(A/N): I hope you all are enjoying the story so far, I don't have much to say apart from the fact that before the start of each chapter might as well drop a trivia or two to start it off, basically so you guys can understand more about the world and its characters.
Trivia one: Athena's character and power was birthed from the loner side of Mercury's persona when he was Allen, it's the very reason why she possesses 『Finite reach』which is the physical manifestation of her loneliness being projected as an ability, it's the very reason she hates being touch by anything, may it be rain or sunlight, not even air touches her without her permission, much less oxygen, well not like she needs it anyways since Athena doesn't breath due to the nature of her power.
Trivia 2: Seth is the smartest and the oldest person in the Retroverse, even older than Archion who was born long before he even dream of being born this is only possible due to the nature of his artificial supreme skill since the guy has infinite choices and decision to pick from, although if his sanity falters even once it's game over for him.
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The surrounding area was destroyed, everything that was originally there was either disintegrated or blown away, what was once a forest full of life was no more than wasteland, if anything the area was a desert now.
Two people were facing each other, one that had a rather demonic appearance but still yet humanoid, and the other who was even more demonic to the point even considering its humanoid shape it could not be called a human.
The former been Lilith and the latter been Dystopia, heavy panting could be heard but sadly not from both sides, no if anything Lilith was perfectly fine, although Dystopia cast [true time top] to stop Lilith from moving.
But even after using one of her ultimate time stop abilities it still wasn't enough to stop the Fallen queen, Dystopia now using the last remaining of the energy she had to complete the curse she was about to place on Lilith could only watch in pure shock and amazement of the miracle that was taking place before her.
"Lilith of mayhem ha... I normally don't acknowledge people especially people with god-like abilities since I hate violence, haha... kind of ironic coming from me, but the fact remains, this woman is a monster even more so than I am, her abilities don't make sense in the slightest."
"But after crossing fist with you, I accept the fact that I can't beat you as I am now, Mercury's body is just too weak for me, so much so, I had to sacrifice a good amount of my natural life span to compensate as energy to project most of my original abilities."
"And despite all that, nothing seems to work on you, even without that aura of yours that seems to destroy any skill I throw at you wasn't even needed to counter my attacks, in short, you're just stupidly strong, but I must say you are the first person that pushed me this far and for that, I must acknowledge your strength, that I will give you, but even so I can't allow you to hurt Mercury."
"This curse I'm about to put on you is a curse that will be a part of your existence in a hole from here on out, your strength is worthy of the praise I will give you that, but you are extremely arrogant to the point it's annoying, you treat life as if it's nothing but a game that can entertain you, that why I'm taking away a part of that freedom."
Announce Dystopia as she places her hand on her chest as to gesture the person in the topic, as she spoke with a serious look on her face.
"Because this one puny insignificant life before you is someone I care about, destroy everyone if you may, treat everyone as mere entertainment if you will, destroy everything before you if please, but leave Mercury out of your sick entertainment."
Those were the last words that we're spoken from Dystopia's mouth as she place her hand together, and continue the chant in an unknown language.
As the chant grows more profound and harder to understand by the second, the entire world itself suddenly turn red, the reason for this was the fact that in the deepest part of an unknown star system so far it's impossible to reach by normal means, and at this point and time, a certain giant eye suddenly began to glow a menacing crimson red.
As black lightning or maybe some unknown energy that resemble lightning was coming off of it and in the next second only two words were heard before the universe was engulfed by a bright wave or red light that was made to affect but one person.
[Existence rewrite]
After Dystopia said that the world grew quiet or more to say numb, and in the next instance, all that was heard was nothing, there were no words to describe how this sounded because there isn't any, because for an attack of this caliber it would only appear as a bright blinking red light that overtakes the world for an instant.
But from the true form of Dystopia, from her perspective or you may even say her point of view, it looks like she fired a giant eye beam that easily covered multiple multiverses and galaxies with ease.
Countless stars, planets, even black holes that greedy and feeding off the light that engulf them, were all been devoured and blinded by the bright red light source that covered thousands if not millions of galaxies, the universe, and multiverses that were trapped In Dystopia true-time stop.
