Side Chapter 7: The Tournament Part 2: Nature's Avatar Vs Machine Girl
It was free to assume that the principal of this Academy City knew what he was doing, his actions were very clear and there was no doubt in their interpretation. The principal despite being a human himself didn't wish for the Age of Mankind to continue, he wished for it to end and die. The outcasts whom the nation representatives had kept a close eye were of no use to them but it seemed that this was a mistake on their part, Toshiro seemed to be stronger than the hero himself and by Tadashi's words he could summon even a god. Moreover was the fact that the public perception of the S Class was wounded, their very best was humiliated in front of everyone in the worst possible way. The principal's champion had defeated Tadashi and that was sending out waves throughout the entire arena, Toshiro's name was on every students' lips even as Tadashi was being lifted out of the arena they were still speaking about how awesome he looked.
Once again the arena was filled with silence as the next Hero had entered the stage, they could not disrespect her because her importance made it such that fear would be sowed in their hearts of the things she could potentially do to them. Her name was Sakamoto Hatsuko, the hero who had taken the appearance of a high elf. She had a halo above her head and a pair of wings on her waist which covering it, her clothes were sewn with the material that came from a Great Treant's leaves giving them a natural green hue. From the dress that reached her thighs to the very lightcrystal heels that she wore everything had come from nature itself. She was very well composed and served to advocate the teachings of the Goddess of Nature, Tanis and the God of Law and Order, Zeolus. She was going to be appointed archbishop whether she won or not, certainly a being that would aid many of the natures who worshipped those particular religions. This was the church's trump card, this could show by how little she carried out her own thought and spoke very little. Her once brown hair had become blonde, the color of her eyes were of the deepest of blue reminding people of either the sky on a hot summer day or the sea when in its calmest moments, her face was expressionless and only stood to watch the opponent who was to challenge her.
"Despite being a hero, he was still impure in the end thus he lost to an outcast. I declare I shall become victorious in place of Lord Matsuoji, by the Great Goddess of Nature Tanis and the Great God of Law and Order, Zeolus I will bring glory to their names. All of you inferior beings need not to worry, I who has been blessed by the gods shall show unto you true power"
She constructed a chair made out of sinew like vines sitting on it with her hand on her cheek, everyone had known her as being emotionless from the time she came here but now she was showing levels of it as if something had entered her. A fan of flowers was created in the chair that she begins to use on herself. Hatsuko seemed like a queen within that chair that began to decorate itself with animals and rare flowers the more time passed, the church of course knew about this change. This was the personality of the Goddess of Nature Tanis descending down unto her, this was the reason why people did not want to disrespect her in any way because she was housing a goddess within her body. It was a vessel that was fit enough for her to inhabit, hence a total erasure of Hatsuko's original personality. Tanis was intrigued by the sudden power that Toshiro exhibited and even more entertained by the fact he had brought a foreign god to their world, her siblings were planning to do something with the souls that were going to be lost in the ensuing war between the new demon king and the heroes but something was happening that only she started noticing. To be at the forefront of this change she wanted to witness what it was first, if it was as entertaining as she thought it to be then she would make a very drastic decision. Her boredom would finally end and she would live life on the edge once more.
Contrary to popular belief she wasn't calm and composed as people believed her to be, she wasn't motherly either. Tanis was rather very feisty and was often excited by the unknown, of course she didn't want to fight the unknown to the death but rather try to see what it was to see what it was all about, the randomness and unexpected nature of it was what could have made her an evil god if she followed the evil gods of this world whom she vanquished with her siblings. Zeolus watched her moves closely at that time making her silently laugh, she shut her eyes as she thought of the boring times that the heroes were sent to defeat the demon king but this time something was different. There was another force involved entirely, her train of thoughts stopped as something crashed into the stage after flying into it.
She opened her eyes and it was another cloaked figure giving out a victory sign, she threw away her cloak revealing it to be Ren. She was somehow different from the last time she saw her. Dressed in the same gothic lolita fashion wear but with a keen focus on metallic parts, it seemed to breathe along with her entire body, her eyes were a vivid shade of red with a faint glow to it. She had achieved a doll like aura and seemed to smile faintly something she did not do ever since the other children decided to kick out Ryou because of Zeolus's decision. As nature goddess she could feel that there was something utterly wrong with her, something unnatural, something inhuman. Even the metallic parts on her dress weren't exactly metal made by a natural process. Her movement was like the very world itself was rejecting her, she didn't seem like she fit in place.
She felt like an intruder coming from another world, this was the unknown pure and true. She felt excitement and couldn't show it on her face, Ren was covered in pure chaos. Tanis smiled under her fan and couldn't allow the masses to see her twisted grin. Her very soul was stirred up for a moment, every living and unliving being in this world paid respect to nature and its cycle of life and death but Ren had opposed that and become something else entirely.
