A/N: Hello again, everybody!
It's me again, bringing you an all 'brand-spanking' new chapter for my story!
Before I leave you to enjoy it though I would like to mention something to you all first. You may or may not have noticed that my title card has changed very recently. Well, it was a gift created by and given to me from the writer Shippuden Generator as a thank you for inspiring them in writing one of their stories, a Highschool DxD story crossed over with Generator Rex. The title of this story is 'The Devil's Revolution'. Check it out for yourselves. I wish them all the best in their stories.
Aaaaaaaand now, you've all been waiting so patiently for this (or maybe not), here's the next chapter, The True war begins.
Enjoy
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The desolate landscape of the Underworld was eerily silent. Not a single sound could be heard; no squawk of a demon flying overhead nor was there even the faintest of breezes.
Once the vibrant capital city of an ancient, powerful civilisation, all that remained now was the remnants of an aged battlefield, the final part of a cataclysmic war which shocked the denizens of the Underworld, a war which sealed the fate of not just an entire species but the fate of one of the cornerstone civilisations which held influence in this world….
…but now, all that remained was death. Death, ancient forgotten memories, and the silent, anguished cry of the former inhabitants of the city, consigned to the history books…to be taught to the children in devil society during their history lessons, reduced to a simple footnote in history…never again to play a part in the fate of the world.
Left to be forgotten.
The deathly silence was finally broken when a teleportation circle suddenly formed on the ground, quickly followed by a flash of crimson light. As fast as it came, the light disappeared again, revealing a small group of devils standing on the circle which followed the light and disappeared shortly after it.
The first thing Ben noticed as the light dissipated after the purple sky above them, the tell-tale sign that they had arrived in the Underworld was the unnaturally silent wasteland they had found themselves transported to.
All around them were shards of crystals, each of varying sizes; from smaller shards scattered about the place to larger crystal structures jutting up through the ground – all of the crystals he could see around him all had differing levels of damage – and several gigantic crystalline mounds towering over the others. As Ben stared at the larger crystals he realised that they had been altered, chiselled to give them the appearance of buildings, dwellings that used to be someone's home.
These same features could be seen on the huge structures protruding out of the ground and reaching up to touch the purple sky above.
Ben imagined that, if he were to stand in this ruin before its destruction the towering 'skyscraper' crystals, it would've reminded him of the cities he'd visited when he lived in the states, cities like New York.
Though, unfortunately, in this case, the scene he saw before him, if being compared to New York, was as though the city had been the scene of an intense battle and had been completely destroyed by it.
Ben glanced up at the nearest titanic structure to see the battle damage across its surface, an untold story of horror and destruction, and looked on at the other two thirds of the crystal that had been snapped off, crushed several smaller crystals beneath its colossal weight, leaving only shattered edges above the ground, and now lay, partly buried, in the dark orange sand he now stood on.
In its prime – however many millennia ago that was – Ben could tell that he was standing in what would have been a gleaming city of beauty, a gigantic piece of artwork in its own right, a shimmering jewel in the Underworld.
"Where the hell are we?" he wondered with trepidation.
[It can't be,] Azmuth murmured in barely contained shock.
[I'd heard but I never saw for myself,] Ddraig added, also in a forlorn undertone.
Before Ben could ask what they were talking about, Rias answered his question.
"We're in Petropia," she gasped in shock as her eyes flicked between the crystals protruding from the dark sand around them.
"Petropia? The homeland of the Petrosapiens?" Ben asked, thinking back on the book he'd been given by Rias' mother during his training.
Rias only nodded her head.
[What happened here?] Azmuth wondered, asking Ben's question before he had a chance to. [The Petrosapiens are one of the strongest demonic species of the Underworld. Their wealth and power rivalled only by the Devil faction.]
"They were…and that was true a long time ago."
[Then what happened here?]
"They were driven almost to the point of extinction during the Extermination."
"The what?" Ben asked, beating Azmuth to the question this time.
"The Extermination. It happened a very long time ago. An evil, monstrous creature appeared from the wildlands far to the north, appearing completely out of nowhere, shocking the Underworld with their unrestrained bloodlust and the huge wave of death and destruction they wrought on their rampage through the land."
"It took everyone completely by surprise," Akeno added as she looked up at the buried crystals around them. "The monster had wiped out whole ecosystems and destroyed several entire demonic species before we realised what was happening. Even after the three factions finally understood the severity of the danger this monster posed to everyone. After the incident with the Two Heavenly Dragons it was the only other time that the Three Factions agreed to a temporary ceasefire to deal with it but by then it had already carved a cataclysmic scar across the land which never fully healed, not even to this day. They gathered together and went out to face it before it reached Petropia."
"But they were too late, weren't they?" Ben interjected, guessing the answer as he looked up at the destroyed buildings lying around them.
Rias nodded again before taking over the story from Akeno. "By the time our forces arrived the battle was already over. Petropia had been engulfed and completely destroyed by an explosion of such power that, not only did it all but wipe out the Petrosapiens and destroy their homeland, it also destroyed several thousand miles of land around it, turning it into a vast dead zone that we are now standing in the middle of."
[What happened to the monster?]
"We don't know. It disappeared after the explosion and no trace of it could be found anywhere. It was eventually believed that it had either been killed in the explosion or it was the explosion, detonating after the Petrosapiens managed to kill it. They sacrificed themselves to destroy a huge threat to the Underworld."
Ben examined more of their surroundings, glancing down at his feet as he felt them brush against something under the sand.
Kneeling down, he brushed off the layer of sand obscuring the object he was stood on. When he uncovered the mysterious object he was shocked to see himself staring at a face buried in the sand.
It was crystalline in structure and composition, just like everything else around them, and stared back at Ben though there was no life behind their eyes as that had been extinguished centuries ago by whatever had taken the life of the rest of the destroyed city. What unsettled Ben the most though was that he instantly recognised what the dead being beneath him was; a Petrosapien!
Cursing under his breath at the heavily cracked crystalline face staring back at him with lifeless eyes, Ben stood up again and subconsciously took a step back from the uncovered corpse and felt his heel catch on something else behind him, beneath the sand.
Already guessing what he had brushed against, he glanced down behind himself to see a severed crystalline arm, severed below the elbow and just as heavily cracked as the head, lying lifelessly in the sand, the fingers outstretched as though they were reaching out for something.
As he stared at it, Ben couldn't help but notice that the severed arm was a different shade of pale green than the face that he had just uncovered.
He glanced around at the others to see most of them accidently uncovering the litter of bodies they were standing on to see more dead Petrosapiens, feeling the sun on their 'skin' for the first time in millennia.
"This isn't a battlefield. It's a graveyard," he gasped, noting the others uncovering more and more shattered body parts in the sand.
[Is it normal to have Rating Games in graveyards like this?] Azmuth asked with clear restraint in his deep voice.
"Absolutely not!" Rias answered immediately, shaking her head vehemently. "It was unanimously agreed that the whole area be declared off-limits and left as a memorial to those who died to save the rest of us."
"So then, why did we get sent here?"
"You have me to thank for that."
Everybody turned towards the source of the voice, looking up to see Diodora standing atop of a large, toppled crystalline building looking down on them with a callous smirk on his face.
"Diodora!" Ben growled darkly, activating his Sacred Gears instinctively, an action that was imitated by Kiba and Xenovia as they unsheathed their blades and adopted battle stances.
[So, it seems like Albion's wielder spoke true,] Azmuth muttered.
Ben grunted in response. Barely holding himself back from tearing the traitorous bastard limb from limb.
"It's been some time. Let me introduce you to some of my new friends," Diodora sneered at the same time dozens of teleportation circles materialised in the air above them and devils armed with an assortment of weapons started appearing from them.
"I recognise those sigils," Rias announced with concern in her eyes and voice.
"What are they?" Ben asked.
"They're sigils of the families loyal to the Old Satan Faction, they were exiled for the part they played in the civil war."
