"Mummy! Help!" Cereza called in fear.
"Don't panic! I'm here. There's no need to worry about a thing!" Luka assured her. However a tree began falling toward them, Cereza screaming as Luka grabbed her and hunched over her protectively.
"Nope." My voice rang out with an echo as I rushed in and gave the tree the slightest push to the left, stopping it from crashing on them, before rushing in, bisecting 3 Affinities with Diesectomy, planting the polearm into the ground and lifting myself up to shoot an Applaud to death with Last Regrets attached to my feet.
"Get them, Mummy! Get them!" Cereza cheered as Bayonetta hacked an Applaud in half with Shuraba and blasted an Ardor with Lt. Kilgore on her feet.
"Mommy?" Luka asked in confusion and disbelief.
"Can't you see? Mummy and her friend are fighting the bad monsters for us. Mister, if you don't open your eyes you'll miss everything!" She said, taking off her glasses and tapping them, sending magic through them. "Look with these!" She instructed as she gave Luka her glasses.
Luka looked at her unsurely at first, but she simply nodded in confirmation. So he put them on and witnessed Bayonetta and I blasting away at the angels with our guns. He was shocked at this, falling back on his ass and taking the glasses off, still seeing the chaos around him, but no witch, demon or angels. He suddenly remembered back to his father's death when he was ripped apart, then Bayonetta jumping and disappearing through a portal and causing similar chaos to what he was seeing now. He began to think for a moment, before putting the glasses back on... just in time to see a quartet of Affinities rushing at them. "Shit!" He cursed, grabbing Cereza and running away. He managed to duck under one of their... staff... spear... scepter... things? I don't know, seriously, what the hell are those!? They suddenly found themselves surrounded by the 4 Affinities and a Brave.
The four smaller angels rushed into attack, but were easily taken out by Bayonetta's guns. The Brave rushed in and swung its axe, only for it to drop the ground with the arms still attached as I rushed in and severed the angel's arms. It threw its head back and roared in pain and rage, allowing me to easily decapitate it. "I think you need to work on that flight of fight response, buddy. Twice in like 2 minutes you almost got yourself and the kid killed." I told him, returning to Bayonetta, who scoffed, whipping her hair back before we re-engaged the remaining angels, 12 Affinities and 2 Ardor.
Background Music: "Can't Hold Us" by Mackelmore
Bayonetta rushed in with Shuraba in hand and Lt. Kilgore on her feet, landing a few non-fatal slashes a couple of angels in front of her, before dodging the attack from another beside her, activating Witch Time and landing several slashes on her attacker, finishing with a couple missile-enhanced kicks, destroying the angel. She then almost immediately summoned an Iron Maiden behind the angel that was behind the one she defeated, kicking the creature into the torture device, which slammed close.
I readied Ghostshade in my hands and Ryuk on my feet, spinning and slicing away at an angel in front of me with the assassin's swords, wielded backhand as always, before jumping and back-flipping over an attack from another angel behind me. I landed on my hands and did a break-dancing spin with Ryuk extended, the over-sized kamas easily slashing through the angels in front of and behind me, decapitating them on my final spin before I jumped back to my feet. I then harnessed the power of darkness inside Ghostshade, using it to extend the blades and strike in several vital areas of the angel's body, before stabbing it in both shoulders and cutting it in half with a precise twist of the blades.
Bayonetta recovered the... polearm of the angel she had kicked into the Iron Maiden, stabbing it into the ground and dancing on it in a suggestive, but effective manner, spinning at insane speeds with her legs out to deliver devastating kicks at tornado-like speeds, easily killing the Affinity unfortunate enough to be the closest to her and doing significant damage to the Ardor, who had stood behind the Affinity. The armored angel was her next target, waiting and dodging his strike, before landing several hits on him and knocking him into the air, where she trapped him in a winch with a chain around his neck, giving a powerful yank to the chain and pulling the angel's head through the wheels of the winch, killing it easily.
