Disclaimer: Black Clover is owned by Yūki Tabata, Studio Pierrot, and Shonen Jump.
Saga 44: Even Flow Finale
No Man's Waves, Dawn
"H-Hey!" one of the Fallen Angels pulling the Black Chaser cried out as he pointed towards the breaking clouds, "I think I see clear skies through the clouds! The storm is waning!"
Jeanne, formerly known as Belial, peered ahead as she led the other Fallen Angels towing the ship towards the fabled Clover Island, noticing a slightly brighter hue of blue between the murky coal-black clouds polluting the skies. For a moment, she spotted a glimmer of a star. A small, dimple of light, surrounded by choking storm clouds, was enough of a sign of their situation turning towards their favor.
Leviathan's powers were waning, and their Prince and Claudius were behind this turning of fortunes. Their efforts must be capitalized, or the cetacean Demon will take notice of the current situation and kill them all.
"HURRY!" cried out Jeanne as she began to pull the ship full of Dark Elves even harder, "WE MUST REACH CLOVER ISLAND BEFORE LEVIATHAN INTERVENES!"
Her wings threatened to break, but the sense of pain was completely lost to her and the rest of her fellow Fallen Angels. All that mattered were that they were given clear orders to save the Dark Elves, and nothing must stop them.
Hell itself have failed to break their piety, nor shall some storm conjured by an artificial Demon.
Back underwater, in Leviathan's bowels, Claudius and Astaroth, former in his Apocrypha state, were tearing though the accidental colony of pelagic humanoids with ease. Normally, an army of ill-equiped fishmen would be cakewalk for even the lowest-ranked Demon in the depths of Hell, but the two Fallen Angels failed to take into account that Leviathan has swallowed entire schools' worth of them.
"JUST HOW MANY OF THEM ARE IN HERE!?" roared out Astaroth as he mowed down another mosh pit of rotting fish meat and bones with his Ravager, "I KEEP CUTTING AND CUTTING THEM LIKE LOGS AND THERE'S AT LEAST A HUNDRED MORE FOR EACH SINGLE FISH-FACED FUCK I FILLET!"
"At Hell, this is considered Ishtar's 'Cheat Day'," deadpanned Claudius, backhanding a giant crab-humanoid followed up by him snapping a plump-looking shark-man's thick neck with his [Anti-Magic]-coated hands looking more akin to giant clawed-mitts, "but yes, the smell of rotting fish is starting to become unbearable."
"More fish?" remarked Leviathan, adopting a curt and whimsical tone in response to the Fallen Angel's growing annoyance, "allow me."
Outside, Leviathan dives deeper into the ocean, his minuscule chin now brushing against the sandy surface of the sea's bottommost layer, scooping up sleeping flounder fishmen and numerous krill-fishmen, both equally agitated from their disturbed slumbers, now entering into the cetacean's Demon's innards with a massive sweep of seawater flooding the whole place, leaving the two Fallen Angels completely submerged in water...
... And the remaining fishmen with more mobility.
"I do not envy you in the slightest," taunted Leviathan as he slowly rose to the surface to expel the waters that he've intook, "suffer like I have, pawns of destiny. The Deep Ones will claim you to abyssal damnation."
"Laaaamme," the two Fallen Angels droned out loud at the cetacean Demon's name for the fishmen that they were being swarmed by.
The two then continued to face off against the oncoming army of fishmen/Deep Ones, the latter now gaining an advantage in mobility, despite the former not being as hindered as Leviathan anticipated.
Still, the fact that they were now literally coming from all directions proved to be a problem, with one of the krill fishmen nabbing Astaroth's Black Clover grimoire from his belt.
"SONOFA-GET BACK HERE!" roared out Astaroth as he chased down the krill fishman with the grimoire, only for the former to be intercepted by a lobster-fishman armed with broken ship debris as makeshift shivs, "I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR YOU!" the lobster fishman was then cut apart without a second thought as the Prince of War continued to pursue the krill, "GIVE ME BACK MY GRIMOIRE, YOU SONOFA-"
The krill then suddenly stops swimming, and then snaps its pincers towards the grimoire's pages, threatening it to destroy it should the Prince try anything.
Astaroth tried to ready his wrist to flick his other sword, [Reject], towards the krill fishman, but it's eyes caught on and moved its pincers closer as a response, its serrated edges ever snapping like a pair of scissors sharp enough to cut through paper.
"Excuse me."
A sharpened digit comprised of [Anti-Magic] burst out of the krill fishman's chest, its innards now spilling out, but not before another, giant clawed hand retrieved the tattered grimoire from the krill's pincers, followed up by the object being enveloped in a sphere of [Anti-Magic].
