The Ultimate Interdimensional War
Chapter 18: Sword Duel! Swiftdrawer Vs Hades
Date: February 20th, 2023
Hypnos continues to ignore us. Meanwhile, Hades gets back up, having easily recovered from Ikki's technique. He laughs, unaware of what just hit him: "Ikki, your brother admires you very much. Shun must be in so much despair seeing me easily withstanding your attack. What's worse is that time is running out. Once the final torch goes out, Athena and all the other gods will die! Now, why don't you and your pathetic comrades try and hurt me? I want to be amused. Ever since I returned, I've found myself becoming very bored of how things have gone around me." Ikki replies: "Damn you! I'll show you!" I charge in myself while yelling: "Hey Hades, you can't completely stop what I have planned!" I begin literally unleashing my 75 tornado creating combo on his over and over again after warning everyone to stand back for the time being. It takes me only about 5-10 seconds to pull it off so I can just keep doing. Probably around 6 times a minute if not more. Needless to say, what's left of the Pope's Chamber is just rubble soon enough. Since the statue of Athena that was behind it was just Athena's Cloth the entire time, there was no worry about destroying it since it's not where it was for many years anymore. Even Hades is unable to easily counter my onslaught. That's partially due to the fact my comrades back me up with a focus on ranged attacks. "Mortals.. You dare to challenge me like this?! I will destroy and punish you all! You may be very entertaining to watch attempt to stop me but that doesn't mean I enjoy what you're trying to do! You won't let me land a single attack on any of you! And the Nebula Chain can't even move how I want it to!"
I smirk as I unleash my attack again: "This will make going until the effects of the withering potions I consumed wear off. So I think I should switch my tactics to deal damage even faster. Comrades, please do more to back me up! Once the potions wear off, I will be amongst those of us providing cover and so forth. This is my only shot to really bring up the DPS to an incredibly high amount!" To blindsight Hades for a few seconds, I activate a field spell: Artistic Haven. With it in playlist the scenery around us changes drastically. But I'm not done yet. Not by a long shot. I take off all of my armor. With that done, I begin unleashing a thoughtless flurry of attacks including my best safe technique to use at the moment. I use everything I have and with the increased speed caused by taking all of my armor off except the boots, I move kind of like a speed demon. I am no longer limited when it comes to speed. With my increased skill in handling my wind affinity, I am able to create a light breeze to increase my movement speed while also drinking a speed potion as well as a haste potion to further increase my speed and attack speed respectively. Potions can really make someone OP for a short time, can't they? Anyway, I just keep on attacking until I really start feeling the burn. What Hades didn't expect was that I could even use my own mana to prolong this state of OPness for a short time. Just when it looked like I couldn't fight at such a nutty extent any longer, he says: "You're getting exhausted. I can't wait to punish you, mortal!"
I smirk and wag my left pointer finger: "Not so fast. I'm not done." That's when I start using my magic on my muscles. It's draining really quickly with how intense and fast I'm swinging my sword but I just keep going. Hell, I already even managed to power it up with Enhance Armament and Release Recollection again along with any other techniques I knew that would help me do more damage such as Sword Quicken and Enchantment Blade(both sword skills I learned thanks to my counterpart from Runs-Midgarts). When I finally have to stop, I run back towards my armor which I left on the ground and used the fading effects of my haste potion to put it all back on in just a few seconds. Putting on metal armor is normally a pain ya know. I'm so glad I only usually have to do that once a day. With my armor back on, I pant heavily. But Hades is still being attacked by the leftover tornadoes from my attacks. It's going to take a couple minutes for him to be able to attack again. In the meantime, I just lay on the ground, not giving a damn. I'll get my armor all cleaned up, polished, and all that stuff after we're done fighting for now. I managed to avoid the worst of the exhaustion but at the same time, I'm now suffering from magical exhaustion which is even more severe than physical exhaustion except it doesn't affect my muscles. It mostly makes me feel tired and feel pain around the area where my recreated magical core is inside of my body. My shadows wrap around me in an embrace. Meanwhile, my comrades are using the chance I've given them to attack Hades without him being able to fight back.
I can even see damage on his surplice and his minor wounds on his skin. What's scary is that there should have been more if his power level was the same level it was when Seiya and co took him down in this world's last Holy War. Honestly, I actually consumed a lot of poison as well as withering potions. Some withering potions meant 20 of them. All in order to pull off that stunt. Once Hades is finally able to attack us again, I reluctantly get back up, put away my sword which I hugged while laying down, and pull out my BRAIN Blaster. I change the settings on it to turn it into a 2 handed weapon as well as basically put all adjustments to the max. Bullet/energy acceleration speed, energy output, size of bullet/energy, range, you name it. I also put it in sniper mode. I may be tired and out of magic but I'm not out just yet. I'm not going to let Hades have his way. Hades laughs: "At last! I can now begin killing all of you! There's no escape. You don't stand a chance against me. You just got lucky with that plan of yours, human knight! It won't happen again! I am Hades, god of the underworld and you mortals are nothing against my power." I reply: "I don't know about that. Something tells me you're just saying that when you're really thinking that you shouldn't underestimate us given the defeat Seiya and friends delivered to you." He doesn't reply to that. Instead, he shows off his defenses by shouting: "Rolling Defense!" I don't know how he's done it but the Nebula Chain is still obeying him.
