The End of a "God" 1

Jayr POV - Tortus, Holy Precincts - 2013

After massacring the island's monsters one-sidedly, I leap into the stone statue at the center of the forest to transfer to the next zone and find myself in another kind of sea, a sea of clouds where several gigantic islands are floating.

There are islands with a diameter of only a few dozen meters, but there are also islands with a scale of a few kilometers, river water continues to flow down from the edge of the floating islands without ending with some kind of mysterious logic.

Because of the height, the water becomes mist after some distance of falling like a waterfall, making the fantastical scenery of white mist drift at the surrounding.

Above all, the floating islands are overflowing with greenery, there are plains and also forests, and there isn't a single floating island that is merely a floating rock.

The sea of clouds is spreading below, as the clouds linger at the height of my gaze, drifting on the sky like cotton candy, even now it feels like the clouds are giving off a sweet aroma.

Even though there is no sun, brilliant light is still pouring down, as light pillars weave through the gaps of the clouds.

There are white clouds overflowing with great numbers of floating islands, and then there are also beams of light pouring down.

It is truly a solemnly mystical scenery, if someone who didn't know anything was told that this place was heaven then they would unconditionally believe it, 'For once, Ehit did pull off something good... Well, at least at first glance, I'm sure that this idyllic scenery still hides some kind of deadly trap...'

Then without wasting any more time, I check the Compass of Eternal Paths, and after that, I move toward the floating island that looks conspicuously large even among all the many floating islands.

Of course, I'm using Gravity Magic to fly toward it, as this is the only way one can travel in this kind of place, and so, I close the distance in the blink of an eye, but at the same time, I sense many strong presences in the huge floating island in front of me.

Soon I hear a beautiful but emotionless and monotonic voice that says, "Your impertinent advance end here... Irregular!" and with a silver flash another beautiful Apostle appears in front of me, it is a woman with long silver hair and blue eyes with a monotonic expression on her immaculate face, she wears a combat outfit which consists of a white sleeveless dress which has metal plates covering both sides of her waist as well as a winged helmet on her head, gauntlets on her arms and graves over her legs.

(Image Here - Hearst)

At the same time, all around me, more than 400 Apostles appear one after another surrounding me, probably these are Ehit's remaining forces, but while all the other Apostles are exactly on the same level as all the others I have met until now, the one that spoke to me, is on another whole level, she feels twice as strong as the others, really if you ignore me, and Hajime, in term of pure stats, she is the strongest being in this world.

Then ignoring the threat from all the Apostles around me, I focus my gaze on the first one and say, "How can you be so sure that you will be able to stop me? Until now your creator was unable to stop me, no matter how much he tried..."

And the Apostle calmly reply in her monotone voice, "It is inevitable, because you are now facing me, his first and strongest creation, Hearst, and all the remaining Apostles, and even in the improbable event that we fail, you will still lose everything... Because as soon as you started your invasion in his realm, he started his on Tortus!"

After saying that, Hearst, brings out her swords, then pointing at me with one of them she commands, "Everyone! Attack!!"

Following her command, all the Apostles start to fire their silver beams at me, more than 400 beams of disintegration magic come rushing at me from all directions, not leaving even a little space to me so that I can move my body and dodge using my lightspeed movements, and the sheer number of attacks is too much even for the current Crateris Cloth, that would be unable to come out of this onslaught unscratched.

Even so, I'm still calm and composed in front of this omnidirectional assault and the fact that Ehit started his attack on the people living in Tortus early for one simple fact, Eri, Tio, Hajime, the Hero Party, and the Liberators, are there, and nothing that Ehit can throw at them will be able to overcome their forces.

Meanwhile, just as the beams are about to reach me, I focus my senses, and by burning some of my constantly replenishing energies, I teleport outside of the Apostles' encirclement.

As soon as I shift position, I find Hearst in front of me swinging her sword clad in Disintegration Magic aiming to cut my head off in one swift swing, but my frightening reflexes that can even react to the lightspeed attack of my fellow Saint and keep up with the Gods FTL (faster than light) speed, I easily duck under her sword, and at the same time, I gather my energy on my right fist that is quickly enveloped in a clear blue water-like orb, then with a punching motion, I shot the orb toward Hearst and yell, "Tidal Wave Punch!!"

Hearst is able to react in time and use the other sword as a shield to protect herself and is even barely able to withstand the power behind my attack without being pushed back, at least until I mutter with a smile, "Boom..." and thousands of delayed impacts come out of the water-like orb, one stronger than the previous one, blowing Hearst away as cracks quickly form on the sword, before it breaks into many little pieces while, at the same time, sending her crashing through several floating islands that soon after start to plummet into the sea of clouds.

