"Oho, they are quite confident, aren't they?" Zeus says, looking at the newly updated list of human fighters. "They replaced 11 of their fighters, all of which were among humanity's greatest heroes, with 9 of humanity's worst villains."
"Yeah, and the first of them, Izuku Midoriya, was strong and skilled enough that he was able to treat Poseidon of all people like an untrained child." Shiva says, leaning back into the couch. "He was even able to use a skill similar to Adam's Divine Reflection, using both your attack and Rudra's."
"Ah, yes, speaking of Rudra, did you ever find him?" Zeus asks.
Shiva shakes his head. "No, but we did find 3 of his arms recently. We figured that he got into a fight with another god or a demon lord and lost them while fighting them, but after seeing how thoroughly Izuku Midoriya outclassed Poseidon, alongside him using one of Rudra's moves, we're being forced to consider the possibility of him being the one to do it, probably killing Rudra and sending him to Niflheim in the process."
Ares stares at Shiva in shock. The Chief Hindu God is acting quite out of character right now, he usually acts lazy and relaxed unless he's angry or having fun, but right now he's being serious despite his apparent calmness.
"You said that Izuku is the True Wielder of the Blade Of Death, right?" Zeus asks, causing Shiva to nod. "Then he IS a demon lord, one of the True Demon Lords, of which there can only be 10."
Shiva raises an eyebrow, not understanding what Zeus is getting at, causing Hermes to explain.
"When someone lays claim to a Demonic Treasure and become's its wielder, they receive the title of Demon Lord, even if they themself are not actually a demon. The True Wielders of the Demonic Treasures are known as True Demon Lords." He says, before Zeus interjects once more.
"Let me tell you a story." Zeus says, taking Shiva's attention off of Hermes. "When the Demonic Treasures were originally forged, there was 20 of them. Over time, 11 of the true wielders got their hands on them, becoming one with their weapons just like Izuku Midoriya has his. 10 of them were killed not long after obtaining them, Count Dracula, wielder of The Blood-Soaked Blade, was the only one who wasn't killed, as he slew any god or angel who was sent to kill him. After the tenth was killed, Apollo saw a vision of the future, warning of the time when all 9 remaining Demonic Treasures would fall into the hands of their True Wielders, and form a team, Dracula himself being the second in command, calling themselves The 10 True Demon Lords."
"Indeed." Hermes continues, taking over the explanation. "Apollo even gave us brief descriptions of the 9 remaining True Wielders. The Blade Of Death shall find it's home with he who cannot die. The Gauntlets Of Destruction with she who commands time itself. The Arm Of The Giant with he who's might towers over the rest of the world. The Chains Of Hell with he who seeks fear above all else. The Eye Of The Devil with a man who became a true monster. The Cloak Of Darkness with the man of science who helped facilitate humanity's darkest war. The Sword Of Terror with the man who would not stop until heroes were terrified out of existence. The Puppeteer's Strings with the Tyrant who willingly became an immortal's Puppet. And finally, the only Demonic Treasure that doesn't have a name belongs to the killer who called no place his home."
"Yes." Zeus says. "The most terrifying part, though, is what their goal is if Apollo's vision is to be believed, which it may very well be considering that the Blade Of Death is currently in the hands of it's True Wielder, the only human who could truly be called an immortal."
"And what is it?" Shiva asks, causing Zeus to adopt a serious expression.
"To wage war on the gods, and destroy us. There are only 2 paths that this road can take, either all of them except for the immortal, Izuku Midoriya, are slain, with him being captured and imprisoned within the deepest depths of Tartarus, or us gods are dethroned, with all of us chief gods brutally slain and the lesser gods enslaved."
All 5 of Shiva's eyes widen at this. "You're saying that-" he begins before Zeus cuts him off.
"Losing any further matches is not an option, and Ragnarok must continue until all 9 of the mortal members of The 10 True Demon Lords are slain."
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"Are you 100% sure that your plan will succeed?" Brunhilde asks as she moves her knight to claim Izuku's rook, only for Izuku to take said knight with a bishop.