It moves to go around him in order to deflect any attacks sent his way. Nothing gets through except for bullets. Eva smirks: "You think a stolen technique will save you from a hail of bullets?! Think again, you bastard!" I start firing too. Every shot I fire causes quite the large explosion. I hit with pretty lethal accuracy but it still isn't enough to really hurt Hades. After a few minutes, he stops using the chain for that technique only to end up shouting: "Andromeda's ultimate technique! I will enjoy seeing your reactions to experiencing it instead of me! Nebula Storm!" Aldebaran shouts: "Damn it! Not that! With it being used against us, even I can't use my normal style of fighting." Dominic yawns: "Nap causation! What a serious one too! It has infinite potential!" I sigh: "This is so ironic. As someone attuned to the wind, I should in theory be able to stop it but in reality, I can't stop it. Not unless I create an equal and opposite wind force that rotates in the opposite direction of it." But then, someone says: "Go shoot! Now Fang Leone, you know what to do!" Kyoya huh? Ginga shouts: "Go Pegasus! Are you all okay?!" Ishizu nods: "For the moment, we are okay. I summon my Gravekeepers now. They will assist us in this fight from now on until it finally ends." Fang Leone ends up being enough to cancel out the Nebula Storm. Kyoya smirks: "Well, that certainly takes care of that." Hades laughs: "You humans are so pathetic. You are disgusting and must bow down to me if you wish to live any longer. I grow tired of this charade. I no longer have any interest in toying with you humans and others."
He summons his cursed sword which I had forgotten about. Seiya shouts: "This is bad! If that sword hits you, you'll be cursed! Athena and some of my friends traveled back in time to save me from being crippled by it.. How is it here?!" Hades speaks calmly, suddenly returning to his trademark coldness: "Perfect Cell retrieved it from the past for me. And now that's it back under my possession.. If any of you humans and others somehow survive and outlive me, you will be cursed for the rest of your days." Nagato speaks up as he and the other core members of the Akatsuki who were part of it before the 4th Shinobi World War step forward: "Hades, we will not allow you to do anymore harm. We will extract your soul and seal it away. If Thanatos and Hypnos can have their souls sealed away, so can you. Being a god doesn't mean you're unbeatable. I once called myself god and lost to Naruto Uzamaki despite that." Kisame grins: "This will be quite something else! Few have seen our sealing technique." One of Nagato's Pains performs hand signs: "Summoning Jutsu." Hades starts trying to attack them only for King, Luz, and Eda to intervene along with Amity Blight and Principal Bump. King lets out a little roar that knocks Hades back. Amity who has dyed purple long hair, yellow? eyes, light skin, and a black and purple outfit shouts: "Abomination, rise!" The hat of sorts of Bump's face turns into his pailsman(staff) Amity is able to summon a creature of sorts that's similar to a slime but bigger and much more monstrous not to mention mostly purple. Eda transforms into her harpy form that she obtained due to the curse creature she's stuck with but lives in harmony with nowadays.
Luz uses glyph magic she drew into paper to blindsight Hades. Their moves aren't able to do much to Hades. However, Eva shouts to her teammates: "Alright ladies, let's fire at will at this bastard!" "*unison* You got it, Boss!" And so, they start firing. Hypnos is randomly delivered to the feet of Hades all tied up by the RCT3 inhabitants. One of the peeps, a little boy with brown eyes and hair as well as a baseball cap style hat speaks: "Immobilizing Hypnos is a really good value." Hades doesn't care: "Hypnos has failed me. He must die permanently." Ruthlessly, he kills off Hypnos right there in front of all of us despite SHINC's heavy gunfire. Thanatos is delivered to him in the same fashion and so, Thanatos is killed off for failing too. Now that's cold. Hades speaks: "Your attempts to rid yourselves of me will not work. No matter what kind of creature you are, you are disobedient towards the gods and I will punish you for it. The Greatest Eclipse will soon be completed and when that happens, none of you will survive even if you manage to kill me." He swings his sword at Eda only for Rock Lee to intervene. He sends Hades briefly into the air: "Face the power of the Inner Gates!" Neji follows up with: "8 Trigrams! 64 Pongs! 2 pongs, 4 pongs, 8 pongs, 16 pongs, 32 pongs, 64 pongs!" Kiba and Akamaru are next: "Beast Wolf Transformation! Fang Over Fang!" Sakura comes in too: "CHAAAAAAAAAAA!" A berserk Madeline and angry Bulma follow up by attacking too. Hades speaks coldly: "Your attacks are useless. I will curse all of you with this sword in case you manage to survive my wrath."
I spot a motionless Gedo Statue as I join in to keep the sealing ritual from being interrupted. I start firing with all I got after switching my blaster to rapid fire mode. Sinon and the other GGO players along with me create a torrent of energy blasts and bullets. Llenn even shouts at our comrades fighting Hades at close range: "Back away, everyone! The bullets are really about to start flying now!" Other GGO players and marksmen appear such as the former students of the Assassination Classroom, Pale Rider, the masked cowboy looking UA High School teacher Snipe, Pito, M, and Fukaziroh. Additionally, Lyusula and Kales'Oh elves provide support with bows along with Minecraft villagers who just showed up. Hades just stares at all of this coldly before dodging every single energy blast, bullet, and bow even when Hit, Jiren, Hearts, and Fu join the fray with their own energy attacks. Konan shouts: "Listen all of you, we need Hades temporarily immobilized! Can we depend on all of you to pull that off?!" "*unison* Yeah!" Hades just scoffs as he continues to dodge every attack while also moving closer and closer to the ritual site to attack Nagato, Konan, and the others. But then, literally those of us who don't just fight at far range switch the close range and meet him in the middle. Undeterred, Hades uses telekinesis on all of us only for Saiki to counteract it with ease. Goblin Slayer speaks: "Hades is not a goblin. He's worse than a goblin." The pink haired leader of Tokyo Mew Mew Ichigo appears with her friends Mew Minto, Mew Ringo, and so on.
