The grass was tall, and it flowed in the breeze that blew through the land. The sun was smiling down brightly upon the land, creating a shimmering effect in the sea of green grass.
Prometheus stood in the center, his arms outstretched. He allowed the breeze to flow over his entire body, enjoying the feeling of the warm wind. The wind caused the red cape that he wore to billow wildly, and his hair was quickly disheveled; however, Prometheus seemed to have not a care in the world.
He spun around, taking in the landscape around him. The tall trees with fruits hanging off of them, the sea of birds that flowed up and down and cut across the land. It was beautiful; it was infinite.
This was Eden. A place that felt like it shouldn't exist. Or,, more properly, that humans shouldn't be allowed in this place.
A peaceful haven, free from anything that could be considered unnatural. It was a paradise, one that was hidden away from all of the world.
Prometheus turned his gaze towards a squirrel that made its ay down a tree. Within the same tree, he saw a red canary perched upon a branch, watching him closely.
The sun that shone down brightly on the scene, along with the wind and the tall grass,, made the whole scene feel scenic, like something in a painting.
A painting that you find hung up in the center of the museum, one that was surrounded by a crowd.
However,, the beautiful scene was shattered in an instant. The purity of the scene was tainted within a second.
By Death.
Death encroached upon the scene without a warning. It started with the grass. It began to wilt, slowly curve in on itself,, and shorten as it lost its color.
The long green grass turned brittle and yellow before even further decaying until all that was left was black ash.
Death moved quickly and silently, travelling from the grass to the trees. The root of the tree began to literally turn to ash and be blown away in the wind, as if the tree had been vaporized. Death moved up the tree and towards the branches, and before they could even react,, both the canary and the squirrel had been reduced to nothing more than piles of ash on the ground.
Death continued to spread, embracing the land and sky in front of Prometheus. The grass died, and and the birds in the sky were turned to ash midair causing it to feel like it was literally raining the black substance.
Slowly, Prometheus turned his eyes to the cause of this death. His eyes landed upon a figure with an aura so dark that it literally distorted the air around her. The mana was so potent and so dark that Prometheus didn't even need to use mana sense to see the traces of darkness that flowed off of their body and into the air.
The figure was tall, and they were dressed in greenish-ack armor from head to toe. The armor was literally twisted in places along the chest area form complicated runes and designs that glowed green.
The helmet of the armor literally branched out into the air like the arms of a gnarly,, withered oak tree. The hair of the figure spilled out of the back of the helmet nd flowed in the wind. It was coated in a dark greenish-black aura, the same as the aura that hung around her.
The most noticeable part?
The death that surrounded her. That was the only way to describe what her aura did to the surrounding area.
Everything that it came into contact with literally withered away and died, turning to ash that was displaced by the wind.
It created a harrowing image. A dark figure, clad in armor twisted into many different symbols, and a helmet that branched out in sharp and nasty ways.
A figure who could only be seen as the bringer of death.
Prometheus stared at the figure for a brief moment before turning his gaze away and sighing.
"I asked for Hel to meet up with me, not you." There was a hint of frustration in his voice.
Just as suddenly as the figure clad in the armor had appeared, they vanished, and suddenly, Prometheus felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw Mia standing right next to him.
"I'm surprised that you managed to see through that disguise." She pressed close to his body, tracing her fingers along his arms.
"Wear your real face, witch."
Once again, Mia suddenly vanished, and a shadow was created on top of Prometheus.
He looked up to see a tree that had just appeared out of thin air, right in front of him. Sitting on a branch of the tree as a girl with silver hair wearing a black dress. Her dress was decorated in faint crescent moons, and she even had a crescent moon pin in her hair. The wind blew her long hair out to the side. She was smiling down at Prometheus.
"Not a fan?" She sounded pleased with herself, and her smile only widened when she saw the expression of impatience on Prometheus's face. "What, you didn't want to see me?"
"I specifically asked to meet with Hel. And yet, I find myself talking to someone who is a literal witch." Prometheus turned away from her; however, the same tree appeared in front of him once again, and now the girl was sitting on the lowest branch, hugging her legs to her chest.
Her gray eyes looked down at him analytically. "You know, calling a mage, especially one as innocent and pure as me, a 'witch' s more than just a rude comment." Her words might have sounded light-hearted, but her eyes and tone said something completely different.
"Why couldn't Hel come?" Prometheus got straight to the point, not interested in messing around with this woman any longer.
"She's busy." Was the response he got.
Prometheus stared at the girl coldly. "Too busy to meet with the person who holds all of the secrets of the church? Is she insane?"
The girl simply laughed. "Trust me when I say that she has a good reason for not being here." She shifted, stretching out her long legs nd making it very clear to Prometheus that she wasn't wearing any shoes r socks.
"Trust you? That's impossible, Freya."
Hearing her name spoken, the girl's eyes lit up. "I wonder what Heimdall told you about me."
"Enough to get the sense that you are not a person to be trusted.'" Freya giggled at that comment.
"So, what's your business?" She asked, as she shifted once again, this time lying on her stomach and putting her chin in her hands as she stared at Prometheus provocatively.
Bringing out a reality marble from his pocket, he crushed it, and a massive monolith a fair bit taller than himself appeared. There were words inscribed on the monolith.
Freya's eyes widened as soon as she saw it. "That can't be...."
"A piece of the prophecy? It is." Prometheus began to smile, as he could feel the power dynamic of this conversation shift.
