Chapter 29
Heroes vs. Demon
Normally, traveling to the place where Nemuno was should take quite a while, especially if one doesn't know how to fly. Thankfully, with Dr. Fate's help, they were able to get there in a short amount of time.
The sorcerer used his magic to scan Reimu's mind for memories of her encounter with Nemuno, and then using this knowledge, he was able to teleport everyone to that place in an instant.
In a bright yellow flash, everyone found themselves in a forest filled with yellow and orange leaves. Looking around, Eijiro said in surprise, "Wow! That sure was convenient!"
"That's magic for you!" John Constantine said to him.
"What is this place anyway?" asked Kid Flash, looking around.
"We're on a hill where Nemuno lives," said Reimu. "I am familiar with this place. We should be able to find her here."
"I can sense a demonic presence close by," said Dr. Fate, looking around with caution. "Chances are possible it is the Nemuno demon you are talking about."
"You don't have to tell me that, because I'm sensing her demonic aura as well," said Reimu as she got into a defensive stance.
All of a sudden, a large energy blade was fired in their direction, cutting down various trees in the process. Everyone saw this and hurriedly got out of the way. Eijiro hardened his body instead, and fortunately for him, he was able to block the attack without receiving injuries.
Reappearing next to him, Kid Flash said, "Dude! That you dangerous! You'll never know if that thing could cut you in two!"
"Heheh... Did this on instinct..." said Eijiro. "Though I have confidence in my hardness to block that attack!"
Everyone looked at where the energy blade came from and saw a silver-haired woman holding a large cleaver standing in the distance. "That's her!" said Marisa, pointing at said woman.
"Well, she sure made things easy," said Reimu. "All we have to do is remove this Death Stone thing from her, right?
"Right, but you have to risk coming in contact with the stone and thus becoming possessed as a result," John told her.
"Then do you have a better idea?" the shrine maiden asked him.
"I can try using my magic to reclaim the stone from her," said Zatanna. "However, depending on powerful Mallus's own magic is, the difficulty may very, and I have to get closer to her as well."
"How about I just speed up to her and knock it off her?" said Kid Flash. Before anyone could say anything else, the speedster clad in yellow charged at a tremendous speed towards Nemuno, who was too late to react and got shoulder bashed onto the ground by the speedster. Kid Flash stopped and looked around the fallen mountain hag, hoping to find the stone lying next to her. "Nope, not seeing it..."
Nemuno got back up with a look of anger, not to mention displaying her pitch black eyes to show that she was indeed possessed. "My freedom is at hand. I will not let you interfere with me!" Swinging her cleaver horizontally, she fired another energy blade that Kid Flash avoided by running to the side.
"Not happening on my watch! You're not going to ruin the body of an attractive lady like her!" said Kid Flash before he began running circles around Nemuno, who looked in frustration.
As he ran around Nemuno, he noticed a bulge at the side of the orange strap worn around her waist. "That must be it!" he thought. "I'll just rip it out of there and then fling it onto the ground before I get possessed!"
Nemuno suddenly slammed her cleavage onto the ground, causing a dome-shaped barrier to appear around herself and Kid Flash, and that was when he felt himself losing speed. "What the?! I can't run fast anymore?!" he said in shock. The mountain hag swung her cleaver at him, but he jumped away in the nick of time and out of the barrier. When Nemuno launched another energy blade at him, he got away, this time with a fast speed. Looking at his hands, he asked, "It's back! What was that just now?"
"Nemuno has the ability to create sanctuaries that has all sorts of effects when inside it!" Reimu called out to him. "She must've created one to nullify your powers!"
"Should've said that earlier..." Kid Flash said in response. He was suddenly knocked onto the ground by Nemuno, who pinned him down with her cleaver raised into the air, ready to bring it down onto him.
Acting quick, a pair of fiery wings appeared behind Mokou's back as the silver-haired girl took flight in their direction at fast speed. Seeing this, Izuku and Shouto were both surprised. "Wow! She has fire powers?!" exclaimed the former.
Mokou collided into Nemuno, pushing her off Wally. The mountain hag got back up and angrily glared at her, who was in a fighting stance. "Try and cut me up all you want! You can't kill me!" Mokou said to her.
