“Ather, you absolute bitch! What the hell are you doing?”

“Reclaiming my honour!” He yelled, throwing another spear and making it scream through the air as Ben did his best to dodge, but not well enough. He felt the bite of the blade slice through the side of his arm as it sailed past, just adding to the injuries that filled his body.

“Honour my ass! Can’t you see some slightly more pressing things going on right now?” Ben yelled back as the demigod pulled another spear from what appeared to be a very well-made spatial bag, telling him there was likely plenty more in there to spare.

Fuck, and I’m really not in the best condition to be handling this right now.

Ben had won fights before, but he always tried to make sure that things were heavily in his favour. When he’d last fought Ather he’d planned for days and when he’d repeatedly beaten the man who’d come looking to duel him in Stonewall a while ago, he’d known he was strong enough to handle it with relative ease. Not now though.

Ben hadn’t brought any weapons. He’d dropped the gun he’d made to capture the soul of the outsider after using all of his bullets and he hadn’t brought anything else with him since he was supposed to be on vacation, and that wasn’t even considering his current condition.

The last time he’d fought Ather, Ben’s attributes had been significantly lower and he hadn’t had a single awakened skill to his name at the time, but he also hadn’t been so beaten down. Everything he’d just done to survive left his body aching as he once more wished for a notification telling him he’d finally gained the pain resistance of his dreams and that wasn’t even considering his thoughts. He was being pulled by the sight of the hells in a way it seemed the demigod wasn’t and he was still feeling the after-effects of seeing both the outsider and the chaos. He hated the idea of having a fair fight but given his state, it wouldn’t even be that. He was at a disadvantage.

The only thing he felt he really had at the moment was his unnatural thought speed, going at its limit as he examined everything around him.

He’s staying back, is that because he knows about my deep connection and is worried about the range or is it because he’s being cautious of me? I did gut him before so that seems fairly possible but I wouldn’t doubt it if his daddy gave him a heads-up about my skills at all seeing as how I haven’t kept them particularly secret from the gods since I’ve been trying to use them to help. Absolutely regretting being so damn useful all the time, definitely going to have to up my prices. And besides that… Wait, what? WHAT? I MADE THAT SPEAR! WHO’S BEEN GIVING THIS FUCKER MY WORK?

Seeing the hallmarks of his own craftsmanship and enchanting on a weapon that was now being pointed at him very quickly made Ben resolve himself to find and murder the person who provided it to the demigod but did his best to hold back his anger as he instead focused on the subtle movements of the one before him, watching in slow motion to see both when the spear would be released and where it would end up, dodging out of the way by the skin of his teeth and only realizing a deeper problem the second he heard it hit something behind him.

As Ather reached to pull out another, Ben immediately jumped back, not to avoid an incoming strike but instead to see what the demigod had hit without making it obvious, with him just able to tell that the spear had sailed clean through one of the arms of a mage that was maintaining the ritual.

It wasn’t severed, that was a small mercy, but things could have just gone very badly. Ben already knew that killing that one in particular would destabilize the portal in a big way and he didn’t currently put it past Ather to start attacking them if Ben showed any hint of concern, so instead he didn’t. He smirked at the demigod, taunting him as he did.

“So, that’s all the son of a god of spears and war can pull off, huh?” He laughed. “The blood must run pretty thin, doesn’t it? Oh, who am I kidding, I’ve met Eneth, calling him a god is honestly an insult to the rest of them up there.”

“Filthy brick worshiper!” Eneth screamed, Ben’s small taunts getting under his skin in a way he hadn’t expected and affecting the aim of the next spear, with Ben needing a lot less effort to dodge it than the last.

“Brick? Excuse you, I get why you'd be jealous given your daddy's a lizard bitch, but that's no reason to badmouth his betters. My buddy is the ideal form of a cube, through and through. Not that you’d understand anything about ideals. Before I started robbing your church blind it was honestly the tackiest thing I’ve ever seen. Seriously, you guys owe me one for helping you get rid of that stuff, I really classed up the joint.”

