Chapter 85 - Harvester and Chaos
There they were, at last. The Level 3 of the Halls of Agony.
"You know…" Nico began, his lone eye narrowed as he turned his head. The sound of clinking Armour accompanied this notion, but he was more focused on their surroundings. "Seeing all this only makes me madder. These Overlord guys are really asking for me to spear them with one of my Plasma Claws." He spoke beneath a nasty sounding growl. His teeth clenched behind his Helmet while his gauntlet-clad hands clutched into fists so tightly that they would be on the verge of bleeding. If he thought things were bad when they first entered the Halls of Agony, what with all the torture machines and grotesque messes that they'd discovered. He mentally patted himself on the back for not bringing Compa and Neptune for this. Those two would likely get their nightmares added on if they were to come over to this hellhole. He'd never want them to lose what innocence they may retain from all the horrors they'd seen to this place. The guilt would likely kill him otherwise.
However, the things he was seeing right now only seemed to make what they saw earlier look like heaven in comparison. Compared to the previous levels which he had attributed to the interior of a fully heated microwave, this place looked like one of those fully heated ovens. He could just FEEL the heat from various furnaces scattered across the Dungeon, burning with a hellish intensity that made Nico wince behind his Armour's helmet. The teen felt like he would just combust at any moment. The heat was just THAT scorching, but then his mind wandered to the Cultists. He could only wonder what kind of abominations they could have summoned to this infernal place.
Worse, was that compared to the rest of the Dungeon, this level seemed much more… active. Active, as in the male could hear countless tortures screams, shrieks and groans, likely from victims undergoing horrendous torture rituals. Or perhaps slowly being converted to the ways of the Enthralled considering what they'd learned from them. What's more, was that his enhanced senses picked up countless grunts, snarls and feral growls coming from deeper within the Halls of Agony Level 3. It was like all those demonic creatures were just lying there, waiting around every corner, every hiding spot, just WAITING for unwary adventurers to come in and pounce on them with no regard for mercy, delivering slow and brutal deaths that not even dogs would deserve. Those noises sent chills down his spine, and if someone like HIM was affected by all that stuff, then Nico could only IMAGINE what kind of impact on the girls.
"Y-Yeah…" Tekken shuddered, trembling as she sweated in fear. She took a big gulp, those sounds Nico heard being audible to her as well. In fact, she bet that all of them would be able to hear those sounds, though she doubted that Nico would be willing to flee the area. She wouldn't either, and likely it was the same for MAGES. as well. Though, that didn't mean that she wasn't being utterly scared shitless by all this death and corruption she was seeing. "I bet these guys just HATE going inside. I wonder how they can even stand this heat."
That was somethings he wanted to know quite badly. The heat here was horrendous, she felt like she was getting burned alive just standing here. Unlike Nico and MAGES., Tekken barely wore clothing on her person, or rather clothing that could be attributed as such. Usually, this was for her training, but it also served the purpose of being comfortable and preferable to those large, restrictive dresses the women of Leanbox seem to wear nowadays.
Still though, she shuddered more when she felt a wave of calmness, a wave of calmness and support course through her body. From where, she didn't know, but she didn't dare question it, just like the many times before when these waves came to her. She couldn't place where these waves began, but whenever she did think about it, Tekken would get the image of a 2 story building-sized, winged humanoid wolf-like creature with a long nose, a scarred eye, claws, eagle-like legs, a scorpion-like tail and huge two pairs of feathered wings. It reminded her that, during her Abnormal Monster Training, she had fought such a beast once before, although she didn't really recall it all that much. She didn't know why, and hadn't been thinking about it since.
Though, ever since then, whenever she found herself in a tight spot, and there was no way out, those waves of positive emotion would surge forth from deep within her, keeping her calm and assuring her that she would make it out of those situations alive. Those times, the surges would be strong, nigh uncontainable, and usually filled her with the drive to continue onwards, like an animal determined to escape this corner it had been backed into. It happened quite a few times during her training, and usually there followed this strange burst of energy that resulted in her foes being decimated within minutes. Tekken had no clue on what that power was, only that whenever it came to her she would get the feeling similar to taming a wild beast. The power that helped her, it felt raw, primal and savage, like one of those Abnormals that sometimes went on a blood rage on her ass. Though since she was more focused on her training, Tekken had never paid these instances, or the strange power that followed them.
Time passed, and Tekken couldn't help but notice that she had been getting those bouts of positive emotion quite often recently. More so when they first went through the Halls of Agony Level 1. They had only occurred more and more frequently as they journeyed deeper into the fray, mostly in response to whenever her fears were likely to overwhelm her mental defences. It was almost like those surges refused to allow fear to take hold of her, like it would tarnish their existence to let something like that happen. That same feeling only came with a greater intensity when that wild, nigh-uncontrollable power would follow suit, resulting in her fighting style change slightly, into one that was more brutal and aggressive than her normal one.
"Regardless, these lost souls must be set free from their torment, and their tormentors punished severely." MAGES. stated, getting their attention when she tapped the ground with her Staff. The duo may not be too versed in magic, but their senses quickly detected the agitated Mana flow around her in the form of a fiery aura, almost reminiscent of a Drive Skill. "This must be made possible via a trip to the underworld, where the same tortures they inflict on the helpless masses await them for all eternity."
With her piece said, MAGES. turned towards their resident male Spec Ops, her eyes casting themselves towards his right Bracer before she pointed her staff to it. "Spec Ops DEATHSTROKE, what route do you propose that we take towards finding the Chambers of suffering?" she questioned him, although the male got the impression it was more of a demand than a question.
Nevertheless, he didn't mind as it was a valid question. The teen's eye, hard as a rock, glanced down as he raised is right Bracer, activating it to bring up a Holomap of the Halls of Agony Level 3. His eyes cast their gaze across the design, before he pressed a few keys on its interface and a route began to draw itself through the Dungeon. "This route should take us through the area without encountering too much resistance. However, even so, there is still a sizable number of enemies along that route. Enemies that may call for reinforcements. I doubt that there would be a difference between the enemy quantity whether we go this route or not." He told the woman.
Said woman nodded her head in acceptance of his response. "That will be noted. Nevertheless, we must make haste regardless, for the lives of the wrongfully damned, the innocent and the guilty await us. Time waits for no soul, those who do not strive forward will eventually find them swallowed by the void." MAGES. stated ominously, making Tekken gulp in nervousness as she turned on her heeled boots, proceeding to walk deeper into the Dungeon.
Glancing over to each other, Nico and Tekken gave a pair of short, but firm nods before they too followed the Mad Magician. Who knew what they would be finding in this place, but hopefully they would be able to down those horrors as a team.
It happened not a minute into the walking, they were going leisurely along a corridor when…
"SCRAMBLE!"
"Yikes!"
Loud roars filed their ears when the trio of Nico, Tekken and MAGES. were beset by a group of Bloodletters, the creatures jumping down on them from the space above them. They mostly went for either Tekken or Nico, paying little heed to their resident Mad Magician, though that would be a mistake that would cost them in the end. Especially when said Magician garnered tick marks over her forehead and unloaded upon them with Lightning based Spells. Though, Nico's quick instincts were the sole reason that they weren't impaled by a bunch of Hellblades at the beginning, leading to them eventually killing them off as they fell before their Skills.
After the last one fell, the trio were left with heavy breathing and more than a few ragged nerve systems. The two girls looked like they were heavy breathers on the phone to a member of the opposite sex, their chests heaving and laboured gasps escaping their mouths. A thin layer of sweat rolled down them, almost making their clothes see through had MAGES. not already cast a few cooling Spells on their outfits so that their undergarments wouldn't be shown thanks to that intense heat. An action that Nico couldn't help but praise the Mad Magician for.
Seriously, those who use Magic were OP as fuck… or maybe MAGES. was just that good.
'Nico, be warned.' Biko's voice broke the male out of his musings. The teen stopped his thinking to listen to his Demon Persona's words. 'I sense a large amount of demonic power building below us. I think it might be similar to those Hellgates that were reported in Planeptune. I also sense several human signatures, they seem to be powering the build-up by acting as conduits for the energy.'
'Serious? What the heck is going on down there then, Biko?'
'From what I can sense, it is a portal that leads directly to the Demon World. Those mortal humans must be using themselves to bring demons there into this world called Gamindustri, for I can sense their power flow easily from here.'
Nico's eye widened in surprise at that. Bio DID say at some point in the past that Demons will be devising may ways to return to the world of Gamindustri, not just the Hellgates. So, it would make sense for them to encounter things like this, but still. Would humans ever learn their lessons? Flashbacks of a time when Nico was involved in a certain conflict spamming Lowee and Lastation filed his mind, about the conflict of ideals based on the religious ways of the CPUs and more Modern methods filled his mind, causing the male to shake his head with a disappointed sigh. Yeah, that question should have answered itself.
Nevertheless, things should be okay as long as they avoid that energy build-up…
Of course, as if fate itself has a sick and twisted sense of humour, things quickly spiralled downhill for the trio.
One of the Bloodletters, apparently, still had some strength left. This was shown when it raised its Hellblade…. And threw it to the ground beside the Mad Magician. The Hellblade contacted the ground there, embedding itself from the tip down to the halfway point… and promptly created a shockwave so powerful that it knocked MAGES. right up into the air, much to her surprise as she cried out, before that cry became a shrill shriek of terror when she noticed that she was falling down towards the fiery depths below.
The Bloodletter died afterwards, but that remained unnoticed in light of the situation.
"Oh shit, MAGES.!" Nico screamed, reacting on instinct as he dove over the walkway's fence, which was there so that this DIDN'T happen (guess the builders back in Leoric's time didn't intend for the Bloodletters being vengeful when they built this place, did they?) The male shot downwards like an eagle, heading straight for his falling comrade while Tekken raced towards the fence, looking down with extreme fear written over her face.
"Nico! MAGES.!"
The male ignored that cry as he descended down through the redness of the hue below, quickly closing in on the falling Magician. Hot air blew past his face as he fell, making sure to keep himself in the form of a skydiver to gain as much speed as possible. He didn't know how tall their walkway was, as he couldn't see the bottom thanks to the hue from up there, but the way things were going MAGES. would have crashed onto the build-up of demonic energy Biko had sensed. The Build-up that would lead them to a portal to the Demon World… He could not allow MAGES. to fall there, no way no how. If she fell into that portal, chances were that he wouldn't be able to get her out of there, and she'd suffer a fate far worse than anything Gamindustri had ever known.
That was not allowed to happen, no matter what.
