Part 3

Turning back time to when Knite delivered his challenge…

“… I am the tied as the strongest Light Elemental currently in existence! And I challenge you all… to a duel! Those who don’t want to participate can leave however, if you stand in my way I will crush you regardless!!!”

Making such an outrageous request, the culprit of the commotion, Knite made a run at Hel. Watching this scene from a far, Godou got the feeling that he had somehow gotten involved in something troublesome again.

Knite attacked Hel with his scythe who barely managed to dodge. The other defenders also jumped into the fray turning it all into a messy free for all. Despite this, Knite handled the situation flawlessly, managing to take down everyone who entered his reach with a single strike.

Hel must be quite skilled to be able to avoid so many of Knite’s attacks, Godou realised. Though, from the looks of it even Hel was just barely holding on.

While he was watching this, some part of Godou’s mind had already started to formulate a way of beating such a powerful opponent, but with the situation as it was now, Godou was slumped. What could he do?

A telepathic voice suddenly sounded in Godou’s head. Was it Ferrex? No the voice was different from the friend which Godou hadn’t heard from for quite some time… That voice… wasn’t it that fellow in the midst of the free for all combat right now?! Godou couldn’t help but exclaim his name.

“Knite?!”

Godou looked over at Knite. He was currently exchanging intense blows with a group of defenders. In the midst of this, Godou saw Knite give a small wave in Godou’s direction.

Seriously! There should be a limit to how easy you can take things. Simultaneously talking to Godou fighting, Knite continued his conversation with Godou.

“Hell no! Heck I wasn’t even the one who launched the attack that destroyed that temple! Also I heard that Athene appeased Lou’s wrath!”

A blunt and definite refusal to a blunt and straightforward challenge. “Please, have a fight to death with me~” as if anyone who agree to such a ridiculous statement! Though, in retrospect, Godou realised that he could actually name a few people who would wholeheartedly agree. In the fact, it wouldn’t be surprising of those people were the ones to suggested the challenge first.

However! Godou was a pacifist! There was no way that he would agree to such a- Wait a minute… Godou forceful reminded himself that this was just a game. Even if he died once he would still respawn afterwards won’t he?

“Ok, just to confirm, if I let you kill me will also be the end of your mission right? Moreover, what did you do to everyone else?”

As a pacifist, it was obvious to choose the option which involved the least amount of conflict. If it was just one death, Godou was sure he could swallow his pride and just brush it off.

“T This. What a vengeful god!”

So to appease Lou’s anger he had to die 100+ times? Don’t fuck with me.

While Godou was a believer of pacifism, he was not a believer of non-aggression. Thus even if a peaceful resolution could be obtained, it didn’t mean that he would give up aiming for retaliation if you pushed him too far.

During the time they were having this conversation, Hel was confronting Knite again. Hel rushed at Knite at high speed, orange lights blazing around her body reminiscent of the transformation auras from a certain popular shounen anime cough cough dragon ball z cough…

Clang!

Hel’s figure suddenly vanished and instantaneously reappeared behind Knite, a line shaped explosion erupted from Knite’s location.

Then the smoke cleared. Godou saw that a mass of white light had gathered in front of Knite’s body like a shield, protecting him from most of the damage. Hel collapsed, a white seal like pattern which Knite had managed to place on her shield started to expand and cover her body.

Seeing Hel fall, Harris quickly tried to regain control of the remaining defenders. The defenders quickly organised themselves under his leadership but still they fell due to the overwhelming difference between their abilities and Knite’s.

Since Knite had declared that he won’t attack if you ran away and realising that the monsters hadn’t attacked the area in a while due to Knite’s presence, many defenders simply deserted their posts as the fight dragged on to watch the situation from afar.

Knite suddenly rushed at Harris, slashing with his scythe. Harris and a group of players around him at the time (including Spade), burst into grey flames as they died.

Belatedly, Knite, noted his mistake though he didn’t sound all that sorry about it. This fellow is just one of those battle maniacs who get lost in fighting isn’t he? Godou made such observations as he watched helplessly from the sidelines.

Godou felt something tug on his sleeve. He turned and saw Inori. Hmm? Had her hair and eye colour always been gold? Well, it still didn’t change the fact that she still looked like a child.

In her child-like voice which was surprisingly calm, she asked him the question, eyes brimming with innocence.

“Godou, the reason Knite is here is because of some misunderstanding about you which can only be solved when one of you dies right? I couldn’t hear all of it but I got the gist of your conversation.”

How pure. Or rather how trusting. This level of trust bordered on plain naivety.

