When the explosion happened in the sky, the shock was so great, it crumbled the nearest buildings.

Luckily several members of the GSC have evacuated the habitants, so there were no deaths, but there were a lot of wounded.

‘You almost died!’

“Shut up!”

Pushing the engines to the limit, I managed to stay in place.

When I could finally see what happened, I finally saw what was happening.

On the first hand, Dealmaker was missing the hand in which it was holding the weapon, but the wound has already closed and a new one was already growing back.

On the other hand, the mysterious woman was covered in wounds, from which golden blood was pouring out of them.

“You survived The Prayer? What the hell is that barrier made from!?”

The mysterious woman clapped her hands together, creating a golden circle behind it, from which several ghost arms extended.

“I shall not tell you the secret of my techniques. Die! Mudra!”

The phantom arms, extended from her back, closing up on the demon.

“Can do that too, you know”

From the back of the demon, several tentacles extended, each ending in a hand that had a mouth in its palm.

Using these gross appendages, the demon grabbed the arms keeping them away from him.

“Got you bitch! Now die! Magic Mistle deployment!”

From the mouth on Dealmaker’s chest the head of a rocket appeared.

“I won’t let you! Fire Magic: Fire Sphere!”

I threw a fir ball at the chest of the monster exploding it into smithereens, with the demon.

Maybe the fire didn’t do anything to it, the force of the explosion definitely must shake him at least a little.

“You mortal, didn’t you hear me? I said that I was handling it.”

“You weren’t handling it at all! That thing was about to kill you! You need your help if you want to beat him.

“Listen to me, if you st- DOGE!”

Moving away, she barely evaded a laser-like attack, coming from the spot where the demon was.

“Man, you really pushing me! You blew me up so many times that you actually pushing the limit of this body! But you don’t need to worry I have a couple of surprises for you! This is my second creation!”

Laughing, the monster gained altitude over us, while the grotesque moth on its chest closed up.

“To fight magic use bigger magic! Telekinesis: Mighty Push!”

At the same time, the arms of the demon ruptured its arms into pieces, a pressing force hit us, pushing us down on the ground.

If not for the super suit, I was wearing I would have been crushed into paste.

“But wait there is more!”

I couldn’t see it clearly, but from somewhere of its body several tentacles extended, racing towards us.

“ Mudra Prithvi!”

The ground under us shifted as, numerous stone hands lifted from the ground, protecting us from the attack.

“Mortal! I will use a distraction to gain his attention, use it to get near him!”

“R-Right.”

“Here I go! Mudra Dhyana: VAYU PRITHVI!”

As I flew up in the air, several tornados rose up, which carried various sized boulders with them.

‘This magic…it’s amazing I want to talk to her about it if we survive this!’

“If we survive this then sure.”

Once I finally reached the same height as the demon, I saw two similar weapons in the hand, the same kind it used to blast away the barrier of that woman.

“I won’t let you!”

I lifted my hands up, concentrating my energy on them.

“You know what I love about guns?”

Boom!

“They are effective at every distance.”

*****

This guy is an idiot, he fell for the same trick twice!

While he was busy with this avatar, I sent another one to a nearby building with a sniper rifle.

Just one shoot at the ankle and down you go my angel.

“Now that the flies have been dealt with I will eliminate the other bug for good!”

Using almost all my avatar fluid, I created a huge black mirror, from which a humongous gun barrel pocked out from.

“Divine Prayer. This baby will take care of you one way or another! FIR-“

Boom!

Before I could fire the gun, something flew through the air, hitting the barrel, making the whole construct explode.

“WHAT?!”

When I looked in the direction from where the attack came from, my rage flared up while a creepy smile crept on my face.

“No. Impossible. How-How are you here?!”

It was a young man, wearing eastern cloth with a double-edged sword on his back.

“SAMURAI!”

Enraged, I flew in his direction!

I will kill him! I will get rid of him!

Bamm!

From under me, somehow Ash jumped up and sucked kicked me in the jaws.

“FULL BUST!”

Using his remaining jetpack, he augmented his kick’s power, tearing my mask’s jaw right off.

“Bastard!”

“Partner! Switch!”

The air around the suit of metallic armor, changed as energy started to twirl in his hands.

“Electric Magic: Thundering Push!”

Using a huge electric shock, I was pushed aside, my body tingling with electricity.

“Ugh, DIE! Magic Mistle deplo-

“Mudra Dhyana: Vayu Anjali!”

Shit!

That goddess appeared right behind me, with several wind arms approaching me at full speed!

“You got to be shitting with me.”

I couldn’t do anything to defend myself, I let her hit me, dissecting my body into tiny pieces.

Lucky for me, I switched to my snipper body who was still on standby.

“Damn it, this is getting troublesome. That bitch isn’t holding back and fighting those two guys is hard. Should I also go all out?’’

If I do that the other gods will surely find me. But the chances for them to be taken to my divine domain is slim…Damn it, we will see how this is going to go.”

I picked up my rifle and aimed at the head of the samurai.

“Taking you out is a victory for me.”

I pulled the trigger; the bullet flew right in the direction of his head but was stopped by a hand made from solid water.

“I WON’T LET YOU KILL ANOTHER DISCIPLE OF MINE! MUDRA VARUN!”

A tower of water fell upon the building I was, crushing it, flat, I only survived thanks to the augmented regenerative abilities.

“…I think I broke…everything.”

Getting up from the wreckage, I slowly repute my organs in place.

“So… what now? I can’t possibly operate normally with these three people together, and the number of witnesses who saw me isn’t something…God, you have to be kidding me.”

Over my head, several giant arms appeared, each made from a different natural element.

“THIS IS FOR MY DISCIPLE!”

“Ehhh, no thanks. Rockets!”

