Chapter 14 - Noire vs the Master

(Play OST – Devil May Cry 3 – Vergil Battle 1)

Instead of Noire going first, she didn't get a chance beyond firing a single bullet, as instead the man dashed forwards, instantly closing the space between them. For a brief nanosecond, Noire got caughtby surprise by how fast the man was, however her instincts kicked in just in time to knock her back into a state of mind where she could promptly react. Not only did this man close the distance between them though, but he also dashed right past her whilst slicing towards her in a diagonal manner which she blocked with Balmung… as well as the invisible slashes which he had done in that moment too. In the end, Noire had blocked all of them with her defensive stance before twisting around to face her opponent, narrowing her eyes at him whilst she prepared herself for any follow-ups. A followup which came in the form of the man swinging at her head, resulting in the Katana and Balmung colliding with each other. The force of which sent a single large shockwave through the entire peak. Heck, it even stretched out like the shoclkwave from an earthquake right across the entire Landmass. Noire only barely blocked it in time, and even then her blade trembled against his own. 'Ugh…! This strength…!'

… This is not good, Noire, it appears this man's strength… if we were to use the DPU Power system described in the Divine Library, then this guy's strength is in the Continent Class. Whilst that is the weakest in terms of DPU Classes, it is still far more than what the current you can handle for long time periods!...

'Yeah, I can see that!' She may not have needed to hear that from her Heroic Spirit, but hearing it regardless confirmed to her the suspicons she had in her mind with regard to this man's identity. Especially when she saw the violet energies sparking along the Katana's blade, sparks which flew about across the entire landmass. 'If he keeps releasing those sparks, just how damaged will the continent be?!' Noire couldn't help ut think to herself, before they broke away, repeating the exchange several more times with just as intense a shockwave as thwe first coming from each clash. Each time though, Norie felt numbness grow within her arms in greater quantities the more slashes she took head on, resulting in her aamping herself up with ELECTO CHARGE then summoning Ashbringer onto her back, then activating her LIGHT DRIVE to get the speed boost needed for her to catch her opponent off guard.

Her efforts got positive results, much to her relief when one of their clashes managed to push her opponent back, the man having jumped into the air and made multipme bac flips to avoid several of her slashes as well as the following VACUUM SLASH attacks aimed to slice his limbs off whilst in mid air. When he landed, the man looked to the woman he had taken as his opponent and saw her already at him. "Not bad, I guess…" he muttered beneath his breath in a mix of mockery and complimenting which only serve to make the mocking all the worse, not at all winded by these circumstances before he vanished, his form seemingly fading out of existence itself which caused Noire's attacks to hit nothing but air.

'What?!'

"But then again, you do suck worse than a donkey's balls."

SLASH!

"GAH!" The man smirked slightly, his eyes shining with a sadistic pleasure when he saw how his Katana cut through the blackette's back diagonally as easily as a knife through paper. Blood exploded outwards from the wound, causing it to splatter across the ground behind her whilst Noire stumbled forwards. Still though, the blackette didn't let this get her down as she twisted around, launching another VACUUM SLASH at her enemy. Said enemy vanished again, but this time Noire jumped into the air itself, flipping over a slash which would have cut her legs off if she hadn't dodged.

While in mid-air, the man twisted around for a reverse slash, one of which Noire angled Balmung to block. Unfortunately for her, whilst she managed to block it, since she couldn't parry or deflect it in time, she ended up getting sent flying towards the edge of the peak. Luckily, she managed to grasp one of the statues in time and, using a mixture of parkour acrobatics and the prior momentum, flipped around it as if the statue were a tall pole before shooting right back at her enemy. Lightning danced along Balmung's blade, fuelled by both her ELECTRO CHARGE as well as Raijin's power when her Satanic Treasure connected to her brain to unleash more destructive bolts. The moment the two collided once more, energy bolts got let loose from BOTH weapons, filling one half of the entire landmass as well as half the city itself.

…Noire, you must not take him head on like this, his strength behind his sword is too great. You will suffer severely if you do not change to a different approach…

'I know that, Siegfried, trust me I'm working on a plan…' Noire countered, gripping Balmung's hilt as she jumped back to et some distance. All the while, a grin grew across the man's lips as he bent his spread apart legs whilst sheathing his Katana sword at his waist. 'That stance…! I know it! It's a quick-draw stance!' Noire realized, though she did end up being unable to avoid the coming onslaught. The surrounding space gradually became distorted in a sort of V shape, bending the surroundings to Noire's confusion until she gasped in pain when the man drew his Katana, made a few quick slashes which created several eruptions of violet energy around her, before sheathing his sword.

'Argh! Spatial distortion?! Seriously?!'

Despite the pain she had found herself in with more than a few wounds to speak of, Noire still managed to retain a stable sense of mind. She'd already grown a steady pain tolerance from all the painful battles she had fought, so something like this would be nothing to her. Fortunately, Noire managed to tank those slashes, but fell onto one knee afterwards. She didn't get much breathing room though as she had to hurriedly side flip, avoiding a quick draw slash from the man as he dashed past her, then flipped towards her like a sausage. Gripping his Katana's hilt, he drew it out into a downward slash, which Noire activated her ZANDATSU to dodge before twisting into a revers horizontal slash towards his side… only for the man to vanish YET again, but while the ZANDATSU remained intact.

