Sorry this chapter is so late. Short versian is, Shit Happened. Long version, over the past two weeks I have had to help build a robot, memorize a shitload of useless information on Iran, and learn to impersonate President Nixon while playing ping-pong (that's a long story). Then someone gave me the Divine Comedy.
Deep Space Cowgirl: Alice actually was giving Shinji much needed training. He needs to be able to control lightning and fire well enough to handle multiple opponents at a time. Devil Survivor is still a long time coming, I'm afraid. Rest assured though, I can count on one hand how many humans will be happy with the results when it finally does.
The woman had been unconscious for three days.
Shinji had needed to execute two members of the Order and imprison three civilians for attempting to assassinate her. After the fifth, he'd moved her into his personal apartment in the Order's HQ so he'd be able to keep an eye on her while managing the clusterfuck Fortuna had become. 'It won't be long before they realize we've survived. We can't stay here for long. The fact that I'm keeping her alive as a prisoner wasn't exactly a popular decision either.'
"How can you just let her live!" the hooded man shouted. "She's the one who led those summoners against us! She was trying to kill us all! Trying to kill You even!"
Shinji leveled a glare at the stupid man just short of the required demonic power to reduce him to a mold of jelly. "And the skill she displayed makes her highly desirable as an ally."
"But Sir-" The man's protest was cut off.
"Do not make me repeat myself Lombardi. If it is possible, we will make an ally of her." He smiled. "After all, my family has a long habit of making allies in strange ways. If she chooses to serve under me, you will not raise a word of protest."
"But she killed so many of our men!"
"And how many humans fell to Sparda's blade?" The question hung in the air like an offensive odor.
Lombardi left without another word.
He had to admit, that device was impressive. It hadn't even had its screen cracked by the force that had nearly torn apart his own right arm.
Now if only he could figure out How. The Damn. Thing. Worked!
According to her ID, her name was Tamaki Satomi. Japanese native. Thirty-seven years old.
'And a very capable Devil Summoner,' he reminded himself. One that was actually capable of using demonic abilities, to boot.
He noticed a slight stirring in her eyelids, and he picked up on the slightly elevated rate of breathing. "You can stop faking, Satomi-san."
The fact that she was being addressed in Japanese in an unknown location was what caused her eyes to snap open more than anything else.
She hissed in pain as her attempt to sit up disturbed her arm. "Where am I?"
"You're in my personal apartment, on the twenty-second floor of my HQ." Hearing the voice of the demon she'd been fighting before losing consciousness, she instinctively reached for her COMP before realizing it wasn't there. "Looking for this?" She turned to see Shinji holding up the black device in his human hand. Knowing she was unable to fight and alone with an enemy, the fear was finally beginning to take hold. Shinji was shaking his head, almost sympathetically. "The bastards didn't even tell you what exactly you were going up against, did they?"
She didn't answer him.
"Y'know, not answering my questions is only going to get you killed."
"So, you'll kill me if I don't give you the answers you want?" She didn't really seem to care what the answer was.
"Oh no, not at all! I'm the only one that's really doing anything to try and keep you alive. So," he pulled a chair over to the side of her bed to sit in, "why don't you tell me everything?"
"Why should I? It's not like there's anything some little cult would be able to do." 'Besides, getting you involved would just make things worse.'
Shinji did an excellent job at looking offended at being thought of as a small time cult. "You'll never know unless you tell me, the one person trying to help you. Besides, I was strong enough to take you down."
Tamaki sighed, not expecting much to result, but there wasn't much else she could do at the moment.
"Looking back on it, I guess this all started just after my husband and I decided to take a vacation. Getting a license to perform summonings without joining the military took a lot of time, but the pay for private jobs is really good. With our living expenses, we only needed to take three or four jobs a year at most. I'm sure you've noticed how there seem to be more running around than usual lately, so we were getting a lot of jobs. Nothing too big, the worst we'd had to take care of was a small colony of Succubi, but we'd brought in more cash in the last two months than we had for the last three years.
