Episode 4: Awakening of the Three Ghosts
Akame stood before her barrier with the most unpleasant smile on her face. She had seen everything, all the carnage, the destruction of all three hundred demons who were once ponies, and loved every second of it. Hearing the victory cry shouted by Leo and the soldiers he led made her want to laugh.
"Yes…" Akame said sinisterly as she looked up to the sky. "Hail the gods...may praise be to we who feed you mortals to the demons and lead you to kill each other...ah ha ha ha ha ha!"
Akame then lifted up her forelegs and twirled around.
"Creating peace through war, having mortals temporarily solve the eternal problems we gods allow to continue, I absolutely LOVE the hypocrisy of it all!" she proclaimed in a creepy tone of voice.
"And this is only the beginning of the destruction, the rising action…" she continued. "Only we know that three hundred ghosts will go on to become the star antagonist our heroes will face in the climactic battle of this play, while only three ghosts will go on to be called heroes…"
She then looked out towards the fortress in the distance, a small castle of simple structure, with walls painted black and two front doors painted dark purple.
"It's time to throw the gauntlet, Numdust…" she said.
On the battlefield, all the soldiers had put their swords away and the Jaeger Raid were now leading the men in a march towards the fortress. Soon, however, they and all their men stopped, hearing the sound of a demonic laugh.
Huh huh huh huh ha…
"?!" one of the soldiers was taken aback as they recognized the laugh.
"It's him!" the herald standing next to the aforementioned soldier exclaimed, also recognizing it. "Numdust!"
"Not bad, not bad at all." the one who had laughed demonically spoke to the army. "I'm flattered by how quickly you were willing to take out my trash for me…"
"Numdust, you're trash." Leo retorted.
"Yeah, stow your fake compliments!" Gordon interjected. "Empty and meaningless is all they are, like you!"
"You compare your men to garbage…" Ricard chimed in. "...just the kind of talk I'd expect from someone who sits on a throne of dirt. You would heartlessly throw so many lives away, and now we shall mercilessly bury you…"
"Oh ho ho," chuckled Numdust, "I just love it when our sass rubs off on you mortals. So cute. I'd say that you three intrigue me, but seeing that you don't enjoy my complimenting words, I'll express my feelings through actions…"
Suddenly, behind the Jaegers, a massive stream of shadow energy burst up from the ground, separating them from their army. A small, horizontal fissure stretching to both ends of the barrier had formed from the shadow stream as it rose up from the gap and took the form of a wall. The surprised soldiers who attempted to pass through the wall of shadow energy found that they could not.
"Sirs!" they cried as the Jaegers tried the same thing, also to no avail. "It's no good! We've been blocked off!"
"Celestia damn it!" Gordon yelled. "Such cowardice!"
"Feh, don't get the wrong idea." Numdust said. "It's not that I fear you. I just want to fight you three personally and I don't want things to get too boring. What fun would there be in you just ganging up on me with all those soldiers?"
"Hmph, fun." Leo thought. "I'd much rather guarantee coming home alive and well but bored than risk dying here "entertained", but if I must choose the latter, I'll do anything it takes to survive...anything…"
Leo then looked at Gordon and Ricard with a deadpan expression on his face.
"I would much rather die before you two…" Leo thought. "...but duty takes priority over my feelings. And part of my duty is to live. Not just for Celestia, not just for her, but also who will follow in my steps…"
Leo gave the emblem on his neck a glance before looking at the wall of shadow and telling his men…
"Please stay where you are for the time being and await our return. We will be back."
He, Gordon, and Ricard then made their way to the fortress ahead, all three knowing full well that even if they couldn't keep such a promise, it was a promise they had to make. It was their duty as the leaders to fill their followers with a feeling of hope.
How unfortunate it is that much hope turns out to be false. But don't worry, the hope you accept may be fake is certainly real.
Akame said this to herself in her mind as she watched the Jaegers enter the fortress, pushing open the front doors.
