Chương 72: Storm
The figure cloaked in shadows was emitting an aura that demanded attention and submission. It was not just the Divine Presence that was filling the air it was also how the figure carried themselves. A confidence and pride that was evident for anyone to see but there was a hint of malice and disgust aimed at Rias. For a figure that was nothing but shadow and bone he was rather expressive.
The persona that Rias was playing faded from her features as she took in exactly what was standing before us. Technically I could not confirm which God was standing before us but considering the circumstances and his own words it was fairly obvious.
Hades had something tugging on his powers and he decided to come along and figure out why that was happening. This training area was rather well protected but by using her spell Rias all but opened up a passage for Hades to show up. I could see that she did not quite grasp how this came to be but she knew things were not going in the right direction.
Her face was pale and she looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here. I could not blame her for that as she currently had the attention of a God narrowed in on her. I was clearly here and if Hades paid attention to me he would find something a little more interesting but he was zoned in on figuring out how Rias was able to draw upon his power.
This meant I could leave in this moment and Hades would not even blink as he would assume I was a mortal making the right decision to flee his presence. The hubris of a god is something that has been used against them countless times. As I looked over at the panic stricken Rias I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth.
The smart decision would be to leave, I was not confident enough in my own strength or abilities to face a literal God. Fortuna was ridiculously powerful but Gods held powers that were just as absurd. Who knows what sort of conceptual attack Hades could throw at me and I would not be able to nullify it as I had with other attacks considering his Divine origins. Rias was someone who I barely knew and her death would not be anything too drastic to me. So leaving her here to fend for herself while I escaped to my own world should have been the obvious decision.
Yet, it was not the decision I wanted to make. Rias was quickly growing on me and I was not willing to abandon her so easily now. It may have been the smart choice but it would end up hurting me in a completely different way. I would not be able to look my self in a mirror if I abandoned her when she desperately needed help. She was willing to put herself in danger to help me so I could not let that kindness remain unpaid.
I was not sure how we were going to get out of this but I was not going to leave her to fend for herself. I looked over at Rias who was shivering in front of the figure in front of her with new found resolve.
"Well, I am waiting for an explanation Devil!" The shadowy figure shouted out at Rias who remained silent as she was in a rather unpleasant state. That reaction was not what Hades wanted and he was starting to look increasingly annoyed at her silence.
"You are quickly ruining my day Devil, if you are not going to talk I am going to have to force you to." Hades shot out darkly with a rumble dyeing his words. Rias snapped her head up and looked over at the God with fear dyeing her features. Hades reached out towards her with a large skeletal hand.
Seeing what was happening I gritted my teeth and decided to take action. I did not have time to plan something out or even hope for a solution to fall into my lap. I could only react in this moment and do what seemed like a good idea.
I once more took a deep breath and felt my lungs fill with Mana again. The strain from using this spell was sending jolts of burning pain throughout my body but I had to do something. This spell was heavily Mana intensive and it used my body as a conduit so the strain of using it was massive. I was also putting far more Mana in this spell than the last one as I wanted to hurt Hades so I could not half ass this.
I had to make sure this hit counted as Hades was not paying attention to me in this moment. So I had to use that to my advantage. As the spell built up in my body, I felt my bones creak under the pressure I was putting myself under but I was not quite at my limit yet and Hades was not reacting to me just yet.
The Mana I was emitting must be a joke to someone like Hades and he was dismissing me as another ant to squash underneath his boot. Again the hubris of the Gods was something that put them in danger countless times this was just another example.
Fortuna was no longer hiding that Shard from me and I could feel its glee and spiteful hate for the being in front of me. The Anti Divinity fueling this current bellow could not be compared to that last. It appeared having that Shard playing around increased the lethality of my spells.
The Anti Divinity that I was emitting finally caught Hades' attention as he spun away from Rias to look over at the ant he had dismissed before. I did not quite reach my limit but I had to act now so I gripped my hand in front of my mouth to tunnel the blast and aimed at Hades.
"Water God's Bellow!" I shouted out with the beam of water rushing through my clenched fists aiming directly at Hades. The beam of purplish black water traveled to Hades in a blink of an eye. Hades was quick to react and it looked like he was going to get out of the way despite the surprise of my attack. Then Hades tripped and managed to throw himself back into the attack.
For a moment there was disbelief emitting from Hades top to bottom but even with his confusion and doubt, he was able to react. He threw up one of his hands and had the shadows wrapping around him form a crude shield to protect himself.
I could tell he was using a massive amount of Mana and he would certainly be able to stop a regular spell. Too bad this was a God Slaying Magic and its very purpose meant the disparity in our Mana was irrelevant. The beam of water drilled into the shadow shield in a moment and reached Hades obliterating his arm and a portion of his chest.
