Battle aura was a mysterious power born when one's spirit, will, life force, and every other aspect of the self were pushed to their peak.
In the world of DxD, once Sairaorg unleashed his battle aura, he became the very definition of balanced offense and defense.
On the defensive side, Sairaorg could outright ignore all kinds of attacks from Issei Hyoudou in Balance Breaker. He could even withstand the slashes of the holy sword Excalibur. Unless one released their full power, it was nearly impossible to deal any meaningful damage to him.
On the offensive side, a single blow was enough to heavily wound Rias's peerage. Even the shockwave from a grazing punch could shatter the Boosted Gear armor.
As for Akuto, because he had spent such a long time cultivating senjutsu power in the Campione world, his understanding of the source of life had deepened tremendously. His fighting spirit and combat experience had also long since reached the required threshold.
Because of that, even before his memories awakened, Akuto had already cultivated battle aura.
After awakening those memories, his strength rose by another great leap, and his battle aura naturally advanced along with it. By now, the intensity of Akuto's battle aura could already be considered comparable to a respectable Authority.
That was why even Melqart's lightning could be tossed around in Akuto's hand like a ball.
...
After playing with it to his satisfaction, Akuto casually flung the sphere of lightning toward the ground, triggering a violent explosion.
Boom!
The ground was blasted open, revealing a crack through which sunlight poured, illuminating a vast space below.
Only then did it become clear that there was another world hidden beneath the beach of Sicily.
Sicily had once been the domain ruled by the god-king Melqart. Here, bolstered by territory and faith, Melqart could recover to his full state at the fastest possible speed.
Beneath the enormous altar, a gigantic figure slowly rose into view.
It was a massive giant with a burly frame, a huge wooden club in hand, a beard as wild as a storm, and eyes flashing with lightning.
The god-king of the Mediterranean, Melqart, had finally revealed his true body.
"Not a bad trick, Campione. But next, old man, I shall show you true divine might!" Melqart's voice rolled like thunder, possessing a sense of overwhelming existence that matched his enormous body.
Whoosh!
The wooden club in Melqart's hand flew out, carrying enough force to tear through the sky.
This strike contained not only sheer physical destructive power, but also divine authority. It was enough to severely wound an ordinary demon god.
But Akuto neither dodged nor retreated. Instead, he stepped forward to meet it head-on.
"A feeble blow..."
Akuto casually threw a punch, colliding directly with the incoming giant club.
Bang!
His fist, wrapped in white senjutsu power and battle aura, halted firmly in front of him, while the giant wooden club was sent flying away in an instant.
The shockwave from the collision shoved aside the surrounding seawater and formed a massive depression.
"Erica, Liliana, I'll leave the rest of this fight to you."
Akuto had no intention of personally handling everything. After knocking the club away, he immediately prepared to hand the battlefield over to Erica and Liliana.
"Understood!"
The two knights answered in unison, and at the same time, dense waves of divine power surged around their bodies.
That power came from Athena.
Under normal circumstances, using underworld-type divine power to drive Steel Authorities was an extremely difficult thing to do. Even with divine power temporarily granted by a god's protection, if the nature of that power clashed with the Authority being used, then the strength the Authority could display would be severely limited.
Just like now, under ordinary conditions, it would have been very difficult to drive Verethragna's Authorities with underworld divine power.
But if they didn't use divine power, then Erica and Liliana could only fuel the Authorities with their own magical power and life force. It would not kill them in a single use the way it would Kusunagi Godou, but one use would still leave them gravely wounded.
It could only be said that it was fortunate the one who had bestowed divine power upon them was Athena.
After restoring her triune form and completely manifesting as a Heretic God, Athena had awakened the nature of the Serpent that Devours Steel. To an ordinary underworld goddess, a war god's Authority would have been difficult to digest, but in the eyes of Athena in her triune state, it was something she could suppress and assimilate.
And so, using the divine power they had received from Athena, the two girls smoothly fused the incarnational powers within the tablet into themselves for the time being.
Because the use of divine power was far too eye-catching, even Melqart changed his earlier attitude. At last, he no longer ignored Erica and Liliana's existence as completely as before.
"Hm?! That familiar yet revolting aura...!"
"That woman from the Mediterranean, just like me?!"
Melqart recognized the source of the divine power on Erica and Liliana and let out an extremely displeased snort.
Though both Melqart and Athena possessed underworld Authorities, these two deities were very clearly not the type to get along.
Because besides his status as a god of the underworld, Melqart also held the statuses of sky god, dragon slayer, and conqueror.
The sky god was a symbol of patriarchal divinity, while dragon slayer symbolized the conquest of the Earth Mother. One could say that Melqart and Athena were natural-born enemies.
"Campione! Do you mean to send these two powerless girls to oppose a god like me?"
"If your intention is to have them weaken me before the battle, then your conduct is far too lacking in dignity."
