Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.
I'm getting incredibly distracted these few weeks, I'm really sorry. I'm also stuck again on Arc 3, so there's that as well. I blame the fact that I can't really write well when it comes to "normal" scenes. All of this has led me to making a certain decision regarding this fanfic, which I'll explain at the bottom. Don't worry, I don't want to abandon this story just yet. I just need some time.
For now, we have the final battle of this Rating Game, it's very late-coming but it's here! After this, although I would like to get stuff done with Arc 2 the way I intend to, it's simply not possible just yet, because I'm going to visit relatives of mine for the next week and I won't have easy access to this fic. As for how I want to approach the publishing of the final chapter of Arc 2, I will explain that at the bottom as well.
So yeah. I'll see you at the bottom.
Enjoy.
"...Oh man, he's gonna stop playing around." said Unryuu, at the edge of her seat while Orochi started to discard the clothes that would get in his way in the screen.
"H-He was playing around? Does he not take this battle seriously after all?!" Indignation was evident in Lady Phenex's voice.
"Please calm down, Mother." Ruval addressed his mother who was getting angry for foolish reasons. "Had this Game gone any other way, Riser would have already lost by now. The human's power is overwhelming, but it seems that my brother has found a better reason than before to give it his all anyway. Look, even little Ravel, who wasn't interested in the fight earlier, seems ready to go!"
"Indeed, this is an entirely different atmosphere from the one before." admitted Anya. "But I wonder if it will be enough against him."
"That's right." said Nina. "Now starts the real fight. Orochi-kun has yet to reveal his ability but he seems ready to do so at any given moment."
"Mutti, look! Bruder is smiling really hard right now! Why is that? I was sure that nobody would ever smile during a fight."
Nina smiled at her daughter's actually legitimate question.
"He's happy, Agnes. He's satisfied with what is currently in front of him."
"GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The boy's warcry shook the entire pocket dimension.
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
A renewed spirit within them, Karlamine and Isabela were the first to start running towards the human. He had also charged forward like a raging bull with incredible speed.
Karlamine's sword suddenly caught fire, and she swung the blade surrounded by flames horizontally. Orochi immediately parried that with his arms, getting slight burns and no slash wound, but left his abdomen exposed in the process. Isabela took advantage of that and punched his stomach with all her strength, and he stumbled back with pain erupting close to where the Brand laid.
"KHH!" He however recovered in an instant and charged in again, a spot under his shirt shining green.
Karlamine swung again, but Orochi dodged to the side, made a step forward and readied a fist. The Knight was luckily able to pull back the blade and parry the blow.
The flames were dispersed by the force generated, but it was good enough. Anyone, even that human, would need half a moment to prepare their next move, and there was someone behind her ready to attack. So she moved out of the way just as a flaming heel slammed into the boy's face, sending him flying.
Riser himself had attacked this time, while Ravel and Mihae were preparing a spell in the back. The Bishops would chant and strike with everything they had, while he, Karlamine and Isabela would keep Kamakura occupied. Ravel, just by seeing the lack of slash wounds on the boy after his fight with Siris, had surmised that he had some way of predicting his opponent's moves, and decided to first verify if there were any obvious weaknesses. She had speculated that perhaps it would be harder for him to adjust to more than one person attacking him, and proposed to the three servants (hopefully while Riser was listening under the rubble, which thankfully was exactly what happened) that they attack in succession while staying one behind the other under Kamakura's line of sight.
Ironically, she was right despite not really thinking she would find any weak spots. Unbeknownst to her, the Wind Brand did its job by sending pulses of magic particles that would analyze the wind around the user and detect any "foreign objects" in an instant. However, the Wind Brand wouldn't be able to detect someone as long as they hid right behind one of those objects. That defensive seal had detected with precision Karlamine's movements and Kamakura was in fact able to move accordingly: however, he wasn't ready for Riser's consecutive strike, and he was launched far enough that she and Mihae would easily be able to finish their chanting and hit him themselves.
As Isabela moved out of the way herself, Riser also gathered his flames in an orb and prepared to strike Kamakura from a distance.
"We're ready, Onii-sama!"
"Alright, in that case... FIRE!"
Not one, but three somewhat big orbs of flames were fired at Orochi, who was starting to get up.