I gritted my teeth in pain and anger as I knew that this was not enough to take care of him. The shadows that formed him started to recover the missing pieces in an instant but the shadowy figure that Hades was shrunk from its once giant frame. Now he was closer to a reasonable height but he still towered over us.
That was interesting to know but I was in too much pain to really consider what that meant.
My bones felt like they were made of jelly and my body felt like it was completely hallowed out. I put almost everything I had in me in that spell but it clearly was not enough. The pain was clouding my thoughts and I felt like I could do nothing to stop this in the moment. So my body did something instinctive instead.
As I stood panting from the exertion I took deep breaths from the air. With each breath I took I felt better and the dried out husk of my Mana core started to recover immensely. As the pain faded I was finally able to think again.
For a brief moment, I was confused about why I was feeling better but I felt the instinctive use of my new found Magic. I was consuming the moisture in the air to recover from my use of Water God Slaying Magic. It was a god send but the moisture in the air was limited so I could not use this trick endlessly. Why could I not be a Sky God Slayer instead of a fucking Water God Slayer?
I was recovering but I was not in a state to fight just yet. Hades could see that as well as he looked over at me and aimed one of his skeletal fingers to cast some sort of spell at me. I gritted my teeth and wondered if I should leave this world and come back with my points. I did not have enough Mana in me to teleport or to escape so leaving and coming back would probably be the best decision. It would also freak Hades out as he would have no idea how I escaped.
Before I could make that decision someone acted. It was not Hades who was aiming his finger and gathering Mana. No, it was Rias as she sent her own barrage of attacks at Hades. The air filled with countless bullets of conceptual destruction.
The fear and helplessness that Rias was feeling had faded. Her eyes were set in a determined glare and her face was set into an angry snarl. She was throwing countless attacks at Hades, each bullet of energy forming and being sent in an instant.
Each attack would have ripped a hole in a lesser being but Hades was a different breed. He stopped his own attack against me and looked over at Rias barrage before giving it a dismissive snort as he rose another shield of shadows that blocked the barrage from coming into contact with him.
Each bullet meeting the shield and melting into it like it was never there in the first place. That seemed to anger Rias more but she did not stop her barrage.
Once again Hades shrunk from using the shadows but it was not that noticeable in comparison to the several feet he lost before. He raised his skeletal finger again at me and I could see that he was determined to kill me in this moment. Although he did seem concerned about his shrinking frame.
"Give up Devil, I will take care of you in a moment. This abomination needs to be scrubbed from existence." Hades snarled out as a black beam of power rushed from his finger at me. I could feel death coming from that beam and I heard the screams of the dammed as it got closer but I had recovered enough to pop out of the way with Rias' distraction.
I came to her side in an instant. The beam of death reached my previous location and hit the ground with a loud boom. The area around the location started to decay and rot in front of my eyes. Again I shuddered at the sight as that attack would certainly kill me considering its nature.
Hades cursed and looked away from the location I was previously at and looked over at Rias and me. The shadowy shield that protected him masked his frame for the most part but his large skeletal head looked over at us and I could feel the malice and disgust at my being in those empty hallow eyes.
"You do not understand the game you are playing Devil, if that thing is allowed to grow into its powers you will have countless Patheons rushing to kill it and you will be just an after thought. You might as well save yourself the trouble and kill it yourself!" Hades snarled out over his shadowy shield. For a brief moment, I felt dread as I considered Rias might actually follow through on that idea. I was in a rather vulnerable state and it was not like I did not consider abandoning her for a moment.
Who was I to Rias? A boy she just met, a boy who had bullied her and her friends, and a boy who had no real connection to her. So for that brief moment I felt like my life was hanging on a thread.
"Keep dreaming!" Rias snarled out as she threw more and more bullets of destructive energy. Her expression not even moving for a moment. She never doubted her actions and she was not going to betray me because it was the easier decision.
I clenched my fists seeing that, seeing that even if I did not really mean all that much to her in my eyes she still cared. I could not judge her using my own motives and perspective she was someone completely different from me. She was someone too kind for her own good and that made all the difference.
Still, I could see that she was beginning to run out of Mana. The sweat beading down her head and the panting breath coming from her clear signs. She was throwing everything she had against him and it was only used as a delaying tactic. Hades was more than content to wait around for her to run out of steam instead of putting himself at further risk.
I opened up the Chat interface and went to the shop. The shop had everything and anything up for sale but I had never looked over it thoroughly as I was fine with the Gacha. Now I had a need for something urgently and it should not have been that expensive. I went over the menu quickly and found what I was looking for rather quickly. I bought the item and with a flash, I had an old scroll at my finger tips.
