Chapter 363: The Ice Empress. 2 "Let's dance, Inari." A small smile appeared on her face. And the next moment, the moment Scathach took a step. The entire area around it became a land of ice. Absolutely everything, the landscape underwent a complete change, it was as if people were looking towards the North Pole. "First move." Scathach's cold voice echoed everywhere. "Ice Age." As if declaring the change of an age, the flat ice terrain began to change. FUSHHHHHHHHHH Great mountains of ice began to be created, literal mountains of ice. "Ugh!" Inari started to fly around dodging the mountains that were appearing. "Mere ice..." Inari's tails started to catch fire. "Can't stop me." A gigantic fireball appeared in the sky, but the fireball didn't last long. "Second move." Cold air came out of Scathach's mouth, and she spoke in an orderly tone. "Let there be life." The second after she said that, the ice mountains started to shake, something was inside that mountain. "What?" Inari felt an instinctual danger from the ice mountain near her, and when she was about to throw her power. She saw a large red eyeball. "....What the fuck is this!?" Inari's question was answered with a loud roar. ROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAR! A thunderous roar echoed from the spot, and the ice mountain suddenly sprouted two great wings, and flew towards the heavens. A 50+ meter western Dragon was created! The Dragon was the same height as the Eiffel Tower! The Dragon looked at the fireball with disdain, and it 'breathed' the cold air, its chest started to grow, and soon. ROOOOOOAAAAAR! A gigantic blast of ice hit the fireball! "...Father, can you do that?" "I can not." Victor's eyes glowed for a few seconds. His ice creation hadn't reached that level, the level that could completely change the landscape, freezing the entire ground was one thing, now creating ice mountains and creating a Dragon? That was another level. Victor could feel the Dragon was alive, it had a heart, but how the fuck did Scathach create an ice Dragon out of thin air? Victor was full of questions and excitement, he was watching the battle with all the concentration he could muster. The same can be said for the other spectators, they were mouths on the ground in shock. Especially Anna and Jeanne who had never seen that side of Scathach before. "Scathach Scarlett! Just what you are! How can you create an ice Dragon out of nothing!?" Inari's tone was quite shocked, she knew full well that life creation was God's territory! It's a mere Vampire shouldn't have that power! "Who knows? Why don't you use your head to think a little?" Scathach laughed. She wasn't obligated to answer the Goddess's question. "Third move." "You have more!?" Inari was freaking out! She already had her hands full with the Dragon flying in the sky and attacking her with its claws and ice breath. This ice was so strong that a mere touch could freeze her entire existence, and even her fire was no match for that ice! She had no choice but to make the most of her power to control space. Scathach spun her ice spear once and hit the ground with the handle of the weapon, and as if it were a ruler's declaration, she spoke: "Empress." For a few seconds, changes didn't occur, until... The ground began to shake. Quake, quake. Until... Giant pillars of ice began to come out of the ground! Hundreds of ice pillars, hundreds of thousands of pillars. And at the same time they were created, the ice pillars started to change, they started to deform and form a giant ice structure. Scathach began to slowly float, and as if being attracted to something, she slowly passed the large pillar of ice. Again great pillars began to rise from the ground, and cover the great structure that was created. A huge, gigantic cocoon of ice was created, and in the next few moments, everyone heard a declaration. "I am the Ruler." BOOOOOOOOOM! A burst of icy air ensued, and everyone shielded their eyes, because of the ice pressure. "Ugh!" The only one unaffected was Victor who looked at everything without caring about anything. '... Amazing... She... She's definitely...