Goddesses (240) (Patreon)

Ainz, waiting for a few seconds, as if checking to see whether what the gates said was a stupid joke, eventually could no longer wait for any sign of such an answer. Therefore, only shifting his gaze back to the gates, he would have his answer, one way or another. “What?”

“Wh-what!?” The gates again spoke in their thundering voice, but still choking on its words, as if a little nervous from Ainz's questioning gaze, only to then immediately try to explain themselves. 

“It is a completely normal question! The thing is… Uhm, yes! Those who live in the human world and the souls that descend into the world of the dead… Yes, the world of the dead and the world of the living are too different, what is beautiful in the human world cannot exist in the world of the dead! The beauty of the world of the dead is completely different from the beauty of the world of the living, so this question… It should determine whether your soul is suitable to exist in the world of the dead!”

It might have even sounded plausible, if Ainz was a drooling idiot, perhaps.

“Uh-huh… sure.” Ainz looked at the gates, not at all convinced of the rationale for its question. At this point, any sense of awe or trepidation he might have had about the gates have evaporated, seeing the gates more like a panicking unprepared speaker, urgently trying to come up with some answer to an unexpected question. In fact, Ainz could somewhat see himself in the gate, and therefore could easily see through the gate’s current action, that is of a drowning man seeing a lifeline thrown their way. Especially with just how ridiculous of an explanation it had managed to conjure up, reminding Ainz of some of his own foolishness whenever one of the Servants asked him questions that he could not answer. 

“So I have to change my answer?”

“Wh-why?” Choking on its words again, the voice of the gates sounded almost lost, forcing Ainz to exhale his breath slowly in exasperation. Ainz was honest enough to admit that he is not the smartest person in the world, but even he could not fall for such a cheap trick or not notice the contradiction in the words spoken not ten seconds ago.

“Was it not yourself that said that in the human world there are indeed standards of beauty, and in the world of the dead there are others, then that means I should choose a different option of who is most beautiful in the world of the dead, not the one I would choose in the human world, right?” 

Ainz frowned for a moment, his mind working on unraveling the riddle that is quickly becoming more annoying the more he thought about it. “Or was the question about something else? The question sounded like ‘which of the goddesses is more beautiful’, without specifying in which world exactly… Which world’s standard of beauty should I focus on in my judgment in that case?”

Of course, Ainz did not know the answer to the rather asinine question asked of him. Being a loyal boyfriend, his actual answer is not part of the options in the first place, and he hadn’t met the other option. Therefore, instead of trying to thoughtlessly choose one of the Goddesses, whose names he could hardly even repeat, the names of the goddesses were too unfamiliar to him. 

Instead, Ainz went on the offensive, relying on the greatest weapon and recourse he had. One that had proven its effectiveness again and again. 

Confusing the opponent.

“Uh-um… I…” The gates faltered again, clearly disconcerted by Ainz's tactics and therefore unable to defend themselves against his offensive on all fronts. “Th-that is…”

The gates fell silent for a moment before exhaling loudly before continuing to speak once again. 

“Just answer me, Ishtar or Ereshkigal…”

After that, the voice hiding behind the gates seemed to wilt for a moment as it started to mutter something under its breath, clearly intending for Ainz not to hear it. Which, in any case, was heard by Ainz and all living beings within a radius of one hundred meters, given with just how loud even the ‘whispers’ of the gate could be. 

“I should have known better… Why should even a visitor think differently? Everyone always likes Ishtar more, and now someone decided to make fun of me for it… Sister always gets all the honors…”

Ainz, instantly putting the facts together, decided to take a risk and answer directly and somewhat loudly. “Ereshkigal.”

“Huh…?” If it were possible for an inanimate object to convey confusion, the gates certainly did its best to do so, fearing that his answer was not heard, Ainz had to repeat himself. This time there would be no missing his answer.

“I find that, indeed, the Goddess Ereshkigal is the more beautiful of the two.”

After hearing Ainz’s answer, the gates, frozen for a moment, seemingly shone with exuberance as their voice boomed happily. 

