—–

“You sure love to insult us, don’t you?” Laughed Dimitri. “Why don’t you go back to the grave you came from?!”

The A+ Rank Hunter quickly pointed his two magic handguns at Hel; one of them flared with crimson color, while the other was deep black. Both weapons absorbed his Mana in a split second and glowed, creating Magic Bullets and firing them with extreme precision against the goddess descended into a mortal’s vessel.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Four bullets flew toward Hel, and two of them exploded on contact, generating huge explosions of flames that covered her body. The other two did not explode on contact; one was deflected by Hel’s scythe while the other pierced her shoulder, missing her vessel’s heart.

“Wha…?!”

While the flames were easy to reflect against using her own Phantasmal Aura, the black bullet that hit her shoulder was a different deal altogether, as Hel felt a curse affect her movement speed and senses.

“To affect the senses of a Constellation…” She smiled back at Dimitri. “Have your techniques already advanced to the point they can channel the power of your sponsor, mortal?”

“You talk too much.”

The figure of the muscular blonde man, Eckert, appeared right behind Hel as his fists overflowed with blue and red-colored energy constantly swirling around.

“HAAAH!”

BAAAM!

Two fists descended towards Hel as she barely managed to evade the point-blank impact, only for the fists to hit the ground and generate a titanic shockwave, shaking the floor and shattering the ground.

“You’re fast!”

Eckert’s eyes glowed bright red as he shot two Laser Beams at Hel from them! This was the ability that made him so arrogant, coupled with his incredibly physical might and the ability to fly, which made many compare him with Superman.

However, the beams couldn’t compare to Dimitri’s bullets. Hel easily reflected the two by making her scythe spin in front of her, but that created an opening, even if small.

“You’re getting slower. Good.”

BANG! BANG!

Two bullets from both of Dimitri’s guns were fired towards Hel’s back, piercing her flesh. One instantly exploded, leaving a nasty wound behind while pushing her into the ground; the other hit her spine, cursing her and lowering her stats again.

“Tch, annoying tricks like those will not work a third time,” Hel said. Her flesh wound instantly started to regenerate as a phantasmal and mysterious power covered the area.

“You’re moving even after I shoot down your spine?” Dimitri smiled. “You’re sure a monster.”

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Three bullets were shot; this time, the floor beneath trembled as a giant skeletal claw blocked all three of the shots, surprising Dimitri.

“Is shooting bullets all you can do, mortal?!”

Hel appeared right above the gunslinger, her face smiling while laughing maniacally as she swung her scythe against Dimitri!

“{Bullet Time}”

Dimitri’s eyes shone bright gold as he activated one of his strongest Innate skills, which he had inherited from his sponsor, Billy the Kid himself! His senses sharpened to their limits as he could perceive the world around him going in slow motion.

Using his newfound speed and senses, he instantly ran away from Hel’s attack, all while imbuing Mana into his black handgun, changing its shape into a rifle with the head of a furious dragon at its end.

“Yeah, I can only shoot bullets, but I do a damn good job at that.”

BAAANG!

“Ugh?! H-How?!”

Hel was shot point-blank right in her chest, her entire body losing momentum as she was blown away by Dimitri’s incredible abilities. Her chest was wide open, showing her destroyed lungs and her heart, which was not beating anymore.

“Well done, Dimitri!” Laughed Eckert. “Here comes the HERO!”

Eckert had flown all the way up into the skies to descend with as much force as possible, hitting Hel’s stomach with his fists all while shooting two laser beams from his eyes!

BAAAM!

“Uuuaarrggghh…!”

Her flesh was not torn apart yet, but her stomach was left wide open, her guts coming out horrendously as Hel vomited a mouthful of blood, and several of her bones were broken as her ribs pierced her skin.

“Haha! That’s what you get, you villainous woman!” Eckert laughed.

“Is that it?” Dimitri wondered. “I didn’t even have much to do… I guess Hel’s not that big of a deal.”

“Heh… heheheh…”

However, the two hunters were suddenly left deeply unsettled as they heard Hel, who should be dead by now, laughing. Her face distorted into a creepy smile as her phantasmal energy wrapped itself around her body.

The wounds were regenerated at lightning speed, and an armor made of black bones grew out of her own bones, covering her body as she stood up and then floated in midair.

“You’re not bad.” Hel’s eyes glowed bright red as her aura exuded the power of millions of despairing souls.

