Chapter 207: What’s Wrong with Loki?
"The world was littered with white and black, twisting, clamping against each other, as if two apocalypses are battling on what disaster will befall the world first."
---Excerpt from the account of the survivors from the direct proximity of the fight between Loki Darkbringer and Urduja Tawalisi during the continental wars.
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"A... another war!? The War between elves and the undeads just ended today!"
The Kings, queens, or any other leaders of the several nations of the Exodus and Numbers continents shouted, even though the contents might be different, they contain the same thing. Fear, anger, resentment to the calamities of Genesis as they seem to want and desire wars in their daily lives just so that they can fluoric their powers... besides the weapon familiars that can pierce through large distances of Numbers, the prided "personalized magic" of Exodus also came to play in order to convey this grim information.
Of course, Exodus who was actually has it's half coated in darkness of the night has some view on how Urduja was able to make morning and night feel like a timelapse, causing citizens to not be able to sleep in fear that they might get caught in the crossfire in any of the one-on-one fights that are happening in Genesis, specially the one where two fast moving gargantuan monsters in the shape of a serpent and bird that are capable of blotting out the sun and can cause oceans to freeze over, those two were particularly dangerous as their fight were filled with recklessness.
"What... is happening in Genesis?"
The strong people, not really that lagging behind the heroes of Genesis though are outnumbered even if combined of the two continents can't help but mutter, in these past few days, a lot of wars and invasions, as well as political shifts happened in this continent, and if not for the buffer that is having the Darkbringer siblings, Urduja and the newly emerged smartest mortal in the world, several armies would have started poking their metaphorical sticks towards the direction of this storm ridden continent.
However, alas, they are forced to stay in their places, lest they want to have a similar fate as the land of the main nation of the Mayari and Apolaki empires.
Though they do know one thing, from what they knew, Urduja and Sophia have a very amiable relationship, and, by this logic, the two continents suitable for a logical inquiry immediately formed a conclusion.
_These two best friends are attempting to split up Genesis on their own... with their own catastrophic display earlier as the buffer and PTSD inducing supplement to the bold and strong... we will not be able to interfere._
Such were the leaders' thoughts, though of course, they are not aware that a last attempt to destroy a world-ending time loop is underway.
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City of Eris, capital of the Kingdom of Valentine.
With profound and confident and calmness, Eris looked at the flickering lights and the state of the whole Genesis that seems to have its switch tampered with a child with how it turns form morning to the dead of the night again and again, silently, without even a shed of worry, Eris looked at these scenes of futile fighting, all are bound by the absolute force of time, with shackles unbreakable even by gods' best bet on destroying the time loop.
Eris is very glad for the moron that gave her the power to repeatedly relish on the failure of that bastard god that abandoned them just because their heart are beating.
_Sophia, despite all of her efforts, was not able to set off any alarms from the auto response of the time loop, this means, that as always, despite all of Sophia's incarnation being brilliant with this last one being the greatest of them all, Sophia Demiurge is still destined to fail._
The dictator of time watched all the scenes happening in Genesis, hisses and caws of birds, shockwaves of suns being destroyed and the faint, yet impressively audible sound of the shouts of the men warring in the middle of titans as if they have disregarded their pride just to fight as the clowns of two sides that happened to be able to punch hard, this continued until the sun started to reel it's face in front of Genesis again, causing Eris to smile, just like her brother she sprouted blue colored bat wings and then went to a large patch of forest, the destined place of her and Sophia's fight.
_I don't want to get my clothes dirty._
As the dictator of time, Eris naturally knew that another eminent fight was about to unfold in her palace, so she decided to wait for Sophia so that she could look at her despairing mug one last time.
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Still in the City of Eris, the gallows, underground.
Arachne, and her aunt, Hebi Tsukaiza walked slowly through the hallway, in there sides were criminals or captives that only the royalties knew were held inside this place, it can be a prince or a princess from other country, an elf that has the potential of coming close to Aerendil, or even a hero, who is, the wife of Sophia Demiurge, Eleanor Blackwell Demiurge.
_I have to coax Aunt Hebi against the execution of Eleanor... if she were killed, I would be dragged down with her._
While leisurely walking towards the cell of Eleanor, Arachne can't help but muse, this is what she's stressing about lately, on how to keep Eleanor alive... something that normally, she won't even mule about, before, she can do whatever it takes for the sake of Valentine... but now, for reasons unknown, she felt a soul curling fear from the prospect of dying the moment when Eleanor's skin was even grazed in her skin.
No, actually, she knew the reason.
_This must be the arrangement of Sophia..._
Sometimes, Arachne regretted her actions of being a double spy, now, even with her unique skill being unsealed, she can't retrieve all her research findings or the pink bat queen that she wanted to offer to her father... and right now, she have become nothing but a pig on a chopping board.
"Arachne."
As Arachne started despairing, her mind was drawn into the voice of her aunt, Hebi Tsukaiza, causing her to flinch.
"Y-yes?"
Arachne stammered, wondering if she had already been found out, yet Hebi seemed not to notice it and continued her speech.
"Do you know my oath when I became a hero, someone who bows only to the Royal Family despite being a royalty myself?"
Arachne's fright turned into that of confusion. Hebi even stopped alongside her, patiently waiting for her answer, by which the queen of spiders nodded simply.
"Then, can you repeat it for me?"
