Chains and Restraint

Unknown Location (Cu Chulainn's P.O.V) (Time: Shortly After the Battle)

Warping in with Heracles, Cu pushed himself back to get some distance. In his current state, Heracles was a threat and he needed to assure his own safety before he could do anything about his friend.

Suddenly a powerful roar could be heard bellowing from Heracles's throat. His rage was unending and uncontrolled. His remaining eye lacked any clarity and proceeded to look around only to focus on him, the idiot who stopped his fight.

"I'll Kill you!" he roared as his form appeared right in Cu's guard. Not reacting in time, Cu was shot back a few kilometers before skidding to a stop. It was clear that where ever they were was an open location. He honestly expected to hit a wall on the way. He didn't know where the emergency escape point was since he didn't really listen to the location. Cao Cao just gave him the marble and told him to use it if he needed a quick evacuation.

A series snapping sounds broke him out of his thoughts as Heracles's legs gave out due to the overwhelming strain of his current power boost. That didn't stop him though as he began pulling himself toward Cu with the same maddened expression as before, the speed of an angry alligator propelling him forward. It was really disturbing how committed this man was to ending his life. Before Heracles could get half way to Cu though, a massive wave of steel swords rose out of the ground and surrounded him in a ring.

"What the hell Cu!? What's up with Herc!?" A feminine voice asked.

Turning to his feminine teammate, he turned to look at her form and she was as beautiful as ever. She had blond hair and sky-blue eyes. Protecting her body was orange armor covering her school uniform. This was the owner of the sacred gear Blade Blacksmith, Jeanne D' Arc.

Next to her was another member of their little cabal, arguably their most untrusted member. It was a woman with shoulder length light blue hair worn loosely, light blue eyes, gorgeous face, long sleeved white blouse, a bluish-purple skirt, and small black shoes. This was Medea, the witch of betrayal, their newest member.

Looking toward Jeanne, he responded to her query.

"I really don't know. He's lost control of his sense of self due to his bloodline. Considering it's not supposed to act like this, I'm assuming it had something to do with her opponent cursing him in some way." He quickly responded as the sound of an explosion rocked the landscape.

There lay Heracles, his eyes burning with endless hatred. His hand reduced to a broken stump from the force he forcefully generated to break the sword wall. If he was fresh, breaking these swords would have been fine. The problem was that he had already sustained so much damage that his bones were like piles of dust holding their shape due to the divine power forcing them together. His muscles were already inoperable, his blood vessels were lacerated internally. One of the biggest contributors to his current state was the insufficient oxygen supply for his body. With his circulatory system damaged to this extent, his brain and other vital organs couldn't receive enough oxygen. Even with all that though, he was still trying to keep going.

"What the hell did they do to him? I didn't even think it was possible for someone like him to get like this?" Jeanne simply couldn't believe her eyes. Heracles had always been invincible in their eyes. Even if he didn't win, he would barely suffer any injuries in any confrontation he went into. Even then, his divine regeneration would have no trouble healing the damage. For this to happen was quite terrifying.

"There's no curse at play and he certainly doesn't appear to be under any external mental influence. It's his bloodline that's the problem. It looks like whatever was done to him lies there." Medea said with clear interest.

"How do we save him then?" Jeanne asked frantically.

"If he was at his full strength, then this would be a lot more challenging. The good part of this situation is that he's already weakened, so restraining him at this point shouldn't be too hard. Once he's restrained, I'll cast my strongest sleeping curse to keep him restrained. We'll figure out what to do with him after that's over." Medea said calmly. This was one of the reasons she was as untrusted as she was. She didn't seem to attach much emotion to anything she did, which made her comrades more uneasy than is healthy for someone who's supposed to entrust their back to her.

"Make it quick. It doesn't look like losing the arm's changed his mind about killing us." Cu interjected, trying to keep Jeanne from wasting time with her doubts.

Heracles kept pulling himself toward them with his remaining arm. His bleeding eye focused on their presence. Ironically enough, he was at his strongest state at the moment. Even if he couldn't make use of it, his power had started to reach the mid-tier of Satan class. His output could be comparable to Grayfia Lucifuge or Serefall Leviathan at this point.

Suddenly, golden chains extended from Medea's right hand and an instant later, Heracles was bound. Once done, everyone in the room could feel his divinity being suffocated under the chain's influence.

"Aargh!" Heracles futilely attempted to struggle out of the golden chains as the pain of his injuries started to come to him. Without his divinity inhibiting it, the numbing effect of his rage was subsiding and his compulsive rage turned to absolute pain.

"What are those chains!?" Jeanne asked surprised. She had never heard of chains that could restrict divinity like that.

"The chains of heaven. It's a treasure one of the previous Medea inheritors found. It shares our absolute hatred for the gods and has become one of our inherited treasures."

"That can't be free. Those kinds of treasures usually come with a curse." Cu stated knowingly.

"It's not. While it doesn't require an oath to slay all the gods, I must set my sights on one pantheon at least. While it would prefer the Mesopotamian gods to be the targets, it agreed to settle for the Greek pantheon. As the inheritor of Medea's legacy, I've also succeeded her desire for the death of the Olympians. That's my price." As she said this, her gaze didn't leave the target of her chains. With a wave of her hands, a magic circle appeared below Heracles. Slowly, it released one of her strongest sleep curses.

*Whistle* "That's one hell of a goal. That why you agreed to join our faction?" Cu asked. Seeing the Heracles situation taken care of, he realized that this was the perfect opportunity to get some information from their enigmatic comrade.

"Indeed. Cao Cao's goal was inline with my own. With his modus operandi, we would have come into conflict with them eventually." She stated simply as she retracted her chains.

"What now? I mean, Cao Cao just lost his sacred gear by all appearances." Jeanne asked having calmed down.

"It depends on who the next leader is. If I don't like them, I'll leave. If I do, I'll stay. If the position's open, I'll throw in my bid." She said as a rare smile came to her face.

"Somehow I don't think people will be too happy with a newbie as leader." Jeanne replied with a play mocking smile.

"I don't know, the lady could take us to the top." Cu said with a playful smile.

Shrugging her shoulders, Medea walked toward the sleeping Heracles to examine him. It was best to assess the damage now while they wait for Pandora to arrive and heal him.

"We'll see how everything goes. Worst case scenario, I will just go about my business and look for another group with similar interests." Medea said. With that, she leaned in to start inspecting her sleeping comrade. This would take a while.