Ash had to shield himself from the violent explosion that vaporized the whole church. Skadi was floating in the air and she was forming seaborne scales on her person.
"Shit, what the hell is happening?" Ash didn't know, but he has to try and do something.
"Sorry about this little orca." Ash charged through the waves of energy and he socked her right on the chin.
Skadi flew away like a ragdoll and she skipped like a pebble on the waters of the shore.
He quickly followed and he was surprised that didn't take her down. Black scales formed on her chin. "Natural armor... Shit, this isn't going to be good, is it?" Ash furrowed his brows.
And not good was severely underestimating the situation. Because Skadi started to sing and he could feel the waters get agitated.
Thousands of seaborne began to pop up from the water. "Oh my god... How can this be?" Irene gasped and Ash turned with shock.
"I told you to run away! Are you goddamned stupid?" Ash shouted at them, the swarm of monsters charged and Ash clicked his tongue.
Concentrating lightning on his arm, he pointed it at them. Snaking around, chain lightning vaporized the abyssal monsters by the dozens every jump it made.
"Unlimited power!" The group behind him shielded their eyes. Smelling ozone and burnt meat that lingered in their noses.
The smaller creatures turned into ashes immediately. But the bigger ones exploded from their blood flash heating. Resulting in steam explosions that were contained in their fleshy bodies.
"Go! This is beyond you!" Ash shouted once again and the inquisitors hesitated. But Specter put Gladiia on her shoulders and she grabbed the other two, running away from there immediately.
They were strong, sufficiently so. But against thousands of enemies? It was hardly a fight that they could participate in. Especially not the savage seaborne.
While Ash was culling down their numbers, Skadi pointed her fingers at him and his eyes widened.
A beam of energy hit him right on the chest and he got buried on the ground. His torso smoking, Ash shook his head and hissed. It was somehow effective against him, moreso than the attacks of the Sui siblings.
He could see the seaborne running like mad dogs and Sal Viento's citizens would be torn apart by them.
So he immediately erected a wall. A tsunami of water moved with his will and he froze the huge body of water right behind him into a wall.
A fifty meter high fortress of ice stood behind him. Several meters thick, boxing in the accursed abyssal monsters there with him.
"You want to do this? I have no qualms about it!" Ash took out his sword and the seaborne blood that was dyeing the sands and waters were consumed by it.
He was worried for a good few seconds, but his sword did not reject it. The thing existed for slaughter and onslaughts. It gleefully ate up everything.
Ash grinned at the reliability of his sword and he coated it with a concentration of flames. Like a plasma blade, it shone brightly and elongated.
Blasting a large amount of sand with his launch. He started cutting them down by the hundreds every second. Skadi widened her eyes and Ash arrived right in front of her.
Cocking his arm back, he struck the hunter right on the temple and a shockwave exploded from the hit.
He did not want to use his sword on her. Not really sure what would be its reaction after cutting her. It would leave a heavy dose of demonic energy on Skadi.
The hunter scowled and she was growing more scales by the second. "Skadi looks different..." He frowned.
Ash cut down the seaborne like grass and the demonic energy coming from it was beginning to reach a threshold.
The sand and waters were becoming tainted. Just like how the emperor's blades. But it was fiercer, more malicious.
It was sinister, reddish black miasma was leaking from his sword and it surprised him. His weapon was claiming lives using the miasma as a conduit.
Seaborne that was claimed by it shriveled up and turned into dust. "You're one nasty son of a bitch." Ash looked at his sword and the eye on the hilt looked pleased by the compliment.
He started thinking of what to do against Skadi. But their battle would definitely put the town at risk.
It was an uphill battle. The seaborne were like mushroom spores. They kept on appearing without rest. He couldn't just leave the shore, the inquisitors and Specter won't be able to hold.
The sword pulsed. "Stab you right there? You sure you can hold the line? Fine, if you don't. I won't ever use you again." Ash huffed and he threw it at the sandy beach.
He looked at it for a second and was satisfied that the seaborne could not overwhelm its evil energy. It consumed anything that went close with glee. The gluttonous sword's appetite for massacre and life was bottomless.
"Right, now you. What happened to you?" Ash looked at Skadi who was growling at him like a feral animal.
With a push of his telekinesis. Skadi got thrown further back and now they are in the middle of the ocean.
"Skadi, this isn't you..." He got rewarded by a beam of energy right on his chest again.
"Fuck this, I'm not good at talking anyways." Ash lunged at her with breakneck speeds.
