Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
"Great, I can go straight to the 53rd floor." Bella said with a small smile.
"Go?" Riveria asked, confused.
"Teleportation magic works inside the dungeon," Bella said with an amused smile. Riveria's eyes widened, and she glared at her indignantly.
"That's cheating!" Riveria complained while pouting, and Bella burst out laughing.
"Don't complain, you can do it now too." Bella said playfully. Riveria stood still in surprise before nodding.
"Will I be able to take the Loki family directly to the deep floors?" Riveria asked in my direction, and I shrugged.
"You don't have to ask my permission for anything, do what you want, although I probably wouldn't recommend taking the resources you get, or at least not selling them to the guild if you want to keep up appearances. It would be suspicious if you started selling too many resources from the deep floors." I said simply. Riveria paused for a few seconds before nodding.
"I'll keep that in mind," Riveria said, nodding.
"Let's forget about that! We have weapons and powers to test!" Rebecca said with a huge, sadistic grin. I looked at Rebecca closely; she had already donned a bulky suit of Titan armor, except for the helmet. Her armor gleamed a deep navy blue with pink accents.
I looked at Lucy to the side, who was wearing black and white Hunter armor, her sniper rifle in her arms, as I inspected it thoroughly. How... how did the armor change color?
I looked at Riveria once more, but she had opted for her normal adventurer's clothes, GLaDOS had decided not to come, and I didn't need the armor either.
Although they were curious, like the weapons, the armors were infused with The Light, so they were able to improve and give a slight physical boost, maybe not exactly like trying to accumulate stats as in the game, but they definitely helped quite a bit.
On the other hand, the exotic armors were far more interesting. Our Light was channeled through the exotic armors to alter the normal uses of certain manifestations of The Light or The Darkness.
"Before that, any arms for me? I'm sure Casull and Jackal will be obsolete." Bella said as she pulled out her pair of pistols.
"Oh yes! My Malorian!" Rebecca squealed as she pulled out her Malorian 3516, lovingly caressing it before extending it in my direction. I blinked as I looked at it, took it in confusion, and stared at Rebecca, uncomprehending.
"What am I supposed to do with the Malorian?" I asked, confused. Rebecca rolled her eyes.
"Can you create something like Ace of Spades or Sunshot?" Rebecca asked excitedly. I stared at her without blinking.
"Aren't you using another exotic one already?" I asked, confused. Rebecca raised an eyebrow before smiling.
"We're not in the game anymore; now we can use all the exotic combinations we want." Rebecca said with a huge smile. I paused slightly.
That was true. The restriction of using only one exotic weapon and one exotic armor at a time was simply a game limitation to prevent the Guardian from becoming more powerful than it already was. Still, in theory, it should be possible.
Osiris is seen using multiple exotics all the time, so yes, we should be able to now, although I would have to look closely to see if there were any problems with having several exotics together at the same time.
"Alright, I'll think about doing something," I said as I looked at the Malorian in my hands.
"I'm still waiting for mine," Bella said, holding up Casull and Jackal. I snorted and rolled my eyes. I quickly started transmitting all the weapons to Bella. Bella just frowned as all the weapons were transmitted. "Is that all there is?" Bella asked. I raised an eyebrow.
"None of them caught your eye?" I asked curiously. Bella wrinkled her nose.
"At least none of the hand cannons, which are the ones I looked at. Some weapons caught my eye, but I prefer something I can use with one hand," Bella said with a grimace.
I hummed as I considered it. Bella wanted something with rapid fire, which was difficult to achieve. I mean, all the guns used physical ammunition to some extent, and none had the technology to exceed a certain speed.
I quickly thought of all the other weapons that came to mind, which were still quite a few. But since there were so many, I discarded almost all of them. Few weapons could surpass Destiny's arsenal.
One of them is Hajime Nagumo's iconic weapons, Donner & Schlag, a pair of technomagic revolvers, which used electromagnetic acceleration using magic to fire bullets that exceeded the power of an anti-tank rifle and traveled at 3.2km/s, which was three times faster than my Railgun.
Hmm, I'd be able to replicate that quite easily, actually, so I could modify Casull and Jackal to work that way. I could feel GLaDOS hovering over my mind as she started rattling off calculations and specifications rapidly. I smiled slightly as I began filling in the data.
Even so, it wasn't enough. Donner & Schlag wouldn't be enough. Yes, it would have a high attack speed and penetration, but that wouldn't work against 'superior' beings, against supernatural, paracausal beings.
