"Not on my watch."

Irene's eyes glowed with divine gold as she manifested her Halo. For a moment everything went silent, though when I gazed at Irene, I noticed she was crying silently. Golden tears fell from her eyes, dripping down her cheeks but never falling to the ground, frozen midair. After this moment of silence, a roar of power sounded from everywhere. A vortex of magic appeared that was so powerful I was certain it would shatter the Palace, forming a golden droplet from her tears. With nothing more than a wave of her hand, Irene commanded the droplet to fall upon Hestia, whose breath became deeper and faster. But Irene was not finished. I felt her hand resting on my arm and just like that, she siphoned away millions of mana that I had earned today. But I was not resisting, on the contrary- I pushed it away, making it easier to be taken. Irene shifted her focus and Hestia regained consciousness. Terrified, she looked at me and Irene and tried to flee, but Irene held her.

"Stop! Don't waste that mana on me! It's no use," she protested, but no one listened.

I felt an unknown energy, far denser than mana, yet less focused, and I realised the Eternals were lending us... Not us, Irene, their powers. Hestia cried and begged us to stop, but Irene looked somewhere deep into her. The Saintess pushed her hand inside the goddess's body, piercing her skin and probably breaking some bones. Before anyone could react in any other way than be utterly surprised or take a loud breath, Hestia shrieked in agony. Irene pulled back her bloodied hand from Hestia's chest, holding a writhing and hissing snake-shaped entity. It tried to bite Irene initially, but then it squeaked painfully and tried to hit her with its tail. Irene just clenched her fist, killing whatever it was instantly, causing it to dissipate like a dark fog. Even I could tell that was a Black Magic construct; something between a curse and an offensive spell. After that, my wife and Hestia collapsed, and Zephyr barely managed to catch Irene. The hasty footsteps and screams of healing incantations made me realise that Lanka and Gloria were less paralyzed than the Eternals and I.

"How are they?!" I asked, still holding Hestia in my arms, while Zephyr summoned his cloud and gently put Irene on it.

"Lady Hestia is still critical, my Lord, but it is nothing we can't fix!" Lanka shouted and kneeled heavily in front of me to heal Hestia's wounds. Just one glance at Irene made her sigh a sigh of relief. "Lady Irene is just exhausted and has fallen asleep."

Lanka and Gloria focused their potent healing magic, closing Hestia's wounds and mending broken bones. I wouldn't even dare to take a deeper breath, as I did not want to disturb the healing. In the meantime, Zephyr summoned a second cloud and nodded at me. I put Hestia on it, allowing Lanka and Gloria to work undisturbed. I turned around and gently touched Irene's cheek.

"You are incredible, Irene," I whispered, smiling softly at my sleeping beauty.

•••

The enemy forces refrained from any attacks for now, spreading around Avalon like a tide. The initial Cridian assault made sense to me now after learning they had a Void Touched Necromancer among their ranks. Korkas made an opening for them, which I couldn't reliably repair for now. I was afraid to speculate what would be the outcome if they used their power together. Anyway... Judging by the concentration of enemy troops, they would try to use the opening mainly as their primary break-in route. I was inspecting the spot where we fought with Korkas and the Necromancer whose name we don't even know. Zeus was with me, sitting on the fragment of the destroyed gatehouse, observing my denizens reinforcing a palisade with large blocks of stone. Even without proper mortar, those stones would prove a challenge for anything and anyone who is not a Void Born.

"What are you looking for?" Zeus finally asked, looking back at me.

"Sixty ballistas shot their bolts," I sighed.

"I must admit, I never expected anything short of grand magic to kill these beasts, so paint me surprised..." Zeus admitted with a shrug, after which he frowned. "Wait... If sixty ballistas fired, where are the other fifty bolts? I can see only ten..."

"I think the Void Touched just destroyed or deflected the others. We simply overpowered it."

