he ancient forest north of Orario hid its silence behind a thick fog that refused to dissipate. Far from the hustle and bustle of the Labyrinth City, beneath a canopy of giant leaves that blocked the scorching sun, a petite figure clad in a green cloak sat leaning casually against the trunk of an oak tree.
Venti let out a long sigh, stretching both of his arms upward until a soft popping sound was heard from his joints. After resting for a few days in this hidden forest, the color in his face was beginning to return to normal. The mortal body bestowed upon him by the Laws of the DanMachi World had slowly recovered.
The events of a few days ago—severing the timeline, facing the One-Eyed Black Dragon, and healing Aria—had indeed completely drained the power of his authority. But now, he felt slightly recovered, even though the remnants of exhaustion still clung to his muscles. Because of that, for the time being, he was once again confined within the limitations of his physical body.
However, he was not alone.
Right in front of him was Aria. The Great Spirit of Wind whom he had just freed from thousands of years of hell radiated an incredibly warm aura of peace.
Aria reached out her hand, touching Venti's cheek very gently. A cool breeze flowed from that touch, slowly sweeping away the remaining soreness in the Archon's body.
"Thank you..." Aria's voice echoed directly, as delicate as the chime of a glass bell. "Thank you for hearing my cries. Thank you for freeing me from that cage of despair."
Venti forced his signature playful smile. "Ehe... Don't thank me just yet, Miss Aria. My rescue bill is quite expensive, you know. At the very least, you have to treat me to the highest quality wine when we return to the city."
Aria smiled softly, a maternal smile that radiated absolute relief.
Suddenly, Venti's ears twitched. The wind around him whispered something to him. It was a resonance transmission from the wisp—the spare little wind spirit he had sent to Hjaðningavíg Island earlier.
Venti closed his eyes, receiving the memories from the wisp. He saw everything: how Dina and Vena awakened the power of the Anemo-Calyx, how they destroyed the Evilus forces, and how his wisp manipulated the egos of King Hedin and King Hogni with the Ego-Calyx until the two rulers eradicated the remaining Evilus fleet on the coast.
However, what made Venti's eyes open wide again was not that victory, but rather a name reported by his wisp.
Alecto. The Goddess of Misery.
"Dina and Vena..." murmured Venti softly, spelling out the names of the two Elf sisters.
As a reincarnator from Earth, Venti's memories of the DanMachi world's lore were sometimes buried by the memories of his thousands of years of age in Teyvat. He had almost forgotten the minor details of enemy affiliations. But now, the names of those two girls and the name of the Goddess Alecto unlocked the box of his memories once again.
Venti's body tensed. The air around him instantly dropped a few degrees.
The Dís Sisters. That was their moniker in the original DanMachi timeline.
Venti remembered clearly what was supposed to happen to Dina and Vena if he had not sent that wisp there. In the original history, Alecto designed an incredibly brutal scenario to break their souls. That Goddess of Misery did not only slaughter their people, but forced Dina and Vena to watch their loved ones being tortured alive. Alecto instilled trauma and despair so deep that the two girls' sanity shattered to pieces.
The result? The gentle Dina and Vena transformed into sadistic, cruel, and psychopathic Evilus executives. They were contradictory monsters who would laugh in glee while crying as they tortured their victims, pure souls twisted into manifestations of Alecto's suffering itself.
Remembering that, anger boiled once again within the chest of the Archon of Freedom.
To Venti, freedom was the absolute right of every soul. Breaking someone's will and turning them into psychopathic puppets who enjoyed suffering was the greatest sin that he could not forgive.
"Goddess of Misery..." hissed Venti, clenching his fists tightly. "You truly make me sick."
He looked up, gazing at Aria who was still faithfully by his side.
"Aria," called Venti, the tone of his voice turning extremely serious and authoritative. "We have one more piece of business before I can go home and sleep peacefully. In the Far East, not far from the waters of Hjaðningavíg, there is an annoying fly that I must swat."
Could you lend me your power? Take me there.
Aria nodded without hesitation. As the Great Spirit of Wind, she needed no further instructions. Instantly, Aria's body melted into a warm and incredibly powerful golden wind vortex. The wind enveloped Venti's body, lifting him off the ground with the gentleness of a mother, yet harboring the thrusting force of a typhoon.
"Hold on tight, Venti," said Aria. "We will pierce the sky."
WHOOOOOOSH!
