Anything you recognise isn't mine.
Roxas rejoined his peerage in the waiting room, stretching as he pushed the door open. Everyone was generally in the same positions as when Azazel, Sirzechs and Grayfia had pulled him out about fifteen minutes ago. Another check of Roxas' phone told him that the Rating Game between him and Rudiger would start in three minutes.
"Hey, girls." Roxas greeted the twelve beauties that he (and they) called his peerage. "I do believe it's time."
"Sure is." Valian replied, standing up and turning her head to the rest of the women in the room. The remaining eleven seemed to get the Queen's non-verbal message, and either made their way towards the door, or did so after standing up. They followed Roxas through several long corridors in silence, with directions being pointed out by hotel employees, until they reached a particular passage that led to the nearby stadium connected to the hotel.
A couple of members of the group had to cover their eyes, and some others their ears, for a couple of seconds as the lights of the stadium and the roars of the crowd hit them full-force. From where they were at in the stadium, Roxas and his peerage could clearly see Rudiger, a silver-haired Northern European man with endlessly deep green eyes, who wore Magicians' robes with a golden hood, and his peerage standing around him on the opposite side of the stadium:
A petite woman with emerald-green eyes and matching hair, clad in a form-fitting black dress with long sleeves, and four high-cut leg slits that showed off her legs and low-heeled black shoes.
A Japanese-looking muscular man with short black hair and brown eyes, who wore a red headband, red gloves and a white karate gi with torn-off sleeves.
An American-looking muscular man with shoulder-length blond hair and brown eyes, who wore brown gloves and a red sleeveless karate gi. He almost looked like a palette-swap of the Japanese man, who he stood next to.
A tall, muscular middle-aged man with extremely long black hair done up in a clothed ponytail reaching down to his waist, silver eyes, and whose outfit consisted either consisted of a large, bright-coloured overcoat draped over his shoulders like a cape, with his arms out of its sleeves, or concealed his outfit underneath.
A young man with a lean and toned build, with spiky blond hair, blue eyes and a large broadsword on his back, who wore indigo pants, a sleeveless shirt, a belt, brown boots, gauntlets and a pauldron over his left shoulder.
A dark-skinned muscular man with black hair in a buzz-cut, whose eyes were concealed by sunglasses, and who wore a black trenchcoat as well as what looked like a leather bodysuit underneath.
A young man with shoulder-length green hair that covered his left eye, green eyes and goggles on top of his head. He wore a long green jacket with a fur-trimmed hood over a white and red ringer shirt, and blue jeans with brown shoes.
A tall, muscular young man with blue eyes and black hair that he wore in a combed up, heart-shaped pompadour. He donned a black shirt with green shoulders, chest armour and white pants with black boots, with a black leather jacket on top of this outfit.
A short girl with a slender build, and notably large hands. Her appearance was generally frog-like: with a very wide mouth that dipped down in the middle like a common frog, and oval-shaped black eyes. Her hair was very long and a dark sea-green colour, and her outfit consisted of a bright green turtleneck bodysuit, tan-coloured gloves with large buckles on each wrist guard, and two matching belts: one above her breasts and one around her waist. She also wore a headband and goggles with dark green-tinted lenses attached on either side.
A tall woman with brown hair and eyes, clad in a blue sleeveless shirt that hugged her body, brown short shorts, and a pair of sunglasses. There were also a pair of gun-holsters attached to the shorts that she wore.
A young woman with a tall, slim and curvaceous figure. She had chin-length dark-green hair styled into a bob, and light green eyes. She wore a long white fur coat, a dark green form-fitting dress, thigh-high black boots and several necklaces.
"Damn." Rias muttered, looking around at the stadium, which was filled to bursting with beings (not just Devils) of all shapes and sizes, who had come to watch the match live. "Th-there sure are a lot of people here to watch this match. Way more than when you went up against Imogen and Sairaorg at the same time, Roxas."
"Not sure how that matters." Roxas replied, a confident look on his face as he turned back to Rias. "It's just more people that'll get to watch us win."
At the direction of Naud Gamgin (whose commentary Roxas had been mentally tuning out until now. It was pretty similar to the commentary that he'd given at the start of the Game between him, Imogen and Sairaorg, so there was no point listening to it, or writing it out, again), he and his peerage made their way into the teleportation-circle in front of them, at which point they were warped into the Rating Game dimension: a recreation of a portion of the countryside of the Gremory Clan's territory in the Underworld.
Again, like before, the fifteen minutes that they were given to outline their plan for the Game began as soon as Naud's announcement, which was yelled at full-volume, ended.
Line Break
Within the VIP section of the stadium, a section dedicated to those who were higher in status (or those who could afford it more) than the others who had paid for seats, but those still not important (or rich) enough to afford private booths up in the top parts of the stadium, Imogen came out of a transportation-circle, holding a bag of food in one hand. After placing the bag down on one side of her chair, pulling off her coat and tossing it down on the chair, the Belial Heiress flopped down into the chair and reached over the side of it to grab a wrapped-up burger from inside the bag.
Stretching with her other arm, she cast her eyes over to her direct right for a second, where Cana was guzzling down some alcoholic beverage that Imogen probably wouldn't be able to either spell out or pronounce correctly. She then looked at one of the many screens that adorned the inside of the stadium, which presently showed Roxas and his peerage going over what she guessed was their plan to tackle Rudiger and his peerage in the Rating Game. Seemingly right on cue, the screen that Imogen had her eyes on switched over to Rudiger and his peerage, who seemed to be doing the same thing.
'Rudiger Rosenkreutz, Tatsumaki, Ryu, Ken Masters, Bluenote Stinger, Cloud Strife, Eric Brooks, Lubbock, Bulat, Tsuyu Asui, Lara Croft and Fubuki.' Imogen reeled off in her mind, as her eyes focused on Fubuki's sizeable chest for a couple of seconds longer than all of Rudiger's other peerage members combined. 'Pretty good line-up.'
Her thoughts were interrupted at the sound of someone dropping into the chair to her direct left, and a look to her left revealed Sairaorg in the seat next to her, adjusting the seat to make himself as comfortable as possible.
"Sairaorg, hey." Imogen greeted her fellow Heir, taking a bite out of her burger as she did so. Sairaorg nodded in greeting to her, and pulled a cup of coffee out from a pocket in the jacket he was wearing. After unsealing the cup, he took a couple of gulps of the hot liquid before placing the cup in a cupholder on the arm of his chair, and then readjusting himself again. "Holding up alright after I kicked your ass?"
