A/N: Happy belated New Year, everyone!
I know I said that I'd try to release this chapter before the new year but a few things happened that either knocked me off my feet, leaving me bed-ridden for a few days, or left me too preoccupied to find time to complete the chapter and make the finishing touches I needed to like the new job I started at the beginning of this year which has taken quite a chunk of my time these last two weeks.
Anyway, excuses out of the way. Here's the new chapter that you've all been waiting for. I don't want to give any spoilers about it so will keep my mouth shut and just say that I hope it's worth the wait.
Hope you enjoy it!
(*I own neither Highschool DxD nor Ben 10*)
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"Well, this is new," Ben stated, matter-of-factly, as he took a step back, his eyes switching between the three writhing bodies before him.
"And not in a good way," Kiba added as he brought his sword up, his eyes also flashing between them.
"Get ready, everyone!" Rias ordered as she and the others in her peerage spread out in a staggered line, either drawing their weapons or otherwise preparing themselves for the impending fight.
Their opponents, Freed and the two Astaroth knights, soon finally stopped screaming as their bodies slowly stopped violently morphing and transforming. The two knights lay prone on the floor while 'Freed' was on his knees, hunched over; his mad cackling had continued to deteriorate throughout the course of his body alteration into something mad, psychotic…and even animalistic right at the end.
By now, all three of them were completely unrecognisable from how they looked before. The two knights – former knights Ben corrected himself as there was nothing left of their original appearances – now had the grotesque appearance of some kind of amalgamation of several demonic forms forced into a single body. Their upper arms were that of an Appoplexian, their second pair of arms resting underneath each had the shape of a different demon – one arm belonging to a Pyronite demon and the other belonging to a Tetramand. Their heavily distended torsos shimmered in the light from the Petrosapien crystalline material they were now made up of. The set of Lepidopterran wings buzzed sporadically behind them, manic and devoid of thought or reason. In regard to their lower half, one of their legs had the distinct scales and clawed foot of a Piscciss Volann while the other leg – or rather, the pincer – belonged to that of a Cerebrocrustacean; attached to the bottom of this pincer was the tell-tale ball of a Kineceleran.
Perhaps the most disturbing part of their appearance were their faces which had the overall shape of a Vaxasaurian's head and jaw, their mouth which held the teeth of an Oryctini, the worm-like, wily tongue of a Vulpimancer, and the four long Lepidopterran eye stalks protruding out the side of their heads, each with an eye of an Opticoid demon.
Freed's appearance was extremely similar to that of the two ex-knights with the only notable difference between him and them being that his face was practically unchanged in comparison overall. He kept the same features as before, the only real change being that his skin had turned dark Tetramand-red and abnormally large teeth now sprouted out of his mouth which was unable to contain them anymore. The only other major difference between Freed and the two former knights was that his upper left arm was less of an arm and more a collection of thick vines that reminded Ben of his Florauna demon form.
His animalistic cackling which hadn't ceased throughout his entire transformation had finally stopped as the former exorcist…and human…picked his new hulking body up and slowly brought himself back to his feet while the two mutated creatures behind him slowly stirred and regained consciousness. As they did so they began to roar mindlessly and thrash against the binds that somehow had held and restrained them in place.
"Well, what do you think of my new look?" Freed asked with a disturbing, shrill new tone in his voice.
"What have you done to yourself?" was all Kiba found himself able to say as he stared at Freed with open disgust on his face.
"Aww, you don't like it? I, myself, find it very fetching," Freed retorted, giving his body a quick examination, laughing manically as he did so. "If you don't like it then I'll just have to kill you all and find someone else to play with."
"You really think you have a chance against all of us?" Xenovia taunted him as she raised Durandal up and pointed it at Freed.
"Perhaps not by myself…but that's why I brought along some backup!" Freed snickered as he glanced over his deformed shoulder to the two thrashing monsters behind him, the binds of which broke and disappeared in a flash of light, releasing the creatures who immediately jumped to their feet and, upon noticing the gathered devils before them, roared loudly at them before madly charging at them.
"Oh shit!" Ben exclaimed as one of the mutated monsters charged straight at him at a speed that should've been impossible for something that huge and lumbering. He slammed his hand down on his dial just in time and was bathed in a bright green light.
[Transform: Fourarms!]
The light hadn't had time to disperse before the beast had slammed into Ben and used the momentum they'd built up in a split second to continue charging across the glistening hall, roaring and snapping at Ben's head while he was putting all his effort into pushing the monster back, his feet pressing as hard as they could into the floor and finding very little grip in it due to its incredibly durable nature not giving him an inch.
Ben grimaced in pain as the monster managed to clamp down on his collarbone and bite down hard. His almost impenetrable Tetramand skin stopped the monster's teeth from breaking through – even if they were the teeth of an Oryctini which was known for being able to eat through some of the toughest minerals and metals – and his raw, brute strength enabled him to withstand the mindless blows the monster was throwing at him. It was made very clear to Ben in the first few seconds that the monster was unfamiliar with its new body and of what it was capable of which was good news for him. If the monster was conscious of its different abilities and magical powers then this fight would be going very differently for Ben.
