Chapter 924: The Strongest Woman? ... That's debatable.
While Victor and Dun Scaith's duo taunted Scathach, Aphrodite stealthily approached Kali.
"Kali!" She smiled with a gentle smile upon seeing her friend, but she didn't hug her as she normally would in this situation. Despite trusting her current body, she didn't want to risk vanishing due to her recklessness.
"Aphrodite..." A small smile appeared on the goddess's face when she saw Aphrodite, but this smile quickly turned into a look of shock when she saw Aphrodite's divinity.
'Impossible... How is she already at this threshold?' Kali thought, noting that she herself took thousands of years to reach this state. Even though Aphrodite was nearly as ancient as she was, Kali knew very well that Aphrodite hadn't put in as much effort into enhancing her divinity as she had.
Seeing Kali's expression, Aphrodite proudly huffed, causing her assets to sway from side to side and up and down. She could already imagine what had led this goddess to display such an expression.
"Incredible, isn't it?"
"... Yes... But just how is this possible?"
"Hehehe, of course, it's because of Darling and my love for him," Aphrodite spoke but didn't elaborate much.
Kali fell silent upon hearing this. She wondered if her mind was playing tricks on her or if she had indeed heard that Aphrodite had reached this level of divinity because of Victor.
"Kali, Kali. What made you come out of your seclusion? Not even my visit in the past could get you out of it."
"... Victor... His rapid evolution intrigues me," she spoke honestly. There was no reason to lie to her friend.
"As expected... It seems my amazing husband caught your attention," Aphrodite smiled broadly as she nodded.
Kali narrowed her eyes slightly. She felt that Aphrodite was speaking with ulterior motives behind those words, but she decided to ignore that feeling. After all, she was talking to Aphrodite, and the woman always had other intentions behind her smile.
The reason she chose to ignore this feeling was that those intentions wouldn't be harmful. Despite Aphrodite's eccentricity, she cared for her people.
"In that case, why don't you visit my home as my guest? Or do you plan to return to your pantheon now that you've found Darling?"
"I..." Kali fell silent. Initially, she had only planned to talk to Victor about his strength, and since she hadn't had the chance to do so, she would stay here until they talked. But... the previous incident had been quite revealing to her.
Just meeting him, without even saying anything profound, had helped her become stronger, so she could say that she had already achieved her goal on this trip. All she needed to do now was return to her temple and meditate again.
But... she felt it would be a waste to do that. If just one meeting without deep conversation had helped her so much, what would happen if she interacted more? And learned more about him? Wouldn't she become even stronger?
Kali was quite intrigued by this possibility, so instead of returning now, she made a decision to stay.
"I will go with you."
"Mm!" Aphrodite nodded contentedly. "Good, very good! Kyaaaa! I'll have the opportunity to show my friend my home! I'm so excited!"
"... Right..." Kali found Aphrodite's exaggerated enthusiasm strange, but she didn't dwell on it too much. The feeling of being welcomed was not a bad one.
Kali had no doubt that if she didn't have her power surrounding her body right now, Aphrodite would be hugging her. Fortunately, she had her power active. Despite enjoying being welcomed, Kali didn't like being touched so intimately by someone she hadn't given permission to, someone like her husband or something.
As a reclusive and ancient goddess, her customs were quite reserved, and she firmly believed that everyone should have their own space.
Something a social butterfly like Aphrodite seemed to always ignore... Fortunately, she had her power of destruction to keep her at bay.
...
A portal appeared in front of Victor's personal mansion in his personal world, and soon Kali, Aphrodite, Victor, Scathach, and Dun Scaith appeared.
The moment Kali and Dun Scaith stepped onto the planet, both women visibly shivered in the face of the terrifying aura of several true dragons.
Since the women were in their home, they weren't concerned about hiding their aura. Fortunately, the normal maids who weren't dragons were used to receiving Victor's aura and the first dragons he created, so adding more dragons to the list didn't cause much trouble.
But the same couldn't be said for Kali and Dun Scaith; this was the first time they had felt so many true dragons in one place!
