It took the Goddess of War, Kalkitha, a fair amount of time before she eventually calmed down with her mood returning to normal. This was visibly seen in her form being restored to what it was before, her fair skin returning to replace the pure black skin that gave her a terrifying appearance. In addition to that, the weather also calmed down, and the murky clouds slowly cleared to reveal a clear sky with the sun shining down its light on them.

“I am deeply sorry for my behaviour until now,” she apologised to the heroes once she calmed down and turned to look apologetically at them. “I had almost wasted the lives and the future of this planet because of my uncontrollable anger.”

“Y-You can say that again,” remarked Vikram hesitantly and laughed as a reflex of the tension lifting from him.

“But that was some serious level of rage you were filled with, madam goddess,” said Natsu in amazement, quickly recovering and smiling at her.

She smiled sadly at them and said, “That is true. I always do my utmost to keep my temper in check, but when something were to upset me, I would lose all control of myself as you have seen already.”

“Indeed,” agreed Natsu with a nod of his head.

“So, you are calm, right?” William asked hesitantly. “Just checking,” he added as if to clarify why he had asked the question in the first place.

To that, she smiled serenely and responded with, “I certainly am right now, but forgive me regardless because of the danger I had put all who dwell on this plane int. I am at fault.”

“No, no, no, no, no!” William said quickly, waving his hands with a shocked look on his face. “I didn’t mean to make you apologise like this! No way!”

“Yes, madam goddess,” said Natsu as he supported William in the conversation. “You’ve already apologised before, but please don’t do that. You’re a deity; a supreme goddess who rules war and carnage. If a being like you were to apologise to us, mere mortals, it would make you and the other Gods and Goddesses look bad.”

“You are very thoughtful,” she said and smiled sweetly at him, “but you should not worry about such small things. It doesn’t matter whether you are a mortal or an immortal being; all living creatures will eventually become one with The Creator, for they are the creator and the destroyer.”

There was a moment of pause before everyone asked, “What?” in confusion.

“Wait. You’re telling me there’s a being that’re above even the Gods?!” William asked, looking shocked. “I thought the Gods and the Titans had some kind of similar relationship, but there was a being even greater than them?”

“There is,” said the goddess, “and their name is The Creator. All life began with them, and they made the universe, the cosmos, the worlds, and all life that dwells in each and every one of them. Everything began from The One.”

“The One…” said Ward while the others stared at her in complete silence. “There were so many historical recordings of dispute among people on deciding whether there was a singular God or multiple Gods and Goddesses due to the difference in religion and culture, but wow…! Everything began with The One…!”

He remained transfixed with awe at this new discovery when Natsu coughed and asked, “Is it me, or are you referring to this singular entity as ‘them’? Is it because they are unidentifiable?”

“That is correct,” she said in acknowledgement. “We Gods and Goddesses have never once caught a glimpse of what they truly look like, making it difficult for us to identify who or what our creator could be.”

“Even when we met, he appeared as a white formless substance that took the shape of a man,” said Engraut, the God of Energy, who had just arrived with the Overlord trailing behind him.

“Engraut!” The Goddess exclaimed happily. “It is so good to see you! How are you?”

“I’m doing way better than an angry prone woman facing me right now,” replied Engruat with a sarcastic smile.

Everyone flinched and became scared in an instant, making them turning quickly to face her. They were worried that his stupid jab at her weakness would enrage her, but instead they were met with her laughing as she found his statement to be funny.

“You always know how to make me laugh,” she remarked cheerfully.

“I’m the God of Energy after all,” he replied and winked with a gallant smile.

She nodded in acceptance and turned towards the alien, who appeared to be meek and looked regretful.

“You must be…?”

“The Overlord, the ruler of the planet, {planet name},” he stated and bowed a little. He turned to the heroes and sincerely apologised with, “I deeply regret my actions, and sincerely feel ashamed by the conduct of my people that have ravaged your world. Not just yours, but many other worlds that had suffered a far worse fate than yours. As such, I do not ask for forgiveness, but to please give me a chance to make things right. I don’t want my people to suffer the consequences for my mistakes. You can even have my life after this, so please…!”

There was a moment of pause in which the heroes looked at one another, unsure of what to say. That was until the Goddess of War decided to speak to him regarding that matter.

“I am aware of the circumstances in which you were manipulated by the God of Calamity’s son, and I do not feel you should be held responsible for that,” she said sympathetically with a kind look on her face much to everyone’s surprise. Then she suddenly looked stern as she went on to say, “However, you showed great weakness to being controlled and the result was the destruction of many worlds. Because of your weakness, the balance in the universe has been upset and to right that balance, you and your people must be erased completely from the universe itself.”

