Chapter 20: Iron will and heart

Narrator's Pov

"You have arrived at Clara's recommendation, I will let you explain yourselves."

Svarog looked directly at the group in front of him, Clara anxiously walked up to him and stood at his side, looking towards the group with a small glint of worry in her eyes.

The group seemed to be mentally deciding who'd go and start the conversation...except Stelle who immediately pushed Ryan forwards, making him stumble forwards slightly.

"Stelle!" He looked a bit irritated to the girl who simply shrugged.

"Cook" she gave him a thumbs up.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I'll give you more lessons on that later, but for now speak to him!" Stelle pointed towards Svarog.

Ryan simply deadpanned at the Racoon girl but still looked towards Svarog, he sighed lightly and then started to speak.

"Svarog, I want to ask you a question." He made a small pause before continuing. "Do you know something about the Stellaron?"

"Stellaron...Searching database...Access denied, discussing 'Stellaron' with unauthorized targets is Prohibited." Svarog replied and then he moved a bit, straightening his posture, apparently putting his guard up. "You are broaching a secret that lies at the heart of this world, a secret that should remain unknown to humanity, reassessing targets...Threat index raised, I demand that you reveal your true intention."

"So he does know something." Dan Heng let out a small sigh.

"I have to be very careful with my words..." Ryan seemed to doubt of himself but still spoke back to the robot. "We're here to reach the Stellaron and seal it, we'll stop the disaster that attacks this world."

"...Historical records state that humanity has already made multiple efforts to engage with the Stellaron, without exception, these efforts have been motivated by human greed, attempts to secure the article for a selfish end"

"Do we seem like the kind of people that would be driven by greed, Svarog?" He narrowed his eyes towards the robot. "We're not that those who tried to get to the Stellaron before us."

"There's no evidence to suggest you're different to them."

"Buth there's neither evidence of us being like them." He approached Svarog and looked up at him. "We are in a pretty grey spot, don't you think, Svarog?"

"I've been instructed with protecting the underworld, any interaction with the Stellaron is forbidden and will bring even more disaster" The robot looked down towards Ryan. "Someone in Belobog culture once said 'I am faithful without hesitation to the mission I've been given'...my calculations are immutable laws, no one and nothing can shake me, not even outsiders."

"Then I'll tell you something, Svarog...'he who follows the impossible is a fool, but he who is determined to make it possible...is an even bigger fool', your mission is currently impossible" he closed his eyes for a few seconds but then again looked up ay him, a bit more seriously. "You're not protecting the underworld, you're just delaying its death, expecting the Overworld to be a shield that holds for as long as possible..."

"My mission and calculations are absolute, this is the most optimal way to protect the underworld, even if it's a single millisecond" the robot clenched his fists."Peacekeeping protocal temporarily disengaged...requestion extermination protocol launch"

"E-extermination?!" March backed away slightly.

"Peace talk is over, everyone get ready!" Dan Heng spoke and summoned his spear.

"No need for that Dan Heng, all of you stay back." Ryan spoke making the other three look at him weirdly.

Ryan opened his right hand facing the palm down, a magic circle appeared under him and then a wide and slightly translucent barrier separated the trailblazers and Bronya from Ryan, Svarog and Clara who stayed at the other side.

"Ryan?! What are you doing?!" Stelle asked approaching the barrier and punching it without any effect.

"This will end shortly, don't worry." He spoke as he looked towards Svarog.

"Mr.Svarog! Please, don't-" Clara tried to stop the robot.

"Clara..." Svarog's eye glowed brightly as he looked towards the boy.

"Stand back" Ryan positioned his right hand to his side creating an ethereal katana.

"Prototype number 3, monitoring automaton Svarog, exterminal protocol launch successful...Annihilation permitted!"

Clara stepped back a bit, and Svarog immediately rose up his right hand, shooting an energy beam towards Ryan who barely reacted dodging and backing away, letting the beam hit the barrier behind him.

"Hey! Hey! What the hell is happening?!" Seele asked as she joined the trailblazers and Bronya.

