Second Trial Finale

After twenty minutes of that talk, many things were done.

First was that all the soldiers were pulled back, the casualties surprisingly enough were Zero at this point in time. Nevertheless, their fight gradually came to an end, if the Boss Monster was going to be coming soon, then this fight would be best left in Castiel and Nico's hands. No matter how he felt about the other male, the Heir did acknowledge his strength as a warrior. It was obvious that he was not weak, that was for sure.

However, there was a need to replace those soldiers with something at least somewhat more expendable. Replacing them were the metal golems, they were not particularly strong but they would work somehow and they were armed with the same swords that the enemy possessed, so it wasn't that hard for them to battle. But it was an undeniable fact that they would not last long if not for the long ranged support from Lunala and Eevee.

The evacuated soldiers were all quickly moving to the inside of the carrier, some learning how to navigate it and control the weapons with Nico. A lot of the weapons had been damaged severely thanks to Nico's onslaught, however, whilst he had it dock at the city's port, he had discovered and activated the self-repair mechanisms on the Vessel. By the time he had docked it, the Vessel had been about 80% operational, and as an extra bonus, Nico had been able to hack the AI as well, allowing what remained of the enemy army to be reprogrammed to fight for them instead. Sure as hell gave the Soldiers a Heart Attack, though Nico calmed them down and assured them (whilst showing proof by commanding the robot army to do things with his Bracers) that it was fine. Aside from that, utilizing his Hacking Skills, Nico had begun showing the Soldiers how to operate the machinery, so they could operate the Aircraft Carrier to its fullest potential.

Not to mention that they had found stacks upon stacks of rations inside the Vessel, thankfully untouched by Nico's Hellfire. So hey, that was a plus.

Meanwhile, Castiel found himself deep within the city's confines. The male had been spending the majority of his time quickly planting some of those seeds he worked with all over the place in the middle of the city. The work being extremely sensitive as if he moved wrong it could spell problems later on. Just one of them he planted and let grow from the start, even transferring large amounts of his energy to put more power in order to make it grow faster. Quickly enough the seed grew and after putting his power in it for 5 minutes the plant finally reached adulthood.

"Heh, I guess this is as far as I can let you grow huh?" Castiel remarked thoughtfully, all the while craning his neck to look upwards at the HUMONGOUS tree in front of him. This was a VERY special tree, one that could probably give them a considerable advantage on this future fight. "Well, now that the Fall Tree is ready and the Protection Tree's seeds and the Binding Trees are also in place I suppose it is good enough. Now, let's go and get a few extra points." Castiel whispered under his breath with a sadistic smile.

He knew that his own killing points were probably lower than Nico's again, due to him spending longer trying to get things ready and taking care of the soldiers, but this was only temporary at best and even if his points were fewer it didn't bother Castiel as he was after something else for this trial, a confirmation of sorts. With that in mind, the Heir unleashed his Wings to take flight, ascending high into the air. When Castiel reached enough of a height, he looked to the surroundings of the city. His eyes narrowed at the large mass he could see blocking any and all escape routes by land. There was an enormous number of enemies there, easily reaching hundreds if not thousands. Apparently, this was supposed to be the final wave and as such there were that much more enemies spanning.

Just as Castiel wanted.

Putting his hands together, Castiel closed his eyes and connected himself to all the traps that still were not used, for this final stretch he deactivated all traps while putting his faith in the golems and the barrier he created. After all, it was much better to catch 10 enemies in one trap than a single one. He even was lucky, these last few ones all were similar in that they were focused in exploding. And considering how they had grown a bit stronger every time one of this enemies was destroyed and its core ended up close to said trap, taking away the energy inside, it could be well imagined what they would do.

And DO they did with Castiel next few words.

"KATSU!"

What, he was a fan of some of Naruto's characters and he liked the Akatsuki members in special. There was no better way to release a salvo of explosions then this one.

And the explosions happened.


On the Aircraft Carrier. things were going along swimmingly, much more than Nico had initially expected.

He stood on the Main Deck, overseeing the various colored soldiers as they attended to various tasks that he had assigned to them while he looked at the blueprints of the Vessel he had downloaded onto his Bracer. These blueprints formed as a Holographic 3D image of the Vessel. Much of its damage had been repaired thanks to the auto recovery system he had found through looking over the Blueprints, and it had been an extraordinary sight to behold. Watching pieces of the ship, destroyed by his Hellfire, slowly mend themselves, replacing what had been lost wand adjusting what had been damaged. By the time that the ship had docked, Nico estimated that the ship had reached 80% operational capability.

But, the system couldn't repair everything, it seemed. Its Engines remained damaged by 10%, making complete mobility that the ship previously possessed impossible. Not only that, but some of its sensory systems were rendered inoperable, as well as a portion of the weapons. Fortunately, the main guns were still operational, as well as the more necessary systems required to operate it, so Nico had used the blueprints as a basis to instruct the Soldiers on how to operate the Vessel. Some of them had once been under his command, and had at first many dark emotions at being commanded by him again, which he had expected. After all, Castiel had been right, that was something he had taken a while to completely accept. He had been right that he hadn't been a good leader, something he had realized when he arrived at the white soldiers camp.

Thus, in order to learn from his mistakes, Nico had tried to organize the soldiers into different groups, one group would work on the Vessel, with another overseeing them. A third group would be spending their time learning the more technical aspects of the Vessel under Nico's guidance. After five minutes or so, he would rotate the teams, the one working on the vessel being allowed to have a food break with both the rations on the ship (a Goddamn blessing in Nico's opinion) as well as some of the food he AND Castiel had liberated in the previous trial. Mind you, it had almost been AGONIZING to hand over a portion of his own food rations, his Ghoul instincts 'lightly' expressing their disdain for the idea. However, he had pushed on, memories of both Castiel's words, as well as... someone else's, flashing through his mind.

Perhaps... perhaps he could get some answers to these questions he had been harboring.

'It appears that so far, your 'apology' to your former subordinates is going well. Your 'attempts' are reaching them, as I sense fewer dark emotions towards you than when we began.'

A wave of relief escaped Nico's lips when he heard that from hid Demon Persona. Even though he had felt those emotions decreasing from his men in a gradual manner, it still helped that someone else had already noticed. 'You've got that right, Biko. Still, now that I'm actually trying to follow that guy's example, it's becoming slowly clear to me... that being a leader is freaking tough!'

Seriously, this was a WHOLE new territory for him. He felt so lost, like he was on an unknown spec of land with no idea how to get back to his home. He honestly felt like that time when he fell into the Monster Cave and 'accidentally' stumbled onto that DPU Core that turned him into what he was now. Not to mention that he no longer saw things the same way as he once had, not the previous black and white state that he had been used to for many years. No, everything had blurred together since the events at Leanbox, turning everything into a confused grey. Was this how Theta had felt back then? To command a whole resistance of men and women willing to fight for a cause? How often did he have doubts about his cause in his own time? Was he ever unsure? These might be questions that he would have to ask the man when he eventually got to Lowee.

Taking himself away from his thoughts, Nico looked to the side and found several soldiers looking at him, wearing black uniforms. They looked like they needed something, so he gestured them to come over. In the end, they wanted to know what it was that was happening, as the men hadn't been briefed on their newest enemy. It was a valid concern, and Castiel had decided that they would not have the time for a specific briefing (he knew, caused Nico had asked), so Nico gave them a quick rundown of what had been going on. He even told the groups that were experiencing their turn learning under him, enough to satisfy their curiosity. It was a move he had figured might ease their nerves slightly, and while it did the male sensed that some were a bit more apprehensive about it. Though, that had been mitigated by the fact that they would be spending THIS part of the battle AWAY from the city where the boss would have appeared.