The true scale of the attack was easily multi multiversal as hundred of thousands of neighboring multiverse were all touched by the bright light that Dystopia released upon the enemy before her.
Normally this would have been impossible to do if she didn't bring fort one of her many incomprehensible eyes that is a part of her true form, simply because it engulfs the entire Archion universe or more to say a finite amount of the infinite numbers of universes that Archion governs.
If one were to gaze upon this feat that Dystopia presented today, they would say that God himself has decided to destroy everything, but what no one know was the fact this inescapable attack was released to take effect upon one person and one person only, and the only reason the light touch so far and wide was simply because Dystopia was struggling to control the range while inside the body of someone who was far weaker than her.
Yes, this was Dystopia holding back a great amount if anything, if this was her true form she can easily destroy everything that exists below the tenth dimensional plane of existence, and judging from the place she and Mercury were currently at this was a high-level plane if anything with her universal sense she has sense over 59 different entities that are slightly below her and 5 who are on par with her, and 2 that was greatly above her.
Thankfully though, since she was inside Mercury's body they would not find her, maybe they would sense remnants of her true form yes after she released the time stop but that was it, being weak was Mercury's greatest advantage at this time, and moment.
Simply because Mercury's power had no definite growth limit if he can train himself and continuously evolve then without a doubt maybe one day he can surpass Archion, no maybe one day Mercury might just reach the root if he can reach the root then.
"Hahah... Mercury is without a doubt a powerful existence, so much so, as he is now I can acknowledge him as a peak third-dimensional being or lower fourth-dimensional existence."
Normally one judges dimension based on the perspective and power, even she does this because being a tenth-dimensional being she easily sees everything, hence fort she can destroy everything, even with all her eyes closed, but at the same time, this is the greatest feat she can even do within a body that is far weaker than hers.
It is also because she is an existence beyond many existences, but despite that this girl name Lilith that was before her isn't what she claims to be, no one should be able to smack her around as she did.
But despite all that Lilith easily did so, truly this anomaly before her was different than a plane evil god, she was something far more than a tenth-dimensional existence, and what made this fact a definite truth was the fact that she is indeed one of the two being that was beyond her.
While the other one believe it or not wasn't too far from here if anything, she sense a dangerous existence in the southern direction of the world of Era, what it was not even she knows.
But despite that she continue her attack till it died down, as the seal has to be imprinted on Lilith's very existence to the point it was a part of her.
And after she released her attack, everything came back to normal as the light slowly fades away, in that very instant as well, the same tattoo that came around Lilith's belly button earlier started to tremble and crack till suddenly it crack into multiple snakes.
The snakes were all black, Dystopia watched as they all crawl up to her neck as a weird black substance began to wrap tightly around her neck as it began merging with her flesh, and
after a little while a slave collar that resembles that of a spikey dog collar appeared on her neck, and after it did that the Ouroboros tattoo that was around her belly button started to glow and a straight black line travel up her stomach through her cleavage as it connected with the collar.
And shortly after, one of her eyes exploded as it began to regenerate, and when it grow back what was once a beautiful silver eye was now transformed into that of a weird and unique one that had an all too familiar symbol carved in gold as it is a new pupil.
Lilith's right eye transformed into something completely different from the original instead of her usual white sclera and silver pupil that she used to have, it now had a silver sclera and the pupil has a gold Caduceus to replace it.
At the sight of this, Dystopia smiled faintly while laughing joyfully.
"Hahaha... I did it... I did it... with this I can enter a short hibernation phase without worrying about Mercury, at least he doesn't have to worry about Lilith killing him... hahahahahaaaaaa...
These were the last words that Dystopia spoke before she lost consciousness right away, the worn-out vessel of her dearly beloved Mercury was also pushed to point that it would be a miracle if it can even move right away.
Mercury hair that took a horn-like appearance slowly began to un-knot itself from its unusual horn-like state that resembles that of a reverse drill hair that was going upwards.
The three giant eyes that were present on his chest began to close as if it was entering a hibernation, but strangely if you look closely it looks like the giant eyes themselves were just shut ever so slightly instead of truly disappearing.