As he was too focused on his own fight, Ben was quite oblivious to what was going with the rest of his team. Kiba and Xenovia had launched themselves at Freed, darting around him and slashing at him with their blades while staying out of reach of his numerous appendages. Like the monster, Ben was fighting, Freed, thankfully, had absolutely no idea how to fight in his new powerful form and was barely able to stand against the two Gremory knights, unable to land a single blow against either of them. Where, once, he could match them in speed and skill in swordsmanship, his new body was now completely alien to him. A fatal flaw in his current situation that the egomaniac had failed to consider.
As for the other monster that used to be an Astaroth knight, Koneko, Rias and Akeno were dealing with them. Koneko kept the beast in place, throwing blue balls of youkai fire at it and absorbing its blows as it angrily lashed out at her while Rias pummelled it with multiple blasts of destructive magic bolts, rendering it totally oblivious to Akeno who was now hovering above it and was building up her magical power to unleash it all in a single, devastating attack.
Back with Ben who was still struggling to bring the monster to a stop, he felt his foot hit one of the numerous pillars of crystal arranged around the long hall. When he felt his back pressing against the pillar, Ben immediately went on the offensive, delivering a sharp uppercut to the monster's jaw which dislodged it from his shoulder and gave him room to rear his head back and sharply bring it forward again in a headbutt which landed squarely in the monster's face with such raw power that it caused a small shockwave to ripple out and the beast to roar in pain.
Seizing the opening he'd created, Ben grabbed hold of the hulking monstrosity with all four of his arms and lifted it off the ground, ignoring it as it started to return to its senses as he brought it above his head and began roaring again and flailing about erratically, swinging its huge fists everywhere in its animalistic throes, striking Ben several times but he held firm, turning to his right and launching the monster across the room where it struck the crystalline wall several feet away from him and fell to the floor, leaving a noticeable crack in the dense mineral.
With the beast down on the ground, Ben glanced back at the others to see them fighting their own battles with the other former Astaroth knight and what once was Freed Sellzen.
In hindsight, this was a foolish mistake to make, a mistake which Ben realised almost too late as he barely had time to hear his own opponent roar angrily before he was consumed by a blazing inferno. He held up his arms to cover his face and brace against the worst of the flames, glancing through the dancing flames surrounding him to see the monster he was fighting holding up one of their huge hands, palm open, from which the jet of Heatblast hellfire was coming from.
Even though his incredibly tough Tetramand skin protected him from even the hottest flames the monster was capable of creating, Ben still felt some sense of pain from the intensity of the fire and came up with a plan and acted upon it in the span of just a few seconds, lowering his hands from protecting his face (turning his face away to avoid the continuing jet of flames), rearing them back before clapping them together with as much force as he could.
The resounding noise from the powerful clap echoed throughout the entire room, silencing everyone who briefly glanced towards Ben to see the directed shockwave extinguish the fire and shoot across the gap between them and blast the monster back into the wall again and fall to the ground. The moment lasted for only a brief moment before the room descended back into chaos as the others resumed their fights.
Not making the same mistake twice, Ben's eyes didn't leave the monster as it picked itself up off the floor again and pounded its chest with a roar of challenge.
"Alright, this is getting boring now…," Ben muttered to himself as he activated Ddraig's Gear.
[Welsh Dragon: Hammer!]
A large hammer materialised in Ben's left upper hand. It was the same hammer that he had taken from the Tetramand mercenary during their fight against Raynare. Rias had seen the advantage in keeping such a rare, powerful weapon and had taken it for him. He'd trained with it several times during his sessions back home but this was the first time he'd be using it for real.
"…time to end this," he continued as he tested the weapon's weight in his hand while the monster had finished posturing and had fallen into another charge towards Ben. It's legs were wonky and still uneven from the botched transformation but its body was held aloft by the insectoid wings protruding from its back which buzzed incessantly as they worked to hold the burly monster up.
Ben waited for the right moment, holding his ground firmly and his weapon steadily in his hand and he watched the monster quickly close the gap between them, its grotesque mouth drooling and frothing insanely, a blank look in its eyes, a clear sign that the person the monster used to be was now completely gone, leaving behind simply a mindless beast.
The instant the monster had come close enough Ben sprang into action like a coiled viper (an impressive feat considering his large frame), lunging forward and thrusting his hammer out and striking the monster squarely in the chest, using both his own power and the beast's momentum to cause significant damage to it and pushing it backwards with ease.
He continued to push the beast back until it hit the wall again though this time Ben didn't give it chance to recover. Instead, Ben swung his large hammer down across the monster's legs, knocking them out from under it and sending it to the floor while, at the same time, he brought his hammer up again, reared it back, took hold of it with both hands and brought it crashing down onto the downed creature's head with so much force that it left a large crack in the crystalline floor which spread out several feet in every direction from the hammer which had reduced the beast's shattered head into mulch.
