Chapter 146: Ikaris; The First.
To call Saleos weak because he lost to Sol was a grave underestimation of the highest degree; he was not.
Sitri in comparison to her brother was only half as strong as he was when she was at her absolute best, he had the power to topple entire universes, and he had destroyed more than one and killed several pantheons already.
"Saleos..." Gadriel murmured and began shaking upon seeing him descend slowly toward them. "We should... we must run." She looked at her sister, and then turned to flee, but found Gabriell staring defiantly up at him.
"I do not want to." Gabriell stared, crimson eyed and full of the very hate she had accused Ikaris of. "Where would we run to, who would help us if we ran?" She asked, throwing the blanket off her shoulders and balling her fists.
"Who exactly is Saleos?" Ikaris asked, unlike the sisters many of the other gods had fled upon seeing him, leaving them, a few others, Dina, and Arla, aside from Ikaris herself though they were all visibly terrified of him, even Gabriell who defied him.
"He is the one who conquered our home, killed the others, and took us as his concubines for a blur of millenia before we were left to rott in the dungeons and be the playthings of his servants." Gabriell answered, and Ikaris turned her back to him and stared at her.
"He is strong then?"
"He is the first hier of the Demon-Lord one of the oldest beings here, Sitri's older and many times stronger brother." Gabriell answered, and Ikaris nodded and looked around at him again.
"So the prince of demons." Ikaris balled her fists, crafting iron-knuckled gloves over her hands that covered up to her upper arms, regarding his appearance with nonchalance and equipping a lean and fitting armour set over her body.
"What are you all doing, we cannot fight him!" Gadriel grabbed Ikaris's hand, but the goddess before her shrugged her off easily and smiled.
"Based on my own memory, there was once a time I would have been able to destroy someone like him, demon or not, but after I was shattered I lost the ability to fight back, the same for my brothers who were many times weaker than myself, ever since meeting a demon again I have tried multiple times to fight them using my own power-"
"It never works, we always lose!"
"I hurt Sitri, though." Ikaris stared at her, and at this news everyone went circle-eyed.
"The mana within me is impure, a mixture of Atlan mana, and Arkadian mana, and I have constantly been replenishing myself using my divine mana, using Sol's example and forcing them all to converge, I never stopped trying in secret." Ikaris confessed.
"Gadriel, Gabriell, come to me." Saleos called to them as soon as he was within earshot, and on trained instinct and her compulsive submissive nature Gadriel took her first steps without even batting an eye, but Arla grabbed her hand and held on to her.
"What are you doing?" The half-elf asked, and Gadriel shook her head and began shaking again.
"I must obey... Otherwise-"
"Fuck that, stay put." Dina spread her hands and summoned a brand new staff, unlike the first which was wooden with nothing unique other than the pink crystal that floated within a crescent-shaped tip, this new staff was white, and the crystal as was humming with more power than she had ever felt. "What the-"
"Are you truly defying me?" Saleos asked, raising his hand toward them and summoning a cannon-like railgun with a chuckle. "Have you gods lost your mind?" He asked, staring at Dina and aiming at her first, since she currently had the highest output of power.
"You have already lost, Saleos." Ikaris drew his attention when she started walking toward him. "The Godslayer has been fully realised, there is nothing you do in this moment which changes the outcome, your life is forefeit!" She pointed at him, raising her voice to the point where the lands around her trembled.
"Who the hell are you?" Saleos turned his weapon to her as another appeared in his other hand.
"Ikaris." She replied, and at the mention of her name Saleos's eyes narrowed in accusation. "Ikaris Vestic." She smirked, and his eyes narrowed even more.
"Vestic... As in Sol Vestic, you are Ikaris, the goddess that my sister brought here, the one who caused the jailbreak, the one who caused all of this to happen?" Saleos ground his teeth as his eyes turned completely red and began beaming with demonic energy. "I'm killing you first!" Saleos raised his other gun.
"Ikaris!" Dina raised her hand conjuring a barrier between Ikaris and the demon-god.