At the same time more armed devils were materialising in the air above them, Ben heard the sound of multiple, heavy footsteps rapidly approaching them from all sides. The others seemed to hear them too as they all prepared themselves for a coming attack; Koneko's white ears and tail started protruding from her body, Akeno transformed into her Thunder Priestess robes, and Kiba and Xenovia took up defensive stances and returned to the centre of the clearing that they had appeared in.
Asia's startled scream caused all of them to look back to where Asia was standing, expecting to see her standing behind them…only to find her no longer there!
"Asia?!" Ben cried in horror, spinning his head around as he searched for her. Another scream directed his gaze back up to Diodora where, to his shock and horror, he saw him holding Asia by her throat, dangling her in the air as he hovered above them, his black, skeletal wings unfurled. He didn't hold her tight enough to choke her but she still grabbed his wrist as she struggled to free herself from his grasp.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Rias demanded angrily, pointing angrily at the smirking Astaroth heir.
"Isn't it obvious? I'm betraying you. The Khaos Brigade offered me something that was too good to pass up."
"You traitorous bastard! You dare lay a filthy hand on Asia?! I'll have your head for this!"
"You're welcome to try and take it…but you'll have to get through my new business partners first. They're here to capture the Dragon All-father and, at my personal request, to kill every last one of you," Diodora exclaimed with a maniacal grin on his twisted face as thee owners of the heavy footsteps revealed themselves, over a dozen Animo's abominable creatures emerged from behind the fallen crystals surrounding them, the metallic coils protruding from their backs crackling with unnatural electricity.
He then turned his attention towards Ben, locking eyes with him as he glared daggers back at him, every ounce of hatred building up within him. "While my new friends entertain you, I want you to know that I plan to thoroughly enjoy every inch of my prize."
He then snapped his fingers and a barrage of green magic bolts rained down on their group, causing them to disperse to avoid the impact as the bolts battered the ground where they'd just been standing.
This acted as the signal for the gathered Khaos Brigade forces who bellowed out a battle cry, the devils hovering above them raising their weapons while the abominations roared loudly, banging their fists together before charging at their enemies.
Ben didn't see any of this though. After dodging Diodora's attack, he turned back to face the traitor, only to see that he had already vanished…taking Asia with him as he disappeared, his sadistic laughter echoing in Ben's head.
This caused something to snap in Ben.
"Asia!" he bellowed loudly as he fell to his knees, punching the sand with his fist in anger, partly at himself for losing Asia but mostly at the fucker Diodora for taking her away from him. His head began swirling with a multitude of thoughts and conflicting feelings.
He took her from you
'He took her from me'
Your friend
'My friend'
Your companion
'My companion'
Your mate
"Ben!"
'My mate'
Your possession.
'My posse–, what?'
Yes, your possession. She belongs to you and that maggot stole her from you.
'He…stole her from me'
Yes. You are a dragon and you just let someone steal your property!
"Ben!"
'No I-I-I didn't….'
You are a dragon and you let someone take what is yours?!
'No I….'
You are a failure, a poor excuse for a dragon who can't even….
"BEN!"
Kiba roughly shook Ben's shoulder again to get his attention. The others around them had adopted a defensive circle to protect themselves from the onslaught of the Khaos Brigade's forces; Rias and Akeno had erected a magical barrier to protect them from the barrage from the devils above them while Xenovia and Koneko held back the circling Animo monstrosities, striking at them whenever they got too close to their group.
When he received no response from shaking his shoulder, Kiba forcibly pulled Ben's shoulder back, bringing him back up again. As he did so, Ben snapped back into reality, blinking his eyes rapidly to come back to his senses, though not before Kiba had a split second to see his eyes had rolled back into his head and a faint trail of black smoke swirled around the corners of his eyes. As Ben came back to reality the smoke quickly vanished and his eyes returned to normal.
"Ben?" Kiba asked again, giving his friend another, less forceful, shake of his shoulder. This time Ben was fully alert and focused on Kiba with a confused expression on his face.
"Kiba?"
"You need to pull yourself together! I know it's hard but we can't focus on Asia right now! We need to focus on the enemies in front of us first! Once we've dealt with them we can rescue Asia and deal with Diodora."
Ben covered his face with his hand as he accepted Kiba's hand with the other and slowly returned to his feet.
"Yes, of course. You're right," he agreed as he examined the rest of the battlefield, taking note of his surroundings. He saw how Rias and Akeno were too focused on maintaining the protective shield while Xenovia and Koneko were holding off the monsters around them.
A plan came to him as he saw all this and he placed a hand on Kiba's shoulder and faced him.
"I'll take care of the enemy above us. You, Xenovia, and Koneko deal with the enemy around us."
"You have a plan?"
"Of course I do," Ben said back as he rushed over and to Rias and Akeno and explained his plan to them.
"Be ready to strike when they're focused on me, ok?"
"Are you about this, Ben? There're too many of them for you to handle by yourself," Rias replied with worry.
"Remember what Diodora said? They're here to capture me, not kill me. That gives us the advantage."
Ben could see Rias and Akeno were still uneasy about the plan but they didn't make any attempt to stop him which was all the go-ahead that he needed as he activated his Gear, slamming his palm down on the dial and illuminating the area with emerald-green light.
[Transform: Opticoid]
A figure leapt up into the air as the light quickly dissipated and landed on one of the taller pillars lying about and stood upright.
Like many of his other demonic transformations, Ben's new form was humanoid in overall appearance, standing around 7ft tall in height. His lower half was clothed in black trousers while his upper half was completely bare; the reason for this being that his dark yellow, leathery skin was covered in dozens of green eyes, each varying in size. Strangely enough, his head was completely devoid of eyes of any kind, consisting only of a mouth and a large pair of bat-like ears.
"Come on then, assholes!" he shouted loudly, ensuring that the devils hovering above him could see and hear him. "You want me? Come and get me!"
There was a brief discussion amongst the gathered devils as they organised a change in plans. A few seconds later, a third of them stopped their attack and charged towards him, their weapons raised as they bellowed back at him.
"You think you're something special?!"
"We'll teach you to mock us!"
"No fancy demon form will save you, Tennyson!"
"Yeah, our bosses may want you alive but they didn't say we couldn't mess you up a bit first!"
As they continued to shout taunts and curses at him, Ben grew bored of it very quickly and was glad when they got close for him to launch his surprise assault.
Just as the large squad got close enough, Ben unleashed his fury on them, locking onto as many enemies as he could with his numerous eyes, each one moving across his torso as they searched for a target, focussing their attention on one when they found one, before launching a large volley of electric beams out of his eyes.
The abrupt, unexpected attack, took the enemy by surprise, taking out most of them in the first volley before they had chance to react and evade the beams which now lit up the sky, accompanied by the struck devils disappearing in flashes of light as they died.
The rest of the enemy devils saw this happen and, realising that their target was putting up more of a struggle than they thought, completely disengaged with their secondary targets and swarmed towards Ben, firing their weapons at him as he leapt into the air and began jumping between the fallen crystalline pillars, his eyes acting independently in seeking out new targets and firing more beams of energy at his pursuers.
On the ground below, Rias and Akeno saw how Been had successfully drawn the attention of their airborne enemies and, sticking to the plan, they stopped maintaining the shield, allowing it to slowly dematerialise, and turned their attention on the circling abominations that the others were holding back, unleashing their full power on them and instantly changing the flow of battle, turning the aggressors onto the defensive.
Continuing the fight above them, Ben came to a stop on a pillar that overlooked the battlefield, giving him a clear view of all his opponents circling around him. Despite using up his element of surprise, the devils circling around him continued to struggle to avoid his eye beams. Some were quick enough to dodge, evade or block his attacks but their lucky streak didn't last long and, soon, they were each blasted by his eyes and were taken out of the fight.
