Chapter 06: A Death Match Against these Demon Generals!
"Emergency! Emergency!"
Luna's panicked voice cut through the chatter of the guild hall's adventurers. "All adventurers, please arm yourselves at once and gather at the front gate of the city, ready for battle!"
'Huh?' Kazuma Satou wondered as he joined the crowd in rushing towards the gate. 'It better not be another cabbage thing.'
It was not a cabbage thing.
"This ain't no laughing matter!" Mohawk Guy exclaimed at the sight before him.
Lightning cracked across the stormy sky, briefly illuminating the two figures standing before them, with even Kazuma's danger senses blaring at klaxon levels just from them looking his direction.
One of them was clearly an undead knight in black armor, a dullahan to be exact, with his helmeted head held in his left hand while his right clutched the reins to his headless horse.
The other seemed to be a young woman with a slender body, having black medium length hair with side-swept bangs over a white mask with black carvings. While being dressed in priestly garments, it was also as black as her companion, along with silver details.
Murmurs full of fear were blooming here and there, no one sure why the powerful entities before them had come to Axel of all places. Then, among the murmurs, some people from the Guild recognized the dullahan and stacked a name to him.
It was Beldia, a leader of the Demon King's forces.
"Good day to you, adventurers." The woman spoke, her silky voice demanding attention. "We'd like to speak to the one called Kazuma Satou."
Kazuma bit back the urge to swear loudly as everyone's eyes instantly looked towards him. "Thanks, everybody. If I'm still alive after approaching two scary people fucking up the weather just by standing there, I'll be sure to never thank any of you for it."
"Kazuma, Kazuma!" Aqua whispered at his side.
"Yes, Kazuma here."
"That lady's really pissing me off for some reason!" Aqua hissed as she glared at the woman. "Hey! Who are you?!"
The woman tilted her head, humming a bit before speaking. "Archpriest Aqua, I believe? I knew Axis cultists were maniacs but it's is a new level of madness to take the name of the deity you worship."
"HAH?! HOW ABOUT A BITCH LIKE YOU-mmmph!"
Kazuma cut off Aqua's mouth with his hand, staring worriedly at them as he held back the struggling archpriest. "You know my name, but I don't know yours. Wanna introduce yourself?"
"Well, that makes sense. Considering your origins, Hero." Beldia got off his horse and approached them while pushing past the woman in black. "But before I get to taking your head, there is a death that precedes yours! Bring out the one who fired that explosion attack upon my castle!"
This time, the gaze of every adventurer snapped to Megumin, who looked aside with an innocent whistle. It didn't save her from Kazuma's hand clamping her cheek. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Kazumaaaaaaa!"
"Yes, Kazuma here."
"Staahp! It huuurts!"
"Good. It's supposed to."
"O-Okay, listen! I was just practicing my new spell of the Detonation Series!" Megumin hastily explained, still trying to free herself from her Party leader's fingers and failing. "You're the one who banned me from putting more SP into my {Explosion}, so of course I had to invent a new spell to reach for euphoria again!"
Kazuma froze. True, he had recently ordered Megumin to prioritize other spells. And she had obeyed, learning both {Blast} and {Detonation} in order to compensate while building up her MP. But to think, she'd merely been prepping to make something worse than {Explosion}... "What. Did. You. Do?"
Finally pulling her cheeks free, Megumin flapped her cape dramatically while tipping her hat. "I invented a new, better spell and used it on a derelict castle! It was the perfect testing spot for it!"
"So you're truly the reason three quarters of my castle, along with the terrain, is nothing more than a crater?!" Beldia roared from his spot, having heard enough to draw up his conclusions. "Kazuma Satou, who is that mage to you?!"
"A troublesome mage who's my Party member." Kazuma answered as he stepped forward, the girl in question staring in surprise as her leader still put himself directly between her and the dullahan despite his obvious anger at her.
"Well, that's too bad." The woman in black spoke up again. "After being blown off our feet for quite some distance, we were naturally going to take that mage's head along with your's."
"You're being quite cocky for an undead!" Aqua snapped before pointing a glowing hand at the pair. "[Turn Undead]!"