She shouts: "Ribbon Strawberry Surprise!" Another shouts: "Infernal Pudding Rings!" I'll describe them better another time. This catches Hades slightly off guard but not for very long. At that moment, Electric Frost, a resident of Twisted Land with a roller coaster named after them called Electric Frost: The Ride appears: "I heard a villain needs to chill out and be electrically out of commission! Ah I see! I can't immobilize Hades alone but that's okay! Because together, we can do that!" Hades stares at the heroic figure coldly: "You are no threat to me. You are far too weak to be one." I speak up: "I wouldn't underestimate a individual who in the past lived in the town of Cartoon Lake until its destruction many years ago only to be revived by me and the magic of Twisted Land which is partially sourced from the very Cartoon Lake itself. Electric Frost is a master of ice and lightning." Snarky smirks as usual: "Yeah! You don't know what's coming for you!" Hades tries to attack Electric Frost only for his sword to be frozen right then and there. Fu then uses a spare Universe Seed by literally thrusting it into Hades as Electric Frost is joined in their efforts to freeze Hades by Camus, Hyoga, and Crystal Saint. Brain Freezer who reverted to that name over Good Freezer also joins in on the action. Hades doesn't even react. For now, he just lets things happen. However.. There's now a Universe Tree literally growing from the cosmo of Hades. Goku, Vegeta, a just arrived Superman and Wonder Woman, Madeline, and more work together to move the now immobile Hades to where he needs to be.
With that done, Nagato and the others are finally able to begin attempting to seal him away inside the Gedo Statue. It appears that the husk of Ten Tails was cloned at some point, allowing Nagato to summon it like he just did not that long ago. The growing Universe Tree and the ice are already starting to fail so they don't have long to try to seal Hades's soul away. Konan speaks: "We will continue finishing the ritual. Let us hope that this succeeds. We all hold our breathes as we watch the proceedings first hand. Soon, something begins happening to Hades. But it wasn't good for us. Seiya shouts: "No! I can feel Shun being ripped away from that body!" Nagato and the others break the ritual immediately. The Gedo Statue is sent away before Shun's soul could be sealed inside of it instead of Hades. The god speaks: "Your attempts to stop me have failed again. *The Universe Tree on him dies and is destroyed instantly* I am the ruler of the Underworld also known as Hell. Resistance won't save you. Your only hope is to turn back from your disrespectful ways and choosing to serve me from now on. All mortals must bow down to their betters." I quietly swear several times. We all then try attacking him at once to no avail. "Damn it. I swear by my sword that we'll find a way to stop Hades!" Pirate Blaster shouts: "There's only a few minutes left till it's all over for this world!"
At that point, many BRAINS members showed up as reinforcements. Perfect Cell is killed in an instant as the reinforcements divide in half to help fight both Hades and Poseidon. But that's not all. Hades looks up with a scowl to see all of this and prepares to use his sword on all of us. It's not something even I want to be attacked with knowing that even Athena's Shield was unable to resist its sharpness. There was another surprise. A familiar man with goggles, a bald head, a wide body, and an iconic laugh. Dr. Eggman except he's on our side now. Why? Because he was made aware of the pointlessness of his Eggman Empire and informed that he could literally build his Eggmanland amusement park in so many other places than just his and Sonic's world: Mobius. That and Sonic promised to keep being his rival. Eggman laughs: "Well well! Oh what do we have here, a god who has no respect for mortals?! No no. We can't have that, now can we?!" Hades again just stares but also says: "You are Eggman. You are amongst the most useless humans I've ever met." "Heh heh heh heh! We'll see about that! Now that we're all together, say hello to all of my robots! Now that they're here, things are really going to go differently now! Robots, crush Hades and help end this battle at once!" He's still as egotistical and energetic as ever but we do need minds like his. Besides, what's the worst that could happen from allying with Eggman when even he knows when he should be standing against someone who's even worse than he's been for such a long time. His robots descend on Hades.
To my shock, the robots hold out very well even against attack after attack by Hades. It feels like they're just all part of Eggman's favorite strategy: diversions. Hades after a few minutes brings down the full weight of his power on the robots, crushing all of them instantly. Eggman exclaims: "No! Not my robots! Just kidding!" And with that, Eggman unleashes more robots while also firing lasers from his tiny floating ship thing at Hades. These robots are a lot more powerful and dangerous. They actually give Hades a hard time for some time into Hades begins overpowering them by showing off his full power even more. With that happening, Eggman yells: "Everyone! Some of you must go rescue the gods! I managed to find out where all of them are being held! Hurry! Hurry! Before it's too late! There's not much time!" I end up going with some of the others to rescue Abstractoa. We find them trapped in a harsh Jupiter like planet full of traps and all kinds of other things standing in our way. Dominic yawns: "Walking on a planet with this amount of air pressure is not easy. Our ancestors didn't evolve with these kinds of conditions. And that's regardless of where we came from. What a nap causation. It's fortunate I happen to have a device that can help us deal with this kind of problem quickly and efficiently." He pulls out a device that's too big for most means of storage. But not for ender pouches. He gets it out and places it on some pavement in front of us.
Once it's there, he channels some magic into it before finally activating it. As it turns on, the crushing pressure begins to rapidly drop. Thanks to this, we are soon able to move normally. Watching Dominic struggle to get it out due to the air pressure AND the gravity was agonizing because it was a huge struggle for him to do something like that. But still, he got it done and now, we can actually move without too much struggle. Well, that's with everyone except for me. "Damn it. On Earth, my armor is 1300 or so while on the Moon, it's around 233. After all, the weight is the mass multiplied by the gravitational force. So on this planet, my armor weighs thousands. I'm not used to this at all. I can only move somewhat. I don't suggest any of you try to lift me. I'm better off just teleporting whenever anything ahead is cleared or just teleporting straight to wherever Abstractoa is around here. ..No.. Bad idea. I sense a familiar malicious presence along with Abstractoa's presence close to each other. I can't fight very well in this gravity with my armor on. Not to mention the fact that taking my armor off would be much harder on here. Gravity here is probably 8 times greater than it is on Earth.." Sadly, I was very much right about all of this stuff. And so, I just teleported on while the others cleared everything that stood in our way no matter what it was.