Arachne's confusion became even more pronounced as she tilted her head a little, she have a very good memory, so good in fact that she was once part of the "big three" of the scientific circle of Kamatayan, and due to this, her confusion was soon replaced by a creeping bad feeling in her gut, her fingers that are at her back folded with one another started to produce indistinct, sharp strings that latched on the walls, she might knew that this fear of death is just crafted, but Arachne also knew that she won't be spared even if she said her circumstances, thus she nodded at the request of her aunt.
"Of course..."
Arachne paused for a moment and then continued.
"I, Hebi Tsukaiza swears an oath to take up arms only in the words of the royal family, specifically the Royal Majesties, Eris Darkbringer and Loki Darkbringer, any of their children shall be able to command me to action only in the presence of one of the aforementioned authorities, I shall serve and lead their militants in upholding their sovereignty and cutting down anyone who stood at the opposite side of their will."
Hebi nodded, calm as always, even smiling, something rare since she got defeated by Sophia, seeing this, Arachne's grip on her strings became more taut.
"And you were so talented."
Hebi lowered her self, her eyes became icy, yet regret also etched on them, Arachne immediately morphed her lower part in an attempt to use her spider claws and mandibles against for the imminent fight, however, before she can even do so, an oversized stiletto pierced her heart from behind, causing blood to flow out of the hole of the puncture and her mouth, she looked at her back, and in their is The Serpent Bearer, Hebi Tsukaiza.
"How can you be... so... fast..."
Arachne's eyes started to become muddled; this was her main body, thus, all the clones all over the continent also started dying.
And as regret washed over her slowly freezing body, her life flashed before her eyes, moments when she was born and thrived from the many eggs of her mother and the happy face of her father...
.
.
.
?
Unbeknownst to her, Arachne's eyes turned pitch black, and as if being released from a million-year trance, her eyes, for one last time, became clear again. She had to shout her discovery; she had to! With all her might! Or else Valentine will perish!
"Lo-rrgh!"
However, before she can even say anything, Hebi, with her sclera turned pitch black, grabbed the jaw of Arachne and pulls it out by force, causing it to detach with a violent cracking sound.
Arachne's eyes shifted around because of pain and indignation, however, as if Hebi didn't even notice this subtle changes in emotions, she dropped Arachne that she was cradling to the ground, for her whole surroundings started to compress at a fast pace, and not only the hallway or the gallows, the whole palace started to shrink with her as the epicenter, cabinets shattered, glasses imploded, servants and guards screamed due to them being compressed into new forms of matter in seconds.
Seeing this, Hebi's teeth gritted.
One of the main reasons why Earth magic is so terrifying is because it is as versatile as water; it can be used for mass destruction... it can enter the body, it's a medium to transmit sound... and more importantly, it's the easiest and most solid element to touch.
_ELEANOR IS USING EARTH MAGIC TO CRUMPLE THE PALACE LIKE PAPER!_
Hebi didn't hesitate anymore and transformed into her devil form.
Soon, in the rapidly shrinking palace that now just stood around 30 meters, a 100 meter humanoid monster erupted, causing large chunks of roof and wall bricks to shoot out, Hebi and her gargantuan, naked body and living Titanoboa-like hair strands jumped high, uncharacteristic of her humungous height as the castle that was being shrunk spikes in 360 degrees that are as tall as her erupted, after which, she used [Creation] to conjure a gigantic shield as the spikes shoot out at speeds she would even find hard to dodge, Hebi, displaying great control even in her devil form shrunk to the shield completely, causing all the long spikes to fail on even putting a gash on her purple skin.
"As expected of the Serpent Bearer."
Eleanor, who's already outside the palace due to Arachne giving her the key to her freedom, smiled, calmness evident in her face and tone as she snapped her hand that has a mana storage magic inscription, causing the ground to rumble and three mountains of soil to materialize around Hebi.
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If one have seen the battle between 4 total calamities in the second elven undead war, then he/she would learn just how much the word "calamity" is suited to the ones that are bearing such an ominous words as a title, in heir fights, night will become day, nuclear explosions only seen in the War of Gods and the continental war became a common sight, event horizons and suns collides... sometimes, time itself perched in the apocalyptic battle that have graced the annals of the world.
That is, of course, still held with the fight between Urduja and Loki, the two strongest of their race.
In their wake are quickly evaporating ocean water that's been decreasing to degrees proportional to what humans can't normally do while Loki didn't help at the marine destruction at all, with wind, flames or meteors imbued with dark magic, he was able to create destruction on par with Urduja, but somehow, Urduja felt strange, it was like this suspicion, a suspicion that etched from the moment she realized that someone can swallow [God's Finger] whole, that is the event horizon of Loki.
_Loki is holding back..._
Thinking of this, Urduja's suspicion was raised instead of her anger, for, like how Loki have said, he and Sophia are almost the same, and that's not only for the fact that Loki and Sophia has been hugging multiple women (though Loki have lied low when he awoken), they are also the same at the aspect that they will not spare any effort and will put all their cards at the table if someone threatens his land, evident of how Loki was very active and impactful during the Continental Wars.
Urduja won't believe that this man has gained a new, more powerful tool than antimatter to deal with her; if so, then this very fickle demigod would have already played around with her.
Urduja squinted her eyes, she can see Loki being very awkward in what he's currently doing, evidently, he's very uncomfortable on pulling back his punches, truthfully, Urduja is too, it's like forcefully going back to the level of a hero.
"What are you doing?"
Finally, Urduja can't take it anymore and in one of their crossfires of solar flares and faming dark magic, asked.
"You will know soon enough... as far as I know."
Needless to say, Urduja got more confused.