Chapter 49: The Volcano Goddess and the Phoenix Demon
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The Rebirth by Soulfire had just increased my powers more than tenfold.
There was something odd, though.
I raised my head to face the clear sky that was based on moonlight. Why was there no lightning tribulation this time? Was it because Underlord is a special case thanks to the emergence of Soulfire, or maybe because I'm inside this Dungeon?
Not that I'm complaining, those lightning tribulations hurt anyway.
"Aqua!"
I heard a call, turning my head to find three girls standing meters away from me. Mem and Mai stared at me in shock, with their faces red, and understandably looked away in embarrassment. I was naked, after all.
The one who yelled, however, ran at me and leaped into my arms. Akane hugged me. The other two hadn't seen me injured, so while they were concerned about what the fire attack had done to me, it wasn't them whom I had hugged and blocked the attack using my back with. So they didn't come and cry their eyes out on my chest despite me being naked, like what Akane was doing right now.
"I- I am sorry- sniff, I- if only I didn't trip, all of this wouldn't have happened." She cried and complained, shaking her arms on my neck.
Some ruthless parts of me would say she had a point, that she's worthless. However, truthfully, she had just slipped. For a normal girl who probably never went to a mountain before, it's not her fault that she slipped on a rock. She even managed to hold back a yell when she fell.
And hey. Look at the bright part.
This situation provided a similar output to the canon timeline event where Aqua saved Akane from jumping off the bridge. Just as planned.
Well, I didn't exactly plan to pick a fight with a Demon God and get my back melted by fire, but I did plan to save her. And save her I did, for which she was grateful and touched. Earlier, when I hugged her tightly, despite a fire burning my back, using my body as a human shield to keep her safe, her eyes were wide and filled with sparkles.
"Akane, it's alright." I let her cry for a bit and then said, lifting her face up and placing a kiss on her forehead. "It's not your fault, I'd have fled the scene leaving you if you really were at fault. So don't worry about it."
"Mhm… really?"
"Really."
I kissed her again, while the two other girls looked to their side, with Mem-Cho sighing in a helpless tone as she did. I felt slightly bad for her, but I'll give her some attention later.
I ruffled her hair gently, "Akane, you stay here with Mem and Mai. I'll be right back."
"W-wait, where are you going?!" Akane asked as I stepped back from her.
A small bubble of cloud enveloped my private parts, while I teleported clothes out of my Void Storage. I had backup clothes kept there in case I came across situations like this. Like the first day I came here, I wore baggy white sweatpants and a tight-fitting black tee shirt. My hair was freed due to all the burning, so I tied it in a low ponytail.
[Image Here]
"To take care of the situation beyond this dimension," I said to Akane. Then I looked at Mem-Cho. "Take care, I'll be back."
"Sounds like a death flag." She said with a frown on her face.
I laughed. "Not mine, be sure of that." Then I shot to the sky as the aura carried me.
I wasn't running on the air anymore, no, I was really flying. The vital wind aura of nature moved according to my will now that I was [Underlord], carrying me through the sky. In a matter of seconds, I shot up to the peak of the mountain, much faster than I was before, and stopped.
I raised my hand. Then I cleaved down in the air. The sky split apart. This wasn't some profound movement or sword art; it was an expression of willpower on the world. Just that, waving my hand in the cutting motion helped me vocalize the will better. This was why many people screamed their technique names too, something that I'd have to start doing now so that I could exert my will on the world.
Usually, only cultivators at [Sage] rank and beyond are able to exert will on the world to create portals like this, however, [Underlord] is enough for me.
The sky split apart with a splash of white aura, unlike the Phoenix's red. On the other side, I saw a death battle. There was fire and magma everywhere, splattering like blood. How vicious.
I stepped through the portal while the [Tiger] Icon manifested itself.
* * *
My 6th life was my second as a Divine Deity.
I wasn't outright born as the legendary White Tiger of The West. I was born as a mere white tiger cub, in a snowy mountain filled with adversaries.
Despite having lived so many lives already, I gained a new perspective on life in this 6th turn. It was my first time living as a beast; the closest one to it was my 5th life as a Vampire, but even there I was a humanoid creature. Walking on my fours was a first for me, but I adapted quickly
The snowy mountain I was born in was small in comparison to the mountains in that world– which was several times larger than Earth– so the mountain was much bigger than Fuji.
In my 6th life, I didn't have the magical restriction that stopped me from using magic before the age of 18. After all, I met my Empress in my 7th life. So, even as the White Tiger cub, I had both the knowledge of a man and the magic of a thousand-year-old Time Mage.
I took over the mountain in no time.
After that, I spent a few years in laziness. As it was the life right after my 5th, where I had vowed to pursue eternity, I didn't have to hurry about anything. I spent my time in leisure, conquering any threat that'd come to me but otherwise taking it slow. Enjoying life, as it came.
In those few years, the towns and villages around the mountain came to know about me. They realized I wasn't a beast who slaughtered mindlessly, but I was kind and malevolent too. It started with me saving a few children from an avalanche, after which the people began to pray to me like a deity.
Sometimes, they'd send me sacrifices. It was bearable most of the time, they'd send animals or magical beasts they had hunted, and sometimes they'd send me a portion of their golden crops.
One time, it was not bearable when they sent me a virgin girl, claiming she would be my wife. How dare they presume I needed them to send me women for me to have a wife? They had sent her to me so that I'd accept her and "bless" their crops from withering away. Even though I didn't have any real blessing powers. That year was a particularly cold one, every crop was dying, which resulted in the death of people. They wanted me to control the weather, and the cold, to make sure they would have enough food to survive.
But why did they have to send me to an orphan girl, who had nobody left? None of the townspeople were attached to her, so they sent her, and she broke down when I told her to leave, saying I must take her because she wouldn't be accepted back to the town anyway.