Finally, we encountered the evil being I sensed earlier. A revived Janemba makes high pitched energetic monster/child like noises and begins attacking us all with great power. I'm the only one who isn't pushed back or anything like. Mu speaks: "It's Janemba again. This could take a while and we do not have much more time." Susan Test nods: "According to my calculations, we only have a minute to save Abstractoa. Not to mention that the Greatest Eclipse is still going and the fake numbers are corrupting the people of Seiya's world faster and faster, allowing it to become easier to be taken over by our foes." I sweat heavily: "How are we supposed to defeat Janemba and save Abstractoa with so little time left?!" Ishizu replies: "There's only one option. We must rely on the power of fusion. I activate Polymerization to fuse all of us together into one being." Seconds later, we have become a single being for the time being. Said being speaks: "I cannot defeat you, Janemba. However, I can still make sure you can't get in the way of my mission." They grab a hold onto Janemba and use Instant Transmission to get to Abstractoa. The Guardian of Creativity has been reduced to pencil marks on a giant canvas without their powers. The room is inside the planet's hot core and soon, magma will be released to burn Abstractoa to death. The fusion then throws Janemba across the room before lifting Abstractoa to safety and using Instant Transmission again to get far away before using Quantum Leap to go to the Creativity Realm.
The fusion's intellect is a combination of our respective intellects with many gaps in knowledge as well as weaknesses filled in by such. This caused them to instantly think of going there in an attempt to restore Abstractoa's power. They then spend the remainder of their time before they split back up into us adding onto the canvas what's left of Abstractoa is on. They paint in a whole bunch of things. Many colors and several different kinds of paint are used. After that, they take a picture on an old fashioned camera they found and place the produced photo onto the canvas. They then made more things to add to it such as a small clay ball and a quick photoshop before using some of their power in order to give the canvas a more magical touch literally and metaphorically. Finally, they drop the canvas down into the void that most of the Creativity Realm is made of. That void represents new ideas and possibilities that will someday be come up with. Seconds later, the fusion smiles: "I don't know if I will ever get a chance to exist again but I'm grateful for being able to live even for such a short time. My mission is complete. I have hope that what I have done will be enough to restore Abstractoa. With them and the other gods back, the BRAINS Collective will stop Hades and Poseidon. I just know it." They turn back into all of us after shedding a single tear. Before our eyes, Abstractoa soon returns to normal. They appear before us with a smile.
"You and your fusion did a great job. Thank you for saving me. Even a god like myself occasionally needs to be helped instead of helping. Now come. I will take you all back to Sanctuary and fight alongside you once again. Together, we will help put an end to Hades once again. Our first target will be his sword. If we can't destroy it, it could cripple far too many of our comrades. That mustn't be allowed to happen." With that being, they teleport us all along with them right to Sanctuary where the few who have stayed to keep Hades and Poseidon busy are barely holding their own. They are struggling greatly against the evil gods who seek power, more land, and conquest. I shout to Hades: "Hades, I challenge you. Your sword against my sword. What do you say to that?" He stops engaging with the others and ignores them as they start hitting him as a result: "Human who is dead. You have come with the Guardian of Creativity. You are under Abstractoa's instruction. I despise Abstractoa. But I dare not raise a hand against a fellow god if it can be avoided. I will settle for killing you. Your challenge is accepted. Prepare to lose everything you hold dear. You cannot fight like you did earlier. You will lose and then, you will die. You're a disgrace to life itself for being a human." "It's on now. But don't think I can't fight well anymore. I've recovered a lot from my earlier exhaustion. Even my magical exhaustion has become a lot more tolerable. That means it ain't going to be so easy for you to kill me."
All part of the plan. His sword is not unbreakable. My own sword has become a legend of its own. It had many advantages that his does not. Because of that, my chances of being able to break his sword are not 0. With the spell Repair, I can just keep repairing my gear even with the little mana I've naturally regenerated. Repair now has almost no mana cost to me since I've used it so many times and it's a easy and basic spell. Before we begin, Hades lets out a laugh: "Mortals and Abstractoa, I should tell you! My Greatest Eclipse has succeeded! I am surprised your pathetic friends survived it but that matters little. Now, all creatures from this Earth have died and have become Barians for the most part. But many of the warriors amongst them have now been sent to the Underworld! Once this is over, I will make them all some of my loyal servants! Poseidon can have this entire world. It's a shame Athena refused to join forces with me. Now, she's dead." A feminine voice speaks: "Did you say that I'm dead, Hades?" He turns and briefly displays various emotions before replying: "I did. So you're alive because they saved you. Mortals are more clever and disgusting than I thought they were. Oh well. Now, it's time to get serious about all of this. I will kill this human first." I position myself and make sure my stance is perfect as he comes right at me with a practiced and calculated pace. I'm not scared, I've seen and experienced or heard all kinds of messed up things. But I'm still cautious. There's a difference between the two. They're connected but they aren't the same thing.
I parry the first strike: "You think your cursed sword can just break my Graceful Protector just like that? Sorry but it's not that simple." He just coldly stares at me before attacking again and again with hits that not even I can completely block. It seems his incredibly terrifying power level is really something else. But that won't stop me even if he has more experience with a sword than I do. I block, thrust, and parry over and over again while also throwing in a few feints to unsuccessfully catch him off guard. "Hades. You may have killed all life forms that aren't plants, viruses, bacteria or fungi on this planet but.. You can still be killed off for good. I am a knight. I have sworn to protect others with my sword and armor. We are both to the core highly skilled swordsmen. But I'm more dedicated to the sword arts while your sword is cursed and you may have more experience. You can't just say you're going to win against me for sure. After all, I'm already dead so even if you break my armor and a few of my bones completely, I can still fight you even as the color drains from all of my skin due to massive blood loss." "Pathetic human. I will cut you down with my power soon enough."
