Fight on the ground was equal.
Grim Reaper, while smaller in numbers and with worse quality armor and weapons, each one was at least initial High-Class. On the contrary, the soldiers of the Empire were more numerical and were clad in the best runic armor and had the best runic weaponry. This made the fight between the two armies relatively slow. Still, soon enough, forces of the Imperialis Militarum were getting the upper hand, especially after Executors from the Execution Temple and Mech Controllers from Mechanicum made their move.
Meanwhile, Hela was having a brutal clash with Hades, resulting in her getting injured rather seriously, but she was healing very fast, thanks to the Phenex Tears she had at her disposal.
Hades wasn’t in a much better state. While Class-wise, he was stronger than Hela and had far higher Divine Power than her, but his usage was absolutely crude and barbaric. It reminded her of her own before her husband started teaching her. And Hades’s combat experience was non-existent. He wasn’t a fighter or warrior; he was the typical ruler.
But what made things complicated was his Skeletal Staff, which amplified his attacks, sped up his regeneration of Divine Power tremendously, and gave him many other passive abilities, which essentially made him a very hard opponent to fight despite the fact that he fought terribly.
‘That Staff seems to be connected to the Underworld itself… meaning he used Command Sequence Part for it.’
Thought Hela as she watched Hades once again using the Skeletal Staff to replenish his Divine Power in a split of a second at tremendous speed.
Hades once again gathered his Divine Power to send another attack on Hela, to which she quickly vanished from her previous position and reappeared near Hades, striking him down with her Necroswords, which he blocked with his Skeletal Staff, but was blown away several tens of meters.
‘I need to sever the connection between him and his Staff. It would probably be best to destroy that, but that is nigh impossible, as it holds part of the Underworld Command Sequence. Wait… I can seal it; Zeo taught me a few sealing spells, so that would do the job okay.’
Thought Hela in her head as she attacked Hades, not giving him any time to attack her with more spells. In the meantime, she had already prepared the Sealing Spell that targeted the Skeletal Staff.
This sealing spell sealed objects in a separate sealed pocket dimension. Before Hades could react, Hela smashed Magic Seal onto his Skeletal Staff, which disappeared into nothingness as was sealed in a separate pocket dimension and its connection with Hades was instantly severed, which totally enraged the God of the Underworld.
She slashed at Hades with her Necrosword, to which he created a defensive shield, but it was destroyed upon one slash, as it shattered into countless crystals, and the second slash severed his left hand to which he roared in pain.
She then kicked him in the chest, and enveloping her Necroswords, she stabbed them into his body, corroding it with her Power of Death.
Now that Hades lost his Skeletal Staff, which contained part of the Command Sequence of the Underworld, he lost every advantage he had against Hela as she began slowly overpowering him, as he struggled and screamed in anger, until he went totally silent and she sealed him, leaving him half dead.
While it was confirmed that the part of the Command Sequence of the Underworld was formally tied to the Skeletal Staff, but only till the point he was alive. If he died, the Command Sequence of the Underworld would return to the source, and she didn’t know how to extract it properly.
***
While Hela was fighting Hades, I was having my clash with Thanatos.
He was a really problematic person to deal with.
It was clear that he had already started touching the Laws of Death, maybe even at a higher rate than Hades himself. Not to mention he was a more experienced combatant, and he had the innate ability to turn his body incorporeal in the form of pure Death Energy, so it was rather hard to harm him.
Thanatos was a close-ranged combatant who used a scythe as his preferred weapon, same for me, so I needed to keep him out of my zone. Clashing with someone so skilled in scythe master would be suicide, as I could feel the faint presence of a weapon intent on his scythe. As I already reached Master-ranked mastery, I could distinguish weapon intent, even though I could not use it.
[Chains of Heaven Style: Enkidu Full Counter]I cast the ultimate form of the Dark Light – Chains of Heaven Style, as tens of Dark Light Chains materialized around me, with speartips on the end of each chain, as they attacked the corporeal form of Thanatos.
While he was fast, my chains were faster, and they were more numerous; after several seconds, several of them had already pierced through his corporeal body, and Dark Light started corroding his body at a fast speed.
I saw that he attempted to free himself, so I used my newest Clan Trait, Holy Flame, as suddenly all chains lit up on fire, as Holy Flame burned bright and strong, as it started burning down the corporeal form of Thanatos, until he was forced to reverse his form and return to his humanoid form.
Thanatos started using his last Divine Power to boost up his regeneration, to which I increased the output of the Dark Light and Holy Flame, completely destroying his Divine Body until only his Divine Spark remained, which I stored in my dimensional storage.
Before anything else, I cast another spell that sealed the soul of Thanatos that was exhausted and attempted to flee to the deeper parts of the Underworld in the Agreas Crystal.
This signified the end of the Greater God of Death, Thanatos.
“This would be a great gift for Hela. With these gains, she would reach Mighty Stage God in no time.”
I muttered to myself as I watched Grim Reapers being slaughtered mercilessly by the forces of Baator.
