Quest 80

Tired and exhausted after fighting this monster for almost an hour now, Cirrus was now attacking using the chains.

Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud!! Thud

The Hecatoncheires were in a similar state. Its body was taking longer for it to recover, and its strikes were getting more sluggish, most in part because of the poison.

'Cirrus, are you alright!? I'm ready to go, so summon me and—'

"About time, Huff!" he said with his mind and body exhausted. "I fought this monster long enough." Before Cirrus, his magic circle appeared again. "Join the fray (Nox)!!"

From the magic circle, Nox emerged in her owl form and landed on Cirrus's shoulder.

'Mind if I borrow some of your armor?'

Cirrus covers his face with his hands.

'Of course, be my guest.'

'I will keep him busy! You just recover some of your magic and come back to finish the job!'

Cirrus smiles as he holds out his hands as his magic circle appears in front of him as Nox flies through it.

"(Exousía, Adorn: Stymphalian)!"

As the armor appeared, Nox grew in size as she gained another pair of wings with a more aerodynamic form.

Whoosh!!!

She flew quickly at the monster.

Cirrus took this opportunity to find a place to rest and because of the battle, there were now several places for him to hide around the area.

Watching Nox fly through and attack the Hecatoncheires, Cirrus leaned against a wall and slid down as his magic circle appeared again.

"(Exousía, Adorn)"

A ram's mask with horns covered his head.

'Thank god it takes up no magic when not activated.'

Cirrus then takes out several more potions and drinks them one after the other.

'This bastard is tough as hell!' thought Nox as she dodged through the barrage of strikes as she flew.

"(White Bright) [White Night]!!"

Shine!

Shine!

Shine!

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The Hecatoncheires screamed out as they covered some of its heads that weren't damaged in the battle with Cirrus.

Nox dove in at high speeds with her talons.

"(Touch the stars)!! [White Night]!!"

Her talons gained a sharp white edge, and she sliced into the Hecaton's many heads before having to fly away. She looked back to see it slowly regenerating.

"Tch! Tough bastard!"

With each attack, the monster would adapt and be ready for it. Nox was both impressed and terrified by how smart this monster was.

"Maybe all those heads made it ridiculously smart."

She fought the monster for 20 or so minutes before she ran out of magic that didn't use up Cirrus's own magic.

"Cirrus! Are you ready!"

'I am. I need you to come to me. I need to conserve as much magic as I can. I'm allowing you to finally use your full magic.'

A big smile appeared on her owl face.

"(White Bright) [White Night]!!!" she chanted in jubilation.

As she blinded the Hecatoncheires, she quickly flew back to Cirrus, who looked far better now.

"Where are we going?" she said, using telepathy.

'Up.' Cirrus said, getting on her back.

"Fufu! Very well!! Hold on tight!!"

Whoosh!!!

With a great flap of her wings, she quickly climbed up through the air, but the Hecatoncheires had already experienced the bright light and had already opened their eyes.

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It started to throw several large chunks of rocks at Nox and Cirrus flying up.

'Nox, keep climbing, evade the attacks, and keep going up!'

Nox flew up as fast as her wings could go, all the while dodging the monster's attacks.

"Almost there!!" The clouds were just within reach. "Come on!!!"

Whoosh!!

A slight reprieve from the sea of dark clouds with the sun hanging above.

"… Ready?" Nox said.

'Yes. Nox, we are going to have to use everything we have for this attack. It has far more stamina than either of us could match and I drank all the potions.'

"Finally!! A chance to use it!! Get ready to witness it in all its glory!! That time in the desert was nothing to what I can do with you!!"

'Well, you once said in the desert that if you were to use your full magic, you could easily turn the desert to glass.'

"I can, but if you try to focus it, these mountains will still be here, or you know, partially. It's a magic where friendly fire is 100% assured and also since I used up a good bit of my magic, it really will take a chunk of your magic."

'That's fine. Besides, I plan on sleeping till next week!'

"Then let's begin!!!!"

Cirrus disengages the armor and places the palm of his hands on Nox's back. His magic circle appeared again, but even more massive under her.

"(Sing your Vespers, Swords of Damocles)!!!!!!!!"

Three massive swords of pure thunder peered from the magical circle beneath Nox as she shone like a second sun and chanted at such a breakneck pace that it was a blur to the average person.

