Exalted
Chapter 36, Blackout
Hypnos will be Hypnos. I like the idea of using the design of 'Abel' from DS, as they do indeed look similar enough to be twins. Kinda.
Saw something that kinda upset me today, but you know what? Whatever. If someone doesn't want to come up with their own ideas and borrow mine, that's cool too. Ugh.
Sorry for the delay yesterday, I've been kinda busy these past few days. Tuesday and Thursday might also be delayed, but we will see.
The big reveal of the ultimate weapon is this chapter. I lied when I said I wouldn't be using the Dragonslayer Swordspear idea. Imagine a darkened version covered in padlocks, chains and pulsing seals wrapped tightly around the handle and through the two holes beneath the blade but before the tang area, if you have to visualize the weapon.
I do not own anything relating to either series. Seriously. What a shocker.
[EX]
Minato felt the weight of something most peculiar on his shoulder as he walked the halls of Valhalla, almost as if he were being weighed down. Ignoring the chaos around him as he scanned the hall for potential targets, Minato was taken aback by the sheer size, and beauty of the massive area he found himself in. Taking a few moments to admire the masterful crafting of the hall, Minato memorized the familiar sights so that he might return on his own one day, if need be.
Massive pillars held the roof aloft, decorated with runes down the entire length of the columns of twisting and turning characters. It seems something was interfering with the powers that protected the sacred hall.
Chain mail hung from the benches while massive shields hung from the ceilings, obviously ready for combat as the Einherjar began to engage the foes trampling upon their home until Ragnarok comes.
Odin was already engaged in combat with Rossweisse by his side as soon as Minato had appeared through the summoning circle opened up for him, lost in some sort of rampage as he beat men and women to death with what appeared to be a goblet of all things.
Two wolves, whom Minato knew to be Geri and Freki, attacked those that they could wrap their maws around, tearing out the throats of many with ravenous gusto. Two blackbirds, the ravens Huginn and Muninn, would peck at the eyes of the humans while the wolves would finish them off, devouring the flesh greedily. Odin had yet to summon his spear Gungnir, or even begin to use magic in any fashion due to the large number of friendly faces among the crowd. This was the type of combat Minato had to be wise in, as he couldn't just blast massive laser beams of doom into his soon to be friends faces.
Kuroka snatched a blade from mid air that was on a crash course for his back before crushing it in her grasp. Minato was aware of the incoming weapon and was already in motion to deflect it when Kuroka interfered. The Nekoshou turned her angry gaze to the one responsible, only to watch as the man who threw the blade was overcome by twenty or so irate Valkyries while those not attacking the foolish man were waving at Minato while blowing kisses.
"How did they breach Valhalla?" Minato wondered aloud as the Blade of Lucifer appeared in his waiting hand, its shorter blade more appropriate for close quarters than his longsword. One swipe, two, five humans dead just like that, all bisected either through the hip or from shoulder to shoulder. "They are cannonfodder." Minato immediately noticed before turning his gaze to the entrance of the massive hall.
"It's a distraction." Kuroka answered in his ear, watching with heavy amber eyes as blood began to flood the floors with how many were being laid to waste, forming binding circles to seal away the Einherjar and their weapons shaped as if made of solid bolts of lightning. Screams of pain echoed throughout the massive hall once more, this time coming from friendly forces. Minato agreed with the sentiment, as did Odin it seemed as the two locked eyes from across the room.
Tilting his head to the door, Odin got the message. Kuroka easily cut a path through the weakly armored beings with small applications of the blue flames she wielded, allowing for Minato to stroll behind her as if the two were on a walk through the park.
Minato felt bad for the many beings he cut down, knowing that they had no choice but to attack him. Most of those present had likely been heavily brainwashed and hypnotized to serve Cao Cao and the Hero faction as slaves of war. Minato had blood on his hands before he was returned to this dimension, he knew that much. However, it was not the blood of potentially innocent beings.
Another ten, twenty, thirty dead, each one wearing a face Minato would likely remember till the day he died. Most of his opponents had been at least powerful enough, or evil enough, to warrant a harsh punishment, yet these beings were not. If he did not cut them down now, however, he knew they would continue to march under the orders of Cao Cao, perhaps killing one of his loved ones later.
That could not happen, and thus the many became a few. Kuroka would jump over his blade as he cleaved through the almost zombified humans, torching those that would attack him from behind while he would cover her flank in turn.
