AN: Surprise upload of a new/not really new series! That' right, it's a DRE Vol. 1 spinoff focusing on the underbelly of the Grigori, or more specifically a group of battle maidens that take on top secret missions. Don't worry, DRE Vol. 1, Vol. 0, and Vol. 2 are still in the works and I'll update Vol. 1 as soon as I'm done with finals. Other than that, please enjoy this new adventure.
SS 1 (Eidolon Side): Move out, Eidolon!
"Aaaahhh..."
A tanned woman, standing around seven feet tall with crimson scales covering the majority of her legs, back and forearms, sighed as her long, scaly tail swishes behind her, ablaze with a red-hot fire.
"So boorrreeed! How much longer are we gonna hafta wait? I wanna fight something already!" She complained to her companions.
"You know we aren't supposed to make a move if the boss isn't here, firebutt, so be patient."
It was a fairly average looking Japanese schoolgirl that answered the Salamander-morph. Her full height reached around five feet five inches and she had long, raven-black hair that reached to her hips. If it wasn't for the constant, momentary formation of ice crystals around her body it would have been easy to mistake this Yuki-onna as just another human.
"U-u-um... you don't think something could've happened to her, d-do you..?"
The timid voice that raised its concern originated from a six feet tall girl with only white bandages covering her unmentionables. Her most prominent features were her almost F-cup breasts that threatened to spill out of the frail bindings. The rest of her body was littered with stitches and scars than runs from head to toe while her face was mostly covered by her long, violet bangs.
"Jeez, speak up a little, would'ya? You're a fucking indestructible giant so what the fuck're you afraid of?"
The final girl who was busy tapping away at her smartphone finally looked up and spoke. Her appearance was that of an elementary school girl, but her attitude held all the elegance of a sailor. She was dressed in a gothic lolita style as a black umbrella lay propped up against a tree next to her.
"Tch, I don't like it. Rei is never late. It doesn't make sense for her to be late this time," the Salamander girl growled as she performed a couple of practice swings with her wicked-looking curved sword.
At that moment, a rustle sounded from a nearby brush that made all four of the girls jump and turn towards the source, ready for battle.
The Salamander hefted her blade, the Yuuki-onna conjured multiple icicles from the air, the Zombie girl raised her fists and stepped in to the very front of the group, and finally the Vampire girl drew a brown card from a holder strapped to her arm.
All of a sudden, a silhouette burst out of the bushes, covered in twigs and leaves, gasping for a breath. The figure was clearly female, and the group relaxed once they saw the distinctive long, flowing, white hair the figure had.
"Rei, about time you showed up!" The Salamander girl said with a heavy sigh. "Jeez. I almost took off your head right there."
"Ahaha! Sorry, sorry!" The new arrival apologized sheepishly as she stood up to her full height. "I kinda ran into car troubles on the way here so I had to run the rest of the way."
"C-Car troubles?! Onee-sama, are you hurt?! Don't tell me you got into an accident?!" The Vampire girl exclaimed as she hurriedly began fussing over Rei, trying to find any injuries.
"W-Woah! Hey! I'm fine so there's no need to check me, Elizabeth!"
As Rei struggled to pluck the fawning Vampire off of her, the Salamander moved to help and grabbed Elizabeth by the collar of her dress before hauling her into the air.
"Awright, that's enough, Liz. We don't need your crazy bipolar lovin' right now. We have a job to do."
"Phew, thanks, Karma," Rei thanked the Salamander as she brushed off the remainder of foliage off of her hair. "Alright, to business. Lets go over the mission one more time, shall we?"
""Right!""
The four monster girls immediately lined up before Rei and saluted.
"Alright, our mission today is infiltrate into a suspected witch's stronghold and retrieve the Necronomicon that has been stolen from the Academy. It is safe to assume that the witch has already managed to break the seal placed upon the grimoire and has already begun some of the rituals written in it. As this is the case, Hasu, you'll be taking point as usual."
"Y-Yes, ma'am!" The Zombie girl answered affirmatively.
"Next, Yukiko, you'll be using your magic to clear a way through anything that might try to stop us."
"Roger, can do," the Yuki-onna said with a nod.
"Elizabeth, I want you to summon Beowulf to help protect Yukiko in case any enemies get past Hasu."
"Yes, Onee-sama!" Elizabeth answered while pulling out a card and placing it on the ground. A bright light emanated from it before a towering werewolf appeared from it.
"Finally, Karma. You and I will be heading off the rear if the vanguard needs support, then one of us will move to support. Other than that, we'll be watching the back for any attacks."
"Tch, I was hopin' to be at the front, but I guess this'll do..."
"Remember everyone, we'll be going into a witch's lair with minimal intel. The fact that she managed to break into the Academy's vault and successfully steal a relic from it should show that she's extremely powerful. Don't let your guard down and always move to support each other if needed!"