“Really?!” But, rather than taking the fact that the gate was happy with his answer meaning that he was right in his choice, Ainz was instead confused.

“Um…” Ainz was now unsure on how to proceed, frowning, “Don't you already have to have an answer to this question? In order to determine if I answered correctly or not. A question should have a right and wrong answer, does it not?”

“Huh?” Ainz could vividly imagine a picture of whatever it is behind the gate, blinking their eyes in confusion, “Yes, exactly, of course! Ereshkigal is more beautiful, that's the right answer!” Before it rushed to, trying to keep the last drop of control over the situation as the closed gates started to open with the sound of great stones rumbling. Ainz could not see what was beyond the opened gates, but he was not worried.

If whatever is behind the gate wanted to harm him, there was no need for the fanciful charade.

Ainz nodded, then headed forward through the passage that didn’t exist before the gates opened… 

For a hundred meters before being stopped suddenly by the same gates that had just passed not a minute ago. 

‘Ah, I should have known that it could be that simple. So, is this where the real tests start?’

Ainz knew that things could not be so simple, and yet he could never have expected what would happen next. 

“Ahem!”  The new gates, the second barring Ainz's path, cleared their throat for the solemnity of the moment, attracting attention to themselves, before pronouncing something that made Ainz wanting nothing more than to destroy the gates. 

“Soul, tell me! Which of the two goddesses is more gorgeous, Ishtar or Ereshkigal?!”

“Didn't I just answer this question!?” Ainz couldn’t help but express his shock at hearing a second question that was just as nonsensical as the first. 

“No, you just answered the question of who is the most beautiful of the goddesses, and now I'm asking you who is more gorgeous!” The gates immediately hastened to state an important clarification that made no sense to Ainz himself, but somehow did to the gates themselves… Or the one speaking through them, at least. 

“So answer me, who is more gorgeous, Ishtar, or…”

“The second one.” Ainz didn’t even bother to wait before the name of the Goddess was uttered, answering automatically, sighing to himself, tempted to rub a hand on his aching temples.

Is this to be the riddles that guarded the entrance of the Underworld? Could he not fight some kind of monsters as a trial? He could feel no sense of pride and accomplishment through this. And Ainz doubts that the second gate would be the last of his series of ‘tests’ before he could enter the Underworld.

The only thing he had left to hope for in the current conditions was that there weren't too many of these gates in his path. Or at the very least, for the next questions to actually be more challenging… Though even if they do not, Ainz would at least be able to contend himself with just reaching his destination…

And inside, Ainz holds a strong suspicion who he might meet where he was heading at the moment.

***

Angrboda moved through the surrounding jungle without hesitation or attempts to hide among the dense forest canopies and shadows. Not because she could not do it, even though Angrboda was not an assassin in any sense of the word she has her own genuine bestial cunning. A cunning similar to how huge tigers could move through the savanna, hiding among the thickets, hunting even the most skittish and agile of prey. 

No, Angrboda did not even bother trying to hide her passage through the forest, not for the lack of ability to do so, but because she did not need to do it. 

Angrboda is the mother of monsters, some of her children, of course, surpassed her in terms of their powers and abilities, as all children often do, surpassing their own progenitor that is. But even among the echelons of the most powerful of monsters, Angrboda's position was special, a certain authority. 

In the environment of this world, these jungles, Angrboda was the apex predator. 

She simply did not need to hide herself in the shadows of the jungle, fearing an attack or stalking a target. All the creatures and monsters alike around her knew perfectly well where Angrboda was at any given moment as she walked the forest floors. Her every action was more like a loud announcement, or a challenge thrown, riveting the gazes of many much smaller predators to her… And the significantly larger predator that saw her every step in the jungle because Angrboda wanted it to see her.

For an ordinary person, if for some reason somehow found themselves in her position, being watched by countless deadly beasts, at best would only feel a presence on the edge of their consciousness. They would not be able to tell what kind of creatures were hunting, what presences hid in the many thickets around them. No, instead, the constant pressure drives them crazy with the paranoid fear of being constantly being taken as prey. 

