Ya know, if it weren't for covid and bullshit of 2020, I would have finished this in a few months. *facepalm*
Anyway, fuck 2020. Fuck 2021. Fuck 2022.
I am going to finish this.
No matter what.
This was going to be a single chapter but the word count was getting to 30k so.. releasing it in parts.
Behold, mortals!
To think, his first step back to Iwatodai a year ago would have led to this sick and twisted finale at the apex of the world, with a girl who was previously his antithesis by his side and a chaotic God who was once sealed inside his soul against him, still bent on separating his head from his neck and soul from his body.
Minato shook his head to snap out of the sick and wonderful nostalgia and focused back on the surroundings, the top of the tower which was unusually quiet after the rounds of deathly wails and festering hatred. The bringer of the Fall, after the last destruction, was trying to come to terms with the reality that Minato, as well as the girl, were still alive. Fifteen minutes ago, the girl was a corpse rotting in the floor below and Minato was a corpse in a puddle of blood and vomit.
What went wrong….?
Hamuko could feel her open wounds throbbing, reacting harshly to the wind and dust at the top of the tower but she held against showing any sign of discomfort before her foe, instead, she tightened the grip on her blade and gave a small glance to the boy beside her.
"Just keep pressuring him," Minato issued the basic order, as he had each time they fought Ryoji. "Do not give him space to think or breathe, just keep swinging."
"Yes, leader," Hamuko replied, bringing a flicker of a smile to his features momentarily. After sharing a brief chuckle with the redhead, he looked back towards Ryoji, locating the miniscule crack on the edge of the mask.
"Come then…."
Minato took the first step but as usual, on the edge of patience and rational thought, Ryoji was the one to react harshly towards the first step and he flung himself towards the two Wild Cards, dropping his blade and just trying to grasp and tear the two of them with his bare hands at breakneck pace-
The winds of death and decay got to the two persona users and after a final look towards each other, they broke off and ducked under his attempt, rebounding the next second with their wrapped up in black and white, setting their sights on Ryoji who whipped in their direction and screeched to call them back-
"Now!"
Minato ordered and Hamuko pumped a speed buff into her legs, matching his steps and speed and swinging her darkness infused weapon at the same time at the same time as Minato hurled his blade of light-
Ryoji tanked the impact of the blades with his armored forearms but the elements reacted a second later, forcing a scream out of his mouth as a storm of gray took him in and spiraled to the skies-
"Darkness, huh?" Minato noted her dark blade and smiled slightly, genuinely proud of the redhead who looked back at him with a sheepish smile-
Ryoji dissipated the gale with minor difficulty and broke free from the spell with another howl, not willing to take a second to recompose himself as he reacted to Minato who took the first step to draw his attention and broke into a run towards him, determined to keep the focus entirely on him-
Minato loaded on his mangled arm and stormed in with a wild swing of the same arm to counter the furious strike of Ryoji, leading to another blast of light and dark as bare knuckles met the heavily armored fist of Ryoji with a splatter of ichor and blood. He was only able to keep his stance for a few seconds as Ryoji grabbed onto him and Minato shifted the weight to his legs to stand his ground during the grapple, responding to the scowl with a smirk until Ryoji overpowered him and forced him down, smashing his knees against the bloodied pavement-
"This is how it ends!"
Minato looked right back up and smirked-
"Is it?"
Hamuko came up from behind the downed blunet and used his shoulder as a stepping stone to jump up high, completely taking the appraiser by surprise as she summoned Surt in midair to ignite her blade with flames and came back down swinging for extra force and momentum-
"BURN!"
Ryoji hastily broke free from the scuffle and willed the blade into his grip just in time to block her swing from the skies, detonating to another eruption of flames across the battlefield, following by a layer of smoke, blinding the appraiser as to the position of the damn female-
Minato lunged out from the smoke and punched the avatar hard across the face with his lead hand, blowing him backwards. He looked around and located Hamuko hopping a few feet away from his previous vessel and this time-
Hamuko was the one to charge and Minato followed her lead on route to the appraiser who was ready, responding with another war cry for the duo to rush at their demise personified but something happened during the run and before he knew it, Minato was the getting in his face and swinging a haymaker to take his head off-
Ryoji absorbed the blow and hurled the blunet to the side, making him skid along the ground and gesture for Hamuko to follow and Ryoji snapped his head back, managing to catch the kick of the girl at the last second and launching the redhead towards Minato with full force and speed, hoping to break at least a few dozen more bones due to the impact of filthy flesh against-
"Norn!"
Minato summoned and Hamuko switched as soon as she heard his call for the persona, the gales of wind catapulting her into the skies and Minato broke into a run as soon as she was sufficiently high up, yelling at Ryoji who was looking to shoot her out of the skies and forcing him to guard-
Ryoji tilted his head to avoid the punch, suffering a cut on his neck when the gale of wind and dust brushed past his face, and he slammed his right into Minato's face in response, rocking the Fool down to his heels. He blocked the swing of his other hand and Minato did the same, forcing the appraiser into a stalemate and open to-
Ryoji gasped and looked up, catching a black comet plummeting down from the skies, already pulsing and threatening to burst into something vile and ungodly. He desperately tried to break free and take flight but Minato refused to release the grip, holding him in place until the ball of darkness crashed with a massive amount of force, triggering a literal tidal wave of darkness that came crashing against him like several tones, blowing him away from Minato who remained standing at the same spot, blinded but not in any pain whatsoever. He whistled at the output and stood there, looking quite impressed.
"Hamuko, you beauty…" Minato whistled after a look around the top, impressed and awe-struck by how destructive her attack was. He had the edge in brute force but her spells were just ungodly, matching and maybe even exceeding his fusion spells. "Just what the hell happened in the past week?"
Hamuko came up next to him, looking quite pleased with herself for blowing the God of Death all the way to the other side of the floor. Not to mention, Minato looked at a loss for words himself so double points for her.
Meanwhile, Ryoji found himself buried in debris and metal scraps quite far away from the two persona users. This was the second in a row now. He was always so focused on Minato that Hamuko would sneak up and blow him to hell with a charged up spell. He had to remain calm and keep his eyes on her the next time around and-
"How about a kiss!?"
That was enough to set him off and he flew towards the Wild Cards, exactly as Minato intended as he welcomed his charge, making sure Hamuko was behind him when he picked up a nearby blade and clashed the same with the massive sword of the appraiser, occasioning another shockwave-
Hamuko brushed past him and sliced through his left side in a flash, forcing Ryoji back and leaving him open to a front kick that shattered the armor on the left. He shoved Minato backwards and grunted, suffering another impact on the now exposed part of his idea when Hamuko dug her shin into the same spot, dropping him to a knee-
Minato kneed his face with a running start, making him roll to a stop a few yards away. He caught the wild sprint of the two persona users and fired a beam of purple energy to separate them into opposite directions, planning on picking them apart separately-
Hamuko saw his charge and braced herself, her single eye steeled with burning resolve now that Minato was around and there was no way she was going to let him down, not at this stage in the fight-
The block of his massive blade buckled her knees and the redhead grunted, ducking her head to avoid the surge of purple before she rammed her head against the side of his face, knocking him backwards and open to a stab from behind when Minato tore into his back, cutting a wound from his neck down to his lower back-
Ryoji screamed and expelled the magician's arms in a flash, slicing and throwing the blunet away and he sped forward himself to grab Hamuko by the neck, slamming her head against the ground in the next moment. He tightened the hold around her neck and looked ready to blast her to pieces with another discharge of almighty energy until Minato came back, throwing the appraiser off the redhead with a snarl-
"Get off her!"