Ben didn't have time to admire his kill before the dead monster exploded in a brief flash of light.
As he lifted up the still-gleaming Tetramand hammer up and sent it back into his gear, Ben looked away from where his opponent had been laying and turned back to the others just as a powerful bolt of lightning struck the other monster that Rias, Akeno and Koneko were fighting. The large bolt was quickly joined by a crimson red magical bolt from Rias, the two potent spells striking the screaming monster squarely in its enormous chest. The beast would've made an effort to block or move out of the path of the fatal spells had it not been for Koneko who'd held her prey firmly in place until the very last moment, springing out of the blast range just in time to avoid the powerful explosion. As the smoke cleared from the combined attack there was no evidence left that a hulking, four-armed abomination had ever been there.
At the same time, on the other side of the room, Kiba and Xenovia seemed to be having a more difficult fight against Freed than they'd had with the other two monsters, most likely due to Freed still having some semblance of his mind still intact after his horrific transformation, making him more dangerous than ever.
"Stand still you little pissants!" Freed bellowed as he swung around with his fists wildly, slamming them into the floor where Kiba or Xenovia had just been before leaping out of range again, a wild fireball briefly forming in one of Freed's open palms before exploding in the floor, surprising Freed more than anyone else.
It was clear to Ben that Freed had absolutely no idea how dangerous he could be if he understood the abilities that his amalgamation of demonic forms gifted him. This, however, made it more clear to Ben that Freed needed to be taken out quickly before he was able to begin to grasp the power he had at his disposal.
Just as Ben was about to rush over to assist them though, Kiba distracted Freed with a deadly flurry of bladework that forced the monstrous former exorcist to bring up his arms defensively to block the attack…leaving him completely open wide for Xenovia to appear behind him and slash Durandal across the back of Freed's legs, hamstringing him severely.
Freed let out an anguished cry as his legs were cut off from under him from Xenovia and Kiba's combined attack and fell to his knees in excruciating pain. With his defences down, Kiba leapt forward and struck Freed in the face with the hilt of his blade, dazing him senseless before slashing his blade across Freed's chest with such skill and precision before finishing off his strike by slicing clean through Freed's neck and severing it completely from his body which crumpled to the floor in a lifeless heap.
"Gah!" the decapitated head of the once human exorcist gargled, his mouth full of dark blood which spilled out of both his neck stump and his mouth. "Since when were you pricks…so fucking strong?!"
Neither Kiba nor Xenovia deigned to answer Freed's question as they cleaned their blades of blood while they stood before Freed's dismembered head while Ben and the others joined them.
"Well…,it doesn't matter anyway," Freed continued, coughing up more of his rapidly evacuating bloods. "You bitch-ass little devils are…nowhere near strong to contend with the bigshots pulling the strings."
"Perhaps not…," Xenovia finally muttered as she planted Durandal, tip-first on the floor as she stared down at Freed.
"…but you won't be there to see it," Kiba added simply before he stabbed Freed's head, right between his numerous eyes, with his blade and held it there as Freed's head and the rest of his grotesque body fizzled away into nothingness.
"Good work, everyone," Rias stated as she turned her attention to the set of doors ahead of them, the final thing standing between them and Diodora and Asia. "Now let's get going!"
"I'm coming, Asia," Ben muttered under his breath, already having returned to his normal form, as they all ran up the last staircase to the next level and stood before the doors to the throne room.
"Diodora! Where are you, you fucker?!" he bellowed loudly as he pushed open the doors and stepped through into another long room like before…though, unlike the last room, this one had a large, ornately decorated throne at the far end of the room where once the Petrosapien monarch sat upon…and now Diodora was lazily sat in, his legs dangling over one of the armrests, swinging slightly.
"No need to shout, Mr All-father. I'm right here," Diodora replied with a sly smile plastered across his face.
"Where the hell is Asia?" Ben demanded as he led their group into the throne room and approached Diodora.
"She's right here," Diodora stated nonchalantly, gesturing behind the throne wherein a set of curtains, ravaged by time, covered the entire back wall slowly lifted up to reveal Asia restrained in some strange-looking contraption which held her bound in place, her arms held above her head, leaving Asia exposed and defenceless…emphasised further by her clothing which had been torn almost completely to shreds, little scraps of her shirt remaining clinging to her shoulders and her breasts exposed to the open air while all that remained of her clothing were her torn thigh-high socks and her panties.
What caught their attention though and made their eyes widen was the series of deep bruises strewn across her body, several purple splotches painted across her exposed torso and deep cuts across her face which were trickling blood which streaked down her cheeks.
At the sight of them, everyone gasped in shock and horror, their eyes widening at Asia's beaten state.
"My God!"
"Shit!"
"Asia! No!"
"What the fuck did you do to her you fucking bastard?!" Ben roared loudly, stepping closer to Diodora. He got about twenty feet away from Diodora before he suddenly hit an invisible wall which stopped him in his path.
