“We are the personal escort of the great Anat. We are not ordinary malakim, but the elite,” said one of the malak to the group of Haida gods led by Dzelarhons.

  “We do not care who you are. Leave now, or we will exterminate you this very moment!” the Haida goddess shouted furiously, and the other gods nodded.

  “Very well. Finish them!” the chief malak shouted, and at once hundreds of angels hurled themselves at the Haida gods to battle them.

  “Show these foreigners the power of the Haida!” Dzelarhons cried, as the rest of the deities summoned their weapons, and waves of energy began crashing together outside the city.

  Meanwhile, Loki was beside Y’aahl inside the great banquet hall, and before them stood hundreds of people.

  “We need to get all the civilians out of here, but I do not know the place, and because of these anti-divinity barriers, I cannot teleport them somewhere else, like Sedna’s kingdom,” Loki said imperiously.

  “I have an idea,” said Y’aahl. “Teleport the groups outside the city, and from there I will teleport them into the forests of this region.”

  “All right,” said Loki.

  Y’aahl then teleported outside the city to wait for the group of civilians.

  “I know you do not know me well yet, but you will have to trust me,” Loki said to the crowd. They did not understand what he was saying, but they grasped that he was trying to help them.

  “Do not worry, foreign deity,” one of the people replied. “If the Great Y’aahl trusts you, then so do we.”

  All the others nodded.

  “I did not understand a word of that, but I think they agree,” Loki answered. “I cannot teleport all of you at once, but we will move in groups,” said the Norse god, though the people did not understand.

  Loki then used his mental powers to show them an illusion in which he stood amid a group of people holding hands. The dark god pointed to the illusion, and the people nodded.

  “Groups of one hundred, is that fine?” one person asked. Loki did not know what to say, so they showed him the number with their fingers. The Norse god then nodded.

  The people gathered in groups of one hundred, holding hands. Loki placed himself in the center of the first group and touched one of them on the shoulder. Immediately, they vanished from the great chamber.

  Meanwhile, Freyr kept firing his arrows at Anat, and she did not move, for her barrier stopped every attack. At that moment, Menrva appeared behind the goddess with her spear wrapped in lightning and tried to impale her, but once again the barrier protecting Anat prevented it.

  Menrva’s totema shone golden, and electricity streamed from her body. Her blue eyes had turned honey-colored, and her hair had taken on pale chestnut highlights. The goddess held the Hikaptha in her left hand while she struggled to drive her spear into Anat.

  “Oh? And what is this? So then my suspicions that you slew Bellona were true,” Anat said, looking Menrva in the eyes.

  Menrva could endure no more and was blasted away by the Phoenician goddess’s barrier, crashing to the ground. Then the Etruscan goddess saw Epona leaping from her hiding place and trying to strike Anat, and like lightning she stopped her.

  “If you touch that barrier, you will die!” the Etruscan goddess shouted, showing Thor unconscious on the ground, shredded by the attack.

  “But we have to do something!” the Celtic goddess cried in desperation.

  Then Ana appeared and tried to crush Anat with Gram, but she too was repelled by the barrier without difficulty.

  “Hey, Orniskem, wait your turn to fight,” Tyr shouted angrily, watching the three goddesses interfere in Freyr’s battle. That only made Anat laugh aloud. But the goddesses ignored him.

  “Listen, Epona. Go and give ambrosia to Thor,” Menrva ordered the Celtic goddess. “For some reason, Anat is not moving. It surely has to do with her barrier,” she continued.

  “All right. The more of us there are, the better,” Epona replied, and, taking a horn of mead, ran to Thor and made him drink.

  “Listen, gods of the North!” Menrva shouted as she rose with a furious expression. “This is no game, and we need everyone’s help to defeat this Phoenician demon.”

  “We’ve got our way of doin’ things, and meow'all got meow,” Freyja answered irritably.

  “No, lad. We have come this far because we have always been willing to cooperate, to join our strength together. What honor would there be if we all greet the dawn dead because of this addict to human blood?” the Etruscan goddess shot back.

  Then Menrva pointed at the Phoenician goddess.

  “She has not moved at all. She has only been enduring our attacks. It is very likely that her barrier only works while she remains still. If we make her move, we will be able to begin harming her,” Menrva shouted. “That is why we need your help. Together, all of us are going to make her move.”

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  Anat kept laughing at Menrva’s words.

  “You almost move me to tears,” the Phoenician goddess said to the Etruscan goddess.

  “You’re just askin’ us to make her move?” Thor asked as he got back up. “This ain’t really a duel. We just gotta make her budge, right?”

  “That is correct,” Menrva answered.

  “All right then! Gods of Asgard, let’s fight together and make this bitch move!” Thor shouted as he raised Mjolnir.

  “All right, Thor,” said Freyja.

  Although the Norse goddess had openly refused, deep inside she had been hoping Thor would say exactly those words, for she was deeply afraid of the threat before them.

  “We shall fight together for the first time as you command, Thorsy ?,” Freyr cried.

  “Meh. I’ll do it this one time,” Tyr answered.

  Ana then prepared Gram as well, while Menrva gripped her golden electric spear.

  “Let us see how much that cowardly barrier can endure!” the Etruscan goddess shouted.

  Freyja then cried, “K?ttur l?gun (Cat shape)!”

  Immediately, her appearance changed. She now took on a more feline form than before, specifically that of a white cat with a blonde mane and green eyes. Her armor had become more like a leotard, giving her greater freedom of movement, and her great spear had become a golden staff.

  “Everyone, attack now!” Menrva shouted, and then she, Ana, Thor, Freyja, and Tyr hurled themselves at Anat in a collective assault, while Freyr and Epona prepared spheres of energy to hurl at the goddess.

  All the attacks struck Anat at the same instant, but just as before, every one of them was repelled.