Afterward, a white-suited soldier jogged up to him, looking like he'd been running a long time. "Sir, you're needed down in the Engineering decks. Some of the men have discovered something you may want to see."

Now, THIS got his attention. It seemed that the Soldiers had managed to get access to one of the few areas Nico himself had difficulty getting into. Mostly because here was debris blocking the entrance, and Nico didn't have the time to get it all moved safely himself with everything else he had to prepare before the men got on board. Not to mention the fact that he had to clean up as well, while gathering all his willpower to ignore his raging Ghoul instincts regarding the food he caught. Now though, NOW he'd finally get a chance to see what was inside there. 'I wonder what we'll find...' the male thought, swallowing some saliva while giving a notification to his men via his Shingan and Bracer, before following the soldier inside the Vessel.

'Unknown, but I do hope that it will be worthwhile.'

'You and me both, Biko...'


After walking through the Aircraft Carrier, Nico and the soldier found themselves at the entrance to the Engineering Bays, cleared of all its debris. The door itself looked as futuristic as the rest of the Vessel did on the inside, whilst the Soldier imputed some codes on a terminal next to the door. Those codes were what Nico had provided for him when he had hacked into the Mainframe to gather as much information as he possibly could. Once he entered them, the door slid sideways, opening the entrance up to the two as they went inside.

The moment they did, the two men saw that the room looked to be quite large, and housed many inactive-looking robot warriors that Nico and Castiel had been facing the majority of the Trial. They all looked like they were slouching, evidently expressing their state of being. "Looks like these things aren't going to be giving us any trouble..." the male mused thoughtfully, cupping his chin with his index finger and thumb while nodding.

"The boys managed to cut the links this Vessel's AI has with them, so even if it does activate these things would not be able to be used." the soldier explained, furrowing his brows. Nico didn't blame them, they probably had some negative feelings and wanted to vindicate themselves against them. Still, though, they could have been useful as an emergency defense against any invaders, though he figured that was his personal bias against humans talking. He well, REALLY didn't want to think about humans in a general manner at the moment.

Soon enough though, his thoughts got broken when he saw the soldier walking to something else something located to the left side of the Engineering Bay. Walking up to him without asking questions, Nico finally saw what it was that the Soldier had wanted him to see, his eyes widening to large margins at what sights presented themselves before him. 'Oh... my... Goddess...!'

'This... This is...!'

Suspended before them, was a suit of Armour, much like that of the robot warriors before. However, aside from some visual similarities, that was pretty much it. Unlike those things, this Armour looked like the size of a seven foot tall human. Ironically, it looked a lot like those Armours those World Eaters sport back in Leanbox. However, they were a mix of blue with gold outlines, with strange golden symbols on the shoulders and chestplate. Sloped pauldrons, or shoulder plates, adorned the shoulder areas which were likely used to deflect enemy fire. in addition, Flanged poleyns (knee-plates), looked to provide extra protection over vulnerable joints. The Greaves had these incorporate gyroscopic stabilizers and can magnetize the soles of the Armour's boots, allowing one to walk on metal surfaces in treacherous terrain, including zero-gravity environments.

'What the hell...?' Nico wondered, gaping with his jaw unhinged. 'Why is something like THAT here?'

'I don't know, however I do believe that Zelretch is the cause somehow. This place IS full of different treasures from different dimensions. Perhaps he has visited ours multiple times and taken certain things to keep here. Though, this one DOES seem to be the only Armour of its kind so far, perhaps these robots intended to make them as vanguard soldiers before this invasion happened, or something along those lines.'

Biko spoke within his mind, his voice as flat as normal whilst the male detected a slight sense of awe within. He couldn't blame him, either, after all Biko WAS a part of him and Nico could DEFINITELY feel the awe in himself too whilst looking at this Armour. An idea came over him, and Nico quickly raised his Bracer and accessed the information he had downloaded from the Vessel's Mainframe. Soon enough, he found the name of this particular set of Armour: Mark X Power Armour, this one being the Tacticus variant. According to this Data, it was made from this metal called 'Ceramite', a form of heat and shock-resistant ceramic material. To his surprise, Ceramite was capable of absorbing and dissipating even the most extreme thermal and directed-energy attacks, and conducts many other forms of electromagnetic radiation in such a way as to disperse it across a wide area. This makes Ceramite especially effective at providing protection against directed-energy and particle-based weapons. The thickest layer of Ceramite is over the chest-plate, protecting not just the Power Armour's cables, but also most of one's vital internal organs.

This 'Ceramite' seemed WAY superior to Silver Steel, in Nico's opinion.

'Touch it, Nico. I think we can use this Armour to improve our own.'

Nico nodded his head to his Demon Persona's suggestions, and soon enough stepped forth till the male was right before the Armour. Slowly, he reached out to the Armour, placing his hand on its chestplate and closing his eyes. "I'd like to be alone for a bit, could you wait outside till I have completed my task?" he requested, not even looking at the Soldier behind him.

"Yes sir." The white suited soldier replied, saluting him before jogging out of the Engineering Bay.

This left Nico alone with this Armour, and once he felt this revelation, the male quickly applied his Desecration to the Armour. He intended to change this Armour to something more powerful, imagine just how much his or someone else wearing this Armour empowered by demonic power would be wearing it. He could imagine Tekken having a field day with it... if he could mold its size to suit her frame. Hell, he also would like to see how it would fare when Demonic Power augmented every atom inside the Armour's form, making them each stronger than they were previously.

However, the moment he did so, Nico's chest-mounted Armour Module began to shine brightly, right through his clothes. The light practically forced a gasp from the male, making him cover his eyes until the light died down... revealing that the Armour was nowhere to be seen when he lowered his arm to look at it. "Huh? What the...?" the male muttered, but soon got the answers his mind asked from his Demon Persona.

'Hmmm, interesting. It appears our own Armour has decided that this one could be used to improve its own systems. It has absorbed the other Armour into itself AS it was being Desecrated by your Demonic Power. Therefore, the boost it will gain will have been tremendous once we are able to deploy our Armour again.'

Before Nico could respond to this, the male heard a large rumbling sound in the far distance, his eyes widening when he did so. The rumbling sounded like it was coming from somewhere on land, and if he thought it was what he thought it was, then odds were that Castiel was somehow involved. He had heard from some of the men that there was a final wave coming, but he had assured them that the Heir could handle it himself. They hadn't been too sure at first, however they had been quickly reminded that out of the two of them, Castiel was the better leader. Thus, he had ways of fighting that neither of them would expect.

'Still...' Nico thought as he quickly notified the soldier outside that he was finished, and that he should report to the rest of his comrades up on the Main Deck, before he himself Warped up to the Main Deck himself. 'Something tells me that guy is getting a lot of combat done as well. Probably an entire army judging by the sounds of those rumblings... i'd say he had been using explosions somewhat, too...' Nico knew PLENTY about explosions, he'd seen many of them during his many battles after all.

Hopefully the guy wouldn't get too caught up in the fight, though.


"Neat."

