True Angel (DxD/ Overlord): Chapter 55

Antarctica. A land forever frozen in ice.

Once upon a time, millions of years ago, it is said that this land thrived with life of all kinds, yet now, it is but a frozen wasteland.

It was above this land that the leader of the angels, Aetherion, floated silently, reclining in the air as if he were leaning on a couch, reading through a book on his phone.

“I must say, the humans are really good at writing engaging stories. Especially those based on the so-called ‘myths’. Right? Hades?”

At the mention of his name, shadows converged, plunging the area into darkness.

From these shadows emerged a being that could only be called a skeleton wearing a twisted effigy of the clergy’s clothing, as if mocking the Abrahamic religion and its followers.

With his skeleton staff held tight in his bony hands, he stared at Aetherion with contempt, which was much harder to convey through his skeletal face, yet he did so anyway.

“....Brat. It seems your time away has only made you much more arrogant than before.”

Aetherion smiled amusedly as he put away his phone.

“What can I say? It is part of my charm, right?”

“Hmph! There is no charm to be found in you or the rest of the pegions that were created by that anomalous god.”

Aetherion gave him a dry look.

“You are one to talk about charm. Does Lady Persephone know that you parade around in this ridiculous form when you are not with her?”

Hades recognized the fact that Aetherion was trying to get a rise out of him, just like he always did a millennium ago, so that the angel would have control over the battlefield.

However, just because he knew this did not mean that he was immune to the taunting, especially when it involved his beloved wife.

Darkness surged as divinity churned within Hades’s body, plunging the entire area into silence.

The God of the Dead raised his staff and pointed it at Aetherion.

“Today, you will go down for good, Arael. I will do what that idiot Lucifer should have done all those years ago.”

“Hm. Is that so? Then, I take it that your brothers are here for the same reason?”

Hades felt his heart skip a beat at those words as Aetherion’s golden orbs stared at empty air with amusement.

‘Impossible. He should not be able to see through the illusions crafted with the Infinit Dragon’s essence.’

“Still hiding? Then, how about I pull you guys out?”

Aetherion’s words resounded in Hades’s mind, just in time for the angel to move.

And move he did.

One second, he was still lounging in the air as if sitting on a throne, the next, he was somewhere else entirely as his form shifted.

Hades had no words to describe what he saw.

An entity that could not be called an angel. A formless being that even his divine mind refused to comprehend.

Yet, instinctively, he knew that this was none other than Aetherion.

‘A True form? Like that damned bat, Sirzechs?’

Realizing what was happening, Hades closed his physical eyes and opened his divine senses, allowing him to finally perceive the world through the vision of divinity.

It was only then that he saw what was happening.

An entity that was made of pure energy, converging into geometrical shapes, taking on a humanoid outline. That is what Aetherion became.

And standing against this Angel, in their own true forms, were the other two gods of Olympus who would make up the trinity of Olympus along with Hades.

Poseidon, the God of the Seas, took on the form of a humanoid entity made up of the very concept of seas, while Zeus, the God of Thunder, the lord of the skies, and King of Olympus, stood as a humanoid being made of pure lightning wrapped in the very concept of ‘the sky’.

“Well, well, would you look at that? How long has it been, Zeus? Since we made that pact? I mean, this must be a record even for you on how fast you broke your word.”

“I don’t have to explain anything to a weakling like you.”

The amusement that Aetherion felt was felt by the three gods present in the area.

The gods that originate from the primordial era, long before Earth had any sentient life on it, have a true form made up of the concepts that they were either born with or acquired later on in life.

This is especially true for the gods that embody ancient and far-reaching concepts, such as ‘the sky’ in Zeus’s case, which once embodied literally everything in the atmosphere and even beyond it. Anything that did not touch the earth fell under his domain once upon a time.

And while many of these gods have lost a lot of their power as the perception of humanity overrode or redefined such concepts, they still hold onto their true forms, unlike younger gods who are not beings of pure concepts but merely metaphysical beings.

The advantage of having such true forms is that words are no longer necessary.

Such beings can transmit their feelings, thoughts, and anything else without the need for any verbal communication.

In essence, these beings can show the very core of what makes them ‘them’ to others in a physical form.

This is how the trinity of Olympus was able to feel Aetherion’s amusement despite his lack of any physical features or any voice that came out of his current form.

To Zeus, this amusement felt like a slap on his face. So, being the petty and arrogant god he was, he went straight to work.

Zeus’s power swelled as the ice continent under their feet trembled. Lightning flashed in the sky as dark clouds formed overhead.

With a mere gesture of his hand, lightning gathered and solidified into a lance of pure power. Made not from any material like it is described in legends, but rather from the very concept of ‘Lightning’ and ‘Thunder’.

The Thunderbolt of Zeus. A legendary weapon condensed from the primordial powers and concepts by the Cyclopses, just like Poseidon’s Trident and Hades’s Pitchfork.

“Ho? You are going all out against a ‘weakling’ like me? Zeus?”

The King of Olympus remained silent as he raised his weapon, ready to annihilate the Angel.

Yet, things went awry instantly.

The moment the weapon left Zeus’s hand, Aetherion disappeared.

Then came his calm voice as spell after spell was invoked at blinding speeds, so fast that even the three gods could not respond in time.

