B1 — 26. A Bloody Victory
The crowd cheered as the world spun, and abruptly an unnatural arctic chill gripped Rachel’s heart. The powerful lower deities faded away with Conner’s testing grin, wishing her good luck. In the next second, all Rachel’s tilting ears could hear were the ominous cracking of the icy earth and howling wind that swept across a frozen wasteland.
Dionysus’ voice was distant, more felt than heard while introducing the contest. “Welcome to Nylthera, a place of living hell for the Kulina, which our brave combatant has a striking resemblance to! Hehe. Observe the artwork of the cruel Dyalitha wolves. What a nightmare this must be for a bunny… or hare.”
Nia remained silent within her mind, conserving her strength while assessing the dangers with her. Rachel’s ears stiffened with her tail as a distant, shrill howl carried along the gusts, pressing her skirt and military uniform against her body.
“I don’t like being in the open, Captain, the mature bunny whispered. If this is their home turf, then we’re at a severe disadvantage. Their senses are adapted to this environment. If… Are they still alive?”
Rachel didn’t respond, feeling the strings of misfortune that weaved throughout the land, taking her to one of the large, jagged ice spikes that peppered the landscape, providing many angles in the light snowfall.
Running her hand along the crystal, she looked into the wide eyes of an anthropomorphic visage of a rabbit-person trapped inside the humming sheets; it was cold to the touch but not enough to freeze, like the rest of their frigid environment.
I think they are, she responded, feeling something else laced on the gale sweeping the land that slightly cut past her natural environmental resistances. Further examination of the trapped bunny made her vision narrow, centered on the sickle stuck through the Kulina’s chest, burning with emerald flames.
“If what Dionysus said is true,” Nia strategized, “then we should expect them to have control over this ice, the undead, and have enhanced attributes. If they hunt creatures with sharp hearing, then they’d have adapted to it. Ack—the bastard. He chose this overcast place to rob us of the moon.”
A thoughtful twist lifted Rachel’s mouth as she bent down on one knee, head tilting to scan the jagged ice, only lightly layered by the snowfall, and her gaze lifted to the overcast skies. Slowly rising to her feet again, Nia’s square heels finding traction against the rough surface, she breathed in deeply to taste the air.
Don’t be so sure, Nia… I am not a Kulina rabbit, nor a type of prey that hides. Walking further into the open, her illuminated, clover-like eyes took in her stage. I hunt in the light of the moon, not in the shadows, and you’re not factoring in an important detail, Nia.
Her smirk lifted to the heavens, the cloud cover starting to shift in a slow circle as Dionysus’ commentary momentarily cut. A pained chuckle came from Nia as she realized what Rachel had counted on when selecting this place, despite all her senses telling her she would die in this wasteland.
Instincts flaring, Rachel’s feet left the ice as she performed an aerial evade, yet she couldn’t escape; a sickly green blur ripped through her side. It carried forward to lodge into an ice wall, revealing a sleek sickle bathed in her white blood, slowly tinting red.
The Unique Moons aren’t so easily hampered by weather.
[Curse of Ambrogio: Active]
Rachel didn’t feel the pain as she landed, Dionysus snarling as the sky parted.
“My older sister’s hand? Agh! I am not amused! How can your sense of misfortune be this keen?! Not even Theodon, Atë, Oizys, and Tyche combined could possibly have orchestrated this! Of all the Unique Moons possible near this world, you tempt me with the Blood Moon that answers the call of this challenge?”
[Divine Ultima Regeneration X - Selene draws the user’s spirit into Hades. So long as the user’s spirit remains with her, the user’s body will continue to regenerate endlessly from a single cell that survives.]
[Divine Creature of the Endless Hunt X - The user is capable of personifying the Goddess of the Hunt, Artemis, as her greatest hunter.]
[Divine Silver Vulnerability X - Wounds caused by silver will not recover.]
[Divine Sunlight Vulnerability X - Cursed by the god Apollo, any cell touched by sunlight will be utterly destroyed.]
As her spirit left her body, a link between Hades and her actual body was created; those who joined in Ambrogio’s curse had their spirits ripped away to the underworld, severing emotion from thought.
She turned to find a phantom-like wolf looming over her, rising out of the ground like a ghost; she couldn’t hear him until his weapon buried into her stomach, yet the sinister beast was the one to retreat, leaving his sickle in her belly as Rachel’s extending claws reached for his throat.
Globs of her thick blood dripped from the slash in her side, causing the white landscape to be tinted a bright cherry hue. Yet, the energy that filled her wasn’t cruel or heated, but cold, calculating, and serene. A dot appeared in the sky, cutting through the snowy heavens as the point split in two to move in parallel, creating a sphere once meeting at their northern tip. Bloody wine poured out when they joined together, filling the sphere in a sloshing flood of bright, rippling light.
A gentle woman’s voice pricked Rachel’s soul, somber yet tranquil, and accepting of her sorrow. “You come and go in waves, leaving me in your wake… swallowing everything. When the curtains call the time, my darling, will we both be satisfied? Love… the death of peace of mind.”
A crimson veil washed over the arctic hellscape, revealing thousands of frozen Kulina, all tortured in their prisons; Rachel could feel the cry for balance in vengeance. The agitated Dyalitha’s ears twitched while observing the extremely rare celestial phenomena. The Blood Moon cast all those that saw it in an unsettling serenity of inevitability.
Eostre’s voice filled her with understanding as the nasty gouge in her side bubbled and frothed; the dyed maroon liquid restored her skin and organs as her hair, ears, and glow matched the infernal sphere as her spirit sank into endless oblivion.
“Selene’s eye… The bloody tears she sheds for Ambrogio, the ancient goddess’ cursed lover, a mortal who did everything in his power to be with her—to the point of becoming a monster—only to be kept in sight but never together for all of eternity by a cruel twist of fate, made an immortal, soulless creature of the night.”
Rachel’s fingers closed around the handle of the necrotic sickle that attempted to mar her spirit. Yet, her spirit was slipping away from its grasping taint, as was Nia’s, joining her ascent to the embrace of a deep limbo.
Yanking the weapon free to splatter the ice in her crimson blood, Rachel twisted it around her hand before running her other over her bubbling stomach. Twinkling light brought Nia’s reconstituted body beside her, Ambrogio’s Curse of immortality in undeath, preventing the disease from harming her while their spirits lay inside Hades.
The Dyalitha’s white eyes narrowed, head lowering as it sank into the ice, a howl reverberating beneath their feet with four more answering it. Rachel wasn’t rushed, though. Instead, her bloody eyes observed the tinted landscape with Nia, seeing everything the crimson rays touched, the thump of thousands of heartbeats radiating like a musical symphony with tens of thousands of corpses beneath the ice.
She followed the Dyalitha as they phased through the mystical ice, wondering if this was what it was like for Scarlet, feeling the pulse of life waiting to be culled. Rachel’s teeth flashed as she lifted her clawed fingernail to press against her fangs; she was a different kind of nightmare now, compared to the Black Moon she’d experienced earlier.
Sickles shot out from multiple angles, ripping into Nia and her bodies, slicing off limbs, and looking for something to infect with their necrotic taint, only to find an empty shell, dedicated to the hunt. Nia reflected her cold smile as fissures cut through the sheets, releasing an army of the dead Kulina, green flames carrying them up with the wolves’ howls.
Dionysus’ words rang within her mind as Rachel walked toward one of the frozen rabbit people, eyes quivering in its prison while watching Nia and her take the ceaseless abuse; it was fun to see prey bark and bite until they realized how unlucky they were to fall within her sight.
“I do love the build-up, Rachel. I really do,” he stated with a strained laugh, clearly beginning to get agitated by her continual fortune. “But how about we add a time limit to this challenge? Ten minutes. It will bump up your reward by a decent amount. Won’t you accept?”
Rachel’s claws broke into the ice to grip one of the Kulina warrior’s hammers, frozen with them. Nia did the same to another pillar, her wounded outfit and body restoring while bathing in the sight of the bloody moon.