Grabbing her arm, Minato pulled Kuroka out of the way of a massive bench flying at her, slicing it in half with the crimson blade in his hands before sending a single bolt of black lightning from his fingertip towards the culprit as if his hand were a gun. The black bolt tore through the head of the curly haired man, leaving a smoking hole the size of a fist directly through his skull, smoldering as his body collapsed beneath him.
Kuroka returned the favor by jumping onto his shoulder before leaping into the air in a back flip, kicking a massive orb of fire that was descending from the roof away from the two after reinforcing her legs with a large amount of chakra instead of the Devil energy within her. The busty Nekoshou landed lightly on her feet, a frown on her face as she regarded the slightly stronger humans that wielded what appeared to be weak Sacred Gears mindlessly. Chains began to erupt from the floor, pulling many of the humans into the depths of the abyss Minato controlled as his own, thinning the crowds of foes further.
One man, whom Minato recognized as Heracles, began to glow a ghastly orange before throwing himself at Kuroka after tearing through a crowd of Einherjar, explosions ripping from every surfaces the mans body touched, fleshy or made of stone.
'Variant Detonation.' Minato thought to himself upon seeing the aura, knowing that Heracles was using his Sacred Gear with frightening effeciency.
"Kuroka, you dare show your face around me? YOU DARE SHOW YOURSELF AGAIN AFTER-"
"Shut up, Tiny, no one has time for a shrimp." Kuroka laughed in his face, backhanding the large man with a glowing fist while waggling her pinky in his direction.
Minato rose a brow towards Kuroka, which she understood as a question that didn't need to be asked. "No, he wanted to, but from what I've seen..." Kuroka trailed off, and Minato understood loud and clear.
Heracles punched the ground in anger upon hearing Kurokas words, causing another large explosion to ring out. The buxom Nekoshou wasn't impressed, sending multiple balls of blue flames towards the enraged behemoth of a human. The Greek descendent of the original Hercules hissed as the fire impacted his flesh, but easily brushed them aside.
"Your fires are weak, wench, as is your flesh! I WILL RIP YOUR FILTHY HEAD FROM YOUR SHOULDERS!" Heracles roared before slamming his fingers into the earth and pulling upwards. A large portion of the floor was slowly being lifted, though Minato ignored the long winded attack and went for the kill.
The Blade of Lucifer sliced through the air like a missile before burying itself in the skull of the Greek 'Hero', ending his life then and there. Multiple bolts of black lightning tore through his body, leaving it full of steaming holes that punched through him completely.
It was not Minatos fault that the man wanted to try and showboat his strength instead of fighting intelligently. You never occupied both hands during combat if you could help it, yet Heracles buried both of his hands in the ground, preventing him from blocking the flying sword.
The sickly orange aura still flared around the body of the now deceased Heracles, causing Minato to reach forward before placing his hand around the hilt of the weapon buried in his opponents face. After pulling the sword free, an orange smoke rose from the massive wound before swirling around the ring finger of Minato.
As if sensing a better user than its previous wielder, the Sacred Gear Variable Detonation became a small band of orange crystals, almost similar to the band of Twilight Healing. Minato could tell, however, that he was not the designated wielder of the Sacred Gear, and was just a temporary vessel it seemed. Should he have been chosen, the ring wouldn't have settled on his finger, and instead it would have joined with his body.
"Well, that's just no fun." Kuroka pouted, having wanted to embarrass the large man further before his death, "I wasn't done mocking him."
"We can mock some of the others more to make up for it." Minato reminded her before beconning towards the largest doors leading from Valhalla. The Einherjar and Valkyries seemed to be cleaning up the rest of the opponents easily, going so far as to singing a loud battle hymn as they did so.
Finally, Kuroka and Minato were able to make it through the staggering humans and into the company of Odin and Rossweisse, who had also made it through the thick crowds of friend and foes alike.
"This ain't getting us anywhere." Odin groused, taking a sip from the mead in the goblet, having apparently not even spilled a drop after murdering upwards of one hundred people with it. "The more I kill, the more that come! I coulda' sworn I killed that bastard three times!" He seemed to be pointing at one man in particular, silver haired with six arms.
