The Abyssal Depths
[ Unknown Location ]
"No wonder you were able to tell I was pranking you, you got some overpowered cheats!" After suffering from another round of cheek-pulling, Aria honestly admitted what her circumstances after reincarnation were, and her cheats.
Of course Maya did the same thing, and to say Aria was surprised was an understatement.
"You really cannot talk about being overpowered little sis, just your aura would be enough to kill me." Maya said with a roll of her eyes, recalling the unreasonable Essence that her friend got.
But she was truly happy that she got such a cheat, this way she was sure that her crybaby little sister would be able to protect herself from a lot of the threats in cosmos.
"I know…But," Pursing her lips, the Echidna continued, "You got a system and all y'know! The bread and butter for a cliche reincarnation scenario." She dramatically waved her arms.
"Bounty Hunter System." Maya commented.
"I'm gonna be killing a lot of people cause of it you know? And it feels natural, just thinking about killing. Even when I think about killing you, I feel like I would be able to do it without hesitating." She admitted, and it filled her with a sense of wrongness now that she met Aria again, as she too wasn't exempt from her killing instinct.
"So what?"
"What?"
Aria's lack of reaction confused Maya, but the next moment she was met with the former's smug grin.
"So what if you feel no hesitation in killing me, it's not like you would do it, and as Ramiris says; I can beat you with my pinky finger."
The Echidna's words stunned Maya for a moment, but then the latter chuckled.
"I guess you're right." She reached out and ruffled Aria's hair affectionately, "Thinking about hypotheticals like that is pretty useless, huh?"
Aria nodded vigorously at that, "Exactly! Besides, why waste time worrying about what might happen when we could be enjoying the present moment?"
Maya's hands paused, and she narrowed her eyes at the Mother of All Monsters, "Do you really think that I 'might' try to kill you, little sister? I wonder what caused you to even consider such a thing?"
"You really suck at being discreet sis." Aria said with an amused expression, leaving her childhood friend confused.
"What are you talking about?"
"You want to fight me, don't you Maya?" The Echidna put a hand on the Demon King's cheek, "I can see it in your gaze."
Maya's expression shifted from confusion to mild embarrassment at being found out, "What can I say, the Essence has done its job in making me addicted to the thrill of combat."
Aria grinned in response, but before she could speak up, she and Maya both heard a voice.
"%@&%?!"
"I guess we delayed it for too long." Maya's expression turned serious, and Aria nodded along with her.
They both were aware of what had brought them here, and even if they didn't, the location more or less screamed, 'This is the home of Cthulhu's spawn.'
Which was why their guard had been up ever since they arrived, and as they talked to each other.
….
[ Unknown Location ]
The surroundings resembled the haunting depths of the ocean's abyss, yet they felt no pressure or drowning sensation, as if something purposely excluded them from such a situation.
The air hung heavy with the scent of brine and decay, carrying with it the whispers of forgotten terrors that slumbered beneath the waves. Strange, phosphorescent lights danced and flickered in the depths, casting eerie shadows upon the ancient ruins that littered the ocean floor.
Strange, otherworldly flora mimicked the grotesque beauty of deep-sea creatures, their forms adapting to the eldritch nature of their surroundings. The ground beneath their feet seemed to ripple like dark water, defying the laws of physics in this surreal domain.
In the distance, colossal silhouettes of lesser eldritch's, reminiscent of deep-sea leviathans, moved with an unsettling grace.
"Have you noticed," Maya was the first to break the silence, "Those creatures have been avoiding us this whole time."
Aria hummed in acknowledgment, "They know, they can definitely tell that we've been 'marked' by the 'boss' of this place, as such they don't dare touch us."
The Demon King nodded in agreement, "It's like being in a lion's den, but the lions themselves recognize the scent of their king on us. They dare not challenge us, knowing who we belong to."
"So I guess we just follow that strange pull that I'm sure we're both feeling?" The Echidna's words were more of a statement than anything.
Sighing, Maya nodded, "Sure, it's not like we can do anything else. I don't even have the power even match the ones swimming around us, let alone the big boss."