"... Eh... sorry," Astaroth sheepishly apologized while offhandedly butchering an anglerfish fishman, "got a little distracted."
"... This grimoire, is our only, LIFELINE," Claudius's voice droned menacingly, his eye twitching in subdued rage and murderous intent that the other fishmen froze in place, too fearful to approach the enraged Fallen Angel before briefly regaining their nerve and resuming their attack, all of them now concentrating towards Claudius and the grimoire in his hand, surmising that as their main threat, "... I'll see to it that you learn to take better care of your personal possessions as soon as we DEAL WITH THESE INFIDELS!"
In a blink, Claudius disappears from sight, followed up by all of the current fishmen inside Leviathan simply exploding into giblets, dying the waters in a murky shade of red.
"[Anti-Mana Zone: Black Sabbath]."
Claudius reappears right in front of Astaroth, covered in blotches of fish blood, varying in colors of red and dull-green, and his eyes pulsating with barely-restrained rage.
"Milord," remarked Claudius, his glare locked onto Astaroth's, "allow me to say this once again, just for good measure," he stated as he shoved the Black Clover grimoire into the Prince's armored chest, "DO, NOT, LET, THIS, GRIMOIRE, OUT, OF, SIGHT. Understood?"
All Astaroth can do was nod as the bloodied waters inside Leviathan slowly draining out as the two Fallen Angels' feet descended back onto Leviathan's tongue.
"... I'm sorry, milord," bowed Claudius, "I only lost my temper only due to the fact that I've neglected to inform you how to protect your grimoire from prying hands. I'm more enraged at my own incompetence costing our only chance to make this world right Sephira's arrogance."
"Hey," Astaroth replied as he placed his hand on Claudius's [Anti-Magic]-emitting shoulder, "water's under the bridge, and speaking of water..."
The water around them slowly began rising to their ankles.
"... I only have a minute left in this form," Claudius pointed out as he walked deeper in towards Leviathan's body, "shall we finish this farce?"
"Wait for me!" replied Astaroth as the two then took flight further in.
Outside, Leviathan was less than pleased upon his recent waterspout being dyed murky brownish-red, followed up by a drizzle of rotten-smelling rain, implying that every single Deep One that he'd devoured into his body have been slain, a fact that it drove him into no end of madness.
"If I can't kill you..." declared Leviathan, it's envy rising like the tides that it controls, "THEN NONE OF YOU SHALL EVER REACH THE ISLE ALIVE!"
The gargantuan cetacean Demon turns its whole body towards the fleeing Black Chaser, using its innate magic to let the waters around it control its swimming path linking itself and Clover Island, the ship now caught in between.
"Uh, guys?" one of the Fallen Angels pointed out, "why are the waters below us suddenly calm-OH SHIT!"
Leviathan was now fast approaching, the calm waters flowing its whole body like a conveyer belt.
"SHIT! MOVE!" cried out Kimaris as he and the others towed the ship further towards the direction of Clover Island, but the tides now literally turning their ship against them, and instead, swimming towards Leviathan's charge path.
"OH FUCK!" cursed Jeanne as she saw Leviathan's maw opened up as both the ship and the Demon came to a collision course, "BRACE FOR IMPACT-"
Suddenly, before Leviathan can devour the ship whole, it suddenly lurched forward, diving its boxy head back into the waters, sweeping a wave towards the ship's rear, nearly sweeping Black Chaser under.
"Damn, that was close," Kimaris sighed out, wiping his brow of the rain of blood on it, "... the fuck happened?"
"WHO GIVES A SHIT!?" replied Jeanne as she flapped her wings harder, "KEEP PULLING!"
Inside Leviathan, Claudius and Astaroth were attacking its internal organs, interrupting its swimming pattern and forcing it take in more water into its swimming bladder in order to maintain its counterbuoyance and hopefully flush out the two Fallen Angels out of its system.
"So, Claudius?" asked Astaroth, currently hacking away the internal muscle tissues of Leviathan's inner workings, "... why didn't we do this sooner?"
"The so-called Deep Ones would've made it rather inconvenient," replied Claudius, who's ripping and tearing across Leviathan's flesh with his [Anti-Magic] clawed mitts, "had to clear them out just to be sure."
"Okay, but why didn't do that sooner?" remarked Astaroth, "you know, the whole [Black Sabbath] shit. Could've made the job way easier."
"My powers are restricted to my sin of [Pride], milord," Claudius explained, "the more I look down upon someone, the longer I can extend my [Demonic Arts] combo chains. Flipside, should my pride be challenged in any sort of way, my [Anti-Magic] increases its overall output. And both can only be accessed when I'm in my Apocrypha Form."
