TGS - Chapter 171
Chapter 171: Deprivation
As deities whose domains were related to the mind, both Adia and Perseus fought by influencing their opponents directly.
For this reason, the scene was exceptionally quiet.
They didn't even need to open a pocket dimension for their battle. Pale crimson and transparent divine power surged around them. Jade-green eyes met deep-blue ones, like a forest facing the deep sea, as halos of light and mist expanded, contracted, and spun within their gazes.
People sometimes describe a deep gaze as "looking into her eyes," and that description could not have been more appropriate here—
a contest of the mind was, quite literally, a battle fought by looking into the opponent's eyes.
At first glance, the scene appeared to be a mere pre-battle standoff, but in truth, a deathmatch had already commenced. Each rotating halo of light represented a perilous round of offense and defense. There was no flash of blades or spray of blood—only the most fundamental clash of spirits.
On the surface, the two goddesses were locked in a stalemate, neither giving an inch.
But Adia knew in her heart that she was at a disadvantage—an absolute one.
From the very beginning, Adia had known that she and Perseus were not evenly matched.
The Goddess of the Mind had existed for a long time; she was a deity born in the land of Solancia during the same era as En and Suojia. In the Kasnie Kingdom, she also had a multitude of followers. All the metrics of her power were plain to see, and she was even showing signs of becoming the leader of her pantheon.
Against such a powerful Perseus, perhaps only the God of the Sky, En, had a guaranteed chance of victory. Even Suojia would likely find her a difficult opponent.
Unfortunately, En had to deal with the Wolf God Huracan, who was also a god-king, and Suojia was in the south, fighting some unknown foreign god. In short, neither could rush here in time.
As for Lotus, she had only been awake for a little over a decade. Although she had shown a formidable aptitude for combat during training, she appeared to be the Goddess of the Mind's target... Adia knew little of their entanglement from a millennium ago, but she understood that it was best to keep them from confronting each other unless absolutely necessary.
With this in mind, Adia, who was already near the border, had revealed herself to intercept Perseus.
She could hold out longer than anyone else.
After another clash of divine power, Adia suppressed the sharp, stabbing pain deep within her mind, her expression unchanging.
The rabbit messenger had already been sent out, but she didn't know if her comrades would arrive in time, when they would arrive, or who it would be.
Just as she was pondering this, the Goddess of the Mind across from her suddenly tilted her head.
"I have been delayed here long enough," Perseus said, her voice as soft as a murmur.
Adia laughed languidly. "I'm afraid you'll have to stay even longer. Wouldn't you like to play with me for a while more?"
Perseus returned her unchanging smile. "You are a spent force."
The Goddess of Love tensed, her gaze darkening.
She began to summon more of the emotions under her command—be they feelings or instincts, any concept that could be forged into power.
But it was too late.
In their confrontation, the Goddess of the Mind's power struck like a reverse arc of light, abruptly piercing Adia's mental barrier. A viscous, transparent, gel-like divine power seeped through the breach, pouring in, spreading, and corrupting, displaying absolute, overwhelming control.
The outcome was decided. The divine power around Adia surged, nearly out of control. Deep crimson halos expanded in her pupils, circle after circle, as overlapping ripples erupted in a harsh glare.
She made a final, desperate gamble, gathering her various disparate powers and focusing all her divine energy on the most fundamental aspect of her divine office.
Love and desire.
Beauty and seduction.
In that moment, Adia became the very concept of beauty and temptation.
With her authority as the Goddess of Love, Adia could have seduced and commanded her opponent. Had she been facing the Beast God, her beauty and her call could have even compelled the beasts and plants under his control to betray his divine authority and attack their own master.
However, this application of her divine authority failed to produce the desired effect. Perseus was stunned for only a moment before quickly regaining her composure.
The curve of her smile lessened slightly as Perseus's gaze refocused. In the next instant, the dagger in Adia's hand was already upon her—Adia had intended to use that brief second to destroy Perseus's divine core, but she had failed.
Perseus whispered, "...Deprivation."
As the word left her lips, Adia's vision was plunged into darkness.
Or rather, it was a blankness—the sensation of "sight" was gone, just as one cannot imagine seeing with their hands or feet. Though her enchanting jade-green eyes remained perfectly open, it was like the empty void one perceives with an eye that is closed.
Using the breach in her mental barrier, the Goddess of the Mind had deprived Adia of her sight.
At the same time, a sharp pain shot through the arm holding the dagger as it was severed at the bicep. Adia could not see it, but the limb was now falling from the sky like a white dove with a broken wing.
Such an injury was trivial for a deity. The loss of her sight was far more troublesome. Adia retreated rapidly, trying to mend the breach in her mental barrier.
"Deprivation."
The divine power she used to perceive her surroundings dissipated. Wisps of pale crimson mist retracted into her body, but she could no longer receive the information they carried.
"Deprivation."
Her throat sealed shut, cutting off the passage of air. A god did not need to breathe, but to lose the ability to both speak and respire at the same time was a terrifying sensation.
"Depri—"
Swoosh. Thwack.
A swift blade of ice and a raven-shaped black cloud struck one after the other, interrupting Perseus's utterance. Words themselves were a form of spirit and power, and so the effect they were meant to trigger was cut short.