This is what Castiel remarked to himself thoughtfully, as he looked to the ground beneath him. Oh yeah, by the way, he was still in the air, suspended by his mismatched wings. In one fell swap, he had managed to eliminate at least a few hundred of the enemies, something that he had to smirk to himself about. Whilst he wasn't as good at taking down multiple opponents as he would have liked he had to admit to himself that he did, in fact, liked to experiment in large scale destruction. This trial was truly quite easy for the Heir, despite the fact that he could see why it could be hard for others. The key was the preparations, Castiel was someone who prepared the field for his absolute advantage and adding his experience in leading, this Trial was much easier to him than to most other warriors. For him this trial was less of one that he just needs to win and more of one he would win perfectly to make a point to himself, a point he felt he needed to make.

"I think this might just be enough. I doubt the wave of enemies will continue to appear considering how it is close to the time of the last boss to show up. But just as a precaution..." Castiel mused to himself before connecting to Lunala and Solgaleo. "Lunala, I want you to come to me now for this next fight, Solgaleo I want you to guard the north of the city until the start of the boss fight and if by then no enemy appears you are to come here to help too."

After hearing confirmation Castiel only had to wait for less than a minute to a shadow to appear below him for him to ride. Lunala was quite different than Solgaleo, he gave a heroic and upfront vibe when riding, almost like a General prized stallion riding to war. Meanwhile, Lunala gave him a more dark vibe, like he was a dark Asura leading an evil army to a greater goal. While on top of Lunala, Castiel felt a sense of calm that was hard to come by, but it was a shame that it was not to last as a new portal started opening in the space above the city's center.

Castiel also noticed how this portal was immensely bigger than the others before and that many smaller portals surged outside the city. 'Leaving Solgaleo outside was a good call after all.' the Heir couldn't help but think, a shiver traveling down his spine as he looked at the scene in front of him. He knew that these next few enemies would come in large numbers, and even if the soldiers in the carrier shoot them using the weapons there it would hardly be enough, especially when the enemies got closer to the city, making the option of using weapons against them impossible. Solgaleo could help there well enough, his abilities more than strong enough to deal with these numbers in the north where the portals were opening.

The main problem, however, was the big ass portal in the center of the city. This could easily spell doom for the mission if this is the size of the enemy, luckily Castiel was already prepared for protecting the city in the first place. "Grow, Protection Trees!" Castiel yelled while throwing his arms out, activating the runes he prepared beforehand to make the seeds bloom. It was surprisingly fast how the trees grew, equally matching the falling speed of the boss for this mission. And boy was this boss monstrous.

Seriously, it was gigantic in size, easily reaching over 35 meters tall, was completely robotic and looked like a Tyrannosaurus Rex, but bigger and with two BIG AS FUCK cannons in his back. To be frank, the moment Castiel saw it, he instantly came to a realization in his gut. This beast would be a strong motherfucker, and by that he meant SERIOUSLY strong, hell the Heir could feel huge amounts of energy radiating from its core, which was already scary enough, but more than that he felt pretty sure that the metal it is made of was from the same kind that Kupriotes is made.

In essence, this was DEFINITELY a fitting final boss for this Trial.

Beating this motherfucker would not be easy. But at least he could see that the plants he'd put around had already begun taking the proper effect, protecting the buildings from the weights and simple moves of this creature.

Still, a hard battle would be fought... whelp, time to take charge of this situation by beating down this motherfucker.


'It looks like the final boss has appeared...'

Nico nodded his head to his Demon Persona's words, scowling as he glared at the city. Or rather, the center of the city where he could sense the emergence of the final boss here. Nico didn't know what it was, but whatever it was DEFINITELY packed some punch behind it. He knew this because the MOMENT it had appeared, Castiel had done something and several tree-like structures has grown around the buildings, seemingly protecting them from being damaged by the creature's movements. No idea what they were, but as long as they worked then Nico would pay attention to more important things.

For example, like monitoring these troops.

It hadn't been stated, but Castiel HAD wanted Nico to remain with the troops at the Aircraft Carrier, in case of an attack on them. The Vessel had already been ordered to head out into the open sea by the Heir a couple of moments ago, and Nico had been all too eager to comply. With them being about 20 minutes out onto the ocean, they would be able to send in reinforcements with the robot army they had acquired, or dish out long ranged bombardments with the many gun emplacements dotting around the Vessel itself.

'Still, those smaller portals up north concern me. It's like those games where minions spawn in the boss room to help their master fight the player, becoming distractions for their master to land fatal blows easier.' Nico thought ominously, standing at the edge of the Vessel's Main Deck. His Trench Coat blew behind him from a breeze, his hair being ruffled alongside it while his eyes remained unflinchingly focused upon the city itself. Not to mention how his hands dug into his pockets, hiding how his Shingan ring had been glowing constantly since their departure. The constant glowing signified that it was active, as Nico constantly transmitted his thoughts over to the other troops, organizing them and keeping them monitored. Up in the air, Urthemiel flew in a circle, keeping an eye out for its master.

Part of him had considered letting Urthemiel turn the entire ocean into a wasteland by causing a drought with its flames. It had been before the initial assault on the vessel, though he hadn't given it much acknowledgment. It was in the heat of battle, after all. If he had done that then the Vessels from before wouldn't have been able to close in on the city, and he would have had an easier time taking care of them. However, thinking about it, Nico realized that would have been counterproductive in the long run, as then they wouldn't be able to use the Vessel nearly as well as they could now.

'Perhaps we can send Urthemiel over there. If I know Emiya like I think we do, then he will likely have sent something there already. Perhaps Urthemiel can lend his assistance.'

Sending Urthemiel, huh? Well, ever since Urthemiel had been created (a rather painful memory as well, the male noted with a wince), it had been slowly developing with the experiences gained. It couldn't use its full power thanks to lacking experience, which was why Nico needed to have it involved in constant combat. The experience was best gained that way, after all, heck with enough it could probably learn how to send its thoughts to him like he did to it. Right now, it only sent him its emotions, which sometimes could be difficult to interpret. Once it got its thoughts and intelligence up, perhaps that could help it learn to use the full extent of its powers. Not to mention the Chaos Core and Armour he had yet to give it, he'll change that after this Trial.

Thus, Nico could understand the logic behind Biko's suggestion.

As if sensing what they were thinking (which if that were the case, Nico wouldn't doubt it), Urthemiel looked down, halting itself in the air for a few moments. It then proceeded to descend slowly, its two hind legs being the first to touch the Main deck before the rest of its body followed suit. Standing on all fours, Urthemiel looked towards his master, and while it couldn't speak, its eyes showed a depth too them that could only be expressed by emotion. Looking into his eyes, Nico could sense its desire, its desire to fight.

Urthemiel wasn't like those two familiars Castiel has gained, nope, far from it. Those two have this sort of familial bond between them. Like a pair of pets with a loving owner who gives them lots of affection and care. The IDEAL kind of pet/owner relationship.

It somewhat reminded him of slavery, and by the goddesses, he HATED slavery with a passion, but it seemed that they consented to it judging by how they were acting, he even felt that making any sort of insinuation about that would be answered by violence more likely. For Urthemiel however, it didn't have that kind of feel to it, instead of the relationship between them, aside from Nico having created it accidentally, felt more like the relationship between two warriors. They felt like they were siblings-in-arms, fellow fighters who could relate to each other on a level that very few could reach.

Even so, the type of relationship didn't matter, as one thing remained certain: both of them treated their Familiars with respect and honor, they would make sure to be there for them when they were in trouble.

