After the brief talk with Persephone, Kisuke immediately disappeared from his spot. The Goddess sighed in relief and turned to her messy husband and crouched down in front of him. Gently caressing his cheek, Persephone reprimanded, "I've been telling you, you are too trusting of Apollo. You should have known that his power of prophecy is not predicting the future, but enforcing it."
"...You know how ridiculous that sounds," replied Hades with a dejected tone.
"And what do you think of it now?"
Hades looked up to his one and only beloved wife and said, "His power of prophecy... It's ridiculously powerful."
Persephone gently smiled at him, "But that realization was too late. You have to pay for your actions."
Hades grimaced, not because of the impending punishment for him but his wife's involvement, "Why did you even come here in the first place?" He knew that the chances of them being on the winning side of history were very slim and the moment he lost, he was going down. With that in mind, he did his best to keep his wife out of all of this and even gave her his Divine Equipment 'Helmet of Darkness' that she could use in an event of the judgment affecting her. So when he pleaded with Kisuke not to hurt his wife, it all came from his purest wish which also became one of the reasons why Kisuke left him alone. He didn't want the God of the Dead to just suddenly become a 'main character' and create a 'miracle' by pushing the wrong button.
In any case, his hate for the relatively honest Hades couldn't be compared to the hate he had for the two-faced God of the Sun.
Persephone stood up and turned to the approaching DxD members and said, "Please take good care of him. He can't resist anymore."
Dulio nodded at her, "Don't worry about it, madam. We'll ensure that he's properly taken to a fair trial."
"Thank you." Persephone expressed her honest gratitude before flying away towards the other side of the temple that's still shaking due to an ongoing battle.
"Should we go and watch too?" asked Vali, seething with excitement.
Dulio immediately gave him an answer by shaking his head in disagreement, "No. There's a chance that the Evies are targeting the current conflict so we have to escort Hades and the remaining members of the Alliance of Hell to a secure location."
Normally, a few members would have been enough, but now that there's an unknown force lurking in the shadows, they can't be complacent since there are also anonymous reports that these Evies are abducting people for some unknown reason. If they really are targeting the current war and successfully secure a few of the war prisoners, no faction would put any actual effort to look for them.
Dulio really hated politics so the best he could do is prevent that from happening.
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When Kisuke arrived, the first thing he saw was Medusa retraining the transformed Aika using her chains, 'Is this her Bankai?'
He quickly scanned the surroundings and saw everyone that'd just returned from the other world except for the kids along with the unknown and haggard Goddess who was resting behind Medusa.
He didn't have time to greet them with Aika breaking the chains with just brute force and letting out a roar that was impossible for her throat.
As soon as she was freed, Aika gripped her giant broadsword and flew towards Medusa. But before she could swing down her sword, Aika felt something on her right and unconsciously put up her arm to defend. The next instant, a foot landed on her arm and sent her flying.
Medusa watched Aika crash and pulverize multiple rocks on her way and land a few hundred meters away while using her broadsword to stab the ground to control her momentum, "Isn't that too much?" she asked while turning her head to Aika's attacker.
"It may not look like it, but she's perfectly fine... Which also surprised me. I thought I could disable her for a minute or two but she managed to defend in time.", replied Kisuke, "Retreat with everyone first. I'll take care of her. Also, make sure that someone is following Hades' transfer."
Sending himself forwards, Kisuke met Aika who also jumped in and blocked her broadsword with Benihime in his hand.
After watching for a few seconds, Medusa turned to Hecate and silently bid her farewell before returning to her companions and disappearing from the realm with a Teleportation Magic.
Persephone also soon arrived beside her and asked, "Are you alright?"
Hecate stood up and fixed her attire, "I'm alright, thanks to the man's companion."
Persephone helped her while saying, "I'm surprised that she managed to push you this far."
Hecate sighed in exasperation and looked towards the two 'monsters' clash that leveled their surroundings, "She's my bane! Ever since taking that form, all my spells have been ineffective against her brute force! She breaks everything with just physical strength and that sword of hers erases logic! How is that fair for a Spellcaster like me!? I almost died!"
Persephone covered her mouth with her hand and chuckled since it has been a while since she saw her dear friend act like this.
"Stop laughing! And that guy, how is able to clash with her like that? Does he want to say goodbye to his arm?!"
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The moment Kisuke met Aika's broadsword, his mouth twitched and he hurriedly deflected it to the side before kicking her away and retreating, 'What the hell? I'm in full Hollowfication and even have my 3rd gate opened. How is it that I still lose in the physical department? And quite a ways too.'
Immediately after, he heard Benihime's voice inside his head, [I also can't use any ability while touching that sword.]
A drop of sweat came running down from his forehead, 'First Riveria-san, and this time Aika? And what do you mean you can't use any ability? You're being sealed?' Kisuke sent a sword arc towards the incoming Aika but the latter just swung her broadsword and split it before it disappeared without doing anything.
[No. Just like now, she's sending it somewhere. It looks like she's erasing energy-based attacks by sending them somewhere else.]
"Then we would have no choice but to confront her physically, wouldn't we?" Kisuke muttered while staring at Aika's Draconic eye without a shred of calmness in it, 'She totally lost control, huh... And it became even worse since it's a Dragon's Outrage that elevates a Dragon's power several times over.'
Kisuke deflected Aika's sword once again and tried to pin her down using trapping spells, but the same as Hecate's experience, she'll just break it with pure physical ability.
Pointing two of his fingers at her, Kisuke muttered, "Kin (Restraint)!"
A pair of black cloth appeared on top of Aika and dropped onto her, forcing her to the ground by artificial gravity pull. Along the ends of the cloth, slabs of stone pinned it to the ground, further stopping Aika from standing up.
However, Kisuke knew that this wouldn't last so he brought down his arm and activated the second part of Bakudou 99, "First song, Shiyuu(Constriction)!"
White cloth appeared and immediately wrapped itself around Aika and made her look like a mummy. But even that was already on the verge of breaking so Kisuke continued, "Second song, Hyakurensan(Hundred Bolts)!"
Hundreds of iron bolts with strong paralyzing effects appeared around Aika before piercing through the white cloth. But not even a second past, some of the bolts were already ejected away.
"Final song, Bankin Taihou(Ultimate Suppression)!" A gigantic hexagonal stone block materialized on top of Aika and multiplied the gravitational force she was feeling and sank her to the ground.
Kisuke was hoping that she'd be stopped for at least a few minutes so that he could make some arrangements to seal her more and then wake her up. Nevertheless, he underestimated Aika's physical strength in her current form as all the restrictions around Aika burst open simultaneously prior to swinging her sword upwards and cutting the stone block in half before it could even drop and touch her.
"...Seriously?" Kisuke could only mutter in surprise as he prepared to meet Aika's sword-thrust with his blade. Except, before the blades could meet, a red line suddenly split Aika's broadsword in half as it expanded in thickness before it opened like a giant maw and revealed rows full of razor-sharp Dragon teeth,"!?"
Since Kisuke wasn't expecting it to open like a jaw, he couldn't avoid it by dodging to the sides, and even if he could jump back, Aika's 'sword' was faster. In a split second, the teeth instantly sank into Kisuke's flesh even though his defense was boosted to the highest levels.