บท 187: Chapter 9 - Part 3 - Downfall and Stance
Third Person Point of View
— ○ ● ○ —
They didn't know when it happened, but it came suddenly. It was during a certain period in the previous year before Lapis left on her journey. Because her powers were still above the gods of the Draconic Deus, she fooled them all—and because they never informed Aaron of it, the event was left unchecked.
An illusion was put in Valhalla, an illusion that fooled the gods. They believed that the warriors and heroes were still in there, training and eating, waiting for Ragnarök to start, and when it did, they would finally leave and fight.
However, once the illusion was dispelled after Lapis' death, they panicked and looked everywhere. They didn't want to bother Aaron Toole because of his involvement in the Rating Game World Tournament, but after searching high and low with help from other pantheons and factions, they were left with no choice but to contact him.
When they did, he confirmed their suspicions: the Khaos Order were the ones that took them, but what left them baffled was only something a few higher-ups knew: that they were staying with them willingly. Aaron only told them that some rogue valkyries and other terrorists from different species told them the 'truth' and 'opened their eyes' to everything.
And that was when they changed sides; however, unknown to them, a small device was used on them to alter their thoughts slightly. This was created with the collective effort of all scientists and researchers in the organization—Avezza, before she changed sides, also contributed to it. Other beings from the Evie faction and the Phantasma faction also contributed to it before they were shut out from moving universes.
This was what Jorgeir told Rossweisse and Göndul; both were obviously confused and in shock. He had told them about their improved strength thanks to the help of the Khaos Order—that no matter how hard they trained, they couldn't overcome a wall, a natural wall that limited their growth, but thanks to the Khaos Order, he could overcome it. No, not just him, but many of his comrades, as well as the previous valkyries that went MIA.
"Y-you can't be serious, Jorgeir…" mumbled Göndul. "W-what about our promise? The one when we were young?"
"People change, Göndul. But since I told you of the truth, that Ragnarök will never come, that we're merely wasting our time over there, and that the true villain is…" he turned to face Aaron, who had arrived near them. "That man right there—all this started because of him. If we rid the world of him, then peace can be achieved."
'Well, he's technically not wrong. The fact that I was accidentally chosen by Azathoth started all of this…' thought Aaron while staring back at Jorgeir.
Both women had complicated emotions towards these accusations—in a way, they knew that everything in their world and in the universe started because of Aaron's reincarnation. If he wasn't reincarnated there, if he wasn't chosen, perhaps they wouldn't be subjected to all of this.
But at the same time, they can't undo what has been done. Whether that was Aaron's reincarnation or what they were facing right now.
"No, that's my fiancé. You may be my grandfather, but I can't let you do that in good conscience; there has to be a different way, please…" Rossweisse begged.
"Rossweisse, I love you as my granddaughter, but I've never felt more shame than when I found out you were part of this scum's harem—even worse, when you became engaged to him!" said Jorgeir.
"Even if you couldn't inherit our family's styles, you learned and mastered others quite quickly and excelled in your studies; I heard all of this as I spied over you two over the years. I was proud, very much so, but when HE came into your lives, everything changed—and it was for the worse," Jorgeir said in disgust while physically scrunching his face when looking at Aaron.
Jorgeir suddenly pulled out a halberd and pointed it at Aaron. "Outer God—Duel me. I may have joined the Khaos Order, but I still have my pride and honor. I will not attack you like a coward."
Normally, Aaron would have accepted this, but with how things are right now, he wasn't sure. At the same time, he didn't want to disappoint the two women with him or prove Jorgeir's thoughts on him, whatever they were.
Aaron was waiting for Jorgeir to finish his strange speech to dispel the influence on his mind, so he held his hand up and dispelled it. Jorgeir stared at him for a few seconds before he thrust his spear further towards Aaron.
"I did not stutter, Jin Skyward! If you want my approval of your engagement with my granddaughter, defeat me in a duel!" he declared.
'…This guy is insane…' Aaron stared at Jorgeir and decided to accept. He would end it quickly and get on with today's operation. "Fine."
"Then we will begin, now!" he shouted.
Jorgeir then flew towards Aaron and slashed his halberd down at him. Aaron moved his body slightly and avoided the attack, but the older man in front of him poured his mana into the weapon, and smaller blades shot out from the sides of the halberd. Aaron, in response, slapped the halberd away, knocking Jorgeir away too.
"Dear, stop this!" shouted Göndul.
"No! I'm fighting him!" he barked back, stunning her. Then, the gears in Göndul's head started spinning, and she came to a conclusion.
"Aaron! Was he mind controlled, and did you just dispel it!?" Göndul shouted at him.
Aaron removed his Balance Breaker's helmet and wryly smiled. "Yeah. But the item that the Khaos Order used was more like influencing them over time, so it's not full-on mind control. So after I dispelled it—especially with stubborn people, whatever they wanted to do while they were being influenced, they would want to keep on pursuing that."
"Jorgeir, you stubborn fool, stop!!" Göndul screeched.
"Nooooooooooooooooooo!! I don't want to! I'm fighting him, and you can't stop meeeeeeeee!!" he roared back at her.
'…How in God's name did your marriage last that long…?' Aaron asked himself.
[Good dicking?]
{Are you just…horny 24/7? Or are you genuinely insane now?}
Aaron sighed; it seemed like everyone around him was the one who had gone insane. Although he knew the old man in front of him wasn't doing this out of malicious spite anymore, he was stubborn to a fault from what he could see, and the only way he could stop it was by beating him.
He looked at both Göndul and Rossweisse and mouthed, 'I'm sorry' before he rushed towards Jorgeir.
[EX Impact Booster!!]
Turning both his fists into his [Rook]'s gauntlets, he threw a punch with his right arm at Jorgeir. He stopped his swing and tried to block the attack, but Aaron added [Penetrate] to his attack, and his fist slammed into Jorgeir's face, sending him away.
"Not yet! I'm not done!!" roared Jorgeir. His face had the imprint of a fist; he had lost some teeth; and his nose was broken and bleeding. He charged back at Aaron while whaling like a walrus.
'Don't kill him, don't kill him, don't kill him,' Aaron repeated in his head over and over. He dodged the thrust of the spear, and Jorgeir continued to kick him with his right leg, but Aaron caught it and kicked him instead in the balls.
"Ooooohh…oohhh…!" moaned the older man. He had let go of his weapon and clutched his private parts. Aaron planned on ending it, so he punched him again—while he flew away, he charged up his cannons behind his back.
"…Uh, do it, I guess?" he mumbled.
[EX Blaster Booster?]
A (weak) blast of draconic energy left his cannon and hit Jorgeir before exploding. The skies above the main island of Asgard shook softly. Once the smoke cleared, it showed a defeated old man. He was bleeding all over his body as he floated there, staring at the sky. Aaron, Göndul, and Rossweisse flew over to him, and he seemed to have calmed down.
"Did you calm yourself?" Göndul asked, touching his cheek.
"Did you accept that brat's proposal while you were still married to me?" he suddenly asked, surprising everyone.
"…I never proposed to her?" answered Aaron, confused by the outlandish accusation.
"Did you forget that you told all the 'valkyries' that day that you'd like them to have your children?" asked Jorgeir.
"…I meant that towards Rossweisse, Brynhildr, and the squad that she leads," he clarified. He looked at Göndul, who had a complicated smile on her face. '…Why?!'
"I wish to become a frog," Jorgeir suddenly said, confusing everyone even more. "They referred to you as an Outer god, and while I don't wholly understand it, it means you're a powerful god, right? More powerful than the ones in our universe—so turn me into one—"
Göndul suddenly slapped him, stopping the old man from rambling on more. "Have you gone mad? What are you spouting!?"
Jorgeir tried to play it off like he was dying, but Göndul was having none of it and squeezed his cheeks so hard that she drew blood. "Speak…!"
"Ow, ow, ow…w-wait Göndul, s-stop!" begged the man. He was about to continue when Aaron turned around and created a barrier around them. Rogue valkyries began to attack them from a distance.
"I'll deal with them with Rose; we'll let both of you have some time together. I'll leave this barrier here," said Aaron, who then flew away with Rossweisse to kill or capture more of their enemies.
— ○ ● ○ —
"Bryn—woah, what's that?" asked Helmwige. "It looks like the [Boosted Gear] Scale Mail; did you do that combination thing with Aaron!?"
"Yes." Brynhildr told them of what happened and ordered them to try to speak to the others before making their judgment.
"Mmm…well, we've already captured a few," said Schwertleite. She pointed behind them, and Brynhildr saw around fifteen valkyries tied up in magic rope and having anti-magic handcuffs on them.
"They didn't say much though; they said about being enlightened or something," added Helmwige while patting one of the sleeping valkyries on the head. "We'll just—"
A heavy blizzard started as Helmwige was about to explain more to her captain. This blizzard encompassed the entire area, and they knew where it came from.
"Lavinia-san is probably fighting someone now, or she's just doing this to make things easier for us," mumbled Grimgerde.
