Welcome to a brand new fanfic of mine! I know I said that I wouldn't post new stories, but firstly, I needed to get this one out of my head before I went crazy, and two, having to write Dragonberry Chronicles and Black Joker consecutively is not productive to me, since at this point in both stories, they're extremely similar to each other, so this one will be updated between Dragonberry Chronicles and Black Joker.

Unlimited Fafnir is a new section recently added, and while the anime was mediocre at best, I really enjoyed the light novel.

Campione may seem like a strange series to crossover Unlimited Fafnir with, but I find myself liking the idea.

I have never believed that I would be able to write on the same level as masters like gabriel blessing, Daneel Rush, or Marcus Galen Sands, but this idea intrigues me greatly, and I intend to do it justice.

By the way, I have likely completely and utterly butchered Archaic English in this chapter, and will probably continue to do so in future chapters as well unless I find a reliable source, so if you cringe at the sight of it, don't say I didn't warn you.

On with the story!

23 years ago, without any warning, an unprecedented, unidentified giant of a monster appeared in the sky above Japan.

With its mere passage, it wreaked untold levels of destruction and calamities.

Every country in the world attempted to fight back against it, but with its supernatural ability to create anything out of seemingly nothing, it easily neutralized any attack that humanity threw at it.

As though in sheer mockery of humanity's attempts to fight it, the monster leisurely traveled around the globe once before vanishing without a trace.

It would later be given the designation 'Black Vritra', the first of 7 colossal beings that came to be identified with the moniker 'Dragons'.

Named after the legendary creature spoken of in Hindu scriptures, it was soon after Black Vritra's disappearance that humans bearing the same power that Black Vritra was found to possess, Dark Matter Generation, began to be born one after another in countries that Black Vritra had passed through. These humans, possessing powers beyond normal humans, would come to be known as Type-Dragons, or commonly, Ds.

Possessing the power to create anything they could imagine, Ds were highly sought after commodities that several small-scale wars almost broke out over.

However, such conflicts were abruptly brought to an end when six other colossal beings appeared around the world.

Six more Dragons, each possessing a different, but no less dangerous ability than Black Vritra, bringing the total number to 7.

Black Vritra, possessing the form of a classic western Dragon with black scales, standing at easily at 200 meters tall. Its ability was what is now known today as Dark Matter Generation. It had vanished from the face of the earth, never seen again since its first appearance.

Green Yggdrasil, possessing the form of a giant tree over 500 meters tall. The true nature of its ability was still unknown, but all weapons that ran on electricity failed to work against it once they entered anywhere near a 1km radius of the Green Dragon. Initially appearing in a Norwegian mountain range, it had moved and currently stood on the border between Germany and Denmark. It did not attack humans as long as humans kept away from it, and was thus deemed one of the less troublesome Dragons to deal with.

Red Basilisk, possessing the form of a giant, red diamond-scaled lizard, with a body length of over 100 meters. Like Yggdrasil, the true nature of its ability was still unknown, but it was capable of firing red lasers from its eyes that could turn anything it came into contact with into ash, dust or salt. It currently lay dormant in the Sahara Desert, not showing any signs of aggression towards humans unless they entered its territory, much like Yggdrasil.

Yellow Hraesvelgr, possessing the form of a giant golden avian with a blurred outline. It was the smallest of the 7 Dragons with a body length of only 10 meters, but it was considered to be the most dangerous of the Dragons, due to its unknown ability that prevented any attack, physical or energy-based, from interfering with its body. It was currently travelling in the air above the world's surface, posing a threat to any form of air travel unlucky enough to cross paths with it. It also had a penchant for appearing in war torn countries before leaving after a short while.

Blue Hekatonkheir, possessing the form of a blue giant without any facial features except for a single upward-facing horn. It was easily the biggest of the 7 Dragons, so massive that its horned, featureless head was almost always obscured by overhead clouds. It did not possess any offensive capability other than what was granted to it by its sheer size, but it could not be killed. As fragile as it was, being affected by virtually any weapon, it simply regenerated instantly, making it one of the most dangerous Dragons, second only to the Hraesvelgr, earning the moniker 'Undead'. It did not have a fixed habitat, and simply wandered around the world like Vritra had before, wreaking havoc with nothing more than the magnitude of its size.

White Leviathan, possessing the form of a colossal white whale-like creature with a horn, around the same size as the Basilisk in body length. Its ability was fairly simple, but powerful. Antigravity, the ability to repel any and all things with a repulsion field that surrounded its body. Simply by adjusting the strength of the field, it could defend itself from both physical and energy attacks. It travelled the world through the oceans, causing many sea disasters.

And finally, Purple Kraken, possessing the form of a squid-like creature with only an eye for a main body, around 100 meters in length. Its ability was called Absolute, owing to its offensive and defensive capabilities. Its tentacles were made of mithril, the current hardest substance known to mankind, and thus able to weather basically any kind of attack except one, the Kraken's offensive power, antimatter, which would cause a powerful annihilation reaction when it came in contact with all forms of matter, resulting in a massive explosion. Like the Leviathan, it travelled the world through the oceans, though it was known to come onto shore on occasion, making it an instigator of both land and sea disasters. Coincidentally, or perhaps out of an instinctual awareness of each other's location and a desire to avoid the other, the Leviathan and the Kraken never seemed to come in contact with each other.

However, these 7 monstrous creatures were only part of the reason why mankind had stopped all conflict with each other in favor of cooperation.

The other part came from the beings that arose shortly after Black Vritra vanished.

The first of them appeared in the famous city of Athens in Greece. Without any warning, a monster appeared.

It possessed the appearance of a man with red hair, a tall and muscular build, and dressed in Greek armor. If his appearance were limited to just that, he could be considered an ordinary, if eccentric human. Even his height of 2 meters, while rare in Greece, was not outside of the realm of human comprehension.

But, that thing could not possibly be a human. It could only be a monster. It possessed orbs of red flames for eyes, a flaming plume atop its helmet, a spear with red stained metal, and a nearly tangible aura that screamed of war, conflict, hate, anger, bloodlust, and deathdeathdeathDeathDeathDeathDEATHDEATHDEATH!

With a maniacal laugh, and a thrust of its spear, an entire section of Athens fell to ruin, obliterated by an unseen force that did a good job of pulverizing anyone unlucky enough to be in its range of effect. The once glorious city crumbled amidst flames and bloodshed.

Any attempts to fight it were curtailed by an unbelievable occurrence. Anyone sent to fight that thing suddenly flew into a frenzy, attacking anyone in sight, even their own comrades. Even the civilians who had yet to escape found themselves maddened with insatiable bloodlust, destroying all things in sight.

It could only be describe as a scene from Hell itself, far more terrifying than any mayhem the Dragons had caused.

And in the middle of that carnage, that creature sat upon a throne of mangled corpses, delighting in the madness it had wrought.

It declared its name to be Ares, and then vanished, leaving behind only the devastated city of Athens as proof of its existence.

The world fell into a panic once more. What was that creature? Was it another Dragon? But, could a Dragon possess such a humanlike appearance?

Answers came in the most unexpected of forms. A group of men, old, young and of a mixture of races, barged into the emergency meeting called by the what was known then as the UN, proclaiming that being to be a what they called a Heretic God.

Then came a revelation that the world had not been ready for, even with the appearance of the Dragons and the so-called Heretic God.

Magic existed. Users no longer existed in abundance like they used to in earlier ages, but there still existed societies in virtually every part of the world.

The world leaders were about to laugh and sneer them out of the meeting room when they nearly received simultaneous heart attacks in the form of a rudimentary flight spell.

Once the ruckus had died down, the mages began to explain the beings known as Heretic Gods. Beings created by the faith and beliefs of humanity, stemming from the earliest ancestors of modern mankind. Their world and the world beyond, the one of myths, gave form to these beliefs and created the Gods and other legendary beings. However, on occasion, those beings rebelled against their own legend and chose to descend to the mortal plane, bringing disasters with them.

A God of the Sea would bring floods, a God of the Sun would bring drought and famines, a God of Darkness would enshroud the world in night, and so on.

The one that had laid waste to Athens was indeed Heretic God Ares, the Greek God of War, and with him, he had brought war and bloodshed.

He had vanished for the time being, but he could reemerge and any moment and bring with him more chaos.

As for why no one had noticed Heretic Gods up until that point, it was due to the veil that separated the mystic world from the mundane, causing normal humans to perceive Heretic God emergences as nothing more than natural disasters.

However, that veil had been destroyed, by what the mages theorized to be the otherworldly energy that the Dragons had released into the world, shredding the veil that separated the mystic from the mundane to tiny pieces, causing the mundane to be able to perceive the mystic world.

It was due to that that the magic users of the world chose to reveal themselves. After all, what was the point in hiding when the only thing that had been keeping them a complete secret from the mundane was now gone?

That brought up a question in many minds. Just how many natural disasters had actually been Heretic Gods, and how many of them were still walking the mortal plane?

Then came a proclamation that caused the world to protest and despair.

Humans could not defeat Heretic Gods. That was a truth of the world, and nothing could change it.

The powers of Heretic Gods were not dependent on human worship and belief. The only things that affected were the nature of a Heretic God and their appearance.

