Enter ExE
II
Heaven of the Hindu Pantheon
This was his favorite place, even though he had never admitted it verbally. This was his workroom, his personal camp, his hiding spot… This office was his haven. And now, this also became the place where he had taken his last breath.
“Your Highness.”
Hearing the royal guard’s voice, Arjuna calmed his raging emotions.
When he first heard the news, he did not believe it. That Indra, the king of the Gods and Lord of Heaven in the Hindu pantheon, was assassinated. That his father was murdered.
It was just not possible.
And then, he came home and saw his father’s lifeless body.
Vishnu, the God of Protection and Preservation, was personally leading the investigation. They had found that his father was poisoned, and during his weakened moment, the assassins had struck.
No one would buy this theory. After all, no such poison existed in the world that could harm someone like Indra. But he was given a detailed report on the poison. A poison that directly attacked one’s divinity. A poison that was created for the sole purpose of killing Gods and Goddesses.
And its ingredients matched the ones of ‘Blessing of Ophis’.
Of course, the moment he learned about this fact, he immediately informed Vishnu about the existence of the Khaos Brigade. But he was aware of this. It turned out, that Shiva had also been doing a personal investigation on this group. While he wanted to know more in this regard, Vishnu was quite tight-lipped. Arjuna would have directly reached out to Shiva if not for the fact that the God of Destruction was currently unavailable.
Sensing the shift in the mood of the royal guards behind him, Arjuna once again calmed himself. It was hard to reign in his emotions, but this was not the place to let it out. He needed to focus. Taking another deep breath, Arjuna looked at the ruins of his father’s office once more.
Even with all the information he had gathered so far, it was hard to picture how it all went down. The explosion caused by the fire of unknown origin wiped out all the traces of the assassins. Still, “Let’s give it another try.”
He closed his eyes and tried to recreate the event in his head.
His father was either relaxing while doing paperwork or tinkering with ancient artifacts, an old hobby of his. Based on the explosion timing, he was probably having an evening snack – tea with some local delicacies. The food was poisoned. And the moment the poison kicked in, the assassins struck. Two lethal shots – the first one was to the heart, and the second one was to the head. After that, the assassins immediately set the room aflame and retreated.
“Does it mean that the poison was a paralyzing type?”
The poison paralyzed his father for a few short seconds giving the assassins the window of opportunity that they needed – It was a more plausible scenario. Even then, there were so many variables that did not add up, and some downright did not make any sense.
Vishnu found the poisoned teacup, but they still could not figure out where the poison was applied. Everyone in the kitchen room as well as all of Indra’s servants and guards… they all came out clean. The only possibility was that the food was poisoned inside the room while his father was away.
It meant that all parts of the assassination process occurred inside the room. Even as a theory, it sounded absurd.
Just like the Biblical Heaven, entry to their Heaven was restricted. And the Royal Palace, which was at the heart of their Heaven, was heavily guarded. Then there was this room; the barriers and the enchantments of it were personally set up by his father. Even he, Indra’s own son, could not enter the place without his father’s permission.
Arjuna felt his blood freezing when it clicked. In Khaos Brigade, there was an artifact that could possibly bypass all these securities and restrictions.
Dimensional Lost.
“Your Highness?”
This time Arjuna did not calm his emotions. He turned to face the royal guard that spoke up, “Tell Lord Vishnu that I will start a personal investigation of my own. There are some leads outside our borders; I will start from there.”
Seeing the flustered looks on all the royal guards' faces, Arjuna immediately understood what they were thinking. He decided to rectify that, “I will not be alone. I have a team,” He took out one of the copies of his diary and gave it to the captain of the guard. It had all the details of his mission up until this point, his time as a spy in Khaos Brigade. It also had the data on his team, who had already sided with him. In addition, it contained his personal theories regarding the purpose of each group residing inside the organization.
“I am aware of your mission,” The moment the guard captain took the diary, his pupils disappeared, and his body started to emit a distinct pure divinity.
“Lord Vishnu.”
He along with the rest of the guards went down on one knee.
The avatar of Vishnu touched Arjuna’s shoulder, “I will continue the investigation inside our borders and will oversee the affairs of our pantheon. As for your personal investigation,” The diary in his hand was replaced with a box, “Take this.”
The moment Arjuna’s fingers touched the wooden box, his body stiffened as he realized what was being given to him.
“Use the flute when you are in danger, and one of us will answer your call,” The avatar of Vishnu answered the question Arjuna had in his mind.
“Lord Vishnu.”
