Chapter 91

"Feeling better now?" I asked poor Roseweisse, "Sorry the cure all tastes so bad."

"I want to drink bleach now... but my stomach is fine now, thank you." She went to my room's sink, and rinsed her mouth out a few times.

"Consider it a reminder not to do that again." I gave her back a pat, "Let's join the rest. Delly, if you would?"

"Aye ma'am." She sparkled a little, and hid Shinkage again, as well as my tails.

Down in the lobby, Saji was chatting with the girls of Sona's peerage, while Xenovia and Irina were fawning over what looked like a bass (the giant violin, not the guitar) case. "Seems everyone's assembled." I said.

"Sensei!" Issei waved me and Rossweisse over, "We're about to head there now."

Due to some odd bit of luck, or maybe Azazel and Serafall nudging the odds a little, the Kuoh gang were the only people in the lobby. Even the receptionist had a 'Back in 10 minutes' sign up. "Lead on then." I said.

He nodded, turned, stopped at the big double door, turned back, "Does everyone have everything? Potions? Phones? Bus fare?" There were nods all around, "Let's go then. And win."

Most of them cheered, others opted for a thumbs up.

"Sensei." Azazel's voice felt almost like someone tugging on my collar. I turned, and he was just getting off the elevator at the far end of the lobby, "Sorry, I need a word with you."

"Hm?" I waved the rest to go ahead without me, though Shinkage and Delly stayed with me.

"I'm sorry we can't provide more assistance." He started once he'd gotten close enough, "There's been a 'sudden' rash of incidents that have 'conveniently' required most of our usual numbers to be occupied. There were apparently bits of the old devil king faction left, and even they're causing a ruckus in the Underworld."

"Cao Cao was a genius tactician. Why not this one too?" I shrugged.

"Just be careful. For a human, he's got a lot of tricks. Be on the lookout for more of his work, and please, don't be afraid of sticking to the mission and getting out of there if things get too risky." He nodded, "For your own sake too."

"That's your first mistake, Azazel. It's not 'for a human' it's 'as an enemy'. Some of the strongest people I know are human, and one of them is my greatest rival and best friend." I had the attention of Sona's peerage too now, "Dungeon rule number one?"

"Treat every monster as if it could kill you." They all quoted.

I handed Tusbasa my room key, "Cheesecake in the fridge, one slice each since I plan on having some for everyone else when we get back." I gave Azazel a tap on the chest, "His casual use of hostages, and sentient beings as tools, have made him a monster Azazel."

Before he could reply, I turned and walked out, holding the door for Shinkage as we followed the rest out onto the street to find a bus.

Of course it didn't go to plan. Why would it? Cao Cao, if the history books weren't grossly exaggerated, was indeed a brilliant man. Both his leadership and tactical mind were praised, though, he was also known as a bit of a tyrant. So, when a thin purple fog started to curl up from the floor of the bus we were on, I quickly pulled Delly into my mana (making her squeak with the suddenness).

And then I was standing alone (I mean, aside from an internally indignant Fairy), in front of a massive wooden gate. Decorated with gold leaf with intricate designs, it wasn't just any gate, but the main gate of Nijou castle. Aside from the faint purple fog that just seemed to be a 'thing' in this kind of barrier space, it was indistinguishable from the real world, right down to the pleasant tingling I could feel in the air from all the 'harmonious mana'.

"Welcome, Demon Fox." Cao Cao said from somewhere above me. Looking up, then backing up a couple of steps, I saw him standing on the roof of the gate. Next to him were Georg (who was glaring at me) and Siegfried (who was rubbing his chin thoughtfully). "Considering all the others, I simply didn't have enough manpower to delay all of you. So instead, I thought we'd deal with you first. Offer them the head of their strongest, and destroy their will to fight before they even start."

I said nothing, but clapped my hands together to summon my gauntlets.

"You see, we've been studying you as best we could. But you've been very difficult to gauge. Some of your skills are widely known, but we've never seen anyone actually beat you. Georg certainly had you caged, for a time. Riser held many small advantages over you. And even the Dimensional Gap couldn't quite kill you." He tapped the butt of his spear on the ground, and the air was filled with the sound of growls, snarls and hisses, "But we do know numbers will work, and we've no shortage of those."

"I'll be talking with you soon, Georg." I looked away from Cao Cao, like a predator who didn't even consider him worth the attention, and smiled at the suddenly nervous magician.

And then the ground itself erupted with monsters.

It started with killer vines. Vines that were a metre thick, and topped with a monster head that looked like a flower. These ones seemed to be covered in some kind of bloody ooze, but as I started jumping around to avoid getting bitten, the smell coming off them told my nose that it was probably some kind of acid.

By luck, or maybe noticing I never seemed to carry anything sharp with me, these would have been the worst opponents for me before I'd come here. Even if these things had a crystal to remove, these seemed to lack a 'heart' or the like. My only option would have been to cut them to bits, as punching them only made them fall over but not much else. Thankfully, I'd learned and refined my ability to project claws from my hands.

