There are plenty of excuses we can give for our own failings. When all things are concluded, that is what this debate we have on the stagnation or the freewill that are embodied by Divinity. Yet the point of the question is missed right at the start when Maisara makes it a cosmic issue and when Allasaria engages on those grounds.

The will of freedom used only for the satisfaction of one's immediate cravings shares no difference with the chains of slavery save the fact one has a master within their mind and the other a master without. Ultimately, the soul is not making the decision. There is no gain. There is no progress. There is no step forward. There is no redemption. Yet the former is a servitude far worse for it is a kneeling to a master of one's own creation. There can be physical scenarios where one is beholden to forces or actors completely overpowering. Yet to fall to one's indulgence to create a slaveowner for oneself. Ultimately, everything that the body does is the body's own responsibility.

That is why the debate is worthless, for Maisara uses deterministic thinking to justify her own inaction against her weaknesses and Allasaria uses free will as a spotlight that casts her strengths into the centre-stage whilst cloaking her weaknesses in darkness. A spotlighting of intention to dull the image of inaction. The end goal of an idea is to bring about an action. What action does either of their fatalistic thinkings bring about? We are given an excuse for irresponsibility or an excuse for moralization. I want neither.

Is there a challenge? Rise above it. Is there a trial? Overcome it. Is there a weight? Carry it. Impossibility is a concept beholden to possibility. The word for something that breaks all human boundaries and achieves an action incredible is 'miracle'.

I believe everyone is capable of a miracle.

- Excerpt from an interview taken by Goddess Helenna, of Love questioning God Arascus, of Pride, on the debate held between Allasaria and Neneria.

Darkness enveloped the four Goddesses as that humungous writhing serpent tried to swallow them. "HOLD!" Kassandora shouted as the sound of grey slime splashed by them, it touched the ground and fell straight through it as it was some ghost. Kavaa grit her teeth, her hands raised as from above, the slime falling around them burned away in conflagrations of exploding life. It would push closer to them, it would explode, it would turn into ashy snowflakes that shrunk down to nonexistence. It would fall around them and through the ground.

Elassa raised her hands and tried to channel magic. The theory in itself was easy enough, or it should be at least. It was simply the imposition of one's will onto reality, the catalyst gemstones served as the gateways between the two domains. But no matter what Elassa did, nothing happened. She called upon fire and imagined pulling her power forward. She swung her arms and chanted enchanted words. She called upon the most basic exercises that were used for training children. Counting down to grab at measly amounts of power and then release it. The gemstones on her rings remained dull and lightless.

To think there would come a day that Elassa would ever need the Goddess of Health to overpower an opponent. She could not even force herself to create the most meagre ball of light to bring vision to the area around them. "HOLD!" Kassandora screamed again. "HOLD KAVAA!" The ceiling got closer to them again, it exploded too, drops splashed towards the four Goddesses, those drops melted away from the air like burning cinders cast away from the bonfire by a breeze.

And yet trapped though they were, Kavaa still silently channelled her power. More of those germs were wiped from existence. They exploded and turned to dried out flakes of skin that shrunk into dust, and then into nothing in itself. And they crashed. The black mass that disappeared into the ground made not sound, it pushed no dirt or grass up, it simply dived down like a ghost through the material. The long lines on it, all the sickly colours of rotten flesh, writhed and twisted and turned as they shot past the four Goddesses.

Suddenly, starlight touched Elassa's forehead.

Suddenly, it was over.

Kavaa was still looking up at her hands. Kassandora was holding her sword as if ready to slice upwards. Neneria was sitting on that ghastly winged horse of hers. The sky above was a bountiful nighttime. The air was cool, not cold enough to be cold in itself but with enough chill that a mother would tell their child would catch a cold. Around them, the thick tundra of deciduous trees had given way a jungle that pristine in how picturesque it was. The mosquitos and insects stayed far away, but fireflies illuminated the bark of trees as if trying to make themselves look like stars and vines entangled branch and root. Bushes had grown up to be as high as Elassa herself, yet they weren't so overwhelming as to try and swallow. Instead, each one was far enough from the other as to have a path between them.

