"For an Executioner, you're far too pathetic to get the job done," Aterna sneered as she dodged my attacks and used her after-shadows to take the numerous shots and chains that were being fired at her. "In your current state, you're forced to rely on that weapon of yours and your allies to even have a fighting chance against me. Tell me, with how you are right now, do you seriously think you'll be able to fulfill the role of godkiller?"

I said nothing while I barely avoided the dark energy around us lashing out at me and tore it apart with my magically charged claws, then swiftly devoured the rest with help from the enchanted weapon. Unfortunately, I couldn't deny any of that, painfully aware of my inadequacy when up against the goddess.

None of my spells were particularly powerful enough to overcome any of hers, even when I consumed the high-quality mana from her attacks. At best, it would result in a stalemate where both are mutually destroyed. On top of that, my body couldn't handle so much exceptional energy being gathered in it so I had no choice but to redirect them into the gauntlet for safety reasons.

If I were to be honest, the only one that was making this fight possibly winnable was Sol. With the fiery chains that he was summoning, he was limiting her movement, attack range, and actions, making it easier for Vin to shoot her and for me to actually attack that tricksy goddess. However, because of that, we're now outside due to her leaving the building for more open space. As for his other attacks, they were incinerating the black mist and the dark projectiles with ease, forcing Aterna to use her scythe to deal with him.

...honestly, the difference is so stark. I thought to myself as I converted the last of the hazardous energy into mana that can be used by me. As I redirected mostly all of it to my weapon, I turned my attention to the demoness, noting how both Sol and Aterna were fiercely clashing against each other. The sheer amount of quality magical energy coming from the two as they went at it made me feel small and insignificant.

...yet, even so... I clenched my hands into fists and looked around, trying to figure out how I should approach her and attack. From the constant attacks that the two are exchanging between each other, I could somehow join in and increase the pressure, then swoop in when an opportunity arises for me to land a heavy blow. However, now that I look, Vin hasn't attacked much. It's as if he's struggling to find a chance to attack... Before I could think any further though, I suddenly heard the goddess talk again.

"I see you're holding back, Sol," Aterna pointed out as the two exchanged blows mid-air, smirking. "Tell me, are you worried about destroying this precious little town as collateral damage, O God of Destruction? I know you're capable of doing so much more than this."

"That's because unlike a certain goddess here, I care about my followers," he retorted, growling. "Ah, right, you don't have any true followers because no one loves you, huh? Even those who have wicked hearts don't due to your disposition to care for no one at all."

She glares at him for a brief second, snarling, but it quickly turned back to the mocking smile she had. "Us Gods have no need of their faith," she sneered. "Even if humanity dies or forgets us, we'll still live, powerful as ever. Besides, we only have vessels so we can interact with the human world due to certain laws."

Sol remained quiet for a bit but the instant their weapons clashed again, he immediately blasted her away with a strong explosion spell, incinerating the dark energy around her and launching her down into the stony floor. While he summoned numerous chains around her in an attempt to imprison her, I immediately dashed over to the goddess as fast as I can while strengthening my weapon with the high-quality mana, deciding to take the opportunity to ambush her.

However, when I was about to reach her, from the corner of my eye, I couldn't help but notice something was wrong with my shadow. With a groan, I swiftly hurled myself high up into the air by summoning a magic circle below me and propelling myself upwards. As expected, it sent a barrage of projectiles at me, forcing me to maneuver around a lot in mid-air to destroy them without being too close to the source of the attacks.

While Vin and I dealt with the barrage though, I heard an explosion out of nowhere and saw a blur of movement from below when I took a quick peek. In a blink of an eye, several fiery bindings appeared out of nowhere around me, stopping the goddess' scythe from reaching me as it stabs into them.

