Manato's consciousness is fading while he is being carried by Almira. Queen Tanya rushes to her side and Almira hands over the young man to the former.
"Take care of him for now. Also, drag the others a little far from here, better if you bring them back to the mansion for safety purposes. They might be dead right now but they can still be brought back."
"What are you..." Queen Tanya is confused.
"No time to explain. I will handle it here. Take care and heal up Manato, his mother should be there to help."
Despite Queen Tanya's questions still lingering in her mind, she decided that it was not the time to talk about it. She carries Manato to the area where everyone has collapsed after she knocks all of them out and activates a Mass Teleportation before disappearing from the battlefield. As for Almira, after she sees that the rest have already escaped, looks at the goddess who is now looking unsightly more than ever.
"It's been a while, Sis."
"You...why are you a human now... You should have been mortally wounded by me back then..."
"Yes. You did happen to do that to me and I suffered a lot because of that. But that doesn't mean I would just give up and die there."
"Heh...you survived but you became a human now? Pathetic...as if being a human is enough to fight against me."
A sword materializes behind Almira, revealing that it is her sword, the Clarent. She then extends her right hand, and another weapon materializes which is also revealed to be the sword that was currently in Izmir's possession before, the Blood Morgan.
"Even as a human, I have no trouble defeating you, sister. You shouldn't underestimate a human's potential of felling down gods like you," Almira then points her weapon.
"Really? Then why does the person who is supposed to defeat me doesn't even have the slightest ability to stop me?"
Almira smirked. "Because he is not yet ready to fight you. The appearance of the tree is something that we haven't even considered as part of the plan to complete the recipe to defeat you. But since it seems something has happened, it is enough to say that our plan was almost broken due to you."
As she speaks, Almira disappears from where she is standing reappears above the Goddess of Life, and swings down her Clarent downwards. The Goddess of Life blocked it with her chains but Almira casually spins quickly to force the destruction of the chains and stop blocking them.
"Your style of fighting is the same as ever, Sister. Pretty predictable," Almira shatters the chains appearing and tries to slice down the Goddess of Life. Of course, the Goddess of Life dodges her attack but Almira is not yet done with just that attack, her other sword, the Blood Morgan is trusted by the Goddess of Life, and since the Goddess of Life just dodged the first attack, she barely managed to block the second attack, causing her to bleed.
Izmir is now devoid of emotion, but she still felt sad and wanted to also cry after seeing both her grandparents and sister die but she can't do anything as she felt powerless.
Then...Almira opened the door to the mansion as she limped entering the room.
"Don't weep and grieve just yet. They might be dead but they can still be revived."
"How? This is the first time I have heard that a dead can be revived aside from what you people call "players" who can resurrect themselves after being killed."
"Since they didn't die from natural causes and died due to The Goddess of Life, their death isn't something that cannot be reversed. They died because their souls have left their bodies due to one of the Goddess of Life's skills, [Soul Harvest]."
"Is that the reason why my soul seems to be about to be pulled by an unknown force when everyone collapses?"
"Perhaps. But if that is the case, then you almost fell victim to it as well. Souls who have a very strong grip on their bodies are one of the only ones who can resist the attack or completely nullify the effect. Both Manato and you, Your Majesty have a strong grip on your bodies so the spell didn't have any troublesome effects and you two didn't die immediately. It must be also due to the blessings that you two got from the Goddess of Death which allowed you two to escape the attack as well."
"So...what does all of that supposed to mean?" Izmir is looking confused.
"Since the Goddess of Life has stolen their souls, we needed something that can allow us to forcefully recall their souls back to their bodies. Confronting the Goddess of Life is not an option here as she will just proceed to crush their souls if she desires which is why we will have to resurrect them our way instead of begging the goddess herself."
Queen Tanya then stood up from the sofa and turned to look at Almira.
"Wait just a moment, before you explain further. How about you tell us who you are first?"
Izmir and Manato's Mother frowned at Queen Tanya's question.
"What are you talking about, Your Majesty?" Manato's Mother frowned.
"Earlier when the Goddess of Life is close to killing Manato in the process, she appeared and stopped the Goddess of Life in the process. Not only that but I also heard she called the Goddess of Life, her sister."
"Sister?" Izmir frowned and her gaze turned to Almira who looked at them and sighed.
"Huh...guess things are not as I thought they would be and I wouldn't even be introducing myself for a while. Alright...let me reintroduce myself to you lot. I am Almira. A blacksmith that is being trained by the Elder Treant, and also one of the fragments of the Goddess of Death. Technically, the Goddess of Life is my sister."This material is rooted in n0velbin★