Happy new year, people. Let's make this the best ever to make up for a crappy 2020.

And what better way to start the new year with a chapter of this? :P

Yup, grab the tissues.

Have fun!

Lindow had not seen Yuu so shook up and distraught in a long time. Even as a rookie, the kid was a natural at fighting and a legitimate badass, even against seemingly insurmountable odds. He knew that better than anyone as Yuu had brought him back from the brink of a mental collapse and an aragami infection.

Currently, both he and Soma had to watch Yuu fidget in the corner of the chopper on the way back to the Den. Yuu was almost allergic to rainy days but after listening to Tsubaki cry out for help, the leader of the team was a nervous mess, yelling at the pilot to fly them over as quickly as possible. Heck, even Soma was a tad ruffled, something about a bad dream of silver and blue.

Yuu felt a grip on his shoulder and took a deep breath, settling down a little when Lindow pulled him back and whispered something into his ear with a small chuckle.

"Thanks, Lindow," Yuu said after a few seconds, relaxing his clenched fists.

"Aki is there is with them," Lindow said, not letting go of his shoulder just yet. "The chick is a badass herself; she will handle it until we get there."

"I know…" Yuu replied, his right hand clenching again. "But the wall…. We fortified the damn thing with so many cores and yet…"

Soma was listening to the conversation from the corner, as he usually did. The anti-aragami was strengthened several times over with the cores of several dreadnought aragamis and yet the same was breached within seconds, according to the commander.

Just what on earth would break the wall now? This was just a cruel reminder that they were in a death match against time and fate. No matter what scientific advancements they made, the onslaught of nature shattered through their hopes and brought them back to square one, with broken hope and a whole lot of dead bodies.

Thunder boomed up in the skies and Yuu flinched, shrugging the hand off his shoulder and yelling at the pilot-

"Get a goddamn move on!"

….

The reminder of the first unit dashed through the hallways, amid the boom of thunder and the terrifying screeches of whatever had broken through. Tsubaki did not even call them for a briefing; instead she ordered them to grab the Arcs and head out against the new threat as fast as possible.

Aki could feel every sound bounce against her head violently, especially the roars coming from the outside. Sure, aragamis tended to roar when activated but the new threat was unlike anything they had ever encountered before as each roar drained the life and will of whoever was unfortunate enough to hear, as if it was the call of Death.

Aki hauled her massive weapon off the storage and glanced back, looking over Alisa, Sakuya and Kota. Two old types and a new type who was more a sniper than a close combat fighter. Tch. They were on the defensive until Yuu-

Another roar rocked the facility and Aki began to issue orders as they rushed out. She hissed at the sight as soon as they stepped out, her eyes catching the path of carnage in the outer ghetto where the new aragami was at work-

Kota gasped when he worked out the coordinates and his mind clicked, heart plunging down to his stomach when he realized-

"Nozomi!"

Aki tried to reach out and grab him by the hood when he rushed past her and headed straight towards the danger zone, not stopping when she yelled at him to come back.

"That is where his family resides," Alisa said slowly.

A purple explosion far away alerted the females and Kota's signal went dead the next second, horrifying the three.

"Kota!" Aki yelled in despair but the voice of her superior cut through, more panicked than she ever was-

"Get a move on!" Tsubaki lost her patience and blared as loud as she could. "It is a damn massacre! Get there before that thing kills everyone!"

The second in command moved the very next second, racing through the city with her comrades and with every step, the putrid stench of death and decay grew more prominent, so did the vicious screeches followed by explosions of black and purple-

"What are we dealing with…?"

Finally, the three God Eaters stepped into the area and froze, lowering the weapons in fear and horror when they took a look around what was supposed to be residential section-

Littered with dead bodies and drenched in crimson as far as Aki could see, with the residential blocks in complete shambles. She put a hand to her mouth to stop the building nausea and her pale eyes widened further, finding a literal mountain of corpses near the creature roaring out to the skies.

White Mask.

Coffins.

Blood-stained blade.

The new aragami was a nightmare of horrible proportions; one that reeked off death and seemed to feed off fear but Aki had her blade lowered even in the face of death, a painful grimace on her pale and sweaty face-

"A-All those people…"

The creature had spared no one and had surely wiped out almost the entire the population living in the residential area. So severe was the massacre that even the veteran Sakuya was frozen in shock.