With a nod, Nico decided to mentally tell the Archdemon to fly over to those portals. If there were enemies there, then it had to burn them to nothingness. If Castiel had sent anything there like Golems, his Familiars, or some detachment of troops, then it would have to treat them as allies.

Urthemiel nodded, roaring in acceptance as it took off towards the north, flames erupting around its wings that increased its speed. If it had put them around its body, Nico would have mistaken it for a Phoenix.

'Now, with that out of the way...' the male thought, before he cupped his chin. 'Time to see to how I can be of more assistance...'


Up in the north, perched atop a Building, Solgaleo growled and glowered at a force consisting of 700 enemies. About 300 Robot soldiers, and 400 Dragon Riders. All of them wielded swords and guns, each of them trained upon the Familiar, which was radiating this strong, white aura from its being. Not to mention, with its powers, it could sense more portals that were only an instance away from opening. Like they were on stand by in case these current forces The Lion-like creature had been sent there by its master to eradicate those who dare interrupt his fight with that metal monster, so that was what would happen.

However, it did not misunderstand one important fact, and that was the fact that these forces WOULD NOT END. Even if there was a set number there, more would be pouring in. There was a certain thing about familiars, and that was that they were better in tune with the nature around them. Solgaleo was no exception to this, it instantly knew that this place, despite it being artificial, had a 'nature' all its own that it could tune itself into. With that knowledge, it realized that until that monster in the city was defeated, none of these enemies would stop appearing. It was like trying to cut off a hydra's head, cut off one, two more shall take its place.

It was with this in mind, that the Lion-like being had been gathering energy from the sun above it since it arrived here, though it appeared that this army had no clue on what it was doing. That had been the reason why it hadn't attacked yet. they were waiting to see what it would do, which in essence would prove to be a MAJOR mistake on their parts. After a few more seconds (it had been standing here for a good few minutes), Solgaleo had its beam ready. With one loud roar, the Lion-type creature shot the pure white energy beam out of its mouth, curving the beam so that it swiped through a large portion of the army.

BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!

A huge explosion covered the entire army as a result, completely shrouding them from view in a mass of smoke. Debris flew freely from the impact the beam had, and by the time that the smoke cleared up moments later, the Familiar saw that its attack had cleaved right through at least two thirds of the enemy ranks. One third was made of the Robot Soldiers, and the other was that of the Dragon Riders, but even then the rest of them didn't escape unscathed. All of them had some level of burns on their forms or another, and judging by how they gave ferocious glares towards Solgaleo, it looked like it wouldn't have the chance to charge up another Solar Beam.

In response, a grin slowly spread across its lips as it raised its paw, making the 'come hither' gesture.

And come they did.

Instantly, it teleported to a nearby building roof when an array of lasers came towards it from the front. The moment it reappeared, a pair of Dragon Riders made to charge at it from multiple flanks, intending on stabbing through it with their blades. Not something that Solgaleo felt afraid of as it bared its claws, each of them glowing pure white before reforming as steel claws. Claws made of this brilliantly stainless steel, that looked like they could cut up even the souls of their victims. Waiting for the perfect moment, Solgaleo roared as it leaped forth, slicing through the dragons and their riders in a couple of swift claw motions, landing on the ground whilst its targets fell to the rooftop floor dead.

Looking to the rest of the army, Solgaleo made to charge at them to continue its slaughter, when suddenly it sensed something approaching them at a VERY high speed. A speed that nearly rivaled its own, something it didn't believe was actually true. Looking to its source, Solgaleo and the army didn't see anything at first, just this blue spec in the distance... until it suddenly came upon them and Solgaleo quickly Teleported back to its original position. Something that, in hindsight, had been a great move, for the blue spec had sped right through the army's ranks, releasing these huge azure flames as it went that literally devoured everything they touched. Air, metal, nothing escaped their grasp.

All the airborne foes quickly rushed towards it, intent on cutting it down, had the spec not halted its motions in mid-air, hovered in place, before unleashing an orb-shaped wave of blue flames that pretty much wiped out the rest of the army in one fell swoop. The flames dispersed afterward, allowing Solgaleo to see that it was the Archdemon Familiar which belonged to that companion to its master. Solgaleo's eyes narrowed at the beast, watching it flap its wings in the air while using its senses to identify its energy. Never-mind its demonic, chaotic nature, those attacks had taken more than a substantial portion of its power from it. That was what it had sensed, as more portals began to open up.

A grunt escaped its lips as it shook its head in disappointment, this creature had similar problems to the one it is connected to. Its master criticized the other one for that one's pride, borderline arrogance, and it saw the same in its familiar. Solgaleo saw the same thing in the Familiar, which made it think that the two fit well with each other, two beings that didn't think things through nearly enough for their own good or that of the long run.

On the other side, Urthemiel took one look at the grounded Lion-like creature and searching through its memories told it that this creature was aligned to the companion of its creator. It remembered seeing it let its master ride it into battle, with considerable battle prowess being under its belt. However, it cared not for those accomplishments, all it cared about was its own creator. Nothing else mattered, whatever he said was law. Looking down, it noticed that there were more portals forming, which elected a snarl from the airborne Archdemon's maw.

These fools would REGRET angering it, they would rue the day they dared fight against it. That was its thought process whilst it dove down to engage them, paying Solgaleo no more attention.


Meanwhile, Castiel faced off against the boss, which he managed to recognize as looking eerily like Machinedramon from the Digimon franchise, only bigger and with a more diverse skill set. For instance, it had missiles that it could release from its arms, shoulders, and chest, or the constant presence of those annoying little satellites that were (while he monologued) launching lasers at him. Dick move, man. He also had those huge canons that was still not active but who knows how long this would last. Heck, even just moving already was an attack in and of itself as the sheer weight was more than enough to cause quite the damage.

But, Castiel managed to succeed in dealing with it somehow. Mostly due to using his wings as shields while also raining down as many attacks as he could on the boss. Unfortunately, it was only effective at getting it madder without any significant damage to speak off. Think of it as trying to destroy a steel wall with a few door-nails, and you get an idea of what his attacks had been doing. 'It seems like he has a minor magic resistance, magic attacks that I can spam freely are not effective against him at all. And adding the fact that I can't use my swords it creates a picture of disaster.' Castiel thought dispiritedly. Ultimately he was restrained in the magic department due to how relatively weak his magic circuits were making him capable of spamming weak attacks easily, but big ones were much harder and he needed a 'cool down' time after using them a certain number of times.

'Well, luckily I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.' Castiel thought as he dashed towards the Fall Tree with Lunala. But before he went he went out of his way to enrage it further by asking Lunala to destroy those annoying satellites. It wasn't even hard, Lunala also had something similar to those satellites from the start. A group of biological satellites came out of her wings, and all of them moved really fast and with plenty of penetrative power breaking the ones from Machinedramon quite easily.

And with that Castiel had managed to succeed, he had truly pissed it off, making it so infuriated that it decided to follow him. A bad choice considering that when they were close enough to the said Tree (that still was quite a bit taller than Machinedramon) Lunala teleported the two of them to right behind their enemy. It made to turn and face them, but its momentum, unfortunately for it, proved too big to be stopped this quickly. And the fact that Lunala used her Moongleist Beam, knocking it forward while leaving a large scorch mark on its back was NOT helping him stop in time.

