I'm having a sense of deja-vu. But this time, the situation won't be explained away by an unexpectedly honorable Oinos. In fact, it's exactly what it looks like, so I won't make any excuses. I just didn't want it to come to this so soon.

"It is what it is." I look up into Areteniha's glowing eyes fearlessly. Then I grow wings and fly up toward her, to sneakily make her enter the area of effect of the inhibitor device. I have nothing against her, but she will definitely kill us all if we hurt her son.

"Stay back." In a commanding tone, the Old Human who just came from the surface of the sun glares at me. Exla told me that she can send solar winds toward Earth with a simple thought, so I think it's better to listen to her order for now. "Deactivate that device right now."

For seeing her son missing a hand, she's unexpectedly calm. It seems she knows the area of effect of the watch, as she's floating well outside of it.

"Mama!" Alverost cries while raising his cauterized stump. "Help me!"

"What will you do if I deactivate it?" I ask casually without looking at the boy. This device is the only thing that keeps her from frying us with a solar beam, and knowing Old Humans, she'd be willing to destroy the entire planet out of revenge. And unlike Zylos, she does have control over the power of the sun.

"Stop the solar winds heading for Earth right now and send them back." With a smile that sends a shiver down my spine, Areteniha delivers her threat in an even more casual manner than my earlier question. "At this rate, the moon will fall before they reach, but I know you have a plan to prevent that from happening."

Without turning around, she points over her shoulder at the celestial body that is beginning to occupy almost half the sky. Now that I think about it, even light itself needs over eight minutes to reach Earth, so there's no way she can use the power of the sun in a direct battle. Solar winds are slower than the speed of light, so that's even less useful in combat.

Then again, as a threat, it carries more weight than even the moonfall. Unlike the moon, solar winds can't be caught by the hands of a certain God of Growth, and they will most likely kill me too.

"I see that you understand." The smile fades from Areteniha's face as she regards me with her glowing eyes. She means business.

"Alright." I doubt the trick I used on Alverost is going to work on her, so I motion to deactivate the inhibition field. That's when I see a massive cloud approaching from the west and covering up the moon as it moves. It takes me but a split second to understand that it's Exla, and I lower my hand. "But a threat to one's life is only useful if it's immediate."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"What?" The Old Human glares at me but then realizes that our surroundings are growing dark. She spins her head around just in time to see an arm of the massive cloud heading for her.

But unlike what I expected, Exla doesn't try to grab the glowing woman. Instead, she forms a giant lens with her own cloud body and slides it between Areteniha and the sun. Right then, the light from the sun is scattered, causing the Old Human's body to disappear. She was nothing more than a projection.

"No!" Alverost screams in desperation when he realizes that his mother wouldn't risk her own life to save his. He slaps his belt buckle with his remaining hand, upon which the sides of his shoes open to reveal tiny thrusters.

Before anybody can react, he slides across the ground before taking off into the sky. I can't even follow him as quickly as he's flying because the inhibition field locks all my modes of air transportation to wings. I hastily draw the unlock pattern, but just as I finish and turn to fly after the escaping boy, something whisks him out of the sky.

In the next moment, a small impact a short distance away tells me that whatever it was made Alverost hit the ground quite hard. Once I finish the pattern, I quickly head over there, followed by the humans and Tokomaha.

There's a small crater in the paved stone of the plaza, and standing above a mangled corpse is Aorutihaua, blood running from their pointed helmet down to their naked but featureless onyx body. I can't make out their expression under the helmet, but when they look up at me, I can feel the sadness permeating from them.

The corpse is barely recognizable, but it's without a doubt Alverost's remains. There's blonde hair around where a self-proclaimed genius's brains are splattered across the ground, and the anachronistic t-shirt and short pants can still be recognized even with all the blood and guts spilled on them.

I descend into the crater, take off Aorutihaua's helmet, and hug them wordlessly. They snuggle into my chest and remain silent, but I can feel the small, near-indestructible body trembling in my embrace.

"My son!" The disembodied voice of Areteniha thunders across the sky in lament. "You will pay for this, Kerry!"

At this, Aorutihaua shivers even more and returns my embrace. So Kerry is their real name. If a mother, who's also the equivalent of a goddess of the sun, says it in that tone, any child would be terrified. I can agree that seeing my child get killed would have me furious, but Areteniha isn't blameless here.

I learned that Alverost was terrorizing Aorutihaua, or Kerry, at every turn when they were still in Armeria. It's how they developed the withdrawn personality of always wearing a helmet to hide their expression. The Golden Shawl could even be interpreted as a sort of safety blanket.

Their mother knew about it, but because Kerry was a troubled child rather than a genius prodigy, they were left on the side. It's unfortunate for siblings to kill each other, but it's one of those times I think fratricide can be justified.

"Come down here and do it then, old hag." I call out into the sky in the general direction of the sun. "Kerry is under my protection now."

"You...!" Areteniha's voice sounds beyond enraged when she hears my challenge. "I will erase you all!"

"Try it." I might be overdoing it with the taunting right now, but nothing will change about the fact that the Old Human on the sun will use her power to attack us now.