Wow, it has been almost two months since I last did anything with this, time sure flies. To make up for that large delay, there is a special surprise. Not only will this chapter be a long one at 13K words BUT there will be another chapter coming out just after this one so I can finish up this little quest that they have been doing for the last couple of chapters. One last thing, people have been asking when certain characters will appear and I can only say that all of you need to be patient as this isn't the regular isekai when the protagonist just meets with everyone because they need to. I have to create proper situations for that that happen, one of which is happening in these two chapters.
Chapter 9: She the Reaper
(On the road leading into the imperial capital)
On a road leading into the capital of the strongest nation in the world, a traveler walked, keeping a leisurely pace as if out for a very early morning walk. Though many wouldn't dare do what this one person was doing, after-all at such an early time of day, daylight of any kind was hours away and bandits loved to attack and rob unsuspecting victims. Only that, this one person, was no regular human. She may have been a rather small girl, just barely into her teens, but she was not an individual anyone with more than two brain cells would dare mess with.
Even with only the faint light from the city in the distance and the illumination from the overhead stars, it was pretty hard to see all that much, but one thing that did stick out about this girl, the thing that kept any who would even think about approaching her with ill intent at bay, was the light shining off the massive ornate violet and silver halberd she was carrying that looked to weigh more than she did.
'I wonder…why lord Emroy saw fit to have me travel to Sadera. I may not hate the place, but it's so boring.' The emissary to the God of Darkness, war, violence, and death mused to herself. The early morning chill doing nothing to discomfort her despite the fact she was dressed in a gothic Lolita fashion which left her legs and arms rather exposed to the cold breeze. Such things didn't bother her as much as they sued to, having traveled around as much as she had through the many years had left her rather used to such things.
No, what was on her mind was the fact that only a week earlier, while she was on her way to visit an old friend in Rondel when in her sleep, she spoke with her Lord and Master. Now, those kinds of meeting weren't rare or common as she did a pretty good job of carrying out his will without her God having to tell her what to do, but there are times when he sends her...directives to complete, honestly, that was the best way of putting it seeing how she seldom got a word in besides agreeing to whatever he had asked of her. Either way, her lord has rarely ever sent her somewhere that will stay boring, with that thought in mind, a smile broke out across her face as she tried to think of what could be in the capital for her to investigate and/or eliminate. 'Well, at least I'll get to have a nice, warm bath for a change.'
She kept on walking for some time, increasing her pace ever so slightly out of the building excitement at the prospect of what awaited her, but all of a sudden, like a giant wave crashing down on her, she was hit with this intense feeling, one that she hadn't felt before. She came to a sudden halt as she started looking around, the feeling itself wasn't something new to her.
As an apostle to the God of Death and violence, among the boons, Emroy granted her was the fact she could pick up the 'scent' of death on people, so soldiers and mercenaries smelt very different to say, a farmer or a cook. She could also pick up bloodlust and death from quite the distance and at times if close enough, 'smell' the bloodshed and feel the souls of the dead pass through her towards their permanent home in the realm of eternal stacker Hardy, a sensation that was quite…pleasurably sensation.
But this time…this time it was different in that she had never felt for several reasons. The first and foremost being the sheer magnitude of death coming towards her, all from one single source somewhere ahead of her. Never before had she felt such a thing, for something to have such a strong and pungent aura of destruction to it, they or it would need to slaughter thousands if not tens of thousands. Another thing was the scent of the bloodlust, it was so palpable that even the sleeping birds in the nearby trees and other small critters all awoke and rushed away, escaping what their senses were telling them was a dangerous beast out for blood. But where they run, she felt herself start to move again, right towards the source.
"What is that…beautiful scent?" She asked herself, her cheeks flush as she felt extremely…attracted to this new, sudden, and very much appreciated feeling. 'It's…it's so wonderful! So much anger, bloodlust, it reeks of destruction, death, and carnage. I never thought I'll ever have the pleasure of experiencing such!' She thought to herself as her once brisk stroll turned into a full-on sprint, one which would boggle the minds of anyone who saw it as a 13-year-old girl, carrying a weapon seemingly so large and heavy it would all but impossible for even a pro bodybuilder to make good use of it, sprinted faster than most fully grown Olympic athletes.
"And it's coming from the capital. Oh, great lord, Emroy, you truly are a wise and benevolent God for you have given onto me this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." She said aloud, offering up her praises towards her Lord who once more, saw it fit to bless her with such a lovely gift as she ran like a manic towards her destination, using the intensifying feeling from the bloodlust and death to track her target.
'I don't know who or what you are, but stay right where you are, I HAVE to see this for myself!' She thought to herself, hoping that she won't miss out on whatever was happening at the moment.
(With the group – 25 minutes earlier)
"How are we doing?" Lelouch asked as he fired off another fireball towards the Minotaur, but it didn't all that much besides further piss the creature off. Around him, the others weren't idle was Ghira aided him the best he could by throwing as many and as large pieces of rock and stone as he could while Kali and Chirona helped get the bicorns to safety.
"Could be better! Dammit, this big guy can take everything we give him!" Ghira roared as he flexed his muscles and threw another piece of rock, this one aimed at the beast's legs but it moved out of the way as it charged his young wizard friend, forcing Lelouch to run to avoid it.
"It's better than nothing, even a beast like this must have a weak spot we can exploit. Don't stop till we find it!" Lelouch yelled back as the beast rammed into some debris, sending bits and pieces of it flying all over the damn place, a couple of them hitting his exposed arms and chest hard enough to cut the skin and draw blood.
'I'm more worried about the rest of them, we can't let this thing go after them. It's been out of sheer messed up luck that it seems more interested in killing the two of us.' Ghira thought to himself as he ground his teeth at the fact he and this lithe apostle were the only things keeping his daughter safe. He didn't know what they could do to kill it, but he'll be damned before he just let it win!
As the two were kept busy with the Minotaur currently trying to get its hands on them to most likely rip them apart and eat what's left, the two women did their best to get the hungry and exhausted bicorns to safety outside of the room as it was becoming clear that the entire place was a battleground.
"Great, of all the monsters, we got a damn minotaur." Kali muttered to herself as she easily picked up a bicorn child who had fallen over and with strength unexpected from someone of her and size frame, tossed him over her shoulders, and carried him like one would a goat to market.
"How is that worse than a dragon?" Chirona asked her.
"Well a dragon won't fucking rape me so that's a plus, I'll take a quick death by fire before being that thing's plaything any day." Kali yelled back, though her fury was less at the question and more at the fact that despite being held against their will for so long, they might never see the light of day again anyway.
"Well, I feel flattered that it sees us as threats to its chance at you girls." Lelouch muttered to himself, having heard that hell-hound's response only for her father to chuckle at him, despite the perilous situation they found themselves in.
"Please, don't flatter yourself string bean. You two are the only able-bodied males here, there isn't all that much competition." Ghira joked at him as he took a moment to eye the boy's topless frame and despite him having some meat on his bones, he was still very much a lightweight. He didn't give it any more thought as he had to dodge to avoid a punch that would have surely flatten him.