Hamuko hopped up and smashed another brutal kick against the side of his face, making the appraiser stumble for a few steps but that was all that Minato allowed him as he chucked another blade towards Hamuko and yelled at her to pressure, widening the eyes of Ryoji as the two got in his face within seconds to resume the chaotic brawl-
Given the size difference between his weapon and the puny, broken down swords of the two Fools, Ryoji found it easy to deflect and parry their attempts but getting a hit on them was another matter as the two moved in a bizarre pattern, unlike anything he had ever come across before. Minato was a completely different fighter alongside Hamuko and vice versa and the two moved in tune with another, masking the vulnerabilities with simple footwork and feints-
Another clash led to Hamuko losing her blade but Ryoji bit on the faint from Minato, prompting Hamuko to flank him with another shin to the side of his dome. He was not given a second to breathe as Minato tackled him a good distance away until a sharp punch broke the grapple and knocked Minato backwards-
"Vishnu!"
Ryoji jumped out of the impact of the almighty blast and cursed, head throbbing as the constant kicks were getting troublesome to deal with. His rate of regeneration had also slowed down a tad, not to mention he was not getting a second to catch his breath and actually start the heal-
Soon as he thought about doing so, the two wild cards came running at him, pulling back on their weapons and lunging at him from the sides to resume the suffocating pressure-
Ryoji blocked the cross slash with minor difficulty but the armor on his left arm came undone after another block, forcing him withdraw until a wild blitz from Hamuko hacked the same limb up to his elbow-
"Curse you!"
Minato slammed into the God the very next second, holding onto the amputated limb as he roughed up Ryoji with a series of short punches and elbows until Ryoji plunged his fist into his stomach and blew him backwards with a burst of red-
Slice-
The next blinding rush targeted his other arm and Hamuko made sure to cut from the shoulder this time, rendering Ryoji defenseless to the charge of the blunet who packed every last bit of force into his right arm and threw with all strength, straight from the hip-
Crack-
Ryoji lost his senses when the punch met his face, crumbling his base and knocking him to the ground in a flash. He struggled to get his senses but Minato stepped up and soccer kicked him on the head violently, scrambling his psyche further. After about a dozen or so kicks and stomps, the appraiser regained enough wits to escape the assault, panting and cursing as he eyed the two persona users standing shoulder to shoulder-
The little bastards were buffing themselves up on the sidelines and then exploding with attacks whenever he was open. Two on one was starting to become an issue even for him and there was no way he was going to keep up with the strategy, all on his own-
Just a few yards away, the two fools stood, looking quite confident and assured of an imminent victory and that ticked him off. Even the gaze of the two was passive, as if they had already won-
Tch.
"If I have to prove myself one more time…"
Minato hoisted his blade upwards as the appraiser took his feet off solid earth and floated a few inches above the air, seemingly hunched over and quiet, far different from his usual temperament. Hamuko narrowed her eyes to get a good look at him as well, gauging the movement of his hands while Minato scanned his face, ready to respond with another burst of flames if he were to launch another one of those annoying beams but for once second, he glanced at his own shadow and the figure was shivering back and forth, flickering in and out when he was not moving an inch-
"What the!?"
Something terrible was happening in the skies-
The erratic movement of the moon in the skies startled the two persona users, directing their attention away from Ryoji who was still quiet and motionless, not doing much but the celestial body started to thrash around in the skies, threatening to plunge down to earth in order to wreak utter catastrophe-
Minato was unsure of what was happening. He yanked Hamuko closer and switched his persona to Vishnu just in case the moon was to launch something at them. Hamuko had the same thought and changed her persona to Ananta, figuring that a spell was going to rain down from the celestial body, as absurd as that sounded-
Ryoji finally moved when he was at a sufficient height, soaking in the moonlight. His frame tightened up from the frail position and the appraiser looked down at the skies, locating the two pests. He glanced over and coiled into a shell one last time, before flapping his wings to send a minor of gust of wind in the direction of the two fools-
The blunet shrugged off the buffeting winds which were an annoyance at best but a second later, something else came down from the skies, a pressure that he had never experienced before. His sword clattered to the ground when something intangible yet so powerful crushed his back with such force that he ended up coughing out blood-
"W-What the hell?" Minato cursed, shifting the weight and standing his ground but his effort was not helping much as gravity itself had increased multifold, with his own body threatening to crush him the longer he stood. He glanced over at Hamuko and the girl was struggling with the same issue, struggling not to collapse in a heap as the moon released one shockwave after another-
"What did he just do?" Hamuko asked, doubling over and trying to get off the ground with her palms, sweat trickling down her chin as even standing straight was unbearably painful.
"The psyche of Nyx…" Minato remembered the words of Pharos and widened his eyes, looking straight up at the avatar and the abnormal moon behind him and after a few seconds of piecing the information together, from the abnormality of the celestial body to the words of Pharos, Minato finally understood-
"If Ryoji is carrying the psyche of Nyx…"
"Then…"
Oh shit.
All clicked into place and Minato broke into a cold sweat, understanding the severity and the impossibility of the situation-
"The moon is her physical body!"
Up in the sky, Ryoji took his time healing his wounds and regenerating the broken bits of armor. He caught his breath finally and focused on the two persona users struggling to even stand up, wounds already opening up due to the intense pressure coming from above and he had yet to throw a punch-
Minato caught the appraiser ready to come back down and he yelled at Hamuko to get up from the ground but Ryoji came plummeting down at the very next second, his blade ready to slice the downed female in half-
Minato hurled Hamuko to the side and blocked the blade with left hand, hacking out blood when the impact knocked him to a knee and the blade cut into his palm, widening his eyes as the sword came very close to severing his hand in two until he backed off-
He caught the flash of black in his direction and screamed out blood, a good chunk of flesh exploding from his sides as Ryoji zapped past him in an instant, blade and body tainted with crimson-
"S-Shit!"
Minato made a mighty effort to turn in the other direction but he was far slower, suffering a haymaker to the side of his face which knocked him to the ground. Ryoji stepped up and channeled the energy into his weapon, ready to bring it down and cleave the persistent fool in half-
"Get off him!"
Ryoji was waiting for the girl to surprise him and he showed off the now massive difference in speed as he whipped in her direction at the last second, grabbed her leg and slammed her onto the blunet in one fluid motion, making Minato cough out blood into the air as her weight came crashing down on his already broken ribs-
"Now die together!"
Ryoji brought the blade down and Minato hissed, kicking Hamuko off of him and barely avoiding the death blow by escaping to the left. He held his busted side and another shockwave rocked him from head to toe, freezing him in place and leaving him open to a blast of purple from the appraiser-
Hamuko caught his wrist and yanked him to the side, with the stream of energy brushing past his arm and exploding a couple of yards away. The two wild cards stumbled but remained standing, holding onto each other to remain upright but much like they had done to him, Ryoji took off without giving them a second to breathe-
"Get ready!" Minato yelled at the redhead, bracing himself for another painful scuffle when the God closed in, already cloaking his blade in a mixture of flame and thunder-
The wild cards broke off in the middle to avoid the explosion of fire and thunder and came running at Ryoji from the sides but like before, with the pressure coming down from the skies, Ryoji was easily able to whiff on their strikes and shredded through their bodies with his blade, occasioning another shower of crimson-
A sharp punch at close range knocked Hamuko down and Minato bolted, tackling Ryoji away until the appraiser chucked him to the other side with minor difficulty, hurling another stream of purple energy in his direction but Minato was able to see the spell coming and dodged at the last second, giving a defiant scowl-
Ryoji saw that he was adjusting somewhat to the increase in gravity and frowned, deciding to ignore Hamuko for the time being and focus on Minato as the blunet stomped a few times to catch his attention and ran at him-
The appraiser moved through the first couple of slashes, toying around with the blunet who swung as hard as he could but could not land his blade anywhere near the avatar who slipped the attempts with ease and mocked him but at the same time-
"UGH!"
Minato was starting to adjust a little, escaping the bulk of damage and saving his skin from the swings of the blade even with the devastating force coming from the skies. Upon that, Ryoji began to pressure, putting him on the back foot and finding his already mangled stomach with the edge of his blade-
Ryoji was knocked forward when someone kicked him on the back of the head and Minato surged in his direction, rocking the avatar with a hook to the side of his face as he came crashing into his fist, stunning him for a few seconds-
"You bitch!"