Several of them thought they'd have a chance to catch Ben off guard by sneaking around him in an attempt to strike at him from behind. Despite this doomed tactic of theirs, Ben had to give them credit for the attempt as they were quite stealthy in their approach. Unfortunately for them, though, they didn't realise that several of Ben's eyes had moved around his torso to his back and could see them, clear as day, as they charged towards him.
He waited for them to be right on top of him before he unleashed a full barrage of energy at them, taking all of them completely off guard. He struck all of them in a single volley, leaving no survivors.
With all his opponents taken care of, Ben looked skywards to see more teleportation circles appearing before his eyes, many more than before…almost triple.
They didn't give him chance to react to their unexpected arrival either as dozens of magic blasts were fired at him from all sides.
Ben leapt off the pillar, avoiding the multiple blasts just as they struck where he was, and landed in the middle of the defensive circle that the others had made to fend off the Animo monsters. As he landed next to her, Rias looked at him before turning her gaze upwards and seeing the large swarm of devil soldiers hovering above them, their weapons pointed at all of them.
"Look alive, people," she declared loudly, firing a bolt of crimson energy at one of the abominations circling them, hitting it directly in the face and killing it instantly. "There's too many of them."
"Then it'll be a fair fight," Ben retorted as he focussed his eyes up and fired blasts into the sky with such intensity that it forced the soldiers to back off as they looked for an opening to counterstrike.
Rias smiled at Ben before returning her attention to the fight. She was not going to let them take him away from her…nor was she going to let them slaughter her precious friends and family! They'd have to go through her first and she'd rather die before allowing anything to happen to them!
As she came to this declaration a dome of purple energy appeared from atop one of the fallen crystalline buildings and spread out rapidly, passing over the terrain and through the gathered combatants in the area…including Rias and her peerage, for whom the light passed through harmlessly.
However, the same couldn't be said for the other devils and the roaring abominations. As they came into contact with the purple light they cried out in pain briefly before they burned away into nothing, no trace that they ever existed being left behind. All the abominations were caught by the light and obliterated immediately and the closest lines of devil soldiers were caught and killed before they were able to back away like the others to a safer distance.
"What the hell was that?" Ben wondered as the dome of light reached its peak and dissipated.
"Sorry we're late, kids."
They all turned to see Odin stood in the middle of their group, his staff in hand and a look of anticipation on his face.
"Lord Odin?!" Rias gasped in shock. "What are you doing here?"
Odin stepped past them to stand between them and the congregation of devils rapidly approaching them again.
"We learned that that traitorous fucker, Diodora, has been making some deals behind our backs so, while they intended to use your Rating Game as an attempt to kidnap the Dragon All-Father and kill the Gremory heiress, we came up with a plan to launch an ambush and beat them at their own game."
"And what are we then? Bait?" Rias asked with restraint, greatly displeased that she hadn't been let in on the plan.
"If you want to blame someone, blame Azazel. This was all his plan and he felt it would be better not to tell you about it," Odin replied as the staff in his hand vanished and stretched out his hand to the side.
"Come forth, Gungnir!" the head of the Norse Pantheon bellowed and a swirling circle made of water materialised beside him and a large, fearsome-looking, triple-pronged spear emerged out of the small maelstrom. He took hold of it with both hands and directed it at a concentrated clump of devils flying towards them and fired a huge beam of magical energy at them.
"I hate to admit it but Azazel's plan is brilliant in its sheer simplicity: draw in as many of these bastards as we can and take them all out in one fell swoop. I wish I'd thought of it first. That brat will never let us forget about this." He glanced over his shoulder at them. "You kids get out of here while I distract them. Once you're out of harm's way then I can really let loose on these fuckers."
Ben was more than happy to leave the Norse god to his destruction. He had nothing else on his mind other than finding Asia and punishing Diodora. The only reason he hadn't headed off already was because of Rias who called out to Odin in warning.
"Watch out for those monsters of Animo; they're much stronger than the first time we encountered them."
Odin chuckled and gestured behind him with a shrug of his head.
"Ha! Don't worry about that! You think they let me come here by myself?"
As he said this another group of abominations, a lot more than before, emerged from over the crest of a hill a short distance away from them. Upon seeing them, they unleashed a series of roars of challenge and started their bloodthirsty charge…covering several feet before the ground beneath them erupted in large explosions and threw the entire line into chaos. Ben and the others looked up to see several squads of heavily armed Valkyries descending upon them from above, their drawn weapons glistening in the light.
Rias tore her gaze away from the Valkyries and returned it upon Odin.
"In that case, lord Odin, we thank you and shall take advantage of your generous offer and leave you to it."
"You do that. Let us handle it from here," Odin replied as he fired another beam at the swarm above them.
Rias turned to face her peerage, each of them with the same concerned expression on their faces as her.
"Let's go find Asia and free her from that traitor's schemes!"
"Right!" they all replied in unison, each with a serious expression on their face, and ran off through the city ruins in the direction they last saw Diodora flying.
"Hey, kids! You still alive?" Azazel's voice entered their heads as they leapt over a heavily submerged piece of crystal.
"Azazel?" Ben muttered, thrown off a little in surprise at the governor-general's voice echoing in his head.
"Yeah! I know you might have some choice words to throw at me but now's not the time so just shut up and listen for now! We have enemy forces appearing all over the place, swarming the battlefield and the VIP area! The Khaos Brigade is launching a full-scale assault, distracting us bigwigs while they make a move on their real target…you."
"Me?"
"Yep. Seems you've already made a name for yourself in the Old Satan Faction and they want to get their hands on you. Fortunately for you, though, we anticipated this and put a countermeasure in place and have placed ambushes all over the place, taking the enemy completely off guard."
As Azazel was explaining this, high in the sky above them they were watching the effect of the plan take place before their eyes; scores of enemies were teleporting all over the area around them only to quickly fall into disarray as squads of angel, devil and fallen angel soldiers sprang their ambushes, catching the traitorous devils with their trousers down and forcing them to fight for their lives and forget about catching Ben for the moment.
"I'm sorry you were all kept in the dark about this but we couldn't risk Astaroth or any of the Khaos Brigade finding out about our plan."
"But what if something had happened?" Gasper asked fearfully as he clung tightly onto Koneko's shoulders as she carried him deftly across the battlefield. "Any one of us could've been killed just now!"
"Gasper's right," Ben added as he stopped looking up at the bright lightshow going on in the sky above him and returned his attention to navigating through the ruined buildings around them. "Where were you guys when the attack started? If Odin hadn't turned up when he did then we would've been in trouble."
"That was an unforeseen scheme by the Khaos Brigade. They put a teleportation barrier around the area in an attempt to stop us from coming to your aid. I failed to consider it a possibility and I apologise for that. If we weren't prepared for their ambush then it would've been too late to stop them but that's no excuse! As the strategist for this battle, I take full responsibility for everything…including that failure. If you wish to take your anger out on me after the battle then so be it. My life will be yours in payment."
That last statement brought all of them to a sudden stop, thrown off by the sincerity of Azazel's words.
"Seriously?" Ben asked, voicing the surprised question that in the eyes of everybody standing around him.
"That doesn't matter right now though. I need you guys to get to safety and let us take care of these terrorist dicks, okay?"
"No, we can't just run and hide!" Ben retorted hotly. "That fucker, Diodora, kidnapped Asia!"
"Wait! He did what?!"
"He kidnapped her! I failed to stop him and I let him take her away! I swore to always protect her and now she's gone!"
Unbeknownst to any of them, dark smoke swirled behind Ben's eyes again, dancing behind his pupils and some trails leaking from the corners of his eyes and slowly down his cheeks. The smoke quickly retreated and vanished again when he felt Rias place a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"It wasn't your fault, Ben. We all failed to stop Diodora. She's not just a valued friend, she's a part of our family!"
"We will find her and bring her back…and we will put Diodora's head on a spike to serve as an example to all those who'd seek to harm our household again!" she added fiercely, directing this statement more to Azazel than her peerage who nodded in complete agreement with her statement.
