Chapter 52: Among Gods, Buddhas, and Dragons (2)
Mount Meru
"This place is beautiful, Rias Onee-sama," Asia gasped slightly upon seeing the mountain where Indra resides. The sun and moon revolve around Mount Meru, and when the sun passes behind it, it becomes night. The mountain has four faces, each made of a different material: the northern face is made of gold, the eastern face is made of crystal, the southern face is made of lapis lazuli, and the western face is made of ruby. It is Indra's domain and his base of operations as the residence of all the Buddhas he has managed to recruit.
When Rias and Asia reached a certain point, they felt a kind of suppression and pressure on their bodies. For Rias, it wasn't really anything she was worried about, but Asia felt a little suffocated. In the end, Rias enveloped her with her aura, using Sage Mode to perceive this place much better and help Asia.
"Bwahahahaha!" A mighty laugh echoed all around before a man followed by an old man appeared. The former appears to be a man with a very short hairstyle, greenish-brown hair, and lavender eyes. He wears circular sunglasses, an aloha shirt, and a jewel around his neck. He also has a vermillion mark on his forehead. This was Indra, the God of storms, rain, and war; he was also known as the Celestial Emperor, the Emperor of Heaven, the God of Heaven, and other titles.
Beside him was a monkey youkai who appears roughly the same height as a kindergartener (at least one meter tall), covered in golden fur with a monk's cassock, a wrinkled, lined face, and black skin, with prayer beads around his neck and a golden headband around his forehead.
"Greetings, Indra... and also Sun Wukong," Rias bowed slightly with her hand on her chest, showing a hint of respect.
"You're funny! A Devil your age has never come to this place for a walk!" Indra exclaimed, slightly amused, but the look behind his glasses wasn't as amused. Indra seemed amused and friendly, but he wasn't; he was serious to see a Devil in his home, and he was a little surprised to see the blue lotus in Rias's hair; that flower gave him a strange feeling.
"What are you doing, Gremory girl?" Sun Wukong asked, exhaling a puff of smoke.
"Actually, I wanted to ask you a question: Where can I find a Buddha willing to fight me?"
Indra and Sun Wukong's eyes widened slightly behind their respective glasses. Rias's words weren't arrogant, but full of confidence.
"You want to fight a Buddha?! Why?!" Sun Wukong asked in surprise.
"Buddhas have comprehended secrets, haven't they? They contemplate, meditate, and comprehend. I want to see my current level against one of them."
"What makes you think you can match a Buddha, child?" Indra asked dangerously.
Rias stared at him for a long moment before a ring manifested behind her. It was a completely scarlet red ring; it almost looked like blood formed this manifestation, but it was actually his power of destruction.
Indra smiled terrifyingly when he saw this, but a drop of sweat slowly trickled down his cheek. When he looked at that ring, he felt his consciousness slowly being drawn to it and seemingly damaged. In fact, the entire space around Rias no longer seemed to be within Indra's domain, almost as if his influence had disappeared at that point...
No, it was better to say it was destroyed.
"This child..." Sun Wukong whispered, shocked by what he was feeling. But at that same moment, he paled slightly and looked up at the sky, noticing it was filled with dark clouds, lightning snaking and thunder roaring like dragons.
"Perfect..." Indra slowly removed his glasses as his teeth bared in a huge grin; his muscles bulged slightly, and an immense bloodlust unfolded from him.
"You came all the way to this place looking for a battle, child. Don't blame me if you die."
"Asia... stay away," Rias ordered seriously.
"I'll take her," Sun Wukong offered kindly. Asia wouldn't be safe even if she moved miles away. She could only obey, her face completely pale as she felt Indra's bloodlust.
"I don't think your goal is only to fight, child. What is it you want to achieve?" Indra asked seriously as lightning began to emerge from his body. Despite his serious question, it was clear how excited he was. The strange ring behind Rias made it impossible for him to read her mind, predict the future related to her, or use his authority within her domain around her.
"You're right..." Rias nodded as a spear of destruction power formed in her hand. "I have some goals, but I can't achieve them without influence or the necessary reputation. And if I want a reputation, fighting a Buddha isn't a bad idea. But right now, it might be much better to fight you."