He hadn’t really noticed it before due to the strangeness of their first encounter and because of the tense war situation but Inori really had an angelic atmosphere around her. As if you could be healed by just being in her presence.

Moreover did she just say that she heard the conversation? Didn’t Knite say that channel was restricted to people who had a certain level of power? Such doubts entered Godou’s mind.

“Yeah, pretty much. Looks like the only way out of it is-”

Godou felt like he was just making excuses but Inori interrupted him before he could finish.

“Then I will also lend you my assistance. The battle so far has given me the time I need to make preparations. Moreover, I will not let Hel’s effort go in vain! Holy Barrier!”

Godou suddenly had the sensation to that a great power was flowing through Inori. Inori made a swiping motion with her left hand as if drawing a line in the air. As if following her actions a wall of light erupted from Knite’s feet forcing him to jump back.

Three more walls of light were created around Knite, all four barriers surrounding him and forming in a large square.

A Holy Spirit contractor? Did this mean that Iori was actually someone amazing? Come to think of it, Inori had been one of the few priests who had treated him… as normally as she could under the circumstances of their first meeting…

Godou vaguely remembered reading about spirits in his basic education. Spirits were beings that had control over various elements and while low ranking ones were merely summons for magicians like shamans and witches, high ranking ones where often worshiped as the gods and guardians of the land.

If Inori’s contracted spirit was indeed a high ranking spirit then… there might just be a way out of this!

“Gegorus! I release you from your bindings! Take power from the land to manifest and bring salvation!”

In response to Inori’s chant, there was a surge of power from the ground as the leylines clustered around the church of Freya in the town flared.

Inside the barriers which Knite was trapped behind, a heatwave-like disturbance appeared. A ray of light shone from the heavens and struck the disturbance. The light gathered around the disturbance in the form of flakes, shaping it and giving it a physical form.

The disturbance grew in a vaguely humanoid figure. Multiple feathered wings grew on its back. Silver and gold plated armour appeared around the figure. A golden spear appeared in its hands.

A high class holy spirit that was worshipped as a god in some areas. It was a divine presence that practically radiated with power.

It was only due to the clustering of leylines near the church that this holy spirit was able to maintain a level of power not far from its original strength despite being bound to a contract. Had their location been somewhere of less spiritual significance, then the spirit’s strength would also drop accordingly.

Somewhat resembling an 12 winged angel wearing knight’s armour, the holy spirit, Gegorus, made its presence majestically known while floating in the sky within the boundaries of the barriers.

Then Gegorus caught sight of Knite.

“Well that’s not very nice, High Class Holy Spirit Gegorus-san”

Knite’s reaction was somewhat hurt in response to Gegorus’s 180 degree change in attitude.

Godou heard Gegorus ask Inori the question in a somewhat reluctant tone. Seeing Inori nod slowly, Gegorus appeared to pale. Watching Gegorus’s reaction, Godou was also starting to have his doubts. Was Knite stronger than a god?

“Hmmm? I’m not an Elemental Lord, I’m just a candidate. Come on, I don’t bite… too hard that is…”

Seeing the first opponent he didn’t have to hold back against, Knite was even trying to encourage Gegorus into fighting him while the said opponent still tried to rebuke him. Seeing the crowd of people who were obviously eager to see him duke it out with Knite, Gegorus could only sigh and tearfully plead:

Without any further warning, Gegorus threw its spear downwards at Knite. Although the spear was merely thrown, it would be more accurate to describe it like blasting an artillery round.

There was a huge explosion as the spear struck the ground which was contained inside the barriers.

As the smoke cleared Godou saw Knite standing relatively fine, completely covered in white light which tremendously increased the pressure he emitted. This as probably the aura stuff Ferrex had been talking about earlier, Godou realised.

In comparison to Hel’s aura release, Knite’s was more compressed and less spread out. (Sort of like the lighting release armour of the raikage in another certain popular ninja shounen cough cough… naruto… cough cough).

“Hahahahaha!”

Laughing with joy, Knite jumped, bouncing off the sides of the barriers to slash at his airborne opponent, his speed noticeably increased with his aura released. Gegorus somehow summoned its spear back into its hand to block the attack.

Thus a battle of tremendous powers began in the town of Tellap.

***

The blank world of almost all empty space shook as the powers holding it in place oscillated wildly. This blank world was a makeshift space created on the borderlines of the mortal and immortal realms. To put it bluntly, being in it was like having one foot in the grave and the other one out of it. That sort of thing.

And it was starting to collapse.

“Crap this is bad!”