Heh. You don’t want me to farm as much EXP as I can in this challenge and Nia to soak in these lunar rays for later? Look at all the juicy animated corpses… Is Conner sweating at the increased difficulty? I want to milk this opportunity.”
She caught the rabbit creature’s tormented eyes; this person wasn’t make-believe or an illusion but a real soul. From what she understood from Dionysus’ explanation, this was a fractured cluster of universes, realms, and worlds within Conner’s Greater Seed, and the Arbiter could pull in limited elements from external objects to fill in the spots.
“Increase the Challenge Rating to three, not just some tiny reward bump, and I’ll accept a ten-minute time limit,” she laughed, extracting the weapon without effort to flip it in a sharp circle, creating a cyclone that removed all the snow blanketing the scenery and shoving back all the undead advancing on her.
“You’re practically a demigod right now with that damnable curse! I would need to add fifty more Dyalitha with their elites to make it compatible when you’re under the Blood Moon; it’s not a challenge otherwise!”
“You are the one that allowed these Unique Moons,” she reminded, confirming in the explanation that he wasn’t all-knowing when it came to these games; the Blood Moon was a surprise. “And, heh, you can give them the knowledge of how to defeat us… but you know that won’t help them. Accept it. You don’t want to do it because of the Experience it will give me.”
The swift-moving reanimated undead Kulina shot through the mist she’d expelled across the hellscape to rush her, running as fast as her normal sprint and likely packing far more of a punch.
Rachel leaped over one-hundred meters into the sky to land on the highest ice spike nearby, the seething Arbiter in her mind. Nia followed her; the Living Denier was listening in, a similar massive hammer slung over her shoulders and waiting for the signal to act. Every minute they bought in this challenge brought more Blood Moon energy into Nia’s Lunar Pool to be stored.
“Actually, there is a limit to how much ‘EXP,’ as you call it, that can expand your spirit. And you are so far beyond it here that your spirit would explode if it took in this much pressure.”
“Interesting,” she commented, spotting Nia’s silent laughter as the chattering and clicking undead bunnies began to climb the icy spire to reach them; the Dyalitha were spread out, snarling at one another, no doubt communicating to solve the mystery of what kind of terrifying creatures she and Nia were. You are really not good at this Arbiter business.
“And you are not good at entertaining me!” he spat back. “Hmm. Fine. Five minutes. And you want it changed to the 3rd Challenge Rating? If you fail—all of these worlds die. You are okay with that?”
“Five minutes?” She spoke aloud, further grating on his nerves while bringing the bargain to the attention of the audience. “Heh. Give us a challenge. And you already said I’m practically a demigod. Let me give a show to the people!”
“Three.”
“Done.”
“…Enjoy your hell.”
Rachel’s ears shot up as more gears rumbled in the distance, and the world expanded, mist easing back to reveal dozens more Dyalitha. A unified howl fractured the icy landscape, creating a colossal fissure that brought out an undead horde of various other bulky and powerful entities.
Fifty-foot reptilian creatures in chains clawed out, burning with green flames with the wolves riding them as winged snakes burrowed through the ice to reach their icy pillar.
Nia’s braided red hair drifted to the side as the wind picked up, a blizzard rushing in from the opposite direction to cover them in a whiteout, but the Blood Moon wouldn’t be denied by such things as natural storms, no matter their size.
“The clock starts now!”
Rachel gave Nia a lifted eyebrow as the earthquake split the base of their platform, taking them to the ground where the armies of Dyalitha-reanimated corpses of their conquered foes rushed to meet them.
I see plenty of replacement hammers to grab; it’s the only weapon I’ve practiced with in my mental space thus far.
“The Moon Hare and Living Denier Moon Bunny against the world,” Nia sighed, spinning her weapon around to counter the blizzard that embraced them; the Blood Moon’s powerful rays still shone through, making it appear like they’d entered an arctic blood storm. “We really were screwed at Challenge Rank Two without hacks.”
Jumping off before they crashed, Rachel landed on the leaping lizard creature as it tried to predict where they were, attempting to use its own body to disrupt the crimson rays from feeding their immortal, undead bodies; it was a good attempt that would be repeated.
Fueled by the waves of unending strength and unlimited regeneration, Rachel entered the chaos, a streak of crimson light as she ignored the majority of the undead hordes; her targets were the living controlling them, and whole companies of the frozen waste collapsed with every Dyalitha skull her Kulina hammer crushed.
The melancholy strum of Selene’s longing for her lover-turned-vampire pulsed within her breast as the world spun in slow-motion. She was only able to keep up with the mind-numbing acceleration, pivots, pinpoint accuracy, nigh-omnipresent view, and strength imposed on her frail, mortal body thanks to the insane regeneration the Blood Moon provided, while her spirit was protected from the insurmountable stress due to being safely stored within the depths of Hades.
Two minutes and fifty-three seconds later, she and Nia broke through the ribs of the headless corpse of a giant wolf chieftain, caked in gore. It had survived being decapitated, somehow. Magma bubbled out of the ground as she broke through the ice, pressure rearranging the tectonic plates and destroying her arm, only for the appendage to grow anew.
“Throw it in?” Nia dully asked as the green, unholy necromantic symbols on his stomach changed again, the body trying to animate itself.
Rachel wordlessly kicked it in. “I… don’t know if I like the Blood Moon. I don’t feel anything but peace and loneliness, despite you being here.”
“Yeah. Not a fan, Cap.”
They watched the corpse burst into flames in the rising magma, the bunny people safe from the main destruction they’d caused. It hadn’t been hard to free them; it didn’t feel good or bad either. And even this victory didn’t sate her under the cold crimson rays; all Rachel felt throughout this battle, was a surreal, melancholy peace.
The ravaged, frozen landscape warped with the destabilized tectonic shifts underneath the sheets of melting ice, and all the imprisoned Kulina were freed from their confinement, unaffected by the cataclysmic battle.
When the world changed, and they were suddenly away from the rays of the Blood Moon, Rachel was a little disappointed that the hammer had stayed behind. She remained detached, perhaps even apathetic, with the unique lunar energy still tainting a part of her Lunar Pool.
A thunderous applause filled the stadium, replays of Nia and her rocketing through giant lizard people and ripping apart reanimated Kulina within the whirlwind of their passing playing out across the many holographic screens placed around the coliseum.
Eostre’s concerned voice entered her mind as Dionysus hyped up the battle that he hated but relished in the praise the audience gave him, nonetheless. The Black Moon’s taint was tempered by the Blood Moon’s serene and accepting vibes as she saw Nia give her a two-fingered, military salute before dispersing into shimmering stars, releasing her artificial body.
“Your spirit is still in Hades; I’ve rarely seen a body act solely on Intelligence, without the spirit. How do you feel? It should be sent back shortly—I don’t know how it works—maybe they realize you’re not supposed to be there when you’re not under the Blood Moon?”
Rachel wasn’t entirely focused on the reason for Hades holding onto her spirit for safekeeping; she had other things to concern herself with.
Unbothered… she admitted, studying her restored black and red military school getup; it was considered Nia’s true body, which meant it was covered under the Blood Moon’s effects. Unsatisfied. It’s a strange duality. Nia?
A soft sigh came from the living denier. “The same. I could smile or laugh, but I feel very somber… I’m content with not being in the light, or warmth. Does it make everyone else not connected to the Blood Moon feel… Mmgm, she internally groaned.
Isolated. Paranoid. Unsettled… Unloved by the night. It’s like she projects this emotion—this phrase: love… the death of peace of mind. That’s how I think it feels.”
Nia seemed to let it go, moving on to what came next. “Once my spirit returns, the virus will continue to ravage—haaa. There it is. Damn. If I survive, shopping trip, Cap?” she asked with a hopeful chime that mirrored her love for training; she was a soldier.