Beldia promptly dodged out of the way while dragging his horse by the reins, leaving the woman alone to suffer the holy spell.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" The woman shrieked as she shuddered on the spot and fell to a knee.
"What in the world was that?!" Beldia yelled at her. "I chose you specifically because you have the most resistance against holy attacks!"
"Can you not tell the difference between holy and divine energies, Beldia?! Even with most of it sealed away, a mere 20% still did this to me despite my high resistance!" The woman stumbled as she got back up to her feet. "If you'd been the one to take that, you'd be rolling about in tears, too!"
Taking advantage of the distraction, Kazuma surreptiously updated his Adventurer Card.
[Name: Kazuma Satou]
[Class: Adventurer]
[Title: Japanese Otherworlder, Logia Devil of Air, Party Boss, Slayer of the Rookie Killer]
[Alignment: Chaotic Neutral]
[STR: 56]
[VIT: 95]
[AGI: 49]
[INT: 50]
[WIS: 40]
[LUK: 410]
[NRG: EX]
[MNY: 6,438,000 Eris]
[SP: 0]
[Skill: Debuff Resistance (14)]
[Skill: Enemy Detect (31)]
[Skill: High-Speed Incantation (6)]
[Skill: Lockpick (3)]
[Skill: Lurk (22)]
[Skill: Magical Resistance (10)]
[Skill: One-Handed Sword (5)]
[Skill: Physical Resistance (33)]
[Skill: Steal (55)]
[Skill: Trap Detect (3)]
[Spell: Create Earth (13)]
[Spell: Create Water (8)]
[Spell: Explosion (19)]
[Spell: Freeze (4)]
[Spell: God Blow (9)]
[Spell: God Requiem (2)]
[Spell: Tinder (7)]
[Spell: Turn Undead (2)]
"Hey, Kazuma, this isn't right!" Aqua turned to Kazuma in worry as he put his Card away. "She's still standing from my attack!"
"Looked really effective, though." Kazuma answered speculatively. "If she's really an undead like you think, she definitely got damage."
"Now, then... Let's get the introductions out of the way." The woman snapped her fingers, causing a wave of black magical energy to waft over her and make her damage disappear. "Hero Kazuma, both you and Archpriest Aqua asked of our identities. We are the ones who shall conquer this world in the name of our King. We are two of the seven sinful ones as ordained by the Evil Gods. Representing the Vindictiveness of Wrath, I am Demon General Seresdina."
Unsheathing his massive greatsword from his back, Beldia levelled it towards Kazuma. "Representing the Disdain of Pride, I am Demon General Beldia. Cower. Grovel. Flee. These are all appropriate responses for those who are neither a Hero nor my King."
EMERGENCY QUEST!
Eliminate Demon General Beldia, the Disdainful Pride!
Eliminate Demon General Seresdina, the Vindictive Wrath!
The panic from the adventurers swelled up to flat-out terror. Two Demon Generals against the rookies of Axel would be nothing more than a clear slaughter.
Even Kazuma knew that. But still...
From the shadow of the Dullahan General, a horde of lesser undead soldiers materialized, rotten carcasses with darkened souls.
"Now go, my minions!" Beldia motioned for his troops to advance. "Go forth and kill them all! Men and women, the children and the elderly!"
Stepping forward out from the crowd and moving forward a few meters, Kazuma raised his hand, wind churning furiously around it before blasting forward in a wide wave, blowing back the undead from advancing.
"You think a mere blast of wind is enough to stop us?" Seresdina questioned.
'This isn't just wind. This is nothing but a huge wave of oxygen hitting you head-on.' Kazuma raised his other hand to dip into the continuous air attack. 'And this is-' "[Tinder]!"
*FWOOOOOOSH!*
The entire area before Kazuma lit up in bright, oxygen-gorged flames incinerating everything the adventurers of Axel could see. After keeping up the attack for ten seconds, Kazuma cut it off before clapping loudly, which in turn created a massive shockwave of wind that snuffed most of the flames out and still added even more damage to the area.
Afterwards, all that was left behind were blackened earth and the two Demon Generals themselves, all of the undead troops obliterated.