"Not my damn fault I build muscle slow." Lelouch muttered out, pissed off that once again, he was reminded of his less than stellar physical performance, though he didn't dwell on it for long as he started to run in a circle around the minotaur as it tried to squash his partner for this fight, trying to spot anything they could use. 'Dammit, I don't have many scrolls left, I didn't plan for this! Idiot, why didn't I plan for something like this? I must be slipping.' He wanted to smack his head right now, he didn't care that the odds of a minotaur being down here was low, he should have planned for some kind of large fight but nope, he had only brought along enough for small skirmishes. Either way, they didn't have the time to regret, only push forward.
"You know, I was hoping that after all this time, we'll have better results." Ghira voiced their shared thoughts as the two hid behind a fallen pillar, both breathing heavily as they had been at this for almost 10 solid minutes now, it might not have been long but seeing how they had been putting their best into this, they found themselves tiring out. In the other corner, the thoroughly pissed-off Minotaur searched around for them, covered in soot and some patches of burnt hair and if you looked closely, welts from some of the rocks and stones that had it. Other than that, it was still very much ready to go and had more in the tank than they had right now.
"It's not surprising. I head these things are so tough it takes whole teams to take just one down. Heck, the fact we're still alive is lucky enough for me." Lelouch agreed with him, having spots of blood across his upper torso but no wounds as his code healed those within seconds. "I did read these things can take a war hammer to the face and not flinch, must have some dense muscle fiber and bone." At that moment, Ghira looked out from their cover, only to see the thing spot where they were hiding as it huffed out some steam from its nostrils before it charged them.
"This is not the time for praising the damn thing!" Ghira yelled at him as the two dived out of there, just in time for the beast to charge right on through the pillar, its arms outreached to grab two targets no longer within reach. The two landed with a thud as they rolled to disperse some of the force, lucky they had dived in different directions to further confuse the threat as it had to choose which to go after first, giving them to get back up and create more distance.
"Not praise, analyze. If we're going to live so get the hell outta here, we need to use every advantage we can." Lelouch answered him as he looked for a weakness, but before anything else could happen, the beast reared its head up and banged on its chest.
ROOOOAAAAARRRR!
"What the hell?!" Ghira yelled out just to be heard over the near-deafening roar from the beast.
"That's so damn loud!" Lelouch was on the same boat as he was, but for some reason he felt as if he couldn't move from the level of noise, unknown to him, blood was leaking from his ears even as his code healed whatever damage his ears took. 'Why does it hurt so much?' He thought to himself through the numbing pain as he healed, confused as to why his hearing was so heavily affected by that. He had to put a pin in that as he looked up and saw a sight he didn't think possible.
"By Duncan…" Ghira muttered out in shock and fear as the beast they were fighting, already a challenge neither were ready for, thrashed around and roared as magic circles appeared, five in total around the wrists and ankles with the fifth and final one being around its neck. The circles themselves weren't the weird part as they formed kind of bands around their respective parts, what was the weird part was the fact that those some circles were causing a change in the monster, one that didn't help their chances one bit.
The two were powerless as they watched as the beast, already large, started to bulk even more and grow in height. Its skin, once various shades of brown, grew angrier as it took on a reddish color as its blood surged through its body. As the circles started to shine more from whatever was pumping power into them, the minotaur…evolved into a scarier, larger beast as not even its nails and horns were spared this treatment as they grew in size and cracked. Once this was done, the beast was easily 50% larger than it was before and had almost twice the muscle it once it.
"That…how is that possible…?" Lelouch asked both himself and his partner, hoping that one of them had an answer to this…this madness. The two took a step back out of instinctual fear, however as they did this, one of them knocked a pebble to the side which caught the suped-up monster's attention as it turned its now glowing red eyes towards them. Spotting the sources of its annoyances for the past ten minutes not doing any favors for calming it down as it roared at them, this one even louder than the last as it seemed to shake the very walls of the room they were in, which was bad as being underground, such a thing could bury the lot of them.
ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!
"What kind of magic can do this?!" Ghira yelled out in fright as he picked up the collapsed apostle and booked it and not a second too soon as the beast charged at them even faster than before and smashed its fist where they just were, leaving a sizable crater in its wake.
"I've never seen magic used like this, it's like the damn thing is one super steroids and growth hormones at once!" Lelouch, who had dropped from the pain that roar had caused, muttered to himself as he could now feel the blood leaking from his ears. He needed a way to block that out as he couldn't just let himself be left open every time that thing decided to announce itself to them.
"Great, we barely were denting it before, now what do we do?" Ghira asked the boy he was carrying on his shoulders.
"Something and quick. If we don't kill the damn thing now, sooner or later it'll find a way to the surface." Lelouch said as he felt hearing fully return in one of his ears while his code worked on the other.
"Got it, the lives of hundreds of innocent people." Ghira responded just before a large rock smashed right the beat's face, more accurately, into its mouth, catching them off guard as they turned to the side where they saw, on an elevated pillar, stood Kali with another rock already in hand.
"Why are we even worried about some humans? They can fend for themselves, we need to get out of here now!" Kali asked them as they all turned to the minotaur as it spat out the rock, along with some pieces that had broken off when the monster tried to just eat it instead.
"Kali! I've taught you better than that! We are killing it!" Ghira, despite his feelings on how hard the task will be, still felt like they couldn't just leave this thing unattended.
'Easier said than done!' Lelouch thought to himself as the older hellhound put him down now that he was good to go once more. 'The real question now isn't how this thing got here, but who put it here, and gave it those magical enhancements. I don't think I've ever seen magic used to buff a living creature like this. I'll have to consult Cato when I see him again.' He analyzed as he thought of what little he knew about body enhancement which wasn't much as Cato didn't practice it and whenever he brought it up, he just made a joke about 'you're young and handsome, you don't need that to please the ladies just yet.' Which only gave him enough to know it could be used for short-term organ improvement. At that same moment, he had to dodge and fire off a fireball as the minotaur came down on where he was, but missed.
'But first I need to ensure I can leave here in one piece!' He ground his teeth together as all he knew about those bands was that they most likely were short-term, but knowing it could be as a kind of viagra was one thing, seeing it add mass to a subject was another which lead him to think this was something that would prove fatal, or that Cato meant more than just keeping it up' whenever he made that joke.
"Dammit, now my fireballs do less than nothing!" He yelled out in irritation as he ducked right under it and jumped between its legs to get away from it. Trying to buy them some time, once he got back to his feet, he rose his staff up and prepared to blind it.
"Cover!" He yelled at the other two as he cast the fastest and strongest light spell he could to try and blind it, but unlike before, must have realized what was happening as it looked away and covered its eyes with his hand. Realizing that his approach wasn't working, he cut the spell and fired off a fireball towards its crotch to try and cripple it, but even then the beast moved and avoided the hit as it attack hit the ball on the other side of the room.
"Now it wised up to your little blinding trick too, damn, this will not be easy." Ghira muttered to himself as he noticed that their small bag of tricks was slowly starting to lose its effects. It was then that another rock, even larger than the first one, hit the beast in the face.
"Hey, big and stupid, over here!" Kali, already picking up another rock to throw, yelled at the beast as he growled at her, and unlike the first time around, it was able to crack and break the rock in its mouth to pieces before spitting them out as it charged her.