Ferrex desperately tried to stabilise the empty world. It was his only link to the mortal realm, a personal space hastily made from his very essence. It was his “soul world”.

It seemed he had been getting ahead of himself trying to recreate his body like in his current state. Given that most of his powers were currently allocated to sealing away the effects of that thing, casting such a large and complex spell required too much out of him.

Thinking quickly, Ferrex “grabbed” hold of the strange energy that flowed from the immortal realms and tried to stabilise his soul world with it. The world shook rebelliously in his “grasp”. For some reason, this strange energy seemed to feel a lot like the Sacred Energy used by Divine Saints thus using his experience, Ferrex somehow managed to stabilise the collapsing process.

He sighed dejectedly.

A few years ago he would have been able to cast the spell to needed flawlessly.

But the present reality was harsh.

There were three things he needed to maintain to recreate his body. He could only do two of them at once.

It really was too much for him to multicast between the complex spells of maintaining the seal, maintaining his soul world and manifesting a advanced multi-circle spell complex enough to create a physical body.

Heck, normally using 2 circle genetic spells were the utmost limit he was willing to divert away from sealing. For some reason, he could feel the flow of a type of energy he had never felt before which allowed him to maintain his soul world.

The fact that the spell he just used wasn’t his first attempted at recreating his body either made it all the more depressing. Ferrex tried to keep his mindset positive. Who knows maybe I’ll just stumble across a solution accidentally.

Part of him was tempted to just momentarily release the seal and quickly cast the spell he needed. But reason told him that it would be too late to readjust the seal if he did that. Casting his Heaven’s Calling spells against Seirph had loosened the seal too much and the buffer zone he had created had all but been eaten away.

If he were to loosen the seal again for even a moment…

[Yes that would be the inevitable outcome.]

Eh? Did I just hear a voice just now? Ferrex wondered if the solitude had driven him crazy.

[Indeed you did.]

“Did you just- Who-”

[Who am I and how do I know your thoughts you ask? That’s a tricky question.]

A distinctly feminine voice answered him.

Ferrex looked wildly around. There was no one around. As if amused by his efforts, the disembodied voice continued to converse with him lightly in an almost sing along tone.

[I am the creator of all and the ruler of all. Thus I am privy to all the thoughts and actions of every inhabitant in this “existence”. I am one who goes by many names. Actually it’s quite troublesome to explain.]

“Arghh!!!”

Ferrex suddenly felt as if his head was about to split open as the “strange energy” concentrated itself around him and engulfed him at him. A torrent of information forcefully streamed itself into his mind.

[Oh my… Accessing the memory from the frame via Divine Power through your link to the Immortal Realms. You really are quite something. That should answer a lot of the questions you wanted to ask shouldn’t it now? To forcefully have information retrieved and absorbed to you, I can feel your suffering. Want a cookie to ease the pain?]

“You… what do you want with me?”

[Well you’re no fun~]

Ferrex clutched his head. The sheer amount of information he had just received… was more than he could comprehend instantly. However, it was enough for him to make out the gist of what was happening. The one speaking to him right now… Was the one who started everything… An existence than not even Gods could comprehend…

There was no contest.

What he was speaking was undisputedly most powerful entity in all the existing realms.

[Oh isn’t that sweet? You’re making me blush~ Oh wait, I don’t have a body~]

Yep, this was most powerful being in Versailles… Why was it that he didn’t feel any need to act respectfully? Ferrex wondered.

The other party continued speaking as if pretending not to overhear Ferrex’s last thoughts.

[But you are certainly an interesting existence yourself you know? An irregular even amongst the Divine Saint Variants… Statistically, you represent an occurrence of overlapping random probabilities so small that it would be rounded off to 0 even at after computing 1000 digits. Within this whole simulation, there has only been one other just like you. That’s even rarer than the Overlords and there have only been 8 of them. Well… 9 of them.]

“I mean no offence but you’re not here just to talk to me about this right?”

[Straight to the point? Well, I better take that approach since I have to fix an anomaly that just popped up. To put it simply, your Overlord friend is one of my assigned observation targets and I just happened to spot you while I was passing by. Since you were struggling so desperately on your own I thought I would help you out].

Immediately after that was said, Ferrex noticed the change. There was no change in his immediate surroundings, the empty space stayed an empty space. But he could feel them. He was no longer blocked from communicating to the mortal realm.

The flow of strange energy, no it would be more accurate to describe it as Divine Power, within his soul world was now much more stable than it had been originally.

