"-Ars Theurgia"
As his whisper echoed through the air, the King of Nature spirits was summoned into the world.
Suddenly, the wind itself shifted, drawing everyone's attention as they turned their gaze toward the black-haired human.
Jay's hair fluttered back as his gray senjutsu Ki was gradually painted in rainbow hues. Myriad-colored spirit energy enveloped his body like a flame, feeding on the natural energy around him.
And then, behind his back, a floating hexagram manifested, Theurgia's Sigil of Six Elementals.
In the distance, Ares widened his eyes behind the encasing crimson helmet at the sudden surge of energy emanating from Jay.
'This amount of energy… what is this? How can a human body bear so much power at once?' he thought, doubting his own sight as his golden irises peeked through the crimson helmet.
Freya narrowed her eyes as she studied Jay carefully, sensing the natural energy around him being drawn into his body. It shifted and flowed on its own, even though she could not physically see it.
But the one most surprised was none other than Sekhmet.
Her divine eyes, a partial manifestation of her father's power, the Eye of Ra, were capable of perceiving the flow of energy in the world as something tangible. And now, before her gaze, she could see it clearly. Jay's body was slowly dissolving into the natural energy around him, as if they were one and the same.
But instead of fear, a wide, joyful smirk spread across her lips.
"This is…"
Then, as Jay began to walk forward, a wave of myriad-colored spirit aura erupted like a tsunami toward Ares and Sekhmet. Sensing the incoming surge, Isis swiped her hand, and a translucent emerald shield enveloped her.
Seeing Jay make his move, Ares tightened his grip on the crimson divine spear in his hand and stepped forward to meet him. His blazing Divine Aura surged outward, colliding head-on with Jay's myriad-colored spirit energy. The air trembled as the two forces ground against each other, neither willing to yield.
From the opposite side, a brilliant golden radiance flared to life. The light of the sun burst forth, illuminating the battlefield as it crashed into both the crimson and the rainbow, turning the clash into a storm of three overwhelming powers.
The Death, The Violence, The Bloodlust.
And thus, the battlefield bore witness to the clash of three incarnations of war.
In a flash of red, Ares vanished and instantly appeared in front of Jay. A diagonal slash of pure divine aura tore through space itself, devouring the very layers beneath it. Realizing he could not rely on Phantasmagoria, as Ares's Divine Aura consumed every layer of space, Jay reacted on instinct and leaned back to dodge.
BOOM
The crimson slash blasted across the dunes for hundreds of meters, its force alone incinerating the carcasses of desert snakes in its path instantly.
But before Ares could reposition himself, the azure Anemo sigil behind Jay ignited in a fraction of a second, and-
"Spirit of Wind,"
FWUOOOOM
A violent blast of wind erupted forward, tearing through Ares's divine aura and ripping it apart just enough to break his footing, sending him hurtling into the air like a projectile.
But Jay did not even have a moment to follow up as a frenzied scream of a woman echoed through the sand dunes.
"Sun Blaster!"
A golden radiance scorched the air in its wake as a cannon-like blast of pure divine energy hurtled toward him in the blink of an eye. But Jay did not dodge as he cast a glance at the incoming attack.
Avesta igniting as it analyzed its structure before he simply raised Alichino upward and whispered,
"Vanish."
SHUUN-
Sekhmet's Sun Blaster vanished into thin air instantly, yet she did not seem to care.
Her body flared with a blazing golden radiance as a mere heat from her divine aura distorting the air around her.
"KAHAHAHAHAHA!" She laughed.
Like a flash, with swift, feline movement, Sekhmet rushed toward Jay, a maniacal grin spreading across her face, and-
CLANK
Her golden divine claws clashed against the jagged black blade of Alichino. Even with the heat comparable to the surface of the sun, she could not melt the Sword of Desire.
Jay's eyes remained cold as they met the Lioness Goddess's gaze. With a sudden motion, he released his grip on Alichino, then raised a finger and pointed it toward Sekhmet.
And then he whispered.
"Spirit of Dust."
