"I must thank you, Captain. I've yet to get a balanced fight from anyone in this world yet. There were those Demihumans in the Holy Kingdom, but they couldn't keep up once I used my skills."
The Sorcerer King. One of the 'players' from the world in which the Six Great Gods of humanity came from. A truly undefeatable opponent for even the entire Theocracy's fighting power. As referenced in his name, he is a sorcerer, so why he was fighting using swords and stilettos, Tanigu wouldn't know.
Tanigu started to trot towards the King, activating countless martial arts that would make him run at speeds invisible to most trained, veteran fighters, and would also make his brain be able to keep up with said speeds. But, he was forced to stop, and put all of his power into deflecting the sudden oncoming whip. Although, from who was wielding it, it could be described as more like a malleable adamantite pole.
"Hup! Ah~ Almost gatcha' that time!" Aura Bella Fiora, one of two dark elf twins, and a beast tamer. She was currently hopping around the coliseum the Black Scripture was dragged to, jumping from dragon, to wolf, to bug, whipping every enemy she saw.
Having to fight both the Sorcerer King and his stupidly powerful elf servant… "Ah… What bad luck." I really do think I'm going to die here. Well, I sorta knew that from when the Holocaust got wiped out by just one bug, and we weren't able to do anything to it as it snatched them…
Normally, screams of the dying didn't bother him. But, when it was fellow men of faith, comrades he had fought behind, and their legs melted into little more than goop right in front of him…
It tends to demoralize a man.
Aura moved onto the tiring Tenth seat of the Black Scripture, who was currently flailing his bardiche around, trying to land a solid hit on one of the Demon Maids the King had just recently acquired.
Taking in the battle around him, it was quite clear the Black Scripture was on the losing side, they were uncoordinated, with many of the support members on the attack, and the main powerhouses being strung along by the Demon Maids.
And so, Tanigu took a few steps back, twirled his spear, and let it rest on his side. He slowly kept backing up, not breaking eye contact with the Sorcerer King, who wasn't even supposed to be his responsibility!
"Captain." Tanigu felt a hand on his shoulder, and didn't have to look at the person to know who it was.
"I know. We really don't have any choice to summon it now… But I wonder, could it turn the odds in our favor that much?" The person he was speaking to was the group's Chief summoner, Quintia. The Fifth Seat of the Scripture, he was in charge of summoning anything and everything the group might need to complete their mission, but mainly summoned beasts. His main attack force, which were two gigant basilisks, were largely unusable here. Undead are not affected by most of the basilisk's racial attacks, so he did nothing but stand on the sidelines, summoning the odd angel or beast to negate an attack he saw an opening in.
"We need every chance we can get right now. I'd say you, Zesshi, Time Turbulence and Four are enough."
Tanigu frowned, knowing two of their members would be officially out of the fight after the ritual Quintia was proposing. But, the trade off for what they get in exchange… Was worth it. It had to be.
Tiring of watching them talk, the Sorcerer King knelt down, making his body parallel to the floor. A stance Tanigu had seen from both the King before, and his ex-teammate, Clementine. Quintia bit his lower lip, knowing what that stance meant.
"So, it's true… Momon and the Sorcerer King are together… That's the only way he would know that stance. Damn it. And here I had hoped he would swoop in at the last minute to save us." Quintia readied one of his crystals to deflect the oncoming attack, which he knew would be fast and precise.
As the Sorcerer King sprung off the ground, and the two men readied their defenses, a sharp *clang* was heard, the sound of metal bouncing off metal. Faster than either could see, a behemoth of muscle came barreling down out of the sky, blood spraying out of many spots on his body. In his only arm, he held a pure, thick, adamantite shield that blocked the Sorcerer King's attack.
"*Huff* *Huff* I'm not done yet! Go! If you summon it, we've still got a chance! Tell Four he can use my soul, I'm fine with it!" The Eighth seat, Cedran, who Tanigu thought was dead for all intents and purposes, was still alive. Or perhaps his state could be considered more like, 'hanging on'.
