The Red Hand

After who knows how long, Halifax and Elariel separated from their bloody embrace. The Goddess had been dealt a devastating blow, but her Avatar's body was far more resilient than a normal person's, meaning that she wasn't in any real danger. Once Halifax withdrew her blade, Akagi allowed the Goddess to use a bit of her power to heal before sealing it again, pleased with this turn of events.

{When I woke up today, witnessing the Divine Blade run Lady Elariel through at the behest of the Demon Lord was NOT on my list of things I expected to see...} (Rebeckah)

"There we go." Akagi pat the red-faced Halifax on the back. "Do you feel better?" She didn't know whether Halifax would actually take her up on the offer, and was happy to see that she did.

"Strangely..." Halifax chuckled. "Yeah..." She faced Elariel, who finished fixing her outfit. "I can never forgive what you did to me... But... I think it's time I got past it..." She shook her head as she looked down at her blade. "I've never been able to stop thinking about what happened... It haunted me for so long... and I..." She took a deep breath before slapping both her cheeks. "Alright. Akagi, thank you. Thank you for letting me face my past."

{No more being bound by the past... I need to move forward. I've been in a rut for so long, and it's time to crawl out!} (Halifax)

"Twas nothing." Akagi shrugged as she sat back down and leaned on Yumi.

{Lets just call this an investment in the future.} (Akagi)

"Look at you, helping people out." Yumi said as she hugged Akagi. "I suppose seeing the nice Demon Lord is good every now and again." She knew full well that Akagi had taken a liking to the Sword, but was fully aware that the Demon always had an angle.

"Yeah, 'nice'..." Amakusa sighed. "Because tempting Halifax into skewering a Goddess is so nice." She wanted to say something during the whole blow-up, but Akagi's commands forced her to stay silent.

{Though... I never knew what it was that Elariel did to Halifax... Forcing her to... to kill all those people... I was right, the Gods of this world are all pricks.} (Amakusa)

"Regardless of the ethicacy of her methods, Akagi was right." Elariel's words came as a surprise to both Halifax and Rebeckah. "I failed to properly address Halifax's feelings for a thousand years. This was simply me getting what I deserved..."

{Frankly I deserve worse for what I did to her...} (Elariel)

"Lady Elariel, are you ok?" Rebeckah asked, worried that she was still injured.

"I'm alright." Elariel gave a wry smile. "Halifax's blade is strong, but that wound wasn't enough to destroy my Avatar's body. I've already repaired the damage and it don't think there should be any further problems." Taking such massive damage did hurt like hell, but Elariel wasn't about to complain.

"Alright then, if that whole thing is out of the way, can we please get back on track?" Amakusa was sick of the back and forth and digressions and wanted to tackle the main reason that they came to Enoris. "We came here to figure out how to stop the Gods, so let's do that... please..."

{We're wasting fucking time!} (Amakusa)

"I see that the pet has no understanding of doing this correctly." Akagi blew a raspberry, which was returned in kind. "Besides, having Halifax deal with her inner issues was an equally important part of this whole meeting, so this was anything but a waste of time."

"Really? You didn't mention that part to me?" Yumi retorted.

"I'm sure you just forgot." Akagi laughed, which got her a bonk on the head.

"Please don't just do things without telling others about the plans." Yumi sighed. "Though, at this point, I think I'm crying over spilled milk..."

"Getting back to the topic at hand, you said that you want to effectively usurp the Gods' position. If that's your goal then I can tell you that they're not going to just sit around and let you do what you want, nor will the people of this world be particularly receptive to your influence." Elariel shook her head. "Only three of us are against Gale's plan, and there's no way that we can stand against him and the others."

"Don't you worry your empty little head about that part." Akagi said while lying on Yumi's lap. "I just need to get into whatever heavenly realm that the other Gods use as their home. After that, it's a simple matter of beating the tar out of them until they submit."