FUUUUUNG
Then almost instantly, a blinding white cube manifested at the tip of his finger.
As its light reflected in her radiant blue divine eyes, the cube began to disintegrate everything in its path.
And-
BOOOM
A pillar of white energy blasted downward, aiming to completely annihilate Sekhmet's body as it carved a crater hundreds of meters deep into the dunes.
But Sekhmet's divine eyes had already read everything before she appeared a hundred meters away from Jay.
"What the fuck is that!?"
Before she could comprehend what had just created a literal hole in the sandy dunes, her eyes widened as she sensed a presence behind her, as Jay was already there, and-
"Cleave."
SHIIING
SPLURTT
A black slash tore cleanly through Sekhmet's upper body, severing her in an instant. For a brief moment, her form split apart, yet her joyful smile only widened. And then, a golden divine radiance flared as her body regenerated almost immediately, her divine flesh knitting back together in a heartbeat.
And Sekhmet didn't stop there. Her body twisted 180 degrees in a sharp fluid motion and lashed out, her divine aura claws slicing toward Jay's head, aiming to tear it apart in a single strike.
But then, a scream echoed from the distance.
"Phobos!"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
A piercing spear, hundreds of meters in diameter and formed from pure crimson divine aura, thrust forward, tearing through space for thousands of meters toward the horizon like Moses splitting the red sea. Jay and Sekhmet instantly split apart, each dodging Ares' attack in opposite directions.
But before Jay could even find his footing, in the blink of an eye, Ares' figure flickered in red and suddenly appeared right in front of him.
"Enyo!"
BOOOM
A crimson slash crashed into the ground below, erupting into a massive explosion. But Jay had already vanished from his place before reappearing above Ares, suspended in the air and facing downward.
And with his right hand free, Alichino manifested, hovering within a tear in space of his pocket dimension.
Jay then whispered his Desire.
"Stay there."
Ares widened his eyes as he felt a terrifying pressure bearing down on him from above, while an invisible force locked his body in place, suspending him in the air. His muscles tensed, but he could not move, not even an inch.
Yet a confident smile slowly formed on his face. His divine form flared brighter, enveloping him in a near-unbreakable armor, a sacred blessing bestowed upon him by Olympus itself.
The radiance of war godhood surged across his frame, stabilizing his presence against the crushing force.
And as arrogance filled his mind once more, Ares shouted up toward the young human floating above him.
"Attack me if you can, human!"
But said human didn't even flinch. His black hair fluttered in the air as all six sigils behind his back ignited in a myriad of colors. As his dark hazel eyes met Ares' golden eyes behind the divine aura helmet encased his head, the pressure between them thickened.
Then Jay whispered the ultimate form of Ars Theurgia.
The unification of the Six Elements of Nature, condensed into a single thing.
"The Spirit of the Six Paths..."
A black orb then manifested in front of his hand. The Truth-Seeker Orb.
And then Jay whispered,
"Mahayana."
SPLURTTT
BOOOM
The orb instantly expanded, tearing through Ares' divine armor and body like a hot steel through butter, before embedding itself deep into the dunes beneath them.
Ares' eyes widened as a massive hole opened through the center of his body, severing him in two. For a moment, time seemed to stall as he registered the impossible damage.
But the next instant his body began to move again.
Ares let out a furious scream.
"Deimos!"
Jay's eyes flinched, and in a flash of blinding red light-
BOOOOOOOM
A massive explosion erupted as a thousand-meter-wide blast expanded like a star-shaped sphere, instantly incinerating the sand dunes, the air, the space and everything in its wake.
Jay teleported back to a safe distance.
His dark hazel eyes reflected the crimson sun of pure divine aura that Ares had created. A gust of wind from his spirit magic enveloped him, blasting the scorching air away from his body.
Meanwhile, back with the others, Freya stared into the distance with narrowed eyes as a giant pink divine aura shield enveloped her, Thoth, Rossweisse, and Draghignazzo, protecting them from the scorching heat emanating from the crimson miniature star that Ares had created
Rossweisse lost her footing, unable to believe the sheer scale of the battle unfolding before her eyes.