"...Heh, do you really think I'll keep letting you do as you please?"
He straightened up and lifted his head before crossing his arms in front of his chest, as the fireballs approached his position.
"The door to Paradise opens!"
And he spread them to the sides, palms facing outwards.
"HEAVEN'S GATE!"
*ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN*
Everything turned black and white.
And the fireballs disappeared into nothingness.
Five people in front of him and some others in the VIP room stared at the scene with their mouths open. Ajuka himself was baffled, while Raynare, the only one that knew about Orochi being able to do that, simply watched on from afar while wondering what was going through his head.
"Is he fighting at full strength? I didn't think they'd be able to force his hand this much."
Raynare sighed and started walking again, despite the immense pressure that had just been released.
"I wonder... if he's having fun..." She said in a sad tone.
Meanwhile Ajuka, who couldn't believe his eyes, had immediately started making conjectures in his mind about what had just happened, while doing his best to keep the crafted dimension from breaking down via his Kankara Formula.
"Incredible! The entire dimension is becoming unstable! But it doesn't look like an Inversion, so what is happening to Orochi-kun?!"
He could only speculate that the boy had simply figured out how to extend the Gate's influence outside his body, but unbeknownst to him the answer was even simpler than that.
Orochi had merely found out that opening the Gate willingly had the same effect as Inverting.
He had discovered that this maneuver was possible during the last night of training with Raynare. He called it an "experiment", and a little exception to the rule of not thinking during the fight that had been established for that session. It happened near the end of the session itself: Orochi, seemingly satisfied with Raynare's results for that evening, had wanted to try something new.
"Before we go to sleep, there's something I want to try out."
"Gee, I wonder what it will be."
"...I get it, you're tired. You've done enough for tonight, I just need you to stay here and see what happens. That's all."
"As long as you don't hit me with whatever you want to try, fine."
"..."
"REALLY, KAMAKURA? REALLY?!"
"IT CAN'T BE HELPED, CUT ME SOME SLACK!"
"Uuuuuuugh, damn it all. Get it over with, it can't be worse than this hellish training!"
"...Right. It would only be fair to tell you what's gonna happen, so I'll warn you. I want to try forcing the Gate open, and see what happens."
He stepped back after saying that, ready to withstand another earful of complaints. However, nothing came out of Raynare's mouth oddly enough.
"..."
"...Um, are you still there Raynare?"
"...I see. Hurry up and do it if you can."
"Errr, do you really have no objections?"
"None."
That was the response that came from the oddly blank-faced Raynare.
He had been legitimately freaked out by her behaviour back then. Raynare supposed that it was fair enough, it was out of character for her to say such things and pretty much declare herself ready to take on Heaven's Gate with a straight face.
Just as Raynare expected, he was able to do it. The reason for her collapse in the last session was, in fact, her taking the full brunt of an opened Gate's pressure. Nina had even misunderstood the situation when she woke up startled by the noise, thinking that he had Inverted while she wasn't looking (she had gone to sleep hours before), and scolded him for several minutes. Back then, he didn't budge and let her believe that he had Inverted, and simply apologized repeatedly while Asia was busy fixing the Fallen's wounds with a sleepy look on her face.
Raynare had already understood the process though, and sure enough the boy had given her an explanation she had somewhat expected before meeting Unryuu that morning. The night before, Orochi had imagined his Abnormality as a "bubble", and simply reshaped his body in order to force it to burst.
Apparently he had already tried to tamper with the Gate behind everyone's back, so he knew he could do it, but had yet to try opening it completely back then.
The girl, after hearing that, had then proceeded to punch him repeatedly in the face for doing something so reckless.
"You could have Inverted for all you knew, idiot!" was her complaint.
Opening the Gate had in fact created the same black-hole effect that the Abnormality had when it Inverted. He was able to absorb the magic particles surrounding him without losing control, however. It could be said that, despite not having exactly Inverted, he had become able to access both the normal ability and the Inverted one of his Abnormality at will, due to his peculiar body.
Of course, he was probably assuming that nobody aside from Unryuu knew about him being capable to reshape his muscles, hence his freaking out over Raynare's oddly accepting behaviour. But both her and Nina were well aware of his past, because he told them about it himself despite not remembering about having done so.
