Chapter 93: Wonder why 'God-Emperor' was an option
The sea burned.
The land was struck with drought, and what was once verdant, lush forest turned to a nightmarish horror that devoured any who'd dare to walk under it's leaves.
Forest animals sprouted fangs and sharp hooves, and the herbivore and the predator switched places.
Wolves ran in fear as goats with burning-red eyes chased after them, before one of the bleating horrors pounced on the predator, and tore into it's flesh and fur with dull, flat teeth that had been reinforced by it's unnatural strength and newfound ferocity.
Lions cowered in caves as blood-stained, insane zebras dragged dead and devoured hyena's by the neck, after the herbivores had caught the dogs of prairie and devoured their guts in plain view of their pack-members.
A German farmer loaded his grandfather's shotgun with his wife's silver jewelry as his brother had begun spasming on the floor, and had grown a wolf-like head and lean, black fur.
The werewolf jumped at his brother in a blood frenzy, his eyes blood-red and foam coming from his mouth like spittle, and was blasted back as the severe man fired the silver jewelry straight into the now-beast's chest.
Natural order was reversed, and thousands of years of evolution were forcibly backtracked and stepped to the side, bringing forth horrors to match.
Such was the echo of the battle that was fought between two Star Gods, and the gong of doom that the battle rang upon Terra's noosphere, waking or mutating all of those with ears to hear it.
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Meanwhile in the Underworld, an emergency meeting was held between the heads of the Pillar Families.
"Asmodeus-sama has sent us a situation report of what is happening in the surface world." Zeoticus Gremory, the Duke of Gremory house and the sire of the current ruling Maou, opened the emergency meeting as he was the first substitute for the leader of the Pillars if any of the Maous were not present.
The thirty-one remaining heads of the families nodded with varying degrees of concern, fear or anger written across their faces- Except for one, who represented two noble houses- Phenix, and Sitri, as the latter's current ruling lady had given the Phenix lord a writ of rulership until she chose to withdraw it.
Lord Phenix's face was emotionless, or perhaps it was 'uncaring', which was somewhat surprising as the lord had been quite passionate and prone to flights of fancy in the past.
'We've known each other for thousands of years, so I know how he thinks… The loss of his sons, and the fact his own wife contracted herself away from him… And now he has to juggle the responsibilities of both Phenix house and Sitri house until Sona Sitri learns how to manage it… Not to mention that the drunken deal we had of 'our daughter and son marrying' turned out to be a bit of a disaster...' Zeoticus spared a thought of concern towards his old friend, even though the situation had more dire concerns. 'I seriously need to grab him someday soon and just go to a night of blender or drinking, and see if I can help him cope with the situation... Research made by Beelzebub suggests that extreme and prolonged stress can lead to premature Sleeping Sickness, and I really don't wish for a friend of mine to succumb if I can help it…'
Nonetheless, the red-haired man moved his hand in a grand arc to light a 'holographic' magical display in the room that was like a arena that had speaker's booths to correspond to each family of the Pillars and their retainers- And the fact over half of the booths were empty, as the seventy-two original families were reduced to thirty-two, served as a grim reminder of sacrifice and consequences of folly for the survivors.
The holographic display lit up to show the retreating formation of devils in Kuoh.
"Asmodeus-sama, I have opened a visual link between you and the Pillar chambers." Zeoticus opened a communication magic circle that sent the words to the Maou who was directing the retreat, informing him of the magical spying before the Maou could become suspicious and block the spying rune-magic that Beelzebub had bought from the Norse a few hundred years ago.
The view that appeared in the hologram was something out of the deepest hells, even worse than what had happened during the two major wars in the past.
The Pillar families were quiet as they looked the barely organized retreat of the devils led by Asmodeus, or rather, the handful of devils that had survived out of the literal thousands sent to the so-called 'peace meeting'.
Asmodeus blocked a wild charge of six bleating horrors using a dome of dark energy, and the beasts were stopped on their tracks.
The dome disappeared… And then a laser-like lance of energy shot out of the Maou and speared right through one of the dark beasts, causing it to stumble a few steps back… But then the beast stabilized itself despite the wound, and charged again against the dark dome that had sprang up once more.
Zeoticus recognized the Maou's [Ultimate Defense/Ultimate Offense] skill in action, but the fact the lethargic Maou was forced to tip himself between the two 'states' so rapidly told enough of the strength of the enemy- And also that the Maou was desperately buying time, since he couldn't sustain the switching of the energy-shield from absorbance to emitter for long as it had been more or less designed to be a single-use ability.
The devils fled in horror towards Kuoh City, which had been utterly ruined, as the forest had turned to tentacled eldritch beasts that devoured all who remained under their branches...
However, in the distance was a golden dome that held back a wave of darkness.
