[Chapter 9] - A Ray of Hope

[Pocket Dimension]
Kado: “Seems like everything is ready.”
Urango: “Hmm…are you sure about it?
Vulpina seems to have fallen.”
Kado: “Naturally. She was never meant to win.”
Urango: “Oh is that so?
Poor God…”
Kado laughs.
Kado: “Well let’s finish this…
I’m tired of waiting.”
As Kado and Urango walk between the jails, where the other ArchGods are captured, they hear a strong sound coming from inside the meeting room.
A guard comes out at full speed, he was tossed by someone.
Kado: “Uh?”
Arbihime shows up at the door.
Arbihime: “So this is what you’ve been planning all along…”
Urango: “Oh just in time.”
Kado: “Are you perhaps surrendering to us?
How kind of you…”
Arbihime smiles.
Arbihime: “I’m sorry.
I’ve got enough of fooling around.”
Urango: “speculum obice” (=Mirror barrier)
An invisible barrier gets between them and Arbihime.
Kado: “What’s this?”
Urango smiles.
Arbihime rises his hands up.
Arbihime: “Sorry for the wait…
tempestas aquae” (= Water Hurricane)
The whole Pocket Dimension gets filled with water.
There isn’t a bit of space that isn’t covered by Arbihime’s technique.
Kado: “I see…
You think that’s enough to beat us?”
Urango: “Look again Kado.”
Kado: “Uh?”
The jails start collapsing, they are breaking thanks to the water’s pressure.
Everyone is set free.
Kado: “You little….!”
Arbihime: “I’m not over yet.”
Arbihime rises the water pressure even more, this time, damaging Urango’s barrier a bit.
Kado (shouting): “Urango fast, do something before they all escape again!”
Urango: “I’m afraid I’m as useful as you Kado…”
Arbihime smiles.
“Ohhhh look at this.
It’s all wet in here.
Mind if I clear everything, boss?” – says a voice under water
The Pocket Dimension starts collapsing into some rifts that appeared around them, but it wasn’t because of Arbihime, it was Jinzo, the voice under water.
As Jinzo walks up to Arbihime, the water starts getting sucked by those rifts.
The rifts close and banish as there is no more water left.
Jinzo: “Such a mess…”
However, the ArchGods are no longer in jail, so they start open portals and leave the pocket dimension.
Kado: “No…not again….”
Urango laughs.
Urango: “Déjà vu.”
Kado: “Hey Jinzo!
Be sure you kill that rat ASAP!”
Jinzo rises his right hand while turning his back to Kado.
Jinzo: “Aight I got it boss.”

