Chapter198
"Atid is here."
Saying those words, he suddenly vanished from sight without an explanation.
Su!
It was only a while later that far of into the distance, a massive clash of fists was heard.
BOOOOM!
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|DxD|
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A few moments earlier
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It was chaotic inside Igor's mindscape. Triny was absolutely not letting up. Chasing him around, she expertly manipulated the terrain to her advantage, gaining the aid of the land in subduing her blonde enemy.
But Igor wasn't an easy target to capture. Disregarding his Instant Transmission and Instant Vanish techniques, his raw speed alone had him evade armies of black tendrils and giant arms made out of earth.
"Heh~."
Remaining on the ground, he was deliberately teasing Triny by not retreating to the skies. Sporting an amused smile on his face, he vaulted over a pair of rock arms that erupted from the ground.
"Stop running!"
Pouting in indignation, the little lass had enough. Furiously, she began assuming her ascended form. With nature energy gathering around her en masse, the ground shook as her power skyrocketed.
"Hehehe…"
Nervously, Igor chuckled as a shroud of demi-ki subtly enveloped him.
[I didn't think she'd be this mad. Does she want to eat me that much?]
Either she was that angry or his flesh was just that tantalizing. Selfishly feeling that the latter was more likely, he didn't know whether to feel scared or proud.
[Doesn't matter.]
Gruu!
Bursting out with his own aura, he was ready to fight Triny like his life depended on it…mostly because it did. Just because neither could actually kill each other did not mean they couldn't grievously injure the other.
Lying flat on his stomach and getting mauled by a child wasn't a prospect he was keen on experiencing anytime soon.
Su!
Charging at the now adolescent lass, he had no qualms in attacking children…
BOOOM!
…especially children who can defend a full-powered punch from him. Using her dragon wing like a shield, Triny defended his attack.
"RAAAH!"
Furiously, she stomped her foot down.
Booom!
Like the sound of a bomb going off, a very sharpened pillar protruded from the ground and made its way for his heart.
"?"
Reacting quickly, Igor used his free hand to stop it. But...
Pierce!
"?!"
For some absurd reason, the sharp edge of the pillar was able to slightly pierce his palm.
Tswii!
Out of instinct, he used his Instant Vanish to appear behind Triny, just in time to avoid another pillar that would pierced him right in the back.
Su!
Unsure of exactly what was happening, he immediately placed a few hundred metres of distance between himself and her.
Looking at his injured hand, he noticed a small broken-off blade tip stabbed into his palm.
"..."
He realised that Triny had coated the tips of the pillars with her chakra. It was a rather ingenious method since the amount was so small he wouldn't be able to sense it, but also large enough that it could pierce into his skin.
Even though it had pierced into his skin, the size was so small that it wasn't enough to cause a reaction with his energy.
[She's smart.]
Covering his hand in demi-ki, the chakra tip was immediately burnt off, leaving only a small wound on his palm.
Getting into a stance once more, he was about to charge forward when through his real body, he felt a very familiar energy signature he hadn't felt in a very long time.
"Atid!"
Decisively and without hesitation, he left the mindscape and a very confused Triny.
"...huh?"
With a mass of black tendrils at her side, she looked at where he was a moment ago before frowning.
"Meanie…"
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|DxD|
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When Igor returned to the real world, he did not notice Asia. He did not notice Aurelia, Akeno, or even Shuri. His mind was fully focused on the imminent arrival of his friend. To the rest of the world, it had only been a month.
But to him, it had been ten years.
"Atid is here."
With that short sentence, he instantly soared towards his energy signature. He left the rest of his family without a blink of hesitation.
"""…"""
While the rest could only see empty skies, Aurelia could fairly discern a golden figure rushing westwards before her view was blocked by the trees.
[My lord is very…excited.]
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|DxD|
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Atid calmly flew over the strip of ocean separating China from Japan. Like an elegant nobleman, his robes fluttered about as he faced the winds with his hands behind his back. Dressed in all-white, not even a smidgen of dirt was present on his robes.