"Regardless—we must keep fighting and capturing them, and I believe Aaron will go and confront Óðr. I received a small notification from Cúntóir that he defeated Jorgeir just now, so both Óðr, Snaemar, and Hrtill are the only ones left," explained the captain of the valkyries.
"The other places are being swarmed by past captains of other squads that went MIA a few years ago. They definitely brought other allies with them, but the ones deployed to those places will be fine on their own," she added, looking at the sleeping valkyries one more time.
"Vidar-sama, Thor-sama, Baldur-sama, and Odin-sama are on different islands too, so our gods are spread apart, but—it seems that several shadow soldiers are guarding the area that houses both Hel and Loki-sama, so we won't need to worry about them breaking them out," Helmwige explained while looking at a magic circle.
"We—"
Brynhildr created a barrier around them and blocked an attack—above them were two valkyries, two magicians, and several other humans in a certain uniform.
"Naz—" Helmwige was stopped by Ortlinde.
"Look, we know, you don't need to say it. We got some messages from Kuroka that they gloat about that, okay?" said Ortlinde.
"I won't make it easy for you," said a voice. A large battle axe crashed into it, and it made the island tremble.
"That's…Hrtill-sama. I didn't think you would be here to face us," said Brynhildr. She turned to face him, and he picked up his battle axe and placed it over his shoulder.
"The one and only! I'll bring your fine ladies to our side. We need more of you after all—once we destroy the barriers of our universe, we will liberate the other worlds and universes and start the true Ragnarök."
All of them became confused—they had no idea what this man was talking about. However, they were slightly surprised to know that he knew of the multiverse. Although it wasn't too surprising given the fact that he had been with the Khaos Order for a couple of months and must have been given information about it.
"T-true Ragnarök? What are you saying, Hrtill-sama?" asked Schwertleite.
"Ragnarök will never come in our universe; that's why we will aim to start it in different ones! We will be hailed as heroes in it if we quell the disaster there!" he explained cheerfully.
All of the valkyries in Brynhildr's squad thought of the same thing at the same time—that Hrtill, the warrior that they previously looked up to, had gone insane.
"Why? You always wanted to protect the weak and serve our gods; why change now?" Helmwige asked, a look of agitation and despair on her face.
"I was enlightened. At first, I and many others thought that what the Khaos Order was telling us was pure nonsense, but when we thought about it, it made sense. If what that dragon is trying to achieve in our universe is peace—then Ragnarök won't come, so…what was the reason for us fighting, training, and dying for if it never comes?"
"It doesn't make sense, right? So, if we can't have it here, then a different universe with a worse economy would be better, right? All we need to do is start it up—we start Ragnarök, and we become the heroes in the end, and then we'll be hailed as the new gods of that world! It's genius!" shouted Hrtill, giddy with excitement.
In Norse mythology, Ragnarök is a foretold series of impending events, including a great battle in which numerous great Norse mythological figures will perish (including the gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdall, and Loki); it will entail a catastrophic series of natural disasters, including the burning of the world, and culminate in the submersion of the world underwater. After these events, the world will rise again, cleansed and fertile; the surviving and returning gods will meet; and the world will be repopulated by two human survivors, Líf and Lífþrasir.
"…What about the people? The humans in the—"
Helmwige was stopped as Hrtill pointed his battle axe at her. "The weak need to die; the strong will be the only ones left in this world. Humans do not provide us anything—and if any humans are left after the True Ragnarök, then we will force them to worship us so we can become even stronger, because we will be the new age gods."
A sad expression appeared on his face. "We protected them in the shadows for many years and prevented many disasters from befalling them, yet they nearly put each other into extinction because of such petty things? Humans are nothing but slightly more intelligent animals, and at the end of the day, they're weaker than most low-level valkyries."
"So, if we take control of them and limit their reproduction to only the strongest, maybe we'll reconsider their existence, but that may take a long time—but as gods, we can live for as long as we want." Hrtill had finished his explanation, leaving Brynhildr's squad perplexed by his thinking.
"…You're being insane. Do you plan on starting Ragnarök on this planet or not? You keep referring to humans, but there's no guarantee that the humans of a different universe are the same as the ones here; they could be more advanced or have different ethics and morals!" shouted Helmwige.
Hrtill shrugged. "Who knows? I personally won't partake in whatever plans the Khaos Order has for this universe after this; I will solely focus on the other universe. Whether they have the same or different humans is inconsequential to me; I will correct them by starting Ragnarök."
An enormous amount of aura left his body, and he smiled at them. "Enough talk—it's quite obvious that you will get in our way, so I will first defeat you and then open your eyes to the truth."
As Brynhildr prepared to step forward, Helmwige stopped her. "Let me, Brynhildr-senpai. This is personal," she said, standing in front of her squad.
Brynhildr stared at her for a few seconds and agreed. "Alright, we'll take on the rest then."
To Helmwige, this fight was personal. Hrtill was the one who inspired her to use the battle axe; she had trouble using countless weapons in the past, but eventually, she met this man by chance when she visited Valhalla for the first time. That was when they first met, and she saw the battle axe and wanted to replicate the man she saw back then. To Helmwige, Hrtill was the cool uncle she always wanted to have.
If beating him up was the only way to bring him back to his senses, then she would take full responsibility for it.
"So you're facing me? Very well, come at me!!" he shouted and slammed his battle axe to the ground.
The rest of the valkyrie squad flew towards the others with Hrtill, while Helmwige stopped his attack with her own swing of her battle axe.
"I have more experience with this weapon, you know? I inspired you to take it up, didn't I?" he asked while rapidly swinging his axe at her.
Helmwige didn't say anything, as she simply defended herself against the attacks. He smiled, forcefully made his muscles bigger, and began to overpower Helmwige through sheer physical strength. However, the woman in question was still holding back, and upon feeling this, she also used more of her power. Once she did, she was the one pushing him back now.
Helmwige created a magic circle behind him and sent an ice ball towards him. With a grin on his face, Hrtill made his own and destroyed hers with a fireball. Suddenly, the man let go of his axe and sent a punch towards Helmwige, which she blocked with her free hand, but again the man spun around and sent a kick towards her, and it connected, knocking her away and crashing through several buildings.
Hrtill walked towards Helmwige and said, "One does not simply rely on their prized weapon, Helmwige. As a veteran valkyrie, I thought you would know that by now."
Numerous flaming spears were suddenly thrown at him, and Hrtill sliced them apart using his battle axe. He sighed disappointedly and was about to lecture her again when he felt danger on his left side. He reflexively used his weapon to block whatever was coming. However, he was met with a kick on his other side, knocking him away.
Helmwige, with a serious look on her face, said, "You should take your own advice, Hrtill-sama."
Normally, Helmwige wasn't the type to take things too seriously. There were exceptions, obviously, but generally she liked to have a positive outlook on life, even before getting a fiancé. She did go on some dates, but they never went anywhere, but she didn't let that get her down.
She kept the same mindset during training and missions too, and while she did butt heads with some of her teammates at times, generally, her upbeat and positive attitude is what kept them going during it, and she's an integral part of their squad because of that.
She swung her battle axe vertically and sent a singular aura slash at Hrtill. The older man had gotten up and done the same thing, but to his surprise, his aura slash was overpowered and then destroyed by Helmwige's. He grinned and blocked the aura slash with his axe, but he saw that he couldn't destroy it, so he redirected the attack towards the sky.
"Hmm. I take back what is said, young valkyrie; you're a lot more powerful and have more mastery over the battle axe than I thought. Very well, I'll take you seriously now!"
Hrtill charged at Helmwige at greater speeds than before; he arrived in front of her and swung his axe upwards. Helmwige could follow it, so she took a single step back, forcing it to miss; however, Hrtill had already started firing a light ball at him using his magic circle.
But to his surprise, Helmwige pointed her finger towards it and negated the magic attack. With the same hand, she clenched it into a fist and slammed it into the man's face, blowing him away again and destroying several buildings in the process.
"We will aid you, Hrtill!" two magicians shouted and stood in front of the down man. They began firing magic towards Helmwige, who dodged them and, in a single quick motion, sliced the two magicians in half.
"Don't get in my way; this is between me and him!" she shouted angrily.
"Hah! I like it; let's continue then!" shouted Hrtill. His face had an imprint on it, and he was bleeding profusely through the nose, but the look of excitement never left his face.
— ○ ● ○ —
"I love subverting expectations, but man, you two bitches are really boring. Didn't I tell you I was immune to ice-type abilities? I'm the perfect counter," said a youkai.
"And I have lava and flames for innate abilities; they're really stupid, eh?" said a monster.
In front of both Lavinia and Suzaku were a youkai, a monster, and a magician. The magician was someone Lavinia recognized—they were previously part of Grauzauberer but did not come back from a certain assignment that was given to them, so they were presumed dead.
When a few magicians were sent to the location of said assignment, they only found one of their severed hands and a ruffled sack they had brought with them. For all intents and purposes, assuming they had perished during the mission was the most logical step. However, those magicians did a thorough search of that location but found nothing.