"Try that all you want. But you won't win. Not without me putting up a good fight at least. I will do what must be done. Your sword will break one way or another. I won't allow you to walk on the likes of us any longer. I've had to take many lives with my sword. I think more so than you have with your own. Swords even when they aren't ever used for battle are symbols of strength, confidence, and more. Even people who would never dream of taking up the sword admire swords. It's fascinating." We keep fighting and fighting against each other, trying to destroy each other's swords while leaving no room for the other to attack any armor. Neither of us are adding anything to our sword swings. It's clear he wants to draw this out and show how "pathetic" I really am by suddenly getting the upper hand and taking control of the sword duel. But that's not going to play out how he wants it to. I won't let it play it out that way. I pull out one of my daggers to dual wield and give myself another advantage I could use to win our fight. All I want to do is break his sword. If I could break even just the tip off, that will help a lot. Without the sharp end, the sword will become significantly less dangerous but still incredible dangerous anyway. After all, even a sword blade's thin sides are dangerous. Send a blunt edged sword into the air and it could actually puncture an acoustic guitar. That happened to me once.
Therefore, my only chance is to make not just the tip come off. If I can get most or at least half of the blade off, that will make a difference that will last. Hades has a big sword. With such a length loss, it would be harder to curse anyone with it. Ideally, I'd need to get most of the blade to come right off, rendering the sword almost completely useless when it comes to magical curses. I focus on my goal. I use the flow of our duel to stay focused on the objective. I keep my eye on his sword and bodily movements. I can't slip up without feeling a world of hurt in return. The sword should be an extension of your arm(s) when you use it. It has to feel natural in your hands to really understand and use it. That fundamental is something Hades clearly understands. But after some time, both of our swords begin actually taking damage. I hastily cast Repair just to be safe only for that to leave me wide open for an attack. He punctures through my body armor to slash my gut. I really feel the pain but I don't stop: "When pain hurts this much, I become desperate to relieve or ignore it! Face the power of my agony channeled into my attacks! Haaaaaaaa!" I may be experiencing a lot of pain but my mind is still active. After all, I have spent years ignoring things. People, pain, you name it. Hades doesn't have the luxury of simply repairing his sword because he never thought anyone would ever be able to damage it much less destroy it.
And that is what loses him the duel. Finally. I manage to breakthrough and break his sword's blade despite the fact it is made from a really tough metal. Hades actually gets mad like he rarely ever does: "How dare you!" I simply shout: "I have to tap out. I'm so worn out from that duel. My comrades, it's your turn. I don't need to say anymore. I played my part for this and now, my involvement in ending Hades is complete." I teleport some distance away. Hades goes after me only to be attacked by Abstractoa and the others. But then, Abstractoa speaks: "Hades, you were involved in the kidnapping of gods such as myself. It was your plans and orders that helped capture several of our fellow gods. For that, I will no longer hesitate to use my full power on you." Without any prompt, Abstractoa begins altering reality in ways one would associate with being high on a drug. Everything becomes surreal. "This is one of the boundaries between the imagination and reality. It is unpredictable and difficult to comprehend. It is here where I will put you down, Hades. Comrades, observe one of the rare times in which I use my full power against an enemy of ours." I don't know exactly how it happened from there but once it was over, Hades was literally flattened into nothing. With him gone, we return to Sanctuary to join the fight against Poseidon who is incredibly arrogant right now because he's winning at the moment. But that won't be the case for much longer. He laughs: "You foolish mortals, don't you get by now that you can't stand against a god like me?! I will crush you all! My power is far too immense for you to handle!"
I turn to Abstractoa: "Hey, what about Shun?" They smile: "Do not worry. I sent him to the Kido Mansion after undoing the fusion of him and Hades while I was preparing to destroy Hades. The god's body is gone but his soul lingers far out of reach for most of our foes. He will not be a problem again for the time being. The same can be said of Thanatos and Hypnos." "What a relief. I thought he was forgotten about. Anyway, it's time we deal with Poseidon now." "Not exactly. The Greatest Eclipse has not been undone. We cannot simply rescue the loves lost but we can at least restore this solar system back to normal. I will speak to some of the other gods about temporarily freezing this entire universe in time until we can free the creatures who lived on this planet until the fake numbers and Hades made all of them become Barians. They died before this universe could be absorbed into Don Thousand's. When they are free and return here together, only then should time in this universe move forward. This universe will be placed under my direct protection until further notice." Abstractoa then fixes the orbits of the planets and such in the solar system so that they go back to how they were. The Greatest Eclipse is not natural after all. The sky remains dark but only because it's nighttime. Poseidon is currently sending his foes away as much as possible with his powerful cosmo while continuing to be arrogant. Yeah. In general, I really don't like him. That one time he helped Athena was great though, it showed a whole other side to him that was much more humane and caring. It seems that allying with Don Thousand has just made him more evil again.
Actually, it's more like the spirit of Poseidon was fully freed so now, the personality of the human who the god awakened in has been overwritten once again. Poseidon was ambitious enough to corrupt Hilda of Asgard, the representative of Odin in this world. Unexpectedly, I hear a familiar grumpy voice yell: "Those damn kidnappers! ..Poseidon. You.. You are a disgrace amongst the gods.." It's Beerus and he's come along with a huge variety of other BRAINS members. Because of this, Poseidon looks over and laughs: "So you think you can stop me even though I'm far more powerful than I've ever been before?! How pointless. But go ahead, try to attack me. See how it turns out. When you all fail, I will take Athena's hand in marriage just as I always planned to. But if she refuses again, I will let her drown in Main Breadwinner all over again now that I've restored my kingdom to its former glory. Soon, Atlantis will cover the entire world. There's too much land in this world." Hearts smirks: "You really think that we'll let you succeed? You're underestimating us. Abstractoa just killed Hades off. Hades himself killed off Hypnos and Thanatos. Myself and Fu killed the 4 Dream Gods. You're getting lonelier and lonelier now." "Don't be ridiculous. I am a god. I never get lonely." Fu chuckles: "But your body is still mortal and we have many ways to contain your very spirit should the need arise. You can change your ways just like Hearts and I did or you can be completely defeated. Your choice." "You fool. I will not give to the demands of any mortal especially not from one born in a location such as the Demon Realm."
