C85: Divine Beast versus Demi-God, Soul Weapon, Rage
Overall Word count = 2745 on 5/19/2024.
(Warning: if anything here has the parenthesis tag of (ORI). it means that the creature of event is original to me as there are actually very few monsters in the danmachi page now) (last time I post this since 3rd times the charm for yall to remember this)
Level 6 Development Skill- Life resonance: Enhance natural life recovery under a formula of 5 X rank + level. Also boosts endurance by rank x level/5 x end. Current bonuses = +12 for recovery and 1.4x boost to endurance
(Music Rec = SIAMES- the wolf. I first learned about it as nightcore and it was pretty good with the visuals a few years ago. This or go back to the how to kill a god playlist from an earlier boss fight scene)
Axel is advised to rest a bit by Daisy so that everyone can regather their energies. The rings do that most of the time but he submits to the group verdict and they rest for half an hour before Axel gets up and the rest also take up battle stances as they don't know what to expect. Last time Axel did something crazy they had to fight the black Hydra. A rex that should be even deeper in.
Yet now they have entered the border of the deep floors and still not encountered any sort of hydra. So if the dungeon desires to sick something even deeper down upon them then they would have no actual clue on what to expect. From where to expect it nor how to fight it. The possible creature would also surely be enhanced by the 'blackness' if the half coated goliath and the black hydra are any indicators. Who knows what the perceived divine power would force the dungeon to make. Just for little ol 'them.
Lily attempts to persuade Axel to simply take his time and that he should have already gained plenty from the Balor. Just another week and he would reach the peak state he desires. Axel only retorts.
"We know that the dungeon has to follow certain rules. There is a limit to how strong the beast can be. If you want, we can go back up to Udeaus floor but it will likely not make much of a difference. Udeaus was around level 6 strength and the Balor was the same but thicker. So either way whatever is summoned will have the same or similar level of strength and I doubt anything higher up than those two will be able to satisfy me as my requirement for stats is higher." He explains the need for stronger beasts without mentioning how he chose to help everyone get stronger as well so they can fight against these threats as well. Becoming the next Pillars of the land to hold back the dungeon in case he ever disappears.
As he is explaining, a set of sleek black plate armor at the top, on Axel's head is a human skull like helmet. The armor slides onto Axel's body, pushing down his hair, as it is made from his nen. He remembers its design and capabilities from an old minor fragment's memories. To replicate some of the effect, he applies a nen restriction upon himself that he can only use this armor when fighting against the unknown. This ensures that the armor would become stronger and more stable but would weaken the more he learns about whatever it is he is fighting. But the most important aspect of the restriction is that he was able to mimic the original abilities of the armor but he personally excluded the ability to fix up his bones as that is unneeded since he could just get dr blythe to fix him up.
Even if he is stuck in battle, he can teleport out and then fix himself up before returning. The reason he truly made this armor is due to its special ability of amplifying its users rage and turning it into madness. This synergizes well with his mantra which lets him be in full control of his mad state and if he doesnt get to be in control then he would be even stronger until the unknown threat is neutralized or the armor is broken.
The others watch as Axel puts on the armor and the helmet gradually stretches with metal screeching sounds with it taking on a lizard-like face with 2 twisted horns and vertical slit eyes slots that glow red. The others ready their weapons and with a final nod, Axel begins to channel his mantra energy around him.
It is only when the energy reaches out a foot away from Axel that the dungeon begins to react to his presence. The dungeon shakes as the temperature in the wide reddish brown cave begins to rise. Cracks appear all over the walls until one side fixes itself and the other breaks off a horizontal slit that reaches up to half of the entire room's space. But in one specific area that can be considered the center of the long hole, another 10ft tall boulder is broken off from the wall.
