Chapter 53 - Goddess of Pestilence, Chaos and Strife / Aqua 2.0

The three Servants, Siegfried, Jeanne and Jalter noticed the state of Adam's mind, consumed by rage. He will not be able to provide them with orders. Thus they have to decide for themselves.

"I must go to the mansion and check up on the children." Jeanne stated her priority.

"Leave Master to me. I will follow after him." Jalter suggested which surprised the two slightly. Unfortunately, this isn't the time to tease her for it, Jeanne thought.

"I will look around the city to gather the survivors." Siegfried took the last option and the three nodded before they split up.

Following Siegfried, he dived into the city and fought through hordes of Infected Grimms and crazed White Fang members. He found a few clusters of survivors. But also found many barricaded buildings were attacked purposely to kill the people inside. He personally saw a group of White Fang members seemingly collaborating with the Infected Grimms, which is strange, they worked together to kill the innocent people.

"Hahaha! This is your retribution. From today onwards, the world belongs to us, the Faunus!" A crazed White Fang member choked a man and lifted him by the neck before stabbing a blade into the man's gut before eviscerating the poor man.

Siegfried was too late to save the man but he noticed something and frowned. A strange energy similar to curse is influencing the White Fang members similarly to Madness Enhancement. But instead of losing intelligence in return for power, it clouded the host's mind and drew out their negative emotions and amplified it.

Unfortunately, Siegfried isn't proficient or capable of dispelling the strange curse. Perhaps a saint like Jeanne could. He didn't have the luxury to spare the crazed White Fang members. That left him with no choice but to kill and save those innocent civilians.

Siegfried swiftly arrived at the scene after carving a path through the Infected Grimms and killed all three of the White Fang members.

"Huh?" The White Fang member turned around and saw two of his team were killed with swift decapitations. "Who ar—" He felt his body become weightless and falling. Then he saw his own headless body a split second before his head fell on the ground.

Siegfried glanced at the building where a dozen terrified people huddled together and then to his right he saw more Infected Grimms encroaching upon him.

"Those that can fight pick up a weapon. Try your best to keep up with me." Siegfried ordered as his blade surrounded by a light green glow.

He slashed his greatsword and released a destructive energy slash that killed everything in its path.

Once a path opens up, he leads those survivors through the hordes of enemies. He continues to kill anything that gets in his way as he brings them to a safer and more defended location. Preferably one of the emergency shelters underground.

———

When Jeanne almost arrived at the mansion. She felt her blood freeze.

Outside the mansion, hordes upon hordes of Infected Beowolves rush against its wall and fence, hopping over to feast upon the people hiding inside. However, she felt relieved when she heard the sound of battle.

The survivors inside the mansion are still fighting and defending themselves. This means the people inside still survive.

Jeanne swiftly rushed into the mansion and found the childrens were fighting relentlessly alongside the students and Huntsmen.

The girls were amazing. She already saw what they are capable of in the battlefield earlier. The Zombified Beowolves aren't even a challenge for them. However, the problem is the numbers. No matter how strong they are, endless enemies will wear them down sooner or later.

"Miss Jeanne!"

Jeanne turned to the direction of the voice and saw Tina standing on top of a gazebo, waving at her while holding a sniper rifle in her other hand. Tina jumps down and quickly approaches Jeanne.

"It's a relief to see you here, Miss Jeanne. Did the military return back to the city?" Tina asked, slightly hopeful along with others that were nearby and listened to the conversation.

Jeanne can see these people are betting on the military forces returning to restore order to the city. However, she had to disappoint them.

"Unfortunately no. Only the Master and a few of us returned after he sensed something wasn't right in the city."

"We are doomed…" Someone nearby heard what Jeanne said and felt hopeless. "The supplies of ammunition will not last us another half an hour. Once we do, those monsters will overwhelm us."

The bad news quickly spreads around like a wildfire and they quickly lose their will. The Huntsmen and the girls however, didn't lose hope. The Huntsmen are professionals that will often fight even in disadvantageous situations. It takes more than this to lose their morale. As for the girls, hearing that Adam returned made their morale go through the roof.

Majority of the Huntsmen in the city are here. The girls are also capable fighters, even more stronger than regular Huntsmen. Jeanne knows what her role is. The reason why she came here is precisely because this mansion contains the most concentration of capable fighters. Here is the only place she can muster up a force to conduct a rescue party and reinforcement to help her Master.

With her flag fluttering by the wind in full display, she takes a deep breath and shouts.