*COUGH* *CHOKE*

Rebeckah choked on her own spit as she heard Akagi's words. "What?!?"

"I thought you were crazy, but those words right there prove it." Elariel sighed. "Even a Demon Lord cannot defeat nearly forty Gods in a straight-up fight. I don't care if you are more powerful than Vikes, that's not going to work."

{Gale alone is a force to be reckoned with and with all their powers combined on our home turf, there's now way anything could win against so many Gods.} (Elariel)

"I think I'll be fine." Akagi laughed. "If there anywhere near as weak as you, then I'll probably be able to handle it with ease." She figured that it would be more a matter of doing it in the most entertaining way, rather than being difficult.

"W-Weak..." Rebeckah never expected to hear the Goddess of Time called weak.

"Gale is the strongest of us. He is the God of Order, and it's his job to keep things running smoothly." Elariel explained the power levels of some of the Gods. "Admittedly due to my station as Goddess of Time, I'm quite powerful, and I'd say I'm probably only behind Teiera, Cheofla, and Gale when it comes to combat ability."

{Though its been a long time since any of us fought in earnest, so its likely that we aren't able to bring out our full potential.} (Elariel)

"So you're weaker than the God of War and the Goddess of Magic? I suppose that makes sense." Akagi hummed in thought as she sat up.

"Yes, but luckily, they're both on our side." Elariel commented.

"Wait, so the fucking God of War is okay with just dying?" Akagi was surprised to hear that a being born of desire for battle would be okay with vanishing. Halifax hadn't told her who the other Gods were that supported Elariel, and it seemed that even she was surprised by this revelation.

"Teiera has a sense of honor that wouldn't allow him to sacrifice others for his own survival." Elariel gave a wry smile.

"Huh. I always pegged him for a hardass." Amakusa commented. "He had that really annoying muddleheaded uncle attitude. I thought he just liked killing and destruction?"

"Unlike Korex, Teiera actually cares about the reason why blood is flowing." Elariel sighed.

{That's the God of Murder and Blood if I'm not mistaken. Chloe said something about investigating them if she had the time while hunting down some new recruits from Enoris' underworld.} (Akagi)

"And what about Cheofla?" Halifax asked as she took a seat. "Isn't she solely interested in magic and research? Why would she be okay with dying? I figured that she'd want to live so that she can keep learning."

"That's because Lady Chelofla has a personal vendetta against Lord Gale." Rebeckah explained. "She only agreed to the destruction of the Spirits because she believed that their sacrifice would save the world. She was basically a patron deity of theirs, and while they didn't outright worship her, they had a good relationship."

{I don't even want to imagine what kind of a shock it was to hear that she'd turned her back on them...} (Rebeckah)

"Damn. Well no wonder the Spirits were so angry." Akagi rolled her eyes. "They had that massive fucking knife in their back, and I can imagine that it hurt like hell."

"When she found out that Gale's real plan would only save the Gods, she was furious and started working to undermine his attempts at fleeing." Elariel continued. "The three of us are in a secret triumvirate, keeping up the appearance of supporting Gale while trying to stop him covertly."

{So far things have been going well, though we've not been able to do anything more than slow things down slightly.} (Elariel)

"Hence why you contacted me since my movements wouldn't arouse suspicion." Halifax nodded along.

"But, wouldn't you being here give away that you're planning something?" Amakusa figured that the Gods kept tabs on everything. "I mean, you're meeting with the Imperial Princess and Halifax and we did nothing to conceal our arrival." She figured that their cover was already blown.

"Mortals tend to overestimate just how omnipotent and all seeing we Gods can be.” Elariel gave a wry smile. “Its not like we can see everything that's happening in the material world, and most of us are simply too busy elsewhere to keep track of what goes on. Not to mention that Gale and the others are far too busy with ritual preparations to actually pay attention to any kind of meeting down here, even if it involves me." She shook her head. "As far as they know, I'm handling some errands, and for added safety, I've made it so our little conversation can't be listened in on by erecting a barrier around this office."

