Chapter 175 - Meetings on Two Fronts

"Ugh, girls? Is it just me…?"

An annoyed Neptune began to speak as she, holding out her Soul Calibur in it's Dual Kodachi form, hacked away at a couple dozen monsters which had tried to surround her, only for the purplette to utilize a mix of her TRACKLESS STEP, various powers belonging to her weapon, the Blue Hope Ring Satanic Treasure she had received during the Gala, to utterly wreck their asses. The sounds of carnage rung out around her, filling her ears with explosive sounds whilst charred snow, steam and smoke dominated her vision when she idly glanced around at her surroundings. It helped that she had donned her Armour too, so her annoyance remained hidden behind her helmet. A couple tried to assault her from behind, but she instead hopped into a back flip over one, landed on it's shoulders and proceeded to hack off its head by reverse horizontal swinging her right sword. She then hopped off the headless beast and landed behind the second one, using TRACKLESS STEP to avoid a back kick by the beast and hacked off its offending limb, then proceeded to finish it off by switching Soul Calibur into it's Railgun form and blasted a hole through its heart. She then had it remold itself into its default form and held it in a defensive stance, blocking and pushing back another's charge. Afterwards, a few pants escaped her mouth before she finally finished her sentence.

"Or is there literally no end to these things?"

When asking this, she had referred to the countless different beasts which attacked them, forcing each of the girls to retaliate in defensive styles whilst being forced to separate into smaller groups shortly into the conflict. She wasn't wrong to be asking that question either, as since the battle had begun between them and a rather extensive hoard of Abnormals, they had been constantly fighting without rest or respite. It had been hours since the carnage had begun, and like the time when they had fought those massive beasts upon their arrival, the entire plain had been reduced to a crater-filled war zone. Explosions, smoke and the like dominated their surroundings as marks from their larger scale attacks, whilst new ones still kept getting made, their culprits being the countless energy/elemental attacks launched from her Comrades from various positions. Currently, Neptune had counted her kills to be in the 400's at this point, and yet there seemed to be zero signs of the enemy slowing down.

Speaking of said enemies, like she had mentioned last chapter there seemed to be all kinds of different Abnormals, too many for her to count, but so far she had seen and named a few of them in her mind (something which internally Neptune found herself surprised at her being able to remember, at all), those being:

'Gammoths' (essentially these gigantic mammoth-like creatures with Armour plates, hence the name),

'Barioths' (essentially a quadrouple wyvern-like beast with a sabretooth cat head, a body covered in icy white plates with spikes along its neck, spine and tail. Its face had these huge amber curved tusks, a head that resembles a saber-toothed cat. It had weaker back legs compared to the Its stronger and longer forelegs, and deadly spikes along the wings, accompanied by 3 large claws as well as a forked, ridged Tail that sported spikes)

'Zamitros' (a large, quadrupedal monster with grey-blue skin and yellow fins, mostly shark-like in appearance with a long, pointed snout and a mouth filled with multiple rows of sharp teeth. Some of them seemed to be encased in an ice-like armor, which formed many spines and horns all over the body. Strong limbs and its lower body sometimes inflated, letting it bounce all over the damn place).

'Blangonga' (Essentially a large white monkey with tusks, ferocity that could put some of the angrier people she'd seen to shame, take a pissed off IF for example).

'Lagombi' (Simply put, a large wombat-like creature with long, sensitive ears, a beak like mouth and small red eyes. Lastly was its thick fur coat that looked WAY more comfortable to snuggle into than it should for an Abnormal)

Of course, there had been other types, but these ones had been the ones Neptune had encountered the most so far.

"Its not just you, Nep-Nep!"

A call came out to her from Compa, who soared through the skies above like a human fighter jet, clad in her Astral Dress whilst dual wielding CAMAEL and HANIEL in the former's form. A crazy sounding laugh escaped from her throat as she engaged in a dog fight with several flying type Abnormals shaped like moths… AKA, the Banshees from Planeptune. She remembered her first encounter with these way back when upon first seeing them, which had filled her with a sense of nostalgia… as well as a desire to hack them to bits thanks to CAMAEL's influence, combined with the fact that the Spirit wanted to pay them back for what they had almost done to her and Neptune way back when. She STILL had yet to ask Nico how he had managed to get them to her house after that first encounter with one, though…

Regardless, aside from her literally tearing through Banshees by the dozens with every fire-enhanced swing from her dual axes, Compa still maintained enough of her clarity to think logically, processing what her companion had said and thus agreeing with her. Up in the air like this, she had a good view of the various battles taking place throughout the Plain, and from what she could see some of their Party Members were starting to show signs of exhaustion, which would lead to them slowing down eventually. This fight had been going o for HOURS after all, not to mention that they had wasted a large portion of their power fleeing as fast as they could from that trap White Heart had said as possible, so it wasn't a surprise that this situation had cropped up. The most prominent example of this turned out to be Cecil, something which made sense to the Spirit in hindsight, since out of all of them she had the least amount of experience in this sort of prolonged combat.

Aside from her, the next Party Members who showed signs would be Ivan and Aiden, mostly the former since flying through the skies and shooting down Banshees with his dual Handguns allowed Aiden to conserve his stamina. He truly DID live up to his Codename of FALCON. As for Ivan, he had to stay within the thick of it, supporting either Lucy or Raven as the two of them used their elemental abilities to keep the enemy off their backs. Raven would make sure to keep her foes away by shooting Ice attacks from her hands, generate spikes from the ground around them to pierce foes, as well as more 'intricate' constructs which served her well on this battlefield. It also helped that she pretty much generated a miniature snowstorm around her section of the battlefield, limiting the enemy's vision whilst also allowing her to attack from potentially any angle due to using the cold air as a medium. Lucy would perform similar tactics, if only for the purpose of brainwashing or restraining her opponents so that Ivan could finish them off by either blasting or slashing them up.

That was Team RAIL's side of things, and since they had been doing so well for themselves, Compa hadn't seen much of a reason to help out… well, that also had to do with CAMAEL's influence too, otherwise she would have directed a few stray attacks to them using MICHAEL or something.

Aside from them, the three CPUs (Neptune, Noire and Vert) had their own corner, and since Neptune had already been taking care of business herself, Compa idly glanced towards the other two. Seemed that Vert kept her foes at bay using an… admittingly rather skillful use of pole-arm martial arts, hacking away at her enemies, blocking and deflecting attacks, all whilst moving about to stop her foes from getting hits in. Unlike Neptune, she wasn't dual wielding though instead she just kept to Beninuki in an attempt to preserve stamina. Not a bad strategy since this battle had become one of attrition so it would be best to fight as conservatively as possible… that and if Compa were to guess, she would say that Vert would be the next one to start slowing down due to fatigue. On Noire's side of things, Compa noticed how she, clad in her Dragonblood form, swung about her Dragon Fault in massive, wide strikes with each swing carrying the sensation of a freaking tyrant, relentlessly dominating her section of the battlefield. It helped that she had her Samsara Arms out which held a doppelganger of her Heavy Sword whilst performing similarly feeling attacks, faint flashes of movement alerting the young Spirit of how Noire kept unleashing her ZANDATSU and QUICKSILVER abilities to mess with the flow of time, putting it into her favor. Each of her sword strikes sent waves of dominating energy, waves which left the battleground horribly decimated and gave the blackette the feeling of being a mobile fortress in terms of sheer might, presence and endurance. Because of these traits, the blackette stayed primarily in the air and provided aerial cover for them, a nice prospect since the airborne Abnormals couldn't gain as much ground as they should have.

"Guh!"

Over on Team RAIL's side, Lucy flipped backwards after a particularly large strike came down at her from a particularly LARGE behemoth of an Abnormal, although not without a cost. The strike she' dodged had such a shockwave to it that it sent her flying backwards towards Raven and Ivan, to which she had to readjust herself in mid air (catching a glimpse of Aiden peppering the behemoth with Missiles from his Wings), before flipping herself about and landing, sliding to a halt to end up right beside the two. "Tch..." the girl muttered, an annoyed hiss escaping her lips as she wiped her mouth with her forearm. "This is definitely something those pussies over at Leanbox would have nightmares about, their worst fears..." she mumbled.

"Indeed." Raven added, with the two males nodding in agreement from their various positions, Ivan at her side and Aiden flying overhead with a couple bat-like Abnormals hot on his tail. A whole land predominantly under the control of Abnormals... something which those of Leanbox had been fighting desperately against for hundreds of years at this point, only for another bastion of humanity to literally BECOME what they feared most. Which made them wonder, what befell the Spec Ops Agents? After all, they all became the monsters who should have fought till their last breath to protect Lowee from this kind of fate...

"TACTICAL BARRAGE, INCOMING!"

A loud cry from Aiden broke them all (including the other Party members) out of their battle craze, and then made them look to the skies above them. The moment they did, they only had a couple seconds of silence... until all hell broke loose when a shower of what seemed like energy blasts tore through the space above their heads and slammed into the battlefield like the smashing of a certain Nordic god's hammer.

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-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-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-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-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-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-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-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-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-!

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Startled and panicked cries filled the air as Compa, the girls and the two guys each scrambled like rioting civilians to dodge the incoming barrage, which created a smokescreen by the time that it had finished. What it had been launched by, none of them could say since they had no clue where the barrage came from, save for the fact that it came down on them straight from above which likely meant that had been where the enemy had attacked... only, there wasn't anything there.

By the time the smoke and steam settled, it revealed each of the Party, now on one leg, kneeling before the hoard with various injuries across their persons, injuries which started to heal up quite quickly. Although the larger injuries which had been sustained by the aerial forces (save for Noire, whose high endurance thanks to the Dragon Marks helped mitigate things for her), so they'll reasonably take a lot longer. Slowly, Compa and Neptune became the ones to stand upright first, their legs wobbling a bit but they otherwise remained standing, which prompted the others to do the same.

