205 CHAPTER 205(Unstoppable VS Unstoppable)

Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)

Discord: https://discord.gg/K7f8qGpvuk

pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene

CHAPTER START---

Orario was buzzing with excitement. For the first time in recent history, the dungeon was truly empty.

Every adventurer was either in a pub or one of the many town squares where there were gods ready to view the event.

Betting had been escalating for the past few days as rumors and gut feelings change the odds.

"Twenty-Thousand on Ottar!" One man yells out, raising his hand with a bag of Valis and pushing through the crowd.

"Five-Thousand on Yang!" A woman says as she too tries to get to the betting tables.

While the city was absolutely electrified with excitement, the Loki familia was gathered in their own courtyard behind Twilight Manor. The goddess Loki sitting at one long table with her executives, her roughly one-hundred other adventurers gathered around on other tables or rugs on the floor, excitedly waiting for the show.

"So..." the goddesses voice cuts through the low conversations, "who are we gonna be betting on today?"

All the executives exchange silent glances before Finn speaks up. "Well, we're some of the only people that have had the...pleasure," he grimaces at the word, "of fighting both of them. We could barely keep Ottar occupied when Riveria, Gareth and I were level six and he was level seven."

"And Yang showed he could handle everyone but Ottar and his team at once when they had the prison break," Riveria says. "Not to mention he broke Durandal, seems like a simple answer on paper, at least as far as we know..."

"Except they both reached level eight," at Gareth's words Ais frowns slightly and stares down at the wooden table. "That makes anything we know useless if we actually consider what Yang said, right?"

"What changes at level eight?" Bete asks, being surprisingly civil at the moment.

"Gareth is right," Finn agrees. "He said...the dungeon has a pattern that he solved, a riddle I haven't been able to understand for the past few months, but this matters even more when you consider his interpretation of what it means to be a 'First Class Adventurer'. He said that above level five the actual level doesn't matter as much, the skills you have carry more weight. Zeus and Hera both had adventurers with skills and abilities that simply let them fight one or two levels above their current ranks. We already know Yang has skills like that but Ottar can as well, not to mention he has more experience fighting against other people, I don't think we can really be sure of how this fight ends."

"Well," Loki rubs her head, "flip a coin?"

---Babel Floor 82...

Smooth white stone floors and pillars, reinforced windows teacher from the floor to the ceiling on all sides, and bleachers carved from the same stone wrapping around the edge of the room.

This is what the observation floor of Babel contained. Allowing for the deities to enjoy the view of the city below, and on this day, observe the imminent duel.

Sitting on the bleachers were members of a few familias, the most notable of which was Ganesha's captain, Shakti, Apollo and his captain, Take and his children, and finally the host of this duel, Hermes, accompanied by his captain Asfi.

Sitting in the front row with more eyes than she'd ever feel comfortable with staring at her, Hephaestus impatiently taps her foot on the stone floor. "What could be taking her this long, she's five minutes late," she grits out.

Beside her Welf leans back and releases a deep breath, "she'll be here, she wants this more than most, remember," he says. His calm and carefree facade completely betrays the storm of anxiety within as he waits for Yang to once again fight for his dream.

"She's here," Thalie says, causing the adventurers in the room to give her strange looks. Sitting beside Welf, with Mikoto next to her enjoying some Coral Drops from floor 101.

A few seconds later the large stone doors are pushed open and in struts goddess Freya, in a flowing white gown that causes all heads to whip over to her. In her arms she carries a bottle of wine and a single wine glass, a devious yet victorious smirk on her face.

Beside her is her familia's main healer Heith, the woman having her right arm bandaged up in wraps to conceal recent 'injuries'.

"Sorry I'm late," she announces while raising the bottle. "I'm sure you can all understand that I needed my snack for the show."

"Didn't Yang cut you off?" Hephaestus asks as Freya and Heith take a seat beside her, signaling Hermes with a hand gesture to begin.

"Yang isn't here," Freya points out, handing Heith the bottle for the woman to fill her glass.