"MAGES.!" His voice pierced through the screams the woman was generating, getting her attention as he held his hand out to reach for her. "Here, take my hand!" the male ordered, his lone eye shining with the intensity and urgency of the situation. Out of pure panic and desire to survive, the woman reached out for his armoured hand, the limb being stretched as much as possible to contact his own as soon as possible. The two could feel the roaring heat from the demonic portal down below at this point, filling their guts with panic, dread and fear at the possibilities that this presented. as they got closer and closer by the second, her tiny, womanly hand soon got encased within his larger, manly and bulkier one.
Once he felt her hand secured in his own, the teen swiftly deployed his other hand's Plasma Claw, stabbing the wall behind them to slow their descent to a halt. It was slow at first, and for a time Nico thought that they wouldn't make it, however thankfully the two managed to halt their fall any further. At this point, the two could faintly make out a large, orangish red spiralling whirlpool-like structure down below in the midst of that reddish hue.
Panting heavily, Nico looked down towards the Mad Magician who dangled helplessly below him. Her only source of suspension: his hand. The urgency of the situation ran through his system, it wasn't over yet, the Build-up was right below them, scorching heat encasing their surroundings. It felt like they were next to an erupting volcano or something similar, but nonetheless, they needed to get back up to Tekken as soon as possible. Neither liked the look of that portal, not one bit. "MAGES.! You alright?!" he yelled down at her while slowly lifting his arm. "Here, I'll lift you up! Wrap your arms around me, I'll climb us both outta here!"
Wordlessly, MAGES. complied with his demand, or perhaps it was the urgency of the matter and the looming threat to her life. No matter, the bottom line was that as he lifted her up (she had to admit his strength was impressive to allow him to do that) the Mad Magician wrapped her other arm around his neck, her Staff having vanished into her Inventory during the fall. When she felt like she had a decent grip. The blunette woman let go of his hand and wrapped it around the opposite side of his neck. Her two hands locked together above his torso, and she was secured.
Though, it did cause her to feel a certain something of the male body.
'This… this is a… man's back…' the woman thought as she felt the hard, rigidness of Nico's back armour pressed into by her own bust. Thankfully, it stopped her from getting a full feel of those muscles the male possessed (though a part of her felt dismayed by that for some reason) as her cheeks heated up. Fortunately, the male was too busy looking upwards while focusing on getting them outta here, otherwise she would have buried her face into his shoulder to hide the embarrassment on her cheeks. Even in a life-or-death situation, she couldn't help but notice just how well-built the male was. It wasn't something she'd paid attention to before, thanks to other matters occupying her attention (Namely not getting ripped apart by razed cultist and demons). Plus, there's the way he just dove down at a speed that should have killed him, risking his own life in the process, just to save her. It was… more than a little flattering.
"Quick, we must hurry! That death dealing Portal is right below us!"
"Don't have to tell me twice! Hold on, I'm scaling the wall!"
Deploying his other Plasma Claw, Nico adhered to his earlier warning and stabbed it right into the wall, diagonally above his previous claw. He took that claw out afterwards, and stabbed the wall diagonally above once more, repeating the process to help them climb up the wall. Once he got a good rhythm going, the male kept it up as they rapidly scaled the wall, the male using the holes his claws made as a foothold by jabbing his feet into them to make them bigger. All the while, the teen ignored the sensation of the Mad Magician's… decently sized chest area pressing against his back, in his eyes her life was much more important.
It probably helped that his mind was more preoccupied with thoughts about assuring the Mad Magicians safety than anything else…
Wow, Neptune and the girls really changed him, huh? Before, he wouldn't have given a damn NEARLY as much as he did now about others. He'd been jaded that way, with few exceptions to this. There had been times where he showed a little compassion, but those were few and far in-between. Now? Now Nico was prioritizing a practical stranger's life over his own, something he hadn't been doing for years after losing faith in humanity. How the heck did those girls do it? He'd like to know the answer to that, maybe he'd ask them if they survived… As well as asked MAGES. if she wanted anything as compensation. It felt like the right thing to do after something like this.
Now to focus on the task at hand…
Something his senses seemed to forget apparently, for they detected several surges in demonic energy down below, and they were heading the two's way. Nico and MAGES.' eyes widened in horror when they sensed the surges coming, they knew what was going to happen next, but it didn't seem any less terrifying. From the depths of the hue, several large, gargoyle-like creatures made entirely out of flames, molten rock and magma, burst out of the hue, screeching and cawing like rabid banshees. They soon began shooting towards them, intending to grab the two and bringing them down to the depths that spawned them.
"Tch!"
Nico growled as he kicked one away, using the momentum to flip higher into the air towards their goal. "Hold on, MAGES.! This about to get ugly!" he warned his little passenger, quickly entering a dance of flips, kicks and dodges as volleys of fireballs were launched at the from the Gargoyle-like creatures' mouths. Said passenger increased the strength of her grip, his mind barely registering the faint shaking as she buried her head in his shoulder. The teen didn't think that she would be casting Spells in this condition, not when A: Her Medium, the Staff, was in her Inventory, and B: Her mana appeared to be significantly low. Low enough that she had concerns.
More Fireballs came at them, fired by those Gargoyle-creatures, intending on reducing them to fried cinders. This in turn ended up forcing the male into evasive manoeuvres, something that he hadn't bee all too willing to do with a passenger on his back. Rearing his body back, the male jumped upwards, and at the apex of his jump he managed to embed his Plasma Claws into the wall before flicking a leg out to kick another Fireball away from them. Sensing danger, the male quickly jumped to the side in a diagonal manner, sausage flipping through the air before they stopped abruptly once he reconnected with the walls.
"I would appreciate it if you refrained from doing anything too drastic, DEATHSTROKE! I nearly fell that time!"
"I would, if I wasn't kinda busy trying to save our asses, right now!"
Geez, this wasn't going anywhere fast. Nico may have prided himself on his skills, they'd gotten him through more jams than he'd care to mention, but this would only inconvenience them both. Nico would be able to multi task between keeping them alive, out of the way of those fireballs with Parkour, but he'd run the risk of dropping MAGES. in the process. That was a no go, since he DID just fall down here just to save her ass from getting sucked into the Demon world. The way things were however, prevented him from doing anything in regards to offence, instead all he could do was either dodge or climb, sometimes both. Not something he particularly favoured, plus there was still a risk that MAGES. would fall even if he could strike back.
"…!"
Just then, a stroke of luck washed over the duo. An idea came to him, an idea that would hopefully help MAGES. in fighting them off, as well as to show how strong she was as a woman. Plus it'd keep them off his back as he focused on climbing back up towards where Tekken was, then they could press on. "Hey, MAGES.!"
"What?!"
"I'll summon my Plasma Launcher, think you could use it to keep the heat off me?!"
"Yes! I'll do that, such a task will be childsplay for the Mad Magician!"
With that comforting confession, Nico jumped upwards to dodge another fireball, before stabbing his left Plasma Claw into a wall and activating his right Bracer. Bringing up the Void Storage, the male summoned the Plasma Launcher, which appeared above them and MAGES. caught in her left hand before it could fall to the depths below. She didn't want to lose grip on her ride right now, not when the alternative was falling on top a portal that would lead to another world. Normally, that'd be the start of an interesting adventure, but this time that was not the case one bit.
Holding the Grenade-Launcher shaped weapon in her hands, MAGES. inspected it briefly, familiarizing herself with its Design before she, with steeled eyes and nerves, looked towards their attackers. MAGES. experience with firearms was rather limited at best, thanks to her relying more on magic than technology in battle. However, she did one time shoot a few rifles at a shooting gallery as a test for their recoil. Hopefully, Grenade Launchers wouldn't be too different as she hadn't used one of these before. Though, she would be willing to try it out for now, maybe even devise one of her own after this. This thing wold hopefully save their lives after all.
But first, she'd need a proper stable position.
Her legs, dangling in the air space below them, swiftly shifted positions. The Mad Magician locked her legs securely around his waist, (Something that she felt the male tense at) and used the grip as a platform to aim, firing a single shot at their attackers. The shot sailed through the air at high speeds, her nerves tightening in dread of missing their target… but instead it managed to hit one of those said targets, the creature screeching in pain via hot plasma while falling down into the crimson depths below.
"Yes!" The Mad Magician hissed, grinning beneath her witch hat while she pumped a fist. "I got one!"
"Stay focused, more are going to be attacking!"
"Do not worry, I, the Mad Magician, will protect our rear flanks!" MAGES. proudly proclaimed, aiming the Plasma Launcher and unloading on their foes. The gargoyle like-creatures howled and hissed while firing back with fire balls, forcing Nico to bounce up and sideways in diagonal angles to dodge them. All the while, MAGES. would retaliate with Plasma rounds, some hitting while others were missing. The teen would grit his teeth behind his helmet… but say nothing while he desperately avoided the fate of being turned into a human piece of charcoal.
Today just wasn't turning out to be his day.
Up above where the fence was, Tekken anxiously awaited her friends return, gripping the railing tight enough to cause it to reshape itself under her fists. The creaking and groaning sounds it made only served to fuel her worry further, which lead to more strength being put on the fence. A non-stop cycle, really.
She kept peering down the crimson hue, of which MAGES. had fell, and her friend Nico had fallen after her in an attempt to save her. It had been about 10 minutes, she figured, though her gut made it feel much longer than that, so her worry was on an all-time high as she pondered on the fate befalling her friends. What happened? Were those two alright? Should she have gone down there after them? Questions like those constantly swirled through her mind like a spiralling whirlpool.
Though, that strange surge of confidence soon put those thoughts to rest.
"!"
Soon her thoughts shifted to surprise, something that Tekken displayed proudly like a billboard sign on her features as she stumbled backwards. She couldn't retain her balance, even while flailing her arms backwards like wheels, and thus as a result, Tekken fell onto her rump. The woman gave a slight yelp as the hard, cobblestone ground met her rear, but soon enough she looked back upwards, what she saw before once more taking her attention as her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. The reason? A set of shadowy figures had jumped high from within the crimson hue, one carrying the other on piggyback. She couldn't make them out clearly thanks to remnants of the hue having cloaked them, but even so, she could still make out some purple areas within the two black figures.
The two figures landed on the ground, and on impact one of them created a low-sounding tremor. Yet, it sounded so clear to her, and she could feel it as clear as day thanks to sitting on the ground with her hands being used for support. The hue soon fell away from the figures, and as soon as she saw who they were, Tekken's eyes lit up like the stars of the night sky.
"Nico! MAGES.! You're alive!"
That's right, Nico and MAGES., the former carrying the latter still, slowly looked up as they witnessed their third overjoyed group member. The only one to have gotten off scot free from what they just went through. The purple areas that the woman had seen were Nico's deployed Plasma Cannons, something he'd done halfway when he had to pause their climbing to shoot down some of their pursuers. Also, there was the Plasma Launcher that MAGES., even now, was holding close to her chest like it had been her lifeline. In a sense though, it kinda had been.
