Within the center of the storm , Valhalla was being burned by the dark flames and being taken to the midnight mansion while the storm was filled with screams of agony and pain from the souls that Richard lose his grip in .
' I'm surprised you actually went for this idea " Harkness said ' It's the best idea if I want to fight Richard and Lodurr without having to worry that Richard might use Valhalla and can you put it back later " ' Sure "
Richard finally escapes the storm and sees Valhalla on fire " NOOOOO " he says , running towards it while Ikuta raises his sword to execute a powerful and firm slash down , aiming at Richard " I don't think so , Lich "
Hearing the word , Richard figures out that Ikuta must have something that allowed him to get the information . he pulled himself from the attack and watched the ground form a sharp line
" Who are you " " I can't tell strangers about me , I just have to tell you that I will kill you and take hades from you " Ikuta opens Odin's eye and and souls quickly covers his sight " Another eye , you are a weird boy "
Ikuta was annoyed and Richard threw the souls into him , Ikuta used Niflheim's frost to force the souls to experience the chilling cold freezing them like a statue . Richard threw a magic attack to the side meant to distract Ikuta while he gathered more souls .
Ikuta stomps the ground , grabs a rock and smashes the attack into it to watch it crumble " You're good kid , but not good enough " more souls appear and Ikuta uses his cold sword against them .
He was too busy dealing with the souls and Richard grabbed a sheet of paper . Ikuta points Surtr's sword to deal with Richard only for a tiny dot to be thrown into Odin's eye " Ugh " Ikuta felt the same pain when he was forced to gain forbidden knowledge and shut Odin's eye to stop it from gathering more knowledge .
Richard dashed in front of him with magic in his hand , Ikuta quickly cast a white spell of protection and repelled Richard back . Ikuta fixed his posture and gives Gungnir a target " NOOO "
Lodurr appeared swapping appearance with Richard making Gungnir mistake him for Richard . Lodurr was pierced by Gungnir and it returned to Ikuta ' What ? ' Ikuta was confused as to why Lodurr would do something like that .
And Richard smiles seeing this , he grabs a stack of paper and tosses it to the sky . The pages of the black book released some souls , Ikuta's head was still filled with knowledge to be digested his head being dizzy . While the sheets of paper positioned themselves and strengthened Richard .
" Where's Valhalla ? " Ikuta used the white mana to dispel the soul of the black mage from his head along with some of the undigested knowledge " My head hurts " Lodurr looked at Ikuta wondering if he had to do with it .
" Say kid you wouldn't happen to know where Valhalla is right ? I saw you on TV before " Ikuta looked at Lodurr with Odin's eye and finally got some information " So it's sorta like Idun " Lodurr was confused about what Ikuta meant and Richard manifested a sword of black magic and charged at Ikuta .
Ikuta used his Niflheim affinity and Surtr's flames to strengthen their respective sword . He swung the cold sword against souls using the flaming sword to force his opponents back . Ikuta looked at the pages and figured he had to do something about them .
He used both of his swords together to form steam clouding them and used the seeing dark spell . Ikuta put them away quickly with the dark flame and reached for Odin's eye and removed it healing the wound on it and taking his own crafted katana .
Ikuta quickly used a spell to form flesh , he watched the grotesque formation of fibers on the back of the katana , brought Odin's eye which was set ablaze upon removal and added it to the flesh on the blade .
A gust of wind blew and revealed a giant bird along with Richard sending more black magic towards Ikuta . Ikuta used his flesh-coated katana and slashed the spell for the katan to absorb the runes of the black magic .
Richard and Lodurr wondered what kind of sword Ikuta had on his hand that allowed him to do that . They see his new weapon in hand ablaze with an unfamiliar fire as well as flesh without skin to cover it yet it doesn't bleed .
...
' Is that you want that ? " ' yes " Chara looked at Jormungandr and quickly requested Zhack ' Seriously ? " ' yes please get it " Zhack looked at the ocean and couldn't help but have a problem with it ' Here take this you'll find it much easily " Zhack was given better eyesight for some things .