“I understand your concern, Arjuna,” He gently put the box on Arjuna’s hand, “But our King of Heaven has been murdered. It is an attack against our faction, our people,” He squeezed Arjuna’s hands, “Such atrocities will not go unpunished. We will make sure of that.”
Arjuna took the small wooden box from his position and bowed his head, “Thank you for bestowing me with this responsibility, Lord Vishnu.”
“Good luck on your journey, Arjuna,” The avatar of Vishnu squeezed his shoulder before the aura disappeared.
Arjuna was immediately on his feet and held the captain guard, who took a moment to realize what happened before bowing his head, “Thank you, your Highness.”
Patting his shoulder, Arjuna moved away. He sealed the box before putting it inside his personal inventory. It was one of those artifacts that he had no intention of using. After all, if any of the Trimurti were to enter the border of another faction, it might be the spark that would start the next faction war.
He just hoped it would never come to that. With that out of the way, he took out a small transparent orb.
He needed to summon his group and prepare them.
Arjuna took another deep breath. And again, it did not help. The rage inside him was like a storm begging him to be released. But he knew it was not the right time. He needed to follow his rationality, not his emotions. But when he would find the assassins and the mastermind behind it all…
“I will end them!”
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X
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Dimensional Gap
It felt like they had been here for centuries when in reality, not more than thirty minutes had passed since Great Red summoned them. But seeing each piece of the dimensional gate slowly disappearing while they just stood on the side, knowing that it was all they could do… this stressed out Naruto.
Then there was the fact that they could sense the other group, especially the powerhouses waiting on the opposite side, now that the gate had been weakened significantly. And there were two in that group that stood out. They were exceptionally strong.
Finally, the last pieces of the dimensional gate disappeared.
There was no explosion, no shockwaves… nothing. But this tranquil moment lasted only for an instant, as the space where the gate was located started to distort, and with each passing second the distortion expanded. After a full minute, this space warp stopped.
And then, they came.
“Are they robots?” Naruto asked as his eyes scanned the beings in front of him.
Millions of humanoid robots came out from the distorted portal, led by a single one.
And that single one, he was one of the powerhouses that Naruto had sensed before. To anyone else, it would look like this individual was wearing a sleek silver metal armor consisting of multiple crimson rune-like patterns. But Naruto’s eyes were different. It was no armor… that was his real body. And he had never seen a metal such as this. It was as if this metal was made of trillions of robots so small that they were completely invisible to the naked eye. Probably that was why he had this constant shifting and morphing appearance. As for the runes…
Naruto frowned. These runes were made of blood but not of his own.
And then, it hit him. There were supposed to be two powerful individuals. But there was only one in front of them.
“Another portal has opened on a different location.”
Naruto made sure to refrain from making any signs that could inform the other party that Great Red was communicating to him telepathically.
“I will send the location, intercept him.”
Naruto nodded back through their mental link. And then came the next words, which gave him a pause.
“Their hands are tainted with the blood of countless innocents.”
This time, Naruto gave a nod physically; before flying toward the location Great Red gave him.
Immediately he noticed the space around him distorting. But the distortion disappeared instantly before he could even think of any counters.
“Where do you think you are looking at?!”
Hearing Great Red’s booming voice, Naruto chuckled before picking up his speed. Great Red would keep them occupied. He just hoped that his temperamental behavior would not cloud his judgment.
Naruto sighed, “Who am I kidding? He will definitely mess them up.”
Taking a deep breath, Naruto removed all of his distractive thoughts. His sole focus was now to find the other one. And what really ticked him off was the location of the other portal. It was near their universe.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Yes, Naruto was not that worried about the other individual finding the path. Navigating inside the Dimensional Gap was a daunting task. It was like finding multiple threads in a pitch-black house where the rooms were constantly shifting, meaning it would take a lot of work to find the paths leading to each universe even if one knew about the base layout.
And figuring out even the layout was not something that could be done within minutes. He learned about it firsthand.
It was small, but finally, Naruto’s senses picked up the other one. And as he suspected, he was lost.
Now that he had a lock on him, he immediately teleported where he was.
This one was also like the others… a humanoid robot. But unlike the other one, his appearance was more mechanical than human. His seven-meter body was made entirely of that unique metal, black and purple in color, with a sleek, streamlined frame. His body had various gears and segments all over, which were constantly shifting and reconfiguring, giving him an almost liquid-like appearance. On the other hand, his face did not possess any sophisticated design. But that smooth metal face and his five red eyes gave off a sense of cold and calculating aura.
