Achilles walked through the pink magic, making his way to Nattie. Many of the others attacked fiercely, but the weapons clanged against a barrier.
[Alice activated Hellbreaker’s special. Special Tier skill: Hades’s Silent Night.]
[Fuyoko activated Silver tier skill: Stone Dragon’s Rush.]
[Noona activated Double Silver tier skill: Glimmer of Rapid Fading.]
[Tier activated Modified Silver tier skill: Reverse Dire Spiral.]
[Harumi activated Silver tier skill: Mass Sharpness and Magic Up.]
[The entire party’s Attack, Special, Will, and Intellect had been temporarily increased!]
In addition to her own magic blasting back to her, Alice felt the intense pain of induced magical backlash. Everyone, even those focused on physical attacks or charging their next skill, was instead blown to their backs.
“Do you understand now?” Achilles said. “There is a reason why worms and ants such as yourselves do not challenge the gods. We are beyond you, mortals. Even entities are powerless against us. We are forces of nature, even if you don’t enjoy the darkness. You fight a pointless fight.”
Alice and the others struggled to stand, readying their weapons.
[Achilles has blocked Harumi’s healing abilities with his thick cloud of black Ki.]
[Warning! Your party is in danger of getting wiped.]
“A pointless fight,” Alice said. “I suppose you could say that, seeing that you are the one that picked it.”
“That may be so,” Achilles said, “but that is irrelevant to what’s about to become of you. What you’ll face for an eternity. Your leader’s soul is probably waiting for me to collect. Hmm, I think I’ll make you watch me break him for about fifty years, over and over, restoring and refreshing. In fact, you’ll watch while taking in the whole one hundred yards from the giant demons that roam my hell.” He laughed. “The two male whelps will probably be turned into something amusing. Maybe women to endure the same fate.”
Alice tuned out his taunting, refusing to let it get to her. She desperately begged for the power locked within to show itself. Nothing happened. The wall felt like steel.
Suddenly, Alice saw Melody charge the dark god, putting forth her best effort, wielding a sword made out of her own magic. Everyone else followed her lead, even Undine. Nerfed from the conversion to the light, the reaperess was still incredibly powerful.
They…were simply outmatched by a dark god. No…for Clyde, Alice would give it her all. She thought of her mother, Natalia, Tear, and the others. Even if everything seemed hopeless, they still needed her full strength. She…can’t go down! Not Alice Hades.
Alice smashed through the insolent wall that separated her from the well of growth.
Her pink eyes became golden as she fell to a knee, aura surrounding the young woman, matching the color of her irises. Wings burst from Alice’s back.
[Alice invoked Partial-goddess mode .]
[Alice invoked Archangel mode]
[Half archangel, half goddess.]
[Alice’s heavenly pressure has cleansed all taint.]
[Alice’s heavenly pressure has fully healed all allies, removed all status alignments, and doubled their stats for ten minutes.]
[All damage toward Alice is reduced by 80%]
[Achilles’ dark god passive has overridden the damage shield …]
The brightness of Alice’s aura covered the entire room. A heavenly chorus rang as the young woman’s hands seemed to move on their own, gathering purity. One shot to kill him. All it would take is one. And Alice’s attack would do more than succeed. She felt fully confident that it would erase him for good.
Suddenly, she felt intense pain and black Ki smash at her. The backward shove to the ground only hurt a little. Just a little.
“I can’t let you do that,” Achilles said, frowning. He gave her a grudging clap. “Excellent. You’ve got a secret weapon, but even that wouldn’t be enough.”
“White Ki’s your weakness, isn’t it,” Alice said. Even wielding the most powerful element, gods held onto some cheat. Well fuck that.
Alice hopped to her feet and rushed the cocky bastard of a dark god, putting everything she had into her sword strikes. Achilles blocked with his bare hands.
“Go Alice, go!” Natalia cheered.
Pushing harder than ever, the young woman bypassed her best speeds, surpassing sound. Purity danced around her…yet something was off.
Maintaining this state without knowing much about it, without practice. Alice found herself breathing harder, concentrating heavily just to keep the form active. The drive to keep everyone from succumbing to Achilles’ Hell urged her to try harder.
Yet, even with her incredible power, she couldn’t press for an advantage. She did her best, but it simply wasn’t enough.
A surprise black Ki-coated spin-kick from the dark god, hurdled the young woman to the ground.
[Alice is stunned.]
“I commend you for the efforts, girl, ” Achilles said, charging an enormous about of black Ki into his hands. “But they are still futile. Now, die.”
< Achilles channeled Mechanism of the Dark God’s Core. This is an unblockable and undodgable skill .>
Alice closed her eyes…
“Clyde…I really tried.”
A hand rested on her shoulder.
“You’ve done well. Now leave the rest to me .”
**
Pulled toward the endless dark… Whispers and laughter and crying…
Confronting an internal past, only to shove it forcibly to the side to focus on the present… A glimpse at her teary expression as she closed her eyes.
She needed him. They needed him. HE CANNOT FAIL THEM. HE WILL NOT FAIL THEM.
