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Anything you recognise isn't mine.
Also, as was the case last chapter, all the battles in this chapter take place around the same time, until about ¾ of the way into the chapter.
Percival and Lamorak
The red-haired New Round Table member, the descendent of Percival (whose real name was Percy) and the green-haired woman, the descendent of Lamorak (whose real name was Lana) pulled out their respective weapons (a lance, and a pair of short swords) and turned towards their two closest opponents: Imogen Belial's black-haired Bishop, Ayaka Phenex, and her also black (but with a tint of blue) haired Knight, Himari Noihara.
There was a short standoff between the two pairs of warriors, with the only movement from either pair being Lancelot and Lamorak's acknowledgements of magic-circles popping up by their ears. There was silence again for a few seconds, before Lamorak spoke.
"You sure, Arthur?" she asked. After a couple of seconds, she nodded. "Got it."
"I understand, my Lord." Lancelot replied to what Ayaka and Himari could only presume to be orders given by Arthur. "As you command."
Both Lana and Percy jumped to the right and left respectively as Ayaka waved her hand, sending a vertical wave of demonic fire towards the pair of them. With the two members of the New Round Table separated, Himari and Ayaka charged at Lana and Percy respectively, with Percy being forced to hold back a powerful beam of fire-magic sent by Ayaka before taking a couple of steps to the side, before he had to dodge another blast of ice-magic that Ayaka fired right at the place he intended to land from his dodge.
Percival jumped up to dodge the attack that Ayaka fired at him, landed on the ground and rolled forward, with a third shot of magic flying over his body as he did so, and came up only a couple of steps away from Ayaka, perfect distance to thrust his lance towards her stomach. However, the lance was deflected downwards by Ayaka's quickly-formed magical shield, as the half-Phenex jumped backwards, hovering on her wings and firing more shots of magic Percival's way, which forced her opponent to roll and jump around quickly in order to dodge them all.
After Ayaka landed on the ground, Percival threw his lance at her like a javelin with all his strength, forcing Ayaka to quickly bring up a wall of ice to stop the lance from spearing her face and probably killing her. The weapon was embedded in the wall of ice that she created, leaving her unharmed, giving her the time she needed to jump back and re-establish distance between herself and Percival. Which she found that she very much needed to do a couple of seconds later, considering that Percival had closed the distance between himself and the wall of ice that Ayaka had been behind said couple of seconds ago, yanked his lance out of the ice-wall that Ayaka had created, slashed a couple of times to bring the wall down and dashed towards Ayaka again, with full intent to keep attacking her, all within five or so seconds.
'This guy's good.' Ayaka thought to herself, laying a couple of magical mines on the ground in hopes that they'd slow Percival down, before jumping to the side and quickly preparing a complex invisible magical shield. 'But it feels like he's... holding back.'
Shrugging off the though, she watched Percival expertly weave through the magical mines that she had laid, make a quick turn and dashing towards Ayaka, throwing his lance towards her as he did so. As Ayaka figured it would, the second that the lance hit the shield, the impact of the lance hitting the shield was reversed and outputted as a blast of energy that caused Percival to stumble, as he was close enough to the shield to reach out and grab his lance by the time said lance had hit the shield.
"Agh!" Percival cried, managing to keep himself on his feet and grabbing his lance as Ayaka took to the air again, flying over his head while firing small bullets of magical energy down at him. However, he managed to dodge them all as Ayaka landed a fair distance away from him, on the other side of the magical mines that she had laid down earlier. "Damn, this woman's good."
Readying his lance again, Percival dashed towards Ayaka, making to weave through the magical mines that she had laid down earlier, the locations of which he had managed to memorize to the point that he could navigate through them without worrying about stepping on one by accident. However, Ayaka snapped her fingers and activated all five of the mines that she had laid down. All five mines went off with explosions powerful enough to severely damage a Mid-Class Devil, though to Percival they didn't do much damage beyond impairing his vision for a second or two and damaging his clothes.
He didn't stumble this time, and continued rushing at Ayaka, thrusting his lance towards her, and this time coming closer than he had before. Ayaka had to move her body into a very awkward position to dodge Percival's lance-thrust, but retaliated in kind with a powerful shot of demonic power at close-range that hit the man in the chest, sending him stumbling backwards a couple of feet, clutching his chest for a second or two with his free hand.
However, powering through the pain, Percival dashed forward and slashed at Ayaka with his lance a couple more times, only barely missing both times while dodging the blasts of magic that Ayaka fired at him in retaliation. After ducking a bolt of fire-magic that was aimed at his head, Percival span around and delivered a powerful slash to Ayaka's midriff, one that connected with her and cut through her witch-robe to give her a moderately deep wound in her stomach-area.
Ayaka hissed in pain, stumbling backwards while sending a powerful wave of magical energy at Percival from close-range, forcing him to jump away himself in order to not get hit. However, as both combatants landed, about six feet away from each other, Percival noticed the gash in Ayaka's stomach quickly healing up in a flash of flame.
"So, the rumours were true. The Belial Heiress does have a Phenex in her peerage." Percival muttered to himself, making the quick decision to dispel his lance into a pocket-dimension and pull out a new weapon: a sword, the handle and blade of which all seemed to be one piece of solid metal shaped into that of a sword. The handle had a circular piece that seemed to indicate where to hold the sword, and throughout both handle and blade, the weapon graduated from burnt-black to shining gold in colour.
"Let's see what you can do against Laevatein!" Percival shouted, dashing forwards to engage Ayaka again.
Meanwhile, Himari had drawn a katana, and was dashing around the gardens of Noji Castle, clashing with the descendent of Lamorak at almost-blinding speed. She knocked aside Lana's right sword (which was being thrust at her head) while managing to jump out of the way of her left sword, and retaliated with a slash at Lana's chest, which was blocked by her left sword.
Himari jumped backwards to dodge Lana's right sword, managing to barely get out of the way of Lana's slash, yet at the cost of said right sword cutting into her summer dress and exposing her stomach.
"Goddamn it!" Himari hissed, once she realised what had happened. "Imogen paid good money for this dress!"
Lana gave a smirk, but that smirk quickly vanished when Himari began to focus a large amount of Chi into her sword, which she then began swinging at Lana in order to send the waves of pure Chi towards her. Widening her eyes in surprise, the green-haired knight was forced to jump and contort her body into a weird position in order to dodge both of the Chi waves that were sent her way.
Landing on the ground in a roll, Lana managed to make her way past the third Chi wave that Himari threw at her via her sword, jump back to her feet and swing at Himari again with her left sword, aiming for her legs. Himari, however, saw this coming and swung her sword downward to parry Lana's blade, with enough force for Lana's left sword to hit the ground and be embedded in the ground, which Lana found out the hard way when she tried to yank the blade out of the ground, and... found that it didn't leave the ground.
