What would you do if one day someone asks you, "Do you want to be a god?" What will your answer be? What if you said yes but the god you become wasn't what you expected? Will you regret it? Miki continued the Garnbrad tournament. She was forced to fight her former teammates for the chance to win the game. Will she manage to beat them all? What about Anarka Ani Asra, the Flame Queen? Sky Goddess Chapter 4 A story of adventure in a fantasy world. By Shinieris

"It is the time you have all been waiting for! The last skirmish of the tournament! Please welcome our contestants!" the judge exclaimed as they came out to the stage one by one.

"Hailing from the ancient land of Kaldoria, master swordsman and sorceress hunter, Fafarin!" the judge introduced to the clap of the audience.

Fafarin bowed to the audience as Esuka came out.

"From the magical forest of Lost Arca, a beautiful witch with natural big jugs, the enchanting Esuka!"

Esuka blew kisses at the audience before her eyes shot daggers at the judge, as if complaining that he had nothing to comment apart from her breasts.

I suppose that's my cue, Miki thought as she came out.

"From the holy city closest to heaven Emelys, the great wind priestess of Alodil-uru-annik-astahi, the beautiful Miki!"

She thought it was just her imagination, but it sure felt like there was a lot greater applause to her. Miki waved at the audience with the prettiest smile she could manage. It was then Kanas' turn.

"And from our own home city Garnbrad, the talented wind priest of Aya-na-ulas, here comes... KANAS!"

For some strange reason, the applause for Kanas was a lot louder. Could it be because he was a local? Could the entire colloseum be filled with his family and friends?

Kanas came all the way to the stage only to say, "Judge, I surrender."

Suddenly the whole colloseum went quiet.

"Uhh, did you just say, you surrender?" the judge asked, his voice echoing throughout the colloseum.

"No way, I've told you, we can do this!" Fafarin suddenly yelled.

"That's right! We can do this! But we can't do it without you, Kanas!" Esuka added. She was holding a staff glowing with a bluish aura. The staff appeared to be made of a single piece of wood with the head being carved into the shape of an eagle.

"Fighting a goddess? Are you out of your mind?" Kanas said with a lower voice, as if he didn't want the judge to hear.

"It doesn't matter! Even a goddess is vulnerable in human form!" Esuka argued.

"I can repress her power, don't worry!" Fafarin assured him.

"I don't know... she's my goddess's little sister, you know. I could end up being cursed."

"Ummm, sorry to disturb your strategy meeting," the judge intervened, "... but can we get on with the skirmish now?"

Both Fafarin and Esuka begged Kanas on their knees. Eventually he relented with a sigh. The judge then gave them a brass key each as a bell rang. Miki looked at the key with a confused expression.

"Err... are we supposed to open a door or something?" Miki asked, not making a move eventhough the skirmish had already started.

"Miki, didn't you watch the earlier skirmishes?" Esuka asked.

"Umm, not really. My mind was somewhere else." Miki's mind was actually busy flying all over the place trying to fulfill wishes. There must be a better way than this.

"You have to guard the key. If your opponent grabs it, you lose. Of course, you'll also lose if you leave the stage," Esuka explained.

"Oh, I see. What's with the staff, though? You didn't use it earlier."

"This? I use this when I'm being serious. I'm actually a summoner. Being a witch is just a hobby. Wanna have a look?" Esuka said as she offered Miki her staff.

Miki moved forward to take it.

"Chance!" Fafarin shouted, "Repress Aura!"

Suddenly Miki's body felt a lot heavier and the toga started to turn yellow. Miki looked at Fafarin and yelled, "Hey, she was still talking!" then she rushed the wind to grab his key for a quick win.

"Nullify magic!" Fafarin called, cancelling Miki's magic.

Miki tried to use [Gale Wind] when she realized that she was surrounded on all sides by 16 daggers powered by 16 wind spirits. They flew around her, trapping her body in lengths of string while uttering words of apology.

"Ufufufufu, I got you now, Miki! Lord of Fire, you who bring life and death, bringer of light and warmth, grant me the power of hell's fire, my life for the serpents, my blood for the flames, my soul for its fiery breath. Come forth, Flame Serpents of Gomol!" Esuka chanted before the eagle head of the staff breathed fire that turned into three snakes of human height made entirely of fire and magma.