It's a good thing only I would know the downside of it being real…
Meanwhile, back with the Nightbringers…
The Nightbringers, at a loss for words, watched as the herald grew black demon wings. His forelegs transformed into the arms of a demon, losing their fur, the hooves at the end of them transforming into the claws of a demon. His entire body began to exude a shadowy aura as a familiar flow of purple energy began to exude from his eyes. With the fusion completed, his identity had become quite clear.
"Vincent…" the demon said. "That is my name. I am the monster who destroyed my family. I committed a sin I can never repent of. I can never live a normal life again. And sinfully, I take pleasure knowing that, because I hate life. It is only suffering. Suffering in the name of false hope and false love. Freed by Death, I now happily serve Death as my new master. I've paid for my sin now. He has given me eternal life by making me dead to my old self and granting me a new existence as a being of darkness."
"..." the Nightbringers were still silent, stunned by his words, yet fascinated by them in how they were able to relate to this on a personal level. They knew that they were not facing a foe who was evil, just misguided.
"My companions of the shadows…" Vincent addressed them as such with a smirk on his face as he began to fly up into the air. "You know what I mean. You know what we must do now. We must fight. Only in battle may we find respite as we remind ourselves of our demonic nature. Let us remind ourselves of our pact with the darkness, the only thing that frees us!"
Vincent then swooped towards Dante, ready to swipe at him with his claws, but was stopped as Trish fired a blast of lightning coated in dark energy from her horn at Vincent, shocking him as he felt the feeling of something spinning through the left side of his chest and slicing through it like a boomerang, causing him to fall to the ground, writhing in pain.
"GRAAAGGGH!" Vincent cried in agony as he saw black blood spurting out of his chest. "What powerful magic! Though not holy, it still overwhelms me and can even cut through me!"
"Though I appreciate the compliment," said Trish, "I can't take credit for that last part. I didn't cut you, Dante did."
"What…" Vincent said in disbelief as he saw Dante still standing in the exact same spot, having not moved at all. Raising his right foreleg, he caught his sword, which had come back to him after spinning through the air and slicing Vincent. Vincent stared at Dante sheathing his sword, dumbfounded.
"Even without his comrade's help, he could've stopped me…" Vincent mused in his mind. "And the way he boomeranged that sword in such a short timeframe...he's even faster than the one with the katana…"
"So tell me, did that give you any "respite"?" Dante facetiously remarked. "Does it make you feel alive and free exercising your right to get whooped by us?"
"Mock me all you want…" Vincent replied. "I don't care if I lose, so long as I am free. That is my true victory, the only one that truly counts is my triumph over the shackles of life!"
"Congratulations, man." Dante retorted, maintaining his sarcastic tone. "I'm glad you're enjoying yourself more under the shackles of death."
"Death's chains are of no weight to me…" Vincent said in assertion. "It was only through death that I could pay for my unforgivable sin...the sin of submitting to a demon and murdering my beloved wife and daughter whom I failed to love…"
"Not joking, it's great that you have a heart in spite of what you've done." Dante said sincerely. "But you need to work on your mouth, and that's coming from me. Do you even understand what you just said?"
"..." Vincent was then silent for some time. Noticing, Trish and Vergil realized what they needed to do.
"So this must be what we're truly meant to do." Trish thought. "We're not supposed to fight him, we're supposed to help him."
"This guard…" Vergil said in his mind. "There's no way he could be the demon we were told about. However, if what we were told is true, then maybe we need his help to face what's yet to come…"
Using her magic, Trish levitated herself and Vergil down from the cliff and onto the ground below where Dante was, wanting to be on Vincent's level when they spoke to him.
"What I don't think you realize," said Trish, "is that this "unforgivable sin" you're talking about is something everyone is guilty of. Not everyone is a murderer, but everyone has submitted to their demons before."
"Yeah," chimed in Vergil, "and not just that, but you say that you "failed to love" your family like you failed a test and that there's no turning back. Love doesn't work that way. It doesn't grade you. It doesn't keep track of what you've done wrong. And most importantly, it's always there for you."
"...Do you think they would ever forgive me?" Vincent asked.
"If they love you, then of course they will forgive you." Trish replied with a smile. "Love forgives all sins."