Her smirk now becoming a snarl, Lana let go of her left sword and swung at Himari with her right sword, but missed, with Himari responding in kind by kicking Lana's wrist, which forced her to let go of her sword, which went spinning out of her reach. In the same movement, Himari span around and kicked the sword that was embedded in the ground, with enough force to break the sword in two, leaving Lana all-but-defenceless.
Any thoughts of diving for the only sword she had that wasn't broken left Lana's mind immediately when Himari placed a foot on her stomach and held her down with ease, pointing her katana down at Lana's throat for good measure. There was a second's tense silence between Himari and Lana, before Lana relaxed, and put her hands up from her position on the ground, indicating that she surrendered.
Himari nodded down at Lana, snapped her fingers to conjure up magical ropes that tightly bound the swordless human where she lay, sheathed her sword and dashed over to where Percival and Ayaka were still going: where it was clear that Ayaka had lost the advantage that she may or may not have had against the older, more experienced member of the New Round Table: Ayaka was sweating hard as she fired more and more magical attacks at Percival, her clothes were burnt and torn, and there were several cuts on her body that healed with flickering fire, a sign that Ayaka's demonic power was running low.
As Percival was preoccupied with focusing a magical attack into Laevatein, which he sent flying at Ayaka, Himari jumped up and slashed at his head. However, Percival had turned around to see Himari jumping at him, and in the nick of time, raised his sword to block Himari's strike, which gave Ayaka (who had dodged Percival's magic attack) the chance she needed to fire a powerful bolt of magic at Percival's unguarded back.
After he blocked Himari's slash, Percival turned around and moved his body out of the way of Ayaka's attack, but lost his focus on Himari for just long enough for Imogen's Knight to jump off him, using his head as a springboard (which forced him to stumble again). Himari flipped over once in the air and landed gracefully next to Ayaka, before placing a hand on her shoulder and focusing some of her Senjutsu into Ayaka, rejuvenating her enough to allow her to stand up without her legs shaking from fatigue.
"We've got to get that sword away from him." Ayaka remarked, as Percival sent a vertical wave of magic their way, forcing both Bishop and Knight to jump apart. "Or at the very least, stop his movement."
"Agreed." Himari replied, narrowing her eyes as Percival wound up for another magic attack. "I've got an idea. Cover me!"
As Percival sent another powerful wave of magic (this one horizontal) at Ayaka and Himari, both dodged it (Ayaka slid below it while Himari jumped over it) and landed on the ground. Ayaka began firing small magical bullets, drawing Percival's focus away from her, while Himari dashed at Percival, closing the distance between them within an instant. Percival was forced to cancel the magic attack and swing his blade around to meet Himari's.
The two clashed several times in mid-air before Himari placed a foot on Percival's shoulder and kicked off of it, positioning her body in order to angle her jump downwards, and using her hands to spring back upward, flipping over in order to land back on her feet, before dashing back at Percival without missing a beat and aiming another swing at his eyes.
On instinct, Percival (who was doing an alright job at keeping an eye on Ayaka in the background, even with Himari dashing at him) had to close his eyes as he leant backwards to dodge Himari's sword swing. However, this was exactly the outcome that Himari was hoping for, as she landed on the ground.
"NOW, AYAKA!" she yelled. Percival lent back upright and opened his eyes, looking all around for Imogen's black-haired Bishop, but he couldn't find her.
He realised where she had gone, however, when he felt a powerful bolt of magic strike him in the small of the back, and send him flying forwards to crash into the ground. Everything was hazy for a couple of seconds for Percival once he realised just what had happened, before he looked up to see Himari and Ayaka standing over him.
A few dozen yards away, through the pain in his back, he could see Lamorak on the ground, bound by magical ropes. Evidently, she had been defeated, just as he realised that he had just been.
Camilla
From where she was standing, Camilla could see Raven Branwen facing off against Agravain, Arthur and Le Fay (the latter two seemed to have bested Mordred with ease) all at the same time. She tried to move towards the four warriors facing off, but she found her path blocked by Nero, who had flung himself onto a tree and swung himself off of it, flying at the purple-haired axe-wielder with his sword out.
Camilla saw the white-haired quarter-Devil coming at her at speed, and dodged the attack by sliding backwards through the use of magic. Taking one hand off of her axe's handle, she formulated a powerful fire spell in her free hand and sent three fireballs spinning at Nero in retaliation for his attack against her. But Nero, who had already began rushing at her, lowered himself and slid underneath the fireballs that she sent his way with ease, righted himself and redoubled his efforts to rush at her.
"It's so funny how men rushing at me isn't an uncommon occurrence." Camilla remarked, subtly preparing herself to parry the swing that she knew was coming, while leaning forward and showing off her immense (by human standards) bust to Nero. "You know, maybe we can come to an understanding?"
"An understanding between you and your giant tits?" Nero remarked, as he reached striking distance of Camilla. "I doubt that'd be too productive." He then swung his sword towards her, forcing Camilla to commit to raising her axe to parry Nero's attack faster than she had intended to. "Also, I'm an ass guy."
"Oh~" Camilla replied, fake-pouting. "That's a shame." She tried to swing at his face again, but Nero ducked under her swing and retaliated with his sword, but that was again parried by Camilla's axe.
Subconsciously jumping away from the patch of fox-fire that suddenly landed beside him, Nero pulled out his gun with his free hand and fired at Camilla, but the purple-haired busty knight dodged to the side and made a couple of jumps backwards to put some distance between herself and Nero. Using one hand, she began firing bolts of lightning at Nero, but he rolled to the right of the first one, ducked under the second, jumped over the third, cast a magic-circle behind himself and used it as a springboard to jump off of and close the distance between himself and Camilla, all while revving up his sword.
Once the distance between Nero and Camilla had been fully closed, Camilla used her non-casting hand to swing her axe at Nero, but Nero put all of his considerable strength into his sword-swing, and met the axe-blade with his own sword with such force that Camilla stumbled backwards. After jumping backwards a bit further, she sheathed her axe (the blade of which was rather chipped, thanks to the power behind Nero's sword swing), and used both hands to cast far more powerful lightning-bolts, that came down at Nero from above. However, Nero was easily able to manoeuvre his way through all of them through the fine art of just constantly moving. Taking to the air on his Devil wings, he managed to spin, flip and dodge his way past all the lightning-bolts Camilla cast, even striking a skater-like pose in mid-air as he did so, just to let her know how futile her efforts to hit him were.
He landed on the ground and fired at Camilla again, but she brought up her axe-blade to block the bullets, and opened a large magic-circle with a wave of her hand as she jumped back again. To Nero's slight surprise, a wyvern came out of it, which she immediately jumped up onto the back of before taking to the air. She quickly fired a few lightning-bolts down at Nero from above, which he had to roll out of the way of while firing bullets out of his gun at Camilla and her wyvern.
However, Camilla was able to fly her wyvern out of the way of Nero's bullets, and return the favour by sending more lightning bolts down at Nero, with some wind magic thrown in.
