Disclaimer: Black Clover is owned by Yūki Tabata, Studio Pierrot, and Shonen Jump.
Saga 32: Forest Part Finale
Autonomous Invasive Ecosystem, [The Forest of Denial]
Time Remaining Until Continental Assimilation:
6 Hours, 3 minutes, 43 seconds
"... What are the freaking odds?" Corrin commented as she and Jericho had now found themselves before the hill planted with Beowulf's rusted [Hrunting] next to the felled [Grendel]'s completely immaculate reverse scale.
"In hindsight, more likely than you think," Jericho replied.
Corrin blinked before resuming to speak. "... Which begs another question."
"Which is?" asked Jericho.
"At what rate is the forest itself spreading out?" she pointed out.
In hindsight, Jericho hasn't given it much thought about that little detail. "... In everyone's defense, survival came first."
"Fair enough," Corrin concedes before looking back at the planted Relic. "... So we're gonna use that to turn this bullshit around?"
"Read my mind," nodded Jericho as he then approached the top of the hill before grabbing onto the sword's handle...
... only for said sword to then dislodge on its own before slicking off Jericho's arm despite its dulled and rusted state, causing the young man to recoil and scream in unfathomable agony as the sword returned to its earthly sheathe.
"OH FUCK! JERICHO!" Corrin cried out as she got herself off of his back before she then constricts a strap of cloth around his bleeding stump to stymie the blood loss.
"... Thought it'd be too easy," he growled as he sat down on the hill's incline before glancing back at the now-bloodied [Hrunting] resting in place. "... Normally, I'd ask or joke about everything in Ulster trying to kill everything that moves... but that has already ran it course... several times over!"
"Alive and well enough to still joke, cools," Corrin nervously remarked as she tried not to suffer a possibly-fatal heart attack at this sudden development. "... So if I'm assuming correctly, that sword might've rejected you because you were 'unworthy,' like every other stories about a sword in a stone, right?"
"Knowing Ulster, I can half-suspect that being the sole reason why that sword was left undisturbed for so long," agreed Jericho. "Were the bar any lower, it would've fallen into the hands of some renegade. Although that begs the question how aren't there many amputees... but given Cu's existence... I guess it's more akin to a paper cut."
Corrin grumbles as she sits next to Jericho. "... Great, our last hope for survival is also one of our many executioners prowling about," she grimaced as she then looked back at the planted [Hrunting]. "... Maybe we're better off killing ourselves with that thing just to spare ourselves from the inevitable."
Jericho's eyebrows flick up. "... Corrin," he remarked before placing his left hand onto her shoulder with an elated expression. "... You... are a FUCKING GENIUS!"
"Eh?! Wh-WHAT?!" she stammered, surprised that he took it really well.
"You pull it out," he elaborated. "That legendary sword only strikes back when unworthy 'hands' are placed upon it, like in those stories you allude to, right?!"
"... Uhhh," she trailed off nervously, "... is the blood loss affecting your thought processes?"
"I'm perfectly fine, thank you," Jericho remarked before returning to his prior line of thought. "Corrin, I want you to try using your [Magnet Magic] on it."
"... WHAT?!" Corrin remarked as her memories then traced back to the failed attempt of trying to do the same with the Green Knight and its [Sylvan Soldier]-clones (due to their "metal" parts being 100% lead/nonmagnetic metal). "... But... but what if I can't?! What if the sword itself finds me unworthy?! Compared to you, I'm an automatic disqualification!"
"... Look at you, talking as if you're fearing for your life when you were contemplating suicide minutes ago," smirked Jericho, to which Corrin freezes up at her own self-contradiction. "... That's your true self, Corrin Index. That's you not giving up on life."
"... But my heart can't take it," she whimpered. "... I can't put airs of everything being fine anymore. I'm legit, 100% terrified of what's going to happen next."
"Fear isn't rooted in the sense of death," he rebuffed. "... Fear is rooted in the desire to live. Corrin, you want to live, in spite of everything."
"... You're right," she wept, tears cascading from her eyes. "... I don't want to die here. I don't want to die in a forest paving my home under its roots. I don't want to die... even if I have nothing left to return to, dammit!"
"And if it makes you feel any better..." Jericho continued, "... if you die, then I won't be far behind. So no matter what, you're not alone in this. ... Or at the least, not with anyone else, because heavens forbid if it were."
Corrin's tears then give way to a snort. "... You suck at motivating people, you know that?"
"I try," he smirks back as he witnesses Corrin then approaching [Hrunting] planted atop of the hill as she then takes out her grimoire.
With bated breath, Corrin then links her own magic onto the sword itself, confirming the Relic's materials to be of conductible make. "... Good," she spoke to herself as her [Magnet Magic] then fully establishes a firm grasp around. "... Now, to get it out-"
But just as she was about to pull the sword from the hill, [Hrunting] then sinks back, pulling against Corrin's own spell as she struggles to pull it out.
"WHAT'S HAPPENING?!" she exclaimed, her [Magnet Magic] tugging against the unknown force that was within the Relic.
"It's resisting!" Jericho observed the tug-of-war. "Corrin! It's telling you that you're worthy! Now you must take it by force!"
Corrin, her heart now beating rapidly at a pace which can be described nothing short of "agonizing," begins to pull back against the resisting [Hrunting] telekinetically.
"COME ON! MOVE!" she cried out as her [Magnet Magic] kept its hold around the rusted Relic.
The Relic pulls back harder, incentivizing Corrin to pull back even harder in retaliation.
"I'M NOT GOING TO DIE HERE!" she roared as she pulled even harder, her mana inflaming her very arms like overtaxed muscles. "I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE TO DIE IN A PLACE BUILT UPON A FIELD OF DEAD INNOCENTS!"
[Hrunting] pulls back itself into the dirt even harder, daring Corrin to pull back even harder.
"THERE ARE A SHITTON OF BAD GUYS THAT ARE AFTER OUR HEADS AND THEY'RE GOING DIE IF I REMAIN AS A SCARED WEAKLING IN WORLD THAT'S LITERALLY OUT TO FUCKING MURDER ME AND EVERYONE I KNOW!" Corrin screamed in utter desperation and hardened resolve on what she needed to do now. "... Power... I NEED POWER! I NEED MORE POWER! I NEED EVEN MORE POWER SO I DON'T DIE A COWARD'S DEATH!"
With one final pull, the entirety of [Hrunting] is released from its earthly prison, its rusted blade in full view.
"... Holy shit," Corrin remarked as the now-bonded [Hrunting] orbited around her like a protective satellite. "... I did it."
Jericho chuckles for a bit before breaking out into a full-blow laughter. "FUCK YEAH YOU JUST DID!" he exclaimed with jubilation. "YOU FUCKING DID IT! YOU HAVE A LEGENDARY HERO'S SWORD IN YOUR ARSENAL!"
Corrin nods as she inspects the Relic a bit closer. "... Even if it's rusted to hell and back, I can sense a great power radiating from it," she commented the floating Relic bonded to her. "... I can only imagine how powerful it was in its prime."
Gud eye, spoke the blade, causing Corrin to fall back onto her butt and roll down the hill.
"... And it talks too!" Jericho gleefully remarked as he ran up towards where Corrin was at to help her up. "... And that voice... it's the hero himself, isn't it?!"
The floating sword gaffs before projecting an apparition of a wild-haired and bearded man dressed in fur and bits of metal armor around his shins and shoulders, with the most notable of his attire being a thick girdle belt with a medallion resembling a draconic visage stamped onto its face, and a band of red cloth tied around his head with its tails flowing behind.
"... Beowulf," Corrin breathlessly spoke before this almighty ghost appearing before them.
De one 'nd only, lass-no, me heir, the apparition humbly spoke as he bowed before the girl.
"And surprisingly taciturn too," commented Jericho. "... So, I'm assuming that you were waiting for the next wielder of your Relic since your passing?"
Ye speak de truth, replied the spectral hero.
"... So why me?" asked Corrin, her question uttered in curiosity tinged in fear. "... Why was I chosen over countless others who were stronger than me?"
Ye already answered yer own question, Beowulf replied bluntly.
"... So the others were rejected for being too strong," answered Jericho as he then looked at his bleeding stump where his right arm used to be. "... No wonder no one in Ulster could ever pull it out."
Indeed, spoke the apparition. De strong needs no sword. De weak are de ones needin' a sword.
"... I was chosen... because I was weak?" Corrin pointed out. "... I was weak... and that made me the ideal candidate to gain this power?"
Beowulf smirked bemusedly. Power is nuthin' te de strong. Dey only want power for the sake of it. Wen weak need power, der paths are clear. Dey dun't want it, dey need it, the ghost spoke. Ye, an outsida, 'ave no path te tread in a world where dreams die faster dan people. So, here's it te ye. De power te carve yer own way.
"... An outsider," Jericho then makes the connection. "That's the clause! Corrin was eligible compared to me, where I'm half-Ulsterian!"
Dat's only one condition, Beowulf clarified. De other is to 'ave nuthin' left. Corrin Index, lass-nay, inheritor, yer dreams of being a mapmaker... no longer matters anymore in a world dat's movin' fast 'nd loose. Ye realize dat yer too weak to bring order. 'Nd dat's where I come in.
Corrin contemplates at this revelation throughly. "... Power," she spoke to herself. "... Power that can only be gained... to those at their absolute weakest and lowest," she then looks at Beowulf projected from his rusted Relic. "... Only then... power actually has any real meaning."
Beowulf nods in approval as he begins to fade away. Use it well, he spoke. 'Nd tell dose power-drunk idjits that call demselves me offsprings te stop actin' de way dey are. It's embarrassin'...
Jericho and Corrin share a snort with the ghostly hero. "... Ain't that the truth," Jericho remarked before he noticed his bleeding stump's ichor trailing upwards towards the reverse scale of the fallen [Grendel]. "... I don't think blood is supposed to flow uphill."
Silence. Nothing but silence was given to this bizarre occurrence.
"... It's your blood, so you do it," Corrin nudged.
Jericho nods as he then approaches the reverse scale, the immaculate carapace piece seemingly drinking his spilled blood, it's bony-silver hue becoming blush with a darker shade.
... blood... a whisper echoed. ... need... blood...
"... Well that's not suspicious-looking or anything," he deadpanned before looking at his severed arm, now looking sucked dry of all of its blood, looking more akin to dry-aged meat than a fresh carcass. "... Fuck it."
With his stump, Jericho then reaches out towards the scale, causing it to then spring up off the ground and latch itself onto his arm. The veins around his point of attachment begins to turn blue as it then traveled up to his neck and head in tandem with a surge of agony that bombards his entire body in a sporadic rhythm.
... Fresh blood... a sinister voice hissed in Jericho's head as he flailed around in agony. ... Such sweet taste... succulent and rich blood... brim with life...
"... Who are you?!" Jericho struggled to keep his brain from splitting in twain. "... Are you... trying to... take me over... [Grendel]?!"
... Depends, spoke [Grendel]'s raspy voice. ... But are you strong? Strong... enough to become me?
"... I refuse... to become you!" Jericho defied. "My name... is Jericho Platnia! Son of Paris Platina and Rhodes Platnia! Brother of Taro Platnia... and a proud noble who abandoned everything for the sake... of my ideals!"
... I don't care, replied the monster's voice as it pushed harder to take Jericho's body over. ... I am power incarnate. I destroy all that I touch... devour all that falls before me... dominate those weaker than me... so... who are you...
The pain intensifies as the ire of the felled monster intensifies to that of volcanic proportions.
... TO DEFY ME?! [Grendel] roared as scales burst out of the stump where the reverse scale was embedded itself onto, the piece slowly morphing into that of a monstrous-looking clawed arm, its sharp digits twitching as his nerves connected into the once-dead scale mail.
Even after everything piled onto him, Jericho's soul refuses to yield. "... I defy you... because I fear... not the dead!" he growled as he began to retake control of his own body. "... I defy you... because you're old news! ... YOU ALREADY DIED ONCE, [GRENDEL]! SO SHUT THE FUCK UP, AND BECOME A PART OF ME!"
The pain is slowly washed away like a receding tide as the monster's influence begins to lessen, [Grendel]'s roars becoming quieter and quieter as Jericho's will overtook the monster's own.
... It's not over, declared the monster. ... If I can't become you... THEN YOU'LL... BECOME... ME!
Suddenly, Jericho's grimoire then opens on its own, with all of his written spells being reworked into that of something else entirely. As soon as all of the pages were filled with monstrous and unknown text, the cover of his grimoire then morphs into that of [Grendel]'s sneer, fangs bared, snout open, and eyes glaring into the souls who dared to look into it.
The clover was than erased off of the cover's face, letting the monster's face sneer without obstruction.
"... [Primal]... [Platinum Magic]?!" Jericho exclaimed before another revelation struck him like a meteor. "... [GRENDEL]'S A [DRAGON]?!"
"... You know, I think that lost in translation or something," Corrin remarked as she looked at the size of the arm. "Although given the size of that thing, what else could've been?"
"... An exceptionally big [Lindwyrm]?" answered Jericho. "... They can get bigger, right-?"
Before Corrin and Jericho could react, the ground erupts as a cloud of dust explodes before them.
"... About time someone showed up," coughed the [Primal Platinum Magic] user.
Corrin, now with her newfound confidence, steps up as she wills her bonded [Hrunting]. "BRING IT THE FUCK ON!" she roared out. "I'LL KILL YOUR ASS-!"
Her bravado deflates immediately as the dust settled and an overwhelming presence of malice and desire flooded the forested enclosure around them. Once the cloud of dirt dissipates, Ishtar, the jet-black lioness of [Greed] reveals herself before the two youths.
"... Well, before my nose smelled opportunity and I found myself here, I've heard someone saying something about killing me," she coolly declared as her coal-black eyes stared into Corrin's soul. "... Go on. Don't stop on my account."
"... Well, guess this is good as time any," Jericho remarked as he readied himself, his [Grendel]-arm and overtaken-grimoire radiated with compound power of man and [Dragon]. "... Time to break in our new powers against a mighty foe as she."
Corrin's heart was now akin to a madman banging on its cell's bars, begging to be let out of its prison to spare itself from the fate worse than death present before them. However, she wasn't so fearful that fear morphed into surrender, but rather, her fear remained consistent. Her fear was screaming at her for one thing and one thing only:
LIVE.
In order to live, she must fight. So with bated breath, screaming heart, trembling feet, tipped nerves, and cold skin, Corrin steps up next to Jericho with a rusted sword of an ancient hero on her right, a [Dragon]-melded Magic Knight on her left, and a ghost of said ancient hero behind their backs, ready to fight for their very lives on the line against this utter-nightmare scenario that the others have warned not to engage.
"... Just to be clear," Corrin spoke nervously, "... this is easily the worst way to break in our new powers."
"Fret not, I'll let you use them long enough for you to not miss them in the future," Ishtar declared as she took her own fighting stance. "So before you graciously hand those two Relics over, I propose a field test to see how well they perform!"
Autonomous Invasive Ecosystem, [The Forest of Denial]
Time Remaining Until Continental Assimilation:
5 Hours, 58 minutes, 47 seconds
"... Of all the people I have to die with, why did it have to be with you?" groaned Ogmios as he found himself tanged up in the treetops in vines upside-down with none other than the Witch Queen herself.
"I hate you too, #063105," Agatha rolled her eyes. "... Any plans getting us down from here without caving in our own heads?"
"Screw you, you can fly, and I only have a pendulum that can't even support my own body weight! And yes, I had to get my wires replaced when I tried!" the [Memory Magic] pointed out as he thrashed about with his hated enemy. "... You've ever fought a god yourself?"
"By myself?" she replied. "If so, no. I was simply another soldier fighting for Da'at."
"Great, so you're fodder," Ogmios rolled his eyes in response.
"Please, like you're any better," Agatha clicked her tongue.
"Not my fault that said god present is literally brainless!" he barked as he flailed themselves even more.
"Kind of like you and your current set of friends, #063105?" she deadpanned as the sway eventually came to a stop.
The two then hung around in silence, with only Ogmios having blood rush to his head while Agatha's veins remained functioning normally/not rushing to her head with her [Blood Magic] forcing it pump against gravity.
"... This freaking sucks," Ogmios remarked.
"Stating the obvious," deadpanned Agatha.
"Well, this may be the blood in my brain talking, but is it just me," spoke the [Memory Magic] user, "... or is Leshy's plans full of holes?!"
"Indeed," she agreed. "Normally, a god, no matter how megalomaniacal they are, are incentivized to keep at least a couple of people alive as to retain their existence, but this line of behavior is bordering suicidal."
"I mean, he lost his group of sycophants twice in a row, so you know..." Ogmios continued, "... you think he kinda gave up? And just settled for destroying everything out of spite?"
"That's only half of the reason, you brainiac," True Leshy's voice remarked from above the two.
The pair look up to see the manifested god crouching over where they've hung from, with his [Yewfelle] holstered behind his back.
"Sup," he greeted. "... Hanging in there?"
"Ha ha," Agatha remarked. "What next? Send your goons to finish us off?"
Upon her cue, an entire crowd of [Sylvan Soldiers] gathers below where the pair were hanging from.
"... Not gonna blame you for that, gonna be honest with you," Ogmios shrugged before looking up. "Also, can't you just like finish us off yourself? I mean, you're in the perfect spot to do so!"
"Nah, too easy," True Leshy remarked. "How about this? You two are going to be bait."
"... That's all you can come up with?" Agatha commented disappointingly. "You know that our chances of being rescued is not a guarantee, correct?"
True Leshy tilts his head confusingly. "Maybe for a stone-cold witch-bitch like you," he replied. "But didn't you know?"
The leaden [Sylvan Soldiers] were then attacked from afar before a group consisting of Letoile, Cernunnos, Cissonius, Makarov, and Rinaldo came running towards the two.
"... 'Empathy' is such a human emotion," True Leshy then nocked his arrow onto his [Yewfelle] bow. "Like it or not, mortals are instinctually compelled to help their fellow blood bags in distress."
The arrow is then let loose, only for it to be intercepted by Cissonius's [Snatch Magic]. "SHITE! I MISSED DE TWO OF EM!"
"WE NEED TO CLOSE IN THE GAP BETWEEN THOSE TWO AND OURSELVES!" Makarov barked as he kicked away a weighty [Sylvan Soldier] before clashing his [Chernobog] against another one's sword. "EVERYONE! INTO POSITIONS!
"OFFENSE TEAM! WITH ME!" ordered Rinaldo as he then unleashed [Murder Mamba] from his [Froberge] as Cernunnos used his [Gae Dearg] and [Gae Buidhe] to tear through the opposition with ease, the former's range and fluidity slowing the horde down enough for the latter's venom weapons to melt them down.
"DEFENSE TEAM! FORM UP!" Letoile ordered as she and Makarov formed a perimeter with their magic. "MAINTAIN OUR FORMATION LONG ENOUGH FOR CISSONIUS TO RESCUE THEM BOTH!"
"And now, the fun begins~!" giggled True Leshy as he then kept firing his arrows from his [Yewfelle] while his [Sylvan Soldiers] swarmed the newcomers.
As the rescue raged on, Ogmios and Agatha begin making plans of their own, with the [Memory Magic] user using his powers to telepathically connect with his hated enemy to come up with said plan.
So, he spoke with his mind, ... you figured out that the god is treating this whole affair like some sort of game?
I'm more surprised that he didn't turn Demon a while back, Agatha replied. So you suggesting that I use my [Blood Magic] to cut ourselves free?
Your grimoire is being sandwiched between us, but my switchblade is still open and against your palm, he replied. On my mark, I cut your hand and you use that bleeding to cut ourselves free. You know how to use magic without spells, right?
A few, she replied. Try as I might, I am not as loved by mana compared to the elves.
A single swipe to cut through these vines would do, Ogmios remarked. No need to get fancy.
The two then agree to this plan as Ogmios moves his hand holding his switchblade closer towards the Witch Queen's palm.
Before we start, I must ask, she remarked, why now?
... Really, it's because of boss, he replied. Don't get me wrong, I rather place this blade onto your throat, but then I realized, why take revenge now, when were in the world's biggest and only expanding Dungeon when I can simply take revenge after all of this is over?
Fair enough, she replied as Ogmios then cuts her palm open, allowing her ichor to transform into a cutting crescent that undoes their vines and frees her grimoire. As they both fell, she then casts [Massacre Exsanguination] to summon forth a murder of blood crows to safely get herself and Ogmios down and back to the others.
"Welcome back," Cissonius greeted the two before roundhouse kicking a [Sylvan Soldier] aside. "Sorry if I couldn't save ye two meself."
"Think nothing of it," Agatha remarked as she dodged another arrow before sending her crows to peck away at the god, only for the latter to retreat into the trees before hocking a chestnut (size of a stone) at them, which its burrs exploded into a storm of shrapnel that takes out every single crow within its blast radius. "We at least spoiled the god's fun."
"Peh, hardly," shrugged True Leshy. "In fact, the fun's just getting started!"
The god then manifests William's grimoire, to which Cissonius tries to steal it with his magic, only for his hands to claim a chestnut.
"CRAP!" he then throws it away as everyone takes cover before the burrs explode once again. Upon opening his eyes, Cissonius then sees his hands get impaled with spikes again, much to his dread and annoyance. "DAMMIT!"
"That trick's starting to get old, sticky-fingers, so a time-out is warranted," taunted True Leshy as more arms grew out of his back. "[World Tree Enchantment Magic: Valhalla]!"
The [Sylvan Soldiers] are then glowing with a bright green aura that causes them to grow bigger, bulkier, and bestial in stature. Their armaments become more varied from their default briar-covered zweihänders, ranging from pikes covered with fungi puffing out its spores, axes with its chipped blades running with tree resin, and one of the Green Knight-lookalikes even went as far as to mutate to the point of gaining an additional pair of arms, each new weapon in hand, in addition to now bearing a morningstar flail with a barrel-sized durian fruit as is warhead.
"... Okay, did not see that coming," the god commented on one of them mutants morphing more than it should've. "A welcome surprise regardless. KILL THEM ALL!"
The now-[Superior Sylvan Soldiers] led by their mutant [Sylvan Sergeant] all pounced onto the group as the god provided supporting fire with his [Yewfelle].
"... Think you can use your [Grudge Tracer] to end this farce?" asked Agatha as she manifested her [Lifeblood Scythe] before fending off against the empowered clones.
"Comin' right up!" Ogmios then fires the magical arrow into the distance before dodging another's sword swing.
"PREDICTABLE!" True Leshy then parries the arrow with the back of his forearm before returning fire.
"FUCK!" cursed the [Memory Magic] user before he dodged the return fire before Cissonius tackles another clone behind him and forcibly takes the clone's sword and kills it.
"Guess we're doing this the old-fashioned way..." grimaced Makarov as he parried a flail swing with his scythe, "... again. Okay, I'm getting a distinct feeling that both the god and the Green Knight-!" he cut himself off to block several sword swings before unleashing a wave of black flames with his Relic in tandem of drawing out his [Belobog] from his chest, "... as I was saying, they're either trying to drive us mad with repetition or they're just unoriginal hacks!"
"Yeah, you got me," commented True Leshy as he fired another arrow from his [Yewfelle]. "Then again, it's working out so far, so why bother changing a good thing? I mean, look at you lot! YOU CAN BARELY MAKE A DENT-!"
Cernunnos and his dual Relics then cut off half of the [Sylvan Sergeant]'s arms before the flying spears embedded themselves into its neck, rotting it internally as it then collapsed under its own weight.
"Lead or no lead, as long as it needs water or nutrients, my dual Relics will rot it from within," the Fae declared before aiming his spears at the god.
The god then takes the thrusts as his body rotted into mulch, but shortly reappears from another tree with a new body.
"You know that-" spoke the True Leshy before he was rotted away and respawning, "that I am-" he was cut off again before respawning, "immortal-"
The third remnants of the god's physical vessel was splattered on the earth as the god reappeared with an enraged roar.
"WOULD YOU STOP DOING THAT?!" True Leshy threw a fit.
"So why didn't you do that sooner?!" asked Ogmios replied as he threw his [Ionróir] pendulum across the field, letting the razor's edge of his wires cut them through with great difficulty.
"I'm sorry, but you're not the only one dealing with severe emotional baggage!" Cernunnos replied as he kept swinging around his poisoned [Gae Dearg] and [Gae Buidhe] through the horde with greater ease. "AT LEAST YOU CAN LIVE WITH THE FACT THAT YOUR RACE WAS COMPLETELY AND SYSTEMATICALLY WIPED OUT AND SPARED FROM SURVIVOR'S GUILT!"
"WELL GOOD FOR YOU!" the [Memory Magic] user barked back before he slams his head into one of the [Superior Sylvan Soldiers], caving in their helmets at the cost of making his own head bleed and reopening a few stitches in the process. "SON OF A-!"
Agatha rolled her eyes in annoyance as her [Lifeblood Scythe] broke against one of the clones before switching to a defensive position. "... Oh all the people I have to die with, of course one of you has to be you, #063105."
"I'LL GET THE ARROWS AWAY FROM US!" Letoile shouted as she then used her [Compass Magic] to redirect the rain of arrows from True Leshy's [Yewfelle] and back at him and his [Superior Sylvan Soldiers], only for them to instead, become further empowered while the god simply caught the arrows back, with some of the fodder mutating into [Sylvan Sergeants] in the process. "... I'll keep the arrows away from everyone present hereon."
"GUD TE KNOW!" Cissonius remarked as he swung his stolen rusted sword at the shambling horde, shattering it upon impact and leaving him to fight with the stump.
Autonomous Invasive Ecosystem, [The Forest of Denial]
Time Remaining Until Continental Assimilation:
5 Hours, 56 minutes, 12 seconds
"Come on, not again..." groaned David as he got up with the help of Aengus.
"Hey, at least it's not the first time we got lost, right?" the white-haired girl nervously chuckled.
"It's already getting old, I'd tell you what," Salim grimaced before he picked himself up. "... So, uh, I kinda overheard your dad being actually called 'Malacoda' and him being something about him being part of the 'Ten Tyrants'... and given that Mudo was practically nerdgasming at the mention of it along with gods and Archangels, with the latter confirming that he'd forgiven him... what's going on?"
Moccus looks towards the side, avoiding eye contact. "... We'd rather not talk about it."
Dorothy shrugs. "Share it later, I suppose," she then looked around their surroundings, trying to grasp where they are right now. "... Great, it's just us nearby."
Everyone groans at this little detail.
"... What do we do now?" asked David. "We're being chased down by a crazed god in forest that is constantly expanding, and an immortal Fae knight is the whole lynchpin of this whole operation! We're all fucked! FUCKED, I TELL YOU!"
"... Mister David Swallow?" spoke Aengus.
"Yes?" he replied before he was slapped across his face.
"We're not dead yet," she replied. "So the least we can do before we throw the towel is to find the others again."
Dorothy then closes her eyes before touching the ground. "... Yep, no [Dream Magic] influencing this plane of existence now," she confirmed. "At least getting back with the others won't be as arduous."
Salim then looks across the forest to spot movement. "... Okay, so there's something moving up ahead," he pointed out. "Either that's an enemy or one of our own. So, do we take our chances or just hide?"
"Everyone, hide," Dorothy ordered as she then grabbed everyone by their hands before teleporting them into her [Dream Magic]'s pocket space.
Once all five of them enter into the white void, the Witch then opens a peephole to spot three [Sylvan Soldiers] wandering in where the five of them were originally at.
"... Okay, not our friends," Salim remarked. "... Then again, our squabbling must've attracted them."
"Anyone know how to actually defeat them?" asked David. "... Captain Dorothy, can you use your [Dream Magic] to defeat them?"
"... You do know that I can only send them floating in the infinite recess of my mental space only for so long, right?" she answered. "My magic is powerful as an on-demand pocket space is, but after getting my brain fucked by a forest god, I'm starting to become a little more selective on what I put into my brain."
"What about eating up the plant parts?" Aengus asked Moccus.
"Can, but what's stopping the god from replacing them with more lead?" the talking pig replied. "Sure that makes them even slower, but they hit and become harder in the process! Only Cernunnos's dual Relics can actually take them down!"
Salim mumbles to himself before coming up with an idea. "... Maybe we don't need to fight them, head-on at least," he pointed out. "... Maybe, we can... I don't know... hit-and-run them?"
Everyone thinks over that suggestion before coming to an agreement.
"... Seems likely," David nodded. "Damn, living without my confidence is crippling."
"If it helps, just throw your [Gambler's Fallacy] spell around," Aengus suggested. "Even if it lands on a low roll, it still does something."
"And if I recall, you have other low-risk-return spells like [Grateful Dice] and [Spiteful Dice], right?" Salim pointed out. "Maybe having enough power-ups might help us punch through the lead armor that these guys are wearing."
"... Huh," David remarked. "... Never thought of that until now."
"... Wow, having your confidence sucked out of you did a number on him," Moccus commented. "Anyhoo, now that we have a plan, who wants a first swing at those creeps?"
Everyone then looks at Moccus.
"... What?" the pig remarked. "LEAD TASTES DISGUSTING! NOT EVEN THE LOWEST OF PIGS WOULD EVER-"
In a span of a few short seconds, Moccus was then thrown out of Dorothy's pocket space in tandem with David's [Grateful Dice] and [Spiteful Dice], both of which each lands facing up four pips. In the next instant, the talking pig then bowls through all of the present [Sylvan Soldiers] like a cannonball, shattering through their weakened defenses as the others come out to finish them off.
"[Lightning Creation Magic: Holy Banner of Victory, Excelling Salim]!" the penal [Silver Eagle] than plans a lighting war standard on the lying plant-knight, breaking through its fractured leaden armor and toasting all of its insides.
"[DICE MAGIC: GAMBLER'S FALLACY]!" David then throws an array of exploding dices that takes out the rest of the group.
"Good work everyone!" Aengus gave the three of them a thumbs-up. "Even though Salim's spells are a mouthful, it still worked thanks to David's dice!"
"... I'll take that a as a compliment," Salim remarked before a question then popped into her head. "... Just curious, but what is your magic again?"
"... Uh... [Light Magic]?" she answered. "I mean, it's pretty slow for my attribute, and I never fought a single day in my life... mostly because of Dagda."
"Figured," sighed Dorothy. "... We should probably go before we get jumped again-"
Right before she can finish her sentence, an axe dripping with tree resin was then thrown towards her from the brushes, nearly taking her head off as it then landed into the tree behind her.
"Crap, they were waiting for us!" David panicked as even more [Sylvan Soldiers] emerged from the surrounding flora and dropping from atop of the branches.
"WE NEED TO BAIL!" Dorothy remarked as she then tried to open her grimoire, only for its pages to not open itself due to the resin flung by the throwing axe that glued her grimoire shut. "OH FUCK ME!" she cursed as she then dodged a sword swing at the cost of her hat before the rest of the clones began their engagement.
"AENGUS! EMERGENCY FOOD! GIVE ME A RIDE!" ordered Salim as he then took his [Holy Banner of Victory, Excelling Salim] as his weapon before piggybacking behind the white-haired girl and her pig as the three then maneuvered around the shambling swings of the [Sylvan Soldiers] surrounding them.
"AHH! WE NEED TO GET OUT OF THIS AMBUSH!" Dorothy remarked as she jumped over a clone while her grimoire slowly reopened as the resin began to wear off. "Thank god that the adhesion is not permanent..."
"HANG ON!" David cried out as he then opened his grimoire. "[DICE MAGIC: SPITEFUL DICE-"
From behind, his casting arm was then grabbed by one of the clones before said arm was forcibly bent the other way, snapping his elbow up to the point where his bone protruded through his flesh and skin, forming a sharp point as it was then shoved into his mouth and out the back of his head before he could so much as scream.
In the next second, David Swallow was then devoured by the horde as the majority of the [Sylvan Soldiers] all began beating and stabbing him to his death with their blunt-edged and jagged weapons.
"Oh my god..." Dorothy panicked at the gruesome sight.
"CAPTAIN, WE NEED TO BAIL! NOW!" Salim cried out.
Reluctantly, Dorothy abandons David to his fate, joining the others in their retreat. Once the [Sylvan Soldiers] confirm of the Golden Dawn's disposal as evident of his grimoire disintegrating into dust, the horde then gives chase, pursing them as a relentless, if shambling and clumsy horde.
Upon gaining enough of a distance, Salim then gets off of Moccus's back as he then runs alongside with Captain Dorothy, leaving Aengus as the pig's sole burden.
"Okay, so we learned that they're kinda slow, but their sheer numbers make them enough of a reason to not stop running!" Salim pointed out as even more of the aforementioned clones begin dropping down from above the branches like loose pinecones. "Not to mention, THEY'RE FUCKING EVERYWHERE!"
"Even worse, we can't sense them through mana!" Dorothy remarked as she tried to differentiate this Dungeon's and each individual [Sylvan Soldiers]'s mana as the latter appeared literally out of the woodworks, only for her to find absolutely no difference to begin with. "I FREAKING HATE MANA CAMOUFLAGE!"
"I think is what Dagda meant by FUBAR!" Moccus squealed out as he continued to carry Aengus on his back. "AENGUS! IT'S NOW OR NEVER! YOU HAVE TO USE YOUR MAGIC!"
"BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW TO!" she replied as she ducked under a [Sylvan Soldier]'s thrown javelin that landed behind her. "DAGDA NEVER TAUGHT ME HOW TO FIGHT!"
"IN ULSTER OF ALL PLACES?!" Salim pointed out. "DID HE REALLY KEEP YOU THAT SHELTERED ALL THIS TIME?!"
Aengus nodded fearfully. "... Daddy always protected me," she remarked as the newly-spawned [Sylvan Soldiers] joined in with the rest of the stampede behind the four of them. "He was always so sure that I don't need to defend myself as long as he was around... it's as if he didn't want me to fight... even if I was born in a land where we do nothing but fight..."
"Okay, so from what you're saying, I might have two guesses one why," Dorothy surmised. "First is that you're basically born as the 'runt' of the litter, and Dagda has brought to himself to protect you from literally all harm, with this whole [Forest of Denial] putting a massive speedbump on that little note."
"That might be a maybe," Moccus commented. "But she's not suffering from any deficiencies to her overall constitution, so that can't be entirely it."
"Then here's my next wishful thinking," the Witch Captain continued. "... She might be hiding some deep, deep shit that Dagda doesn't want the whole world to find out, so keeping her cloister with ignorance and a tavern staffed by the strongest of Ulster's warriors that he can trust is his method of mitigation. What he's hiding from literally everyone, it could be just about anything!"
"Wait, so you're saying that I might some secret powers that I might not know about?!" Aengus remarked. "Just what could it be that is so important that it needs to be hidden from the rest of the world-?!"
"INCOMING!" Salim screamed out as a giant chestnut the size of a large boulder dropped from above before its burrs exploded outwards, spraying a storm of spikes that everyone leapt away from its blast radius.
As everyone scrambled to get back up, even more [Sylvan Soldiers] dropped down to where they were, all of them shambling towards where they all laid at, brandishing their arms to finish them off.
"Come on... come on... open!" Dorothy then tried to force the sticky grimoire to open back up.
"SON OF A-!" Salim screamed as he pulled out an arrow-sized burr out of his knee. "Gonna be feeling that to next week-AENGUS!"
Everyone then sees the white-haired girl being surrounded by the Green Knight's clones as the latter group shambled towards them. Moccus, seeing this, gets up and sprints towards her to protect her.
"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HER YOU OVERGROWN CONVERSATION PIECES-!" the talking pig was then unceremoniously punted aside like a child's ball as Aengus trembled while all of the Green Knight-clones then raised their weapons.
"... No... please..." she whimpered as her heart beat wildly like an animal that is about to die. "DADDY!"
Then, within that one second before her demise, a milky-white glow radiates from her body, suddenly her own mana signature spiking to a critical point that her body began suffering through so much agony that whatever the [Sylvan Soldiers] were about to do to her was preferable. Aengus screams with great pain clutching her very soul, letting out a cry that is akin to an angel being raped by the foulest of devils.
In the next instant, the surrounding [Sylvan Soldiers] began to disintegrate within the engulfing light, expanding further outwards and devouring everything within the group's sight, forcing them to cover their eyes lest they all went blind.
Eventually, the screaming subsides, followed up with an audible thud-sound that the others have heard. Slowly opening their eyes, the three now find themselves scarce of any enemies, with only Aengus now lying face-flat on the ground, her neck and arms sporting fresh burns on her once-immaculate skin.
"... Okay, so theory number two is more or less likely," Dorthy remarked as she got up and helped up Aengus and laid her onto Moccus's back. "... And said power actually hurts her. Good to know."
"Ah! Hot hot hot hot hot!" squealed Moccus as Aengus's burns seared onto his skin. "They're still fresh! Lay her the other way so she doesn't suffocate while toasting me!"
Salim then gets up as his war standard made of his own [Lightning Magic] dissipates. "... Well, at least the worst is over for now," he commented as he joined Captain Dorothy along with Moccus carrying Aengus on his back. "Come on, we really should get a move on-"
Then before they can even think about leaving, an entire row of trees behind them were uprooted by an unknown force followed up by a pair of screams.
"... Me and my big mouth," sighed Salim as he and the others turned around. "So who's the asshole this time-"
A surge of malevolent intent floods the whole area that they were in, forcing everyone who felt this sensation for the first time to buckle down to their knees. From where once the trees stood emerged Jericho and Corrin, the former now having a draconic-looking arm that looked way too big (even for him) while the latter had a rusted sword floating around her.
