Tetsuno turned to face the direction of Xell's voice, a soft hiss echoing through the air.
"Why not?" Xell asked, as if he could understand what he was saying. "Am i not aloud to join in the fun?"
Tetsuno made a clicking sound in his throat, then turned back to face Ares, whose body was getting back to its feet, his head reforming layer by layer.
"Haha!" Ares roared. "Yes! That was fun! Give me more! More! Show me what you've got!" In seconds all of the god's previous wounds had completely healed over.
Xell frowned, blowing out a cloud of smoke. There was no easy way to defeat this god, seeing as neither he nor Tetsuno had any sort of sealing abilities. Although, he didn't think Ares did either, so at this rate it would just be a never ending battle. Unless..
Looking over at Tetsuno, Xell couldn't help but wonder if there maybe was a way to defeat this enemy, though it wouldn't kill him, but it would restrain him, maybe.
Xell directed his thoughts at Tetsuno, Archdemons being able to communicate telepathically, and informed him of his plan. Tetsuno agreed, and so it was set into action.
Leaning forward, Tetsuno exploded towards Ares, who struck out his foot to hit him, but the demon spun on his heel, ducking down as Ares spun his arm towards him before Tetsuno leapt over the god's head, grabbing him before planting his feet on the ground and slamming him to the ground flat on his back, their movements faster than natural eyes could follow.
As Ares tried to rise to his feet, Tetsuno thrust his blades into the god's chest and wrapped his wings around him, the sharp edges digging into his flesh and holding him down, unable to move.
"What is this? This is not fighting, this is cowardice!" Ares roared. "Fight me!"
Orange aura began to rise from Ares's body, but as it did a red arrow plunged through him, as well as through Tetsuno.
Ares glared up at Xell. "This will do nothing for you, you are only hurting your ally, I will not be taken down so-" the gods shuddered, feeling his aura begin to dissipate, his Aura Cloak wavering. "What…?"
Just then gold-orange aura began to mix in with Tetsuno's crimson, the pressure around him intensifying as it did. Ares looked down at the arrow, realizing what had happened. The arrow was feeding off of his aura and acting like a wire, leading the energy over to Tetsuno, empowering him. He grit his teeth.
"Well, then let's find out just how much of my aura you can withstand before you collapse!" The ground shook, Ares's aura cloak becoming practically material now as his aura began to glow out freely like an erupting geyser. Tetsuno was thrown back, the arrow removed from his chest and the blades removed from Ares, cutting his flesh as they did so.
Ares held his hand into the air, his aura cloak becoming completely solid as aura gathered around him. A small orb of light appeared high in the air above the god as he smirked.
"How about an experiment?" Ares asked, his eyes locked on Tetsuno. "Let's see if you can regenerate your body when it's been completely burned away!"
The air suddenly became searing hot and the anything that was flammable began to combust as a house sized sun appeared above Ares's head.
Xell raised his arms as his skin began to burn. He backed away, but it didn't matter, he was unable to escape the heat or the blinding light.
Ares lowered his hand and the sun began to slowly descend towards Tetsuno, the ground melting away in seconds as the ball of heat grew closer, but just as it was about to make impact with Tetsuno, it vanished completely, leaving little more than a trail of smoke.
"What?" Ares asked, unable to understand what just happened.
"I'll saying was a cool attack. But not that impressive." Came a voice.
Ares turned to see a young man standing a couple yards away, wearing a black cloak and metal spikes protruding from his body. He looked at Ares with a bored expression, as if he were watching a child trying to walk.
"Tetsuno, Xell. Leave this area, you've done enough, so go now, unless you wanna die." The boy said.
"Yes, lord." Xell said, then vanished. Tetsuno bowed, before jumping off away into the distance.
Ares sneered. "You seriously mean to tell me that you are the new king of hell?" He scoffed. "Lucifer must really have been weak. That or you have a lot of luck."
"My name is Akuro, but you can just call me Death. I've kinda adopted the title." Akuro said.
"Ha! You really think you are tough, don't you? Honestly, you call my Dawn of War weak, yet you can't even control your own aura! It's chaotic and all over the place, it's not even that impressive. I must say, your aura is pretty weak."
"Oh? Really? I thought it was pretty contained." Akuro said, then shrugged. "I guess there is no point in trying to contain it anymore then." He put his hands together then spoke saying, "Release." The earth shook and the ground shattered around Akuro. Ares fell to his knees, his Aura Cloak cracking as he was forced to the ground from the immense pressure of Akuro's power.
A voice resounded in Ares's mind then as he was trying to understand what was happening. It was the voice of Aphrodite.
"Get out of there! Now! Or else you will die! You can't beat him, Ares!" She cried.