Ryoji lost his patience and knocked Minato to the side, directing his focus back on the girl who had sucker punched him. He swung hard and fast but like the blunet, Hamuko had adjusted somewhat and she ducked under the attempt, twisting her body and escaping to safety-
Minato missed his charge to run him over as Ryoji sidestepped the sprint and rushed back at him, catching the two clapping hands to exchange the buffs and violently screaming at the occurrence, his cursed voice coming down from the skies akin to thunder on a brutal night-
"Flank him from the sides, go!" Minato hurled Hamuko to the opposite direction and the redhead did as he had ordered, escaping the sight of the appraiser and leaving Minato deal with him and after a deep breath, the blunet shifted his weight on his lead foot and withstood the incoming impact of Ryoji trying to burst through him with a brutal tackle-
Minato tightened his grip around the wings of the appraiser and hurled him to the other direction, breaking off at the last second to miss the almighty infused fist by the skin of his teeth. He gritted his teeth in response to the scowl of the Avatar of Nyx, catching the flash of red in the abyss of his hollow eyes-
"Byakko!"
The howl from the sides made Minato relax his stance and he watched on as the White Tiger flanked the appraiser from the side, catching his neck between its maws and mauling the rotting flesh until Ryoji cut through the entity with his blade, forcing the beast to dissipate to pale mist after a shrill howl-
"Have this one!"
Ryoji heard the little exchange and Hamuko came rushing through the fading mist, swinging a familiar hammer towards his face until he dodged at the last second, shifting his focus for a brief moment to locate Minato and he popped up in his peripheral, following by a flash of blue-
Thunder crashed down from the skies upon the call of the trident of Odin and Ryoji hissed, blocking the surge of bolts using his armored forearm but leaving himself open at the sides and Hamuko finally struck with Mjolnir, dropping his guard just enough for the electricity to explode out of his back, setting off another piercing-
Slice-
Minato wasted no time and caught up to the trident he had hurled in the direction of Ryoji, catching the hilt of the weapon that was now drilled into the guts of the God. Minato kicked the weapon in deeper and lashed out at the face, trying to grab a hold of the mask and tear the damn off while his nemesis was dazed-
Ryoji came back as soon as Minato touched his mask, occasioning a tornado of black mist that swallowed his arm, threatening to crush his limb under the pressure but Minato backed off alongside the redhead, dropping the weapons that then decayed to nothing under the storm of darkness that Ryoji brought forth-
Minato heard minor panting from his side and glanced over to check on the girl. Hamuko caught up on her breath and gestured that she was okay and was able to go for a long time. As much as she was thinking that the double team would mean a quick and effortless victory, Ryoji was every bit as godly and indestructible as he had claimed.
The dense darkness broke upon another painful screech, with gales of black matter slicing through the air to catch the attention of the two persona users and they separated yet again, sharing quick nod as Ryoji walked out of the dispersing spell, wounds closed up and every severed limb fully regenerated.
"What kind of bullshit is this?" Minato could not help but curse, quite annoyed at the fact that the constant rounds of offense amounted to nothing. "Tch, whatever!"
A glance up in the skies triggered another debilitating wave of gravity from the physical body of Nyx, cracking the pavement beneath his heels but his two foes actually stood upright, withstanding the immense force and slapping hands one more time for another substantial buff in speed and defense.
Ryoji was confused.
Were the two getting stronger?
Or was he getting weaker?
The two fools were made out of skin and flesh and yet they were hard to put down, having risen from the dead on more than one occasion, akin to Gods themselves who were revived through the sheer belief of the people who worshipped. The two persona users only had each other, and maybe a handful of other weaklings believing in them. They were worked in the shadows, unknown to most of humanity and yet, there they stood, brought back from the dead, the miserable domain where his word was law.
Someone was aiding them. Someone had to be-
Minato saw the shiver of hesitance that rocked the body of his foe and pounced on the chance, quickly summoning the spear of Cu and hurling the projectile while Hamuko chucked the hammer she was holding at the same time-
Ryoji was unable to compose himself in time and the burst of electricity burned off the armor on his right arm while the gales of green cut sliced off his fingers, leaving him open to the hammer that struck him on the side of his head, stunning him for a few seconds but he quickly evoked a stream of almighty energy as soon as he registered rapid footsteps-
"I can take it!" Hamuko assured with a hiss, shutting her eyes and holding up her arms in defense as the cluster of red energy exploded point blank, further scarring her already thrashed body but she withstood the impact, clenched her jaw, balled up her fist and lunged out of the storm with another defiant yell-
Ryoji was not expecting her to come out the attack still swinging at him and the appraiser scowled at her defiance, tilting his head just enough to avoid her strike but his counter left him exposed to a shin to the side as Minato was right behind her and the two quickly cut off his escape point, unbolting a kick and punch in rapid succession to keep the God of Death trapped-
Ryoji managed to block both strikes but took a step back as the pressure never let up, with an endless slew of kicks, punches and knees coming his way. He covered up but some strikes slipped past his guard, blasting his face and body as the two persona user kept throwing without pause, often switching stances and mimicking each other's footwork to fluster and confuse the Avatar of Nyx-
The appraiser lashed out with his blade after a right to his cranium but a surprise tackle from Minato sent the blade flying out of him grip. He grappled with the blunet for a few seconds and then hurled him off of himself-
Hamuko ducked low and shredded through the back of his knee, knocking Ryoji down to a foot and the kick from the right side broke his neck until the bone and the muscles reformed after a quick second and Ryoji blew Minato backwards with a crippling punch to his busted stomach-
The appraiser was only able to take a millisecond of a rest as Minato landed on all fours a few yards away and signaled Hamuko and the redhead ran the very next second, matching his pace as he streaked over to pile the pressure right back on the God-
He had broken their goddamn bones several times over and yet-
Even as the Fall was seconds away from happening, the two were rising up to challenge him-
"I hate you…"
Ryoji whispered as he glanced from left to right, taking in their expressions of undeterred defiance and burning hope and the sight pissed him off to no end. His whispers began to distort and the tower rocked again, with another deadly wave of destruction descending from the skies-
"I FUCKING HATE YOU!"
His unbridled roar of utter hatred was akin to the scream of a thousand shadows screeching in unison but that did little to stop the two as Hamuko picked up a blade while Minato summoned his own, holding the same in reverse grip while Hamuko held her weapon in the traditional stance. She pumped another speed buff into her body the moment Minato broke eye contact and lunged, with the redhead doing the very same, aiming to cleave through the body of the appraiser-
Minato and Hamuko took the last step at the very same second before they exploded with slashes, the two blades going through the throat and stomach, drawing out more ichor and another shrill screech as the shadowy limbs exploded from within the gaping stomach wound on Ryoji, digging into the arms of the two persona users and hurling them a good distance away-
"Shiva!"
Hamuko was the one to break free and she immediately summoned the destroyer, shouting loud enough to break the blunet free from the haze of pain. Minato shook his head and powered out of the blades digging into his body, blue mist exploding from under his feet as soon as he hit the ground-
"Ardhanari!"
The smoldering flames came at him the next second, melting through the bulk of armor and setting his wings ablaze but he managed to avoid a catastrophic explosion by holding the redhead cloaked in flames at a distance, with his bare hand on her head-
Hamuko struggled to break through his block but Ryoji was still much more physically capable than her and after a few seconds of struggle, Hamuko could feel his clawed fingers digging into her temple. She lost her concentration and the flames dissipated, and the God hurled her to the side to heal the grotesque burns he had sustained-
"Ardhanari!"