"Wow, so the damned shrimp really ticked you off that bad?" pointed out Astaroth as he staked his [Reject] into Leviathan's stomach membrane, spilling out more black blood.
"The grimoire is the only way that Sephira will die," remarked Claudius, his voice growing in its irritation, "I staked my pride onto it, along with everyone else's own, so to lose it at such a point of our journey... is quite distressing, by the mere fact that I will be BESTED BY AN UPSTART MORTAL!"
From his irritation's apex, Claudius's punch causes the entirety Leviathan to quake and sway, right after being followed up by his Apocrypha form dissipating, returning his body back to normal.
"... It seems... that time's up," heaved Claudius, slouching from the strain of his Apocrypha Form wearing off, "milord... the finishing... touches."
"Okay... how?" pointed out Astaroth, "last I checked, THIS THING IS ROUGHLY A HUNDRED TIMES MY SIZE!"
The Fallen Angel then throws something at the Prince, the latter catching something in his hands.
"... The hell is this?" asked Astaroth as he held out a black apple with white linings at resemble crossed out eyes and a stitched smile.
"ADAM. The very last one," answered Claudius, "it's time. Eat it."
He then takes a bite out of it, only for the flesh to grow back from the bitten portion of the ADAM.
"... Is something supposed to happen?" Astaroth pointed out, his body not feeling any different.
"JUST EAT THE WHOLE THING IN ONE BITE!" Claudius barked out as he snatched the ADAM from Astaroth's hands and shoved the black apple into the Prince's mouth, followed up by Claudius shoving the Prince's lower jaw towards his upper to crunch the apple whole in one bite.
Suddenly, an overwhelming well of energy begins to flow into Astaroth's body. His inner [Anti-Magic] growing past its limits, his senses amplifying hundredfold, and his body convulsing and morphing into something else entirely.
Suddenly his vision goes completely black, now completely cut off from the rest of the world.
What happened next... mere words cannot describe it.
Leviathan felt something crawl up in his body, unlike his previous prey who were microbes compared to his size, mere kingdoms simply an equivalent to a human's singular strand of hair.
The presence kept growing and growing, a malignant tumor was slowly forming inside Leviathan, the feeling starting to override his senses.
The hell? thought Leviathan, his head and body aching, just which of those bastards are doing something funny inside my body!? Surely, my organs can easily handle something so minuscule-
The sea around him slowly began to turn against him, slowly losing authority over [Water] that his creator, Lucifuge, has instilled into his very being, and instead, slowly corroding his grip over the seas...
"THE FUCKING HELL IS GOING ON!?"
... As he was then forcibly ejected out his domain, the skin covering his blubber now completely exposed to the air and the skies, his eyes now being pierced by the sun's ray's for the first time in its existence.
LEVIATHAN! Lucifuge's voice screeched in Leviathan's head as he remained airborne, THE HELL IS GOING ON!? WHY'RE ONE OF MY SCREENS JUST EMITTING A WHITE GLARE!?
"... The Prince of War..." replied Leviathan, his voice gone completely hoarse from the sky's insufficient moisture drying him out, "... has bested me in my given domain... how I envy his role... as the Prince who would usher... [Armageddon]... ah, Lady Lucifuge... how I wish to walk on dry land without suffering..."
His thoughts were then drowned out by the sounds of Lucifuge's hysterical shrieking and the crashing of numerous objects and Stygians alike being tossed around like ragdolls, followed up by a loud explosion sound into her domain as he felt his smooth skin be assaulted by what it felt like a bed of dry nails prickling into his body.
YOU FUCKING BITCH! an enraged voice cried out towards Lucifuge, with a pumping sound of two clicks being heard in the same room, DIDN'T I TELL YOU TO KEEP IT DOWN!?
Leviathan simply tuned out his master's squabble with another Demon peer as his mind settled into a lull.
His eyes looked up at the clearing skies above, and saw an angel with an asymmetrical wing, heralding Leviathan's defeat.
Magic Knights Headquarters, Medical Wing, Quatre, Clover Kingdom, Dawn
"Kalashnikov, report," a voice from an eyepatched man remarked out loud.
Next to him, a cloaked women appeared before him, leaning right next to the eyepatched man, her face still bandaged slightly from the injuries sustained during the siege of Hellhounds days prior.
"The message has been received, Sir Dragunov," Kalashnikov replied, "Patrem Inquisitor Tokarev has already begun to spread the word throughout the Order of the Spade Cross. King Arthur and his council of Knights of the Round has approved our report and will be backing us should the hour arrive."