[Level Up - Level Eight]
[Level Up - Level Nine]
x3 [Skill Points Added]
x1 [Feat Extension Available]
x1 [Equipable Feats Available]
[Nia Base Grade Increase - Grade II Achieved]
[Nia Base Grade Increase - Grade III Achieved]
[Nia Base Grade Increase - Grade IV Achieved]
x4 [Style Points Added]
x1 [Syncro Point Added]
x1 [Feat Point Added]
x15 [New Inventory Slots Added]
Rachel grimaced as her tempered emotions were brought back up to their normal levels, giving her a new perspective on the Blood Moon; her spirit left Hades and entered her body again, giving her a hard pill to swallow.
You know, I’m sure my mom is going to love you, Nia. We’ll talk about it later. And—our time in the spotlight is over.
Her environment shifted to the VIP box as Dionysus didn’t even recognize her fight, opting to move right to introducing his champion again, not that Rachel particularly cared… Okay, she did, a little bit, she admitted to herself, but despite the Blood Moon’s phenomenal power, it came with a disturbing price.
Eostre gave her an encouraging smile, likely thinking things were going way better than she thought, but Rachel’s gaze was on Nike’s blinded, bloodied form. Her blood didn’t pump once when under the Blood Moon; there was no rush or surge to push beyond her limits.
She was beyond any kind of power she had dreamed about exercising, yet no thought of achievement or joy had filled her due to her lost spirit; only cold action and thought filled her.
The Blood Moon really is the mind of the frigid night… Selene’s mournful, longing love for the immortal monsters as she unsettles their prey… The death of peace of mind for all those not embraced by her light, she whispered to Nia, biting down on her now normal nail. There was a… feeling, in her chest. Agitation? She didn’t like it; it left no satisfaction, like the goddess that personified it.
Rachel watched the gears turn as Dionysus returned it to the first Challenge Rating since they were now beyond the easy first round; it would only ramp up from here, and she could see Conner’s frigid stare from across the stadium. Who wouldn’t be intimidated after seeing that kind of power? And she had some of it locked inside Nia.
It was only 21% of a single one of Nia’s two separate Lunar Pools used for storage, kept isolated and pure, unlike the mixture of the slight Black and Blood Moons tainting Rachel’s normal White Moon’s lunar energy in her single Lunar Pool. Still, Conner would be gunning for Nia, and it would only get worse once it was her turn. Rachel was beginning to get a better picture of what these Seeds were inside of them, though.
All of this was a giant machine to push the Legend’s spirit and refine them to a higher level, which these deities wanted a ride on. Her lingering serene mind helped to ground [Strategic Mind], and it made her wonder why Legendkin needed this complex system, while Mythickin didn’t.
Selvaria, Fiona, Maria, Astra, and probably Scarlet, were all Mythickin, yet there was only one Legendkin, Anthony, that had been near her when she’d turned. Coincidence? If there was one thing she’d learned since she changed, there was no such thing as coincidence.
There was a convoluted network of competing interests that she was playing between, and Anthony had to be a part of that in some way. Why would he be the one close by that she would connect with unless she needed his Greater Seed?
Whatever the reason, they could work off each other to grow faster; a Myth and Legend were better unified than competing. And what if multiple Mythickin taking part in Quests multiplied the effect? If so, you only needed one Legend per group.
Resting her elbows against the stone barrier, she folded her fingers together and rested them against her nose, returning Conner’s stare; it was an interesting thought experiment, nonetheless, and Conner was the perfect candidate to test her theories before implementing them in Anthony’s Greater Seed. What if she could pull his Seed away at the end to feed Anthony? There was a question.
Nia’s pained giggle followed her internal ponderings. “I’m glad to see you are quite the schemer, Captain. I’m sorry I can’t be of further help… I can feel my mind slipping with every insufferable second Dionysus blows air.”
It will work out… I just need to get you a bit of medicine. It looks like it’s our time to roll again.
Teleported to the middle, Rachel snatched her die up without wasting any time and tossed it into the box. Conner did the same, seemingly not so amused about her previous performance with Nia, who shared a portion of her lunar connection to show two demigods in action.
A giant shark over twenty meters long appeared from the crowd, now a lot larger than his shrunken stand size. Water surged out of his gills, a low rumble from deep within its body shaking the stadium as it spoke in its weird language. The liquid twisted around the die to hold it like hands as Dionysus laughed and responded to the sea entity.
“Absolutely, Lord Neptius! Your home stadium would be a fantastic choice for a sea-based contest with the ever-shifting tides.”
The twenty-sided die swirled in the pool before being tossed lightly into the box, but Dionysus withheld his throw for a few more seconds while showing a thoughtful look. Yet again, the whimsical and insane lesser party god changed the rules again.
“I think we can all agree that, heh, while the effect these Unique Moons can have our sweet Lunar Hare, they can also bring… complications! We will give my champion a chance to show off his unique attributes before returning to the standard rules. What do you say, should we see how the Lunar Hare fares without the crutch of these moons?”
Rachel wasn’t surprised at the cheers the offer got. He’d pushed the first round as hard as it could go with her using the Blood Moon and had still been thwarted. She half believed Dionysus was close to outright trying to kill her, and after her next selection, she was sure he would be out for her tail.
“Then it is settled—ah-hah, twenty, and two… again?! Maybe you should cut off Moongmor’s foot to use as a good luck charm. Haha!”
Rachel’s wide field of vision saw the still-grieving rabbit jump in fright and grab his big bottom feet, Nia grunting at the comment.
“I can’t wait until he messes up and gets slapped by the System.”
Agreed.
Rachel waved her finger in the air with a dull cheer. “Wooh. You’re hilarious. Can we get on with it? I’m getting bored.”
Dionysus gave her a glare that said, ‘She was supposed to be entertaining him.’
Conner: 9
Rachel: 2
Dionysus: 20
Crowd: 18
Dionysus gave her a savage grin, likely thinking her slowly dissolving, anime-style military school uniform would be mostly dead by the time she could do anything about it with her super-enhanced selection for her second round.
“Unlike the first round, where one can select an item, the second is only reserved for Item Enhancement. So, Enhancement: Solar Gauntlets, Solar Skies… the gloves can bathe the atmosphere in a veil of solar rays that blot out the heavens for up to an hour, once a month.
Rachel pulled her now pink-hued, white braid over her shoulder to examine with a bored expression; she lived so rent-free in his mind with all the taunts. He wasn’t thinking about the future at all for Conner but trying to make him a direct counter to her. Sure, it worked, but Rachel wanted something that would last, and Nia was that.
The shark made a few grunts, watery pools spinning the display until settling on an underwater temple arena of some kind, showing a giant, muscular man in the background with a trident and making Conner beam with excitement as the lesser god introduced the battle stage.
“Location: the Dwendran Temple of Poseidon, in the golden pools my older brother sanctified! Truly a memorable place for a contest!”
Conner laughed and gave her a smirk. “Looks like you’re on monster duty again. Penalty: I can only use one leg for the entire match!”
Rachel didn’t feed into the hype, spinning the holographic options in a swift cycle without much emotion, making Nia laugh. “Monster: whatever it lands on.”
“Someone’s confident,” Conner hummed, studying her. “Aren’t you relying a bit too much on chance?”
She flashed her teeth as the selection landed on a Baby Kraken and made Conner force a laugh. “Chance is more than enough in this kind of challenge. I’d say good luck, but I’m sure you’ll wrestle down the not-so-baby squid on one leg well enough.”
Sent back to her booth to not draw more attention or love from the crowd due to her mouth, she kept her gaze on Conner. The stage was put into place, and while the earth was converted into water, her mind was pulled to Nike, near the corner of her vision.
This is such a strange competition. As competitors, we have to make sure our opponent survives to the end or we both lose. If that is the case, then Conner has to be on my side, even if his god goes against me, and I can use that divide. We actually have a lot of power over the Arbiter, and if I get the crowd on my side, then I can isolate him out.
