C86: Recovery, Return home and level 8.
Overall Word count = 1818 on 5/21/2024.
After Axel got his needs fulfilled by the pigeon sized Phoenix, he passed it over to Aisha and the others to drain. The phoenix was too weak to summon anything more than a candle flare to try get rid of the group but with their gluttony they extinguished this. And the Monster Rex soon dies and drops a heavy magic core that is much smaller than normal.
"Could this just have been a Jack bird variant?" Bell asks after seeing the core. Most other cores gain their higher value due to their size but the reason for this is not specified by the guild. Everyone soon begins to pitch in their various ideas about how the guild makes their profit with the giant rex cores. The general consensus is that the guild is able to stably chip the cores to harvest many smaller ones.
As they are talking, Axel is meditating through the memories that he now obtained from his newest fragment. In a more archaic world, the gods hold much higher divine power and leisurely squander it. Amongst them is Zeus who is an intense pervert and impregnates multiple women throughout time.
Amongst the many bastard children, he gave rise to a son who was not blessed with magical power but instead was an exceptional leader that he eventually rose to become the leader of a powerful army known as the spartans.
He had many conquests throughout time and had attracted the attention of the God of War Ares but the general would not submit to the god…At least not until he faced a near death situation at the hands of foreign barbarians. He submitted to Ares which led to his downfall. Under his new liege, he had gone to slaughter many armies and seemingly innocent villages. In one of these many villages, he encountered the Oracle of Delphi who attempted to warn him off but he did not heed the oracles words and charged forth with his fervent range.
With his vision clouded, he had found that he had mistakenly slayed his own wife and daughter. Overcome with grief, he had collapsed to his knees. The Oracle then came back and branded his skin ashen with the very ashes of his family and the village he burned down under Ares rule.
As the fallen General comes to terms with his actions and plots revenge, the Furies swoop in to seal his memories and keep him loyal to Ares but this instead causes him to kill the Furies and retrieve his memories (God of war: Ascension) that finally puts him onto the war path against Ares where he travels to distant lands until he acquires the power of Pandora's box to finally slay the god of war and take his place due to his original divine heritage that he still remains unknowing of (GOW1)
During his tenure as the God of War, he encounters his mortal mother and kidnapped brother. Together they slay Thanatos after finding out about a prophecy that either he or his brother would bring about the demise of Olympus (GOW: Ghost of Sparta). His brother eventually perished around this time which further exalted the new God of War in his rage against Olympus.
In one of the many times he had descended to assist Sparta against foreign enemies. He was betrayed by his father Zeus and killed. With his infinite rage, he was put into contact with the original Titanomachy leader, Gaia. She granted him new strength to fight off the claws of death and resurrect. With the help of Gaia he gained tools and new strength and blessings until he was able to kill the sisters of Fate and gain control to the wheel of time to return back to the moment he was betrayed and Wrest the blade of Olympus to almost kill Zeus but only to kill the one god who has been trying to be by his side, Athena. Zeus escaped and as such, the fallen god of war used the wheel again to summon the ancient Titanomachy to 'modern day'.(GOW 2)
Shortly the titanomachy besieged Olympus once again but the Titans betray the fallen god of war which causes him to slay Gaia, Kronos his own grandfather, and then slay god after god until he finally meets with the divine smith Hephaestus who forges him new gear. The fallen god killed until he was guided to the spirit of Pandora's box, Pandora herself. She teaches him the real value of hope and he finally obtains the 'power of the box' after Pandora sacrifices herself to open the box. The box itself was already empty as the fallen god, Kratos already possessed the sealed away Hope within himself. Using this hope he was able to muddle through the sea of fear shoved onto him by his father Zeus. His final moments was using the Blade of Olympus to stab himself and free all the sealed hope and bestow it upon any survivors/mortals that may have survived all the disasters up till now that he unleashed by killing the gods.(GOW 3)
In a near death state and empty of rage, he left his homelands to travel north until he arrived in the land known as Midgard, he had settled down with a lovely lady by the name of Faye who was a Giant of this land. She had long been assisting all living beings to resist the efforts of monsters and the gods of this land. The two had a child who was named Atreius/Loki.
