Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.
This chapter marks the end of the first arc, but timeline-wise the second arc will start immediately after. However, since I've gotten used to this site, as well as for other personal reasons, I can safely say that I'll have to prolong the wait between chapters. By how much, I don't know, but I can guarantee the wait won't last more than a week per chapter.
Today, we have the final confrontation, Orochi vs Dohnaseek. How much of a margin in power will there be between a human with huge strength and a Fallen Angel capable of healing himself indefinitely? Read and find out! e.e
We also take a look at what Orochi has left behind him in his little rampage, and how Raynare and the Devils react to what lays in front of them.
I've thrown a reference in here, as usual I'll describe it at the bottom.
I've also barely caught a stray review before publishing this chapter. Thank you for the support, Lazymanjones96, and trust me when I say we're just getting started.
Enjoy.
Raynare couldn't believe her eyes.
She had challenged the 'human', Kamakura Orochi, daring him to enter the den of the Fallen invaders and defeat them without killing anyone. She requested a solid demonstration of his strength, and she knew he had plenty, but she didn't expect such a result.
Orochi's fight with Freed had started with the crazy priest rushing in with incredible speed and putting a bullet between his opponent's eyes. Even that human was not ready for such a speedy approach and she watched as he got literally shot in the face.
But the bullet couldn't even pierce his skin. Raynare had thought that she had been able to gauge that bastard's strength properly, and as such speculated that he would have a hard time in this situation. She couldn't be more wrong.
This thing that had beaten down Freed until he stopped moving just didn't seem the same person from that night.
A similar show of overwhelming power was put on when he engaged her former allies. Hell, it could be barely called a fight: he just lifted a bench and threw it at Kalawarner's face, and delivered a mean kick to Mittelt's temple as she was turning around and trying to come to terms with what had just happened to her friend.
A brutal and merciless beating, coupled with two Fallens keeling over in a single blow each. It was on purpose, she could tell. The message was clear: Orochi had declared his ability to deal with whatever situation he was in in whatever way he wanted, exercising perfect control despite what it looked like from an outsider's view. Just by witnessing his actions, Raynare found herself admitting that he had already satisfied her curiosity. Of course, she would never tell him that.
Honestly, having him defeating Dohnaseek at this point seemed unnecessarily cruel even for her. But she guessed he wouldn't stop even if she asked him, since an innocent life was on the line. He was rushing, she noticed, which meant that the fights were not the only thing in his mind.
Suddenly Raynare sensed somewhat familiar signatures closing in on the church, and decided it was her turn to rush as well.
"Kamakura!" she shouted as he was about to descend into the catacombs. "The Devils will be here in a matter of minutes, so you better hurry up!"
"Got it, I'll make it quick!" he shouted back as he ran down the stairs.
It was fine. He would be fine. Raynare had seen enough of his ability that she knew he could handle himself. Hell, he would probably punch a wall and escape into the sewers or something, to make sure he would not be caught by the Devils. No reason to be concerned. None at all.
She decided to spare a thought for Orochi's next target instead. "Good luck, Dohnaseek." she said aloud. "I can't even begin to imagine what will happen to you if he actually finds the nun dead."
She looked around. Where Orochi had been, everything was thrown out of order, as if a tornado had just paid a visit to the interior of the church.
"...I should leave for the time being. I will be back, to observe your ability, whatever it is, for a bit longer..."
With that, a magic circle appeared under her feet, and she vanished into the ether.
"!" Anya was about to enter the building along with Unryuu, but a peculiar feeling stopped her in her tracks.
"Anya-sama, what's wrong?"
"...It's the 'lone wolf'. She was in this building until a moment ago. It seems she has escaped the city again."
"..."
"No matter." Anya sighed. "I suppose we'll have to report her as a fugitive or something, for now let's just take care of the other Fallens."
"Right!"
He had finally done it. The ritual was complete, and Twilight Healing was in their hands. Dohnaseek was satisfied with the results of their work; sure, the nun died, but it was inevitable, he thought.
