Faustian Contract
Disclaimer: I do not own Super Smash Brothers. That goes to Nintendo. I also do not own Queen's Blade that is owned by Hobby Japan. The only characters I own are those from the Golden Land, angels from Skyworld including the royal bodyguards, Angel Assembly and archangels along with all the other angels and of course the witch hunters. There is also the Guardian of Love Juliet who I own. And for this story I own the Goddess Ala here.
Summary: When Dunban was a child, he made a pact with a beautiful demon who would eventually drag his soul to hell when the pact was finished. The contract had been way overdue and only now does she appear and drag his soul to hell. There is only 4 hours before Dunban is officially declared dead. Not wanting Dunban to die, Shulk joins with Pit, Riki and Magnus to save his father figure. The region of hell is different from usual forcing Pit to recruit a demon under someone he would rather not talk to in order to guide the Smashers through Nav to save Dunban before his soul is eaten or worse...
Pairing: Magnus/Dunban, Pit/Airi, Husband/Aldra, Hades/Juliet (OC) and implied Robin/Shulk and Ganondorf/Palutena
Rated: M (for mature) but E (for explicit on Archive or Our Own)
Genre: Suspense, Romance, Drama, Humor, Adventure, Family and Friendship with some Hurt/Comfort
Warning: Swearing, extreme violence, sexual violence, sexual kinks (hypnosis, tentacles, light vore etc.) and unintentional OOC
Well, I really wanted to do a Magnus/Dunban fic. Normally, I'm helping Aria push the pairing in her fics to the point that it's a thing now instead of writing them myself and this will be my first attempt while putting this in a new category called The Slavic Arc on Archive. Enjoy!
For further reference: "Faustian (adj.): of, relating to, resembling, or ... made or done for present gain without regard for future cost or consequences"
Chapter 1: The First Hour (Literal Time Waster)
Everyone had their off days…and this was probably the worse of the bunch for the majority of the Smashers.
Outside of Smash Brothers Mansion, a few Smashers particularly Pit, Shulk and Palutena were waiting outside the gate. Joining them were the two assist trophies Magnus and Riki. There were other Smashers waiting with them too particularly Dark Pit, Lucina, the Robin twins and Rosalina. Viridi and Phosphora were also lingering next to Palutena. A few of the Smashers who had rooms in the front of the mansion could be seen peeking out the window. Master and Crazy Hand were nowhere to be seen, but it was better this way. Palutena didn't want them to know how much she might have screwed up indirectly that could seriously get her in trouble.
Shulk was pacing around restlessly despite Riki telling his Homs friend to calm down. The blond didn't respond but refused to take the little Heropon's advice. Rob wondered if he should speak to the Monado boy, but ended up supporting the light angel with his healing magic. Pit had no idea that Rob had medical skills, but Robin admitted that he probably switched his class more than she did back in their world. This benefitted the angel who had just received a serious beatdown when he attempted to storm the Underworld alone with just Palutena guiding his Power of Flight.
Pit did not want to think about how he wasted an entire hour on an impossible rescue mission. Hades might as well have said, "Your damsel is in another Underworld!" Of course, Hades wasn't the guy who would tell Pit straight out that the person he was trying to save wasn't even in that Underworld.
The angel groaned remembering how awful it was to go to the Underworld and how the Power of Flight was wasted as a result.
Pit's only reason for entering the Underworld in the first place was a sudden attack from the Underworld. Hades may have been defeated and he might have settled down in the sense of recruiting allies and restoring himself to his former glory, but apparently ambushes were still a thing even if Master Hand had made it clear that any affairs that Palutena and Viridi had would need to be settled in their world.
The target should have been the angels or the Goddesses that stayed in the mansion. The demon hand that came out of nowhere wasn't interested in them. In fact, the demon hand crept into the assist trophy section where it was searching for the rooms where Smashers technically not classified as assists were. The hand only wanted one Homs soul. That soul surprisingly was Dunban.
