BOOOM
An explosion echoed as a Senjutsu attack blasted toward the Supreme God following the two presence emerging from a ripple in space behind Jay.
Yet even without both of his hands and with a gaping hole through half of his chest and stomach, Aten easily blocked it as a golden radiance of the Divine Sun barrier enveloped around him.
But immediately, the golden divine aura surrounding his body slowly dissipated, revealing a limbless Aten in his normal form.
He then stared at the two women who appeared in the spatial rift, his eyes widening. Now that he could no longer see the future, he wondered where the girl of time would appear in this timeline. He did not expect it to be now.
"Those two..." Aten muttered as he looked at the black-haired Nekushou glaring at him with a killing intent.
Before then his gaze shifted towards the blonde girl as she desperately trying to heal Jay's stomach. Both of them. Especially the blonde girl he had seen in his vision before, the one who existed at the convergence point.
So that's how it is...
Aten gazed at Jay and Lavinia as they embraced each other. His eyes softened, and countless thoughts surfaced in his mind.
But before long, a flash of silver and pink, like lightning, struck the spot where Aten had been standing.
BOOM
The clash caused a massive explosion, sending a mountain of sand into the sky. However, the attack, which could have easily destroyed a castle on impact, was effortlessly dodged as Aten had already moved at light speed, reappearing dozens of meters away.
"Nya?" Kuroka shifted her gaze toward the incoming forces. Three women stood atop a silver chariot. One of them, a beautiful pink-haired woman, radiated divinity as her pink aura flared into the sky.
Then the other two descended from the chariot before rushing toward her, a silver-haired, brown-skinned woman and a silver-haired warrior woman.
Kuroka tensed, preparing herself in case they intended to attack.
They were none other than Bastet and Rossweisse.
"Who are you, nya!?" Kuroka demanded.
Bastet and Rossweisse stopped as Kuroka moved between them and Jay. The feline goddess stared at the Nekoshou intently before opening her mouth.
"I am Bastet... Do not worry, I am only here to check on his condition."
"Nya! Why should I trust you, you hag!"
"He was struck by a Divine Sun. That is a power I am familiar with. Unless you want him to die, please let me check upon his condition..." Bastet said, her feline eyes, one blue and one gold, meeting Kuroka's.
"Besides... I am indebted to that man. He saved someone dear to me. I will not do anything to harm him... I swear it on my divinity," she added softly.
Kuroka fell silent for a moment as she sensed the urgency behind those words. Her tails swayed cautiously, but she detected no ill intent from Bastet or Rossweisse.
"Nya..."
Sensing Kuroka lowering her guard, Bastet nodded in gratitude and moved toward Jay and Lavinia. But just as she and Rossweisse were about to reach them, a sudden surge of bluish-purple spirit energy erupted around the pair.
Completely illuminated the dunes with dark purplish light.
"That's..."
Bastet's eyes widened.
And just a dozen meters away, before either of them could intervene, Jay and Lavinia's figure vanished within the brilliant spirit energy. And immediately after that, slowly the light faded, leaving nothing behind.
"Huh? Where did they go?" Rossweisse asked in confusion.
Meanwhile, Bastet continued staring at the spot they had disappeared from as curiosity filling her eyes.
Aten, who had also witnessed their disappearance, narrowed his gaze.
Before he then shifted his attention to the Norse goddess.
"The Sun Disk Aten... I believe this is our first meeting," Freya said.
"The Norse goddess of love, beauty, and war. I should thank you for accepting my invitation and coming all the way here from the north. I hope the weather here is to your liking," Aten replied casually.
Freya narrowed her eyes.
She did not like his words, nor the way he said them.
"Oh? I thought the invitation was meant to strengthen relations between the Ancient Egyptian faction and the Norse. Not this game of death you orchestrated for whatever reason," Freya said.
Though Aten appeared gravely wounded and unable to recover, he still carried a presence and aura that made even Freya cautious about closing the distance between them.
She had seen their fight, him and Zayyn Illya Kovalenko. It had only lasted a couple of minutes, yet the battlefield told a different story. Molten sand spread across the dunes, a gaping hole scarred the earth, and the sky itself burned just by the impact of the attack.
A testament to their power. Even in Aten's current state, her warrior instincts warned her against doing anything reckless, like blindly attacking him.
"I'm sorry if our custom here isn't to your liking," Aten said.
"Custom? It seems like Zayyn-kun beat you up so badly that it's starting to mess with your head," Freya replied as she stared at the god's unrecoverable wounds.
"I'm speaking the truth, Freya. Everything in that letter is genuine."
And immediately after he said that, suddenly, a divine aura flashed from afar, drawing the attention of everyone on the battlefield. Aten shifted his gaze toward the horizon, while Freya turned to see the incoming massive serpent.
A giant sand serpent surged through the dunes like a sandworm, approaching them at incredible speed.
But what caught both Aten and Freya's attention were the two figures standing atop the serpent.