Nia’s overcoat fell away, frayed completely through as it started on her tie and thigh-high stockings; soon, it would be her white dress shirt and skirt.
Hold on a bit longer, Nia. All you need is a little pick-me-up.
“Uh-huh…” Nia mumbled in a somewhat delirious state, growing weaker now that the virus was allowed to further gnaw at her spirit; the heat the outfit produced was now burning instead of warm and reassuring support. “I trust you, Rach… I-I mean, Captain…”
Call me Rach all you want, Lieutenant.
“Ma’am… I’d like some more socks. I like socks…”
Letting her ramble about various clothing items she liked to chew on, most of which she really had no idea what they tasted like, Rachel debated entering her internal world to assign her levels. Her gut told her the lesser god would do something to speed up Conner’s battle to attempt to trap her.
Nia’s delirious right now, and can’t keep watch of the match for me. Dionysus is already trying to punish me. I can’t tell how much time will pass, and if Conner’s enhanced powers are like my Blood Moon powers, I could miss the selection process. It would be better to maneuver myself in a way to level in the next round. If I play my cards right, Nia should be able to cover me while I do that… It’s still hard to wait…
A tad annoyed, she followed Conner’s battle, comforting herself that she did need to understand more about his powers and how he used them. He was good. Using one leg, he surfed on the golden liquid surrounding the stadium to manipulate it into weapons, cutting the towering behemoth of a baby kaiju into sushi.
Sure, it wasn’t easy for him, and he actually dodged the poisonous barbs the creature threw at him instead of tanking them like normal, but he could still make a show out of it. Solar-charged punches from his gloves left scorch marks on the sea creature’s body that seemed challenging for it to heal.
Ten minutes of showboating and displays of his strength, and it was on to her second round. She could have probably leveled up in that time, yet what she’d learned in Conner’s fight had been worth the delay. If she could upgrade her stats on her own turn, then she’d gained far more overall in the end.
Eostre’s arms were held anxiously against her chest, mumbling for the Legend to get it over with already throughout the fight to give her a shot at stopping the soul item’s worsening decay. The woman was really growing on Rachel, and even MoonMoon had his strengths.
Rachel’s fingers lingered on the fraying edges of her dress shirt, showing her toned belly as it crawled up to her chest. Almost all of her clothing was nearly gone to some extent now, but Nia was doing her best to retain her undergarments, stubbornly holding on.
It wasn’t the loss of the clothes themselves that tightened Rachel’s chest but what they represented. She’d gotten to know Nia, mentally chatting with the young woman, and while there were clear differences between them—such as her sense of fashion—the head-strong living denier was the closest girl she’d met to having her own interests.
Finally, she sighed, appearing in the center with Dionysus giving her ruined outfit a smug grin.
“Haha! Ladies and gentlemen and everything in-between, around, and without, what will our Lunar Hare do to save herself from becoming a nudist?”
Conner chuckled. “We should at least give her a chance, right? She needs all the help she can get at this point. Will luck be in her favor?”
Rachel returned the smirk to the lesser god, her boldly, gleaming eyes sparking doubt that made her heart soar as she reached out to grasp the die that appeared.
A beyond-handsome, golden-haired male angel appeared from the crowd, but she was wholly focused on the misfortune tightening around Dionysus’ throat; besides, if she’d learned one thing from all these unique moons she’d experienced thus far, she leaned a tad on the more infernal side of the spectrum.
She tossed it into Dionysus’ roll box as everyone else threw it at the same time; the lesser god frowned as her die struck his, bouncing off the edges before coming to a stop.
Conner: 2
Rachel: 20
Dionysus: 1
Crowd: 10
Lips curling as the bottom of her form-fitted bra began to show, Rachel spoke singular, deliberate words that made the display spin to the proper options, settling one that turned Dyonysus’ golden face white as snow. The stadium became deathly still as her words rang throughout the stands of lesser deities.
“Upgrade: Search. Mostly-dead Personifications. Symbol of Victory. Send an acceptance request to Nike to be infused into my soul item.”
Rachel’s gaze lifted to the tortured, naked young woman pinned to the column. Gagged by her own white hair, blinded, and hung in place by her very weapons with her torn-off wings stapled at her sides. All eyes settled on Dionysus’ proud trophy; a symbol of his unmitigated dominance among the lesser gods and over his intimidating eldest sister, Athena.
“Rachel…” Dionysus snarled, wine barrels bursting around the stadium in a bubbling rage, falling over the quivering personification as vines swarmed the arena. “If you—”
“If I what?” Rachel grinned, not feeling an ounce of the terrifying pressure the other lesser deities flinched at. “Hah. You’ll, what? Kill Eostre? Do you remember how that went last time?”
Dionysus’ vision fixated on Nike as a tremor ran down her lacerated body, and she lifted her head as if seeing something only visible to her.
“I will make sure you die if you do this, Rachel, and that will only be the begin—no!”
[Request Accepted]
“You planned this—what are you?!” Dionysus raged, face going red and vanishing to appear in front of Nike, fist plunging toward her chest, yet his hand was stopped millimeters before sinking into the woman’s ripped flesh. “This—damn System… This can’t be happening!”
Rachel could feel his mind slipping, pulling the noose tighter around his own throat as she licked her lips, relishing the tension of tempting a god; the angel next to her smiled, following their gaze.
“If you intend to save the Personification. I am inclined to approve of such an act of mercy. Though, she will not be of much use to you for some time in her ravaged state.”
Conner’s mouth was open in shock at the tantrum his lesser god was throwing while attempting to kill the Personification without effect, and Rachel’s lilting tone cut deep into the Greek god’s pride. The clock on her turn counted down, reaching thirty seconds.
“Hurry up and perform your duty, Arbiter. You wanted this job… So, do your job! Maybe, heh, you should give up the reins to Eostre. You could kill Nike then, right? Haha. I’m waiting, Arbiter! Your adoring fans are waiting! She accepted. Place Nike inside my living denier.”
Veins writhing under the lesser god’s skin, he snarled, fingers closing into a fist; Nike shimmered and condensed into a brilliant light. The infuriated man appeared before her in the blink of an eye, wearing a savage, manic smile while shoving the 5th-dimensional, dying Personification into her chest, infusing Nike’s divine soul into Nia.
“You… will die, heh-hehe—soon enough, Hare. You… are finished, whoever you really are under that false mortal skin you wear—hide your identity in that Seed, but I know you are something else! Hahaha.”
Rachel stumbled back and regained her balance, still wearing a tempting, impish smile as Nia’s life force surged back. Her outfit was restored in an array of golden light as the wounded Personification’s ichor flooded her living denier with purifying energy, burning away the impurities. She doubted Nike would stay forever, but there had to be something to gain for saving and harboring the powerful woman when she was down and needed assistance.
Conner was not liking the way his literally insane lesser god was now planning on both of them failing; he should have seen it coming with insanity being attached to his repertoire. The Legend stood silently, deep in thought on how to change the tone, because if she died, he died, along with this entire fractured multiverse.
“And just like that,” she laughed, “a penalty is void. Haha. Who’s next?”
“Ah, that would be me,” the golden-haired angel replied, showing a radiant smile. “I have become a fan. Penalty. You cannot use Nike in this competition. Let her rest.”
Rachel nodded. “Reasonable.”
Nia emerged from twinkling lights to stand beside her with a triumphant grin, a hand on her hip, and staring the lesser god down. “I’m back, you sadistic bitch, and I’ve got the lady wrapped up and tucked into bed with a nice cup of tea.”
Dionysus’ smile personified the insanity that lay underneath the party facade. “You… will regret that decision… dearly.”
Nia snickered and pointed at the angel that drew the lesser god’s ire, showing a serene cadence. “Aww, why the long face; did we steal your girl, or did you just run out of wine to jerk off to? How can heaven hurt like Hell? Tragic!”
Rachel pointed up at the clock as it counted down for Conner. “I understand the distance from your idol is bittersweet, but it’s not so bad. C’mon, no one likes a party pooper.”