""Right!""
Rei smiled and nodded before drawing the rapier strapped to her side.
"Let the operation begin!"
Immediately, the group fell into formation and began breaking through the forest towards their target; a simple looking wooden cottage.
With Hasu in the lead, the trees stood no chance as she barrelled through them with her body, uprooting them and sometimes completely smashing them to pieces. The rest of the group followed closely behind her as a thin layer of ice projected by Yukiko protected them from any splinters that flew their way.
It wasn't very long before the first traps began activating. Explosions broke the otherwise calm and quiet night, and tree branches sharpened and tried to spear the five intruders. Through it all, Hasu continued sprinting forward with reckless abandon, shrugging off the many traps that sprang to life as if they were nothing but particles of dust.
Once the group finally broke through into the clearing that contained the singular cottage, they were looking none the worse for wear. They continued moving across the clearing and stopped at the entrance of the cottage.
Hasu looked back at Rei who gave a nod of approval before kicking the door in and stepping inside. The rest of the group quickly followed her inside and wasn't surprised to find that the interior of the cottage didn't match the exterior at all. After all, in many cases where they had to eliminate these powerful witches, the witch would be able to create a Workshop to perform their magic. In this case, the inside of the cottage had been turned into a dungeon of sorts. Instead of the logs that made up the walls of the cabin, they were surrounded by cold cobblestone on all sides with the only illumination being wisps of fire lining the walls. The ceiling was high above them, but the walls were rather close. If they stood shoulder by shoulder, only three of them could fit in the hallway at a time, Rei estimated.
"My, my, it seems a group of insects have wandered into my home."
The group jumped as they heard a disembodied voice come from all around them.
"Welcome to my humble abode. My name is Milk, its a pleasure to meet you all," the voice continued to say. "I'm afraid I am fairly busy right now so I won't be able to attend to you personally. However, I'm sure my servants would be more than happy to show you the way out."
On command, a sea of blue flames burst forward in front of the group. When the wisps died down there was a seemingly unending army of undead creatures crowding the hallway.
"Tch," Karma frowned and clicked her tongue as she stared down the mass of bodies. "She's tryin' to buy time."
"Then we shall simply plough through them!" Elizabeth retorted.
The group exploded in movement with one fluid motion. As with before, Hasu charged through the wall of flesh, either trampling the shambling corpses underneath her or flinging them into the fair for Yukiko or Elizabeth to pick off with their magic. Occasionally a swarm of enemies would appear behind the group but they were swiftly destroyed by Rei and Karma.
However, it was like both the corpses and the hallway had no end to them.
"This is getting nowhere," Rei complained with a grunt as she stabbed through a particularly mutilated corpse of a dog.
"It's like we're just going around in circles," Yukiko pointed out as she froze a group of headless skeletons for Hasu to bash through.
"Circles..." Rei mumbled before suddenly snapping her fingers as she came to a conclusion.. "That's it! A witch's Workshop only follows the will of its creator. If the creator is powerful enough, they can even change the very laws the world operates on. In this situation she must have created a looping space. However, if it was indeed a complete loop, the witch would have no way of entering and exiting her Workshop. That means..."
The charismatic leader pirouetted and kicked a femur bone away that had come flying at her before turning to face Hasu.
"Hasu! Start breaking down all the walls!" Rei ordered the Zombie girl. "Karma, take over Hasu's place!"
"Y-Yes, ma'am!"
"Awright!"
Even though Hasu was clearly reaching the limits of her endurance, she happily complied and began busting down the cobblestone walls as the others covered her. The destruction continued for the better part of an hour and the rest of the group was gradually approaching their limits as well. However, they had made no progress at all in finding where the witch had hidden.
"Shit! How much magic does this bitch have?!" Karma cried out in frustration as she cut down another swathe of enemies with a single swing of her curved blade.
"I-Indeed," Elizabeth added in between heavy breathes as she used her summoned beast to steady herself. "We have already come back to the point where we began breaking walls and yet we haven't found the witch yet."
"Hau... N-No more..." Hasu whined as she sluggishly knocked away a cluster of undead foxes clinging onto her.
"At this rate, we will use up all our energy fighting these minions..." Yukiko finished with a grim look on her face.
Rei chewed on her lip as she tried to think of a way out of this mess. They had already smashed down all the walls, leaving them standing on a seemingly floating platform with a roof over their heads.
"Wait, that's it! Yukiko, concentrate fire on the roof! Use everything you have to bring it down!"
Upon hearing the order, the ice maiden immediately redirected her attacks towards the stone roof using balls of ice to try to break it apart.
"Ah! I see something!"