"I've sensed the whole time how sad you've truly felt…" Vergil said as he knelt his head. "I know you don't want to walk a road of hatred. You allowed yourself to be taken over because you didn't believe you could ever love again...such an awful lie. Anyone can learn how to love again."
"We bear the same cross now," said Dante, "as well as the same cross as everyone else in this world. Fighting isn't what gives us respite from the world's cruelty, it's coming together. That's how we learn to love."
Vincent was astonished. Not only were these three stronger fighters than him despite having less darkness within them, but they also had wisdom of the power of light despite being raised in darkness.
"Thank you…" he told them. "All of you. But you must know the truth that there is another tragedy that I face."
"...What's that?" Vergil asked, having a bad feeling as he remembered what Vincent had said about being just as guilty as the demon soldiers were.
"The demon soldiers that we witnessed get massacred…" Vincent said with tears in his eyes. "They were all ponies once before they gave their souls over to the devils…devils sent to them in their dreams by Akame..."
The Nightbringers couldn't speak.
"I committed the same sin as them…" Vincent continued. "Only I get to walk this world still in control of my soul, not even as a full demon. Do you think that's fair?"
The Nightbringers were shaking with anger, their front hooves clenched.
I have a special mission for you…
That, they remembered her saying...
"AKAME!" they all shouted up to the sky.
Meanwhile…
Gordon, Ricard, and Leo entered Numdust's fortress, the doors closing behind them as they trotted in. Looking around the place, they noticed it bore an uncanny resemblance to Princess Celestia's palace. Even though they had just entered through the front, they found themselves somehow walking down the red carpet of a dark, dimly lit hallway that looked almost exactly like the hallway of Celestia's palace. As their eyes scanned the area in their lookout for Numdust, they saw that outside the windows, it appeared to be nighttime despite it being 2:37 in the afternoon.
Instinctively, the Jaegers believed the reason it would be dark outside in spite of it actually being the daytime would be because of the shadow barrier. However, they soon found what they initially believed to be wrong when they noticed that the darkness outside appeared to be the natural darkness of the night sky. There were even stars glowing in the night sky, the source of the faint lighting in the halls. Some of the stars had also come together to spell out a message that read as such…
"The real ruler of this castle is also a puppet."
Though intrigued by the possible meaning of the message, the Jaegers decided to take it with a grain of salt and press on. Coming to the end of the hallway, they discovered yet another set of double doors. As they pushed these doors open, Ricard began to feel an unpleasant premonition, reminded of when he had entered Celestia's throne room that morning for the strategy meeting…
"This meeting will be unique because it is the last one you will have as you are…"
Ricard didn't even know why those words crossed his mind. He hadn't even said them in his own voice. This added even more fuel to his fear. His fear that he and his comrades were being watched by an unkind force, and not because of Numdust. Even as they entered the room behind the double doors and saw that Numdust was nowhere in sight.
"Ha ha ha…" Numdust's familiar laugh could be heard. "How do you like the decor?"
Looking around the room, which was well-lit unlike the hallway, the Jaegers noticed that just like the hallway, it looked almost exactly like a place in Celestia's palace. With the exception of different glass portraits displayed on the walls, over windowsills where strange, black dust sat, the room was an exact replica of Celestia's throne room. What set the glass portraits in Numdust's throne room apart from the ones in Celestia's was that rather than showing depictions of Equestria's heroes and their heroic deeds, they showed images of a more foreboding nature.
One was of a small, purple-haired colt with a lavender coat standing at Akame's side as both of them shared a creepy smile. Another was of a devil with red arms and a purple shell that covered the rest of his body shaking hands with King Sombra, smiling an unnerved smile in his shadow form. The last one that stood out was of the same devil waving goodbye to Akame, who was standing in front of a large building surrounded in darkness. By her side, waving goodbye as well with distraught looks on their faces were none other than the Nightbringers...as young children…
"What the hell?" Gordon remarked as he took note of the portrait showing the Nightbringers as kids and walked over to it, curious.
"Not just the Nightbringers, but Akame too…" Ricard said. "What could their connection to Numdust be?"
"First and foremost, we must find where Numdust is hiding." Leo said. "Gordon can investigate the side of the room where the portraits are while you and I search the other side."