[I have stabilised your temporary realm and strengthen your connection with the mortal realm. What you were lacking was a suitable place holder, a key stone, though from the looks of it you would have managed to stabilise it sooner or later. I have adjusted the attributes of your key stone to match what was required. I won’t recreate your body for you though. Cuz that would be cheating~ You will have to work on that yourself. Now, ciao theorigin#ucantbeatme_lollookatthosenoobs logging out~]

“…”

[Oh and by the way. Don’t tell anyone about me talking to you else things might get messy. Now seriously, A.I._Goddess has left the chatroom ~]

What a strange way of saying goodbye. Ferrex was at lost with how to respond. Ultimately, he decided to just ignore it and focus his attentions on the outside world which he had been unable to connect to for quite some time.

What he saw as a shocking situation.

God damn it Godou! Something happened again when I wasn’t looking didn’t it?

***

CHUP…

An obscene watery sound.

“Ha ha ha ha ha! How does it feel to stab yourself some many times into me!”

Some time had passed since the battle between Knite and the holy spirit Gegorus began. Although it seemed like Gegorus was able to keep up in the beginning, the difference between the base powers of the two fighters began to show as the battle dragged on.

The battle was being coming quite noisy but for Godou, what was more distracting was...

……! ………Ku, it was a sensation he couldn’t describe with words. It was slippery but warm… and Inori’s lips felt so soft… Looks of contempt were being given to him from the remaining defenders as they glared at him as if he were some sort of pedophile.

Why? Oh why did I set myself up in this sort of situation?

Godou could only regret his lack of foresight. Although what he and Inori were doing was necessary for the sake of battle, why did it have to be through such an obscene method?

What they were doing right now was…

Not kissing.

No, definitely not that. (Author note: Muhahahahaha how many of you got your hopes up?)

Right now Inori was draining Godou’s Divine Aura and using it to power up a spell tag that she was holding. Basically, she was using the same principle as using her contracted spirit’s power to cast spells only this time Godou was acting as the power source.

After summoning Gegorus and realising that Gegorus power alone would not be enough, Inori had started started trying to cast a new spell using a spell tag, a rectangular strip of paper with a predesigned magic circle drawn on it, as a casting assistance device. However, maintaining the barriers and keeping Gegorus summoned was already past her and Gegorus’s limit.

Thus, Godou had suggested that she use his power instead of Gegorus since he also had divinity. However, due to the fact that Inori did not have a contract with Godou and due to the fact that Godou wasn’t a spirit, Inori could only intake a foreign power through… oral means.

Thus, after much hesitation and cursing at why everything always had to go that direction lately, Godou tried to go for his usual method of transferring power orally. In other words, mouth to mouth.

However, blushing furiously, Inori had pushed him away stuttering:

“W Why did you go directly with mouth to mouth? W Wouldn’t it have still worked if I… dunno… sucked on your finger or something?”

With the sudden realisation that something like that also would have worked, Godou berated himself be getting to used to participating in such activities in the real world that it almost developed into a habit.

Thus lead to their current situation.

Yep. Inori was simply sucking on his index finger.

All the while he was being stabbed by the looks of contempt that the people close to them were giving him.

Speaking of which, Inori was draining out aura from him at a terrifying rate. His stamina, which was closely linked to his aura dropped significantly but for the sake of charging up a thump card that could take out Knite, Godou will himself to hold on.

As a result, the following window appeared and his physical fatigue faded away instantly.

Overpowering Will has activated.

+ Fighting spirit will continually increase in battle.

+ You are able to overcome your limits. Stamina has become infinite.Survival Instinct has activated.

+ Damage output increases the worst your condition gets.

+ Increased ability to detect danger.

Thus time passed while they were performing such a ritual. There was a particularly loud explosion from inside the barrier.

Godou turned his attention to the fight.

Gegorus was lying battered on the ground, Knite was standing over him, stabbing him with the blunt end of his scythe.

However, Gegorus wasn’t the only one hurt in this position as he made all his wings harden like blades and impaled themselves through Knite’s aura and into various parts of his body. In the place of blood, sparks seemed to be emitted from Knite’s wounds.

“It seems this is the end.”

Knite spoke somewhat mournfully as he watched Gegorus’s form start to blur and fade.

“Be proud, it’s been a long time since I met someone in the mortal realm capable to pushing me that far.”

With a parting statement that gave off the feeling of “I have no regrets”, Gegorus’s figure shimmered and vanished, probably to recharge and heal from his damage since he couldn’t die due to his contract.

Now that he had taken care of his playmate, Knite turned his attention to the outside world, deactivating his released aura as he did so.

“…”

His wordless silence as he saw Godou’s current situation was somehow more hurtful then the glares before.

