The World's most Overpowered Side-Character

"Who is-" Gadriel attempted to ask, but Ikaris's entire persona flipped and her caring aura was replaced with a dark one as she pressed her hand on the floor causing every one of them to fall flat as gravitational magic was used on them.

"Fire it now!" Ikaris shouted before skipping over to the other side and standing at the back of the mass watching as Sitri walked in with a strange metal weapon in her grasp. "I will hold this side for as long as I can." She raised her hands toward Sitri blocking the way with barriers stacked upon each other all the way to Sitri's face.

"This is useless against me, true goddess, you should know!" Sitri started walking again, shattering each barrier with a flick of her knuckle as she approached.

"Everyone stand clear!" Dina took a deep breath and then released her mana.

"Pulsar!!"

The gods even though shackled felt the clear cosmic mana radiating off the human girl who spoke to their respected primordial as an equal, and it suddenly started making sense; she too was clearly something special, it seemed Ikaris had a habit of gathering the strong around herself.

Light radiated from Dina's palms, and the rock and iron that had obscured them all vanished as a massive tunnel was carved in the blink of an eye, unlike the usual pulsar which was destruction on a cosmic scale, Dina had reduced the power and extended the range, and as a result the beam was thinner but it had broken all the way through to fresh air that started sucking the warm air out.

"This is nigh divinity!" One of the gods exclaimed in shock, he was never capable of something this powerful back in his pantheon before they were attacked by demons.

"Ikaris, it's done!" Dina spun, but found Ikaris already in Sitri's grasp being suffocated as the demon-god grinned with her one hand holding her by her throat. "Let go of her!" Dina snapped, reaching Ikaris's side within the flash of a second and pressing her hand against Sitri's side. "Let go of her, otherwise I'll blow a hole through you-"

"If you had the power to do it after what you just did you would have done so, I know the power you hold, that unique attack can only be used once in a day, but I can entertain that much I suppose, Hero, go ahead, fire away." Sitri grinned, taking her eyes off Ikaris and looking down at Dina. "Go on-"

"Mana spears!" Dina released several spears at Sitri's side without hesitation, but they didn't even scratch her bare skin.

"Run..." Ikaris wheezed. "Take the others... and run, Dina, I will be fine... Master Will Come...!"

"I can even entertain that, a good hunt after my failure to retrieve the goddess of war is just what I need, my lord has been avoiding me because of you all, I am not in a good place with him and it is all because of that damned... Ugh, I would love to seek you out one by one and slaughter you all like livestock so go ahead and enjoy a few hours of freedom!"

"Dina...!" Ikaris snapped grabbing Sitri's hand and spinning, catching the demon-god off guard and locking her in a chokehold with her legs. "Don't let this opportunity pass, I said go!"

"But-"

"Do as I say, protect the others!" Ikaris grunted when Sitri stood up laughing at her attempts and slamming her against the wall.

"Sol will come!" She arose and grabbed Sitri by her waist. "I promise, he will!"

"Ikaris-"

"Raaah!" Ikaris roared raising Sitri off her feet and slamming her into the ground and straddling her, this time the demon-god was shocked, she had never seen a selfless god before, nor had she ever seen a desperate one, they usually accepted their fate as soon as it was issued, she laid there intrigued taking each ground shaking punch from Ikaris who was doing her best to distract her from Dina and the other gods running away.

Ikaris punched until her knuckles started bleeding, and it was then that another guard made it there and kicked her off Sitri then placed a large rectangular gun at her head intent on shooting her.

"Explosion!"

Ikaris set off several constant explosions over the span of half an hour, evaporating the guard and everyone else behind him, sending flames all the way to the ground floors of the castle, then watched Sitri walking through the white flames and fanning it out of her face as if it was a passing puff of smoke.

"Explosion!" Ikaris tried again, but only a small insignificant eruption of flames escaped her palm

"They are gone, you have succeeded at the cost of your own freedom, I commend you at least, brave goddess, but you have no more power to spare, surrender yourself, Ikaris." Sitri rested her hand on Ikaris's head when she fell to her knee shaking from the mana loss.

"Sol will not come, nobody will come, but do not lose hope, do not break yet, I want to see your face when I bring that girl back to your feet as nothing but a corpse."

***

[I detected another high reading of Arkadian mana; cosmic mana and high concentrations of explosion magic]

"Pulsar and Explosion." Sol's eyes narrowed as he began exerting more pressure while prism-shaped barrier appeared over him, protecting him as he continued speeding up. "How soon until I make contact?"

[The time has been reduced from a day to ten hours, your demonic mana is still at a steady 100%]

"Ten hours is still a lot of time, anything can happen by then." He shook his head. "I still didn't sense either of their magics, I'm not close enough to lock on, and without the Arkadian manasphere to quickly rejuvenate them they will lose their ability to fight back if they overexert themselves, and they usually do, please keep monitoring."

[Understood]

"How long until you've grasped and taken control of the laws?" He asked again.

[Another twenty hours estimated, until then I can only manage and interact with those who you have physically interacted with]

"System... Do you intend to spread your roots and allow free usage like you did on Arkadia?" Sol asked.

[Never, demons have plagued Arkadia for such a long time, killing many Arkadians who could have become great, taking innocent lives, I have stated the importance of me remaining in the grey, but how could I grant my powers to a species that mindlessly invade other dimensions and wantonly slaughter the innocent?]

The system responded in voice again, and Sol hummed. [I am not good, but I am not evil either, there has to be balance, you saw the power Sitri amassed after I foolishly revealed myself to her, such a disaster can never happen again under my hand, I learned a valuable and hard lesson, and to you who also suffered because of this decision of mine, I am sorry]

"..."

***

"Hours have passed without you saying a word, Milady, are you doing well?" Law who had finished his daily routine stopped and looked at Arla who had wordlessly followed him all day, remaining steps behind and reading from what the system had told her was called a tablet.

She had asked about magic at first, but the moment the system had fed the language into her brain all she had done was read on all available history, and there seemed to be a lot, Zola-Prime and Hāl were interesting places, but they were dark and twisted as well, these demons were all in a way like Sitri.

The only care they showed was to their own kind, and it was far less care than reptiles shared for their young.

"I am learning of your history." She replied.

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"Art, culture, these things are interesting to me, though, I am still curious about the decline in the magic on Zola-Prime from a thousand years ago, it seems your people discarded magic and accepted technology, and while I agree that technology is beautiful and useful, magic is pure, it is the foundation of enlightenment, why would the people follow the dictatorship of a single individual and allow him to siphon that power for himself in exchange for something that can so easily be taken away?"

Law's eyes opened wide at her question, he thought she had been pretending to read to pass time and seem intelligent, but this slave woman was incredibly well-read, as she had said simply waking her master was enough to enlighten her.

"Have you... any experience with magic?" He asked, and Arla paused and looked up again.

"I am a mage, master values the strong, and I am." She boasted. "How else do you believe I would have turned this clan to ashes if not by magic?" She asked and He shrunk before her and lowered his head.

"Of course, forgive me, I merely assumed that you were a very skilled warrior."

"I am." Arla answered again. "I am everything I am demanded to be, be it a pillow, or his maiden, I will gladly lay my life down for him, after all he is worthy of it."

Law couldn't relate to this, from his knowledge, demon-gods were pure evil, they were monstrous beings with the power to flatten entire worlds, he would never assume that the servant of a demon-god would not only be so modest, but also so devoting without the use of fear.

Then again what did he know, he was a simple old demon in a rural town where the strong preyed on the weak, the world was far wider than the well he grew up in.