Just as Valerie is descending closer to God of the Mountain, the latter pulled his hand back and were about to pierce a hole in her body until time suddenly crawl to a halt. Feeling a sense of foreboding, he tried to move his body to resist but a hand suddenly rests on his shoulder, stopping him in place. God of the Mountain widened his eyes in disbelief, how could this happen to him? He is a God!
"I was wondering what's taking her so long, but I see now." A nonchalant voice speaks out behind him, yet he couldn't move his head to look at the source. "Hmm... you're supposed to be a God? Wow, that's packed with souls, innocent souls at that. Sheesh, this is why I keep telling people to not eat just about anything. You could get an upset stomach!"
Of course the owner of the voice is none other than Kousuke. The moment his ring was destroyed, he was immediately informed like an instinct engraved into his body, its last location surfaced on his mind. He didn't waste a second and teleported right away. After all, there is only one reason something like that could happen, Valerie is likely in danger.
What he saw after crossing through the portal was a man surrounded with ominous aura. Looking at him gives Kousuke a strong urge to puke, that was how disgusted and violated he felt. it was awful, countless innocent spirits dwelling inside the man were scratching and reaching their hands out for freedom while screaming nonsensical gibberish. But something within the man seems to stopped them from ever achieving their goals. It acts like divinity, and even smell like one. However, unlike the usual pure light, this one is morbidly dark like that of abyss. Not even Demon God is this hideous, and that said a lot.
"Disgusting, do you even have this thing called empathy in your heart? No, I don't think you even had a heart to begin with."
God of the Mountain tried to say something but his mouth was forcefully shut by mysterious power working under different laws than what he knows, so he couldn't go through the usual loopholes. He was stunned, how could someone like this exists? Much less, coming from an unknown human.
"You must be curious, how could a weak human like me restricted someone as great as you? Well the answer is simple," the corner of his lips curled up as he continues. "skill issue bud."
"!!!"
Instead of focusing all his attention toward God of the Mountain, Kousuke went ahead and instead, healed the injuries on Valerie as his hand lit in divine light. Her expression gradually relaxed as the wounds closed up until not even a scratch leave a mark on her fair skin. She looks apologetic at him, but Kousuke simply pat her in the head.
"Are you alright? Did it hurt you elsewhere?"
"Yes, I'm fine now, Kou-Brother... but the ring, I had no choice." She replied with a remorseful look on her face. She thought she had destroyed one of his precious rings, after all, he did in fact used to worn it almost every single day before lending it to her. Valerie even considered the ring he had on his finger now might be a replacement, and poor one at that.
"Don't worry about the ring, I had plenty of those in my inventory. If not, I can make another one myself so treat it as disposable if it could save you your life," He said with genuine honesty. He didn't expect for Valerie to run into some trouble, especially something beyond her level. Her Sacred Gear makes her almost difficult to beat, but that's by normal standard. Individuals like Gods are way above that grade. Of course he was also such exception.
"Here, this time it's a pretty necklace, it would looks nicely on you."
In order to prove his words to her, Kousuke grabbed a golden necklace tied to a miniature sword from his inventory and carefully put it around her neck. Almost immediately, her disguise returns without her having to put any thought into it, as if it had been scripted to do so. Looking at her with the necklace now around her neck, he nodded approvingly.
"I was right, it does looks good on you."
"T-Thank you..." She replied shyly, a faint blush creeps on her cheeks while twirling her long sideburns as an act to hide her embarrassment, though failed miserably. It was a heartwarming scene, or would've been if not for the fact that there was a certain God staring fiercely at them with the desire of ripping them to pieces. Of course Kousuke would love to immediately suppress, or possibly obliterate them but he wanted to know what exactly happens first from Valerie.
But after hearing her side of story, he was no longer in the mood of stalling. It was obvious exactly why this God of the Mountain were awakened by Valerie and immediately became her target, it was due to her Longinus. More specifically, the authority over souls. For a God to acquire that kind of domain, they needed to be the God of Hell/Underworld. However, that position had already been occupied by Hades, the Greek God. This means if other Gods wanted to attain such authority, they will have to usurp the current ones.
Yet clearly, God of the Mountain doesn't have enough strength to completely trample the Greek Pantheon. This is exactly why it would be dangerous if Valerie information were to be exposed widely, she will immediately be branded and become a high level target. No Gods would wanted to miss such an easy way to attain that highly sought after domain that would makes them even stronger. To them, she would be a walking piece of cake.
"I was thinking of just reducing you to atom, but on second thought, you might be useful," Kousuke said with a mysterious smile. He envisioned a certain picture in his head, then nodded. "Mm, I can see it. With Doggy by your side, you will look even scary~"
Slowly but surely, he approached the God of the Mountain. For some reasons, the latter begins to feels some kind of latent danger possessed within the human before him as he stepped closer. It was much more ominous, vile, and highly dangerous than THEM. But there was also another kind of energy within him as well, clashing eternally against that. It was pure and honorable. Rather than a human, Kousuke was akin to a walking paradox.
A singularity that shouldn't exist.