The four arms sprouting from his back were silver in color and dragonoid, each wielding a different sword as if he were an Asura. The blade in his right hand, his human hand that is, was golden in color and embroidered with what appeared to be the face of a large dragon.
Another silver haired man, this one loyal to Odin, tore through the crowd of humans around him before forcefully engaging with his younger looking counterpart, leading Minato to believe that the Einherjar in Odins service was his ancestor. 'Sigfried and Sigmund, then.' Minato identified the two, knowing who they were after going down the list in his head.
The Einherjar under the command of Odin seemed to flex harshly like a professional body builder before letting out a massive bellow. Minato could have sworn he heard the man announcing that his muscles had muscles, and from what he could tell, Minato could not disagree. Instead of attacking him, the six armed youth dropped his weapons and began to flex as well, turning his legs and hips to face all six limbs skyward. The two exchanged insults and compliments at the same time as what should have been a physical fight devolved into a contest of appearances.
"You might not be entirely incorrect, Odin." Minato informed the elder God after he turned his attention away from the strange family reunion, "The Tepes faction is currently associated with the Khaos Brigade. Rumor has it that they happen to have a certain Sacred Gear in their possession, and considering their appearance..." Minato gestured to the even further emancipated forms crawling from the underside of the bridge leading into Valhalla.
"So someone is resurrecting them." Rossweisse immediately understood upon hearing 'Sacred Gear'. Someone had the Sephiroth Graal, and they were disrupting the flow of life and death as a form of warfare.
As often as souls had been pulled from the beyond, it was still reprehensible to enslave humans to fight a failing battle against the Gods, even going so far as to overriding their will in the process, leaving them as mindless puppets.
"It seems that way." Minato nodded his head in affirmation before scanning the large field before him. It seems that the Gods and Goddesses that dwelt within Valhalla, outside of Thor, had engaged in conflict with many different members of the Hero faction, holding them back from besieging the hall unlike their useless, weaker counterparts had.
"I sense a much larger power source further ahead, just below the cliff face." Rossweisse noted while looking to Odin for permission to scout ahead. Seeing as the old man was too busy watching the combat below with a bit of relish, she blew her hair from her face before turning to Minato. "Do you want me to take care of it?"
Minato shrugged his shoulders, expecting Odin to give the bodacious woman the order. When he did not, Minato did. Rossweisse disappeared towards the horizon quickly, her battle mail fluttering in the wind as she went.
He couldn't help but appreciate the view as she went, apparently neither could Kuroka.
"She has a nice ass." The Nekoshou grinned while elbowing Minato to get his attention, "What do you think?"
Minato did not answer her, instead focusing on the increasingly large energy signature heading towards the three. "That's a big dragon." Minato noted with a frown, seeing the gleaming, crimson scaled beast approaching quickly.
[EX]
Standing on a plateau further down from where the Gods and Goddesses were engaging their opponents, another strike force was gathered. At the lead was Cao Cao, the current leader of the Hero faction while to his right sat Georg, the descendent of Faust.
"How are we doing?" Cao Cao questioned sternly, only for Georg to begin to stutter his response. "We... we aren't doing good. Someone else has appeared, someone as strong as Odin, easily."
"Another one? Odin is the All-Father of the Norse Gods for a reason, he is the strongest among them. The only other Gods I can think of that would come to his aid are Thor, Baldr and his strongest Einherjar, Ein. What gives?" Cao Cao was not impressed with the words of Georg and was going to continue his ranting when Heracles began to crawl from the large pit of darkness beside the small gathered group.
"Oh, that miscreant is going to get it! Who throws their sword?!" Heracles ranted, throwing his hands into the air in anger, "And he stole Variable Detonation! I will turn his brain into paste with my bare hands!"
"Someone managed to take you down, Heracles?" Cao Cao questioned impertinently, slamming the butt of the 'True Longinus' into the ground in anger, "What the hell is going on? Loki said the seals should have weakened the Gods tremendously!"
"Obviously, you were lied to, mortal." Came the rather vicious sounding voice from behind Cao Cao, causing the Chinese teenager to spin on his heels to regard the speaking figure.
Instead of responding to any of those bearing cloaks or even Cao Cao, Heracles launched himself upwards and back into the fray, this time avoiding confronting Minato or Kuroka again. Dying once had been enough for the man.
"You shut your mouth, leech, or I will remove those fangs of yours with my bare hands." Cao Cao growled out before pointing his spear in the direction of the Vampire.
