Waving the crowbar in his hand, Cid strolled leisurely toward Cao Cao's teammates, who had witnessed the entire fight, a classic villain's grin still on his face.
"Well, you saw the result for yourselves. Your boss, Cao Cao, has lost. Choose. Surrender, or keep getting beaten until you surrender!"
After silently exchanging a few glances, Siegfried and the others still raised their weapons and pointed them at Shadow as he slowly approached.
...
"Guwah!"
The crowbar slammed hard across Siegfried's face, sending him flying with a strange cry. After rolling several times across the ground, he opened his mouth, shut his eyes, and passed out.
At that moment, Cid looked around. The battered, crater-filled street was already strewn with bodies, a sight that left one sighing.
These terrorists, who could stir up chaos and make waves no matter where they appeared, were now sprawled all over the ground. Not a trace of their usual aura as powerful fighters remained.
"So really, what was the point…"
As the last one fell, Cid shook his head and let go of the crowbar in his hand. After so many consecutive battles, the crowbar had already reached its limit. The moment it hit the ground, it broke apart into pieces.
"Tsk. What a waste…"
Passing through the group of powerful foes lying there like corpses, Cid arrived behind the Dragon Eater. He looked at Samael, who was still devouring Ophis and had no idea what sort of situation he was in, and smiled with excitement.
Although it felt as if the fight had lasted a long time, in reality, less than five minutes had passed from the moment Ophis was swallowed until now. In other words, now was the perfect time for him to bring this to a close with overwhelming advantage.
He leaped high into the air. A black shadow flashed across the sky as Cid descended in a perfect Rider Kick pose.
"BOOM!"
A tremendous impact rang out, dust billowing everywhere as Cid landed on the ruins where Samael and Ophis had been. Except now, there was no one there.
"Huh?"
Realizing what had happened, Cid's relaxed expression instantly froze. His landing pose and movement had been flawless, but if he had completely missed his target, then there was nothing flawless about it at all.
Someone stole my kill!
The instant he realized this, Cid's expression changed. His gaze shifted toward the spot where Ophis had originally been. He began circulating his Magical Power, and the white orb glowing in the air abruptly exploded. Cao Cao, who was lying face-down on the ground, spat out a mouthful of blood, but Cid no longer cared what happened to him.
His gaze pierced through empty space and into the Dimensional Gap, following those pitifully faint spatial fluctuations.
Cid saw them. A group of creatures dressed in black robes, their bodies nothing but skeletons underneath, looking like Grim Reapers from some mythology, were circling the newly appeared Samael and Ophis. It seemed Ophis and Samael had been teleported there, though he had no idea what those things were trying to do.
But none of that mattered. Anyone who dared steal a kill from right under his feet had to die, no matter who they were.
Clenching his fist, Cid did not hesitate. He took one step forward, sprang into the air again, and plunged into the void in a diving posture.
...
The Underworld, Olympus Mythology, the realm of Hades, God of the Underworld.
A great number of Grim Reapers surrounded the Dragon Eater as it devoured Ophis in the center. Various spells firmly restrained the Dragon God's power. Just as they stepped forward, preparing to seize Ophis's power of "Infinity"...
"Crack!"
A sound like shattering porcelain rang through the sky. Every Grim Reaper in the Underworld who heard it instinctively looked up toward the source.
"Crack, crack, crack…"
Spiderweb-like fractures spread across the sky above the Underworld, like glass beginning to split. Within seconds, they expanded rapidly, accompanied by a growing sound of shattering, until finally...
"Snap!"
A black shadow leaped out from the center of the crack. Like the final straw that broke the camel's back, the already overburdened sky collapsed.
"Help! Help! Hades-sama, save us!"
Space shattered like exploding glass, revealing the void of the Dimensional Gap beyond it. A powerful suction force swept down toward the land of the Underworld. Before being pulled away, countless Grim Reapers cried out to their leader, Hades, for help, but it was useless. They could only be dragged into the Dimensional Gap, their fates unknown.
"Vwoom…"
This spatial movement, carried out with no technique and pure brute force, destroyed the stability of space itself. The shattered fragments of space fell to the ground and turned into spatial turbulence, harvesting the lives below like the scythes of Grim Reapers.
"BOOM!"
