"That man…"
Rossweisse widened her eyes, her pupils shrinking as she stared down at the red-haired warrior standing amidst the dunes. The sheer density of the bloodlust radiating from him was enough to make her feel suffocated.
"Ares… So, the Greeks are here too." Jay identified him instantly. At his side, the Black Grail hovered for a fleeting second, black flames dancing on its rim as it processed the soul signatures of every powerful entity on the battlefield to confirm their identities.
'Isis, Thoth, and those snakes… The Grail says Nehebkau is here too, but where is the main body? And that woman over there is Sekhmet, huh…' Jay thought as he drifted his gaze toward the feline woman perched atop the stone spires.
Her golden bikini glittered under the sun.
Their eyes met for a heartbeat as Sekhmet licked her lips, her shining blue eyes locking onto him with the look of a lioness staring at juicy prey.
"Eh! Doesn't that mean there are three war gods gathered here!" Rossweisse shrieked in panic, her voice cracking.
"And why is Freya-sama recklessly joining the battle! Huu~" She let out a long, miserable groan as her shoulders slumped in helplessness.
Seeing no reaction from the young human at her side, Rossweisse then glanced toward Jay.
"You are really calm about this, aren't you?" Rossweisse said, searching his face for even a flicker of hesitation.
"Am I?" Jay muttered. His eyes never left Ares, who was currently exchanging a gaze with him.
"Yes! You are literally facing some of the strongest existences in the world. Normally, shouldn't you be scared?" Rossweisse pressed, her hands gripping the edge of the dragon's scales.
"Are you scared?" Jay asked.
"Um… Kinda?"
Jay finally turned his head to glance at the Valkyrie. Her silver hair was slightly disheveled by the wind as she stared down at the battlefield with a worried look.
"Aren't Valkyries supposed to be ready to fight in any war? How can you be scared of your own job?" Jay asked.
"I mean, am I not allowed to feel fear just because it is my job?" Rossweisse complained, her voice rising in defensive indignity.
"Besides, since there have been no major wars for hundreds of years, in this era of peace, us Valkyries are mostly just studying, training, and doing some guard duty."
"The way you say it, it is as if it is a good thing to have a war," Jay remarked.
"No, I am not saying that!"
"I'm just joking," Jay said with a flat expression, which left Rossweisse speechless.
Before she could retort, Jay turned his focus back to the desert floor where the gods were just staring at each other.
Meanwhile, down on the sands, Ares turned his gaze toward the silver chariot.
"Oh, Freya, huh? I did not expect you to be here too... It has been a long time since we have seen each other, hasn't it?" A broad, arrogant smile finally graced his face again, as if the prospect of a new challenger had washed away his boredom.
"Ares... Your brute nature still has not changed, it seems," Freya replied. She stood regally in her chariot, her pink divine aura clashing with the air around her.
"Hahaha! That is just who I am. Besides... you know we are in a game of death. How am I supposed to be gentle on one or two weak Egyptians?" Ares said, casting a disparaging look at Thoth, who was still struggling to stand behind Freya's chariot.
"Now that I think about it... you still have not answered my proposals. If you do not want us to be connected through marriage, I am fine with just spending a night with the most beautiful woman in the Norse," Ares suggested.
"Proposals? I get thousands of them every year. I cannot possibly remember every single one of them, especially one as insignificant as yours," Freya taunted.
"How cruel... You know I have my own thing with Goddesses of Love and Beauty such as you," Ares said with a confident, borderline creepy grin.
The stories of Ares's legendary affair with Aphrodite were common knowledge across all pantheons, a thing that he seemed to wear like a badge of honor.
"Well… whatever. Now that we finally have a chance to fight each other, I'll just defeat you here. Maybe then you'll change your mind," Ares said.
Freya was confident in her own strength, but she knew Ares was on a different level beast entirely. He was the personification of war itself. Among the many deities who embodied the concept of war, Ares represented its raw, unbridled violence better than almost anyone else, even her.
'Should I fight him head-on?' Freya wondered, her gaze flickering toward Isis as she wondered which side the Goddess of Magic would take.
