Disclaimer: I don't own Negima or Ranma 1/2.

Rise of Prodigies

Chapter Sixty-Three: Battle of the Gravekeeper's Palace - Parental Rescuing


"Onee-sama, isn't it strange that no enemies have attacked us since we left the fight back at the landing zone?" Ranma heard her sister ask suspiciously as they along with Nodoka-san made their way towards where their parents were being held prisoner.

"I think the enemy might be husbanding their forces," Haruna's Ministra opined. "They know that they don't have anything that can really slow Ranma-san down, much less stop her, so they aren't even bothering to try."

"Surely they wouldn't give up entirely, right? I mean that might explain why they aren't sending their grunts at us, but wouldn't they at least send some of their elites to try and slow us down?"

"They're holding them back." Ranma replied as they reached a set of large double doors, through which her Origin Sight informed her was a large hall not unlike the one where they'd made their landing and on the other side of which was the corridor that would finally lead to the suites where the Mage of the Beginning had imprisoned her and Haruna's parents.

"I guess since you're super duper strong, it would be pointless to send mooks at you." Haruna hummed in thought.

"Nothing is strong enough to beat Mistress!" Chachazero said confidently, earning herself a squeeze from the arms Ranma was using to carry her as a reward.

"They won't be strong enough." Ranma said ominously as she began pushing the doors open.

"We'll see about that, unworthy product of my womb." Saotome Nodoka said with a hateful glare towards Ranma as she stood brandishing the restored Saotome family katana. A blade that was surrounded by an aura of arcing lightning that resembled the restrained fury of a thunderstorm, bolts of which occasionally formed into the tortured face of a man with combed back hair, a small moustache and goatee and a prominent crease across his forehead that seemed to be straining for release.

A spirit that Ranma's Origin Sight informed her was a man named A, who had been a warlord of some sort back on the Mage's homeworld. A man who had led his people in defiance of her apostheosis and had paid for it by being transformed into one of the many eternally tortured souls that she had bound to her surface.

"If it isn't the disowned harlot." Ranma shot back at the psychopath who had birthed her. "And the Hierophant too? My, my, is the Mage of the Beginning trying to curry favor with me by offering me the chance to kill two of my most hated beings at once? 'Cos if they are, it's not going to work. I'm still going to kill them."

The robed figure that had been responsible for the kidnapping of her and Haruna's parents just chuckled, even as he was forced to block the furious looking Saotome Nodoka from prematurely starting the fight. It seemed Ranma's insulting reminder of the woman's status within the Saotome family had hit its mark.

"My master is well aware that any attempts to earn your goodwill is pointless, Ranma-sama." The Hierophant of the Dawn God said with a polite bow in greeting. "He is merely offering us up as warm ups before the main event."

"Where I'll kick his arse." Ranma shot back confidently.

"Master will destroy you, girl!" Saotome Nodoka spat, her tone especially scathing as she called Ranma a girl, as if that alone was some kind of insult.

"Calm yourself, Saotome-san." The cloaked figure commanded. "You will have your chance to fight Ranma-sama soon enough, just be patient a little longer."

The woman huffed at the reprimand but did calm down slightly. She still glared venomously at Ranma though.

"As for the outcome of your fight with my master, that remains to be seen, Ranma-sama." The cloaked figure said before suddenly pulling his cloak off. "But what isn't is that you'll have to get through me and Saotome-san before you can face them."

Behind her, Ranma heard both Haruna and Nodoka-san gasp in shock at the revelation of the Hierophant's true nature. And even Chachazero reacted with amazement, though hers was more out of excitement at the prospect of dismembering such a unique opponent. He looked like Frankenstein's Monster, that is a creature in the shape of a human created by stitching together body parts from multiple different people. One that had three eyes, a pair of odd eyes with red sclera with a black pinwheel shaped iris where his normal eyes should be and a third eye in the middle of his forehead with a red sclera and iris and a ripple pattern spreading over the eyeball that was punctuated by nine tomoe.

Ranma however was unsurprised. The moment she had entered the room, her Origin Sight, which had failed to perceive anything about the Hierophant in their first encounter and which she hadn't bothered to activate when they'd crossed paths since then, had already informed her that he was an undead creature made out of the body parts of multiple people by the names of Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Obito, and Yamato. Not that she knew who they were. She could probably find out if she used her Sight to perceive their names, but she honestly didn't care enough to. Even if by being the abominable fusion of their remains had granted the Hierophant their powers in life as her Sight informed her.

Whatever powers he has, I'll defeat him all the same. Ranma thought, shooting the animated corpse with an unimpressed look. Though even without looking, I can tell he's strong… Better to be safe than sorry.

"Haruna, Nodoka-san, handle that psycho would you? I'll deal with the horror show reject."

"We'll slice him back into pieces like he belongs!" Zero-chan declared with her usual murderous enthusiaism.

Ranma had expected the insane older woman to start ranting or lash out at her refusal to face her and so was surprised when she smiled at the declaration. A creepy, bloodthirsty smile that was accompanied by a equally unsettling and murderous glare as she turned her attention, previously focused on Ranma, onto Haruna.

It was intense enough that Ranma feared her sister would be intimidated by it. She was thus shocked when Haruna instead responded by shooting Saotome Nodoka a glare of her own.

"Leave her to us, Onee-sama."

"Yes, Ranma-san. We'll take care of her."

Ranma frowned, worried about the reasons behind her sister's eagerness to face the crazy woman who had birthed her but the Hierophant teleporting behind her and attempting to stab her with a black metal spike he'd extruded out of his own arm stopped her from doing so. Instead, she was forced to spin out of the way and retaliate by slamming a palm into the undead abomination that sent him flying before she launched herself after him.

The fight was on.