He was caught off guard. According to Riki, the hand ripped Dunban's soul from his body and fled into the darkness. If Palutena listened to Rosalina's advice to wait until more information came up, they probably would have realized sooner that Hades honestly had nothing to do with this and the kidnapper was a foreign deity from another realm.
They would not find that out later until Pit ventured into the Underworld without hesitation. He may not have liked the Homs in Smash Brothers Mansion, but if they got into the angel versus demon affairs that have been going on, then he had the duty to rescue him.
The Underworld had changed in such a short amount of time from when Pit previously fought the Lord of the Underworld. The normally red sky was more of a purple color. It was almost calming in a sense. The Underworld army overall appeared to be less hostile than normal. As a result, unless they shot at the white angel or if they crashed into him, Pit did not shoot his arrow. Instead he would wait to focus his energy on Hades who was the main culprit in his mind.
Suffice to say, to see Hades in the open loafing around was something Pit should not have been surprised with. Palutena noted that he seemed to be waiting for someone, but who could he be waiting for when he was his big colossus self in the Underworld. He could also be heard projecting his voice to his minions that were probably nearby.
"Days, dear! How is that weapon going?"
Pit flinched at the nickname used for someone that he loathed to this day (but was only recently starting to get over his traumatic past).
"Hades…leave me alone. I'm trying to play chess here."
"Oh, you're going to win anyway, so you might as well work on it."
"Hades, you have a date! Worry about not fucking up instead of nagging me to make a weapon to hit the angels with randomly! Plus…Medusa is good."
Palutena visibly flinched on her side of things hearing Medusa. What was Hades planning?
"Hades, your lack of respect still angers me." Medusa could be heard snarling. "I want to stay dead, but I get revived for this?"
"My apologies for Hades, Medusa. His personality hasn't gotten any better since your last death."
Medusa could be heard snarling as a smack could be heard followed by a shriek from Daedalus. Hades chuckled hearing Daedalus let out a long string of curse words.
"WHAT THE HELL! THOSE SNAKES HURT!"
"Maybe you should word things more carefully. I don't enjoy my time playing chess after being resurrected. In fact, I'm going to take your queen now."
"HEY THAT MOVE IS ILLEGAL!"
"In reality Daedalus, this move is very legal. You just played poorly after nearly being bitten in the crotch." A robotic voice explained calmly.
"SHUT UP TINKER!"
Pit wanted to turn back suddenly, but saving Dunban was top priority.
"HEY! HADES!"
Normally Hades would follow up with shouting Pit's name but he looked up thinking it was someone else. He frowned seeing the white angel flying toward him with a weapon.
"Juliet? Oh…its only Pitty."
"No…battle cry?"
"No. I'm bugging your old man while I wait for Juliet. She's late. Probably her mother being possessive again."
Daedalus could be heard groaning hearing his son's voice especially hearing him declare war on Hades…again.
"HADES! IF YOU DO NOT RETURN DUNBAN'S SOUL, I WILL BE FORCED TO DEFEAT YOU AGAIN!"
Hades could be heard groaning as he stood up. "If it's a battle you want Pitty, it will be a battle you get. Pretty Palutena, you really chose a bad time to attack me."
"You chose a bad time to take someone's soul underneath my nose." Palutena growled.
"I don't see what the issue is of a soul coming down here. Souls come to me all the time."
"His soul was forcibly removed! Only you can do that!" Pit exclaimed.
"I can?"
The angel captain was tired dealing with this obnoxious God and proceeded to shoot him. Immediately the Underworld shook from Hades' rushing toward Pit in an attempt to finish things as quickly as possible. During this rather one sided battle due to Hades' not really focusing and Pit not doing as much damage as he would have hoped, Daedalus and Medusa were near the end of their chess game. Daedalus thought he could make a turnaround, but when he lost, he ended up flipping the chessboard with such force that it hits Pit in the face.
"RAGE QUIT! RAGE QUIT!" The robotic voice named Tinker announced.
