Bell ran across the narrow streets of Orario. Goddess Hestia on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Goddess Astraea clinging tightly to him.
The Level 3 Viola was hot on their heels.
59 seconds.
Bell kept a peripheral eye on the women from Loki Familia while running. The Sword Princess moved first, a sonic boom resounding across the area as she moved beyond the speed of sound with her bare body in seconds.
Ais was standing there one moment, the next she was already above a Level 4 Viola. Her sword tore through it with ease.
He moved his gaze away from her. His eyes narrowing towards the Crusher and Jormungand. Those amazon sisters swung their weapons with such brute force that it shook the stalls in their surroundings.
Bell's eyes moved further to their flank. The Thousand Elf Lefiya was standing there, magic being performed by her with absurd mastery.
58 seconds.
Now that he had watched them fight, that too without even getting serious. He was sure that as he was now, he was nowhere near their level, even with all his abilities.
But, that was merely right now. As for the future, who knew?
A Eight Handled Wheel tattoo materialised between his brow. It's handles shaking slightly.
He bought his gaze back to his own escape route. Tightening his hold over the Goddesses, he sprinted faster. The Viola chasing him moved faster in response, It's tentacle like branches sliding across the ground.
Bell reached a place he had specifically set up to trap the Viola and had both the Goddesses stand on their legs. His hand fumbled through his pocket, pulling out a match.
He lit the match by rubbing it against the floor.
Whoosh.
"Listen to me closely, Goddess Astraea. I want you to take Goddess Hestia with you deeper into the streets, away from here. Ideally to the guild, you'd be safe there."
Bell spoke while looking at a straight line of liquid dividing the whole street in two.
"But, what about you Bell?" Goddess Hestia asked in worry. Goddess Astraea's eyes carrying the same worry.
57 seconds.
"I'll come back, after all we still haven't tried the cooking you were bragging about earlier, Goddess Hestia." He spoke reassuringly while lowering his hand holding the lit matchstick close to the liquid lying across the floor.
"Take care." Bell looked into Goddess Astraea's eyes with difficulty, yet still reassured her with his eyes, no extra words were needed between them.
The Level 3 Viola was just behind him, the distance between them decreasing every moment.
"B-But, Bell...." Goddess Hestia looked uncertainly at him and the monstrosity looming closer to them, panic in her eyes.
"Trust him, Hestia." Goddess Astraea spoke while holding onto Hestia's hand, dragging her backwards and away.
A flame roared into existence in a straight line, dividing the whole street into two different areas. The refined lamp oil catching fire, which he had set up long ago.
56 seconds.
Bell turned to face the Viola rushing towards him. His gaze turned serious. [Ittou Shura] burned his vitality. Strength flooded his body. [Instinct (A)] showed him a golden path to victory.
The Wheel tattoo between his brows started to shake faster.
He unsheathed his sword, throwing both the match and sheath aside. His focus sharpening to the extreme.
Bell started running towards the Viola.
55 seconds.
He jumped after getting close to it. His sword swinging from a blind spot to sever a tentacle like branch.
Shing. Crack.
Sparks erupted. His sword did not pierce through. Just left a small mark where the sword met the branch.
Another tentacle branch lashed towards him at subsonic speed. Bell was already tilting his torso backwards, his instincts showing him how to dodge.
Shrr.
Yet, even though his instincts showed him how to dodge a whole second before. His body could barely keep up at subsonic speed.
A gnash was torn open across his arm, blood flowing continuously from the wound.
54 seconds.
Bell slid backwards. Creating some distance between him and the Viola, his gaze on his wound.
'The Viola is fast, too fast. I knew a peak Level 3 Adventurer could briefly break the sound barrier. This Viola apparently could move it's tentacles at subsonic speeds.'
'Conclusion was reached. He could not go head to head with this Viola.'
Bell ran back towards the Viola. This time weaving around it instead of fighting against it head on.
53 seconds.
He parried a branch aimed at his shoulder with a swing.
52 seconds.
He dodged a plant bullet aimed at his temple.
51 seconds.
He was sneak attacked from behind, barely dodging. A bloody gnash opening across his back.
50 seconds.*Click*
The Wheel tattoo between his brows spun for the first time.
49 seconds.
His boots left sparks against the ground. [Ittou Shura] revolving in high gear.
48 seconds.
Steam escaped his pores. Lifeforce being brutally turned into pure stats.
46. 45. 44. 43. 42
Seconds elapsed as he dodged, parried and held on even while being pushed back.
Blood flew from wounds covering his body in doves. Yet, the flames in his eyes refused to fade, burning fiercer instead.
30 seconds. *Click*
'It is time...' Bell concluded after only 30 seconds were left till he could maintain [Ittou Shura].
He took out a vial of blood from his other pocket, gaze complex.
Blood of Welf Crozzo, or rather the Blood of a Spirit.