The shout of the same fusion spell made him gasp and the flames were much fiercer this time, blinding his vision as the streaks lashed out at his face, making him tuck his head down and Minato did not stop his charge, harnessing every last bit of the power of the two personas around his body as he gave one sharp exhale a second away from Ryoji and then crashed as hard as he could, his own scream of pain dying in his throat as the flamed detonated upon contact, raging high-sky-
Minato rolled out of the massive conflagration, burned and smoking out of his clothes but Hamuko was there to catch him. She wiped the ash and soot off his face and the blunet stood up, slightly shivering as the heat had done a number on him too but after a few shakes of his head, he was back to reality, and ready for more-
The successive fusion spells had left Ryoji a pile of ash on the ground, with a few black feathers scattered around the remains. The two wild cards exchanged a few glances but soon enough and sure enough, divine providence began to resurrect Ryoji as a mass of darkness gathered around the ashy remains and soon took up to the skies in another brutal tornado of pressure and decay.
"Are you okay?" Minato asked his companion, not taking his eyes off the storm because Ryoji was going to come out raging any second.
"Yeah, I can go on," Hamuko responded, rubbing the bruises that Ryoji had left around her head. The little punk had nearly severed the nerves along but unfortunately, this was hardly the end of the battle, even if Minato had burned the God to ash a second time. Each time Ryoji rose up from certain demise, he was faster and stronger but she had faith that somehow, someway, the two would pull out a miracle.
Minato did not shut his eyes as the cyclone collapsed and the winds of decay battered the surroundings, only making him blink as the whiplash scattered across his face. His eyes followed the trajectory of the fading cyclone upwards and he hissed, taking his stance once more as he caught Ryoji high up in the skies-
Despite the amount of distance and the dense darkness that obscured his vision, Minato was able to see another patch of burned skin across his chest, along with a few other streaks of badly burnt flesh running down his darkened body. The healing was a tad slower and the ever-present look of hatred was muddled with a small bit of confusion, as Ryoji himself was a bit startled at the stunted regeneration.
"Any orders, leader?" Hamuko asked, taking another round of deep breaths.
"Blow his head off," Minato responded, narrowing his eyes to catch a glimpse of the mask. He noticed the crack along the edges and nodded to himself, making a mental note of his new target.
"I gotcha," Hamuko nodded her head alongside his, taking her stance with her lead leg sticking out as she intended to kick the head off his shoulders. "Is he getting slower? Are we finally making a dent?"
"Maybe so," Minato finally tore his eyes off the appraiser and looked at her with a confident smile, speaking of a virtual certainty. "More than that, I know we are growing stronger together."
The scent of death forced Minato to look up and he cursed as the tremors rocked the tower again, with the structure itself shivering in response to the sphere of Night Queen that conjured up between his maws, ready to rain cursed death upon the two-
"Move!" Minato shoved Hamuko away as a reflex to create distance, avoiding the beam of red and black that sliced through the ground, blasting away the pavement. Minato rolled to a stop and looked around for the redhead and he quickly located her standing up, looking at him for directions-
Any plan that Minato had in mind crashed through his skull when Ryoji let out another deafening screech, a divine order shouted from the skies and one that was answered instantaneously as more black blobs began to fester out of nothingness, forming and emerging from the ground upon the call of the appraiser-
"Oh shit," Hamuko mouthed to her companion up ahead, slowly taking a look at the dozens and dozens of pests around her and then at the appraiser, high up in the air.
Minato noticed that Ryoji had already conjured up another sphere of the same horrific attack between his jaw and now, with clusters of filth looking to maul the two of them, dodging the attack would not be as easy as before-
A sharp exhale of breath from Hamuko set the shadows off and Minato yelled at her to be careful as the beasts pounced on the two of them at once, swarming them with numbers and ripping the flesh off their bones until Minato kicked himself free and Hamuko burst out of the pile of shadows with a violent explosion of black-
The shadows wasted no time and lunged at the two persona-users again, clawing and biting to keep the two at bay and the wild cards fought back, demolishing the shadows with minor difficulty despite being outnumbered but the main problem was the cursed entity above-
Ryoji oversaw the scene just for a second and unleashed another chaotic discharge of his ultimate attack without warning. Even his shadows were shown no mercy and the tower trembled again, the pressure and ungodly power of Night Queen eviscerating the life out of anything in the cursed path-
"SHIT!"
Minato quickly cut through the shadows holding him in place and reached out to clasp the wrist of Hamuko, before he hurled the redhead out of danger and then ducked for safety as quickly as he could, narrowly missing the attack that blew a hole down to the lower floors-
Ryoji hissed at the second failed attempt but after another order for the shadows to maul them to death, he retained his place up in the skies and wasted no time in calling forth the same attack. His stamina was limitless so no matter how many times he missed, he was going to get them, sooner or later-
The hiss and snarls of the shadows made Minato rise up and he cursed the little bugs for making the battle difficult. At the same, he knew that fixating on them for too long would mean getting evaporated by a Night Queen from above.
"It's coming again!" Hamuko yelled at him, forcing him to snap his attention away from shadows as the flicker of red and black shone in the darkness of the night sky, a warning sign for the discharge of cruel death and misery-
"Do not get hit by that attack, no matter what!"
Minato gave the order and then dodged another stream of energy that went past his head, momentarily numbing his senses but the aura built up in the skies again, bringing him back to the heat of the battle where the shadows howled at the two yet again, unleashing another coordinated attack to keep distracted.
Ryoji did not give them a second to breathe as he kept overlooking the battle from the skies, commanding the horde of shadows to damage them as much as they could and while the two were able to fight them off, the injuries were mounting up as his minions caught them off guard a number of times. The shadows were distractions at best and they knew that. The real problem was the Death God hovering up in the sky, continually unleashing the same attack over and over again-
Another torrent of the same vile energy demolished the shadows and just missed the Hamuko, making her gasp as the hands of death grabbed her throat, dulling her senses as the violent surge startled her soul. The roar of the shadows went over her head but she was pulled back by the blunet, narrowly saving her from getting her head bitten off-
Minato scowled at the mass of shadows and was just a second away from summoning his ultimate persona to blast the pests to ashes but another shriek from the skies changed his mind, making him clench his fists. He looked back to see that Hamuko was back on her feet, already staring at the Avatar up above-
Hamuko pulled Minato back by the shoulder the moment she felt the foul odor of death polluting the area. The spell from above leveled another part of the top and the shadows capitalized on the single second of their defenses being lowered, launching another coordinated attack to restrict their movements-
Minato pumped a charge into his fist and started dissolving the shadows with one hit each. Hamuko did the same to her legs and started kicking the heads off as they fought back to back, easily wiping out the bulk of shadows but getting gashed up in-between their moments of distraction as Ryoji was still up there, sneering at the two of them whilst he watched them scurry around like rats-
Ryoji watched on, aware that he was sending his minions to slaughter but none of that mattered as the world was going to be festering with shadows in a matter of minutes. He commanded his armies from the skies. Usually Minato would have blasted him off the skies, or attempted to do so but with the shadows distracting and looking to claw his head off, he was preoccupied with keeping himself alive, and his stupid girlfriend safe-
The thought forced a click from his tongue and the appraiser raged, anger threatening to spill into another vicious screech but he held in the desire to vent out his frustrations. Instead he kept scanning for an opportunity, already starting to conjure up a sphere of the chaotic, ghastly energy between his palms this time. He intended to wipe out a good bulk of the area with this attempt and he swore to get at least one of them-
Minato could feel his own soul crawling as the mass of evil and unholy started to gather up in the skies. He took a good look after eradicating a cluster of shadows and swallowed, knowing that the next spell was going to spread chaos to at least half of the apex-
A unison of growls went off in his ear as the single second of distraction left him open to a charge of dozens upon dozens of shadows, each one ripping into his flesh and driving him backwards, forcing more weight on him until he collapsed against the pillars-
