Exalted
Chapter 29, Bump in the Night
Thank you for sticking around for so long! I may have lied about a certain weapon I have mentioned in the past? I've been waiting to reveal what will be his final weapon for the rest of the story, or a portion of it anyway. Sorry, by the way. I couldn't help it. You'll understand.
I do not own anything relating to either series. Seriously. What a shocker.
[EX]
Minato and Ophis, who had assumed a small, two legged dragon form that stood on its hind legs, stepped from the portal. Well, Minato stepped from the portal, Ophis leaped from the portal after spreading her tiny wings and began to devour the face of one of the mages floating around the room with gusto. Ophis ripped the arm from one of the magicians shoulders before impaling the woman floating next to her with the severed appendage. Snakes began to appear from beneath her wings, slowly devouring the bodies of the magicians before slithering back to the Dragon God.
Ignoring the random screams of pain, splashes of blood, laser beams and carnage befalling the room at a rapid pace, Minato calmly strode towards Koneko and Gasper, who were being held hostage upon two floating, orange magic circles. The Nekoshou was held upside down, revealing her underwear for the word to see. Gasper, however, was held right side up. Convenient.
"Don't- Don't come any closer! I'll kill them!" The large breasted woman spat upon the ground before Minato, who regarded the woman with a completely blank face before shaking his head in the negative.
"You are in no position to hold hostages."
It was the truth. The large number of floating women in robes had become almost nonexistent by that point, Ophis making short work of them in one of the most ruthless displays of revenge Minato had ever witnessed. Despite the fact that blood and visceral matter caked the walls, not a drop had landed on him.
'How courteous.' Minato thought as he once more regarded the robed woman, who shook in place while holding what appeared to be a sharp candle stick with a burning wick to the throat of Koneko. Before the woman could speak again, dozens of chains with spear tips erupted from her own shadow and began to punch her body full of holes like a sewing needle and thread.
She could not speak as her own shadow began to change, becoming what appeared to be a mouth filled with vicious, serrated teeth that pulled the chains into its waiting maw. Before she could so much as pray her last prayer to any deity willing to listen, she was pulling into the churning mass of serrated edges, saw blades and roiling chains, incapable of even screaming.
Her shadow disappeared from the face of the earth after devouring the one it belonged to.
That's what she gets for messing with those Minato cared about.
"Well, that takes care of that." Minato, completely nonplussed by the actions he took, clapped his hands together as if he were dusting them off before addressing the two Devils still suspended on an orange seal.
"Y-You came for us!" Gasper cried out, doing his best to ignore the bloodshed and the angry, raptor-like dragon standing beside Minato after finishing off those in the room. It seemed to be waiting on him to move on before doing so itself. "I- This is my fault! I'm so sorry!"
"There is nothing to be sorry for, Gasper. Can you reign it in?" Minato questioned as he prodded the seals holding Gasper while injecting a sliver of his own energy into it, completely overwhelming the human based energy that held the matrix together.
He caught the young Dhamphir before he could fall forward and hit the floor before setting him down on his feet. Minato then turned to Koneko, who was blushing heavily at her position and the fact that it was Minato who came to her rescue and not her Peerage. "Ah... I..."
Minato gave her a wry smile before sticking his finger unto the seal, just beside her stomach, before repeating the process he did for the seal Gasper was suspended upon. Just as she began to fall head first onto the floor, Minato caught her and flipped her gently until she was on her feet as well.
"I... can't control it, Death-Senpai!" Gasper cried, doing his best to try and seal off his connection with the Forbidden Balor View but found that the spell used to activate the Sacred Gear forcefully was stronger. "Just... kill me and end it! It'll be okay then!"
"No, no. We aren't going to have that." Minato disagreed with the notion before brainstorming for a solution. Gasper was a Dhamphir, one that was extremely powerful at birth, having already awakened his Sacred Gear. It ended up causing the death of his birth mother, a human consort of the Vampire Lord of the Vladi family. He was ostracized by both races and locked himself away, only having contact with a single friend before joining the Devils through Rias.
One of the main sources of his struggle lay in the darkness that came from the power of the Sacred Gear. If Minato could grant Gasper even the slightest bit of control of that shadowy form lurking inside of him, then things would go much smoother than they were now.
