Good Afternoon All!
I hope your day has been going well thus far. This week we have one last action chapter before we go back to a few building chapters and see what the gang has been up to in Sasuke's absence. Will post a few notes at the bottom as usual to clear up some of the chapter events; as always, try to read them before writing flaming reviews (it saves me the time of deleting them). As always though, kind words and constructive ideas/story thoughts are always welcome, please feel free to share if you can do so civilly.
Finally and as always, please do enjoy yourself.
As Rizevim sneered at the cheering crowd, Sasuke turned to address Beelzebub.
"Now that my Queen has fallen, I demand satisfaction and hereby challenge Rizevim Lucifer to a duel."
The elder Lucifer chuckled as he watched a medical team carry off the dazed Vali.
"And why would I fight you? I have nothing to gain from the venture."
Beelzebub sighed in exasperation.
"Sasuke-san; you are now under soul oath to Lord Rizevim. At any time in the contest you could be rendered helpless and forced to surrender, thus making any sort of contest at this stage a useless endeavor."
Sasuke turned a baleful eye on the scientist.
"Your ineptitude has put me in this situation to begin with Beelzebub. Rest assured there will be a reckoning for the losses that have occurred today due to a lack of planning and foresight on your part."
Beelzebub nodded gravely, wordlessly accepting the rebuke.
Sasuke snorted in disgust and turned back to Rizevim.
"And if I sweeten the offer Rizevim, what about then?"
The elder Lucifer turned an interested eye his direction.
"I'm listening."
Sasuke locked gazes with the elder Lucifer.
"If you are victorious through any means, I will serve you for eternity."
What began as a low laugh turned into a full blown gale of laughter from Rizevim.
"Done and done! And should I lose, your terms?"
Sasuke turned a gaze as cold as ice at the devil.
"Death, obviously. In addition, you will swear that everything in your house goes to me upon your demise."
Beelzebub interrupted at this point.
"Do not be hasty Sasuke-san! As I mentioned before, Lord Rizevim can end this contest as soon as he wishes by ordering you to surrender the contest. Would you give away your life and freedom so easily?"
An overwhelming pressure descended as both Lords turned their ire upon Beelzebub.
"Do not interfere in this worm; the human has freely wagered his soul to me in this contest and I will not be denied by your petty meddling."
"Agreed; my decisions are my own in this matter."
The pressure vanished as quickly as it came, leaving some of the lower class devils in the stands completely unconscious from the backlash up to the cheap seats.
Beelzebub sighed deeply.
"Very well, do what you will then. I do not envy you the cost of this folly, Sasuke-san."
Beelzebub once again addressed the crowd over loudspeaker.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a special treat for you today; a second match of unprecedented proportions!"
The crowd of devils began to cheer and dance in the stands at the thought of the human "Pillar Lord" being put in his place by a true devil. Out of all the assembled crowd, only Sairaorg Bael and his peerage remained calm and utterly focused on the two opponents as they faced off with one another.
Rizevim smirked at Sasuke haughtily.
"I suppose you have some trick up your sleeve that you think will save you from the soul binding?"
Sasuke's face was devoid of expression as he faced his opponent.
Rizevim shrugged.
"Be that way; it makes no difference in the end. As soon as you accepted the soul binding your fate was already sealed; there is nothing on earth or below it that can save you from this spell."
A small smile cracked Sasuke's mask for a brief moment.
"Ah, I see by your cocky grin there that you believe me to be wrong; I shall enjoy spending the next few millennia tormenting you for your temerity."
Sasuke raised his eyebrows coolly.
"For all that you took Vali to task for his flaws, you have obviously failed to correct your own glaring weaknesses. Monologuing to your opponent is a fantastic way to give them intel to use against you, or for the very universe to take offense at your overconfidence and decide to punish your pride."
Sneering, Rizevim began gathering his light chains as Beelzebub was finishing up.
"And now, the moment you have been waiting for!"
The crowd cheered themselves deaf and began chanting in the stands.
"Rizevim!Rizevim!Rizevim!"
Sairaorg leaned forward in avid anticipation as the two legends squared off for the first time.