"Yeah, I'd say so." Sairaorg replied, rubbing his stomach with one hand. "I think I can still feel that punch you gave me."
"Means I did a good job, then." Imogen replied, before taking another bite out of her burger. After munching on it for a couple of seconds and swallowing, she added "Hopefully Roxas can kick Rudiger's ass. Think he will?"
"Most likely." Sairaorg nodded, looking over at Imogen as he replied to her. "Several members of Roxas' peerage could take Rudiger's peerage on all by themselves: particularly Esdeath, Akasha, Valian, never mind Roxas himself. Rudiger'll either need to have ways to deal with them, or avoid them entirely, else he's as good as done. Though he's definitely been known to pull off upsets, or at the very least perform extremely well in matches that nobody thought he'd perform well in."
"True." Imogen replied. "Like the last time he fought Dad under the old Game system. Dad actually came out and admitted recently that, if that match had played out under this new system, Rudiger would have won."
"And, speaking honestly, I think he'd have deserved it." Sairaorg replied, taking another gulp out of his coffee cup. "But enough about the past, and more about the present and future. You're facing Bedeze Abbaddon tomorrow, correct?"
"Yup." Imogen replied. "I suppose you've got an easier match ahead of you."
"You could say." Sairaorg nodded. "Clypida Glasya-Labolas. Hopefully he'll be a better challenge than his son, who was... ah..."
"A cunt?" Imogen suggested, in a faux-helpful tone. "A weak little shit? Good luck, by the way." After her encouragement, she consumed the rest of her burger in two mouthfuls, follwed by a small hum of appreciation for the tasty food.
"Both, I guess." Sairaorg replied. "And thank you. Good luck yourself, against Bedeze. I doubt he'll go down without a fight, especially against you."
Imogen just smirked, and pulled her phone out of her pocket as it vibrated intensely, indicating that she had a call.
"Yea?" She spoke into the device as she answered the call. "What's up, Tiki? ...Mmhmm. ...Shit. ...Uh, just keep observing for now. I'll let Wanda know, maybe she can notify someone up the chain on her end of things, and they can look into it. ...Yes, I'm sure. ...Yea, talk to you later. Bye." She then hung up.
"What was all that about?" Sairaorg asked, as Imogen placed her phone back into her pocket, stretched and reached for something else in her bag, a presently-closed container of french (or rather, Belgian) fries, which Imogen pulled open.
"Nothing important." Imogen replied, offering her friend and fellow Heir a fry. His declination was met with a shrug from Imogen, who settled further into her chair and began munching on her fries as the fifteen pre-game planning minutes ended, and the Rating Game between Roxas Gremory and Rudiger Rosenkreutz... began!
Line Break
Asia and Xenovia
Asia and Xenovia were the first to reach where they had been ordered to go out of anyone in Roxas' peerage, soon after the Game between Roxas and Rudiger had begun. Their destination was a collection of large, sprawling fields at the top of a group of hills: the intended tactic behind this move being to gain a good place to easily view the movements of Rudiger's peerage across the entire battlefield, while simultaneously gaining ground against Rudiger and his peerage.
The smallest of Roxas' three blonde Pawns nervously fiddled with her headdress, and moved herself slightly closer to Xenovia. Roxas' bluenette Knight looked down at Asia, and grinned.
"Nervous, Asia?" she asked. When she received a nod in return, Xenovia let out a short chuckle. "Well, don't be. I'll protect-"
The sound of running footsteps that weren't hers or Asia's made Xenovia tense up. She summoned Durandal with a flick of her wrist, and gestured for Asia to get behind her as she swivelled around in the direction of where the footsteps came from. Not a second after Durandal had materialised in her hand, Xenovia raised the enormous sword to meet the enormous sword of Rudiger's blond Knight, Cloud. Sparks flew from both blades as Xenovia and Cloud clashed for a couple of seconds, before Xenovia forced Cloud back.
After landing on the ground a dozen or so feet away from Xenovia, Cloud swung his sword toward Xenovia and Asia's general direction. A green energy wave emerged from the sword, in the same manner of which Cloud swung his sword, and flew at Xenovia and Asia. Xenovia was able to block the wave of energy that came her and Asia's way with little difficulty, and returned in kind with her own wave of Holy Energy, swung from Durandal.
Rather than blocking it, Cloud jumped over the holy wave, landed neatly on the ground and dashed at Xenovia, swinging his sword at her again. Again, Xenovia raised her sword to meet Cloud's swing, and the two entered another clash as, after resting a hand on Xenovia's back for a second, Asia jumped backwards, as far out of harm's way as she could go as quickly as she could.
Smiling slightly from Asia's touch to her back, Xenovia met Cloud's next few swings head-on, with the sparks that flew off of their swords igniting small patches of grass around them. The two sword-users didn't seem to notice this as they continued their clashes, before a particularly hard and heavy one forced both Knights to jump back from each other.
"Rudiger's got to be pretty dumb." Xenovia remarked, narrowing her eyes as she sized Cloud up. "Sending one Knight to this location, all alone?"
"Not as dumb as Roxas probably is." Cloud replied. "Sending his main healer to this location, with one Knight protecting her?"
Cloud's retort was rewarded by Xenovia rushing at him, pulling back her sword to prepare for a big swing. Cloud met her swing with one of his own, his strength overcoming hers and forcing her onto the back foot, where he increased the pressure with two more powerful swings that Xenovia was barely able to block, while being forced to take small steps backwards. Cloud jumped into the air and attempted to swing down on Xenovia from his higher position, but Durandal, now coated in a golden Holy aura, was swung upwards with sufficient strength that, when clashing with the blade, Cloud was forced to disengage and jump backwards.
With him now in the air and making to land on the ground, Xenovia swung Durandal along the ground where she knew Cloud would land, sending a huge wave of Holy energy out of Durandal at the blond Knight. Cloud landed on the ground, in front of the advancing Holy wave, but jumped to the left so the energy wave missed him by inches. Milliseconds after he landed, he was forced to jump again as Xenovia sent another Holy wave, this time horizontal, at him.
Cloud momentarily spread his six Devil wings and flapped them, flying at Xenovia and thrusting his sword forward with clear intent to stab her, but Xenovia lifted Durandal up and met Cloud's attempted stab head on, ducking under the blond man and disengaging the clash a second later, forcing Cloud to fly over her head. The bluenette quickly turned around, keeping her chocolate-coloured eyes on him.