"Looks like... we may be in a bit of a bind..." IF commented, hissing as her body repaired itself of all her wounds and allowed her to transition into her Awakened Form. This happened whilst she stepped in front of her injured-but-healing companions, her morphing eyes narrowing into a beady glare not unlike that of a fierce bloodhound. Her Wings flared outwards as she prepared herself to continue the fight, intending to take out and assimilate as many Abnormals as possible. For someone like her, this actually could be classed as a rather big boon, more than anything else. She felt like she herself would be able to fight on for a while yet, however the others had the same advantages she did, thus they would soon run out of juice.

The brunette made to say something just then, however before she could...

GLOMP!

"MPH?!"

"EH?! Verty poo, wha?! I mean sure Iffy's a nice furnace to get warm in, but even I know now's SO not the time for this!"

"What Nep-Nep said, Lady Vert! Why not just wait till the two of you are alone or in a room together or something?!"

"You two, are you SERIOUS right now?!"

"... It appears that Lastation's CPU is struggling to cope with this new situation, VERONICA."

"Well, she IS a prude, Ravey, so did you expect anything else?"

Several comments got thrown out into the atmosphere by multiple users... one can guess by the comments themselves who said which, as the Party all stared at the blonde woman incredulously.

"Ahhhhh, to have my adorable, cool little Iffy in my arms like this in my last moments, ah I am truly blessed!" Vert cooed as she wrapped her arms around the woman's head from the side, then pulled it into her waiting bosom. Of course,she made sure to avoid the horn by angling it so that the Horn stuck out of her bosom, so she couldn't completely engulf IF to her internal dismay, but this would have to do.

"MPH-MMMMPH-MMPH!"

"My, you're simply too good a body pillow, my dear Iffy. If I'm gonna go, I'd rather hug one of my favorite people in the whole world. Since this whole scene's made it so that the usual CANON 'I choose you!' part's an impossibility, this is an alternative that the author cooked up. The only thing that would have made this better would be if my dear husband were to join us."

"MMMMMMPPH!"

Whilst Vert happily sighed, content seeping from her posture with a little regret about not seeing Nico again, IF struggled in vain to escape the older woman's clutches, causing the others to collectively sweat drop. Neither of them noticed, due to their situations, the killing intent that came from the various females in the group minus Cecil, who frantically looked around for any way out like she were one step away from having a panic attack. Meanwhile, Ivan and Aiden hummed in unison as they began to wonder about something only they knew, completely calm and composed despite the situation at hand.

As such, some of the monsters had looks similar to 'are you really doing this?' right now.

Eventually however, IF managed to separate herself from Vert by producing multiple arms and pushing with all her might, though the blonde woman only backpedalled a few steps. "Whew... phew, geez, I know I don't necessarily need to breathe anymore, but sheesh..." IF mumbled, though the redness on her face told a completely different story. She then shook her head when she noticed some of the monsters launch boulders made from Ice at them, those monsters obviously having learned from their previous battles and thus tried to keep attacking from a distance. Instead, IF smashed them to bits with a few well placed punches, all whilst using the momentum to turn to her comrades. "You guys want to stay behind me whilst I take care of these bozos?" she questioned.

Of course, she got a FEW responses aligned on the disagreement category.

"No way, Iffy! We're not gonna let you fight all alone!" Compa yelled as she switched her Angels about. Her Angels soon turned into both GABRIEL and METATRON, with the latter already aligning it's pillars towards the enemy like a set of siege cannons ready to obliterate her opponents. As for the former, it simply formed a single pipe from its full form, one which came from a white portal which appeared before Compa's feet. "Spirit this Compa refuses to let comrades be left on their lonesome, especially when she can still keep going!"

Neptune nodded her head in agreement as she shifted into her Devil Trigger, becoming Blood Heart once again. Holding her Katana at the ready, Soul Calibur crackled with crimson Lightning as a torrent of bloodlust surged through her that came from the sword itself, obviously the thing craved the upcoming carnage, perhaps more so now since its demonic nature now took hold. "We'll be strutting our stuff for centuries yet, ladies." she declared in a sultry voice, jutting her right side out as she smirked eagerly, radiating sinister yet seductive intent. "After all, how can we call ourselves women if we let a bunch of wimps stop us from getting off?"

Several of them (Noire, Compa, Ivan, and Cecil) blushed cherry red at the innuendo that Blood Heart had made at varying degrees, whilst the rest of them sweat dropped in unison. "Heh, kinda figured you'd say that, Nep..." IF commented, trailing off with a drawl as she glanced back at the transformed woman, nonetheless it didn't really annoy her any, in fact it kind of assurred her. "Not like we'll be dying or anything, not when we have still got shit needing to be done. So then, shall we deal with this in style?"

"Heh, no need for that one, ladies."

"?!"

All of a sudden, an amused voice NONE of the girls recognized suddenly spoke out, and right on afterwards a series of white flashes erupted throughout their vicinity, forming a circular shape. Loud howls and cries filled the air as the Abnormals stumbled about, hacking and coughing as they struggled to cope with their sudden temporary lack of vision.

Some fell onto their sides, others covered their eyes with their arms or claws etc, though before the Party could realize the total outlook going on here, several men and women dressed in white gear abruptly popped up beside them, grasping onto them whilst a few yells sounded out.

Those yells became their only warning for the following events, see, as they each simply 'blinked' out of existence similar to the Warping that Nico did after the people in white all pulled out Eject Buttons and pressed them whils maintaining physical contact with the Party… leaving behind no traces of their existence by the time the other Abnormals came out of their trances.


By the time their vision returned to them once the flashes died down, the Party lowered the arms that they had reflexively used to cover their faces, allowing them to see where they had ended up.

"Nepu…"

"Eh? Where are we…?"

"Compa, this looks like some sort of military area."

When doing so, to their surprise it seemed like they had found themselves in, just like what IF had described, to be some fort of militia compound, located within what seemed to be some sort of village, one which looked completely deserted of any kind of life form aside from the militia occupying it. The encampment itself looked rather small, with it only occupying the village's centre whilst, using their various sensing skills, the Party confirmed there to be areas which seemed to be layered with various booby traps. The encampment looked like it had been erected rather basically, making the more experienced Party Members like Team Rail, Noire, Vert and IF realize that it had been built to be easily packed up, meaning that these people must be quite used to quickly moving from place to place. More evidence of this existed in the form of a series of convoy vehicles similar to the ones which Team Rail had used for that one mission to those Silver Steel Mines, only coated with varying degrees of white to help them blend into the environments better. More people in white patrolled the Encampment, which told the more experienced members about how the ones who'd retrieved them had been a small strike force in comparison.

All in all, each of them became stunned at everything around them.

"Whooooaaaaa…" Cecil muttered; eyes wide with child-like curiosity as she eyed everything around her like an animal in a new habitat/home. "So many people… and vehicles… my dad sometimes dealt with military issues, but our village only had the basic Guard system in place… Never seen anything like this in person…" she mused, remembering in the articles about the Spec Ops she'd read and recognizing the Vehicles that were parked ready for departure at a moment's notice.

Noire, by comparison, looked to be the opposite of the young blonde, scanning her vicinity with a critical eye. Whilst things looked decent enough, if she used her high standards then this encampment definitely didn't live up to it, although she wasn't sure about the whole supplies situation, she guessed that it wasn't a good one otherwise these people would have had a better encampment. More guards, better defences, more vehicles, as someone who ran a Nation like hers, Noire eyed everything outside Lastation by its standards. "Its… adequate, I suppose." She commented, huffing when she noticed several soldiders eye her and the others warily, like they wanted to do something OTHER than bring them here. If they tried any funny business with her or the others…

Raven shared the latter of the two's opinion, if the demeanor she sported were any indication, whilst Lucy looked like the former, whereas the rest of the Party simply had confused/wary looks on their faces. As the one with the most leadership experience out of the Party, more so than the CPUs despite them being QUITE along in years, the black haired leader of Team RAIL looked around the encampment for any signs of the one calling the shots, her hand gripping her Odachi (which had been sheathed without her realizing) firmly which caused a surge of unease through the camp. Whoever helped them had her respect for the time being, but she distinctly remembered the voice being male, and that meant that a man might be the leader… something which while she wasn't completely intolerant towards, it always irritated her on a 'minor' level due to her distaste for the male gender. 'This place… it was erected in a hurry and judging from the efficiency that rescue op got performed in, there had been ample preparation made beforehand…' she thought in suspicion.

"Well-well, now lookie what we have here. Some fine young ladies with a couple gents. You guys are lucky, if we weren't around, you'd have been Abnormal chow before long."

Just then, the same male voice spoke up as the source soon started walking over to them from behind one of the vehicles. Just as Raven had suspected, the person turned out to be a man, one in his mid to late twenties if she were to guess, and one with obvious experience in military tactics judging by the outfit he wore. The man had dark hair which looked frizzled and messy, though most of it got concealed by the white beanie cap he wore, and over his white camo outfit he wore a long matching coat with a creamy coloured flak jacket, with various pieces of gear on his person. Safe to say, this guy definitely looked the part, both as a Lowee resident as well as a commander. The way that he eyed them up apreciatviely send angry shudders up Raven's spine though.

"Hey, we could have taken them ya know!" Neptune retorted, throwing her arms down as she heatedly glared at the man, who wore a rather easygoing smirk. Not something she appreciated since it felt OH so like looking into a mirror, as if she had met someone who liked trolling people just as much as she did. Only SHE got to be the tease of the group, nobody else! Its would only be a matter of time before everyone realizes that, anyways! Oh yeash, she'd de-transformed just after the flashes had ended, so nobody had seen her Devil Trigger form just yet. She hoped it would be that way for a bit longer, at least. "Me and the gals here aren't exactly pushovers, see!"