But Angrboda was no ordinary human, she could perfectly distinguish the clatter of claws digging into the soft ground behind the rustle of leaves. The sound of the beasts’ breathing and slobbering, as it waited for the most opportune time to leap and catch its prey. 

But Angrboda was no prey, and if she had the time for it, she would be glad to remind the beasts why that is.

However, Angrboda had little interest in this part of the thoughts of the creatures surrounding her, for them there would be no ‘right’ moment to start hunting Angrboda. The power between them was so unequal that even the most bloodthirsty monster could only step aside and, with its tail between its legs, rushed to run as soon as it smelled even a hint of Angrboda’s presence.

And the fact that the beasts were not running away interests Angrboda greatly.

Although many humans considered themselves the ‘pinnacle of nature’, completely undeservedly in Angrboda's opinion, the animals that humans put down as being lesser were not in any way less smart. They were not brainless, existing solely to attack heroes moving through the forest and die, in order to show a simple example of the confrontation between man and wild nature. Dinosaurs were prehistoric predators, but that didn't mean they were stupid, on the contrary, brainless creatures would not have been able to capture the reign over the earth for hundreds of millions of years.

If a beast understood that the opponent in front of it posed a mortal danger, it fled. If it could not escape, then at least it would try to get out of Angrboda's way, away from her or sheltering in its own den, trying to hide from the mortal danger. The instinct for self-preservation was a powerful force hammered into the mind of even the simplest unicellular organisms, as it moved towards a food source and away from a source of irritation.

And therefore, the fact that the beasts continued to follow after Angrboda herself, as if examining her, made her think that the reason for this lay in the fact that they were watching her. To be more precise, someone hiding behind their backs was watching her.

Perhaps if a group of hunters hoped to take advantage of some imagined moment of weakness from her, then there would be a point in observing her. But Angrboda was too strong, and the beasts surrounding her were too close to their bestial nature and instincts to miss that. Angrboda could feel how through every drop of their blood flowed primordial bestial rage and cunning, whispering in their ears that they did not have a chance…

But they still continued to follow Angrboda, surrounding her in a perimeter, watching her every movement…

In response to this, Angrboda could recognize some cunning on the part of her opponent. After all, in order to use wild animals to observe under conditions in which an ordinary person would not have noticed their strange behavior was cunning enough, but this small share of respect was followed by great contempt. 

If these beasts’ masters wanted to use monsters to observe Angrboda, they definitely did not know anything about Angrboda herself.

Besides, Angrboda was a beast, wild and cruel, one that loves both open battles and ambushes alike, the game between the hunter and the prey, meaningless observation of her however seemed tedious. 

Not to mention that she promised to rendezvous with Arthur to exchange information, and Angrboda would tear out her own throat if that upstart showed up to the meeting, having information that Angrboda herself would not have. 

The worst kind of humans, a member of that hateable race that is the most hated, a paladin, a monster hunter, being more at home in the wild jungle than Angrboda herself? Even for jokes, this phrase was simply excessive.

And therefore, having walked forward a little more, Angrboda stopped, the time for playing games are over, she has had enough of the posturing of whoever or whatever is behind the monsters following fruitlessly after her. Releasing her killing intent like waves, she pronounced her next words slowly, dripping with malice. 

“Either you come out to me… Or I will leave you no choice but to appear before me.”

The creatures around Angrboda froze, clearly sensing the magnified danger she was now exuding, but after a dozen seconds, no one appeared before her, and therefore Angrboda twisted her face into a contemptuous grin. She wanted to hunt anyway, so this chance was one that she was more than gleeful to take. 

“So be it.”

After these words, Angrboda stopped walking and sharply inhaled the air, like a trained bloodhound, then again and again, before abruptly turning to the side and raising her hand. 

“Here.”

After another moment, Angrboda's hand, large enough, befitting her considerable figure, undergoes a grizzly change. Her digits and palm spread like a reed caught in between millstones, her fingers bent into a dozen shapes at once, into which no limb could bend. 