Leo and Ricard got right to investigating the other side of the throne room, in spite of not knowing how Numdust could hide in a place with so much open space as Celestia's throne room.
"Ha ha ha," laughed Numdust in a suspiciously more quiet tone of voice that only Gordon heard, "too bad the Nightbringers aren't with you. They'd know where I'd be hiding…"
"You know the Nightbringers?" Gordon asked, his comrades not overhearing him in their concentration on searching for Numdust.
"You could say that…" Numdust replied. "We were fellow victims of soul-crushing torture. Of course, that doesn't make us friends, but Akame always believed that it made us siblings. "You are all my children of the dark!", she would often proclaim. "What nonsense.", I always thought in response. I've never had any family, for certain…"
Gordon grimaced as he was reminded of his traumatic experiences with his family. His mind being occupied with such thoughts, he didn't notice that on the windowsill of the portrait with the purple-haired colt, the dust was beginning to lift itself from the windowsill and shape into the form of a small, jagged shard with razor-sharp edges that hovered in the air ominously…
"I've been all alone since I was a child." Numdust said. "But I'm not bemoaning my "tragic" upbringing. I love it. For now, I am free of any limitations."
"What do you mean?" Gordon asked.
"You'll soon understand…" Numdust replied. "Once you and your comrades have experienced death…"
Just then, the sharp shard that had formed flew across the room, the side of it cutting Gordon's throat.
"GUK! GWAAA…" Gordon cried loudly in pain as he fell to the ground, clutching his bleeding throat.
Ricard and Leo overheard Gordon's cry and turned around to witness the awful scene.
"GORDON!" Ricard yelled in shock.
"What the fuck?!" Leo shouted as he saw the now blood-stained shard still floating in the air. "What is that thing?!"
The shard then zoomed towards Ricard, attempting to kill him by stabbing him in the throat, but Ricard pulled out his sword and slashed at it, knocking it a short distance away. Suddenly, however, the shard transformed into the red and purple demon the Jaegers had seen on the pictures in the glass. Without hesitation, the demon lunged at Ricard, who was caught off guard with no time to react. The demon was about to kill him by swiping at his throat with his claws, when all of a sudden, a blast of holy energy struck the devil in the back of the head, causing him to writhe and holler in agony. Ricard could see from behind the devil that it was Gordon who shot the demon with a magic beam from his sword with the last bit of energy that he had…
"Good...b…" he looked at Ricard, trying to say "Goodbye.", but could not manage to finish his farewell as he died from his mortal wound.
"Noooo…" Ricard moaned in sorrow, pale in the face. "Gordon…"
The demon, beginning to recover, got ready to strike again, but before he could, Leo lunged at him with his sword in hoof.
"DIE!" Leo shouted.
"This soldier…" the demon thought. "Unlike his companion, he's entirely focused on battle even as his comrade has fallen. How fun he'll be to test…"
With the swing of his sword, Leo sliced the demon's head off. Both the devil's head and body fell to the ground and turned to dust. The same kind of dust that had been seen on the windowsill…
Leo then put his sword away, turned around, and walked closer to Gordon's corpse. He knelt his head in respect.
"Please forgive me…" he told Gordon. "Rest in peace."
Leo then started to turn back around to face Ricard.
"Forgive me too, Ricard." he said to him. "Don't blame yourself, I take full responsibility…"
Suddenly, Ricard pulled out his sword and fired a holy beam from it at Leo's forehead as soon as it came into view. However, Leo was unphased by it. Bewildered, he looked at Ricard and saw hatred and bloodlust in his eyes. Noticing that the dust the demon's body had turned to had disappeared, Leo shot Ricard a cold stare, realizing what was going on…
"You're not Ricard…" he said with an angry growl. "You're that devil!"
Leo brandished his sword and pointed it at Ricard's face, but Ricard only smiled and scoffed in response.
"My, my…" he taunted, speaking in Numdust's voice rather than Ricard's. "You'd point a weapon at your dear brother-in-arms?"
"Don't even start with that crap." Leo angrily retorted. "As far as I'm concerned, you two are separate. And the one I face now is a reprehensible demon!"
