25th Dusk: Battle of Barcelona: The Next Level
Dylan hid behind some rubble for a moment and tried to catch his breath. Fighting the Akuma non-stop when there was such a huge number was more than exhausting, but he couldn't quit now.
He noticed the explosions caused by Tina, Gwen, and Sol getting closer and closer to his position. He had attempted to stay away from them, but sooner or later they would catch him. For the moment he ignored that fact and slowed his breathing, getting his heart rate to steady.
Once he had, he wiped some sweat off his forehead and sprinted out from behind his cover. The Akuma in the vicinity did not notice him immediately. Thanks to that, Dylan was able to swing his Innocence and shot off pieces at a number of the Akuma before they even had a chance to shot back at him.
Naturally, that tipped the Akuma around the ones that had been destroyed to his location; as well as the Exorcists again. But Dylan didn't think about any of that and simply charged ahead, attacking more and more Akuma.
Seeing the explosions they thought was the Tiedoll Unit, Tina, Gwen, and Sol hastened their approach. However, as Dylan had feared, the three Exorcists noticed something was off. The Tiedoll Unit would have definitely noticed them heading in their direction, so they should have at least been staying in the same place if not heading over toward them as well.
But instead, they were heading as if to deliberately keep them from meeting up with them. There was no reason they could think of for them to do that, and even now the Akuma on this end of Barcelona were beginning to thin, it would be more efficient to start heading in the opposite direction.
At that time, something unexpected happened. On the other end of the city where the Akuma's numbers were larger, some of the Akuma were suddenly killed off by something. Noticing it, the three Exorcists almost stopped running forward.
"What the- but the Tiedoll Unit is ahead of us right?" Tina asked as she stopped the Akuma around her with the Tuning Fork.
"Could it be one of the Generals?" Sol wondered, as both General Tiedoll and General Cloud were supposed to have been near Barcelona. "Maybe they heard about the Akuma attack and came to help?"
However, that idea was soon completely disproved. The explosions that had occurred at the other end of Barcelona suddenly diverged and split off if three different directions, even if both General's had shown up, that would have been impossible.
They also took notice to how the Akuma were being destroyed. In one direction the Akuma were being cut to pieces by something unseen. In another something shined and pierced a line of Akuma which was followed by their deaths. And in the last direction they saw a speck of a person jump into the air and then unleash a ghostly silver horde of something on a number of Akuma.
They all recognized Kanda's First Illusion. And in addition, Sol had once teamed up with Daisya Barry, and he also recognized his Charity Bell as it had soared through the sky as well as Tina and Gwen who had once partnered with Noise Marie, and realized the third path of Akuma's death had been caused by him.
But if that was the Tiedoll Unit, then who exactly was causing the carnage in front of them? That one couldn't have possibly been one of the Generals; they were trying to meet up with the other Exorcists so there was no reason for them heading away from them.
"So… who is that? Gwen asked out loud.
Tina gave the question some thought, and then suddenly her mind picked out an image she had seen earlier that day as if it were trying to supply her with an answer. At one point in the day, she had taken notice of a man walking through Barcelona, but had not gotten a good look at him.
However, when she had taken notice of the person, she could have sworn for that second that it was Dylan. Did this mean that had actually been him in the city? Did that mean he was really so close to her again, fighting the Akuma in Barcelona?
The idea made her heart skip a beat, and almost without realizing it, she picked up her pace heading toward the person ahead that was destroying Akuma. She almost forgot the Akuma around her and the others for a moment until one of them came up in front of her, forcing her to stop in her tracks as it prepared to fire its guns.
As an instinct, Tina struck her Innocence against her bracelet to send out the high pitch tone that froze the Akuma in its tracks. Once she had, she stabbed the Akuma's face and destroyed it, continuing forward immediately with the hope in her heart that it might actually be Dylan.
Noticing her sudden actions, Gwen and Sol quickened their pace in order to keep up. "Hey Tina, what's wrong?" Sol asked, as he saw to preamble to her strange actions.
But Tina paid her comrades no mind anymore, her mind had completely blocked off everything else except the range of dying Akuma ahead of her. Please, be there Dylan… Tina prayed silently as she made her way forward, past the Akuma.
Dylan had stopped paying attention to how close Gwen, Tina, and Sol were coming to him. It was too obvious to him that they would catch up to him even if he were to manage avoiding them until all the Akuma were destroyed. He had also taken notice that more Akuma had begun dying on the far end of the city, meaning Kanda's group had arrived. Even if Gwen and the others had thought he was that group, they would now imply want to figure out who he was since it was now plainly obvious he wasn't.
Either way, he continued to kill the Akuma around him. But suddenly something else caught Dylan's attention. He heard screams; and a lot of them.
Dylan was getting close to the wall surrounding Barcelona where the Finders had been stationed, meaning those screams of agony were coming from the Finders as their defenses were being cut down by the Akuma's numbers and killed.