She swung Durandal at Cloud just as he landed on the ground, forcing Cloud to drop his sword as he jumped up into the air to avoid her swing. He landed on the ground, grabbed the handle of his sword before it could hit the ground. He had to jump again as Xenovia tried to swing at him again, flipping over Xenovia and landing on her other side several dozen feet away. Cloud then began weaving around as he dashed towards Xenovia, changing direction every fraction of a second. His Knight's speed and technique in direction-changing made it difficult for even Xenovia to discern how he moved, and she was caught off-guard as Cloud dashed at her right side, made to swing, then switched grips to allow for an easier swing at Xenovia's now-unguarded left side.
Xenovia was forced to jump backwards, just barely escaping punishment from the business end of Cloud's huge sword and receiving a gash on her arm for her troubles. With only one arm on Durandal, she swung at Cloud again, but her swing was weaker and slightly slower than usual both due to her only wielding the sword one-handed, and due to her being only half-focused on the sword-swing, with the other half of her focus dedicated to her other arm, which was bleeding. Cloud easily dodged the swing, and retaliated with a downward slash of his own that Xenovia jumped back from. Both hands on Durandal now, Xenovia swung again at Cloud, who leaned back to dodge and thrust forward, attempting to stab Roxas' blue-haired Knight again.
However, instead of hiding behind her sword and using it as a makeshift shield, Xenovia stepped to the side of Cloud's thrust and swung Durandal at his sword, pushing him back and sending him off-balance. Cloud recovered quickly, however, and continued to rain down blows on Xenovia, who was again forced on the back foot for a moment. The two then clashed again, locking blades for several more seconds until Xenovia forced Cloud to slide backwards via an extra dose of strength. Though it came at the cost of seemingly further hurting her arm, judging by how she clutched it immediately after she had pulled off the attack.
Almost immediately after Xenovia shoved Cloud back, her body began to gain a green aura around it. A second after that, the aura congregated around the wound on her arm, which quickly began mending itself. Cloud raised an eyebrow, but looked past Xenovia and clapped eyes on Asia, who had one hand extended towards her fellow peerage member.
Cloud dashed forward, disregarding Xenovia and beelining for Asia. However, another powerful wave of Holy energy sent by Xenovia, whose arm-wound was still steadily closing, forced him to slow down. As Xenovia healed, she ran at Cloud, Durandal ready to meet any direct swing he made towards her.
However, luck wasn't with her when Cloud decided to do the exact opposite: as in NOT make a direct swing at Xenovia. However, he jumped back, coating his sword in energy. When he landed on the ground, he swung the sword through the air, the energy he had coated the sword with remaining in the air as he swung, with two more swings following. It looked like he was drawing something in mid-air with his sword-swings. While he did so, Xenovia ran at him, Durandal still at the ready.
When Xenovia was just two to three steps away from Cloud, Cloud finished his fourth swing, and completed what Asia recognised, too late, to be a runic attack. A rather powerful explosive runic attack.
Xenovia barely had time to draw breath between the time that Cloud finished his fourth swing and when the runic attack activated, in the form of a powerful explosion that Xenovia was forced to tank from point-blank range. The energy output was enough to send Xenovia flying up into the air, Durandal slipping from her hand. Though his vision was obscured by the amount of dust and smoke that was kicked up as a result of the explosion, Cloud knew full-well that that explosion-rune had hurt Xenovia a lot.
"XENOVIA!" Asia screamed out, activating Twilight Amplifier on the spot in order to amplify her healing effect, as well as to amplify Xenovia's power once she landed, as judging by her state during the battle so far, Xenovia didn't have much hope of beating Cloud without help from her.
Neo and Akeno
"You could ride him with your tight little asshole." Akeno spoke to Neo, a smirk crossing her face as she noticed the multi-coloured-hair girl's blush. "If you've got a tight one, put it to good use to squeeze out as much as possible from him. Oh, and get at his asshole with a dildo or something. Roxas LOVES it when they do that to him."
Akeno looked down at Roxas' mute Pawn, who continued to blush as she summoned a phone from a magic-circle and wrote down a note. She grinned, slightly nervously, at Akeno as a method of thanks, and returned the phone to wherever she had summoned it from. Akeno just kept walking, a smile crossing her face. A couple of days before the Rating Game, Akeno had come across the small business that Neo had been running with the help of one of her contractees: an ice cream-production business that sold in both the human and supernatural worlds.
One of the more... special, flavours that Neo's Neo (the brand name that Neo had gone with) provided was one with Roxas' cum as the main ingredient and flavour: the idea of which Roxas' first Bishop found out-there and kinky enough to take serious interest, to the point that she started offering the mute girl advice on various topics related to the business that she had started. With the main one being how to extract more cum from Roxas in order to make more ice-cream out of it. It also didn't surprise Akeno in the slightest that that flavour of ice-cream in particular was more popular with Succubi than any other species.
"Maybe I could help you out with extracting cum from Roxas." Akeno offered to Neo, her smile taking on a sultrier air. "Or maybe I could get Mom to come help. She'd absolutely love it~ or even-"
Akeno's conversation with Neo was interrupted by the sound of an attack going off almost directly above them. Both Bishop and Pawn instantly sprung apart, jumping away from where they were currently walking just in time to dodge the portion of ground that they were both on breaking off from the rest of the ground and snapping shut like a book, which would have crushed them had they moved even a second later than they actually did.
Neo instantly summoned her umbrella out of a magic-circle, and Akeno pulled out one of her whips, imbuing it with lightning magic as she looked up at her and Neo's attempted assailant: Fubuki.
Without even thinking, Akeno raised her free hand and fired a bolt of lightning at Fubuki in retaliation, forcing her to cancel a telekinetic attack that she was powering up, and dodge the attempted attack by Akeno. Akeno rose herself into the air on her white Devil wings and fired another bolt of lightning at Fubuki, and swung her lightning-imbued whip at her as she dodged the fired lightning.
Fubuki was able to dodge the attack before it hit her, but only just noticed the business end of Akeno's one whip flying at her fast enough to conjure up a wave of psychic energy that sent the whip away from her body, saving her from immediate harm. Though a small bit of the lightning that Akeno had imbued the whip with came flying off of the very end of the weapon and landed on Fubuki, shocking and stinging her.
