Beyond the Outer Gates Lies... An Actual Emergency?
Stepping back a few minutes...
"So Tsubasa had to fight a Beholder, and Kiba a priest wielding a fake Excalibit," I ticked off my fingers, "Reya had a fight a cheap copy of yours truly, while Asia was matched up with fake Ise. What about you, Tsubaki? And who or what did Akeno have to fight, Sona? And for that matter, did anyone hear about Ise's match?
While we had all met up briefly after the exam, I didn't have a chance to talk to Ise before we split up again. Tsubasa and Reya were too excited about their results, and wanted to be sure I had seen everything.
"My opponent was my mother," Sona's Queen answered flatly.
"Akeno's opponent was her uncle," Sona offered.
"Almost wish I could have seen that," I noted.
"And Rias mentioned Ise's opponent was Raynare," my King continued.
"Hmm," I mused, "So either old enemies or love interests. I wonder how they decided. I mean, Tsubasa's killed multiple Beholders, including finishing BB's body. They couldn't have expected that to make her freeze up. Heck, Reya almost did freeze, until the golem used the wrong spell name. So why not send 'me' up against both of them? Why not have Akeno fight an Ise golem, too?"
Behemoth offered an amused smile, "While I don't know how they chose each contestant's opponent, I do know why there were no duplicates."
"Oh?" Tsubasa queried with interest.
"Yes," the tall blonde nodded, "You see, the master golem crafter employed for the obstacle course considers herself an artist."
She said it the highfalutin way, pronouncing it like 'tea' instead of like 'tip'.
"In her own words, she will not do 'mass productions or cheap knock-offs'," Serafall's Queen explained, "Which means there was only going to be one Dresden and one Hyoudou golem. So whoever determined the matches had to decide which fight was best and where they could fill in someone else."
"Also, Ria-chan and So-tan were off the table," Serafall interjected, "No making someone fight their own King. Or the Great Satans."
'They do not want to inspire thoughts of rebellion,' Lash whispered.
'It makes me wonder who they'd make me fight,' I told her.
'Are you considering joining the Peerage of Sona Sitri or Serafall Leviathan, my host?'
'Nice try, but we already talked about me taking the test as I am, a Human,' I deflected her meager attempt easily.
'They do not know what Justin DuMorne looks like,' Lash mused, 'And I suspect the Devils who know what The Walker looks like, would not reproduce it. Even if they could. Likely you would be forced to face a facsimile of Tsubasa Yura or Reya Kusaka. Or perhaps both, at the same time. Depending on who advises them.'
"Then I guess that means Koneko and Xenovia won't be fighting Ise, when it's their turn," I said to everyone else.
"That's not necessarily a problem," Serafall waved it off, "Selene has a short memory. Doing two now is a no-no. But six months or a year from now, she won't remember any of these. So one of them could fight Ise golem."
"That," Oakley interjected with a grin, "Or she's just using the artist thing as an excuse to charge extra by havin' to make more designs."
"Either way," Shizukesa said, pointing towards the approaching waiter, "It sounds like you all did well, and have passed, so congratulations."
"Thank you," Reya inclined her head to the pinkette Knight, as the server began to put down our meals.
Conversation trailed off as we started to eat. The three contestants seemed particularly hungry.
"What are your plans for the afternoon?" Behemoth asked, after everyone was slowing down.
"I was going to take everyone one to G3," Sona said, "To show Harry and find congratulation gifts for Tsubaki, Tsubasa, and Reya."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Reya asked, "Isn't Harry their competitor?"
"Sean is a professional," Sona said, "And he has asked to meet Harry. I suspect he wants to either offer to carry Harry's goods, or attempt to trick Harry into revealing how the security on his jackets works."
Reya nodded.
"Can we come too?" Serafall asked brightly, "I want to show Shizu and Oakley, too."
Sona looked at us. Especially at Tsubasa. I also glanced at my Rook. While she was getting along better with Serafall, she was still uncomfortable around the reincarnated Beholder.
"Sure," Tsubasa shrugged. Serafall and Shizukesa both looked relieved. And Tsubasa smiled slightly at that.
"Well, let's finish and..." Behemoth said, only to trail off. All of the Devils turned, and looked at the wall. Shizukesa's eyes narrowed.
'My host,' Lash said. Even though she was using my ears, she could process fainter sounds that I would consciously miss. She amplified the sounds. Screams of fear.
Then the Devils in the street outside turned and started running. Others continued to stream past. We were already standing. Sona and Serafall both threw down a few bills, each covering the check twice over with generous tip.