"Ha... Hahahahahahaha! Outstanding! Very outstanding!" Beldia laughed uproariously as he stepped out of Seresdina's protective dome of shadow magic. "To think that you could annihilate my underlings in one swift and powerful move! And you don't even look like you broke a sweat! As expected as a Hero! Yes, this is a perfect start to our battle!"
Hefting his greatsword again, he gave one last order to Seresdina. "You know what to do! Keep the Archpriest from interfering!"
Without even waiting for answer, Beldia charged forward, easily closing the distance despite his size and slamming against Kazuma. However, Darkness got between them and retaliated with her own sword, causing a powerful shockwave as they clashed and crumbled the glassy blackened rocks beneath them.
"Who are you?!" Beldia roared. "Don't interrupt our duel!"
"I am Darkness, Crusader of Kazuma-sama's Party!" Darkness shouted back before forcing him back. "Who are you to presume that I'll be anywhere else than his front to take all of those painful hits-"
"Go deal with her!" Darkness yelped as Kazuma gripped her from behind and threw her right at Seresdina just as the female Demon General was gearing up to attack. Watching the two women collide and fall into a tangle of limbs, Kazuma returned his attention to Beldia. "Sorry about her."
"It's fine. Let's get back to our battle!" Being a good sport, Beldia wasted no time in swinging to decapitate Kazuma, only to miss when Kazuma bent over backwards and kicked out with the compressed force of a tornado, launching Beldia back. Sticking his sword into the earth as an impromptu anchor, Beldia still managed to get out of the way when Kazuma suddenly slammed down with enough force to cause a crater.
"You're deluded if you think you can touch me!" Kazuma declared as he dodged Beldia's swipe again, kicking at the blade while in midswing and them aiming to punch at the head secured in the other arm. To his surprise, Beldia grinned as he took the blow literally head-on, almost getting succeeding in cutting through Kazuma while he was stunned. "That's a pretty tough helmet you got on."
"It's especially spelled to protect against those smart enough to aim for my head initially." Beldia replied before suddenly flinging his greatsword forward and nearly clipping Kazuma. While the Aeromancer was distracted, Beldia stomped the earth hard. The result was a section of the ground cracking apart and upending from Kazuma's side, which had the effect of shooting him upwards and forward into the air against his will. "Die! [Death Pierce]!"
It was only a powerful blare from Kazuma's what-he-was-now-reasonably-sure-to-be-Observation-Haki that allowed him to sense the incoming danger and surround himself in a dense bubble of rapidly spinning wind that deflected the dark magic-enhanced greatsword that blasted through the falling earth and soon flew back into Beldia's hand.
Of course, Kazuma didn't let that attack slide and immediately retaliated. "[Rising Tornado]!"
With an upward swing of his arm, Kazuma conjured up a tornado that immediately tore up Beldia as he was lifted several meters into the air-
"[Propulsive Gale]!"
-before a second attack, much more compressed and penetrative, slammed into Beldia from above and fired him into the ground hard enough to crater it, with Kazuma landing some meters away.
"What an impressive amalgamation of conflicting temperaments in your attacks." Beldia commented as he readjusted himself while getting up, seemingly damaged a lot but with no hindered movements. " The faith of a cleric in their victory, the ingenuity of a crafter against an unfamiliar premise, the sheer destructive instinct of a mage, the pragmatism of a ranger against a superior opponent, the decisiveness of a rogue and the valor of a warrior. I'll admit that I was a bit disappointed in your choice of adventuring job, but now I see that you were well aware of what you were doing!"
'Like hell I was, but admitting I actually thought that far will probably drive him nuts! Also, how do you get all that from me attacking you just three times?!' "Why, thanks! Have some [Create Earth]!" Kazuma smirked as he slammed both hands into the ground, causing the ground to erupt in multiple spikes that ripped the earth apart and sent the Demon General off his feet while simultaneously killing the horse that had been trying to stampede him often.
"Amazing..." Dust wasn't the only adventurer to watch in amazement from the gates as they witnessed Kazuma matching well against a Demon General.
"Can we even get in the middle of that?" Lynn quietly questioned, her tail drooping. "How do we support him?"
"We can't." Mohawk Guy grimly decided. "That's why he had Darkness go at the other one, so that he wouldn't get distracted. Speaking of which..."