"Oh please, you couldn't get close enough to me to do it and you know it." The doll-faced figure with black hair spoke lazily, waving his hand to dismiss the insinuation, "This assault would fail without my assistance, you might want to remember that before you speak to me in such a way again."
"Whatever. We had a deal, Marius, you aren't here as a favor." Cao Cao spat before turning his attention away from the crimson eyed male, "Georg, it is time."
"As you wish, Cao Cao." Georg nodded his head before turning to the kneeling figure bound in chains beside him. A slithering, coiling snake of what appeared to be blood and energy swam from his hand through the air and into the mouth of the kneeling figure.
"Ugh, AH! AHHHH!" The kneeling figure roared in agony before throwing his head back, facing the sky. Two wings ripped from the back of the cloaked man, dragonoid in nature. Scales began to cover the figure from head to toe until all that remained was a massive, crimson dragon easily fifty meters long in size.
The beast let loose another roar before taking to the skies, flying towards the plateau just above the group of four.
Rossweisse flew over the edge of the cliff face just as the creature was flying upwards, causing the two to almost collide as the Valkyrie dodged out of the way of the near collision.
The creature ignored the woman, instead flying towards the large energy signature it could sense on the edge of its range of sensory. It was the energy signature he was created to destroy, after all.
"ODIN!" The beast roared aloud, its voice easily echoing across the landscape as it barreled towards the bearded God.
On the uppermost plateau, Odin, Minato and Kuroka bore witness to one of the largest dragons they had ever seen quickly approaching the three with hate and agony rolling from it in waves.
"Go and take care of the one who made this beast." Odin addressed Minato with a sideways glance, allowing his spear Gungnir to appear from the blue seal that appeared by his head, "You shove that stick of his up his ass and I'll consider us allies."
Minato nodded his head and began to move towards the plateau drop off, ignoring the massive dragon as it flew over his and Kurokas heads.
"COME HERE YOU OVER GROWN LIZARD! DADDY NEEDS A NEW PAIR OF DRAGONHIDE BOOTS!" Odin roared while aiming at the dragon using the only eye he had. Pulling his arm back, the muscles in Odins right arm began to tense, growing in size slightly as the All-Father called upon his domain as not only the God of the Sky, but also as the God of War, using both to empower his weapon to even greater heights.
Odin let loose the weapon, kicking up a massive cloud of dust upon the release in a large circle around him. The dust kicked up from the release settled upon the battlefield, adding to the ever growing fog of war that had overtaken the fields outside of Valhalla.
[EX]
Minato stared down at the four figures waiting below, watching them quarrel amongst one another with interest. Kuroka placed her chin on his shoulder as she embraced him from behind, watching with him as it seemed two of the figures departed, leaving only two left.
"Who were they?" Kuroka wondered aloud, tracing a circle with her finger on the chest of Minato, who didn't seem bothered at all by the contact at this point.
"I can't say I know. Both wore cloaks to hide their identities." Minato admitted before motioning to the two left, "Though I know that is Cao Cao and Georg. How about we go greet them properly?"
Kuroka seemed pleased by the idea, letting go of Minato before leaping over the cliff face before he could say anything else. "See you at the bottom, Mina-Kun~!"
Minato watched her go before shrugging his shoulders and taking the leap himself, plummeting downwards at a rapid pace. As he began to approach the ground, Minato released a small portion of his energy, molding it almost to the point of singularity at the soles of both of his feet.
Using a skill he was taught by Kuroka, Minato landed lightly on his feet after falling in what seemed to be slow motion for the last few meters of the fall. Kuroka did not say anything as the two approached the waiting figures, ignoring the sound of combat both above and below them.
"Cao Cao. Do you know who I am?" Minato questioned loudly as he approached, raising his voice so the Chinese teenager would understand him despite the distance.
"Of course I know of you, Thanatos. I was not expecting the personification of Death to be present in Valhalla." Cao Cao called out while readying his spear, "This is perfect! I was only here to conduct an experiment, but the opportunity to kill Death is just too sweet to pass up! If I kill you, then I will prove that humans are the mightiest of all races!"
"Prove... humanities might?" Minato questioned, tilting his head slightly, "Did I hear you correctly? Did you just say you wished to prove humanities might?"