"Great jeebz, I have to fight something like this?"

They slithered towards Miki, leaving fiery trails in their wake. They were slow and it took a few seconds before they came in range, but it wasn't like the stage was big. With the strings wrapping around Miki's body, she couldn't move her hands. She was helpless.

Or not.

"Wind Hammer!" she cried as the wind in front of her became solid and smashed the three serpents into long pancakes.

But they quickly reformed themselves and as they came nearer, their stomach bulged and she had the strangest feeling that she could die. The bulge quickly moved up their serpentine body until what could be their throats bulged bigger their heads. This must be none other than the infamous fire breath. She had seen enough of the like in Japanese anime.

"I'm so stupid, they're fire. Well, the easy way to stop fire without water is to remove the fuel. Alright, wind, maximum CO2 poisoning!"

The serpents released their fiery breaths only to have it extinguished quickly. Within a manner of seconds, the flames on their bodies died out. After a minute, their magma bodies started to cool and turned into black rocks.

I have defeated the fire serpents!

Unfortunately, it wasn't over.

"Voice Restriction!" Fafarin cried as Miki felt something wrapping around her vocal cord.

Miki tried to cough it out, but nothing happened. Even her voice was gone.

"Great Lady of Winter, queen of the desolate north, frigid goddess of the snow bears and mountain lions, bring forth the power to let man sleep for a thousand years, grant me the power to suppress life, to suppress the unworthy, to suppress the flames of the world. Come forth, Icicle Field!"

Miki broke the voice restriction just before her feet was frozen.

"God damned you people! I thought this is a free for all? Why are you only targetting me?" Miki cursed as her body was rapidly covered in ice.

"Sorry, Miki. As a goddess, you can't really expect us to go easy on you, right? Try again next year," Esuka said with a wink.

"I'm gonna beat you up with your own ice, Esuka!" Miki vowed before her whole body was covered in ice.

"Alright, so who got her key?" Esuka asked, her voice was transmitted clearly through the ice.

"Uhh... did you grab the key, Kanas?" Fafarin asked.

"Huh? Nobody told me I was supposed to do that!" Kanas replied.

"Ahhhhh!!! You idiots! What the hell was the point of me going all out if you didn't grab her key? Should I stab my staff into both your faces?"

"What? You want a fight, little girl?" Fafarin said.

"Little girl? I'm older than both of you combined, you blasted idiots!"

"Hey, I didn't want to join in the first place. You guys begged me to, remember?" Kanas said.

"Repress Aura!"

"Bring it on, you snivelling worms! I'll use your lifeless bodies as offering to twin fox goddesses Anushka and Marushka!"

"Hey, I don't have any weapons anymore. So would you please spare me?"

"Great Lord of All That Flies, he who controls the skies, he who gives direction to birds, he who provides strength for fowls to travel the long winter."

"Nullify Magic!"

"Allow me the priviledge of your feathers, to bring fear to my enemies. Come forth, Storm of Crows!"

"Kyahhhhh!!! Stop it! What kind of magic is this? Why didn't the nullify magic work? Ow! Ow! Ow! It's pecking me!"

When Esuka trapped Miki inside this ice, she also trapped Kanas's 16 wind spirits inside. They were now sandwiched between the cold ice and Miki's body. With a kind of telepathy, Miki chatted with them.

"You have a lot of guts to attack me."

"Please forgive us, mistress. It was nothing personal."

"It was part of our contract, mistress."

"We didn't mean to attack you."

"Please forgive us, mistress."

"We'll do anything you tell us to. Please don't banish us into the realm of emptiness."

"Please forgive us, mistress..."

"Fine, I will forgive you, but you will help me break this ice. Got it?"

"We don't have any power left, mistress..."

"Use mine. I should have plenty of power left."

"Alright, should we use a temporary contract, mistress?"

"Sure, whatever works."

"Alright, sisters, we going to break through this ice in 5... 4.... 3.... 2... 1... Break!"

