Fever Temple Meslamtaea was the Noble Phantasm Eresh gained after Rovi drove away the gods of the Mesopotamian plain.
The mistress of the Underworld at that time was no longer alone. She could truly set foot upon the earth, embrace the sun, and at last remember that the Underworld, too, could have a sun.
That sun was herself—Ereshkigal, goddess of the Underworld.
Did gently tending to every departed soul, allowing them to forget fear and worry before their souls vanished, not make her an existence like the sun?
And it was precisely because of Rovi that Eresh gained that awareness and ideal. What appeared alongside it was this Noble Phantasm known as Fever Temple.
Its form was a long spear woven from brilliant light. Its essence was the immense heat accumulated from the flames of souls that had flowed through the Underworld over its long ages.
And when Fever Temple was fully manifested, it became a vast, towering palace woven from earth, fire, and souls.
That form was extremely similar to the power Scathach was displaying now.
It was hard for Rovi not to freeze. He would never forget the reason he had been searching for traces of Eresh all this time.
Scathach, however, was still speaking. "Though this move isn't something I created myself, it is my manifestation of 'martial skill,' replicated from the power of my friend!"
The dark-purple light appearing above the Queen of the Land of Shadows illuminated her exquisite, pretty face with a cold, heroic radiance. Her raised arm and proud, upright posture were themselves like a spear nailed into place.
Spear collided with spear, combining above her head, until at last they condensed into reality.
"Can you withstand this, King of the Wild Hunt—Rovi?"
Rovi steadied himself and gently turned the storm lance in his hand. Behind the mask, his face could not help showing a smile.
It had to be said that Scathach truly did possess tremendous talent. The "Fever Temple" she had replicated already possessed eighty percent of Eresh's power.
One had to know that Eresh of the Underworld had long since been a true veteran chief-god-class manifestation.
She was not someone comparable to the still "immature" Scathach, who had only just stepped into the realm of a chief god.
"Friend, is it? Looks like I'll only get answers to many things after I receive this move of yours!"
Rovi grinned. The lance he raised slightly began to rotate in a spiral, its storm-wreathed tip gathering force.
Invisible currents slowly spread out, rippling through the deep, dark Land of Shadows layer by layer.
At the same time, Rovi began calculating his output in his heart.
Not to expand his power to its limit, but to avoid directly gravely injuring Scathach.
As a transcendent, Scathach could not be killed directly. Unless Rovi used the Sword of Rupture's power to destroy the "world" where her existence resided, a transcendent who had only surpassed life and death would not vanish unless the world vanished with her.
But while she could not be killed, she could still be gravely wounded.
Rovi did not want that.
He still had questions to ask—questions about Eresh's whereabouts, about where the goddess of the Underworld, the goddess he was searching for, was.
And so, in that instant, he controlled his output and restrained his power.
"Lord Rovi, are you looking down on me?" Scathach sensed it, but her face beneath the dark-purple light showed no anger.
Because she had also sensed the vast gulf between them.
The current her had not lived enough yet, and did not want to be killed.
"This isn't looking down on you. It's taking you seriously." Rovi shook his head. "I'll control my output to match yours and manifest my power on the same scale as yours—a pure contest of technique. Isn't that better?"
It was indeed better.
"In a certain sense, you really are a gentle person," Scathach sighed. "But why not tell the truth? That you're doing this to avoid beating me to death outright?"
The corner of Rovi's mouth twitched. The wisdom of the Magic Mirror really was no joke.
"There's no need to worry about angering me. Being weaker than you is a fact."
"I won't be angry, and I won't be moved either—"
Scathach smiled. Her red lips rose, and at the same time, her supple body lowered the spear in her hand...
Then swung.
The enormous "temple" seemed to fall from the sky, and the "shadows" that existed everywhere in the Land of Shadows gathered into that palace.
Eresh had once used her own power to turn the surface into the land of the Underworld, binding the Bull of Heaven, the strongest Divine Beast of Mesopotamia. The Fever Temple she possessed had the same "binding" effect.
And Scathach's strike, a replication of the Fever Temple, was the same.
The gathered shadows were the power of the Land of Shadows. Within the range they covered, those caught inside would be restricted by endless shadow.