"Well, that's one opinion…" Numdust continued to speak in a mocking tone of voice. "But I'm afraid to tell you that the fact is if you kill me as I am right now, your comrade dies as well…"
"How are you still alive?" Leo asked. "I beheaded you!"
"My body is composed entirely of dust brought to life by dark magic." Numdust explained. "It can pass through anything and take the shape of anything. To truly destroy it, you'd have to destroy the dust that has seeped into your friend's body. But the question is, how does one destroy dust, ha ha ha…"
It was then that Leo knelt his head in despair…
"That's right, you know there's nothing you can do." Numdust proclaimed boastfully. "Even if you killed your friend, I'd just possess your body, and even if you could somehow destroy the dust within your friend's body, I'd be sure to destroy him from the inside first and take him with me. Even speaking hypothetically, you're in a hopeless situation. You already can't save your friend or defeat me…"
...but not for the reason Numdust believed, as the light in Leo's sword began to grow very bright. Numdust noticed Leo's sword glowing and continued to gloat, failing to see something different about this light...
"Futile." Numdust said in a terse manner as he held out Ricard's sword, which was not glowing. "Your comrade must be protected from being harmed by holy magic the same way you are. I'm fine so long as I don't use said magic, so I'll just kill you the old-fashioned way!"
Numdust then rushed toward Leo with the blade in hoof, ready to stab him in the heart, but to his surprise, Leo dodged at the last moment. He maneuvered to the left and stabbed Numdust square in the forehead with his sword.
"L...Le…" Ricard muttered in his own voice before Numdust took over again and began laughing maniacally. "HA HA HA HA HA!"
Leo then began running away from Numdust as fast as he could, bursting through the front doors and dashing through the hall, tears coming out of his eyes.
"Ricard…" he thought to himself. "I am so sorry!"
"What a coward!" Numdust exclaimed. "They called what I did cowardice when their captain was the worst of them all! He stabbed his friend to distract me and ran!"
Numdust then began to lift Ricard's forelegs up to the ceiling and twirled around like Akame had done earlier.
"How hypocritical mortals are in criticizing us devils!" he proclaimed. "I LOVE-"
Numdust was suddenly interrupted as he threw up a large amount of blood mixed with black, glowing ooze. He then began to feel small bursts of holy energy destroying the dust in Ricard's body, as well as small bursts of dark energy destroying Ricard's tissue and organs. Looking up and realizing that the sword in his head was no longer glowing, Numdust realized what was happening...
"NO!" Numdust shouted in terror. "HE MIXED THE HOLY ENERGY WITH DARK ENERGY! IT TRAVELED INSIDE OF ME THROUGH THE SWORD! THAT SLIME-FILLED CUNT!"
The small explosions of energy grew bigger as areas all around Ricard's body burst open, spewing blood everywhere as his skin was starting to melt from the heat of the explosions.
"The light and darkness inside me…" Numdust whimpered as he fell to the floor, a mess of blood and liquid skin. "When fused together, they create an incredibly powerful energy like no other...I'm going to explode...along with my entire fortress…"
Soon, Numdust proved to be correct as Ricard's body could no longer hold together. The holy energy and dark energy inside him merged together and created an explosion so powerful that it not only completely destroyed him from the inside, the outer wave of the explosion spread throughout the entire fortress, decimating everything in its path. Leo, who had just gotten out of the fortress, was racing to get back to his men outside.
"COME ON!" he shouted to himself. "MAKE IT!"
Meanwhile, back with the Nightbringers…
Dante, Trish, and Vergil were finally getting ready to leave with Vincent.
"We'll take you back to Princess Celestia…" Dante said in a distraught tone of voice. "It's probably for the best that she decides your fate…"
However, as the Nightbringers and Vincent began walking away in the opposite direction, Trish stopped as she felt something in the distance coming towards them.
"Ghosts…" Trish said, turning around to see what she could feel.
"Ghosts?" Vincent asked as he and the other Nightbringers began turning around.
As they quickly remembered that it made sense with the battlefield being home to much slaughter, they asked Trish…
"How many?"
Trish simply replied by saying…
"Two."