To a casual observer, it seemed he was flying at a rather slow speed. But that couldn't be more untrue. Despite being upright, he was cruising across the skies at double the speed of commercial planes. It had been a while since he left Flower-Fruit Mountain after having to deliver a message to Sun Wukong.
As it stood, while his face was expressionless, his mind was on Igor, specifically on how to surpass him.
[Ddraig. Do you have any clues?]
[None I can speak of, Atid. You have done all you can to train in my abilities. Subtracting more time from the list of solutions, I can provide no other reliable methods.]
[...]
To an extent, Ddraig was right. Despite being the son of Indra, his divinity was still too weak to use against someone like Igor. It would grow stronger with time and would grow stronger even faster if he participated in more and more wars.
Currently, just relying on his divine power without Ddraig, he was already high-god class.
[Igor must've reached the peak by now.]
For Igor to suddenly reach the realm of strength his father had told him about, he must've surely used his time chamber.
"..."
Sometimes, for those very few moments, he was jealous of Igor.
[Your friend possesses a mythical artifact that caused a far greater outrage than the one caused by myself and Albion. Do not forget the price that had to be paid for him to wield this artifact.]
"..."
It was also in these moments that he realised how meaningless his jealousy was.
[I know, Ddraig. Igor is both my friend and my brother.]
There was nothing wrong in feeling a bit of envy if Igor's strength suddenly overshadowed his in a month. But he also had to remember that such an artifact that allowed him to gain strength was a double-edged sword.
If Igor did not continue to grow stronger, then someone would rip that artifact out of him one day.
[No matter what, I will never betray him or harbour any misconceptions against him.]
Calmly flying towards Japan, his face remained expressionless the whole time. Being the son of a god, he carried himself with a certain margin of dignity. And that margin had only grown over the years.
"?"
However, there were very few people who could make his cold expression waver.
"Igor?"
The energy signature was very vague, almost as if it was shrouded by something. The only reason he could even sense it was because of his divinity.
But there was no mistaking it. As the energy signature got closer and closer, Atid was more and more sure that this was his brother coming towards him.
"..."
He was unable to stop the excited grin spreading on his face, especially when he could sense how strong Igor had gotten. Just from that alone, he knew he would need the Boosted Gear to match up.
So without hesitation, he activated it.
[BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST!]
Gruu!
Exploding in power by multiple successive boosts, a golden aura blazed around Atid. Due to further mastery over the Boosted Gear, he had long since managed to figure out a way to land successive boosts without requiring the Balance Breaker to be activated.
"Haha!"
Gradually throwing away the mystery and eloquence a person of his stature was supposed to have, Atid charged forward once he saw that the person flying towards him at such great speeds was indeed Igor.
Su!
To those with powerful perception, they would be able to see two long golden streaks of light flying towards each other in a head-on collision. To those powerful enough, it felt like seconds. To the rest of the world, it was an instant.
CLASH!
A massive shockwave with all the subtlety of an explosion was released in the skies. The loud clap from their clash spread like thunder. Be it Japan or China, all of them would hear this sudden boom.
Yet, the two entities responsible for such a mishap did not care.
GRIP!
GRIP!
Like arm-wrestlers, they gripped each other fiercely, their eyes locked on to each other.
"..."
"..."
Neither said a word to each other, yet their individual smiles said it all. The biceps on Igor's arms were threatening to bulge through the fabric, to the extent that the veins could even be seen through the sleeves.
If a normal human was subjected to this type of strength, they'd be crushed to pieces, right? So immense was their silent struggle, that the consequences were quite loud. Perhaps neither were aware of it, but they were circulating their energy quite violently in an attempt to outdo the other.
The uncontrolled energy circulation resulted in energy discharges that caused explosions in the air. Windstorms occurred around them, their arrival caused by their immense energy. As the skies darkened at the impending formation of thunderclouds, two massive golden domes of energy blazed.
Fortunately, before anything untoward happened, the both of them reached a silent consensus to stop.
"Hehe~."
Releasing their grip from each other, Igor chuckled lightly.
"You're strong."
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AN
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Finally, the brothers unite. Atid is reintroduced and so does the plot move. I'm looking forward to finally seeing the dynamic between these two.