"Altering your time perception won't save you, girl." Noire's eyes trembled, as she didn't have any time to be shocked by the fact someone had been fast enough to evade her whilst she had activated her ZANDATSU, as she quickly raised Balmung in the direction she heard the voice come from to block a slash towards her chest, sending her flying backwards. If not for stabbing her sword into the ground, then she would have definitely been blown off the Tower's peak.

Just looking at the man's sadistic grin set her nerves and fury into overdrive, causing a growl to emerge from her throat as she got up, just a second before he had already charged at her while making several quick draw slashes at her. Noire managed to block the first two, then twisted around the third one before she pumped Balmung with Lightning, swinging it towards his back. Just a second before it could impact him though, did Noire halt it, switching to an upward slash which caused the man to twist himself like a sausage, avoiding both it as well as the following VACUUM SLASH.

Noire wasn't done however, as she launched a second one after a downward slash, though this time the man repeated the movements which he had used to land all those slashes on her before. Several spaces before her attack became distorted as multiple slashes appeared, cutting the VACUUM SLASH to pieces.

'Tch, at this rate, I'll have to use my Balmung's signature attack: TWILIGHT WAVE…' Noire thought to herself whilst jumping back when her opponent appeared where she had been with a horizontal slash which could have cut through her throat. Sliding to a halt, she held Balmung in a defensive stance, all the while mentally activating Ashbringer's LIGHT FLASH to heal her wounds. She could feel its energy erupting through her like a nice warm lamp bathing her skin with its heat, which in any other circumstances Noire would have appreciated much more than what she did right now. 'But… I would rather save that attack as a last resort, since its so destructive. Luckily, unlike the battle against Cerberus I can aim it upwards or away from Lastation, which will minimize casualties. I just hope it'd work, since the attack is still quite draining to use…'

… It may be your only option right now, Noire. As you have probably guessed, this man isn't even NEARLY going all out. I cannot even begin to fathom how much power he has, but I can definitely say he isn't even considering you enough of a threat to take seriously. He's just playing with you at this point, since he's had over 300 chances to kill you, yet he didn't. This man…

'Yeah, that sounds about right… when you clash swords with someone, you tend to get a better grasp of them than what words can describe. This was something I learned a while back, and while it indeed sounds quite barbaric, I've since learned of its validity. From what I felt from this man's blade, my earlier thoughts about him may as well have been one MASSIVE understatement…' Noire responded to her Heroic Spirit, an angry brow twitching madly despite the calm look on her features. Oh, how she would relish the chance to be able to cut this asshole, as even up until this point none of her attacks had managed to leave so much as a scratch on him. It was as if he had a thick skin made of invisible energy around him or something, which bent the space around him to stop her attacks from landing on his skin, which really irritated her. Especially with how she had to heal herself from her wounds which left tears in her outfit, already damning this man to hell. She liked her outfit thank you very much, it was her favourite! If this asshole cut, her any more then she'd have to replace it!

Unlike before, Siegfried wisely chose not to comment about a lady's love for fashion. He'd learned his lesson with the hair incident, and even now he still felt his ears ringing from the verbal lashing she had given him. Still, instead of trivial matters, Siegfried pondered the situation with a worried frown, as much as he loathed to admit it, it looked like the only other option aside from THAT happening, something he wished she would have a sufficient level of ability to draw out Balmung's power beforehand, it looked like she would have to use the Noble Phantasm's signature attack if she wanted to stand any chance of defeating him. It would be a better alternative than THAT at least, heck it had possibly already started with some of the things he had observed about her personality, especially when she entered the battlefield. Another problem would be the reload time, but that would be a much easier one to solve in comparison.

Back outside, Noire raised Balmung in a horizontal position to block an overhead slice, then angled her sword to the side to send it away from her, launching a kick to his stomach. The man defended by jumping back though, quickly going into his quick draw stace and launching that spatial manipulation attack he did, to which Noire countered by activating ZANDATSU and jumping over him, landing behind him and away from the attack's range. The technique vanished right after, since she found it pointless to use it like she normally would if this guy could still move that fast even in ZANDATSU, so Noire summoned more Lightning from her Raijin. She then threw her hand out and launched a volley of Lightning Bolts at her opponent, each one moving with the speed a Lightning strike would normally have. Unfortunately for her, the man practically blurred out of sight, moving in between the bolts to close the distance with a side slash aimed for her neck.

Bending backwards, Noire barely avoided the slash in time, causing her to mentally sigh in relief. 'Whew, that was a close one, didn't want that to have hit me…' The Blackette thought, a mental exhale escaping her.

…Noire, you might want to look again…

'Huh?' Momentarily confused by SIiegfried's words, she did indeed look back to where the man had sashed after jumping away to get some distance… and she got greeted to a very… specific sight: The mountain range which lay at the very north of Lastation completely getting completely DEMOLISHED by the sword swing's air blast. Se couldn't even see any remainders of it. 'Whoa! What the heck?!' she screamed in her mind, shock engulfing her being.