"What the…?" Ben began, startled by the barrier which shimmered at his impact, creating a wave of purplish energy which rippled away from him to reveal a barrier which cut the room in half, leaving him and the others on one side, and Diodora and Asia on the other.
"What is this?" he demanded, punching the invisible wall which rippled again but still held.
"It's some kind of magic barrier," Akeno explained for him.
"I've never seen one like this before though," Rias added with concern as she glanced over the barrier which disappeared again as the ripple died away. "I couldn't see nor did I even sense it was there."
[She is correct. This is no ordinary barrier. It has the smell of Ophis' magic about it,] Azmuth explained to Ben through their mental connection.
"Asia! can you hear me?! We're here to rescue you!" Ben shouted up at her.
At the sound of his voice, Asia stirred, wincing in pain from the bruises across her body and opened her eyes which met his. As they did, a soft smile formed on her face.
"I-I knew you'd come for me," she muttered weakly, wincing again from the pain.
They were interrupted by the sound of Diodora's triumphant laughter which brought Ben's attention away from Asia and back on the Astaroth heir.
"Good luck getting through that barrier. I got it specially for you, 'big bad Dragon All-Father'. A special gift from the dragon god of infinity, Ophis, themself. Completely indestructible and everlasting. The only way to take it down is when I will it."
Ben gritted his teeth and punched the wall again in frustration and pressed his forehead against it as he glared daggers directly at Diodora who appeared unphased by Ben's anger.
"Bastard! What the fuck did you do to her?!" he roared again, barely holding back his restraint.
"I spent so long waiting for my new toy to be ready…," Diodora continued with a dark sneer, completely ignoring Ben's question as he glared at him. "…waiting for her to ripen with despair so that, when her guardian devil came for her, she would come to me with open arms. I thought it was bad enough that my new toy came into the service of a fucking Gremory of all families…but imagine my horror when I find out that my new toy gave her purity to a dragon! A filthy fucking dragon!"
Diodora sighed with a shake of his head as he rose out of his chair and approached Asia, ignoring Ben who punched the barrier several more times which had no effect on the formidable obstacle, where he grabbed her jaw and forced her to look at him.
"I have no one else to blame but myself I guess. I shouldn't have placed so much trust in that fallen bitch, Raynare, dealing with a bunch of horny teenagers. I should've just killed her and her little gang and given Asia my Evil Piece, both literally and euphemistically."
"You're disgusting!" Rias exclaimed in horror while Ben threw another, frustrated punch at the shimmering wall.
"I thought the despair Asia would feel when she sees her friends beloved dragon lover destroyed before her eyes would satisfy me but my anger got the better of me for losing out on taking her virginity and I lashed out a little. Taking the dragon All-Father's sloppy seconds is a disgusting thought; the only saving grace will be her anguish as she calls out your name while I ravage her."
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Ben bellowed loudly, his voice echoing throughout the hall as he disappeared in a flash of emerald light.
[Transform: Diamondhead!]
The light hadn't even dissipated before Ben had thrust his arm, now shaped into the form of a sharp point, into the wall. However, just like the times he tried before, this was just as ineffective as ever.
Diodora cackled at Ben's anger as he watched him throw himself at the wall again and again in a pointless attempt to break through.
"Hahaha! It seems I've succeeded in making you lose your mind. It's useless, dragon! I've already told you, the barrier is completely impenetrable!"
Ben ignored him as he continued to strike the wall, Ddraig's voice echoing around the hall as it boosted his power
[BOOST, BOOST, BOOST, BOOST, BOOST, BOOST….]
He heard Rias trying to say something behind him but he couldn't make out what she was saying, so focused was he on destroying the barrier and getting to Asia.
[It's not working, kid. You need to try a different strategy,]Azmuth's voice echoed in Ben's head. As much as he hated to admit it, Ben still held control over his powers enough to realise that Azmuth was right and he'd need to try something else to get past Ophis' potent magic.
At the recollection of the barrier being a magical spell from another dragon god, a thought came to his mind and he acted upon it immediately.
"Have you finally realised the futility of your actions, dragon?!" Diodora taunted as Ben stopped attacking the wall, cackling triumphantly as Ben stepped back from the wall.
[Welsh Dragon: Blade!]
Azmuth's blade, Ascalon, materialised in Ben's right hand. As the shining, legendary sword appeared, crimson armour materialised across Ben's crystalline body, covering his body in a draconic helmet, gauntlets, greaves and chestplate.
Ben brought the blade in front of him while he placed his left hand – which had reverted back from its jagged point – flat against the blade's edge while he locked eyes with Diodora.
Still confident in his superiority, the cocky noble devil sneered back at Ben's glare and tightened his grip on Asia's jaw, earning him a whimper of pain from the restrained former saint, and forced her to look down at Ben.
"Watch, my dear. Watch how your precious dragon tries in vain to rescue you from me. Once he fails, I plan to take you right here in this very hall, right in front of him so I can see the look in his eyes as I defile his breeding bitch of a sow."