"Finally home... I hope nothing comes up for me to do..." Victor sighed as he let down his defenses, and soon his aura spread around, causing the two goddesses to shiver even more.
Victor's aura alone overshadowed all the dragons present!
"Wait... No, there's a woman whose aura seems to match Victor's." Kali narrowed her eyes and used her divine senses. When her gaze fell upon the woman with long blonde hair,
Kali suddenly found herself in the sky, she blinked her eyes, and was confused as to how she ended up here. But it only took a few seconds to understand that she was seeing the 'soul' of that woman. The moment she understood this,
The sky's clouds began to part, and Kali's eyes widened as she saw a gigantic white dragon in the sky. The dragon was simply breathtaking, an aura of nobility and sanctity radiated from it.
The blue eyes of the dragon looked at Kali. "... Interesting, you seem to be an existence very close to my brother to be able to see me in this form, completely ignoring my defenses..." The dragon's eyes shimmered slightly.
"Ah... I see, you're Kali, the woman who is on her way to becoming a primordial... No wonder they call you the strongest woman." The dragon's wings flapped, and all the clouds dispersed, an energy enveloped the dragon's body.
And this energy made Kali's eyes widen. 'Primordial energy!'
"Mm... Is my brother sponsoring you? Well, life needs destruction for the universe to be recycled, Death's work isn't necessary until the end... Hmm... That makes sense." The dragon seemed to have understood something, and soon her gaze returned to Kali.
"Unfortunately, I don't like visitors who can see my soul unless they're my husband or my brother. So please leave."
Suddenly, Kali felt like she was being pushed into emptiness, and before she knew it, she was back in her body.
"... Huh?"
"What's wrong, Kali?"
"It's nothing... I was just surprised by their auras."
"Oh... You'll get used to it over time." Aphrodite nodded, feeling that Kali had lied but not pressing the matter further.
"Mm."
Victor narrowed his eyes slightly; he saw what Kali did, but since it didn't cause any harm, he didn't mind.
Meanwhile, inside the mansion, in Victor's room, Jeanne, who had been meditating, opened her eyes.
"Tsk, I let my guard down, and to think I would let someone other than my husband or my brother see my soul..." Her eyes narrowed. "Wait, but this is Darling's fault, isn't it? He brought that woman here; this world was supposed to be our safe haven... But that doesn't justify my mistake... Ugh, this annoying pride."
She was struggling with this 'pride' and 'lust' that she felt in excess due to her dragon body. Despite having a 'saintly' appearance, she was anything but saintly; she was worse than a lustful demon in heat.
"The adaptation phase is more irritating than I thought," Jeanne thought.
At first, she didn't feel these effects, but everything started to change recently when her soul began to bond deeply with her current body. As her original strength returned, the dragon's desires returned.
Essentially, as the guardian of the Universal Tree, she was connected to her brother. As the first guardian born before the Universal Tree, she received the blessing of that being. She could use all of her brother's abilities, along with her own personal abilities, but this applied only to abilities and not her brother's authority.
For example, she couldn't create world trees, work to maintain the universe, or participate in the reincarnation cycle; those were her brother's authority.
She opened her hands, and three spheres appeared: one natural green, one white, and one black. The green sphere was slightly larger than the white and black ones.
The white and black spheres had a peculiarity; the white sphere was so white that it didn't illuminate anything around it, and the black sphere was so black that no light was reflected.
It was evident that both spheres were extremely pure.
"I can finally use my abilities again," Jeanne murmured while playing with the spheres. "Although it's really weak..."
As she played with the spheres, she mused aloud, "But is this really okay? I wonder what he was thinking by letting me keep these abilities." Initially, she thought that when her duty was done, he would reclaim the gift he had given her, but that didn't happen.
"Unfortunately, he's no longer present for me to ask," she said with a wave of her hand, causing the spheres to disappear.
She began to float toward the door.
'Primordial Chaos... If you were sentient, I would have questioned you about why you allowed me to continue with these powers,' she sighed as she thought. 'Although I'm sure you wouldn't say anything and would act mysteriously as always.'