Tale of Discovery

Chapter 110: Destruction ; Divinity

As I'm floating above the rocky grounds, I look at Loki who's also floating.

He is presently watching the fight unfold with confidence all over his face.

That's understandable in a sense, as it's normal for any being to be ignorant of the strength of others.

Rias and her peerage are no longer what they used to be. Having been under a constant barrage of attacks daily, they've improved in a lot of ways.

This is going to be something like a test for them. I won't be using my Paladin's Aura on them. Hopefully, they will improve even further from this.

"You're not going to struggle?" Loki's voice suddenly reaches my ears.

Looking into his eyes, I shrug and say,

"Why should I?"

He seems to find my words amusing as he chuckles and replies,

"It doesn't matter even if you did. There is nothing that you can do."

Isn't he a little too confident?

"What are you acting all high and mighty for?" I say with a scowl, "You're just a god."

---3rd POV---

"Projection!", the voice of a young girl resounds as a sword made of light appears in her hand.

Flapping all six of her wings, the young girl, Aruru, dashes at the Midgard Serpent that's preparing for the oncoming assault.

As soon as Aruru is close enough, the giant serpent moves its huge body to the side and strikes her with its teeth.

However, as soon as it closes its mouth, Aruru seems to turn into motes of light before, the next moment, her voice resounds behind the confused serpent,

"Retribution!"

The Midgard Serpent is unable to react in time as dozens of light-swords pierce through its body.

A cry of anguish escapes from the suffering serpent.

Unfazed by its cries, Aruru laughs happily before two more light-swords in each of her hands.

Then, she flies to the serpent's head and pierces its head using the swords.

Aruru's body begins to glow as a high amount of energy gets channeled through her arms into the serpent's head.

In response to this, the Midgard Serpent begins to flail around as an attempt to throw Aruru down.

However, Aruru is unaffected by its actions as she excitedly pushes the swords deeper into its head.

--

Quite a distance away from the Midgard Serpent and Aruru, a wail resounds as Skol gets slammed into the ground by Koneko.

To its right, Akeno raises her arm before materializing lightening and slamming it into Skol.

A much more anguished wail resounds this time, causing Hati who's fighting against Rias and Sona to turn its head and dash over to where Skol is.

However, the next moment, a sword appears and pierces its leg.

This causes Hati to lose its balance and fall on to the ground.

After this, Kiba appears and advances toward Hati while sedately saying,

"You're not going anywhere."

In response to those words, the mythical beast observes the one who uttered them for a few seconds before howling.

Kiba is unaffected by its howl as he exclaims,

"President, Lady Sona! I will assist you guys over here."

"What about the other one?" Rias immediately questions.

"I don't think that they need any more help to deal with it," Kiba comments wryly.

Sensing something strange in the way he put it, Rias looks over to where the other mythical beast is.

What meets her sight is a barely alive Skol lying on the ground while constantly being attacked by both magical attacks and direct ones.

Not sure about to feel regarding this, Rias lets her eyes wander to where Fenrir is battling with Rossweisse.

From the looks of it, Rossweisse and Fenrir are both evenly matched.

Naturally, Rossweisse has the advantage when it comes to speed and position, due to her being able to sleep.

Even so, Fenrir's strength and endurance make up for it.

---1st POV---

Gift:

-Regeneration

-Immortality

-Insight

As nearly 10 minutes have passed, I appear beside Rossweisse and renew her abilities.

Then, I appear back at where I was, peacefully floating beside Loki whose expression has darkened a lot.

"You sure have some strong children," I remark, "They were able to last so long..."

To the end of my sentence, Loki's complexion darkens much more before he says,

"I've had enough of this."

Loki raises his arm and seems like he wants to do something, but before he can do so, I pull out one of the needles in my ring and imbue it with Destruction.

Then, I don't was a single moment as I use telekinesis to launch it in Loki's direction while making sure to enhance its vectors.

The needle gets lodged into Loki's raised arm, making him realize that something is wrong, however, before he can react, the Destruction energy spreads through his arm and pulverizes it.

I take this chance to utilize Godspeed and Holy Slash.

Sending a few slashes that 'miss' Loki, I make use of my abnormal speed to appear in front of Loki and kick his chest while mixing Destruction and Holy energies into the kick.

This results in Loki launching into the distance as all three of his remaining limbs explode into chunks of flesh before his body crashes into the ground.

Appearing before what once was a proud god, I examine the state of his body.

This is interesting. His limbless body is lying on the ground as his chest is torn open, revealing an orb that seems to be changing color from golden to silver, then back to golden.

Whenever I attempted to examine Loki's body before, something would block my perception.

That was also the case with Odin, so I assumed that their bodies are compromised of a different structure compared to 'lower' creatures.

And so, I had decided to make complete use of my powers in order to make Loki gets taken down without much difficulty.

I didn't expect that whatever it was that was blocking my perception was just an outer layer of energy formed from a core in his body.

At least, that's what it seems like.

Irene, do you know what this orb inside him is?

{Analysis of the data acquired from Father's fragment indicates that this orb is similar to a Code.}

{The main differences are that Codes have no physical form and can only be utilized as conceptual weaponry.}

So, this is like an artificial Code?