I speak up: "You should listen to Fu. After all, we have you surrounded, outnumbered, and outmatched. The other gods aren't too pleased with what you and your allies due to them. We were lucky to get through all of this without losing a single comrade. That being said, even you can easily tell just how much damage was inflicted onto our forces today. If I had to guess, we're all out of recovery items now and so much bloodshed and pain has resulted from all of this. It would be logical to give up if you value staying within that body. Maybe then we'll grant you some kind of mercy." Poseidon laughs at me too as he continues to be a tough opponent to harm: "You're as foolish as the rest of them." "So that's what you think.." Beerus, Athena, Ra, Osiris, Abstractoa, and the other gods move to surround Poseidon. He laughs again even as we're all transported to the Shadow Realm. Athena speaks: "Poseidon, you have once again endangered humans and other life forms because of your greed and arrogance. I cannot forgive you for what you've done.." "Oh Athena. You should have just accepted me and together, we could have ruled this world as husband and wife." "Enough. Poseidon, you will now be judged by the shadows." Ra speaks: "We, the 3 Egyptian Gods tied to the Shadow Realm will directly initiate and oversee this Millennium Trial."
After a few minutes, the shadows find him guilty and move to devour his body and soul only to fail. However, no one is willing to let him off easy. Beerus speaks: "Engaging in battle with us is useless, Poseidon. There are many ways in which we can crush you." "Hahahaha! Are you trying to scare me? After all, I know I could kill you, Beerus, Universe 7's God of Destruction." Many of us activate terrifying abilities to use on Poseidon. Tsunade speaks: "Poseidon. You have to also contend with much of the power of the BRAINS Collective. At this point, there's no escape for you. Surrender now and be granted mercy." "I will not yield!" When he says those words, the full wrath of all of us present is unleashed but we don't unleash it out of vengeance or because the gods are angry. We unleash it to prevent him from doing anymore harm. That reason surpasses any anger or other feelings we have regarding Poseidon. When the conditions are right, it's best to act with a need to stop the enemy rather than the anger of wanting to destroy them for what they've done. That's not always possible so the best thing to do is avoid acting with hatred or vengeance as much as possible. That's not to say hating bad people isn't justified. It's very much so but that hatred must not breed even more hatred. It's a thin line to tip toe across.
The answer to fighting without perpetuating the cycle of hatred is hard and difficult. Too many foes of ours are too consumed with hatred to be reasoned with. So we have to cut them down but then, someone will just bring them back to life at some point in the future and they will seek revenge. That's why taking a more "let them strike first" approach is usually better. There's a reason why we try to offer mercy when we can. Poseidon screams as our moves quickly destroy him. His spirit is visible since we're still in the Shadow Realm. Bulma shouts: "Evil Containment Wave!" Thus, Poseidon is sealed inside a jar. Bulma then teleports it away to our space station for safe keeping. Thanks to all of this, we can now safely get to work on other things. But then, the other gods of this universe appear. Abstractoa speaks: "It seems it is already time to discuss temporarily freezing this entire universe in time. Most of these gods do not favor us. This will be difficult. We'll handle talking to them. For now, anyone from this universe who is still standing must temporarily relocate outside of this universe." Mel speaks: "We have more than enough room in Mii World." And so, things finally calm down again. Seiya and the other BRAINS members from this universe end up in fact staying in Mii World for now. I use Repair on my gear again before finding a place to rest: "Damn. That was all so hard. Even despite that barrage I pulled off, Hades didn't take that much damage. Oh well. I have to become stronger. I will never be satisfied with how much strength I have." I just sit down wherever I ended up in the base to calm my racing heart, collect my thoughts, and so on.
That was until Barla finds me: "Swiftdrawer! Would you be interested in helping establish a connection with a certain nation of monsters?" "You mean the Jura Tempest Federation of the Reincarnated As A Slime universe? Might as well. Having them on our side would benefit us greatly in battles and such. There are techniques there that aren't currently found within any BRAINS member. I have thought about what it would be like to meet with the top individuals there in their capital of Tempest. Besides, my counterpart from Oak Town in the Legend Of Neverland did meet Rimuru due to a Dimensional Infilitration incident. I accept your offer. Who put you up to this?" "No one did. I just wanted to get it done and the hell over with it! We constantly have to keep recruiting more individuals to our collective with how much stronger the enemy is becoming." "No kidding. Now, many Saints who have ever lived have become Barians along with Hade's Evil Stars and so on. Or at least, that's the impression I have. We may only see some of them as Barians but it's still really bad. It's like Don Thousand is withholding most of his forces now in preparation for a grand invasion. He wants more powerful individuals to be turned into Barians. I don't care who else is coming along to Tempest. Let's just get going after we have something to eat. I'm so hungry.." "Sounds like a hella good plan! Oh yeah! With the both of us going there, they will be able to see just how diverse we are in so many ways." "Aye. You're right about that. But I would like to ask you something too. Care for a PvP round in GGO at some point at the near future?"