His HP remained at one percent, until…her heavenly aura infused with him. She pushed herself so far.
He will push even further. And the one that hurt her will truly pay. He will pay.
A surge of rage burst through him, which turned into calm, understanding, calculation, foresight, knowledge, cold and ruthlessness, and the desire to protect.
Clyde became the law.
As time and space merged with him, black, red, and gold heavenly-light surrounded the god in a terrifying aura. His power could be felt trillions of lifetimes away, across the multiverses, and even into the microscopic planes. The world shook as it broke.
One gold angel wing, one black devil wing. Electricity emitted from those wings. A halo of black, red, silver, and gold hovered above his head, emitting golden heavenly-light. His black hair rose a bit. Tree of life tattoos glowed across his muscular body. Two fangs blended in with his teeth—almost serving as an indicator that the young man was something else entirely.
A whisper echoed throughout Celestial and it even reached the authors of Purity and Taint, drew in their gazes. And they smiled wickedly.
[You are awakening… ]
Clyde stood, his body lighter, one with power that should not be present in the plane of the living.
[Awakened Stone Mode .]
[While in this state, you can command the Punishment Squad ….]
[Warning! From now on, while in Stone Mode, your rewards and EXP will be dramatically reduced. So use this state ONLY when you need it. You will need those levels to fight your counterpart or anything else more deadly…]
[Stone Mode benefits: All stats SUPREMELY increased. Damaged to you drastically reduced. You have been removed from the leveling system.]
[Many, many unknown increases and benefits. You will have to discover the full capabilities of Awakened Stone Mode. You’re not invincible in this state, so do not get arrogant. That’s how some of the strongest gods got their backs stabbed by peers.]
No one noticed him as he walked over to place his hand on Alice’s shoulder. That was because if he didn’t want them to sense his presence, the world bent to that will.
“You’ve done well. Now lea
ve the rest to me .”
[Your party has entered a * GOD BOSS fight phase 2]
Achilles flinched, stepping backward.
“Where the hell did you come from? Who…are you?”
“ The law ,” Clyde responded, his voice godly.
Achilles laughed darkly.
“We’ll see about that.”
Achilles lurched toward Clyde and it felt like slow motion. The young man left a spiritual trail as he stepped around the dark god, and then to his backside.
“He disappeared,” Achilles said.
“So the movies were right,” Clyde said. He intended to tap on Achilles’ shoulder, but the moment his finger got within touching range of him, a flicker of light emitted between the contact points.
That spiraled Achilles a literal one million miles an hour into the wall, through the wall, and to land outside, several meters into a crater.
Clyde looked at his friends. Naoko, Undine, Kanako, Noona, and Neko were bowing.
“Don’t start that,” Clyde said, “I’m still me. And thanks to you, thanks to the training, I can use this form again. It doesn’t come without a price, but we’ll talk about that later.”
[Achilles’ HP dropped drastically.]
Clyde’s friends hurried outside the long way, except for the winged, who followed him through the roof. Undine and Kanako could fly without wings. Nina…turned into a bat. Yusuke, the hellhounds, Naoko, Noona, Neko, Harumi, Yuki and Airi leapt from the third floor to the ground with the greatest of ease, their bodies immune to the dangers. Natalia caught a ride on Melody’s back.
Achilles picked himself up, shaking his heel as if it were in pain. He snarled, furious. Suddenly, the dark god GREW until he stood about forty feet tall. Black Ki radiated from him in bands.
Clyde landed, shaking his head.
“You know the growing thing never works.”
He aimed a wing at the Achilles as a fist rushed toward him.
>>>>Clyde initiated Lost Skill: Purity Shot<<<<
That was supposed to be Holy Energy Ball.
Yet…he fired a pure ball of purity from his fucking wing.
Achilles’ hand exploded into pink mist. He involuntarily shrunk, yelling in agony.
[Achilles’ regeneration was disabled.]
Clyde teleported in front of the dark god, backhanding him upward. And he became a rocket! The god teleported fifty miles above Achilles, hand aimed downward, timing his demise.
>>>>Clyde initiated Lost Skill: The God’s Beating Heart of the Multiverse. This is an instant-kill skill and cannot be blocked .<<<<
Another evolution.
[Fortunately, you are high enough in altitude as to not to destroy the entire planet…]
Clyde thought it was purity, but what emerged….he suspected had to be white Ki. The skyscraper-sized blast of purity bathed Achilles until every inch of his existence faded. The young man willed the rogue power to dissipate before it reached land. Heh, to think he aimed at the horn in attempt to follow Matsuko’s advice. Ah well.
There was…an applause from nothingness. The young man wanted to be angry, but figured confronting them face to face would be best. He silently made the vow.
[DRAMATIC FINISH !]
Oh shut the hell up, System , Clyde laughed as he flew back to the others.
[Battle completed. Fantastical Victory! Rewards reduced to account for Stone Mode. Reward: 10 million EXP instead of 200 million. Out of pity, the system rewards you with the item: Depleted Omen’s sphere! Item class: *Legendary .]
