Chapter 175
“Everyone, let’s work together! We have no chance of winning if we each fight him on our own! Ganymedes, put me on top of the sheep brat! Tauros, you come too!”
“It’s Taurus . ”
After Aquarius shouted that, Taurus got on top of Aries as per her instructions .
Furthermore, Ganymedes also jumped onto Aries’s back all the while holding onto Aquarius . This action was replicated by the Three Winged Knights .
Phoenix and Hydrus, who were unable to get onto Aries themselves due to their sizes, each stood to either side of him and then stared back at the ouroboros .
“Alright, listen up, everyone . It’s vexing, but that b.a.s.t.a.r.d’s leagues above us . If we challenge it without coordinating our movements, we don’t stand a chance . Fortunately for us, we have a way of fighting against him . The little girl’s (Virgo) Vindemiatrix is…”
「Giga Graviton Rapid Fire! 」[2]
Aquarius tried to convey a strategy to her allies, but the ouroboros they were facing was not a naïve enemy who would leisurely wait whilst the enemy had a conversation mid-battle .
It started firing barrages of gravity bullets without holding back, causing Aries to run around desperately trying to avoid them .
Each shot was not as strong as the Tera Graviton which had knocked Leon down earlier .
Nevertheless, in exchange for the decrease in power, the interval between each individual shot was shortened to the point where it looked like a machine gun . The whole spectacle of the gravity bullets gouging into the earth and making the planet full of holes almost looked hilarious .
It looked just as if b.a.l.l.s of dirt were gradually being scooped away, bit by bit, using a spoon .
In any event, even after the might of the individual shots were weakened, those gravity bullets were still a threat for Aries and the rest .
Now that Ruphas had completely regained her powers, their levels were at level 1000 . Inevitably, their defence and HP had increased .
Yet, even then, they were likely to become unable to move if they were hit by just three of them .
“You piece of s.h.i.t! Can’t you wait while we’re having a strategic meeting!?”
「Like I care! 」
Aquarius jeered at the Earth Ouroboros, but it was pointless .
She then clicked her tongue and continued what she had been saying before .
“Anyways, our little girl here can negate that guy’s attacks a bit, combining that with my skill, we can avoid his attacks as long as it’s not an area-of-effect skill . The only one who can penetrate through his defence is Tauros . Whilst the only thing that did any damage to him was the sheep’s flames . ”
“It’s Taurus . It’s about time you start remembering my name properly . ”
“I’ll be on evasion duty, while the little girl’s on defence . Tauros and the sheep will be on offence . The grilled bird and the blue snake, you two will act as support . ”
“I’m an Immortal Bird!”
“It’s Water Snake!”
“… I don’t even know what to say anymore . ”
Although Aquarius herself thought that she was giving orders earnestly, her disposition of being unable to remember people’s names caused her orders to come across as a bit weird .
Nevertheless, the instructions that she gave were very precise . If everyone got on top of Aries, then they would only need to put in minimal effort towards defence and evasion .
The attacks aimed towards Aries would be redirected by Aquarius’s skills and the attacks which could not be avoided would be negated by Virgo .
The opponent’s defence would be shattered by Taurus and Aries would ultimately be the one dealing damage .
If Phoenix, Hydrus and the Three Winged Knights were able to provide support and distract the enemy’s attention, it would be perfect .
The enemy was someone who could defeat even Leon with a single hit . There would be no chance of winning if they fought separately in their own accord .
If everyone did not work together, there was no way they could win .
“Let’s go… [Sadachbia]! Charge in, sheep!”
After receiving the absolute evasion buff from Aquarius, Aries fired flames from his hooves and ran in the air .
In response, the ouroboros opened its mouth once again and continuously fired more gravity bullets .
But all of the shots were automatically redirected from Aries and could not even scratch him .
By the time the ouroboros understood that what was happening was due to the effect of a skill, Aries had already gotten right in front of its face and Taurus was swinging his axe down on its head .
With a single blow of Aldebaran, the repulsion force field was shattered, allowing Aries’s flames to directly connect .
