Hurrying outside, Celeste regretted that she was almost out of Energy. As she stepped out of the council hall, she saw the massive shadow of a dragon flying overhead.
She wasn't fast enough to spot its colours. However, she felt that the people in the town were overreacting. After all, Jasper had modelled the dragons on divine virtues. While Jasper had expected some of them to be corrupted, she hadn't heard that any of them should have turned evil.
The ground shook, and trees were pulverised in the distance as something massive made its way through the forest without a care for what was in the way.
Selma followed Celeste, and as she stepped out of the council hall, her halo blazed even in the early afternoon sun.
Celeste looked around at all the people who were much healthier but clearly still hungry. She wished she could help them more, but she had done what she could... or had she? The Architect of Reality sighed and committed two more Impact to keep the people living in Marcusburg in perfect health. She liked the idea of the starting zone having a place where people could be fully healed.
Impact 0/7
With that done, she sighed and nodded. She was almost out of resources now. Even so, she needed to see what the commotion was about. If the dragons had come to defeat Orlek, things might not be as complicated as she thought.
Moving through the woods, she could hear Selma command her people behind her. At the same time, Marcel and Ülwrick quickly followed in Celeste's wake. The drow and dwarf could easily follow the goddess despite her Journeying Domain. That was a little concerning.
Finally, a goblin's screams could be heard through the woods.
"I GOTS HIM! I GOTS HIM!" The voice was shrill, and Celeste swore that she could hear the goblin's jubilant glee. Which one it was, she wasn't sure.
"SPIF PINNED THE DRAGON! SPIF MIGHTY WARRIOR!" Another voice exclaimed as Celeste entered the clearing with the Tree of Life.
The chaos was intense to the point that Celeste instinctively tried to pause time to get an idea of what was going on.
Health 40/40 Energy 1/7
It was a simple miracle, but it still took one of her Energy. It wasn't as obvious a display of divine might as one of her powers since she couldn't move either, even despite the passive ability of the Time Domain. However, she could get an overview of what was going on.
The first thing she noted was that there were seven dragons present. She knew that it was every dragon that Jasper had created, and as such, they must have been gathered here for a reason.
Most of them were flying. However, one without wings was standing in the middle of the clearing. It was the size of a city block. Two small goblins were hanging from it, clearly trying to choke the beast. The dragon was not concerned at all. It didn't appear angry, rather self-restrained and... That had to be the dragon of temperance. Otherwise, it wouldn't let the goblins crawl all over it.
Celeste turned her attention to the Tree of Life. Its roots had crystalized, and so had its leaves. It was like the tree was made from pure diamond. However, it couldn't be any kind of gemstone, as the bright blue leaves seemed to buzz with Energy.
The leaves seemed to be falling from the tree. Celeste had no idea how fast they were falling, but they clearly fell with a purpose. Swirling around the long-limbed figure in the middle of the chaos.
She was levitating about two meters off the ground, leaves apparently spinning around her, but it was hard to see due to the lack of movement in the frozen time. Esselaia seemed to be beaming with untold Energy beyond anything that a mortal body could contain.
Every dragon, even the one with Spif and Spaf hanging onto its neck, was staring at Esselaia, bowing their heads ever so slightly. At the same time, a soft glow appeared in their chests as if they were lending the elf the divine power that Jasper had granted them.
Celeste was unsure what she should do. It seemed like Esselaia was stealing the dragons from Jasper, but they didn't look like they were being forced to help her.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
In reality, with only one Energy, Celeste didn't have a choice. She couldn't interfere any further, not if she wanted to be able to fight afterwards. She could kill Esselaia or one of the dragons, but that could lead to an explosion. It would be big enough to create a new land like Leltho.
The goddess was still dedicating Energy to using time as a weapon. She could remove that dedication, but that would leave her without a weapon... or a magical weapon at the very least, as she could construct something on the fly.
Time slowly started to pick back up in speed, and it was like watching the world move in slow motion, slowly spinning up.
The leaves started to swirl around Esselaia, moving so fast that they appeared as a solid ring of crackling blue Energy around the elf. At the same time, pulses of power seemed to erupt from each dragon, pushing any Energy trying to escape the clearing back into the hovering mortal.
None of this was helped by the screaming nonsense from the goblins.
Even when she fully understood the situation, the chaos seemed total, and Celeste recognized the feeling of stepping into a completely chaotic environment. She had experienced it once before when she had to substitute for a Kindergarten class, and the feeling was uncannily similar.
