Y/N POV
Halibel gave me a scroll of some sorts after we finished his little test, and judging from his words, I seemed to have passed.
Well, at least that's one of the worries out of the way.
However... the scroll...
A long time ago, even before the Divine Dragon existed...
1000 years B.A. (Before Arrival)...
A being that can be truly called Transcendent.
Such beings existed, long before the Witch or the Dragons were concepts to be known.
These were the Four Great Spirits. Similar to the countries, today, they each settled in a corner of the world. Melakeura, the Great Spirit of Fire, resided in the Elior Forest until it was defeated by the firstborn Artificial of Echidna 1000 years later. Muspel, the Great Spirit of Earth, rested itself upon the rocks of Vollachia, lying dormant until it has half of its power devoured by the Spirit Eater 1000 years later as well. Odglass, the Great Spirit of Water, stayed in Gusteko after forming a bond with the former Gustekan ruler, and chooses the Holy Kingdom's next leader every time.
But this is the story about the Great Spirit of Wind.
A kind and gentle soul, yet so dangerous at the same time, who resided on her rockbeds for a long time after her people's betrayal of her.
Her name was Zarestia.
Back then, she wasn't just the Great Spirit of Wind. She controlled all four fundamental elements. Stories of those times describe her as a great beast. Her head would raise the wind, her hands would add fire, her tail would hoist up the water, and her feet would dig up the soil, all of which she enjoyed and would do repeatedly.
She rejoiced in her freedom, undisturbed by anyone, and was praised and admired by all. In turn, she began listening to their requests and would usually lend them her aid whenever she was awake, though sometimes she missed her former freedom and would ignore them. Eventually, people began bringing gifts for her when they came to ask for favours, though she had little interest in them. However, she appreciated their feelings, and was glad they were happy with her doing what she liked.
Over time, requests became increasingly more specific and her followers began asking for more and more from Zarestia. Though she enjoyed her freedom, she also enjoyed how they would praise and pamper her. Before long, she had grown accustomed to doing as everyone told her. One day, they came to her with a particularly odd request. They asked for fire and nothing else. She initially found the request disagreeable and asserted her freedom by turning it down, only for everyone to leave her. Finding her freedom to be lonesome, she went to them and agreed to their request for fire. However, she secretly raised the wind as well, as only the wind was indispensable to her as the symbol of her freedom.
After Zarestia returned, the people invited her to a party where she was given alcohol for the first time, and she fell asleep away from her nest for the first time as well. While she slept, the people removed her limbs, stripping her of all elemental powers besides wind. Confused, she asked for an explanation and they accused her of burning their towns and villages as her wind had caused the flames to spread. They bathed her in alcohol and lit her ablaze, and she saw they were pleased to watch her burn as she screamed in pain. Realizing she still had her head and power over wind, she resolved to kill them all and slew each and every one of them.
Since then, she was been filled with bloodlust, who vowed to kill anything and everything. Taking the title as the Most Beautiful Reaper, the shinigami of the west, as even the ones who she slew called her beautiful before their death.
Zarestia possesses a certain object called the Light Sphere. Without it, she is stripped of most of her powers, along with her bloodlust. One might say that is a good thing, but the light sphere would not let itself be separated from its owner. Which means, no matter how far one takes the Light Sphere away, it acts as a magnet that attracts Zarestia straight to you.
And now someone has successfully stolen it and Zarestia is raging. At the fact that she cannot find her thief. If this continues, she might raze the entire Kararagi to the ground to find it.
And the one who stole it...
...she thinks... its me?
"Well, not specifically you, I don't think so."
Omega said as she snapped me out of my thoughts. We were currently at an open sky banquet, where people celebrated one of Kararagi's local festivals. As I continued my thoughts on Zarestia and contemplating upon Omega's words, Sphinx flew over and rammed her chest onto the back of my head.
Ouch. It was all bones, too...
"You're thinking of something mean again, aren't you, Y/N?" Sphinx pouted as she flew over to my front side, and gave me a frown.
"N-No! Nothing bad, I promise. Is there something you wanted to say?"
"Capella and Typhon want you to come and play the festival games with us. We keep on losing on the shooting game and the goldfish one! It's so hard and they don't let me use magic!"
"Sigh... fine. Omega, you wanna come as well?"
"Sure. I want to go and learn some things as well about Japanese festival cultures, too. The question is, who is going to look after our stuff?"
"I can take care of that." A voice said behind us, and I turned around to see the familiar wolf-human that I met yesterday.
"Oh, Halibel-san! Thank you so much for that proposition just now."
"Don't worry, Y/N-san, it's the least I can do." His gaze flitted over to Sphinx and Omega. "Haha... it seems that even without my tricks, you're quite popular, hm?"
"Oh, shush-"
"Who are you, shady geezer?" Sphinx suddenly flew into Halibel's face, startling the both of us. "I didn't even sense your presence when you suddenly appeared! If you try to harm Y/N or us, I swear I will-"
"Young lady, you misunderstood. Y/N-san there is a... good acquaintance of mine. I will never wish him any harm, so does that satisfy you?"
Sphinx looked at me for confirmation, and I nodded. Sighing, I told Sphinx to apologize to Halibel, which she did while also feeling a bit bad for her own outburst. After bidding farewell to the wolf-human I ventured into the stalls with Omega and Sphinx, only to find Typhon trying to use her scooper to get the fish up.
"N/N!" Typhon whined as she ran towards me like a child (she kinda is one), and hugged my leg. "I want a fish but the man keeps on not giving me hints! Typhon is really not happy! Y/N, permission to take of my gloves so I could touch that annoying person?"
"Typhon, would it really be a good idea for you to shatter someone here?"