"Lord Rizevim, Pillar Lord Andromalius, you may begin!"
The two opponents squared off and faced each other in a stare down, Sasuke's Dojutsu swirling wildly.
Immediately, Rizevim raised his hand.
"In the name of the favor that which is owed me, by your very soul, I command you to remain in place and await my instructions!"
Sasuke immediately complied with the orders as the brand lit up, his arms falling loosely down to his sides as if of their volition.
Rizevim smiled evilly as he walked closer to his helpless charge.
"Very good Sasuke-san. Now be a good boy and surrender the fight."
Sasuke raised his right hand before a visibly sighing Beelzebub called out to him.
"Yes Sasuke-san?"
"I surrender."
The stands went wild with cheering, even if there were some disgruntled parties that no blood had been shed in the farce of a bout.
Beelzebub sighed.
"Are you certain Sasuke-san? Forfeiture will subject you to the promised terms that were made with Lord Rizevim."
Sasuke nodded.
"I am sure."
Beelzebub cleared his throat.
"Very well then, I declare Lord Rizevim to be the victor!"
As the crowd went nuts, Rizevim relaxed and sauntered over to Sasuke like a snake eyeing a tasty mouse.
"Well well, a new human slave bound to me for all eternity. What will it be for you, the arena, the fighting pits? Perhaps I will keep you around as my personal servant to abuse at my leisure."
Sasuke finally looked up and met Rizevim's gaze directly, his Sharingan spinning wildly.
"No, that won't do at all."
Rizevim resumed chuckling before suddenly stopping abruptly. The devil lord froze as he experienced an extreme sense of deja vu; the world seemed to lose color even as black and white fragments began appearing like cracks in a mirror.
Suddenly, there a was a blinding sensation of pain even as the world came back into color.
Rizevim was puzzled that he couldn't move. Even stranger, the roar of the crowd seemed to grim steadily dimmer even as darkness encroached on his vision.
Moving his eyes in his otherwise unresponsive body, he suddenly saw his headless torso hit the ground as a grim faced Sasuke finished swinging a very familiar black axe.
A sense of grim amusement overwhelmed him at the irony of the situation; his final thought was that it seemed that axe had indeed acquired a taste for the blood of his family...
Back in the arena, the crowd was utterly silent as their champion fell to the arena floor. Even many of the veterans were scratching their heads; the two Lords had stood there in a silent battle of wills with their gazes locked before the human had teleported behind Lord Rizevim and beheaded him with seemingly no resistance.
Beelzebub was quick to rouse the crowd.
"Well, that's what I call short and sweet! The winner is Lord Andromalius!"
The crowd broke out into half hearted clapping with a few boos thrown in, obviously not happy with the way the contest had ended.
Sasuke frowned as he observed the sullen crowd; this whole affair had been a disaster from start to finish. Not only had Vali been defeated, he had then had to risk life and freedom in a match that gained him nothing but sullen silence from the gathered crowd. The only gain out of this entire affair was his official title being recognized, for all the good it did him with an angry and sullen populace of non-supporters.
So it goes though; there is a reason they refer to the crowd as fickle at the best of times. This crowd in particular was against him from the beginning since they considered humans to be lesser creatures and were appalled at the idea of one receiving one of the highest positions in their society.
Sasuke turned his back on the crowd and was getting ready to leave when a voice stopped him.
"No no no, this will not do at all my successor."
Sasuke was puzzled as he checked the soul mark; nope, it was completely gone. Upon the death of the contract holder, any and all debts were released just as he had suspected. Reaching within himself, Sasuke searched for and finally found the source of the muttering within the Devil Lord portion of his soul.
"Andromalius?"
The blond, spiky haired figure in golden armor appeared beside him even as the rest of the stadium was frozen.
"Yes my heir, it is I. I had hopes that you would take the time to contact me on your own so we could resume your training, yet here I am expending what remains of my dwindling powers to clean up your messes."
Sasuke looked around at the frozen stadium.
"Are you freezing time right now? That seems like a foolish waste of your remaining strength."
Andromalius chuckled.