Next, nearly catching me with a beam of light, were some of those weird feathered marsh dragons. There wasn't much heat coming off the blasts, and since I wasn't a devil, it would probably have been much less harmful to me, but I still didn't want to get hit. Especially since the stray blast melted through the nice castle wall next to the gate. This gave me an idea too.

"Georg? Any idea how she's doing that?" I heard over the sound of combat, nearly making me stumble.

"Auditory casting. Should I block it?" Delly asked, "And what are you waiting for? I wanna zap stuff!"

"No." I said quietly, my hand sticking to the side of a vine, just behind the flowery head. I then kicked it and pulled backwards, forcing it to be my cover and having one of the dragons melt it with a light beam.

"She seems to be able to hold on to anything. Bikou was complaining about that after his first encounter with her." Georg replied. "Her gauntlets perhaps? She never leaves home without them."

Well, the kid who was spawning these monsters at least had the mentality right. Even as more vines rose to replace the ones being burned, the dragons just kept trying to burn me. Then there was a sharp screech, and a huge bird talon latched onto my shoulder. It couldn't puncture my coat, but it certainly felt like it would leave some bruises later.

I let go of the vine monster, pushed off it with my legs, and let the harpy carry me upwards. It didn't carry me very far, but it was enough to get a better view of the area. If that kid spawning the monsters was on the outside of the castle, I didn't see him before the harpy did a sharp twist in mid air, flinging me towards a waiting swarm of them.

Dozens of those weird scaly harpies started to dive towards me, but now that I knew 'Annihilation Maker' wasn't outside, I had to stop playing around. I curled up into a defensive ball, my tails spreading out behind me, then lashing forward, throwing out spectral foxes, snarling forms of sharp claws and razor teeth. Just as quickly, they vanished, the few harpies that didn't get ripped apart getting no where near me as I finished my dive by slamming my fist down into the back of one of the dragons. I stood up, the dragon gurgling its last breath under me, and looked at Georg again.

Then I jumped off the dragon, rolled out of the way of a half dozen vines, and punched my way through the castle wall, breaking into the inner courtyard.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOH YEAH!" Was all the warning I had before a fist the size of a bowling ball filled my vision.

I managed to get my arm up to block, but the strike had caught me off guard and all I could do was roll a couple times, hop to my feet and slide backwards my, boots skidding along the nice packed clay courtyard. "Careful Heracles." Cao Cao said with a laugh, "Just let the monsters wear her away to nothing."

This one was a tall fellow. Easily close to two metres tall, he was wide of shoulder, stern of feature, and wore what looked like a kind of bronze half plate over a purple track suit. "But I want to play too." He grinned, brushing a hand through his grey hair, "It's boring watching her kick through those weak monsters. Besides, they're only good for fighting devils right?"

"You really don't want to fight me." I said, looking around quickly, seeing no sign of the dark skinned boy.

"HA! I want to fight EVERYONE!" He roared, "Come on Cao Cao! Say the word!"

"Very well."

"Hear that? LET'S FI-"

The ground had the perfect amount of give and the ideal smoothness for a good flash step. Not waiting for this new face to try and pull anything, I stepped into his middle, right under his guard, and drove the point of my elbow into his sternum. To my surprise, he didn't even budge.

But to his surprise, that fancy chest plate of his shattered like glass. Even as I looked up into his face, my other hand already in position to drive into his chin, I could see his eyes widen in shock. But then he smiled suddenly, and I jumped backwards.

Just in time to once again avoid a rapier thrust from Jeanne. "Damn... How do you keep doing that?"

"Thanks tiny." Heracles's big hand gave Jeanne a headpat, "She doesn't seem too bad though." He grinned, "I hardly felt that." He lowered his hand, then his smug expression became puzzled, "Huh?"

"Didn't think I could do it through that armour." I said, as Heracles fell face first onto the ground, "Might want to make sure his heart is still beating." More than once I'd suffered the same sort of trauma, remaining still while getting hit by a blunt force. My outsides might be tough, but my insides were still mostly water. "Or would you let him die for another stab at me?"

Jeanne looked up at me hatefully, before kneeling and heaving Heracles's body over. Then the wall next to me crumbled, letting in more monsters.

I only needed to delay. Delay and hope the others would get here. It had already been five minutes of me running around and carefully striking back when I could. There was no point in trying to fight through the limitless monsters, and I was sure Cao Cao was catching on that more monsters wasn't the way to beat me. They were getting tangled on themselves, even as they tried to get to me. It was easier on my stamina too. Instead of slogging through them, I simply kept looking for that sleepy looking kid, while pretending I was having a hard time.

"Wonder what they did with the others? Think they'll be much longer?" Delly asked, "Still haven't seen any sign of that sleepy kid."

I rolled under the neck of one of those muck dragons, tilted my hat so that it didn't bleed on me when the vine monster I'd just dodged bit its head off, then kicked off the ground to grab onto a harpy to get me away from the subsequent tangle of bodies.

