Chapter 12
Battle of the Strongest
-:-
There was a debate in the Star Wars fandom ever since the introduction of the Jedi and the Force.
Which is stronger, the Light Side or the Dark Side?
The side that was calm, serene and devoid of emotion or the side of rage, hate and chaotic impulses?
Those who melded with the tide or those who hammered the tide into submission?
Self control and emptiness VS Adrenaline fueled action and chaos?
Naturally, the Force in Star Wars lore was much deeper and cannot be explained by mere sentences. There were philosophies and personal taste to consider before reaching anyone could reach a one hundred percent certainty in this verdict.
However, even the casual fans of the Star Wars franchise knew deep in their heart the answer to this everlasting debate.
The Dark Side was stronger than the Light….. much MUCH stronger.
The Dark Side's complete lack of morals meant complete lack of restraint. With the lack of restrain came the ability to perform actions at its most extreme. The limits that a person of the Dark Side would sink to were non existent.
Those who were willing to pay the extremely steep price will wield power to match.
Delving into the taboo and the evil happened to be Morgan Le Fay's forte.
"Bloody Warriors of sword and flame! Head my words! Fear not the punishment for the sins you are about to commit, for this world is yours! Fill the corrupted chalice of the Blood God! Offer the heads of your enemies to the Skull Throne! Alter Rune, ACTIVATE!"
Karna's charge instantly grinded into a halt as he was met with overwhelming opposition.
"Calrent Blood Arthur!"
"Lichtstrom! Feuer!"
"Excalibur!"
A blood red energy blast followed by a stormed of high explosive light and a very dark Excaliblast hammered Karna back to his original position.
This fierce counter attack surprised Karna a fair bit. While he expected that Shiro's group found a way around the power suppressing GW, he never expected they were this strong. The suppression was strong enough to dampen the power of Noble Phantasms, yet his enemy unleashed the level of power that was normally impossible within the field.
One look at trio was all anyone needed to understand what happened.
Mordred Alter looked like a beast.
His white armor was crimson red and quite a few spikes were added to his helm, shoulders and spine. The helm now had a jaw that opened and closed like it was Mordred's own flesh and blood. Erratic red lightning surged from Mordred Alter even if all he did was stand still.
Mordred Alter gave of the impression of a rabid lion that was itching for slaughter.
Hellel Alter was terrifying to say the least.
Clad in black and gold armor with red scribbles all over it, she was demonic in every aspect which was a big contrast to her usual pure white form. She only had 2 wings but both produced a hellish blaze of pure mana with each beat.
Hellel Alter was what people would assume the Angel of Destruction would look like.
Compared to the other 2, Shiro Alter was a bit weird.
The pure white skeleton clad in deep blue robes lacked the overwhelming aura of the two. He was like that cold steel. In fact, he was so cold that his surroundings began to freeze from his mere presence.
Shiro Alter was a weapon in human form. Cold, cruel and efficient.
This was one of Morgan Le Flay's Noble Phantasm Alter Rune: Corruption of the Tainted Grail. By connecting her allies/enemies into a tainted power source, she can enchant them with power so great that was beyond the safety limits.
How great was the power boost?
It overwhelmed the power suppression GW field via brute force.
Naturally this power came at a price.
The typical reaction was mental retardation, massive flip in moral compass, complete lack for the physical wellbeing of everyone (both self and allies), and even complete insanity.
In the physical side, the Alter Rune completely removed the sense of pain from its targets, which allowed them to perform physical feats way beyond their capability. Sadly, this would often result in high self-inflicted damage from overexertion.
Normally, Morgan used the Alter Rune to make her opponents to destroy one another. Nothing was more terrifying than your comrades going insane and suddenly turning against you.
However, such a strategy was not wise in their battle against Karna.
With this in mind, Morgan manipulated the Alter Rune in order to keep most of the sanity of Shiro, Mordred and Hellel untouched. Unlike the 'kill everything on sight' default function of the Alter Rune which she can set and let it goes wild, keeping the 3 from going insane required Morgan to constantly make adjustments to the flow of power.
Because of this, she needed to be in a certain distance from the 3 in order to make corrections as soon as possible.
This was the fatal flaw of their strategy.
The only way Shiro, Hellel and Mordred could fight without the suppression field was doping via Alter Rune.
With that in mind, Astolfo used his griffon to keep Morgan from being ripped apart by the chaotic battlefield.
And as you'd expect of the number 1 Pro GW in the world, Karna instantly noticed their weakness.
"Aim for the Hippogriff! The girl is the key!" said Karna as he launched himself towards Astolfo and Morgan.
The Dragon and the Kraken followed suite.
Naturally, the Alter trio was there to stop their advance.
Mordred lunged at Karna and unleashed a storm of sword swings at him. With such superb sword skill hidden within bestial ferocity, Karna was forced to take on Mordred in a ferocious duel.
The Kraken tried to help Karna by sending one of its tentacles as back up.
A storm of light bombarded the Kraken in punishment for being distracted.
"Lichtstrom! Feuer frei!"
Hellel flew towards the Kraken and fired her magical pew pews every step of the way. The air shook as the chorus of explosions rang out unendingly.
The Kraken tried to swat Hellel of the sky but was unable to do so as she flew between the mountain sized ligaments, all the while carpet bombing anything she passed over.
What surprised the Kraken the most was the pain it experienced.
The Kraken was a mass of muscle that was protected by a carapace that was as thick as a wall and as hard as steel. Even with Hellel's apocalyptic level barrage of magical nukes, it was not enough to pierce the Kraken's skin in one go.
Yet the Kraken was feeling quite a bit of pain. This was something that confused the beast.
The answer to this mystery was a simple strategy that Shiros' group thought of prior.
While Hellel was technically the strongest in Shiro's group, this was only in terms of pure damage output. What she made up in massive firepower, she lacked in versatility.
Hellel would eventually break through the Kraken's skin. This was an undisputed fact.