The sound terrified Dylan; and more importantly, it provoked him. He began to race toward the sound of the screams in order to protect anyone still alive. Cutting his way through any Akuma in his way, he arrived relatively quickly near the wall surrounding Barcelona and saw a number of Finders. Most of them were dead, having been decayed into dust by the Akuma blood virus from the Level 1's bullets.
However, there were some Finders wounded but still alive for one of two reasons. Either they had only been caught in the shockwaves of the bullets striking the ground instead of the bullets themselves… or they had been attacked by the single Level 2 Akuma that was in front of him.
The Level 2 was a metal cylinder that had a number of big long blades coming out of the sides and spinning in circles on its edges to keep it levitated in mid-air. Taking notice of Dylan, it turned itself so that the flat end of the cylinder was facing him, were a single eyeball opened and peered at him.
"Innocence!" A voice coming from the Level 2 suddenly noted the sword in Dylan's hand. The Akuma did not appear to have a mouth, so where is voice was emanating from was a mystery, but it didn't really matter.
Dylan clenched his teeth and then swung his Innocence horizontally, but not at the Level 2. Instead, he used the electric current flowing through his blade to shot of pieces of the Innocence at the surrounding Level 1's in order to keep them from attacking anymore Finders while he dealt with the Level 2.
Because Dylan did not wear the Order's cloak, the Finder's that were still alive looked at him with surprise. But Dylan did not pay attention to them apart from making sure how many of them were still breathing.
Dylan realized immediately that close combat with this Akuma would not work. The blades that kept it airborne were spinning so rapidly that the number of blades could not be counted due them blurring together like a ceiling fan. The Akuma's weak point was obvious though. If Dylan struck it in its single eye, he would destroy it easily; but of course actually doing that would be a different story all together.
Depending on how fast it could flip itself around, the Akuma might be able to deflect Dylan's bullets even if they were coming from multiple angles. After thinking through the various scenarios for a moment, Dylan morphed his Innocence into the form of a spear and then extended it forward at the Akuma's eye.
The Akuma reacted instantly and soared upward with its spinning blades and then began to fly downward to attack Dylan. But Dylan ducked out of the way and rolled back to his feet. The Akuma crashed into the ground, which Dylan thought might stop the Akuma by causing its blades to get wedged into the ground.
However, The Akuma had only been slowed down for a second; for in the next it flew out of the dust cloud it had kicked up and charged straight for Dylan at waist level. When it came close, Dylan jumped and flipped right over it as it passed by underneath him, its one eye staring into his without discernible emotion.
Dylan landed on his feet and the Akuma quickly span itself around, raring for round two. When it did, Dylan turned around and extended his spear-tip at the Akuma's eye again, hoping to catch it off guard. But instead, the Level 2 managed to slant itself to the side and get its spinning blades get in the way, deflecting the weapon and consequently throwing Dylan off balance.
In that moment the Akuma burst forward at Dylan, moving faster than Dylan could regain his balance. However, no sooner had the Akuma began to move forward than did a strange high pitch sound fill the area.
When the noise was heard by the Akuma, it made strange noises and lost control of itself. It began to swerve like a top losing its momentum and about to fall until its blades struck the ground and kicked it into the air, sending it flying over Dylan's head and crashing into a wall.
With its blades momentarily stopped, Dylan saw that there were actually two sets of four blades that had been spinning in opposite directions. And even though he had not seen the source of the sound that had caused it, he knew exactly who it had been caused by.
"Dylan!" It was Tina calling to Dylan as she ran up from the street he had come from. "I'm so glad. It really is you!" She said with tears of joy in her eyes.
Gwen and Sol were close behind her, and Dylan noticed that their expressions were ones of shock. Sol was the only one of the three that had not seen him whatsoever since he left the Order, so it may have come to an even bigger shock to him to find him here.
But there was no time for a heart-filled reunion. The Level 2 Akuma shook off Tina's Tuning Fork's effect and got back into the air by spinning its blades at high speeds again, the blades audibly battering the air. Instead of immediately attempting to attack one of the Exorcists, the Level 2 Akuma flew high up into the air and then circled around to make a swing around attack.
"That sound is annoying, girl!" The Akuma yelled at Tina as it aimed itself at her.
But before it even got close, Tina put up her Innocence and stuck the blade of the knife against her bracelet. The Akuma muttered wordless sounds and its blades stopped spinning, allowing it to freefall toward the ground. With a clouded mind, the Akuma did its best to make itself fall toward its target anyways, but found itself shifting in the wrong direction.
But then, it took notice of something that preoccupied it in the direction it was falling. Gathering as much strength in its metallic body as it could, it forced its blades to begin rotating again and then speed down at its new target.
