Ch.64 The Secret of Inversion
Paradiso
While this meeting with his future self is continuing, Shido grips his legs and takes a deep breath "Hey, could you tell me how to fix everything?"
Confused, the elder Shido asks "What do you mean? Do you wish to figure out what to do about DEM, the Spirits, or perhaps of the situation you're currently in?"
Thinking on it, Shido continues his train of thought "Well, this place is crazy overwhelming. I come here, and….everything is too much here." He looks around and just takes in everything he can.
But before anything else can happen, the angel from before, Yetzer Hatov, appears before Shido with a delicate smile and a happy aura "Natsumi is about to give birth." This causes both of them to stand up and have looks of surprise on their faces.
Inverse Tohka Timeline
Mana slams into a building and is covered in injuries as she struggles to get up with a pained expression on her face. Aki appears before her with a plain expression on his face "It's nothing personal, Mana Takamiya. But I can't let you interfere with us anymore."
Mana coughs a bit, raises herself a little and pleads "Aki, I don't want to hurt you."
She attempts to put a territory up, but it doesn't affect him at all as he picks her up by the throat and he retorts "Hurt me? I'm not the one covered in bruises. But that's the least of your problems." He holds his sword in his hand as if he's ready to run it through Mana's body. But before he can, his arm trembles while holding the sword.
"He's still in there." Mana thinks as she sees the sword slightly approaching.
Aki is about to make the kill, when a blast of light strikes him from behind, he looks behind and sees Hiro floating outside the building holding his light blades and in his Spirit Form. The light powered Hiro rushes up to Aki and slashes his blades at him, but Aki skillfully blocks the slashes and holds Hiro at bay with his sword pressed against the dual blades.
Hiro jumps in the air and gets to other side of Aki's body with amazing speed and kicks him out of the hole in the building. He looks down and holds out his arm to Mana, and she accepts his help to stand up. She slings herself over her nephew's body and he helps hold her up.
"So, have any bright ideas here?" She asks with a slight smirk.
Hiro looks uneasy "Don't know, but it looks like holding back isn't going to do much for us." He simply says.
Aki holds floats near the hole and shows his sword once more. Elsewhere, Saori holds her sword and slices Akane's face with great velocity as the dark flames surround her body, and the flame Spirit Child head butts her in the face.
Propelled back, Saori feels her face and notices blood on her face now and looks at Akane's who's face wound immediately regenerates with black fires. "Damn it! That little flame bitch is a lot stronger now, and my clones are occupied with the sword girl. But let's see how this works." She thinks, and then she waves her arms "Stop them, Lucifuge!" she shouts as the demon king points to another number and a barrier forms within a few meter radius as all the colors seem to inverse as Saori smiles sadistically. Akane simply stands still and then, she stops moving for anything.
"Let's see you regenerate from this!" Saori shouts as she slices at Akane's body with her sword and then she summons a shadow that rips through Akane's body at multiple sections, she then jumps back and shoots multiple times with her gun, then dashes up again, points her gun at Akane's head, and smiles.
"Bye Bye, flame girl." She mockingly says as she pulls the trigger as Akane just stands motionless. Saori's eye glows red and she says "Now, time flow again." As Akane's body gushes blood from all parts of her body as it appears that her body is about to fall to pieces, which Saori smirks at the sight.
However, Akane just stands still "Time stop, really?" She sarcastically asks as her body is casually engulfed in fire as her wounds immediately close.
Agitated, Saori shouts "No way! I am not losing to you again!" She then announces "Descend, Lucifuge!" as her demon king appears once more and she looks at the clock, annoyed "Damn, I've used too much time." She then summons her swords from before her inversion and then she grips the back with her finger tips as her expression turns to nervous as her body glows with negative mana and she begins letting out a painful yell as the clock behind her winds backwards.
Up in the sky, Haru fights off the three clones, as she flies up to avoid being shot, and sees the multiple Zafkiel's point at different hours. Knowing what they can do, she holds her sword to her body and raises a shield of energy, that blocks the shots.
"If those three have all of Kurumi's abilities…This is going to be tricky."
But, suddenly, one of clones seemingly explodes with black fire engulfing her body as she falls. Looking down, Haru sees a grinning Akane with smoke coming from her palm. Saori, is on her knees sweating as she struggles to stand up.
"Damn, Shinra, of course he'd make it tough for me…." She then glows with her negative mana, yelling "But that doesn't mean I'm letting you off yet!" Upon shouting this, a loud punching noise echoes as Saor looks down and sees Akane punching her fist into her (Saori's) abdomen which causes her to cough up a spurt of blood, then a spark of fire erupts from her fist as Saori's body is sent skyward with a burn forming on her stomach with a ball of fire shooting from Akane's fist.
Flying in the air, she makes a straight shot up, and then ends up on the ground with smoke coming from her stomach and blood soaking the front of her astral dress.
"Get up!" Akane shouts to the downed Saori, who twitches a bit but does start to pick herself up, coughing up pieces of flesh, even some teeth, but she just growls.
"Come, Lucifuge!" She shouts as she angrily jumps back and she seemingly melts into her demon king's form as the hands begin to turn backwards. "You'll wander forever." She then emerges, uninjured from her clock and she looks at the sky, seeing her three clones again.
"Hey, move out of the way!" she shouts to the clones as one looks over and sees a fireball coming towards her, and she manages to dodge it.
Growling again, Saori looks at Akane with hate, the latter saying "I don't know how you knew that I was about to do that, but it's not going to help much."
Saori clenches her weapons, looks to the ground, and annoyingly states "I really didn't want to use this here, but it's looking like I've got little options left. Then so be it!" She then opens up a few portals around her body as five angels resembling Kurumi appear and their extremities glow with each finger and each toe as they join together in a circular formation.