Manifesting two rockets next to me, I tied myself with a pair of tentacles, before flying up in the air, evading the huge arms just in the nick of a time.

“Dealmaker!”

Hmmm?

The Samurai, was right behind me, keeping up with the swords he was standing on.

“You want a piece? All right then!”

I turned the rockets around facing the enemy.

“Rocket Kick!”

By extending my leg, I tried to kick him in the face, but he was too fast, lowering the altitude to evade me.

“Now!”

At his command, I felt something.

It was coming from the goddess who collected all his arms into a giant radiant one.

“Lady, I hate you so mu-“

BOOM!

*****

Ash POV:

This power.

It was so great that anything I could ever imagine.

What this woman just showed me is something that I couldn’t even imagine in my wildest dream.

‘Materializing magical energy, then forming it into a solid form for combat. She is even able to maintain form after it was cast, I have so many questions for her!’

“So do I.”

“Hey, are you okay down there?”

Standing on a floating sword, that another guy flew next to me.

He wore old-fashioned clothing with something that you would see on those eastern period dramas.

“I’m fine. He blew only blew one of my propulsors out, but other than that I am still kicking.”

“That’s good, you only have one life, so you need to treasure it.”

Eh, why does he sound like a grandpa?

“So, what now?”

“We killed the current host, but that bastard is still somewhere. We will hunt him down and kill him in the cruelest way possible.”

“…That hurt my feeling.”

What?

I looked where the noise came from. it looked like the ground was covered in a thin layer of black slime, not enough for me to notice it before.

“Never underestimate a genius! Next stop: Dis!”

Before I could react to it, the ground suddenly disappeared under my feet and I started to fall.

“Engines!”

‘They are dead!’

Thud!

I soon landed on solid grounds, the armor stopping most of the fall.

“Where are we?”

‘Ash look.”

I was… in a desert at night. The sand was snow-white while the sky was pitch black.

The air was stagnant, almost putrid, with no wind movement.

“What is this place?”

‘I don’t know. I've never been here, but it feels like home.’

“So, I finally captured you.”

Whaaa!

Behind me, a man was standing, dressed in a formal suit with a white coat over it. on his head was a skull of a deer, with several pieces of jewelry hanging on his antlers.

“Dealmaker.”

I didn’t know how but I immediately knew who this guy was.

“At your service.”

He made an exaggerated bow, showing no hint of tension.

“You have no idea how long I have been waiting for this moment. For my fragment to return to me. I am almost in tears.”

“Electric-“

“Crush.”

I couldn’t finish my sentence, with just a single word a huge pressure fell on my body, making me fall to the ground.

“I will not let you go. I will take my fragment back, even if I have to kill you. As for your friends don’t worry, I dropped them at the furthest corner of my factory in one of the testing grounds to be exact. They will never be able to escape from there, not with the games I prepared for them. They might be old, but they are gold!”

*****

“Where are we?”

“Give me a second.”

Soon, a ball of light appeared in the master's hand.

It helped us to see each other but other than that, we were still in darkness, unable to tell where we were.

“We were swallowed by that black goo. This is probably where Dealmaker keeps his playthings. Don’t wander too far away from me.”

I nodded but when I took one step something happened.

I heard metal grinding against metal, followed by a ray of light shining something not far away from us.

“What is that?

It looked like a big plushy of a teddy bear, but it was torn and worn out, with some black spots on it, which could be black mold or blood. in its left paw, the toy was holding a strange black box, with vires coming out from it.

After a series of mechanic noises, the toy raised its head, and a mechanical voice could be heard all around us.

“W-Welcome, Welcome to our wonderful factory! I’m the factories’ mascot, Deadybear the Mad Bear! You-You-You have been chosen as the winners of our first-time lottery game! To felicitate you let us hear the world of our factories manager!”

The bear lifted the strange box, which started to speak in a very familiar voice.

“Playing record 1-0001: Welcome to my factory! I am Dealmaker Melino, the owner of this wonderful factory of mine. I am happy to see that so many people decided to come here! Without further ado, let the games begin. “

Around us several pillars of lines appeared around us, illuminating coffins made from black metals.

“The game is simple. Survive the attack of our newest products ‘Shy Guys’! If you manage to survive this game, you will receive wonderful prices and you will be taken to the next challenge! Enjoy!”

The coffins opened up one by one, showing their content.

They were a group of humanoids, naked, genderless, with long thin white bodies and they had metallic helmets on their heads, with numbers written on them.

“This can’t be good. Get ready for anything.”

Whit a loud pipping noise, the helmets fell on the ground revealing their faces.

They were bald, the white skin stretched on their face, and had white eyes.

When they saw us, they opened their mouth wider than a normal human could and started to cry.

“Did we…scared them.”

Astonished, I let my guard down, almost killing me.

A second ago they were crying, then they started to scream, before dashing towards us with great speed.

“Shit!”

I blocked the first attack, but the second, gazed at my face almost losing an eye.

“Divine Slash!”

Sending more energy into my weapon, I slashed the nearest one.

Thing!

It-It bounced back! An attack that could harm a god got bounced! What are these things made of?!

“Mudra SURAYA!”

A pillar of flame stounded me, burning the monsters to a crisp.

“I had enough of this! “MUDRA PRANA!”

The air around her started to shake, but suddenly there was a loud beeping noise.

“NO! NO! NO! NO, RULE BREAKING!”

Surprisingly the bear didn’t get harmed, neither did his box.

“Playing record: 1-0001. Wow! Incredible! Marvelous! What a feat! To destroy all of them in maar seconds, you must be gifted! Let us move to the second part of the challenge!”

Over our head, the ceiling slowly opened up showing even more light, while the ground started to get higher.

“Playing record:2-0001. Maybe the first one was easy but the next one will be a goody! Challengers, face my army of deadly peanuts!”