With a great force of decompressive winds, the big block of ice surrounding Miki's body shattered. Pieces of the ice flew all around, hitting all three of the other contestants. The judge wisely hid behind a pillar before the fragments of ice could harm him.

"You... dare.... to... make me... mad... Should I cook all three of you inside an erupting volcano?"

"Heee!!!" Esuka squealed.

"I said I didn't want to do this!" Kanas cried as he left the stage, effectively disqualifying himself and hid behind another pillar.

"My nose! Stop pecking my nose!!!" Fafarin yelled as he tried to punch the crows that were attacking his face.

"What do you have to say for yourself, witch?" Miki asked the cowering Esuka.

"I'm sorry?"

"Not good enough," Miki said as she pushed Esuka out of the stage with the fury of an angry goddess' wind.

"Eh? Where's everyone?" Fafarin asked once the crows flew away. With Esuka out of the picture, the force that compelled the crows to stay had disappeared.

"Last chance," Miki said as she popped her knuckles, "Thrown out like the witch," she pointed at the unconscious Esuka who was slumped against the wall, "Or scared to death like the man in a bath robe?" she pointed at Kanas, who was causing little tremors to the stone pillar he hid behind.

Seeing that, Fafarin understood the situation. "Please have my key," he said as he bowed and offered Miki his brass key.

"Good choice," Miki said as she used the wind to take his key, "But I'm still angry," she said as she commanded the wind to make an oxygen trail from the fiery trails that the fire serpents left behind to Fafarin's pants. It was amusing her to see him dance when the fire caught his pants.

Now I'm satisfied.

"And the winner is... Priestess Miki!"

******

With the conclusion of Miki's skirmish, the tournament had taken a break for today. Tomorrow morning would be the semi-finals and the final round. Farran would face off against the chakram wielding Asofran. Miki would be facing off against the Queen of Flames, Anarka Ani Asra. Miki wondered why Miya told her to be careful about Anarka Ani Asra. Sure, she supposedly could create fire from nothing, but even the most powerful flames needed to obey the laws of science. Without oxygen, fire will die.

"You were amazing!" Farran praised her as they walked back to their inn.

"Well, I don't want to brag, but I am quite good at what I do."

"As expected of my goddess wife!"

She frowned. "Do you really have to mention that? I still haven't forgiven you for sleeping with me last night."

"What's wrong with it? We're married, aren't we? It's natural for a husband to want to sleep with his wife, isn't it?"

"Stop talking about that. You're making me shiver."

He then reached around her and put his left hand on her left arm, then he pulled her close. When she resisted, he insisted. It continued for so long that everyone on the street stared at them. In the end she relented and leaned against him, anything to get rid of all the unwanted attention.

"You're paying for dinner," she stated.

"Of course, my love. It's a husband's duty to put food on the table after all. Don't worry, I'll never let you go hungry, I promise you this," Farran said as he rubbed her arm.

It made her skin crawl.

Miki chose not to inform him that where she came from, both men and women had equal status. That both men and women often work for a living. That the idea that men worked while women stayed at home had pretty much been abandoned in the great US of A. In the US of A, this kind of chivalry was no longer commonly practiced. Sure, many eastern countries still practiced the old ways, but she had never been to another country, so she wouldn't be able to tell.

Dinner was a lavish affair, for this world at least. Beef roast, blueberry pie, white wine, mashed potatoes, fresh fruits and sunny side up eggs. Farran ate even more and even asked for seconds. Miki supposed it was what being a man was like. When she was a man, she also used to wolf down food like she was going to die tomorrow. But now, even this was too much, maybe girls have smaller stomachs?

"Hey, what's that?" Miki asked when something under his clothes caught the light of the lanterns.

He looked at where she was pointing and took out a pendant. It glowed with a bluish hue. "It's a memento of my mother. She used to be an adventurer too, before she married my father. It's been almost 10 years since I've seen her."

"I'm sorry for your..."

"She's not dead. When I was 9 years old she declared that she was going adventuring again. I haven't seen her since!"

"I see..." she said as she touched the ruby of the pendant and jumped when suddenly something that looked like a hologram appeared in front of her.

