A Certain Multiverse's Holy Right

"Very good, very good. If that's the case, you can still entertain me for a while longer!"

Seeing the angel that Roy summoned through his authority, Athena let out a clear yet commanding laugh.

The Gorgon's monstrous serpent moved rapidly through the Alps. With every twist of its massive body, avalanches roared and mountains shook.

"HissssssAAAAAAaaa—"

The serpent opened its enormous maw, viscous liquid dripping from its sharp fangs. Despite its immense size, the Gorgon was terrifyingly fast, lunging toward the angel's neck like a flash of lightning.

The giant angel, a manifestation of Michael, flapped its fiery wings. The Sword of Judgment in its hands crackled with thunder as it slashed down on the monstrous serpent.

"Clang—!"

The collision between the sword and the serpent's scales emitted a sound like metal clashing against metal. Sparks flew, and the shrill noise was deafening. Although the Gorgon appeared to be a snake, its defense was akin to that of a dragon—an ancient symbol of power and resilience.

Yet, even the Gorgon's scaled body struggled to withstand the Heroic Steel. The Sword of Judgment carved a deep gash into its flesh. Crimson blood spurted out, but almost instantly, the wound began to heal.

As the primordial Earth Mother Goddess and the snake of reincarnation, Athena possessed incredible immortality. The Gorgon she had transformed into inherited this trait, with the power to shed its skin and regenerate.

"Michael's steel attribute is still too weak," Roy muttered with a slight sigh.

Michael, despite his legendary feats—including imprisoning the ancient dragon Satan—was not specialized in slaying dragons or serpents like some other heroic figures in myth.

Had Roy possessed a strong power of steel capable of cutting through immortality, his earlier attack might have split the Gorgon entirely in two. Even though such a wound could heal, it would drain Athena's divine power significantly.

Roy felt a growing impatience. He longed to slay a Steel Hero and claim their spiritual foundation to bolster his own power.

"Are you out of tricks? Your sword cannot pierce my Gorgon. If that's the case, prepare to melt under my venomous fangs!"

The serpent struck with lightning speed, spraying venom from its gaping maw. The venom corroded everything it touched, turning the Alpine soil into pools of sulphuric acid.

The Gorgon coiled rapidly, its massive tail whipping around to ensnare Michael's avatar like a python. Its head lunged again, aiming for the angel's neck.

Seeing this, Roy abandoned the sword and instead commanded the angel to grip the serpent's jaws with its hands. Michael, with the power to imprison ancient dragons, possessed tremendous strength. Like the Greek demigod Heracles, he used his hands to restrain the Gorgon's massive body.

This close-quarters grapple suited the style of The Hand of Jacob, an authority focused on martial techniques. The colossal angel and the Gorgon wrestled fiercely, rolling across the Alps. The collision of their massive forms shattered mountain peaks, creating a catastrophic scene of mythological proportions. The very heavens and earth seemed to collapse under their struggle.

"Boom! Boom!"

Michael's avatar grabbed the dragon-snake by its tail, spun it in a full circle, and hurled it like a discus. The serpent's body smashed into the side of a mountain with a deafening crash, almost obliterating half the peak.

At some point, Athena had fully merged with the serpent, transforming into a divine figure with a human head and a snake body. She resembled the Earth Mother goddess Nuwa of ancient Chinese mythology. In both Eastern and Western traditions, many Earth Mothers bore serpentine features, as the snake symbolized their divine essence.

Roy, too, fused with Michael's avatar, the angel's colossal visage morphing into his own. Against a creature as immense as the Gorgon, only by becoming a towering giant himself could Roy hope to match its might.

"Roy Crowley, though young, I must admit that you are a worthy God Slayer and a formidable foe!"

Athena's voice rang out, majestic and powerful. Although still melodious, it now carried an air of awe-inspiring authority.

Though she had taken on the form of the dragon-snake Gorgon, her upper body retained an unparalleled beauty. Her silver hair, dozens of meters long, flowed like a shimmering river, partially concealing her round and perfect chest. Her slender waist epitomized the term "snake-like," and her exposed skin gleamed with crystalline purity. Though her form was massive, her proportions were flawless.

"Ah—!"

Suddenly, Athena let out a pained cry. Her gaze had fallen upon Roy's visage. The Face of God had activated, and through Roy's appearance, Athena glimpsed an incomprehensible and indescribable presence. Though she was a goddess, the disparity in their divine ranks caused her eyes to feel as though they were being seared. Her enormous serpent body writhed uncontrollably.