"Its a pleasant day for battling isn't it Not Hatsuko-chan"
"Oh?It seems you have also noticed"
"Yes, it is not that hard after you have blessed with information just like I have"
"I see, shall we get along with this then?"
"Yes, may I ask a question Not Hatsuko-chan"
"Ask and I will answer your question"
"You appear to be bored since you've transferred your conscience to Hatsuko-chan's body and turned it into your vessel, if you join my side will you leave her body in exchange of the excitement that you seek"
"I believe that may be hard to do, I have utterly erased this girl's personality as a result."
"It matters not I will create another vessel for you to inhabit similar to the one that you are currently in"
"Let us decide that after the match, though I am very confident in my skill. I shall not allow you to even lay a single finger on me. I take pride in the beauty of nature and will not allow you to sully this beautiful body of mine"
"I guess some things about Hatsuko transferred to the goddess, anyway I am not fighting the person I wanted to fight and their personality has been stripped away from them hence I am not avenging myself well here. Oh well at least I take pleasure at damaging her"
Tanis gets up from her chair and summons an array of forest related spirits: dryads, treants, wood sprites, forest zombies, and forest wraiths. The crowd is wowed by the sheer number of them but Ren is unfazed by it, in fact she stretches out her arms and smiles viciously at them as if in a battle stance.
"You may start now"
"I shall put you in the ground vile intruder!"
"Not by my watch. Let us begin this simulation of excruciating death"
Ren's eyes glowed even more as if to announce this, they had a mechanical glow to them with the metallic parts of her dress floating into the air forming a pair of wings. Ren's body was transforming right before their eyes as her skin had become metallic and had a shine to it, her hair became synthetic with her eyes drowning in a pool of darkness, the joints of her body glowed faintly as she floated in the air in silence. This was the thing that made Tanis so afraid, something so completely out of place that she had to restrain herself from attacking it out of impulse. Ren crosses her hands together as hunks of metal shaped like great swords with blunt edges appear from the black void appear beside her, she smiles a twisted grin that makes Tanis immediately begin her assault on her.
"ATTACK!!"
The dryads, forest zombies and forest wraiths start to race towards her with Ren's reaction being the blunt great swords dropping the edge and revealing an empty space that begins to shoot at them all with energy bullets that disintegrate them on the spot. After dealing with the frontline of enemies Ren flies towards the horde that are still running towards her, whilst the great sword guns are still shooting the surrounding enemies who try to get in her way Ren is mowing down the enemies in front of her with a long sword whose blade is constantly vibrating producing a heated layer. They stood no chance against her with her rapidly approaching Tanis who creates a large wall that would obstruct her from reaching her but this is futile as it is broken by Ren's punch who arrives within a distance could be said to be dangerous for a druid. As if by reflex she summons a vine to swat her away like a fly, but that is cut into two right before it fully appears from the ground. Tanis makes her first move by leaping backwards.
"Hmm"
She uses the leaves of the treants to attack Ren as they are sharpened to cut through metal but this doesn't work according to plan as they are sundered by her with knives that appear from somewhere. Intending to enter the fray she moves forward but steps back upon seeing an array of swords spring up from the ground. Tanis sends out flowers that are sent as projectiles but those are shot down by bullets that come from a different set of rifles.
"I thought as much you are predicting what I am going to do right before I do it"
"Heh"
"Will you expect this however?"
"Already preparing for it"
She punches the ground with her fists and and grabs very deep into it, rocks and broken tiles start to float into the air as electrical energy is seen surrounding Ren who stares at Tanis for a brief moment before smirking once again. She sends a numerous number of roots flying towards Ren but hey crash into nothing as Ren is seen cruising towards her with a blade for a arm cutting through the roots at speeds that are hard to follow, burning the roots with a flamethrower that is equipped on her left shoulder. Her right arm transforms into a canon which she points at the source of the roots with them increasing in number as they serve to protect Tanis however that function is rendered useless as Ren's arm canon explodes a stream of energy that rips into Hatsuko who is caught in the aftermath of that blast. Ren starts alone coming face to face with a flower, her arm becomes normal as she stares at it.
"You are certainly not a goddess of nature for show"
What blooms from the flower is Tanis covered in a dress of roses with a crown of horns smiling twistedly at her.
"I HAVEN'T FELT THIS MUCH JOY EVER SINCE THE FIRST DEMON KING!!"
"Glad to have made you happy dear goddess flower"
"SHOW ME MORE I WANT TO SEE MORE OF YOUR POWER!!"
