Chapter 80: If only trust was enough...

My legs swayed idly back and forth as I looked on, amused and interested. With a soft hum, I continued to caress the fox neckless Tearwyn had given me as I thought, 'After resisting the time-stop magic and sensing an explosion of purity mana I was expecting some form of sneak attack.'

I tucked the necklace back into safety under my armour as my thoughts continued, 'What I didn't expect was to find two clowns howling their souls out. Quite literally it seems.'

As I was contemplating what to do with the current situation I found myself in, the amount of purity mana exploded once again. However, this time it was also joined by a rather alarming amount of Divinity of the loathsome 'Light' variety.

My eyes narrowed as the duo stopped screaming and instead started to curse and moan in pain. I didn't bother to suppress the smirk as I enjoyed their seemingly self-inflicted torment.

Even though I was a fair distance away, it was no trouble to hear the two of them talking to each other as the tiny Artoria groaned, "Sister. We've been betrayed."

My eyebrow raised at that statement as I thought, 'No way my job just became that much easier. Did these two clowns really...?'

As the former Shirou sat up, my other eyebrow joined the raised one as sections of his skin started to flack off to reveal a bright light beneath it. He shook his head causing even more to flake off as a distinctively female voice answered, "Indeed we have. In a way most foul, one you'd expect from the Dark gods..."

My eyes drifted to Artoria as she released a deep sigh, calmly noticing she, too, was shedding her skin. She facepalmed herself gently as she said, "Sister. Even after all this time, you still refuse to see the truth? How many times do I have to tell you that Light and Dark are not Good and Evil exclusively?"

Not Shirou stood up, and with a deep sigh answered, "Forevermore sister. We may not be able to change how our peers act, but we can control our actions. Even if that means we will never truly be powerful in our faction with our refusal to drop to such barbaric lows as the Dark."

Not Artoria nodded and stretched, saying, "After we are done here, we will need to sniff out the betrayer and report them." She dropped her hands to look at them and continued, "To force a full descent into an avatar, though, is no small feat. It's most likely someone much higher up. Let's take this to the Ancient One?"

Not Shirou just gave her a deadpan look, which caused her to sigh and mumble, "I can dream too Sister..."

Not Shirou shook his head, causing a large amount of flesh and hair to flake away, before turning in my direction and looking me dead in the eyes, "Wipe that smirk off your face, Dark Champion. The betrayal from one of our peers is not your windfall. You will find no salvation in the act. Our powers are steadily growing, even as we speak."

As if to prove a point, he raised his hand as the last bits of flesh flaked away to reveal a hand of pure light. It was a small mercy that looking at them didn't cause my eyes to burn from the purity of it all.

Not Artoria placed her hands on her hips and pushed out her chest as she proudly stated, "Even as we are right now, we're practically immortal. We will crush you."

I leaned forward resting my chin in my right hand and asked, "Immortal you say?"

They both smirked as more and more of what was left of their hosts flaked away. At this point, even their clothes had started to be replaced. They even started to laugh loudly as their mere presence began to cleanse the school of my corrupted mana.

However, my next word caused them to immediately silence themselves and look at me confusedly, "Excellent."

They glanced at each other briefly before Not Artoria said, "You... understand what we said right? We're immortal. Nothing you do will kill us. We could even survive a moon dropping on us right now! We'll... be... able...."

She was full of so much bravado when she started to push for their immortality, but the more she spoke the larger and more deranged the smile on my face was becoming.

They both ended up taking a step back as I stood up and growled out, "Goooood."

By now my smile has gone beyond human and right into nightmare fuel as I continued, "I love it when my toys are... EXTRA. DURABLE."

I released everything I was able to while under the chains of my choices and in less than a blink I was sending a kick towards Not Shirou's head.

To my unimaginable glee, she had reacted in time by raising her arms to take the blow. As my leg connected the world around us finally caught up to my movements as the school practically exploded from where I had taken off from. The ground around us also joined in the festivities and exploded as she was sent flying at speeds far greater than sound.

By the time I was turning around to grab Not Artoria's face, a fist of pure light was already slamming into my aura of bloodlust. My eyes slightly widened with even more glee as a small crack appeared before I was sent flying.

Before I could even form the thought of what to call the two goddesses of Light, instead of just "Not-" I found myself already outside of the city limits. Hell, I was most likely across the globe at the point I pondered before Not Artoria appeared perpendicular to me and slammed down a double-fisted haymaker.