To get this, he had stalked Welf in the morning when he went to unwind in the taverns. There, he bought free ale for everyone in the tavern while crying inwardly about his recently earned valis.
After getting the whole tavern drunk in the morning, he helped Welf back to his Familia after getting acquainted with him.
Though midway through the journey, he knocked the defenseless Welf unconscious, taking a vial of his blood before sending him back to the Hephaestus Familia after applying a healing potion to the incision he made.
He would make it up to Welf later for his actions.
'Don't disappoint me, Wheel. I'm counting on you.' Bell muttered inwardly while taking a desperate gulp of the blood, gagging at the sensation.
He dodged another swipe of branches while pouring the leftover blood on his wounds, letting the foreign blood mix and start to flow inside his veins.
The revolving of the Wheel tattoo intensified.
20 seconds. *Click*
Bell ran around the Viola. Swinging his sword at her body, leaving shallow wounds behind.
19 seconds. *Click*
They exchanged countless moves, their movements tearing the air apart, afterimages left in their wake.
Clank. Clank. Clank.
18 seconds. *Click*
Wounds accumulated across his body. His now luminescent red blood falling on the floor.
17 seconds. *Click*
He was backhanded across the face by three tentacle branches attacking at once. His body flew across the sky, blood leaking from his lips.
16 seconds. *Click*
Bell's back collided against a wall nearby, luminescent blood dripping across the wall. His body felt weaker than before, his gaze blurring.
Something was fundamentally changing in his blood.
15 seconds. *Click*
He pulled his back away from the wall, his legs shaking slightly, his eyes seeing two Violas instead of one.
14 seconds. *Click*
Bell took a single step forward, his own heartbeat resounding across his ears.
Thump.
He folded his back backward, his crown nearly touching the floor. A subsonic branch passed by where his upper body was a moment ago.
Bell pulled his back straight as he closed his eyes. No longer relying on sight to see, believing in his [Instinct (A)] to guide him.
13 seconds. *Click*
Darkness swallowed his sight, the golden pathways to victory shining brightly in absolute darkness.
He walked closer to the Viola, his eyes closed, heart thumping with vitality.
Bell let himself fall sideways, tilting his own center of gravity towards his side. Ten plant bullets whizzed past his ear, puncturing the huge amount of crates close to the wall behind him.
Lamp oil leaked from the punctured holes of the crates, dripping and mixing with the luminescent blood across the floor and his boots.
These were crates he had specifically ordered from a shop in Orario, with the excuse of getting such a large quantity to burn lamps for a whole year without needing to restock for oil.
12 seconds. *Click*
He balanced his sideways falling body by anchoring his other leg against the ground. His boot skidding across the blood and oil mixture, mixing them further.
11 seconds. *Click*
Bell started to run around the Viola, eyes closed, feeling a progressive weakness in his limbs as the mixture stuck on the bottom of his boots was being spread across the ground.
10 seconds. *Click*
Golden pathways shone brightly against the backdrop of darkness as he dodged once, twice, thrice.
9 seconds. *Click*
His stomach was hit, luminescent blood falling to the ground in large quantities. He felt light headed with all the blood loss.
8 seconds. *Click*
Bell clenched his teeth so tightly that they creaked, his stomach had a large laceration, going all the way from his stomach to his small intestines.
Even in pain, he still heard the sloshing of oil mixing with blood.
7 seconds. *Click*
He followed his instincts blindly, dodging the rotating branches coming for him. His hand holding his sword tightened.
6 seconds. *Click*
His speed increased exponentially, only flashes of afterimages were left behind as he closed the distance between them.
5 seconds. *Click*
Bell reached the Viola, his momentum being converted into arm strength for a final swing.
4 seconds. *Click*
Bell put every ounce of strength he had left in that swing.
BOOOM!
Sound barrier was torn apart for a moment, his sword reaching untold speeds.
Bell had broken through his limits. Doing something only a peak Level 3 adventurer could do.
3 seconds *Click*
His sword moved so fast that not even afterimages were left behind, aiming straight for the Viola's neck.
The Viola's instinct's screamed danger.
It too instinctively broke through it's own limits in a life and death moment.
It tilted it's own head backwards in a pure instinctive movement. It's neck going outside the swing radius of Bell's sword by a hair's breath.
His eyes expanded in surprise, his instincts screaming that his sword was about to miss.
Bell hardened his closed eyes, all the golden paths to victory converging into a singular path.
He gritted his teeth in fear. Dislocating his own shoulder mid swing, to give a little bit of extra reach to his swing.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" A scream tore across his lips as his sword tore halfway through the Viola's neck.
His sword groaned under the pressure of forcefully severing dead plant tissues and broke with a crack.
2 seconds. *Click*
Bell pulled his hand away from the sword's handle and held onto his dislocated shoulder. His screams echoing across the area.