"If you truly think they can defeat me, then your arrogance is beyond measure!"
No matter which it was, Melqart found it utterly offensive.
So he could not even be bothered to determine which possibility was true. He simply chose to strike at once.
"My name is Baal Hadad! Call upon me by the name Melqart!"
"Devour the earth, black clouds press upon the city! In the name of the god of the underworld, answer my summons!"
Bzzzzzzzz!
Black clouds bore down like a city on the verge of collapse.
The underworld locusts gathered once more and surged toward the three of them.
This time, Melqart was much closer to the locust swarm. Unlike before, he no longer needed to control them from a great distance.
He did not believe that at such close range, Akuto would still be able to seize control of the underworld locusts from him.
...
Melqart was not wrong. This time, control of the underworld locusts was indeed not wrested away.
But that was not because Akuto couldn't do it. With Akuto's current strength, unless Melqart's true body from within his divine realm descended in person, then even Melqart in a fully manifested Heretic God state would not be able to last a single exchange against him.
The only reason Akuto did not act was because he had already handed the battlefield to the two girls. That was all.
"Liliana! Erica! In the name of my knight, use the foremost divine power!"
Facing the incoming swarm, Akuto looked toward his twin knights of gold and silver and gave commands like a Pokémon trainer.
"By your will!"
The two female knights answered loudly.
Having fused the war god's Authorities with divine power from a goddess and forced their own strength to a level infinitely close to the super devil class, the two girls erupted with intense fighting spirit.
On one hand, they truly did want to accomplish Athena's great feat.
On the other, they also wanted to answer Akuto's expectations.
...
All this time, both Erica and Liliana had actually carried no small amount of psychological pressure.
At first, there had been Saint Raphael and Lucretia Zola, two women who were stronger than them in both power and status.
Even their beauty, which Erica and Liliana were proud of, could not decisively surpass those two.
Still, if it had only been that much, it would have been manageable.
Because Erica and Liliana had one overwhelming advantage over Saint Raphael and Lucretia Zola: youth.
At the age of blossoming girlhood, they naturally radiated an irresistible vitality, and that youthful radiance was one of the most attractive qualities to the opposite sex.
But later, they discovered that Akuto was the sort who appreciated every type. As long as someone was beautiful, nationality was not an issue at all.
Forget age. Erica was fairly sure that in front of Akuto, as long as someone was beautiful, even race would not matter.
And then, the insurmountable mountain of the Campione world descended.
The goddess Athena had appeared.
She was a far more terrifying rival than Saint Raphael or Lucretia Zola could ever be.
Age? Did age mean anything at all to a goddess?
Beauty? Compare looks with a goddess?
Strength? That did not even need to be discussed.
As for being useful to Akuto, if a goddess wished it, she would naturally be able to provide the greatest help.
...
In truth, on the very night they realized all this, Athena had already given both body and heart to Akuto, becoming his ally in the deepest sense, in both flesh and spirit.
...
And so, all the pressure landed squarely on Erica and Liliana.
If Athena had only paid attention to them because they appeared rather frequently in Akuto's memories and therefore seemed somewhat threatening, then from Erica and Liliana's perspective, Athena needed no such extra justification. Her existence alone was already like a mountain pressing down so heavily they could barely breathe.
It was true.
No matter how one looked at it, Athena, as a goddess and a queen among goddesses, had far more right than they did to call herself Akuto's true partner.
And Athena had even made a pact with Akuto. Their relationship even extended to Athena's true body within her divine realm.
In other words, forming an alliance with Akuto and giving herself to him had not been the unilateral decision of the manifested Athena alone. It had been the will of Athena's true self in the divine realm as well.
When the goddess herself had stepped onto the field to compete with them, they truly had no confidence that they could ever win.
So although the two girls had rather dejectedly accepted the goddess's summons, once they realized they could not compete with her, there was no point in fighting over something like the position of first wife anymore. Rather than chasing something so meaningless, it was better to accept the olive branch Athena had extended, borrow power from the goddess, and make themselves stronger.
If they could not outcompete a goddess, then they could at least fight for the right to help Akuto manage the forces of the mortal world.
But that had only been what they thought at noon today.
...
By afternoon, Akuto's plan had sent waves crashing through their hearts.
So Akuto had actually been preparing to create postnatal Campione. And they themselves had been placed directly into the first echelon.
Before this, neither Erica nor Liliana had ever truly felt qualified to call themselves Akuto's partners. In their own minds, they were no more than his mistresses or lovers.
After all, if one was to be called a partner, then even if one did not stand fully equal to him, one could not be too far beneath him either. Someone like Athena, for example.
But what if they became Campione too?
Even if they were only postnatal Campione, if they also became Campione, then would they not finally have the right to call themselves Akuto's partners?
It was with thoughts like these that Erica and Liliana poured every ounce of effort into winning this divine battle.
(End of Chapter)
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