Chapter 62: Chapter 55: The more the merrier!

As I lazily battered away another golden arrow, I sighed.

 

As my eyes tracked Artemis entering another tree to teleport somewhere else I thought, ‘This is boring. She is not even trying to engage me in any form. Just taking a potshot at me and then teleporting as soon as she can.’

 

With a disappointed sigh I raised my sword up past my head with the blade pointing down and said, “You are boring me, but it was my mistake to expect a deity of hunting to provide any entertainment. Let’s-”

 

Feeling a sense of danger flaring up from my side, I quickly corrected my posture and blocked a two handed sword strike that was clearly trying to cleave me in twain.

 

I took a good look at my new opponent as my fist was coming up to crash into her stomach. She was a fully armoured woman, with a style reminiscent of the Greek warriors but in a much more feminine and showy style. She had a large shield on her back, and an owl on her left shoulder.

 

Time slowed down as my fist started to touch her breastplate. Looking into her green, blue and grey eyes all I could see was surprise mixed with immense anger. As my fist started to slowly dent her armour, she displayed a feat worthy of a goddess of battle. Although she was moving a great deal slower than I was, she still managed to bend her body with the strike to greatly lower the damage. 

 

However, even with her marvellous display she still shot off like a rocket as I relaxed my senses ever so slightly to “resume” time. Tilting my head to the left to dodge another useless arrow, I quickly rushed after the new goddess. The excited beat of a heart later, I was in front of her still flying form with my sword raised behind me to strike across her body.

 

With an audible “tch” from her, she wasted no time in drawing her shield to block my sword strike. As she crashed through a tree, my sword clashed with her shield. A loud and crushing sound was made as the two weapons of legends met. The force of my attack caused a kinetic burst of energy around us destroying several thousand metres of the forest in every direction. With a cry of anguish and a barely audible crunching sound of bones because of the impact, she shot off even faster while breaking the sound barrier.

 

Not finished having fun with her, I stepped down with one foot onto the ground. Using Mana Burst for less than a heartbeat I pushed off the ground and rocketed after her once again. The ground was unable to handle such force as it soon exploded like a meteor had hit it seconds after I launched myself. Appearing as if I teleported above her, I was already striking down with my left fist.

 

She had once again displayed her Authority for Battle though, as she was already blocking with a freshly repaired shield. While my strike wasn’t augmented by a Mana Burst, it was by a perfect reinforcement. Not nearly as strong as Mana Burst, but you can not call it a weak effect either. As my fist connected with the shield, I could visually see it ripple outwards from the impact point. I had punched her with enough force to shatter my old Earth's Moon.

 

Though, the force of the attack was pretty evident given the massive creator her body had just created. With a casual wave of my hand I created a light breeze to clear all the dust away. I wasn’t even halfway done with the gesture however before I had to bring up my sword to guard against another attack, this time the tip of a spear. An excited smile bloomed on my face as I saw Athena, the goddess of battle and wisdom, still in a condition to fight me.

 

While she has some golden glowing blood leaking down her face lightly, and some along her arms, she was more or less fine after regenerating. The dent I had left on her breastplate was also already gone. Her armour and armaments proving those of Divine make are not so easily destroyed.

 

I could feel my smile twist slightly as my battle lust started to leak out in my voice, “Athena. It’s so good to meet a deity who can take a hit. Now show me if you can give as well as you can take.”

 

Her eyes narrowed in disdain while it rang true in her voice, “Tch. A battle nut, just want I needed. Who, or what are you?”

 

As our weapons continued to push against each other I answered, “My name is Artoria Alter. While I don’t know the full extent of your strength, I do acknowledge it. Feel honoured to be slain by one such as myself. Now fight with your all, because so much depends on it!”

 

Using my strength I shoved her weapon tip upwards into the air while bringing my empty left hand up as if to strike downwards with a sword slash. The confusion in her eyes lasted naught even a second before they widened in realisation. Both of our weapons disappeared from our hands. Her’s in a brilliant flash of gold, while mine burst into red-black flames.

