Chapter 123 - Demons!
"Oh my…" Those words escaped her lips as Vert couldn't help but gasp while giggling into her hand. Her shoulders bobbing up and down gave her away, though. She held in her hand a second cup of tea, something she had requested a Staff member to get her once the tension had died down. With what she had learned, she didn't even try to resist the mirth that flooded her system, both at the outrageousness and the absurdity of the situation she had learned of. "I didn't think something like THAT would have happened between you and Noire, Neptune…"
Neptune, whom had informed the CPU of Leanbox about some of the teasing she had done to Noire when they were trapped inside that abandoned facility by Ganache (of which Vert had frowned in worry about, though Neptune quickly convinced her not to worry for the time being, with an embarrassed Noire agreeing while she tried to pry Neptune off her once more), chuckled as well, her lips set in a wide toothy grin all too fitting on her. "Oh, you know, Verty poo. I and Noire are pals now, so I can tease her over these things. You should try, its so much fun!"
"No, no it's not!" Noire yelled, whilst attempting to strangle the preteen who laughed off her attempts. A few moments later, Vert cleared her throat, getting confused looks from the two. With a knowing, amused smirk, Vert gestured to them while attempting to conceal he laughter, and when the girls stopped a brief playfight, they soon looked down. Unintentionally, Noire had found herself straddling Neptune with her hands pinning Neptune's behind her head… a rather compromising position. One could guess what kind of thoughts could be made from seeing this, she realized, as her face became atomic red. Quickly, Noire scurried away from the laughing Neptune, who held her gut while laughing her ass off. "Hey, it's not funny, Neptune!"
However, the Leanbox CPU had to disagree, if the look on her face was any indication. "I do believe that the opposite is true." she remarked. This sight she had been seeing, whilst they had been conversing for a good while now, felt like a pair of sisters making fun of each other. Noire would sometimes tease Neptune with the pranks Nico would pull on her, then Neptune would tease Noire much more mercilessly over embarrassing moments she had with the Party when they were still together in Lastation. Lots of them have happened during their quests or training. "Though, even now, it is still somewhat surreal, seeing the two of you like this."
Even now, Vert still couldn't help but feel a small fraction of her residue disbelief in her system, seeing the two of some of her enemies acting like they were siblings, almost family. It looked… sort of familiar, to her actually though for the life of her she couldn't figure out what that was. Still, she didn't let it stop her from enjoying a conversation she had never thought possible between the three of them. Things had been rocky at first, as Vert had to make ABSOLUTE sure that what she had been seeing wasn't an act, only for Neptune to try to grope her boobs out of nowhere, then say that Noire's were smaller. Much to her ire. It had been so out of the blue, so random, that she had lost a lot of her doubts about the preteen, though she did feel a strong pride in her 'babies' when the comparison was made. After all, in Leanbox bigger meant better in multiple different ways.
Why else did people think the females in Leanbox have large chests while the guys were… well, gifted in that area?
Ufufufufu…
"#HUFF#... as much as it pains me to admit it, you have a point…" Noire reluctantly admitted, doing her best to regain her composure. However, some flushed emotions prevailed which resulted in her cheeks having slightly more color than the rest of her fair skin. She crossed her arms and once again crossed her legs, suppressing her irritation towards the preteen for the moment to address the other CPU in the room. A CPU whom, in hindsight, Noire tolerated WAY more than Neptune. Both her past and current self, anyways. "Its thanks to her amnesia that we could meet like this. Anyways, Vert I have a question for you if you don't mind me asking."
At this, Vert tilted her head, curiosity and confusion mixing together inside her gut, culminating in a desire to know what it was that Noire wanted to know about. "Why, whatever is the matter, Noire? Do you require something of me?" she questioned, her lips pursed while an index finger was placed on her chin. She had the perfect look of someone who didn't know what the hell was going on, something she had perfected just for this Gala. She didn't expect it to become real, though, when she had brought Noire into this room to talk to her.
Once she got the woman's permission with that response, Noire mentally debated slowly easing into it, or just plain out saying it with the bluntness that could match a hammer or an ax swing from the bratty CPU of Lowee. In the end, she decided on the latter, as she didn't feel like beating around the bush was a good idea. She had been interrogated herself, after all, so it was only fair she could do the same. "What is up with your energy, Vert?" Noire asked her, prompting Vert to tense, her eyes widening in shock while she resembled a cornered prey. Like a predator, Noire closed in on her by leaning forwards with her hands on her lap, eyes narrowing at her. "I noticed for a while now, but haven't said anything since I couldn't find the right time. But now, that time has come. What happened to you, Vert? Your Share Energy reserves shouldn't be as low as they are. Something is helping you by supplying you with its own energy, but it feels like you have a large hole in you or something."