-' Victor didn't finish his thoughts, he was holding back his instinctive urge to jump in that place, and fight the woman. But the smile on his face, the gigantic smile couldn't be hidden, and anyone who knew Victor well enough knew what that smile meant. When the icy air that looked more like a blizzard dissipated, everyone could see a beautiful ice castle. It looked like a castle straight out of a fairy tale, and on top of that castle was a beautiful ice throne, the ice throne that Scathach always used, but it looked very different. The throne was more majestic, and it was decked out with weapons of ice! Swords, spears, axes, greatsword, all these weapons were behind the woman as if she was declaring that she was master of all these weapons. "And..." Scathach shook her long hair like snow back, she crossed her legs elegantly, and rested her face in her hand, and spoke in a cold tone: "My orders are absolute." Scathach looked at the Dragon fighting Inari, and ordered: "Come." "...!" The Dragon quickly turned to face Scathach, and ignored Inari. He flew towards the created castle and stood on top of the castle high above Scathach as if he were its guardian. "...?" Inari looked at Scathach, and her face distorted: "Are you resting while you fight me?" She wouldn't be so brazen to rest while fighting a Goddess, right!? "..." Scathach's smile grew a little, and she spoke: "Exactly." "...." Veins started bulging in Inari's head. "This bitch..." Her eyes started to glow with anger, Scathach had hit all her spots, she was pissed! Her golden tattoos started to glow even brighter, a pressure started to leave her body. Her body was shrouded in golden light. A few seconds later, a roar was heard. ROOOOOOOOAR! A golden fox with 10 gigantic tails was standing in front of Scathach. The fox was majestic, its fur looked fluffy, and its tails were higher than the mountains themselves, and each of those tails was covered in an element of nature. She was indeed a natural disaster! "..." Haruna's eyes gleamed slightly when she saw Inari's form, like a nine-tailed fox, she was the one who most understood how special this being was in front of her. "Foolish woman." Victor couldn't help but sneer. "...?" Haruna looked curiously at Victor, she didn't understand why he suddenly said that. "...." Scathach displayed a sneer similar to Victor's: "Fool, you had better chances when you were in your humanoid form, now you're just a big target." Scathach snapped her fingers, and the ice spikes that were part of the decorations began to change, and became a gigantic cannon defending a fortress. "Fire." BOOM, BOOOM, BOOM. Gunshots were heard, and several cannon balls flew towards the fox. The fox looked at this with its eyes, and a movement with its tail took place. The fire tail that was behind her appeared in front of her and bounced off the cannon balls. "Wrong decision." The moment the cannonbals collided with Inari's fur, they suddenly changed into spikes of ice and pierced her tail! ROAAAAAAAAAR! The fox roared in pain. Scathach snapped her fingers again, and a kind of gigantic ballista was created, and in that ballista there was a thorn of thin ice, which seemed to be being held by several chains. "Fire." Fushhhhhhh! The shot was much faster than the previous one and pierced the giant fox's neck. The thorn passed through the neck and soon the thorn expanded from within. The chain was then pulled taught, rendering the fox immobilized. And as if in sync, the castle began to throw its entire arsenal at the giant fox. ROOOOOOOOOOAR. The roar of pain was the only thing they heard. "Three movements for creation... That's the name of my personal technique." Scathach changed her tone to teacher-like, she was looking at Inari but everyone knew she was talking to Victor. "A technique that uses my ice powers, in conjunction with my knowledge of runes that I learned from my first master." She rose from her throne, and while holding her spear, she spoke: "This is a technique that I categorize as a Continental Technique, that, if used to its fullest capacity, destroying a big country is as easy as breathing." "...." A deafening silence fell around them, all they could hear were the screams of the fox that was getting spikes of ice on its body. This technique hasn't reached its full strength yet!? BULLSHIT! With just that strength alone, destroying a country was very easy! "A technique of defense, and at the same time of attack." "A technique born of the thought... What if I were to challenge an entire country alone?" "…..The very fact that she considers it is what makes her amazing…and crazy." Jeanne felt a headache. "... Indeed." Everyone agreed with her. Fighting a country alone? Only a madwoman could think of that, only someone like Scathach. Victor didn't think about anything, he was focused all his attention on his master's appearance. Scathach began to swing her spear. "Do you know why I consider my Clan the strongest?" "It's because my power is more flexible." "In this form, I'm not as fast as Natashia's lightning." "In this form, I don't have a destructive power of Agnes' fire." "...But in this form..." Her smile grew, and she said something that