Normally, Tager doesn't wear so much armor, but it's pretty much required in this case.

He also lacks one of his essential tools here.


"Continue until annihilated."

Lambda is the first one to act, almost immediately opening portals above the Red Devil, who quickly raises one of his massive arms above him to block the rain of blades. Not a single projectile manages to damage his armor beyond a few scratches, but it gives me enough time to close the distance. As soon as the last sword emerges from a portal, I swing my sword, aiming at his relatively unprotected armpit, but instead of blocking the replica's attack, he just ignores it and swings his arm dow- Shit, he's much stronger than Nu! If I don't move out of the way as soon as possible, he's going to crush m-

A giant armored fist sends me flying like a skipping stone and it takes me a few tries to stop my flight by thrusting the sword into the ground, something that probably would have left me without an arm if this body wasn't this durable. I clutch my stomach as I try to stand up and fail miserably. It hurts like hell and I have only myself to blame for it. I really should have paid more attention to his other arm. I haven't fought a demon before, but this was some basic shit that would earn me one hell of a beating if the old man saw it.

Thankfully, all the damage done to me is gone in a few seconds and I charge at the red bastard again, who blocks a double kick from the blonde. Before he can grab her, I bat his arm away with an upward swing of my sword. As he tries to crush me again, I grip the hilt of my sword and swing it in a wide arc, toppling the giant and leaving a noticeable dent in his chestplate. Whatever it's made of, his armor's gotta be pretty damn sturdy.

Lambda sweeps the ground with her leg, summoning a spinning circular blade that quickly moves towards the Red Devil's neck, but he actually manages to pull it out of the rift and toss it at us. While it fails to hit either one of us, it gives him enough time to stand up. I thrust my sword forward to knock him onto the ground again, but he jumps in time to dodge it and seriously?! How can he jump so high with all that heavy ar- Screw it, I don't have time to think about pointless crap like this.

"Deploying field..."

Instead of safely landing, the big oaf is almost slammed into the ground lined with green swords, but just like before, they fail to penetrate his armor. Still, that field keeps him in rooted in place in spite of his attempts to move. I don't know how long this thing lasts and I'm not gonna wait and find out.

"Come on, Lambda, we don't have time to deal with this asshole!"

I grab the blonde's wrist and start running as fast as I c...This feeling again...It's like some unseen force is dragging me back. I turn to look at the demon, who is now back on his feet and his gauntlets are sparking again. I plant my sword into the ground again, but it barely slows us down and it's getting harder to hold on to Lambda.

"The hell's this shit?!" - I cry out as I try to resist whatever the hell this is. If I didn't know whom the Red Devil worked for, I'd assume it's magic, but it's probably another one of Sector Seven's stupid trinkets.

"Surprised? Under normal circumstances, this would be impractical on the field. However, your body's composition gives you a high magnetic susceptibility." - the red giant calmly explains.

...Magnetic susceptibility? I remember Jubei showing us a mineral called magnetite, but I'm pretty damn sure that it wasn't anything like thi-

"Get over here!"

As soon as the pull becomes too strong and my sword is yanked out of the ground along with us, I throw Lambda further away from myself so that she won't be drawn towards the Red Devil first even if it won't give her that much more time when we're travelling at this speed.

...Wait, I can just use it to my advantage! With that in mind, I wait for the right moment and extend my fist once I'm close enough to hit him in his face. The force of the impact is enough to break one of his fangs and his stupid glasses, but he still remains standing until a giant green sword slams into his head and knocks him down. Unfortunately, he reacts quickly enough to avoid kissing the ground and we both have to jump back to avoid a surprisingly fast tack- Shit, he's d-

With a groan, I pull my face out of the cracked pavement beneath me. This is one of the rare times I'm glad that I'm in Nu's body. If I was still in my own body, my skull would have been a bloody mess after getting slammed into the ground at least ten times. I look around and thankfully, they are still here and they aren't too far away from me, but Lambda is clearly at a disadvantage here. That green barrier is going to break with a few more hits.

Even if I don't have to worry about dying, I can't get careless. Trying to attack that bastard without thinking won't get me anywhere and escaping is not an option. Maybe I should just let Nu...No, the risk is too high. Even if she's willing to cooperate, she's still really impatient and a bloodthirsty bitch on top of that. I'm sure she will take over and try to obtain the Azure Grimoire at all costs, kill everyone unlucky enough to meet her. That will quickly turn into a disaster.

...Wait...

"Hey, Nu, can you take a look at his arms?" - I ask. His vambraces appear to be sizzling in addition to something beneath them emitting a lot of steam. That idiot either doesn't notice it or he does, but he's too busy dealing with the replica.