A single tentacle branch swung from somewhere, directly making him fly across the air, dragging his broken body across the ground, resting just before the fire dividing the street in two from earlier.
1 second. *Click*
Bell looked through blood covered eyes at the Viola sliding towards him. It's neck half severed, no doubt a grave injury.
But not life threatening.
It's main weak point was the monster stone between it's chest, but piercing through it's tough roots was almost impossible for him.
So, he had went after it's neck, hoping to sever it in one go.
Unfortunately, It didn't work out.
0 second. *Click*
[Ittou Shura] deactivated, leaving him so weak that even moving made his whole body ache.
The Viola stood above him, triumph in it's gaze and posture.
Yet, instead of despair, Bell's face was alight with a slight smile as luminescent red blood dripped from his whole body.
*Click*
What would happen if he transfused Spirit Blood in his bloodstream? How would his Wheel adapt to another bloodline wreaking havoc inside his body?
*Click*
Would it make his blood resistant to Spirits? Would it make his blood Immune to Spirits?
After Immunity, what then?
*Click*
Would it make his very blood poison to anything related to Spirits?
What is the weakness of plants? Fire.
Then what would happen if his blood, which became poison to spirits, was mixed with a huge ton of flammable lamp oil?
What would happen if he ignited this mixture by a heat so high that the water inside his blood would evaporate and make the leftover mixture reach the ignition point for flammable oil?
*Click*
It would be pure devastation.
A coffin specially prepared by Bell for the Viola.
The Viola was merely a henchmen of a Demi-Spirit.
It was about to be the first in the world of *Danmachi* to be nuked right in the face.
*Click*
"Grega...." Bell spoke as the wheel spinning between his brows finally spun for the last time.
[Grega] (Flame) was the lowest grade of fire magic from the world of a certain Demon King Of Tyranny, *The Misfit Of Demon King Academy*. His version of [Grega] was a bit different, apparently it was specifically [Grega (Evolveable)].
The lowest rank of fire magic from that world, which could theoretically evolve to the highest rank fire magic [Jio Graze] from that world with practice and Level ups.
[Jio Graze] (Hell Annihilation Ash Mortar) was a magic so overpowered that when cast by Anos, a second sun seemed to appear in the sky.
Embers lit up between Bell's hand as the Viola loomed over him, It's disdain palpable at the embers between his hand.
His mana was nearly 0 on his stat sheet, so he couldn't even conjure a small fire ball.
He lay on the floor, the fire dividing the street in two just ahead of him.
Bell bought those embers close to that flaming line dividing the street and watched as the spell acted like a starved monster, devouring those flames to grow into a fire ball the size of a small ball.
It floated up from his hand. It's size increasing as it devoured the fire ruthlessly.
Basketball size.
Gym ball size.
Giant Inflatable ball size.
This showed just how complex and powerful even simple spells from the Demon King Of Tyranny's world could be, devouring all the fire nearby casually to grow in size and temperature.
The temperature rose across the whole street, water being evaporated by the heat.
Bell watched as the Viola started panicking, it's focus now on [Grega]. He gazed down towards the floor—watching the water evaporate from the luminescent blood all over the ground.
'Come on [Ittou Shura]...just work for 1 more second...' Bell thought inwardly while looking at the Viola which was stumbling back in fear. The [Grega] falling towards the ground.
As Bell felt the heat spike in his surroundings, the oil started to sizzle. On the verge of being ignited.
'Burn as much life as you want....just work for 1 single second.' Bell muttered inwardly while death came close, both for him and the Viola.
He forcefully spun [Ittou Shura], countless internal injuries accumulating, yet no extraordinary strength filled his limbs.
His mind reminded him of Ikki Kurogane, the creator of this technique and the other technique he had created later.
'I don't need my vision.' Bell told himself as oil started to ignite, the Viola shrieking in terror.
Work!
Work!!
Work!!!
Bussshhhh
Tremendous strength suddenly filled his limbs, while he somehow, under the threat of death, forcefully deactivated his sense of vision.
All the extra energy used by his brain to process information was directed by [Ittou Shura] towards his limbs.
His ruby red eyes lost their light for a moment, turning fully dull red.
"Art is....Explosion." Bell screamed while running away from the street, the Viola also trying to slide away but was forcefully pulled back.
At some point in their fight, Bell had knotted one of it's tentacle branches across the crates from which lamp oil was still falling.
That one second hesitation was all it took for [Grega] to touch the ground full of inflammable lamp oil and his crusted blood, lethal against anything related to spirits.
BOOOOOOOOM!
Whole Orario shook.
The whole street was vaporized off the map.
The Viola was vaporised along with the street.
Bell was flung away even after running two streets away.
He fainted by aftereffects of the explosion and forceful deactivation of [Ittou Shura].
Only one thought resounded in his mind.
'Fuck Evilus.'