Even as Onee-sama and the Hierophant fellow started their fight, Haruna and Nodoka continued their stare down with Saotome Nodoka. And not for the first time, Haruna found herself wondering how such a psycho could possibly give birth to her wonderful Onee-sama. It just didn't make sense to her! But at least the insane woman had nothing to do with her precious sister any more.

"So what do you go by now, eh, Nodoka-san? I mean, you aren't a Saotome anymore on account of being disowned and all." Haruna taunted even as with quick strokes of her quill, she used Imperium Graphices to summon up her trusty Sagitta Magica Mini Gun and a mixed squad of New Inferno Aniki DXs and Shield Maidens.

Next to her, Nodoka was already raring to go. Her magic was primed, her wand was out and the various artifacts that made up her combat panoply, Diarium Ejus, Comptina Daemonia and Auris Recitans, were in place.

They just needed the right signal and it would be time to unleash a can of whoop ass on this woman who had dared to hurt Onee-sama!

"As if the words of a child are true. I consider myself the only true Saotome woman left in this family! And by my reckoning, it is you and all who you call family who are the disgrace!"

"You're the only Saotome woman left?" Haruna scoffed even as she felt a burst of magic over in Onee-sama's direction and glanced at it out of the corner of her eye. Just in time to see her sister and her opponent be sucked into one of the latter's conjured spatial distortions.

I hope Onee-sama knows what she's doing, falling into the enemy's technique like that. Haruna thought worriedly even as pushing such concerns aside, she continued exchanging barbs with her sister's deplorable birth mother.

"Did you forget that you married into the Saotome family? Or that Onee-sama and I were born into it?" Haruna pointed out. "If anyone can call themselves true Saotome women, it's me and Onee-sama, you delusional hag!"

This seemed to finally cause the woman to snap.

"You impudent brat! Have a taste of the fury of a true Saotome woman! Sōryūha (Blue Dragon Blast)!" The crazy woman shouted as with a quick draw of her blade out of its scabbard, a bolt of lightning shot out from the aura that surrounded it and took on the shape of a dragon that proceeded to streak towards them.

"You'll have to do better than that," Haruna scoffed as her Shield Maidens moved to shield her and Nodoka, their high defense stats easily letting them tank the lightning bolt. She made sure to really make them robust to handle anything this hysterical woman could pull out.

"Incendium Gehennae (Hellfire Conflagration)!" Nodoka cast even as the lightning was still grounding, sending a vicious storm of hellish fire to attack the psycho.

"Raiton no Shunshin (Lightning Release Body Flicker)!" The swordswoman shouted as she transformed into a bolt of lightning and streaked out of the way of the hellfire that Nodoka had shot her way.

She returned back to normal directly above Haruna and Nodoka, her blade poised to pierce straight through the golemancer's head as she fell to earth. Sadly for the crazy, though her strike was true, all she managed to kill was one of Haruna's Perfect Dummy Decoys.

"Tch. This trick again?" Haruna heard the woman curse under her breath even as Nodoka's Volant (fly) powered teleport deposited both of them all the way on the far side of the large hall they were fighting in and she ordered her golems to pummel the swordswoman whilst she joined in with a barrage from her Sagitta Magica Mini Gun and Nodoka pitched in with some Apes Igniferae (Crimson Bees).

"Inazuma no Tate (Cloak of Lightning)!" The madwoman shouted as lightning surged from her blade and surrounded her like a cloak, even as simultaneously a large burst of it shot out from her position in all directions creating a wave of electricity that threw Haruna's golems back and deflected their incoming ranged attacks.

"Get back up! Swarm her!" Haruna ordered her disorientated golems.

"You know, girl, you're not the only one who can summon creatures to aid them." The insane swordswoman said with a roll of her eyes even as she let the experimental barrage of Sagitta Magica, Series Ignis (Magic Arrows, Fire Series) that Nodoka shot at her to test her lightning cloak's strength be harmlessly dissipated by her defense. "Raijū Tsuiga (Lightning Beast Tracking Fang)!"

At her invocation, lightning shot out from her cloak and quickly took the shape of a dozen hounds that promptly began attacking Haruna's golems.

"Those are lightning elementals." Nodoka hissed under her breath. "How insulated are your golems, Haruna?"

"They aren't robots, we don't have to be worried about them getting short circuited." Haruna reminded her Ministra, even as she conjured a few more golems just in case.

"Okay, but they don't have any lightning resistance?" Nodoka pressed as she shot another Incendium Gehennae at their opponent, only for the maniac to once more turn into lightning and evade the Fire Mage's hellfire.

"Not any more than your average golem." Haruna said as she took her turn suppressing their enemy and fired off a burst from her Sagitta Magica Mini Gun as the older woman turned back into a human.

"Then conjure more golems. Those elementals are strong, at least that woman thinks so and based on what she's comparing them against in her mind, I'm going to err on the side of caution and believe her." Nodoka warned as instead of casting a new spell, she took to manipulating the hellfire created by her previously cast Incendium Gehennae and having it spread to cover as much area of the hall as possible in a bid to limit their opponent's movements.

"Gotcha." Haruna agreed without hesitation and immediately followed Nodoka's suggestion. She trusted her Ministra, not only because of their Pactio but also because they were best friends. In fact, outside of her family, Haruna could confidently say that she trusted Nodoka above all others.

"You can't trap me so easily, little Fire Mage." The madwoman they were facing taunted as she easily kept ahead of Nodoka's hellfire. "Not that it would matter if you could. I don't need to get close to you to kill you. Rairyū no Tatsumaki (Lightning Dragon Tornado)!"

Spinning on the spot and drawing her blade at the same time, the psycho's technique infused the air with her lightning which created a whirling vortex of wind and electricity that took on the appearance of a dragon's head that surged towards Haruna and Nodoka.

Shit! Haruna cursed as she hastily conjured a wall of Shield Maidens between them and the incoming attack.