Perhaps Angrboda had indeed refused her Noble Phantasm, one reason being that she did not want to start a useless war against the Counter Force, but that did not mean that she lost all her abilities. For example, those that were noted as her ‘skills’. 

Perhaps she did not possess the ability of the reborn Medusa, Echidna, allowing her to create the perfect monster for any occasion as she wills it, poised and ready against any hero. But that did not mean that she did not possess a similar ability.

After all, in order for monsters to possess all these abilities aimed against ‘heroes’, they must have gotten them from somewhere, something must have served as a sample, a source for these abilities?

And what could serve as a better source of power for children than the abilities of their parents?

Angrboda's hand, folding into itself a dozen times, abruptly stopped, before the limb stretched to an unnatural length with ruinous force behind it. Like a wild snake possessing its own mind, the changed limb stretched further and further, violating every law of physics and biology, before crashing into a huge century-old tree, piercing it instantly. Then another. And another, creating a cacophonic sound of scattering bark and wood.

The limb's target was soon found, as it pierced the shadowed beast, trying in vain to dodge the spear like limb, leaving the beast convulsing on the ground. But it did not end there, soon the hand split again repeating like a fractal as it searched for its next target, and soon the sound of dying beasts joined the symphony of broken trees.

An unspeakably loud clash spread through the jungle, making the monsters that are subordinate to someone else's will howl with horror and surprise. Their sense of self-preservation overpowering the control they’re under, the monsters spread around like a headless chicken, desperate to escape the grasping hands eager to kill them.

All to no avail of course, Angrboda would not miss, and she had spotted her true target, and her hands did not wait to corner the beast. 

A loud squeal sounded a moment later, her target, now knowing that it is being targeted, tried its best with its panicking mind to escape with surprising alacrity.

Angrboda pondered about what to do next for a moment before making a decision. Her regeneration would cope with the need of creating more flesh for her creation to expand faster than she had lost them, faster at least, than just cutting her loss and retracting her turned limb. Not to mention the fact that she could miss her prey if she hesitated, a shameful loss to an apex predator like her. 

And therefore, a moment later, Angrboda grabbed her elongated hand at the base, and with a quick wrench accompanied by the disgusting sound of flesh tearing and bones crunching, her hand was torn from her body. 

Like a fish flopping on the ground, her hand writhed and convulsed as signals from her torn nerves ran amok. And seeing that her ‘hand’ currently extended long throughout the jungle, the death throes destroyed even more of the jungle, before with one last errant twitch, the torn limb stopped moving. With both glacial slowness and surprising speed, the large limb seemed to disintegrate into black slime in parts, dying in truth. It has done its duty.

Angrboda did not give the limb a second glance as her distant prey took her whole attention. 

Uncaring even of the terrible wound of her missing limb, its remaining stump looked more like the result of an animal attack. Meat and bones hung in torn pieces below her shoulder, but despite the nightmarish picture, blood did not rush down in a waterfall, indicating that such a wound was fatal for Angrboda. 

On the contrary, there seemed to be no blood at all, and judging by Angrboda's face, who did not even pay attention to such a trifle, the event that happened did not affect her at all. On the contrary, an attentive look at her mutilated stump could show that the flesh of that was writhing, not as the muscles torn off by her own hand were writhing. Pulsating, the flesh of her stump began to move, stretching, filling the position with her lost hand, striving to return back to Angrboda's healthy ideal.

Soon, her missing limb was restored in full, and Angrboda moved, eager to get this hunt over with, personally.

The black shadow, in its belief that it had escaped the predator, had stopped moving, that was why it was much too late when it had finally noticed Angrboda chasing after it. Perhaps, it could have escaped, with its speed and its ability to hide in the forest, even a single momentary distraction was enough for it to lose any predator chasing it. Sadly for the prey, Angrboda was not just any predator. 

With her target’s scent on her nose, and with Angrboda not caring one whit about the jungle impending her path, whether they be stones, trees, or boulders, all crumbled away in her advance towards her prey, escape was impossible. 