Growling at Akeno as she rose up into the air until she was on a level with her, Fubuki focused her power onto a nearby tree, lifting it up out of the ground. All of the branches and leaves fell off of the tree's main trunk, creating a makeshift spear that Fubuki flung at Akeno, along with all the leaves that had fallen off the tree's branches. She applied ice-magic to the leaves as she flung them, causing each leaf to turn into a makeshift frozen bullet.
As the leaves travelled faster than the tree, Akeno lifted up her free hand to summon a shield that easily protected her from all the leaves that Fubuki flung at her, with said leaves seemingly embedding themselves into the shield. Said shield was dropped when all the leaves had been thrown, and the whip came out again in an attempt by Akeno to wrap it around the tree-spear and throw it right back at Rudiger's strongest Pawn.
The attempt was a half-success, as Akeno did manage to get the whip to wrap around the tree-spear, allowing her leverage over the makeshift weapon. Still holding onto the weapon, she span around in mid-air a couple of times to build up momentum and flung the tree-spear back at Fubuki. However, the busty Pawn managed to catch the re-thrown tree-spear just before it hit her, span it around herself and flung it back at Akeno with her psychic powers, far harder and faster than Akeno had thrown it at her.
The thrown tree-spear hit Akeno square in the stomach before she had the chance to erect another barrier that could block the spear, but rather than scream in pain as the large makeshift weapon pierced her extremely sexy body, the image of Akeno simply shattered like glass, revealing that Akeno had completely disappeared.
"What the f-" Fubuki muttered under her breath, looking around the area that Akeno had disappeared from in an attempt to find her so she could attack again. However, as she looked, the sound of a gun firing hit her ears microseconds before she found herself hit in the back from below by a high-caliber bullet. Fubuki hissed in pain as she turned around and saw Neo on the ground, firing what looked like a rifle made out of the handle of a parasol (the bit with the canopy she held in one hand, the handle of which, complete with rifle-attachment, she held in the other.
Growling, Fubuki extended a hand down to Neo and prepared to focus her energy around her, but she found herself interrupted again by a shot of lightning glancing her side from behind, which had the same effect (but to a stronger degree) as when Akeno's lightning from the whip hit her. The power of Akeno's lightning was such that it burned the part of Fubuki's dress that she hit: something that, once Fubuki realised it... pissed her off, to say the least.
Letting out a growl of anger, Fubuki focused her hands in Akeno's direction and fired a strong blast of psychic energy her way. The energy-blast went the way of Roxas' Bishop fast enough for Akeno to not be able to dodge it, resulting in her taking the first real hit of the fight. As she flew back, her mouth open in a silent yell of pain, Fubuki gathered more energy into her hands and fired it at Akeno, but an illusion of her shattered like glass, revealing (again) that Akeno had bounced.
Fubuki then heard a noise behind her, and turned around in mid-air. At the sight of Akeno flying at her on her white Devil wings, she swung her hand in a wide arc, sending a long wave of energy at her this time. Akeno dodged it, her hands glowing with lightning that she fired at Fubuki from close-range, but missed. Fubuki retaliated, also from close-range, extending her hand toward Akeno and firing another sharp wave of psychic energy toward her. Akeno barely got out of the way of the wave, and shattered again when Fubuki sent another psychic blast at her present location.
As Fubuki took another hit of Lightning to the back, she felt herself beginning to get extremely annoyed at the constant glass-like illusions of Akeno that popped up around her. Rudiger's strongest Pawn began gathering up as much psychic energy as her body could safely take, preparing to fire on Akeno whenever she appeared. However, as she did so, multiple copies of Akeno began popping up around her (Fubuki counted twelve, all of which floated in a circle around her). In the three seconds between when all the Akenos appeared and when said Akenos began to gather up lightning in their respective hands, preparing to fire on Fubuki, the dark-green-haired woman fanned out a small portion of the energy that she had gathered up, searching for a magical signature...
...And she found it, resting stationary in mid-air, a dozen meters or so to her left. Ignoring all the other not-real Akenos that continued to seemingly gather up lightning, Fubuki fired all of the remaining psychic energy that she had gathered up to her left, with the very real scream of pain that came from that direction being as good a sign as any that Fubuki had hit her mark. The glass illusion that was the twelve Akenos came crashing down around Fubuki as well, and the real Akeno floated exactly where Fubuki had sensed her, seemingly taken completely off-guard by the immense blast of psychic energy that Fubuki had sent her way... with a bloody hole in her stomach to show for it.
Fubuki also spied the little mute girl with the ice-cream-coloured hair on the ground below, a shocked look on her face.
The black-haired Bishop blinked a couple of times, barely able to comprehend the extremely sudden and extremely devastating hit that she'd just taken. All she could do was silently fall to the ground, losing consciousness along the way. Before hitting the ground, however, Akeno faded away in a haze of blue light.
As the announcement came that Akeno had been Retired, Neo attempted to make a hasty retreat, knowing that she couldn't beat a pissed-off flying psychic in a straight battle, especially when she fought better on the ground than in the air. However, she didn't even have the chance to leave, as she felt herself lifted up into the air by her hair, by some unseen force that she was over 9000% sure that Fubuki was controlling, judging by how she had her hand pointed out at her and everything. Fubuki used her psychic powers to lift Neo up into the air, and then threw her down into the ground face-first so hard that a small shockwave could be heard around the area. As Neo silently faded away in a hazy blue light, just like Akeno had done a couple of seconds earlier, Fubuki briefly considered delivering a one-liner of some kind, but decided against it.
Neo didn't deserve that.
Asia and Xenovia (again)
In spite of Asia having activated her Balance Breaker to accelerate her healing, Xenovia still felt herself hurting all over from the explosion-rune that Cloud had cast, as she landed on her feet. Durandal had slipped from her hand during her unwanted flight, and was falling right next to her: she caught it as it descended, doing her best to hold it up straight as she glared at Cloud, giving a look that told him in no uncertain terms that though he'd gotten a pretty nasty hit on her (which had also had the added effect of burning her skin-tight Exorcist leotard in a few places, allowing one a look at certain unobstructed areas of her body), she wasn't down for the count yet.
The seconds ticked by as Xenovia's grip on Durandal tightened still further. Thanks to Asia's Twilight Amplifier, Roxas' Knight could feel the vitality and power flowing back into her as she faced Cloud. In fact, more than just flowing into her, she could feel herself OVERflowing with the power granted by Asia's Balance Breaker... and she knew just how to put that overflowing power to use.