Nodding once, Minato allowed a smaller chain than normal with a vicious dagger tip attached to its first link to appear from his own shadow while he pulled his right glove from his hand with his teeth. It rattled and slithered a bit like a snake before stretching to meet his index finger gently. A small rivulet of blood appeared from the wound and Minato stuck it forward when Gasper was about to ask what he was doing. "Drink. We don't have long." Minato then flicked his finger, slinging the blood towards Gasper.
A few droplets of blood entered the mouth of the Dhamphir, and the powerful energy that was being suppressed by the darkness of the Forbidden Balor View skyrocketed. Throwing his head back, Gasper let out a massive scream before his body became enveloped in churning black smoke. Eventually the Sacred Gear was suppressed once more, leaving a panting, slightly different looking Dhamphir sitting awkwardly on the floor. Minato couldn't put his finger on it, but something about the Dhamphir had changed. As soon as the change was complete, Minato replaced his glove and pulled it tightly to his fingers.
"What... is this?" Gasper questioned, looking at his hands and body as if he didn't recognize them, "I feel different..." His voice had taken a slightly different pitch, almost higher but not so much so that Minato couldn't recognize it.
"We are out of time. Come, we must leave." Minato noted as more and more energy blasts began to reign down on the roof, revealing the blood red moon and the strange, purple night sky to those gathered in the bloodied room.
Ophis let out a massive roar and her body began to enlarge slightly while her wings seemed to grow a bit larger. Before long, she was in the sky, tearing through the crowds of floating magicians while Minato, Gasper and Koneko stepped through the large tear that appeared in the room.
"That was easy." Minato stated, nodding his head to the unfrozen members of the meeting after stepping from the same stop he departed from. Koneko and Gasper stepped through a few seconds later, only to be swept up into a large hug by Rias.
"You're okay! I was so worried!" Rias sounded like she was going to cry, only for Gasper to try and soothe her worries. "H-hey, Rias-Sama, it's okay! Death-Senpai and Ophis took care of them in no time!"
"It was bloody." Koneko warned the redheaded Devil after trying to wiggle her way from her Kings arms, "Gore everywhere."
Issei laughed nervously before scratching the back of his head with his gauntleted hand. "Jeez Senpai..." He knew his godly friend was ruthless in fighting, but the bloody footprints being left behind by Minato were staining the carpet and stank of copper.
"It... wasn't THAT bad." Minato tried to defend, only for Koneko to give him a flat look.
"Intestines hung from the chandelier."
The looks that the Angels and some of the Devils gave him made him wave his hands a bit, trying to shift the blame elsewhere. "It wasn't me. It was Ophis. These are former... associates of hers."
"The Khaos Brigade?" Azazel questioned, having returned to his seat around the table now that it seemed like the Grim Reapers and Ophis were cleaning up the rather large mess, "I figured it was something like that with the way she was acting. I would be just as mad if I was betrayed as well." Azazel noted while lifting his glass of wine, sending Vali, who stood directly behind him at that point, a subtle but knowing glance.
Vali felt his body tense slightly at the unspoken threat and forced himself to swallow when he noticed the looks being given to him by Minato. His left eye, usually covered by his blue hair and thus shaded, was peeking through the hair, circular and silver in color. It was one of the most horrifying things Vali had ever seen. He wanted to fight strong opponents in his life, and he couldn't do that if Death decided to bathe in his blood. He liked living, even if he was bored.
"I... have a confession to make?" Vali eventually relented while stepping around the table, "I know who is responsible. I was approached to work with them just two months ago."
"Oh? Finally going to fess up?" Shemhazai questioned while presenting a manilla folder from the inside of his jacket before slapping it on the table. "We've been waiting, though I honestly didn't expect you to admit to your betrayal."
"I don't really have a choice in the matter." Vali murmured, once more looking at Minato who nodded sagely upon hearing his words. "The Old Satan factio-"
"That is enough out of you, cry baby bitch~." Came a cackling voice from the doorway, causing those present to snap their heads to the source of such obnoxiousness. "Can't have you snitching on your old Grandpappy, now can we?"
"You...!" Vali ground out, two sets of massive, mechanical looking wings to spread from his back while the room began to grow more and more thick with tension. Sirzechs and Grayfia instantly stiffened upon the sight of the silver haired man and the slightly grayer haired man standing behind him.
