Lady finished with summoning water, air and earth with her power and sat down wheezing for breath.
"This is downright the most difficult task I have ever done!" Lady whined.
"Never said it was going to be easy" Mai rolled her eyes and sat on the ground too, gazing at the skies.
She sighed and took in a deep breath, time was really not on their side and every minute wasted meant a step farther away from stopping Aya from ruining the humans. As she was contemplating on everything and nothing, she suddenly felt a a huge surge of her power and then something drained some of her power. She screamed and groaned, falling down on her side to the ground.
Erzhi and Lady rushed to her side and helped her up, with Erzhi sitting behind Mai as a support for her.
"Are you okay?" Lady asked extremely concerned.
"I'm fine, I guess" Mai answered in a meek voice.
"You guess?" Erzhi raised his eyebrows "You call screaming and falling to the ground, fine?"
"Don't worry so much, I'm fine" Mai smiled "It's just that.." she hesitated.
"Just that what?" Lady asked with a frown.
Mai didn't answer but rather looked up to Erzhi and nodded with a sad face. Erzhi's face suddenly paled and he fell backwards, moving his chest that Mai was using as support away. Lady looked between the two siblings and she couldn't help but grow more confused and frustrated. Why were they conversing in silence?, she wondered.
"Um, I think I'm also here" Lady cleared her throat and pointed to herself with her right index finger after the two gods made no motion of acknowledging her presence to tell what was going on.
"We know you are here, we were just doing some business only we can know about seeing how dimwit you are" Erzhi gained his composure and made a joke with a silly face.
They all burst into laughter to reduce the heavy tension that was hanging in the atmosphere and then when the atmosphere calmed down from the high laughter and tension, Mai turned serious and even Erzhi became serious.
"But on the other hand, I believe we have a problem" Erzhi said in such a serious voice that it sent shivers down Lady's spine and then he turned to Mai.
"Aya is back" Mai stated bluntly without skipping a beat that right after Erzhi finished speaking.
Well Mai didn't skip a beat but Lady's heart did skip many beats after Mai's statement. She fell back on her bottom with wide eyes and an already shivering body.
"W-w-what?" she stuttered.
"Aya is back, we have run out of time" Mai said with no emotions and stood up with Erzhi's help.
"So what do we do about this?" Lady asked already in panic mode.
"For now, let's get back to your village" Mai said to Lady and to Erzhi she said " Tell the news to the others and if possible, request a meeting with the Supreme One"
"Okay, I understand" Erzhi answered and disappeared with a bolt of lightning.
"Shall we?" Mai asked Lady which she responded with a nod.
Mai whizzed them back to Lady's village and into her hut. The moment Lady's essence entered her, she breathed out a loud exhale and sighed. She stretched her body and stood up from her bed, already putting on her slippers.
"Where are are you going?" Mai asked Lady.
"I'm going to see my mother" she responded.
"To do what exactly?"
"Just to see how well she is faring, nothing else" Lady replied and bolted out of her room with an invincible Mai behind her.
Lady knocked on the door of her mother's hut twice when she reached there before the door opened to reveal a very sleepy Amira.
"Good evening mother" Lady greeted.
The moment Amira heard Lady's voice, something jolted inside of her, like something was oppressing her and another was trying to fight the oppressing force. She swerved back a little and her eyes almost rolled back into her head.
"Good evening, Now can you leave me alone?" Amira responded with a strained voice.
Lady lifted up her eyes and saw how her mother was ghostly pale and how she seemed rather unsteady on her feet. Lady's heart constricted so hard that she hard to clench her fists to stifle a groan of agony that was threatening to spill out of her throat. She could not believe that her mother was just an instrument for darkness, an instrument she was bound to fight sooner or later for the people of her village.
"I'll take my leave then mother" Lady bowed and left her mother who was still standing at her huts entrance and still swerving dangerously on her feet.
Amira watched till Lady had disappeared into her hut and then closed the door to her hut. She sat down on the ground to prevent herself from falling, she was having an extreme case of headache and nausea. She felt something jolt again in her body but this time it came with an agonising pain that Amira had no other choice but to groan loudly, clutching her chest.
"Hell to those idiots!" Someone cursed beside Amira giving her fright that she forgot she couldn't stand steadily as she jumped high into the air and unsuccessfully landing on her feet.
Her knees buckled and she fell on the ground hard, landing on her bottom.
"Aya, I swear if it's you I'm going through curse you for generations" Amira said icily before Aya materialised in front of her.
"It's not my fault that you get frightened so easily" Aya laughed and sat on Amira's bed.
Another pain shot through Amira's body right when she was about to retort and she had to exchange words for a painful groan. Aya rushed to her side and helped her up and eventually to get bed.
"I think I know what's happening with you" Aya stated after observing a groaning Amira for a moment.
"What?" Amira frowned.
"The other gods know that I have returned" Aya stated again after going silent for a bit.
"But how did they find out?" Amira asked.
"Mai, only Mai is capable of sensing me so fast" Aya chuckled and shook her head.
"I don't understand, how can Mai know of your existence right when it happened?"
"Mai is the goddess of creation and life, everything that dies and comes into being has to pass through her first so she definitely knew the moment I woke up" Aya explained with a frown " I think the joke's on me for thinking that I could outwit them" Aya laughed.
'I really wonder how she could laugh in this kind of situation' Amira wondered in her head.
"Because when I lose my calm, I do stupid things" Aya turned to Amira with a smirk.
"Wait, did you just get in my head?" Amira questioned sternly.
"No you idiot, I'm literally part of you so I can know whatever that you are thinking of" Aya replied " Take it as you are my Makri just that in this case, our souls are connected into one and I can't exist without you and you without me"
"That is a lot to take in and very weird and scary" Amira absorbed the information " So what happens if I get injured?"
"That my dear one is a no no, you can't get injured or get sick or anything; You are now practically immortal and you are on par with a Makri, you can even surpass her if our power fully awakens" Aya said cheerily.
"What?" Amira frowned more "So then why am I feeling these stupid aches?"
"That's because one of the gods is putting a restraining spell on me so I can't use my power but since you are literally me, the spell is also restraining your abilities as a fully functional human as well" Aya explained.
"So how do I stop it because I might go insane from just these pains?"Amira asked.
"Just a moment, I know exactly what to do" Aya replied and took three steps backwards.
She turned and faced the east and started chanting in a language which was unfamiliar to Amira, after a few minutes she returned to Amira's side.
"It's done, you should feel okay now" Aya said.
"Wait, so you are just able to counter attack another god's spell just like that" Amira asked after she strayed feeling a little bit fine.
Aya laughed "Dear, you forget I used to be the second most powerful being, right after the Supreme One. The only god who can stand against me and win is Mai, the rest I can handle them"
"That's..... good to hear" Amira said with an evil smirk, her very diabolic plan of eradicating Lady already being put into plan " That's very good to hear"
"Yes, it is but that doesn't mean that they can't stand against me, it's only a matter of time before they find another method or worse, Mai confronts me" Aya sighed "Anyways, let's see if I can get you some protection spells for the time being" she added and stood up looking around the hut to find to see how she was going to lay her spells in it.