" Fine but I'll have you know it's hard to see underwater " " Oh you have a problem seeing underwater ? " Estrea asked through sound transmission " YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT ? " Zhack dodged another attack from Jormungandr " It's just that you are an otter "
" Yeah but I swim in rivers and lakes not the goddamn ocean I can't see that damn well " " If that's all we just have to make it clear , so go and swim " ' I looked forward to seeing how you swim ' Zhack felt a chill and dived into the water ' Jormungandr opened its mouth to spill poison .
" I got this " Estrea and Chara cast a purification spell while Jormungandr decided to dive back in causing the tide to rise . Zhack swam through the water relying on the air supply at his own storage space with Jormungandr chasing him and found what he was tasked to look for .
He surfaced through the water and Jormungandr was about to chew him " TOO SLOW " he grabbed Jormungandr's smoothened teeth and escaped the water but not before using Mjolnir to paralyse the serpent .
He spots a specific pulsing fiber guided by his increased eyesight ' This is gonna be hard ' he dashes down and follows the pulsing fiber of the muscle .
He finds the connecting ends and quickly separates it . He pulls the end of that specific pulsing fiber removing it from Jormungandr and dashed to the other end cutting it off .
' This what you want ? " ' Yeah , try to coordinate with Harkness for it and be careful " Jormungandr tries to eat Zhack again and Estrea moved the wind to bring him away .
" ack " " For a man you are surprisingly light " Estrea said while Zhack was being flown by wind " Because I controlled the gravity around me " ' Good thing she didn't see that '
" by the way what were you doing inside " Zhack didn't think Estrea would question him and Chara warned him of the implications of revealing what he was in for .
" I uh found something that looks good " Estrea chuckled seeing Zhack's usual thieving antics " did you get it ? " " No " " that's rare , do you want help ? " " NO ABSOLUTELY NOT " ' I ain't risking it with this woman ' ' You can just swim in the water and make sure it isn't seen from above "
Harkness said " Anyways I'm out " Zhack dived back into the sea that wasn't as clear as before ' just keep swimming and I'll bring it " Zhack hid the fiber he removed and Harkness used the dark flame ' You won't burn my hand right ? " ' no but Jormungandr might eat you "
Estrea flies back to shore hearing a low sound of Jormungandr chomping Zhack and swallowing him .
' I'm sure he will survive even in the bowels of that serpent , he was the one that survived the poison left from his corpse that still brew even today ' Zhack looked the inside of the stomach ' So this is the mimic's stomach been a while since I got in one '
...
Chara watched the animated fight the soldiers their bones being reconstructed despite the enchanted weapons . A graph was shown that detected the location of the animated as dots , Estrea appeared and looked at it .
" Are you trying to see why he bought so many ? " " Yep , you have an idea what it is ? It might be the magic of a newer era when I wasn't around " Estrea looks at the movement of the dots .
" This is hard , I can think that Richard is using each of these animated to draw a part of whatever magic he was planning but I don't know what it is "
While Estrea was trying her best to think Chara sent the graph to Ikuta . Ikuta sliced the pages of the black book granting Odin's eye more knowledge while the fire of the eye burned even more .
Ikuta received what he asked for and kicked Richard back to the storm " Lodurr this must be what you are looking for ? " Ikuta showed the fiber Zhack found " Narfi " Lodurr looked at the eye on the katana now that he was closer to Ikuta ' That's Odin's eye '
Ikuta looked at the sky " You should leave " Ikuta threw Narfi towards Lodurr and remembered Chara's request . He looked at the floating pages and Loki who went back to the storm with Narfi with him .
Richard quickly returns seeing Lodurr leave " It's a duel " Ikuta made his weapons float behind him while holding the katana with Odin's eye . Richard brings all the pages to his location to prevent Ikuta from destroying them .
Ikuta dashed to him with the flaming sword while his other weapons followed behind him , Richard used the papers to form a shield while the fire continued .
' This fire is different ' Richard doesn't know why and some of the papers that weren't protected burned and yet none of the souls were freed from the pages' shackles .
" What ? " The black lines on the katana grew with more tiny little runes being painted into them and Odin's eye widened with more desire for knowledge . Richard used the shield to push Ikuta aside and made papers surround his arm to through a blast of debuffs towards Ikuta .