And yet Elassa found her knees turn to stone and her legs freeze even though she wanted them to shake. Her breathing became harder and she snapped her fingers a two-dozen times again in rapid-fire succession. Not one did the catalysts on her hands light up. "Try again Elassa. Try using magic and if not then explain the step back by back." Kassandora barked after a moment. Was she actually being serious? Here? Now? The question did push fear away though.

Elassa snapped her fingers again. "It's not doing anything Kass."

"How though?" Kassandora asked and Elassa made a motion that should have set a sphere of air alight in order to create a fireball that could be manipulated or thrown. It was unimpressive magic true, but it was the sort of magic of magic everyone bar children should be capable of.

"I can't." Elassa said. "I just can't."

"Anything else Elassa?" Kassandora asked. "Tell me everything, you might not even realise it's important." The Goddess of War said flatly and without any sort of annoyance in her tone. The worst part was that Elassa believed Kassandora would have more success in figuring out this situation than she did.

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With a heavy sigh, Elassa did explain. She knew it was important and that there was no reason to argue back but half of the reason she said anything in the first place was because it was Kassandora who was asking. If the Goddess of War could not think up of a plan to get them out of here, then who could? "I don't know." Elassa wished she could give more. "I just have no connection. I'm going it correctly." As if to show it off, Elassa moved her hands together and tried another simple spell that was used as one of the foundations for Hydromancy. She pulled water through the air and condensed it into a sphere that should rest just above her hands.

Nothing happened. Elassa just stared down at her empty, pale palms that were plastered with silver rings embedded with precious stones and then interconnected by small chain. "I'm doing it but there's just no reaction."

"It's not your world." Neneria said from above. Whilst still audible, when her mouth was this far away then she could afford to speak louder.

"Then why can Kavaa use it?" Elassa asked and the Goddess of Health crossed her arms.

"It's not magic, it's just innate." Kavaa said.

"It could be that." Neneria said. "Or it could be that Kavaa is stronger than you." At that, Elassa rolled her eyes. The fact that Kavaa was obviously hiding a smug smile was annoying too. She was far too happy for the situation they were in.

"Stronger how?" Elassa barked up at Neneria.

"Stronger internal conception of oneself." Neneria said, Elassa opened her mouth but Kassandora intervened.

"It is what it is." Kassandora barked and stopped the argument before it began. "Elassa, we know you're cut off. Kavaa can use it. I can't activate War's Orchestra either."

"You can't?!" Kavaa half-asked, half-shouted as the other two Goddesses turned to look at Kassandora. This woman? If there was anyone Elassa would assume would be immune to such a weighting of character, then shouldn't it be Kass? Wasn't this the glorious Goddess of War? She still was after all… But… Well, it was Kassandora. Kassandora was a force of nature in herself.

"I can't." Kassandora said. "I can summon my armour but I can't start the tune."

"So we're just going to wait here?"

"I can hold." Kavaa spoke up. "For now at least. Those weren't big."

"Those weren't big?" Elassa asked. They had just almost been swallowed by some great river of disease and Kavaa had the gall to say that? Neneria just chuckled from above at her reaction.

"No." Kavaa said dryly. She ignored the comment. "Kass? Do you have anything?"

"Well I've not a damn clue so be my guest." From Kassandora's other side, Kavaa chuckled. Even Elassa found herself smiling at that raw honesty. The sun in the purple sky touched the black horizon in the distance and then the bright blue rays of dawn suddenly broke through the deep violet. A cool wind blew half the stars away, the other half started to move and flap wings and suddenly, they had become bright gulls and pigeons and doves. "The original contingency for this scenario was to have Elassa pull us out after all." Kassandora said and Elassa felt the need to defend herself. With each step they took, the ground changed its consistency. Elassa walked through cold swamps with one stride and then felt sweat burst out over her leg as she stepped onto scorching desert sand.