The man, in response to this, chuckled in amusement as he clicked his fingers, to which the other soldiers quickly proceeded to start packing everything away with rapid efficiency, showcasing to the military experienced how they'd gotten used to doing this by now. "That may be, but honestly, I don't think you would have wanted to sweat so much out here, little'n. I mean, there were WAY more Abnormals closing in on your position thanks to the energy you guys were giving off. Its like you wanted to party with them or something, and this comes from a guy who likes to party."

Now THIS got IF's attention, along with Raven, Aiden and Lucy's, as she quickly made to question him about that. "Huh? Luring Abnormals there? Wat are you saying, and while I'm at it who the heck are you? Never heard of someone like you in Lowee's military before, and I like to keep up to date on these things."

At this, recognition flashed through the man's eyes, like light being reflected off a mirror-like surface. "Ah, right. Knew I had forgotten something…" the man mused, cjucklingwith a mildy nervous look on his features. "Well, you're right about me not being officialypart of Lowee's Militia, and for good reason. But that can wait, cause right now we need to get a move on, since the Abnormals on Lowee can track us down from the energy trails our Eject Buttons. Don't ask me how, cause I'm still relatively green on this Abnormal shit. Anyways, just call me Theta for the time being, and if you must know I'm here on orders to get you all out of that mess you'd landed in."

When the man introduced himself, each of the main girls blinked owlishly, several times in fact as the name repeated itself in their minds. Whilst to a few of them that name sounded rather… new, to some of them it actually seemed rather familiar, like they had heard it several times from a trusted source of theirs. It only took a couple moments before Noire pieced it together in her mind, as evident by her crimson orbs filling up with realization as she pointed at him. "Hang on, I know you!" she declared. "You're that guy Nico went on about a few times, Theta the guy who fought the coalition!" Thinking back, Noire KNEW that name to be familiar since some of her people actually mentioned him in passing when discussing business deals with Lowee once the situation there had been sorted, since that guy had some pull within Lastation's governing bodies due to the Coalition nearly fucking everything up.

"Oh-ho! So, the little edgelord's become my fan, eh? Always figured I was a cool dude back then, glad to know I have some material to work with." the man known as Theta remarked with a nostalgic tone, a light laugh escaping his throat after momentarily pausing. In one instance, the Party swore they'd seen some genuine shock at that revelation flash through those dark orbs of his, but they couldn't tell for sure since it vanished soon after. "Yeah, me and that emo kid go way back some, yeah. Looks like he's doing alright if all you lasses are around him." He remarked, thoughtfully whilst some of the soldiers around them briefly paused when hearing the redhead's name.

Ivan then smirked, an idea presenting itself in his mind, one which Aiden tried to warn him against with only his eyes only to get ignored as the guy walked up to the older man. "Oh, you don't even know the HALF of it, sir. Here, take a look at this and you'll see just how 'alright' he's really doing." He remarked, handing him a… VERY familiar Notebook he'd pulled from his Inventory.

As much as the others tried to stop him, it became too late once the Notebook entered Theta's grasp, allowing the man to flick through the pages… quickly stunning him into silence. All before he suddenly erupted into hysterical laughter, holding a hand over his eyes too. "Ahahahahahaha! Ohohohohohoho! Geez, seriously?! Hahahaha, now THIS definitely makes my day a lot brighter! Man, Nico that dog! Crazy bastard always said he wasn't a ladies man, and yet here he is with his own freaking Harem forming around him, even that childhood friend of his!" he exclaimed, Compa flushing MEGA hard over that fact (along with the other women, for multiple reasons). The fact was, that they didn't deny the man's logic since from an outsider's perspective that really did look to be the case.

"… Well, to be fair, he HAS actually confessed that he likes them." Ivan eventually stated after receiving the Notebook from the man, smirking lopsidedly as he recalled the whole Hot Springs thing when Nico basically confessed to the girls… at first in the spring itself, then in the room they allowed him to share with them. One of the biggest balls moments in a man's life, the teen felt. "And no, not for their bodies either. Guy's practically married himself to them by this point, though he's waiting tiill he sorts his own head out before getting serious with them." He explained, frowning at the last part.

Theta also did so, likely wondering about the same thing that Ivan was. "The kid's going the harem route, eh…?" he remarked, humming. "More of a single love kind of guy myself, but hey to each their own. At least he was honest with them, then, a GREAT thing in any relationship. Goddess knows that he needs someone in his life…" he mused, thinking back to when he and Nico fought the Coalition together, how literally like a robot he had been especially when he butchered his foes without mercy. Then, his eyes turned approving as he spoke some more. "Oh, and good on him for the whole waiting till he was better thing, can definitely see where the lad's coming from. Being mentally unstable in a relationship is pretty much asking for it to crash and burn."

"Everything's ready, Theta sir. We just need to board the lead transport and we can get on our way."

Just then, a familiar female voice rung out, causing the Party and Theta to turn to the source… finding it to be Financier who walked up to them. She seemed to carry a rifle on her back, whilst a flak jacket got put over her maid uniform along with a long white fur coat, making her look like she had become all snuggly in this cold climate.

"Eh?! You?!"

Neptune was the one to yell that out whilst the Party quickly got into defensive stances, not exactly trusting the woman due to the events back in that 'Basilicom'. Seeing this, Financier quickly held her hands out in a placating gesture. "Hey, no need to worry, I'm not on the Basilicom's side, especially not after everything that's been going down. You don't have to trust my word for it, but please wait on your opinions till you hear the whole scenario first." She spoke, her eyes shining with an urgency in them whilst her tone carried no small amounts of pleading in it. Heck, some of the remaining soldiers each looked ready to draw their own weapons too, responding to their desire to protect their comrade. At first, none of them seemed very happy with the idea of trusting the woman any, especially not since they had been separated from their crush, however after a few words from Neptune, each of them reluctantly lowered their defences and decided to wait… for now. "Anyways, Theta you better get going too, it won't be long since we used so many Eject Buttons at once."

Upon seeing her and hearing her words, Theta's eyes lit up like lights on a Christmas tree whilst he clapped his hands together as if saying 'chop chop, hurry up kids' or somthing. "Ah, got it. Well, I'll fill ya'll in on the details when we get moving you lot, so lets go before we find ourselves riddled with uninvited guests. I want to get back before teatime, after all."


Elsewhere, whilst the Party had their own little adventure, their sole separate member slowly opened his lone unmasked left eye whilst hearing the sound of strong wing beats, though it took longer due to the rush of air that smacked into his face. Nico still managed to regain conscious tough, his strength somewhat regenerated since his bout with all those Yoma, and by the time his vision fully returned to him the redhead discovered the source of the wing beats to be his Archdemon Urthemiel, allowing him to look around and notice how they were still flying through the air.

'Ugh… awake again… must have been exhausted from that fight…' the male thought to himself as he sar upright and yawned through the teeth his Mask sported, raising his arms to the skies and groaning in pleasure once he heard the 'crack' sounds from his stiff shoulders. With the cold wind pressing against him, the teen had to make sure he didn't fall off his Archdemon, even though a measily 800 feet drop wouldn't do too much to him with his current body, a body which had been well versed in healing fatal injuries like decapitation, beheading and having his heart destroyed via different means… even before that whole shit with Zelretch and gaining his DPU powers. Still, as his brain fully rebooted, the teen looked around to see where they were, and soon recollected his memories of recent events, making him remember how they were going towards that forest to hide from those Yoma. 'Those things may not be a threat to myself, but they're more than enough threat to ordinary civilians… despite there being none so far since Lowee. Well, whatever the case is, sure as hell feel much better now that I've escaped that place. Biko, how's things inside the Inner World? You and Byakko doing okay, too?' he quickly asked his other Personas.

'We are well, Nico. Been maintaining things inside here whilst going through what we know of the situation so far. Well, by 'we' I mean myself and Erebus, whose been quite co-operative since everything went down. No matter, the point is that A, looks like its finally happened…'

'Hm? What's happened…?'

(…FATHER…)

Huh? What the, why did Nico just hear a strong, faint yet masculine sounding voice in his head just now? One would think that the teen would be used to having somany voices in hs mind by now, but still this one managed to catch him by surprise. He then glanced forwards, sensing someone looking at him only to find Urthemiel glancing behind towards him, his eyes looking meaningful… which resulted in the redhead figuring it out. '… Looks like you've finally become intelligent enough to speak, I see. Congratulations, Urthemiel.' Nico thought through the newly established link, causing the Archdemon to howl with joy, utter pride filling him at the acknowledgement of his 'father'…

Which reminded Nico of the time he 'created' Urthemiel again…

Then his thoughts wandered to the girls, and a surge of worry blossomed within his chest. He hoped the girls and his bros managed to escape alright, since he hadn't been able to confirm whether or not the Yoma had caught them or not. Odds were that they were okay, since the Yoma hardly matched them in strength according to his analysis, but still he worried regardless.

(…FATHER, ENEMIES INCOMING!)

… Worry which then vanished and got replaced by caution, as Nico heard Urthemiel state those words. Glancing behind him, the redhead noticed several creatures chasing them from the rear, and judging from their appearance and the fact he could sense Demonic Power from them, Nico assumed them to be Demons belonging to the Chaos God Tzeentch… it only made sense considering what he knew and had seen of Lowee so far, plus their shapes reminded him not only of Gargoyles imbued heavily with arcane energies which made them look like they were shimmeing… but they also reminded him of the creatures he had fought against back at skies End. 'Wait, I remember now, those are Furies! Basically Demons who are considered Ground Class but weaker than the Bloodletters of Khorne. Their only pros are their numbers and flight, not to mention that depending on which Chaos God they serve, they each take on different appearances. Looks like Tzeentch really IS the one wanting Lowee, then…' the male thought as he eyed the 400 Furies.

