Unrivaled Demon's Odyssey

Sophia grabbed Asteria and jumped to the sky, while Emilia was pulled down into the sea by the giant skeletal hand.

"Lady/ Emilia!" they both yelled.

Sophia flapped her wings and held Asteria tighter: "I couldn't sense its presence at all!" 

"Neither could I," Asteria informed.

The skeletal titan itself had no presence, and it couldn't be sensed, nor could it be seen through angel's sight or god's eyes as it wasn't a living being.

Earlier, Sophia, Asteria, and Emilia were able to sense danger because they were dragged into the domain; they never sensed the skeletal titan.

The right edge of the ship was destroyed as that's from where the hand pulled Emilia into the sea. However, the rest of the ship was fine and far from sinking.

Sophia landed on the ship and placed Asteria down, asking, "Are you okay?"

"I am fine, but…" Asteria looked down at the sea with a painful expression on her face.

"Argh!" Sophia gritted her teeth and sighed in frustration: "I don't care if the heavens catch me after I use my powers; I don't care if anything happens to me. But if something happened to Emilia, then I won't be able to show my face to Zeus."

Sophia turned to Asteria and uttered, "You stay here. I will go get Emilia."

Sophia dived into the sea and made her way to the bottom of the sea after locating Emilia's presence with her angel's sight.

Asteria watched Sophia dive into the sea, and stood helplessly on the ship. She cleaned her fists as she remembered what Sophia told her about herself.

'If I use my powers, then the gods and heavens will turn me into their puppet again, and I will be forced to do things I don't want to, against my will.'

Asteria was aware of what would happen if Sophia used her powers, but she was still ready to sacrifice everything and help Emilia because she didn't want Nero to hate her.

If Asteria let Sophia use her powers and become a puppet of gods, she knew she would blame herself for not doing anything and let Sophia sacrifice herself.

"I learned all those spells, skills, and abilities to protect myself and Ma from any possible danger, but deep down, I always wished I never had to use them," Asteria muttered.

"But I would rather die than watch my friends die."

Asteria's eyes turned red, and a star-like symbol appeared in her eyes.

Her demonic powers were awakening, and her body began reacting to Nero's elixir inside her, which she drank in the morning.

She jumped into the sea and lunged at the seabed to get a better look at the underwater sea.

She glanced around and noticed the fishes eating the wasted mana in the sea, which was leading the way to the titan and Emilia's location.

She quickly swam through the distance, following her instincts, and entered an underwater ruin.

There, she saw Emilia struggling to breathe, but she was fighting the titan. The titan's size was half of its original size as Emilia had cleaved it into two.

'There she is!' Asteria rushed to Emilia and saw Sophia approaching Emilia from the other side of the ship.

'Lady Emilia will run out of breath by the time Sophia reaches her. I need to—'

At that moment, Asteria remembered what Nero told her when they first met.

'You really do resemble her.'

It was indeed a bad moment to remember something irrelevant to the situation, but Asteria felt a sudden rage building up inside her body.

The star in her red eyes revolved, and Asteria found herself in front of the skeletal titan.

She grabbed the titan's finger with her thumb and index finger and muttered something.

A bright crimson light shined and covered the sea that forced Emilia and Sophia to close their eyes for a moment.

When they opened their eyes, the titan was nowhere to be seen. And the star-like symbol disappeared from Asteria's eyes as they turned hazel again.

Sophia cast barriers around them that allowed them to breathe and talk in the sea.

She rushed to Emilia and asked with a concerned look on her face, "Are you okay?"

Emilia nodded and thanked Sophia and Asteria.

Sophia hugged Emilia tightly and started crying.

Emilia was a little freaked out by that, but she realized how concerned Sophia was about her 

Emilia glanced at Asteria, who was fidgeting and averting her gaze from Emilia.

Emilia spread her arms and motioned Asteria to join in the hug.

After hugging for a while, Emilia and Sophia started fighting again, and Asteria tried to stop them.

"Shall we go to the sea now? Zeus would be worried if he comes and doesn't find any of us on the ship," Sophia scoffed as she imagined Nero's reaction.

"Yeah," Asteria nodded in agreement.

"Wait." Emilia stopped then and said with a serious look on her face, "That skeleton was a curse."

"Yeah, I noticed that. And it was an ancient curse that couldn't be simply purified by using an angel's power." Sophia turned to Asteria and asked, "How did you purity it? And what was that overwhelming crimson light?"

"I used the exorcism spell to exorcise the curse," Asteria replied.

"...! Sophia's eyes widened as she thought, 'Instead of purifying the curse, she exorcized it.'

Purifying and exorcising were similar but different at the same time. Purification relieved the curse and gave them a peaceful end, while in exorcism, the curse was cursed with a higher level curse and gave them painful and endless suffering for eternity.

'She is a part-demon, so it's in her blood to think like this. She may not realize that her thinking is evil when it comes to killing,' Sophia chuckled and patted Asteria on the head.

Sophia's ears flinched as she heard a faint whisper.

She squinted her eyes and activated her angel's sight to glance under the sea and the ruins.

"What do you see?" Emilia asked curiously.

"There is something inside the ruins. Something powerful— like a core."