3rd Person POV
"My beloved son... soon, you'll be able to fulfill your duty."
"You sound like an absolute chuuni, you know? Act a little more mature, please, when you're literally over thousands of years old." Another woman came out of a space rift, and criticized the other's behaviour immediately. There was no courtesy needed, since they were both the same person, essentially.
7 Goddesses govern this particular multiverse, and the general cluster of multiverses surrounding this one.
The Goddess of Fire and Order.
The Goddess of Ghosts and Pranks.
The Goddess of Music and Desire.
The Goddess of Chaos and Providence.
The Goddess of Code and Uncertainty.
The Goddess of End and Dominance.
And finally, the one who made the gathering herself, the Goddess of Creation and Travels, Ritatosky. Her counterpart, the manifestation of all her negativity, is known as Möbius, the Goddess of Annihilation and Destruction, and both match evenly in terms of power.
Ritatosky is a being who can be called unique, similarly to a certain character. She is somewhat well-known in the larger cosmos, mainly speaking, the metaverse. In a single universe, beings tend to think and imagine the scale of such things, but the fact that the concept eventually stretches to infinity messes with all sentient living beings' minds. A multiverse connects clusters of universes together, and those in the multiverse which can never touch each other due to being on the same yet different axes, are called parallel universes, ones that have exactly the same amount of beings and objects yet events unfold differently.
Outside of this lies the metaverse. Another larger web that strings together multiverse clusters, and once one harnesses the power of near-infinite energy within a multiverse cluster, they can travel between multiverses in their cluster. (A/N: This is how Y/N manages to get to other anime, manga, and novel worlds.)
Ritatosky possesses the power to travel freely through the metaverse, and many know her as the 'One Who Comes and Goes', especially in the domains of gods, since almost no one except her can go between and to other multiverse clusters. And why did she stop here in this cluster? Only herself and her counterpart knows.
"I thought you left. Why did you come back here?"
"I have a little business to take care of. I hear that Order has been quite feisty lately?"
"She had to annihilate a few of your children because they 'kept messing the timeline up', is what she said."
"SHE DID WHAT?"
"YEAH... this is why I told her to not do it!"
"Sigh... well, are any of them still alive?"
"There's one. Code came running earlier asking for my help to create a glitch AI, a tool she'll bestow upon the one child you have that hasn't been annihilated yet. Better go stop Order though, or else he's going to die, too."
"Why didn't you do it earlier, Möbius?"
"I'm literally all of your negative traits. I procrastinate a lot."
"I- fine, understandable, have a great day. I'm going to do what you didn't do."
"You know it's technically your fault too, you know?!"
Y/N POV
After I obtained Amorum, Omega and I busted out of the Jimuna Volcano using one of my propulsion air jets, thanks to Zarestia's new Light Sphere that she can share with me to have me temporarily perform Wind Magic.
I think we made a large hole that spewed lava, but eh, it's not like that's going to kill anyone. They literally have competitions on lava. So fear isn't an issue. We eventually landed back where we started, after a bit of flying through my flying seal. Chid-chan still couldn't fly yet, so I had to carry her in my arms. She didn't seem to happy about that but it was the only way, so she decided to not complain.
When we landed, however, I was greeted to a sight that I did not expect to see.
A large number of mabeasts surrounded the area, forming an arena circle of sorts. Meili stood at the 'entrance' and seemingly had a number of tickets that I saw at the gift shops earlier down the mountain, and had a very serious expression while Colette and Palmyra guarded either side of her. There was also an unusually large amount warriors surrounding the place as well.
"Meili? What's happening?" I asked, completely confused about the whole fiasco.
"Oh, Y/N-nii! Capella decided to start a tournament of sorts after a bunch of people tried to defeat us, but failed miserably. Entering will cost you a ticket, which goes to our Battalion fund! If you win a round in there, you get your money back, but if you lose, you have to pay double! And uh, I think she said if you don't pay, we have permission to toss them into the volcano."
