Settled
"Starting now. My power is yours when you actually need it."
I feel something inside of me shift, a power I've only felt from the outside of the cage I keep him in flooding my veins. I focus, and when I shift, it's different than any time before. It's more powerful. The moment I do, the flame wings on my back turn pitch black and begin to roar deafeningly, getting everyone's attention as my armor repairs itself instantly, any lasting wounds still on my body sealing. Then, I explode off of the ground, my demon using our wings to fire a barrage of pitch black fireballs into the sky, blasting the ice spikes heading for us into oblivion. Then, my sword crashes into Esdeath's, and the ground below us shatters. Her eyes widen in surprise before I roar, and the face mask of my armor's helmet transforms into a blast of flames, missing her only because she uses a pillar of ice suddenly exploding from the ground below her to avoid it, though the flames hit the ice pillar and explode, launching her still. She flips, landing on her feet and left hand, skidding backward before Tatsumi explodes off the ground toward her, roaring deafeningly loudly and beginning to swipe and slash at her with his spear, Esdeath fending him off rapidly. For a moment, her sword's crashing into him over and over, failing to break through his armor but wearing at it and his energy both. However, finally, he spun, his tail exploding into her gut and flinging her before Wave fired dozens of feathers from his wings at her, the feathers arcing around and streaking toward her from all sides. She grinned widely, flipping and deflecting them all with her sword before beginning to fend off Sheele, her sword slashing Sheele somewhere every few seconds, though Sheele's demon healed them rapidly. Finally, Esdeath deflected both blades and a massive ice spike erupted from the ground, impaling Sheele through the gut, only for Sheele to cut the tip off and shove herself free of the rest, the wound healing.
"This is more like it!" Esdeath grinned as I reach her again.
She avoids my first slash, which sends out a massive black explosion before her sword tears a gash in my left side. I twist, slashing at her and she deflects it before twisting and pulling her sword back across her body. Then, suddenly, her arm's a blur, the blade tearing into me seemingly a dozen times at once, even as my own demon-and-armor-augmented speed allows me to deflect two dozen more strikes. Ice spikes begin to rain down around us as we fight, one scratching the shoulder of my armor before I'm deflecting them as well. Esdeath grins predatorially only for the ice spikes to suddenly stop as Wave and Tatsumi begin to block them, Wave with his wings' feathers and Tatsumi with his spear. And then, Akame's there, standing opposite Esdeath from me and striking at her rapidly and aiming for any bit of flesh she can get access to. Esdeath adjusts perfectly, however, and suddenly Akame and I are both on the defensive. Finally, to Ice Cavalry troops erupt from the ground on either side of Esdeath just as my sword gets deflected upward and their lances impale me through my lungs as they charge away from Esdeath, allowing her to turn on Akame.
The fight is brief, bloody, and brutal. In the three seconds it takes Sheele to reach me and shred the two ice puppets with her sword, Akame's suddenly covered in gashes and panting. I flip, landing on my feet and explode forward, black flames roaring off my blade. Esdeath wheels around on my just as Wave flashes past behind her, getting Akame out of the way. Then, just as Esdeath moves to block my sword, an orange energy beam flashes past, snapping her blade off just above the guard. Her eyes widen, but before I can split her in half, there are ice chains wrapped around my body, holding my arms back, my legs to the ground, and hooks and harpoons on the ends of the chain are impaling my body everywhere. Esdeath's face shines with victorious glee as she forms a new sword and moves to take my head off, only for Akame and Sheele to both appear at my sides, slashing at her and forcing her to leap away as Sheele's free blade slashes the chains all just above the ground, freeing me.
A blast of flames clears the ice from my body and my armor transforms into flames and back before Akame, Sheele, and I are off again, Sheele passing me one of her blades just as the demon transfers me his millennia of knowledge on all things violent, including dual-wielding swords, particularly mismatched ones. Esdeath's sword becomes a blur as she begins to fend us all off, both arms blurring with it, and I'm pretty sure I catch her holding a second sword at one point, but I can't be sure. She's a monster. Even more so than me, and I'm half demon. Finally, she ducks under Akame's blade and spins, slashing in an arc and splitting me and Sheele's abdomens open while Akame just barely manages to block it with her katana. As I skid to a stop, I grin, raising the half of Extase I'm holding, a droplet of blood slowly making its way down the edge.