"Hey there, Tekken." Nico stated with a tired sigh, exhaustion clearly evident in his tone as the male allowed his Passenger to stand on her own two feet, not noticing how the woman had this red hue on her cheeks for some reason. Though, the feeling of warmth around his waist was… kinda saddening to miss. Perhaps he just missed the warmth, something that he had cherished for the briefest of moments thanks to it offering comfort during that moment of madness. Nevertheless, Nico mentally thanked his Armour's developers that they had upgraded its Mask to a Helmet to better hide how red his face got at those thoughts rushing through his head.
What, he couldn't help it, those girls had influenced him more than they realised!
Honest!
"Whelp, managed to get MAGES. here back before she died." Nico remarked, standing tall and rolling his shoulders experimentally. The male winced though, when he heard faint cracking sounds come from his body, as well as moaned from the stress that he had exerted from them. The strain of having to carry someone up a wall that was roughly the height of a 200-story building, while also avoiding Gargoyle fireballs, doing parkour stunts and enduring the recoil fired from the Plasma Launcher, must have taxed them more than he had thought. "Though I'll admit it was a close one. We had some uninvited guests to that party, but MAGES. here managed to show them the door."
The Mad Magician nodded her head in agreement, that was INDEED quite a close encounter. "I concur." The woman nodded her head in agreement… before she took out her phone from her pocket. Both Nico AND Tekken gave a unified sweat drop while they equally matched the 'seriously?' expressions they both possessed, as MAGES. began speaking into the Phone after dialling a number. "Hello. It appears the Organisation's clutches of death have once more tried to wrestle control over my fate from me. I have thwarted this attempt, like all the others. Yes, I know, I will be more careful in the future. Yes. Farewell. Loochs tneve emag noitamina cisum" She said, before switching the Phone off and pocketing it once more.
'That… was no Spell… I believe that is simply her acronym spelt backwards.'
'You and I can agree on that.'
She then went about summoning her Staff from her inventory… before nearly buckling over as she lost her balance. "Whoa, MAGES.!" Nico explained, blurring forth so that when MAGES. fell backwards, she landed on his right arm which wrapped around her waist, keeping her from falling. His mind didn't, or rather it was too distracted by the issue of her lack of power, to notice the slightly flushed expression MAGES. possessed at the close contact with his arm. "Easy there, girl. You need some SP Chargers down you" he stated in concern, quickly taking one from his Void Storage (Though that kinda had been difficult thanks to the position he was in). Holding it out to her, MAGES. took it gingerly and downed the contents in one big gulp. A huge sigh of relief escaped her lips as she felt her strength return once again to her.
"I must once again… thank you, DEATHSTROKE." The Mad Magician spoke as she panted heavily, her chest heaving up and down as Nico allowed her to stand on her own once more. Though, he kept an eye on her centre of balance, so she didn't fall over. "Had you not intervened, the cold claws of death would have claimed yet another soul in this twisted domain."
Nico however, shook his head as is lone uncovered eye shone with determination, his arms crossed over his chest. "No need, I was just doing what a Spec Ops is meant to do." He stated as he regarded the Mad Magician. "Helping the innocent is part of what we do." After he said this, Nico remained silent for a brief moment, and MAGES. kept looking at him. Like, looking at him HARD, like she wanted him to say something. The male's cheeks eventually reddened, though his Helmet hid it well as he looked to the side, shuffling nervously. "Though I will admit, I'm really glad you're alright."
That apparently had something to do with what she wanted, as MAGES. formed a satisfied smirk on her lips as she looked away from him, to Nico's relief. Though the embarrassment about admitting such a thing was still there. "It is good that you are being honest with me, DEATHSTROKE." She commented, twirling her staff. "I was wondering if I had to cast a truth spell on you to make you say what you're really feeling inside. I have noticed that you tend to fall back on the 'its our duty' line whenever you save a beautiful lady from a horrible fate. You would do well to be more honest about your soft side." She said in a teasing manner, chuckling at how Nico was refusing to look at her for the time being.
'Looks like she read through you there, Nico. This 'MAGES.' is a rather insightful individual, is she not?'
'Ugh, don't remind me…' Nico commented back to his Demon Persona, all the while trying to rein in his emotions. While the teen succeeded, the damage had been done as both MAGES. and Tekken giggled at his predicament. MAGES. did have a point though, he did sometimes have the tendency to fall back on his Spec Ops persona, mostly to avoid saying anything embarrassing. He then turned to Tekken and arched a brow in her direction, after that moment passed of course. "By the way, how are you feeling, Tekken?"
The young Martial Artist, not expecting his question or the suddenness of it, merely blinked owlishly at the male. Honestly, he could imagine the question marks popping in and out of existence over her head… oh wait, they really were there. "Eh…?"
"You took quite a shock just now when we fell. I hope you weren't scared by what happened or anything." Nico elaborated. Judging by what he'd seen of her in the past, both with the Necromorphs and with all this demonic shit, Nico assumed that such a high, intense situation would have thrown the Martial Artist off her game, knocked her off balance. That, in here, wasn't good, not good one bit. One had to keep on top of themselves if they wanted to survive, a lesson he'd learned the hard way.
Nevertheless, Tekken once again displayed her bravery and courage, hardening herself as she nodded in determination. "Y-Yeah, I'm good! I'm just glad you two managed to get back here unscathed." She told him, before letting out a relieved sigh and smile.
'Seriously, she would have made a splendid Spec Ops Agent…' Nico thought to himself, both impressed and dismayed at the bravery Tekken was showing. Well, perhaps that wasn't quite right, Nico doubted that Tekken would be able to stomach the stuff that they had to do on a daily basis. She just seemed far too pure and innocent for that, for a martial artist with masochistic tendencies, anyways. They had to do things like assassinations, detective work, catching criminals no matter how grave their crimes were, rescuing hostages, and a whole lot of dark stuff other than fighting Abnormals. When Nico referred to their world being filled with monsters, he wasn't kidding, nor was he just referring to the Abnormals. In some cases, humanity were the real monsters here.
However, one thing she DID share with the Spec Ops community, or at least the majority of it, was the bravery and courage to not run from danger like a fucking coward. It was one of the core principles devised by their founder, to not run from danger and instead bear their 'fangs and claws' to fight the enemy off. To engage in territory battle with the Abnormals and come out victorious. If one ran from situations a Spec Ops would face daily, then they'd be dooming countless innocents to a fate nobody deserved. Those lost lives would be on their hands, even if they didn't really kill them directly. They would take the blame for those lost lives because, if not for their cowardly actions, then they wouldn't have had to die. That was one of the biggest differences between Guild Agents and Spec Ops, the level of burden they carry is far more than any Guild Agent could ever imagine. They truly were the monsters that devoured other monsters, just so other people wouldn't have to.
"I see…" Nico started, nodding his head as he opened his Helmet once more, allowing the two to see how his lips were curving upwards into a small smile. Good thing he'd managed to curb stomp his embarrassment from before, otherwise it would have lead to some pretty awkward conversation afterwards… probably more on his end than anything. "Well, that's good. But yeah, me and MAGES. are fine." The male then decided to get some teasing in, just to lighten the mood a bit to raise their morale. That was always a point to do when on a mission like this, otherwise the team wouldn't fight at their best and that would end up increasing the chances for a mission failure. "Though, something tells me we've discovered a hidden gun nut in our resident Mad Magician, she kept firing that Plasma Launcher like a mad woman… which she technically is if you look at her nickname."
At this, MAGES. aimed a fierce glare towards the male… all the while, she hugged the Plasma Launcher close to her chest, like a mother trying to protect her precious baby. "I do not need to be teased over my love for technology, DEATHSTROKE." She stated, though the embarrassed blush on her face made for a rather cute glare instead of an angry one that she had been intending for. What, she was indeed the Mad Magician, but more importantly she had a love for things that go boom or cause destruction. Just look at some of the things she was planning to invent: a remote controlled mini car-shaped mobile nuclear bomb, a disintegrator ray, a Ray Sphere…
Yeah, lets stop there.
The male briefly let out a small, amused chuckle. "Don't worry, MAGES. I was just teasing." He told her, smiling before his helmet closed once more. He activated his Bracer, and within moments the Plasma Launcher was back in his Void Storage, much to MAGES. dismay. Though, the Mad Magician mentally noted to make a copy of that weapon for the next time she needed one. "Anyways, we should head on forwards, there's no telling what we could be facing down there, and I for one want to see this place levelled in at least the next few chapters." Nico commented, his amusement fading into nothingness as seriousness replaced it.
Both the Martial Artist and Mage became just as serious, nodding in agreement. If things like what just happened were what they would have to expect here, then they would have to be on guard more than they already had been. Also, those fences would need to be kept wary of, considering what had happened just now. There were still people they needed to get out of this hellhole, well, two people. None of them had any hopes that those brought here before hadn't already met their end or worse, so it would fall to them to end this place once and for all.
To give the deceased the chance to rest in peace.
After that little issue, The trio decided to take it slower than before, to look around for the entrance to the Chamber of Suffering. Though, they soon came to a rather troublesome problem. Not too difficult for them, but nonetheless troublesome. "Damn..." Nico stated, frowning as he looked at his Bracer''s Holomap combined with his Motion Tracker. His curse though did make the others stop their walking and turn to face the male, worried expressions on their faces though MAGES. hid hers better.
"What is it, Nico?"
"Has there been unforeseen problems, DEATHSTROKE?"
The two girls asked him those questions, prompting Nico to look up at them after deactivating his Bracers. "Well, looks like here's a bigger ratio of enemies in this place, so much so that we don't exactly have a safe route through them. Looks like the closer we get to the Chamber of Suffering the more enemies we face." he explained, causing the girls to glance towards each other.
"That does sound worrying." MAGES. admitted while cupping her chin in thought. She opened her Inventory and took a look at her supplies, her frown deepening. "It appears that this journey has been more perilous than I previously anticipated. All these constant life or death struggles have indeed drained my SP Charger supply completely. I do not have any more to stop the claws of death from gaining a foothold in our everlasting struggle to resist it." she told him, which Nico took as chuni for that her supplies for recovering her mana were gone, meaning they had to be very careful on when they fought from now on.
Tekken looked over to her friend, a comforting hand being placed on her shoulder. "Well, I have some good amount of Healing Pods, with some spare Healing Grass too. We can survive off them if we get too hurt." she said, after having checked her own inventory. During training, it wouldn't be uncommon for her body to get injured (no matter how good the pain felt) so she usually held a stash of healing items in her Inventory. Then, the woman took her hand away before frowning deeply, just like MAGES. had been. "Though this blows, usually we would be able to use these Eject Buttons to get out of Dungeons like these." she remarked, taking out a said device which just looked like a remote with a single big red button. "But when I tried to use one to escape the Dungeon one time back in Level 1 on instinct, it didn't work."