But suddenly, the air around them turned scorching. A massive crimson dragon descended from the sky before landing with a heavy thud that sent a curtain of sand into the air.
Jay then casually jumped from the dragon's head, landing softly on the dunes before he began walking forward, passing Freya without a second glance.
"Leave him to me, Freya," Jay said, his dark hazel eyes fixed on the Greek God of War.
Freya looked confused for a moment as she watched Jay's back slowly close the distance between him and Ares before her eyes widened.
"Hm!?... Hey! What do you mean? He is one of the strongest gods in existence! What do you mean leaving him to you!?" Freya shouted. She lunged forward and grabbed Jay's shoulder from behind, trying to pull him back from certain death.
Even Isis, floating in the distance, furrowed her brows. She watched the human with a calculative gaze, wondering if he was courageous or simply suicidal.
Jay stopped as he glanced back at Freya over his shoulder, his eyes dark and unreadable.
"It is alright, Freya," Jay said, reaching up to remove her hand from his shoulder.
"Hm?" Freya raised her eyebrows. "What do you mean, it is alright?"
"Like I said… after all, this isn't the first time I've fought a god," Jay whispered.
His words made Freya widen her eyes. And not long after, she released him after seeing the look in his dark hazel eyes.
Jay then walked forward slowly, raising both of his hands into the air. And from the thin air, two black swords materialized in his grip. In his left hand was the jagged black sword of Alichino, while in his right was none other than the jet-black Totsuka-no-Tsurugi, the Divine Heaven-Severing Sword of Ame-no-Habakiri.
It was the only sword in Jay's armament that bore the blood of a god on its blade, having once been used to kill one. Even Ares narrowed his eyes at the aura and pressure emanating from Habakiri.
"Those swords..." Ares muttered. He gripped the hilts of his twin crimson divine swords, Enyo tightly, his muscles tensing as he prepared for the human to charge.
But Jay didn't charge. A burst of grey Senjutsu ki erupted from his body, blazing in the air like a translucent flame. The sheer amount of energy emanating from him surprised Freya, Isis, and even Ares.
And before Ares could even begin to move, Jay whispered his Desire into the air.
"Stay there."
SHUUT
Ares widened his eyes in surprise as he felt an invisible force pinning him in place, locking his joints and sealing his movements completely.
'What?' he thought, his golden eyes darting around in confusion.
And before he could even begin to comprehend what had happened to his body, Jay moved his right hand in a casual horizontal swing from a dozen meters away.
"Cleave."
SHIIIING
SPLURTTT
"Hm?" Ares's vision tilted.
A black, heaven-severing slash bypassed the physical distance between them, tearing through space itself. The attack was instantaneous, severing Ares's upper body cleanly at the waist before he could even react, leaving him completely caught off guard.
Freya found herself speechless, her mouth agape as she watched the God of War's torso fly backward from a single attack by Jay, leaving a trail of red divine aura in the air.
"Huh..."
Thoth stared in disbelief. The man who, seconds ago, had been a fraction of a second away from ending his life was now severed into two pieces.
Ares's golden eyes, still trying to comprehend what had just happened, quickly locked onto Jay.
But, before Jay could send another slash to finish him off, Ares quickly screamed.
"Deimos!"
A blinding crimson light erupted from his severed form.
BOOM
An explosion of pure divine aura evaporated the surrounding dunes, creating a violent, offensive shield that expanded outward like a small supernova. Seeing the incoming blast of pure divine aura, Jay's figure flickered and teleported back to Freya's side as the shockwave washed over the desert.
He then stared at the explosion in the distance.
"Is that his True Divine Form?" Jay muttered, his voice still not losing its calm.
Hearing his voice again on their side, Freya, Thoth, and Rossweisse all turned to him with varying degrees of shock.
"You..." Freya found herself unable to form a coherent sentence.
"You…" Freya found herself unable to respond or say anything to Jay. And then she realized something, Jay had not even properly introduced himself to either her or Rossweisse.
Now, the pieces of the puzzle began to come together in her mind. She then remembered the notification she had seen earlier before meeting him, and the name that carried around four times of her own Kill Points.
The young man Odin had said he wanted to meet in person.