"I'll tell him," Hephaestus says with a teasing grin.

"Don't be like that," Freya pouts. "Besides you can't expect me not to have a bottle or two when they fight... please?"

"Ugh, whatever, you're hopeless..." Hephaestus grumbles.

"Alright," with a loud clap Hermes has everyone focused on him. Taking his place in the middle of the room he looks to the sky, "Ouranos, if you'd please..."

"Granted!" A voice like thunder echoes across the planet giving all gods permission to use a sliver of their power.

"Thank you," Hermes snaps his finger. Two large mirror-like ovals appear in mid-air. All gods had access to these, on the left was a Divine Mirror shifting to a view of Hermes as he continues. "Welcome everyone, we have a very special event today! A challenger has come for Ottar's crown as the King of Adventurers. Because of how spectacular this event is everyone around the world is watching, I'll be acting as your host, and with me..." he gestures to Hephaestus, Tsubaki, Thalie, and Welf. "The members of the challenger's familia, Goddess Hephaestus and her adventures."

The mirror showing Hermes shifts to show them. "This should be an exciting match," Hephaestus blurts out, already looking a bit nervous knowing the entire world was watching her. "I'll defer any commentary to Yang's team," she gestures to Welf and Thalie who immediately appear on the screen.

"And for the defenders, Orario's favorite goddess, Freya," Hermes announces, trying his best to act natural around Freya.

As she appears on the other Divine Mirror you could almost feel a tremor from all the hearts in Orario skipping a beat. "I have faith in Ottar, as long as he fights in my name, as my champion, he will never fall," Freya says calmly.

"Ha," Thalie barks out a laugh, "you actually think Ottar is gonna win this? Didn't think you had jokes, Freya."

Glancing over at the woman Freya takes a sip of her wine, "what goddess wouldn't have faith in her champion, besides, if Ottar wins my familia stays on top in the entire world, if Yang wins we have incredible celebration sex," she gives Thalie a sultry smile, "either way, I end on top tonight."

"Keep it in your pants," Thalie says, rolling her eyes at Freya.

Hermes awkwardly clears his throat, "right, well, let's get back to the match. I'm sure the people have been waiting long enough. Let's get the match started!"

Both screens shift to a large empty plain, dusty and dry grassless land in every direction. Far off in the distance, the tower of Babel looms over Orario, miles away from where this battle is set to take place.

On one screen Ottar replaces Freya. Standing strong and regally in full plate red armor, his head exposed for all to see with white trimmings. Two massive greatswords on his back.

"I don't think I've ever seen him in actual armor," Welf says as he focuses on the craftsmanship. A second later his eyes roam to the swords on Ottar's back, noticing something odd. "Those are the same sword?"

"Yes, they are," Freya confirms. "While you three were in the dungeon he cleared Udeaus and had a copy of his Supreme Black Sword made, for this specific event in fact."

"And now for our challenger," Hermes says as the second mirror shifts to Yang Shen, "uh..."

Everyone is left a bit speechless as the mirror shows Yang, sitting on a cloud, unarmed. His top seems completely normal whilst his legs are protected by his repaired pants from his armor.

"Um, is he on a cloud?" Hermes asks.

"Yeah, he tends to do that when he's relaxing," Thalie says.

As everyone is left wondering what the hell they're looking at Ottar approaches Yang, now only standing a hundred feet away. Raising a brow at the younger man he draws one of his greatswords. "Yang," he gives a polite nod.

"Ottar, you look---" Yang studies the full plate armor and extra swords for a second before he continues, "very prepared."

"I can't say the same to you," Ottar says. "Thank you for accepting my challenge," he says sincerely.

"Couldn't avoid it forever, sadly," Yang groans.

"What?" Hermes and everyone else finally realizes what they just said. "Ottar challenged Yang?"

"It's complicated," Freya says.

"Alright, Ouranos?"

"BEGIN!" the booming voice echoes across the planet once more.

