Leaves of Dawn

57: Divine Artifacts



Locating the various cataclysmic monsters, Solomon reached down to engage before realizing he had forgotten his weapon. 

One long sigh later, and Solomon flew back to the city while mulling over which weapon would be best to bring. Having spotted all three monsters, he also took the time to create an internal map in his head of the battlefield. As the strategist of the Primordial Deities, Solomon was in charge of delegating who was fighting where and, today, it was an all-hands-on-deck type of situation. 

Meeting back up with Joanna who had collected Sylvia and Estelle, Solomon motioned for them to follow him through the Library of Truth headquarters. “Where are the other two? We’ll need Rainier and Valencia, they’re our best point-of-attack combatants to fight off powerful singular entities.” 

“Rainier’s a little busy, he’ll be with us shortly,” Joanna started off, “Valencia though, we should consider her not available for at least the first half of the battle. Telling Astrid everything can’t have been easy, she deserves some rest.” 

“Ah, yes, I’ll keep that in mind.” Solomon trailed off while speeding through the various hallways. Coming to a stop outside of a locked door deep in the Library of Truth headquarters, Solomon looked to Sylvia and Joanna, “You two should grab your divine artifacts too. We’ll need them from what I saw.” 

“They’ve grown that powerful, huh,” Estelle murmured, walking forward into the room after Solomon unlocked it. “What are our battle roles then?” 

“I was thinking Rainier and I would be frontline against the three monsters with Joanna as a support.” Solomon started off, scanning the room filled with spoils of war they had all collected over the centuries. “You and Sylvia should take care of the cult members within the city. Both of you have skillsets more suited to deal with many people at once rather than a single entity, not to mention the fact the battle will take place in the open sea.” 

“You’ll be my support once again then,” Estelle teased while blowing a kiss to Sylvia. 

Rolling her eyes, Sylvia just reached over and pinched Estelle’s nose. Ignoring her protests, Sylvia kept a firm grasp on it. “You’re in charge of the cults. I’ll go through and repair the heart of the city while rescuing any of the other fighters who need help. I’ll ignore the devastation Casimir, Morgana, and Aelius wrought on the city’s outskirts for now though, since there’s nothing critical out there.’ 

Clapping to adjourn the meeting, Solomon slipped further into the room. Having remembered where he stored his favorite weapon, he reached under a couple shields to grab a slender wooden box. 

A couple of jet-black chains wrapped the box, binding it shut and keeping the divine artifact enclosed within sealed away. Solomon took a second to wipe the dust off before pushing a faint amount of divine energy into a lock on its surface. “My lovely.” 

Solomon lifted the lid, revealing a spear much longer and heavier than Casimir’s laying on a bed of red fabric. Pulling it out, Solomon snapped the box closed before weaving his way through the various spoils of war once more to the door of the room. 

Sylvia, having just stood there because she already had her weapon, tapped her foot in boredom while hanging out at their agreed upon meeting spot. 

Apologizing for being the last one as he arrived back at the meeting spot, Solomon looked over which divine artifacts everyone was using for the day just in case he would need to adjust his plans. 

Joanna was using two of hers, on her left wrist she wore a shackle, on her right, she held a set of scales with faint glowing particles misting off of it. 

As for Sylvia, she had a thorny bracelet wrapped around her hand. Covered in long, jagged thorns, Solomon looked away as he realized Sylvia had already activated her divine artifact and grown it into—and through—her hand. Every time Sylvia flexed her hand, another fresh stream of blood dripped down the thorns. 

Estelle, similar to Joanna, was wielding two different divine artifacts. The first was an unlit handheld lamp. With a thin chain tying it to her wrist, Estelle held it to keep it from swinging it around. 

The other divine artifact though, was a set of three throwing stars. Holding one between each of her fingers, Estelle fidgeted with them as Solomon fell into thought. 

Deciding his plans didn’t need much changing, Solomon gave them a quick update as they began making their way out of the Library of Truth Headquarters. Weaving through the hallways, the group of four passed through all of the security measures without talking. 

Focused on the upcoming battle, they all nodded to each other as they arrived at the entrance. Splitting into two groups, Sylvia and Estelle flew off towards the interior of the city while Solomon and Joanna made their way out to the open sea. 

“So, our goal is obviously to kill,” Solomon reiterated while trying to sense if Rainier was nearby. “However, because there are three of them, a more realistic goal is to just drive them off before they make landfall.” 

Getting an “affirmative” from Joanna, Solomon came to a stop. Keeping a huge distance between them and the beasts, Solomon chose a spot where they were still halfway over the horizon. 

Spreading his divinity outward, Solomon sighed as he felt the three beasts fan out into a trident-like three pronged attack formation. 

It was this intelligence that set these monsters so far apart from the normal... whatever. Whether it was a leviathan, tentacled horror, or otherwise. 

Unable to locate Rainier, Solomon pulled out his phone and sent him a couple texts before closing his eyes and focusing. Circulating the divinity in his body like a cyclone, Solomon bit his lip as his body began letting off steam. 

Shifting his age back as much as possible—without actually going through with a divine rebirthing ritual—so, just about his physical prime, Solomon let out a long exhale. His hair had turned back to a light blue, back had straightened, eyes had brightened, and muscles became more defined. 

With Joanna performing a similar action to shift her body to a much younger version, the two looked at each other before breaking out into laughter. All of their wrinkles had evaporated without a trace and they looked... a lot more like the other primordial deities who preferred younger forms. 

“Ready?” Joanna asked, raising her scales upward. “It’s been a while since we’ve both fought like this.” 

Unleashing his divinity, Solomon’s presence spiked to a level unreachable by Casimir, Morgana, and Aelius. 

Manifesting a small visor on his face, Solomon’s sky-blue divine energy coated the spear as he located a weak spot on the faint crab showing itself in the distance. Throwing it forward as a method to demonstrate his aggression to the monsters, Solomon sighed and spoke to the deity by his side. “Ready your scales Joanna, we have to start without Rainier.” 

I'm scheduling this so early!! like... 4 pm the day before! woahhh

I've imaged so many cancer cells this weekend... like... 300 of them... T~T I have up to another 200 more to do but i did all the critical work already... 

Anyway, not much else going on for me, I was reading a ton (like i read 7 books or smthn in the past week) but now i've dried up a lot of good books, so i'm finally getting back on the writing grind (hopefully) (i'm writing this author's note before i go do the actual writing)

welp, we'll seeee~ if you want to come check in on me and my writing progress come hang in the discord!
Thanks for reading~!!
Take care reader friends<3<3


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