"Ryan trapped himself with Svarog on the other side!" March spoke making Seele frown a bit.

"What the hell is he thinking?! I'll go bring Nat and the rest" she spoke before quickly running away.

Ryan quickly started to run towards Svarog, the robot shoot beam after beam but the boy started to barely dodge them by dashing slightly to the sides still running towards the Automaton.

Svarog stopped shooting the beams and quickly snapped his fingers, two huge robotic hands fell to his side, the two hands activated and went towards Ryan, the bot slid across the floor dodging the first one and then quickly jumped high to dodge the second one, Svarog lifted up his hand again shooting an energy beam at the airborne Ryan who blocked the beam with the ethereal katana.

The ethereal katana broke because of the beam but managed to effectively block the attack, the forge still pushing him upwards, and Svarog took the chance to make both hands fly towards Ryan, the two hands hovered at the boy's side and then slammed against him, keeping him trapped between both hands, Svarog snapped his fingers making the hands start to heat up, apparently ready to explode.

Before the hands exploded, various katanas appeared around the robot hands piercing them, from the inside a horizontal slash cut the hands in two barely letting Ryan get out before the hands exploded, the expansive wave of the explosión pushed Ryan faster to the ground making him fall on his feet with quite some force, making some of the snow rise up.

Ryan looked towards Svarog who pointed at him with his fingers, from his back came out 4 missiles that quickly flew towards Ryan, the boy sighed softly, breathing in and out, the mark under his left eye started to dimly glow and he ran towards Svarog.

He jumped dodging one of the missiles, he used another one to push himself even more up, he grabbed a third missile with his hands spinning around and launching this one towards Svarog, he then landed on the floor and gave a small pat to the last missile freezing it completely.

Svarog covered himself with both arms, blocking the explosion of the missile that had hit him, but then his body arched a bit because of a hard punch to his torso, he looked slightly down seeing how Ryan had just punched him, his right hand covered in what seemed to be an ice gauntlet, Svarog tried to grapple the boy but he quickly dashed away.

"Ryan! Fry his circuits with some lightning!" March screamed from the other side of the barrier.

"I have to avoid kill him, but weakening him might be a good idea" Ryan thought as the mark under his left eye stopped glowing.

The boy covered both hands in lighting and ran towards Svarog, who simply stood still as the boy jumped and grabbed his head discharging the lighting directly into the robot's body, after a few seconds, Ryan stopped...and Svarog's eye glowed a bit brighter.

"Full energy Recharge, initializing enhanced combat mode." He announced.

"Oh shit, he just triggered a second phase." Stelle deadpanned at the fight.

Svarog grabbed Ryan's wrist and punched him in the gut, making him cough a bit, the robot then slammed him against the ground before lifting him up and letting his wrist go before giving him a quick roundhouse kick on the chest throwing him away.

Ryan rolled and bounced on the ground a bit before hitting his back with the barrier, he grunted a bit with some pain and stood up putting a hand on his chest, healing himself using his magic.

"March..." He grunted from the other side of the barrier.

"I'm sorry...it usually works on robots" she apologized.

Ryan stood on his feet and saw Svarog menacingly approaching.

"Do you want my Chimes?"

"Leave, not the best moment to deal with you" he frowned and the mark under his left eye started to glow again.

Ryan dashed towards the robot that threw a quick right hook but barely missing him, the boy quickly covered his feet with ice serving as boots to protect himself, he gave a quick kick behind Svarog's knee forcing It to bend and make him kneel, Ryan took the chance and hopped high giving another kick this time to the robot's head making him stumble and recoil away, Ryan touched the floor and stomped his foot down, making a wave of ice crawl across the ground covering both of Svarog's legs.

Ryan created various magic circles around Svarog, as if it was a cage, he quickly dashed and punched the robot again with his ice gauntlets.

He went past him and used a magic circle to bounce again towards Svarog, repeating this multiple times he punched and kicked Svarog's upper body while making sure to be careful enough to not be taken with his guard down.