As the signal is sent out, Ottar becomes a blur when he dashes forward, both swords already drawn and closing the distance to Yang.

Raising a brow and looking uninterested, Yang waves his hand and releases a horizontal tornado of swirling green wind.

'Wind,' Ottar notices Yang barely even moved for this instant attack, staking his swords into the ground to avoid being blown away, he sees the rock floor being torn apart in the column of wind as he holds his ground. Not even feeling more than a gentle breeze from Yang's opening attack.

As the attack ends Ottar sees Yang, still sitting on his cloud, fifty feet above the ground and a bit further away.

"I see," Ottar says in a low voice, "he fights like a mage... I need to get close."

Rushing ahead once more Ottar is bombarded by constant volleys of Wind, Ice, Water, and Fire. As massive blocks of ice rocket toward him, he slashes out, cleaving the blocks in two and running down the middle.

Seeing a pillar of flame looming down onto him he doesn't bat an eye at the blue flames and rushes into it. Feeling his skin burning but constantly healing, ignoring the pain and rushing forward in the straight line.

Noticing that his strategy isn't working Yang decides to simply remove Ottar's leverage, sweeping the legs.

A fifty-foot-tall wave crashes down, but the Boaz never stops. Even with his weight and the weight of his gear, he should have been swept off his feet, but he simply charged forward. Effectively running underwater and ignoring the force trying to pick him up.

His skill, Fortress, makes him incredibly difficult to move, much less overwhelm, acting as a stronger version of what few adventurers have, Stand Your Ground.

Running through the wave he closes in on Yang, catching the man off guard as he sees Ottar blast out of the water and begin slashing up at him.

"Huh, Diver?" Yang questions if the man has the underwater combat and movement skill.

As Ottar is only ten feet away he sees Yang smirk, then feels stone closing in around him.

Two large hands rise out of the earth and clasp around the Boaz, combining into one and throwing him back to his starting point where he easily breaks out of his Earth Prison.

As he frees himself Ottar looks at the distance between them, 'I need to get close and surprise him, or he'll just toss me away again, he fights like a mage but can displace me...' he immediately rushes off again.

Now standing on his cloud Yang holds a small blue flame in one hand, and a small tornado in the other. Mixing them together he says a name that only his team and the Loki familia would recognize.

"Pressure Damage," the blue swirling tornado rushes between both men and grows, swelling into a constantly crackling and popping vortex, pulling in the air from all directions as it expands more and more.

Seeing his chance Ottar rushing into the vortex, feeling his skin being incinerated slightly faster than it can heal, he endures the pain and makes a beeline toward Yang.

"I didn't expect Yang to fight like...this," Freya says. Many people around the world hear her and can't help but agree. "But I suppose it makes sense for the Elementalist to focus on his elements."

"That's not what this is," Thalie corrects her.

"What do you mean?"

"He isn't actually trying to hurt Ottar, much. He wants to see how much Ottar can take and how he fights, this isn't even a warmup, you should already know, Yang isn't normal."

As the blue tornado of fire explodes, Ottar makes it through to the other side.

He catches Yang off guard as the man was certainly never expecting someone to willingly brave that attack.

Slashing close enough to almost shave Yang's face as he dodges the greatsword, Ottar continues his onslaught. Constantly speeding up and striking with millimetric precision, constantly getting closer and closer to making a direct hit.

"Wow, so fast!" Yang says as he deftly avoids all the precise swings, now on the back end of this exchange as he's forced to constantly back away from Ottar.

"He's surprisingly light on his feet," Hephaestus points out.

"Ottar is a fortress," Freya says. "But his stats mean he's faster than most, and his experience means he can react and predict his opponents better than anyone else, almost anyone else," she glances over to Thalie, remembering her new Primal Awareness skill.

After a few moments of barely dodging attacks Yang leaps backward, before his feet touch the ground he's already summoned a longsword into his hand, the same longsword he always keeps on him for when a Switch-Axe is a bit much, which is generally anytime outside the dungeon.

