The next day, the beautiful and bright forest elf glued onto me with this charming smile plastered across her face, like a completely different person, like someone whom I had successfully brought back from the abyss she didn't even know she was into.
We returned to where I had left the girls, the pond. I found a trio of understandably pissed-off tigresses. I promised to return to have fun in the pond, but we never did.
They saw me, then they saw Anna Blair so glued and captivated with gaze staring at me like a maiden in love, gone was her gloominess.
"Girls, I can explain…" I began, all for nought.
Anna-chan pouted, walked with authority and snatched me away from the other elf Anna without giving so much as an explanation. I wanted to scold her but her pout disallowed me.
Anna Blair was shocked while the Youkai grinned at her scarce seconds of victory until, much to her, Rias and Akeno's distress, the elf snatched me back with a challenging look!
"U-Uh!?"
The Youkai was aghast, to say the least. I had forgotten… as I saw in her memories during her early times, Anna Blair was a quite prideful elf belonging to one of the strongest elf families. Who dared snatch something from her? It seems that confidence returned.
"It doesn't matter whether it be something created or void, nothing can separate me from the love of my lord god, Ray~" Anna Blair hugged me so tightly with so much love, that she snuggled her head against my chest. I couldn't help but find her so cute and pat-able, should I make her my pet?
"Something happened, you cheater!" Rias wrongly accused me of adultery while Anna sobbed, and pulled my other hand in an attempt to get my attention while Akeno, for some reason... was smiling. only that smile doesn't look very comforting.
"Ara ara~"
"Ara ara what? don't look at me like that, please. I'm not doing it, Akeno...!"
"We will see, bad boy~".
**
**
With two elf cores restored and the dungeon level cleared we traveled further and reached the stairs heading down. Before we could continue though, I got a message from a customer, it was Haku.
[Haku: Master, I just wanted to tell you... it is early Monday, the girls are supposed to go to school... are they coming back at all?~]
"Girls, it is already monda–"
"I'm not heading back yet, not until we reach the bottom of this!" Rias growled, her arms crossed and immovable, now looking like a devil queen.
[Ray: Rias said she's not going–]
"If Rias doesn't go, naturally I am not going either fufu~" Akeno stood firm like a lightning goddess.
"If Rias-chan and Akeno-chan don't go!–" Anna pouted like a cute plushie.
"Yeah yeah, I got it" I sighed.
[Ray: How about this, I will fetch them back myself and see how things are going on your end, I miss you and Yasaka too].
I can't go this far without seeing my pets, there is Kuroka too.
[Haku: Oh really? Master, you don't need to bother! Just tell me when and I will pick them up myself with a sacrifice, I will even give Venelana and Zeoticus a 'proper' explanation].
[Ray:...]
If it was Yasaka talking to me like this, I wouldn't doubt it, but Haku? That naughty Hasshaku-sama? I guess it was my mistake to think this woman would remain quiet for too long in my absence.
[Haku: I swear there is nothing suspicious going on!].
[Ray: I didn't even say anything yet].
[Haku: Hehe, master, I know what you're thinking even before you say it, our love is that deep and immensurable, I think about you every single day, I want to see you so bad].
How romantic of her, her love is so genuine I felt like crying... if only she wasn't one of the most wicked youkai in existence, perhaps I'd fall for it and leave it at that.
[Ray: Haku, what are you up to? You better not be hanging out with little kids–].
[Haku: Master, how can you doubt me like that!? Yasaka and I are just hmn... training].
[Ray: Training?].
[Haku: Yes, we invited a bunch of gods from a load of pantheons for a training session, hehe~ you don't need to worry, you will be looking forward to the results].
[Ray: I see. I can trust you, can't I?].
I know I can trust her to be loyal, but not to stay out of trouble, but let me ask anyway.
[Haku: O-Of course, I will leave those girls in your capable and pleasurable hands, master~].
After that, she didn't say a word again, but the seed of doubt was planted. Let alone it is not only her, Yasaka is involved too?
Maybe I'm overthinking and they're just putting the shinto faction in line or something, I won't dwell too deep on it.
**
**
In the world of Draconic Deus, at the mount olympus, the gods witnessed a never-before-seen sight that shocked them to the core. Assailed and humiliated two goddesses crept up from the clouds below.
One was a gigantic fox that shone like the sun and the other was an atrocity; a gigantic pitch-black woman with long arms and a creepy smile that resembled a crescent moon, she represented the night. Both irradiated such tyrannical power that even those deities below couldn't comprehend how they could all be called 'gods' when there was such a massive disparity.
From the mount olympus, the only one capable of posing a challenge brandished a spear and threw it towards the golden fox with a thunderous roar, the spear flew at breakneck speeds, piercing the space itself with a cry of war.
A pity.
*CLAANG!*
With a wave of her tail, not only was that spear blown away, but even the very skies were split in two.
Those gods knew exactly the identity of those two deities: Yasaka Okami and the infamous Hasshaku-sama. The real question was: 'Why the hell are they so strong?!'
"What have we ever done to you, Yasaka Okami!?" Ares grit his teeth at seeing his futile attempt be dismissed so casually that Yasaka didn't even feel threatened.
The golden fox clutched the sides of olympus with her sharp claws, testing the limits of her fox transformation that turned her into a total giantess resembling the mythical titans that once reigned before the Greek gods. Her appearance brought nightmares to the pantheon.
Standing in front of the two creatures were the three strongest gods of olympus.
Zeus, Ares and Athena.
The patron god of lightning stared at this fox and couldn't make the co-relations. When did Yasaka Okami, the holder of leylines, become more terrifying than Amaterasu herself, when did she become able to leave Japan? too many questions on his head that would receive no answer, instead he heard a deep voice that only could hail from a superior entity.
"My master once succumbed to the hands of Rizevim Livan Lucifer... we gave you greek gods an ultimatum to hand Hades over, the time is finished... either hand Hades and all your treasures over... or there will be consequences".
For the fox, it was more about the treasures than Hades, but they were fated to not know that those two deities sought nothing more than a good massage and perhaps some divine sun god milk, were they to know... they'd shit bricks.
Sadly for them, Olympus was the only pantheon the Shinto Faction was politically capable of engaging with, as Amaterasu had already approved albeit reluctantly.
The Olympians weren't famous for being cowards, not too long ago the balance of the supernatural community got drastically dwarfed.
Not only did the Angels recover, their numbers multiplying and becoming vastly stronger... but they also allied with the Shinto Faction under the name of the Sun God. Also, not too long ago those ties elongated and even the Devils and Fallen angels had joined the treaty.
This made the Shinto Faction one of the most powerful pantheons on earth, a title that qualified them to be unruly.
"It seems you misunderstand... us Olympians never abandon our own. Who said we are not ready to brace for the consequences?!".
*CHAAA!!*
A bolt of massive white lightning fell from the skies, arriving at Zeus' hands... compared to Areas and Athena, his strength was something else.
The gigantic youkai grinned and one of her long arms rose to the skies.
"It is you who misunderstands, Zeus. Compared to my master, you are all just faux-gods~ Yasaka has been lenient but I couldn't be bothered".
In Haku Lux, Hasshaku-sama's hands... a vortex of darkness formed and it made darkness descend into the whole region.
The entirety of the eastern European regions was engulfed in darkness to the point the light from Zeus' lightning began to dim much to his shock.
"Do you have eyes yet fail to see? I come in the name of the God who makes Gods. I am the darkness of my master's eclipse–"
"How poetic~" The fox giggled.
"Shut up... *sigh* anyway, just be gone"