"Hell yeah! One can never stop getting better at shooting." We go to the cafeteria to eat as much as we need to before taking care of any other needs that we have to. Once all of that is done, we teleport to the outskirts of Tempest. "Barla, just to let you know. I may not write much about the monsters who live here because of the sheer fact that we have so many comrades already. Just saying that because I know you read my stories." She nods and we start walking into the city. I smile: "It's so much better to actually see it in person. The goals of the Jura Tempest Federation align with what we were able to achieve in Mii World. A harmony with monsters being a prime example. As residents of Mii World, we're excellent for negotiating here." A light blue slime is just about to go somewhere on the back of a wolf. The entire city is in tears of his departure. "We should travel back to earlier in the day." Barla nods. That's what we do. Once that's done, we find the same slime being held by a pink haired individual. We get their attention. I say: "Hello there. Rimuru Tempest, we request a meeting with you. As for who we are, we are representatives of an organization known as Infinity. My name is Swiftdrawer." "And I'm Barla! Some of our comrades should be here soon to join us." Rimuru replies: "You two look really strong. But why do you want to speak to me?"
I speak again: "It's rather simple in concept. It's much more complicated when fully explained. So let me state the basics. Our organization is incredibly powerful. If we wanted to, we could take control of this entire world. We seek to establish friendly connections with you for your nation is impressive. And that's a huge compliment given that we don't exactly play by the rules of a nation-state. We live elsewhere in a way that's not familiar to you. A society where there's no government or powerful corporations to decide anything or control others." Barla adds: "These are no lies, we'll tell you the complete truth in time." Kuro-sensei, Bulma, Tsunade, and a few others then appear around us. I smile: "Good. We're all here now." To sum it up as I want to focus on other things, the meeting ended up going very well. Rimuru and the rest of the notable individuals who live in Tempest agree to join our collective and create a secret alliance between it and their nation. But then, something really bad happened. Portals opened in the sky to reveal Barians. I draw my sword: "Damn it, I never expected to show off my strength to y'all this soon. Well then, there's really no other choice. It's time to fight." We are able to stop the invasion before it really begins. Rimuru's friends will be introduced another time gradually whenever I end up noting that they're involved in the same situation I end up being in. After all of that, we all return to our respective universes. Once Barla and I return to Mii World, I bid her a see ya later before heading off to figure out what to do next. I really don't know what to do besides training and learning more magic stuff right now.
Actually, there is something I should talk about. Mutual aid. In BRAINS, we don't necessarily need it since the collective is a money free one. To us, labor and our missions are far more important than any currency. But the same can't be said in many many many other places. For example, the US of the universe I share with you readers. Because of rising costs for living combined with hyper expensive medical bills, the needless thing that no one should need called insurance, and more, the poor only get more poor while the rich get richer. Add the growing number of disabled people to the mix and you get a disaster that's being ignored by most of society because it's so suppressed and the media never really talks about it. There are so many people out there who are unable to afford to live. Finding a good job is hard enough. Without a car, you're practically screwed in the job department especially if you're homeless. So what can we do about all these people who aren't able to afford to live for reasons that are completely out of their control? There's a lot of options. One of the best ones is mutual aid. Mutual aid usually manifests as directly giving money to people in need of it. With payment services like CashApp, Venmo, and around, it's never been easier to do that. Add social media and now, people who otherwise would have died are still alive because kind people were able to give them some money directly to help them live. The government of the US has basically left poor people behind. Costs of living keep going up but wages are very much stagnant and crappy. The capitalist system is amongst the most evil things in the entire multiverse. There's so many worlds where it is making people suffer. It is designed so that some people must be in poverty for it to work.
Even Economics class covered that fact briefly. That is why the BRAIN Collective has gone beyond just stopping villains and saving worlds and what not. It's why BRAINS is classless and moneyless. No one is superior. Everyone plays a role in their own way. We help each other survive. So there you have it. Mutual aid. If you have the funds, make sure to donate to at least a few people in need. It's not that difficult and it's a much easier way to be a hero than fighting off Hades, I assure you. At least the modern world doesn't have magic wielding supervillains or killer androids. But that doesn't mean it's any less dangerous or hard to live in than the Justice League's Earth. There's another issue I'd like to touch on briefly. Climate change. It's getting worse. In Mii World, it's not a problem. On our Earth, it's causing winter to almost cease to exist. In my lifetime, I've seen the climate change over the past 10 years especially. December and January along with this month have been so unusually warm that it's frightening. If you believe in combatting climate change, know that you are not alone in caring about the climate. Make sure to do something about it even if it just means speaking about it. The spread of information is the first step to changing things for the better. It goes before fighting off the threats. Without information being shared, no one could coordinate to solve a problem. If you need further proof, just look at weather forecasts over the past 15-20 years for a particular city. They are never fully accurate but they still paint an important picture.
Climate change is accelerating and hardly anything is changing in response to that. That's bad news for all of us. With that said, I will now focus on what I ended up doing next. I walked back to the library and looked over another spell book I've been reading recently. It's focused on healing magic. I'm trying to figure out what spells I can perform but it's hard when the others are too busy to really teach me any spells. We always have something to do so meal and bathroom time are treasured as times of chill and relaxation. At least we are able to free up about 30 minutes at least every single day to doing something that's just fun. Breaks are important even for us. After an hour, I decide to put away the spell book for now in favor of trying out some spells. However, I am then notified of another problem. I sigh: "Seems the former students of Kuro-sensei are having trouble." I end up going to the old school building where they used to learn. Kuro-sensei and some others also come. Nomu, Barians, Evil Stars, and more have surrounded the former students who are currently wielding all kinds of weapons. Kuro-sensei laughs nervously: "This is really bad.. Not even I know if we can win or not." A red hair man with light skin, brown? eyes, and a politician style outfit replies: "Don't be like that, octopus! It's going to be fine! We can take these foes!" That was Karma. A former delinquent who became the top student in Class 3-E(the Assassination Classroom) once known as the "End Class". One of our foes laughs: "You people think you even have the slightest chance of defeating us?! Think again!" A mostly blue creature known as Chaos ends up swallowing the entire city below the mountain we're on in his fluid like body.