Subsequently, Aries slid by the ouroboros and created some distance before he changed direction and charged in once more .
「Impudent… 」
The Earth Ouroboros muttered in annoyance and fired gravity bullets once again .
But the ones that were fired this time were different from before, as they started pulling in everything from their surroundings .
The ones that had been fired before could be described as a form of “heavy pressure” . It was a skill to crush an enemy down using gravity .
In contrast, the ones fired this time were based on “attraction” . It was a skill that pulled everything in its surroundings towards it and could not be evaded .
In other words, this was one form of an absolute accuracy skill .
“Did you a.s.sume that you can ignore my skills just by using absolute accuracy skills!? Don’t look down on me! Skill, [The One Who Swallows (Albali)]!”[3]
Ganymedes positioned the water pitcher and the figure of a little girl disappeared into it .
At the same time, she sucked the gravity shot towards herself . Despite the difference in size, it was swallowed by the water pitcher .
– Reflect!
Of all things that could have happened, the gravity shot hit the Earth Ouroboros . This successfully caused his movement to momentarily stop .
At that moment, Aries charged in to attack, unleashing the G.o.d-slaying flames on it once again .
「…!」
“Did you think that sucking things in is exclusive to you? You’re too naïve!”
The Earth Ouroboros did not respond to her with words, but instead increased the gravitational effect of the entire place .
With this, evasion was impossible and it also could not be sucked away like before .
However, this effect was negated by Virgo’s skill, giving Aries a small opening to charge in again .
Taurus shattered the repulsion force field, Aries burned the ouroboros and the other members applied further pressure .
“Now! Aim at the spot where its scales got burned!”
“Got it! Let’s go, Hydrus!”
“Alright!”
After receiving instructions from Aquarius, Phoenix and Hydrus opened their mouths .
They then correspondingly and rapidly fired shots of flame or water one after another, concentrating at the particular spot that Aries had scorched .
Furthermore, the Three Winged Knights, Pavo, Apus and Corvus, aimed and shot their attacks at the eyeball of the ouroboros, creating a smoke screen to block its vision .
As an ouroboros, even its eyeb.a.l.l.s were strong beyond all common sense, but nevertheless, it was still enough to hinder its vision for a brief period of time .
In that duration, Aries pa.s.sed by Leon, allowing Virgo to use healing skills on him .
Because Leon had been hit by the area-of-effect gravity amplification attack, he was moments away from death, but this would be sufficient to allow him to return to battle .
Notwithstanding that, the Earth Ouroboros was still not agitated in the slightest .
It was only natural too . After all, it had not gotten serious yet – but it was planning to do so from now on .
「Very well . I will also fight properly . 」
As soon as he said that, Aries was sucked towards him .
Although Aries quickly got ahold of himself and tried to ground himself, his body was still being pulled little by little .
The same thing was happening to Phoenix and Hydrus . During this time, Virgo was desperately holding onto Parthenos with one hand and Aries with the other so that Parthenos would not fall off, thus she was preoccupied .
But as if to mock the predicament that they were in, a shower of meteors came closing in from outer s.p.a.ce .
The Earth Ouroboros itself was serving as a gravity-inducing ma.s.s, pulling all of the stray asteroids from s.p.a.ce towards it .
“Not good! Avoid it, sheep!”
Aries madly dashed about and dodged the meteor shower .
One after another, meteors gouged into the earth of Midgard and flames riled up from everywhere one could see .
The ground itself, on the other hand, was splattered upwards and then came falling back down from the sky like it was raining . The whole situation was as if the entirety of Midgard was being blanketed by magma .
With how things had developed, Midgard was no longer a habitable planet .
Yet even then, Aries’s speed did not drop and he continued to avoid the meteor shower, but… when a vast area of Midgard was suddenly covered by a dark shadow, everyone paled .
What they saw was a giant meteor with a diameter of a few kilometres .