Amused, dark sadistic laughter escaped her opponent's mouth, catching her attention as she brought her gaze back to him. "Hahahahaha, that look on your face, it is priceless, you know that? Though, considering how weak you seem, that last slash would have cut off not only your head, but the heads of anything within that slash's reach… pretty much everything on that portion of the continent. Though, that's none of my concern if I'm honest." He stated, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly.

For a moment, she stared at him in absolute shock, then the blaze of fury ignited within her as well as sick disgust. "You… You FIEND!" Noire yelled, pointing her sword at him. "Keep my Nation out of this! Several cities were in that direction, damn you!" she bellowed further. Worse still, she could detect that those cities had been hit due to the sudden PLUMMET her Shares had taken just now, a plummet she hadn't noticed immediately thanks to Balmung and Ashbringer. That meant that attack hadn't just destroyed the mountain range… it had done oh so much more than that. "You sick bastard! I don't get you at all, what kind of person would go that far?! What's the point of even putting this Spell on them if you're just going to kill them anyways?!"

"Cause those idiots'd get in the way, simple as that. Oh yeah, do me a favour and keep that useless preach about harming your people to yourself, it disgusts me you see." The man replied indifferently, glancing at his Katana. "There is nothing to believe in. There is no need to believe. All there is in battle, is that there is a winner and a loser. Anyone who can't fight deserve to be trampled underfoot." He added on, his sick grin slowly returning from that thoughtful frown he had on earlier. "Now then, since your not going to entertain me on the bed, though to be frank your boobs leave much to be desired, perhaps putting you to the sword will feel at least marginally more satisfying." He added, flipping his Katana into the air… before swinging his arm out.

Immediately, alarms blared as Noire quickly swung Balmung upwards, her arms becoming covered with cuts from the attack but barely managing to deflect it away from the city… although, a long fissure, one which deeply went through the ground to the point where it had went nearly all the way through the continent, formed all the way across Lastation. Fortunately, she didn't feel that big a decrease in shares, if at all, so none of her cities throughout the continent had been hit. 'That… That's INSANE! Are you telling me his hands can nearly destroy this whole damn Continent?!' Noire shrieked, eyes shaking madly as fears of what could happen if this man went full serous mode on her ass. Everything in Lastation would he held in jeopardy, something she could only defend for so long until her arms gave out, even as LIGHT FLASH from Ashbringer activated to heal her wounds.

At least, at this point Noire well and truly couldn't afford to hold back anymore. Not when this villain who obviously didn't care about how many innocent lives he took posed a threat to their safety. She refused to bring Lid into the equation too, as even with that Heroic Spirit helping her, she doubted that the A Spec Ops Agent would be able to handle anything from this calibre of enemy. With that in mind, the black haired CPU quickly activated her FAFNIR ARMOUR, spreading her large dragon wings flaring outwards as Balmung's Jewel began to shine. Energy began to gradually flow into the Noble Phantasm, encouraged by the wielder as well as the divine Lightning from the ELECTRO CHARGE she surrounded its blade with. Leaning forwards and getting into a position similar to all fours, Noire palmed the ground with her fee clawed hand whilst her sword arm got pointed to the side, ready for a slash.

…Your resolve is set, so I will not intervene…

'You sort of did just now, but whatever…'

Seeing the state that the woman had entered, a low whistle exited the man's lips as he cupped his chin in thought. "#WHISTLE# huh, so you WERE hiding a trump card… not like it will make a difference." The man mused, noticing several other phenomena. Like for example how the air surrounding them crackled with volatile sparks of energy, or how the atmosphere gained a new level of weight the more one got closer to its source, being Noire of course. Still, looking at her with the state she had fallen into, especially when he noticed her gripping the ground beneath her hard enough to make craters, the man chuckled darkly to himself, planting a hand on his face. "Ufufufufufu, oh, how this is RICH!" he exclaimed, his face twisting into a sneer behind his hand. "In this world where might controls everything, where without strength you will never be able to protect what's so-called 'Important' let alone yourself, I see this curious sight. You should see yourself. Do you have any idea what you look like right at this moment? A ravenous beast. The same blood runs through both of us, the blood of a beast that wanders, hunting for the blood of others. Yet you don't even acknowledge it!" The man exclaimed, before losing himself in a fit of laughter. That is, after only about 10 seconds before he let his hand drop, his face now one of distain and contempt for her. "How utterly foolish."

With that said, the man sheathed his Katana into its scabbard, getting into a crouch position whilst twisting his hips so his scabbard would be behind him. He then grasped the scabbard with one left hand and the Katana's hilt with his right hand. Energy started to circulate within him, going through his arms and entering his Katana to give it a soft, violet glow. His eyes also began to glow violet with matching sparks erupting forth from the, launching out into the vast city around them. This level of power would be nothing for him, the man determined when measuring her energy levels with his mental prowess, so he didn't feel all that threatened. Heck he hadn't even used a SPEC of his true power in this whole fight. This pathetic excuse for a Goddess…

She'll be humiliated in every way possible tonight.