We thought it would be a good opportunity to take a vacation, but things were going wrong from the start. Planes we tried to book flights on malfunctioned, and the ones we finally managed to get onto and into the air were always redirected midflight as far off as could be justified from our destination. Luggage disappeared with no explanation, but we didn't lose anything important; just clothes, toiletries, things like that. Still, it got annoying enough that Tadashi stayed at the hotel while I went out sightseeing. He was supposed to meet up with me at lunch.
That was the last time I saw him.
That was three months ago.
I spent a couple of weeks looking for him before I was approached by a pretty wrinkly old man going by Mr. K. He told me that if I led a group of Summoners against a dangerous cult picking up momentum in Italy, he'd give me access to UN resources to help me find him. I was desperate by that point. I agreed without asking any questions except when and where to strike. I didn't even bother finding out who we'd be fighting against.
I wasn't given very many soldiers, but it was supposed to have been enough if we drew the main defensive force out of the city."
Shinji interrupted Tamaki's story. "There were about ten summoners that got into the castle. That was your distraction." At her nod, he continued. "Several members of the Order who were stationed inside the building went MIA during the confusion, our chief alchemist Agnus them. Were they the inside men who helped those summoners enter the castle?"
"I didn't catch any names. What did this Agnus guy look like?"
"Big guy. Dark skin, monocle, hair pulled back in a ponytail, a slight speaking p-p-p-p-problem?"
Tamaki blinked. She'd heard the man stuttering on the exact same word. "Yeah, that's him."
Shinji's right arm began to glow as he clenched the hand. "Do you know where they were going if things went wrong?"
Tamaki sighed. "I can't say for sure where they are, but the attack was launched from Nuevo Firenze."
The demon smiled as he stood. "Thank you." 'That base is only 200 kilometers from here. It will only take our forces three hours if we hurry. Maybe the bastards will still be there.'
Shinji stood as he slammed his fist through the table. "What the Hell do you mean you refuse to launch a full assault!" He looked down the table at the leader of the opposed majority. The seats of Agnus and Sanctus to his left were empty. Nero occupied Credo's seat directly to Shinji's right. The teenager was understandably concerned at being to the young demon's right while angry.
Gloria, a dark skinned woman with abnormally light hair and wearing a white outfit that would have better suited a prostitute than one of the leaders of a major group like the Order of the Sword, stood at the opposite end of the table. "We've suffered too many casualties in this battle; we can't afford to launch an attack in our condition. We have to stay here and fortify against another attack."
"You damn idiots… You're just going to abandon Credo and the others, let Agnus go free, and stay stagnant and die instead of moving forward, the way we have to in order to survive." No one bothered to say anything in response. "Fine. Stay here and die." He turned left the room, returning to his apartment as Nero stood.
Shinji began stuffing bags with things, tossing a small pill to Tamaki as he rushed through the apartment. "What's this thing?"
"Just swallow the damn Bead. You want to go get your husband back, don't you?"
Recognizing the small item for what it was, she consumed it and winced as the bones and muscle fibers began weaving themselves back together. "Why would you help me?"
"Because you're probably the only other person within a hundred miles stupid enough to come with me and attack a heavily fortified UN base." He wasn't really expecting much more than one other person attacking at best, certainly no cooperation between them.
"Shouldn't a demon have more control over its followers?"
Shinji stopped in his rush to pack bags of arcane items. "I do not control these people. They followed me of their own will because of my father Vergil, the eldest son of the Dark Knight Sparda. They refuse to follow my orders, but I will not commit genocide of the only group to worship the hero who prevented this world from being destroyed in a war against YHVH that could not be won."
He tossed her one of the bags of healing and destructive items with her COMP. "You're just giving me this?"
"Why shouldn't I? Our goals happen to coincide at the moment, and I figure that even if you won't work with me, you aren't going to help those bastards again." He walked to his door, holding it open instead of closing it once he was through. "So… You need a lift?"