As his feet touch the ground the clashing of metal overtakes the battlefield. The ground rumbles and cracks with every parry and block as the strength of two level-eight monsters go toe to toe.

Forced on the defense Yang has to contend with Ottar's nearly unmatched skill, experience, and reach. To the trained eyes watching, however, something stands out quite horrendously.

"He's not very good with swords, is he..." Heith quietly says.

Hephaestus sighs," apparently he has no sword talent, prefers using his hands."

"Oh, he told me that but I assumed he was being humble," Freya shakes her head as she turns back to Yang's mirror. "This is tragic..."

As the fight continues and they trade blows, Ottar feels himself accelerating. His perception is improving as well as his body, but something feels odd. The small increments should be enough, they should give him an opportunity to strike ten times over by now, but it hasn't.

He feels as if he's in a dream, trying to run and going nowhere, Yang's still barely avoids every strike.

After almost a minute of poking holes in Yang's sloppy swordsmanship, Ottar is finally comfortable enough to make larger moves.

With two quick slashes, he forces Yang to raise his sword to the right of his body. In the same instant, he suddenly blurs and brings up his other sword to slash at Yang's side.

Most men would be bisected by this attack, but Yang suddenly accelerates as he sees the surprise strike, moving his sword from the right while knocking away Ottar's blade and quickly defending to his left, knocking that blade away as well.

Ottar instantly leaps backward as he and everyone else come to the same conclusion.

"You've been holding back."

Yang looks like a child caught sneaking candy, completely guilt plastered across his face, "guess the facade is done huh?" Yang asks.

"I will never tire, and I will never surrender, take this seriously," Ottar says in a calm voice. "Anything less is an insult."

With a sigh Yang relents, he doesn't like it, but he understands. "Fine, let's take this seriously," he stores his sword away and takes an unarmed fighting stance.

"No sword?"

"I'm no good with it," Yang says.

"I noticed," Ottar says as he charges forward.

As they resume their previous positions, this time with Yang casually avoiding every strike, everyone now sees how much he was acting before.

"See," Yang says with a smile. "I can dodge all day." He completely disappears from Ottar's vision, not even a blur to follow in the eyes of the level-eight.

Instinctively knowing where to strike Ottar spins around and swings his blades clockwise in unison, only for them to stop.

Yang raised his hands and caught them with his bare fingers, completely stopping them mid-swing, inches from his face.

"Not that I ever really had to dodge," Yang jokes as he stamps Ottar in the torso.

The air shatters as Ottar rockets away for hundreds of meters, tumbling in the air and skidding on his feet, almost up to his ankles grinding into the earth before he stops, leaving two small trenches in his wake.

Looking up from his empty hands Ottar sees Yang landing nearby, the man stores both greatswords into his inventory and casually approaches. "So much power..." Ottar mutters thoughtfully, now having a better grasp of the situation.

"Not much of a fight left," Yang says. "Just surrender and we can wrap this up."

"No," Ottar clenches his and into tight fists, taking a deep breath as his skin begins to redden until it becomes a dark purple, his veins bulge and glow white as his muscles flex, brimming with power. "I am the champion of goddess Freya. I WILL NOT FALL!" his booming voice echoes across the battlefield on a wave of power, the calm and composed King is gone.

Yang barely reacts in time to avoid the sudden charging boar, the ground shakes with every step Ottar takes as his devotion is overflowing.

By the second hit Yang is ready and blocks the punch with his forearm, he feels his arm buckle under the power. 'What the fuck!' he screams inside as he reassesses the situation.

Suddenly shifting gears he begins taking the fight seriously, trading blows as if he were fighting a Monster-Rex.

While these men clash it felt as if they could shake the world, every hit breaking the very air. Faster than the eye could see their blows were connecting, creating a cacophonous thunder, rumbling out for dozens of miles.

Back in Orario the entire city was trembling, quakes from their clash reaching far and wide. Freya can see the wine in her glass shaking in tandem with each clash.