From within the long and giant holes in the walls is a red glare that gradually expands into a sea of flames that covers the entire roof of the cave. Until a creature whose wingspan reaches halfway across the sizable room. A bird made of fire makes its appearance with a wingspan of 100 ft in total. (ORI)
Axel notes a glowing blue beak and yellow slits that are likely eyes within a sea of black flames. Any signs of a fleshy body being nonexistent under the cover of flames coating its entire body. The black flames ignite the very air as it rapidly is heated until the very air could burn one's lungs. Luckily everyone is coating their body in nen to prevent any sort of harm from this. But this is not a long standing solution as they will have to breathe eventually but as luck just so happens. Welf has an infinite frost magic sword to counter this.
With a swing of his blade, a small mountain is made of ice that reaches up to the unknown Rex but it seems to take offense to this as the fire around its body is concentrated to showcase the outline of a bird-like body.
CHIRP
The Phoenix unleashes a horrendous sound that flays everyone's very minds. It's fires are also much more concentrated which rapidly melts the nearby ice mountain. Lily and Haruhime suffer the worst of this as they nearly fall unconscious from the mental attack unleashed upon them. Axel growls within his armor due to the rage he is feeling already. He jumps up to attempt to cripple the bird's flying capabilities but when he comes into contact with the flaming wings….he passes right through.
The shockwave of his attack blows some of the flames away which reveals that the wings themselves are missing or completely made out of fire. There is a possibility that parts of the wings might just be hidden within the fires but it is hard to tell where the flames originate from due to the fact that the flames he dispelled flow back to their original spot.
Axel summons the Radahn shade to hack away at the wings to confirm that they are non-existent. As he lands, he has the shade hack at the Phoenix's main body but even those pass through it. He activates the Gravity well in hopes of weakening the flames at least so that his team would not be too weakened by all this.
The Gravity attack causes the phoenix to lurch downward as it's flames lightly dissipate before a new set comes out.
"Either it's weak to magic or it's true body is very small. Be mindful of your spells and artifacts" Axel calls out to his group who nod while being covered in sweat. Haruhime has finally recovered and unleashed her buff upon Aisha, Mikoto, Welf and Axel.
For the first time, Axel feels the spell be cast upon him. He can feel his growth but Haruhime passes out due to her spell having to bridge his stats since his body and soul demands excess. This in turn drains Haruhime so heavily that as a level 3, she directly passed out. Lily, Bell and the Ouka huddle around her to protect her.
Welf begins to unleash new ice mountains against the Phoenix much faster as with his enhanced level, his ring also boosts his recovery speed which let's him swing more and more. Aisha on the other hand is stuck constantly casting Hell Kaios which crashes into the Phoenix's 'body'. Mikoto instead focuses her gravity magic to release a constant pressure that more so restricts the flames movement to prevent anyone from being burnt.
Axel himself waves his weapons a bit more to ensure that there is no secret body but it's hard to tell as it could have very well move to the spot he had just struck to check as his weapons are not wide enough to cover the Phoenix's entire body on it's flat side. Yet he can clearly see the flames weaken bit by bit from his team's attack so he changes his fighting style as Radahn is too inefficient right now.
He dispels the shade and raises his hand to grab a large pair of hammers. These are soul armaments derived from his latest soul fragment. Franken Stein from a land of meisters and soul weapons. His newest ability allows him to channel his own soul fragments into weapons that he can then resonate with for extra power.
Stein was a mad scientist who experimented upon his own body to understand his own soul and be able to modify it. Axel acted fairly strange after getting his fragment as for a while he committed the uncanny action of trying to grab something on the side of his head. His hand positioned as if he was turning something but when his hand didn't collide with anything he would just stare at it before stopping and becoming normal again. The minor fragment for this was Soul Evans, Partner to Maka Albarn. His soul weapon form was a red and black scythe with what looks like an eyeball on the Tang/Heel [1] of the scythe itself.