"Kali, what are you doing? Get off of there!" Ghira yelled at his daughter as she jumped from her place down to avoid the swipe that would have most likely taken her out of the fight, as she went down, she managed to throw the rock right at its throat which for the first time in this fight, got a reaction from the beast as he choked and coughed from the unexpected hit to its wipe-pipe.
"No can do, old man! You said it yourself, we need to kill this thing and so the quicker we do it, the better!" Kali yelled back as she ran away from the monster as he got itself under control and chased her, smashing through the seating and anything else in its way as it closed the distance to her.
"The last thing I want is my daughter anywhere near the monster!" Ghira yelled back at her just as a fireball from their apostle friend found its mark, striking the beast in right behind the knee joint. It wasn't enough to injure it, but it was enough to stagger it and cause it to fall right on its big, fat face which would have been amusing in any other situation. Either way, this gave Kali time to create some real distance and clear the immediate murder zone as Lelouch started to pepper the beast's joints with as many fireballs as he could, slowing it down as it worked its way back to its feet…or hooves, in this case, no one cared for the proper terms.
"Well, it's not like the two of you can finish it by yourselves!" Kali yelled at her father as she was able to get close to him again as the monster they were fighting finally got back to its feet, its attention firmly on the wizard who stood not too far from it, his staff still pointed at it as he locked eyes with the beast.
"Well, looks like it has its attention on me." Lelouch muttered to himself as he paid very close attention to his opponent, trying to determine just how much damage his attacks had done to it. He knew they couldn't beat it in the traditional sense, but that didn't mean they couldn't deploy some creative and underhanded tactics to best it.
'We need a new plan, fast!' He thought to himself as he charged it, catching the beast of the rest of them off guard with his new approach, but he didn't let them bother him as he closed the distance. As he reached into his bag, he pulled out another scroll and got ready. 'Okay, it's a little faster now and a whole lot stronger, but going by those dashes and its charges, it's not that much faster than it was before.' He thought to himself as the minotaur roared as it reared its fist back to crush him, he ignored the splitting pain in his ears this time around, grateful it wasn't as bad as the other times and he ignored his sense of self-preservation as he kept moving.
Just as he had closed the distance and the fist was moments away from turning him into a bloody mess on the floor, he ducked right on under it, avoiding it by mere centimeters as it brushed through his hair. He didn't stop as he slid underneath the beast and with precision, he managed to slap his scrolls into behind the knee, as he slid away from it, the beast tried to turn itself to try and backhand him but he detonated his scroll, leaving it unbalanced once more and missing its mark with him. Despite this and the fact that would normally blow out the knee of any other creature he knew of besides dragons, the minotaur was back on its feet pretty quickly
'Which means it buffs are largely strength and durability based.' Lelouch thought to himself, not that surprised his gamble didn't fall the threat, but he wasn't disheartened as it allowed him a chance to better study it. As he had slid past, he eyes the knee joints and saw little to no damage to them from his first assault. So he was able to confirm that those bands were buffing not just strength but durability as well. Which meant they couldn't just attack its armor….
They needed a way inside it.
"Ghira!" Lelouch yelled at the demi-human, grabbing his attention as he and his daughter turned to him and despite himself, he found their faces and unnatural eye color fetching, he blamed this on spending too much time around that witch and crazy student body president.
"What!" The older man yelled back as Lelouch worked his way back to them.
"Get that thing to charge you!" Lelouch ordered him, catching completely flat-footed as he looked at the younger man like he was crazy.
"What? Are you crazy?!" Kali asked in her father's stead as the beast rushed them, forcing them to separate from the group.
"Just do it, I need to test something out!" Lelouch yelled back at him, getting a grumbled response in return as he agreed.
"When did I become a test dummy?" Ghira grumbled to himself as he managed to grab the thing's attention by which of yelling and throwing a large rock into the side of its head. The minotaur roared in fury as this and started to chase him, leaving him barely able to avoid its attempts to strike, crush, ran him through, and otherwise bring him harm. As this was going on, Kali would aid him however she could from a distance seeing how their apostle friend would yell at her when she got too close. Lelouch thought was far from idle in this was he placed down some of his remaining scrolls in a cross-like pattern on the floor, once he was done, he looked up and to their luck, the beast was in a favorable position.
"Hey, ugly!" Lelouch screamed at it as he fired off a fireball, a stronger one than the other ones, right into it; back between the shoulder blades. He managed to singe the hairs and might have burnt the skin but from this distance, he couldn't tell. What he could tell was the fact the minotaur ceased trying to kill Ghira and turned to attempt to put him down as it charged. He stayed still, using himself as bait for it, and just as it was about to be on top of him, he activated his scrolls which much like with the mine, created a spike pit in the form of a cross. The pit was wide, being over 4m(13ft) but was rather shallow at only around 40cm(1.3ft) deep, but that didn't matter as it was filled with hastily made spikes, jagged rocks, and whatever shape objects he could create within 2 seconds.
The Minotaur, seeing this danger for what it was, used its arms to protects its face as he went right on in. Much like with the orcs, many of the spikes broke before they did a thing, but a couple did manage to cut through that insanely dense muscle and raw blood, much to the screaming beast's pain.
"You managed to trip it." Ghira said, impressed that that plan had worked as though the beast was getting back up, it was slower than before and now sported several cuts and bruises all over its torso and arms.
"Is everyone okay?" Chirona, who had run back into the room as the beast fell, as sked as she drew her sword, her normal one seeing how in a chamber like this, space and range of movement was not an issue. Kali gave her look to which she answered the unspoken question. "Yeah, I led them somewhere safe for now, but it won't be safe forever." She said, explaining why she had been rather absent up until this point.
"That's correct, and for your observation, that wasn't it." Lelouch said, answering the statement from Ghira as he got back to the group as the minotaur pulled itself to its feet, leaking some drops of blood on the floor from its minor injuries.
"Hmm?" Kali asked, wondering what he meant by that as the beast reached for its arm and pulled out of the spikes, that looked like it hurt but then it crashed it in its hand like it was an egg.
"So I was right, that thing is terrible at quick turns, all that mass can't just change direction on a dime." Lelouch summarised as he would have imagined if it was smaller, it might have been able to avoid that altogether, that was something they could use to their advantage.
"What's a dime?" Chirona asked him.
"Don't worry about it, it's a term of phrase where I'm from." Lelouch ended the conversation as the group once more splint, this time to try and surround the minotaur and give it more targets to focus on than one group. Unlike before, they could tell that it was still extremely pissed and most likely wanted to get its hands on them now for than ever, but unlike before, it was not blindly charging. Like them, the beast was watching them, thinking of how to approach this which was good as it gave them time for a much-needed breather in this pause.
'Alright, I got a knight, and two rooks on my side, against a beast of a queen. I need to move them in such a way to maximize our effectiveness and diminish it's.' Lelouch thought to himself as he took into account the three main potential weaknesses this thing had. That its mass meant he couldn't just turn and move like it used to. The fact that its joints were not as strong and could be targeted and lastly, the whole thing about needed to hit in from the inside. If this was his old world, he could use a flashbang to try and deafen it as if your sense of hearing is suddenly taken out, you tend to lose balance for a while but he didn't have that, nor did he know any spells that created loud sounds or bangs.
