Ch.102

For champions that used to be at eternal odds and even a few wars, their teamwork was surprisingly good. As Banaxuk would be sending wave after wave of hellfire and doing his best to keep my attention focused on him, Varratha would be assisting from a distance or attempting a few stabs while thinking my guard was down. Though I was wearing down Banaxuk quickly as he was not as skilled or strong as me.

As I was slashing at Banaxuk cutting his body and giving him heavy wounds, his body was trying to heal quickly but my holy fire stopped it. While Varratha was throwing her daggers at me from a distance which I ignored since half were illusions or my fire would stop them. Varratha is a coward only willing to strike when she feels she has an actual chance of killing or heavily injuring me. Though Varratha was able to sneak above me and brought her daggers down on top of my head.

Looking up I jumped back and blasted my holy fire at her, which she was unable to dodge fully. It heavily injured her, but she seemed to not care as Banaxuk and her ran towards me. I now realized they both were attempting to overload their souls forever destroying them just as it would if I burned their souls to nothing. Though the price would be good as the explosion from one of them was enough to heavily injure me and possibly kill me, both would be certain death.

Seeing their intention, I rip open a plane to the sea of wrath as the two charges toward me. They were unable to stop as the portal opened in front of them and both fall inside to be burned to nothing not even their souls were left. Just as quickly as I opened to rift I closed it, as if it remained open longer than it already did all of existence would be destroyed. Since the wrath of God is the strongest thing and fills half the void that God resides in. The two seconds it did remain open melted the building and surrounding buildings of the one I was in and the ground below it for a few dozen feet.

After calming down and tapping out of my true realm I fell to the ground exhausted and in pain no longer in my angelic form. As I still have a mortal body that can not let me access my true realm and power for long. These past five minutes made me feel like I was fighting for years nonstop since the strain was that much on my body. I felt that at best I could remain using my true power for almost ten minutes before it completely consumed my mortal body, forever making me an angel. Meaning I would no longer be allowed to reside on earth since my mortal shell would be destroyed.

It seemed that my exhaustion was very bad as I woke up and saw I was sleeping in my bed. Thankfully my friends found me after hearing the fighting was over most likely. Pushing myself up I still felt my body was sore beyond belief and everything hurt more than it ever did before. With a groan, I stood up but fell back down on the bed from the pain of pushing myself to my limit.

"Akihiko! You're awake! Thank God!" I hear Rumi's voice from behind me and see her enter the room with running in Eri behind her hearing her. They both tackle me into a hug and I grit my teeth trying to not show how much pain I'm in even though I feel they are killing me in this hug.

"Dad! We were so worried!" Eri says to me while I just hug them both back while trying not to groan in pain.

"How… how long was I out?" I ask them catching my breath from the pain after both broke the hug. But Eri remained in my lap with a worried look.

"Uncle Hizashi and Aunt Ryuko found you after you beat the two villains. They brought you back to their home and called Mom," Eri says to me with a worried look.

"I was about to get you when Hizashi said they would bring you over in the morning if you didn't wake up. It's been a week since then, and a lot has happened," Rumi says to me with a worried look, but I can see in her eyes there is some bad news.

"I see… Seems my resting is over. Eri I love you, but could you give your mother and me a moment alone?" I say to Rumi and turn to Eri who is still sitting in my lap.

"Ok," Eri says getting up and leaving the room and closing the door behind her. Rumi sat down next to me on the bed as a sigh escaped her.

"If I wasn't a mom and pregnant, I would be out there helping our friends," Rumi says and seems very angry that people are dying and she hasn't been out there fighting too.

"I know and it's better that way, someone needs to protect Eri and if you were out there fighting I do not think I could focus without knowing about your safety constantly. I still worry even when I'm not here, that someone will attack while I'm gone," I say to her and hold her close to me while she nods her head.

"I understand… I worry every time you leave that it might be the last time I see you. Especially now after whatever happened to you, what happened?" Rumi says to me and then pulls my face to look at her as she stares at me with extreme worry.

"The leaders of the villains seem to have made contracts with demon lords as the champions of these demon lords are possessing them. My last fight was with two champions and one of the possessed was Toya… I had no choice but to kill him," I say to Rumi who stares at me silently listening.