A little brown squirrel looked out of the bushes at the strange dark strip. There! On the far side. There was a beautiful acorn, sitting undisturbed. It was large enough to provide him with a delicious meal. It was truly glorious, not even the slightest flaw in the exterior from its fall from the tree, almost as if placed there for this little squirrel by God Himself. Oh, he was eating well tonight.
Familiar with the metal things that sped along the dark strip, the small creature looked around; searching with both its eyes and ears for any indication that something was approaching. Confident that he would be safe, the furry creature dashed across the road to claim his prize…
And was reduced to a red paste with an audible crunch.
The motorcycle's helmetless driver grinned. 'Gotcha.'
"Shouldn't this be making more noise?" Though Tamaki barely spoke above a whisper over Shinji's shoulder, he was able to hear her quite clearly.
He turned back with a grin. "It's special." Knowing that it was a pathetic excuse, he elaborated. "You notice the way the accelerator glows?" He used his left hand to gesture to the red accelerator, the only part of the motorcycle that wasn't a deep black. "It's taking in power from my arm to up the noise to such a high pitch that even I, for all my enhanced senses, can't hear it."
Tamaki whistled from her position behind him. "Where'd you pick that up?"
"Didn't, got drunk in a garage one night and woke up with the thing attached to this bike."
"You made a motorcycle nearly soundless while drunk?" Tamaki asked in disbelief.
"Yep. Made myself a promise then and there that I wouldn't screw around with machinery unless I was sober ever again. I still don't know how the Hell this thing works."
"So we're riding a magic piece of technology without any real understanding of how it works?"
Shinji paused to consider that. "Yes. Yes we are."
Nuevo Firenze, or New Florence, was founded in 2003 as a military base. However, with the number of people displaced by the rising sea levels after Second Impact, it eventually grew into a large city, being made the new Italian Capitol in 2009. Unknown to the general population though, the base was the site of the largest demon research facility in Western Europe.
Fortunately, the civilian population was kept a good distance away from the base.
Something Shinji and Tamaki appreciated as they lined one of the larger buildings with red and green rocks. Well, Tamaki did. "I'm not so sure about this."
Black and red eyes met her own as Shinji finished placing an onyx stone with a red plate attached to one side against the ground. "If you've got a better idea, I'd like to hear it. We have the entire structure of the building surrounded by Agidyne stones aimed straight down to destroy the support of the building and Zanma stones set up between each of them to make sure that the fire is spread out far enough away that it'll take at least half an hour for anyone to even reach the building. Hell, this won't even affect any of the ordinary soldiers." Sure, none of the normal human soldiers will be injured, but the guards will have some explaining to do.
"I'm just not… used to fighting humans."
"If you're looking for someone to comfort you about the morality involved with killing an enemy soldier, especially devil summoning soldiers like the one's the UN tend to require undergoing rituals that mutilate their souls, you're talking to the wrong Shadow. I do know that we can either do this, or give people that shouldn't get involved with this anyway a chance to either run or, more likely, die at the hand of something they won't even see." The line around the building completed without notice in the night, Shinji stood up. "Well, it's do or die time now." He pulled a small mirror out of his pocket and threw it at the ground between him and the human woman, feeling the protective bubble envelop them before snapping the fingers of his right hand.
A young, obviously malnourished, boy sat up in his cot as the last remains of his white cotton shirt fell apart, revealing a taut layer of skin over his clearly defined muscles. Unfortunately, any but the most cursory glance revealed that this was not due to any particular strength in the muscles, but a lack of sustenence that had gone on long enough for his body to burn through almost every ounce of fat in his body. Judging by his size, the boy appeared to be around twelve years old; though, given his malnourished state, he could have easily been fifteen years old. With the near-dead look in the pale eyes behind his shaggy grey hair, it was easy to believe he'd been in this location for years.
The young man looked around his Spartan cell, devoid of any windows and plumbing, eyes passing over the bucket for any waste produced, and the much smaller panel in the completely sealed door that he just barely remembered from the day of his arrival to contain a tunnel spanning twenty meters and capable of being filled with enough cyanide to kill an elephant in a second.