They really had to have a talk with him after the battle, they decided.
The pressure vanished just as fast as it had appeared. Even the artificial landscape regained its normal colors. Whatever Orochi did, it was over.
Riser was feeling dizzy: his magic had been partially drained and he felt sick as a result.
'I-Is this his ability?! What in the Underworld did he do?'
Their combined magic attack had also been obliterated by an invisible force. The magic particles themselves had been completely and utterly destroyed, or at least that was what he was able to sense. However something wasn't right: after disrupting a spell of any kind, there should have been lingering particles in the air. But that wasn't the case.
Kamakura had "opened a gate" a moment earlier. And when said "gate" had opened, it had started absorbing all magic in the vicinity.
'...Could it be that rather than destroy magic, it simply transports it elsewhere instead? Or perhaps he's storing it away. But if that is truly the case...!'
He turned around hurriedly. "Ravel, Mihae! Don't cast anymore magic-"
He realized quickly that his words weren't reaching his Bishops. Both of them had already passed out, and light was enveloping them.
"Riser Phenex's two Bishops have retired."
Orochi laughed lightly. "Haha, as expected from a strong devil like you, Phenex. You were able to withstand the Gate somewhat, but the same can't be said about those two Bishops. Look, Mask-san and Bandage-san are also struggling."
Sure enough, Isabela and Karlamine were on their knees, breathing heavily. Their magic core had been destabilized, but magic power wasn't as prominent in them as the two Bishops and they weren't as frail physically, so they were still conscious.
"Shall we continue, then? I should be able to handle three people a lot more easily than a group of five."
It seemed that he didn't plan to open the "gate" again, but to be fair there was no need for him to do so, reasoned Riser. It would serve little purpose against opponents that favored physical brawls, and considering he was already very difficult to overpower, his group's situation had clearly worsened tenfold.
As he pondered what to do, his Rook and Knight suddenly lifted themselves up and charged at Orochi.
"Hah, I don't know what you can accomplish in that state, but I'll accept your challenge!" He also started running at the two girls approaching him.
He quickly made a fist, ready to strike Isabela who was the closer of the two. However, Isabela ducked under the swing, and jumped with wide arms at Orochi, hooking his shoulder and blocking his arm while using the momentum to move behind him. Karlamine, quickly understanding her companion's intentions, did the same with Orochi's other arm.
"Gh! What do you think you're doing?! Let go!"
"Riser-sama, take him out before he opens the Gate again!" shouted Isabela.
"Don't worry about us, and give it everything you've got, Riser-sama!" echoed Karlamine.
"!"
Riser snapped out of his trance, clicked his tongue and hesitated for just a moment before generating an immense orb of flames above his head.
"My apologies, you two! THIS ENDS NOW!" He then fired it at the trio.
Orochi, for obvious reasons, was unable to defend or even brace himself for the blow.
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*
In half a second, the place where Orochi and Riser's servants were standing became a sea of flames.
"Riser Phenex's Rook and Knight have retired."
They had decided to sacrifice themselves to try and bring down Kamakura along with them.
The boy was still conscious, but had taken the blow at full force unlike the girls that tried to hide behind him while his arms were locked.
He was kneeling on the ground, with his undershirt burned off, and his entire body full of burns and trembling. A shaking forearm and a tightened fist were all that had prevented him from simply hitting the floor and pass out. Had he not developed fire resistance at all, he would have lost right then and there.
"...Amazing. Simply amazing." commented Riser in a low voice. "I don't quite understand your ability, but there's no denying the fact that it is truly powerful. ...No, that sounds wrong actually. What is powerful is you, Kamakura. You took my strongest attack straight on and didn't die after all."
He walked over to Orochi, who was currently breathing heavily and trying not to cry out in pain.
"I shall finish this. Don't hold this against me." Three meters away from the half-burned trembling body, Riser lifted a hand and aimed the palm at the boy, another flame orb coming into existence.
*STAB* x10
Riser was suddenly surrounded by light needles stuck in the ground around his feet.
"!" He immediately spread his wings, which truly looked like those of the bird of legends, and darted away.
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOM*
Although he managed to evade the explosions, it wasn't over yet.
"HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" He didn't even have time to look around that a foot was planted just under his throat, and dragged him to the ground for several meters.
Riser looked in rage at the person responsible as he laid under her foot in pain.
"Look at you people, getting carried away and forgetting I'm still here! How arrogant can a person get?!"
Raynare, who Riser could have sworn was angry for a completely different reason than what she had just stated, aimed a finger at the Devil squirming under her foot and generated another Fragment.
"...GET OFF ME, FALLEN!"
A pillar of fire erupted from underneath them, and sent Raynare off to the side as Riser slowly got up.
"Can't you read the mood? Can't you understand?! You interrupted our fight right at the finale! After we struggled so much to even damage that man, you think you can just waltz in and get in the way right when it's about to end?"
He was truly mad. He and his team both put in incredible effort in order to defeat Kamakura, and the Fallen had completely defiled the image of the great battle he had with him.
"...W-Well, yeah, it's exactly w-what I did after all..." Raynare, who didn't have nearly as thick of a skin as Orochi did, was already starting to disappear, too injured by Riser's ferocious attack to continue fighting. "But y-you're the one who d-doesn't understand. The f-fight is not over yet! Kamakura...
Simply needed a few seconds to catch his breath."
She then raised a shaking hand and gave Riser the middle finger before disappearing.
"Fallen Angel Raynare has retired."
Riser stared at the spot where the injured Fallen laid for several seconds as he elaborated her final statement in his brain.
'...Kamakura needed to catch his breath. So she intervened right as I was about to finish the fight, and kept me occupied for as long as she could... Which means!'
He turned his head in a flash towards the place where Orochi had been kneeling.
The boy was standing firmly before Riser. He wasn't trembling anymore and seemed completely unbothered by the burns on his skin.
"...Ha. Hahahaha. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! So you're still able to fight, Kamakura! This is great, the best there is! Give me more, human! MORE!"
He expanded violently his phoenix wings and charged Orochi with incredible speed. He then drew back his arm and punched the boy's face with the full strength of both his arm and his momentum.
It was the same as punching a mountain. Orochi didn't even flinch.
"W-WHAT THE?!"
"Sorry, Riser."
His arm was grabbed.
"There's no point anymore. You are now unable to harm me."
"Abprall."
"Riser Phenex has retired. The winner of this Rating Game is Kamakura Orochi!"
Welcome to the bottom.
This chapter requires very little explaining, I feel. The only obscure part is the fact that Raynare seems suddenly capable of withstanding the Gate, but the answer behind that question is the same as when I invited you people to wonder how exactly the Fallen was able to grow wings so quickly. As such, I'll leave this to your imagination as well.
Now for the important part. This fanfic will go on hiatus until I finish writing Arc 3. The hiatus will start after I publish the last chapter of Arc 2, and a little trailer chapter of sorts for Arc 3 I wrote some time ago, which will introduce a certain plot point for said arc (which, mind you, is still the Excalibur Arc despite what you'll end up seeing), and will also serve as a teaser for what will come in Arc 4 (the arc that will actually be original).
The reasoning behind this decision is simple. I've getting distracted by other things, just as frivolous as this one. For example, I've been playing an extensive Japanese ROM hack of Final Fantasy 6 (I'm purely a retrogamer, sue me), that has taken a lot of time away due to how hard it is.
Why am I playing it so frequently? Because my connection is shit, and whenever I'm trying to record with other people for my YT channel I have trouble, which tends to discourage me from even trying to upload lately. In general, let's just say that these few things I do to distract myself from my daily life of incredible boredom are slipping away from my grasp due to poor decisions me and my family have made regarding our personal comforts, and I'm quietly trying to cope with it all.
I'll leave tomorrow for the aforementioned visit to my relatives. I plan to relax and think about absolutely nothing in a place where connection (even with phones) is even more terrible than here. I want to pick myself back up when I return with a clean state of mind. I want to start uploading videos again, and more frequently if I can manage it. I want to be able to juggle myself between my hobbies and my real life.
Again, the first thing I'll do when I come back is publishing those two chapters I mentioned, one a few days after the other rather than a week. For now, I bid you farewell. Next week, the epilogue and the promised trailer a few days after. Look after yourselves, you guys.
Thank you for reading, see you soon.
Ciao!