Their power was dependent solely on one thing: the Heretic God's own will.

If an egotistical Heretic God believed that he was absolutely and irrevocably the strongest, they would possess power that befitted that belief, power far beyond human comprehension. There was simply no way for humanity to defend against Heretic Gods if they chose to attack. It was like trying to throwing a mug of water to fight a wildfire.

Then came a glimmer of hope in the tides of despair.

Very rarely, likely only once every few decades, an exceptional human would appear and bring about a miracle capable of circumventing that truth. They managed to slay Heretic Gods, and though a ritual cast by another Heretic God, Pandora the Witch, they usurped the slain Gods' powers, known as Authorities, becoming God Slayers, or as they were known as in the modern age, Campione.

However, that hope was tiny at best. Campione, despite being God Slayers, were not immortal themselves, and could very much be killed like any human. It was simply much more difficult to do so.

Heretic Gods were not the prey of Campione. They were mutual predators and prey. Heretic Gods could kill Campione, Campione could kill Heretic Gods, Campione could kill Campione, and Heretic Gods could kill Heretic Gods.

That was why despite many Campione emerging from the dawn of men, there were only 3 alive at the time.

The First Campione, Marquis Sasha Dejanstahl Voban, a Hungarian man in his 400s, middle-aged in appearance. He slew his first Heretic God at the ripe age of 16, and had only continued to grow in power and experience alongside age since then.

The Second Campione, Luo Cuilian, or Luo Hao, known as the Ruler of the Martial Realm, the foremost martial arts master in the world. She was at least 200 years old, possessing the appearance of a young Chinese woman. However, she had secluded herself in China's mountains along with her martial arts cult, and had not been seen in a while.

The Third Campione, Madame Aisha of India, the Eternal Beauty. She was the most mysterious of the three Campione, not having been seen since she first became a Campione, to the point where some actually doubted her existence.

The other reason why Campione were not considered a perfect counter to Heretic Gods was because of their personalities.

To put it bluntly, all of the Campione had a screw loose somewhere in their heads.

Voban refused to leave his castle for anything less than a King-Class Heretic God, and Luo Hao only sought strong Heretic Gods as opponents.

Madame Aisha was a non-factor, since no one knew where she was.

They were all content to allow the world to burn if they did not feel like fighting.

The world was warned that any and all attempts to control Campione were doomed to end in failure. The last time any human had been foolish enough to attempt to manipulate a Campione, the city of Pompeii was wiped out by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

And the three Campione were considered mild. Many Campione in the past became tyrants, ravaging the world for their own entertainment, earning them the title 'Rakshasa Raja', or Devil Kings.

That quickly put a damper in any plans the world leaders had been cooking up to control the three, or rather, two Campione.

Since that day, the world changed.

In the 23 years that passed since the appearance of the Dragons and Heretic Gods, several events occurred.

The UN disbanded and reformed into a new organization with the leading magic associations of the world: Asgard, an international organization dedicated to mitigating the disasters brought by Dragons and Heretic Gods alike by researching them.

They then created a smaller organization known as NIFL, composed of both mundane and magical personnel, in charge of research and development of weaponry to fight against Dragons and Heretic Gods, though obviously, they had failed to achieve that purpose and were delegated the role of cleanup crew by the rest of the world.

Ds around the world were rounded up and shipped off to an island near the equator known as Midgard, which was basically a prison for them to be detained and observed, though recently, the Ds had argued for their human rights, allowing Midgard autonomy while under Asgard's supervision.

Several more Heretic Gods emerged and wreaked havoc on the world before disappearing, in addition to frequent Dragon disasters by Blue Hekatonkheir, White Leviathan and Purple Kraken.

Humanity tried. They truly did, but not a single weapon mankind had was capable of scratching a Heretic God. Even the one time Germany had been desperate enough to throw a hydrogen bomb at Heretic God Siegfried had failed spectacularly, resulting in only an utterly unscathed Heretic God standing in the middle of a ravaged region of the country that was now uninhabitable thanks to the radiation.

And finally, three more Campione were born.

The Fourth Campione and the first Campione of the modern age, Alexander Gascoigne of Britain, known as the Black Prince Alec. He was a dark-skinned young man, a young magician who became a Campione at the age of 16, 10 years ago, after slaying the Fallen Angel Heretic God, Ramiel.

The Fifth Campione, John Pluto Smith, obviously not his real name, of USA, the guardian of Los Angeles. He was strange even by Campione standards, because he dressed up like a superhero, complete with an insectoid mask to protect his identity. He was assumed to be a young man, slaying the Heretic God Tezcatlipoca 8 years ago.

The Sixth Campione, Lord Salvatore Doni of Italy, known as the King of Swords. He was a 22 year old blonde Italian man, a magic swordsman, with a slightly muscular build, slaying the Irish Heretic God Nuadha just 2 years ago.

Though three more Campione were born, each originating from modern times and thus knowing the crisis the world faced better than the old generation, negotiations with them still failed. They were simply too willful.

Black Prince Alec preferred to do his own thing, even starting his own magic association, Royal Arsenal, to oppose the elite magic association of Britain, the Witenagemot.

John Pluto Smith cared only for the safety of Los Angeles, rarely leaving its boundaries unless an opponent he was fighting had escaped.

Salvatore Doni was, simply put, an idiot, and that was not an insult, but a statement of a fact. He was mentally retarded, though perhaps not obviously, and was only good at swordsmanship, not having any aptitude for magic at all before becoming a Campione.

In the end, there was no Campione willing to aid Asgard in fighting the Dragons and Heretic Gods.

Then came the Seventh Campione.

This is his story, a story of a boy, trained to kill humans, and instead, through a twist of fate, became a killer of Gods.

"Huff…huff…huff…"

Mononobe Yuu, a young teenage Japanese boy with blue hair and eyes, 14 years of age, and wearing military attire, panted as softly as he could as he hid in a treetop, trying to buy some time for reprieve from the monster beyond monsters hunting him.

"Where art thou, young warrior!? Surely thou hast not fled from a duel with this knight!?"

Yuu flinched at the loud voice, the voice of a monster, calling for him.

How had the situation degenerated so quickly?

"Gee, let me think…" Yuu thought sarcastically to himself.

Just one year ago, if anyone told him that he would be a soldier in NIFL, the captain of a special ops force, in the middle of a forest in Spain, facing down a Heretic God, a beyond monstrous being he had no hope of defeating, to buy time for his men and the hostages they had rescued to escape, he would have laughed in their faces and asked what they were smoking in their free time.

But, a lot could change in the span of just one year.

A few months ago, Mononobe Yuu had been a fairly ordinary boy.

He was born and raised in Nanato City, an inland mountain town near Tokyo.

He was the son of Mononobe Kai, an office worker, and Mononobe Yoshimi, a housewife.

He was the older brother of Mononobe Mitsuki, formerly Tachibana Mitsuki, his adopted little sister and childhood friend, and also self-proclaimed fiancée, not that he actually minded.

Her parents had died in a car crash when they, Yuu and Mitsuki were going camping 8 years ago.

They had died instantly on impact, but Yuu and Mitsuki survived, because at the time of the accident, they awakened their powers as Ds.

That's what made Yuu slightly out of the ordinary. All Ds were girls as far as the world knew, thus he was the first male D.

He and Mitsuki had been keeping their identities as Ds a secret so that they wouldn't be sent to Midgard. Thus, only their parents knew.

That came to an end when just a few months ago, Blue Hekatonkheir attacked their town.

With its sheer immensity, it easily crushed the small town with its simple passage.

Most of the residents evacuated with the help of NIFL, but Mitsuki stayed behind to fight the Blue Dragon with her dark matter, unwilling to let the town be destroyed.

Seeing his little sister's desperation, Yuu wished that he had the power to dispel her sorrow.

That's when he met it.

The Green Dragon, Green Yggdrasil.

It appeared to him in the form of a small green sprout growing out of a crack in the ground.

It offered him a deal: the power to defeat the Hekatonkheir in exchange for his memories.

He asked why it was trying to kill its fellow Dragons, but it simply replied that the other Dragons were no longer needed, and were obsolete, followed by some things he did not understand.

Of course, one would have to be crazy to even consider brokering a deal with one of the monsters threatening humanity, but Yuu couldn't care less about that. He just wanted to destroy what was causing his little sister distress.

He accepted the deal, a deal that he had kept secret, and Yggdrasil began transmitting data to him. The sheer volume of the data Yggdrasil was trying to impart to him almost completely destroyed the personality known as Mononobe Yuu.

Even when he terminated the connection, cutting the influx of data, he had already lost a great deal of his memories.

In fact, the only memories he had retained were those pertaining to Mitsuki. He could not even remember the names or faces of his own parents.

However, in return, Yggdrasil had imparted an unexpected power to him: information, or more specifically, weapon data, a weapon called Marduk.

He immediately knew what he had to do. He had to create that weapon using dark matter.

However, his dark matter generating capacity was severely lacking compared to other Ds. There was no way he would be able to produce enough dark matter to create that weapon.

Not by himself, anyway.

So, he borrowed Mitsuki's dark matter and created a massive silver cannon that shot a blast of blue flames, instantly engulfing the titanic Blue Dragon, completely erasing it in one shot.