"I WOULD HAVE WON IF YOUR SNAKE DIDN'T BITE ME!"
"Excuses…"
Palutena wanted to speak to Medusa, but she obviously wasn't in the mood. Although…she did note that the tone of voice she had when seeing Daedalus lose his cool was lighter…as if she was enjoying herself.
Pit didn't know how long he was fighting Hades, but it was longer than five minutes. Once the Power of Flight ran out, Palutena gave him the Wings of Pegasus to use to continue the flight battle. The platforms in this section of the Underworld were too small for him to fight on and Pit had to remember that Daedalus and Medusa were hiding somewhere. Chances are they were in the Underworld Castle that was not in view.
A half hour in and that was when Juliet finally showed up. She was the pretty Guardian of Love that worked under the Goddess of Love Ceres (who was the mother of Viridi). When you looked at Juliet, you had a feeling that she belonged to the Underworld instead of the realm that Ceres resided in with her color scheme. She had short, snow white hair and green eyes. The gothic feel that came from her Shinto outfit was there and only in the Underworld did the hearts on her attire shine brightly the closer she got to Hades.
"Hades, why did you not say you did not have the soul?" Juliet questioned causing Hades to stop all of his actions as if he got caught trying to take a cookie from the cookie jar. "All of this shouting I heard when I come down about a soul being taken and you could have just said no soul that matched the description of a Homs fit."
Pit stopped what he was doing as if the realization hit him. Palutena had the same idea as they both shouted, "HADES!"
Hades just gave them his troll smile as a reaction. "Oops, I did it again."
And this is where the story starts. Pit really hated how Hades made him waste all that time fighting him when Dunban wasn't there in the first place. Being told that a foreign Goddess from a realm he never heard of snatched Dunban away irritated him because that meant more time was wasted trying to pinpoint the location of the realm. This was made worse how no one knew what the Goddess' name was and that Palutena was spending so much time taking Pit back to the mansion and then running a mad search on where Dunban could be in the universe.
Hades gave the implication that the only way to enter the Underworld anyway was to have a demon guide lead them. The reality was that Hades had easy access to all the hells in the universe, but only some crafty messenger could take anyone there. Hermes was suggested to be the guide for the rescue team, but that would take too long (that slippery bastard was stealing more shit in the universe than Pit could count with the Celestial Pirates he commanded).
Daedalus made an offhand comment to ask Pit's fiancé to help him out since he was notorious from jumping location to location leaving his mark like the glory seeking brat he was. Pit shook his head furious at the idea of asking a demon for help…but with Shulk's pressuring, Pit ended up asking Hades to find the wraith Airi to assist them. Hades raised an eyebrow but did not refuse the request due to Juliet nagging the Lord of the Underworld for wasting time and putting someone's life in danger in the process (not like he cared).
Hades had no problem criticizing Daedalus though for being useless and not being the one to be the guide and get things over with. Turns out Daedalus had no idea there was a Slavic Realm. He knew about the Norse Realm, the Japanese Realm, the Chinese Realm and a few others but the Slavic Realm never came up. Daedalus tried to make the excuse that the Slavic Realm probably had a bunch of nobody Gods and Goddesses anyway, but the reality was that Daedalus did not know everything.
Airi took forever to show up that the irritation was starting to show on the both Pit and Shulk. At this point, Palutena had a map on where to go to get to Dunban, but without a demon guide, they still wouldn't go anywhere.
"That little brat is probably forcing her to clean his entire castle again." Pit grumbled. "Must be nice having a maid to do all the work for you diligently."
"You sound jealous." Dark Pit stated the obvious.
"Of course I am! Why can't Airi work here?! She's my girl!"
"I don't think she'll be happy with you referring to her as such." Palutena could be heard lecturing the light angel. "Pit, how many times do I have to tell you that as long as she has Swamp Witch in her possession, she'll be a constant threat."
"But…the Swamp Witch is dead."
"A host with a perfect match is all Airi needs. She has told you she has a good idea who would be the new host for the Swamp Witch."