An item toward the weakening of Natalia’s curse. Hell yes! Finding one of these was next to impossible, but that turned out to be one less question to ask. Two more of the items left to find and the loli would be able to hang onto her adult form for maybe longer than a day. Maybe they could cure the curse in its weakened state.
Clyde’s friends waved as he approached the ground.
[Life’s breath passive skill had healed all the maidens in the area, breaking the spells on their minds.]
[Congratulations, thanks to you, these women can return to their families. Fortunately, they all live in this city, so no further action is needed.]
[Life’s breath . While in Stone Mode, your presence will begin to heal those that need it in the area.]
Alice, Melody, and Chika anime-dove into the young man, hugging tightly. He let the transformation deactivate, but felt no sign of the strain whatsoever. Naoko and Neko nodded at him.
“Nyyyaa, that’s our Stone!”
[Quest: Show the Falcon why he should fear the Stone. Reward: unknown. Accept?]
Clyde gleefully selected yes. Paying that bastard back was going to feel amazing. He turned…his eyes widening. That flame sword samurai was still alive, but walking away. The man actually raised a sword, almost in salute. Like Kevin…he seemed to be done with the shrine. What the hell…
Without their master, what would become of the remaining riders? Clyde was sure as shit glad that Barbanos bit the dust at least. Dickhead Dullahan.
Volume 11 Epilogue
That night…
Clyde watched the sleeping faces of his fiancées that crammed in his hotel bed. Well, beds. They ended up pushing two of them together.
He kissed his sleeping life mate, then spread the love to the others, except Natalia. The loli received a forehead kiss and a ruffle of her hair. She peacefully snuggled into Tear’s breasts.
The young man carefully opened the door and stepped out into the hall. Eventually sleep would come to him…Maybe
Halfway down the hall, Clyde met Ming.
“Can’t sleep?” she said, beating him to the words.
“Something like that,” Clyde said, looking at her.
The duo headed into a luxurious high-tech recreational room, devoid of other people. It turned out a lot less people watched TV at one in the morning. Then again, his team and exhaustion were one and the same.
Quite the comfortable couch, he thought as they sat.
Clyde took notice of a sitting woman on the other side of the room, staring ahead. No…it wasn’t a woman—Airi explained them earlier. She was an android powered off.
“So what do you want…you know from the wager,” Ming said.
Clyde chuckled.
“Now that I’m on the spot, it’s—”
Ming crawled into his lap for a straddle and kissed the young man.
“I know it’s selfish, but I want to take my part of the wager anyway.”
“If you insist on being that way, I’ll have to punish you,” Clyde said playfully, then returned the kiss. The passion quickly intensified into sex. The young man almost released, gently sliding into Ming’s tightness, sucking her breasts during the bounce.
She quivered, her breathing switching between husky, nervous, and deep. Hugging onto him during the ride, she let out moans that surprised herself. The cuteness urged Clyde to lay it into her harder.
He pulled out during the climax and something caught his eye. The android’s position was slightly changed. Normal people wouldn’t have noticed, but the young man’s paranoia stat seemed to be at the right place to spot the discrepancy.
[Ki increased, Ming!]
[Congratulations, you have met the requirements for the Ki skill, Area Sense level 1.]
[Your relationship with Ming has increased to Friend, closer level 10.]
[You have met the requirements to rank up your prophet further! The next step will be to propose to her. Focus on unlocking her new abilities for now. Ta-ta!]
The second he and Ming were dressed, Clyde heard just a barely audible creak. The android’s sitting position was angled slightly toward them.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Clyde whispered. “That Android’s supposed to be off, right? I think she watched…”
Ming blushed brightly. They hurried out of the room together.
**
Lot City, Yaponiya…
Afternoon…
Arch Priestess Ichiko and
the high priestesses, Megu, Emi, Jae, and Yumi struggled against HER. An encounter in the middle of the street sparked them to defend this city from the evil empress. If only they could inflict some damage!
The Supreme Demon Lord tilted her head.
“You know, I thought letting you fire off some weak magical blasts would help you to blow off some steam so we could talk like civilized adults, but I’m thinking you may need extra persuasion.” She licked her lips.
“My body and soul belongs to the Stone,” Ichiko said. “If you dare touch me, he’ll kill you.”
The Supreme laughed. Ichiko frowned. Even her laugh was beautiful, an angelic chime. So much power, yet she didn’t attack. The Maidens, despite all of their power and training, were just toys to the empress.
“If we can’t take her down, then we’d fail the Stone,” Yumi said, charging her Sonic magic. Magic that normally blew enemies to pieces.
The Supreme shook her head.
“As long as I pose no threat to the city or its citizens, the Stone will never know I’m here. You see me as an enemy through the cloud of stereotypes. I will give you one word of advice. Open your mind. Activate your senses. Have you noticed a red aura of hostility, even once? Not even the most deceptive people can hide themselves from a good analysis. Well… A good rogue can avoid it for a short time, but they’re masters of surprise, so they don’t count.”
The Anime Trope System: Stone vs. Viper, #11 a LitRPG [Alice Edition] (ATS) Page 21