Many of the other adventurers joined him in looking towards the battle involving the Demon General of Wrath, finding that their built-up surprise would be rising even higher.
Despite just having her right arm slashed off by Darkness (with a lot of them staring incredulously at the sight of her successfully landing a hit), Seresdina hadn't slowed down at all in her onslaught. Cloaking her remaining arm in shadowy magic, she'd kept on against Darkness, slowly knocking the knight back with every clash.
Just as she was about to land a vicious backhand against Darkness's exposed nape-
"[Detonation: Triple Shot]!"
Seresdina recoiled as she threw herself backwards from Megumin's attack as even the shockwaves from the three magical explosive shots were enough to rattle her bones. Normally, doing such a thing with an ally in the clear range of friendly fire was rather reprehensible.
However, Seresdina had quickly learned how unbothered Darkness was to be hit by those attacks.
(If anything, she was enjoying them?)
Bursting through the smoke, Seresdina immediately made of the defenseless mage, only to be halted by her strongest foe in this battle.
"[Sacred Protection]!"
Aqua's glowing dome smashed hard into Seresdina as it materialized, her divine energy surging in strength against the demonic energy the General exuded before blasting her away.
Twisting about in the air, Seresdina brought down her fist immediately against Darkness, immediately blasting intense amounts of shadows against the knight and overwhelming her when-
"[Bind]!" Four separate ropes suddenly wrapped around each of Seresdina's limbs before yanking her away from Darkness and hard into the ground, the ropes being held by a silver-haired Thief. "Are you okay, Darkness?"
"Chris?!" Darkness exclaimed at the sight of her first friend on the battlefield with her for the first in a long while.
"Did you already forget who used to save your ass before Kazuma took the job?" Chris's smirk turned cruel upon turning her sight to Seresdina, fishing out her enchanted dagger which was now glowing a violet light. "Time for you to fucking die, demon!"
Chris charged forward, slashing against Seresdina with quick and vicious movements. Having her last few slashes blocked, she mule kicked upwards hard enough to lift Seresdina off the ground before leaping up and roundhouse kicking her in the face.
Just as she was sent skidding the ground, Darkness ran past her and met her with her own attack. "[Power Strike]!"
"[Cutting Edge]!"
"[Heavy Impact]!"
"[Vorpal Stab]!"
Seresdina grunted as she repeatedly tried to defend against the surprisingly effective team-up between the Crusader and Thief, trapped between the two. Eventually, she found an opening and clutched Darkness's neck hard and smashed her into the ground before she kicked the Thief hard enough to make her plough into the hill she collided with.
"[God Blow]!"
"[God Blow]!"
Aqua's glowing fist smashed hard against Seresdina's own, the divine energies of good and evil clashing violently against each other.
"Aqua, get clear! [Explosion]!" Once the goddess got clear, Seresdina was immediately hit with a blast far superior to what she'd been hit that day, the earth and skies trembling from the impact.
"Ah..." Megumin sighed as she observed her handiwork, falling to a knee but staying much more mobile than she normally would've. "Maybe Kazuma's got a point about still being able to stand on my own after blowing stuff up..."
The Crimson Demon's words trailed off upon seeing the smoke clear, the visage of the Demon General still standing. "...eh?"
"I see. I suppose a Party of a Hero wouldn't have been composed of weaklings leeching off his successes. A definite difference compared to the information I have of Kyouya Mitsurugi's Party." Seresdina mused, a crack on her mask worsening. "However, that makes it all the more pitiful... for the weaklings nearby."
Blitzing out of sight, a scream rent through the air from the adventurers nearby as one of them was caught in Seresdina's grip. With her mask slightly out of the way, Seresdina had bitten deep into a witch's shoulder, the gulping sounds from her making the truth of her deed very obvious.
"Wait, what she's doing?!" Kazuma paused in his battle when he saw what was happening, a few light slashes now on his body from the Necromantic Greatsword. Apparently, necromantic energy, being closely reminiscent of death, could hurt his intangible body.
Dodging Wiz's spell two chapters ago and the earlier attacks had really been a good idea, after all.