Even the two pairs of crimson red eyes that were underneath his already existing one and the one underneath the first pair began to close tightly.
Making the six eyes Mercury regain his humanoid facial appearance, with that said Mercury's body revert to normal with the only difference being the eyes closing tightly so much so you wouldn't even notice it, of you don't look good.
He then fall from the sky and landed hard on the ground creating a small crater beneath him, but with both Mercury and Dystopia out of commission, there was no presence to control the vessel because Mercury and Dystopia were somewhere else.
Dystopia is sleeping within the Mercuryverse, and Mercury currently talking to something far worse than any devil.
Both have unique circumstances nonetheless, the only reason Dystopia was asleep was that she wasted a lot of energy and life span, and been a tenth-dimensional existence she can easily regain that much life back with several week's worths of sleep.
Of course with both of them unconscious, the giant eye in the sky began slowly shut as if it was the eye of the universe itself.
And then time began to resume, and with time now been resumed, the world start to flow back naturally as everything that was held in place was now moving at its natural place.
Even Lilith who was about to free herself was instantly resumed as she spoke.
"Hmmm... it seems that I was finally able to breakthrough, ha were the many eyes bitch disappear to?"
Ask Lilith who notices that the menacing glare wasn't looking at her anymore, in confusion Lilith began to look around and notices that everything looks the same after the many eye bitch traps her in a series of annoying seals and barriers.
But after the last barrier that keep her captive her memory of the whole event was just looping endlessly as she watch the whole thing play over and over again and again, of course, this was caused by the looping barrier that makes one entire being trapped in an endless loop.
But despite all that, she began to realize what she should have been looking for, as she looked round and round, till eventually, she pick up the scent of the man she memorized.
--Sniff, Sniff--
And right after she look down to find a boy who had bruises all over, his breathing was rather rough, and his beautiful hair was full of sand, while his handsome and wild face had some scratch here and there.
He was completely naked, the reason being, the main body itself was worn out, and since Mercury's clothes are a transformation he was now naked hell it just felt more comfortable to him.
His Excalibur and family jewels were revealed for all to see, but that can also could be said for his eyes, Mercury's body was so exhausted Dystopia passed out before she had time to close it.
The detail of the eyes of Chao's blackish-purple chaos star, which was rotating like a wheel around Mercury's golden dragon-like pupils, was now on display for all to see as well.
Lilith from above had a slightly disappointed face as the battle was just getting a little exciting, but it couldn't be helped since it was clear that the boy's body was reaching its limit.
"Ahhh... sigh... just when it was getting good, but I guess this was to be expected the power of the vessel beast was too much for a mere human body to handle much less a child, by the look of thing the level of that beast seems to be at Extinction, but still for a Rank-E vessel lord to be together with a human a rare sight indeed, and the vessel beast itself seems to be from the devil race, haha.... devil and human ha... now I have seen it all but it's even shocking they achieve [unification], although the link doesn't seem to be perfect."
Spoke Lilith who slowly descend meters away from Mercury's sleeping body, of course as she descend towards Mercury she revert to her original form.
The hard breathing of the boy could be heard loud and clear, it was obvious that Mercury injured himself badly while fighting Lilith.
And when Lilith was near to him, she glare down at the boy with slight interest as if looking at a mysterious creature that suddenly pop out of nowhere.
She then began to look at the surrounding area, with an expressionless look on her face but beneath that indifference, a slight tingle on her heart was born.
Her eyes were glued to the surroundings as if she was thinking deeply about something, finally, her mouth began to move as she said.
"Humanity haaaa... for the race that is known for their greed and lack of power... so much so, the name alone could turn off even the weakest of demons in bed, but I must say for better or worst they sure got their hands on a rather destructive existence, for a human this is too much and the majority was caused by nothing but physical strength."
"Mercury Van Anguish... a name worth remembering I guess, well then for your sake I hope you can satisfy me."
Those were the last words Lilith spoke before she took her finger and snap it.
And upon doing that a girl suddenly appears out of nowhere, it was almost if she teleported, the woman was a rather mature woman with a huge bust, so much so, it was probably a little bigger than Lilith herself.
