering it to me, I let my fangs extend to their full size, and bite down.

I can feel the seeds inside her, fighting, trying to overthrow one another. They are opposing elements. One that resembles holiness, and one that is akin to something demonic. Metatron. Asmodeus.

The god essence flows from her body to mine, but it’s not the chaotic raging storm that I felt last time. I can feel my own divinity commanding it, telling it with unquestionable authority to submit, converging and becoming my own.

There is no blood. Only life force and god essence. My control is on a different plane than it was just moments ago. I can feel their connection to the world, to her body, to my command. Letting only the life force remain in her body. I don’t care for her frailty, her mortality, but I do care about Faith. I promised to find a way to fix her, if possible, so she will live.

“Nia?”

I release my fangs from Helena, as her body falls unconscious. She just had two seeds of divinity ripped from her body, the god essence, her connection, gone. As she was not an avatar, I could not reach Metatron and Asmodeus, but neither could they interfere. They can probably feel something gone, but they won’t know how, what, or why.

“Yes Faith?”

“What happened? Did you descend with Athena again?”

“No. Quite the opposite, my little snow fox. This is me.”

I can see realization dawn on her face, as she looks up and down my body. No doubt taking in my new form. 

“That was not what I expected. It seems you combined both forms into something new. Congratulations, and welcome, sister.”

Thank you, Athena. I’m sorry we’ll have to cut this conversation short, I have no doubt you can feel our contract untangling itself from my soul. It seems my body is rejecting it, protecting my soul and enveloping it in my own divinity.

“I suppose, for now this is goodbye.”

We both know that’s not the case, don’t be so melodramatic sister. I don’t know how long I will be sleeping, but do contact me when I wake up.

“I will.”

The last parts of our contract are gone, and I can feel Athena’s warm and familiar divinity slowly seeping out of my body, dissipating into the air. I’ll only have another few minutes before I fall asleep, elevating the last part of me to my new divinity.

“Ethenia? You’re the vampire?”

“Correct. I assume we have a lot to talk about when I wake up, but make no mistake. I am me, I have always been me. My goals have not changed, I’ve only added more. I will tell you more when I wake up. Do not disappoint me.”

“Wake up? What do you mean, Nia?”

“The last part of me, my mind, needs to adapt. This process will put me into slumber, as to not break me. Don’t worry my little fox, it’s nothing harmful. Now then. I suppose we should be on our way.”

I walk over towards Faith, putting an arm around her waist. I can feel her body changing from tension, to relaxation, back and forth. No doubt my aura is making her body uncomfortable, as it knows it’s in contact with something leagues above its own. While her mind recognizes me, my touch, my scent, my aura, trying to tell her body to calm down.

“Now then. I’ll be sending you and Helena back to your office, Mystica. She won’t wake up for a while, and when she does she’ll be no different in power compared to a normal changed, besides her race. She no longer has any seeds of divinity inside her, and the connection is gone. Well then, I’ll see you soon.”

Snapping my fingers I send Helena and Mystica through the spatial fluctuations in the world, depositing them into her office. I take another look around this new and exciting world. I can see the particles of life force, the connection between the planet and the divine realm. The leylines running underneath the earth, forming, connecting the world through another dimension.

“What did you just do?”

“I simply teleported them through the spatial fluctuations in this world. I will explain more when I wake up, now it’s our turn.”

Pulling Faith closer. I don’t need to be in contact with her, but it feels right. Like she belongs there, besides me. I snap my fingers and the world distorts, and less than a second later we’re standing in our living room. I turn towards Faith and give her a slow, deep kiss. Using my body to tell her I’m fine. Doing something I’ve never been able to do, I slip something into her body, for the future.

“Well then, I guess I’ll see you soon.”

I leave Faith there after giving her another kiss, and walk towards the bedroom, only to stop at the door.

“Good night my little fox.”