Noire had noticed it since she first saw Vert. No, that wasn't quite right, she had CONFIRMED it when she finally met Vert face to face, the exact MOMENT her eyes landed on the other CPU's form. However, she had noticed it back when she had been busy trying to detect Vert's energy signature and something kept shielding her from those attempts. She had only caught it briefly, but she had indeed noticed that there was this… abnormality, a BIG one, within Vert's energy. An abnormality that honestly alarmed her once she confirmed it for herself, as well as shook her to the very depths of her being. She had a hunch as to what it was after examining her discreetly, but if she was right, then…
Shocked, Vert didn't respond right away. In fact, she couldn't respond at all, remaining rooted to her chair and looking stunned by what Noire had told her. Her hands gripped her dress's skirt tightly, a light bead of sweat forming on her brow as much as she hated admitting it. This wasn't something she wanted to bring up in front of anyone she didn't trust, especially with those she had once considered enemies. Now though, whilst she didn't; consider them to be 'enemies' no more… she didn't know what to classify them as now. Trust wasn't so easy to gain, yet it was so easy to lose. That was something she had learned during her isolation, and it made her see why some people didn't bother trusting others at all. In essence though, Vert should have guessed that Noire would have noticed, not only was she observant and calculating like she had been back in Celestia, however, she wasn't so easily fooled either.
Now, as for Neptune…
"Huh? Whatya mean-waaaaaiiiiit, what's thiiiis?" Neptune began to say, when her eyes went to the other CPU's torso area. She didn't know what happened at that moment, but when she did THAT flared up inside of her amplifying her senses to a higher degree than she was used to. Thus, it allowed her to see something she had honestly not noticed before. "Uh, Vert? You ok? You don't look so good, I mean, it's like your SP is at an all-time low or something and not restoring itself when leaving a Dungeon."
Mentally, Vert cursed herself, not realizing (or rather she FORGOT) that Neptune had something comparable to her Gungnir that allowed her to see into her energy signature. She didn't seem like the brightest tool in the shed, at least in human form anyways, but now that Vert looked more closely, her Gungnir enhanced her senses and showed her that something within Neptune herself had broken through her carefully placed defences, allowing Neptune to see what REALLY caused her to go into isolation. Yet, neither of them had bothered to do something about it until now, so did that mean that they genuinely weren't going to harm her if she told them? She didn't know, while Vert could feel that they weren't technically 'enemies' at this point, she didn't know whether to trust them on the topic of her 'problem'.
In the end, only select few would be privy to that information, and one of them happened to be a certain red-haired Spec Ops Agent, whom she intended to get alone during this Gala to talk to him. Only, it seemed that he had his own agenda for this Gala…
"Well, I…"
Before Vert could say any more about that especially in a manner that would be considered unbefitting of a proper lady, something happened…
Something… BAD.
GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH!
In a moment, everything went to hell, literally. The whole Basilicom shook as a massive roar occurred, being so loud that it shook everything to its foundations. Hell, it wouldn't be unexpected if the roar had woken up everyone across the entire continent. The roar itself sent shivers down their spines, resembling something that one would hear in their worst nightmares, or even when they faced the doors of death itself. Everyone, including Vert, stumbled like all hell but ended up failing and falling to the ground in a heap.
On Vert's side, however, the roar provoked memories in her, memories she had long since tried to forget. Her skin lost its fair color and became as pale as a ghost, shivers constantly running up and down her spine like that one scene with a group of pirates making their ship capsize by rocking the ship, all to escape the supernatural 'prison' they had entered to rescue one of their own. "Oh no… not them!" she exclaimed, gripping the ground tightly enough that her hands broke through the floor after the shockwave passed.
Neptune, who had fallen onto her backside, moaned in discomfort as she sat upright, holding onto her backside which sent aches up her brainstem. Her face twisted itself into one of great discomfort, as well while she made the 't-t-t-t-t…' sound. "Owwie, my bum… what did I land on? it's so squishy and soft…" she wondered, feeling around the soft surface she was sitting on. A surprised look soon formed on her face at the warmth from her surroundings, while also puzzling her. "Huh, warm too…"
An irritated growl came from below her, a very familiar one as a certain someone looked up at her with one lone red eye, one very IRRITATED red eye. "It's me, you numbskull! Now, would you kindly GET THE HELL OFF ME?!" yelled a very pissed off Noire, who had fallen flat on her face and had the unfortunate pleasure of being used as a landing cushion for Neptune's fall. 'If Nico fell on me, well… no, don't think that right now, Noire!' she screamed in her mind, her angry blush hiding the embarrassment she felt at those thoughts.
"Eek! The cushion talks! And what the hell, this schtick is supposed to be in the beginning of Rebirth 3!"
"I'm not a cushion! And stop talking about the games in this scenario, Neptune!"
Of the three of them, Vert seemed to be the one affected the least, as she had managed to maneuver herself so that she fell onto her sofa instead when the entire Basilicom shook. "My goodness, that was one big tremor… I would have scarred my perfect face if I had not reacted in time… phew…" the woman remarked, trying to sound as calm as she possibly could whilst focusing on keeping her breathing level, even whilst her heart pounded away like a jackhammer. It felt like all she could do not to collapse into a bumbling, panic-riddled mess like her mind so desperately felt like doing at the moment. Especially when she heard that unnatural, inhuman roar just now.
Just as they got up onto their feet (Vert dusting herself off as she tried to see if there was any damage to her dress, just so her mind had something to focus on), a woman's voice cried out as its owner burst through the door, looking like she had run a thousand laps across the entire continent.
"B-Big sister, Vert! Its an emergency, emergency! Code black, category A, whatever!"
"Huh?!"
