“Athena, you’re saying that I can get stronger”?

  Neila walked up to Athena, staring down at her small figure as he looked at her with a look of skepticism.

  Neila stood alone in a steel incased stadium with a bright light shining above them, weapons surrounded them, it was a large arena meant for high ranking duels, the walls were enough to withstand the powers of an S ranker.

  “Khaos isn’t just a Goddess, she is an overwhelming force of nature and the creator of existence itself, any amount of her power can grow up to be her predecessor and become as strong as her”. She stared up at him, her feet tiptoeing trying to meet his gaze.

  “Shinji is a bad example of this, he is nowhere next to his peak, even with Khaos’s energy inside him, he is around the same level as Erebus himself. The only reason his growth is blocked from growing stronger is his human body but you are a special example”. Her finger pushed up onto his chest.

  “You aren’t just a human, instead of suddenly gaining Khaos’s energy like Shinji, your energy is more refined like you were born with it. Meaning that one of your parents must’ve been one of Khaos’s larger fragments, you’re not just a human, you’re 75% human and 25% of Khaos’s energy. Kronos’s possession of you only made you stronger than before, after repeated use, his techniques left a permanent mark on your body, it may not be strong but it’s still there and you can still make it grow using Khaos’s energy”.

  “So I’m not even human in the first place? I don’t even know what to expect at this point”. Neila began to stretch, cracking his neck as he walked into a stone floored arena. “So how do I get stronger”?

  “How else but to repeatedly push yourself towards the edge of death”. Athena smiled. “Let’s get started shall we”?

  A feminine figure walked out of the hallway, her heels clanked against the steel floor.

  “Athena, is this duel really necessary”?

  Her large broadsword dragged against the ground as sparks radiated from the steel clashing against each other.

  “Yeah it is, I’m quite curious about the outcome of the duel”.

  Her broadsword was adorned with gold and other jewels, her eyes glowed a godly blue.

  Jaclyn stepped forwards into the light, her eyes were calmly and unnerving as she stared at Neila.

  Neila’s eyes turned into slits.

  “Do I get no say in this”?

  Athena sat down on the bench as she crossed her legs, she breathed loudly.

  “Nope, consider this as training, there’s no way in Gaia’s green Earth that we can beat Erebus at our current level. Anyways Jaclyn has Eros’s divine weapon so Neila, good luck”.

  Yuki bursted through the door, she had a single large pillow and was in her pajamas, she had dark circles around her eyes. Her hair was close to flying into the air, her head tilted as she stared at the two people standing in the arena.

  “What are you all doing here at 3 in the morning”?

  Athena stared at her daughter as she smiled.

  “What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be back home”?

  “I thought we were going home together so I waited and waited for you, and then I just fell asleep, so what are the two of them doing there”.

  “They’re having a duel”.

  Athena crossed her arms.

  “I never agreed to this”.

  Neila slowly turned his head, staring into Athena as he stared at her with a look of distaste.

  “Jaclyn doesn’t want to do it either”.

  Jaclyn cracked her knuckles as she gripped her broadsword as she threw it onto the ground, the tip of the sword piercing into the stone.

  “Come on, I never said I was opposing this, I have the urge to beat you up suddenly”.

  She took off the black glove on her left hand, her hand was scarred with burn marks from the injury Zeus’s lightning bolt left on her.

  Yuki’s orichalcum eyes lit up as her face awoke.

  “Really? But aren’t they tired of the relentless fights already? We barely had any rest”.

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  Athena’s eyes stayed calm as she crossed her legs and leaned back into the chair.

  “Nakamura started a war, we need to finish it with minimal casualties and for that we need to get as strong as possible”.

  “Fine”.

  Neila rolled up his sleeves as his eyes glowed a crimson.

  Jaclyn’s foot charged up energy as waves of light circled her leg.

  [She was putting her all into a single attack, even a single chance given could cause him to stop time]

  Jaclyn dashed forwards, she moved like a beam of light, Neila reacted within a millionth of a second as time began to slow down.

  Neila’s cheek had a deep cut in it, Jaclyn’s frozen body was thrusted forwards like a ballet dancer, the mere shockwave of her thrust drew blood from him.

  Blood dripped down his cheek as his body began to reverse in time, his flesh began to rapidly heal as he sighed.

  “She’s so goddamn fast, even with my perception of time slowed down, I still didn’t have enough time to react properly”.

  Neila shoved his hand into her face, pinning her down into the floor, his hand began to vibrate rapidly pushing his fingers into her chest, blasting her into the ground as dust began to settle.

  The ground began to rapidly heat up, the particles that made up the steel ground began to vibrate rapidly, kinetic energy began to build up as the steel started to melt into a burning hot liquid. Jaclyn’s skin began to light ablaze.

  Sweat dripped down Neila’s cheek.

  “My frozen time is getting shorter and shorter”.

  His knees began to collapse as time immediately resumed.

  “It’s barely 10 seconds now”.

  Jaclyn laid in the ground, her chest was covered in golden ichor as blood dripped down her lips, fire crackled on her arms.

  She smiled as she immediately stood up.

  “You’re dead now”.

  She charged up a punch as she extended her blade towards Neila, piercing through him like a stick of butter.

  Blood poured out of his eyes as he stared at Jaclyn with a mouth full of blood.

  “Are you tryna kill me damn it”!?