Both sides stared each other down, each of them pulsating with their various energies which sparked across the surroundings, Lastation being its epicentre whilst the entire continent got covered by them. Although, unlike the violent nature of the violet sparks, the pure divine white sparks emitted from Noire seemed to sport wills of their own since they instantly blasted away the violet one's so they didn't outright scar her Nation. Instead, they each dissipated into thin air upon contact, save for the stronger ones which either left deep craters on some spec of ground across the continent, or blasted large chunks of buildings to nothingness and killing those inside, impacting Noire's shares further.

At first, the two only made minute movements, a simple shift of the foot here, a twitching hand there, not anything which could be attributed to any kind of offensive manoeuvre… until 2 minutes later when Noire let out a battle cry, flaring her wings and engaging LIGHT DRIVE to the max. Her form pretty much became Lightning itself, blasting forwards towards her opponent with her Noble Phantasm poised for a horizontal swing. Seeing this attack coming, the man responded by drawing his Katana, which glowed so brightly that it resembled a violet sun with increasingly erratic energy sparks.

"Take THIS! TWILIGHT WAVE!"

"…"

Just as their swords collided…

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

At first, a bright light enveloped the entire peak, expanding outwards like a certain eye of a certain dark tall tower in a certain dark fantasy world. Inside the light's epicentre, if one could look there without being blinded they would see the two figures of Noire and the man become enveloped by the Light itself, until it completely concealed them from view. As a result, nobody would have been able to see them. All this happened in a couple seconds… before everything starting from the peak itself went up in smoke as a large explosion erupted. It filled the already cloudy skies with thick, dense smoke which expanded over the entire city like an eerie shadow casting itself over the land. Not only that, but the resulting shockwave pretty much caused the entire landmass to tremble in an almost visible fashion. If one were to look at it from one of the other continents, they would have seen it shake about in the air before re-stabilizing itself. The Smoke, similar to how a nuclear warhead's one looked after it went off, filled the air with a scorching heat which came from the two energies combining together and reacting in a most violent manner.

So yeah, it had a huge impact.

(OST End)

Lid sat on a broken piece of pillar, reloading some of her guns when she heard the explosion, a gasp escaping from her lips whilst she nearly fell flat onto her face. Fortunately, her instincts remained on point as she managed to widen her stance and stop herself from falling down. Though, she came VERY close to doing that, something which both dissatisfied and concerned her.

'What the?! What the hell was that?!' The grey haired woman shouted mentally, though she got a negative answer from her 'friend' which would have been, if you guys haven't guessed it and the author had already stated it before, a Heroic Spirit. WHAT that Heroic Spirit's true identity was however, would remain a mystery for some time yet. 'Ugh, shit…! That caught me SO off guard! I almost fell unceremoniously to the floor just now! Luckily, I'm running a solo act right now, otherwise I might cut myself from the humiliation!'

Looking upwards after ranting in her mind, Lid narrowed her eyes in a dark, concerned manner. She could sense that the eruption had come from up there, where she had assumed Noire had gone up to in order to face this 'Master' she had talked about, the one who had challenged her whilst she had been in office. She didn't like the feeling she got from up there though, not one bit. Not only did she get chills in places she didn't even know was possible to have them at, but she also got this cold foreboding waterfall slamming down on her chest right now. Dread and nervousness swirled within her as her thoughts wandered over to the black-haired Goddess. 'Noire… you better not die up there, you hear me? The people will need you after all this is said and done…'

Back at the top of the Tower peek…

"Ugh… guh… man, that smarts…"

As the smoke began to clear, Noire herself who had been lying on the ground face-first, groaned to nobody in particular as she slowly stumbled upwards, settling for a Japanese sitting position. The blackette did look like she had seen better days honestly, her ribbons had been destroyed resulting in her hair flowing downwards, her outfit had been ripped apart so much that her boots were gone plus her stockings and garters, her skirt looked to be in tatters whilst her dress now showed her midriff. Even some underboob if one looked hard enough, though any perv who tried to do so would likely get a fist full of feminine fury to the face for their troubles curtesy of the queen of Tsunderes herself. In addition to that, her arm wear had been shredded, to rags, this didn't even BEGIN to address all the various cuts and lacerations the blackette had on her like they were clothes to be worn, one particularly nasty one going damn diagonally across her face like a sword had tried to cleave her face in half. Obviously, this also meant her FAFNIR ARMOUR had been forcibly disabled for the time being, having taken too much damage which forced her back to human form. Beside her, lay Balmung though the Noble Phantasm didn't look too good itself. Especially with all the cracks along its blade which looked like it would shatter at any moment now, the same could be said for the Ashbringer as well since it also looked like it'd fall apart at any second.

Looking at all this stuff which had happened and comprehending it all mentally, Noire couldn't help but think one thing to herself as her teeth gnashed together when pain exploded from her injuries. 'Looks like… I may or may not have just barely come out of that alive…' she thought, which she soon got a confirmation from Siegfried himself on.