[Toffee’s lair]
Juno: “It’s too white in here…”
In fact, it seems like Toffee’s lair is empty, the walls, the ground, the roof, everything is wait, it’s hard to keep focus in there.
Toffee: “Oh I don’t really care about it.
Each lair of us represents our inner self.
I suppose I can change it a bit for you.”
Her lair now seems like the desert they were in.
Toffee: “Better?”
Juno: “Ah that will do it…”
Toffee: “Well then, let’s begin!”
Juno: “What do I really have to do?”
Toffee: “Let’s see…
From what you showed up there
It seems like you have the overall typical qualities of us.
Strength, speed, endurance…
I still can’t feel any energy coming from you.
But it doesn’t matter.”
Juno: “So I’m a strong as you”
Toffee laughs.
Toffee: “I said that you have the typical qualities of us.
Dunno if you’ve realized it yet, but every single one of us, including our Gods, are blessed with those same attributes you showed.
However, your little demonstration right there was…pity, to say the least.
Would you have fought someone else more serious and you would have ended up losing, now doubts on that.
You showed plenty of openings.
You attacked mindlessly.
Your speed was well controlled but overall you were just too predictable.
Again, if your enemy was someone with the intention to kill you, you would’ve lost.”
Juno: “I see…”
Toffee: “No you don’t.
You haven’t listened to anything I’ve said.
What’s the matter with you?”
Juno: “Can we just begin this?”
Toffee: “Hmm…you’re right, why am I even give you this information.
All you want is to fight Garaam right?
No need for those kinds of formalities.”
Juno: “Will you summon something like Alpha?”
Toffee: “Hmpf.
Do not compare me to the others.
I rather do it myself.”
Toffee puts on a fighting stance.
Toffee: “We’ll begin with the one thing that molested me the most about you…
Your attacks.
Come on now, attack me with all you’ve got, I’ll just block it.”
And so it happens.
Juno throws some basic punches to Toffee, who blocks them effortlessly with just one hand.
Each time Juno goes for another punch, Toffee blocks it repeatedly saying, “your punches sucks, your posture sucks”, irritating Juno a bit more after each repetition.
After a few dozen punches Juno starts getting tired.
He asks “Isn’t this enough? We’ve been onto this for quite long time…”.
As Toffee replies: “You will keep it going until you finally get an ok punch.”
Juno’s punches even though he is getting tired, are starting to get stronger.
However, it’s not enough for Toffee.
Toffee: “Seems like we will be here the whole day!”
Juno finally stops after a few more dozen punches, he couldn’t handle it anymore, he was fully tired.
But before he could even say something, Toffee throws a punch at him, knocking him down.
Toffee: “Did I perhaps tell you to stop?”
Juno (on the ground): “No…”
Toffee: “Then get up and punch me!”
Juno: “I can’t…I’m exhausted…”
Toffee knocks the ground with her right feet, resulting on Juno to get back up.
Toffee goes for another punch at him, which he dodges.
Juno smiles, however, Toffee has a serious face.
Even though her punch has missed, Juno gets hit by his strength, Toffee’s punch had ripped the air and the impact hit Juno, knocking him down again.
Juno (surprised): “What?!”
Toffee: “Hmpf. You don’t even know how to land a punch, do you really thing you can dodge one? How naïve…”
Toffee knock the ground again, putting Juno right back up again.
Toffee: “So, shall we continue?”

Meanwhile in the pocket dimension Arbihime is fighting Jinzo.
The fight is obviously unfair, for Jinzo simply banishes every single water technique Arbihime uses.
Being a God of Water, those are the only techniques Arbihime is allowed to know, thus turning the fight in Jinzo’s favor.
Arbihime is clearly getting tired, while Jinzo seems to keep up pretty good.
Jinzo: “Oh are we going to stay here the whole day?
I don’t know about you, but I could.”
Arbihime struggles, he is about to reach his limit.
Jinzo: “Well…it was fun.”
As Arbihime splits acid water against Jinzo, his attack just passes through him doing no effect.
Arbihime is surprised by that, while Jinzo says “you weren’t expecting this were you? My body isn’t physical! Ahah!”
Being out of energy, Arbihime is completely opened to Jinzo’s attack.
But before Jinzo could attack Arbihime, someone appears behind Arbihime.
Arbihime (surprised): “Rack?!”
Kado (shouting): “Oh we forgot about him!”
Rack: “You did well.”
Rack puts his hand on Arbihime’s back and they both teleport away.
Jinzo (surprised): “Uh?”
Kado is angry.
Urango: “It seems like everyone escaped after all…”
Kado: “Yeah I don’t’ need you to state the obvious…”
Jinzo: “Hmm…should I perhaps follow them?”
Kado: “To the Human Dimension?
That’s out of question.
That’s a step that only Garaam shall take.”
Urango: “We should be going now.”
Kado: “Yes.”

[Human Dimension]
Arbihime: “thanks…I was already out of energy there…”
Rack: “You’re welcome.”
It seems like every single ArchGod who was trapped in the Pocket Dimension are now in the Human Dimension too.
Arbihime: “Are they helping us?”
Baramelo: “No.
I’m afraid the Gods here don’t want to interfere with our subject…
We are on our own.”
Arbihime: “Shit.
Don’t they understand that once he is done there he will come here too?”
Baramelo: “We can’t do nothing…”
Rack: “Is everyone here?”
Baramelo: “Yes…besides Gowan, Alpha, Fula and Toffee...”
Rack: “Shit.
There isn’t much time left to go look for them…”
Arbihime: “There is one last thing to try”
Rack: “Uh?”
Baramelo: “The Human? Even with the blessings he won’t…”
Arbihime: “I’m talking about the ArchGods.
The Human is just a distraction.”
Baramelo: “I see…”