Neptune blinked at the woman who had just entered the room, panting and gasping as she leaned forward and put her hands on her kneecaps for support. The sounds of her dry heaving filled the room, but that didn't distract her from the woman's… apparel. She was, unlike a lot of the girls they had encountered so far in the story, a light-skinned (instead of fair) woman with very long, curly mint coloured hair, hair that was worn in a high ponytail with a black and green twin-bow piece with few bangs and long curls of hair framing her face. Her hair also looked quite messy and resembled a tangled mess, with the base of her bangs by her forehead looking quite damp from her sweat. Her eyes seemed to be an almond-red color, reminding her of Nico's eyes in his DPU Form.
'Maybe I should go find Nicky sometime and get some smooches from him, maybe even an M rated scene with him.'
Mature thoughts aside, Neptune once again focused on this new arrival. Said 'arrival' wore a revealing black dress with thigh high, high heeled boots, and gloves that went from her hands up to her biceps. There was a black neck piece with a white sphere in the center of the dress that had a small green x in the center and two small pieces of purple cloth. On both hips, the woman had two black ribbon-cloth segments that had longer cloth pieces dangling from both sides, sort of like a waistcoat, with green sparkling coloring inside. The skirt, to Neptune's shock, seemed practically non-existent on the dress, being a simple cloth in front of her lower area.
"Whose this sexy looking chick?" Neptune questioned, breaking the silence that had formed thanks to the woman's entrance. "Never seen her before, is she new? Something tells me that she's not meant to be in this game, but a sequel or something… maybe even as DLC in some games…"
However, before she could come up with an answer, Noire shushed her by putting a hand over Neptune's mouth. "Hush, Neptune. Read the mood a little!" she whispered in a hushed manner, noticing something that particularly alarmed her. Whoever this woman was, her body looked like it had been through hell, and she was NOT saying that lightly, she'd seem some Agents back home in Lastation looking much like her whenever they have to deal with S or A rank Abnormals.
Yeah, the ranking system for the Abnormals works that way, X being strongest and F being the weakest.
As for the woman, her body looked to be adorned with more than dozens of scratches and deep lacerations. Some varied in deepness, but a LOT of them looked to be on the upper end of that particular spectrum. All of them dripped with blood, which formed a trail on the floor that leads to the door itself. Yet, even so, it seemed that the woman had pushed herself to come here with nothing but sheer willpower, that was the only thing that Noire could have come up with to explain how she got here without falling unconscious from blood loss. There were cases where one is so filled with adrenaline, that they simply ignore their body's state till the adrenaline leaves them. This must be one of those times.
"Oh my goodness, CHIKA!" Vert cried out, her eyes wide and horror-filled as she saw the woman start to fall forwards. Blurring forth, the CPU quickly closed the distance between them and caught her, ending up putting her face between her breasts before she sat on her knees and placed the woman's head on her lap. "What happened, who did this to you?!" she shrieked, holding the green haired woman's head in her lap.
The woman, Chika as she called her, weakly opened her eyes, looking up towards the CPU. She looked like she was about to pass out at any moment, and really who could blame her? Plus, she had already lost a LOT of blood coming here, thus she didn't have long before the adrenaline wore off and her consciousness would fade. "Lady Vert…"
"Yes? what is it, what happened to you?"
"D-De…mons…"
In the end, that was all that she could say before Chika finally fell unconscious, much to Vert's horror. Whilst she spoke, her voice cracking and stuttering like hell or simply a broken record, Chika had reached towards the CPU's face with her left hand. However, she couldn't touch the woman's face before her time was up, so when the will holding it up failed, Vert grasped the hand in her own before it could meet the ground.
Kneeling beside her, Noire checked her pulse by placing her index and middle fingers on her neck. Her eyes narrowed in concentration as she pulled out an item called a 'Healing Drink' a healing Item that was superior to the Healing Pods, though they were only recently made by Lastation, from her Inventory. Though, Planeptune were way further along in the field of medicine. "Looks like she has a pulse, so she's alive but she's weak. Lack of blood is probably the cause." She stated, frowning whilst she gently pried Chika's mouth open as Vert held her head higher, allowing her to put the Healing Drink in her mouth.
As the liquid fell down her throat, Chika unconsciously gulping it down, her injuries began to heal. Her cuts began to close, the larger and deeper ones seemingly taking longer, and her body began to replace the blood it had lost. Hell, her skin tone began to settle to normal, thanks to the fresh new blood being created by her supercharged body. It wouldn't recover her stamina or set her back into the conscious land, though. Which would be considered a blessing by those around her though.
Especially considering what happened next.
Throughout the room, about 60 portals opened, 20 on the walls, 20 on the ground, and 20 on the ceiling. These portals looked more like fiery tears as if the searing hot inferno itself was ripping its way into reality to spew its terrible heat into the room. Hot flames, hotter than anything the girls ever had the displeasure of experiencing, roared to life from these portals, portals that sported dozens of complex looking Sigel's around their edges. Sigel's that further proved that they weren't just light shows.