"Excellent! That's the kinda spirit I've come to expect from you and your peerage, Gremory! I'll be more than happy to keep these guys off your backs…so go rampage your hearts out! Teach Diodora a lesson for messing with you guys!"
With that, the connection was broken and Azazel's voice disappeared, leaving the group of devils right in the middle of an intense battle being fought all around them.
"Let's get going," Rias stated to everyone.
"We haven't got time to run around aimlessly looking for them. Let me try this," Ben said as he searched through his choice of transformations until he found the one he was looking for and slammed his palm down on the dial and bathed in emerald-green light.
[Transform: Wildmutt!]
When Ben's Vulpimancer form emerged from the dissipating light it was already sniffing the air rigorously as it sifted through the countless different scents his hyper sensitive nostrils were picking up, searching through them at a blinding pace until it homed in on the scent it was searching for….
Asia's.
At finding her scent, a trail of colour appeared in Ben's 'vision', leading away from them and deeper into the ruined city, towards its centre. He emitted a loud roar and set off as fast as he could to find the source of the scent trail.
"He must've found her!" Kiba deduced as Ben shot off away from them.
"Don't lose track of him!" Rias ordered as she unfurled her wings and flew off in hot pursuit. The others unfurled their on wings and took to the air, catching up with Rias quickly and following after Ben as he ran, leaping over submerged crystals and skirted around crystals protruding from the ground up into the sky.
As they flew behind him, some of their attention was directed up at the battle raging above them, the sounds of war cries and screams of rage and pain as soldiers died in droves on both sides.
"This is insane," Xenovia gasped in shock and silent awe at the scale of death and bloodshed they were in the centre of. "I've never seen anything like this!"
"Neither have I," Akeno admitted as she looked up to see what Xenovia was seeing.
"No one has for centuries," Rias announced, her eyes only leaving Ben for a brief moment to look upwards before returning them to Ben's orange-furred back. "The last time a battle near this scale was fought in the Underworld was during the time of the civil war."
As they followed Ben around a particularly large chunk of destroyed crystal they found themselves on what must've once been a main street back when the former city was in its prime. Ahead of them they saw a fight between a group of Animo abominations and a pair of warriors from the Allied forces.
As they quickly closed in on the encounter ahead of them, the flying devils' eyes widened in recognition of the two warriors ahead of them.
"Jen?! Gwen?!"
The two young women in question were quite oblivious to the group rapidly approaching them, so focussed were they on the hulking, monstrous creatures surrounding them. The pair of them were wearing their usual tight, form-fitting black battledresses as they each fought off their enemies in their unique styles. Jen darted around and through her opponents with expert skill, dancing around them with both finesse and brutal efficiency, striking at any and all exposed weak points the dumb brutes openly revealed as they tried catching Jen let alone deal a blow on her.
In contrast to Jen's style of using skill and finesse to handle her foes, Gwen flew through the air above them, her angelic wings glistening across the dark, desolate area they were in, as she wielded her sword of light to strike the monsters down and firing blasts of holy magic at them, striking many of the monsters squarely in the chest due to their slow nature and lack of awareness or strategy; instead, made to rely purely on their brute strength and ferocity.
"What are they doing here?" Kiba wondered, surprised to see the pair of them in the Underworld with them.
"Azazel must've brought them along after seeing us off," Akeno muttered.
"Does that mean that Azazel told them about his secret plan too?" the blond-haired Gremory knight wondered as he drew his sword ready for battle.
"It certainly looks that way," Rias replied.
"Dick," Koneko deadpanned, voicing her disapproval of Azazel's choice of action in her particular way.
The sound of a loud roar beneath them drew their attention back down on Ben who continued on his path straight through the fight.
"Looks like Ben doesn't intend to stop," Akeno observed.
Xenovia looked down at Ben.
"Do you think he sees them too?"
"I doubt it. Vulpimancers don't have eyes, they 'see' through heat," Rias explained.
"Looks like he spotted the enemy though," Akeno added as she watched Ben increase his pace and sprint towards the closest monster in front of him.
By the time the monsters realised Ben was charging them they barely had time to turn around to see the large, orange-furred demon leaping in the air at them, let alone put up any defence to block the attack. Ben lashed out with his razor-sharp claws, swiping the abomination in the head and slicing clean through its neck with such force and ferocity that it almost tore the creature's head clean off in the first blow. The monster collapsed to the floor, lifelessly, their head hanging limply by a few remaining muscles in its neck.
Maintaining his momentum, Ben continued soaring through the air towards two more monsters before him, slashing his other paw at the monster on his right, dragging it across its face and chest, earning him a howl of raw pain, and opened his large jaw wide and bit down onto the neck and shoulder blade of the remaining monster on his left, clamping his mouth shut and making use of his initial momentum to tear a large chunk of the beast's flesh off, earning another anguished roar as it fell to the floor, clutching the hole that had been brutally torn out of it before its life bled out a few short seconds later.
"Let's assist them," Rias ordered as she descended from the sky, a ball of crimson destruction magic in her hand which she fired at the closest monsters.
""Right,"" the others replied in unison as they followed Rias' direction, descending upon the monsters and taking them by surprise.
The skirmish was over in just a few seconds after Rias and the others joined the fray. The ground was soon littered by the remains of Animo's abominable creations.
"That's the last of them," Kiba noted as he withdrew his sword from the chest of his opponent and checked the area for anymore foes and finding none.
"Great work, everyone," Rias praised them as Jen and Gwen approached them.
"We could've taken those things by ourselves…but thanks for the help," Gwen said as she furled her angelic wings into her back again.
"Yeah, cheers," Jen added with a slight nod before her expression turned serious. "What are you guys still doing here though? You're supposed to have gotten to safety already. Why're you still here?!"
"We can't leave yet! Diodora kidnapped Asia and we're getting her back!"
Gwen and Jen were both greatly shocked by this.
"He did what?!"
"Why that little fuck–!"
Jen didn't finish her curse as, at that precise moment, several explosions went off close to them. They all turned to see a squad of enemy devil soldiers flying towards them. Ben growled deeply and took up position to counterattack.
"Fucks sake!" Jen cursed and turned back to Rias. "You guys go on. We'll take care of these dickheads and catch up!"
"Are you sure?" Rias asked them with worry.
"We'll handle these devils. Don't worry about us," Gwen added positively as she unsheathed her sword of light again and took up a fighting stance.
Rias glanced between the two Tennyson women and saw the will and determination in their eyes and nodded her head in silent agreement before turning back to Ben and the others. She didn't need to say anything to them, only give them a nod of confirmation which they returned in kind.
Ben let out another roar before turning back, finding Asia's scent again and falling into a sprint down the street once more with Rias and the others following behind him in the air.
They continued on for a few more minutes, slipping around and through the destruction laid out all around them, the battle continuing to rage on all around them until they finally made it out of the maze of fallen buildings where they came to a sudden stop, Ben reverting back from his transformation while the others landed around him, all of them looking up at the sight before their eyes.
Standing in the centre of fallen buildings, surrounded by a moat of dark sand separating it from the rest of the former city, a huge crystalline structure rose up out of the ground, reaching up high into the dark sky. It still bore clear damage from whatever had destroyed the city but, unlike the rest of the city, it still stood tall and relatively intact. It had no overall structure; instead, it looked more like a base tower with a large staircase leading up to the middle tier in which several complexes and buildings were attached to the side of it, reaching out well past the tower's base. The different attached structures all met up into a combined staircase again and reached yet further into the air in a large spiral, open-air staircase which circled up to an imposing temple-like structure at the very top, some several hundred feet into the air, giving the top structure an imposing view over everything around them.
"What is this place?" Ben wondered, unable to ignore the imposing structure before them.
[It's the Imperial Palace,] Azmuth explained sombrely as he recognised the beautiful building which still glimmered in the light of the Underworld sun, sparkling at the multitude of lights of magical blasts from the battle going on all around it.