Esdeath looks down, seeing a tiny scratch on the right side of her neck. Barely more than a paper cut, but in a location where another inch deeper would be lethal. Her face splits into a wide, excited grin as I hand Sheele back her blade. Esdeath spreads her arms invitingly, but before we can attack, a fist bigger than her entire body flashes down at her from above, missing her by a hair's breadth. I stare up at the massive dragon above her. It looks like a full-sized version of Tatsumi's most recent armor transformation, and when I look around, Tatsumi's gone.
"Tatsumi!" Akame gasps as she realizes the same thing.
"Not for much longer," I say. "Let's go!"
We all streak forward, and Esdeath slams a hand into the ground, forming a massive tree of ice, which then begins to fire ice spikes the size of my arms. Tatsumi and I both roar, sending out twin jets of flame, Tatsumi's closer to a beam than a jet of flame, which obliterate both the spikes and the tree. Esdeath snarls in rage, slashing her sword and firing another barrage at us before avoiding another punch from Tatsumi. However, I launch myself forward, reforming my armor's face mask before slashing the ice spikes rapidly out of the air. Then, just as Esdeath flips over Tatsumi's tail, I slash, my sword exploding into hers and sending her exploding into the ground. She bounces once, grunting in pain before flipping and stabbing her sword into the ground with her right hand, then flip off of the just as Akame slashed at her, landing in the distance. I land beside Sheele as a drop of blood falls from Esdeath's fingers to the ground.
"You're getting better at working as a team," Esdeath says.
"You're getting sloppy from getting drunk on the adrenaline," I say, all four of us charging.
Esdeath grins, lips moving and suddenly Akame's not beside us anymore. Also, the snow has stopped. Not as in the skies are clear. It's all hovering in the air. She's frozen time. I smirk. Demons are immune. And apparently so isn't Tatsumi, because just as Esdeath finishes amputating her right arm at the bicep, she leaps backward inside of a downward punch from him, then spins, a massive sword blade forming with a section of ice arm to connect it to her stump before she splits Tatsumi across the chest. Time resumes just as he crashes to the ground and Esdeath turns, her new ice blade rapidly clashing with me and Sheele's blades. After several seconds, she spins, knocking my blade aside and allows me to stagger past her in a rookie mistake, before her ice blade becomes a hammer with spikes extending from the head. The spikes impale me several times over from behind before she sends the hammer head flying through the air into Sheele, the hammer flipping and crashing down on her before bouncing away, my body falling off somewhere along the way. I recover more slowly this time, then step up beside Sheele just as she stands, the last of her ruined dress falling away as she picks up her blades, her tail twitching agitatedly.
"She's...strong," Sheele pants.
"Hang back," I say. "I'll take over from here."
"We've been losing together," Sheele says. "How are you going to stop her alone now?"
"I'm not going to be alone," I say, just as Akame slashes Tatsumi, who had lost control and nearly attacked her, then pleaded with her to kill him.
"Tatsumi!" Sheele gasps.
"It's fine," I say.
I launch myself to Tatsumi, whose eyes roll to me, though the markings caused by Akame's blade have almost reached his head, at which point he'll be dead. To my left, a massive wave of raw power explodes off of Akame as she activates Murasame's trump card, which first requires her to surrender her humanity. Killing the man she loves definitely qualifies.
"Jeez, Tatsumi," I sigh, setting a hand on the end of his snout, the black script spreading over him halting as I channel my demon's healing power into his body. "First you go and catch a parasite, and now you break your girlfriend's heart. What am I going to do with you?"