"YOU GUYS?!" Jericho exclaimed. "WHAT ARE YOU STANDING AROUND FOR?! GET THE FUCK OUT-!"
The malevolent presence presents itself in full view, with Ishtar's demonic form intensifying to all that bore witness to her.
"... We're dead," gulped Dorothy before she saw Corrin and Jericho. "... So, what's the story?"
"Found rusted sword, belonged to a hero, cut his arm cut off, he became part-[Dragon], Demon wants our new shit, and is now trying to kill us for it," Corrin summarized the abridged version of their ordeals.
"... It's one thing after another, nonstop," winced Salim. "... I'm getting really sick of this shit."
"Spare me your tears, I have no desire to kill those I have no use for," commented Ishtar as she eyed on her new prospects. "... A [Dream Magic] user and... *sniff* ... another mixed blood with chthonic origins? Wait, no, celestial-egads, my nose is not up to form today..."
"What is she talking about?!" Moccus commented.
"You know what, I'll cut right to the chase," the Demon then turned her head towards Dorothy while offhandedly deflecting Corrin and Jericho's attacks by flicking more yul bullions at them akin to high-velocity ballistics. "... How much are you willing to part your [Dream Magic] with? I'll let you name the price."
Dorothy, even if she were faced down with a Demon, could not abide by this blatantly-one-sided transaction proposal. "... Pry it from my cold, dead, hands, you bitch."
Ishtar smirks as she dodged Corrin's swing from her floating [Hrunting] and then Jericho's [Dragon]-gauntlet's punch. "Hilarious," she deadpanned as she then manifests a giant dice the size of a cottage floating above her. "Mr. David Swallow's soul said the exact same thing just a few seconds before I literally bought it off of him."
Then all sides of the die then turn into sixes.
"[Gauge Enchantment Magic: Insider Trading]," she declared before tossing the stolen/"bought-off" [Dice Magic: Gambler's Fallacy-Double Down] spell.
"RUN!" Salim screamed as the giant dice rigged to all sixes was then thrown into the air.
But just before the dice landed, Corrin then directs her [Hrunting] to slice the cube in twain right before Jericho punches the halves into pieces with a single connecting blow with his gigantic [Dragon]-arm's sheer bulk and weight supplementing its regular striking power. The pieces of the shattered spell all then explode into a cluster of blasts.
"Captain, Salim, pig," Corrin spoke as she willed the rusted Relic back to her side. "Don't bother fighting her. At best, all we can do is hold her off while you guys run."
Hesitantly, Dorothy looked back at the ex-Golden Dawn and the Black Bull, realizing that right now, as much as she'd want to help, her defanged/no-imagination [Dream Magic] would only be a hinderance at best, and a possible boon for the enemy at worst. "... Right," she replied in bated breath. "... Good luck. I'll keep the girl safe."
"It's useless," declared Ishtar as she now had her eyes locked onto both the fleeing Dorothy and Aengus. "ALL THAT I DESIRE SHALL EVENTUALLY BE MINE!"
As the Demoness lunges, Corrin and Jericho obstruct her charge long enough for the rest to make an attempt to escape the lioness of [Greed]'s ever-reaching grasp.
Autonomous Invasive Ecosystem, [The Forest of Denial]
Time Remaining Until Continental Assimilation:
5 Hours, 54 minutes, 34 seconds
"Oww..." groaned Mudo as she found herself landed atop of what remained on her mobile hangar. "... I think I broke a few bones."
"... Don't care," Nozel dryly remarked as he cut himself free from the vines that caught his ankles.
"How the fuck did I end up flying with you guys?!" Danu remarked as she scrambled from atop of the branches that broke her fall before falling off, landing with a thumping tremor. "Seriously! I was holding on and everything!"
"That's my doing," Brigid raised her hand before popping out of the bushes. "... I literally used [Wild Nature's Release] as a base mechanism and applied my own [Anima Magic] to propel you alongside with us."
"Why?!" the female golem replied.
"My guess, to keep you away from the Green Knight using your body as another suit of armor. Again," Lugh replied, now emerging in his emaciated form. "... Blast. Out of juice already."
The golem groans as she rolls herself up into a ball. "... Well I didn't choose to be born this way!" she bemoaned. "Nor I never knew that plants liked me that much!"
Everyone then gathers around with Brigid acting as a lookout.
"... So," Nozel then glanced towards Lugh. "You mind explaining what your ladyship has lost?"
"She lost about half of her spells that came attached with her entire [Animus] side," explained the [Solar Magic] user. "Then again, she had many to begin with, so I suppose it's not that crippling."
"I still don't like it though," commented the artificial spirit as she kept survey of her surroundings. "All of that work that took centuries, gone down the drain. Surely, even a soulless bastard like you can empathize."
Nozel remains silent for a moment before replying. "No. I don't."
"Whatever," she grumbled before returning to her survey.
"Still though, I'm kinda freaked out that I took the decommissioning of my custom FAMAS really well," Mudo pointed out. "I mean, that was also my life's work and I just dismissed it as junk."
"Because it is," Nozel commented.
"Fuck you too," Mudo continued. "... But! I won't let that stop me! I'll learn to fight without my baby and with my own powers! Screw using a Relic the size of a large armor as a crutch!"
"Can you afford to?" Nozel pointed out.
"I dunno, can you afford not being a total dick for a whole minute?!" Mudo shot back as the two began staring each other down with hostile intent.
"Ugh, THAT'S ENOUGH!" Danu then slammed her fist into the ground, causing it to tremor hard enough to separate the two. "Either kill each other now or do it later! Because now is not the fucking time!"
Nozel grumbles. "... Fine," he remarked. "I'll not sully my hands with the blood of some outlander barbarian playing the role of a mechanic."
"I got better shit to do then just castrate some spoiled nobleman," Mudo then spat to the side before walking back into the scrapped mobile hangar.
"And already the group is falling apart at the seams..." sighed Lugh. "... This has to be deliberate on part of the Green Knight's [Memory] powers. Distracting us with more mental burdens to slowly grind us down to nothing."
"A sadist's paradise, indeed," Brigid commented as she kept her senses anchored to the ground. "... No movement but us so far. Still, remaining vigilant."
Having nothing else to do, Lugh then walks into where Mudo had cloistered herself within, spotting the girl tinkering with spare parts of the [TROY] and [JET Option] while taking glances at her now-chipped dagger made from [Gae Bolg]'s spare spearhead. Laid out around the spare parts, tools, and other stuff was a sheet of paper detailing the FAMAS's schematics.
"So, what are you trying to do?" he asked.
"Making something that I can use to turn this whole quagmire around," she replied. "All natural methods save for a few is something that the Green Knight can easily assimilate and repurpose into its advantage. Need something manmade to counteract that little caveat."
"I see," Lugh spoke as he leaned in closer to the blueprint. "... Looking at it closer, I am impressed how you Libratians came up with this contraption in such a short time."
"Oh geez... it wasn't that easy," she sheepishly replied. "... Truth is, we kinda mashed together various autonomous spells into a single mobile frame and just fine-tuned it from there."
"Oh pray tell, where have you based it off from?" he asked.
"Oh just a couple old blueprints dating back to the Golden Age of Magic, written in Dwarven text, translated the whole-ass language and some other stuff here and there," she continued as she tried to mull her current options on what to do with her spare parts. "Dunno how they all ended up down in the Catacombs, but really, during the Reign of Terror, literally everything that came washed up from the sluices were valuable as our lives."
"... I see-wait a minute," he interrupted himself. "... Did you say Dwarven?"
"... Uh, yes I did?" she remarked.
"As in, war golems?!" he continued.
Mudo goes catatonic for two seconds before the proverbial bell inside her headspace rung in realization. "Oooohhh, I see now!" she grinned wildly before running out of the hangar. "DANU! GET YOUR FAT ASS OVER HERE! I GOT A PLAN!"
"MY BUTT ISN'T THAT FAT!" the golem remarked upsettedly before looking at herself and then at Nozel. "... Is it?"
"It's sagging," the braided man deadpanned.
"Asshole," she then went towards where Mudo was calling towards her. "Yes, what is it?"
Both Lugh and Mudo then pushed the [JET Option] closer towards her. "... You mind trying this on?" requested the girl. "I mean, I think we might all be going nuts, but at this point, what've we got to lose?"
"Uhh, sure," shrugged the golem as she the picked up the folded-up jetpack. "... So how do you put this on?"
"On your back," instructed Mudo as she then turned her back before touching the tips of her fingers to each other behind it. "You're flexible enough, right?"
Danu struggles to reach her hands and the [JET Option] behind her back. "... Nope."
"Alright, Plan B," Lugh spoke. "Danu, lay on your belly. We're gonna put it on for you."
The golem does the following as Mudo and Lugh get out of the hangar and runs towards the [JET Option] set next to the giant girl. The two of them then pick it up, only for them run into a problem.
"How are we supposed to get up to her back?" asked Lugh. "... Even if she's laid down flat, she's too tall to climb up!"
"YOU ARE CALLING ME FAT!" Danu remarked.
"We need extra hands," Mudo pointed out as she and Lugh gently set down the folded up contraption. "Brigid is too busy keeping lookout while Danu's not the most nimble..."
"Leaving only... him," Mudo groaned as she walked up towards Nozel. "... You mind helping us?"
"No," he replied.
"Let me try," she then walks up towards the Silver Eagles's Captain and kicks him in the nads so fast that he didn't have the time to react with a spell, downing him in an instant before she mounted on top of him with her knife drawn and set against his crotch and her foot stamped down on Nozel's grimoire, preventing it from being opened. "Help us, or I castrate you one testicle at a time!"
"How are you doing this?!" Lugh remarked.
"I was conducting covert operations for the Resistance during the Reign of Terror while sick, walking with crutches, and assassinating Zogratis-hired goons and jailers alike while limping!" she explained as she pressed the knife's edge closer to Nozel's balls. "I only said that my broken bones hurt. Never I've stated that they ever slowed me down."
"... And here I thought you were nothing more than a burden without your precious FAMAS," Nozel gritted his teeth.
"That only applies to monsters and the forest life surrounding us," Mudo clarified. "Against a human whose head is so far up their asses that they can't smell their own merde, easy pickings. Before Libratum's Revolution, I was one of Spymaster Luciel Rosengarten's field operators. Don't, fuck, with me."
"If you're threatening me, then why not my throat?" Nozel coolly pointed out, not bothered at the prospects of losing his balls.
"Blood's harder to clot at a point of articulation," she replied. "That, and I prefer to deliver fates worse than death, since for someone as prideful as you, death is above wanting the likes you."
Nozel snorts in amusement at this girl's sudden bloodlust hidden behind her mousey and bookish exterior. "... Fine," he smirked bemusedly. "I'll help."
One of his mercurial tendrils then grabs onto the [JET Option] before throwing it into the air.
"WHAT THE?!" Lugh remarked.
"There's a saying: 'never bite the hand that feeds you'," the Captain remarked as he laid still. "You said help, but you never specified how."
Mudo then immediately get off of Nozel and runs towards where the [JET Option] was about to drop towards. But rather than break into pieces upon impact, the jetpack then squarely lands right on Danu's back, perfectly fitting its connection jack into her body.
"... Damn, I was hoping that it would break," muttered Nozel.
"IT WORKS!" Mudo cheered.
"DANU!" Lugh cried out. "ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!"
"Eh, I'm feeling okay now," the golem replied as she got back up before looking around her shoulder. "... Huh, it fits-"
Then the [JET Option] unfolds itself, revealing its wings as the chest and waist around the nude golem was then covered up with a magical platings of armor that transformed her into a semi-covered female knight with wings of steel.
"... That's not in the original specs," Mudo pointed out. "Why are the wings even bigger than it originally was?"
"You mentioned something about basing the FAMAS off of Dwarven schematics, correct?" Brigid spoke out as she then scanned the modified Danu. "... Indeed, you literally copied about 95% of the original war golems's specs when constructing the FAMAS, meaning that all of Libratium's FAMAS tech are reverse-compatible with a first-gen war golem like Danu."
Nozel blinked before mentally comparing Danu and a FAMAS. "... Just how are they similar?!"
"Look, it's clear that it's working, so don't question it, lest it stops working," Mudo growled out.
Brigid then opens her eyes as she removed herself from the ground. "I DETECT MOVEMENT!" she confirmed. "ENEMIES APPROACHING FROM ALL SIDES!"
"How many?" asked Lugh as everyone else readied themselves for a fight.
"TRY A THOUSAND!" Brigid cried out as the [Sylvan Soldiers] emerged from the brushes from all sides.
"Okay, screw this!" Danu then picks up the [TROY Option] before scooping up everyone else into her arms. "We're out of here!"
"Do you even know how to fly?!" Nozel pointed out.
"ONE WAY TO FIND OUT!" the [JET Option] mounted on her back then fired up all of its verniers before she then took off the ground and successfully avoided the mob of Green Knight clones. "HELL YEAH! I'M FLYING-"
In the next instant, she immediately going facefirst into the compound canopy, her mouth stuffed to the brim with leaves and sticks before breaking out of the shade, greeted by the open sky with its shining sun. As the light enters their eyes after a long time, everyone then takes a moment to look at the world outside, and sees nothing but trees as far as their eyes could see towards the horizon.
"... My gods," Lugh gasped at the sight. "... The Green Knight wasn't exaggerating. It's an ocean of trees out here! THERE'S NOTHING BUT TREES FOR BEYOND THIS WORLD'S END!"
Nozel began to look around to see if there's anything besides said heaven-reaching trees. "... That prose aside, I am also perturbed by this sight."
"Even still, the fact that both the god and the Fae stated that the [Forest of Denial] is 'still expanding' means that it hasn't completely devoured the whole continent just yet," Brigid pointed out as she then took out her crystal ball Relic, [Anbhair] to see if she can get a signal. "... Shit! No signal! Mana surge is still too dense!"
Danu then spits out the leaves and sticks that were in her mouth before sniffing the air. "... Guys, this may be just me, but I'm smelling something super-rank coming from that way!"
Everyone then looked towards where the golem was pointing at, and noticed that even though faint, the density of the trees from a certain direction was less that of the rest of the forest's.
"... We should investigate," Nozel suggested. "The enemy are less likely to follow us there if the lowered number of trees are any indication."
Danu nods before flying off towards said area where the trees are less densely packed. As they approached closer, the passengers began to feel nauseous as the putrid smell grew ever closer.
"... Okay, that's not regular gross-out smell," Brigid remarked as she then took out her Relic to get the reading on what the air is composed of. "... Oh shit! DANU! ABORT FLIGHT PATH! THERE'S METHANE IN THE AIR-!"
One of the verniers combust before exploding from the flammable air, causing Danu to slowly descent from her flight path and crash through the canopy, stuffing her mouth full of leaves once again.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'METHANE'?!" Nozel cried out through the leaves. "AND WHAT KIND OF NATURAL PHENOMENA PRODUCES SUCH THING?!"
Everyone screams as they all came crashing back down onto the forest floor, bumping into tree after tree until landing right on top of True Leshy and several of his [Superior Sylvan Soldiers] and [Sylvan Sergeants], with Danu's bulk crushing some of them, but to said golem, it was the equivalent of faceplanting into a field of gravel.
Ogmios, Agatha, Makarov, Letoile, Rinaldo, Cernunnos, and Cissonius were all present to witness this crash that had taken out a fair majority of their opposition.
"... Nice of you all to drop in," Ogmios remarked as he axe-kicked a [Superior Sylvan Soldier]'s head in. "Mind helping us?"
Danu then spits out all the leaves that went into her mouth. "... Give me a minute," she remarked as she gently let down her passengers while purging her now-broken [JET Option] from her body while holding tight onto her [TROY Option]. "I think I got a few things stuck on my back."
She the turns around, and finds numerous Green Knight clone-mutants squashed on her skin like bugs, with half of them twitching in place, with True Leshy found all bent out of shape and his [Yewfelle] snapped in two.
"... Screw... you," cursed the god as his vessel then fell onto the dirt before submerging back in before returning with a new body. "AND HOW THE HELL DID YOU COME DOWN FROM UP THERE?!"
"... Not telling," Mudo remarked as she then slashed through one of the damaged clones with her dagger.
"The enemy is weak," Nozel then unleashed his [Silver Arsenal] upon the broken horde. "No mercy."
"Combine [Earth] and [Fire]..." muttered Brigid as she then prepared her next spell while dodging the swings of the numerous [Sylvan Soldiers], "... and [Wind] as method... GOT IT! EVERYONE CLEAR OUT OR GET BURNED!"
Everyone then gets behind the artificial spirit as her hand then conjures up a spiral of searing sands before whipping out into a superheated-sandstorm, setting all the clones ablaze and melting their leaden components at the same time.
"Clear," Brigid remarked. "I suggest we make a run for it before enemy reinforcements arrive."
"Works for me!" Danu agreed. "Can someone get these things off of me?!"
"I remember you having a warhammer, war golem," Agatha remarked as she then summons a murder of blood crows to get by. "Tell me that you didn't lose it."
"She did, you dingus!" Ogmios climbed atop of one of the blood-crows as the Witch Queen took off elsewhere, leaving the rest to follow after her.
"Everyone, stay together to avoid being picked off!" Letoile ordered. "Sir Makarov, Sir Cissonius, please be my eyes and ears to aid me!"
"Rite, keep de pack together," the [Snatch Magic] user nodded. "... Suddenly, I'm de shepherd ratha den stealin' sheep."
Makarov rolled his eyes as he saw both cases of Nozel and Mudo showing hostilities towards each other while Ogmios went out of his way to make the Witch Queen's life a living hell. "... We're barely functioning as a group as is."
"You noticed as well?" Lugh deadpanned.
The combined two groups then successfully make a retreat from their encasement as True Leshy then gives chase through the treetops. "You guys seem to keep forgetting..."
The god then turns his entire arm into a copy of his [Yewfelle] spell.
"... THAT I'M AT HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE!" he then nocks several arrows across the bowstring before pulling back and unleashing a multishot towards the group's backs.
Letoile then uses her [Compass Magic] to redirect the arrows to land elsewhere and uses said compass as a shield to cover their backs, its spinning needle controlling all incoming vectors to move out of their way. "Enemy is within pursuit range," she remarked coolly. "High levels of caution is advised."
"Can someone put this thing on my back?!" Danu asked as she tried to reach [TROY Option] onto where [JET Option] had inserted itself into.
"I freaking hate that magic, shutting down all forms of brute force..." growled True Leshy as he then signaled the leftover [Sylvan Soldiers] sent to the area where the metal box/hangar was at to come over to where he was right now. "... Alright, so gonna have to shut her down first by outwitting her."
True Leshy begins concocting his plans to take out Letoile while digging through his stolen grimoire for options.
Separating them ain't gonna work, ambushes will result in a stalemate which will buy her time to prepare countermeasures, come on, think dammit! the god cursed to himself until he hit upon an idea. ... Maybe I can outsource her demise to her.
As he and his [Sylvan Soldiers] gave chase to the fleeing group, he begins to frisk around the whole forest for the "uninvited guest"/Ishtar to counter Letoile's [Compass Magic].
"Soon as I find her and both groups inevitably collide..." True Leshy mused to himself as he began remotely manipulating the paths of the forest to intertwine at a certain point, "then I can give a small push her towards a certain someone that's been a bane to my existence. Meanwhile, I should probably get my Plan C into motion..."
The forest god's mind got to work executing its countless machinations to turn the whole Dungeon into a mass grave.
Autonomous Invasive Ecosystem, [The Forest of Denial]
Time Remaining Until Continental Assimilation:
5 Hours, 48 minutes, 54 seconds
The Zogratis siblings then find themselves staring before the preteen elf trapped in an adult human male's body, who was currently healing his injuries with his [Healing Light Particles] spell.
"... Wow," Vanica remarked. "Just the three of us and things have already gotten awkward."
"Curious, but how does feel having your bloodlust removed while still being evil?" asked Patry as he kept his first-aid up.
"Oddly clear-headed, but now I feel as if my evil no longer has an... outlet to release said impulse," the [Blood Magic] user remarked. "... Okay, the impulse itself is completely gone. Do you know how it feels to not want to skin someone alive after doing for... my whole damn life?"
"You still get turned on by it though, don't you?" asked Zenon, only for his sister to look away even more awkwardly. "... Oh god, you can't be serious."
"I tried, I really did!" she faux/semi-sobbed. "I feel like I lost a fundamental piece of my own identity! I'm nothing but a normie!"
Vanica began actually sobbing with Zenon comforting her as Patry watched even more awkwardly. "... Yeah, I'm gonna avoid that little landmine."
Then the bushes next to them part, revealing Bizon who was now staring at this bizarre spectacle of a genuinely repentant Zogratis bawling her eyes out. "... Hello everyone," he greeted flatly. "I followed the sounds of crying."
"Good to know," Zenon replied. "... So we're lost again?"
"A favored tactic of our jailers," he nodded before pivoting his heel. "Come now. The enemy is always vigilant. I advise doing the same."
The four (including the still-crying Vanica) traverse through the forest floor once more. As they walked, the four/three began to converse.
"... So," asked Bizon. "Feel any different?"
"I can ask you the same thing," Zenon replied.
"My mind also clear like Vanica's," the Inquisitor replied. "But unlike her's, my rage and dogma against your family and kind... blinded me to the bigger picture. Destroying evil is not always about destroying evil that falls into my sights. It also means to destroy evil that I cannot see with my own eyes."
"... Yourself?" asked Zenon.
"Don't we all," Patry agreed, feeling a tinge of shame of his time as "Licht" as he wondered whether ending up in Hell's crosshairs was worth it in the long run. "... Guess everyone has their own inner demons to fight. Or wholeheartedly embrace."
Bizon lets out a bitter chuckle. "... How ironic that in my quest to kill Demons, I almost become one myself if it weren't for Heracles beating the tar out of me as I did to him."
"... No fair," pouted Vanica as she'd stopped (mostly) crying.
"And that's my story," Bizon sighed wistfully before looking back at Zenon. "So what about you?"
"... I dunno," he answered. "... I feel... like I'm acting my physical age."
"So relearning old ground?" Patry remarked.
"No, more like..." he then pondered, "... like I no longer have to act like a Zogratis. Feels like... I'm finally free from their shadow."
"... Normally, I'd contest that with how much people you've killed in the past, but I'll simply add this to my evidence of your own family going out of their way to stamp out any 'good apples' within their ranks," Bizon remarked. "... 'Free from their shadow'... I won't lie, it has a nice ring to it."
"... Yeah, I guess having one less asshole to deal with is kind refreshing," shrugged Vanica before sniffing to herself. "Speaking less assholes to deal with, should the forest be crawling with bad guys after our heads?"
The four then look around their surroundings to see that the trees and brushes were eerily quiet, almost to the point where all life around them had gone up and died.
"... Is it wrong to say that I miss the plant monsters?" asked Vanica.
"Run," ordered Patry as everyone then broke off into a sprint, breaking through bush after bush until they came upon a mutilated corpse of a [Jabberwocky] hanging from the branches like a fresh kill.
"... Okay, take your bets," spoke Vanica. "Who's the culprit? I'm putting my pot on Cu."
"Roland," Patry raised his hand.
"I agree with my sister," nodded Zenon.
"Can we all focus?!" Bizon shouted before letting out a sigh. "... Roland."
"Ha!" Vanica snorted before the group then set forth, now following a trail of destroyed [Sylvan Soldiers] and more plant monsters that were mutilated in myriad of ways, leading towards an area becoming denser and thicker with foreign mana.
"... This is weird," Patry remarked. "The forest's mana is so dense that it just clouds over our own, right?"
"Indeed," affirmed Bizon. "Every time I tried to difference our own mana from our surroundings, and it feels as if I was being pressed under a mountain. Or being swallowed up by a giant beast."
"Then why does it feel as if this whole place is about to be uprooted?" asked Patry.
Everyone then stops in their tracks as they all began to feel for their surroundings.
"... Uh, what is this feeling?" asked Vanica as sweat began dripping from her brows.
"Feels like we're a bunch of birds flying into a thunderstorm..." Zenon remarked before gulping.
Bizon lets out a deep sigh to compose himself. "... We investigate," he spoke. "It's too dangerous for something this powerful to remain an unknown."
The four come to a reluctant consensus as they willed themselves to press forwards, walking over the corpses as the body count steadily increased. Broken lead cracked under their heels. Twigs and waxy stem alike squished themselves under their weight. The flat earth gradually inclined into that of a moderately-sized hill.
Eventually, the group finds Roland, standing atop a mountain of slain monsters and Green Knight clones, [Durandal] planted and rested in one hand, clutching the recently-slain [Syvlan Sergeant] by its snapped neck in the other. Around him, a gentle breeze stirred, but rather than a calming winds that one would find in a rural midday, it felt more akin to a calm before a world-ending storm, making the Paladin standing in the dead center of this scene of carnage less of a survivor of an ambush and more of a pissed-off god in human flesh who's ready to snap at any moment of disturbance.
"... Roland?" Vanica called out.
The Paladin's crazed intent to kill directs towards the four, causing them to recoil in horror at this once-irrelevant man's now-tempestously-enraged demeanor.
"Don't, call me, Roland," he growled. "... That is not my name."
"Then what are we supposed to call you?!" Patry pointed out.
"... I don't know," he replied. "... I now remember... everything... my real name... isn't Roland... written by someone... before me..."
"He's rambling," Zenon remarked. "... We should leave him be."
"Sound idea, but is it wise if we leave this unresolved?" Patry asked. "I mean, if you guys had left me to suffer a fate worse than death, would anything have been resolved?"
"... No," Zenon grumbled. "So leave no stone unturned?"
"Lest it blindsides us," the elf in human body then walks towards the nude Paladin standing atop of a mountain of corpses. "... So, your mind his also starting to show its lost remnants?"
"... Hell... different lands... an evil Dragon... so much blood..." he rambled.
"Please, let me help," Patry then began emulating Dorothy. "... Tell me everything."
With those words of affirmation, "Roland" calms down to relieve the pressure of their atmosphere.
"... I ended up in Hell... by own choice," he began to explain, "... held off a retreat... forgot to come back... long after the gates closed... fought the Dragon leading the Armageddon... I lost horribly."
"... But you survived, right?" Patry remarked, trying to calm him down.
"... Almost turned... into unspeakable evil... but light... saved me," he continued his recollection. "... Light faded... ended up at beach... people spoke... in language I'm not familiar with... found sword... broken in two... people repaired it... then eight-headed monster attacked village... I lost... again."
"Is it just me, or does this version of him have a bit of a losing streak?" Vanica pointed out in a whisper.
"Well, not everyone's born a winner," Zenon remarked.
"Went on a journey... to the mountain... with the rising sun... at peak... met woman of light... blessed my sword... went back down... slew the monster... saved everyone," the Paladin continued. "... Soon returned... went far... far north... faced evil Dragon... lost again... then black... and then... jail cell... with name 'Roland'... scratched on the wall."
"... And still, there's no name besides so?" asked Patry.
The Paladin shook his head. "... I'm sorry, but that's all I can remember," he apologized as the aura died down in tandem with his mind calming back down. "... It feels as if my real name is being... blocked off... by something... I don't understand."
"... So... until we like figure out what you're name is, can we call your 'Roland'?" asked Vanica.
"... Sure," he replied as he slid down from the pile of bodies. "... I mean, it's not like anyone else can help but myself, right?"
"... Actually, I know someone who can help," Bizon reassured. "Archangel Mikhael can."
"I'll take your word for it," the Paladin replied as he then sheathed his [Durandal]. "... So I just ask?"
"With a pleading heart, a lowered head, and a humbled mind," the Inquisitor answered. "He helps the meek and weak so that they may live."
"Wowsers. Kinda sounds like you're talking about him as you know him akin to a close friend," Vanica commented, to which Bizon simply smiled.
"Roland" nervously chuckles at that remark. "... For all my power, guess I still need help, don't I?"
"If there's a lesson to be learned, is that no one is an island," Patry remarked. "Living and dying alone sucks in equal measure."
"At least this shit's over and done with..." muttered Vanica. "And quicker than last time too."
As the five walked away from the corpse-laden clearing, a slight sounds of bubbling can be heard coming from below the pile.
The dirt poking through the carnage's aftermath began to seep out viscous, greenish fluids that slowly began decomposing the Paladin's casualties meant for the other four.
All of the bodies eventually then melted away into indistinguishable goo, the dissolved compounds leading to something sleeping below.
Something that only the god knows. But if one were to see through the green glows packed away within the dirt, one can easily imagine a lone tree bearing four fruits.
... And look from further away, the tree bore a resemblance to that of a great deer's antlers.
Autonomous Invasive Ecosystem, [The Forest of Denial]
Time Remaining Until Continental Assimilation:
5 Hours, 45 minutes, 9 seconds
"SON OF A-!" screamed Dagda as he was sent flying into a tree while Cu parried the next attack from the (Real) Green Knight with Archangel Mikhael flanking the latter.
The enraged Fae breaks off the engagement to avoid being pincered while invoking the land's memories withs its [Fae Arts: Memory], summoning a tangle of [Jabberwocky] from the earth to gorge at the three.
"NOT AGAIN!" Dagda then slashed through the wooden serpent monsters with his [Fragarach] while Cu skewered through several more with his [Gae Bolg]. "How many times are ye goin' te do sumthin' else, ye salty sprite?!"
"If it works, it works," the Green Knight retorted as he blocked the next attack coming from Mikhael's [Longinus], its tip still glowing hot red, indicating that he can't use his [Flare Magic] just yet. "... Typical of an Archangel, never losing cool in the face of such absurdity."
"I will not question why you are the way you are right now," the Archangel replied as he kept the Green Knight down. "Even if I can't kill you, I'll still find a way regardless!"
The Green Knight scoffs as it was then attacked from behind by Cu, whose thorny spear pierces through his leaden armor as Dagda then punches him with his [Counter Magic], shattering both the Fae and the Green Knight into paste.
"Okay, dat's like... wat?" the half-Demon remarked. "De tenth in a row?"
The Green Knight then resurrects itself from the earth brand-new. "Like I said, countless times before, you can't kill me."
"Geez, methinks he's sum sort of Highlander..." Cu growled.
"Even Lugh isn't dat persistent," Dagda pointed out, brandishing his short sword once more. "... Speakin' of, can ye like use yer [Rage Magic]?"
"Nah, I dun't think even [Beastman] would be enough te take 'im out fur gud," the wild man shook his head before the Green Knight attacked once more, its briar-wrapped zweihänder swung down against the thorny shaft of Cu's Relic.
"Struggle, for it matters not!" snarled the armored Fae as the thorns around the blade of its weapon lashed out as the Green Knight slid its weapon down against the grain of the spear's thorn, breaking off several of the latter while the former was then supplemented by its now-freed thorns that whipped Cu across his bare chest, stripping away a few patches of skin off of him.
Cu was then found on the backpedal before the Green Knight then thrusts its blade into the wild man's chest. Instinctively, Cu hardens his muscles to prevent the incoming breach, instead sending him flying across the clearing and into the same tree that Dagda was sent flying into, now causing it to tumble over from the compound fracture.
Both Dagda and Mikhael then cuts through the tree during its descent, in which moment, the Green Knight then converts the tree into a titanic cleaver-like blade which it then uses it as a secondary weapon, swinging it across the earth and forcing Dagda to deflect it with his [Counter Magic], shattering the wooden sword into splinters.
"Peh! Got sum in me mouth," the half-elf spat out before being punched into Cu by the Green Knight.
"That should be the least of your worries," growled the Fae as then threw away its broken secondary while brandishing its zweihänder surrounded by its floating briars. "Why are you still persisting when you don't even know how to defeat me? Don't you see? I AM IN THE RIGHT!"
"Killing thousands indiscriminately disqualifies you from being in the so-called 'right'!" Mikhael pointed out.
"So speaks the impotent Archangel!" blasted back the Fae as it then planted its blade and thorns into the earth, transforming the latter into gigantic briar-covered serpentine heads that all lunged towards the three. "THEN AGAIN, I SUPPOSE THAT THE GOLDEN AGE OF MAGIC WAS THE AGE WHERE THOSE IN POWER REWROTE THE RULES OF THIS WORLD, CORRECT?! GUESS BEING ON THE WINNER'S SIDE FEELS REAL GOOD, HUH?!"
"SOMEONE HAD TO SET THE STANDARDS!" Mikhael replied as his [Longinus] deflected the thorn serpents with its swings. "THE KILLINGS AND THE INVASIONS HAD TO BE STOPPED BEFORE THE WHOLE WORLD IMPLODED! SOMEONE HAD TO PUT THE FOOT DOWN! I SUPPORTED SEPHIRA BECAUSE SHE SAW THE WRITING ON THE WALL WHILE THE REST DIDN'T!"
"AND EVEN THEN, LOOK AT THIS WORLD NOW!" the Green Knight ranted as it then swung its blade to unleash a vacuum cut that Dagda deflected with his [Counter Magic] in tandem with Cu throwing his [Gae Bolg] at the the Fae, only for it to block it with its thorn serpents, killing them in the process. "... Was it all even worth it? Was mortalkind inheriting the god's arrogance, prides, and power worth it when all the slaying of gods accomplished was mortals taking their place?"
"... You're not wrong," Mikhael nodded with a notion of pity in his voice as he nailed one of the serpents with his holy Relic. "But you trying to bulldoze everything in the process... how is it any different?"
Then something inside Green Knight broke, causing it to go even more berserk.
"... Different, you say?" the Green Knight muttered. "ARE ALL OF YOU BLIND?!"
"... Can I sum of 'is anga?" asked Cu while he bear-hugged a thorny serpent to death. "Can use dat rite now."
"SEPHIRA SHOULDN'T HAVE MADE ALL THOSE PROMISES THAT SHE COULDN'T EVEN KEEP! SHE PROMISED MY PEOPLE SALVATION WHEN ALL THAT ARRIVED AT OUR DOORS WAS DAMNATION AFTER DAMNATION!" it roared as more thorny serpents erupted from the earth as the trees around them rustled violently in match to the Green Knight's unleashed rage. "SHE PROMISED PEACE, ONLY FOR WAR TO CONTINUE! SHE PROMISED AN AGE WHERE THE GODS FINALLY DIE, ONLY FOR MORTALS TO TAKE THEIR PLACE AFTER DRINKING THEIR BLOOD IN CELEBRATION! 'ESCAPE FROM THE SHADOW OF THE GODS OF OLD TO USHER IN A NEW AGE FOR ALL?!' BULLCRAP! SHE CHANGED NOTHING! NOT HER! NOT HER FOLLOWERS! AND ESPECIALLY HER LEGACY! ALL EVIL TODAY ARE SUSTAINED BY YOUR BROKEN PROMISES! THE DAY YOU DESIGNATED OUR ROYAL FAMILY AS CARRIERS OF THE TITLE [SYLPH, THE WIND SPIRIT] WAS THE DAY OUR KIND WAS POISONED BY YOUR SWEET NOTHINGS! IT ALL MEANT NOTHING! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! THAT'S WHY I'M BURNING EVERYTHING DOWN! TO SPIT ON EVERYTHING THAT SHE'D BUILT, JUST AS SHE DID TO US!"
Dagda spat aside as he beheaded several thorny serpents that coiled around himself whereas Cu swung around the dead monster as a whip/flail combo-weapon while Mikhael's [Longinus] finally finished cooling off.
"[Flare Magic: Beacon]!" the Archangel then unleashes a blast of celestial blaze that burns away all of the vegetation, causing the clearing to widen in area, leaving only the three of them as the Green Knight respawned from where it was slain previously. "... You're right. Even I have to admit, me and Sephira promised too much. So much so that we were blind to the bigger picture."
"So why?" asked the Green Knight. "After knowing all of that, WHY ARE YOU SO INSISTENT?!"
"... Because for every person I fail to come to aid, there's another out there that I can still save," he answered as his [Longinus] hissed in its overheated state. "As long as there are cries for help, I will answer them. Even if I can't save everyone... even if Sephira's promise never comes to light! I REFUSE TO SUMBIT TO DESPAIR! I WILL CONTINUE HER WORK BECAUSE IT'S THE RIGHT THING TO DO!"
"Ye think dat being right makes ye right, huh?" Cu remarked. "... Screw dat shite, mate. I ain't plannin' te die just yet, let alone te prove dat yer sumhow rite."
"Me... ye... everyone knows dat de world we're in is no betta den a sea of shite," Dagda answered as he slumped forth. "... But just because ye didn't git wat ye wanted... doesn't give ye de rite TE BE AN ARSE!"
In a flash, Dagda punches the Green Knight's armor as it was then dislodged from its waist, revealing the [Spriggan] inside of it as it was sent tumbling across the clearing. As the Fae got up, it then saw Dagda approach him with his [Fragarach] in hand.
"... I'm the asshole?!" the Fae heaved out as the blade was raised over his head. "... Then you guys are the shit that comes out-!"
The Fae's head was then split in twain as the blade fell. After one decisive blow, Dagda wretches [Fragarach] out of the Fae's head before flicking the blade of its juices.
"Three... two... one..." he counted down in a bored tone as the Green Knight respawned behind him, with the previous body now being dissolved and absorbed back into the earth. "... Eh, worth a shot."
"This is starting to get old-no, no! ... Patience," the Green Knight hissed to himself. "... I already won... just need to draw this out... they don't know where my immortality comes from-"
"... Eh, about dat," Dagda interrupted, "... I kinda figured it out. Yer not actually alive any more, aren't ye?"
The Fae in the rusted armor stutters and chokes himself before replying. "How did you figure it out?!"