Ranma-san's birth mother might be utterly monstrous and absolutely insane, but she is strong. Just like her daughter. Nodoka couldn't help but think as the vortex of lightning that said madwoman had conjured slammed into the shieldwall that Haruna's Shield Maiden golems had formed to protect them. A defense that crumbled almost immediately when faced with the fury of the conjured electrical storm. Thankfully, Nodoka had prepared for that possibility.

"Muros urbis Hiericho (Walls of Jericho)!" She cast calmly but quickly, conjuring a wall of pure magic that looked like it was made out of ancient stone which blocked the incoming attack where the Shield Maidens failed.

"Jigokuzuki (Thrust of Hell)!" The insane swordswoman shouted as she dashed towards Nodoka's barrier, her katana leveled for a powerful thrust.

Reading her mind using Diarium Ejus and facilitated by Auris Recitans, Nodoka knew that with the amount of lightning that this technique gathered into the tip of her blade, it would have incredible piercing power.

Probably more than enough to pierce through my Muros urbis Hiericho. Nodoka concluded, prompting her to formulate a plan to get out of the way of said incoming attack. I'll have to time it just right.

She had drawn this conclusion and came up with her plan all in the precious few seconds since the crazy woman had announced her latest technique and whilst Haruna was just registering the situation and starting to panic, Nodoka was already ready. It was this quick thinking that allowed her to pull off a Volant teleport that transported Haruna and her out of danger just nanoseconds before their opponent smashed through her Muros urbis Hiericho.

Of course, her opponent was no slouch either. Like she had already concluded, she was strong. Thus taking barely a second to register that her targets had fled, the swordswoman had turned to search for them, located them seconds later and had transformed into lightning to close the distance once again.

Tch. She even recovers quickly. Nodoka noted with annoyance as their opponent closed for a follow-up attack.

This time Haruna was ready for her though and just as the psycho transformed back into a human so she could properly attack, she was met with a face full of Sagitta Magica (Magic Arrows) from her Sagitta Magica Mini Gun. Not to be left out, Nodoka also unleashed an Incendium Gehennae on her. Finally catching her opponent with the spell, the Fire Mage couldn't resist a smirk of satisfaction as the swordswoman was consumed by a twister of hellfire.

Sadly, the feeling was short lived.

"Kirin (麒麟)!"

With that shouted incantation, a massive burst of lightning erupted from inside the hellfire twister that dispelled it and from said burst emerged a powerful kirin. The legendary creature was just like how the myths described it, a maned creature with the body and antlers of a deer, the scales of a dragon, the tail of an ox, and the hooves of a horse. It was also surrounded by an intense aura of electricity that marked it as a powerful lightning elemental.

Without any prompting, Haruna responded to this new threat by conjuring a fresh mob of her golems that immediately joined her still surviving golems who were suddenly lacking opponents as they proceeded to attack the mythical creature. They were no match for the Kirin though and were easily blasted into oblivion by its lightning but Haruna kept conjuring more of them, replacing every golem that was destroyed with two more. By doing so, she managed to keep the Kirin occupied. Which just left…

"Did you girls forget about me?" The mad redhead shouted tauntingly as she appeared in front of them using what Nodoka recognized as Shundō (Instant Movement) and swung her lightning infused blade at Haruna.

"Hardly," Nodoka shot back with a roll of her eyes. "Gehennae Alas (Hellfire Wings)!"

At her invocation, wings of hellfire began to form. They grew from her shoulder blades, but the first bits of it came into being, at Nodoka's direction, in front of Haruna so that it was able to deflect the blade that was about to cleave the greenette in half.

"Thanks, Nodoka!" Haruna said distractedly even as she continued sketching tirelessly in Imperium Graphices to keep conjuring the golems keeping the Kirin busy.

Nodding just as distractedly back at her partner, Nodoka raised her wand at their opponent. "Flagrantia Rubicans (Red Blaze)!"

Even with the twenty percent boost to the power of her spells granted to her by her version of Konoe-san's Angelus Alas (Angel Wings), the surge of flames that her Flagrantia Rubicans unleashed wasn't anything special. The spell just wasn't capable of creating flames that were either all that fast or all that powerful. But just like Nodoka suspected from the fact that her opponent had used Shundō to close with them instead of transforming into lightning and from how her other elementals had suddenly dispersed-

"Summoning and maintaining that Kirin is draining you isn't it?" Nodoka surmised as she watched the swordswoman only barely manage to use Shundō to evade being burned alive.

"S-Silence! Th-This is nothing! Nothing!" Her opponent shouted in denial, even as her thoughts betrayed her.

"How could the girl figure it out so easily!?" Nodoka heard the words that Diarium Ejus read from the older woman's mind via Auris Recitans.

"I will continue! I will endure! I will not go meekly into the night for you! I will kill you all!" She raved and shouted, spittle flying from her drying mouth.

The worst part of it was that her thoughts were just as deranged.

"I am in the right here! Once I kill all of them who sully the Saotome name, I can start over! I'll rebuild the clan from scratch! And I'll make sure they follow the right path, my path, this time! It will be perfect. I-I can truly be a woman to emulate. The perfect mother. The perfect wife… I'll have the perfect… family…"

"I pity you." Nodoka confessed. "You truly are mentally unwell."

"I don't need your pity! I'm perfectly sane!" The woman shouted defiantly as she used Shundō to once more attempt to close and slash at Haruna, only for Nodoka to again easily parry the strike with one of her wings.

"But I don't pity you enough to spare you. Not after what you've done to Haruna. To her parents. And especially not after everything you've done to Ranma-san." Nodoka told the woman.

"Stop talking about that failure!" The woman screamed, eyes turning to pinpricks.

"Stop talking about my failure!"

"For what you did to my friend, there is only one mercy I can offer you." Nodoka said with grim finality. She had never done what she was about to do, but she'd mentally prepared herself for this and she was ready.

I hope so.

"I offer you death. Incendium Gehennae!"