"No boy, not freezing time itself, that is beyond me in this form. Instead I am speeding up your brain processes to where we are communicating so quickly it is as if the rest of the world is standing still in comparison. The technique is not without its risks to the inexperienced but I will teach you sometime if you are willing."
Sasuke cocked his head.
"What is so important at this time that you would expend your energy to force a connection?"
Andromalius frowned.
"Two reasons; firstly I would like to know what idiocy gripped you that you would consider a soul bond with that ponce instead of just killing him and damn the consequences! Once we address that we can move on to the second reason."
Sasuke smirked.
"What business is it of yours?"
Andromalius glowered.
"If you are to restore House Andromalius to its former glory, you certainly cannot do so as a slave to a pathetic devil "Lord" like that scum Rizevim. More importantly though, what remains of my soul is bound to yours now. I have no doubt that Rizevim would have tortured you for fun and information, and at some point my soul would have been poked and prodded by his pet scientists for their sick research. So I ask again, why were you so foolish in this endeavor?"
Sasuke stared into space for a full minute.
"While I have no obligation to answer your questions, I suppose I will do so just this once. Henceforth though I will expect you to trust my judgement and realize that an Uchiha is never without a plan for every scenario that arises."
Andromalius nodded and made an impatient gesture.
"Very well; the reason I accepted the soul oath with Rizevim was because it was the easiest way to take him off guard. I had multiple methods to negate the soul oath should they prove necessary, but at the end of the day none of them were. By exploiting his hubris and showing him what he expected to see happen through Genjutsu, it was more than enough to lull him into a lazy sense of complacency. Had he been more alert, he could have potentially broken the Genjutsu and given me a decent fight, though I still would have beaten him rather handily if it came to that."
Andromalius snorted.
"Don't be so sure; while he didn't hold a candle to the Lords of old that were my peers, he was still quite powerful in his own right. He also seemed like the type that would have a few nasty tricks and artifacts up his sleeve."
Sasuke's smile was all teeth.
"And yet, his greatest downfall was the very thing he pointed out in Vali; he was too used to relying on his trump cards to win fights. I guarantee you most of the fights he has had over the years were only against opponents that had a sacred gear he could negate or someone substantially weaker than he was. The only reason he agreed to fight me was because he believed to have an ultimate trump card he could use to auto win the match, which proved to be false."
Andromalius chuckled.
"To be fair, no one has ever been able to negate the soul oath as you did in thousands of years. He could not have known you would be the one exception to the rule."
Sasuke smirked.
"And yet, ironically I didn't utilize a single one of the methods I had available to negate the soul oath. Instead, I simply gave him the illusion he expected to see and allowed him to defeat himself through his own hubris."
Andromalius gave Sasuke a mocking bow.
"Well played indeed my Lord; you had me worried there for a minute. The last thing I want is a self destructive heir."
Sasuke tapped his fingers on his arm impatiently.
"What was the second thing you wished to speak about?"
"Ah yes, item number two on the agenda would be that rabble of low class fodder you are allowing to disrespect you."
Sasuke frowned.
"What do you suggest I do, kill them all? I have had to be ruthless in the past but always and only for a purpose, never just to indulge my own sense of sadism or for sick pleasure as my old master once did."
"Ah, this is the old master you mentioned tried to steal your body? Wonderful company you have kept over the years. It makes me wonder if you were one of those children that enjoyed picking the wing off of insects for you to gain the attention of such an interesting master."
Sasuke gave him a droll stare as Andromalius chuckled briefly.
"Very well, we can discuss your childhood habits another time. Back to the present though, let's just say the answer to your question is complicated."
Sasuke raised a single eyebrow as Andromalius rolled his eyes.
"Obviously I am not endorsing a mindless killing spree, but brutality is often times needed in the devil world. Did you notice that the devils were cheering Rizevim on even after he slaughtered a number of them earlier? Devils are like that; they respect strength, even if they hate you personally."
Sasuke scowled.
"I have traveled the tyrant's road in the past and have no interest in where it leads."
It was Andromalius' turn to raise an eyebrow.
"How...unexpected, yet useful. For one so young, you seem to have much more experience than seems possible."