"The Imperial Palace?" Ben repeated as he strained his neck backwards as he looked up towards the tower's peak.
[That means we must be in the Petrosapien's capital city, the once-revered 'Jewel of the Underworld'.]
[Not that there's much jewel left,] Ddraig noted sombrely, without any trace of humour or sarcasm in his deep, rich voice.
"And Diodora has Asia in there?" Xenovia added as she gripped her sword tightly.
"It's where her trail ends," Ben stated as he turned his gaze down to the huge staircase before them.
"Then we haven't got a moment to lose. Let's go!" Rias declared as she led the way, the others running after her. they quickly crossed the sandy 'moat' surrounding the tower and reached the stairs where they began their ascent.
'Don't worry, Asia! I'm on my way,' Ben thought firmly as they made their way up. Every now and then there would be a large explosion of light in the distance as Azazel or one of the other powerful fighters found themselves in battle. To his right he saw another beam of bright light from where they'd left Odin, watching as scores of enemies were wiped out of existence in the blink of an eye.
When they finally reached the top of the staircase they were greeted by an imposing set of doors which stood nearly forty foot high. They approached the door and were surprised when the doors slowly opened before them.
"Be on guard, people. Who knows what Diodora is planning," Rias told her gathered peerage as they entered the palace.
As they crossed the threshold the large doors suddenly closed shut again and several small teleportation circles materialised in the floor a few feet away from them on a raised platform. They each took up combat stances as several flashes of light lit up the room to reveal several robed figures standing before them.
"I knew you'd follow me. You just can't keep away, can you?" Diodora's condescending voice echoed throughout the spacious room.
"Diodora! Where are you, you bastard?!" Ben bellowed loudly, looking around for the source of the voice.
"I wanted some entertainment so I sent you a welcoming party so we can play a little game of mine."
"You're serious?" Akeno asked incredulously.
"We don't plan to put on some kind of show for you, Diodora. Give Asia back to us!" Rias ordered with fire in her eyes.
"Oh, I think you'll be more than happy to humour me with a little game. Need I remind you that you are in the palace of Petrosapiens. They might've been lowly demons but even I have to admit that their structures are nigh-on impenetrable. Who knows how long it'll take you to reach me and sweet Asia at the top if you don't play along. If you refuse to take part in my game then I'll make sure you never see little Asia ever again," Diodora jeered tauntingly.
Ben gritted his teeth and clenched his fists tightly – so much so that they shook in his silent rage – but somehow managed to stay in control and took a deep breath to calm himself down a little.
They'd have to play his game for now. He hated to admit it but Diodora was right. If he's sealed himself in at the top floor then there's no way they'd be able to blast their way through. Even his Diamondhead form would take too long to break through the structure of ancient Petrosapiens who've existed for millennia…if he even could break through at all.
"What game do you have in mind?" he seethed under his breath, asking just loud enough for Diodora to hear.
"I'm glad you asked, Dragon All-father," the Astaroth heir chuckled tauntingly. "The game is a simple one: you will fight to battles against my peerage simultaneously…."
A set of doors to their left opened up to reveal a staircase up to one of the adjoining outbuildings of the tower.
"On one side you'll fight my two rooks and eight pawns…."
The pawns and rooks in question disappeared in a flash of light as they teleported to their battle positions while, at the same time, a set of doors on their right opened up to reveal another adjoining outbuilding.
"…while, on the other side, you'll face my queen and two bishops. Feel free to split your group however you wish…."
"Ben, Gasper, Koneko and Xenovia! You'll take out his rooks and pawns. Akeno, Kiba and I will take out his queen and bishops," Rias stated without hesitation as Diodora's queen and bishops disappeared to their positions for battle.
"Sure thing," Xenovia nodded in understanding.
"We won't let you down," Ben muttered as he cracked his knuckles in anticipation.
"Four of us against ten of them?!" Gasper asked fearfully.
"It'll be a fair fight then," Ben murmured, already making his way to the doorway on his left. He was joined by Gasper, Koneko and Xenovia as they all made their way up the stairs to face their opponents. Behind them they heard the doors slowly shut again, blocking their way back.
They made it to the attached outbuilding, this one significantly more damaged than the rest of the tower where they found their robed opponents already waiting for them.
"Oh, and I've already taken the liberty of promoting all my pawns to queens," Diodora announced with a dark chuckle.
"Of course you have," Ben murmured under his breath before doing the same thing and promoted himself to queen, immediately feeling a rapid surge in speed, strength and power.
Just then, Ben heard Rias' voice in his head, courtesy of the communication spell that had been placed on them all prior to the start of the battle.
"Xenovia! I need you to keep those two rooks busy!"
"If that's what it takes to save Asia then I'll gladly do anything!" the blue haired Gremory knight replied confidently as she sprang into action, raising Durandal high as she charged at the two robed rooks, blocking their double blow with her sword and drawing them away from Diodora's pawns.
"Koneko! Work crowd control on those pawns."
Rather than verbally respond to this command, Koneko had already released her Nekomata power, complete with tail and ears and began throwing blue youkai fireballs at the gather enemy pawns, launching them at any who chose to get too close to them.
"Ben! Give Gasper some of your blood. We need him at his best."
"Got it," Ben replied as he hid Ddraig's Gear and used his sharp claws to snick his index finger to draw some blood which he then presented to Gasper who looked a little apprehensive at first. "You got it, Gasper. Remember what I told you, okay?"
Gasper looked up at him. seeing Ben's face full of confidence filled him up with a surge of confidence too. He nodded his head and drew closer to Ben's hand, licking his bleeding finger and instantly feeling a pure rush of power flow through him, enough to make his eyes glow sparkling red as Ben's potent blood entered his system.
"And Ben…," Rias continued with her instructions.
"Yeah?"
"Do what you do best."
"I won't let you down!"
"I know you won't. Good luck, everyone!"
Ben presumed that Rias must've left them to it so she could concentrate on her own fight with Akeno and Kiba as the connection broke and her voice went silent after giving her orders.
"Right. Let's get this game started properly then, shall we?" Ben announced as he slammed his palm down on the dial, his transformation choice already made.
[Transform: Heatblast!]
"Perfect. Time to heat things up around here," Ben mused, his voice now gravellier and deeper than before thanks to his transformation. "Keep me covered, Koneko!"
"Got it," she replied simply and began throwing her fireballs more intently at the surrounding pawns as Ben ran past her, firing his own fireballs of demonic fire at the gathered enemy, and lunged at the closest pawns to him, bringing his fists down on them only to miss them completely and strike the floor hard. If it wasn't for the fact that the entire structure was made of Petrosapien crystal then it would've left a deep hole in the floor. As it was, though, it barley left a mark.
Ben swung to his left as a pawn landed beside him…but as soon as he began to move his arm to strike her, she'd already leapt out of the way the exact same time another pawn landed on his right-hand side and behind him and struck him with blasts of magic. They packed more of a punch than usual due to their promotions to queen but they still did very little damage to Ben. They annoyed him more than anything else.
Ben spun around again, aiming to get a hit in as he swung his arm around but this was met by exactly the same result as before. This time he was able to see Koneko do her best to hold off the other pawns. She would've warned him about their move but she was too preoccupied keeping them away from Gasper and keeping their attention focussed on her.
The pawns began move together as a group, in indirect unison – like a coordinated dance of death – around them, swerving out of the way of Koneko's blasts of fire and his own fireballs. He was even prevented from disrupting their dance and trap some of them in a cone of fire as the entire outbuilding was fireproof so there was no way for him to sustain a flame to keep them contained, forced to watch helplessly as they skirted over his torrent of fire, firing their own, weak magic blasts back at him.