"Calm down, you two; we get to fight the famous Ice Queen and head of the Himejima clan; it's quite an honor, really," said the magician. He took off his robe and smiled at them.
He had short, messy black and white hair, an eye patch on his right eye, and several scars around his face. He wore the typical blue robe that magicians wore and had a small wooden wand in his mechanical left hand.
"It's been a while, Reni-senpai. I take it you're well?" he asked and then laughed. "Well, seeing as how your moniker has changed and that you're quite famous for being the Dual Dragon Emperor's 'Queen', I would assume so."
"Do you know him, Lavinia?" Suzaku asked, staring at the man.
"…It's been a while, Jaxon. We thought you died, but if you survived, why did you disappear and why did you join them?" Lavinia asked.
'I see, so he was part of the Grauzauberer—and he apparently died? This may be a bit more complicated than I thought…' Suzaku stared at the man while she summoned [Zhuque].
"They simply got to me first, Reni-senpai. Nothing more, nothing less, and you also know how I feel about things in that regard, yes?"
Lavinia frowned. "That you will repay anyone regardless of who or what they are?" she asked.
"Precisely. I am simply doing that. They saved me, so I let myself be experimented on and partake in missions for them; saving my life can't be repaid by merely doing a few things like that—well, that's what I think," explained Jaxon.
"Enough talk, let me at 'em!!" shouted the monster as flames and lava erupted from his body.
"…Yes, let's proceed with this," agreed Jason.
Jaxon pointed his wand at them and created twenty magic circles that fired lightning bolts from them. The monster thrust both his arms forward and created a vortex with a mix of lava and flames. The youkai fired touki bullets as well as ice balls towards the both of them.
"Kyu-chan…" muttered Lavinia. A giant ice dragon materialized behind her and gently breathed towards the three, completely freezing their attacks.
"Huh!? How the hell can you freeze lava and fire!? That doesn't make sense!" complained the monster.
"Well, I didn't expect much from my ice attack either, kuku," chuckled the youkai.
"Calm yourself, Iclo. It's to be expected with ice, Leviros," said Jaxon.
The monster named Iclo was a mix of an unknown creature that lived in lava—normally that would be impossible, but because the supernatural exists in this universe, supernatural life found a way. This monster had the innate ability to use lava and fire-related abilities.
Iclo had long, waving red hair, glowing orange eyes, and a bulky build with a rock-like frame and texture to his body. Various cracks and lines riddled his body, and some lava occasionally glowed.
Leviros was the rare 'snow man', like the Yuki-onna or snow woman in Japanese folklore. When these youkai mate, they usually breed with human males and only birth females in the species, but there are rare births where a male Yuki-onna is born—usually referred to as Yuki-otoko.
Usually, they would be either unique or stronger than most of their species, as the male that the Yuki-onna had to mate with was usually exceptional—hence why the Yuki-otoko is usually stronger than their female counterparts. Although they have a very short lifespan compared to their female counterparts.
Leviros is just that kind of youkai; he was born strong, but his strength was amplified even more by the Khaos Order, and now he has a small god complex.
He had powerful ice abilities and had complete mastery over them; he could also use [Frostburn], which was a unique flame type as it held both ice and flame properties. He could freeze and burn his opponents at the same time while being resistant to flame and ice to a certain degree.
"Did you need assistance, Suzaku?" Zhuque asked while scanning the enemies.
Suzaku nodded and stared at the Yuki-otoko for a few seconds, and then they disappeared in a burst of flames.
"Wha—!? Where did they go!?" Iclo asked, surprised by their sudden disappearance.
"They'll be fine—Suzaku will be done with him shortly," replied Lavinia. Her friendly attitude was gone, and a cold woman stood in front of them.
"Yes, yes, that's the face I always saw whenever someone you didn't like interacted with you—or when you went on solo assignments by Mephisto-san, kuku, that's the 'Ice Princess' we knew," said Jaxon.
"Speaking any longer would be pointless, wouldn't it? You won't change your mind," Lavinia said, summoning a wand and pointing it up. Kyu-chan, who was behind her, glared at the remaining two, and magic circles appeared all around them.
"Well…" Jaxon stared at Lavinia's body and smiled. "There could be a way. Of course, with consent, I'm not scum after all."
Lavinia felt disgust and showed it through her facial expression. "I will respectfully decline." After that, she unleashed a variety of spells on them, not once holding back.
"You're on your own, pal!" Iclo shouted before turning into lava and avoiding the attacks.
Jaxon smiled and put his arm with the mechanical hand forward. Several layers of magic circles appeared and absorbed the magic attacks that Lavinia fired, but after a bit of absorbing, Jaxon jumped away from the area where she had aimed them at.
'He can absorb them, but has a limit; after that…' Lavinia stared at his hand, which started glowing various colors before becoming dull again. Jaxon stared at his hand for a bit before letting out a sigh of relief. '…A chance to overheat? I'll aim for that then; maybe I can bring him back.'
Lavinia knew that the technology and equipment the Khaos Order has are limited because of the limited universal travel that Aaron allowed, so what they had made should only work to a certain degree. With that in mind, she decided to destroy Jaxon's arm first.
"Kyu-chan, Alo-chan, and Cyuno-chan, play with Iclo for me; don't kill him though," ordered Lavinia. She then turned her attention to Jaxon and grabbed his hand after appearing beside him.
Panicked, Jaxon tried to punch her, but was elbowed in the face before being thrown to a nearby island. They were near an island in the south; Aaron hadn't been informed of it, but there were constructions of new ones after his visit, as the Norse Gods wanted more people to move to their realm after having a few cultural exchanges.
This island that Lavinia was fighting on was one of them—on the other side were Suzaku, Zhuque, and Leviros. It wasn't as large as the main island, but it could support a population of fifteen thousand at best.
In the distance, Iclo was being toyed with by Lavinia's three summons. Kyu-chan created a small ice dome that trapped all of them so Iclo couldn't escape easily. The monster tried to melt everything that was thrown at him, but to his confusion and horror, his flames and lava were frozen, which didn't make any sense to him at all.
"Come on! For fuck sake!" he shouted in frustration. Switching his tactics, he flew over to Alo-chan and tried to kick the ice kyuubi, who avoided the attack and hit him with her tails, sending him crashing into the ice dome.
"Piece of shit…" dense and large quantity of flames erupted all around his body, and more lava oozed out. When his anger hits its peak, that's when Iclo is at his strongest, and usually, he would defeat or kill whoever he was facing then—if the person he was facing was equal to or slightly stronger than him.
He brought his arms closer to his chest and crossed them. He continued to gather a large quantity of lava and flames around the middle of his chest and planned on unleashing them all around him—he was planning on turning himself into a mini-sun to destroy everything around itself.
He grinned to himself once he was done charging his attack. "Take this! Supernova!!!" he roared before spreading his arms and legs and unleashing his attack. A mix of lava and flames erupted from him in a ball.
Kyu-chan, along with the rest, watched this happen, slightly intrigued, but near the end, they were all fed up and were about to kill him when Iclo had finished charging up his attack and unleashed it. As the attack slowly increased in size and started to reach the walls of the ice dome, Kyu-chan blew a weak ice breath attack at Iclo's attack.
"This is my strongest attack, like that would—"
Kyu-chan's attack completely froze his attack; it had instantly stopped expanding and had turned into a ball of ice around them, shocking the monster. He couldn't believe his eyes as he kept staring at it in shock.
"Fuck—" Alo-chan rushed towards him and headbutted him in the stomach. The ice bird, Cyuno-chan, followed it up by freezing his lower half, and finally Kyu-chan raised his arm and slapped Iclo to the bottom of the ice dome, knocking him out.
Kyu-chan gestured with his head, and both Alo-chan and Cyuno-chan encased the rest of his body with ice. Once they were done, Kyu-chan destroyed the top half of the dome, and they watched their master deal with the former magician's acquaintance.
Jaxon had pulled himself up from the island's grounds, and he began firing numerous spells towards Lavinia, who blocked them all using magic circles or freezing them using her Sacred Gear. She hadn't stopped her blizzard yet, but she saw that he had to continuously use fire magic to stop himself from being frozen.
"Please surrender; you know it's futile," Lavinia said above Jaxon.
"If you go on a date with me, then I will," he said, laughing. Lavinia sighed and stopped there. She wanted to try to convince him, but she knew that Jaxon was stubborn and wouldn't do things the easy way, even back when he was still part of the Grauzauberer.
Lavinia pointed her right arm towards Jaxon, who reflexively made more defensive magic circles, but as he tried to move, he couldn't. The more he tried, the more panicked he became. Soon he started to sweat, confused about why he couldn't move.
He went to shout towards his senior but found that he couldn't speak—and when he tried to move again, he couldn't even do that; he had become stiff as a board.
'W-what…is happening…?!' thought Jaxon.
Lavinia had essentially frozen time around him in a big enough bubble that only affected Jaxon and nothing else—she was tempted to freeze his atoms but wasn't sure what would happen, so she decided to go with this. Lavinia created a small ice pebble and threw it at Jaxon—as soon as it entered the 'bubble' it froze.