"I don't have time to adjust my glasses." I said, letting go and giving another harpy a heel drop on my way back to the ground, "It all feels weird though. Maybe they're hiding them from you?" I ducked then sprung backwards, narrowly avoiding more of those vines, "Instead of looking for it, look for what's hiding it!"

"Gotcha! Oh, seems Shinkage is the first to arrive." I felt her attention go upwards.

"What?" I looked up.

"Think there will be something left for you to study?" Cao Cao asked.

Falling from the sky like... well... a ton of iron, Shinkage hit the ground like a comet. He just missed the courtyard, landing outside the walls in a forested area, but the entire battlefield shook at the impact, and some of the nearby buildings were blasted away, scattering clay and mortar everywhere. I ducked into a ball and activated the shield cube on my arm, feeling multiple heavy impacts against it.

"I'm not hopeful." Georg replied.

About one quarter of the castle grounds was now a blast zone, next to a massive smoking crater that was filled with shattered trees and bits of building. The monsters around me were mostly gone now, unprotected from the blast like I'd been. I took off my hat, dusted it off, and heard a faint hum from somewhere in the crater.

"He was a friend you know." I said to Georg, "I might have to ask for your third in command at this point." I looked at Siegfried, feeling a little spike of anger at how similar he looked to Freed. "Would that be you?"

"Sensei!" I heard someone yell.

"Seems the others are arriving." Cao Cao said, "I suppose we'll just have to take a single victory before the main show. Pity, you should have made him wings." He put a hand on Siegfried's shoulder, and the three of them lifted into the air, "The real show starts in about two minutes." And they sped off towards the main building, 'Honmaru Palace', up a flight of steps east of where I'd been fighting.

Since I didn't have time to summon my armour, I couldn't have flown after them. A quick look around the field, the once pretty walls and gardens wrecked by my game of monster tag, revealed that Heracles and Jeanne were also gone. "Sensei!" The voice called out again, it was Kiba.

Coming from the south, where the subway stop should be (if memory served). "Are you okay?" I asked, "The others?" The monsters, mostly piles of melting shadow at this point, were vanishing into the mists now.

"We're here too!" Xenovia called out from the west side. With her was Irina and Asia. "We all got split up huh?"

Maki, Saji, Issei and Kunou showed up a moment later, also from the direction of the subway, "Sorry we're late." Issei said, "Wait, where's Rossweisse-san? Shinkage too?"

"Who put this giant crater here!?" Rossweisse yelled from across the crater to the north, "I swear, I get lost in some school, get attacked, and now there's a giant crater!"

"Waa... still sounds like an angry drunk..." Issei sighed.

"Shinkage made the crater. They might have dropped him from orbit." I said, "He'll join later." I said, looking up at Honmaru palace, "Let's go before they can spawn more of those monsters... I can see why you had so much trouble." I looked at Xenovia, "Still looks silly."

The bass case was gone, and she was holding Durandal, except... something was different about it. It was in a sheath for one, but that heavy aura that usually surrounded it was... suppressed?

"The alchemists at the church bonded the other Excalibur fragments to it." She grinned, "Call it silly all you want, but it's powered up quite a bit now."

"Figure it out on the way then." I sighed, "Delly? Explains why we couldn't see him."

She popped into reality with the usual sparkles, "Yeah, he wasn't here. He's over there!" She growled, "I'm gonna give him such a zap!"

So we ran after Cao Cao and his gang.

As we crested the steps, revealing another courtyard with fancy gardens and ponds, Cao Cao was waiting there for us, next to him were Georg and Seigfried, as well as Jeanne and Heracles. There were others around as well, people I didn't know, and hadn't seen in Azazel's pictures. As well as yet another hoard of monsters gibbering and snarling quietly in the background.

But directly in the middle of the hoard stood a elegant woman in a lovely black and gold kimono. Gold hair done up with fancy (yet tasteful) ornaments and combs, she was the picture of a Japanese Noble. Most notable were the collection of fluffy tails that swayed behind her, nine in all, and nice pointed fox ears atop her head.

Oh, and her kimono was mostly open at the front. And lemme tell you, I might complain about my bust size, but she was half again at least. Certainly had Issei's attention, but only for a moment. Kunou got him focused again, "Mother! Mother please wake up! It's me!"

"What have you done to her?" Issei growled, taking a half step forward.

"I needed her to co-operate with us." He smiled, "We can't experiment without her after all." He raised his spear and tapped it against the ground. "She just needs one more push before we can begin."

Yasaka fell to the ground suddenly, holding the sides of her head, groaning in pain. Her body started to glow and distort.

"No." I said. "Sparkle sparkle kaboom."

And nothing happened.

"No?" Cao Cao laughed as everyone looked at me funny, "What can you even do about it?"

"Sensei?" Issei looked at me with worry as Yasaka's body was slowly growing into a massive nine tailed fox, "What's wrong?"