"Grr, this is starting to get annoying," he growled as he began throwing flaming discs at the pawns, attempting to get them to lose their cool and focus in avoiding the flaming projectile and allow him to hit them with his flaming fist…but every time he tried doing this another two pawns would appear seemingly out of nowhere and get several quick blows on him, distracting him and letting their distracted comrade recover and re-join their dance of drawn-out death.
"Sure is," Koneko agreed, expressing her own annoyance at being incapable of landing even a single hit on the enemy at all by this point.
During the protracted game of cat-and-mouse, Ben ended up back with Koneko and Gasper as the pawns continued to jump around them, slowly getting closer and closer to them.
"You doing alright back there," Xenovia called out as she continued her own dance of death with the two rooks, holding them back with Durandal and slashing at them whenever they got too close for comfort.
"We've reached a bit of a wall here but it's nothing we can't handle," Ben replied as h growled in annoyance as they skirted around another barrage of fireballs he launched at them.
"Seriously, though, what the hell is up with these pawns?!" he exclaimed in frustration after several more attempts to catch them.
"Their moves and attacks are perfectly coordinated," Koneko observed with a scowl. "Whenever we try to attack one of them, they dodge the attack perfectly and the others launch their own attacks. It's an efficient, if extremely annoying, strategy."
As if in direct response to Koneko's statement, the pawns picked up their speed greatly, dancing around the three of them faster and faster, every now and then some of them launching blasts of magic at them which did little damage but forced them to defend themselves from it.
"The way they move; it's like a beautiful yet violent display of ballet. They move as though their hearts beat as one. It's impossible to know where they'll be from one second to the next."
"Yeah, it seems you're right about that–wait a second, what was that last thing you said," Ben asked as he blocked a series of magical blasts directed his way by the pawns.
"Uh, it's impossible to know where they'll be from…."
"Yes, that's it. I've got an idea. You two get ready to act when I say," he shouted back to them as he was engulfed in emerald-green light again.
[Transform: Brainstorm!]
The light dissipated to reveal Ben's large crab demon form standing in place of Heatblast.
"Ah, it is exquisite to once again find myself in this perfect configuration," Ben sighed in relief, his voice now sounding so much more eloquent than before. "Oh, how I've longed to return to this state of intellectual tranquillity."
Ben was brought quickly back to the present when several magical blasts struck his armour harmlessly.
"Ah yes, I almost forgot about you infuriating vagrants. I deem that sufficient time has passed of your tomfoolery and that it is time that you all should be terminated."
"So what are we going to do?" Gasper wondered fearfully.
"Yeah, how do we not die?" Koneko asked simply.
"Have no fear, my treasured chums, for all will be well," Ben replied cheerfully, his eyes moving not moving yet taking everything in around him, watching the dancing pawns and making impossible calculations in milliseconds. "Since I manifested into this delightful form I have been observing these sprightly antagonists thoroughly and have formulated several schemes in which to vanquish them."
Ben's eyes continue to follow the pawns as they circled around them, making calculations that would be otherwise impossible if he were in another form, formulating several hundred ways in which things may/will go and then working out probabilities of things occurring in different ways.
"Oh my, it seems that you are their next target, my dear Gasper," Ben announced, tapping the side of his immobile mouth in faux surprise at his discovery…though he wasn't as in the span of half a second he'd worked through thousands of calculations and was certain in his conclusions.
"W-what?! R-really?" Gasper cried fearfully, flinching as one of the pawns landed a little close to him.
"Yes, my dear vampiric chum. I've calculated there's a 91…actually, make that a 93% chance they're going to either stun or blind you, something to take you out of the picture first while the others keep Koneko and myself occupied."
"W-What should we do then?"
"I suggest that you make use of your remarkable power and freeze…," Ben explained, trailing off as his eyes scanned the room blindingly fast as he sought out the pawns most likely to be the ones to make a move against Gasper, finding the ones with the highest probability of being the correct choices.
After a second of contemplation he came to his answer.
"…those two girls over there, that one on my left aaaaand that one on your right," Ben stated casually, pointing his pincers at the pawns in question.
"Uh, okay," Gasper whimpered as he stared at the different girls Ben had pointed out and activated his Sacred Gear, freezing the pawns completely in their tracks, catching them just in time as they had begun their attack and were rushing towards Gasper to carry out their task.
"Splendid work, old chap, and no we can…oh, looks like there's an 89% chance that those two plan to attack you next, Koneko. Be a decent mate and freeze them as well if you'd be so kind, Gasper," Ben noted, pointing a pincer behind him without looking to the three pawns how believed they'd found an opening and were seeking to take full advantage of it and deal with Koneko.
"Eh, y-yes sir," Gasper mewled as he turned around and carried out Ben's order, freezing the three young women, each with a surprised expression on their face at being found out so quickly before they were frozen in place.
Before Ben had chance to say anything else, Koneko took full advantage of the opportunity Gasper had given her and sprang forward, charging the three pawns that had been aiming at her and striking the three of them with a powerful kick, taking them out of the fight permanently.
"What a wonderful display of feline beauty, my dear. Allow me to finish what Gasper started and take care of these ruffians in your stead, my lady," Ben stated politely as he raised his pincers to the other frozen pawns and fired powerful arcs of electricity across the battle arena and struck the static targets without opposition.
The remaining two pawns stopped leaping around and came to a stop in front of Ben, shocked expressions across their faces.
"You bastard!" one shouted in dismay at seeing the rest of her comrades get beaten so easily.
"How could you see through our moves. It should've been impossible to do so," the other pawn grumbled, just as dismayed as her remaining comrade.
"It almost was, my dear. If you'd been facing any other opponent I'd say, through basic calculations, there's an adequate chance you'd have been victorious against many other opponents. The glitch in your impressive little dance, though, was me. I'm afraid it was simply inconceivable that such a basic form of combat would be able to defeat a being such as myself. Koneko, if you'd like to do the honours…," Ben started to say, stopping himself as Koneko suddenly leapt over his head and used his metallic forehead as a springboard to launch herself at the surprised pawns and dealt the finishing blow to them.
Across the other side of the arena, the two rooks stared in shock at the sudden loss of all their pawns.
"Impossible. They took all the pawns out so easily?"
"Did we underestimate them?"
They were brutally brought back to their own fight when a bright light suddenly cleaved through the building in their direction. One of the rooks was successful in escaping the destructive power of the beam though the same couldn't be said for the other rook who was caught out in the open and had no time to block or dodge the powerful attack and took it full blast. She cried out in pain for a brief moment before she was destroyed in the blast.
The other rook who had managed to leap out of the way was getting back to her feet when a set of pincers clamped around her arms and waist and hoisted her off the floor and brought her face to face with the large crab demon which had caused her team so much trouble.
"It appears you made the basic, yet incredibly fatal, mistake of taking your eyes off your opponents. Normally I'd be insistent on teaching you the error of your ways but I earnestly believe that you won't get chance to make use of my sage advice," Ben stated formally before looking past the captured rook to the one who took out their comrade. "This is your catch, Xenovia, as they say. would you like to finish them off?"
Xenovia walked over to them, her sword draped over her shoulder, and gave the rook a passing glance before shaking her head.
"Honestly, I don't care. The only thing I care about is getting Asia back. She might work for Diodora but she isn't the one who kidnapped her. Diodora's the one I want," she said with a shrug.
Ben nodded his head with a small, impressed smile on his static face at Xenovia's reasoning.
"An excellent conclusion, my dear, and so eloquently put. I doubt I could've put it better myself." He then focused his attention back on the rook in his grasp. "Unfortunately, as per the nature of the game, we still need to deal with you."
With that, Ben fired another powerful arc of electricity at the rook, at point blank range, and sent the rook crying out in agony as she disappeared in a flash of light.
"Excellent work, everybody," Ben announced happily as he wiped his pincers together.
"The douchebags are gone. Can you change back?" Koneko muttered dryly, staring at Ben with a stoic expression on her face.
"What? Would you not prefer me to stay as this picture of perfection? This vision of excellence?"