From those portals, they could hear furious roars, snarls, cackled and maddening sounds, sounds uttered only by the most twisted, sinister, and blood-crazed beasts that could be imagined. Those sounds were only recognized by Neptune herself, whom had fought their owners before, each time being a source of nightmare fuel for her. Much of her skin color got lost the moment she heard those sounds, images of what would come next filling her mind with abject terror that gripped her heart in its fiery hot, blazing grasp. Kinda the opposite to the deathly feeling one would get in a situation like this. "Oh no…"
"What?"
"What do you mean 'oh no' Neptune?"
Both the other CPUs turned to the terror-stricken girl, but neither got an answer from her. Instead, they got their answers when from those portals, many long, claw-like limbs burst free like zombies from a disturbed grave. Zombies that were slowly coming back to life so they could haunt the living. Each second they did so, pulling the bodies they were attached to out of the portals, the various sounds got louder, louder, and louder. Until those sounds, coupled with maniacal laughter, were all that the girls could hear. Not even the mad thumping of their own heart could be registered, or the thoughts of horror, dread, and pure TERROR racing through their minds.
At last, the Portals closed, and they had over 60 Bloodletters in the room, each of them gazing with mad hunger towards the three.
"KIIIIIIIILLLLLLL WITH GLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
With that call… the Bloodletters charged.
In order to help deal with the incoming threat, each girl split off to different sections of the room. The Bloodletters didn't care about this tactic, all they cared about was the relishing of bloodshed, untold warfare, and merciless slaughter. The gushing of blood as their Hellblades would tear through flesh, bone, and matter. The way they would swing their weapons with such savagery that it would make even the most vicious of psychopaths horny as all hell.
On Neptune's end, the girl took the far-left side of the room, getting surrounded on all sides by the Bloodletters. Fear racked her body, memories of her first encounter with them within the realm of that one Demon Prince filling her mind. She remembered the brutal savagery that they fought with, the utter dread she felt at the pit of her stomach as thoughts of her friend Compa being ripped to shreds filled her mind.
Yet soon enough, IT came to her aid, releasing a wave of energy that felt both holy AND demonic in nature. This action caused Neptuune to sigh to herself, her body losing its earlier emotions and causing her to become relaxed a wave of calmness overcoming her. The energy sharpened her senses, her fighting instincts 'waking up' as it were whilst resulting in Neptune exhaling. Her eyes, having closed briefly, opened once more with a look of intense determination. Any of her childish personality she normally had, was now gone, replaced by something else, something she had been developing for all these months.
A warrior's mentality.
She remembered the date that she had with Nico, though her gut instinct told her he didn't truly grasp that fact. Even so, she didn't care, Nico had already proven to her that he gave a damn about her, he gave a damn about the real her, not just the comedy character she played. He accepted her for her faults, he helped her by listening to her problems, being there for her to talk to. She had been wanting to talk to him alone for a while now, but thanks to the events that happened so far, she couldn't do that.
Memories of that one time he gave her that piece of his power, that piece which had embedded itself into her filled her mind, a frown forming on her lips as she made to summon her weapon to fight. Neptune didn't show it often, but she definitely was smarter than she looked, she just fooled others into thinking she wasn't. She found that this piece of power he had given her had been adjusted to fit with her divine nature, tempered so that it would not poison her.
Yet, even she could never have predicted that such a small piece of his power would end up doing what it did, merging with her so deep that her own energy hid it until she called upon it. Boy, had she been in for a world of surprise when she did it the first time, and even then, it had been a complete accident. Goddess knows how she freaked out when it happened… and happened to take off the head of the monster she had been fighting. Well, not necessarily a monster, but a Demon. Meh, to her there was little difference between the two aside from power scaling.
Afterward, she had spent hours upon hours, days after days trying to figure out how to call on it again. To taste the power that flowed through her veins the moment she grasped it, that sweet, nectar-like power. A power she had never known about, a power that felt even more ancient and primordial than her own Goddess powers. In fact, she dared say that the divinity she held felt like a child in comparison to this power.
And when she finally, FINALLY managed to summon it of her own volition…
Well, words just couldn't do justice to describe the incredible sensation of achievement that she had felt upon feeling it heed her call. She'd spare the techno-babble but suffice it to say she had to reach past the 'web' that was her divinity to what was behind it, the demonic power slumbering within it. The way she could wield that power felt so good, so right, in her hands that she wondered why she even bothered with her Goddess powers, especially since this power felt oh so much stronger to her.
Nevertheless, she kept at it, she kept training this power alongside her Goddess ones, she didn't slack off on her training like she normally would have, she met with and sparred with many people, most of them Spec Ops Agents and others being martial arts masters. Masters of the way of the sword, to be precise. Not only did it give her valuable experience in fighting opponents way more skilled than her, it also gave her a better understanding of her weapons, how to use them and the meaning of holding a sword.
She'd even picked up a few techniques for herself along the way, all the while Questing with her Party to keep the Demon threat from ultimately consuming the entire continent.
Now, now was the time for the fruits of her labor to be shown. First, she'd start off small, then work her way up the ladder to her strongest weapons and skills. Maybe, if these guys survived that is. With those thoughts in mind, Neptune's lips pressed into a firm line as she swiftly summoned her Murasama, the sword appearing in her hands whilst still within her sheath. One Bloodletter charged forth towards her, roaring for the bloody murder its essence craved. It raised its sword to strike her down as it approached, but the winner in the speed contest proved to be…
Neptune herself, as she pulled the sheath's trigger mechanism, allowing the blade to shoot out like a bullet right into the Bloodletter's neck, causing it to choke and gasp while stumbling back. It had obviously been caught by surprise, and the sight of their prey fighting back whipped the other Bloodletters into a ferocious frenzy. In the end, all of them charged at her in one fell swoop, determined to overwhelm her.