"Take up your arms, people. This is not the time to despair! We cannot rely on others to help us. We only have ourselves to rely on right now. Would you rather resign yourself to death or to struggle and fight for your own survival?"

The effect of the speech was miraculous. A moment ago, the people lost hope and wallowed in despair knowing there was no help coming for them. But due to the effect of [Charisma], those people immediately pick themselves up and grab their weapon to fight. Those who were already fighting felt their body become lighter, invigorated and their attacks hit harder.

Jeanne nods satisfied and turns back to Tina. "I will leave the defense of the mansion to you. After we quell this horde, I will lead a group out to the city to secure supplies and save other survivors." She explained

"Okay." Tina nodded although reluctant because she wanted to rush to Adam's side but she understands that protecting the people is also important. The people that her Nii-san worked hard to protect.

———

In an undisclosed research facility.

"Thank you, Scarecrow." Agent were revived by Scarecrow in this facility which holds spare bodies for each T-Dolls.

"Mhm." Scarecrow hummed as her fingers rapidly tapping the hardlight holographic keyboard with lightning speed. "This body had been outfitted with all your requests functions and upgrades." Scarecrow explains and trailer off a little before she went silent.

"Will you really use this body, Agent? The Dust Fusion Core is very unstable and a highly experimental technology. If it went out of control… the whole city will be wiped out." Scarecrow paused and look at Agent in the eyes.

Agent is aware, what she carry is literally a bomb with approximately 400 Megatons energy yield. The whole city will be glasses into a wasteland filled with magma and scorched soil. However, against a literal god. There is little option Agent have in her hand.

Agent stared back resolutely at Scarecrow and said, "I have to. There is no other choice and I rather not let our Master face a dangerous being like that."

Scarecrow ask no more and turn her eyes back at the screen. What Agent said is true. From what she saw from the brief battle between Agent and the Outer God, the Outer God can inflict terrible disease or curse to anything organic. She saw few guards had their flesh melted away leaving only bones by a poisonous mist and touch that can turn man into monsters and abominations.

To the T-Dolls, safety of their Master supersede everyone else. Even if they have to damn a whole city to death for their Master's safety, they wouldn't hesitate and neither does Agent.

With no further delay, Agent left the facility through an elevator and emerged from a safehouse at the edge of the city.

Immediately, she encountered enemies that overrun the city. They are also coming for her. Wanting to tear her apart even more than the normal civilians because she is in the priority list of their Master's enemy. However, Agent didn't have time to waste on these grunts.

Instead of her normal Maid outfit, Agent now outfitted in a special exoskeleton suit that is required as a weapon platform for the special PAC cannons she is outfitted with. Two cannons on her shoulders and another two near her waist which are attached to the x-shaped mechanical limbs on her back. With a single thought, the cannons aimed at her front and shot four blue beams of supercharged subatomic particles accelerated to the speed of light. The sheer heat and mass of the accelerated particles punch and carve a straight path through without any resistance as she races to reach Adam with an anti-gravity boots that increase the distance between steps.

———

To say she was surprised, is an understatement…

Jalter had followed Adam as he carved a path through the city. Unending number of Infected Grimms and White Fang members tried to stop him but to no avail.

Like a berserker that felt no pain or exhaustion, he had been fighting nearly half an hour straight.

A few Zombified Beowolves bite his left arm to pin him down but he easily lifts all four of them that are as big as him and smashes them onto the ground and rip their heads off his arm. Then a Beringal tried to wrestle with him, to overwhelm him but Adam shoved the barrel of Hornet down its throat and shot its brain out. A Deathstalker tried to ambush him while he was busy with the Beringal. Keyword 'tried' because he caught its stinger like he had an eye behind his head and then ripped it off along with its pincers like it's a damn boiled lobster.

You get the gist of it.

No matter how the Infected Grimm piled on him, he will either make quick work of them, summon operators or launch Artillery Strike on himself as he relentlessly carves a path of blood and gores through the hordes of enemies hellbent to tear him apart too.

Jalter questions why he doesn't just go straight to the enemy leader if he looks like he knows where the leaders are. Instead, he wasted time on these grunts.

Speaking of these grunts, she noticed they just keep coming endlessly from under the city through the holes created by explosions. She tried to go into one to investigate and saw an ancient sewer down below with red pods lined up its wall and absorbing black tar-like sludge to keep pumping out Infected Grimms. She burns them all with her fire before deciding her time is better spent destroying those pods since Adam can handle himself anyway.

———

Adam was enraged. When he learned Agent was killed. It's not like she really died with multiple bodies to replace one if she died. However, for some reason. He felt like something within him snapped.