Faye eventually passed away and the duo took on a journey to Faye's homeland to find the tallest mountain in all the realms but they kept being hindered by the gods of this land, the first of which was Baldor and then Magni and Modi the two sons of Thor. All three eventually perish until the father and son duo's efforts. Filmbulwinter (endless winter) soon arrives.
(GOW: 2018)
(I won't go into detail about Ragnarok in case someone hasn't played/watched it but I have)
The years of slaughter all flow into Axel's minds and he luckily resists it due to having already taken in Asura's longevity and Radahn's iron will that had tempered Axel's own throughout the time they had been together.
The gift that Kratos had provided him was the spartan Rage that granted him near infinite physical energy until the rage wears off (it's timer based which is from the older gow 1 and 2 while newer gow is lowered by the attacks used). This allows him to ignore the effects of mind down if he runs out of magic. It supercharges his own nen and enhances his Asura abilities with the rage.
It fulfills the effects of the Berserker armor since he is borderline immune to being harmed thanks to his Asura shell while under rage. He will still keep the armor as it has its uses and potential effects of stacking with the rage but that will require more experimentation.
Though it has to be mentioned that this Rage ability only uses a small amount of mind as it has a different primary energy which is simply referred to as Fighting Energy. It accumulates from all creatures that Axel himself fights. It also has to be physically and not magically as the energy is lesser when using magic or other ranged methods. As such, Axel has to be careful when he activates it or simply save it for a longer period of time as it does not drain after being gathered.
The group then began teleporting back to Orario under Axel's care. Axel, Aisha and Haruhime all went back to their home while Bell and Lily returned to the semi run down hestia church. Mikoto, Ouka and Chigusa all returned to their home and Takemikazuchi. Welf went back to Hephaestus. Partially to level up and the other half to show off his immortal magic sword.
The group had been roughly a week in the dungeon and the outside had changed in that time. Most of the snow has melted away, giving rise to the fresh scent of wet grass. Within another week the rest of the snow should melt as spring would rise in Orario.
Everyone is fairly tired after this extensive raid to fight against 3 different rexs. Axel plans to arrive early to fight the Goliath in another 3 days as last time he tried to fight it. He arrived late/on time and there was a few groups of random adventurers working together to smother the monster Rex. Axel could only give up and left to continue his training.
When the trio of Axel, Aisha and Haruhime arrive at the Yasutsuna Household. Raikou welcomes everyone home and to share some stories. As everyone walks into the mansion, Raikou has everyone show her their falna as she goes about updating each of them one by one. Haruhime takes the lead to tell Raikou about how deep they went this time around and the various creatures they fought.
Raikou is able to tell how some of the encounters were tense based on Haruhime's own emotions passing through her while the falna updates to show that she has officially leveled up after her magic stat had reached S grade while the rest were in the C grade.
Raikou then moved onto Aisha while Haruhime kept telling Raikou about their adventure. The Saints attention is captured upon mention of the Phoenix and how they had to go about beating it, if barely.
BANG "AGGGHHH" Raikou slaps Axel on his bare back as he let's out a surprised yelp since her slap was enhanced by her mana which left behind a deep red mark on his muscular back. She begins to scold him for recklessly summoning such a beast. Axel has no retort as he knows that if he wasn't able to unleash those two powerful strikes from his new fragments he would have struggled to learn about it's main body nor it's spiritual/soul based weakness that allowed him to take it down.
From Haruhime's end, Axel overheard their quiet conversation regarding Development Abilities and it seems her list is fully filled with unique options. She seems to have chosen a skill called HimeKami. He could sense that her energy levels in terms of nen had risen by about 1/8th. For Aisha, she seems to have chosen Crush as her skill. It likely would increase her physical strength by a bit but it won't be outright noticeable under all her other enchantments.
As for Axel, He had successfully reached level 8. She notices his newest soul based skill and nods her head in mock understanding of the 'esoteric' message. She then resets his stats and brings up his own development skills.