The tournament grounds were barely outside the city, exposed to the unobstructed sun, yet comfortably cool. It was a circular, or rather oval arena, a colosseum, with a large middle field and many rows of seats surrounding it from a little higher up, with increasing elevation the further away one got from the center. It wasn’t exactly a new sight to Seika; Baseball stadiums usually had this shape, too, and there were many of those in Tokyo. Most famous of them all being the Tokyo Dome.

  It's more likely that the baseball stadiums are based on that old design, however.

  Seika, Miori, Nerio and Pallas entered the arena through a tunnel, rather than one of the main entrances to the gallery. The space under the arena itself was prepared with benches, training equipment and other amenities while the participants waited their turn in the arena. Small holes in the ceiling let sunlight from above flood inside, and Seika noticed after a while that this underground space was one giant circular tunnel, tracing where the galleria was.

  Seika looked around after greeting Miori with a quick kiss, recognizing a few faces. There was Neptune, and judging by the fish tail the man next to him had, that was his son, Triton. What tipped her off entirely was Pallas eagerly walking over to him and giving him a big hug, as some daughters were inclined to do to their fathers.

  “Papa! Hold back a little, alright? You know I’m not as strong as you!”

  “Hah! I can’t make any promises. You know how it is when pride is on the line.”

  Pallas showed him a playful pout in response and he laughed heartily, patting her shoulder.

  “We will fill the arena with glorious cheers this day, my daughter! Keep your head held high and fight me with all your might!”

  Pallas grinned and nodded, holding out a fist, which Triton bumped. Seika couldn’t help but raise a brow at that display. Seeing these strangely human sides of the Deogemma made her feel ever more connected to her partner who was still recovering in her chest.

  Pallas walked back to Seika and wrapped an arm around her shoulder with a wide grin.

  “Today it’s just eight participants. Us, Bellona and Nerio, Neptune and Triton as well as Mars and Venus.”

  “Nothing what I heard of Venus makes me think that she’s the martial type…” Seika admitted with a furrowed brow, quickly glancing over towards her and Mars. The god of war had donned his typical armor, while the goddess of love, with pink glowing hair and eyes, clung to his side, wearing a breezy dress as a compromise between a need for some modesty for the tournament and what Seika assumed to be her usual, naked appearance. Pallas shrugged in response to her observation.

  “From what I hear, he does most of the fighting, while Venus is… moral support? Distraction? Who knows.”

  “That doesn’t fill me with much confidence…” Seika replied dryly.

  “Anyway, we’re in our teams of two, and there will be lots drawn to determine the first round. After the first round, we’ll have to fight each other, and the winner moves on to the finale. A shame, I hoped to go all the way to the finals with you!” Pallas said with a sad little smile.

  “More important than that: what are we going to do about me being hit?”

  “Oh, don’t worry. We use normal spears here. And even though you’re a human, while you’re merged with Minerva, you should be able to take a hit from them that’s strong enough to count as a disqualification,” Pallas said with a grin, giving Seika a thumbs-up. She still had her doubts, however.

  “Wouldn’t it still hurt?”

  “Oh, a lot!”

  ***

  A man entered the waiting area. He looked like a jovial fellow, with his bright blue hair being tucked away under a circular hat, while he was holding a box. He looked around between the participants and gave them a big smile.

  “So everyone’s here and ready! Wonderful! And let me preface this tournament with the following words:”

  He turned to face Seika and Miori.

  “It is truly a joyous occasion to meet you, my two half-sisters!”

  Pallas grinned and stepped forward, giving him a big hug.

  “Cousin Mercury! Still organizing some of the games, I see!”

  He returned the hug and grin both.

  “Of course! The people love these games, and I love the people, so I can’t help but give them what they want! We will draw lots, now, so everyone gather up!”

  Miori, Nerio, Neptune, Triton, Mars and Venus approached Mercury, who winked at them all and held out a box.

  “Representatives of your team! Draw lots!”