In anger, I took the girl back to the village, I roared at the humans for being fools. They cried and apologized, betting for mercy, but only when the girl requested me did I accept their apologies. I also fulfilled their prayer, I used magic and mana to manipulate the cold and made it so that these crops didn't die. My hard work worked, and they lived.
Over time, the girl kept coming back, even though she wasn't sent by the people. She would come to see me all on her own, give me fruits, chat with me, and hug me to sleep as if I were not a Beast of Apocalypse but a stuffed toy. Until one day…
Ah, wait. My wifey's not the point of this story. The point is the time when I had to manipulate the cold, the ice, to answer the prayers of humans.
That's when I gained my divinity.
[Divinity: Avalanche]
How fitting is it that today, I was against a fire user? A phoenix, no less?
I couldn't use that divinity anymore; I don't have it. But that's where the [Icons] come to play. I have said they are very interesting, haven't I? My [Tiger] Icon is different from the few other Tiger icons I have seen in my lifetime, mine is my personalized one. Just by having the Tiger icon, I can access the divinities I had in that life. However, to use them I'll have to burn Soulfire since I don't have any Faith Essence.
Soulfire also suited me very well because other than ice powers, I would later come to own [White Flames] in the same life, using which I'd burn down planets and galaxies.
Odd how everything fell into place.
I couldn't wait to tear that little featherless phoenix apart. That daring little girl playing Ancestor.
* * *
[Third Person Point of View]
The dimension trembled due to the clash between the Goddess of Volcanoes and the Phoenix Demon of Flames.
"[Magma Tsunami]!"
With a wave of Sakuya's hands, a tsunami of molten lava rose from the depth of the volcano, rushing forward like a devastating deluge that could easily melt away cities.
"[Phoenix Blaze]!"
The power of the sun itself rushed out from Ranefer's eyes, connecting together into a massive pillar of plasmic fire. This phoenix energy too could destroy cities, leaving behind nothing but ashes and rubble.
The two city-buster techniques rushed at one another and clashed, causing the people to run in fear as fire and magma splashed everywhere.
Ranefer was floating in the air, while Sakuya was a magma titan with her waist rising from the ground.
"This is my domain, you have no chance of winning, Ranefer!" As the beams clashed, Sakuya yelled at her old rival, who scoffed with a laugh.
"Oh come on, I still haven't retained my old powers yet. If I had, it wouldn't have mattered if this is your domain or not." The devil, Ranefer Phenex, said with a smirk. "Now, die." Immediately, the fire's intensity jumped up a few times and Sakuya gagged, her wave of tsunami being pushed back.
After Sakuya entered the battlefield at first, she had been winning against the devils. It was annoying to deal with their healing, but they could only heal so much; their mana was bound to run out. Divinity could also hinder their healing greatly; if only she had Holy Light divinity she would have dealt with them in no time. Still, she had been winning.
Until the devil with Phoenix blood running through her veins entered the battle. Despite waking up just a while ago, her power-set was hard to deal with for Sakuya.
Hundreds of years ago, during her prime, Ranefer had enough demonic power to be considered a Satan candidate. But thanks to her extraordinary regeneration powers, she would have been considered a Super Satan by today's standards.
She wasn't at the level of a Super Satan at the moment, she was yet to regain all of her powers, or else Sakuya would have perished already. She hoped Ranefer hadn't regained enough power to overpower her.
Sadly, that didn't seem to be the case. Her hope shattered when the wave of fire gained a new intensity, pushing back her magma even as she tried hard to hold back.
"I-impossible!" She yelled one last time as the fire went overboard and broke her wave, rushing forward and devouring her.
Sakuya let out a soul-scratching yell that made the dimension tremble. The wave of fire ended, and Sakuya's titan form crackled and shattered. Pieces of black stone fell to the ground until the entire total collapsed and revealed a human-sized naked woman. Her red hair lost color, returning to pink, as she sat on her knees and hands, panting and glaring up at the sky.
"It's your defeat," Ranefer said, smirking as her eyes wandered on Sakuya's body. "I wonder, should I just kill you or let my men relieve some stress from this war?"
"Disgusting filthy whore," Sakuya coughed blood and said, glaring. "You'll pay for this, devils."
"Oh, will I now?"
"You will," it wasn't Sakuya who replied. It was a new voice. Aqua finally entered the scene.
He walked out from a cave behind Sakuya, startling everyone. He walked slowly as a white blanket appeared on his hand, which he gently threw on Sakuya's body.
"I-it's you! Boy, run. This place isn't safe anymore!" Sakuya-hime yelled even as she accepted the blanket, covering herself with it.
"I'll be fine, she's against a bad match." He cracked his knuckles as he smiled at her, and then looked up at the flying devil who was squinting at him. "So your name is Ranefer? What a waste of a pretty name."
The woman scowled, "You dare, human? Just because you somehow managed to survive a weak attack from me?"
"Human?" Aqua crackled out a laughter. "Try again." The world sang. The universe shimmered as a hexagon symbol formed in the sky, glowing brighter until the face of a tiger formed within.
The [Tiger Icon] descended completely on this foreign world, and Aqua's body rose in the air. A luminous form began to form around him, like some kind of translucent armor. The form had black stripes, with a silver shine around its body. A White Tiger, the size of a small building, formed with Aqua's body at its center, within which he floated with his arms crossed.
"Oh?" The Phoenix blinked. "Could you perhaps be from the Shinra Clan?"
"Apologies if you got the wrong idea but, does it seem like I am in the mood for a chat?" Aqua said as the Tiger's mouth let out a devastating roar. It leaped at her, moving much faster than Aqua could, as the second half of the battle began.
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