…Indeed. It is rather miraculous that you did, actually. Whilst not at full power, that strike from that man WOULD have obliterated both you and your very SOUL from existence. I found out during the second your weapons collided, both I and Ashbringer had to do all we could in order to keep your soul from vanishing off the face of the earth. Apparently, this man has powers to destroy souls which he infused into his energy, making it so that whenever he uses larger attacks, the enemy's souls are always affected, and not in a good way. It doesn't help that we had to keep your body intact, that FAFNIR ARMOUR proved to last about… let's just say 2.3 seconds before blasting apart. As a result, both Balmung and Ashbringer have been severely damaged and are unusable for you, at least temporarily whilst they return to your soul to regenerate. In the meantime, you only have two weapons available to you: your rapier, HF Blade…and Dragon Fault…

'… So basically, two weapons, then?' Noire retorted, mentally sighing in exasperation when she recalled just how heavy that massive Sword had been. There would be zero chance for her to use it in battle at all, let alone killing someone as fast as this man who, according to her senses, remained alive after that attack. Heck, his energy didn't even look like it had been impacted that much from Balmung's signature ability. 'Tenacious bastard… lording himself over me like he's some sort of god… oh wait…'

SLASH!

A sword slash went through the air, clearing the debris around them. Noire quickly looked up, using one arm to cover her breasts whilst summoning her HF Blade, her other weapons vanishing inside of her, Balmung's sheathe included. There, she saw the man who had reduced her to this state, shredding her outfit (darnit, this was her last set, too!) and covering her with lethal wounds. His form looked just as it always did, not a single spec of damage on him as winds chopped up, causing his coat to flutter in the wind. His Katana, sheathed in its scabbard, rested at his side like it had never been drawn this whole fight.

"Grrr…!" Refusing to give up even with her power mostly exhausted, especially her Shares being damaged the way they had been resulting in them being way too small for use, Noire lifted herself off her HF Blade. In a flash, she summoned Ombra and fired several times at him in rapid succession. As he saw the bullets coming though, the man unsheathed and twirled his Katana so fast that he actually caught each bullet, lining them up on the ground before him with his blade. He then swung the said blade at her, launching the undamaged bullets back at their owner. Fortunately, Noire managed to activate her ZANDATSU in time to slice them all up, leaving nothing but empty shells on the ground.

Seeing this, the man scoffed whilst rolling his eyes. "I guess you were fine… for a distraction, at least. Nowhere NEAR a proper opponent though, but then again that's what happened. When you DON'T do whatever you can to obtain power." The man spoke, stepping towards Noire who, with most of her strength gone, fell to one knee whilst using a hand to grip Her HF Blade's rear end like a cane, the blade impaling the ground so she could use it as support. Stopping right before her, the man stared down at her, silent like a hawk for a moment… before raising a hand and backhanding her, causing her to gasp as she got sent towards the edge of the peak. "Useless bitch."

Just as she began her flight path, the man swiftly reached out for her neck, and plucked from it the pendant of which she carried like it had been taking candy from a baby, before twisting around to leave as he heard her slam into one of the statues. Just as he stepped past her fallen HF Blade however… the man suddenly stopped mid stride, an idea coming to his mind. "Hmmm… I guess it would be a waste to have such a worthless existence continue…" he muttered, thoughtfully as he began to ponder on what Noire's fate would be. Should he kill her? Should he not? Decisions, decisions… 'Well, its not like I have any use for her anyways, she's hardly fitting to be my toy, nor can she fight back against me. Though, she might become an annoyance, she seems like the stubborn sort after all…'

His eyes glanced behind him when his senses picked up faint movement from his fallen opponent, and in that instance his mind got made up. "Ah, forget it. Not like she'll be much good alive anyways." He muttered under his breath… before appearing before her with her own blade in hand, impaling her lovingly through the chest with it. A loud gasp tore through her mouth and her eyes shot wide open at the sensation of her blade piercing through her chest, the coldness of the blade's metal QUITE uncomfortable to touch with her insides.

Taking a step back, the man noticed a presence behind him, though with a lack of killing intent behind it. "Vicious… Do you finally have it?"

"Yes." The man replied, glancing behind him at the approaching scholar. The man glared down at Noire for a moment, before turning back to Arkham with a look if distain. "Do not sneak up behind me again, you may not live to regret it." He warned, dangerously. "Still, now the spell cast on this tower will be broken. That idiot who retreated in the great war shall finally have his comeuppance." Vicious stated, to which Arkham wisely chose to remain silent. He knew well this man's temperament, it could easily be invoked on to him along with either a Katana blade, or something even more sinister. Still, the Scholar glanced down at the fallen Goddess, noticing how low her Shares had become, which prompted a hidden disgusted snort.

Goddesses tend to LOVE having Shares, coming to rely on them since they were the representation of the faith in them by their people. A disgusting concept for people like him and Vicious, who use self-sustaining Demonic Power. During the battle, a few measly towns worth of people got axed off in their sleep which affected those Share levels negatively, something Arkham and Vicious had expected. Not only that, but with the spell over the city putting citizens to sleep, it wasn't like she would be gaining Shares back from them any time soon. Not to mention similar spells (the source being right in SONY) having been placed across every town in the Continent only worsened her situation on that front.

To use such a fickle, inconsistent power…

Disgusting!

No wonder this pathetic excuse for a deity lost, even with the other powers sleeping inside her.

