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Bell held Haruhime's hand tightly.
They ran down the long spiral stairs.
The tower was completely empty now.
"Where did everyone go?"
Haruhime asked.
She looked around nervously.
"I don't know,"
Bell said.
"But we have to keep moving. The front door is just ahead."
They reached the main hall.
The heavy front doors were already wide open.
Cool night air blew into the room.
Bell stopped walking.
He saw a group of people standing in the doorway.
"Bell!"
A loud, happy voice echoed in the hall.
Hestia ran forward as fast as she could.
She crashed into Bell and hugged him tightly.
She buried her face in his chest.
"Goddess!"
Bell gasped in surprise.
"You came for me!"
"Of course I came for you!"
Hestia cried.
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
"I was so worried! Are you hurt? Did they do anything to you?"
"I am fine,"
Bell smiled gently.
He patted her back.
"I broke the ropes. We escaped by ourselves."
Welf, Lili, Mikoto, and Chigusa walked into the hall.
They all smiled when they saw Bell was safe.
"You had us worried, man,"
Welf laughed.
He put his sword away.
Lili crossed her arms, but she looked very relieved.
"Bell always causes trouble."
Hestia stepped back.
She finally noticed the girl standing behind Bell.
"Who is this?"
Hestia asked.
"This is Haruhime,"
Bell said.
He gently pulled Haruhime forward.
"She was a prisoner here. I promised to save her. She is coming with us."
Haruhime bowed her head very low.
"I am sorry for the trouble,"
Haruhime whispered.
Her fox ears pressed flat against her hair.
"I don't want to be a burden."
Hestia looked at Haruhime.
She saw the fear in the girl's eyes.
Hestia smiled warmly.
"Any friend of Bell is a friend of our Familia. Welcome to safety, Haruhime."
Haruhime looked up.
Her eyes filled with fresh tears.
"Thank you,"
She cried softly.
"Where is Elias?"
Bell asked.
He looked at the street outside. He saw the defeated Amazons.
"He went upstairs,"
Mikoto pointed at the ceiling.
"He is going to speak with Ishtar."
High up at the top of the tower, Elias kicked the heavy wooden doors open.
They splintered and fell off their hinges.
He walked into Ishtar's private room.
Dee walked in right behind him.
She looked around the fancy room.
"Nice place,"
Dee commented.
"Too much pink."
Ishtar backed away.
She pressed herself against the large glass window.
Her beautiful face was pale with absolute terror.
"Stay away from me!"
Ishtar yelled.
She pointed a shaking finger at Elias.
"You monster! You ruined my Familia!"
Elias stopped in the middle of the room.
He rested his naginata on his shoulder.
"You broke the rules,"
Elias said calmly.
"You kidnapped my family. This is the consequence."
Ishtar gritted her teeth.
She was a Goddess.
She refused to lose to a mortal man.
"I am Ishtar!"
She screamed.
"I rule the Night City! I am beauty itself! You will obey me!"
Ishtar closed her eyes.
She gathered all of her divine power.
A bright pink light burst from her body.
The light filled the entire room.
It smelled like sweet perfume and heavy wine.
This was her Goddess Charm.
It was a power that could break the mind of any mortal.
It made them fall completely in love with her.
It made them her eternal slaves.
"Kneel before me!"
Ishtar commanded.
Her voice echoed with magic.
"Drop your weapon and beg for my forgiveness!"
The pink light washed over Elias.
He felt a strange pressure in his mind.
He felt a voice trying to tell him what to do.
But then, a spark flickered inside him.
His power of Adaptivity woke up.
His body and mind instantly recognized the foreign magic.
They shifted. They changed.
They built a perfect wall in less than a second.
The pressure vanished entirely.
The sweet smell turned into plain air.
Elias blinked once.
He stood perfectly still.
He didn't drop his weapon.
He didn't kneel.
"Is that it?"
Elias asked.
Ishtar stared at him.
Her mouth fell open.
"Why aren't you kneeling?"
Ishtar gasped.
She pushed more magic into the room.
"Love me! You must love me!"
"Your charm doesn't work on me,"
Elias explained simply.
"My body adapts to any threat. Your magic tried to control my brain. So, my brain adapted to ignore your magic. I'm completely immune to you."
Ishtar fell to her knees.
Her final trick failed. She had nothing left.