'It's got the speed, the durability, and the strength to crush any one of us in a heartbeat, so timing and placement is everything.' That was the only thing that he could see from this, as he was still thinking of a way for him to fire a fireball down its mouth, but at the range, he'll need to cast it, the beast would easily be able to see it coming and with it's back turned, he couldn't aim for the mark and would surely miss.
No, they needed a way to get it to eat some literal rocks and hope that they cut the shit out of its esophagus on the way down, or he managed to get it got choke down one of his scrolls, something he was short on right now.
'Add into that, I have around 4 scrolls, the chain, and my stuff with enough magic left in me for 13 fire blasts and 4 more flash.' Lelouch thought to himself with an angry grimace as that last one would mean losing an arm, no doubt about that. Either way, they were running out of options so the riskier plans were turning into their only plans.
"Kali, Ghira, see that boulder over there?" Lelouch asked as he gestured towards this boulder, almost as tall as he was and no doubt weighed at least 6 hims. He didn't want for them to reply to his question, only for them to see it before he continued. "Throw it at that thing on my command!" He ordered them. Seeing no other option than to follow his lead, the two of them looked at the other before nodding their heads before rushing towards them.
"Sure!" Both of them replied to him. This proved to be the moment that the Minotaur chose to attack as them, but its assault was halted when a flash went off, blinding it before a fireball struck its side, leading its's blurred vision to the wizard which was starting to drive it to new heights of fury. Even from the distance and with its eyes glowing, Lelouch could recognize that look of hatred, of disgust. If this thing was anything like Suzaku, then it must be thinking of all the ways he'll make him suffer.
Seeing that he had its attention, he turned to look at his partner out of the corner of his eye as the two of them ran away from where the hellhounds had rushed off, leading the beast away from them.
"Chirona, I have to ask something, but it might be improper." Lelouch started as he eyed her as they ran, leaving the girl feeling self-conscious about her looks at the worst of times. Say what you want about and how he wasn't as dense to girls as he once was, but he was still pretty dense with a mindset that often didn't trend into sexual or romantic territory so he wasn't the most…attuned with these kinds of matters.
"What is it?" Chirona asked him as she barely kept the blush off her face as they needed to focus on what was trying to kill them right now.
"If we live through this, I'll buy you dinner and apologize!" Lelouch responded, and to her confusion, he had a slight blush to his cheeks. She didn't get the time to learn why was that the normal way of him telling her, but rather she got a practical response in that he jumped right onto her back!
"What the hell?!" Chirona half yelped, half cried out as he took to riding her like he was used to this. She wasn't sure what was worse, the fact that he did so at such an inopportune time when they barely knew each other, or the fact that when she thought 'riding', her mind jumped to a very, very inappropriate place.
"Just move!" Ignoring how odd and weird this was, Lelouch yelled back at her as he instinctively kicked her sides like she was a regular horse. Her yelp to that as she started to ran reminded him that it might have been a wrong move and one she would most likely going to make him pay for later, if not her, then her father. "Focus on keeping us away from that thing, leave attacking it to me!"
'Just need to buy time and keep ugly here occupied with us.' Lelouch thought to himself as without a harness or saddle, he was using his skills at horseback riding combined with his excellent balance to keep himself from falling as he fired off fireballs towards the beast chasing them, luring it away from the hellhounds as he observed the two slowly start to pick up the large piece of earth.
"Looks like all that time horseback riding is paying off." He said to himself in a joking manner, silently thanking Milly for forcing the student council to learn the skill back before he met C.C. He hadn't had much chance to brush up on his skills here though as he mostly traveled via foot or wagon.
"I am not some horse." Chirona, with a very notable blush, muttered to herself as she jumped over a fallen column, strangers were never meant to ride her back….it was meant to be something she shared with a potential dear friend…or lover.
"I know, but you can kill me for this after we survive this fight." Lelouch, surprisingly caught onto the fact this was very improper for her, offered his short condolences and prayed that this world was truly separate from his own, lest those up high have to see this. Either way, they kept this up for some time as the two worked surprisingly well. His experience in horseback ride and improvisational skills proving quote compatibly with her speed, stamina, and reaction time as they near effortlessly avoided and continued to egg on the Minotaur, keeping it busy and ensuring it didn't have time to think about the other two.
'Still, we're not doing much against it.' Chirona thought to herself as no matter how well she worked with her…rider, the most that they had done so far was sing more hair and keep the thing pissed off, sure it still had the wounds from Lelouch's spike trap, but those looked minor and from how it kept moving, it didn't all that much to slow it down.
"Do it!" Suddenly, Lelouch yelled out towards the Hellhounds, she turned her attention towards them and realized that they had gotten pretty close to them and that they were now ready, though she was just as impressed by the fact the boulder they were holding looked to be both large and extremely heavy, like worth one and a half her heavy(she knows she's part horse, so her weight isn't as big an issue as it's made to be for most women)
"Have some of this, you big fat bull!" Kali yelled as she and her father threw the massive rock as hard as they could, the minotaur had only just turned to face them when the piece of rock came down on its face, landing with the force of a professional boxer's right hook, bashing the thing's head to the side, breaking off one of its horns and taking out some teeth. The force of the unexpected blow staggered the beast as it was forced to take a knee as he seemed to try and knock the cobwebs from its head.
"That got a reaction out of it." Ghira breathed out as lifting and then throwing that damn rock took a lot out of him, though at least they had results in the form of the broken horn on the floor along with the couple of bloodied teeth. At that same moment, Chirona rode up to them and her relief, Lelouch jumped right off with a quick thanks and sorry.
"Not bad, more than I was hoping for really," Lelouch told the pair as he looked towards their opponent as it started to clear its head and get back up, only now it seemed even slower than before which meant they were making progress. "We need a way to immobilize it." He told them as they wouldn't be able to keep doing that, not just because there was a lack of small boulders the two could pick up, but also due to the fact he was down to 6 fireballs, 2 flash spells, and the fact that there were his suspicions that the beast wouldn't fall for the same trick twice.
"How do we do that? That thing is built like a castle." Kali asked him.
"Go for the tendons," Lelouch responded as he eyes the beast, his gaze locked onto it like a hawk looking down an unsuspecting rabbit. Unknown to him, his irritation at this fight was building up as well. "If it can't walk, it can't fight back!" He yelled as he charged it before it could prepare itself, his dagger flashing as he pulled it out. Though it didn't see him coming as well, it was still prepared for when it would try and duck under its legs again but this time around, Lelouch didn't do that. Rather when he dodged the swipe at him, he followed the hand to the side of the monster and dashed right toward it, and with as much strength as he could muster, he sliced at the right Achilles tendon. Though the attack didn't do crippling damage as he hoped it would, he did manage to cut deep enough to get a pained and angry roar from the beast as he cleared it and got ready for another attack.
[Tick]'Too shallow, but the knife did cut so at least that works.' Lelouch thought to himself as he was getting sick and tired of this battle, he meant it when he said he wanted to turn this beast into burnt-out beef. He couldn't explain it, but the thought of him being bested by this beast of a farm animal ground his gears. He knew he was prideful, that it was arguably his biggest flaw, but this felt…different, it felt like it couldn't let this thing win, no matter what. What he didn't pick up on was how his nose twitched, his eyes shined as his geass activated on instinct and his code slowly came to life, a faint glow as it started to change him at an increased rate than it had been doing for these past 7 months.