Even whilst Neptune jumped, grasped Murasama's hilt then sliced the creature down the middle, she remained calm and collected. Her eyes cast their gaze through the approaching masses of crimson flesh, fangs, claws, and Hellblades, showing none of her previous fears as she got into her battle stance. As her opponents neared her…
The preteen closed her eyes and mentally activated one of the few sword techniques she had learned: Trackless Step. Trackless Step was an ancient movement technique according to the one who taught her it, someone who had been said to be the weakest in the Academy he once attended only for him to become a master swordsman and 'break the chains of fate binding him' to become akin to a Demon. It involved the user combining their breath control and their footwork, to close the distance between them and their target. It actually doesn't increase the users' speed but makes their movements difficult to perceive as dangerous and lets them seep into their opponent's unconsciousness.
It was this technique, the TRACKLESS STEP, that Neptune employed to get within the first Bloodletter's guard, slice off its arm with a reverse upward swing before shifting her grip on the blade for a downward diagonal slash, slicing through its head with ease. Murasama's HF technology enhanced its cutting power to slice through the fleshy bonds hindering it. After swiftly cutting down her foe, Neptune slipped around one of two Bloodletters that tried to slice her middle from her left and right flank, cutting off its legs before flipping into a sausage continuous spinning slash. A slash that not only cut the Bloodletter to ribbons but also its partner as well. Said partner had tried to block with its Hellblade, but Neptune had instantly pumped her body full of both Divine and Demonic Power, increasing her speed to the point where she would resemble a saw blade, the amount of force and impact behind her improved HF Blade cutting through the Hellblade like paper mache and felling the foul Demon.
Landing in a crouch with her sword pointed at the side, Neptune quickly stood and blocked several swords meant to stab through her chest, from her front, left and right flanks. This had been possible thanks to a special trait/technique she had found herself learning, called the 'Marginal Counter'. Neptune, thanks to her training, had discovered that her being a Goddess afforded her great reflexes, reflexes she had to hone through intense training afterward. In the end, she becomes able to react to attacks at 0.05 seconds, six times the speed of a normal human's reflex. This, the MARGINAL COUNTER, allowed her to perform an action at a much faster rate than most others would. This allowed her to dodge attacks at coming at her opponents swiftly and yet strike just as fast. She could adjust the angles of her attacks right before they impact, she could defend in normally logically impossible odds, among other things. The drawback, however, was high stamina drainage, but Neptune managed to train her body to compensate for this weakness and thus, had ample stamina reserves.
Neptune swiftly took care of her opponents in three steps: Step one, swing Murasama upwards to throw their Hellblades away from her. Step two, get into a horizontal swinging slash and lastly step three, swing. Murasama's blade crackled violently with the Electric current within, and thanks to her dual energy types she managed to extend the swing of her sword further, increasing its reach not just its cutting ability. Thus, all three Bloodletters got cut in half. She finished them off by adding a fourth step afterward, that step being to summon some purple energy blades to impale their heads and hearts, confirming their deaths.
Her MARGINAL COUNTER allowed her to bend backward, avoiding several diagonal slashes that she followed up by kicking upwards, moving into a backflip and then dashing towards one of the Bloodletters. It quickly brought its Hellblade down again, but Neptune seemingly slid past it with her TRACKLESS STEP, instantly utilizing her techniques with grace and finesse one wouldn't expect from her normally bubbly personality. After sliding past it, Neptune jumped to another enemy, leaving the one she passed to be riddled with slashes that emerged from nowhere that ripped it to pieces.
Jumping into the air, Neptune flipped forwards, planting both feet onto a Bloodletter's face before jumping backward, flipping through the air and landing in a crouch, one hand on the ground and Murasama pointed to the side. Multiple energy blades manifested above her, blocking several slashes meant to hit her exposed openings before they swiftly decapitated the Demons. She then sent them into the Bloodletter she had used the face of as a springboard while swinging Murasama diagonally, slicing through two more Bloodletters at the same time.
Eventually, she jumped backward in order to get some distance, her heart thundering within her eardrums whilst the demonic hordes recovered from their brief skirmish. Yep, all that action had taken place within a few seconds, both them and her had moved at such speeds where all that action happened in a short time frame, yet to Neptune, who had been facing those 'World Eater' guys or whatever in many battles that lasted for probably an entire week on a multitude of occasions, such an exchange felt like child's play for her. Not only them but other Demonic beings too.
Shame she couldn't get a rematch with that Demon Prince thing though.
Flipping onto a Bloodletter's shoulders, Neptune hopped into the air, twisting around till she remained upside down in the air, head facing the ground. Time seemed to slow to a crawl though, as multiple Bloodletters jumped into the air after her, though they didn't notice one thing… Neptune's smirk. Just as they made to slice her into itty bitty chunks, their Hellblades erupting into searing infernos…
"…CROSS COMBINATION…"
SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH!