Those thoughts were interrupted by a loud noise. He turned around, towards the door. It was one of those big and heavy doors one would normally find in a sacred place.
The hinges had given out.
The noise was not dragged out nor repetitive. The door had received a single blow, and the hinges surrendered immediately. As the door fell on the ground with a loud stomping noise, a figure appeared behind it.
"...Are you the third Fallen?"
Dohnaseek narrowed his eyes at the figure, half-hidden behind the dust the falling door had lifted.
"Who is asking?"
"I'm Kamakura, nice to meet you."
"And, Kamakura, just what are you, considering you've made it this far?"
"I'm a human."
Dohnaseek scowled at that. "...what business does a human have with me?" he inquired.
The figure, identified as Kamakura the human, stepped forward. As he came into view, Dohnaseek took in his appearance. His clothes were casual, his expression unreadable, his white hair were dirty with dust.
Dohnaseek didn't believe for a second that he was human. And yet, he didn't have the signature of a Devil. The Fallen clicked his tongue.
"I think I get it. You're an exorcist sent by the Church to apprehend us, right?"
"As if. An exorcist would probably just smite you on the spot." Kamakura retorted. "...I won't be as merciful."
The hall was in chaos.
There were several dents in the walls and the pillars, many broken benches, and traces of blood. Unryuu thought she saw even teeth among the mess and hoped it was her imagination. Her master was equally disgusted and surprised.
"...What the hell happened here?" Unryuu heard her mutter. She decided to give voice to her thoughts.
"Do you think the 'lone wolf' did this?"
"That could be the reason, but I still sense three Fallens. Whoever did this didn't kill their opponents and honestly I'm not sure I want to find out if it was indeed the 'lone wolf' or someone else."
She examined one of the dents in the wall. "...There aren't many cracks. Our culprit hasn't used any unnecessary power as they fought." she whispered, loud enough for her servant to hear. "Which means he or she was deliberately trying not to kill. As I imagined, I'd prefer if I didn't have to meet this person."
Unryuu had to agree to that. Nobody would ever want to make such a violent person angry.
She noticed a humanoid form laying on the ground a few meters away from herself. As she hurried over, she realized there were two more. "Anya-sama, over here!"
While her master hurried to where she stood, she took in the scene.
A man in a priest garb had been beaten black and blue by the culprit; she assumed the blood belonged to this man, because this part of the hall had almost no traces of red.
A blue-haired woman laid on the ground with a broken nose, a wooden bench broken in half near her unconscious form. No other bruise could be seen.
Finally, a small blonde girl with a Gothic dress had been slammed into the wall. Aside from the blood dripping from the side of her head that impacted into the concrete, she only had a single bruise on her left temple and was otherwise unharmed, suggesting that she, like her friend, was taken out in one blow.
Unsurprisingly, they couldn't help but gasp at the sight. Then, they looked ahead. The altar had been uprooted from its spot, and a small staircase had been revealed.
The thing that caused this much pain to their targets had moved into the catacombs after dealing with whatever got in the way.
Suddenly a huge tremor made the church shake. It sounded like something had fallen over.
"...Let's hurry. I'm actually kind of afraid of who we might run into, but if this person has decided to solve the situation in our stead, we have a duty to see this through."
"Right. Let's go, Anya-sama!"
The Devil pair charged down the stairs, as the familiar noises of a battle started to ring throughout the walls.
"...You won't be merciful, you say?" Dohnaseek muttered in amusement, quietly laughing to himself. "You're funny, I'll give you that. And since you managed to arrive here in the first place you're also somewhat competent, I'll give you that as well. But all your efforts are for naught."