"Alright, that's how you want to play it?" Nero muttered, spreading his own Devil wings, which were rather different to most other Devils (Nero's were blue, and more spectral-looking than the more solid, leathery wings that 99.9% of Devils usually had), and taking to the skies in pursuit of Camilla and her wyvern. Placing his sword and gun back in their holsters, he charged demonic energy into his hands, which he used to punch Camilla's wyvern so hard that it span around a couple of times before beginning to descend to the ground, clearly either dazed or unconscious (likely the latter).
Camilla cursed under her breath as her wyvern crashed into the ground. She leapt off her wyvern, pulling out her damaged axe and landing in front of Nero. Her expression becoming a snarl, she rushed towards Nero and tried to swing her axe at him. However, Nero ducked around the blade of her axe, grabbed the handle with one hand and yanked it towards himself, pulling Camilla (who was still holding onto her precious axe) along with it. His free fist connected with her stomach, forcing her to double over in pain, dropping her axe.
Nero dropped the axe too, allowing it to clatter on the ground before he picked Camilla up with both hands, span around a couple of times to build up momentum, and let her go flying into the nearest tree. He then stomped towards her, not stopping when Camilla let out a cry of pain from crashing into the tree as hard as she did (which was hard enough to crack the tree's trunk, and slowly begin sending it down. After barely managing to pick herself up, she sent a stream of fire Nero's way with magic, that Nero was only barely able to dodge, but not without the flames hitting the side of his face and leaving a nasty-looking burn on his left cheek.
Snarling himself, Nero rushed over to Camilla, who had fallen back to the ground from the effort it took to cast such a powerful spell, picked her up by the neck and threw her back down onto the ground, before kicking her in the side. Camilla let out another yell of pain and rolled over. She reached out for the axe that was still on the ground, and tried to call it to her, but as the axe flew towards her, Nero caught it before it could land in her hand, and threw it even further away, before grabbing onto Camilla's wrist.
"Ahh!" Camilla cried out in pain. "N-no! I surrender! Stop, please...!"
Nero stopped moving, but still kept a tight grip on Camilla's hand for a couple more seconds, before letting go. As Camilla heard Nero getting off of her, she let out a small sigh of relief at the realisation that she wasn't going to die.
Lancelot and Gawain
Blake and Akame readied their weapons as they stood, facing the blue-haired descendent of Lancelot (Lance) and the blond-haired descendent of Gawain (Garett). As both humans pulled out their respective weapons (Lance pulled out a pitch-black bastard sword that gave off a demonic aura, while Garett pulled out a long two-handed sword with a long grip and round pommel at the end, that gave off a Holy aura), the Nekomata and the Tengu pulled out their respective weapons as well.
"Well, I must say." Lance remarked to Garett. "I don't feel all that good having to fight a pair of young ladies. Though I suppose I must, if I have to redeem myself in Arthur's eyes."
"I don't think Arthur holds what your ancestor did against you, Lance." Garett replied, stabbing his sword into the ground, stretching himself a little, and then pulling his sword out of the ground. "No-one does. Else we'd all probably be fighting you instead of teaming up with you to fight others. Especially me."
Lance simply nodded, and after noticing the Demon Sword in Akame's hand, gave a small smirk.
"I guess you're right." He replied. "Although I wouldn't mind testing Arondight against a fellow Demon Sword wielder. Lady or not."
Akame shrugged, and stepped towards Gawain, unsheathing her sword and silently pointing it at him. After a couple of seconds' silence between the two sword-wielders, they dashed at each other and clashed swords, leaving Blake standing in a combat-stance against Gawain. The two were about to dash at each other, same as Akame and Lancelot, before another pair of girls came down on either side of Blake, one being her blonde, busty shotgun-gauntlet-wielding girlfriend, and the other being said blonde busty shotgun-gauntlet-wielding girlfriend's cousin, a certain cute silver-eyed girl wielding a sniper rifle/scythe hybrid weapon that looked way too large for her.
Though she seemed to be wielding it with ease, so Blake didn't question it.
"Looks like you could use some help, Blake." Yang remarked, reloading her shotgun-gauntlets. Ruby also shot her a smirk while reloading her sniper/scythe, with both Devil hybrids cocking their respective weapons in unison.
"It'd certainly be appreciated." Blake replied, as she reloaded the gun portion of her own weapon. All three women then proceeded to dash at Gawain at once.
Meanwhile, Akame and Lancelot were slashing at each other so fast that any regular person watching would barely be able to see their respective swords (Murasame and Arondight) moving through the air, though even a regular man would be able to tell that Lancelot had the advantage in their duel. His superior strength forced Akame to slide backwards slightly every time their swords clashed with one another.
'Damn, this guy's tough!' Akame though to herself, as she raised Murasame to block a downward slash from Arondight, and retaliated with a quick slash towards Lancelot's midriff, but her sword merely bounced off his glittering-white armour. She was forced to flip backward to avoid Lancelot's retaliatory slash at her own waist, but she did with this ease due to her lack of armour providing more ease of movement. 'The armour's an issue, too. Can't rely on Murasame. Unless I break his armour... or go for his head...'
Akame jumped into the air and swung Murasame at Lancelot's head, but the blue-haired knight jumped backwards and retaliated by performing a wide slash with Arondight and sending a powerful wave of demonic energy her way, which she ducked under. Lancelot dashed at her and came at her with another wide swing, which Akame dodged to the left of, raising Murasame to block another of Lancelot's swings. Akame retaliated with a downward slash at Lancelot's head but Lancelot raised Arondight to block her swing. He dodged backwards as Akame swung again, letting her sword hit the ground before he swung at her again. The two swordsmen clashed swords a few more times, with Akame feeling herself being pushed backwards with every swing, before the two clashed and held.
"Don't feel bad if you lose to me, Youkai." Lancelot spoke, as he stepped back once he felt Akame pushing back against his blade. "There aren't many I've faced who can really stand up against me and Arondight."
Akame remained silent as she raised her sword to, again, block another swing from Lancelot, which send her skidding backwards a couple of feet. His swings were so powerful that Akame was beginning to feel the strain with every time Arondight clashed with Murasame.
'Maybe I don't have to stand up to him and Arondight.' Akame thought to herself, blinking and focusing for a couple of seconds, before a black aura of Touki appeared around her. 'Maybe I can just dodge him.'
Lancelot went back on the offensive again, swinging Arondight twice in quick succession, sending two waves of demonic power at Akame that were perpendicular to one another. Akame, who saw them coming, quickly rolled to the side, faster than she had been going before, and dashed at Lancelot, who only barely saw her coming.
'Shit!' Lancelot thought, quickly raising his blade to protect his head as Akame swung at it. 'She's faster than before!'. After clashing with Akame and pushing her backward, Lancelot span around once, quickly sending a full circular wave of demonic power around himself in order to protect himself. But the Tengu was faster, and jumped over the wave of energy and dashed at Lancelot again, aiming for his head again.
