Re:Cord of Ragnarok

Chapter 26 [Flickering Flame in the Endless Abyss]

"Tsk... this human." Moros looked down onto the arena with a disapproving look, his eyes narrowing as he turned to Dionysus who sat a fair bit away. "Dionysus... this human better earn us a victory... We better not fall back in the tournament because of your foolish schemes." As the doom God spoke, his voice tensed, sparks of flame shooting out his palm before he simply sighed. "No matter the methods... we can not lose this tournament, so you damned drunken bastard... hopefully your game hasn't reduced my chance of seeing my art any lower..."

With the space between them closed, Jeanne thrust her stake forward like a spear, the tip aimed directly at Midas' chest. "What in the name of Demon King Lord Solomon are you doing? If you're going to use me like this, at least throw me!" Barbatos asked, confused by Jeanne's seemingly random action. But Jeanne didn't respond, her focus placed purely on the king before her.

Midas slid to the side, the edge of his knife running along the edge of Jeanne's stake to protect himself from anything else that saint might do. Midas closed the gap, but rather than move his defense with the knife, he slammed his shoulder into the saint's gut, winding her and making her drop her stake as she descended to the floor.

Jeanne was given little time to recover as Midas charged towards her with a follow up attack, this time the knife's point aimed at her jugular directly. By her foot, a rusted sword laid, and without time to think or time to draw her own sword, she grabbed it and attempted to guard.

Midas' knife met flesh as a thin scratch formed on her right cheek, faint drops of crimson blood leaking out, but Jeanne would have suffered much worse had she not been quick to act. With the sword she had grabbed, she had diverted the course of the knife away from her neck, avoiding an almost guaranteed death sentence.

As Jeanne sprung back to her feet to continue the fight, she swung up with the rusted sword and returned the favor as a slightly deeper cut formed on the king's chest, a thin arc of blood following the blade's motion. The droplets of blood poured from the wound, but rapidly found themselves changing form. In almost an instant, the wound had become a scab of golden gore, solidified in an arc of gleaming blood. The bleeding was stopped, and the slash had been decorated into another treasure adorning the king's body.

Wukong narrowed his eyes at the king's sealed wound, turning his head around to meet Dionysus' grin with a frown. "Is this also a part of the 'gift' you bestowed upon him?" The monkey asked with clear sarcasm in his tone.

"The gift I bestowed on him was the golden touch~ It just so happens that blood that leaves his wounds also 'touches' him~" Dionysus replied in an innocent tone "Humans are fragile creatures, they break so easily~ both mentally and physically. The idea of my lovely friend, for that is what he be became ever since he reached out to me back then, breaking was just too much for my fragile heart~" God chirped in an overexerted tone

"WHAT?!" Echoes of disbelief shot out from the audience. "His wound was fixed almost immediately?! Are you telling me he is immortal? Cheating bastard!" Amidst the outrage and horror of humanity, the gods remained silent. Had a mortal gained a power that they were designed to never wield?

As the demon king watched with indifference, a voice matching his expression finally escaped his lips "Immortality...? Pfft, how foolish" His lips curled upwards slightly in amusement "This treacherous creature possesses nothing of the sort... What this power of his seems to do is that it prevents his body from dying by conventional means, despite how much he desires that himself, meaning that his will is weaker than the whim of a god, pathetic. He's deathless but not unkillable, it will be proven soon enough" Man's smirk was replaced with a light scowl, which disappeared as soon as it appeared .

"I knew it couldn't be that easy." Jeanne muttered beneath her breath as she lept back, avoiding another slash from the king's knife.

"See. You have no hope of defeating me, let alone a god. Humanity's victory before has already been made worthless by these tyrants! There is no hope for us!" Midas roared maniacally to the woman before him, his words soaked in a manic desperation which echoed throughout the arena.