Sonic grins: "Chaos, it's been a while!" Chaos expands to envelop almost everything else around us. That must mean Chaos has absorbed all 7 Chaos Emeralds. This is a problem. "Damn it! My sword skills can't do anything to a being like Chaos.. Except for one skill. Kamehameha Slash. That's the only one that could work against Chaos but first, we have to stop these other enemies from getting in the way of defeating Chaos. Haaaaaaaaa! I'm going all out! Let's end this damn thing already with all that we have!" The fight is fierce and takes everything out of us. Kuro-sensei screams: "Oh come on! They've all covered themselves in anti-me fluids!" One of the Evil Stars smirks: "We knew you would come here so we prepared. After all, you are one of the fastest enemies we have." Sonic yells: "I gotta go Super Sonic to defeat Chaos but we don't have any of the Chaos Emeralds!" Deidara laughs: "Then we had better find them! It seems my detonation clay is quite effective against Chaos! This will be fun!" I sigh: "I can't sense objects like the emeralds with my Ki. I'm better off holding off and helping defeat all of these other enemies. Just how many times will our foes invade other universes? It won't be long until fake numbers start falling to the ground in this world. Let's end this before that can happen." We fight and we fight with everything we have to end this. But it takes a while. By the time Chaos is finally destroyed by Sonic and various others, 2 hours have passed and the sky opens up to reveal fake numbers. But Sonic, Kuro-sensei, and other speedsters choose to do something about it.
Before our eyes, they take care of every single fake number that's now coming down from the sky in this world. That's truly something else and I'm glad I was able to witness that. Chaos returns to his normal passive state before disappearing just like that. Dr. Eggman laughs: "That's what they get for messing with the BRAINS Collective!" And with that, we all go back to where we all respectively came from. I return to the library and just sit in silence and thought for a while. But then, Carlos tries the classic pie to the face prank. I dodge him: "Carlos! What are you doing?!" "Hehehehe!" I pick him up and throw him into the hallway as "payback". That's when someone enters the library by traveling through the Shadow Realm first. Yugi steps out of the shadows to reveal it was him: "Swiftdrawer. Come with me. We determined your shadows are light much like mine are." "That's interesting. I almost expected them to be balance but I guess this is what happens when my intentions and goals are ultimately based on my kindness. As logical and calm-" Yugi transforms into someone else: Kaiba. He smirks: "I fooled you. Your shadows are balance." "Since when did you mess with others like that." "That Marik defeated me in a duel and made me do that." "Oh, yay. Since you are known as Lord Kaiba amongst the shadows and are thus the top figure of shadow users whose shadows are balance-" And Kaiba transforms into Jounochi: "What the?!" "Hehehehe! Sorry but I couldn't resist pulling that. Your shadows are light." "Okay, now I don't know what to believe about them anymore. Light or balance? Balance or light? Damn, this sucks. And it's your fault."
"Hehehehe! I'm serious though. Your shadows are light." "Let me guess, I'm not as light as you are but still lighter than users of the balance shadows?" "I guess you could say that." "Works for me. So do I actually need to go with you anywhere." "Yeah. Yug' will guide you on how to use your shadows for a few hours before whatever the next mission that awaits us is starts." "I see. I will follow your lead through the shadows." He tells me the basics of shadow travel. I nod in understanding and follow him through the Shadow Realm. We soon reach our destination, the Kame Game Shop or more specifically, Yugi's bedroom on the 2nd floor. "Yug', I brought Swiftdrawer for ya." Yugi sees us and smiles: "Thank you, Jounochi. For now, you can leave. I'll have a duel with you later." "Alright, bud. I'll see ya. Oh and good luck Swiftdrawer!" Once he leaves, Yugi speaks to me: "Thank you for agreeing to come. It's important that I teach you about using shadow magic since you have completely forgotten how to use it." "It wasn't something I spent much time learning as you know. Oh and btw, you have another reason for needing me here, right?" "You're right. I need feedback on my swordsmanship. Silent Swordsman has been teaching me but he isn't able to spend much time on that because he's as busy as any of us are in BRAINS." "I gotcha. It would be best for you to instruct me first. My instruction will wear you out. Do you have the Duel Armor from the Capsule Monsters world? I never see you armored because you probably wear armor underneath your clothes."
"I do." "Excellent. You should put it on when it's my turn to instruct. For now, what do you have to teach me?" "We'll start with locating using the shadows." "Sounds good. I'm ready for your lesson." Our instructions to each other go very well. We both get a lot better at the areas we respectively needed to work on. The plan is for Yugi to eventually be able to become a highly skilled swordsman. He's used swords in the past especially in the Infinityverse. But there's only so far he's been able to come by this point. The plan is also to allow me to eventually cast my own Yami No Games like I did a few times in the past. Sometimes, I feel like I'm getting the most improvements and new abilities and skills out of anyone in BRAINS. However, Barla has become an expert on pretty much any weapon that is designed for throwing or launching projectiles at a target. Additionally, she has become well adjusted to her Earth affinity to make her body tougher and more grounded. Dominic keeps advancing his own abilities by using his knowledge of the laws of physics and more. He is hoping to achieve a class upgrade soon. Yusei is now great at using tools for working with machines in battle and has even become one hell of a runner. None of us are stagnant. It may seem some of us are but it's not actually true. Yuma even managed to become an amazing athlete/acrobatic in spite of his past embarrassing failures in sports.
Dr. K has become more than just a mad scientist who builds robots. He is learning several styles of martial arts. I could go on but that's the gist. We are constantly growing in number and strength. And I know we'll do our best against the challenges that lie ahead for us.