With one last look at the downed Goddess, Arkham and Vicious turned away, intending to continue with their objective.

Weak…

Powerlessness…

Failure…

Yeah, Noire, even in her current state, could safely say she had been all three of those and more. As she lay there, unable to move, unable to speak, and just barely able to stay conscious for a bit longer whilst her mouth opened and closed of its own accord. Her vision, once bright and vibrant, began to dim with spots of black beginning to creep along her vision like wicked serpents.

Yet still, despite this, her response to this was...

'Siegfried…'

For a moment, she tried to contact her Heroic Spirit to see if he was alright, if he would share her inevitable fate. Her life, from the beginning of all this, had never truly been her own anymore, well it had never been full stop since her life was also the life of the Nation, but on a deeper level one could say her life was now also Siegfried's second chance at life. As such, if she died like this, then she worried that he would follow suit without ever getting the chance to continue on in this world. But... she couldn't get any response from him.

So, that answered that question.

If she could, she'd gnash her teeth together to express the violent frustration building in her stomach.

'Damnit… again? Am I… going to fail again…?'

So hard… Noire had tried SO DAMN HARD not to end up in this position again… not since Halo Mountain. She remembered how pathetic, helpless, like dead weight she had been in that battle, unable to do a single damn thing against Mundus. As a result, she had to rely on both IF, and then later on Nico, in order to make it out there alive. It had been one of her lowest moments, she would readily admit that to herself. Lower than her time stuck under Avenir's thumb because even back then she had been able to at least DO something for her people, as small and minor as it had been. Back THEN? She'd been unable to do a single damn THING, and that alone stung a thousand times worse. That didn't even begin to account for how she hadn't been able to do a damn thing to that damn Okada Izou, whom Nico had been able to defeat on his own whilst she and the other Goddesses nearly got their asses whooped by him.

That helplessness… Noire had never wanted to feel it again, and so afterwards she had THROWN herself into her training. She practiced her swordplay; she rewrote it from the ground upwards so she could maximise the use out of Balmung and Ashbringer. She even decided to give up on her original stance with the intent of selling her Rapier (even though she tried and found she couldn't quite let it go, since it had personal attachments to her), so she could completely focus on her Sword Mistress Stance. All of it had been fuelled by her desire to never be that weak every again, to never again experience that helplessness, as despite her misgivings about it, that had been one of the FEW times where she'd be able to experience it with little consequence. What about whenever a national emergency happened, would she still be able to be like this? Nope, not one bit. Everyone in Lastation looked up to her as their ruler, even though that isn't as true as it had been in the past, so she COULDN'T afford to be helpless.

She'd be willing to do more training than actual work for her nation, which wasn't something a Leader should do. Everything a Leader does is done with the safety of their people in mind, she could count on her single right hand how many tyrannical rulers lead long happy lives without being quashed by rebellions and revolutions. She didn't want to be like those people, even if she had been like that at one point herself... much to her eternal shame. This fact of leaders and their relations to their people, was something she only FULLY realized and comprehended at this current point in time. She'd been ruled by her own emotions back then, something which hadn't changed ONE BIT since she first returned from Celestia… and she bet that Siegfried had known about this. Why he hadn't said anything, Noire had only one guess: that he wanted her to see for herself what she had been doing.

Oh, how disgusted with herself she felt.

This was pathetic, PATHETIC! She should have done better! She HAD to get better, she HAD to survive this! Not for herself, but for her people! They needed her right now, if she fell at this time then who would stop Arkham and that bastard Vicious?! Lid? No way, she'd be mincemeat if Vicious got his hands on her, and Arkham likely wouldn't let her live any longer either! That's why… she couldn't let herself die like this! Her strength, her strength which had been growing weaker and weaker by the second thanks to this wound… and the lack of Shares from her unconscious citizens… she needed to get it back! She had to, she MUST!

But... if she wanted to do everything she said she would, and by the Goddesses she did, then she'd need power. The power to protect her people who should always remain top priority, to protect her comrades who fight beside her, to protect herself so she could continue doing those previous things. What those guys said to her, and what has been the generalized opinion by pretty much everyone in the world, about might ruling everything... as tired a concept it has been stressed in this story, it still had its merit. She fully understood this now. Without strength, one can't protect anyone or anything. That was why so many people took the path to power in the first place, before their ambitions fall to selfish personal gain. Some even have this selfishness from the start, and at one point even she herself had been like that.

Still, deep down, Noire felt it inside, the most important desire she had which would lead her to her goals, more important than her own personal feelings. It hadn't changed one bit.

Power…

She needed POWER!

'…Is THAT so…?'

What the...? Who was that...? It wasn't vicious, that was for certain since she didn't feel anything negative in its words. No malice, no arrogance, nothing but this genderless voice echoing in her head.

'if THAT is WHAT your MIND seeks... WHAT about... your SOUL...?'

Still, despite her questions, Noire couldn't be bothered with them, thus she answered it with the little mental clarity she had remaining.

'Yes. Power... I need POWER...'

'Yeeesssss… THIS is YOUR desire... POWER... you WANT... power... #dark, distorted chuckle# VERY well, THEN... you ARE ready. NOW... let THE rebirth... OF the GODDESSS Noire... COMMENCE!'