"There is no way this is how the gods fight..." Rossweisse muttered. She had never witnessed combat of this magnitude before. Even Thor, whom she knew as one of the strongest beings in existence, she had never seen fight directly. It was the first time she was witnessing a full god-scale battle with her own eyes.
"No... not any ordinary gods could do something like this," Thoth replied. Even he would not dare to dream of reaching such a level.
"And to think that a human could match those monsters..."
Freya also stared at Jay's back in the distance, unable to stop the thoughts forming in her mind.
'Zayyn Illya Kovalenko... so all of it wasn't an exaggeration,' she thought.
Little did they know, Ares had not stopped there.
And from the massive sun-like sphere of pure divine aura, the energy suddenly began to condense. It shrank rapidly, but instead of disappearing, it reshaped itself into a gigantic armored warrior, one thousand meters in height, forged entirely from crimson aura.
Towering above everyone like a primordial titan of pure divine aura.
"What the-" Thoth's breath hitched as he felt a suffocating pressure radiating from the gigantic form of the god of war.
But Jay simply looked past those two giant eyes, locking his gaze onto Ares, who floated atop his titan construct as they stared each other down.
"I thought you represented war and battle better than anyone here..." Jay muttered, his aura flaring across the dunes.
"But you do not even know that making yourself bigger just makes you a larger target."
And then, with a casual motion, Jay opened his palm and raised his hand. The Anemo, Electro, and Geo sigils ignited behind his back all at once. And almost immediately, a blast of wind then erupted, lifting thousands of tons of sand from the dunes beneath Ares' titan figure and engulfing its entire body.
As Ares struggled to break free from the burial of sand, Jay whispered softly.
"Spirit of Magnet."
FUUUUNG
Ares' body was instantly dragged down, completely submerged by the magnetic sands as an unseen magnetic force beneath pulled him deeper into the earth.
BOOM
As his titan form crashed onto the ground and create an explosion, Ares' eyes widened behind his helmet when he saw Jay already preparing another Mahayana to pierce him apart. But before he could strike, an explosion of divine aura erupted in the distance.
Jay turned toward the source and saw Sekhmet floating in the air with a dozen-meter-wide sun forming above her hand. His Avesta quickly analyzed the same spell she had been using since the beginning of the battle.
And with a wide grin that radiated the joy of destruction, she unleashed her wrath in a jubilant scream.
"The Eye of Ra-HAHAHAHA!"
SHUUUUUUUUUUNG
And then a deafening silence engulfed the battlefield as a beam of radiant light blasted toward Ares like a gamma ray burst.
Before-
BOOOM
Every single part of Ares' titan form evaporated into nothing as Shekmet's Divine Sun beam incinerated all of his divine aura. In seconds, the thousand-meter giant was reduced to remnants of crimson energy, withering across the dunes.
Sekhmet's blue eyes ignited as she laughed, reveling in the destruction that had scorched the sands where Ares had stood moments before. But suddenly-
SPLURTTTTT
"...Huh?"
Sekhmet widened her eyes in shock as she slowly turned her gaze toward her chest. And there, a red spear of divine aura had pierced through her and suspended her in midair.
"Ha… ha… ha, I thought that attack would surely hit you-" Sekhmet coughed divine blood.
Cough
Ares' divine aura completely suppressed her attempt to regenerate her body, as it tearing apart every strand of divine energy she tried to use to heal the piercing wound on her chest.
"That Divine Sun of yours is indeed magnificent. A power that can slow souls, divine aura, and spirit regeneration is simply terrifying. No wonder Aphrodite warned me about it… but you are simply too naive," Ares said as he prepared to finish Sekhmet off.
But Sekhmet did not even flinch.
"Oh yeah? Let's see who's really naive, bastard!" Sekhmet grinned. And then, she suddenly twisted her body back and grabbed Ares' head, catching him off guard.
