Hey guys I'm back again I've been a little busy sorry about that. But anyways here it is I think you guys will like this chapter, I know I did. I would also like to state something here and now. Tatsumi in this story is going to get stupid Overpowered but it will take a little time and that will most certainly correspond to plot convenience to a lot of situations like how his clothes were shredded so he made some fancy new ones. But enough about this preface let's get to reading.

"Tatsumi" normal talking

Zerriah talking

'Tatsumi' inward thinking

Arc 2 Thoughts, Words, and Actions

Chapter 3 Duel of the Fates

It was pretty late out, nearly midnight, but there seemed to be no guards around at this time which Tatsumi took as a blessing. He assumed no one was around so he was nonchalant in making his way to his new quarters. Undoubtedly he was in an interesting position through just some lies and paperwork but he would worry about that if a problem came from it. He was not well acquainted with the building though, so he was a little lost. Granted he went a few circles so we was getting a bearing and he made a different turn. This however would soon be regretted.

Following a sign that pointed from 500-550, Tatsumi followed it and came upon a reasonable sized clearing. It was a large grass field with a few flowers and looping along the edge were stone columns and windows to various rooms. What intrigued him however was not the architecture, but who was in the field.

It was a woman who looked late 20's or early 30's and she had long blue hair like a mix between the sky and snow. She had a small hat on it with a little insignia but it couldn't be made out. She had a rapier strapped around her waist but it seemed pretty long for one. Her boots came all the way up to her things and her jacket was silver like the rest of her attire with two cattails of cotton trailing behind her in the wind. And she was not lacking by any means as she had a perfect hourglass figure with large assets up top and down below. Tatsumi taking this all in noticed that her jacket was similar to hers. She had to be a General. But if a general in this army was suspected as much as he was when he snuck in as one, then they must be pretty strong.

Tatsumi who didn't feel like fighting at the time decided on the more neutral approach and decided to just walk past her seemingly oblivious to her in the attempt to just get to his room. Fortune did not play in his favor, however, and she called out his name.

"you there, stop. Who are you?" asked the blue haired buxom

Her voice had a natural seductive underlying tone to it but it was very well hidden with the coldness in her voice which fit her look. He would have to be careful around her or this could pose problems. Time to try out his new position.

"I am Tatsumi, General of the Imperial Army, but who are you?" he asked

She didn't answer for some time which concerned him. Tatsumi did notice that she was looking at various parts of him so he figured if she was perceptive to this much, battling her could pose problems. Her normal stare turned into that of a gaze that could kill.

"I do not need to tell my name to the dead." She stated coldly

Tatsumi sighed and gulped at the same time. He now had to fight her which meant wasting his time and he was concerned about her power. If she had an Imperial Arm, just what was it? But he didn't have time to figure it out as he was sent flying backwards into the wall by a boot. He looked up to see the woman in the after stance of her kicking position. How was she that fast and just who was she?

Tatsumi its me

Tatsumi was broken from his thought when he heard Zerriah's voice. What was he doing at a time like this?

We have good news and bad news. Good news is when she struck I felt a small surge of demon powers and they seemed to be that of ice. The bad news is, almost three-fourths of her blood is demon blood from what I felt from the strike. It would be wise to transform before dying again.

Tatsumi reacting barely fast enough missed the rapier lunge aimed right between his eyes. He quickly moved to the open grass field and held his ring to the sky. What the problem was it wasn't activating! He was in trouble if he didn't get his armor

'Zerriah, what the heck?! Where's my armor?'

You need a phrase to transform but you never assigned one. But now is a better time than never I suppose

Tatsumi sighed inwardly then thought quickly of a phrase. He remembered the one who taught him swordsmanship always said something. He thought he should use it, so he did

'Zerriah, assign this phrase to transformation.' Tatsumi thought to him

He took a deep breath before looking at the woman with determined eyes. Thankfully she hadn't attacked.

"By this Right alone, I Rule."

The skimpily dressed general who was waiting suddenly charged at him but stopped when a blinding light erupted from Tatsumi. As Tatsumi was becoming enveloped in his armor, he noticed that it fit him much better and he felt even more power surging through him.