Raising Durandal up and focusing all her Nephalonic power into the sword that she'd inherited from the late Vasco Strada, Xenovia swung the sword at Cloud, sending her excess power out of the sword in a powerful wave of energy that split the ground beneath their feet as it travelled towards Cloud. Rather than face the attack head-on, Cloud rolled to the side and dodged the powerful attack, and dashed towards Xenovia with his own large sword, swinging it at her without giving her any time to recover from the power of her own attack.
Durandal was raised, again, to meet Cloud's sword in another powerful clash, the backlash of which could be felt from even where Asia was standing. Unlike most of the other times that the two Knights had clashed with each other, in which Cloud undeniably had the strength-advantage, Xenovia held her own more easily, and even began to push back against Cloud in their struggle, focusing more and more power into Durandal as she did so. Cloud was forced to disengage, jump back and go on the defensive as Xenovia pursued him. Another clash ensued between the two, one that Cloud, again, found himself having to jump back from. He took a few steps back as he did so, hoping to put some distance between himself and Xenovia so he could work on a way to take her out, in spite of her sudden power-growth.
Xenovia pursued further, dashing forward and thrusting Durandal into a stab as she did so. Rather than clash directly with the bluenette, Cloud sidestepped Xenovia and raised his sword to his side in order to push her to his side, trying to interrupt her intended forward momentum so she'd be forced to leave an opening when righting herself. It worked: the Durandal wielder stumbled, if only for an instant, as she was forcefully pushed aside by Cloud. That instant was long enough for Cloud to prepare and take a free swing at Xenovia's back, and though Xenovia swung around and stopped Cloud's sword with her own, the disadvantageous position she had been forced into left her on the defensive again. She was forced to disengage again, and tried to jump back. She raised Durandal again, to block Cloud's next swing as it came at her, and though her attempt at blocking Cloud's swing succeeded, Xenovia was sent flying backwards by the sheer force and backlash of Cloud's incredibly strong swing.
She spread her wings to keep herself stable, and landed on her feet a couple of dozen feet away from Cloud. Xenovia's eyes narrowed as Cloud readied his sword again, in preparation to dash at Xenovia again. However, just as it looked like he was going to make the dash, he paused, like his initial preparation to dash at Xenovia had been a feint. Xenovia stayed prepared, however, until she noticed Cloud's eyes: specifically, where they were travelling. Not over her body like she was used to men doing (male Exorcists in the church, male Devils in the Underworld and, of course, Roxas), but a short distance to her immediate right. Right where-
"NO!" Xenovia shouted as Cloud began dashing towards Asia, taking off towards her herself as she did so. "ASIA, GET OUT OF HERE!"
Roxas' cute blonde Pawn didn't need to be told twice... or even once, for that matter. The wielder of Twilight Healing spread her Nephalem wings and flew straight up into the air, just as Cloud was about to reach the point that she was standing at a couple of seconds ago. As Cloud reached that point and noticed Asia heading up, he spread his own Devil wings and jumped into the air, knowing that he'd be able to reach her and Retire her in no time... or rather, he would be, if Xenovia hadn't jumped up herself and met Cloud's sword with her own, swinging with such force that Cloud was sent back to the ground, with another backwards jump following his land.
Xenovia landed a second later and immediately swung Durandal, sending three waves of energy, all of them at different angles but all of them similarly powerful, at Cloud. Rudiger's blond Knight had to pull some VERY impressive and fast acrobatics in order to dodge his way through all three waves of energy before dashing off to the side, in an attempt to get past Xenovia and make his way to Asia.
"Oh no you FUCKING DON'T!" Xenovia shouted, sending another large wave of energy at Cloud and following it up by jumping towards him as he flew towards Asia, who hurriedly tried to erect a magical barrier to protect herself from the very scary spiky-blond-haired man with the sword even bigger than he was that was presently jumping towards her. Cloud turned mid-jump, as he felt the wave of energy coming towards him, microseconds before he saw the huge wave right before his eyes. As he turned, he swung his sword around in one full circular motion, breaking the energy-wave in two and catching the flying Xenovia with the end of his sword, drawing out a yell of pain from the bluenette. Near the end of Cloud's circular swing, his sword came into contact with the barrier that Asia had erected... half a second before the sword broke through Asia's barrier and slashed the blonde.
Asia's scream of pain was loud and sudden enough to distract Xenovia from the half-healed Cloud-induced gash in her hand, and her brown eyes widened as Asia fell from the air, blood pouring out of her body from where Cloud had slashed her. She faded away in a haze of blue light.
Xenovia let out a growl of anger as the announcement came in that Asia had been Retired. She tried to focus more energy into Durandal, charge as much energy into it as she could so she could fuck Cloud up with everything she had, out of revenge for the girl that, since she had joined Roxas' peerage, had become her best friend. There was, however, just one problem with that line of thinking.
Cloud had already readied himself to keep attacking after he'd Retired Asia, and with his Devil wings now spread, flew towards Xenovia, his sword raised. With another growl, Xenovia raised her sword to meet whatever swing Cloud could do. She raised it above her head as it looked like Cloud was going for a horizontal slash, but as Cloud flew towards her, he simply dived down and to the right, easily dodging Xenovia's swing. Cloud then came back up in an instant and, before Xenovia could even right her missed slash and move to defend herself, Cloud aimed a hard swing at Durandal with all his strength, knocking the sword out of Xenovia's hands.
Before Xenovia could even yell out in shock and frustration at losing her sword, Cloud coated his sword in magical energy, as before. When he and Xenovia landed on the ground, he cast another explosion-rune in the same way that he had done before, which had the same effect on Xenovia (who was at close-range, as before) as last time: blasting her from close-range and sending her flying away.
Except Asia wasn't around to heal her, and prevent her Retirement.
Esdeath, Rias and Kuroka
"It was amazing~" Esdeath remarked to both Rias and Kuroka, a semi-lustful look on her face. Rias and Kuroka just looked at each other, blushes crossing their respective faces. Esdeath had just spent the last ten minutes or so recounting the sex that she and Lavinia had had with Roxas a couple of days before.
Every bit of it. Leaving out no details at all.
"I didn't think much of Demise Girl at first, but she can do some stuff with her tongue, I'll say that much." Esdeath spoke. Rias was certain that she saw her stealthily rubbing her legs together as she walked. "Especially when she tongued my ass while I rode Roxas. That was one of the best orgasms I'd ever had, maybe even THE best~"
"Uhh, uh-huh." Rias replied, her face now even redder than it had been a moment ago. "I'm s-sure it was, Esdeath."