"Minato!" Hamuko made the same mistake, breaking away her attention from the army of shadows and towards Minato and the shadows pounced on the chance, piling upon the redhead and overwhelming her with sheer numbers. She punched way out of the mess and attempted to summon but another bite on her hand broke her concentration, making her wail in pain-
Ryoji hastened his attack as the perfect opportunity had finally arrived, with both of his foes submerged in a pile of filth and separated, with Minato several yards away from the stupid girl. The air itself began to rot as the appraiser harnessed more and more of his essence into the sphere of hatred and decay, swelling up the small sphere into a pulsing ball of death several times larger than before-
"Hamuko, get up," Minato said, trying to power his out of the mess of shadows but with his limbs torn apart and feasted upon, the former vessel of death was struggling-
"I-I can't move," Hamuko managed to whisper from under the dozens of shadows, her bones starting to suffer the weight of what felt like a ton crushing her against the pavement-
"D-Dammit," Minato cursed, trying to muscle his way out but a small glance at the sky knocked his heart down to his stomach as Ryoji had finally finished preparing a spell capable of annihilating the entire population of Iwatodai. The attack reeked off the very same spirit as the conjurer himself and the closest one to the radius of the attack was-
"Hamuko!" Minato finally panicked, his cool and collected mindset crumbling the moment he realized that Hamuko was going to get eviscerated in the wake of the incoming Night Queen. He kept screaming and screaming for her to get up and with every shout, Ryoji would raise the sphere higher and higher, aiming to make his worst nightmare a reality-
Minato had endured more than a few Night Queens during the battle and while those were on another level of torture and agony, he could not forget the sight of Hamuko being enveloped in a maelstrom of energy, with her flesh and bone coming undone. That was the first sight he had come across when he finally got to the top and he was not, in any fucking circumstance, going to allow that to happen to her again-
"Fuck you!" Minato cursed the damn shadows and out of options, with his fists and legs blocked, the blunet started biting the shadows with his bare teeth, tearing off the slimy and disgusting bodies and literally eating his way through the bulk of the shadows. The taste was awful, like burning lead and remains of a decaying corpse but he refused to stop, even making Ryoji halt for the second as he witnessed Minato biting off the heads and bodies of his minions-
Minato barfed at the taste of ichor in his mouth but after one final snarl, he freed his right hand from the binds and started punching the reminder of the shadows with his free hand. His teeth bit into the shadows on the left hand and his right leg kicked off the ones biting down on his thigh-
Ryoji stopped witnessing the spectacle and hurled the sphere of death down below and Minato broke free at the very same moment, after stomping the last one into nothingness. He did not waste a single second to moan over the disgusting taste in his mouth and started running for Hamuko, with the girl barely visible under the accumulation of shadows-
Every shadow that came in his way was slaughtered and Minato ran as hard as he could, keeping his sights on the unholy sphere of death coming down from the skies. He picked up his pace when his own soul began to perceive how ungodly the attack truly was, signaling that he had only a few seconds left to save her-
"Get off her, you sons of bitches!" Minato lashed out and knocked several shadows away with a swing of Thor's hammer, before he started kicking them off in bulk, demolishing the ones that tried to lunge at him-
Hamuko saw the blunet towering over her, pulling out of the mess but just then, a feeling of absolute dread and misery seeped into her soul and the redhead froze in the middle of her attack. She managed a glance over her shoulder and-
Minato could feel his soul burning inside his body as the attack was right above them. The massive collection of the spirit of Death was going to blow the two of them into corpses and there was no escaping the attack, at least not both of them-
"Fuck this all!" Minato snarled-
Hamuko found his arms wrapping around her waist as she was frozen on the ground. She had no idea what was going on but Minato eventually picked her up from the pavement and with all the strength he could muster, hurled her towards the other side, leaving himself in the range of the spell-
Hamuko was chucked all the way to the other side of the area and while her senses were still a bit jumbled up, she tried to get her footing on the ground and rush back but a second later, Minato looked right at her, with his face burning a crimson hue as he was just a moment away from taking the brunt of the otherworldly spell, conjured with the intent to give him the most miserable death possible-
The look which he gave her broke her heart, even in the heat of the battle. He knew he was in a world of pain, with his teeth clenched together and his fists curled up but he managed a smile, a small grin to let her know that he had no regrets doing what he did-
"Minato!"
Hamuko lost her senses as she screamed out nigh-deliriously, her soul plunging into the abyss when her mind told her heart that this was the last she was ever going to see of him. She had all the intent to reach out and pull him out of there but a second later, the sphere split open and a tidal wave of red and black came crashing down on the blunet, swallowing him entirely in the nucleus of death-
Hamuko fell to her knees and watched on, with her mouth hanging open and her body collapsed in a heap. She had half a mind to summon a knife with the reminder of her spiritual power and slice her own throat but as she dared to look at her worst nightmare come true, she noticed that his figure was still standing upright-
Ryoji himself was stunned when his stature did not crumble into a heap, even as the attack seeped into his wound and bled into his organs. Minato remained standing, in the same posture as before, slightly shivering but refusing to collapse down-
Hamuko found an iota of hope and jumped up to her feet. Even if the attack repulsed her to the core, she ran as fast she could, ready to dive in and tackle him out of the vile maelstrom as her heart started to beat and her soul emerged from the shell-
Just a second more of the torture and she would have done something to herself-
The torturous spell finally dissipated, having reduced the surroundings shadows to nothingness but as the after-effects cleared up, Minato came into view, eliciting a hateful snarl from the appraiser and a small wail of relief from Hamuko.
"Minato!"
Minato was shivering, barely able to move his fingers as much like always, the attack had burned off every last bit of oxygen in his body but by some miracle, he was still breathing, as if someone had shielded him from the very worst of the attack, the providence of the Gods and he had a good idea who-
Hamuko was there to catch him as he finally collapsed but only to a knee. She could smell the horrible stench of corpses rolling off him but she was least concerned. If there was anywhere else, she would have slapped the shit out of him for doing something so reckless but she heard the confused snarl of the God above and knew that he was going to follow up real soon.
"Are you okay?" Hamuko asked, holding him up and glancing back up at the skies. Any second now, Ryoji was going to launch another one of those ungodly spheres and send them both to hell.
"Switch to Surt…" Minato whispered back, looking around with his left eye as the same damn things emerged from the cracks on the floor, quickly building in numbers in a matter of seconds.
Ryoji saw a flicker of blue mist escaping from under the feet of the two and immediately commanded the shadows to lunge at them, not looking to give them a single second of rest in between his ultimate spell and the coordinated attack of the shadows-
Minato smashed a small purple sphere against the ground, whipping up several layers of dust and blinding the nearby shadows as the creatures did not have very good eyesight in the first place. More mist began to escape from dome of smoke and Ryoji held his blade, cursing at his own minions for not being to catch the two-
"Persona!" the duo shouted in unison a second later, turning the pressure over to Ryoji as a searing blast of flames burned off a good numbers of shadows but the next explosion of pale mist alerted Ryoji as something far worse than a simple torrent of flames was heading his way-
He was expecting Hamuko to summon in desperation but as the dust began to clear up, Minato himself was cloaked in blue, and judging by the amount of the summoning mist, he was going one step beyond than her-
"No fucking way…" Ryoji said to himself, caught up in his own little head as he refused to believe that Minato, who had taken the spell head on, was capable of summoning just a few seconds later. As he struggled to comprehend the feat, he made the same mistake as the humans did-
Hamuko called upon Surt as her leader had ordered, evoking wave of flames as the Fire Giant emerged in the area, spiking up the temperature-
Minato struggled to summon his personas but he forced the two entities out of his psyche, the taste of his own blood firing him up and giving him the little boost he needed to call upon two of his strongest personas-
"Asura! Helel! I need you now!"