'She…did she freeze time…in a certain—how?! Her Sacred Gear can't do that! Unless…'
Lavinia smiled at him. "Did you keep up to date with the news in your organization? [Tempest Extinction] that's the name of my Sacred Gear now, I can freeze anything in the known universe—maybe even the multi- or omniverse? I'm not sure yet, I haven't tried freezing the actual universe yet…only that [Pocket Universe] I fought Suzaku and Velgrynd in," she explained while floating towards him.
"I'm going to tell Mephisto-san to reeducate you and punish you, Jaxon. For now, sleep," she said, and Jaxon's vision went dark. 'Suzaku, do you need help?' Lavinia telepathically.
'No, I'm fine. Please go over to the other islands; I'll join you soon,' replied Suzaku.
'Okay~'
— ○ ● ○ —
On the other side of the island, Suzaku watched Zhuque, in her human form, deal with the Yuki-otoko. Zhuque wasn't taking the youkai seriously, as she would simply match the youkai's attacks with her own flames.
"It seems neither of us are taking this seriously, boy. Tell me this—why?" asked Zhuque.
"Why would I take women seriously?" he asked, snickering at her. "I have stood above them since my conception; they are below me, and even the ones in this current organization are below me. Why would I take you of all people seriously? You are below me."
He sighed, observed both Zhuque's and Suzaku's bodies a second time, and nodded to himself. "However, I will allow either or both of you to be my concubine—your bodies are of high quality after all."
Zhuque created small firebirds around her and ordered them to attack Leviros. The Yuki-otoko smiled after he knew he got under the woman's skin; he created several icy-blue flames around him and countered the attacks Zhuque sent to him.
However, to his surprise, they overpowered his [Frostburn], so he was forced to dodge the attacks, but again, he was surprised that they followed him, so he maneuvered around the area before firing several touki bullets infused with ice at them, canceling both attacks out.
"I will—" He was about to make another speech when he felt someone else behind him, and when he turned around, what awaited him was a palm strike to the chin, putting him in a daze. It was then followed up by a kick to his face, sending him to the island's ground.
Suzaku was the one who had done that, and Zhuque quickly joined her, and they combined two fireballs before sending them to where he crashed. Leviros didn't react in time and was blasted away by the fiery ball; however, Suzaku looked at the island with worry as she didn't want to cause unnecessary damage, even though they were given the okay to damage everything since Aaron would repair it afterward.
"You think that's enough to beat me!?" Leviros' voice hollered from below them. Once the smoke and debris cleared, they saw him with a few burns and bruises, but he hadn't been defeated. "As usual, the slow and simple-minded women thought wrong!"
"We may need to use more, Suzaku. It also seems that he may be a misogynist—or at the very least, his ego is so big that he gave himself a god complex," said Zhuque.
"Yes, I agree," said Suzaku.
Suzaku stared at the man below them; she had never met someone who seemed to hate women as much as him. It felt a bit strange to her, as she's been around people who are respectful of them; even her late great-uncle, who was a terrible human being, treated her somewhat respectfully when teaching her about their traditions and systems.
Suzaku and Zhuque touched hands before both were shrouded in bright red and orange light—they had begun the [Spiritual Symbiosis]—they had begun to merge. The last time she used this was when she fought Lavinia and Velgrynd, but it didn't last long as using it at maximum power made [Zhuque] tired as she wasn't at the same power level as Suzaku. However, if it's against Leviros, it should be enough.
Once their transformation was complete, they immediately flew down to Leviros. He hadn't healed his injuries at all, but he was angry enough to start attacking them by shooting icy-blue flames at them.
'Suzaku!'
'Yes!' Suzaku made a diamond shape with both her hands index fingers and thumb. The flame around her body began to pulse, and once the blue flames that Leviros shot at them touched Suzaku's outstretched hands, they were quickly absorbed, shocking him.
"What?! What did—!"
The flames around Suzaku changed, and they turned into the icy-blue flames that Leviros had used. Leviros was shocked and was unable to react on time when she arrived in front of him and blasted him with a point-blank shot of his own flames—however, unknown to him, she also added her own flames, mixing the two, but he couldn't see that since his eyes were instantly melted by the attack.
A mix of icy-blue and crimson-red flames scorched his body; the smell of melting flesh drifted through the area. The proud resistance he had meant nothing in front of Suzaku, as her higher level of raw power and control of flames overpowered his—he was resilient, not immune, so with enough power it could be bypassed.
Once her attack ended, all that was left of the man were his bones.
'Were we meant to keep him alive?' asked Zhuque. Cold sweat hit Suzaku's body as she stared at the dead youkai.
"Um…he was unique enough that he could be classified as what Aaron wanted to capture," mumbled Suzaku. "He won't hate me, right…?"
'You'll be fine; don't worry about it. Can't he resurrect him? Or at least just extract his powers from him,' reasoned Zhuque.
Suzaku nodded, feeling relieved. "Yes, you're correct. All of that is possible; let's not panic," she told herself. Suzaku erected a barrier around the corpse and flew away to join Lavinia and the others.
— ○ ● ○ —
Óðr floated in front of Aaron Toole and Rossweisse. He had started flying towards the northern islands but was stopped by them. He had planned on annihilating it, as that's where he and Freyja had lived prior to his disappearance.
"…Göndul's granddaughter is here to stop me along with the Outer God, so Jorgeir failed," he mumbled before looking past them both and squeezing his right hand shut.
"That won't work," said Aaron. "Any control you had on him is gone."
"…I will do it with my own hands then, after I kill both of you. You can't get in our way—you Longinus users—no, you Sacred Gear wielders are a threat to this universe. Especially you, Jin Skyward, an Outer God like you has no business here. Leave. You only make people's lives harder," he told him.
Snakes appeared around both his arms, and wrapped around them, they reached both his hands and slowly shaped themselves into brass knuckles that exuded a divine aura. As he was about to attack, he stopped when he saw someone familiar to him.
"Óðr!" a feminine voice shouted. Rossweisse turned to it while Aaron kept staring at the man.
"F-Freyja-sama!?" Rossweisse shouted in shock.
"Why did—" As Freyja began to ask him a question, a fist appeared in front of her face—time seemingly had slowed down as both Rossweisse and Freyja stared at Óðr's fist with the brass knuckles about to hit her in the face.
He was inches away from hitting her when Aaron's palm stopped it. The shockwave created was redirected towards Óðr and he was blown away by his own attack. The valkyrie and goddess floated there, stunned by the sudden action of Óðr.
"Óðr—"
"Freyja. He was influenced by a machine made by the Khaos Order; I've since dispelled it from them, but it seems Óðr still very much believes in whatever nonsense he's been told. This can end in two ways: I kill him, or I knock him out and we try to reason with him. Which do you want?" Aaron asked while staring at Óðr, who had recovered and was looking at them with fury.
Freyja looked between Aaron and her husband Óðr. Then back to Aaron, she said, "…Option two if possible."
"Alright. Wait there," he said and flew towards Óðr.
[EX Impact Booster!]
Aaron and Óðr's fists slammed against each other; draconic and divine auras surged forward and created small silhouettes around them—a snake for Óðr and a dragon for Aaron—and the realm shook as they continued their clash.
"You shouldn't make your wife sad like that," Aaron told the god in front of him while retracting his helmet.
"She is no wife of mine. The Freyja I knew is not that slut!" he shouted. Aaron didn't need to turn around to see it, but that clearly hurt the goddess behind him. "Or are you telling me to be a cuck? Are you a cuck, Outer God!?"
Aaron ignored the accusations thrown at him. "Didn't this start because you left?" he asked, getting a bit angry. "If you didn't—"
"You know nothing of the world; it would be wise to keep your mouth shut," sneered Óðr.
Aaron knew that no words would get through to the god, so he gave up on the idea. He amplified his strength even more and slammed his fist into Óðr's face, knocking the man away. He quickly flew after him and threw a barrage of punches and kicks all around his body. Óðr did his best to block and counter them, but he only managed to block a few as Aaron used [Penetrate] or some of his attacks.
The Óðr of this universe was a veteran fighter. He would use his divine aura to block certain attacks from Aaron by amplifying the divine aura of certain parts of his body, minimizing impact. However, this level of control cost him some of his power and stamina, so it was a risky play by the god.
He bided his time until he saw an opening and threw a divine punch towards the dragon, but he also dodged it, much to the annoyance of the god. He continued this strategy a few more times until he couldn't take it anymore, shrouding his body with divine aura and forcing Aaron away.
"Don't get cocky—a man like me can change everything. That's what Daniel-dono told me!" he said and glared at Aaron.
Behind his mask, Aaron simply smirked and said nothing. With even more power than earlier, Óðr flew back towards Aaron and started his own assault, but again, he didn't land a single hit; instead, every time Aaron countered, he hit him without trouble, further angering the god.