"Yes, you deaf relic! If I kill you, then it will be the proof we need to show the world that humanity is not a tool! We are our own faction, our own race that needs no help from the supernatural!" Cao Cao yelled, impassioned by his self righteousness.
The True Longinus crackled with energy, golden light pouring from the blade like a strobe light, as if agreeing with its wielder, "This is just the opening ceremony, you see! As soon as the Northern Gods are wiped clean, we shall go from Pantheon to Pantheon, rinsing and repeating until Humans are all that is left in all of the realms! No longer will Devils enslave us, or Fallen deceive us! No longer will Angels try and blind us to the truth! Humans need not depend on the fickle whims of Gods or Goddesses, finally able to stand on our own feet!"
"Enslaved by Devils? You yourself have enslaved humans, waged a genocidal conflict between yourselves to awaken gifted strength! Deceived by Fallen? You hypnotize and brainwash your subjects!" Minato was affronted by the black haired teenager and the arrogance he exuded, "You call yourselves the Hero faction, but do you want to know what I see, Cao Cao?"
Minato held his hand out, and above it came a hazy image. Eventually, the form of a heart appeared above the opened hand, crimson in color. The heart began to beat slowly, and just as slowly, began to convert to the shade of coal black.
"Your heart and soul are as black as the abyss. You do not know what the word Hero means, you petulant child!" Minato was getting upset, just thinking about the hypocrisy, "You are the Villain, Cao Cao!"
"And what would you know of humanity?! What would you know of the word Hero?!" Cao Cao shouted, the aura around his weapon flaring as he swung it in the direction of Minato and Kuroka. A thin beam of energy was calmly deflected to the side by the backhand of Minato, almost lazily. "You have reaped the souls of men and women alike since your inception! The things you have done hardly make you capable of speaking about Heroes and Villains, Thanatos!"
"What do I know of humanity...?" Minato questioned, his shoulders trembling slightly as his face tilted downwards. His hair shadowed his face, hiding his features from view. The trembling continued as Minato thrust his hand to the right, as if summoning something to his hand. "I have walked the earth for the last eighteen years thinking I was a mortal man! I know of the struggles of man, of their inner most fears and desires. I know of the darkness of man, and the greatness of man! I know more than you can ever comprehend, Cao Cao!"
The earth around him began to tremble, the trees far away in the distance swaying under the force. The sky began to darken, no longer the bright golden color that perpetually covered the surface of Asgard. The sun, so bright in the sky, began to turn a bloody crimson and soon, baleful red light pierced the darkness of night that befell Asgard.
A loud, tearing noise filled the air as reality ripped at the seams before the hand of Minato, eventually giving way under the force being applied to the very fabric of existence. A gaping hole leading directly into the dark void controlled by Minato appeared, and from it something began to reveal itself.
A massive blade covered in multiple lengths of chain and locks appeared, each lock bearing an ultraviolet seal that glowed heavily enough to give off a light show. The entire blade finally revealed itself, crackling with black lightning every two seconds violently, scoring the earth around Minato and Kuroka in a show of force.
The long handle of the blade began to push itself from the void before Minato grasped the weapon and gave it a tug, pulling it completely from the tear in reality. The rip resealed itself and faded away, leaving the curios white eyes staring from within to disappear as well.
The length of the blade itself was three feet and shaped as it it belonged on a sword, while the handle of the weapon was far too long to be considered as such. It was not long enough to be considered a full spear, however, leaving it as a strange mix of the two.
"I have to thank you, Cao Cao, for this beautiful weapon." Minato admitted while running his hand along the length of the monstrous blade lovingly, "You see, when you stabbed Ophis, a large portion of the True Longinus broke off inside of her, almost killing her due to its interference with her healing process... The shard was not enough to wield, however. It was a pitiful little thing, so hungry and desperate to live... so I began to feed it my own energy like I would have a baby."
Minato pointed the blade at Cao Cao before crossing his free hand over his chest and over the arm supporting the massive weapon, "The result of its creation, its birth, almost killed me, Cao Cao. This weapon contains the power of the Infinite, so stained was the fragment it was born from, and the will of Death. Right now, it is singing to me. Do you want to know what it says?"
Tracing the blade along the ground before Cao Cao in his vision like a paint brush, Minato allowed the strength of the weapon in his hand to reveal itself, if only a mere fraction of its potential. A massive trench began to carve itself in the direct path that Minato lazily swung his blade, causing Cao Cao and Georg to take a step back in shock at the display, covering their eyes as earth was kicked up wildly.