The first crack on my aura had reappeared after it had regenerated, but much larger this time. I was instantly slammed down through several metres of snow and ice before plunging into freezing waters.

Lazily looking at the snowy chaos above me I thought, 'I guess I am at one of the poles. Debatable if this is the safest location for our fight, but whatever. Not my planet, not my problem.'

With a thought, I apparated back to the surface and found both of the goddesses waiting for me. By now, they looked nearly the same with only their height being the difference. Even the hairstyle was the same!

Cocking an eyebrow I sarcastically asked, "Twins?"

The short one on the right frowned slightly and mumbled, "No damage?"

The one on the left answered, "Yes. We are the goddesses of Purity: Myst." She then gestured towards her sister, "And Annebell"

I simply shrugged and said, "Cool, now I know the names I won't be writing on the tombstones you two won't be getting."

Annebell scoffed, "I can understand why your power has given rise to an arrogant personality. But there is a limit, you know? We are so much stronger than you. You have no hope! Give up, and let us cleanse you."

I merely smirked and said, "The words you're looking for are 'Durable Toy.'"

This time, the ground didn't explode as I simply teleported in front of Myst with my sword already aimed at her neck.

All that did was earn a scoff from her as she said, "Rude."

A trident of golden splendour materialized in her hands, and she then used the three prongs to not only block but catch my blade. Or, at least that is what I assumed she was trying to do before my beloved sword cut through her armourment like the useless trash it was.

Yet even that surprise only caused her to widen her eyes a small amount as she easily bent back slightly to avoid my blade.

The two of them jumped back a few steps and looked at her weapon in mild shock. Annabell simply shrugged and said, "Null is bullshit indeed." Before quickly adding, "As it rightly should be!"

I swished my sword as if to get off any grime that touching her weapon would have caused to build up on my sword before humming and asking, "You know of Null? And that I can use it?"

Myst deadpanned at me and said, "It's not like you didn't use a massive attack with it a few minutes ago or anything."

Giving her a smirk she continued, "And while we are not high on the totem pole of power in our faction, we did our due diligence in our research of you. While the betrayal was unexpected, your abilities are not. Most are even chained and locked away. Honestly, you do not have a chance against us."

My deranged smile was back as I said, "Maybe. Maybe not. You need to wear me down through attrition. While on the other hand..." I brought up my sword, resting the flat side of it against my cheek and continued, "I only need to cut you once."

I lowered my sword and raised my left hand high, "And while I am indeed shackled, I am not powerless."

An absurd amount of mana gathered around my hand, so much so that the very air around us started to look sickly and corrupted. Closing my hand, my eyes radiated pure bloodlust and maybe a little bit of madness, I gently whispered, "Black."

Followed by a gentle under-pitch throwing motion towards the twins, "Hole."

The twins acted at the same time, with Myst yelling, "You dare?!"

I ignored her as I was already bringing up my sword to take the brunt of Annabell's fist. Yet my other hand was already grabbing the side of her head and pushing down towards the snowy ground as they connected.

Just as her face was starting to press into the delicate snow, I felt a massive blow on my aura near my cheek. As I started to move away from the force of the attack I saw the Annabell in my hand shatter into light while another one was withdrawing her leg from a kick.

Before I could shoot off more than a few metres, I simply teleported myself back to where I was originally and threw out a kick of my own. None to my surprise, however, it was blocked by yet another kick from her.

She simply smirked and said, "Surprise."

Before I could even raise my eyebrow, she shattered into light again and I felt another blow onto my aura from my back. And thus began a back-and-forth between the two of us. My failed counterattacks and her sending me flying, with my teleportation resetting the encounter.

All the while this was going on I thought, 'They both seem to excel at the physical form of combat, but are lacking in magical aptitude if it's taking the other goddess this long to disperse my spell. My instincts are distinctly lacking in warnings for most of their attacks. An effect of the chains or are they just that much better than me at melee?'

Glancing at the other goddess still struggling to contain my blackhole I decided to test my magical aptitude guess and gathered mana in my left hand again when Annabell sent me flying again.

Her eyes widened and she yelled, "I won't let you!"

What I did not expect, though I really should have, was a sudden burst of power from her. Exactly like a Mana Burst. She was in front of me throwing a punch to my gut before her words even had time to reach my ears.

