The shadow that took on a humanoid form retreated a bit with the arrival of a new person in eastern attire and asked in a ghastly tone, "Takamagahara is finally involving themselves in something?"
Aika first looked towards Issei in his crimson and black armor that was full of cracks from taking numerous attacks from Angra Mainyu. If this was the normal her, she'd be making fun of his armor and his tattered situation, 'Although I do still have some urges, looks like I'm not as uncontrollable as I was in the past.'
She then turned to the horned shadow with fiery eyes, "Takamagahara? I don't know anything about them."
With some quick thinking, Angra Mainyu easily figured out who's camp was intervening, "Kisuke Urahara, is it?"
Aika furrowed her eyes at his reply.
Angra Mainyu misunderstood her reaction for an affirmation and chuckled, "So that attack that just annihilated Whiro is from your camp too, I assume? And seeing that Pazuzu couldn't do much damage, there's really just one faction that could do that without the limitation of those in the larger factions."
"Does that change anything you want to do then?", asked Aika.
Angra Mainyu chuckled and put his right hand behind him, "Of course not. It's just that this is going to be harder than we initially thought, although we had been anticipating his intervention."
All of a sudden, another voice joined the conversation, "I'm sorry Angra Mainyu, but that isn't going to work."
The only unaware person, Issei, hurriedly turned towards the source of the voice which was just behind him and Aika not far away, "W-who!?"
A beautiful Goddess with long dark green hair, wearing a black and white robe with a touch of eeriness came stepping out from the shadows. But instead of Issei, her cold black eyes were pinned on Aika, who was still facing her back against her, "She has been eyeing me even before she arrived."
Angra Mainyu rubbed his chin and said, "Hmmm... So she's actually here for you? Interesting. What do you want to do, Hecate?"
"Well, there isn't really a need for this long talk, is there?" asked Aika while concentrating on her Reiatsu.
"That's true.", answered Hecate and at the same moment, Aika disappeared from her spot and arrived in front of Hecate in an instant, bearing both of her blades at her.
On the other hand, Hecate was already anticipating this and calmly took out her short sword and counter-attacked with a thrust after dodging Aika's slashes. Aika disappeared once again and came out from behind Hecate while bringing her blades down. This time, without turning around, Hecate turned into black smoke and dispersed through the wind before reappearing a few meters away with a few Magic attacks raining down on Aika.
Issei watched them make their distance from Angra Mainyu and him while exchanging deadly attacks, "...Someone like that has been hiding here?" Issei was wondering what could have happened if Aika didn't arrive.
And guessing what he's thinking, Angra Mainyu answered, "You'd at least get a stab or two."
Issei nervously smiled and retorted, "I don't think it'd end with just that though?"
"It will... Since it took some effort to convince her, she wouldn't actually do more than that."
Issei didn't believe Angra Mainyu and was more worried about Vali and Fenrir fighting Hades since a similar situation could be happening.
"There's no one like that there. If there was one, Hades would be the one who'd kick their ass. Despite how he acts, he still has the pride of one of the strongest if he's fighting himself."
Those words, Issei could believe them somehow.
.
.
.
After a few hundred exchanges and destroying a part of Hades' temple, Hecate blasted away Aika and said, "Isn't this enough for a greeting? We are not here to buy time, so I think we should end this meaningless act."
"Why are you suggesting as if I'm holding back? I'm trying my best to keep up with you, you know?" Aika replied with a bit of a haggard countenance. Although she's far from being depleted, her body couldn't keep up with the stacking strain. Her blades phasing in and out was incredibly useful and more than a few times, she managed to catch Hecate off guard and land some hits if practiced and trained more, she had a feeling that she could extend this phasing to herself.
But even now, the shock that her body has to go through every time it happens couldn't be ignored and her stamina for battle was drastically cut every time she used it.
And it's not like she had any other choice since that was the only special move available for her aside from that cross-wave cut that was incredibly strong, but also quite slow. Yes, it could restrain her opponent, but Hecate was able to work around this by summoning numerous dogs made out of the shadow and weakening a part of it through wave tactics. So before it could even reach Hecate, it was weak enough that it could be blocked by a simple barrier, and all along those lines, Hecate was still prepared for any surprise attack that Aika would surmount against her.
With a gentle smile on her face, Hecate replied, "It's because you've been treating me as if I'm your training partner. A bit rude, but I'm willing to play along~"
"...Is that what it really looks like?" Aika felt a bit guilty. Although she shouldn't really be since they are on the opposite ends of war.
Hecate nodded, "It is. And I was not really going to say anything until I noticed that you stopped making any progress. What's making you hesitate? Are you actually going to endanger yourself if you go all out? If so, then I suggest you leave this war behind. This is not for you."
"Tsk..." Aika clicked her tongue in frustration, "Even you? What do you even know about me?"
Hecate shrugged her shoulders, "Nothing. But I've lived long enough to see numerous people like you thinking that they can't do it yet still choosing to push forward. If you know you can't make it in the first place, why bother? I really hate those people and they're the ones who glorify and romanticize 'fear' thinking that it could strengthen their will when in reality, nothing really comes out of it."
As Hecate went off on a tangent, she sighed and couldn't help but reminisce about the past, 'Haah... I shouldn't have agreed to come here... If it weren't for Lady Persephone...'
Hecate's words may have come off as nonsense to most people, but for Aika, they resounded quite clearly and she gritted her teeth in understanding. She didn't want to admit it, but she was wrong. She thought that once she overcame her fears, she'd develop her courage, but clearly, she had it backwards since you needed the courage to overcome fear in the first place. As Hecate had said, nothing really comes after fear. Not even despair.
At that moment, the whole temple shook and a ridiculous amount of aura blasted through the entire temple, prompting both Aika and Hecate to look towards the area they'd just left.
"Unbelievable... That miracle maker is at it again. How is that reasonable?", muttered Hecate in disbelief.
While Aika doesn't know what the miracle maker meant, she knew that she was referring to Issei, the source of that aura.