Part 2

[Toffee’s lair]
Three hours have past since Juno began his training with Toffee.
“Aight that should do it.” – Says Toffee
“Uh?” – says Juno while stopping his punch
“What do you mean by uh?
I’m saying we switch the strategy now.” – says Toffee
Juno looks at his bloody hands, he had gone for too much effort, far more than his body could handle.
“Your punches still suck. But that the less.
Next lesson is…
Dodge.” – says Toffee
“Dodge?” – asks Juno
At that moment Toffee throws a big rock against Juno, who gets hit and knocked away a long distance.
Thanks to his blessings though, he doesn’t get hurt.
“I told you we were training to dodge now.
So dodge.” – Says Toffee as she starts throwing more big rocks at him at a high speed
At first, Juno gets hit by some of the rocks, but he quickly starts to adapt to their speed and overcomes it, dodging every single one Toffee throws at him.
Eventually, she starts increasing the speed of her throws, the result however, doesn’t really change. Juno dodges them.
“Ah seems like you’re better at dodging than attacking.
Typical…” – says Toffee
Juno smiles while dodging the rocks, he is happy about it.
“Very well, now it’s your turn.” – says Toffee as she stops throwing rocks
“Alright.” – says Juno while picking up one of the rocks on the ground
Juno throws a rock, but it doesn’t come any near to Toffee.
Toffee laughs, she is mocking Juno’s throwing.
“What about you take it a little bit more serious hum?” – says Toffee
Juno tries again.
The same result.
“You see…
Your problem is, even though you have our qualities right now…
You still acting like a Human.” – says Toffee
Juno looks at his hands.
“Until you break free of that shell of yours, you won’t be able to match any of us, no matter how much your train or how many blessings we shall give you.
The result will always be the same.”
Toffee throws another rock to Juno, who breaks it with a counter attack using one of his hands.
And so the exercise changed.
Toffee would just throw more rocks at Juno, and he would destroy them with his velocity and his strong punches.
Toffee was teaching Juno how to counter attack and act fast, something that he quickly got the handle of.
After training for more 10 hours straight, and multiple exercises, Toffee had come to the conclusion that Juno simply can’t use an offensive.
Toffee sighs after stopping the training once more.
“Why we’re stopping?” – asks Juno confused
“It’s pointless.”- replies Toffee
“You just can’t do it.
I give up.” – says Toffee while turning her back and opening a portal
“W—wait!” – says Juno on a hurry
But it was too late, Toffee had gone through the portal.
Juno follows through it.
They are back to the same place where Toffee had opened the portal to her lair.
Juno looked around but he so no one.
He was left alone there.
Suddenly, a portal opens behind him.
“What…?” – says Juno, confused.
“You don’t care, do you?
After all… this is the only reason why you wanted to train.”- says Toffee, but she was nowhere to be seen.
“You never wanted to give a damn about it, that was just an excuse to go there.
So go ahead, kill yourself.” – continues Toffee
Juno sighs, his face looks heavy.
He walks trough the portal, he knew clearly where it was leading him to.
“Perhaps death will teach you a better lesson.” – says Toffee to no one.
Juno finds himself in front of some huge stairs, leading up to a big mountain with a castle on the top.
There was no doubt there he was.
He starts walking upon the stairs, until he gets to a big door.
The door opens immediately, no one had opened it.
He walks through it and continues, walking straight the corridor in front of him.
His heard was guiding him, he knew the moment had finally come.
Again, he finds himself in front of a door.
He knocks at the door but gets no answer.
After a while he finally opens it, after a brief breath, he walks in.
He finds himself on a big room, with plenty of statues around it, some carpets on the floor leading to a throne, and a man sitting on it.
Juno walks up to the man on the throne who looks confused but intrigued at the same time.
There was no doubt, Juno had finally been faced to face with Garaam himself.

End of Chapter 9: A Ray of Hope