'Either plot is keeping them here...' Biko spoke through Nico's mind, getting the teen's attention though he kept an ear on the girls' conversation too. He didn't want to miss out on anything that could land him in an awkward situation later. 'Or the ambiance of Demonic Energy in the air has fried those devices to the point where they are worthless. My money would be on the latter of the two options.'
'My money would be on the same, Biko... Though the mass produced Eject Buttons can be faulty at best.'
There was a reason why the Spec Ops had 'Specialized' Eject Buttons. The mass produced ones used by practically everyone else had some bugs in their designs that made them sometimes either not work, or get their electronics fried easily. Either way, they are rendered useless, and thus Adventurers and Guild Agents who have these, have to make sure to properly maintain them, otherwise when they have to come up against a high level boss monster that they wouldn't be able to kill normally, they'd be pretty much screwed.
That wasn't allowed for the Spec Ops community, so their engineers, mechanics, whatever you wanna call them in the WDD designed specialized versions that were 100% guaranteed to work, lacking those bugs in exchange for only being able to have a single use. Though, even then when they were used, they didn't get destroyed like the mass produced versions, making them a must have for when you become a Spec Ops.
The best gear WAS reserved for them for a reason after all.
A few minutes later, the duo finished their little chat. "Well then, it looks like we will have to pick our battles carefully, as well as avoid using too many Skills that would be too draining on our SP." MAGES. commented, frowning as she clutched her Staff's shaft. Nico had to wince at the face she was making, hell he swore he could hear IT making the 'DUN,DUN, DUUUUUN!' sound in his mind before laughing maniacally. Saying those words had to have stung her pride as a Magician, the thought that she wouldn't be able to use her more powerful spells in the mass spamming she'd been doing thus far probably hit her good and deep into her gut.
Worse still, Mages relied on their Magic attacks and wide arsenal of Spells in order to be the true threat they really were on the battlefield. A Mage who couldn't cast their Spells was practically already dead on such a battlefield, something he was PRETTY SURE MAGES. was well aware of. Warriors like him had only their stamina to worry about, as they could still deal pretty heavy damage even without SP Skills. Nico especially since he had both Plasma Weapons as well as Devil Arms. One could say he was a pretty good all-rounder with decent SP Skills and physical abilities. Thing was, Nico's weaknesses could be condensed into two words:
Mind warfare.
Nico had some mental defenses in place so low-tier spells wouldn't affect him but truly Skilled Mages whom had access to top-tier mind spells would be able to bypass those barriers and do whatever they wanted with his head. It'd become like their playground or something, not a subject Nico liked to discuss for obvious reasons. His body was a weapon, but his mind was a torn war-zone. Fortunately, Nico had made sure to pay extra caution when dealing with Magic users, so they never got the chance to use such spells against him.
MAGES.' Skills primarily relied on Mana, she didn't have much in the way of technology that could be of use to her on the battlefield, preferring to fight using Magic attacks. That honestly made her quite significantly one-dimensional, something that Nico honestly didn't like very much. It limited options and created weaknesses for others to exploit. That was why he himself, plus most of the Spec Ops Community had a wider array of Skills than normal Guild Agents, anything that could help them live a little longer while kicking as much Abnormal keister as possible.
Tekken herself enjoyed similar benefits thanks to her CQC skills and various Skills, both physical and elemental. Though, in his opinion she could use some training in how to fight against ranged opponents. Someone like MAGES., whom with her Mana-based attacks could strike her down before she could get close, and even if she could get close she would have several barriers to protect her, would be able to completely curbstomp her without much of an effort.
"Well, I guess so." Nico stated, short and direct, no need to damage MAGES.' pride any further than it already was. The male then looked over to Tekken, his eyes going over her form, focusing mostly on her gloved fists before he opened his mouth behind his helmet. Though, it had already opened when he did. Tekken, it'd be best if you used SP Skills that didn't consume too much, your RAIJIN FIST has the element most effective against our current enemies, but use it sparingly. We don't want you having low SP and tired, so reserve it for the boss-tier foes we may face." he instructed. This mission had been jumped up several degrees of intensity for a while now, but Nico had never gotten the chance for them to have a meeting about their strategy. Honestly, he'd probably go in like how he usually did, but unlike these two that approach would work for him considering what he can do. However, these girls weren't him, and he sometimes felt like he would forget that in the heat of battle.
That wasn't allowed, under any circumstances.
He'd make sure they got out of this alive.
Nico SWORE it on his pride as DEATHSTROKE!
Once they got going again, the trio journeyed throughout the Halls of Agony Level 3, and by the Goddess, if things before didn't do it, this Level of this underground Dungeon showed them just how it earned its name. There were way more torture devices, deranged prisoners that unfortunately twisted into Enthralled monstrosities, and Demons like the Bloodletters than even his Motion Tracker could have predicted. At first, he wondered what could have caused this, but he figured that thanks to everything that happened on the previous levels, they must have upped the ante and summoned reinforcements. It wasn't an uncommon tactic, but it definitely grinded his gears.
When they cleared out a room full of crazed Cultists, demonic Bloodletters, and even a couple Enthralled, Nico looked around and noticed something off. "Huh... this must be one of their storage rooms." he commented, looking about their surroundings. the room they were in was pretty spacious, with a cobblestone floor, walls and ceiling to boot. Red tints covered the room to give it a dark, savage feel to it, and the smell of dried blood polluted the air they breathed. The reason why he called it a storage room, was due to all the torture tools that were around, pinned to the walls by large chains.
There was the Iron Maiden: a putative torture and execution device, consisting of an iron cabinet with a hinged front and spike-covered interior, sufficiently tall to enclose a human being. Once inside its conical frame, the victim would be unable to move due to the great number of steel spikes impaling them from every direction. The interrogator would scream questions at the victim while poking them with jagged edges.
Then there was a popular instrument back in Leanbox's barbaric past known as Coffin torture: where people were placed in a metal cage roughly the size of the human body; hence the name. The torturers also forced overweight victims into smaller cages to heighten their discomfort as they hung from a tree or gallows. Generally, they would be left there until the crows came to feed on their remains.
Afterwards, he saw a Thumbscrew. Though there were many variations of this torture device, the thumbscrew or 'pilliwinks' all functioned the same way. They were designed to slowly crush not only the fingers and toes, but larger devices were also used to crush knees and elbows. There is also the Head Crusher, which could do the same for heads. It's primary intention was to extract confessions from victims, and if nothing came about, well... Best leave that unsaid to haunt nightmares.
These things really haunted people's nightmares back in the day, and he hadn't even begun to list all the various devices he'd seen. The reasons why he knew about these were A: his Spec Ops Training, B: various missions lead to him seeing some of these devices still being used in today's society. Men, women... children. Nobody would have been spared. Those people, the torturers, either worked for certain nobility or would be nobles themselves. Or some insane, sadistic psychopaths.
The way those people... he hesitated in calling them that... well, it would leave even hardened war veterans with nightmares for weeks.
"I'm really getting sick of this place. It just seems so wretched..." Tekken whispered under her breath, clenching her fists as she regarded each device with disgust. The things that she was seeing right now, it was horrid. Horrid, terrible and wrong, nothing compared to her original Gamindustri. It was practically a safe haven compared to this.
MAGES. nodded her head in agreement. Heck, even for a Mad Magician like her, someone whom had some... questionable inventions in her apartment, these things left her more than a little squeamish. In fact, she worried she might crack and vomit over the closest person to her at the time. "I concur, we should move on." she remarked.
Seeing that as the cue to move on, Tekken almost looked like the R#ad R#nne# from that one cartoon as she ran out the Storage room. Heck, she even had that trail of dust left in her wake, showcasing just how much she wanted to get the fuck out of there. Both MAGES. and Nico began to cough to clear their throats while waving their limbs, trying to clear the air they breathed of the dust. Nico had his Helmet open when this happened, that was why he had his lungs filled with smoke. He'd been too late to close that Helmet in time, and this was the price he'd paid.
Once it settled down, the male looked up with a few tears gathered in the corners of his eyes. "Well, there she goes... we should follow Tekken before she gets herself into something she can't handle." he remarked as he cleared his his chest, the male had his Helmet close up it's faceplate, concealing it from view once more. Maybe he should think about keeping ti closed when around a scared Tekken so he didn't lose his ability to breathe in the future. As he made to walk out after the Martial Artist, the male felt an arm grab his armored gauntlet. "Huh?" Temporarily confused, the male looked to the source, barely resisting the urge to let the inner beast out to kick the ass of the one grabbing him, when he saw that it was MAGES. holding him. "MAGES.? What is it?"
"I need to talk to you. About Tekken."
Nico's eye slightly widened at the words that came out the Mad Magician's mouth. There was no trace of any signs of chuni in her words. meaning that she was cutting the bullshit and going straight to the point. That was the assumption he got when hearing her tone and staring into her hard-looking eyes. but that lasted only for a few seconds before it narrowed. '... Looks like we were right, Biko.' the male thought to his demon persona. 'Looks like MAGES. noticed it as well.' he commented, referring to the thing that was latching onto Tekken's soul. The thing that he had a guess as to its nature and identity, but he couldn't confirm it until it fully manifested itself. "... Lemme guess, its about the 'baggage' she has on her soul, am I right?"
"Indeed. I was correct in suspecting that you knew about it. This thing that's attached itself to my friend... It feels very similar too the demons that we have faced so far, but its power far outclasses them by a wide margin. My guess is its because whatever that thing is, its power must have been greater at some point." Her eyes narrowed further as she looked at Nico, or rather, the space where his heart would be as if she was trying to pierce into his soul. "Interestingly enough, your soul has a similar feel to it... countless demonic-feeling entities have latched onto you, like parasites... only it appears your soul has overpowered them, tamed them. Am I right to assume that Tekken's soul has done the same?"
Searching through the Mad Magician's eyes, Nico looked for any signs of ulterior motives. The information about the Devil Arms was not known by anyone other than him and Biko. The less people that knew about it, the better, after all. Such knowledge falling into the wrong hands could be disastrous, especially if humans tried to replicate the Devil Arms' powers. What kind of damaged could be caused by that, he'd rather not think about. To tell someone else about that information was like risking the possibility off a 10000 megaton bomb exploding inside a large city.
But then, he remembered something, something that he had begun to learn when he was with Lucy after the Mojang Village mines. That... it was okay to trust in others, that it was okay to risk opening up to people. Nico had spent so long, the exact amount of time he could no longer recall, not trusting others for various reasons. So long, that it had become ingrained within his psyche to keep secrets from the others. Yet, his own ideals about trust weren't completely wrong either, nor were they unfounded. There were so many scumbags in the world, too many to count. Horrible people who would use others for their own cruel machinations. The Overlord Momus Cult religion, plus the Chaos Religion, was proof of this.