"Were you not aware, Hero Kazuma?" Beldia slammed down his massive blade, chuckling as the logia caught it between his palms and grunted from the weight. "Demon General Seresdina is a dhampir!"
"Ah, much better." Seresdina sighed in satisfaction as she dropped the drained body, her missing arm now regenerated. "It seems that... I've been underestimating you quite a bit. I shall no longer make that mistake."
"Hah? Why are you talking like you've been hot stuff?" Aqua cracked her knuckles menacingly. "A demon Warrior like you is no match for us!"
"...Warrior? You think that I am a Warrior? When I was specifically brought here to deal with you?" Seresdina burst out into a laughter filled with cruel amusement. "I am what you humans would call the demonic equivalent to an Archpriest. I am an Apostle of Dark Goddess Regina!"
Clutching her breasts roughly and beginning to knead them, Seresdina's next words- no, invocations were at odds with her actions. "Oh, Deity of Vengeance and Manipulation."
Darkness burst off Seresdina's body, her pale skin turning dark in color. "I implore you. Descend unto my body. Dwell within my body."
Seresdina's priestly garments burst into nothingness, leaving her completely naked for a split second before dark lightning erupted off her form to create new apparel. "Transform my body into that of a great Avatar of Goddess Regina!"
Now, black scale-like armor covered parts of her body and a black hagoromo manifested over her shoulders, her mask finally shattering apart to reveal purple glowing eyes over black sclerae. "Ah... The mortal world sure smells fresher than I remember..."
[WARNING! EVIL DEITY DETECTED IN THE MORTAL WORLD.]
"What the?!" Kazuma clutched his ears. "What was that?!"
"Heh! That is the Voice of the World, an ability owned by the God Metatron." Beldia idly patted his damaged chestplate. "It will always announce events that affect the entirety of the world to all it's inhabitants."
"ORAAAAAAA!" Seresdi- No, Regina roared out in confirmation of the Worldly announcement. "I am Regina, Goddess of Vengeance and Manipulation! Look upon me and despair, you mongrels!"
SUPER EMERGENCY QUEST!
Survive, escape or defeat Regina, the Goddess of Vengeance and Manipulation!
"E-Everybody!" Luna's voice rang out through the battlefield. "This is an order from Guildmaster Minazuki-sama! All adventurers are to retreat beneath his {Dome of Protection} within Axel's territory!"
The adventurers didn't need further encouragement as the few of them who'd already been considering running away led the charge towards the city gates.
[SEARCHING AROUND DEITY AVATAR CANDIDATES. ONE CANDIDATE FOR THOTH DETECTED.]
Kazuma frowned as a pillar of light shone down on him.
[FIVE CANDIDATES FOR ERIS DETECTED.]
Five pillars of light shone down in various spots, one of them upon Chris's stirring body.
[ONE CANDIDATE FOR AQU- ...NO. ALL CANDIDATES FOR AQUA REJECTED.]
"Don't you dare ignore me, Metatron!" Aqua shouted up to the skies. "I'm already here, aren't I?! Release my Divinity already!"
[GODDESS AQUA IS STILL UNDERGOING PUNISHMENT FOR TREASON. SO SHUT UP.]
"The only other divine candidates for Avatar Possession are Thoth and Eris, right?! That's no good!" Aqua quickly protested. "Eris is - urgh - the patron deity of this kingdom and will be too strong for any host she'll take over, and Thoth's only candidate here is a Hero, who nobody's permitted to possess anyways!"
[IRRELEVANT. THE THIEF CHRIS'S COMPATIBILITY IS OVER 96% CA- HUH? DID SHE JUST KNOCK HERSELF UNCONSCIOUS?]
While the pillar of light faded away from Chris as she slumped down with her self-attacking {Sleep} spell doing it's job, Aqua tried again. "C'mon, Metatron! I'm the best choice here and you know it! You wanna go back and tell your boss Aero how you fucked up in letting Regina run loose just because you were being picky?!"
[...URGH. PERMISSION FOR GODDESS AQUA'S DIVINITY RELEASE HAS BEEN GRANTED FOR THE NEXT THREE HUNDRED SECONDS.]