Therefore, the desperate and panicky escape of the flickering shadow was in vain, and just a dozen seconds later Angrboda was able to make out a concrete outline of the shadow. Short, rather thin, dressed in black clothes, with red hair…

The figure smelled like one of her children, however, this information Angrboda had guessed this before.

The rumble of falling trees behind it made the retreating shadow turn for a moment, allowing Angrboda herself to see the face of the shadow. The face of a young girl, to be more precise. The girl could only see Angrboda with eyes full of fear, a mistake. No longer paying attention to where she was stepping, an errant tree branch would smack the girl right in the face, halting her escape dead.

Now, falling on the ground, the girl could only look back at the predator chasing her helplessly on the ground, her feet no longer cooperating with her. Angrboda, of course, did not make the same mistake the girl did, and was soon clenching the girl’s short red-blonde hair in her grasps, the girl’s small cat ears flattened on top of her head in response to her fear.

Lifting the girl in front of her face, Angrboda shook the girl side to side several times, as if to show the girl her displeasure.

“Who are you?” Angrboda looked at the girl, before shifting her gaze to her stump… Or, at least, it was a stump just a few dozen seconds ago, right now most of Angrboda's hand had already been restored, with the healing hand ended in a fairly neat cut just above her wrist.

"I-I-I-I…" The girl, looking at such a grizzly scene and Angrboda's face, ready to crush her head like an overripe watermelon, tried to open her mouth, but all that came out of it was inarticulate muttering. "I-I-I… Jaguar!"

"Hmm?" Angrboda turned her gaze to the girl before shaking her from side to side again.

"Jaguar! Jaguar-man!" The now named Jaguar-man tried to answer again, but all she could concentrate on at the moment was Angrboda's face. "Please don't eat me! It's wrong! Usually I’m the one to eat others!"

"Hmm?" Angrboda looked at Jaguar-man closely again, frowning slightly. "You eat people?"

"Of course not! Not anymore! I'm a civilized jaguar, very modern, honest!" Jaguar-man immediately shook her head as much as possible as she could in Angrboda's grip, and denied the accusation. Before, noticing that contrary to her expectations, Angrboda instead seemed to want to hear a different answer, and immediately tried to correct herself. It was a weird situation, as all the other humans she had met seemed to hate it when she said that she ate humans, but Jaguar-man was nothing if not adaptable.

"But in the past, yes! Definitely yes! A lot! I'm a jaguar after all, a spirit of the jungle, of course I ate people! I'm a beast of the jungle!"

"Hmm…" Angrboda did not have the ability to always understand when someone was lying to her, but it would be strange if the Mother of Monsters could not distinguish such an obvious fact among her children.

Therefore, despite how silly Jaguar-man looked and how panicky her words were, Angrboda released her, sensing the spirit of a wild monster, albeit not too strong, in her words. She is one of her people.

Jaguar-man, in turn, after she fell to the ground in an unflattering heap, sharply started inhaling air and exhaling, almost hyperventilating, not believing her luck. Getting caught in the jaws of a predator and surviving was nothing less than a miracle.

"My name is Angrboda," Angrboda, looking at Jaguar-man, and feeling the sense of kinship blooming between them, instantly broke into a motherly smile, she was one of her children. It was as if she had not just threatened Jaguar-man a moment ago. With a hand that not moments ago threatened to turn her head into a pulp now scratching her ears at the best spots, and a hand that was visibly turning from a puppy mush into unblemished skin, extending in a handshake, Jaguar-man did not know what to do.

"Let's get acquainted, child…"

And although Angrboda's smile was filled with motherly love at that moment, Jaguar-man, looking at her from below, trembled with all her might like a shaking leaf.

Perhaps Angrboda had forgotten that a smile, grinning teeth to teeth, could be taken as a threat.