I engaged my own Ardor at this point, dodging his attack and leaving him open to several punches to the chest with the spiked guards of my sword, before stabbing the swords into the top of his head, doing doing a triple front flip, throwing him into a tree and releasing a wave of darkness from the swords in my hand, slicing both the Ardor and the tree behind it in half. I blocked the attacks from the Affinities as they tried to attack me from behind countering them and activating Bullet Time, crouching low and charging up dark energy into Ghostshade before delivering one more upward swing and creating another wave of darkness from each blade, easily cutting my last two remaining angels in half and finishing my part of the fight.
After hanging the Ardor, Bayonetta came down on one of her last two Affinities with a powerful diving kick, before jumping away as the other one tried to strike at her with its claws, activating Witch Time once more after her dodge, delivering a devastating barrage of stabs to her attacker, easily finishing him, before assaulting the one she hit with a dive kick with another round of lighting-speed kicks, accompanied by missiles, destroying it as well, before turning to her final target , slashing him several times, before bringing him to the ground with a Wicked Stomp, finishing him off with a final Wicked Kick that sent him into a tree, splattering him against it.
End Music
Luka looked on in surprise and confusion as Bayonetta and I walked closer, him questioning everything he thought about the witch. Suddenly, the ground began to violently shake. "Holy shit!" Luka said in a panic upon seeing the ground crumbling, rushing in as the ground began to break out from beneath Bayonetta and I. He deployed his grappling hook and caught Bayonetta before she could fall, holding her close and she closely embraced him, adjusting her glasses and leaning forward as he prepared to kiss her, only to pull and jump way, leaving him to fly straight towards the wall he had grappled to. OH NO!" He screamed just before he collided with the wall, collapsing to the ground on his back as Bayonetta landed in a badass 3 point landing.
[Why do we keep him around again?]
"Mostly exposition, but he helps out sometimes." I explained to Shuya's voice in my head, still standing on the crumbling piece of ground Luka "saved" Bayonetta from, still hurtling into the abyss below.
[I see... shouldn't we be jumping off this platform before we fall to our death?]
"Probably be a good idea." I said, my wings bursting from my back and flying me out of the hole, before I thought of something. "Hey, where were you last chapter?" I asked.
[I think Paradiso weakened our link to each other, so I couldn't talk. That or you forgot to write me any lines.]
"Uh... That first option sounds about right. Now, let's find out exactly what is destroying the ground here." I said, scanning the area from above.
Meanwhile, Luka recovered, frantically searching for Cereza's glasses, before finding them and quickly putting them back on his face, allowing him to see as tentacles began popping everywhere out of the ground, especially around Bayonetta and I, forcing her to jump back into Purgatorio and start dodging while I weaved around in the air to avoid them, also flying through a portal to Purgatorio. "What the hell is that thing?" Luka asked in awestruck horror as he witnessed Iustitia beginning to appear.
"Mummy!" Cereza called, running out to her "mother".
"Cerezita, this is way too dangerous!" Luka called after her.
But Cereza ignored him and continued to rush ahead, miraculously avoiding the tentacles smashing up through the ground, before Luka grabbed her and leapt back just in time to avoid a final tentacle that knocked Cereza's beloved stuffed kitten from her grasp, taking one of his eyes off and sending him skyward. "Cheshire!" She called, reaching out for the toy.
Bayonetta rushed in and masterfully jumped between and off of several of the tentacles as she tried to save the doll. She reached out for it, but suddenly the tentacles caught up with her, dragging and smashing her into the ground, where airborne rubble then fell on her.
"Bayonetta!" I shouted, diving down from the sky to help, but something suddenly crashed into my back, sending me careening down to the ground, slamming into and painfully skidding across it for several feet. "Ow..." I said.
[Downward aerial attacks that send opponents skidding across the ground. I'd recognize that cheap tactic anywhere...]