Yet, just like how they were represented, in his mind, as the biggest source of the corruption in the world... Neptune, Compa, IF, Noire, Vert, Team RAIL, and all the people, both Spec Ops Agents and normal humans he'd fought alongside, both living and dead, they were proof that there was still some shred of good in the world. That there were some people still worth trusting. Like yin and yang, where there was darkness there was light. When light is shining, shadow is always cast. It is inevitable, the way of the world. Good and Evil.
... Maybe, maybe he could start?
Start changing that is.
Nico knew for certain that he wasn't ready to reveal anything in regards to his secret, hell to the no. That was a fact ingrained into his mind at this point. The time where he could show it may never come, or maybe it would come sooner than he would heave ever expected. Nonetheless, the fact was that he didn't feel himself ready to reveal such a disturbing truth about himself. But right now, that didn't matter. Right now, as he stared into MAGES. eyes as the Mad Magician patiently waited for his answer, maybe he could start with this. With everything going on right now, something told him that it may be best for them to all be on the same level regarding information.
"Before I say anything, you must promise not to share this information with anyone, at least not yet, also most CERTAINLY not Tekken." he told her. Just when she made to refute this statement, the male raised a hand to stop her. "What I mean is that this information, in the wrong hands, could cause cataclysmic damage to Gamindustri, and that'd only help the enemy out. Pretty sure you don't want that MAGES., you may be downright mad but you're most certainly not insane."
MAGES. glared at him for a moment, and if looks could kill, Nico could have been killed 1000 times over just by that gaze alone. It could have been able to shoot lasers thanks to how heated it looked, not something Nico would wanna have on his record: death by woman with laser eyes. A moment later though, the Mad Magician sighed as she dropped the glare, glancing down to the ground beneath their feet. "If that is what you wish. It appears to me that this information is critically important, thus I swear not to divulge it on my pride as a Mage." she told him after she lifted her head, allowing him to look into her eyes and see the determination brimming within them.
... Already, he was beginning to think that his actions were correct, as a small smirk formed on his lips behind his Helmet. "Good, Thanks for this, MAGES., seriously." he told her, and in that moment he tried his best to convey his sincerity as much as possible. Though, such efforts were slightly hindered by his Helmet still being closed so she didn't see his expression. Then again, it looked like she was starting to get impatient, so he decided to just get straight to the point. "Alright, in any case, what you're referring to is a set of demonic weapons called 'Devil Arms', basically souls of powerful demons manifested into weapons. Not only do they have the powers that their previous selves once had, but they can be used by those they deem worthy. Though those unworthy of their power end up being possessed and killed. The best way to tame a Devil Arm is to subdue it, something I had to do with Alastor, though I didn't realize it at the time. In regards to Tekken's case, I'm not completely sure, but from your words I can ASSUME that Tekken possibly has a Devil Arm of her own. How she has one, I have no idea. Though if you're worried about her, don't be, the Devil Arm seems to have been subdued by her own willpower."
'Though, Biko, how can she use a Devil Arm without demonic power? Don't they work when they have energy to feed on? Since her body's that of a human...'
'Normally, that would be the case. However, it appears that the Devil Arm itself foresaw this situation occurring. I say this because it has not yet manifested itself, it is waiting for Tekken to have acquired enough energy herself. I'll explain, since she has not got any Demonic Energy within her nor does she have the ability to generate it, her Devil Arm-if it is one-sealed itself away deep within her soul. While sealed, it has been finding any source of demonic power within its' hosts vicinity and absorbing it, while also funnelling it into her own energy reserves. Doing this not only expands her SP Reserves, but it also makes those reserves liable as a substitute energy source for it. It is a good thing she came to this place, as otherwise Tekken would have slowly been reduced to a pile of glop thanks to hosting a Devil Arm while still retaining her humanity. Normal humans are NOT meant to wield such power.'
'I see... So, how long do you think it'll be before the supposed Devil Arm manifests itself?'
'Given the rate it is absorbing the ambiance of power within this accursed place, I would say that she doesn't have long left to wait. Once it first manifests, the Devil Arm will be able to be called on by her at will, while it will power itself using her augmented reserves.'
'Right, got it. Thanks Biko.'
Well, that was an enlightening experience. Looked like he had underestimated the sentiency these Devil Arms apparently possessed. He didn't think it was strange that a weapon that would kill those unworthy of it by possession would take care of their hosts like that, since he'd experienced something similar from Alastor and Absolution. The more he learned about these Devil Arms, the closer Nico began to feel to the possibility of what the DPU era was once like. Demon souls becoming weapons, Legions following stronger demonic deities, and the Chaos Gods... all this stuff just reeked of that specific era. The more he learned about it, the more he began to wonder what it must have been like to be in that era. Part of him wanted to find out more about it, but right now that wasn't the best course of action. Maybe at some point in the future he could look into this matter a little more, but for now he'll focus on the truly important subject: getting to IF.
Returning to the real world, Nico looked to MAGES. and told her an abridged version of what Biko had told him. Hey, he may be starting to learn to trust, but that didn't mean he was going to showcase everything in one go. As the saying went: 'Rome wasn't built in a day'. Though, it did end up doing its job as MAGES. quickly looked like she was calming down from her earlier concerned demeanor. "I see... that indeed places weight off my shoulders. It is good to know that she will be alright, that the claws of death shall not take her soul." Yeah, he could tel she was relieved just by how she reverted to being a chuni. "However, I will keep an eye on her just in case. Unforeseen problems are the bane of existence." The woman told him, regaining her seriousness from before. though Nico just nodded in understanding. It made sense for her to be worried for her friend's safety, MAGES. may seem like a mad woman, but she did care about her friends.
One of the things he respected about her.
Now that they had that stuff cleared, Nico and MAGES. turned to the exit, nodded to each other, and then jogged off to where they could sense Tekken.
Turned out that happened to be a good thing, for when they found her they saw that Tekken was fighting, and losing for that matter, to something that made Nico's eye fly open to the size of a dinner plate, and MAGES. to lose her jaw in sheer shock, horror and disgust.
"Holy shit..."
"What madness is this?! Has the infernal mark of Chaos created such an abomination?!"
The first exclamation had been made by the male Spec Ops Agent, and the second made by the Mad Magician. The enemy before them, standing between them and further into the Dungeon, was something that they'd never encountered before in the other levels. Nor ever, and boy did they wish they hadn't. The thing blocking their way, it was a massive, hulking armoured giant of a man, easily 9 feet tall. He was donning this equally large, bulky crimson red armour, with black highlights and various spike-like protrusions. The armour had long, fat and curved tusks protruding in threes out of the shoulder pauldrons, while two demonic horns protruded out of the man's unguarded head. there was a white skull painted on the armour's chest plate, with a Khorne symbol on each shoulder pauldron. Around the waist, was what remained of a tattered black halberd, with the left hip sporting various sized skulls, all frozen in expressions of pure agony and suffering. Like they were still alive somehow even with their lack of bodies to function. The armour bulked the man's legs just as much, ending in wicked looking boots with long tusks protruding from the toes. In his hands, was a single Battleaxe, one coursing with orangish red demonic energy, crackling around it like a thick miasma. The Battleaxe looked just as dark, deadly and demonic as the one wielding it, with its body made from an ebony metal with spikes jutting out from its blade, giving it a sinister, dreadful appearance.
But the worst part? That was the man's face.
His face... well, it could hardly be called a face at all at this point. The man had a bald head, with his skin a ghostly pale almost reminiscent of a corpse. Nico had half a mind to ask him how much Vitamin C he was getting as a joke if he wasn't so utterly disgusted with how his mouth wasn't exactly a mouth at all, but a maw of 8 inch long fangs, no lips to conceal them. His lower jaw had this ebony black organic matter over it, forming sharp edged and an equally sharp chin. is eyes shined a hollow red, blazing violently almost like the Hellfire that Nico commanded in his DPU form. His cheeks even were missing, allowing them the ability to see the organic fibres and bones that kept the cheeks in formation... though they did look maliciously deformed.
'Oh shit, now I remember!' Nico thought as he tried to figure out just what the fuck they were dealing with. His mind had been assaulted with the urge to just bash the man's head in right here and now so he didn't have to look at him, it, whatever anymore. It was BEYOND clear that the man wasn't a human anymore, especially with the sounds of deranged hissing and snarling he made while he tried to bash Tekken's Skull in. 'I remember reading about this in my research! This guy's one of those fucking Champions of Chaos! Champions of Khorne in this case!'
A Champion of Chaos, also styled as a Chaos Champion, was an individual that had dedicated his or her life to further the cause of a particular patron Chaos God, or Chaos as a whole religion. He or she was either an extremely powerful warrior, such as a Soldier, Guild Agent or even a rogue Spec Ops Agent, or a wielder of Magic like a Mage. To them, Chaos was attractive for the simple reason that it offers enormous power to those willing to turn away from the CPUs and dedicate themselves in body and soul to the Chaos Gods. For many who walk its dark path, it offers the only hope of becoming more than just mere mortals that lies in the egalitarian favours of Chaos. For unlike the CPUs, Chaos judges its servants on merit and skill alone and rewards them for their successes or failures harshly, but fairly. In fact, many of those who serve the Chaos Gods would claim that only Chaos offers true justice to the peoples bound into the realm ruled over by the CPUs.
From then on, they go on what the Overlord Faction called 'The road to power', a vicious, brutal undertaking that results in massive amounts of blood, guts and gore. The road to power as a Chaos Champion, begins by first offering body and soul to Chaos: either to an individual Chaos God or to the religion as a whole. Not all who choose to do so are accepted, as Chaos Gods truly only want the elite of mortals in their service as their Champions. Often it took a spectacular deed of courage to attract the attention of the Chaos Gods. If the candidate is accepted by one, he or she received a Mark of Chaos from his or her Chaos Patron. This is the patron Chaos God's own Mark and each mark confers some supernatural ability or physical characteristic. Once a Champion receives his or her Mark, he or she begins to attract followers from the lesser servants of Chaos, including mortals and even daemons if the Champion proves powerful and successful enough. After their successful acceptance as a Champion, the Champion's life becomes an endless series of battles, raids and quests to serve the Chaos Gods.
As the Champion serves Chaos, he or she becomes increasingly physically altered through mutational "gifts" granted by the Patron. Such was the case here, the fangs, the horns, tusks, etc. all of that, mutation. Eventually, the road to power ends eventually either in the Champion being reduced to a mindless and formless Chaos Spawn due to persistent failures or ascension to Demonhood as an immortal, powerful Demon Prince as a reward for their success. All Chaos Champions are mortal and can be killed, although this is always a dangerous undertaking as they are exceedingly powerful foes. Those who follow a Chaos Champion's followers were called 'Chaos Warband' (interestingly enough, considering there were also tribes and bandits throughout Leanbox). Worse, Warbands were deadly rivals to each other, often combatting each other to gain the attention of their patron Chaos Gods. Even followers of the same Chaos God can be deadly rivals for their patron's fickle favour. Sometimes shaky alliances are formed between the Warbands of extremely powerful Champions. The truly successful Champions of Chaos would be rewarded with immortality and would be elevated to the rank of Demon Prince, even allowed to cross into the Demon World to establish themselves there.