The right brass knuckle of Óðr suddenly transformed into a snake and attempted to bite Aaron; however, it only slammed against his [Infinity], confusing both of them. It then spat its venom towards him, but the results were the same as it hit the barrier between them.
"And here I thought you were a fair fighter," said Aaron.
"I do whatever it takes to win," replied Óðr, sounding even angrier.
Aaron grinned. "Fair enough, I won't fight fair then. I need you alive after all." Aaron threw a punch towards Óðr; the god was confused by this and easily blocked it. The punch wasn't anything special; it was slow and predictable, but…
Óðr was suddenly hit behind the head, confusing him. Aaron kept his smile on his face and threw another punch at him as the god let go of his other hand. Again, Óðr blocked it but was again hit behind the head by an invisible force.
He fired some divine aura bullets behind him, but they hit nothing, confusing him further. The smile on Aaron's face only further infuriated him. Aaron began to throw normal punches towards him, some not even reaching the god, but each and every time he did, Óðr felt different parts of his body being hit—the force wasn't so hard that he would be severely injured, but it would irritate him enough to get a rise out of him.
"Enough!" he shouted, letting a surge of divine aura burst from him, forcing Aaron away. But as he stood away from Óðr, Aaron punched the air beside him, and this time, Óðr was knocked away in a more violent manner, confusing him.
"You…what did you do…!?" he questioned, anger seething out of him.
"I'm not playing fair, just like you," replied Aaron.
As he can affect anything, he made it so that wherever or whatever he attacks will always hit, regardless of how he did it. Even if Aaron punched himself, Óðr would be the one affected. If Aaron summoned [Ascalon] and slit his own throat, Óðr would be the one to take the damage.
Aaron raised his right fist and struck his own gut. This confused Óðr until he felt something strike him and he clutched it—that was all the information he needed; he knew what was happening, and it made him angrier.
"You cheap filth…!"
Even more enraged, Óðr charged Aaron and sent a barrage of punches his way, but to his surprise, the dragon let him. But once his fists hit Aaron's body, he didn't flinch or react in any way—however, it dawned on him, and then seconds later, he felt the pain all around his body, and he began to fall into the void of Asgard.
The damage that he tried to inflict on Aaron had been redirected at himself, forcing him to feel his own strikes and power. Of course, it dealt a lot of damage, and even the god himself couldn't take it and fell unconscious after the lethal assault.
"Óðr!" Freyja cried and tried to fly towards him, but Rossweisse stopped her.
A few seconds later, his fall stopped, and the god looked up at Aaron with even more fury. He slowly flew back up and stared at Aaron, unsure of how to progress from here. From their short 'fight', he knew he couldn't touch him; anything he tried was useless, so he floated there, thinking of a new way of winning.
"So, how about surrendering, and we can move on from here?" Aaron asked.
"I would rather lose my divine powers and die than ever switch sides. Once you open your eyes to the world, you cannot go back. Do you realize how much damage the Sacred Gear wielders have caused in our universe? Especially since you showed up—you have completely destroyed the balance of powers in our universe!" Óðr shouted while pointing at him.
"Because of you and what you did, the multiverse, or at least certain universes with powerful entities, have taken notice of our world. They will eventually come here and kill us all—and it's all your fault. If you didn't do what you did, none of this would have happened. Your entire existence doomed our world," said Óðr.
Aaron chuckled while shaking his head, annoying Óðr further. "I won't deny that many of the things that are happening to this world are because of me. Hell, even you guys are the result of me. But even still, I'm going to protect this world because it's my home and I love everyone in it."
"And no, they won't be coming here because I made it impossible. You can twist it anyway you want, but the truth is that they're not coming here anymore—it's physically impossible. So with this new information, what will you do?" he asked.
Aaron stared at him as he fell silent. Óðr calmly looked back up at Óðr, smiling ear to ear.
"The Sacred Gear wielders still remain and will continue to cause chaos—for that reason alone, I can't let you or the rest of them live. Even if you prevented those things from happening, the inside of our universe will still be affected by your actions. A world without you—and the Sacred Gears—will be a better one," he told Aaron and shrouded his body with a divine aura.
"…You heard him, Freyja. What do you want to do?" Aaron asked, staring at Óðr.
"Please save him. I want to give him an earful," she said seriously behind him.
Aaron smiled and charged Óðr—the god sneered at him the whole time. Aaron disappeared and appeared behind him; he pulled his arm back and chanted some lines—
[The Jet-Black God of Infinity! The Glorious God of Dreams! Watch over the true forbidden existence we shall become that transcends the boundaries!]
"[<<Dragon ∞ Drive !!!!!!>>]"
Aaron's right arm partially transformed into his [Dragon Defication] arm, and he slammed it against Óðr's back. As he did this, he also created a barrier in the shape of a cube around them. Óðr was violently thrown away, and he crashed into the cube.
The god fell to the bottom of the cube and gasped for air. An imprint of his fist was visible on his back; he had been damaged to the point that he couldn't breathe normally, and he began to panic.
'A single hit from that form does this much…?! No…he's been holding back against me since he's adamant about taking me back with them due to Freyja!' thought the god as he looked back up, still gasping for air.
Suddenly, a metallic foot appeared in front of him, and he was slammed back against the cube's wall. He kept it there, and Óðr couldn't move an inch. Aaron's eyes glowed behind his helmet and he saw Óðr's future.
"Well…it's a different one than I saw, but it's better than nothing," he muttered, puzzling the god. He exited his armor, then sealed Óðr's powers and forced him to sleep. He also made it impossible for him to learn magic or any other supernatural powers, completely rendering him 'human'.
Once done, he grabbed Óðr and put him over his shoulder like a rucksack. He went back to Freyja and Rossweisse. "It's done—" Before he could continue, Aaron teleported them back to the main island and quickly flew over to Göndul and Jorgeir.
Göndul kneeled over Jorgeir, desperately trying to heal the wound in his stomach. Aaron quickly ran over and healed it, but he found something odd, so he removed it.
'That was…some sort of bug? It was eating away at his magic, which was weird, but…' he looked up and saw a Mothman-like creature floating above them, grinning at Göndul and Jorgeir.
"Thank you…" muttered Göndul as relief washed over her.
"Granny! Grandpa!" Rossweisse shouted and came over with Freyja and a sleeping Óðr.
"What happened?" asked Aaron.
"We were talking and also fighting; this old fool finally decided to come back to us, but that thing suddenly showed up and punched a hole through him. I tried to heal it, but my healing magic was slow—it seemed like something was preventing it from taking effect," explained Göndul. She became teary-eyed as she explained this.
Rossweisse's animosity immediately turned to the mothman-like creature, who snickered at them.
"I am one of Black Alice-sama's executives; call me—"
A fist went straight through the monster's stomach before it could continue. He was shocked and coughed up some purple blood. The one who had done that was Rossweisse, shocking her grandparents below. Rossweisse followed it up by firing a point-blank energy ball at him; this knocked her away from the spot, and she landed back on the ground—a furious expression was on her face.
Once the smoke cleared, they saw that the only thing that remained on the monster were parts of his torso, head, and a single leg. But he kept on smiling and quickly regenerated his missing parts.
"You know, all the executives in the Monkai Association have a powerful regeneration ability, right? Well, whatever. I'm called Okispe. The King of Insects!! Yeeee!!" the insect Okispe bellowed.
"Rose—"
"I know. Please leave this to me; there are more enemies here that keep showing up; please help with that instead, Aaron," said Rossweisse. She then activated her [True Ultra Instinct] and faced Okispe. "I'll end this quickly—you people have stepped foot in my home country for too long."
"Let's goooooooooo!!!" roared Okispe, only for Rossweisse to clock him right in the right temple, sending him flying into several buildings.
"Should we—"
Aaron cut Göndul off when he raised his right hand to their right side, blocking a punch from another man. A man with short, wavey white hair, a scar over his right eye, and who wore glasses appeared and attacked him.
Snaemar, a fellow warrior, came with Hrtill, Óðr and Jorgeir.
"S-Snaemar!? I thought you were going to Odin-sama," Jorgeir said in surprise while looking at his comrade.
"I let some monsters and youkai take care of 'em, along with another valkyrie that was set up to be the next 'Brynhildr', but fell flat; she has a bone to pick with 'em after all," replied the man.
"Stay there," Aaron said while creating a barrier around them. He then kicked Snaemar in the stomach, sending him away, and chased after him.
Once they were back in the void of the realm, Snaemar began to speak, but Aaron simply punched him in the face.
"I already know, and I don't care for you to repeat it. You side with Óðr's opinions, so it'll be like talking to a brick wall," he stated and repeatedly punched the man before knocking him away, his face badly bruised and bleeding.
"Kukukuku-hahahahaha! Well, if you already know that, then there's no need to talk!" Snaemar shouted, spitting blood every time he spoke.
Deer horns appeared on his head, and his legs turned into hooves. The wings of an eagle appeared behind his back, and finally the tail of a snake. Snaemar exuded auras of different species.
"…You let them experiment on you that much? Why?" Aaron asked.