And then, finally, he entered the Heir's trap. Castiel had to stop himself from griming from ear to ear as he saw that plant start doing its job, dropping drops of water that could as well be compared to a mid high-class water mage attack, but instead of one or two at second it was more along the lines of 7 to 8 THOUSAND water missiles. Even its defenses were not enough to come out unscratched, when it managed to get out it was already covered in kneads, it was clear that it took quite the damage. It was about to aim at Castiel, try to get close and all when its feet couldn't move anymore.

Castiel could not hold his smirk as he saw his trap working. Binding Three doing wonders by holding its feet in the ground, making it a stationary target.

BOOM

Ready for Nico to blast him away.

As if on cue (which Castiel knew to be so) a dozen or so shell rounds came from the skies and peppered the Machinedramon, falling onto its form like rain and sending it crashing to the ground. A furious roar escaped its mechanical maw, faint sparks flying from its form before it was pelted again. Soon enough, it would began getting pelted by shots every 3 seconds or so, and considering its bulk, it wouldn't be able to react in time to these barrages.

That had been Castiel's plan from the beginning, to draw this fucker to a place where they could strike at him with the Aircraft Carrier's heavy ordinance and restrain it there long enough for the shots to land. It had been a risky bet, as a whole number of things could have gone wrong. For example, it could have ignored Castiel to go crazy around the city, blasting everything in sight. After all, the Heir was merely a bug to it, in terms of size. Nothing worth giving a damn about. Not to mention his Trees wouldn't have formed their protection over an entire city as he didn't have enough of them. In another scenario, this thing could have had a better reaction time and thus fired those back cannons the exact MOMENT it crossed through that portal into the city, blowing it up before the trees could be fully grown.

However, thankfully that hadn't happened. Mostly due to surprise and lack of information on the enemy's part, but meh.

'Looks like this could be the loophole that we could use.' the Heir thought to himself, remembering what the information said about this trial before they had arrived. It had been said that they couldn't use anything metal, but NOTHING had been said that anything else couldn't. For example, the soldiers using the enemy's own technology against them. It was something that had been done throughout human history, using an enemy's technology to form some kind of counter to their attacks, that is. There had also been a signal as well, one that he had told Nico about before the battle had begun when the enemy came.

A signal that took the form of the water missiles hitting the enemy dead on the moment it had been caught in this trap. Once that happened, Nico would launch shooting after shooting till the enemy would be too weak to do anything, and then Castiel could use some of his stronger magics to finish it off. It was a sound strategy, and it should work against this adversary.

Just then, Castiel noticed something, something that made his eyebrows furrow. That something, was the back cannons shifting till they were aligned in a certain direction, a direction that was away from him... and in the direction of the Vessel bombing it. 'Heh, fool. The Aircraft Carrier's too far out for that to do any good. Its just a wasted effort...' he thought to himself, smugly with eyes twinkling in amusement. He had calculated the distance the shots of the carrier would likely travel without losing momentum or destructive force and told Nico about how he should keep a set distance based on it, damage to the city would be innevitable but it would not be that significant and the safety of the soldiers would be ensured this way as the distance would allow for evasive measures to the carrier in case the enemy attacked.

It was a solid plan, one that would work.

Looking in the direction the Cannons were facing though, something caught Castiel's attention, again. Didn't the vessel look... closer than he had originally estimated? Like, way closer than what he said should be the limit of how close they could be, and still approaching at fast speed? No, Castiel said to himself, Nico wouldn't be stupid enough to ignore the plan for no good reason and not say a single fucking word just like that, Castiel had to tell himself that as proof of the contrary was shown to him.

That had been his sole thought before the sounds of wingbeats, cannons prepping to fire and curse words towards a certain redhead filled his ears.


'Target hit confirmed! Reload, then fire again!'

'SIR!'

Nico mentally smirked to himself, having embedded his Rinkaku into the Aircraft Carrier's main deck and made it elevate him to a height where he could see the rounds that he had launched hit the target. The Shingan ring stayed strong, helping him transmit his thoughts as commands to the minds of his men, each of them working double time with the motivation that they were indeed getting back at the final boss that dared destroy their city. Not to mention, he could feel Urthemiel fighting over at the north with his senses and their link, alongside something that seemed to be made from the heat of the sun itself. Nico figured it was one of Castiel's familiars that was the source.

'Looks like the first barrage was a hit.'

'Yeah, looks like. We'll keep the pressure on until we have no ammo left, that should be enough to weaken it so that Emiya can finish it himself.'

'Agreed.'

That had been the signal, Nico realized. The moment that the Final Boss monster had been peppered with those water projectiles (and Nico would NOT underestimate water considering his experiences in the past), he had quickly ordered them to start shooting the monster with the canons. However, Nico also found that thanks to the damage that they had taken, their long range ordinance wouldn't be as accurate as they should be. It had been something he'd been informed of by his men, so he had made a decision to bring the carrier closer to the enemy, so that they could have a better chance of hitting it and not the buildings as he didn't want to lose the points from the loss of the buildings. Unfortunately for him, this had been reported WAY too late in the preparations to tell Castiel and he got too caught up on the moment to remember informing Castiel of this information and when he remembered to relay this it was already in motion so he could only bite the bullet, there was no going back.

Thus, he had this constant nagging feeling in his gut, this anxiety that plagued him every second. It felt like every breath may very well be his last, and that he could have very well done something completely and utterly stupid. Moving closer carried risks, he knew that but the benefits were too good for him that wanted the extra points. What was this feeling though? Why did it feel like he had done something stupid again? He didn't have much of a choice, it was either this or risk their ordinance failing and then the enemy may target them instead! Well, that was what Nico tried to tell himself, but his gut refused to settle down.

Still, Nico had to place everything in his own power, his power to stop any attacks from getting near the carrier. He placed faith in his own power before, so now should be no different.

The barrage's continued to fire like short bursts of rainfall, Nico mentally keeping tabs on everything whilst he confirmed the hits for his men. He used the Shingan to keep orders coming, to keep the organization for the men as strong as possible. There had been no room for doubt, no room for error. Just a single mistake or a moment's hesitation could be costly.

Even so, the feelings in his gut STILL wouldn't leave him. Why the hell not?!

Just then, a soldier's voice broke through to him via a Magic Circle at his ear, his voice filled with panic whilst alarms rang through the background. "Commander DEATHSTROKE, we have trouble! The enemy has locked on to us! There's a mass of energy gathering where Commander Emiya is located!" He yelled, causing Nico to feel like he had dropped his stomach. Eyes widened as horror filled him, a sense of impending doom as he saw the light gathering from the city. 'Oh sit, not good, not good at all!'

'KING, YOU IDIOT!'


It happened so quick that Nico could hardly keep up with it all. All his brain could register at the moment was the brief flash of light, a loud explosion and loads of different sounds. Sounds that he couldn't identify right now.

By the time that he could have grasped himself, Nico found himself... well, facing one situation alright. A very unsettling one.

The feeling in his gut? Whelp, it intensified.

Finally, Nico managed to look around, slowly at first though, as he took in his surroundings.

Death.

No one in the command center was left alive, all of them are dead.

This realization was like a bucket of cold water over Nico, especially when he saw that feather that Castiel gave him disintegrating in front of him. He didn't even feel anything, but it was clear that there should be a large amount of damage.

He was protected, he failed again and again during this mission, made more mistakes that he could count, allowed for those who he SHOULD have protected, those who followed HIS orders, to die while he did nothing.