Said creatures howled and cawed like frenzied crows as they flew through the air at Urthemiel, prompting the redhead to act. 'Urthemiel, you stick to air support, I'll go to the ground and deal with them there.' he mentally commanded, already pulling out Ebony and Ivory from his Void Storage whilst hopping off his Archdemon's back. Said Archdemon howled in acknowledgement as he proceeded to perform a U turn, roaring angrily at the approaching Demons before lighting himself up in azure Primal fire, quickly launching himself at them.

Shrieks and howls filled the air space as about 200 of the Furies split off from the ensuing dogfight, shooting downwards like divebombs towards their falling target. As much as Urthemiel noticed and wanted to get in their way, he believed in his prideful master (he said prideful since he himself had such pride too) and knew for a FACT that he had been waiting for a chance to 'get some exercise', so who was he to argue?

Meanwhile, as he fell towards the ground below and angled himself so he fell faster, the redhead glanced behind him to narrow his unmasked eye at the approaching enemies, a scoff escaping his lips whilst he summoned Cavalier. The infernal Motorcycle dropped down faster than its rider, whom simply flipped himself about so that his back faced its seat whilst he pointed his dual pistols towards the incoming Furies. Each of the said Demons increased their speeds, becoming little more than a series of blurs that rapidly descended upon their target with the desire to rip, tear and shred in their eternal quest to satisfy the desires of their master.

Only...

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-!

…They did NOT expect the two Pistol Devil Arms to release a constant stream of energy blasts from their respective Barrels with gattling gun level speeds. Indeed, the BAALA's that Nico's weapons launched whizzed through the air faster than any normal bullet could achieve, utterly shredding through the very concept of Space itself as they tore into the approaching flock. Wings got severed then pumped full of holes, arms got reduced to nothingness, and Demons didn't get a chance to scream before their vocals got obliterated, leaving them nothing but shredded pieces of flesh which fell down around their killer... said killer examining the Devil Arms in curiosity. 'Wonder when these guys'll morph into Archdevil Arms, it feels like its SO close now..' he thought, before flipping himself around and landing on Cavalier's driving seat, sitting down, grasping the Handles (putting his guns between them) and pumping the gas pedals. Cavalier almost ROARED just like the battling Archdemon above him, its fiery wheels like infernal whirlpools as Nico shot off towards the forest's direction.

A forest which he had started to make out its outline.


Later, by the time that the redhead arrived at the forest, both he and Urthemiel REALLY wanted to take a nice nap, especially after killing off all those Furies since not seconds afterwards did they get peppered by all SORTS of different Abnormals and Lesser Demons belonging to Tzeentch, resulting in them having to expend every bit of power they had to kill them all off. Once they had all been butchered successfully, the tired young Nico had tried to contact his comrades through various means like his SHINGAN and his Bracers, however the former didn't work like he had previously experienced, and some sort of static interference blocked his Bracers from reaching out to the other Spec Ops Agents, leaving him worried, frustrated AND confused. If it weren't for his weakened state, the redhead would have tried to transform and then fly all over the place to find them, consequences be damned.

In current times, night had fallen onto the landmass... or rather, Nico THOUGHT that it had, as the skies didn't look like they were changing all that much, instead they just stayed the same every colour as they always had been since his arrival, with lightning and flames dancing across the skies as if to demonstrate the eternal power that spawned this phenomenon. Biko DID tell him that this Nation had been turned into a pseudo Demon World at this point, hence why there had been so few Hellgates to other Worlds, as discovered by his Primal Twin whom right now had travelled through one of said Hellgates to see what was up on the other side. So far, nothing much had come from that side of things, but he figured that'll eventually change.

Right now, the two of them, him and Urthemiel, sat close to the base of a large tree, one that had massive white snow-covered leaves from its branches that concealed the majority of the skies from his view, and whilst under normal circumstances Nico would be bothered as all hell by that fact, in this case he found it relieving of sorts, especially considering this forest. Like the rest of the Landmass, it seemed that the Forest itself had underwent a... grotesque, hideous transformation, for instead of just wood covered in snow... it looked like the trees were MADE from it, with long, jagged Tendril-like branches and these tormented, agonized looking faces carved into their trunks. There were also some which looked like they had been frozen in a position implying they had been trying to shield themselves from something, much to his confusion and slight concern.

'Geez...' the male thought as he sat before a nice, large Bonfire which he had made from gathering some discarded branches together then created a flame with his Hellfire. Turned out that Desecrated tree branches were much better at resisting his Hellfire than normal ones, so he'd have to make sure to do that with normal ones if he wanted to use them to make bonfires for his comrades in the future. 'With everything that happened, finally getting a chance to rest really hits the spot...' It probably helped that Urthemiel lay curled around the bonfire, letting his creator lean his back against his stomach whilst the Archdemon's wings shielded them from the outside elements. Right now, said Archdemon currently had the goal of faking being asleep, when in reality it was keeping it's senses open in case of an enemy ambush... all whilst actually recovering from his previous battles.

Just then, the male got a strange sensation, one which caused him to blink as confusion blossomed within him. 'Hm? What the...?' he mumbled mentally, making to ask Biko what the heck that had been about only to get zero answers out of him, like he never heard anything to begin with. It was a combination of him being fatigued still, as well as his own training and experiences which prevented Nico from erupting into outright panic right about now, as he proceeded to weigh the facts in his mind. 'What's wrong here? Why's Biko not responding? Feels like the link between us is still there, but it feels... heavy, like something's trying to suppress it...' the male thought, frowning to himself as he clutched his chin in one hand, assuming a thinking pose whilst still sitting on the ground.

HELP … ME...

'?!'

…HELP... PLEASE, HELP... ME...

Nico gritted his teeth as he heard it, a presence with a soft voice similar to a toddler or an infant, echo faintly within his mind, constantly repeating the same things to him over and over again. There was this strong sense of pleading the more he heard it, a scene of desperation, pain, loneliness and sadness, plus as a DPU who could detect and feel such negative emotions, Nico felt them in perfect clarity unlike how he vaguely heard the being's voice. Interestingly enough, no matter how hard he tried, the redhead couldn't pinpoint the source around his vicinity, not even when he stretched both his PESQUISA and the PRESENCE DETECTION Skill from his Berserker Package. It DEFINITELY didn't feel like some kind of illusion, since the male didn't feel the same as he did when enduring the Samsara Trials or that time when he almost fell under Castiel's control when he used that divine light mode of his.

Before he knew it, however, the presence then vanished right after, proof being how he no longer heard it's voice whilst the link between him and Biko felt like it had reverted back to normal, allowing him to quickly get an update from the Demon Persona which confirmed to the redhead that he had been the only one to have heard it. Not even his Archdemon had heard anything, something which added even more layers to this puzzle. What the hell was that about? For a moment, Nico wondered this, until the next second when something else got picked up by his PESQUISA... a surge of Negative emotions which he felt were close by. 'Tch, one problem vanishes and another takes its place, huh?'

After thinking this, Nico closed his eyes and focused in on those emotions, feeling an influx of the following: panic, fear, dread, despair, loss, hopelessness etc, causing his brows to furrow when his eyes opened again. 'Such strong negativity... well, my Demonic Power has been sufficiently recovered, and my RC Cell count has mostly returned after that time I spent hunting before setting my campsite here, so I should be safe once I investigate it...' the male thought as he stood up, summoning Rebellion and placing it onto his back. He then donned his Armour, pulling out Ebony and Ivory to attach them to his waist whilst Soul Edge appeared in his hands, ready to be used. Mentally commanding Urthemiel to wait here for a bit whilst he investigated everything, Nico then shot into a mad sprint, unleashing his EXTREME MIRAGE LIGHTNING Skill to increase his speed.

The forestry passed by him in a blur, making it difficult for him to keep track of everything he passed but Nico had enough experience to pull it off regardless. Though, he ignored it all as he instead kept his gaze forwards, heading towards the source of the emotions he had sensed.

It didn't take him very long to locate said source... or rather SOURCES, when he discovered in the distance two young, small looking boys with small, brown beards, matching hair and dark brown eyes tiredly running if the heavy breathing he'd noticed was any indication. Not only that, but Nico's sharp gaze QUICKLY picked up the signs of physical abuse these two must have went through, judging by how tattered their simple clothing looked whilst blood trails could be seen flowing down various bodyparts. All the while, their eyes carried the looks of victims in a horror flick, fear and terror radiating from them in waves.

'Huh...? Those kids... looks like they've been through hell...' the male thought, anger and a desire to shed blood growing inside of him. Child abuse was ALWAYS something which triggered the male, especially since a lot of criminals he'd 'dealt with' had this sick desire to inflict pain on them, the younger the better, just because it felt nice to hear their tormented screams. Thus, the male decided to reach out for them, forgetting that his current equipment would do the exact OPPOSITE of what he had intended. Just as Nico made to call out to them, however, two silhouettes suddenly loomed over them from behind... silhouettes which Nico recognized immediately as two armoured men similar to the ones from the Basilicom, armed with similar-looking Staffs.

But, in his eyes, as they raised those weapons, Nico saw things differently. His surroundings changed like a desert mirage vanishing, turning into a burning village filled to the brim with the cries of agony, torment and limitless resentment at the injustice plaguing this world. Hoots and mad howls of twisted delights filled his ears as Nico became the witness to sounds of butchery, bloodshed and maddening slaughter around him, causing his left eye to tremble violently as if it were one step away from transforming.

'NO...!'

Shaking off the hallucination which he had witnessed only for a second, Nico burst forth into an even greater speed level, surpassing bullet trains by far as well as bullets as he shot forth, jumping over the two children (whom paused their running to look up at him with gaping jaws), as he swung Soul Edge in a two handed chopping motion faster than the armoured man could react... that and Nico had the element of surprise on his side too. As a result, the mightly blade came down in a diagonal angle with no force holding it back, and thus the Sword ultimately cleaved right through the guy's Armour, bisecting him at a diagonal angle. Nico didn't let it end there though and, with sword skill which could only come from intense training and experience, the redhead launched multiple consecutive slashes at once, hacking the person into pieces before they could even scream.

