Chapter 226: The Giant God Sefar, Moon and Sky
Rowe stared at the figure before him and, for once, genuinely hesitated.
This was the Moon, right?
It was perfectly reasonable for the Moon Goddess to appear on the Moon, right?
He did not take a wrong turn somewhere along that rainbow corridor, did he?
Then his eyes widened.
"Why are you here?"
The woman standing there was unmistakable.
Artemis.
And in Roman terms, Diana.
She stood directly in his path, as if she had been waiting for him from the moment he arrived. Worse, like Ares, she seemed to have recovered the Machina God body that had once been scattered through Imaginary Number Space.
Rowe could not decide which part annoyed him more.
He had crossed worlds, pulled Authority from a supercomputer, climbed a stairway of light, and reached the Moon.
And she was simply here.
As if the Moon had a reception desk.
"Ugh…"
After a moment of silence, Artemis let out a soft moan, the kind that belonged to someone waking from a dream.
Her long silver hair was unbound. Her appearance was familiar, yet not entirely the same.
A V shaped steel device covered the upper half of her face like night vision goggles, emitting a faint glow. Dark armor like pieces covered only her chest and the area below her abdomen, leaving most of her skin exposed. Her open arms and the rise of her bosom traced graceful curves, and her legs were crossed slightly, pressing soft flesh together in a posture that looked careless and intimate at the same time.
The glow on the device sharpened.
Focus returned.
Consciousness revived.
Personality awakened.
"Is it… my dearest?" Artemis asked.
"No," Rowe replied immediately. "It is not. Please continue sleeping and do not pursue this dream."
The glow on her visor tightened, like a lens finding its target.
"How mean," she said, voice turning sweet. "You are clearly right in front of me."
"This is a hallucination," Rowe said with a perfectly straight face. "Sleeping too long does that."
"Is that so?" Artemis sighed, disappointed. "What a pity…"
"No pity. Back to sleep."
Artemis tilted her head.
"My dearest, do I look stupid?"
Rowe gestured at himself.
"And do I look like your dearest?"
Silence.
Nonsensical dialogue. Nonsensical communication.
Rowe had dealt with many Greek goddesses, and Artemis was the most troublesome by far.
Not because of strength.
Even among the Olympians, she was one of the strongest, second only to the King of Gods in the old era. But against Rowe, that gap was not even worth dramatizing.
What troubled him was her obsession.
The Mad Moon.
A rumor shared by Greece and Rome alike.
Artemis, however, seemed delighted by it. From the Greek era to the present, more than a thousand years had passed, and she had waited far too long.
"My dearest," she said brightly, "let me hug you."
She rushed forward.
Rowe moved first.
The hem of his robe lifted slightly as he shifted position with practiced ease.
Artemis missed and landed on the Moon dust with a soft thud, her figure swaying, beautiful in a way that felt almost cruelly appropriate for a lunar goddess.
Rowe raised his hand and tapped her.
"Wah… that hurts, dearest," Artemis whined, clutching her head as she collapsed against the cold surface. Her soft body pressed into the dust, deforming slightly as if the Moon itself had become a mattress.
Rowe smiled.
"Who told you to get handsy."
"That is too much…"
She sounded displeased, but it lasted only a heartbeat.
Then she looked up, visor flickering, mouth slightly parted, and the familiar infatuation returned like a switch being flipped.
"Rowe… my dearest Rowe…"
Rowe rubbed his forehead and exhaled.
He crouched and extended a hand.
"Get up."
"I knew my dearest would not abandon me."
"If you keep this up, I will leave you here."
"Eh? No. That is too much, dearest."
"I said I am not your dearest."
He caught her outstretched hand and pulled her upright. They were acquaintances, after all.
Artemis had been close to Enkidu, almost like a student.
After so long, Rowe was not going to pretend she did not exist.
More importantly, he needed answers.
"What are you doing here?"
Is this connected to the Moon Cell?
Is this connected to why he was here?
Artemis did not release his hand. Her palm was delicate, soft, and stubbornly warm against his.
She tilted her head and lifted her hips slightly as if to step closer, then paused.
"You want to know?" she asked. "What will you give me, dearest?"
"What do you want?" Rowe lifted his free hand. "A flick to the forehead? I can agree to any reasonable request."
"Hm?"
His words stopped.
The hand holding his tightened, pulling her full body into him.
Artemis hugged him.
Warm contact pressed close, intimate in a way that was almost childish in its directness. Yet beneath that warmth, Rowe felt something cold flowing under her skin.
Not blood.
Mechanisms.
Bones and vessels made for a machine.
"I am cold," Artemis murmured, face pressed against him. "You know."
Rowe did not struggle this time. His attention sharpened, clinical beneath the surface.
"So you really went through something strange," he said quietly. "That is why you recovered your Machina God body from Imaginary Number Space."
"That is right," Artemis said, delighted. "Still smart as ever, dearest."
Her arms remained locked around him. She turned her face toward his, meeting his gaze through the faint glow of that steel device.
Her lips were outlined in red, bright and careful.
She brushed them against his cheek, slow and lingering.
Rowe did not move.
He listened.
After he defeated Zeus and brought the Olympus mythology to an end, Greece had changed.
Athena became the highest God King, establishing a fourth generation pantheon, with the other gods beneath her.
But Artemis was not among them.
She left Greece.
To find Rowe.
She did not know where he would appear.
So she chose the highest vantage point, the place from which she could observe the entire world.
A place that was not reachable by a natural born divinity without a body that could cross the void.
The Moon.
