One of the gods who'd been fighting Trihexa at close range staggered back from the frontline, his divine armor shattered and bleeding from countless wounds.
The Beast had torn into him with its seven maws, if not for Phoenix Tears keeping his essence tethered to his body, death would have claimed him within moments.
"This isn't working," a burly deity growled, thunder crackling around his clenched fists as he drew lightning from the storm-dark sky. "These tactics will only drag us down one by one until we're all dead!"
"We need to change our approach!"
Unlike Trihexa, whose stamina and regenerative capabilities seemed genuinely limitless, even Transcendent-class beings had their limits. Extended high-intensity combat would eventually wear them down.
"The only option is rotating shifts," another god suggested grimly, wiping ichor from his brow. "Taking turns to rest while maintaining constant pressure. Over enough time, perhaps thousands of years, we can grind it down."
A heavy silence fell over the assembled deities at that prospect.
Shiva, the God of Destruction, finally spoke, his youthful face betraying none of the weight behind his words. "Actually... there is one other way."
Every god present understood what he meant. The terrible mathematics of it.
Trihexa's resilience and stamina approached infinity, but "approached" wasn't the same as "achieved." With enough gods maintaining an endless assault, the Beast could theoretically be eliminated.
Even if that elimination required millennia of constant battle.
The method was sound in theory. With most of the world's strongest beings gathered here, they had the numbers to implement rotating assault teams that could maintain pressure indefinitely.
But the cost...
They represented seventy to eighty percent of the world's high-end combat power. If they all committed to containing Trihexa, who would address the looming threat from the other world? Who would maintain the balance of their various mythologies?
"Isn't it about time you listened to me?"
Rizevim's voice cut through their deliberations, dripping with dark amusement.
"If you use gods and Dragon Gods as experimental material, you might achieve mass production of Transcendent-class beings." His expression twisted into something inhuman. "Isn't that the best way to save the world?"
"Hahahaha!"
His laughter echoed across the battlefield, manic and delighted. The heavens themselves seemed to be favoring him, who could have predicted that the seal on the Beast Emperor would unravel so easily?
"Tell me something," a crisp, clear voice rang out across the battlefield, freezing Rizevim mid-laugh. "Isn't it a bit early to celebrate?"
Rizevim's twisted smile cracked. He knew that voice, would recognize it anywhere.
The young man who should have been running desperately from Heavenly King Durmado's pursuit. The one person who'd made Rizevim feel truly uncertain.
Why is he here?
Rizevim's mind raced. That encounter had been the first time someone made him feel genuinely unfathomable. The casual summoning of a Transcendent-class sacred beast. The effortless deployment of formations from Heaven and the Underworld. The ability to temporarily match a Dragon God in combat.
He'd thought he understood the limitations, that elevated state could only be maintained briefly before collapsing. The mystery man should have vanished from the board entirely.
But now he was back.
And he wasn't alone.
Who is that girl beside him?
"Oh, Takeyo!" Thor's booming voice cut through the tension, genuine pleasure in his tone. "You're back! Must say, surviving a battle at that level is damn impressive."
The Norse Thunder God was on the same side as Takeyo, allied through the recent peace accords. Seeing him unharmed brought visible relief.
"Thank you for your concern, Thor." Takeyo smiled faintly, his gaze drifting past the gathered gods to fix on Trihexa. The Beast's many eyes locked onto him in return, and something almost like recognition flickered across its monstrous features.
Almost like it wanted to flee.
It still remembers me, Takeyo thought with dark satisfaction.
"Announce something?" Shiva's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. An impossible idea was forming in his mind, one he hardly dared believe.
"Yes. Something quite simple, actually." Takeyo's smile didn't waver. "In the battle against the other world, I need everyone here to accept me as the absolute core of command. This is necessary for certain victory."
"Why should we?" Indra was the first to object, his voice sharp with disdain. The Hindu God of War had harbored prejudice against heroes since ancient times, and Takeyo's fame as the inheritor of Mahatma Rama's bloodline only intensified that bias. "I don't see any reason to believe you have the capability to lead us."
