BXBX NOVEL Chapter 110: Wake up.
"Who the hell...?"
"That was Dr'ul," Dina answered Usami. "The goddess of war."
"Queen of the heavens." Arla added just as the ground beneath them shook again and waves of land arose and fell desynchronizing the plates again and throwing the gods into another round of damage control. "We should return to Argom, right?" She asked and Dina nodded in agreement.
"At this point we have no choice again but to leave it up to them, the city is probably in chaos right now we should try helping as much as we can." Dina looked at Sara who had remained quiet all this time, and the maid shook her head in the negative.
"My shadow magic has become unstable from all the mana fluctuations passing through the air, entering the realm in such conditions may prove fatal for myself and the rest of you or even worse than death, we might get stuck there with no means of return." She clarified her refusal and bowed. "I am sorry, but sir's fight with the demon-god has made my abilities impossible to safely use."
"What are we supposed to do now then?" Bruce asked looking at everyone. "I feel like a fucking wallflower." He huffed watching Dina take a seat again and close her eyes, and along with her Arla did the same. "What are you doing?"
"Through absorption of large quantities of mana one can break their limiters and gain more levels, as much as I would love to rush over and help in whatever way I can, I have no standing with the gods, I am too weak to make even a slight difference, my presence would be nothing but a bother to them; so in the meantime I'm compelled to work on my personal growth and possibly closing that gap." Dina explained.
"You're still delusional." Usami furrowed her brows and sat hugging her knees.
"They can destroy planetary bodies like Arkadia which is the size of saturn, what hope do we have h-" Usami's words were cut off when she saw a massive portal tear open right behind Dina and Sitri stumble through it, bloodied and cackling with her head half crushed and her wings crooked and a limp grabbing Dina by her hair and raising her off the ground violently.
"Ah!" The spear hero arose on instinct and summoned a spear in defence but just a moment later Sol emerged from the portal and grabbed Sitri's wings stepping in her back and tearing them out of her sending both her and Dina in opposite directions as she screamed and arched.
"Are you running now you fucker!?" Sol leapt and thrust his legs down, landing into her back and sending everyone flying again with the sheer concussive force of his double heel strike.
"I will not die here!" Sitri emerged from the crater grabbing Sol's legs and slamming him into the ground so hard his body condensed and melted the soil he hit.
"Get lost!" She screeched kicking him clean out of the atmosphere causing a burst of mana around her that knocked Usami, Eris, Sara and Bruce unconscious, while Dina and Arla had erected barriers instinctively and were able to protect themselves and just getting stunned.
"Just stay dead you monster!!" Sitri screamed as she felt Sol already returning. "Fuck!" She spun and looked at Dina again. "You, cherished Mage be my hostage!" She gurgled and Dina's heart sunk as she was once again caught by the demon-god effortlessly, this time though Sol couldn't sneak attack like before because she held on to Dina like a shield and turned to him.
"Now what you bastard freak!?" Sitri laughed as her body was finally able to heal with the end of his relentless attacks. "If you even think of using that weird technique she will die immediately!" Her hand slowly pierced Dina's back and held on to her heart causing the girl to shake like a fish out of water and begin screaming.
"No!" Arla raised her hands toward Sitri, but a single glance from the demon god caused her to lose her nerve and begin shaking outside of her own volition, falling to her hands and legs as she was reminded of the terrifying power gap.
"Listen to me well, Sitri, you get one chance." Sol landed with an explosive crash and walked out of the smoke and fire stopping before them.
"One chance; let her go and leave, I'll forget you even exist, I'll let you go back to your home-dimension and not fucking care, but if you harm that girl I don't care how long it takes, I will hunt you to the ends of creation and reality and grant you a fate worse than everlasting death, do you understand?"
"Is this how you beg for her life Sol!?" Sitri cackled but held her sneer. "To think you had such a monstrous evolution hiding from everyone else, I am shocked-"
"I said let go of Her." Sol repeated himself. "Now, or else-"
"Or else nothing, if you forcefully remove me I take her heart, her spine and her fucking head with me, she is alive now because I will it, you have no control over what happens here." She stared at him with a wide and unblinking glare that even though Arla was behind she still felt even more chills.
"Master!" Ikaris appeared again after arriving and he was not in the elven continent though a strong presence still lingered there. Her eyes rested on Dina, and without thinking Ikaris set foot on the ground and took off toward them in a rage. "Unhand her!!"
"Perfect!" Sitri let go of Dina and stepped toward Ikaris who was approaching from the side, sending blood splashing in slow motion as [clockwork] manifested around them.
"No!" Ikaris screamed out when she saw Sitri's manic grain as her hand squeezed down and crushed Dina's physical heart while she reached out for her.
[Clockwork: Dominion]
Time froze again, even Ikaris froze and Sol tackled Sitri and took off just as he had the first time, a blast of wind erupted from where he and Sitri had been sending Dina limply crashing while Ikaris chased her and caught up, falling to her knees and casting [divine heal] on her, but once again, whatever Sitri touched became unmendable for her.
"I'm ...dying?" Dina stared skyward, with her eyes slowly rolling into the back of her head, her back had been torn out, the back of her head was smashed and her heart had been removed all in that singular moment, and before she could say another word of conscious thought she fell into shock and began having a seizure in Ikaris's grasp.
"No-no-no-no!" Ikaris cast [divine heal] repeatedly, but every time her mana fell on Dina it shattered like shards of glass and disappeared to the wind. "Arla!" She screamed. "Do something, where is Eris!?"
"I- I don't know!" Arla slid to a stop and fell to her knees on Dina's other side. "H-heal!" She tried casting [Minor heal, but that too was a complete failure.
"Dina...?" Ikaris stopped moving when Dina fell still, taking one deep breath and not exhaling it. "No," She held her hands over Dina again, breaking through her armour and piercing her chest with her divinity. "Not like this, not now, I can't lose you too!" She read Dina's makeup and began forging a heart of her own.
"Stay down, stay put!" An ethereal hand emerged from Ikaris's back and grabbed on to Dina's soul after it attempted to escape her. "Fucking stay, don't leave me too!" She started weaving from the inside, and not just her heart, but the missing vertebrae in her spine, and her head also started to be forcefully mended. "I can fix this, so stop trying to run away from me!"
She indeed healed and fixed her, but Dina had by that point been dead for well over five minutes, even after she kept hold of her soul that resisted and tried fleeing, she still couldn't wake her.
"Clinically dead... There is nothing I can do here." Arla stopped casting heal, watching Ikaris sweat and cry as she continued trying to revive Dina with CPR to no success.
[Ikaris, release the child's soul and let her rest.] The entity behind her that had been speaking since her moment of passing urged her gently, resting his hand on her shoulder. [Would you deny her what could be Arkadia's last chance of a heaven beyond the reaches of the demon scurge?] He asked.
"I do not expect you to understand, you are of death and do not value the living, she is precious to me; my first friend, my best friend, my sister, she is kin, I absolutely refuse to lose her like this!" Ikaris cried while Arla stared at her who from her point of view just spoke to nobody, or rather someone unseen and unknown.
For the first time since Atla Ikaris regretted giving Sol sovereign over her powers, without him she was limited, had she retained full access she would have been easily able to pull Dina's soul from the realm of the dead where the god of death lingered awaiting her, but instead all she could do was hold on to her while she tried reviving her body in the middle realm where all living creatures and entities existed.
"Wake up, Dina."