Blue haired general point of view

She heard him speak a phrase that she wasn't aware of so she moved in for the kill, like a cheetah to deer. However her movement had to be stopped as she was hit in the face with blinding light. She quickly back peddled to get away from the source to assess the situation. She finally uncovered her eyes only for them to widen to the size of dinner plates. It was the same column of light from earlier that she saw down in the lower district. The thing that gave it off is that when the light touched the sky, it created a ring with an 8 and a doubled sided arrow in it. She was not aware of what this represented but she knew it was ominous.

"So this is the anomaly from earlier. I hope he is entertaining." She said now with a mix of bloodlust and seductiveness mixed in.

As the light died down, she saw that he was no longer in simple clothing. He was now clad in full body armor that had a roman style to it. This intrigued her a little bit, but that would have to wait for the dungeon when she finds out who he is. What was interesting was that she felt another ominous presence nearby. One that felt ancient and destructive, like Time itself was embodied nearby. She would have to wait on that since the main problem was the intruder in front of her. The man in front him drew his sword and prepared to attack.

Tatsumi's point of view

After Tatsumi's ring stopped exuding light from the three words engraved on it, he was finally clad in his armor. If what Zerriah said was true, then this fight would prove difficult. His opponent was not only strong, but perceptive and fast. He unsheathed the absurd 5 foot broadsword and readied himself for his assailant. Both stood there quietly in the moon lit night as they stared into each other's eyes. Knowing it was a foolish move, Tatsumi decided to lunge forward at faster speeds than expected. Her eyes went noticeably wider probably thinking he couldn't close the distance so fast in plate armor. That didn't stop her from blocking his heavy downward strike. She managed to parry back and go in to impale him through his armor. To her surprise, the rapier just ricocheted right off and she was left open. Tatsumi did not was this chance and gave her a strong right hook across the face sending her back some meters. He kept up his relentless assault and tried to plough her through the wall. This didn't happen however as she moved to the right too quickly to follow and he batteried the wall. He was a little dazed after going through solid rock but thankfully it went away. He went back out the same hole he made and proceeded into the open area where the female was motionless. She had a small trickle of blood from her mouth and some skin that peeled off from the cheek. There was no blood though so her cheek looked only puffed up and red.

"You are a strong warrior fake general. Where do you hail from and what is your Imperial Arms?" spoke the blue haired warrior in a demanding tone.

"I'll answer your question when you answer mine, lady."

She sighed only lightly before looking back at him with somewhat easy eyes and a smile to go with it. It sent shivers down his spine and shook him to his core.

"I am General Esdeath you fake, and you should be honored to fight me. It will be the only time you get it. Now answer my question weak pig."

Tatsumi hadn't heard of her but that was to be expected. He had lived out in a reclusive village for a long time so it stands to reason he wouldn't hear of the generals. He decided to ignore her talk as he was not about to waste precious sleep time over it. He just needed to end this and fast.

"I hail from the Northeast in a small village and my Imperial arm is…"

He thought to himself briefly before going to Zerriah

'Hey Zerriah, how many Imperial Arms are there?'

48 exactly but that was the original amount 1-48.

'Thanks'

He decided to spin another lie to see where it would go just for kicks

"And I wield Imperial Arms #0, Infinity's Rule. And with it I will end this battle and you."

Esdeath stood there for a minute with just a straight face before it formed a smile. Then that smile turned into a small chuckle, then laughter, and finally just laughing uncontrollably. She almost fell to the ground but just kneeled over instead. Finally after about 2 minutes of oxygen depriving laughter she looked back at him with a small tear in her eye that she wiped away.

"Oh… oh, oh that was a good one but seriously what is your Imperial Arms?"

"Nevermind, let's just get back to me beating your ass!"

He lunged forward quickly again but stopped and pivoted a few feet from her and brought his sword around him in a left side cleaving strike. She just jumped over it but his intentions were different. When he swung his sword a destructive shockwave followed that destroyed the support columns and cracked the wall behind her. But it didn't stop there, as he kept spinning and while she was in the air, he went low to the floor before coming back up while spinning and throwing the sword like that of a saw blade right at her. What he didn't anticipate was that she said something but he couldn't figure it out in time.

"Makahadoma!"