"Yes, I am." Izuku says as he takes Brunhilde's other knight with his remaining rook after she moves it to put him in check. "I've been plotting Jack's ascension for years, the only way this goes wrong is if Heracles manages to kill him before the chains break."
"Hlökk will survive, right? She won't die when Jack ascends, will she?" Göll asks, Izuku having decided to include her in his explanation of his plan so he only has to do it once, rather than doing it again after it succeeds.
"She'll be fine, she'll just truly become part of Jack rather than just being a set of gloves." Izuku responds, waving off her concerns and putting Brunhilde in check. "I'm surprised that you're not worried for Heracles, he's like an older brother to you, isn't he?"
Göll sighs sadly. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy about any of this, but I'm not worried for him. I accepted that he was probably going to die when his name showed up on the list of the gods' fighters, I'm not worried for him because I'm already grieving his death."
Eri laughs from her place leaning against the wall of the room. "That's an admirable trait, Göll, the ability to accept a loved one's death as easily as that. I'd say it's even more admirable than the ability to accept one's own death before it even comes into question, as Izuku and I did when we embarked on our war against Society. It's something that you share with Izuku, as he accepted my death months before it even happened, though I'm sure that his knowledge that his own death would come soon after."
"2 months, 1 week, 3 days, 5 hours and 13 minutes after, to be exact." Izuku says, putting Brunhilde in checkmate and winning the game. "I wouldn't have died had Stars and Stripes not pumped herself full of super trigger and made it so that all of the heroes there could fight forever without tiring, though, so I don't really consider that a proper loss, since they cheated by using trigger despite me being completely drug free."
Eri shrugs. "Same thing happened when they were trying to kill me, it only took 2 weeks for them to do it, though."
Brunhilde then speaks up, changing the subject. "Anyway, tell me Izuku, how do The 10 True Demon Lords rank in terms of power?"
Izuku thinks for a moment, mentally ordering the list. "If you mean raw power, then it'd be like this, I'll even put a number on it to clarify the difference in power:
Me - 1,000,000
Dracula and Eri - 500,000 total, or 250,000 each
Garou - 125,000
Yujiro, 62,500
Ivan - 31,250
Joseph - 15,625
Stain - 7,812.5
Samuel - 3,906.25
Jack - 1,953.125
However, Jack would take 5th place from Ivan if we're talking about how deadly a fighter each of us is."
Göll's jaw drops. "You mean Jack is skilled enough to overcome a 16x difference in power!?"
Izuku nods.
"And you're truly so strong that they'd need a whole other Dracula or Eri and another Jack to overpower you, even working together?"
Izuku nods again. "I was born with a mutation that, alongside my quirk, is the reason that I'm so strong. Unlike every other living being, I have no limit to how strong I can get. I spend most of my time training my ass of in order to get as strong as I can. At this point, I'm pretty sure that I'm strong enough to destroy the moon."
"That's... that's ridiculous." Brunhilde says. "Destroying the moon is impossible, to even SUGGEST that you could do so is completely insane!"
Eri laughs at this. "You say this even though Zeus is able to move fast enough that time itself can't comprehend it, but yet both Izuku and Adam could see it, and copy it, and Izuku's even working on improving it as we speak."
Brunhilde raises an eyebrow at Izuku, causing him to shrug.
"I'm an excellent multitasker, I'm more than capable of mentally tearing apart and upgrading a technique while holding a conversation."
Brunhilde sighs. "Alright, I get your point. I still think the concept is insane, but so is much of what the gods, and even the two of you, do anyways."
Izuku reaches over and pats her on the shoulder, a gentle smile on his face, though it's obvious it's forced considering how out of character it is.
"To make it easier to believe, I'm 16x stronger than Yujiro, during life he was strong enough that the maximum output of his punches outmatched nuclear bombs, and he's gotten even stronger after dying. I'm also 8x stronger than Garou, who was strong enough to casually destroy mountains during life, and has also gotten a lot stronger since dying.
Brunhilde sighs again. "Alright, I accept it, you may very well be capable of what you claim to be. We don't have any more time to talk about this anyway, the match starts in a few minutes."
Izuku nods. "Then let's get back to the stands then, shall we?"