Tina did not have time to use her Innocence again before it attacked. But this time, its target had not been one of the Exorcists. It had crashed into something behind Dylan, who turned to see what it had hit. When he and the others looked, they became horrified.
One of the Finders who had been gravely wounded had been attempting to crawl over to one of the Talismans in order to imprison the Level 2 and give the Exorcists a hand in its defeat. However, just before his hand grabbed the Talisman's handle, the Akuma had run its huge blade straight through his gut, and he writhed in pain, unable to grasp the tool that might have lead to victory against it.
From the attack, the Finder went limp and died. Dylan and the others looked at the scene with dismay, but then, the Level 2 began to chuckle. "Hee hee hee, hee hee hee ha ha ha ha ha haaaaa! I did it." It muttered in a low voice. "I did it, I did it, I did it, I did it…" It continued on, repeating those three words with ecstasy.
What it was laughing about and claiming it had 'done' was a mystery, but that was probably the furthest thing from anyone's mind at the moment. In sorrow and anger, both Dylan and Tina ran forward to try and seize an opportunity where the Akuma was stationary to strike and kill it while it continued to state it had done something.
Together, the two of them drew back their weapons and stabbed forward at its eye. However, just before their weapons cut into the Akuma, something they had not seen coming stopped them.
From inside the Level 2's eye, a pair of long arm stretched out as if emerging from a cocoon and grabbed the Exorcists' weapons without being cut. Once they had, the rest of the mysterious beings body came out from the Level 2's eye.
The new beast had a humanoid form and was covered in grey armor. Keeping its grip on Dylan's and Tina's Innocence, it drew its face close to theirs and muttered two words into their ears. "I've… evolved." It told them.
Hearing those two words crushed a large amount of the hope in the two of Innocence wielders. Their eyes widened in shock upon the realization and then were thrown by the Level3Akuma into the walls of buildings behind them.
Tina hit her head hard against the stone wall and fell limp on the ground, blood running from her head. "Tina!" Gwen shouted to her friend.
"Dylan!" Sol shouted over to Dylan whom he had not seen in many years, worried about him as he also crashed into a wall.
However, Dylan had gotten lucky and his head had not been the first thing to strike the wall. So though he was still in great pain, he had not been knocked unconscious.
As he began to stand back up, Gwen and Sol looked back at the Level 3 Akuma and charged it. They both swung their fists back and prepared to crush the Akuma with their Innocence. However, when they threw their fists forward, the Akuma reacted by pushing himself backward with his feet and then landed against the wall that surrounded Barcelona. "Here I come." The Level 3 warned them, and then kicked off the wall at an amazing speed.
When it got back in front of Gwen and Sol, it shifted its lefts up to their faces and smashed the soles of its feet into their heads, throwing them far back into the street. The Level 3 crouched when it landed and cackled at them. As it did though, Dylan had come up next to it and stabbed his Innocence spear down at it with a charge of electricity flowing through it.
But the Level 3 moved to fast. It bent its body backward to avoid the spear tip and then grabbed Dylan's shirt collar and spun itself around, throwing Dylan into the street along with Gwen and Sol.
"Idiot Exorcists; you've got no idea who your messing with now." The Level 3 muttered to itself and then charged into the street, leaving the unconscious Tina for later.
The Level 3 raced through the dark street until it found Sol, Gwen, and Dylan, who had all gotten back to their feet. When they saw the Akuma coming, Dylan morphed his innocence into the form of a scythe and swung it to cleave into the Level 3's body.
However, the Level 3 once again demonstrated its expert speed and kicked up off the ground, pushing itself just over Dylan's Innocence and out of harm's way. "Sol, now!" Dylan shouted. Ignoring everything they wanted to say to each other, Dylan, Sol, and Gwen worked together in order to destroy the Level 3 Akuma that threatened them.
On Dylan's command, Sol used his arm of Innocence and grabbed the Level 3's leg, then proceeding to throwing it into the ground, where it skipped over the stone and doubled over until it managed to twist itself back to its feet and skid to a stop. Then the Level 3 looked forward and was met with Dylan's Innocence being extended toward him with Gwen holding onto it, hurtling her along at it. She punched with her Smash Brass at the Akuma, but it slid to the side and avoided the attack, afterward kicking off the ground and tackling Gwen to the ground.
Once he had, he brought up his left leg with the intention of crushing Gwen's head. However, when he brought his leg down, Dylan's Innocence suddenly came up from behind him and knocked him through a wall, just narrowly saving Gwen's life.
Quickly, Gwen scrambled to her feet and ran away from the Level 3 while Sol made the next charge. But just before he got there, the Level 3 crashed through the ceiling of the building Dylan threw it into and into the air without even a scratch on its body.
The Level 3's strength compared to that of its previous form was astounding. It was efficiently fighting all three of them without being injured. Even if they managed to land a hit, their weapons did not seem to be wounding it at all.