'STOP BEING A BITCH, KING!' the white Nico said when he noticed the train of thought that Nico was going through. Good thing he had managed to use their combined instincts, exercising the limited control he had over Nico's instincts, and even then it had been due to the shock of what had happened, to save them from that attack. 'THEY WERE INFERIOR AND WEAK, THEY DIED AND THAT IS THAT. WHY SHOULD YOU GIVE A DAMN ABOUT IT?'

'I find myself agreeing with the white one. In the end, they were just too weak. It was not your fault that they died. You should now focus on your mission, this is all that matters now. If you win the fight then everything is fine.' Biko commented on the side, trying to make Nico let this go. However, it was also true that he did not care about these soldiers, his demonic nature made him much colder to others that were not intimately connected to him or the main aspect. It wasn't something that was unexpected, at least to Nico, since he knew him the longest.

Nico ultimately listened to them, it was just easier to push the blame on those who die and the enemy.

Putting on a resolute face he flew away, focusing on completing his mission. This is what he was good at, and this is what he was going to do.


Castiel was not going great. He managed to stop most of the shot using his own body, but the problem was that his instincts ended up moving faster than his thoughts and he moved to the front of the blast BEFORE he activated his name. It was only a fraction of a second, but this alone was enough for him to have plenty of burn marks and he could feel some bones being dislocated.

'Not too bad' was his current impression of his situation, and that was because he took into account the fact that he was currently with Siegfried activated. He was still quite used to getting MUCH worse to wear during his fights, to the point that all he did when he felt this amount of pain was grimace a bit before pulling out a Phenex Tear and drink it.

Instantly he felt his bones getting back in place and the damaged skin and bones returned to normal at high speeds.

After the healing was complete he realized that the barrage stopped, which means-

"GGGRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

That the mechanical dino had the time to free himself.

Evading a right hook from his drilling arm Castiel flew high, and it was then that he noticed that his magic circuits were far too heated up, their weakness limiting him yet again, again he felt how he was not enough.

'Shit, is this my limit already?' Castiel thought while evading another attack from the monster. In the end, his circuits limited him simply way too much, he could not use magic nearly as much as he would like, and without the capacity of using his weapons, the situation was quite dire. 'I probably hit my limit while stopping that canon.' was what Castiel mused with a grimace while avoiding the enemy pursue and missiles.

His situation was too dire to ignore, it was to the point that he chose to mount on Lunala so as not to force himself any further and try to cool down his magic circuits as soon as possible.

Just then, he noticed a black and red blur suddenly fly past him at high speeds.

"Did I took too long?" Came Nico's voice before he went right past Castiel to fight the boss.

This raised an eyebrow of Castiel, this should NOT be happening, as far as he knew Nico should be on the carrier trying to salvage the situation. Or at least making sure that there would be no soldiers left unsaved.

Calming down Castiel decided to leave Nico to do the rest, he still needed quite a while before his circuits were back on track and he did NOT want to risk frying them any further.

'Let's call there, just to make sure that everything is going alright and to hear a status report.' Castiel decided before calling.

A few moments later, while ignoring the explosions happening everywhere around him, Castiel's face got quite interesting. Deathly pale, to the point that he looked like a ghost while also a furious glare formed the more he heard.

He gave several MUCH needed orders to various personal and then closed his eyes. He was not mad, nor angry, no those are just too simple words to describe the utter EXPLOSIVE HATE he felt this instant. He had decided, then and there, that he needed to talk to Nico to set some things straight.

And it would NOT be a pretty sight.


BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, ,BAM, ,BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM!

Cold fury flowed through his blood, setting it alight like the flames that he commanded. An indescribable heat ROARED within his gut, matching the kind of intensity that his Hellfire possessed when he could use its true form. The fiery sensation within fueled him, filled his mind, body and soul with a murderous desire, a desire that pretty much became his sole focus, forming a single purpose within Nico's mind:

Rip, this fucker, to shreds.

Nico didn't care anymore, he held nothing back when he charged at the beast, he held nothing back at all. He poured everything he had into his blows, his Rinkaku descending upon the creature with his Bikaku in a hybrid of frenzied slashes, stabs, thrusts and smashes like a deadly dance of death. His Rinkaku and Bikaku could hardly be distinguished between each of their strikes. It all registered the same towards the mechanical dino-whatever, as it struggled in vain to hold up against the vicious, animalistic onslaught against its form by his Kagune.

His Kagune, the two 'fangs' he was able to use anyways, descended upon it with rapid attention, leaving barely any time for the creature to comprehend what was happening before the next onslaught began. Gradually, it began getting forced back, step by step it moved backward, trying its hardest to block the appendages from getting too close to its vitals. The thing was, that there were still some attacks that got through, ones made mostly by the Rinkaku though thanks to its high cutting ability. An ability formed from its cloaking via vibrations which would have made the creator of the High-Frequency blades jealous as all hell.

Yet, that wasn't all Nico used against it, he DID say that he wasn't going to hold anything back.

His hands, which were practically concealed by orangish red Hellfire, blazed as bright as the flames of hell themselves as Nico hurled fireball after fireball at speeds that would rival Gatling guns, his arms a blur as he poured all his emotions into the flames, the biggest feeling being his rage. Rage at this thing for killing off the men that he commanded, the men that he SHOULD have protected as they were weaker than him. They hadn't known the things that he had, they hadn't seen the shit that he had. They should have lived with their families after this, they should have survived this war! They didn't have to die like dogs, they should have at least survived the aftermath of this battle! Things had gone off rocky at first, he'll admit that, but they had gotten better! Now because of this fucker, it had all gone down the drain.

Nico couldn't hear the voices of his other aspects trying to speak to him, nothing registered to him anymore but the desire to make this fucker pay for what it had done. For the crime of killing the men, he had been trying to make it up to for his mistakes.

The attacks that landed thanks to his Hellfire did their thing, burning their way through the monster's Armour. It had to have been fire resistant, because his flames had been barely able to heat it up for the longest time. However, thanks to the constant barrage from them, the Armour began to give way to the heat. The male saw this, the proof being how the various holes that had formed on the being's body gradually turning a deep orangish color. Not so different from when metal was put inside a furnace by a Blacksmith tying to forge a sword.

Rage reaching a new height, Nico unleashed the Red Rage Ring's power on himself, letting ALL of its rage explode into him and fuel his desire for vengeance further. Also, hidden under his Trench coat, a certain mark on his right shoulder began to shine a brilliant crimson light, and with that, the male felt his desire for vengeance, his WRATH, intensify even further. If he were to make an estimate (though he didn't right now due to the combat) then he would think that he had multiple planets worth of raw fury and murderous vengeance coursing through him right now. Hell, his whole body glowed an eerie red light thanks to the Demonic Power coursing through him, responding to his emotions.

Flame wisps burned from his being, heating the air around them to an immense degree. Yet, with all of this going on, Nico still managed to retain some sense of self, enough to stop any damage from being dealt with the buildings and the trees protecting them. As furious as he was, Nico had no desire to endanger the mission any more than he probably had. Why the HELL did he have to be a leader for this trial? Why the FUCK?! He wasn't a leader, he was a soldier, a killer, a warrior! He wasn't meant to lead people, if anything he felt like he'd only be able to lead an army of MONSTERS, rather than humans! At least they would not mind a loss or two, they would only care for the strength of the leader, something he had in spades! That's simply what he was, a monster!