The psycho tried to use Shundō to escape the storm of hellfire but as drained as she was by maintaining her Kirin, she barely managed to flicker out of the way and as the cursed flames slammed into the ground and blossomed out, it was trivial for Nodoka to have them expand out and ensnare the exhausted and panting woman.

Thus the deluded woman burned in righteous hellfire, and Nodoka steeled herself as the gasping silent screams finally petered out. And as they did, the Kirin also dispersed, transforming into sparks of electricity as it did so.

I just killed a person. Nodoka realized.

The Fire Mage froze as she tried to process what she'd done. She felt a little nauseous but nowhere as bad as she thought she'd feel. Maybe it was all the desensitization training Eva-san put her and everyone that trained under her through, or maybe it was because her victim so very clearly deserved it but Nodoka felt strangely blasé about becoming a murderer.

That's right. This makes me a murderer…

"W-We won, Nodoka." A panting Haruna said, putting a hand on Nodoka's shoulder, pulling her out of her spiraling thoughts.

The palpable relief that Haruna wore at the moment silenced any guilt that Nodoka felt. At least for now. Instead, it was replaced with her own relief that Haruna and Ranma-san were safe from that lunatic at last.

"Yeah, yeah we did." Nodoka agreed, before looking around for any sign of Ranma-san. "Should we wait for your sister?"

"No, Onee-sama will catch up. Considering what she is, I'm not worried. She's probably just gotten so caught up in her bloodlust and is getting carried away extracting revenge on that kidnapper that she forgot the urgency of the situation. She'll catch up once she does." Haruna said with certainty. "In the meantime, let's go save my parents."


As the Hierophant landed from the impromptu flight that she'd sent him on, Ranma landed about a dozen feet after him, deactivating her Volant spell which she'd used to pursue him.

"Mistress! Mistress! Let me have a go at him!" Chachazero cried out pleadingly from her place in Ranma's arms. "I promise I'll make him bleed lots! I'll make his guts fly! So, please! Please! Let me fight him! Pretty please!"

Even as her doll negotiated with her, the Hierophant was hardly idle and launched a counterattack of his own.

Tossing aside the weapon he'd used to attack her earlier, he rushed through a series of hand seals at blinding speed before shouting out the name of his attack. "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique/火遁・豪火球の術)!"

Finishing off his technique, the Hierophant took a deep breath before breathing out a massive stream of fire towards Ranma and Chachazero

"Was that supposed to actually hurt me?" Ranma asked her opponent with a cocked eyebrow as the flames washed harmlessly over the dozens of panes of entropic energy that flashed into visibility, looking like panes of dark glass as they did, which had been conjured around her courtesy of her wordlessly, automatically cast Scutum Et Putredo (Rot Shield).

"As expected of someone of your stature, Ranma-sama. I should have gone all out from the onset. Nothing less would even be a threat to you."

"Flattery will get you nowhere," Ranma said as she wordlessly used Conniveo (Blink) to teleport behind the undead man and before he could react, put a hand imbued with the power of one of the new spells she'd developed since becoming an Outsider, Tange in Finem (Touch of the End), on his shoulder.

The Hierophant immediately spun out of her admittedly weak grip, but that did not let him escape the effect of her spell. A simple touch from Tange in Finem was more than enough to impose her authority over the lifespan of things onto his body and cause its very mass to rapidly decay away into nothingness. An effect that manifested at the form of the point where Ranma had touched him, the undead man's shoulder, which began to crumble away into dust and from there into nothingness. A breakdown that was rapidly spreading across the Hierophant's body.

"Entropy. What a truly terrifying specialty you have, Ranma-sama." The Mage of the Beginning's pawn praised even as he responded to the spreading disintegration of his body by pulling out a long sword from a rift in space that he quickly proceeded to use to cut off the part of his body which was being affected by the Tange in Finem. A self-sacrificial move that saved him from complete disintegration. Not that the loss of a good chunk of his shoulder seemed to faze it, what with it being undead and animated by necromantic magic rather than biological processes.

"Mistress~! Please! Let me fight!" Chachazero whined. Not that she'd stopped since the fight started.

"Zero-chan, be qu-" Ranma hissed, as she tilted her head down to shoot her doll with an annoyed look.

Being the asshole that was, the Hierophant couldn't even be polite enough to let her finish reprimanding her familiar. Instead, the piece of shit just had to throw that long sword of his at her like a javelin. A futile gesture that saw the weapon just get reduced to nothingness as it impacted a pane of Ranma's Scutum Et Putredo.

"You know what? Zero-chan! Have at him!" Ranma said, exasperated by both her doll's whining and her annoying opponent, before tossing her doll at the onrushing undead creature, who was grasping a pair of kunai that it had drawn from rifts in space.

"Yay!" Her murderous doll cheered as activating the flight ability that being her familiar granted her, Zero-chan altered the trajectory of her flight and descended on the Heirophant with the two machetes ablaze with Ranma's entropic power.

"You are not my opponent, doll." The Hierophant said dismissively even as he was forced to parry Zero-chan's blades with his kunai. His weapons began to disintegrate upon contact with the machetes' entropic aura however and with a frown, he was forced to jump back, discarding his damaged weapons as he did and pull out a new pair from a freshly conjured rift in space. A task he completed just in time to block another set of furious swings from Zero-chan which had pursued him relentlessly through his retreat.

"Tch! You are an annoyance." The undead man said, his eyes narrowed even as he and Zero-chan fell into a dance of blades. Ranma's familiar pressed her attack hard whilst the Hierophant parried every swing, thrust and cut with fluid grace, unfazed by how each meeting of opposing blades caused his weapons to start to disintegrate. That only served to prompt him to discard his damaged kunai and draw replacements from those rifts in space he could create.

"Big talk, dead man!" Zero-chan shouted back as she continued her sword dance.