Koneko just stared at Ben silently with a deadpan expression on her face.
"Yes," she finally said after a moment of awkward silence.
"Uh, very well then," Ben grumbled resignedly as he reverted back to normal in a flash of green light.
"Whew. Glad I'm back from that form. He's useful in a fight but he makes me very arrogant and self-righteous."
He stopped talking when he felt Koneko take hold of some of his shirt as she pressed her head against his chest.
"I'm not a fan of that form either. Besides, I prefer you like this," she muttered quietly, unwilling to look up and meet his gaze.
He smiled and placed a hand on her head, patting it affectionately and earning himself a content purr from her.
All of them were brought out of their thoughts at the sound of intense battle nearby. They looked back, across the gap, at the other crystalline outbuilding that Rias, Akeno and Kiba had gone to fight Diodora's queen and bishops.
"Looks like they're having some trouble over there," Ben noted as flurries of magical bolts shot out of the various openings in the outbuilding, flying in all directions as several other explosions could be heard going off over there.
"If only there was some way we could help them," Gasper muttered in fear for the safety of the three of them fighting for their lives with them unable to do anything.
"I'd fly over there if I could but we don't know how Diodora would respond to that. We are playing his game after all," Xenovia grumbled in frustration at their apparent inability to do anything for them.
"True. We might not be able to go over there…but I might have an idea that'll give them the boost of power they need," Ben mused, scratching his cheek as he privately debated the pros and cons of the idea.
"What is it?"
"It's a bit of an unusual tactic but I believe it'll give them the boost they need," Ben mused as he activated the communication circle by his ear. "Hey there, ladies. How's it going over there?"
"Ben?" Akeno replied, surprised to hear his voice in her head.
"Things are proving to be quite a challenge," Rias explained for him. "Every bit of damage we do to the queen gets instantly healed by the bishops."
"Then how about we step things up a bit? Whichever one of you takes out the queen first, I'll take you out on a date where we'll be all alone and we can do anything you want," Ben suggested with a small smirk as he imagined the expressions on their faces upon hearing his offer.
He glanced to his right to see Xenovia and Koneko staring at him. Koneko stared up at him intensely, her eyes looking at him with such intensity that it was as if she was trying to beam a hole in his head. Xenovia, on the other hand, had her arms crossed under her breasts and held a frustrated expression on her face.
Knowing exactly why they were staring at him so intensely, Ben raised his hands placatingly at them, as if they were a pair of rabid animals he was trying to calm down to prevent them from eating him.
"Don't worry, you two. That was just a way to give them the boost they need to finish their fight. You'll both get some time alone with me if that's what you want."
The pair of them just continued to stare at him in silence, a silence which as broken after a few seconds by a loud explosion and a sudden, drastic increase in magic power coming from Rias and Akeno. The four of them returned their attentions back across the gap to the other structure to see magical energy spilling through the various cracks and openings in the damaged building.
With their connection to them still active, they heard Rias and Akeno reacting to Ben's offered prize.
"What do you think you're doing, Akeno?" Rias demanded as she increased her magic power to match Akeno's sudden increase.
"What are you talking about? I'm going to win that date and have some alone time with Ben," Akeno replied with a giddy giggle as she increased her power again.
"Have you forgotten that he's mine, that he belongs to me?!"
"Of course I haven't…but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you have him all to yourself! I've already let you have his first time…."
"You let me?! How dare you!"
"You were the first one to sleep with him so now all bets are off."
"Don't forget who you're talking to, Akeno."
"Of course I haven't. He's still your man but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to let you have him all to yourself. I'm going to take every advantage I can to have him for myself."
Diodora's queen, or one of his bishops, must have made a comment on Rias and Akeno's humorous heated exchange of words as the pair of them, in unison, bellowed "Back off!" to them just before releasing a huge surge of electrical and destruction magic which blew out the back end of the structure, instantly taking out the queen and two bishops in the blink of an eye.
. . . . .
. . . . .
(Later)
"This isn't over, Akeno."
"That's what you think."
"I'm serious, Akeno. I won't put up with your antics anymore."
"Of course you won't."
"Ben is mine!"
Ben sighed humorously as he and the others followed behind Rias and Akeno. After winning their fights, they met up again in the middle structure of the tower where they found the large, spiral staircase which led the way up to the tower's zenith, the peak, inner sanctum where Diodora was holding Asia.
"I know he's yours but you can't say you can handle all of him."
"W-What? I-I'll have you know…."
"You don't remember last night? Do you think you alone are enough for a man like Ben?"
Despite having her back to him, Ben could still see the tell-tale signs of a blush forming in her cheeks and forced himself to not chuckle at her embarrassment at discussing his…performance.
"What? You! I'll…. Bah! We'll talk about this back home once we've rescued Asia."
"I have no objections to that. I see Asia as a little sister too. Let's focus on getting her back above anything else.
Just then, they reached the top of the staircase and are greeted by one of the most splendid structure they've ever seen, certainly the most beautiful they've seen since they were brought to the ruined city. It was a towering structure that offered visitors a clear, unobstructed view of everything around them. It allowed Ben to see the limits of the entire city and miles further out where all he was able to see the city was sat right in the middle of a desert sea, the only oasis to break the infinite void of barren wasteland…or, at least, it did before it as destroyed, its entire people killed, and it began being claimed by the desert and returned to the earth.
As Ben looked out across the city, it gave him insight, for the first time, into the sheer scale of the battel that they had found themselves right in the middle of. In every direction he could see, there was a brilliant show of lights as soldiers battled each other, fighting for their lives against the enemy.
"Is all this because of me?" he thought internally as he suddenly recalled Azazel telling him that he was the Khaos Brigade's real target, that they'd sent so many people after him to capture or even kill him.
[To be honest, I'm surprised something like this hadn't happened sooner,] Azmuth explained in Ben's head. [There's never been an instance, a time before now that one of the dragon god's power was contained within a Sacred Gear…so within reach. I can only apologise that this was always destined to happen, kid.]
"Heh, it's not like you wanted this to happen, right?"
[No, but all the same…. I suppose the one positive of this happening now is that it should serve as a warning to all overs in future of the folly of trying such a move.]
Ben didn't say anything back and just smiled emptily at Azmuth's reasoning as he gave one last look at the battle raging on around them before catching up with the others as they made their way up the final, smaller staircase to the huge set of doors which slowly opened as they approached, revealing the interior of the inner palace.
"Only Diodora and his two knights are left," Akeno stated as they walked through the abandoned halls of ancient Petrosapien royalty.
"I wonder why he decided to hold them back. It's very unorthodox to keep knights in reserve."
"Yo, yo, yo, devil dickheads!"
"Oh fuck," Ben groaned in dismay as the familiar figure of the former Church exorcist, Freed Sellzen, appeared out of the darkness on the level above them and stood on the banister and looked down on them.
"What's up! Thought you'd seen the last of me? Think again! I'm hard to kill!"
"Like a goddamn cockroach," Ben grunted as he glared at the self-righteous former exorcist.
"What are you doing here?" Kiba demanded as he also glared up at Freed.
"Well, after the last time we played together, I was scooped up by that psycho-bitch, Valerie…and bla, bla, bla, long-story-short the Khaos Brigade made me an offer I couldn't refuse which resulted in me standing before you now."
"And you're here as Diodora's knight?" Rias asked the former exorcist.
"His knight? Ha! As if!" Freed cackled manically, finding Rias' assumption hilarious.
"You must mean these two…," he added as two teleportation circles materialised on either side of him and two robed young women appeared from them, both bound by chains and on their knees with their heads bowed low.
"What the fuck?!" Ben gasped in shock.
"Why would you do that to your own allies?" Xenovia demanded angrily.
"My allies? My dear, you have the completely wrong idea about what's going on here. Here, let me show you," Freed said as he pulled a vial of black liquid from within his robes and dangled it before them.