"And of the Grinberryall boy?" asked Dragunov, his left eyebrow raised, "still bedridden?"
"Comatose," replied Kalashnikov, "regardless if he's either dead or not, he is in no state to travel on his own."
"Keep vigilance. Not our first time assuming the best and running into the worst," stated Dragunov as he looked out towards the window next to the wall that he was leaning against, spotting the rising sun from afar, "... what of the whole village's worth of Adaptors and their benefactor?"
"... Trail ran cold as soon as we hit the coast," replied Kalashnikov, her voice slightly trembling, "the sea beyond was riddled with storm clouds upon our arrival. Locals refer that place as the No Man's Waves, for the stories of sailors traveling out towards the sea never coming back, presumably claimed by magical creatures known as the Deep Ones or simply... drowning."
Dragunov took a mental note on his junior Inquisitor shuddering at that last word.
"Fret not, Niko," Dragunov reassured, "the witch's domain is far from where we are, and our feet are nowhere near water."
"... Yes sir," heaved Kalashnikov, "... Rusalka can't claim us here."
Fear. A familiar feeling to all inhabitants of Avalon. The Inquisitors and the Thaumaturges were the only line of defense between its people and utter destruction.
Out of all the Demons and their worshippers that they've hunted down, none of the brave souls in the history of the Order of the Spade Cross have ever escaped the ice-cold clutches of the fabled Rusalka. It's victim's bodies still inhabit the lake's bottom, their souls now her personal slaves that do her bidding. A sole stain on their banner of Sephira.
The "Witch of the Well". Rusalka, "The Drowner". Rusalka, "Allure of the Abyss". Rusalka, "Bottom-Feeder".
Rusalka, the ender of innocent lives, among them, Zastava, his previous protege Inquisitor, counted among the countless victims that still have yet to go unavenged.
"... Soon, that fear will no longer enslave us," Dragunov reassured Kalashnikov, "our faith mustn't falter. We will find them and wipe them from the face of this world."
Kalashnikov grins and nods in agreement, "for a future without fear."
"For a future for hope."
The two then hug tightly, reaffirming their resolve, and to remind themselves that they're not alone in their crusade.
"Ura."
Ninth Layer, [Treachery], Hell
"OH SHIT, IT'S CAIN!" one of the Styigans cried out in fear as he ducked his head under a throwing axe size of a boulder, "HE'S AFTER LUCIFUGE-"
The running Styigan had its body riddled with a spray of arrows from Cain's [Weapon Magic: Death's Grandeur], a fully-automatic ballista held like a one-handed bowgun in the hands of the ratel Demon of [Hatred].
"WHERE IS THAT LITTLE BITCH!?" screeched out Cain as he tossed aside his titanic bowgun as he manifested [Meat Pulverizer], a four-pronged mace weapon large as a grimoire tower, dragging it through the meaty floors of the bottommost layer as he searched for his most recent source of ire, "I GOT A BLUDGEON WITH HER FACE'S NAME WRITTEN ON IT!"
"JUST WHAT THE HELL DID THE RAT DO TO PISS HIM OFF THIS TIME AROUND!?" a running Stygian asked in a panicked tone.
"HE'S ALWAY'S PISSED OFF!" another Stygian replied in a fearful tone, "FUCK EVERYTHING AND JUST RUN-"
Another Stygian simply had its head squeezed like fruit being juiced along with the rest of the plane of reality that began to twist and turn like blurred paint mixing into another color.
"Wha-wha-WHAT DO YOU WANT, YOU FUCKING PSYCHO!?" Lucifuge's voice echoed throughout the whole layer as the space around it begin to distort, the fleeing Stygians caught within the physical distortion being ripped apart from the spatial friction that her [Paranoia]-fueled [Discernment Magic] was causing, "DON'T YOU HAVE A CERTAIN FAGGOT'S ASSHOLE TO FUCK WITH YOUR [MEAT PULVERIZER]!?"
"AFTER I FUCK YOUR PUSSY THAT YOU CALL YOUR WHOLE DAMN EXISTENCE FIRST!" roared out Cain as he smashed the ground with his weapon.
"THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!" cried back Lucifuge, still out of sight, but her madness literally tearing the whole Ninth Layer apart.
Nope, it actually does, the Stygians all thought within those lines as they were running from the escalating carnage about to unfold, it's called hate-sex.
The two of the [Eleven Elusive Evils] then turned their attentions towards the fleeing Stygians.
"DON'T SASS ME, YOU LITTLE SHITHEADS!" the two of the Demons cried out at the same time as their redirected their magic towards the Demons whose thoughts weren't well hidden as they've anticipated.