"Okay, then, let's just end this thing now." Halifax turned and looked at Akagi. "You can beat the Gods in a head-on fight, right?"

"I'm pretty sure that I can, yeah." Akagi yawned as she stretched.

"Then lets just open a portal to the Heavenly Realm right here and let Akagi run wild!" Halifax turned to Elariel. "If you do that, then this will be over in short order! So lets not waste any time!"

{We can end things in one foul swoop!} (Halifax)

"Sadly, I cannot." Elariel's words confused the Divine Blade.

"What?!? Why not?!? You've taken me back and forth plenty of times!" Halifax didn't understand why Elariel refused to take them.

{And you sent me to Earth! So how can't you do something this simple?!?} (Halifax)

“Because I am unable to do what you're requesting.” Elariel answered, and it was obvious from Halifax's face that she needed to elaborate. “Technically it is not my power that I use to transport people into or out of the Heavenly realm, as I borrow Reflia the Goddess of Space's power to do it.” Elariel corrected her misunderstanding. “Not only would she not allow me to transport a clearly hostile entity into our home, but even if she cooperated, opening a new connection between the Heavens and the Material world isn't feasible right now.” She gave a nervous laugh.

"It's due to realm instability, isn't it?" Akagi's guess was spot on, causing Elariel to flinch.

"Y-Yes." Elariel nodded. "As things have deteriorated over the decades we've noticed that the opening of connections between the different plains tends to worsen the instability of this world. The last time we attempted to open a traditional connection between two plains of existence, the resulting magical explosion vaporized an entire island.” She looked to Rebeckah. “I'm sure you recall reading about that event in your records.”

“If... If you're talking about the mysterious disappearance of the Island of Delava, then yes.” Rebeckah gave a wry smile. “I've read all about that...”

“Wait! That was you?!?” Halifax said in shock. “That island had nearly a million people living on it, and you mean to tell me that you idiots blew it to high hell?!?” Delava was a massive island off the eastern coast of the main continent which was an independent nation until it 'mysteriously vanished in a massive explosion' thirty years ago.

“We didn't realize it at the time, but Enoris' instability had gotten to the point that attempting to move between layers resulted in catastrophic consequences. Reflia picked Delava specifically because it had a large uninhabited mountain range at its center. The idea was that even a large explosion like we'd seen during prior connections wouldn't be a problem, and we never expected it to do that.” Elariel gave a defeated laugh.

{It was so powerful that it even killed our Avatars, and it was at that point that we knew something needed to be done to fix the world...} (Elariel)

“But wait, didn't you bring the Heroes into the Heavens to transport them to Earth?” Rebeckah asked. The Holy City hadn't exploded so she thought there was some kind loophole that they could exploit.

"Not exactly." Elariel shook her head. "In that instance, we overlapped the material plain with the Heavens in a small area. This enabled us to send them through the portal we prepared without creating a crossing point. And before you ask, doing that here would be pointless since it wouldn't allow you to reach the Gods." She also noted that the Spirits' flight had made transportation between worlds much easier and that there was little risk of issues as a result of the connection.

{I suspect that doing what she described would merely place you in an empty area with no way to get to the rest of the Gods or their individual realms if I had to bet.} (Akagi)

"Well, I had a feeling that things wouldn't be that easy anyway." Akagi smirked. She figured that just waltzing into the God's home and delivering a smack down would be unlikely, so she made backup plans.

“Wait, can't you just open a path with all your crazy Demon Lord power?” Halifax figured that Akagi would be strong enough to rip open a hole in space to pass through. “You did that to connect Earth and Enoris, so why not just do it here?”

“Oh I'm confident that I could easily do what you're asking.” Akagi's reply prompted a look on Halifax and Amakusa's face which said something along the lines of: Then why don't you do that?!?