And still, even if he was in perfect shape, and capable of crossing twenty meters in less than a second or without air, he'd be stopped short at the damn thirty-centimeter thick vault door at the other end.
Still, with whatever was set off with enough force for him to sense this far underground, he might be able to finally escape.
The boy wasn't stupid, there were maybe half a dozen humans who knew he was even still in existence in any form, and only one or maybe two entities that knew exactly where he was, but if something this powerful hit the base in the right place, there wouldn't be any way to feed the gas into the chamber. Then the only problem would be the damn vault door.
Of course, the issue was rendered moot as what little energy he had managed to gather faded and he collapsed to the steel floor; still conscious, but unable to move anything but his eyes.
The first mutt in the pack of hellhounds lunged at Shinji, only to find its neck locked in an iron grip while being used as a bludgeon against its brethren.
"Tch. This is pathetic. If your going to bother breeding things like this, have the decency to make them smart enough not to make a head on rush at something stronger and faster."
A figure approached from behind him, his scent and the sound of his footsteps covered by the flames remaining from a couple of demons' broken bodies. Shinji only noticed the larger man when the small, winged creature on his shoulder dove forward, wings snapping shut into the shape of a sword that was run through his back. "I'll be sure to remember that for the next b-b-batch."
As Tamaki ran her sword through a Mephisto's skull, she couldn't help wondering what was going on. This was the eighth demon she'd come across, but there hadn't been a single human.
As the cloak of the dead demon faded into nothing, she saw a Nekomata rapidly approaching, claws raised to strike at anything interrupting its mad rush. The push of a button caused a layer of ice to appear on the ground beneath the approaching cat-spirit, which reacted by jumping into the air and delivering a spinning kick the summoner was forced to duck under. Her back to icy ground she wouldn't be able to balance on, Tamaki had to move aggressively, moving forward with a flurry of stabs that forced the demon back, though it avoided every strike. Upon reaching the conclusion that she wasn't fast enough to strike the demon, she summoned her own as the enemy leapt back in preparation to attack.
"Neko!" Her own Nekomata dove forward, delivering a strike that knocked the enemy's face in the direction of the wall just as the flames that had been gathering were released.
The now-outnumbered demon flipped further away from the new arrival before her head tilted in recognition. "Mungojerrie?"
"Rumpelteazer?"
'Neko has a name?'
Shinji blindly shot out a spectral hand from his right arm, grabbing nothing but air, as he struggled to free himself of the demon-weapon hybrid pinning him against the wall. Trying to grasp the hilt of the blade so he could work it out, he gave up upon the realization that the blade was much longer than his arm. "I see you got those Gladii up to the size you wanted," he grunted out.
Standing at the end of the blade with a rubber-gloved hand wrapped around the hilt of the demon, Agnus smirked. "Yes I have, boy. SEELE places far less limitations on my research than you fools did. You were all so opposed to my Gladii, and my basilisks, and my Cutlasses; but they encourage it." Shinji stopped struggling and slumped forward, his body preventing Agnus from seeing his hands beings placed along the sides of Agnus's creation. "Giving up so soon?" he taunted.
"I actually… have another piece… of research data… for you," he rasped with his remaining lung.
Always eager for more data, Agnus gripped his creation tighter in his hand in anticipation. "And what would that be?"
"Those rubber… gloves of yours… can't insulate… Ziodyne!" he shouted. Blue sparks flowed from his arms, running back up the blade, picking up additional charge while passing through his chest, and reaching Agnus with enough power to shred everything beneath the large man's right elbow.
The man screamed in pain and fell back as Shinji backed away from the wall, allowing the Gladius to pass the rest of the way through his body, pulling his left lung out with it. He slumped to the floor as Agnus struggled to stand. His face twisted in a mix of pain and relief before he stood.
