She spun around, startled. “What is it?”

    Nearo unsheathed his sword, eying her body. “Spin around.”

    “What?” She frowned.

    “Just do that dance you do so often where you spin around.”

    “Now? Why?”

    “Trust me!”

    “Nearo! What in heaven’s name has gotten into you?”

    “Rhae, just do this for me. Please?”

    She she looked at him for a few more moments in confusion then sighed. “Fine. I guess now that we’re married, it is you right to demand silly things.”

    He grinned. She shook her head and rolled her eyes in disbelief, then motioned her hands clockwise and spun around in one foot while pushing with the other. After one full spin, she glanced at Nearo, the way he looked at her body, and even though it felt incredibly silly to do this dance now, she smiled, remembering why she enjoyed doing it. Into the second spin and she spread her arms, breathed in deeply, loving the way her dress swelled and fluttered around her. After the third spin she looked at Nearo again and saw his sword slashing down right in front of her.

    She shrieked, heart stopping instantly. And before she could react any further, it was already over. She jerked backwards in pure shock, her foot smashing through a row of houses, and felt against her chest in distress, but nothing hurt. Instead, her dress began to slide from her body. She grabbed it immediately, holding it back while it dawned on her. She shot Nearo an angry glance, but he just laughed.

    “You are such a child sometimes.” She said, holding her anger back.

    “Ah come on!” He said, his laugh turning into a broad grin. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for an unbearably long time now!”

    “And maybe you’ll have to wait a longer while then.”

    His grin immediately faded, and it was her turn to smile. She twisted her torn, ruined dress, preventing it from sliding off with one hand while she adjusted it with the other, transforming it from an elegant one to a very seductive one that showed a lot more that before, but still not enough.

    “So you want to see me naked.” She said and began to circle around him. “You want to touch my body, to feel the perfect shape of the love goddess. But so many gods before have melted at its sight, none of them being worthy. What makes you any different?”

    He looked at her with an impatient stare while she made her way around him, but then closed his eyes, trying to regain his composure. When he reopened them, he turned his sword around and then stabbed the ground in front of him with it. The earth underneath shook, tremors spreading outwards before it burst and tore, splitting in two. The chasm the spread, running around the city until it surrounded it completely, wide enough for no human to escape.

    “What makes me worthy, “ he said while he yanked his sword out of the ground and put it back in his sheath, “is that I’m willing to sacrifice the wrath of your father for you. And what makes me different is that I know your deepest desires. I haven’t picked this city, this empire for no reason. Just take a look at it.” He gestured. “What do you see?”

    Rhae stopped on her tracks and turned her head, but didn’t understand what he meant. She scanned the city, but it looked ordinary in any particular way except the size, which was far larger than most other human cities. “I’m afraid I don’t follow you my love.”

    He edged close against her. “Look at the Palace.” He said, gesturing. “Maro’s temple on top of it. And the one with the four huge statues of soldiers with spears is mine. There, on the center of the city is Deanna’s temple. Now, where’s yours?”

    “Mine?” She looked around, but couldn’t see it. She took a few steps forward, scrutinizing the city more closely, but she still couldn't find it. Many other less important gods had theirs, but hers was missing. She grew frustrated, anger slowly billowing inside. But most of all, she felt disappointment.

    “I don’t want to just see your body.” Nearo said as his hands wrapped around her. “And I don’t want to just feel it for myself.” He grabbed her hand that held her dress. “I want to see this marvelous body destroy them. I want to see you play with them, smoother them against your skin, crush them beneath your feet. I want to see them pay for their affront on you.” Then he pulled her hand off her dress, causing it to slide down and reveal her radiant nude form before he took a few steps back and gazed at it.

    Rhae’s body was the definition of beauty. It was perfect in every conceivable way and the template from which all other females - be it a deity or a mere human - derived their body shapes and ultimately deviated from, causing their imperfections. Its proportions defined the divine ratio from hair to toe and had such an impact in others, particularly men, that her father always commanded her to dress and cover every part of it for it caused too much furore wherever she went.

    But her cheerful nature had completely faded away. “Why?”