Locked in a stalemate both men clash while the world watches with mouths agape, the one-sided fight was suddenly even.

"How the hell is he doing that?" Thalie asks, genuinely amazed that Ottar was standing his ground against Yang.

"A combination of things," Freya explains. "His beastification, just like all the demi-humans, increases his abilities proportional to whatever species he is. Ottar is a Boaz, boar-human, that makes his physical enhancements second only to werewolves like Bete. But his new skill is doing most of the work."

"New skill?" Welf asks.

"Yes, a skill born from the love and commitment he has to his goddess," Freya says proudly. "Devoted Follower, it transforms devotion into power, into strength, into stamina, into whatever you need to continue fighting. And his only limit is his love and devotion to me. It also enhances his other skills like Stortus Ottar."

"That seems unfair," Welf grimaces at the thought.

"Yang is unfair," Freya points out, "with this Ottar should win."

As the clash escalates more and more the small tremors begin feeling like genuine earthquakes, shifting people in their seats and knocking things over in the city.

"Yang doesn't tell you much about what he can do, does he?" Thalie asks Freya.

"No, we don't really speak about his adventurers, it's a sore topic for us."

"Ahh...that's why you think Ottar can actually win," Hephaestus giggles at the idea.

Everyone had their eyes glued to the viewing mirrors in awe, hearing the explanation to Ottar's new skill and what he was doing with it.

Pushing Yang back.

Yang could feel his fingers cracking and breaking more and more with every clash of their fists.

And eventually, Ottar overcame his strength. With devotion growing more and more with this challenge placed in front of him, Ottar doesn't move as fast, but hits even harder than Yang.

Breaking Yang's right hand, crumpling the first with his own, following through with his punch and hitting Yang in the face, his fist almost blocking Yang's entire face and he sends him flying back, digging out a trench in the earth and sending a violent shockwave out destroying the surroundings for hundreds of meters.

As the dust is kicked up Ottar releases an epic roar to the skies before taking a deep breath. Devotion still flowing through him, long gone is the calm and precise King of Adventurers, now only Freya's champion remains.

Ottar begins walking forward when a wave of magic pulses across the area.

The dust is blown away to reveal Yang, standing with his hand already completely healed, blue flames and purple lightning dancing around his body with his Mage Armor active, and a manic smile on his face.

"You're strong..." was all he said before rushing forward.

As the battle continues Ottar found himself struggling once more, the slight advantage he had just built was completely gone as soon as Yang activated his other skills. Constantly healing from his Mage Armor as well as it increasing his offensive power, it was just too much.

As the battle continues Yang is able to do something he can rarely afford, to actually relax his mind.

For the sake of not destroying, everything, he always has to keep his magic in check. But this, this was all about showing off just what he could really do.

As they clash more and more, the sky shifts, the cloudless sunny day suddenly begins forming clouds. Lightning begins striking onto the battlefield, onto Yang. The ground melts and bubbles, erupting like hundreds of volcanoes for miles in every direction, all while the temperature becomes colder and colder. Harsh winds battering houses and trees, all the way to Orario these repercussions are felt.

People huddle under tables and away from weak buildings as the quakes only get stronger and stronger. All while Ottar is barely keeping up.

"What the hell is going on?!" Hermes cries out as he holds Asfi to steady himself with the constant quakes.

"It's Yang," Thalie says.

"Obviously, but why is he attacking us?" Hermes demands, echoing the words of everyone who was listening in while the fight kept raging.

"He's not," Welf says. "This is how his magic works. He doesn't have spells, his magic is always on. If he stops restraining it then this happens, he's a walking talking extinction event. Normally when we fight monsters he has to be careful of how wasteful he is with magic, but up here it's no problem. Once he starts it's pretty much impossible to stop him without a stronger monster that can drop him in one hit."

"That's a scary thought," Hermes quietly says.

"Yeah, good thing he doesn't like fighting people huh," Welf leaves them with this piece of information, making everyone feel much safer.