I sighed, "I'm never going to live this down..."

I took a step forward, slid my back foot along the ground in a half circle behind me, my tails swishing along like some sort of dress, "Sparkle!" I repeated the motion, sliding my back foot around to the front, "Sparkle!" And did it one last time, extending my hand towards Yasaka, and snapping my fingers as my arm reached full extension, "Kaboom!" And I felt the little missing bit from my mana restore itself.

It started as a vibration in the air, a kind of subsonic hum that you only notice once it's gone. Next, the hum returned, except now it was like a hundred faulty florescent bulbs, all at slightly different pitches and speeds. At least, that's what it felt like for me... Kunou looked to be feeling it too. But Yasaka seemed to feel it the most, her huge fox form, nearly as big as Fenrir was, howling in shock as the land, her land, suddenly went magically haywire. The howl changed and warped in pitch, as her body shrank back down, until finally she fell, face first, onto the ground, her body back to its humanoid form.

Cao Cao looked at me with rage, Gerog with shock, and most of the others with puzzlement. But then Issei shouted, "BALANCE BREAK! GO!"

Since I was already in the silly pose, I looked at Cao Cao with a smile and tipped my fedora at him, as everyone behind me ran forward.

"OPENING STRIKE! EX-DURANDAL!" Xenovia wasted no time at all, taking one huge step forward and bringing her silly plank of metal down in an overhand strike in Cao Cao's direction. The blade gathered power and brightness as it progressed from behind her, and unleashed a massive wave of destruction just before it slammed into the ground. A cone of light and noise obliterated everything to the left of the fallen Yasaka, enveloping monsters and heroes alike in a near blinding roar of noise. Screams and gurgles, broken masonry and scattered stone...

When it cleared, most of us had stopped, in mid 'heroic charge', to look at her.

"Whew! That was satisfying!" She grinned.

"Xenovia... Isn't that a little much?" Issei's metallic voice echoed within his dragon helmet.

"Strike first, strike hardest, and win!" She said boldly.

I couldn't really argue... but the entire left side of the upper castle grounds was... gone. However, the smoke was clearing now, and it seemed all her efforts were only good for getting rid of many of the monsters and a few of the nameless heroes. "One could hope." Issei looked at Cao Cao, "You all know what to do, GO!"

The first second of combat went kind of like this.

Georg looked at me, dozens of magic circles lighting up around him, only to have Rossweisse do the same, pointing her sword at him to get his attention.

Kiba, Irina and Xenovia dashed towards Siegfried, only to have Jeanne slam into Irina part way there and push her off track. Siegfried himself drew two blades, then a third as a silver arm grew out of his back.

Issei went directly for Cao Cao, his wings and thrusters propelling him forward, only to have Heracles crash into him with a perfect punch/shoulder check.

Delly flew back towards Asia and Saji, probably to tell them something important.

Asia hit me with her healing glow.

And Kunou yelled out, "Now!"

As for me, I had brought my hands together, framing Cao Cao between the 'L' of my thumbs and forefingers. "Releasing control art restrictions, three two one..."

"You think by doing this that you've stopped me?" He started, sounding more disappointed than angry.

"Approval of situation A recognized. Commencing the Cromwell invocation." I continued, feeling the hum of power rushing through my body, flowing into the bound objects at my wrists and my nice fancy hat.

He readied his spear, "You think you're so clever, disrupting the flow of mana? You've only moved it. With a little time Georg can simply move the ritual to the new place you've made."

"Ability restrictions lifted for the limited use until the enemy has been rendered silent." With a burst of black and purple, my coat, glasses and all my other accessories vanished, leaving me for a moment in nothing but the black body suit and my boots. Then, as my armour built itself around me, encasing me fully, I said, "And exactly how are you going to do that?" The summoning of my armour was still very costly to my mana reserves, so tried baiting him into a little chat.

"We still have Yasaka, and you were foolish enough to bring her daughter with you." His spear started to glow, "Once we've gotten rid of you, we'll simply adjust our plans."

"Have who?" I asked, taking a deep breath and crouching, "And as temporary custodian of Kyoto, I'm giving you exactly once chance to leave." I pointed behind him, "She isn't in charge of these lands anymore. What? Did you expect us to act like confused animals once the leader was taken away?"

He glanced to the side, and saw that Yasaka was gone. "What!" He focused forward again, and the glowing spearhead shot forward, extending much like Bikou's staff, only much sharper.

Having seen that same spear go through the shoulder of Gogmagog without issue, I slipped to the side and dashed forward. He was ready, the blade retracting faster than I could get to him(!), but not faster than I could put a hand over his, as he tried to sweep his spear across my gut. He opened his hand, reversed his grip on the spear, and tried to stab me.

I tried to step into it, aiming a punch at his jaw, but then something hit me in the side of the head hard enough to feel right down to my boots. I abandoned my attack, throwing myself backwards just in time to avoid getting myself gutted.