None of the fleeing Stygians were able to escape their wraths, whether being torn apart by Lucifuge's denial of reality literally tearing apart time and space with her mere thoughts and fears, or through Cain's twin hand axes, [Death & Agony], cutting through anything in their thrown path, cleaving through rock, meat, temporal distortions and Stygian alike, no one escaped their fate.
"There we-DON'T TALK LIKE ME!" Cain and Lucifuge talked in unison before catching onto each others' speech, "BITE ME, YOU SHITHEAD-GODAMMIT, WHY!?"
And so, the two continued their cycle of bickering and murdering every unfortunate Styigan caught in their crossfire, ad infinitum.
Just outside [Treachery], three other Demons, one mink, one ferret, and one otter, were simply watching the carnage unfold.
"... So, our boss is at it again?" the ferret Demon remarked.
"Name one instance where our boss ain't at someone's throat stuffing it with knife blades, Ptolomaea," the mink Demon deadpanned.
"Aw come on, Antenora," Ptolomaea groaned, "[Treachery] is pretty much our flat, and today's cleaning day. It's bad enough that the other Stygians shit in my crib every night, but this time, I think I see the rat bitch hiding under Judecca's rock bed!"
"THERE YOU ARE! GET YOUR SCRAWNY ASS BACK HERE!" Cain's voice roared out upon Lucifuge's location being ratted out by one of his subordinates.
"I'LL GET YOU LITTLE WEASELS FOR THIS!" cried out Lucifuge as she began running around the Ninth Layer, tearing apart everything within the semi-sentient maw that the three Demons stood over it's teethed edge.
"... That was my favorite bed," bemoaned Judecca as she saw her rock bed get smashed to crumbs of gravel.
Libratium Border Checkpoint, Spade Kingdom, Dawn
"Here we are," Akane remarked as the Diamond Kingdom remnants trudged behind her and Mari, "the Border Checkpoint. We're in relative safety now."
"... Relative?" pointed out Violet, with Lotus piggybacked on her, "are you implying... that there're still things trying to kill us beyond here?"
Mari then just gives her a discerning look.
"This is the Spade Kingdom," remarked Mari, "there are literally a thousand things on top of everyone's heads that can kill you. If it's any consolation, Libratium has really great medical insurance. They'll bring you back good as new, free of charge. I once got my lower jaw ripped off my a [Minotaur], and the doctor just said I just have to keep wearing this mask for about half a year as the cartilages around it heals. Beats eating my food out of a straw."
"... Oh," Fanzell remarked, "... sorry that you went through that."
"Eh, it's alright," Dune remarked, "I'm scared of the Inquisitors only due to the fact that they have means of killing me permanently and not maim me badly enough to hospitalize me."
"Speaking of which," Dominante remarked as she looked back at the grasslands behind them, shifting Fana's listless body shawled around her back with her [Cloth Magic], "are you sure leaving that Inquisitor behind is a good idea? Shouldn't your kingdom's authorities... I dunno, arrest him?"
The three Libratians all gave the witch a flat look.
"We would, I mean, we kinda have a few in confinement and let em go after they cool their heads..." replied Akane, looking towards the side with a slight grimace, "... but Bizon Reznov is an infamous repeat offender."
"Broke out of his confinement 24 times in a row in a span of a whole year, destruction of numerous public property and the total damage sum exceeding the kingdom's monthly expense report average, and the fact that we're taking commissions from Avalon to create and experiment weapons in exchange for their information on Demonology..." sighed out Dune as he polished his glasses with his rag, "... Bizon is a bit of a case of 'white elephant', we can't afford to get rid of him, unless we want start another major war, and considering that Libratium is barely a decade old after its coup, and most of the national budget being allocated to healthcare and education... we had to compromise. We can stop him, but we can't afford to jail him or kill him since he's under diplomatic fatality immunity like the rest of the Thaumaturges and Inquisitors... so we leave him, since if he get eaten by a [Wilderbeast], then it doesn't count as state-ordered homicide, and Avalon won't have any legal reason to go and uh... give them a reason to kill us all."
"... That sounds... a little convoluted," Miraella pointed out.
"Name one aspect of politics that isn't convoluted," Dune deadpanned.
"Touche," replied Fanzell as their group approached the fort gates.
Akane then walks towards the door, knocks on it three times, and a voice was heard from the other side.
"Name and occupation," a gruff male voice remarked.
"Akane Mitsurugi, member of the Black Thorn Knights, 3rd year student of Academia."
"Mari Mitsurugi, member of the White Lily Knights, 3rd year student of Academia."