His elbow crashed right on her jaw and Skadi got sent deep into the waters. He waited for her to float up, feeling her consciousness still active.
But what appeared right below the waters looked like a serpentine dragon. (pic)
His face hardened. The serpent opened its maw, the blue energy from its mouth consolidated and it was released right at him as a thick laser.
Ash cut right through it in the middle with his lightning and he clapped.
With a thunderous applause from the heavens, a thick bolt of lightning landed right on top of the beast's head.
It howled in pain, its head smoking from the attack. With his ethereal hand, Ash threw it right in the air and he held onto its tail.
He bunched up the molecular structure of the water around them and turned it rock solid. Swinging the serpent, he smashed the thing onto the hardened water.
Large waves resulted from the impact and he continued doing it until it looked like it won't be doing anything anymore.
"Skadi! Wake up." Ash poked on the serpent's head. He sighed after not getting a reaction. What did though, were seaborne that were under the water.
Large tentacles tried to get a hold of him. Leviathans from the deep swam to the aid of their mother.
And while he was distracted, a laser from the serpent's mouth hit him. Searing his skin and flesh that made him hiss.
Ash flew back to the shores and he groaned. "That hurt." He began regenerating, but the leviathans and the serpent were quickly beginning to travel towards the beach.
Creating spears of fire and lightning, he sprinted like an Olympian and threw the javelins of death.
He targeted the Leviathans and they fell from the explosions of plasma and flames one by one.
"Tch, they're grouping up. I can't let this hit Skadi." He cursed and was getting really annoyed.
"Need some help stranger?" He saw darts with green liquid in them being fired onto the leviathans and it seemed to be... Effective.
He looked at the person and saw a flash of pink hidden under a blue hoodie. "What are you doing here girl? This is a dangerous battle." Ash frowned at her appearance. (pic)
She was wearing shorts to a battle for Christ's sake.
"You need not worry, take on the serpent. I will immobilize the leviathans for you." She began firing darts that came from a pouch on her hip.
He shrugged, Ash could tell she knew what she was doing.
"Stay close to my sword, it won't consume you. The seaborne won't be able to get to you there." Ash pointed at his evil looking sword with a twitchy eye on the hilt. And what looked to be energy going into the mouth on the flat of the blade.
"Uh... Thank you, but..." She looked really apprehensive. She did not want to go near that thing with a ten meter pole.
"Suit yourself." Ash arrived right in front of the serpent and soccer kicked it into oblivion.
The girl winced at the explosive blow that crushed several seaborne around Skadi just from the shockwave.
Ash frowned after seeing the damage though. The scales of the serpent felt harder, thicker. "She is adapting..." He gasped.
He quickly prepared and focused. Wanting to neutralize her without much bodily harm.
"I guess you'll be another recipient of gender equality, Skadi." Ash shook his head in exasperation and filled his body with his raging energy.
Lightning and flames crackled from his body. The violet energy leaking out from his horns and right arm.
His arms and back screamed from the power he put into them. And he disappeared, suddenly arriving above her head.
With a roar, his fists crashed right at the top of the serpent's head. His arms filled to the brim with potential energy.
A thunderclap cracked and the serpent crashed below the hardened water. Ash saw that Skadi still had some fight on her so he raised his leg and prepared for an axe kick.
Increasing his weight via gravity, Ash dropped down like a meteor. His leg burning from the friction it met.
His heel crashed right onto the serpent's crown and its long body stiffened. Then it limped down, slowly shrinking into Skadi's form.
Ash sighed and he scanned her body. She was healing pretty quickly. But that wasn't the problem. She might go all serpenty like that again later.
"I'll deal with this later... Maybe Gladiia knows something about this." He rubbed his temples and carried her back to shore.
The girl he left there stayed true to her word and she repelled the leviathans skillfully. Though his sword was sulking a bit, it had a wonderful feast. But now there weren't any more food coming.
"Thanks for stopping those things. You're pretty amazing." Ash couldn't help but be in awe at her expertise.
"No worries, it's a specialty." She shrugged and he saw her bright blue eyes. It looked like the clear sky in the afternoon.
"I'm Asmodeus, do you have any idea what was that about earlier?" Ash pointed at Skadi and she shook her head.
"I don't know, but Skadi transformed into a leviathan. Maybe Gladiia or Ulpianus knows." She shrugged.
Ash blinked, abyssal hunters are supposed to have red eyes and white hair. She didn't look like one, so why did she know them.