Such a feat did not go unnoticed by the NIFL troops, who came to investigate the source of the attack that had annihilated a Dragon in a single blow.

To prevent Mitsuki from being discovered as a D, Yuu offered himself up, using dark matter generation to prove that he was a D and claiming to be the one who had destroyed Hekatonkheir.

He was immediately taken in custody by NIFL, loaded into the back of one of their vehicles. The last thing he saw before losing consciousness, partly due to the strain of creating such a massive weapon, and partly due to the sedative the NIFL soldiers had injected into him, was Mitsuki crying out for him as the vehicle sped away.

When he came to, he realized he wasn't in Midgard, even in his drowsy state.

He was fairly certain that Midgard did not welcome its students by gagging them, chaining them and then throwing them into a cell.

It was a few hours later that a certain man arrived.

His name was Loki Jotunheim, a Major in NIFL.

He had taken an interest in Yuu for defeating the Hekatonkheir and used forceful means to get him under his command.

From then on, Yuu was trained as a soldier of NIFL, but more importantly, as Loki's perfect killing machine.

Learning refined fighting techniques from both Loki and another soldier called Hreidmar, and developing a pseudo-personality called Fafnir, an existence created to kill humans, Yuu was quickly made the captain of Loki's special ops squad, Sleipnir, composed of 8 other similar-aged boys like him.

They were sent to many locations where Dragons and Heretic Gods had passed through, quelling conflicts that had erupted and often coming into conflicts with Dragon and Heretic God worshippers, who were designated terrorists.

Up to this point, Yuu had never taken a single human life. Not because he was too weak to. Quite the opposite actually. Loki had made him so strong that he could choose to spare or kill enemy combatants on a whim. Wishing to retain what was left of the personality known as Mononobe Yuu, Mitsuki's older brother, he never allowed himself to take a life.

It never seemed to bother Loki, who would always smile on congratulate him on a job well done.

This was supposed to be just another routine mission too.

A mafia cell had taken control of a town in Spain, and was rumored to have connections to the Sons of Muspell, the largest organization of Dragon worshippers, led by a D, Kili Surtr Muspelheim.

They were tasked with taking them out and rescuing any hostages they may have taken.

The mission had initially gone off without a hitch. Sleipnir easily crushed the mafia cell, and they had rescued the hostages, a little girl with pink hair and her parents.

It was when they were about to take the mafia cell into custody that things began to go horribly wrong.

How were they supposed to know that one of the members of the cell was a mage?

By the time they had realized, it was already too late.

The mad sorcerer had already completed his ritual, and a terrible monster appeared.

The monster bore the appearance of a young British man with blond hair and green eyes, clad in whitish-silver armor, wielding a western sword in his hand.

If there were such a thing as a perfect human, in terms of appearance, Yuu felt that this thing would be the closest to claiming that title, even though it was about the furthest thing from human possible.

The monster released a horrible aura, heating up the entire area, making Yuu feel like he was standing directly under an overhead midday sun instead of the late afternoon that it was right now.

Yuu immediately realized what the man was.

A Heretic God, a monster beyond monsters.

The sorcerer attempted to command the Heretic God to attack them…and was turned to ashes with a single strike of the knight's sword for his trouble.

The monster in the guise of a human-like appearance then turned his attention to them.

Yuu felt a terrible shiver run up and down his spine, and Fafnir screaming at him to run, to get away from this predator.

But, he couldn't. He had to get his men and the hostages out first.

He immediately ordered Sleipnir to take the hostages and escape to the rendezvous point where Loki was waiting for them.

They had initially protested, but they knew that even together, they stood no chance against a monster like this.

So, they had reluctantly escaped, leaving Yuu alone to face the monster.

The Heretic God took one look at him and shook his head.

"Thou shouldst depart, young one. This knight hast no interest in taking the life of a youngling."

That was what the monster had said, in a lyrical voice that projected its immense charisma, and Yuu actually found himself wanting to obey,

But, Yuu held firm and refused to comply.

After all, if this thing was let loose, who knew how many people would die this time?

"Hm, very well then. I shall regard thee as a warrior. Let us duel honorably to the death!" The Heretic God said with a smile, not looking at all offended that a mere human was opposing it.

In fact, it had even looked a bit pleased.

That was basically the reason why Yuu was on the run. He didn't need to be a genius to know that getting hit once by a Heretic God would kill him instantaneously.

The Heretic God possessed speed far beyond human comprehension. It was only due to his training and instincts that Yuu was able to barely avoid its attacks that set the area ablaze.

He made a few attempts to attack it just to try his luck, but not only did any bullets he fired and any knifes he threw fail to pierce the monster's armor, they all melted from the sheer heat the monster was emitting the moment they made contact.

His only option was to run. Run and hide.

Run, hide and improvise.

He was still working on the improvisation part.

At least he managed to successfully lure him into the forest in the opposite direction to where his men and the hostages had escaped, and was now hiding in the treetops in an attempt to buy time for himself.

However, he couldn't stay like this for long.

Heretic Gods were unpredictable at best. His patience was probably wearing thinner and thinner with every passing moment, and he could forgo him and go after his men instead if it ran out.

With a heavy sigh, and a distinct lack of a solid plan, Yuu leapt down from the treetops with the anti-armor pistol, possessing an elongated barrel, Enlil.

He was unaware of the change taking place within him.

Mononobe Mitsuki, a beautiful girl with snow white skin, short black hair and blue eyes, sighed for the umpteenth time since she got to Midgard.

Her brother had offered himself up to NIFL to prevent her from being found out as a D and being shipped off to this place.

Because it was her wish. She did not want to come to Midgard, and she had made that very clear when they awakened their abilities as Ds.

After her brother was taken from her, she continued to live her peaceful days as a normal human being, but those days felt empty, meaningless.

It was only a while later that she realized why. Because Yuu, her beloved adoptive older brother and proclaimed fiancé was not there by her side.

It hadn't been the town she wished to protect when she made the decision to fight the Hekatonkheir. What she wanted to protect was the life she shared with the person she loved most in the world.

But, it was already too late by the time she had realized that. Yuu was gone.

So, she wanted to go to his side.

After speaking with her adoptive parents, she outed herself as a D and was immediately shipped off to Midgard.

But…Yuu wasn't there. No one had even heard of him, and anyone she asked, including members of faculty, were more than a little skeptical about the existence of a male D.

She had screwed up again. Not only did she fail to find Yuu, she rendered the sacrifice he made for her meaningless.

Swallowed by her guilt and self-loathing, she began her days as a resident/student of Midgard listlessly.

She was assigned to the Brunhilde Class, one of the 9 classes in Midgard, with the class student number 3, the 3rd student to enter that class, behind student number 1, Lisa Highwalker, a blonde European girl with reddish-purple eyes, and an uncommonly well-endowed chest, to the modestly proportioned Mitsuki's dismay, the heiress of the Highwalker Group which possessed close ties to Asgard, and student number 2, Firill Crest, a bibliophilic girl with short purplish-silver hair and hazel eyes who was never seen without a book in her hands, the third princess of the Principality of Erlia, which had fought for the human rights of Ds.

They tried to make her feel welcome, but the sense of loss she experienced worked against that, and ended up having little effect on her.

Then, she arrived in Midgard. Brunhilde Class, student number 4, Shinomiya Miyako, the little sister of Shinomiya Haruka, the current student council president and the captain of Midgard's Dragon Subjugation Squad.

There obviously wasn't a Heretic God Subjugation Squad. Not only were Heretic God attacks fairly rare in comparison to Dragon attacks, there was simply no way for humans to win against Heretic Gods, just as the magic users had claimed, not even Ds. There were just too many, and their abilities too diverse.

After all, Ds could only create what was within the limits of their imagination, and unfortunately, there was still not a weapon in the world that humans could conceive that was capable of killing a Heretic God.

It might have been possible if the Authorities of Heretic Gods and Campione could be created, but being the powers of Gods, they existed far outside the limits of human imagination.

So, Midgard focused their efforts on doing what could actually be done. Fighting Dragons.

Dragons possessed powerful abilities, but it wasn't like it was completely hopeless like it was in the case with Heretic Gods.

Several attempts made to kill the Leviathan had proven that its Antigravity field was not absolute and had openings that could be taken advantage of.

The Basilisk, Kraken and Yggdrasil could all theoretically be defeated, since they didn't possess overwhelming defenses. The Basilisk's diamond scales could be destroyed by mithril, the Kraken's mithril tentacles could be destroyed by high enough temperatures, though ones that humans could not yet successfully replicate outside of a laboratory, and if a strong enough analog weapon were created, Yggdrasil's wooden body could be destroyed.

The only truly troublesome ones were Hekatonkheir, who simply regenerated no matter how badly it was damaged, like it did even after Yuu had completely destroyed it with his attack, albeit taking months to do so, and the Hraesvelgr, which the strongest attacks that humanity could throw at it failed to interact with.

So, instead of focusing on a completely hopeless situation, they chose to make the best out of what they could do.

Back to the topic on Shinomiya Miyako, to put it bluntly, Mitsuki felt overwhelmed when she first met her.

Physically, she was certainly beautiful, a Yamato Nadeshiko, with her shoulder length black hair, hazel eyes and heart-shaped face, but more than just her surface appearance, it was her magnificent aura that really amazed Mitsuki.

