Chapter 154: Chapter 223 – A Unique Finale

A few seconds later, Bryn flapped her wings softly and landed in front of Asterios and the others.

“Looks like we found ourselves in a pretty peculiar situation, Master,” she said with a warm smile. “Though, it was to be expected, of course.”

“They are all just too strong.” He chuckled, glancing at the girls. “Hopefully, we didn’t ruin the War Games for everyone.”

Bryn shook her head. “Nothing like that. It’s the opposite. Your matches had the most spectators since your fight with Krev. Everything after that was like a breath of fresh air.”

“Now that I think of it, how come there are only five of us here? Shouldn’t the number of contestants be even?” Miria pondered out loud while scratching her head.

“There naturally was another challenger, a Valkyr, but she conceded her spot after watching all of you fight, deciding that she had no chance against any of you with how determined you are to climb to the top,” Bryn explained. “But now, due to the current predicament, we are in a bit of trouble regarding the following matches.”

“I think I’ve found a decent way to fix that.” Asterios smiled at her.

“Please, do tell, Master.” Bryn glanced at him curiously.

“Since we’ll be going against each other anyway, why not turn it into a slightly bigger show? Our goal is to display our might to everyone and I’m pretty sure the audience is the most crowded out of all the other days. Instead of continuing the fights in the one-in-one fashion, why not make one, last, grand battle with all of us involved?” he asked.

“That’s an interesting idea, my Lord.” Selene nodded.

“Yeah! Should we do an open elimination? Everyone on everyone?” Miria jumped excitedly.

“Rather than that, if we were to follow Bryn’s plan, I’d suggest all of you band up against me if you don’t mind. I’ll try to bring out everything I have for this. I think showing the spectators how well you girls can work together will make quite an impression. Meanwhile, I’ll try not to lose too fast.” Asterios smiled wryly.

“I’m sure that we won’t have it as easy to take you down as you imply if you borrow all that draconic power.” Silvia showed a faint smile. “If none of us holds back, we should be able to cause quite a scene.”

“That’s right! Master is now so much stronger than before!” Miria crashed into Ast’s side and nuzzled her cheek into his face. “It’s been a long time since we fought so this is a great opportunity!”

“You overestimate me way too much.” He chuckled, ruffling through her hair. “What do you think, Bryn?”

Their Valkyrie friend stroked her chin while thinking. “Such a big change this late into the War Games might not go through easily. It might be hard to convince the Council, especially when we assume that the conspirator is amongst the members.”

“Umbra,” Asterios called.

A deep shadow materialized over his shoulder. ~Yes, Master?~

“Is the investigation finished?”

~Correct. Thanks to Krev’s help, we were able to locate the proxy and all the other people connected to this nefarious plot through the woman’s memories. Even though her employer made the deal while fully hidden and covered, we tracked them bit by bit over the course of the last week.~

“So, who is the mastermind?” he asked as the tensions in the air grew.

~It’s the Council member going by the name of Rota,~ Umbra answered.

“Rota?” Bryn gasped in surprise. “Not Hilda?”

~We found no connection to the person you mentioned,~ the Lord of Shadows replied.

Asterios turned to Bryn. “Let’s try to convince them first. If things don’t go well, I think you should be able to make use of this information. I bet she wouldn’t want her interference to be known to the public considering that these War Games seem to be quite respected and traditional. We have all the witnesses and evidence so don’t hold back. You can question your friend after everything is over. Though, I have an idea about their motive.”

“That’s what I’ll do. Thank you for your help, Master.” She made a light, polite bow. “Are you sure that you can handle it, though? I’m not doubting your abilities but you will be facing four very strong individuals.”

“Just in case, I’ll have Umbra support me if no one has anything against it. Mostly to avoid a potentially dangerous blow. That way, no one has to worry and can go all out, right?” He glanced at the girls.

“Yep!” Miria beamed at him from his side.

“I agree with this safety measure. I also don’t see a problem with you cooperating with Umbra during the battle, my Lord.” Selene smiled softly.

Tina and Silvia nodded together.

“I’ll most likely be using his power anyway, alongside all the things you girls share with me. It’s part of the entire draconic thing in the end, no?” Asterios smiled back at them.

“Alright. Get yourselves ready. I’ll let Skodul know to rearrange the arena and announce the change. I’m the overseer of the Power Division anyway. The Council can complain afterward instead of before.” Bryn roamed her gaze over everyone and took off.