He lifted his head and stared at the 'human' before him. "Since you came here of all places and didn't run after a single confrontation, I assume you're aware of who we are and what our aim was. So, here's something that will make you lose all hope!" He showed his hands, which held a pair of silver rings with green gems that radiated with purity. He put the rings on his ring fingers. "This is the Sacred Gear Twilight Healing! No matter what you are, no matter how strong you are, I will be able to heal any damage you might inflict! You claim to be a 'human', which is impossible if you ask me, but I'll humor you: what can a human possibly accomplish in a fight against the wielder of such powerful magic?"
Orochi's gaze had been fixated on the Fallen the entire time. Only after the Fallen stopped talking he shifted his head to look at who he assumed was the former wielder of that Sacred Gear thing. It was a blonde haired girl with nun clothes, laying on the ground a few meters away from the two of them. Even in death, she had maintained a smile. He turned his eyes back to the Fallen.
"...You know, I was warned. I was told that there was a good chance I wouldn't be able to save this girl no matter how fast I got here. I entered this room expecting the worst, and the worst has happened. So I'm not surprised. But just so you know...
I don't think I'll be satisfied with what has transpired this evening until I break your spine."
Dohnaseek's body suddenly took a step back. The glare that was sent his way seemed that of a primal beast. Pure anger and hatred were emanated from the thing in front of him. He couldn't help his now nervous laugh.
"H-Hahaha, don't tell me you got that angry for a complete stranger! You really are amusing, but it's high time I get rid of you!"
He charged at his opponent, a blue spear of light in his left hand, aimed at the heart.
The 'human' grabbed it before it could pierce him.
Dohnaseek however expected that much. From the moment he heard the gunshot to now, too little time had passed. This, this... person, whatever he was, was strong enough to defeat his comrades quickly and arrive here without a scratch. Well, almost, considering that this person's forehead was reddened and had a dent oddly similar to that of a fired bullet. So he generated a second spear in his other hand, this time aiming for the throat.
This time, it was his arm's turn to be grabbed.
The human then twisted it and kneed his elbow.
Dohnaseek's joint broke immediately and he threw himself to the ground, screaming in pain as Orochi simply stood there, waiting for him to stand up.
The Fallen was already breathing hard. He expected to take damage, but he didn't expect a broken joint so soon into the fight. To his relief, *Twilight Healing* started healing him, enveloping his body in green light, and he felt immediately better.
He slowly stood up, while Orochi decided it was a good time to address the issue he had with this battle.
"You know, when I came in here I expected this magical trinket to give you some cool abilities, or a significant power-up, anything of that nature. Then I find out all it does is heal the user and I assume anyone that comes into contact with it." His disappointment was evident in his tone. "In the end, your offense didn't get any stronger, and your defense didn't get any sturdier. You call that 'power'? Pathetic..."
After that statement, Dohnaseek immediately felt his patience run out. He roared and charged again. But Orochi had already stepped into his personal space. After redirecting the Fallen's arm away from his body, he grabbed his suit with his left hand, and put his right on his abdomen.
Dohnaseek's feet left the ground, but not because he decided to use his wings. "Brace yourself now!" shouted Orochi. "I've been told my throws pack a punch! This is true power!". He flipped Dohnaseek over his shoulder, and put all the strength he had into his hands as he slammed him flat on the cold floor, keeping them on him the whole time.
The entire floor shook from the impact. The pain that the Fallen felt could not be described, as he almost thought his insides had been torn to shreds just by being thrown to the ground. In truth, nothing of that sort happened to his organs, at least not on that magnitude.
Orochi had yet to meet a person that didn't pass out after being thrown by him. Apparently his body favoured the efficient execution of some maneuvers over others, and it was a fact he never understood completely. Among those were knees and throws: they were illegal in normal full-contact kickboxing, but he had practiced them on his own against the many bullies and thugs he had opposed in middle school. (1) He learned how to do them because they were supposed to only take the opponent's breath away and end a fight in an instant.