Whilst they were all categorised as meteors, the ones up until now were only a few metres wide . Even then, each had enough destructive power to create a crater dozens of kilometres wide, destroying everything within that range .
But the one coming down this time was on a completely different scale . If something like this were to hit the planet, it was very possible that Midgard itself would be destroyed . [4]
S, s.h.i.t…
Faced with this despairing predicament, such a thought ran through Aquarius’s mind .
From the very beginning, the ouroboroses… no, the G.o.ddess never minded the damage which would be inflicted on the planet itself .
They had had a faint hope that she would mind it a little .
They had held onto the fleeting hope that perhaps the enemy would not give it their all in consideration of the damage which would be done to the planet .
But now, they understood . It had never been in their consideration .
This was exactly the reason why Ruphas had evacuated as many of Midgard’s inhabitants as possible… Whilst it might have been a forceful move, Ruphas’s decision was in the right .
“Tsk, shoot it down—!”
Aquarius’s command almost sounded like a scream and everyone who could attack began attacking simultaneously .
For example, although Aries was fully occupied with avoiding the other falling meteors, Aquarius, who was on top of him, could switch to destroying the incoming one .
Similarly, Phoenix, Hydrus and Leon looked up whilst the Three Winged Knights flew up towards the falling meteor and started hacking at it .
“Tsk! Hydrus!”
“I know!”
Phoenix and Hydrus gathered as much power as possible in their mouths and launched a jet of flame and a stream of water respectively at the falling meteor .
Those two attacks, combined with Aquarius’s magic and Leon’s roar, hit the descending gigantic meteor that was making it look like the sky was falling, and blasted it into pieces .
The meteor, which had now shattered into countless smaller pieces, hailed all around the area while Phoenix and the rest shot them down one after another .
Of course, they were not able to shoot all of them away, but nevertheless, lessening their number helped Aries .
「… Graviton Wave . 」[5]
But seeing their action as an eyesore, the Earth Ouroboros opened its mouth . This was followed by an invisible roar, which could only be described as a gravitational wave, pa.s.sing by in front of Phoenix .
Right after the gravitational wave pa.s.sed in front of him, there was no one left in front of Phoenix .
Until just a moment ago, Hydrus had certainly been standing in front of him . But now, not even a single trace of him was left .
Hydrus had disappeared very anti-climatically – he probably would not have even realised that he had disappeared himself .
“H, Hydrus…? O, oi… where did you go…? Hydrus…?”
Calling out the name of his rival, Phoenix stood there dumbfounded .
But he was only stupefied for a fraction of a moment . In the very next moment, he had turned into a raging flame and was filled with anger .
“… . Y, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d—!! Was it you—!? You were the one who did that to Hydrus!”
“Calm down, grilled chicken! You’re playing right into his hands!”
Phoenix, who was now enveloped in flames, failed to listen to Aquarius’s restraining words . Losing himself in his anger, he charged straight towards the Earth Ouroboros .
Unfortunately, there was no way that a straightforward frontal a.s.sault would be effective against the Earth Ouroboros . In the end, all that his attack managed to do was crack one of the scales on the Earth Ouroboros .
He was then hit by the gravitational wave that the Earth Ouroboros used as a counterattack, and the right side of his body was erased away . Even then, he continued to spew words of resentment and attempted to attack . Regrettably, Phoenix was erased by the Earth Ouroboros’s follow-up attack without a trace, just as Hydrus was .
Whilst he might have been an immortal bird, he was not able to avoid dying when his whole body was erased .
“Phoenix! Hydrus!”
“There’s no time for you to be minding what happened, sheep! Our skills won’t be able to keep up, so focus on avoiding things!”
Aries continued to run in the air and desperately avoided the meteor shower .
Normally, there was no way he would have been able to avoid something of this degree .
However, at that very moment in time, he was distracted by the Earth Ouroboros itself . Aries was unable to maneuver at even 10% of his full capacity .
It was not as if all that Aquarius was doing was giving out orders . They had only managed to survive up until this point because she had been continuously and relentlessly casting absolute evasion skills .