As Shuya finished this thought, the person on my back stepped off, walking around and in front of me, crouching before me to reveal a guy about my height with short light blue hair with long red bangs running down side of his face all the way to his collar bone. He had porcelain white skin, but had giant black cracks on his face around his black eyes with blue pupils. He wore a black vest with a white fur collar over a red shirt, black jeans and brown shoes, which had a chain made of shurikens attaching their backs of their heels together. It was Agari, another one of Zeidan's children and my cousins, who flashed a devilish, razor-toothed grin in my face. "Heya, Sai! Been too long, hasn't it? Wasn't it just 4 years ago, I almost killed you and left you for dead. Clumsy me. Should've finished the job." He said, maniacally and menacingly.
"Yeah, then maybe your sister and brother would still be alive." I taunted back.
[Hey, don't bring me into this. I never liked him and he never liked me.]
"I never liked Shuya. But you WILL pay for Tsukasa!" He snapped, raising his foot as he prepared to stomp on my head.
Suddenly, with a powerful magic shockwave, Bayonetta knocked away the tentacles and the rubble, sending a large piece of it into Agari's face, sending him flying back a few paces. She then glared at the angel while holding up Cheshire in her hand, managing to have actually caught the doll. "Well, kitty, what do you think we should do?" Bayonetta asked the toy cat, holding it to her ear as if it would answer. "He's hurt you, has he? Well, we can't be having that now can we!?" She asked.
Suddenly, as several more tentacles shot from the ground, each holding a large platform of ground, the angel Iustita revealed himself in all his glory... 3 ugly-ass stone faces, each choking on a giant tentacle with a baby's face on the end coming from their mouth. She tossed Cheshire over her shoulder and to the ground behind her, before drawing Scarborough Fair and aiming at Iustitia. "Let's rock, baby!" She said, issuing her challenge.
"I feel like I've heard that somewhere before." I said, before dodging a kick from Agari.
He snarled as he missed, before glaring at me. "I'm gonna get you, Sai! And I'm gonna make sure it hurts! But it's gonna hurt even more when I go after your precious humans and make them lick my feet for the rest of eternity." He cackled evilly.
"Shuya, I hope you don't mind me beating your brother, because I'm gonna make this hurt." I said.
[You read my mind... Our mind? Our soul? Whatever, just kick his ass.]
Background Music: "Light 'em up" by Fall Out Boy
I charged into Agari, grabbing him and flying into the air, crashing into the side of the platform on the opposite side of the angel from Bayonetta, then landing on top of the platform, pushing him back a ways. He growled and pulled out a pair of butterfly swords and the two of us traded several blows and eventually locked blades after I blocked a downward strike. I tilted Ghostshade's blades at an angle, causing his swords to slide off of mine, leaving him open to several slashes, before I stabbed him in the chest with both swords, charging up the blades with dark energy, before unleashing the energy directly into him, sending him flying into Iustita with great speeds and force, knocking the angel off-balance as he prepared to destroy the platform Bayonetta was on.
While this was happening, Bayonetta dodged a strange plant bud that was spewed out of the tentacle baby's mouth, then several sweeping and smashing strikes from the angel's tentacles, activating Witch Time and landing a deadly combo of Wicked Fists clawing away at the tentacle baby's face before jumping back to avoid another sweeping strike from the other tentacles. One of tentacles spewed a purple liquid over the platform, weakening it, before raining rocks on it to fill it with cracks, preparing to finish it with a barrage of smashes from its tentacles, but before it could, Agari slammed into its back, knocking it off balance and dazing it, causing the baby tentacle to crash onto the platform with her.