It was none other than Ra and Thoth.
And as they drew close, Ra's eyes widened at Aten's condition. Blackened stumps where his hands had once been, and a gaping hole at the side of his body. And more shocking than anything else was the absence of the sun mark on his forehead.
"His divine essence… the sun disk, it's gone. Does Zayyn Illya Kovalenko possess the power to erase such a thing?" Ra muttered. He had come immediately after hearing about the fight between Jay and Aten from Nehebkau, the sand serpent he had sent to follow Jay and the others.
But it seemed that he was a little too late.
'And where is he? I don't see him anywhere…' Ra wondered as he looked around.
His gaze shifted to the ruins and the terraformed dunes of Heliopolis. Not only that, the sky itself had begun to thin and crack. The barrier field surrounding it had been pushed by Aten to a terrifying extent, as if it might collapse at any moment, though it was slowly starting to mend itself.
'To push Aten to the point of nearly draining the entire realm… what kind of absurdity is this?'
"Ra-sama, that wound…" Thoth was also speechless at the sight before him. A being he had once thought invincible stood broken. A man who could see the future, present, and past all at once. A man who wielded the Divine Sun, one of the strongest divine aura in existence. And a man with an almost limitless supply of divine aura, pushed to such a state.
Even in his current condition, Aten remained relaxed as he looked at Ra, Thoth, and Nehebkau before him.
"Ra, Thoth, Nehebkau… it has been a long time since we last met."
Kuroka tensed slightly at the sight of the massive divine serpent as it came to a halt between her and Freya.
"Aten, I never thought I would see you in such a state. You have lost your divinity, and you nearly ruined the entire realm for this game of yours. Why don't we stop this nonsense and-"
"Neither I nor Zayyn Illya Kovalenko won or lost this battle. And as the rules of the game state, a challenge is only valid for a player who has collected a sufficient number of points. Neither of you has that at the moment, so why don't you focus on finishing the game and then come to defeat me," Aten said, his expression indifferent, as if Ra's words carried no weight on him.
"You-" Thoth clenched his fist and prepared to rush toward Aten, but Ra stopped him.
"It seems you still do not realize the state you are in... In your current condition, without your omniscience, and with your body as it is, you have been completely stripped of your almighty power, Aten," Ra said.
"Oh, I understand it very well." Aten glanced at the gods and goddesses around him, Freya, Bastet, Ra, Thoth, Nehebkau, and even Rossweisse and Kuroka.
"It's just that, even in this condition…" Aten continued.
"I could still defeat all of you in battle."
A terrifying golden radiance suddenly enveloped Aten as he narrowed his eyes and killing intent surging from him. Freya immediately flared her pink divine aura, a scorching sound erupting around it as it clashed against the expanding golden light of Aten.
But suddenly-
"KUHAHAHAHAHA!"
A wild, thunderous laugh echoed across the horizon as a figure with draconic wings shot toward them in a flash of gold and black. Then-
BOOM
An explosion of sand drew everyone's attention, the air trembling as golden grains spiraled violently through the sky like a storm. And as the dust slowly settled, a lone figure stood at the center, his silhouette sharpening into view with an eerie calm, as if the chaos itself had bent to his arrival.
"I am here!"
He was a tall, handsome man wearing a black coat, with long hair streaked in black and blond and heterochromatic eyes. Though, the most noticable part of his appearance was a pair of majestic jet-black draconic wings spread from his back as he looked at everyone with a wide grin.
Ra furrowed her brows while Freya remained cautious at the arrival of the familiar figure. Aten only cast a brief glance, while Bastet stared at him with silent killing intent.
"Now that everyone is here, let's run it, baby!" he shouted, clenching his fists.
The man, or precisely the draconic man was none other than the Crescent Circle Dragon, Crom Cruach.
Seeing the arrival of Crom Cruach, Aten sighed and turned his gaze back to Ra.
"Now that you are here, the game shall continue... Enjoy your fight, Crom," Aten said with a faint smile before looking at Ra once more.
He stopped for a moment, before then he whispered faintly into the air.
"And until we meet again, old friend."
In an instant, with a single flash of light, the supreme god vanished from his place, faster than any teleportation spell.
"Nya! He's running away!" Kuroka exclaimed, briefly pulling everyone's attention away from Crom Cruach.
Ra stared at the spot where Aten had stood, but his expression complicated.
He and Aten shared a long history, though the current consciousness of Aten felt almost like that of a stranger. Yet as the Sun Disk, since the dawn of time and the creation of this realm, Aten had always been one of his aspects, a part of himself and, as Aten had said, his friend.
Even now, he still did not know what his goal was in this game from the very beginning. After all, it was the first time Aten had ever acted outside of his palace. The only thing he wanted to do was prevent everyone from killing each other. Even if they hated him for what he had done thousands of years ago, Ra's only wish was for the Egyptians to be unified again, just like in the old days.
