Chapter 854 - Spirit

It wasn't actually the most reliable way to defeat an elder god in his spiritual form, but Isis quickly came up with one. When Hades flew to attack her again, Isis bombarded him with special arrows. Hades frowned since they didn't have any divinity and the mana on them was also low, so he decided to just let them hit him. However, he regretted that a little when the arrows touched and stole his mana. It stole a minimal amount of mana, but Hades could see what Isis was planning.

"That is a useless effort," Hades said. 

"I don't think that any effort is useless," Isis said.

Hades charged once again, and this time, Isis attacked him from all directions with her arrows. In order not to make the same mistake twice, Hades activated Mana Barrier, and Isis's arrows were repelled. She planned to use the desert as a weapon again, but Hades was hit by some lightning bolts before that could happen. The damage caused was once again minimal, but Hades was forced to stop because he didn't expect to be interrupted. When he looked in that direction, he saw Furball and the Drake familiar of Femradiel preparing another attack. Lightning attacks were near impossible to dodge, even more so considering that Hades had a sword with him.

"Well, this is a bit unexpected, don't you think, Hades?" Isis smiled.

"You asked for help from insects like this?" Hades asked. "I am disappointed, Isis."

"I didn't ask. They came from their own volition," Isis replied. "They are well-trained creatures since they are willing to risk their necks to fight you. Well, while they can't actually die, I don't want to disappoint my allies. So, I will finish you before that can happen."

Fighting from a distance was more her style, but Isis recognized that the situation required her to adapt. It was the perfect chance to decrease the power of the Olympian gods, so she couldn't let that opportunity go to waste. Using all her mana, Isis covered her body with Plasma Armor. The spell wouldn't last for long, so she couldn't waste time. As soon as that was finished, she dashed toward Hades.

Hades couldn't help but frown when he saw a punch moving toward his face at insane speeds and was forced to block it with his sword. His spiritual body, alongside his sword, was pushed back several meters… that wasn't supposed to be the punch of a master mage. He assumed that Plasma Armor increased Isis's parameters quite a bit.

"Hmm? I see… you sure like to insist in the same tactics," Hades muttered when he noticed that some of his mana had been drained Isis attacked.

If Isis was even relying on that, it means that she couldn't keep Plasma Armor active for long, so Hades understood that he just had to stall for time, and eventually, Isis would self-destruct. However, Isis, more than anyone knew that, and she charged toward Hades. The Greek god of the underworld began to teleport away from Isis, but he never got too far away from her. Even though she was just flying toward him, somehow, Isis was able to predict the places where he was going to appear next, probably because of her skills with magic. In one of those times, Isis increased his speed and then landed another hit. Hades showed an annoyed expression when he blocked the attack, and his sword began to vibrate thanks to the impact… Isis probably used the time while she was pursuing him to charge Concentrated Strike. That wasn't good. Even Hades' sword was starting to lose durability.

In order to discourage her, Hades summoned some small spheres of dark energy and fired toward her, but Isis ignored those even when she was hit. Thanks to that, she had another chance to attack, and Hades used his sword to block again. However, maybe due to the fact that he got used to it, he didn't expect that Isis would teleport in the last moment to behind him. She landed an incredible punch that made Hades fell on the ground and made a massive curtain of dust rose in the desert. Weirdly enough, the curtain was only raised because of the sword since Hades didn't have a physical form at the moment. The sword was also what prevented him from keeping falling while passing through the soil. Isis frowned when she saw that… why Hades was trying so hard to hold the sword? Thanks to that stubbornness, he suffered a lot of damage… it wasn't like he could only use the sword to attack in that spiritual form.

"Oh… I get it," Isis smiled after she muttered that.

Isis flew to attack Hades again, and this time, she moved even faster. When she got close enough, Hades used Mana Barrier since he didn't want to lose his sword. Still, then he opened his eyes widely when instead of punching, she touched the barrier with both hands and enveloped it with her mana-eating pollen. That was an even nastier way to steal his mana since Mana Barrier was directly connected to his mana pool.

Hades was forced to deactivate the spell. Otherwise, Isis would only be annoying for longer, but that had been a bad move as well. Isis combined a Wind Cannon with her pollen, and then she enveloped Hades' sword with it. At that moment, Hades lost his sense of touch coming from his sword…

"Shit…" Hades muttered as he watched Isis approaching him.

Hades tried to escape and buy time to use Absolute Purification enough times to get rid of the pollen. Still, in the end, Isis grabbed his sword and prevented him from escaping. While Hades' sword canceled the effects of pollen earlier, it was due to the fact that Hades still had a body then. Now that he lost his body, his sword had become a medium that granted him the chances to use certain skills… most likely, the sword had been made using his own body, possibly his blood. That was why Hades never let the sword go, and that was why the pollen worked now… since his whole spirit was connected to the weapon.