"[Counter Magic]," answered the half-Demon. "Punched ye enough times te git de hint. Ye died long time ago, just like dat god of yers. Yer literally nuthin' more den de part of dis Dungeon itself, just like another soldier. Which is why yer okay with killin' everyone because literally everyone because ye don't matter."
"But how is the Dungeon sustaining this many independent vectors?" asked Mikhael until he also hits the nail in the head. "... Unless!"
He then closes his eyes and directs his senses to the underground, discovering that every [Sylvan Soldier] and its offshoots were each people that died and assimilated into the [Forest of Denial], their souls being used to fuel this Dungeon and its expansion. And worst of all, every single soul inside were interconnected with each other, akin to a hive of insects with William as the "Queen" with the last [Spriggan] acting as the chief liaison/royal guard captain of the hive.
"... Over tens of thousands of souls lie underneath these lands," the Archangel pointed out. "... All of them are trapped in... a sort of constructed limbo! Acting as fuel behind both this Green Knight and the dead god's immortality!"
"You need to scratch triple-digits if you so much want to make me feel something," taunted the Green Knight, no longer putting up airs to even fight anymore and is now more than content being a dick while letting the [Forest of Denial] run itself. "But it's only a matter of time. Before everything no longer matters."
Dagda then looks back at Cu and Mikhael with a nod. "I'll need more time te see if dat bastard's tellin' de truth," he remarked. "Think ye can back me up fur a tad longa?"
"One way te find out," Cu smirked as he readied his [Gae Bolg].
The four blinked out of sight once again, moving and clashing their arms so fast that none outside could see the fight happening save for the few shockwaves that came from each clash struck. The Green Knight holds off all three, fighting back hard as it could despite its claims prior.
Cu thrusts forth with his [Gae Bolg], to which the Fae dodged as Dagda swung his [Fragarach] towards where the Green Knight had dodged. The blade cuts off one of the antlers from the rusted helmet before both of their fists collided against each other.
"WHY DO YOU STILL FIGHT EVEN THOUGH I'VE ALREADY WON?!" roared the Green Knight as it then swung its sword around itself to unleash an omnidirectional vacuum slash.
"BECAUSE FEK YE!" Dagda then redirects the attack with his [Counter Magic] to cause the slash to collapse back into the Green Knight itself, cutting off both of its arms and crumpling the torso, forcing it to kneel. "MIKHAEL! WEN YER READY!"
Mikhael looks at his [Longinus]'s glowing spearhead still hissing from its overheating. "... I'll risk it," he resolved as he unleashed his [Flare Magic] to the tip of his Relic. "[Flare Magic: Beacon]!"
As the blast of holy flames consumed the downed Green Knight, Dagda then gathers all of his [Counter Magic] into his fist before punching the earth itself, driving his counteracting force into the Dungeon's foundations itself.
Both forces make contact to their intended targets, with the Green Knight disintegrating into ashes once more, and its subsequent resurrection now being heralded by pained screaming as the Fae returned to the living world semi-malformed.
"... Damn, it, all," growled the half-Demon as he and the others saw the Green Knight "fix" his deformities with its zweihänder. "... Well, at least we now how 'is immortality works in real time."
"Wait, so, like sumthin' akin to dat thin' being attached te dis place?" asked Cu.
"Kinda, but 'ere's de thin'," the half-Demon responded. "... Ye know wen it said day it was 'Ulster itself'?"
"Indeed," Mikhael agreed with the revelation. "The Fae wasn't lying."
"Good for you, finally figuring it out!" the Fae replied as it chopped off its malformed bits of its armor and limbs with its blade. "But to be more precise, it's more or less that the land... remembers me."
Cu's eyes then widened. "... Oh shite, [Fae Arts: Memory]."
"[Soulsave] is the one thing that lets me keep coming back, as long as the 'memory' of my existence remains imprinted on the land I walk," declared the Green Knight as it tapped onto its "head". "The enigmatic legends of the Green Knight, rumors circulating my own existence turning into myth as all those who've crossed me are dead and forgotten... and in their place, I spread fear of my own being to the people that walk. Especially you, Malacoda. You're a major contributor to my immortality, by your past warning the children of Ulster of my presence with oral tradition that gradually spread like wildfire! Meanwhile, all I had to do was wait, and then came the Archangel."
Mikhael gritted his teeth. "... My mana!"
"Exactly!" continued the Fae as it pruned its malformed growths. "Power tends to beget even more power, and your little busy-bodying act allowed me to finally open up the stored power that I've gathered throughout centuries, causing Ulster's Grand Magic Zone mana to overclock and unleash the [Forest of Denial]! You only assumed that I was acting on my own, but not for a single second that you ever thought that I had help this whole time?! Admittedly, me and the god's plans had approximately 98.76544354% chance of failure, but leave it to me to exploit your system! After all, you couldn't help leaving this poor, miserable Fae to suffer alone, right?"
The wild man glared at the Archangel. "WHY DID YE HELP DAT BASTARD?!"
"Dun't blame 'im," Dagda defended Mikhael. "... His [Heavenly Restriction: Charity] compels 'im te selfless te de meek and low. Green Knight played possum. As long as they're not a full-Demon like me, den der in de clear."
"Sentimental hypocrites are the best kind to exploit," taunted the Green Knight. "In fact, it's that same reason why the only avenue to kill me is denied."
Mikhael looks away in shame. "... The only way to stop you as you are now is to destroy all of Ulster and its people," he answered as he gripped the shaft of his spear tightly. "Even then, my powers literally cannot be used to inconvenience others who aren't deserving of destruction."
"Either kill me and everyone around you, or spare me and let me kill everyone," the Green Knight boasted as it then raised its sword above its head as the branches above then grew out copies of its weapon. "Now die!"
The grown swords then all rain from above as the Fae in armor resumes its attack.
"WHY IS IT EVEN DERE IN DE FIRST PLACE?!" Cu barked as he was blocking the Green Knight's rain of blades and blows, causing his knees to buckle under the pressure from the latter.
"It's to prevent me and the other Archangels from abusing our own powers and accidentally destroy the world in the process!" the Archangel answered as he then tackled the Green Knight out of Cu's way before swinging his still-hot [Longinus] into the Fae's sword, splitting its length in twain. "That's what separates us from the gods of magic that were before us!"
"EVEN WITH ALL THE POWER IN THE WORLD, YOU ARE STILL WEAK!" roared the Green Knight as it swung the stump of its weapon into the Archangel's chest, causing the weapon instead to combust into flames before the rest of it caught on fire and reduces the Fae into ashes.
The Green Knight, thanks to the land "remembering" its existence, returns undeterred, something that Dagda took note of.
"Ye know, ye do realize that Mikhael isn't de only one who can destroy this land, rite?" the half-Demon glared.
"AND WHAT OF IT?!" it replied as its sword clashed against Dagda's before it was staked by [Gae Bolg] from behind, killing it and prompting [Soulsave] to resurrect it once again.
Dagda then punches the earth with his [Counter Magic], causing its re-entry back to the mortal plane to end up botched and half-formed.
"Ye two, buy me sum time," Dagda remarked as he then sheathed his blade before spitting onto both of his hands and rubbing it against each other. "I'm gunna head fur de 'eart of dis Dungeon meself!"
In the next instant, Dagda then runs towards the earthbound Fae and burrows himself into where the it was half-spawned from, drilling himself through its armor and into the dirt, forcing it to use [Soulsave] once again.
"... You cannot be serious!" the Fae exclaimed before it was then attacked by the remaining two.
"I see," Mikhael remarked as he then flipped his scorching [Longinus] to its blunt end. "Cu Chulainn, non-fatal blows only! We need to keep the Fae from interacting with the underground!"
"Shite, guess that leaves dis out den," the wild man shrugged before tossing his [Gae Bolg] aside in favor of snapping off the chains wrapped around his legs to serve as his new weapons. "Think ye can 'elp me work it out?"
"One way to find out," Mikhael replied as the two then kept the Green Knight busy.
Autonomous Invasive Ecosystem, [The Forest of Denial]
Time Remaining Until Continental Assimilation:
5 Hours, 30 minutes, 2 seconds
Frenetically running through and between the trees, Dorothy, Salim, and Moccus (carrying Aengus) ran for their lives with Corrin and Jericho fending off the still-pursuing Ishtar.
As the lioness chased her prey though the weald, Corrin and her [Hrunting] parried the Demoness's claw swipes with Jericho following it up with a hammer blow with his [Dragon]-arm. Ishtar counters the latter with the Demon baby's copied [Counter Magic] to deflect the blow, only for when Jericho was blown back, Corrin moved in soon after with her rusted Relic shot towards the Demon.
"Excellent, performance is satisfactory," the lioness nodded in approval as she dodged [Hrunting] before flicking another yul at them.
Corrin evades the shot gold coin, which instead hits the tree behind her, the doubloon burrowing deep into the trunk. "Oh fuck, I cannot get used to seeing that."
Ishtar smirked as she then fires a rapid volley of yul coin at everyone, throwing money everywhere that tore through bark and earth alike akin to how a carnivore's fangs tear into meat.
"SHIT!" Jericho cursed as he used his [Dragon]-arm (the only thing that remained intact from Ishtar's coin barrage) as a pseudo-riot shield. "I'M OFFICIALLY OUT OF IDEAS!"
"USE YOUR FUCKING NEW POWERS THEN!" Salim cried out.
"SEE IF YOU CAN READ THIS GIBBERISH!" the [Primal Platinum Magic] user then shoved his (completely) rewritten grimoire into the penal Silver Eagle's face while he kept up the "defensive" part of their defensive retreat.
All three pairs of eyes then gleaned over the pages, finding the text completely indecipherable.
"... Oh, sugar honey iced tea," Dorothy nervously chuckled as she tried to read what the pages said, but nothing came up. "It's like what happened to some of my [Dream Magic] spells, only for the whole grimoire."
"... The new spells at least look powerful?" Salim reassured.
"Nah, we're gonna need outside help," Moccus pointed out as he ducked the still-unconscious Aengus under the shot coin. "We need to find Brigid! She can read all sorts of weird-ass text!"
"SAVE THAT SUGGESTION AS SOON AS WE GET AWAY FROM HER!" Corrin replied as she then shot her [Hrunting] at Ishtar, propelling the Relic with her [Magnet Magic].
Ishtar then tries to catch the blade before it could reach her, but once it was caught by her hand, it immediately wretches itself out of her grip and gashes through her forearm and left half of it hanging off of her bone in the process of returning itself back to its wielder.
"Well, simple never works when dealing with artifacts of great power and yore, even if my skin was hardened like armor," grumbled Ishtar as she uses her [Gauge Magic] to reduce the wound into a mere paper cut. "... Ugh, another scar. Already have one to worry about."
Jericho overhears the Demoness's quiet lamentations. Why would she be worried about said scars in the first place? he thought as the coin barrage then resumed in full force behind his [Dragon]-arm still acting as cover. Somehow... is her magic flawed in a certain way?
He then peeks out from behind, and spots that her lower right rib was still bleeding. Granted, only about as much as a fresh paper cut, but still, compared to the Demoness's claims of being able to harden her skin like armor and shrug off her arm being flayed to the bone halfway to said aforementioned sample, that small wound still bleeding out dewdrops worth of blood was her sole chink in her armor.
"Whoever did that, thank you," he spoke to himself as he kept up the bulwark while turning to Corrin. "Corrin, you got any new spells from that Relic?"
"No!" she replied. "I'm literally using all of my [Magnet Magic] to keep this rusted thing afloat and in control!"
"And don't ask me for help!" Dorothy remarked as she then ran faster. "Not only my [Dream Magic] went through a soft reset, but I'd rather not risk that thing behind us using my powers against all of us! We all just got out of our drug trip into coma-land-!"
In the next second, her face collides against someone else's, resulting in the rest of the group going into a pile-up as they were all crashing into someone else.
"Ow..." Moccus grumbled as the pig then saw a familiar face stating right at him. "OGMIOS?!"
"Something soft yet bony on my face..." mumbled Salim as he inadvertently landed on Agatha's chest.
"Hey Mudo," greeted Dorothy as she found her pointed hat on the bookish girl's face. "Where are the others?"
"Glad to run the rest of you," he deadpanned as the the coins continued to fire at them, only for Brigid to show and intercept the shots followed up by Letoile using her [Compass Magic] to redirect the shots elsewhere, acting in Jericho's place as the new wall. "... Took you long enough."
"Well excuse me, running into a Demon threw a wrench in everyone's plans!" Jericho remarked as he and everyone else got up, his cumbersome arm making it awkward for him to stand back up to his feet while Agatha stomps Salim's nads in retaliation. "One thing after another, I swear!"
Agatha, after finishing her corporal punishment, then turns her sights towards the lioness at the opposite group's heels. "... You people have the worst luck imaginable."
"Tell me about it," Corrin grunted as Mudo eyed closer to her rusted Relic. "And before you ask, don't touch. It cut off Jericho's arm and he had to replace it with a [Dragon]'s scale."
Mudo then puts her notebook and nerdgasm away for a later time. "... So much to do in the future."
Then Danu, Cissonius, Lugh, and Cernunnos arrive at the scene.
"What happened to her?!" Danu cried out as she and the rest of the Twrch Trwyth Tavern mates saw their boss's main charge badly burnt.
"She used [Light Magic]," answered Dorothy. "... Apparently, it hurts her as much as it hurts the enemy."
"I'll keep her safe!" Lugh spoke as he ran towards Moccus carrying Aengus. "I can't fight as I am right now, but I will defend her no matter what!"
"Explain later!" Brigid pointed out as she kept intercepting Ishtar's shots. "Our own problem also followed us!"
As Nozel, Rinaldo, and Makarov come out running with several [Superior Sylvan Soldiers] pursuing after them.
"WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DILLY-DALLYING FOR?!" the Paladin barked out as his hat was then cut in half across its height. "RUN YOU MERDES!"
Jericho and Corrin then charge towards the coming horde and immediately wrecks them like water breaking against coastal stones.
"Well, guess we were all worried over nothing," shrugged the Fae as he brought up his [Gae Dearg] and [Gae Buidhe] before heading out. "LET ME JOIN!"
"Someone get this thing on my back!" Danu cried out as she desperately tried to reach [TROY Option] around onto her back.
"Hold still, sumone give me a 'and!" Cissonius cried out.
"... Why does he have a giant arm?" Nozel remarked at Jericho before Dorothy explained everything to him and everyone else (sans the Twrch Trwyth Tavern folks, who were currently too busy with their own things). "... Typical half-blooded freak."
"Ulster's going to have a field day and a half when they find out she's the chosen one," Makarov chuckled to himself at Corrin's [Hrunting].
"So any Clover Kingdom laws that cover on what happens when a civilian gets hold of powers of a legend in her hands?" asked Rinaldo. "Ex-Clover here, and I'm hoping that there's at least one legal loophole that doesn't involve charging treason leading to execution."
Nozel and Dorothy look away awkwardly. "... Our laws are in need of a serious rework when we get back," grumbled Dorothy.
"Or extradite her citizenship to this place if you bastards want her," deadpanned Nozel as everyone finally took a breather from being trapped between a Demoness of [Greed] and an endless shambling horde of Green Knight clones respectively. "... I am not picky on the kind of fate that befalls onto her."
"Nozel?" Dorothy remarked.
"Yes-" the Captain suddenly finds himself kicked in the groin, the Coral Peacock Captain's shin compromising his physical equilibrium.
"... I'll go and help Cissoninus," Makarov then excused himself from this soon-to-be-nasty confrontation.
"[Fae Arts] bullcrap or not, that does not give you an excuse to be a bigger jerk than you usually are!" she exclaimed as the Captain kept stomping on Nozel's balls. "So quit being such a prick and help us or I'll keep grinding your nuts until it is reduced to the consistency of flour!"
For the first time in Agatha's life and much to Ogmios's horror, the Witch Queen smiled with genuine pride. "... I am so proud of her."
"Parent of the goddamn year, everybody," deadpanned the [Memory Magic] user.
As the crossing's chaos was perfectly executed, True Leshy then draws back his [Yewfelle] and aims the arrow's trajectory towards Letoile's head, with her being too busy dealing with Ishtar's coin volley to notice the god's existence. And unlike his previous shots, this arrow was coated in a special anti-clotting agent that would prevent all forms of healing from taking place on the wound, inspired by the Fae's dual Relics's properties. "Let's see how your big brain is going to help you..." the god snickered as he'd locked onto his designated target from afar, subtly manipulating the forest's geography in order to make the perfect shot, "WHEN IT'S NO LONGER CONNECTED TO YOUR HEAD!"
True Leshy then lets his arrow fly, the quill sailing through its created path at undetectable speeds towards his hated target.
However, Ishtar takes note of the direction where the arrow was shot from and spots a horned silhouette that stirred something within her mind. "... You?!"
The [Compass Magic] user takes notice of the Demoness's sudden shift in mood before turning her head towards where the latter was referring towards, and finds herself staring down at a small wind tunnel funneled towards her head.
As the god's arrow shot from his [Yewfelle] closed into her head, mere inches away from Letoile's head, time then seemingly slows to a complete crawl. Or at the least, to the ever-elusive burglar and ex-thief-turned tavern cook, Cissonius.
He noted that he still can't use his [Snatch Magic] on the account of his hands being wounded to the point of being unable to perform surgical extractions, let alone, save Letoile without something weird happening to her body in the process. Cissonius cursed himself for being useless at this moment of time, and cursed his magic for requiring perfect hands to use his talents in the first place.
... No choice left, huh?
His eyes then turned towards Ogmios for a nanosecond. On me mark, use [Amnesia Flashback].
What?! he mentally replied as he then saw Cissonius then tackle Letoile out of the way, causing the shot arrow meant for her to instead end up hitting him in the chest instead.
"CISSO!" Ogmios cried out as he saw him bleed out lethally.
"... Wat are... ye waitin' for...?" he coughed out as his sense faded away with his mortal tether. "... DO IT!"
The [Memory Magic] user then finally figures out his gambit as Ishtar then stopped firing her coins and looked towards the dying cook.
"Mine," she declared as she then attempted to "buy" his fleeting [Snatch Magic] with her [Gauge Magic].
"I WON'T LET YOU!" Ogmios's eyes then began to glow. "[MEMORY MAGIC: AMNESIA FLASHBACK]!"
A flash to violet light then blinds Ishtar, wiping her memories of both [Snatch Magic]'s acquisition and her ownership of David's [Dice Magic]. As her eyes were left dazed, Brigid then moves in with her [Anima Magic], unleashing a torrent of magma towards the Demon to slow her down as much as she could, with Makarov using his [Aura Magic: Soulburner] to wreck havoc onto the vulnerable Demoness's very core.
As the Demoness was left reeling, Letoile was left in utter shock at Cissonius's sudden sacrifice.
"... Sorry lass," he chuckled as his skin paled. "... But yer too vital... so dun't cry... fur a crook like me."
Her inability to feel fear prevented her from processing this sudden revelation as Cissonius expires from this world. "... What is this feeling?" she spoke to herself while Ishtar retaliated via knuckledusters make of her infinite supply of yul. "... Death... because of me?"
Without fear, she was unable to comprehend this shock that assaulted her heart, turning it into a mess of unanswerable chaos. It made no sense to her, but she cried regardless at this pitiful man and his sacrifice.
"... It doesn't make any sense," she muttered to herself while crying. "... It doesn't make any sense!"
"BASTARDS!" roared the black lioness as her golden fists scattered more coins about with each blow struck, shattering Makarov's ribs and sending Brigid flying into Danu's face, knocking her over and landing on the rest of the Green Knight clones. "NOBODY STEALS FROM MY BOTTOM LINE AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!"
Corrin and Jericho then attack the Demoness from the side with their arms.
"THANKS FOR THE ASSIST!" Jericho cried out towards Danu and Brigid.
"LEAVE HER TO US!" Corrin remarked as she used her own fear to propel herself along with Jericho to fend off the enraged Demoness of [Greed], leaving everyone else to regroup.
"What the hell just happened?!" Cernunnos exclaimed as he and the other saw what had happened to one of their own. "... CISSO!"
"... Why?" Letoile muttered as she stared at the dead body. "Why did you do it? Why for me?"
Brigid tries to heal him, but had already noticed that he was too dead to be revived. "... GODDAMMIT!" she cursed before turning towards Ogmios, who was in hysterics of what had transpired while his eyes were literally smoking.
"... He told me to do it," he muttered to himself, "I trusted him... it was his plan the whole time... told me to not cry for him... BUT WHY?!"
"I know! It's infuriating!" True Leshy then spoke from the trees around them. "That shot was meant for you, four-eyes. But he just had to play hero and die like one to boot. His fault really."
Nozel was tempted to voice his agreement, but since he didn't care, he opted to remain silent.
Danu then punches down the tree where the voice was coming from. "SHUT UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP!" she snarled as her fists demolished more trees around them. "YOU KILLED HIM! IT'S ALL YOUR FUCKING FAULT!"
True Leshy then pops out from one of the broken stumps of the trees that the golem had punched down, its lower half absorbing the latter before morphing it into its [Centaur]-like set of legs. "I know, but really, does it really matter?" the god replied. "When you guys kill people, you move on. When someone in your group shits the bed, then you give a shit. Why?! I thought this was Ulster, you bunch of sentimental hypocrites!"
Danu then raises her foot over the reappeared True Leshy, forcing the latter to jump out of the way while Ishtar then resumes her coin barrage at the others from the other side with Corrin and Jericho pushed back once again, forcing everyone to hunker down into a defensive position.
"OW! OW! OW! OW! OW!" Danu exclaimed as coins were shot at her while inadvertently shielding the others from the barrage. "HEY! WATCH IT!"
Ishtar raised her eyebrow disconcertedly. "... You're literally the biggest person here. Not my fault that you're a huge target."
"WHY IS EVERYONE INDIRECTLY CALLING ME FAT TODAY?!" bemoaned the golem as she then saw more [Sylvan Soldiers] armed with lesser-copies of the god's [Yewfelle] bows spawning from above the trees. "INCOMING ARROW RAIN!"
Instinctively, Danu then shields everyone from above with her own body, the deluge of quills pricking the golem's bare back as everyone else remained cover.
"... Good work," Nozel remarked in a semi-backhanded manner.
"Ugh... feels like I've been stung by a swarm of cow-sized bees..." she groaned as she tried to get up. "... Uh guys? Why do I feel so numb?"
Brigid then quickly analyzes what was contaminating the golem's body and compares it to what had killed Cissonius.
"... Everyone, whatever you do, don't get hit by one of those," the spirit ordered. "They're packing poisoned arrows."
"Can I fry em with my [Lightning Magic]?" asked Salim.
"Sure, fry one and get hit by the rest," Ogmios remarked. "They're 100% wood, dumbass! THEY DON'T CONDUCT ELECTRICITY WELL ENOUGH FOR A MULTI-STRIKE!"
"I can make an antidote," Agatha claimed. "But I'll require a fresh sample. Preferably, an untouched arrow would suffice."
"Guys?! They're about fire again!" Danu warned as she saw the god and his puppets mirror each other's movements.
"Letoile!" Dorothy cried out towards the [Compass Magic] user in shock. "... Blast it, she's completely out of it!"
"ARROWS FREE!" ordered the True Leshy as he and the [Sylvan Soldiers] fired their poisoned arrows from their [Yewfelle], forcing Danu to remain protecting them with her body, the numbing and anti-clotting poison slowly building up in her body.
"... Guys, you better hurry!" the golem plead as she coughed out loose mud. "... A few more volleys... and I'll end up as rubble!"
"Is the poison really that powerful?!" asked Salim.
"This poison can fell even the hardiest of Ulsterians!" boasted the god as his troops kept up their fusillade. "Meaning that even golems corrode from within as similar to how my concoctions can compromise your immune systems!"
Both Corrin and Jericho's screams could be heard from the rest as Ishtar after the latter bashes them away with her knuckledusters made of her own infinite supply of coins.
"Disappointing," she muttered as the scattered yul converged towards the Demoness akin to a flowing robe dragged behind herself. "But alas, such is the limit for mere mortals."
"I ain't... done yet!" Jericho growled as he felt his own injures snap themselves back in place.
"... I ain't going to die," Corrin picked herself up with the help of her [Hrunting], "... ESPECIALLY IN A PLACE LIKE THIS!"
Ishtar shrugs as the gathered coins then all gather onto her right hand into a massive sword tall as a tower and wide as a paved road.
"I'll do you both kindness of killing everyone here all at once," said the Demon before she then brought down her gigantic gilded blade.
Both Corrin and Jericho then cross their Relics together to block the descending blade together. Corrin uses [Magnet Magic] to propel herself and Jericho up in the air with her sword while Jericho taps into the [Dragon]'s powers in his body to push back the giant blade.
Meanwhile, True Leshy then spots two potential targets that he can go for while the rest of his [Sylvan Soldiers] provide suppressing fire to keep everyone else's heads down. "... Eney, meeny, miney, mo. Catch an asshole by its hole. If he hollers, let him go... Eney. Meeny. Miney. Mo."
The god's nocked arrows then all aim for the backs of Corrin and Jericho. If he had a visible face, he would be grinning like mad right now as he then let loose his payload.
However, the arrows were then intercepted by a pair of flying spears, breaking apart all of the arrows save for one which was held up by a Fae's tiny hands (supported by his Relics). "Sorry, but no."
"GET THAT PUNK-ASS FAE!" barked the god as the [Sylvan Soldiers] then aimed their arrows at Cernunnos returning to the group with the arrow at hand, blocking the rest with his dual Relics much to his frustration. "YE GODS, YOU BUNCH ARE THE BIGGEST TURDS THAT I HAVE HAD THE BIGGEST DISPLEASURE OF ATTEMPTING TO BURY!"
"Thank you," Agatha remarked as she received the arrow. "Now comes the hard part."
"Which is-OW!" Danu screamed out as the Witch Queen plunged her hand into her body before pulling it out, a tube of the latter's [Blood Magic] connected to her before connecting to Cissonius's corpse. "... Argh, why I am not numb enough to still feel pain?!"
"You're a big girl, so suck it up," instructed the Witch Queen as she began to concoct an antidote with Cissonius's remains, Danu's live sample, and True Leshy's fresh arrow with an impromptu lab made of 100% blood. "[Blood Creation Magic: Alchemist's Ichor Spring]."
The mixtures began concocting with each other as Agatha began her work to create the antidote.
"... Good thing none of you ate your friend as per Ulsterian customs," the Witch Queen explained. "His whole body is contaminated with the arrow's poison. Consumption will only transfer the aliment to the one who ate it."
Ogmios and Lugh looked away suspiciously. "... You know what, I'll listen this time."
"I am aware enough that just because I've been granted god-given immortality doesn't mean that I'm immune to feeling pain, especially the way I am right now," Lugh nodded.
"Alright, we have a game plan in the midst-!" Brigid ducks under a fired gold coin. "... So I suggest we come up with a plan of counterattack."
"I'll assist the two facing the Demon," Makarov raised his hand.
"Let me in too," Cernunnos chimed in. "I left an unhealable wound on her ribs with my [Gae Dearg] and [Gae Buidhe]. I should be able to have me and the others capitalize on it."
"Now comes the matter of putting [TROY Option] onto Danu," Mudo remarked. "I built that thing as a part-defensive option, so if I can get it rigged onto her back and activate it, not only our defensive perimeter would be solidified, but Danu will less likely join Captain Roland's Nomenclature of Nudists in the foreseeable future."
"Problem is the arrows," Lugh pointed out. "I can defend you to an extent, but given my lesser frame, the chance of your guaranteed safety is quite small."
"Not to mention carrying this thing," Brigid then tapped on the folded up armor unit. "And to make matters worse, carrying this while under the rain of poisoned arrows."
"... I'll heal Letoile," Dorothy volunteered before she was tugged by Salim to dodge and incoming arrow. "Thank you."
"No prob," he nodded before turning towards Nozel. "Captain, can you and I defend Brigid and Mudo?"
"Why?" he replied heartlessly. "Just what purpose does our involvement serve?"
"God, hearing you talk without empathy is like talking to a child..." facepalmed Brigid. "... Look, it's either guard us while we rig it in or we all throw you out there to die a horrible death."
"Not to mention, I can do this without you," Rinaldo pointed out as he brought out his [Froberge]. "Honestly, we don't need your help. We're just offering you a reason to continue breathing. A favorite of human pastimes."
Nozel sighs. "... Fine. Fie to you all if this fails."
"Right back at you," the artifical spirit then turns towards Moccus and the unconscious Aengus before checking the latter's pulse. "... Still breathing. Good. I can heal her later. Lugh, can you watch her with Moccus while we're busy?"
"With my eternal life!" he vowed as he moved the pig and the white-haired girl into a better-defended spot under Danu.
"Guys... hurry!" the golem begged as her expression become sicker by the minute.
"Alright, let's move!" Brigid ordered as she and Mudo then picked up [TROY Option] with Nozel, Rinaldo, and Salim covering them from all sides. Meanwhile, Makarov and Cernunnos head towards the Demoness struggling to bring down her yul-made giant sword onto the whole group with Corrin's [Hrunting] and Jericho's [Dragon]-arm blocking it from crashing into the earth. Amidst the chaos, Dorothy then sends herself and Letoile for her mind to be healed, leaving only Agatha to continue with her work while Lugh made use of his own immortal body to act as the final layer of defense between the enemy and their formation.
The clock to this battle begins to tick down to its closing hours as the forest continues to spread further outwards.
"Although this place isn't spreading out as fast as I like..." grumbled True Leshy as he nocked back another arrow onto his [Yewfelle]. "... Why did humans had to learn 'hope' if this is how they act before their natural superiors?!"
Autonomous Invasive Ecosystem, [The Forest of Denial]
Time Remaining Until Continental Assimilation:
5 Hours, 10 minutes, 57 seconds
It was dark. Too dark as there was no daylight coming from above.
Keep digging. That's what Dagda thought as he kept punching through the dirt, the deeper he went the further the sounds of combat that soothed his soul became.
He kept digging without thought. For in darkness, thought is poison.
All he could and would allow acknowledgement was the feeling of pebbles and dirt caking his hands and nails.
Then as he kept digging, the earth where he plunged his hands into loosened before breaking through, causing Dagda to fall in and crash headfirst into a spacious cavern lit by nothing but glowing moss and fungi.
"... Oww... me 'ead..." the half-Demon grumbled as he got back up. Upon getting his faculties back in proper working order, he then looks around the dimly-lit caverns with his [Fragarach] drawn. "... Ugh, too dim."
His foot then hits upon a stone. Upon picking it up, Dagda then strikes his blade against the stone to generate a spark that temporarily illuminates his close surroundings.
Upon a few flashes, Dagda spots several wizened corpses of [Lindwyrms] tangled in roots. He then spots several more bodies of Ulsterian raiders and Avalon's Thaumaturges, all of their nutrients sucked out down to their marrows and left to die as husks of their former selves, discarded like used rags.
"Bastard..." he growled as a sense of rage seethed in his heart. Dagda himself was a person who couldn't care less about the lives outsiders, but even they deserved a quick death at worst.
Here, every living being down here died slow and inglorious deaths. Akin to vermin rather than fighting men.
As he continued walking through the moss and fungi-covered caverns, the illumination of the depths gradually increases the further in he treks. Upon arriving at the source, Dagda's eyes were beholden to a giant tree-like root system whose roots were ingrained into all directions. The trunk of the tree was glowing bright as the sun itself, brim with life and vitality as it pumped its mana throughout the earth held above its branches not unlike a giant holding up the whole world on its shoulders.
Pumping through the branches were tens of thousands of souls, each circulated through the main trunk before being sent out towards the tree branches while the majority remained consistent within the central hub of this underground engine.
"... Dat's de core, eh?" Dagda remarked as he drew in closer with a degree of caution. "... Wonder if dere's an alarm system te dis place-"
Then all of the sudden, the lights illuminating the moss and fungi go from ambient green to blood red right as whole underground blares to life.
"... Me 'nd me big mouth," cursed the half-Demon as readied himself for a hell of a time.
"ATTENTION INTRUSIVE DIPSHIT," echoed True Leshy's voice. "ON THE CHARGES OF TRESPASSING PRIVATE PROPERTY, BY MY DIVINE AUTHORITY, I SENTENCE YOU TO DEATH."
"Must be pre-recorded," muttered Dagda as four golden orbs emerged from above, each hanging off on the tips of their individual branches like fruits.
"RELEASING THE [SYLVAN SENTINELS]," spoke the god's voice as the fruits above then burst open from within, spilling out their piss-colored fluids as their arms tore through their sacs.
Upon all four being released, the four then land before Dagda, each looking like perfect copies of the Green Knight itself, only that their leaden armor weren't covered in either moss or rust and it bearing a slight reddish tint in their plates' finish, their antlered helmets were perfectly symmetrical, their capes weren't tattered, revealing their shapes to be similar to bright-red maple leaves, and each of them wielding a different weapon. One carried a massive scythe with a serrated blade, the other wielded a massive sword with a blade that was twice the size of its body with vine-like lines connecting the main sword blade to a similarly-large axe head acting as the weapon's handle guard, and the remaining two each wielded a pair of blades, with the one on the left dual-wielding rapiers, with the other brandishing a pair of scimitars, grinding one blade against the other menacingly.
"UNIT DESIGNATIONS [DÁINN, THE RIPPER], [DUNEYRR, THE THUNDERING], [DVALINN, THE SLUMBERING], AND [DURAÞRÓR, THE ENDURING]," the god's voice declared. "PROCEED."
The four [Sylvan Sentinels] all attacked Dagda at once, with the half-Demon rolling himself out of the way of their four-prong attack before launching a counterattack of his own.
[Duneyrr] and [Duraþrór] evade the half-Demon, while [Dáinn] simply turned into a cloud of cherry blossoms and [Dvalinn] dissipates itself into a cloud of mist, both phasing through Dagda before reappearing behind him and strike back with their scythe and dual rapiers.
"DAMMIT!" cursed Dagda as he narrowly counters their reversal with his [Counter Magic]. "DAT'S WHERE DER SOULS WENT?!"
As Dagda then makes a quick mental note of [Dáinn] being a reincarnated Kirsch while [Dvalinn] was the same with Nerba, he then saw [Duneyrr] raise its massive blade over its head before crushing the ground where Dagda had jumped away from. Upon missing its downward strike, it then charges towards Dagda blade pointing towards him, propelled by a jet of high-pressured water shot from its heels as it then thrusted its massive blade towards Dagda.
"[Counter Magic]!" Dagda then chooses to meet with the charging sentinel. "[Cross Counter]!"
Both [Fragarach] and the giant sword meet by their blades, but at the exact moment when Dagda's spell was supposed to send his enemy flying back, a blast of water erupts from the blade itself, right at the same time as when his magic activated, nulling each other's blows and sending both of them flying back.
"So de thunderin' is Solid, got it," the half-Demon noted of [Dvalinn]'s fighting style as he then turned his own blade against himself. "[COUNTER MAGIC: AFFLICTION BOUNCE]!"
A beam of redirected force was then shot from where Dagda was stabbed at, but then [Duraþrór] gathers all four of its compatriots before planting its twin scimitars down and erects an angled wall of hardened earth to redirect the shot of magic away from them, hitting it surroundings instead.
The scattered shots all chip through the ingrained roots and the main trunk itself, chipping its bark away to reveal whose soul was inside.
"WILLIAM!" Dagda cried out as he then ran towards the main trunk, but [Dvalinn]'s greatsword transforms into a massive halberd, its axe blade crashing into the ground before Dagda's feet, spraying out jets of pressurized water that tore through his boots and repels him as the other three move in to attack him all at once.
[Duraþrór] sweeps up a wave of sharpened stone that arcs towards Dagda, forcing him to break though with his [Counter Magic], but at the same time, [Dáinn] and [Dvalinn] reappear from their intangible forms to unleash a slash of cherry blossoms and a flurry of misty jabs with its rapiers respectively.
Midair, Dagda catches the scythe with his teeth while using another [Affliction Bounce] to parry the rapier blades, this time, letting the blades strike him before it was shot back at the sentinels in a magical buckshot.
Dagda then escapes from the four's deadlock as he then kicked off his pair of ruined boots. "... Okay, so dat makes [Duraþrór] de Shiren of de four of ye lot," he growled as he kept his eyes locked onto William's soul inside the main trunk. "... Ye four de ones protectin' de 'eart of dis place, huh?"
He then flicks his [Fragarach] into a reverse grip as he readies himself into a different fighting stance.
"Come git sum den," he taunted as the four [Sylvan Sentinels] got into their own stances. "I send yer arses cryin' 'ome back ye mummy."
The five then disappear into a blur as they reinstated their engagement. Dagda blocks [Duneyrr]'s axe blow with his [Fragarach] while using his other hand to punch away [Duraþrór], only for the latter to hold his ground during the punch by planting both of its swords into the earth. While Dagda was pinned down by the two, [Dáinn] and [Dvalinn] take the offensive, with the former bringing his scythe down atop of Dagda's head while the latter followed behind with its rapiers wound back for a double-thrust.
Dagda then takes the scythe blow with his head, the serrated blade being caught in his skull while his teeth stopped the double rapiers from reaching any deeper. "Ye think yer de ones who got me pinned?!" he growled as blood trickled down from his head wound. "THINK AGAIN!"
With his own body, Dagda then unleashes his [Counter Magic] to blow the four back with a surge of pure force, causing all of them to collide into several places throughout the central core. [Duneyrr] crashed through several branches in rooted up towards the ceiling, ripping through several before letting go of its axe-sword that cut down several more before landing against the cavern walls. [Duraþrór] hits his entire back on the main trunk of the Dungeon's core, causing several of the trapped souls to leak out and escape, with the only exception being that of William's, who was tightly bound to his own prison of the god's and Fae's making. And [Dáinn] and [Dvalinn] reformed themselves back from their incorporeal forms before returning to their prior offensive.