"Uhh…it will be fine. I trust Airi…" Pit grumbled realizing he wasn't going to change Palutena's mind.
Meanwhile, Rob finished healing Pit and went over to Shulk to help Riki calm him down.
"I can't calm down Rob. Every minute we waste, Dunban life is in greater danger."
"Shulk, you don't expect to rush in with the Monado and save him, do you?"
"…"
"You already know you're going to need a plan. I know Palutena probably already has one, but you need one too just in case it backfires."
"…I know."
"…I'm sorry I can't go with you guys."
"No…its okay."
Hades brought up one extra detail about the Slavic Realm. This place was obviously different from the rest to the point that it was toxic place to humans and some other species. Most of the Smashers probably would not make it through the tunnel that lead to the Slavic Underworld. This was the only reason why Pit was teaming up with Shulk and Riki in the first place. If he had the choice, he would have asked Lucina, Ike and Sonic to go with him. The only reason Magnus was tagging along was because Pit knew he wasn't going to take no for an answer. If he ended up dead because of his stupidity, that would be his fault, and Pit would take his soul to heaven and force him to work under him, and that was the driving force of the mercenary to not die). Dark Pit wasn't allowed to go for safety reasons (and Dark Pit was not happy about this).
"…Just make it back safely…" Rob mumbled. He hesitated to give Shulk a reassuring kiss because the other Smashers were around. Normally, he would, but Shulk noticed that as of late he seemed rather distant and passive. So it would have to be Shulk to lean down and give a soft kiss to his cheek. "Umm…"
"I'll be okay." Shulk told him with a smile. "We'll come back with Dunban."
"Leave everything to Heropon and sidekicks!" Riki exclaimed. "Riki will make sure Dundun is safe and sound."
Magnus wanted to believe that everything would be okay, but had this nagging feeling something would go horribly wrong. This was probably him being cynical though.
Airi finally showed up…and when Pit kept saying how hot she was…well he wasn't kidding. Airi was an attractive girl with long red hair with pigtails and blue eyes. Pit was serious when she said that she was a maid because her outfit of choice was a French maid's attire. Shulk had to wonder how it was possible for demons to be maids when most of them were apparently power hungry than obedient.
"Airi is here!" Pit announced as he wanted to go over to hug her but she wasn't too thrilled with him.
"Pit…I thought I told you that if you need help, you ask Laharl. Not me. I'm his vassal now, and that is the worse thing that could have happened to me." She says in an icy tone. "He would appreciate it if the person he's going to marry would rely on him more than his servant."
Immediately Pit felt a jolt in his heart. He shook his head in denial that he cared about how the Overlord brat felt. He just wanted Pit to be in debt to him, so he could treat him like a slave. He would never be put in that position with a demon ever again.
"…We need your help to get to the Slavic Realm."
"The Underworld is called Nav." Airi corrected him. "Your lack of knowledge amuses me."
"Uh…don't remind me…"
"But remember Pit, I'm only helping if you promise that your Goddess will get off my back about the Swamp Witch." She smirked looking over to the green haired Goddess.
Pit couldn't answer for Palutena. He could tell she was ready to blow up the wraith in front of her for daring to mock her in everyone's presence. She remained calm as she growled a small, "Fine."
She continued to grin as she made one more thing clear to the rescue crew. "If that is out of the way, we shall be on our way. I should remind you that this is not going to take long as long as you obey my orders when we're going to Nav. We wouldn't want an accident to happen, now won't we?"
While the rescue mission was being planned out, Dunban was slowly coming to. When he was snatched from his room, he was sent into a state of shock that left him unconscious. Now he only just woke up to find himself in a weird Netherworld different from the one that he heard about from Pit. Actually, Pit never talked to Dunban directly about the Underworld. He just remembered Pit taking the third floor to himself and other angels to give a lesson on Underworld as a whole. He recalled standing outside because Pit was rather adamant of him or Shulk coming in particularly (then again, Pit didn't want any Smasher coming in to see what he was lecturing about).