Before Indra could say anything, Rias blasted her Supreme King's Haki in all directions, creating enormous pressure in the sky. Indra was surprised by this, but he didn't even blink as he dodged a thrust from Rias's Spear of Destruction.
Indra gritted his teeth tightly; he knew he couldn't simply block that. The power of destruction was something truly fearsome; even gods would suffer from it. No matter how much regeneration a god has, even healing or regenerating a limb would take a while; this would put Indra at a disadvantage.
Then, knowing the power level of his opponent, the god didn't hesitate and manifested his Buddha Armor.
"What a terrifying girl you are..." Indra commented as his field of vision filled with Spheres of Destruction. Each one was small, but they shone like stars and contained a terrifying level of power. It only took a blink of an eye for the entire place to be teeming with these tiny, glowing spheres.
"However, you underestimate me!" Indra roared, and lightning descended as Vajra appeared in his hand. The Spheres of Destruction immediately exploded. Indra could now move better and attacked as the winds roared and rain began to pour down upon them.
Indra had immense speed, even more so thanks to his lightning. He appeared directly above Rias, ready to strike with all his might. But he'd forgotten something important: everything around Rias—more than ten meters around her—was her domain. So, when Indra's fist entered that range, the ring behind Rias glowed brightly, and a scarlet light immediately shot out, severing the god's hand.
"Kujk!" Indra growled before stepping away with a frown. Honestly, none of this made sense to him. How could a girl of the devil race have such influence on the space around her? It's as if she saw everything within that sphere of influence that belonged to her, and therefore, she could attack at will without any problem.
The reason for this, though Indra didn't know it, was two things: the Lotus of Reflection above Rias's head, and the World Without Gods, the canvas with an ink circle drawn on it. Rias had actually tried looking at the canvas with the lotus above her head. It took her a bit of time, but she discovered that there were two techniques contained within that canvas.
One had to do with space, and the other with destruction. Rias didn't quite understand at first because she was trying to understand the space aspect. She barely knew anything about it; she knew teleportation magic and space-time barriers that helped create battlefields like in the Rating Games, but she didn't understand the deeper aspects.
In the end, she managed to understand the destruction aspect: this was the ring behind it. What it did was use the concept of destruction to destroy the domain of the gods around it. The more she trained and understood, the higher that rank would be. Having learned this, she discovered two more things.
The name of the technique: Destruction of Domains, and Negation of the Gods' Domain.
The second thing was the name of the technique related to space: Negation of Authority.
She deduced that the reason the canvas was called the Godless World was that the first technique created a space where the gods couldn't use their authority, and the second was the destruction of their domains. In short, the canvas taught you how to create a world where you can kill gods.
"Grrr," Indra growled angrily, and lightning began to fall from the sky like rain. However, none of it touched Rias. All the lightning bolts seemed to avoid her, or those that passed close enough were destroyed by the scarlet ring.
Rias narrowed her eyes and pointed with her finger.
"Morning Star," a four-pointed star formed in front of her finger before being shot forward. Indra raised the Vajra, and a holy bolt descended, causing an immense sphere of fire, lightning, and wind to expand.
Indra's eyes lit up with golden light before hundreds of dragons created from holy lightning emerged behind him, roaring and shaking the space. Rias took a deep breath before extending her hand forward.
"99 Dragons of Destruction!" With equally powerful roars, the power of destruction erupted from Rias's hand like a tidal wave, forming 99 scarlet-black dragons that flew toward the lightning dragons.
"What a nuisance..." Indra clicked his tongue. "I can't get close enough, and ranged attacks are easily matched by her. What kind of training did this girl do?"
In the distance, Asia's face was completely ashen as she watched the enormous dragons fighting each other and exploding into enormous spheres of pure destruction.
"What a child..." Sun Wukong commented. "To be able to fight Indra to this extent. Besides, she's clearly using Senjutsu, but it's a form... a bit different than usual."
"Fuck everything!" Indra's roar echoed throughout the sky as he charged forward with a spear that appeared in his hand. The spear was enormous, but its appearance was exquisite. The entire spear shone brightly; it was a work of art that could only be created by the hands of the gods. It was a spear that had never been used. It was a spear granted in exchange for something else, something Indra gave away so as not to tarnish his honor.