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Reality twisted and bent like a sapling in the wind as Cthulu and Shub-Niggurath fought each other, each fighting with fist, tentacle and teeth, but also with ancient lore that any human magician would betray their family and loved ones to even glimpse at, and fought by twisting the reality from what was to where the other's loss as a certainty, only for the other to twist the reality again so they would land on top.
Michael of Heavens felt as if his head was being torn apart as the Arch-Angel's proto-omniscience was flickering like strobe light from one reality to the other, and the winged man had begun to float downwards unconsciously… And the floating turned to a downward spiral as a wild swing by Cthulu connected with one of Shub-Niggurath's many eyes, poking it out and causing a wave of yellow pus to flood to the ocean where the two Star-Gods fought.
Shub-Niggurath's outraged screech caused the rest of the four previously-dueling individuals to dip out, with Yasaka passing out as the shockwave of the screech of the Outer Being had hit her and resonated quite hard due to her natural closeness to the energy of the Human World.
Fortunately the now-human formed Kitsune had been caught by a flock of her retainers that had come to support her.
Michael nodded at the Tengu's good timing before correcting his own fall and aiming for the mansion far below, which looked like a single light in a sea of darkness.
A giant golden dome had arisen around the mansion, shielding it and the survivors, and Michael saw the six angels his Father had made were keeping the shield up by having moved themselves to the edges of the dome with their shields up and halberds at hand.
'...Father, your power has grown… For you to be able to create Angels that are mighty enough to hold back horrors such as these…' Michael welcomed the new angel's power with open arms, and he knew that his brothers and sisters would do so as well.
The pair of massive angels floating above the mansion felt odd to Michael, and were oddly-shaped, but their noble actions spoke louder than something as petty as appearances.
The Arch-Angel flew down to the barrier… And let a 'squeak' like a pigeon that had flown to a window as the hard surface bounced the Arch-Angel off.
He placed his hand on the barrier which for some reason didn't part to let him pass through it, and then withdrew the hand. 'Ah, I'm guessing that either the barrier must be broken entirely before it can allow people to pass- eh?'
The tengu retainers and unconscious Yasaka landed on the barrier next, except that they slipped through without issues.
Michael paused as he realized something. 'Oh… I promised Father that I'd take care of Odin- Of course. How arrogant of me, to assume that I could just dip out and force Him to clean up what I had promised to purify…'
The arch-angel nodded to himself, and flew off.
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Beelzebub's and Azazel's 'duel' had effectively turned to a two-person hunker-down as the two previously dueling combatants were huddled behind the innovations the two had made in a flash to defend themselves against the shockwaves caused by the two Outer Being's war between each other.
Beelzebub was biting his fingernails in deep concentration and with a horrified expression on his face as he stared at the two dueling eldritch creatures in the distance. The Maou had created a quite sizable pile of clipped fingernails around himself while he had taken cover under a shimmering shield created by some sort of contraption that looked like a King piece of a chess set that had been put in the center of a chessboard.
Meanwhile Azazel was sitting on the opposite end of the broken street in now-utterly ruined Kuoh City's central trade district, cross-legged and with his arms crossed, and he had a cone made of tinfoil on top of his head.
There were multiple gouges and lighting-marks around the leader of the Fallen Angels, but none had struck him.
Beelzebub sent Azazel an exasperated glance. "Azazel-san. Please. We must work together- If we just take down Momon, we could still hope to- "
"Denied." Azazel shrugged. "Besides, if I did that, like half of the Fallen Angel ladies would lynch me. It looks like 'dad' has become quite the lady-killer as 'True God'- Even though I find it amusing that his daughters are unknowingly lusting after their dad's gonads- I am so going to be present when they realize that's the case, the faces they're going to pull are going to go straight into my album. Although I'm not certain I like the implications, or how clueless he feels right now, I prefer this not-prude not-judgemental not-prick version of him."
Beelzebub blanched a bit and dry-heaved, but nonetheless stabilized himself. "I'm serious."
"Hi Serious, I'm Azazel."
"Dammit, Azazel!"
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Momonga walked a bit forward, stopped, sighed, patted a fluffy tail to stabilize himself as at the moment he had neither Koneko nor the nekoshou his summon had procured from somewhere, and thus 'petting a cat' was not an option.
The girl who had coiled around his neck and shoulders didn't seem to mind the petting, so he continued for a bit and then tussled her hair, and continued walking after using the petting to stabilize his emotional state.
Suzuki Satoru sent 'Momonga' a lethargic glance as the skeletal overlord-representative in Momonga's head weighed the pros and cons of having a kitsune or neko 'equipped' constantly now that [Emotion Suppression] had broken and he'd need some other way to regulate his emotional state.
He sighed and kept moving while a small squad of Angels, Devils and Fallen followed him with weapons drawn and had them shakily pointed at the forest of Dark Young, while Momonga kept up a [Anti-Life Cocoon] he had made around the mansion and which he had [Boosted] with the [Boosted Gear] to ensure that it would be able to devour plenty of 'health' before breaking. Moreover, he had cast [Dimension Lock] to keep anyone from teleporting within the barrier, just in case, and also to prevent his expendable meat shield from fleeing via magical means and leaving him to face the swarm of enemies that were currently present.
