NGJ Chapter 103: Rising Death (Patreon)

Akira and Kokabiel as if they both shared a mutual understanding slowly descended back onto solid ground, onto the crater that stretched for kilometres, in such close quarters Akira's undead wouldn't be of much help.

He didn't need them to.

The moment both of their feet touched the ground they shot off toward each other, at speeds far surpassing before.

{Cursed Energy Reinforcement}

{Quicksilver}

{Cursed Technique Reversal: Malice}

{Apostilization: Cursed Energy Burst}

{Apostilization: Armor of the Dammed}

{Armor of the Dammed: Damnation}

{Idle Transfiguration: Bulk Up}

Cursed armour wrapped Akira's frame in a flash, and at the same his body bulked up immensely while cursed energy rolled off of him like a tornado, ripping the surroundings apart. To make himself even stronger he applied the inversion of malice onto himself, boosting his stats, while also using damnation on Kokabiel to reduce his stats.

His armor-clad fist clashed with Kokabiel's light sword and crushed it, and with quicksilver, he was slightly faster, his other fist slamming into Kokabiel's gut, making him spit blood and sending him flying faster than sound.

{You have recreated the Cursed Technique: Teleportation}

By applying the same principles as his former spell Akira was able to recreate teleportation in a split second and teleported behind Kokabiel before slamming both fists down on him, creating a Kokabiel-shaped crater on the ground.

Akira was cursed tens of thousands of cursed energy every second keeping this up but he needed to beat Kokabiel. He needed to prove himself.

How did he keep up with the energy expenditure?

By sacrificing his soldiers, he was exhuming his undeads cores, making himself stronger and regaining his CE while also using Despair Aura to decay Kokabeil's energy as much as possible.

Regaining his balance Kokabiel created yet another sword and slashed Akira with it, burning a good chunk of his body but it was for naught as it was recovered in seconds, Akira felt the burning energy in his body boiling.

"How!? How did you get so strong!?" Kokabiel shouted as they exchanged blows one after another. While Kokabiel inflicted more damage it was just not enough, Akira kept regaining it continuously. While all of the curses stacked on top of one another ate away at Kokabiel.

He was getting overwhelmed.

"I don't know. How did you get so weak? {Grave Buster}!" Suddenly, several black stakes pierced Kokabiel's legs, at the same time he was hit by several building-sized skeletal fists raining down from the sky.

"<<Fall>>" Akira's words immediately took effect, instead off just forcing Kokabiel to the ground they instead took a different effect combined with disaster death. Immediately forcing Kokabiel to lose control of his body as if he were immersed in the void, and this weakened Kokabiel was not able to resist the call of the void for but a mere moment.

A moment too long.

{Divergent Existence}

____________________________

[Divergent Existence]

You can split yourself into divergent forms. Each form will divide your cursed energy output and maximum cursed energy in two.

____________________________

Akira exploiting the moment divided his body body in five, all of them teleporting around Kokabiel, his mind was like a sharpened blade, concentrated to the absolute limit.

All five bodies moved at once.

"{Omni Directional Black Flash}!"

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

All five bodies struck at once, a punch landing on his spine, a kick to his leg, an elbow to his shoulder, a knee to his stomach and a punch to his face. And all of the blows had applied cursed energy at the moment of the impact, distorting space around them, the entire world flashed red and black as all of the blows stacked together, almost shattering Kokabiel's skeleton whole as his body was launched away like a ragdoll.

The bodies refused in a second and Akira lifted his hand toward the ragdolled body of Kokabiel before closing it tight.

"{False Burial}." His words rang out like a command to his world. Dozens of giant skeletal hands manifested already grabbing onto Kokabiel, a beat later dozens of skeletal lances pierced through the gaps and into Kokabiel's flesh, and then Akira snapped his fingers.

"{Corpse Explosion}!"

*BOOOM!* *BOOOM!* *BOOOM!* *BOOOM!* *BOOOM!* *BOOOM!* *BOOOM!* *BOOOM!* *BOOOM!* *BOOOM!* *BOOOM!* *BOOOM!*...

Dozens of unavoidable explosions stronger than any non-nuclear missile capable of melting through titanium and decaying diamonds ripped into Kokabiel, reducing where he was impaled to dust.

*Whoosh!* *Sizzle!*

Akira slightly moved out of the way of an incoming spear which took off his shoulder, but he simply tore off the burning area and regenerated it like it was nothing. His flaming eyes looking down on Kokabiel's pathetic form.

"I'll... kill... you...!" Almost every bone in his body was broken, several poked out of his skin, 3rd degree burns littered his body, there were fewer injuries he hadn't sustained rather than the ones he had. Yet his vitality as an ultimate class being was truly remarkable.

"Well then, since you are so persistent on going out the hard way I should stop pulling punches." Of course, Akira was talking out of his ass, he had already spent his maximum CE twice over and only kept up with further expenditure because was sacrificing the souls in his possession for CE instead.

Even as a cursed spirit expending so much CE in so little time was not fun.

Beating Kokabiel, however, was fun enough that it was cancelled out.

Kokabiel tried to lunge at Akira but he was suddenly swept away by an unavoidable tidal wave of skeletons the wave reached over a hundred meters in height and was over a kilometre wide.