"Excellent work, Sai." Bayonetta said, jumping onto the tentacle and running down it towards the face of the mouth the tentacle came from, dodging more strikes from the other tentacles and even spinning saw blades of energy running down the tentacle towards her which she had to jump over. She eventually reached the beginning of the tentacle coming out of the mouth and jumping, throwing a devastating flying kick to the face's nose, causing the root of the tentacle or whatever to be exposed, which Bayonetta began to hack and slash away at, before powering up demonic energy into her hand and severed the tentacle with a cat-like scratch, if the cat had katanas for claws. She jumped back onto the platforms as the tentacle slid off from its proper place and the angel cried out in pain and anger.
"That was a lucky shot, you little bastard! Now I'm gonna get serious!" Agari snapped, striking much faster and harder than before, red lightning now arcing around his arms. I managed to counter his attack and tried to slash at him, but he ran to the right, lightning arcing across his whole body and trailing behind him as he circled around behind me and kicking me in the back, causing me to stagger forward, right into him as he rushed in front of me, delivering an uppercut slash with his swords, jumping up after me and knocking me down to the platform with an axe kick, before fueling his swords full of red lightning and flinging them down into me, creating a huge explosion that shattered the platform beneath me, sending me towards the unknown purple liquid of death below.
"Not like this!" I said, maneuvering and extending Ghostshade's blades with darkness, stabbing them into the nearest platform and retracting the blades to reel myself in and get up on the platform. Agari growled again, before flying at me, still charged with electricity. "Alright, time to test out these new powers." I said, tapping into a bit of Shuya's wind powers to make a tall, but thin tunnel of wind around me, adding my fire to it and creating a Fire Whirl, setting Agari on fire as the winds pushed him upward and, adding insult to injury, I hit him with small beams of darkness from Ghostshade's guard blades.
[I wouldn't have used THIS as a test run... but that was pretty cool.
Back with Bayonetta, she was hopping between platforms as the angel's tentacles destroyed the ones she stood on, slashing at the monster all the while, dodging as the baby faced tentacle lunged forward, activating Witch Time once again and landing several more strikes, before dodging a rain of a small rocks the other tentacles rained down, before rushing at her with a much larger rock, nearly the size of the platform she now stood on. However, she countered by summoning Hekatoncheir, the demonic fists slamming into the rock to stop it, before pushing it back with a barrage of pummeling punches, one massive haymaker smashing through the boulder and into the baby face of the tentacle behind it, causing it to dizzily land on the platform, letting her jump on once again, running down it again and delivering another flying kick, exposing the root of the next tentacle, which she again attacked and severed.
Back with me, I stopped the fire whirl and jumped up after Agari, kicking him down into the purple water, landing back on my platform. He screamed a bit, glaring up at me. "Sai! I won't go down this way!" He shouted, pulling out a vial, no doubt of angel blood and downing it just before sinking into the depths of the deadly liquid. Suddenly, a massive form flew up at high speeds and landed on the platform with me. It was an enormous white and black wasp with a massive, harpoon-like stinger, legs like swords and deadly, saw-like mandibles taking the place of Agari's mouth. "A wasp... How fitting. Because after we take care of you and the rest of your clan, the Neo-Blades will swarm and make all humanity bow to us!" He laughed.
[Still can't believe that's what we went with...]
"It IS a stupid name." I agreed, before glaring at Agari. "Very well. If you think you can kill me, bring it! I learned long ago, the only way to defeat a wasp, is to burn it!" I said, surrounding Ghostshade with flames of darkness, creating a fireball and launching it into Agari's face, staggering him. he charged forward, trying to stab at me with his sword-like legs, but I masterfully dodged and weaved through them, jumping back to avoid his snapping mandibles. "It's time to stop!" I said, activating Bullet Time and striking his face several times, before delivering a powerful backflip kick that knocked him off the platform. He recovered in mid-air, before repeatedly firing his stinger, still attached by a strong cord, retracting it and firing again, destroying my platform and forcing me to jump to the next. He fired once more, this time aiming for me directly, but I dodged the stinger, activating Bullet Time again, connecting Ghostshade together into a make-shift boomerang, surrounding it in dark fire again and throwing it, guiding it with wind to sever Agari's stinger, then slice up his entire body, seriously damaging him and making him collapse on my platform. He struggled to his feet and staggered weakly, making one final attempt to lunge at me, unaware of the hand signals I was preforming...