[Dáinn] unleashes a technique similar to Kirsch's [Clones of the Beautiful Me], surrounding Dagda with illusory clones of itself while keeping the half-Demon bound was [Dvalinn], who used its mist clones to trap Dagda in a web-like blade lock with its rapiers by his neck.
Just as the several clones were about to take his head on the spot, Dagda smirks before lapping a trickle of his own blood. "... Dumbarses."
He then winds his head back before colliding it against [Dáinn]'s scythe swing, but this time, the blade fails to breach Dagda's skin of his brow. At that exact moment of collision, all of the mist clones' blades snap in two from the sheer force of his magic being triggered upon contact.
"[Counter Magic]," the half-Demon declared as all of the clones disappeared, leaving only the real sentinels to be sent flying from his might of his magic-enhanced headbutt, "[Kiss of Death]."
[Dáinn] then breaks through several more branches connected to the surface whereas [Dvalinn] hits the trunk's base, causing it to topple over onto itself like a felled tree.
"Got em," the half-Demon heaved out as he then sees the soul of William within reach. "HOLD ON WILLY-BOYO! I'M COMIN-!"
Then the entire underground begins to quake, with the trunk no longer standing erect to support the whole area, a cave-in begins to occur.
"Shite..." cursed Dagda as his heart quickened while the whole place began to collapse onto itself. "... Dunno if me [Counter Magic] can 'old up dis deep." With a look of regret, he then looks at William's bound soul now being blocked off by the falling earth. "... Sorry mate. I'll come back fur ye later. Promise."
With the last of his mana, Dagda then quickly burrows upwards and back towards the surface, leaving William's soul to rest with the four [Sylvan Sentinels].
Autonomous Invasive Ecosystem, [The Forest of Denial]
Time Remaining Until Continental Assimilation:
4 Hours, 57 minutes, 9 seconds
A [Sylvan Soldier] was cut down by [Durandal]'s blade as several more of the verdant knights were brought down by Patry and Bizon.
"Anyone feeling tired yet?" asked the Inquisitor. "... Because I feel like we've been in here longer than we should've, but I still feel fine."
"Besides our minds on the verge of being turned into pudding?" the elf in human body remarked. "I think no one wants to question it other than it keeping them alive."
"Breaking our minds over our bodies?" the nudist Paladin commented. "... Not gonna lie, that's kind of a brilliant tactic in Ulster of all places. They're physically dominant and fight like monsters, but their minds are..."
"Fragile? Easily tricked? Dumb?" Vanica deadpanned as she and Zenon came out of hiding. "... You know, I think all those times that what the private tutors taught me before I dumped their corpses into the local well might've saved me from something much worse."
"And all of this because of a single Fae and a forgotten god..." the younger brother pointed out. "... What are they planning with this indiscriminate destruction?"
"I dunno, do you think a dandelion cares where it sprouts from?" the older sister replied. "... I think I'm starting to get the whole 'nature' business that the pair are going for."
"Even then, a god needs worshippers," Zenon pointed out. "This whole plan on the surface makes as much sense as a king ruling a kingdom without subjects."
"... Maybe he doesn't care anymore," Patry commented. "Maybe... after losing what made him... him... despicable, petty, and cruel as he is to his followers... losing a complete sense of self... is hard."
"Although why did he have followers in the first place?" asked Bizon as he finished wiping off the plant juices from his axe-blade. "I mean, surely, other gods in his time couldn't have been worse than him, right?"
Everyone looked at each other blankly before coming to a silent agreement to not talk about it.
"Let's move," Roland spoke as the others followed behind him.
Wading through the forest once more, the five navigate through the brush that seems to have no end.
"... Is this what Hell is like?" asked Vanica. "I mean... speaking from my experiences, I kinda came to assume that Hell is a paradise where bad people prosper while everyone suffers."
"You mean Ulster? And rest of this country?" Bizon snarked. "... Then again, the moniker of 'Demon Kingdom' had to have come from somewhere."
"If you mean by actual Hell, no," Roland shook his head. "Hell is where literally everyone suffers without exception. It's a pit where all the worst things you can imagine happens every inhabitant down there indiscriminately. Even the ones in charge want out of that place, if only to get away from the populace who's suffering as much as they are."
"... Yeah, that makes sense," Zenon agreed. "... So what made you think that holding off the enemy for a retreat was a good idea?"
"... I might be more of a blood-hungry psychopath on par with the worst of the Zogratis back then," the Paladin sheepishly answered. "So really, my reasons for staying back might've been more selfish than I realized. I mean, taking on an evil Dragon all by myself after wearing myself out fighting thousands of Demons and Devils alike? ... Yeah, that was a dumb idea on my part. At least I did my job... even though the gates closed before I could retreat."
"Did the Dragon have a name?" asked Bizon.
"Uh..." the nude man stammered before recalling it, "... Satan?"
The Inquisitor's pupils shrunk to pinpricks upon hearing that name. "... You say, that you took on... THE STRONGEST OF THE ELEVEN ELUSIVE EVILS, WHO DESTROYED CHERNOBYL, TURNED THAT PLACE INTO A DEATHLESS LIMBO, AND LIVED?!"
"... Twice actually," Roland remarked. "I tried going for a round two when I sort of... saw him further up North... and well, that's how I ended up losing my memories."
Everyone begins to doubt Roland's origins of being a human, wondering if he's also some sort of god of in himself.
Then just as everyone else can discuss their issues any further, Roland stops them in their tracks. "... Guys," he spoke. "... You feel that?"
"Feel what?" asked Patry as he and the others looked around. "... If its the eerie quiet, then we're already used to it-"
Then all of the sudden, a surge of malevolent intent overtook the very air that they've all been breathing. Desire and ambition seeped down to their very pores. The clinks of coins rattled their ears. Snarls of wanting made their hearts tremble in fear. A shade darker than the sunless prison that they was cast over them, threatening to drown them into the bottomless abyss that this evil had spawned from.
"... Alright everyone, here's the plan," Roland remarked as he drew his [Durandal]. "Bizon and I will be the front lines, Patry will quickly follow up, and you two tykes fucking run to whatever cover you can find."
"Logical," nodded Zenon as he grabbed onto Vanica's hand. "Whatever you do, don't let go."
She nods while Bizon and Patry converse with each other over their plans.
"Okay, so my [Gravity Magic] can turn me and Roland into the main payload," Bizon remarked. "You have speed in place of mass. So you have any spells that uses speed as a method of offense?"
"A few," he remarked as he read over his grimoire, "but most of them don't have me being fast, only that my beams are fast while I remain comparatively stationary. I can shoot and move at the same time, but not as fast as I like, since I actually need to see in order to shoot."
The Inquisitor then ponders over what the [Light Magic] user can do. "... How about turning yourself into a shot?"
"Hm?" the elf raised an eyebrow.
"Like I said prior, me and Roland have the mass," he explained. "But we're slow in comparison, but when we hit, we'll hit hard. After the enemy's guard is down, you can use your speed to strike down the enemy in a surprise follow-up."
Patry nods as he then recalled fragments of William's memories regarding a certain Captain from the Black Bulls, instinctively copying his quickdraw stance before imprinting it into his mind as he played it out.
Upon understanding how to trace the fundamentals of his own magic with that man's technique, a new spell is printed onto his grimoire. "... Yeah, I got this."
"Alright, get ready everyone!" Roland then wound back his sword with Bizon and his [Labrys] readied their [Gravity Magic].
"You two, hold onto my cloak," ordered Patry as the Zogratis siblings did what he'd told.
"HERE WE COME!" Bizon roared as he then lifted himself and Roland off the ground. "[GRAVITY MAGIC: TAURUS PATH]!"
The two were then encased into an orb of [Gravity Magic] before sending themselves hurling through the woods like a cannonball of pure rage.
"Hang on tight everyone!" Patry ordered as he imitated the man's stance. "This is going to get bumpy!"
As the orb of pure force rips through the trees and deeper towards where the evil presence was birth from, in a split second, Roland and Bizon find Corrin (with a rusted sword), Jericho (with arm replacement big as his whole body), Cernunnos, and Makarov facing down a leonine Demoness with a Demon baby tied around her body, to which the two of them, were hurling towards her back.
"What the hell am I seeing?!" the Inquisitor remarked.
"BRACE FOR IMPACT!" the Paladin then swung down his [Durandal] as soon as they made contact with the Demon's back.
From the four facing the Demon, all they saw was a ball of muscle tackling Ishtar from behind before she herself was sent flying across the weald and her armor-like skin bouncing off the poisoned arrows before landing on True Leshy's body, crushing him and forcing him to regrow a new body elsewhere.
"... WHAT THE FUCK?!" Jericho exclaimed.
"I'm getting sick of things coming out of the literal woods..." Nozel muttered to himself as he kept up his efforts of keeping the arrows off of Mudo and Brigid trying to rig [TROY Option] onto Danu's back
"Antidote's finished," declared Agatha. "Applying it now!"
The numbness and corrosion within Danu was then abated as soon as the Witch Queen's brew flowed through her body. "... Oooh that hits the spot-"
Ishtar then belts out a roar that sent several of the [Sylvan Soldiers] flying from their positions. "YOU TWO!" she pointed at the nude Paladin and the Inquisitor, the latter pushing his dislocated shoulder back in place. "YOU DARE STRIKE ME FROM BEHIND?!"
Corrin and everyone else looked at the two who'd just arrived. "Oh... it's you guys," she remarked. "Glad you made it back to us."
"DIIIEEEEEEEEE!" the lioness roared as she then pounced upon the two of them.
But just as the attack team could intercept, Bizon stops them with his raised hand. "Vice-Inquisitor, everyone, fret not," grinned the Inquisitor as he then spots a gleam coming from behind himself. "He's got this."
Before Ishtar could reach them within her claws, Patry with Zenon and Vanica hanging on by his cape blitzes past the Demon, with his hand stretched out as it held a sword made of light before he mock-sheathes it.
"[Light Magic: Godspeed Flash]."
Then a huge gash ripped through where Ishtar was struck at, spilling out an ichor of black blood as she quickly patched it shut with her [Gauge Magic], leaving behind another scar around her waist. "SON OF A BITCH, ANOTHER ONE?!"
The two Zogratis kids then scramble towards Lugh and Moccus for safety as the three newcomers join the fight against the Demoness.
"... So that's the one?" asked Patry.
"Ishtar," growled Bizon. "The Demon of [Greed]."
"So, how're them works?" Roland asked the others.
"Every attack we strike on her, either she heals it off or dodges it," Jericho explained. "That [Gauge Magic] of her's is a huge pain in the ass to deal with!"
"Then again, it feels as if she's holding back," Cernunnos pointed out as he observed the Demoness still having yet to make a retaliation. "She's still sizing us up even after our resistance. For a Demon, she's surprisingly passive and reactive as a combatant."
"She's the fourth the strongest for a reason," Makarov agreed. "She's not the kind who brute forces her confrontations like other denizens. She's a lioness that only exerts a part of her full strength when hunting a rabbit. Forget not fighting her if we can. The look in her eyes is an indication that she had no intent of letting us retreat."
"How right you are," glowered Ishtar as she flexed her claws upon regaining her composure. "Unlike the rest of my brethren, I'm aware of my own shortcomings as an individual, and work to stymie its consequences. Take for instance, my unhealable wound that the Fae had inflicted onto me. I've noticed that you've all been aiming for it this whole time. You are correct in your assumptions that this is my sole weakness, one that would most likely kill me. But you can only fool me once before I catch on. Those little surprise attacks of yours? Front, sides, and behind? All taken into account for and memorized. Come at me anywhere you wish. I'll make the each of you literally pay for every attempt of entry, down to the very clothes on your backs."
"So what can we do?" asked Corrin as her [Hrunting] floated around her.
"It us both that what she really wants," Jericho pointed out as he lifted up his giant [Dragon]-arm. "We'll abuse that incentive of her's to buy some time. Everyone! Keep her busy!"
The recovered group then engages the Demon in hopes of finding a way to defeat her with fewer and fewer options becoming viable after each failure. Meanwhile, atop of Danu's back, Brigid and Mudo successfully sets [TROY Option] onto the golem's back port after removing the scraps of the previous [JET Option].
"ALRIGHT, IT'S IN!" the FAMAS pilot cried out as the new module hummed to life. "DANU! ARE YOU WELL ENOUGH TO CONTINUE?!"
"GIVE ME LIKE... A FEW SECONDS!" the golem then belts out a strained yell as she slowly got back up to her feet as the [TROY Option] unfolded itself into a new set of armor.
Gunmetal-black, hexagonal plates covered more of her body compared to the previous [JET Option], highlighted by a backlit illumination of neon-green. Around her head, a solid black block with a thin slit across its horizon that acted as a visor dropped down to her eyes, followed up with two pairs of insect-leg-like limbs coming from her back, each with a triple set of hexagonal plates that resembled bucklers at each end. Upon completion of the armor's morph, Danu had now transformed into a sort of quasi-futuristic black knight wearing heavy-duty armor. Save for her bottoms being barely covered by an armored skirt, the war golem was now more modest-looking and combat-capable.
"WHOA!" Danu exclaimed as she then gets back up to her feet, with everyone else switching back to defending the ground with Agatha ready to hand out antidotes to those in need of it. "I feel super-weird... and feels like put on several more pounds."
"Woe be you," Nozel deadpanned as he deflected another arrow shot with his [Silver Arsenal]. "Do something before I off myself to escape this nonsense."
"Hold on, just give me a moment-got it!" Danu then deploys all four of her shields around the group before a hexagonally-constructed forcefield around themselves. As it was erected, the arrows fired by the god's cronies were bouncing off like water off of a duck's back.
As the god saw this happen as he reformed himself into his new body, he only uttered the following. "FUCKING CHEATERS!"
To everyone who'd heard of such accusation coming from him all people, they all flipped him off.
"Okay, now we all can take a breather," Rinaldo sighed out as he and the others rested after defending the line.
"Amen to that," groaned Salim as he then collapsed onto the earth.
"I'll go heal Aengus and see if I can get her awake!" the spirit then began healing the girl after the pig gently lets her down from his back.
Then out of the blue, Dorothy and Letoile emerge from the aether, with the latter looking a bit more composed and in control.
"Oh boy, turns out the inability to feel fear is a heck of a monkey's paw," Dorothy commented as she set the [Compass Magic] user down next to herself. "Calm under pressure in situations like now, but when it comes to non-combative situations... let's just say that empathy is rooted in fear for a good reason."
"Like me?" Nozel remarked.
"But more likable," Dorothy nodded before she took notice of the forcefield around her and others. "... Wow. Kudos!"
"Guys, I dunno know how long this thing is supposed to last," Danu remarked as she then looked towards Mudo. "... So does [TROY Option] do?"
"I designed it to be a defensive module meant for creating a checkpoint around a chaotic battlefield. Normally, FAMAS's on board weapons would've been enough to supplement its self-defense," she answered. "Try using your [Terraforming Magic]."
"Uh, alright then!" Danu then punches the ground to then spawn a [Magma Mortar] to shoot blasts of molten earth towards the god's formation, scorching every last one of them to cinders. "Holy smokes, it worked!"
"Eyes peeled, everyone!" warned Brigid. "True Leshy will come back from just about anywhere! Be prepared for anything!"
"Already on it," Ogmios then closes his eyes before placing his hands onto the ground to detect brainwaves from underneath. "... Clear-wait a minute, why do I hear tremors from down there-?"
Then the shield itself is breached by none other than Jericho's bloodied and battered body crashing through it, shattering the magical projection as the noise of the fight with the Demon comes drumming inside.
"Ow... that freaking hurts..." the [Primal Platinum Magic] user grimaced as blood spewed from his wounds.
"Hang on, I got... you?" Brigid then tried to heal him with her magic, only for her to see that his injuries were healing on their own at a rapid pace. Upon seeing this abnormality, the spirit then asks the following: "Jericho, how... do you feel right now?"
"Uh... I think my ribs just placed themselves back together?" he commented as the rest looked at him if he'd grown a second head. "... Although now it feels as if I haven't eaten... for a whole week-"
Then through the breach, the poisoned arrow strikes Jericho's shoulder through the breach, with none other than True Leshy making the shot from another spot he'd resurrected from. "AHAHAHA! TRY WALKING THAT OFF-!"
He then promptly yanks the arrow out from where it had landed, the open wound festering with anti-healing poison then began to close up by itself.
"What the hell is going on with him?!" Ogmios then peeked into Jericho's mind and detected an additional foreign presence within his psyche. "... Uh, Nozel, I think I sort of recall you calling him a 'half-blooded freak'?"
"I only state the truth," the noble replied.
"I thought you meant by his half-Jotun heritage," Ogmios pointed out before screaming in mild panic. "NOT HALF-FUCKING [DRAGON]!"
Salim then raised his hand nervously as those who weren't caught in the loop were revealed of such fact. "... In our defense, there's a lot going on right now, and you guys were busy."
Brigid tried to defend herself, to which quickly ceded due to a lack of foundations for her to build her case. "... Fair enough," she sighed as she then began analyzing Jericho's body. "... Okay, he just digested the poison that shut off his blood from clotting, and now his metabolism has shot up to... oh crapbaskets."
Upon her realization, everyone then instinctively took a step back from Jericho, the latter who was which now had drool cascading from the corner of his lips.
Jericho's own mind was then shut off as all his senses became faint to the point where his own cognitive functions have plummeted. His stomach felt as if he'd eaten nothing since birth. His nose twitched at the myriad of scents coming from all around him that whetted his hunger to nigh-uncontrollable levels. His eyes bulged before locking onto a corpse.
Or in his mind's case, "easy meal."
Wasting absolutely no time, Jericho then pounces onto where Cissonius's corpse was laid at, knocking away those who were near it before devouring the meat with his now-revealed shark-like teeth, easily ripping through the carcass as if he were eating freshly-baked bread.
"OH MY FUCKING GOD!" Salim rightfully freaked out as everyone then moved to the very edge of the barrier, with only Danu staying, being confident that even he wouldn't dare eat her (on an account of her being made of earth). "WHAT IS HAPPENING TO HIM?!"
"... I can't get turned on by this," Vanica whimpered as Zenon vomits behind her. "... Nor I want to."
"Putting the two together..." Ogmios then lined up the facts presented, "... I think that giant arm of his had some genealogical data that bled into his own DNA and is now slowly turning him into a [Dragon]."
"... I'd like to point out that scale belonged to [Grendel]," Nozel pointed out too late, now with the now-half-[Dragon] proceeding to devour Cissonius's bones, crunching through them as if they were mere cookies. "... And for the record, none of you bothered to ask."
Everyone present (sans Jericho) groaned.
"Captain Nozel Silva," the semi-recovered Letoile remarked. "If we live through this, I am going to file a serious ethics and conducts complaint with your name on it."
"Brilliant," Agatha sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "So now he needs all the protein he can get every time he sustains a fatal injury. And pray that we have enough to not include ourselves."
"Hopefully not beyond that of a single chicken coop..." Dorothy nervously chuckled while resisting the urge to vomit and soil herself from pure terror while watching Jericho eat the dead body, shrugging off the poison contaminating it. "... I think I need a little 'me-time' after this as well. ... And some therapy."
"Thank the gods Aengus isn't awake to see this..." Moccus remarked as the talking pig wiped the sweat off of his brow.
Meanwhile, peeking through the breach, the god sees what kind of horror that he'd unleashed upon this world.
... This... like really bad, the god thought as he withdrew his [Yewfelle] before a sense of weakness befell upon his mind. ... And that is like... A THOUSAND TIMES WORSE! TIME TO BAIL!
With one order, True Leshy then calls for a full retreat, leaving only Ishtar as the main threat.
As soon as the god and his forces retreated, Jericho had now finally finished eating the dead Cissonius down to his last bone. Save for his clothes, there was nothing left of the former bandit-turned tavern cook. After he'd finished his meal, Jericho finally snaps back to his senses, and finds his lips and face covered in someone else's blood.
"... What are you guys looking at me like that for?" he asked before the lingering taste of raw meat was felt on his tongue. "... And why do I feel satiated right now?"
"Ask later," Lugh stated firmly.
"Jericho, you just ate Cissonius's corpse!" Salim exclaimed in horror.
"I..." his mind tried to process the (penal) Silver Eagle's claims, "... WHAT-?!"
In the middle of his exclamation, everyone else fighting Ishtar were then sent crashing through he barrier and landed around where Jericho had stood. The Demoness the tries to fit herself through the gap, only for it to be too small for her, causing her to kick down the remainder of it until the breach was big enough to accommodate someone of her stature.
"GUYS!" Danu cried out as she dropped her shield from her [TROY Option] before then unleashing her [Canyon Cleave] onto the Demon.
Ishtar then stops the earthen blade from reaching her by doing nothing, save for her [Gauge Magic] dictating her spell from reaching a certain distance before shattering it with a flick.
"... Just what kind of a monster is she?!" Zenon shuddered as he felt his heart quicken at her mere presence.
"She's less of a Demon..." groaned Corrin as she tried to get up, "... and more of a cat toying with us."
"I can still go for another round, but all of my attacks are missing her!" Roland growled as he quickly picked himself back up with his [Durandal].
"She wasn't kidding when she'd say she'll make us pay for every attempted entry..." Cernunnos wheezed out as his [Gae Dearg] and [Gae Buidhe] returned to their stuffed animal-forms. "... Thought we were cornering her... but she fucking played us this whole time!"
"Not to mention that Demon baby she has around her..." Rinaldo coughed out a splatter of blood. "... Tried hitting it... nearly disemboweled myself."
"One stalemate after another..." Patry grimaced as he then casted [Healing Light Particles] around himself and everyone else. "... We're outmatched."
"I only let you live this long so that I may properly gauge your strengths accurately," Ishtar pointed out as she then tossed her bundle aside. "... Mortals always disappoint, but I won't blame you for being born with limits."
She then reaches around her back before pulling out a black apple with a stitched smile and a pair of Xs for eyes.
"One last chance to redeem yourselves," she ordered. "This time, it's ride or die."
"An ADAM," Makarov shuddered. "EVERYONE! RETREAT NOW!"
As everyone then began to flee, Ishtar then devours the apple whole as her fangs crunches the chthonian fruit in between.
"A wise decision," the Demoness remarked as all of the surrounding shadows began to gather around her. "... Invoke the Law of [Greed]."
The Demoness is now completely engulfed under the tide of shadows as the whole atmosphere throughout the forest shifted beyond recognition.
"Hey, what's over your head?!" Salim pointed out the the number "666" appeared over his and everyone else's heads.
Then an ambient voice echoed throughout the darkened earth as a low snarl reverberated from behind everyone.
The law of the jungle exempts none
Throughout history, "want" and "take" echoed without end
Kill or be killed, choose one
As the Goddess of War returns once more to this world,
The black sun of oblivion shall descend
Be in awe as I give the whole world a chance
To fit into the mold
That I have carved out with my very hands.
Synchronization Rate: 666%
[Ishtar], the Demon of [Greed]: REALIZATION COMPLETE
Apocrypha Form: SUCCESS
UNLOCKED: True Goddess Form
[Ishtar], the Demon of [Greed] has now changed to: [Ishtar, the Goddess of War]
First, a pair of glowing topaz eyes pierced through the dimness. Then, several more shone through. Next, a low bass-like purr and roar followed up by a heavy thud akin to a giant's footstep. And finally, a fusion of suffocating infernal presence and that of a holy aura akin to that of the sun swept over everyone, causing their very knees to shake.
A feeling of horror and awe weighed on their collective hearts. From the dark weald emerged Ishtar, now her leonine features gone in favor of a divinely-beautiful and nude woman with gold-tan skin and flowing black hair that went down to her very ankles, its silky locks shining like most polished of onyx and obsidian, gleaming in a world where the sun had died out. And riding atop of her was an eldritch-looking giant lion, whose black mane and coat were composed of screaming shadows that writhed and pulsated like cancerous matter made of agony and sin, towering over even Danu herself, as its massive frame snapped through the thick trees as if they were mere twigs that she could step over without consequence.
"... What the..." choked Bizon as everyone resisted the urge to either faint and/or vomit from this overwhelming presence gracing itself before everyone. "... WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?!"
Ogmios then breaks down laughing hysterically, now finally have lost what little of his sanity he had left. Then laughed Vanica. Then Rinaldo. Then Dorothy.
Everyone else stood in deafening silence as their minds tried to process what or who they were seeing. Even Letoile and Nozel, who lost their abilities to feel fear and empathy respectively, were in silent awe of this mighty presence towering over them.
"... I'll let you in on a little secret," she spoke, her body lounging on the lion's back as if it were a luxurious sofa. "I am an ex-goddess. I joined Hell when all of my followers died in a terrible war. Their souls willingly joined me, fearing that they're whole existences will mean nothing without me. And for Leshy? I knew him. Now a mere spout of his former glory, but that is pride being his undoing."
Corrin the fell to her knees as her spirit was crushed at that moment. "... A real goddess," she whimpered. "... We're dead. ... We're fucking dead."
"It'll be easy to just kill you all here and take all of your valuables from here, but I am nothing but a fair sport," she then pointed towards the numbers hanging over their heads before snapping her fingers to have everyone with said number over their heads be revitalized of their mana and vitality. "That number of yours hits zero? You'll not only die, but you're guaranteed a one-way admission to Hell."
As the incentive was given, the shadows around the lion retched forwards into ghastly-looking barrels, with each piece connected to their own belt-link of yul bullions, with each minted coin filled to the brim with cursed energy.
"Start, running."
The volley then drums to life, now with everyone fleeing for their lives and salvation with the giant lion breaking its way through the trees.
"GODDAMMIT! GODDAMMIT! GODDAMMIT!" Corrin screeched as the cursed coin volley sprayed towards their backs. "WHY IS IT ALWAYS THE ABSOLUTE WORST CASE SCENARIOS ARE THE ONLY THINGS WE RUN INTO?!"
Jericho then quickly glances back at Ishtar before noticing the number "666,666" above her own head. "Well, at least she's not lying about being a fair sport."
"SIX HUNDRED SIXTY-SIX THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED SIXTY-SIX IS THE FURTHEST THING FROM 'FAIR'!" Salim screeched as his legs pumped as if his soul depended on it.
Letoile then wastes no time using her [Compass Magic] to reflect the coins fired at them, causing some of them to hit Ishtar and causing her number to tick down with each hit landed. "We have a chance," she coolly pointed out. "EVERYONE! FOCUS ON RUNNING FOR NOW!"
Then some of the coins that bounced off from Letoile's magic ricochets from the still-standing trees and strikes some of those fleeing from behind. Their numbers dropped by a fraction of their total sum.
"It didn't hurt..." Bizon stated as he then looked up, now sporting "513". "I LOST OVER A SIXTH!"
"THEN DON'T GET HIT!" Lugh remarked as his number was now "498".
"EASIER SAID THAN DONE!" Vanica cried out as her number was "524".
"I said nothing about this ever being easy," Ishtar replied, whose number was now at "666,574". "Put in some elbow grease if any of you wish to live."
"FUCK YOU AND YOUR HIGH HORSE!" cursed Corrin as she then rode atop of her magnetized [Hrunting] like an air board, her number being at "598."
During this chaos, Jericho (number is "666") ran towards Brigid and Ogmios (who were "666" and "510" respectively). "So, bad time to ask, but I need your help."
The spirit nods. "Alright, what is it?"
He then hands her his rewritten grimoire. "Can you teach me how to read [Dragon]?!"
Brigid smirks as she then motions Ogmios to piggyback himself on her before the latter then connects her mind to Jericho's own. "Honey, I can do this in my sleep, let alone, being chased down by a goddess."
Ishtar then notices the development from atop of her lion. "Good," she nodded with an evil smile as the pursuit continued. "Struggle harder so I may reap a larger bounty."
Autonomous Invasive Ecosystem, [The Forest of Denial]
Time Remaining Until Continental Assimilation:
4 Hours, 44 minutes, 4 seconds
The main clearing was buzzing with blurs and metallic friction.
Cu was wildly swinging his chains as twin whips to limit the Green Knight's movements, allowing Mikhael to both keep a better survey on the Fae's movements while prodding it non-lethally to keep the Green Knight from intercepting Dagda with its [Soulsave].
"THIS IS STARTING TO GET OLD!" the Fae in armor echoed out as it dodged the chain whips swung towards it while dodging Mikhael's blunted thrusts.
"Ye, of all people, got no right te complain!" Cu pointed out as he then spun the chain links around into a spiral to trip up the Green Knight even more, only for the latter to nimbly dodge the chains flawlessly while also evading the Archangel's prodding. "FEK! 'OLD STILL ALREADY!"
"NEVER!" screeched the Fae as it then had its helmet knocked off of its armor by Mikhael's [Longinus]. "GOD-FUCKING, DAMMIT!"
It then punts its helmet towards Mikhael, not actually hurting him, but distracting him just enough for the Green Knight to grab both of Cu's chains before dragging him into the Archangel's back, knocking them both down long enough for the Fae inside to make an attempt to slit its own throat.
"SMELL YOU LATER, ASSHOLES-!" but just as it was about to kill itself to forcibly trigger [Soulsave] and come back with a stronger body, the small [Spriggan] then felt a surge of weakness wash over its whole being as it then dropped its sharpened flint into its armor's hollow. "... Wha-what the?! What the hell is going on-?!"
Then a loud and deep gasp was heard from between the three of them, revealing Dagda's face popping out of the dirt like a gopher. "SWEET ME MOTHER'S TAINT! I ALMOST DIED DOWN DERE!"
"Did you succeed?!" asked Mikhael.
"Close but no cigar!" the half-Demon answered as he scrambled his way out of the hole he dug out from. "Freed de souls, though, so he ain't pullin' any life hacks anytime soon."
"THEY FAILED?!" exclaimed the Green Knight.
"Guess dat settles it, den," Cu smirked before lashing out one of his chains to snag [Gae Bolg] back into his hand. "Let's put dis thin' te bed."
"Indeed," agreed Mikhael as he then spreads his flame-wings out. "NO HESITATION!"
The Archangel then takes lead with Dagda and following up from behind as the Green Knight then made a defensive retreat, summoning every last [Jabberwocky] available to act as its shield while it ran away.
"HE'S GETTING AWAY!" the Archangel shouted as he ripped through the sprawling pit of wooden serpents with his still-heated [Longinus].
"DEN 'ERE'S A BOOST!" Dagda then slaps the flat of his [Counter Magic]-infused [Fragarch] across Cu's buttcheeks, propelling him past Mikhael, spinning around and about out of control like a wheel taking off to the heavens.
The wild man, rolling in the air as if he were fired from a trebuchet, slips his grip around his thorny Relic, but not before catching the spear by its blade between his toes. He then tenses the muscles connecting where he'd caught his [Gae Bolg], the pigmentation turning blood-red and snapping his big toenail in half vertically, the pain fueling his power behind his upcoming throw.
"EAT SHITE YE BASTARD!" Cu Chulainn then kicks his Relic towards the Green Knight like a crimson missile ripping through the air as it did with the rest of the wooden monsters.
This spear was too fast for the Fae to evade. But just as the Relic could claim its mark, True Leshy sprouts himself from the earth, intercepting the projectile with his own body.
"NO!" the Green Knight screamed out as the spines around the shaft all extended outwards and skewers the god's last body, the tree bursting its branches out of him before lifting him up into his sky burial.
True Leshy, in his dying breathes, reached out towards his last worshipper. "... Continue," he uttered hoarsely. "... The forest... must spread..."
Mikhael stops but Dagda runs past him. "Wait! Dagda!" the Archangel reached out towards the half-Demon. "AT LEAST LET HIM FINISH HIS LAST WORDS-!"
"FEK DAT!" roared Dagda as he then used the god's corpse as a springboard before descending down towards the distraught Fae with his blade in hand. "[COUNTER MAGIC]!"
In a last stand, the Green Knight then turns its arm into a long blade made from the components of its own armor, exposing the raging [Spriggan] from within, tears steaming down its eyes as the two converging avengers screeched their bloodcurdling cries of pure rage.
The blade skewers Dagda through his chest, but as he then slid down from the length, the half-Demon's spell was not only remaining active, but also getting stronger.
"[BLOOD FEUD COUNTER]!" then all of the damage that Dagda had just received then converts into additional power for his spell. Dagda then swung down his [Fragarach], rending the Fae, the rest of its armor, and the whole ground beneath them in twain.
Mikhael was able to rescue Dagda from plummeting into the same crevice that the two of them saw the Green Knight plunge into the abyss alone. "... Seriously, did you really had go that far?" asked Mikhael. "I mean, you did cut off his source of immortality, correct?"
"Sorry 'bout dat," the half-Demon apologized half-heartedly. "... Son of a bitch was a self-righteous piece of shite."
"No kill like overkill," Cu nodded approvingly as he wretched his [Gae Bolg] out the slain True Leshy before the latter's husk was kicked into the ravine. "... I can respect dat."
The Archangel groans as he let Dagda down next to Cu Chulainn. "... Hopefully, the forest should cede," he remarked as he looked around, "... any second now-"
Then the three of them heard screaming coming from the outside of the clearing followed up with clinking sounds akin to dropped coins. Right before Mikhael could answer their cries for help, the group screaming in question all came running out.
Corrin, Jericho, Salim, Dorothy, Nozel, Letoile, Patry, Agatha, Rinaldo, Mudo, Roland, Bizon, Makarov, Brigid, Ogmios, Cernunnos, Danu (in her [TROY Option]), Lugh, Moccus, Aengus, Vanica, and Zenon all tripped themselves towards before the three's feet.
"... Eh, welcome back?" Cu sweatdropped. "... 'Nd wat's with de numbas-"
"NO TIME TO EXPLAIN!" exclaimed Bizon as he and the others scrambled to all get back up. "THERE'S A FUCKING DEMON-GODDESS AT OUR HEELS!"
"... I thought that presence felt familiar!" Mikhael exclaimed as he then flew past the group and towards the snapping trees and suffocating volley of yul heralding Ishtar's presence. "ISSSHTTTAAAR!"
"Well, if it isn't my killer," smirked the demonic goddess of war as her lion headbutted against the Archangel's [Longinus]. "Keeping yourself busy all this time, helping the elderly, I suppose?"
"Even after several millennia, you haven't changed at all," the Archangel spat out his words with venom.
"Aside from the new working conditions, I saw no need," Ishtar replied as her lion then bucked over before stamping both of its frontal paws down towards the Archangel, the latter dodging the stomp before a volley of coins was fired at him to get him to fall back with the rest of the group. "... Were you expecting anything else from us deities? We're literally magic incarnate. Forces of nature made conscious through the fears of mortalkind trying to comprehend us. What made you and your fellow Archangels any different from the rest of us besides you and the other three willingly kowtowing to a mortal who just got lucky?"
"She gave me and my fellows a purpose!" Mikhael answered. "SHE SHOWED US THAT MORTALS ARE CAPABLE OF SO MUCH MORE THAN WE GODS COULD HAVE ACCOMPLISHED!"
"Tch, bold words for an Archangel whose entire staff has been ground down to a couple dozen since the last Armageddon while my workplace are littered with legions of legions," Ishtar refuted as she checked her number to be at "665,938," indicating that Mikhael's mere presence had damaged her. "... Granted, about 99.9% of them are undisciplined morons, but I suppose there is virtue of throwing brainless idiots headfirst into walls. Enough so, and no wall is impenetrable."
With the snap of her fingers, Mikhael, Dagda, and Cu all sported the numbers "666" over their heads as the [Law of Greed] took effect.
"Careful!" warned Makarov. "That number hits zero, and it's guaranteed damnation after instant death!"
"Yeh, figured dat out a while ago," grumbled Dagda as he then noticed Brigid handing Jericho back his (admittedly-cool-looking, with that [Dragon] visage on its cover) grimoire. "Dat doesn't change de fact dat we still can kill dat bitch!"
"Now that's more like it! The frontiersman's spirit to tackle against all the odds!" the goddess praised with genuine awe and joy. "COME AT ME AS I WILL DO TO YOU ALL!"
"THIS IT EVERYONE!" Jericho cried out as he brought back his [Dragon]-arm. "OUR FINAL PUSH! ATAAACCCK!"
The group of now-twenty five all then charged towards Ishtar and her giant, eldritch-looking lion pounced towards the mob.
But just before anyone could throw so much as a single attack towards their respective opposition, an absolutely-titanic arm made from intertwined trees erupted out of the crevice where the Green Knight had fallen in. Upon its entrance, it then punched Ishtar and her lion, sending them both flying out of the canopy and into the skies beyond, uprooting numerous forest's worth of trees in the moment of the impact.
"... I think our mana sensitivity is getting dull," Patry deadpanned as everyone looked at the monolith stupidly before he checked the arm and the current surroundings. "... Okay, anyone have anything to say about the Grand Magic Zone itself now FIGHTING BACK WITH ITS OWN PHYSICAL BODY?!"
Mkihael then gives both Dagda and Cu the sourest stink-eye ever possible for human comprehension. "... And this is why I said, 'let him finish'."
Then the whole arm then digs out the rest of itself that it was connected to, causing the earth to rip and tear itself asunder beneath everyone's feet.
"SCRAM!" screamed Corrin as she then rode atop of her flying [Hrunting] while everyone else utilized their own means of aerial transportation or helped out the others who couldn't (save for Nozel, who was still a selfish prick even before he lost his ability to feel empathy).