He'd been prepared to grudgingly acknowledge Takeyo's survival against Fenrir, that had been impressive. But this arrogance? This presumption that he could command the gods themselves?
Unacceptable.
Most of the assembled deities didn't know about Takeyo's battle with Durmado. Despite the Nordic Gods' public statement acknowledging that a human had slain Fenrir, a top-ten world power, that information hadn't fully penetrated. The encounter had occurred in a sealed space created by Heaven and the Underworld's combined formations.
"Lord Indra," Takeyo said calmly, meeting the god's glare without flinching. "Please understand, you and your allies cannot even defeat the Beast Emperor. You're not qualified to negotiate terms with me."
The blunt assessment sent ripples through the assembly.
In truth, Takeyo could manage this situation with just the forces already loyal to him. He was recruiting these gods for additional security, not out of necessity.
"Oh?" Shiva leaned forward with interest. "So you're claiming you can defeat the Beast Emperor?"
Could this young man have possessed the power to defeat Vishnu even back then? Had he been hiding his true strength all along?
"Defeat it?" The blonde woman beside Takeyo stepped forward, and holy light erupted from her form, radiant, overwhelming, illuminating the entire battlefield like a second sun.
The God of the Bible revealed her divine presence, the sacred aura she'd always displayed to believers and fellow deities alike.
Every angel except Michael gasped in shock.
"That form, !"
"The Lord!"
Gabriel's voice cracked with disbelief. The God and Christ had perished together in the Great War, everyone knew that. The system's collapse when the Biblical God died had been proof enough.
And yet here she stood, unmistakable in her divine radiance.
Even Takeyo, merged with the God's essence and transformed through their Union of the Three Thousand Paths, was nearly unrecognizable to the angels who'd known Christ. The differences in temperament, origin, and appearance were simply too vast.
"Has the God of the Bible been resurrected?!" Several gods exchanged stunned looks.
"No, or perhaps she never truly died?"
"But the belief system of Heaven showed clear signs of failure. That only happens when the Biblical God passes away!"
Arguments erupted across the assembled deities as they tried to reconcile the impossible sight before them.
"Accept my partner's leadership," the God said softly, her voice carrying absolute authority despite its gentleness. "This is your only choice."
Then, almost casually, she raised one hand.
Holy light descended like judgment from on high.
"BOOM!"
Trihexa's massive form was driven into the earth with such force that the ground shattered for miles in every direction, swallowing the Beast entirely.
The assembled gods stood in stunned silence.
The God wasn't using her own power alone, this was the combined might of her Union with Takeyo, their essences merged through the Path of Blood. This unified force could suppress and defeat even the Beast Emperor with ease.
"Holy shit," someone whispered.
"The Biblical God has been elevated?" A deity from another pantheon stared in disbelief. "I heard she and the Beast Emperor were equally matched before!"
"No, if the Biblical God has grown stronger, why was the Beast Emperor released at all? She would have noticed if Rizevim tampered with her seals!"
"Wait." One of the wiser gods paused mid-argument. "Has anyone considered another possibility?"
"What do you mean?"
"Think about it. What if the Beast Emperor was released deliberately? What if they always had the means to defeat it?"
The implications sent chills through even the most powerful beings present.
Shiva, likely the strongest god present besides the Biblical God herself, finally spoke. His voice carried the weight of a being who'd existed since before most civilizations.
"Forgive me, God of the Bible, but you know as well as I do, even at the height of your power in ancient times, you didn't unify all the world's pantheons under your banner."
It was true. Despite her immense strength, the Biblical God had never achieved total dominion over the other mythologies.
"So tell me," Shiva continued, his youthful face deadly serious. "Why do you believe that all the gods would now become your subordinates?"
Though many deities were curious about the gossip surrounding the Biblical God's mysterious "partner," they recognized this wasn't the time for such questions. Priorities had to be maintained.
"Because," Takeyo said, stepping forward with an easy smile, "you can't even handle the crisis directly in front of you, let alone the threat from the other world."
A golden halo materialized above his head, not the traditional mixed-light of divine beings, but something far more potent. The Omnipotent Halo, integrated with the Heaven Realm Formation, blazed with celestial power.