"Wadjet, Nehemoth-rank Demon, bound to one Dune Pyrite."
"Dune Pyrite, member of Academia's Demonology Research Bureau, Contractor to Wadjet, 2nd year student of Academia," Dune finished off, as for the unidentified, they're refugees from the Diamond Kingdom, and are seeking asylum."
"For what reason?" the voice replied.
"Demon attack, allegedly from the Lilith Faction rumored to be spotted," Dune remarked, "I think they might know a bit more then we do, so they might tell us if we let em in."
The gates begin to creak open before them.
"So... we're in?" Peony asked as she gripped onto her mother's skirt.
"Yep," Dune remarked as he walked ahead while looking back at the remnants, "beyond here, is the Kingdom of Libratium."
The group then gets past the opened gates, and what they find...
"... Okay," Fanzell remarked in an exasperated tone as he put a coin inside Lotus's swear jar, "... what the actual fuck."
They all saw a hilled grassland littered with craters, malformed Wilderbeasts rampaging throughout the landscape being chased by knights in white, black, blue, orange, brown, red, yellow, and purple, a scene akin to a chaotic battlefield.
"Aw man, who let them out?" remarked Dune in an annoyed tone, "guess we can say goodbye to our '3 days without accidents' record and reset it back to 0."
"Sorry if we're late!" Mari apologized as a sky-blue haired woman in a white officer's attire and her rapier planted next to where she crashed onto.
"Nope, you're just in time," the capped woman remarked with her body no worse for wear, "one of the cage hinges got rusted and somehow broke the others free as well. Better time than never, so come on, get on with it!"
"Yes, Chevalier Mercurius!" Mari replied as she charged into the battlefield with her presumably-superior officer.
"AKANE!" an eyepatched, silver-colored, short-haired woman in a black and red uniform with a bronze-colored prosthetic right arm ran towards her after she punched out a bull-headed creature with a feline body that tried to pounce onto her, "WHERE THE HELL YOU'VE BEEN FOR THE PAST FEW DAYS!? YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO RETURN A DAY PRIOR!"
"Inquisitor."
"Bizon?"
Akane nodded.
"Alright, just don't forget to put that on your weekly report..." the eyepatched woman grimaced as she walked back into the carnage, "for now, we got Chimeras to put down."
"No Siths this time?" Akane asked.
"There were, but they were eaten," the eyepatched woman replied in a sigh, "by the Chimeras during their jailbreak."
"Secure the perimeter?"
"Need I say more?"
"Yes ma'am," Akane replied as she drew her Murasame from her sheathe and charged into the horde of Chimeras rampaging about, "ENGAGING! TENCHU (Divine Retribution)!"
The eyepatched woman then noticed the Diamond Kingdom remnants next to Dune.
"Demonologist, who the hell are these people?" the eyepatched woman asked.
"Asylum seekers, Chevalier Albin," Dune answered, "might be related to the whole incident in the Diamond Kingdom seven months back."
"They'll have to wait regardless," Albin replied as she turned back, "we're a little... compromised at the moment. All non-commissioned knights, do not engage until we're in the clear, got it?"
Albin then charged back into the chaos, her right bronze fist sending numerous Chimera flying into the air. Amidst the chaos, the saw the capped woman with the rapier slashing a turtle-gorilla Chimera with her glowing hot blade while erecting sharp spires of ice from the air that skewered through the flying hawk-lion monstrosities, and the Mitsurugi twins cleaving through the opposition, Akane's poisoned blade melting through the Chimera like hot knife through butter, and Mari fighting like a woman possessed, her eyes completely blank in a state of trance, but her body moving like a well-oiled machine designed solely for killing.
"... Umm... is this a commonplace thing?" asked Violet, with Daisy trembling behind her.
"You mean the fact that Chimeras running amok, or the whole scale of this carnage?" asked back Dune, "former is usually one or two a day, but latter... is a bit of a crapshoot."
"So let me get this straight," Fanzell remarked, "Diamond Kingdom is dead, Clover Kingdom is most likely to drag all of us to the gallows for our affiliation alone, Heart Kingdom is in bed with the aforementioned Clover Kingdom, Ulster is an untamable segment of land in a divided Kingdom, and Avalon has that maniac Bizon affiliated with... and you're saying this cacophony of a kingdom is the safest option?"
"When you put it like that..." remarked Dune, "... pretty much."
Fanzell lets out a sigh.
"Violet, Heracles, Miraella, Dommie?" Fanzell asked as he put a gold yul into Lotus's swear jar again, "you mind covering the kids's ears?"