Lancelot clashed with her again, forcing her back to the ground, and Akame rolled backwards and to the side, dodging the follow-up wave of demonic power that he sent her way out of Arondight. She came at him again, making to swipe at him with Murasame in order to draw his blade downwards, but at the last second she pulled back, dodging Lancelot's attempted parry on his right side and spinning around to roundhouse kick his left side, focusing her Senjutsu into her leg in order to enhance the effect of her kick.
That sent Lancelot stumbling backwards, clutching his armour, which had cracked at the spot that Akame had kicked it. The red-eyed Tengu pressed her temporary advantage, delivering another kick to the same spot at Lancelot's lower-left side, ducking his retaliatory swing with Arondight, and swiping at Lancelot's neck with her blade while loosening her grip on its handle, so when Lancelot rose his blade to parry her sword with enough force that it span out of her hand, Akame lost no momentum.
After landing back on the ground and getting off one more hit on the spot that she had hit Lancelot's armour, reducing that area to the point that just one more solid hit in that area would break that part of the armour entirely, Akame dashed backwards a few paces, picked up Murasame in a backhand stance, and rushed back towards Lancelot, ducking to the side of the swing that he aimed at her, and drove the butt of Murasame's handle into the cracked part of Lancelot's armour, breaking it and exposing part of his midriff.
"No!" Lancelot shouted, just as he realised what the hell had happened. He moved Arondight to try and protect the exposed portion of his torso but-
'Yes!' Akame thought, a smirk coming to her face for a fraction of a second. 'Now's my chance!'
And she drove Murasame into Lancelot's exposed midriff, causing the semi-armoured knight to yell out in pain and drop Arondight. Almost on instinct, Lancelot placed his hands on Murasame and tried to pull the blade out of his midriff, but Akame was already on it. One solid pull of her blade was enough to yank it out of Lancelot's torso, with the blade slicing his hands in the process.
Akame swung Murasame to get Lancelot's blood off of its blade, and returned her sword to its sheath, standing in a defensive position and waiting for Lanelot to make the next move. Since she knew that, no matter so long as Lancelot didn't get any major hits in on her... she had already won.
Meanwhile, Blake, Yang and Ruby were all circling around Gawain, firing on the blond knight from all angles. Gawain stood firm and calm, using the large sword that was Excalibur Ruler to dodge and deflect all the bullets that were fired his way, without much trouble at all. Honestly, for the earnest knight, it was getting slightly boring. Just jumping out of the way of all the bullets that didn't have much of a chance of hitting him, and quickly moving his sword to block or deflect those that did. He had half a mind to start moving towards them just to make things more-
"NOW!" Ruby shout cut above the gunshots, and Gawain looked up to see three of who he could only guess was the Nekomata called Blake, running at him from three separate angles. Smirking, he raised Excalibur Ruler and swung it in a wide arc, quickly and forcefully enough to hit all three Blake-clones and dispel them all at roughly the same time, with a powerful gust of wind blowing from the sword as it went as well. As the Blake-clones dissipated, Gawain looked behind him as he heard the sound of displaced air coming from behind him, and turned around just in time to catch a faceful of fist from Yang, sending him stumbling backwards into the path of a bullet fired by Ruby, that easily pierced his armour and embedded itself in his side.
Hissing with pain, Gawain swung Excalibur Ruler at Yang in a wide arc, and missed (Yang flipped backwards out of the range of the sword). His second swing caught her off-guard, however, as though he missed the direct swing with his sword, the gust of wind that came from around his sword was enough to blow Yang backwards, though she managed to flip over and land on her feet easily enough. Still powering through the pain that he felt, Gawain prepared to dash forward and swing more directly at Yang (he could tell that she was a Devil, as was the silver-eyed Ruby), though a flash of red appeared before his eyes and, in a sudden gust of wind that passed to his left faster than Gawain could blink, Yang was gone.
Looking to his left, he saw a red vortex seeming to reform into Ruby and Yang, the latter of whom cracked her knuckles. Blake jumped over and joined them, though all were forced to scatter for a second time as Gawain swung his sword around his head several times in wide arcs before swinging it in a wide arc, again, at them, sending another powerful gust of wind their way.
"This isn't working." Yang remarked, as Akame jumped down beside them. Evidently, she had won her battle with her opponent, and after seeing the plight of her Nekomata friend and said Nekomata friend's two other friends (one romantic and one not), had come over to join them. "The most damage anyone's done so far is that charged bullet, Ruby, and we can't get too close because of the Holy energy coming from that sword." she gestured to the sword in Gawain's hand.
"Hm." Ruby hummed, in thought as Gawain slowly walked towards her and the other three girls beside her. "I think I have a plan. Uhh... donttellme-donttellme-donttellme... Akame, you good?"
Akame nodded.
Music: Die – RWBY
"Alright, then." Ruby replied, switching her scythe into its gun-mode. "I'll hang back and do damage from long-range, Akame, you rush that guy and keep him distracted."
Akame nodded, unsheathed her blade and rushed forward.
"Yang, Blake..." Ruby gave a small, cute childlike smirk. "When I give the word, you know what to do. In the meantime, try to keep that guy's attention away from Akame."
Yang and Blake both smiled in reply, with Yang using the recoil of her shotgun-gauntlets to jump to the side and begin firing shots at Gawain, with Blake jumping to the left and beginning to do the same, while Ruby jumped into the air and fired at the ground using her weapon to propel herself up into the air, where she began firing down at Gawain from above.
Backed up by the three women firing upon her opponent from different angles, Akame (who was still covered in Touki from her fight with Lancelot, who was several dozen meters away and barely able to move thanks to the poison injected into his body by her Demon Sword Murasame) had a safe advantage against Gawain, who was forced to be constantly on the defensive. He had to raise his sword to block Akame's swing, turn it to deflect bullets fired by Blake, duck backwards to avoid shots fired by Yang, swing his sword downward to deflect a bullet fired by Ruby, raise it again to block another swipe from Akame, only to feel some more of Blake's bullets denting his armour.
"Agh, damn!" Gawain muttered, through gritted teeth, as he jumped backwards in an attempt to put some distance between himself and Akame, an attempt to get even a SECOND to breathe before being forced to re-engage the relentless Demon Sword-wielding Tengu that had bested Lancelot. "God, ow- I- fuck!"
In the milliseconds between when she chose to look down the scope of her weapon and when she pulled the trigger to fire her next bullet, Ruby smirked as she noticed Gawain getting agitated in his constant engagement with Akame.
'If I'm right in what I'm thinking, you probably have to move that sword around to gather air around to send in wind-gusts.' Ruby thought to herself, firing a bullet down at Gawain (which only barely missed, but forced him to dodge in a very awkward manner, which only put him more on the defensive against Akame). 'So, once you send out that gust, you'll be more vulnerable, which means...' Ruby righted herself with her Devil wings and fired another bullet down at Gawain, smirking as she noticed it come much closer to hitting him dead-on: her most recent bullet grazed Gawain's armour.