Unfortunately, this 'eventually' took too much time and time was something they didn't have.
And thus, a cooperative strategy was created.
While Hellel hurled spell after spell at the Kraken, David would sneak in his attacks under the cover of the explosions. This made the illusion that Hellel's spells were ignoring the Kraken's heavy skin, which led to the Kraken fighting Hellel with all of its focus.
This left Karna's group with only the Dragon.
Following Karna's words, the Dragon gave chase to Astolfo's Hippogriff. It was a terrifying sight to see such a massive beast flying at high speed.
Astolfo manipulated his Hippogriff with great skill as it dodged the dragon's fire breath while keeping Morgan within visual rage of the Alter Trio's.
Frustrated by the Hippogriff's nimble agility, the Dragon flew towards it in hopes of overwhelming it in close range combat.
Before the Dragon could do so, it was swallowed by a massive explosion curtesy of an Excalibur Morgan from Shiro.
Thanks to Hera's runes of protection, the Dragon received nothing more than a few cracked scales.
What the Dragon failed to realize was the Excalibur Morgan was nothing more than a smoke screen.
Before the explosion could die down, Shiro fired off 10 Arondight arrows in rapid succession. His target was the Dragon's wings with the sole intention of punching as many holes into it as he could.
Unlike the rest of its body, the Dragon's wings was nothing more than a thin membrane that had to be as light as possible in order for it to flap as fast as possible.
Even with the protection of the runes, the wings were simply too flimsy to survive under the concentrated fire of 10 dragon slaying sword arrows.
As the smoke cleared from the Excalibur explosion, the Dragon fell from the sky due to its left wing being ripped to shreds.
The Dragon could do nothing but smash into the ground below.
Shiro immediately capitalized on the opportunity.
"IG-ALIMA!"
A massive blade wielded by an equally massive arm appeared out of nowhere. It wasted no time and swung down the massive Ig-Alima on the Dragon.
The earth shattered from the massive weight brought upon by the Ig-Alima.
Sadly, the Ig-Alima did very little damage to the Dragon.
Unlike the Adronight, Ig-Alima had no dragon slayer attribute and had to rely on its gargantuan weight to do damage. Normally this would be enough to kill the Dragon, but the runes that protected it was strong beyond words.
Frustrating as it was, Shiro had to make do with just trapping the Dragon beneath the Ig-Alima. It may not be much, but he was able to buy some time for the next phase of the plan.
In battle between Mordred Alter and Karna, a whirlwind of steel and destruction tore everything apart. The ground was scarred all over. Rocks the size of a house were pulverized into little tiny pieces. Trees were ripped from their roots due to the aftershock of the colliding of two blades.
Despite the massive power up Mordred received after turning into his Alter form, he was still vastly inferior to Karna.
Never mind winning. Mordred was throwing everything he had at Karna in order to keep himself from becoming a small smudge on Karna's excessively large spear.
It took everything Mordred had just to keep track of Karna's barrage of attacks. How in gods name is that massive bulk of steel moving much faster than Mordred's sword?!
His bones screamed in agony every time he deflected Karna's spear.
For now, Mordred has avoided taking a direct hit. However, this was because he was giving 110 percent into keeping his body in one piece.
Quite simply, Mordred was losing in terms of strength, skill and endurance.
Karna was superior in every possible way. This level of overwhelming prowess was kind of what you'd expect from the one who held the title 'the Best Pro GW in the World'
However, even the best of the best would have trouble with surprise attacks.
Karna threw a powerful strike that blew Mordred 10 meters back.
Before he could give chase, he was forced to block a hail storm of high explosive arrows. And while he was concentrating on defending against that, countless blades grew up from the ground and pierced Karna from all directions.
Sadly, this two prong attack did very little damage to Karna.
Thanks to Karna's armor NP the 'Kavacha and Kadula', it didn't even pierce the outer layer of said armor. It went without saying that Karna didn't even feel an itch
While Karna was dealing with all of the annoyances, a massive explosion powered by mostly lightning decimated everything within a 100 meter radius of Karna.
Mordred ran away at the highest speed possible the moment he saw the signal (the shower of arrows and blades sprouting from the ground) thus was nowhere near when Shiro's Broken Phantasm Mjolnir unleashed all hell on earth.
Naturally, Karna didn't get away unscratched from the Norse Mythology's poster weapon.
Sadly, the Kavancha and Kadula NP armor made sure that Karna only minimal damage. With a simple application of a bit of mana, Karna was able to heal himself completely.
"Ho… I was wondering when you'll grace me with your presence. I am very pleased to meet you Blue Archer. I am Karna Vasusena, child of the sun god. May I ask what is your name?" said Karna to the frozen white skeleton of blades that was rushing into Mjolnir's blast zone.
Shiro stopped a few meters in front of Karna and said nothing.
It wasn't that he wanted to be rude and all, it was simply because Shiro CANT talk.
In fact, aside from the true names of their NP, Shiro Alter, Mordred Alter and Hellel Alter could barely talk at all.
While Mordred has kept the mental degeneration of her Alter rune to the absolute minimum, it was still very much present.
Hell, Shiro had to control himself in order to resist the temptation of nuking Mordred alongside Karna in his Mjolnir broken phantasm attack. This was the same with Mordred and Hellel.
As such, the trio tried to keep themselves as far away from each other as possible.
Sadly, such a choice was never theirs to begin with.
For now, the second stage of their plan went into effect.
Since Shiro had the largest arsenal of tricks up his sleeve, his mission was to either delay or destroy both the Dragon and Karna while Mordred and the others gang bang the Kraken which, with its slow movement speed, was pretty much a gigantic punching back.
From here on out, it was a race against time.
Which one would be successful first? The Kraken's gang bang, Karna beating Shiro to the ground, or the Dragon escaping from underneath Ig-Alima.
"I see… so that's your plan. I'm impressed you can stop Jack (the dragon) that way." said Karna
Karna seemed to have seen through their plan and smiled
"Very well. Show me your resolve."