"Ha!" He grinned as I recovered and shook my head, feeling a bit of blood seep down my side. Not a total evasion it seemed.

"I see why Azazel had a hard time." I nodded. That sort of reversal would be impossible under normal means, and that meant some kind of trick, "But I'm not here to play nice." And I jumped forward.

The strike wasn't really a punch, though I did use my fist. Instead of extending my arm, and leaving it vulnerable to things like giant mouths, crazy clawed horrors, or unnaturally sharp spears, I instead aimed my fist at his gut, while slamming my entire body weight into him. Kind of like a shoulder check with a low blow built in. He managed to get the shaft of his spear in the way perfectly, but the impact blew him backwards, flinging him through a group of monsters, just behind where Siegfried Kiba and Xenovia were fighting, and into a small slab of wall that hadn't been wrecked by Xenovia's insane sword.

"Cao Cao!" Georg yelled from behind me someplace, "Damn you!"

I felt my armour vibrate, then start to pull itself in different directions. Turning towards Georg's voice, I saw a weird yellow magic circle pointed in my direction.

Then I got hit by a bolt of lightning.

Ears ringing, body tingling, my armour suddenly started to cling to itself. The joints of my gauntlets started to try and force my fingers in weird directions, my arms and legs wanted to wobble and cling to each other in random places...

"DIE YOU DEMON!" Another bolt of lightning hit me.

"You're fighting me!" A third bolt narrowly missed me as Rossweisse shouted.

I had to admit, Georg was good. It felt like he'd started with a magnetism effect, then turned my entire suit into a weird electromagnet, too fast for my enchantments to shrug off the initial effect. Thankfully, the enchantments protected me from electrocution, but now I had to fight through what felt like a case of jitters while being drunk.

Then I was encased in a beam of light and blasted off my feet. "You haven't forgotten about the monsters, have you? While we might not have something specific to you, these anti-monsters are good enough." Cao Cao's voice sounded a little winded, but he still had that arrogant edge to it.

Being chewed on by monsters was my first, but not least favourite thing to happen to me in the dungeon. And even though my armour was trying to pull itself in random directions, it protected me easily from the first thing to try and bite me. "Rossweisse! Fire! Hit me with fire!"

"What!? Kind of busy here!"

I didn't have a clear view of the battlefield, being half way into a monster's mouth, but I did see that she was still going toe to toe with Georg, and slowly losing ground too. Georg had hit me with magic, but then augmented it with science, my usual 'grounding out' of magic wouldn't work now. With a huge amount of effort, I punched my way out of a muck dragon, "Delly!"

"I got this!" I heard Saji yell, "It might not be what you're used to, but..."

My eyes went wide in my helmet as I saw Saji. He didn't look like THAT before the before we started! He had the usual weird lizard on his wrist, but now all of his exposed skin was covered in weird dragon/serpent tattoos. I almost didn't recognize him until I saw that his usual mess of hair was the same.

And that was a moment before a wave of black flame washed over me, destroying the monsters around me and bathing me in a scalding bath of weird magic fire. My vision obscured, even with the enchantments on my helmet, I felt something latch onto my wrist and my body was suddenly being fed mana. It 'tasted' weird, but it was like a mind potion right to the blood.

I had to will the protective wards on my armour to stay dormant while it heated up. I started to sweat as the inside of my helmet glowed red, but slowly, the magnetic randomness that my armour had become faded, and I stood up giving the thing attached to my wrist a couple of light tugs. Instantly, the fire winked out, and the mana feed cut off, the line detaching from my arm. It was hard to breath, but with the excess power, I activated the repair function on the armour...

And had to start slogging through monsters again!

"Hahaha!" Cao Cao laughed, "You are a poor replacement for the Demon Fox, but still, you're quite tenacious!"

"Issei!" I heard Asia cry out, bringing my attention away from pulling the head off a much dragon long enough to see the scale armoured form of Issei falling from the sky. He was trailing blood on the way down, his chest having been speared right thought. But even as he fell, I saw he had a bottle in his hand.

Cao Cao had changed too, aside from flying, he had a ring of light behind him, kind of like a halo. Floating around that ring of light, were several orbs of light. "Too many monsters..." I grumbled, needing to look away so I didn't get chewed on some more, "Damnit Shinkage, you better not have gone to sleep."

"Awaiting target, all batteries charged." The bold voice of Shinkage called out over the din of combat.

"Delly!" I yelled again, hopping away from a killer vine, and kicking it towards a dragon before it could breath on me, "Have you found him!?"

"What?!" Cao Cao said as the next monster to step out of a shadow...

Was a fluffy stuffed white tiger. Sure, it roared menacingly, and was the size of a pickup truck... But when it attacked me, its paw bounced off my raised forearm with one of those toy 'squeaky hammer' noises. I gave it an equally comical boop on the nose (getting another squeaky noise), spread my wings and rocketed into the air.