***

Arthur didn't even have to take her blade out of its sheath to deal with her ‘enemies’. A couple of whacks that powdered the bones of several of the dinosaurs, and even their feeble beast minds could recognize that Arthur was not some prey. Now, if only the oversized lizards circling above her head could heed the same message, Arthur wouldn’t have to unsheathe her blade and make splinters of the jungle surrounding her. 

Not because Arthur feared it, the creature circling above her head was not a dragon, but rather a strange cross between a bat and a lizard, with two huge leathery wings and a long powerful beak, periodically screeching above her. But simply that Arthur didn’t want the time and effort to get rid of the irritant hovering over her head. 

Being a paladin, Arthur possessed a rather small arsenal of abilities for long-range combat and fighting flying opponents. Not that Arthur had no such thing at all, what kind of strongest paladin of Yggdrasil would she be if that was so? But, most of her long-range attacks were too destructive to be wasted on a simple irritant in the air. She could of course just ‘Fly’ and deal with the flying lizards up close and personal, but she did not want to risk such a thing turning into an annoying, humiliating game of ‘catch-up’ that Arthur was not going to tolerate. 

Therefore, realizing the fact that the creature hanging over her was most likely just a scout and nothing that could threaten her, Arthur directed her feet forward. After all, a scout was also not the biggest problem for Arthur. 

Let her opponent know where they can find her, the sooner, the better in fact, for a prey to walk itself into the jaws of a predator. In any case, it was impossible to escape from Arthur with all his jungles. If her opponent tries to escape by abandoning their base… Well, that was also important information for Arthur.

Therefore, Arthur had nothing to do but follow the gradually intensifying smell of magic in the branches and roots of the surrounding trees, gradually feeling it becoming stronger and denser as she walked deeper into the forest. 

The magic she felt was not pulsating like a heart, but rather like magma in an inactive but not at all dead volcano. Slowly and viscous, it flowed from one tree to another, ready to break free at any moment with the right stimulus. Slow it might be, but it was also powerful, just like the smoldering volcano that its magic felt like, one that could erupt at the slightest disturbance.

And the worst part? No one could say for sure whether this would happen in ten seconds or ten thousand years.

Unfortunately, Arthur, as a Paladin, did not understand the intricacies of magic all that much, compared to real mages at least. And therefore she could not say with certainty, exactly what her findings said about the source of this power. 

But even so, she could confidently determine that wherever she was moving at the moment… She was definitely approaching her destination.

However, what confirmed her thoughts was not a group of monsters or an especially overgrown jungle, but… The exact opposite in fact.

Gradually, the jungle that seems to have no end, began to recede, the canopy slowly releasing its grasps of the sky, turning from impenetrable thickets that could only be torn apart with each step, into trails, slight openings. 

And after a moment, a sign of civilization appeared before Arthur's eyes, something that is entirely antithetical to the previously primeval forest.

Low-lying architecture, built with regular shapes and sharp edges, as if with all its might trying to take the form of pyramids… However, not at all Egyptian, but instead some kind of cubic pyramids, ziggurats, decorated with bas-reliefs and many colors, complex curved lines and geometric patterns, the patterns folding into figures, then into battle scenes and monster figures… But kept at a height of only a couple of floors.

That is except for the building that instantly caught Arthur's attention.

It was a huge pyramid rising up like a skyscraper of this ancient world, from the height of which one could observe all the jungles, with its top catching the rays of the Sun from the very dawn to sunset, in the center of the top of which a stone shone. A bas-relief or tablet even, probably, a monstrous block of stone, like a flat circle, painted in some colors unfamiliar to Arthur. 

It looked as if the whole pyramid, with a million bas-reliefs that merged from into a single unreadable sign, converged on the stone. Unreadable, and alien, but conveying one simple thought. 

Whatever this stone was, it was important.

The realization was instantly reinforced by Arthur's senses, instantly grabbing onto the stone installed on top of the pyramid, recognizing it as the heart of the entire settlement, the heart of the jungle itself.

However, Arthur could not examine the tablet for long, as a voice that seemed to come from the very top of the sky made Arthur look up at the source. 

"Heeeeey, amigo~!"