But unfortunately, due to the constant stream of attacks, the absolute evasion skills that had been endowed on them had already been used up . The skills were not able to keep up with the constant barrages of attacks .
Noticing the delay in their actions, it turned into a prime opportunity for the opponent and an extremely detrimental lapse in judgement for Aries and the rest .
The Three Winged Knights were unable to dodge in time and were also erased after being hit by the meteor shower, dwindling their numbers further .
Subsequently, the Earth Ouroboros opened its mouth wide and aimed at Aries…
– … then there was a splatter of blood .
*
While Aries and the rest were fighting the Earth Ouroboros, Pollux and the others in her group were also engaged in a hard battle at a different place .
Her group’s opponent was the Ouroboros of Wood .
Going against it were the fairy siblings, Aigokeros, Pisces, Karkinos and Sagittarius .
Supporting them was the ship, Argo, and the heroic spirits called forth by Pollux .
Nevertheless, the progress of the battle was by no means in their favour .
No, if one were to be honest with themselves, they were definitely in a disadvantaged position .
Not only was the ouroboros’s defence extremely solid, any damage which could be dealt to it was quickly regenerated .
The ouroboroses were the beings which maintained the balance of the world . As a consequence, they would always be backed up by the very world they existed in .
This was how Pollux had access to unlimited SP .
As her true original body, it was only natural that the Wood Ouroboros would also be able to utilise the powers that she had . As a result, any superficial damage done to it was no different from having done no damage whatsoever .
Not only was it extremely difficult to deal damage in the first place, any damage done would ultimately be negated .
Calling it a cheat would still be an understatement .
“How could this be…? The Wood Ouroboros, which is our original body, is…”
Pollux ground her teeth, mortified .
They had been prepared to have a hard time . They knew that it would not be an easy battle .
But even then, they could not have predicted that it would turn out like this .
Yes, that’s right . There was no way that they could have predicted something like this .
That the Wood Ouroboros, which was their real body, was so…–
「Hyoo hyo hyo hyo hyo hyo hyo! Delightful, delightful . Hey, hey, what happened? Are you done already, hmm? Even though you were so pumped up when you first arrived, you look so pitiful now, don’t you, hmm? Yeah, yeah, it’s fine even if you attack me more, you know? I’ll receive it all without fighting back, you hear? Heerree, why not try landing a hit on this old man’s face at least once, hmm? Mmmm~? Riiight here . 」
“— is… such an annoying old geezer!”
「Hyo hyo hyo hyo hyo, how mortifying, how mortifying! 」
The Wood Ouroboros had turned out to be… how should one put it…? It had a completely different personality from that which Pollux had predicted it would have .
As a representative of the creation deity, she had a.s.sumed on her own accord that it would be overflowing with a majestic aura and would be stern and rigid in personality .
Indeed, she was the one who had a.s.sumed the personality of someone she had never personally met before… She could not help but be forced to admit that she was the one who had wrongly imposed her own a.s.sumptions on others .
But even then… she had wanted it to be something more… “reasonable” .
The appearance of the Wood Ouroboros, which was turning its head from side to side as if to flame the situation (in fact, was flaming the situation) and sticking its tongue out as if to make a fool of his opponent, was very annoying, to say the least .
“Fine then! Fine, I’ll do just that! Come here, heroic spirits! Everyone, attack at once!”
Pollux shouted out in anger, then summoned even more heroic spirits .
If the opponent was the greatest in quality, then she would be the greatest in quant.i.ty .
Numerous heroic spirits flew in front of her and all activated their skills simultaneously .
There were so many arrays of different coloured beams that they filled up the entire sky . They were all aimed towards the Wood Ouroboros and landed on it directly, but that was not all .
Not only were the cannons on the Argo fired, Sagittarius, Aigokeros, Pisces and Castor also slammed the Wood Ouroboros with their arcane magic . The crab, which was unable to use arcane magic, decided to at least clank his scissors . Even though it was already the final battle, he was a useless man as usual .