"H-How?" Alisa was the first one to speak, breathing harder than usual. "The defense squad was dispatched-!?"

Aki took another step forward when her vision began to clear up a little. Her God Arc dragged along the ground as she stepped closer, noticing that the new aragami was squeezing something… or someone in the palm of its bloodied hand-

Alisa was the first one to notice and she yelled out in utmost horror, her screech clashing with the boom of thunder in the skies when she finally yelled out the identity of the corpse squeezed to death-

"Annette!"

Sakuya fired the first shot without notice, her own body rocking backwards as she unleashed her most destructive bullet, a flame mortar which combusted midway and the flames exploded in the direction of the aragami-

The aragami launched the dead body in the way of the flames and discharged a surge of purple energy to counter the burst of flames. The God eaters gaped in horror as ash and debris exploded from within the clash of heat, the piercing cry of Alisa melting into the infernal sound of explosion-

Some of the ashes dusted along the face of Aki and the second in command lost it with a cry of her own, biting her own tongue and tasting iron in her mouth as her world started to rock and swirl for the first time in a long while.

When was the last time she saw Death on the battlefield?

Thunder crashed in the sky and the redhead took off towards the aragami with hate fueling her senses, blurring everything but the bastard who had killed her comrade right before her eyes while the creature noticed her charged and roared in her direction as a war cry-

Aki switched back to her blade and quickly caught up to the new aragami, eyes festering with hatred when she jumped off the ground and swung the blade as hard as she could-

Crash-

Much to her surprise, the new aragami dug out the weapon at the last second, holding the massive sword in reverse grip to block her arc . The sound of collision rocked her senses until she noticed a flicker of purple, a sphere of energy quickly gathering in the maw of the aragami, at point blank-

A bullet from Alisa pierced through the building sphere, leading to another explosion and a storm of smoke and dust, blinding Aki until gloved hand smacked her into the pavement at full force, crushing a few of bones against the tainted and cursed ground-

A torrent of bullets forced the aragami to back off and Aki got up with minor difficulty, her bloodshot eyes quickly locating Thanatos waiting for her, almost sneering in her direction, to which she hissed.

"They're all dead," Alisa said from beside her, a step away to a nervous breakdown as she gazed at the lifeless bodies of the entire defense squad strewn across the battlefield. Aki bit her own tongue in despair, daring to glance at the mangled bodies littered across the outer ghetto. The new aragami had wiped the entire squad and a bulk of the ghetto in five minutes flat-

The second in command lost it and broke into another run, the cry of Sakuya bouncing off her head as she closed the distance, planted her lead leg and shifted her weight for a lunging swing to slice the damn thing in half. She cursed when the aragami dodged the swing and fired back with a long slash from the sides, forcing her on the back foot but not for long as the hatred and rage pushed her forward, her yell piercing through the haunted night as she charged straight at the beast-

"Kota!" Alisa suddenly remembered him running off and looked around, not catching the old type anywhere. She shivered at the thought of Kota being one of the many dead bodies around her until Sakuya shook her out of the trance.

"Go search for Kota," The older female issues the order, double checking the ammo on her weapon and then glancing ahead at her leader and the new aragami locked in battle. "I'll cover her from the rear. Now go!"

Alisa said nothing for a few seconds but a blast of purple and Aki's yell brought her back, making her shake her head and then nod at the order. She gave one last glance to Sakuya before she hurried off, catching the stray tear that slid down her face, pale from what she had seen-

"What sort of a God is this…?"

Alisa wondered and she hurried away from the battle zone, disappearing into the darkness, hoping that Kota was alive-

...

Aki hissed and cursed during the entire battle, her arms and legs already burning with acid as she swung her blade with ill intentions each time she got close, not even bothering to reset and shoot the target from a more safe distance despite having ample bullets. Her head was still pulsing violently, the massacre still haunting her and the cause of the nightmare was right beside her-

"TCH!"