Ryoji was brought out of his hateful schemes of mutilation when the tri-summoning took a toll on the surroundings, blowing out a heavy wave of pressure and heat as the mist scattered across the entire floor, the weight and presence of the three summoned entities sending the nearby shadows scurrying-
The appraiser clenched the hilt of his weapon as the summoned monstrosities took off towards him in unison, kicking his defenses into high-gear and he raised his blade to defend himself, just as the personas came rushing at him-
Slice-
Ryoji sliced through fading mist as the three combusted to mist a second before he could tear through the spiritual flesh. The sudden disappearance confused him but he shrugged off the questions and looked down below, sneering slightly at the two. Minato had most likely lost control of the personas due to the heat. Pathetic weakling-
A pulse of something hot and vast stopped his train of thought and Ryoji noticed that the ground was darkened, along with a few splotches of red littered across the area. The heat intensified in a second, going up several notches and Ryoji gripped his blade, slow to turn in the opposite direction as he knew the personas were behind his back-
Ryoji was only able to catch the glimpse of the fusion spell, a pulsing ball of red and black suspended in the skies and hovering above him. He stared at the miniature sun of sorts for a full second until a resolute shout from below snapped him to reality, but far too late-
"Black Sun!" The duo shouted at the time, and the ball of black flames exploded upon command, triggering a supernova in the skies as it burst apart, unleashing an unholy conflagration of hellfire that came down like a tidal wave, enveloping the appraiser entirely and hurling him back to the ground as the tsunami of flames only grew denser on the way down, massive enough to level the entire floor which was crawling with shadows-
Minato held up an arm to his eyes and pulled the redhead closer, telling her to do the same as the tide of flames came crashing down on the shadows, and not one lasted more than second as the heat burned the pests to ash and then nothingness, finally rid the two of the insects that Ryoji had summoned-
The God of Death had collapsed under the weight of the spell, unlike Minato who tanked his best attempt and remained standing. The heat had burned through his innards several times over and he was finally knocked down from the skies, tasting the ashes of his own flesh inside his mouth as he laid down on the floor, the waves of flames running him several times over until the torture came finally came to end, reducing much of the floor to ash, alongside his minions-
"Go!" Minato pushed Hamuko in the direction of the downed appraiser and took only a second to get his senses back in order. He was absolutely thrashed from the spell earlier but each time he would be brought close to death, he was reminded of the promise he had made to Pharos.
Minato coughed out blood and smacked himself on the head, his dazed eyes hardening as the promise echoed over and over again. The blunet sent a small healing wave down his body, stomped a few times to get the feeling back in his legs and then he set off, quickly catching up to Hamuko-
Burned from inside out due to the cataclysmic heat, Ryoji attempted to rise up but found two strikes bouncing off his face, scrambling his brains as knuckles and shin collided against the top of his head. He lashed out with a sloppy swing of his weapon and got back to his, stumbling and dazed and suffering another series of blows to his face as the two were right in his face, moving around him constantly-
"Come on," Minato said, not stopping his erratic movement as he kept circling around and around, hoping to disrupt his focus as Hamuko in the opposite direction, forcing the appraiser to alter between the two of them as they both carried weapons capable of cleaving him in half. "We're still standing!"
Upon that, Ryoji lunged at his former vessel, crashing his weight onto Minato who stepped back after the collision, swinging his sword to block the incoming blade of the Avatar. The collision blew the blunet backwards and Ryoji hissed, catching the female from the corner of his eyes-
Hamuko kept her pace and walked through another storm of red energy with her arms crossed, battling back the numbness and hurling the hammer in her grip towards the God of Death. Ryoji was able to sidestep the projectile and immediately called upon the power of the shadows, stabbing the blades of the magician into the arms of the female and just barely missing her neck-
The hammer came back at him and Ryoji lost his focus when the weapon smashed the back of his head, crumbling his base to a knee. Another heavy shot dropped him to his hands and Hamuko broke free from the binds. She did not bother healing the minor wounds on her arm and ran for the two, determined to keep the pressure on-
Ryoji saw the wielder of the hammer from the corner of his eye and exploded towards him, trying to claw his face to pieces with his bare hands but Minato moved his head and slammed another shot to his ribs before he chucked the hammer in the opposite direction-
Hamuko jumped up to grab a hold of Mjolnir as the weapon came right at her. The skies opened up and the redhead called upon a bolt of thunder from above, striking the appraiser just as he was about to pick himself up from the ground-
Ryoji struggled but reflected the attack by summoning the barrier around him again, electrocuting the nearby blunet until Minato switch his persona and moved through the bolts of electricity, rifling a punch just as the barrier wore off-
Ryoji blocked the strike and hissed through his teeth, breaking off entirely when Hamuko came back into the melee and swung the hammer for his head. He took a few steps back and summoned the revolver into his left arm, shooting out a slew of bullets as the two persona users closed in on him, using the same, confusing footwork and patterns to mess up his understanding of distance-
The little bastards were not stopping-
Hamuko called upon another bolt from the skies to startle the appraiser and the blunet rushed past her, trying to grasp the mask but Ryoji blocked his attempt despite the bolts coursing through his body. He grabbed onto his bare hand and twisted the wrist in the opposite direction, determined to shatter his joint into bits-
Minato moved just enough and Hamuko flanked the appraiser from the side, getting a punch for her troubles, followed by a bullet that went for her head and she barely avoided the slug, hissing as it went past her cheek to open up another fresh bruise-
The blunet wrestled the revolver out of the grip of the appraiser and shot a bullet right for his eye, forcing Ryoji a step backwards. His eye was quick to regenerate but another strike from Hamuko on the chest opened his mouth and Minato fired a bullet without hesitation, setting off a loud bang of the bullet and a maddening screech of pain that followed just a second after as the bullet exploded from the back of his head-
The revolver disappeared upon command and Ryoji caught the blunet in a wild flurry, shredding open his cheek and coming real close to slicing his face open until Minato hurled a thunder infused uppercut for his face, blowing him backwards-
Hamuko picked up her speed and went past her fellow wild card, concentrating several million volts around the hammer as a last resort since the weapon was starting to break due to the constant trauma. She focused the reminder of her strength on her arms and jumped up after another buff, wrapping the weapon in several layers of thunder which she called upon from the skies. She locked her eyes onto Ryoji who was ready, with his blade raised for defense. He sneered and taunted her over and Hamuko obliged, moving as fast as the thunder in the skies-
Ryoji braced himself for the impact as Hamuko came down like a comet, swinging for his face but the massive blade of the appraiser blocked her attempt, momentarily stunning the two of them as the impact was felt down to the bone. The clash opened the skies above and more of the element came crashing down onto earth, berserk, and lashing out at the surroundings as the weapons remained locked in a stalemate, spreading the havoc of nature-
Hamuko widened her eyes as her hands started shaking and her teeth began to clatter, even when she found her footing. She was immune thanks to her persona of choice but Ryoji, despite not possessing the immunity was tough enough to shrug off the thunder that had crashed down on him. He stood in the same stance, not budging an inch despite the volts tearing through his armor and body. Slowly but surely, he was starting to turn the tide on her, his blade flashing with red energy and moving towards her neck-
"Stay on your fucking feet!"
Hamuko opened her eyes and let out a deep exhale when she felt a hand wrapping around her own, strengthening her grip around the handle of the hammer. The immense pressure that was threatening to shatter her knees dissipated and she looked beside her, finding a head of blue hair and a bloodied face with a hint of a smile-
"THOR!"
Minato called upon the very same persona as her and the summoning rocked the tower again, generating another ton of pressure and tearing open another arc along the skies, followed by a deafening roar of thunder. Ryoji was forced to look up as a storm erupted in the darkness of the sky, raging across the entirety of the stratosphere, building up from a weather disturbance to a catastrophe for the ages-
The tempest of wind and thunder crashed down from the skies, directly upon the hammer that the two wielded, sparking a violent eruption of electricity and another loud crash as the hammer shattered to pieces. Minato gasped as the metal scraps collapsed in a heap but something else formed in his grip, a weapon much larger and far more destructive than the hammer of Thor-
"Now, Hamuko!"
Hamuko clenched the handle of the new weapon as hard as she could, and she felt the squeeze of his hand around her knuckles, helping her carry the weight of whatever the hell they were holding. The raging tempest blew over; startling Ryoji as he lost the grip around the hilt of his blade and his foes swung the moment his focus slipped-
Hamuko swung the crafted battle-axe with as much force as she could muster, aiming for the head like always and this time, the blade of the appraiser stood no chance as the axe shattered the same into pieces and then crashed into his face with astonishing impact-
CRACK-
Pieces of the mask broke off from his face and Ryoji howled to the skies, legitimately concussed by the blow to his head as the axe was over ten times more powerful than Mjolnir. The single shot crumbled his base but Ryoji had enough senses to back off, clutching the shattered side of his head as he tried to gather his senses-
"I leave this to you, Hamuko," Minato whispered, giving her broken fist a squeeze. "I know you can do it."