At the moment the last slash, Nico swiftly drew Ivory and aimed at the partner, swiftly firing at him without looking. That said partner had been making to fire an arcane energy blast at his head whilst he had been dealing with the first one, only for Ivory's Baala's to knock the Staff to the side and divert the blast away from him. Whilst the blast erupted in the form of a spray, Nico twisted on one foot and hurled Soul Edge right into the guy's chest like a one-handed javelin throw, the sword impaling its target without mercy, for the Devil Arm fired multiple demonic-enhanced Bullets right into the blade's rear end, giving it an added jolt of force with each round fired... till the blade went right through the enemy and impaled the ground behind him. Nico finally finished the guy off by shooting him in the head, shoulders and knees, letting his blood and innards splatter across the cold snow just like his partner.

If anyone were to comment on the excessive and unnecessary actions Nico had made, well... they'd have to look at how he killed people in the past, THEN they'd see what those words truly meant.

'They're down...' Nico thought as his Rinkaku emerged, cloaked of course, and quickly devoured their remains. Since one of them had their brain still, and seemed to still somewhat be alive, the male got memories from him... memories which told him of a mining facility not too far from his current position, one which seemed to be chock full of some rare minerals. Nico DID recall that Lowee had one thing going for it that the other Nations didn't aside from Magic practice: Mineral resources, which were often used for various magics, rituals, jewelcrafting etc. According to what he had heard, this Nation was a freaking goldmine for that stuff, hence how Lowee managed to keep up with the other three Nations. However, these thoughts quickly vanished when he saw, through the memories, images of what looked like small men in iron restraints, hammering away deep in the mines, looking like they would keel over at any moment.

Slaves.

Seeing what he saw, caused Nico to shudder with anger, his eyes flaring with crimson light whilst his body mirrored this phenomenon. Now, in Nico's eyes, he ABHORRED Slavery, he did not like the thought of it one bit and any use of it at all disgusted him. One of the reasons why this was, was that usually people tended to abuse these slaves without them ever getting a chance to fight back, as they are the slave and they the master. Masters tend to abuse that relationship, and Slavery had been a major thing back in Leanbox once upon a time until Vert tried to abolish it. Good move on her part, but shame that it seemed to still exist in some shape or form. People had the rights to choose how they lived their live, how they should walk their own path in whatever way they saw fit. Some may walk ways which were disagreeable, and Nico knew of a LOT of those, but the fact that they chose those paths of their own free will was something that he could appreciate. Free will... man, that felt like it hit real close to home for him.

Not to mention that the memories told him that these were Abnormals... Abnormals called Dwarves now that he got a closer look at them. Nico only knew the bare minimum about these guys from the memories that he got, but from his understanding it seemed that these guys had less than average height, and quite decent mining skills, their bodies naturally fit for the crafting arts. Didn't look too strong physically, which likely explained why they couldn't fight back against these soldiers... these Thousand Sons Traitor Legion they called themselves. 'These fuckers... they are SO going down when I catch them!' the male thought, his instincts screaming at him to rip those scumbag soldiers limb from limb.

But first, there was something he had to do.

Idly, Nico glanced over to the two children, whom had fallen onto their backsides and now were huddled close together, clutching each other for dear life whilst visibly trembling, their eyes shaking violently. At first the male wondered why that was, and did think for a moment that it was the residue shock of seeing his surprise attack, but then realized that he STILL wore his Armour... Armour which did NOT look all that pretty if he were frank. 'No wonder, then. Alright, first thing's first...' the male thought as he quickly dismissed his Armour, revealing his full form to the two as he kneeled on one leg before them, his eyes (now back to normal with his Kagune having finished 'cleaning' the area and having thus returned to his Kakuhou) bore into them intensely. "You two alright?"

For a moment, the two blinked in surprise, seeing his features and the fact that the guy had stabbed his large sword beside him instead of within THEM. The redhead understood, judging from their scents it seemed as though they were Abnormals, a conclusion he arrived to much faster than when he'd first met He Lin due to being close enough to tell. In that case, then under normal circumstances he would have killed these two that crossed his path, however just from looking into their eyes told him... much more than he would have expected, he concluded that these two reminded him of the Nature Elves, not to mention the intelligence that Teostra he had encountered back at Skies' End. Still, this intelligence meant that they likely knew the way things were between their respective species, so seeing one such member come in and literally slaughter their other enemies to display dominance... yeah...

However, that soon passed when one of them, clearly the braver of the two, swiftly responded... with a bit of a stutter. "U-Um... Y-Yes!" He replied, trying to hide the fear in his voice. "W-We're fine, sir!" he added on, before bowing his head in gratitude. At that moment, the other one seemed to lose what little colour remained on his skin at the action, as if he believed that taking their eyes off him for even a second was a BAD idea.

"Good. Looks like those two soldiers were trying to capture you two for some reason." Nico commented as he glanced behind him at the... complete lack of remains. Shaking his head, the male then glanced back at them, his lips pursed into a frown. "Now tell me, what are your names...?" he questioned.

Hearing this, prompted the two children to slowly start calming down, seeing as how they weren't in immediate danger... for the moment. "U-Um... I'm M-Mark, and this is my b-brother Leo..." the one on the right, now known as Mark, explained with a shaky introduction, though it looked somewhat better than before. "W-We were trying to... get away from those g-g-guys so we could..." he began to elaborate further, even as his brother seemingly tried pleading with him to stop judging by the urgent gaze, until something clicked inside his mind as evident by the way his eyes lit up.

"Let me guess, you'd like my help in liberating your family from those Thousand Sons characters?" Nico questioned, already having sussed out what Mark had been about to ask. Shocked that he apparently read his mind (something which Nico could have done with his SHINGAN, actually), Mark nodded his head whilst Leo still looked uncertainly at him, likely terrified of him due to what he had done before them. 'I get the feeling that Leo here is the younger one...' the male thought, analysing the two before him. "Well, don't worry. I'll help, and its not like I'm alone either..." he explained, smirking mentally when he saw the shocked/happy gazes directed at him. Well, he intended to help from the moment he understood the general situation here, if only so that he could prevent a similar event to the Nature Elves from happening again. Images of their mutilated remains flashed through his mind, causing his eyes to harden as a grim expression overtook his features. "Alright, now show me the way, I'll deal with them myself."

"R-Right!"


Up ahead, about 45 minutes of walking distance...

The sounds of carts rolling along rails, the swift clangs of pickaxes that slammed against stone walls, all sorts of sounds of this nature filled the atmosphere as a... moderately sized amount of men shorter than the average human, barely under 4 foot 5, worked away under the watchful eyes of their 'tormentors' for lack of a better word. By tormentors, this referred to the various Thousand Sons Soldiers who wielded these energy whips, who patrolled the various tunnels throughout the whole mine shaft to keep an eye out for things, and making sure to apply proper 'discipline' to those who deserved it... which was pretty much every few seconds or so.

To describe these Dwarves as pitiful frail weaklings... would not be doing things much justice, for not only did they look like they couldn't even lift a simple knife with how frail they looked, but they seemed to have SEVERE cases of malnourishment with some of them being nothing but skin and bones. Their beards looked twisted, messy, wild and unkempt, a sign of how long they had stayed under this torment whilst their bodies, as frail as they were, still looked to be marred with all kinds of bruises. Some of them looked to be more recent than others, which caused some of them to look delirious and walk like drunkards due to significant blood loss. Didn't go so well with them constantly having to work in raggy clothes with barely ANY food or water either, resulting in even the tiniest movements proving strenuous for them.

Appallingly bad did not even come CLOSE to considering how shit things here were, for not only did the Thousand Sons soldiers keep whacking the heck out of the enslaved Abnormals like it was no big deal (the ensuing howls of agony only spurred them on similar to Slaaneshi followers), but they did it in ways which only made their pain worse, which in their eyes would spur them to work faster. One of them had once commented on how to properly 'handle' Slaves, it was best to train them to expect pain for slacking off, as otherwise they would grow complacent and 'forget their place' as it were. It didn't help that their blood, and any corpses which would drop down dead from too much abuse, would then be collected by specialized workers and then dragged off for reasons unknown, though none of the slaves dared to find out.

Right now, close to the mine's entrance, one such Slave released a groan of exhaustion, one of many that had been released to be sure, but this one got accompanied by the Slave falling onto his side, unable to continue working due to falling unconscious. This had the result of attracting the attention of two Thousand Sons members, who had their expressions concealed by their helmets whilst walking on over to see what the source of the sound was. Meanwhile, the surrounding Slaves hurried on with their work whilst trying not to pay attention to anything other than their work, too afraid to lift their heads up lest they get some of the ensuing 'wrath' directed at them.

Upon seeing the downed Slave, a particularly elderly-looking Dwarf, one of them scoffed behind his helmet. "Again? This is the tenth one today, and that's not counting those brats who tried to make a run for it." the Soldier stated with a frustrated snarl, rearing his right leg and kicking the unconscious Dwarf in the side. This elected a pained groan from said Dwarf, however the Soldier refused to acknowledge it in favour of ranting. In his mind, the Dwarf should have been grateful for the mere 'love tap' that he'd dished out, he'd smashed skulls of much stronger creatures in the past. "Lord Tzeentch is not going to be happy about this. These Slaves have been dropping faster the more days pass by, when's the next shipment coming here?"

"The boss is limiting the shipments to the outer facilities to try and whittle down these guys' numbers in case of an armed uprising." The other Soldier responded, keeping his tone low so that nobody but his partner could hear him, whilst he felt sure that the Slaves wouldn't dare to try and listen in since they feared for their lives. Like previously stated, fear was a POWERFUL motivational force if applied correctly, and sacrificing more than half their population to the Lord of Change by having them become Chaos Spawns would do something like that. "This Mining facility isn't too big an importance for the 'grand plan' according to the Boss, so he's getting as much work from them as possible before they drop. Besides, their corpses will be of more use to us in the future, so quit yer yapping, Soldier."