I focus and golden light shines from under my hand before I swing my arm out to my side and Tatsumi tumbles across the ground, the script finishing spreading over Incursio's dragon, killing it. Tatsumi stands, staring at the dragon, then down at his golden-armor-clad hands.
"What?" Tatsumi breathed.
"You've got that armor for about ten minutes," I say. "It's the last of Incursio's power given physical form."
He flexes the wings on his back and nods before I turn, the back of my armor opening before the same sword he'd had when he joined Night Raid flew out, Tatsumi catching it and staring at it.
"I reforged it," I say. "It's the same metal as mine now, though I mixed a little black steel in for the color. Where's Wave?"
"Here," Wave says, stepping up beside us, panting and holding his armor's sword form, his wings collapsed into a single disk behind himself. "I'm tapped out."
"I figured," I nod, setting a hand on his shoulder just as rage flashes through my mind, blood red light shining from my hand this time before Wave gasps.
Then, his armor and wings deploy again, once again covering him.
"How did you..." he trails off as I turn back to where Akame and Esdeath are fighting almost on-level now.
"One last push boys?" I ask. "Can't let a couple of girls show us up, monsters though they may be."
"Let's do it," Tatsumi says.
"One last time," Wave nods.
Then, we all explode forward. As we do, Esdeath sends a cloud of ice spikes flying at Akame, who's walking calmly toward her, only for her arm to blur at her sides, and the ice spikes to shatter before her, the dust and mist created forming a sphere around her, betraying her arm's true movements. Then, Akame leaps away just as Tatsumi, Wave, and I reach Esdeath, all of us slashing, Wave using a large feather that's sharpened into a blade.
"Tatsumi!" Akame breathes.
Esdeath's blade blocks ours, only for Tatsumi and I to each slam a punch through her blade into her gut, sending her exploding backward. When she bounces, the ground shatters. Then, Wave explodes down on her, Esdeath suddenly inside a sphere of ice that shatters, but dampens the impact. She flips, slashing and splitting his abdomen open, only for me to appear in front of her, black flames exploding off of my fist and from my elbow, my armor scraping the ground before my fist arcs up into her abdomen. Blood spray from her mouth as she explodes skyward, flipping and spinning.
Tatsumi meets he in the air, slashing, and she flips, snow streaking to her and forming a four-point star around her that spins like a saw blade, sparking against his sword for a moment before deflecting it, only for my own sword to shatter the edges of the four arms. When the arms crash into Tatsumi, they don't cut into him, though the do send him exploding into the ground at a hundred miles an our. Esdeath screams and the ice around her explods into dozens o fspikes, which stab into me like a pin cussion, only for the flames exploding from my right heel to swing my right foot around into the ice suddenly coating her remaining forearm anyway, along with her ice prosthetic. She explodes into the ground in a low crouch, cratering the ground, then grabs the sword she'd left before and now landed beside, instantly beginning to seamlessly fend off Akame again. I launch myself to the ground, leaving the ice spikes in the air behind me, and land with a wide, sweeping slash only for Esdeath to have jumped over the slash. She spins, kicking me aside and I bounce once before exploding into a wall of ice suddenly around us. Then, with a flick of Esdeath's wrist, the air above us is suddenly filled with hundreds of ice spikes. One scratches Akame's cheek, and another stabs into her thigh before she leaps to the wall and is suddenly a blur, streaking through the air and destroying all of the spikes before flashing back at Esdeath and slashing at the same time as I slash from the other side. Esdeath forms a wall of ice on either side, both of our blades bisecting the wall. My flames blast mine into dust as Akame slashes a dozen more times in an instant to obliterate hers. Then, Esdeath is a blur again, once again fending the both of us off. She doesn't hold back either. I get stabbed through the heart here, the eye there. My throat gets slashed. I lose and arm, a leg. She splits me in half twice, once horizontally and the other vertically. Each time, my demon instantly repairs the damage, allowing me to continue. At some point, Akame manages to take off Esdeath's prosthetic. Then, finally, Tatsumi explodes out of the ground to my left, his fist exploding into Esdeath's gut, sending her exploding into the wall of ice, a spray of blood once again coming out of her mouth.