We rushed outside. We turned right, looking for whatever everyone else was fleeing from. It wasn't hard to figure out.
At the far end of the street, there was a giant monster. An Annihilation Maker Beast. It had an ape like face on a dragon's body, only with five limbs. The rear legs of a tiger, and two arms that were a hybrid of tiger front legs and ape arms, but with six digits, five fingers and a thumb. And the last was a second draconic right arm with four radial thumbs. No wings. And a tiger shaped tail, but with scales not fur.
It didn't look familiar to me, but Serafall and Behemoth both sucked in sharp breaths.
"A Bandersnatch," Behemoth hissed.
'It does look somewhat like the original illustration,' Lash commented, 'Only much larger.'
"I guess that means Lewis Carroll wasn't just a math-nerd with a good turn of the pen?" I prompted the older Devils.
Okay, Bizzaro World, what have you got for me this time?
"No," Serafall said, "Between a third and half of what he wrote, he invented whole cloth. And the rest was exaggerated. But Dodgson was the unofficial biographer of Alice Liddell, the monster hunter. Alice was the one who wiped out the Bandersnatches, and not many down here regret it."
"Why not?" I watched the monster, which wasn't moving yet.
"They were called false Holy Monsters," Behemoth answered, "They resist the powers of Devils, Reapers, my kind, and pretty everything native to the Underworld. And also any magics derived from our schools. Oh, and I suppose the Fallen, too. But they didn't actually follow Heaven or the Church, nor did they use Light power."
I realized Serafall was taller, having morphed into her 'beer and roller coasters' form. And serious mode was locked on her face.
"So is the Cheshire Cat also a monster I need to worry about?" I asked.
"Cheshire isn't a monster," Serafall said, "She was one of Alice's companions, their scout and tracker. A Russian Blue were-cat. She is snarky, and has a huge grin, but isn't a monster."
I really wished I hadn't left my staff in the hotel. Or the rest of my gear, too. I had my duster, blasting rod, my promise force ring, my earring, and my watch. But no staff, potions, my other nine rings, my shield bracelet, my sneakers, my fighting outfit, my belt buckle, my scrying foci...
"But this is just a Maker Beast," Tsubasa said with a hint of protest.
"We shouldn't underestimate them," Sona instructed, "Annihilation Maker is one of the strongest of the Longinus class Sacred Gears. Properly mastered, it is capable of killing a god, even a god king."
"Well, I get why everyone is running from the sudden kaiju," I scratched the back of my head, "But it doesn't seem to be doing much."
"Leo's waitin' for a signal," Oakley said, "They're trying to Independence Day us."
We all looked at her.
"When Ah was babysittin' Leo, he was working on those," she gestured at the giant, "models. I never heard of a Bandersnatch before today, but I told you about the gorilla-dragons he was working on."
Serafall nodded.
"He'd done seven of them by the time we went to Kyoto," Oakley said, "Ah don't know if they made more after, but it seems likely."
"You think they are spreading the Bandersnatches around," Tsubasa said, "And waiting until they are all in place to attack."
"We ain't doin' nothin' while they're standing still," Oakley pointed out, "And if one started attackin', we'd go after all of them and suspect there might be more."
"Behemoth!" Serafall barked. The blonde Queen was already fishing out her phone.
"So what do we do?" Shizukesa asked.
"Try to take it out before it starts spawning," the Leviathan ordered, "Shizu, your TK should work on it. Harry, use your wizard spells, not calculated ones. Anyone else, if you know any attack spells that are not Black, Devil, Hades, or Grigori school, start there."
"Until further notice, the entire Underworld is enemy territory," Sona unlocked Promotion for Tsubasa and Reya.
The gunmetal bracelet on Oakley's wrist vanished, and she was holding a modern looking sniper rifle neither Lash nor I recognized. The next instant, the Bandersnatch's right eye exploded, and it roared. It turned to us, and its eye was already starting to reform.
A circle formed before Reya, and a ball of wind shot out of it. It was one of the few fae attack spells. The Cyclone Sphere looked large in front of my Bishop, but tiny when it hit the roughly five hundred foot tall monster. The black Maker ichor scattered. It was a decent hit; the beast was hurt but it still started to regenerate.
As the rest of us prepared attacks, it dropped down and plunged all three arms to the ground. When they touched, each of its sixteen digits dropped off, and transformed into a five meter tall version of the Bandersnatch. And as it reared back to it's feet, the big one's fingers started to regrow.