Either way, they had a job to do and now that all four of them were present, and that they had a clear goal in mind, they seemed to be making some progress. He and Kali, who was using Chirona smaller blade, as being the smallest, would get in close and slash and slice at its legs whenever they could, while Ghira provided long-ranged support with as many rocks and other chunks of debris as he could find being his ammo. Chirona was their mid-range, keeping her distance and only going in when are good opportunity presented itself when the beast was distracted by either Lelouch her Kali. As she was the strongest blade wielder and had the largest and heaviest sword, she was doing more damage in one charge than the two did in 5.
This didn't go on for too long, maybe 10 minutes but they could see results from their efforts as across the beast's legs, there was a multitude of cuts and slashes which leaked blood down its legs and hooves towards the floor. Chirona's strikes in particular seemed to be the worst as they were the largest and deepest ones. At present, it was becoming clear that the beast was struggling just to keep itself up as its speed had taken a serious hit, making it easier to get in and out to continue the assault.
'Now!' Seeing their efforts bearing fruit, Lelouch went in to deal some more damage. This time rather than the legs, he went for something else as he used his smaller size and the beast's reduced speed to circle round it and jump onto its back, now due to its size, he wasn't very far up its back, his hand holding onto a tuff of fur right below the middle part of his back, but it was enough for him as he took only a second to start stabbing into its back as fast and as hard as he could. Because of how tough its muscle was, and his relative below average strength, each stab only went around 1.5 inches(little more ten 4cm) deep "I got it!" He told the others as he continued to plunge the blade more and more into its back, even after his arms started to tire after the 8th stab, he didn't let up, even with the specks and drops of blood getting all over him as they flew all over the place from the 13th stab, he didn't let up.
He was going to kill this monster.
For the Minotaur, the boy's attacks might not have been anything to worry about as with its size, 1.5 inches were very shallow but each hit hurt and more importantly, lead to increase blood loss and decreasing performance from the muscles that the boy was destroying that that stupid piece of shaped metal. So no-one was really surprised when instead of trying to maybe, ram its back into a column, or the far, it instead roared out in defiance. What was surprising was the beast seemed to get a second wind or a shot of adrenaline or some divine intervention, whenever you wanted to call it, the point was that it seemed to gain back all its lost strength and speed and he started to struggle much more aggressively, because of this, he wasn't able to pick up how it's hand was moving right towards him.
"Look out!" Ghira yelled at him, giving him just enough time for him to look up and see the hand about to grab him. He didn't have time to react before it gripped onto him, hard. He resisted the urge to scream in pain as not only was its grip crashing to the point he almost heard bones snap and crack, but its claws dug into him, not unlike his had just been doing it with his dagger, so the (painful)irony was not lost on him as he could feel the claws hit both organs and bones and in the case of his left lung, pierce it.
"Crap-!" He managed to get out through the pain before the beast, in a fit of frenzied rage, threw him as hard as it could right into some of the collapsed pillars it had broken earlier. His body, though immortal, was still of that below physically average human male in their late teens so rather than smash through the rock and stone like fiction would have you believe, he only managed to cause some cracks as his body was broken by the impact. Before he died from the damage, he was able to guess that pieces of his skull had been rammed into his brain, muscles had torn and his bones broken in a multitude of places.
"Lelouch!" Chirona cried out to him as they watched as his lifeless body, slowly slid down from its point of impact before gravity really kicked in and it just fell to the ground with a sickening, bone-breaking thud. Though only Kali could see it, being the closest to him, they all saw how his limbs had been bent in unnatural ways from the impact.
"Kid!" Ghira yelled out to him, only stopping himself from really losing it as he knew apostles couldn't be killed in such a manner, all they needed to do was give him enough time to put himself back together again. However, while he was able to keep himself in check, and his daughter was too shocked by the sight of the broken body, Chirona wasn't as she charged right at the beast with reckless abandon.
"What are you doing? Get back!" Ghira yelled at her as Kali chased after the woman to try and assist her before she got herself killed. With Chirona, she didn't know why but after seeing her partner, a man who had gone out of his way to assist her against racists, make her feel like a person and go a step further and agree to help her find her lost people, be killed in such a brutal manner, set her on the way path as she charged at the beast. The minotaur looked at her and brought up both arms to crush her, but she proved to be the faster of the two, even with it in this berserker state as she managed to dodge the blow by the skin of her death and with as much force as she could muster, once she got in close, she stabbed the beast in the thigh, sinking the blade into the point it nearly stuck bone.
"You'll pay for that, foul beast!" Chirona screamed out in rage at the beast as she pulled the blade out, not caring for the spatter of blood that shot out onto her as she got ready to do it again but had to jump back when the beast, still roaring from the pain of her attack, tried to knock her right on the side with large and powerful arm. Not deterred by this and the situation, she only gripped the bloodied blade with both hands, her eyes filled with a righteous fury as she starred down her foe.
"You're not leaving here alive!" Chirona whispered, though from the hidden fury in her tone, she might as well yelled at as she charged again, this time aiming for the other leg in a bid to cripple the beast and force it to her level where she could dispatch it. But, in her haste and short-sighted anger, she didn't pick up on the fact the beast was prepared for her since as she approached, the minotaur picked up a hand full of rocks and other pieces of stone and threw them at her with as much force as it could muster.
"Watch out!" Kali yelled at her as she dived for cover, Chirona being nowhere near anything that could shield her, could only raise her hands and blade to protect herself the best she could by while this protected her chest and head from major injury, her arms were pelted and cut by the barrage. One of the larger rocks in the pile made things worse for her as it struck her front, left leg right at the knee, breaking it.
The pain of this and the surprise of losing her balance caused her to scream out as she toppled over, dropping her blade in the process. She reached for her knee and saw that it looked really bad and that blood was already oozing out from the area which now was lacking bits of her fur that normally covered it. 'My leg!' She thought to herself, coming out of her murderous rage as the weight of the situation finally set in. With that realization, also came the fear of death as the beast was approaching her, she was in no condition to even try to escape and unarmed.
It was by the grace of Deldort and Emroy that this wouldn't be the end of her journey as before the beast could close the gap between them, Kali ran right toward her as fast as she could and to the pained and surprised yelp from the bicorn girl, she managed to get her back to her hooves before powering. She tried her best to help her though by putting as much weight as she could on her other three legs as they moved away from the monster which was now giving them chase so to try and divert its attention, Ghira jumped back in and started throwing anything of size he could, and with all these chucks and rock and stone lying around, it wasn't like he didn't have options.
"Hold on," Seeing this, and that Chirona was in no shape to run, Kali showed off that hellhound superhuman strength as she lifted, lifted! Chirona onto her back and carried her like she did that child earlier. A young bicorn might be relatively light but she knew she weighted almost 400kg(881lbs). She knew that hellhounds were one of the stronger demi-humans but she didn't think they could be this strong! "You're not dying just yet. Let's go." Kali, now carrying almost 80kg(176lbs) more weight than she had ever done in the past, huffed out as she strained herself to get the girl out of there while her old man kept the beast busy.