Probably deciding to ignore them for now, Knite looked that the transparent barrier curiously.

Slash. Slash. Slash. The sound of cutting wind.

Knite cut at the barrier several times again with his scythe. Visible scratch marks appeared on the surface of the barrier.

“Interesting. What a powerful barrier! Normal attacks will only scratch it I see.”

“Yes that right! Now you’ve already had your fight so please give up on your task and go!”

Appearing genuinely interested, Knite uttered his observations. Unable to do anything else, Godou tried to convince Knite to leave peacefully(?). But ignoring Godou’s protest Knite continued:

“What about an attack charged with mana then?”

Knite pulled his scythe back and gripped it with both hands. Although it was purely coincidental, Knite reminded Godou of a cleanup batter getting ready to strike the pitcher’s ball out of the field.

Godou felt a “power” flow from Knite to the blade of his scythe. Was this the flow of mana?

Without giving them anything more time for preparation, Knite swung his scythe.

Slash!

Smiiiiiiiik!!!! The sound of cracking glass.

A trench like formation of cracks formed on the surface of the barrier, tracing out the path where Knite’s attack landed. It seemed like the barrier was weaker now that Gegorus had left. But still, the barrier held.

“Ho! It can withstand this level of an attack as well huh? What about an attack charged with aura?”

With the enthusiasm of a child given a new toy to play with, Knite set his scythe standing on the ground and raised his fist in a stance.

“Hah!!!”

A thin layer of white light covered Knite’s already glowing fist, dazzling them with its brilliance. This was probably an application of aura as well, Godou realised.

“Yah!!!”

Knite threw a simple straight punch at the barrier.

SMASH!!!!

A cracked indent formed on the barrier where the punch landed. Fortunately, the barrier withstood the blow and like before, the cracks repaired themselves.

“Oh it can withstand that as well!”

Knite looked at them happily without a trace of malice, his aura dissipating into nothingness again.

“Yep, this is the sort of stuff I like! Strong fighters and challenges everywhere!”

Godou had the impression that had not Knite been trying to corpse camp him and also long as he overlooked Knite’s battle-manic tendencies, they might have gotten along well. As such, he made another attempt to get Knite to leave without causing any more trouble.

“Since you can’t break the barrier why don’t you all it quits? If all you promised to do was try and kill me you can go back and say that you tried and failed right?”

“It’s a bit late to be saying that now and how could I possibly leave when such an intriguing challenge is before me! Besides, it looks like this barrier is going to collapse on itself in about a minute.”

Inori visibly paled from these words. Crap! He realised that as well! Now that Gegorus had been beaten, the power sustaining the barriers would run out soon. Rejecting Godou’s request for a peaceful resolution again, Knite pointed out a fatal flaw in the barrier. However,

“But waiting it out for my opponents to tire themselves out is simply not my style! You are to bear witness to this! I will destroy this obstacle before me with my own strength!”

Unwilling to resort to such a method Knite made such a declaration. Truly a simple and straightforward soul.

Knite held his scythe back and made the same stance he had when he performed his mana charged attack. Similarly, Godou felt Knite charge his scythe with mana from his body.

However, this time Knite also coated it with his aura. A dazzling layer of light covered his scythe. Utilising both mana and aura in his attack, Knite struck at the barrier with a horizontal slash!

SHATTER!!!!

Knite’s horizontal slash literally ripped the barrier in half.

Broken barrier shards sprayed in all directions, dissipating into tiny particles as they collided with other objects.

Without a doubt, Inori’s Holy Barrier became completely and utterly destroyed.

In the next few moments several things happened at once.

Godou flinched as the barrier shards hurtled towards him. The shards dissipated without harming him so that was just a purely reflexive action.

At the same time, Inori, having finished charging her spell, threw the spell tag she was holding at Knite yelling:

“Great Imprisonment Seal!!!”

As the spell tag headed towards Knite with a projectile path that a piece of unfolded paper should not have, Knite countered it by traced a circular symbol in the air with a finger burning in white flame yelling:

“Reflect!”

Knite’s technique caused Inori’s spell tag to rebound off the drawn symbol like light from a mirror, sending the spell back at Godou and Inori.

At the same time, a Great Knight of Kallamore who had been alerted of the commotion arrived to the scene, 50 metres behind Godou and Inori. Sensing powerful aura which Knite held, the knight used a movement type skill and closed the distance between them in an instant.

Then Inori’s spell tag exploded into a magic circle which created a dome shaped self-sustaining Holy Barrier around Godou and Inori.