Kanra and Shiro charged at each other with every intention of sticking their pointy sticks into their opponent's hindquarters.
And thus began the battle of the strongest
-:-
Hera watched the images on her viewing mirror showed her the extent of her enemy's powers.
Originally, she planned on keeping Karna on standby in order to keep her trump card hidden from 'that bastard'.
She understood more than anyone that 'that bastard' had many means of gathering information, thus she made every precaution to keep her pantheon bug proof. That way, she could unleash Karna in a devastating surprise attack.
Due to her emphasis on secrecy, Hera couldn't help but feel annoyed at Karna's insistence that he was to engage as quickly as possible if either the Archer or Angel were to return.
What good was her secret weapon if he refused to be kept secret?
However, Hera's lack of combat experience made her cave in to Karna's insistence.
Now that both the Angel and the Archer have returned, she could do nothing but allow Karna fight alongside Jack (dragon) and Rose (kraken).
In all honesty, Hera thought that Karna was over reacting.
Both the Angel and the Archer were highschool students! Messily squirts that could only think off shoving a cock into someone's pussy!
How could a couple of brats barely within puberty possibly match a flying tank that has an infernal level breath attack, a moving island that could smack another island into the sea floor and the greatest Pro GW of the current time?
And this was not including the Power Suppression GW field!
5 minutes since the start of the battle and Hera understood how wrong she was.
She has greatly underestimated the Angel and the Archer.
The Angel gave her unending shivers down her spine. The level of mana being used for her bombardment was horrifying to say the least. The bombardment she unleashed caused more damage than both the dragon and the kraken could do in the same time frame.
The environment quickly changed from a peaceful scenic mountain range to the definition of burning hell.
'That bastard' could only expend this much mana when he used his NP. And most surely cant expend such a quantity constantly. Hera doubted anyone short of the Living Gods could perform such an inhumane feat of endurance and destruction for extended periods of time.
Yet here was one doing exactly just that.
And then, there's the skeletal Archer.
While the Archer's destructive prowess was significantly less than the Angel, Hera was more terrified of him.
As the direct descendant of the Living Goddess Druga, Hera has seen a fair share of GW battles, albeit in the sidelines.
She was not a warrior, thus she never understood the glory gained from combat. However, she did appreciate a fight that entertained her immensely.
Her personal favorite was an official duel between Zeus (that rapist bastard) and Futsunushi, the Living God of Swords.
At the time, 'that bastard' was a bit salty that his relevance to the world was overshadowed by the rise of Amaterasu and her team.
Maybe it was some misguided pride or what not, but 'that bastard' challenged the de facto leader of the unit that united the world.
Naturally, 'that bastard' believed that Amaterasu's armor was the main contributor of Futsunushi's strength. Hence he requested a duel where Futsunushi did not have the armor.
The main reasoning was that the armor was simply too OP. Pretty much everyone agreed to this.
Futsunushi completely agreed that using Amaterasu's armor was simply against the rules.
And thus, the duel proceeded as 'that bastard's' planned. 'That bastard' was probably laughing on the inside when Futsunushi agreed to fight without the OP armor.
However, 'that bastard' made a miscalculation.
True enough, 'that bastard' was no match against Futusunushi when wielding Amaterasu's armor.
What 'that bastard' failed to realize was that he was no match against Futsunushi even WITHOUT the armor.
The duel ended up as expected, with 'that bastard' eating dirt while Futsunushi stood calmly in front of him.
The duel started with 'that bastard' aggressively attacking Futsunushi. It was well known that Futsunushi was one of the weaker Living Gods in terms of stats. It was inevitable that Futsunushi would be forced into defensive.
But that situation only lasted about a minute.
Once he understood 'that bastard's' quirks, the Living God of Swords launched a fierce counter attack that deprived his enemy of any chance of winning.
Futsunushi didn't unleash an overwhelming attack, but a calm counter attack with minimal effort and maximum effect.
Mind you, 'that bastard' was monstrous in his own right. There weren't a lot of people that could match 'that bastard' in combat.
However, this reminded all of the reason why the other Living Gods consider Futsunushi as their leader.
Now how was this connected to the skeletal Archer that was fighting Karna?
Everything.
The similarities were everywhere!
They use the same perfect projection.
Their pragmatic fighting style constantly changed depending on the weapon they wield, the opponent they fight and the current situation.
Hell, they look so similar that no one would doubt if they were father and son!
How can Hera not feel nervous knowing all of these?!
While Hera was mulling the future implications of her current situation, a small silent alarm rang within her head. It was the signal of someone stumbling upon the boundary field that kept Hera's pantheon invisible to her enemies.
Another mirror popped out of nowhere and displayed the intruder.
It was a white haired girl with a fairly skimpy outfit and lots of knives. Despite being as adorable as a doll, she gave off a sense of blood and slaughter. Hera couldn't help but feel a hint of danger from the white haired Lolita.
"Found you" said the white haired Lolita
She took out something from one of her knife sheaths and stabbed it into the supposedly invisible barrier. It was spike about 10 cm long with what seemed to be a wind chime attached on one end.
The white haired girl left the scene as quick as she appeared.
This confused Hera quite a bit.
She extended her consciousness towards the wind chime. What she discovered was rather perplexing. Neither the spike nor the wind chime had any power at all!
While the spike was made out of unknown material, it possessed no abilities, contained zero mana and had no magic circuits within it.
It was useless in every meaning of the word.
While Hera was worried of the wind chimes' meaning of existence, she decided to ignore it for now. For all she knew, it might be a bait to lure her out of her pantheon in order to investigate it.
Unknown to Hera, that useless wind chime was the main cause of her demise
-:-
2 separate battles of epic proportion took place within Hera's GW field.
On one part of the map was the battle between the Kraken and the alliance of Hellel, Mordred, Astolfo, David and Morgan.
While this was technically this was considered a 'battle' , it was nothing more than a one sided beat down.