"I hate regenerating my heart," he grumbled as his heart began pumping blood once again. "Do you have any idea what its like not to have a heart? Well, the physical heart. It's pretty obvious that don't possess even the slightest spiritual, emotional, metaphorical heart." A little bit spurted out and hit Agnus in the face before Shinji's chest closed up. "Damn, my body doesn't like you any more than my mind." He walked toward the kneeling man and knocked him down the hall with a haymaker. "Oooohhhhhhh, you have no idea how long I've wanted to do that."
There was an audible crunch as something about the size of his head smashed into his face with enough force to break his neck. He repositioned his head as he saw the cannon sitting in the crater in front of Agnus.
"I hate alchemists."
"So this place is, among other foul things, killing humans and demons to create a blood based sphere that allows normal humans with no natural talent for Magnetite usage to reshape physical objects by deconstructing their base materials and reshaping it to a form they desire?"
The Nekomata leading them, Rumpelteazer according to her Nekomata who failed to introduce herself for the past couple of decades, replied with a short, "Yes."
"And I suppose the project leader is a Doctor Marcoh?"
"How'd you know?" Rumpelteazer asked in shock.
Tamaki slapped her palm against her forehead. "That's it. I declare shenanigans. Someone get me a broom."
Shinji tore a wall out of his way with Garudyne as the floor in front of him turned into a shotgun. While he was in the doorway he'd created, he saw the red bead connecting Agnus's monocle to the chain glow as the alchemist placed his remaining arm against the wall.
The wall closed back up, nearly taking Shinji's legs off as it did so.
A new hole appeared in another section of the wall revealing Agnus as spikes shot out of the floor. Shinji spun out of the path of the first three, and ditched his open red jacket as the fourth spike dragged it to be pinned against the ceiling.
That red gem started glowing again.
"Zio!" Agnus moved his head to the right.
Just slowly enough for the much smaller, but easier to aim, lightning bolt to pierce the red stone, knocking it away even as it collapsed into dust.
Agnus held his hand to the spot where his precious stone had been, staring at Shinji with shock. "No… No! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!" He began backing up to an open elevator shaft, labeled 'Out of Order'.
Shinji smirked at the traitor's distress. "Sorry. Was that important?"
The alchemist removed his remaining hand from his face, revealing a red, prism-like eye as he roared, his open palm facing Shinji. Three blades began moving along the floor and walls, almost like the fin of a shark in water. An arm made of energy flew forward, pulling one of them into his hand just as the other two arrived. His actual hand gripping the blade, he ripped the creature out of the ground, swinging it in a circle around him to tear the other two out, their own blades stuck in the body of the giant fish in Shinji's hand.
Without missing a beat, the boy threw the writhing mass at Agnus.
The alchemist fell back into the elevator shaft. A moment later, Shinji could hear the buzzing of an insect's wings. Running forward, he saw the silhouette of something vaguely humanoid flying down the shaft. He took a few steps back. "I just knew it was gonna be one of those days!" He shouted as he dove down the shaft.
Tadashi Satomi struggled, trying to do whatever he could to get any of his bonds off; the blindfold, the gag, the straps around his wrists, ankles, knees, chest, stomach, thighs, biceps, and forehead… any would have been welcome. The only thing he knew about his location was that he was strapped to some kind of metal trolley, which he knew had been moved since he was tied down to it.
But the Latin chanting from five separate voices arranged around him in a pentagram couldn't possibly have been good.
The five men around him were all wearing black, hooded robes, and each was standing over an incapacitated demon with a silver knife in hand.
Just outside the chamber, the three guards were playing poker. "Full House, Jacks over eights."
The man sitting next to him smirked. "Straight Flush."
The last man, and only one to actually be facing down the hall, looked up and said, "Shit."
The door to their chamber being knocked off its hinges would not have necessarily interrupted their ritual.
The rapier-wielding woman and her two Nekomatas made completion of the ritual impossible as the blood of the psychopaths covered their circle, making it useless for anyone.
Mungojerrie walked over to the edge of the room and picked up four white tubes, which she began to place Tadashi's incapacitated demons into. Tamaki and Rumpelteazer began to work on removing the man's bonds. He blinked as a sudden burst of light hit his eyes, until they adjusted well enough to recognize his wife.