[Transfer!]
Diodora's gaze turned back to Ben as Ddraig's voice bellowed out. The sword which Ben held in his hand was glowing slightly, shimmering in Ben's hand.
Before Diodora could say anything or taunt him again, Ben pointed the sword tip at the pulsing, purple wall and reared his arm back. Letting out a loud roar of anger, Ben thrust the blade forward, putting as much power as he could into this single thrust.
When the blade connected with the wall, several cracks rippled across the entire length of the towering barrier as the blade pierced through it a few inches before the whole thing exploded in a shower of purple magic energy which slowly disappeared as the shards fell back down to the ground.
"I-Impossible!" Diodora exclaimed as he finally released his grip on Asia and took an unconscious step backwards, his eyes now fearful as Ben, having now dropped his sword which disappeared back to his Sacred Gear – his pieces of armour vanishing along with the blade – and was now marching straight towards Diodora.
Trying to regain control of things, Diodora shrugged his shoulders and forced a confident smile back on his face as Ben reached the steps of the throne and began ascending them.
"No matter, no matter. I've still got an ace up my sleeve; an ultimate spell directly from Ophis themself, a spell designed to destroy drag–," he began to say but never got chance to finish before Ben took hold of him by his collar and swiftly brought his crystalline head down upon Diodora's in a powerful headbutt which caused the once confident noble devil to cry out in anguish and threw him over his shoulder, across the room, straight into the wall to the left of the throne where he slid to the floor in a dazed heap.
Ben then glanced over his shoulder to Rias and the others stood behind him.
"You guys get Asia. I'll deal with this fucker," he called out to them as he headed back down the stairs and marched towards his opponent
"You wretched Gremory pawn!" Diodora screamed as he started pushing himself up again and turned to face his enemy, balking a little upon seeing the approaching Petrosapien closing in on him, his eyes becoming filled with panic. Acting quickly he threw up his hands in front of him where a large green magic circle materialised before him and a series of green bolts of energy began spewing forth from it, shooting directly at Ben.
Diodora's eyes could only widen in horror though as the magical bolts bounced harmlessly off of Ben's crystalline body.
"What?! No, that's not possible! I've gotten so much stronger thanks to Ophis and the Khaos Brigade!" Diodora cried out in desperation, dodging out of the way at the last minute when Ben reached him and went to punch him, striking the wall where his head had been a split second ago.
"There's no way I can let a disgusting dragon beat me. Me! A member of the great bloodline of Beelzebub. You're just a useless, reincarnated, peasant!" Diodora wailed as black wings sprouted behind his back and he took to the air, hovering several feet above Ben's head and glared down at him.
"Now, as I was saying. Prepare to face the full force of Ophis' dragon-slaying snake!" he jeered as he brought up his left hand and pointed it, palm-first at Ben, a purple magic circle materialising before him where it began to grow in size and power.
Diodora's moment of triumphant victory lasted for but a brief few seconds before he yelled out in pain again and clutched his hand in pain, the slowly growing magic circle disappearing. He looked down at his hand to see a large crystal shard which had struck his hand and was impaled halfway through his palm which was now bleeding heavily.
"Aaaaaarrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhh!" he screeched at the top of his lungs, completely oblivious to Ben who aimed his arm, the end of which was currently morphed into a series of pointed projectile shards, up at Diodora.
Diodora was so focused on his impaled hand that he failed to even notice Ben taking aim at him again and firing a series of shards, all of which striking him unopposed, hitting him all over his body and wings, piercing through them and leaving numerous bloody holes after them and earning further screams of pain from the wailing noble devil. The wailing only lasted a moment though as Ben then leapt into the air, grabbing Diodora by the throat and bringing him down again and pressing him hard against the crystalline wall which earned him a spattering of blood splashing across him from Diodora as blood began trickling down the corners of his mouth.
"N-No. This isn't right…this isn't fair," Diodora gasped, all the wind knocked out of his lungs as his eyes struggled to focus on Ben.
Ben then released his hold on the noble devil's throat and let the whimpering devil fall to the ground and cough up blood. He saw a flash of light and looked up to see Ben standing before him, back in his human form, and staring down at him with the same intense glare he'd had before.
"You hurt Asia," Ben murmured darkly, his intense stare difficult for Diodora to look at directly yet he found himself too afraid to look away. "You're going to regret that for the rest of your miserable life."
Ben finally broke eye contact with Diodora…only so he could cycle through his Sacred Gear in search for a particular transformation to use, finding it after a few seconds.
Just as he was about to select it though, Azmuth's voice entered his head.
[Be sure you want to use that form, boy. It's an incredibly dangerous form that can hurt your allies as well as your enemies if you aren't careful.]
This caused Ben to pause for a moment, his hand hovering above the dial as he considered Azmuth's words.
He stole your woman and abused her. Striking her and leaving her on display to mock you and challenge your authority.