"You... Zayyn Illya Kovalenko," Freya muttered in disbelief.
How could she not have realized his identity earlier? Not just anyone could tame such a dragon. She should have known.
Rossweisse widened her eyes from atop the dragon after hearing Freya's words.
"Eh? He is that man?" the Valkyrie whispered as she just stared at Jay's back.
Meanwhile, Thoth, who did not personally know who Zayyn Illya Kovalenko was except for the astronomical amount of Kill Points on his head, sent a profound glance toward him.
"If it's truly him… then I should report this to Ra-sama," Thoth thought, a glint of hope present in his eyes.
Hearing the Goddess of Beauty call his name, Jay turned toward her.
'Oh… now that I think about it, I haven't properly introduced myself,' Jay thought.
Freya, who had looked at Jay as nothing more than an unordinary human before, suddenly felt wary after learning his true identity. Anyone who kept up with events in the supernatural world would have heard of the human called the strongest by the Alliance of the Three Factions.
'No wonder he was so confident in fighting Ares... The Draconic Deus Slayer. Why did he appear here of all places after disappearing for three years?' Freya wondered, her eyes then met with Jay's dark hazel one.
"Why did you not tell me that you are Zayyn Illya Kovalenko?" she asked.
"You did not ask," Jay simply replied.
Freya stopped, her mind blank for a second.
"Huh? I guess... I guess you're right. No, still-"
Before she could finish, the crimson explosion subsided.
And in the center of the crater, Ares's body appeared whole again. He floated in the air, his white linen clothes fully restored. His crimson divine aura now completely enveloped him.
"HAHAHA! That is one interesting attack, human! Where did you get that weapon of yours!?" Ares laughed, his voice echoing with a manic edge. He pointed a finger at Habakiri in Jay's hand.
"Such a divine sword is only fitting to be wielded by me," he continued.
Jay ignored him and let Avesta scan the divine aura enveloping Ares's body as he thought,
'I guess it's not a divine form.'
"Hey! Answer me, hu-"
"You keep talking," Jay said, cutting him off mid-sentence.
"Why don't we just fight?"
Hearing the human use his own catchphrases against him, Ares's eyebrows shot up. The smile on his face slowly faded into fury. In the distance, Isis, who usually maintained a stoic and calculative expression, felt her lips twitch as if she were suppressing a laugh at Ares's expense.
"Bastard... I am being nice to you and this-"
SHIIING
Ares was cut off again as Jay sent another heaven-severing slash in the space he occupied. But the God of War would not be caught by the same trick twice. He dodged quickly in a flash of red before reappearing dozens of meters in the air instantly.
"Hm!"
And sensing a shift behind him, Ares spun his body around with grace and-
"Enyo!"
CLANK
A sword of crimson divine aura manifested in Ares's hand as it perfectly blocking Jay's jagged black blade. And with a wide, predatory grin, Ares moved his other hand, swinging his second Enyo in a counter-slash designed to cleave Jay in two.
'Got you, bastard!' Ares screamed in his mind.
But Jay didn't flinch as the lightning-fast slash passed through his torso as if he were a ghost.
Phantasmagoria.
"Wha-"
BOOM
Ares didn't even have time to finish his scream before Jay's Touki fist connected with his jaw. The God of War was sent hurtling toward the ground like a crimson meteor, smashing into the dunes with a force that sent plumes of sand hundreds of feet into the air.
But before Jay could follow up with another attack, Ares's body flashed upward again. He swung both hands through the air brutally, and an absurd amount of divine aura condensed around his arms.
"Enyo!"
SHUUUUNG
And instantly, a massive blinding slash that tore through the space around it was launched toward Jay at nearly the speed of light. Seeing the incoming destruction, Jay simply raised Alichino and whispered.
"Vanish."
SHUU-
And in a display that defied the laws of the universe, the massive wave of red divine energy simply ceased to exist, vanishing into thin air just meters before it could hit Jay.
The silence that followed was deafening. The sheer absurdity of the event left everyone stunned.
Even the Goddess of Magic herself, one who had reached Heka, Isis, stared at the young human with her emerald eyes wide.