“I can’t wait!” Miria started bouncing around almost immediately.

“Should I give you all some time alone to prepare a strategy?” Asterios chuckled at her.

“We are already talking about it mentally.” Tina smirked at him. “No eavesdropping.”

Suddenly, a massive rumble shook the entire coliseum and they had to watch their balance. The tall walls separating the middle section into smaller battlegrounds retreated into the floor as everything rearranged itself in front of their eyes. Soon, weird, intricate pillars rose up near the edges of the arena, right before the audience rows. A complex array of golden and white symbols surrounded them and a massive barrier formed above the central pit.

Additionally, the ground didn’t return to a simple, flat surface but began spewing various different obstructions, wall segments, metal buildings, and plenty of other geometrical elements of various sizes. They were placed in a way that didn't obstruct the vision from the audience too much yet still offered an interesting battlefield.

As all the pieces clicked into place, Bryn flew to the center and hung in the air above everything, holding onto some artifact that they guessed had previously been used by the announcer.

“Greetings everyone. This is your overseer speaking. Due to the quite unexpected development of ending up with an uneven number of participants this late in the show, and all the remaining challengers being our valiant newcomers who know each other inside out, I decided to switch things up a little bit for your enjoyment.”

A mixed response rolled through the circular arena as people who wanted to see them fight one on one clashed with those who were excited about seeing something new. Nevertheless, Bryn paid them no attention and continued her speech.

“What you are going to witness will be like nothing ever before. Some of you might recognize his name as our benefactor who aided not just our ARK but even many others by establishing multiple trades between realms. It seems that Asterios isn’t just a kindhearted person but also someone with great power, as you’ve already seen up until now. The other four participants are going to fight against Asterios in a four-on-one battle!”

This time, the majority of the crowd cheered together.

“Some may wonder why I’m putting my own representative in such a disadvantageous situation. That’s because I fully believe that Asterios will emerge victorious! There is no challenge that he is unable to overcome!” Bryn raised her voice, sweeping the arena with her gaze. “But, in case he does fall first, the prize of the seat in the Council will be given to its members for proper nomination and voting. The other participants have all agreed to it as they haven’t been interested in the reward since the very beginning. All they desire is a good fight and that’s what we as valkyrjas should give them! Am I mistaken?!”

The winged women in the audience roared together and Bryn nodded to herself with a satisfied smile. She snuck a peek at Asterios down on the ground and flew away to return the voice-enhancing artifact to the proper owner. Shortly after she was back in her viewing lounge, he and the girls entered the battleground from opposite sides, evoking more shouts and cheers from the crowd.

They waved all around them while slowly moving closer to each other. Reaching the middle, where a more even ground spanned, they exchanged smiles, waiting for the announcer to start the fight. Miria could barely hold herself back from transforming already and the other women showed matching grins, as excited as she was.

Asterios closed his eyes and calmed down his mind, listening just for the signal to start. If he hoped to have any chances against his extremely powerful, skilled, and smart lovers, he couldn’t pull any of his punches. If he didn’t push himself past his limits from the very first second, one of them could knock him out in an instant.

Yet, he didn’t want to cheat and chose to hold all his energy under wraps instead of pre-filling his entire body with it. Even so, he prepared himself mentally for strengthening himself to his limits as fast as possible, connecting his mind, source, and spiritual circuits deeper than ever. The draconic energy begged to be released with how close he held it to the edge. He felt like he was trying to force a lid onto a boiling pot.

Then, the metal gong echoed in the distance.

Selene had planned to send an instant blow at Asterios since she was able to prepare her attack the quickest out of them all but even she didn’t get to make a single move before an unimaginable surge of spiritual energy crashed into all of them. The force was strong enough to send them flying amongst all the gasps and yelps of surprise. They crashed into various structures behind them and quickly regained stability, directing their gazes back at Asterios.

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An enormous pillar of dark scarlet energy swirled all around him, reaching more than a few meters in diameter and escaping high into the air, going as far as the spiritual barrier placed around the battlefield allowed it to. The violent flame-like aura licked the golden-white shield ferociously, causing it to shimmer, and spread to the sides. Strong spiritual winds blew in all directions, forcing the girls to cover their eyes from the unexpected heat.