Neptune suddenly unleashed a combination of two Techniques: CROSS COMBINATION, and the TRACKLESS STEP, to zoom through the air, past the Bloodletters, and slice them all apart at the same time, landing in a crouch with her head hung low before slowly getting up. Behind her, the pieces of her enemies, along with a rain of blood, fell behind her whilst she walked to her opponents opposite her. Taking several steps forwards, Neptune toon one look at the approaching Bloodletters… and then charged forth, blurring out of sight whilst unleashing a CRITICAL EDGE that ended up bisecting one of them. She used the end of the Skill attack to follow up with a TRACKLESS STEP to slip through the rest of their defenses to deal even more slashes.
She ended up flipping back to kick one into the air, summon a dozen energy blades to impale it from behind, then drop kick it into several of its buddies. She backflipped into another dropkick in the opposite direction, kicking away another Bloodletter that tried to slash at her from behind, landing on both hands before wrapping her legs around the sword-arm of another Bloodletter. Smirking, Neptune arched backward, flipping/throwing the Bloodletter across the room… then impaling it with more Energy Blades.
Several panels appeared around her, blocking more Hellblades from turning her into a smoldering pile of ash. Something Neptune thanked her training for allowing her to learn how to instantly deploy those defensive Panels when under threat, until she went and unleashed a RIFLE SLASH that, thanks to empowering Murasama with her Dual Energy, allowed Neptune to literally go to town on her opponents.
'This feels so easy compared to the first time… Wonder how Nowa is doing right now…'
'What the heck are these things?! And why the HECK do I get the feeling someone called me Nowa?! Ugh, I bet it was Neptune, when I find her so help me I'll…!'
Contrary to Neptune's calm, cheerful demeanor, Noire looked anything but calm. In fact, she looked as tense as tense could be whilst parrying and blocking her opponents fiery Hellblades with her own HF Blade. She relied on the training and experience she had with the Spec Ops Agents, including Mr. LB. It helped that, at the moment of their blades touching, Noire had unleashed a technique she had learned.
In an instant, everything around her slowed to a crawl. Her pupils dilated, and every motion felt as sluggish as a turtle's movement to her, even though she herself moved with such finesse and speed. This was a technique she had learned from Mr. LB, the ZANDATSU, which allowed her to manipulate her perception of time with Share Energy, slowing it (for her) by 50 to 90%. This allowed her to pivot on her heels to slice through each of her opponents offending limbs, jump into the air, and dismiss the technique.
Once she did, everything resumed back to its normal place, and the Bloodletters all roared in furious pain whilst their arms fell to the ground, completely detached from their bodies. Caskets of blood gushed forth from their wounds, however, Noire didn't let that be for long, as she swiftly came down on them in a mass of spins, slashes, and kicks. Each time her blade met flesh, she felt it tear through it with the ease she had expected of her weapon.
Having no idea what the heck these things were, didn't mean she would lose her cool. IT wouldn't allow it.
Afterward, Noire landed on her feet, then sidestepped a swing from another Bloodletter, one that launched a downright demented assault on her, mixed with martial prowess that she had come to expect from these creatures. Raw power coursed through her veins whilst Noire parried, blocked and evaded each slash, barely reacting in time by the skin of her teeth. Eventually, she managed to pivot around a strike towards her chest, which allowed her to counter-attack.
She did this by lifting her right leg and dropping her HF Blade. The moment the weapon reached her heel, it seemingly stuck to it like glue… or Share Energy. Noire had figured out a while ago how to tether weapons to her person by using trails of her power. This done, Noire kicked upwards, knocking her opponent into the air as she moved into a backflip. She then practically went and break danced, getting on all fours and spinning about with her legs outstretched, slicing right through the Demon whilst it fell, before launching a kick that sent it flying across the room.
Kicking her HF Blade up to her right hand, Noire parried another Bloodletter's Hellblade upwards, before doing a right diagonal slash over its chest, twirled into a second one, shifted into an upward angle version of the same slash, made an X with a double slash, an upward slash that lead into a horizontal one, and finally Noire sausage flipped while tethering her HF Blade to her feet. That was when she unleashed series of kicks/slashes with her weapon so fast that the HF Blade practically became a blur, chopping the Bloodletter up like a butcher with his produce.
Each move had followed each other like a flowing river, masterfully executed and with extreme practice. Noire had to admit to herself since nobody would be questioning her in the middle of a fight, that this fighting style she had learned from Mr. LB with this weapon felt undeniably badass. She just LOVED the way she switched from hand to feet attacks so abruptly that it caught her enemies by surprise, it felt goddamn therapeutic actually Oh, how good it felt to finally let loose after so long in engaging politics, there had been rare times where she had been able to go all out like this back in Lastation the more the politics began to get back into order.
"Oooooooooh, nice, Nowa! Fancy footwork ya got there, it suit's ya!"
"Neptune stop calling me Nowa!"
Blinking, Noire registered danger behind her, her eyes narrowing as she tethered her HF blade to her leg and flipped forwards to cut her rear-attacking opponent right in half. She landed on her other leg and afterward unleashed a hybrid of horizontal slash/kicks towards an incoming group of Bloodletters, each of them pushing through regardless of their injuries.