"(From the shadow of the night genesis a white light birthed.

Paradox by nature, I tore through the balance.

No god shall touch the night. I dance upon the stars.

The sky began to whiten, and the dark clouds blended into the blinding white of the sky.

The White of Darkness, The Black of Light, all became bright.

May the veil of my paradox flash and be gazed upon, cut through the cosmos. Heaven will darken, earth will brighten.

Grow little starlight engulfs thy foe in pure liquidation. I shall save you all.

The clouds evaporated and an enormity of feeling fell upon all who were watching.

Perception of creation, that is who I am.

I will be cast upon all in the wax and wane its ebb and flow, evermore in paradoxical infinity.

May I see all with colorless eyes, may I express my emotions to all.

An intense heat and bone-chilling cold filled the area.

The Hecatoncheires were stunned at how it felt so unnatural, foreign to the senses.

Hear, o' hear my voice, I am the paradox of creation, daughter of life.

My name is Candidus Nox, the beloved darling of the enigma of prophecy.)!!"

The world seemed to have stood still as if even time was in anticipation of seeing what happened next, as the shadows were no more and the boundary of all things thinned to a hair's width.

And then there was the only sound of the perpetrators of this world of void.

"[Dia Dikastí̱s]!!!!!!!!!!"

"[White Night]!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Cirrus's voice filled the empty world but was accompanied by an even stronger voice, that of Nox. Her powerful, beautiful voice blessed the world that she had created.

A black and white droplet bleeds and formed into the world like a leaking faucet through Cirrus's magic circle. Thunder and lightning flickered around and off of it. The swords of thunder focused the attack as the rifling of a barrel would a bullet, furthering its already godlike destruction for this 2-story-sized sphere.

Drop.

As the droplet of immensity fell to the world and touched the many heads of the Hecatoncheires,

Tap!

The boundaries that separated it from the rest of the world were now gone as the droplet consumed it like a black hole, leaving no sound or even air to be heard but felt.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!

The droplet expanded more and more, consuming the surrounding area.

The air grew cold as space, and the ground grew as hot as the surface of a star, slowly turning the things in the area either into glass or char. Then nothing.

"_______"

As it was done, it turned into a swirling beam of light and darkness before returning to Nox.

Nox lit up again, then Cirrus faintly glowed before dulling.

The world started once again, with color returning.

Watching from the Divine Mirror, many of the old gods who have been on Gekai's surface for 1000 years or so ago knew what did that.

Fels looked at Ouranos and asked.

"Was this why her generation was hunted? For possessing the power of the gods?"

He simply looked at Fels and nodded.

"These were the prototypes, spirits so close in creation to their creators that they had it all except for our godly power but even then when the later generations came with much more… refinement for humanity it was night and day between the 1st and 2nd generation but even the 2nd generation had their own problems. Then when the gods gave out their Falna, it caused a change in the 1st generation of spirits that remained. The gods had gifted their prototypes the blessing of magic, for every breath they took was one of power and life, but it was nothing compared to that of magic born from Falna. That blessing had become an authority. They were now as limitless as space and time, tapping into the raw Arcanum that made them. Through the child granted a status, they could fully use their magic like that of their creator."

"B-but then, how were they killed? O-or even sealed!!" Fels shouted.

"They killed themselves."

"Eh?"

"As you know, Nox has made a contract with Cirrus, a powerful one at that, to show her utter devotion to her contractor. Most contracts made by spirits of her generation were like hers. Some of them died with the one they were devoted to, and some had shallow contracts and survived after using up the child and moving on, this caused many gods to send their spirits to go and deal with them being so 'broken' and in the conflict, some gods used this to get back at others for what they did… for example Nox."

He looked keenly at the Divine Mirror.

"As a spirit of Nyx, a god as powerful as I was feared by Zeus. Zeus tried to get back at Hypnos but the cowardly god that he is quickly running and begged Nyx to help him, she agreed and faced Zeus in his stead… Zeus back then was not as tempered as he is now and vowed to get back at her one day for this. And that day was when he sent his spirits and locked away Nox in a seal meant to trap powerful monsters. They would have liked to have killed her, but Zeus found it far better to seal her, so Nyx would always know her daughter is locked away."

"That is..." Fels was at a loss for words.