The statement was met with more screaming as Ben carefully led Ather around, ensuring that no more of his attacks could hit the ritualists while at the same time being close enough for Ben to look into their minds, examining each of their parts in the spell to try and figure out how to disarm it as more ghosts only ever broke free.

Between that and watching the demigod to keep dodging his far too powerful attacks, all while dealing with the mental after-effects of what he’d witnessed over the course of that insane day, that left him only a bit of wiggle room to figure out how he wanted to approach the situation the second he got the portal under control, with there only being one real question to it. Should he murder Ather?

Although I don’t think this would count as murder, this is one hundred percent self-defense. I mean, sure, maybe it would look like murder if anyone could tell just how badly I want to do it but I really should measure the pros and cons before I give in. Con one, he represents a powerful fighting force. But I think I can safely ignore that since here I am, absolutely not a fighter managing to survive against him even when he has awakened skills. Sorry Ather, taking that point away. You should have trained more.

Nobody was there to point out to Ben that normal people wouldn’t be able to think or react in a way remotely close to how he could, making that point against Ather a bit less than relevant, so he went on in his judgment.

Con numero two. The gods might not like it. I can also safely ignore this point since I don’t particularly care what they do and don’t like. If Eneth’s mad then he should have raised his son better and if the other gods don’t like it then they should have made sure none of my equipment ended up in this asshole's hands. Equipment he’s just throwing away! This tool one-hundred percent just tossed a lower ultra-rare spear into the infinite hells! God, I hate him so much!

Okay, I think that’s it for cons, now on to pros. I don’t like him, I want him dead, and if killing him isn’t enough to get me to the third tier of sacrilege then I don’t know what will be. Okay, that settles that. Sorry Ather but the votes are in and you have to die.

That just became a question of how, but as he thought on the method of execution he would be forcing on the demigod, Ather screamed out again.

“Just die already you bastard!”

“It feels a little weird for you to be calling me a bastard when you were one-hundred percent conceived in a three-way,” Ben shot back, not giving anything the man said much thought before saying whatever the rudest thing to come to his minds ended up being.

And it seemed like it was working too, Ather only grew more and more enraged as Ben finally made it around the circle of mages and explored all of their minds, giving him both the solution as well as a new problem.

I need to kill two that are on opposite sides of the ring at the same time if I don’t want things to risk going horrifically wrong. All while I’m trying to not get killed by the idiot currently aiming for my life before I kill him in return. What the actual hell did I do to deserve this?

With Myriad keeping an eye on Thera, there was nobody to give him any smart replies to that rhetorical question, while Ather’s mood changed in that same instant.

The demigod stopped and seemed to take a breath, calming down as he did before giving back his own cocky smile.

“You’re stalling. Give in to the inevitable and meet your end. I’ll be sending your whore to you before you know it.”

…And now he’s getting something worse than death. Okay, just gotta get the timing right.

“You know Ather, it's funny,” Ben told him as he kept backing up, even as pain started to touch his voice. “I’ve spared you three times now and not once have you shown any gratitude. Really just goes to show that neither of your dads raised you to have any manners, so after I kill you, I’m going to have to take it out on them. Felth will be the easier one, I’ve already financially ruined the guy, but let’s be real, you don’t really care about him, do you? Eneth’s going to be the big one I’ll be causing some issues. And you’ve done half the work for me! Just think, the moment the world knows that a demigod not only tried to murder someone, but was so weak they failed, it’s going to look bad on him from all angles! He couldn’t raise his son well into being a decent person, plus that son was somehow so weak that he’d repeatedly lost to someone who isn’t even a fighter, instead having to rely on sneak attacks that he kept failing! In the end, nobody’s even going to miss you because you don’t even sound like you’d be useful in the next wave at this point, isn’t that just so funny?”