'He didn't even push any of his energy into it and it carved a trench twenty feet away.' Georg thought to himself grimly, knowing that the power of the weapon wielded by Thanatos was not anything to trifle with.
If its mere summoning could cause the entire dimension of Asgard to shake, then he was glad that its potential seemed to sealed away by thousands of different interlocking, constantly shifting runes carved along the entire length of the large sword-spear combination.
Neither Georg nor Cao Cao could recognize the strange, primal looking runes carved upon the surface of the weapon, nor could they begin to understand the creeping numbness in the back of their minds as they tried to comprehend the nature of what they were seeing, as if it were beyond their realm of understanding.
"It wants to make you suffer Cao Cao, just like you make those under you suffer." Minato leaned forward a bit while pointing the massive spear towards Cao Cao once more, its blade engulfed by the massive current of darkened electricity coursing through it, trilling like sickly birds.
The Chinese teenager felt his heart beating in his throat, and he knew that his day was about to take a turn for the worst.
[EX]
Kuroka knew that Minato wanted to take care of Cao Cao personally and instead opted to take care of his second in command Georg with Rossweisse as her support.
The Valkyrie quickly made herself useful by raining down bullets of energy in the direct area of Georg like a machine gun, though the massive surge of magic circles that appeared around the glasses wearing teenager prevented any damage from being inflicted by the raining death.
Kuroka reinforced her through close range attacks, knowing that Georg was a long ranged fighter from her own time in the Khaos Brigade. She might not have been a member of the Hero faction, but she was well informed on the capability of the human.
Georg began to chant a Norse verse under his breath, though Rossweisse was able to read his lips and inform Kuroka of the impending attack. "He is summoning hail!"
Kuroka nodded her head and summoned a large barrier of ghostly blue flames around the two buxom women, preventing the raining sharp spires of hail from peppering and rending their flesh with their icy tips. The Nekoshou seemed nonplussed with the amount of chakra she was having to expend to keep the barrier erected, though she knew it would only last for around five minutes at most.
A massive bolt of black lightning erupted from the right, the direction that Minato and Cao Cao were facing each other. Georg was forced to abandon his spell casting to dodge the large bolt, thus allowing Kuroka to drop the barrier to engage the teenager in close quarters once more.
Rossweisse summoned two magic circles to her hands and began to fire off a constant laser beam from both, acting as if they were massive light sabers as they attempted to slice Georg into ribbons. Kuroka would throw massive orbs of flame at the teenager every time he dodged the beams of blue light, scoring decent hits against him more than once.
As the two beams began to encircle him once more, preventing him from dodging, Georg summoned a large cloud of mist around him that completely negated the damage he was about to receive.
"Dimension Lost, it's a Longinus-Class Sacred Gear. Do not get caught in the mist, it can teleport anything within to a seperate dimension all together." Rossweisse informed the Nekoshou without tearing her eyes away from the powerful magician, who was now floating off of the ground by a foot while assessing the two of them nervously.
'To think they forced me to use my Sacred Gear already...' Georg thought to himself bitterly, feeling that he was not strong enough to deal with the two women alone, 'They are proving too strong to fight without backup.'
Kuroka seemed pleased by the fight, finally getting a proper workout after months of mostly lazing around with her workouts done in between naps. Rossweisse, however, was more serious about the confrontation, knowing that one wrong move might have her floating in the Dimensional Gap to fade away into the nothingness.
Instead of targeting the two of them further, however, Georg turned his attention to Cao Cao and Minato after hearing one of the most cringe inducing sounds of rending flesh that he ever heard.
Cao Cao looked like he was on the verge of death, one of his arms missing while blood poured from one of his now empty eye sockets in a river. The True Longinus was no longer in his grasp, and instead was wielded in the right hand of Thanatos. The personification of Death seemed far more interested in studying the cracked and splintered spear in his right hand than finishing off his opponent, and Georg took that opportunity to summon his fog once more, engulfing both himself and Cao Cao before disappearing into a different dimension and away from Thanatos and his two wenches.
If his leader didn't look so devastated about the loss of his arm, eye and weapon, Georg would have told him to look on the bright side. The more he thought about it, however, the more appealing it became.