“What?!” Vikram, Fred, and Maxwell exclaimed in shock.

“No way!” William and Gram exclaimed in horror.

Natsu and Ward remained silent, but their expressions also stated how alarmed they were by her declaration.

“Please no! Not that!” The alien exclaimed in a fearful voice. He felt on his knees before her and begged, “Please forgive my people! I was responsible for it! I was the reason it happened! Please let them go! They are also victims that got used by me. Please! Spare their lives in exchange for mine, dear goddess! I beseech you!”

The heroes looked at the scared alien who was grovelling at the goddess’s feet and suddenly felt great amount of pity for him. Then they looked towards the Goddess and were surprised to see her looking troubled.

“Wait, young man. Please, calm down. You’re assuming the wrong thing. I have not finished what I wanted to say,” she said in a disconcerted voice.

“Eh?” He asked, looking up at her as tears had begun to stream down his face.

“Please calm yourself,” she said empathetically. “You are a man. Men should not be the ones to shed tears so easily.”

Surprised by her statement, he began wiping his tears away as she sighed and continued from where she left off previously.

“As I was saying, your people would have to pay the penalty if it was directly assessed by the God of Justice. However, I am not so strict, and I believe your existence, along with that of your people, is for the betterment of the universe. As such, I would highly recommend that you focus on helping those that had suffered either directly or indirectly by your actions. Provide them any support, food, healthcare, knowledge, and even world building. I believe you and your people are capable of doing that with the level of knowledge and power that is at your disposal?”

“Yes! Absolutely!” The Overlord said firmly, brimming with happiness and confidence at seeing a course of action that he could take to appease the Mythological Gods and help their victims through their troubles.

“Good. That should settle that,” said Engraut, and he moved forward to pat the alien, who was actually a fallen Demigod.

He looked at the God of Energy in surprise before smiling appreciatively at him before nodding in agreement. He stepped away and promised them that he would bring assistance and repair all the damage caused to the planet. With that agreement made in the presence of a God and a Goddess, he clicked his fingers and vanished on the spot.

“I hope he keeps it,” commented Vikram after he left, “because this is a big mess.”

“He must unless he doesn't want to keep his head,” joked Engruat while glancing sideways at the Goddess of War.

Once again, at that jab at the Goddess, everyone quickly turned fearfully to look at her. Once again, she treated it as a joke and merely smiled pleasantly at them.

“Don’t be so stiff, people. Cheer up. Make some jokes,” encouraged Engraut brightly.

“Um… Yeah, but…” began Vikram nervously.

“I would like to refrain from putting my life in danger, thank you very much,” retorted Gram firmly, “especially after what I’ve witnessed not too long ago.”

“Quite frank, aren’t you?” Engraut asked, raising an eyebrow and smiling energetically. “Sucks to be you, right?”

“Better to be alive than risk dying by making a stupid joke,” retorted Gram with a sardonic look on his face.

He and Engraut stared at each other for a moment before the Goddess said, “It is fine, Engraut. Rather, I’m more interested in… him,” and she gracefully walked over and stopped directly in front of Lakshman. “I take it you are in possession of this body, Asura?”

“Yes, mother,” replied Asura with a slight nod of the head.

When she said the name, everyone reacted in surprise and began speculating as to why he was referring her to be his mother. Meanwhile, the Goddess and the first Phoenix Titan looked at each other for the first time in an extremely long time, not since the ancient times to be exact.

“Your current self’s resemblance is very strikingly similar to your appearance during your first life,” she commented with a smile.

“It’s because of the reincarnation obviously,” he replied void of expression. “He goes by the name Lakshman, with his nickname being Lucky.”

This sparked interest in the Goddess’s face as she asked, “Lucky? That is interesting. Perhaps his parents or guardians had high hopes for him to be very lucky in life.”

Asura did not answer her question and instead asked a question of his own with.

“Tell me, mother, have I done the right thing by plunging myself and my clan into a world war to conquer it all?”

His question left her momentarily silent as she thought about her response she replied, “I stand by what I said back then; your reason to go to war against all who oppose you was a righteous decision to safeguard the future. The result: bringing the balance to the unbalanced structural hierarchy of the system that governed the world by you, or rather, your clan being its rightful ruler. Thus, I fully support your reason for going to war as it was a necessary thing that only you could do.”