No matter how hard she swung her arc, she was repeatedly forced on the backfoot, as the new aragami matched her speed and movements, moving akin to a seasoned warrior born in combat, with a very specific stance but erratic movements. Worst of all, the creature was matching her and even exceeding her skills in blade and close combat, constantly switching its massive weapon between orthodox and reverse-

Another wild swing from the female missed by a mile and the God Eater backed off, ducking under the bloodied blade that came from her head and weaving towards the monster through the open space until the gloved hand knocked her off her feet and swatted her away, sending her flying-

Aki landed on her feet and growled, her face matted in a mask of blood, sweat and tears but she had no time to dwell as the new aragami came rushing for her life, discharging another beam of the chaotic purple energy that brushed past her and leveled the area behind her-

The explosion rocked her forward but she quickly caught her footing, switching her arc and firing a bullet to buy time but the aragami sliced the mortar and moved through the flames unharmed, getting right in her face with another slew of erratic slashes-

The difference in speed left her open and while she saved her vital organs, the redhead suffered a few gashes but she kept the grip on her arc tight, deflecting the bulk of damage but getting pushed backwards constantly, struggling to read the attack as each slash came from a different angle-

Aki feinted and the blade shattered the pavement, lodging inside for a few seconds as the whiplash knocked the aragami back and she took the chance, running up the length of the sword and switching her arc, blasting a bullet into the damn mask and summoning another storm of dust and ash-

The same hand came from the shadows and her life flashed before her eyes as she was open for the harsh grip of the beast as it lunged out of the dust and screeched in her direction-

"Yuu…"

"Out of the way!"

A massive block of ice knocked the God of Death to the side and the redhead landed on her feet, coughing out blood and gulping down a restore pill to heal the minor wounds. Sakuya quickly rushed at her side, firing a healing bullet for good measure-

"Are you okay?" the raven haired girl asked, biting her lower lip. She had not seen Aki this busted up in a long while and in such a short amount of time.

"Not until that thing is dead at my feet,"

As soon as she said that, another bloodcurdling screech rocked the ghetto, nearly shaking the entire area as the beast roared out towards the skies, as if a thousand Vajras were roaring in unison-

"Look out!"

Aki kicked Sakuya out of the way and ducked another beam of almighty energy, crawling along the ground until she escaped the line of attack and bolted towards-

Thanatos quickly caught up to her, determined to crush her in a painful grip but she lashed out with an arc of her own, gashing up the fingers and escaping the attempt to reset. She fired off a round of bullets and planted her feet with gritted teeth as the God of Death rushed out from the smoke with another piercing screech-

"To hell with this!"

Aki stayed her ground and grip the handle with both hands, unbolting a slash at the same time as her foe. Her knees buckled due to the force and the roar from the aragami drilled through her head but she held on, one eye shut as embers and sparks danced around the blades but despite holding on as hard as was able to, her grip began to lessen, her joints accumulating damage as the pressure of the beast was immense-

"Just a bit more…"

BANG-

A torrent of thunder and fire blasted the occupied aragami on the side, eliciting a painful roar much to the satisfaction of the two God Eaters until the roar of pain morphed into one of rage, a thick cloak of darkness beginning to swell around the body of the God of Death, extinguishing the flames and bringing the horror back into the eyes of the two females-

"Take cover!" Aki yelled out, deploying her shield as she sensed the imminent explosion-

A wave of dense darkness exploded from the building cloak around the aragami, crashing into the surroundings with an ungodly amount of force and washing away the yell from the redhead as the force knocked her far away and razed what remained of the area into the ground within a few seconds, spreading the mucky darkness across the entire Far East, rendering the entire area silent as a graveyard as there was no sound or movement for the next few seconds. The God of Death waited a few seconds more and began to gather the attack between its maw to finish the task-

"Gotcha!"

The artificial aragami exploded out of the darkness, biting and tearing into the flesh of the God of Death until the God Eater from the shadows disengaged, making sure her signature cap was still on her head as she disengaged switched her weapon, firing the aragami bullet towards-

"Hit 'em!"