"There's also..." Esdeath made to go off on another tangent about how amazing Roxas was in bed, but she seemed to hear something that Rias and Kuroka did not, which prompted her to switch from casual to business-mode in a split-second. "GET TO THE FOREST!"
Rias and Kuroka were shocked for a second by Esdeath's sudden change in tone. Neither of them questioned said change in tone, however, and dashed towards the forest as Esdeath stepped in front of them to cover their retreat. She flung her hands in front of her, summoning several spikes of ice from mid-air and sending them flying in front of her at whatever, or whoever, she'd sensed. The large icicles flew at speed for a couple of seconds before inexplicably freezing in mid-air, and beginning to raise into the air.
Roxas' second Rook raised an eyebrow at this instance, but a second later felt herself being pushed down towards the ground, as if the force of gravity had suddenly increased around her. The increased force was such that, had Esdeath not had increased physical strength/defence due to the Rook piece she had taken from Roxas several months ago, she was certain that she would have been crushed by the magical force pushing down on her from above.
As she struggled to keep herself upright in spite of the magic acting on her, Esdeath looked up and forward, certain that whoever was attempting to hold her own (either through magic, or through a Sacred Gear, Esdeath didn't know or care at the moment) was in that direction, as her ice-spikes wouldn't have been thrown up into the air otherwise. She spread her white Devil wings and began flying forward after a couple of steps, which made the burden of movement under the influence of the increased gravity a good bit easier.
As she flew, creating a sword of ice in each hand, Esdeath eventually spotted the black-haired overcoat-wearing Bluenote Stinger, who had one hand extended towards her. He was standing behind a clump of bushes, doing his best to stay concealed from Roxas' blue-haired Rook. However, the instant said blue-haired Rook spotted him, she flung both of her ice-swords at him, seemingly turning them into spinning projectiles of frozen death, which Bluenote was forced to dodge at the last second. He was forced to turn his hand away from Esdeath, releasing his gravitational hold on her, in favour of catching the two ice-swords that Esdeath flung at him via gravitational magic and fling them into the air, same as all the ice-spikes Esdeath had flung earlier.
As she was released from Bluenote's magical hold on her, Esdeath flew forward at full speed, pulling back for a punch that she threw at Bluenote's face. Rudiger's Bishop had to hurriedly raise his fist to block Esdeath's punch, and had to use a great amount of force to push Esdeath back. He fired a stream of bullets of magical energy at Esdeath as she landed in front of him, which forced her to raise a barrier made of ice in order to block the bullets.
Bluenote's magical bullet barrage eventually broke through Esdeath's barrier. Sooner than he'd expected of Roxas' Rook, but not soon enough to stop her from creating another barrage of her own: of fast-moving ice-spikes, same as before. Rather than catch all the spikes in a magically-generated gravitational field and toss them out of harm's way, Bluenote was forced to dodge the spikes outright due to the shock of so many flying at him so fast from such short range. His eyes subconsciously shifted towards the barrage of ice-spikes as the closest one just brushed by his right sideburn, and shifted back towards Esdeath just that millisecond too late to notice Esdeath's booted foot flying at him, and cracking him across the face.
Esdeath smirked as Bluenote was sent flying backwards by her kick, and crashed into a tree so hard that it didn't even break his fall: instead, the tree broke behind Bluenote as he slipped off to the side and landed on the ground. He picked himself up just fast enough to erect his own barrier between himself and Esdeath as Esdeath came at him again, this time in an attempt to physically grab him. Though Bluenote probably wouldn't have minded being grabbed so roughly by the last surviving member of the Partas Clan in other situations, this ABSOLUTELY was not the time for such fantasies.
A pulse of a reversed version of his signature gravity magic was sent through the barrier that separated Bluenote and Esdeath, sending her sliding backwards. Now it was his turn to go on the offensive, Bluenote thought as he launched himself forward, using his magic to propel himself faster as he threw a punch of his own at Esdeath. It cracked the hurriedly-formed ice-shield that Esdeath formed on her right forearm and lifted up to block Bluenote's punch. Bluenote then had to hurriedly contort himself into a very uncomfortable position to dodge the ice-dagger that Esdeath formed in her other hand and attempted to stab him from close-range with. He retaliated with a kick to Esdeath's side, followed up by a punch in the face that sent Esdeath sliding back again.
When Esdeath came to a stop in the aftermath of Bluenote's punch to her face, she had to spit out some of her teeth, which had been knocked out by the aforementioned punch to the face. The bluenette growled in slight frustration as Bluenote continued his physical assault: she blocked another kick, raised her hand in front of her face to stop another two punches from reaching said face, formed an ice-sword to swipe at Bluenote's leg as yet another kick came her way. As Bluenote threw another punch, this one aimed at Esdeath's stomach, Esdeath suddenly dropped all of her ice-made weapons and caught Bluenote's fist in her hand, giving Rudiger's Bishop a smirk as she squeezed, breaking his hand in hers.
Bluenote yelled out in pain as he felt the bones in his left hand crushed in Esdeath's right hand, and inwardly thanked Lucifer, whether or not he was alive, that he wasn't left-handed as Esdeath used his moment of pain to punch HIM in the face, returning the favour for him punching her earlier. Flipping over through the pain and landing on his feet, and taking a second to appreciate his broken purple left hand that bled profusely, Bluenote raised his right hand into the air and pointed his left hand at Esdeath, the amount of magical energy coursing through him right now only being possible for one of the top 5 strongest Bishops in the Underworld (Bluenote, specifically, occupied the #5 spot) to have.
'The hell is he trying to do now?' Esdeath thought, creating another ice-sword and dashing towards Bluenote, certain that she'd either be able to end the fight right now, or severely injure Bluenote to the point that ending him later would be a lot easier. Just as she reached Bluenote, and was about to swing her sword at Bluenote's left arm in order to slice his arm off, both she and her sword suddenly found themselves overcome by an extremely strong, powerful magical weight: one far stronger than the original one that he had hit her with at the start of this battle. The ice-sword that she presently held had been literally less than a foot away from slicing Bluenote's arm, which made it all the more frustrating for Esdeath when Bluenote simply stepped away from her, out of her way.
His left arm still focused on Esdeath in order to keep her in place, Bluenote swung his right arm down. Esdeath looked up at where Bluenote had been pointing, and at the sight of the first batch of ice-spikes that she'd flung at him earlier, she then realised exactly what the hell he was trying to do. The spikes travelled just as fast as they did when Esdeath herself had flung them, and she doubled her efforts to move; to break free from Bluenote's hold on her.