Back on the ground, Gawain seemed to have had it. After stumbling forward from the force of taking a shot to the back from Yang, he let out a yell and, after focusing everything he had into his sword, swung it in an extra-wide arc and sent out all the air that he had built up around Excalibur Ruler, in an extra-powerful gust of wind. His sword barely missed Akame, but she got hit by the wind-gust full-blast, and was sent flying backwards. Even from the aerial position Ruby was at, she could feel the remnants of the wind-gust.
Holding her gun above her, Ruby fired, sending herself back down to the ground in record time.
"BLAKE, YANG, NOW!" Ruby yelled out, as loud as her little kid lungs could muster. "BUMBLEBEE!"
From their respective positions on the battlefield, Blake and Yang grinned over at one-another. Blake threw her gun, which was attached to a long ribbon, over at Yang, who caught her guna and began to fire her gauntlets behind her, building up speed as she flew around in a wide arc.
From where he was standing, Gawain didn't see Yang coming. From the pain of his bullet-riddled body, he could only see Akame, who was picking herself up off the ground. He stalked over to her, clutching Excalibur Ruler in his hand and preparing to take her down. However, he didn't realise that a certain busty blonde Devil/Dragon Hybrid was approaching him, with a fist that might as well have had his name on it until he heard her yell, and turn around.
The last thing that Gawain saw was Yang letting go of Blake's gun and pulling her fist back before throwing the punch, which when combined with her built-up speed and considerable Devil/Dragon strength, was enough to easily knock the blond Knight out in one punch. Gawain went spiralling over and over in mid-air, Excalibur Ruler slipping from his hand, before he crash-landed on the ground, only a few dozen paces from where Camilla currently lay, bloodied and bruised from her own beatdown at Nero's hands.
Music end
Cao Cao
Music: You Say Run – My Hero Academia
After a second's hesitation on both sides, Cao Cao rushed at Roxas, Scathach and Wukong, focusing his power into his spear for a wide swing that would take out all three of them.
Roxas was the first to dash forward with speed beyond what he knew he had (thanks to Wukong's Senjutsu enhancement) and parried Cao Cao's attempted swing with Clarent Galatine, firing a bolt of his Power of Twilight at the human's head. Though Cao Cao quickly moved his head out of the way of the point-blank shot, and disengaged from the clash with Roxas' sword to meet Scathach's spear. He swung at that (Scathach ducked) then had to twirl his spear around himself at rapid speed to block all the Senjutsu blasts that Wukong sent at him from his feet, before Wukong jumped forward, extending his staff (Ruyi Jingu Bang) past Cao Cao's spear and towards the man himself.
Though Cao Cao was able to dodge the spear, he couldn't dodge Wukong flicking his extended staff to the left, and jumped backwards to put some distance between himself and his three opponents, before firing bolts of Primordial Light at Roxas, Scathach and Wukong, prompting all three warriors to dodge the bolts. The millisecond that he ceased his ranged attacks, Roxas dashed forward, firing bolts of Twilight at him in return while gripping Clarent Galatine tightly.
Cao Cao growled, and extended his spear towards Roxas, but Roxas suddenly burst forward with even faster speed than he was going at normally, fast enough to butt Cao Cao in the stomach with his elbow without the Human even seeing him, sending him stumbling backwards into a quick assault of kicks, punches and staff-strikes from four clones of Wukong that appeared out of practically nowhere.
What looked like a shield of Holy energy appeared around Cao Cao after a second, protecting him from being damaged further by the Wukong-clones for long enough to swing his spear and destroy all the clones, before he dashed towards the real Wukong, who was standing several meters back. Though when he got one or two steps away from the Monkey Youkai/Buddha, he was thrown up into the air by an explosive mine-rune that Scathach had laid while he was distracted with fighting Roxas and the Wukong-clones.
The real Wukong extended his staff again, straight into Cao Cao's chest, sending him flying upwards, though Roxas could see him righting himself in mid-air, and after spreading his ten Nephalem wings, flew off after him, with Wukong and Scathach quickly following.
They all landed in a clear part of the Nijo Castle gardens, close to where Imogen and Yasaka (who had returned to human form and was unconscious) were at. Dr. Strange was there, as well.
Neither Roxas, Scathach, Wukong or Cao Cao paid them any mind, however, as Roxas whipped out Luce and Ombra and began firing at Cao Cao, while Wukong rushed at Cao Cao, sending out several blasts of magical energy with his free hand to distract him before he swung his staff at his former apprentice's face, smacking him again and sending him into a flurry of bullets fired by Roxas. The bullets, however, had no effect.
"Well, I tried." Roxas muttered to himself, before re-drawing Clarent Galatine (this time in a two-handed grip) and dashing at Cao Cao, sliding underneath the True Longinus wielder when said wielder swung said True Longinus at him. Picking himself back up, Roxas span around and kicked Cao Cao in the back, following it up with another kick that sent him into another smack from Wukong's staff, which dazed the Longinus wielder for long enough to allow Roxas to swing Clarent Galatine at him, sending a wave of crimson demonic lightning at the wielder's back that, though it didn't put him down like Roxas had hoped it would, shocked the wielder for the vital second Roxas needed to de-summon Clarent Galatine, grab Cao Cao by the waist, lift him up and throw him down behind him in a suplex powerful enough to leave a Cao Cao-shaped imprint in the ground. He picked himself up off the ground and dashed backwards, to around where Scathach was standing, waving her hand in a complicated motion and casting some kind of rune, before Cao Cao could retaliate from close-range.
"You're clearly outmatched, Bergin." Wukong remarked, calmly sidestepping Cao Cao's spear-thrust and jumping above his follow-up swipe. "Your forces have been overwhelmed. There's no point in continuing to fight. Please don't make this any harder for anyone here, least of all yourself. Surrender."
"NEVER!" Cao Cao screamed. He seemed to have lost his previous composure and self-control, judging by how he swung at Wukong like a mad animal with his Longinus. "Even if I don't beat you, I've proven that the weak human race can fight with the best of the supernatural! In this age of lazy assholes just waiting for someone else to solve their problems, I've proven that humans can still be strong. I CAN BE A HERO!"
"Oh, certainly." Roxas replied, dryly, twirling Clarent Galatine in one hand as he approached Cao Cao again, with Scathach beside him. "You'll be an inspiration to egomaniacs and wannabe-badasses everywhere, I'm sure."
Cao Cao's face contorted into an expression of pure rage at Roxas' remark. He let out a scream and dashed at Roxas, performing a jumping stab with the True Longinus that Roxas easily side-stepped, turned around and slashed at him a few more times with his spear. Each time he did so, Roxas stepped back a little bit further backwards with every swing to stay JUST out of Cao Cao's range, which he figured would piss him off more. After Cao Cao's fourth swing, he rolled under the Longinus wielder and popped back up behind him, whipped out the Vindicator and shot him in the back of the head from point-blank range.