The Great Knight of Kallamore also got trapped in the barrier with them. Unable to stop the momentum of his movement type skill, the Great Knight ran headfirst into the barrier. As a result of this collision, the Great Knight’s helmet shattered to pieces and a small crack appeared on the barrier which repaired itself instantly.

The Great Knight then started to clutch his head and roll on the ground groaning “Ow ow ow ow” in an almost comical fashion.

A horrific pressure pressed itself on Godou from the inside of the seal, forcing him to the ground.

Whilst within the sealed area, gravity has been amplified by 10 times. Due to the fact that this effect does not directly target the body, this effect is not reduced by Magic or Elemental Resistances. Your Health, Stamina and Mana are being constantly drained to sustain this spell.

And finally, at the same time while this was all happening, Knite was struck from the side with a powerful attack while all his attention was diverted to Godou, Inori and the Great Knight of Kallamore.

“IMPACT SMASHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

With body and sword blazing with a harsh orange light, a knight half covered in glowing seal-like patterns, Hel, smashed her sword at Knite from the side with a heavy horizontal stroke.

A direct hit.

Without the protection of his aura, even Knite was affected by such an attack.

Knite even staggered back for a few moments after taking that hit. Hel looked like she wanted to follow up on the attack but suddenly fell down to one knee. Evidently, resisting the effects of Knite’s light seal was taking its toll.

Recovering from the attack, Knite leapt away from the barrier and made some distance between himself and Hel remarking:

“With a high curse resistance and enough willower it is possible to resist my Light Elemental Seal. However I never expected to meet a human who could resist it here. Hahahaha This sure is an interesting place!”

Hel stared at Knite blankly and tried to attack again.

Knite cut her again.

Hel collapsed. But then panting.

She struggled back to her feet.

“Hel! Get away from there!”

“Hel!”

“Retreat! There’s nothing you can do!”

From, inside the barrier, Godou, Inori and the Great Knight yelled at Hel to escape but it didn’t seem like she heard them. Instead, she continued trying to fight back.

Desperate, they tried to force themselves upright. With much effort Godou was able to force himself on all fours. The Great Knight even managed to stand. Ten times gravity as well as the fatigue from casting her spell seemed too much for Inori on the other hand. She just lay there limply staring out weakly.

“Are you sure about this? Being hit by this sealing technique too many times may cause lasting effects you know?”

Even Knite was showing concern for Hel. Nevertheless, if his opponent wanted to fight, it went against his principle to run away.

As Knite approached Hel, the surface of the barriers around them suddenly became opaque, preventing them from seeing what was happening outside.

“Hel! No! No… I’m sorry... Even after I made such a big declaration, in the end I didn’t manage to achieve anything. I have no control over how long this seal lasts for.”

Noticing the tears welling up in Inori’s eyes Godou did his best to reassure her. If she continued on like that there was no doubt that she would drown in a sea of self-hate and pity.

“Don’t worry about it. You were able to tire down Knite with your contracted spirit when no one else could. Besides, Knite probably won’t do anything too permanent to Hel.”

Although he said that Godou still had his doubts. After all, Knite did make a mistake earlier and accidently killed a bunch of players. Godou could feel his anger build up inside of him. Who dares make this child… girl cry?

Seeing this, the Great Knight tried to help as well.

“That’s right young one. If something goes wrong someone else’s fault!”

“No… I think there’s something wrong with that train of thought. Wait… You’re-”

Wiping the tears away from her eyes, Irori suddenly blinked as she took a good look at the Great Knight. Ignoring this, the Great Knight continued.

“Rather, I would blame nutjob who made this sort of spell. Since you were using a spell tag as an assistance device this spell was designed by someone else wasn’t it? Come to think of it, I know you. You’re Lexus’s student aren’t you? This seems like the sort of spell he would make.”

“Huh? You know Lexus?”

“Godou! This guy is Badas Sky, Hel’s -”

Godou expressed his surprise when he heard a familiar name. Moreover, Inori was Lexus’s student? Then again, a devilish seal that surrounded target with a nearly unbreakable barriers, amplified gravity greatly and continuously drained the target was definitely something Lexus would think up of. Godou shuddered as he remembered the traumatic experimental basic training Lexus had made him undergo.

Come to think of it, this Great Knight, Badas Sky seemed awfully familiar to him. Badas wore light armour, was armed with twin sabers . He appeared quite young considering his position, appearing about 30 years old. Godou noticed that Badas’s armour showed a close resemblance to Hel’s.

