After conveying their thoughts to one another, both Yoru and Kurai could smell the iron of the blood through the air everywhere in the mist. "It's hard to pick up on it directly, since the mist's water vapors spread the smell out a little bit, while making it slightly heavy," Yoru told Kurai, who agreed with her pretty nonchalantly. "Don't stress about this. It's just a mission for money; nothing worth putting our lives on the line," Kurai scolded Yoru, who seemed to be way too deep into completing this mission for Koku.
Several minutes after following the trail, both sisters stopped suddenly, feeling a pulse of power weigh on the air. "Koku…," Yoru muttered, hoping everything was alright. Kurai didn't question it since Yoru muttered Koku's name, making it clear that he's the cause of this power surge. Another reason she didn't question it was to keep Yoru's mind off of any bad thoughts regarding Koku. "Let's keep going," Kurai mentioned, placing her hand over her shoulder in a comforting way.
After a short second of stopping, both Yoru and Kurai continued on their way where they eventually came across a...
While that had happened, earlier when Yoru and Kurai came across someone, something else was happening. Celestia had arrived through teleportation, standing somewhere she had not yet been familiar with. She scanned the surroundings thoroughly with her eyes until her eyes came across a certain boy. "Koku?" Seeing him caused Celestia to be wary and confused. "What was going on here?" she wondered as her companion now began to warn her. "His sponsor is dangerous, Celes. I can't see it, but whatever it is, has the easy potential to outclass you in everything." After hearing this from her heroic-grade spirit familiar, Celestia grew wary but still wondered as she looked at the boy she had seen a little under a year ago. "I wonder how much he's grown in power since the last time we sparred." After this, he had remembered something from 10 years ago. "So it was…"
(Back with Koku), Koku was currently within the closing palm of a massive pure blackish-purple giant that stared at him. Just before the giant black-purple creature closed its palm all the way, Koku felt that his body was being pulled in every direction, all at the same time. However, when the palm closed, all Koku could see was the swirling of the inside of the palm, like it had been a galaxy.
Around 5 seconds passed, ending the swirling and allowing Koku the chance to speak to whatever was in front of himself. "Who are you?" asked Koku to the now miniature-sized blackish-purple shadow of a lifeform that had formed alongside the ending of the swirling. "…" Koku looked at the thing and asked another question. "Are you a spirit?" Koku's question surely reached the mysterious lifeform in front of his very eyes, yet no answer came from it, just a cold, creepy stare.
Koku tried asking a few other questions until his calm demeanor began changing into that of a fighting demeanor. "Are you also picking a fight?" Koku asked, showing his eagerness to fight, or to survive, whichever of the two it was, since he had been here for more power and a better chance of survival.
When Koku became aggressive, the shadow teleported in front of Koku's face and just stayed there, looking at him in the eyes, as if it had been looking for something inside Koku's eyes, or better yet, soul.
Seeing the sheer speed, Koku stayed motionless as the next move would cause the fight to break out, though an unexpected thing occurred; the blackish-purple shadow seemed to simply fade away into the still-closed palm and with this, he heard in a creepy, cold metallic voice, "Spirits… cannot… contract… with… you. Take… what… is… yours…" It mentioned, no longer having a body yet seemingly embedded into the surrounding area.
Upon hearing this, Koku noticed the space created within the palm that had closed over him begin to turn into dark purple energy that seemed to be attracted to Koku's body. Once the energy had flowed into Koku's body, a sudden surge of Void energy spiked. This was what Koku felt every time he ascended through the lower Void, every time his Void space increased in power, and everything revolving around his powers. This time through, it was several folds more of an ascension, like piling three ascensions all together.
This wasn't the only thing he had received since in this subspace called the medium, the words "Path of Void's darkness" formed which then soon disappeared. After getting this, he could also feel that he had received a powerful attack, skill, or form. It was nameless, and Koku could only see the side effects instead of what the nameless form could do. "If I use whatever this is… I'll be unable to use any of my powers for a month…" Koku muttered as his body began to get pulled away from the medium space, bringing him back to his body where he had still been flexing his Void energy out like crazy. After finally being back down into his body, Koku looked in awe as someone very, very familiar stood before him. "Celestia…" Koku muttered underneath his breath as he looked at the strongest person he's ever encountered in his lifetime.
While Koku stood there holding Voidpulse up again, he stared deep into the eyes of Celestia, not paying any attention to Yuusha whatsoever. "So it was you… you were the one from 10 years ago… in Paladonia, the sudden outburst in power… it was you. Sighs Honestly, I had a suspicion, that it was you… from the day you picked up that sword to the day you caused that incident; that and for some reason the sword clearly bonded with you. I've had a suspicion, and chose to not believe it since~" Celestia stopped talking, noticing Yuusha closer to Koku than she was to him.
