Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

The same despair that threatened to drown Lexi washed right over Zach. Seeing him so composed helped stabilize Lexi. She gritted her teeth and glared at the Hydra. It had almost made her show her brother something disgraceful.

"How long do you think we have, Mandra?" Zach asked, breaking the heavy silence.

"An hour at most, Master."

"That's plenty."

"...But a few minutes at the least, Master."

"Mm. No time to waste, then. Mandra, prepare the most powerful thing you can. Push the bond if you have to. We are going to tie this thing down before it gets the chance to rise. Lexi, help her. That spell you used before looked pretty good."

Mandra nodded and asked Lexi for the details on that spell. Together, they started weaving a spell to bring down a god.

"Yanael, does time to prepare do you anything?"

"A little, Master." That meant she barely had to prepare.

"Good, you'll be going with me, then."

"Soara, that thing can probably kill us with the power of death. We'll need you to do something about that."

"Of course, Master."

"Alzara…"

"Yes, Master…?"

"Can you imbue your curses into things other than your daggers? I have an idea."

"It's not as efficient, but yes. What do you need me to curse, Master?"

"Me."

Alzara wanted to refuse immediately, and the others would support her, but Zach explained his idea and his reasoning based on his understanding of Alzara's curses and cursed energy.

They had to admit that his method was the most likely to succeed. Unfortunately, they didn't have time to waste, much less experiment. They had to take a risk and hope that Zach's flash of genius was indeed genius and not delusion or madness.

Zach grabbed Yanael and Alzara and brought them up with him. They were going above the Hydra while Mandra, Lexi, and Soara stayed on the ground.

Mandra and Lexi started running and flying around the ice cube, setting up a magical array that not only had to be destructive enough to do something to the Hydra but also sturdy enough to handle the Hydra breaking out of its seal.

Even now, the Hydra's presence leaking out from the cracked seal was eroding and distorting any magical energy nearby. Just breathing close to the seal was difficult.

However, Mandra's magical expertise and control were not so poor that a mere lizard's existence was enough to dispel the magic she cast. Lexi helped as much as she could, mostly by pouring her magic energy into the array and using her domination aura to lock it in place.

The Hydra's presence alone was enough to interfere with magic and martial energy. But it was weak to domination aura.

It was one of the Hydra's nine powers, originally. But the reason why Lexi and her sister could use it had nothing to do with their Evandiel inheritage.

The talent for domination was a rare ability that manifested in people randomly all over the world.

The reason the Evandiels said it was one of the Hydra's powers is that it was so in the past.

But the God of Nature, Isuls, isn't the only god to have a run-in with the Hydra.

According to records from before the Hydra was sealed, another God cut off one of the Hydra's heads, the one representing the power of domination. That god's power prevented the Hydra from reclaiming the head and the power of domination.

The head broke down, releasing the power of domination into the world.

It was a power that the Hydra had lost. Its presence alone wasn't enough to dispel even the weak domination aura of someone at Lexi's level.

Lexi was still too weak to fight the Hydra by relying on her domination aura, but there was no doubt that domination was a useful weapon against the Hydra.

That was why the mother of the Evandiel family, Calserra Evandiel, formally recognized as the strongest Dominator in the Empire, was supposed to play a pivotal role in the fight against the Hydra.

But now, all of those plans were out the window.

The only Evandiels fighting the Hydra were the youngest two.

The generations of planning, preparing, and anticipating done by the Evandiel family was thrown out the window by the reckless actions of an emotional and hot-tempered young man and his supportive sister.

While Mandra built up enough magic energy to make the air shimmer, twist, and sparkle, Soara sat down on the rough ground and focused. She closed her eyes and shut down most of her senses.

She was confident in her ability. She was confident in her mastery over death.

But the Hydra was a being whose strength surpassed her own. It had most likely lived a longer and more eventful life than her. It had raw strength, experience, and understanding of death. It couldn't compare to the Third Child.

She saw it as she shut off her senses.

In a dark world, Soara saw herself as a flickering black flame. She saw the others as bundles of light in various colors. Zach was orange with hints of a color she couldn't see. Lexi was orange.

Yanael was golden yellow. Alzara was earthy yellow. Mandra was sky blue.

The Hydra was a mountain of blotchy colors, all of them solid. One of those colors was the black of Death. It's power of death was overwhelming. It was smaller than its fire and poison, but those two alone almost took up half of the Hydra's presence.

Wind was a small part. Regeneration and immortality were about equal. There was a blank spot where domination had most likely been. There were two blotches left.

One was the tainted red of Usurpation. It was the color of dirty but glossy blood.

The last was another color that Soara couldn't see. No, she could see it but couldn't understand it.

It was the Hydra's ninth power, a power that didn't make sense.

The Hydra was an overwhelming being of pure strength, variety of powers, and sheer existence. Both its essence and its vessel overwhelmed anything she had seen so far since she became Zach's familiar.

And if she had to be honest, it was probably stronger than she had been in her prime.

But Soara wasn't scared.

She didn't have to face it alone. And she was stronger now than she had been in a long time. It was time to show Zach and the others that she was trustworthy. She wasn't just a deity in name only.

And if that wasn't enough, she had a trump card.

She grabbed the black gem at the base of her neck that she took from Zach's vault.