  “Not yet!” Menrva cried, and then the Etruscan goddess shouted, “Pulumchva Luri (Bright stars)!”

  Bolts of light rained down upon Anat, attacks that accomplished nothing.

  “Freyjulundr (Staff of Freya, the assassin)!” Freyja cried, and a field of flowers appeared beside Anat while the goddess ran, accompanied by illusions of valkyries, both hands gripping her staff, and with all her strength she struck Anat. But the barrier once more halted the attack and threw the goddess far away, causing the illusion to vanish.

  Then Thor and Tyr launched a combined attack. Tyr hurled his beam of boiling blood, shouting, “Sjóeandi Blóerista (Slash of boiling blood)!”

  At the same time Thor caught it with his hammer while shouting, “Tanngrisnir ?n Tanngnjóstr (Tanngrisnir y Tanngnjóstr)!”

  The Norse god was then completely wrapped in red lightning, caused by the combined technique of both gods, and with this attack he crashed into Anat, but once again the barrier hurled him away, sending the thunder god to the ground.

  Ana and Epona likewise launched a joint attack. Epona formed a blue sphere of energy in her hands while leaping high above Anat and crying, “ép sunarth (Horse energy)!”

  Ana caught it with her sword and dove from above toward the goddess, shouting, “Súil Balor (Eye of Balor)!”

  The impact created a tremendous shockwave as Ana struggled to break the barrier. Her hands began to bleed from the force of the blow.

  Then Menrva hurled a massive wave of energy with her spear, shouting, “Unus Frontac (Electric flow)!”

  The technique struck the very same point where Ana was struggling, causing an enormous explosion that destroyed several houses nearby. Both goddesses were hurled backward by the barrier, but they both saw Anat take one step backward from that attack.

  “She moved her!” Thor shouted excitedly.

  Then the thunder god once again hurled himself forward using his technique, “Tanngrisnir ?n Tanngnjóstr!”

  While two goats of lightning appeared around him, Freyja threw herself forward as well, her staff wrapped in light, and Tyr attacked with his blood-soaked sword. The three gods then received Freyr’s support, as he used beams of light to cover them.

  The combined assault of the four struck Anat’s barrier and forced the goddess back two steps, even as they themselves were hurled away by the shock of her invisible shield.

  “Only two meowserable steps,” Freyja said in frustration.

  “But it is clear that if we keep this up, we can smash that foolish barrier of hers,” Thor said, raising Mjolnir and pointing it at Anat.

  At that moment, Loki teleported the last group of villagers out of the settlement. Anat smiled.

  “I have finished teleporting everyone outside. You may fight as freely as you please,” Loki said telepathically to the members of Orniskem and the Norse gods, which brought smiles of victory to their faces.

  “Did ya hear that, Anat? Now we’re gonna fight with all we got!” Thor shouted triumphantly.

  “I have been waiting for this moment,” Anat said, and then to everyone’s shock, the goddess began to walk.

  Anat then vanished from everyone’s sight, and when she reappeared, she stood before Tyr, whom she shredded with her barrier. The god fell unconscious onto his back, his totem broken and his body lying in a bath of blood.

  “She can move with the barrier?!” Menrva screamed in terror.

  “It is quite simple. I was waiting for you to fight with all your power so that I could exterminate you. That is why I did not move,” Anat said.

  In the next instant the Phoenician goddess appeared in front of Freyja and completely shredded her, forcing her out of her transformation, and she fell face-first into a sea of blood.

  “How dare you do that to my little sister?!” Freyr screamed, creating a white sphere and a dark sphere and hurling the union of the two at the Phoenician goddess while shouting, “Andst?eingur galdr (Antipodean magic)!”

  A tremendous explosion of sacred and dark energy burst from Anat’s body, throwing all those present far away as Haida Gwaii was utterly destroyed, leaving only a crater in the ground, as though a meteor had struck. Freyr then lost his elf transformation and dropped to his knees.

  “Did it hit her full on?” Epona asked.

  But Anat walked out of the smoke caused by the blast without even a scratch.

  “Holy and Darkness. Remarkable that barbarians such as you can do such a thing,” said the goddess, and in an instant she moved before Freyr, destroying his boar totema and shredding him at the same time. Freyr fell unconscious to the ground, his intestines spilling out from his stomach.

  “You bitch!” Thor shouted as he hurled Mjolnir at Anat, but to everyone’s astonishment Anat caught the hammer with her bare hand.

  “No, Thor. You are the one I mean to kill at this very moment. Not even ambrosia will bring you back to life,” said the goddess, while with her left hand she drew her katana Mikazuki from its sheath.

  “She’s going to kill Thor!” Epona cried in anguish.

  At that moment Epona saw Menrva holding the Hikaptha and immediately snatched it from her.

  “Epona, what are you doing?!” Menrva shouted as the Celtic goddess sprinted at full speed toward Anat, clutching the Hikaptha.

  “Tell Rodrigo I love him, and tell Anpiel to forgive me!” the equine goddess shouted, and just as she reached Anat, she smashed the Hikaptha into her face, shattering it in the process. Anat’s head turned from the impact.

  “That is your secret, isn’t it? Your barrier is nothing but the swift movement of your sword when it is sheathed!” Epona shouted as she saw Anat turning to look at her with a line of blood on her lip.

  “Blonde girl, what in the hell are you doing?” Thor shouted, but he could not move because Anat still held him by his hammer.

  “Only declarin’ that the first person to wound Whoranat was me, a simple and vulgar igigi!” Epona shouted, and then her face changed to one of horror.

  Anat, using her sword, had cut Epona in half. The lower part of her body, beginning at the waist, fell to the ground in a sea of blood. Epona’s eyes went dim, and she stopped breathing.

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  The next part will be released tomorrow.