BA-BUMP!

BA-BUMP!

As the rain fell upon the motionless Goddess, her heartbeat suddenly exploded in strength, filling her entire body with blood once again. Another one happened, and another, and another, until the body had enough blood pumping through it that the sword impaling her didn't even matter anymore. Nope, not when a power slumbering within Noire finally began to stir whilst a dim, dark silver aura slowly began to envelop her being. It swiftly pushed the HF Blade out of her, sending it flying in a constant spin up into the air. It also unleashed a pillar of water from all the rain which fell down throughout the battle, wetting the peak while catching the previous two's attention.

What happened next, Arkham could hardly follow with his eyes until everything stopped again:

FWOOSH!

SWISH!

SQUEALCH!

One moment the two men had heard the sound of rushing water which got accompanied by something moving at them at high speeds. Or rather, towards Vicious which caused him to twirl around while unsheathing his blade. As a result, the something threw a punch which resulted in the limb used going into the Katana's blade with a sickening squelch sound. Thus, when they looked to see who it had been who dared try to sneak attack them, both their eyes marginally widened in surprise when they saw that it had been Noire... with a few changes to her person.

Teeth gnashed together, face scrunched up in a furious snarl with heavy breathing, Noire glared heatedly towards the two whilst her fist got impaled by her middle and index finger halfway through to her palm by the Katana. Yet, she looked like she didn't even feel or acknowledge this injury as her blood ran down the length of the blade impaling her hand, all the while her own body seemed to be regenerating at high speeds, most of her previous injuries no matter how deep they had been having nearly completely vanished. Each of them sizzled like ingredients in a pan whilst light trails of smoke rose from the wounds, all the while her body kept releasing a pulsating dark silver aura, as if it were a living, beating heart. Her eyes too, were the biggest thing they noticed however: with both of them becoming as crimson as the blood coating Vicious' katana with the pupil having become slitted: the eyes of a Demon.

Seeing this change, the mans lips curved into a deep, dark smirk, his eyes glinting with sadistic amusement as he figured out what was going on. "I see, so a Devil has awakened inside of you as well." he remarked, making to push Noire back and end her once and for all. After all, if this were to continue she would become an annoyance for him in the future, what with the level of potential he could see spilling forth from the Devil inside. However, something else happened instead: Whilst she glared at him with all the hate in the world, Noire adjusted her hand, moving the blade through it and spewing more blood all the while until she could properly grip the Katana in her damaged hand. That done, the Goddess turning Demon grasped it tightly, growling as she tossed him overhead across to the other side of the peak.

'Strength increase... one of the few improvements this form has over her other one...'

Landing on the ground and sliding to a halt, Vicious looked up with surprise, as whilst he indeed thought those words, he still couldn't help thee amount her strength had increased. In fact, if he thought about it, he realized that the Demon in her must have been consuming large quantitates of powerful Demonic souls for its strength to be this great already. It would only grow even more at this rate, possibly reaching the World Class for the countless Demon races, those had the reputation of being WAY too annoying to deal with since the term 'planet buster' got invented by them as well as Chaos and Primus Class DPUs.

Before him, Noire stumbled forwards, the damage to her hand repairing itself at an astonishing rate. In a couple seconds it had completely fixed, whilst a few drops of remaining blood fell from her person, all the while her movements resembled that of a zombie as she maintained her glare towards the man who had caused her significant suffering.

Vicious' smirk replaced itself with a frown, amazement and comprehension aside, this would definitely be a problem in the future. Such a potentially dangerous threat could become a hindrance to his plans in the future, coming to this backwater planet hadn't even been his objective but it had become so when he had learned of the Temen-Ni-Gru being here. That Tower... it served as the only entrance into the Demon World of which THAT guy had fled into during the Great War all those trillions of years ago. Because of the sheer difficulty landing in one such Demon World, it was usually advised to stay away from them unless some kind of portal opened to directly lead one there. This was where the Temen-Ni-Gru came into play, but enough of that. He better take this bitch out now before she realizes her potential and becomes a thundering annoyance.

With that, Vicious made to draw his blade and strike her down...

"Wait."

Until his 'companion' spoke in urgency, causing him to pause mid-draw. Stepping forwards whilst under the scrutiny of Vicious' glare, Arkham (though he didn't even realize he had gone there, worrisome. He'll keep an eye on that shady fuck) spoke further. "We should leave. For the moment, we have all that we will need." he explained, eyeing the sight before them as well. Hundreds of calculations formed in his mind about the potential this woman had before her, reconsidering various variables for the future.

'... What's his goal, here...?' Vicious wondered, frowning as he contemplated to himself. Arkham was someone who he wouldn't trust in the slightest, and NOT because he would be a worthless, incomplete human. The man had an intelligent streak of betrayal and scheming under his belt, something Vicious remained completely aware of. He wasn't someone who took on allies and subordinates willy nilly, he did his homework first. As such, for him to say to spare this wench when she looked to obviously be a threat to their plans... there had to be some endgame for this somewhere. Nevertheless, it wasn't the time to kill him just yet, Arkham still had his uses, so that left him with one option. "Fine."