A frustrated yet understanding sigh escaped the first Soldier whom rubbed the back of his head, annoyance etched into his response. "Yeah-yeah..." A low groan escaped the Dwarf yet again, prompting another kick, only this time it ended with the same armoured foot stomping onto the Dwarf's chest (electing some pained grunts which made things a LITTLE better, in the Soldier's eyes). "So now what? Kill this one since he's obviously too weak to continue mining? That WAS the whole reason why we're here, isn't it?" He questioned his comrade, who nodded in silence as a way to confirm his orders, prompting the first one to chuckle in dark amusement. "Well, now THAT I can get behind! Been annoying not being able to be of use to Lord Tzeentch, so some venting would do me some good."

"Careful, you're sounding like those biggots over on that dumb brute's side."

"Whoops, you're right..."

Two mocking chuckles escaped their mouthpieces whilst the first one raised his Staff, it's rear tip having been sharpened enough to resemble a spike that was poised towards the unconscious Dwarf's head. One didn't even NEED any other context clues to see what would be happening next, if nobody else intervened. Shame for the Dwarf, that nobody else had the balls to stick up for them in favour of preserving their own hides... a logical response to this scenario, if one thought about it.

Just as the Staff got plunged downwards towards the Dwarf's heart...

STAB!

"Guh!"

"?!"

Just a second before the Staff's rear tip could hit its target, something shot forth from behind and impaled the Soldier, going into his torso from behind and coming out of it in a splendidly gory display. A fat explosion of blood, guts and destroyed metal fragments erupted from the point of injury, falling onto the cold stone ground beneath them. What that something was, neither of them could tell since it looked like that the hole in the first soldier's chest simply appeared out of nowhere... not to mention that to an outsider, it looked as though the offending weapon's momentum had ben halted by its wielder at the last second, the said wielder actually FELT something wrapping around his arm from the shoulder down to his wrist, halting it's motions. As a result, not only the Soldiers, but also the surrounding Slaves now couldn't help but gasp in shock, a new sense of disruption filling the air.

"Sorry, but..."

Then, a single male voice spoke out, literally TEEMING with rage and malice as several more 'somethings' stabbed into the Soldier's neck and stomach as the arm holding the Staff got torn from his body, releasing another fountain of blood from its former vessel. At this point, the man would have screamed from the pain had I not been for his vocal chords being absolutely WRECKED from the strike to his neck, resulting in his Partner quickly going for his weapon to try and help out. However, instead several somethings impaled him as well, far too fast for him to react, which ended up resulting in him getting diced to pieces not long afterwards.

"The only thing being stabbed anywhere, will be your gravestones into the earth."


"The only thing being stabbed anywhere, will be your gravestones into the earth."

From the moment he said that, an unarmoured Nico retracted his Rinkaku (once it had devoured the remains so nothing got left behind allowing him to retrieve their memories) into his back, which currently housed both Soul Edge and Rebellion in an X shape, whilst his right hand held Ivory and his left remained inside his Trench Coat's pocket. 'Phew, glad I was able to get here in time, from what I heard from these guys whilst getting here, looks like these guys have more than one purpose for all this...' the male thought, although this did little to abate the anger burning inside of him. He hadn't looked through the memories just yet due to this, and by the time he had finished, Nico concluded in his mind whilst glancing around at the scene, especially eyeing the rather stunned onlookers, that things here looked WAY worse than what he had initially seen. The thought that this had been happening for so long served to ignite the fiery, infernal and twisted desire for vengeance within his heart even further, however there were things that he had to prioritize for now.

One of those being the two children he had told to stay back whilst he had taken care of the two Guards.

"You two, come out now."

Glancing behind him, Nico called out to those two Dwarven Children, to which they popped their heads out of the two bushes which resulted in surprised gasps and murmurs from the Slaves. Nico picked up on some of them, and pretty much concluded that these two must have been well known and thought of, as the amount of relief, surprised yet joyful looks on their faces told him.

"Grandpa/Gramps!"

The moment that they looked down at the unconscious Dwarf under Nico's feet, the two boys quickly cried out, their eyes widening with shock and fear for their apparent grandfather's safety. They then bolted out of their coverage, rushing over to his side and quickly kneeled beside him, dread and fear oozing from their forms according to the redhead's senses.

'Hmmmm, a relative... and judging from what I sense from the Slaves thoughts, looks like this guy had once been quite important. Perhaps someone in a position of power too, if the thoughts I'm reading with my SHINGAN are any accurate...' the male thought to himself whilst the dull glow inside his pocket vanished, highlighting his temporary use of said Satanic Treasure. Though that made Nico question why he had been allowed to remain alive till now, since typically people in power would just be killed off in hostile take overs to ensure no future rebellions could happen due to demoralization. 'Still, perhaps I can make sure that he gets through this with my healing. Not so sure that it can fix his malnourished state, but his internal and external injuries shouldn't be too much of an issue...' Nico thought, stepping forth and kneeling at the fallen Dwarf's opposite side. "If you two step back, I can do something here."

"E-Eh?!"

"You sure?!"

"Hm. He may not recover fully without some food, but healing his injuries will not be an issue for myself."

With that response, a couple Tentacles, decloaked this time, emerged from his back with syringe tips, which then impaled the Dwarf and proceeded to inject RC Cells into the guy. Almost immediately afterwards thanks to the redhead's prior experience with this ability affording increased proficiency, the Dwarf's body regained a lot of its previous colour, and some minor bulk returned to him from his muscles being revitalized by the RC Cells. Furthermore, No scars and such got left behind by the time the process was done and the RC Cells retreated into the Tentacles as they took their Syringes out, resulting in the Dwarf looking malnourished still, but his breathing became much steadier. "Hmph, figured that this would be the case..." The male mumbled, nodding to himself.

'Before you go on your killing spree, it would be wise to consider how to handle the Dwarves afterwards. Taking the Nature Elves as an example, they may try to extend gratitude towards us without showing the severity of their conditions.'

'Right, got it. I'll do that...' The redhead mused, forcefully pushing aside his bloodlust for the time being since Biko had a point. These Abnormals could be like the Nature Elves in terms of intelligence and civility, so there's potential for further interaction. Nico didn't want to diminish these chances if he could help it. 'But first I'll need to know some things.' Nico thought, before he looked towards the two children. "How much can Dwarves eat?"

"A-Ah!" The surprise question thrown their way caused the two kids to jump, and whilst the younger one remained silent and looked away from him (Leo Nico recalled his name being), Mark swiftly gave a response. "W-We used to have large banquets for our clan, b-but we don't have t-too big an a-appetite."

'I see... so these guys have large appetites, too. Great. Still, best to feed them something like soup or other small, easy to digest foods, considering their current conditions. With them being starving, there's a risk of refeeding syndrome occurring so I'd better make sure to supervise them and watch for any changes. Eating slowly will help, plus I have some things which can give them the right vitamins like cooked rice, although natural would have been preferable...' Nico thought as he heard the sound of footsteps from deeper into the Mines. He figured that to be the next batch of Thousand Sons soldiers, so a quickly whip of his Rinkaku and most if not all the Slaves within his reach got picked up, put to the side and out of harms way (some did struggle a bit, but seeing how they were being handled made them realize the lack of threat to their lives so they stopped), all whilst his Bikaku released 2 of its Tails, their Talons primed for launch. 'Thinking back, I do recall there still being some food left from Zelretch's trials, so they should be good. Food in my Void Storage doesn't go off there due to the whole stasis and lack of proper oxygen so bacteria can't contaminate it, letting me keep it there for long timeframes... but as an added precaution, before I left Lowee I'd made sure to buy substantial snacks as well. Helps with Neptune's eating habits, at least, but in this case... yeah, I think this can work.'

By the time that he finished thinking this (as well as calculated what tools he would be needing in order to properly handle this situation), Nico glanced towards the entrance to the mines... then tilted his head when he saw how there were a pile of Thousand Sons Corpses lying around in sprawled heaps, many of them having severed body parts which lay uselessly throughout.

"Huh? When did that happen...?" he wondered, tilting his head in confusion with literall question marks over his head. All the while, the teen didn't notice the looks aimed at him by the onlooking Slaves, looks which pretty much screamed 'this was your doing, you know!' at him.

Then, something clicked in his mind and his face made an 'oh snap!' expression.

Did he by chance...

Lose himself in thought whilst ruthlessly butchering?

'I didn't even realize the fighting had begun...' Nico thought, surprise etched onto his features as he glanced down at the hand holding Ivory. '... Well, whatever. I sense there's more of them inside, and judging from these fools' memories, they still don't know who I am, though the alert level will likely be raised by this point. No matter, I'll just go in and kill them all, taking their memories for safe keeping just in case. Perhaps I can learn something new...' the male mentally mused whilst rolling his right shoulder back, mentally wincing at the cracks he made. 'Then again, these guys will likely think they're gonna be big shots with their so-called fancy magic and Wards and shit... at least that's what I'M hoping for, since that'd be big talk for people within crusading distance.'

"You, WORM!"

"?"

Just as he made to release his Kagune and clean up his mess, Nico noticed something else, that apparently one of those said Soldiers turned out to be alive, emerging from some of the corpses like he had used them to hide himself from detection. Seeing this made the redhead's brow twitch in irritation, but otherwise the redhead made no other reaction.

"You dare... you dare disgrace the Thousand Sons like this?!" The Soldier bellowed as he drew out a weapon which WASN'T a staff... but instead what looked like a hybrid between a gun and a flamethrower, one which he held in two hands like an actual rifle in his direction. "Eat my Warpflamer, heretic!" he bellowed, pulling the trigger which resulted in a massive stream of what looked like... Hellfire, twisted and corrupted in a way unlike what Nico had seen from his own flames.