"..."
I was at a loss for words. It seems that I didn't teach them well enough on how to properly conduct businesses. "By the way, Omega, how should we-"
"I think it's truly brilliant. She has surpassed my expectations in terms of intelligence and we're getting a lot of money. There's nothing wrong with conducting business permits and tax evasion. Yup, nothing wrong at all."
OKAY. I need to go and see what's going on.
Storming into the arena, I saw Elsa, Reize, Halibel, and Yae lined up in the gladiator seats, facing a bunch more opponents who were on the other side, waiting to be released. On the top of the arena, a tower of sorts was erected above the stands, where I saw the others.
Typhon sat in the seat with the label 'Judge'.
Capella sat in the seat with the label 'Grand Commentary'.
Sphinx sat in the seat with the label 'Magical Analyzer'.
And Zarestia sat in the seat with the label 'Honorary Spirit'.
Wow. At least they're quite organized. I looked around the surrounding benches, and only a few resided where they were except for my own battalion members, which are probably the 'winners' determined by the judges. Of course, they couldn't win against my teammates completely, but probably did something amazing to impress them.
I should really hug Cappy later for having such a great idea, now that I rethink on the situation a bit. Meili said we're making almost 1 holy coin at this rate, and this is the most deserted countryside we're talking about. Hehehehe... my avarice is pouring out...
Anyways... I need to let them know that I'm here, but in a different way. Hmm... aha!
This will be very fun.
With a white-hair modification in my genes, I complete my disguise with a black hood and a silky cloth belt similar to a martial artist's and stepped into the arena.
"Ok!" Capella's voice rang out in her commentary stand, and she waved a hand before Elsa stepped into the arena. "On one side, we have our currently undefeated champion number 1, Elsa Granhiert!"
A loud cheer came from the stands where the rest of the winners sat, and I materialized the chromium-diamond sword that was crafted straight out of thin air through the fusion of molecules. Brandishing the weapon, I stepped forth as Capella did her job on announcing my alias: Boreas.
Why Boreas? A significant reference to the North Wind of Greek Mythology. Control of ice and wind is usually not something I would perform, which would make my attempt at being incognito more successful.
"Let the match begin!" As soon as Capella's hand waved down, Elsa shot forwards comparable to the enhanced speed of an Al Akra. She has grown.
Being careful not to utilize my authorities as that will give me away, I placed two tiny wind gusts under my feet and matched Elsa's kukri knives with my own blade. I saw Zarestia twitch suddenly as I utilized the power of her Light Sphere, but she seemed to understand and kept quiet about it.
Elsa and I continued to clash as our blades rang in the arena, creating large shockwaves. I suddenly utilized Ice Magic through fire control and froze her arms, but she just went ahead and broke her arms before they started to regenerate, and charged at me with her mouth wide open ready to bite.
Not bad. Anyone other than me or someone like Capella would probably have died to this, especially mages who are overconfident in their magic. Elsa has recently overcome that barrier, so now she is quite strong compared to before. But that doesn't mean.. I will be defeated.
Creating a wind gust right in front of me, I slowed Elsa's momentum and therefore her speed. Using this to my advantage, I dashed forward and elbowed her in the gut, sending her crashing back. I was about to sheath my sword after that attack, but a kukri blade flew over and stabbed me in the leg, surprising me before Elsa pounced at me. Pulling the knife out of my leg, I sidestepped and conjured an ice barrier that she slammed into, temporarily stopping her.
"This is going to sound really cringe, but..." I said as lightning gathered around my hand, forming into a sharp blade. It's not just a thousand birds. It's ten thousand birds.
"Mandori!" The lightning crackled on my hands as I thrusted it forwards, faster than the speed of sound and only attaching itself to my body thanks to El Akra, or else my hand would've been launched off like a cannonball. Elsa gave me a grin before dashing forwards and rammed her kukris into the lightning blade, only to end up being pushed back.
