Chapter 334 Chapter 334 - The Bond With A God

Many in this world could sully the earth with their blood and conjure demons to create bonds of greed in exchange for their freedom, but only a handful could reach much higher and create a bond with the all-powerful creator. While few could attain such heights even fewer could discern the familiar presence of the all-powerful emanating through such individuals.

Helga happened to be one of them, and as she stood towering behind Haruki in her beastly form with four wings, and six arms, her eyes squinted in the bony yak skull squinted at the sight in front. In Haruki\'s arms was a little girl, her soul half-eaten by some strange phenomenon. Despite the constant healing by the gathered healers as well as Haruki, nothing seemed to work to awaken the girl once more.

With everyone so busy watching over her, it would\'ve been the perfect chance for Helga to strike Haruki through the back and end him once and for all, yet whatever magic the girl had worked through just wouldn\'t let her lift even a finger with any sort of malice against the demon lord.

\'A clone he said?\' She wondered, glaring down at Haruki\'s back. Knowing well enough that only gods could truly breathe new life into people, Helga arrived at a haunting conclusion. \'Gods...Always so meddling.\'

Cursing even the creator of all, she rested her hand on Haruki\'s shoulder as if offering to help. A bit shaken by the sudden act, Haruki rose to his feet expecting Helga to unleash an attack. Instead, however, she closed her eyes and transformed back into her graceful form.

"Allow me to help," she said, brushing Haruki to the side.

"Wait!" Grabbing her hand with a tight grip, Haruki stopped her in place. "What the hell are you planning to do to my daughter?"

Huffing a sigh, Helga turned her head to him and whispered.

"She may be your daughter, your clone, but you\'ve yet to be a god, thus the most you can do is create imitations of new life," jerking her hand off of his grip, she moved towards Stella before getting down on her knees.

Following their queen\'s command, the Valkyrian army knelt throughout the now stationary battlefield as well. Seeing their regulated movement and the unified sound of them moving together was almost bewitching to Haruki had it not been for worrying about his daughter.

"She created an unintentional bond with..." Thinking twice before revealing the truth, Helga stopped herself and trailed off to another topic instead. "Half of her soul has been burnt off, it\'s a miracle in itself that she\'s even alive."

"Wh-what?!" Having failed to realize that, Serena, the main healer of the group, felt severely embarrassed. "How do we heal her then?!"

"Someone needs to offer their own soul matter to her, they\'ll be severely weakened but an adult soldier should be able to survive with half a soul," offering the explanation, Helga pressed her palm against Stella\'s forehead to confirm her suspicions about the little girl.

Closing her eyes, she peered through her psyche, trying to isolate the very instance of her birth. That is where she saw it, the radiance, the blast of energy that once created the Atlarian universe. All confined in a small space just so a singularity could be born to sway the fate of this world. Bitter at the sight, Helga pulled her hand away from Stella and peered back at her father, Haruki Shin.



\'Father revitalized by a demon and the daughter\'s creation was helped by a god. That too the Creator himself...\' Shaking her head, Helga scanned through her memories as far back as she could think. \'Asmodia wrote the future of the world, so only the creator knew that things were bound to get here. Then what of the apocalypse? Did we spend near eternity waiting for a time that was never bound to come?!\'

"Get away, I\'ll give her part of my soul..." All of a sudden as Haruki offered to part with half his soul, Helga\'s eyes widened in shock as she was pulled out of the mental dilemma.

"Why you?" She asked, getting back up.

Giving her a squinted look, Haruki went right past and knelt before his daughter.

"Because I\'m dying anyways, and my last wish was to die in glory in a battle against you, but since that isn\'t happening, I\'d rather die doing something fruitful instead," pressing his palm against Stella\'s forehead, Haruki let his presence flow into his daughter.

Along with his soul, he even let go of some powers that could help Stella later on as she grew older. For a while, as it all happened, Haruki could feel his muscles withering, and his strength was swiftly washed away. In the end, as he drew his hand away from her, he felt much weaker yet unburdened more than anything.

"Serena, take Stella to one of the camps," picking up Stella\'s light body, Haruki landed her into Serena\'s arms.

Bowing lightly to her master, the priestess began making her way back to the camps in the protection of her followers.

"She\'s a pawn..." Muttered Helga all of a sudden, and as Haruki turned to look at her, she added more. "Just like you were to Asmodia, she\'s a pawn of the creator. He made her, or at least helped you make her. He knew she could stop this war by sacrificing herself, and that\'s just the beginning of his plans for her!"

"I thought he was dead," although enraged by her words, Haruki kept his temper in control.

"So\'s Atlas, so\'s Asmodia, so are the other demon lords and gods, and yet their actions in the past have led us here, and are still affecting how we act," conjuring her god-blade, Helga tossed it to Haruki.

Holding the blade in his hand finally, his face contorted into a look of unparalleled rage.

"See? That girl Moriyana is gone yet that blade makes you fume up," Helga pointed out.