A white spell tries to counter the debuffs but they overwhelm the spell weakening Ikuta but not his weapons . Richard noticed that the flames of Surtr's sword were connected to the flesh-coated katana with Odin's eye and figured out what Ikuta was trying to do .
He brought every sheet while Ikuta gripped the katana and made the flesh stab his skin and informed Chara of the spell Richard likely plans to use . Chara thinks of how this would prevent it " Estrea is it possible that Richard had learned that we were spying on him .
Estrea thinks of that possibility " That sounds possible it is a classic plot twist in many novels " " Then to make sure he doesn't utilize the soldiers we gathered I will ensure they don't become a good source for black magic , we should prioritize our own forces first "
Chara starts giving greater enchantments while Estrea tries to cover the gaps in Chara's support buffs ' It's done " ' Then you'll have to take care of the next thing " Ikuta strikes with the cold sword hiding the flames of the eye through the ice and burning more pages .
Richard touched the ground summoning branches confusing Ikuta who had believed his primary abilities to be related to black magic ' Could it be the body's original magic affinity ? ' he recalled stories of people raising their own magic affinities with black magic because of the results despite the price .
Ikuta cancels the eye's flames and burns the branches to ashes which earned a smile from Richard . He made more branches appear and sent sheets to the air to cast curses .
Ikuta jumps up grabs the katana and grants the flaming sword Muspelheim's burning flames " Tsk " Richard sent branches upward sending himself to Ikuta .
The console was activated by Ikuta's own mental instruction forming platforms for him to step on , he cuts the sheets with the katana while dodging the curses .
But even though he dodged the curses they kept following him , he used the pandora replica to continuously cast white magic to weaken the curses while Richard attacked him with a sword . Ikuta used the cold sword to parry it staining the surface and rendering the enchantments of the runes .
He still continued to cut the sheets burning them while parrying Richard's sword and dodging the curses . Ikuta took Surtr's blade and made it absorb the flames of the katana and scorched the rest of the pages but was still bothered by residual curses .
Seeing the battle turn to Ikuta's favor Richard checks how well Jormungandr was faring against Zhack .
Zhack unleashed lightning inside the Mimic's stomach causing all the souls its body was made of to pulse even more with the black magic expanding due to the pain of lightning " God I wished I could just kill this guy "
Water flooded into the stomach and Zhack quickly swam against the flow , pushed Jormungandr's mouth open and swam to the surface " Haaah that is the worse " Richard saw the opportunity and Ikuta quickly stabbed him with Gungnir .
He grabs Pandora's replica with the hourglass inside it to get Richard's soul but sees no increase in the souls . He wondered what happened and at Jormungandr a skeleton hidden deep started to gather all of the black magic that the Mimic had been storing .
Zhack swam to shore and looked behind him " Uhm what's that ? " Jormungandr rose to the sky and a skeleton appeared at the skull . The serpent stood and Richard smiled with his former body gaining more and more black magic " Hahahaha so much black magic from the souls of divinities "
Flesh formed over the rune-marked skeleton , the lich regained his former appearance and looked down " With this I can further complete Jormungandr "
Richard finally regained his former body and Ikuta stared at him for a long time . The animated stopped in their tracks and runes started to appear in their body .
The flesh was torn apart to line the rune properly into a giant spell formation , the entire battlefield was stained with the smell of the dead whose bodies floated and lined up " What's happening ? " The soldiers and adventurers panicked seeing this and Chara and Estrea all tried to counter the effects of the spell .
The eye shook on the katana and gave Ikuta some information " No " he learned that Richard doesn't have just Hades's powers but also other gods . They were obtained by reaping the souls of the original owners ' I have to kill him ' he turned to Gungnir his strongest weapon .
" But the problem is the storm " there was no way he could freeze this in time without the enchanted Niflheim sword , he was basically trapped inside the storm with Richard's other body ' I doubt Lodurr would help he only cares about his children '
He can't exactly count on Zhack to fight when Jormungandr is actively keeping him from doing anything . Harkness shouldn't do anything or else they risk exposing their awareness ' It's all or nothing ' he let go of Gungnir and used its compass ability to point towards Richard .