At the same time, the black shadow that had caused all of this fell from the sky and rushed toward Ophis and the others. It arrived in an instant. Absolute power slammed into the ground, triggering a massive explosion that sent dust shooting into the sky. With the shadow's landing point as the center, the entire Underworld began to collapse.
"Ah…"
The Grim Reapers who had been about to move in and capture Ophis did not even have time to react before they were killed by the aftershock of the descending strike. The few who survived fell into the cracks in the ground, their fates unknown.
"That was a bit loud…"
Cid sighed as he looked up at the terrifying scene in the sky, though he was not particularly surprised. After all, this was just a small side effect of his spatial movement.
"But the good news is, I didn't miss this time!"
He paid no attention to the deaths of the Grim Reapers. After all, anyone who appeared at the teleportation point of Ophis and the Dragon Eater could not possibly be a good person.
Compared to the Grim Reapers, Cid was more interested in the Dragon Eater Samael before him. It had taken his kick head-on, yet for some reason, it still had not fallen. Was it because of the Cross?
He rubbed his chin and examined it. The next second, Samael collapsed. Its enormous body, along with the Cross behind it, slammed heavily into the ground with a loud crash.
"So that delayed reaction scene from anime actually exists!"
As Cid sighed in wonder, what had only looked like a rounded belly suddenly swelled into a semicircular bulge. Like a woman ten months pregnant, the bulge began moving toward Samael's mouth, toward the black substance connected to the tentacles wrapped around Ophis.
"Is the power returning?"
Perhaps Samael's loss of consciousness had triggered a chain reaction. The black substance tightly wrapped around Ophis began making a grinding sound, drawing Cid's attention.
The power of Infinity was returning. Did that mean Ophis was about to break free?
"Pop!"
Just as Cid was secretly speculating, the black substance enveloping Ophis seemed to reach its limit and burst apart. Fragments scattered everywhere, dust billowed up, and two petite figures flew out from within, landing in front of Cid.
Small bodies, delicate features. Even unconscious, the girl still wore that expressionless look as she fell in front of Cid in her Lolita dress. There were two of them.
"What the hell!?"
That was right. Lying in front of Cid were two identical Ophis. No, even if Cid peeled back their soul essence, both of their soul essences were the same "Infinity."
No, these two Ophis seemed different from the original Ophis.
After observing them more carefully, Cid discovered that although the two Ophis were identical in both body and soul, they still seemed to differ from the original Ophis in some way.
If he had to name the most fundamental change, it would be their presence.
The presence of a powerful being would not change in the slightest even while unconscious. But now, in Cid's personal senses, the difference between the presence of these two Ophis and that of an ordinary person was infinitely close to zero.
"Forget it. I'll worry about that later. If I don't leave soon, the spatial tunnel will close…"
His gaze moved back and forth between the two unconscious Ophis and the Dragon Eater lying motionless on the ground. After a brief silence, Cid rubbed his forehead and gave up on the ridiculous theory forming in his mind.
Leaving came first. Otherwise, once space healed, unless he wanted to trigger a spatial quake on Itogami Island, he would have no choice but to travel through the Dimensional Gap.
Lifting one in each hand and ignoring the attacks flying toward him from all around, Cid flew into the sky. Just as he was about to enter the spatial tunnel, a skeleton much larger than the Grim Reaper skeletons, and decorated far more extravagantly, blocked his path.
"Shadow…"
His title was spoken by the other party, and through gritted teeth at that. A normal person probably would have stopped for a moment, but Cid had no intention of paying attention to him. Escaping came first, so he simply went around him and moved to step into the spatial tunnel.
Unfortunately, the other party did not agree. Seeing himself ignored, he instantly teleported in front of Shadow, raised his hand, and launched an attack at Cid. The attack, filled with death energy, struck Cid and successfully caught his attention.
"Don't get in my way…"
Cid frowned, reached out with one hand, and casually smacked the skeleton in front of him down to the ground. Then he jumped into the spatial tunnel. This time, no one else appeared to stop him.
In the shattered Underworld, the skeleton that Cid had knocked down, causing yet another large-scale collapse, lay on the ground. Ghostly flames flickered in its eyes, its pale bones trembled, and invisible rage spread outward.