"Indeed," Ranma added, greatly enjoying the sight of the Hierophant being in a disadvantageous position. "That 'annoyance' seems to have you on the back foot."

"A purely temporary circumstance, I assure you, Ranma-sama." The Hierophant said as one of his rifts in space opened up behind him and he stepped through it.

Zero-chan tried to follow him but the rift snapped closed before she could and the doll looked around her in wary confusion for a moment. Ranma's senses weren't as limited as her doll's and she easily tracked the Hierophant as it walked through whatever pocket dimension he had access to and, creating a new rift, stepped through it and back onto Mundus Magicus a good twenty feet from where he had been just a moment ago.

Ranma was tempted to attack him herself, but having handed the fight over to her familiar, she was loath to upset her doll by stepping in suddenly like that. The whining she would have to endure if she did would be tiresome. Thus, she instead chose to attempt to shout a warning to Zero-chan. Unfortunately, the Hierophant was quicker on the draw than she was.

Finishing up a series of hand seals that he must've begun whilst traveling through the pocket dimension he used as a vector for his teleportation, he shouted out the name of his technique even as it activated.

"Mokuton: Jubaku Eisō (木遁・樹縛栄葬/Wood Release: Tree Bind Flourishing Burial)!"

At his invocation, a tree suddenly started growing out of the ground that Chachazero was floating above. One whose rapidly growing branches the doll tried to fend off with her blades as they reached to bind her, however there were too many of them and they grew too fast and they soon overwhelmed her, trapping her within the trunk of the plant as it grew to full size around her.

"Hey! Let me go, you cheating bastard! Fight me like a man!"

Ignoring the doll, the Hierophant simply continued with his counterattack and shooting the struggling Chachazero with a glare with his two primary eyes with the red sclera with a black pinwheel shaped iris, he whispered the name of his follow-up technique.

"Tsukiyomi (月読 )."

Visibly, the only effect that the undead man's technique had was to cause Zero-chan to cease her attempts to escape her binding. She in fact ceased movement altogether and went entirely limp like she'd run out of the magic animating her and reverted to being an ordinary doll. As her master however, Ranma had a link to her mind and knew better. Through their connection, she could see that the Hierophant's technique had trapped the doll in an illusionary world where she'd broken free of her bindings and continued the fight. A move that had effectively cut Zero-chan's consciousness off from her body.

"You dare?" Ranma hissed, her anger boiling over as she kicked off the ground towards the tree trapping Zero-chan. "You dare violate the mind of one of my familiars!?"

The Hierophant's eyes moved at frankly biologically impossible speeds in their sockets as they tried to track Ranma's movements, but it was futile. She was moving fast enough that she was literally leaving plasma in her wake from the friction caused by air resistance alone, speeds only something like a shot from a railgun could create. It was with this nigh unfathomable speed that she slammed into the tree, the plant exploding from the impact even as she carefully scooped Zero-chan from its debris and dispelling the illusion that she was under, proceeded to cradle her precious doll in her arms.

"Huh!? What happened? Wasn't I just fighting that undead guy over there? Why am I back in Mistress' arms?" The doll rambled in confusion as Ranma landed softly, her magic negating the massive kinetic force her landing would've normally created.

"He trapped you in an illusion, Zero-chan." Ranma told her doll, as she ran a hair soothingly through her hair. "He got you. So it's my turn now."

"Aw~!" Zero-chan said with an adorable pout, looking as if her strings were cut from disappointment. "Get him good, Mistress."

"Oh, I will." Ranma assured her as she looked up at the Hierophant who had ineffectually tried to blast her with a variety of fire and lightning attacks whilst she and Zero-chan had their brief conversation.

"Take us into that pocket dimension of yours, Hierophant." Ranma ordered her opponent. "We will finish things there where we can both go all out."

"If you insist, Ranma-sama." The undead man obliged. "Amenominaka (Heavenly Governing Inside)."

At his invocation, a large rift in space opened up below them and Ranma allowed herself and Chachazero to be pulled in by the suction created by the rift and transported alongside its creator into the pocket dimension beyond. Said plane, quite boringly, consisted of a seemingly endless wasteland.

"I am surprised you realized the nature of my jutsu." The Hierophant said as they both landed softly on the featureless gray ground.

"It wasn't hard to figure out by observation alone," Ranma replied with a shrug. "And even if it was, my Origin Sight told me all I needed to know about you, up to and including what techniques you can use."

"Truly a frightening ability." The Hierophant said, nodding appreciatively. "Truly befitting a being of your august caliber."

"Yeah, yeah," Ranma said, waving a hand dismissively at him. "Let's get this show over with. Give me your best shot, Hierophant."

"How generous of you, Ranma. Then don't mind if I do." The undead abomination said as with a smirk and a muttered Yomotsu Hirasaka (黄泉比良坂 /Underworld Slope Hill) under his breath, he disappeared into a new rift in space.

He popped out behind Ranma a moment later and shot a stream of the cursed Amaterasu (天照 /Heavenly Illumination) flames that she remembered from their first encounter at her. The Outsider wasn't fazed. Unlike when the time in Mount Phoenix where the inky black flames had been such a nuisance, now they weren't even an annoyance as they were effortlessly smothered by her Scutum Et Putredo long before they got anywhere near her body.

They did however set the area around Ranma ablaze though, a problem made worse by the Hierophant continuously teleporting around and firing fresh gouts of the black flames. Having everywhere around her engulfed in cursed flames was just annoying!

"Vi Undam (Wave of Force)!" Ranma cast in response, creating a wave of raw force that, thanks to her authority imbued into it, easily smothered the Amaterasu flames.

Seeing that, the Hierophant changed tactics.

"Mokuton: Daijurin no Jutsu (木遁・大樹林の術/Wood Release: Great Forest Technique)!" He shouted as he finished off a chain of hand seals and shot his arms forward towards Ranma. As he did, the undead flesh that made up his arms transformed into plant matter and rapidly grew towards the Outsider, taking the shape of wooden pikes as they did.

