"Oh really?" Loki smiled maliciously.
The condescending tone only fueled Issei's rage further.
"BOOST!"
The familiar sound of Ddraig's power echoing as energy coursed through Issei's body.
"Argh!" Issei launched himself forward with explosive speed.
Months of Leon's training had transformed him completely. His enhanced reflexes and combat instincts which here honed through countless battles guided his strike perfectly.
His fist slammed directly into Loki's face.
"What—"
The god's head snapped back from the impact, surprise flickering across his face. He hadn't expected the boy to actually land a hit.
But there was no damage. No blood. Not even a bruise.
Issei's punch had felt like nothing more than a light tap to the Norse god.
"BOOST!" Issei didn't let up, his power doubling again as he launched another barrage of strikes.
Each punch landed with enhanced speed and technique driving them home with devastating precision. But it was like hitting a mountain. Loki absorbed every blow without so much as flinching, his divine constitution making him essentially immune to Issei's attacks.
"How weak," Loki said with amusement, catching Issei's next punch in his palm without effort. "But it's not enough little red dra—."
"BOOST! BOOST! BOOST!"
Issei's aura exploded outward as his power multiplied rapidly.
He broke free from Loki's grip and landed a devastating uppercut that should have sent any opponent flying.
Loki didn't even move.
"Impossible," Issei breathed, staring at his fist that had connected perfectly with the god's chin.
"You're still weak mortal," Loki mocked.
Issei's frustration boiled over. He was still too weak. Still useless when his friends needed him most.
"BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST!"
The power kept multiplying, but Issei could feel it wasn't enough. It would never be enough against a god.
Unless...
"Ddraig," he said through gritted teeth. "I need more power."
"Partner, you're not ready for—"
"I don't care!" Issei roared. "Leon saved all of us! He's suffering because of this bastard, and I can't even scratch him!"
Red light began to pour from the Boosted Gear, more intense than ever before.
"Very well, partner. But be warned—this form will push your body to its limits."
"I don't care about limits!"
The transformation began.
Red armor materialized around Issei's body, starting from the Boosted Gear and spreading outward. Dragon scales formed across his chest and arms.
"WELSH DRAGON BALANCE BREAKER!"
The crimson armor completed itself, transforming Issei into the legendary Red Dragon Emperor. Power radiated from him in waves, making the very air vibrate with draconic energy.
Loki's eyebrows rose slightly. "Now that's more interesting."
But his smile never wavered.
Issei stood motionless for a moment in his armor, the power of the Welsh Dragon coursing through every fiber of his being. The Balance Breaker had transformed him completely—no longer just a perverted high school student, but the true vessel of one of the Two Heavenly Dragons.
Then he moved.
The ground exploded where he'd been standing as Issei launched himself forward with impossible speed. This time, when his armored fist connected with Loki's face, the god's head actually snapped to the side with real force.
Loki's eyes widened in surprise as he stumbled backward. "What—"
Issei didn't give him time to recover. Combat training had taught him to press any advantage ruthlessly. His follow-up strike caught Loki in the ribs, forcing the god to grunt from impact.
"Now you're paying attention," Issei growled, his voice distorted by the armor's power.
Loki straightened, touching his jaw where a thin line of golden ichor—divine blood—trickled from the corner of his mouth. For the first time since arriving, his smug confidence wavered.
"Impressive," he admitted, wiping the blood away. "Red Dragon Emperor…but unfortunately you need more than this to defeat me."
"Good," Issei snarled. "Because I'm just getting started."
=====
Rossweisse stood as she gazed hatefully at the figure in front of her.
Hel.
Memories resurfaced in her mind again. Leon's sacrifice. Loki and her.
But worse than that were the memories of her own weakness. How she had been utterly helpless in Helheim, unable to do anything as Leon knelt before Loki in chains. How she had stood there like a statue while the man she loved traded away his freedom, his power, his very life to save Koneko and her.
She had cursed her weakness every day since. Cursed the trembling hands that could only cast an escape spell. Cursed the tears that had blinded her as she left the man she loved to suffer alone in that frozen hell. Cursed her complete inability to change anything, to fight back, to be anything more than a burden he had to worry about protecting.
She hated Hel with every fiber of her being.
Now, though—now she was not weak anymore.
Where once she might have stood helpless before a deity of Hel's stature, now she felt only cold determination.
"You," Rossweisse said, her voice steady as steel. "You're going to pay for what you've done to Leon."
Golden light coalesced in her right hand, forming into a blade of pure rainbow radiance. The sword hummed with cosmic energy, its prismatic edge cutting through the air.
Hel's mismatched eyes fixed on the rainbow blade, and for the first time, she took an involuntary step backward. Her instincts screamed warnings that this was no ordinary sword.
"How interesting," Hel said, though her voice had lost some of its confidence. "The little Valkyrie has found some backbone."
The rainbow sword pulsed brighter in response to Rossweisse's rising fury. Where once she had been weak and helpless, now she wielded power that could challenge the divine.