Bayonetta continued to dodge all the tentacles, seeds and rocks, taking whatever chances she got to land an attack, eventually making the tentacle retreat and try to hit her with a giant boulder, which she again countered and smashed through, only to be met with another boulder, but it met the same fate, smashed by a haymaker that finally hit the tentacle behind it, stunning it and allowing Bayonetta to run along it, kick the angel in it's last face and sever the final tentacle. Now fueled by rage, pain and desperation, the angel began spinning and building up huge amounts of angelic energy, before charging the witch. However, again, she defended herself with a counter via giant demon fist, before preforming a new dance and chant. "TELOC VOVIM! - (Dragon of Death!)" She announced, her hair shooting high into the air, nearly reaching a plane, before descending into the massive abyss below, rising up from the other side as the absolutely massive centipede beast, Scolopendra, which wrapped around the angel, slowly squeezing him like a snake until finally crushing him into a massive ball of blood and broken faces.
Back with me, I uttered one final word just as Agari made his last attempt to lunge. "Mure... - (Swarm...)" I spoke, a massive queen bee, Hivemind, suddenly crashing down Agari, easily twice his size. However, upon closer inspection, this queen was made up of hundreds of much smaller bees, which began to break apart and swarm around Agari, eventually engulfing him to the point absolutely no part of him could be seen. The camera then pans to the side, before changing to a thermal camera, ranging from a cool 60 in dark purple... to over 600 degrees in a blinding white, which as the camera pans back to the swarm, practically takes up the whole screen, while I, at 200 degrees, was only a light orange. I then jumped to a new platform just as the swarm exploded, turning the whole screen white, before it faded, returning to a normal camera, revealing Agari's completely charred body.
End Music
"That was certainly an explosive finish." I smirked.
[Nice and Toasty. Good work.]
"Thanks." I said.
"Quite the finish, Sai. I like to think I've roughed him up enough. How about now, kitty?" Bayonetta asked the plushie, holding it to her ear. "Still not enough you say?" She asked, before turning to Iustitia. "You can go another round, can't you?" She asked.
"Man, this is a violent plushie. I love it." I said.
"It was as the Lumen Sage foretold. Your power is indeed magnificent." Iustita said in amazement.
"The Lumen Sage?" Bayonetta asked.
"I thought they were wiped out ages ago." I said.
"Long have two eyes, one light and one dark, watched over the world and its history. It is this power that will allow the creator to start a new cycle of creation. Bayonetta, may Jubileus, the Creator, grace you!" The angel spouted the usual nonsense, before being dragged into Inferno.
"Now where are my new best friends?" She wondered. "I suppose one of them is an adult, so they should be ok." She said, walking off to look for them.
"Yeah, if you can call him that." I said, following her.
[I wouldn't.]
Fire Whirls: A rare, but real life natural event that occur during some wild fires under VERY precise conditions, hot air from the fires sucking in cold air, creating a swirling vortex of fire that, unlike regular wildfires, which can't move and eventually run out of fuel, can move and continue to suck up oxygen, continuing seemingly endlessly. One of the most dangerous natural phenomenon, as it can burn much hotter than regular wildfires, with the potential to reach up to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. While rare in nature, they are surprisingly easy to recreate at home with the proper equipment. DO NOT DO THIS. This has been your Fire Fact of the day.
Hivemind: A massive, ravenous collection of demonic bees, seeking only to expand and destroy anything that isn't themselves. These creatures are the true flames of hell, swarming any opponent, constantly biting and stinging with venom and poison that makes lava feel cool by comparison, all the while vibrating and reaching temperatures that put even the surface of the sun to shame.