" So this is the angle " he grabbed it and thought of what he needed to ensure he could get the angle right to give Gungnir enough momentum to bypass the storm and reach Richard with enough force to interrupt him .
He swung Gungnir and reached the angle he needed . He quickly released it throwing Gungnir with the strongest throw while following the desired trajectory .
It passes the storm creating a tunnel and Ikuta quickly took that opportunity and used the console to leave . Richard saw Gungnir and quickly formed a shield against it . But it shatters without hindering the force of Gungnir and stabbed him interrupting some of his activities .
He shook on the air with Gungnir through his body " Ugh " he pushed Gungnir through him removing it and letting it fall " Isn't he ? " He sees Ikuta holding Surtr's sword running through platforms at top speed .
Each platform was made to only accommodate his footing and enhanced to ensure that he could hit it with top speed to let him shatter it upon leaving it while keeping him from falling .
Richard quickly heals himself and tries to use Gungnir but is instantly rejected . Ikuta reached him and slashed horizontally cutting his body " Urgh you meddling " Ikuta sidekicked his upper body and stabbed Gungnir in his legs and threw it in the other direction .
Standing on Jormungandr he pulled his life force into the skeletons to cover the bones with a few layers of cells causing the mimic's body to sleep away ' Zhack get the mimic away from the bones " ' Easy for you to say " Zhack flashes to the skull and kicked the mimic forcing it to leave the bones .
" this is gross " Richard used his stolen power and made plants grow out of Jormungandr and controlled them to grab the mimic . Ikuta grabbed Zhack pulling him out of the skull's inside .
" What do we do ? " " Separate his soul from his body " " I can't do that " " I can " Ikuta showed his katana " Gross how did you make that ? "
" I used the same spell that I used to make your flesh , it cost a lot of life force because of what your bodies is like " " Well how is that going to separate the soul "
" this won't do it but this " Ikuta showed Surtr's flaming sword " Surtr's flame was able to imitate Hestia's sacred flame it was able to do the same with the flames of Odin's eye "
" What does the eye's fire do ? " " Burn anything from the forbidden knowledge of Yggdrasil to absorbing souls I'm not sure if the souls are completely gone because the eye was supposed to be hungry for knowledge not souls "
Zhack sees Richard approaching " Do you need help ? " " Take care of the giant snake and like before try not to kill it " " Oh you soft hearted ... I could've killed the mimic already "
" nope hurt it and you'll make it worse " " fine " Zhack grabbed Mjolnir while Ikuta's katana stayed at his back aflame and Ikuta held Surtr's sword .
The mimic repossessed the bones and Richard closed in . Zhack strikes the skull down and Ikuta jumps out at the same time . Thunder and fire lighted the sky and another wave hit the shore .
Ikuta checked one more time before letting go of the katana's grip ' I won't have to worry about him running away , but now I have to make sure his soul doesn't escape '
Surtr's blade burned with the eye's flames , Ikuta swung it at Richard who attempted to shield it but felt his soul being stabbed ' Ack ' Richard used his power and pushed Ikuta away .
Ikuta's console forms a platform " I have tied my soul to this body for a long time don't think that just because I returned it's grown weaker . "
' that's right it hasn't ' Ikuta forced all of the flames to condense into the sword instead of burning freely " Then I'll just make my sword sharper " Ikuta gripped Surtr's glowing sword and dashed towards Richard .
To make a sword cut is to swing it through a line or curve without any bumps drawn to it , even paper won't be cut if that line isn't straight . Even a sharp blade will fail to cut properly if the line it moves through is crooked for a bit .
There is also the potential hindrance in the difference of material which requires great speed something hard to maintain unless you swung a sword many times in your life .
Ikuta started to swing his sword through that straight line and removed one soul out of Richard's grip " One's not enough " Richard saw the danger from the sword and tried to keep Ikuta away but with the platforms , Ikuta jumps on including his supply storage from the abyss and Jormungandr who was too far and without the access of the black book .