They all comply, and Daisy, Peony, and Iris's ears were all covered by their guardians' hands.
Fanzell lets in a deep breath...
"MOTHERFUCKING SONOFA CUNTWHORE ASS-STAINS!"
... And let out all of the frustration that he'd pent up throughout the whole journey, his screaming drowned out by the chaotic melody of the battlefield before them.
"... I feel better now."
"Let it out," Wadjet reassured, "even adults need a break sometimes to take better care of their children."
Clover Island, No Man's Waves, Morning
"... ilor..."
"M... rd."
"Uraghhh...
"MILORD!"
"ARGH!" Astaroth cried out as he sprang up from a bristling and course-feeling ground, finding Claudius sitting right next to him, "... the hell happened?"
Not a word was said from the Fallen Angel, only for him to point his thumb behind them.
The Prince turned his head, and found Leviathan, now belly-up, on dry land, surrounded by Fallen Angels and Dark Elves alike.
"THE FUCK!?" shouted Astaroth, flabbergasted of seeing the titanic cetacean Demon completely beached onto a spot of dry land, "... HOW!?"
Everyone around him looks at him.
"Eh... EEHHHHHHHH!?" cried out Astaroth as he pointed at himself, "DID I DO IT!?"
Everyone around him nods in response.
"You did," remarked Thor, his clothes now caked in damp sand, "but Black Chaser got totaled in the process."
The Dark Elf pointed to the shipwreck washed up ashore behind Astaroth, Black Chaser snapped in two down its middle.
"Thankfully, no one too hurt to be unable to move, but still, could've been way worse," Thor stated, pointed to a handful of the injured being nursed with splints tied around their fractured limbs as Thor himself was tying his wet topclothes around his head, "silver lining, we don't have to worry about chopping down trees for firewood, probably. At least a wrecked ship good for something, right?"
"Doesn't matter for now," pointed out Odin as he slowly walked further inland, "we made it, and that's all it matters."
Everyone looks towards the island, plantlife and ruined buildings choked and interwoven themselves across the whole island, a single stone tower standing at its center, covered in vines and ivy occupied by small creatures as their means of transport or shelter. A place forgotten, buried by the sands of time, once booming and thriving, now abandoned, devoid of all civilization.
"... Milord," grinned Claudius, "welcome to Clover Island, our new home."
"Damn it all..."
Astaroth turned his head towards the beached Leviathan, who somehow, was still alive.
"Put me back in... I'll show you what I can do there..." goaded Leviathan, its breathing being dry and strained, is body, immobile, and covering about a good portion of the island, with acres of forests and creatures crushed underneath its massive body, "... it was just a fluke... your [Anti-Magic] overridden my authority over [Water Magic]... bastard..."
"... So, what do we do with him?" asked Astaroth as the others began to move inland to explore the island.
"Leave him," remarked Claudius as he joined the group entering into the forest, "he can't do shit without being submerged in water, and being a Demon, he cannot die under conventional means, artificial or otherwise."
Astaroth then joined the group, walking further inland as Thor cut through the greenery with his knife, clearing the way though for the others to come.
"So... you think anyone lived here before this place went to shit?" asked Thor while cutting down a stray branch, "I mean..." he then picks up a skull from the ground, "... from this. Skulls ain't made from thin air, for sure."
"This island... is the very place where Sephira was born," answered Claudius as he ducked under an overhanging branch as he walked along the stoney path within the forest, "an island no significance prior to her birth, formerly a humble fishing village comprised on an island community of former hermits, struck by a deadly disease that no one helped them, only for her to remain as one of the few survivors who were supposed to die that day. A mere human, defying destiny that the Origin had planned for her. ... Rubbish."
"Well, from the looks of it, I take it that their prosperity didn't last that long," Jeanne remarked as he spotted another skull, picking it up and finding dead barnacles inside, "the hell did all this?"
"Dunno, don't care, not our problem," replied Thor as he broke through the greenery and found himself in a ruined segment of a once-prosperous civilization, now choked with plantlife and wildlife alike, "our real problem is, where do we stay?"
Claudius then walks into one of the ruined buildings, only for the entrance to cave in atop his head, burying him for a moment before he burst out of the pile of rubble.
"... You saw, NOTHING," growled Claudius, a few Dark Elves and Fallen Angels, including Astaroth, trying to hold in their laughter from the Fallen Angel's embarrassing display, "... are we clear on that?"
"So reappropriating buildings aren't an option..." Sinmara sighed out as she carried Baldr on her back, the latter now exhausted from the journey, "... are we going to have to go building our own shelters?"