Multiple things happened all at once when her punch connected with my aura. The sound of glass breaking rang out as her fist passed through my defence and crashed against my armoured stomach, crunching it. A smile was on my lips as words left them, "White Nova."

This wasn't a Shonen anime or some fan fic. While her fist did fold me like a fucking lawn chair, my spell was not interrupted.

We were all blinded as the black hole Myst was trying to hold back suddenly reversed and became a white hole. With an exceptionally powerful force might I add. Naturally, containing a black hole and a white hole are two very different acts and means. Thus Myst was wholly taken by surprise and the thing went off.

I shook my head as I pried myself from the crater I found myself inside of. I instantly noticed I was once again on the moon. I turned my gaze at Earth and with a smirk I thought, 'Yeah, that checks.'

On what I am going to assume is the south pole, there is now a distinct lack of snow. While it seems most of the land itself is still there, all of the snow covering it and the water around it must have been vaporised by the blast. I had to hand it to Gaia to prevent that explosion from doing any actual real damage. If I didn't count the huge floods and shit that were about to happen, that is.

A half smile formed as I noticed the two goddesses were on the moon with me. With a half-step I was already in front of one of them, swinging my sword to bisect her in half. My eyes widened slightly in surprise when her sister slammed a fist into my side, saving her while sending me further away from Earth.

My aura had shattered from the attack, and I was groaning in displeasure while I crashed onto the surface of Mars. I rolled my neck gently as I pulled myself from the rubble, and a satisfied sigh expected my lips as my neck cracked.

I smirked as I felt my instincts scream at me, causing me to turn around with my sword swinging. The tip of my blade passed by the nose of the goddess as she aborted her attack and forced everything she had into evading.

Using the momentum of my swing, I quickly jumped to evade the long spear thrust from the other goddess. With a vicious smile, I pointed with my free hand and said, "Bombarda Maxima." 

Much to my expected annoyance a white shield surrounded the spear-wielding goddess as our surroundings exploded. Jumping back slightly, I swished my sword to remove all of the dust and debris in the area.

Looking at the short goddess I mocked, "Looking to lose your weapon like your sister then?" Flourishing my sword gently, I continued to mock her, "Granted, from what I've seen so far of your handling it? You most likely only use that thing to prop yourself high to see-"

I barked a laugh as I sidestepped a rather sloppy stab from her weapon, "Even an ultimate holy weapon of legend might as well be nothing but a pile of shit in the hands of the incompetent."

This time, I jumped over her thrust. Landing on the shaft of her spear, I launched myself towards Myst and did a thrust of my own. Her dismissive and condescending look turned into horror mere moments later, however.

I gently leaned down and softly whispered into Annebell's ear, "Even your combat instincts are shit, it seems."

All of our eyes slowly looked down at my blade piercing her heart from behind. As she slowly reached for the blade in a futile effort, I viciously twisted my sword. She only managed to scream for a single heartbeat before I cut her in two from head to toe.

As she crashed to her knees and slowly started to fall apart, I looked up at Myst and said, "Oops. I guess I overestimated the durability of my new toy. I seem to have broken it."

My eyes drifted back down to the two halves of the goddess in interest. She had no bones or organs to speak of, she was pure light through and through. Seconds later her body completely dimmed and flaked away as if a gentle breeze had just passed by her corpse.

As the last bit of her body vanished, her sister finally reacted with a harrowing scream that brought a bright smile to my lips. And then her body exploded with power and shone so brightly I was forced to squint.

The next moment she was in front of me throwing a haymaker at my chest that was causing literal ripples in space around her fist.

"Oh shit!" I cursed as I barely had time to cross my arms in defence against the attack. I frowned as I felt the bones in my arms turn to dust and the armour on my chest concave from the impact. As I shot off at a speed that I guessed was very close to light, I did get to see the planet Mars completely vaporise from the aftermath of her attack.

My arms and armour had reformed themselves when she was in front of me again and levelled a two-handed slam against me. This time I was sure I was going faster than light as everything went dark yet I was not knocked out. Yet even as black blood leaked from my wounds and lips, a wide, mad smile cracked my face.

My aura kept shattering and repairing, along with my armour and body, as she repeatedly smashed me like a rag doll. I even felt myself crash through what I was assuming were planets. Until finally the surroundings came into focus again as I was embedded into the surface of an unknown planet.