For all the Kraken's might and endurance, it's movement was simply too slow.
This was the main reason why the Kraken often worked in tandem with the Dragon.
While the Dragon was significantly weaker, it was fast and was capable of flight. Thus it could chase down the enemies that were able to flee the Kraken and perform a pincer attack that forced the enemies between a rock and a firestorm.
Without the Dragon, the enemies could easily dodge the Kraken's attack while firing off as much long range attacks as they wanted at long range.
That was the current 'battle' between the Kraken and Hellel's group.
The other battle was a lot more subdued compared to the Kraken's, but it was anarchistic never the less. However, unlike the other battle, the duel between Shiro and Karna was both a display of masterful combat technique and a reckless, self-destructive battle
Shiro, the white skeleton of swords, wielded Clarent on his right and Excalibur Morgan on his left.
Shiro overloaded Clarent with mana and swung it with as much power as he could muster at the oversized spear that was aiming to turn him into roadkill.
The collision of weapons caused an explosion that decimated everything within 5 meters.
Karna a small wound on his arm, but it quickly disappeared almost instantly due to Karna's natural ability to heal.
The same couldn't be said for Shiro as his right arm disintegrated along with the Clarent.
Like a mad warrior that has lost himself to the heat of battle, Shiro ignored his missing limb and attacked Karna with his overedged Excalibur Morgan.
Once again, a powerful shockwave propagated from the collision.
Shrapnels pierced through Karna's skin, leaving multiple light gashes all over his chest. Just like earlier, the wounds heal like they were nothing.
On the other hand, Shiro lost his entire upper body from the blast. Similarly, Shiro reconstructed all of his missing body parts via projection.
Shiro traced a new set of weapons and continued this self-destructive fighting style.
Now you're probably wondering 'Why is Shiro doing this? It wasn't his style'
It was because Shiro's current state was vastly inferior to Karna.
Despite possessing nigh limitless mana, Shiro's physical abilities have not changed from his prime. Stat wise, Karna outstripped Shiro and every regard. If you add the sheer OPness of Karna's Noble Phantasm, Shiro was as good as toilet paper in front of the world's best GW fighter.
Can Shiro beat Karna?
Yes, but not in his current state. If he wanted to win, he needed UBW.
The Alter run forced power out of Shiro in order to overwhelm the power suppression GW field. This forceful extraction and erratic mana movement greatly hampered Shiro's ability to perform his more complex techniques.
Shiro's mind was too unstable to unleash the UBW.
If he did have the UBW, he could throw wave after wave of heroic spirits until Karna was forced to use the nuke NP Vasavi Shakti which sacrificed his powerful armor for inhumane damage.
From that point onward, the weakened Karna would be easy picking.
Sadly, such a scenario was not available to Shiro at the moment.
And thus, the thought began to stir in Shiro's chaotic mind.
"We're screwed aren't we?"
Based on the continuous explosions from the distance, Shiro could tell that the others still haven't taken out the Kraken.
This was without a doubt Shiro's mistake. He suggested this strategy based on the Kraken he saw in his previous world.
This Kraken probably had some hidden upgrades similar to the Dragon's defensive magic.
On the other end, Shiro could feel that his Ig-Alima was close to disintegrating.
The Dragon unleashed its breath attack non-stop and slowly burned the Ig-Alima away. Since the Dragon was immune to its own flame, it didn't have to worry about burning itself and just fired away.
Once the Dragon freed itself, it would back up the Kraken and annihilate everyone.
On Shiro's battlefield, he was doing zero damage to Karna.
Okay, that wasn't accurate.
He was doing some damage, but it was simply too little to make any tangible effect.
All in all, they were doomed.
Suddenly, Shiro 'heard' the sound of wind chimes gently ringing on the calm summer wind.
He broke away from Karna and risked a glance at the general direction where he felt was the location of the wind chime.
While the wind chime was absolutely normal, the stake it was attached to was a part of Skeletal Archer Shiro.
Shiro broke off a small part of his metal body and used it as an extremely limited surveillance device. While its ability was very few, it allowed him to feel what it felt regardless of distance.
At the moment, he felt the wind chime's ringing through it.
It was the signal he was waiting for.
"Welp… since Plan A was pretty much a failure, it's time for Plan B!"
With renewed determination and vigor, Shiro gathered all of his power, spirit, guts and guts…. then ran away.
"Huh?" said Karna in confusion as he watched Shiro's shrinking visage.
While unsure what happened, Karna chased after Shiro with the speed of a hurricane.
"Goodness gracious! You're fast!"
While Shiro was making good progress, Karna immediately caught up with him.
Shiro summoned a peculiar sword and began blocking Karna's assault.
The sword was of futuristic design with a tri color rainbow blade of blue, red and yellow. Even the sound of it clashing with Karna's gigantic spear was very scifi-ish.
"Shield of the Gods!"
A massive bulwark suddenly appeared between Shiro and Karna.
Karna tried to go around it, but Shiro moved the Shield of the Gods to keep Karna away from him.
Shiro pointed the butt of the rainbow sword towards the sky in the area where the Kraken was engaging his friends.
He flooded the rainbow sword with power and unleashed the noble phantasm.
"War God's Sword: Teardrop Photon Ray!"
A laser pointer shot marked an area on the sky where a magic circle suddenly apperead. A few seconds later a massive pillar of light descended from the heavens into the magic circle. The pillar of light scattered upon hitting the magic circle, resulting in a wide area bombardment.
It was a visual spectacle if you ignore the destruction it caused.
This attack confused Karna.
Teardrop Photon Ray was an Excalibur level NP. Yet despite this, Shiro unleashed it in a spot where it hit absolutely nothing. If he moved it a few hundred meters, the NP would have landed a direct hit on the Kraken, though his friends would have been caught in the blast.
Quite suddenly, the apocalyptic barrage of magic and NPs suddenly stopped. Hellel's team was on full retreat towards the area where the Teardrop Photon Ray was unleashed.