"You will regret your choice of words!" Nemuno angrily said to her.
Mokou took notice of the bulge underneath the sash going around her waist. "That must be the stone they were talking about..."
Nemuno was going to make a move when suddenly she stopped as if she was in pain and also dropped the cleaver. A smile appeared on her face, despite this, and she said, "This feeling! At last! My freedom is at hand!"
Mokou was surprised to see this, as was everyone else. "Uh oh... Better act fast!" thought Mokou. Without thinking twice, fire appeared on her hand as she rushed over to the mountain hag. She grabbed the part where the Death Stone was hidden and ripped it out of the sash along with a piece of cloth. Nemuno fell to the side and onto the ground, and in an instant, her eyes returned to normal.
"Uh... What the...? I'm in control of myself again!" she said while looking at her hands.
"I got the stone!" Mokou called out to the other while holding up the stone, which was wrapped in the piece of cloth. Unfortunately, fire was still burning around her hand, and it burned away the cloth, thus exposing the stone to her skin. Mokou suddenly felt a large amount of pain all over her body. She fell to her knees with her hands on chest and grunted in pain, and slowly, her body began to bulge in rather disturbing ways. The sight of this shocked the others.
"What's... What's happening to her?!" asked Ochako.
"Mallus has taken over her body!" replied Dr. Fate.
"We have to do something!" said Izuku.
"No, it's too late," said the sorcerer. "Mallus is already freed. There is nothing we can do to save her now..."
Mokou let out a cry as she raised her head into the air. By now, her body had become bloated to the point she no longer looks human, and the others were horrified by this sight and felt bad for her.
All of sudden, she exploded into a burst of flames, much to the surprise of everyone. Out of the flames and smoke created by the explosion appeared to large demon wings, and when all was clear, a tall humanoid being was seen standing where Mokou used to be. It was a brown-skinned demon with goat-like horns standing just over two meters tall.
"Is... that... Mallus?" asked Reimu with a nervous look.
The demon looked at his hands for a few seconds and then said out loud, "I am free at last! At last, the moment where I take the the world has once again come!" He then glared at the heroes before him. "First, I shall kill you all! You should be honored to be struck down by a being more powerful than a god!"
"Looks like someone has a big ego..." commented Wally.
"That means more challenge for me!" said Katsuki with enthusiasm, looking forward to the upcoming battle.
"You vile demon! You are less than a god! I, the Lord of Order, shall put you in your place!" Dr. Fate angrily said to him. Pointing his arms at Mallus, Dr. Fate fired a large amount of energy balls that struck the demon in the chest nonstop, pushing him back with each hit. The demon growled in pain as he endured the shots, and then, ignoring the pain, he spread out his wings while dashing at Dr. Fate, plowing through the projectiles that were still being at him. He collided with Dr. Fate, pushing him across the air and onto the ground, where he grabbed him by the head and slammed him against the ground over and over.
"Dr. Fate!" Kid Flash shouted as he got onto Mallus's back in a blink of an eye and pounded him in the neck over and over. Mallus let out a cry as he got up tried to shake him off. While he was doing so, Katsuki ran to him and slammed his palm into his chest, creating an explosion that propelled him backwards. Kid Flash got off the demon's back at the same time.
"Eat this!" Katsuki shouted as he continued to fire explosions at the demon nonstop, blasting him over and over until he was out of sight due to the smoke created. The smoke was soon blown away when the demon flapped his wings hard to whip up a gust.
Pulling back his hand, Mallus formed a ball fire in his hand which he hurled at the heroes. Starfire dashed forward, throwing a fist full of green energy at the fireball to destroy it, and then she flew right up to Mallus to punch him hard in the chest, sending him back quite a distance. The demon came to a stop by planting his feet firmly onto the ground, and when Starfire flew at him again, he threw a punch that sent her flying.
Raven appeared in the air behind him and chanted an incantation to make a shadow-like substance appear underneath the demon. Mallus looked down in surprise to see the shadowy substance slowly raising up and wrapping around his body to prevent his movement. As he was struggling to break free, Dr. Fate appeared behind him and put his hand together to charge up an energy ball. "This will end now, Mallus!" the sorcerer said to him in an intimidating tone.
