Chapter 53: Fire and Water Are Merciless
As the saying goes, water and fire are merciless—such is the evident power of a flood.
Except for that group of eccentrics, the ancient Egyptians, floods have always been regarded as symbols of destruction since ancient times.
This was also the first time Hikigaya used the power he inherited from Osiris with full strength.
Although Osiris was a pervert who liked to show off in skirts, he truly was a flood specialist—the floods he conjured could submerge an entire nation. Even the ocean would retreat before such power.
Waves of water, bright and white, surged from the canyon behind Voban.
Its target was the entire valley.
Hikigaya stood still, simply watching Voban. Voban, like him, made no move.
"Osiris's flood, huh?" Voban looked at the seemingly slow yet rapidly approaching torrent and said, "You're managing it quite well. But is it okay, revealing your trump card this early?"
"That's why I need to see your trump card, senpai," Hikigaya smiled.
Even he now felt that battles between god slayers were incredibly willful. Everyone else fights desperately for every second, but they had the leisure to chat.
Still, he was quite curious about how Voban would deal with the flood.
Even among large-scale area-of-effect attacks, floods were a troublesome kind. Though their method of attack was straightforward, in terms of sheer destructive power from the front, they had no flaws. Directly countering such power was extremely difficult. When Osiris had unleashed a flood before, Hikigaya had been sent spinning—if it weren't for the Beast of Set, he would've been finished.
"What a mischievous kid. Fine then, let me deal with this first, then I'll play with you."
Voban chuckled. His werewolf form began to fade, and soon he returned to his human appearance.
However…
Wasn't it supposed to be like in anime and novels, where the clothes magically stayed intact?
Holy crap, my poor eyes!
While Hikigaya began to mourn the purity of his own eyes, the raging flood finally arrived.
The force of the flood made the earth tremble. Intense mist and powerful gusts blew in, and the ground began to soften.
This was no ordinary water. It was created by divine authority, capable of weakening and softening rock and earth.
But at this moment, Voban released a tremendous heat—no less than when Hikigaya wielded his power of combustion.
"Kid, I told you you're a lot like me. So as a return gift, let me show you my flames."
Voban turned around to face the flood directly, but even amid the roaring waters, his voice reached Hikigaya clearly.
"There's nothing in this world I can't burn."
As he spoke, flames burst from beneath his feet.
"Holy crap!" Hikigaya jumped up, because just then, flames erupted from beneath his own feet too.
He could feel it—these flames were different from his own.
Hikigaya's flames were a manifestation of the power of combustion; aside from spreading burning energy, they didn't have anything special.
But Voban's fire gave off a dangerous feeling.
As Hikigaya leapt into the air, more flames erupted from the ground.
Everything on the land was burning—and this was only the beginning.
The sky began to change as well.
Above the rushing flood, the sky turned crimson. At some unknown time, fire clouds had spread across the heavens.
When the first fireball detached from the cloud, more fireballs followed in quick succession, descending from the sky.
They landed in the water but did not extinguish—instead, they burned atop it, creating clouds of white steam.
It looked like the end of the world.
Still in mid-air, Hikigaya was also attacked—one fireball howled toward him.
Without hesitation, he struck with a punch, exploding the fireball into fragments.
But that increased his falling speed, and soon he plunged into the sea of fire.
The moment he fell into the inferno, his clothes burned away, and pain surged through his skin as the fire invaded his body.
Even though the power of light within him quickly expelled the fire…
It hurt like hell!
These flames could absolutely harm—even kill—gods!
Still, if Voban's fire wasn't ordinary, neither was his water!
The flood continued to rage. Although flames burned on its surface, evaporating water constantly, it couldn't be wiped out so easily.
Hikigaya knew he needed more floodwaters.
Water and fire are incompatible—this isn't just about divine authority. The gods are also part of this world, so their powers still follow natural laws. The relationship between water and fire is one of them.
"Water, come!" Hikigaya roared.
Immediately, the flames entwining him extinguished, dense mist burst from his body, and the scorched land beneath his feet began to hiss. Areas that had spewed flames now grew moist, and the fire weakened rapidly.
Next moment, a white wave burst from the sea of flames, scattering the surrounding fire.
"Still planning to use that move, huh?" Voban looked at Hikigaya with no intention of stopping him.
Flames rose again from his body, his entire form becoming fire-like.
"My flames can burn even gods. If I wanted, I could incinerate this entire country. A little flood won't be enough to stop it."
"That's not necessarily true." Hikigaya was no longer in the slightest bit disheveled. Water flowed around him, and more water surged from the land beneath him, gradually lifting him higher.
"Heh, then let's try. You can't change the nature of your body yet, can you? In a fight like this, that's a big disadvantage."
The two of them stopped talking and began fully unleashing their divine powers.
Under these two forces, the canyon became a battlefield of raging water and fire.
The land exploded countless times, mountain peaks were reshaped again and again, and the two fighters constantly changed positions.
Hikigaya summoned endless floods from the ground, while Voban turned them all into rising white mist. Eventually, the whole area was covered in fog—white and thick—nothing could be seen.
Then, Voban began summoning storms and lightning to ravage the land further.
Hikigaya wasn't to be outdone. He created a sun that absorbed large amounts of flame, then split the earth open and used floods to repeatedly smash Voban into it.
As their powers grew, the effects of their battle spread beyond the canyon.
Finally, the two drew closer and closer. When they could see each other again, Voban transformed back into his werewolf form, and Hikigaya's body glowed with the light of life.
The two figures collided with immense force.
The canyon could no longer contain the power of two god slayers—flood, fire, and earth exploded together, forming a massive mushroom cloud on the spot.