Serafall, however, looked like she was going to snap upon seeing the black haired woman wearing blue robes and pink glasses that waltzed into the room. She only restrained herself because she would not be able to kill her without putting her little sister in danger, not yet.
"Who are these people?" Issei questioned while Boosted Gear began to react violently upon sensing the presence of another dragon so close. Ophis had triggered the devise at first, but now that she was further away the pulsing had abated, allowing Issei some reprieve from the nervous chanting of Ddraig.
"Rizevim Lucifer, the son of Lucifer, Katerea Leviathan, granddaughter of the old Maou Leviathan, and Euclid Lucifuge... my brother. I do not who the little girl is. She is not who she looks like, though." Grayfia admitted while clenching her right fist, barely restraining the conflicted feelings tearing through her body. 'I thought he was dead... Brother, why are you here?'
"Oh that's lovely, I love those eyes~! Azazel-Chan, you raised him well! I can't believe that little baby became the man I see today! But I have to say, I'm disappointed~." The silver haired figure that strode into the room as if he owned it called out, and directly beside him was a figure Minato instantly recognized. His finger was lazily pointed in the direction of whom he revealed was his grandchild. "You are still weak as fuuuuuck, Vali~!"
"Weak..." Came the quiet voice of the tiny girl wearing a black and white lolita dress standing next to the grandfather of Vali, a completely blank expression on her face.
"Another... Ophis?" Sirzechs questioned weakly after checking to make sure that the purple and black dragonoid was still devouring the magicians outside. She was.
"Shut up, bitch, ain't no one talking to your ginger ass." Came the quick response of the silver haired Devil before turning his attention back to his grandson, "Now as I was saying, I'm not going to let you keep running your dick sucker, so I decided, 'You know what? Who needs a grandson anyway?', Soooo~, here I am!"
"Please, shut your mouth. Your voice is extremely annoying." Minato groused while an absolutely monstrous Devilish aura began to leak from him, "Lucifer, come."
A flash of bright, white light appeared behind Minato, and once more, the Son of the Mourning graced the earth with his presence. Six golden wings and six black wings spread wide from the blond, horned figure while the four halos floating around the horns tapered off around the tips. Instead of wearing robes, however, it seemed Lucifer had gotten a wardrobe change himself. The winged figure draped the twelve appendages around the shoulders of Minato while he leaned in, ghosting along the body of the man he called his Lord.
From head to toe, Lucifer was dressed in the most beautifully crafted suits Minato had ever seen. A tailcoat with two trailing sections hung from his waist while black trousers were fastened to his lower body by a sleek leather belt with a skull and cross bone buckle. Gloves as white as snow covered his hands and finely crafted dress shoes adorned his feet, completing the look of an obedient butler.
"You rang, My Lord?" Came the twinkling voice of Lucifer, a wicked smile stretched across his face upon seeing the looks of horror being sent his way by the Devils, Fallen and Angels alike.
"Clean up the mess you left behind, this instant." Minato ordered firmly, crossing his arms over his chest while giving the silver haired Devil that dared interfere with the peace he was trying to help forge between the three other factions the most severe glare he had ever given someone.
Something about the man offended Minato on a level he did not know was possible. How dare Lucifer leave behind such filth to stain the land! It was as if they were polar opposites, and Minato was not going to stand the presence of the man nor his ilk. That was not the type of prideful being a Devil was supposed to represent.
"Your wish is my command, My Lord." Came the response of the Son of the Mourning before the twelve wings dispersed into black and white flashes of light.
Rizevim was no longer speaking, no longer standing quite as arrogantly as he was. Lucifer stepped from behind Minato and graced the blue haired being with an apologetic smile before turning his attention back to the two Devils rapidly backtracking away from him.
"F-F-Father... what are you doing here?" Rizevim questioned, taking a few steps back as powerful being before him took a few steps forward. His heart was beating rapidly, his pupils dilated and his palms sweaty, "I... thought you were faded. Beyond dead."
"You thought wrong, my child. You will explain yourself before I am forced to dispose of you, correct?" Lucifer questioned, ignoring the black haired girl as she stared at his master judgmentally, instead focusing on the scion he had given the world, "I find it most displeasing to see my own flesh and blood trying to interfere in a peace conference being held by my Lord. What would your mother say?"