"Makes sense..." He stood up and started looking in the place where I had yet to look. "If we could just make them come to us..."

"My guess is we probably can." I smiled coldly.

"Oh?" Zeus's eyes shined as well.

"I'll explain later when we are in a safer place. This part of Avalon is compromised." I found a piece of the bolt. "Aha! I found one. It looks like brute force was used, not a magic barrier... Strange, isn't it?"

"Hmm... Maybe? Most transformed Voidlings stop using magic altogether, though sometimes they keep using some simple magic or specialized magic like Necromancy. However, they will often trade all normal magic in favour of soul-destroying and dark magic." Zeus found a piece as well and showed it to me. "The impact was so big it melted the tip."

"I see... Those fuckers are dangerous, especially since we don't understand them. And over everything, fear of the unknown is the most terrifying." I gave up looking for pieces and inspected the spot where the Necromancer had died. "Just look there. That's ridiculous!"

"What do you mean?" Zeus asked with curiosity.

"Just three out of ten bolts that supposedly hit her, it, or whatever, are bloodied. Seven are just bent or strained so much they are of no use."

"I told you it's hard to kill them." Zeus tried to take out one of the seemingly fine and unstained bolts, but as soon as he grabbed it, the wood gave up and cracked. He shook his head in disbelief. "Once we fought them without breaking a sweat. Void Borns only posed a minor threat back then. I became complacent and you know the rest of the story..."

"More or less..." I agreed and got serious. "What will happen to Hestia now?"

"I don't know." He looked heavily at the top of his armoured shoes. "I really don't, Theon. Her power is so faint that I am surprised that she is still conscious. If I may guess, it's only thanks to you."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Me?" I looked at him.

"Yes. Avalon is a place where we, the Eternals, can live freely. We told you that before." He explained, and I nodded in agreement. "She is deeply wounded. She already lost or is going to lose a great deal of her powers."

"But she is going to live," I insisted.

"Yes. That's for sure." He said that without happiness in his voice, which made me grit my teeth. "You must understand that from our point of view as Eternals, she is now crippled. She is nothing more than a lesser god who can't even focus the faith she would receive. She is very, very weak, Theon."

"I know. My wives are with her. She..."

"She must learn how to live again." Zeus sighed, and I had nothing to reply.

We walked for a moment in silence and watched as my denizens dug trenches and small bunkers according to my orders. Old habits die hard, it seems. We reached the stairs fairly quickly, and it seemed that they were already partly deconstructed, but what was left was heavily fortified. Other stairs leading to the walls in this zone were completely demolished, so even if the enemy would manage to capture a foothold here, it would simply turn into a giant kill zone. We teleported onto the walls and walked towards the ramparts to look at the largest enemy camps.

"Theon, please take care of Hestia." Zeus looked straight into my eyes with something more than concern. After a moment, it almost staggered me. What I was seeing was fear. "If I have to, I will call upon the accords we signed..."

"Stop it..." I angrily waved him off. "Do you think I would allow her to leave Avalon after what she has done? She saved me! Accords? You don't need the accords for me to act decently. No matter if she is going to lose her powers or stay this weak forever. She will live like my Queens."

"Thank you, Theon. She is my sister, you know?" Zeus suddenly stiffened. "She will be like your Queens?"

"I..." I had a very familiar feeling that I felt exactly three times and I paled, but a mere second later, I felt as if the hammer of the heavens hit me straight into my chest. I heard Zeus asking me, concerned, if I was all right, but it sounded as if he spoke to me from underwater. Fortunately, whatever it was, it passed. "That was strange..."

I quickly looked at my mana pool, but it was intact, so I was able to remain calm. The snow was slowly melting and I couldn't decide if that was due to so much activity in the area or if Spring was already pushing Winter away. Zeus put his hand on my shoulder and smiled.

"We better return. You may be still overstrained after those battles with Korkas and the Necromancer." He looked at me inquisitively and beamed a smile. "If I didn't know better, I would just assume you tried to dodge a question about my sister."