Miyako was the first person in Midgard that Mitsuki ever opened up to, and soon, they became best friends and roommates. Unlike everyone else, Miyako never doubted Yuu's existence as a male D. To her, it was simple. If Mitsuki said it was true, then it must be true.

It was through Miyako that Mitsuki eventually befriended their two other classmates.

It wasn't just in her social life that Miyako had proven to be a boon. In academics too, it was because of Miyako that Mitsuki found herself improving quickly.

It wasn't because Miyako tutored her or anything. It was because of one simple thing: Miyako was superior to her in basically every aspect of their education in Midgard, whether it was pure academics or dark matter control.

And because Mitsuki's competitive nature could not let that go, she strived to improve herself to become equal to, or even surpass Miyako.

She had yet to achieve that, but she was progressing quickly, to the point where she was able to join the rest of Brunhilde Class as members of the Dragon Subjugation Squad.

Just like that, her days in Midgard became brighter, and Mitsuki found herself enjoying them immensely, so much so that she was able to put aside her homesickness.

However, it was still a fact that the most integral part of her life was gone, and that was the cause of her current melancholy.

"Mitsuki?"

Ah, and there was aforementioned best friend right now.

"Miyako…" Mitsuki greeted her friend with a smile, but even she could tell that it was halfhearted.

"…Still thinking about your brother, huh?"

As expected of her best friend, Miyako easily deduced what was causing Mitsuki's depression.

"…Mm."

"Hm…I'm almost jealous, you know? Your brother is so important to you that you can barely function without him. You damn brocon, you!" Miyako teased her best friend with an impish smile.

"Miyako~!" Mitsuki whined in protest.

"Hahaha! I'm kidding, I'm kidding! Come on, let's go get lunch! Unless of course, you want to go through practical class on an empty stomach." Miyako smiled as she gently pulled Mitsuki by her hand.

"…Okay."

The two of them walked towards the cafeteria, talking about various topics relating to Ds, though Mitsuki's thoughts were more on her missing brother than anything else.

They paused when they reached the cafeteria.

The mood…was very heavy, and a lot of students were talking feverishly among each other as they gathered around the televisions placed around the cafeteria.

Each of the televisions were tuned in to different news channels, but each seemed to be reporting the same story.

"What's going on?" Miyako asked.

"I'm…not sure…" Mitsuki replied.

When the mood was like this and all of the news channels reported the same story, it could only be because of one of two reasons, or both.

First, a Dragon attack had occurred.

And the second…

"Mitsuki-san, Miyako-san!"

The two best friends turned to see their classmates, Lisa Highwalker and Firill Crest, hurrying towards them.

"Hey, what's going on?" Miyako asked Lisa, the older sister figure of the Brunhilde Class.

"A Heretic God has emerged in Spain!"

So, that was it after all.

Mitsuki shivered at the thought of those monsters.

The Blue Hekatonkheir had already terrified her enough with its sheer size and undying nature.

Just how monstrous did Heretic Gods have to be that Asgard thought of them as the greater danger?

"And there is someone fighting it!"

"Eh!?"

Now that was a shocker.

When a Heretic God attacked, the universally accepted response, even for members of NIFL, was to run like the hounds of Hell were on their tail.

Only the most stupidly courageous, arrogant or desperate of humans would choose to fight a Heretic God if they knew that was what it was.

"Who is it!?"

"Some boy that no one seems to know. But, whoever it is, he appears to be a member of NIFL."

The four members of the Brunhilde Class walked over to the least crowded of the televisions to watch the live footage being shot from afar by NIFL.

The area was on fire. That was all that could be described of the scene, because the features of the area were so heavily covered in flames that nothing else could be seen.

And they appeared to be spreading in a single direction.

The camera panned to see a part of the area, revealed to be a forest, that had yet to fall victim to the flames.

The camera zoomed in, and they caught sight of the Heretic God.

It took the form of an inhumanely handsome blonde man wearing white knight armor, wielding an ornate, flaming western sword in his right hand.

With a single swing of that sword, another section of the forest caught fire, lighting the area up like a collection of hellish Christmas trees.

Then, they caught sight of the boy purportedly fighting the Heretic God, a suicidal feat.

"Eh?"

The moment Mitsuki laid eyes on the boy desperately avoiding the Heretic God's movements while firing bullets, which instantly melted when they touched the monster, from a handgun, she let out a sound of utter shock.

"Mitsuki?" Miyako asked, her voice teeming with concern.

But, Mitsuki did not register her best friend's voice. Her attention was now completely focused on the boy.

The boy with a very familiar shade of blue hair and blue eyes.

He had grown taller and a bit more muscular since she last saw him, but there was no doubt as to his identity.

"Nii…-san…?" Mitsuki muttered, her mind black with shock.

The other three members of the Brunhilde Class turned to stare at her.

"Eh? That's…your brother? Mitsuki, are you sure?" Miyako asked.

Mitsuki nodded numbly.

Questions began to fill her head.

Why was her brother there and not here with her in Midgard?

Why was he a member of NIFL?

Why was he in Spain of all places?

And most of all, why was he fighting a Heretic God!?

But, above all of that, Mitsuki prayed fervently.

She prayed that her brother would survive.

No matter how dim that hope might be.

Yuu was not in a good situation.

He hadn't been since the Heretic God appeared.

For one, his human-hunting personality/power, Fafnir, refused to activate.

It was natural, since Fafnir only hunted humans.

This thing, despite possessing the appearance of one, was most definitely not a human.

Even so, he wished that Fafnir would activate all the same.

Once he had switched to Fafnir mode, his instincts and senses would become much sharper, and methods to fight this damn thing would come to him naturally, giving him and overall better likelihood of survival.

But, beggars couldn't be choosers. Fafnir was not activating, and Yuu would have to accept that.

He would have to make do with what he could do as he was.

But, what could a mere human do in the face of a God?

It was then that he noticed that said God had stopped in his assault, and was currently scratching his chin with a dissatisfied expression on his face.

"Hmm…This is not good. Tis difficult to feel satisfied when mine opponent only runs. Young warrior, thou hast challenged this knight to a duel, yet thou choose to run?" The Heretic God asked him with a half-offended, half-quizzical look on his face.

If Yuu weren't certain that he would be killed in the process, he would have wrung its neck in response to its callous words.

He was a puny human, and it was a being capable of wiping entire countries from the face of the planet. What other choice did he have but to run from it?

His indignation was quickly pushed aside by overwhelming fear when the Heretic God suddenly smiled dazzlingly at him.

Why did such a radiant expression do nothing but induce terror in him?

"Ah, perhaps this knight hath not yet used enough power to excite thee. Very well, bear witness to the splendor of this blade, young warrior!" The Heretic God declared as the flames surrounding his blade suddenly grew wilder than before.

Yuu barely had the time to duck when a massive arc of flames passed directly through the space his head had just vacated, the force so great that it shattered the forested area behind him before incinerating it so thoroughly that not even ashes remained.

He gulped at the sight of the devastated landscape before turning back to look at the Heretic God, who had his sword outstretched, a wide smile on his face.

"Now then, young warrior, let us continue our duel!"

Yuu was immediately put on the defensive in the game of cat and mouse again.

However, it was on a completely different level from before. Yuu quickly found himself hard-pressed to keep dodging his attacks, and each strike of the sword came uncomfortably close to bifurcating him.

An evasive movement made just a split second too late saw his military vest catching fire as the blade nicked it, prompting Yuu to curse before creating a knife from dark matter to cut through the straps and toss it aside.

However, that action ended up becoming his downfall. Thought it had only taken one or two seconds for him to complete, it was an opening that the monster, possessing power far beyond human imagination, easily took advantage of.

Yuu suddenly found himself pinned against a tree, unable to move, with a searing sensation in his shoulder.

He looked to find the flaming sword stabbed through his shoulder into the trunk of the tree.

His mind finished processing, and a scream immediately erupted from his throat as he finally registered what it was he was feeling.

Pain.

Pain!Pain!Pain!PAIN!PAIN!SOMUCHPAIN!TOOMUCHPAIN!OHSHITHEWASGOINGTODIEFROMALLTHISPAIN!

Yuu's mind began to shut down from the sheer agony of having a divine flaming sword stabbed into his puny mortal body, even as said sword was wrenched out.

He had no strength left in his body to even stand, much less continue his futile resistance, but the Heretic God paid that no mind and brought down his sword across Yuu's torso, lacerating him deeply from his left shoulder to his right hip.

If the pain he had already been experiencing was agony, then the pain he now experienced could only be aptly described as hellish torture.

Yuu collapsed to the ground, unable to remain standing. No blood poured out of the gaping wound in his shoulder or the deep cut on his torso, because the sheer heat of the blade had already cauterized them.

Miraculously, or perhaps the complete opposite, Yuu was still conscious.

On one hand, he was able to validate that he was not yet dead, somehow, despite receiving two direct blows from a Heretic God.

On the other hand, he had to deal with the pain radiating from the scorched hole in his shoulder and the cut across his torso, and the fact that he was at death's door, his executioner standing right in front of him.

He couldn't even muster the strength to look up at the Heretic God.