'Huh... interesting...'

However, it only served to pique the redhead's interests a bit, especially since he wanted to know more about the Thousand Sons now, like how they were organized, what their relationships were with the World Eaters etc. As the fire blast neared, Nico mentally combined his Rinkaku Tentacles into one big one, this time with a huge ass mouth on the end which opened wide in front of him, letting the blast inside.

GULP-GULP-GULP-GULP-GULP-GULP-GULP-GULP-GULP-!

Gulping sounds filled the air as the flames got devoured by the greedy Tentacle, causing howls of outrage to burst free from the Thousand Sons soldier's mouth, until the blast got swallowed up in its entirety by the Tentacle which had revealed its position thanks to the cloaking ability being turned off by the teen's own mental command. Mostly to serve as a form of intimidation, though in reality all it did was agitate the Soldier before him, whilst scaring the living daylights out of the surrounding Slaves. "Nice meal, let me pay you back the bill..." Nico responded, morphing his Rinkaku into a pair of Canons unlike the single large one that he'd used previously. At this point, the male had strapped Ivory to his wait with its partner to cross his arms over his chest, posing with the two massive weapons primed for firing.

"Damn heretic... the Thousand Sons will not...!" the Man began to say as the Cannons prepared themselves to fire. "...?! Hold on a second!" However, just as Nico made top launch the rounds that would end this fucker's whole career, and his life by extension, the Soldier scowled as something reached his senses. "This energy signature... I recognize it! This demonic taint... ah, now I get it, you're one of the revered ones! Those DPUs!" he bellowed, pointing his Armoured finger at his would-be killer. "Why?! Why do you oppose this?! The grand Lord Tzeentch prophesized that your kind would be interested in these barren lumps of rock!"

'Tzeentch? Huh, guess this guy must have a relationship with the still living DPUs...' the redhead thought to himself whilst ignoring the suddenly fearful looks EVERYONE whom had been a slave here directed towards him, as if they were looking at the one who would rip them a new one at a moment's notice. He'd known since the beginning that his identity as a DPU would be a cause for conflict, ever since he had first obtained these powers, so this kind of reaction had been in his margin of expectation. Still, hearing that this Chaos God had told his apparent followers that the DPUs would be allies with them for this conquest implied that he too would be happy with it, and THAT served to piss him off.

Though, the fact that this guy apparently called his race 'revered ones' meant that he could play along with this idea just to mess with him further, so in light of this guy irking him to all hell, that became PRECISELY what Nico decided to do. "Okay, ONE: do NOT compare me to those worthless sacks of garbage, and TWO: Lets just say that I hold grudges against the Chaos Gods..." the male began to say, before raising his right hand from its previous position to gesture to his neck with his thumb. A vicious snarl broke free from his lips whilst his mismatched eyes narrowed darkly. "So messing up their plans sounds like a fun idea to me, and since you dared to piss me off..."

Nico raised that same hand and clicked his fingers, allowing the canons to fire their own blasts at his opponent. Said opponent quickly dashed to the side, avoiding them whilst his Armour became coated in arcane Mana, which resulted in him looking like he was constantly leaving afterimages. By the time he raised his Warpflamer to try and launch a counterattack, several Tentacles had already lunged forth towards him, thwacking the weapon out of his hands for one of their brethren to grasp it, crushing it like a snake or a centipede would when coiled around its prey. The Tentacles then formed a series of claws whilst the Canons began to deform, initiating another transformation as their brethren restrained the now helpless Soldier, whom tried to break free with a variety of means like Magic and physical strength... all failed against the might against the Ghoul inside of Nico. Heck, when the guy tried applying Magic through his being like he'd done before, the Mana simply got devoured by the Kagune instead, making any attempts via magical means useless.

A couple seconds later, and Nico (whose face got shrouded by darkness save for one glowing Kakugan eye like a certain goblin slaying adventurer) started striding forth towards the Soldier, pinning him to the ground with his various Rinkaku Tentacles whilst the transformations above him completed... resulting in the male having two large sheathe-like constructs hovering behind him, ready to strike down on his prey. The redhead spoke no words, stopping a couple meters away from his target as the Sheaths...

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-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-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-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-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-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-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-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-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-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-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-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-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-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-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-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-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-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM!

… Proceeded to mercilessly bash the guy's helmet covered face in.

The spectacle that followed provided one hell of a... brutal, cruel and merciless displays of gore that the onlooking Slaves had ever seen in their entire lives, even though they had mostly gotten used to acts of violence thanks to their captors (or rather former captors in this case). Some of the younger looking ones looked away with mildly green faces, fighting back the urge to throw up even with their ack of nutrition, whilst others could only watch in a mix of shock, fear and... morbid fascination as Nico ruthlessly drove the Sheathes down onto the guy without holding back. The Thousand Sons Soldier may have considered his helmet protecting him to be a blessing, but inevitably it became a curse since the blood he would cough up in the middle of the barrage would then fall right back into his throat, nearly making him choke on his own fluids, amidst his own cries for the male to stop... which went unheard as the brutality continued. It didn't help that each strike had less than a second's worth of time between them too.

By the time about 5 minutes had passed (although it felt much longer for the helpless victim here), Nico stood up and cracked his neck a few times, doing the same thing with his wrists. 'So, still haven't gotten rid of that habit huh...?' the male mused when he did that last action.

'HAH, THATS NOT SOMETHING YOU CAN JUST GET RID OF, KING! YOU THINK YOU STOPPED, BUT NOPE! SORR NOT SORRY, YOU'VE BEEN DOING IT UNONSCIOUSLY EVER SINCE YOU USED THE GHOUL IN YOU BACK AT HALO MOUNTAIN, ITS JUST YOU, THE READERS AND THE AUTHOR HAVEN'T NOTICED!'

Byakko then hooted with laughter within his mind before cutting the connection, leaving the redhead with a puzzled frown as he re-examined his memories... only to discover that, true to Byakko's words, he did indeed keep that cracking wrists thing, making him wonder how the hell nobody noticed, not even himself. This only lasted a couple seconds though, before he glanced over towards the two children... finding that their grandfather had regained consciousness somewhat, judging by how he sat like a gangster whilst eyeing everything with a level of calmness that did NOT resonate with the others. However, the redhead sensed his copious amounts of killing intent, a strong desire of vengeance aimed towards the downed soldier beneath him.

Well, Nico had a GREAT way to solve that particular problem.

Holding out his hand, Nico mentally commanded his Tentacles to combine together into one big one, then had it move so that its tip pointed downwards towards his outstretched palm. The tip then bulged, as if something had suddenly filled it in an instant, before it... spewed out this ball of crimson resin, something which seemed to quickly shapeshift the moment that it touched his waiting hand, fleshy tearing sounds emitting from there as the resin swiftly reformed into what looked like some sort of twisted, corrupt Javelin made from RC Cells, something which Nico gripped tightly. He then proceeded to toss it into the Tentacle's waiting newly morphed gauntlet, which then proceeded to slither through the air towards the old man, holding it out to him.

At first, the old man looked surprised for a moment, unlike his two grandkids who looked stunned in disbelief and confusion. However, one look at the single eye that Nico aimed his way became enough for the man to understand the meaning behind his actions, prompting his own to harden into a steely gaze, his teeth gnashing together as the rage Nico had sensed erupted to the surface. Reaching forth, the man grasped onto the makeshift javelin, before he proceeded to walk towards the downed soldier of whom still remained pinned beneath the Tentacles. As the old man neared, the Soldier's moans being the only indicator he was even alive, the Tentacles 'detached' themselves in a similar manner to forming that Javelin from the redhead's RC Cells, leaving behind several organic restraints on the Soldier's bodyparts.

Restraints similar to what a Slave would wear, too.

"He's all yours, you lot."

Nico's words echoed through the air, and this allowed the fires of vengeance to ignite within the other Slaves, too. Soon enough, the other Slaves proceeded to pick up anything they could use as weapons too, their feet shackles having been discreetly hacked to bits by Nico's speedy Rinkaku without them knowing. Once they were crowded around the Soldier, said Soldier's vision finally returned to normal as his sense of clarity got restored... just in time for the weapons to start descending down upon him.

His screams filled the air, became mixed with choking sounds and that of weapons impaling and smashing Armour, then silence...


"NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM...!"

"GLUG-GLUG-GLUG..."

"Might want to keep it slow everyone, don't want to experience the refeeding syndrome..."

By the time the deed had been done and Nico had went inside, killing off the remains of the Thousand Sons stationed within the Mines, a few interesting events developed. For one, the redhead had used Erebus's conjuring powers to create a small workforce, similar to what he had done in the last Trial of Zelretch, and then had them set up some cooking equipment the redhead had stored in his Void Storage just in case of emergencies, all whilst he himself raided the food reserves that the Soldiers had been hogging to themselves, bringing it all out to proceed to begin feeding it to the masses of Slaves gathered together outside. Since the Mines didn't have enough room for a large gathering, this had been a decent alternative, thus the following sight became the end result, where everyone sat cross legged around various pieces of cooking equipment to quench their long overdue hunger/thirst. Although the redhead made sure to monitor each of them closely with his various abilities, keeping an eye out for any signs of refeeding Syndrome out of the desire to not see these Dwarves suffer.

As someone with relatively little cooking experience, the male had simply resorted to basic small dishes with what rations he had discovered, adding in the remains of the Gourmet Food he had still in stock for good measure. Thankfully, some of the Dwarves had decent cooking experience, so as soon as they had a decent chunk of food back in their bellies, they had set to helping distribute the foods.