They, fortunately, reached a place where she could place the girl down and despite her efforts to try and be gentle about it, she still ended up dropping her to the ground on her hide legs before catching her front before her other two could make contact. She slid down to sit next to her as she gave herself a breather to rest her screaming muscles and try and get some air into her lungs.
"Anyone have a plan? That thing is acting like we didn't just spend the last ten minutes whaling on it." Kali yelled out, addressing her father who was still out there, keeping the thing busy as it leaked blood all over the place from its many wounds.
"I'm working on it, the best thing I can come up with is exhausting it. It has to have a limit." Ghira yelled back as he growled at the threat in front of him, wondering what it would that to bring this thing down as he had a feeling that this rush of energy and stamina was coming from those magic circles/tattoos that were glowing even brighter than before.
"But how far is that dammed limit? Look it at, lost horn, missing teeth, enough stab wounds to be a pin cushion, what else can we do to it!" Kali yelled back at him, working herself back to her feet, pissed that she and her old man were not at their best, having been kept prisoner with little water and next to no food for some time before all this. But then again, there was a part of her telling her, that even if she had a full three-course meal a couple of hours before this fight, they wouldn't be doing any better as right now, they were forcing themselves to keep going both out of a sense of self-preservation and hellhound pride.
"We'll figure it out but for now, just stay alive!" Ghira yelled back as he nearly slipped on some of that split blood and was lucky that he was able to avoid a blow that would have taken out of the fight. Back with the two girls, Kali had finally got herself back to her feet and was getting ready to jump back into the fray, looking over their cover at the bloodied sword that Chirona had dropped and thought that it might be a better option seeing it had the length and weight to do more damage than the one she was using.
Plus it'll be her first time touching a great sword and even though she didn't make it or participate in its design, she was still excited at the chance.
"Just stay here for now." Kali turned back to her injured partner, who looked like shit and not just because of the injury but by the fact she had lost her cool like that.
"I'm sorry." Chirona softly apologized as she had no idea what came over her, she knew that he was immortal, she had even seen him heal the injuries Kali gave him within seconds not too long ago so there was no cause for her to get so angry. But she did, and now...she ended up like this.
"Hey, I wouldn't be pissed off too if some minotaur wreaked my boyfriend, even if he's immortal." Kali said to cheer the girl up, getting an embarrassed reaction from the woman who yapped out a response, her cheeks flushed due to the boyfriend comment.
"Wha-He's…!" She started quite loudly before she took a breath and finished with her head down and with a softer voice. "He's not my boyfriend." Because her head was down, she missed the look of slight surprise on Kali's face and the expression of doubt that followed.
'My nose says otherwise missy, you have a scent of a girl that really wants to play.' Kali thought to herself as she took another quick whiff of the air and if she focused on what she was getting from the bicorn, she could pick up on the fact the girl wasn't against the idea of dating their currently indisposed of apostle, heck she could even pick that she was open to the idea of fucking him. His scent on her already pointed to the two having already broken beds already.
The two of them were pulled back to the action when they heard Ghira's pained yell as she jumped over their cover, leaving the girl to try and escape on her own as she rushed the two of them. As she approached, she could see that her father had been cornered and was barely holding off the massive fists from crushing him with his two forearms, but she could also tell he couldn't keep it up for forever going by how he was struggling to slow down the minotaur's attempts to crush him into the ground.
"Dad!" Kali cried as she looked around for something, anything! She could use to get the beast away from her father, she first turned to her sword which Chirona had borrowed her, but then her eyes fell towards the larger one she had dropped.
"Damn, this...thing….sure is…tough." Ghira got out through his grounded teeth as he barred his fangs the best he could, his arms pulsing with pain as he worked to keep himself alive. The beast he was fighting seemed to take pleasure in his suffering as it huffed a thick mist onto him, its uncomfortable feeling and sick smell making him want to gag as it had walked past dumpsters that smelt better than that. However, coming to his aid, his daughter comes charging towards the beast from behind, only screaming out at the last second as she jumped as high as her legs could take her, past the dagger Lelouch left in its back and around 2 feet(60cm) above it, she buried the greatsword as far as she could take into its flesh, getting it to roar as he stopped trying to kill her father as it bucked around in pain, trying to get her off.
"Get your paws off of him!" Kali yelled at him, picking up its think stench mixing with the smell of freshly spilled blood as she dug the blade even deeper, no doubt getting past all that perky muscle and hitting an organ or two "How you like that, I have a bigger blade and have more strength than twigs over there!" She yelled as she used the blade's handle as a stepping stone to pull herself up and to jump over it, rushing towards her father as the minotaur raged and screamed as it tried to reach for the blade lodged in it.
"Dad, you alright?" She asked him as she let the guy lean on her for a sec to catch his breath as he massaged his forearms to try and levitate the pain.
"Yeah…yeah, I'm good." He told her, though she looked down at his arms and saw that his forearms looked extremely bruised, the skin already turning darker than normal.
"No you're not, your arms are in no condition to keep going." She told him as she looked at the minotaur as he almost reached the blade, but couldn't pull it out with its large hands, the handle was too small.
"You can't expect me to let your fight on your own!" Ghira, not being one to just up and leave his only child, yelled at her as even with injured arms, he wasn't going to let this go.
"How would you be able to help me if you can barely lift your arm?!" She yelled back at him as the beast gave up trying to get the sword out as its efforts did was just bend the blade and wiggle it around, doing more damage and pissing it off even more.
"But-!" Ghira tried to get a word in, but his daughter only got in front of him with her sword raised to defend him.
"Just get going, I'll keep it busy, then I'll grab twigs over there and rush the hell outta here." She told as she gestured towards the healing body of Lelouch on the far side of the room. "Screw killing it, we need to get the fuck outta here and let the humans up top deal with this thing." She finished as she knew her chances of killing this thing were next to zero, and she was in no hurry to die for a species she didn't care for anyway.
"…Fine." Ghira finally conceded to her as he started to make his way out of there, but not before he said one last thing to his baby girl. "Be safe."
"I will, dad." She replied, softly but loud enough that he heard her as he left, leaving her the sole person left able to fight a thoroughly pissed-off, jacked-up minotaur. The fact that she could smell the lust off of this thing for her didn't make things any easier for her as she could only imagine what would happen if it got its hands on her.
'So, now I'm alone against this guy. I hope things don't get any worse.' She thought to herself as she took a calming breath before screaming out a battle cry as she charge it.
"Alright, ugly. Just you and me." She yelled as she brought her sword up to battle the beast, the minotaur in response roared at her as he ran towards her as well. She didn't know how this will go, but she was going to do as much damage as she could before hightailing it the fuck outta there.
'Uuurh, my head' Consciousness slowly started to return to him as the first thing he felt was this numbing pain in the back of his head, it was a major headache, almost as if someone had shoved an ice-pick. 'What happened?' He asked himself as he tried to work through his thoughts to get a picture of where he was and how he got there. As his mind cleared, he started to recall things.
'I...we were down in some strange tunnels…underneath the city, and then we found the people we were looking.' He analyzed his jumbled-up thoughts as they were slow to properly form, but he did recall how he and…Chirona, yes, Chirona had teamed up to track down her lost people, and then the two found some tunnels which eventually lead them to where they had been being kept.