In spite of her Rook strength, she didn't get very far before her own ice-spikes began coming down around her, some of them missing her skin by such a small margin that the spike-points tore her clothes. The first spike to hit her only grazed her sword arm, which Esdeath didn't react to. The second spike to hit her came into her foot, which Esdeath could only grit her teeth at. She dropped her sword from the sudden shot of pain that came from her foot.
The third spike, one that rocketed down RIGHT THROUGH her right shoulder before settling in the ground was shocking and painful enough to force her to cry out in pain, her eyes momentarily widening from the sudden hole that'd been made in her arm by her own spike. She glared at Bluenote, who had lowered his right hand and brought it closer to his left hand. Holding his right hand closely above his left, Bluenote appeared to compress a great amount of gravitational magic between his hands, with a dark orb appearing between his hands as he did so.
Bluenote brought his hands apart to expand the size of the dark orb, pulled a quick gesture to fire the dark orb slightly above its current position, erected a strong magical barrier just behind the dark orb and proceeded to stand behind the barrier, beginning to focus light healing magic into his broken left hand as he did so.
Esdeath only realised that Bluenote wasn't actively holding her down via gravitational magic when she found herself sliding away from her current position, and towards the dark orb that Bluenote had created. As she slowly slid, and the ice-spikes that had embedded themselves in the ground around her began being dislodged from the ground and drawn towards the dark orb, did she realise exactly what had happened.
Bluenote had created a black hole, with full intent to use it to Retire her.
Rias and Kuroka
Around the time that Esdeath had thrown her first barrage of ice-spikes, Rias and Kuroka were presently dashing into the forest, not looking back even as the sounds of battle began to erupt behind him, an indication that Esdeath had found her opponent and was engaging in battle with them. Kuroka was ahead of Rias as she ran through the trees, her cat-like reflexes and agility making for an easier time of rushing through the trees, deeper and deeper into the forest. Rias, who was no physical slouch by any stretch of the imagination, thanks to such training from Roxas, had a slightly time keeping up with the older of the Nekoshou sisters.
Forcing a fleeting thought about the sheer cosmic coincidence that had resulted in her getting one Nekoshou sister and her older nephew getting the other into the back of her mind, Rias called out to Kuroka, while using her Power of Destruction to blow a hole through a particularly large tree that she didn't feel like slowing down to go around.
"Slow down, Kuroka! We're deep enough into this forest already, shouldn't we try and secure the area before- oh, you've stopped."
Kuroka, who had indeed stopped moving, raised a hand to Rias to indicate that she'd heard her. Her cat-ears were twitching, and her other hand, which glowed with Chi energy, slowly moved around the area in front of her. It looked like she was feeling the air in front of her.
"Uhh, Kuroka?" Rias blinked, looking at the kunoichi-outfit-clad Pawn. "What... are you doing?"
Kuroka didn't answer. She had an uncharacteristically focused look on her face as she looked around, seeming to focus on one specific tree nearly a dozen meters in front of her and Rias, and a couple of meters to their left.
"Kuroka?"
"I sensed something." Kuroka replied. "Or to be exact, someone. Someone's trying to watch us, and they're camouflaging themselves somehow."
"How?"
"Don't know, don't care. What's important is that I can sense-" Kuroka let out a small hiss as she lowered her hand. "And they're retreating. Damn it." She began running again. "Be ready to attack when and where I need you to!"
"Right." Rias replied, nodding and following Kuroka, who had her glowing left hand raised again as she ran through the forest. In most situations, she'd usually be the one to take charge, particularly in matters that involved her own peerage. Hell, in Roxas' peerage, she would be considered the higher-authority member of her nephew's group by most of Underworld society (in spite of said nephew's own opinions on the matter). However, Kuroka was undeniably more of an expert on this particular matter than Rias, and she definitely had the confidence to take charge, so Rias certainly wasn't opposed to Kuroka taking the lead in this situation.
Rias followed Kuroka as she rushed through the forest, watching as Kuroka's head tilted from side to side, as if she was following an invisible object that kept moving in front of her, with said invisible object moving from side to side, from tree to tree. Rias noticed Kuroka focusing on a specific tree, one with a particularly large branch, for slightly longer than normal, almost as if their invisible stalker had landed on the tree and grabbed onto it for a second, rather than bouncing off of it like they had done with all the others.
The former Gremory Heiress summoned two balls of her Power of Holy Destruction, one in either hand, in preparation to throw them wherever Kuroka needed to. The balls of destructive energy were smaller than the ones she usually elected to conjure, and therefore less powerful, but Rias would be able to use these at longer ranges, as well as more accurately. Considering that a certain busty catgirl ally was in close proximity to her, Rias was loath to power up and cause indiscriminate damage to her surroundings. Especially when said busty catgirl ally was currently trying to suss out exactly where their camouflaged opponent was-
"Now, Rias!" Kuroka called out, interrupting Rias' inner thoughts, and pointing at two trees. "At that one!" she added, pointing at a sturdy tree to her and Kuroka's immediate left. Rias didn't hesitate to fire the PoHD ball in her left hand at the tree, while increasing the power of the ball in her right hand, in case her opponent was exposed. As the PoHD ball she threw hit the tree, it blew apart a solid portion of the trunk, and the tree began to sway. Not quite enough for it to start tipping over in either direction, but it certainly wouldn't be stable enough for a decently heavy being to latch onto in any way.
"At that one! Quick!" Kuroka shouted, pointing at a different tree, directly in front of Rias. Without thinking, Rias fired the powered-up PoHD ball in her right hand at the tree that Kuroka had indicated, which hit the tree hard enough to blow out roughly half of the entire trunk, from the roots up. As the tree began falling, Kuroka focused a good portion of Chi energy into her hand, and fired it out in front of her, at a place just above where the tree that Rias had blown out was now falling. Kuroka's tactic had paid off, as her Senjutsu attack seemingly made its mark: judging by the fact that it blew apart on an invisible force, an audible grunt of pain came as the Senjutsu ball hit them, and the invisible force that the Senjutsu ball hit soon became no longer invisible.
The short, green-clad Tsuyu Asui dropped to the ground in front of Rias and Kuroka, but immediately had to leap up into the air again as Rias fired another ball of her Power of Holy Destruction at her. She stuck out her tongue, which wrapped around a nearby tree, and pulled herself towards it before unwrapping her tongue from around the tree and carrying herself forward, away from Rias and Kuroka.