While all this happens, the beams assault of all the other Apostles clash in the middle point, my previous position, with a blinding flash of light, then after a few seconds, the light fades away, and I see a tear in the space appearing in my previous place and think, 'Damn... Sometimes quantity becomes a quality on its own, they were basically able to disintegrate the very space of this zone... That is some crazy power...'

But soon the tear in space starts to mend by itself, and the Apostles finally notice my presence.

But before they could release their attack once again, I quickly move back in the middle of their encirclement, I ignite my mixed energy, which gathers around my body and transforms into a water-like aura that envelopes my body, then while yelling, "Pouring Rain!!"

I quickly spread my arm wide, and release a massive amount of clear blue energy droplets in every direction at once that, almost like heavy rain, hits and knocks out all the Apostles around me.

Then before they fall into the sea of clouds below and get swallowed and erased by it like some of the monsters I killed before, I use my Telekinesis to pick up their bodies and after quickly sealing their 6th sense and movements, I throw them into the swirling black portal leading to my Soulbound Territory, like I did with the other Apostles I met before.

Right at that moment, I hear Hearst's monotone voice behind me, "In the end... We were only able to buy a little bit of time... You truly are an Irregular until the very end... But even with such power outside of what is normally possible in this world, you still aren't a match for Ehit-sama... And I'll fight until the very end..."

Turning my head, I take a look at her and see that she is barely alive and struggling to fly.

Her armor was broken in many pieces and blood flowing from the countless wounds on her body, and of course, the many broken bones as a result of taking on a quite powerful Tidal Wave Punch, if fact, it was way stronger than the one I used to raze that ancient modern town to the ground, the fact that she is still alive is a clear testament of her overwhelming stats compared to the rest of the people of this world.

Looking at her, as she slowly raises her remaining sword, I calmly say, "Sorry to burst your bubble, but I have fought enemies way stronger than Ehit, the only chance you had to kill me was when I just came to this world where I was at my weakest, unable to use my Cosmo and don my Cloth, only able to use the strength of my trained to the limit normal human body and basically unable to defend against even the weakest kind of magic... But now... Now I'm even stronger than I was before I came into this Universe, and you have no chance to defeat me now."

After saying that, I urge my energy and move faster than the speed of light, reaching Hearst's back and with a few hits, I quickly seal her movement and her 6th sense making her unable to bring any kind of harm to the Nymphs living in my Soulbound Territory, 'Not that they are completely defenseless, in fact, they are a quite strong race with a few tricks under their sleeves, but they are also quite the peaceful ones and refuse to bring harm to someone unless absolutely necessary...'

Then, as I pick up her body, she weakly asks, "So... What are you gonna do with us...?" and opening once more the portal, I reply, "Now, I'll save you all from being erased after this dimension collapse... For my other plans, you can talk with Zweit..." then I carelessly throw her body into the portal before closing it and moving toward the main floating island of this zone searching for the portal that leads me out of it.

I soon find it and, at the same time, I feel my eyebrows twitch a little, it is the comeback of my nemesis, a long endless staircase of clouds that stretch from heaven to earth, one that slightly reminds me of the representation of Jacob's Ladder that I have seen in a painting in my Uncle Enrico's home, the ladder or staircase that is symbolic of the connection between Heaven and Earth, that represents progress, ascension, and spiritual passage through the levels of initiation.

In the Bible, Jacob's ladder establishes contact between man and God, and there are seven rungs on the ladder of virtue, in my home Universe, it is literally something that Jesus, God, or the Archangels summons to reach the Biblical Heaven, or to descent to Earth when their intervention is needed, you know like some demons wanting to start the Apocalypse or some Gods of other Pantheons starting some other shit, you know classical Monday in my Universe, after all, Athena and her Saint can't deal with all the Godly misdeeds by ourselves, we also need some time to recover from one Holy War to another.

Anyway, with a sigh, I resign myself and start to climb up the cloudy staircase while muttering, "Gods and their fucking staircase... Why are they so obsessed with them? I swear, my next Universe will be one without Gods, maybe that way I can avoid climbing an uncountable number of stairs..."

And as I continue to climb up, soon I'm briefly blinded by a platinum flash of light, and I feel the usual sensation of my surrounding changing as I'm being transferred to another zone.

Jayr POV - Tortus, Holy Precincts - 2013

As the platinum light fades away, I quickly look around and see that I'm standing atop a huge round chalk-white pillar and that the space surrounding me feels very similar to the richly colored space where I arrived at.