As everyone turns their attention back to the fights, trying to bear with the constant quakes, Yang's magic shifts into a higher gear.

Deciding to overpower Ottar he activates his Elemental Wheel for his two most powerful offensive elements. Half lightning and half fire.

With the sudden change in his magic output, he disappears.

The Divine Mirrors show whatever they're viewing in real-time, absolutely no delay, yet all anyone saw was Ottar being knocked around hundreds of meters at a time, by nothing.

"GrrrRAAAAHHHH!" Ottar releases a manic roar as his body pulses with another surge of devotion. Thoughts of his goddess, thoughts of failing her, thoughts of bringing her victory, all flooding his mind.

His eyes glow bright white, perception and speed increase to the point that he can see Yang with lightning crackling proudly all across his body, and Ottar disappears as well.

"Wow, that's ridiculous," Finn says. "I can't even see them, I doubt my magic would be able too either."

Back at Babel, everyone else was having the same problem, all they could see were rivers of lava being melted into the ground and craters forming. Lightning cracked all across the battlefield and the quakes at their feet increased more and more.

"Thalie?" Hephaestus asks.

"On it," Thalie says, sitting casually while her War God's Blessing activates. The golden magic armor covered her body for all to see, much to the amazement of Mikoto who absentmindedly began poking at the armor. "I can see them now, barely," Thalie says.

"They're...my gods..." she mutters in disbelief.

The world listened in silence as she told them what she saw. All about how with every hit Yang would break Ottar's bones, and his muscles would flex the bones back into place while he immediately healed between blows. About all the hits he would land only for the Mage Armor to soften them as Yang counter attacks.

"It's, ridiculous," she concluded. Both men appear as slight blurs to her incredibly enhanced perception.

"Shit," Thalie grumbles a minute later as she sees something dangerous, truly dangerous. For a split second, Yang's Chaos Mark bloomed in conjunction with his barrage of strikes. And a moment after the word left her lips, they became visible for all to see.

A pool of blood below Ottar as she stands with Yang's elbow in his chest, arm piercing his right lung and reaching out of his back.

The manic smile on Yang's face falls as he realizes what he's done, realizes his Adrenal Overdrive got too far out of control, snapping out of his Chaos Mark his magic deactivates as silence falls over the battlefield. "Wha-I---"

"Raaaaaahhhhhhh!" Ottar releases another battlecry as he reaches down and grabs Yang, tearing him off the ground and slamming him into the ground.

Shifting above Yang he immediately beings pummeling the younger man, his massive fists constantly crashing into Yang's face like a beast with a one-track mind.

Everyone watches as the blood falls out of the gaping hole in his chest and onto Yang who desperately tries to defend himself, having lost his edge when his skills and magic deactivated.

Any remaining blood on Ottar evaporates as red mist, clearing to reveal that the hole in his chest is now completely healed, as if it were never there.

"He healed from that, what the heck is he," Hephaestus grimaces at the memory of the wound, the fact that they saw through Ottar would be a memory that haunts her for years.

"Nothing will stop his devotion," Freya says with a pleased smile, "it's his purpose after all, to be my champion."

After a few seconds of being a punching bag, Yang had enough. The blood-red glow of his Chaos Mark blooms once more, in tandem with his mage armor, punching Ottar square in the jaw. Knocking the man hundreds of feet away from Yang where he skids to a stop on his feet.

As Ottar looks up at Yang he raises a hand to his face, setting his jaw back into place and holding it still for the split to repair itself, his shattered neck already healed before he touched the ground.

"You can heal all you want, but I can break you, and I'll keep breaking you!" Yang declares loudly, letting his adrenaline and chaos take over as he begins his onslaught.

The most bloody two-person battle of all time ensues, both men constantly flickering in and out of view only to appear covered in Ottar's blood, red mist always wafting off their bodies as it burns up. The stench of burnt meat and charred flesh spread out across the area, all while Yang's magic tears apart the world around them.

Just before the citizens of Orario felt as if the world was going to end, however, the battle came to its climax.