The golden ring, containing the complete heavenly formation system, shot toward the Beast Emperor.
Rizevim had sensed something was wrong and tried to flee, but how could Takeyo's current strength allow that? The traitor Super Devil had served his purpose as a tool. Time to dispose of him.
"CLANG!"
The Omnipotent Halo locked space and time itself. Both the Beast Emperor and Rizevim froze within its dimensional prison, unable to move.
"Look carefully," Takeyo said, addressing the assembled gods. "When you can't even do something this simple, what qualifications do you have to make demands?"
He spread his hands in a gesture that managed to be both casual and commanding.
Silence gripped the battlefield.
The gods, beings who'd existed for millennia, who commanded the faith of nations, who could reshape continents with their power, found themselves without words.
We're supposed to be the gods...
"CRACK!"
The sky shattered again.
But the presence that emerged this time made even the previous shocking revelations pale in comparison. The being that appeared in the void radiated such overwhelming chaotic energy, such abundant, almost infinite, power, that it defied comprehension.
"The Infinite Dragon God... Ophis!"
The small figure, petite despite the universe-shaking might she commanded, descended toward the battlefield.
"What is Ophis doing here?"
"Could the Infinite Dragon God be here to deal with the Beast Emperor?"
Confusion rippled through the ranks again. Ophis had never shown interest in worldly conflicts before. Her single-minded obsession with reclaiming the Dimensional Gap from Great Red was legendary.
Then, as every eye watched in disbelief, Ophis floated directly to Takeyo. She wrapped her arms around him in an embrace, completely ignoring the assembly of the world's most powerful beings, and declared in her flat, emotionless voice:
"My Contractor."
Her nose twitched slightly as she inhaled his scent. Takeyo's presence had always brought her comfort, a warmth she didn't fully understand but cherished nonetheless.
Though Ophis had developed some emotional capacity under Takeyo's influence, this situation barely registered as worth being shy about. Public display or private moment, it was all the same to a being born from the void of Infinity itself.
But to the gods watching?
"WHAT?!"
"Even Ophis has taken his side?!"
"The Infinite Dragon God, who's always been a force of pure chaos with no allegiances, she's declared her position?"
The shock hadn't even begun to settle when they felt it.
Another dragon's presence. Another overwhelming display of power.
If Ophis's aura was vast and chaotic, this new presence was even more magnificent, more primal. The broken sky revealed a massive form, scales gleaming true red in the fragmented light. The dragon's body radiated power and sanctity in equal measure, a sense of terrible perfection.
The Great Red Dragon, the Dream Dragon, descended into the material world.
God Emperor Red Dragon.
Great Red himself.
The strongest combat entity in all of DxD, the being whose very existence maintained the balance of the Dimensional Gap, whose power made even Ophis cautious about direct confrontation.
"The power of our world needs to be united," Great Red's voice rumbled across the battlefield, carrying the weight of eons.
Though the words sounded grand and authoritative, Takeyo knew the truth, Great Red was absolutely hamming it up, putting on a show of cosmic importance when he was probably just enjoying the drama.
"What the hell is happening today?!" a minor deity practically screamed. "The most powerful beings in the entire world are all gathering here! Is the threat from the other world really this severe?!"
"Great Red, the Infinite Dragon God, the Biblical God, and the Beast Emperor, all beings who would require dozens of Chief Gods working together to even approach matching!" Another voice, tinged with desperation. "They're all present! They've all reached an agreement!"
"That's not even the most terrifying part," someone whispered, true fear creeping into their voice. "The most terrifying thing is that these beings of ultimate power have united behind that young man."
Yes. That was the truth that was slowly, horrifyingly dawning on them all.
Every entity present, Great Red, Ophis, the Biblical God, even the sealed Beast Emperor, operated at a level where it would take multiple top-tier Chief Gods working in perfect coordination just to face one of them.
And they'd all aligned with Takeyo Kagutsuchi.
The young man who smiled calmly in the center of it all, as if standing at the nexus of ultimate power was the most natural thing in the world.