“Keep talking,” Ather snarled as he threw another spear, watching as it sliced through part of Ben’s arm as the craftsman struggled to dodge more and more. He’d learned enough about Ben in his desire for revenge to know he just needed to stay out of his range to ensure his mind couldn’t be read, but he wanted to be close enough to see the despair at his defeat on his face, leading him to take a step forward for every step back Ben made. It was obvious he wasn’t fast enough to escape, all he could do was wear himself down and Ather was more than patient to watch as it happened. There was always the issue of what he’d do if any gods tried to stop him but he wasn’t too worried about that. He was a demigod in the middle of a war. His worth outstripped the small apostle by so much that the idea they’d inflict any real punishment on him felt absurd. If it was anything too bad, all he’d need to do was ensure he raised his name and fame enough in the coming battles that nobody could hold his actions against him.

“You know Ather,” Ben said, sounding like he was beginning to truly suffer in a way that was music to the demigod’s ears. “I think I’ll keep one little fact about you to myself, as a little treat I can savour while you’re dead.”

“So fear’s driven you delusional,” He laughed while Ben went on.

“You’re not curious? Oh well, I’m going to tell you anyway. It’s about how dumb you really are.”

With those words, Ben sprung his counterattack.

He still wasn’t sure to what extent Ather was aware of his abilities but there were three areas that he didn't seem on guard against during their entire fight so far.

One was Ben’s deep connection. Sure, he seemed to be avoiding getting too close to Ben himself but there were far more people in the room than just the two of them and deep connection let him do far more than just read minds. With every person that entered his range, Ben had stolen as much of their mana as he safely could without collapsing the ritual, slowly overfilling his soul.

That led to the second. He’d seen no signs that Ather was on guard against his magic. It was more than possible he was aware he had some but if he had any clue about the level of skill he’d reached with it then there was no way he wouldn’t have been on guard, nor would he have been willing to stand so close to him.

Finally, there was the disaster next to them that the demigod seemed practically blind to, the portal to the infinite hells, with Ben having guided him to one of the gaps in the ritualists that was being filled by something intangible. A ghost.

<Empty skies Ben, what->

All at once Helori was in his head, having gone to check on him after realizing the other gods were too focused on trying to track swarms of ghosts, evaluating the devastation, or focusing on the various people affected by what had happened, all of them content to trust that he would say something if there was a problem and leaving her alone to discover what was happening.

Ather was trying to murder Ben. A large part of her was wondering if no one else up there had really seen it or if any that viewed Ben less favourably had just decided to ignore it, but she knew she needed to at least try and stop things before they got too far, only she was moments too late.

Ben ran the massive amount of mana he’d accumulated through the ground, making the earth jut out beside Ather, throwing him towards the infinite hells as he tried to react, but again not fast enough. At the same time Ben attacked, he’d used that same magic to move the earth beneath him and launch himself forward, bringing the demigod into the range of his connection before exposing every mind in his head and screaming with them.

The effect didn’t kill him outright, no matter how awful he was, being a demigod did come with a certain level of strength, but it most certainly hurt him, breaking his mind and leaving him no way to react or protect himself as he continued to fall, passing through the boundary where every ghost was escaping and landing himself into the infinite hells, letting Ben collapse to the ground and catch his breath.

<DEEP CONNECTION LEVEL INCREASED>

<...Well, this is going to be a mess to deal with.>

“Oh, hey Helori, didn’t notice you got here. Please tell me you witnessed enough of that to see what was happening.”

<I only caught the end but I saw all I needed to in Ather’s mind. I can’t believe that fucking idiot…>

“Hey, it worked out. One less problem for me in the world, plus… Wait.”

Something had just gone very, horrifically wrong, at least as far as Ben was concerned as he noticed something missing. A notification, specifically one telling him he finally reached the third tier of his sacrilege as he rushed to process why.

Oh my god. I didn’t actually kill him, did I? I tossed him into hell but I didn’t deliver some finishing blow so my soul isn’t being marked with the blood of a demigod. Fucking hell!

While that may have been a result of his own poor planning, he resolved to place the full blame on Ather as he cursed the demigod for not being remotely useful even in his final moments in that plane of reality.