Momonga knew that Odin could likely cast [Dimension Lock] himself, as it was usual part of any PVP player's arsenal, so a badly timed escape could end up with half the 'party' seperated and ganked while other half escaped for a moment, and then got ganked in turn as their strength had been cut in half.
Of course, the six angels created by [Pantheon] had created their own version of a barrier, but the angels were seriously not in their element as far as area-of-effect blocking was concerned, and the Dark Young had bulldozed right through the barrier- And had hit the [Anti-Life Cocoon that was right behind the initial barrier.
That boost was pretty much the only reason why the barrier hadn't fallen instantly when the living forest had charged the mansion, and the beast had been thrown into disarray as the barrier had entirely consumed one of the beasts and had singed multiple with the anti-life energies.
The creatures had been a bit more hesitant on head-on attacks after that, but had pressed on to consume the 'friendly' Dark Young that had been summoned by [Iä, Shub-Niggurath], and also eaten any of the corpses left behind by the Norse and the non-defecting devils. And afterwards the goat-trees seemed to have branched off to assault Cthulhu or to attack anything moving in the area.
Vaguely humanoid creatures with molluscoid heads rose from the sea to meet the charge of the Dark Young, and many of the living trees were dragged below the sea in an instant, but for each of the trees that fell, ten of the humanoid fish-monsters were crushed underfoot.
"The NPC's are fighting each other again… Damn that buggy, messy faction relationship system… Someone should seriously fire the devs." Momonga sighed as he had more or less reverted to the YGGDRASIL way of thinking in order to not become insane over the implications of what had happened.
Momonga glanced at the side to note that Gasper's draconic form had limped back to the radius of the barrier, and Momonga took the barrier down so the boy could enter. And then sent a voiceless command to the Cherubim Gatekeepers to allow the chewed-out, mutilated and limping draconic creature to enter through the golden barrier that kept everything out of the mansion's defensive sectors and from the survivors that had huddled against it.
After all, the six angels created by [Pantheon] had remade and were holding their own barrier after it broke once, and the Dark Young would probably think twice before charging through again since the [Anti-Life Cocoon] had signed them once already and while the 'divine' barrier held the beasts wouldn't know if the barrier inside the barrier was up or not.
Gasper limped into the barrier after slamming against it once, and the misshapen, horrifying creature slumped down on the muddy battlefield like a tired puppy would flop over on top of a comfy pillow.
It seemed that the fact the 'creature' was allowed a peaceful passage was enough to convince the shaky and stressed-out survivors that the shapeshifter was friendly, so no-one attempted to fight Gasper off- Luckily for them, since it looked like Gasper was still struggling against the influence of Balor and had likely snapped back to his senses after the hostile Dark Young had slapped him around like a stress ball and had taken bites out of him.
"Um…" Rias seemed a bit confused by Momonga's words about 'devs' and such forth as she walked, or rather stumbled alongside Momonga while dragging Rossweisse's unconscious, naked body behind her. "Momon, I think we should consider retreating…"
"A valid choice." Momonga was glad that someone else suggested it, as he had a hunch that the sight of 'True God' retreating might not help his already stumbling faction relationships.
The fact a part of the Three Faction's armies had defected to his side helped a bit, but it'd be quite easy for the Three Factions proper to consider the whole group to be rebels or something and then have them all executed as traitors, or at least try to do so, and thus the rebels would become a fourth faction among the three.
At least, that was the worst-case scenario as far as the faction relationships went.
'Juggling so many faction relationships that are hostile to each other… It's like trying to min-max grinding routes to ensure that you gain more reputation with each faction than you lose by doing favors to a faction that is hostile to them.' Momonga remembered a complex spreadsheet of optimized grind routes that Peroroncino had shown him, which was necessary for the bird-like avatar to have 'friendly' access to the areas of high vampires, succubi and valkyries which were at war with each other in YGGDRASIL- But when there were gothic-dressed lolis, big-boobed if modestly clad (as per censorship rules) seductresses, and winged if harebrained tsunderes on the line, no amount of complex math was beyond Peroroncino.
Nonetheless Momonga was glad that he remembered Peroroncino explaining the math behind it, even if he hadn't really understood it at the time due to him dropping out of school.
Momonga sighed as he realized that thanks to the math refresher he had in the single day of 'normal' school, he had activated enough of the old memories that the math made somewhat of a sense to him- For a fat load of good it did to him anyway. '...That being thought, I don't think that the reputation gains are measured in a point system here…'
Nonetheless he realized that he needed to stop daydreaming as the Three Faction's defectors were looking at him expectantly.