'It is going to take a while to recover from these wounds.' Georg thought with a frown, 'We were not prepared for Death, but we will be next time.'
[EX]
Minato opened up the fight with a forward lunge, pushing forward with one foot and allowing the momentum to carry himself across the space between the two in an attempt to impale the teenager upon his weapon.
Cao Cao rolled to the right, dodging the opening lunge before swiping at waist level towards Minato with his spear, causing a crescent beam of white and golden light to erupt in a wave.
Minato countered the wave of light with a sweep of his own spear, allowing a blanket of darkness to snuff out the incoming attacks like a heavy wind to a candle flame. A vertical swing of the 'Anti-Longinus' created from the fragment of the True Longinus left another trench in the ground, almost bisecting Cao Cao in two.
"This plateau will be your grave, Thanatos!" Cao Cao called out arrogantly before swinging his spear above his head like a baton before bringing it downwards in a smashing motion. Minato casually batted the attack to the side by spinning his blade in a circle, chipping the weapon of his opponent in the process.
Cao Cao disengaged his opponent and took a cursory glance at his weapon, noticing that the wounds upon its form were not healing as fast as they should have. The True Longinus drew upon his very life force to repair itself, and Cao Cao could already feeling his life span slowly decreasing as the fight continued.
Thanatos was playing with him, toying with him as a lion would its prey. None of the attacks he unleashed required any of the energy within him, coming directly from the weapon in his hands. His form did not become enveloped in shadows, nor did he show his true form. He was fighting solely as a human would, with a weapon in hand alone.
It was like salt upon his wounds, and Cao Cao would not stand for it. Launching himself at Thanatos with renewed vigor, the Chinese teenager released its Balance Breaker in hopes to overcome the massive force wielded by the personification of Death.
'Chatsuka Ratana.' Cao Cao intoned, summoning one of the seven black orbs that hovered around him into the spear before attacking Minato with a wide slash. Minato once again deflected the attack lazily, almost as if he were practicing twirling a drumstick.
'IT DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!' Cao Cao roared in his head, taken aback that his weapon did not destroy the imitation spear wielded by Thanatos. 'HOW DID IT FAIL?!'
The teenager was unable to understand the development, as his weapon was supposed to be one of the most powerful weapons in all of the realms. The Chatsuka Ratana granted the ability to destroy any weapon in came into contact with as long as the True Longinus was the stronger of the two weapons.
That meant that the spear wielded by Thanatos was either equal to, or greater than the True Longinus, and the prospect terrified him.
A different orb joined with the True Longinus while the previous orb began to float around him once more. 'Balinayaka Ratana!' Cao Cao completely skipped the activation process usually needed due to the situation, knowing that a chant would likely get him killed as would any other distractions. Instead of attacking him again while the spheres were changing, Thanatos pointed his weapon to the left and let loose a large beam of black lightning towards Georg, who was summoning hail downwards upon his comrades.
The General Treasure, as the particular sphere was known as, greatly increased the attack power of the True Longinus at the cost of, yet again, the life force of the user. Had Cao Cao not been reinforcing himself with the stolen energy of Ophis, he knew he would have perished from the mere activation of the skill without its chant.
A large beam of chaotic white energy in the shape of an eastern Dragon erupted from the tip of the True Longinus, heading towards Thanatos at a rate that seemed impossible to dodge. Instead of dodging, however, Minato returned the attack with one of his own, pointing the Anti-Longinus towards the attack while releasing one of the many, many seals upon the weapon.
A black wave of energy erupted from the heavily sealed weapon, eventually taking the form of a Dragon that looked more like Ophis than not while letting loose a bestial roar that easily dwarfed that of the crimson dragon being fought by Odin. The two dragons began to coil around one another before latching onto one another with immaterial teeth, doing their best to gain dominance over the other. Eventually, the Ophis-shaped Dragon won and devoured the energy within the eastern Dragon, dispersing itself once its job was complete.
Minato launched himself forward once more with a massive push of his left foot, closing the distance between Cao Cao and himself in the blink of an eye. Swinging downwards, Minato attempted to bisect the Chinese teenager again, only for him to hold his own spear horizontally to catch the Anti-Longinus before it could make contact with his flesh.