"He is full of fancy tricks, ain't he?"

"He certainly is," Ranma agreed as she counterattacked with a Vim Fulminis (Force Bolt) spell that shot explosive bolts of entropic energy which destroyed the incoming pikes.

Sadly, those that would've hit the Hierophant's body just phased right through him as he activated some technique that turned himself intangible, causing the bolts to instead sail off into the distance and detonate safely away from him.

Paying that and the failure of his previous attack seemingly no mind, the Hierophant instead just tried another technique.

"Mokuton: Jukai Kōtan (木遁・樹海降誕/Wood Release: Nativity of a Sea of Trees)!"

At his invocation, hundreds of trees suddenly grew out of the ground surrounding them, transforming the previous barren plain into a forest. Trees whose branches and roots began to lash out at Ranma. Attacks that failed to get through her Scutum Et Putredo but which nonetheless annoyed her.

"Is this really all you can do?" Ranma asked, genuinely disappointed at the Hierophant's lackluster show of ability so far. She had expected more from what her Origin Sight had informed her was a being created by the Mage of the Beginning to be the personal thorn in her side.

Does the Mage honestly think something this weak would do more than annoy me? Though perhaps that's the point of its existence. Ranma mused as she cast one of her new spells to clear out the pesky forest.

"Verum Ante (Sight of the Truth)." Ranma cast, conjuring a blinding flash of light with her at the center. A light that allowed all who caught sight of it to glimpse into her true form as an Outsider, a sight that would drive all but the most strong-willed beings mad.

A madness that manifested among the mindless animated plants of the Hierophant's conjured forest by them shifting the tiresome attacks they had been directing at Ranma upon each other instead. Thus in a orgy of botanical violence, the trees began reducing each other into kindling. Sadly, the Hierophant was one of those strong enough to shake off the effects of gazing upon her true form and was unaffected.

"Your true form is beautiful, Ranma-sama." He complimented even as a massive amount of purple energy, chakra, she believed her Origin Sight named it, poured out of his body and began to coalesce around him in a humanoid shape. "And as for the limits of my ability, I am sad to say that I am close to it. However, there is one last trump card that I can play."

"Whatever you are doing now, right?" Zero-chan observed blandly as around them the maddened forest finished itself off and stilled.

Ignoring the doll, the Hierophant continued as if she hadn't spoken up.

"Where all my other techniques have failed, I sincerely hope my Susanoo (須佐能乎 ) lives up to your standards, Ranma-sama." The undead creature said with a bow as the chakra around him solidified into a gigantic, humanoid avatar that surrounded his body. One that wore a helmet that featured two spikes over each eye, a slit stretching across its mouth, three gaps on each of its cheeks, one additional gap on its chin and a long nose. The latter of which when combined with its pair of feathered wings and a mix of a Buddhist monk's robes and select pieces of samurai armor, made the avatar look like a stereotypical tengu. A giant, purple tengu armed with a pair of appropriately massive katanas.

"Hmm, so he's summoned what amounts to a mecha, huh?" Ranma observed as she eyed up the massive chakra avatar whilst she gracefully leapt around its attempts to cut her to pieces with its katanas. "I think it's only fair to return the favor. What do you think, Zero-chan?"

"Yup." Her doll agreed, nodding excitedly. "Let him out, Mistress."

Smiling at her familiar's adorable enthusiasm, Ranma reached into her soul and called on the entity she'd caged deep within it. A being she'd forged from all the trauma of her abusive childhood and who wore a form heavily influenced by the most painful of her experiences as a Martial Artist, the Nekoken training.

"Itami, come forth!" She ordered and in a burst of darkness, the astral projection heeded her command and manifested itself before her.

But it was not the same Itami that she had been able to summon before her apotheosis. Ranma had changed and so, as part of her, Itami had changed with her. Broadly speaking, it retained its panther like appearance but it now sported an emaciated look. In addition, it had gained a disturbingly human-like smile and its body was now covered with markings that took the shape of incomprehensible, alien designs and was splattered with blood besides. And last but not least, it was now surrounded by an aura that caused the space around it to become distorted and look like something out of an abstract painting.

"W-What manner of abomination is that?" The Hierophant gasped fearfully as it retreated into the sky with powerful beats of its avatar's fully functional wings at the mere sight of Itami.

"My childhood pain and suffering," Ranma said honestly. "And your doom. Itami, destroy this creature."

Itami's disturbing smile grew even more so at the command and it ran up into the air after the Hierophant, stepping through the air as if it was solid ground. The very space where its feet tread distorting and becoming footholds for it and its size shifting to match the Hierophant's Susanoo as it closed.

"Stay away, you monster!" The Hierophant shouted as it swung its katanas desperately at Itami.

"Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?" Zero-chan noted with a smile.

"Indeed," Ranma agreed as they both watched as Itami slipped past the Hierophant's swings, the projection's body, no, the very space around it, distorting so that it could move out of the way of even the fastest swings or the smallest gaps between the massive tengu's blades.

"Stay away! I said, stay aw- Argh!" The undead monster screamed in pain as Itami finally made it completely past not just its guard but by distorting space, right through the thick shell of chakra that made up his Susanoo to sink its fangs right into his neck and its claws into his body.

What followed was wordless screams as Itami proceeded to violently rip and tear the stitched together undead man to pieces in a display of frankly beautiful gore. A sight made all the more entertaining by how the Hierophant futilely had its avatar try to tear into itself in a desperate bid to grab Itami and pull him off him, only for Ranma's astral projection to distort space and thwart his efforts.

Though all good things must come to an end and far too quickly for Ranma's liking, the Hierophant gave up the ghost. Quite literally. As when his body was reduced to a state in which it could no longer contain them by Itami, the four souls that the Mage had used to animate him exploded out of his body with cries of wordless joy and faded from the mortal plane, finally free of the untold eons of torment they had suffered at the other Outsider's hands.