"You're alright." He'd been worried about her for the last few months than he'd been for himself.
"Of course I'm alright." She smiled at him. "Baka," she added as an afterthought.
Their reunion was interrupted as Rumpelteazer said, "Alright, I'm sure you two are glad to see each other and all, but can we just cut him loose and get the hell out of here?"
That was the more sensible course of action. Tamaki nodded and gave the Nekomata clearance to cut through the ropes.
The demon's claws broke off just trying to remove the one keeping the man's head against the metal tray.
"I have another suggestion."
Tadashi knew he wouldn't like what Mungojerrie was about to suggest.
Shinji looked down into the dark shaft he'd dove into, eyes widening in revulsion as he saw the monster Agnus had become. The combination of an increased body mass and burst of demonic power had torn all but a few scraps of clothing from his body, exposing the white hairs running along the majority of his locust-like body. From his head, a pair of horns extended in the direction of his chin, and a white halo had formed directly above them.
'He threw away his humanity for This!' If his actions were any indicator, Agnus was beginning to lose control of the demonic power he'd forced into his body, as evidenced by the slow transformation and diminished mental faculties. If he escaped, the monster would go on to slaughter anything in his path until it was put down, without any regard for stealth.
The bug-man looked up at the freefalling demon and extended his hands, sending several living blades to strike him.
A Garudyne to Shinji's left destroyed the Cutlass, the recoil moving him far enough to his right to grab a Gladius as it flew past, and going on to swing it with enough force to knock a second out of its flight. One living sword in each hand, Shinji began spinning in midair, picking up enough speed to wipe out all approaching enemies as Agnus began moving down faster.
Still spinning, Shinji sent a burst of pure demonic energy out through his feet, creating a platform he used to kick off from, increasing his speed as he threw the remaining to Gladii straight down, piercing the buzzing wings of the fleeing demon and forcing it straight down until slamming against the ground of the very bottom floor of the facility. Shinji followed a moment after, running a spike of ice through the monsters chest.
Shinji jumped back into the air, sending a Ziodyne into the spike, and following it with a Garudyne upon landing that blasted Agnus through the doors into the large waiting room for those preparing to enter what appeared to be a decontamination chamber; much like would be expected in a facility performing major experiments involving highly lethal and infectious diseases.
Hopefully, Agnus would be dead by the time the fight moved on far enough to breach any containment areas.
A bruised and beaten man with long brown hair looked up from his position hanging from the wall by his wrists as he heard a girly shriek, followed moments later by two meaty thuds, accompanied by the moaning voice of one of the two guards he knew to be stationed outside his cell. The man had just enough time to wonder what was happening when a Nekomata broke down the door.
The demon laughed as she cut through the chains. "I told you I smelled people down here!"
A second Nekomata answered from the door, "Yes, yes, we get it Rumpelteazer; you were right and I was wrong."
A brunette woman poked her head through the doorway. "Hi, I'm Tamaki. We're going to tear this place apart and free all the prisoners. You want in?"
"It will be a pleasure." Quickly adjusting to the situation, the man walked outside and picked up the broadsword of one of his guards, swinging it a few times to adjust to the balance. "My name is Credo, I am the Commander of the Order of the Sword." He then noticed Tadashi, still strapped to the gurney. He said nothing of it when he saw how heavily bonded the man was, assuming he was either a potential threat or bound too securely to risk remaining in one location long enough to free him. "There are several more prisoners and experiments deemed 'dangerous' three floors down. The most effective paths would either be to find an elevator and try to bypass the security codes, or go down these stairs."
Tadashi began struggling as his wife began carting him toward the stairs. "This is BULLSHIT! He gets to walk on his own!" The other four ignored his protest as they started down the stairs. "WORST! RESCUE! EVER!"