Among his companions, Agent was one of the earliest to join him with Alice. They've been through everything together. The two of them are almost inseparable and Adam is telling the truth when he feels like he cannot live without Agent.

He was just a normal everyday person. He was not a hero or aspiring to become one. He never shows his weakness but the burden of his mission is not something he could bear. It's like giving a normal person futuristic gear and telling him from today onwards you have a world to save. At first there's the novelty of the situation, selected by a god, given power to fight against evil. Like something straight out of the story. But once the novelty wears off, the crushing reality smacks him in the face. It happened to him during his first defeat on Mountain Glenn.

It was that defeat that tells him he wasn't in a storybook where there's a happy ending waiting for him. Crushing defeat and the realization of the true scale of this trouble casted a shadow deep in his mind. He becomes afraid. Who wouldn't? What will you do when you find out the real enemy you have to defeat is a god? It was like telling a soldier, "Hey, your job changed. Instead of killing the enemy leader in front of you, go destroy that nuke hurling toward you."

He becomes aware that one missteps will cost him everything. He becomes afraid. Afraid that he will lose everything. Become aware he will put his loved ones in danger. And he did. He made a mistake. He fell for a trap, lured away and left everyone behind in danger.

When he heard the last transmission from Agent, he knew the enemy killed her. He was devastated, sad, angry, and a multitude of emotions washed over him. But most importantly, he felt disappointed. He was angry and disappointed in himself. Had he been smarter he could see through this trap, had he been working even harder he would be stronger. He literally has been in this world for four months. Had he worked tirelessly to grind Contracts, his levels would be even higher. It's a simple logic, the higher his level is, the stronger he is. Yet, he didn't. He didn't work hard enough. He should have worked to the point of exhaustion because time was never a luxury for him which he never realized.

The rage and disappointment he felt for himself made his chest feel tightened by the crushing weight of his guilt, he felt like his heart was going to explode as he crushed and destroyed all the enemies in his path. He could feel the fire of his rage burning him from within.

"AHHH!!!" He roared on top of his lungs, the pain that came from his mind, the mental torment that was ripping him apart from the inside like a thousand blades stabbed inside him.

He needs to kill faster. He needs to get stronger faster. He needs to kill that Outer God. He needs to correct his mistakes, his sins. But he lacks strength. He needs more. But where? Where can he get more?

[Juggernaut]

In exchange for power, he burns his own vitality. He pushes his own body well beyond the boundaries. Overloading every cell, every muscle and every bone with his own Aura. His bones crack and his flesh torn apart from this suicidal act. His body is literally tearing apart inside out. But everything is inconsequential. Comparing his physical pain and his mental pain is like comparing a scratch to having his heart crushed and ripped out.

(Think of it like Eight Gate. But not as powerful and fatal)

"It's an interesting sight to see. To think that you would care more about a pile of scraps like that bitch compared to a whole city."

Adam paused for a moment and lifted his head up at the source of the voice. There he saw a beautiful lady, a beguiling beauty like a Belladonna flower, her deceptive beauty inciting any that is unaware of its poison. For Adam, he knew very well who she was even with his clouded mind.

The Outer God confidently walked towards Adam as the Infected Grimms split a path for her. She approached him until she was a few meters away before she stopped and smiled in a sadistic way at him before she threw something at him that fell and rolled on the ground.

"Here, I brought you your lover. Though she tried to self-destruct. So, it was slightly damaged." She said mockingly as if she wasn't the one causing her death.

Adam slowly kneels down and grabs a hold of the damaged head. Her face looked like she was in deep sleep, covered in soot and dirt with Some singe here and there.

"Did you like it? My gift." She taunts him, expecting him to make some reaction but instead, he simply gazes at the head silently as he wipes away the soot and dirt, ignoring her existence which ticked her off.

"Tch! I hate the silent type. Left me feeling unfulfilled. At least show me some reaction will you? You are boring me to death." She grew tired of this and signaled the Infected Grimms to resume their attack.

Before the Beowolf could reach the head in his cradle, his lightning fast arm caught it's jaw and crushed it before the head vanished and safely kept in his Inventory.

"Hmn. These weak grunts are hardly a challenge for you. How about these children I stole from the witch?" Black sludge poured out from her shadow and transformed into six, 10 meters tall Cyclops. "Struggle more and entertain me, Adam White." She said before her body dissolved and reappeared on top of a building, overseeing the battle like she was watching a coliseum battle.

However, Adam ignored those Cyclops. He jumps on top of one when it tries to punch him to death and runs up from its arm to its shoulder before jumping to the Outer God with his gun in hand, unleashing a barrage of shots that is accurate even when shot haphazardly.