    “Why what?” Nearo broke out of his stare.

    “Why is there no temple for me?” She said with a letdown voice. “Why don’t humans, not just this place, worship me like they worship you or the others? Is the goddess of love not important enough?”

    “Why don’t you ask them?” He said.

    She looked at him, her sad expression turning expressionless, then eyed Deanna’s temple. “Fine. I’ll do just that.”

    ---

    Thana took an instinctive step back, blood running cold. The goddess was looking at them, intently, and it made her shiver in fear. Even though she had recognized the rose-shaped symbol of her crown on top of her head, she had still hoped, prayed and begged for her to be her goddess Deanna, protector of women. But now that she displayed her nude glory for the entire city to see, there was no doubt lingering in her mind, the goddess was Rhae, Deanna’s sister.

    She leaned a hand against a nearby stone pillar, barely able to stand on her legs. Thousands of thoughts raced through her mind, but the most prominent was the realness of the gods. As a maiden of Deanna’s temple, she had always been taught about the gods through stories, legends that have happened eons ago. She had always seen them as symbols, forces of the grand design of nature that sometimes manifested themselves in human form to guide heroes in their journeys. But what she was seeing with her own eyes was something entirely different, filling her with dread.

    The way they acted, the way the god - who she reasoned was Nearo judging by his military uniform, complete with breast plate, crimson cloak, tunic, and sword - looked at her, the way he caressed and held Rhae in her arms, something felt terribly wrong to Thana, those two weren’t known for being lovers. And as if blasting the gate to smithereens wasn’t enough of a warning for her and the other maidens at the temple, the steps she started taking towards them finally induced a mass panic on her sisters who now fled within the interior of the temple.

    But Thana stayed and watched, entranced. She had a nagging feeling about why this was happening, and she somehow felt guilty. She watched as the goddess trod upon the city, indifferent to the violence at her feet. She flattened houses, workshops, markets, the shadow of her steps racing to meet the structures before a massive echoing force smashed them, collapsing others around before a billowing cloud of dust swallowed the area. But none of it felt real enough until she stopped a mere step away from the temple, right in front of the plaza that surrounded it, eyeing some enchanted people that were still standing and gawking at her.

    Her right foot moved forward, settling on the far end of the plaza. Then, without pressuring the ground enough so as to shatter the marble tiles, she dragged it towards the other end, too fast for anyone to react to its unstoppable onslaught.

    Thana grew horrified at the scene beneath the steps of the temple, watching as a few dozen people tried, in vain, to avoid the gigantic pillar of flesh that swallowed them on one end and produced a carpet of red on the other. She dropped on her knees at the sudden gut-wrenching horror she felt, trying to keep herself from throwing up. There was nothing recognizable on the other end except red blood, all those lives smeared out of existence just like that. And the horrific madness grew even more appalling for Thana when she craned her head up and saw the smirk of satisfaction in the goddess’s lips.

    That’s when she screamed, as loud as she could.

    It must have been really loud, for the goddess eyed her after a moment, catching Thana’s scream on her throat and cutting it short. A true goddess bore witness on her, and it was too overwhelming. Rhea squinted at Thana for a moment before her eyebrows raised and then a smile formed on her lips. Thana watched in silence as her Rhea’s eyes then shifted upwards then disappeared completely, leaving only the white of her eyeballs before her entire gigantic body heaved from the ground for a blink of an eye and then exploded in blinding light and thundering noise.

    Thana covered her head with her hands from fear, weathering sudden, immense winds that disappeared as fast as they came before complete silence returned. She opened her eyes, looking up, but Rhae had disappeared.

    For a brief moment, she truly believed she had witnessed a dream, some sort of a vision, but only for a very brief one. When she got up on her legs again, she spotted the lone, nude figure slowly climbing the steps of the temple, the crimson plaza still in the background.

    “Hello.” Rhae said as she approached Thana, her presence overwhelmingly strenuous on Thana’s emotions. “I assume you are one of Deanna’s maidens?”

    Thana only nodded, unable to speak.

    “Are the other maidens inside?”

    Thana nodded again.

    “Good. Take me to them.”