'There's no way he could have activated this spell without a steep cost.' Kisuke tried to look around but he could only see a bit of his body due to the faint glow of his Shunko, 'Then again, the simplicity of this spell would make it hard to break. If only Benihime was with me, I could easily tunnel my way out of here.'
Feeling the threat from his left flank, Kisuke immediately leaped away and looked back. Although he couldn't see anything, he was sure that something just tried to pierce him, "Good senses. But how long can you keep this up?" Erebus' voice resounded once again.
Kisuke kept dodging but due to the sheer density of attacks that he couldn't see, he couldn't avoid all of them and had to rely on his defenses. But even with his boosted defenses thanks to Hierro, the darkness still managed to dig a few holes in his body, and each of these wounds healed slowly, 'It feels like I'm in an enormous Iron Maiden. Is that the image he used?' Kisuke thought casually while trying out a few Magic Spells that could maybe work against this space.
Watching from afar, Erebus clenched his teeth and sweated nervously as he saw what was happening, 'What's with his ridiculous defense!? The most I can do is pierce the skin and a bit of his flesh!? And how can he still regenerate with those wounds tainted with my Divinity here in my 'Night' of all places!? No wonder Ares wasn't able to kill him! This guy is beyond abnormal!'
Even then, Erebus feigned calmness and said with a tone filled with arrogance, "Why don't you just give up? You're just prolonging your own suffering. That's pretty stupid, to be honest. And here I thought you were smarter than this."
But Erebus' nervousness only got worse, and deep within him, fear also began sprouting as Kisuke laughed at his remark, "My, my~ Erebus-san. What's wrong? I can feel a hint of panic in your voice. With that said, the real question is how long can you keep this up? I can't imagine what would happen to you once this domain of yours expires and I'm still alive..."
This was supposed to be his world and he wasn't supposed to feel his existence, yet Erebus was wondering what was this dread that he's feeling, 'I have to kill him now!'
Pouring everything into his 'Night', the darkness hugged Kisuke, trapping him in place. Erebus then immediately shaped the darkness into countless spears that pierced through Kisuke, leaving only a small area of his body unharmed.
"..." Erebus, panting heavily and about to collapse from the fatigue, watched as Kisuke's Shunko came undone and his blood flowed uncontrollably on the surface of the spear. As he took special care to target his heart and brain, Kisuke should be dead. Not just him, but anyone subjected to something like this should have no business of being alive. Still, the bad feeling and premonition wouldn't go away, so he didn't dare dismiss his domain even though it's already eating away at his own life.
"..." For a few more minutes, Erebus watched Kisuke's corpse drain out of blood without blinking, trying to find any signs of life in him. Soon after, he finally heaved a huge sigh of relief when he saw that even his strange transformation was undone, 'Whew... So he was still alive at that point? Good thing I didn't let up. But why did I fear him so much?'
Fortunately... Or unfortunately, his question was answered when he saw Kisuke's mouth that was pierced by a spear suddenly smile widely when he was just about to let go of his domain, "So that's how it is~!"
"?!?!?" Kisuke's twisted and horrific smile sent chills and alarm throughout Erebus' existence, "HOW!?!?"
But Kisuke didn't answer him. Instead, the blood that had dropped beyond the darkness began to climb up and crawl along the surface of the spears before extending itself into the surrounding darkness like blood vessels. With Kisuke as the epicenter, his own blood started taking over Erebus' 'Night'.
Erebus was shocked at this sight and clenched his teeth before attempting to dismiss his domain. However, it was already too late as more than half of it was already covered in horror-inducing pulsing blood vessels, "This is ridiculous!!!!!"
While trying to take back control, Erebus saw the spears piercing through Kisuke slowly retracting, revealing a grotesque image of a mangled and smiling 'corpse'. With his neck snapping towards his direction, Kisuke's empty eye sockets widened along with his smile, "Found you~!"
Before he knew it, Kisuke had already disappeared and reappeared in front of his face, "AAAHHHHHH!!!!!" The cloak of darkness had already left Erebus.