Though thanks to whatever enhancements Cao Cao had gained from activating his Balance Breaker, or just his regular training, being hit in the back of the head by three magically-enhanced bullets just sent him stumbling forwards for a second, rather than blowing his head up in every direction.
Wukong jumped forward at that moment, trying to smack Cao Cao on the head with his staff in order to knock him out relatively easily, but Cao Cao recovered from his dazed state at that moment in order to parry his staff with his spear, only to receive a faceful of Touki-enhanced fist from Wukong that sent him sprawling onto the floor. Though he was back up just as easily as he fell, and used a magic-circle to propel himself up into the air, out of Roxas and Wukong's immediate reach.
After deflecting a magical blast sent from Scathach's spear, Cao Cao landed back on the ground and dodged out of the way of another staff-swing from Wukong, twirling his True Longinus as Wukong went in for another attack, and parrying his staff so well this time that it went spinning out of Wukong's hand. Smirking at Wukong and preparing to leap up and grab the staff, he got hit by another magical blast sent from Scathach's spear, sending him stumbling backwards as Wukong caught his staff again.
Cao Cao was visibly sweating now. Teeth clenched and spear in hand, he lunged at Wukong yet again, but was hit in the back of the head by a bolt of Twilight energy from Roxas, which made him stumble forward into a powerful swing from Wukong, which sent him sprawling onto the ground again. He was back up as quickly as he had gone down, however, and after using another magic-circle as a springboard, launched at Roxas with his spear out, clashing with his sword for half a second, before being forced to disengage as Scathach rushed forward, firing bolts of magical energy out of her spear as she came, finishing off the ranged assault by throwing her spear faster than all the magical bolts were travelling.
Cao Cao's disengagement from his clash with Roxas caused the spear to barely miss, only tearing his outfit and grazing his stomach. Roxas punched him right where the wound was opened, and followed it up with another punch, followed by several quick kicks and ended with a quicker flip-kick that sent Cao Cao into the air.
Wukong, who saw that Cao Cao's grip on his True Longinus was loosening thanks to the constant hits he was taking, jumped forward and swung his staff, with all of his strength, at the True Longinus rather than Cao Cao's body, smacking the spear with enough force to send it spinning from Cao Cao's hand. Using a pulse of magic to send himself above Cao Cao, Wukong performed a Touki-empowered axe-kick (that a being as old-looking as he was really shouldn't have been able to perform) on Cao Cao that sent him flying down, right into a magical mine-rune powered by Scathach that impacted Cao Cao with enough force to send him bouncing off the ground a couple of times before he fell to the ground, knocked out beside his famed weapon.
Music end
Roxas was the first to disengage the silver Touki that he was covered in, and panted for a second or two before he de-summoned Clarent Galatine and stretched.
"Score successfully settled." he muttered to himself, as Scathach and Wukong disengaged their respective Toukis.
Agravain
Agravain liked to think that he was a good retainer to Arthur. Ever since he had assisted the descendent of the old King of Britain in forming the New Round Table, he had stood by the side of Arthur and his little sister Le Fay's side through thick and thin, and out of all members of the New Round Table (including Arthur himself, as a matter of fact) had personally thwarted the most threats (in his eyes) to Arthur's safety, either from supernatural opponents or from agents sent by Arthur's family to bring him and Le Fay back to them.
Though after the New Round Table had joined up with the Khaos Brigade and Hero Faction, the number of opponents that Agravain faced had drastically increased. And the fact that he had come out of each battle with every opponent he faced either defeated or dead was, in his mind, more proof of his prowess and loyalty to Arthur.
THIS opponent however... was soundly beating him harder than any opponent that he remembered fighting.
Raven Branwen dashed forward, unsheathing her blade in a slash that Agravain ducked under, attacked again with a swing from her right that Agravain blocked with his large sword, performed a spin-slash that Agravain blocked and came at him with three more slashes that Agravain all blocked, before jumping backwards. Raven, in reply, performed a flip-jump and sent a wave of demonic energy out of her sword that Agravain was forced to hide from, using his sword as a large cover, before Raven rushed at Adam, summoning constructs of swords made out of demonic power and throwing them at Agravain before jumping into the air and performing a powerful downward-slash at Agravain, who stepped back to dodge the slash and replied with a powerful slash of his own that Raven simply leaned away from in order to dodge.
After flipping backwards to put some distance between herself and Agravain, Raven returned her sword to her sheath and then proceeded to perform a powerful unsheathe-slash that sent out a powerful demonic wave that sent Agravain sliding backwards. Raven kept coming, however, and though Agravain managed to clash with her, the power behind her swing was such that when she clashed swords with his, he could feel his hands shaking from how hard he had to grip his sword in order to not let it slip from his hands.
However, when Raven came at Agravain with another powerful slash, it was enough to send Agravain's sword spinning from his hands, at the cost of Raven's blade shattering. Quick as a blink, she ejected the remains of the broken blade from her handle, returned the handle to her sheath, pulled out another blade (this one black) and came back at Agravain with another slash, which he dodged. He then thrust his fist out and punched Raven in the chest, and quickly followed it up with another punch, sending Raven skidding backwards a couple of feet. Agravain could see Raven clenching her teeth from the momentary pain that his two punches brought her, and dashed towards Agravain (who was rushing at her in order to keep up his own assault), her sword glowing.
Agravain span around and prepared to swing at Raven's side with his foot in order to deliver her a powerful kick, which was going unopposed considering that Raven was preparing to swing at his throat. However, he realised all-too-late that Raven was faking him out, and at the last second, completely disengaged from her attack and rolled behind Agravain, leaving him kicking nothing but air...
Which gave Raven the golden opportunity she needed to swing her sword (which was glowing with magical energy) down through Agravain's armoured leg, cleanly severing it from his body.
Agravain registered the sudden loss of weight that came with the abrupt loss of one of his limbs before he registered the pain, which came around the time that he toppled over (with his severed leg spinning off and landing several feet away) and fell down to the ground. Raven was about to dash forward and finish the job, before-
"STOP!" Arthur (who had easily defeated Mordred without even hurting her too bad, with the help of Le Fay) shouted from several feet away. Raven looked up at the blond knight, her expression stony.
"And why should I do that?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at Arthur, who was slowly walking towards her with Le Fay beside him, staff in hand and a worried look on her admittedly-cute face. She considered engaging Arthur and Le Fay in battle for one solid second, before a transportation-circle opened up and out walked... Azazel.
…
"I'm not too late, am I?" he asked, looking around the castle gardens and taking in the scenery around him: the normally-tranquil gardens being torn up by the night's events.