"Ahem…" Momonga wasn't entirely sure what he needed to do or say, and he looked up as if to search for an answer. He noticed that the angel who had introduced himself as 'Michael', or something along those lines, was staring down at him from the top of the dome-like barrier. Moreover, the group of Tengus that Momonga had more or less conscripted were coming back down with the unconscious woman with nine fox-like tails in carry. 'Oh… I'm guessing that they want to enter… Right.'
He sent a message to the Cherubim Gatekeepers, advising them to let Michael and the Tengus in- And the Tengus passed through without a problem, while Michael put his hands to his sleeves, didn't try to re-enter the dome, nodded to the air, and flew off.
'...Uh… Right.' Momonga didn't even try to decipher the man's antics as had a larger problem at hand. "Yes, ahem. Well then, I believe that the situation has spiraled out of control somewhat."
The Devils, Angels and Fallen who were looking at him looked a bit stunned by the mild assessment, considering that Cthulhu had torn one of Shub-Niggurath's roots off in the distance and was hitting the living tree with it as if the root was a whip.
The eldritch tree was letting out bleats that somehow sounded like pained howls and horny moans, neither helping the rapidly deteriorating mental state of everyone who was forced to hear it.
"So, yes, I believe that we should consider withdrawing from our current position. While it is conveniently close to the enemy, that being Odin, I feel that the fact we are surrounded by Dark Young is somewhat detrimental to our life-expectancy." Momonga concluded his brief speech.
Based on the looks of people(?) presently, the words were quite well received, considering that no-one seemed to look forward to fighting the literal thousands of Dark Youngs that were milling about just outside the barrier, the consequences of letting them run rampant be damned.
"Mommyy!" The fluffy scarf disappeared from around Momonga's neck, reminding him that he had given the speech with the kitsune child 'equipped' in his 'shoulders' slot while his other hand was occupied by the [Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown] and the other bore [Boosted Gear].
The fox bounced a few times before impacting solidly between the busty woman's breasts and her head disappeared between them, which seemed to snap the woman out of her unconscious state.
She spotted the lively child between her breasts, and…
A ball of fluff that was made of nine tails coiled around each other materialized in place of the two as the woman instantly covered herself and the child in the fluff, but nothing else seemed to happen.
"Haa…" Momonga turned his attention back towards the crowd, figuring that he needed to direct the retreat. "Regardless, if I may direct your attention to the shed, which contains this estate's emergency teleportation system that leads to Phenix grounds in the Underworld…"
"What- What? My teleportation…" The woman, who Momonga faintly remembered having introduced herself as 'Yasaka, the representative of Shinto Gods' during the brief peace council, re-appeared from the ball of fluff with the kitsune child practically glued to her chest, and the woman was hugging the child as if she could disappear at any moment.
"I disabled teleportation from this area for now. If I may, could you please coordinate your, um, my forces that were previously under Shinto control?" Momonga adjusted his words mid-speech and addressed them to the fox-tailed woman as technically the tengus and so forth were now his assets.
The woman opened her mouth in puzzlement, closed it, and then opened it in outrage as the words, or rather, the claim of her forces registered in her head.
"Mommy! Daddy came back!" The fur-missile in the woman's chest piped out. "Daddy is back! Daddy is back! Can we go out and play? Hehehe! Play and play, all day, in a plain or desert, far away from trees…. no trees… cut down all trees…"
Yasaka stumbled mid-speech as she had clearly attempted to say something.
"My lady, we have traded ourselves to Momon-kakka's service in exchange for him resurrecting Lady Kunou." The tengu that had spoken with Momonga explained to the woman.
"You… He…" Yasaka seemed to mentally reboot herself, then glanced at the status of her surroundings, and closed her eyes to block out everything and recompose herself. "I see."
She opened her eyes and looked straight into Momonga's eyes. "I cannot thank you enough for this miracle- eeeh?!"
A crack formed in the barrier that the angels had made, and a severed tentacle that looked like it had belonged to Cthulhu's 'beard' broke right through.
The massive appendage caught one of the Dominion Authorities in the chest and tied around the angel, causing it's armored plate to let a series of sickening crushes as the angel was crushed and bent like a clay figurine in the hands of a child.
Momonga weighed the pros and cons of saving the angel, as it'd require attacking an Outer Being and likely make himself hostile to it, but he realized that if he did nothing then his credibility would crumble as he was quite literally standing in front of his 'cult'.
"Umu… [Boost]- [Maximize Magic: Grand Fireball]" Momonga hoped that the angel's built-in resistance to holy and more importantly fire damage would mitigate most of the literal friendly fire that was about to happen.
A massive, sun-like ball of plasma left Momonga's outstretched, sacred gear-gauntleted hand and impacted the coiled-up tentacle. The tentacle's skin boiled like tar from the heat and it relaxed it's grip.
The Dominion Authority collapsed into a heap of mangled metal and feathers, while the tentacle flopped around, clearly still 'alive' and looking for the next victim.
