Summary
Soon after the night sky turns starless, Athena appears in front of Mariya, easily taking the Gorgoneion from her and almost killing her, before Godou arrives and saves her with his golden sword. Entering the space created by his Authority, Godou uses all the knowledge he gained from Erica to fight a now-adult Athena, who grows weaker and weaker as he recites her past and history. A well-timed combo with Erica’s aid allows Godou to beat Athena, reverting her back to her child form, though Godou allows her to go provided she doesn’t carry on interfering.
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Impression
All this trouble for a little stone slab – granted, it could also result in the world meeting its sticky end, so I suppose someone had to fix the problem before things got out of hand. It would have been awesome if Godou had somehow managed to use the Gorgoneion’s powers to boost his own or get a new ability, but in the end we never did see what it could really do other than revert Athena to her original, much more intimidating form, which also happens to not be a loli. We take her more seriously when she isn’t making death threats as a kid, anyway.
This is our second god battle, and I think things are still a bit too peachy for Godou. He’s surprisingly learnt a lot (probably from Erica and her french kissing) over a short time span, and can now handle Athena alone just by using information and Verethragna’s Authority. After pulling out Unlimited Blade Works (I have no idea what it’s really called) Athena’s snakes still weren’t much of a problem for him, even though Athena’s supposed to be the goddess of wisdom, snakes, darkness and all that. This is the Gorgoneion powered-up version of her as well, whereas Godou without his sword quickly died to her loli form. That gold sword and all the Authorities that come with Verethragna’s powers are definitely making life too easy for Godou. I hope we get an enemy no-one knows anything about soon, instead of Erica giving Godou all the info he needs with each god that passes by the area so he can utterly defeat them.
At least the fight was both flashy and informative, which is a combo that’s quite hard to come by nowadays. Godou reciting a list of facts and stories taught me much about Athena that I never knew before – that she had connections to Medusa and was the goddess of the underworld as well as of war and wisdom. We always get different portrayals of Greek gods in popular fiction culture that are difficult to all track, but the depiction of her as a loli (that conveniently lost her clothes after being beaten) is one that I won’t forget soon, being so very typical of anime. I wouldn’t be surprised if she returns as either an ally or a haremette in the near future, to help Godou out of his latest fix.
Before that though, I think we’re heading back to school life for a bit, for our god-slaying Demon Lord to be surrounded by a bunch of pretty girls yet again after destroying more of the Earth’s landscape. As if he didn’t have enough of a harem already…