"You holding up?" I ask my demon.
"Not if you can't stop getting yourself dismembered!" the demon snaps. "We're not immortal, you know!"
"You see who I'm fighting, right?" I ask.
Just as I do, Esdeath, now with a new prosthetic, uses the frozen air around us and the snow in the air to extend said prosthetic into a massive ice spike that impales me through the forehead before forming herself a second, along with a new sword, just in time for that sword to snap like a twig as it fails to block Wave's kick, which sends her bouncing along the ground to Tatsumi, who punts her like a football, sending her flipping and spinning into the air. I roar, twisting my head sharply to the side and snapping the ice spike around my head before yanking what's left out, allowing it to heal. I feel my strength dropping like a stone. The demon's just about tapped out. I have maybe one more death before it's permanent. I roar, pitch black flames suddenly encasing me before I explode forward, flashing through the air, my sword stabbing into the ground in front of Sheele just as Tatsumi's stabs into the ground in front of Akame. At the same time, Esdeath suddenly shrieks in rage, a massive body made of ice suddenly flashing into existence around her in time to backhand Wave, sending him exploding into the ice wall where she herself had cratered it before. Then, a moment later, she punched Tatsumi, sending him crashing into Wave, cratering it still further. Bits and pieces began to fall away from the wall as both fell to the ground. Esdeath turned on my, punching, and I roll aside in the air before slamming a punch into her face, rocking her back a step, cracks flashing across the ice's surface, only to instantly reform.
"You little cockroach!" Esdeath shrieks. "Just die already!"
Her ice golem's fists clasp above me and swing downward, exploding into the ground but missing me by a hair. Akame leaps into the air behind Esdeath, moving to smash through the ice entirely, only for Esdeath to smirk and suddenly grow out of the back, her hands clapping hard around the blade, freezing and then shattering it in an instant.
"There goes your best weapon," Esdeath grins.
"Guess again," Akame smirks, just before Sheele flashes past, dragging Akame out of my way.
Esdeath's eyes widen and she twists to look back just as my fist explodes into the ice golem in a massive explosion of pitch black flames. Esdeath screams in pain as her badly burned body spins and flips through the air before exploding out through the weakened point in the ice wall. However, just as she does, a single, massive ice spike drives itself down through the top of my head and into the ground. After a moment, it shatters and I collapse. I try to move, but my body's healing slowly. Finally, Sheele walks over, kneeling down before smirking.
"How the mighty have fallen," her demon says. "What a pathetic fool. No wonder the human you're bonded to is able to control you so freely."
My demon's rage floods my body and my wound seals instantly before I stand, black flames once again erupting from my body. I smirk. I hadn't thought of angering my rage demon for extra power reserves, but it makes sense. I turn back to the ice wall as Mine sprints in and over to Akame to check on her. At the same time, Tatsumi and Wave step up beside me on either side. Then, the dust still filling the break blows away, revealing Esdeath, badly burned, bleeding, covered in bruises, small cuts, one arm missing, the other arm's thumb and index finger gone, and rage filling her features, as well as fear. For the first time in her life, she's afraid. And that makes her dangerous. She screams and explodes into the air with a pair of ice wings, then swipes her hands, ice spikes forming and firing from the air around her in waves. I explode off the ground, Wave and Tatsumi following. I roar, shoving both hands forward and a sea of flames flood upward at her, incinerating her ice spikes before parting before the ice golem she's wearing again, except, this one's three times bigger than the last. Where the last was about fifteen feet tall, this one's forty five feet tall. It punches downward and Wave and I explode forward, each slamming a blow into it at the same time. The golem's entire arm all but explodes outward, destroying more of the ice wall. Esdeath's other arm moves to slash, but Mine fires an orange blast into its upper bicep that cracks it before both of Extase's blades streak up through the center of the blast, slicing the arm off before stabbing into the ice wall. Esdeath shrieks in rage before we explode forward. Wave's fist shines blue just as we both slam a punch into the golem's head, directly in front of Esdeath. A massive explosion of black flames and blue energy obliterates the golem's upper body entirely, as well as burning Esdeath. Then, Tatsumi leaps off of us, his golden armor shining and condensing into a spear with the same four-armed head as his last form of his armor had had before becoming a dragon. Esdeath crosses her arms in front of herself and a massive wall of ice forms in between them, only for Tatsumi to shove the spear forward. The head of the spear meets the ice and explodes, but the spear begins to fade. Then, Tatsumi's true genius shows. His right hand opens, and just as the light of the spear's explosion fades, Murasame's hilt and the last four inches of blade flashes between Tatsumi's hand and Esdeath's chest, the force of the spear's explosion burying the remains of the weapon hilt-deep in her heart.