"[Boost]- [Greater Emit Force]" A simple pushback spell was enough to send the tentacle flying in the other direction, where it broke out of the hastily reformed barrier and coiled around one of the Dark Youngs which had crept forwards in an attempt to charge through while the visible barrier was down.
The living goat-tree let horrified bleats as the angry, wounded tentacle coiled around it and started to stab the goat-tree with it's sharp tip.
"Right, [Scroll of Greater Healing]" Momonga felt quite a bit of regret as he reached once more into his inventory for consumables, feeling as if healing his summons was a waste since he could just allow them to expire and then summon another one- His mana regenerated, the scrolls did not.
But with so many eyes on him, he didn't really have a choice.
The Dominion Authority re-assembled itself with a lurch, and stood up. "My lord! For thee to sacrifice such a valuable-"
"Yes, yes. Regardless, please assist me in gathering up the survivors and let's begin our retreat." Momonga cut the summon off, realizing that the mangled-up one had been the one that he had summoned in the Great Swamp of the Underworld.
"Sirzechs-nii is still fighting, we need to get him too!" Rias grabbed Momonga's hand as the Dominion Authorities took over the job of directing the Three Faction defectors towards the reinforced teleporters of the estate. "Please!"
Momonga had heard from Lady Phenix that the circles could simultaneously teleport a group of people, and the teleporters had been reinforced after Ravel's capture so he guessed that they could accommodate more numerous groups now- Specifically if the devils among the defectors fed energy to it.
He could archive the same result with [Gate], naturally, but he had a feeling that the Angels from Heaven would feel more squamish in entering a swirling portal of darkness, and also the spell would force everyone to move out in groups single-file as opposed to everyone at the same time- A critical weakness of the spell, since if it was blocked midway through, half of the escapees would be caught on the wrong side and could get ganked.
Rias seemed to be repeating herself and gripping Momonga's hands desperately so he recalled her previous words that had passed by him. "Sirzechs-san?"
"Yes!" Rias seemed relieved that Momonga was listening to her. "We need to get Sirzechs-nii and help him escape! He'll die!"
"He's a Maou, I'm sure he can take care of himself." Momonga dismissed Rias's worries, causing the girl to pale.
"Please! Those horrors… Sirzechs-nii…"
"Kukuku… Naughty, naughty, Rias-chan…" An amused voice came from the side, and Momonga glanced at the direction to see that Ravel, Sona and Serafall had exited the building, and behind them was a roughly human-shaped pillar of water that Sona seemed to drag with chains made of ice.
Ravel reached to stroke Rias's cheek. "It's your turn now, to enjoy Momon-sama's kindness, kukuku…"
"Ravel-chan! This is not the time for that!" Rias slapped Ravel, causing the blonde girl to withdraw her hand to rub her cheek.
"Kukuku…. Of course… Kukuku… I can't wait to see your tear-streaked, broken expression… Kukuku…" Ravel slinked off, leaving Rias shaking in anger and fear.
Momonga noticed that Sona had produced a knife from somewhere and was holding Serafall as if she was a hostage, except that Sona had her knife pressed against her own throat. 'Um…'
'I'm guessing Sona doesn't have much experience with blades… She'd cut herself in the throat if Serafall moved...' Momonga walked to the pair of black-haired girls, gently moved Sona's hand to the side so the bladed instrument was no longer a threat to her, and then undid her hands from around Serafall's neck. "Be careful with those… They're dangerous, and if you're not careful, you'll end up hurting someone dear to you."
Sona chuckled, while Serafall's eyes became lifeless and glazed-over.
"I hate you." Serafall's voice was bland, and her words simple… But she did nothing other than to slump forwards like a zombie.
'...Women.' Momonga had expected Serafall to be grateful for him showing concern over Sona, but it seemed to have the opposite reaction.
"Kukuku… Of course… My lord." Sona reached to peck Momonga's lips, even if it required her to tiptoe and Momonga to lower his head a bit, and the girl moved after Ravel while Serafall stumbled after her sister like a zombie, and Sona dragged the water-statue by the ice-chain with her.
Rias seemed to have recovered somewhat from the one-sided, short shouting match with Ravel and latched onto Momonga's hand again and pressed herself close to him... "Momon- Please, please, help Sirzechs- Ow!"
...Only to let out a yelp of pain as a pair of sharp jaws clamped on Rias's wrist as she had placed her hand against Momonga's cheek.
"No!" The kitsune child had bounced off her mother's chest as soon as she had seen Sona kiss Momonga, but since Sona had withdrawn and Rias had taken her place, she had clamped her jaws into Rias's wrist like a cat that had been slighted and wasn't letting go when Rias shook her hand in panic. "I won't let mom get netorared!"
"K-Kunou! What are you- Wait, where did you learn that word- No, let go of her, you red-headed fiend!" Yasaka seemed to snap out of her surprise to jump at Rias as the red-head tried to grab Kunou's head in order to peel her off.
However, before she could reach Rias, Momonga had reached to pet and rub Kunou's head and the girl dropped off the girl's wrist like a leaf from an autumn tree.
Momonga grabbed the girl mid-fall and brought her to his chest, stomach-up, like if she was a puppy.
"Ehehe... " Kunou seemed glad as she pulled her hands close to her chest and curled her legs like a puppy that had been picked up and placed on it's owner's lap.
Momonga pat her head, causing her to squirm a bit and giggle.
Yasaka paused mid-charge as she saw Kunou's reaction to the petting.
"Ahem, if you don't mind... " Momonga moved past shocked-looking Rias as she seemed to recognize the girl now that she wasn't latched into her arm like a cat, and Momonga gave the girl back to the other nine-tailed fox in the immediate vicinity. "Could I ask you to take care of her?"
"Ah?" Yasaka seemed quite unbalanced as she took Kunou back and placed her into the same kind of carry as Momonga had.
He glanced around the battlefield to see that the Dark Young seemed to have regained some of their courage and had crept closer to the barrier held up by the Cherubim Gatekeepers. "We should consider hastening our withdrawal."
The two massive angels that were herding the Three Faction defectors towards the shed hastened their actions as they heard Momonga's orders, and-
Almost as if on cue, the Dark Young charged once more, this time en masse instead of in a disorganized gaggle from before.
'Oh… That landslide of level 90 NPC's probably won't be able to stop even if the first rank tries to halt and retreat in order to not be disintegrated by the [Anti-Life Cocoon]…Which I had taken down. In other words, I'll have to just try to endure it, or try to halt them on their tracks.' Momonga did a quick calculus of his remaining mana reserves, wondered if the Dark Young situation was Odin's plan to deprive Momonga of mana, but realized that he was somewhat out of options unless he allowed his 'cult' to get flattened, or undid the [Dimension Lock] to escape by himself…
...And the solo-escape would most likely end with him getting jumped on by Odin and his allies once he had escaped, as Momonga suspected that Odin had prepared for the possibility as well.
Any PVP player worth their salt would keep in mind their target's escape routes and respawn locations, after all.
However, the landslide of flesh that was charging towards him had a fairly crucial weakness- It walked, which meant that it depended on land. "Right… [Scale Mail]."
Rias took a step back as the [Boosted Gear]'s second stage materialized around Momonga, and the armored, khaki trench-coat clad form took a step towards the charging tide of flesh.
Momonga ordered the Cherubim Gatekeepers to take down their barrier, as it'd only get in the way.
The six angels moved in unison, with three diving into the now-ruined manor and three moving to help the increasingly panicked defectors of the Three Factions form ranks around the shed.
A moment later the three angels who had dived into the manor came flying out of the ruins with Lady Phenix in carry, who seemed to be sipping tea mid-flight while being completely impassionate, and two others were carrying a seemingly human couple.
Momonga disregarded all that as he focused his attention on the charging wave of darkness, hoping that his small distraction would work.
He wasn't going to solely use [Scale Mail] to halt the charge of the hundreds of Dark Young that were tramping towards the manor, but had deployed the piece of soul-bound equipment both as a distraction from his true plan and as a small experiment- After all, World-class items were unlikely to receive benefits of [Boost] from [Boosted Gear], but Momonga hadn't tested the theory out so he might as well go for it. "Here we go- [Boost][Boost][Boost][Boost][Boost]!"
Momonga reached into his Inventory…
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The Hero Faction was an organization made of the descendants of some of Humanity's greatest heroes, forged in fires of strife, war, famine and despair.
They made some of the greatest humans alive, magicians of highest order, and warriors with peerless skill among other humans. Most of them bore divine gifts or curses, and had their natural powers, vitality and bodies augmented by otherworldly energies to the point of superhumanity.
Indeed, the faction had allied themselves with dragon Ophis and her faction of 'Khaos Brigade' in exchange for power, and had gained a plenty of it in the form of divine snakes that had boosted their capability to the realm of legends.
But now, the Hero Association had gathered together in a flash for a threat of unimaginable ferocity had befallen the world they had sworn to defend, and had gathered around a circular table in the House of Parliament, which had become the HQ of the faction due to the deals of mutual protection they had made with British Royalty in the ancient past, and which both current royal house of Britain and Hero Faction ensured would be honoured.
"The Magicians Guild has departed to ambush this 'Peace Meeting of Three Factions', as ordered by Lady Ophis herself." Cao Cao, the descendant of a hero of Chinese lore, opened the meeting. "The ambush aimed to destabilize the power among the Three, and in turn drive them to each other's throats. In doing so, the accursed races of Devils and Fallen would have been wiped out, ridding Humanity of their ilk."