It looked like a single flat blue hologram about 2 feet high and 4 feet wide, with something written on it. The sheet hologram stayed in place even when Farran moved around. Farran asked her what was wrong, and she told him to just eat his meals.

"I can't read this!" she complained. It was like a bunch of wriggly letters that had no start nor end.

As if in answer to her complain, it turned into English. "Oh, that's nice!"

"What's nice?"

"Just focus on your dinner."

"Okay."

Apparently Miki was the only one who could see this. Even Farran who wore the pendant couldn't see what was written. It looked like this.

Name: Sariha's Silver Amulet	Type: Pendant
Quality: Magical	Durability: 8/15
Properties: Wind Resistance +8% Fire Resistance +12% Water Resistance +5%

"Is your mother's name Sariha?"

"No, her name was Yunha. Why?"

"Nothing," Miki said as she pointed a finger at the number next to magical resistance. Using her finger to push the number up and down, she managed to set the wind resistance to 80%. She couldn't raise it any higher

"This will probably hurt a bit," Miki said as she fired [Wind Dart] at Farran.

He didn't even notice it. "What will probably hurt?"

"Nothing..." Miki said as she lowered the wind resistance to 10% and closed the item window with indifference. Inside though, she was bubbling with excitement. This is just like a cheat program! I can change the magical properties of stuff I touch!

Miki touched the mug in front of her. Nothing happened. She touched it again. Still, nothing happened. That was strange, when she touched the pendant, it was so easy.

Come on! Open item editor!

Without realizing it, Miki concentrated a little power at the tip of her finger and ended up poking a hole at the side of the mug. She watched as the wine inside leaked out from the hole. Just great! Instead of a magical mug, I got a leaking mug instead!

Miki wondered if it only worked on magical items. Not finding any other magical items in sight, she turned to the only magical item that came with her, the pure white toga. She focused a little of her divine power at the tip of her finger, and touched the cloth of her toga. Instead of a single screen, what came out were hundreds of screens. Surrounding her, were seven rows of cheat screens, arranged one after another neatly, numbering at least 20 screens for each row.

"What's the matter?" Farran asked. Miki couldn't even see him with all the ghostly blue screens blocking her view.

"I don't know where to start..." Miki said as she focused her power at the tip of my finger and touched her toga again.

"Well, you can finish up your meal for now. After that, we'll go upstairs and start digesting with plenty of action on the bed," Farran said with a grin.

"Not that! Ah forget it. I'm going to bed. And I don't want you to climb in after me, got it?"

"Yes ma'am!" Farran agreed before he continued wolfing down the food on the table.

It wasn't long before he was joined by the other losers and they partied all night. In a drunken haze, he ended up climbing into bed with Miki and spooned her from behind. The next morning, she woke him up with a well executed wind hammer.

******

"Ouch, why'd you have to do that? I have to fight in a while, if you don't remember," Farran complained as he flexed his muscle.

"Oh, shut it! I told you not to climb into bed with me, remember?"

"I'm your husband!"

"You wished you were my husband. As soon as I found out how to cancel this curse, we're through!" Miki said as she healed his back.

"Strange way of cheering me," Farran mumbled.

"Don't be such a baby, now off you go!" Miki said as she pushed him to the contestant's waiting room.

Miki went to sit at her usual place. With the tournament reaching semi-final, the reserved seat for contestants had been disbanded, but it was still empty except for former contestants. Maybe the audience thought it would be scary to sit near the former contestants. Or it could be because of Anarka Ani Asra. When Miki sat, she was already there, playing with a ball of fire on her palm, like playing with a lighter.

Off, she closed her hands around the ball of fire.
On, she opened her hands as the ball of fire reformed.
Off.
On.
Repeatedly.

Even Miki was a little creeped out by her.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the semi finals of the Great Garnbrad Martial Tournament. I am Garri, your host and judge and starting our day is a fight between two skilled warriors. Please welcome, last year's second place, Farran and newcomer Asofran!"

The audience cheered and clapped as both Farran and Asofran walked out of the competitor's waiting area waving at the audience.

"As last year's second place, Swordsman Farran showed remarkable skills. His skills with sword aura was incredible to the point that he sliced the stage into two parts. Will he do the same again this year?"