There were still monsters all over the place, though Saji and that scary dragon/serpent collection he had on his skin was dealing with most of those. Kiba and Xenovia were still holding off Siegfried, though no ground seemed to have been gained or lost there. Heracles was hanging, ass out, in a wall next to the stairs we'd come up. Irina was hanging in the air, wings and clothes torn somewhat, while looking down at Jeanne, who was riding a dragon that looked to be made of swords. Rossweisse and Georg were standing on what looked like the only two patches of clear ground within twenty paces of them, with dozens of magic circles of every make and colour around them both. Asia was helping Issei to his feet again. And Shinkage was at the top of the stairs, in the perfect spot to see the entire battlefield.

But most importantly, Yasaka, Kunou and Delly were no where to be seen.

"UNBOUND!" I shouted down, "Duck and cover!" I added.

Most of the Heroes had the common sense to know something was up when every one of the Kuoh team backed up and raised their forearms. At the top of the stairs, even from nearly a hundred metres up, I could hear Shinkage's internal mechanisms working, all four hips discharging and rotating out the mana batteries installed there. His claws dug into the ground, his tail buried itself too, as his armour opened up, and all the left over magic that people had been throwing around since we started, was drawn into him as well.

"Starlight BREAKER!"

And it was all washed away in a cone of dark pink light. In a nearly perfect semi-circle, the entire battlefield was burned away with pure chaotic energy. Over the course of about ten seconds, the once beautiful palace and gardens were reduced to flat scorched ground. No buildings, no rubble, just dirt and survivors.

Speaking of, aside from a lot of stunned looks, everyone was fine. I was a little disappointed that all the notable heroes were still on their feet, (except Heracles, who butt was now on fire as he struggled to free himself from the only remaining wall of the castle), while all of the Kuoh group were dusting themselves off, ready to fight again. But aside from that... nothing.

"Shinkage! Help Rossweisse!" Issei called out, "Saji help Irina! Kiba Xenovia with me! Sensei he's yours!"

"What even are you?!" Cao Cao growled, "How were you able to predict all this?!"

We were having what amounted to a dogfight in the sky, while everyone below sorted themselves out again, "If you can't see past your own arrogance, then telling you would be pointless!" I replied, tumbling out of the way of a lightning thrust of his spear.

Several of those orbs detached from that halo on his back, and I rolled to avoid them, doing my best to follow Akeno's flying tutorial of 'ignoring everything but what you're following'. "I'll admit it was a mistake to think you'd stay in Dimension Lost." He blocked my punch with the haft of his spear, then kicked me in the gut. "Especially with your two familiars!" He dove at me, and his spear sheared off a bit of a shoulder plate, "But you are no match for me in the air!" He laughed, his spear sweeping left and right rapidly, shaving bits off my armour without actually getting through, "Let's see how you handle this!"

I couldn't dodge the oncoming stab and still avoid the two orbs he sent with his attack. I opted not to get stabbed (since I knew my armour wouldn't stop it at all) and was helpless to stop the two orbs from sticking to my breastplate...

But then some of the runes started blazing over my armour. One of them was something that effected 'living things', but I was protected from that. The other set off the 'contact magic' wards, and bounced off, returning to the glowing ring behind him. "Try harder, show me something new." I said, grabbing hold of the orb still sticking to me, "Mine now." And I crushed it, even as I twisted out of the way of another jab.

He flinched, as if I'd punched him, backing away, his spear glowing hotter, "You DARE destroy one of the seven treasures? HOW?!"

I didn't let him get out of range, darting after him even as he tried sweeping his spear at me again. This time I was watching though, the move exactly the same as the one before he hit me the first time. "I learn from every encounter." I said, stopping my punch short instead of countering, another one of those orbs touching my fist, followed by a light 'tap' on the side of my helmet.

I quickly opened my hand and took hold of the orb before he could back up again and return it to the halo behind him. "I will not be beaten by a monster!" He yelled, even as the orb shattered like glass in my hand, "I will show you that humans are the pinnacle! That only we are fit to walk the earth!"

I tried to close the distance again, but he simply kept dodging. He was faster in the air than I was, and had far more experience than I did. But I was able to keep one step ahead of his spear, even as he started flinging slashes of light at me. If I pushed him any harder, he'd either call for backup, run, or do something I couldn't defend against. I just needed to ground him somehow.

So, instead of trying to get closer... I ran away. I made one last try at flying at him, missed, then started a dive towards the still deadlocked fight on the ground. I wove left and right, avoiding the flying blades of light as best I could while trying to get lower to the ground. I did my best to keep his attacks from interfering with the fighting on the castle grounds, and managed to get close enough to the ground that when he inevitably cut one of my wings in half, I didn't leave too much of a crater. Even as I pulled myself out of the dirt, I sent my pack of foxes out to hide among the rubble Shinkage's impact crater had left. Not the best place for a fight but...

Like a hunting animal, Cao Cao had chased after me, his feet touching down a moment after I'd stood up, and his spear weaving and stabbing expertly towards me, "No more chances! You die here!" He yelled, the orbs behind him changing into spears of light and aiming themselves at me.