"Ah, this is not good. You should play by the rules or else the game wouldn't be fun." She said, unbothered by the bullets that pierced her flesh. She was neither bleeding or injured. Those bullets submerged into her flesh like shooting at the water.

"Game? This is all a game for you?" Adam spoked for once with an incredibly hoarse voice almost like a growl. "All this death and suffering is just a game for you!" He landed in front of her and choked her throat with his right hand as he stared down at her with his smoldering eyes filled with hatred and rage.

"I wouldn't call it just a game. Souls are my sustenance and for me, this is no different than game hunting. It's a little fun to enjoy the thrill of hunting but my true goal is to devour this world." She replied with a smirk on her face. "Also, to touch me is the worst possible move you could do."

"I am first and foremost a Goddess of Pestilence before Chaos and Strife. Where else do you think this outbreak came from?" She smirks confidently, knowing she was the winner because she can corrupt any biological beings with disease that turn them into her thrall.

However, a few seconds passed awkwardly before she opened her eyes again in confusion. Why hadn't this guy been affected by her power? Something isn't right… She can also feel the pain of being constricted by his wide hand coiled around her neck. But that's impossible! She had long shed her mortal flesh and become physically invulnerable.

(Think of her body as similar to Alex Mercer from Prototype.)

Something isn't right… Something seriously isn't right…!

"Kah! Haa—How…!" She was choked by the throat as dread filled her.

She panicked. No matter how she tried to escape, either ripping the hand away from her neck, dissolving her body or teleporting. None of them work and she just realized why. A foreign energy invaded her body the moment Adam caught her and like a poison, it dissolved away her power, her divinity and everything, stripping her down to her human state.

Impossible! Impossible! Impossible! Impossible! Impossible! Impossible!

How! How can he obtain this ability! It's against the rules! Those shitty admins! How could they give such absurdly broken power to a reincarnator!

A power that negates all concepts, powers, universal definitions, laws, boundaries, logic, etc, anything that he can understand the concept of. To reduce any opponent into their base state no matter if they are a human with superpower or a cosmic god capable of destroying multiverse with a single thought. The Fragments of Nihility. A power which she wager Adam himself didn't understand. Or else, she would have died in the first chapter.

She is, quite literally, in a situation where her luck is so rotten she is fucked six ways to Sunday without any way out. Not when all her power was sealed because she looked down on her opponent being a weakling and didn't realize what he had done to her.

Perhaps, it's a pity. When Adam saw her terrified face of realization, his grip loosened a bit. But he isn't idiotic enough to spare her. He simply gives her an opportunity to say her last word before he gut her.

"Speak your last words. I will afford you that amount of mercy." Adam deactivated [Juggernauts] and disengaged his helmet to revealed his face as he stared at the Outer God, deep into her very core.

The Outer God gulped, she could see it. The eyes previously gentle and filled with kindness were replaced with smoldering and seething hatred.

"W-Would you believe me if I said everything was just a big misunderstanding…" She asks but she gets no reaction from Adam as he continues to stare at her, waiting for her to finish talking. "Haha… I made a mistake! I failed to recognise Mount Tai. I was courting dead. But please don't kill me! I am willing to do anything. I will be your woman!" She said but met with unbridled disgust. "Ah, your slave, your pet, a dog, anything. Just please let me live! I'm not willing to die yet!" She cried out.

"Are you done with your last words?" Adam asked, unwavered or affected by her pleas.

"Ah! I beg you! I'll do anything! PLEASE SPARE ME!" She shouted at the end when she felt the grip tightened, snuffing out her own life.

Just as Adam was about to crush her feeble neck. A red screen appeared in his face. His System is telling him to not get hasty.

"You better have a good reason." Adam frowned but wait regardless and see what his System have to say. He have no reason to distrust his System since it wouldn't do something that wouldn't benefit him.

[It's wasteful to extinguish the soul. Rather than wasting the soul. Host are suggested to keep it as a crafting ingredient. The divinity is a potent attributes that can be imbued into object to elevate their ability.]

[For example, the Pestilence Divinity can be added into weapon to make it's deal potent poison and inflict fatal curse or disease.]

"I see your point. Its like slotting runes or gems for extra effects. But how am I going to harvest her soul?" Adam mutters which made the Outer God's face pale as a ghost, hearing the fate she will receive.

[Just excude the soul from Host's negation and the System will collect the soul as loots.]