"You're all underestimating me!" said Mallus angrily. He let out a cry as his eyes glowed with white light, and then the air around him became distorted. As a result, Dr. Fate and Raven found their movements slowed drastically, though their thoughts were still normal. They were obviously surprised by this.
Because of this, Mallus was able to pry himself from Raven's shadow-based spell used for binding him. He grabbed the young magic user by the neck and then hurled her at Dr. Fate, who couldn't get away in time due to his slowed down speed. They flew back as a result and went out of the distorted airspace, their speeds returning to normal as a result.
"What happened...?!" asked Raven as she sat back up.
"Mallus has power over time," replied Dr. Fate. "He can change the flow of time to his own liking and even reverse and speed it up!"
Opening his shoulders, Cyborg fired multiple missiles at Mallus. The demon pointed his hand at the incoming projectiles and used his time manipulating power to make them move backwards, returning to Cyborg. With a smirk on his face, Cyborg created a boom tube for the missiles to go into. Another boom tube opened up next to Mallus from which the missiles came out of, striking him, much to his surprise. Cyborg then fired an energy blast from his arm cannon at his chest, blasting him back a few steps.
Starfire then flew at Mallus while throwing green energy balls from her hands at him nonstop. She collided into him and struck him in the abdomen with a powerful punch, pushing him through the air and plowing down multiple trees.
Mallus growled in pain and anger as he planted his feet onto the ground firmly while catching Starfire by her arm and then flinging her away.
"Hey ugly! Look up here!" shouted someone. Mallus looked up to see Marisa up in the air directly above him. Pointing her hakkero downwards, she fired a large laser beam straight down, engulfing the demon with it. The tremendous force and size of the beam created a shockwave upon striking the ground, causing the leaves and dust to scatter all over the place, and everyone else had to plant his or her feet firmly onto the ground to avoid getting blown away.
The powerful attack was revealed to have created a crater when it ended, and Mallus was down on his knees in the center of it. Looking up angrily, the demon shouted, "YOU INSOLENT WORM!" Spreading out his wings, he shot up into the air, heading straight for Marisa. The witch got out of the way fast and found herself fleeing from the demon.
"A little help getting him off my tail?!" she desperately cried out for help.
Reimu flew straight up, appearing in between Marisa and Mallus. Holding out her hand, she created a huge burst of blue energy that Mallus flew into and was then blown back as a result. The shrine maiden then threw several paper amulets that shot through the air and towards the demon, who responded by swinging his hand to unleash fire that burned up the projectiles.
Starfir then crashed into the demon from behind, striking him hard with a fist full of green energy. Mallus angrily turned around to face her, only to give Reimu the opportunity to bombard him from behind using paper amulets.
Flying high above Mallus, Starfire shot several laser beams straight down onto the demon nonstop, each hit pushing him downwards. She then dived down at him, hitting him with a powerful force and pushing all the way to the ground with a powerful crash.
Despite this, Mallus stood back up, roaring in anger and swatting Stafire away. Katsuki then jumped at him from behind and smacked him in the side of his head with his palm, creating an explosion. The demon angrily turned to him, but he pointed his hands at him while releasing a pair of explosions right in his face to both hurt the demon and propel himself to a safer distance.
While the battle with the demon was going on, John had drawn a pentagram on the dirt ground and also placed the Death Stone in the middle of the drawing. After he was done, he stood up and began chanting a magical incantation. Zatanna was next to him, watching anxiously at what was going to happen. After chanting a lengthy incantation, the pentagram and the stone lit up in orange light.
Opening his eyes, John shouted to those fighting Mallus, "All right! I've activated the seal! Bring that ugly bastard over to the center and we'll trap him inside the stone!"
"I'll handle this!" said Zatanna. She turned to Mallus and said while pointing her hands at him, "Revo mih llup dna dnuorg eht morf tuo emoc seniv!" Immediately, long vines shot out of the ground and headed towards Mallus, grabbing him by his waist and limbs. He then felt himself being pulled towards where those two were, heading for the glowing pentagram.