As everyone flew for their very lives, all of them bore witness to a rise of a literal titan. From its head that pierced past the clouds to the toes each the size of a modestly-sized castle was made of the same trees that the whole of the [Forest of Denial]. Its arms reached down to its knees, its back was hunched over like a man who'd just gotten out off bed, and from the shape of the shadow cast from above, the head bore a pair of magnificent-looking antlers, each horn now could only described as literal "world trees," for which its mighty and thick branches bore enough shrubbery and leaves to support a small country on top of it.
No one said anything. Not the Magic Knights, not the Witch Queen, not the Paladins (and ex-FAMAS pilot), not the Inquisitors, not the Zogratis siblings, and especially not the Twrch Trwyth Tavern staff (and talking pig).
"... I... AM..." the titan's voice quaked the air and earth and creaked like rickety wood with each word uttered, "... I AM... I... AM! ... I! ... AM! I! AM! [YGGDRASIL]!"
With that final declaration, the trees around the group shot up like bamboo and thickened akin to a fattening animal, shrinking the space between each tree available as now the whole forest can now be see from orbit.
"I AM THE NEW GOD OF THIS WORLD," [Yggdrasil] declared from the heavens above, its voice like thunder. "I SHALL RESTORE THIS WORLD TO ITS MOST PURE. ALL CURRENT LIFEFORMS INHABITING THIS CONTINENT SHALL BE PURGED TO MAKE WAY FOR A NEW SPECIES. I AM THE WILL OF THE VERY NATURE THAT YOU MORTALS HAVE PLUNDERED FROM WITHOUT END. AS YOU HAVE ALL HAVE TAKEN WITHOUT LIMIT, I SHALL NOW TAKE BACK EVERYTHING THAT YOU AND YOUR KIND HAS STOLEN FROM US, AS RECOMPENSE FOR ALL DAMAGES INFLICTED SINCE TIME IMMEMORIAL!"
From within the titan's body was William's soul, now housed inside the core resembling a fusion between True Leshy and the Green Knight, puppeteering [Yggdrasil] from within. Before the composite core, William's grimoire, now shining in verdant light akin to that of a miniature sun, opened its pages before it.
"[WORLD TREE FAE MAGIC]!" declared [Yggdrasil], "[GINNUNGAGAP SYNTHESIS]!"
Then every tree around the [Forest of Denial] grew even faster, catching everyone in its branches and sending them up high up to the titan's waist.
Corrin began to hyperventilate at the sense of literally all of the natural mana from below, within, and outside of the expanding Dungeon all converging towards this new god towering over their heads. It then reaches to the point where her heart finally gives out and the girl finally strokes towards afterlife.
"CORRIN!" Jericho cried out as he then ripped her clothes open to perform CPR, desperately pounding at her heart with his single, normal-sized hand to pull her back from the brink.
"You idiot male, you'll kill her faster like that!" Agatha growled out as she then took over her recovery. "[Blood Recovery Magic: Temperance Pulse]."
Directly controlling the [Magnet Magic] user's blood flow with her own [Blood Magic], Agatha successfully resets Corrin's heart back to a stable rhythm.
"Alright, I got the blood," the Witch Queen then looked towards Jericho. "... You provide the oxygen."
"Forgive me, Corrin, for I am about to sin," Jericho quickly recited before he then locked lips with her's, blowing air into her emptied lungs and breathing breath back into her being, causing her to gasp and cough back to full function. "... Welcome back."
"... Yeah, no thanks to you," she hissed before finding the rest of the group of 25 sitting around the branches each wide as a galleon's deck of the now-titanic trees. "... We're fucked, aren't we?"
"Not entirely fucked yet," Dagda then pointed up. "Look."
Everyone looks up and sees the number "999,999,999" between its antlered head.
"... It can be killed," Makarov gasped hopefully.
"Yeah," Salim replied. "BY THE TIME OUR GRANDKIDS ARE BORN!"
"OKAY EVERYONE! SHUT DE FEK UP!" Dagda hollered out to calm everyone down. "... Okay, so everyone first needs te calm de fek down. Den, we all can talk about how we're gonna waste dat bastard."
Everyone looks at each other before nodding in agreement.
"... He's right," Rinaldo remarked. "Cooler heads needs to prevail."
"Okay, so first of all, does anyone have the faintest idea on how that fucker grew to the size of twice that of [Ymir]?!" Mudo first asked.
Mikhael began sweating before said sweat evaporated into steam as his face turned red in embarrassment. "... I take partial blame."
"Explain," Nozel demanded, to which the Archangel explains to everyone how the Green Knight's [Fae Arts: Memory] works and how said "memory" is tied to the lands it had treaded upon, that being Ulster since way before its founding by Beowulf, the Hero-King, and from that revelation, everyone connects the two and two together. "... That green bastard memorized your mana?!"
"Like a schmuck," Ogmios half-chuckled. "... Can't tell if Sephira putting that [Heavenly Restriction: Charity] on you was a good idea when IT HAS DOOMED US ALL-!"
Agatha knocks him with with a swift chop to the back of his neck. "Remember, cooler heads."
"Although te be fair, I was de one who cut open a canyon that sent 'im 'nd de god plummetin' in," Dagda confessed. "Although at dis point, I think everyone's minds aren't at der greatest or thinkin' straight, rite?"
Everyone present reluctantly nods.
"... 'Nd before anyone says anythin'," Dagda then glanced towards the still-unconscious Aengus before looking at the rest of his tavern staff, now noticing that Cissonius wasn't with them anymore, "I got only one thin' te say: save it fur later."
"Alright, so what's the plan?" asked Corrin.
"Ishtar's still a threat," Dagda pointed out as he then drew his [Fragarach]. "She's me mess te clean up."
"Let us join too," Makarov requested as he and Bizon stepped up.
"Please, let us atone for our cowardice!" bowed the other Inquisitor with his superior towards the half-Demon and the Archangel. "To fall short before a divine presence as yours... it is a shameful act befitting of the one following Sephira's will!"
"It's not cowardice to run from a fight that you can't win," Mikhael pointed out. "That said, are you you two are sure of doing this?"
Bizon and Makarov glance at each other before nodding. "... Guess cooling our heads helped," he grinned as he rested his [Labrys] over his shoulder. "And besides, a Demon willingly playing fair? I couldn't ask for better conditions for a fight."
"My [Aura Magic] was able to hurt through her [Gauge Magic] before she transformed," Makarov pointed out. "And just in case, I also need to makes sure that if the others' souls are to be damned, then the least I can do is to buy some time for a miracle."
Upon hearing their claims, the Archangel gives them his blessing. "Before you all go, a little something for you all."
He then checks on his [Longinus]'s spearhead, now completely cooled off and allowing him to use [Flare Magic] once more.
"Can't fight while half-bruised," the Archangel remarked. "Any specific requests?"
"Can you heal Aengus's burns?" Moccus asked before touching one of the patches, hissing his hoof on contact. "They still sting to the touch."
"My name," Roland spoke. "My memories have returned, but my true name is still lost to me. Can you help me rediscover it?"
"Anything that ails or hinders any of you..." Mikhael declared as his holy Relic then lit a small ember between its prongs, "... all shall be burned away by my cleansing flames."
The small ember then bursts outwards into a shower of warm sparks. The ambient glow akin to fireflies soothed their souls as it healed all of their wounds, mended all of their bones, and cleansed their minds and souls of all ailments, save for the [Law of Greed]'s numbers, for only all of which were all reset back to "666."
"[Flare Recovery Magic: Enlightenment]," the Archangel declared in a reposed hush. "... There. Back in top form."
Aengus was still unresponsive, but rather than "unconscious," she was now sleeping soundly, her skin now cleared off all blemishes.
"Thanks mister Archangel," Moccus remarked as he then scooped up the girl over his back. "I'll keep her same with me. For all our sakes."
"Seconded," Roland nodded as his smile was genuine and calm, looking at Mikhael with a resplendent gaze. "... I now know what my name is now."
"Really Roland?!" Rinaldo remarked. "Pray tell, what is it-?!"
Then from behind, he was then taken from behind before he then fell from the branch that he was standing with the others on, his muffled screaming bellowing hollowly as the Paladin careened back down towards the densely-packed surface.
"SHITE!" Cu cursed. "AMBUSH!"
"I'm going after him!" Letoile remarked as she then slid down the trunk with her [Compass Magic].
"WAIT FUR ME TOO!" the wild man followed after her before the whole area was then taken by surprise by an all-encompassing cloud of thick fog and cherry blossoms.
A pair of screams was heard as Zenon and Vanica were taken away by a Green Knight-lookalike half-emerging from a slithering cloud of mist dragged the two kids away like a boogyman in broad daylight.
Nozel, despite having no reason to save those two, was compelled by that mist for some odd and irritating reason that he cannot comprehend. "... That fog bastard is taunting me..." he muttered before he went after the two brats. "... Fie, you, all."
The cherry blossoms then sweep up Dorothy and Brigid by their feet, causing them to lose balance before being carried off akin to the two of them being caught in an involuntary crowd-surfing.
"YOU'VE GOT TO BE SHITTING ME!" cursed the artificial spirit as she and the Coral Peacock Captain were both whisked away towards elsewhere.
"WHY DOES THIS FEEL SO FAMILIAR-?!" Dorothy screeched as her screams faded out the further back into the weald they went.
"LUGH!" Cernunnos cried out. "PROTECT AENGUS AND MOCCUS! I'M GOING ON A RESCUE MISSON!"
"GODSPEED!" the mustachioed man roared back as the Fae took off towards where the two had gone towards where the flower petals had gone.
Eventually, the obscuring screen clears up, revealing over a third of them had now gone missing.
"Dagda," Agatha sighed out, seething in tone. "... What didn't you tell us this time-?!"
Then the tree and the connected branches that she, Salim, and Ogmios stood on lurched backwards. Then, a creaking sound echoed from below, right before the whole tree began to fall down, right directly into the same abyss that [Yggdrasil] had birthed itself from.
Agatha then quickly conjures up [Massacre Exsanguination] to let the murder of blood crows catch her on the way down. But just before she had landed, a projectile of high-pressurized water was shot below her murder, dissipating the crows' structural integrity before Agatha herself was sent plummeting into the abyss and soaking her grimoire's pages in the process.
"WAS THAT [WATER MAGIC]?!" Salim exclaimed as he futilely flapped his arms like a bird's wings.
"I SHOULD'VE BEEN ABLE TO REMEMBER THAT!" the [Memory Magic] user bemoaned as he fell.
"CURSE YOU DEGENERATE MALE!" Agatha swore at Dagda as she, Salim, and Ogmios were all invited into the depths below.
As soon as the situation was over with, all that remained were Corrin, Jericho, Patry, Mikhael, Roland, Dagda, Lugh (defending Aengus and Moccus), Bizon, Makarov, and Mudo.
"... Gonna be honest with ye," Dagda spoke. "Thought dose four bastards died after about a whole cave's worth of dirt and rock were buried over der 'eads."
"Clearly, that wasn't the case," Mudo sighed. "... Guess that only leaves the Demon and that titan."
"We best get moving," Makarov spoke to Dagda. "The longer we linger, the sooner the Demon will kill and damn our own."
"Wait for me!" Danu remarked as she then followed after Dagda, Makarov, and Bizon, the last of whom used his [Gravity Magic] to reduce the golem's weight to prevent her from breaking anything she skipped on.
The remaining ones were then left to face [Yggdrasil].
"So," asked Mikhael as he then placed his hand onto Roland's shoulder, "how does it feel to finally be back, brother?"
"... Brother?!" Mudo squawked right as she the saw Roland then rip off all of his hair as if it were a hat, leaving behind a shining chrome-dome.
The now-bald "Roland" smiled. "Like fresh air after a long storm."
[Durandal] in his grasp began to glow in an unambiguously holy light, invigorating all those who're basking in its radiance.
"Archangel Raphael..." a halo resembling an eye of a storm formed behind his back before a pair of pure-white wings made of the purest of air sprouted out of the axis, "... HAS RETURNED!"
With that declaration, the now-revealed Archangel Raphael then raises its blade towards the sky, completely wiping away the sun-blocking canopy from the branches and finally letting the sun in.
"... So that's what the sun looks like," the elf in human body commented with subtle glee. "... My will to fight has never burned so bright!"
The rays of the sun also then further invigorates Lugh, his emaciated form bulking back up to a bodybuilder's physique in an instant, threatening to snap his overalls from the sudden tension exerted.
"ONE, HUNDRED, PERCENT!" the now-macho man boldly declared. "MY BODY! MY MAGIC! ARE READY!"
"Two Archangels, an elf in human body, a [Solar Magic]-powered muscle man, a half-[Dragon], and the wielder of the Hero-King Beowulf's sword on our side?!" Mudo geeked out as her hope risen past event horizon. "... Our odds of winning... IT'S NO LONGER IMPOSSIBLE ANYMORE!"
"Speaking of which..." Corrin muttered as she nodded her head at Jericho's rewritten grimoire, "... finally know how to read [Dragon]?"
"Like poetry," Jericho then called out towards the others as he pounded his giant [Dragon]-arm with his hand. "YOU HEAR THAT EVERYONE?! WE ALL GOT THIS IN THE BAG! NINE-HUNDRED NINETY-NINE MILLION NINE-HUNDRED NINETY-NINE THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED NINETY NINE BE DAMNED!"
"Hang on William. We're coming," Patry then looked towards his body's former subordinate. "... Are you ready for THE fight of your life?"
She then closes her eyes before opening them with burning infernos lit in her irises.
"... I, fucking, hate this place," Corrin growled, now no longer afraid in favor of being absolutely enraged at the odds towering over her and the others's head, with her Relic, [Hrunting], now glowing in an opaque-dull gray aura around its blade. "SO LET'S BURN THIS ENTIRE SHITHOLE TO THE FUCKING GROUND!"
Autonomous Invasive Ecosystem, [The Forest of Denial]
Time Remaining Until Continental Assimilation ([Ginnungagap Synthesis] Applied):
44 minutes, 44 seconds
"AAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Dorothy and Brigid screamed as the two were surfing across the air while being carried by a cloud of cherry blossoms while being followed by Cernunnos.
"HOLD ON!" the Fae cried out as he then spun his [Gae Dearg] and [Gae Buidhe] into sharp disks. "I'LL GET YOU TWO DOWN!"
The spinning lances then both buzz towards the pink cloud, corroding enough of the petals to allow its unwilling passengers to fall through.
However, as they were freed from the cloud of flower petals, another one quickly swarmed around them like a swarm of bees, with this time not being as gentle as the last time, with now the flower petals stuffing themselves into their mouths and eyes while the speed of their ride accelerated with half the comfort.
"(OH MY FREAKING GOD! THIS IS A THOUSAND TIMES WOOOOOORRRSSSEEE)!" Dorothy's voice muffled behind her gag as they were further into the weald.
Eventually, the two were then let off as Cernunnos followed after the pair, now finding themselves at a suspiciously-peaceful garden-like area. Between the literal row of normal-sized cherry blossom trees was a perfectly paved road made of smooth white marble, perfectly contrasting the small river running behind where the trees were planted at and the numerous petals dancing about in the eerily-serene air, and the entire scenery was illuminated by particles of loose mana akin to fireflies.
"... We don't have marble in Ulster," Cernunnos pointed out.
Dorothy and Brigid spits out their gags, leaving behind a floral taste lingering in their tongues. "... Ugh, yeah, I think logic died ages ago," the Witch pointed out before looking around. "... But this? Yeah... definitely takes the cake on the weirdness scale."
"Stay vigilant," Brigid remarked as all three of them gathered around back-to-back. "Consider all possible blindspots and prepare yourselves for any outcome!"
The three of them remained in place, glancing from side to side to make sure where the was coming from. As they waited, cherry blossoms continued fluttering about in the winds.
"... Still can't sense anything," Dorothy whispered. "... It's like the same with that [Yggdrasil] guy. There is no distinction between the Dungeon's mana and itself!"
"The [Forest of Denial] had already proven itself to be proficient in tricking the mind," Brigid remarked quietly. "Assume nothing, and pray everything works out."
The Fae then hits upon a solution from what the two had uttered. In reflex, he then reaches into his pockets of his jacket and pulls out the final seed he has left. After this one use, he's stuck fighting with his dual Relics until he could find the time to restock.
"... This better work," the Fae then flicks the seed into the air before it burst and scatters shining particles. "[Fae Arts: Perception-Unearth]!"
All of the remaining cherry blossoms disappear from the air. And right between the three's back's was none other than [Dáinn] itself, its scythe blade wound back and swung towards the two women's necks upon being spotted.
Dorothy and Brigid duck out of the way right as Cernunnos parries the swing and knocks the [Sylvan Sentinel] across the marble path, its armored feet scratching up the smoothed surface before coming to a halt.
"ANOTHER ONE?!" Dorothy exclaimed. "JUST HOW MANY CONTINGENCIES DOES THOSE TWO TREE-HUGGERS HAVE WAITING?!"
"Well, I can now guess who our culprit is," Brigid then squinted her eyes before spotting Kirsch's soul inside of their last assailant. "... And why Kirsch and the others were targeted."
"Not an issue for me! EAT THIS!" Cernunnos then shot forth both his Relics towards [Dáinn], but just as the poisoned spears could hit it and rot it from within, it then dissipates into a storm of cherry blossoms that then surrounds them from all sides. "... Yep, not making this easy for us."
Brigid then notices that Dorothy's patience were now reaching their limits. "... Calm down, Dorothy," the spirit remarked. "Cooler heads must prevail-!"
"INCOMING!" the Fae warned out loud as some of the petals flying about transformed into copies of [Dáinn] itself, swinging their scythes from multiple directions, causing the three to scramble about as they dodged the omnidirectional assault.
"This attack..." the Witch Captain remarked as she ducked under a swing, "... it looks familiar! It's literally Kirsch's [Clones of the Beautiful Me] spell!"
"OKAY, SO WHAT DOES IT DO AND WHAT ARE ITS WEAKNESSES?!" Brigid asked as she tried not to use her [Fire]-adjacent spells lest she triggers a dust explosion with them at ground zero, defending herself by arming herself with a pair of spiked tower shields made of ice and gems.
"That spell sends clones of the caster who each have free-flying capabilities!" explained the Captain as she ducked under another swing before the clone vanishes. "They're normally used as decoys or as tributes to trigger traps ahead of time, but this variant has all of the original capabilities on top of being able to maim us! However, if I'm correct about one thing...!"
She then throws her pointed hat towards the one coming from low to the ground, its scythe swing cutting her hat in half right before she then kicks her boot off into its head, indicating that it's the real deal.
"THEN ONLY THE ORIGINAL IS EARTHBOUND!" she then jumps over and onto [Dáinn], tackling it down before sending both of them into her own [Dream Magic]'s pocket space.
However, even with the original affected, the clones of [Dáinn] still pushed for the offensive, now with every single cherry blossom petal each transforming into the copy of the [Sylvan Sentinel] itself.
"... Good thing Dorothy isn't here to see this," Cernunnos grimly chuckled as both he and Brigid now found themselves surrounded on both land and in the air. "Even the contingencies have their own contingencies."
"Guess that only means one thing," the artificial spirit then all four of her elements of her [Anima Magic] into full burst. "I can now go all out without hurting anyone!"
"Glad you can trust me," the Fae nodded as the two then confronted the army of [Dáinn]-clones numbering exactly one thousand.
In the air, Cernunnos spun his envenomed Relics around like deadly tops, ripping through the ranks with ease as the clones tried to hit the minuscule Fae with their massive scythes, the sickles being more likely to hit each other rather than the Fae itself.
"WHAT'S WRONG, CHUCKLENUTS?!" Cernunnos cackled out as he evaded all of the attacks coming from the [Dáinn]-clones. "NEVER FOUGHT SOMEONE THE SIZE OF A MOUSE BEFORE?!"
On the ground was Brigid, who unleashed wave after wave of elemental spells that sent the clones to their graves. Waves of sharpened volcanic rocks pierced and scorched all that it touched. Storms of acidic rain and thunder struck the clones down in quick succession. Weapons of fire, earth, and wind tore through the opposition while Brigid encases herself in a bubble of reactive water that lashed out with sharp tendril whips upon each physical contact.
"AHAHAHAHA! SUCK ON MY NONEXISTENT COCKS, YOU BURNING WANKERS!" the spirit gleefully cried out as she and the Fae continued running roughshod across the false garden.
But the [Dáinn] clones catch wise of an idea to dogpile on the bubble, forcing it to rupture onto itself and bury Brigid within with their combined weight,
"BRIGID!" Cernunnos cried out as he then sent his [Gae Dearg] towards the mosh pit, corroding enough of them to allow her to escape on her own with a pillar of fire surrounding her.
As she escaped, Brigid catches herself on her knees before looking at her hand, now sporting glowing cracks on it before a piece of her pinkie falls off. "... Oh fuck me sideways."
"What is going on?!" asked the Fae while his [Gae Buidhe] skewers seven [Dáinn]-clones before coming back out for more.
"... Well, I might've underplayed the seriousness of my loss of [Animus] to everyone," she casually remarked as her more of her hand begins cracking off like eroded stone. "... Short story even shorter, my lack of internal equilibrium has actually compromised my internal structure, and as a result, I am more or less likely to explode and take out an entire mile-wide radius of land and all of its inhabitants. The reason for my recent underperformance was me instinctively keeping myself together long enough so that everyone else doesn't get caught up in my meltdown."
"So you lied to Ogmios?!" he exclaimed as her then spun both his [Gae Dearg] and [Gae Buidhe] around themselves to fend off the remaining clones. "YOU LIED TO EVERYONE ELSE AS WELL?! AND FOR WHAT?!"
"... Not the first time I did so to protect them from something even worse," she shrugged as she then handed the Fae her [Anbhair] Relic, shrinking the crystal ball down to the size of a marble for the sake of the carrier. "... But this will definitely be my last."
Then the rest of her body begins cracking at the seams, shards of herself falling off and revealing her glowing and pulsating core from her exposed chest.
"... I suggest you run," uttered the dying spirit. "NOW."
With a pained heart, Cernunnos flees from the garden with the shrunken [Anbhair] as the dying Brigid was left behind to fend off the rest of the clones.
"... You know, funny thing is," she smirked as she took numerous scythes into her crumbling body, "... I've always wanted to know... if there was an afterlife."
Half of her face cracks off, exposing an ethereal white glow from within.
"So thank you for humoring me..." the dying spirit dryly cackled before she erupted into a demented laughter. "... FOR MY LAST REQUEST!"
Brigid's entire physical body then explodes, taking out half of the [Dáinn]-clones present, and from the epicenter emerged a featureless silhouette made of the purest white light.
"... You're not the only one... with contingencies," spoke the burning light as it radiated with unearthly power. "... Behold... my final spell."
The light from the spirit brightens to the point where all other color surrounding it whited out.
"... [Nyu]."
Brigid's very soul then explodes, taking out the last of the [Dáinn]-clones, the garden, and the rest of the mile's worth of trees, greenery, earth, and air. Cernunnos can only permit himself to hear his friend go off like a bomb, daring not to look back both for the sake of not going blind and honoring his friend's sacrifice.
"... I won't let it go to waste," he weeped as he flew off with the last remnant of her will. "... I promise."
Brigid: 0 (DEAD)
Cernunnos: 664
Inside Dorothy's [Dream Magic]...
[Dáinn] looked around and saw only Dorothy within the endless white void.
"... If you're still in there, Kirsch... give me a sign," the Witch spoke, in an almost resigned, but pleading tone.
Without hesitation, the [Sylvan Sentinel] rushes towards its soul's former superior, swinging down its serrated scythe down onto her head.
In the next instant, the sickle was stopped by Dorothy's hand, tightly gripping around the weapon's blade as blood dripped from it.
"... Guess not," she remorsefully remarked.
[Dáinn] then tries to pull its weapon out, but Dorothy kept an iron-death grip around it, refusing to let go.
"... You know, I consider myself a genial and patient person," she began. "After all, in a civilized society, being a creature that runs nothing on emotions without fetters is considered... antisocial."
Her gripped around the scythe tightened.
"... But, then I asked myself this:" she continued. "... 'Aren't I tired of always being nice? ... Don't I just want to go apeshit?' ... And then it hit me."
The scythe blade then bends like paper, causing [Dáinn] to flinch in surprise.
"... Even my patience..." the Captain's voice trembled as her teethed gnashed and ground against each other, "... HAS A LIMIT!"
The white void around the two of them instantly turns blood-red as sirens blared around the space.
Dorothy then pulls [Dáinn] along with its weapon in towards her, right as she then wound back her other hand balled into a fist before it then clocked the [Sylvan Sentinel] across its face, sending it tumbling across the violent red ground that had now just materialized.
"I!" from above debris and wreckage fell onto the floor as she tossed the scythe aside. "AM!" then various tools of demolition hung by strings then dangled down around Dorothy. "DONE!" she then snaps off a baseball bat stuck with countless nails around its shaft. "PLAYING!" the whole red space began to tremor violently. "NNNIIIIIIIIICCCCCCEEEEEE!"
With bloodshot eyes and her patience snapping beyond its breaking point, Dorothy Unsworth, the alway-unassuming Captain of the Coral Peacocks, for the first time in her entire life, unleashes her most pure, primal, and primitive rage-induced scream that she could muster from her lungs, fueled by the endless trek throughout the [Forest of Denial], the various times their minds were violated, the lives that were lost and played with, and that her [Dream Magic]'s "imagination" was stolen from her.
She have had enough.
Cu has shown that in a land where might makes right, rage is power.
Rage was now HER power.
"[DREAM CONJURATION MAGIC]!" then a thrashing orchestra akin to booming metal filled the whole headspace that [Dáinn] now realized that it was TRAPPED in. "[RAGE ROOM]!"
Dorothy then whacks the [Sylvan Sentinel] across its head and sends it flying into a dilapidated building, which upon its forceful entry, collapsed in over itself.
Not satisfied, Dorothy then plucks a stick of dynamite before ripping the cord-cap off with her teeth to set its charge. She then throws it onto the rubble pile that [Dáinn] was emerging from, blasting the offshoot out of the pile as it tumbled across the rough road.
Her rage still burning bright, Dorothy then snaps off a hatchet from its cord before breaking off into a sprint towards the downed [Dáinn] while the latter futilely defended itself with its bent scythe.
First, the blade was broken in two. Then the shaft was chopped in half. And finally, as it was left without a weapon, the [Sylvan Sentinel] fled. But Dorothy's rage was still at its peak. Throwing her arm back, she then chucks the axe towards the fleeing [Dáinn], nailing its leg before dislodging it.
"WHAT'S WRONG, HORSESHIT?!" Dorothy snarled out sadistically as she then yanks a bloodstained sledgehammer from its cord. "TUCKERED OUT ALREADY?! TOO BAD! I'M JUST GETTING WARMED UP!"
[Dáinn] tried to separate itself into its cherry blossoms, but all of its others were still active and outside of its domain of influence. Having no options left, it crawls away from the enraged and maniacal Witch, dragging her hammer across the terrain while laughing her guts out through the blaring and booming of this bloodied badlands.
She then jumps onto [Dáinn] pinning its arms with her feet as she then brought the hammer down onto its other leg, breaking its shin in two as it flailed about in pain.
"CAN'T EVEN SCREAM LIKE A LITTLE BITCH, CAN YOU?!" Dorothy continued bringing her hammer down onto the rest of [Sylvan Sentinel]. "DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU AND YOUR BOSS, AND YOUR GOD! AND THIS WHOLE FUCKING FOREST! DIE A THOUSAND DEATHS! DIE SCREAMING AND BURNING LIKE YOU ALL DESERVE! DIE AND DIE SOME MORE FOR MAKING ME DO THIS TO YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE! DIE FOR TAKING AWAY MY OWN MAGIC AND TURNING ME INTO SOMETHING THAT I UTTERLY DESPISE!"
[Dáinn]'s limbs and armor were pummeled into slag. But even after the sentinel was destroyed beyond all repair, she continued slamming her hammer down onto it, caving in everything until it was only reminiscent to that of a sheet of old paper.
"CHOKE ON MY RAAAAAAGGGEEE!" the violent Witch as she then lifted her hammer up over her head and brought it down as hard as she could onto [Dáinn]'s head, crumpling the antlered helmet in before she then brought down the hammer a couple more times for good measure as a final release of her pent-up rage.
At last, her rage is now emptied. Her mind was now in a listless lull as she and what's left of her former subordinate were expelled from the former's [Rage Room] and dumped back out into the physical world, now sporting a fresh crater with none of [Dáinn]'s clones left in sight.
"Ahh..." sighed Dorothy as she was tuckered out from her release as she settled in on the layer of soil that felt akin to a warm blanket during a cold evening, "feels real good..."
Dorothy Unsworth, after several months without sleep, finally takes a well-deserved nap, sawing logs into the dirt.
Dorothy Unsworth: 337
Salim, Ogmios, and Agatha were all screaming as they were all freefalling into the chasm where [Yggdrasil] had emerged from.
"WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO UUUSSSSSS?!" screeched Salim as he flailed about wildly.
"LANDING STRATEGIES!" Ogmios cried out. "IF MAGIC IS TO BE NEGATED LIKE THE MISANDRIST HAG'S, THEN USE YOUR OWN DAMN BODY!"
"... Again, I curse you for being born male," sighed Agatha as she then uses [Blood Magic] onto herself and Salim's bodies to match that of Ogmios's developed physiology. "We'll follow your lead."
The three then first land feet first into the cavern walls before streaking them down across the rocky surface. Then on Ogmios's mark, they all jump to the other side of the abyss, sliding down for a few seconds before jumping back to the other side.
"What's he planning with this jumping back and forth?!" asked Salim.
"He's dispersing inertia from our fall," explained Agatha as she skipped in Salim's path. "By reducing the acceleration of our fall into this hole, we're less likely to die upon going splat down there."
The three continued jumping back and forth between different sides of the chasm, with the bottom now in sight, Ogmios then uses his [Ionróir] to grapple onto a hanging root and swing down onto the bottom with a roll.
"HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO THAT?!" Salim exclaimed before he was then grabbed on by the Witch Queen.
"I've already compromised my values several times, so what's one more?" she grumbled as she then let loose a thin strand wire made of her [Blood Magic] to grapple both of them back down to safety, even replicating Ogmios's roll to not break anything on their way down.
"OH THANK GOD! WE MADE IT DOWN!" Salim then began kissing the ground.
"So," Agatha then looked at Ogmios, who was looking at his [Ionróir] main spool, "how is it?"
"I got off lucky," he answered as he put his Relic away under his sleeve. "... That said, it's fucking dark down here. Anyone got a light?"
"Leave it to me!" Salim then uses his [Lightning Magic] to then generate a ball of light that illuminates the dark abyss that the three of them were in. "... Yep, nothing out of the ordinary. Just rocks and dirt."
"Wow, a spell that didn't take double-digit seconds to cast?" snarked Ogmios. "... Guess you can do it when you actually try!"
"Have to ask," Agatha spoke, "while you were unconscious, I peeked through grimoire and saw that your spells were spelled out as mini-proses, with all of them having your name somewhere on their incantations. What compelled you to do such thing? Or is your personality just that maladjusted?"
"... Yeah, sorry, but ever since my family, the Hapshass, bought their way into nobility after generations of mercantile business with the Heart Kingdom, my father told me that if I want to be respected as a new noble rather than some new money schmuck, I first have to get my name out there to the public consciousness," he explained in detail. "So since I was around like what? Five or six? Anyway, he since drilled me into making my and the whole Hapshass name synonymous with what the entire Clover Kingdom considers 'nobility'."
"... Wow," Ogmios sarcastically gasped. "I'm honestly surprised at how little I give a shit!"
Salim chuckles at that remark. "... If my dad had precognition, then maybe we'd been better off as nobodies," he bitterly smirked. "But nooo, he instead had to get himself arrested by the authorities upon records of being an illegal arms dealer with the Purple Orcas Captain just had to been unearthed and everything I was working for became my prison sentence. I was offered this poisoned chalice, being a Silver Eagle, the Magic Knight's badge of nobility, as a penal combatant."
"... This is legitimately the first time in my life where I felt genuine pity for a man," Agatha remarked with a slight surprise.
But just before the conversation could continue, the tree that had carried them crashed before them.
"HOW THE FUCK DID THAT FALL IN AFTER US?!" Ogmios pointed out.
Then from the sawdust kicked up from the tree's landing emerged [Dvalinn], dragging its axe-sword behind itself before hoisting it up and carrying it across his shoulder.
"... All of that for the sake of a dramatic entrance," Agatha deadpanned. "Either that or that thing was hoping that the fall would kill us before it could."
[Dvalinn] then leaps towards their direction with its massive weapon raised.
"HIT THE DECK!" Ogmios barked out as he and the rest leapt out of the way as the weapon crashed between the three of them as it then unleashes an erupting torrent of water that swept all of them away. "BAD IDEEEEAAAAA...!"
[Dvalinn]'s massive blade then clicks back into its halberd form, switching its target towards Agatha and Salim.
"I got this!" Salim remarked as he opened his grimoire. "[Lightning Magic: The God of Lightning, Rising Sa-"
The Agatha tackles him out of the way as [Dvalinn] brought down his weapon before Salim could finish his incantation. The [Sylvan Sentinel] then presses the offense, forcing Agatha to defend him with the shaft of her [Lifeblood Scythe] blocking the halberd.
"Okay, maybe my spells take a while to cast might be a problem," Salim remarked.
"GOOD TO KNOW!" Agatha sarcastically remarked as the halberd blade ground against her own weapon. "SO FIX THAT ISSUE BEFORE WE ALL DIE!"
[Dvalinn] then was about to morph its axe blade back into its sword before before Agatha notices a surge of mana building up from within the weapon itself.
It's coming! she thought as she then aborts her blade lock as the weapon then unleashes a surge of [Water Magic] that would've sent her flying were she were caught in its blast. As the splash subsided, [Dvalinn] then comes rushing out from the deluge, pushing its wide-rimmed blade towards the Witch Queen.
She dodges the slow thrust, but as she jumped back, Agatha notes that the weapon is morphing into its halberd form once again right before it then swung it across her midsection, narrowly dodging the hew before she then countered with [Martyrdom Pole] to restrict its movements. [Dvalinn] snaps out of the bindings easily, resuming its assault as it then raised its weapon over its head before slamming it down, unleashing a riptide slash that traveled across the ground and nearly hitting Salim, interrupting his incantation once again.
"So you're a rhythmic fighter," commented Agatha as [Dvalinn] morphed its weapon into its sword form. "That sword or axe of yours runs on a pattern of attack-attack-magic-switch-and repeat. Almost as if that weapon's assembly is complicated for something made of vines and lead, as if needs to be delicately utilized or else risk a malfunction..."
[Dvalinn] then charges towards the Witch Queen and Salim with its weapon raised over its head and its heels spouting jets of pressurized water to accelerate its advance. But just as it could reach them, Ogmios then jumps from behind and garrotes the [Sylvan Sentinel] with his pendulum's wire.
"Too bad for you, we just happened to have the physical embodiment of discord with us," Agatha then smirked a shit-eating grin.
"I'LL TAKE THAT AS A COMPLIMENT!" Ogmios cried out as [Dvalinn] bucked like a wild horse while trying to get him off of its back. "SO HURRY UP AND DO SOMETHING! MY WIRE AIN'T GONNA HOLD FOREVER!"
Agatha then quickly things of a plan starting with the surroundings. Lots of water on the ground and all stemming from that Green Knight-knockoff, her thoughts then drifted towards Salim, who was still racking his head for a new spell that can be used efficiently.
She then refers to herself, noting that blood contains iron. I.E., a conductor for electricity.
"You there, man-thing," Agatha spoke to Salim. "I have a plan."
"Alright, I'm listening," he replied as he conceptualized his next [Lightning Magic] spell.
"Can your spell use the water as a jumping-off point?" she requested.
"You know that water dissipates electricity, right?!" Salim pointed out. "Also, last I checked, lead and wood are poor conductors!"
"By itself, true," she acknowledged before conjuring an orb of [Blood Magic]. "But what if I added a conductor of my own?"
Salim then figures out what she was insinuating. "... Alright," he nodded. "Give another minute."
"Thirty seconds, no more," Agatha firmly remarked as she then unleashes [Massacre Exsanguination] onto [Dvalinn] and Ogmios to slow the former down.
"Ow owowowowowowow-WATCH IT OLD HAG!" exclaimed the [Memory Magic] user as he was also caught in the spell.
"You're a grown man, #063105," smirked Agatha, finding herself enjoying this little past-time while doing her part in their survival. "Act like one."
"YOU KNOW THAT I CAN READ YOUR THOUGHTS, YOU OLD HAG!" Ogmios pointed out through the fluttering blood-crows.
"I hope you can," she replied, feeling giddy at their back and forth.
"WILL YOU TWO JUST GIVE IT A BREAK ALREADY?!" Salim cried out from behind the Witch Queen as he finished charging up his next spell. "ALRIGHT I'M FINISHED! ON MY MARK, GET READY TO BAIL-!"
Suddenly, [Dvalinn] then grabs the wires that were holding it back before ripping them off of its neck, undoing the binding and then elbowing Ogmios behind itself, shattering his lower right rib, followed up with a judo flip, slamming the magenta-haired Warlock onto his back and shattering his spine upon impact.
Once freed, it then beelines towards Salim, calculating that it was the biggest threat present.