The pressure itself made Eckert and Dimitri lose their composure, feeling a heavy pressure over their bodies at the same time as a chill down their spines.

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“Eckert, careful!” Dimitri screamed, detecting an attack faster than his companion thanks to his augmented senses, as a huge skeletal hand emerged from the ground and grabbed Eckert, squeezing his body.

CRASH!

“Unngh?! AAARGH…!”

No matter how hard he tried to destroy the bones, his physical strength was only helping him not get squeezed like a lemon about to be made into lemonade.

“Shit!”

Dimitri acted fast, firing several bullets against the skeletal hand. With the explosive force of the red bullets, the skeletal hand shattered into pieces, only for Hel to appear behind him, swinging her scythe at a speed he could detect but that he could not react to!

SLASH!

“Grargh?!”

Dimitri instantly vomited a mouthful of blood, feeling the searing pain and the instant, sheer cold sensation of Hel’s scythe slicing through his flesh.

“You’re way too weak!” Hel laughed, about to kick Dimitri away, only for his guns to be faster, as his black rifle and his red gun shot several bullets at her at the same time as she kicked him.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

“Tch!” Hel defended and intercepted most bullets, but a few pierced through her armor, shattering it and leaving a few more wounds on her body.

CRASH!

“C-Crap!” Dimitri screamed, taking out a red potion from his pocket and drinking it desperately.

“It’s not fair you can regenerate like that, you damn bitch.” Eckert roared, rushing towards Hel to distract her and let Dimitri regenerate his lethal wound. “{Impact Fists}!”

Charging air pressure into his fists through the ability to manipulate air that allowed him to fly, Eckert unleashed a powerful series of fist attacks against Hel, whom she easily evaded but whose shockwaves made her evasive maneuvers harder each time.

“Your brutish nature reminds me of Thor; how disgusting,” Hel said with an annoyed face. Her aura, made up of millions of phantoms, suddenly condensed into a huge hand. “Begone!”

With a power Eckert could simply not fight against, he was slapped away from Hel’s presence. Not only did his body receive a tremendous impact, but even his soul was severely damaged!

“ARGH…! {S-Sky Fall}!!!”

However, in his struggle to wake up and as he saw Hel appearing right above him with her incredible flashy speed, Eckert desperately unleashed all his Mana by channeling his innate ability, Air Manipulation, which allowed him not only to float and fly but to manipulate the air around him.

RUMBLE!

The skies above suddenly twisted, spiraling into a gigantic tornado that befell over Hel. The enormous impact of all the concentrated winds generated a force similar to atmospheric pressure, throwing Hel down into the ground, which quickly shattered and grew into a deep hole beneath the floor.

BOOOM!

“To think you mortals could go this far!” Hel roared furiously; her body, to the surprise of Eckert and Dimitri, seemed almost completely unscathed.

Surrounding her body, there were over a hundred invisible layers of Phantasmal and Necrotic Energies concentrated together, constantly swirling and devouring the energy of the millions of souls Hel had summoned from her Realm.

“N-No damage at all?! But this is… My strongest…!” Eckert groaned, vomiting blood as he felt his entire body beginning to burn.

Because he had spent all of his Mana in that powerful spell that he often used to finish off powerful threats, his body started to respond to the intense exhaustion with a powerful backlash.

“I’ll reap your soul and turn your body into my loyal undead subject!”

Hel flew off the crater she was sent into, her body quickly emerging in midair as large wings made of black bones helped her fly easily.

“{B-Bullet Time}!”

Dimitri gritted his teeth as he finished drinking a Mana Potion. His guns quickly shot down a barrage of magically enchanted bullets, which Hel simply fended off with her own scythe and overwhelming aura.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

“HAH! I told you that your bullets would no longer affect me.” Hel smiled manically. “Your tools were certainly strong before your world’s Awakening, but now they have become nothing but pathetic toys. Whatever third-rate Constellations sponsors, the ability to shoot those toys is surely a pathetic entity. Don’t worry, I’ll- Ungh?!”

However, as Hel was speaking her mind, she quickly felt something. Her Phantasmal Aura was weakened! It felt as if a few dozen of the many souls making it up were purified, being sent to the afterlife where she couldn’t use them anymore.

“My Phantasmal Veil weakened?” She raised an eyebrow, glancing at Dimitri smiling.