Noire saw this and hastily activated her ZANDATSU, slowing down her time perception to not only roll out the way but to also slice at their legs whilst getting back on her feet and ending up behind them. Once ZANDATSU deactivated, time resumed, and the Bloodletters fell to the ground, allowing her to swiftly sausage flip, putting her HF Blade to her foot and entering a series of flipping slashes top go through their heads, finishing them off.
As she landed, Noire broke into a Helicopter spin, slicing through several Bloodletters before somersaulting through their ranks, practically break-dancing while weaving through their attacks. Eventually, she rolled to her feet and got into a stance similar to Neptune's RIFLE SLASH stance. "Alright..." she muttered, closing her eyes, sensing her enemies closing in. She moved her hands as if she were sheathing something, and during so her body became covered with these electrical arcs, gathering from her body to her blade itself. "I will END YOU!"
At the moment that the Bloodletters made to jump onto her, swinging their Hellblades or claws to slice through her, Noire unleashed her attack.
SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH!
One moment, all felt normal, the next thing the Bloodletters knew, their forms found themselves hacked and chopped into finely sliced pieces, courtesy of Noire's Divine white lightning covered HF Blade. The blade had the Lightning, plus an additional aura around the blade that seemingly sharpened its already sharp edge, making it feel like the very air itself had been cut when she swung faster than they could follow. Her strike speed seemed so similar to the speed of a lightning bolt, just one flash had been their warning before it was all over, as Noire, now behind them, flung her sword in a downward slash. "Hmph, Glad that's all over with..." she remarked with a haughty grin, flicking her hair aside before resting the same hand on her hip.
That technique had been one that Noire developed under Mr. LB's tutelage, the ELECTRO CHARGE. It was a technique inspired by her sense's ability to use electricity and lightning to enhance his speed in addition to the speed and precision of his blows. Plus, given his speed, strength and technology advantage, which was capable of cutting through machines built to survive the Nuclear war (his records proved that claim), the guy had earned himself the nickname 'God of Lightning' by his peers. Thus, the ELECTRO CHARGE had been born, and boy did it work wonders when dealing with these Demonic beings. It was simple, the way her HF blade cleaved through their flesh felt like cutting through paper mache with a plasma weapon, but this felt even easier than that.
With those thoughts, Noire continued to fight.
Out of the three Goddesses, Vert found herself in the somewhat middle ground, having taken up the center space within the room whilst she had Beninuki in hand, swiftly spinning it, thrusting, slashing and deflecting like her life depended on it. Practically did, in all honesty as she COMPLETELY and UTTERLY abused the use of her martial arts skills. CHIGARAMI found itself being used to striking at her opponents' vitals curving around their Hellblades.
When Vert found herself facing more than one of her opponents, she had resorted to using JASEN to strike in an unpredictable manner, the randomness of her technique's trajectory throwing the Bloodletters off. That was the point of the technique, however, and as long as it remained effective, it would serve her well. However, she doubted that it would be this way forever, the raw fury within the Hellblades felt like a formidable adversary. Though, she DEFINITELY felt like they didn't care about that and just squealed with joy at the thought of fighting a pure fight.
And lastly, the woman had found herself utilizing the HASSEI KAIGAN to immobilize and strike down her maniacal foes. Each time she used it, the Demonic Bloodletters would make sure to come at her from different angles, wildly flinging their Hellblades about in a random manner, hoping to block or parry that technique in order to land a critical blow. Vert would not allow that, however, and with her warrior side squealing like it was having an orgasm, she would outsmart her opponents by feinting whenever she would use it, then go for their exposed rear flanks.
Though she had to be careful, one wrong move and it could really be her last, especially with her condition. She wasn't like the other Goddesses, not anymore. Sometimes in her battles since that one in the ruins, she had suffered injuries, mortal wounds that took a while to heal. It reminded her that she had the same mortality as the rest of her people, that she could die just as easily as the rest of them, that she was now mere flesh, blood, and bone. Even so, she kept on fighting, kept on trying to stem the rampaging, furious crimson tide that swept across her Nation. She did her best to make sure her people knew she was out there without actually giving it away that it was her. Mostly so that they didn't know how bad her condition was.
Unfortunately, even though she was a Spear wielder, Vert soon found herself realizing that the size of their Hellblades pretty much negated her Spear's range advantage. Not to mention that those infernally wicked weapons seemed to be etched with burning runes of slaughter. She swore she could even hear twisted, horrific and demonic war cries from within them.
And yet, somehow... Vert didn't even care, this lack of care becoming more and more prevalent as the fight continued on. The woman found it oh so familiar, the rush, the thrill of the fight, the thought of being on the boundary of life and death itself... it felt just as liberating as it did when she first felt it back in those ruins fighting those knights. Her warrior had finally begun to sing once more with all the fighting she had been doing, and it felt... GRAND!
However, Vert's high soon came to an end. One Bloodletter managed to dodge a CHIGARAMI strike to the chest and get in a headbutt to her own forehead, knocking her back. It snapped Vert out of her thoughts though, as she quickly jammed Beninuki's rear into the ground to propel herself over the follow-up lunge from one of its brethren. Landing behind it, Vert's eyes hardened as she swiftly stabbed it multiple times through where she had learned its vital areas were, causing the Demon to howl in pain whilst falling to the ground. Like all the other Demons slain by the CPUs here, they each erupted into brief explosions of red light, before vanishing into nothingness.