For some reason, when he executed the move, the pressure he generated was a lot heavier than normal, and was strong enough to even break bones at worst. Such had happened once during his official training, where on instinct he had performed a throw once even though he shouldn't have done so. It was something he was still ashamed of as he had asked the unfortunate victim of that time for forgiveness a thousand times over. It was his teacher back then that had speculated that his muscles were somehow able to coordinate with each other perfectly. The power was transferred without any loss of energy at all during movement, and was often impossible to bear for the average person, hence the breaking of bones. It sounded awfully familiar in Orochi's mind.
That was exactly what had happened to Dohnaseek: some of his ribs had broken into tiny pieces, his spine was damaged, his diaphragm was compressed all of a sudden and some small fragments of bone had opened a hole in some of his organs.
The Fallen laid there face-up on the floor, unable to muster the strength to get up or even talk, his blood dripping from his lips, but still retaining consciousness somehow if his pained moans were anything to go by.
"...Oh, you're still awake. That's not good. If I leave you alone now you might attack me from behind once you've healed and hold me back more than necessary, and the Devils are coming so I can't spare anymore time..."
Orochi pondered what his next action should be, and quickly decided.
"I'll add one more for good measure before I leave."
He moved to Dohnaseek's left side, then grabbed his right shoulder and his right thigh. He lifted him up once more. This was his favourite throw: he had taken inspiration for it from a certain fight between androids. (2) And it was one of his strongest attacks.
"I did promise I'd break your spine after all!"
Another tremor. It was already the second time that Anya had to hold Unryuu's collar to prevent her from falling and hitting her head as they ran down to the catacombs.
"Gh! Really, again?!" Anya was, as one can imagine, understandably upset. And shaken up. "What the heck is that person doing? I'm really thinking that a simple slaughter would have been a lot easier to carry out at this point!"
She really did think that, but had decided to not finish off any of the injured people laying on the floor above her. Since they weren't a threat anymore, it would truly be murder had she done anything to them while they were in that sorry state. So she had used a spell to bind them with magical chains, and decided she was not to be the one to judge them.
"Uuuu... sorry, Anya-sama, I'm being a burden right now..." whined Unryuu.
"Don't mind it, it's nothing major. Rather, let's stay focused, we're almost there!"
They arrived at the catacombs shortly after. The door to the room in front of them was not where it was supposed to be. There was complete silence.
As they stepped in they recognized two forms, both laid on the ground, one arguably more injured than the other.
One of them was Asia Argento, the nun who wielded the Sacred Gear Twilight Healing. The rings were on her fingers, a serene expression on her face. Anya touched her forehead: it was slightly cold, the poor girl had been dead for a little while already.
The other was the third Fallen, laying unconscious in a literal crater. Unryuu examined his body. Several ribs were broken, and he clearly suffered internal damage.
His spine was broken, and his ring fingers had been ripped off his hands.
Unryuu resisted the urge to vomit; she had always been kind of weak when it came to blood.
"How peculiar." She heard Anya walk over to her. "Our culprit has torn off this Fallen's fingers. They would do such a thing only if they thought it would break his hold over the Sacred Gear. But that person could have just killed him and it would have been enough."
Anya put a hand to her chin. "The person might have felt pity, but considering what we've seen tonight I highly doubt it. So the only possible option is that the culprit didn't know that there was an easy way. He or she must have doubted that killing the Fallen would break the bind and went for a safe approach..."
She broke out of her musings and looked around.
"...not here..."
"Huh?" Unryuu did not hear that right.
"OUR CULPRIT GOT AWAY! THE BASTARD BROKE THROUGH THE DAMN WALL, NO LESS!"
Sure enough, there was a hole big enough to fit a person in the wall. It looked like the culprit had escaped through the sewers, after deciding to leave the Devils behind to clean his mess for him. Anya ruffled her own hair in suppressed rage, but she took a deep breath and calmed down.
"...I can still do something about the nun at least. Unryuu, start cleaning up while I prepare the ritual."
"Right away."