Everybody looked up at the hole Yukiko made at her announcement and all saw the same thing. Instead of the same, dark abyss that surrounded them, the hole seemed to lead to a room of sorts.
"Alright everybody, let's go!" Rei commanded.
Karma grabbed the staggering Hasu and leapt through the hole with a single powerful jump. The summoned werewolf did the same with Elizabeth and followed after the two while Yukiko flew up with her magic. Finally, Rei leapt upwards and made it through, landing next to her comrades.
Standing in front of the group to greet them stood a stereotypical witch with a pointy hat, robes, and a beautiful visage paired with a curvy body. Almost all witches were narcissistic and cared immensely for their looks so they use potions and spells to maintain them. Not to mention it helps them whenever they need to collect a male's life essence for their spells.
"My, my, it seems our uninvited guests have managed to make it all the way to my Workshop," the witch said sultrily. "However, you're too late. The ritual is complete and you will be the first to be sacrificed!"
From out of the shadows, a lumbering form crawled forward and slowly made its way into the light. The abomination was met with a variety of reactions from the group when it became fully visible.
Calling it a creature would be a disservice to the horror it presented. It was an amalgamation of hundreds of rotting corpses shambling and moaning in a twisted sort of harmony. All together it formed a vaguely human shape with a central torso with stubby legs and long arms that it used to support itself.
"We-are-LegIon-comE-join-Us..."
"How grotesque," Elizabeth commented while covering her nose. "Is this abomination really a result of one of the rituals in that book?"
Rei shrugged and readied her rapier. "Only the cursed ones that opened the book know the contents and they always end up dead so nobody can know for sure."
"Hmph, whatever, let's just kill these two already! I've been waiting all night for this."
Roaring, an aura of fire appeared around Karma's body as she charged at the monster.
"Wait, Karma! Don't go charging off on your own!" Rei shouted after the salamander girl before turning to the others. "Hasu, you stay back and protect Yukiko and Elizabeth as they attack with magic. Karma, Beowulf and I will take over from here!"
"R-Roger!"
Still looking exhausted, the zombie girl picked herself up off the ground and stood at the ready in front of the two spellcasters.
The leader then ran into the fray where Karma was recklessly hacking away at the limbs of the monster.
"Bloody Rondo!" The vampire girl shouted the spell as she made a small cut on her index finger.
Elizabeth's werewolf summon howled as blood poured forth from her wound and enveloped the beast, transforming its fur and its color from a matted midnight black into a spiky crimson red. It bounded forward and leapt onto the torso of the monster, its fur spearing into the flesh as it began tearing away at its prey with its claws and teeth.
Meanwhile, Yukiko had frozen the floor and caused ice to form around Legion's legs to immobilize as she continuously peppered it with icicles.
Although, even under the combined attacks of the group the monster didn't seem like it getting weaker. In fact each time one of them did any form of damage to it, it would simply regenerate the corpses that were lost from seemingly out of nowhere.
"Hah!" The witch scoffed as she leaned against her cauldron with a confident smirk. "It's useless. You're all nothing but insects under Legion. After all, you can't destroy something that's immortal. That's like saying you can kill a god."
Rei smiled at those words as she dodged under one of Legion's flailing arms.
"Well, it's a good thing I'm known as the God Killer then," she said as she backed away from the monstrosity. "Now that I've gathered enough information, I can finally devise a plan to kill this thing."
"Wh-What?!" The witch reeled in shock after the silver-haired beauty's announcement before regaining her composure. "Hah! You're just bluffing, aren't you?"
Ignoring the witch, Rei went on to deliver new orders to her subordinates.
"Everyone, focus your attacks at one point in the torso! Drill straight through and don't let up!"
""Roger!""
With practiced fluidity, the team members moved to carry out their new orders. Karm adopted a firm stance right in front of the abomination and began hacking away at the flesh, Elizabeth ordered her summon to support the salamander girl as she used the blood enhanced werewolf to shoot spikes into Legion, Yukiko diverted the majority of the ice used for attacking into bonds that also locked the monster's arms and finally Hasu used her body to deflect any of the magic attacks that the witch now began throwing frantically.
During all this, Rei had sheathed her blade and was now waiting patiently for the right moment to strike.
"Everything has a weakness," she stated. "There exists no such magic in the world that would render something completely invincible. All golems have a core that needs to be destroyed to stop its functions. This one is no different."
In almost no time at all her comrades had dug a hole straight through the mass of flesh, bearing its singular, pulsing heart to the world.
"Devour: Absolute Predation!"
As Rei stretched out her arm, a black mass of matter enveloped it and transformed into a giant snake head that sped towards the center of the monstrosity. Its jaws opened and snapped shut on top of the core of the monster before tearing it out.
The amalgamation known as Legion wailed collectively as the corpses immediately began to collapse into a pile now that the source of its strength had disappeared.