With a sneer on his face, he said, "Because I was the weakest out of the ones that came today. Did you know what happened to the rest that didn't participate? ...We killed them! And with the help of the Khaos Order, we absorbed the rest of their powers, regardless of how insignificant they were—with us, we will be enough to start the True Ragnarök and kill the Sacred Gear wielders along with the system!"
Aaron sighed, angering Snaemar even more.
"You who were blessed with strength don't know the struggles of the weak—you're an arrogant womanizer who used that strength to go to the top of our universe. Stop acting like you know anything about the weak; it makes me sick!"
Aaron blinked in front of Snaemar and grabbed his face. "Don't act like you know everyone's struggles. What people show you in public is just a small percentage of what they are. Even if you're a warrior who previously made it to Valhalla, that doesn't give you the right—even I don't go assuming things of that nature towards people I just meet."
Aaron wanted to add, 'Even if I had the power and technical 'title' to do so, I don't', but he didn't. Snaemar cursed him out and began trying to attack him with the various new powers he was gifted by the scientists of the Khaos Order, but none of them could bypass his [Infinity].
He sealed his powers and froze him in midair. Aaron backed away, stared at him for a few seconds, and smirked. Aaron pointed his left arm upward and his right arm downward, confusing Snaemar.
Changing his eye's pupils to the slits, he made them glow and said, "Throughout Heaven and Earth, I alone am the honored one."
Aaron Toole said this to mock and antagonize the man in front of him. He knew that no matter what he said, barring using his powers to change Snaemar, he wouldn't accept any kind of reasoning—so, before ending his life, he decided to mock him. This was one of the few instances where he would become 'arrogant', even if it was just him pretending. But to Snaemar, it was very real.
"I knew it!! You faker!! You've always been like that!! You tricked the entire supernatural world!! Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaake!!!"
"…I don't think my acting was THAT convincing…" Aaron mumbled to himself.
'He's just blinded by his own anger and arrogance, nothing more, nothing less. End him,' said Rudra.
Aaron brought his hands together; he then slowly made gestures and extended his index and pinky fingers outward while leaving the rest folded. "Here's a tribute to you—Gojo Satoru."
A purple ball of destruction was unleashed when the sign was switched to a pinching motion using the pointer and thumb while also extending the middle finger.
"Hollow Technique: Purple," he muttered.
One second, Snaemar was there; the next, he was gone. No trace was left of him as the purple ball of destruction kept moving forward until it dissipated further into Asgard's own void.
'…Did you need to go that far? Simply using [Hakai] or something similar would have been enough,' asked Rudra. 'You know Ddraig is going to complain about missing this, right?'
A troubled smile appeared on Aaron's face. "Well…he can see it another time, I guess. I wanted to do something a bit flashy—anyway, let's go back; Rose should be finished with her fight too."
— ○ ● ○ —
"W-what the hell is happening…? Why am I, the great Okispe, losing…!? And why isn't my regeneration working?!" the monster asked.
Rossweisse had been relentlessly beating him but not killing him. In a way, she wanted to inflict pain on this monster for as long as she could. Because of her, they invaded her home land and made her people suffer through this. This was one thing she wouldn't forgive. Add to the fact that this monster injured her grandfather quite severely until Aaron healed him.
"You shouldn't call yourself 'The Great' when you're not that strong," Rossweisse said.
She didn't need to explain that she had used the [Anti-healing] and [Anti-regeneration] that Aaron gave them months ago, although most of them had unanimously agreed not to use them during the tournament to make it more fun.
"I am above the other—" Rossweisse punched his head, making it explode and finally killing the monster. She sighed and landed back on the ground. She noticed that Aaron had not come back yet but felt the number of enemies around the realm had decreased significantly.
"Granny, I'll come back in a bit; please stay there with Grandpa!" she said and disappeared.
— ○ ● ○ —
On the north side of Asgard was an island—this island belonged to Vidar and various other gods, as they tend to stay here. Normally it would be full of life and boisterous music, as that was the kind of place Vidar wanted it to be, but today it was just that—before Rossweisse was Aaron, and in front of him was Vidar and Brynhildr fighting a certain other woman.
"Odin-sama?" Rossweisse asked as she arrived beside them.
"Hmm? Oh, Rossweisse, glad you could join us—do you recognize that woman that's fighting Vidar and Brynhildr?" Odin asked his former guard.
Rossweisse looked closer at the woman as she fought both Vidar and Brynhildr at the same time. She held them off well, but it was clear that she was running out of stamina while the other two were still fine. Vidar had used his Sacred Gear during the fight, while Brynhildr used her magic and combat skills.
"…Svilna-senpai? She was supposedly killed during a mission with her squad. She along with Brynhildr-senpai were the candidates to be chosen as the new 'Brynhildr', but before it could happen, she 'died'," said Rossweisse.
Svilna had light blue hair tied in twin tails, blue eyes, and a stern face. She wore a white princess vest, long white boots that reached her thighs, black gloves on both hands, and a black and red jacket hanging on her shoulders. She used a futuristic greatsword with black and red undertones and a blue gem near the handle.
"How about stopping now, Vil? You're not going to last long if you keep this up," said Vidar as he dodged another slash by the valkyrie.
Svilna slashed the sky above her, creating a small hole, and from it came a digitized dragon. It was around 30 meters long and appeared eastern. It had a pink body with blue pixels floating around it and glowing crimson-red eyes.
"My gods, who I trusted with my life, left my squad and me to die without even searching for us. I sacrificed my life for you—and this realm—and that's what we got in return!?" she shouted angrily at them.
She dashed towards Vidar and swung her blade down on him. The god, in turn, cloaked his arm with divine aura and swung it at the blade, countering it.
"We searched high and low for all of you—hours, days, and weeks went by and we found nothing. Wherever your bodies went, they were gone. At the time we didn't know any culprits behind it, but now it's clear who it was—the Khaos Order. You're being brainwashed, wake up!" shouted Vidar.
The digitized dragon that Svilna summoned was sent to fight Brynhildr, who had easily defeated it, but noticed that it would materialize itself after a few seconds, so currently. Brynhildr was planning on capturing it, or at least sealing its movements, before joining Vidar.
The digitized dragon fired an amalgamation of pixels towards Brynhildr, but she redirected it using a magic circle while also amplifying its powers. The dragon breathed out another attack, but found its own attack much weaker and was overpowered.
A small explosion occurred, and Brynhildr quickly flew above it and caged it in a small barrier that Rossweisse had taught her. It wasn't as efficient or powerful as the one that Rossweisse had—the one she learned to trap 666—but this was enough for weaker beings.
The dragon had rematerialized itself and began trashing around the barrier, but it couldn't break it, so Brynhildr dashed towards Vidar and Svilna. Once there, she slammed her foot into Svilna's side, cracking a few ribs and launching the woman away.
Vidar whistled and gave her a thumbs up. "Were you watching my leg technique during the match or something? Nice copy!"
"…It was a simple kick, Vidar-sama," Brynhildr muttered, confused. Suddenly a small dot appeared on her arm, and as she went to dispel it, it exploded, knocking Vidar and everyone else away.
"Shit! Brynhildr!' shouted Vidar. 'Wasn't that explosion magic? When did she learn that? No…she was probably experimented by them, right? In magic, Zelma was always better, but in hand-to-hand and weapons, Svilna was above her.'
Once the smoke cleared, a barrier had been put on Brynhildr, and on the other side, Aaron had held his hand up, stopping the attack from hurting her.
"Nice, Jin!" Vidar gave him a thumbs up before dashing towards Svilna. Using the boosters on his [Ragnarök Aesir Berserk], he quickly arrived in front of the woman. Once there, he pointed his foot towards the woman—a small ball had already formed at the tip of his soles.
"Shoot!"
[Maximum Charge!]
"[Fimbulvetr Shot]!!!" both Vidar and the voice in the armor shouted. Svilna was decimated by a point-blank shot—the attack exploded right there and then, also causing Vidar to be knocked away.
The shockwave created by Vidar's attack blew away some of the building's upper half on the island. Luckily, the citizens were already evacuated from the place, so no one was hurt.
Svilna floated there, missing an arm and eye but still breathing. Although it was clear to everyone else that she could pass out from a push from a baby, she kept on standing, defying them.
"I won't…go down until I make you pay—!" she shouted, but a person's or youkai's foot suddenly slammed against the side of her head, knocking her away towards the island's ground.
The second that foot hit her head, she was out like a light. It wasn't an exaggeration that a single hit from anyone would have knocked her out. The one who did it was...
"Eh? W-wait, aren't you—!?" Vidar asked in shock. Even Odin and Rossweisse looked at the person in surprise.
"You're late—were you waiting for a grand entrance?" Aaron asked, eyes closed and smirking.
The youkai grinned and put his hands on his hips. "Dynamic power! Obviously, a hero has to come in at the right time," replied the youkai.
He turned to everyone and showed that he was…the kangaroo youkai that Aaron met last year—the one that betrayed the alliance and joined the Khaos Order before being defeated and being forced to work for Grigori. He had joined this mission today, and although his role was minor, this was one of his first victories on the alliance's side.