A flame pillar rose, piercing the sky, and an area of land equal to the area of the continent of Africa on Earth disappeared at once .
However, after the residual smoke cloud from that explosion lifted, what remained was the unaffected appearance of the Wood Ouroboros .
「Delightful, delightful . Mmm, it was a good ma.s.sage . Next time, message my back, alright? You see, I’m a bit stiff after having just woken up . … Oh . Wait, was that supposed to have been an attack just now? In that case, I might have said something rude, hmm?」
“~~~~g!!”
Pollux wordlessly screamed before, in her fury, making an expression that she normally would not show to others .
She then summoned even more heroic spirits and continuously activated skills to strike at the Wood Ouroboros with the intention of brute-forcing her way through using numbers .
However, the moment she did so, she was a.s.saulted by a sense of lethargy that she had never felt before and collapsed onto the floor of the Argo .
“… Eh?”
Although she somehow managed to catch herself by using her hands to break her fall, she was unable to put any strength into her arms .
Her arms were trembling and she was unable to put any strength into her feet as well .
Her vision distorted and she started to sweat .
What… what happened? – Unable to understand what was happening to herself, she was left in a state of confusion whilst suffering from an unknown phenomenon .
Sensing an abnormality with Pollux’s condition, Castor went to her but was unable to find any injury whatsoever . There were also no traces of her being poisoned .
They were truly unable to figure out what might have been the cause .
In response to their predicament, the Wood Ouroboros provided an answer .
「Hmm, it happened much quicker than I was expecting it to . Well, never mind, regardless of that, you did well . 」
“W, wha, did y, you do?”
「I haven’t done anything, you know . You just used too much of your power and collapsed on your own . Well, in other words, you just ran out of SP . 」
Ran out of SP – for those who partic.i.p.ated in battles, it was a sensation that they would no doubt have to endure at least once, but it was something which was generally unrelated to Pollux .
She was the Fairy Princess . As an avatar of the ouroboros, she was constantly backed up by the world itself, and as such, her SP was infinite . As a consequence, she had never once ran out of SP . It just could not happen .
“I, I ran out of SP…? Could it be…?”
「Looks like you figured it out . That’s right, you had infinite power because you were my avatar… and you became an enemy to me . You’re no longer backed up by the world, you know?」
“Tsk!”
「Although, it’s the same for me . Now that the world is breaking apart to this extent, it’s laughable to talk about this backup thing . 」
The skill, [Return of the Heroic Spirits (Argonautai)] had an overpowered effect, but in return, it had an extremely high SP consumption rate .
The only reason Pollux was able to use it despite this was because she had access to unlimited power .
Now that her power was no longer infinite and had become finite, one would not need to think hard to understand that her reserves would be quickly exhausted if she continued to use the skill .
If she had thought about it a little, she should have been able to predict it appropriately . She should have thought about it beforehand .
Pollux cursed her own carelessness and felt ashamed that she had allowed such a disgraceful behaviour to happen during the final battle .
Even though they were in this predicament, the Wood Ouroboros did not follow up and attack, and instead spoke to them refreshingly .
「Isn’t this enough? You should understand the difference in our strength by now . 」
Pollux looked up at the Wood Ouroboros and boldly glared at it .
It was not an enemy that would be taken aback just because she glared at it . However, she at least wanted to show that her heart had not yet been broken .
Yes, she understood the difference in their strength . So what?
Was she supposed to just let it kill her without resistance?
But the subsequent words spoken by the Wood Ouroboros were not something that Pollux had antic.i.p.ated .
「If you stop now, it should still be fine . You should stop fighting and plead with the G.o.ddess for forgiveness . If you do so, the G.o.ddess will most likely forgive you . I’ll come and plead with you… so, my child, why not put a stop to this and grow out of this somewhat late rebellious phase?」
It was as if the Wood Ouroboros was coaxing a child who was not listening to what they were being told . It was as if it was trying to persuade her .
With a kind and gentle voice, the Wood Ouroboros said this to Pollux .