"How do you—"
"Shhh. All you have to do is agree to my terms,, and this is yours." Prometheus said. "I know this prophecy is the whole reason that the church was created. A prophecy that details the end of the world." Prometheus ran its and over the stone. "And how to prevent it. Its origins are unknown; however,, the first known fragment of it was found somewhere in the holy continent of Europe. After which, an organization was founded to carry out the orders of the prophecy. The Axiom Church."
"Thanks for the history lesson, but get on with your point." Freya said through gritted teeth.
"My request is simple enough. I want the Axiom to to join forces with the fangless python. I want you to help facilitate an attack on Japan. Specifically, an event they have planned between the ten grand magic families."
Freya tilted her head in confusion. "That's it....?"
"Of course, you won't need to show yourselves. Just complete a few small tasks to aid our attack. If you don't comply, not only will I lock this away so deep that you will never be able to find it again, but but I will also leak all of the information of the church."
Freya stared at him in shock for a few moments before saying,
"Then we comply." She then went back to her usual seductive smile. "Japan. A place that I haven't seen in a long time."
"Of course not." Prometheus sneered. "After all, when you were there, that was the place you were the most active. 'The witch of lust.' Is that what they called you"?
Freya's expression darkened. "Everything that happened there was for the purpose of the church. Obtaining the fragments of the prophecy and saving the world. It's a shame that some were tooo stubborn to part nd ended up hurt."
"Horrible curses. You went out with many different people, manipulated them for your gain, even going as far as blackmailing them and cursing their children. Can you really justify that with it was for the greater good'?
Freya turned away. The tree she was standing on transformed into a large,, gnarly creature with many arms and sharp edges. A low growling sound was emitted.
"All of those children who fell victim to that curse, they have my heart. It wasn't something that I wanted to do back then, and it's something that I regret now."
"According to Heimdall, that curse robs the ability to feel any sort of romance or physical attraction to anybody. Love or lust. It was all taken. You induced suffering. And they were infants. Now, they'd be at least 16."
Just as quickly as she appeared, she vanished. All that was left was the beauty of Eden nd her fading voice. "The curse was a warning. A false punishment. It should have been easily dispelled in early life.
A few seconds of silence.
"I pray for anybody who carried the curse this far into life. At this point, it is undoubtedly incurable."
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I looked behind me to make sure that Nova had taken Hikaru and Aura and moved them away from the skywalk. That left me alone with Pride.
Turning my gaze back towards him, I couldn't stop myself from shaking with rage. Staring at his face reminded me of what he had just been doing.
Behind him, a plant that had transformed into chains was slowly extending its vines towards me. It was the same plant that had been sucking away Hikaru's mana. If I had been even slightly slower in arriving, she would have undoubtedly been killed, or even in the best-case scenario, gravely injured from mana exhaustion.
I saw the way that she trembled in my arms when I had saved her. How cold her body was. The fact that she had asked me to not put her down because her legs were still trembling.
All of it made me shake even more.
As soon as the roots got tooo close, I extended the reach of my lightning aura, burning them away. It was a plant that could completely seal away mana; however,, it seems that the vines that extended out to me could only do it through physical contact.
That means there were two parts.
The roots, which took the shape of chains and would mercilessly latch onto anything that got too close, and the vines, which served more as noses of some sort, sensing the air for mana.
If that's the case, then why aren't they aiming for him? I thought to myself.
Pride was standing in the direct center of the plant's vines, right in front of the roots. It should have snapped him up and begun to suck away his mana.
So why hadn't it?
I couldn't waste my time thinking about it. Instead, it was best to move this battle away from this wall of vines anyways.
It was essential that nothing interfered with the strategy that we had come up with.
The plan was simple. As much as I hated to admit it, I could not beat Pride alone. In fact, I probably couldn't even put a scratch on him. It was because of his unknown ability,, which rendered him invincible to literally everything. Even getting dirty.
None of us knew what was behind it, so we had no way to plan how to disable it for long enough for someone to beat him. I thoroughly believed that even Shindo couldn't decipher the weakness of his ability, even while using Mystic Eyes of Death Perception].
So their strategy involved not beating him but instead stalling him long enough until they could set up a trap that could properly capture and restrain him. If even that didn't work, then they'd resort to just stalling him out until help came.
■■■■■: However,, you don't want it to end like that, do you, Raiden?
■■■■■ was right. I didn't want this battle to come down to just stalling him.
I wanted to beat him. I wanted to defeat him myself for what he did to Hikaru. I wanted to beat him down so badly that this 'witch' would have no choice but to come out and speak to me herself.
■■■■■: Do you think that's possible, the way you are now?
"What do you mean?" My mental block was gone for the most part.
■■■■■: Your mental block might be gone, but do you really think that you can bear him the way you are now?
I understand what she meant. Currently, I was planning to go about this fight the same way that I always had. However, this battle isn't the same as all of the others that I had fought previously. So if I couldn't evolve, I would lose.
"But how do I do that?" How would I fight differently? The way I've always been fighting always worked, so—
As I was lost in my thoughts, I felt someone place a hand on my shoulder. I turned around, but there was nobody behind me.
■■■■■: Focus on the strategy.
Nodding, I turned back to Pride. I had to get his attention completely. That was the only way that the others would have enough time to set up. If he notices what they're doing, our whole entire strategy goes to shit.
So I needed to hold his attention for as long as I could. That meant I had to go all out. I couldn't give him a single chance to worry about anything else but me.
I dashed forward in a beam of lightning, and Pride dashed forward at the same moment.
We clashed, and the shock reverberated through my entire body.
The world around me was enveloped in the light of an explosion, and the battle began.