Like then, Celeste had no real idea how to gain control over the situation, but the difference was that now, it wasn't really her problem.
The goddess quickly moved over and grabbed Spif and Spaf. After all, the goblins would only worsen things if they were in the middle of things.
Thanks to her enhanced dexterity, moving up the back of the massive drake was incredibly easy, and she quickly scooped up the two goblins.
The Dragon of Temperance gave her a grateful look but didn't say anything as she pulled the goblins away.
Celeste just took everything in as she was joined by the army of humans led by Selma. The pulsating nature of the Energy seemed to continue, and it was only when the two goblins started to struggle in Celeste's arms that she realised that she was still carrying them.
She let them go with an embarrassed smile, hoping she hadn't offended them too much.
"GREAT WARRIOR BE HERE!" One of them said.
"WE WIN! WE WIN!" The other chanted.
The world had reached equilibrium, wrapping itself around the building divine Energy. Celeste could swear she heard the veils that The Scribe had set up strain against the ascending god.
Selma looked nervously from her advisors to Esselaia to Celeste. Celeste settled down, determined not to intervene unless she had to. She didn't have the power to spare, and she thought that it might be somebody else's turn to try to defend the land.
Energy kept streaming into Esselaia.
Before long, light started to appear from the heavens. Seven bands of multicoloured light slowly moved down, wrapping around the elf. The dragons snarled at the light, but they were so busy focusing the divine power back at Esselaia that they couldn't intervene further.
"OOOOH! Pretty! Me want!" One of the goblins said, and Celeste looked down at it with a look that made the tiny green creature back off.
The seven veils seemed to try to pull Esselaia into the sky, but crystal-like tree roots shot up from the ground and started to pull the elf down.
The two powers reached a stalemate, and time marched on. The goblins quickly grew bored and hurried to their burrows to play around.
Thanks to her Time Domain, Celeste could tell that seven hours had passed when things finally changed. It was around midnight when the world seemed to erupt.
The ring of leaves narrowed in on Esselaia while the roots were absorbed into her body. The elf tried to contain the Energy while the dragons forced any that escaped to occupy her body. Reality itself shuttered under the weight, as cracks like the one Orlek had created started to appear all around the clearing.
The world was trying to contain the newly born divinity, and it was being torn apart.
None of the others seemed to try to stop this, but Esselaia couldn't be allowed to remain in this world.
Celeste noticed that the dragons seemed to contain the cracks in reality and the Energy, which was good, but it was not sustainable.
The goddess felt powerless to stop this as massive dragon wings spread from Esselaia's back, and the elements seemed to shift around her.
Celeste had no choice. She took a deep breath, then let go of her dedication to Withering Hour.
Withering Hour [https://files.catbox.moe/o21snu.png]
Then, she spent one Energy to access the power 'The Hour of Need', and her last Energy was spent activating the power.
The Hour of Need [https://i.postimg.cc/cCnKfR6b/The-Hour-of-Need.png]
Celeste knew only one person who might be able to help her contain a god. She called upon The Scribe.
Thanks to the synergy between her Time Domain and Journeying Domain, the power manifested as a portal.
It opened behind Celeste, and the sound of combat could be heard through it. The goddess didn't look back at the portal. Her focus was completely on Esselaia. But she did call back to the old man she knew was waiting on the other side of the portal.
"ERIK! We have a new god, and the veils between planes are not strong enough to segregate her. I need you to give her the last push." The cloaked goddess said.
To her surprise, it wasn't the old man that answered her call.
From the portal stepped a woman dressed in tattered clothes, covered with dust. The dust itself was strange. As she stepped into A'kastin it seemed to almost try to ignite the air with how much power was contained in every grain of it. The dust was even packed into The Scribe's red hair so tightly that it seemed to burst into bright purple flames.
Celeste was sure that Jasper would have pondered the nature of power exchange and how fascinating it was that The Scribe's red hair wasn't burning while still technically on fire.
Celeste didn't. She was just surprised to see Jasmine. The former street rat turned apprentice had clearly grown up, but the goddess recognised her all the same. She even recognised the look on her face. She had seen it before. The very first day, she met Jasmine. The day the little orphan had threatened her with a knife if she dared hurt the ones she loved.
Jasmine didn't spare Celeste more than a look, yet the goddess could see pain, anger, fear and joy mixed into a weird ball of emotion in those eyes. Then, the moment passed, and Jasmine charged forward.