Without hesitation, I pushed my body and the gauntlet to its limit with magic and slashed at her, finally hitting the goddess for once. As the bindings disappeared due to me destroying them in the process, I quickly noticed black mist coming out of her wounds but a lot more condensed than usual. Shit—! That 'puppet' of hers is basically a suicide bomb if it's destroyed!

Right after I casted a powerful protection spell on myself and was about to cast an explosion spell, she recovered from the blow, and with a sneer, she covered her weapon with dark energy and swung the scythe at me again, breaking the barrier instantly. I managed to cast it point-blank range right when the weapon was about to reach me, swiftly catapulting myself away from Aterna, all the while sending her back down into the ground.

As I roughly landed on top of the headquarters, I tried to calm myself down as both Vin and Sol tried their best to keep her preoccupied. That was way too close for my liking! Not only was there that dense miasma, I could've been fatally wounded from that attack! I thought to myself as I stood up, not bothering to wipe off the dirt on my clothes.

Though, before I could decide on what to do, Vin suddenly spoke up. "It seems we'll have to rely on Sol to deal the final blow instead," the archangel remarked as the noises of him repeatedly firing his gun came through the communication spell, catching me by surprise. "Should've figured that woman would resort to such foul play. For now, focus on—mm...?"

He paused and when I was about to ask him what was wrong, I couldn't help but notice an intense surge of water energy gathering somewhere further away. Wait, is Leo countering against the nuke?! I glanced up at the sky, which was turning red due to the fire spell high above being on the verge of activating. In an instant, the angel and the spell fired away in unison, blotting out the sky with both water and fire clashing against each other.

"...tch, that Artifact Wielder is alive again? Well, that's annoying but I should've expected that," Aterna remarked and I looked down at her in surprise as she snapped her fingers while dodging Sol's attacks. "I order you as the God of Demons, intercept him. You pathetic lot probably won't defeat the Sea God's Vessel like the other God's certain minions but at the very least, make sure he fails to stop it."

...'the other God's certain minions'? I repeated to myself, frowning. That confirms there really is more than one mastermind! I immediately shook my head, reprimanding myself. Guh, this isn't the time for that! I need to go and protect Leo!

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Before I could take a step forward to do so, Vin immediately spoke up. "Don't rush into things, Stella! Unless you can handle several demons at once, I heavily advise against it!" he stated, his voice more serious than usual. "I know you want to help but leave it to me and my summons instead! After all, against the goddess in my current state, I'm nearly useless! You have better chances with her than me!"

I flinched at that, realizing he might be right there, especially due to my newly revealed role as Executioner. After all, ever since he used that particular ammo, she came up with a countermeasure to deal with that and any other shots he could use. On top of that, due to her corrupting ability, he's adamant against using familiars in case she'll use them against us.

I let out a shaky breath and calmed myself down as I tightly clenched my hand into a fist for a bit. "...sorry, my emotions got the best of me," I apologized as I looked down at the ground, unclenching the fist and letting it hang limply on my side. "Then, I'll leave it to you to protect Leo while I do what I can with the divine enemy. Please, make sure he comes out of this alive. I don't want a repeat of back then."

"...don't worry, I'll absolutely make sure he'll make it through this," Vin answered resolutely. "That's a promise."

With that, he turned off his communication spell and swiftly went off to help out the blonde, all the while summoning familiars with his gun to aid him.

I turned my attention back to the two gods duking it out with the intent of rejoining the fight. However, I was instead greeted by a wall of chains that seemed to have some cracks surrounding me, save for where I was just looking earlier ago. ...I see. I was being protected by this while I was having a conversation with Vin. I thought, sighing. Nice to know Sol is constantly making sure we're safe from harm while he fights Aterna.

Before I went searching for them though, I decided to cast a detection spell to check up on Idalia and Rufus, seeing as how I'm currently disengaged from combat and maybe safe from any incoming attacks. Unfortunately, it was too difficult to find them amongst the sheer amount of magical energy from the chains and the two people fighting. ...guess I can only hope that they'll be alright when they get out of the building. If possible, I'd prefer it if they get away from here as soon as possible so they can be safe from Aterna. ...as to where they'll stay, I have no idea but... With a sigh, I shook my head and decided to trust in them, especially since Rufus seemed reliable enough.