Pit was showing his leadership skills and the fact that he did have knowledge with age and experience. The problem was that Pit wanted to hide his lack of patience with slackers. The Centurions apparently were one thing to train, but when he was lecturing angel children and adolescents with short attention spans, then he was going to lose his temper.
In the lecture hall (that's what Pit wanted to call it) full of young angels and Pittoo (who was the most engaged only because he wanted to catch up with the history of the universe so he wouldn't be so dependent on him), Dunban picked up a lot of details concerning the Underworld and how the color of the sky was noticeably red. There were some instances where the sky would be purple, but Pit honestly didn't know why the Underworld would turn a beautiful shade of purple. He would make a list of all major Underworld minions under Hades before branching off into other demon categories and a brief history of why the Underworld has split into many different Netherworlds owned by powerful Overlords instead of being ruled by Hades. Pit would finally bring up the structure of the Underworld or the lack of it. When Medusa was in charge, everything was somewhat stable, but the minute Hades takes charge, the Underworld falls into absolute chaos with no one to govern the chaotic bunch.
Because of these details, Dunban immediately noticed he was not in Hades' Underworld. It felt like he was in a cave more than a hellish Underworld. The color scheme for this place was mainly brown and orange but mostly a disgusting shade of orange. The worse part though was how there didn't seem to be anything that could be considered anarchic in this cave like Underworld. The place felt desolate and lonely with the only occasional noise apparently coming from fluid falling from the stalactite to the ground.
"So you finally decided to wake up."
Dunban forced himself to focus on where the voice was coming from. He responded so quickly because he recognized that voice from anywhere. Looking before him, he could see an orange-yellow throne surrounded by wisps, skulls and shiny gemstones that were the same shade as the throne.
In the throne itself was a beautiful woman who appeared to be Dunban's age but she appeared to have aged better making her look in her mid-twenties. She had straight, medium length red-orange hair and crimson eyes that burned the soul if contact was made. On her head were two sharp, red horns that were comparable to dragon horns. Her attire was eye candy though. One would notice how her outfit was an open-back, short sleeve, one leg slit, laced dress apparently made from linen and with patterns being identical to that of the scales of a dragon. From a distance, the scales shined on her dress despite the dreary location, but if one were to move closer, the scales were only shiny because they were sharp. It made the area around her chest appear the most dangerous.
Despite there being a charming lady in front of him, Dunban couldn't help but gasp seeing her and not for good reasons.
"Y-You!"
The woman raised an eyebrow while keeping the sinister grin that has been on her face since the beginning.
"Oh, you remember me? This is good for me, so I don't have to explain anything to you."
Dunban's immediate reaction was to reach for his katana only to be surprised that only was he lacking a weapon but he was mostly naked except for his boxers. Yeah, he was about to go to sleep, but he would think that in the situation he was in that he would have some clothes to cover him up. The chill factor in this Underworld was obvious and he found himself shivering without a weapon to protect himself against this woman.
"The first thing you want to do when you see me again is point a sword at me. Aren't you rude."
"Why wouldn't I? You're the demon that made that contract with me when I was twelve!"
"The name is Ala, young Dunban." She said in a mocking tone. "I'm glad you remember what I did to you back then."
How could he forget? The powers he had when fighting in Bionis were not his own. At least any elemental magic because that was all given to him by this female demon. The older Homs would rather not dive to deep down memory lane. Everything for when he was a child was nothing but despair and misery with only his sister Fiora keeping him from just giving up all together. Fiora was his light. That was why he took the offer of a female demon that approached him in a desperate situation. He exchanged his soul and ability to reincarnate in the afterlife for powers that could be used to protect his little sister. These powers have helped him throughout his life to say the least.