Right after entering Holy Precincts, however, the surrounding wasn't richly colored like the first space but closed in a darkness that was like an abyss

Then I notice that there is a chalk-white path that stretches straight deeper inside with the pillar where I'm standing as the starting point.

The chalk-white path that is stretching in a straight line looks extremely visible, and at the end of that chalk-white path, it is connected with a stair that leads above, 'Another set of stairs... Why am I not surprised?'

Then without hesitation, I begin to walk calmly in the quiet space that is way too silent, as the surrounding darkness seems to absorb every kind of sound leaving none behind, my footsteps, the clacking sounds of my Cloth, even my own breathing, nothing can be heard.

In this world without sound, I stare straight ahead while advancing, and while I walk, my mind is free from any disturbing thoughts, my only focus is on my upcoming fight with Ehit, and soon I reach the staircase.

My legs approach the stair, and looking up from below I can see the top of the stair being enveloped by faint light, and without pause, I unhesitatingly throw my body into the light.

My field of vision is dyed white, as the area where I come out is basically the opposite of the previous one.

All around me is white, white everywhere, whether above or below, or everything in the surrounding, as far as my eyes can see there is only pure white which made me unable to grasp any sense of distance with my eyes.

Despite the certain sensation that I feel by stepping on the ground, and when my gaze lower there it becomes difficult to be aware of the ground's existence, it feels like I would fall below without any end in sight.

As I'm looking around, I hear a strange genderless voice that says, "Welcome to my domain, and its deepest area." suddenly, the space ahead of me starts swaying.

It is as though the curtain of the stage is raised, the swaying space is cleared and behind it, there is a tiered platform with a height that is nearly ten meters.

And then, there is a being made of light in a humanoid shape, just like a soul, sitting on the throne installed at its peak, in fact, it looks almost like a white shadow.

The light being has no clear distinctive features it looks almost like a shining stickman, in fact, it has no face or eyes, only a wide mouth with a deranged creepy grin on it, he is without doubt, Ehit, the God of this world.

(Image Here - Ehit)

Without waiting for a reply, he speaks again, "Well... Unfortunately, I can only show myself in such form as I still wasn't able to recover a body strong enough to host my powerful soul and immense power. The summoned Hero was a good candidate, but unfortunately, he is disappointingly weak, as he is now, his body will quickly break apart as soon as I gain control of it. And the perfect body I found 300 years ago is still fiercely resisting together with that other Irregular... Then I found that invader... His body was quite magnificent and with limitless potential too, but it is a shame as it was not compatible with me... Oh well, at least this will make the game more fun for me, you know sometimes if something is too easy it quickly grows boring!"

I look at Ehit and with a calm tone I reply, "If you want to play a hard game so much, I can name you a few, like Dark Soul, Ninja Gaiden 2, Cuphead, or Super Meat Boy. There is no need to make innocent people suffer for your amusement..."

But with the still same creepy grin on his face, Ehit replies, "Why can't I? Everything they have is thanks to me, so I can do whatever I want with them, in fact right now their only use is to produce enough energy so that I can leave behind this world, and become the God of the next one!"

At the same time, I notice from his tone that he is clearly enjoying this, and letting out a sigh, I think, 'He is too far gone... Well, I already knew that... I will enjoy wiping out that creepy grin from his face!' then I take my stance and say, "Let's stop with the useless chatter and move on to the main dish."

And then, with a smiling face that is obviously a mask no matter who saw it, he opens his mouth softly and says, "I command in the name of Ehitruje. 'Prostrate'!".

The Divine Edict was spoken with an extremely natural tone, it is the manifestation of god's will that makes anyone obey without question.

But, in response to that, I simply look at him and tilt my head trying to show confusion on my face while using my energy to easily ward off the invasion of magic, then I ask, "Did you do something? Sorry to say that, but the only person I will kneel and worship is my girlfriend, who is a real Goddess with the capital 'G'... And by the way, your real name is Ehitruje? Way too hard to pronounce so I'll keep calling you Ehit..."

Ehit looks back at me and still with that creepy grin he asks, "…Divine Edict has no effect at all?" grinning back, I reply "Nope, that petty trick that trie to imitate the divine wills of Gods and pathetically fails at it won't work on me... By the way, I noticed something funny... I you change the 'E' in your name with an 'S', your name become Shit! Quite fitting, isn't it? I think I'll call you that from now on..."

I feel Ehit's gaze lock on me, but, his composure doesn't crumble by any means, instead he holds out his hand that isn't supporting his cheek and makes a strange gesture.

And Immediately the space around every piece of my Cloth starts warping like jelly, and in an instant, I understand what he is trying to do, 'So he is trying to teleport my Cloth away... Ha! The Cloth can only be removed if the Saint donning it, the Goddess Athena or the Cloth itself choose to do so...'

