SailorStar9: With Chapter 22 uploaded, this is Chapter 23 of this fic. For everyone who put this fic on your favorited and followed lists and/or story alerts, thank you, but remember everyone, a lot of authors (myself included) sustain on readers' reviews.
Disclaimers: Nothing here are mine, well, except the plot.
Chapter 23: Sun Devil, Ambassador of Evil
Sometime later...
Sun Devil descended from the night sky, falling into Mount Aso and freezing it.
At the same time...
Athena's senses had picked up the new arrival.
The next day...
"I'm staving." Kento whined, sinking onto the sofa, Mia having taken Ryo and Yuli to Mount Fuji to repair the Swords of Wildfire. "What's Mia doing? If she doesn't get back and feed me, I think I'll die."
"They called to tell us the swords are fixed. Rowen informed. "Maybe we'll celebrate, Kento."
"This phenomenon on Mount Aso erupting and then quickly calming is a first since observations first began." Cye hushed the others when the news report came in. "A further mystery is the layer of black ice which quickly formed as if to create a seal in the mountain. It is not clear as to why this has happened, but experts are onsite to investigate. In other news, last night..."
"The only thing that can so that is..." Kento realized.
"The power of the netherworld?" Rowen guessed.
"That's bad." Cye concluded.
"They'd be going after Ryo right now." Sage reasoned.
"Yeah." Rowen agreed. "It's easier to get one than four."
"Right," Sage decided. "Let's catch up with them."
"I see your friends have arrived." Sun Devil dodged Rowen's arrow by jumping onto a tree.
"You guys." the armored-up Ryo looked at the other Ronin Warriors.
"Another demon from the netherworld?" Sage frowned.
"We'll deal with you." Cye declared. "Come!"
"Careful." Ryo warned. "He's a tricky one."
"Here I come!" Sun Devil jumped down to engage his opponents. Flailing his whip, he split them up into five lashes, each tendril tightening around one Ronin Warrior's neck. "Forget it." he chuckled s Ryo tried to cut himself free. "Your swords can't sever my whip." swinging the handle down, he paralyzed all five Ronin Warriors with black lightning. With his opponents immobilized, he stabbed down at Ryo with his spear-ax when Whiteblaze intercepted, pushing Sun Devil off and landed beside Athena; the young Goddess had foregone her glowing white dress and opted for a sailor school uniform.
"Who the hell are you?" Ryo demanded the uncloaked Sun Devil.
"I am Sun Devil." the demon introduced himself. "My master has ordered me to take your armor to him."
"The armors?" Rowen echoed.
"I knew it." Sage hissed.
Ringing the bells attached to his ax-spear, Sun Devil created four more clones of himself, each taking on a Ronin Warrior.
"Now, there's five of them." Kento defended himself.
"It was wrong of you to think that there was just one of me." Sun Devil laughed. "The Ronin Warriors who humiliated the netherworld; I want to see the power that was able to defeat our Emperor of the Netherworld."
"You're after the armor, too?" Rowen demanded.
"Let me see the armor." Sun Devil insisted. His attention was diverted by Whiteblaze who attacked, biting him on the arm. "Annoying beast." he faced off against the tiger. "I have seen this tiger before." he stated. "Right. It's Blackblaze, Saber-stryke's old tiger. Away with you!" he tossed five kunai at the dashing tiger who dodged the knives and continued his charge. "Die!" Sun Devil drew out his dagger and slashed at the jumping Whiteblaze, hitting the white tiger and surrounding him with black lightning.
With a roar, Whiteblaze summoned down power from the darkening sky, taking on Blackblaze's form.
"Blackblaze?" Ryo blinked. "That's right. That form is that of Saber-stryke's Blackblaze. Those are Saber-stryke's swords." he spotted the Swords of Fervor. "The swords..." he turned to the reverberating Swords of Wildfire. "The swords are resonating with each other."
"Ryo." Kento caught the fire Senshi's attention ."Why am I glowing?"
"The swords and our armors are resonating with each other." Rowen realized.
"Which can only mean..." Sage trailed.
"The white armor is trying to activate." Cye came to the same conclusion.
"Show him the ballistic power." Kento urged.
"You've got the Swords of Fervor." Rowen reminded.
"But that armor will suck all the power from you." Ryo protested.
"It's okay." Rowen assured.
"Now, show me the white armor." Sun Devil commanded, his ax-spear stopping short from Ryo's helmet as the other Ronin Warriors' armor powers merged with his to form the Inferno Armor. "So, you have finally appeared." he droned. "And the swords Blackblaze is carrying were parting gifts from Saber-stryke, huh? I am Sun Devil. My duty here is to learn the power of your swords and your armor. My master's orders are to determine the extent of your power. Now, take this. My Tomb of Black Ice!" creating copies of himself, he used the clones as foci and called down a pillar of energy that turned into expanding ice, which then encased the five Ronin Warriors in an ice sleet. "They were so easily frozen." he mocked. "I thought the armor could do better against my power. Well, come on, Athena." he reached a hand to the young Goddess. "My master awaits. Impossible." he turned when a flash of fire exploded from the ice. "He's broken through the ice that has the power to seal a volcano. The light!" he was taken aback by the fire tornado Ryo unleashed. "This is surely the power of the Inferno Armor."
Ryo brought his swords down, the streams of flame broke through the dark clouds, the attack taking out Sun Devil.
"What incredible power!" Sun Devil gushed, completely unfazed by the fact that his body was getting vaporized. "I now understand why my master had such high expectations. Behold, master!" he cried out, vanishing in a beam of light.
Sensing something amiss, Ryo let loose another stream of energy, revealing a Netherworld Gate behind the parting clouds. "Athena?" still in the Inferno Armor, Ryo was stopped from approaching the Gate by the Nike Staff.
"Your powers impress me, Ronin Warriors." Talpa's voice droned from the opened Gate.
"That voice?" Ryo gasped. "Talpa? You are alive?"
"Children of the Netherworld." Talpa continued. "Are you finally ready to return to your master? Did you not summon this gate? The power of your armor, brimming with evil; the Netherworld saw you as one of its own and has come to greet you with this gate. The power that you have just unleashed is clear proof of it. It's the armor of destruction. I will see you in the Netherworld. I look forward to it, children of the Netherworld." letting out a mocking laugh, he vanished the gate.
SailorStar9: Now that's done, read and review.