Aaron floated over beside the kangaroo youkai and held out his hand. "Good work, Yosai."
The kangaroo man named Yosai grinned and high-fived his open hand. "Heh, this is the start of my goddamn legend!"
— ○ ● ○ —
"Compress!!"
{Compression Divider!!}
Vali Lucifer and his team helped defend the Greek Pantheon. During the last few minutes, all of them felt the number of enemies decrease at a rapid pace, and they also saw a giant robotic insect near the elf's home. However, they were reassured that Auna had it covered. So they focused on this spot—the spider youkai's home.
The [Next Doll] Tsukuyomi had appeared there—in the spider youkai's home. It had appeared before, along with Thuldruns, to interrupt Vera's ascension to godhood but was stopped—however, Tsukuyomi was just a clone, but this one in front of Vali and his team was the real one.
"Aniki said he faced that before along with that rabbit goddess, Vera," Vali said while looking at the [Next Doll], who had been entrapped by several magic circles by Le Fay.
"Yes, they're quite resistant to magic, so Aaron-sama advised that the [Next Dolls] be dealt with by using physical attacks, or touki," explained Le Fay.
"Huh? How are you keeping it in place with those magic circles then?" Bikou asked her, confused.
"I-it's not our world's magic; it's from a different one." Le Fay showed a bracelet on her wrist—it had strange symbols on it and also glowed. "That's why it's more resilient, and it has limited use, so we can't rely on it—"
A large shattering sound reverberated throughout the area, and several of the magic circles that surrounded the mechanical monster shattered. It then roared, and thousands of flaming circles appeared around it.
"You're the one to blame, Bikou. You should have kept your mouth shut," said Calantha, sounding irritated.
"Screw you!"
"Shut up, we need to kill it to advance from here—I'll deal with it, the rest of you kill the rest. Le Fay, can I have that bracelet?" asked Vali. Le Fay nodded and handed over the bracelet to Vali, who put it on. She then told him how to use it. "I see. Alright, move out."
{Vali, back then, this version of Tsukuyomi was much stronger. As of now, we don't know how strong it is. With that in mind, we need to be mindful since that thing has no stamina.}
"I'm stronger," replied Vali as he arrived above it. Tsukuyomi fired the flaming circles everywhere, but most were directed at Vali, as he was close. "Compress!"
{Compression Divider!!}
The flaming circles that were shot at Vali were compressed over and over until they vanished. The others that were sent in different directions were dealt with by his team, but a few were not, and they destroyed several homes in the area.
Vali clicked his tongue and fired several demonic aura bullets towards the mechanical robot. However, just like Le Fay said, most were absorbed, deflected, or had little to no effect on it. After seeing this, Vali flew towards it and dodged more flaming circles that Tsukuyomi made. Once in front of it, he slammed his fist into the robot's body.
As mentioned previously by Le Fay, Tsukuyomi was flung away, but Vali saw that it was going to crash into more homes, so he quickly followed it and punched it again, forcing it to crash into the nearby mountains instead.
{Kukuku, look at you caring for others,} Albion said while laughing at his wielder.
"…Shut up," mumbled Vali.
Tsukuyomi hurriedly stood back up and started firing the large rocks she materialized, as well as large water balls, blades of wind, and flaming circles again.
"Even for a powerful being that's supposed to have consciousness, you're quite stupid, aren't you?" Vali asked before using [Compression Divider] again and compressing the attacks out of existence again.
"Die!!" roared Tsukuyomi as she summoned more of the same spells, making Vali sigh.
Like earlier, he compressed them again and, with his superior speed, relentlessly pummeled Tsukuyomi around like a ragdoll. Unlike the Tsukuyomi that Aaron and the rest faced a few months ago—and because Evie and Phantasma were cut off from the rest of the Khaos Order—all the planned upgrades could not proceed, hence why the original Tsukuyomi became weaker.
The upgrades that were set to be completed couldn't be completed because the necessary parts couldn't be brought to the Draconic Deus. Forcing Promestein and the other scientists and researchers of the Khaos Order to make their own version with the parts that were available in the Draconic Deus.
This version of Tsukuyomi, while stronger than her original counterpart, was still much weaker than the one that appeared a few months ago with Thuldruns.
"Haaa…you're really weak, and I'm getting bored. Let's just end this," Vali said disappointedly. He quickly tackled Tsukuyomi again and punched her further away, crashing into the ground—then he started to chant.
"The Pure White Dragon dwelling within me, rise up from your supremacy—"
The silver armor that exceeded supremacy gradually began to form jet-black patterns on it.
{The Silvery-white Morning Star I possess within me, claim the Throne of Dawn—}
In response to Albion's line, the light wings on his back became infused with black. Following that, multiple pairs of new wings extended out of his back.
[The Jet-Black God of Infinity—]
"The Mysterious and Unfathomable Father of Devils—"
Twelve jet-black wings grew out of Vali's back. All of the edges of his armor sharpened and took on an organic form. Vali's and Albion's voices then overlapped with each other.
"{We shall transcend the limits to accept the oath—}"
The crest of Lucifer appeared on all of the gems in his armor, and they unleashed a dazzling brilliance of light! The final stanza was chanted by Vali, Albion, and Ophis.
"{[[Thou shalt kneel down before our bright and glorious existence!]]}"
{[[LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLucifer!!!!!!!!!!!!!]]}
{Dragon Lucifer Drive!!!!!!!!}
Quickly donning his Satanification armor, he sent out his wyverns to Tsukuyomi, who was still getting up, and they kept using [Half Dimension] to keep her from standing. At the same time, Vali's chest opened and revealed the muzzle of a cannon; he slowly charged it up. He wanted to make sure that he killed the robot in one shot.
"If the other four are as weak as you, then it'll be very disappointing. Although it seems like Auna already killed the other one—or at least defeated it," Vali said. He finally finished charging his attack and fired it at her.
{[[LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLucifer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]]}
{[[Satan Lucifer Smasher!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]]}
A bombardment of silvery-white and jet-black auras was fired out of his muzzle and annihilated everything in sight. The ground, trees, and mountain in front of Vali Lucifer were destroyed by his attack—this also included Tsukuyomi herself as the screams of the robot were heard. Once it was done, he had torn a large semi-circle shape throughout the land, and the only thing left of Tsukuyomi were her four legs.
Vali looked at the bracelet and said, "I guess I didn't need you. I was hoping she was stronger so I could, but I guess not."
Vali and his team quickly dispatched the rest of the enemies around them—the spider youkai that could fight alongside them were few and far between, and most of them weren't able to fight the ones invading since the strongest was just Ultimate-class and was busy fighting groups off by herself.
"We'll leave the rest to you guys then, Rhivuller," Vali said, nodding at her.
"Yes, thank you, Lucifer-san. We'll be fine—"
An enormous explosion near Little Olympia rocked the realm, forcing everyone to look in that direction. What they saw were three large monsters of different kinds—one looked like a wolf, another like a bear, and one was a walking shark.
"The hell are those!?" Bikou shouted while pointing at them.
"Earlier, I received a report that said one of the executives of the Monkai Association was killed by Rossweisse-sama in Asgard. I believe those three are part of it," said Le Fay.
"Let's go to that then," Vali said, and they quickly teleported back to Little Olympia.
— ○ ● ○ —
They teleported beside the tower, and once there, they were immediately met with even more fighting. A woman with white hair in a ponytail saw them and addressed them.
"Vali Lucifer, I suggest you go defeat Black Alice with the gods of this realm. I, along with the rest, will deal with the other enemies to make it easier for you." This woman was Elyscia, the leader of the G.o.B.
She looked back at the monsters, and on one of their shoulders was the female monster—Black Alice—smiling at them and drinking tea.
"However, I would advise on being careful as she has some abilities that will counter some of the powers you and your team have, for one—she's resistant to dragon-based attacks, the same with divine attacks, but she's not immune. In due time you will break through them," she explained.
"Fufu, we will get rid of those three, Vali. You and the rest focus on Black Alice," said another voice. When Vali and his team turned to look at it, they found Lianne and the Stahlritter.
Vali and his team agreed before flying towards Black Alice, who had jumped off the monster's shoulder and began waving at them. Seconds later, all three other giant monsters suddenly disappeared, only leaving behind a gust of wind—even Black Alice was surprised by this.
"Now then, will you fight her too, Zeus?" Lianne asked. She had stayed behind and let the Stahlritter deal with the other monsters. She wanted to watch over Vali and his team to make sure nothing happened to them.
"I will obviously fight; she was responsible for the death of my unborn child after all—Nyarlathotep is no more, but Black Alice…she still lives, and out of the ones attacking today, Jin and the alliance have given us permission to kill her. Jin will simply extract her memories from her afterward," Zeus said as he arrived with Apollon.
Black Alice giggled to herself and smirked at them. "Do entertain me; I wanted some revenge for that humiliation from back then after all~"
Hundreds of thousands of black magic circles appeared behind her, including forbidden magic, curses, and more. When Vali saw this, he was reminded of his death match with Aži Dahāka, and it made him excited.
