PHASE 78 - BACK TO BEING THE GOD OF HANDSOMENESS

Everything became white.

There was this black crescent streak in the middle of nothingness.

When the light faded, somebody was standing in front of the genocidal sword princess. He’s not from the Aether Crusade, but we are sure that he’s here to help us.

Wearing a long black trench coat, leather battle gear, and two black swords, he is the strongest Gate Guardian of the Kozukata Shrine. His dark brown hair danced with the wind. His chocolate eyes gave off a glimpse of hope for all of us.

Atlas Kozukata: The Dark Swordsman.

He delivered a strong attack on Helena, which only made a knock-back. The mad sword princess is still unscratched, but she felt the strong impact of the Dark Swordsman’s slash a while ago.

Helena jumped back to gain distance from this mysterious blader.

“Onii-chan!” Asumi or Lord Haliya cheered. “I knew you would come!”

“Of course.” Atlas made a smirk. “The fate of everything is in vain after all. It’s only natural for me to take action, as the high priest of our shrine.”

Gold particles of light started to gather upon the black swordsman’s body. His twin swords morphed into thick buster swords. His back spawned black wings of a fallen angel, and there is a sun-like golden ring floating behind his head. This divine power… is the same as mine.

He just activated his .

“Heh!” Helena chuckled, still not scared. “What will a half-assed divine creature do in order to help this fight? I still have seven God Cores! There’s no way you can outpower my divinity!”

Wordlessly, Atlas made a single step. And then-

“!!!”

A blinding flash emerged again, and it was followed by multiple dark sword streaks! When the light disappeared, Helena revealed herself without any damage at all. Knowing that all attacks are worthless, Atlas jumped away from Helena.

“No attacks can scratch me as long as I have the God Core of Vishnu.” Helena chinned up with a smile. “You’re just wasting time.”

“Exactly.” It was Rikkun who finally joined the conversation as he walked forward.

“Huh?”

“Everything the goddesses have done, it’s just a distraction so that we can fully heal ourselves.” Rikkun looked at me, and I returned his gaze with a smile. Then he started talking again. “Now that we’re both ready to fight again, we are now moving to the final phase of the operation.”

Rikkun opened a Gate on my chest and drew the . Upon seeing that, Helena made a terrified stare.

“T-That sword…”

The blonde prince swung it left and right, and then made a centered battle stance.

“!!!”

Darkness enveloped everything, and there were one hundred and twelve silver streaks, followed by countless swishes of the wind. When light returned, we all realized that Rikkun hit nothing but air.

“That was close!” Helena laughed.

Helena used Mercury’s power to dash away as far as possible. She really is afraid of the . She’s not attempting to block its attacks by using Vishnu’s . Last time we fought, the penetrated her defenses, so it’s only natural that she will try to evade.

But the attack didn’t stop there! It’s Atlas’s turn!

“!!!”

Everything went white, there were fifty dark streaks. Now, Helena has Vishnu’s active, so she sustained no damage from the shrine priest’s attack.

“Futile!” Helena laughed.

But her smile faded when she realized that there is this gold chain attached from her heart. That gold chain connects to Lord Haliya, who just reverted back to tiny Asumi-nee.

“W-What is this-!!!” Helena cried.

Asumi-nee has finally attached the first ! Now one of Helena’s God Cores is unusable!

Without any break, my allies continued the battle.

“God Core, Installed!” Rikkun shouted as he raised the platinum sword overhead.

He inserted the Fake God Core of Cthulhu to his blade when Helena was distracted! And now, for his strongest attack!

“!!!”

A magical circle formed on Helena’s body, and then followed by Rikkun’s blinding slash combinations! Each slashes connected the dots of the magical circle like a constellation.

“Eat my sword!” Rikkun roared as he made a final stab straight to Helena’s stomach!

The magical circle glowed then exploded! Clouds of smoke covered the whole area!

“Kah!” That was the genocidal swordswoman’s cry! This is the first time we actually landed a blow that could actually hurt her! “W-Why can’t I use the speed of Mercury!?”

It’s my turn! “!!!” I swapped positions with my boyfriend as I ready my fist to make a quick attack! “!!!”

“Gah!” Helena’s cry continued. I made a direct hit on her chest!

As I pulled out my fist, I felt a strong amount of energy from the ball of light I just dragged away from her. It was the God Core of Freyr.

In that brief moment, Helen used her mechanical arm to blast a fire straight to my face! “Burn!”

“Kyah!”

Both of us flew away from each other. I was lucky because before I hit the ground, Rikkun caught me. Helena has nobody to catch her, so she crashed on the land.

The three Goddesses didn’t waste any time, as this is the perfect opportunity to cast all the !

They triangulated the fallen Helena as they used our trump card spell!

“ Lock on!”

Golden chains launched from the goddesses’ chests and latched upon Helena’s heart.

“What the heck is this!?” Helena cried.

is an anti-god spell discovered by Key-chan. It tethers a God Core to another God Core, rendering it unusable.

Earlier, when Atlas used , Lord Haliya silently used the to disable Helena’s God Core of Mercury to remove Helena’s extreme speed. She was able to do so without pronouncing the spell because the crimson moon is here once again, triggering Haliya’s divine powers of silent casting.

Key-chan’s Goddess Core sealed Vishnu’s God Core so that Helena won’t be able to put up an overpowered defense once again.

Emily’s Goddess Core sealed Mars’ God Core so that Helena won’t be able to use monstrous attack strength with her sword slashes

Eliseo’s Goddess Core sealed Odin’s God Core to remove Helena’s extreme magic resistance and intelligence in terms of battles.

The only downside of the is that they won’t be able to use the God Cores as long as they are tethered to another God Core. So right now, the four goddesses are just regular Gate Guardians with no crazy divine powers.

“D-Damn…” Helena stabbed her sword to the ground as she musters his strength to stand up. We chipped a lot of energy and powers away from her, but I can still feel that she still have a lot of pranas left. She still has the God Core of Zeus and Neptune after all.

<>

“Tiara!!!” My boyfriend cried as he hugged me tighter on his arms.

“R-Rikkun…”

I weakly plugged in the God Core to his heart.

I don’t have time to worry about my wellbeing, even though I suffered a first-degree burn on the left part of my chest as well as half of my neck. “D-Don’t worry about me… my powers as the Brightmore Witch will reverse time on my body and heal it.”

“Tiara, you idiot.” Rikkun’s face tells me that he’s mad at me for being too oblivious about my condition. He held his chest, using the God Core I just gave him and transformed into a perfect person.

“!!!”

Particles of light covered his whole body as he evolved into a god of pure beauty. His golden blonde hair reached his hips, his arms became as meaty as a gazelle, and his body became as muscular as a superhero. This is the man that has the perfect definition of handsomeness.

“Stop being so selfless at once.” Freyr said with a smile.

He emitted a glowing green light with his hands; a powerful grade of that immediately removed all my burns away.

I’m now perfectly fine, so I requested him to release me from his grasps. As I landed on my feet, I clenched my knuckle as I gave out a smile. I channeled all the prana I gathered to transform back to my .

“Rikkun, let’s finish this!”