"Already on it"
Treant seeds are shot at her but she dodges them with ease producing rifles on her shoulders that shoot down the seeds and at the petals that seem to absorb the bullets and spit them back at her. Ren throws grenades at her from her chest that explode with the petals serving to protect her but Tanis' eyes widen as Ren points her arms at her as they dissolve into stacks upon stacks of numerous guns that she begins to set loose on her. The petals could only protect her thus so far and had failed their function with the roots of the flower now serving that purpose.
"Activate 20% speed increase, power limit 10%, weapons unlocked 3%"
Upon saying this Ren approaches Hatsuko in a close distance almost touching noses before she grabs her and throwing her into the air along with the flower that is her base. The winds scream a boom as Ren starts to shoot at Hatsuko who is still able to protect herself a myriad of petals, she constructs a long sword that begins to cut down the petals into small pieces as she uses her jet powered wings to reach her and stab her with. She turns her body around and is now laying on her stomach, the roots were first to burn as the entire thing was now appearing like a pink colored meteor. Crashing into the stage with a pink explosion Ren walks out of that completely unscathed looking back at Tanis who emerges out of it with a burning flower dress, smiling at her in the most endearing way that one could ever see.
"You are so beautiful in your machine like ways. I think I really like you human"
"Oh shit, I think I set up a flag that I wasn't supposed to set up here"
"Oh dear it seems one of my leading angels has noticed what is going on. If you truly want to take me as a comrade then defeat the angel as quickly as possible before it relays information of what happened here"
"A time limit huh?How many seconds will the angel have to come to and from here"
"60 seconds"
The angel appears behind Tanis visibly furious as it sends feathers at her but Ren is already making her move as she makes lasers that connect into each other and cut the feathers before they could reach her. She leaps into the air with her long sword pointing it at the angel which transforms into an even bigger covering her right arm, spirits are absorbed into the canon as the angel stares in disbelief with her smirking at it.
"Fire"
The recoil sends her flying even higher into the air as the angel tries to stop the beam with its hands but eventually succumbs to its power and gets destroyed. Tanis claps her hands upon seeing this and reconstructs her clothing by herself.
"That was done almost with 30 seconds left"
"Very rapid now then shall we make our leave?"
"Certainly I am not sure what to call you. Tanis-sama?Tanis-san?Or?"
"I'll change it to a human name that's quite common from your world.....Tsubaki will do. It looks I would have to prepare to shift my realm into a pocket dimension for me to continue my duties as a goddess"
"I have a person who is an expert on that, she is the teacher who made me become what I am today"
"I am interested. Please take care of me Ren-chan"
"Likewise Tsubaki. Though I do have to say you were fairly hard to fight. Were you really giving your all on me?"
"Yes and no, if I were everyone here would be turned into flowers already and there would be no coming back from that would there?"
"Yeah of course not. You wanted to lose didn't you?"
"Precisely, now that I have an accurate measurement of your strength I am curious as to how strong your teacher is"
"So strong she could create a universe if she wanted to"
"...…"
"Yeah she is very abnormal"
A battle between the incarnation of a literal god had taken place which had not only shocked the representatives of the church she could inhabit the body in such a way but that she could easily leave humanity's side when the time called for it. History was being made in this arena and they were watching it happen right in front of their eyes.
『
• Name: Ren Tachibana
• Age: 18
• Race: Evolving Machine
• Title: Outcast with Inactive Skills, Mechanized Human
• Job: Iron General of Mechanization
• Level: 27
•Job History: [ERROR 0], [ERROR 1], Iron Soldier
○ Attributes:
• HP: 29,000
• MP: 30,000
• Strength: 24,000
• Agility: 20,000
• Stamina: 18,000
• Intelligence: 59,000
○ Skills:
• Augmentation Level 10
• Electricity Manipulation Level 5
• Body Part Manipulation Level 6
• Weapon Creation Level 8
• Mechanization Level 10
• Status System Advancement Level 1
• Advanced Analyze Level 3
• Recreation Level 5
• Multiple Body Spawn Level 6
• Personality Sharing Level 3
• Multicasting Level 7
• Mineral Devouring 10
• Combat Reading Level 12
• Combat Prediction Level 12
• Rapid Magic Signature Change Level 2
○Passive Skills:
• Machine Strength Level 10
• Machine Agility Level 10
• Fatigue Resistance Level ∞
• Machine Healing Level 7
• Adaptive Evolution Level 8
• Status Effect Resistance Level 10
• Advanced Movement Level 12
• Human Imitation Level 10
• Metamorphosis Level 5
• Automatic Energy Regeneration Level 6
• Energy Devouring Level 6
• Boosted Attack when Equipped With: Sword Level 3
○ Unique Skills:
• Automata Level 5
• System of Yog-Sothoth Level 5
』