"Toya made his choice, especially when he even tried to kill his own family," Rumi says to me justifying my action and I just nod my head, though still feel like I failed Toya somehow.

"So these champions hurt you? Why did you go unconscious for almost more than a week?" Rumi says to me trying to understand why I was this exhausted since I've never shown signs like this before.

"Yes and no, yeah the champions injured me, pretty heavily at one point too. Though they are not as powerful as me, especially if I use my full power. It's just I can't use my full power for long as I'm still a mortal in the flesh, using my power for as long as I did push my body to its limits," I say to Rumi leaving out the 'dying' part and becoming an angel fully to never return to the mortal plane unless commanded by God.

"Oh… Is there any way to defeat them without using your full power?" Rumi says to me as she doesn't want to see me like this again.

"Only if I can fight them one on one, if there is more than one I will have no choice but to overwhelm them," I say to Rumi truthfully since fighting one is easy enough to kill even not at my full power.

Since using my full power brings me to levels beyond any angel or demon, the max power I can access without tapping into my realm is less than even one percent of my max. Seems like my normal max is enough to rival demon lord champions in a one-on-one, but after that, I would need to tap into my true power. I guess I understand what Lucifer saw inside me and said I was the strongest angel.

"You said some things happened while I was passed out, what exactly?" I ask Rumi after a comfortable silence took over the room.

"You were able to defend Hizashi and Ryuko's city, but Best Jeanist was killed and his city lost to the villains. Endeavor was heavily injured and may never be a hero again, as he was in a fight with Gigantomachia who was seen headed to his city. Endeavor and some other heroes were able to make him retreat, but I doubt he will remain gone for long. No one has heard from Hawks in a few days and his city seems fine though," Rumi says to me summing up the important parts of what has happened in this past week.

"Were any villains seen scouting our city? What about Cathy? Any news from her?" I ask after having digested this information.

"No, no one has seen anything strange in our city, at least nothing out of normal. The villains are still afraid of you, now more than ever since word has gotten out that you killed three of their leaders. Cathy is doing fine as the crime rate does not seem to be as bad as it is here, but there are still demons running amuck over there," Rumi says to me and I nod my head listening.

"Good, I will call another announcement to the people of Japan. They need to know that we may have lost a city, but we are still fighting and have taken down three of their leaders," I say to Rumi and she nods her head. As I stand up while gritting my teeth, trying to show I was fine, but I still felt extremely sore like I worked out for a month without a break.

"I know it has been some time since my last announcement and much has happened since my last talk. I will make it short, we may have lost the city and the hero Best Jeanist to the villains. He will be missed is everyone who is lost during this war with the villains, but his death was not in vain! We were able to take out three of the leaders of the villains, dealing them just as heavy a blow if not heavier blow than the one they dealt us. I hear my fellow heroes were able to save Endeavor's city, so all hope is not lost! We will ensure Japan stands strong and will not fall to these villains, even if the rest of the world chooses to watch from the sidelines. Stay safe everyone and until next time," I say on live TV in front of the hero agency in my city, then answer a few questions from the people standing in front of me, civilians and reports.

As I headed home I got a few texts from my friends and the remaining heroes fighting in Japan. Many said good things about my speech and offered encouraging words to me. As the rest of the world is calming down since the possessed villains no longer seem to be popping up as much as before. Though no one is offering to help us, which will be remembered once this war is over. Once home I called Lucifer to my office to talk about the realm I accessed and if he new all along I could do that, as I was just following my instincts.

"Brother, feeling sore after using your real power?" Lucifer says to me entering my office and helping himself to my liquor.

"Extremely sore," I say with a sigh and roll of my shoulders feeling stiff.

"I remember the first time I tapped into my realm of power, it was similar to yours in a way, I was called the 'Morningstar' for a reason," Lucifer says to me with a sagely nod and his normal smirk.

"You knew I had this power? Is it really that much stronger than the rest?" I ask him while he stares at me for a few seconds contemplating my question.

"Seems there is a lot you do not know about yourself or what it means to be an angel. Understandable, you were raised by mortals, and 'Dad' was never one to offer guidance without being asked for it. Even when asked his guidance isn't always helpful, but cryptic as fuck," Lucifer says to me with a nod and shrug.