"If things look like they might be going poorly buy a ticket to my world," I spoke out seriously to Rias who was still throwing her blasts of power. She was gritting her teeth and was clearly straining herself but she nodded stiffly at my words. I was not sure if she was willing to follow through on her acceptance but I had to at least offer it.
I grimaced as it was not exactly the best plan but it would at least have her safe. The only problem with that was she was not willing to leave her people behind. Unlike Ashley Rias had a home here, she had friends and family that would be worried about her disappearance. She had things to lose so her packing up and hiding from the face of danger would never be the first option for her.
Hell, retreating now was out of the question. Akeno was in this mansion and if we escaped Hades could wander around and kill her for being associated with me.
Well, it's time to do something stupid. I popped away from Rias' side and appeared behind Hades. Before I could even react a bolt of energy blasted through the air aimed at me. It was only luck that had me narrowly avoiding the beam of energy as my head wobbled out of the way.
"Which God is dumb enough to protect someone like you!" Hades snarled out as he gathered more energy to let out another blast. I guess at his level he could see the manipulations that Fortuna was enforcing here. Whatever the case he would not have the opportunity to send another attack at me before my own went off.
I unrolled the scroll in my hands and turned it over facing Hades. The Scroll filled with the ambient Mana and flashed as it was used. With that flash, a rush of highly pressurized water came pouring out of the scroll.
The wave of cutting water was so large and powerful that it started to push me back from the force. My feet dragged into the ground leaving a clear path as I was pushed back. I should have expected the force of this thing would be something beyond my limited strength.
I was ripping off Goblin Slayer and bought a gate scroll from the shop. The gate that was formed was connected to the deepest part of the ocean. The pressurized water was sharp enough to cut nearly anything.
The rush of water and the sound of it filling the air was music to my ears and I felt more comfortable than I had ever felt before. The moisture in the air that I had consumed was starting to fill up again and each breath brought me more Mana.
The cannon of water hit Hades point blank. He was sent flying from the force behind it but while this attack would be capable of cutting nearly anything the object of this attack was a God. So while it sent Hades flying from his current location it was not capable of cutting into him.
Even with the force Hades was able to gather himself and shift his location from the end of the water geyser. His frame flashing away and forming again from the shadows in the room.
"You are going to have to do a lot better than that to stop me abomination!" Hades snarled out as he started to gather more energy to throw at me. I looked over at the god and laughed at the face of all of this. It would have been nice if that scroll did some actual damage but that was not its real purpose. I just needed a large amount of water and as the room continued to be filled with water I feel like I did a good job of that.
I open my mouth and started to suck in the water all around me. The water defied common sense and flew into my gullet. The seemingly endless amount of water started to fill my frame. The nearly dried core of Mana inside of me started to fill quickly, the max amount of Mana I was capable of using was reached and exceeded. It appeared that I had a new limit for my Mana core or my new found Magic was pushing along its development massively.
Still, while my new core was bigger it still had a limit. I soon reached that and I was not anywhere close to using all the water here. I did not stop consuming water either as another neat thing was happening to me. The water stopped feeding my Mana core and started to use the energy to refine my body. I could feel my strength start to reach unreasonable levels and it was not going to stop any time soon.
Hades might not know what I was doing but he was not going to stand around and let me continue refining myself. So he was about to start attacking me but Rias decided to make herself known as she started throwing bullets at him again. This time he did not even try to defend himself he saw me as the bigger threat here.
So he let the bullets hit him but they did not tear into him like I expected. The bullets hit him but that was it, he started to lose more height but at the rate he was going at he would attack me before he had to deal with Rias.
"You should know your place Devil, be glad this abomination had my full attention or you would lose your pretty head!" Hades shouted out as he started to throw endless beams of decaying energy at me.
Seeing that I raised my hands quickly causing the water around me to rush in front of me in a makeshift geyser. The water dyeing into the familiar purple black water.
"Water God's Mirror!" I shouted out as the water shifted and reflected the image of the attack coming at it. The still water in front of me absorbed the attack and ripples appeared on the surface of the mirror but stopped after a moment. Then the mirror shattered and sent a beam of black purple energy at Hades.
Seeing the beam of Anti Divinity traveling at him Hades avoided again and appeared near Rias. He did not look like he was trying to attack Rias as his attention was still focused on me but he did end up near her. He was just trying to get away from my retaliation as he knew how dangerous it would be to him.
Seeing him ignore her presence Rias threw a glare at him and a grim determined look appeared on her face.
"You should have run when you had the chance Hades!" Rias shouted out which only earned a scoff from the cocky God. Rias grew madder but decided she was going to show him why he should have run.