"[Lightning Enchantment Magic]!" Salim recited his chant as the shadow of the weapon's massive blade dawned upon him quicker than he'd expected.
But nevertheless, he was prepared. As the blade fell, it phases through Salim as the latter then disappeared into an eruption of sparks. [Dvalinn] then looks behind itself, now seeing multiple Salims manifesting themselves in the trails and puddles of water that it had left behind, further reinforced by the Witch Queen's own [Blood Magic] supplementing the conductibility of said water to keep the formation stable.
"[Phantasmal Salim]!" all the lightning clones spoke in unison as they all mirrored each others' movements. "Wow! The naming for this spell actually sounds better than my previous ones!"
Ogmios groggily opens his eyes to see the same horde of the person he can't stand the sight of before willingly going back to the dark recesses of his unconsciousness.
[Dvalinn] than charges towards the clones, spotting one of them to be the real one as it then swung down its sword once more, only for it to phase through before giving it a nasty shock.
"BZZZT! YOU GOT THE WRONG SCHMUCK!" the Salim-clones all then pointed and laughed at [Dvalinn]. "HOW DOES IT FEEL FOR THE SHOE TO BE ON THE OTHER FOOT NOW, HUH?!"
Enraged, [Dvalinn] then lets out a bellowing roar before switching its blade into its halberd form, but due to the interruption of its sequence prior, the whole mechanism jams mid-morph, forcing it to bang its fist against the flat to unjam it, giving the Salim-clones ample time to bum-rush [Dvalinn] in its moment of weakness.
Due to the water dripping from its body and Agatha's fine-tuned control of her [Blood Magic] that provided the [Lightning Magic] user with the proper path forward, all [Dvalinn] could do was take it all.
Electricity fried the internals, its poor conductivity was compromised by the Witch Queen's magic, and as it was downed on its knees, all the Salim-clones then wound back a thunder-infused punch.
"[LIGHTNING MAGIC]!" Salim then recalls the spell that he tried to use on Jericho during their Magic Knights' Entrance Exam, but this time, he excises all of the excess in favor of efficiency. "[SALIM STRIKE]!"
The thunder-punches wail onto the downed [Sylvan Sentinel], engulfing it into a bright blue explosion of electricity before Salim himself came out rolling before Agatha's feet.
"... Still can use some work," he confessed, to which Agatha gives a nod of acknowledgement.
Once the blinding light dies down, [Dvalinn] was spotted, on its knees, smoking like a burnt tree after a forest fire.
"... Is it dead?" Salim asked before he and the Witch Queen notice its finger twitch. "NEVERMIND! IT'S STILL ALIVE-!"
Then bursting from its chest was a glowing, magenta-colored energy bolt.
Then another.
Then another.
And then the fourth one stakes through its head, finally killing it, as indicated by [Dvalinn]'s husk falling down face-first, revealing the laid Ogmios behind it, with his [Grudge Tracer] activated.
"That... was for... my back..." he snarled before deactivating his spell and collapsing in exhaustion. "... A little help? I can't feel anything below my waist."
Agatha rolled her eyes as she began using her [Blood Magic] to repair his internal wounds.
With this moment of reprieve, Salim then looks back at [Dvalinn]'s husk before referring back to Agatha. "... So... you think that thing's gonna come back or not?"
"Given the sheer desperation that is [Yggdrasil]..." sighed Agatha as she realigned Ogmios' bones, "... I doubt it."
Salim looks back, and still sees the husk lying there, alleviating his worries. "... Permission to take a nap?"
"Don't let me stop you," she replied, for which then Salim promptly falls unconscious behind her.
As Ogmios was being mended, he then looks the Witch Queen in the eye before uttering the following: "... You have no reason to save me," he pointed out, "so why?"
She scoffs. "Funny, I was thinking the same thing when I found you all lying on the ground during my trek through this damned place," she answered. "All that time, while you were all napping away, I provided all the essential nutrients with my [Blood Magic] save for you. But then as soon as I saw you prune and wrinkle up like a mummy, it disgusted me to just look at you, and then I realized that I could've easily avoided the eyesore if I hadn't neglected you beforehand."
"... That's it?" he remarked.
Agatha's eyes shift away before she conceded. "... And I made a promise to Brigid during the night after Dagda trashed my house," she confessed. "That I'd help you live long enough to find your purpose beyond your own and ours. She wants you to grow up as a person, not as an engine of revenge who'll go kaput after he's done. I... found myself agreeing."
"... Rich coming from a hag that murdered my people to make Sephira 2.0," he pointed out. "... So much for 'no matter what it takes'-clause."
"If people lived solely by one creed throughout their whole lives, would they be considered people to begin with?" she asked back. "Even I gave my girls the right to life when they failed me."
"Discounting the Warlocks that you've flushed down the proverbial toilet," said Warlock scoffed. "... What? Started feeling guilt after you genocided my people twice?"
"No, it was after realizing that no matter how hard I try, I can't expect too much of people outside of Sephira's will, nor can I for my failures," she answered. "Even so, I still have hope. I've basically come too far to give up now. Sephira, or the heat death of the universe."
Ogmios bitterly chuckled. "... Well shit, guess everyone's a fucking hypocrite."
"Have to be," she replied before the two fell silent.
Then the two shared a laugh. A dry, bittersweet laughter at the sheer irony of their circumstances.
"... That said, how are we going to get out from down here?" asked Ogmios.
Agatha shrugs.
Ogmios: 143
Agatha: 367
Salim Hapshass : 242
"OH MY FUCKING GOD! THIS FEELS SOMETHING STRAIGHT OUT OF A CHESSY HORROR NOVEL!" screeched Vanica as she and Zenon were now dragged across the ground by the cloud of fog.
"I'VE STOPPED QUESTIONING IT AGES AGO!" Zenon sputtered as he lifted his face from being dragged through the dirt. "HEY! SOMEONE'S CHASING AFTER US!"
"WHO IS IT-?!" Vanica cried out before her face was dragged through the dirt.
Zenon tries to look up from his drag, and finds Nozel's braid and eagle shimmering from the dimness.
"... Actually, don't get your hopes up," the brother muttered. "We're dead meat either way."
From behind, Nozel flew on his mercurial raptor and after the fog (ignoring the two that got abducted by it). Even as he drew closer, even as time passed through this chase, there was something within him that told him that it wasn't worthless.
That fog he was chasing after was special to him. This feeling... he then grimaced as he continued flying, ... it disgusts me.
Nevertheless, he continued, hoping that by getting rid of that fog, he can make the feeling in his heart STOP.
"Don't look at me as if you're family," he muttered to himself as he kept his eyes locked onto the fog. "I do not know you, I care not for your presence, so get out of my head and die."
His eagle then shoots its quills at the mist, narrowly missing the kids as it continued slithering away. Feeling seethed, Nozel accelerates towards the fleeting mist's direction before the titanic trees gradually parts into a clearing.
Upon entering through the gap leading towards the open space, he then finds himself in a misty village that resembled one from his kingdom's Forsaken Realm.
"... You've got to be kidding me," he remarked as he then let himself down from his mount before dismissing it. "... To think I'd willingly step foot onto to this hovel once housing filth-"
He then trips over something before falling. Nozel then looks back and finds a crude grave marker with a wooden pole with a black bandana tied around its length. He then wastes no time kicking it down before kicking away the stick itself into the bushes.
"... And now their filthy dirt is on my knees," he sighed. "... Kill me now."
Nevertheless, he advanced, just to find a way to get rid of this fog along with his troubled feeling bothering him.
"Not even a single light source," he growled as he looked around, the fog getting thicker and thicker as if he were swimming in a sea of milk. "... And mana sensory is still clouded. Damn this Dungeon-"
"Ow!" he then hears a voice coming from below himself.
Nozel then spots the downed Zenon and Vanica groveling before his feet.
"... You two," he remarked as they got up. "... How are you not dead yet?"
"Too soon to ask that," Zenon replied as he helped up his sister. "... You okay, Vanica?"
The girl then spits out her dirt-mixed mucus, landing on Nozel's shoes. "... Still tasting mud and dirt."
"Charming," Nozel's eyelid twitched before letting out a sigh. "... That said, why did I willingly walk into the enemy's trap?"
"Because you love us?" Vanica teased.
"No, it's because this fog bothers me," he rebuffed as he ground his teeth. "... Stick close to me so that I don't have to see your ugly deaths."
He then quickly tilts his head before a disembodied arm carrying a rapier thrusted from behind him. He then immediately counters with his [Silver Arsenal], only for the hand and the weapon to dissipate upon contact.
"... Figured," he growled. "Copying Nebra's [Mist Magic] like this? And the others at the court dared to call me tasteless behind my back..."
"If I only had my Devil and his [Spatial Magic]..." Zenon growled as he then deployed his [Bone Magic]. "... We're at a serious disadvantage here!"
"No shit we are!" Vanica replied as she readied her [Blood Magic]. "It wants to play hide-and-seek? Then let's play!"
She then conjures up an orb of blood before shooting it up towards the sky, causing the whole area to rain blood and dye the mist red.
"[Blood Curse Magic: Season of Savagery]," she declared all three of them were now drenched in blood. "This spell lets me dispel any obscuring spells set in place. Hey braid-man? You're familiar with that [Mist Magic], right?"
"Stating the obvious," he replied coldly.
"So does the mist get affected by the environment or does it stay white?" asked Vanica as she then pointed towards the plume of white mist now speeding towards them.
"INCOMING!" Zenon then retaliates with his [Eternal Fangs] spell, striking the mist to reveal [Duneyrr], crossing its rapiers into an "X" before readying itself for battle.
"Found you," Nozel then sends forth his [Silver Arsenal] to attack the [Sylvan Sentinel], only for it to dissipate back into mist as if made its retreat.
"Sorry, but we can still see you!" said the [Blood Magic] user as the mist then forcibly solidified back to [Duneyrr]'s true form. "Not to mention, today's forecast calls for heavy rain with a 100% chance of blood!"
Nozel smirked at the girl's surprising ingenuity. "... Blood is denser than water," he commented as he then rushed towards [Duneyrr] to take it out with his [Silver Arsenal]. The weaponized tendrils all close in onto [Duneyrr] before the latter turned itself into mist, but after reappearing for a few steps back, its feet were then caught by a pressure-triggered clamp resembling a pair of beast's maws.
"[Bone Trap Magic: Clamp Chomper]," Zenon declared from afar. "I memorized your movement patterns to know where you're going next!"
"KICK ITS ASS, BRAID-MAN!" Vanica shouted cheerily.
"Don't tell me what to do," Nozel replied as he then brought down his entire [Silver Arsenal] towards the snared [Duneyrr].
But unexpectedly, [Duneyrr] uses its dual rapiers to parry every single weapon brought onto it and leaving Nozel exposed long enough to strike him with both swords jabbing themselves into both his shoulders.
Nozel quickly pulls himself away before he can get skewered, but just as he made his retreat, [Duneyrr] then undoes the trap that had bound it before dissipating itself into its mist form, prompting Zenon to set [Clamp Chomper] ahead of time and towards its next landing spot.
The trap was triggered, exposing [Duneyrr], but however, it then detaches its hand to thrust its rapier forward, striking Zenon's shoulder hard enough to knock him over.
"ZENON!" Vanica cried out as she then unleashed [Red Beast-Headhunter] towards the [Sylvan Sentinel], but [Duneyrr] then rips the set trap out of the ground with its foot before kicking the slithering blood-snake away from itself. It then uses the length of the manifested spell to travel its mist and make its way up close to Vanica herself.
She tried to flee, but her chest was slashed across by both of its rapiers, leaving an "X"-shaped incision across her chest. And just before [Duneyrr] can plant both of its weapons into her throat, Nozel uses the hammer from his [Silver Arsenal] to knock the [Sylvan Sentinel] away from her.
"Do not defile my eyes with your pathetic deaths, you worms," he snarled as Vanica scrambled back to their side.
"Argh... son of a bitch cut my tits open..." she hissed in pain. "... How?!"
Before Zenon could answer, he then notices something distressing. "... Vanica? Nozel?"
The two then widen their eyes upon noticing something wrong with Zenon. "... Bro?" asked the girl. "... Am I seeing shit or is your number going down-?"
She then coughs out a wad of blood before noticing that her number was also ticking down.
Nozel then put the two and two together. "... Poison," he cursed as he then looked at [Duneyrr]'s dual rapiers while his number fell to "654" and continue doing so with each passing second. "I knew that it was too easy..."
"Anyone have [Recovery Magic]-oh who am I kidding, NONE OF US DOES!" Zenon exclaimed as his number ticked down to "631".
"... So I'd estimate around 10 minutes before we all eat shit," Vanica remarked as her own number was now at "587". "... Assuming if we don't get hit."
[Duneyrr] then proceeds its advance, launching both its poisoned rapiers with its disembodied hands.
Zenon tries to parry the swords with his [Bone Magic], but the two improv missile snake around his spires before striking him, plummeting his number from "614" to "567" as the hands retracted.
"It's going to bleed us dry at this rate!" Vanica cried out as her number was now "545".
"Then we'll have to get in close," Nozel answered as he then ran ahead of her with his grimoire open, its pages being stained with cursed blood. "If this is about me leaving you to die, then let the record show that it was on you."
[Duneyrr] then thrusts its rapiers towards Nozel, but he then blocks the attack with his armored gauntlets as the rest of the armor made of his [Mercury Magic] began to form around him, the blades failing to penetrate the layer of liquid metal enveloping him.
I recalled those days when the weakest of us aspired to be like you, mother, he thought as the armor encased his body into an eagle-styled battle armor. Deep down, I wanted to be you as well, flying alongside you, defending the people as you did before you wed the bastard that was my father. Now look at us. Your youngest has died on her first mission, your second youngest died forgotten, your second-oldest slain by your oldest before being desecrated into this mockery that is daring to stand before me, and your eldest being not long for this world...
He smirked as [Duneyrr] then came back for a second double-thrust, only then to be intercepted by Nozel grabbing both blades with his hands as the armor neared completion.
... Father will get he deserves, he smirked evilly at the thought of the irony of Baptiste Silva now being alone in a world where his leeched wealth no longer mattered. Don't bother keeping a spare seat in Heaven warm for me, mother. I'll rectify all my mistakes at Hell.
The blades then snap into two before Nozel then smashes his head into [Duneyrr]'s antlered helmet, crumpling it slightly inward as Nozel's own number was now at "498," from both the poison and his head injury.
"[Mercury Conjuration Magic]," spoke the Silver Eagle Captain as an eagle-shaped helmet then enveloped his whole head like a helmet. "[Master Armor, Einherjar]."
[Duneyrr] gets up as it then drew an additional pair of poisoned leaden rapiers from the earth.
"There's a saying I've one heard from the peasants," he coldly spoke as his grimoire was absorbed into his breastplate. "Fuck around, and find out."
Vanica's mouth dropped in awe. "... That... is easily, the coolest shit I've ever seen."
Zenon took note of their numbers ticking down closer towards zero. "... We can't waste too much time," he pointed out. "Let's end this now!"
The three, with their [Law of Greed]'s number slowly ticking down due to the poison wrecking their insides, advanced towards [Duneyrr] as it also charged with its lower half turning into a trail of mist that propelled it forth.
Nozel blocks the sword blow with his armor, allowing him to jab a silver wedge into [Duneyrr]'s body up close before it dissipated into mist and reappearing from a short distance away.
"GOTCHA BITCH!" Vanica then attempted to take a swipe at it with her claw of her [Red Beast] formed over her right arm, but was then parried before she was then jabbed again, reducing her number to "394" and ticking down at a faster rate due to the increased potency of the poison.
Zenon then tackles it out of Vanica's way, at the cost of his own number going down upon recoil of his tackle, allowing Nozel to plant another wedge into [Duneyrr]'s body from behind as it then dissipated into its mist form once again, but this time, rather than reforming fully, it then transforms its form into that of its antlered helmet and the rest of its body mass now converted into its rapier-hands.
[Duneyrr] in its new form then begun spinning its blades around, sending forth its swords like shrapnel or the chestnut bombs' burrs. Through his [Einherjar], Nozel felt the dozens of blades prick into his skin through the forced-open breaches of his liquid armor, injecting him with even more venom, causing his number to plummet to his mid-200s.
"Just one more..." he heaved out as his sense began to compromise upon itself. Upon regaining his bearings, Nozel then pushes his way thought the jammed blades beofre jamming his own third wedge of [Mercury Magic] into the head of the [Sylvan Sentinel]. "... There. It's set."
The three wedges planted into [Duneyrr] then activates remotely, with all three of them triggering [Silver Arsenals] from the [Sylvan Sentinel] itself, the weaponized tendrils attacking it at Nozel's command. It then tried to dissipate back to its mist form, only for the mercurial wedges to stick it back together, returning [Duneyrr] back to it default, humanoid form.
"[Wedge Fetters]," explained Nozel as [Duneyrr] struggled to keep its bearings together. "Not exactly a spell, but more akin to 'beacons' where I can remotely cast spells."
[Duneyrr] then shrieks in rage as it then snapped its blades in twain before swinging them around in trails of mist similar to how it launched its disembodied body parts at its targets, turning its rapiers into whip-blades that it swung around towards Nozel and the Zogratis siblings.
Nozel then took flight as he then proceeded to fire more [Wedge Fetters] around the [Sylvan Sentinel], further limiting its movement as the other two pushed for the offensive through the sharp lashes.
Vanica rolls away from one whiplash before narrowly dodging another, right as she then unleashed [Red Beast-Headhunter] at the Green Knight-clone. [Duneyrr] parries the serpentine blood-beast with the guards of its rapiers right as Zenon then shoots forth his [Banebunker] at it, furthering knocking it down as it rolled across the misty and blood-rained village.
[Duneyrr] then rips off the parts of its body that were contaminated by the [Wedge Fetters] manually, promoting Nozel to then unleash [Silver Star of Execution] to it. Now freed, the [Sylvan Sentinel] then phases through the sphere and inside the cape sphere, where it met Nozel inside as the two of them grappled inside as the cage tumbled across the whole village. As their cage match began, Nozel then saw that his number was ticking down ever faster, since now [Duneyrr] has now applied the exact same poison into the very air they breathed through Nebra's [Mist Magic].
Zenon then arrives next to Vanica, their numbers now going below the "200" threshold. "... We need a way to take that bastard out, and fast!" Zenon exclaimed. "Vanica, is there something that's stronger than your usual [Red Beast], and not a derivative from our previous Devils that we've made Contracts with."
"... Eh... I got one," she answered, "but you're... going to hate it."
Zenon then figures out her insinuation. "... Your own blood?"
"Hand me something sharp," she requested with a hint of reluctance, to which Zenon then handed her the sharp end of his [Eternal Fang] spell.
In the next moment, Vanica then stabs herself in the palm of her hand, digging the point in deep as she could, going as far for the bone to penetrate her marrow, all the while letting out stifled screams of unimaginable pain as her own number was now nearing the "100"-threshold.
"UARRRGGGHHH!" she screamed out as she then ripped the sharp bone out of her now-mutilated hand. "... Feeling... woozy... but I think the next part's gonna be worth it."
Zenon then peeked into Vanica's grimoire, now writing down a brand-new spell onto its pages.
"... Here goes... NOTHING!" she then uses her fresh wound to directly summon a [Red Beast] with her own body as a catalyst.
Zenon then begun to notice that this particular [Red Beast] was... bigger. In fact, it was too big, its red body was too rich, and its bloodlust was too much. This beast made from Vanica's sacrifice was a testament to Vanica's old self, now used for a selfless cause that neither of them could've ever anticipated.
"[Blood Evocation Magic]..." heaved the young [Blood Magic] user as she stood atop of the even more monstrous version of her [Red Beast]. "... [RED BEAST]... [GENOCIDER]!"
The monster bellows out a booming roar before it then stampeded its way towards the [Silver Star of Execution], smashing through abandoned huts and fences alike, right before it then broke through the bars of the spherical cage that both Nozel and [Duneyrr] were inside.
[Genocider] then takes a huge bite of the [Sylvan Sentinel]'s shoulder, ripping its entire right side of its body off right as Nozel then conjures forth a mercurial rapier of his own with his [Mercury Magic].
"[Aquila]," the thin, liquid metal blade then penetrated through the leaden armor from behind.
[Duneyrr], realizing that it had lost, begins to thrash about, thickening the air with more of its poisoned fog, intending to take the others down with it.
"I WON'T LET YOU!" Zenon, with Ogmios's spell in mind, conjures up a greatbow nocked with a barbed, dual-pronged arrow at its string. "[BONE DIVINATION MAGIC: ZEAL COMPASS]!"
The barbed arrow fires, sending it forth towards the hissing [Duneyrr]. Caught between the prongs, the arrow then spews out a jet of raw mana, propelling it upwards into the sky right before then it detonated.
"WE DID IT!" Vanica shouted out as she looked back. "WE DID... it."
Zenon then looks down, and finds a thin rapier blade jutting out of his stomach before noticing that it had entered from his lower back. Said rapier still had a disembodied hand attached to its handle, before it slipped off.
Nozel then looks down from where [Duneyrr] was launched from, spotting a hole large enough for a hand to fit through was bored in. "... Spiteful to the bitter end."
"ZENON!" Vanica then sprint towards her brother as he fell, the poisoned blade ticking his number down to "50" as she then looked back at Nozel, whose [Einherjar] was then dismissed. "... I'LL GO FIND HELP!"
"Knock yourself out," he replied as he saw Vanica piggyback the wounded Zenon before running off. Once they were nowhere in sight, he then goes somewhere to sit down and wait for his death.
Due to the sustained wounds (no [Recovery Magic] available to any of the three present as he and others were fighting), the poison circulating through his system (both from blade and contaminated air), and the invoked [Law of Greed], Nozel's was now down to the last "10," with each passing second, ticking down a number.
He smiled as his senses began to feel faint.
He closed his eyes, to see neither the light of Heaven nor the flames of Hell.
He reached out into his heart, and finds that deep down, he never hated anyone.
"... How annoying."
Nozel's number finally hits zero, signaling his passing as he slumped down for the very last time.
Through the woods, Vanica desperately carried her brother on her back and through the woods. It's poisoned mist burned her lungs with each breath that she took. Her arms and legs were on the verge of falling apart like burnt tinder the longer she ran.
She could easily leave Zenon to die, but after saying that she'd go and get help, she has no reason to.
"Why am I like this...?!" she sniveled as her legs moved. "... Why am I doing this-?!"
Vanica then trips over root before landing onto the ground, sending Zenon ahead of her during the trip. She tries to get up, only to realize that both her and his number were now at their last last "10" as it ticked down towards nothing.
Her heart began to tremor. All of her memories of being Vanica Zenon of "the Bloodbath" felt like a distant dream or an untouchable nightmare.
Her efforts in her and the rest of her siblings' second chance in life, completely wasted.
Her soul, for the first time, was afraid.
She was no longer that sadistic woman who inspired fear with her mere presence.
She was now her physical age. A child.
Who was about to die and go to Hell.
The girl then looks up towards the sky one last time, and finds a Demon's skull staring its pits down before them.
"... A-are... we going to die...?" the girl asked as tears fell from her.
Zenon closed his eyes in acceptance before answering. "... Yes."
Vanica Zogratis: 0 (DEAD)
Zenon Zogratis: 0 (DEAD)
Nozel Silva: 0 (DEAD)
"FEK! HE'S NOT 'ERE!" Cu exclaimed.
Letoile then used her [Compass Magic] to locate the missing Rinaldo after he'd fallen down from his ambush. "That way!" she then pointed towards the direction where the needle was pointed at.
The two then run towards the allotted direction, wading through the cramped spaces between the trees and the thickened brushes. By now, they were able to navigate through the forest with relative ease, given that they've spent god-knows-how-long in this place.
It was enough to drive a lesser man insane.
Eventually, the two then finds Rinaldo. Or at least his head lying on the ground.
And above it, a "0" was projected over the decapitated head.
"... Shite, we're too late," growled the wild man as Letoile vomited. "Ye alrite?"
"Sorry..." she groggily answered. "... Not being able to feel fear makes death... hard to comprehend."
Cu sighs before shaking his head. "... Will it feel any betta if I said dat it was yer fault dat Cissonius had te die?"
"No?" she replied.
"Will ye feel betta den if I said that it wasn't yer fault?" the wild man asked again.
"No," sighed Letoile.
"Gud, den shut de fek up 'nd get over yerself," he bluntly remarked as he walked ahead. "... Death doesn't wait fur anyone. It'll snatch ye up whenever it feels like it. Cisso knew dat, and made de most of it."
Letoile looks down at her feet before nodding and following Cu. "... Sorry about that."
"Dun't apologize, it's cringe," he replied as he whacked the brushes aside with his [Gae Bolg].
Then the two find themselves in a clearing with a whole structure resembling a ripped-out house carved inside of a giant/smaller than [Yggdrasil]'s trees-tree.
Cu then sniffed the air. "Yep," he nodded. "Definitely de hag's place."
"You mean the Witch Queen?" asked Letoile.
"Ye know wat I said," he rebuffed as he then walked towards the door before ripping the door out of its hinges.
Once he was about to enter, he was then attacked by [Duraþrór], the latter's twin scimitars clashing against Cu's [Gae Bolg]. Just as the blade lock was about to persist, the [Sylvan Sentinel] then kicks Cu in the balls, causing him to buckle before delivering a stomp-kick into his midsections, sending him back as his bare heels scraped against the dirt.
"Well guess who decided te move in," smirked Cu as [Duraþrór] slowly walked towards the two of them, dragging its twin blades across the ground as it advanced. "Ye furgot te pay rent te de old bird."
[Duraþrór]'s twin sword then flicked up the earth, causing a pair consisting of a giant stone serpent and a sharp-antlered buck to burst out of the earth. Letoile then uses her [Compass Magic] to redirect the spells, but as she did, [Duraþrór] was already on top of her, bringing down its scimitars towards her direction.
In the last second, Cu grabs her by her robe before yanking her away, taking the blow himself, reducing his number to "103" in an instant.
"A SINGLE BLOW DOES THAT MUCH DAMAGE?!" Letoile exclaimed.
"Dat bastard 'it's like me dad," he grinned, as he the pain turned him on, but not enough to activate his next form beyond [Beastman]. "Well, I got a plan."
"Which is?" Letoile remarked before realizing what he was planning. "... You can't be serious! That's literal suicide!"
Cu then blocks the next blow from [Duraþrór] with the shaft of his spear one-handed. "Wat are ye talkin' about?" he pointed out as he then used his other hand to block another nut-kick before grabbing the armored ankle and lifting [Duraþrór] up before throwing it back into Agatha's room, causing the whole building to collapse onto it and bury it. "Yer de one doin' it."
Cu then points to her compass and then to his crotch.
"... Testicular torsion?" she asked.
"If dat means twistin' me balls until I cry fur uncle, den yes," he bluntly answered as [Duraþrór] then emerged from the rubble pile. "Dun't worry about slowin' me down. Just keep an eye on me number."
She then looks up to see "100" floating over her head as he continued his engagement with the [Sylvan Sentinel]. "... Alright," she gulped, as her sense of caution tempered her fearlessness. "Let's do this."
She then manifests a small compass between Cu's legs right before its needle began spinning violently towards one direction, twisting Cu's testicles mid-fight, turning him on as she twisted his balls as hard as she could.
The number began ticking down from "100" to "85" in a span of seconds. Through the pain that would render anyone but him unconscious, Cu's fighting became more frenetic and wild, pinning [Duraþrór] down from where it stood as the wild man bounced all over the Green Knight derivative.
[Duraþrór] then counters Cu's wild barrage with its blades, dragging them across the earth to then unleash a wave of sharpened earth around itself, cutting into Cu's number even as he'd dodged, now the latter down to his last "10" of his value.
"CU!" Letoile cried out.
"WAT ARE YE STOPPIN' FUR?!" Cu cried out as he recovered ground. "KEEP GOIN'!"
It was madness for the [Compass Magic] user. But at the same time, remembering the way he fought, it somehow made sense.
"... Even when staring death in the face... even when Hell is all but guaranteed..." she muttered as Cu's number counted down to single-digits, "... he's not afraid. He... he's dancing with death itself."
Cu then glances up to his own number before smirking. "Dat's more like it," he growled sadistically before kicking away [Duraþrór] by its head right as he then stabs [Gae Bolg] into his own body.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Letoile exclaimed as she dropped her [Compass Magic] on Cu.
The wild man begins cackling mad as his own Relic began embedding itself into him. "NOW DIS PAIN IS WAT WAS I SEARCHIN' FOR!" he rapturously declared as his own body began to turn into something else. "DE PAIN WHEN I GET CLOSER TE DEATH! DE PAIN THAT LIES BEYOND DE BOUNDARY OF INSANITY! GEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! LOOK AT ME, GODDESS! LOOK INTO ME EYES AND SEE IF I GIVE A SHITE!"
Cu's number was now at a "1". However, even as visible damage was being inflicted into the wild man's body, still maintaining its erection as the spear itself dug in further, Cu's number, refused to fall below "1" in what it looks to be a display of sheer and genuinely insane willpower.
"Me pain..." he snarled as his tongue grew into in length as bloody bile dripped from its tip, "... IS ME POWER!"
[Duraþrór] then tries to attack Cu, but it and Leotile were then all then sent flying by the sheer force of Cu's roar as the wild man begun his metamorphosis.
Skin turned into insect-like carapace resembling a black knight's armor. A massive crimson blade spouted from its head akin to a [Unicorn]'s horn as the rest of its head were encased in an eyeless cloister, with the lower part of his face being replaced with a bestial maw akin to his [Beastman]-form, but rather remain in its mammalian form, it turned armored and its teeth became the same kind of blades that was on his forehead. From his back was his [Gae Bolg], now transformed into his new spine and tail, both barbed with even more blades as spikes as it slithered in the air. His arms and legs were cloistered in more of the black armor, the former turning into an array of even more crimson blades that crudely resembled tri-pronged claws, and the latter turning digitigrade akin to a raptor bird's, now each foot bearing a wicked-looking red crescent mega-talon.
"... [Rage Magic]," the thing spoke as its metamorphosis was completed, its voice more coherent but rilling as if a snake or a cricket learned how to talk human language, "[Warp Spasm]... [Daemonbane]."
The [Daemonbane] Cu then move in a blur, instantly reappearing before [Duraþrór] before raking the latter with its claws. The [Sylvan Sentinel] then retaliates by conjuring a massive stone lion to trample onto the morphed being, but it simply breaks its paw with its blades.
Realizing that Cu Chulainn was no longer a viable target, [Duraþrór] then opts to attack Letoile instead, but not before surrounding Cu with a horde of stone-copies of itself and several other giant beasts.
Letoile dodges the crushing swings of its blades right as she then tried to pull the blades away from its hands with her two [Compass Magic] spells, manifesting two wheels that pulled back both of its arms away from her. However, due to a lapse of judgment, she failed to [Duraþrór]'s legs right before she was sent flying via a bone-shattering dropkick.
She then tumbled through brush and dirt, her numbers ticking down several values until she was at "97" from her initial "666." One more hit and she's done.
[Duraþrór] then slowly makes its way towards the downed [Compass Magic] user, the latter's ribs shattered all over, and in too much pain to even stand back up, let alone move.
"I'm about to die," she remarked as [Duraþrór] could be heard coming through the bushes. "... This is the worst."
Her lack of ability to feel fear now worked to her advantage that allowed her to come up with a plan to get out. She first then casts [Another Atlas] onto her surroundings to stall for time right before taking out the last MASS pack she'd stashed away in the middle of the chaos prior to their previous separation. She the activates it, mending her injuries but her number not rising any higher.
"... That at least confirms one thing," she bitterly remarked as she looked around for any methods beyond "stalling". "... Alright, anything I can use around here?"
She then stealthily maneuvers her way through the bushes, all the while keeping her [Another Atlas] active to hide her presence from [Duraþrór]. She had two options. Either leave Cu behind and escape on her or rendezvous back to him for protection.
As she was weighing her two options, her foot then stumbles onto a headless corpse, in its hand still being Rinaldo's now-bladeless [Froberge] Relic.
"... Just maybe," she then pilfers the bladeless sword to herself, the Relic now sporting a new blade reminiscent of a compass needle. "... Okay."
[Duraþrór] then jumps out from behind, Letoile dodging its pounce as she rolled across the ground. Immediately after, [Duraþrór] then brought down its twin scimitars towards Letoile, the latter blocking it with the compass blade.
She then sees the [Sylvan Sentinel] swing its leg forth with a swift kick, the foot stopped before it could reach her body. Letoile then tries to figure out what was happening, only then to see that [Duraþrór] struggled to move away from her, as if it was stuck there.
Letoile smiles. "... How fortuitous," she remarked. "[Froberge] took away its ability to move upon contact."
Then shortly after, Letoile then jabs the tip of her compass needle into [Duraþrór]'s chest, imprinting a compass onto it, its needle spinning faster with each moment passed.
"I shall allow you to move," she remarked. "Away from me."
[Duraþrór] was then physically expelled from Letoile's vicinity, flying through several trees and knocking them all down, to which Letoile tapped each falling tree with her Relic, suspending them in the air as if they were motionless puppets, casually walking through them without worry as they all then fell back down once she was within a safe enough distance from them.
Eventually, the [Sylvan Sentinel] made it back to where Cu was at, now standing atop of a pile of rubble resembling broken statues, catching it by its claw and holding it up like the catch of the day.
"... Die," it spoke as it then tossed [Duraþrór] up before whipping it across with its tail, batting it back like a thrown ball as Cu then caught up to it mid-flight.
[Duraþrór] then fought back with his dual scimitars, clashing against [Daemonbane] Cu's blades. However, Cu held an advantage by having a prehensile tail with a sword for a stinger, shattering the twin blades with its tail before delivering a headbutt that crumpled the Green Knight clone's helmet.
"Not done," it spoke as it then threw [Duraþrór] into the air, with Cu jumping towards it, with its horn growing longer and sharper. "... [Beagalltach]."
The horn impales through [Duraþrór]'s chest, spilling green fluid onto [Daemonbane] Cu's eyeless face. It then tried to pull itself out, but by that point, Cu's arms were already in the process of transforming into separate halves of a serrated incisor.
"... [Moralltach]."
[Duraþrór] was then split into two across its waist as it was clapped between the serrated blade-arms reminiscent of a beast's maw, leaving the upper half to be then removed by Cu splitting it in twain with the edge of its horn.
Once [Duraþrór] was slain, [Daemonbane] undoes itself, returning the wild man back to his original form.
From the bushes emerged Letoile, approaching Cu as he stood over his kill, the number over his head still bearing the locked "1". "... You still in there?"
It nods. "... Just... a bit tired."
"Mind giving me a ride back?" she requested.
"Eh, why not," he shrugged as he then piggybacked the Golden Dawn Magic Knight through the giant weald. "... By de way, nice Relic."
Cu Chulainn : 1
Letoile Becquerel: 97
"... Good grief, that smarts," groaned Ishtar as she got up and finding herself in her sea of yul that she'd conjured prior to her restoration. "... How far did I get punched-?"
Then a tremor was felt, jerking both her, the lion, and the coins beneath them upwards. Then she'd heard the sounds of several trees snap below some distance away as if they were twigs.
"... Nevermind," she shook her head in disbelief. "Still though, a mere Fae down on its luck becoming a god?! I mean, it shouldn't be possible! No one becomes a god unless they're born as one!"
Then her mind then traces back on True Leshy wasn't seen and that the chasm where the arm had emerged from.
"... Son of a bitch," she then facepalmed in realization. "I knew he was pitiful, but willingly giving up his own status just to raise his last worshipper as a new god?!"
Another tremor was felt, causing her and her surroundings to jerk up once again.
"... I'll be generous and just admit that results spoke for themselves," Ishtar remarked to herself. "And I shall not question it any further."
She then snapped her fingers, willing her eldritch-looking lion to her. The two of them began searching the area for any incoming morons that dare to challenge them (which to her, was more likely than anyone would anticipate), but not before a surge of pain shocks Ishtar's ribs.
"... Okay, maybe walking off a punch the size of a whole ziggurat coming at me like a speeding asteroid might be pushing it... even for me," she grimaced as she mended her injures with her [Gauge Magic] lowering their value to their lowest.
The lion then snarls towards a certain direction before it arched back, readying itself to pounce.
"... Good boy," praised Ishtar as her eyes detected Dagda, Danu, Makarov, and Bizon all heading towards their way. "How about an opening committee?"
The lion then pounces towards the branches carrying the incoming group, with only Dagda dodging the attack, leaving Danu to wrestle with the ugly beast as she and the Inquisitors to deal with it. As the group was divided, Dagda lands before Ishtar, this time, being more firm in his stance and a calm rage emanating from his short stature that Ishtar looked down upon with a mild disinterest.
"Dagda, or should I say, Malacoda," she sneered. "Back so soon?"
"Ye know wat I'm 'ere fur," he snarled back as he then drew his [Fragarach] before throwing away his scabbard.
Ishtar smirks at this silent proclamation. "Ever the prudent one," she remarked as she then manifests a pair of golden smoothbore handguns loaded with stacks of yul as ammunition from her infinite supply of wealth. "I can respect that."
Ishtar then points both of her guns at Dagda before firing high-velocity coin rounds, to which Dagda blocks one and dodges the other, with the latter then ricocheting from the tree behind him and speeding towards back.
The half-Demon catches the coin from behind before twirling it around between his fingers and then flicking it back towards the goddess, to which Ishtar shot the redirected coin out of the air.