The voice that echoed through the sky was loud, but at the same time so joyful and good-natured, as if the one uttering it was having fun with all the heart… It was echoing through the sky as it fell from an incredible height. 

It was a small figure dressed in gold, blues, and green, flashing across the sky so quickly that to the ordinary observer they might think that the sound was some kind of mirage. But Arthur knows for certain that the figure was certainly real. 

‘Fast!’

Approaching with inhuman speed like a meteor, the figure struck the ground so hard that the cloud of dust such an impact had made, had hidden the figure from view. Even more than that, the impact had caused a crater to form, upheaving the ground meters from the impact, uprooting trees that had stood the test of time for hundreds of years.

However, despite the force of the impact, the voice, full of joy and carefree fun, did not stop speaking at all. Even before the clouds of dust had time to settle on the ground, it continued to speak. 

"Nice to meet you! My name is Quetzalcoatl, although also sometimes called the ‘Feathered Serpent’ and ‘god of war and wisdom’! My hobbies are lucha libre, samba and hunting jaguars! And I am also the patron goddess of these jungles! I honestly admit, from the very beginning I sensed your presence, and wanted so much to meet you and fight you that I could hardly wait for this moment!"

"Hmm?" That was Arthur's whole answer, who took a look at Quetzalcoatl when the dust from her impact on the ground was able to dissipate slightly, lifting a single perfectly sculpted eyebrows. 

"It’s nice to meet you." It was almost embarrassing for her to admit, but the self-admitted god’s antics didn’t even hit the top ten of the weirdest introductions she ever had. The people that calls her Round Table their gathering spot, much more eccentric than the colorfully-clad and exuberant goddess

Quetzalcoatl was a tall girl, though perhaps if she was not acting with so much childish exuberance it was more correct to call her a woman, with slightly tanned skin and long wavy golden hair. She was dressed in clothes that were difficult to describe in any unambiguous way, except as ‘Aztec’, with many complex bas-reliefs and iridescent colors fashioned on her cloak, loincloth, bracers, greaves and the thing? On her chest. 

On her head was a complex headdress adorned with feathers, and in the small dimple between her lower lip and chin gleamed a small piercing adorning a piece of gold, shimmering in the light with amber. 

However, the most noticeable feature of the girl's appearance was not her clothes, hair or piercing emerald-green eyes, but the huge smile that seemed to be stretched on her face with all the strength of her lips and facial muscles.

"The wait was so long, amigo! I had to go skydiving without a parachute to dispel my boredom, I wanted so much to test my strength with someone new! I'm honestly not one of those who quickly light up with an idea and quickly forget it, but the waiting… I'm not one of those who can't wait too long when I'm burning with an interesting idea!" Quetzalcoatl's voice was quite high, like an overexcited child, but also mature enough, slightly stretching the notes in her voice. Like an older sister, always trying with every phrase to evoke a reaction of laughter in her younger siblings.

"What if I came here not to fight?" Arthur cast a questioning glance Quetzalcoatl's way, trying to determine if her incredible optimism was real, or part of her mask, in exchange for which Quetzalcoatl only threw back her head and laughed loudly. 

"But that's what it will eventually come to, won't it?"

"You came here to find out how exactly I am connected with Tiamat, my plans, to make me participate in your own plans, right? And this means abandoning my plans and the plans of Gilgamesh, the plans of Merlin, and seeing that abandoning a working plan in favor of a non-working, unproven one is pure suicide. So, first you have to prove to me that you have enough power to follow through with your plan! And that means… A fight!" Quetzalcoatl broke into a huge joyful smile, before continuing, though this time there was a tinge of danger to her wide smile. Like a predator slowly opening its maw. 

"And if you don't want to fight…"

After a moment, Quetzalcoatl's gaze flashed like the eyes of a snake in the dark, and her teeth for a moment seemed like sharp fangs, which passed after a second and Quetzalcoatl laughed loudly again. The previous dangerous impression is gone, but not forgotten.

"Then I just need to make you do it!"