"Hm. For a mere human youngling, thou hast done well to survive this long against I, a Knight of the Round Table." The monster in the form of a knight spoke with a sincerely impressed tone.

In his state, Yuu could only think of those words as mockery, but those thoughts were pushed aside as his mind zoomed in on the last spoken words.

…What did he say? A Knight of the Round Table?

*BA-DUMP*

Yuu felt something resonate inside of him when his addled mind registered those words, and it caused a sudden change in the palpitations of his heart for a second before returning to normal.

"As a reward for the mettle thou hast shown, this knight shall execute with mine blade. Hear mine name, youngling, for it will be the last words thou shalt hear."

*BA-DUMP* *BA-DUMP* *BA-DUMP*

The rhythm of his heartbeat changed again, becoming more frequent and powerful, as though beating in excitement, before returning to its normal pace.

"Farewell, young warrior. Know that thy death came at the hands of Sir Gawain." The Heretic God spoke as he raised his sword.

*BA-DUMP* *BA-DUMP* *BA-DUMP* *BA-DUMP* *BA-DUMP*

Yuu's mind registered the Heretic God's name at the same time that his heartbeat accelerated to dangerous levels.

However, despite the increase in blood pumping through his veins, Yuu's consciousness was still slowly fading, likely because a good number of those blood vessels had been severed and cauterized by the monster's attacks.

Until something happened, and the white fog clouding his mind vanished, to be replaced by sudden clarity.

The entire student body of Midgard, along with around half of the faculty, was stunned into silence as they witnessed a human boy being impaled by the weapon of one of the most dangerous beings in existence.

That silence was shattered abruptly by a shrill scream, causing all of them to jump in fright.

A scream that Mononobe Mitsuki had let out.

It was only natural.

She had just witnessed her loved one being cornered and struck down by a monster of monsters, and now lay unmoving on the ground as said monster stood over him.

The only conclusion was that he was dead. Dead or dying.

Unable to take the sight of her most beloved person in such a state, Mononobe Mitsuki's mind, much like her brother's hundreds of miles away, shut down, and she fainted.

"Mitsuki!" Miyako shouted in concern as she caught her best friend's unconscious form, their other two classmates rushing to help her.

She waved her hand in front of Mitsuki's face, looking for any sort of response.

Nothing. She was completely out cold.

This was not good. Being Mitsuki's best friend, Miyako was likely the only one who knew just how much her brother meant to her.

If he died, then…

Miyako looked back up at the television screen, a look of desperation on her face…

…Which quickly morphed into one of shock when she registered what was now being shown by the news channel.

*CLANG*

If Yuu looked up at that moment, he would have seen the look of unadulterated shock on Heretic God Gawain's face as the divine flaming sword he was wielding was stopped mid-swing by a dagger Yuu had created from dark matter after abruptly standing up when he should not have been able to.

It didn't look anything like the standard military knives Yuu had been throwing at it earlier. Instead of a straight metal blade, this dagger looked and felt like it had been fashioned from the fang of some large carnivorous animal.

It certainly didn't look any more durable than the knives that had melted instantly upon contact with Gawain.

Yet, it was stopping the weapon of a Heretic God. It wasn't even melting from the sheer heat Gawain was emitting, nor was it faltering in the face of the Heretic God's inhuman strength.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Yuu's hand. The skin began to bubble and liquefy due to its proximity to the heat, revealing the muscles beneath.

But, Yuu felt no pain anymore. Not from the heat blasting him from the front, not from the still smoking hole in his shoulder and the gash along his body, and not from his melting hand.

Pain had been discarded in favor of clarity beyond human limits.

Yuu felt similar to the way he did when Fafnir activated. Power flowed into his body when there should have been none left, all pain had faded away to nothing, and the world seemed to have slowed around him.

But, he knew that could not be what this was. Fafnir would only activate when faced with a human, and even the threat of impending death would not be able to bring it out otherwise.

What was this?

Yuu did not have much more time to ponder, because at that moment, information began to flow into his mind.

He saw moving images in his head.

The first was of a very muscular giant of a dark-skinned man with rough features, messy black hair and coal black eyes, completely naked, and armed with a crude stone spear and an equally crude stone sword, charging into battle against a tribe of savages.

It quickly transited to an image of a much thinner, but still muscular, man of a slightly shorter stature and light skin, with black hair and green eyes, wielding a spear, this time one that was more refined and metallic, though still more primitive than medieval age spears, and an ornate metal shield, donned in Greek armor with a red-plumed helmet, a short sword sheathed at his waist, riding a horse-drawn chariot as he led an invasion against a ruined citadel.

It changed again, this time to an image of a man who looked similar to the man in the previous image, but with smoother features, and blonde hair instead of black, dressed in ceremonial robes, wielding a shining spear with a split tip and a beautiful sword that seemed to have streams of wind curling around its blade, the sun directly behind him.

It switched once more, to the image of a man nearly identical to the one depicted in the previous, wielding a red spear with a barbed tip, radiating an aura of pure malice, a tool made for the sole purpose of killing. He also wielded the same sword that the previous man did.

Finally, one final image floated into Yuu's mind. The difference was that this one seemed to be much longer than the others. It depicted the man in the previous image, kneeling in defeat, looking up at the silhouette of another man, presumably the one who had defeated him, with an expression of awe and humbled admiration. His pose then changed to one of submission, kneeling on one knee before the other man, who knighted him with a tap each on his shoulders with a sword of indeterminate form.

The defeated man followed his defeater as a subordinate, going through many battles at his side, gaining numerous allies as they did.

Eventually, the defeated man proceeded to don the armor of a white knight, sealing away his favored spear in favor of the same type of weapon the other had used to defeat him: a sword. His features became gentler and more handsome than before, and Yuu mentally started when he realized that this man was the Heretic God he was currently fighting, Gawain.

From here on, Yuu was able to name some of the people he saw through deduction, because the Matter of Britain was so famous even Yuu knew of it, especially King Arthur's era.

As one of the Knights of the Round Table, Gawain continued to serve at his lord's side loyally, gaining victory after victory…until their harmony was shattered by two simultaneous betrayals in their ranks, that of Sir Lancelot, who had fallen in love with Queen Guinevere, and that of Sir Mordred, who attempted to usurp the throne of Camelot.

When Guinevere was about to be executed for her betrayal, Lancelot charged in to save her and ended up slaying many of his former comrades, including ones that Gawain called his brothers.

This turned Gawain's friendship with Lancelot into hatred, and even when Lancelot repented and attempted to aid their lord in his final battle, Gawain interfered and refused to accept Lancelot's aid, resulting in a battle where Gawain was mortally wounded.

It was only on Gawain's deathbed that he finally let go of his hatred and forgave Lancelot and asked for forgiveness in return.

That was the story of Heretic God Gawain.

The images finally stopped, and Yuu returned to reality, where it seemed no time had passed while he was processing the images.

He instinctively knew what those images had been, and while he still had plenty of questions about what was going on, he knew what he had to do.

Defeat Heretic God Gawain.

Said Heretic God got over his shock and smiled radiantly again at Yuu.

But, this time, Yuu did not feel any instinctive jolt of fear.

"Wonderful! Wonderful, young warrior! Thine mettle is unlike any other human this knight has ever encountered! This one apologizes for presuming thee defeated! Come, let us resume our duel!" Heretic God Gawain declared in elation.

He withdrew his sword and prepared to swing it once more, but against all logic and reason, Yuu moved faster than he did and cleaved through the Heretic God's right gauntlet, causing shards of metal to go flying.

The one who was known as the most chivalrous of the Knights of the Round Table stopped his attack in shock and stared at his damaged gauntlet and the new hole in it.

Then, he stared at Yuu.

"Hm! Well done, young warrior! To scratch mine armor is no easy task!"

He smiled, not the same radiant smile that he had shown already, but a far more primal, hungry smile, as though he was a carnivore that had caught sight of juicy prey.

However, he would find that Yuu had fangs of his own too.

Yuu and Gawain clashed again, only this time, Yuu was keeping up with Gawain, parrying swings of the flaming sword while having his own strikes stopped as well.

It appeared to be an even battle, but Yuu knew he was losing.

His entire body was not only being slowly seared and melted from the close proximity to the absurd heat Gawain was emitting, he was fighting with power far beyond his limit right now.

Even though he felt no pain or strain, he could still feel his entire physical being screaming as it was torn apart at its foundations by the power it could not contain, the power that was forcing it to perform well past its limits.

Yuu was dying. Slowly, but surely.

He was way past the point of no return.

Whether or not he managed to win against Gawain, death was inevitable.

But, even so, Yuu kept fighting.

Fighting to win.

And he now had the means.

"…I know who you are!" Yuu spoke with no conscious effort. The words were simply flowing out of his mouth.

In his current state, he was able to identify what those images, which seemingly had no connection to each other until the last few, he had been seeing earlier were.

Information.

Information that was being fed to him from an outside source, much like Yggdrasil, just less detailed and a bit incoherent without context, but also without the whole 'losing memories' bit.

"Heretic God Gawain started out as a nameless God of War of one of the many nameless pantheons in ancient Africa, during an age where no other true form of communication other than verbal had been invented. Perhaps he did possess a name, but it was long lost in the annals of time."