Every corner of shadow was a barren mountain within the Land of Shadows.
Heavy and sunken.
It could likewise suppress and bind the enemy.
That was why it was said to resemble the Fever Temple, and why Rovi could recognize it at a glance.
But clearly, shadows could not imprison a storm, much less confine the soul of the dead.
Rovi raised the storm lance. In an instant, vast currents of air expanded without end, as though lifting one corner of a curtain. The surrounding shadows collapsed layer by layer.
It was not fully deployed, but it was a partial manifestation of the power that had fought Thor, God of Thunder, to a standstill—Rhongomyniad.
The curtain of the Age of Gods could be lifted.
The shadows of the Land of Shadows could also be broken.
A clash?
A collision?
No. This was nothing more than Rovi unilaterally dismantling and disassembling the power Scathach wielded.
The "temple" that had swung down vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye.
It had been "evaporated."
Scathach froze, looking at the tall figure before her as dust rose, and the storm gathered at his spear tip disappeared.
The corner of her mouth twitched. "Ah... as expected, it was still too much."
"This is only the second time in my life I've lost in martial skill!"
She admitted defeat frankly, without the slightest excuse.
"The gap is too big," Rovi said without politeness. "In another two thousand years, you might have a chance."
"Two thousand years... by then, perhaps I'll already be tired of living?" Scathach blinked.
Rovi smiled. "If that time comes, I'll end your life. Of course—I also hope that someday, someone can end mine."
The two who had been exchanging friendly words a moment ago had suddenly acted without hesitation, with an aura as though they would not rest until one of them died. And now, the two who had seemed to be facing each other in a fight to the death suddenly spoke aimlessly, like old friends reunited after a long separation.
In a certain sense, they were very similar people.
The tremors caused by the battle gradually subsided, and the Land of Shadows returned to its former calm. Only the sound of the two speaking still echoed.
Rovi suddenly said, "The second person, you said? So before this, you lost once?"
"That's right!" Though it was a shameful past for a warrior, Scathach did not look troubled when she spoke of it. Instead, she was full of excitement.
Scathach, who shared the same origin as the Ski Goddess Skadi, was in truth of rather ordinary birth. She was only a mortal, with neither divine blood nor the bloodline and origins of some powerful warrior or hero. Yet she was a godslayer who had stepped into the realm of gods with a mortal body. She lived year-round in deep valleys, tempering her skill, and when she first appeared, she slew the gods who dwelled in the heavens.
Yes. From a very young age, Scathach had already been a symbol of the "strong."
If this were another world, she would be the so-called chosen of heaven, a lone traveler on the road of invincibility. Even here, she had still relied on her own power and technique to stand above ordinary gods.
But even such an extraordinarily talented female warrior had once lost in pure technique before meeting Rovi.
"Of course, back then, my skills weren't as polished as they are now..." Scathach smiled without the slightest concern, her graceful figure swaying with the faintest movement. "I had not seen through the boundary between life and death, and naturally had not comprehended the wisdom of the Magic Mirror that transcends life and death—"
"But it was precisely because of that defeat that I saw from her the limits of a mortal."
In that battle, she crossed the boundary and grasped the wisdom of the Magic Mirror. At last, she crossed the border between god and chief god, a threshold ordinary mortals could never surpass no matter what they did.
From then on, she could grow stronger without limit, no longer restrained.
From then on, her life and death were linked to the world.
"Thinking about it carefully, even this Land of Shadows was something she gave me!" Scathach put away the crimson spear in her hand. She said, "Come. Since you're here, allow me to show you around properly, so I can fulfill my duties as host..."
"And take the chance to steal my martial skill?"
"That doesn't count as stealing. For a martial artist, learning something is itself an ability!" Scathach admitted it without the slightest shame. It was much like the reason Skadi had used when she first met Rovi and, after "accidentally" losing to him, followed him.
Scathach was simply far more honest than Skadi.
However, Rovi would not refuse. After all, he still wanted to obtain more information from Scathach about the "person" she had mentioned—and he could roughly tell that it was in fact Eresh, who had entered the Norse lands.