Relenting, Vicious drew his Katana back into its sheath, turning to the edge of the peak and jumping down. Arkham however, stayed for a bit longer to look at the stumbling Noire. He could sense the imminent eruption of Demonic Power, gathering within the centre of Noire's Core. Every Demon had Demonic Power, just like DPUs did. But, the source of their powers were these things called Demon Cores, which lay so deep within them that normally taking them out is near-impossible. Weapons of such like the sword Soul Edge which existed on different planes would be enough to destroy them, though, which was a large reason why DPUs were feared so by Demons. He could sense the power condensing itself into one such core, which would function as a massive power plant for Demonic Power, so from his research he concluded that should Vicious have struck her down now, the only thing that would happen would be for him to be knocked into a coma from the Demonic Power erupting violently, thus he had to stop him. Vicious had his uses yet, after all. With that in mind, Arkham smirked knowingly, turning away and jumping down after his companion, leaving Noire to what happened next.

Back on the Tower's peak, the buildup of power flooding through Noire's body reached its breaking point as evident by the aura changing colour. It changed from a dark silver, to a dark crimson red with violently crackling black Lightning arcing around her. Not to mention, how matching black wisps of flame occasionally flickered in and out of existence around her back, whilst sleek black winds gushed along the ground where she stood. In addition, strangely enough her breathing began to grow even louder, gradually rising to such a volume it cold potentially shatter any form of glass in the entire city. This violently swaying aura curved around her, soon twisting into a spiralling shape as Noire bent herself forwards, almost falling onto all fours as she groaned and grunted like an animal... as well as similar to trying to cage something in.

That only lasted a few seconds though... before the REAL spectacle took place.

"Guh… Ugh... UGH... GGUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The energy around her EXPLODED forth like the eruption of a volcano, her loud howls becoming distorted and turning into ear-piercing roars which spread through the entire city. If SONY's citizens were awakened right now, they wouldn't hear the cries of a Goddess anymore, but the roars of something utterly inhuman raging throughout the atmosphere, causing immense chaos and panic through the masses. Only Abnormals made that sound, and by GODDESS did id sound awful. Even if one put countless earmuffs over their said bodyparts would they still hear it with perfect clarity, like they never had any on to begin with. Winds surged forth from Noire's position, blowing through the air and creating this large dust wave, one which spread through the entirety of SONY's city streets as well as the surrounding landmass. All the while, her form went through a... drastic metamorphosis which remained hidden behind a tall pillar of black and red energy. A pillar which created its own spiralling storm with the Tower at its epicentre, one which expanded across the rest of the continent.

All of this happened for a grand total of 7 minutes, until the transformation finished itself off and everything returned to the way it had been before. The pillar? Gone, vanished just like that. The transformation? Vanished but not gone as Noire herself fell to the ground before her, looking utterly exhausted but 100% undamaged. All injuries had been healed, whilst something lay on her back. What that was, her fading consciousness didn't know of, as finally the strain of the transformation took its toll on her. A few moments later, the toll finally took full effect, and Noire's eyes closed as she blacked out, with the debris generated from her transformation still dispersing around her.

Chapter End!

Whelp, here it is, the next chapter where Noire finally confronts the one who challenged her... and pretty much whooped her ass from here to kingdom come. Then when she got her big awakening which has been foreshadowed a few times at this point, they decided to leave, not because she would be able to take them out (cause right now she's still got to recover), but because they already got what they wanted from her, in this case her Pendant which she had been stated to keep on her person at all times.

Now, this Villain in this chapter isn't exactly the SAME Vicious as the one from Cowboy Bebop, he's actually a Vicious whose traits have been combined with Vergil from Devil May Cry to make this interpretation of him. I didn't see Cowboy Bebop though, so if anyone hates me because of that angle that's why. Thus, I've created a version of him who still has his cruel streak, but also has a strong desire for power. He maybe more Vicious than Vergil though, even if he uses the same lines of both the former and the latter, but their fighting styles are similar in that they both use Katanas as their main weapons. Also remember, that I haven't shown his full power either, he is NOT some weakling human like he was in Cowboy Bebop, he's a monstrous being in his own right.

Moving along, Noire's Awakening has been foreshadowed many times up to this point, like I said before. Heck, the best example is in the story title, though I tried not to completely copy DMC 3's thing and used ascension instead. Furthermore, this awakening is something she'll not be the only one going through, as others will be too. But unlike DMC3 Dante's awakening, this one surpassed his in size, scale and intensity, though I believe this is simply due to the technology of its time which limited how much they could show the scale of Dante's Awakening of his Devil Trigger. Plus, unlike that Devil Trigger, hers is a bit.. special, in more ways than one which has also been foreshadowed. Mark my words, when these characters with their own versions of Devil Trigger access them, you ill be surprised at what I've done to make them fit for OEG's power scaling systems.

I think that's it for now, oh yeah not everyone's getting a Devil Trigger, like Lid for example. Its possible she MIGHT gain a Devil Arm though, but we'll see since I have already armed her with a Heroic Spirit. With all that said and done, look forward to the next chapter, ya'll.

Peace Out!