The crowd cheered.

"Newcomer Asofran showed incredible skills with his elemental chakram. Fusing elements of fire and ice, he defeated the crowd favourite Twin-sword Markal. Will he carry through with his victories?"

Cheers erupted again.

"Let the fight begin!" the judge announced.

"Hey there. You didn't pull any punches at all," Esuka complained as she sat next to her.

"You guys ganged up on me. You have no right to complain," Miki argued as Esuka bribed her with a newly bought corn on a cob.

"But you're a goddess..." she looked at Miki with a weird glint in her eyes.

"I don't see anywhere a clause that says, 'A goddess must be reasonable'." I wonder if I will get rich if I introduce popcorn into this world.

"I've decided!" she said excitedly.

"Decided what?"

"I'm going to worship you!"

"Okay..." Miki said while watching Farran get beaten up by Asofran's chakram.

"I'm serious, I want to worship you!"

"No, please don't."

"I'm sincere about it. I will go to the ends of the Earth with you!"

"No, that's not necessary."

"I'll even follow you to hell!"

"I said that's not necessary."

"If you want to spend the night together in the throes of passion and hot desire, I'll be happy to be there for you."

"Really? Wait, no! That's definitely not necessary!"

"Why not? You like me, right?" she said, discretely pulling her dress a little lower. So when she asked if Miki liked her, she was emphasizing the valley between her breasts.

Miki couldn't be blamed for having her eyes locked at that beautiful sight. She still liked women after all. Esuka was a gorgeous woman. Cute face, big breasts, nice curves, despite being a little wild looking.

"See? You like me after all," she giggled.

"Uhh, umm, no, you misunderstand."

"Don't they do this in the Sky Kingdom? I heard Maka-na-suri jumped on everything that moved," she said with a sly smile.

"Umm... err... I."

"And the winner is... Swordsman Farran!" the judge announced with the whole colloseum erupting in cheers.

"Eh? How did that happen?" Last I checked, Farran was being beaten up by Asofran's twin chakram.

"He did this complicated sword art thing that cut Asofran's chakram in mid-air. Asofran surrendered after that. A good call, without his elemental chakrams, he wouldn't be able to win," Esuka explained, apparently she was watching the fight while Miki was flustered by her advances.

Miki watched Farran standing on the stage with one fist raised as if gloating about his victory. she turned towards Esuka and asked, "Hey, who was last year's winner?"

"Last year? There were many competitions, unlike this year. So I'm not sure which one you are asking about. But if you ask who defeated Farran, it was me."

Miki looked at Esuka with a startled expression. "Ehhhhhh?!!!"

"What's with that annoying response? I was awesome last year, for your information. I rained fire and death like it was second nature. Naturally that swordsman had no chance. Of course, last year I went with the name 'Dark Magician' and donned a full body robe, so nobody actually knew who I was," she said with an embarrassed laugh.

"But you were pathetic when facing me!"

She frowned. "Excuse me, my opponent was a goddess. Against anyone else, they would've died at least twice in that skirmish. Besides, last year I had a fully charged energy crystal, I didn't have it in our fight."

"Energy crystal?"

"This," Esuka took out a blue jewel the size of a thumb, "It took 5 years to fully charge it. 1 year wouldn't make a difference."

Miki took the energy crystal and instantly two windows popped up.

Name: Energy Sapphire	Type: Magical Jewel
Quality: Magical	Durability: 18/21
Properties: Magical Charge (49/300)

Properties: Magical Charge min/max None Add properties

Allow Overcharge? Unchecked Allow Sacrifice? Unchecked Allow Soulbind? Unchecked Allow Full Discharge? Checked

"Ohh, this is amazing!" Miki said as she turned the magical charge max to 500 and increased the charge to full. Then she gave it back to Esuka.

She definitely noticed something wrong with it. "What did you do?"

"I raised the maximum charge and refilled the charge."

Esuka looked at Miki with tear filled eyes. "Miki, I love you!" she cried as she jumped at her, hugging her tightly.

"Umm, excuse me," a voice from Miki's left startled her, "Priestess Miki, we're going to start the next round soon, please head towards the contestant waiting area."