"Damn," Serafall groaned, and adjusted her attack. A thirty foot spiked ball of ice formed above the smaller monsters, and dropped onto them. Four were pinned under it. But the almost instantly threw it off, unharmed.
I also changed tactics. I cast three spells, one to increase my mass and two to strengthen my muscles. Then I sent a sliver of mana into my 2nd Amendment. Even with my personal reinforcement, I nearly tipped over under the M-134 minigun. But I held on, and raised the barrel. Lash obligingly provided me with a Terminator style HUD over my normal vision. Oakley looked jealous.
"Shizukesa," I said, "make sure there are no ricochets or strays."
Then, without waiting for an answer, I pulled the trigger.
The mini-Bandersnatches were tough. But not tough enough. The 7.62 bullets tore through them They tried to regenerate like their parent, but it wasn't fast enough. The gun had appeared with a five thousand round belt, and in less then thirty seconds it was half gone. And so were the spawns. So I raise the barrel higher, and emptied the rest of the rounds into the main monster's calf and lower torso.
"Doesn't anyone have any missiles?" I shouted, egged on by Oakley's earlier statement, and mildly annoyed that 2nd Amendment could only produce guns that shot bullets.
THUMP, THUMP.
Oakley had discovered the loophole I had used in the Himejima temple. Each of her bracelets was now a rifle (specifically M-16s in her case) with an M203 attached. As the two grenades streaked towards the Bandersnatch, she opened fire with the rifles.
The high explosives rocked the monster, and tore out larger chunks of its pseudo-flesh. More damage than any of the spells had done. Not enough to stop or slow its regeneration. But enough to give me a new plan.
"Serafall, Oakley, I have an idea," I called out, "Everyone else, buy us a few minutes."
The two ladies ran over to me.
"Serafall, you can make real ice, right?" I said, "Take natural, real water and freeze it, instead of just making ice directly with your Devil power."
"If there's enough water," she confirmed.
"Physical attacks work, Devil power doesn't," I said, "But if the Devil power is just controlling something physical, rather than creating it, that should work."
She nodded. I turned and shouted, "Tsubasa, break off that hydrant. Sona, use that water instead of making it with your power."
"That will also give you water to freeze," I said, "So here's what we are going to do..."
It turned out we didn't need to hurry. Not too much. Even without the three of us, the rest of Serafall's team and Sona's team were winning. The Bandersnatch was powerful, tough, and regenerated. But it wasn't quick, and couldn't seem to process six skilled opponents. Especially since they had its number. Tsubaki was using her naginata. Tsubasa wielded a street light post the beast had knocked over. Shizukesa drilled it with her TK. And Behemoth, Sona, and Reya were following my lead and using their powers on it indirectly.
They were winning. But they weren't winning fast. And since there were who knows how many of these things attacking other cities, I didn't want everyone getting worn out on this one. But now our plan was ready.
"Distance and shields!" Serafall ordered. Behemoth, Shizukesa, and Sona knew what she meant, and the other three Devils followed suit. They broke off, got clear, and cast shield spells to protect themselves and the rest of the city.
Serafall and I stood on either side or our creation.
"Three, two, one," I counted down.
"Forzare et Infriga!"
Serafall copied my incantation, even though she didn't need to. Both of our powers flowed into the thirty foot long spear of ice she had formed. It accelerated to almost the speed of sound. Hit the Bandersnatch dead center in the chest. There was a beat. And then the Bandersnatch exploded.
The head and first five feet of the ice spear had been packed full of grenades. A couple different types, for good measure. Oakley and I had sourced them from our 2nd Amendments.
That, finally, was enough, and the monster disintegrated.
"Yes!" Tsubasa exclaimed.
"Don't celebrate yet," Behemoth said, "Reports are there are twelve more of these things."
"Hell's Bells," I groaned.
"Tell them what we learned," Serafall told her. Then she looked at us, "Sona Sitri, as heir to the Sitri house, I'm temporarily calling you to active duty. You and your Peerage. Harry Dresden, I have no such authority over you, but I would like to hire..."
"I'm in," I cut her off, "We can talk terms later."
"Thank you," her relief cut through her serious mask, "Work with Sona. You and Oakley seem to be our best weapon against these things. Unfortunately we Devils don't generally need or stock conventional explosives."
"I've contacted the Beelzebub to see what he he has or can quickly whip up," Behemoth told her.
"Good. In the meantime, our teams will have to split up."
She showed us the map on her phone.
"Team Sona, start here, work clockwise. We will start on the other side and do the same."
We all nodded. Then the Sona, her three Peers, and I grasped hands, since map or not, Sona was the only one who knew where we were actually teleporting.