Before I could continue my last attack, Halibel jumped in and blocked my attack with his bare hands, wincing just a little before giving Capella a look. I don't know what that signal was supposed to mean, but Capella nodded and announced something again.
"Yo! The meatbag down there! You're pretty strong, so how about fighting all four champions at once?"
"Sure." I replied in a modified voice thanks to myself altering my vocal cord before I entered. "However, I'm going to collect all the money that you've gathered if I win."
"That's-"
"It's okay, we accept." Sphinx suddenly spoke as she looked directly at me. "Go ahead."
Capella looked at the pink haired mage as if she was crazy, but shook her head in dismay before giving the signal to start. As soon as her hand waved down, all four of them charged at me. Smiling, I decided to play with them a little.
"Phantom Wolves." Sprites made out of ice and wind popped out from thin air, and rushed towards the four with their claws outstretched. Elsa and Reize held them off while Yae and Halibel continued charging and I sensed danger as they pulled out a kunai and did something I completely did not expect.
Flashback Halibel POV
I was teaching Yae on some ninjutsu techniques since she was quite compatible with the art, and she seemed to be making good progress. Y/N sure seems to have a good eye for both people and techniques. Just as I was pondering, the girl who follows Y/N around everywhere, Omega, came over to watch us train.
"You guys are doing ninjutsu, are you not?" Omega said to us before pulling out one of her meteors, and showed us a 'video' is what she called it, was the technique of a ninja that Y/N saw previously somewhere. The person seemingly teleported using some sort of mark, being immediately able to strike at his opponent.
Yae and I researched and tried variants of this technique until I found a way to imbue that power into our kunais using my specialty in curses, and we succeeded.
Y/N POV
Halibel and Yae both threw their kunais at me, which I promptly blocked with my wind barrier, causing them to ricochet off to somewhere behind me. Within the next second, they seemingly dived into the shadow and suddenly reappeared behind me from where the kunai has been deflected to. Through my peripheral vision, I saw that the kunais have appeared exactly where they had disappeared. Now with their second kunai, they stabbed down towards me.
Consider me surprised. Yae has grown exponentially, and under the teaching of both Halibel and Omega's leaking of information, they have grasped this technique that was supposed to be impossible in my opinion.
Fourth Hokage's Flying Raijin... modified to fit the shadow attributes of both of them. Amazing. It's only fair for me to respond in kind.
"Oni Mask: Oushi no Omote." The giant face of the oni appeared and blocked the two kunais, before I took my sword and proceeded to slash at them. "Iai- Shadowrush."
The quickdrawn blade swished through the air but was blocked my none other than Reize, who was wielding a mana-enhanced emerald-titanium blade, one that I crafted myself. I have to be careful not to break it now, as it is quite the exquisite blade. At this moment, Elsa cut down the last phantom wolf I deployed earlier, and all four of them got ready to attack only to see me releasing my finisher.
Summoning another sword out of thin air, I coated one in wind magic and the other in ice.
"Magic Puppet Style - Frost Dive."
The large wave of gusts and frost crashed down onto the arena.
Quickly shifting my body back to normal and altering my vocal cord once again, I landed in front of Capella, who still sat her commentary stand, shocked. Reverting my hair colour back to normal and taking off my hood, I greeted the judges with a smile.
"So... the money, Cappy?" I smiled as she suddenly realized she did something horrible.
"I called Y/N... a meatbag... oh no..."
Now, personally, I didn't really mind that. I thought she would be freaking out over all the money we almost just lost if that wasn't me. Sphinx, however, rolled her eyes at Capella's stressful mental breakdown and flew over only to grab my collar before shoving her face in front of mine.
"You and Omega went into that volcano for an awfully long time... quite suspicious, don't you think?"
"Uh, we actually just went and got the sword, you know?"
"Something seems very fishy here, Y/N, and only if you convince me completely will I let you go."
Yup. It turns out that I was the clown after all...