"It... She has nothing to do with this! How are you not dead! I SAW YOU DIE!" Rizevim shouted, preparing himself for combat upon seeing that Lilith was too distracted by her staring to be of any help while Euclid had fallen to his knees in reverence upon seeing the original Son of the Mourning walking the earth once more.
"Euclid, what are you doing!" Rizevim questioned hysterically upon seeing his servant fall to his knees to bow to another besides himself, "You filthy coward!"
"He is no coward, Rizevim," Lucifer chided while allowing his index finger to trace up the jugular of the kneeling figure before tilting his bowed head upwards by lifting his chin. "You... Your aether smells of the Lucifuge family."
"Yes, Lucifer-Sama, you are correct." Euclid admitted with wonder in his eyes as he stared up at the finely dressed blond, basking in the full presence of the being for the first time since the Great War.
"I see that at least one of you understands the importance of duty," Lucifer smirked while glancing over his shoulder, eying the silver haired woman standing next to Sirzechs that seemed to be doing her best to not kneel herself, "Not to mention the Chain of Command. I commend you."
"T-Thank you, Lucifer-Sama!" Euclid was almost hysteric in both joy and fear, knowing that the being before him was not the man who died during the war. The Lucifer that died in the war was stripped of his Grace before being forced from the Heavens by the God of the Bible, yet here he was as if it were with him the entire time. It was only the presence of the Devil energy that let Euclid know that he was, in fact, real. "I never forgot you! I've served your family faithfully since your disappearance!"
"And you have done well. Now, will you serve along side me and bask in the glory of my Lord, or will you die by my hand?" Lucifer questioned, giving the gray haired man a single chance to live.
"I... I stand down. I shall serve, Lucifer-Sama." Euclid nodded his head before being allowed to raise from his kneeling position.
"Good. Now, I have business to attend to. I shan't be long, my Lord." Lucifer called out over his shoulder before stretching his hand towards Rizevim and snatching him up in his grip before rearing back and slamming him through the wall before him as if he were a baseball bat, then releasing him from his hands.
Rizevim was blasted through the many different walls inside of Kuoh Academy before flying from the front of the building with a slowly walking Lucifer appearing from the hole he made with his hand stretched over his eyes as if he were blocking out the sun.
"Daddy, no! Not again!" Rizevim screamed as his body impacted the earth, kicking up a cloud of dust before multiple blasts of golden light slammed into the same spot.
The loud, uproarious laughter that greeted him in response let Rizevim know that there would be no mercy that day.
'I fucked up.' Rizevim thought to himself as he felt his fathers shoes dig heavily into his chest, almost cracking his sternum.
"Now, you are going to tell your father of your sins, my son. But know this... You will never be forgiven."
[EX]
"Stop looking at me like that." Minato groaned as the silver eyed clone of Ophis continued to get closer and closer to him until they were almost nose to nose. She did not act to defend the man she walked in with, ignoring his presence completely. Instead, she focused on the being in front of her.
Lilith was not as smart as the being she was born from, no she wasn't. She was not as long lived. Instead of judgment, however, it was pure curiosity. She was programed to listen to Rizevim obediently upon inception by both Rizevim himself and Euclid Lucifuge. However, the presence of another Lucifer, this one far more powerful, shattered the commands and spells programmed into her, leaving her free to make her own choices for once.
The first thing Lilith saw was his silver eyes, so much like her own that she couldn't help be drawn to them. The second thing she saw was his hair, a shade of blue unlike any she had seen before. His energy called out to her, and the closer she got, the louder she could hear it.
She was not constrained by emotion, nor logic. It was only that pure, unbridled curiosity not unlike that of a child that drove her to reach her hand forward and caress his face. Lilith memorized the texture of his skin and felt the thrum of power hiding just beneath the surface.
She wanted to dive into those depths and get lost in the shadows that sang to her. Lilith felt her brows knit together when she felt the powerful gaze of another watching her. Turning her head, primal silver met primal gray.
Both figures, Ophis and Lilith, felt their pupils constrict and draw inwards, leaving nothing but paper cut thin slits to allow them perception.
Without a word, Lilith began to quickly walk past Minato, her body rapidly changing and growing as it did so before a smaller, but identical, dragon shattered through the window and engaged her better, stronger half in combat.
"What the hell was that?" Sirzechs breathed, having been watching with bated breath as Lucifer stalked away from the room on the heels of his son. Azazel rose from his seated position and removed a strange looking dagger from his jacket before stalking after Katerea, who thought she could slink off without any consequence.