"Are ye dun playin' hooky?" Dagda remarked, unamused.
Ishtar then begins firing at Dagda while the latter fought back with his Relic blade deflecting her coins back at.
Meanwhile, in the woods behind Dagda and Ishtar, Makarov and Bizon were hacking away at the infernal beast while Danu wrestled with it, slamming each other through countless trees surrounding them, all the while, the sounds of coins being kicked around rung endlessly due to said thrashing.
"HOLD STILL, FUCKFACE!" the golem screamed as she was then pinned down, catching the beast by its fangs before it could take a bite out of her.
"IT'S INTERNALS ARE OPEN!" Makarov pointed out as his [Chernobog] hacked off the flailing silhouettes around the monster's mane. 'BIZON!"
The Inquisitor in question then uses his [Gravity Magic] to then force-feed the monster with the coins on the ground, stuffing it in a stream of gilded greed until the beast's belly began to bulge outwards.
"ALRIGHT, WE GOT IT STUFFED, SO LET'S MAKE THE WORLD'S TURDUCKEN OUT OF THIS THING!" Danu declared as she then reached her arm into the beast's mouth stuffed to the gills with yul. "[TERRAFORMING MAGIC: MAGMA MORTAR]!"
Nothing happens. The golem then looks down from where her other hand was touching, and sees that it was still too thick with gold doubloons.
Her magic requires her to touch the earth itself to use it at all. "Oh crudcakes."
The lion then bites her arm off, sending her number careening down to "222" in an instant as she then screamed her lungs out.
"I THOUGHT YOU WERE MADE OF DIRT!" Bizon pointed out as he dodged another swipe from the fattened lion.
"I CAN STILL FEEL, JACKASS!" Danu pointed out as she then continued to dig through the sea of money in hopes of finding a patch of dirt to work with.
"DISCUSS INVENTIONAL WISDOM LATER!" Makarov order as he then sees the lion then regurgitate the gold that it was forcefully swallowed of back out into a deadly stream akin to a [Dragon]'s breath attack. "INCOMING!"
Danu then quickly trees herself while Bizon then uses his [Gravity Magic] to life both himself and his superior officer up into the air, all three of them staring at the sea of gold flowing like water flooding the forest itself.
"... Quick question, but of the two, which god is harder to fight?" asked Danu.
"Don't ask," Makarov shook his head before the lion then pounced up towards where they were. "ABORT!"
In desperation, Danu then body slams the beast out of the air hard enough to kick up a tidal wave of yul at their point of impact. Bizon then spots a patch of earthy-brown beneath where she'd landed on.
"DANU!" he then jumped in to use his [Gravity Magic] to prevent the coins from burrowing it back. "USE YOUR MAGIC!"
"GOT IT!" Danu then smashed her fist into the exposed dirt. "DUNNO WHEN WE'RE GONNA GET ANOTHER SHOT, SO I'M GOING ALL OUT!"
Makarov and Bizon nodded as the golem began resonating with the earth itself.
"[TERRAFORMING MAGIC]!" Danu declared asa the ground tremors violently at her will. "[EARTHQUAKE OF ELIMINATION]!"
Upon hearing "earthquake" and "elimination" in the same verse, Bizon and Makarov head towards the trees before in the next second, the whole earth around them then all shot out as countless pillars of stone that scattered about all the coins into the sky and past the canopy.
Or rather, a whole acre of forest was usurped from the ground that was rooted in and everything else on top of it, including Dagda and Ishtar.
"THERE'S ENOUGH DIRT HERE FOR IT TO WORK!" she exclaimed as she then caught a clump before squeezing it hard enough to turn it into a crude diamond ore. "EAT THIS!"
She then throws it at Ishtar, the latter catching it in her hand before she observed it. "... If this is an attempt to bribe me, then 'A' for effort."
However, just as the goddess disposed of the diamond ore, it then explodes into a blast of hot magma, scorching Ishtar as her number sank to "665,264".
"THERE'S PLENTY MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM!" Danu declared as she then threw more of the dirt towards Ishtar, all of them each transforming into a different ore containing a different elemental blast.
"And no more," the goddess replied as she then snapped her fingers, causing the gravity around their whole area to suddenly stop working. "[Gauge Curse Magic: Asset Freezing]."
The bits of earth, trees, yul, and people that were supposed to all fall back down, now all floated as if they were submerged in a tank of water.
"... Crap, now I'm limited on ammo," Danu cursed.
"Unlike me," Ishtar smirked as she then picked out a single yul from the air. "[Gauge Magic: 100 Billion Yul Bazooka]."
Then a stream of gold coins was shot from her hand, multiplying a single coin to that of billions.
"GET BEHIND ME!" Bizon then stood in front of the blast. "[GRAVITY MAGIC: METEOR GUILLOTINE]!"
Nothing happens. Even as Bizon swung his axe down harder and harder with each attempt to split the incoming attack in two, nothing happened.
"Fun fact," Ishtar smirked. "[Gravity Magic] doesn't work in a flux, a state where gravity doesn't actively exist, unless I say so."
Bizon was too slow to dodge the next incoming wave of yul as everyone else fled, the deluge of yul kept blasting at him even long after his number hit zero. As soon as the gilded tide ceded, Bizon was left floating lifelessly, the number "0" hanging over his head as his corpse listlessly floated about.
"Buying his soul now," Ishtar then expends a thousand of her own points to buy out Bizon's soul and his [Gravity Magic], adding the former into the lion while giving herself the latter.
"BIZON!" Makarov cried out as he then reached out towards him.
"Worry about yourselves first," with Bizon's [Gravity Magic], she then begins throwing around her lion and the trees within the space without working gravity at the Vice-Inquisitor and Danu, chipping off most of their points as she left to attack Dagda with a stream of yul that slithered around as golden cobras.
"SON OF A BITCH!" Dagda cursed as he deflected the snakes, but as they were cut down, the halves then turned into their own serpents that they bit into Dagda's body, taking a hit to his number from "623" to "475" as he hemorrhaged blood.
"I'm glad that you remembered that your [Counter Magic] doesn't work on me," Ishtar smiled as Dagda's numbers began ticking down as more golden snakes bit into him. "Keep yourself right here as you slowly die."
The goddess then flies towards Danu, forming a massive lance of gold with her yul supply as she was currently wrestling the lion that she'd caught.
Dagda, realizing that Danu was the closest of themselves to dying, then begins instilling as much [Counter Magic] into his [Fragarach].
"HEADS UP DANU!" he then stabs himself with the spell-infused Relic, bouncing it and the snakes biting into him off of himself.
The rebound blade then strikes Danu, knocking her out of the flux space and out of Ishtar's reach, sending the golem careening out of the sky and back onto the ground below, barely surviving her rough landing with only "7" points to her name.
Ishtar then looked back at Dagda, whose number was now at "99" but still smirked as if he'd did this to simply piss her off.
"NOBODY STEALS MY PREY!" Ishtar then directs all of the trees to attack Dagda in the flux, launching them like great missiles. Dagda simply climbs over one of them before using all of them as footing, the roughness of the bark's surfaces providing enough traction to let him run before he then punched Ishtar into her face, sending her flying across her space with his strength alone.
Dagda smirks as his number was reduced to "75" from his broken hand. "Figured out yer trick," he boasted. "I dun't need [Counter Magic] te kick yer arse, ye cunt."
Ishtar snarls as her nose bled, her number now at "664,984" over her head. "RIP HIS HEAD OFF!" barked the goddess as she then directs her lion towards the half-Demon to finish him off.
However, Makarov then blasts [Soulburner] onto the eldritch lion, the shadows hanging from its mane being burnt off and purified by his flames. "Leave him to me, redeemer," the Vice-Inquisitor spoke. "She said that her worshippers followed her to Hell, correct?"
Dagda smirks as he knew what Makarov was insinuating. "Git exorcizin'."
The half-Demon then keeps the goddess busy by then latching onto her like a tick as she tried to shoot her guns at him by ricocheting her shots back at him, draining each other of their numbers. As she was kept back, Makarov then stands his ground as the lion bellows out a roar before jumping its way towards the Vice-Inquisitor, skipping from tree to rubble before swiping its mighty claw towards him.
Using the lack of gravity to his advantage, he rolls with the blow before countering it with his [Chernobog] scythe, lacerating the beast's forelimb right as he then grabbed a hold of its fur. "No more running," Makarov growled as he held on tight. "The goddess and all of her supplicants die today."
As if it were responding to his vitriol, the shadowy silhouettes all emerge from the beast's mane and body, screaming and writhing like the wraiths they are, all of them swarming towards Makarov like a pack of crazed dogs.
The Vice-Inquisitor burns them all, their shrieks and screams as they were consumed by the cleansing flames filling the air. Even so, all of the followers of Ishtar were determined to not be exorcized lest their purpose in life were denied outright. Doggedly, they began smothering out the [Aura Magic]'s flames through their sheer numbers.
Unlike [Jormungandr]'s collection of souls, these followers (both willing and otherwise) were far more coordinated and denser, coming akin to a tidal wave rather than a rampaging horde of maniacs. There were no gaps that Makarov could exploit. The eldritch lion was obstinate in its resolve to make him one of Ishtar's own.
"Driving a hard bargain, I see," he smirked defiantly as he kept his [Soulburner] ablaze on the lion's body. "... Sorry, BUT I AM NOT BUYING IT!"
The souls screamed at him, raging at the Vice-Inquisitor as he kept his flames lit even as they were putting it out even as the lion thrashed about in the air, like a sun that was squirming in agony while it floated about in the flux.
"NO WONDER WHY YOU ALL LOST!" he cackled as the shadows began laying their hands on him, ticking down his number as they clawed all over him. "SLAVES TO FEAR! NEVER ASPIRING FOR ANYTHING HIGHER! YOU WERE ALL COMPLACENT IN GROVELING BEFORE YOUR DEITIES THAT THE IDEA OF HOPE AND IMMORTALITY NEVER CAME TO MIND! THIS IS WHY SEPHIRA WAS SUPREME! THIS IS WHY HER WORD PERSISTS! SHE SHOWED US A WORLD THAT WASN'T ECLIPSED BY THE SHADOWS OF GODS! A WORLD WHERE PEOPLE CAN TRUELY LIVE! A WORLD WHERE IMPERFECTION DOESN'T MEAN DEATH! A WORLD BUILT ON LOVE RATHER THAN HATE! AND WHOEVER DARES TO TEAR IT DOWN... EVEN IF YOU STRIP ME OF MY SKIN, EVEN IF YOU REND THE FLESH FROM MY BONES, EVEN IF I AM TO DIE AN INGLORIOUS DEATH, I SHALL NEVER SUBMIT TO THE FEAR OF THE GODS!"
The Vice-Inquisitor, even as he was now drowning within the beast, even as his number reached single-digits, laughed. He kept laughing as the shadows devoured his very being, hating him and spiting his very existence because his fearlessness was something they never understood.
A world where fear wasn't the universal king was a world they refused to acknowledge. Save for one.
The short-haired and spiked, well-built "recent addition" smiled. "... That's... Vice... Makarov."
Makarov smiled back. "... Perdes omne malum," he recited as his number finally hit "0", "... destroy... all... EVIL!"
With his last breath, he then draws his [Belobog] along his entire soul connected to the blade's chain. Following after the light, the darkness then emerges from his body, grabbing [Chernobog] on its way out.
Ishtar then takes notices of the two specters leaving the now-motionless body as she was being choked out by Dagda's manic strength. "... Such... powerful... soul...!" she reached out her clawed hands after dropping her firearms. "... I must...! I MUST HAVE IT-!"
"LOOK ELSEWHERE, YE CUNT!" Dagda then forcibly snaps Ishtar's neck as his number reached "21." Ishtar retaliates by biting into his arm, but the half-Demon resists the damage, ticking his number only down to "16," even striking back by biting into her neck instead, breaking through her ironclad skin through sheer force of his incisors, splattering the drawn blood onto his face as Ishtar's number plummets to "661,301."
"HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS?!" the goddess screamed as she tried to rip Dagda off of her.
"[AURA NECROMANCY MAGIC]!" both light and shadow then crossed their weapons, resonating with Bizon's soul, affecting the coherence of the beast's composition. "[PRAV-YAV-NAV]!"
The light, the dark, and the lost all converged into a singular point. The souls that worshipped Ishtar with all their essence were being drawn away from her yoke, causing the beast representing her will to shrink.
"IMPOSSIBLE!" she shrieked as she watched both her followers and number tick down rapidly. "I BOUGHT OUT THEIR SOULS! I OWN THEM!"
Ishtar shrieks as a chunk of flesh was bitten off from her neck and shoulder before Dagda then cackled his lungs out in sheer glee. "NOT ANYMORE YER NOT!"
The goddess then loses all of her remaining calm as she then snatches the floating [Fragarach] out of the air. "Let the record show..." she snarled as she embeds her [Gauge Magic] through the blade, suppressing its inherent [Counter Magic] planted in the Relic, "... THAT I OWN YOU! I OWN ALL OF YOU! In fact...!"
She then stabs herself with the blade as the [Gauge Magic] she'd instilled in it turned the shortsword into that of a longsword in length, impaling Dagda in the same process.
"FUCK ALL OF YOU!" she then wretches the blade out as she then slashes it across the light and darkness rousing her prison of souls, finally cancelling the riot that had transpired within her beast.
She watched with a small smile on her face as Ishtar watched the souls of the two supplicants of Sephira disappear. Granted, they escaped damnation while freeing those that they've rescued.
"... A small setback. Nothing new," she reassured herself as she then looked at the floating and unconscious Dagda, comparing his "1" to her now-"222,312" before smirking. "... Although, given your state, a single fart can feasibly kill you."
She then tosses [Fragarach] at his direction, nicking him across his chest before a "0" was now the half-Demon's number.
"I'll restocking... starting with you," Ishtar then whistles to signal her lion to devour Dagda along with his soul.
But before the beast's maw can close in, all of the monster's teeth shattered before it could even sink its points into his flesh.
Then a torrent of malicious aura erupts from within Dagda, the halfling's body twitching and pulsating like a cockroach whose head was removed from its body, refusing to die even though it should've.
"... No... IMPOSSIBLE!" Ishtar shrieked. "I THOUGHT YOU HAD NO CONTROL OVER YOUR DEMON HALF!"
Both the goddess and the beast were repelled as Dagda's body swelled up into a grotesquely-muscular parody of himself. Black wegs covered all over his bare torso akin to tribal tattoos, all of the lines forming a visage similar to that of a snarling [Dragon]'s.
[Malacoda of the Ten Tyrants] has reawakened.
"... Ye know, I hated dis kind of power," spoke the last of the Ten Tyrants. "De power dat does nuthin' but reject everything... te deny everythin'... I always asked meself why I was born with dis curse... killed me ma with it... killed everythin' dat I didn't mean te with it... I just kept killin' 'nd killin' until dere was nuthin' but me 'nd sum otha fekers dat called me der 'brother in arms'..."
Malacoda looks up, his eyes were now nothing but bottomless abysses that sucked in Ishtar's very mind down to the black depths.
"... Den, I remembered dat cunts like ye exist," he ground his teeth. "... IT'S PEOPLE LIKE YE 'ND DEM ARE DE REASONS WHY I CANNOT REJECT DIS POWER!"
The last of the Ten Tyrants then belts out a roar that caused the entire air and land around them to tremor, emptying out the flux space of all debris until it all that was left in the air was Ishtar, her lion, and Malacoda.
Ishtar, wasting no time, fuses with what's left of her worshippers as she then attacked the half-Demon in her hybrid form. Malacoda stops her cold with a single finger to her forehead, freezing her in place as if all movement was stolen from her.
She tried to buy her movement back with her [Gauge Magic], but the half-Demon has enough will to reject her offer. "... Ye damned me soul, Ishtar," he growled. "Wat's comin' next is sumthin' dat ye deserve."
Ishtar then realizes that she'd failed to take into account that damning Dagda's soul doesn't send him to Hell and add him to one of her minions. "... ASMODEEEUUUSSS!"
"[Push Magic]," then a low hum was heard coming from Malacoda's fingertip, forming a small black orb the size of a single grain of sand that then inflated into a size of a large boulder. "[Hollow Out]."
Upon the spell making contact with her, the concept of "rejection" was applied to Ishtar, as the spell's namesake began pushing everything within her body OUT while grinding her outer body with the endless force of "push" being applied to her.
Ishtar, from her bulging eyes, saw that her followers and her very soul were being evicted from herself. Her numbers began dropping by digit-values, going from six-digit to five-digit in a few seconds, and as the numbers lowered to further devalue, the rate of the numbers ticking down hastened.
"I WON'T LET IT END LIKE THHHIIISSS!" she roared out as she then planned her next course of action. "[GAUGE RECOVERY MAGIC: COST CUTTING]!"
In desperation, she then sacrifices all of her remaining worshippers' souls in order to save herself from [Hollow Out], canceling out the spell and leaving her mangled. But, the sudden cancellation of the spell triggers a spatial rupture from the built-up perpetual motion-energy to be then released indiscriminately, causing both her and Malacoda to be ejected from the flux space before said space collapsed onto itself before shutting itself down.
Malacoda's swollen body deflated back to Dagda as he landed across the rolling piles of fallen trees and earth, whereas Ishtar hand roughly landed in another part of the woods.
She then gets back up, slumping herself against the tree's bark, now having had lost everything. "... This isn't over...!" she snarled as she held onto her bitten-off shoulder and broken arm. "... As long as I'm still standing... I'll come back... as long as there is fear... I will not let going in the red defeat me-!"
She then suddenly falls down onto the ground, now hearing a chewing sound coming from behind her. The disgraced goddess flips around, and finds the Demon Baby that she'd unwittingly ditched after her transformation feasting on her foot that it had bitten off.
"... No," she uttered as the baby continued eating, "... you wouldn't."
The baby's head and mouth inflated to the size where it was now able to devour the rest of her whole.
"YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO MEEEEEE...!" the last words of the goddess-turned-Demon echoed as the baby swallowed Ishtar whole.
As soon as it finished its meal, the rest of its body began growing in size and proportion, the former beginning to resemble that of a small-child's height while the latter evened itself out to have the length of its arms and legs be at their most optimal length.
With nothing left, it leaves.
At where Dagda had landed, Danu then comes stumbling towards where he'd laid, her [TROY Option] now fizzing and crackling with static as if were about to fall apart.
"... Oi," he greeted. "Ye alrite?"
"Boss, you look like shit," Danu pointed out.
Dagda smirks. "Well enough te talk shite, gud te know," he replied as he then turned his head to the side and spots something gleaming from afar. "... Ye mind gittin' dat fur me?"
The golem then picks up the gleaming object before setting it down next to Dagda.
[Fragarach], now returned to its former length, was then grabbed by the half-Demon before laid onto his chest. "... Oi... Danu."
"Yeah boss?" she then knelt down closer towards him.
"... Throw me," he requested, causing the golem's eyes to widen. "Dun't ask why... just throw me."
Reluctantly, the golem nodded before picking him up. "... Alright," she then pitched Dagda back. "Where?"
Weakly, Dagda then points his sword towards a certain direction. "... Dat way," he remarked. "... Throw me... 'ard as you can... like if yer sendin' me te Heaven."
The golem then pitches Dagda even further back, raising her leg up before slinging him through the weald and out of the canopy, emitting a sonic boom from the force of her throw.
Once she'd done her deed, she began looking for the others and hoping that her number, now at "6," doesn't fall to zero in the meantime.
Dagda/Malacoda: ?
Danu: 6
Bizon Reznov: 0 (DEAD)
Makarov Zakhaev: 0 (DEAD)
[Ishtar, Goddess of War]: 0 (DEVOURED)
"[AETHER MAGIC: SUPERCELL]!" declared Roland as he then lifted everyone out of the branches as soon as [Yggdrasil] swept its arm across the several acres of trees.
Everyone now found themselves inside a giant spiral of dancing storm clouds and thunder, with only them and the titan as the sole occupants, the former flying freely as the Archangel wills so.
"THIS SHOULD KEEP IT IN PLACE!" the Archangel stated. "EVERYONE! ATTACK!"
"WAIT! AREN'T YOU AN ARCHANGEL?!" Corrin pointed out as she rode the air atop of her [Hrunting]'s flat like a board. "CAN'T YOU USE THIS KIND OF POWER TO SOLO THIS THING?!"
"Unfortunately, he cannot," Mikhael explained. "For we Archangels are bound by something known as [Heavenly Restrictions] that each correlate with our representing cardinal virtues."
The titan then swings its arm across the air, attempting to swat everyone out of the sky. Raphael then moves everyone out of the way with a surge of his [Aether Magic], forcing him to take the brunt of the entire blow, sinking his number down to a "1" before he then headbutts the fist out of the way and following it up with a retaliatory spell.
Mikhael then casts [Enlightenment] to recover Raphael's number back to full capacity.
"[AETHER MAGIC: VIRGA]!" the Archangel swung his [Durandal], unleashing a tempestuous rend that split the entire arm across its length. "MINE IS [HUMILITY]!" he pointed out as he returned to maintaining [Supercell]. "I GET WEAKER THE MORE I STAND OUT! SO IF I GUN FOR THE BIG BAD DIRECTLY, I'M BASICALLY FIGHTING AS ANOTHER MORTAL! KEEP ME IN THE BACKLINE! I'LL DO BETTER HERE!"
"WHY DOES THAT EVEN EXIST?!" Patry pointed out.
"It's what prevents us from being abusive with our powers akin to the gods'," explained Mikhael as he then casts [Enlightenment] to recover Raphael's number back to full capacity. "We chose to hold back our powers because Sephira showed us what you all can do. Gods rule by fear to make their following dependent on them to the point of toxicity. We Archangels show you the way, but after that, it's all up to you."
Everyone looked at [Yggdrasil] eclipsing over them as it then swung back for another punch. Mikhael then parries the incoming blow with the thrust of his [Longinus].
"[FLARE MAGIC: BRILLIANCE]!" the tip of his holy Relic then erupts a fiery head of a lion the size of a town square as its roar both repelled the fist and lets out a blast of celestial blaze that then burns a hole through the titan's shoulder. "... I can help you all, but it's up to you all to seize the day!"
Jericho nods. "He's right," he pointed out. "Sorry for losing our cool like that."
"As long as you understand," Raphael remarked as he then flapped his hurricane-like wings. "NOW FLY YOU FOOLS!"
Everyone then takes off towards the titan, sans Lugh, who then handed Moccus and Aengus to Mikhael.
"Apologizes, but can you take care of them in my stead?" he requested. "I need both arms free in order to fight properly."
Mikhael then senses a faint aura of familiarity before taking the two of them into his wings. "I'll protect with my very life," he declared.
"Thank you," Lugh stated before he left.
Mikhael then looked out towards the others who flew towards the titan. "... Good luck."
"Uh mister Archangel, you know that Aengus is gonna catch a cold like this, right?" Moccus pointed out.
"Fair enough," Mikhael then dipped his heated spear into [Supercell]'s walls to cool it down instantly. "[Flare Creation Magic: Ark]."
An ark of flames formed before the Archangel as he then set the pig and the girl on board.
"... Hey, flames actually feel cozy," Moccus commented as Aengus continued sleeping away without a care in the world.
Close towards [Yggdrasil], the group then made their way towards the titan as its arms were kept busy by Raphael's efforts.
"Godspeed everyone," Lugh spoke as everyone else nodded before spreading out. "[SOLAR MAGIC: BÁS BALOR]!"
An eye of solar flames then opened before unleashing its blindingly-hot glare towards the titan.
"[LIGHT MAGIC: LIGHT RAY OF DIVINE PUNISHMENT]!" Patry then blasts a massive beam of holy light from his hands.
"[DARK CURSE MAGIC: OBSOLENCE]!" Mudo then unleashes a surge of cursed energy with her makeshift dagger as a conduit.
"Hey Corrin," spoke Jericho, "mind if I hitch a ride?"
Corrin then sees Jericho get on top of her [Hrunting] as he then wound back his [Dragon]-arm. "... Oh I see what you're planning," she nodded as she then readied her next spell. "[MAGNET MAGIC: PSYCHIC RAILGUN]!"
She then utilizes the ferromagnetic principals to then fire the ancient Relic towards the titan, with Jericho on board the payload.
The elbow of his arm then flares out a jet of raw mana, rocketing both him and the sword faster towards [Yggdrasil]. In the exact moment when all of the other payloads made contact with the titan, Jericho and the fired [Hrunting] then both strike dead center into the titan's chest, breaching to its insides.
"I SENSE WILLIAM!" Patry remarked. "COME ON!"
The other four then follow after where Jericho had landed, finding him and [Hrunting] stopped by the Green Knight itself, the sword's tip blocked by the flat of the other blade, while Jericho's fist was blocked by its other open hand.
Upon sensing intruders, it then throws both back towards the group, with Jericho caught by Lugh and Corrin retrieving her Relic as Patry wasted no time gunning for where William was seen being held.
"[LIGHT MAGIC: GODSPEED FLASH]!" he then blinked past the reborn Green Knight in a flash, but upon arriving at the other side, the elf in human's body tumbled across the ground in a heap, now gasping for air and coughing out blood.
In that split second when Patry had tried to flash past the antlered warrior, the latter hand punched him in his stomach.
"WHAT'D JUST HAPPENED?!" Mudo exclaimed as she then tried to get a read of the Green Knight before them. "... AND WHAT'S WITH THE GREEN KNIGHT THIS TIME AROUND?! IT'S LIKE HE'S BUFFED UP IN ALL PARAMETERS!"
"BURN HIM STILL!" Lugh then followed up as he then unleashed his [Gae Assail] spell, the eagle-spear soaring towards the Green Knight.
"Weak," it then catches the blazing spear with its hand before tossing it aside like yesterday's trash, landing it near where Patry was laying at.
Corrin uses her [Magnet Magic] to magnetize the buttons of his robes to pull him out before [Gae Assail] exploded, the conflagration nearing swallowing him up.
"Thanks," he heaved out as he then casted [Healing Light Particles] onto himself to mend his internal bleeding, but not that of his lowered number of "104". "... Guess that doesn't work like the Archangel's."
"And for the record, this sophistry wasn't my idea, nor I need it to destroy you all," boasted the Green Knight before becoming slightly sullen. "... My god did the unthinkable and sacrificed himself to resurrect me into a new god. Even I thought that it was absurd until I realized why: my synchronization with nature itself had become so concrete that I have become nature itself, and that push was all it required for my apotheosis. I am no longer just Ulster and this Dungeon. I am this world itself. I'm merely taking my offshoots back with my expansion. So knowing all that, why are you all still resisting?"
"BULLSHIT!" Patry cried out. "ALL YOU'RE DOING IS JUMPING OFF WILLIAM'S SOUL AND MAGIC FOR YOUR POWER TRIP!"
"And for the blasphemy of stealing a god's power, he must repent," [Yggdrasil] spoke as he then conjures William's grimoire.
"DON'T LET IT CAST A SINGLE SPELL!" Mudo cried out as everyone jumped towards the Green Knight.
"Too late," it then closes the grimoire as a giant [Jabberwocky] fully covered in red thorns and roses burst out between them. "[Red Queen], kill them all."
The evolved [Red Queen] then belts out an echoing hiss as it then slithered all over the chest's internals as it then rained its spines down onto its prey.
Corrin then spins her [Hrunting] to deflect the rain of thorns with Jericho pulling Mudo behind himself as he guarded with his [Dragon]-arm. Lugh then blasts [Bás Balor] at the coming rain with Patry using [Godspeed Flash] to parry them all out of the air while dodging.
The attack failed, but the [Red Queen] then resorts to cramming the space available right as it then completely wrapped it's thorny length around the whole core holding William's soul as a form of defense.
"NO!" Patry then unleashed his beams of [Light Magic] at the monster, only for its thick hide to not suffer a single scratch.
"Now that it's been established that you're just delaying the inevitable..." spoke the Green Knight as a surge of mana then wells beneath their feet, "... GET OUT."
A massive thicket of brambles eject the intruders out of the breach before sealing itself back shut. As then all floated listlessly before the titan's chest, it then winds back both of its arms to prepare a clap with them caught in-between.
"I'D HAVE TO ASK YOU TO HOLD YOUR FREAKING APPLAUSE!" Raphael and Mikhael then intercepted the crossing blows as they held the hands in place with their Relics and magic. "EVERYONE! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!"
"... Just went from 'suck' to 'completely sucking'," grimaced Corrin as she then propped herself back up. "... We're still short on firepower."
"... Hey, I just remembered that Jericho has some sort of [Dragon]-related magic in his grimoire," Mudo pointed out. "... Why didn't he use the spells earlier instead of playing rocket man?"
"Yes, I know how to read [Dragon] now thanks to Brigid and Ogmios," he answered. "... However, that doesn't mean the content itself makes sense."
"Elaborate," requested Patry.
Jericho then opens his grimoire to then read a few samples of what were (re)written. "... 'O child of power, birthed of chaos, grasp the stars above to pull them down from thee Heavens and smite thee wicked.' ... 'O child of wisdom, birthed by agony, thee lights of this world are dim enough to replace them with your own.' ... 'O child of pride, birthed for fire, cast yourself into the unclean world to burn it anew.' ... And that's all there's to it. No spell names, no description, nothing. "
"... Your grimoire turned into a freaking PROSE VERSE BOOK?!" Corrin exclaimed in exasperation. "WHY ARE ALL OF ULSTER'S HISTORY CONSIST NOTHING BUT ASSHOLES?!"
"Yep, that explains why he couldn't," Mudo shrugged. "... It's more like he can't."
"This is indeed troubling," Patry remarked. "The most powerful among us has his powers sealed off by vagueness itself."
Lugh ponders before shaking his head in disagreement. "On the contrary, I don't an issue," he remarked. "My spells within my grimoire are also written in a similar manner."
"I'm sorry, WHAT?!" exclaimed Corrin.
"Those proses aren't so much as spells but rather... visualizations," he explained as he then looked towards Patry. "... I'm sure you're aware of [Dragons] being the world's first spellcasters, correct?"
He nodded.
"So how do you think spells were initially developed during an era where written speech wasn't invented?" he asked.
Then the elf's eyes widened and lit up like a pair of suns. "... Oral tradition," he answered. "The [Dragons] made spells by visualizing what they can do through proses!"
"[Bás Balor] means 'death of Balor' and [Gae Assail] means 'lightning spear/shaft'," explained the Highlander. "Picture it Jericho. Picture what the words are conveying."
Jericho then closes his eyes as he then recited the verses. "... O child of power, birthed of chaos, grasp the stars above to pull them down from thee Heavens and smite thee wicked."
He was instinctively raising his fist into the air as the arm glowed with further power. Its elbow vents then flare up, taking Jericho along for a ride up towards the titan's head before he then punched [Yggdrasil]'s head, causing it to creak back in recoil.
"... I-I DID IT!" he exclaimed. "I KNOW WHAT THE PROSES MEAN!"
"KEEP AT IT!" Lugh then manifested his [Gae Assail]. "KEEP IT BUSY!"
Everyone then follows Jericho's lead, leaving the two Archangels to hold back the hands.
"I knew they could do it," Raphael smiled.
"Then we better answer their resolve," Mikhael agreed as he then pushed back the hand with his [Longinus] before unleashing [Beacon] all over the titan's body, setting it ablaze and forcing it to regenerate when it didn't want to.
Raphael then tears through the other hand with [Durandal]'s edge, cleaving through its length as he then unleashed [Virga], flaying it in half as the loose piece fell below. "... Hopefully, I didn't hit anyone."
Mikhael checks as he casted [Enlightenment] once again, bringing everyone back in full. "... You're in the clear."
[Yggdrasil], now under attack once again, then resorts to another method of defending itself from small intruders. Sprouting from all over its body were rows after rows of cannons looking akin to hollowed-out tree stumps.
The wooden, barnacle-like growths then all fired volley after volley of pinecones each the size of small cottages.
"RETURN FIRE!" Patry then unleashes [Heaven-Splitting Flash] to intercept the anti-air fire with Mudo unleashing a surge of [Obsolescence] to thin the numbers. Everyone else dodged the pinecones in hopes of trying not to get hit by them, but the projectiles packed one more nasty surprise for them.
Each pinecones, after a certain amount of time had passed since their firing, exploded into a storm of scale-like shrapnels, filling the air with even more things to either dodge or intercept, filling up [Supercell]'s winds with too many hazards to make it maintainable.
"EVERYONE! GRAB ONTO SOMETHING!" ordered Raphael as he then dismissed the giant funnel of spiraling thunderclouds, causing the turbulence to die down and everyone sans the Archangels to stop flying.
Mikhael then sends his [Ark] to rescue the others, but only catches Mudo and Lugh before the shrapnels can harm the other passengers, leaving both Jericho and Patry to be rescued by Corrin while riding atop of her [Hrunting].
"This day... IS THE ABSOLUTE WORST!" she bemoaned right as even more shrapnel made their way towards them.
Raphael and Mikhael then tries to blow the scales out of the sky with their magic, but a few slip past them and are seen careening towards Corrin and her two passengers. She tried to flee, but the scales instead knock her off balance, sending all of them falling down back to the weald at lethal speeds.
Mikhael then tries to rescue them, leaving Raphael to protect the [Ark] and its passengers, but the ran of pinecones was too dense that he couldn't make it in time.
But just before the three of them could hit the ground, a garnet blur sweeps below them before snatching them out of the air.
"... Are we dead?" asked Corrin as she slowly opened her eyes.
A bellowing laughter was heard from ahead of them as the three realized that they were on an actual [Dragon]'s back. "Nope, but sure as hell beats Heaven!"
[Fire Dragon Agi] had come in to rescue the three of them at the eleventh hour. The people on the Ark bore witness to this miracle, with Mudo cheering in absolute reverence.
"FUCK YEAH!" she screamed towards the heavens above. "THE CAVALRY HAS ARRIVED!"
"AND I DIDN'T COME ALONE!" Agi declared as he then pointed towards the three clouds of dust heading towards their way.
One was a streak of brilliant light that pierced through the blue.
One was a stampeding shadow that tore through the thickets.
One was an all-encompassing wave of ice that traveled unimpeded.
And on each of their backs were a big man with a bigger sword, a woman of pale complexion and dark mastery, and a leopard whose back were adorned with many blades.
"Apologizes for the delay," spoke Kouha, the [Light Dragon] whose radiance surpassed of the sun itself. "The forest was encroaching our own borders and we were kept busy. Fear not, for there are still those who resist this unearthly tide."
"It's thanks you lot that we were given enough breathing room to allow a direct intervention!" from atop the glacial tides boomed Bufu, the [Ice Dragon]. "Grandma's allowing us to unleash 20% of our overall powers! It's been forever ever since we got to cut loose!"
"Remember, mind the survivors unaccounted for," spoke Eiha, the [Dark Dragon] emerging from the crawling swarm of all-consuming black. "Our job is to stop the forest from spreading out any further. Not destroy the lands it had assimilated."
"HEY-YO!" hollered Fergus. "THOUGHT YE SEEN DE LAST OF US?!"
"I was curious to see what was happening and I can see that our trip wasn't a waste of time," mused Scathach. "I'll be sure to record this afterwards."
"NATURE BELONGS TO NO GOD, GOD!" roared [Cath Palug] as his blades extended outwards like numerous pairs of metallic wings. "IT WILL REMAIN FREE WITHOUT YOUR OVERSIGHT!"
[Yggdrasil] itself then screams out a shrieking roar, causing the trees around itself to burst out like a tide of evergreen.
"OH HELL NO!" Agi then inhales a large volume of air before exhaling a massive stream of fire that scorched the trees into ash.
Then a whole gaggle of [Jabberwocky] burst from the earth all over like spotted garden eels, spreading outwards as they all slithered through the weald below.
"I'll prune this overgrowth myself," snarled the leopard as it then jumped off from Eiha's back as its blades then opened up before closing into each other. "[SEVERING MAGIC: ERADICATION EXCISION - 720 CULLING]!"
The interlocking blades chewed several acres of trees to a massive clearing in an instant.
"Don't hog them all, cat," Scathach smirked as the shadows that the trees provided more than enough shade to let her spell's reach go beyond their limits. "[Mana Zone: Sea of Shadows]."
The whole forest grounds then turned into a sea of black as both trees and [Jabberwocky] alike all sunk into it, with [Cath Palug] evading the same fate by climbing up across the titan's legs at rapid speeds.
"Allow me to follow up," declared Eiha. "[Primal Dark Magic: Exile]!"
The shadows then all kicked up into black tides, now being thick enough to get [Yggdrasil] to start sinking to its ankles, the ice chasing the alpha of the Animal Pack.
"ALRITE IT'S STUCK!" cackled Fergus.
"KEEP HIM THERE!" Bufu then then blasts a breath of cold air that froze the titan's feet into a pair of glaciers.
"[PRIMAL LIGHT MAGIC: PHOSPHORATORIUM]!" Kouha then unleashes a flash of burning light that blasts onto [Yggdrasil]'s back, causing it to hunch over. "AGI! NOW!"
Agi then makes a quick swing-by towards Mikhael's [Ark] to drop off his passengers before he then makes a beeline towards the titan. "PREPARE TO EAT THE HOTTEST SHIT ON THE FACE OF THIS MOTHERFUCKING PLANET, YOU OVERGROWN GARDEN PIECE!" roared the [Fire Dragon] as he was enveloped in his own flames akin to a meteorite. "[PRIMAL FIRE MAGIC: RECKLESS]!"