{Almost. The way it is, the orb should be majorly affecting the way the owner behaves the same way Codes do. However, it is much harder to keep it under control compared to a Code.}

{Humans seem to have termed this phenomenon as 'divinity'.}

Do you have any idea how it was formed?

{This could be a result of a creature forcefully attempting to evolve into a higher state and in turn, losing its soul, or a higher being specifically creating them.}

So, what do I do with this guy?

{Father could absorb the object, which will physically erase the entity itself.}

The Mjlnir was supposed to be transferred over and make use of it to seal this guy, right?

I'm sure it will be problematic if I kill him off, so it's not going to be worth it if the merits of doing so don't balance out the demerits.

{Upon absorption, Father could procure some knowledge and powers of the individual identified as 'Loki'.}

Alright, that settles it. How do I absorb it?

{Father simply needs to hold the orb.}

Doing as she instructed me to, I feel a weird sensation on my palm. It's like the orb is both cold and warm concurrently.

It doesn't take long before it 'melts' into my palm before AI's voice resounds within my head,

{Acquired: Norse Magic.}

Unfortunately, it seems like I won't be receiving much knowledge this time. Either that or it takes time for the information to appear.

Leaving that aside, I intone,

"Codification."

----------------

Name: Haruka Kasuganou (Victor -)

True Name: ????

Title: -SEALED-

Age: 8,953 Years

Code: Exousia (2%) {Berserk | Mahesvara | Holy | ????}

Race: Human - 35%>>32%

Energy Left: 89%

------

Str: 69>>72 (15) | Agi: 68>>69 (15) | Dex: 68>>69 (15)

Int: 63>>71 (15) | Def: 60>>65 (15) | Vit: 62>>64 (15)

------

Essence :-

Berserk: Hunter (1/3) | Tormentor (1/2) | God's Wrath (1/5)

Mahesvara: Creation (4%) | Destruction (2%) | Angelification (??)

Holy:

Holy Slash II [V] -|- Paladin's Aura I [V] -|- Paragon's Eyes I [III] -|- Godspeed III [V] -|- Blink II [III] -|- Light Manipulation IV [VI] -|- Healing Factor II [III] -|- Transmutation -|- Divine Retribution I [V] -|- Clairvoyance (Passive) II [III] -|- Illusion II [III] -|- Rework I [III] -|- ???? -|- ???? -|- ???? -|- ???? -|- ???? -|- ???? -|- ????

----------------

Plunder III [V]:-

--- Primary Ability (1/1) ----

- Telekinesis III [V]

--- Secondary Abilities (5/5) ---

Permeation I [III] -|- Location I [III] -|- Hypnotism I [V] -|- Indoctrination I [III] -|- Pyrokinesis

--- Tertiary Abilities () ---

Spiritualism I [IV] -|- Insight I [VI] -|- Collapse (0%) -|- Thoughtography (1%)

--- Irregular (6/?) ---

Flight I [III] -|- Memory Erasure I [IV] -|- Imperfect Invisibility I [X] -|- Time-Leap (?) -|- Ability Erasure (2%) -|- Gift II [V] -|- Organic Constructs (1%) -|- Regeneration I [V] -|- Absolute Evasion (1%) -|- Vector Manipulation (7%)

--- Unassigned ---

--

Power of Destruction (Lesser - 0%)

Immortality

Boosted Gear:-

Dragon Roar (0%) -|- Scale Mail (0%) -|- Draconic Form (0%)

----------------

Norse Magic I [X]:-

Teleportation I [V] -|- Curse of Regret I [III] -|- Curse of Memories I [V] -|- Curse of Solitary I [III] -|- Curse of Damnation I [IV] -|- Summoning I [VII]

----------------

Current Platform: N/A

----------------

Looking at the increase in my status, I'm stunned by how much has changed. That's especially so for Intelligence.

No matter what trouble that may come my way, this increase in my parameters is worth it.

Not to mention the brand new Norse Magic.

It's unfortunate that like Plunder, I'm unable to access the descriptions of the abilities listed.

Nevertheless, I could just have someone 'help' me figure them out.

Leaving that aside, it seems like my humanity has decreased once again. This time, it surely has something to do with the orb that I just absorbed.

What I make of it is the more of these things I absorb, the more I lose my humanity.

"Lord Loki..." a voice suddenly resounds behind me.

Turning around, I am met with the sight of Rossweisse who has a look on her face that suggests she can't believe what she's seeing.

"Rossweisse," I say in a friendly manner, "It seems like you've succeeded in defeating Fenrir."

I don't wait for her response as I make use of Clairvoyance to check the state of the battlefield.

Over at Aruru's side, I find her sitting on the ground with a bored expression on her face with no giant serpent body anywhere nearby, which is strange.

Checking over Rias and the rests' state, I find them resting near two worn-out giant wolf cubs.

Hati and Skol both seem to be sealed by demonic magic.

What's interesting is Fenrir is in a similar state, however, the seal on Fenrir is fundamentally different compared to the ones on Hati and Skol.

Turning my attention back to Rossweisse, I say,

"Good job."

Rossweisse who seemed like she was in a stupor a second ago shakes her head and says,

"Where is Lord Loki?"

Okay, this is important. Whatever I tell her will greatly influence the way things will play out in the future. Here goes nothing,

"I'm sorry to say that he was weaker than I expected, so I accidentally destroyed him."