Ben glared down at Diodora as the memories of his recent actions entered the forefront of his mind and his hand slammed down on the dial and he was engulfed in light.
[Transform: Terromonstrum!]
The light dissipated to reveal an odd-looking creature standing in Ben's place. He had transformed into a greenish yellow-skinned, ogre-like creature with long, misshapen arms which had weed-like spikes protruding out of them, and pointy fingertips. He was wearing a pair of simple black briefs and a dark green metal cage helmet on his head, his glowing green eyes hidden behind the cage though still seen through the darkness. Two horns protruded from the sides of the helmet, the cage covering his face composed of five bars. Connected to his helmet was a set of armour which wrapped around his shoulders and descended halfway down his chest, connected to his briefs by several thick chains.
"What is that…that revolting creature?" Diodora gasped as he tried picking himself up again.
"It's the form that will give you the proper punishment for taking what is mine!" Ben growled, his voice deep echoey behind the grill of his helmet, his glowing eyes hidden behind the grill flickering between their natural, green colour and a dark purple.
Diodora watched as Ben took a step forward and unclasped the lock on the side of his helmet, the grills of which slowly began to split in half vertically. As this happened, a strange layer of gas began falling out of the helmet and spread out around him. at the same time this was happening, an aura of dread and horror entered Diodora, an aura that he couldn't shake and filled him with unadulterated fear.
"W-Wait. Wait a moment. Let's talk about this!" he cried as he fell back to the floor, trying his best to look away from the opening helmet but finding it impossible to look away. "Look. You-you can't do this to me. I'm a noble. You're just a peasant!"
This was the last thing Diodora said as the grill to Ben's helmet opened fully as he saw his face in its entirety.
On the other side of the hall, Rias and the others were hard at work trying to free Asia from the confines of Diodora's strange contraption but nothing seemed to work against it, not Kiba nor Xenovia's swords, not Koneko's brute strength and neither did Rias nor Akeno's magic. This didn't stop them from trying though and they thought of a way to free Asia from her imprisonment….
…that is until they heard terrified screaming from where Ben and Diodora had gone, attracting everyone's attention.
"Ben!" Rias cried out, fearing the worst. She turned back to the others. "Kiba and Koneko. You come with me. The rest of you continue trying to get Asia out of this…thing. We'll be right back."
Her orders given, Kiba and Koneko followed behind Rias as she ran across the hall to help Ben. When they neared them though they slowed down at the strange sight before them.
Gas seemed to be flowing out of the helmet that Ben's unknown form was wearing, forming around him and Diodora but only to the area around them and not extending any further. From Ben they could hear a cacophony of unsettling noises: terrifying screams, unholy groaning and agonizing wailing, and a roar of terrible, demonic laughter; all of which seeming to originate from Ben.
That wasn't the worst though.
No, the worst thing was Diodora's screams in horror, the thing that had caught their attention from across the hall.
"AAAAAAAHHHH! GET AWAY! GET AWAY! GET AWAY FROM ME! AAAAAAAHHHH! LEAVE ME ALONE!" he screeched
Not only was Diodora's screams unsettling and unnerving but it was the physical changes it was having on Diodora that caught their eyes the most. His hair had turned white and his skin had become taut and pale.
"Ben?" Rias asked with concern, stepping closer to Ben and reaching a hand out to his shoulder, stopping when his arm reached back and stopped them.
"No! Don't get any closer! It's too dangerous!"he warned, his voice deep, dark and giving off an aura of fear around it.
Deciding to listen to his warning, Rias, Kiba and Koneko stopped behind Ben and could only watch as Diodora continued to scream in terror at what he was seeing. To their relief they only had to wait a few seconds longer as Diodora's voice became cracked from his continuous screaming, his eyes, full of terror. His cheeks bulged before he threw up all over himself, the strong smell quickly overpowered the smell of piss from when Diodora had pissed himself in fear. His eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he collapsed to the ground in a heap and began muttering nonsense to himself.
They watched as the grill around Ben's helmet closed shut, the gas surrounding them dispersing around him and he turned back to normal with a flash of light and finally turned to face them.
"Sorry about that, guys. I'd never used that form before and Azmuth warned me that it was an incredibly dangerous form to take and I needed to be extremely careful when using it," he explained as Rias closed the gap between them and hugged him tightly.
"I was worried about you. When I heard screaming I thought he'd done something to you."
"Hey, don't worry about me. You think a prick like Diodora could hurt me in a fight? He didn't even scratch me," Ben consoled her as he hugged her back.
They eventually broke their hug and Ben smiled at Kiba and Koneko who approached and patted him on the shoulder and arm comfortingly before they glanced over at Diodora's pitiful form, their noses wrinkled as their enhanced sense of smell was overcome by the pungent odours of the noble devil's loss of body control.
"What did you do to him?" Kiba asked as he covered his nose in an attempt to lessen their pungent smell.
"I taught him a lesson he'll never forget. If he ever physically recovers from what he saw he'll never fully recover mentally from it."