"You, back off and let the Vice principals take you all somewhere else; that's far from here," Celestia stated as she glanced at the Vice principals giving them the side eye. In doing this, the Vice principals who had been wanting to see Celestia in action felt a little disappointed but didn't question her and her orders. So a few seconds later, Yuusha gave Koku a dirty look and began walking away, feeling outdone again by Koku. Seeing them leave, Koku's full attention was once again on Celestia, and for a few minutes, she pondered in silence if she should ask Koku questions, let him go, take him into custody, and maybe then ask him questions.
Seconds after thinking on her options, Celestia sighed and smiled at Koku, "It's been awhile Koku; I assume you've been pretty busy…" she told Koku as she unsheathed her sword, making it clear to Koku that she was about to either attack him or do something with her sword. "I have been a little busy, here and there; nothing too much, you know?" Koku responded to her with a small nervous smile. As he did this, he felt the sudden need to cough again, which made Celestia look at Koku's body, letting her know he was very, very hurt and incapable of fighting at full power. "Y-yeah, I know what you mean," Celestia didn't know what Koku meant and decided to just go along with it.
While she made idle conversation with Koku, she finished unsheathing her sword and decided to, instead of rush at Koku without finishing the conversation, wait for herself and Koku to finish speaking before rushing at him. To be clear as well, she was giving him signs that she was about to attack him by quite literally pointing her sword in his direction.
Koku frowned at her, sighing in the process, "Celestia, you're pretty awkward in conversations; let's just get this over with…" Koku told her as she closed her eyes, chuckling slightly. "Alright, I won't be pulling my punches too much," Celestia let Koku know as he regained her composure, and with a breath in, and a breath out, Celestia had disappeared and reappeared trying to aim for Koku's sword.
Koku could see this as, for some reason, she wasn't using her full speed, instead trying to gauge where he was in terms of power. After failing to separate Koku from his sword, Celestia found herself pretty surprised since it seemed like Koku had read her movements. "Hmmmmm… looks like I won't be using the same amount of strength that I used back when we last sparred," Celestia told herself as she got slightly more serious, still trying to test Koku. "Take this!" Celestia yelled in her head as she covered the tip of her sword with wind in the form of a push. Seeing this as well, Koku sidestepped, all while seeing her speed increase, "Now to try something new," Koku smirked as he tried something risky. Koku's intent for the most part wasn't to fight someone who could overpower him easily, but to escape somewhere Celestia wasn't at.
So as Celestia increased her speed further, she was about to catch Koku off guard with her speed when Koku suddenly vanished and in his place was nothing. "Eh?" Celestia wondered as she wasn't yet aware of what had happened. "So it worked… if I engulf myself in Void energy, inside and out; while trying to summon a Void monster while canceling it, I can create a small gap in the summoning which lets me travel to the nearest creature made from Void energy already summoned instantly." With this, Koku was able to escape Celestia for the time being, yet he found himself in front of Kurai with Yoru.
This was only possible due to the fact that Koku had Night owls watching them from above, and due to the fact they make no noise when flying, they're pretty hard to even notice, especially since they virtually have no Void energy. Seeing Koku there, and in that state, Yoru worriedly hurried over to Koku's side, but was told by Koku to head back to the city where the adventurer's guild was at for the time being. But right before they were to do that, Koku looked behind himself and noticed a bloodied adventurer who had his clothing torn from every part.
"The orcs are long gone… probably because of Celestia~ or me." Koku looked up at the sky just to end up seeing the mist. "Nothing goes well in this place…" Koku muttered as he created a few Void mist orcs (Orcs he killed earlier), "Put clothing on that… and put him in~ that…" Koku pointed at the sack Kurai had been holding onto since they found the other dead adventurers.
The Void mist orcs did what they were told to do, and the girls could see that Koku's face was rather unpleasant as he looked at the mixed color of white and red liquid on the ground where he had seen the adventurers. "Night owl, take this back to the village with this note," Koku placed a note which read "Yoru/Kurai completed the mission." Koku wrote that so that the girls could get the reward money so they had some money at least. "Now both of you, listen up, we'll meet again pretty soon. If you don't see me around here within a week, travel north to the country of Hydropolis. You need three Argentum (Silver) to get a ferry over to the city. Once you get there, apply in their magic academy. It should be good for both of you, and most importantly, don't cause any trouble while there. I'll see you two there if I don't see you both here in a week," After telling this to confused and startled girls, Koku tossed the rest of the money alongside his pouch with contained his things. "Take care," Koku yelled at them as he ran off in a hurry while he un-summoned the Void mist orcs.