"Minato, I," Hamuko was a tad unsure about being able to wield the stupidly powerful axe on her own but the blunet soon let go of the handle, but not before a whisper of-
"Help me…"
Hamuko almost collapsed due to the immense weight the moment Minato released his grip around the axe and brushed past her, looking to distract him long enough for Hamuko to land a decisive blow with the new weapon. The redhead hissed in exertion, the joints in her arm cracking as she tried her hardest to wield the axe all on her own but as she struggled, she looked ahead at him and swore-
"Right behind you, leader,"
Minato gave a glance back and then looked straight ahead, swinging an overhand punch for the dazed God and the strike woke up the appraiser as it connected on the jaw, grounding the entity momentarily but Ryoji was quick to get to his feet, shooting out another stream of almighty energy as the blunet closed in on him again-
The stream of energy breezed past his cheek and Minato rose up from under the spell, connecting with another hook to the side of his head, doubling the appraiser over. The blunet noticed a few more cracks along the edges of the mask and grunted, slamming his knee at full force at the same exact spot-
Ryoji cupped his ankle as he went down and he hurled the blunet in the opposite direction, gaining sufficient distance and a bit of time but Minato came right back, violently kicking his head but the moment he did, Ryoji expelled the blades of the magician as a reflex, leading to a gasp of pain from Minato as the knives found his limbs-
Minato hacked out some blood, shivering slightly as he glanced at his left arm, which was now a mass of mostly dead cells as the tissues and tendons in the limb had decayed due to the constant abuse, rendering the color an ugly shade of purple and black. He barely clenched the same fist and Ryoji rose from the ground, looking to target his throat next-
A small flicker of light from the skies halted him and the moment the appraiser looked up, an absolutely massive bolt of thunder came down from the heavens, hitting him head on. The limbs of the shadow burned off upon contact and Minato collapsed to a knee, very well aware of what had happened-
"Sorry I took so long," Hamuko came up beside him, bolts of needle-like electricity crackling around her body as she wielded the new weapon in one hand, ready to slam the heavy axe on the ugly mask of the appraiser as much as her leader wanted. "I'm at your command, my leader."
Ryoji came to his senses after the ungodly blast of electricity and saw that the bitch was standing next to him and in her left hand-
Minato gestured her to follow and ran as soon as he saw the speck of hesitance on the face of the appraiser as he was looking to get the hell away from the axe-
"Thanatos!"
Ryoji was forced to change his stance as his reflection came at him with another ungodly roar, stunning him for a second as the horrifying screech led to a whiplash of old memories. Ryoji came back to his usual personality when the persona sliced through his left wing, cutting him down to the bone-
"Disappear!"
Minato called and upon command, the persona dissipated, depriving Ryoji of a counterattack. The blunet ran through the fading mist, holding up his hand and calling upon two personas-
"Seighfried!"
The blue mist reacted to his every step and coiled around the Avatar of Nyx, making him hiss in irritation as he was forced to glance back and forth between Minato and the damn persona emerging from the vortex of spiritual energy behind him-
Minato yelled something obscene regarding Nyx to get the attention of Ryoji and as usual, the God of Death took the bait and he screamed something about Hamuko in return, calling her every vile name in the damn book. Those words, however, bounced off Minato and a glint of red flashed in his right hand, followed by streaks of flames erupting towards the skies as the persona user called upon the weapon of Surt-
"Vorpal Blade!"
Ryoji had forgotten about the persona due to his fixation on the words of Minato, and he was given a painful reminder as the attack struck him without mercy, mostly focused on his remaining wing and cutting a bulk of his forelimb before Ryoji whipped in the opposite direction and ripped the head off the persona-
The hissing and sizzling of the magma widened his hollow eyes and Ryoji rushed in desperation, swinging a wild arc of his blade, one that Minato saw coming from a mile away. He ducked under and returned the missed attempt with a swing of Leviathan, finding the spot on the side of his face and igniting a blaze around his head with a single shot of the flaming sword-
Ryoji dispelled the flames with his bare hands and screeched the next second as the sword of Surt struck him a second time, setting his back ablaze and burning the reminder of his forelimbs to ash, rendering him incapable of taking off into the skies during the upcoming slaughter-
The appraiser was just about to turn towards the direction of the pest who had burned his wings to ash but this time, he was stopped dead in his tracks, his own body reacting to the destruction coming his way. The boom of thunder in the skies made him look back and he saw the other persona user coming straight for him. Her movement was amplified several times over due to the powers of the axe and she closed the distance between them in a snap-
"What did you call me!?" Hamuko demanded to know, slicing through his right arm with the axe, like a hot knife going through butter as the limb came off with minimum effort from the redhead. The appraiser yelled in pain and tried to backtrack, only to get his legs kicked from under him. His knees crashed to the floor and Hamuko shredded through the thick armor on his body, burning through the exposed flesh with another brutal burst of thunder but amongst the ringing in his ears, Ryoji could clearly hearing Minato shouting-
"You should have gone for the head!"
Hamuko dug the axe out of his chest and Ryoji put up his arm in desperation as Hamuko aimed for the head as Minato had instructed. Another cruel surge of electricity blackened the senses of Ryoji and his other arm came off his shoulder, followed by another concussive blow as the bit of the axe, charged up with every last bit of power from the last drop of blood of Hamuko, smashed against his head, cutting through the crown and lodging into the edge-
Ryoji felt every single volt down to his core and went berserk, a feminine screech ringing in the back of his head as the axe started to crumble but so did the mask etched onto his face, setting off a chorus of warning bells in his darkened psyche. The surge of electricity was drowned out by a blast of dark magic and Hamuko lost her grip on the handle of the axe when the pressure crushed her chest, blowing her backwards-
Ryoji let loose the desperate wave of dark mass and while it was enough to create distance from Hamuko, the girl had enough sense to pull the axe out of his head and call for her partner-
"Catch, Minato!"
She hurled the weapon at the blunet the second she called out to him, doing so just a second before she collapsed from the damage but the axe sliced through the air and Minato caught the weapon with his right hand, pumping up a power charge and switching from Thanatos to Thor for the final strike-
Ryoji barely turned his head and panicked at the sight of Minato holding up the axe, calling forth a final burst of thunder from the skies before he slammed the edge of the axe onto the head of the appraiser as hard he could, occasioning a disgusting sound of godly metal shredding through flesh and an erratic shower of electricity-
The axe finally crumbled upon the impact but Ryoji suffered far worse as the force of the ungodly blow broke the bones in the neck and his head collapsed on itself in a gruesome display, plunging down to his marred chest as Hamuko had disposed of the armor beforehand. The blunet hardened his eyes at the sight and used the last bit of force to hammer the severed head of the appraiser down to his stomach, shredding open his entire body with the handle of the axe sticking out of his pelvis-
Minato withstood the upcoming blast of dark magic as he switched back to his prime persona. He had a half a mind to attack the God as soon as he was done regenerating but he passed up on the chance. Instead, he ran up to Hamuko, and the girl was shivering on the ground, clutching her stomach as the last burst of darkness had caught her off guard-
"Are you okay?" Minato helped her up, rubbing her back as the girl coughed a little.
"I-I'm fine," Hamuko assured, looking up at him. She glanced at his left arm and nearly blanched as the color was a horrendous shade of purple, with numerous disgusting patches of black and green. "Are YOU okay?"
"I'll be fine," Minato assured her in return and stared back at the disgusting reformation of the appraiser, with his mutilated head rising up from his disfigured stomach, drenched in ichor and other, disgusting bodily fluids. "Get ready, he'll be back in no time." he was about to step forward again but Hamuko held onto him, reminiscent of the way she had held him during the whole day. She did not talk for a few seconds, trying to compose her thoughts and refusing to let go of his arm.