B1 — 26. A Bloody Victory
The crowd cheered as the world spun, and abruptly an unnatural arctic chill gripped Rachel’s heart. The powerful lower deities faded away with Conner’s testing grin, wishing her good luck. In the next second, all Rachel’s tilting ears could hear were the ominous cracking of the icy earth and howling wind that swept across a frozen wasteland.
Dionysus’ voice was distant, more felt than heard while introducing the contest. “Welcome to Nylthera, a place of living hell for the Kulina, which our brave combatant has a striking resemblance to! Hehe. Observe the artwork of the cruel Dyalitha wolves. What a nightmare this must be for a bunny… or hare.”
Nia remained silent within her mind, conserving her strength while assessing the dangers with her. Rachel’s ears stiffened with her tail as a distant, shrill howl carried along the gusts, pressing her skirt and military uniform against her body.
“I don’t like being in the open, Captain, the mature bunny whispered. If this is their home turf, then we’re at a severe disadvantage. Their senses are adapted to this environment. If… Are they still alive?”
Rachel didn’t respond, feeling the strings of misfortune that weaved throughout the land, taking her to one of the large, jagged ice spikes that peppered the landscape, providing many angles in the light snowfall.
Running her hand along the crystal, she looked into the wide eyes of an anthropomorphic visage of a rabbit-person trapped inside the humming sheets; it was cold to the touch but not enough to freeze, like the rest of their frigid environment.
I think they are, she responded, feeling something else laced on the gale sweeping the land that slightly cut past her natural environmental resistances. Further examination of the trapped bunny made her vision narrow, centered on the sickle stuck through the Kulina’s chest, burning with emerald flames.
“If what Dionysus said is true,” Nia strategized, “then we should expect them to have control over this ice, the undead, and have enhanced attributes. If they hunt creatures with sharp hearing, then they’d have adapted to it. Ack—the bastard. He chose this overcast place to rob us of the moon.”
A thoughtful twist lifted Rachel’s mouth as she bent down on one knee, head tilting to scan the jagged ice, only lightly layered by the snowfall, and her gaze lifted to the overcast skies. Slowly rising to her feet again, Nia’s square heels finding traction against the rough surface, she breathed in deeply to taste the air.
Don’t be so sure, Nia… I am not a Kulina rabbit, nor a type of prey that hides. Walking further into the open, her illuminated, clover-like eyes took in her stage. I hunt in the light of the moon, not in the shadows, and you’re not factoring in an important detail, Nia.
Her smirk lifted to the heavens, the cloud cover starting to shift in a slow circle as Dionysus’ commentary momentarily cut. A pained chuckle came from Nia as she realized what Rachel had counted on when selecting this place, despite all her senses telling her she would die in this wasteland.
Instincts flaring, Rachel’s feet left the ice as she performed an aerial evade, yet she couldn’t escape; a sickly green blur ripped through her side. It carried forward to lodge into an ice wall, revealing a sleek sickle bathed in her white blood, slowly tinting red.
The Unique Moons aren’t so easily hampered by weather.
[Curse of Ambrogio: Active]
Rachel didn’t feel the pain as she landed, Dionysus snarling as the sky parted.
“My older sister’s hand? Agh! I am not amused! How can your sense of misfortune be this keen?! Not even Theodon, Atë, Oizys, and Tyche combined could possibly have orchestrated this! Of all the Unique Moons possible near this world, you tempt me with the Blood Moon that answers the call of this challenge?”
[Divine Ultima Regeneration X - Selene draws the user’s spirit into Hades. So long as the user’s spirit remains with her, the user’s body will continue to regenerate endlessly from a single cell that survives.]
[Divine Creature of the Endless Hunt X - The user is capable of personifying the Goddess of the Hunt, Artemis, as her greatest hunter.]
[Divine Silver Vulnerability X - Wounds caused by silver will not recover.]
[Divine Sunlight Vulnerability X - Cursed by the god Apollo, any cell touched by sunlight will be utterly destroyed.]
As her spirit left her body, a link between Hades and her actual body was created; those who joined in Ambrogio’s curse had their spirits ripped away to the underworld, severing emotion from thought.
She turned to find a phantom-like wolf looming over her, rising out of the ground like a ghost; she couldn’t hear him until his weapon buried into her stomach, yet the sinister beast was the one to retreat, leaving his sickle in her belly as Rachel’s extending claws reached for his throat.
Globs of her thick blood dripped from the slash in her side, causing the white landscape to be tinted a bright cherry hue. Yet, the energy that filled her wasn’t cruel or heated, but cold, calculating, and serene. A dot appeared in the sky, cutting through the snowy heavens as the point split in two to move in parallel, creating a sphere once meeting at their northern tip. Bloody wine poured out when they joined together, filling the sphere in a sloshing flood of bright, rippling light.
A gentle woman’s voice pricked Rachel’s soul, somber yet tranquil, and accepting of her sorrow. “You come and go in waves, leaving me in your wake… swallowing everything. When the curtains call the time, my darling, will we both be satisfied? Love… the death of peace of mind.”
A crimson veil washed over the arctic hellscape, revealing thousands of frozen Kulina, all tortured in their prisons; Rachel could feel the cry for balance in vengeance. The agitated Dyalitha’s ears twitched while observing the extremely rare celestial phenomena. The Blood Moon cast all those that saw it in an unsettling serenity of inevitability.
Eostre’s voice filled her with understanding as the nasty gouge in her side bubbled and frothed; the dyed maroon liquid restored her skin and organs as her hair, ears, and glow matched the infernal sphere as her spirit sank into endless oblivion.
“Selene’s eye… The bloody tears she sheds for Ambrogio, the ancient goddess’ cursed lover, a mortal who did everything in his power to be with her—to the point of becoming a monster—only to be kept in sight but never together for all of eternity by a cruel twist of fate, made an immortal, soulless creature of the night.”
Rachel’s fingers closed around the handle of the necrotic sickle that attempted to mar her spirit. Yet, her spirit was slipping away from its grasping taint, as was Nia’s, joining her ascent to the embrace of a deep limbo.
Yanking the weapon free to splatter the ice in her crimson blood, Rachel twisted it around her hand before running her other over her bubbling stomach. Twinkling light brought Nia’s reconstituted body beside her, Ambrogio’s Curse of immortality in undeath, preventing the disease from harming her while their spirits lay inside Hades.
The Dyalitha’s white eyes narrowed, head lowering as it sank into the ice, a howl reverberating beneath their feet with four more answering it. Rachel wasn’t rushed, though. Instead, her bloody eyes observed the tinted landscape with Nia, seeing everything the crimson rays touched, the thump of thousands of heartbeats radiating like a musical symphony with tens of thousands of corpses beneath the ice.
She followed the Dyalitha as they phased through the mystical ice, wondering if this was what it was like for Scarlet, feeling the pulse of life waiting to be culled. Rachel’s teeth flashed as she lifted her clawed fingernail to press against her fangs; she was a different kind of nightmare now, compared to the Black Moon she’d experienced earlier.
Sickles shot out from multiple angles, ripping into Nia and her bodies, slicing off limbs, and looking for something to infect with their necrotic taint, only to find an empty shell, dedicated to the hunt. Nia reflected her cold smile as fissures cut through the sheets, releasing an army of the dead Kulina, green flames carrying them up with the wolves’ howls.
Dionysus’ words rang within her mind as Rachel walked toward one of the frozen rabbit people, eyes quivering in its prison while watching Nia and her take the ceaseless abuse; it was fun to see prey bark and bite until they realized how unlucky they were to fall within her sight.
“I do love the build-up, Rachel. I really do,” he stated with a strained laugh, clearly beginning to get agitated by her continual fortune. “But how about we add a time limit to this challenge? Ten minutes. It will bump up your reward by a decent amount. Won’t you accept?”
Rachel’s claws broke into the ice to grip one of the Kulina warrior’s hammers, frozen with them. Nia did the same to another pillar, her wounded outfit and body restoring while bathing in the sight of the bloody moon.