Suddenly, a low guttural rumble reverberated through the water, Maya and Aria glanced upwards, only to be met by a shark? Or that's what it would have been if it wasn't riddled with eyes and tentacles.
"Hey, Maya, do you think that thing will taste like Takoyaki or fish?" The Echidna asked, staring at the eldritch with a thoughtful expression.
"You're not thinking of anything dangerous, are you?" Maya narrowed her eyes.
"It's not dangerous if I'm stronger, right?" Aria asked with a grin, and before her best friend could respond, the Echidna clamped her teeth together.
"[Gluttony]."
The next moment, the whole upper half of the shark vanished.
"Damn." Maya whistled in surprise, though her eyes immediately widened, and she vanished from her position, appearing dozens of metres away from her previous position.
"Aria! It's not dead." And as if to prove her words, a tentacle came flying at Aria, which she devoured with Gluttony again.
Unsurprisingly, this wasn't the end of the eldritch, Maya and Aria noticed the upper half regenerating rapidly, while over a hundred tentacles started attacking the latter.
'Good, it seems like all its attention is on me, I should've thought a little before attacking, but it looks like my flaw got the best of me.' The Echidna thought wryly, as she used Universal Sense and Fenrir's Predator's Instinct to dodge and parry the tentacles with her hands.
Maya's lips twitched seeing this, her hand holding the sword trembling, though not out of fear, but excitement. Yet, the excitement was immediately overrun by envy and disgust, the former due to seeing Aria enjoying herself, and the latter at her own weakness.
Cause she couldn't even see the what was going on with her eyes, everything was blur, the only reason she was able to dodge before was due to her insane instincts was more or less future sight.
"Hehehehe~ This fun! No wonder Milim's a battle junkie." Aria giggled like a child who found a new toy, but then she stopped parrying all the attacks, watching as the tentacles all closed in on her.
"Gluttony." And they were all devoured along with the bottom half of the shark.
Cracking her neck, the Echidna smiled widely as the shark abomination rapidly approached her with its jaws open, its size easily dwarfed her, so swallowing in one go was possible.
'You ready Scholar?'
«Answer. Yes.»
Nodding, she watched the distance between both of them shrink.
100 metres…
«Notice. Unique Skill: Scholar is unable to analyse unique subspace. Chances of [Law Manipulation] succeeding is 50%.»
75 metres…
'There's something that you're not accountable for Scholar.'
50 metres…
«???»
25 metres…
"Where there's a will, there is a way," Saying those words, she uttered,
0—
"Infinity." As the word sounded, the deep sea eldritch came to a stop. All the momentum it had been built up halted in the face of the art inspired by the Strongest Sorcerer's Cursed Technique.
"No way, she actually recreated it." Maya smiled in amusement.
"I guess this is the part where I explain my technique, right?" The Echidna's face couldn't be more smug, however a chill suddenly ran down her spine, "Okay, okay, I'm joking sis, I'll speed this up." She quickly changed her mind when she felt the piercing gaze of Maya.
"Infinity Prison." She used the copied Unique Skill, which quickly surrounded shark abomination, sealing it in the infinitely vast imaginary space without any problems.
Since the coast was now clear, Maya flashed next to Aria, eyeing the large cyan coloured crystal. "Any reason why you didn't just fully devour it?"
The Echidna put a hand on the crystal, storing it in the sub-space of the Hoarder sub-skill, which in fact wasn't limited to only energies.
"Curiosity. I want to see if I'll be capable of understanding the incomprehensible, to see if I could create something like it, and also if this one can become something more."
"That's a dangerous thing to do you know?" Maya gave her a knowing look.
"But you won't stop me, right?" Aria said with a cheeky smile.
Sighing, Maya smiled wryly, "Of course not. I wouldn't want your flaw to act up, nor can I even force you. So do as you wish, and just make sure you're safe."
"This is why I love you, sis." The Echidna grinned, hugging her best friend.
"The feeling is more than mutual." Maya chuckled, returning the hug.
"Right, now let's hope that we haven't kept the our benefactor, or is it killer? Anyways, onwards!" Aria pointed in the direction where they felt the call.
****
A/N: Hope you enjoyed the chap.