“However, unlike when I opened a connection between Enoris and Earth, I lack the spacial coordinates necessary for the formation of a portal.” Akagi continued, question marks still over everyone's heads. “Now, even without said coordinates and dimensional data, I could still open a connection with brute force, but the problem with that method is that the amount of power required to do so would likely result in this reality collapsing due to its structural deficiencies. If we could somehow acquire the information that I need then I could safely open a portal as I could use less power, and thus I could easily contain any resulting explosion.” She looked to Elariel, hoping that she might have that information.

“Sadly I don't have that information. The only ones that would are Gale and Reflia, and neither are going to willingly give it up.” Elariel shot down any hope of acquiring that information easily. “And the only reason I was even able to sent Halifax to your world was because I hijacked part of the Hero transportation ritual to send her. Doing that required me to subtly transfer away power and it only barely worked.” She was very worried that the others would catch on, but it seemed that her plan had both worked and gone on undetected, despite the risk.

"Oh well, I guess I just need to do this my preferred way instead." Akagi laughed.

“Can't you just contain the explosion, and open the portal without the coordinates?” Yumi figured that Akagi would have more than enough power to do both at the same time.

“Hmmmmm.” Akagi thought for a moment before answering. “In that case, its not really the explosion that's the problem. Its really more of a question about whether this reality would survive me pumping it full of the required power.” She shrugged. “We can try it if you'd like, but my calculations project that doing so has a 90% chance to just destroy Enoris in the process.”

{And that's being fucking generous...} (Akagi)

“Lets not and say we did, please!” Halifax shook her head rapidly.

“So then we're stuck...” Amakusa sighed.

“I wouldn't start throwing in the towel as of yet, pet.” Akagi snickered. “We can still handle things, and I've got a few plans that I formulated just in case this happened.”

"???" Elariel tilted her head in confusion. "I mean, plan all you like, but if you can't get into the Heavens, then you'll never be able to properly defeat Gale or the other Gods. Most of them are hold up there doing preparations for Grand Ritual, and even if you destroy an Avatar, that will do nothing other than annoy whoever it is you attacked." Avatars were little more than constructs made of a God's power, and while losing one was annoying it could quickly be replaced.

{In order to kill one of us you'd need to destroy our real body which is basically an energy-like construct that we manipulate and reform at will. It rarely, if ever, leaves the Heavnly realm, and the problems with incarnation is why we rely on Avatars when we need to do anything directly.} (Elariel)

"Ah, but that's the neat part." Akagi sent a small tendril of her shadow toward Elariel. "You're wrong." The moment that it contacted her Avatar's body, Elariel felt a jolt run through her and could tell that her real body had also been touched by Akagi's power.

"What?!?" Elariel looked down at her arm, which showed no signs of harm "How did you? I felt that..."

"Fun fact! A God is tied to their Avatar via invisible pathways of energy." Akagi snapped her fingers and allowed her normally hidden shadow body to appear behind her, startling Amakusa. "While it's exactly not the same as what I do, the concept behind it is similar enough for my explanation." She turned and pointed to the small black thread that connected her 'real' body to the one she normally used. "You see, all one has to do is send power back up the other direction, and you can hit the real target." She winked before hiding her shadow again. “Simple!”

"That thing was scary..." Amakusa shuffled away from Akagi. "And you kept that thing near me the whole time without saying?!?"

{HOLY FUCK THAT THING WAS SCARY! I ALWAYS KNEW SHE WAS A FUCKING MONSTER!} (Amakusa)

"It's cute, isn't it?" Yumi giggled. “Sometimes I feed her treats while she's like that.”

{ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?!? IT HAD NIGHTMARE TEETH!} (Amakusa)

"So... You can kill a God..." Rebeckah slowly realized the implications of Akagi's words.

"By killing its Avatar." Akagi laughed, and the entire room, bar Yumi, was stunned into silence.