“Is it just me… or is he healing faster?” Annabelle asked.

  A huge, blue-scaled serpent dragon reared up, unleashing a powerful freezing breath upon Rul.

  “It’s not just you.” Lord Tulsen stated. “It seems he absorbed some of Kraul’s divine power. His soul is still acclimating to the power. Hephaestus! How much longer?” He shouted into the air.

  A few moments later, Hephaestus appeared along with Melody at her full size. “Sorry for the wait! I needed to finish some adjustments to her armor.” He laughed.

  Melody’s black fur armor was now upgraded with golden-green metal, making it look like Nordic armor.

  Lord Tulsen smirked down at her. “Looks like you are ready.”

  Melody nodded. “To put an end to this.”

  Lord Tulsen ordered some of their forces to withdraw and focus on corralling and holding Rul in place.

  “Melody!” Prince Matthew rushed to her. He looked like he was worried for her safety.

  Melody laughed while bumping her chest. “The armor that Hephaestus made for me will keep me safe.”

  “Phaestus?” The two elven women eyed him suspiciously.

  “Really?” He asked them, flabbergasted. “You think my plot armor would work that fast? I have my hands full with all of you.”

  “Harem King.” Lord Tulsen joked.

  “Screw you!” Hephaestus yelled at Lord Tulsen, getting a laugh out of him.

  “Pardon the intrusion, but could we deal with the problem at hand?” Gaia called down as Rui continued her assault. “Everyone is quite tired, and we’re almost out of magic!”

  Melody nodded. “On it!” She zipped into the air with her new battle axe at the ready.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Melody flew through the air and swung her axe, burying it into Rul’s neck. It cut cleanly through. She paused on the other side of Rul. “Whoa…” She was amazed by the new axe.

  “You bitch! You think that is enough to kill me!?” Rul’s soul yelled as his physical mouth was still being pummeled.

  “I will kill you, Rul. You have no place here. Not now, not ever!” Melody yelled and began her chain of attacks on the Titan.

  As she attacked, she pumped her magic into the axe to make her attacks stronger.

  In a mere few minutes, Melody’s assault was quickly helping them gain ground on ripping Rul’s soul out. But it was then, in the force’s exhaustion, that tragedy struck.

  “Damn it! Hold that side properly!” Prince Matthew yelled at a team holding down Rul’s right arm.

  “Melody! Fall back until we can-!” Violet yelled, but it was too late to stop the events.

  Rul’s arm ripped free and used an uppercut to punch Melody.

  Melody couldn’t even scream because the force of the attack knocked all the air out of her. Over the rush of air, she heard Rul’s fading laughter as she rocketed into the sky.

  She wasn’t sure how long or high she went, but as her senses returned, she could see she was well above the clouds. Using Fly, she steadied herself. It took several moments for her to regain her breath.

  “Thank Hephaestus for this armor.” She patted the chest plate. “I might have died without this.”

  Melody lifted the battle axe before herself. “It’s bigger.” It was noticeable now that the weapon was larger. She held the axe in both hands before herself. Melody took a deep breath.

  “Lend me the strength to end this evil.” She called out to the world.

  It was small and few at first, but various voices began to answer her. Souls, spirits, people, the land and rivers, mountains and skies answered her. Melody turned herself into a conduit, flooding the power from the world into the battle axe.

  The axe quickly began to grow in size. Melody smiled. “Thank you.”

  Taking a deep breath, she raised the axe and let it hang behind her back, and she dove toward the ground.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  “YOU BASTARD!” Gaia and Rui worked together, pulling what little dredges of solar power they had, hitting Rul with a Solar Crash.

  Dragons and Forest Spirits unleashed their wrath upon the Titan.

  He laughed madly. “The-re! Not-hing! You! Can-‘t! Stop! Me!” Rul shouted through attacks.

  Hephaestus, who was about to unleash a powerful attack, stopped. “Holy shit…” He turned his attention to the sky.

  “What is it?” Annabelle asked. “Is it Melody!?”

  “That is a lot of power!” He cried.