Though, Nico had not been able to find out HOW they could cross into such a world, part of him didn't want to.
In their case, it looked like they were facing a Champion of Khorne, considering the symbol and theme his armour presented proudly, like it was the best thing in the world. Champions of Khorne, according to his research, were the most bloodthirsty and savage fighters in the 4 Nations. Champions of Khorne lust after only two things: the spilling of blood and the roar of battle to satisfy the desires of the Blood God. They were experts in many weapon forms (similar to how Nico has skills with multiple weapons) which others could not master, but don't fight in a graceful manner, preferring to bludgeon their way through a large number of enemies. Only the greatest battles could sate their endless thirst for blood and death.
Looking over to MAGES., Nico swiftly pulled out Ebony and Ivory, holding them up to his chest level. "MAGES., you focus on buff spells, support me and Tekken while we handle the brunt of the attacks. That should finish the enemy quickly." he told her, before he dashed off into the battle. The Mad Magician complied, quickly summoning her Staff and holding it out, muttering in te runic language. She already began glowing with her Mana, thanks to the Spells she was casting drawing it out from her Mana reserves.
Back to Nico, the male held his dual Pistols and fired a barrage of Bullets the Chaos Champion's way. The demonic bullets, empowered by his energy, rushed through the air towards their target like airborne Submarine torpedo's, with the ferocity to match them too. The Chaos Champion, whom stood over a downed Tekken who was using her arms to support herself as she stared up with absolute terror in her eyes, didn't see them coming till the last second, and even then the man couldn't do anything but let them hit him in the face.
SQUEALCH, SQUEALCH, SQUEALCH!
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
The man let out an unholy, inhumane and bloodthirsty shriek, mixed with pain and anger as he stumbled backwards. His boots made almost earthquake-level stomping sounds as he did so. He took one hand from his Battleaxe and covered his face with it, blood dripping from that area where the bullets dug themselves in.
While that happened, Nico slid to a halt at Tekken's side, jumping into a double kick to knock the Chaos Champion onto his back before flipping into a crouch. 'Heh, style points! Beat that, Neptune!' the male thought, slightly smirking in amusement at the possibility of Neptune doing parkour stunts. Though, he'd probably neuter any guys that got a glimpse up her hoodie dress, preferably as Crimson Soul so he could burn their nuts off before they could do anything. The male then looked down and stood, leaning towards her and offering his hand towards the Martial Artist. "You alright? Looked like you could have used some backup." he asked her, getting a nod from the black haired girl.
"Hmm! Yeah, thanks. Thought I was a goner there." she replied, beaming with gratitude as she clasped his Armour covered hand with her own gloved one. With a firm grip, Nico swiftly pulled her up to her feet, Tekken slightly stumbling from the force he used. Though she managed to keep her balance, before she looked up to him. "Where's MAGES.?" she asked the teen, who gestured behind her. Turning her head, she saw the Mad Magician chanting some low-to-mid level Buffing Spells. "Oh."
Nico nodded, before he filled her in on what he knew about the Chaos Champion. MAGES. was close by, so she heard it too. Once he finished, the two girls couldn't keep their disgust from showing on their features. Truly, there were some depraved people in the world, if they'd turn away from the CPUs to become... like that. They just couldn't understand why they'd want to do so. Some people just wanted to watch the world burn, they figured, no matter how much they didn't want to admit it. With that, the teen noticed that their foe was starting to recover, sitting up while shaking his head with a few grunts. Turning back to the Martial Artist, the male quickly relayed his and MAGES.' plan to her. "Our plan is for her to act as support while you and me be the heavy lifters. Think you can handle it?"
"Yup, you got it! He didn't rough me up too bad... #whisper# sadly."
... Nico chose not to comment on that last bit his enhanced senses picked up. He felt it would be best that way, Tekken's Masochistic tendencies could wait till AFTER they were done with this shit.
With that, the two turned towards the Chaos Champion. Said Champion, said man/monster having lowered his hand so they could see the bullets still embedded inside his face. Two were I his forehead, one through the bridge of his nose and 6 were inside the man's maw, before he spat them out. The man looked absolutely livid towards them, opening his maw to showcase even MORE rows of teeth as he let out another unholy roar. The areas around the demonic bullets began to steam, various liquid-like sounds emitting from them before the bullets got pushed out, falling to the ground in useless heaps. The wounds then closed up, leaving unmarred pale skin behind much to the male's dismay.
'Tch, looks like this asshole's going to be an annoying one to take down.'
'I'd recommend Harvester for this one, Nico. It's been dying to sink its blade into ithat guy's flesh.'
'Alright.'
Nico listened to his Demon Aspect's words and summoned Harvester from his Void Storage. The weapon appeared in a flurry of datastreams over the space around his lower back, settling there with threads of demonic energy. Nico swiftly grabbed the Shaft and quickly drew it, and almost instantly afterwards the male felt it. The Devil Arm's shudders of pure glee in his hands, felt via brief trembles in his grip. The sentience within the weapon trembled at the prospect of being allowed to fight once more, and the male almost got the feeling that if it could, it would escape his grip, travel to the enemy and embed its blade into him.
'Say Biko, these Devil Arms, weapons I've had for a while now... they seem to be acting different compared to before, when it only took really tough Abnormals, I'm talking about at least above A rank, to get them to merely rattle in my hands. Now? They seem to be... more, well, active than before. Any ideas as to why?'
'It is because they are facing beings of demonic origin. They see you as their wielder, but they never got to fight anything 'worthwhile' in their eyes. Aside from those A rank Abnormals, but even then they would be considered inferior to the Demon Species. Seeing that you have been fighting more and more Demons recently has been of great interest to the Devil Arms within you. You cannot IMAGINE the noise they made when I sealed them, they were literally like wailing infants. Their chance to sink themselves into demonic flesh, gone. Now tat they are unsealed once more, they are now more than willing to lend you their full power. Expect every Devil arm in your possession to give you their full powers from now on.'
'Huh... well, hat's something. Honestly, I wanna see what Harvester can do then. Alright, Harvester,, lets show this Chaos Champion your power, shall we?!'
(Play Last One Standing by Simple Plan)
A deep rumbling sensation triggered itself from his gut, and he knew that was the confirmation his Devil Arm was giving him. A slight smirk crossed onto his lips, hidden behind his Helmet as Nico dashed forwards, Tekken hot on his heels. The Chaos Champion roared as he charged back, swinging his Battleaxe towards Harvester which was already swinging towards his head,. The two weapons collided, erupting in a spectacular shower of sparks between them, while their wielders pushed against each other n a battle of strength.
This lasted only for several seconds though, as Nico swiftly kicked his enemy away from him to allow Tekken to jump into a flying kick. Her attack hit its target in the center of his neck, causing the Chaos Champion to gasp, coughing up saliva as he held his jugular. Not one to be outdone, Tekken landed in a crouch before blasting forwards. She mentally noted hos eh felt a burst of power come forth from deep within her, although it didn't come from whatever helped her deal with fear and terror. 'Must be MAGES. Buffing spells.' She thought, before applying several punches to the Chaos Champion's face. The only place that wasn't armored, as she'd learned the hard way that striking that Armour only resulted in sore fists.
However, the Chaos Champion managed to recover before the third punch landed, tilting his head out the way before...
SLAM!
...Brutally ramming an elbow into her stomach, electing sharp gasp from the Martial Artist before he spun and WHAM! Reverse backhanded her away from him. Tekken gasped and grunted as she tumbled across the ground, barely recovering and using the momentum to roll back onto her feet. Looking towards the enemy, the woman ended up seeing how Nico was already engaged in combat with their enemy.
Over on his end, the male swung Harvester in an upward slash, parrying the Chaos Champion's Battleaxe. Nor one to be outdone, Nico shifted his grip and spun Harvester like Helicopter blades above his head, before coming down with a diagonal slash. This one, too, was also parried before the Chaos Champion made to kick Nico in the stomach, for the male to pivot around him and swing Harvester towards his upper back. The Scythe-shaped Devil Arm made contact with its Armour, slashing through it and going to the exposed flesh underneath. That Armour may block the fists of Martial Artists, but against a Devil Arm like it, the Armour stood no chance.
Not giving his enemy a chance to recover, Nico swung Harvester in a wide low sweep, knocking the Chaos Champion's legs out from under him as he fell onto his stomach. The male then used the momentum to twirl Harvester into a downward slash, its tip aimed towards the wound he'd caused earlier. However, the Chaos Champion managed to recover ad roll out the way, having the Scythe hit through the cobblestone ground instead. The Chaos Champion got onto one knee and, seeing his chance, swung his Battleaxe in a horizontal motion toward's Nico's head, only for the male to side flip into his weapon;s shaft and use it like a surf board, jumping off it right after and grasping the shaft, pulling the weapon out just in time to block an overhead slam to his head. Once again, two weapon clashed, orangish red energies from the Battleaxe chaotically zapping away at the Devil Arm. Unfortunately for it, thanks to Harvester being said weapon type, those energies couldn't even damage it.
Nico swore that he felt his weapon 'scoff' like it was amused/annoyed that the other weapon thought such a trick would work on a weapon of its caliber.
He wouldn't be surprised if that was the case, since it DID have partial sentience.
Soon enough, Tekken rejoined the fray, jumping into a Helicopter kick to the back of the Chaos Champion's head while he was distracted fighting Nico. However, at the last second the Chaos Champion ducked, breaking off as Nico had do duck as well lest he get hit. The male mentally cursed, that kick had some power behind it! He could feel the air blast generated by it go WHOOSH right over his freaking Helmet.
"Careful Tekken, you almost hit me!"
"S-Sorry!"
Tekken landed on the ground, only to quickly bend backwards into a handstand to avoid the large Battleaxe, which came at her in an overhead slam. The Chaos Champion, the one who launched that sneak attack, growled under his breath as he twisted the weapon, going for a reverse horizontal slice that Tekken got on all fours to dodge, letting it sail harmlessly over her head. Shifting the weapon's grip in his hands once more, the Chaos Champion made to bring his Battleaxe down on her once more, had Nico not intervened by swinging Harvester and hooking it around his chest that is. The male smirked and, with a rush of demonic energy, swung the Chaos Champion away from them using his Scythe as a makeshift tossing weapon. Harvester thrummed with power, almost crackling with energy flowing through it During this move.