“[Meteor Fall] [Stream of Lava]”

The sky turned red as a colossal Meteor fell from the sky, heading straight for the gods, who looked on in horror as they felt the condensed divine energy within the meteor.

This meant that, unlike a normal meteor, they could not tank this attack since this divine energy would cause some serious damage to them in their true forms.

Because a true form of a god is a double-edged sword, hence the reason why gods only rarely use their true forms.

The gods scattered at the incoming attack, but just as they dodged, the land below them cracked as divine lava spewed from within the cracks like geysers, threatening to annihilate their bodies.

An impossibility given form since the Ice continent should not have lava underneath it like this.

Unfortunately for the gods, the Tier Magic system rarely makes sense.

As the gods scattered to the sky, trying to retain some orientation in the battlefield, Aetherion’s voice once again rang out.

“[Maximise Magic: Time Stop]”

For the first time, fear crept into the hearts of the Olympians as they felt the very essence of Time condense and freeze the world in its place.

Something that they had not experienced since they overthrew their father, the Titan King Kronos. A beast of a divinity that fought the young Olympians, who were at their peak in those times, to a standstill all by himself.

As time froze, Aetherion finally revealed himself by releasing his spell, the Mirror World, which he activated with his Silent Magic.

The one limitation of the tier 10 magic, Time Stop, is that the user cannot use any attacks while time is frozen.

However, the players of YGGDRASIL had long since figured out a workaround for this limitation.

“[Delay Magic: Body of Effulgent Beryl] [Delay Magic: Body of Effulgent Aquamarine] [Delay Magic: Body of Effulgent Heliodor]”

“[Delay Magic: Seven Trumpeter] [Delay Magic: Nature’s Shelter] [Delay Magic: Holy Strike] [Delay Magic: Aura of Purity] [Delay Magic: Bless]”

Buff after buff was stacked with delay magic, not yet activated, but ready to activate the moment Time Stop fell apart.

Then, with a thought, the Time Stop spell stopped working, freeing the Olympians.

Hades, being the smartest of the bunch, knew that things were not going his way, so he made the wise choice.

His true form flickered as he dispersed into shadows, fleeing into the distance.

Unfortunately for his brothers, they did not even have the time to call out the traitor.

At once, ridiculous levels of holy energy converged on Aetherion’s form as all the buffs activated at once.

The already powerful Tier-9 and Tier-10 buffs were further fuelled by the faith of millions of humans channeled through the Heavenly System, boosting them beyond even the levels of Super-Tier Magic.

Body of Effulgent Beryl, which originally reduced bludgeon damage, now turned him immune to all bludgeon damage on a conceptual level.

Body of Effulgent Aquamarine, which originally reduced piercing damage, now rendered him immune to all piercing attacks.

Body of Effulgent Heliodor now made him immune to slashing damage.

In simple terms, these three spells rendered all forms of physical attacks meaningless on a conceptual level, which had the nifty effect of counting the two remaining gods’ weapons in those categories.

The Seven Trumpeter. The Tier-10 buff spell that boosted all his stats across the board was also enhanced to such a level that, temporarily, Aetherion was on the same level as the God of the Bible in terms of raw power.

Then, the buffs Holy Strike, Bless, and Aura of Purity activated as well, enhancing his magic, holy energy, light powers, and everything else to the same level.

For all intents and purposes, at this moment, Aetherion was on the same level as the God that once took him in. And in many ways, even surpassed him.

A fact that the two gods of Olympus realized, as well as the sheer power rolling off of Aetherion, started to distort the very fabric of reality.

Poseidon was the first to break.

Realizing that he had no chance, the god of the seas turned into vapor and dissipated across the tapestry of the world, escaping using the very concept of water and its nature of slipping through the cracks to his advantage.

Unfortunately for the god, this escape was short-lived as he slammed headfirst into a barrier that they had not noticed until now.

A dome of pure energy that stretched for miles. Its presence extending beyond the physical realm, allowing it to stop Poseidon even in his conceptual form.

Nature’s Shelter. A Tier-10 Divine spell that was now beyond the Super Tier in strength.

A spell so notoriously powerful that there existed only a single spell that could pierce its defences back in YGGDRASIL. The Sword of Democles, a Super-Tier Spell.

Under the starry night created by the defensive spell’s power, the two gods realized that there was no escape.

Then, things became even worse for them.

The weight of an entire realm pressed on their very souls, their very essence, as Aetherion brought out his World Item. The Aurora’s Oath.

“Now, I will show you why I was called ‘The Dawnbringer’ by my enemies.”

“Witness the horror that comes with the death of a star.”

“[Maximise Magic: Supernova]”

The Super-Tier spell, unique to Aetherion and the improved version of the spell Blackhole, activated as pure divinity gathered at the tip of his lance.

Seconds ticked by, precious seconds that the gods could have used to try and escape or throw last-ditch efforts to try and stop their demise.

Yet, the sheer power originating from Aetherion’s lance was too much for them to do anything.

They watched helplessly as power finally gathered into a radiant orb at the tip of the lance, mimicking the birth of a star, before it exploded outwards in a burst of pure power.

That day, two of the three gods of Olympus died for good. Their essence removed from the fabric of reality permanently.