Chapter 164 Nocturnal Bliss
After Alex said these words, he looked at Professor Frances’ general direction, giving her with a threatening glare of his own.
If she wants to fight Alex, then she better do it once they were done with Tetra. If not, then Alex will not hesitate to end this farce immediately.
"Bleh." Professor Frances’ only reply to Alex’s glare was her tongue, which she stuck out for him to see.
"..." The current Professor seemed to be cheerful, even with what happened in the fight earlier.
From what Alex could see, it seemed like Professor Frances was not saddened at all with the death of the Hydra, which was obviously one of her Companions.
Before Alex could feel more disdained with Professor Frances’ ’inconsideration’, he saw the corpse of the Hydra suddenly moving again.
Its heads, which was destroyed by Myth before, started to grow again, as if the damage that happened to them earlier was just negligible.
Alex watched with wide eyes as the Hydra stood up once more, with her body back to pristine condition.
The Hydra then transformed, changing back to her human form.
"Ugh... I thought it will be easier for us to fight against the Alchemists now... it seems like I was mistaken." Alex thought sourly to himself as he watched the whip woman trudge towards Professor Frances.
"So, what is your answer now, Tetra?" Alex decided to momentarily ignore about the matter of Professor Frances first as he decided to pour his attention on Tetra first. "I am waiting for you to say something!"
"And what do you actually want me to do exactly?" Tetra replied heatedly as Alex could see the hero clenching his fists tightly. "Do you want me to roll over like a dog, or lick your foot?"
"Oh hell no!" Alex replied, this time with exasperation present in his voice. "I just want you to let yourself be captured by us. If you do that, I will release you and your teammates later."
"...You really want to get the Legacy that much huh." Tetra mumbled to himself as a conflicted expression appeared on his face. His eyebrows crinkled with worry and anxiety, showing everyone the conflict that is happening inside Tetra’s mind now.
"..." Even if Alex was not Tetra, Alex could somehow understand the dilemma that Tetra’s having now.
The Pantheon, even though they only forcibly recruited Tetra, were still Tetra’s teammates. For them to be in danger was not something that Tetra could be happy about.
On the other hand, the Legacy of Tartaros was Tetra’s homeworld, and even if Tetra only had some faint memories about it, he still cherishes it too.
Forcing to choose between the Pantheon and the Legacy of Tartaros must have been extremely agonizing for Tetra, and Alex could not blame Tetra for being this indecisive.
This could be bad for Alex, since he was still waiting for Tetra to make his choice.
historical
But actually, it was far better for Alex if Tetra was this indecisive.
After all, Alex had a different goal with this hostage situation, and he just achieved what he wanted now.
"Hah!"
While Tetra was mentally distracted by the dilemma that he was in, Alex let out a shout as he activated a new Abyss Magic that he obtained from Sloth.
With the help of Duplicator before, Alex reached Grade 6 in Abyss Magic, which meant that he gained an additional of 2 Abyss Spells for each Tome that he had.
That naturally includes Sloth, and the spell that Alex just used now was the 6th Abyss Spell of Sloth.
---Nocturnal Bliss---
This spell struck the distracted Tetra head on, and its effects were instantaneous.
Tetra’s head lolled like a baby as his body plummeted towards the ground. Alex wasted no time at all as he extended one of this tentacles, catching the still falling Tetra.
"Hehehe, it worked like a charm. Now this is getting real good..." Alex muttered to himself as he patted Sloth’s head dotingly.
The said Abyss Sprite was fast asleep now, and it seemed like there was no sign that he would wake up for now.
***********
The spell that Alex used, the Nocturnal Bliss, was an Abyss Spell which will place the caster and its target into sleep.
While they were sleeping, both the caster and the target will be invulnerable to damage, and nothing can wound them. However, they can still be touched and moved, as long as these actions will not induce damage to the both of them.
This sleeping state will last for 30 minutes, and once that time limit was up, both the caster and the target will wake up, signifying the end of spell.
The limitations of this spells were quite limiting in Alex’s opinion.