“Good thing I still had a few of those bullets drenched in Holy Water I used against the Werewolf Monsters…” Dimitri laughed, quickly reloading his guns with these silver-colored bullets. “You’re not all-powerful, as you say; it all comes down to your defenses! That Veil… I’m going to shoot a dozen holes through it!”

“YOUUU…!”

Hel roared furiously, flying down towards the brave gunslinger as she emanated an aura of pure death. The ground around Dimitri started shaking as countless skeletons attempted to drag him down.

The gunslinger started to evade the skeletal arms while running away, pointing his gun at his target, and firing four more bullets at her.

“Tch!”

Hel evaded two bullets while another was reflected with her scythe; the fourth, however, pierced her Phantasmal Veil and destroyed the chest area of her black bone armor, leaving a defenseless spot.

“I got you!” Dimitri smiled defiantly, only for his entire body to suddenly be engulfed by a huge skeletal claw that surged from below his body.

CRASH!

“Aaarrgh!”

His body, much weaker than Eckert’s, was squeezed as he felt several of his ribs breaking, and one of his arms ended up dislocating with the horrendous sound of his bones being pressed against one another.

“You were quite interesting, but that’s all your efforts will amount to. In the end, this is the limit that mortals can achieve. You have yet to even gaze upon the unknown world above your feeble society. There was never a chance for you to win, from the beginning.”

She rose her scythe and swung it against Dimitri from afar, as a wave of phantasmal and necrotic energy emerged, about to swallow his body completely.

SLAAASH!

“Now perish and become my eternal servant!”

CLASH!

However, Hel’s eyes opened wide as she felt the power of an angelic entity descending from the skies. A gorgeous blonde lady wearing white and yellow armor emerged, her eyes glowing with divinity as big, white-colored angelic wings emerged from her back.

It was Henrietta, who in the last moment finally managed to catch up and intercept Hel’s powerful attack, already having let the presence of the Archangel Gabriel dwell within her body to reach enough strength to fight against Hel’s abominable might.

“It’s you again…” Hel gave an annoyed sigh. “Angelic beings shouldn’t try to get involved in what’s happening. Not too long ago, you were also pathetic mortals, were you not? Even if the Celestial Realm and the Demonic Realm were within higher dimensions, you were all enslaved in the end! You dare fight against someone of my caliber, Gabriel?!”

“I dare say I don’t have any other chance, Lady Hel.” Henrietta spoke the words of her sponsor, her eyes glowing with the wisdom of an angelic being.

“If war is what you all want, then war is! How many times have we waged war already anyway?! Another one will not make any difference! I will not humor the higher-ups any longer!” Hel roared furiously.

FLASH!

However, a black blur emerged from above her, descending and attacking her with two powerful wolf-like claws made of shadows, with enough power to weaken her Phantasmal Veil, pushing her down.

“Stop this, sister!” Roared a furious wolf emerging from Jack’s shadows.

“Fenrir!” Hel roared. “You dare go against your own family?! You traitorous beast!”

She quickly responded to Jack and Fenrir’s attacks by covering her two arms with large masses of bones, creating two huge bone-made claws, and slashing Jack’s entire body with them.

Jack intercepted the powerful attacks using his Demonic Sword, Gram, the other half of the original sword once wielded by Sigurd, a Heroic Constellation of the Asgard Nebula.

“This is not the way!” Fenrir roared, holding back because, deep down, he didn’t want to harm his dear sister.

“Then WHAT is the way, Fenrir?!” Hel roared. “I’ve already decided! I will do as I please. And I will not let ANYBODY control me anymore!”

Hel kicked Jack away with enough force to blow away a whole building, his body falling to the floor and generating various shockwaves that shattered the ground and made nearby building ruins fall apart.

“You’ve grown softer, my brother.” Hel slowly walked towards Jack. “Back then, you shared the same ideals I have now. Has falling from grace and being stuck in a mortal’s body turned your brain off? They’re merely my resources, souls I use to grow stronger. Why do you CARE so much?! Think about what you’re doing! What would Father say?!”

“B-Because…!” Fenrir cried, slowly standing back up with Jack. “I…!”

“That’s enough,” Jack said, patting the wolf-like shadow at his side. “You’re not fighting this alone. Nor do you need to explain anything.”

He pointed his sword and a shadow dagger at Hel.

“We’re partners, right?”

“Jack…!”

—–

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep