Mission Succes

I dodge an incoming energy blast from Marius and cut another incoming blast with Nothung. After shouting, 'how dare we attack the Tepes clan,' he immediately attacked us with a few dozen spells.

I guess this is what a master spell caster fight looks like. Marius can cast more than fifty spells at once. He can also cast three spells in one magic circle. I really need to train my magic circle spell. I can only cast one spell for one magic circle, and I can only summon ten magic circles at once.

Anyway, I decided not to waste any more time and activate my Darkness rune.

"Cold Peace!"

Just like before, a pillar of white energy shoots out from the ground. However, instead of leaving behind a pile of ashes, the spell did not kill Marius. However, I can see Marius sweating like crazy, and his face is paler than before.

"You… What did you do? If not for the Grail, I would be dead by now."

If not for the grail? That means he tied himself to this world using the grail? I guess that made sense. Sephiroth Graal is known as a sacred gear that connects Dead and Life after all.

"Finger of Death!"

This time I decide to use another spell and see a pitch-black magic circle appear underneath Marius. A second later, purple energy shoots out from the ground, and I can see the soul of Marius start to get out from its body.

However, before Marius's soul gets out fully, I see a white light coming from his chest. This light is the one that is holding Marius's soul from being taken away.

Before the spell is over, I activate my darkness rune once again, but this time, it was for a different spell.

"Final Bell"

A second after I activate my spell, I can hear a bell toll in the distance. After a few seconds, the bell tolling a massive magic circle appears next to Marius. Coming from the magic circle is a massive creature. It has the appearance of a tall skeleton dressed in attire worn by high priests, giving off a creepy aura. Despite having no eyes, his eye sockets can glow to give the appearance of eyes. It also wears a regal robe fit for a sorcerer-king.

If my knowledge of DxD is right, then the being in front of me is Hades. One of the Three Rulers of the Greek Pantheon, the Underworld ruler, is one of the world's strongest beings.

"Marius Tepes, the final bell toll your name. Any last word?"

"Hades, this is not your business! Begone!"

"Very well."

With a flick of his finger, Hades fires a massive amount of death energy toward Marius. A few seconds later, Marius is no more. The only one left is the Grail that floats in the air. However, to my surprise, a few seconds later, Marius appears from the Grail uninjured but even paler than usual.

"You cannot kill me, Death God! I cheated Death! I'm the true Immortal!"

"Foolish child. You are not the true owner of Sephiroth Graal, and you think you are the true Immortal. Do you think I will never encounter another Sephiroth Graal user before? Truly foolish"

Hades spreads his arms, and suddenly a massive magic circle appears underneath Marius. A second later, a hand made of darkness stab Marius right in the chest. Right where the Grail is located. The hand then rips the Grail from Marius' body, and I can see a soul coming out from the Grail. It was Marius' soul.

"H-How…"

Just like that, Marius is dead. After seeing Marius is dead, Hades looks at me and gives the Grail to me.

"I entrust this Grail to you, O Death Chosen. May we meet again."

After saying that, Hades is gone. You know, I thought the Final Bell would only summon a High-ranking Grim Reaper, not the God of Death himself, to kill my enemy. I don't know if I made Hades angry or not but by the look of it, I did not.

A note to self: Don't use Final Bell spells in a world that has many Death Gods.

"Isaac, is that really?"

"Yes, Hades. God of the underworld of this world."

"One of the most powerful beings in this world?"

"Yes."

"Why did he decide to help us?"

"To be honest, I don't know. I'm as confused as you are. I thought that my Final Bell Spell only summoned a High-Ranking Grim Reaper, not… You know, Death God."

"We really need to experiment with our rune more."

"Agreed. Let's go back. I feel Ophis is already done rescuing Valerie."

True to my word, I can see Ophis already waiting for us not too far away from the castle. However, I frown a little when I see many corpses on the ground near Valerie and Ophis. I guess Ophis killed them all.

"Ophis, who are they?"

"Annoying."

"Annoying?"

"En"

I guess they attack both of them, and Ophis retaliates by killing them all.

"Good job, Ophis. I will keep my promise and bake you some cookies."

"En!"

I walk toward Valerie, who looks at me with a longing. Like a person seeing water after not drinking for three days.

When I arrive in front of her, I take out the two Grails from my pocket dimension and give them to Valerie. Valerie widens her eyes and takes the two Grails slowly from my hands and hugs them tightly, afraid of losing them once more.

"Thank you… Thank you very much. Thank you for giving the pieces of my soul back to me."

I smile a little and see Valerie absorbing the Sephiroth's Grail, and I can see her pale face begin to regain its color once more. After absorbing the grails, Valerie hugged me tightly. I decided to hug her back.

After a minute of hugging, Valerie released me and looked at me.

"Thank you."

"No problem. Now, what do you want to do?"

".... Can I come with you?"

"Of course. However, are you sure?"

"Yes. There is nothing here for me to stay. The only person I see as a family already escaped this place a long time ago."

"I see. Then come on, we will be leaving in a few seconds."

"Thank you!"

"Think nothing of it."

I create a teleportation circle, and a few seconds later, we are gone.