"Why didn't you kill him?" Koneko asked simply.
When they glanced down at her, surprised by her suggestion, she just shrugged her shoulders. "What? The dick betrayed us to the Khaos Brigade. He would've been executed anyway."
"She's not wrong," Rias admitted, casting a quick glance back down at Diodora's poor state.
Ben nodded in understanding. "Yeah. This way, though, it'll serve as a warning to anyone wanting to mess with us in the future."
"Good thinking," Kiba said with a small smile.
"RIAS!"
The four of them snapped their heads over to the others who were left trying to free Asia from Diodora's entrapment where they saw that the strange structure had started to glow slightly.
Sensing something wrong, while Rias, Kiba and Koneko ran back to the others to see what was going on, Ben turned around and walked up to Diodora's downed form and took hold of the back of his collar and forcibly dragged him out of the pool of his own mess and, grabbing a fistful of his hair, forced his head up to look at the glowing structure.
"The fuck is this, asshole?! What the fuck did you do?!" he roared loudly.
Diodora didn't say anything though in terms of words. Instead, he just continued to mumble and murmur random, nonsense words.
Becoming frustrated at this, Ben pulled him up sharply and punched him in the side of his face before shaking him roughly. "Listen here, fuckhead, unless you want to have another chat with my last form then you'll tell us what the fuck that thing holding Asia is doing and how we can stop it.
"Can't stop…."
"What was that?" Ben demanded, shaking Diodora again.
"Can't stop. Will consume her. Failsafe against you," Diodora muttered shakily, his eyes unfocused and still full of fear from what he saw. "Impossible to stop. I win."
Ben grunted in anger and thrust the mumbling devil to the ground hard before running over to the others who were becoming concerned at the structure's glowing light slowly becoming brighter and more intense.
"We can't get her out of there!" Akeno exclaimed with concern at the lack of any progress they'd made in freeing Asia.
"We need to think of something," Rias stated as she came up to stand beside Asia and took hold of her restrained hand and gave it a comforting squeeze.
"Rias. I'm scared," Asia whimpered.
"I know, Asia. Don't worry, we're not going to give up," Rias comforted her before turning back as Ben reached the steps to the throne and ran up them to join them. "What did he tell you?"
"It's not good. This thing's going to consume Asia if we don't get her out."
"How though? We've tried everything."
Ben went silent for a moment as he thought of something they hadn't tried yet before something came to him. He quickly relayed his plan to Azmuth and Ddraig.
[Have you taken leave of your senses, boy?! Did that last form adle your mind in some way?] Azmuth's voice exclaimed with exasperation at Ben's preposterous suggestion.
[You know I hate to agree with the old fool but, on this, I have to agree with him,] Ddraig added once Azmuth had stopped…giving his opinion of Ben's plan.
"I don't have time to debate the pros and cons of my plan, okay!" Ben interjected, unwilling to go through the same back-and-forth that he was normally happy to go through with them. Now wasn't the time for it. "I know it's a shit plan but it's the only way we can free Asia before Diodora's restraints kill her. I don't have time to argue with you. I just need to know if it'll work or not and we don't have time to waste!"
Azmuth didn't answer him at first, his frustrated growling reverberating through Ben's head, and Ben was already impatient and was about to call out to the dragon again in frustration before Azmuth beat him to it and spoke.
[It's…possible. There's no telling what the consequences of doing this will be…but if you're determined to do this….]
"I am," Ben replied instantly.
[Then do it. I've released the locks I placed on it. As soon as you free the blonde one though you'll need to cancel the transformation immediately. Got it?]
"Got it."
Ben turned his attention back to Rias and Asia, his mind made up.
"No, we haven't tried everything yet. There's one thing we can do." He turned and placed his hand on Asia's shoulder and stared at her intently. "It's a really risky plan but I promise you it will work."
Asia winced as the structure started to carry out its final act, explosive magic quickly building up within its frame which was now starting to bulge from the pressure, but this didn't stop her from giving Ben a warm smile and nodding her head.
"Okay."
"Do you trust me?"
"With my life."
Ben smiled and planted a quick kiss on her forehead before facing Rias and the others. "You all need to get back. This thing's still going to explode once I get Asia out of this thing."
Seeing the look on his face, Rias didn't say anything with this; she just nodded her head and retreated back down the throne steps and backing away several feet with the others following her.
Ensuring that they'd retreated far enough away from the impending explosion, Ben stepped in front of Asia and brought up Azmuth's Gear and quickly cycled through the selection of transformations until he found what he was looking for and slammed his hand down on the dial.
[Transform: Ectonurite!]
Acting quickly, Ben didn't even wait for the light to dissipate before moving forward, grabbing hold of Asia's bare forearm and waist before focusing all his power into activating his ability to turn intangible. As his wraith-like form turned see-through, Ben wanted to smile in relief as Asia's body also started to turn see-through, like his. He didn't even fully register that only her physical body had become intangible while her tattered clothes remained fully solid and fell through her body and fell to the floor, leaving her completely naked.