"I-Impossible!" The witch cried in fear as she scrambled to try to get away. "It was supposed to be immortal! The core was supposed to be indestructible! How?! How did you kill it?!"
Rei smiled pleasantly as she confidently strode up to the panicking witch.
"Have you ever heard of Sacred Gears?" She asked.
"S-Sacred Gear... Y-You mean... Just now..."
"Ding, ding, ding! Correct! I own the Sacred Gear known as Absolute Predator. Its name says it all. It's a Sacred Gear that can devour anything and everything. Non-organic and organic, animals and oxygen, and gods and atoms. As long as it has a physical presence in the world, I can devour it and assimilate it."
The witch screamed in fear after hearing and this and proceeded to hurl hexes at the slowly advancing woman. Undaunted, she continued walking while slowly drawing her rapier as Hasu used her body to defend Rei's.
"We are the executioners," she began chanting as the blade of her jewelled rapier began glowing with a faint, white light. "We are the defenders of humanity. With blade in hand, we shall deliver swift justice to the evils of the night."
With a flourish, Rei pulled back her arm and prepared to stab through the witch, aiming for her heart.
"Judgement has come."
In a flash, Rei had dashed forward and speared the witch through with her weapon.
"Verdict: Execution."
The woman breathed a sigh of relief as the body of the witch burst into flames and burned down into a white ash.
"Witch Hunt complete. Good work everyone!" Rei exclaimed cheerfully as she sheathed her rapier and turned back towards her comrades.
"Heh. Nothin' to it," Karma said with a smirk. "These chumps never stand a chance against you, boss."
"Yes, but... I'm exhausted from that gauntlet of monsters..." Yukiko complained with a small sigh as created an ice chair before flopping down onto it.
"Things could have turned really bad if Rei-san wasn't here," Hasu mumbled as she crashed face down onto the floor.
"That's right! Our success is all due to Onee-sama's tactical genius!" Elizabeth finished happily as she clung to the silver-haired woman.
Chuckling to herself, Rei quickly dislodged the Vampire and shook her head.
"That's not true. It's because of everyone's efforts here that we make it through each mission. Karma's berserker-like nature makes it easy for us to cleave through enemies, Yukiko's ice magic is both an incredibly useful ranged attack as well as support, Hasu's indestructibility protects us all from attacks and finally, Elizabeth's summoning magic and blood magic make an extremely versatile combo."
Standing in front of the exhausted group triumphantly, Rei placed a hand over her heart and spoke.
"That's what makes us an unstoppable team," she said. "That's what makes us Eidolon."
"Chief..."
"Rei..."
"Rei-san..."
"Rei-sama..."
Suddenly, all at once the girls bursted out laughing.
"H-Hey, wait! Why are you all laughing?!" Rei cried indignantly as her face flushed red.
"Well, hey, you know..." Karma said in between giggles.
"That was a bit cheesy, don't you think?" Yukiko finished for her.
"I-I think it was wonderful!" Hasu added uncertainly.
"That's what makes you special, Rei-sama," Elizabeth finished happily.
Rei simply stared at the girls incredulously before she began laughing along as well.
Eidolon, the name of the specialized squad of elites that Rei herself created. She had travelled the world and handpicked her allies from various locations. They made for the strongest team not because of their strength, but because of their cohesion as a unit.
-Database-
Name: Rei Lumin
Age: 23
Sex: Female
Ability: Absolute Predator – A Sacred Gear that allows the user to control an extension of themselves in order to devour and assimilate any existence in the universe.
-Further information is restricted to authorized personnel
Name: Karma
Age: Approximately 25
Sex: Female
Ability: Salamander Birth – Possessing the blood of a salamander, a lizard with powerful flame abilities that resides in volcanoes, it strengthens Karma's resilience to heat while also allowing her to breathe fire. Her scales are highly resistant to damage and her muscles are stronger than ordinary humans.
Name: Yukiko Himeragi
Age: 17
Sex: Female
Ability: Strongest Yuuki-onna – Much like other Yuuki-onna, she possesses the ability to control and form ice at will. However, she has the strongest powers of a Yuuki-onna her age ever recorded in history, making it somewhat hard to control for her.
Name: Hasu Kirsche
Age; 19
Sex: Female
Ability: No Longer Human – Due to extensive body modifications and necromancy, Hasu has been transformed into a psuedo-immortal. He body is extremely resistant to all forms of damage and she will not die even if her heart is pierced or her head is severed making her nearly invincible.
Name: Elizabeth Bathory
Age: 256
Sex: Female
Ability: Bloody Vampire – Being a full-fledged vampire gives Elizabeth all the abilities and demerits other vampires have with a focus on familiars, but being a direct descendant of Elizabeth Bathory also gives her the ability to control blood.