"Please,"
Ishtar begged. Tears ruined her perfect makeup.
"Don't hurt me. I will give you money. I will give you the Night City. I will give you anything!"
"I don't want your things,"
Elias said.
He looked down at her.
His dark eyes slowly changed color.
They turned into a bright, glowing blue.
A ring of rainbow colors spun around his pupils.
These were the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.
Ishtar looked up into his eyes.
Suddenly, she felt a cold chill freeze her very soul.
She saw him looking at the air around her.
Elias saw the jagged, dark lines covering Ishtar's body.
He saw the black dots where her existence connected to the world.
"What are those eyes?"
Ishtar whispered.
Her voice shook with a new, deeper fear.
"I can see the death of all things,"
Elias answered.
His voice was completely empty of emotion.
"I can see your lines. If I cut one of those lines with my blade, you will die."
"Gods can't die!"
Ishtar cried out.
"If our mortal bodies are destroyed, we just go back to Tenkai! We return to Heaven!"
"Usually, yes,"
Elias nodded slowly.
"But my eyes don't destroy the mortal body. They erase existence. If I cut your line, you don't go to Tenkai. You don't return to Heaven. You just stop existing entirely. Forever."
Ishtar stopped breathing.
She realized he was telling the exact truth.
She was a Goddess.
She had lived for thousands of years.
She had never felt true mortality.
Until this exact second.
"No,"
Ishtar sobbed.
She crawled backward on the floor.
"Please. Please don't erase me."
Elias stared at the black lines on her neck.
He raised his naginata.
"I could do it,"
Elias said softly.
"I could erase you from history."
He paused.
He thought about the rules of the world.
"But if I truly kill a Goddess, it will create a massive hole in divinity,"
Elias explained.
"The balance of the lower world and Tenkai will break. The dungeon might react. It would cause too many problems for the others."
He blinked.
His eyes turned back to their normal dark color.
The glowing blue and rainbow rings vanished.
Ishtar let out a huge breath.
She thought she was safe.
"Thank you,"
Ishtar cried.
"Thank you for sparing me."
"I'm not sparing you,"
Elias corrected her.
"I'm just not erasing you."
Elias stepped forward quickly.
He didn't use the lines of death.
He just swung his blade normally.
The sharp edge cut cleanly across her chest.
Ishtar gasped loudly.
She looked down at the wound.
There was no blood.
Instead, bright white light started to pour out of her chest.
"No!"
Ishtar screamed as the light consumed her hands.
"My city! My power! My beautiful life!"
"Go back to Heaven,"
Elias said coldly.
"And stay there."
The pillar of white light shot up through the roof of the tower.
It pierced the dark clouds in the night sky.
Everyone in Orario saw the bright light.
They knew what it meant.
A God was sent back to Tenkai.
When the light faded, the room was empty.
Ishtar was gone.
Dee walked over to the broken window.
She looked down at the street.
"That was anticlimactic,"
Dee smiled.
"The Guild is going to be very mad tomorrow."
"Let them be mad,"
Elias said.
He turned his weapon in his hand.
The blade vanished into thin air.
"We protected our own. That is all that matters."
"Are we done here?"
Dee asked.
She stretched her arms above her head.
"I want to go home and eat dinner."
"Yes,"
Elias nodded.
"We are done."
They walked out of the empty room.
They walked down the long stairs together.
When they reached the bottom floor, Hestia and the others were waiting.
Bell saw Elias and smiled brightly.
"Elias!"
Bell called out.
Elias walked over and stopped in front of the boy.
"You did well, Bell,"
Elias said.
It was a rare compliment.
"You freed yourself. You saved Haruhime. You acted like a hero."
Bell blushed slightly.
He rubbed the back of his neck.
"I just did what I had to do,"
Bell answered.
"That is exactly what a hero does,"
Elias told him.
Hestia grabbed Elias's arm.
She smiled up at him.
"You sent her back?"
Hestia asked.
"She is gone,"
Elias confirmed.
"Ishtar's Familia is finished."
"Good,"
Hestia said firmly.
She turned to her Familia.
"Let's go home. Everyone is safe now."
They walked out of the broken gates of the Night City.
The streets were quiet.
The red lanterns flickered in the wind.
Haruhime walked closely behind Bell.
She looked up at the dark sky.
She saw the stars shining brightly through the clouds.
She was finally out of the cage. She was finally free.