And as they did, the Hierophant's Susanoo and more importantly the pocket dimension they had been fighting in collapsed, depositing them back in the hall in the Gravekeeper's Palace where they had started their fight in a wave of dissipating purple chakra.

An empty hall.

"Eh? Where's Haruna-sama and Nodoka-sama?" Zero-chan said, asking the question that Ranma herself was pondering.

Helpfully, Itami turned away from its continued mutilation of the Hierophant's corpse to point his head in the direction of the door that she knew would lead to where her parents were being imprisoned.

"No, dammit all!" Ranma cursed. Her bloodlust had gotten the better of her and she'd ended up wasting so much time! "Stupid, lousy-! Zero-chan, we're leaving!"

She had to catch up to Haruna and Nodoka-san and rescue Otouchan and Okaasan!


"Okay, so let's see." Haruna heard Nodoka say as the fire themed bookmark conjured by the Fire Mage's tracking spell bobbed up and down in the air as it began to zero in on the direction to take that would lead them to Haruna's parents.

"Well?" The greenette asked as she looked over her shoulder at their 'compass', a touch of impatience and worry in her tone. She didn't want to be rude to her best friend, but she was just so dang worried!

Nodoka, the now confident girl that she was, gave her a look, her eyes calm and caring. "Haruna, take it easy. You'll get wrinkles like that."

Oh, and the sass. Her Nodoka was a sassy little thing at the worst of times! She both loved and hated it.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I just-"

"I get it. But take it easy, give my spell some time. Tracking isn't my forte and I'm not a genius at all magic like Ranma-san. So, it'll take some time to lock onto your parents." Nodoka told her as the bookworm turned back to her 'compass' and it began flying ahead of them. "There, it's locked on."

Haruna breathed a sigh of relief even as they began to carefully follow it through the end boss' base. The damned place was a maze and after leaving the hall where they had fought the crazy, they found themselves going down a corridor with a ton of branching paths. Each one of which necessitated Nodoka to use a tracking spell, sadly her spell didn't last very long and she had to constantly recast it, to help them figure out which direction to take.

"I wish Onee-sama gave us better directions earlier," Haruna complained. "Then we wouldn't need to worry about getting lost."

"We can't blame her. I doubt Ranma-san expected for us to go ahead without her," Nodoka reasoned. "Besides, it's not like we absolutely need her to guide us. From the blood sample from you I'm using to track them, they should be right-"

Just ahead of them the bookmark had stopped in front of a regular door.

"-there."

Her parents were held behind that!? The door wasn't even a cell door, but some mundane wooden door!

The Mage of Beginnings had no sense of extravagance it seemed.

"Alright, step back. I'm blasting it wide open!" Haruna said, rolling up her sleeve as a New Inferno Aniki DX appeared behind her as she dropped a sketch of her bruiser. "Attack!"

The New Inferno Aniki DX wound his arm back as she punched the air forward in the direction of the door. In emulation of her arm movement, her golem's mighty fist connected with the door. But instead of sending splinters flying everywhere and seeing the gobsmacked faces of her parents… there was a dull thud as the door remained where it stood, undamaged.

"A-Again!" Haruna cried out with sputtering gusto, prompting the New Inferno Aniki DX to roar with fiery rage as he punched the door once more.

Zero change.

This wasn't a door.

It was a thing of evil.

"Nodoka, burn that door!" Haruna glowered as she glared daggers, or axes, at the door.

"Alright, though I worry about the defenses it seems to have. We'll need to test just how strong they are. We don't want to overdo it and send flames shooting into the room inside. That might accidentally burn your parents."

"T-That would be bad," Haruna gulped. She wasn't worried that her parents would be seriously injured though. After all, when Onee-sama finally caught up with them, she could heal them. No, what scared her was her parents grounding her forever if they accidentally got burned because of her.

"Yup, so let's start with something small." The Fire Mage agreed with nod as she began her chant for a Sagitta Magica, Series Ignis.

And then whilst Nodoka was still mid-chant, Onee-sama just appeared out of nowhere and. poked the door with her finger. At this, the barrier that had withstood the full fury of her New Inferno Aniki DX, was reduced to a pile of rotten remains in seconds.

Show off. Haruna thought in amusement as she dashed in with her super amazing Onee-sama and saw their parents in what looked like a decent hotel suite.

"Kaachan, Otouchan!" "Otouchan, Okaasan!" Haruna and Onee-sama exclaimed.

Kaachan jumped to her feet at the sight of them, her eyes wide as she ran to them. Otouchan scanned them, but when he looked at Onee-sama, he seemed relieved. Maybe the Mage of the Beginning used some illusions to mess with them by letting them know some skewed version of what happened to her and Onee-sama after they'd been captured? Ugh, talk about cliche.

Still, Haruna relished the warm hug as she and Onee-sama squeezed them both with as much love as possible.


Ranma's heart eased, relief flooding her like a high.

Her parents were free! She'd reunited with her Otouchan and Okaasan!

"Wait, let me get this straight. Ranma, you really became the same kind of being as the Mage of the Beginning?" Okaasan said, looking at her with a worried look even as she held her in a tight hug as she sat on her mother's lap. A seat that had Haruna shooting her a slightly jealous look. Sometimes there were perks to having a default form that was stuck as a ten year old.

Their whole family plus Nodoka-san and Chachazero having sat down to enjoy their reunion in the living room of her parents' hotel suite cum prison cell. Apparently, the Mage, if Ranma's Origin Sight was to be believed, had treated them cordially out of respect for her since they were fellow Outsiders. With Ranma, as previously stated, sitting on her mother's lap across from Haruna and Otouchan on the loveseat, with her father keeping one of his arms over her sister's shoulder lovingly. And Nodoka-san sitting a respectful distance away on a seat of her own whilst Zero-chan sat on Ranma's lap.