Miki looked at Anarka Ani Asra and saw that she had already walked away. She immediately disengaged Esuka's arms from her waist and went off towards the contestant's waiting room.

In the waiting room, she stood next to Anarka Ani Asra, who stood there silently playing with her ball of fire. She was hot. Not hot in the sense of being beautiful, though she was indeed quite hot in that regard, if you don't fear catching fire. The actual problem was she was literally hot, as if her body was continuously being burned. Miki could feel it from just standing next to her.

"And now for the last battle of the semi finals, the battle between the fire mage Anarka Ani Asra and wind priestess Miki!" the host announced.

That was their cue. They walked side by side towards the stage. Miki waved at the spectators discretely. Anarka Ani Asra didn't seem to care. She was busy playing with her fireball.

"For those who are not aware, newcomer Anarka Ani Asra is also known as the Queen of Flames. She is known for unintentionally causing fires wherever she goes. In the last team battle, she burned the whole stage, defeating both allies and foes alike. Will we see the same thing in this battle? Wow, I'm sweating!"

There were boos from the audience.

"She was the one who burned my village!"

"She burned my whole crop!"

"She burned down my house because because I said she smelled like ash!"

"She caused our well to dry out!"

"She burned the forest I hunted in!"

"My application form was burned by her!"

"I got burned for standing in line in front of her!"

"My tavern was burned because she didn't like my beef soup!"

"You deserve it, your beef soup was like dog piss!"

And all the other jeers. Miki could feel her temperature rising. Without realizing it, Miki took a step back.

"Facing her, we have lovely Priestess Miki hailing from the blessed lands of Emelys. She is the priestess of the King of the Gods, Alodil-Uru-Annik-Astahi, the Lord of All That Flies. Her wind magic will certainly be a match for the terrifying powers of Anarka Ani Asra. Who will win this match? We shall see, let the fight begin!"

Why did Uncle Albert choose that old pervert to be my fake patron? Miki thought, referring to how Alodil vetoed panties and bras in the Sky Kingdom.

Compared to the response she received, Miki's were generally positive. Most asked Miki to beat up Anarka Ani Asra for them. Some asked her if she'd be free for dinner. The host cum judge immediately left the stage, probably fearing a repeat of yesterday.

"I don't like prolonging what is inevitable, so I'll just finish quickly," Anarka Ani Asra remarked in a coarse voice as she smashed her fireball onto the stage.

As soon as the fireball burst, the whole square-shaped stage burst into flames. Not having time to do anything, Miki could only cry out in pain from the flames licking her body. If not for her protective toga, skimpy as it was, she would've probably run out of the stage like the other contestants.

Miki closed her mouth and plugged her nose as she cast [CO2 Hammer]. It was a lot weaker than her normal Wind Hammer, but it was strong enough to extinguish the flames and make Anarka Ani Asra cough. Soon after, the CO2 block dispersed and was replaced with a more balanced portion of air. Both Miki and Anarka Ani Asra breathed deeply.

"I see, I wanted to finish it earlier, but it seems like you wanted to keep on fighting."

"Hey, that was dangerous!" Miki complained.

Anarka Ani Asra didn't reply, but she created flames from both hands. As Miki watched, the flames spread throughout Anarka Ani Asra's body. In just seconds, her entire body was covered in living flames.

[Wind Spear] Miki cast a spell to push Anarka Ani Asra out of the stage.

It made no effect. The flames covering Anarka Ani Asra's body simply rushed forward and consumed the wind spear.

[Wind Hammer] Miki cast another spell to pummel Anarka Ani Asra from above. It was also consumed by her flames.

[CO2 Hammer] Miki cast the spell to disperse the flames, but it had no effect. It seemed like the flames were magical and not affected by the lack of oxygen. Not even Anarka Ani Asra was affected by the lack of oxygen.

Meanwhile, Anarka Ani Asra chanted a spell, invoking fiery runes suspended in mid-air around her. With each chant, another rune materialized. With several flicks of her hands, more runes materialized in the same manner. Miki did not understand what was going on. In her world, there was no such thing as magic. So she kept pummeling Anarka Ani Asra with wind attacks, hoping for one of them to break through. After all, wind magics was all she could do.