  Seika stepped forward and put her hand into the box. There were multiple sticks inside, so she grabbed one and pulled it out. The letter B was carved into its surface.

  “Minerva and Pallas are group B!”

  One by one the representatives of their groups stepped forward. Miori, Neptune and Mars.

  “Bellona and Nerio are group C! Neptune and Triton are group A! Mars and Venus are group D!”

  Mercury brought in a chalk board and crudely drew in the tournament brackets. There was a first fight between the groups, then an intermediate fight between the winning group’s members, then a finale. It looked straightforward enough to Seika.

  Pallas bumped her elbow into Seika’s side and grinned.

  “Just so you know, if we win, I won’t go easy on you!”

  “I wouldn’t expect you to. I need to test out how much stronger I’ve become!” Seika returned with a smile, gently bumping her fist into Pallas’.

  Indeed, for some reason, the strange rumors haven’t affected her too much. By fulfilling her duties as a ‘goddess’ she still grew reasonably stronger with each passing day.

  I wonder if Ayame’s strange comment recently had anything to do with that…

  She shook her head and turned around as she heard footsteps. Medusa, in the guise of Michiru, approached, carrying some items which she held out for Seika to grab.

  “I brought your cloak, Princess Minerva. Together with a gift from myself.”

  “A gift?” Seika asked with a raised brow and lifted the cloak up, looking at what Medusa brought her.

  “Indeed. A shield bearing my… transformed visage. I infused it with a little bit of my blood, so while it won’t turn anyone into a statue, it could make an opponent hesitate at a critical moment if they look at it directly.”

  “This will only serve to fuel the rumors…” Seika let out a little sigh; but as she stared at the items, she felt a wave of spiritual encouragement radiating from her heart.

  “…but it’s just words, in the end. I will proudly use it. Thank you.”

  Seika reached out, putting on the cloak Arachne made for her before she grabbed the shield. She gave her attendant a little smile in return.

  “And now we draw lots for the games that are going to be played during the matches!” Mercury announced and held out a different box.

  “Group A and Group C will draw!” Mercury announced with a booming voice, and now Seika realized that it came from outside at the same time; he was already commenting for the spectators, using some kind of projection magic.

  Neptune nodded and stepped forward, shoving his hand into the small box. He rummaged a little and raised a brow, then he decided on a lot and pulled it out, showing the carvings on it to Mercury.

  “Oh… oh dear! It would appear that one of our teams is getting a home advantage for the first game! Group A and Group B will take part in Naumachia!”

  Neptune turned around and exchanged wide grins with Triton, so Seika turned towards Pallas.

  “…is that bad for us?”

  It was worse than bad. Seikas’s feet were getting wet as she walked up to the gate with Pallas and saw the interior of the arena. It was flooded with water, with two small boats facing each other from opposite sides. The tiered seats of the arena were completely filled with human and Deogemma guests, all chanting or shouting encouragements, bets or curses. The boats featured a dozen oars in total and a sail that was mostly for decoration, with a naval ram on the front. These were certainly not mighty full-scale triremes, but small replicas for mock combat purposes. For a crew, the two were accompanied by two dozen bronze statues that moved on their own; Lares, she realized. Mercury called them his children when he bid them to accompany Seika and Pallas. All of them were equipped with swords and shields as well as a bow, with a full quiver each.

  “Let me explain the rules!” Mercury shouted from an elevated balcony, just above the luxurious one occupied by Jove and Juno.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  “This is a small-scale contest match! The goal is to sink the other group’s ship or eliminate all the Lares manning it! Furthermore, a group loses if both their members are off the ship. One has to remain on board at all times to command it, otherwise members are free to board the other vessel or swim in the water! The use of magical abilities is permitted, and despite this, our esteemed visitors shall not fear any stray magic! A barrier has been set up to protect everyone!”

  Seika and Pallas exchanged a quick look, with the latter grinning.

  “I think we just had the same thought?” Pallas asked with a wink.

  “Exactly. You are much more agile in the water. I will command the boat.”