Knocking Ottar away with six gaping holes punched in his torso, Yang watches the man stay on his feet, refusing to fall.

"I can do this forever! Can you?!" Yang boasts proudly, his manic smile couldn't spread any further, giving an uneasy feeling everyone watching got as the red mist was leaving his body, mixing with his blue flames and purple lightning.

"Then end it if you can, give me your best!" Ottar challenges the Elementalist.

"Hahahaha, YES!" Yang's magic spreads even further. The air from the battlefield all the way to Orario miles away becomes so dense with magic that for certain people it became harder to breathe.

Focusing everything he has he spreads his hands out to either side and draws on more magic than ever before.

A pillar of pure white, neutral magic shoots into the sky, the width dwarfing Babel as it pierces the lightning storm in the sky and extends past where anyone could see.

"What's he doing?" Freya asks, shifting uncomfortably in her seat.

"Hmmm," Thalie thinks about it for a moment, still in her magic armor. "If he's releasing neutral magic then, probably something he hasn't perfected yet. Yang can't actually use neutral magic, but some gets leaked out with every elemental attack, better control the less gets wasted."

"That much magic-" Asfi chokes on her words for a moment, leaning forward to catch herself on Hermes, "I didn't know that much magic could exist."

"Asfi? Are you ok?" Hermes asks.

"I'm...fi---" Asfi immediately begins seizing, her entire body stiffening like a plank as she spasms uncontrollably and she bleeds from her ears, nose, and eyes.

"Heith," Freya says, and the healer immediately goes to help the woman. "What's going on with her?"

"I don't know, she seems completely healthy," Heith says as she quickly checks with her magic, unfortunately, it does nothing to help her.

Over at Loki familia, many people were suffering the same fate.

"What the hell is going on!" Loki cries out as she watches her entire squad of Elves falls to the floor, spasming and bleeding from their eyes, nose, and ears. "Riveria, heal them!"

"I can't!" Riveria shouts back, panic overtaking niceties for a moment. Cradling Lefiya in her arms while the girl suffers the same fate as countless others, all while Riveria is bleeding from her eyes and nose but is otherwise fine.

"What's going on?" Finn asks.

"It's his magic, I'm controlling mine but he's too much."

"What?" Tiona asks, "you mean Yang?"

"Yes, magic naturally clashes with magic. If someone releases neutral magic into the atmosphere it naturally challenges everyone. People who are sensitive to it can pick up on this, but because of how rare it is to get someone with enough magic to be a threat its hard to train yourself to not instinctively clash with them, Hera's empress gave me enough practice in our clashes with her, but these adventurers have never had that, and even she couldn't do this while standing in the same room as them. The weaker magic always loses, and this is what it looks like."

"So they aren't strong enough and he's killing them with his magic accidentally," Bete summarises, giving the dying Elves a bored glance.

"They won't die," Riveria gently strokes Lefiya's head. "It just hurts, so so much..."

As the magic-sensitive people for miles in every direction were having their own problems, Yang finally formulated his attack.

All the magic he released into the air was suddenly torn away from the atmosphere, literally taking some people's breath away in the process, while allowing Riveria to finally breathe without feeling suffocated.

The pillar of neutral magic quickly condensed down between Yang's hands, emerging as a sphere of blue flames, like a small sun in his hands. For miles around him, everything began melting and dying. As if the ground were the top of a volcano preparing to erupt.

"Noooooo," Welf says in genuine fear, most of the things in this fight hadn't fazed the members of the Trifecta, but this was actually dangerous. Hearing his tone everyone moved their eyes to him.

"What, what is that?" Freya asks with concern.

As the small sun condenses down further and further, looking like a sparkling star, a sparkling Sapphire.

"The Sapphire of the Emperor," Thalie says in disbelief, "did he forget Orario is only a few miles away?"

"Gods damn it! YANG!" Welf screams into his message ring, trying to get through to Yang. "Orario is only a few miles away, tone it down!"