Esdeath's point of view

As she came out of the chant, she couldn't help but notice that the sword was only 2 feet from her. Only a second longer and she would have been in two but that is what her trump card is for. As she fell back to the ground she strolled over to Tatsumi to still see him in the aftermath of his throwing position. She smiled wickedly while standing front of him as she spoke

"You forced me to use my trump card so early in battle. You are truly a warrior that I will remember, Tatsumi."

She readied the rapier in her hand an lunged with all her might into where his heart should be. The only thing was, the rapier just got wedged into the armor. Although it formed a lot of cracks in it and left a hole. She pulled her sword out after fidgeting with it and looked at the armor some more.

'This armor is truly something. Undoubtedly it could hold its own against some strong Imperial Arms. But it won't matter since I'll take it as my prize.'

Just when she was getting ready to lunge back into the same hole and kill Tatsumi, she felt that presence again from behind her and it was approaching fast. she turned around only to have to bend backwards to dodge some flying object coming towards her. The object turned out to be a sword which was about the same length as the sword Tatsumi threw but it had no defined shape. It was just shrouded in a swirling darkness. It also happened to land perfectly in the same hole she made in the massive suit and it started cracking the armor further. As this was happening she became exhausted from holding up Makahadoma so it was brought down. As it was the suit exploded with a dark light ad enveloped the immediate area around it so she fled backwards again to see what was happening. She couldn't see anything going on inside much like the column of light. When she realized this she looked up. The same two symbols were still intertwined in the sky just like the first one except one thing was different. On the ends of the arrow were dragon heads and the same was with the 8 sign on each side of it. It along with the column of darkness disappeared and she saw a completely transformed Tatsumi.

It was no longer the roman armor suit but now a black and gold suit with a sword in hand. It was of similar length except the hilt and guard were of reflective silver and the blade itself was pitch black like looking into the night sky with no stars. The only thing on the sword was where the blade met the hilt and it seemed to be a lance with the 8 intertwining with it and it was also white. The armor itself was just the same.

The armor still had the war kilt on except now it had a free moving swathe of armor hanging between the legs and both were black. The gantlets were tightly packed and layered, leaving no room for puncture. The hands were just the same and they seemed to have talons on the very end if you weren't wielding a sword. The shoulders were a bit overkill as they were very large protruding spikes that curved upwards and outwards. The helmet had a T-shaped slit in it so you could see the mouth and eyes but they shrouded in black and it also had 2 large spikes protruding from the crown. Finally the chest and grieves were both layered as well with the black color that the rest of the armor had and their seemed to be 2 hip covers. Those were kind of useless though since the shield he was wielding now was nearly as tall as him and had the long tip at the bottom with 2 spikes jutting out from the side and the smaller tip pointing from the top. The size and thickness of the armor also seemed to tone down a lot.

Everything was now in its normal color and not longer tinted blue. The new armor was now standing motionless before slowly looking down at the sword impaled in its chest. The sword had still taken no form so it was just a swirling black mass. That was until Tatsumi put his hand on where the handle should be and the dark ethereal flames that flew off from it retreated back into the blade as it was pulled out. When the sword was fully removed the cracks and hole in the armor had been removed. The sword now took a definitive shape.

The handle and hilt were both the same shade of silver with a very pronounced reflection across it and the hilt consisted of two outward curving spikes that were pointed to be used to stab someone. The blade was just as interesting. It was pitch black along its whole 5 foot length with a symbol of a lance being intertwined with an 8 and it sat where the blade joined the hilt. The level of blackness that the sword was very intriguing as it looked the same shade of a starless and moonless night. It also had an even more powerful aura being given off, like it was a living entity that was 'awakened'. Tatsumi then looked over at Esdeath and without warning, lunged at her at lightning speeds.

Chapter End

Yes. I just did that. I just fed you a cliffhanger, deal with it. But anyways it was interesting typing this and I can already hear some of you thinking, "why does Esdeath get cornered so fast?! She is like super overpowered and shit." There is a reason for this. She thought that he was just some intruder with a fake general coat so she thought that she didn't need to go full blown sadist. But now in the next chapter she is going to fight for real and it will be awesome. But anyways I'll post the link to the pictures after I post this chapter as well. So… later.

HeavensDownfall