There was a small, almost intangible shift in the rhythm of the battle, causing it to shift in Yuu's favor ever so slightly as Gawain gained a look of slight surprise on his face, though his smile did not shift in the slightest.

It was a boon, but it had not been the intended effect when Yuu spoke. He was simply verbalizing the information he had received to process it faster.

And as he spoke, perhaps it was just his imagination, but he could have sword that he felt a surge of energy from the dagger he had spontaneously created from dark matter.

"Time passed, and the nameless tribe that worshipped him crossed the vast ocean and integrated themselves into the Etruscan people, who adopted said nameless pantheon along with many others. Praising the nameless God of War who had won countless battles, they bestowed upon him a name. Thus, he became Achle, the invincible hero, his aspect of War turning into that of Steel."

This time, there was a definite shift in the tides of the battle. Gawain's smile had slipped slightly, making it look rather strained, and it showed in his swordsmanship.

His attacks had been absolutely perfect before, a level of mastery that a human could never hope to obtain even after an entire lifetime of training.

Now, there was an infinitesimally small deviation in the arc of his swings. It was still far more skillful than even the most devoted of human swordsman, past or present, but it was inferior to what it had been before.

Before, Yuu would not have been able to tell the difference, but in his current state, where his senses and instincts were raised to superhuman level, capable of keeping up with a Heretic God, it was an advantage he did not hesitate to make use of.

Yuu swung the dagger that seemed to have grown sharper that it had been before, clashing it with Gawain's sword and sending it and the arm swinging it flying back with great force.

For the first time since Yuu had challenged Gawain, Yuu had actually managed to force the Heretic God to take a step back.

Even with the change in the rhythm of the fight, Yuu did not let up, because he knew that even in his current state, one little mistake would get him killed.

"The Etruscans would later be assimilated into the Greeks, who adopted Achle as one of their greatest heroes, the legendary hero of the Trojan War! Achle became Achilles, son of a Greek Goddess of Water, Thetis, and a human king, Peleus, gaining the aspect of Water!" Yuu continued, his voice rising in volume.

Yuu's oddly-shaped dagger, which seemed to have suddenly grown by a half-inch and releasing a more ominous aura than before, cut through empty air in the next instant.

Gawain had jumped back to avoid getting caught up in Yuu's pace.

His smile had completely vanished, and his stance was much tenser than before.

A tingling sensation along Yuu's spine caused him to roll aside, saving his life as Gawain's flaming sword stabbed where his heart had just been.

Yuu got to his feet, only to be forced to dodge again as Gawain swung down his sword at his head.

And once more, before Yuu could even get up, he had to push himself backwards to avoid a downward strike that shattered the ground before immolating it.

If Yuu had the luxury to do so, he would be truly amazed. Gawain had not yet been using his full power?

If the circumstances were different, he could have appreciated just how wide the gap between a human and a Heretic God was.

But right now, he was less concerned about the gap, and more concerned about how to bridge it.

It was simple.

He needed more power.

As though responding to his thoughts, Yuu felt the world slow down even further. The interval between each crackle and flicker of the flames engulfing the area increased to an almost painfully slow pace. The hot air that had been blowing Yuu in the face ever so slowly seemed to have stopped entirely.

Even Gawain had slowed down to a speed where Yuu was now able to perceive his movements again.

The Heretic God was running towards him, his sword held in a stance meant for stabbing. By the angle of the blade, he was most likely aiming for Yuu's sternum.

He could work with that.

Gawain thrust his blade towards the center of Yuu's chest, just as he had predicted.

Having successfully read ahead, Yuu easily parried the blow, knocking the blade aside with a loud clang and got to his feet, resuming his attack on Gawain, who barely managed to bring his sword back to defend.

The Heretic God's expression became strained as his opponent once again became inexplicably stronger and faster.

"Despite Achilles's continuous victories, the age of Greece still ended soon after the Trojan War, where Achilles was defeated by the Trojan prince, Paris, and the Achaeans decimated at the hands of the very Gods they had worshipped in punishment for the desecration of their temples in Troy, giving rise to the Roman Empire! Resentful of Achilles's role in the near destruction of the Roman Empire before it could even begin, the Romans cast him aside when they assimilated the Greek Gods into their own belief system! After crossing the ocean once more, he was soon taken in by the Celtics! Awed by his heroism, they worshipped him as their most important deity! Thus, the Greek Achilles became the Celtic Lugh, the King of the Celtic Gods, his aspect of Water involving into that of Storm, and gaining the aspect of Sun! His nameless spear became the radiant Brionac, possessing the power of the Sun, and his nameless sword became Fragarach, possessing the power of wind, the symbols and weapons of a King!"

Gawain's look of shock returned, and he almost halted in his attack, allowing Yuu the opening he needed to land a blow on the knight's chest plate with his now slightly blood red-tinted dagger.

A gash appeared across the chest plate, and the force of the blow caused Gawain to stumble backwards.

But, despite the advantage, Yuu was aware that something was wrong.

When he struck Gawain's gauntlet, and when he landed a blow on his chest plate just now, there should have been enough force to break through the metal and drawblood from the Heretic God's body beneath.

But, there wasn't any blood, not even a single drop.

Something inside Yuu was telling him that it wasn't because he was misjudging the force he put into his attacks, but because of something else, an innate ability of the Heretic God that prevented him from being wounded.

Was this one of the so-called 'Authorities' that Heretic Gods were said to possess, powers shaped by their legends?

Just as he was pondering this, another problem presented itself.

Were Yuu in his normal state, he would have panicked when his vision began to blur and darken when it should not have, considering the amount of adrenaline that was pumping in his body at the moment.

However, his current state allowed him to cut unnecessary emotion, and he was able to calmly and rationally trace the source of the problem.

His body was breaking down even faster than before, likely a result of using an even greater level of power to keep up with a now serious Gawain. His eyes had lost almost half of their functionality, half the bones in his body had lost a good amount of their mass and were on the verge of breaking, and several of his internal organs were being cooked by the inhuman power he was exerting.

Yuu was dying, even though it would not be obvious from the way he was fighting. Most likely, at this point, he had less than 10 minutes before his body broke down to the point where even the power he was using would not be able to allow him to move.

Yuu needed to land a fatal blow, and soon.

However, Yuu did not believe for an instant that that was the limit of Gawain's power. He was probably still keeping a good amount hidden in case he needed it.

If Gawain got the opportunity to use that power, Yuu would lose in an instant.

His body would be destroyed completely if he tried to use any more power than this, so the only option was to find a way to circumvent whatever power was causing his attacks to have no effect on Gawain's actual body.

And to do that, he needed to understand Gawain's true nature.

Yuu rushed at Gawain, who had been momentarily stunned by the force that had damaged his once pristine armor.

"However, after his ascension to the status of King, Lugh found himself growing dissatisfied with his place! At his core, he was a warrior, not a ruler, and his bound duty to rule and not to fight became a burden to him! Thus, he descended from his throne and became the legendary hero, Lugh's own son, Cu Chulainn, the Hound of Ulster! His radiant five-pointed spear, Brionac, possessing the power of the sun of which Lugh held dominion over, became the demonic cursed spear that granted death with a single, infallible blow, Gae Bolg!" Yuu spoke at a faster pace than before, wanting to hurry processing the information before his body finally hit its limit.

Gawain raised his sword as Yuu stabbed at him with his dagger, which had elongated again.

Sparks flew as the fang-like dagger and the divine sword clashed, neither weapon giving way to the other.

However, this stalemate was ideal to him.

Yuu grabbed Gawain's neck with his free hand. The extremity had already melted and scorched down enough to reveal his damaged muscular structure that was tenuously connected to the bones beneath, just barely enough to force his fingers to close around the Heretic God's nape.

Uncaring that his hand was now being broken down by the sheer heat now that it was in direct contact with Gawain, Yuu continued.

"Eventually, Cu Chulainn would travel to Wales, where he would meet another Heretic God, Artus! His lust for battle overcoming his instincts that warned him of the superior warrior that the other Heretic God was, Cu Chulainn challenged Artus and was defeated after a fierce battle! Awed by Artus's power, Cu Chulainn swore loyalty to him, and became Gwalchmei, the Hero God of the Sun, and Artus's nephew! He sealed his beloved spear, Gae Bolg, in favor of the weapon Artus had used to defeat him, the sword, and thus began to use Fragarach as his primary weapon! Through the shaping of Gwalchmei's legend and his status as a God of the Sun, Fragarach underwent another transformation and became Galatine, a divine sword that possesses the power of the Sun, like Brionac and Gae Bolg before it, in addition to its original power over wind!"

Gawain began to look truly panicked, a far cry from his composed self at the beginning, and his serious self up until this point.

"O Immortal Sun, let thine divine light shine upon mine blade!" Gawain began to incant.

Yuu immediately felt a surge of power coming from the Heretic God, and an even greater amount from the sword, Galatine.

He did not know what it was Gawain was planning on doing, but Yuu instinctively knew that he could not allow him to continue, or he would lose the advantage he had managed to gain.

*POP*

*CRACK*

With a sickening pop and crack, Yuu purposely dislocated his shoulder and wrist to slam his elbow into the side of Gawain's head. The bones in said part of his limb, already brittle from the intense heat and the power Yuu was exerting, shattered from the force of the blow.