 

My sword was reforming in my left hand just as fast as it was leaving my right. Athena had seen through this little trick however, as her shield was already being brought up to protect her as her spear was breaking apart into golden motes. A massive clash with an equally loud sound rang out as our two weapons met. However, much to my surprise she didn’t move a centimetre this time. 

 

As I raised my eyebrow in interest I heard a male voice speak out from behind Athena, “I take back what I said, Athena. You were indeed right to stay out of our game.”

 

Removing my weapon from her shield, I floated back a bit to give them some space. I was curious who had shown up, but I had a strong inkling to their identity already.

 

Athena lowered her shield into a ready stance as she kept both her eyes and reforming weapon trained on me and said, “Ares. I am surprised you are here.”

 

Said deity stepped from behind Athena and said, “Yeah, well. I couldn’t very well miss this, now could I? Sure, the fighting down with the mortals was fun, but someone strong enough to attack our Heaven? Honestly, as soon as I saw that beast in the sky, I knew I made the right choice coming back. Even if I am stuck here for a 1000 years before I can go back down, this fight will be worth it.”

 

Giving him a once over he has shining golden hair like a lion's mane and red eyes, along with masculine and robust features that draw close to those of a deity of beauty would have. If I had to guess, I’d say he was 190cm tall which means he towers over me, even in my full released state. I’d be lying if I said that didn’t spark a bit of jealousy from me.

 

While hiding my silly jealousy I gave him a smirk and said, “Welcome to the party, Ares. How nice of you to help Athena here so she could be spared another dirt bath.”

 

His shiny red armour almost seemed to glisten in the light as he gave a large cocky smile back and said, “Thanks for having me, intruder. Judging by the absurdity in the sky, and the force of that last attack you should be fun to play with!”

 

Appearing as if teleporting with my right fist raised to crush his face, I yelled out, “Hey, phrasing!”

 

HIs face split into a wild smile as his eyes widened by the sudden attack. He managed to raise his arms into an X pattern just as my fist connected. My fist had caused a loud crack as it broke the sound barrier before it connected, only for Ares to shoot off with an equally loud crack as his body did the same. I sadly had no time to chase after him though as I had to parry a spear thrust from Athena. Directing her spear to the sky again, I punched out with my right fist to meet the shield bash she was countering with. And while her shield rippled again, she didn’t move a centimetre but instead glowed a very light red.

 

Raising an eyebrow at that as I leaned back to dodge an arrow from the huntress I legitimately forgot about I muttered, “Interesting…”

 

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While I battered another arrow away without paying any real attention to it I thought, ‘I feel the Authority of War from her now. I guess Ares is sharing a little. Interesting. This is interesting!’

 

My face cracked with a smile filled with battle lust as my power raged out of me, as I was no longer able to hold back my excitement.

 

Athena’s eyes widened slightly in surprise as she muttered, “What in the-”

 

I didn’t give her time to finish that train of thought as I practically blinked next to her, swinging down my sword aimed at her neck. My power had not expanded in any way, I was just unable to suppress or hide it anymore. Though you wouldn’t be able to tell other than feeling it because there was nothing left around us but a massive creator Athena had made when I smacked her into the ground.

 

Before my attack could connect with Athena’s shield once again, I had to cancel it and guard against an incoming javelin. As I cut it into two Ares appeared, with an honestly comically large two handed sword, mid downward swing.

 

He had a smile that matched my own as he yelled, “YES! OUR BATTLE WILL BE LEGENDARY!!”

 

Bringing up my sword to block, I let the power of NULL flow through it again as I cut his massive blade in two. Moving at faster than light again, I kicked the top half I had cut off towards Athena. Naturally a loud crack rang out as the sound barrier was once again obliterated.