“A pleasure to meet…”
Naruto had to side-step as multiple needles flew past him. His eyes widened as he felt the distortion in space around those needles. Unfortunately, he was too late to dodge as a few hidden needles scratched him.
The flesh around the wound immediately started to rot. While the spreading was slow, Naruto was amazed to find that his inner self-healing was not able to counter it fully. His eyes widened just a fraction when he noticed that the individual was right in front of him, his right arm transformed into a blade which was aiming for his neck.
But then he teleported back to where he was. Naruto could tell it was not a normal kind of teleportation.
As his clone’s body crumbled away, Naruto entered the area. Of course, he had already started putting up multiple defensive and offensive techniques, invisible to all but himself.
“Quite in a rush, are we?” Naruto said in an amiable tone, “No mood for introductions even?”
The being in front of him chuckled. It was an odd mechanical sound, “My name is Regalzeva. And I am here to conquer your world.”
The smile never left Naruto’s face, “My name is Naruto Ōtsutsuki. And I am the one who will put you down.”
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X
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Underworld
“The monsters created by the Annihilation Maker did not reach the border city of the Devil’s faction as planned.”
The news did not improve Ares’ mood. He looked coldly at Cane, who was still kneeling beside him, “I thought two of those 'Super demonic beasts’ should be enough.”
“They were strong enough to push back Diehauser Belial and Roygun Belphegor. But Serafall Leviathan and Falbium Asmodeus joined soon after, and together they disposed of the monsters.”
Now this got a reaction from Ares, “Two of the Satans made a move,” Then the frown returned when he guessed the next part of the report, “But they are unharmed.”
Cane nodded, “Cao Cao mentioned that there was a possibility that the two Satans were acting as bait to lure them out. So he and his team went with plan B.”
“Get to the point,” Ares looked ahead once more, “Are the devils distracted enough or not?”
“Yes,” Cane answered immediately, “Using the first attack as a distraction, Cao Cao’s team destroyed the stadium at their capital without being noticed. There were not many casualties, but this caused widespread panic in the Devil’s faction. The Satans will be busy strengthening their borders and calming the masses.”
Ares nodded, “Good. And what about Europe?”
“The information provided by the Hero faction came true. Dragons of unknown origin started causing mayhem a few hours ago. And according to Gasper, their target may be the Vatican City.”
Ares had an idea about these dragons’ origin, but he would have to personally confirm it at a later time. While their motives were unknown, right now their chaotic actions were helping the Greeks. So, he would leave them be, “Anything else on that side?”
The reply from Cane came swiftly, “Using these dragons’ actions as a smokescreen, Gasper created a path for us to move into the key locations. He had also taken care of all the obstacles we had faced so far. On that front, we are actually quite ahead of schedule.”
Honestly, this did not surprise Ares, “Silently?”
“He followed both yours and Lady Athena’s orders by letters.”
This brought a smile to Ares’ face. Gasper had so much untapped potential that it was ridiculous. Within just a year, Gasper’s proficiency with the ‘Forbidden Balor’ went to a point where the Sacred Gear had to evolve to keep up with him. Gasper named the unofficial Longinus ‘Aeon Balor’.
Similar to the original, Aeon Balor had the same time-stopping abilities, able to stop targets within their line of sight. But now, it gained the power to create and control an immense amount of darkness because of his mastery over Darkness manipulation. In addition, it could create a large number of eyes within the darkness to stop time within their range of vision. It was also capable of creating numerous beasts of darkness, which could use his time-stopping powers to a lesser extent.
And these abilities were just from the base form. The midget had also unlocked two variations of Balance Breaker.
“I can’t call him a midget now, can I?” Ares chuckled when he remembered Gasper’s new look, “To think he would use time-shadow manipulation on himself to shed his former appearance completely.”
Of course, there were many times when Athena wanted to take him under her wings, but Ares did not budge. The best part was that he knew that Gasper had already figured out their true intentions, but the dhampir did not mind. As long as he would get Valerie unharmed and their plans did not collide with his, he was perfectly fine to follow them.
Honestly, it felt like he was using them just as much as they were using him.
“Now, let’s focus on the war ahead of us, shall we?”
He watched as legions of Grim Reapers led by Pluto attacked the Fallen Angels led by Baraqiel. Armies of the Greeks had already breached the border of the fallen angels as well as their second defense line. They fell too easily since they were not prepared for an all-out war.