The second Bandersnatch went even more easily. Reya, Tsubasa, and Tsubaki held it off, with some help from the police force in whatever city that was. And since Sona wasn't as good with ice and I was focusing on making the grenades, we instead just created a big ball of explosives with Fae Glue as the anchor. Tsubasa Self-Promoted, and held its mouth open, and the two of us shot the ball down its throat.
The third city we went to was an issue.
"That's not a Bandersnatch," I said blandly.
For one thing, this Maker kaiju was about 180 feet taller than the Bandersnatches. Only it was much more purely draconic. It had three tails, one a normal dragon tail and two stingray like tails mounted above the main tail. Its legs, arms, and wings were standard dragon limbs, but it had four of each. It had the usual long, flexible dragon neck. And while it showed off the jaws and teeth of normal dragon, the top two-thirds of its head was that of a triceratops.
"That's the Jabberwocky," Sona sounded afraid, "I might not have known what a Bandersnatch looked like, but every Devil heir knows this monster. It is another false Holy monster, but many times stronger. And beware its breath. Plumes of gas from its nostrils are dangerous to most creatures, causing an intense allergic reaction and paralysis. If you are weak enough, the paralysis can outright kill you."
"The Jabberwocky?" I mused out loud. Then silently, 'Lash, you don't think?'
'No, my host,' she countered, 'you don't think. But in this case, I cannot properly refute your insanity. That spell is more complex than its rank and power would imply.'
"I have a plan," I told my three girlfriend plus Tsubaki, "But I need a lift, since I can't fly yet and will need to focus."
"I'll do it," Tsubasa said.
"No, I should," Sona shook her head. My Rook started to protest, but my King held up her hand, "I am still the better flier, and with Side-Promotion, I can carry Harry easily. And your Self-Promotion is better for holding off the monster while Harry enacts this plan."
Tsubasa nodded, not happy but also not able to refute Sona.
"Self-Promotion," she said again.
"Self-Promotion," Reya followed suit.
"Side-Promotion: Rook," Sona announced. Then she grabbed me tightly from behind. Her wings snapped out. She flew straight up.
"Where?" she asked.
"Right above it," I said, already starting, "At least two hundred feet above it."
She nodded into my back, and continued ascending. I cast the same set of spells I had for the minigun, making myself heavier and reinforcing my body. Slipping around Sona's hand, I drew my blasting rod.
Then I called the main spell to mind. I had a number of variants pre-calculated, but I started over with the original. I adjusted it, this time not altering the base functions in any way. Not trying to make it cheaper, simpler, or more stable. Just longer. The altered mandala started to glow across the length of my blasting rod.
"Drop me," I said.
"What?" Sona demanded.
"Drop me," I repeated, "But also be ready to catch me. You'll know when."
She let out an exasperated sigh. And then let go.
I cast a gravity spell under the Jabberwocky, which was currently trying to bite through Reya's Wind Clone. My spell didn't seem to have any effect on it. Which annoyed me, even though the Maker beast wasn't my main target.
I shot down, head first. My increased gravity giving me greater acceleration, which combined with my increased mass gave me greater force. My duster fluttered around me like a cape. The magic circle started to glow brighter. To glow silver, as I threaded Soulfire in with the normal mana.
"Vorpal" I intoned, and a twenty-five foot long sword of silvery energy surrounded my hand and blasting rod. I reached the Jabberwocky. Swung down at its neck.
For a moment, nothing seemed to happen. Then the two halves of its neck slid apart. Its head fell free from its body. And the whole monster started to break apart.
I cast one of the feather fall type spells I had mentioned to Takamachi-sensei. But it was unnecessarily. Sona swooped in. She matched my (slowing) speed. Caught me up again. And pulled us expertly out of the fall.
"Anyone else have a sudden craving for chocolate, peanuts, caramel, and nougat?" I asked as we touched down.
"Really?" Tsubasa groused, "It was that easy?"
"Not so easy as it looked," Sona gave me the stink eye, having seen my use of Soulfire.
"Your Vorpal spell went snicker-snack," Reya recited.
"Don't explain the joke," I whined. Then more seriously, "I always thought that spell was overly complicated and grandiosely named. But I was wrong. I guess Carroll was leaving a clue, and the spell did what it was designed for."
"That is three targets down," Sona took charge, "We should get a status update, and report that this was not a Bandersnatch."
She took out her phone, and called Serafall. And put it on speaker.
"Lady Leviathan, I I have a status update."
"Go ahead Lady Sitri."