Even he, a god, couldn't use it properly.
Rias's eyes widened slightly at the sight of the spear. She felt that even her power of destruction couldn't completely destroy it. Not in her current state. So, seeing this, Rias unleashed all her speed and skill.
BOOOOM!
When Indra's spear collided with Rias's Spear of Destruction, a deafening explosion echoed. There was no fire, destruction, or flashes, just a massive explosive sound followed by an immense shockwave.
Indra's left arm and Rias's right arm moved, leaving blurs of their weapons as they clashed again and again. They danced through the sky, colliding, parrying, slashing, stabbing, and dodging again and again. Each movement was swift and contained a power great enough to shake the earth if they were on the ground.
"Enough!!" Indra roared angrily before stepping back and raising the spear in his left hand.
"With this blow, I will cause your extinction!" Indra bellowed, and the spear glowed red. A powerfully heated energy surrounded him and formed scarlet flames that slowly rose toward the spear. A ring of fire expanded within seconds. The heat began to ignite the oxygen, filling the entire sky with fire. The heat was so intense that the ground hundreds of meters below Indra turned into boiling lava, and the ground exploded, leaving a huge crater.
Rias opened her eyes wide at this sight. The ring behind her swiftly moved around her wrist, and its power of destruction exploded into the heavens, forming a massive sphere that covered the sky.
"VASAVI... SHAKTI!!"
"EXTINCTION OF THE HEAVENS!!"
They both roared with all their might, realizing that this would be the final attack. Regardless of the outcome, this was the beginning of the end for this battle.
All the energy stored in the spear exploded behind Indra like a gigantic sun. Lines of light illuminated Indra's figure, and he pointed his spear before unleashing a massive explosion that covered the sky and earth. But at the same time, Rias's destructive power had also covered all of heaven and earth. Both god-level attacks exploded and lit up the world.
Asia was crying at this moment and looked at Sun Wukong, who was shouting at her and reaching out his hand. She couldn't hear him; all sound seemed to have disappeared; she could only grab his hand before they began to fly away in a cloud.
The sound had disappeared... as had the world. Asia could only see a white light enveloping her before she lost sight of the world around her. There seemed to be nothing but white light.
She didn't know how much time had passed, but when the colors reappeared, she saw that almost all of Mount Meru was destroyed, and the ground beneath it was charred and hot; steam rose from the ground and constantly rose.
Not even the pieces of minerals that made up Mount Meru remained. Everything seemed to have been evaporated and destroyed.
"It's fine, miss. Your friend is alive..." Sun Wukong murmured and pointed to a spot on the ground. There, Rias was kneeling, covered in sweat and with a pale expression. If it weren't for the domain destruction, she wouldn't be so well. Only that saved her from being incinerated and destroyed.
Indra was kneeling meters in front of her, likewise. But instead, he had burns on the left side of his body and his neck, reaching his chin and cheek. He was alive, and his wounds would take a while to heal, but they weren't fatal. Around him, the black earth was illuminated and heated by the magma that had formed due to the release of his technique.
And on the other side, where Rias was, everything seemed dead. The earth had been flattened, and only a patch of land remained where she was kneeling, with a huge crater around it.
In this kind of situation, no one could consider this a victory.
It was a tie.
"Hey..." Rias muttered, but the god could hear her and looked up slightly.
"What?"
"I'm sorry... about your home..."
Indra looked up with some effort before slowly shaking her head.
"Stop it, that can be rebuilt without too much effort. You should be proud, child; you just fought a god and lived. You even caused it to be in this pathetic state..."
"I'll give you a reward for your achievement, be grateful..."
Rias smiled as she looked at him.
"Then I want people."
"Huh?"
"I'm forming an institution... an academy... a place... whatever you want to call it. I want all possible races to be able to enter, live together, and study together without prejudice. The latter will be more difficult, but I want people who are willing to learn and form something that will last until the end."
"Bwahahaha! That's as difficult as ascending to heaven, child! Even if you succeed, pantheons and other factions might not be happy."
"No matter; I can still continue to grow and become stronger. I will protect my dream with everything I have."
"..." Indra watched her for a long moment before nodding. "Very well, I will grant your wish, Rias Gremory."
____________________