The Holy Knight of DxD

Chapter 53: Endgame (Part 4) - Olympus (2)

Athena had not exaggerated when she said that Olympus was a heap of burning ruins. Its prestige and splendour had been destroyed. The gods were likely consumed by the Titans. What was left of them was the bloodshed everywhere and the memory of their lives that would fade with time.

"What should we then seek?" Mordred asked.

"I don't know exactly," Y/N replied. "Something like a clue."

He hoped to get more accurate information from a God or a nymph who had survived, but honestly, he didn't count on it so much.

"For the moment I would say to go towards the defensive systems," Y/N said.

"There might be still some enemies. It's better to send familiars forward," Kuroka suggested.

Y/N nodded.

Ironically, everything they had done so far was becoming useful. Initially, taking familiars was not a sensible thing for a servant, at least until enemy servants began to appear. At that point, even Heroic Spirits like Mordred and Tamamo had been forced to go beyond their previous knowledge and expand their ways of thinking.

"Jack, I want to see how much you've improved," Y/N said, crouching and patting Jack's head. "Go ahead. You can decide by yourself what to do if you find someone. If you think they are an enemy, remove them. If they are not, make sure they are fine."

Jack smiled and left.

Y/N stood up and sighed. Jack was perhaps the most complicated of his group. She was born from many children's souls, but the fact that she was "born" from those souls did not guarantee her to know what good and evil are.

"Was there a place that Hephaestus used as a home or a forge here on Olympus?" Y/N asked.

"He was recognized by Zeus as..."

"The laughingstock of the rest of you," Mordred said in a pungent tone. "You deserve everything that is happening to you."

Athena looked stoically at Mordred, who replied with a mocking smile.

A person could endure all they wanted, but eventually, they would explode. Aphrodite's constant cheating despite his continued loyalty to her and the constant derisions of his appearance have increased Hephaestus' anger, which has ended up destroying Olympus.

"Let's see," Y/N murmured as he looked at something reminiscent of a cannon. "What is this?"

Y/N grabbed a fragment of black ore that was inside the cannon.

"That is a mineral from the underworld," Kuroka said, observing and analysing it. "I saw this inside Naberius' facilities. It seems to be able to store the demonic power, but when it is overloaded, it explodes.

"A bomb, huh?" Y/N turned to Athena. "Where does the energy of these cannons come from?"

"There is an area under the mountain that provides energy to the whole Olympus..." Athena opened her eyes when she remembered something. "Zeus had ordered Hephaestus to increase the energy it usually produced."

Athena teleported everyone there without waiting for Y/N to request it.

"As I imagined, it started here," Athena said, seeing that the general mechanism had been destroyed. "It destroyed itself, involving the artillery and weakening the Barrier that protected Olympus."

"You are smart as always, Athena."

They turned and looked at a bluish-eyed automaton staring at them. The automaton had a skeletal body slightly taller than Y/N and did not seem to have armament, but the appearance could often be deceiving.