  He quickly dashed backwards, putting space between him and Jaclyn.

  Neila grabbed his own chest as he collapsed to his knees, he stared down at the floor as a red liquid oozed from his lips and dripped onto the cold steel floor.

  [Time, turn back for me]

  Neila’s body began to get damaged in reverse, his body started to heal, the hole in his chest began to fill itself with flesh.

  Sweat poured down his cheek as he stared at Jaclyn while panting, he held his knees as his spine was hunched over like an old man.

  Jaclyn stood confidently wiping away the blood on her cheek as she stared at him with a calm gaze.

  “Come on, I was going easy on you, if I wanted to, I could just have blasted you in one shot”.

  She smiled.

  “Why don’t you come closer and attack me, or are you just too scared to do so”?

  Neila’s fingers began to charge up with a glowing white energy, he held his left hand as an orb collected itself on his fingertip.

  “Bang”.

  A bullet shot towards Jaclyn, piercing a hole in her shoulder.

  “Bang”.

  “Bang”.

  “Bang”.

  Jaclyn started to walk forwards as holes and burn marks kept appearing throughout her body.

  Neila gritted his teeth as he kept dashing backwards.

  “You aren’t even trying to dodge my bullets, you’re crazy”.

  She began to pat herself down, the fire had burnt through her jeans and jacket.

  “I really liked this jacket you know? You’re going to pay for that”.

  “Ultimate Move, Grave of Blades”.

  Athena and Yuki were dragged into the dimension as their feet began to sink into the soft ground.

  The vast and gray expanse surrounded them, graves of olden knights were scattered throughout the field. Thousands of swords hanged around the dimension, rusted helmets laid barren, as the grass was withered and dead.

  The sky was dark and gloomy as Neila and Jaclyn stood on a broken road, wisps of fire dispersed on the side of the roads. Street lights flickered on and off, sparks began to flash.

  Athena walked up to a wall as she jumped on it and sat down, Yuki followed behind her barely managing to climb up the wall.

  Yuki grunted as she jumped up and sat down beside Athena.

  “Is this her ultimate? Wasn’t it above the clouds”?

  Athena stared at the two humans in front of her.

  “This ultimate is her original one, the ultimate that she normally uses ‘Love of Olympus’ is Eros’s innate ultimate, the one in possession of her”.

  “By the way, what even is Neila’s power? I’ve only ever seen him using Kronus’s power and Khaos’s energy, since he’s still half human he should still have another power”.

  Athena held her chin, as her mind began to wander.

  “He has no need to adapt to the energy that we Gods exude due to Khaos’s energy within him, Yuki, absorb all of his Khaos energy for a couple minutes”.

  “Sure”.

  Yuki raised her hand towards Neila as she slowly absorbed more and more of Khaos’s energy.

  Jaclyn dashed forwards in an instant, positioning herself beneath him readying for a strike with her sword.

  Neila stopped time for a fraction of a second, immediately launching an attack at her with his fist, with all of the Khaos energy disappearing his hand began to burn up from the intense heat and turn black.

  Jaclyn was launched backwards as she managed to catch herself before hitting the floor.

  Neila stared at his own hand as the injuries began to rapidly heal.

  “Yuki, why did you do that for”?

  “The longer you go without your Khaos energy while facing death, the stronger that your adaptation will become, just withstand it”.

  Athena crossed her arms and looked at Yuki.

  “You’ve established a soul link between you and Hestia, even that’s something I’ve only seen Hades do, it seems that you can transport his energy into her domain without her even needing to be here, which also means that you can summon her ultimate”.

  “I did? Since when? So I can use her ultimate right? What were its effects again”?

  “It’s an ultimate that summons a house into the real world, the moment you touch any of the wood, your powers get absorbed into Hestia”.

  Swords rose up from the ground flying up into the sky, with one snap of Jaclyn’s finger, swords rained down like arrows in a war, filling up the entire sky with blades.

  Neila eyes widened as he stared up into the sky, raising his hand up in front of his face, as blades pierced his legs and his body, his entire arm was torn in half and his chest was pierced through.

  He had 30 seconds before he died, his heart had completely stopped bleeding but his brain stem and brain were completely uninjured.

  “Time, reverse back”.

  Swords surrounded the two of them like a battlefield as Neila pulled out a knife from his thigh as blood dripped out.

  “Ow, that hurts like hell”.

  Yuki’s arm was shaking as blood dripped down her nose from all the pressure.

  “Mom, it’s so hard to do transport all this energy, but I can take it”.

  “The boost in energy transferring is too much for your body, I’ll go get a healer”.

  “Parthenon”.

  A hole appeared within the ultimate dimension, a hole within the dirt as she stepped through, she fell into the floor.

  Jaclyn dashed forwards, flying swords lingering around her in a circle shaped pattern.

  “Fire”.

  Neila was launched backwards straight into a building, swords piercing his arms and legs, he was pinned to the wall.

  “Time, revers-“.

  Blood rushed out of his mouth once more.

  [My brain was completely fried from the repeated reversals, it hurts like hell. My entire body hurts like hell, damn it.]

  Jaclyn dashed forwards, clenching her fist and repeatedly pummeling him into the wall.

  Neila’s vision began to blur.

  [I can’t see anything, I can’t feel anything]

  “Jaclyn are you actually trying to kill me”?

  [Time Reversal]