"Oh, it's that easy?" Adam mutters and punch his fist through her body which understandably, exploded. He drop the corpse and shift his attention to his Inventory to confirm the soul is indeed in there.

After he is done dealing with the Outer God, he sit down on the roof. He look at the state of the city and then remember the Infected Grimms that he forgot about because he was too focused on the Outer God.

"They dissolved?" Adam saw none of them and instead saw black tar-like sludge filled the street below which wasn't there a while ago.

[They dissolved when Host negated the Outer God's power.]

"I see… So, we had won." Adam disengaged his armor and his body tiredly fell on the roof tiles and stared at the dark sky filled with black smoke.

His clothes was soaked in blood. Activating [Juggernauts] is very taxing, physically. His bone were literally cracking and his flesh rupture and torn from the stress. Even with his Nanite, it gonna take a while to fix this nasty damages.

"I'm tired…" Adam mutters while feeling drowsy.

"Mas-"

"-ter!"

"Hmn…?" Adam heard voices calling for him and he willed his unfocused eyes to look at the person shaking his body. It's Agent. Although she dressed more differently this time.

"Uhm… I feel tired… I will sleep for a bit…" He said before his last bit of strength were exhausted and his eyes become shut as he drifted into the dream land.

In his dream. He saw a bright light in the shape of a four pointed star illuminating the dark void.

???: "Yo, wanna be my son?"

Adam: "Whitebeard?"

Adam felt like he recognised this question, he remembered it was a meme in his past life.

GE: "Nah, you got the wrong person. I'm the God Emperor of the Imperium and I want you as my primarch."

Adam: "…"

Adam: "Uh… thanks but no thanks."

GE: "What I said is a statement, not a question. You are being drafted for the war and as a human, you must fight. You have no right to object."

Adam: "Joestar Family Secret Technique, Nigerundayo!"

GE: "Get yo ass back here, boy! Those Xenos and Daemon ain't gonna shoot themselves in the head!"

Adam felt weightless and when he turn around, he saw God Emperor use psychic power to catch him.

Adam: "Fuck!"

GE: "Hehehe, come to daddy. Let me borrow your Fragments of Nihility for my gene-seed project."

Before God Emperor could caught Adam, the black void suddenly shattered and replaced with a white void.

???: "You overstepping your boundary, Not-God Emperor."

GE: "Hmn. I am abiding the rule. He is not a RAY. That's mean he's a free game."

The unknown man which carry a magical floating book with a magical pen that write on it's own, frowned and the tension between him and the God Emperor is skyrocketing.

???: "He is mine. Leave here or die."

GE: "Heh, if you are back at your reality. I might fear you. But here, you aren't omnipotent."

GE brandish a burning sword and the mysterious man write on his book…? He rapidly write on the book before it suddeny flashes and Adam saw Sosuke Aizen in his white haori, appeared. Not just Sosuke Aizen, but also Minato Namikaze, Fairy King Kirito and many more.

GE: "Hmn. Apparently you got stronger since we last meet, boy. But so do I."

GE extended his claw-like hand and casted a catastrophic lightning bolt that hit them and explode.

"Full Counter!" Meliodas roared and reflect the lightning attack and Kirito move along Minato to unleash barrage of lightning fast attack.

"Bankai: Kyouka Suigetsu!"

The dream land become stilled as if the time suddenly stopped and everything become gray before it shatters.

"Huh?!" Adam woke up and found himself in his own room but hooked to multiple devices he normally see in an intensive care unit.

*Clang*

Adam turn to the noise and saw Agent dropped the bucket and the tray in her hand and rushed towards him before hugging him and cried.

"It's a relief you finally wake up, Master."

"What happened?" Adam wrap his arm around Agent's back and carres her head to comfort her.

"You fell into a coma for more than a year, Master." Agent said with sadness and also happiness now that he is awake.

"Huh?!"

—————

(Eric was actually arrested, he was caught stealing women's underwear and arrested by the VPD till today, serving it's 12 years sentence for sexual misconduct and no one went to bail him out. Adam just assume it found a new life out there and let it be.

Also, I don't know what I smoked to cook up this chapter but the battle scene is kinda disappointing. I know. I mean, it's obvious something like this gonna happen considering his power. But maybe I should had spice it up better? Like the lead up to the scene maybe? But at that moment, I kinda dragged the chapter a little too much already. So, I just put what's important and be done with it and still end up with almost 5k words.

Anyway, Rwby is done. Probably gonna do some aftermath chapters and move on. )

If you readers feel generous or want to appreciate my work and effort, feel free to tip me here.

https://ko-fi.com/lazy_kat_aoi