Classless Ascension

But then they saw something by Josh's side, a fallen ally.

There laid a rat corpse, and next to it….

"WTF?!!"

All that personally knew Josh suddenly froze. No, all that knew his invincible rat, aka the first pet ever to have godly in its name; it was THAT amazing!

Yet, all that remained of it was a corpse, one full of bloody gashes. Next to it, there was…nothing? It seemed as if it had spontaneously died? A phantom menace, perhaps?!

No, that wasn't it.

"Quack?" A small duck waddled its way forward, its tiny beak bloodied, strands of gray fur coming out of the side.

"Wait, no… don't tell me?!" Kasha couldn't believe her eyes.

But there was no time to be absent-minded. The Mutants were already pressing the attack! Their claws and teeth were as sharp as their desire for human flesh, more beast than human.

— Hiss! Lunge! —

"Goddamn rodent! So what if you're tough!!" an angry Kasha "yeeted" the formidable enemy away, punching it with such power that it was sent airborne.

Still, that didn't fix the main issue.

Even if they could temporarily halt them, they needed to inflict way more damage if they wanted to save D-23. There remained only one hope… "I hope you get this summoning thing quick, Josh." She grumbled.

The mana was still storming around him crazily, forming a gigantic tornado, yet this only made him even bigger of a target. Luckily, she wasn't alone.

"Protect the Guild Leader!"

"Show those Bastards who's Boss!"

"Fear not! Just imagine them naked!!"

Naked?! Most already were! Disregarding the silly war cries, the entire school was showing such zeal that it was almost as impressive as the swirling mana disturbance, almost…

But then there was a problem, a huge one at that! Everyone was watching the access to the stage….but no one thought to monitor the air! That's when it started raining enemies.

Where had they even come from? A bloody stealth jet?!

Turns out that some of the "smart" but not that intelligent students had been copying Kasha, but instead of launching them outward, they had thrown them toward their guild leader!

"Oh crap!" That's all that Kasha uttered. Her body moved before she could even finish cursing, making it in time to block Josh's body with hers.

She arrived there on instinct, a primal desire to protect stemming in her heart, yet what the heck was she supposed to do?! She was akin to a small rowboat trying to stop a typhoon!

This wasn't just risking her life. It was throwing it away entirely! Yet, even then, she only gave a self-deprecating smile, not moving out of the way.

"You better finish your summoning, or I'll haunt you." She growled, uttering what would likely be her last words. But before she could move, there was a sudden flash of yellow.

"Quack!"

The mutants barely understood what was happening, but they felt the pain; they felt it so goddamn vividly! Their shell-shocked faces now had bleeding gashes in them.

— ROAR! HISS! —

The injuries weren't actually that deep; it was barely surface level. Yet, this flesh wound had an incredible impact. It sent the beasts tremoring with fear.

Before they could regain their senses, Kasha's entire body glowed bright green as she dashed toward them. This time she sent powerful punches right at their faces!

— CRACKLE! —

What would have usually been a waste of time actually produced results!

The green energy seeped into the enemies, invading their bodies and suddenly BOOM ….making them explode from the inside! The latter vomited blood as they keeled over. DEAD!

Mutants? Dead?! Holy Crap!

The entire battlefield seemed to freeze.

The enemies suddenly weren't as confident as before as they gazed upon their fallen brethren. Yet the one that had made this possible was still quietly quacking by the side peacefully.

"Quack?" Never had a duck felt such intense stares…

But a second later, the focus was taken away from it as its master's entire body began blowing a deep purple, one that none of the parties present could have described. It felt…godly?

Josh slowly opened his eyes, ones that seemed as if they could peer through faraway galaxies. "Come back to me, old friend." He slowly raised his hand…

That's when D-23 began shaking.

It seemed as if the world itself was rejecting the craziness that was going on there.

Then it all settled, not that it didn't want to reject it anymore, but simply that it wasn't able to. Instead, the very fabric of its space began collapsing on itself.

Large dimensional fissures opened one after the other, every sane being unconsciously backing off…all but Josh.

"Tch— Making such a show out of it? I thought Orc Pride was a little less over the top than that?" He chuckled, seemingly ignorant of the danger.

Kasha wanted to grab him and leave, but she couldn't. There was something in there. She could feel it, some ancient aura. Against such power, she was utterly insignificant; everyone was.

Only he remained calm….but then frowned.