"I didn't collect these five to fight you guys, but I refuse to lose here. So I'll end this no matter what." The five then begin to glow with their entire bodies as feint laughter can be heard. "I didn't simply hide the entire time, I was collecting resources, going from universe to universe, collecting these." A large sum of threads erupt from the five clones being to spin in a circle with each thread going into a small dark vortex.
Elsewhere, Mana and Hiro are clashing with Aki as they look to the side and sees what they think is a cloud.
"What the freaking hell is that?" Mana asks in horror.
Hiro equips his visor and zooms in, his face turning to horror "This isn't good."
Back at the fight, Saori begins laughing as she looks at the mass forming above them "Yes, isn't it the most beautiful thing ever created by this power?" She laughs insanely.
In the sky, Akane looks up with her eyes glowing purple now as she sees an army of wizards, dead-looking, with various injuries on their bodies, including some missing body parts. Leading them is the corpse of a dead Ellen and Artemesia.
Saori holds her weapons forward, declaring "I call this, Macabre Dance of Spell casters! Now, it's ShowTime!"
Akane just watches on as the wizards scatter all over, as they quickly overwhelm the scenery. Then, Saori smiles as various territories form around her body and then it floats higher while disappearing into the mass of corpses.
In the sky, Haru sees the mass and thinks "I got to finish this quick!" She then stares at the three clones near her, but then, they begin to glow red and then disappear into particles that soar towards the mass while she leaps out of the way as she feels something shooting past her.
She looks behind and sees Aki staring at her with Mana in his grasp and Hiro nowhere to be found, until Haru looks back forward and sees Hiro embedded into a wall. She looks frustrated seeing him float with Mana looking defeated as he casually tosses her onto a rooftop nearby. He then extends his hand and motions towards her. But Haru simply puts up her guard.
Moments later, Aki dashes towards her as their swords clash with each other, sending a massive shockwave of negative mana everywhere. Then, he begins a rapid slash towards her, but she manages to match his speed and power, swinging her key-like sword with accuracy and precision.
Struggling to get up, Hiro looks towards the fight, frustrated "I can't believe how strong he's gotten. I thought my new Spirit powers would help, but it's not enough to win this fight." Then he looks at the mass of dead wizards "But maybe this fight isn't one I'm fit to go into just yet." He then glows with a bright light as he picks himself up, his wounds heal a bit, and he flies towards the mass of corpses.
Bifrost
Aboard the ship, Kotori and Ellen wander carefully around the ship while Freki waits patiently in her confinement. She waits some more while keeping her body temperature up with her magic as she glows a little black while waiting.
Outside, the two can feel the cold getting worse. They then turn the corner and see something ominous, a bunny-like ice statue that appears to be breathing. Kotori, looking nervous backs to the corner again with Ellen.
"That's not an angel, but I still don't like it." She comments to Ellen.
But Ellen looks around the corner herself, and sees Miyuki sitting atop of the statue, similar to how Yoshino rides Zadkiel, but her eyes aren't open.
"It would be simple if that were an enemy, or even someone older. But we can't hurt her." Ellen replies.
They then hear multiple footsteps coming forward, the look and see the creature approaching the corner, so they decide to move slowly away, until the find a door that is frozen shut. Acting quick, Kotori uses her fire to melt the ice and then she goes inside to see Freki, now back up and she kicks Kotori in the face immediately and is knocked against the wall.
Then, the creature begins to move faster down the hall while Ellen looks back and sees Kotori have a slight mark on her face that immediately heals up.
Seeing Freki's changed appearance from her power, Kotori spits a bit "Well, guess this means either you're being controlled, a fake, or just a plain jerk."
Ellen looks at the tattoo on Freki's head as she backs away "She's a clone, just like the other one." she announces to Kotori.
"Well, she's good. Let's see how she compares to the original." Kotori casually says, but Freki's eyes turn to anger a bit. Before she realizes it, Ellen feels cold around her body, looks behind and is now looking at the eyes of the ice beast.
Freki raises her finger, and a small circle forms around her finger as it appears some small negative energy forms around her finger, and she fires a beam of negative mana towards Ellen, who doesn't even notice, but Kotori tries to block the attack using her hand, knowing she will just heal it. However, the blast seemingly deflects from around Ellen's face, and it shoots back at Freki, who takes a shot to the shoulder, putting a small hole in her shoulder.
"Wh-what the hell was that?" She says, feeling her shoulder, and then looking at her hand now covered in blood.
Kotori looks up atop the beast again, and she notices something behind Miyuki's body, a small green light that begins forming into a feminine form. It then grows into a full grown-looking Yoshino wearing a simple light green dress, who smiles as she rubs Miyuki's head. But, the adult Yoshino opens her mouth as a voice like of her mother is heard.
"Gently Weeps!"
Hearing that name, Kotori wonders "Wait? Does she read what I think she reads?" then she looks around Ellen's body and sees ice particles float in the air as the field around Ellen's body begins to freeze in place, but she appears to be fine. Also, the ice creature suddenly forms an ice patch over its face, resembling Yoshinon's.
Without any warning, the ice beast charges past Kotori and Ellen, their bodies not feeling any of the cold coming from the beast as it charges at Freki, who glows a bit as she dashes backwards with a dark streak following her body.
Freki desperately flees while holding her shoulder as she looks to see Miyuki's beast still chasing her. Ellen and Kotori remain behind, confused by the situation.
"I don't get it, I thought Miyuki couldn't control her powers. So how's she using stuff like that? Kotori wonders.
But Ellen just looks equally shocked as they try to get warmed up again since the ship is still frozen. The fights are still going on, but the tides are turning on all ends.