Slash another soul was taken by Ikuta again " Ugh stop " Ikuta drew the lines that he needed to cut for this and swung Surtr's repeatedly at every soul cutting them off Richard's body and making him lose his access to more powerful " This is the last one "
Richard felt his own life on the line and quickly strengthened the ties between his soul and body with all the stolen gifts from otherworlders . Ikuta looked at the clear thin line that he needed to cut and says " I win " he slashed and claimed Richard's soul .
He watched the gifts leave and looked at Jormungandr still being beaten by Zhack " You don't get to win without losses " Richard used his remaining power on souls and collapsed the black magic that held the souls or as Chara had called the spinning wheel .
This caused the Mimic to lose itself among the souls and strands of black mana bumped each other causing black mana to expand . Along with the black magic that held the souls was the silencer which caused everyone to hear the screams of numerous souls . The screams haunted them but even the giant spell formation was strengthened .
The screams shattered the buffs and Ikuta watched the strands tangle up " Ack " Zhack jumped to Ikuta to go further " This is even worse than before "
" how is the spell destroyed ? " Estrea asked " There is too much black mana in that thing that even the screams are acting as a medium for black magic" Chara said .
" We'll have to take care of it " Ikuta removed the platform and let gravity take him down ' Chara I'm going to separate the souls that are connected to each other " ' Seriously that's the plan ? " Ikuta hears Richard laugh one last time " Yep I'll trim the connection between souls and Chara will untangle them "
" Estrea tell everyone to leave " " But they are experiencing too much pain " " I can't exactly fix that but Ikuta is coming to fix it " Ikuta drew the lines and hopped through a platform cutting the connections . The TV watched Jormungandr unravel into thinner strands and something slicing these strands .
Souls of black mages , gods and monsters are all freed from the bounds . Chara goes to untangle the souls turning the tangled mess into individual yawns of souls that meld the strands back to their original forms . Ikuta used Surtr's flames to spread the eye's flame and scorched the magic taking away all the runes and absorbing them to his katana .
Thereby ending the threat , slowly the trees start to grow more vibrant and Yukina excitedly tells Ikuta ' Ikuta , Demeter woke up she said she hopes to grant you her blessing "
Ikuta hearing this didn't want to move at all , he let his katana pierce the ground and lay on the soft grass as spring came with the return of Demeter .
" I think my muscles are gonna hurt later " Petra ran to Ikuta seeing that the battle was over " Young master ? " She yelled to get his attention and Ikuta raised his hand to wave at her " Petra is it time for lunch yet ? " " I think in an hour " " can you get some then I think I used a lot of food "
" Alright I will arrange it so " The denier watches this at home along with the rest " Amazing that kid is " He controls a puppet writing down a title for Ikuta "The fighter" on the title page "His movements are well disciplined a sword becomes sharper with their swing"
And that's what Surtr's blade was , the edge that had barely withstood the test of time was more refined after the battle and so was Gungnir whose edges became much sharper along with his other weapons .
" Too bad I can't write how he freed the gods from the lich's grasp , it might attract too much attention for a book that was supposed to be written by a bunch of people , they might investigate who was leaking such information and how they got it "
Ikuta ate with Zhack while Chara was drinking some mana potions along with Estrea " These potions taste different , but at least there's improvement to the amount of mana " " Why ? Was mana hard to come by in the past ? " " No it is quite easy perhaps due to the blessing of gods . "
' Speaking of gods Ikuta did Demeter just wake up ? " ' Yeah Yukina told me that she did and is going to give me her blessing apparently " ' That would be helpful in many ways but why not have her bless that golden apple ? "
' She can do that ? " ' It is within her domain " ' Why not Bless Yukina ? " ' Gods don't regularly give each other their blessings because their blessings could be overwhelmed it is best for you to have it , moreover you can also use your nature affinity on the golden apple "
Ikuta was surprised to learn that can worked ' I'll try but I also have to grow the other children right ? " ' Yes you should but that's a lot " Ikuta thinks about the protection that the Norns are using ' Does Yggdrasil have some power like the Norns ? "
' yes and her children are supposed to have this kind of power too " Ikuta wondered if he could extend the protection further with the children and decided he needed to use Draupnir to increase the life force so that he could feed the children .
He planned to consult with the dwarves for this and even asked Stork for help .
ns 15.158.61.17da2