Esuka looked on and unlike Miki, she realized that Anarka Ani Asra was drawing runes in the air with both her chanting and her hands. She had only heard of people either chanting or drawing, but not both and it was almost impossible to draw a magic formation with both hands, even for ambidextrous mages. At the speed Anarka Ani Asra was drawing the magic formation, she could finish about three times faster than even master mages. She also noticed that the runes were on two separate levels, which meant that Anarka Ani Asra was chanting two different spells at the same time, something that only a grandmaster mage could do.

As one of the magic formation reached 4/5 completion, she realized what magic Anarka Ani Asra was casting. With no other way to contact Miki, she prayed, "Goddess Miki, she's chanting Fire Knight and Fire Barrage. Counter with a strong Wind Wall."

Miki, receiving such advice, immediately raised her Wind Wall. No sooner had she raised it, 73 fireballs materialized in the air. It formed perfect spheres and flew towards Miki one after another. It exploded the moment it came into contact with Miki's Wind Wall and managed to push Miki backward with each consecutive hits. By the time the 65th fireball hit, the Wind Wall broke and the remaining fireballs hit her directly. Added to that, Anarka Ani Asra's other spell, Fire Knight completed and it rushed forward on its fiery steed cutting Miki into two parts at her stomach with its flaming broadsword.

"Medic! Get someone here quickly!" the judge shouted as men and women in togas appeared from the exits around the stage.

Anarka Ani Asra fired ethereal flames through her hands and made a ring of fire around the stage. It prevented the priests and priestesses from approaching the stage and effectively isolated Miki, Anarka Ani Asra and the judge from the rest of the colloseum. Meanwhile, Miki was lying on the stage in two halves.

"Please stop! Call off the flames, she needs to be healed before she reach the point of no return!" the judge plead.

"You're noisy!" Anarka Ani Asra pointed her forefinger at the judge and released a flame so hot it could even melt rocks.

It was stopped by a powerful application of Water Blast. The resulting contact made steam that covered the whole arena. When it started to settle, the crowd could see a woman in toga standing between the cowering judge and Anarka Ani Asra.

"For attempting to kill the judge and refusing to allow a fellow contestant medical aid, I, Salsuri, Head Priestess of the Temple of Miya-na-ima declare your disqualification from the tournament. Please leave the city as soon as possible."

"I, Loknar, head priest of the Temple of Aya-na-ulas agrees with this judgement." He was on the stage, aiming the point of his staff at Anarka Ani Asra.

"Or what?" Anarka Ani Asra taunted

"Pardon?" Salsuri said.

"What if I don't want to leave? What if I want to burn the city and everyone in it?"

"You dare?" Loknar said with the tip of his staff glowing white.

At the same time, Salsuri covered her body with Ice Armour. Ice magic is a magic that gives powerful fire and physical resistance. Ice Armour is a type of magic that can't be learned by mages, it is classified as a divine magic, granted to accomplished priests and priestesses by their goddesses.

"Excuse me, would the unrelated people get off the stage? This isn't over yet," Miki said as she stepped out of the mist covering the rest of the stage.

"You're still alive?" Anarka Ani Asra looked at Miki with eyes full of disbelief. She had really intended to kill Miki earlier.

"You! It was really hard using wind magic to push my two parts together, you know? Can you even imagine the pain of being cut into two?"

Just then, everyone on stage heard a splat. Miki looked at the bottom of her feet and screamed in anguish. "MY INTESTINES! Somebody help me find more of my guts, NOW!"

Miki blew away the mist surrounding the stage with her wind magic and together with Loknar, managed to locate two more pieces of her intestines. She pushed it all into the gaping wound in her stomach before healing it all.

Anarka Ani Asra threw a fireball at Miki for no reason whatsoever. Miki slapped it away to the ground with her bare hands covered in wind armour. Anarka Ani Asra threw another and another. Miki just slapped it all away.

"How are you still alive?" Anarka Ani Asra asked as she turned her left hand into pure fire and launched a stream of flames at Miki. Miki countered with a wall of CO2 of her own while healing her body.