Thanks to taking over Erebus' ability and figuring out how its corrosion worked since it was relatively easy, Kisuke was able to marginally disable its effects and even take advantage of the controlled darkness to aid his regeneration. Seeing human eyes bubbling up into existence from his eye sockets is nothing short of terrifying.
"You're damn noisy." Kisuke's regenerated arm carelessly grabbed Erebus' face once again and threw him towards the ground. As the veil of darkness retreated, Erebus once again crashed and created another crater. But this time, he was too exhausted to extend any defenses, so his body took a devastating amount of blunt force trauma, forcing him to cough up blood with his broken ribs stabbing his lungs.
The world returned to normal and the dome of 'Night' swirled until it gathered on Kisuke's fingertip.
With his pride broken, the fear Erebus had been hiding broke loose. And without a shred of grace, he started crawling on the ground in an attempt to escape. If this was a normal battle, he wouldn't have been broken like this, but in addition to his ace in the hole being utterly ineffective, he also couldn't see the possibility of winning even if he sacrificed his life.
"Haah... Seriously?" Kisuke sighed in disappointment at his action, "At least let me try something I devised just now. It's actually something very similar to your move just now."
Pointing his finger upwards, the ball of darkness that he stole shot towards its former owner and expanded into a small jet black box that covered him, "Kurohitsugi: Moonless Night"
Before stabbing its victim with countless needles, the upper half of the box of death twisted a full 180-degrees first. Instead of going further, however, Kisuke immediately deactivated the technique and muttered, "Hmmm... This could be useful if I make something like a Rubik's cube in addition to that corroding effect."
But when he returned his sight to Erebus, who had already lost consciousness from the countless wounds and twisted spine, Kisuke became nervous, "...Crap... I didn't kill him, did I?"
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In a wide and well-lit room, a man with a buzz-cut hairstyle with greenish-brown hair color and lavender eyes was enjoying a glass of cold rum while watching numerous matches of the Azazel Cup through the screen in front of him when he suddenly received a file from one of his intelligence squad.
The God of War, Storms, and Rainfall of Mount Meru curiously opened the file and it depicted Erebus' arrival at Belial's territory.
A few minutes later, a smirk grew on his face as he finished his cup, "Interesting... Compared to the two baby Dragons, it looks like I'll have more fun with him. I should look for an opportunity to finally meet him."
Editors:
28th00: Yeah, but you can put him back together Kisuke! You can put him back together, better! You don’t need consent from the dead! Your minions might have a bit of a negative reaction to this though…
Goyya: He’s not dead yet… almost.
Redemperor D
Nyx and Athena rushed towards the Belial Mansion's secret basement when they heard that someone entered it through Teleportation Magic from Cleria. They already knew who'd came through, but they were not expecting to see Kisuke twisting Erebus' full of holes body to the correct orientation as if he was fixing a broken doll.
"...Y-yo~!" Kisuke awkwardly greeted them while patting down Erebus' midsection that was stretched and mangled.
Athena's expression darkened while Nyx started tearing up, "...B-brother..."
"Hold on! It's not what you think! He's alive!... Barely, at least." Kisuke explained while pulling out dozens of bottles of potion from his inventory and pouring everything on him. Since he didn't have the equipment needed for a full recovery and he didn't want to bring him to any of the facilities he owned, this is the most he could do. Even then, he could be kept alive, though barely and painfully.
Hearing Kisuke's words, the life in Nyx's eyes returned, and ran over to check her brother, only to see him groaning in pain despite being unconscious. She didn't know that he's actually having a nightmare instead of actually hurting.
Athena also walked over and checked Erebus' situation and instead of a battle, it looks like he was tortured instead, "...Just what did you do to him? I also felt him activating his signature 'Night' yet here you are, virtually unharmed."
"His ability didn't have good compatibility with me. Not to brag but something like that is easily managed by a counter specialist like me. As long as he couldn't kill me in time, I'd find a way to render it useless."
