Chapter 416: Strange Occurrences.
"Why are you so interested in Freya?"
"..." Victor flashed a small smile when he saw the veins on Aphrodite's face, obviously annoyed.
But would that stop his curiosity? Of course not.
"Well, if we're going to put it bluntly, she's your counterpart in Norse mythology, right?"
"...."
"So I was curious to know what the difference between the two of you was and who was stronger." Victor spoke honestly.
"..." Aphrodite just watched with a dry gaze.
"So? Who is stronger between the two of you?"
"Humpf, of course, I'm stronger. I'm a Titan and a second-generation Goddess."
"Heh~, so you're stronger?"
"Absolutely!" She sat down in disdain:
"Freya is only problematic because some of her Major Divinities are related to War and Magic."
'Oh? So despite being similar, Freya is more combat-centric? Interesting...'
"It's only because of those that make her troublesome, and as some of her Major Divinities are Lust and Love like me, our powers come into conflict."
"I see..."
"...." Looking into Victor's interested eyes, a vein bulged in Aphrodite's head:
"Just so you know, I'm prettier than her! She doesn't have a Divinity of Greater Beauty like me, so her beauty and charm are inferior!"
"Hmm... So she's a more combat-centric version of you?"
"Ugh." Aphrodite couldn't deny that comparison.
While her Major Divinities are focused on Sexuality, Love and Beauty, she was not a Goddess of Combat; even though she had Lesser Divinities related to War, she did not compare to Ares.
And her other Lesser Divinities were Perpetuation of Life, Pleasure, and Joy, thus weren't very useful in combat.
In comparison, Freya's Major Divinities were focused on Love, Lust, War, and Magic. She also had Lesser Divinities related to Beauty, Pleasure, and Death.
The last Divinity being just a rumor that was born of hearsay because the woman herself had the power to see the 'soul' and interact with it like a God of Death.
The ability to see the soul was not uncommon, as most Gods could do this with some training, but interacting with souls was just the work of Death Gods. Not even Persephone, with all her authority, could do that.
But no one knew whether this rumor of Freya was true or not, and the woman herself did not confirm this rumor.
Another thing worth mentioning was that the woman was a rune master, and her knowledge of runes was second only to Odin himself.
'Wait... Isn't she more useful than I am?'
After thinking about this for a few seconds, she huffed:
'Nah, she can't control all the Gods with a snap of her fingers.'
'So what if she's a Goddess of Magic and War? If I want that power at my disposal, I just have to control Odin or Ares, and voilà.'
... The pride of a Goddess was mighty indeed...
But... She wasn't wrong, the power of Aphrodite's 'charm' was simply too dangerous.
"I'm still superior." She patted her chest proudly.
That pat was enough for her mountains to shake a little.
"...." Victor looked at this out of the corner of his eye and couldn't help but think:
'Just how big are they? The same size as Roberta's?' The maid, who had the heroic spirit, was the one with the biggest bust, she had powerful I-Cups.
Victor deduced that Aphrodite had a J-cup that was slightly larger than Roberta.
'... The woman had two weapons of mass destruction. It made sense that the Gods didn't stand a chance with these two nukes.'
And these two mighty weapons could hardly be hidden by her Greek dress. In fact, the Greek dress itself amplified her destructive power!
"Oh~?"
Aphrodite crossed her arms around her breasts and gave him a sultry look, "I thought you had no interest in me."
"Well, I'm still a man." He would be a hypocrite to deny that he had no interest. After all, he was not a eunuch.
And like it or not, he would be hypocritical to say that the Goddess of Beauty was ugly, and, even when she wasn't acting like a bossy bitch, she had her charms too.
"Hehehe~." Aphrodite's pink eyes sparkled in amusement.
"...." Victor narrowed his eyes, placed his fingers near Aphrodite's head, then gave her a finger-flick.
BOOOOOM!
A small burst of air went out behind Aphrodite's head.
"Ugh! My forehead! Why did you do that!?" She grumbled as she stroked her forehead.
"...." Victor raised his eyebrow a little surprised. He put all his strength into that finger-flicked, you know?