  Pallas saluted in an exaggerated manner and the two boarded their boat. The Lares followed, with half of them grabbing the oars, while the other half took positions across the deck, bows at the ready.

  “…I’m surprised this boat can support their weight,” Seika observed with some skepticism, and Pallas laughed.

  “They weigh about as much as a person, since they’re mostly hollow. They have to house the spirit somehow, after all.”

  Seika furrowed her brow and stared the bronze soldiers down, then she shook her head.

  “Sometimes I think I got used to this odd world, and it throws something even weirder at me...”

  Pallas laughed and patted Seika’s back.

  “Don’t worry. This world manages to surprise even me from time to time!”

  The sound of a horn interrupted their talk, and Seika immediately went to the rudder in the back of the miniature warship.

  “And now! May the better crew win!”

  “Forward!” Pallas shouted, and the Lares on the oars rowed. The small replica Trireme moved out of the gates, into the open waters of the flooded arena. Cheers erupted, and chants which Seika couldn’t make out were sung from the stands. From the other side, she saw Neptune and Triton’s boat approaching, its oars in a steady rhythm. Pallas turned around towards Seika.

  “Right, we can’t just ram them head-on, that way we would just hit the ram. What we need to do is to circle around them and hit them in the weak flank of the ship. Naturally it’s going to be hard to do, since they’ll try to do the same, and…”

  Seika paid attention to Pallas’ instructions, but she saw something she didn’t like at all. The very water under Neptune’s boat churned and took on a life of its own. Suddenly, the small boat made a sharp ninety-degree turn, and from there, it moved in a half-circle. A perfect course to ram Seika and Pallas’ boat in the flank.

  Seika yanked the rudder to the side as she saw the approaching boat, and her own vessel turned, slowly. The angle of attack changed, and Neptune’s boat crashed into the stern of hers at a shallow angle. The roaring cheers of the crowd at the spectacle were drowned out by the sound of splintering wood as the deck was rocked; Seika fell over, and judging by the hollow metal sounds, so did several of the Lares.

  “Oh, it appears that all her wisdom couldn’t prepare Princess Minerva for Neptune’s command over the waters!”

  “Damn it!” Seika shouted and shakily got back up. She heard the dreadful sloshing sounds of water entering the lower decks, and the two backmost oars were idle as the Lares using them were busy repairing the damage.

  “They saw an opportunity to surprise us, and they damn well seized it.”

  Pallas nodded, grimacing.

  “You have to use your own abilities, or we’re nothing more than sitting ducks, Minerva!”

  Seika did just that; she leaned over the stern to assess the damage, and after finding a gaping hole, she reached out her hand and plugged it with ice. The Lares went back to their oars and Seika steered the ship to the best of her abilities to turn towards Neptune, who made a sharp turn to face them again.

  “Fire!” Seika shouted, remembering that the Lares aboard were there for a reason; they pulled their bowstrings and aimed for the other ship, raining burning arrows on it. Most shots missed their target, while one stuck to the other boat’s hull and yet another hit a Lares in the shoulder, though it didn’t appear to be out of the game just yet. Any hope that the arrow stuck to the hull would cause damage was squashed as Triton shot a jet of water at it, looking at Pallas and Seika with a taunting grin.

  Seika pulled the rudder hard and used a strong blast of wind magic to get their boat out of the way of Neptune’s next ramming attempt. She heard the clacking of the two boats’ oars meeting and then snapping as a few broke. The Lares dropped the broken oars into the water and scrambled to get replacements in place; Seika found herself fascinated by the human-like, yet still utterly alien movement of those statues, despite their hectic circumstances.

  She looked towards Neptune’s boat to confirm he was in a similar situation right now, and indeed: she could see the Lares moving while Neptune was not even on the rudder but completely controlled the course of the boat by commanding the water beneath it; however, one thing worried Seika.

  Where’s Triton?