As he's pacing around trying to contact Yang, the entire world is hearing this conversation.

"Is it that bad?" Freya asks.

"It's probably his second most lethal move," Thalie says. "Only because 'Shatter' is all about killing things from the inside, but this is about destruction."

As everyone prepares for what could be their end, saying their goodbyes and prayers, Thalie walks to the window and looks out to the fight. The bright blue light outshining the sun in the sky, blinding anyone who looks toward the battle.

As Ottar's vision is washed over by the blue light he thinks of his goddess. He thinks of how proud she is, that he could fight like this, for her.

That he's come this far, all for her.

And he smiles, knowing that even if he loses here, she would still have Yang Shen by her side.

The sounds of what people could mistake as a world-ending explosion echoes out across the continent. For hundreds of miles, everyone could hear the boom and cracks, all the fire and wind magic exploding at once, and the earth succumbing to the power of the Sapphire.

When the people of Orario open their eyes, happy and surprised to be alive, the magic in the air is gone and the world is silently still.

Looking toward the Divine Mirrors as the remaining flames clear out, Hermes controls the mirrors to give everyone an overhead view.

Orario, a circular city ten miles wide, and only a few miles away, a crater for over half the size of this city. A pit forms in their gut at the sight, suddenly feeling both horrified at the thought of someone having that much power, and relieved that such a person was standing between them and monsters.

Leaving one mirror on the overhead view he commands the other to find Yang Shen.

What they see is him hovering, as if standing in the air using flames under his feet, completely fine. His shirt is completely gone and the pants he's wearing from his new armor almost falling apart.

Taking a deep breath he raises his metal hand to his mouth and speaks.

"Welf?" he asks.

"Yeah, we're here," Welf confirms.

"Yeah, thanks for reminding me, kinda got carried away, but I pulled back over half the magic in time, I can't see Ottar..."

Hearing this Hermes commands the mirror to shift from Yang to Ottar, and all he sees is a pile of rubble at the edge of the crater.

After a few moments, the rubble begins moving.

"He's... alive?" Welf says with much uncertainty.

The charred and mangled body of Ottar, completely roasted and blackened, unrecognizable aside from his 7ft tall figure, walks out of the rubble. Forcing himself to stand on two broken legs as he looks up at Yang in the air.

The skin on his face breaks and cracks as he forces his mouth open, tearing his lips that were burnt completely shut apart once more.

"G-goddess...Freya," he says with the last of his energy before taking a well-deserved rest.

Fading away to darkness still standing on his feet, Freya's champion that till the very end of his challenge, never once fell.

"OTTAR IS UNCONSCIOUS! YANG SHEN HAS WON!" Hermes cheers loudly, trying to snap everyone out of the horrifying atmosphere as they realize how close Orario came to destruction.

A few moments later as everyone is trying to fix the mood in the city, Yang is standing in front of Ottar, the man still standing but completely unconscious.

"You really refused to go down huh, no wonder you were the king, before me at least," he says with a small smirk, allowing his pride to take hold only a little bit to enjoy his victory. "Let's get you back to Freya," he says before withdrawing a case of high-end Elixirs, having to heal Ottar at least a little bit before moving him.

With the divine mirrors still active everyone either cheers or cries depending on who there were rooting for, or more likely betting on.

As they watch him heal Ottar Freya has an excited smile on her face, "King Yang Shen? Sounds a bit off..." she ponders.

"Yang is gonna hate that," Welf says. "He'll want his name to remain Elementalist Yang Shen, he's not the king of anyone."

"He's the king of the dungeon," Heith points out.

"Don't be ridiculous," Hephaestus interjects, "he's my child so I get to name him, and he already decided it for himself, Emperor Yang Shen, his attack was Sapphire of the Emperor after all."

"Hmm," Freya considers it for a moment, "he'll still hate it, what about, Dungeon Emperor Yang Shen?"

END CHAPTER---

I hate writing fight scenes and this is basically mandatory in danmachi fanfics, so I had to make it good. Sorry it took so long :/