  Alure dove into the area in a panic. “CLEAR THE AREA AROUND IT! QUICKLY!”

  Everyone turned their attention to the sky, where they saw a massive axe diving toward their world.

  “Melody!” “End this!” “You can do it!”

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Melody could feel the hearts of those below her, cheering for her return. “Rul.” Her voice rang out to him. “You were weak back then and are still weak to this day.” She channeled Nature’s Wrath into the axe. The green hue quickly changed and turned golden. “You think weakness is that of the body, mercy, or kindness, but you are wrong.”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  The golden hue expanded, covering Melody with its divine glow. “YOU ARE WEAK, RUL! YOU WILL ALWAYS BE WEAK!”

  “Shut up, you bitch!” Rul’s soul roared.

  “This world is no longer yours to terrorize! To Rule! This is my world! My home! My family!” Melody used Resize to increase her size to handle the world-cleaving sized axe better.

  “You Meldy! You weak!” In his terror, he reverted back to speaking like before.

  “No,” Melody answered. “I am Melody! Daughter of Alui and Gaia! I am the Forest Song! The warm and wrathful melody of this world!”

  “MEEEEELDYYYYYY!” Rul roared.

  Melody let loose a mighty roar herself and swung her axe. The axe cleaved cleanly through Rul’s head, body, and groin. A deep and long crevice formed when Melody’ axe buried itself into the ground.

  Rul’s body watched in horror as the two parts of his body were peeled away from his soul like an orange.

  “NnnnnoooOOOOOO!” Rul yelled as his soul was pulled toward Lord Tulsen.

  Lord Tulsen smirked. “Well done.” He held up a golden orb that sucked Rul’s soul into itself.

  Rul’s corpse heavily fell to the ground, no longer healing like it had been before.

  Several moments of silence passed.

  Lord Tulsen cleared his voice.

  Prince Matthew was startled. “R-Right. We won.”

  Violet joined in. “We won!”

  “Melody did it!” Annabelle cheered.

  The victory cheer quickly spread until everyone cheered Melody’s name or her new title, The Forest Song.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Melody was lying back on Gaia, Rui was lying back onto Melody, and Violet and Annabelle were on either side of Rui. The group was relaxing, waiting for Hephaestus to finish his big surprise for them.

  When they returned to the Grove, the smith god smelled something in the air, ran off the check something, and informed them of a surprise.

  “I’m glad that you are back, Mother.” Melody nuzzled the back of her head onto Gaia.

  Gaia elegantly giggled. “I am glad to be back. Though…” She moved a hand to her stomach. “My torso has been feeling strange.”

  Melody reached out through nature and felt what her mother was feeling. “Oh! You’re hungry!”

  “Hungry? So that is what this is?” Gaia was surprised.

  “Pappy!” Melody called.

  The gnome appeared with a warm smile. “Yes?”

  “One hearty, giant meal, please!” Melody cheerily requested.

  “Oh! A fruit cake, too!” Rui added.

  “Great idea! Mother, you are going to love cake!” Melody gushed.

  “I guess eating is going to be normal for me now,” Gaia commented.

  “You two should tell her about bathrooms, too,” Violet added.

  “Oh… Will you need diapers until you can control-?” Melody started, only to be smacked on the head by an embarrassed Gaia.

  “I will be fine!” The dryad stated.

  Violet stifled a laugh while Annabelle offered to teach some body-cleaning spells.

  “I will be fine!” Gaia reiterated. She sprouted some branches to brace Melody forward and quickly stood.

  “Mother?” Melody asked.

  “Um…” Gaia turned toward her daughter. “I will be back shortly.” Quickly moving away while doing what was obviously trying to keep from wetting herself.

  “Violet,” Melody called.

  “W-What?” Violet startled.

  “Don’t say anything. The trees have ears.” Melody giggled, knowing her friend was likely to make a snarky comment.

  Violet looked up at the nearby trees, nodding and thanking Melody for the warning.

  A tired-looking Okan lumbered up to them. “Good evening.” He warmly smiled.

  “Good evening, Grandpa!” Both Melody and Rui replied.