Inori tried to tell him something but was interrupted by the Great Knight who, straining under the effects of enhanced gravity declared:

“There’s a time and place for this later. But yes, I am Badas Sky, the commander of the Tellap defence. I am so Hel’s master. Humph! Some master I am, just watching my (former) apprentice get toyed around so much right in front of me.”

Without giving them any more time to ponder on what he had just said, the Badas walked effortlessly in front of the barrier and slashed at it with one of his swords. There was a momentary flash of coloured light. Evidently, Badas had attempted to use a skill of some sort against the barrier. In the moment he did this Godou noticed the drain on his Health, Mana and Stamina jump significantly as the barrier drained their strength to withstand the blow.

“It doesn’t seem like I’ll be able to break the barrier safely no matter what I do. Hmm… what if I do this!”

Having determined that breaking the barrier was not the solution, Badas instead turned his attention to the ground, attempting to take advantage of the increased gravity to smash a hole in the ground.

However, this action too resulted in a dead end. Meanwhile Godou was staring blankly at Badas’s calm and collected decisions. Was this guy really the same guy who made that weird speech just before the siege?

Slumped, Badas sat down crossed legged. Although his actions appeared calm, Godou could see the agitation and worry in his eyes.

Although Badas had already proven that it was impossible to escape the seal through obvious means, Godou wasn’t one to blindly trust another’s words without trying things for himself.

However, as it was he barely had the ability to stay upright let alone crawl so…

“Divine Wind Decree.”

Divine Wind Decree has activated.

+ 38% to all stats

The following skills are available:

Teleport

Body of Wind

Storm Summoning RitualDue to activating this skill with the intention of fighting a worthy opponent, your race has evolved to Heretic God/Breaker of the Divine Decree. The following racial traits have been gained:

+ Divine abilities will no longer go on deactivate due to poor condition additionally, the cost of many abilities has been reduced.

+ Rarely, when hit by an otherwise fatal attack, you will survive with less than 1% of your total Health.

+ When you die, your character will be permanently deleted.Intention to fight a worthy opponent has been detected. Conditions for a crisis have been recognised. Heretic Decree: Unknown has started an analysis of your desires.Due to excess of power, some aura is being released.

A bunch of messages also popped up when he activated the skill but he ignored them as a fierce purple aura flared up lashing out uncontrollably from his body. Seeing this, Badas reacted quickly, countering Godou’s rampaging aura with his own orange aura, protecting himself and Inori’s limp form.

Why was this happening now? Godou wondered. This hadn’t happened the last time he activated this skill. Or was it because he had increased his Divinity from last time that was he finally able to notice it? Now that he thought about it, he did feel the wind stir around him last time he activated the skill.

Either way, this had to stop! Godou desperately tried to contain his aura. However, since he didn’t know how, it seemed his efforts were in vain. He felt a burning sensation around his neck and his aura condensed back into his body and stopped rampaging.

Apologising to Badas and Inori, Godou crawled laboriously towards the barrier.

“If I hit this with Body of Wind would it be able to do anything?”

Murmuring to himself, Godou recalled the effects of the Body of Wind skill. Increasing his speed and explosive power tremendously, last time he used it was when he was on top of Mt Revils. However, he had only been able to use it for a few seconds and it had been unbelievably hard to control. If it’s power had increased as well due to his increased Divinity then Godou could only fear for the safety of the people sealed with him.

“Or I could try and use teleport to get out but will I also be able to carry the others with me?”

[There’s an easier solution you know.]

Another familiar telepathic voice resonated inside his head. This time it was the voice of the friend he hadn’t heard from in a while.

“Ferrex?”

[Let’s ignore the greetings and catching up for now since something troublesome seemed to have happened again and focus on getting out.]

In response to Godou’s query, Ferrex’s reply as brisk and to the point.

[Try using your mana weapons. It should work… at least that’s the inspiration I’m getting.]

With no reason not to try out Ferrex’s suggestion first, Godou held out his hand and created a mana sword.

“Create.”

You have created a Mana WeaponMana Weapon has absorbed the Divine Aura around youMana Weapon has been converted into a Divine Mana Weapon.

Divine Mana Weapons have the ability to absorb spells. You cannot be damaged by your own Divine Mana Weapons. While in the presence of a Divine Aura, they no longer require mana to maintain a physical state.

As soon as he read the information window for his mana weapons Godou realised what Ferrex was getting at. “Divine Mana Weapons have the ability to absorb spells” he felt like kicking himself for not remembering.

“I’m going to get us out here!”

Since Knite was still outside Godou felt the need to warn the others. Badas nodded in acknowledgement and readied himself. Meanwhile, Inori seemed to have lost consciousness as a combination of being crushed by gravity and from spell fatigue.