"Pattern Recognized, initiating counter attack"

"Not this time."

Svarog flung his punch directly to his side, barely a few inches of hitting Ryan but he quickly spun, sliding his hand across Svarog's arm he froze it using his magic, he landed on the ground behind the robot and turning around he got his hand close to the robot's torso, his eyes slowly turned silver and then he gave a one-inch punch to Svarog's torso cracking the carcass of his armor and then Ryan jumped away from him.

The Ice around Svarog's body quickly melted and he fell on one knee for a second before slowly getting up looking towards Ryan.

"Give up, Svarog" he looked towards the robot seriously.

"Request...denied"

Svarog rose up his hand shooting another energy beam towards Ryan who quickly dodged to the side, he let out a short sigh and charged some lighting throwing it towards Svarog who rose up his hand to take the lighting and use its energy.

It was too late when he realized that between those lightings, an ethereal sword flew camouflaging itself among the lightning, the sword pierced Svarog's palm making a small explosion on his hand as the Katana disappeared, Svarog looked down to his palm, his repulsor had been completed destroyed.

Ryan closed his hands letting a black glow surround them as he ran towards Svarog, the boy's skin slowly loosed its common color and turning into a more grey tone.

Ryan dashed towards Svarog who tried to attack him by shooting the repulsor blast of his other hand but as soon as he rose his palm, Ryan became much faster, arriving to him and piercing Svarog's hand with his hand, his fingers cutting through the carcass like a blade, Ryan pulled his hands out of Svarog's palm and quickly spun kicking the robots head, his leg surrounded on fire making a small explosion with the kick making Svarog recoil.

The robot tried to counter and throw a punch at Ryan but the boy quickly slapped the robots arm away, breaking the carcass of his arm making him miss the attack, he then gave a strong punch to the robot's stomach, his hand broke the armor around the robot's stomach making him stumble forwards before falling on one knee.

Ryan looked slightly down at the robot, his skin, eyes and hands returned to normal, the mark under his eye stopped glowing and he created a katana on his right hand.

"We're here!"

Seele came back with Natasha, Sampo and Oleg behind her, seeing the scene, they approached the barrier that had started to slowly disappear.

"Ryan...did he just won?" Natasha asked.

"It...looks like it" Bronya looked towards the white haired boy.

"And he said he wasn't that strong..." Stelle looked at him a bit irritated.

Ryan grabbed the ethereal Katana with his right hand tightly and rose it up above his head, Svarog looked at him, he tried to get up to no vail, eventually he lowered his head...

"Now...it should be now..."

"Please!"

Clara stepped in front of Svarog, her arms extended to her sides shielding the robot behind her, some tears on her eyes as she looked up at Ryan.

"Please don't hurt Mr.Svarog! He can't...he can't fight anymore" the little girl sobbed a bit.

"Clara..." The robot looked towards the girl.

"Move" Ryan spoke still with the katana above his head.

"N-no..."

"...fine"

He rose up the katana more above his head, fire surrounded the blade of the ethereal sword making the blade glow brightly...he wasn't going to stop.

"Ryan! Stop!" Dan Heng screamed.

The barrier disappeared completely and the group ran towards the other three, trying to stop the white-haired boy, Ryan Didn't seem to hesitate as he lowered his katana throwing a cut towards Clara and Svarog.

"No!"

Svarog's voice resonated through the place, his eye glowing brighter as he hugged clara with one arm shielding her while his other hand clenched and threw a punch towards Ryan, who quickly made the katana disappear and blocked the attack with both arms, his body was flung backwards his back hitting a rock wall making him groan a bit.

"Ugh... should've dodged it instead of blocking it..." He groaned slowly.

Svarog fell again on one knee, his arm still holding Clara tightly, the girl simply looked at the robot and sighed softly, her arms slowly hugging the robot's neck as she rested her head on his shoulder.

"Please Mr.Svarog...help them, you said you wanted to make all my wishes come true right? My wish right now is for all of us to work together...like a family...please listen to them..." She spoke sobbing slightly making the robot lower it's head a bit. "Please dad...tell them all you know..."