"In the battle with the Star Hunter more than ten thousand years ago," Artemis said, voice lowering, "Zeus integrated the Authorities of our Twelve Olympian Machina God bodies."
"And after his collapse, those integrated Authorities returned to us."
"But not every god reclaimed their Machina God body."
"Those who grew accustomed to existing as pure divinities abandoned them."
She tightened her arms slightly.
"But I did not."
"Because I wanted to find you."
She smiled faintly, and for a moment the obsession softened into something that looked almost like relief.
"Facts prove my choice was correct."
"I waited."
"And I finally met you."
"This way, I can have no regrets."
Rowe exhaled.
"That sounds like a last will."
He turned his gaze to her.
"Aren't you going to tell me the truth?"
"Eh? Truth?" Artemis blinked, confused. "What truth?"
Rowe's tone stayed calm, but it carried weight.
"The truth is that this is not the Moon."
"The truth is that we are inside the Moon Cell."
"The truth is you were not waiting here."
"You were fighting."
Yes.
This place was the Moon Cell.
Rowe had already been transmitted directly into its interior. The cold lunar scenery around them was a simulated environment.
The moment he saw Artemis, he knew.
Anyone who commanded a second generation Machina God understood how a Machina God body should present itself in true vacuum.
Artemis's body was not configured for open space.
It was configured for a combat simulation.
Artemis had been fighting.
She reclaimed her Machina God body and went to the Moon to search for Rowe, yes.
But she was pulled into the Moon Cell and met an enemy.
An enemy trying to destroy the world.
"You wanted to find me," Rowe said. "But you had no choice but to fight."
He raised a hand and gently touched her cheek.
"Thank you."
"For protecting the world."
Artemis froze.
Then she slowly let go. The glow beneath her visor trembled.
"No wonder Athena said your wisdom surpasses hers," Artemis murmured, almost to herself.
She lifted her hand and touched the steel device.
Unfastened it.
Removed it.
The eyes beneath were blind.
Her former emerald divine eyes were dim, lifeless, damaged beyond a god's ability to mend.
"Ugly, isn't it?" Artemis smiled, as if mocking herself before anyone else could.
"But I do not regret it."
"Protecting the world has nothing to do with me."
"I only wanted to protect…"
Her voice caught.
"The world where you exist."
Rowe felt something shift inside his chest, a human ache he disliked acknowledging.
Artemis's original affection had been born from Enkidu's influence. That was why Rowe had avoided her for so long.
But years do not preserve false feelings.
They distill them.
What began as borrowed emotion had become her own.
"Gods are hollow," Artemis said softly. "Gods are cold. Gods are mechanical."
"But I yearn for warmth."
"Teacher gave me light."
"And you gave me warmth."
"Therefore I am happy."
"I am overjoyed."
A low hum rolled through the simulated sky.
Above them, Artemis's true main body hovered, a Machina God battleship of fluid, elegant beauty.
A sniper type interstellar battleship.
It shifted, transformed, and extended a massive muzzle.
At the moment the mechanism locked into place, a tremendous roar echoed across the simulated lunar plain.
Dust and smoke rolled over the horizon.
A figure appeared at the edge of sight.
Humanoid, yet towering and majestic.
Pale eyes hung like black holes, their edges glowing with a faint red. From its head extended two large soft ear like structures that drifted like colored threads.
Its form was feminine, with a slender waist and rounded hips and chest. Subtle patterns covered its surface, and rhomboid crystal blocks were embedded in its chest and in the palms of both hands, rotating slowly.
The instant it appeared, pressure flooded the world.
A rational force that restrained everything.
A power that existed to suppress all civilizations.
Sefar.
Rowe had heard the name countless times and seen countless shadows cast by it.
But this was the first time he faced it directly.
And this was what Artemis had been fighting, here inside the Moon Cell, for who knew how long.
Sefar had entered the Earth Moon system twelve thousand years ago on a meteor. Its main body had been blocked and sealed on the Moon by the Moon Cell.
Now it had revived.
A mechanism for extinguishing civilizations.
It had been trying to break free.
To leave.
To fulfill its duty.
To destroy all civilizations on Earth.
The Moon Cell, whose essence was recording, lacked true offensive capability.
That was why it had pulled Artemis in.
That was why it had made a contract.
Artemis would help block Sefar's escape.
Artemis did not refuse.
Because she had already seen Saber Alter, a clone of Sefar that had reached Earth.
She understood what the main body meant.
Even so, she had never used full power.
If she did, she would run out of energy and struggle to maintain self awareness.
Because she still wanted to see Rowe.
And now she had.
In her eyes, she had no regrets.
"I am a cold machine," Artemis whispered. "A monster made of rationality."
"But I am happy."
"To receive light."
"To receive warmth."
She opened her hands in front of Rowe, smiling.
Sefar, targeted by the sniper type battleship, released a crisp roar.
Artemis's Machina God body radiated brilliant light.
Artemis's human form smiled, gentle and sincere.
Instant brilliance.
Instant dazzle.
More dazzling than the Moon that people called bright by nature.
Then Rowe spoke, voice calm, almost tired.
"But did you ever consider this possibility?"
"That I came here…"
"To take your place?"
A thunderous impact split the plain.
Sefar launched upward, roaring as it shot toward the simulated heavens.
In the next second, it sank.
Forced down.
Stopped by an equally massive Machina God body rendered in steel.
Rowe's Machina God.
The Machina God of the King of the Sky.
Since he had arrived, how could he allow someone he knew to die in front of him?
"The Moon does not suit you," Rowe said.
"Because behind you…"
He stepped forward.
"And behind you is the entire sky."
His Machina God clenched its fist.
Magma surged.
.....
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