Sakuya unloaded the strongest healing bullet towards her leader the moment Alisa pulled the trigger, green and gold enveloping the redhead in the center of the crossfire, activating the aragami cells and healing her battered body. The influx of speed and power stirred the redhead out of her unconscious state and she jumped back to her feet, letting out a few deep breaths to acclimate to the burst shift and then locking her eyes on the somewhat bewildered aragami-

"We got you…"

Aki moved twice as fast than before, finally cancelling out the speed advantage as she rushed at the God of Death, sidestepping the downward smash and eating through gut of the aragami with her blade for another boost to her arc. She skidded along the ground as the beast hurled her towards the side but she stayed on her feet, firing a bullet near the feet of the God to scatter dust and closing the distance with a wild swing-

The blade finally sliced through the damn body of the God, stopping the creature from drawing out the weapon when she gashed the arm and picked up the pressure, cutting open the fingers on the other arm and then the legs, making sure to keep feeding her arc to maintain the speed advantage as the aragami went berserk, swinging wildly with weapon and fists in hopes of catching her during a wild swing-

Still damaged and exhausted from the suffocating battle, Aki could not draw enough strength to slice the limbs off but she continued dashing in and out of range, shedding the oracle cells on the massive body as she hacked and slashed the damn thing over and over again, pushing her exhausted body over the limit-

Each time the creature attempted to unleash the purple surge from between the jaws, the other God Eaters rained down bullets and flash bombs, giving their leader enough openings to carry on her assault. Aki also caught Kota firing from range, eyes bloodshot and face stained with tears. His family was no more thanks to the rampage of the aragami and the thought fueled her, determined to rip the core out of the damn body at all costs-

"Keep firing!" Sakuya yelled, reloading her arc without pause as she directed the other two to circle and fire nonstop while she shot at random intervals, burning through the arms whenever the creature got near her leader to grab her-

"W-We're winning…"

Aki hopped onto the blade and dashed along the steel, leaping off the edge and shattering the lower jaw of the aragami to knock the creature off balance. She shot a bullet towards the ground as she came down, the momentum and force of the whiplash hurling her back towards the aragami-

She sliced the nape and knocked the beast to a knee, dodging the wild punch and jumping high up, locking her eyes onto the beast being assaulted by nonstop gunfire from the sides until Kota launched the last flash bomb, giving the signal to Aki a second before the light blinded the aragami-

Aki came down with a piercing cry of pent up rage and sorrow when the bomb exploded into a flash of light, blinding the aragami for a few seconds but giving the redhead enough time to open up a zigzag gash from the shoulder all the way down towards the hip of the humanoid creature in one fell swoop-

Black liquid exploded from the fresh wound and the redhead retched, clasping her ear to block the piercing scream of pain as the God of Death was finally knocked down, crashing down to the ground with a good numbers of the ominous coffins shattered and the bulk of the massive body slashed open. Thanatos landed with a large thud and a small tremor but all fell silent after that, with only loud pants coming from the God Eaters who did not lower the weapons just yet.

Aki stood next to the dead body of the wretched bastard and took a look around the devastated area with her lower lip quivering. All had perished and the cause was right next to her feet, not entirely gone as the aragami struggled to get up. She caught Kota sniffing and trying hard not to bawl on the battlefield and gritted her teeth.

She switched her Arc back to gun and loaded the strongest bullet that she currently had, pointing the barrel of the massive firearm towards the head of the aragami, determined to blow the entire body along with the core to ash in a painful explosion of divine flames-

Just like the aragami had done to her friends and the innocent people….

Her fingers glided along the trigger and she gave the signal to cover up with a wave of her hand, eyes narrowed to slits as she pulled-

"GACK!"

The God of Death suddenly shot up, stopping an inch away from the startled slayer and knocking the color off her face with another horrifying roar which echoed across the dead night, reverberating horribly and worsening from painful to unbearable in a second as the ground began to heat up. She tried to shout a warning but her eyes caught the pulsing ball of black and blue between the battered hands of the God and the words died in her throat a second later when her short life flashed for the second time, a cold wave of death and decay taking over her mind and body-

The sphere of black and blue detonated and Aki took the brunt of the attack as she was nearby, separating her from her arc as she was knocked yards away while screaming in agony, the flames keeping her awake but the darkness killing her slowly, life ebbing away from her soul in a tortured couple of seconds in which she was crippled inside out-

"You bastard!"

Despite the ungodly pain, she caught the hateful yell and her torture came to an end, her back smashing against an old house to stop her from flying all the way to the Den. The cry of the male was silenced soon after and Aki had to pick herself off the ground despite being a bloodied mess.

