Nyx and Tartarus acted as the vanguard while Hades would provide them with support along with Gaia.
Gaia dealt with both Aekari and the light goddess beside him while Nyx, Tartarus worked together to push back the other gods.
Unfortunately, they were severely outnumbered and even if they were the primordial gods, it was still hard to kill the watchman when he was being protected by the gods.
Instead of standing on the front line, the watchman would use his magic to hinder Nyx’s movements.
Their battle raged on for hours until they were forced out of the watchman’s realm.
Chasing them into the pits of Tartarus, the gods didn’t stop their advance.
“Sh*t! This stupid system!” Gaia cursed as she continued to summon forests to hinder their advances but they managed to destroy the forests with a single attack. Her forte was not combat but in supporting strong combatants so it was futile to think that she could hold off the combined power of a small army of gods.
Biting her lips, Nyx tried to think of a way to dissolve this situation since it was clear that they weren’t going to be able to kill the watchman today.
But even if they wanted to retreat, trying to run from this group of gods was going to be no easy feat.
Watching his realm get destroyed with each attack, Tartarus couldn’t help but grit his teeth as this was essentially his home.
“Tartarus, I know what you’re thinking. Let me do it, my divinity is best in this situation rather than just fighting.” Gaia narrowed her eyes as she has known Tartarus for a long time and knew that he was planning to destroy all of his restrictions to fight at full force.
“But…” Furrowing his brows, Tartarus knew that it was the truth but in doing so, Gaia would receive a huge backlash since there were a lot of gods involved. If she wanted to pacify everyone, it would be hard.
“If nothing else, help me by transferring a bit of divine energy.” Gaia chuckled as she slammed her hand down.
A tier 8 magic circle expanded out as her aura intensified.
Seeing that there was no convincing her, Tartarus was about to transfer his divine energy when he noticed a shadow flicker next to them.
Widening his eyes, he quickly dashed in front of Gaia and tried to block the attack.
*PUSHIII!!!!
There was a single flicker of purple light and his arm was obliterated. Feeling corruption spreading to the rest of his body, he quickly used his divine energy to halt its advances. Glancing up, he saw that it was the Light Goddess. Her eyes narrowed towards him as her sword continued to pulse with a dark energy as though it was alive.
“I missed. No matter.” She muttered before twisting her body kicked Tartarus out of the way since he was being restrained by the sword’s curse. However, before she could attack Gaia, she felt danger behind her as Nyx grabbed her head and slammed her into the ground.
Sending the two of them into her own personal realm, Nyx wasn’t about to let this woman hurt Gaia.
“I’m just a distraction.” The light goddess smiled as Nyx quickly looked up and saw Aekari flickering in front of Gaia with a similar sword to the light goddess.
Letting go of the light goddess, Nyx wanted to go help Gaia when she felt a searing pain on her back, glancing back with anger, she could see the light goddess unleashing her power as three pairs of wings unfurled behind her. Her light cut through the darkness as her blond hair fluttered behind her.
Waving the sword in her hand, she slashed towards Nyx in an attempt to slow her down so Aekari could kill Gaia.
“You’re overstepping your bounds lowly god.” Nyx declared coldly as her figure melted into the darkness.
Before the light goddess realised, several spears of darkness had already pierced her body as wounds appeared all around her body.
Widening her eyes, she quickly healed herself but it was no use. The damage continued to pile on as she noticed that Nyx was trying to search for her core.
Understanding that this was bad, she wanted to find a way out but Nyx’s darkness was like sludge that never let go. It continued to attach itself to her body and dragged her deeper.
Struggling upwards, she suddenly found herself in the middle of a temple.
Looking around in confusion, her eyes widened when she realised where this was.
“Why are you still standing around idly? There’s plenty of work to do.” A voice called out as Aria felt a chill down her spine.
Turning back slowly, she could see Nytri staring at her with a frown.
It wasn’t the same Nytri that Aekari knew nor was it the one that the primordial gods understood. Rather, it was one that she remembered. It was the cause of her fear buried deep in her heart.
Before the vision could continue, Aria gritted her teeth and summoned a sword. Piercing it into her own chest, runes spread across her body.
Shattering the illusion, Aria glared at Nyx who was a little taken back by what she had just seen.
Stabbing her sword down, a tier 9 magic circle opened up as Nyx was taken off guard.
*BANG!!!
While her domain was shattering, Nyx’s body was flung back as she crashed against the ground and coughed up some blood.
Forcing herself to stand up, Nyx looked at Aria who was now walking towards Gaia.
“What’s your relation with Shiro!?” She asked as the Shiro in the vision was completely foreign. It wasn’t the Nytri that Shiro remembers either since she had barely seen Aria nevermind talking to her in that tone of voice.
“None of your business.” Aria replied as dashed towards Gaia who was fending off Aekari.
Seeing that Aria was coming to assist Aekari, Gaia gritted her teeth in annoyance.
Taking a deep breath, she decided to take a few hits so that she could drive away the gods.
Clasping her hands together, her aura flared as Aekari’s sword pierced her shoulder.
However, her goal has already been reached as her domain expanded out. Filling Tartarus with a field of flowers, the gods seemed to look around in confusion before holding their heads.
They didn’t know why they were here but one by one they began to leave.
The watchman managed to break out of it quickly but he knew that it was going to be difficult for him to do anything so he returned back to his realm.
As for both Aekari and Aria, Gaia made sure to plant some trackers on them using her plants.
Once the last god left, Gaia sighed in relief before collapsing on the ground.
Corruptive runes started to spread throughout her body as she knew that she had to either halt their progress or get rid of them.
But since she was stabbed in the shoulder, she’ll have to get rid of her entire left side or else the situation might become worse.
Gritting her teeth, she sat up and summoned a few bladed plants and carved away at her own body before patching herself up.
###
“After that battle we had to relocate into this realm. Tartarus is finding a way to counter the runes for next time, hence why he’s keeping the injury, but Gaia is currently healing herself. The runes reduced healing effectiveness so it might take her a while. It’s been a few months but her body is still in this state.” Chronos sighed as he looked towards Gaia.
Staying silent, Shiro tried to digest all of the information but she was confused about one thing. Aria’s vision, the source of her fear was herself?
Nyx’s spell would have forcefully caused Aria to confront her fear and hinder her for a bit but they didn’t expect to see a ‘Nytri’ that Shiro didn’t know of. Plus, the fact that Aria was somehow able to use a tier 9 magic circle was also a cause of concern because that means she has discovered something beyond the level of a primordial god. With someone like that as her enemy, it was going to be tough.
She couldn’t even fight the watchman much less someone with the power of tier 9.
Looking at her hands, Shiro closed her eyes before looking at Gaia who was still recovering.
“Well setting that aside, we’ve used quite a bit of time explaining what happened so I’ll be helping you ‘discover’ the concept of time so that you can use it. Follow me.” Chronos smiled as he stood up.
Opening a portal, he gestured for her to follow him as Shiro nodded her head.
Glancing back one more time, she stepped into the portal.
The moment she entered the portal, she could see her surroundings weaving together and fusing before breaking apart once more. Splitting into countless strands as Chronos continued to walk.
“This is a small ‘model room’ I made that should help you understand. While I have the divinity of time, my control is also limited as I cannot stop it forever. It will always flow no matter what. There are moments when these stands converge into a single point and that is an unavoidable event but the strands that branch out are the possible results. I’ll be trying to teach you how to delay the arrival of said event in the form of ‘time stop’.” Chronos smiled.