And the woman only felt a slight pain...
"Make no mistake, although I think you're beautiful when you're not acting like a bossy bitch, that doesn't mean a thing." Victor donned his gauntlet again and crossed his arms.
"... What did you say?" Aphrodite looked at Victor in shock, even forgetting about the small pain in her forehead.
"Hmm?" He looked at Aphrodite, confused, "Say what?"
"Did you just call me beautiful?" Aphrodite's smile grew, and her pink eyes gleamed a little brighter.
"...fuck." He muttered as if he'd done something stupid.
"Why didn't you say that before!?" Aphrodite jumped on Victor and tried to hug him.
"H-Huh?" Victor quickly held the Goddess's face.
"Let's fuck!'
"Hold your wickedness Goddess of Perversion!"
Looking at Aphrodite's red face and obsessive eyes, Victor couldn't help but think.
'Ugh, where does all this strength come from? She's not even using any power!'
"Leave everything to the big sister, I will teach you the pleasures a Goddess of Love can offer."
"This is not the attitude of the Goddess of Love!"
"What are you talking about? The Love Goddess's duty is to fill her husband with 'LOVE'."
"I don't remember becoming your husband!"
"It's okay, it's okay, don't bother with small details, just leave everything to the big sister. She will treat you with a lot of LOVE."
"Fuck off."
Suddenly the two heard screams and sounds of destruction.
"AHHHHHHH!"
"Hmm?" Victor and Aphrodite looked away.
And in an alleyway a considerable distance away, the two could see a red portal that had several deformed creatures coming out.
Aphrodite stopped playing with Victor, sat next to him, and looked at this situation with serious eyes.
"What is it?" Victor asked the oldest person present.
"Devils."
"And, on top of that, a portal that connects to hell, what's going on?"
"..." Victor looked at this situation with curious eyes.
The Demons coming out of the portal started attacking the civilians that were in the alley, but something strange happened. Instead of killing them, they were kidnapping the civilians and throwing them into the portal.
Victor's violet eyes sparkled, and soon his world changed:
"Holy Fuck."
"What happened-..." Looking into Victor's eyes, she realized that he was using some sort of power of observation:
"What are you seeing?" She got straight to the important point.
"...even I don't know what to say."
From Victor's point of view, he could see thousands of wires connecting to that portal, and those wires were scattered all over the city.
'Are they connected?' Victor looked at a specific wire and saw that this wire ended in a building under construction, but he looked at that building and didn't see the portal.
He just saw the very small wire standing in the air.
'A connection exists there...'
"Demons, bastards!"
"...?" Aphrodite and Victor's attention returned to the occurrence.
And soon, they saw a group of Priests killing the Demons.
They did a quick job. Using their faith incantations, they eliminated all the lesser Demons, and soon the portal closed automatically.
Soon these priests left the place after putting something on the wall.
"...And to think that would be so bad." Aphrodite spoke.
"What do you mean?"
"I heard the news of these strange murder cases and people going mad, I realized that Demons were more active, but that was normal. Demons always used corpses to cause trouble in the world of the living, and those problems were quickly taken care of by the Hunters. That's one of the reasons the Inquisition exists as well."
"Protect the world for humans..."
"But..."
"A portal to hell?" She made a disgusted face.
"This never happened before."
A moment of silence falls around, and then Victor spoke:
"Hmm... Did something happen in hell?"
"Probably..."
"...." Victor touched his chin, he seemed to be thinking about something, and then he looked at the building under construction that was several meters away.
Victor got up and stood on the balcony of the building.
"Aphrodite, hold me."
"Okay." She didn't even go to the trouble of questioning as she quickly approached him and hugged his body.
Victor wrapped his arm around the Goddess and looked at the sky as lightning appeared in his eyes for a few seconds.
And...
Rumble!
A bolt of lightning fell from the sky and struck Victor, and soon he disappeared from where he was with Aphrodite.
...
In the building under construction.
Lightning struck the top of the building, and soon Victor and Aphrodite appeared.