First is that once the caster uses this spell, the caster will have to be put to sleep to along with the target, and the only way that the caster will wake up from this spell was by waiting for the 30-minute mark to end.
Well, with the invulnerability to damage, both the caster and the target will be safe, but it will not make the caster safe from someone just snatching its sleeping body.
Fortunately for Alex, he already had a solution for this limitation.
He can just make Sloth cast the Nocturnal Bliss, and it will be Sloth and Tetra that will fall asleep, not Alex and Tetra.
The second limitation of the spell was that the target must not be mentally prepared for the spell. The target must be taken by surprise by the spell.
Naturally, using this earlier was pretty impossible for Alex, as Tetra was extremely alert for any kind at attacks that could be fired on him. Using the Nocturnal Bliss on Tetra earlier will just result in failure.
That was why Alex decided to hostage the Pantheon and force Tetra to choose between the Pantheon and the Legacy of Tartaros.
By putting Tetra on a situation like this, Alex was sure that there will be a point in time that Tetra will be susceptible to a surprise attack.
That time could only last for a second, but a second was all that Alex needed.
Fortunately for Alex, his FED Manipulation caught the moment that he was waiting for, which led to the eventual capture of Tetra.
*************
Once he was sure that Tetra and Sloth were fast asleep, Alex hid Sloth inside his clothes while he threw Tetra’s body towards his teammates covered by Queen Mother’s vines.
As for Myth, he choked her until she went unconscious. Once he was sure that Myth was out cold, he threw Myth’s unconscious body towards her bound teammates.
"Thud."
The final addition of Myth has now resulted in all of the Pantheon members being captured by Alex and Professor Frances.
For now, the Pantheon will stay in a bounded state like this.
As for what will happen to the Pantheon later, Alex will have to think of that later. For now, he has to enjoy his spoils of battle first.
***************
And with that, the Pantheon, the strongest Hero Team in the world, was now officially defeated by the alliance between the Travelers and the Alchemists.
"Hehehehe..."
Alex watched with grim fascination as he observed the mighty Pantheon all bound up like this.
It might be just his ego speaking, but Alex felt extremely satisfied with what he was seeing now.
"You come in blustering stuff like beating us up, and yet you all end up like this? Tsk, tsk, shame, shame..." Alex muttered as he brought out his phone, snapping some pictures of the sight in front of him.
The SHA will surely have some fun with these pictures later, and Alex will be surely there to enjoy it.
But before he can browse that site later, Alex still had some important business to finish here.
"That was impressive, Eldritch." The one who said these words was Professor Frances, and the way that she gazed at Alex made Alex’s body tense imperceptibly. "But from what I can see, it seems like you used up a lot of power just to win here... Are you sure you still want to continue fighting?"
As Professor Frances said these words, Alex could see her adjusting some knobs in her chemical tank, while her 3 Companions were assuming their own fighting stances.
"Hmph, don’t show that fake sympathy to me." Alex said as he let out a sneer. "Our Main Mission is a matter of life and death, so I am sure that you will always pick the time that you will fight us! So, please stop displaying that pathetic hypocrisy of yours."
With Alex’s current state and appearance, Professor Frances was surely tempted to take him out now.
After all, will there still be another time that Alex could be in an injured state like this? Obviously none!
"I won’t say anything now, Eldritch. Let’s just use our fists to do the talking!" Professor Frances said as she pointed her nozzle(not a fist) at Alex’s direction. "I hope you can last long against me, for I will not hold back now!"
"Oh, and now you are using your full power? Color me surprised." Alex thought to himself wryly as the space around him started to tremble.
The Abyss Energy and Mental Power swirled around Alex like a tornado, creating mighty gusts of wind which started to demolish the mansion below him.
He licked his lips as he phased back on his human form, while keeping 8 tentacles attached on his back.
The sight that Alex created with his current form was quite ephemeral, and Alex relished every moment of it.
"Since you want a fight, then we shall have a fight now." Alex said as booming sounds started to appear all around him. Alex tried to hide his nervousness and exhilaration as he took a step towards his enemy’s direction.
"Let’s see if that full power of yours can somehow stand up to mine..."