As I got out of the shell that Sol made to protect me, I casted a stealth spell on myself to prevent being detected through magecraft and being heard as I ran about. Sadly, I had no idea if it'll be of any use against a god of all people but it didn't hurt to try. At the very least, I hoped it would prevent me from being attacked the instant I was near enough.

With that done, I jumped off the building and strengthened my body just enough to handle the landing with no injuries. The instant I landed, I made a run for it, not wanting to waste any more time. As I navigated through the maze of fiery bindings and the battle-torn land, I used the sounds of fighting to gauge how close I was to them, hoping that'll be enough to find the two.

I eventually found Sol and Aterna but what I saw caught me off-guard. I expected the Dark Goddess' wounds to be healed to some degree but it hasn't changed one bit, the black miasma still leaking out of them, albeit barely. Either he managed to prevent her from healing all this time or it's a kind of wound that can't be healed. I thought to myself as I hid behind some chains, making sure to not touch them in case I burn myself. After all, I have no idea what kind of enchantments Rex put on the weapon he gave me. The Academy said it wasn't possible but since I'm now aware of forbidden magecraft, there's a chance they intentionally lied to us so...

Looking down at my gauntlet, I calmed myself down as I clenched my hand into a fist, my heart beating frantically at the prospect of rejoining the fight. I was still scared and worried but this time, I felt more confident than before. Since the cut was still there, that meant the chance of victory was indeed possible.

However, since there was no blood pouring out, I knew I needed to aim elsewhere. ...unless of course, that miasma was her blood but I doubt it. In short, I need to either target her heart or her brain. They're the ones that usually guarantee death when destroyed, after all.

"Move!" Sol suddenly yelled out, causing me to panic and immediately dodge away as the chains hiding me were instantly destroyed into smithereens.

As I heard the sound of a scythe whizzing past me and people moving about, I turned to look while activating the mana in my weapon, ready to fight back. I saw the blue-haired male standing in front of me, his back facing me, while the black-haired demoness was further away, glaring at the two of us as dark energy started to surge around her.

"It seems the knockoff Executioner intends to see her duty to the end," she sneered as more and more surrounded her to the point that she was almost completely covered in it with only her red eyes peeking through. "If that's the case then, I'll make use of my emergency 'supplies' and transform this puppet more closer to 'me'."

The area around her instantly becomes submerged in darkness, her body most likely transforming inside there. Sol merely lets out a sigh at this, then snaps his fingers, my body suddenly feeling warm again. Frowning, I was about to ask him what he just did but he spoke up before I could.

"Don't bother interfering with her power-up, alright? If her 'supplies' are what I think they are, there's nothing we can do to truly stop her," he commented telepathically as blue flames started to appear around him. "However, at the very least, I can do this before she finishes. In short, I'm making you immune to the miasma by making you constantly 'burning' like a torch in the grim night. After all, these flames of mine are destruction incarnate but they're also capable of purifying and healing."

Blinking my eyes in surprise, I nodded my head and thanked him. Though I wanted to ask him a few questions, I knew this wasn't the time for it and instead turned my attention back to Aterna.

The instant I looked back at her, the darkness around her disappeared, revealing her new form. Aterna's outfit changed to that of a black dress adorned with spiky, metallic armor while her body was now mostly covered in gray scales, save for her upper torso, neck, and face having only a few plates. Her hands and feet were now like a dragon's, complete with long, sharp red claws. The goddess also grew gigantic demonic wings, which were black, spiky, and oozy.

"Come, it's time for the finale of this act!" she declared with a smirk as she summons her scythe. "If you intend to protect this world, you better fight and struggle to the bitter end, mongrels!"