Heh. You don’t want me to farm as much EXP as I can in this challenge and Nia to soak in these lunar rays for later? Look at all the juicy animated corpses… Is Conner sweating at the increased difficulty? I want to milk this opportunity.”
She caught the rabbit creature’s tormented eyes; this person wasn’t make-believe or an illusion but a real soul. From what she understood from Dionysus’ explanation, this was a fractured cluster of universes, realms, and worlds within Conner’s Greater Seed, and the Arbiter could pull in limited elements from external objects to fill in the spots.
“Increase the Challenge Rating to three, not just some tiny reward bump, and I’ll accept a ten-minute time limit,” she laughed, extracting the weapon without effort to flip it in a sharp circle, creating a cyclone that removed all the snow blanketing the scenery and shoving back all the undead advancing on her.
“You’re practically a demigod right now with that damnable curse! I would need to add fifty more Dyalitha with their elites to make it compatible when you’re under the Blood Moon; it’s not a challenge otherwise!”
“You are the one that allowed these Unique Moons,” she reminded, confirming in the explanation that he wasn’t all-knowing when it came to these games; the Blood Moon was a surprise. “And, heh, you can give them the knowledge of how to defeat us… but you know that won’t help them. Accept it. You don’t want to do it because of the Experience it will give me.”
The swift-moving reanimated undead Kulina shot through the mist she’d expelled across the hellscape to rush her, running as fast as her normal sprint and likely packing far more of a punch.
Rachel leaped over one-hundred meters into the sky to land on the highest ice spike nearby, the seething Arbiter in her mind. Nia followed her; the Living Denier was listening in, a similar massive hammer slung over her shoulders and waiting for the signal to act. Every minute they bought in this challenge brought more Blood Moon energy into Nia’s Lunar Pool to be stored.
“Actually, there is a limit to how much ‘EXP,’ as you call it, that can expand your spirit. And you are so far beyond it here that your spirit would explode if it took in this much pressure.”
“Interesting,” she commented, spotting Nia’s silent laughter as the chattering and clicking undead bunnies began to climb the icy spire to reach them; the Dyalitha were spread out, snarling at one another, no doubt communicating to solve the mystery of what kind of terrifying creatures she and Nia were. You are really not good at this Arbiter business.
“And you are not good at entertaining me!” he spat back. “Hmm. Fine. Five minutes. And you want it changed to the 3rd Challenge Rating? If you fail—all of these worlds die. You are okay with that?”
“Five minutes?” She spoke aloud, further grating on his nerves while bringing the bargain to the attention of the audience. “Heh. Give us a challenge. And you already said I’m practically a demigod. Let me give a show to the people!”
“Three.”
“Done.”
“…Enjoy your hell.”
Rachel’s ears shot up as more gears rumbled in the distance, and the world expanded, mist easing back to reveal dozens more Dyalitha. A unified howl fractured the icy landscape, creating a colossal fissure that brought out an undead horde of various other bulky and powerful entities.
Fifty-foot reptilian creatures in chains clawed out, burning with green flames with the wolves riding them as winged snakes burrowed through the ice to reach their icy pillar.
Nia’s braided red hair drifted to the side as the wind picked up, a blizzard rushing in from the opposite direction to cover them in a whiteout, but the Blood Moon wouldn’t be denied by such things as natural storms, no matter their size.
“The clock starts now!”
Rachel gave Nia a lifted eyebrow as the earthquake split the base of their platform, taking them to the ground where the armies of Dyalitha-reanimated corpses of their conquered foes rushed to meet them.
I see plenty of replacement hammers to grab; it’s the only weapon I’ve practiced with in my mental space thus far.
“The Moon Hare and Living Denier Moon Bunny against the world,” Nia sighed, spinning her weapon around to counter the blizzard that embraced them; the Blood Moon’s powerful rays still shone through, making it appear like they’d entered an arctic blood storm. “We really were screwed at Challenge Rank Two without hacks.”
Jumping off before they crashed, Rachel landed on the leaping lizard creature as it tried to predict where they were, attempting to use its own body to disrupt the crimson rays from feeding their immortal, undead bodies; it was a good attempt that would be repeated.
Fueled by the waves of unending strength and unlimited regeneration, Rachel entered the chaos, a streak of crimson light as she ignored the majority of the undead hordes; her targets were the living controlling them, and whole companies of the frozen waste collapsed with every Dyalitha skull her Kulina hammer crushed.
The melancholy strum of Selene’s longing for her lover-turned-vampire pulsed within her breast as the world spun in slow-motion. She was only able to keep up with the mind-numbing acceleration, pivots, pinpoint accuracy, nigh-omnipresent view, and strength imposed on her frail, mortal body thanks to the insane regeneration the Blood Moon provided, while her spirit was protected from the insurmountable stress due to being safely stored within the depths of Hades.
Two minutes and fifty-three seconds later, she and Nia broke through the ribs of the headless corpse of a giant wolf chieftain, caked in gore. It had survived being decapitated, somehow. Magma bubbled out of the ground as she broke through the ice, pressure rearranging the tectonic plates and destroying her arm, only for the appendage to grow anew.
“Throw it in?” Nia dully asked as the green, unholy necromantic symbols on his stomach changed again, the body trying to animate itself.
Rachel wordlessly kicked it in. “I… don’t know if I like the Blood Moon. I don’t feel anything but peace and loneliness, despite you being here.”
“Yeah. Not a fan, Cap.”
They watched the corpse burst into flames in the rising magma, the bunny people safe from the main destruction they’d caused. It hadn’t been hard to free them; it didn’t feel good or bad either. And even this victory didn’t sate her under the cold crimson rays; all Rachel felt throughout this battle, was a surreal, melancholy peace.
The ravaged, frozen landscape warped with the destabilized tectonic shifts underneath the sheets of melting ice, and all the imprisoned Kulina were freed from their confinement, unaffected by the cataclysmic battle.
When the world changed, and they were suddenly away from the rays of the Blood Moon, Rachel was a little disappointed that the hammer had stayed behind. She remained detached, perhaps even apathetic, with the unique lunar energy still tainting a part of her Lunar Pool.
A thunderous applause filled the stadium, replays of Nia and her rocketing through giant lizard people and ripping apart reanimated Kulina within the whirlwind of their passing playing out across the many holographic screens placed around the coliseum.
Eostre’s concerned voice entered her mind as Dionysus hyped up the battle that he hated but relished in the praise the audience gave him, nonetheless. The Black Moon’s taint was tempered by the Blood Moon’s serene and accepting vibes as she saw Nia give her a two-fingered, military salute before dispersing into shimmering stars, releasing her artificial body.
“Your spirit is still in Hades; I’ve rarely seen a body act solely on Intelligence, without the spirit. How do you feel? It should be sent back shortly—I don’t know how it works—maybe they realize you’re not supposed to be there when you’re not under the Blood Moon?”
Rachel wasn’t entirely focused on the reason for Hades holding onto her spirit for safekeeping; she had other things to concern herself with.
Unbothered… she admitted, studying her restored black and red military school getup; it was considered Nia’s true body, which meant it was covered under the Blood Moon’s effects. Unsatisfied. It’s a strange duality. Nia?
A soft sigh came from the living denier. “The same. I could smile or laugh, but I feel very somber… I’m content with not being in the light, or warmth. Does it make everyone else not connected to the Blood Moon feel… Mmgm, she internally groaned.
Isolated. Paranoid. Unsettled… Unloved by the night. It’s like she projects this emotion—this phrase: love… the death of peace of mind. That’s how I think it feels.”
Nia seemed to let it go, moving on to what came next. “Once my spirit returns, the virus will continue to ravage—haaa. There it is. Damn. If I survive, shopping trip, Cap?” she asked with a hopeful chime that mirrored her love for training; she was a soldier.