Karna was a guy with tons of combat experience, and his instincts were telling him that Shiro was up to something very very bad.
Karna began doing whatever he could to get past the Shield of the Gods.
On the other side, Shiro began his preparations.
While he was confident of the Shield's defensive durability, he couldn't help but feel worried. Karna's loud and ferocious banging made it feel like the Shield would collapse.
On his left hand appeared the Spear of Olympus, the weapon of Zeus.
On his right hand appeared the Trident of Poseidon. The name was self explanatory
Since he only has two hands, he used his teeth to grip the third weapon: the Pitchfork of Hades: The Death God's Wrath
Shiro held the 3 polearm weapons close together.
The 3 weapons suddenly acted unnaturally. Like snakes, they coiled around each other and began to fuse.
Shiro was using his Combination ability to fuse the 3 most powerful weapons in Greek Mythology into a Noble Phantasm that never existed.
The result was….. sloppy at best.
Due to the mental interference of Morgan's Alter Rune, Shiro was unable to concentrate properly. While the resulting weapon was still deadly strong, it was a degraded version of what he was aiming for.
"*Sigh*…. This will have to do…."
Suddenly, a spear punctured through the Shield of the Gods. It seemed that even Shiro's defensive NP's were also degraded in quality.
While Shiro was a bit salty when his strongest defensive NP was shattered so quickly, he wasted no time moping around and attacked Karna with the weird looking spear.
For the first time since this battle started, Karna did his absolute best to dodge an attack.
While Karna was able to dodge the weapon itself, the weird weapon's secondary effect caught him off guard.
Karna was electrocuted, his chest pierced with water blades and one of his arms suddenly went became much thinner, as if it was malnourished.
This time around, Karna placed a fair bit of effort into healing himself.
"What is that?" asked Karna as he stared at the polearm on Shiro's hand.
The weapon looked like a twisted tree branch. It was charcoal black and was ugly to look at. It had 6 pointed tips that were not perfectly aligned.
While Shiro knew this was the inevitable outcome when performing combination while under the influence of the Alter Rune, he was still unsatisfied with his subpar work.
"It was supposed to look cool… oh well. I might as well use it"
Shiro flooded the spear with power and prepared to throw it like a javelin.
Karna readied himself with utmost caution. Not only was the spear radiated a dreadful level of power, Karna had no idea of the true identity of the spear despite his substantial experience.
It was natural for Karna to not know the origin of the weapon because this particular weapon never existed in the first place. Like Gilgamesh's Ea, this spear was nameless with no history or identity.
There was only 1 way for it to come into existence, that that was for Shiro to use his Combination on the Spear of Olympus, Trident of Poseidon and Pitchfork of Hades.
While it had no name, Shiro decided to call it Chaos: The Spear of the Void. It was one of the most powerful NP's Shiro had in his possession.
…. Or at least that's what it was supposed to be if he was able to make it perfectly….
Shiro took aim and threw the spear with all of his might.
Karna followed his instincts and avoided the spear by doing a matrix dodge.
Pain spread throughout Karna's chest despite the spear not touching any part of his body. Pretty much his entire front body looked like it was dragged on the ground at high speeds. The skin was violently rend off and blood was all over the place.
Never the less, it took merely a second for the wound to disappear.
Who knew what would have happened if it was a direct hit.
Karna was suddenly hit with a realization.
With Shiro's skill, there was no way he could miss Karna by such a wide margin….. unless Karna was never the target to begin with.
Karna looked back and saw that his worst fear was spot on. Shiro's attack was aimed at the area where Hera was hiding.
A millisecond later, a very unnatural explosion propagated from where the spear landed.
A loud bang followed with a powerful shockwave blew away Karna, Shiro and every mountain between them and the explosion.
Then reality began to twist.
The sky swirled, straight mountains became wavy, spikes grew from the ground, debris were bouncing off each other like pinballs, a massive boulder changed into a water-like substance then returned into a boulder then became a statue and so on and so for.
Like the name suggested, the effect of the spear as absolute chaos.
It was a psychedelic nightmare.
True to its name, the spear Chaos has turned the once beautiful landscape into something out of a lunatic's wet dream. Going insane both physically and mentally after experiencing this madness was very much a possibility.
Be it light, sound or physical shockwave, as long as anyone can feel the presence of Chaos, they will be affected by some of its madness to varying degree.
Even Karna, who was protected by his golden armor, threw up all of the contents of his stomach. If it wasn't for Kavacha and Kundala's protection, he would have experienced something very very disturbing.
As the chaotic effect died down, Shiro rushed into the maelstrom.
Thanks to his natural given ability of the Archer class, Shiro spotted the pantheon in the distance. It received a fair bit of damage from the Chaos spear, but it was probably not enough to harm the one inside it.
"So Chaos was degraded that badly? This Alter Rune sure is annoying. Chaos is supposed to be an anti-world weapon damn it! It cant even break through a defensive barrier created from the age of the Gods. What a pain."
And thus, he charged in to finish the job
Before Karna charged in, a Hippogriff stopped right in front of him. One of the 2 passengers got off and began talking.
"My name is David. I understand this may be sudden but time is of the essence. I need your help" said David in an urgent voice.
Karna kept silent and urged David to continue.
"Your senses are probably still a bit wonky from the effect of that weird NP, so you probably havent noticed that the power suppression GW field was destroyed during the blast. We already cut the mad enhancement spell but looks like Shiro is still under its effect. Please help us stop him." Said David.
This caused Karna to feel fear for Hera's life. From their extended one on one duel, Karna theorized that instead of being driven insane by the Mad Enhancement, Shiro's mental state was something closer to a loyal soldier that will sink to any low just to get the job done.
With that last NP, Hera no longer had any way to nullify the more fatal effects of having a thick piece of steel shoved up her hindquarters.
Karna simply nodded and ran after Shiro with Astolfo, David and the Hippogriff.