  “How do you feel?” Melody asked.

  “Tired, but thank you for the magic.” He chuckled.

  Before they took a break, they made sure to charge some magic into Okan and the spriggans, who burned every shred of magic to wake Gaia up.

  “Where is Gaia?” Okan looked around.

  “Answering nature’s call now that she has a body of flesh,” Melody answered.

  “O—h!” Okan nodded knowingly. “That will take her some getting used to, but she is a quick learner.” He chuckled.

  “Hey!” Ruby gracefully landed before them. “Daddy finished and formally invited you all to see your new addition to your Grove!” Her nose twitched cutely, and her ears flipped excitedly.

  “So cute!” Melody snatched Ruby up and hugged her. “How are you so cute!?”

  Ruby giggled. “I just am!”

  Melody laughed and placed the beast-kin girl down. “I’ll go fetch Mother.”

  The group, along with the returned forest spirits, dragons in human-like forms, and human forces, arrived at a tall wall with heavy-looking gates. Hephaestus stood before the wall. “Welcome!” He cheerily welcomed them all.

  “Thank you for this, Hephaestus. So, what is the surprise?” Melody asked.

  Hephaestus chuckled. “Your very own, HOT SPRING!”

  The gates opened, revealing many varied-sized hot springs on each side.

  Melody cheered excitedly and shrunk down in size.

  “What!?” Violet, Annabelle, and Prince Matthew were shocked.

  “When could you do that!?” Violet demanded to know, while Annabelle shared a happy hug with Melody.

  “Just recently. Hephaestus shared knowledge with me, and it turned into a skill called Resize!” Melody answered.

  “You’re still taller than most of us.” Prince Matthew chuckled. “I think you are… maybe six-foot-six?”

  “Still better than eighteen.” Melody giggled. “Ah! The avatar was nice, but I couldn’t taste or eat anything! With this, I can!” She cheered. “Anyway, onto the hot spring!” She raised her fist.

  “Yeah!” Annabelle joined in.

  The pair rushed to the women’s side quickly.

  Prince Matthew laughed. “Well, you have fun.” He said to Violet as he went to the men’s side.

  Melody relaxed in the hot spring with Rui, Violet, Annabelle, Maple, Bell, and the ladies of Hephaestus’ household. Each one of the women was shockingly beautiful.

  “Hmm, not as good as our one at home, but pretty good.” The dark elf stated.

  “I agree, but the nature surrounding this place is wonderful.” The fair-skinned elf added.

  “Um, sorry, I never learned your names,” Melody commented.

  “Ah, my apologies!” The fair-skinned elf laughed. “I am Amerilladen, third wife to Hephaestus.”

  The dark elf went next. “Micah, first wife.”

  The cheery giant who was shrunk down waved. “I’m Rorroco, second wife.”

  “I am Yvenfragallia, the fifth wife.” The dragon woman stated.

  “Fifth?” Melody looked around.

  “Ah, the fourth can’t enter worlds for a while. I was told you met her briefly? Luna?” Micah stated.

  “Thank you!” Melody smiled. “So, are all of you gods too?”

  “Wow, we really need to speak to Eric about subtly.” Micah sighed. “No, we are not gods. Only Eric is.”

  “It would be better to consider us like his angels or Valkyries. We share in his divine power. Thus, we don’t age like regular mortals.” Amerilladen stated.

  “Do you just go around saving worlds?” Violet asked.

  Micah shook her head. “This is the first time we have done this, well, second time if you consider us saving our own world.”

  “Wait, you guys also fought a God of Tartarus too!?” Violet was shocked.

  Rorroco waved her hand dismissively. “Nope. Just a pawn. We almost lost Eric that day, but thankfully, Luna was able to save him.”

  “Hmm?” Micah tilted her head. “Alright, I’ll let them know.” She turned to them. “Eric said it was time for the banquet.”

  Gaia’s stomach growled loudly.

  “Sounds like we should go eat.” Melody giggled.

  “Gods, this body is troublesome!” Gaia complained.

  Sharing a laugh, they left the hot spring for now.