[Level Up - Level Eight]
[Level Up - Level Nine]
x3 [Skill Points Added]
x1 [Feat Extension Available]
x1 [Equipable Feats Available]
[Nia Base Grade Increase - Grade II Achieved]
[Nia Base Grade Increase - Grade III Achieved]
[Nia Base Grade Increase - Grade IV Achieved]
x4 [Style Points Added]
x1 [Syncro Point Added]
x1 [Feat Point Added]
x15 [New Inventory Slots Added]
Rachel grimaced as her tempered emotions were brought back up to their normal levels, giving her a new perspective on the Blood Moon; her spirit left Hades and entered her body again, giving her a hard pill to swallow.
You know, I’m sure my mom is going to love you, Nia. We’ll talk about it later. And—our time in the spotlight is over.
Her environment shifted to the VIP box as Dionysus didn’t even recognize her fight, opting to move right to introducing his champion again, not that Rachel particularly cared… Okay, she did, a little bit, she admitted to herself, but despite the Blood Moon’s phenomenal power, it came with a disturbing price.
Eostre gave her an encouraging smile, likely thinking things were going way better than she thought, but Rachel’s gaze was on Nike’s blinded, bloodied form. Her blood didn’t pump once when under the Blood Moon; there was no rush or surge to push beyond her limits.
She was beyond any kind of power she had dreamed about exercising, yet no thought of achievement or joy had filled her due to her lost spirit; only cold action and thought filled her.
The Blood Moon really is the mind of the frigid night… Selene’s mournful, longing love for the immortal monsters as she unsettles their prey… The death of peace of mind for all those not embraced by her light, she whispered to Nia, biting down on her now normal nail. There was a… feeling, in her chest. Agitation? She didn’t like it; it left no satisfaction, like the goddess that personified it.
Rachel watched the gears turn as Dionysus returned it to the first Challenge Rating since they were now beyond the easy first round; it would only ramp up from here, and she could see Conner’s frigid stare from across the stadium. Who wouldn’t be intimidated after seeing that kind of power? And she had some of it locked inside Nia.
It was only 21% of a single one of Nia’s two separate Lunar Pools used for storage, kept isolated and pure, unlike the mixture of the slight Black and Blood Moons tainting Rachel’s normal White Moon’s lunar energy in her single Lunar Pool. Still, Conner would be gunning for Nia, and it would only get worse once it was her turn. Rachel was beginning to get a better picture of what these Seeds were inside of them, though.
All of this was a giant machine to push the Legend’s spirit and refine them to a higher level, which these deities wanted a ride on. Her lingering serene mind helped to ground [Strategic Mind], and it made her wonder why Legendkin needed this complex system, while Mythickin didn’t.
Selvaria, Fiona, Maria, Astra, and probably Scarlet, were all Mythickin, yet there was only one Legendkin, Anthony, that had been near her when she’d turned. Coincidence? If there was one thing she’d learned since she changed, there was no such thing as coincidence.
There was a convoluted network of competing interests that she was playing between, and Anthony had to be a part of that in some way. Why would he be the one close by that she would connect with unless she needed his Greater Seed?
Whatever the reason, they could work off each other to grow faster; a Myth and Legend were better unified than competing. And what if multiple Mythickin taking part in Quests multiplied the effect? If so, you only needed one Legend per group.
Resting her elbows against the stone barrier, she folded her fingers together and rested them against her nose, returning Conner’s stare; it was an interesting thought experiment, nonetheless, and Conner was the perfect candidate to test her theories before implementing them in Anthony’s Greater Seed. What if she could pull his Seed away at the end to feed Anthony? There was a question.
Nia’s pained giggle followed her internal ponderings. “I’m glad to see you are quite the schemer, Captain. I’m sorry I can’t be of further help… I can feel my mind slipping with every insufferable second Dionysus blows air.”
It will work out… I just need to get you a bit of medicine. It looks like it’s our time to roll again.
Teleported to the middle, Rachel snatched her die up without wasting any time and tossed it into the box. Conner did the same, seemingly not so amused about her previous performance with Nia, who shared a portion of her lunar connection to show two demigods in action.
A giant shark over twenty meters long appeared from the crowd, now a lot larger than his shrunken stand size. Water surged out of his gills, a low rumble from deep within its body shaking the stadium as it spoke in its weird language. The liquid twisted around the die to hold it like hands as Dionysus laughed and responded to the sea entity.
“Absolutely, Lord Neptius! Your home stadium would be a fantastic choice for a sea-based contest with the ever-shifting tides.”
The twenty-sided die swirled in the pool before being tossed lightly into the box, but Dionysus withheld his throw for a few more seconds while showing a thoughtful look. Yet again, the whimsical and insane lesser party god changed the rules again.
“I think we can all agree that, heh, while the effect these Unique Moons can have our sweet Lunar Hare, they can also bring… complications! We will give my champion a chance to show off his unique attributes before returning to the standard rules. What do you say, should we see how the Lunar Hare fares without the crutch of these moons?”
Rachel wasn’t surprised at the cheers the offer got. He’d pushed the first round as hard as it could go with her using the Blood Moon and had still been thwarted. She half believed Dionysus was close to outright trying to kill her, and after her next selection, she was sure he would be out for her tail.
“Then it is settled—ah-hah, twenty, and two… again?! Maybe you should cut off Moongmor’s foot to use as a good luck charm. Haha!”
Rachel’s wide field of vision saw the still-grieving rabbit jump in fright and grab his big bottom feet, Nia grunting at the comment.
“I can’t wait until he messes up and gets slapped by the System.”
Agreed.
Rachel waved her finger in the air with a dull cheer. “Wooh. You’re hilarious. Can we get on with it? I’m getting bored.”
Dionysus gave her a glare that said, ‘She was supposed to be entertaining him.’
Conner: 9
Rachel: 2
Dionysus: 20
Crowd: 18
Dionysus gave her a savage grin, likely thinking her slowly dissolving, anime-style military school uniform would be mostly dead by the time she could do anything about it with her super-enhanced selection for her second round.
“Unlike the first round, where one can select an item, the second is only reserved for Item Enhancement. So, Enhancement: Solar Gauntlets, Solar Skies… the gloves can bathe the atmosphere in a veil of solar rays that blot out the heavens for up to an hour, once a month.
Rachel pulled her now pink-hued, white braid over her shoulder to examine with a bored expression; she lived so rent-free in his mind with all the taunts. He wasn’t thinking about the future at all for Conner but trying to make him a direct counter to her. Sure, it worked, but Rachel wanted something that would last, and Nia was that.
The shark made a few grunts, watery pools spinning the display until settling on an underwater temple arena of some kind, showing a giant, muscular man in the background with a trident and making Conner beam with excitement as the lesser god introduced the battle stage.
“Location: the Dwendran Temple of Poseidon, in the golden pools my older brother sanctified! Truly a memorable place for a contest!”
Conner laughed and gave her a smirk. “Looks like you’re on monster duty again. Penalty: I can only use one leg for the entire match!”
Rachel didn’t feed into the hype, spinning the holographic options in a swift cycle without much emotion, making Nia laugh. “Monster: whatever it lands on.”
“Someone’s confident,” Conner hummed, studying her. “Aren’t you relying a bit too much on chance?”
She flashed her teeth as the selection landed on a Baby Kraken and made Conner force a laugh. “Chance is more than enough in this kind of challenge. I’d say good luck, but I’m sure you’ll wrestle down the not-so-baby squid on one leg well enough.”
Sent back to her booth to not draw more attention or love from the crowd due to her mouth, she kept her gaze on Conner. The stage was put into place, and while the earth was converted into water, her mind was pulled to Nike, near the corner of her vision.
This is such a strange competition. As competitors, we have to make sure our opponent survives to the end or we both lose. If that is the case, then Conner has to be on my side, even if his god goes against me, and I can use that divide. We actually have a lot of power over the Arbiter, and if I get the crowd on my side, then I can isolate him out.