"Lemme see...Seriously? The electromagnetic field generators built into his arms are so primitive that it's actually hard to look at them. The cooling system isn't much better. It's gonna melt down if used too much, but you probably won't last long enough to see that happen if you don't let me take care of him." - Nu replies.

"Can't say that I understand everything you're talking about, but...thanks anyway." - I say. Just as I expected her to, the girl in my head giggles, but I'll take that over another one of her fits of mad laughter.

Alright, now I know what to do. I'll force him to use his...field generators until the armor covering it heats up enough for me to slice through it and stop this bullshit, but first, I need to draw his attention. Getting close won't do shit and so I summon a sword and aim at the Red Devil's face. I'm forced to use the same design for all swords I summon because I'm complete shit at making them myself, but this works well enough and now he's looking at me. Just as I predicted, he tries to pull me towards him, but the magnetic attraction is much weaker and so I can't pull that off again.

Before he can grab me again, a green snake of some sort made of several green blades slams into that red asshole's back, giving me enough time to slash one of his forearm guards. Instead of making a dent in it, my sword actually manages to cut deep into it, but not enough to sever the plates it's composed of. Just as he's about to wrap his fingers around my head, I jump away and when he uses his magnets again, I reposition my sword so that he'll have to stop using that damn thing to avoid getting his face skewered. The red giant takes a few steps back, blocking my sword with one of his pauldrons, before swinging his arm in a wide arc. I block his strike with my sword and land safe-

My face quickly meets the ground when both of his massive arms slam into me. I try to stand up, but then I feel something pull me up before I'm thrown high into the air.

"Genesic..."

I look down and you've gotta be kidding me!

"Emerald..."

The Red Devil's large hand wraps around my waist and soon we start falling like a rock. I try to stop our descent, but that fat piece of shit is too heavy for that to work. The best I can do is slash his vambrace with my sword and this time, it slices through, but it's too late at this point. I wish he wasn't so giant so I could reach his face, but with all that armor in the way, that ain't happening.

"Tager..."

...shit...shit...SHIT!

"What?!"

...Huh? Why are we still...

I look down and see one of Lambda's gravity fields below. Oh thank you so much, La-

I'm yanked down with that red bastard as a giant green sword slams into his back, but as soon as he hits the ground, he releases me from his iron grip. He tries to pull that magnetism shit again and so I smash his other forearm guard with my sword before ramming my sword into what I assume is one of his field generators. Of course, he's still a big-ass demon with arms thicker than this body and so I don't drop my guard even as the replica sets up another gravity field under that asshole with three large swords ready to impale his head...and it looks like they're about to do it...

"...Um, Lambda? That's enough." - I say, but it looks like she's not listening.

"Terminating..." - the blonde mutters as she raises her arm.

"LAMBDA!" - I shout and thankfully, she stops and the swords vanish. That field is still there, but I don't mind it.

"Aw...Did you really have to spoil the fun? That jerk just tried to kill you, so, what gives?" - Nu whines and while she does have a point, I'm not gonna let either one of them kill people. Beating them up is fair game though.

"Thanks...for showing mercy...but why?" - the red-skinned shithead finally speaks u...Huh?

"What do you mean "why"? Look, I don't know what the hell they've told you, but it's probably horseshit." - I say with a little less confidence than I'd like to.

"...This is...unexpected. I should report this as soon as I return to base. Anyway, I must commend your abilities. We expected you both to put up resistance, but to think that you've managed to end this fight almost unscathed...Still, I wish it didn't have to come to this." - the Red Devil mumbles and he still sounds so calm despite getting his ass kicked.

"Thanks...I guess. You're not half-bad either. But if you didn't want to fight, then why did you try to beat the crap outta us? Couldn't you have just pretended that you didn't see us?" - I ask and for a good minute or two, the giant remains silent.

"As I've told you before, I was merely following orders...and I had...my own reasons." - he replies.

"They didn't even bother giving you all the information, so, why do you serve Sector Seven?" - I ask. He seems to put way too much faith into that bunch of numbskulls.

"I owe them...No, I owe her everything." - the Red Devil replies. I can't stand when people phrase things like this, but I don't care enough to ask him who that is.

"Whatever, let's just go with that...And what about "your own reasons", hm?" - I ask with a slightly annoyed tone of voice.

"I was curious. I wanted to see your resolve...That's all there is to it." - he replies. I don't think he's telling me everything, but I can't do much to squeeze more out of him.

"...Alright...but I'm not gonna just let you go like this after everything you've done to both of us. I'm not gonna shove my sword up your big red ass either, so, don't worry about that. I just want you to give us something..."