"K-Kota…"

The attack began to clear up and she gulped when the sight came before her eyes, with the damn thing back on its feet and Kota in its grip. She had shredded through the arms and fingers to remove the threat of getting crushed but the aragami was far more resilient as even with the grotesque wound stretched across the entire body, the God of Death had enough power to stop the charge of Kota and incapacitate him in a few seconds-

"W-What is this thing?" Alisa cried out from the side, alongside Sakuya who was battered much like her comrades, on the last legs of consciousness. Tsubaki was yelling at them to withdraw but they barely had the strength to talk, much less run away.

"We've lost…" Sakuya said in a hushed whisper, glancing at her battered and burned hand with a quiver in her voice. "This is the end for the Far East Branch…"

Aki heard her whisper and raised her head, locking her eyes onto the aragami and then at Kota who was still alive but not for long as blood dripped down the gloved hand, along with the life of the boy who had lost his family and was now going to lose his life-

Aki glanced at her God Arc several yards away and shivered, knowing there was no way she could grab her weapon and stop the aragami from crushing Kota in a span of a few seconds-

Black flames began to escape from the palm and Kota started to burn, hissing out in pain when the same attack began to channel through the closed fist. Aki screeched in horror and ran straight for the monster without her God Arc upon the first cry of her subordinate-

"So this is how it ends…?"

Aki whispered, well aware that she was charging towards her death as the God began to charge up the purple stream but the redhead did not stop. She came up with a last minute, stupid plan of tackling Kota away and dying and chuckled bitterly to herself, the flash of almighty energy blinding her-

"So be it…."

Her body began to heat up, clothes melting into her skin as the heat and pressure of the attack began to build up, death and decay overcoming the last few seconds of her life-

…

…

…

…

"STOP RIGHT THERE!"

The battered girl was nearly knocked off her feet when someone yelled from the skies and she took a deep breath, eyes welling up when she looked up and saw him-

"That is an order!"

The sound of the chopper made her collapse onto her knees and she looked up for a better look to calm down, blinking when the light flashed down onto the aragami-

Surprisingly, the aragami hurled Kota towards the side and roared towards the chopper in utmost hatred when it caught-

"Y-Yuu…"

Their leader had returned…..

Yuu took a few seconds to witness the carnage and growled, grabbing his arc and locking his eyes on the abomination responsible for razing his home and family to the ground. He hissed at the other two God Eaters on the chopper to stay back, as the beast was his alone to finish-

The beast roared one more time and Yuu launched himself from the edge of the aircraft, daring at the aragami to attack and the God of Death did so, taking flight and reaching out with its bloodied hand to grab and crush the insolent savior of humanity-

Yuu lashed out the moment he saw the massive hand coming for him, eyes unblinking and his hands bony white on the grip of his arc. He ducked under the slow attempt and began his attack without mercy and with godlike speed and power, starting from the wrist and slicing the hand off as he moved forward like lightning, cleaving the entire limb into pieces in a few short seconds-

The aragami drew back and Yuu located the open wound on the chest, firing a bullet that exploded inside the body and the creature began to swing wildly in pain, missing the God Eater by a mile as Yuu searched for a weak spot and found a massive gash opened across. Switching back to his blade, he dove and attacked the battered body Aki had previously opened up-

Yuu struck with more force and powered his way through, yelling in hatred when his blade found the vulnerable side and sliced the body like a burning knife through human flesh, cleaning cutting the aragami in half with minimum effort and finally toppling the seemingly invulnerable God over with the upper body entirely separated from the torso and crashing to the ground in a heap of black liquid and shattered coffins-

The leader of the Den came crashing down the next second, the aragami inside his arc coming alive and eating through the face and neck, spitting more of the disgusting liquid everywhere as the roars finally began to die down until the man-made aragami snatched the core and the body exploded into clusters of oracle cells-

"He did it…" Soma said from the chopper. In one minute flat, Yuu had finished the terrifying aragami all on his own but…

Yuu was shivering when he withdrew his blade, his sorrowful eyes catching the dead bodies of his comrades and the innocents who were slaughtered without mercy.

"Tatsumi…"

"Brendan…."

His two friends laid mangled in the dirt and mud, arcs shattered and bodies mauled beyond recognition. Annette was a pile of ash and there was a mountain of corpses left in the wake of the new type aragami.