Twirling Harvester, the male made to move forwards, when suddenly something... weird, happened.
...
...
...
...
... SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!
His weapon slowly, gradually like when a tap was slowly releasing water, became encased with this odd, Dark violet miasma. A miasma that Nico sensed was made from demonic energy. He could feel power spewing forth to create this miasma. 'Huh? What the...?' the male wondered, before information coursed into his brain like blood flowing through a bloodstream. His eye widened as he realized what was going on, how Harvester was doing the same thing that Alastor and Absolution did. Giving him information on what its powers were. And boy, did this one feel like a dozy! Harvester once he looked into all its abilities, would likely be up there with Absolution in terms of Versatility, and THAT was something Nico liked.
Nico's main advantage in a fight would be versatility. He didn't see himself as someone who had powers that could level buildings or entire landscapes. Honestly, he found those types of powers to be impractical and more damaging than necessary. Why make so much of a mess when there could be other ways of going about it that doesn't leave such a big mess? That was always the reasoning he had whenever someone asked him what kind of powers he had: destruction or support. Nico would chose a better option, ability versatility, where he would have an arsenal of powers that, while not as destructive as other abilities he'd seen, were still lethal in their own ways. It made them less restrictive to use, and in a battle where those who have overly destructive powers try to limit themselves so their surroundings don't go boom, that was a huge advantage on his part.
That was largely why he didn't like going into his DPU form too much. Soul Edge had a LARGELY destructive power over Hellfire, and Biko had told him that it was just as versatile too once he unlocked the other abilities he apparently had. It was a mic of both high destruction and variation in its abilities, but because it had such potential to damage the areas he was in, such as the case as when he fought the Killachine in Lastation's Capital of SONY, Nico didn't like using it in tightly closed spaces. It just caused too much damage, and could pose a risk to those he fought alongside at the time, if he had any that is, or innocent bystanders in the area. If he was out in an open space though, where no civilians would be in danger of being caught in a crossfire? Or if he was fighting in an enemy base? Then the kid gloves came off and Crimson Soul came out to play.
While Nico had been thinking all this, Tekken had rushed back into the battle to keep the Chaos Champion on his toes. Like him though, the woman also experienced something... off, though unlike him she didn't seem to be aware of it. As she closed in on her opponent, her body became bathed in this thin, white aura. It had the same appearance as light, something that could be reminiscent of the divine light CPUs radiated, but... it had NONE of the divinity hat the CPUs light had. In fact, one could say that it had the exact opposite feel too it...
A DEMONIC feel to it.
Once she was close enough to her opponent, Tekken struck him in the stomach with a straight kick. He attack did little to stop him from swinging his energy-filled Battleaxe at her horizontally, but the woman wasn't perturbed. She twirled around and bent her upper body downwards, avoiding the blow and also going for a reverse back kick to the man's jaw, knocking him stumbling backwards. Tekken refused to let this be the end of her combo though, so she got into a handstand and pushed herself into the air, spinning into a helicopter kick to his face.
Her opponent grabbed her by her foot however, and with a sinister snarl slammed her into the ground hard. Just before she could hit the ground though, Tekken put her hands on it and used the momentum, applying strength to her legs in order to flip the man over her and through the air. She didn't even notice the aura then when it circiled around her limbs, reinforcing them with its power. That, combined with MAGES.' Buffing Spells, made her a heck of a lot stronger than she was in her base state.
This sight allowed the male Spec Ops Agent to regain his focus, seeing that the enemy had been flung in his direction. With his stance taking the form of 2 bent legs with Harvester in a reverse horizontal slashing position, Nico allowed Harvester to utilize one of its abilities. The male, upon seeing his opponent being halfway between him and Tekken, quickly burst forwards as the ability activated, the male forcefully yelling the ability's name out. "TELEPORT SLASH!"
In an instant, the male vanished in a flash of purple, reappearing beneath his opponent with Harvester's blade glowing purple, In which, he swiftly cut through in an over-the-shoulder slash. The Chaos Champion cried out as he felt the Scythe-shaped Devil Arm cut through his back injury, even as it fully regenerated before the Chaos Champion hit the ground.
'Huh... TELEPORT SLASH, huh?' Nico hummed in thought, before glancing down to his Harvester in wonder. His brain quickly processed the ability and the uses that it could have for him, one of which would be like closing the distance between him and a ranged enemy without having to worry about projectiles. Though, his armour and THAT would help him resist those anyways.
Then again, it made his defences more versatile, something he liked. He could also use it to get around his enemies in close combat, escaping their attacks while getting in some strikes of his own before reappearing. It depended on how he used the weapon, in all honesty. Seriously though, with the way that these Devil Arms were showing him powers that they possessed, powers he didn't know about beforehand, it almost made him wonder which form he was stronger in: his human, or DPU form?
Several groans came from the Chaos Champion, alerting him to the fact that their enemy was getting back up. Pushing his thoughts to the side, Nico made to use the TELEPORT SLASH again when he sensed the Devil Arm send him information about another ability it possessed. 'Huh... well then, lets see how this works.' he thought pointing Harvester's backedge as the ability activated. "DEATH GRIP!" From the blade the purple miasma from before gathered around it, forming a purple astral-looking spirit gauntlet that rivalled the size of an above-average bodybuilder's. It also had a skeletal design, too. The gauntlet launched forwards, grabbing onto the Chaos Champion by his Armour's chestplate before, as if being connected to Nico's Harvester by an invisible chain, it retracted backwards while pulling his enemy towards him.
Using this as an opportunity, Nico swiftly went with another TELEPORT SLASH, swiftly vanishing in a purple flash and reappearing behind his enemy. In the next second, the Chaos Champion had a set of gashes appear on his armour, cracking it in those places while Harvester lost its miasma. The male spun around however, and swiftly swung his Devil arm to smack him in the side with the back of the weapon's Shaft, sending him tumbling away.
The Chaos Champion roared in primal fury, rage coursing through his being as he stood upright, having got into a crouch and halted his momentum with his Battleaxe. The amount of raw anger in him right now would rival the legendary green man himself, and he wanted to use it all on his enemies for the Chaos God that he patroned. The Chaos Champion stood up and let out another primal roar, chaotic energies escaping from within his maw almost like a fiery breath while his eyes glowed so intensy they looked like volatile flames.
He then gripped his Battleaxe and dashed forwards, temporarily surprising Nico with the speed he just witnessed. The male quickly parried the first strike away from him though, but this time he had to play it on the defensive side as the Chaos Champion refused to let up, swinging so fast and furious that it remained impossible to find an opening within his brutal movements.
'Tch, this is bad!' the male thought. 'This asshole's got me on the defensive, if I don't turn the tide to my favour fast then-!'
Nico quickly sidestepped an overhead slam, only to stumble backwards when a shoulder tackle collided with his chest. The male regained his balance, only for the Chaos Champion to spin into another overhead smash. The Battleaxe came down upon him, its speed even faster than before as Nico swiftly raised Harvester's shaft to block it. There was no way he could escape it with the speed that it was travelling, so blocking became the next option. The Battleaxe collided with Harvester's Shaft seconds later while releasing an explosive energy shockwave, blowing away the ground around the two fighters as well as an approaching Tekken.
"Kya!"
"Tekken! Oh, you little fucker...!"
Alright, the moment that he heard her cry out like that, something within Nico began to break. He didn't now her for NEARLY as long as Neptune or the others, but she still classified as a worthy comrade in his eyes. And this fucker just tried to kill her with that shockwave of his. Now, Nico began feeling pure anger gradually rising within the bottom of his gut, as well as within the back of his mind. The male gritted his teeth as he glared through his sole uncovered eye at his opponent, who was growling, panting an grunting like a wild animal as the two struggled for dominance.
The male wanted oh so desperately to trip that fucker's face off, to tear into him and smother his guts across the walls of this walkway. He didn't want there to be anything left to recognise as human by the time that he was through with this guy. The thought that he was blocking them from reaching the Chamber of Suffering, where IF was being held mind you, was yet the icing on the cake for him.
Apparently, Harvester shared his dislike for this asshole, for it shuddered in its grip. There was a slight heated sensation coming from it, an indication of how angry it was getting. Though, the difference between them was that Nico's anger mostly derived from how the enemy had tried to attack his comrade. Harvester's derived from how this enemy dared to think that it would break so easily to such strikes. Nevertheless, it was the one to act on this anger, sending Nico information on another ability. The male's eye widened as he quickly pushed the enemy back through nothing but brute force, stomping on the ground to enter a twirling motion. "Here, have some of my HARVEST, bitch!"
During mid swing, the dark violet miasma coated the blade, and Harvester's blade transformed into a larger, wider and purple astral version of itself. The larger Harvester smashed right into the Chaos Champion's armour with the force of a thousand sledgehammers, as well as the cutting power of several chainsaws, and it showed when the armour simply gave in under the slash's power. This prompted a cry of shock and pain from the Chaos Champion, his Armour's integrity weakening from the blow. Though, Nico would give him no such respite.
Neither would Harvester.
Both began to embark on a warpath towards their prey.
Dashing forwards, Nico reared his Scythe backwards for a diagonal slash towards the weakened chest plate, intending to expose the chest area underneath it. His opponent though, once again displayed great reaction times as he swung his Battleaxe from right to left. Nico swung the same way, but from the opposite direction, allowing the two weapons to collide for a brief moment, before he went and activated a TELEPORT SLASH to appear behind him, swinging at his exposed behind.
However, his enemy seemed to have anticipated that as the Chaos Champion twisted on his right foot, spinning into a diagonal slash to Nico's right shoulder, forcing the male to deflect the strike away from him. But the teen didn't let that distract him for one second, stomping on the ground with his right foot, Nico jumped into a straight kick to his opponent's face, catching the Chaos Champion by surprise before twisting and hurling Harvested down like a wheel. The Devil Arm impaled the Chaos Champion's right shoulder, an ironic case considering the right shoulder was the Chaos Champion's intended target before. This injury however did nothing to deter the Chaos Champion, as he let out a bellowing roar while swinging his Battleaxe at his opponent, thinking that without his weapon, Nico would be defenceless.
That proved to be a mistake though, as the Chaos Champion forgot about his dual Pistol Devil Arms Ebony and Ivory. Drawing the two, Nico fired several shots into the man's right arm Armour, weakening his incoming strike enough for the male to side flip over it and adjust himself t a position in the air that he could strike back. He fell down, and grasped onto Harvester's shaft while planting his feet into the man's upper back. His Pistols now back to their previous positions on his hips, the Spec Ops Agent swiftly tore Harvester out of his enemy, utterly ripping out the shoulder Armour there along with the weapon, leaving a gaping hole where the Armour had once covered.