"You won't seal my away so easily!" he angrily said. His eyes then glowed, causing the space around them all to become distorted. The vines "pushed" him back to his original location before withdrawing back into the ground, much to Zatanna's surprise. The demon then pointed his hand in the pentagram's direction, causing the air around it to became distorted. The pentagram stopped glowing and was then erased from the ground.
"Darn it!" cursed John angrily. "He reminded all our efforts! We've underestimated him too much!"
"It will take more than that to seal me away, John Constantine!" Mallus said to him. "AGH!" He was suddenly slashed in the back by Nemuno, who had a look of anger on her face.
"That's for taking over my body and using it as you please!" she angrily said to him. The demon turned around to face her, only to receive several more furious slashes to his chest. The mountain hag let out constant cries of anger as she attacked him mercilessly.
Fire appeared on Mallus's hand as he threw a punch at Nemuno's face, punching her away. Seeing this didn't sit well with Eijiro, who said to him, "You dare hit a woman like that?! That's not manly and totally uncool! Fight a manly person like me instead!" Hardening his body as much as he could, he ran at the demon with his fist pulled back, ready to throw a punch.
Mallus lunged at him and easily pinned him onto the ground, and his size played a role in accomplishing this. The demon punched him in the face over and over while holding him down by the neck. Eijiro had hardened himself enough to resist the punches, though he had to admit that it was still painful.
A raven-shaped energy blast was then fired by Raven at Mallus from the side, blowing him away, but he was able to remain on his feet.
Shouto slammed his hand onto the ground, causing large ice spikes to grow in the demon's direction, in hope of either freezing him or impaling him. Mallus saw this coming and escaped it by flying high into the sky. "I have enough of you! I will burn you all with the fires of hell now!" he angrily said while holding up his hand to cause a ball of fire to slowly build up above himself.
"Uh oh... Doesn't look good..." said Marisa, looking up with a worried face.
"That is nothing the Lord of Order cannot handle!" said Dr. Fate, getting ready to perform a spell to counter it.
Izuku, however, had other plans. He turned to Ochako and told her to use her Quirk to throw him up there. The latter nodded without thinking twice, and then she ran up to Izuku, grabbed him, decreased his weight, and then flung him as hard as she could into the air, towards Mallus. Due to his decreased weight, he shot through the air faster than he should.
Powering up his fist with his Quirk, the teen collided into Mallus, striking him in the chin and interrupting his attack. This caused the ball of fire to dissipate above him. Izuku went past Mallus, but before he went to far, he grabbed the demon by one of his horns and then looked down at him.
"Manchester Smash!" shouted Izuku as he brought down his leg with a tremendous force, hitting Mallus square in the chest with a powerful axe kick.
SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!
Mallus shot straight down onto the ice spikes below, getting impaled by them as a result, and the largest one impaled him through the chest. Everyone was in shock and awe as he or she gathered around the demon, who cried in pain constantly while struggling to break free. Izuku landed from his jump safely and turned to look at the demon.
"Curse... Curse... you... all...!" said Mallus weakly, and slowly, his breathing became slower and slower until he fell imp, his life having faded away completely.
"He's... He's dead..." said Kid Flash in disbelief.
Black smoke then came out of the Mallus's body, and slowly, the demon started to fade away until he disappeared into thin air completely. After he was gone, Dr. Fate said, "The demon is no more. I can no longer sense his life force." Hearing this, everyone else was relieved that they finally defeated Mallus.
Knowing that the Justice League was against killing, Izuku felt as if he did something wrong. "I killed him... Should I have avoided that...?" he asked.
"Don't fret it, kid," Cyborg told him while patting his shoulder. "It's true we don't condone killing, but everyone makes mistake, and sometimes, we make exceptions depending on what we're up against. I'd say for someone as dangerous and terrifying as Mallus, killing him is probably for the best. Doesn't mean I would do that, though..."
All of a sudden, a ball of fire appeared out of nowhere above the ice spikes that Mallus had fallen onto, much to the surprise of everyone. "What's happening?!" asked Ochako.
"Is Mallus still alive?!" asked Starfire.