I had to admit, he was probably on the same level as Ouka, Takemikazuchi Familia's lead spear man. Maybe even better than Dix, the level five mastermind behind the Xenos incident. That and suddenly having to weave and dodge around more spears of light, Cao Cao was a formidable opponent. I'd chosen my battlefield poorly too, the rough sloped terrain less than ideal for my shunpo. For a solid minute, I played a 'no touch' fight with him, his spear and those energy spears, desperately dodging and weaving around the sun bright blade of his spear, even feeling its heat over my tails as he tried to cut them off.

But I'd had enough, and I could play the 'one as many' card too.

"I'll burn you away! May the Holy Light of Longinus leave nothing but your bleached bones behind!" He hopped backwards, using the momentum of one of my punches to get a little distance, and pointed the white hot glowing spear at me.

And a little black fox flowed out from behind a shattered boulder, and snatched the only orb that hadn't turned into a spear of light, out of the air behind him. This was followed by a half dozen more foxes, leaping out of the shadows and from under wreckage, aiming to rip and tear at him, even as I jumped to the side to get out of the way.

"NO!" He turned and fired the blast of energy meant for me, at the fox with the orb in its mouth. But it was fast enough to get out of the way, even as a cone of nothingness was ripped out of the landscape, just missing the battlefield where everyone was fighting, and only catching the back half of my ghostly fox as it tried to leap clear.

"I wonder what this one does?" I picked up the orb and crushed it too, "I wonder what will happen if I break the others too? It's not a Sacred Gear, is it?" I pushed power into my armour, lighting up blood red copper lines I'd etched into every piece, my flaming/melting purple aura casting shadows over him, even through the light of his spear and weird halo.

He resisted the fear effect, mostly. He backed up a step, ignoring the small foxes biting at his legs, but then he steadied and he took out a bottle from his belt, "Tears heal all wounds." He held me at spear point as he popped the top off it.

Then his hand disappeared in a puff of bloody mist, the bottle surviving only long enough to hit the ground and spill its contents uselessly.

"Kidnapping the mother of a child was your first mistake." I said, his motion finally stopped enough for me to step forward and slap the spear aside. With that same hand, I grabbed his wrist then with the other, I 'slapped the wave' planting my palm firmly against his chest, the sudden compression of air having no where to go but through the softest object it could. "The next was telling me your plans." I looked him in the eyes, "And the last, was letting yourself get separated from your support, like an animal."

I had to respect his toughness, even with most of his insides exploded out his back, he managed to spit at me with contempt, before smiling and dropping the still glowing spear on the ground.

As the light left his eyes and the glowing ring behind him winked out, I made sure to break his neck, and crush his heart (what was left of it at least). I then looked towards the castle and what was left of the only surviving wall. Maki waved a hand at me from her perch, then ducked back inside the tower.

Slowly, my armour feeling suddenly very heavy and unbalanced from all the bits that had been shaved off it, I picked up the spear and started walking out of the crater. As I walked, I pulled in as much power as I could, breathing it in, holding it, and letting the air out. By the time I got to the top of the crater, I was no longer feeling exhausted, just... heavy. I continued this as I walked through the lower courtyard, Cao Cao's heels and the butt of the spear dragging along the ground. As I climbed the steps, my armour slowly repairing itself of all the damage it had taken, I let my aura burn, a second layer of armour growing over me in the form of my 'fox shadow'.

And like this I crested the steps. Holding the broken, cooling body of Cao Cao up with one hand, I planted the butt of the spear into the ground, and yelled into the night sky my victory.

The battle ground to a sudden halt. Spells failed and fizzled out. Sword points wavered or pointed downwards. Faces held disbelief or shock. Some one vomited.

"You've lost." I said, giving Cao Cao's body a little shake, his head flopping around obscenely, bits of what hadn't already fallen out from under his shirt splatting to the ground. "Your champion is dead, your efforts here have failed. If you want to keep fighting, that's fine." I took a step forward, the spear, quiet and normal looking so far, suddenly glowing bright white, "But I suggest you get the hell off my lawn." My tails fanned out behind me, and my collection of foxes snarled into reality, all seven of them glowing like I was, "Georg, you know what I want, and if I do not get it, in a real timely fashion, I'll make sure you're the last one left when I come and find you personally."

He looked like he wanted to cry, scream, and crap himself all at once. I found it oddly satisfying.

"For the express purpose of its delivery, you will be allowed to visit Kuoh. If I find you or yours there for any other reason aside from an invitation from an approved party..." I gave Cao Cao another little shake.

During my speech, the Kuoh gang had been backing away from the heroes, weapons still ready, but lining up to either side of me. The heroes glanced at each other, obviously angry, but now without their strongest piece. Siegfried put his swords away (all six of them! He had four extra arms!) and stepped forward.

"May we-"

I stepped forward as well, holding out Cao Cao (not shaking him this time), "Yes. As a person, our views were at odds. As an opponent, he was a worthy foe."