"We have taken down the second Bandersnatch. But our third target was not a Bandersnatch. It was a recreation of the Jabberwocky."
"I will direct reinforcements to your location," fear crept into Serafall's voice.
"There's no need," Sona countered, "Dresden defeated it."
"He did?" Serious Serafall cracked, and her normal voice leaked out.
"Yes," Sona said proudly, " Apparently, the much maligned Vorpal spell beheads the Jabberwocky as easily as Lewis Carroll's works state."
Then after a moment, Sona continued, "Shall we proceed to the next target?"
"No need," Serafall said, "Sirzechs and Grayfia have taken out two, my team has taken out three. Diehauser Belial's Peerage, Sairaorg Bael's Peerage, Lord Beelzebub, and Lord Asmodeus have each defeated one. And the Belial and Bael teams are currently working together on the last one. No other reports have come in, and things appear to be settling down."
Then something hit me.
"Serafall, has there been any report of the Gremory Peerage?" I asked. Sona flinched and her eyes went wide.
"No," my Maou's voice hardened on the other end of the phone.
"We'll look into it," I said quickly, "Sona, take us back to the hotel."
"We will call you with news, Lady Leviathan," Sona said, and then dropped the call.
"You think something happened," my King said, even as we reappeared in the hall outside our rooms.
"I think it is unlike Rias and Ise not to be caught up in something like this," I stated the obvious, then added, "and awfully coincidental that the Hero faction attacked the Underworld, while Ophis is here, and the group she was with is MIA."
Since the Dragon God of the Infinite blended quietly into the background, and focused mostly on Ise, it was easy to forget she had been hanging around us for the last week.
"What are you going to do?" Tsubasa asked. I opened the door to my suite, and led them all inside.
"Ise just bought his girlfriends force rings for Valentines," I told them, "and they haven't taken them off, since. He also had me do an engraving and put a ruby chip in them. So they are new, unique, and that's four targets that should be close together that I can scry to."
First, I geared up, expecting a fight, maybe a worse fight, once we found them. Then I went into the large and luxurious bathroom. I marked out a pentagram in chalk on the black marble tiles. I knelt down in the center, and took out my tuning fork. I tied it to a thread, and then wrapped that around my promise ring, as a similar target, filled with my own power.
"Sona, Tsubasa, Reya, inside the pentagram with me, please. I need to isolate your rings from the outside world."
"What about Serafall's ring?" Reya asked.
"It shouldn't provide too much interference, as a singular target, at a distance, and one I am familiar with," I explained, "It would be better if she were in here, too, but she's to busty... busy, and I don't want to wait. There, there, and there."
I pointed to their positions in the pentagram. They each sat down.
"Is there anything I can do?" Tsubaki asked.
"Just be ready."
I closed my eyes. Focused on my power, and on reading currents. I flooded my magic into the pentagram. The protective and focusing circle snapped shut. My Devil girlfriends shuddered as my essence filled the space.
"Duo et Unum," I incanted. My ring glowed. The tuning fork hummed. And then began to buzz unnaturally, sounding more like a mechanical alarm, than ringing metal. I cracked one eye open and glared at it.
'Lash, is that what I think it is?'
'Yes,' she agreed, 'And given the attack on the Underworld...'
'I should have been expecting this,' I sighed mentally.
I stood up.
"Damn Heroes," I muttered, and broke the pentagram. I took my staff from where I had leaned it against the sink counter. I left the bathroom, for the wider space of the living room of the suite. I lifted my staff. Concentrated on the buzzing fork, and channeled the connection into my main focus.
"Aparturum," I said fiercely, swiping my staff through the air, carving a hole between dimensions.
"Everyone out of the pool!" I shouted.
A moment later, Asia pulled Ophis through, guarding the smaller but exponentially more powerful girl. Then Fenrir darted out. Followed by Le Fay and Rias. The rest of the Gremory Peerage ran into the room. All except...
An albino with a scythe charged through. I recognized him as one of Hades' entourage from the Tournament. He slashed at Koneko, but Tsubaki blocked the scythe with her naginata. She twisted the blades aside, and then swiped back across her opponent's torso. While the Reaper was distracted and probably dying, Kiba stepped up and jammed a Holy dagger into its neck.
Then, finally Ise and Azazel burst out of the portal.
"Close it!" the Fallen shouted.
I complied. Looking at the dead servant of the supposedly neutral Hades, I looked Azazel in the eye and said, "I think we need to compare notes. Now."
Next: Beyond the Outer Gates Lies... Earth on Hell?