He certainly would've lasted longer if Honyopynyoko didn't kill him before… "Alright! Cedran, thanks!" Tanigu turned tail at the sight of Cedran activating his magic shields, all five of them encircling him, and glowing yellow.
Tanigu and Quintia jumped throughout the battlefield, dodging beams from liches, stray martial arts, and the odd magic aimed towards them. Time Turbulence was locked in a battle with one of the Demon Maids, the one they knew as 'Yuri Alpha'. Seeing them fight for a moment was indeed entertaining, with Yuri's expert senses being able to keep up with who was considered one of the faster members of the Scripture. But watching them wasn't their plan, as Quintia took the initiative to summon one of the basilisks, throwing the crystal in the middle of the two. As Yuri jumped backward, Tanigu grabbed Time Turbulence by his collar, and continued to jump towards Four Great Spirits, who was floating over the battlefield, keeping the Sorcerer King's subordinates separated as best he could by casting area of effect spells.
"Zesshi! On me!" Tanigu shouted this to the sky, and in the next few moments, a short, sweaty, bloody, girl dressed in holy robes with an ecstatic smile on her face appeared next to him.
"What!? What do you want!?" Her white and black hair was matted and sticking to her forehead, and her scythe was caked with blood. Her robes were certainly not her normal attire, but her wearing them made her one of the many trump cards the Theocracy brought into the Tomb.
"We're summoning the angel! Come with us to Four!" Zesshi paused for a moment, and her heterochromatic eyes went blank, as she pondered what Tanigu told her. Then, her smile widened even more, and she nodded furiously.
"Yeah! Let's do that! Hell yeah! Aw man, that's gonna be fun as hell!" Her casual remark of summoning the highest tier of angel known to mankind put Quintia off, but he kept going on. The four of them continued to jump across the battlefield to their target, who eventually noticed them jetting towards him.
"Four! How are you holding out?" The lich descended from the sky, and landed in the middle of them.
"I'm doing just fine! There's no time to talk, let's do it!"
Quintia reached in one of his waist pockets, and pulled out a dim, shimmering crystal, which had a small orb of light in it. "You sure he's still in there Quintia? Looks kinda… disappointing compared to the other ones…" Time Turbulence remarked, and Quintia glared back at him.
"Alright, Four, do you wanna start? Cedran said you could use his soul for it." Quintia handed the crystal to the lich, in which Four accepted it, and shut his eyes.
A moment passed, and the eight crystals full of negative energy which surrounded his neck began to hover towards the crystal in his hand. The purple auras they had transferred to the sealing crystal, which turned the energy pure white before they entered. The small light pulsed, and the eight crystals turned to dust, and fell to the floor.
"And now, for Cedran. May he walk with Surshana in death." Four cast a black magic circle at the tip of his hand, pointed towards Cedran, who was far across the field, and Cedran collapsed. Another orb of light flew from his body, and was directed into the crystal by Four. The Sorcerer King tapped Cedran's body with his stilettos, and looked in the direction of where the light went, tracing it to their group.
"Shit. Might wanna hurry up guys!" The Sorcerer King began to stride towards them, breaking out into a full run. "Give me it! Hurry!" Time Turbulence snatched the crystal from Four's hand, and began to transfer his mana into it. "Here, Tanigu, do it at the same time! Actually, you too Zesshi! It's big enough for all of us!"
Each of the remaining three members touched the crystal, feeding their magical energy to it. The light in it began to pulse rapidly, and then held a steady glow, only getting brighter the longer they held on.
"Hey, is it supposed to be getting hot?" Tanigu asked Quintia, who only shrugged.
"Hey, it's uh… It's getting really-" Were the last words out of Tanigu's mouth, before he jerked forward. "H…uh? Ah-" Arcs of blue energy began to sprout out of the crystal, and none of the group found themselves able to remove their hands.
"Quintia! What is this!?" Zesshi spat in Quintia's face, who now looked on in acceptance.
