Chapter 59: The Moment Between Worlds

Chapter 59: The Moment Between Worlds

I need to do something, Emilia told herself and scanned the hall. Numerous ruins, partially sunken into the walls, sprang into view. Between them stood several ancient statues with shattered arms and heads, and one enormous sacrificial altar where a strange yellow-blue fire burned.

She involuntarily tightened her grip on the dagger left by Hecate's ritual and recalled how the aspect had left a small part of herself in that blade, along with the numerous glyphs and tiny diagrams etched upon it. She remembered the aspect's last words: "Guard it well, you will need it in the ruins."

Following that, she slowly backed away from the battle and began to run.

While the others fought desperately, she had decided to risk everything and reach the core of the root. As she ran, she could practically feel the Cerberus’s breath on her back. Any moment, she expected it to sink its teeth into her flesh and devour her like some small rabbit... Or whatever it was that Cerberi hunted in Gaia's endless tunnels.

Emilia ran in short bursts, constantly seeking cover, trying to move through the shadows. She would pause and observe the fight. When the monster attacked, she would burst from her hiding place and dash briefly toward the next one. Her heart hammered wildly in her small chest, and sweat poured from her forehead like a river. At one point, she stumbled and fell, and the thorns of a root hidden in the earth painfully dug into her flesh. She let out a small gasp, her eyes welling up with tears. The pain was incredible, and it would be very difficult to keep going.

However, she came from a world where she had undergone multiple surgeries and various procedures. Pain was not a stranger to her, and she knew she could not afford not to press on. With desperate effort, she somehow hobbled between the statues and the columns of the dilapidated buildings and ancient temples. On one of them, the likeness of Zeus could be seen, drinking wine, high up in the skies of Olympus, while his defeated enemies stood before him, fallen to the earth, bound in chains. The twins, Apollo and Artemis, gestured and pointed toward the shackled enemies.

Emilia recognized the fresco, which depicted the rebels' first great defeat and a turning point in the history of the gods. She paused to reflect on the fate of those chained heroes, nymphs, and oceanids, but the piercing pain from her steps soon dragged her back to the present.

She suddenly heard someone mention her name.

"Where is Emilia?"

This was a grave mistake, because the Cerberus was gifted with intelligence by Hades himself, the God of the Underworld (before he withdrew from the Olympians and their eternal intrigues) and understood human speech! The Cerberus instinctively realized that something was wrong and momentarily backed away from the fight. Emilia had no time to hide, and the monster's eyes soon found her.

Desperate, she ignored the tearing pain in her legs and poured all her mana into her movements. She didn't need to hide or walk carefully anymore. She simply ran with all her might, clutching the dagger with both hands...

The Cerberus hesitated for a moment, and the mayor and Douglas immediately attacked it with reckless determination. The Cerberus tried to disengage from the battle, unsure what was happening. However, it knew one thing: its task was to defend this root. What exactly this small morsel of flesh could do was not entirely clear, but Gaia's will was inviolable.

The Cerberus risked taking one or two heavy blows. The moment it turned its back to return to the root, the mayor delivered an incredible sword strike. His weapon sank deep into the monster's flesh, and it roared simultaneously with all three of its heads. Every instinct in the Cerberus screamed at it to turn around and punish this insignificant human who dared to wound it. To tear him apart with its sharp teeth and scorch him with its fire.

At that moment, Douglas pierced it with his spear. The Cerberus had not felt such pain in centuries. Yet, instead of turning and fighting for its life, it followed its orders to guard the root! The Cerberus lunged toward the fleeing Emilia, its muzzles frothed with a mixture of blood and saliva.

The mayor tried to stop the Cerberus but was not fast enough. Douglas hurled his spear at the last moment, but the Cerberus sprang slightly aside and deflected the strike with its triple tail.

Without losing time, Emilia had almost reached the root that glowed in her senses. Why did I risk it with this root? she thought. I should have stayed with the others and supported them with talismans. However, she was almost out of talismans, and her body was not reinforced by hundreds of earth treasures and decades of mana circulation. She could not match the others' strength. If she had stayed, she would have been a serious hindrance and would not have allowed them to retreat freely before the Cerberus's headlong attacks.

A few steps before the core of the root, Emilia saw a strange bluish barrier, strewn with countless bizarre runes. Each rune was as if inscribed with fire that seemed alive. This fire continuously flowed within every single rune, and its movements stabilized the enormous mana flow and the complex system of auras.

The formations she and Fjorn had practiced were not even 0.01% of the complexity of this strange barrier. Emilia looked around desperately. The Cerberus was charging toward her, its eyes glowing in the gloom of the hall. She turned to the barrier and raised the dagger granted to her by the gods themselves. She raised it high above her head and brought it down upon the barrier with a powerful strike.

Where the dagger struck the barrier, a slight fissure appeared, which quickly began to spread. The endless runes on the barrier started to glow in different colors, and their power was directed toward the breach. The knife's progress stopped for a moment, and Emilia suddenly felt the incredible energies within it awaken. The weapon began to shine with a dazzling divine light, as if Helios himself had descended to earth. She quickly closed her eyes to protect them, but this did not stop the light and the pain.

The two forces collided for one infinite moment. Everything around seemed to freeze. The movements of the Cerberus first slowed and finally almost stopped. The Echidrids, striving to help, also froze like statues. Only Emilia, the dagger, and the barrier remained free. And the energy powering that dagger flowed freely through the small heroine.

Just a little more, little one, be brave and endure.

The pain was unbelievable. Emilia first lost her sight; the divine light seared her retina, and the energies ravaged her channels. The small fragment of divine power was too strong for her frail body. She was being burned from within, and her soul felt as if it would tear into a multitude of small pieces.

A moment passed. Then a second. Then a third. The two forces were locked in an invisible battle for mortals, and Emilia's hand clutching the dagger was scorched.

But the dagger no longer needed to be held. Hecate's powers had fueled it with their energy, and the endless glyphs of the celestial language shaped its magic.

On the other side, the ancient runes, far closer to creation itself, raged with primal energy. The two forces struggled for supremacy.

But then, in one moment, the dagger, specifically created for such battles, prevailed over the ancient defense. The centuries had weakened the formations, and their runes had lost their brilliance and strength.

The dagger moved a fraction of a millimeter forward, and the web of cracks began to widen slowly and mercilessly. The runes glowed desperately, offering one last resistance, one final, fading defense.

The dagger, however, showed no mercy. It shone even brighter, scorching Emilia’s body with its light, and pushed a little farther forward. The cracks grew thicker, their energy slicing relentlessly deeper. The runes’ desperate defense splintered, and the dagger pressed on, as if nothing had ever stood in its way.

With incredible force and precision, it lunged toward the very center of the root and plunged deep into it. Its energy burst outward, and the root exploded in an instant.

In that moment, the last remaining power of Hecate's Ascendant wrapped around Emilia and the others and smoothly transported them through the collapsing void. Along the way, it gathered one priceless herb or another, one treasure or another hidden deep in the earth's depths.

Finally, it reached the portal and paused for a moment. The Ascendant whispered several long, power-infused words and began to form these mortal herbs and minerals into a strange-looking pill.

"You served me well, little one. Here is your reward."

The small pill floated toward Emilia's open mouth. When she swallowed it, the Ascendant used its little remaining strength to help her begin the absorption process. Then, with a final effort, it teleported the group out of the space, found the connection to its central body, and abruptly vanished from this reality.