"Five minutes, huh. That's plenty!" Five large blue glyphs manifested around Aqua, manifesting five chains binding her body with one of them already loosened up. With a flex of her body, Aqua grinned widely all five chains snapped off.
As her staff fell down from the heavens into her hand, Aqua's apparel changed as well, the regal blue silk of her dress gaining platinum details while her violet hagoromo reappeared over her shoulders. Immediately, waves of godly power burst off her body, eclipsing Regina's own divine aura as Aqua's crashed down on their surroundings almost reminiscent of crashing tidal waves washing over the landscape.
"Oh crap!" Beldia abandoned his match with Kazuma to escape the incoming flood of aquatic divinity. "Why did they unseal her?! I thought they hated her enough to not let heeeeeeeeer-GHBBMBMBFREEEEEEEEEY~!"
At that moment, Beldia was overwhelmed with the wave and promptly Purified.
Flying off the ground with his Party in a wind-based platform construct along with Chris, Kazuma stared as the two goddesses began to face off. "Um, should we get in the middle of that?"
"No." Chris was awake now, staring down as well while rubbing her head in pain. "What we need to do now is keep a safe distance... Fuck. Kazuma, is Goddess Aqua likely to care about collateral damage while possessing Aqua?"
Unknowingly, before Kazuma thought more on Chris's mistaken belief of Aqua being an Avatar instead of the bona fide goddess herself, Aqua answered the question herself by launching forward and smashing her fist into Regina's cheek.
The very air cracked open as Regina was sent flying into- actually, through the side of a nearby mountain, Aqua hot on her tails as gravity became an afterthought to the two actualized goddesses, already healing the reflected damage she'd almost immediately gotten from the goddess's Skill.
Righting herself midair, Regina caught herself midair and punched back into Aqua's arm. The resulting impact slammed the water goddess deep into a mountain of her own, Aqua barely getting a chance to recover before Regina dropped down on her with her knees, black lightning coating her body.
After a few more punches Regina rained down upon her, Aqua caught the fifth dead-on with blood marring her gritted teeth. "[Divine Break Skill]! No more of that {Revenge} nonsense!"
Yanking Regina close, Aqua slammed her forehead into Regina's face, breaking the dhampir-goddess's nose. Not being done, Aqua stomped hard into Regina's stomach, sending her opponent flying out of the mountainside crater they were in and back into the sky.
Hitting her again hard enough to crack the sky and split the clouds, Aqua followed after Regina's body and smashed a double hammer fist into her back, sending her into a nearby lake at Mach 2, the impact nearly emptying it of all of it's contents.
Flying down after her, Aqua punched forward only for her fist to be stopped cold in Regina's grip.
"Tell me, Aqua..." Regina growled, her glare hateful as her broken nose finished healing. "When was the last time a snobbish slob as yourself felt fear?!"
Yanking the arm out of the way, Regina slammed a powerful uppercut into Aqua's stomach that launched her upwards. Immediately chasing after her, Regina waited just as Aqua reached the peak of her involuntary fight before kicking her into another mountain in the distance.
Before Aqua could recover, Regina was already above her, dropping down with powerful bolts of dark lightning that obliterated the entire mountain while still leaving Aqua in still one piece thanks to her godly durability.
Trapping Aqua in magical restraints, Regina grabbed the bluenette by the back of her head and began a vicious onslaught of smashing and dragging her against every surface she could, doing her best to inflict more damage upon Aqua beyond mere bruises.
"You want to know what I fear...?" Aqua growled as she slowly recovered. "Go find an oversized frog...! [Splash and Freeze, Cascading Ocean Monarch]!"
Power burst forth from Aqua again, allowing her to blast Regina away from her. The energy then compressed over her body, transforming her her attire into what consisted of a platinum-blue bodysuit with small hexagons resembling fish scales while her Hagoromo lengthened and covers her limbs in what resembled armaments.
"A frog you say?!" Regina shouted back, only slightly intimidated by Aqua's new look. "If you'd call me something as debasing as a frog, then you're merely frog food as a fly!"
Brimming with all of her power compressed onto her form, Aqua's attacks upon Regina came down even faster and harder, the land beneath them forming geysers and craters from the shockwaves of their clashes.