'What!?' Ares asked mentally. 'He's right here! If I kill him we can win!'
"But you can't! And if we lose you that will be a heavy blow to us!"
'Fine! At least let me gauge his strength a bit first!'
Akuro watched as Ares struggled under his pressure. He was honestly disappointed, he expected the god of war to at least be able to stand against half of his aura. He was only releasing half of his total pressure, and he couldn't help but wonder just how weak the gods were.
"I don't think it's that they are weak, it's just that you are too strong." Mato said. "I'd go so far as saying you are probably almost as strong as Azazel now."
'Lilith said something like that a while ago as well.' Akuro responded. 'Have you ever actually met Azazel in person, Mato?'
"Erm, no. Never." Mato lied.
'Hm. Oh, he's moving.'
Ares slowly rose to his feet, struggling under the pressure. Akuro simply stood and watched as the god moved closer and closer to him.
"Show me what you've got.." Ares growled, then drew his swords and stabbed them into the ground, the earth erupting in a line towards Akuro, who seemed to vanish.
"What-" Ares exclaimed as Akuro reappeared behind him, the blade of his scythe to the god's neck. "The hell… are you?"
"I told you. I'm Death." Akuro answered, flicked Ares in his back, shattering his Aura Cloak and sending him rolling end over end across the ground before skidding to a stop.
Ares backed away from Akuro who slowly walked towards him, black aura forming around his body, blocking out his features as his crimson eyes shone through it.
"Aphrodite!" Ares roared, "Get me out! Now!!"
Akuro stopped, then raised his finger and pointed at Ares, as he did a stream of black aura shot down from the sky and impaled the earth, causing the ground to quake.
When the aura faded out, Akuro walked to the edge of a massive hole in the ground and looked over the edge. The hole seemed to be bottomless, all he could see was darkness.
"He got away…" Akuro said quietly. Then he grinned.
•
•
•
God stood in the throne hall, a large room with white walls and gold highlights. His throne was pure gold and marble while diamond chandeliers hung from the ceiling casting a soft, warm glow over the room.
Aphrodite sat at the edge of a small summoning circle, mumbling some unintelligible words. God bit his tongue, deep in thought as he thought about the war. To think that Akuro's aura would be so strong, the fact that they were able to feel it's affects all the way up in the divine realm. It was intimidating. They had underestimated their enemy and had lost another pawn because of it. He scowled. He'd have to end up killing that Deity, no, that demon himself.
The markings of the summoning circle suddenly lit up with an orange light as a figure came into sight, materializing in the center of the circle. Ares sat on his knee, panting, blood dripping from his body as his wounds slowly closed over. His Aura Cloak had completely faded now and his eyes were wide as if he'd seen his greatest nightmare.
"Ares!" Aphrodite said, "Are you alright?"
The war god waved his hand for her to back away. "I'm fine." He turned angry eyes to God. "Why didn't you tell me that bastard was so strong? He overwhelmed me!"
"I myself didn't even know until now.. I underestimated him." God answered.
Ares scowled. "As did I…"
"I also didn't expect him to join the fight, I only thought you would be fighting the Archdemons."
"I could handle them fine, but him… he stopped my Dawn of War in an instant, as if it was nothing to him. What.. is he?"
"He is the result of our foolishness." God spoke. "We never should've given humanity our power, nor should we have blessed them with their creativity."
An expression of rage plastered to Ares's face. "Then we will strip it from them! We shall end their miserable existence!"
"Yes…" God's eyes narrowed. 'Why hasn't Akuro concealed his aura yet..?' He thought, pushing out his own aura, sensing the world below. Then he realized that Akuro had concealed his aura, but for some reason it was still present in the throne hall. God's heart skipped a beat. Akuro looked up at the sky directly at God's Aura Sense, then smirked menacingly.
Gas rose from his throne, extending his hand towards Aphrodite.
"Get away from him now!" He roared, but it was too late, a black wave of aura exploded outwards from Ares's body, swallowing him completely as well as engulfing Aphrodite, shattering both of their souls as it swallowed them. The entire throne hall shook violently as it was swallowed by the shadows of Akuro's Dark Implosion which he had attached to Ares's back when he had flicked him, waiting to trigger on his command.
When the attack was over, God hovered in the air, his aura shield fading out as he looked in awe at the destruction around him. The entire throne hall was now gone, wiped out of existence, as well as the temple around it. He reached outward with his sensory, and he could see that a total of four gods had been caught up in the attack, their souls being shattered.
God shook with rage now. He had been okayed for a fool, his own pawn used against him. 'That fucker…' he thought. 'I am going to kill him… I swear I will put his existence to an end… I will not lose this war!'