"Try to survive this~" Black Alice said, and she pointed her finger at them, unleashing all her magic.
{[[LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLucifer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]]}
Vali flew in front of everyone and put his hand forward.
{Satan Compression Divider!!!!!!!!!!!!}
Silvery-white and jet-black streams of light were interwoven with each other, and all of the magic that Black Alice had released was instantly compressed over and over again until it was eliminated.
Black Alice chuckled. "So this is the power that defeated Aži Dahāka during the war? That is certainly troublesome, Vali Lucifer~"
Black Alice kissed the back of her brown teddy bear's head, and ten thousand clones of her rapidly appeared.
"But…" they all said in unison. "The Phantasma did give us a lot of gifts, which we're quite grateful for, you know?"
Black Alice and her clones summoned millions of tentacles behind their backs and began ruthlessly attacking everything in sight—it didn't matter if they were friends or foes—the only exception was her own clones. Buildings, the citizens of this realm—everything was relentlessly attacked.
Each clone and each tentacle it had were covered by a different element; however, there was always a dual element mixed with them. Every tentacle was covered in darkness, and then around it was a different element—one had darkness and lightning, another darkness and light, so on and so forth.
Any person who had an innate weakness to it would suffer a great deal of damage, but that didn't perturb the alliance as they held their ground. Apollon and Zeus defended and countered all the attacks aimed at them; the same was true for Vali and his team. The only one who had a bit of trouble was Bikou, as he was forced to abandon his golden cloud and use magic to fly instead.
"I gotta thank your brother later, Vali! He made my Ruyi Jingu Bang even more durable! I hated that Yumi-chan nearly broke all of 'em!" he said and laughed.
"Vali, can we do that? You learned it from Jin, right?" Calantha asked.
Vali nodded and summoned his wyverns again. A few of them flew around Calantha and landed on various parts of her body. The wyverns glowed and slowly started to attach themselves to Calantha—silvery-white armor began to cover her body, and a few seconds later she received her own version of [Divine Dividing] Scale Mail.
Just like Aaron's, it can use [Divide], [Reflect], and [Half Dimension]. So with this armor on her, Calantha brought out her own mini-light wings and laughed. "Ah~ I'm one with darling now~"
"Focus. I'll leave the clones to you guys; I'll confront her directly—with this armor, I should be able to do some kind of damage," he said and flew towards her while dodging the numerous tentacles and magic attacks that Black Alice and her clones threw at him.
"Wait, Vali!" Zeus shouted, but it was too late, as the young Lucifer had started flying towards their enemy.
"It's no use, Geezer Zeus. Once our leader sets his mind on something, you can't tell him no. Well, I guess the Ice Queen and Dual Dragon can probably persuade him," Arthur Pendragon told the god.
"All we can do is support him, Zeus-sama," Le Fay said with a troubled smile. Zeus looked around at the Vali Team and sighed.
"It can't be helped then; let us provide him with our assistance!" he ordered, creating several lightning bolts around him. All of them suddenly struck the Vali Team, surprising them. However, they also felt their own powers increase slightly.
"With that, your speed should have significantly increased. It will last around an hour; please keep that in mind," he explained.
"Niiiiice! Let's gooooooo!" Bikou screamed before turning into a bolt of lightning and zig-zagging his way around the place, striking a clone of Black Alice hard enough to defeat them, or at least displace them. "Holy crap, I turned into lightning!"
"That is also an effect that happens," Zeus said as he eliminated a few Black Alice clones around them.
Apollon fired normal magical arrows towards the tentacles, as their divine powers would not affect her much; however, they were powerful enough to destroy them. "You will get used to it. I will admit that when I was younger, I enjoyed using them like that," he said and smiled.
"We're sorry we're late! We just finished with the Harpies and Sirens homes!" Kurousagi shouted as she, Vera, and their team for the tournament joined them.
"This feels like overkill! Buhihi~" Zhu Bajie said as he laughed.
"As long as we finish this quickly, it doesn't matter," Sha Wujing added while eliminating more clones with her water bullets.
They suddenly felt a powerful shockwave aimed at them, and Vali was thrown back.
"Are we done celebrating? You must understand that I only made my clones weaker to see how you would respond, but since you're dealing with them quite easily—I'll make them as strong as me, ufufu~ enjoy~" Black Alice said with an evil smirk.
The clones around them began to shake before their levels of power increased by a significant amount—as far as they could tell, they were at least Satan-class to God-class. Even after losing the power of Nyarlathotep through her blood, she was still helped by the Phantasma, and her overall power level increased significantly.
This was the same for the other executives she sent out today—in a way, Black Alice became the 'Monster God' that they sent out to Kyoto during the attack on the Five Principal Clans. Although she is a much more 'perfected' version of it than the one they sent.
Among the three other executives with her, two were pseudo-Monster Gods, while the other was another 'Youkai God' in terms of power—they should be just below Black Alice in raw power.
"Try to survive for me, alright~?" she said happily.
— ○ ● ○ —
Duvalie the Swift, captain of the Stahlritter and right-hand of Lianne Sandlot, stood in front of a certain monster—no, youkai, this was the supposed 'Youkai God'. It stood on its hind legs and looked like a typical wolf. It had gray fur, a muscular build, and glowing red eyes.
"You—state your name before I kill you," said Duvalie arrogantly.
"Little girl, it would be wise to retreat now before you get on my nerves and I kill you for it," replied the Wolf God.
"Instant death it is," she said, appearing behind him. Thousands of slashes appeared on his body before he was cut up into pieces, but to Duvalie's surprise, a small glowing ball was left, and his cut-up pieces instantly restored themselves to it.
The Wolf God fixed his jaw with his right hand, along with a 'crack' sound, making Duvalie cringe. "It seems I underestimated you, girl. Very well, I am the new Youkai God, Clounis." He then created a gray sword out of his own powers. "I will become the new [Wolf God of the Blade]."
Raising an eyebrow, Duvalie became confused. "Wolf God of the Blade? So, you want to rip off [Canis Lykaon]? The [Dog God of the Black Blade]? How desperate are you?" she asked condescendingly.
Clounis rushed towards Duvalie and attempted to slice her head off with his blade, but was blocked by her shield. Duvalie then stabbed him through his stomach, but was surprised to see him vanish in a puff of gray flames.
"Once the others are done in Greece, they will join us here, making it easier to conquer this realm—count your days, girl," said Clounis while he spun his blades in his hands.
"Right…anyway, I'll get on with it," she said, applying [Anit-healing] and [Anti-regeneration] to her weapons.
Both of them rushed towards each other, meeting in the middle and slamming their blades together. With the other blade in his hand, Clounis thrust it towards Duvalie, who deflected it with her shield. From her shield, a small hole opened, and she fired a lightning ball and spear of wind, surprising Clounis, who was hit in the shoulder, and the other attack grazed his cheek.
He kicked away from Duvalie and landed away from her. He inspected his injuries and pulled the wind spear from his shoulder. He noticed that his regeneration wasn't working and frowned.
'It's not working. Did she do something with her weapons? Anti-healing magic, or something like that,' thought the youkai. "Staying any longer would be a waste of time—I'll end it now, girl."
A small pillar of gray flames surged from Clounis' body, and his grew in size. He was previously 6'9" and now became 17'5", he nearly tripled in size; his fangs were even sharper, as were his blades. The area around him also began to wither; each step he took towards Duvalie made the ground turn gray and the buildings crumble.
"What a strange ability," she muttered to herself. "A sort of withering ability? Does it affect humans? Or just inanimate objects?"
Duvalie decided to test it out herself. She dashed towards Clounis and slashed at his chest. Once on the other side, she checked her body, armor, and sword. None of them were affected.
"…I should try it with normal weapons; these were given to me by Aaron-sama, so they won't be affected by those things." She replaced her current sword with a normal one and did the same thing again—when she did, Clounis had finished turning around, but she had disappeared again.
"…Yeah, it affects normal objects; as for my skin, no, I'm not a normal human, so it doesn't matter, but it would be better if I killed him now and not let him run wild with that form," she concluded and faced him again while using her normal sword again.
"It doesn't matter what you try to do; in this form, I—!"
An even more powerful surge of power left Duvalie's body, and in one split second, she dashed back to Clounis again, who couldn't keep up with her speed, and in a single slice, she split him in two.
"Wha—!?" The 'Youkai God' was stunned—he, in this form, could fight combat-oriented Gods, but he was just taken out in a single swing—by an unknown woman, and that didn't make sense to him.
Duvalie glanced back at Clounis, his body slowly crumbling away. "Try again in a different lifetime, 'Wolf God', and maybe then you'll be somewhat stronger."
Clounis, the 'Wolf God of the Blade' was no more.
"Now then, are those two taking their time, or did they finish their fights already?" she asked herself, facing Ennea's direction first.
— ○ ● ○ —
Check the chapter comments to see images of certain characters.
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