But finally, their forces met the main battalion of the Fallen. Ares knew the Fallen faction did not have the power to stop their advance. But the problem was the Devil faction. Since they were also in the Underworld, Ares had to make sure they were distracted since he was not strong enough to take on both Sirzechs and Ajuka. And regarding overall military power, the Greek faction was stronger than the Devil faction, but not by much. That was why a direct confrontation was something they had to avoid.
Fortunately for them, Grigori was an easy prey.
But Athena’s words were true. The fallens were not as weak as he thought them to be. According to his sister, the reason behind this was the skirmish between the Avalon Kingdom and the Devil’s faction. It was a short but unexpected event that caused many factions to strengthen their border.
Unfortunately for them, it would not be enough. To them, it might look like the Greeks started this war out of the blue. Some would even think that they might have lost all sense of rationality and that this war was nothing but brief skirmishes. But they did not know that the Greeks had been preparing for this war for centuries.
Finally, he noticed his target entering the battlefield. He did not waste a second as he immediately took off.
Azazel, Governor General of the Fallen Angels and Grigori, the only one who was a genuine threat to their mission. It was not his power Athena was wary of, it was his mind. Ares scoffed at that notion. To him, the mind could only take one so far because, in the end everything came down to raw power.
But he had to agree with Athena here, Azazel was dangerous.
The moment Azazel entered the battlefield, there was a subtle shift. In the untrained eyes of the soldiers, nothing had changed. But Ares smirked when he saw Pluto barely managed to dodge an assassination attempt. Few other generals were not so lucky. And just like that, the tide of the battle changed instantly.
“It will matter not.”
Ares stopped in front of Azazel, who, despite his best, could not protect the guards around him as the God of War struck them down with his summoned spears. In an instant, all the bodyguards of Azazel died.
“Ares,” Azazel straightened his posture as the six pairs of wings spread out menacingly, “So, the Greek has finally lost their mind.”
“Is that what you believe?” Ares could not help it, he laughed hard. When he got his laughter under control, he sneered at Azazel, “The only reason crows and bats still exist in our world is because of the Big Guy upstairs.”
“And you think he will not retaliate?”
“Wars are breaking out in every front,” Ares crossed his arm and relaxed his posture, “Focus on the war at your doorstep.”
In the blink of an eye, thousands of light spears were summoned and hurled toward him, but not a single one could even touch his skin as the raw aura he was emitting shattered the spears.
Ares sneered, “Try harder if you want this war to stop.”
Hearing his words, the Governor of the Fallen created some distance. Ares allowed it as he did not move from his spot.
Azazel took out a lance-like golden dagger with a purple jewel at the end of the handle. The jewel emitted a strange light, but it was soon drowned by the gold flame that came out from the dagger, which fully engulfed Azazel.
When the flame died down, the sneer on Ares’ face was replaced with a smirk.
The entire body of Azazel was now covered in a golden armor that had multiple purple jewels engraved on it, even his twelve black wings were replaced with wings made of golden energy. This looked quite similar to the Scale Mails of the two dragon-based Longinus.
“A pseudo sacred gear… Longinus perhaps?”
Azazel summoned a two-pronged light spear and charged right at him. In return, Ares took his unarmed fighting stance and met him head-on.
Dodge.
Left hook.
Side-step.
Quick Jab.
Crouch.
Body blow.
Lean back.
Rear hook.
Lean forward.
Uppercut.
A few more blows later, Azazel retreated to create some distance between them, but Ares did not pursue him.
Offense, defense, and speed… Azazel gained a massive boost in all the physical areas, enough to keep up with him. But that short bout was enough to tell Ares that his opponent was still lacking. With the help of this pseudo-Longinus, Azazel would be able to hold on for a while but ultimately, he would fall since Ares could tell that this armor had a time restriction. In this case, anyone would just wait it out.
But Ares never fought like that. It was not his style.
His style was to gain victory through sheer force… to crush his enemy by showing how insignificant their power was and how little their resistance mattered, to see the despair in their eyes as their will to fight would crumble away.
With his mind made up, he reached out to his personal armory. A small dimensional inventory where he stored all his personal weapons and trophies. From there, he took out one of his favorite weapons.
“Is that… a replica of…”
“You dare!” Ares growled, “This is no imitation!”
The spear he held in his hand was his first weapon. As the patron of Spartans, he valued spears and spearmanship. That was why when he learned about True Longinus, he had his brother Hephaestus reforge his spear. But he did not stop there. Over the centuries, he kept polishing and enhancing this spear at every chance he got. It was not just the spear. All the weapons he possessed… he believed all of them to be stronger than the current 13 Longinus.