'In retrospect,' Shinji thought as he rolled out of a fireball's path, 'maybe I should have left him pinned in the elevator and kept tearing things out.' He and the monster Agnus became had torn through at least three decontamination chambers, wrecked half a dozen suites of labs, and were probably breathing something highly toxic. Feeling a strange sensation in his throat and nostrils, Shinji looked at one of the larger broken bottles as he ducked beneath a flying sword. 'DAMNIT! This is fucking mustard gas!'
He wasn't given time to properly react to that as the beast dived forward, wrapping a talon-like hand around his neck. Green energy began to flow into Agnus's hand and into his body as Shinji's regeneration began to slow.
'What the hell? I feel… weak.' As the burns of the mustard gas began to increase in pain and longevity, he realized what was happening. 'He's… draining me…'
The tunnel vision was beginning to set in when he threw a combination of Agidyne and Magarudyne into Agnus's arm, creating and explosion that destroyed the limb and threw Shinji through the only wall remaining, something far more painful when the bruises don't instantly heal themselves. Crawling to the hole, Shinji used a Mabufudyne to create a wall of ice too thick for Agnus to break down with ease.
The teen struggled to his feet and reached into his coat for the bag…
That he could see on the ground on the other side of the wall he made.
'Shit… gotta find… some way to… power myself back up.'
He began limping down a hall, one that ended at a door saying DO NOT ENTER with a sweeper for an access card. 'I'll have to fry the system.' He placed his Devil Bringer against the panel, sending the most powerful lightning spell he could into the panel.
It was just enough to open the door.
Looking into the room, he saw a long cylinder that seemed to be taking an input from the far end of the room and churning out electricity. He followed the cylinder to the end, staring into the small black and grey box with yellow lines actively shooting across the surface and, occasionally, flowing onto the floor.
As a handle on top of the box arose, he recognized the thing as having taken the form of a briefcase as the silver face that seemed to be a part of the side stared back with glowing eyes.
And though a currently repressed part of his mind recognized that this unholy abomination to everything any society had ever held sacred must be somehow significant to this facility, only one true thought passed through his head.
'Hell. Yes.'
The trip down had been met with very little resistance. Sure, they'd run into a trio of Mephistos, but they weren't coordinated enough for the invulnerability granted by their cloaks to be an issue.
Then that giant white bug thing showed up, and things just went to hell.
With a flash of its glowing eye, the beast seemed to take control of the demons in the area, which began gathering in the steel hall and forcing Tamaki's group further down. The creature was too fast for Tamaki to keep up with, and all the demons she could handle the strain of summoning were busy keeping the lesser demons away from Tadashi.
Credo caught the pincer that was once Agnus's hand with his blade as the beast rushed at Tamaki. "RUN!" He ducked beneath a sweep of the demon's other arm and jumped back as a Gladius attempted to impale him. "Find the prisoners! Get them out of here!" Credo drove his sword through the demon's left thigh. "I'll buy you as much time as I can."
Tamaki got a lucky hit and bypassed her enemy's cloak, driving her thin weapon through its head. "You'll be slaughtered!"
Credo smirked. "I have a couple of tricks up my sleeve. Now GO!" Tamaki did as the man ordered, grabbing her husband's cart and dragging him with her further down the hall.
Credo stood alone before the small door the humans and allied demons had fled through. He looked at the room's remaining occupants: three demons wearing black cloaks and hats that could only be injured with a strike to the skull, a swarm of flying swords, and what he recognized to be the form Agnus took after undergoing the Ascension Ceremony that the alchemist had concocted along with Sanctus.
Depending on how much of Agnus's thought process was still intact, he'd be able to buy a ten minute head start.
This would be a worthy retribution.
Credo leaned slightly to his left and grabbed the Gladius that attempted to remove his arm, using it to cleave through one of its kin as a Mephisto extended a bony hand, all five finger tips glowing red and facing the man. Credo spun to his right to evade the glowing red lances sent to impale him and ducked beneath one of Agnus's fireballs, using the momentum to fling the sword into the Mephisto's still extended hand with enough force to reduce the bone to dust.