That ought to hold him down for a bit.

"Rejoice Kokabiel, although your existence may have been worthless at least your demise shall be grand." Akira braced, ready to pull out all of the stops to finish off Kokabiel.

After all, there was no kill like overkill.

Akira grew two more arms, each doing their own symbols, it took a few seconds to do all the symbols as a self-imposed binding vow to increase the output of this move to the maximum and reduce costs.

"{Supreme Art: Divine Burial}!"

Just as Kokabiel burst out of the skeleton wave he was caught up by the unavoidable technique.

*CRASH!* *CHOMP!*

Hands and chains appeared from the void, manifesting having already grabbed Kokabiel's limbs and wrapping around him, restricting him. And the moment he was bound, a boundlessly larger magic circle was created below him, and a giant void-like Dragon skull erupted from it, reaching Kokabiel and snapping its jaws around him at impossible speeds.

Inside those jaws was a gnawing void of decay and rot, all within it all would turn to dust. Even mana itself would fall victim to entropy, breaking the spell defences too. Being hit by it was all but assured death.

But just as Kokabiel's HP was about to tick down to 0 Akira narrowed his eyes.

Killing Kokabiel like this wouldn't exactly send the message he wanted. He shared his vision with Alpha who was guarding the domain from the outside and serving as assurance to the people outside that he was still alive inside there and that there was no need to intervene.

"{False Swipe}."

False Swipe

-Prevents the target from dying to attacks performed by the user.

Akira grabbed the barely moving the body of Kokabiel.

It was time to send a message

♢—•♦•—♢—•♦•—♢—•♦•—♢

It had only been minutes since Akira had dragged Kokabiel into his domain.

During that time everyone had managed to gather back after Akira's command had worn off. And during that time someone himself had arrived.

Azazel.

Of course, everyone there glared daggers at him.

In fact, the only thing that stopped them from trying to jump his ass the moment he arrived there was the fact that Akira wasn't dead yet and that they would get folded faster than they could blink.

Azazel managed to de-escalate the situation by mentioning his relationship with Akira but even then it did not stop the molten glares of the heiresses from falling onto him.

The reason why everyone was just sitting still was because of one single element.

A large skeleton standing in front of a floating black sphere with its arms crossed. When Rias tried to enter the domain somehow to try and help Akira she was stopped by Alpha who firmly assured her that Akira was doing good inside.

"Alpha was it? Mind telling me what is happening inside that sphere?" Azazel inquired nonchalantly but it was a lie to say that even someone like him wasn't nervous. He genuinely did care for Akira which was why he sent Vali as assurance but he did not expect Vali to be late and Akira to die already.

He was pretty spooked when he saw Akira die(remote-viewing magic) and suddenly become a seemingly new being altogether. Which led him to calling off Vali and coming himself instead.

"I am afraid, I cannot, share my sight, with my lord. However that is no, mere sphere, it is my lord's, domain." Alpha replied firmly to Azazel without a disturbance in his tone. While Azazel wondered about the implications of that statement Rias stood impatiently.

She was torn between her desire to help Akira and her unwavering trust that he would be able to overcome the situation.

The vision of Akira getting impaled flashed before her eyes.

Rias closed her eyes. Frustration built up within her, she almost lost him.

She needed to become stronger. She did not want to become a burden to him.

Just as Azazel was about to inquire further the black sphere in the sky unravelled dropping two figures back onto the real world with Alpha instantly taking a half-kneeling pose. And everyone there saw it.

The embodiment of death dragging a vaguely Kokabiel-shaped piece of bloodied meat by the hair, one could see it faintly and painfully breathing, and someone more experienced in cursed arts could see the dozens of curses placed on him.

A wave of unease and fear swept through everyone there with varying degrees of effect. Kokenko even felt like puking just feeling the prescence. Before it suddenly disappeared. As if a switch had flipped but the menacing presence of it still lingered.

"Hey...? Akira, you ARE Akira, right? Could you place Kokabiel down? We can take it from here if you want." Even Azazel was nervous as Akira's new form unflinchingly stared right into his eyes, as if boring into his soul.

No matter what, the gaze of the fear of all things toward death made manifest was not one that was light.

Without a word said Akira raised the struggling body of Kokabiel and suddenly he plunged his fist through Kokabiel's ribcage, stopping Kokabiel's struggle, his body going limp before Akira released the grip he had on Kokabiel's hair, dropping him to the ground like puppet with its strings cut.

"*Sigh* Yep, I guess I should have expected this." Azazel said sighing deeply while scratching his head. But what happened next made his eyes widen.

Because the ground started shaking, several skeleton arms burst out of the ground making several gestures behind Akira as his eyes shined. And then suddenly.

"{Raise Undead}"

The limp body of Kokabiel stood up before suddenly prostating himself before Akira's feet.

A/N: It's all about sending a message. Kokabiel tried and succeded in killing Akira and he would have killed the others too. Akira by killing Kokabiel shows that A: He is more than willing to execute any adversary and add them to his legion B: He is strong enough to kill a cadre. C: Adding a cadre to his ranks.

I should also mention that Akira was fighting rather inefficiently here, he is still figuring out his abilities, so he does some inefficient or ineffective things here and there in this fight to test his limits. Nearly all of his skills are now level 1 after all.