Myst was standing over me, looking down at me. I could feel her hatred and fury, if looks could kill I'd be done in millions of times by now. She reached down and dug me out of the crater and lifted me by the neck.

I just smiled wide as she attempted to squeeze as she asked, "WHY WON'T YOU DIE?!"

I barked a laugh a few times before I was full-blown belly-laughing at her. Even as she smashed me around the planet we were on, and she punched me as hard as she could; I only laughed hard and louder.

I found myself embedded in a cliffside with her before me yelling, "What's so funny?! WHY?! WON'T?! YOU?! DIE?!"

I finally calmed down and gently popped myself out of the cliff and landed in front of her. Looking up at her I gave a mocking smile and said, "You fucked up princess."

She screamed at me and threw another space-crushing attack at my face. The pure shock I could barely make out on her face as I caught her fist was brilliant. She grunted as I crushed her hand and said, "You never should have pushed this fight so far away from Gaia and Alaya. I am no normal "summon" after all."

She ripped her hand out of my grip as she backed away. The look of realization on her face as she released one of the major forces holding my power in check could no longer reach me... well.

And then... something interesting happened. A splotch of black appeared near her heart. I raised my eyebrow as it began to spread rapidly on her body. The more it spread, the more her breathing started to pick up. In moments, her entire being was no longer a pristine white but instead a deep black. As the last of the colour change settled, her breathing settled as well.

Her eyes were now glowing a cliche red as she looked at me and said, "I will destroy you." She looked down at her hands and softly said, "Even if this deal is another trap and this power will destroy me."

I smirked and said, "Oh? Are you getting an anime power-up? Did you make a deal with a 'devil'?"

Looking up from her hands she said, "It doesn't matter. Now you wi-"

I softly giggled as my sword was now firmly through her entire body. With a tone full of mockery I said, "Twins to the last. Even dying the same way. Your sister's death was useless after all, didn't teach you a damn thing."

Before I could pull out my sword, I felt an impact on my aura from behind. The force of the attack sent me through the fake Myst, for kilometres. A blink later and she was flying above me, staring down at me.

Locking eyes with her and smirking, I said, "Do you honestly think you can defeat me now? With the power of darkness no less?"

Massive amounts of mana started to gather around her fist as she responded, "Yes."

Unlike before, however, this mana was not pure in the slightest. It even felt sickly. Corrupted. As she raised her fist to strike me I simply shook my head in disappointment and said, "It seems someone else has broken my toy before I have."

I didn't even bother to properly defend myself as she brought her enchanted fist down on my aura, sending me like some kind of apocalyptic meteor into the surface of the planet.

Yet she never got to enjoy the expected collision, as her eyes widened when I was in front of her once again but this time with her neck firmly in my clutches.

Again I shook my head in disappointment as I looked at her and said, "There are precious few I am willing to share my things with. So whoever is watching through her eyes..." I leaned forward till we were almost touching foreheads, "You best watch yourself going forward. You'll find I can be quite petty about the most mundane things. Like, a broken toy for example."

I leaned back and refocused on the fallen goddess before me, "And you. You said you researched me. What a blatant lie. 'Corruption' is well and firmly in my areas of expertise." I looked up and down her body to emphasise my point before I continued, "In what reality is utilizing any power you gain from corrupting yourself a good idea?"

The weak struggle she had been doing stilled suddenly. She glanced down at herself for a second before she weakly sighed and softly said, "Shit."

I chuckled softly with a nod and said, "'Shit' indeed. In your next life, put a great deal more thought into who you plan against. Or something. A broken toy no longer interests me in any case."

She simply grunted as I slid my sword into her heart before saying, "You've killed us while we are fully descended in avatars, with NULL! What second life?!"

With a cruel smile and a simple shrug, I responded, "Well. I did say, 'or something.' didn't I?"

Letting go of her neck, I finished off the second disappointment with a flourish of my sword. I looked at her disintegrating body with a frown, before gently shaking my head and looking to the stars.

Narrowing my eyes I mumbled to myself, "Time to go and release my wife."

[author]Marry Christmas! A surprise chapter for everyone! Man, it's been EIGHT months?! Sorry everyone. An update! I am doing okay for the most part, thankfully. But I do have a few days that are pretty bad. But that's life ain't it? I'll try to write more often, but zero promise of it. It took me nearly a month to write this, and it's not even 4k words... Anyway, how was the chapter? Still up to my normal quality? [/author]