She was also very tall, although shorter than Lilith, she stood at 6'2, she had long black hair that look like drills, she would be this world equivalent of the sexy drill hair big sister type if anything she more like a milf for say, the drill was perfect to the point it looks unreal.
She wore a typical classic maid outfit, she had clear skin, her eyes were shut if you look
closely she had shark-like teeth that were sharp and pointy to the touch, it was also very shiny.
Her tighs were what many would say that it's perfect for childbirth, her butt was also huge and firm like her cleavage, but what stand out the most on her was the fact that behind her was wash nine black cattails, and on her head was also two fluffy black cat ears.
The woman herself came before Lilith as she bowed gracefully to meet her lady, as she spoke mid now professionally and elegantly.
"You call my lady?"
"Agh... yes I did call you, but I must say your timing is implacable as always Schrödina."
"Your compliments are wasted on me my lady, but as the head maid it's my job to be everywhere at all times."
"Yes, yes I get it, your everywhere but nowhere, but can you please take the boy back to the Citadel, place him inside the coffin he came from, after some analysis, it would appear that coffin has some special healing properties."
Spoke Lilith as she gave her maid an order.
After Lilith said that Schrödina looks towards the bottom of the crater where Mercury lies unconscious, she looks at the very boy plastered with many tattoos on his body with slight interest.
It was the very boy who has taken the interest of many within the Citadel, some who were watching him without him even noticing, she then look back at Lilith and ask.
"Is this the human that embarrasses Sirus last night?"
"Regrettably he is, speaking of Sirus where is she?"
"Dead drunk, in her room, the disgrace from last night hit her very hard, judging from her behavior this morning it would appear she fallen into chronic depressions."
"That very hilarious, well then leave her be for now I'm sure the shut-in will leave her room eventually after all I can't blame her for her behavior, a fallen pride is the very thing that makes a fallen, and for it to be tramble upon like that and by human no less is very embarrassing."
"As you wish my lady."
"With that said just take the boy back for me."
"Your wish is my command."
Upon saying that Schrödina walks towards the naked Mercury, but as she nears him or more so, when she reaches exactly three inches from him, something unexpected happens.
--Badump! Badump!--
"Ha?"
Said Schrödina in absolute shock.
"Is this, no way!"
--Badump! Badump!--
The closer Schrödina reaches Mercury the more the sound of a powerful heartbeat could be heard, from the left side of Schrödina's chest, by the second goes by the sound of her heart starts to beat even louder and faster.
Lilith gaze at this in slight amazement as she gaze towards the chest of Schrödina, and right after that a bright light could be seen the light itself was a menacing reddish-pink color, it was beating with great force a vigor eventually though sound and force of it were held motionless once more as if something magically shut it off.
In shock, Schrödina gazes towards Mercury with great curiosity, and Lilith, on the other hand, had an indifferent expression as to wonder how to proceed from here.
Schrödina on the other hand look towards Lilith as she held the very heart that began to beat as soon as reached close to Mercury.
"My liege I don't mean to impose on your kindness towards me, but I think it would be better to transfer the seventh to this boy."
"..."
Lilith was left silent as if she was thinking honestly this revelation took her by surprise, as it was completely unexpected to her, but Schrödina continue to speak in a serious matter.
"Honestly from since you gave me this heart it didn't even beat once nor did it awaken when it was passed down to me, this means I'm not compatible with the cardinal sin of Lust, but this boy it appeared he is extremely compatible with the sin of Lust, let be honest here I'm more compatible with Pride than Lust."
"I understand what your saying but to give a mere human one of mother hearts simply because it compatible with him is something even I would think hard to even consider."
"I understand that but I'm not fit to be a Draken, I'm not even a Fallen, to begin with."
"..."
"And think about it, the seal will soon be destroyed and out of the seven that exist the seat of Lust is still vacant, and be the ways things are now, no one in the last 10,000 years was able to restart the Lust heart, from ever since Ultima died it has remained motionless.