Rias was now the one in front as she ran after Tsuyu, prepping up balls of her PoHD around herself and firing them at any trees that Tsuyu tried to wrap her tongue around, in order to rob her of her chief method of movement. Kuroka assisted her, and the two were able to clear out a good portion of trees. Tsuyu was extremely mobile, however, and in spite of Rias and Kuroka's combined efforts to rob her of her movement, she stayed ahead of the Bishop and Pawn, even dodging the projectile-attacks that they flung at her on the occasion that said projectile-attacks were flung.
Kuroka and Rias continued to chase Tsuyu, felling every tree in their immediate and not-so-immediate path that they could as they ran after her, until Roxas' two (debatably) sexiest servants made their way into a clearing within the forest. Tsuyu jumped off to the left, and Rias attempted to give chase... but didn't get very far as she felt some kind of sharp string suddenly wrapping around her leg and ankle, and hoisting her up into the air.
The former Gremory Heiress let out a squawk of surprise as she felt herself flipping over, upside down and immobilized. Her surprise didn't last long as Kuroka, who came into the clearing a second later, flicked her hand at a location just above the boot that the string had wrapped itself around, and sent out a thin cutting wave of magical energy that cut the string and allowed Rias to drop from her trap. Kuroka neatly stepped in and caught the redhead, before allowing her back onto her feet.
Rias gave a nod of thanks as she readied herself again, conjuring two more large balls of her Power of Holy Destruction and taking a tentative step in front of Kuroka. With less possible targets to hit with her PoHD, there was definitely more of a reason to power up and try to deal some real damage.
"Hey, hey, hey, Lara!" a new, male voice said. "I think Cross Tail just caught one of Roxas' peerage members. Though they escaped pretty quickly, hopefully we can still get them."
The new voice was accompanied by the footfalls of two new individuals making their way towards Rias and Kuroka, from the other side of the clearing: particularly the green-haired Lubbock and the sunglasses-wearing Lara Croft. On his hands, Lubbock looked to be wearing a pair of gloves with metallic fingertips with wire threads running through them, and Lara had her guns out, trained on Rias and Kuroka.
Rias brought up a magical barrier just in time for the first bullet that Lara fired to hit the barrier, not dealing any damage to either her or Kuroka. Rias held the barrier up, protecting both her and Kuroka as Lara fired two, three, four, five, six, seven-
"The frog Youkai's closing in." Kuroka informed Rias, turning around and channelling Chi into both of her hands. "From behind you."
"Focus on her, I'll focus on these two!" Rias replied, continuing to hold the barrier up with one hand and firing a retaliatory blast of her PoHD at Lara and Lubbock, both of whom were forced to dodge out of the way. Lubbock quickly shaped the wires of Cross Tail, his Sacred Gear, into a large saw-blade that he threw like a discus at Rias. His aim was slightly off, in spite of the fact that his eyes were perfectly trained on her... or rather, two very specific and very large aspects of her.
Lara, after jumping up from the dodge-roll she had jumped into, fired her eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth bullets at Rias before she retreated, rolling behind a tree. After Rias continued to hold up the barrier that she had erected until Lubbock's string-created saw-blade was pushed out of harm's way, and without a second to spare, dropped the barrier in favour of firing a powerful blast of her regular Power of Destruction right at Lubbock's stomach. It scored a direct hit, blowing a hole in Rudiger's green-haired Pawn and Retiring him in an instant.
It was at this time that Lara came out from behind the tree, having reloaded her guns. She noticed Lubbock's body fading away in a haze of blue light, and sighed.
"Damn it." she muttered, as Tsuyu came leaping over both Kuroka and Rias, landing beside Lara. "With just one hit... Roxas' girls really are just as powerful as they say."
"We should retreat." Tsuyu replied. "No point throwing away points that Rudiger could keep. Ribbit."
"Yeah." Lara nodded, as she watched Tsuyu jumping into the trees and leaving, before following on foot herself. Rias stepped forward, fully intent on following the pair of Pawns, before a loud cry of pain could be heard a ways behind them, which sounded like it came from Esdeath.
Kuroka and Rias looked at each other, the same thought entering their minds at just about the same time. Almost in unison, both Bishop and Pawn took off back the way they had came, towards where they had left Esdeath.
Roxas' Remaining Peerage Members: Roxas (King: 12), Valian (Queen: 9), Akasha (Mutated Rook: 15), Esdeath (Mutated Rook: 5), Rias (Bishop: 3), Akame (Knight: 3), Kuroka (Pawn x2: 2), Elsha (Pawn x2: 2), Lavinia (Pawn x2: 2).
Total Points Remaining: 53/60
Rudiger's Remaining Peerage Members: Rudiger (King: 9), Tatsumaki (Mutated Queen: 18), Ryu (Rook: 5), Ken (Rook: 5), Bluenote (Bishop x2: 6), Cloud (Knight: 3), Blade (Knight: 3), Bulat (Pawn x2: 2), Tsuyu (Pawn: 1), Lara (Pawn: 1), Fubuki (Pawn x3: 3).
Total Points Remaining: 56/57
And that's Chapter 55 of Nephalem done! With this 55th chapter, I can now say that Nephalem is now my longest fic ever in BOTH ways: both word count and chapter count (not that anyone should stomach having to go through RWG again. Fuck me, that fic is trash). Self-deprecation aside, the Rating Game between Roxas and Rudiger has begun! No major losses on either side so far, but still some hopefully-entertaining bouts there.
And remember when I said that I'd get back to you on how many chapters this first half of Nephalem would have left before I reach a stopping point with Nephalem? Well, I'm clearly back, and I can announce that not including this chapter going out now (or if you're reading this in the future, in which case hello), there are... ten chapters left!
…
Yeah, ten chapters. I'll be stopping this fic to ramp up work on other fic-related projects in ten chapters time, on Chapter 65. And it's actually at the conclusion of a story arc, so hopefully you'll be happy with where (and how) I stop Nephalem. No shitting myself and dropping the fic bang splat in the middle of a barely-planned-out filler arc like in RWG, or pussying out right at the end of a too-short-yet-really-fucking-boring-like-how-the-fuck-do-you-even-do-that slogfest like Wizarding Lion.
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 method works for me!
Next Time: Roxas vs. Rudiger Part 2, Godly Intruders
Seeya!