The Level 3 looked down at Sol and then fell down at him with its leg outstretched to crash into him. Sol drew one of his giant arms back and then threw a punch as hard as he could at the Akuma as it neared. Sol's fist collided with the Level 3's foot, but when they did, the Level 3 pushed hard against Sol and knocked him back, sending him crashing into the ground as his body tore up the concrete.
At that time Dylan used his Innocence to pole vault into the air with Gwen holding onto him. The Level 3 looked up at them as Gwen let go of Dylan and began falling down on him, throwing a punch down at it with her Innocence. "How pointless." The Akuma said as he saw this. The Akuma put up his hand and caught Gwen's Innocence in his hand without any effort. "Like I said-" It began, but was cut off when he suddenly noticed Dylan run along the ground holding himself low with his Innocence in the form of a sword.
"Die!" Dylan yelled at the Akuma and swung his sword while at the same time Gwen threw her second Smash Brass at its head.
When they did though, the Level 3 let go of Gwen's Innocence and pushed himself out of the way of their attacks. But having expected that, Dylan extended his sword toward the Akuma to attack. Then, being caught slightly off guard, the Level 3 stops himself and then catches the blade in his hand, holding it to his side.
"I told you it was pointless." The Akuma repeated to Dylan.
However, just after he said that, Dylan sent a jolt of electricity through his Innocence to the end where the Akuma was holding it, and used it to ignite the tip he modified into gunpowder to cause an explosion where the Level 3 couldn't dodge.
The blast threw the Level 3 to the side and into a wall. Its left side had been successfully burned, but it was not dead yet. The level 3 began to get up when he noticed Gwen and Sol both running up to him to punch him simultaneously. However, the Akuma flipped onto his hands and pushed himself into the air over them.
"Tch, rotten Exorcists." The Akuma cursed them under his breath before having his attention drawn to Dylan by the sound of a gunshot. When it heard the sound, it instinctively curled up in the fetal position in mid air to protect its body and head and the bullet deflected off its right arm. He looked at Dylan, though had no face with which to show emotion, and then flew down toward him.
Dylan morphed his Innocence back into a sword and readied himself to attack the Level 3 while at the same time redirecting his bullet to attack from behind. When the Akuma neared, Dylan swung his sword as hard as he could, but the Level 3 suddenly dropped into the ground in front of Dylan, making both his sword miss and his bullet instead flying past it into the ground.
Before Dylan could readjust his Innocence to attack or block, the Level 3 then jumped and kicked Dylan in the face, throwing him into the ground hard and cough up blood. Then the Level 3 noticed Gwen and Sol running up behind him and scoffed at them.
"Even though I've evolved, I guess fighting three Exorcists at once is a difficult task." The Akuma muttered aloud.
Dylan lifted himself to his knee and looked at the Level 3 with anger and then directed the bullet in the ground in front of the Akuma to fly at its head again. At the same time, Gwen and Sol punched it from behind, but then…
Just as the attacks were about to strike, a glowing purple orb of markings that made it look like a magic circle appeared around the Level 3, and all the incoming attacks were blocked completely. Gwen, Sol, and Dylan were all shocked at this sight, but before they could do anything about it, the purple orb expanded and exploded with sheer force outward, throwing Gwen and Sol backward, as well as Dylan's bullet into his shoulder, causing him to shout in pain and fall to his back, gripping the wound and accidentally dropping his Innocence.
Then the Level 3 walked up and stood over Dylan. "You certainly are a pest, Exorcist; and it's time to exterminate you." It told Dylan and held up its right hand that was then covered in those purple markings. "Die." It stated simply, and then thrust its hand at Dylan without giving him time to think.
Dylan's eyes widened, but then, a noise suddenly tore through the night and assaulted the Akuma's senses, and it froze when it heard it. Dylan didn't even need to look to confirm that Tina must have woken up and come over to help them. She stood now ahead of Sol and Gwen, who had gotten back to their feet and looked at the frozen Akuma.
Tina struck her Innocence against her bracelet again to hold the stunning effect on the Akuma's body as it slowly cocked its head to look at her. "I told you…" The Level 3 growled with irritation clear in its voice as it shifted its head. "That sound is annoying!" Its growl picked up into a shout and then, just as Tina rose her Innocence to make the sound again, the Level suddenly burst straight at her, and before she had time to move another muscle, the Level 3's Dark Matter covered hand ran completely through Tina's gut, making her as if a shish kabob on the Akuma's arm.
When this happened, Sol, Gwen, and Dylan became utterly petrified. Unable to move a muscle, they simply gapped at the scene in front of them as Tina, whose face was contorted in agony, gasped for air before the Akuma pulled its now bloody hand out of her and let her body fall to the ground.
Unable to think of anything else but that at that moment, Dylan called out her name. "TINAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"