"Haaa... I still don't agree I'm not giving one of the most powerful weapons that exist to a human and child no less, I hate mother with a passion, but those hearts are something even I would not give away lightly, and seeing the immense compatibility he has with it I can only say that this boy has a strong alignment with the sin of Lust, those heart bend boundaries, and reality to awaken a power related to his desire and interpretation of what Lust is to him and it all depends on his experience with Love and Lust."
"The power one can gain from mother bitch heart are so strong it can disrupt the power balance of the world, and you want me to give this to a human."
"..."
Now Schrödina was the one to remain silent she knew Lilith's words were final so she will not ponder this message any longer as she said.
"Understood."
"Good now carry him back to his coffin, and also tell Sirus to keep an eye on him."
"Ha... Sirius."
"Sirus...
"Yes, I'm sure she wants to meet him more than anyone else right now, just think of it as a slight punishment for trying to escape, and also a reward to cheer Sirus up so it's killing two birds with one stone."
"I see very well then."
And upon saying that Schrödina picks up the naked Mercury into a princess carry, as he walks some ways from Lilith, but right after she is about to leave she gave Lilith one last look at Lilith as she said.
"I must say my lady that new collar, eye contacts, and belly button tattoo fits you well, as expected of someone with great style and fashion sense as you."
With that said Schrödina suddenly disappear with Mercury, from someone else perspective it looks like they teleported away, but the reality is far more than that, if anything her existence was needed else were of course in a sense she still there as well, but at the same time not there.
And when Lilith heard Schrödina's last words she had a confused look on her face as she said.
"Collar what collar is she talking about?"
And when she asked that, she place her hand around her neck and notice a foreign object was wrapped around her neck.
"Ha, the hell is this?"
Spoke Lilith who was gazing at the collar then the mysterious tattoo that was around her navel, including the straight black line that connects the two.
Lilith then began to use her analytical skills to see what the hell was wrapped around her neck so comfortable she didn't even feel the foreign object when she first escape the Dystopia seal, and what she found shocked her.
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[Anhilation curse]
A curse that makes the user unable to physically hurt the target Mercury Van Anguish, any attempts to hurt or kill the target on a physical level the victim will self destruct, and slowly be put back together, as pain must be repaid in worse pain.
And if the user tries to do this three times in one day, despite the warning, a mark of loyalty will emerge of the host body giving the victim the ability to give you one order that the host must follow without fail
______________
And upon seeing this Lilith's eyes flinch at the sudden revelation that had sadly befall her, something that was completely unexpected and out of the equation happen to her and the only thing that came from her moment of silence was the harsh and foul words that existed her mouth right after.
Her fist was clenched tight, to the point, that blood was leaking from the wound on her hands which was caused by her sharp claws piercing her flesh.
Veins of annoyance could be seen as her eye twitched in anger and annoyance and what followed was a series of explicit words so profound it would make your ears bleed at the very thought some of them were even newly made-up ones.
"The f***** b*** curse me, I swear I'm going to f****** kill your a** and shove a d*** *** z**** h******...
The sound of an angry Fallen queen was all that fill the silent wasteland, and her cursing would last another ten minutes before she calms down, but one thing was for sure if Dystopia was to see this she would have a well deserve satisfied smile on her face.
--Change of POV--
Meanwhile somewhere far, far, far away from the great Fallen nation of Artemis, so much so, calling the chosen destination the edge of the world wouldn't even be called an exaggeration.
Because at the very edge of the world or also known as the dark spot of the world an amazing event was about to take place, up a giant snowy mountain so high seeing the ground was close to impossible, and at the very top of the mysterious mountain inside a cave filled with many mysterious crystals so cold whenever anything touches them they instantly freeze.
And if we go deeper in that cave at the very center within a mysterious room that goes even deeper underground so much so, beneath another cave system so deep that molten lava could now be seen.
And after we pass the huge pool of lava we now entered into yet another mysterious room, the only difference is that this mysterious room was made of nothing but metal, no to call it a room would be disrespecting its creator's hard work.
The reason is this room resembles that of a weird giant ship that seems to have been burry beneath the Era core, the ship itself looks highly advanced so much so it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it look like something straight out of a Syfy movie.