"Eighteen years. My goodness, it has been so long." Ala commented causing Dunban to continue glaring at her. "I was supposed to take your soul during the Battle of Sword Valley, but there had been some interference, so I couldn't fulfill the contract then. However, multiple times you had cheated death and I had to wait until things settled down before I could grab your soul." She frowned when she remembered something and complained about it in front of the samurai. "To make matters worse, when things did settle down, you, that furball and that kid disappeared off Bionis. I looked everywhere and you're in the god damn Smash Brothers Realm!"
"And that's a bad thing because?"
"It took forever to infiltrate that realm and take your soul!" She shouted before she forced herself to calm down. "But I got your soul now after eighteen years."
"…So the contract is complete…" Dunban murmured to himself more than her. "…How…unfortunate…"
Dunban wasn't the type to feel defeated, but given the context of the contract, this was his inevitable fate.
"Then again…I can't officially take your soul until three hours have past. In that three hours, you can still cheat the contract, but…" She smiled as she suddenly approached him causing him to step back. "I don't think you found someone who loves you dearly."
Me: TBC with 5130 words.
Li: Oh, I can already tell Ala is a bitch! She pulled a Hans!
Me: If only there was someone out there that loved you Dunban. I can't imagine who it could be. Notes!
1. If anyone is wondering about why the Underworld Army is different, let's just say this story takes place in a timeline after Mecha Galaxy (this is when the biggest push for Raven when concerning how to spend her time wisely in her quest to save Prism and defeat the Great Evil). A big spoiler I should probably say is that I think Hades will be vaguely aware of the timelines along with Palutena (who despite telling Rosalina that she'll remember without any context, she won't until Mecha Galaxy). As a result, Pandora is working under him again, Daedalus after all the abuse from Diamond goes back to Hades (because he found a way to remember all timelines without the need of being on Diamond's ship) and Medusa is resurrected to try again (although she's still angry and bitter with everyone). Juliet is also visiting the Underworld more often because she becomes fonder of Hades with every timeline regardless if she forgets or not.
The memory thing also applies to Pit and Shulk and why they work together more despite Pit obviously discriminating against aliens. I don't think I'll have Dark Pit remember everything and it's kept vague enough to where he'll only remember his chastity vow. So to sum it up, Rosalina is no longer alone with dealing with the constant resets. Again, I might have to change Dark Pit depending on how I finish up Mecha Galaxy in the future.
2. Another noticeable thing about this being post Mecha Galaxy where Pit remembers the previous timelines is that the pairings with Pit will remain consistent. In other words, the constant nagging of Pit to take Laharl seriously is going to be there. That means future fics will actually start having Pit/Laharl instead of Pit jumping around (with a few exceptions of hitting on Airi and Pittoo but the former will pretty much end everything in this timeline and Pittoo will end up being his only go to for old times sake. After all, Pittoo needs to carve a future for himself.)
3. When Aria and I were doing research on Xenoblade Chronicles, the idea of Dunban making a pact with a demon came up. We were looking up any deity or demon that could control the weather and Ala from Slavic mythology came up. I made her into my OC and thus we get this entire arc where I will have Ala as the Loki of this realm with how things are being planned out so far. Ala is a demon but I put her as a Goddess because she is the current ruler of the Slavic Underworld because Perun (the Zeus equivalent in Slavic mythology killed Veles (the original ruler). From what little info I give for this chapter, the contracts she makes are similar to Kyubey from Madoka Magica and Ursula from The Little Mermaid in which the contract indeed does benefit the user, but if the contract cannot be fulfilled then Ala takes your soul.
Appearance wise, her outfit is identical to Black Lady's outfit from Sailor Moon only with dragon scales. Ala is associated with a raven and a female dragon therefore I thought the dragon motif suited her better (given I already have Raven as the raven motif in my universe).
Her quip at the end gives the obvious Hans vibe, but that is an implication of what Dunban was supposed to do to nullify the contract or she would take his soul. Seems impossible given how he struck out with Melia in Xenoblade Chronicles.
That's it. Reviews are appreciated. This isn't Smash Comedy Month but it was a quick chapter and I wanted to get this thing started for May. Ja ne!