Agravain was on the ground a few steps away from Raven, missing a leg and quickly losing blood. Cao Cao lay unconscious with Roxas, Scathach and Dr. Strange standing over him. Gawain and Lancelot were unconscious/semi-conscious and lay next to each other. Camilla lay, bloodied and bruised, with Nero standing over her. Percival and Lamorak were both sat up, bound back-to-back. Yi and Fen (who had been healed) were magically cuffed by Karna and Shirou. Marsillo was knocked out with Tifa, Undyne and Alphys standing over him. Siegfried's corpse had a Durandal-shaped hole in its chest, two of the Demon Swords that he used to wield were shattered on the ground, while the other three seemed to be floating around Kiba. Perseus and Heracles both lay dead, with impalement-holes in their neck and heart, respectively. Imogen and Dr. Strange both lay over Yasaka, who seemed to be coming to. Jenny was unconscious also, with Isane and Asia standing over her.
"Looks like the fighting's over." Azazel remarked. "And no major casualties. Neat."
"The hell's going on, Azazel?" Raven asked, sheathing her sword and raising her eyebrows as Arthur and Le Fay both knelt down before the Governor-General of the Fallen Angels. "Wait. I think I get it."
"You would, Raven." Azazel replied, turning around to look at Raven with a smirk on his face. "I'd be more surprised if you didn't, considering you're as smart as you are hot." He raised a hand to Arthur and Le Fay, which seemed to be a nonverbal command to rise (which they did), before he performed a quick spell on Agravain that almost-instantly made his wound look several days old, stopping the bleeding. He then stepped past Arthur and Le Fay, making a beeline towards Cao Cao.
"Wait- A-Azazel works with the New Round Table?" Mordred asked, shakily pulling herself to her feet.
"I sure do." Azazel replied. "Though I can guess why you'd be confused. Arthur gave you the usual story, didn't he? Agravain helped Arthur form the NRT, they found descendants of other Knights to join them, and they joined the Khaos Brigade to find shelter?"
Mordred nodded.
"Well, that's almost completely true." Azazel replied. "Just with one little key difference: I found them and convinced them to join the Grigori in exchange for shelter, safety and strong opponents, and I planted them in the Khaos Brigade almost as soon as I caught wind of its existence. I needed informants on the inside, and Arthur and co. were more than happy to take up the task."
The twelve-winged Fallen Angel looked over at Arthur with another smile, before he turned back to Cao Cao, who had woken up from unconsciousness (his hair had also returned to its natural black colour, rather than the white colour he gained as a result of his Balance Breaker), and summoned the True Longinus back to himself.
"So, you manipulated humans for your own ends, Azazel?" Cao Cao growled, standing back up. "You're j-just like the rest of them. No, you're worse than them! I'LL KI-"
Cao Cao's attempted declaration that he was going to kill the leader of the Fallen Angels was interrupted, with almost perfect comedic timing, by a blast of solidified fox-fire hitting him in the back and sending him back to the ground, knocking him out again and severely burning his back.
Everyone turned around to see Yasaka, who was standing upright (though minorly supported by Imogen) and with a pissed-off look on her face. She made to walk towards Cao Cao, but Azazel held up a pacifying hand.
"Woah, Lady Yasaka. Careful." he spoke. "I'm sure you want to find out what fried Chinese Human tastes like, but you'll have to wait a little bit longer. All of the Hero Faction members that are still alive, I need to take them in for interrogation: see if I can get out why they went after you. Also-" he reached into his trenchcoat and pulled out a small, smartphone-like device. Holding it up and pressing a button on it caused balls of light to float out of Yi, Fen, Marsillo and Jenny, then travel towards Azazel's device, and then enter the device. The True Longinus (which lay in Cao Cao's slackened grip) also transformed into a white orb and entered Azazel's device, just as the others had done.
"I guess that's a device that removes Sacred Gears." Roxas stated.
"Sure is." Azazel nodded. "Has the perk of doing it painlessly, too. And the former wielders don't die soon after, so that's a plus too."
"I can imagine." Roxas replied, casting a look over at Asia. "What about the Gears that belonged to the dead guys?" he asked, jerking a head towards Heracles and Perseus.
"They'll return to the system in Seventh Heaven." Azazel replied. "They're probably back already, now that I think about it. Hey, you mind rounding up all the Hero Faction and New Round Table members?"
Roxas gave a shrug in reply. He then waved his hand in a wide circle, picking up all the (alive) Hero Faction and New Round Table members in transportation-circles and causing them to land next to Azazel. He made to turn away and walk towards the group of Kuoh Academy students, but he noticed Camilla.
"Hey, hang on." he remarked. "You fit the description of one of the people who Cao Cao sent after Jeanne." he gave a short chuckle. "Way less fuckable than I figured you'd be on first glance. Though I guess it's the blood and bruises. Never was into them."
"No sane non-Vampire person is into blood in a sexual sense, and no sane person EVER was into hurting their partners bad enough to cause bruises, Roxas." Azazel replied. "And that's not the nicest way to talk to the Vice-President of your fan club."
Roxas did a double take.
"Fan... club?" he blinked a couple of times, processing the information, before shrugging. "Eh. Figures I'd get one sooner or later. Who's the President?"
"Albedo." Azazel replied, chuckling. "I caught her humping a body-pillow of you that she has."
"Didn't need to know that but whatever, I guess." Roxas replied. "Thanks for the ego-boost, though."
"Anytime." Azazel chuckled again, before leaving with the (alive) Hero Faction members, as well as everyone from the New Round Table, Arthur, Le Fay and Agravain included.
"Well, I guess that's the end." Achilles remarked, idly twirling his spear in one hand and sighing. "Was fun, while it lasted. Hello again and see you around, Roxas, Raven."
Roxas and Raven both nodded at Achilles before he, as well as his peerage members, warped out of the area. As Imogen walked away from Yasaka (who could stand on her own now) and gathered up her peerage members before teleporting away with them, Roxas made his way over to Xenovia, Asia, Irina, Kiba and Isane.
"Head back to the hotel with Raven and rest, would you kindly?" Roxas asked of the four Nephalem and one Angel. "I'm gonna make sure Yasaka's alright, then join you. And as for the trip?" he took a breath. "If you're too fatigued after what's gone on tonight to go through tomorrow's itinerary? I'm cool with you opting out. Say you ate something that didn't agree with you and it made you puke your guts up, I don't really care. I'll cover for you anyway."
After passing Kiba's three floating Demon Swords with a raised eyebrow, gathering up the shards of the two broken Demon Swords, depositing them into a pocket-dimension and seeing his subordinates (plus Irina) off, where they were accompanied by Raven, Yang and Ruby, Roxas walked over to Yasaka, who nearly collapsed into a hug with him.
"Hey..." Roxas whispered, resting a hand on Yasaka's head and rubbing at her fox-ears, something that he knew from his past sexual encounters with her that she greatly loved. "You okay?"