A massive amount of Mana started to grow from Rias. It was not anything compared to Hades but it was still sizable and it seemed to be growing endlessly. Then the skin on her started to fall away and instead of the blood and muscle that should have been underneath it, I only saw a pitch black with hints of red that seemed to consume everything near it.
It took only a second but instead of the beautiful red head that I was familiar with a new figure stood there. A humanoid figure comprised of dark red energy that was radiating hunger and destruction. The figure was featureless except for a pair of bright white eyes that stared at Hades. Her form reminded me of Naruto's four tail form. As she released a scream that shook the air around us that imagery was enforced.
For a brief moment, Hades paused as if completely confused about this turn of events. Then Rias flashed to his side and swiped at him with her clawed hands.
Instead of barely affecting him she was able to rip his arm clean off with a swipe. Hades seemed to realize that he could not treat her like an ant any longer. Rias was acting more like a frenzied animal instead of the kind girl I was used to but she had Hades full attention. The God was fast but in that state, Rias seemed capable of following him no matter what he did.
Seeing that I decided to pull off a move that was hovering at the back of my mind. Thankfully the Water God Slayer Magic I received came with some ready made spells.
I pushed my hands into the water that was pooling at my feet. Throwing every last bit of Mana that I gained from devouring the Water into this spell. The pooled water at my feet dyed into that familiar purple black tone. As my Mana and Anti Divinity started to fill the water I felt my body become more and more frail. The endless strength and abundant Mana I had reached their limit as I threw everything here.
The water beneath my feet seemed to boil from the energy I put into it but I ignored it watching Rias so I could act before she found herself overwhelmed. She was pushing Hades but this form was taking a lot out of her as her Mana levels were shooting down like she had a hole in her core.
So all Hades had to do was play the waiting game, sure he was losing parts of himself from Rias' frenzied pursuit but he recovered them quickly even if his frame started to get smaller and smaller.
Too bad for him I had a move that he had no way of defending against. I felt all my Mana peter out so I knew it was time.
"Susanoo's Storm." Instead of the loud shout of the other attacks, these words left my lips like a quiet whisper. Not because I decided to do so but because I was that tired from all of this.
The water at my feet turned into a heavy mist that rose to the ceiling and formed storming clouds. Seeing that Hades paused his mad dashing as he took in the changes around him. Rias managed to swipe off another arm but he did not even look at her too engrossed in the sight before him.
He looked over at me as if seeing me for the first time.
"Godling, that's why they are so adamant about protecting you!" Hades shouted out as if he reached some grand conclusion that was bugging him. He used a massive amount of his energy to cage Rias in a dome of death energy. His frame shrank until he was barely as tall as a middle schooler.
"You win this round Godling! I'm interested in seeing how you grow from here!" Hades shouted out as he laughed in the face of the storming clouds above him. He raised his arms as if greeting a long lost friend.
Then the rain fell.
A storm filled this room with countless pellets of Anti Divinty rain but that was not the main mode of attack here. A beast of giant proportions fell from the cloud as if it was born from it.
A giant serpent formed from my water with eight massive heads that all aimed at the standing Hades rushing to consume him. In an instant that bundle of water crashed into Hades consuming what was left of him in an instant. Seeing him disappear I felt a weight leave my shoulders as I collapsed into the puddle of my own water.
My control over my attack faded as I collapsed. The water returned to normal water and fell like regular rain. The dome that was trapping Rias faded as Hades was killed. She looked around like a feral animal but not seeing her enemy she sat down on the ground completely still for a moment. I thought she would be in a frenzied state for a while but her still frame started to gain skin and flesh at a rate visible to the eyes.
I quickly realized that while she was regaining her regular form her clothes were not so lucky. So I got an eye full of her milky skin and her gravity-defying breasts for a moment before I looked away.
I looked over at the dark clouds covering this room and contemplated what just happened.
"I did not think she had that in her." I let out idly as I voiced my thoughts. I knew she claimed she had gained a power similar to her brother from the Chat Group but seeing it in action was crazy.
"Neither did I." A calm voice reported from beside me. I whipped around to face the speaker as there should have been no one else here. I was tired and sore but if there was another enemy I was going to have to deal with it.
Instead of an enemy, I was greeted with the sight of a man standing near me with a teasing smile on his face. He had long red hair that was the same color as Rias and a glint in his eyes that I could not decipher. He looked like an older male version of Rias. That thought brought everything in clarity so I let out a sigh of relief.
Of course, he showed up. A God popped up into his little sister's training room that he personally warded. What else would he do but rush over here? I guess he saw that we were handling ourselves and wanted to see how far we could push Hades.
This bitch I was stressing out for no reason.
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