"You... You filthy primordial! I will dance on your grave!" Cao Cao ground out, only for Minato to roll his eyes at the rather bland threat. Letting his left hand free from its grasp on the Anti-Longinus, Minato shoved his pointer finger forward and impaled the right eye of Cao Cao before pulling it directly from his skull, though the teenager did not scream once in pain. It was a cheap attack, but it was effective to say the least.
Cao Cao may not have physically displayed his pain, but his instincts forced him backwards and away from Minato, allowing the blue haired being to snatch the True Longinus from the grasp of Cao Cao before removing his left arm from his body at the shoulder.
This time, the Chinese teenager displayed a great amount of pain and the six orbs surrounding him faded away into nothingness. Minato grasped the weapon of Cao Cao even tighter in his grip before a large snapping noise filled the air as he brought it down over his knee.
The descendent of the original Cao Cao watched dispassionately as his prized weapon, something he was born with, was shattered into pieces over the knee of Thanatos like a cheap toy. Just as Minato was about to remove the head of Cao Cao and impale it upon the end of his own blade, he was prevented from doing so by outside interference.
A massive blanket of fog danced over the landscape, pulling Cao Cao into its embrace before the Chinese teenager and his large army of humans disappeared from Asgard completely, their mission ending in failure.
Minato let out a small grunt of disappointment before he bent down and picked up the three fragments of the True Longinus, no longer containing even a fraction of its previous radiance after being as destroyed as it was.
"I hope this won't prevent Odin from joining..." Minato murmured, knowing that he was not the only being who wanted to see Cao Cao dead for his attrocities.
Kuroka and Rossweisse were by his side not even seconds later, the Nekoshou once more invading his personal space while the Valkyrie hung back just a bit further, both checking over the personification of Death to make sure he was not wounded.
If the situation wasn't so tense, Minato was sure he would have enjoyed being fretted over by two very beautiful women in such a way.
[EX]
"I would do anything for you to reconsider." Rossweisse, despite the serious situation, seemed to forget herself for a moment, almost dropping to her knees to beg. Kuroka placed her hand over her mouth and let a lewd sounding giggle escape before looking the silver haired Valkyrie up and down a few times.
"Reconsider what, Mina-Kun~?" Kuroka questioned with no small amount of amusement in her voice, "Do you have yet another wanting to join us?"
"Yes."
"No?" Minato wasn't sure, only to be informed by Rossweisse that she indeed wanted to join Minato. She didn't seem to understand just what Kuroka was implying, though Minato did. "You... do?"
"Yes. Please, I am begging you." Rossweisse did not mince words, it seemed.
Minato thought it over, remembering the words of Odin just earlier that day. "You are good at paperwork?"
"Yes, I am." Rossweisse informed him quickly, nodding her head in agreement with the question, "I am very good with paperwork."
"Consider yourself hired." Minato held out his hand for her to shake, which she did with extreme gusto, almost enough to lift Minato from his feet.
Odin had agreed to join the Alliance so long as Minato gave him the weapon that was used to end the life of his favorite Valkyrie. After thinking it over for all of two seconds, Minato gladly handed over the three empty fragments of the True Longinus, knowing that the weapons spirits and power no longer dwelt within the physical vessel of the spear.
It also helped that Minato was willing to take his 'least favorite Valkyries' off of his hands, no longer wanting Rossweisse to 'cramp his style' as he so aptly put it.
"Yes, yes, I give you my word." Odin stated again in an exasperated tone before raising his right hand, "I swear it on my honor as the All-Father."
"Then I will see you in one week, Odin." Minato held out his hand for the elderly God to take, which he gladly did after wiping some of the blood off of it and onto his robes. It was too late for Minato to take his hand back, and the bloody grasp of Odin stained his pristine white gloves a second later.
"You better prepare yourself, Thanatos! I am going to drink you, bird-brains and fire crotch under the damn table, just you watch!" Odin called out jovially as he turned away to oversee the gathering of the dead Einherjar and Valkyries that covered the plateaus around Valhalla.
Minato, Kuroka and Rossweisse left Asgard moments later through a large portal of churning darkness, not looking back at the large battlefield even once.
Had they looked back, they would have noticed that the sun was still stained crimson while the sky remained darkened like night. Twilight indeed fell over the Gods, yet they stood still, ready for a second round. A stronger Alliance than before was born on that day, one forged in the fires of war and quenched in the blood of their foes.
The world tension grew and the other Pantheons began to take notice.