“Weapons made for mere mortals can never be compared to what I possess!”
And then, they clashed once again.
Azazel replaced his light spear with two swords. The one on his right hand was completely black with white runes engraved in the middle of the blade, and the other one was exactly the same in size and shape but the colors were reversed. And Ares could tell that these were also pseudo-Sacred Gears.
But instead of meeting Ares head-on, Azazel moved away at the last second. His golden wings flared as hundreds of holy bullets were fired. Dodging them was not the issue, but the bullets were exploding randomly. It was not doing any damage, but it was distracting him long enough for Azazel to continuously fire white and black energy blasts from his swords.
For the first few energy blasts, Ares deflected them. It was to understand their effects.
Those attacks had some sort of ‘Poison’ effect, not strong enough to kill him. But if he let it stack, it would paralyze him for sure.
Ares finally found a gap and flew fast enough to catch up to Azazel. He swung his spear, but the moment it contacted Azazel’s black blade, he realized that it was a feint. There was no power behind it. The real attack came from Azazel’s white blade. The blade extended while emitting a sicky white aura. The extension was so fast that it almost struck Ares in the face. The God of War rotated his spear and hit the extended blade with the butt of his weapon, completely deflecting it.
Going with the momentum, Ares rotated his body to move forward and then ended it with a powerful single-hand stab. Even though Azazel blocked with both swords, the force was strong enough to blast Azazel to the ground.
Ares followed after him, not wanting to give him any breathing room.
The smoke caused by Azazel’s impact cleared as multiple black and white magical blades flew at him.
This did not slow Ares. He weakened the hold on his spear, and using his aura, he started to spin his weapon creating a drill-like force. This technique caused a vacuum in front of him which shattered most of the incoming swords and deflected the rest.
The spear attack missed Azazel as he dodged at the last moment using unnatural footsteps. It was as if he glided backward.
But the moment Ares’ feet touched the ground, thousands of black feathers surrounded him instantly. And before he could take any action, the feathers disappeared leaving behind an unnatural darkness.
“Darkness manipulation at its finest.”
An ability where the user weakens the five senses of his opponent – a great setup for an assassination. Unfortunately for Azazel, Ares was quite familiar with this particular technique since this was one of Gasper’s signature moves.
So, he also knew how to counter this.
Closing his eyes, Ares focused on his energy. The aura he released became dense to the point of burning the air around him. While this technique greatly hindered all five senses, it had little effect on the aura sense.
Sensing no one near him, he understood what Azazel was going for, “Long-range attack?”
Ares started to extend his aura sense by releasing numerous tiny orbs made of pure energy and sending them in all directions. His goal was to locate Azazel and what he was up to. This would allow him to turn the table…
And then he sensed it.
A circle had been drawn using runes and old magic. And he was at the center of it.
Gritting his teeth, he grabbed his spear with both hands and immediately stabbed the ground with the tip, releasing as much power as he could. But instead of destroying the magic, his power activated it.
He felt countless invisible chains wrapping around his body, trying to bind him, “The fucker is trying to seal me!”
Ares was not well-versed in sealing magic, but he knew that any magic could be nullified by overpowering it. With that in mind, he pushed more power into his spear.
The magic weakened but it was nearly not enough.
His senses started to scream at him as he felt the strength of the chains restricting his movements growing alarmingly. He was going to be sealed at this rate, and there was no doubt in his mind about this.
He immediately reached out to his armory once again… and took out that weapon, “You think you can seal me?!”
The moment he stabbed the ground with that weapon, the sealing magic weakened instantly. With a roar, he pushed once more, feeding more energy to that weapon.
He felt the invisible chains shattering, and the magic in the air completely disappeared. Not only that, all his senses returned to normal as the darkness around him slowly started to disperse.
Because of this, he was able to locate Azazel’s position, but his enemy did not realize this.
Ares did not waste this chance.
He dismissed that weapon while raising his spear high up. And then with all his might, he threw the spear.
This time, the attack landed.
The spear had struck Azazel right in the middle of his chest. But he was not giving his enemy any more opportunities, Ares immediately went after him. When he reached him, he noticed that the golden armor was slowly breaking apart. With a sneer, he roughly took out the spear, making Azazel cough out more blood.
“Death under our heels, as it was meant to be,” He put his right foot on his chest and pressed down, “Any last words? Crow.”
Azazel let out a pained smile.
“Bang.”