He also recalled how they found others down here, two hellhounds and how the younger one. The girl had tried to kill him(he was getting real tired of attractive young women trying to off him, he didn't like feeling like one of those action spies in those movies Rivalz insisted they walk) before they got past that and tried to leave, but something was in their way. 'I recall…a cow?...cow monster?' He worked his still rebooting brain to try and remember, and as the fog cleared, he recalled a roar unlike anything he had ever heard and an image. One he had only ever seen in storybooks and Greek mythology textbooks.
'No, it was a minotaur, yes. A minotaur was there too, and we were fighting it.' It was that, that he recalled everything and came out of his haze, his eyes opened up for the first time since he had died, and by God, he could see why C.C hated it. It hurt…a lot. As far as he could tell, he could tell all ten toes, both thumbs and all his fingers, so at least he wasn't regenerating whole limbs. But when he tried to move them, he found that he couldn't which lead him to look down at himself the best he could from his place on the floor, and he was able to see that his right arm and left leg from the knee down were fine, the rest of his limbs were still laying there all ragdoll like, having not yet realigned with their sockets and popped into place.
"AAARRRG!" He heard a scream ring out across the large cavern, catching his attention in an instant as he recalled how he wasn't the only one down there. It was confusing to him to see that both the Bircorns and two of their fighters were gone, but he felt his eyes widen out of fear and extreme concern where he laid eyes on the source of the scream.
Right there, not too far from him, he saw the beast they had been fighting, covered in cuts, gashes, and other injuries that should by all rights, forced it to flee but it was still there. And it was overwhelming Kali as the girl fought not to win, but to stay alive as the beast had kicked her, and kicked her hard as from where the minotaur was and where she had impacted a wall, he could tell that she had flown quite the distance and hit the wall with a sizable amount of force as she was now on the floor, coughing up blood and bile as she struggled to get up as the monster slowly approached her.
'What?' His mind fired up, running ten miles a minute as he tried to reach out to her, but with his shoulders still both out of commission, he could barely lift his one hand towards her. "No…." He got out, trying to will his body to move, to not watch as another innocent by taken away from an evil force.
'Dammit, my body is still putting itself back together, I'm in no shape to help her.' Lelouch criticized himself for his injuries as he could only watch as Kali struggled to her feet again, the sword in her hand tiling towards the ground as it must have been an effort just to keep her grip on it.
"You freak, just die already!" She yelled at the thing, though from how rough and tired her voice was, he knew she wasn't in the best fighting shape, and the beast seems to know it as its torso moved funnily, in some corner of his mind, he could tell that damn thing was laughing at her, most likely having calmed down sometime during his death and now only regarded the girl as a house cat trying to be a tiger. Kali then charged it again, but this time around, it was clear that she was too exhausted to even put up a proper fight and the beast knew it as it just toyed with her, batting her around like a ragdoll.
"Dammit…" Lelouch said to himself as he looked down at the floor, nearly tasting the dust and dirt as he gripped his hands so tight that his nails threaten to cut into the skin from the white knuckle force he was putting out. Being forced to listen to this farce of a fight, to her screams and cries as she was systematically demolished brought back memories he wished would stay buried. 'Again, again this happens. After all this time, all that training and experience. And I'm powerless again?!' He yelled at himself in the confines of his mind, his anger rising. 'How many times do I have to feel like this, do I have to watch others suffer and die while I can't do a damn thing?!' He demanded, wanting an answer from someone, from anyone! But it was silent, as he was the only one in his mind and there was no-one to save them, no white knight riding from high, no miracle from some benevolent God to grace them.
It was in this thought process, of miracles and grace, of saviors and knights, that his thoughts jump to people and events from his past. When it came to grace, he thought of kindness and purity.
This lead his mind to think about his first love, and his greatest failure not just as a leader and revolutionary, but as a brother. He thought of Euphemia, in how though naïve, harsh, and too quick to trust, she was loving, she was kind, she was humble both in thought and deed. He also remembered that one bad joke due to his dark sense of humor and his power going run away from the worst possible time left him powerless and only capable of watching as her mind was bent and her intentions corrupted by him. He recalled the futility of his actions as he tried to take back the order, to stop her from ordering the massacre, to stop her from pulling that trigger…and in to end it all, to save the people from his sin, he was forced to kill the first person he ever loved.
'No.' He uttered in the pits of his mind, feeling like if he could, he would have slapped some sense into himself. This was no time for a pity fest, but the thoughts, the memories kept on coming. From the tainted rose to the gifted swimmer, his mind jumped. He now found himself thinking back to Shirley, how he never once picked up on her feelings, only ever seeing her as a friend. And how his callousness and lack of proper planning, lead to the death of her father, a man that as far as he knew, an innocent civilian who loved his wife and daughter. She was hurt by him, so he did the best thing he could and erased himself and all her pain with it. Even then, he was once more powerless to help her as she bled out in his arms, leaving him to mourn the girl that even after seeing what he had done, knowing what he was and what he intended, still found it her a saintly heart to not just forgive but to love him as he did her.
"No." Despite these thoughts which would normally bring him down running rampant in his mind, he instead found his emotions flaring in ways they had never done before. He felt himself give in to his anger, his hate, and his desire to destroy what stood in his way. Unknown to him, the mark of code etched into his chest begun to glow, more so than it had ever done before and brighter than even Charles and C.C's when they used their powers.
Again, his memories shifted. From the love, he failed to protect, to the friend he was forced to leave behind. He wouldn't say his relationship with C.C was conventional, normal, or even a healthy one. She aggravated him at almost every turn, at times going out of her way to annoy him just for the fun of it, and he was no angel either…but as time went on, and especially after Mao, that changed as they got closer, begun to leave more about one another, more so when she lost her memory because of him and he took care of her, seeing a side to her no-one else had seen in centuries. She may have been his shield like Suzaku believed her to be, but she was his rock more than anything. Always there with a snarky remark but there for him nonetheless. They may have never actually loved one another, both coming to terms with that, but he was still able to help her with a true wish. Not to die, but to feel genuine, honest love. He prayed in his final days, that she would find that feeling of love and belonging again in the new world order, but he still worried for her, immortal or no. She was his dear friend; someone he could never replace…an accomplice.
"Not this time." He growled out, the geass in his eyes, normally shining a malevolent red, now bursting to life with a vindictive and pulsating crimson, he didn't notice this, and wouldn't have likely cared in the moment for it anyway.
"Never again…" The again, from an accomplice like no other to a damaged and violent boy. He thought about Rolo, his feelings there were more complicated. He hated him for taking Nunnally's place, for being a part of the plot to keep him contained. So he used him, tricked him into becoming dependent on him so that he would be his perfect tool. He felt nothing but pure hate for him though, after he took the love of his life from him, and reported it to him like it was a fucking accomplishment! Yet, in the time he had been here, his hatred for the boy had burnt out, not just because he gave his life to save a person he very well knew was using him, but because he was just a product of a broken world. He wanted to feel human, to live his life the way he wanted it. Every time he thinks back to that boy, he thinks of the CVR taping he listened to after he killed his parents, he thought about the final thoughts and statements from the child assassin who wanted to just be a child. He honestly wished that he could have saved him if nothing else, then for the sake of the girl who could forgive even him, he wanted to extend that olive branch to him, and wished he could have helped him overcome his struggles.