 

While I was able to see surprise in Ares’s eyes from my speed, he was otherwise unperturbed. He followed through with the motion from his attack to try and deliver a devastating axe kick.

 

As I was adjusting my posture to meet his axe kick with a kick of my own, I couldn't help but think, ‘It’s like I have the speed force so long as I don’t run. Why can’t I sustain this type of speed while running and stuff baffles the shit out of me.’

 

Another loud kinetic explosion rang out as our legs clashed with each other. And while he wasn’t glowing a soft red like Athena is, I can tell he’s channelling his Authority of War into himself to augment his body. As we backed away from each other, I noticed Artemis was no longer within my range to sense her.

 

Taking a quick glance up at the super planet sized “meteor” above, I noted they only had around 10 minutes before its gravity well would be near enough to conflict with this dimensions. Assuming they even let their gravity be upset by outside forces, that is; I have no idea how they set up the rules for their dimension after all.

 

Athena, who had rejoined Ares and was in a ready posture again, noticed my glance and said, “Worried about your suicide spell?”

 

I could only look at her like she had grown a second head and scoff as I said, “Suicide spell? For a “gOd Of WiSdOm” you sure are clueless. No, I am worried it’ll end you all and thus my fun, too soon! Had I known Ares was willing to bless his ‘allies’ with his Authority over War to strengthen you lot, I wouldn’t have set up such a time limit.”

 

I was absolutely positive my face was all kinds of twisted with battle lust by this point, if Athena’s disturbed looking frown was any indication. I opened my arms wide as my voice quivered with excitement as I yelled out, “If I had known you ants could team up like this! No not if, but rather, were willing too! I would have just tortured Artemis instead to pass the time while you all started to trickle in!”

 

I was going to continue my onslaught when the pendant Tearwyn had given me to guard me against Time Magics glowed a bright pink for a second before dimming down.

 

Glancing down at the now dimming fox I thought, ‘Huh, someone tried to displace me with time or something?’

 

I then heard a very annoyed “tch” and a sigh as a woman shimmered into existence next to Ares and Athena. She had on a nice night sky blue one piece dress that had white and gold cogs running up the right hand side. Behind her head was the face of a timepiece that was calmly ticking away. Her sky blue eyes were narrowed at me in anger as she crossed her gloved arms over her rather ample chest.

 

With a snicker Ares asked, “What’s got your panties all in a pre-wrapped bunch, Chroni?”

 

It took everything I had to not laugh when I realised that this was indeed a genderbent and slightly renamed Chronos. Honestly, her brown hair that seemed to sway in time with the soft ticking of her halo was interesting. She was also so beautiful that if she said she had a minor Authority in Beauty I would believe it.

 

With a huff that sounded more annoyed than angry she complained, “I don’t know what it is, but something is blocking my Authority of time completely when it has anything to do with this… woman. Neither her nor her big fucking rock in the sky can be altered in any way along the timeline.”

 

Athena nodded her head and used her spear to point at my chest while saying, “You tried using your power a few moments ago, correct? She must have an item on her, because there was a glow emanating from her collar a few seconds ago. If we can get it and br-”

 

My mood immediately soured and I flooded the area with my blood lust while aiming some killing intent at the three of them. As the area around us became dyed red and space started to bend and twist like a heatwave, they all flinched back. 

 

I raised my sword slightly to point it at Athena and with my voice laced with pure hate I said, “I would sooner erase your everything before I let you break let alone touch something my sweet, sweet sister Tearwyn has given me.”

 

I raised my sword into a two hand ready stance as I continued, “I had warned Artemis of this, but you seemed to have needed it to. You have ruined my mood by saying something unnecessary. Playtime is over, I am no longer interested.”

 

My body erupted into red-black flames with some purple mixed in as I used Mana Burst. My sudden explosion in power caused the three of them to step back unconsciously, while even more fire and red light covered my sword as I prepped a Burst Air.

 

I swung downwards at the three deities as my voice echoed out with anger, “Die.”