  Right after finishing her thought she heard a loud splash, and then the boat was rocked by the muscular man landing on the port side of the deck. The stationed Lares didn’t even have time to react: with a swift swing of his trident, he knocked three of them overboard, while the rest scrambled to draw their swords and grab their shields to face him; Seika of course knew that would be futile.

  “Not so fast, father!” Pallas shouted and threw herself in front of him; she had now summoned her own trident to her side, and after a swift swing towards Triton’s head, they were locked in a little power struggle, all while Seika brought the boat back on course to dodge Neptune’s next ramming attempt.

  “You’ve grown in power, my dear daughter. However, it will still be centuries until you can hope to surpass me!”

  He yanked his trident to the side, disarming Pallas in the process; Pallas, however, was unfazed and jumped over his next swipe before she partially transformed into her mermaid form and smacked him across the head with the fins of her tail.

  He stumbled, and soon after was hit by a wind blast from Seika which threw him overboard.

  “Damn it!” Pallas shouted. “He’s going to keep hounding us and picking off our Lares unless I do something about it!”

  She looked towards Seika, and she gave her a nod.

  “Go. We already settled on these roles, right?”

  “But I won’t be able to board, it will take all I have just to keep him busy…” Pallas started apologetically, but Seika shook her head.

  “I’ll take on Neptune, somehow. You keep Triton off my back!”

  Pallas nodded and jumped into the water. It wasn’t long before Seika saw multiple sprays of water, which indicated underwater explosions.

  “After a bold boarding action, father meets daughter underwater, and niece meets uncle in ship-to-ship combat! Team Minerva’s vessel is damaged, its crew strength reduced, and her opponent is the Lord of the Seas! Does she stand a chance?!”

  “I’m working on it!” Seika grumbled, as she saw the waters rise. Neptune looked at her with a self-assured smirk as his vessel vanished behind a rising wall of water, and Seika found herself confronted by a flood wave inside the arena.

  “How bold and daring, Lord Neptune! There is no way Princess Minerva can dodge this wave. What will happen to her?!”

  Seika narrowed her eyes and yanked the rudder around. She went parallel to the wave and the deck tilted, with Lares almost falling off the side.

  Sorry, ‘uncle’. But now that I know how far we can go with our magic, I won’t hold back.

  Seika let go of the rudder and extended both her hands; the water in front of her froze, and Minerva’s crystal in her chest glowed brilliantly as she channeled magical energies; soon the entire flood wave was a wall of ice, and Seika’s vessel slid off it, back into the waters.

  “By Jove! It appears our princess finally remembered that she is the daughter of the High King and got serious!”

  Seika followed up; she ran towards the bow and extended a hand towards the wall of ice, shooting a large stream of fire to melt a hole to the other side, where Neptune would be waiting for her. Her answer was a jet of water which almost hit her and her ship, but evaporated in her flames, while Neptune’s vessel approached through the newly melted hole in the ice.

  “Finally! Finally, you’re becoming worthy of being called our ‘princess’! Show me a good time, Minerva!”

  Seika grimaced and summoned a large rock which she hurled Neptune’s way, which he promptly smashed with a high-pressured jet of water.

  “More!” he shouted, and Seika obliged, while underwater explosions from Pallas’ and Triton’s fight rocked their boats.

  The Naumachia devolved into a magic duel between two spellcasters on floating platforms, rather than ship-to-ship warfare; Seika gave it her all: she tossed fireballs, sharp rocks, sharp gales of wind and thunder towards Neptune’s boat, and he in turn responded with all sorts of water-based attacks. Seika’s fireballs fizzled out against suddenly erected walls of water, her winds cut the mast of the other boat, and it collapsed, crushing four Lares as her boulders were smashed into tiny pieces. Neptune’s attacks on the other hand met magical barriers; the sea predators he summoned were slain by Minerva’s lightning arcing through the water, and further ramming attempts were dodged easily through Minerva employing storm gales that pushed both their boats off course.