Yuu's grip on the Heretic God's neck faltered, but he had succeeded in stunning Gawain, interrupting the incantation.

However, he would soon recover. Before that happened, Yuu needed to finish. He was already at the last stretch.

"Through modernization and amalgamation of differing stories passed down by bards and storytellers, Gwalchmei would eventually be modernized into his current incarnation, the most chivalrous of the Knights of the Round Table, a gathering of Artus's 12 most loyal and strongest followers, led by Artus, modernized as Arthur, himself! A God of the Sun, Storms and Steel! That is the truth of the Heretic God, Gawain!" Yuu declared as he then performed a move that was either the height of bravery, or of foolishness.

With all of the might he could muster, Yuu…slammed his forehead against Gawain's, one of the few spots on the Heretic God's body that wasn't protected by armor.

"Mmph!?" Gawain grunted from the concussive force that would have doubtlessly destroyed his head in a messy shower of blood and gore if he was an ordinary human.

His inherent hardiness as a divine being beyond humanity and whatever was protecting him from injury prevented him from receiving anything more than a headache, but the blow had caused him to stumble backwards again, allowing Yuu to lash at him with his dagger, now radiating an aura of sheer bloodlust, like a predator preparing to devour its prey.

Gawain let out a cry of both shock and pain as the dagger completely passed through whatever defense was protecting his physical body and open a deep gash on his chest, shedding a good deal of blood.

And even more importantly, accomplished something that could only be considered a stroke of incredible, almost impossible, good fortune for Yuu.

Gawain dropped Galatine.

Yuu's heightened instincts screamed at him that his long-awaited opportunity had finally come.

Rushing towards the falling divine sword, he dropped the fang-shaped dagger, which had returned to its original state when Yuu had first created it and vanished without a trace once it had fallen out of his peripheral vision.

With his left hand that had been wielding the dagger up until now, Yuu gripped Galatine's handle as it fell from Gawain's hand.

Immediately, the divine sword ignited in a blaze of white hot flames, burning away at Yuu's body, but concentrating against the limb that had taken hold of it.

An act of rebellion against someone who was not its true master.

However, Yuu had no time to deal with its insolence. His instincts were telling him that the timing was perfect.

Gawain could be killed now.

And as Yuu processed the information he had received, the origins and history of Heretic God Gawain, he understood why.

Yuu lifted Galatine with an inordinate amount of effort considering his beyond human power in his current state, likely another way for the divine sword to defy him.

However, he managed to raise the blade to the right height and angle, chest level and parallel to the ground.

Gawain regained his footing, and looked up, only to see Yuu right in front of him, with his sword in hand.

Yuu thrust Galatine towards the Heretic God's sternum for a fatal blow.

It could not have been accomplished with the dagger, because for all of its ability to stand up against a Heretic God's power, the dagger had a fundamental problem.

The blade was too short to land a fatal blow to a Heretic God, especially if it had to pierce through thick armor first.

However, with a straight western sword like Galatine, Yuu could kill Gawain.

Yuu did not know this, but as Gawain watched the tip of his own blade approaching him from a distance that was just too short and at a speed that was just too fast for even a Heretic God to avoid, he saw a silhouette emerge for an instant around the boy who had challenged him.

A silhouette of a truly gargantuan canine creature, its massive jowls wide open as it lunged at him, as though preparing to swallow him whole.

For the first time since he had fought Artus so many years ago, Gawain felt fear.

*SQUELCH*

Gawain stared at his own sword that had perforated his armor and torso and gone all the way through, tearing through his spinal column.

Even a Heretic God could not survive a wound like this, especially not one dealt with a divine weapon.

Even if it was their own.

"…Some legends concerning the end of Achilles's and Gawain's lives spoke of their final battles, Achilles with Paris during the siege of Troy, and Gawain with Lancelot during the Battle of Camlann. Having been bathed in the River Styx by his mother, Thetis, Achilles was rendered invulnerable to all attacks except those to his right heel, the only part that hadn't been touched by the cursed water of the Styx. Thus, Apollo guided Paris's arrow to strike Achilles in his only weak spot, resulting in his immediate death. Similarly, Gawain could not be wounded as long as the sun hung in the air. Lancelot, having been Gawain's closest friend before his betrayal, knew that better than anyone else. So, he waited until the sun had set before dealing a single, decisive blow against Gawain that would eventually take his life. When I saw that my attacks were failing to draw blood, I thought that that one of the two legends might have something to do with it. I didn't have the time or the luxury to search for your single weak spot if your protection was based on the legend of Achilles, so when I saw that the sun had set here as well, I took my chances and decided to give it a try. I'm glad that my hunch paid off." Yuu spoke calmly.

He did not mention that his instincts were telling him that it was Gawain's legend that formed the basis of the power that protected him from harm.

After all, his dagger could only pierce through that power when Yuu had fully comprehended the legend of Gawain, not that of Achilles.

Gawain did not seem to register his words, and continued to stare at the blade embedded in his sternum with an unreadable expression.

Gawain was doubtlessly defeated, so there was no longer any point in keeping up his current state.

Yuu did not know whether this state could be switched on and off at will like he could with Fafnir, but a simple test proved that it could.

He took one step forward after returning to his normal state…

…And he immediately vomited blood and collapsed after doing so.

Pain.

That was all he could feel. The pain from being immolated by Gawain's power and Galatine's flames. The pain from having his hands burnt so badly that the nerves inside had been exposed to open air. The pain from his shattered bones. The pain of having his entire physical being falling apart in the aftermath of the power he had used.

It made the pain that he had experienced from being struck twice by Gawain while still in his normal state look like paradise in comparison, but Yuu was already so exhausted, so close to death that he didn't have the strength to do anything more than twitch on the spot.

Yuu's already blurry vision faded to black completely. His body felt like lead. His consciousness was fading away.

This was it. Yuu was going to die.

Even though he won against a Heretic God, he was still going to die in the end.

It was official. Pyrrhic victories sucked.

Still, he couldn't help but feel that there was something he was forgetting.

Something about humans defeating Gods…

It was no use. He couldn't remember. Everything was a complete black. He could barely recall his own name, age and birthday, much less extraneous information like that.

…Ah, but there was one name that was still very clear even in his addled mind.

The name of the most important person in the world to him.

"…Mitsuki…Sorry…"

He apologized to the girl he loved more than anyone else in the world, even though he didn't really know what it was he was apologizing for.

Then, his consciousness faded as well.

Mononobe Yuu would be dead in less than a minute.

Gawain did not need to look behind him to know that his opponent was dying.

He was a Heretic God after all. Sensing life forces was something rather rudimentary to them.

There was no point in celebrating his opponent's death. Gawain was not the type to take pleasure in killing his enemies, no matter how much animosity he felt towards them, whether it was on a personal level, or out of mere principle.

And Gawain would be joining him soon after all.

Gawain looked down at the blade, his blade, piercing his chest.

The blade had gone through his armor, pierced his chest, perforated his heart and both lungs, and severed his spinal column.

A fatal wound, even to Heretic Gods.

Such a wound would usually be of no consequence to Gawain, because he had an Authority that allowed him to heal any wound short of death, and could even bring him back to life if he invoked it before receiving his fatal wound.

But, it was already too late. Gawain was already dying, and he couldn't invoke it now that the sun, his dominion, was no longer present in the sky above.

If he had invoked it at the beginning of the duel, he would have survived.

His arrogance had cost him this duel, and his life. Because his opponent had been a human, Gawain had not taken him seriously, despite claiming that they would have an honorable duel.

Gawain snorted in derision. What honor was there in belittling his opponent? He had broken the code of chivalry that the Knights of the Round Table had sworn to follow. He was no better than that accursed traitor, Mordred.

Gawain smiled. At least, he had been taught humility before his end. His opponent hadn't exactly been honorable in his fighting methods either, not fighting him face to face, and using Gawain's past as a means of fighting, but Gawain would be hypocritical to criticize his opponent.

It was a lesson well deserved, and he needed to thank his opponent for it.

He turned his head to regard the soon-to-be corpse of his opponent, a wretched, ruined thing, yet resplendent and magnificent in Gawain's eyes, even now, when nearly bereft of life.

"Ah." Gawain uttered a sound as he realized something.

He did not know his opponent's name.

He hadn't even bothered to ask.

Gawain smiled wryly. Just another reason why it was only fitting that he lost here.

Then, the world transformed around Gawain.

He was no longer in the devastated forest where he and his opponent had just fought.

He was somewhere else, a realm of nonsensical, kaleidoscopic colors.

He felt a presence.

That of a God.

Not a Heretic God, but a True God.

How was that possible? Gods could not manifest in their true form in the material plane. Not even his lord, Artus, was capable of such a feat, in spite of his power.

Was it a remnant? The last vestiges of a True God's power, embedded in an artifact of sorts that had been sent to the material plane?

No, the presence was too powerful for that.

So, what was this?

Gawain's eyes widened when he saw the ethereal image of a young girl with purple hair tied into pigtails, green eyes, pointed ears, red orb-like earrings, dressed in a white dress, smiling down at the near corpse of his opponent with affection.

Motherly affection.