In the very center of that pillar, stood Asterios, now with his eyes open and arms extended to the sides. His irises glowed brightly as multiple draconic features materialized all over his body at an incredibly rapid pace. In less than two seconds, he already had his tail, wings, horns, and some scales out.

But, that was not all.

They watched his upper spiritual clothes flutter, start to glow, and get absorbed into his body as Asterios collected all the aura at his disposition. His chest became exposed after the material disappeared and dark crimson scales crawled up along his figure. 

Ast’s entire arms had already been covered by them, with the draconic plates reaching his shoulders. Many more showed up all over his body, quickly appearing over his sides, slightly spilling over his toned stomach and chest, climbing up the sides and back of his neck, and even protecting his chin, cheekbones, sides of his face, and forehead. None of the girls had seen this much of him turn draconic before.

As the fluctuating pillar of dark crimson aura receded, Asterios smirked at the girls. “Shall we get started?”

“Selene!” Tina shouted before he even began taking a breath.

The fox lady jumped in front of them and hastily completed two different sets of hand signs using each hand separately. All of her eight tails shimmered and shivered while standing upright like a fluffy fan. Shortly before a horizontal column of pure swirling fire reached them, she erected a bluish spiritual barrier in the shape of a cone. Instead of using a multi-layered shield, she gave it her all to strengthen and control the single sheet protecting them from the incoming inferno.

The barrier flashed constantly as all of its walls became covered with hungry flames. Everyone inside was bathed in a deep red shade. Selene kept operating her technique without a break, redirecting her energy to the points where the shield was weakening. Most of the attack was evenly dispersed after crashing into the tip of the cone. 

She could feel how much stronger Ast’s fire was when compared to the time she had blocked the Skeletal Dragon’s emerald flames. But, he wasn’t the only one who had grown a lot since that day. With eight tails and knowledge of various cultivation methods and techniques noted in the manuals Kaguya had stolen, she was able to withstand Ast’s Dragon’s Breath.

Soon, the fire receded and stopped assaulting the barrier. The path between Asterios and them, and the areas on the sides of the spiritual shield, had melted into sizzling, red puddles of bubbling metal. Whatever structures had stood there, were now replaced with emptiness and black, smoked edges.

“Figured it wouldn’t do anything but it was worth a try.” Asterios chuckled from ahead.

“You certainly surprised us,” Tina replied, walking to the front. “But, you’ve also given us the perfect opportunity to prepare.”

The other women joined her by Selene’s side and the fox lady noted their appearances, still upholding the barrier.

Tina’s skin was covered by the same mix of blue-green patterns she had shown during a few of her previous fights. Her back was decorated with gray-white wings. Some dark blue scales peeked out from the cuffs and edges of her clothing. Instead of using her favorite scythe, Tina formed swirling water gauntlets around her forearms, indicating a change in her approach.

Miria had reached deep into her bloodline. Most of her body sprouted the same thick black fur that covered her limbs. It stopped around her neck like a comfy sweater suit. She held her dual blades with a proud grin, releasing noticeable growls.

Silvia’s black coat and clothes were covered by layers of orange spiritual energy, taking the same form as they all had previously seen. The transparent draconic tail and the horns around her fiery tiara were present too. As for the little crown itself, it became much more complex, with a calm flame burning in its middle like a beacon. She held onto her staff firmly with a determined expression.

“Our turn now,” Tina said with a little grin.

~Spread out!~ she added mentally for only the other girls to hear.

Miria, Selene, and Silvia jumped to the sides, starting to circle Asterios.

~Let’s kick Master’s ass!~ The enthusiastic panthergirl giggled happily.

~I guess it will be a nice change of pace to serve a Lady instead for a little bit, fufufu.~ Selene chuckled with a delicate smile.

~We’ll be in your hands, Tina. You know Asterios the best,~ Silvia added calmly.

~We are taking him down together! Let’s go!~ Tina replied to them all with slightly rosy cheeks.

In a flash, they all surrounded Asterios from all sides. He raised his wings to rush at one of them but Selene gave him no time for that. A large, spiritual palm descended onto him from above and slammed into the metal ground with a loud gong.

Unfortunately, Asterios managed to roll himself out of its path while flying to the side.

Fortunately, he hadn’t expected many more of them to come right away.

One after another, the giant hands tried to squash him into the floor, forcing Asterios to roll from side to side while flying in different directions. When the spiritual assault finally subsided, he realized that he’d ended up right in front of Tina, who was just throwing both of her fists down.