Eventually, Nico saw that the beast tried to strike back by bringing its drill-like claw down on him. It had sensed an opening, and exploited it he figured, though thanks to his emotions, Nico felt like he was on high at the moment. His Rinkaku whipped upwards, slamming into the arm and blowing it back, which made the Dino stumble backward even more, electing a dark look of satisfaction from the teen. Nico swiftly pulled up the hood of his Trench Coat, donning his Mask and pulled off the thing over his eye, allowing his insanity-filled Kakugan to be shown. His Bikaku then swung all 4 of its appendages at once, unloading on the monster.

All of them hit their mark, impaling the robot at every hole his assault had made, no matter how big or small. With a grin so savage it resembled a patient in an insane asylum, Nico clicked his fingers and every projectile inside the robot exploded, the force making it howl in agony as it got sent flying out of the city. He could faintly make out the sight of its back cannons exploding into pieces, each one unceremoniously falling to the ground below.

Not wanting it to get away, Nico morphed his Rinkaku into wings, and then took off after it.


His prey landed on one of the plains, which one Nico didn't give a flying fuck about, rolling backward till it used the momentum to get back on its feet, digging its arm into the ground to slow its movement. The moment that it stopped all motion, it looked up and growled at the approaching Nico, who looked more like a flaming meteor as he shot down towards it with a furious look in his sole Kakugan eye. It opened its shoulders and chest, some of the few areas that were less damaged than the other parts of its body thanks to Nico's Kagune, before unleashing a salvo of 60 missiles in total at him.

'Hah, that fucker thinks mere MISSILES will stop me?!'

If he wasn't so angry, then Nico would have laughed at the thought.

Instead, Nico unleashed his Bikaku and Rinkaku (the former having already regrown its Talons) in a frenzied mass of wicked slashes. Each one sliced through the missiles while the heat from the crimson aura burned the rest into nothingness. He soon landed in front of the creature, and when it swung its claw at him Nico had his Bikaku block it, wrapping around the limb before lifting it into the air. The weight didn't come as an issue to the male, for his Kagune had lifted things MUCH heavier in comparison.

At that point, the male had done something that, if he was honest, felt fucking therapeutic right about now.

SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM!

... Basically, Nico commenced the process of repeatedly slamming his opponent into the ground whilst pouring his intense emotions into each slam.

A moment later, the male then tossed the creature away, his Rinkaku slamming into the ground to propel him upwards, launching him high into the air. This allowed the creature to get its bearings and look up... only to quickly raise its hand to fire a large energy beam to blow up a barrage of those pesky explosive projectiles from the redhead's Bikaku.

'So, it thinks THAT'LL be enough to stop me, huh? Well, let's show it how WRONG that way of thinking is!'

That was what he thought whilst Nico cackled evilly, his Kakugan eye pulsing with power, his insanity-filled gaze making his look all the crazier. Twisting himself, Nico expertly dodged the energy beam, rearing his right arm back before thrusting it forwards, launching a Fiery fist towards his opponent. On the halfway point of its journey though, the fist instantly enlarged itself so that it would rival the monster's size, much to its shock.

It quickly jumped out the way of that attack, not wanting to get burned into nothingness like its missiles. Its processors had calculated that if it had been hit by that, the odds that it would have been reduced to cinders had been well above the safety threshold. Not something it wanted to think about, as it instead focused on unloading more missiles at him.

In response, Nico deflected them with his Kagune after landing in a kneeling position, then he threw his right arm upwards, a series of fiery geysers made from Hellfire erupting around the beast, restraining its movement.

"Not letting you get away this time!"

The beast roared at him, intending to just forgo ranged attacks and charge at him directly... when it noticed that its feet wouldn't respond to its command. Looking down, it noticed that, to its shock and horror, that Nico's Bikaku had buried into the ground and surfaced beneath it, coiling around its legs to hold it in place. The machine-based monster growled as it tried to break free, but to no avail as the Bikaku's strength proved to be greater than it had anticipated. Hell, everything about this variable hadn't been anticipated very well. It had assumed that the multi-winged blonde human would be the greater threat of the two, and that this one simply had the ability to draw attention to himself...

How wrong those calculations had been.

For a moment, Nico swore he saw a look of shock form on its face, but how could that happen? Nope, not going to think about it, he had his prey right where he wanted it, immobilized and unable to get away from his final attack. Thanks to his move of knocking it out of the city, Nico didn't need to worry about the damage that his next attack would cause, since it wouldn't reach the city with how far they were from it. Thus, Nico decided to end it, putting all his remaining emotions and Demonic Power into this last attack whilst throwing his hand out.

From his hand, a small hand generated itself. Its size didn't last though, as the flames expanded and expanded the more power was pumped into it. In seconds, Nico had a fist that seemed ten times the monster's size in front of him, set in a closed fist for a punch that would be the deciding factor for this match. The difference between him and Castiel, was that Nico wasn't limited by his own powers, or his body for that matter. He had accepted himself as a monster before coming here, so he could use his Ghoul side to a greater extent that he had been, and his demonic powers were growing at a consistent enough speed, too.

"Now... BURN!"

With that calling, Nico thrust his hand forwards, and the fiery fist shot forth like a bullet. Its size did not give away how fast it would be, and in one moment it had closed the distance between him and his opponent. In the instant that they connected, an explosion the size and shape of a nuclear warhead erupted in front of him, a loud 'BOOM!' filling Nico's ears.

It was over, Nico had won... by a landslide, actually.


The battle over, Nico grunted and heaved heavily, his upper body leaning forwards before he fell to one knee, placing one hand on the ground for support whilst his other one went to his kneecap. His Bikaku stabbed itself into the ground around him, his Rinkaku laying itself instead like someone who was lazing about on a beach. His aura vanished out of existence, his body restoring itself to normal levels whilst sweat dripped from his forehead from his prolonged exertion. Hell, he felt drained in both the physical and the emotional sense, thanks to the insane level of negative emotion that he had used to fuel his powers. His reserves may not be the same as Castiel's whose holy power seemed almost endless, but he had ways of amplifying his reserves for similar levels of destruction.

Heck, when he looked up Nico noticed that half the entire plains had become one big smoking hot crater. Smoke trails flew throughout the edges and interior, whilst heat could be felt on his face from the amount of Hellfire he had used. Whilst it had not been in its true form, the level of heat he had felt from this devastation definitely felt like he had. Yet, he hadn't, and with this, he couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if he used his Hellfire's true form.

Nico shuddered at the thought.

'Wow... that... has to be the angriest I have been in a long while...' Nico thought to himself, hanging his head to give his body a chance to recover his stamina. 'Can't believe I lost it like that...'

'It seems that, despite what we said, your mind continued to think about the losses you were dealt back there, and wanted vengeance...'

Mentally, Nico frowned as the memory of that attack came to the forefront of his mind. He remembered the emotions that had came through him the moment he set off to take out that fucker:

Shock,

Disbelief,

Despair,

Regret,

Frustration,

and finally... RAGE.

This battle, Nico had fought it with everything he had, and despite the exhaustion running through his system, Nico still felt some sort of pride fill him inside. Pride, pride in that he had done it. He had taken down the enemy that dared kill those under him, he had won the fight in the end by his own strength. That was enough to at least make sure that he had done something right, that he didn't fail completely even if some of those under him didn't manage to survive. They were what can only be called weak, he had seen more deaths of the weak that he could care to count in his world so this was actually relatively very normal in his eyes.