David's strategy to ask Karna for help was a big risk, but his hand was forced because there was no one left strong enough to stop Shiro.
When Shiro used the Teardrop Photon Ray, this was a signal for everyone that Plan B was in motion.
Hellel was to use all of her ability to defend the others from the physical and mental effect of the Chaos spear.
Sadly, the mental hampering of the Alter Rune prevented her from fully utilizing her shield spell. The result was Hellel taking the large brunt of the Chaos which was enough to spare the others the worst of it.
Unfortunately, Hellel was knocked unconscious in the process.
Mordred was eliminated way before Plan B started, thus was teleported to the Loser's Area back in Fuyuki.
Jack and Zayd were also knocked unconscious despite being far away from ground zero. They lacked the magic resistance to counter the mental effect of Chaos.
Their mission was to find the creator of the GW field and mark it for Shiro's bombardment. While this was the perfect job for two assassins, they were also going to be exposed to the mental attack of Chaos. Naturally, the two knew this and performed their mission even if they were going to end up unconscious.
Jack was actually able to last a little bit longer due to her Mental Pollution skill, but it was still not enough.
The only ones left were David, Astolfo and Morgan whom Hellel protected.
Morgan was useless in the battle to stop Shiro, thus she was left to take of Hellel.
And thus David took Astolfo to ask Karna for help.
A risky gamble, but absolutely necessary if they wanted to keep Shiro from murdering anyone.
-:-
The wall of the pantheon blew up from the Varja detonating from the outside.
From the gaping hole in the wall entered the white skeleton clad in blue robes. Its cold visage gave of the impression that the unforgiving god of death has come to take the soul of a poor unfortunate fool.
Hera, the poor fool, was scared shitless at the sight of the approaching foe.
Common sense dictated that Hera should make like a banana and split.
Unfortunately, she felt like she was being stared down by a gorgon. Despite knowing what she needed to do in her head, Hera's intense fear shackled her to where she stood.
The Skeleton of blades summoned the massive Mjolnir and ran towards Hera with every intention making her as flat as a pancake.
At that point, Hera's mind was completely blank. Intense fear has forcefully shut down her brain and her body became as rigid as a statue.
Fortunately for her, the cavalry was not far behind.
A Hippogriff flew into the hole Shiro made and a shower of stones forced Shiro to halt his charge.
At his blade skeletal state, Shiro would normally counter attack with lethal force. However, despite being under mental degradation, he recognized Astolfo and David as allies.
Why were his allies attacking him?
It was probably mind control or something.
In Shiro's current mental state, any attack against him by his allies were justified as 'they are not doing it willingly' aka Shiro was in denial.
Never the less, his allies was in his way. He needed to remove them without hurting them too much.
He summoned the Pitchfork of Hades and lightly tapped the pointy end on a nearby pillar.
A light ringing propagated throughout the pantheon and the effect was quite impressive.
Astolfo's Hippogriff suddenly crashed into one of the pillars as if someone shoved gallons of booze down its throat.
The Pitchfork of Hades has always been the weakest in terms of damage among the 3 big weapons of Olympian Myth. What it lacked in massive explosions, it made up for it with the nastiest negative effects.
These effects ranged from mild drunkenness which was perfect for stopping someone you don't want dead, to mind breaking insanity that would often lead to death via cardiac arrest.
The nastiest effect of the Chaos spear was largely attributed to the Pitchfork of Hades.
However, because Shiro only used the absolute minimum power, he was not able to take out Astolfo or David.
Astolfo summoned his spear and approached Shiro from behind while David positioned himself between Hera and Shiro.
"Our enemy is defeated Shiro! There's no need to kill her!" said David as he readied his slingshot.
While Shiro's attention was on David, Astolfo moved in from behind and aimed for Shiro's leg.
"Trap of Argallia!"
Astolfo shot off like a rocket, but was instantly stopped by a massive wall of swords.
Shiro ignored Astolfo and charged at Hera
"Damn it Shiro! Don't do this!" said David as he unleashed a hailstorm of stones.
Shiro summoned an equal number of weapons to meet the stones head on. Not one of the stones was spared from being destroyed via high explosive weapons.
Shiro quickly closed in the gap.
"Damn it all! At least I'll keep you safe!"
David hugged Hera and prepared to use his body to shield her.
FYI: David was filled with ulterior motives when he hugged Hera. Despite his brave façade, he was trying his very best to raise some flags with the hot MILF.
FYI2: Hera was currently experiencing some serious suspension bridge effect at the moment.
Was he terrified of Shiro?
Of course he was!
David has just realized how terrifying Shiro was when he was serious. It felt like being skewered was inevitable.
However, David did this risky flag raising move because he had a contingency.
Shiro had no intention of harming David, thus he took an extra second to aim at Hera without hurting his friend.
This one second delay was the one that done him in.
"Vasavi Shakti!"
A long red spear impaled Shiro through the right palm.
The force was so strong that Shiro lost the entire right arm was blown to oblivion.
Behind Shiro was Karna who has finally able to catch up. No matter how fast someone with an A rank in agility was, he couldn't keep up with Astolfo's hippogriff.
Karna felt extreme guilt for doing this.
Vasavi Shakti was, like Gae Bolg, a NP with 2 functions.
The most known function was the massive Nuke anti-country NP that has been seen multiple times in GW competitions.
The second and lesser known function of Vasavi Shakti was concentrating all of that massive power fuel an anti-Divine single target attack. This function has never been used in Pro GW battles before because it had two very nasty side effects: it bypassed the GW protection and caused permanent damage.
Getting hit by the melee Vasavi Shakti was either instant death if the target was hit in a vital spot, or be permanently losing a limb.
Karna knew that Shiro would only reconstruct his body if he was hit with anything less.
As long as Shiro could move and was still under the effects of the Alter Rune, Shiro would not stop trying to kill Hera.
And thus, Karna forced to do the one thing he thought he would never do…. To destroy a young man's future.