A powerful pillar of swirling water shot from under him as she smacked her knuckles into the ground and sent him flying while spinning his body around. He hastily folded his wings around himself to prevent the current from tugging on them with such ferocity. But, shortly after he did, the water disappeared.

With his body thrown into the air, he found himself under Silvia, who hovered in the sky while holding onto his beloved feline mate under her armpits. Just as she let go of Miria, cerulean spiritual platforms appeared all around and the panthergirl became a black smudge to everyone watching as she began jumping between all of them.

Thankfully, Asterios had slightly better senses than the common valkyrja and could still follow Miria’s short lunges. He summoned his artifact sword from his storage ring and prepared himself to intercept Miria whenever she decided to finally strike, letting his body start slowly falling back towards the ground. They had clearly expected him to stay in the air right after he regained his bearing.

But, it didn’t look like they would just let him fall that easily. A surge of hot and humid steam blasted into his back out of nowhere and pushed him up again, additionally limiting his vision. Miria wasted no time and lunged at him with both blades crossed and a wide, feral grin.

Asterios unfolded one of his wings and let the rushing steam throw him into a spinning motion, barely avoiding Miria’s cut. She didn’t stop and continued her assault relentlessly, recreating the technique she had often used with his help, fully on her own this time, using just her pure abilities. She flew all around him in straight lines while trying to slice him with her shortswords.

He felt her blades graze his scales a few times but it did barely anything to the tough plates. Even with his vision partially obstructed, he could still see her mana signature clearly through his Draconic Sight. Letting Miria feel like she had the upper hand for a few moments, he waited for a good opportunity and swung his sword into her blades with all his strength, throwing the panthergirl off her path with a surprised yelp.

With one annoying fly gone, he gathered a cluster of mana in his lungs and quickly spun around toward the ground. Locking his eyes onto Selene, who was upholding the platforms, he opened his mouth wide and shot five orbs of fire at the fox lady instead of the usual spray of flames.

Selene’s vertical pupils narrowed in shock at how fast the projectiles approached her and she dropped the technique, preparing to dodge out of the way. It proved quite difficult as the five flaming spheres were meant to cut off all her paths of escape considering that she had hidden herself partially behind a metal tower. She managed to avoid three of them before the last two were inevitably going to slam into her.

Raising a shielding layer in the front, she braced herself for impact, but something flashed before her eyes and Silvia appeared out of thin air. The princess held her staff diagonally behind her back and slapped the projectiles away with her right hand.

~Asterios isn’t the only one whose authority over fire has grown substantially.~ She showed a soft smile over her shoulder and rushed ahead with jets of flame propelling her forward.

Silvia hastily regrouped with Tina and they pressured Asterios together by engaging him in the air. The Summoner lady had formed smaller scythes in her hands to fight him in close quarters. With the princess by her side, they successfully captured Ast’s attention.

Making use of that brief opportunity, Selene focused her aura and connected deeper to her spiritual circuits. A cyan spiritual armor covered her entire body and tails as the patterns over her skin grew to her shoulders. She condensed the greaves to fit her legs while retaining the slightly bigger size of her demonic gauntlets.

Ready for the next step, she gathered lots of mana in her hands and crouched down, joining her palms together in the middle. Miria appeared in front of her in a quick lunge and jumped up. The panthergirl landed with her feet on Selene’s hands and the fox lady released the accumulated energy to launch her friend into the air with a loud shout.

Miria laughed almost maniacally as she started to spin around her own axis, heading straight into Asterios who had been brought above her by the other two. The person-sized drill soared towards him like a ballista bolt and Asterios reacted barely in time to block it. The sheer force of the impact made him spin too but he hastily recovered from the blow.

Just as he did, he found Selene coming right at him from above with a spiritually enhanced punch, leaving a violent trail of blue energy behind her. He crossed his forearms right before she struck him and received the blow onto his guard. A powerful explosion shook the air as he shot down at a sharp angle, smashing through multiple metal obstacles on his way to the ground.

The arena became quiet as the girls descended next to the deep pit created by his body. A moment later, Asterios slowly stepped out of it while cracking his neck with a wide smile; some bruises and cuts visible on his skin and scales.

“It looks like I can’t even compete with you relying only on my own draconic abilities.” He chuckled deeply. “I guess this is where things get interesting.”

 

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