"Hmm... yes?"
"No! Remember, you don't do that on people who never harmed you physically. If they did mentally..." I leaned down to whisper. "Tell me about it and then I'll decide if you could."
"Okay, I understand, N/N. But can you get me a fishy?"
"Sure. I'll actually get one for each of our Battalion members." I smiled as I took the scooper, and looked at the goldfish in concentration.
Using the imperceptible speed my arms possess, I shot my scooper into the water and managed to catch three fish in one go. However, a fish bounced out of my scooper in the air, and I panicked. Using the milliseconds of time to cool my mind, I quickly did a calculation of a small goldfish's jump force, direction and angle of the jump before quickly identifying the parabola that it will travel in. Flashing my hand and my scooper to the right, the fish landed back in my scooper, and I let out a large sigh.
"N/N! That was sooooo coool!" Typhon yelled as she hugged me after I dropped the fish into a bowl, which the owner gave me. After fishing some more, we went to go find Capella, who didn't... seem to need any help.
"HAHAHAAHAHA!" Capella laughed as she shot her toy crossbows with one in each hand, towards the target. The arrows shot out were inaccurate, but the various shooting eventually landed on her desired targets.
"Uh... Cappy, what are you doing?" I walked over as I looked at the store owner, who cowered in the corner in fear.
"Y/N dear! Look at my awesome modifications to this device called a crossbow!" Capella said as she held up her toy crossbows, which look something that came straight out of Minecraft with a Multishot enchantment on it. Hell, if that was a pistol, she probably would've turned it into a bad version of a sawed off.
"Nice... creation, I guess?" I said, not knowing how to respond to Capella's wink. I guess it's fine, seeing everyone relax like this for a while. To be honest, now that i think about it, aside from some trips back a few months ago, we never really had the time to take a vacation or enjoy ourselves too much.
I could probably do that, but that just means that everyone will be in greater danger.
"And I just raised a flag, didn't I?" I glared towards the roof of a building, where a lone woman stood, and her eyes were definitely glaring straight back at me.
"Omega, who is that?"
"It seems to be the one that you were contemplating about earlier. She seems to be the Great Spirit of Wind, Zarestia."
"Ha... But why does she seem so hostile-"
I never finished my sentence. A blade of pure wind slashed through my body, bisecting it vertically. I've never felt so much pain in my life, despite having Capella's Dragon Blood and the Authority of Deceit helping me regenerate.
"Bre...lugh." I coughed out blood as the crowd suddenly began dispersing in fear, while Typhon and the other began to fight while Echidna casted Healing Magic on me.
"Who are you! Why did you hurt Y/N!" Capella and Sphinx shouted in unison at the opponent, but not in their usual arrogant attitude. They just saw someone almost kill me in an instant, without me even having the time to react to the attack, after all.
"Great Spirit of Wind... huh..." I slowly recovered, my regenration finally finishing. "Zarestia... what do you want with me?"
"You." She spoke out a single word, but it was enough to make me and the others tremble, similar to Valgren back in his soul realm. "You stole my Light Sphere, didn't you?"
"What? Look carefully, do I have any trace of your 'Light Sphere'?"
"Don't lie. Even if you don't have it now, that miasma that lingers upon the thief lingers upon you as well. I hate humans who lie, and those who do... die by my hand."
Another blade of wind came at me at blinding speed, but this time, I was anticipating it. Crossing my fingers, the Authority of Greed activated as it nullified the blade, dispersing it into nothingness. Confusing the Great Spirit of Wind for just a while, it gave me enough time to use my Imperceptible Extensions to grab onto her limbs and hold her in place.
"You attacked me, an innocent person first! So I will return the gratitude!" I said as my hands began to condense Technetium into a long spear, before coating my hands in diamond and threw the lance of radioactive material. It plunged into Zarestia's chest, or so I thought. A thin but violent barrier of wind stopped the attack before it was shredded to bits.
"Well, change of plans!" I said as I jumped into the sky, and tried out the new move that nearly defeated Halibel. "Inifnite Multiplication + Alchemis' Hellfire Armour."
With my clones ablaze, we dove towards the enemy.
"Night Parade of 200 Demons."
A lot of my clones were shredded by the wind and disappeared, but most of us got through and landed strikes on the Great Spirit. Or at least that was what we thought.
Turning back to the Great Spirit I just passed, I noticed the attacks from the last of my clones slid right of the surface, even though it hit. It seems that whirlwind barrier surrounding Zarestia is tougher than I thought.
"Critical Overload- Haywire Warp!" I opened the rift in space-time as it began to suck the wind away, but it only accomplished so much before I through a diamond spear through the opening, only to get shredded again.
Dammit. Gotta use the 8th.
"Blessing Eradication, Modified. Od Weakening."
In a split second, the wind died down around me as the shredding of gale blades stopped. Zarestia looked down in surprise as she tried to generate her whirlwind shield, but nothing seemed to make it activate.
"Human. What did you do?"
"Me? I just weakened your connection to Od Laguna. I can only keep this up for ten minutes though..."
"Lies. My magic power does not run out. For I am the eldest being that still exists."
"What-"
Another burst of energy came from Zarestia's body, and I looked at her in surprise. I did not mistake that. For a moment. But just for a moment, she did what was thought to be impossible and only was able to be achieved by one man.
The whirlwind barrier returned to her, and the storm picked up again. Looking at her in shock, I finally what kind of monster I was dealing with.
It was one who mastered the pinnacle of 'cutting'.
Because she just severed the effect of my Authority of Deceit upon the world.
The state of absolute severance that was desired by Cecilus Segmunt and achieved by Reid Astrea... has been brought out from the eldest spirit in the world.