  “Our contestants are dead-locked! How will they get out of this situation?!” Mercury continued to comment, and Seika narrowed her eyes. She summoned the shield she got from Medusa to her side and let her cloak billow as she channeled magic through it. A tapestry depicting an owl appeared on the finely woven cloth, which soon became a real owl that sat down on Seika’s head.

  “Sorry for what I’m about to do,” she said in an apologetic tone, and the owl let out a single, affirmative hoot. She placed a hand on it, channeling more magic into the owl and combining its essence with her spell, then she sent it flying.

  “What are you doing, niece? I expect you to give me your all!” Neptune shouted a taunt, and Seika met him with a grin. She summoned a boulder yet again, hurling it towards his boat.

  “Are you out of tricks already? I’ve deflected this spell a dozen times by now!” he shouted, crushing the rock, then he froze. Seika had raised her shield infused with Medusa’s essence, and it made Neptune stop in his tracks; it only lasted for a second before he could move again, but that was more than enough time for her summoned animal companion to dash down from the skies and scratch his face.

  “Gah! What?! Where did this beast…?”

  The owl that attacked his face let out a loud, defiant hoot, and as he grabbed it, it started to glow in a hot orange light.

  “What the…?!”

  Neptune didn’t get to finish his exclamation, as a devastating explosion engulfed him, and tore his boat to shreds.

  ***

  Seika was lying on the deck of her boat, exhausted, but smiling as thunderous applause engulfed her. She heard a splash, and Pallas landed next to her, in the process of turning back from her mermaid form into her human one and hastily fastening her bikini bottoms around her waist the moment she had separate legs again.

  “…we won?” she asked with some bewilderment. She was bloodied, bleeding from several stab wounds on her body that all were sets of three with identical spacing.

  “We did. How did your bout with your father go?” Seika asked with a raised brow.

  “…we’re evenly matched. He’s pretty embarrassed about that,” Pallas commented dismissively, all while her wounds closed at visible speed.

  Neptune was swimming in the water, with his boat all around him in pieces, while Triton joined him and they exchanged an exasperated look, then Mercury’s voice boomed across the stadium yet again.

  “We have a winner! Team Minerva annihilated the opposing team’s boat! Neither vessel nor Lares are left! A spectacular end to the first match! We bid the contestants to withdraw and regain their strength while we drain the arena for the next bout: chariot combat between Team Mars and Team Bellona!”

  ***

  The depths below the arena were quiet, save for the sounds of rushing water, as the drain gates were opened and the arena was prepared for the next bout. Discordia had little difficulty sneaking through the damp darkness and past the few human guards positioned inside.

  Her target was the armory, specifically the one holding the dueling weapons: spears, swords, tridents, nets, whatever might be used in the competition. To her knowledge, spears and shields were the weapons for the third contest. A duel without using Deogemma powers, a pure show of skill. She knew that the one puppeteering Minerva was no warrior; she would most certainly be at a disadvantage and be disqualified after getting hit by her bodyguard. Naturally, even for a human simply borrowing a Deogemma’s power, one hit from a human-made weapon would be a survivable, almost laughable injury. Unless…

  She fished a white phial out of her garments, turning it in her hand. A strange concoction, thought up by a woman who supposedly killed a bastard child of Caelus, and then made everyone forget about this child’s existence.

  She would have her doubts about the efficacy of this concoction, made from the juice of white berries from a parasitic plant originating on ‘Earth’, were it not for this woman, Maria Hattori, who used it a few weeks ago to wound Minerva and Bellona both.

  She failed in killing them with the concoction, possibly because she didn’t make sure to confirm her kill, but at this point it didn’t matter. Despite her daughter Fames’ protests, the ‘Dream Empress’ turned out to be useful to drive Scotus’ plot forward, even if she didn’t completely execute it.

  Discordia steeled her resolve and uncorked the phial. The poison inside smelled nauseating, and she could feel that it held strange, almost primordial properties that would be able to harm her. She poured it on a cloth and polished the blades of every spear in the arsenal with the toxin.