Karna stood still as he watched the unconscious Shiro hit the floor.
Shiro's blade skeleton was dispelled, returning him to his flesh and blood self.
"Take the boy to the best hospital in Fuyuki…. I'll pay for the bills…. It's the least I can do for ruining his life." Said Karna in a voice filled with regret
-:-
3 DAYS LATER
AMATERASU GENERAL HOSPITAL
Shiro awakened to an unfamiliar yet nostalgic room.
The white ceiling, white curtains and painfully white walls were all signs that he was in the hospital.
He had a fairly good idea how he got here. While his mind was fairly messed up during the incident, he could remember everything with decent accuracy.
"Hmm…. It seems that I went wild a little bit back there…. How embarrassing." Said Shiro
Shiro has always thought that he had a fair degree of control during his time as a skeleton of blades. To think he couldn't resist the urge to accomplish his mission no matter what.
It was truly a humiliating blunder on his part.
"No need to feel too guilty. Morgan's Alter Rune has always been some of the best in history. Even during the Great War, only a few people could rival Morgan's boosting abilities."
Shiro was startled with the sudden input of opinion.
For some reason he couldn't explain, he failed to notice such a familiar yet extremely powerful existence sitting right beside him.
Clad in his usual blood red full body armor minus the helmet, Futsunushi sat right beside Shiro.
Now that Futsunushi's face was on display, Shiro couldn't help but wonder if he was looking through a mirror.
"Yo past self. How's life treating you?" asked Futsunushi in a light hearted manner
"Pretty good future self. This life is paradise." Replied Shiro in kind.
"Good to know. It's going to keep getting better from this point onward"
Futsunushi's words actually caused Shiro to feel a bit of worry
"Really? I'm gonna be honest here. I'm actually a bit scared on how awesome this life is. It's like a dream that I'll eventually wake up" said Shiro.
"Ha ha ha. I know what you mean. This world is just that awesome after all"
Both Futsunushi and Shiro stared out the hospital window.
This might be one hell of a cliché scene but the two silently appreciated the wonder of this new world.
To view the big blue sky without the threat of getting shot by a sniper.
To walk the grassy plains without wondering where the landmines were.
To talk to people without wondering which of them were potential backstabbers.
To live everyday while having unrestricted fun, falling in love with lots of women and just be happy.
This world was the paradise Shiro has always dreamed off.
If the two of them weren't so conscious of their manly facade, they would have shed quite a bit of manly tears as they thanked every god they knew for bringing them into this world.
"Well then, any reason why you're here?" asked Shiro, but then he realized a few things after looking back a little bit. "I see…. So you're the one that sent Hellel to investigate the GW field."
"Yup. Pretty much. While I knew who set up the GW field, her help was absolutely necessary when fighting against the Karna-Dragon-Kraken trio. And besides, this event was absolutely necessary for you and Hellel… am I right *wink* *wink*" replied Futsunushi in a teasing manner.
Well, Shiro had to admit that he was a bit peeved that he was manipulated into the relationship by Futsunushi. But then again, having Hellel/Ilya as the first wife of his harem was very favorable for Shiro.
"I don't particularly have any complaint of how things end up. I guess all's well that ends well" said Shiro with great content.
"Good to know. Just live life as stupidly and as fun as you want. This world is that type of place."
Shiro couldn't help but chuckle at Futsunushi's advice.
Despite acting like a complete dumbass since his reincarnation to this world, Shiro always had a clear goal he was slowly striving towards.
The original Shiro of this world dreamt of becoming a harem king. As repayment for the old Shiro overwriting the younger Shiro, the older Shiro would do whatever it took to accomplish the younger Shiro's ideal harem scenario.
While trying to reform himself to match the younger Shiro, he also planned meticulously in order to seduce high quality women.
Truth be told, the older Shiro found it hard to gauge the emotional state of young highschool girls and would often go into his seduction missions armed with the knowledge he gained from playing H games, light novels and his knowledge from his previous life.
All three of these were very unreliable, but it was the only source of info he could rely on. Naturally, these worthless source of knowledge has led Shiro to many painful defeats.
It was actually fun to fail horribly and not get blown up in the process. It was a refreshing experience.
However, aside from aiming for the Harem King route, there was something that bothered Shiro since arriving in this world
"By the way, what happens now?" asked Shiro
Aside from the vague compass pointing to Harem, Shiro actually had no other goal to work towards to. Going in blind might be a recipe for an awesome adventure, but Shiro was the type of person who despised surprises.
Surprises often resulted in dismembered ligaments and Shiro preferred to keep himself intact.
Thus, he desired information about the future more than anything.
"Come on man. We've been through this already. You know I cant tell you anything about the future. If I did that, who knows what Time Paradox will pop up if you did anything outside the original time line. Fixing Time Paradoxes is a bitch you know?" replied Futusunushi
"Aw…. Not even a little?"
"Nope. You're not getting a lick of info from me."
"Tch… then what are you here for?"
"I'm actually here to inform you of your more current problems"
Shiro quickly sat up straight at Futsunushi's words. It seemed that the end of his battle with Karna was not the end of his headaches.
Shiro urged Futusunushi to continue.
"Truth be told, you only have 2 problems plaguing you at the moment. Which one will you want to hear first. The bad one or the REALLY bad one" Said Futusunushi
"Then let's go with the really bad one first. That way, the second news will annoy me a little less." Replied Shiro
"Okay. Let's go with that. I assume you know already know the effect of getting your arm chopped off by Vasavi Shakti?" said Futsunushi which Shiro nodded in response.
Vasavi Shakti's melee version was an Anti-Divine attack that bypassed any defense and inflicted permanent damage.
The damage cannot be regrown, repaired, or fixed by any means.
The melee Vasavi Shakti was one of the few weapons in modern times that can instantly kill a Living God.
"I see. If I could recall, Fujin Akiko was able to have an artificial arm after I chopped it off. Maybe I can do that too. I think Karna would be willing to fund it. He did look like those 'honor freak' type of character." said Shiro as he rubbed his now stump of a right arm.