"Who is like unto the Beast? Who is able to make war with it?

"Thou art guilty!"

Seizing the opportunity, Roy summoned the Sword of Judgment once more, activating its power. As Michael's avatar, he raised the blood-red sword high, chanting words of divine authority to pronounce Athena's guilt. The hierarchy of the sword and the dragon-snake reversed in an instant.

With a nearly kilometer-long blade, the sword descended, splitting the earth with a massive fissure. A mountain was cleaved in two, and the Gorgon—Athena's monstrous form—was sliced in half, severed cleanly at the midpoint of her serpentine body.

"Aaaaaaaaaaa——!"

The blood of the colossal serpent sprayed across the snowy expanse, dyeing the pristine Alps a deep crimson. Athena, her head held high, let out a wail of agony. Her breathtakingly beautiful visage was no longer calm or collected, and her petrifying eyes burned with a mixture of rage and torment.

"Gu————!"

A sudden shriek, sharp and haunting like a night owl's cry, cut through the cold air behind Roy. A gigantic owl swooped down from the heavens, its beak piercing through the energy body of Michael's incarnation. Unlike the physical form of the Gorgon, the angel's essence was an energy construct. When struck, no blood spilled, only radiant fragments of divine light scattered like embers from a flame.

"Roy! Taste the forbidden power of darkness and death that belongs to me!"

The sickle that Athena wielded earlier now manifested in her human form, except this time it had grown to an immense size, rivaling Roy's divine sword. Athena's martial prowess, the epitome of divine skill, made her a master of all weapons. The sickle shimmered like a bolt of lightning as it slashed toward Roy with blinding speed, leaving him no room to evade. The angelic incarnation was severed cleanly at the waist.

The essence of death began spreading outward, corrupting not just Roy's body but the very ground beneath his feet. The mountain peak where Roy stood visibly decayed, its vitality stolen away. Even the concept of the "mountain" seemed to wither, crumbling into lifeless ash and dust.

Athena, with her countless identities in ancient history, wielded an overwhelming arsenal of authorities. Each facet of her divine authority was a reminder of her majesty: the Gorgon symbolized her serpentine aspect, the owl her dominion over the night, and the sickle her authority over death. Her mastery of the sickle, as well as her identity as a goddess of war, made her a terrifying foe.

Michael's angelic form, though resilient, began to succumb to the corrosive effects of death. Only its intrinsic connection to death itself slowed the decay. Athena's association with death, reminiscent of the Mesopotamian underworld goddess Ereshkigal, lent her attacks an inevitability few could withstand.

Roy acted decisively, severing his link to the angelic form. The massive, towering construct disintegrated into shimmering sands of light, scattering into the air like ethereal dust.

Launching himself like an arrow toward Athena's serpentine body, Roy raised his right fist.

"The Saint Subdues the Dragon!"

The five golden rings circling his fingers gleamed as he swung his punch directly into Athena's flawless visage. The impact dented her ethereal beauty, distorting the goddess' face as a shockwave of divine power radiated outward.

This "The Saint Subdues the Dragon!" strike combined the anti-dragon properties Roy had stolen from Solomon with his innate strength, delivering a blow designed to counteract snakes and dragons. Athena's soul and divine essence screamed in protest as the attack tore through her. The goddess was blasted away from her serpentine lower body, her form reverting to the tall, silver-haired beauty of her human appearance.

Though Roy's sword had bisected the Gorgon earlier, the creature's near-immortal nature allowed it to slowly regenerate. Its horrifying resilience reminded Roy of the limitations of his authority. His authorities were constrained by time and usage limits. If the Gorgon fully revived, Roy would face an opponent that was nearly invulnerable, a beast covered in impervious dragon scales.

Athena, who had been launched through the air, regained her composure mid-flight. The sickle in her hand transformed into a bow and arrow, and with divine precision, she loosed an arrow that streaked through the night like a shard of moonlight.

"!!!"

Roy's heightened sixth sense warned him just in time. He twisted his body at the critical moment, narrowly avoiding a lethal strike. However, the arrow pierced through his shoulder. The force of the impact sent him hurtling backward, smashing him against the mountain wall with a thunderous crash.

Above him, the giant owl continued its predatory assault, diving toward Roy with its deadly beak poised to strike. The scene mirrored the myth of Prometheus, who had been punished by having his liver eternally devoured by an eagle.