"Now, I know what you're thinking. "Hey, Freed, old buddy, what's in that neat vial you've got in your hand there?" Well, to answer your question, you dirty devils, it's a little thing that my friend, Animo, gave me to test it out for him and his cool experiments. This is the latest version of his little concoctions and I'm excited to see what it does…."
'Animo gave it to him? that's not good,' Ben thought to himself with concern. Nothing from that crazy traitorous fallen angel could be good for anyone except him.
"Before I do, though, I want to share a little bit of gossip about Diodora that I think you guys would be interested in," he announced as he knelt beside one of the bound Astaroth knights and brought her chin up so they could see her face which was blank, her eyes completely without emotion.
"Did you know that these two delightful young women…and all those other ones you beat to a pulp and killed a few minutes ago were all aspiring young nuns before he got his greasy little mitts on them…some of them were even full blown saints!"
Everybody gasped in shock at this bombshell.
"What did you just say?!" Xenovia demanded, taken aback by his declaration.
"Mr Diodora 'the explorer' just loves finding women of virtue and corrupting them to his own desires through smiles and sweet talks; it's what gives him a hard on and gets the horny fucker off!" Freed cackled as he stroked the cheek of the knight beside him with the back of his hand. Again, the knight's face remained completely blank, seemingly completely oblivious to Freed's actions.
Ben's fist tightened at Freed's revelation.
"So you're saying that Asia was another conquest for him?"
"I'll give you an answer in the form of a little story. Once upon a time there was a spoiled high-born devil brat. He stumbled across a beautiful holy woman; blonde, petite – totally his type. He wanted to have this young woman butt she was a treasure of the Church and under their protection, completely out of his reach and impossible to kidnap and get away with it without consequences…so the little brat came up with a plan: if he could show the people of the church her healing a despicable agent of Hell then they'd excommunicate her and throw her out of the church, out onto the streets where he could swoop in take her for himself! He'd make her his completely, in both body and soul. We've all got our little kinks that get us going and Diodora's is completely breaking the wills of little, innocent young girls like hers more than anything else!"
"Just shut the fuck up, you bastard!" Ben bellowed loudly as he gritted his teeth, doing his best to ignore every instinct in his body to just attack Freed wildly.
It was only when Kiba placed his hand on Ben's shoulder that Ben snapped out of his blind fury.
"Calm yourself, Ben. You'll need to retain your strength for Diodora."
Ben cast a sidewards glance at Kiba and nodded his head in agreement.
"Yeah, you're right. You can't expect me to just ignore him and let him live after what he just said though!"
"I didn't say that. We'll finish him off together, once and for all," Kiba replied with a serious expression on his face.
"And now that story time is over we can move onto the main event. I'm eager to see what this stuff does," Freed exclaimed ecstatically and he bounced back to his feet, the vial of dark liquid still in his hand. "I've been told this stuff is brand new and packs a helluva kick to it so let's give it a go, shall we?"
As he said this, Freed popped the cork on top of the vial and pulled the head back of the knight on his right and poured some of the sinister liquid into her open mouth. He then pushed her away and repeated this process with the other knight, forcing her the liquid he poured down her throat, before letting her go and giving his audience a casual wink.
"Bottoms up, assholes," he giggled before bringing the vial to his lips and downing the rest of the black liquid, throwing the vial away and letting it fly away and shatter against the crystalline wall.
Almost immediately upon the black liquid entering their bodies, the two knights and Freed, having fallen to his knees, began convulsing violently on the floor, their bodies contorting and twisting in abnormal ways that caused them to scream in agony as their bodies began to morph into something else.
Ben and the others flinched at this, taking a step back as they watched their bodies alter before their eyes.
"What the fuck?" Xenovia gasped in horror.
"W-What's h-happening to them?!" Gasper exclaimed fearfully as he hid behind Koneko.
"He said it was a vial from Animo, didn't he?" Ben stated loudly so they could hear him over the noise of pained screaming.
"Yeah, so?" Kiba replied in confusion while things seemed to click for Rias as her eyes widened in shock as she came to the same conclusion as him.
"You mean…?"
"Yeah, it must've been Hyde formula! They're turning into demons!"
"But what about the knights? They're reincarnated devils! I thought the formula only worked on humans."
They backed off a bit as the knights and Freed continued to thrash about on the floor, screaming as their bodies grew in size and a second pair of arms sprouted out from under their first pair which, themselves, had both grown in size and became covered in fur, sharp claws protruding out from their fingertips, and a set of Lepidopterran wings unfurled from their backs and buzzed randomly and rapidly as they continued going through the transformation process.
Perhaps most hauntingly, Freed started cackling madly, his deranged voice echoing around he large hall, mixing in with the anguished screams from the two knights, his voice steadily becoming deeper and hoarser as he laughed, his body slowly transforming into something horrific.
"I don't know what it means but I know it's not going to be good!" Ben replied as he summoned his gears and brought his arms up in a combat stance and prepared to fight.
. . . . .
Demonomicum extract:
Vulpimancer
Appearance: (Pre-corruption):- Vulpimancers are animalistic beings with canine paws, razor-sharp, curving claws, and a set of quills protruding from their backs. Their most notable feature which sets them apart from every other demon in the Underworld is their distinct lack of eyes. While this may lead some to believe that Vulpimancers are completely blind, they do, in fact, 'see' through the pair of gill-like nostrils on the sides of their necks which sniff the air and paints a picture of their surroundings, showing everything around them. During their infancy, a pup Vulpimancer is the size of an adult human and still extremely dangerous to others, and when they reach adulthood they grow several times larger, reaching a size several times larger than when they were a pup, reaching over thirteen feet tall and developing a tail which can be used as a lashing weapon.
While they commonly bright orange fur, it isn't uncommon to find Vulpimancers from different regions of the Underworld with greyish blue, red, or even brownish red coloured fur. Female Vulpimancers tend to have paler fur compared to the males and are generally smaller in stature, if not ferocity. As they reach adulthood, male Vulpimancers gain stripes across their backs.
(Post-corruption):- Since the 'corruption' took them, Vulpimancers have since become even more savage and animalistic in nature than they were before. They have since changed in appearance to having unearthly mouths with worm-like tongues, chapped lips and four large fangs in the corner of their mouths.
Bio:Vulpimancers are the 'savage, wild dog' of the Underworld, similar to the wolves of the human world thousands of years ago, before they were domesticated and brought into human communities. Extremely adaptive to their environments – except, perhaps, the cold – Vulpimancers can be found in many different parts of the Underworld, in family packs that can range up to well over three dozen in size…though only a few leave their dens to hunt while the majority stay behind. Should a member of the pack who's been chased out or another Vulpimancer enters the territory of a Vulpimancer then they face the risk of being hunted by their own kind, such is the dog-eat-dog nature of their society.
Before they were taken by a calamitous corruption which struck the Underworld several millennia ago, there was a certain nobility which could be seen in Vulpimancers, even if it was small and difficult to see. However, since their entire species was struck by the corruption they regressed even further away from sentient beasts and back into ferocious, savage beasts, devoid of any thought or reason [despite what others might say, that Vulpimancers lacked any intelligence to begin with] and now roam the Underworld in ever hungry packs, eating everything they come into contact with before moving on to the next meal. Ever eating. Ever hunting.
Where, once, they were simple demons who made their way in the Underworld; now, they are an active scourge that need to be handled and chased away where encountered.
[N.B. It is my hope to, one day, find a way to free the Vulpimancers from the corruption that has destroyed their minds and made them what they are today. I have organised for several packs to be captured and brought back to Gremory territory where I plan to study them and see if there's a way to cure them, possibly making them work for my family in the meantime.]
Power Level: High-class Devil
Threat Level: High
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A/N: And so it begins.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know it's taken some time for me to release it for you but I'd like you all to know that I've already started the next chapter and I promise you all that I will do my utmost to have it ready for you by Christmas time…maybe even the chapter after that ready and released before the new year.