"Oh, I found something more than that," Rossweisse replied, raising the stellar blade.
Then she moved.
The rainbow sword cut through the air in a perfect arc, its prismatic edge trailing light as Rossweisse closed the distance between herself and Hel in an instant.
Hel barely managed to raise a barrier of shadow in time. The rainbow blade struck the dark energy and shattered it like glass, the impact sending shockwaves through the parking lot.
"Impossible," Hel breathed, stumbling backward as cracks appeared in the asphalt beneath her feet.
But Rossweisse was already moving again as the blade sang through the air, each strike aimed at the goddess who had made her beloved Leon suffer.
"Is this it?" Rossweised said firmly.
Hel scoffed. "Of course not."
Then she took a step back and raised her hand. The ground began to tremble and crack as an army of dead rose from beneath the earth.
Seeing the countless undead in front of her, Rossweisse tightened her grip on the rainbow sword. Determination hardened her features as golden light pulsed stronger around her body.
"You think numbers will save you?" she asked, raising the rainbow blade high above her head.
Power flowed through the sword until it blazed like a captured star. She had been weak before, helpless when Leon needed her most.
Not anymore.
The battle settled into a rhythm. Rossweisse moved like lightning through the undead horde, her blade carving through bone and rotting flesh with ease. Each swing left trails of prismatic light, and wherever the stellar edge touched, the creatures crumbled to ash.
But for every skeleton she destroyed, two more clawed their way from the earth. For every zombie she cut down, three more shambled forward to take its place. Hel stood at the center of her army, calmly raising more dead with each gestures.
As she watches Rossweisse decapitate a row of skeletal warriors in a single sweep. Hel's eyes narrowed as she studied the rainbow blade more closely.
"What manner of sword is that?" Hel asked.
Rossweisse cut through another wave of zombies without answering, her jaw set in grim determination.
"Silent treatment?" Hel smiled with half her face, though her mismatched eyes remained wary. "A shame." She raised her hand again, summoning more undead, but kept her distance from that impossible blade. "But I suppose it doesn't matter."
Rossweisse didn't respond, focusing on the battle while waiting for the goddess to realize the truth. Soon, Hel would discover that her "endless" army was becoming finite with every swing of the rainbow sword.
The goddess of death was content to play this waiting game, unaware that each moment brought her closer to facing a weapon that could permanently sever her power over the fallen.
The stalemate continued for several more minutes, Rossweisse cutting through wave after wave of undead while Hel summoned replacements with casual ease. But gradually, something began to change.
Hel raised her hand to summon another battalion of skeletal warriors from a section of the parking lot she'd used earlier. Her power reached out, searching for the remnants of the dead she knew were there.
Nothing.
Her brow furrowed in confusion. She tried again, focusing more intently on the area where dozens of her minions had fallen.
Still nothing. It was as if those particular dead had never existed at all.
"What..." Hel muttered, her voice carrying a note of uncertainty for the first time in the battle.
She expanded her search, reaching for other areas. The same result—complete emptiness where her undead should have been waiting to rise again.
Rossweisse caught the goddess's expression and allowed herself a small, cold smile. "Finally noticed, have you?"
"What did you do?" Hel shrieked, her composed demeanor cracking as panic crept into her voice.
Rossweisse flashed a cold smile without replying. She continued her deadly dance through the remaining undead, each swing of the rainbow blade erasing more of Hel's army from existence itself. The prismatic light left trails of nothingness where the creatures had been.
The goddess of death watched in growing horror as her forces dwindled without the possibility of replacement.
Then Hel's eyes fixed on the weapon in Rossweisse's hands. The rainbow blade that cut through her minions with impossible ease.
"The sword," she whispered, realization dawning in her mismatched eyes. "It's the sword."
"I told you I would make you pay." Rossweisse replied coldly.
Hel's face went pale.
For the first time in millennia, the goddess of death faced something that could permanently erase her domain over the fallen.
Hel fell silent, her confidence evaporating as the last of her undead army crumbled under the rainbow blade's touch. Without her endless reinforcements, she found herself on the disadvantage quickly.
Rossweisse moved, closing the distance between them. Hel tried to retreat, summoning barriers of shadow and death energy, but the stellar blade cut through them like they were made of paper.
Within moments, she found herself kneeling on the cracked asphalt, the rainbow sword's edge pressed against her throat.
"Now then," Rossweisse said, her voice deadly calm. "Let's discuss Leon's freedom."
Before Hel could reply, a familiar voice sounded from behind them.
"No need for that, my dear Rose."
Rossweisse's eyes widened in shock. The rainbow blade trembled in her grip as she slowly turned her head.
Hel's expression shifted from fear to something unreadable. She didn't look surprised to see him.
Standing at the edge of the parking lot, looking tired but very much alive, was Leon.
His clothes were torn and dirty, his face showed signs of exhaustion, but his eyes burned with that familiar determination she remembered so well.
"Leon?"
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