As black scrip begins to spread from the blade outward over her body, me and Wave's armor flashes and fades, and the three of us fall alongside Esdeath. And then, we're caught. Sheele catches me, falling to her knees and ending up cradling my upper body, Kurome likewise catches Wave, and Mine and Akame together catch Tatsumi, gently setting him down and holding him together, each taking one of his hands. Esdeath, on the other hand, bounces off her head and lies motionless for a moment before standing, swaying heavily and surveying us all in silence for a moment before a small, sad smile forms on her face.
"It's my loss, then," she smiles.
Suddenly, ice encases her entire body, then crumbles, taking her with it. A moment later, the ice wall around us crumbles and the rebel army look around for a moment before beginning to cheer as Najenda rides over to check on us with Suu.
"Is everyone alright?" Najenda asks.
"I've been better," I say. "And Sheele died and got possessed like me."
Akame looks around, frowning. "Where's Leone?"
"I'm here!" Leone shouted, running over with the other two Night Raid members who had been in the palace for their assassination mission. "Aw man! Did I miss it? I wanted to see my girlfriend be a badass!"
Akame laughs. "Actually, my spotlight got stolen by these three. And Jason fought Esdeath as much as I did."
"Hardly!" I snort. "I died at least forty five times fighting this last battle against Esdeath alone. You didn't die once. You're horrifying, Akame. Truly the stuff of nightmares. Or Leone's wet dreams, but that's a different subject."
Everyone laughs. I glance at Leone and my tired smile turns into a deep frown. Lionel's buckle is gone, but she's in her cat form. Her hair's longer and messier than it normally is when she used her Imperial Arms, though, and instead of her normal outfit, she now has gold fur covering the lower outside third of her breasts, then her abdomen and between her legs like a dancer's leotard, except with her skin showing in a "V" that reaches all the way down to her waist, then golden fur beginning again on her upper thighs like stockings, with a thin strip of skin exposed between. Fur covers her arms from her clawed hands to her upper biceps, and her legs are now the hind legs of a lion, and her tail is a little bushier than usual.
"You fused with it," I say, everyone looking to her, eyes widening as they see what I mean, besides Lubbock and Chelsea.
"Yeah," Leone says. "Without it, I probably couldn't have killed the Prime Minister. He broke my buckle, then I ended up fused with the Danger Beast that was used to make the buckle and turned into this."
I hold a hand up and she quirks an eyebrow, taking my hand and I sigh, rolling my eyes. "You always have to play tough. I'll fix that first. Najenda, she's going to need your cape."
A moment later, a golden light shines from my hand and several bullet wounds suddenly appear on her abdomen, partially hidden by her abdomen's fur before sealing. Then, her fur recedes and her hair shortens back to her normal length. Then, the light spreads and a lion-like Danger Beast forms beside her, everyone staring at it as Najenda drapes her cape around the now nude Leone.
"What is..." Leone trails off as the lion licks her face.
"Meet Lionel," I say. "The Danger Beast from your Imperial Arms. He likes you."
Leone squeals and hugs the Danger Beast, who licks his chops, looking around at us all as though trying to decide who to eat first.