In the blink of an eye, the golden wind pillar shot vertically, piercing the forest canopy, and changed direction 90 degrees toward the Far East. Their speed tearing through the atmosphere exceeded the speed of sound, but inside Aria's protective cocoon, Venti felt no pressure at all. He only saw the landscape below him flash by into blurred lines.
The God of Wind was heading to his stage of judgment.
..........................................................................................
Far in the Eastern region, on a hidden fog-shrouded island not far from the mainland of Hjaðningavíg, stood a temporary headquarters belonging to the Goddess Alecto.
The fortress was made of damp black stone, filled with dark underground corridors. In the main room, decorated with blood-red tapestries and pillars carved with faces grimacing in pain, the Goddess Alecto was sitting casually upon her throne.
Alecto swirled the wine goblet in her hand with a sadistic smile that never faded from her red lips.
"Ah... just a little longer," murmured Alecto, licking her lower lip. Her wild eyes envisioned the theatrical scene currently taking place in Hjaðningavíg. "The fleet I sent must have finished its job. Those two Elf girls who killed Morgath... right now they must be mourning the corpses of their people. Soon, I will descend there, extend my hand, and turn their tears of despair into the sweetest wine for me."
She let out a shrill laugh, a sound that made several of her guards stationed in the corners of the room shiver in fear.
BOOOOM!!!
Alecto's words were cut off by a massive explosion that made the entire fortress shake violently as if struck by an earthquake.
The main doors of the room, made of thick steel weighing tens of tons, were ripped from their hinges, sent flying into the air as if made of paper, and smashed into the stone wall behind Alecto until they shattered to pieces.
"What on earth is this?!" screamed Alecto, spilling her wine as she leaped from the throne. "Enemy attack?! From where?!"
Dust and debris flew through the air. From behind the gaping hole in the entrance, a very strong and cold gust of wind swept through the entire room, extinguishing all the torches in an instant.
Amidst the billowing dust, Venti stepped in calmly. Behind him, the figure of Aria floated elegantly, radiating a golden light that illuminated the gloomy room.
"Guards! Kill that intruder!" roared Alecto in panic.
Over a dozen elite Evilus soldiers present in the room, all of whom possessed Level 3 Falna, drew their swords and charged in unison at Venti from all directions.
Venti did not shift from his position at all. He only glanced briefly, then spoke softly, "Aria, please clean up these flies."
Aria's golden eyes narrowed slowly. As the Great Spirit of Wind, she needed no lengthy spell incantations or mortal weapons. Aria merely raised one hand elegantly forward.
Whoosh!
A highly dense shockwave of wind exploded from Aria's palm. The storm did not cut, but rather struck like an invisible giant sledgehammer.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
The bodies of those dozen Level 3 soldiers were thrown into the air like ragdolls and smashed into the fortress's stone walls with bone-crushing force. Within seconds, all the elite guards of the Alecto Familia lay unconscious on the floor, completely incapacitated without even having the chance to swing their swords.
Alecto turned deathly pale. Her legs trembled violently seeing her troops swept away like dust. She stared at Venti, then at the glowing Aria behind him. Pure horror finally crept into her heart.
"Y-You... who are you?!" screamed Alecto, stepping backward until her back hit the cold wall behind the throne. Her eyes widened as she felt the aura radiating from the petite young man. "This aura... you are a God! How dare you destroy my headquarters!"
Alecto raised her chin, trying to use the remnants of her arrogance to mask the fear choking her throat.
"But it's useless! You wouldn't dare finish me off!" Alecto yelled in a shrill voice. "Use your Arcanum here, and the laws of the lower world will instantly kick you back to Tenkai with me! The pillar of light will drag us both! Are you going to throw away your life in the Gekai just for me?!"
Venti tilted his head. His youthful face bore no smile whatsoever, only an absolute coldness that froze the soul.
"Who said I was going to use my divine power?" Venti said calmly.
The God of Wind stepped slowly toward one of the Evilus soldiers lying nearby. Calmly, Venti bent down and picked up the soldier's long iron sword. The sword looked too large and heavy for Venti's small frame; the tip of its blade scraped against the stone floor, producing a screeching sound that was horrifying to Alecto's ears.
Scrape... scrape...
"The rules of this lower world are indeed very interesting, Alecto," Venti dragged the sword and stopped exactly two steps in front of the Goddess of Misery. "Gods are not allowed to kill each other using divine power. If a god's physical vessel receives a fatal wound, the Arcanum within their soul will automatically react to save their ego, and pull them back to Heaven."