"I've... definitely felt better." Yasaka replied. "But I'm fine, now that you're here, Roxas. Please... take me back home. I want to see my daughter."
"As you wish." Roxas nodded, holding to Yasaka and opening a transportation-circle back to her palace, before walking through it, with Blake and Akame following soon after.
Line Break
As the events of the past almost-two chapters was all taking place, a transportation-circle opened up just on the outskirts of the city of Kyoto, with Georg jumping out of it, panting heavily. It had taken all of his magical power to get through the barriers that had been placed up around the city, and even if there were any sensors around the place, he would most certainly have triggered them.
But that didn't matter to the Dimension Lost wielder right now. All that mattered was that he was outside the boundaries of Kyoto, and had escaped death at the hands of Gondul and Rossweisse, and that he had the chance to leave Japan and continue Cao Cao's mission. He was certain that Cao Cao, as well as the other members of the Hero Faction, would soon follow after taking down the opponents that remained at Nijo Castle, so they could report back to the Khaos Brigade's new leader with the results of their experiment.
Though Georg doubted that their leader would be too happy to learn that they had failed to summon Great Red into this dimension. Hell, thanks to the Belial Heiress, Georg couldn't even get the Dragon Gate circle started, never mind powered up to the point that it would attract any Dragon, let alone Great Fucking Red. But whatever, he knew that Cao Cao was smart, and that he was able to figure out a solution to any problem that crossed the path of him and the Hero Faction. All that needed to be done was-
"Hey!"
Georg turned around and saw three beings that he immediately recognised, thanks to their life-signatures, as subordinates of Achilles Astaroth (in the case of the man with the sour expression and the blue-haired woman with a white headdress and a spear) and Imogen Belial (in the case of the busty brown-haired woman who wore nothing but a bikini top and capri pants).
"You're one of those Hero Faction guys, right?" the brown-haired woman asked. "I'd suggest you surrender, or-"
To Georg's surprise, all three beings suddenly gained a rather glassy look over their eyes, and without another word, all teleported away.
…
Choosing not to question this strange turn of events, Georg opened a transportation-circle for himself and made to leave himself, but as he activated the circle, he found that it didn't teleport away, like he had done literally thousands of other times.
"The hell?" he muttered to himself. "Why isn't this working?"
After trying a couple more time, he decided 'fuck it' and turned around, electing to just run as far as his legs could carry him and then try to teleport again later, but he found himself face to face with someone else. One that Georg knew all too well, as he widened his eyes.
Said someone else was a tall, muscular man with greenish-brown hair done up in a buzz-cut, and lavender eyes situated behind circular sunglasses. He wore an aloha shirt, cargo shorts and a pair of sandles, and had a hard expression on his face.
"And where," the man spoke, in a tone that caused Georg to subconsciously swallow. "Might you be going?"
"H-hello Indra." Georg replied, his eyes widening still further. Indra looked up, a dispassionate look on his face.
"So, he actually went and did it." he remarked. "I warned him not to do it, and he did it anyway. Typical brat."
Georg gulped again.
"So, how did it go down?" Indra asked, not even looking back at Georg. "This had better be good, you know."
"I... um..." Georg suddenly felt less than an inch tall in Indra's presence. "I don't th-think the battle is over yet. I chose to m-make a tactical retreat, in case-"
Indra scoffed, and Georg shut up immediately. He reached over and placed a hand on Georg's head, then used Georg's memories of Nijo Castle to project a portal-like window in front of himself and Georg that displayed what was going down in Nijo Castle. He watched, in silence, as every Hero Faction member, as well as every New Round Table member, even Cao Cao after he activated Balance Breaker, was defeated, one after the other.
Georg watched in silence, too, and with every Hero Faction member that fell, he became more and more anxious of whether or not he was going to get out of this current situation alive. Even with Dimension Lost, as well as his mastery of it, he was little more than an ant next to Indra, Chief Deity of the Hindu Pantheon and one of the Top 20 Strongest Beings in the World, and both he and Indra knew it.
"Well." Indra broke the silence as the unconscious, Sacred Gear-less Cao Cao was taken away by Azazel, along with the Hero Faction members that were still alive. "That's what the little brat gets for trusting an Olympian. Especially one as batshit crazy as her." He took his hand off of Georg's head and turned around, raising a hand to open a portal back to Mount Meru, the home of the Hindu Gods. "Oh well."
Before Georg could open his mouth to say anything, Indra snapped the fingers of his other hand, and Georg felt his Sacred Gear forcefully ripped out of himself so quickly and so painfully that he didn't even have time to scream. After it left his body and floated over to Indra's hand, Indra opened the portal with his free hand.
"Thanks for the Gear, Smokey." Indra spoke, coldly. "It'll be valuable, in the coming years."
Without another word, he stepped through the portal, which closed behind him, leaving Georg on the ground.
The former wielder of Dimension Lost was dead less than a minute later.
BURY THE LIIIIIIIIIGHT DEEP WITHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN, CAST ASIIIIIIIIDE, THERE'S NO COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMING HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOME~ WE'RE BURNING CHAOS IN THE WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIND, DRIFTING IN THE OCEAN ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL AAAAAAAAAAALLLOOOOOOOONEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~
Oh, sorry. I got my PS5, as well as DMC5 Special Edition, and I'm still singing Bury the Light, even after 100%'ing the game. I mean, I told you I'd be singing that song for months, and I still am.
Anyway, holy shit. Holy fucking shit. We made it to Chapter 50 of Nephalem of Gremory. Of course such a round instalment number, with the climax of the longest story arc I've had for this story so far, comes so close to Christmas that I could gift it to all you lovely readers as a Christmas gift from me to you. It's almost like I planned this. Hm...
Nah, I'm kidding. I didn't plan this. I'm smart, but not that smart. Though speaking of planning, I do have a couple of fic ideas, one for DxD (that, once fully done, might end up even grander than Nephalem, if you can believe that) and the other for a very recent contender for my favourite video game for all time (and before you ask, no it's not DMC5, or even DMC5 SE), that are in the planning stages right now. But those are both a long way off...
Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. Whether you did or you didn't, please leave a review and let me know, because I really do love hearing feedback, of any kind. If you fancy letting me know about some possible ideas you might have for later in the story, or just have questions for me (because I'll be happy to answer them), let me know in a review, drop me a PM or hit me up on Discord (my name for it is on my profile)! Either would be great, because PM EMAIL ALERTS ARE BACK, FOTHERMUCKERS! Also, be sure to vote on the lemon series poll on my profile if you haven't already.
Also also, Happy Shut the Fuck Up.
Next Time: MILFS x Roxas (Lemon), Roxas' Second Knight, Return from Kyoto.
Preview of Next Chapter:
Roxas blinked. He blinked again. THAT was most certainly his fault. He collected himself for a second before replying in the best, most eloquent way that he could think of within the five seconds that Rias had said her last sentence to him.
"...Oh."
Seeya!