Georg, the second-in-command of the Hero Faction nodded while most of the other members of the meeting looked either approving or a bit sad but accepting.
Georg was the descendant of Johann Georg Faust who had contracted a Devil in exchange for knowledge and power, and in the end of the contract had become a gory mess and a warning tale for all heroes not to dabble in the affairs of Devils. However, before his demise the figure of legend had sired children, and Georg had come into possession of a [Sacred Gear] of his own, earning him a rank among the Faction, alongside his intelligence and organizing capability allowing him to work as the second-in-command to Cao Cao, the legendary strategist.
Beside him was Arthur Pendragon, the strongest sword-wielder of Khaos Brigade and Hero Faction, and one of a team known as 'Vali's team', a mysterious group who had recently joined Khaos Brigade properly- Before that only a few members of the 'team' were part of 'Khaos Brigade' by proxy of being in the Hero Faction.
The noble-looking man with glasses had been wrought with guilt over him being both part of Khaos Brigade and also part of Fallen Angels faction by proxy of his 'team-leader' being friends with the leader of Fallen Angels in the past. And the association had caused a wide strife to form between the noble man and his sister, Le Fay Pendragon…
At least in public, as it was clear that Le Fay loved her brother even despite his allegiances being in question. However, now that Vali had joined Khaos Brigade, the mist of suspicion had lifted from above Arthur's head, allowing the two siblings to meet without having to pretend worry or disgust, to both's great joy.
Indeed, beside Arthur sat Le Fay, a blonde girl with a fairly petite figure and an oversized magician's hat. The girl looked a bit saddened by Cao Cao's cruel news about the coming massacre of Devils and Fallen, but nonetheless looked accepting as she knew as well as any in the room the disgusting atrocities Devils and Fallen regularly committed towards Humans, who they saw as beings with the worth and rights of of bugs and ants.
The rest of the heroes sat around a circular table like knights of ancient english lore, those being Jeanne, a indirect heir of Jeanne D'Arc by the way of being possessed by her spirit, Heracles, a being of similar nature, and around them sat Zhuge of China, Marsilio of Italia, Connia of Ireland and other humans and not-quite-humans of legend.
And at the last seat, directly opposite to Cao Cao, was Leonardo, a human with shrouded past, and who had received the reputation of mystery and distrust over his past affiliations with Grigori faction of Fallen Angels, as well as due to his Longinius-class Sacred Gear, [Annihilation Maker].
"However, it seems that the ambush has gone terribly awry. I refrained from telling you this, because I knew it would sow a grain of discord among our rank, but Lady Ophis has taken an undead creature of incredible power and incredible malice amongst Khaos Brigade's ranks." Cao Cao explained. "It seems from our reports within the Magician's Guild that the undead creature had been devouring the souls of humans and nonhumans within the ranks of Khaos Brigade, but it seemed to have focused its attention on the subhuman filth such as Devils… For a moment, before it returned it's attention to devouring humans and less-harmful magical species."
The news caused some murmurs among the gathered heroes, before Cao Cao continued. "Moreover, it seems from the report that this 'Overlord General', as it calls himself, is but a subordinate of a greater evil that Ophis has allied with, called 'The Supreme Being'"
"Quite the vain name, no?" Connia noted. "Projecting much?"
A round of chuckles came from some of the more headstrong heroes, while Arthur looked a bit interested- After all, the swordsman was no battle-maniac, but a large part of why he was in Vali's Team was that he always sought for stronger enemies to fight with his blade. A sentiment that had resonated well within the white-haired bearer of [Divine Dividing], who sought the same except with the addition of seeking to fight the bearer of [Boosted Gear].
"Regardless, there may be more to the name than bravado. You know that something foul is attacking our world even as we speak." Cao Cao pointed at a wide-screen television which showed live news feeds from all around the world, each showing a disaster greater than the other.
Skyscrapers were toppling down, mythical creatures long-thought extinct were popping out of the woodwork, and new and urban-lore myths took steps in the physical world as the collective belief of legends materialized them to reality.
Cao Cao pressed a button on the remote, showing helicopter footage of Texas where the streets were packed with mindless, shambling gore-streaked zombies and people had barricaded themselves in their homes or had made bunkers on their roofs and were shooting down on the horde of living dead.
Another push of the button showed police-camera footage of a police cruiser in Germany driving away full-speed from a pack of werewolves, only for one to leap on top of the cruiser's hood and tear the engine off the car as if it was a toy, ignoring the handgun shots impacting against the beast's chest as if they were paintballs.
Another push of a button showed leaked footage of a massive, serpentine dragon that had perched around and on top of a skyscraper in China, and had scorched the city around it for failing to show proper respect to it.
The last push of a button closed the television, and Cao Cao put the remote down. "I believe I speak for everyone when I say that we have our work cut out for us. However, I believe that all this chaos, all these creatures that have been woken from their slumber or risen from their graves, has originated from a singular point. It is my belief that if we take care of this 'Origin Point', we can either undo much of what is happening, or at least prevent further damage so we can move to the damage control phase."