Venti raised the dried-blood-stained iron sword with both hands, aiming it right at Alecto's chest.
"The greatest weakness of you gods in the Gekai is... your mortal bodies are as fragile as ordinary humans," said Venti, a deadly faint smile now etched on his lips. "I don't need Arcanum to get rid of you. This cheap piece of mortal iron is more than enough to make the world's system react to you."
Alecto's eyes widened in horror. She had just realized the fatal flaw in her own threat.
"W-Wait! Don't—"
STAB.
Without the slightest hesitation or mercy, Venti plunged the iron sword through Alecto's chest.
A purely simple physical attack from a mortal sword ended the biological functions of the goddess's vessel.
Alecto screamed, but her scream was instantly cut off. The fatal wound instantly triggered the DanMachi world's absolute defense system. Alecto's physical body immediately cracked, radiating light from the inside out, before shattering to pieces into shards of divine light.
BOOOOOOM!
The daytime sky above the coral island instantly split open. The clouds were swept clean. A tremendously massive, magnificent, and undeniable pillar of golden light erupted from the spot where Alecto stood, shooting straight vertically through the atmosphere toward a higher dimension—Tenkai.
The pillar of light was so bright and large that the entire Far East region was illuminated by a blinding golden glow. A cosmic humming sound echoed in the air, announcing to all the inhabitants of the lower world that a God had been forcibly returned.
Venti let go of the sword hilt, which now merely stood empty, embedded in the stone floor. He stared at the pillar of light until it slowly faded and disappeared beyond the sky.
"Goodbye, Goddess of Misery," muttered Venti coldly. "I have permanently closed your theater stage."
He rolled his shoulders, which still felt a bit stiff, then turned to look at Aria.
"Well then, one nuisance is dealt with. Let's truly go home now, Aria. The wooden bed in that old church suddenly sounds very tempting."
Aria smiled, once again wrapping the Archon in her protective embrace of wind, then shot back toward the west, heading for Orario, leaving behind the Evilus fortress that had now lost its master.
...........................................................................................
Meanwhile, in Orario.
The sun was shining brightly, sweeping across the rooftops of the Labyrinth City. Several days after the mass panic caused by the Black Dragon's roar a few days ago, the city was trying to restore its calm. However, the world apparently wasn't finished giving surprises.
At the headquarters of the Loki Familia, Twilight Manor, the Goddess of Trickery was standing on her bedroom balcony. She was staring toward the north with a serious face, still thinking about the dragon that had returned to sleep. But suddenly, the corner of her eye caught an unnatural flash of light from the Far East.
Loki widened her usually squinting eyes. On the very distant eastern horizon, beyond the ocean, a vertical pillar of golden light connected the earth to heaven.
"Huh?" Loki mumbled in disbelief, both hands gripping the balcony railing. "A pillar of repatriation? Which foolish god is being returned to Tenkai in the middle of the day out in the middle of nowhere?"
Elsewhere, at the peak of Folkvangr's highest tower, the Goddess Freya was sitting relaxed, sipping wine from a crystal glass. When that distant glint of golden light reflected on the surface of her wine, she slowly stood up and walked to the edge of the tower balcony.
Her beautiful violet eyes stared at the pillar of light in the Far East with great interest. "A god is being sent back? So far from the center of the world... Interesting. What kind of game is being played outside of my supervision?"
On the city streets, Hermes, who was sitting casually on the roof of a tavern, stopped his whistling. He immediately pressed down the brim of his hat and stared in awe toward the east.
"Good grief..." Hermes whistled softly, his eyes reflecting the pillar's light. "The Black Dragon roars in the North, and now there is a God returned to Tenkai in the Far East? The gears of this world are suddenly turning far too fast."
Deep beneath the city of Orario, in the pitch-black and stuffy prayer room of the Guild, blue torches flickered brightly. Ouranos, the God of the Sky who served as the foundation of Orario's stability, slowly opened his eyes.
From behind the shadow of a pillar, Fels stepped forward in his mysterious black robe.
"Ouranos... that light in the east..."
"Yes, Fels. A pillar of repatriation," Ouranos's heavy voice echoed, bouncing off the stone walls of the room.
"Do you know which god has just returned to Tenkai, and what the cause is?" asked Fels warily.
Ouranos shook his head slowly. "I do not know. The distance is too far."
Ouranos's eyes radiated a pale blue light amidst the darkness of the underground room.
"However, one thing is certain..." murmured Ouranos slowly. "...there is one player who has just been forcibly removed from the chessboard of this world."