"That was a leap of logic." Elassa said. Was it her failure? Maybe? Kassandora should have planned this before.

"Have you ever been here?" Kassandora asked.

"No."

"So everything we do will be a leap of logic. We're lucky enough that there's land here and we can breathe the air."

"It is poisonous though." Kavaa said from the other side. "Or diseased. When I scout them, it's like feeling jam." She waved her hand around. "I don't know how to explain it, but it is."

"Why aren't we getting ill then?" Elassa asked and Kavaa just shrugged.

"How am I supposed to know that? How are we here in the first place is the harder question?" The two Goddesses turned to Kassandora, then to Neneria. Of Death was in the air, sitting on the back of her winged horse. The Goddess of Death shrugged awkwardly.

"I said what I said."

Elassa defaulted to the most obvious way out of here. "What if we have her expel us?" She asked. The three confused looking at her said they did not know what Elassa was talking about. "We cause enough damage to force Elassa's soul to flinch and kick us out." Kassandora raised an eyebrow. Crimson eyes shone horrendously unimpressed and dull at her. So did Neneria's dark gaze that looked as if it was questioning Of Magic's intelligence. Kavaa just looked like she was an exasperating teacher with an annoying child.

Kassandora answered first. "That's under the assumption it will kick us out."

Kavaa came in a moment later. "It's better to just be unnoticed."

And Neneria spoke last. "I'm not risking Baalka's sanity on a test."

All three made sense. All three had counterarguments of course. It was better to try than to give up for Kassandora. Against Kavaa, had they not been noticed already? Would the woman need the entire world around them to turn into a toxic vat before she said they were noticed? And for Neneria, what good would awaking Baalka be if they lost four Goddesses for it. Even in a simple material exchange, devoid of emotion, it would be better to sacrifice Baalka's life than to risk their four.

Yet Elassa said nothing because there was nothing to say. She knew that these people's opinions wouldn't be changed easily and she certainly wasn't one to do it. "Go on then, let's just wait." She took a few steps away and then stopped. She looked down as her chest, at the parts of herself that protruded furthest forwards. And then she yelped and cascaded backwards in a reactive flinch of a jump. Kavaa lunged on instinct and grabbed the Goddess of Magic. She touched the woman's clothed back first with one hand, then her other gripped Kavaa's cheek.

The most forward section of Elassa, arching from her chest even further than her feet did, had been infected with such disease that there had never been, and most likely never would, be a medicine able to salvage it. Elassa closed her eyes as sleep overtook her. And a few moments later, fully healed, she awoke. Kassandora and Kavaa were already discussing the situation. "So there's a range then." Kavaa said. "Around me I suppose."

"It's not hitting me." Neneria was holding her hand above her head. Her horse had moved even higher in the air. Kavaa spoke up about how she was not feeling anything and started moving her hands. Neneria replied back with the fact that no one knew what was going on. Elassa croaked again that she could not use magic. Kavaa spoke about how if they were spotted, then maybe she should just bite the bullet and try to sanitize an area whole. Elassa turned and saw Kassandora standing, taking heavy breathes.

"STOP!" Kassandora said loudly. "Stop and shut up and don't talk anymore. I don't want to hear it only speak if you know how to get out of here."

No one replied.

"Okay!" Kassandora said and then calmed down. "We don't move and we don't do anything. It's fucking terrible I know but shut the fuck and wait for reinforcements because when we are in another person's mind then what the fuck do you want to happen? We wait for fucking Arascus and stop moving and stay close and if anything happens then we'll deal with it."

"You mean like this?" Elassa yelped as she once again stood up, the grass and soil before her were turning into wet mud that tried to swallow her. Yet when she got to within touching distance of Kavaa, that wet mud fell away into dried sand.

"Fucking Hell."

Around them, the grass that they were standing on was quickly in the process of turning into slime that threatened to swallow the Goddesses up.

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