There was something utterly familiar with that aura, and yet…

— BUZZ! WOOSH! SHIIIII! —

IT came out.

The humans couldn't comprehend what THAT was.

IT was as if a phantom, with a blurry form that didn't look remotely real, yet it indubitably was. Just its presence was enough to make many shit themselves at that very moment.

It gazed at Josh with its three golden eyes, with a forlorn expression, as if missing him, yet in that gaze there was also unwavering confidence and… sympathy?

|~ℌ𝔬𝔴 𝔐𝔞𝔫𝔶 𝔗𝔦𝔪𝔢𝔰 ℌ𝔞𝔰 ℑ𝔱 𝔅𝔢𝔢𝔫?~|

|~𝔜𝔬𝔲 𝔏𝔬𝔰𝔱 ℌ𝔢𝔯 𝔜𝔢𝔱 𝔄𝔤𝔞𝔦𝔫?~|

|~𝔗𝔥𝔦𝔰 𝔗𝔦𝔪𝔢 𝔉𝔬𝔯 𝔖𝔲𝔯𝔢~|

The words were gentler than any he had heard before. Yet, there was a hint of melancholy to them, as if they had somehow had the same conversation many times before.

He could feel it; she had the answer he needed! He was sure he had never met any such being, and yet it felt so familiar, so very familiar…

"Argg! My head!"

"What the fuck is that?!"

"Make it stop! Kill me, someone!"

By the side, the humans and mutants alike were screaming as they pulled their hair so strongly that they bled….and all were recoiling away from the voice in terror.

How could they fear such a soothing voice? Josh wanted to ask so many things, but he found himself at a loss for words, as if he couldn't bring himself to tarnish their meeting.

— BZZZZ! Rumble! —

More and more dimensional fissures were opening by the second.

With one last reluctant glance, the being finally floated away. Josh tried to stop her. So what if his students feared her? So what if her presence would destroy this world? She should stay…

As soon as she was gone, the portals began mending themselves. The world was already beginning to recuperate like a ripple on a clear lake, already fading away.

The people could finally breathe, but none wanted to fight anymore. The mutants retreated as quickly as possible, and the D.L. students all gazed toward the stage.

What had they even survived?! A certain pink-haired tech magnate humphed next to Josh, her curiosity exploding like fireworks.

"What was that?! How was it so powerful?! Am I crazy, or did it seem like you two knew each other? Where did you meet?!" She asked a barrage of questions to a Josh that still seemed utterly out of it.

He didn't even turn his head to face her; he was still looking at where the being had appeared as he absentmindedly replied.

"Thanatos…"

"She's a good girl…."

"Goddess of the Dead…"

"We meet whenever I die…."

He said the last sentence with a long sigh and yet great detachment. It was as if he was just discussing the weather. None dared to make a noise as they processed it all.

What the actual fuck?! He didn't seem to be lying either?! Anyone saying such BS would have been laughed at as being insane, and yet…. This was such a Josh thing to do!

Just as they were inwardly trembling, he came back to his senses. "Sigh. Shame, I failed." He shook his head, shedding a tear for his orc brother. He then turned to his students, puzzled.

"Why do you all look like you've seen a ghost?" he gently asked.

Ghost?! They hadn't just seen a ghost, but a bloody goddess! Even now, their ears were still bleeding from having "heard her voice" (only a garbled mess for them).

That wasn't even counting the damn duck that was peacefully napping by the side that could take on the mutants for some obscure reason. There was so much wrong with this picture!

"You really don't remember? Thanatos?" Kasha asked.

"Thanatos? Isn't that the god of death in Earth's mythology? What happened while I was trying to summon? We were attacked, right?"

Had he already lost all memory related to this event? There was only one thing to do in such a case: put it in the "just Josh things" and get over it.

"Oh, nothing much. We won…all thanks to that duck," Kasha pointed toward the sleepy creature.

"Duck?" Josh grabbed the thing, the latter kicking the air cutely, signaling its master to let it sleep. "This duck?" It looked cuddly at best and not threatening in the least.

"I think so?" Even the ones that had seen it firsthand were now doubting their memory.

"Sigh, guess we'll slowly figure it out. As for now, we need to—"

[Announcement! World Stability Greatly Damaged!]

[New Otherworldly Invaders Now Have Access!]

[New Climbing Requirements! Hurry Up!]

"What?!" Josh was the only one to wonder why the world had suddenly become unstable; all the others couldn't help but gawk at him with dead fish eyes.

What now?!…