"Hades-sama, the Underworld has come under attack by an unknown force. Pluto-sama, who went to receive the Infinite Dragon God, has also vanished for unknown reasons. It appears that he may have ga…"
A Grim Reaper who had avoided the explosion and survived followed his senses and found Hades in the deep pit. But before he could finish speaking, the enraged Hades grabbed the ghostly flame representing his soul. The Grim Reaper could only let out a strange cry, trying to beg for mercy, but Hades ignored him and mercilessly crushed the flame.
"Huff, huff, huff… Damn you, Shadow. I'll kill you!!!"
The death of his subordinate did not lessen Hades' fury. Instead, it became the spark that set it ablaze.
Hades' pitch-black Magical Power of Death surged from his body. The power of death wantonly harvested the souls of the Grim Reapers, restoring the injuries Shadow had casually inflicted on him moments earlier.
"It was the same last time. He is nothing more than a lowly aberration, yet he dared harm a noble God. And this time, he even dared ignore me, Hades…"
As he spoke of his two meetings with Shadow, Hades' voice was filled with rage toward him, though he suppressed the vast fury burning in his heart.
"Just you wait, Shadow. Once I obtain Death, you will be the first one I use to establish my authority. Zeus is no longer fit to be God-King either. After suffering such humiliation last time, he still said he was going to attend that so-called second meeting…"
He muttered threats against Shadow under his breath. Unfortunately, Cid could no longer see this scene of impotent fury from a beaten dog, because he had already returned to the alternate dimension created by Cao Cao and the others.
"Thank goodness, Cid-san, you finally appeared again. When I saw you suddenly disappear just now, I almost thought something had happened. I'm so glad you're all right, Cid-san…"
The moment he jumped out of the spatial tunnel, Asia ran over from the other side, worry still written across her face. But after getting closer, she stopped, staring in surprise at the two Ophis in Cid's hands.
"What could have happened? Someone stole my things, so I went to steal them back."
"Ah! Cid-san, is that really not going to cause any trouble?"
Asia very much wanted to ask why Ophis-chan had suddenly become two people, but when she heard Cid say he had disappeared to take something back, she hurriedly asked with concern instead.
"Don't worry. I recognize the skeleton who stole my things. I don't have much of an impression of him, so he probably isn't anyone important."
Cid really was not lying. He vaguely remembered seeing him when he had been chasing Great Red and those two Otherworld Dragon Gods through the Dimensional Gap for revenge. Unfortunately, he had been hit by attacks from all three Dragon Gods at the same time, knocked out of the Dimensional Gap, and sent crashing into a large venue crowded with people. After all, that had been the scene where he set the record for becoming the world's fastest wanted criminal, so the memory was still fresh.
"Can Cid-san's impression really be used as a standard for judging that? Rather, anyone who can leave an impression on Cid-san must already be someone incredible, right?"
Asia muttered her complaint, highly doubtful of Cid's criteria. But since things had already come to this, she could only force a smile.
"Forget it. As long as you're fine, Cid-san. Um, Cid-san, Ophis-chan…"
Asia spoke hesitantly, looking at the two Ophis dangling from Cid's hands with a strange expression.
"Well, I'm not too sure either. I do have a few guesses, but I think we should wait until Ophis wakes up and let her tell us herself."
Cid frowned, rubbed his chin, and placed both Ophis on a bench. The black slime outfit on his body receded as he raised one finger.
"First, like a gecko shedding its tail, when Ophis was being swallowed, she chose to split part of herself into two. Then, during the process of being devoured, that part was released early, causing the separated portions to grow out."
At this point, Cid drew a line with his finger across the stomach of one Ophis lying there.
"Simply put, she was cut in half. Then her powerful healing ability caused the upper half to grow a new lower half, and the lower half to grow a new upper half. Maybe even their consciousnesses split as well.
As for the second possibility…"
Cid hesitated slightly. Personally, he thought the second explanation, asexual reproduction triggered by a life-or-death crisis, was probably the truth. But when he saw Asia's innocent eyes, he still looked away and stopped explaining.
"Cid-san, why did you stop?"
"No need to explain. We can just ask them directly."
At some point, both Ophis had woken up and were now playing a staring game with each other. One had a cold gaze, while the other looked confused.
In the end, the confused one lost. She climbed down, ran over to Cid, quietly looked up at him, opened her little mouth, and said,
"Daddy?"