At the same time, I urge my energy, and using Spatial Magic, I counter Ehit's spell.

And so, the spaces immediately return to their original shape with a snapping sound as though there is something that got repelled away, and then Shit comments, "…I see. So you came here with countermeasures prepared"

But I shrug my shoulder and reply, "No really... It is just that your tricks are so awful that I can deal with them without even getting serious..."

Still calm, Ehit comments, "Don't get cocky, Irregular young boy. You really show too much arrogance just because you were able to defend against Divine Edict and Heaven Existence." in response, I say, "I would say the same to you, Shit. Don't be so sure of your victory only because until now you never had your ass kicked... Sure, you are powerful, but there are many powerful beings in the Omniverse, some of which I can't even comprehend or imagine their full might. But... You are not one of them!"

My word echoes powerfully and with dignity in this white space, and Ehit's faceless expression seems to warp evilly as if to show that he will enjoy trampling on my determination and confidence.

At the same time, his crossed leg goes down, and he lifted his resting cheek, before standing up suddenly, and then while looking down at me from above with the throne behind him, immense pressure begins to leak out, and a platinum magic power gushes out of his 'body' painting the white space in its colors, then he says, "Very well. This will be the last entertainment in this world. Let's play for a little bit then."

His 'body' starts to gently float up, then he lightly spreads his hands, and at the same time, the platinum magic power light converges rapidly with Ehit at the center and it forms a shape on his back.

What appears on Ehit's back while shining brilliantly is three layers of ring halo one bigger than the other, with the floating Ehit as the center the first halo has a diameter of around two meters while the third halo has a diameter of more than ten meters.

Then, countless light spheres are slowly being created from those halos, the number of those spheres really should be expressed as the number of the stars in the sky.

But, in contrast with their splendor, the pressure emitted by those spheres is absurd, every single one is obviously hiding a power that could easily destroy a human and could possibly change even the geography.

The figure of Ehit with gigantic halos behind him, served by countless stars, and clad in platinum light, truly gives him a somewhat godly appearance.

And in response, I let out a confident smile and say, "Okay, no holding back... I'm going all out too! Time to activate my God Mode!"

And so I reach deep within me and awaken the Sense that I kept locked until now, my 8th Sense, and in an instant, the mixed energy within me explodes and expands once more with even more power and gravity.

Soon, from my body a dark golden aura burst up, that keeps expanding and getting stronger until my Cloth starts glittering with tiny dark golden sparks, that soon become a blazing dark golden flame that covers my whole body, and I feel the Cloth covering my body changing.

And once the transformation is done, I feel something within me click and with an energy pulse I disperse the flames covering my body and finally feel truly complete as I now don the Crateris God Cloth.

I give it a quick glance at my body and instantly notice the changes my Cloth has gone through, like all the God Cloth, now it covers my whole body leaving very few places exposed, and none of them are vitals, but still retains the color scheme of its previous form, Silver, Blue, and Cyan with gold ornament.

The headpiece became slimmer and in fact reminds me a little of the one from the Aquarius Cloth, the double-layered shoulder pads became thicker and sharper, and the chest piece now covers my whole upper body and is connected to the waist piece that retains a similar shape only now protect even more, the legs pieces retains the same general shape, but now they are more refined and with more details and ornament compared to its Silver Cloth form, while the arms pieces now cover the whole limb.

But the gauntlets are the ones that went through the greatest change as the tear-shaped shields that made up the foot of the Cup in its Constellation Form are now gone from them, and instead, they became much larger and moved to my back taking the function of the wings that all the God Cloth have as they slowly rotate like some kind of yin yang symbol, and even if they aren't attached to my Cloth, I feel, I have the total control over them, as I can move them however I desire.

(Image Here - Crateris God Cloth) [AN: Have some mercy, I'm in no way good at drawing this is the best I could do to give you an idea of the image in my mind]

Then with a thought, I start to float and rise up to the same height as Ehit, and looking at him with his featureless face, I notice that for the first time since our first meeting, he doesn't have that creepy grin on his face.

We look at each other for a few moments as the pressure generated by my dark gold energy clashes against the one generated by his platinum magic power, and as the space between us seems about to crack under our powers, Ehit asks, "W-what is this? There is no way this is the power of a mortal!!"

And clenching my fist and feeling the unlimited power coursing through my whole being, I reply, "This is my strongest state, and what I'm wearing is my most trusted partner, the Crateris God Cloth... Together they grant me the power to kill the Gods!" and as I say this, the pressure generated by my energy grows even stronger and start to slowly overwhelm Ehit's one.