Hey guys, sorry for the delay. I had some issues with my college classes. I had one over the summer as well as a trip to Italy during that semester. There was also not a lot of time for me to work on this chapter due to my classes last semester. Also, I'll try to make the rest of the arcs not take up multiple chapters.

With that out of the way: Onward with the plot!

Chapter 11: Wall Battle Part III

As Rin and his group faced off against Shima and Izumo, Joseph began to discuss a plan with Empress to try and get to Tower.

"Now, I want you to cover me using your ability," Joseph told her as he began to stretch his legs as if he was about to run a marathon. "I'll tell you when to use it and on what to use it on. Do you understand?" Joseph then got prepared to sprint past all of the Illuminati members that each totted machine guns that could chew through a person in a millisecond.

"May I remind you that I can only put 5 things in stasis at a time," Empress informed her boss with a stern look on her face.

"Oh, trust me, I know…" Joseph took a couple of deep breathes before he sprinted as fast as he could towards the multitude of enemies. The Adeptus Major extended her arm ordering all of her soldiers to shoot him. The moment one of them began to squeeze the trigger. Joseph began to put pressure down on his left leg as he began to jump. Once he became airborne the pressure in his leg shot out of it in a burst of energy, marking the stone floor with what seemed to be a spiral shape.

The power lifted him high into the air, crossing over a majority of the soldiers who were currently in awe of this display of power, it even caught Homare off guard for a few seconds. The Adeptus Major quickly regained composure and signaled a line of five soldiers to get out rocket launchers and fire at him.

"Empress, the rockets! Now!" Joseph shouted. Empress extended her arms out towards the rockets a purple energy aura began to surround five of the rockets and halted them in place to make a path over the soldiers. Joseph began to hop on each rocket, trying his best to try and not fall off them.

Once Joseph passed the over the soldiers, he then landed on the ground and began to dash towards Homare and Tower again. However, about a few meters away from the two an explosion of dust shot up directly in front of Joseph, causing him to be knocked backward.

This wasn't something like a grenade or a land mine. Apparently, a person had dive-bombed onto The Great Wall. The landing had caught the attention of every single person currently in the battle. The person rose from the ground, the dust from the landing hadn't even settled yet. A mysterious sound of metal scraping against metal surprised Tarot as the person clenched his fist.

Once the dust settled the image of the man became clear to them. He had a brown buzzcut with a few scars across his face. His uniform was unorthodox, wanting to wear the Illuminati coat around his waist, along with a black tank top that showed off both of his arms. On the right was a prosthetic arm that went all the way up to his shoulder and was made entirely out of steel with claws on the fingertips.

The man had a vicious aura surrounding him that made even Joseph stagger a bit. All of the Illuminati soldiers on the bridged bowed their heads once he landed. "Vega!" The Adeptus Major said with surprise. "What bring you here?"

The man now known as Vega starred at the opposing party. "I had business in the Middle East." He said. His voice was gravelly and was so chilling that it sent chills up Rin's spine. The Illuminati members now started cheering knowing that once this guy went into battle, they would win by a landslide.

"And while I would like to end this once and for all, the commander has informed us to retreat for now," Vega said as an Illuminati helicopter descended onto the bridge to let the members board it.

Homare stared at the captured Tarot member before they left. "What should we do about him?" Vega stared at the person she was talking about.

"Leave him. He'd just be dead weight."

Once all the surviving members boarded, the helicopter flew off to the west presumably back to their base. Rin watched as his goal was pulled straight from his grasp when he was so close to her.

He sank to his knees as Empress put a hand on his shoulder to try and comfort him. "Cheer up Fool, you'll be able to save her. I just know it."

Thankfully, her kind words soothed Rin's despaired filled heart. He still had almost 2 months left to save Izumo. He's got enough time to figure out a way to get that mask off of her.

~~~|X|~~~

Judgment had just finished untying the rope that was constraining Tower. "Phew! Thanks, I don't know what was going to happen to me if you guys didn't show up." Tower said trying to play it cool.

Joseph started to stroke his chin looking at him. "You have some explaining to do Tower" The members of Tarot looked at their boss in response. "Why the hell did you let yourself get captured by the Illuminati, your powers should've let you quickly take care of them. So, what's your excuse this time?"

Rin stared at Tower questioningly. 'This time?'

Just then, Joseph got a call on his phone and answered it.

"Hello?"

"What's up Hermit?"

Joseph then glared at Tower "You don't say…" Tower then started to get worried. He got off the phone and spoke with his subordinates. "Hermit just told me that you were going to betray us. For money." Pretty much the rest of the group looked at Tower in either shock or anger.

"What should we do boss?" Magician asked still surprised by the reveal of a traitor.

"I knew that one day I'd have to do this." He then pulled out a desert eagle from his lab coat. "I'm sorry Tower, but I'm gonna need your serum back."

Rin then dashed over next to Joseph and looked at him with a worried look on his face. "Wait! We don't have to kill him, do we?" He asked wondering if there was another way to solve this.

"Fool, I wish I could just inject the needle and draw out the serum from him. But it doesn't work like that." Rin raised his eyebrow as Joseph explained. "The serums only react to one specific person, and when that person dies it chooses another person. And even if that wasn't the case, he's still a threat. He could tell the Illuminati the path we are taking and have them ambush us." He then lowered his gun and put a hand on his shoulder. "Look. I don't want to do this as much as you do, but if it means saving your friend and defeating Michael then we must do what we can to succeed."

Tower then started to chuckle. "You think you can kill me off and replace me? Well, think again. You all are gonna know the name of Alex Harper!" He then thrust his hands out with open palms and an orange aura started to radiate from them.

In just a few seconds, Rin and his allies were all under the effects of the strong force, causing them all to collapse to the ground. "W-what's happening. I can't get up!" Rin asked frustrated with his current condition. Unfortunately, everyone else was under the same effects.

"That's his power." Judgment said, "He can control the gravity applied on any person he wishes. It has no limit to the number of people he can inflict it on, nor a limit on how much he can increase the gravity."

Tarot: Tower

Ability: Gravity Manipulation

Tower chuckled. "That's right! You all are gonna be crushed under the weight on the earth's size itself!" He then increased the gravity again.

"Dammit!" Empress said, "If he increases it any further, our bones will break." The group tried to stand up but was unsuccessful.

Except for one person.

To everyone's shock, Joseph stood up under the effects of Tower's power, dashed towards him grabbed his face and then in just a few milliseconds, Tower turned into an explosion of red.

The group then decided to catch their breath and recover from the effects of Tower's ability. Rin then scooted himself to one side of The Great Wall and laid his back on it. "I can tell that his Journey is not gonna be easy." He said in between breaths.

To which the other members of Tarot replied: "That's an understatement."