Nia’s overcoat fell away, frayed completely through as it started on her tie and thigh-high stockings; soon, it would be her white dress shirt and skirt.
Hold on a bit longer, Nia. All you need is a little pick-me-up.
“Uh-huh…” Nia mumbled in a somewhat delirious state, growing weaker now that the virus was allowed to further gnaw at her spirit; the heat the outfit produced was now burning instead of warm and reassuring support. “I trust you, Rach… I-I mean, Captain…”
Call me Rach all you want, Lieutenant.
“Ma’am… I’d like some more socks. I like socks…”
Letting her ramble about various clothing items she liked to chew on, most of which she really had no idea what they tasted like, Rachel debated entering her internal world to assign her levels. Her gut told her the lesser god would do something to speed up Conner’s battle to attempt to trap her.
Nia’s delirious right now, and can’t keep watch of the match for me. Dionysus is already trying to punish me. I can’t tell how much time will pass, and if Conner’s enhanced powers are like my Blood Moon powers, I could miss the selection process. It would be better to maneuver myself in a way to level in the next round. If I play my cards right, Nia should be able to cover me while I do that… It’s still hard to wait…
A tad annoyed, she followed Conner’s battle, comforting herself that she did need to understand more about his powers and how he used them. He was good. Using one leg, he surfed on the golden liquid surrounding the stadium to manipulate it into weapons, cutting the towering behemoth of a baby kaiju into sushi.
Sure, it wasn’t easy for him, and he actually dodged the poisonous barbs the creature threw at him instead of tanking them like normal, but he could still make a show out of it. Solar-charged punches from his gloves left scorch marks on the sea creature’s body that seemed challenging for it to heal.
Ten minutes of showboating and displays of his strength, and it was on to her second round. She could have probably leveled up in that time, yet what she’d learned in Conner’s fight had been worth the delay. If she could upgrade her stats on her own turn, then she’d gained far more overall in the end.
Eostre’s arms were held anxiously against her chest, mumbling for the Legend to get it over with already throughout the fight to give her a shot at stopping the soul item’s worsening decay. The woman was really growing on Rachel, and even MoonMoon had his strengths.
Rachel’s fingers lingered on the fraying edges of her dress shirt, showing her toned belly as it crawled up to her chest. Almost all of her clothing was nearly gone to some extent now, but Nia was doing her best to retain her undergarments, stubbornly holding on.
It wasn’t the loss of the clothes themselves that tightened Rachel’s chest but what they represented. She’d gotten to know Nia, mentally chatting with the young woman, and while there were clear differences between them—such as her sense of fashion—the head-strong living denier was the closest girl she’d met to having her own interests.
Finally, she sighed, appearing in the center with Dionysus giving her ruined outfit a smug grin.
“Haha! Ladies and gentlemen and everything in-between, around, and without, what will our Lunar Hare do to save herself from becoming a nudist?”
Conner chuckled. “We should at least give her a chance, right? She needs all the help she can get at this point. Will luck be in her favor?”
Rachel returned the smirk to the lesser god, her boldly, gleaming eyes sparking doubt that made her heart soar as she reached out to grasp the die that appeared.
A beyond-handsome, golden-haired male angel appeared from the crowd, but she was wholly focused on the misfortune tightening around Dionysus’ throat; besides, if she’d learned one thing from all these unique moons she’d experienced thus far, she leaned a tad on the more infernal side of the spectrum.
She tossed it into Dionysus’ roll box as everyone else threw it at the same time; the lesser god frowned as her die struck his, bouncing off the edges before coming to a stop.
Conner: 2
Rachel: 20
Dionysus: 1
Crowd: 10
Lips curling as the bottom of her form-fitted bra began to show, Rachel spoke singular, deliberate words that made the display spin to the proper options, settling one that turned Dyonysus’ golden face white as snow. The stadium became deathly still as her words rang throughout the stands of lesser deities.
“Upgrade: Search. Mostly-dead Personifications. Symbol of Victory. Send an acceptance request to Nike to be infused into my soul item.”
Rachel’s gaze lifted to the tortured, naked young woman pinned to the column. Gagged by her own white hair, blinded, and hung in place by her very weapons with her torn-off wings stapled at her sides. All eyes settled on Dionysus’ proud trophy; a symbol of his unmitigated dominance among the lesser gods and over his intimidating eldest sister, Athena.
“Rachel…” Dionysus snarled, wine barrels bursting around the stadium in a bubbling rage, falling over the quivering personification as vines swarmed the arena. “If you—”
“If I what?” Rachel grinned, not feeling an ounce of the terrifying pressure the other lesser deities flinched at. “Hah. You’ll, what? Kill Eostre? Do you remember how that went last time?”
Dionysus’ vision fixated on Nike as a tremor ran down her lacerated body, and she lifted her head as if seeing something only visible to her.
“I will make sure you die if you do this, Rachel, and that will only be the begin—no!”
[Request Accepted]
“You planned this—what are you?!” Dionysus raged, face going red and vanishing to appear in front of Nike, fist plunging toward her chest, yet his hand was stopped millimeters before sinking into the woman’s ripped flesh. “This—damn System… This can’t be happening!”
Rachel could feel his mind slipping, pulling the noose tighter around his own throat as she licked her lips, relishing the tension of tempting a god; the angel next to her smiled, following their gaze.
“If you intend to save the Personification. I am inclined to approve of such an act of mercy. Though, she will not be of much use to you for some time in her ravaged state.”
Conner’s mouth was open in shock at the tantrum his lesser god was throwing while attempting to kill the Personification without effect, and Rachel’s lilting tone cut deep into the Greek god’s pride. The clock on her turn counted down, reaching thirty seconds.
“Hurry up and perform your duty, Arbiter. You wanted this job… So, do your job! Maybe, heh, you should give up the reins to Eostre. You could kill Nike then, right? Haha. I’m waiting, Arbiter! Your adoring fans are waiting! She accepted. Place Nike inside my living denier.”
Veins writhing under the lesser god’s skin, he snarled, fingers closing into a fist; Nike shimmered and condensed into a brilliant light. The infuriated man appeared before her in the blink of an eye, wearing a savage, manic smile while shoving the 5th-dimensional, dying Personification into her chest, infusing Nike’s divine soul into Nia.
“You… will die, heh-hehe—soon enough, Hare. You… are finished, whoever you really are under that false mortal skin you wear—hide your identity in that Seed, but I know you are something else! Hahaha.”
Rachel stumbled back and regained her balance, still wearing a tempting, impish smile as Nia’s life force surged back. Her outfit was restored in an array of golden light as the wounded Personification’s ichor flooded her living denier with purifying energy, burning away the impurities. She doubted Nike would stay forever, but there had to be something to gain for saving and harboring the powerful woman when she was down and needed assistance.
Conner was not liking the way his literally insane lesser god was now planning on both of them failing; he should have seen it coming with insanity being attached to his repertoire. The Legend stood silently, deep in thought on how to change the tone, because if she died, he died, along with this entire fractured multiverse.
“And just like that,” she laughed, “a penalty is void. Haha. Who’s next?”
“Ah, that would be me,” the golden-haired angel replied, showing a radiant smile. “I have become a fan. Penalty. You cannot use Nike in this competition. Let her rest.”
Rachel nodded. “Reasonable.”
Nia emerged from twinkling lights to stand beside her with a triumphant grin, a hand on her hip, and staring the lesser god down. “I’m back, you sadistic bitch, and I’ve got the lady wrapped up and tucked into bed with a nice cup of tea.”
Dionysus’ smile personified the insanity that lay underneath the party facade. “You… will regret that decision… dearly.”
Nia snickered and pointed at the angel that drew the lesser god’s ire, showing a serene cadence. “Aww, why the long face; did we steal your girl, or did you just run out of wine to jerk off to? How can heaven hurt like Hell? Tragic!”
Rachel pointed up at the clock as it counted down for Conner. “I understand the distance from your idol is bittersweet, but it’s not so bad. C’mon, no one likes a party pooper.”