Sasuke ignored the implied question.
"So what is it you have in mind?"
Andromalius gave a ferocious grin.
"I'm going to turn things back to normal here in a second; when I do, just grab the mic and follow my instructions."
Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"Why not? This day has been a total bust anyways, might as well end it with a bang."
As promised, the world came back into focus as normal time resumed for Sasuke. He immediately began walking towards Beelzebub with purposeful steps as he extended a hand in a clear gesture for the mic.
Beelzebub seemed surprised before instantly adjusting.
"Before we go ladies and Gentleman, a final word from your new Pillar Lord: Lord Andromalius!"
There were some golf claps from the audience as Sasuke swept his gaze through the crowd, listening to instructions from Andromalius in his head.
Sasuke began to change form, the crowd loudly muttering as Raven hair turned spiky blond and gold armor appeared. Sasuke's dojutsu dissapeared as warm, ruby eyes glowed out at the crowd to their obvious consternation; it was the first time many of them had seen him in this form.
Suddenly Sasuke summoned a Ruby lance and released his full killing intent on the crowd. As opposed to the previous instances where it was levelled at one of his fellow Lords, this was the first time many in the audience had felt his full intent levelled directly at them.
As the audience began shaking fearfully in their seats, Sasuke roared out "I am never alone, for my legions are always within me!".
Suddenly a bony hand punched through the sand to the air above, bracing itself on the packed sand as it used terrible strength to heave the rest of its body up out of the sand. After the first skeleton emerged, suddenly a miniature forests of hands appeared and used the same method to lever themselves on to the arena floor, much to the growing consternation of the crowd. As the former arena combatants raised themselves up out of the sand for the Lord's call to battle, Sasuke raised his eyebrow internally as Andromalius addressed his wordless question.
"The spell will be different for you than it was for me; the trial for inheritance was a special case that allowed me to summon my old vassals to battle once more. For now you will have to placate yourself with these undead warriors."
The already jumpy crowd was practically wetting themselves as the powerful skeletal champions looked to their Lord for orders.
Overcharging the Ruby Lance to Dangerous levels, Sasuke braced his arm and hurled it far into the distance. The lance continued until it was out of sight before it detonated.
A massive wave of force buffeted the arena, shaking the audience out of their seats as parts of the upper stone pillars of the arena crumbled from the strain.
Sasuke's voice thundered out over the cowering crowd.
"I am Sasuke Uchiha, also known by my title Lord Andromalius! If any of you worthless maggots has a problem with me, you will voice your dissent now!"
Booming laughter was heard from the dead silent crowd as Sairaorg Bael stood up in his seat.
"I am growing to like you human; there are few devils I know in strength or temperament that are more worthy for the title of Pillar Lord. I'm sure everyone here feels the same."
The crowd shifted uneasily, though Sasuke saw something on many of their faces that surprised him; grudging respect. It appears that Andromalius was right about his own kind; they truly did respect strength above all else.
Sasuke shrugged to himself; better to be feared than respected with some he supposed...
With a final nod to the crowd, Sasuke dropped the mic and gestured as his undead army fell into pace behind him, the marching of feet stamping in perfect unison behind him as he exited the arena.
Beelzebub was quick to grab the dropped mic.
"What a show folks, what a show! Let's hear it for your Champion and Pillar Lord, Lord Andromalius!"
This time, the cheers were deafening as a smirking Sasuke walked out of the arena victoriously.
Author's Notes: Not a whole lot of techniques out of the ordinary this chapter, outside Sasuke using the Andromalius summoning technique to call the local dead to battle once more (which is an identical incantation to the one Andromalius himself used in their battle). Andromalius took it upon himself to ask Sasuke the question that many of the Reviewers had last chapter, so let's give a round of applause to our favorite Pillar Lord (wild clapping and cheering from the audience ensues). The chapter is fairly self explanatory, and I feel that it wraps up this side arena arc nicely. Obviously, going forward Beelzebub will need to eat some humble pie at some point for the whole farce but Sasuke essentially got what he wanted out of it in the end (recognition of his title and an increase in popular respect if not likeability).