The woman turned away from him and looked around:
"That was…interesting…and to think you had so much control over lightning." She looked at herself and realized that there was nothing damaged in her body.
"Your control is quite impressive."
"Thanks, I guess?"
"That was a compliment, you know?"
"Yeah, I know." He flashed a small smile and walked towards the stairs.
"....." Aphrodite bit her lip when she saw the man's smile.
'Tsk, he should smile more at me, that bastard.' Then, with a huff, she started following Victor.
Descending the stairs, Victor reached the seventh floor. All the while the Goddess of Beauty was following him like a duckling.
"Aphrodite, do you see anything here?"
"....?" Aphrodite looked to where Victor was pointing and saw nothing but a landscape.
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm asking if you see anything here." He pointed in front of him: "In front of me, is there some kind of portal? Evil energy? Or any shit?"
"Hmmmm." Aphrodite's eyes started to glow a bright pink while she was using her Divine Sense.
"!!!" And just as she activated her Divine Sense, she felt a great 'malevolence' where Victor was pointing.
"Yes... There is something there."
"Is it a portal?"
"No... It's more like a concentration of Evil Energy."
"Demonic Energy like the stuff that Demon that wanted you wielded?"
"Wrong, it's not Demonic Energy, it's Evil Energy, something produced by humans."
"Something like Youki?"
"Yes, but this energy is much purer than Youki..." Aphrodite approached where Victor was.
Her hand began to glow with a golden glow, and soon her hand approached the energy.
The moment Aphrodite touched the energy, her eyes opened wide, and she quickly withdrew her hand.
"…This…" She swallowed, and her body seemed to be shaking a little.
"Aphrodite, what happened?" Victor asked in a neutral tone, noticing the change in the Goddess's expression as she seemed to be worried about something.
"N-Now... Now, I understand why this energy is so concentrated."
Aphrodite composed herself and spoke with a serious face:
"This is a concentration of Negative Energy, negative emotions."
"Humans, Vampires, Werewolves, Witches, and even Minor Gods... This is a concentration of negative emotions from all these beings."
"…Negative emotions don't come out of nowhere, right? People need to be in despair or something for them to be born, right?"
"Yes..."
Victor started to think a little, and soon he spoke with a neutral face:
"The Demons are using them as batteries, huh."
"…The moment I touched that energy, I felt the emotions of all beings being used by the Demons."
Aphrodite's body began to tremble slightly: "They are being tortured, some were forced to kill their own family and eat their flesh, some are being-."
"Do not think about it." Victor touched the Goddess's head and looked at her with a neutral face:
"It will consume you. They are not you."
"...."
Even though she was a Goddess, few can bear the feelings of despair from thousands of concentrated beings. She reacted much better than others since, if she was a human, she would've gone mad, she was only slightly shaken.
"Mm." She nodded her head after watching Victor's eyes for a long time.
Suddenly, she found herself being pulled into Victor's body, and soon the two walked away from where they were.
"V-Vic-..." She stopped talking when Victor put his hand over her mouth.
'What's up?'
During the entire time Victor was talking to Aphrodite, he never stopped using his powers of observation.
And during the split second he saw the small thread 'growing' and increasing in size, he knew something was going to happen and quickly pulled him and Aphrodite away.
FUSHHHHHHH.
And just as expected, a red portal appeared, and soon four deformed Demons came out of the portal.
"Kekeke, Team 45 was killed by the Hunters."
"Idiots, they may be strong, but we are many."
"Stop talking nonsense. let's capture some humans."
"Yeah, yeah, we have to hit today's quota."
"How many are left for our group?"
"Two humans."
"That's easy."
"Let's finish our walk and head home."
The portal behind them closed, and as they started to walk towards the balcony, they felt their bodies shake.
Something... Something terrible was behind them!
"Worms, I am particularly interested in this 'walk'."
"..." The four Demons slowly turned their faces back, and as all they saw was black armor, they unconsciously looked up.
And saw the sharp smiling face and red eyes of a man.
"A-A-Alucard!"
"I hope you are Demons kind enough to invite me on this 'walk'."
....