The strong survive and the week dies, this is what was like in his world.

Before he could think more, Nico felt a presence approaching... and for some reason, he got a bad feeling about it.


Upon landing and retracting his wings, Castiel approached the tired warrior, his footwear making incredibly audible sounds to both of them. Nico noticed him approaching, but his fatigue was responsible for him failing to react much. On the Heir's end, he tried to hide it but it was clear that the other guy was still feeling pride from this fiasco. When he got close enough he did not wait for any talk, he had something of much more important to do, his emotions as someone raised to lead and that was raised for such, that was raised to care first, second, and third more for his subordinates than to his own safety, that saw clearly how much of a pure mistake it was to trust Nico to do even just what was agreed, it all was just too much. His emotions were too much and there was only one way he could vent them right now.

PUNCH

He punched Nico, right in the face. Or rather, he would have had a Bikaku Kagune not instinctively defended its master, still having strength left to do so, by wrapping around his limb. Still, the force of the shockwave created this headwind that slammed into Nico with just as much force, ruffling his hood and pushing him back for a few centimeters. Because of the direction it came from, it didn't blow the hood off, a small benefit if nothing else.

Nevertheless, it DEFINITELY caught his attention.

Slowly, Nico raised his head, his lone Kakugan eye narrowing at the angry look on the blonde's face. "What... the hell? Why... the FUCK... did you.. just do that?" Nico questioned, irritation and fury rising in his voice again despite his fatigue. Even in his current state, Nico already began steadily showing signs of wanting to rip the heir to pieces to daring to doubt his capacity, he did give the final strike to the monster and if anything he just did his job and slain the monster, at least the objective was done right! There were many mistakes, true, but being punched without being told anything was not right. That is what was in his mind as he turned with hate to the heir who had attacked without any good reason as far as Nico was concerned. Though, if his Red Rage Ring hadn't been used so much, it would have responded and amplified his anger.

Said heir, however, didn't care, however not one bit as he continued looking around and seeing the scene around him. The disaster that was their surroundings.

"WHY? You, of all people, have the gal of asking me WHY?" Castiel yelled with such fury that even Nico took a step back, his Kagune throwing the arm it had caught aside in favor of a defensive stance. It had been so bad, that the dark powers within the Heir stirred and the feeling of foreboding became such that even the other personas of Nico shut up after feeling it. "You don't have the RIGHT to ask me WHY I did that! You already screwed up ENOUGH for this whole mission and more! Why do you think you have ANY right to question anyone? Because you beat the boss in the end? Just being strong is far, FAR from enough to deserve praise after your screw ups. If you doubt that come with me, I want you to still feel pride for what you did after you see this."

With his piece said, although there would be so much more, Castiel turned his back and started flying towards the carrier, his face stoic as he tried to supress his emotions and the evil energy that was starting to react in his soul making his mood even worst. Meanwhile, baffled, and yet still angry, Nico ended up following him by morphing his Rinkaku for flight while keeping his Bikaku out, not because he felt he had to know but more because he just could not say no to Castiel right now. There was just something about him, a charisma of sorts, that compelled him to follow his orders.

After the two got close enough Castiel looked impassively at the wreckage in front of him. The soldiers were desperately trying their best to rescue any survivors, cries of pain and loss echoed all around as a man cried for his dead brother, a dad cried over his two sons, as people were desperate to find ANYTHING of their dead friends. This scene was a visage of hell for the two teens, but the next few words of Castiel made Nico feel many hundreds of thousands of times worse.

"This happened because of YOUR decision. Not only because you approached the carrier beyond what you should if you had just followed what I have instructed clearly but also because of your hastiness." The heir explained. Castiel's eyes almost glowed with righteous anger as he turned and glared at Nico, whose Kagune readied itself for a potential defensive measure. "As soon as this disaster happened you didn't think for a second about it, you just ran to fight without a second thought, without considering even for a moment about the soldiers that were putting their LIVES on your hands, that were trusting their very lives to you. You could have organized a rescue party in a matter of seconds, heck you could have rescued them yourself if you wanted by using those tentacles things of yours quite fast considering what I've seen so far of your skills, but all you did was run to do battle on your own terms. You should have done better than this."

Castiel's words rung like a bell through Nico's mind, purging him of the anger and other emotions he had felt. Instead, they were replaced by shock, horror, and a painful twisting sensation in his gut. He had felt this sensation before, as in before the Vessel had been attacked. Only this time, it had felt much worse. His hands clenched into fists as his lone eye, still in its Kakugan form, cast its gaze on the horrendous background that Castiel showed him. A sight that he had caused with his own actions. Perhaps his earlier thoughts were true, that he WAS better off leading monsters instead of humans. He was more the former than the latter anyways. "I-I should never have led them..." Nico muttered under his breath, Kagune trembling alongside the shaking, furious Heir as he heard those words loud and clear. "I-I-I-I should only lead monsters and never hu-"

PUNCH

Castiel punched Nico again, this time the punch was even stronger, to the point that even though his Kagune managed to catch it, the headwind that came from it made Nico slide away from him by 20 meters, his Kagune taking Castiel along with it. Nico didn't notice, and neither did Castiel, that something happened to the Rinkaku Tentacle used to catch the punch, as energy seemed to surge through it and hardened the entire structure to a state stronger than steel itself. As such, Nico hardly felt as much of the force as he should have.

Biko and his Ghoul Persona did somewhat, though.

He would have lost balance if he hadn't jammed his feet into the ground, same with the redhead.

"So turn to those who DIED on your orders and tell them this. That they were wrong in trusting your judgment, that THEY are the responsible for this and not you. Go on, are you going to face your mistakes or be a coward about them?" he spat, pumping what remained of his power to free his arm from the Bikaku. Ordinarily that wouldn't have been possible unless he activated his left arm Spirit Bone, but he had too much anger in him to care. It just reminded him too much of Castiel's own previous mistake, the overconfidence that could have ruined everyone that cared for him was just too clear on his mind, the marks of it still on his body because of it, and right now he was seeing someone similar but even worst about it. Castiel was overconfident about his strategy before everything went to shit on his world, Nico, however, wasn't even thinking at all and being even worst, and that infuriated Castiel.

Nico did not know what to say, his two personas talking to him without stop trying to explain things in a way that agreed with Nico, to make him feel better with himself. But, this all changed when one man crawled forward. He didn't have any legs, and it looked like bandages had already been applied to them, but even so he seemed to be glaring at the Heir, much to Nico's shock. "Stop accusing commander DEATHSTROKE, he didn't run away from his responsibilities!" he yelled with his entire soul. The redhead recognized him, he had been the one that he transferred orders to the most with his Shingan, as well as had been the one that he talked to first.

And with that, like the domino effect occurring, other voices started agreeing with him, but instead of feeling better Nico felt worse as he noticed how many of them were lacking members or were extremely hurt. Castiel looked at Nico and continued.

"So, is this all you amount for? Someone that would run away on the time of need, that would run away from their responsibilities? Can't you even man up and actually try to make it better now?" He then spits to the side and said. "You make me sick." With this Castiel left, he still wanted to look over the wreckage of the boss to see if there was anything that could be used on the future, maybe see if he can get anything to help his friends back home as he wanted them to be safer, one person being disabled like he was is enough. Meanwhile, Nico stood there, hearing the praise of those he failed while standing above the marks of what he felt were his mistakes.

A visage that he would never forget.