"He did offer to do just that, but I rejected it." Said Futsunushi as he puffed his chest with pride
Naturally, this greatly annoyed Shiro
"…. I hope you have a good explanation for that…"
"Of course I do." Said Futsunushi as he took of the armor over his entire right arm. "It's for preparation for 'things to come'."
Futsunushi's right arm was made of swords. But unlike Shiro whose could only produce an extremely rugged looking arm made of blades, Futsunushi's version was as smooth as silk. It was perfectly molded down to the very last muscle.
The exterior looked like the skin of a snake due to the many blades aligning perfectly.
"Hold on…. Let me get this straight… so your right arm is entirely made up of blades?! And you've maintained this for how long?!" asked Shiro in shock.
"It's been like this way before the Great War. Pretty cool right?" said Futsunushi
Cool was not the word Shiro would use.
Down right mind boggling would be more accurate.
While making an arm of swords might not look like much, it actually took a lot of mana and a lot of concentration. The very idea that hit had to move, expand, contract, stretch and not turn into a cactus required constant alteration via projection.
While Shiro himself had near limitless mana, he didn't have a godlike concentration to create and maintain the arm of swords.
"Dude…. Just… damn…" said Shiro in disbelief.
"Ha ha ha. No need to be overwhelmed. You'll eventually get to the level where constantly casting projection will be as easy as breathing. I mean, I did it. There's no way you cant do it too!" replied Futsunushi.
Shiro could only nod in agreement.
Both the raw material and the end product were present. The only thing that needed some ironing out would be the process of making raw material A to finish product A.
"By the way, what do you mean by preparation?" asked Shiro.
"Back in the fortune telling bonanza, you already saw the vision right? You need that level of skill to face off and win against that pain in the ass" replied Futsunushi.
Shiro instantly recognized what Futsunushi was talking about.
During the white day fortune telling festival, Shiro saw a vision of Futsunushi creating multiple bodies made up of blades while fighting against Susanoo. Shiro instinctively knew that each of those metallic puppets were just as strong as Futsunushi in that vision.
Now he understood what Futsunushi meant as 'preperation'
"I see… so this is training of sorts" said Shiro
"Yup. Pretty much. By the time you get to that 'event', you'll be more than ready" said Futsunushi
Whatever annoyance Shiro had pretty much evaporated at that point. Since this disability was essential for the things to come, Shiro had no reason to complain.
"Of course there's going to be a fair bit of problems at the start. I'm just warning you to get used to it as fast as possible." Said Futsunushi.
"While I cant make it as smooth as yours at the moment, I think I can make and maintain a metal arm for a few hours at a time. It shouldn't be a problem" said Shiro with confidence.
However, the next words from Futsunushi made Shiro's will falter a bit.
"Oh no no no. I know you can do that just fine. The problem is that you cant 'stroke' your 'Excalibur' and shoot your 'white beam of justice' properly. Touching you 'joy stick' with an arm made of blades is a recipe for disaster."
"Oh…. Well…. Shit…"
Given how Shiro's libido has receive a painfully large upgrade ever since he decided to live a lifestyle of a pervert, not 'milking the snake' at least 10 times a day would be extremely problematic.
"I see…. So this is what you meant by a really REALLY bad problem" Shiro's face paled at the horror that was to come.
He swore to himself that he would get used to his bladed arm as fast as humanly possible!
"Well then, what's the 'less bad' problem?" asked Shiro.
"W-Well…. It's better if I show you."
The confused Shiro followed Futsunushi out his private room.
They walked for a minute or so before they arrived in what seemed to be a conference room.
Within the conference room was Zayd and David who were crying their eyes out. On the table in front of them was a sculpture that had an interpretive art style to it.
This confused Shiro a great deal
"Er… guys? Why are you crying?" asked Shiro
David and Zayd looked at him with eyes that were half condemning and half sorrowful.
"Shiro…. *sniff* … It's so good that you're okay… that way I can kill you myself!" roared David as he lunged at Shiro
"Waaaaahh! Im so happy that your safe and sound Shiro! I'm so happy that I could cry!" Zayd followed David's lead and began raining punches on Shiro.
Shiro used both left and his metallic right arm to block their blows.
"W-Why are you attacking me?! What did I do?!" said Shiro as he did his shielded himself.
David and Zayd simply cried as they bashed Shiro left and right. After a few seconds, Futsunushi pulled the frenzied perverts off of Shiro.
"While I understand what you two are going through, I think its better to explain the gravity of his since to the perverted community." Futsunushi calmed the two perverts.
The two sobbed for a few seconds before they were calm enough to talk again.
"We found the legendary porn stash….. but it was affected by that NP you used…." Said Zayd as he looked towards the 'sculpture' on the table.
That news broke Shiro's heart.
The Chaos spear was a crazy weapon with an equally crazy effect. It messed with the laws of physics, probability and even the basic logic of the world. Everything within that psychedelic hell zone would most likely end up being much much different from their original form.
A rock had a chance of ending up as a two headed cow.
Why?
That's a very good question!
All information was subjected to table flipping insanity during the effect of the Chaos spear.
Due to this madness, the legendary porn stash changed in appearance, weight, and even property.
Shiro approached the 'sculpture' with shaky legs. As he got close, he saw some of the most erotic illustrations he has ever seen on a small surface of the sculpture. However, it was almost like a scribble in a fine work of interpretive art.
Shiro fell to his knees.
With tears streaming from his eyes, he performed one of Star War's most famous scenes.
"NNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
At the time, Shiro harem rushed in the conference room in order express their happiness and relief that their man was okay.
However, when they saw the scene of Shiro, Zayd, David and even Futsunushi shedding manly tears of sorrow while looking at a weird looking sculpture, the haremites thought in unison:
"Okaaaaay…. Their doing their crazy thing again…. We'll come back later…"
-:-
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