Vert had no time to recover though, as she found herself being forced to block several strikes to her head, gritting her teeth at the combined strength, rage-filled strikes grinding against Beninuki's shaft. Each cause, a Bloodletter, growled and cackled, laughing mockingly at her as if her attempts to hinder their hatred-fueled slaughter proved to be a minor inconvenience. It... drew some annoyance out of her in the form of several tick marks. 'So, you think you've got me cornered, do you...?' she thought to herself, glancing sideways towards her flanks to see the rest of the demonic Bloodletters gathering to claim a victim this night. With the feeling she got from Gungnir however, Vert didn't think that would be happening. 'Well then, I apologize, but that is NOT going to happen! Gungnir, come to me!'
Her weapon suddenly disappeared in a flash of light, blinding her assailants just long enough for Gungnir to manifest itself in her hands, Beninuki having been returned to her Inventory. It was a good thing she did it when she did too, any longer and she feared those Hellblades would have destroyed her weapon by its shaft. Not something she liked to think about, after all through all the battles she fought with that weapon, it felt more like a partner, or even a part of herself, than a mere weapon.
Still, though, the golden shine of her divine class Weapon shone brightly, and it seemed to almost hurt the Bloodletters with just its presence alone as they each cawed, shrieked and howled painfully while holding clawed hands over their eyes. The woman had to smirk at this, as she held Gungnir in her normal stance, feeling its power coursing through her body like blood going through veins. Even if Beninuki had a close connection to her, that connection had NOTHING on Gungnir's connection.
Norse Heart, the CPU who had created this weapon many years ago. She didn't know when exactly this weapon had been forged, but Vert had dug deep into her Basilicom's historical Archives, searching for any information regarding this weapon. However, much of the information she had required wasn't there, almost as if it had been lost to history. It almost seemed like someone had deliberately altered the archives, taking information away from a certain time period. But, why would anyone do that? Maybe someone like Maghda had appeared? Perhaps, but nonetheless, in the end, she had little to no more idea of this weapon's origin, history or anything like that. Only its battle abilities had been known to her, and that was thanks to the weapon itself. She had learned through it that divine and demonic beings were quite weak against this weapon, no, it felt more like it was MADE to kill other deities. To utterly massacre them without mercy, it was a weapon that was not meant to rule, it was meant to KILL.
But right now, that suited her purposes just fine.
Finally, Vert broke into a sprint, heading towards one of the stunned Bloodletters and swinging Gungnir sideways. The Bloodletter, out of reflexes honed from thousands of years of combat, reacted faster than the rest of its body, allowing it to raise its Hellblade defensively. The moment the two weapons met, a brief flash occurred as the two duked it out, both in the physical realm for dominance, and a battle between hatred and light. However, Gungnir soon proved to be the superior weapon, as it cut right through the Hellblade's form and pierced the Bloodletter's hide.
A loud, shrill cry of pain broke through the Demon's jaw as the light from the weapon seeped into it, rushing through its body in a wild frenzy before it blew up from within. Or in other words, it imploded seconds after Vert cut the beast. Golden energy crackled over the Spear whilst Vert stood upright, twirling the weapon in one hand whilst stepping forwards. The clicking of her heels resounded through the room, but only she and her opponents heard it. The other Demons and Goddesses were still in their own little conflicts, making them unable to hear that sound.
After a few steps, Vert stopped as she clicked her fingers, her clothes vanishing into particles of energy that reformed into her regular princess dress. Once the familiar weight settled onto her form. Vert didn't even try to resist the breath of relief that escaped her lips. That other dress, throughout the battle so far, had been hindering her mobility, restricting her movement and impeding her combat prowess. Sure, she had trained to fight in such clothes, but that dress had not been meant for combat. This dress, on the other hand, she had made it with the idea of combat in mind, a perfect mix of warrior and princess.
Gripping Gungnir, Vert twirled it a full circle, stopping when the tip pointed diagonally towards the ground. Though, with the slight thrust pushed into the weapon's shaft, a small airwave had been created that blew past the Bloodletters facing her. When this happened, Vert's eyes, which had been closed, slowly opened to reveal a dark glare, a glare full of stone cold fury that nearly matched the eternal hatred that the Bloodletters had flowing through their veins like blood. Gungnir crackling with energy drew her attention to it in the form of Vert glancing down towards it.
At that moment, the weapon shook in her hand, a torrent of emotions being sent through it into her. Irritation, frustration and righteous rage. This weapon, this weapon that seemed almost like it was meant to be an anti-deity, it felt ANGRY. Angry at these Demons for thinking they could hold a candle to it. It wanted to kill them, to utterly rip, tear and shred them to pieces. To exercise its fury onto them.
Well, far be it from her to deny it this chance, after all, she felt the same way.
"Alright now, boys..." Vert muttered under her breath, Gungnir almost CACKLING whilst its form crackled dangerously with golden energy. Bending forward, the CPU broke into a sprint, a sprint in the direction of the enemy with bloodlust clear in her eyes. " I will show you my power!"