"I couldn't save them…."

Yuu bit his lower lip, eyes welling up with tears and his breaths coming out with great effort. Without the rush of hatred and heat of the battle, it began to dawn on the young leader that he had lost a lot of his home and so many of his people.

In one night-

He felt a bloodied hand grip his shoulder and a single tear slipped out and down his cheek. He released the grip around his arc and turned to look at his partner, and she looked as broken as he did.

"I was too late…"

Yuu whispered, clenching his fists with his teeth gritted in an effort to stop more tears from escaping. He had to remain strong for his team as they looked more lost than they ever dod.

Who could blame them…?

So many months of peace had lead up to this disaster.

So many days of hopeful dreaming about a new world and they woke up to a nightmare.

The hope granted to them by Shio had rotted away and they were back to square one.

Bury the dead and hope and pray for a miracle to combat the new wave of aragami.

This was, after all, a death match against the clock.

Yuu clutched his battered comrade with a vice grip and swore a promise. He was not going to let anything else slip away from him after this nightmare.

He swore.

Aragami be dammed and God himself be cursed.

…

On Friar, Minato kicked the dead body of the fat waste of space for the laughs and stepped over the face, making sure to crush the facial muscles as he hopped off and seated himself on the throne of Friar, the chair in the office of the now dead Director Grem.

Friar was under new management now and independent of Fenrir.

Rachel was by his side, more happy than ever before as she had watched Minato slaughter the people who drove her sick for the past several years.

"My aragami was finally beaten," Minato said, eye twitching when a certain face flashed across his eyes, making his inside churn out of disgust. "Yuu Kannagi…"

"That boy is special…" Rachel was afraid to talk more but she had a duty to warn her God about the biggest obstacle to him. "He is nothing less than a God to people in the Far East."

"A single solider will pose a threat to me?" Minato narrowed his eyes and Rachel cowered, bracing herself when she thought that he was going to slap her off her chair and cripple her legs but oddly enough, the blue haired boy laughed.

"The false messiah," Minato leaned back and glanced at his hands. He looked out window and chuckled lowly. "Filth like that deserves to live for a little while more, just so it can see everything else burn…"

"I'm going to keep him alive…"

"Just so SHE can look him in the eye…"

"…"

"And hurt him the worst…"

"S-She…?"

Minato ignored Rachel and began to crack his fingers, nearly breaking his own bones until he clenched his fist and thunder boomed outside.

Rachel saw the red clouds gathering and clasped her mouth in shock. Her God had the power-

Minato turned back in her direction and stood up.

"About those orphans…"

He cracked his neck from side to side and then back and forth, going through a very simple plan but special plan regarding the kids at Magnolia Compass.

"Let's pave the way for HER…"

First time writing a God Eater battle so please, do tell me if that was okay enough as I am quite rusty. I usually drag battles towards 10k as I am known to do but.. short on time. Things are moving fast and with a lot of death but again, short on time. This could have been a loooooooong ass fic but can't afford that now, so a couple of chapters. Let's see if GE will survive or perish with the SMT injection.

Incog: Hahah, while they won't kiss, you can bet Rachel would be turning into her own singularity after that ungodly kiss. Thanks for the review.

Ghost Eater: Funny thing is, this Minato is still less of a prick than the dude in Fallen Messiah. This takes place a few months after the GER arc of the second nova so no cradle yet. Thanks for the review. Cheers!

Takeda: Glad to have you for the ride.

M2R: There is a similarity if you think about it, but I wont' tell cause spoilers, you have to wait and see. Cheers for the review!

Kamen Rider Evol : Here it is. Hope you enjoyed it.

Have a Little Feith: No problem. I hope you find something you enjoy but to briefly touch upon this review, for the other readers still there. This won't get better and Minato will not get his senses back. This, much like most of my other stories is a reverse of concept. Usual crossover story goes like the crossover hero being a hero and helping the other fandom, this is the reverse. Minato is here to wreck cause he, along with other crossover protagonists help way too much in other stories.

How did Minato become like this? Read to find out... if we get to the end.

That's it for today. I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me your thoughts and I'll see you soon.

Be safe, folks.

Cheers!