He recognized her immediately. How could he not recognize the Witch who had cursed the Gods?

Pandora, the Witch, who had, in utter defiance of her own kind, performed an ancient ritual to allow humans to combat the Gods themselves.

The Circle of Usurpation, Pandora's Authority that allowed her to take the Authorities of slain Heretic Gods and bestow them upon the human who had done the deed, turning them into God Slayers, her bastard children.

It was only just then that Gawain realized that he and his opponent fulfilled those prerequisites.

Then, this could only be the place where the Witch dwelled, the site where she would bring forth her newest child.

Gawain felt no outrage at the impending violation of his divinity and domains.

In fact, he could only feel elation.

"Hmph…Hahahahaha! Very well then, Witch! Take as much as thou wishes and gift them to thine son! It is only fitting after all! A warrior deserves to take spoils from his opponent in memory of a fine battle! Young warrior whose name this knight regrettably knows not! This knight accepts his defeat! Grow stronger, young warrior! Face more Gods, and pillage their powers as thou please! Do not die until this one returns to challenge thee! On that occasion, this knight wishes for a true, honorable duel to the death!" Gawain declared as he felt his being break down and return back to the Domain of Immortality, the dwelling place of all things divine.

Pandora smiled at him, and then waved a hand in his direction.

Immediately, Gawain felt his sense of self being rendered asunder as Pandora took a portion of his divinity, his Authorities, from him to give to her newest son.

He endured the horrible sensation of metaphysical violation.

It was no great loss to be honest.

To say that his Authorities were being stolen was a bit inaccurate. True, the Authorities of his current incarnation were being taken from him, and if he somehow managed to live, he would not be able to use them anymore.

However, Authorities were powers given shaped by the individual God's legends.

Gawain was now returning to his legend. Thus, he would eventually regain his lost power, unless the legend surrounding Gawain were to change.

That's right, this was nothing more than helping to sharpen his opponent's fangs for the next time they met.

"Fangs", Gawain chortled in his mind, "How appropriate."

For the weapon that his opponent had unleashed against him could only be described as a fang, a fang created to kill Gods.

With that last thought, meant to entertain himself, Gawain departed from the mortal plane.

Yuu slowly became aware that his consciousness had returned, however fuzzy and unfocused it was.

His first thing he noticed was that he could no longer feel the beyond excruciating pain that had been wracking his body just before he passed out.

He immediately wondered if he was dead and in some kind of afterlife, because that was the only way he could think of to explain why he was conscious, but not feel the pain from all of the wounds he had received.

Then, he realized that he couldn't move a muscle.

He was stuck in a lying down face up position, with his head slightly elevated, as though it were resting atop of something that was not the ground.

He cracked his eyes open, to find himself staring at kaleidoscopic colors, and wondered if he was actually alive, but had been dozed with psychotropic drugs and tranquilizers while he was out cold.

That was when he felt small, dainty hands gently running through his hair.

His eyeballs rolled up higher to catch sight of the owner of those hands.

His blurry vision didn't help things, but he could vaguely make out a small feminine figure with what appeared to be purple hair and a white dress.

"Ah, I see you've awoken." The person spoke in what was unmistakably a female voice, one belonging to a teenage girl.

However, there was something in her tone that could only be described as…motherly.

He briefly wondered how he remembered what a motherly voice would sound like, considering that he had no memories of anyone other than Mitsuki.

"Though I have lived for countless eons, humanity never fails to surprise me. Who would have thought that a child as young as you would fulfill my ritual?" The girl continued to speak.

Despite her apparent age from her voice, she was possibly the wisest-sounding person Yuu had ever met, commanding his attention with just her words.

"Very well! I, Pandora, the All-Giving Woman, the Witch who brought forth all disasters and a single shred of hope, accept you as my newest, youngest child! Let everyone present grant their blessing and hatred to this child! The Seventh Campione, who shall bear the destiny of the youngest devil king! Please bestow upon this child the sacred words of power! Mononobe Yuu, through the act of slaying a God, I grant my blessing to you! I declare that you shall be reborn as a child, born of a Fool and a Witch!" The girl declared with happiness in her voice.

In the next instant, Yuu felt something enter his body, enveloping his body in comfortable heat…quickly followed by something else exiting his body.

"Oh, how interesting! So, Gaia has laid claim to you before, has she? Ufufufu, well then, I guess it's her loss, for you are now my child. That thing she gave you before…well, I suppose I'll leave it in that dreary place. Of course, I'll hide it so some other poor human won't accidently stumble upon it. If you truly need it, then simply return to the place of your rebirth and take it back." The girl exclaimed.

Yuu felt his body growing lighter, and this place, wherever this was, growing more blurred…more distant.

"As for that thing the overgrown weed put inside you, I got rid of it! What kind of mother would I be if I allowed such a thing to be left in my child? And the other power…well, at first, I wanted to get rid of it too, but it looks like you've truly made that power your own! But, don't use it lightly. I think you'll find it harder to use from now on than it was today! If you want to make full use of it, you should hurry and pluck that weed!"

The girl's voice became more and more distant.

"Farewell for now. I'm sure that we will meet again in the future. Take care, my youngest child, who shall bear the greatest destiny of all God Slayers."

Then, she was gone, and so was he.

In the depths of an old castle in Hungary, an old man who was more wolf than human perked up and stared out of the window.

In her shrine atop a mountain in China, a beautiful Chinese woman laughed uproariously, terrifying her subordinates, none more so than her apprentice.

Outside a mansion in Alexandria, an Indian woman paused as she was about to step into a portal.

In London, having just left a meeting with the White Princess, a dark-skinned man twitched and sighed in irritation.

In a bar in Los Angeles, a bespectacled woman dressed in a formal wear paused in sipping her glass of whiskey.

In Siena, a blonde man who was fishing whooped in joy, scaring any potential catches away.

None of them had seen it for themselves, but all of them felt it.

The birth of the Seventh of their brethren.

The students and faculty of Midgard was once more stunned into silence.

They had just witnessed the defeat of a Heretic God at the hands of a human, a boy, no less.

That much, they understood.

They had seen the boy use what was unmistakably Dark Matter Generation. Impossible as it seemed, it proved that the boy was a D.

The world's only known male D.

Those who knew Mononobe Mitsuki well enough could deduce that the boy was probably the brother she had been looking for.

Then, they witnessed the boy collapsing, blood pouring out of every orifice in his shattered body.

The Heretic God, kneeling in defeat with his own weapon through his chest, dispersed into golden dust which enveloped the boy, causing his destroyed body to fully regenerate, with not a single scratch on him.

That was the part that stumped them a little.

After all, the death of a Heretic God was something that had never been publicized like this before.

One, the number of confirmed Heretic God deaths were still in the single digits, owing to the fact that there were only 6 beings in the world that even stood a chance of killing one in the first place, 2 of whom hardly left their abode and 1 of whom was currently missing.

Two, Heretic God emergences were sudden and completely without warning, unlike in the case of most Dragon disasters. By the time anyone got around to recording it, it was already either gone or dead.

This was the first time the death of a Heretic God had ever been recorded, not to mention shown to a large group of people.

However, there was one thing that the entire world knew.

Humans who killed Heretic Gods became Campione.

If that were the case here, then…

The reason for their silence was simple.

They had just witnessed the birth of the Seventh Campione.

And this prologue is complete! There is so much more I still have to explain, but I feel that that can be done over the next few chapters. It certainly seems like a better idea than throwing everything into one chapter.

As you can see, this is a merging of the 2 verses.

This prologue takes place 2.5 years before the start of Unlimited Fafnir canon, and 2 years before the start of Campione canon. In short, Miyako isn't dead yet, Haruka is still a D, Tia hasn't been kidnapped by Kili yet, and Godou is not yet a Campione, which is why Yuu bears the title of Seventh Campione instead.

As some of you may have surmised from Pandora's words, Yuu has undergone several changes, causing him to differ greatly from canon.

First, and the most obvious, Yuu is now a Campione, meaning that even just considering his new base stats, he's already much stronger than his canon self.

Adding his Authorities into the mix, and he'll be more than a match for most Dragons, as well as put him on par with other powerful Heretic Gods.

Second, Yggdrasil's virus has been removed from Yuu's head. Since all Campione are healed to their optimal state upon their transformation, Yggdrasil's virus, which was a detriment, was removed, terminating his link toYggdrasil.

Third, the power of Neun has also left his body. Because Yuu has been transformed into a Campione, he is no longer compatible with Neun's power. He can still steal the powers of Dragons like he did in canon, but he has to kill them first, and the powers will be modified to fit with his Campione nature. Neun's power will play a more important role in much later chapters.

Last is the power he used against Gawain. This is a mutation of Fafnir, thus he can no longer use the normal Fafnir, but considering he is now a being far, far more powerful than any human, its loss is a rather moot point. I will not go into any further details than this, because it will be explained in future chapters. As for its name, it's in the title of this story.

Do not expect detailed histories for Heretic Gods like the one I did for Gawain. This will be a rather rare occurrence, only reserved for Heretic Gods that Yuu cannot defeat on his own, and only after a certain event happens in this story.

Next chapter, Yuu and the rest of the world come to grips with his new status.

That's all for now. As always, please read and review.