Seeing that a long range assault would be ineffective, the remaining two Mephisto's swooped down from above, each sending a set of lances through one of Credo's lungs. Sensing easy prey, the Gladii and remaining Mephisto swarmed the body suspended only by the Mephistos' weapons, a scene which was quickly reduced to Agnus watching a writhing mass of blood, metal, and bone.
The observing beast was able to make out a slight hum as a white light began to glow from the center of the mass, a hum that grew louder as the glow grew brighter, culminating in a few seconds with a blinding burst of energy that disintegrated the demons that had been consuming Credo. But when the light subsided, the being standing in his place was not Credo.
The figure had two sets of horns, one set beginning at his temples and protruding outward, and another starting a few centimeters higher on its head, starting from atop the white beaklike helmet that appeared attached to the beings skull; but even without these horns, the being would stand a clear foot above the average man.
As its left leg moved back, the golden talon it held instead of a foot scraped against the floor, though the creature did not stop moving its purple leg in response to the screeching sound. The white hair covering his body parted around a dark shell over his chest and abdomen, though several glowing cracks along it cast a purple color along it. The same phenomena occurred along his face, the bottom of his tail, and along his entire right arm past the elbow.
The one wing on his body, extended from his left shoulder, was white only where it was directly attached to his body, from which extended a single line of golden feathers.
Though there was only one wing on his body, the glowing purple shield his arm changed into at the bicep might have been mistaken for a second at a distance.
The demon extended its right arm at what had once been Agnus in a mocking 'come on' gesture.
Though no longer able to interpret what the sign meant, Agnus had overcome his bewilderment and ran forward, left arm ready to decapitate the being before him.
The claw-tipped limb was knocked away as Credo pushed his shield forward to meet it before rising above with a single weep of his one wing, and remaining suspended in the sky without any apparent effort. He raised his hand above his head, tightening his fingers into a ball as a golden lance formed, gaining a more solid form as he threw it at Agnus, who just barely dodged as it jumped back and took to the air.
The light coming from Agnus's glowing eye strengthened in intensity as it raised its arms, calling forth all of the Gladii remaining in the facility. He grabbed one of the dozens circling the two former humans, forcing it into its form as a weapon rather than a flying creature, and flew as quickly as he could toward Credo.
The one winged angel merely raised his clenched hand in front of his chest.
A golden light flashed, blinding Agnus as the golden sword Credo created and used to rend through the steel of the Gladius, moving further along past the dying demon until Agnus's own right arm was in two pieces past his elbow.
Agnus screeched as he drove his remaining arm forward, digging into Credo's white hairy neck, using the same draining ability he'd used on Shinji earlier to weaken his new foe.
As Agnus pushed the weakened Credo away to fall into the storm of thrashing metal, five of the Gladii screamed in pain as what would best be described as a giant boomerang with three curved blades (making a perfect circle) tore through them and continued on to cut Agnus's newly regenerated right arm clean from his body.
As the bloodied limb fell to the ground, the young man who threw the weapon moved his right hand to the left, and the boomerang responded by changing its path in the air to kill another six Gladii before circling back around, cutting off Agnus's head, then, upon receiving new instructions, beginning to move in a tighter and tighter circle until the being once known as Agnus was nothing more than an oozing red pile of organs and bones surrounded by pieces of steel.
The boomerang returned to an outstretched glowing hand, and reverted to its basic form of a briefcase as Shinji lowered his right arm. With rage visible on his face, Shinji approached the kneeling form of Credo.
Credo's voice was surprisingly undistorted given his transformation. "My Lord-" Though he was given little chance to use it as Shinji slammed the briefcase in his hand against Credo's jaw.
"What is wrong with you! I had my suspicions about your loyalty, but I felt you were at least decent enough to retain your humanity! But no, you went along with that sociopath Sanctus instead of informing me of the details of his betrayal." Shinji shifted his briefcase into his left hand and planted his right hand against Credo's face. "You, whom hath dared defy mine one and only Commandment by forsaking thine eternal soul…
DIE