He nodded to her explanation but seemed to be dissatisfied by it as he asked, “But, because of that, I had caused many bad things to happen. I slaughtered countless people and the consequences of that was paid by my family instead of me.”

“That is the nature of karma,” she stated, and he looked at her with a moody look on his face. “War is filled with chaos, madness, and a supreme lack of ethics and morality. In the end, the prime goal of war is to achieve total victory. As such, cruelty must be conducted, lives must be lost, and death was a necessary thing. However—”

When she said that, her smile faded and a stern expression formed on her face much to his surprise.

“—the mistake you made was to let your brother and his wife go out into the world that you recently conquered.”

“Wait! You know about that?! That my brother was—!”

“—was the first victim of karma handing out its consequences for your actions? Yes. Yes, I did,” she said, cutting him off and speaking very sternly to him. “Proceeding his fall led to the murder of your wives at his hands, the person for whom you took the righteous decision of going to war to preserve the future. I know it all.”

Asura looked at her in bewilderment as she went on speaking about the problem at hand.

“You were foolish in thinking that everyone would simply be accepting of the fact that you are their rulers and that they must bow down to your clan. You never once stopped and contemplated that perhaps, just perhaps, that there may be remnants of the old order, small pockets of people still clinging to the dying tradition of wanting rulership over the world. As such, for your carelessness, your family was met with the tragic ending it faced as we both know how it happened.”

At her scolding him like a child, he just stood there and listened meekly with complete obedience like a school boy being scolded by his mother after he was found doing naughty things. The watching people were dumbfounded that the arrogant man known as Asura would become so meek and compliant in the face of such a person, although, they were still confused as to whether she was his real mother or there was a different meaning to why he referred to her as his mother.

“As such, I urge you to learn from the mistakes of the past and apply them to the present so that the future would not end up like the past. Is that clear?” She asked finally, relaxing her stern look and smiling pleasantly at him. 

“Yes,” he replied and nodded in understanding. “Lakshman had also said the same thing on many occasions. He deeply regrets not being there when his parents, friends, and others who believed in him had needed him the most. I wholeheartedly supported him in his decision, and we’ve come up with several plans that we plan to implement the moment we return home.”

“That is good to hear, my child,” she said with a smile.

Then she did something that startled him; she stretched her hand out and gently caressed his hair like a mother gently rubbing the hair of her son. He looked at her with a wondrous look on his face, clearly not understanding why she was doing that.

“I know you’ve been through hardships, suffered a tragic ending to the great effort you put in to balance the world with your righteous actions, but that is part of being one who marches with time. So, do not let it bring you down or let it keep you down. The right thing to do when you’re down is to build up your inner strength, get back up, and keep on marching because no one will do it for you any better than you can. Only you can do what’s best for you. Got it?”

Asura blinked in amazement at the remarkable piece of advice she had given him, something she had never done for him before. This goes a long way in telling of the concern she has over him, however, being a Goddess as she was, she could only do that much to support him from her side. The outcome, as she knew full well, must be shown from his end.

Understanding the true intentions behind her advising him, he finally smiled and replied, “Yes, mother. I understand, and I promise… that I—no, that we will make a difference this time for sure!”

To that, she smiled widely and patted him gently on the head before withdrawing the hand and walking back to stand next to Engraut.

“Is your touching reunion done already?” Engraut asked her curiously. “Shall we go then since your task is done, and I should get back before Jena worries about my lateness.”

She nodded and said, “Yes. Let us return.” Then she looked around at the other heroes and said, “Dear heroes, courageous, strong willed, and powerful as you are, one thing you must keep in mind; that there is strength in numbers. One alone is not enough, which is why there are allies working with you, and a positive solution can be brought upon when everyone works together towards a singular purpose.”

They realised in an instant of the chaotic individualistic fighting style all of them had adapted to until the fusion was mentioned. Being given advice from a Goddess, such as her, had the effect that no amount of teacher, parent, or friend could have had on them. They realised their flaws in an instant and cursed their own stupidity of being either too prideful to work together or to show off their own individual skills.

“We understand,” a few of them responded simultaneously while the others simply nodded in acceptance of her advice.

The Goddess of War, Kalkitha, nodded in return and waved her farewell at Asura, who returned the gesture with a smile. A moment later, she began to radiate a silver glowing light that soon engulfed her before it vanished from the spot. Engraut, on the other hand, waved his own farewell and transformed into many blue coloured butterflies that radiated with energy before he too disappeared from view. Once they left, Asura looked up at the beautiful lighting from the sun and truly smiled for the first time in a very long time as the worries he had been feeling till then had finally been put to rest.