Not even thirty minutes after Maven left the capital, three beautiful girls and two goddesses lightly touched down on solid earth.

“I sure wish we could have flown a little a longer. It’s quite unfortunate that neither my attributes nor my divinity are well suited for such work.” Maven said, slightly disappointed.

“It can’t be helped,” Kannon said while stretching her small limbs. “You’re not a goddess (yet), nor do you have wings like me.”

The three girls stared at Kannon’s fluttering wings a little enviously. Every human dreams of freely flying through the sky, not brute forcing it with pure power. Unfortunately, this is exactly what Maven had done during her great escape. Soaring gracefully through the air was still a distant dream for Maven.

Henna, on the other hand, took this opportunity to poke Maven’s loose cheeks teasingly. “Now why is it that, even as you’re complaining about things, you look so happy?”

As everyone took a look at Maven’s face, they could see that Henna certainly had a point. It was as if, from the moment they left the outer walls of the capital behind them, some sort of weight just fell from Maven’s shoulders.

Her back stood a bit straighter, her brow no longer that a slight furrow, and her face just looked more relaxed - no longer wearing that cold, majestic mask she had to wear in the presence of others. Maven was clearly a whole lot happier now that she was outside the confines of the capital and away from their expectant gazes.

“Fufu, I’m just pleased to see the Young Miss looking so upbeat.” Shayna said a mature smile. Now twenty-one years old and drop dead gorgeous, it was a wonder that she remained single.

“Forget me, let’s just get moving already! We have to make our way over to the demon race.” Maven, cheeks faintly blushing in embarrassment.

“Do you have everything you need, Maven?” Fae asked with worry. “I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly not carrying any food, water, or shelter. My Goddess deserves nothing but the best, after all!”

“Hehehe, I’ve been dreaming of this day for over a decade. Of course I planned for it!” Maven said with a mischievous grin.

Holding out her hand, Maven tossed a few balls of light at each member of the party. “Preparation #1!” Maven said gleefully as the spell warped light around each member of the party, giving them each an unfamiliar appearance.

“What in the world?!” Kannon shouted in surprise. Never having had cause to disguise herself before, the Goddess of Light was rather unfamiliar with the illusionary branch of light magic. Very few people ever even possessed the power to attempt it.

“I must say, miss, I didn’t expect this…” Shayna said with surprise as she admired the changes to each of their faces. They all now looked your average village girl that could be found anywhere.

“And that’s not all!” Maven said while dancing cutely in glee, clearly quite proud of all the thought and practice she had put into this. “This next one is my favorite spell of all.”

As she spoke, Maven lightly tossed two more balls of magic, one into the air ahead while the other soaked into the ground below. Infusing a small fragment of divinity into each of these orbs of pure magic, they suddenly writhed as if they had sprung to life.

A large, glowing bird took shape in the air, while a child-sized rockman climbed its way out of the ground. Everyone just gaped at the sight of magic being infused with life, never having seen Maven pull this particular trick behavior before.

“How in the world did you pull this off?” Fae asked, eyes sparkling as she stared at the flawless bird.

“I told you, I prepared for this! Since my divine spark is some weird amalgam with authority over life and souls, I had this strange thought that I could make myself some pseudo-souls. Jam one in a lump of magic and presto, instant convenient servant! One way smarter than any golem some earth mage could whip up. A lot more versatile, too!” Maven said with her hands on her hips and chest puffed with pride, quite proud of this particular trick.

“How in the world did you ever manage to hide this from us?” Henna said as she played with the bird, pinching its beak and forcing the wings to flap.

“Well it wasn’t good for all that much before now…… I mostly just used this to play with the water in the bath.” Maven said with a slight blush.

“You were counting on a spell you’d only ever used as a bath toy before?!” Shayna asked incredulously, clearly disapproving of such slapdash planning.

“Well……” Maven said bashfully, “Just forget about that! Instead, let’s get moving!” Not wanting to dwell on this point, Maven turned away and quickly walked down the road.

Forced to play catch up, the four humans and goddesses ran after Maven,

“Wait for us!”