40 issue #39: X, The Contract

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Issue #39: X, The Contract.

(Kane's P.O.V)

Man, I'm beat.

That's what going ham on uncountable number of souls by frying them with a non stop fire barrage does to you.

The attacks ranged from fireballs to heatwaves to firestorms.

It had only been ten minutes and yet it felt like an hour had gone by.

By now I could comfortably control the flames to not only add a thrust to my jumps, essentially granting me flight, I could also build a more complex construct like Wings of fire to help with maneuvering.

From a sphere to wings, I wonder what other complex constructs I could create. That was sadly something I had to reserve for training.

But...I don't see why I can't start right here. While it was borderline disrespect to these souls, they were the perfect dummies to test my skills on.

I committed to another twirl, flying along the cliff wall while letting out a controlled jet of flames from my right palm. I left a wall of fire burning behind me, blocking the way to the cliff.

By now I had no idea how many souls had succumbed to my flames. But I still felt clunky when using them. It wasn't as natural as my other powers.

How should I say this, it didn't feel economical enough.

I turned my attention to another side of the battlefield and gaped as Rhadamanthus continued to wreak havoc with his lightning.

His divine aura was condensed around his form tightly, and any lightning streak he blasted out, while seemingly chaotic was actually fully under his control.

Flapping my wings to slow down, I remained suspended in the air for a few seconds, just studying his form and application.

I wonder if compressing my flames would add more power to them.

At the same time, Spyra and I were connected to any flames burning in the battlefield, which included even Cerberus'. Though trying to manipulate his fire felt like trying to scoop up water with a bucket full of holes.

"You handle the detractors."

I told my Spider Totem as she materialized onto my shoulder.

"There's something I need to try."

The Spider disappeared from my shoulder in a flash of heat.

-Spyra-

She didn't know what Kane was planning. But she liked that he was letting her have full rein.

Flame displacement placed her on the soot covered ground, with her flames burning along the cliff, extending for hundreds of meters on either side.

She had never seen such persistent creatures before (then again she hadn't seen a lot).

They looked vaguely human like Kane, even howling as her flames devoured the lot of them...yet more kept coming anyway.

Welp, as long as she was allowed to turn them all into ash, she supposed it wasn't bad.

Too bad none of them tasted good to her flames.

But...their numbers were a problem. How should she fix that? That's when she remembered a trick the Three Headed Monster Dog had done.

He'd split himself into copies. Copies that could be at multiple places at the same time.

Had Spyra had a visible mouth and lips, she would have had a wide smirk imprinted on her visage.

Time to get the show on the road.

The flames around her flared up before condensing into vague symmetrical shapes.

Dozens then hundreds of spiders the size of a palm stepped up next to her, ever burning with flames. All HER.

But the battlefield was big. A few hundred wouldn't cut it.

(General P.O.V)

The number of souls breaching the shores of the Styx seemed to increase with every second.

And it wasn't just the souls that the River of Hate had submerged in its depths, never to be let go.

They came from everywhere.

Their numbers dotted the whole landscape, rushing in a mad dash to get to the cliff and cross over to the world of the living.

Cerberus had been dealing with them for more than hours at this point. And while the addition of Rhadamanthus and Kane as back up eased the load on him, it was clear they were losing ground.

The dead numbered in the tens of billions. And that was not including places like the Elysium Fields or Tartarus.

They might need the Boss's intervention to handle this. But he was busy ensuring the locks on Tartarus were not compromised by the instability chaos happening.

The other option was to-

All around the battlefield a skittering sound rose up into the air, disrupting the Three Headed Dog's gloomy thought process.

Looking towards the source of the irritating sound- like thousands of insects running around- the Guardian of the Underworld was left gaping in disbelief.

How was she doing that?

Even Rhadamanthus, hanging in the air with glowing eyes as he commanded wind and lightning, had to stop as he saw a carpet of bright blue shapes, scuttling at fast speeds towards the Dead Souls.

As if that wasn't enough, the two Underworld deities had to look up when a blazing heat begun to radiate from the sky.

(Kane's P.O.V)

Spyra had filled the entire battlefield with clones of herself.

Thousands, probably tens of thousands of burning Spiders that jumped on any soul in front of them and turned them into ash.

Within seconds she had cleared a large portion of the region under me.

'Good Job.'

I sent through our link.

At my praise she flared up into more flamed and added even more clones.

Now it was my turn. I couldn't be outdone by my Spider Totem after all. It wouldn't look good.

Fortunately, I'd figured something out.

Rhadamanthus had his destructive lightning. My answer to that? A sun.

To be more specific, I pulled all the flames under my control into one large ball of flame overhead, my hands held up for easier manipulation and containment.

At first it was the size of a basketball but as I added more and more fire into it, it grew to the size of a small truck.

The whole sphere glowed a bright blue and released temperatures that made the air around me warp in a mirage.

And then I compressed the whole thing into the size of a marble. It wasn't easy either.