"Enough!" Having had enough from the sidelines, Margarette took the blade off of Haruki\'s hand and confronted Helga herself. "We don\'t care what your dead god was planning or what he intends to do. Our daughter isn\'t going to be a pawn? to anyone and we\'re going to make sure of it!"

Pressing the blade against Helga\'s chest, Margarette handed it back.

"Well, do as you please, too bad we wouldn\'t be here to witness it," turning to the mass of soldiers, Helga raised her sword against her own throat. "Our time has come my soldiers, and although, unfortunately, we couldn\'t bring an end to this war, our failure to do so needs punishing regardless!"

Marked by the prophecy, the Valkyries were supposed to die on this very day, thus to fulfill their vows to the Creator they all raised their swords just like the queen. But before their throats were stabbed with blades, a sudden scream from behind Helga stopped them from committing.

"What?" Baffled, Helga turned around to the source of the noise.

Having stayed hidden so far and failed to control anyone since the soldiers\' bodies infected by parasites had been changed, the prince of hell had taken Stella hostage along with Serena and her followers. Keeping the girl in his own burning grasp, while impish hellspawns surrounded the others, he kept a stern gaze at both Haruki and Helga, about to make his demands.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" He screamed, frustrated that his plans had been fouled so easily without any intentional resistance by the others. "Why did you stop you stupid Valkyrie?! Go ahead and kill yourself so your soldiers may do the same!"

Having messed up his timing, the prince could only blame himself for his foolishness. Being glared at by Haruki, Helga, and numerous others, the prince knew he was cornered, but he still wasn\'t willing to back away. He thought so long as he had Stella nobody would touch him, but what he failed to realize was in the end Stella was made from a clone of Haruki and thus there was plenty of stuff he could do.

"That girl carries the creator\'s wishes, you degenerate! I advise you to take your filthy hands off of her!" Directing her sword at him, Helga was ready to unleash a fury of attack.

In the meantime, Haruki, although weakened severely, did what had to be done. Switching places with Stella\'s body, and slipped into the prince\'s clutches while Stella fell on the ground where he\'d just been standing.

"You think you can blackmail me with my daughter?" Being made from a clone, Haruki was easily able to switch places and managed to surprise not just the prince but Helga, Margarette, and the others as well. "Well think again!"

\'Dark matter spikes!\' Fusing his poisonous blood with dark matter, Haruki stabbed giant holes in the prince\'s body. Overrun with holes seeping with god-killing poison, the prince\'s eyes grew jittery as he let go of Haruki and stumbled over on his back.

Along with the prince, the parasites inside Margarette\'s mind began shriveling up to the point where howling in hurt, the general was brought to her knees until the damned thing crawled out her ears. The sight continued as the hellspawns surrounding Serena succumbed to the same hurt, and even far away in the otherworld, Riley was feeling much the same way.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!" The prince screamed as his mouth foamed up.

"Ouroboros showed me that someone like you will crawl out of his sewer hideout as well, never thought you\'d be this weak however," Haruki replied, moving closer to the groaning prince.

"Wai-wait! Let me go! I-I-" Trying to come up with an excuse the prince struggled to speak.

"Die..." Holding his hand above the prince\'s head, Haruki smashed his skull with a fist made of a rugged blade made of pure dark matter.

For a spell, the prince\'s body writhed and squirmed, but eventually, as he bled out completely, everything stopped calm, even his spawns and parasites.

"I don\'t need your help to protect my daughter or the help of that stupid dead god for that matter," glancing at Helga, Haruki moved towards Stella and picked her back up in his arms. "Now go, as the bastard just said, die."

Staring at Haruki for a moment, the queen raised her god-killing sword and drew it into her own chest. The Valkyries all followed and fell over to the ground with one strike of their blades, Helga on the other hand seemed not all that bothered with just one sword piercing her chest. Kneeling down, she looked up at the skies with her hand held in front.

"Wake me up when the world, that girl needs me to purge another false god trying to take root in this world," drawing the second blade, she stuck it into her belly. Bleeding all over the blades, Helga glanced sideways at Haruki and Stella before saying with a chuckle. "You know you\'ll need me, and since the creator wills that girl to rule this place, then that\'s what I\'ll help her attain one day!"

Following those words, instead of dying, Helga\'s body slowly began turning into a statue. Starting from her skin, the layer of stone climbed up her belly and crawled up her neck. Despite getting her lips turned to stone and having two blades sticking out of her, the queen kept watching the girl as if making sure she was safe until the very last moment.

\'I\'m sorry I can\'t join you yet my roses, I have to know why the lord of creation lied to us about the world\'s end.\' Hoping to confront the dead god one day, Helga wished for nothing more than to see what her god really had planned in his head.

"We should go," said Haruki, wanting to put Stella to rest.

\'There\'s plenty left to do still, but...\' Feeling his knees being flimsy, he knew he didn\'t have much time and thus wanted to make the most out of what little time he had left. \'Stella, I hope you live long and without ever falling into war again, because sooner or later I\'ll leave to join the others.\'

Planting a kiss on her forehead, Haruki ventured towards the camps.