"That Night Queen that you took, I didn't like that," Hamuko muttered slowly, remembering the fresh scene and clutching her chest as she struggled not to lose it the flash of the cruel memory. She had seen Minato beaten up, sliced open, electrocuted, burned and even mercilessly abused but something in her heart crumbled when Minato tossed her out of the way to tank the spell from the skies. "I thought I was going to lose you…"
"I'm not going anywhere," Minato promised and gripped her hand as reassurance. She stumbled on her feet but soon stood upright, knowing that they had to go through a lot more.
"You better not," Hamuko said, clenching the same hand as a means to convey the severity of her following words. "Something happens to you in this battle, and I am following you wherever you go."
"Hamuko…?" Minato blinked, taking his sights off Ryoji to stare at Hamuko, as the quiver in her voice flustered him. "What are you…?"
Hamuko sucked up the anxiety and shook her head, masking her vulnerable state of mind with a long deep breath and blocking the wail that was threatening to burst out by biting her lower lip. The battle was not easy on her, not one bit. She was fine with herelf getting mauled and beaten to a pulp but she had to watch and suffer Minato getting abused over and over again as the battle had crippled him in ways she could not even imagine. As he stood next to her, he barely resembled the Minato she had spent the night with yesterday as Ryoji had unleashed an ungodly assault on him and reduced him to a mangled corpse.
He was never going to be the same again, and that broke her heart.
"Nothing, I'm fine," Hamuko took one last deep breath and released the grip around his hand and arm. "Just stay away from the spell, okay?"
Hamuko stepped forward and took a glance at the God of Death, clicking her tongue when the wings began to spread out through his back-
"What the heck even is that spell?" Hamuko wondered. "The damage is unlike anything I have ever felt before but at the same time, it almost feels nostalgic…"
"That attack is probably the essence of what they are," Minato mused, standing shoulder to shoulder with his partner as Ryoji was just about done, staring at the two of them as his neck began to crack into place, bones building up before the mask of flesh. "That spell is Death, a divine command from Nyx and Ryoji, but somewhere in that essence, there is a flicker of…"
"Pharos…" Hamuko said, having encountered a split second vision of the boy herself, when Ryoji had blasted her with the spell in the final minutes of their battle. Her eye widened at the implication and she snapped her head towards Minato as the realization dawned on her. If that spell contained the essence of Nyx and Ryoji, then… "Does… Does that mean he has been keeping us from dying all this time!?"
Minato said nothing. He only gritted his teeth and focused back on the unholy fusion of the God of Death, and the Queen of the Night but somewhere in the crude mixture of hatred, insanity and bloodlust, existed the little boy whom he had befriended. His presence was merely a flicker in the endless void of a dark being of cosmic proportions, a drop of pure water in an ocean of blood and yet, all this time he had been fighting his own battle to keep them alive-
If not for Pharos, then he and Hamuko would have died way before.
"I'm going to break that fucking mask," Minato swore. "Bite it off with my teeth if I have to."
Hamuko nodded, having gotten the air back in her lungs. "I'm with you to the end of this battle, leader."
A dense shockwave, tinged a small shade of red erupted from the rejuvenated body of the appraiser and the entity floated a few feet above the ground, his head hanging low, partly in rage and partly in shame as the last decapitation was brutal, and not something that a God should have gone through-
"YOU FILTHY FUCKING PESTS!"
Ryoji turned his head up and Minato squinted, jaw clenched as he fixed his eyes on once invulnerable mask. After the assault of his scythe, numerous fusion spell and stormy axe, the mask of Nyx was finally started to show wear and tear. The previous scratch on the corner had now worsened to a noticeable break, one that ran down to the middle of his face, with the origin point on the edge blown off, revealing a tuft of black hair and a patch of pale skin-
"That facial structure…." Hamuko whispered to herself, tracing the shape of the face with her eyes and likening the resemblance to someone she knew very well.
Minato noticed the resemblance as well and took a step forward, triggering his foe to another heated barrage of insults towards the two. He hurled the insults and spat each single time, as if his throat was poisoned with their names. Eventually, he took flight and rocked the city of Iwatodai and shifted the path of the skies with another bloodcurdling scream-
The two persona users had been listening to his yelling and screaming all night long but something was quite different about the yell this time. Before, his screams were was potent with a crap-ton of hatred and insanity and were often used a means to communicate that he wanted them dead, but this time, his voice was more like a call for help-
Minato had an inkling as to what was going to happen and seconds later, his hypothesis was proven true when the moon responded to the cry for help. The goddamn moon that had been the bane of the humanity's existence released another crippling shockwave, one that exploded on the surface of the celestial body but the sound came down like a meteor crashing to earth with inhumane velocity, likely heard across the world-
Another pulse on the surface led to the moon splitting in half, much to the shock of the two persona users on earth, as they were forced to watch horrifying spectacle. Minato was aghast at the thought of the moon exploding this close to the surface of the earth but instead of exploding outright, the moon simply stared shedding its skin, discarding the layer of white and yellow and wasting the same into the vastness of space-
The shell behind the layer was unlike anything he had seen before and he could not put into words what he was looking at. The celestial body was a tad smaller after shedding the extra layer but the interior looked far more grotesque, resembling a body part of some otherworldly being. The yellow and white moon was now a dark shade of gray, with a massive, gaping hole in the middle, holding in an endless void of darkness, a mass so dark that it almost shone when Minato looked directly at it-
"Is that… Nyx?" Hamuko asked after the long silence, not able to wrap her head around the fact that the goddamn moon was the physical body of the cursed entity. She was hoping that Minato's theory was just that, a theory and not reality, but what had happened in the last few seconds was sufficient proof that the moon itself was Nyx. "How is this even possible?"
"This will be the final stretch," Minato said, summoning his blade while Hamuko picked one up from the ground, raising the weapon up for the inevitable rush of the appraiser.
"One last time," Minato whispered-
"Together," Hamuko finished, determined to see through the battle with him, alive-
Ryoji came back down to earth in an instant, like a black blur due to the enhanced speed and he did not stop for a second. After hitting the ground, the black mass rebounded towards the direction of the two persona users, starting the final round-
"He's likely faster and stronger," Minato shouted, getting his voice across to Hamuko and pushing her away to cover the fight from the distance. "Stay on your guard at all times and-!"
"Don't you DARE FUCKING DIE on me!"
Hamuko screamed back at the last second, not giving a shit about his briefing and overriding his order with a primal demand of her own. Her piercing cry broke Minato's concentration and despite his body aching all over and his blood running cold due to the exhaustion, the grief and despair in her voice got to him, even in the unbearable heat of a calamitous battle against a literal force of nature.
What the hell was he going to do?
"…"
The promise to Pharos-
The promise to his friends-
The promise to make amend for his sins-
The promise to save the world at whatever cost, even his life-
All of those promises and oaths took a backseat for a second as one singular desire surfaced in his heart, making him swallow the lump in his head when he realized that his desire and his duties were irreconcilable but at the same time, a flicker of the old selfish bastard took over his mind, body and soul-
This last battle never had a happy ending and as he fought towards the end, the reality of a certain fate was starting to dawn on him. His body had been screaming the same at him ever since he took the first Night Queen at point blank range. He was able to block that when he waged war against the appraiser but that one shout from Hamuko got him thinking and stressing over where this battle was headed and for that brief moment, he knew just one thing.
Duties and promises be damned and cursed-
"I don't want to go away either..."
He didn't want to leave Hamuko either...
"I want to live with you..."
The next, final part is about 70 percent done and I am writing it as we speak. I'll put it up in a few days.
Everything else is discontinued. This is the fic that matters now.
See you on the final battle I'll ever write. Thank you so much, to everyone who is reading. Reviews or not, I will finish this and I appreciate you sticking along this long ride.
Cheers! I'll see you in a few days.