"She'll be here any moment…" Koku thought to himself as he could tell that Celestia wasn't going to sit idly by letting him escape again. After a few seconds of running deep into the Mist-filled forest, Koku stopped suddenly as he could make out a figure in the mist walking out, "Hopefully you had time to do what you wanted," the person mentioned as a sword poked through the mist and soon after the whole body of the person he was just facing not too long ago.
"Celestia… don't you think it'll be a problem if you, a leader, are fighting an adventurer of Amagiri, in Amagiri soil?" Hearing this from Koku made Celestia smile slightly, "Well typically yes, but… you Koku… are a terrorist; one that attacked not only Paladonia but also one of Eldoria's cities. A lot of people died Koku…" Hearing this made Koku give up trying to reason with her for an escape, "That knightly pride and code of yours is really something, I'd call annoying." Koku stated as he, in his weakly state, could see that Celestia was serious now. "I'll have to use all my trump cards," Koku thought to himself as he, in a split moment, summoned 30 monsters which scattered around, then he began to summon many others and canceled them in order to teleport amongst the monsters which were scattering around, "While I do this, I'll be able to enter curse god's gift…" Right as he did this, he entered curse god's gift, which then led to Koku also using Void's rage.
Now having entered Void's rage, Koku's presence was all over the world and realms and dimensions. "Now… Void enhancements," using this doubled his power, even in Void's rage making him much, much stronger, but as he did this, Celestia was already behind him ready to knock him out with the hilt of her sword, "If you think I'll let you finish powering up… you thought wrong Koku…" Celestia stated as she kept appearing behind Koku whenever he teleported.
"Damn it… she's too fast… and I can even tell she's still not even close to full power. But what's holding her back?" Koku wondered as for a moment time seemed to freeze as he watched the hilt of her sword about to make contact with his neck, most likely knocking him out if it lands.
"Even with all of this active, she's still this much stronger… is there anything I can do?" Koku wondered as time seemed awfully slow, as if some higher power which was out of Celestia's reach had caught them both and had tampered with time itself.
"Oh that's right… that new thing with the defects." Pondering if to use it, Koku decided to do so, not knowing what it was. "Worth a try at this point… activate envoy of restraint." Koku muttered as watched his arms, which were already covered in the dense thick void energy/aura, turn into something he couldn't comprehend.
As if what his body was becoming could not be defined by color, or anything. Not even the gods could tell you what had just happened. The time which had stopped for Koku, was really his mind speeding up, and seeing what was going on with his body, Celestia jumped back at her full true speed, sensing real danger on her real level of power.
Simply looking at him made Celestia's body shiver in fear, even though she herself felt no fear, just caution. "On guard!" Celestia's heroic spirit companion, which was at her level of strength, yelled at her sensing Koku's terrifying power. His aura weighed heavy everywhere.
Even Yoru and Kurai felt the presence, though for some reason they didn't get fearful or any serious effects from this power due to the Void seeds connection they had with Koku. While all this happened, Koku was struggling even holding his own body up, so he had to act, "Bind her…" Koku pointed his hand into her direction as he struggled to move, seemingly manipulating nothingness into something creating something which contained everything while being made from nothing. This bind easily prevented her from moving even if she had used all of her power. "N-now," Koku muttered weakly as he dashed towards her, trying to punch at Celestia, but he stumbled mid-way through the dash as his legs broke under the pure pressure he was experiencing. But during his fall, Koku managed to drive his fist towards Celestia, hitting her in the stomach.
Thus after falling to the ground, this new current form Koku was in completely vanished, leaving him in a very, very horrible state, a lethal state one well. "W-what was that sudden power…" Celestia questioned in between gasps of air as she felt the hit heavy on her body, even though her spirit had tried to defend against the attack too. Walking towards Koku, Celestia was genuinely shocked; "He's in bad shape… he'll die if we leave him here or like this," Celestia told her heroic-grade spirit Seraphina. So just as Celestia was about to gently pick Koku up, she clutched her stomach and covered her mouth with a hand, coughing up a little bit of blood.
"His hit was bad… to think even while I seriously tried defending against his single attack, he did this to me…" Celestia had managed to defend against Koku's hit, making the damage minimal, all while not being able to completely reach her defensive state which would've stopped the attack completely.