"This is why I hate brats." Aru grumped as soon as Lem left to go find Nelly, "They never listen!"

"Look who's talking." Auros smirked before getting a mighty flick to the forehead from the Goddess, "Ouch!"

Her height obviously disallowed her from getting that flick off with her own two fingers, but by creating a massive hand out of pure water, she could just manage. In any case, these 7 members were fast approaching their target, the Grandmaster Adventurer Schnell Douglas. Though weakened by the sudden departure of Lem, it was still a largely unfair battle for Schnell. He was outnumbered, after all, and not at all by a small margin.

"Right, while we still have some time left." Issei asked the Gods, "Can you use your Omniscience to tell us more about this guy?"

"What do you wanna know?" Auros asked.

"Like what're his strengths, does he have an Iro Ability... Stuff like that."

"He does not Wield an Iro Ability, but his healing factor is quite heightened by his Iro Perk." Aru explained, "Though as far as we're concerned, that ancient bonehead's Iro usage is the least of our worries."

"If he doesn't have Iro Abilities, then he shouldn't be an issue." Jorgen crossed his arms.

"If we were dealing with just some guy, then yeah." She continued, "But Schnell's got a strength that you'll come to hate the moment you experience it for yourself in battle. To put it simply, his adaptability is through the roof."

"Adaptability?" Issei furrowed his brows.

Adaptability, in other words—The ability to survive and thrive in any situation you get put in, regardless of the amount of prep-time you are given beforehand. It's one of the most, if not THE most important skills a being can have, no matter the world they reside in. Schnell was and still is an incredible adventurer, but he didn't make it this far just by his strength, agility or intellect. Nay, those are lesser skills in comparison to adaptability, and he had that in spades.

"Think of it like this." Auros gave an example, "Throw a fish out of its water. What happens?"

"It dies, I guess." Pierre shrugged.

"Yeah, that's the rest of the world." The God continued, "Now toss a human into the water. Will they drown?"

"Most probably, they'll flap about until they learn how to swim." Aaron surmised, "So that's the case, eh? We're just a bunch of fish going toe to toe against a human."

"That's the gist. There isn't a single trap he'll fall for, nor a single environment he'll find discomfort in." Aru explained, "As long as he's got that indomitable human spirit that pushes him to live, he won't give in."

"Yeah, but he died once, didn't he?" Issei asked, "How'd that happen?"

Hearing him pop the question aggravated the Gods a bit. With a dejected sigh, they both recalled what happened on that day, or at least the Sun God's recounting of it.

"He got burned alive." Auros corrected himself, "Rather, he got deleted from the world. Not even light itself could have dodged the tiny Sun that got sent his way."

"Of course, that was when darling was still alive." Aru sulked, "If we had him here with us, it'd be as simple as a flick of the wrist for him!"

Issei and the Generals assumed this battle would have been nothing more than a warm up at first. Merely a precursor to the final battle with Olyahim. But for even the Gods of this world to give such high praise to one singular man, and for them to even sound uncertain of their victory against him, that was what worried them. Schnell was last seen running in the direction they were going, but now that they knew where they stood in regards to that man, it could very well be the case that he was the one chasing them.

"Let's not get too ahead of ourselves." Jorgen remained calm in spite of this, "The guy lived a thousand years ago, far before Iro Wielders and mad inventors were a thing. Even if we ignore the surprise hits Issei and us can get in on him, we still have the Fighting God's Favor and the Water Goddess' aid. He stands no chance."

"Is that how you think of me?" A burly yet friendly voice laughed.

Immediately, Auros stopped his sprint, though the inertia carried him a dozen meters further down before he came to a complete stop. That voice belonged to the bearded Green Eyed man standing atop a tree branch behind them, and his carefree call out suggested he was expecting them already.

"You've got balls to call out to us like this, Douglas..." Auros grinded his teeth together, "How was Hell?"

"Oh, it was hell! Ah, guess you already knew that." He chuckled, "Got used to it after a while though. Really, it's just stuffing someone in a small ass box. The most harm it caused was a sore neck."

"To even adapt to the eternal damnation of Hell..." Aru shuddered, "Not even the God of Meditation, the calmest of us all, could accomplish that much."

"Is it such a horrible place?" Maxwell asked.

"Aye." Auros nodded, "A pure black dimension as infinitely small as Heaven 2.0 is infinitely large. His description of a tiny box is accurate, as all your bones get squashed into one tiny minute volume."

"You see nothing, you smell nothing, you taste nothing." Aru continued, "The only thing you can do is feel your bones get perpetually crushed further and further as the cube keeps shrinking to infinity, and the voices of your loved ones shrieking in pain just outside as well."

"Yeah, but I kinda figured you were lyin' about that last part." Schnell scratched his head, "I mean, it got pretty painful, but I wasn't screamin' at all. So that Olya and Shaid I heard must've been just that—Cheap imitations meant to trick me into sufferin' more. After I figured that out, I was just glad to still be able to hear their voices again."