"Never again will I be weak prey…!" Lelouch snarled out, his teeth being barred towards the ground as his limbs, all at once, violently snapped back into place as his code glowed even brighter, its augmented power flowing through every muscle and bone in his body, his veins and arteries awash with this once thought unholy power. Once more his thoughts jumped from the guilty to the innocent as he thought about his days with the student council, about the friends he had made with them. He may have never felt alive with them, but that didn't mean they didn't make his insignificant existence easier to handle. He would always think fondly of Nina's shy but intelligent mind, to Rivalz and his go-getter attitude, and Milly and her perverted, spontaneous but caring and well thought out escapades. He regretted that it was necessary for him to cut ties with them, to rope Nina into his schemes even though she had every reason to hate him. He may have been a banished prince, but Ashford will always be the home he always wanted in his first life.
"I'll be evil that devours other evil," Who was he kidding? He actually thought he could live his life, and stay away from conflict. He should have known, monsters like him had no such right. Conflict and destruction followed him like a shadow, it may not be visible, but it was there. With his body fully restored, his code should have shit down, but no. Like himself, his code was very different from the rest as it continued to glow, and with it, his body restored to how it was before, begun to change as bones cracked, grew, strengthened, and shifted. As muscle fibers, ligaments and tendons ripped, tore, and regrew, stronger as the restraints once built into his body slowly became undone.
"A demon if that what it takes to protect them and," He began as he looked up. His purple pupils barely visible as the symbol of geass, the crimson and thumping birds in flight shined with a rage and lust for destruction that didn't…shouldn't belong. As he took in the sight of Kali, barely able to stay up, be bashed aside, he felt that fury within rising as his teeth slowly grew and lengthen, his canines and incisors growing in size and strength as the muscles and bone for his jaw shifted and swelled with strength that homo-sapiens, or any ape really, shouldn't scientifically have. Adding fuel to that fire, was his memories and feelings toward the knight that betrayed every master he ever had. He hated Suzaku, hated him with a passion, and the feeling was mutual. They had tried, they really did, to put aside that hate and try to grow past it and try to be friends again, but by then, they had done too much to one another to ever really get over it. He was no fool, he knew that Suzaku didn't work with them for the sake of the requiem because he cared, but because he wanted to bring about Euphemia's dream and to finally, finally! End him, to be the one to kill him.
Lastly, his mind jumped to the fiery red woman he knew, to Kallen. He cared for her, that was a fact, but he didn't love her. Not like she loved him. Maye if they had the time, he could have grown to love her. He knew he was a selfish man, it was why he asked she returned with him to Ashford, so that that love could maybe be fostered as the two relaxed and just enjoyed their final year of school together, being as normal teens as a masked revolutionary and a legendary knightmare pilot could be. But like many things in his life, they were robbed of that, and to save her life, to ensure that she would not have to worry about the consequences of even being associated with him, he had to break her heart twice. The first time when he spoke those lies, those words being some of the most bitter things he ever uttered. The second time was when they met at Ashford, how when she poured her heart out to him, how she asked him for the truth, he had to keep silent, he knew if he did speak, he wouldn't have the strength to lie to her. And if she knew the truth, he didn't know what would have been worse, Kallen siding with him going down as the demon's mistress, easily tricked to fight against her friends and country for his villainy, or the redhead ace trying to stop or ruin the place.
"If it means I can devour you." He finished as his body nearly finished this unnatural metamorphosis as he looked up and saw that Kali, no thoroughly exhausted and defeated, was picked up in the hands of the beast, its single hand being capable of picking her up as it reached to rip off her clothing, believing that it finally got its prize. But all this did was pull the pin on his wrath.
Alright, I'll stop things here. I already said in the beginning that this will be 13K words and I was close to crossing that limit. No worry though, as I said in the beginning, I'm posting not one but TWO chapters right now, so all you need to do is go to the next chapter to get the end and aftermath of this fight. If you don't see the option to read the next chapter, just give it some time, you all know it takes a while for newly posted chapters to become available.
But back to this chapter, a lot of you have been asking when people like the princess, Rory, and Tyuule will appear and finally, one of whom has made her appearance. I wanted her debut to be as big as it could be as in the show, she was introduced slaughtering a bunch of bandits who were planning on attacking the refugees Itami and his people were escorting. Sure, those crocks would have easily been dealt with before they could get in range by the Japanese soldiers, but Rory didn't know that, so it can be taken as equal parts the girl protecting the innocent and demonstrating her love for battle(even if it was a one-sided slaughter). Here, she is being introduced to the story as a servant of her God who is quirky and dangerous, at least, that was what I was going for. We'll get more of her next chapter, don't you worry.
Back to the fight, how did you all like it? I wanted to give everyone their time in the spotlight and keep things as entertaining as possible, but seeing how I'm used to video game bosses, you know, the kind that mainly stays still or only attack one person at a time, it was a little hard to write out the Minotaur's attack pattern. I did try to show off that intellect and key for details Lelouch is known for as he isn't the kind to just rush into battle, he's not that kind of protagonist so like he made use of mostly traps when he freed those miners, here I tried to write him as being cautious and smart about his combat tactics.
But I know that none of you were expecting that mid-fight transformation, which I got off the wolf boss in Genshin Impact, and several other video game bosses which any gamer would know. I also added it in as it was pretty much confirmed that whoever employed the raiders, and those bandits in the mines is a powerful figure so this unknown figure being able to use such high-level magic to buff their monster at a distance isn't out of the question. And no, I won't tell anyone who their enemy is, just know, they are not to be messed with.
For why it took a whole for him to heal despite his code being a faster regenerator than perhaps C.C,s Charles and V.V's is rather simple. We've only ever seen them from back from gunshot and stab related deaths, so the area of focus is pretty small.
Here, his body had to heal from: large claw wounds; multiple broken bones; his joints dislocating as his limbs rag-dolled; cracked bones, torn muscles; a pierced lung, broken spinal column, and pieces of his skull being lodged in his brain. You get the gist, not even the best surgeons in the most well-equipped ER in the world couldn't save him from death or being reduced to a vegetable, so the fact he came back within a few minutes is pretty damn fast.
Lastly, I used this chapter as a chance to try and give Lelouch's opinions, feelings and relationship status with those that he was close to. I wanted to just shit on Suzaku as he was a major idiot and coward, but it's not like Lelouch didn't do some messed up shit himself. I mean, I would be furious and possible murderous too if I found out my best friend has not only been undermining me but also killed the girl I loved, before using her death to prop himself up. Shirley, I just repeated that he did love her, but the two never dated as they just never had the time for it, he cared for Kallen but unlike Shirley, they didn't spend enough time together for him to call what he felt for her love, attraction sure as she was quite the girl, but he can't be sure it was love. C.C…I'm on the fence about as we don't know if the love she was looking for was romantic in nature, it could have just been love in any form and they could have loved one another like a dear friend or sibling, if that is the case, then I can see her just being satisfied in having a real friend. On the other hand, she was the closest of the female cast to him, and the two did share some good moments, so I'll leave it like the show did, neither confirm or deny anything(don't any of you dare bring up the movies here)
I'll answer reviews at the end of the next chapter, seeing how it's a continuation of this one.