Perseus slowly turned her head. She saw Lotus first and smiled. "Just as I thought. You weren't sleeping."
This was the first time Lotus had come face-to-face with the Goddess of the Mind's true form.
Like her shadow, Asilu, Perseus had pale golden hair and deep blue eyes that were nearly black. Both her aura and her voice possessed a peculiar, penetrating quality—or perhaps, an influential one.
This was a product of her divine office, which granted her the ability to influence the minds and souls of living beings.
Lotus didn't respond. Instead, she moved closer to Adia. Her gaze paused at the sight of the severed arm, and she immediately took hold of the Goddess of Love's other arm, facing Perseus.
Emute stood on her other side. The ravens ceased their music and circled the three Solancian deities. A hundred pairs of beady black eyes stared fixedly in Perseus's direction, their gaze unwavering.
Dark, eerie, silent, and ominous.
At a time like this, the ravens finally looked the part of messengers from the netherworld.
Perseus seemed to have only just noticed the Death God's presence, and her brow furrowed slightly.
If only Lotus had arrived, or only Emute, the Goddess of the Mind could have pressed her attack. But two major gods had arrived together—and major gods whose minds were perfectly sound, at that.
She wasn't afraid of a real fight, but if other Solancian gods were to arrive in the middle of it—
"What a pity..." Perseus sighed, and the divine power that had spread out surged back to her like a receding tide.
With the intruder's influence gone, Adia's mental barrier began to repair itself. She was clearly not fully conscious, relying entirely on Lotus to remain standing.
Lotus's expression remained unchanged, as if she were perfectly confident with three combat-ready allies on her side. "Since you're here," she said coolly, "you might as well stay."
Perseus spoke softly. "Is that an invitation?"
Lotus's face was impassive. "An invitation from the Death God."
Beside her, the God of Life and Death raised his hand. A dense black fog, carrying the aura of death, billowed upward, as if he were about to open a pocket dimension for battle.
Battles between deities who controlled mental powers were silent and subtle, but neither Lotus nor Emute fell into that category. If they were to fight Perseus here, opening a pocket dimension was a necessity.
Perseus lowered her gaze and made no move, seemingly content to let the aura of death submerge the world around them from the ground up, enveloping her within it.
Just as the pitch-black aura of death was about to seal completely overhead, the Goddess of the Mind removed the wisp-like coronet from her head.
"Believe it or not, Lotus, I bear you no ill will."
"I hope that next time, we can speak without interruption."
The last of her words vanished into the dissipating mist, and with them, the Goddess of the Mind disappeared without a trace.
Lotus did not relax immediately. She remained in place, observing intently for several breaths before her expression subtly eased. But when she turned her head, her heart leaped into her throat again.
"Adia, Adia, how are you?"
The Goddess of Love was merely dazed, not completely unconscious. She tilted her head, listening carefully with her left ear, then condensed her divine power into a few lines of text above her head.
"Perseus deprived me of my sight, my ability to sense divine power, my sense of smell, my voice, and the hearing in my right ear."
"Other than that, I'm fine."
Just then, one of the Death God's ravens flew up from below, clutching a severed arm, and circled beside them.
Her divine power seemed to sense it. "Give me my arm, please."
The raven returned the fair, beautiful limb to its owner.
The corner of Lotus's eye twitched at the sight. She took a deep breath. "Is it temporary, or..."
The divine power formed another sentence. "It shouldn't be permanent."
After writing that, she added, seemingly amused, "Still, there's a certain beauty in this imperfection, don't you think?"
That certainly sounded like something Adia would say.
Lotus was both worried and exasperated. "I do not. The only battle damage I appreciate is on my Alyuin—you need to return to the Kingdom of the Gods. Now."
The divine power spelled out, "Tsk, tsk."
Emute added with a stern face, "You need Askle. Or to sleep."
The God of Medicine or slumber—a choice of two healing packages.
The divine power struggled to form the words. "I can still fight. Just now, I had an epiphany for a new technique—the beauty and pity of imperfection—"
Lotus cut her off. "Emute, take her back."
The Death God nodded. He pulled his hood back over the upper half of his face, left behind a giant raven avatar, and departed with Adia for the Kingdom of the Gods.
Lotus breathed a small sigh of relief. She began to sense for the divine power of her other comrades, and only then did she have a moment to reflect on Perseus's words and actions.
Something about it felt... off.
It was like grasping a loose thread, only to let it slip away with a fleeting thought, lost forever in the vast sea of her mind.
Still, with Perseus appearing near the border, there was no guarantee she wouldn't head to the Sanur Wasteland to cause trouble for Alyuin.
Conveniently, the border barrier was already broken, allowing deities from both sides to cross freely. To be safe, Lotus dispatched her Snow Goddess avatar toward the wasteland while her main body continued to sense for the divine power of her Solancian comrades.
The first thing she sensed was the wind.
The divine power of En, the God of the Sky, was actively expanding its reach, as if searching for something.
As she approached the center of the divine power, Lotus asked En about his situation.
The God of the Sky replied, "Huracan fled."
Lotus said, "...He did?"
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