During Evans adventurers with Maka, they were exposed to Black Blood which is a source of madness but in the process, Evans had been able to control and amplify the Soul Resonance much better thanks to his own music. The soul resonance is the ability to bat one's own soul wavelength against each other to build up more energy until it's finally unleashed upon the weapon itself for a transformative power boost. (Oh yea piano time. Mozart aint gonna have shit on us)
Back at the fight. With the twin hammers, a weapon personification of Asura. He loses access to those abilities but the hammers themselves are quite deadly. Axel calls out,
"Soul Resonance" An invisible ball forms around him which is his soul. It's caged in some places, sunken in others but the overall soul is quite symmetrical. At least until a part of that soul which is the representation of Asura shifts 'out' from the main orb. It forms its own which functions like a conjoined twin at the hip. Yet as the two orbs grind against each other to create a mantra style friction, the two hammers in hand merge into one giant one. That then expands further within the power of the resonance. The hammer itself is now comparable to the Phoenix's full size. This is the first time he has actually done this as he has only spent time on getting a feel for the different weapons that each soul fragment changes into.
Axel leaps into the air as a mystical shine and full stack of Gluttony envelopes his hammer, "WITCH HUNTER" Axel declares as the hammer collides with the phoenix, "SCRAAAAAH", It is physically sent crashing away into the far wall it came out of but onto the floor. Witch hunter is a unique form to Evans meister partner Maka. Her mother was the first person to utilize this form of resonance. It has the unique ability to not harm specific people or things. Axel instead used this function to bypass some of the initial flames and have the giant hammer collide with the center body of the Phoenix.
When the dust settles, the flames have been reduced by 50% and it's wingspan is under 50 ft wide now but with it now on the ground, it begins to melt the ground and walls far more than before as sulfuric smoke begins to waft into the air. This reveals that the reddish brown flooring was solidified sulfur.
To prevent his team from breathing in this substance, He reactivates Soul Resonance again as it's a one time boost with each attack though it does depend on the specific attack itself. For the Asura hammer, it's a single all powerful attack but this time he uses his full power with the exception of mantra. As he is channeling his power into his soul and the weapon. The absorbed stats from the first hammer strike finally settle into his body which cause him to momentarily pause before he adds a new source of energy to the weapon that adds a massive amount of red coloring to the weapon. The various unique energies give rise to a new and unseen form.
"GOD HUNTER '' The Hammer expands in size, a cacophony of various colors that represent each energy infused into it. Blue for the mind/mana, Green-white for his nen. And Red for his new power, The Rage of the last Greek god of war.
The size of the hammer is so great that Axel doesnt even need to move forward for it to collide with the Phoenix as the room is nearly filled with just that hammer. The others are forced to stop their attacks and watch in wonder of the might of the hammer as part of the cave is directly 'caved in' with the broken small body of the phoenix.
With the flames gone, everyone can see that the bird is little more than a red and black pigeon due to its size and shape. But the power they witnessed is more than enough to inform them to not make light of the tiny rex.
Axel is bent over his own knees as he is breathing hard from using everything he got except mantra. He is on the verge of mind but he uses a bit of mantra inside his body to simply accelerate his body to make contact with the bird. He grabs its neck and begins to siphon from it. The bird is physically weak but it's magic more than makes up for it and even overlaps with the physical aspect.
The bird struggles against his grip but he holds it tight as he moves to lie down but the rage state from his new ability is timer based instead of being an outright consumable resource. Thus until the timer is finished, his physical state is locked at it's peak. This is further enhanced by the berserk armor he made. It was weakened quite a bit as his understanding of the phoenix increased until it's boost is negligible but regardless, the chicken in hand is soon choked out and turned into a small but dense monster core that lands in Axels palm.
Wtih the battle over and Axel himself feeling full, the others also collapse to rest. But they first move towards the staircase which is on the opposite side of where the phoenix came from as it is not as hot there.
Alternative/original Title: C85: Bird Bird Bird, Flaming Bird is the word
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[1] Do not follow me for more tips on Scythe anatomy. Some of these pics are a bit ugly. But I learned that scythes have a small divot from the transition point from the staff to the blade. I always thought it was just a smooth transition that the entire blade was connected to the staff. Kind of like a halberd but I was wrong. And no i'm not going to look up halberds to see if they have similar anatomy.