Whilst they ate, each of the Dwarves rejoiced with one another, laughing happily for likely the first time in a long while, evident by how many were bawling their eyes out at how they wouldn't have to be Slaves anymore. Things looked quite merry according to Nico's standards, although jus from looking into their eyes the redhead felt like things could have been a lot more so under different circumstances. He could understand why, as he patrolled the various groups along with his workforce consisting of his dark creations, Erebus strapped to his back in place of Rebellion, Soul Edge, Ebony and Ivory. Even though they were free right now, the future may change that at any moment, and when he observed them all, Nico had noticed that about 60% of them had been elderly men with the rest being young variants... although they had similar beards with different hair and eye colours.

'The future won't be bright for these Abnormals with things as they are in Lowee, of that I'm certain...' The redhead thought, lips curved into a frown as he passed one of his shadow creations which held a plate filled with food and drink on it like an expert butler. 'With the memories I got from those guys, I can tell that there's a few areas nearby that are exactly like what I first saw, meaning that perhaps what I've been fearing may have more depth to it than the surface would lead one to believe. These guys can barely survive out there with what they have, not to mention they likely won't last even a second if those Choas followers attempt to retake the mines...'

'Indeed, whilst saving them may have been good in the short run, long time effects need to be considered. Even if you rescued them here, its likely that things will revert back later on, once the Thousand Sons learn of what has happened here. We do have our own problems to consider as well, one priority being to locate the rest of the Party and regroup with them, since we are technically outlaws in Lowee's books.'

As much as Nico didn't want to admit it at that moment lest he damper the merry mood, Biko had a point. The redhead didn't really think about the future when he had pulled this stunt off or before, all he had thought about was preventing another Nature Elf scenario from occurring, so right now he had stuck himself into a bit of a bind. His original goal may have increased in complexity thanks to his actions, and if he didn't make a decision soon then Nico didn't doubt that his efforts would have been in vain.

'There has to be something... something I can do here...'

"Lost in thought, young'un?"

Just then, Nico got pulled from his musings when he turned to the source of a manly voice being directed at him, to come face to face... with that same grandpa from before. With there being food in his belly, the guy looked a LOT healthier than before, with a sizable amount of fat, muscle and bulk restored to his frame, giving him a slightly stockier appearance. Seeing that he had slowly gotten a decent amount of strength back into him, made Nico nod in approval, all whilst confirming the man's words. "You could say that, sir... just thinking about the future." he replied.

"Aye, 'at I can 'gree with ye on there, lad. 'een thinking about it meself." The man said, crossing his arms as turned to walk away from the little 'party' going on. Nico arched a brow at this, but followed regardless, having sensed the hidden attempt to make this conversation private. The two walked a little distance away from the partying Dwarves, the redhead keeping the Shadow creatures doing their jobs through Erebus, until they stopped by a twisted-looking Tree. Leaning against it, the old Dwarf continued where he left off. "As much as I want to thank ye for saving ma people, it won't be long before those buggars come crawlin' back here. They struck down a lot of us to keep us from rebelling, ye might have noticed."

Nico nodded, frowning deeper at the confirmation of his thoughts. "Guessed so. Thought that they left a lot of the elderly here to kill you all off through attrition, the younger men would be able to work for longer, but the elderly wouldn't be able to do the same. Then there's the fact that there's no women here..." Nico mused, trailing off as a particularly dark thought entered his mind.

One which got confirmed by the old Dwarf later. "Ye got 'at one right, 'ose buggars took all our women when 'ey enslaved us, took 'em somewhere else... not sure where, though." he explained, causing Nico to almost growl had he not got the self restraint that he had. "We won't be able to last very long either, our people have always kept to ourselves, staying neutral to all conflicts, and as such we haven't gotten the chance to make any kind of defences before... we're pretty rad blacksmiths, and with the right materials we can change that, so 'ese Mines may have some use for us yet, but all 'at'll do is delay the inevitable. I meself am no leader type, and when we were enslaved I was one of the few elders kept alive... under conditions, as you may have guessed." Just then, he then widened his eyes as if he had remembered something, before a sheepish laugh took over him. "Oh right, I must be getting old 'ause my manners slipped. Name's Lard, I used to have a last name, but with us being like this its of little use to us now."

"Ah, right." Nico blinked in surprise, soon realizing that he hadn't done so to the guy either, plus he realized that the two kids hadn't told him about his introduction before either. At this point he pretty much rolled with the whole naming thing, since Abnormals apparently have different standards than humans did. "I forgot too, so no worries. Name's Nico, Codename DEATHSTROKE."

Nodding his head in acknowledgement, Lard made an attempt at a smile, but it was a weak one. "Pleasure, lad. Still, as much as our troubles have just begun, lemme once again thank ye, for saving not just me people, but me we grand lads too. Managed to get them out of here hopin' ey'd find a better life somehow. 'ey told me you had saved 'em, but neglected to mention much else, wanting me to see you personally." Looking him up and down, the Dwarf formed a slightly wider smile. "Can see why, meself."

Again, perhaps Abnormals were a race more complex than anything Nico had seen before, cause he just found himself being caught off guard by the sincere thanks that he had received from the man. Lard may not have known it due to the isolation his people had apparently done, but the sincerity in his words had thrown the male off. Just like with the Nature Elves, Nico wasn't used to being thanked like this, especially by beings whom he would kill under normal circumstances. Which made his previous thoughts return with a violent vengeance, prompting him to start slipping back into his dilemma...

'YOU KNOW, YA COULD JUS START THE PATH TO AWAKENING AS A DEMON KING BY MAKING THESE GLUTTONS YOUR SERVANTS, KING. HEH, MAYBE THEN CALLING YOU KING WON'T BE THAT UNFITTING OF YOU, ESPECIALLY IF YOU GET A CASTLE, A THRONE AND LOADS OF ADORING FANS LIKE YOU DO HAREM MEMBERS.'

…Until a rare suggestion from Byakko stopped him, one which both him AND Biko didn't agree with. 'You forget they have to be WILLING for that condition to be met, right? The Seed's being maintained by my Demonic Power, so we can afford to wait a while yet, and no I'm not going to just use them for my own ends. That'd make me no better than the ones whom enslaved these guys before.' Nico hotly responded, cutting the connection before his Ghoul Persona could respond. However, despite this he did bring up a valid point, one which he then brought up to Lard who looked at him as if he had started growing a second head. "Well, perhaps for the time being, why not let me stick around for a bit? I have my own issues for sure, but I think that I can spare some time keeping those Chaos fuckers off your tails whilst you build up your fortifications. At that point, they may as well be focused solely on me, at which point I can lead them away from you lot, allowing you all to get things going. I know there will be some people wary of me, it'd only be natural due to their last visitors... not being the nice kind, but at least this way you all have some defensive means."

"Eh? You sure, lad?" Hearing his proposal, Lard gaped at him in shock and surprise, hardly believing his ears. Sure what Nico said was true, that he would likely not be received very well by some of the Dwarves due to paranoia, but it was also a fact that the guy was the reason why they had escaped Slavery for a lifetime, plus feed them right afterwards. That earned him more than a little amount of credit with them, to say the least. As much as his concern showed itself on his face, the Dwarf Elder definitely couldn't have hoped for a better outcome too, knowing of the redhead's power (especially as a DPU, something which he had mixed feelings about for the most part) being quite vast. Hence he could greatly benefit them in the long run. Seeing that Nico's gaze held no signs of taking back his words, Lard released a sigh, holding his head with his right hand. "Sure, then, that'll work for me. As long as you help keep us save while we're sorting ourselves out, we'll let you stay with us."

"Thanks, oh yeah, and I MAY have some weapon blueprints amongst some other goodies too, if you're interested in those..."

"Oh-hoh? First you had me curiosity, now you have me attention, lad! Lets talk more 'bout that back 'ere, Leo's always been a bit of a worrywart about his old man, hahahaha!"


Chapter end!

Whoooo boy! An intense, large chapter completed! Hopefully the next couple chapters will be the conclusion of this Arc, then I can take a small break to focus on other stories, cause lets face it, with the modifications I've made to the canon plot, filler chapters and arcs are guaranteed here. Especially if I want to make the Lowee Arc as good as the Leanbox one. I'll try to lessen them though, but the way things are developing there may be ONE filler Arc before the main one comes into play depending on the end result.

Other than that, not only have the girls escaped the Abnormals, they've met up with an... interesting face, Theta! From the prequel story Symmetrical Evolution by Zergface. Essentially, he's like a militia man that only existed there, but now has made his debut in the main story, whoo hoo! Hopefully with him, we can add a few more comedic moments, since OEG is a dark world in sore need of some nice humour... even though my humour is shit compared to the Neptunia devs. His connection to the overall situation will make for some interesting developments too, hope you all like them.

Aside from that, on Nico's end of things he has stumbled upon a group of enslaved Dwarves, their masters being the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion belonging to the Chaos God Slaanesh. Now hopefully, you all can see the differences between these guys and the World Eaters belonging to Khorne, the latter is simple and bloodthirsty, whilst the former is more cunning and lenient towards magic/ranged weaponry. I'll be including some of their lore into the story too, so look forward to that, perhaps that lore may fill the gaps that the potential filler arc won't need to, who knows? hehehe... Well, at least he managed to prevent a Nature Elf slaughter 2.0. bet a lot of viewers will be relieved at that, but things won't end just there since the future isn't looking too bright for these guys, and with his current mind set Nico will definitely be taking responsibility for his actions. He's too into his mental development not to. Hence why he's staying with them for the time being, though don't worry, things will develop on that front.

Oh yeah, for those who didn't get it last chapter, the gauntlets, swords and Cannons that Nico made with his Kagune, showcasing his ability to shapeshift with it quite well (he's a smart guy, what did you expect anything less?) are actually inspired from the King Saw, Rock Cannon and the gauntlets belonging to the alternate personas in the 2012 Anime Black Rock Shooter. Nice series, lots of action and psychological elements, my 2 favourite things.

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, let me know what you think and i'll see you next one.

Peace Out.