This definitely enraged the Chaos Champion, but before he could retaliate against Nico, a bare foot slammed into the side of his head, sending him tumbling across the ground. The cause? Tekken, the Martial Artist having been temporarily knocked down by the shockwave. Just now though, she had been able to get up again, empowered by the light aura around her. Hell, her body sometimes crackled with energy, mostly around her limbs since they were her primary striking tools. Her eyes slowly gained a whitish silvery glow around them, yet another by-product of the power supporting her she wasn't aware of.
Landing on the ground, Tekken crouched for a millisecond, before breaking into a mad sprint. She closed the distance between the two of them, and began hammering away at her opponent with fast-pace punches, kicks, elbow strikes and knee strikes. She kneed her opponent in the gut, delivering several well-placed elbow strikes to his jugular in the next second before she spun around into a back kick to his jaw. The woman didn't realise it, but her attacks had done the task of destroying the organic matter around the jaw, exposing the human flesh underneath. Apparently, that organic matter had been a form of armour, a boon granted to the Chaos Champion by his Patron Chaos God Khorne, no doubt.
Not wasting her chance, Tekken dashed forwards again, rearing her right fist back for a punch. Her fist, including a portion of her arm, instantly exploded into Lightning as Tekken activated her RAIJIN FIST, slamming the Skill Attack into the Chaos Champion's chest. Although, sadly for her he had managed to raise his Battleaxe in time, using the rear end as a makeshift blunt jabbing tool to jab into her mid section, causing Tekken to bend forwards with a gasp. The Martial Artist however, quickly recovered and looked up, seeing the Battleaxe just seconds away from splitting her head open.
In any other case, she would have paled and froze up while awaiting her head's inevitable demise (no matter how good it might have felt), then later on her death...
But this wasn't one of those times, thanks to her aura... or rather, what was powering it.
It quickly had her dive roll sideways, avoiding the Battleaxe at the last second, the large weapon making a large, loud explosion upon impact with the cobblestone ground. Rolling back to her feet, Tekken jumped back into the fray, slide tackling the man's legs out from under him. Her attempt succeeded, largely thanks to MAGES.' Buffing Spells and her own aura, and the Chaos Champion made a startled exclamation as he fell to the ground.
Not giving him any chance to recover, Tekken grabbed him by the legs, and stomped her feet onto the ground, quickly proceeding to twirl the man about like an Olympics participant doing the hammer throw. She spun around a total of 15 times, and with a mighty war cry she threw the Chaos Champion straight towards Nico's waiting form.
Said male, during Tekken's assault, had garnered information about Harvester's powers, only... these were a LITTLE bit different compared to the ones he'd used so far, in that they were more elemental based than pure combat based. Nevertheless, he wanted to try them out, see what they could do.
"SHADOW ANIMATION!"
Calling forth the name of Harvester's SHADOW ANIMATION, Nico felt the ability activate. Harvester's form became coated in black miasma, instead of purple, which travelled up his arm and down his back to his shadow. There, it connected to the shadow, and just... seemingly gave it a life of its own. It separated from the one it had been connected to since birth, before rising upwards like a marionette. It soon floated over to Nico's side, shaping itself into an exact copy of his armoured self, complete with a single, burning dark violet eye reminiscent of a literal flame. In it's right hand, was a single, massive-looking sword reminiscent of Soul Edge's form when he entered Berserker Mode, interestingly enough. Also interesting was the fact that it possessed his DPU Form's wings, made from pure dark violet dangerously flaring flames that burned even the very air around it. They were so hot, that most people couldn't stand to look at them for more than a millisecond.
Huh. Looks like Harvester liked that design, if it let that influence its powers.
With this ability active, Nico and the SHADOW ANIMATION swiftly charged forth into the fray, the Chaos Champion having seen the incoming danger and righted himself for a diagonal swing while using the momentum to boost his attack's power. The swing came down on the male, but before it could land on his flesh, Nico's SHADOW ANIMATION strafed in front of him, sword raised as it parried the blow. The shockwave that erupted between them shook the air space around them, as well as knocked Nico backwards by about 8 metres, since he'd stabbed Harvester into the ground to halt his movement right before getting hit by the shockwave. The SHADOW ANIMATION broke the deadlock between it and the Chaos Champion, its lone flaming eye narrowing at the one that dared attack its master, before raising its sword and pulling off what Nico noticed was a CROSS COMBINATION attack... just like Neptune's whenever she was in human or HDD form.
Shaking his head, Nico focused back onto the battle, gripping Harvester's Shaft as he activated another one of its abilities: "SHADOW SERPENT!" The moment that Nico activated THIS little ability, Harvester's black Miasma exploded from it, condensing in front of him to take solid shape. In the next moment, the male's eye gazed upon his ability, which took the physical form of what he assumed to be a Snake. It was at least 60 foot long, made of glistening black scales that oozed out dark Miasma that acted like a cloak of darkness (MAGES. would have a field day with this one). Its head had a dark violet coloured armour over it, acting like a makeshift helmet. It's mouth had several long, violet fangs within it, along with a serpentine tongue while its eyes shone the same as his SHADOW ANIMATION. Dark violet spikes ran down its back as it hissed towards the direction of the Chaos Champion as the SHADOW ANIMATION pulled back. This allowed the SHADOW SERPENT to lunge forth to attack its new prey, said prey making to swing his Battleaxe at the incoming challenger.
Turned out, that was not te right thing to do, for the SHADOW SERPENT simply had its Miasma-covered Scales deflect the blow off it, the weapon unable to pierce through the hide. If the Chaos Champion were at full strength, this would have been a different story. The chaotic energies surrounding the Battleaxe would have done much more damage had this been the case, shredding through Nico's SHADOW SERPENT into tiny pieces. However, thanks to a combination of fatigue, constant strikes from Nico, Tekken (Buffed by MAGES.), the stamina drain had taken its toll, weakening him enough for the DARK SERPENT to coil its lower body around the Chaos Champion to restrain him.
Ready for the kill.
But that kill was not its to make, something that the SHADOW SERPENT instinctively knew as it looked towards it's creator, eyes silently asking him if it was okay for it to kill. Nico glanced towards Tekken, who looked like she was seeing a ghost with how pale she looked, that strange aura she had before having vanished like it was never even there. 'Looks like the Devil Arm's power got suppressed by her shock...' the male thought to himself.
He then glanced over to MAGES., his eyes asking silent permission, to which the Mad Magician only gave him a tired nod. The male glanced down at Harvester, and the Devil Arm sent him information on the last ability in its Arsenal: SHADOW PACK. It was an ability that let Harvester use its Miasma to create a set of 20 Wolf/Scorpion Hybrid creatures, which would then attack the enemy on his command. The male mentally winced at the word 'Hybrid' though, that name held... more than a little weight for someone like him. Nevertheless, a picture of the creatures appeared in his mind. Their bodies would look mostly like Wolves of black fir that emitted darkness, cloaking them in it like the SHADOW SERPENT, at least reaching up to Nico's waist in size while being the length of 1 metre. Their eyes would be like his previous constructs, with their teeth being as long as shortswords and their mouths having glowing violet interiors. They would have Scorpion Tails with violet stingers coming out their behinds though, with Scorpion legs coming out their backs that would extend and retract like whips, each leg ending in single violet talons. Their main arms would have elongated dark violet metal claws instead of paws, while their hind legs would be that of normal Wolves.
It had become apparent to him, that Harvester's Umbrakinesis revolved mostly around using its Miasma to create creatures to aid its wielder in battle, with some combat oriented abilities on the side. Also, it appeared these creatures listened to him through thought and movement, and ONLY him. This Devil Arm seemed to have equal versatility to Alastor and Absolution, something that Nico liked. But he didn't focus on that just yet, as he looked back to the SHADOW SERPENT, which was still restraining the struggling Chaos Champion, and gave a confirmation nod.
That was all it needed, before the SHADOW SERPENT leaned down and bit into the Chaos Champion, said man giving out one last roar of defiance before his ultimate demise. The SHADOW SERPENT tore his upper body in half, swallowing it in one gulp before doing the same to the lower body, finally ending the Chaos Champion's life for good. The SHADOW SERPENT, as well as the SHADOW ANIMATION, then erupted into streams of darkness, which then travelled back to him and reformed his Shadow, while also moving into Harvester. 'Darkness taking the form of Miasma... heh, seems legit.' the male thought, swiftly putting Harvester back into his Void Storage.
Now that there was no Chaos Champion here, he didn't need it out anymore, plus the Devil Arm already felt sated enough in that it got to pierce through demonic flesh. On his back, Rebellion shuddered, sending its displeasure to its wielder at not being able to taste the Chaos Champion's flesh on its own blade. Nico glanced behind him at it, his lone eye narrowing like a stern parent disciplining a child for misbehaving. "Now, now. None of that mister. You'll get your turn, remember I used you to fight off the other Demons in this place. There's bound to be more in the future, so be patient." he told it in a placating manner. The Devil Arm took a moment, but eventually it stopped shuddering and remained still against his back, a sign to the onlookers that it was seemingly satisfied with that.
"Um..."
His attention shifted, and Nico looked to see that both MAGES. and Tekken were walking up to him, looking at his hands rather warily. Looked like they got spooked by Harvester's abilities, something that Nico mentally winced at. Tekken, whom had been the one to speak earlier, bit back her fear and nervously asked him what had been on her mind. "Was that... something that happens often?" she asked, pointing to the Devil Arm on his back. Or rather, the space where Harvester used to be, not Rebellion. She was used to that Devil Arm's appearance and mannerisms, but Harvester? Whelp, that was a whole new can of worms. That electric sword, she could handle too, electrokinsis wasn't something that scared her too much. In fact, it looked rather... enticing. (cue the crotch covering for all Masochists out there) However, Tekken just shuddered at the phantom images Harvester left behind in her brain, mostly the last part.
"Well, Harvester and my other weapons seem to be getting stronger, letting me use things I couldn't before." Nico explained briefly, his eyes glancing over to MAGES. in curiosity if she would say anything. Nevertheless, she looked like she wouldn't say anything he didn't want her too, something that increase his desire to trust her all the more. It seemed that he was right to trust the Mad Magician with the secrets of his Devil Arms, something Nico honestly couldn't help but be relieved about. Taking risks and being rewarded nicely from them... it wasn't something that happened often, no matter how much he wished it did. "Harvester seems to focus on combat through Umbrakinesis through creating constructs to aid me."
Tekken hummed in thought at that, her fear slowly being replaced with curiosity. But, before she could inquire to their potential, MAGES. cut in with a tap of her Staff on the cobblestone ground. "We must make haste. I sense a lot of chaotic energies below us. We must be getting closer to the Chamber of Suffering, and when we get there we will likely be beset constantly by enemy forces." she told them sternly, getting nods from the other two. With that, the trio moved on their journey, not letting anything get in their way.