The [Fire Dragon] then lands a direct headfirst tackle into the crease of the titan's bent belly before burning a clean hole right through it. However, since it wasn't the core, the titan remained operation, albeit, under [Law of Greed]'s rules, it's total sustained damage reduced it to about "93,313,392" from its base of "999,999,999."
"So if that number hits zero, that thing dies?" Agi remarked before his whole body reignited. "THEN LET'S KEEP HITTING UNTIL IT DIES!"
"WAIT!" Patry cried out. "WILLIAM'S SOUL IS STILL IN THERE!"
"This complicates matters indeed," Kouha acknowledged. "... I've heard reports of a human holding [World Tree Magic] as his own powers, and to think that he is the crux of this [Dungeon]'s powers in the first place."
"Wait, so the whole 'power of the gods' wasn't bullshit?!" Corrin pointed out.
"The only reason why his magic passed as 'exceptionally above average' rather than 'world-devouring' is because of the human body's limit," explained Eiha. "It acts as how the sense pain inhibits the body from destroying itself. A human wielding a god's magic can only harness about a one thousandth of it, so when said [World Tree Magic] returned to the hands of a proper god..."
"Another perfectly-placed piece of this convoluted plan of reforestation," deadpanned Jericho. "... That aside, we just can't kill Captain William as sensible it would be."
Everyone looks at Patry, who himself was inhabiting William's body.
"Glad we can all remember what'd transpired," he stated. "So, here's the plan. The [Dragons] will provide covering fire while the Archangels are going to have to play active defense. Meanwhile, the chieftains are going to have to find a way to breach through the chest so that we can get William out of there. And we have to do all of that before [Yggdrasil]'s number hits zero, because I'm pretty sure that the god's going to take William down with him if that's the case."
"Tellin' us wat te do?" Fergus glowered before smiling. "... Ye got guts, boyo. I can respect dat!"
"I'll spare myself from having to eat out your trachea for that same reason, boy," snarled [Cath Palug] as he jumped down from the titan's head.
"Better than nothing," nodded Scathach.
"ALRIGHT! LET'S DO THIS SHIT!" Agi then took off as the other [Dragons] followed and began spitting their elemental breaths towards the titan to slow it down.
Meanwhile, the [Ark] carrying all of them towards [Yggdrasil]. Upon seeing their return, it then resumes its anti-air volleys, trying to shoot everyone out of the sky with its scale-burred pinecones.
Agi immediately burns all of them to cinders where as Eiha vacuumed them all into a singularity created by his [Primal Dark Magic] before blasting out a steam of black back at the titan. As it happened, Bufu then elevates himself up towards the titan's back before breathing its subzero-exhaust all over its body, shutting the muzzles tight in permafrost as Kouha then rains down a shower of glimmering lights that then all explode like heavy ordinance composed of holy powers.
[Yggdrasil], after enduring the bombardment, then transforms its right arm into a jet-black blade that eclipsed even Fergus's [Caladbolg] by its sheer size alone, and its left arm into that of a cannon barrel resembling an open maw of a serpentine creature.
It then first raises its cannon up into the air before firing a massive battery of that of a titanic pine tree up towards the sky before it then broke apart into smaller charges that all then rained down towards their heads.
"I WON'T LET YOU!" Mikhael then opened up the tip of his [Longinus] as a massive orb of flame was then conjured before it was then shot up towards where the payload was being dumped from. "[FLARE MAGIC: REFULGENCE]!"
The expanding orb of flame sets the sky full of pine needles ablaze into a curtain of bright orange flames.
Enraged, the titan then swept its arm blade across in hopes of knocking everyone caught in it out of the sky.
"NOT ON MY WATCH!" Raphael's [Durandal] then clashes against the giant leaden blade before it could reach the [Ark]. "YOU'RE IN THE CLEAR! SO GET BUSY!"
[Cath Palug] then leaps out of [Ark] followed up by Fergus and Scathach jumping after the cat.
"[SEVERING MAGIC: NINE INCH NAILS - ONE MILLION]!" all of the blades out of the Elderbeast's back shoot themselves out into a salvo that all stung themselves all over into [Yggdrasil]'s body, causing several segments of its bark structures to chip off into thinner layers.
"[Shadow Curse Magic: Anathema Anthem]!" the rouge Witch chieftess of the Twisted Sister Coven then lets out a horrid screech that vibrated through the planted blades of the Elderbeast's [Severing Magic], every single one of them trembling like mad as they all began glowing with a menacing violet light before all of them exploded like a cluster of bombs going off at the same time. "Fat man, you're up."
Fergus then began growing his blade even bigger and bigger by pumping his own absurd amounts of mana into it, keeping up the process until he began to struggle to lift the blade roughly a mile long and a kilometer thick. However, his own [Love Magic] fueled by his desires allowed him to pull off such godly feat, the titanic blade the opening a gash halfway into the titan's chest, briefly exposing the core and its sole guardian.
But just as it could mend its wound once again, Fergus then pushes his blade deeper into the titan's body as it healed, embedding it into itself to the point where the recovery process planted the giant Relic within itself body. "ALRITE! NOW IT AIN'T LOOKIN' SO PRETTY NOW!" he barked out. "COOK DAT BASTARD!"
Jericho then figures out what the chieftain was insinuating. "... CORRIN! USE YOUR [MAGNET MAGIC]!" he exclaimed. "HE SACRIFICED HIS SWORD TO TURN IT INTO YOUR MAGNET!"
"Holy shit, you're right!" she replied as she then looked over her grimoire to see if she has something that could control something that massive. "... And I got just the thing!"
She then gets on [Hrunting]'s flat before taking off on her own. Upon reaching a certain distance, she then extends her left hand as her thumb, index, and middle fingers were pointed outwards, aiming the latter two directly towards the implanted blade.
"Come on... I got this...! I FUCKING GOT THIS!" she pumped herself up as she then blasts a surge of her [Magnet Magic] into [Caladbolg]. "[MAGNET MAGIC: FLEMING GODHAND]!"
Upon the lock, [Yggdrasil] then tried to reach out towards her, but Corrin reactively pushes the sword away from her, forcing the titan to take a step back as it was pushed both by the magnetic force and the [Dragons]' bombardments.
"ALRIGHT, IT'S SLOWING DOWN!" Mudo cheered. "JUST ONE MORE PUSH AND WE'LL BE BACK IN OUR SECOND CHANCE TO NAB WILLIAM!"
"Just breaking through the armor won't be enough," Lugh pointed out. "We'll also have to deal with the Green Knight and [Red Queen] inside."
"Leave the Green Knight to me," Jericho stated. "I got a good enough grasp on my new grimoire to use it properly and Patry needs to be as close to William's soul for a quick smash and grab."
Mudo then lets out a deep sigh as she then drew her dagger. "... I'll open the way," she gulped as she then placed the edge of her knife against her palm. "Lugh, go with Patry and get the soul out."
"Wait, what are you planning?!" Jericho asked as she then cut opens her hand, spilling the blood over her own brow and letting it seep down to her face as she closed her eyes.
Upon reopening them, her eyes turned black and amber-yellow as a surge of malevolence erupted from her as a massive glyph of infernal was the projected from behind her while texts belong to a grimoire appeared all over her face.
"... Truth is, I stole this spell from the Zogratis clan," she explained. "I trapped all of their souls as sacrifices in a situation where I may one day need it. Brother Hama taught me how to 'save' spells in pages of a grimoire for later instant-use... to which I did the same with my own face that I hid from everyone else... sorry if I didn't tell you all sooner, but I needed to keep it confidential until the moment I use it!"
She then screams as the well of chaos opening from behind her began seeping out thousands upon thousands of screaming, tormented souls that everyone took notice of.
"I'M OPENING THE WAY IN RIGHT NOW!" Mudo then let open the gates. "[DARK NECROMANCY MAGIC: INFERNAL GATEWAY]!"
The souls then all shrieked and screamed their way towards [Yggdrasil] as they were liberated from their limbo, corroding through the intertwining barks and roots and sending the Green Knight flying back to the very [Red Queen]'s thorns.
As soon as the storm of lost souls ceded, Jericho shakes off the shock of what had transpired before grabbing Patry and Lugh's wrists as Mudo fell unconscious on the [Ark]'s deck.
"Grab onto me!" he ordered as he then readied his [Dragon]-arm while the other followed his orders. "... O child of power, birthed of chaos, grasp the stars above to pull them down from thee Heavens and smite thee wicked!"
The verniers in the elbow flared to life as Jericho then flew towards the reopened breach as the Green Knight pulled himself out of the thorns before being met face-first by the rocket fist with its two other passengers.
"GET WILLIAM OUT NOW!" Jericho cried out as he then pinned the Green Knight down with his [Dragon]-arm while the latter thrashed about under his now-buckling pressure. "GO!"
Both Patry and Lugh then combined their spells as the [Red Queen] woke up from its sentry before engaging the two.
"WITH THE SUN'S GRACE...!" Lugh declared as he the swung his [Gae Assail] against the serpent and its thorny scales.
"AND THE LIGHT OF HEAVEN...!" Patry chanted as he kept striking the beast's face with his [Godspeed Flash] to confuse it.
"BEHOLD...!" Lugh then cross his flaming spear with Patry's [Mana Weapon].
"... OUR SPLENDOR!" the elf and the Highlander then brought down their combined arms towards the [Red Queen]. "[SOLAR & LIGHT COMPOUND MAGIC: BRIONAC]!"
The thorny serpent was shot back as William's soul was then revealed fully. The elf then makes its way towards where the soul was trapped in, breaking into the tank with his body as he then hastily returned the soul back to the original host's body.
"I GOT IT!" the elf declared as the feeling of rightness returned.
"NO!" cursed the Green Knight as its powers over [World Tree Magic] began to fade away.
"WE NEED TO BAIL! NOW!" Lugh cried out as he then carried Patry over his shoulder as Jericho then punched the wallowing Green Knight into the broken core of the collapsing titan and then retrieving the grimoire.
The three of them then all jump out of the hole as the titan's chest exploded. In the nick of time, Corrin and Mikhael, both of them dragging the [Ark] behind themselves to catch the three falling in.
"WARN US NEXT TIME BEFORE YOU GIVE US A HEART ATTACK!" Corrin screamed.
"Sorry, everything came about in short-notice," apologized Patry as he was then handed back William's grimoire by Jericho. "... That said, we done it! William's soul is finally back-!"
Then the collapsing [Yggdrasil] then screams back to life as its roar then even sent the [Dragons] flying, along with the Archangels and the rest of the [Ark] crashing into the trees once more.
The titan was still standing, even after being rendered half-dead and its main source of power stripped from it.
"HOW IS IT STILL STANDING?!" Lugh exclaimed. "I THOUGHT FREEING WILLIAM WAS OUR WIN CONDITION!"
"... YOU FORGOT THAT I'M STILL A GOD!" the Green Knight's soul spoke from the now-repaired core, the former-[Spriggan]'s own soul now on the line and fueling [Yggdrasil]. "I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE TO DIE! I WILL NOT DIE UNTIL ALL OF YOU ARE FED TO THE SOIL BELOW!"
Jericho then immediately recalls on what he'd done prior leaving the titan's chest. "... I take full responsibility for what'd just happened."
"... Silver lining, it's a patch-job at best," Corrin then pointed up towards the titan's head. "LOOK!"
The titan's number over its head, still remaining active due to [Law of Greed], its now-seven-digit values were rapidly ticking down as it creaked.
"It's going to die on its own at this rate," Lugh remarked.
"HEARD THAT LOUD AND CLEAR!" Agi roared out as he got back up with his wings furled back out. "IMMA GO BLOW IT UP-!"
Suddenly, [Yggdrasil]'s body began to swell up as numerous amber-colored tumors bulged out of its barks.
"... I don't need your help blowing myself up, lizard," the Green Knight's voice hissed as his number now hit six-digits. "If I cannot take this world back... THEN I'LL DESTROY IT ALL!"
Then as if they were all newborn babes first introduced to sun's light, their mana sensitivity had returned to them, now screaming and blaring a thousand warning signals to the point where the collective extrasensory caused even the [Dragons] to slightly nosebleed.
Once the surge of mana finally calmed down, then they all noticed the exact same thing that was happening in correlation to [Yggdrasil]'s persistence.
The entirety of the [Forest of Denial] and all connected landmasses is about to explode as the titan gathered all of the Dungeon's mana into itself to act as a trigger. And once the number over the titan's head hit zero, the entire continent will be nothing but a giant crater swallowing in seawater.
Even still, none ever thought of giving up at this juncture.
"... Anyone got ideas?" asked Jericho as he wiped his nose. "Or at the very least, anything we haven't tried yet?"
Raphael, hearing this, then flies towards his brother. "Brother Mikhael," he spoke. "I also have an idea."
Back at the [Ark]'s deck, Jericho and the others then read over the grimoire's pages to see if there was anything that they can utilize.
"Okay, so looking through these pages, I can tell what I want to do next," he explained as he then pointed towards one section. "First, the whole 'O child of power, birthed of chaos, grasp the stars above to pull them down from thee Heavens and smite thee wicked,' is my [Dragon]-arm launching itself with me like a rocket. While the O child of wisdom, birthed by agony, thee lights of this world are dim enough to replace them with your own,' I can suffice to say that this is a projectile attack that I cannot use just yet, but maybe in due time, which then leaves only this: 'O child of wisdom, birthed by agony, thee lights of this world are dim enough to replace them with your own.' ... 'O child of pride, birthed for fire, cast yourself into the unclean world to burn it anew'."
"... That exactly sounds like what the titan is doing right now," Patry pointed out.
"But going by how [Dragon] magic works, it's an imagery, not an instruction," Lugh elaborated. "... So going by that context, I suppose this is a transformation spell?"
"Into a [Dragon]? Yes," he nodded. "But when it comes to having the entire map's contents wiped off the face of this world or never return being human ever again, I think know what I'd rather suffer."
"Question is, do you even have enough mana for that?" asked Corrin before she then hears Mudo groan back to the waking world.
"... Sort of heard... all that," she mumbled. "... But we got [Dragons] on our side... think you can propose that-?"
"I heard," answered Eiha as he and the others landed before the crashed [Ark]. "... Boy, we must ask you one thing."
"Are you ready for what is to come?" asked Bufu. "To cast aside mortality itself for the sake of obtaining greater power?
"To shed the old and venture to the unknown?" asked Kouha. "To journey towards a world where no mere mortal can hope to ever reach?"
"Choose now," Agi finished. "Or forever stay your hand."
Jericho doubles down on his resolve. "... If it means saving those I care about, then yes!" he answered as he then reached out towards them with his [Dragon] arm. "I ACCEPT THIS RESPONSIBILITY!"
The four [Dragons] nod as they all then pour their mana into his arm, causing Jericho to scream in unimaginable agony as his whole arm began taking over the rest of his body.
"EVERYONE! GET BACK!" Lugh then carried the entirety of the [Ark] over his head as Jericho morphed into a more draconic form.
First, all of his clothes ripped through his own enlarging body. Then his skin began sprouting platinum scales until he was covered all over. Then his head protrudes a snout as his neck and back elongated into more or a serpentine shape. And finally, upon reaching the climax of his metamorphosis, a pair of sail-like wings flutter outwards, flapping to stimulate his newly-grown muscles to accommodate his new limbs.
The metamorphosis had now finished. In place of Jericho now stood a platinum-scaled [Dragon] that then let out a roar that shook the air.
"A whelp, but nevertheless, a promising one," observed Kouha before she looked up, now the number being at five-digits. "No time to explain, we'll do what we can to support you."
The new [Dragon] then turned towards Corrin and the others, walking up to them before lowering his head and back down.
"... Are you telling us to get on?" she asked, to which he nodded.
Corrin then gets onto his back before Jericho then take off of the ground, flying towards the skies freely as he could only have dreamed of, slowly getting faster and faster as he got used to his wings.
"WHOOOAAA!" Corrin exclaimed as the gust blew into her face, a sense of liberation during the time when the world was nearing its end washing over her.
Then, seeing that there was a fifth [Dragon] in the amidst, the pus-covered titan then rips off one of its tumors before throwing it at towards the [Dragon] and rider.
They dodge out of the way, the amber sack exploding into golden flames that began setting the trees ablaze. Bufu quickly stomps it out with his [Primal Ice Magic] before surrounding the titan within a ring of ice walls to keep his movement limited and to cool himself off by hugging his own creations.
"WE NEED MORE SPEED!" Corrin cried out as the [Dragon] flew faster and faster. "WE NEED ENOUGH SPEED AND POWER TO TAKE OUT ITS CORE BEFORE IT EXPLODES THE WHOLE CONTINENT!"
Suddenly, Raphael and Mikhael fly up next to them. As the titan saw that they were planning something, it then kicked up a tsunami of earth and trees to bury them all, but Raphael cleaves through the engulfing tide with the swing of his sword.
"Fly around the ring of ice," instructed Mikhael as he then pointed his lance upwards. "The next part, you'll have to give it your all!"
Corrin nods as she then notches Jericho to then begin orbiting around the trapped [Yggdrasil] as its number was at four-digits, gaining momentum with each completed lap.
"EVERYONE!" the Archangel of Heaven's Flames called out with his [Longinus] raised towards the heavens. "GATHER ALL YOUR POWERS AND PRAYERS TO ME! SHOW ME THAT YOU WISH TO LIVE! SHOW ME THAT YOU HAVEN'T ABANDONED ALL HOPE! SHOW ME THE FUTURE THAT SEPHIRA HAD SEEN!"
Everyone then roars with courage as they all began giving their mana and hope towards where he was, forming a celestial halo over the whole earth before setting it down in the path where Jericho and Corrin were flying around at.
Even Aengus was napping away in bliss, her radiance was still enough to contribute to this gathering of hope.
"[FLARE ENCHANTMENT MAGIC: TRAILBLAZER]!" the Archangel declared. "RAPHAEL! NOW!"
The Archangel of Wind nodded as the countdown ticked down to three-digits. "... 抜刀."/"(Unsheathe)."
He spoke in Hanafudan. Then [Durandal]'s blade then split down the middle to reveal another sword from within, drawing it out as all of the winds gathered around this hidden blade within a holy blade that was thinner than the broadsword, looking more akin to a saber.
"... (Roar. Resonate. Rumble, my prized Kamitsurugi, [Ama-no-Murakumo])" he continued speaking in Hanafudan. "(I am the Blade of Heaven that slew Yamata no Orochi. I am the gathering storm bringing rain and thunder upon the earth. I am wind. I am thunder. I am sky. I am Takehaya Susanno'o)."
Gripping his divine blade with both of his hands, the now-Takehaya Susanno'o then raised [Ama-no-Murakumo] towards the sky, for which at its point, all the clouds gathered towards it.
[Yggdrasil]'s number then fell to two digits, but all he needed to do was make one opening, his [Heavenly Restriction] weakening him be damned.
"... ([Zetten])."
Then in the speed of light, a sonic gale-force slash rent through the titan's chest and down the rest of its body, miraculously avoiding the tumors and the core itself as it then splits its entire upper half open like a fruit, exposing the Green Knight merged into [Yggdrasil]'s core from the inside.
It then hastily began pushing its halves back together as its then reached the last ten seconds of its life.
"GOOOOOOOO!" everyone screamed out as Jericho then sped towards the exposed core with Corrin drawing her [Hrunting] in the process.
But in the last moment of maddening desperation, the Green Knight then belts out a sonic scream that clashed against the charging [Dragon] and rider, slowing them down enough so to ensure that it won't get past it with one blow.
"... I... win..." it declared weakly.
Then from behind Jericho and Corrin's backs came a flying Dagda, naked and bruised all over, but with enough strength left to perform one last act of assistance.
"... [Counter]... [Magic]..." he groaned before he then swung out his [Fragarach] onto both their backs, "... [FULL COUNTER]!"
Then the final push then broke past the sonic barrier belted by the Green Knight, as the number then came down to "5".
"[MAGNET MAGIC]!"
Then "3".
"[IMAGINE]!"
"2".
"[BREAKER]!"
"1".
Both the [Dragon] and Corrin erupt out of the other side of [Yggdrasil]'s body, the core and the Green Knight now impaled through the rusted blade of [Hrunting], and the titan's body now sporting a clean hole that was bored through by the two of them.
It was over.
With exactly one second left on the clock, Corrin and Jericho snatch victory from the jaws of total defeat.
"... We won," chuckled Corrin as she and Jericho then let out a roar of victory. "WE WON! FUCK YEEEAAAHHH!"
Everyone around them cheered as the husk of the titan now began to crumble, its rotting pieces falling back towards the earth to return where it had once called home.
Soon after, everyone present in this battle all gathered around on the forest's clearing, with the sky in full view and the sun now setting towards a deep orange, heralding their celebration before they all collapsed in exhaustion, especially Corrin.
"... We cannot thank you enough," spoke Agi. "We better make ourselves scarce. Grandma is not one for latecomers."
"I should go as well," Mikhael remarked. "... Heaven knows that I've yet to find my chosen child..."
"You mean the one with the scent of [Salamander]?" spoke Bufu. "... She's a friend of mine."
"Then I know where to go next," Mikhael then spreads his flaming wings before turning towards Raphael. "Brother, you should seek out your own chosen child as well."
The Archangel sheathes his [Ama-no-Murakumo] back into his [Durandal]. "... The one chosen by [Sylph], correct?" he remarked. "Let's holler to each other if we end up running into the other chosen children, okay?"
"Godspeed," then both the Archangels and the [Dragons] (sans Jericho) takes off.
Then from the woods, Cu carrying Letoile riding on his back comes back out to see this bizarre lineup before her. "... Did we miss... everything?"
"... Too tired," groaned Patry as he then fell into unconsciousness. "... Need... sleep."
Letoile then looks at Captain William's grimoire in his hands before smiling. "... Mission accomplished."
"Oi, is dat Cu?" Fergus asked. "BOYO! YER STILL ALIVE!"
The wild man smirked. "... Dis ain't enough te kill me, pop."
He then joins in the others in falling over and snoring on the dirt. Then from the bushes, [Cath Palug] came in dragging Dorothy with his mouth, the latter sawing logs as usual.
"I don't like eating ones smelling like flowers," the Elderbeast complained as he spat in disgust. "I'm leaving now."
"I'll go search for survivors," Scathach excused herself.
"I'm gunna go back te me boyos and lassies te see if I can git me rocks off," Fergus then went to retrieve his massive Relic before leaving.
"... Cu sweetie," Mudo groaned. "... Permission to take a rain check?"
"Yeh... I think we all need a nap after all dat..." he yawned before the wild man then plopped down next to the ex-FAMAS pilot.
Just as the leopard had left, Cernunnos then comes out of the trees, his flight pattern all wobbly and uneven before he collapsed, letting go of [Anbhair] before it returned to its original size.
"... So... much... shit... happened..." he heaved before fainting.
Lugh began to become concerned when Brigid's Relic returned before she did. But for now, he opted to remain silent as he then laid the Fae down elsewhere.
"... Although what we're going to do with you," he looked at the platinum-scaled [Dragon]. But then suddenly, he then reverted back to human, with all of his clothes intact and now his prosthetic arm now being proportional to the rest of his body.
"Before you ask why," Jericho then shushed the [Solar Magic] user with his finger, "... the same principles of pre-written speech magic. Imagined myself as a human form and voila."
"That's good and all," he sighed with relief before letting out some of his feelings. "... Do you think everyone is going to make back alive?"
Then [Anbhair] began fizzing static before Jericho could answer. "... A signal!"
Immediately, the two of them began making contact with the outside of the Dungeon. Then, they managed to stabilize and get clear contact.
"This is Magic Knight of the Black Bulls, Jericho Platnia!" he spoke into the Relic doubling as a projection orb. "Can anyone hear me?!"
Then from the other side emerged Julius Novachrono, sitting on his desk with a neutral look on his face. "... Ah, a familiar face at last."
"Wait," Jericho then noticed that something was wrong with him. "... What's the situation on your side-"
"Yeeart."
*SNAP*
"AIEEEE!"
Then the two of them heard the sounds of bones snapping from the other side. Still retaining a neutral look, Julius then turned his orb towards where the sound was coming from and showed a raven-haired Hanafudan woman in black-and-red sailor uniform with garnet gauntlets and grieves around her arms, a sheathed katana around her skirt's hip, and sporting a pair of slightly-glowing amber horns protruding from her forehead. She was seen sitting atop of a well-dressed noble who looked like an older version of Finral, the latter was having his fingers bent sideways by the former, as it was the case when she then grabbed another as if she were about to pick a flower.
"You better apologize or else I'll break your ring finger."
"PLEASE DON'T DO THAT! I AM NOT APOLOGIZING-!"
"Yeeart."
*SNAP*
"AIEEEE!"
Then another finger was then seen grabbed.
"You better apologize or else I'll break your middle finger."
"PLEASE DON'T DO THAT! I AM NOT APOLOGIZING-!"
"Yeeart."
*SNAP*
"AIEEEE!"
Then another.
"You better apologize or else I'll break your index finger."
"FOR THE SEPHIRA! WHAT DO I HAVE TO APOLOGIZE FOR-"
"Yeeart."
*SNAP*
"AIEEEEEE!"
*PSSSHHHHHH*
Then the orb was then turned around hastily back to Julius.
"We just installed clean carpet just yesterday too..." he sighed. "... So, where were you all for the last three months?"
"... I'm sorry, but I might've misheard," Jericho replied. "It's only been like what? A few days in the Dungeon at worst-?!"
"Who are you talking to?!" the woman's voice remarked as she then grabbed the orb from the Wizard King before looking at Jericho through the projection. "... I see," she remarked. "Your eyes are not lying. But yes, it was three months that the whole forest was seen devouring the surrounding lands until it has just stopped."
Then Jericho and Lugh remembered one more thing.
[Fae Arts] bullshit.
"... You're saying," spoke Jericho as his mind was on the verge of snapping, "... that we've been stuck in this godforsaken [Forest of Denial]... FOR THREE MONTHS?!"
The woman on the other side sighs. "... Look, we'll catch up to speed when we all talk," she stated. "In the meantime, I'll send Zio-sensei to pick you guys up. Don't ask why and/or how. She just can and will."
Lugh then excuses himself to then smash his head into one of the trees before screaming into the trunk he buried himself in.
"... Copy," Jericho replied as the orb then shuts off. "... You know, maybe a nap wouldn't be so bad right now."
He then collapses next where Corrin had laid herself in deep slumber.
A spotlight shines onto a lone stool.
On its seat laid a closed tome.
Then a black bird flutters onto its cover.
It then tries to open it, only for it to knock it down and land on where its pages were blank.
It then begins walking all over the blank pages, leaving behind tracks of its own feet before taking off.
Then the dirtied pages begin shifting around into words.
Faint, indistinguishable words that if one could squint towards it, then they could read it as follows:
TO BE CONTINUED
Author's Notes: If there was a writing version of the portrait from the story, "The Picture of Dorian Gray," then this would be it.
Three weeks. About two nights spent burning the midnight oil. And I thought I promised I would get this out in a week.
I have no one to blame other than myself. Mostly due to poor planning in hindsight and wanting to cram about a year's worth of conceptualizing and planning into a single chapter I never got around to in prior chapters.
That said, I'll take this as a learning experience for future arcs. Mainly, do not cram 30+ active characters into a single arc and keep the arc's cast single-digits.
And also, two important messages:
One, I got contacted on Discord to work on a budding webcomic project and I was brought on as a writer. The name is Highborne Universe (by Diahborne), so be sure to look out for it.
Two, I'm putting this fic on an indefinite hiatus for three reasons. One being the aforementioned webcomic project. Two being that I want to finish up "Part 1" of my The Dustbin fanfic. And three, I'm going to resume looking for more part time jobs to secure a stable income and contribute to the family.
That said, I do have a plan for this fic in the future. Mainly, the whole "Lost Three Months"-Mega Arc that'll be my first attempt at a "Rashomon" style writing.
For now, I'll just let this fic speak for itself. I already written too much as is.
Hypothetical Voices:
Beowulf: Katsuyuki Konishi (JPN), Jalen K. Cassell (ENG)
Grendel: Yusaku Yara (JPN), Kenny Green (ENG)
References:
- Beowulf's appearance is based off Even Older Scott from Scott Pilgrim: Takes Off, with armor design based off of Kratos's incarnation in God of War (PS4).
- Jericho's new [Dragon]-arm is based off Iseei Hyoudou's Sacred Gear, [Boosted Gear], but more gunmetal-gray in coloration while its (initially) cumbersome size being like that of Shigaki's outdated battle gauntlet prosthetic arm from Ninja Slayer. [Grendel]'s soul trying to take him over is also a reference to the main plot of dvdryms's High School DxD: Inheritor of Malevolence fic (go check it out, it's a fun read).
- The Green Knight's immortality is based off his namesake's feat of walking off a decapitation in its and Gawain's story from Arthurian lore, while it's functions of "memory" is based off Undertale's Flowey abusing the game's save files to constantly come back (save for the Genocide and Normal-Kill Routes), with a hint of Donatello Versus's [Under World] Stand ability (applied to self rather than surroundings) from JoJo's Bizarre Adventures: Stone Ocean. Also, its constant spamming of resurrection after each (frequent) death brings in mind of Shem-Ha from Symphogear XV.
- The four [Sylvan Sentinels] guarding the [Forest of Denial]'s Dungeon core are based off the Lords of Wise/the brainwashed and resurrected Four Sages (Highlander, Diego, Spartan, and Kuon) from Kamen Rider Saber, with their names derived from the four stags/harts (male red deers) of Yggdrasil, the latter being referenced by their armor and cape colors being red or having a reddish-tint.
- [Dáinn] means "the dead one" in old Norse, with it being Kirsch's reincarnation and combined with its weapon being based off Highlander's [Providence Scythe], brings in mind of Marluxia from Kingdom Hearts's Organization XIII. It's title, [The Ripper], is an allusion to its death/grim reaper motif of its inspirations, along with being a reference to the infamous bringer of death/serial killer, Jack the Ripper (and the Green Mantis Captain's namesake), and how Kirsch in-story had his brain ripped in two after being devoured by a [Jabberwocky] before it evolved into [Tefnut].
- [Dvalinn] means "the unconscious one" in old Norse, with it being Nebra's reincarnation, and it's weapons being Diego's [Vis Vento] rapiers (I find the use of rapiers and [Mist Magic] a neat combo, and it plays to her subtle spider motif in the canon). It's title, [The Slumbering] is a reference to how Nozel found Nebra as a [Mantango] after waking up later than everyone else and was the one leading the [Myconids] whose spores sent everyone into dreamland, giving it a sort of "sleep" motif.
- [Duneyrr] means "thundering of the ear" in old Norse, with it being Solid's reincarnation, and its weapon being Monster Hunter's Switch Axe (specifically, the Rathian's [Dragonmaiden Axe]-line), a fusion of Spartan's [Megas Machete] and [Dinami Axe] weapon combo, with its elemental burst being Solid's carried-over [Water Magic]. It's title, [The Thundering], is a reference to his personality (being the most vocal of his disdain of Noelle and just being a petty bully who's bark is worse than its bite), and also an ironic reference to his death at the hands of the Green Knight (used the latter as a target practice/waking it up from its nap, then got wiped from everyone's memories-sans Dagda's after he ate shit, and sort of kickstarting the plot in the first place).
- [Duraþrór] (pronouched "dura-thor") means "thriving slumber/snoring" in old Norse, with it being Shiren's reincarnation, and its weapons being based off Kuon's [In & Yō] dual swords. It's title, [The Enduring], is a reference to Shiren's [Stone Magic] being an absolute boon in defensive combat and plays off more of the "thriving"-part of his Nordic name rather than the "slumber"-part, but the latter can be interpreted as him being found the [Forest of Denial]'s equivalent of "sleeping with the fishes"/found inside a plant tank fueling a [Barometz] as a skeleton.
- Dagda's [Counter Magic: Kiss of Death] is based off the "Glasgow kiss" in the British cultural lexicon, which is defined as a "headbutt that knocks someone out."
- Jericho's increased protein intake/need for any raw meat is based off Kamen Rider Amazons (2016 Remake), right down to the "chicken coop" comment made by Dorothy being a reference to Jin Takayama/Kamen Rider Amazon Alpha, who owns a chicken coop at his apartment to keep a sustainable supply of protein at hand. The difference is that Jericho doesn't need "fresh" protein, meaning yes, corpses are also on the menu, and palatable.
- Ishtar's Apocrypha/"True Goddess" Form is based off Shadow Shido's "Beast of Human Sacrifice" form from Persona 5, with the "female" element coming from Camilla's "battle form" from the Castlevania franchise.
- [Yggdrasil] is named after the world tree of Norse Mythology, with its personality being based off Digimon Adventure tri.'s Yggdrasil, and physically based off "God" from One Punch Man. Its "core" is based off Exdeath (who was an amalgamation of evil souls sealed in a TREE) from Final Fantasy V. Also, it's "999,999,999" HP/[Law of Greed]'s number is a reference to both Patry's "IX" tattoo over his forehead hidden behind his (now healed) Port Wine Curse, which in it of itself is a reference to the nine realms of Yggdrasil, and the name of William's [World Tree Magic] during the time of fan-translations of the manga.
- Roland/Archangel Raphael has been foreshadowed by his Relic, [Durandal]'s ability as a portable heal station, tying to the meaning of the name Raphael, meaning "it is God that heals," and the wind/[Aether Magic] is associated with the Suit of Swords/Spade from the tarot cards. And said Archangel is associated with the virtue of [Humility], which Roland had to discover in order to get his real name back, and why the lack of it was the reason he lost his memories of being an Archangel (he thought he could take on Satan of all Demons). Appearance-wise, I based it off of Aquila from Dragon Quest IX, who is basically Tenshinhan from Dragon Ball Z with angel wings and a halo. Also, his [Aether Magic] is named after "pure, fresh air," a step above [Wind Magic], with all of his spells being named after extreme and/or abnormal weather phenomenas.
- Brigid's final form, [Nyu], is named after the fifth element of Druidism, representing the invisible and primordial lifeforce that has existed since the beginning of creation.
- Dorothy quotes the meme "Are you tired of being nice? Don't you want to go apeshit?" as a part of her "No More Holding Back"-speech before unleashing her [Dream Conjuration Magic: Rage Room], with said spell being named after the real-life recreational spaces where one can go break stuff for fun. Also, the way her weapons/tools are deployed are based off Baka to Test Season 1, Episode 7.
- Salim's [Lightning Enchantment Magic: Phantasmal Salim] is based off Akira Otoishi's Stand, [Red Hot Chili Pepper]'s ability.
- Nozel's [Mercury Conjuration Magic: Master Armor, Einherjar] is visually designed after Blackwing Armor Master from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, right down to replicating the "Wedge Counter" mechanic via [Wedge Fetter] sub-spell, and its name is derived from the term of when warriors die and are escorted by Valkyries to Valhalla, the word "Einherjar" meaning "army of one/he who fights alone." It's basically Nozel's version of canon Noelle's (and maybe Acier's) [Valkyrie Dress].
- Vanica and Zenon's final exchange is lifted from the Rodriguez Route Ending from LISA: The Hopeful.
- Cu Chulainn's [Daemonbane] form is based off the titular Chainsaw Man himself, along with elements of Fate/Grand Order's Cu Chulainn Alter's Noble Phantasm, [Currid Coinchenn]. Its techniques, [Beagalltach] and [Moralltach], are named after the swords of Manannán Mac Lir, each meaning "little fury" and "great fury" respectively, tying into Cu's [Rage Magic]. For the former, its method of execution was inspired by Robin Mask's [Unicorn Head] special from Kinnikuman, while the latter was based off Zyuden Santi Kyoryuger's [Deinogrander].
- Letoile's usage of the deceased-Rinaldo's [Froberge] is based off JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 4, Diamond is Unbreakable's Rohan Kishibe's [Heaven's Door]'s memetic "safety lock"/"cannot attack Rohan Kishibe"-command. The appearance of the [Compass Magic]-infused [Froberge], I had in mind of Yuma Kokohead's Solution Blade from Master Detective Archives: Rain Code.
- Makarov's [Aura Necromancy Magic: Prav-Yav-Nav] is named after the Slavic Paganism's concept of the three dimensions that each mean "Right", "Actuality", and "Probability", embodying the connection and meditation between Heaven, Earth, and Underworld/Humanity.
- Dagda's [Push Magic: Hollow Out], is inspired by Gojo Satori's [Hollow Technique: Purple] from Jujutsu Kaisen.
- [Red Queen] is named after the antagonist of Alice in Wonderland while its "red thorns" aspect is taken from the Espinas from Monster Hunter Frontier.
- Mudo's [Dark Necromancy Magic: Infernal Gateway], is named after a Chaos Psyker Power from Warhammer 40k.
- Corrin's two new spells, [Magnet Magic: Fleming Godhand] and [Imagine Breaker] are both named after Esper Powers from A Certain Magical Index, the former being named after Mitsuko Kongou's [Aero Hand] while referencing Fleming's Left Hand Rule, while the latter spell is named after Touma's [Imagine Breaker] and the way it finished off [Yggdrasil] is a reference to how Guts and Zodd teamed up to fight Emperor Ganishka's Apostle Form from Berserk.
- Raphael's "alter ego," Takahaya Susanno'o is named after the Shinto God of Storms himself, and the [Ama-no-Murakumo] (also Susanno'o's sword, meaning "Heavenly Sword of Gathering Clouds," tying into his whole "wind" motif) is based off Es's [Murakumo] in the way its unsheathed from a bigger sword blade.
- Akane was referencing Hugeshuriken's scene from Ninja Slayer Episode 6 during her projection.