"With this treasure, I summon..."
Bell's voice echoed, relentless and commanding.
"Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga."
The radiant wheel ascended, hovering like a halo behind him.
A hulking silhouette loomed into reality beneath it. The creature was a mountain of pale muscle, its face adorned with four wings protruding from its sockets and a spectral tail-like appendage dangling from its crown. Affixed to its right forearm was a blade that gleamed with lethal intent.
Bell's face had a shit eating grin as he leveled a finger at Antares.
"Mahoraga... Let's jump him."
[Ittou Rasestu] awoke with a savage roar. Sight became dispensable. Taste became needless. Sound became inessential. Scent became optional. Touch became irrelevant.
Monochrome overpowered the world.
One second he was pointing at Antares. The next, he stood before the scorpion, his fist cocked all the way back.
Bell glanced to his left—Mahoraga was there, its hand drawn back in a perfect mirror of his own stance.
One Bell was a menace...
But Bell and Mahoraga together?
GG.
Their punches landed simultaneously, one from the right, the other from the left.
BOOM! x2
Antares shrieked in rage. Four of its six claws lunged toward them with reckless abandon.
Bell and Mahoraga moved in perfect sync. Bell slid to the front as Mahoraga fell in behind him.
Their motions were mirror images. As two claws struck for Bell and two for Mahoraga, they redirected the attacks in unison, sweeping the lethal limbs aside with effortless grace.
A split second later, Mahoraga's massive hands clamped around Bell's ankles. The Divine General hoisted him up, and Bell bent his spine, fluid as a snake. With a violent heave, Mahoraga launched Bell straight toward the scorpion's head.
"Fire Dragon's Sword Horn."
[Grega] erupted across his form. Bell became a living meteor, his crown colliding brutally with Antares' skull.
BOOM!
He rebounded, while the scorpion was sent flying backward.
Before Bell could hit the ground, Mahoraga caught him effortlessly, setting him down with surprising gentleness.
Bell straightened up, standing shoulder to shoulder with the Divine General. He brought his closed fist toward Mahoraga, holding it in the air while staring straight ahead at the thrashing Antares.
The General tilted its head slightly, mimicking the gesture. It brought its own massive fist forward, tapping its knuckles against Bell's in a gesture of confused solidarity.
A slight smile tugged at the corner of Bell's lips.
He and Mahoraga took a single step forward. Perfectly synchronized.
Their second step was eerily similar.
By the third, they were merely a blur of white and crimson, intersecting and racing toward Antares.
Bell's fingers intertwined as he smashed an uppercut into Antares' jaw. A heartbeat later, Mahoraga was already above the beast's head, its fingers locked tight as it hammered a strike down from above.
The blows landed simultaneously.
Bell and Mahoraga became a storm.
One attacked from the left; the other struck from the right.
One came from below; the other descended from above.
One lunged ahead; the other circled behind.
It was a relentless, omnidirectional assault, a dance of violence that was choregraphed by them.
Suddenly, the wheel floating above Mahoraga began to turn.
Clunk
The sound didn't just echo in the air; It resonated within the depths of their minds simultaneously.
Their skin smoothed, shedding unnecessary texture to minimize air resistance. Their postures shifted, becoming aerodynamically streamlined. The weight of their muscle mass seemed to lighten, optimized for velocity.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The sound barrier wasn't just broken, It was shredded apart. Concentric shockwaves erupted in double digits, stacking on top of one another until the air itself screamed.
Bell and Mahoraga overwhelmed the monster from every angle, a blur of violence that offered no escape.
Antares roared in agony. Desperate, the symbols etched across its carapace illuminated with a violent red light. The sigils carved into the floor began to tear apart, disintegrating as the monster's presence swelled.
Its power climbed rapidly, surging past Level 5 and teetering dangerously close to the realm of a Level 6 monster.
Sensing the shift, Bell and Mahoraga broke their assault in unison, vaulting backward to create distance.
The scorpion had gone mad, thrashing and swinging its claws with reckless, explosive abandon.
Bell didn't hesitate. Flames erupted from his legs, launching him forward like a rocket. A blazing sword materialized in his grip, its heat distorting the air. Mahoraga followed, leaping effortlessly behind him.
He swung the flaming blade against its thrashing claws, parrying the wild strikes. Mid air, Mahoraga coiled its legs and delivered a tremendous kick to Bell's back, amplifying his momentum to terrifying speeds.
The flaming sword in Bell's hand warped, [Grega] reshaping itself instantly into a massive shield of fire. It collided forcefully against the unstable Antares a moment later.
BOOOOM!
The impact was cataclysmic.
Antares was dragged across the open plaza, the friction tearing ground, before crashing through the walls and architecture of the ruins. Bell and the monster fought through the debris, becoming whirlwinds of destruction that reduced their surrounding structures to rubble.
Bell didn't realize how far they had traveled until the ruins thinned out. Suddenly, they were at the very edge of the structure, near the entrance.
"Bell!!!" Goddess Artemis' voice resounded, piercing the chaos.
Bell glanced to the side. Goddess Artemis was there, surrounded by her Familia members, their faces pale with shock.
[Ittou Rasetsu] accelerated. His strength spiking even further.
Level 4.
BOOOOM!
His punch connected with the monster, sending Antares flying away for a moment.
10 seconds were left before [Ittou Rasestu] deactivated.
"Goddess... it's better for you and your Familia to stay as far away from here as possible," Bell said, blood dripping from wounds that were already knitting back together.
"Quic—"
He didn't finish. The scorpion pounced back, ferality overriding its pain.
Goddess Artemis and her Familia members recoiled, terror-struck by the suffocating pressure Antares released.
Yet, the golden strings in Bell's vision did not even tremble.
Why?
Because the Divine General was already descending from above, its massive hand splayed open in a vice-like grip.
The wheel above it turned.
Clunk
Their grip strength intensified. Their muscle structure became denser, more complex. Their bone flexibility skyrocketed.
Mahoraga trapped the flailing Antares, pinning it to the ground with overwhelming force.
The instant the monster was restrained, countless golden strings inside his vision merged into a single, brilliant thread to victory.
Bell looked around and spotted a bow in Goddess Artemis' hands. He gestured urgently for her to approach.
She rushed to him.
Bell wrapped his arms around her from behind, resting his hand over hers on the grip. With his other hand, he nocked an arrow from her quiver, pulling the string back in tandem with her.
He leveled the bow at Antares. Sensing the threat, the monster went ballistic, thrashing against Mahoraga's hold with renewed frenzy.
Flames from [Grega] covered the arrow. Vitality from [Ittou Rasestu] flooded the arrow.
His strength nosedived.
Level 4— Level 3— Level 2— Level 1.
A silver glow blazed from the arrow, brilliant and blinding.
Goddess Artemis looked at the struggling Antares and spoke, her voice echoing with divine authority.
"Do not struggle, monster. It's futile."
"You are about to face the strongest arrow across Genkai and Tenkai."
Bell pulled the string all the way back with Goddess Artemis.
"You are about to face my...
No, our..."
Bell and Goddess Artemis' voices synchronised as they released the string.
"Arrow Of Orion!!!"
Moonlight swallowed the world.
...
That day, a shooting star lit up the sky of the lower world.
Brighter than any other.
If only for a moment.
***
[300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter]
[8 chapters ahead on P@tr3on = [email protected]/Not_Aaryan]
...
[Author's Thoughts]
Hmm... How was it? Hope I've gotten better than before.