"Let me take initiative." Ikaris glanced behind herself and continued walking toward Saleos while he clearly prepared to erase her, easily bypassing the barrier Dina had created and crossing her arms before herself.
"I thought you would be impressive after causing our downfall, but it seems you are a complete fool!!" Saleos snapped, unleashing a massive blast from his twin barrels and Dina again cast a barrier when Ikaris showed no sign of dodging the attack.
The attack tore her shield apart, causing her to recoil backwards onto Arla while Ikaris raised her hands.
[Judgement]
"No!" Dina rushed forward as soon as she was on her feet again, lowering her staff with her mana escaping her body like a dam exploding as a great bolt appeared out of thin air and dropped on Saleos's head causing himntonlose balance as the ground beneath him vanished from vapourosation.
The attack had already been fully released though, and the beam had more or less travelled miles past them, but when the crimson mana vanished, and Dina rushed there, she found Ikaris with her arms burnt and her armour cracked, but otherwise- "You're fine!" Dina grabbed her and shook her. "You idiot-"
"Ha-" Ikaris's laugh cut Dina's coming rant off as she stared at her hands rapidly healing over all the burns she had tanked. "He-he-heh!" She started laughing. "It is still incomplete, but this is it, the power I have relentlessly sought for thousands of years after my home was invaded!" Her eyes started glowing brightly and her smile. "Once again, you have changed me for the better, husband!"
"Impossible!" Saleos arose in a fury, closing the gap between himself and them in a breath of a second and swinging one of his guns while it was in the process of turning into a blunt weapon, but in a twist his head snapped backwards when Ikaris spun Dina out of the way and raised her knee, ricocheting the weapon into his chin and sending him falling flat on his back.
"By the light..." Gabriell stared shocked as Ikaris punched and weaved excitedly before falling into a stance and hissing a breath of white slightly golden divine mana.
"What's going on with you?" Dina stared. "At Ikaris's sigils pulsing golden instead of their usual blue.
"Sol's mana resides within me, he is Godslayer, and thus I have access to that same abominable type of power, I can feel it, within a few hundred years my entire divinity will be evolved into something completely new, I never expected I would ever grow stronger, but it is happening as we speak, this transformation is a dream come true!" Ikaris lowered posture and took off like a bullet.
"H-hold on!" Dina rushed after her, spinning and launching several origin explosions into Saleos's face and toppling him while he was still in the process of getting up before Ikaris swerved beneath his guard and punched him square in the jaw.
"Ah!" Dina panicked when she saw the demon tank the punch and grab Ikaris's arm having successfully baited her into carelessly approaching him a third time, but Ikaris slipped beneath his other hand and pressed her palm against his chin still excited as he grabbed her onto himself.
[Divine tier anomaly fire]
[Great explosion stream]
[Magic combination-]
Saleos felt heat beneath his head and understood the danger he was in, quickly releasing Ikaris and stepping in her back in a kick that sent her flying into Dina, but the mage extended her staff allowing Ikaris to grab it with her free hand and swung her right back at him where she avoided another shot from him and tanked his blunt strike and landed before him, opening her palm again.
"INCINERATION; MAXIMUM!"
Saleos snapped as soon as he saw the white flames, leaping several hundred metres away in a matter of seconds, but all the way out there behind him, Arla emerged from a system gate and slapped his arm before vanishing again, and in another moment he appeared before Ikaris again.
The only other person they had ever seen demonstrate this kind of power was Sol, the field, the entire continent before her, cities and countries, mountains and flatlands; lakes, swamps, everything vanished in a rupture when Ikaris released her first divine tier ability on in a mortal world, it happened so fast that nothing could react, and all those who had been behind her were toppled as the direction of the winds changed.
"Oh my god," Dina raised her head after being blown off her feet and falling flat on her stomach. "Ikaris is on a whole other level now...!" She watched the goddess standing, silhouetted by the raging white flames before her. And then she gulped when Ikaris looked around at her with burning blues, clenching her fist as all her giddy attitude had simmered down into a serious tone.
"I will be the first, Dina." She looked ahead again. "I am honoured."
"I will be the first true god to successfully fell a demon-god."