In the dark Land of Shadows, light and shadow continued to flow. Scathach walked ahead, her hips and waist swaying, her graceful body wrapped in the purple bodysuit always displaying the beauty befitting a queen. Scathach herself never cared about that. So long as it was a strong person she acknowledged, she would not even mind sharing a kiss.
Of course, to this day, only Rovi and the "friend" she spoke of likely possessed that qualification.
As for everyone else who had seen her, whether human or god, they had all died beneath that god-slaying spear.
They walked upward over jagged boulders, and Scathach's clear voice drifted back. "That friend of mine is a god of the underworld from a foreign land. A thousand years ago, she was already a genuine chief god of the Underworld. Back then, after fighting me and helping me complete my transformation, she also created this place, this corner of the world transformed by her own power."
"She fell asleep here, and I entered this place to train."
"It has been... a little over a thousand years now, I suppose?" Scathach calculated the years to herself.
Rovi casually took over. "Looks like you're pretty old."
"Lord Rovi." Scathach instantly raised a smile. "Has no one ever told you not to mention a lady's age?"
"You brought it up yourself. And besides—when it comes to age, you're still a little behind me."
Rovi laughed. "Little girl."
"..."
A transcendent who had lived for over a thousand years truly did not want others mentioning that she was "old," but in this moment, when someone suddenly called her little, Scathach could not feel happy either.
It somehow felt like she was being looked down on... and yet she had no way to refute it.
This man could always put someone in check in the strangest places.
"I finally understand why Skadi was schemed against so badly by you!" Scathach grinned, her lovely lips like fire. "In any case, if you're interested in my friend, I'm afraid you may be disappointed."
"Because she does not wake easily... hm?"
Scathach's words stopped halfway.
Above the jagged boulders stood the "palace" piled from stone. Within the palace were two "thrones," one before the other.
The empty one in front was the seat belonging to the Queen of the Land of Shadows herself.
And on the throne behind it, the seat of the true founder of the Land of Shadows, which should have been empty, a figure was sitting.
It was an incomparably beautiful figure. Brilliant golden hair set off a black crown, and the face beneath the falling ends of her hair was delicate and lovely. A dark-red robe draped over her body, covering her slender shoulders. A glimpse of white softness rose and fell before her chest, while her crossed legs traced winding curves. Her bare white feet glowed with a milky radiance in the darkness.
Though her eyes were closed, the fact that her figure had already manifested represented her awakening.
"Goddess Eresh—!?" Scathach was somewhat pleasantly surprised.
There was no doubt that the figure before them was the friend she had spoken of.
Rovi, too, froze in place.
Eresh... so it really was you...
"Long time no see!" The person on the throne opened her eyes, her ruby-red gaze glowing faintly.
"Mm-hm? It really has been a long time..." Scathach brushed back her long hair and stepped forward to welcome the return of her guide.
Eresh stood at the right moment and opened her arms.
Scathach paused. "After so long apart, you're this enthusiastic? Mm-hm-hm, what troublesome affection..."
Eresh moved forward.
Scathach likewise opened her arms.
How could she fail to respond to the warmth of her only friend... hm!?
Scathach froze, looking at the empty space before her. From the corner of her eye, however, she noticed the figure of the goddess of the Underworld brushing past her.
Rovi opened his arms and embraced Eresh as she flew into them.
"Long time no see." Eresh hugged him tightly, burying her face against his chest and speaking softly.
Rovi smiled and rubbed the goddess's head. "It really has been a long time."
From the age of Uruk, when he had been "carried off" by Mother Goddess Tiamat, until now, almost two thousand years had passed for Eresh, had they not?
But even now, Eresh's eyes still held him.
Or rather... still held only him.
"So in other words, the two of you know each other?" Scathach fell into deep thought beside them.
The Queen of the Land of Shadows felt there had to be something very wrong here.
How had she become the outsider?
Wasn't she supposed to be the one reuniting with her friend?
---
T/N: poor scathach, dw my arms are WIDEEEEE OPEN
T/N2: hehehe sorrgeee well not really but i actually forgot about webnovel LMAOOOO anyway heres ur 4 chapssss
bonus chaps
100 stones -> 1 chapter
200 stones -> 2 chapters
300 stones -> 3 chapters
and so on
discord.gg/wisetl
patreon.com/wisetl