"...Kill you in time?" Athena then recalled the instance where he survived Ares' all-out attack, "Remind me again how the heck someone could kill you?"
"Err... Slice me enough times that I won't be able to regenerate?"
"You're not sure?"
"Athena-san, acquiring death experience isn't an easy one. I'm sure you don't have one either."
Athena realized her mistake and said, "...My bad." While also thinking, 'You'd normally know how much you can take before you die isn't it?... What was normal again?'
After patching up Erebus to a degree that his condition wouldn't worsen anymore, Kisuke finished his treatment, "You two can continue my treatment. Just follow the instructions in this booklet and use the supplies that I'll be leaving behind."
After receiving the booklet and cabinet of various concoctions from Kisuke, Athena asked, "Where are you going?"
"You should know that after this attack, it'll be seen as a declaration of war from Hades' side. But before the Alliance can gather its army and attack, they'll be initiating it first."
"I know, but shouldn't I come with you to prepare? They probably have already finished the process of opening Tartarus. No matter how strong you are, you won't be able to take on a group of Titans."
Kisuke then looked at her with genuine confusion, "When did I say I'll be fighting them?"
"B-but you said you'll take care of them..."
"I did. But why would I do something as unreliable as fighting? If that's what you were expecting, I'm sorry, but I'm not villainous enough to think I can take on the whole world."
Athena blankly stared at him for a short while before holding her head in remorse, 'Since when did I start thinking that violence was the answer to everything!?'
While the Goddess of Wisdom and War was having an inner conflict, Kisuke left to kickstart the spell he'd prepared for the prisoners of Tartarus, 'If I'm successful, I won't need to win this whole tournament.' He thought while also thinking of the possibility of failing and revealing most of his cards to the world just to get 'a bit' of help.
While the two Goddesses thought that the possibility of breaking open the Tartarus was a grim challenge for the whole of Olympus and the world by extension, Kisuke saw it as a massive opportunity to get some free labor. If the two knew what he was thinking, they'd be pulling their hair out of frustration. The bad thing was, they wouldn't even be able to deny that possibility no matter how unlikely it looked.
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A few days had already passed since Aika locked herself up in her room. As time passed, Honoka became increasingly paranoid while her husband, Haruto, tried his best to calm her down.
After placing Aika's dinner in front of her room's door, Honoka came down to the living room with a haggard look. In all the days she had raised her daughter, this was the first time she'd become unresponsive to almost everything. She knew that her daughter was afraid of something but she couldn't figure out what it was. If not for the fact that her food was still being eaten, she would have thought of the worst and asked Haruto to break down her door.
As she lethargically sat down on the sofa, she felt Haruto's hand holding hers and asked, "...Just where did we go wrong?"
"I don't think it's right to blame ourselves for this." Haruto replied with a calm and soft voice, "It was his fault. Nothing will change that."
Honoka turned her palm and grabbed Haruto's hand and replied, "But I can't help but think that we're also not entirely blameless. We were given a chance yet it turned out like this. I've been thinking that we should have been honest and said that we're hiding something from her. Maybe... If we were able to convince her that she shouldn't uncover this secret, it might not have reached this point where she doesn't even listen to anything."
Haruto gave out a wry smile and said, "I guess that's true too. We don't know enough of the situation to make a proper judgment."
He then suddenly stood up which confused Honoka, "Where are you going?"
Haruto started walking towards the main entrance while replying, "If we don't know something, we should ask someone who does."
Honoka followed Haruto to their garden and heard him say, "If someone's there, please come out. I'd like to talk."
"What are you..." But before Honoka could finish speaking, a woman in a suit and shades came out of the shadows and spooked her into silence.
The woman walked towards Haruto and introduced herself, "Nice to meet you. I'm Onoskelis of Grigori, the Fallen Angel Faction and the current leader of the security assigned to your family. How may I help you?"
"Sakura Urahara, we'd like to have a word with her."
Editors:
28th00
Redemeperor D