left everyone gaping: "I could beat the two Countesses without even leaving the comfortable seat of my Throne." "...." Despite the shock, the people around didn't think this was an unfounded statement. She alone could create an entire empire with just her powers, no wonder her last move was called 'Empress.' And if your imaginations are correct, that ice Dragon that was leaning on top of the castle wasn't the only creature she could create. She could definitely create something more frightening if she used all her power. And just that thought overshadowed the thoughts of the various Gods who were watching this fight, Gods who were Simps and who wanted to descend from the heavens to flex their muscles in front of the Goddess to try and gain her attention. It may not seem like it, but Inari was very popular in Heaven. But the Ice Empress's declaration only made all their wild dreams turn... to ice. And break like fragile glass. "I'm sorry, Inari...Rest in peace." Those were the words of several male Gods. Despite being Simps to Inari, they valued her life more, and it's not like the woman was going to die permanently, she would show up again in the future, they were considering it as if she was going to sleep. ... On second thought, this was a great opportunity wasn't it? If Inari is laid to rest now, they may appear at her rebuilt temple, and 'properly' instruct Inari. When those thoughts passed through the Gods, they started rooting for Inari to die. "Inari-sama, please don't fight too hard! Miss did splendidly, I Susanoo will be waiting for you when you are born again!" "Idiot who will wait for her is me!" "Nani? Do you dare challenge me, Junior!?" "Junior my ass, you are living with the Chinese Gods a lot! How long are you going to continue with this cultivation shit!?" "Come back to reality!" "Nani!? You dare not understand Jade's beauty! Are you courting death!?" "Of course I understand, she's green, right? Just like a certain comic book heroine." "...Hey, if she was like that heroine from the comics, even I would have changed to learn this cultivation shit!!" Another God intruded on the conversation. "He is correct, you know?" A younger god intruded on the conversation as well. "...The power of the Simps is strong in this one." An even smaller god joined. "Nani!? Weren't you the one spying on Amaterasu while she was showering outdoors!?" "How do you know that!?" "Because I was there too!" "Idiots! Keep your voice down, you're talking about something sensitive here!" Susanoo screamed even louder! "..." The Gods looked at Susanoo and thought: 'It's you who should speak more quietly!' Discussions like this took place in heaven, it was generally agreed that the simps Gods wanted Inari to lose. The same couldn't be said for the conservative Gods who were angered by this situation, Gods who were older than humanity, but thinking this was for the greater good, they did nothing. After all, the Vampires were doing them a favor by wiping out the disgusting race of Yōkai from existence! And people, especially Anna, Jeanne, and Victor understood something. They finally understood why Scathach didn't want subordinates... ... It was because she didn't need any, she alone was more than enough. She alone could be considered a one-woman army. Scathach stopped swinging her spear and held it as if to throw her spear in one direction. "Remember what happened today... for all your life." People didn't know if those words were for Inari or for Victor, or even for the Gods themselves. But one thing they knew, they wouldn't forget even if they wanted to. She threw her spear towards Inari. FUSHHHHHHHHHH. BOOOOM, BOOM, BOOOM. "Noooooooo!" The roar of denial was heard. Sonic blasts were heard, and when the spear was close to Inari's head, the spear suddenly grew in size, and pierced her entire head! The golden fox's body began to crumble into a golden light, and a spirit of Inari was rising towards the sky. "...I'll remember this, Scathach Scarlett!" "I hope so..." Scathach's smile grew: "Because when you come back, I'll come after you again... and make sure you don't die so easily." "...." Inari's face darkened when she saw Scathach's smile, and faster than a certain hero who prided himself on his speed, she spoke: "Actually, I'll forget about it, I'll be quiet in my Divine Realm..." shameless! She was so shameless! "Heh~, don't worry, if you don't show up, I'll come after you." Inari's face darkened even further: "...Fuck." That was her last word before her body exploded into thousands of golden lights, and soared into the heavens. Scathach's spear returns to her hand, and she turns around. "The lesson is over."