And withing this high advanced ship that was so big it could easily be the size of an entire kingdom, and, if we go inside we could see thousands of pillars made from some unknown material, and thousand of many weird and advanced technology.
Of course, there we're also thousand of corpses from some unknown species that look like purple human-size squids of all in shape many of the were ripped to pieces as if something destroyed them before their landing on this planet.
But these weird alien-like creatures weren't the thing of interest no at the deepest part of the ship within a highly advanced lab, and at the center of the ship a beautiful girl could be seen trapped within a blue crystal with thousand of mechanical tentacles and weird-looking machine that seems to be a monitor of the sort.
The machine itself looks like it was keeping whatever the hell was inside this crystal alive, and if we look good we can see a beautiful girl that had a petite figure, and small but cute size breast, she was completely naked, she was at least 5'0 She had long straight black hair with ash gray tips, her hair was so long it was twice her size.
She had a rather unique skin color it was dark blue, she appears to have three eyes two normal ones like a human and one giant one above those like a cyclops, with thick beautiful glistering pure white eyelashes.
She was completely naked but it was easy to see her luscious thick tights that would be extremely erotic for any man, but if you look past the horny, you would notice that the girl's limbs seem to be mechanical, if anything they look just like the real deal, while her center body was also partly mechanical, if anything she was what many would call a cyborg, but in her case, she was more machine than flesh.
Something closer to an android maybe, behind her back she had six pink mechanical tails that look dragon-like, but when put together like this they almost looks like tentacles.
Just being near this girl gives one the feeling of wanting to worship her instantly simply because of her beauty.
And if you look closely once more you would notice that the computer screen suddenly began to act funny as it began speaking in an unknown language while typing the word on the screen which roughly translates to.
[Time till activation, minus 12 days, 23 hours, 45 minutes, and 38 seconds]
[Downloading status: 97.64%]
[Current overall status: all systems are green, no foreign anomalies have been detected within the God core, mana core, reality core, mind core, nor origin core]
But as soon as the computer said that it's wasn't long after that it began to pick up something strange within the room that was highly guarded by the computer itself as a loud alarm could be heard, which followed by a warning.
[Warning! Warning! a huge wave of mana can be sensed within the premises]
[Warning the magic sensors have all died down due to a critical overload]
[Estimated threat level high God class]
[Now activating the God slayer system, the protection of project "LaRa Zero" is of the highest order]
[Notice a small gap in the space-time continuum has been sense]
[Warning a foreign anomaly has been sense within the gap, now analyzing to determine threat level]
And upon saying that a small tiny blob of energy with no distinguishing feature emerges from a small crack that was within the space-time continuum.
And when the mysterious purple blob, enters the premises something amazing happen.
[Notice. A lesser soul of unknown origins has entered the Goddess chamber]
[Now analyzing]
[Error! Error!]
[The soul within the Goddess chambers seems to be from another dimensional plane of lesser existence, with immense potential and growth rate]
[The system has found the anomaly potential beyond satisfactory, and has decided to absorb the soul and convert its existence to numerals values to speed up the Goddess rebirth]
[Now absorbing]
[1%...23%...46%...78%...87%...100%]
[Absorbtion successful]
[Now scanning foreign soul for additional abilties]
[Notice the following cheat skills has been sense]
[Ultimate skill: Vector lord Janus]
. The ability to control, manipulate and alter all forms of vectors
[Unique skill: Limitless potential]
.The ability to always become stronger without a limiter holding the user back
[Notice due to the near completion of "LaRa Zero" the system has decided to fuse the personality of the former and the current latter to speed up the progress, creating an entirely new persona, of course, the stronger persona which is the former shall be the dominant personality, with the latter emotions and memories]
[Successful]
[Downloading status: 100%]
[Now activating the main system]
[Activation complete, now begin the reboot of "LaRa Zero" and the one under the foreign designation name of "Pyrahh Mercury"]
And after the computer that had an androgynous voice said that, the crystal that contain the beautiful lolita alien android started to crack.
To be continued.
Next time: For the sake of the daily mission I will kindly ask you to all die