"It's a start," remarked Barbatos, still wringing the saltwater from his beard, "as soon as my beard doesn't become home for the local wildlife, I'll aid."
As the party of Dark Elves and Fallen Angels slowly come to an agreement, a pair of eyes peer from atop the tower, spying on the group as her teeth gnashed in rage.
"Fucking bastards... did I hear 'Prince'?" the eavesdropper cursed as she peered through her looking glass, gnawing on her thumbnail as she continued to keep an eye out on the group, "... This is really bad, I have to do something about these trespassers... but I never planned beyond just Leviathan sinking any ship that tries to get too close, including that damn dingy 20 years back..."
She then sneaks back towards the tower's upper hatch, grabbing onto a rope ladder fashioned from vine sinews that she'd managed to collect throughout her stay on this island, climbing down towards the tower's bottommost floor and scurrying towards another hatch on the floor.
"Dammit all! This way too soon for this!" the figure with the twintails cursed as she climbed down towards her basement, "it's still at its testing phase... but against a group that large... might wanna move that up the schedule a little bit..."
A sealed door inscribed with Demonic runes stands before her, which she opens by biting her thumb and smearing her black blood onto its surface, causing the runes to glow red before opening.
"Regardless,..." she remarked as she entered into the dim chamber with a podium holding up an object at its center, "... my hypothesis regarding this experiment should prove correct."
Her hand then reaches out towards an object with a smoothen wooden hand with a piece of hairline-shaped metal surrounded by a thin ring, a cylindrical chamber with a hammer with a single pointed spur behind it, and in front was a long silver-blued barrel, hollowed out and connecting itself towards the hollows inside the cylindrical chamber.
"That one man with this..." she remarked as she brandished the object and began inserting miniature, brass-colored shells into the cylinder chamber's entry point located at the upper-right section of the grip while rotating the chamber manually, "... can easily sway a hundred without."
She then pulls back the hammer with her thumb, aims the object at a dented pot lid with a target-like arrangement of circles inked onto it, and pulls the trigger, emitting a loud crack followed up by the shell ejecting from the barrel's hollow and ripping a hole through the lid and hitting the stone walls behind it.
"Heh heh heh..." she chuckled triumphantly, "... if it can pierce through metal, then surely, it can pierce through skulls."
A triumphant grin streaks across her lips as she holstered her weapon next to her hip.
"Alright, Big Iron..." she remarked, her face bearing a wicked grin that gleamed in the darkness of her basement, "... let's shoot to kill."
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: 2020 is an odd year, and I'm ending it my family moving out of our old house and into a new one outside of town.
Short chapter aside, I kinda wanted to get this out soon as possible so I would have less on my plate as I move out of my old house. So far, getting back into writing is good enough for me, but the feeling for back when I was writing back then feels... a little cold, like if the flame inside kinda went out.
That doesn't mean I'll stop writing. Rather, I'll write as much as I can before another slurry of finals claim me again, and hopefully, not crash and burn like last time I went on a binge-writing.
Anywho, yes, I gave Clover Island's formerly-sole resident a gun as her choice of arms, based off the real-life M1879 Reichsrevolver. Reason why will be unveiled soon enough, but for now, I gotta leave it open-ended for later expansion. Also, the name "Big Iron" is from a song about a cowboy with a "Big Iron on his hip", so couldn't pass up on that one.
As for Cain's entourage, they're named after the Ninth Circle's Four Rounds, with Cain/Caina (murder of Abel) being the First, Antenora (Anthenor of Troy, Priam's counselor during the Trojan War) being the Second, Ptolomaea (Ptolemy, son of Anubis) being the Third, and Judecca (Judas' betray of Jesus) being the Fourth. Honestly, it was a last minute thing, but it felt too good to pass up. As for why they would work under Cain, well, in Hell, if they're going to die repeatedly anyway, might as well do something meaningful and clean up after someone just to kill boredom. Better than working in one of Ishtar's slave labor camps with impossible debts, for sure.
And for the Libratium Chevaliers... that I'll have to introduce later on, because I got other chapters to tackle before school starts again.
Here are the hypothetical voices for the new members of the story:
Antenora: Ryota Osaka (JPN), Mick Lauer (ENG)
Ptolomaea: Showtaro Morikubo (JPN), Michael Kovach (ENG)
Judecca: Yuna Kamakura (JPN), Krystal LaPorte (ENG)
Mercurius: Nana Mizuki (JPN), Christine Auten (ENG)
Albin: Rina Mizuno (JPN), Shelly Carlene-Black (ENG)
So, what do you guys think of this chapter?
Please leave a comment or a review, for I'd like to know what my audience is thinking.