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

The man had adapted to Hell. Alone in a cramped environment whilst time for him stood still, he still managed to turn such a terrifying experience into a happy moment. This was what the Gods feared in him, in the man that adapted to the world's every change.

----------------------------------------

***

----------------------------------------

"So, you liked it there, eh?" Auros beckoned him to come down, "In that case, get down from that tree and we'll personally send you back. Sound good?"

"I just got here though." He complained, "Hey, tell y'all what—How 'bout you let me 'n my friends live out our lives for a bit here, let us get a few more adventures in, and then we'll go back to bein' dead."

"I don't suppose you'll take anything less than 80 years, then." Aru glared at him, "Too bad though, 'cause we won't take any more than a day."

"Aww shucks, really?" He jumped down, surprisingly, "If that's the case, then we'll come back here by sundown, 'kay?"

"I didn't mean a literal day, gah!" She shouted as thousands of water hands erupted from her tiny body, "You're so annoying!"

Grabbing him was a cinch, in fact it felt too easy for Aru. For a guy like him, she had expected a lot more resistance, but she wasn't about to question it and possibly throw this chance away. Conserving energy is a concept the Gods are unfamiliar with, as such she used all of those thousands of hands to dig a hole straight below him, tossing him in immediately after.

"What's she doing!?" Issei shouted.

"Digging him back to his rightful place!" Auros smirked, warning the others to hold on tight as he jumped right in after them, "Haha! Attagirl, Allucius! Just keep digging!"

Though they had jumped in not too long after Aru and Schnell, the hands had already dug quite the distance between them. Aru was now practically left alone with the Grandmaster Adventurer, diligently making sure he gets put back in Hell, in one way or another.

"So that's your plan, eh?" Schnell glanced down, unamused, "Planning to make me go splat? Aren't I supposed to be free falling in that case?"

"If I let you go with my water hands, you'll somehow find a way to escape." She clicked her tongue, "Besides, didn't you know? Hell lies at the center of the world. Dig down low enough and anyone can get there."

"What? You're sayin' I could've just dug my way out all this time?" He pouted, "Eh, then I guess Olya should've been quicker to bust me out."

His disappointment and overall coldheartedness towards the situation only infuriated her more. She kept diligently digging down, reaching levels of depth so hot that she would occasionally run into lava.

"Oop, careful." He dodged the lava droplets, "Wouldn't want me to get burned now. Ah, though I guess you would."

"Zip it, your death in the living world would mean you'd get sent to Heaven." She groaned, "If darling was here, he'd be able to send you to Hell directly as its overseer, but I gotta make due like this."

So that's your secret, Schnell thought. No matter what, these people didn't want him to die here. Until she had reached Hell and plopped him back in his box, he wasn't allowed to die. With this newfound information, he had already thought up what his next course of action was.

"H-Hey! Stop that!" She scolded him for ducking his head into the water hand holding him tightly.

"Blub blub blub!"

Water bubbles arose out of his mouth as he tried to speak inside it, the water flooding his lungs at an alarming rate. Indeed, his goal now was to die and get into Heaven. This way, even if Olyahim failed to revive him a second time, he'll at least rest easy in knowing they won against the Gods a second time now.

"Release!" Aru commanded the water hands, thus dropping him into a free fall, "No, dammit! What are you, a suicidal baby!?"

"Ghack! If that's what it takes, then goo goo ga ga!" He stuck his tongue out as he quickly clung to the walls, tearing up his nails completely along the way, "Hey, we're pretty deep into the lava layer. It's already sizzling my hands just to hold on."

"That's cause we're surrounded by lava, you moron!" She started rising back up to grab him again, "Wait, don't tell me you're...!?"

Before she could even finish her sentence, a mighty punch from the Grandmaster Adventurer had sent the stone walls flying from the wall he clung to. His Eyes saw a lovely yet dangerous Reddish orange start to slowly leak out of the crevice, and he knew exactly what to do.

"Don't try and drink it!" Aru just barely arrived in time to shoot a water jet at the lava, disallowing it from flowing into his wide open mouth, "Grr, so that's your plan, huh? Die before your soul gets trapped? Hmph, how lousy!"

"If you got a better idea, I'm all ears." He grinned back, "Ah, you stopped digging."

"That's cause you keep distracting me!" She hissed.

"Oh, is that so? I'm sorry." He apologized before suddenly grabbing her by the neck, "In that case, I'll take this a bit more seriously from now on."

"Khk! You... damned...!" She struggled to catch her footing, "I'm a Goddess, you know? Breathing isn't a necessity for me!"

"Then you won't feel this either." He smiled, smashing her face into the stone wall again to unveil the lava a second time, "You must be parched... Drink up."

Her face was pressed up against the incoming lava. Slowly, it seeped into her throat, and despite the extreme heat harming him as well, he didn't hesitate to keep holding onto her until she was completely drenched in the thousands of degrees hot liquid. This time, Aru understood, he had adapted to brutality.