Once Regina tried to slam a lightning bolt upon Aqua, only for the latter to power through it and punch her in the face, shattering the sound barrier even worse than before as Regina got sent through three mountains without mercy.
A few seconds later, Regina crawled out of the rubble with her broken body slowly repairing. "Impossible! How am I losing?"
"Huh? Don't be stupid. It's clearly because you're so weak compared to me." Aqua spoke up from behind, causing Regina to turn around and regard the floating goddess. "You're just a mere goddess born from a concept born of humans. I, on the other hand, am a Goddess with a capital G born from the domain of an Element of the World. If I were to even lose all of my dear worshippers, I'll still exist even under a new identity. Ezili, Amphitrite, Varuna, Suijin, they are all me. And they shall always be me!"
Aqua's cruel smirk dipped into sadistic anticipation. "If your worshippers die, I wonder how long it'd take for you to recover."
"Just keep running your mouth, Aqua-senpai!" Black lightning cracked powerfully around Regina, twisting into the form of a menacing dragon above her. "[Divine Create: Lightning Dragon]!"
"...so flimsy." Aqua gave the {Lightning Dragon} a derisive role of her eyes before raising her hand, her signature staff manifesting into her grasp. "[Divine Create: Leviathan]."
The sky above them darkened, thunderclouds crackling as a massive draconic head of water with ice within forming as its skeletal structure burst forth from within and twisted the rest of it's gargantuan serpentine body to float behind Aqua, easily dwarfing the {Lightning Dragon}.
"Regina..." Aqua's voice at the moment could've been mistaken for the sounds of waves crashing against each other. "It's alright if you die to this, right?"
"Go ahead and try if you think you can manage it!" Regina roared. "You banished failure!"
The two elemental beasts rushed at each other, their maws wide until the {Leviathan} crushed through the {Lightning Dragon} and pulverized Regina's (and Seresdina's by extension) body along with 60 meters square of the landscape.
Good thing their battle had taken them so far away from Axel, especially as Aqua's triumphant roar afterwards immediately kicked off a category four hurricane.
EMERGENCY QUEST!
Objective: Eliminate Demon General Beldia, the Disdainful Pride!
Objective: Eliminate Demon General Seresdina, the Vindictive Wrath!
Status: Cleared!
Reward: 600,000,000 Eris
"Eh?" Hours later, Aqua and her Party blinked at Kaito Minazuki in the guildhall. It was the next day and in the midst of the celebration that had been going on since the previous evening. The goddess herself nearly dropped her half-empty mug, sobriety making a quick return to her drunken mind.
"You heard me." Kaito crossed his arms in pride, with Luna and the other attendants behind him. "In recognition of Kazuma Satou's Party's achievement, you'll all be awarded with 600,000,000 Eris."
"S-Six hundred million?!" Aqua shrieked before shakily making her way to Kazuma. "K-K-Kazuma! It's so much-"
"Don't worry, Aqua." Kazuma took a swig from his mug, while idly rubbing Megumin's head as she sat on his lap with her own mug while having flushed cheeks. "I'll be watching you very closely to make sure you don't misspend your share this time."
"That being said, there's no denying that both Beldia and Seresdina technically died to you." Darkness chimed in, a fact that made Kazuma frown a little at the kill steal. "It wouldn't be a stretch to consider you the MVP of that battle."
"...a church for my beloved faithful-!"
""Don't you dare!"" Kazuma and Kaito roared in unison.
"Well?" A figure in the darkness spoke imperiously. "Did you get what you desired?"
"Indeed, your Majesty." Seresdina sighed as the assorted memories flowing into her mind from her destroyed clone had finished acclimating and cracked her numb joints as she stood up to stretch. "Neither the Hero nor Goddess Aqua suspect my survival. At least, until the next time you will require the reappearance of Wrathful Demon General."
"No, no need for that." The voice chuckled. "Just keep on being my spymaster for now, Serena."
Seresdina, now Serena with an amulet that suppressed her vampiric nature, took a deep bow. "As you command, your Majesty."
KingVessel: I sure hope I did a battle between goddesses well! Hahahaha! Bye, canon!