Chapter 1275 'Children' part 4

The Sea of Life, it nurtures and gives birth to life so it is not allowed to be disturbed and cause 'harm'. Even Tiamat herself was only allowed to fill it until the boundaries of the land because anything further is antithetical to its existence.

The sea is where it originated and the land is where it would end before it could return to the sea.

The Sea of Life's ability to produce life is undoubtedly a form of miracle, but to freely use this miracle, it has to abide by its own rules. Such is an authority. An authority is only imposed if the foundation of its concept is adhered to.

Of course, there are exceptions. It could be used at smaller scales even if not all the conditions are met like what Kisuke did to reverse Kirio Hikifune's ability.

But in this case, no matter how chaotic the battlefield had become, the Sea of Life had remained mostly still with the waves rising only a few feet high.

[So how is she doing this?] Benihime asked while watching Sona raise the sea and usher in a sight that could only be described as a biblical apocalypse. The 'sea floor' under Kisuke's feet became visible and the black mud slowly rose up, 5, 10, 15, 20 miles up.

And just like how the insects would forever disappear the moment they fell into the sea, all those who were gobbled up, without being able to fight back were swept away and were forever incorporated with the black mud.

"Well, it's probably thanks to the other late lady." Kisuke briefly answered Benihime's question.

Benihime didn't really understand but thankfully, Tiamat supplemented Kisuke's answer, [Hestia, one of the first few Deities that were born from Null with my help. She inherited the 'nurturing' aspect from both of us. Through countless years, that 'nurturing' aspect gained an identity of its own which became known as the [Hearth's Flame]. Just like the name suggested, it's a flame that protected and nurtured all those who occupied its 'home'. And right now, this 'Hestia' has designated the entire Sea of Life as her 'home', thus, any changes in it are deemed as 'normal', just like a normal home.

[In simpler words, she became the 'flame' that allowed this type of change.]

[...Isn't that a bit of a stretch?] asked Benihime with a bewildered tone.

[That's just how these authorities work. It's always a stretch.] Within Kisuke's inner world, Tiamat looked towards her neighbor and thought, 'Her own [Modify] is already a borderline authority and a lump of potential that could possibly reach that level. Well, they have to realize that on their own.' She dared not guess what Kisuke and Benihime could do if they could really reach that level, 'That would be close to reality-altering so I doubt they'll really be able to reach that.'

Starting from Kisuke, the towering wave expanded and swallowed everything it touched in all directions with the exception of those who originally came from it, the 11 children.

As it traveled further away from Kisuke, the height of the wave kept rising until it reached around 40 miles, and only when it devoured around half of the insects, did Kisuke finally hear Ichibei's slightly panicked voice, "No!"

A giant hand made out of earth suddenly rose up from below and tried grabbing 'Sona'.

'Sona' looked down but didn't attempt to dodge as she could feel the temperature around her drastically going down. In an instant, the hand stopped and was frozen solid along with the land around it.

However, that was just a 'small' distraction when a 10-mile wide semi-translucent and glowing palm manifested in the sky and descended. It was a similar attack from earlier but its scale was drastically larger, intending to flatten Kisuke and his 11 children.

Kisuke immediately started preparing a much stronger Cero than before and already opened his widened mouth with a row of sharp teeth when 'Sona' suddenly snapped her fingers and the tsunami started losing its momentum and returning to its former stillness.

But before the previous calmness could return to the black mud, something else started emerging from it throughout its entirety.

Ichibei who was watching this from his hidden corner was stunned when he saw that the maggots and flies whom he considered minions, started rising from the mud by tens of millions at a time.

'What? I can't feel any connection from them?' Ichibei felt a bad premonition when he noticed that these insects carried the same characteristics as the 11 people that Kisuke summoned, dark skin and shell along with bright red nerves running through their entire bodies so he tried speeding up the descent of his palm.

But to his dismay, the much smaller insects moved faster than his palm and they all rushed and intercepted it.

In the far distance, this looked like a very dense dark fog rising up to the hand that was coming down.

And just as Ichibei had feared and predicted, these insects that were out of his control began gnawing on his palm until nothing was left of it.

It was the moment when the insects consumed everything and started going after the rest of the insects that weren't swallowed by the tsunami that Ichibei realized his mistake of waiting, 'At this rate...' Ichibei didn't want to visualize it. Now that Kisuke has the 'same' ability to eat everything as him, Ichibei was afraid that he'll lose everything to him.

"This isn't everything yet, but there's no point to this anymore." Deep within Hell's earth, Ichibei stood up and a pair of giant fly wings on his back spread out.

He then extended his right arm covered in a black exoskeleton before suddenly taking it back and aiming at his left chest.

His hand pierced through his chest, spewing out black blood. He, however, didn't react in pain in any way and just grabbed his own heart before squeezing it and bursting it into tiny pieces.

Ichibei's eyes lost their light as he slowly dropped forward to the ground, dead.

From his unmoving body, Ichibei's black blood began to drain and mix itself into the pulsing flesh not far from him.

It was at this moment that the entirety of Hell began to tremble.