"I'm Azureus, lead the way." She gestured to lead and he locked in on Specter and Gladiia's position.
They went to them and saw the inquisitors pacify the civies. It was going pretty well, all things considered. Of course it would, when the people trying to do so had guns and swords.
"You good?" Ash greeted them and the inquisitors looked at him with complex emotions. Like they just got poured cold water above their heads.
"Y-yes sir, thank you for saving us." Irene bowed to him and he didn't expect that. "It's fine, if I didn't let you go. You would be seaborne snacks, how can I play tic-tac-toe with your forehead otherwise?" Ash chuckled.
Specter looked at the unconscious Skadi in his arms, but was quiet. Gladiia was still asleep, so they herded the people back to the town and went to their makeshift HQ.
After a few hours, Ash felt Gladiia stir and she saw that Skadi was unconscious as well.
"What happened?" She furrowed her brows. "You got captured is what happened. You explain that to me first." Ash rolled his eyes.
"I... A seaborne got the drop on me and stabbed its hand right through my chest... It was humanoid." Gladiia frowned and Ash created a hologram of its appearance.
"Yes, that one." Gladiia hissed and was ashamed of her failure. Her pride took a massive hit, especially after Ash entrusted her to be alone in her mission to lure them out.
"And what happened next was terrible... That freak called Skadi his? Its mother, then she suddenly started calling seaborne by the thousands." Ash massaged his temples.
"W-what? Can you tell me more about what happened?" Gladiia was shocked.
"Yeah, she also transformed into a serpent. Multiple leviathans attacked, I had a little helper though." Ash pointed to the side and Azureus who was pointing her finger in a vial, collecting some kind of fluid greeted Gladiia.
"Blue poison!? It seems you've helped us once again." Gladiia sighed and she didn't know how to start explaining things.
After staying silent for a minute, she opened her lips again. "That... Was Ishar-mla, one of the firstborn. The Corrupting Heart." Gladiia stated with pursed lips.
Ash and Azureus' eyes went wide as saucers. "The big bad? But... How? How can Skadi turn into that thing?"
"During our last battle with it, Ishar-mla cursed Skadi. Giving its blood to her in order to turn her into the new firstborn. It can control the Seaborne and its the most combat oriented behemoth of the leviathans." Gladiia clicked her tongue.
"This... So we're both in an advantage and disadvantage..." Ash furrowed his brows.
Skadi was in their custody, but she's like a ticking bomb. She is fighting against the will of the behemoth. And if she accepts it fully, it would be a disaster.
"Yes... That's why I tried to leave her behind in Paradiso in the first place. But I guess taking Specter would of course make her follow. It is pretty obvious that she cherishes you." Gladiia sighed at her poor decisions.
"Damn... Good thing I have the best generals. I can leave the war in their hands. Not that it would take that long." Ash had to prepare for the inevitable invasion of the abyssal monsters much sooner.
"I can provide you my services." Azureus said softly. They could see that she was a shy little thing. Deadly as hell though, toxins that can affect Leviathans are scary as hell. Even the abyssal hunters can't ignore that.
"Glad to have you on board. I myself dabble in poisons, more like nerve agents. But yours is natural?" Ash gave her his hand for a shake.
She fidgeted around and was apprehensive against physical contact.
Ash analyzed her appearance. And due to her bright colors, Azureus employs warning colorations. Pink hair and bright blue eyes. She is most likely a poison dart frog.
"Come on, I'm immune to poison. Don't be shy." Ash took her hand and shook it. Making her freeze for a quick second.
"Y-yes... I look forward to working with you." She bowed and was embarrassed by the contact.
'Damn, she must be starved for human contact.' Ash could see it, she was awkward as hell when she wasn't in combat. She can speak normally, but when it comes to things like this. Azureus gets stiff and twitchy.
"We have to return to Paradiso. I need to start on stabilizing the abyssal hunters. And with our warmongering, I can see the peace keepers contacting us." Ash squinted his eyes.
Especially with the weapons in their employ, those nuts would definitely contact them.
Gladiia scoffed, if there were peacekeepers in Terra. Then they were doing an ass job. "Who are they anyways?"
"Laterano, the angels with guns." Ash shrugged. It was time to apply the Geneva suggestion. Because he was sure as hell that Terrans won't even try to uphold it.
And it would give them a reason to wage war with the nation or group that tries violating it. Crimes against humanity would be enough reason to commit genocide for a greater tomorrow.
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Thanks for reading everyone, ciao.