(2 days later)
Everything had returned to normal. That night, Orochi had decided that it wasn't his job to clean up the chaotic mess he had caused in the building, and realized he couldn't leave the way he came since the Devils would definitely follow his path of destruction, and he didn't want to engage them without the information Raynare had promised him. So he had reached one of the walls and punched it in anger. He got careless, there was no escape!
And suddenly, there was.
He had opened a hole, a big one. Somehow. Now this he was certain was not supposed to happen. He swore he would get to the bottom of this eventually, even if he had to use the Devils' knowledge to do it. Surely they would be able to tell him what the hell was wrong with his body. However, he still wanted to meet them in his terms, so he ran into the darkness.
Eventually he re-emerged from a manhole with a foul smell on his person and headed home. He would not descend into the sewers ever again, he decided.
He headed to school like usual. He didn't feel like waiting for Unryuu so he kept walking as he reached the crossroad. As he sit down at his desk, his head started hurting again.
'Damn that crazy bastard of a priest, my body is not used to bullets yet!' he thought angrily. The bruise had vanished, but the headache that came with it had other plans apparently. As a result, his mood was fouler than ever.
The bell rang, and his homeroom teacher walked in the room as his classmates ran back to their seats.
"Settle down everyone, I have important news." The man said in his monotone voice. "We're getting a new student today. Treat her well and behave yourself. You can come in and introduce yourself." He declared.
A familiar girl with black hair dyed green at the ends walked in the room.
"Hello everyone, I am Yuuma Amano, nice to meet you all! Let's get along, okay∼?"
As she choosed her seat, she was barely able to hear a whisper.
"...Shit, she wasn't kidding..."
She couldn't help smirking.
(1) This is accurate. They are in fact illegal in American kick-boxing, which is what Orochi was taught since it's the "cleanest version" so to speak. So the official style he's using is technically Muay Thai. He's just taking inspiration from a certain someone right now, and he will fight like this only when there's a need for him to get serious. I'll explain who that someone is towards the first half of the second arc.
(2) This is a reference to the battle between Imperfect Cell and Android 16 in DBZ, where the latter grabs the former in a similar manner. He slams Cell to the ground before blasting the crater he creates.
Welcome to the bottom.
This is my favourite chapter yet. It portrays what Orochi really is at heart, even if he doesn't realize it: a monstrous being with messed up morals. He will intervene without fail every time he can make a difference, but his actions right now are absolutely inhumane and merciless. If he fights like he means it, his objective is to cause as much pain as possible, in order to force his opponent into complete submission. His body answers accordingly, allowing him to put more power into blows that are meant to be painful. His only personal rule is this: "I will not kill." Everything else is otherwise allowed in his book, and this is reflected into his true fighting style, where almost nothing is forbidden.
Collateral damage is also perfectly acceptable. He made use of anything he could put his hands on, any object that could be thrown or wielded, any surface he could exploit. The battlefield is quite literally his playground: no wonder he became bored with the normality he had in his life, huh? Let me tell you, his childhood plays a big part in shaping him into the savage beast you've just witnessed. And I mean his childhood BEFORE the orphanage. AND, this is him while he doesn't realize that he has an ability.
Raynare and the Devils' reaction is spot on. The most frightnening thing (yet) about Orochi is the level of control he exerts (for now). No power is wasted, but it is used in satisfying quantities. However, that simply means he could have fought harder. He's still holding something back due to his personal rule, and it will be a while before he meets an opponent that forces him to use lethal blows. It will be a blast to write him when he truly loses control! u.u
Again, this is the end of the first arc. The setup towards his battle against Riser (spoiler, I'm keeping him and Ravel) will be a bit long, but the second arc will only last 4 days overall timeline-wise, including the one that has just started. This doesn't mean it will be as long as this one, though: in fact this was 26 pages, and what I've written up to now for Arc 2 is 21! (Remember, I've said before that I'm halfway through the arc!) So yeah, my chapters are getting overall better, I think!
Next time, a single truth is revealed.
See you soon. Ciao!