We met half way, and he took the body from me, holding him with an arm under his neck and knees. "If we cross paths again," He said, "I would like to face you personally."

"Just keep innocent mothers and children out of it." I replied.

"What of Leonardo?" He asked.

"We treat prisoners well. Ask Bikou." I honestly didn't know if Leonardo was alive, but if it went to plan, he'd be at the hotel, in a bed, and having all kinds of fluffy dreams right about now. "If he's not a raging psychopath like Freed was he'll get let out eventually. If he is, then he'll still be treated well, at the bottom of a very deep hole."

"Very well." He frowned, but took a step back, turned, and walked back towards the other heroes.

"You're just going to walk away from them?" Heracles asked. He looked like he went another round with someone, and his shirt was ripped, and his exposed skin was bruised all over but he sounded ready to fight regardless.

"We will find another way." Siegfried said, "It's what he would have wanted." He stopped, looked across at Georg, "It's time."

The remnants of them were looking at me. Georg was glaring, Jeanne was furious, Heracles was uncertain, and before Siegfried had turned away, he had looked thoughtful. "You can figure your own way out, again." Georg said, a thick purple fog gathering around them.

"Timely fashion." I reminded him as they fizzled out and vanished.

I turned back, looking at the Kuoh team and letting all the special effects I'd been holding vanish. The armour, my foxes, the glowing spear (though I had to look at it like it was bothering me before it shut off), until finally I stood before them in my nice trench coat and hat.

Then with a yawning, sucking noise from someplace behind me, a portal opened.

I was just too emotionally drained to be anything other than irritated as I hopped forward, rolled, and came back to my feet facing the twenty metre wide eye bleeding portal that opened up someplace near where the once grand palace (now a very flat glassy surface) once was. For a moment, I wasn't sure what I was seeing. This was a much bigger portal than Arthur made, making me wonder what was coming through. After a moment, I could make out a rapidly expanding shape in the middle.

"Sensei... Is that a dragon?" Issei asked, looking down at his left arm, "Never mind. It is." Another glance, "That's Yu-Long." A pause, "Wait, WHAT?!"

The dragon head very quickly filled the space of the portal, then flowed out of it with a low roar and a 'YA HOOOO!' from somewhere above it. A rider maybe? We all ducked as over forty metres of emerald green Eastern Dragon flew through the portal, curling up above the battlefield (almost exactly like that picture from Dragon Ball Z), its great antlered and whiskered head looking around for danger. From just behind those antlers, a shape detached itself, falling to the ground without a care that it had been from over fifty metres in the air. With hardly any impact at all, a brown furry... monkey(?) landed in front of us.

Slowly, as if it were stretching, the hip high monkey grew, stood properly on two legs, had its arms grow to the proper lengths, and then finally, had what looked like a fancy black with gold bordered monk's robe flutter into existence over his body. Lastly, a familiar looking staff extended from his palm. This he planted on the ground, leaning on it like an old man (a shaggy brown haired old man but still) while he looked at us through, of all things, a pair of black wrap around shades.

Pulling a pipe out of his robe, he looked at me, then the spear, then back to me, "You're not Cao Cao."

"You're kidding!" The Yu-Long said, his form curling around as he slithered in the air, lowering his head, "Are you telling me I wasted all that effort getting here, for nothing?! Aw man... Does this mean I'm gonna have to go back before trying all the food here?"

"Doesn't he look like..." Xenovia mumbled.

"And that staff... I've seen it before." Irina replied.

Ignoring them, I replied, "I killed him." I then bowed, Japanese style since I had the spear still in hand, "Kodori Haruhime."

"Oh! Think that's her? Has to be!" Yu-Long said, his voice oddly normal considering his huge size.

"The one who claims to be a student of Takemikazuchi." He said, taking a long look at me. "Hmm..." He put the pipe away and extended his left hand, "Sun Wukong."

We shook once, then at the same time we tried to perform the 'secret handshake' on one another. To anyone else, except maybe Yu-Long who was looking down at us, and mayyyyyyyybe Asia who knew the technique as well, nothing seemed to be wrong, but in the span of maybe two seconds, we both matched the exact motions for the move, except, since we were doing this at the exact same times, our hands didn't actually move, though the pressure against my palm changed more than a dozen times.

He opened his hand and I let him go, "Not too bad. You at least have a decent grip." He said, "Now... We were supposed to be back up, so where's the emergency?"

NOTES!

A lot of things happening here, but since I'm running a little over my usual, the after action report will happen next time. A lot of things changed from the books, all keyed around Kodori taking huge advantage of Cao Cao's early hand reveal. Yakasa going super sa... fox, was a huge factor in the books, taking a lot of attention off of the other heroes. But this time, the Kuoh team didn't have as much to deal with, and four extra members on the field. I'm sure the Hero Faction will be back, though maybe not as prominent as they are in future DxD books.

Now maybe Kodori can get that vacation she wanted...