Cao Cao looked quite severe as he looked at a piece of paper that was self-writing on account that it was directly linked to the thoughts of one of the magicians that had been sent to serve Lady Ophis's ambush. "The report I've received is… Sketchy, so I believe that we should take a look directly. Le Fey, please open a scrying portal to the city of Kuoh, in Japan. The peace meeting happened there, and if the tall tales on this report are anywhere close to being true, the disturbances around the world are possibly originating from there."
The magician nodded, pale over the order as conjuring a scrying spell of such scale would require more power than what a normal human magician could amass in their lifetime, but she bore blood of legends and had consumed a snake granted by Lady Ophis which gave her just about enough power to conjure such a spell.
A shimmering portal appeared on the table after Le Fay muttered for a few minutes and moved her staff over the wooden surface, and the exertion of a spell of such caliber was causing streaks of sweat to fall down her face.
Arthur reached to wipe his sister's face, and Le Fay sent him a tired smile as the scrying spell finally stabilized to show an image of…
Chaos.
Utter insanity.
Cao Cao's eyes opened to the size of saucers and the report-paper slipped from numb fingers.
The rest of the Hero Association were in much the same condition.
"What… is this?" Cao Cao was, for once, utterly clueless as to what was happening.
Eldritch beings, the kind of which would be only spoken about in whispers and frightful mentions, were dueling in the open. Armies of darkness clashed, and had devoured the once-bright city of Kuoh to the point of being completely empty of human life.
Devils were scrambling away from the sins of their own making, the few of them that were left, while creatures of insane madman's ravings were chasing them.
Cao Cao spotted one of the Maous of the Underworld who had huddled under a shimmering shield in Kuoh's Center, and opposite to him was a figure that bore black wings but whose figure was otherwise impossible to tell, almost as if he was blocking spying somehow.
The strategist turned his eyes to the dome of golden radiance that seemed to deter the approach of horrors by it's radiance alone, and saw faint shapes of angels within.
"La Fey, focus the spell in that dome." Cao Cao ordered the magician whose eyes had almost fallen out of her head from the shock of seeing what was going on on the other side of the scrying spell, but the girl obeyed the order with shaky motions.
The view moved to the golden dome, just in time for it to break and show that it had protected a sizeable force of Devils, Fallen Angels and Angels both ancient-feeling and new-feeling.
Cao Cao was quite speechless as he considered the horrifying implications of the Three Factions uniting under a single banner, and then he spotted a large man that moved alone towards the now-charging tide of darkness, clad in yellow trench-coat akin to the ones used in the world war that had wracked Europe just half a century ago or so.
Moreover, the figure was holding a golden staff the likes of which Cao Cao had never seen, and bore an odd gauntlet that faintly reminded him of [Boosted Gear], but was somehow wrong both in colour and shape.
What shocked Cao Cao most was that the figure was taking headstrong steps towards the horde of darkness that had changed towards the golden dome before it had broken, and now charged at the man who stood alone against the darkness.
The shape lifted his gauntleted hand and said something, and then reached for a shimmering dark portal that appeared next to him.
"La Fey! Focus the spell on him, I need to see what that portal is- It looks like one of Lady Ophis's portals!" Cao Cao was feeling completely out of his depth, a feeling that the strategist despised, and desired nothing more than to break that feeling.
The magician nodded, and focused the spell on the man… And the scrying spell flickered out.
La Fey almost fell from her chair from the sudden exertion, but Arthur caught her.
"Dammit- What happened?! Hurry, cast the spell aga…. eh?" Cao Cao raged at the exhausted girl, but the sunlight coming from the large windows of the house they occupied paused his speech. 'Wait… It's night in London?'
He glanced out and saw a massive ball of plasma that had appeared in the sky… But unlike the sun, this plasma ball was approaching the House of Parliament at very high velocity.
Cao Cao opened his mouth, but before he managed to do anything other than yelp in surprise the mile-wide ball of superheated plasma hit the building.
.
.
Momonga corrected his stance as the sudden feeling of the five [Boosts] being expended and his Anti-Divination Counter-Kill mechanism using the 'daily uses' for a week washed over him, and left him feeling all sorts of paranoid.
'Gah… I hope that hits Odin…' Momonga could guess who was spying on him, and brought up the [Boosted Gear] gauntlet again to re-apply the five [Boosts].
He reached into his inventory quickly as the bleating trees were quite close to him.
"Please let this work, Ero-World…" Momonga wasn't sure who he was praying to as he grabbed the shaft of [Ginnungagap], transformed the halberd into a staff, and hit the end of the staff to the ground.
The World-Class item of YGGDRASIL, [Ginnungagap], activated…
And the five [Boosts] Momonga had re-applied were expended.
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