"Magic. Need I say more?"

"Impossible!"

"You, come here," Miki commanded while pushing Anarka Ani Asra's flames back with ease.

"Me?" Anarka Ani Asra asked.

"Not you! Him!" Miki demanded as she pointed at Anarka Ani Asra.

"Me?" The judge asked.

"Did I point at you? I'm talking about that fire spirit," Miki pointed at the salamander hiding in the flames behind Anarka Ani Asra. It attempted to hide.

"Unless you come here within the next 3 seconds, I will banish you to somewhere a fire can't exist!" The threat was real, at least the salamander certainly thought so. With a blink of an eye, the salamander teleported in front of Miki.

"Good day to you, mistress. How can I help you this fine day?" the lizard covered in flames grovelled.

While still pushing Anarka Ani Asra's flames, Miki said, "You're pretty brave to cut me into two. Do you want to be punished?"

The lizard trembled. "B-but that was... I had a contract with her. I had to do what she said, mistress."

"Then I'm severing your contract!"

"Eh? Huh? Umm, well... okay. Are you making a contract with me, then?"

"Sounds good," Miki said as suddenly the flames disappeared from Anarka Ani Asra's body. Even the flame stream disappeared.

"Great!" the salamander said before turning to look at Anarka Ani Asra, "Sorry, mistress. Goodbye!"

With a burst of flame, he disappeared. Of course, normal people couldn't see him, so nobody noticed his presence. Nor his significance in the battle.

"Did you just steal my fire spirit?" Anarka Ani Asra asked.

"I did, he's my fire spirit now."

"You arrogant bitch!" Anarka Ani Asra cried as ever fiercer flames erupted from all over her body.

Esuka, being a very experienced summoner and witch could also see the salamander being taken from Anarka Ani Asra. She thought it strange earlier that someone as young as Anarka Ani Asra could chant two different spells when not even her in all her years could achieve it. When she saw Anarka Ani Asra reformed the flames even fiercer than before, even after her fire spirit was taken, she understood what Anarka Ani Asra really was. She prayed to Miki.

"Celestial demon?" Miki said out loud when she heard Esuka's prayer.

Anarka Ani Asra froze. "You know what I am? I see, that explains everything. You are a goddess. Looking at your clothes, you must be a sky goddess. No wonder you didn't die earlier and you could steal my fire spirit. Well, this changes everything."

Anarka Ani Asra turned completely into the shape of a fiery demon. Then she started chanting, while her two hands were busy drawing fiery runes in the air. Miki quickly covered Anarka Ani Asra in CO2 to extinguish the flames, but it didn't work. Just like before, these flames were ethereal, magical.

Both Salsuri and Loknar was torn. On one hand, Anarka Ani Asra was already disqualified and they could by right force her to leave or arrest her. On the other, the younger sister of their goddesses herself told them to stay out of it. With such a contradiction, they could only pray for divine decree.

Esuka meanwhile, was afraid. From the size of the magic formation and the hundreds of runes that could fit inside it, this was no ordinary fire magic. With so many runes, it could only mean the most devastating types of magics known to man. The types of magic that could create mountains, raised islands or reshaped landscapes of whole continents. It could only mean a Cataclysm-class magic. She prayed that Miki could stop it.

Miki tried. Of course, she tried. But her wind magics couldn't penetrate Anarka Ani Asra's defenses. Using fire magics only worsened the situation. As she fought, the magic formation neared completion.

Once it was done, Anarka Ani Asra laughed. "Wah haha haha. Let's see how a sky goddess deals with this! I guess this is goodbye. I'm not going to wait around to see your doom." With a final wave, Anarka Ani Asra disappeared in a burst of flames.

At the same time, Miki felt a great disturbance in the air. She looked up at the sky. Far away, but not far enough, a fireball descended. It was large, even larger than the whole city and it was headed right towards them. Miki had watched enough doomsday movies to know what it was.

Meteor. A very large meteor.

*Feuh! Another chapter of Sky Goddess. I'm happy I managed to get this out.
**As always, please leave your comments and feedbacks. Praises help me write faster, constructive criticisms help me write better.
***Without feedbacks or comments, I will cry.