Either way being sealed like this isn’t good for her. Godou poked the barrier with his mana sword.

Divine Mana Weapon has absorbed Great Imprisonment Seal. The following properties have been gained.

+ indestructability

+ gravity will be enhanced 10 times for everything this mana weapon touches except for the creator.

This mana weapon will break down in 5 minutes.

The barrier and horrific pressure vanished. Godou quickly got to his feet and took in the scene before him.

Two people confronting each other. Hel and Knite.

Whilst Knite looked the same as he always ways, Hel was noticeably more fatigued and beaten. In fact, it was probably surprising that she was still conscious after what she went through.

However, there was a change about her that immediately got Godou’s attention.

Hel’s battle aura, which normally appeared like orange flame around her, had exploded and changed colour.

An eruption of silver lights and streaks of red. A blaze akin to an inferno.

“You… Did you just manage to evolve to…”

Even Knite seemed taken aback from this change.

***

When a human, or rather when a living organism in general, is pushed into a corner and relentlessly pressured, either one of two things can happen. The first outcome is simply that they give into the pressure and break. The second is that they adapt to the pressure and change. Adapt to it and evolve.

Faced with the weight of the responsibility of protecting her town, the sense of helplessness in being repetitively shown the inadequacy of her strength, the fatigue from fighting, mental trauma from resisting the effects of a powerful light elemental seal, there was no doubt that Hel was someone who was pushed into a corner.

She was truly on the crossroads. How she handled the situation would make or break her pride, honour and career. And the fact that she was aware of this only added more pressure onto her.

All these bottled factors tore at her from within. Cannot withstand any longer. About to burst!

I am a warrior of the land…

That had been her pledge at her initiation ceremony and she had tried to uphold it as best as she could but could a human like her really stand up to an Elemental Lord?

The shield of the people and sword of the king…

But what good was a shield couldn’t block what need to be blocked? What good was a sword that couldn’t cut what needed to be cut?

In face of death, in face of life I stand strong and unyielding as a Knight of Kallamore…

It was laughable really. There was no doubt that she was in that sort of situation right now but all yet it took everything she had to just stay standing.

Glory for the Kingdom!

Kallamore. The kingdom of knights. Did she really deserve to call herself a protector of such a kingdom?

Battered and beaten, Hel glared up at Knite. Eyes burning red with great force.

With panting, ragged breaths, Hel let her built-up stress explode into the form of aura.

She just let it go. She didn’t care anymore. She didn’t care about the pressure. She didn’t care about protecting the town from unnecessary damage. She stopped trying to contain her emotions.

For aura which was closely linked to emotions, this was the final key that she needed.

No matter how you looked at it, she was far from reaching her ideal.

Having been shown repetitively how inadequate her current self was Hel had no choice anymore.

She discarded her current broken and beaten self. And in exchanged grasped at her potential and demanded herself to be better!

Ding!

Your race has evolved to Human (Ascended).You have learnt a new technique: Blood Burn Aura.Blood Burn Aura: First Stage has been released.

X3 Damage Output

X3 Movement Speed

+ 50% Damage Reduction

+ Time appears to slow down by a factor of 4

+ All attacks have been enhanced with aura.

+ You are able overcome your limits

2500 Health is being consumed per second

Her fiery orange aura sudden changed silver. Occasional streaks of red could be seen.

“You… Did you just manage to evolve to…”

Knite seemed taken aback from this change.

This was a power which she couldn’t obtain if she stayed concerned about everything. Without regard for her life she tapped into her lifeforce, her Health, and used it to directly power up her aura to her maximum limit.

This was a double edged sword which converted life-force into raw power and perception. A technique based on what her master had taught her.

A crater like depression ripped up the ground at her feet as she poured everything she had into her aura. The number of red streaks increased.

Blood Burn Aura: Second Stage has been released.

X4 Damage Output

X4 Movement Speed

+ 50% Damage Reduction

+ Time appears to slow down by a factor of 4

+ All attacks have been enhanced with aura.

+ you are able to overcome your limits

5000 Health is being consumed per second

-----------------------

Warning: This is only the the beginning of a series of continuously broken power ups!

Word Count: ~8000 words

I’m back (and so is Godou in more ways than one I guess). Wow its been 1 year (exactly) since I started writing this. Since I no longer had to rush these parts, I took the opportunity to flesh out the characters I didn’t really get to developing (namely Inori and Hel). Hope you like it.

Will have regular updates now probably until the end of July when uni starts again.

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