"This happens sometimes in higher tiered sealing crystals, usually eighth and above. There's a possibility the summoner's will can be overruled by the summoned creature, and the summoner would be absorbed… They tend to require group sacrifices to be activated… But I hoped Four's stored up souls would be enough for this. I guess not." Quintia shut his eyes and sighed, allowing himself to be slowly disintegrated by the crystal.
"...Fuck this! Fuck you! Fuck all of you if you think I'm killing myself for this thing!" Tanigu, who had also begun to resign himself to martyrdom in order to kill the Sorcerer King, glanced at Zesshi, who was frantically trying to pull her hand off.
"Grrgh… Fuck… Thhhiiisss! T-Time Stop!" Tanigu didn't even have time to comprehend what Zesshi had said, before she was replaced by Four, and she was panting on the sand, ten feet away.
"H-Huh!? Wait, Zesshi! Why! Why me!" Four exclaimed, who almost looked like he started to sweat, if not for the fact he was an undead.
"Ah… Fuck you." Zesshi flicked her hand at them, and picked up her scythe. "I'm not dying as a sacrifice, and you're stupid if you think you can trick me into becoming one."
Four began to pull his hand back as well, but to no avail. Time Turbulence and Quintia had mostly disappeared, and Tanigu was starting to go as well. "But… There was… So much left to do… No! I don't wanna die like this! I'm unholy! I'm an undead! I don't wanna be a sacrifice for an angel of all things! No! Nooo!" His body streamed into the crystal, being turned into pure energy.
Ahh… So this is it. Zesshi… finish him off for us, please.
Tanigu glanced at Zesshi one last time, and she looked at him. They made eye contact for a few moments, before she looked back down at the ground.
The now glowing crystal fell to the sand with nothing to hold it up, and Zesshi stared at it. The Sorcerer King had also arrived, but stood at an acceptable distance for what he thought was coming. He had changed out of his gladiator-esque clothes, and back into his trademark purple robes, and was as alert as a cat ready to pounce on its prey. With the loss of four and his magical bombardment, many of the weaker members of the Scripture had fallen to the Sorcerer King's subordinates, with only the ones known for their unkillability still standing to take attacks.
The crystal let out a small pulse, and began to float. At this, the Sorcerer King activated his flight spell, and retreated even further. Some rays of light seeped out from newly developed cracks in the crystal, burning the sand black. The crystal began to deteriorate even faster, and even more energy leaked from it. Many of the coliseum gates opened, with multiple subordinates of the King rushing out. The gate closest to her revealed someone even she knew, as she read about him and his exploits daily in the newspaper.
The Raven-Black Hero, Momon.
The moment he began to sprint, the crystal exploded, sending all of its fragments out like missiles. The core of it floated high in the sky, and was akin to a second sun. The heat it radiated made some of the metal gear Zesshi wore over the robe feel unsturdy, like it could be bent by a child.
But the angel was not Zesshi's priority. She turned, and stared down Momon, who was staring right back at her. They traded no words, and Zesshi didn't want to. Today was one of the best days of her life, and she didn't want to ruin it by having to hear a hero's monologue. The two of them stepped towards each other, and Zesshi began to activate her martial arts. Momon simply began to run, with his swords trailing behind him as if he were a kite. His speed grew and grew, and Zesshi prepared for the impact.
At this point, the angel was fully formed, and she could hear the Sorcerer King shouting commands to his subordinates, as well as the clicking of a clock.
One… Two… Three… It's here!
She held her scythe in both hands, receiving Momon's swing on the pole.
"Ghhk!" She felt a vein in her head pop from the shockwave that came from stopping his swing. Faster than she could recover, his follow-up swing cut through the air…
And connected with her neck.
The fight was over in two swings, not leaving Zesshi anytime to react to anything he did at all. Her head fell to the sand, her martial arts accelerating her thoughts fast enough for her to comprehend what had happened. The last thing she saw was Momon catching her body mid-fall, and laying it on the ground.
A/N
Why did Momon catch her body instead of running to fight the angel? He didn't want Downfall to get dirty :p
Im not gonna rewrite this whole story, but the beginning was lacking I believe.