And as the Sun God shifted his gaze toward Crom Cruach, suddenly-
"Ra-sama…"
Thoth's voice, empty and distant, echoed from behind him.
"Hm?" Ra raised his eyebrows.
Thoth stood there with an expressionless face, staring at Ra as his hand slowly dropped from his head. Then he spoke, slowly.
"Isis called me... She said she wanted to meet you."
Hearing that, Ra's expression shifted in surprise.
"Oh, did she and Osiris finally decide to agree to my offer?" Ra asked.
But Thoth shook his head.
"No. Seth just killed Osiris."
Silence fell between them as Ra's eyes widened in shock.
"What!?"
***
Far away from the battle that had just taken place between Aten and Zayyn Illya Kovalenko, in a grand throne room, Aten walked alone, slowly toward the golden throne at the far end. His eyes were empty as countless thoughts and uncertainties filled his mind, a sensation he had never experienced before.
Did everything go as planned?
He did not know.
Now, Aten could not even tell whether he would reach that destined convergence point or not.
But-
"Welcome back."
A sudden voice from behind made the omniscient god flinch as he immediately turned around, only to see a familiar woman. She was not beautiful by any human standard, appearing entirely ordinary. Yet she carried an overwhelming presence and did not even flinch in front of his divine presence.
"Aisha! You surprised me…"
Hearing Aten said that, Aisha tilted her head and stared at him with empty eyes, as if he was being ridiculous.
"Stop joking," Aisha said flatly. Then she glanced at Aten's severed hand. Though, she did not even attempt to heal it, because she knew that if he could, he would have already done so.
The fact that he had not meant there was something preventing him.
"And that is…" she said.
"It seems that man, Zayyn Illya Kovalenko, was strong enough to wound you like this," she said.
"Yes, he is the strongest one I have faced," Aten nodded, genuinely acknowledging the human he had just fought, along with his mysterious all-erasing power. A power that even capable of destroying a god's Divine Essence.
"But were you able to kill him like you said?" Aisha asked.
Aten paused for a moment before shaking his head.
"That… I don't know."
Hearing something uncertain come out of Aten's mouth for the second time today, Aisha raised her eyebrows.
"Are you sure you are Aten?" she said.
"Hey, what do you mean?"
"Huh? No? Are you perhaps an infiltrator? You are an infiltrator, right? I am not that strong, please don't bother trying to kill me… just take whatever you want."
Aten stared at her blankly.
"At least put in a little effort if you are going to pretend there is an infiltrator."
"That is not in my job description. I would need a raise if you want me to cover that part too, like guarding this empty place," Aisha replied. "Though I would probably die if someone actually tried to infiltrate."
Hearing that, Aten could not help but smile unconsciously. A strange feeling surfaced in his heart, and he did not know how to describe it.
"I'm pretty hungry so let's eat... And since I do not have both of my hands right now, I need your help to feed me the food, Aisha," Aten said with a smile as he began walking toward the door.
"Oh come on… are you a baby?"
Aisha followed behind him as they walked toward the dining table.
And as they walked, the smile on Aten's face slowly faded as thoughts of the future returned to him. The future had always been the one thing he feared the least, yet now it lingered in his mind again and again.
The future he had not even told his only maid, the woman who had always been by his side since the first time they met.
I'm sorry, Aisha.
***
Lavinia suddenly opened her eyes.
The last thing she remembered was the pale face of the man who meant the most to her, the love of her life in his final moments.
"Illya-kun! Where are you?" She said.
But then she realized she was no longer standing in the sandy dunes. Instead, she was lying on a bed, staring up at the ceiling emptily. She wore a white nightgown, and the bedroom around her was luxurious and familiar.
She looked around in confusion.
As she gathered her senses, she stared at her reflection in the mirror for a few seconds.
"Where am I? Is this a dream?" Lavinia muttered.
Everything felt surreal.
She got up and walked toward the door. And when she opened it, she stepped outside into a beautiful living room of a house, their house in Valeyra, she and Jay's home. Though it's similar, there are some changes here and there.
More modern.
And as she walked toward the kitchen, her eyes widened at what she saw.
A handsome man in his twenties sat there on the dining table. He was tall and lean, with neatly styled black hair and dark hazel eyes focused on a newspaper in his hands. On his lap sat a little girl, a beautiful child with black hair, sapphire eyes, and short hair, around two or three years old, playing with a toy on her hand.
Lavinia froze, unable to comprehend what she was seeing.
"This…"
Sensing her sudden appearance, the man turned his gaze toward her.
With a familiar faint smile, he said,
"Good morning, Lavi."
At that moment, hearing that familiar voice now older as it called her name, Lavinia could only whisper,
"Illya-kun?"
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AN :
I'm planning to give Lavinia an ability that is very similar to Lion's Heart from Re Zero, which is still essentially a time based ability. What do you guys think? Do you think it would be too OP, or not really considering DxD.