Everyone got into defensive stances to face whatever this new danger was. The ball of fire continued to grow in size until it was the size of a person. It suddenly dissipated, melting the ice around it with its sudden burst of heat as a result, and in place of where the ball of fire used to be, there was Mokou, much to the surprise of everyone. The silver-haied girl landed on the ground and let out a loud sigh while stretching her limbs. "Man... About time you kicked that guy's ***!" she said. "I was starting to think you guys will never be able to beat him!"
"Welcome back, Mokou!" Marisa said to her with a smile. "I knew you wouldn't go done so easily, or at all!"
"How are you still alive?!" Katsuki asked her.
Turning to him, she replied, "I'm immortal. Nothing can kill me, even if a demon takes over my body completely."
"That's... That's incredible...!" said Raven with wide eyes.
"Indeed, I am surprised by this turn of events," admitted Dr. Fate, though his voice didn't hint at being surprised. "One's body shouldn't be able to exist no any longer if Mallus takes over it completely, yet you have defied the odds by returning to the land of the living with your body completely intact."
"That's the Hourai Elixir for you," Mokou said to him. "Once you drink it, death is no longer a word in your dictionary, no matter what."
"Wow! That's so awesome! Being immortal sure is great!" commented Eijiro with excitement.
Mokou glared at him and said, "Trust me; you don't want immortality. I've lived long enough to know that it's not as good as people think it is!" Seeing her serious expression, Eijiro gave a nervous-sounding "okay."
All was quite and peaceful within the deepest part of one of the best protected prison of Mustafa. The prison guards did their usual duty of strolling around, keeping an eye out on whatever danger there might be, though they could tell you from experience that nothing bad has ever happened since forever.
As a prison guard walked past the cell room containing All For One, he overheard the villain humming cheerfully. Turning to the villain, the guard asked him through the small opening of his cell door, "You seem to be in a good mood."
"Indeed I am!" All For One replied with in a cheerful tone. "Because this is the day when I will once again walk free! Isn't there a reason to be glad if you're able to leave prison?"
The guard laughed when he heard that. "You? Go free? Yeah right! No one has ever escaped this prison before! What makes you think you can escape from here all of a sudden? Breaking in isn't even possible!"
As soon as he finished saying that, a loud alarm went off, and a voice was broadcasted throughout the place. "Alert! Alert! There's been a security breach! Someone has broken into the prison by force!"
The guard shot up in surprise, wondering how on earth this happened. All For One, however, had a large grin on his face. "I told you so!" he said to the guard.
Prison guards, with their tasers and batons ready, rushed down the hallway where villains were supposedly seen. As they were turning around the corner, they could hear screams coming from there, which made them worried about what sort of people they were up against.
They were surprised by the sight of a prison guard flying out from behind a corner, and everyone stood still, waiting for whoever did this to him to appear. Their wait came to an end when Deathstroke, Prometheus, Reverse-Flash, and Kurogiri showed up from around it.
"They must be the villains!" one of the guards said out loud. "Whatever their reason is for coming here, don't let them get to the..." Before he could finish speaking, a yellow blur rushed into him, sending him through the air.
One by one, the guards were either sent flying or had their necks snapped. In no more than two seconds, all the guards present were either dead or unconscious. The Reverse-Flash stopped running when he saw that there was no one else to deal with and dusted his hand. "That was too easy!"
Kurogiri had to admit that he was impressed with what he saw. Super speed wasn't an unheard of Quirk, but he had never seen someone using it to this extent.
"Well, then let's go meet the person we came here for," said Deathstroke as he led the way.
TO BE CONTINUED
Admittedly, I had problems trying to make the fight stand out. I didn't want to take too long with this chapter too. It seems that this story is harder to write than I think, and yet for some reason, I'm having an easy time with The Song of Light. Either way, I hope you like what you read at the end of this chapter. Yes, this arc will be ending next chapter, and you will be seeing more of the DC villains in action next chapter as well. I hope this is what you wanted.
And in case Touhou fans want to know, I had to take creative liberties with Nemuno's ability to create sanctuaries, as the source materials said nothing about how her ability actually works.