"That was one of the best family reunions I've ever seen, that's what." Azazel stated with a small quirk to his lip while the purple jeweled dagger in his hand flashed once. If Lucifer had been coming after him personally, or if Ophis was not as weak as she was, then he would be sweating bullets. As it was, things were almost looking pretty good for a peace conference, in his opinion. He was going to just stab her and get information out of her, but now his opponent was going to fulfill an even greater purpose than before. "I agree to your terms, Fafnir. Katerea, come here, I need your panties for something."
"N-No! Get the hell away from me, you freak!" Katerea shouted in both shock and disgust before holding her staff forward towards Azazel. A black and orange seal magic circle, more detailed than many Minato had seen so far, appeared at the end of the staff before erupting, sending blasts of what looked like black electricity towards the Governor General of the Grigori.
A massive sphere of blackness roared to life around the rest of those gathered in the room courtesy of Nyx. Instead of hitting the sphere and bouncing off, they seemed to continue further and further into the strange sphere, yet getting no closer to impacting it at the same time.
"She opened a rift into space already?" Azazel questioned, seeing the distant stars and the vastness of space.
It was a small portal in the shape of a sphere, leading outwards into her domain. Thinking quickly with the information he knew from associating with the woman on the level of a family friend, He snatched Katerea by the throat before punching her twice in the face harshly with his other fist, too quickly for her to retaliate or even see.
Azazel was not going to hold back, not when he was so close to peace he could taste it.
"You are going to tell me what I want to know, or I swear on my dead Fathers name I will cast you into this void. We can't breath out there... but how long can you survive alone, in a bubble, with no one to hear your screams?" Azazel questioned, hoisting her up so she was directly above the spherical portal leading into the domain of Nyx, one she gained from her primogenitor, Chaos.
The vastness of space and most of what dwelt in it was not unfamiliar to Nyx. She could not control the entire vastness of the ever expanding universe, but her domain was there, at the edge of the cosmos she was born from.
She went to spit on him, but he stabbed her twice in the stomach with the dagger held aloft on his off hand, letting her know that the next strike would be fatal.
"I... won't tell you anything, you filthy CROW!" Katerea growled out with blood dribbling from her mouth, doing her best to kick and thrash out of the harsh grasp Azazel had on her throat, "But I will tell you one thing... Hades isn't all you have to worry about. Not anymore."
She began to stretch beyond the limits of her body, elongating and expanding as if she were going to explode. Knowing there was nothing else he could do, Azazel tossed the body of Katerea into the void that was space, snatching her undergarments from her body as she disappeared and then exploded.
His dagger flashed three times before a miniature golden dragon without wings appeared, his only distinguishing feature outside of his thick tail was the horn sprouting from his snout. "Perfectttt~. I like this treasure. I like it a lot." The dragon was practically purring in delight as Azazel hooked the underwear around the horn of the dragon and pulsed his energy three times in rapid succession, an old call sign with Sirzechs to denote the coast was clear. The dragon disappeared back into its jewel upon the dagger before Azazel placed the weapon back inside of his robes.
The spherical portal into space closed up and Nyx let her arms fall to her sides. "See, I told you it wasn't going to be much longer! Besides, that was just one of the smaller ones!"
"Next time, Sirzechs, you take care of the barrier." Minato informed the man before stepping away from his mother as quickly as he could without making it seem like he was running away from her, "I'm going to go break up the dragons, anyone want to come?"
Asia, Bennia and Xenovia were hot on his heels, wanting to get as far away from the memories they will now forever hold as they could.
The Devils, Angels and the Fallen were not as fortunate as Minato, seeing as they were not willing to get in between two very territorial dragons, if the way they were glaring at each other before the smaller one attacked was any indication. They did not hold a close relationship with the Dragon God of Infinity like Death seemed to.
"Momma, please help guard the others for a little while longer." Minato called out as he jumped from the window opposite of the shattered one where Shemhazai, Baraqiel and Vali were throwing up from due to what they witnessed, having no intention of landing in vomit.
One of the magicians had been cowering in the bushes, directly beneath where Vali, Shemhazai and Baraqiel just emptied their stomachs. She was heavily wounded, missing an arm and was bleeding out quickly, not to mention covered in three different lunches.
"Please... just... kill me."