"Yeah." The Outsider said, answering her mother's question.

"Don't reply so flippantly!"

Ranma shrugged. "It's true though."

"Honey, your blood pressure." Okaasan chided Otouchan with a touch to her shoulder.

"Why are you not upset about this?"

"I am. I'm just keeping it in check until we can safely ground her for recklessness."

"Ground me? Why?" Ranma asked, confused. "I mean, I didn't choose to become an Outsider. The Mage set things up so I did."

Okaasan smiled sweetly. "And what about what you did to the Phoenix People? If what you said about becoming an Outsider is true, then I'd bet most of what the Mage showed us is too. Or didn't you genocide them for helping in kidnapping us?"

"...Okay, so maybe I did a little genocide. It was justified though!" Ranma hotly countered, crossing her arms to emphasize her defiance.

"I agree with Onee-sama." Haruna said loyally. Demonstrating once again why she was the best imouto ever!

"Haruna dear, we are talking to your sister. You don't get a vote in this." Okaasan said, shooting Haruna a warning looking

"Um, couldn't Ranma-san just resurrect them? She can do that now." Nodoka-san pointed out, causing everyone to look between her and Ranma suddenly.

"Ranma, you can do that? Even for a whole tribe of people?" Otouchan asked, sounding flabbergasted.

"...Oh yeah, that is a thing." Ranma blinked, cocking her head to the side. "Why did I never think of that?"

"I think it's because of all the wanton destruction you've reaped across Mundus Magicus." Nodoka-san theorized. "You probably grew numb to all the death and destruction you caused."

"Oh yeah, that's my partner." Haruna gloated with a wide grin.

"She didn't kill anyone else as far as we can tell from what the Mage showed us," Otouchan said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"Not for lack of trying, remember those guys at the arena that one time, anata? She had to revive them."

"Oh, right." Otouchan said with a nod. "But other than that… Ranma, did you kill anyone else?"

"Except the Mage's minions, which is really more of a mercy than anything since they're all powered by trapped souls, no." Ranma said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Zero-chan, did I?"

"No, I don't think so." Her doll said, tilting its head consideringly. "But you did kill a looot of the Mage's minions. He just likes throwing them at you, Mistress. I've lost count of how many of his dragons and shadow constructs you've ended."

"True," Ranma agreed with a tired sigh. The Mage was annoying like that.

"So, you'll do it, right, Ranma?" Okaasan asked suddenly.

"Uh, do what?"

"Revive the Phoenix People?"

Ranma frowned but nodded. She didn't want to. They deserved to die for what they did, but if it got her mother to get off her case then she'd do it.

"Good, then you'll do that the first thing we get back to Earth." Okaasan said with a firm nod, clearly intent to make sure Ranma would do as she'd promised.

Ranma sighed. She wasn't getting out of this.

"Speaking of that, how are we going to do that?"

"Easy, Otouchan. Onee-sama just needs to wish us back home."

Everyone looked at Ranma at that and she nodded. "I can, but we'll need to leave the Gravekeeper's Palace first. The wards that the Mage of the Beginning-"

The Mage! Oh, right! They still had to deal with them, didn't they?

And she couldn't just leave it to Negi-sensei either. How vexing.

"Good. The room service was terrible and the beds were lumpy." Okaachan sniffed, not picking up, or more likely, deliberately ignoring how Ranma had trailed off.

"Actually," Ranma reluctantly began. "Otouchan, Okaasan, I have something to do before we head home."

Otouchan and Okaasan exchanged a look, clearly knowing what Ranma was about to say.

"Ranma, if you're even thinking that we would allow you to fight the Mage-"

"Ranma, don't even think about-"

Ignoring her parents' attempts to stop her, Ranma hopped out of her mother's lap.

"Haruna, Nodoka-san, keep an eye on Otouchan and Okaasan and guide them back to the landing zone. The Slime Sisters will be there to take them to safety." Ranma ordered as stepping away from her reunited family, she quickly began heading towards the suite's door. To finally end this with the Mage of the Beginning.

She didn't wait for a reply, already flying off with a Volant.

"Wait, Ranma!"

"Onee-sama, don't go alone!"

"Dammit, Ranma! Get back here! You're grounded if you don't!"

She could hear the faint cries of her loved ones calling out to her as she zoomed out of hearing range, but she bottled up her desire to be by their side and ignored them. She couldn't do that. Not yet. Not when the Mage of the Beginning was still a threat to them all. She had to deal with them first.

We won't know peace otherwise.

And Ranma refused for things to end that way. She wouldn't let the bastard get away with that! She refused!

I'll beat you, Mage of the Beginning! I swear I will!


Done and done! Thanks to Nameless as always!

So the fights are underway! We got the psycho Mama herself, Nodoka 'disowned' Saotome! And her opponents are… The wonder pair of Haruna and Nodoka! Man, that was a fun one. Really I think ROP!½-Nodoka just ended up more pathetically sadder in the end. Goes to show how far delusions can bring you.

Nameless: So some might be a little disappointed by the fight between Ranma and the Hierophant. We tried to make it as exciting as possible by giving the Hierophant plenty of chances to show off his power, but ultimately the outcome was never in doubt. He's a powerful undead creature up against an Outsider, a being we've established to be more powerful than most gods. That being the case, we hoped we managed to keep the curbstomp that Ranma dealt him entertaining.

It wasn't disappointing persay, I mean, it's like a child with a magnifying glass against an ant. At least the ant could have run away so to say.

Nameless: Another part of the chapter worth talking about is the reunion between Ranma, Haruna and their parents. We wanted it to be joyous but fleeting for Ranma. She had unfinished business after all. Hopefully, we did that well.

It was fun, joyous and a little funny how they were acting normal for some parts. So I hope we got the bittersweet feeling well enough at the end of it.

You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!