I had seen it; if the weapons hadn't been infused with The Light, they wouldn't be able to do even half the damage to most of Destiny's bosses, let alone kill something like Oryx simply by shooting them.
I could infuse the weapons with The Light so they have the same property of damaging paracausal things, hmmm, could I base it on Thorn and Lumina? Infuse one weapon with The Light and the other with The Darkness, see what happens.
Or… I could make it for Rebecca, make… a prismatic weapon for Rebecca, one that can channel her supers. As she said, we're not in a video game anymore. Rebecca should be able to use any super or manifestation of Paracausal, Solar, Arc, Void, Stasis, or String energy, or pure Prismatic energy, to channel those manifestations into the weapon, and have it add some effect to the bullet?
It wouldn't have to be limited to the Titan's subclasses; modifying the Malorian so that, by channeling solar energy, it could use something like the Hunters' Golden Gun would be quite easy. Firing bullets as hot as the sun, capable of turning any target to ash, was always incredible.
But putting all that aside, I still had to decide on a weapon for Bella. She needed something powerful, something she could use for a long time without feeling the need to change it, or something completely useless against powerful beings.
The only thing that came to mind was Kanshou and Bakuya in Handguns mode, variants of an Emiya Alter that could transform the swords into two pistols and fire Noble Phantasms transformed into bullets.
I suppose I could create a huge arsenal of bullets for her to use? Firing Harpe bullets would be really useful against gods. Actually, I'll be shelving that idea for now. Turning Noble Phantasms into bullets was quite promising, and not just for Bella.
So, the best option would be-
I froze. Weapons capable of killing gods. A weapon capable of killing a god. Designed specifically to kill gods.
Völundr
The act of merging a human soul with the soul of a Valkyrie, allowing the Valkyrie to incarnate as a Divine Weapon more suited to the wielder, is the only weapon that allows humans to fight on equal footing, inflict damage, and kill supernatural beings, specifically gods.
Shuumatsu no Valkyrie, Record of Ragnarok.
There were several Völundr who joined with humanity's champions to stop Ragnarok, several Valkyries transformed into weapons, but the one that caught my attention at this moment was a firearm, a weapon that would be perfect for Bella.
The M28-30 Rifle, Simo Hayha's weapon, The White Death.
A weapon capable of firing god-killing bullets, bullets created and forged from his own organs, bullets strong and fast enough to kill Loki. Bullets created with a price that Bella could easily pay.
And not only that, what if multiple organs could be used to create a more powerful bullet? Using her own heart to create a bullet? An entire soul? Several? What kind of power could a being like Bella unleash? An immortal being with instant regeneration and hundreds of thousands of souls within her, who could pay the price of the Reaper Contract for the weapon without even blinking.
I had no idea. Simo Hayha was just a human; the bullets he created were supposed to represent the pain and agony he felt, something Bella, under normal circumstances, could barely sense. Still, it should work, and if it were even possible, it was definitely something worth trying.
It was difficult to calculate the power level of Simo Hayha's Völundr because fights in RoR were rare… outside of fights, they showed feats of the gods that surpassed anything humans could do, but during fights, they seemed more… reduced, contained.
Even so, Simo Hayha's slowest bullet traveled at twice the speed of sound, but it was a wide-area shot, capable of killing an entire army created by Loki in a single blast. His subsequent shots were faster, with one reaching 'divine speed,' whatever that speed may be, and another even surpassing it.
So… it was weird. In the worst-case scenario, it would just be a waste of credits.
Even so, without hesitation, I pulled out my phone and started searching quickly. I didn't want to buy the Valkyrie, especially since the Völundr with a Valkyrie changed from person to person. So I needed the weapon already made, just the forged weapon, capable of bonding directly with Bella, and after browsing for a few seconds, I found it.
Radgridr [50 Credits ]
Radgridr is the name of the Valkyrie that joined Simo Hayha, whose divine weapon form is the M28-30 Rifle. The fact that the cost to obtain the god-killing weapon was half that of buying the complete Valkyrie seemed appropriate to me, and it would only hurt if Radgridr was disappointing, which I hoped it wouldn't be.
50 credits was the price for an A-rank Noble Phantasm, so I was hoping Radgridr wouldn't be a complete waste.
Especially since, when I started exchanging messages, the seller could make Radgridr take any form I wanted, and Casull and Jackal were definitely options.
My mind momentarily drifted to Hlökk, Jack the Ripper's Valkyrie. His Völundr were gauntlets capable of creating divine weapons by mere touch. This would be extremely versatile at best, and would slightly increase his attack power, but… it wouldn't be very useful.