"Please..." I frowned at him and ignored the suggestion to return to the Palace for now. We continued towards the ramparts. "I owe Hestia big time. I'd like to remind you that I am the King of Avalon. Maybe it’s by chance, maybe someone wants to argue about that, but the fact remains. This is my Kingdom and Hestia can live here forever like a Queen without a care in the world."

"Why not as your next Queen?" I couldn't see Zeus's face, but he sounded strange.

"Please, be serious..." I sighed with resignation and pulled the bridge of my nose.

"I am serious!" Zeus turned around and in shock, I saw his very serious face. He continued calmly. "As far as I can tell, you are the first man not only who piqued her interest, but you moved her heart. Don't ask me how, I am millennia old and I still have not figured out women!"

"You are serious..." I blinked at him with still-growing shock.

"Like a heart attack." He took a deep breath and leaned over the rampart. "I won't tell you to run to her or any nonsense like that. Just... Don't push her away."

"Sure..." The conversation had slipped from my control a long time ago. I could only stand there stupefied.

"Look... She told you that you are someone more than just a friend. Granted, she thought she was going to die, so she is going to be very awkward and jumpy in your presence for the next few days." He shrugged and added, seeing my facial expression. "That may sound strange to you, that a millennia-old Goddess took an interest in you. No big deal. After the first thousand years, your age is just a number."

"You know that sounded bad, right?" I tried to joke. That was all that I had left in this situation.

"Probably." Zeus grinned, but got serious again. "Just allow her to recover." His face darkened and he added with a heavy and sad voice. "And if she can't return to being who she was, just be there for her."

"This much I can promise, Zeus," I added as quietly as he said his last sentence, and I registered his accepting smile. It was all he needed.

We looked at the Cridian's camp in silence for a while. They built something that looked like a fort, which was interesting. For sure, it was better than camping in the shadow of my castle, but not by a large margin. The Mountain Dungeon army was moving around with supplies and connecting the smaller forts around Avalon with roads. I pondered on the idea of sending my legions there and being done with this, but I decided to watch and learn. Mainly, it was an exercise in learning what to NOT do, but who knows? Maybe they would show me something new. I couldn't exactly figure out what the Cridians were doing or why, but their tactics seemed to be aimed at a blockade of Avalon.

"Are they trying to starve us?" I asked under my breath, and Zeus made a bored yawn.

"Not us. You."

I blinked a few times when pieces of this puzzle started falling in their places. I nodded slowly because that made sense. The Cridians had no idea that the current population of Avalon was around fifty thousand people. Again, it made perfect sense... In normal circumstances, a battle could be hard for a dungeon without mana income. However, my residents even now continued to generate mana for me. I smiled. Maybe I don't have to sleep, but sometimes it's so nice to just stretch and yawn, so I did exactly that. I finished that just in time to see the nearby forest rise up from the ground.

•••

On the far side of the wall, Major General Fornal Ban and Colonel Nathaniel Drake were observing the main Cridian camp as well.

"I almost pity them." Ban mused. "Poor bastards. But it could be worse..."

"How so?" Drake looked at General Ban and slightly raised his brow, making his commander laugh.

"They could be us! Don't look at me like that! If not for King Theon, that really could be us..." His humour was interrupted when he felt a distant thump. "Don't tell me..."

However, Drake was already using his binoculars, another one of the many insanely useful tools made in Avalon, and said as if he wanted to complain. "I thought these were only in legends!"

"A siege golem..." Ban whistled and put at his feet into the arrow slit in the rampart to lean a bit closer.

"Siege golems, Sir. They have at least four of them."

"See? When I asked for the catapults three years ago, they yelled at me that they were too precious!" Ban was mad at his memories.

"We just couldn't have nice things, sir," Drake agreed and sighed at his own memories. "Not even proper armour... Do you think that King Theon allows us to keep one?"