"Wha-"
"If you're going to kill me, then let's die together HAHAHA!" Sekhmet screamed.
She opened her mouth wide and bit into Ares' helmet and face. Her fangs, enveloped in divine aura, shattered his helmet upon impact.
CRACK
'Don't tell me!' Ares screamed in his mind as he reacted quickly.
He then quickly seized Sekhmet by the neck and, with a violent swing of his arm, hurled her into the ground below.
BOOM
The moment she hit the ground, an explosion of heat erupted from her body.
Ares stared down at the crazed lioness goddess lying in the sand as his torn head and shattered helmet slowly reformed under his crimson divine aura. Sekhmet's figure gradually reappeared after the dust settled, her grin growing even wider than before.
"KAHAHAHA… amazing. This is why I prefer to fight alone! For thousands of years, no one has pushed me this far! Let's kill each other, Ares!" Sekhmet screamed as the golden aura within her erupted even more intensely.
But before she could launch herself toward Ares for another round, dozens of dark purple portals suddenly opened around her, making her radiant blue eyes widen in surprise.
And then-
KRIIIIIING
Dozens of obsidian chains, wrapped in myriad-colored aura, pierced through her body from multiple angles before fully binding her limbs and body and completely locking her in a mummified seal of steel.
"Ngah! What is this?!" Sekhmet screamed.
However, her shock did not end there as she could feel her divine aura being absorbed by the Chains of Envy wrapped around her body, her golden divine energy slowly siphoned through each link of the binding. Before she could fully channel her power and shatter them, a faint whispering ring suddenly echoed behind her ears.
A Desire to-
"Do nothing."
Sekhmet instantly froze, stopping her attempt to escape by an invinsible force.
And Jay slowly walked from behind her, before passing her as his gaze settled on the floating God of War. His Avesta ignited, and suddenly a golden divine aura enveloped his hand.
And at that moment, Sekhmet's eyes widened in disbelief.
Even Ares was stunned with the scene in front of his eyes.
"No way… that's the Divine Sun," Sekhmet muttered, a power that only three beings in the entire world were capable of wielding.
Her father Amun-Ra, the current Chief-god of the Ancient-Egyptian faction, the Supreme God Aten, and herself.
But there was no mistaking it.
The scorching heat, the manifestation, the divinity behind it.
Then Jay spoke calmly beside her.
"Let me borrow your power."
And in his hand, a small divine sun began to form.
This is Jay's new technique, which allows him to replicate any concept or divine abilities using Avesta, something that was previously impossible. He first realized this potential during the last few months of his time in the Temple of Solomon, even though today is the first time he is trying it.
Normally, a power such as the Ra's Divine Sun or Sirzechs' Power of Destruction would require millions of runes to recreate using Avesta. This is because such abilities are not formed from something as simple as mana, which he and anyone possesses, but from a unique power or energy inherent to the original user.
That is why most conceptual or divine abilities are inherited through bloodline rather than replicated. And attempting to reproduce that unique energy is simply impossible, even with his Dragon Eye.
However, with Calcabrina, Jay can bypass those millions of runes. Instead, he reconstructs only the form of the ability, while using the energy that absorbed directly from the original user.
By combining Calcabrina's Chains of Envy, which can absorb energy from anything they bind, with Avesta's ability to reconstruct any ability, Jay achieved something he had never thought possible before.
As long as these two conditions are met, Jay can recreate any ability. Though, the first condition is definitely a hard condition to satisfy, especially against someone like Sirzechs.
But today, he did not intend to use his trump cards, both the Black flame or Absolute Nonexistence before facing Aten. So, he needed something effective against Ares' divine aura. Hence, he bound Sekhmet solely as a source of divine energy to wield Ra's power, the Divine Sun.
Jay then raised his hand, his eyes locked onto Ares' golden gaze.
Ares, still flabbergasted that a mere human could wield the legendary power inherent to the ancient Egyptian gods, tightened his grip on his spear. Then Jay's voice echoed across the vast expanse of the Heliopolis sand dunes.
"Let's finish this..."