The gods of RoR were not immortal; they were simply… resistant to anything inferior to them, and in that definition, humans and their mortal weapons fell into that category; it took a divine weapon just to harm them, but after putting that aside, the gods of RoR could easily die.
We didn't need something like Harpe to kill them. And most of what we had was already capable of harming divine beings. The Light and Darkness, demonic power and magic, Noble Phantasms, and more—so no, as versatile as Jack's gloves were, they weren't really impressive to us.
On the other hand, Radgridr could increase its firepower the more it sacrificed. And that was something I really wanted to see.
"I... I think I have a pretty good option for you," I told Bella, finally looking up. I relayed all the information about Radgridr to everyone.
"It's perfect." Bella said, with a huge, sadistic smile, as she continued reviewing the memories.
"A god-killing weapon, I suppose that's fitting," Lucy hummed.
"Not really," GLaDOS said immediately. "The bullets are god-killers because Simo Hayha's body had god-killing properties." My eyes widened. True, a Valkyrie's Völundr only makes the
wielder's weapons and body 'divine weapons' with 'god-killing' properties.
Bullets, even those fired from a divine weapon, shouldn't have any chance of killing or harming a god. But creating a bullet from an organ of someone with a god-killer's body? That could definitely be achieved with the help of the Völundr. I quickly checked the specifications again and breathed a sigh of relief.
"The weapon works exactly like the real Völundr, so Bella's weapon and body are treated as a Divine Weapon capable of harming gods, which, I don't know to what extent it will work for gods outside of RoR, but it will still have the same property as Simo Hayha's shots."
"It's not a denial of immortality, so... some kind of amplification effect? Does it cause more damage to the Gods? Or perhaps a general denial of durability, capable of harming any supernatural being with some esoteric defense?" GLaDOS said quickly.
"Maybe a little of both... you'd really have to test the weapon's limits," I said quickly.
"We'll do it, but going back to the organs, considering that it takes on the properties of the person's body, does that mean that depending on the properties of the bearer, it acquires a different property?" Riveria asked immediately. "Bella has thousands of souls. If she can 'sacrifice' the organs of those souls, could she use different properties? Surely she must have some with... innate properties. Animals, magical beasts, or monsters would be best. Let's say an organ from a hellhound or a dragon could have fire properties?" Riveria theorized quickly. I snapped my fingers as more ideas came to me.
"Not only monsters, but also people or entities. Bella is one, and she has other devils. She could create bullets of demonic power or use an exorcist or fallen angel who could create bullets with holy power. As long as she has a person or monster, she could create different types of bullets," I said quickly.
"Combine several? If we assume that several organs can sacrifice themselves to create a single bullet, could it produce a bullet with multiple properties? Would its strength add up for each organ, multiply, or would it be an exponential growth?" GLaDOS said with the same speed.
"As much as I'd like to keep listening, which isn't true, it only makes me want the gun even more, so... first the gun, then you can argue about whatever you want and just tell me I have to try it." Bella interrupted with a grimace. I opened my mouth before closing it, and smiled shyly at Bella.
"Actually... I wasn't planning on buying it right now," I said awkwardly. "I mean... you're grounded and-"
"Oh, come on!" Bella said incredulously. "You're going to make me wait a week to give me a new gun?" Bella complained. I could hear Becca chuckle, and I rolled my eyes.
"I was going to say that you still have your pain receptors and everything else completely altered, sacrificing an organ will hurt like hell right now." I explained dryly, and Bella stopped before she could even grimace.
"Good point," Bella pouted. "Still, I'm annoyed at you showing me the gun and making me wait," she complained. I rolled my eyes.
"Don't be such a crybaby, it's only a week." I teased her as I leaned in and kissed her gently. Bella groaned against my lips. "Or... I could buy it and try it myself." I said with a mocking smile. Bella pushed me away and glared at me indignantly.
"Don't you dare." Bella hissed, and I burst out laughing. "I'll get my revenge for this, mark my words." Bella growled with a pout.
"I wouldn't deny it, but we have better things to do now, like going to the dungeon." I said with a wide smile.
"Finally!" Rebecca exclaimed as she excitedly extended both hands.
A/N: If you liked the story, join my patreon, patreon.com/Camellya_Addams, there are up to 10 chapters in advance, thank you. Or you can also visit my Ko-Fi, ko-fi.com/camellya_addams.