A trail of sweat fell down the side of my head and my hands shook. After making sure it wouldn't blow up on me, I begun adding more fire into the marble.

This time, the fire itself begun to resist against my control.

Tongues leaked from it, forming tentacles of blue flames that swirled around the marble in a chaotic pattern as it grew in size.

Soon enough it was back to the size of a mini-truck. Only the bright glow from before was gone.

Now the sphere had a deep blue core, which looked almost gray and the heat radiating out had made the water in the riverbed below me evaporate.

My hands trembled even more. Sweat poured down my face, neck and body, soaking my shirt.

I was breathing heavily but a wide smile was stretched out across my face. I'd done it.

Every eye around was undeniably turned to me.

The kind of power I held within my grasp...was astonishing. I literally held control over a bomb.

Above my head no less!

Normally I wouldn't care for naming my attacks. That seemed cringe and childish.

But...I'll make an exception today.

"Sun Judgement!"

I declared, my voice echoing out into the terrain, announcing to all the advent of destruction.

At the same time, my hands swung down and the blue sun above me descended.

Next thing I knew, I was hit with a shockwave that threw me backwards, ending with my smashing the cliff face behind with a resounding bang.

But even the light pain was forgotten as I witnessed decimation at its finest.

The sphere had immediately exploded a few dozen meters from my body as I lost control of it.

The air melted from the explosive combustion as the sphere turned everything in the front into ash.

"Pfft."

A massive mushroom cloud rose up.

"Pfftt..."

The cliff face started rumbling as large sections of it crumbled onto the ground.

And as the fire died down, a deep crater the size of 10 stadiums was left behind, the edges filled with smoke from the charred basin.

The area affected did not quite reach a mile like Cerberus' attack but it was nothing to scoff at either.

That was like a very small town level of destruction.

Finally I couldn't help it.

"Pfftthahahahahahahahahaha!!!!"

I started cackling like a mad man.

(Kane's P.O.V)

I wasn't used to the stares.

All my life, I'd emphasized sticking to the shadows.

And now, as I walked through the entrance to the palace next to Rhadamanthus, all the servants were staring at me like I was the strange one.

Hello people, you live in the Underworld.

At least Spyra seemed to enjoy the attention, waving her legs in the air while miniature spider clones hang from threads attached to the tips of said legs.

To have it all happen on top of my head...Ah, when did I get so soft? Also what was she even doing?

"I'm curious about something."

So I decided to distract myself with something.

"What happened to the souls we destroyed?"

The Judge walking beside me flicked his eyes my way.

"They will eventually reform. And by then the Underworld will have...stretched to accommodate the new numbers."

There was so much to unpack in his words.

"Stretched?"

I settled for the more interesting part.

"I thought the Underworld was Infinite."

The Judge screwed his lips.

"To an...extent. Think of Infinite as a baloon that you can add a certain amount of water to in a given time without it reaching a capacity. But then if you increase the quantity, or the rate, the baloon bursts."

I blinked.

A very fitting analogy to send the point across.

But,

"You actually know what a baloon is?"

The flat stare he threw my way would have made a lesser man wimp. As it was, I smirked at him instead.

"Keep quiet when we get to the King. Speak only when he addresses you."

He grunted before ignoring me and choose to concentrate on the walk.

We passed through the corridors and hallways silently.

Before long, Rhadamanthus and I came before the door to the throne room- and the Judge proceeded to walk in without preamble.

Naturally I followed along and the second I was through, the door closed behind me loudly.

And now I was staring at the king of the Underworld, who was seated on his throne with an impassive stare on his face.

Just like always, shadows seemed to cling to him.

Below the throne was a long table with a dozen chairs, all of them empty except for 2.

One of them was occupied by a grinning Aeacus who eagerly waved at me.

And across from him was Minos, hands crossed over his chest as he glared at me.

"Forgive me for my lateness your majesty. We were dealing with containment."

Rhadamanthus said while bowing, with me doing the same.

"Let's not stand on business Rhadamanthus."

Hades waved his hand, his tone sounding heavy and tired.

And looking at him closely, even his face betrayed his exhaustion. I wonder what that was about.

"I take it that you were successful?"

Hades asked.

Rhadamanthus gave a curt nod.

"With our combined might, we were able to push the horde back."

"Good. As always, you shall all be rewarded for your great service."

The Unseen One responded.

And then his gaze fell on me.

"As shall you Mr.Kane. I owe you gratitude for assisting my subjects in maintaining stability."

"Think nothing of it your Majesty."

I said gracefully.

"It was an honor."

"Still, I know there's the matter of your stolen lifespan to discuss. It is within my power to return that to you-"

Hades paused, as if something had occured to him.

"How about this, You'll get your 10 years back, plus 100 more years to your life span as payment for taking up a contract. You are an assassin are you not?"

Okay. Now I'm interested.

I could feel every eye in the room on me. They were waiting for my response.

"A contract you say? On who?"

Hades' lips thinned.

"I need you to Assassinate the God of War, Ares."