"...first variable: Clara's request...second variable: Outsider's intentions...third variable: Personal Behavior...Father figure" Svarog spoke slowly while Clara looked at him.

As Svarog did that, Ryan was still laying against the rock wall he had been thrown to, his left hand holding his right arm, healing it with some magic.

"It broke my arm...but at least the plan went well...worth."

"Ryan! What the fuck was that?!"

He looked a bit nervous at March who along her fellow trailblazers seemed to be quite a bit angry.

"Why the hell did you attack Clara?!" March demanded an answer and he sighed lightly.

"Everything was completely under control..."

"Well, it didn't seem like it" Dan Heng frowned crossing his arms above his chest.

"It's not the craziest thing I've done, don't worry..."

"That just makes it worse!" March spoke again but Stelle simply grunted.

"Just...tell us what the fuck You just did..." Stelle rubbed her forehead. "What? Was child abuse legal in your home or something?"

"Ugh...I made a deal with Clara...while we were talking in private, we needed a chance for Svarog to show something that wasn't just calculations, Clara needed to convince him when he was vulnerable so...we agreed on her stepping in and me putting her in danger to make Svarog react..." He slowly got up still healing his arm. "If he reacted...then it meant that he actually felt something towards Clara...that would be a breach wide enough for her to convince him."

"What if he didn't react then? Would you have killed them both?" March asked frowning a bit.

"No...I would've still stopped, but then getting the information would've been much harder..." He let out a sigh as he finished healing his arm.

"You should've talked this with us" Stelle frowned a bit.

"Would any of you have agreed to this?"

"Of course not!" March grabbed one of Ryan's cheeks pinching on it.

"Ryan, are you sure everything was under control?" Dan Heng asked seriously making Ryan free himself from March.

"Yes, besides the fact that Svarog's last attack broke my arm, everything was under control." He replied making Dan Heng sigh deeply.

"Then it doesn't matter anymore..."

"Dan Heng! We have to scold him" March pouted looking towards her friend.

"He can't keep getting away with this!" Stelle pointed her finger towards Ryan.

"Svarog will cooperate... that's what matters, but Ryan... Don't ever do something like that without consulting it with us" Dan Heng frowned lightly before walking towards the others.

"I'll give you a scolding later" March pouted before following Dan Heng.

"I really thought you were going to attack her..." Stelle crossed her arms over her chest.

"I told you I could act better if I knew what I had to do beforehand" Ryan smiled a bit walking towards Svarog and Clara.

"I'd that so uh?..." She muttered looking towards him.

"He's a bad liar isn't he?"

Stelle looked around, trying to see where the voice of that woman had come from, not seeing anyone around, she frowned a bit but still decided to walk towards Clara and Svarog, following her friends.

"You..." Seele frowned looking at Ryan who simply smiled nervously. "I'm going to punch you"

"Maybe later Seele...Svarog, ready to help?" He asked looking at the robot.

"Updated assessment result: Transference of decision-making authority to outsiders, outsiders are granted access to Stellaron intelligence." He announced making the others sigh with some relief.

"Imagine if he didn't agree because SOMEONE attacked his daughter " Stelle gave a slap to Ryan's back making him grunt a bit.

"I'm sorry..." He apologized.

"That's not enough." Bronya frowned lightly.

"Mr.Svarog...please tell them everything" Clara smiled softly towarss the robot who nodded.

"I have finished collecting the Stellaron data and records. Do you wish to proceed, outsiders?"

"Yes...tell us everything" Dan Heng nodded with his head.

"Initiating Transmission..."

★ ★ ★

A/N: and that's today's chapter! Yet again, I felt the fight seemed a bit dry...I still have to improve that.

I just finished doing Penacony's quests, I personally liked it a lot, I don't have a solid idea of how to fully implement Ryan there, but I have all of Belobog, some filler and Xianzhou to think of something.

Anyways, Hope you enjoyed!