"Wow," Akame says. "Your powers really are amazing. Demon-borne or not."
"They have their uses," I say.
"You know," Leone grins. "I never would have expected you, of all people, to be so sweet as to save me."
I raise an eyebrow at her. "What are you talking about? You act as though I don't care about anything or something. I don't know where you've been the last few months, but obviously you weren't paying attention."
Leone stares at me for a moment before everyone from Night Raid begins to laugh. Once everyone's settled down, I promise ask Najenda to have the pieces of the buckle collected and promise to reforged it into a functional pseudo-Imperial-Arms, though without Lionel's spirit, resulting in weakened abilities. It won't be perfect, but Leone's more than happy to trade off some power and regenerative abilities for having the buckle mostly restored. I refuse to reforged Murasame, however, which Akame whole-heartedly agrees with.
I yawn, sitting up and stretching before Sheele's tail wraps affectionately around my abdomen before her arms drape themselves over my shoulders, her bare breasts pressing against my back.
"Good morning," she coos, voice already laced with arousal, despite us having literally just woken up.
"Really now, Sheele," I say, as her tails slips down to wake up my other brain. "You're going to have to learn to get a grip on yours."
"Hey, it's not my fault," Sheele defends herself halfheartedly, even though I know full well it's not her demon controlling her tail. "She is a lust demon."
"That's true, but she's also not a morning person," I say. "Lust demons are awake at night. This is all you." I twist around, kissing her as my hands cup her face. "I love you."
Then, my demon takes control and snaps her head around backward, her body dropping heavily to the bed. I sigh heavily, pinching the bridge of my eyes as Sheele lays there for a moment before her head snaps back around to the front with a loud series of grinding pops before healing.
"Sorry," I say. "He's a little grumpy today."
"It's alright," Sheele says, kissing me again. "I'm not that fragile anymore."
"And I am eternally grateful for it," I smile, kissing her before standing, beginning to get dressed, Sheele doing the same.
After we're dressed, we head out into the rest of the hideout, seeing the others all beginning to sit down for breakfast. As we eat, we finalize the big decisions. For example, where Sheele and I will be moving to, as we've both agreed to continue working as the new Royal Family's assassination squad, along with Akame, against Tatsumi's wishes. Mine, being pregnant with Tatsumi's child from sometime before Tatsumi's failed execution, apparently, will be moving to the capital with Tatsumi, and Akame and Leone, being the other half of the weird harem they're all in, will be going with them. Sheele and I decided to move out as well, as did Chelsea, leaving the hideout to Najenda and Lubbock, though they also decided to move to the capital. And so, the hideout will be abandoned. As we finish up breakfast and begin to pack, I reflect on recent events. The Emperor was executed, Wave and Kurome got engaged, Sheele and I skipped engagement and went straight to marriage, since we're both no longer able to age and will be together for as long as we live our unnatural lives anyway, and Najenda and Lubbock are considering adopting. Aside from their various personal lives, the Imperial Arms wielders from the war had been organized into a special division within the new kingdom's military, minus the former Night Raid members, who all held onto theirs for the time being.
But once things have settled and the new empire no longer needs assassins, we've all agreed to come together again, minus Najenda and Lubbock, and sail east with Akame. After using Murasame's trump card, the markings it had spread over her body had remained, and it had left her body in a constant state of agony. She had gotten used to it, but once we were no longer needed for dirty work, we've agreed to find an island nation to the east that apparently had something to do with Murasame's creation in order to look for a cure for her condition, since even me and Sheele's demons together can't put an end to it.
"Are you ready?" Sheele asks, pulling me from my thoughts as I reach the door with my sword in one hand and my duffel bag of spare clothes in the other, my silver wedding band catching the light from beside my armor's ring form.
I take one last look back into the hideout, smiling at the memories that play through my head. "Yeah."
She smiles and takes my hand once I've slung my sword across my back. Then, we set out to find our new home and our new life. Not that our new life will be excessively different from our old one, but hey, as long as I have Sheele, I can live with that.
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