Karnasos

Khaos's sky was streaked by shooting lights flying low overhead.

After leaving the mortal camp, Aglaea did not linger nearby.

She flew onward, bathing in the warm sunlight. In the distance, she vaguely saw the shadow of a golden chariot passing by.

Apparently noticing her presence, Apollo, dressed in full regalia, nodded in her direction.

"Greetings, esteemed Apollo."

She spoke softly and returned his gesture with a broad smile, using it to dispel some of the worry in her heart.

She then continued forward, flying back along the route she had taken here.

After crossing an unknown distance, the ruins of Karnasos Holy Spring finally came into view. The goddess gradually slowed down.

She roused the divine authority within her. The next moment, as an inexplicable sense of fear welled up from the surrounding environment, Aglaea, who had been prepared, cut it off at its very source.

She knew that this was a trace left behind by a fragment of the Mother Tree's will, as well as the location of the holy spring prepared by the Goddess of Youth for Hera.

Because the authority of the Heavenly Queen had once clashed with the source of corruption here, the place had been left with an indelible influence.

This power could not affect deities, but it could easily cause beings without divinity to unconsciously perceive certain forbidden scenes.

Thus, the former holy land had been completely abandoned, and Hera had razed the ruins of the city.

Although the evil creatures had been mostly wiped out, the holy spring had undergone some strange transformation in such an environment. Even so, none of this could change the fact that the place was no longer habitable.

If not for investigating Hebe's whereabouts, even the Heavenly Queen would probably have been unwilling to approach this place...