'What is... that ability? Is that magic? No, there is no magic that can make a Divine Aura disappear just like that,' she muttered in disebelief.
"That man… if possible, I should ask him to join our side." She began to reconsider her position, wondering if she should join the fray against Ares and earn a favor from him.
Ares was the most shocked of all. He looked at his empty hands as his voice trembling with disbelief.
"My Enyo..."
But before he could process the loss, Jay appeared behind him, thrusting a blade toward his heart.
"Hm!"
CLANK
Ares managed to manifest Enyo just in time to block Alichino. And in that fleeting moment of stalemate, Jay's dark hazel eyes met Ares's golden ones.
As they locked blades in the sky, a new voice cut through the air.
"Sun Blaster!"
FUUUUNG
A deafening roar echoed across the battlefield. Sensing a sudden, lethal surge of divine aura, both Jay and Ares instantly broke off their clash and vanished.
And a fraction of a second later, a beam of scorching solar heat tore through the space they had just occupied.
Ares reappeared several meters away, his eyes narrowing as he locked onto the source of the attack, from a distant stone spire.
It was Sekhmet.
But her aura had changed completely. A terrifying golden radiance now poured from her, starkly contrasting with the divine blue glow of her eyes. On both of her hands, golden claws were fully enveloped in divine energy, superheating the air around her until it shimmered and warped.
Jay also reappeared beside Freya, his gaze fixed on the Ancient Egyptian Goddess of War.
Meanwhile, Freya muttered as she looked at the woman,
"That is..."
But the one who continued her words was-
"…Her berserker form. Or, as you should be more familiar with it, her True Divine Form."
It was Thoth who spoke, slowly rising to his feet.
"Hm?"
Freya and Jay glanced back at the bird-helmeted god. Thoth then walked toward them with a slight limp, bowing his head in a show of gratitude.
"Thank you for saving my life, both of you," Thoth said with genuine gratitude.
In this supposedly game of death, the act of saving another person, who could just as easily be your enemy, could be considered stupidity. But the woman in front of him still did it despite that.
"No, it is okay... I just do not like senseless killing. I feel like fighting each other like this is pointless in the grand scheme of things," Freya said, offering a small smile to him.
"I see..." Thoth nodded.
'It is just as Ra-sama said...'
But Jay continued staring at Sekhmet, while she licked her lips, her gaze fixed on him as well.
"You said it was her True Divine Form?" Jay asked.
"Ah, yes," Thoth replied. "Sekhmet inherited the aspect of wrath and the power of the sun from her father, Ra-sama. And in that form. I suggest you be careful... Even though her Divine Sun is nowhere near as strong as Ra-sama's or… the usurper Aten's, it is still incredibly strong."
"Hm..."
Meanwhile, Ares looked between Jay and Sekhmet before beginning to laugh. The sound started low at first, then grew into a thunderous roar that rolled across the battlefield.
"Hahaha! Interesting! This is exactly what I came here for, this thrill of battle! Now that all of you have revealed your true power, I suppose it is time I show mine as well... my True Form!"
And suddenly, a towering pillar of crimson divine aura erupted from Ares, piercing the clouds like a spear of red light. While on the dragon's back, Rossweisse was forced to her knees by the sheer, crushing pressure of Ares' Divine Aura.
"This..."
The desert winds whipped into a frenzy, circling Ares like a hurricane of sand and fire.
And then, he threw his head back and screamed.
"War Incarnate!"
Then, in his right hand, a majestic divine spear manifested, radiating a lethal aura as though it could pierce through anything in its path. Meanwhile, the immense divine aura erupting into the sky condensed into a set of crimson full armor.
And as the plume of his helmet blazed like a divine flame, the true form of Greek's God of War unleashed upon the world.
Freya, Isis, and Thoth narrowed their eyes at the impending clash between the two Gods of War in their True Forms.
But little did they know that the man who had ended a Holy Grail War by himself had not even used a fraction of his power.
And with the battlefield transformed into a clash of True Forms.
The man whispered to the air.
"The Time of Preservation Has Come, He Is the One Who Rules All."
"Heed my call-"
"-Ars Theurgia."