With both of them now fully intangible Ben pulled back, his grip still firmly holding onto Asia as he pulled her restrained arms and legs out of her restraints and flew backwards, freeing Asia just in time as the structure reached its brightest and exploded violently, filling the entire end of the hall in a bright light and smoke.
As the light and smoke died away, Rias and her peerage uncovered their eyes from the bright light to catch glimpse of another flash of light between them and where the strange construct had blown up, this time a red light. When the light dispersed and the smoke thinned they saw Ben, back in his devil form, lying sprawled out on his back with Asia, completely naked, lying on top of his chest, the pair of them breathing heavily as they caught their breath.
"Asia!" Xenovia cried and broke into a sprint towards the two of them, leading the way as the others also started running towards their two close friends.
Ben glanced down to Asia resting on his chest, barely even noticing that she had lost all her clothing as a result of his inexperience in using intangible abilities.
"You doing alright?" he asked her with a smile.
Finally registering what had just happened, Asia quickly pushed herself up, her palms resting on his chest, with a gasp and stared back down at him with wide eyes as she breathed heavily.
"Are you alright?" she asked him breathlessly, also oblivious to the fact her clothes hadn't come with when she was freed.
"Yeah, I'm peachy. I told you I'd…."
[Kid!]
Ben sensed it a split second before Azmuth's voice bellowed in his head with urgency and his body went completely into automatic mode, reacting instinctively away from his mind.
"Ben?" Asia asked in concern at the way he just stopped and his expression went blank for a moment. The next thing she knew Ben had brought his hand up to her chest and pushed her back with such force that she was sent flying backwards through the air.
Thankfully, though, the others had almost reached them and they were able to catch Asia before she hit the floor. Just like her, they were all taken aback by Ben's sudden, surprising action.
"Get back!" Ben cried loudly to them just before his eyes rolled back into his head and his body started jerking and spasming violently on the floor. As they reacted in horror to Ben's violently thrashing and guttural groaning, they saw thin lines of dark purple smoke emerging from the corners of his eyes and start swirling around his head, quickly growing and expanding in size and magical potency.
They were also thrown off guard by the incredibly dark, malicious aura that now completely surrounded Ben. It took them by surprise and made all of them feel extremely nauseous, almost to the point of throwing up right there and then, it hit them that strongly.
"Ben!" Rias shouted in fear and ran forward to help him from whatever had taken hold of him. As she got close to him though one of the rapidly expanding tendrils of dark smoke lashed violently out and caught her squarely in the stomach, knocking her back before it withdrew and returned to slowly circling Ben's still thrashing body.
"Rias!" Akeno gasped as she ran forward to bring Rias to a stop.
"Dear God! What's happening to him!" Xenovia gasped, horrified at the insane sight before her eyes.
"I don't know but we need to help him! Come on!" Rias exclaimed and they all prepared to engage the malicious smoke tendrils.
[No! you all need to leave this place immediately!]
Azmuth's voice suddenly echoing audibly around the hall halted them all in their tracks.
"Azmuth?"
[You mustn't get any closer!] he bellowed loudly.
[If you'd rather not die then do as he….] Ddraig started to yell at them before one of the tendrils seemed to take a liking to his Sacred Gear and had wrapped itself around it, constricting its ethereal 'body' around it tighter and tighter. The instant the tendril had completely encased Ddraig's Gear the crimson dragon's voice cut off abruptly, as though someone had cut the line to a telephone.
"What's going on?!" Rias shouted to Azmuth before there was a massive surge in power and magical aura, the sudden change resulting in a huge energy wave which struck Rias and the others, catching them by surprise and pushing them backwards across the floor. It took them everything they had not to lose balance, fall over and get sent flying back to hitting the far wall.
When they looked back at Ben they saw that the blast of energy had been so powerful that it had blown the crystalline ceiling almost completely, the dark Underworld sky occupying the space above them now.
"What was that?!" Asia cried out above the huge soundwave which followed behind the energy wave.
"I don't know but the aura surrounding Ben is so much more powerful and intense than before," Kiba shouted out to be heard above the noise as another pulse rippled out from Ben.
"It's not just that though," Akeno added with a grimace as, like the others, she was forced to hold her arms up defensively to protect herself from the intense aura rippling around the hall, hitting them in constant, repeating waves of magic power, each one more intense than the last. "That aura is pure darkness. I've never sensed anything with such malicious intentions radiating off its very being like that!"
"It's like it's the personification of Evil itself!" Xenovia exclaimed as she struck Durandal into the ground to act as an anchor to stop her being pushed back any further.
"We have to do something!" Rias cried out in horror, her eyes still glued onto Ben's body which was still thrashing uncontrollably, his limbs twisting in unnatural directions – the sharp sounds, inaudible to anyone without enhanced hearing, of bones breaking as they twisted in their spasms acted as a repeating knife blow to her heart – his mouth wide open as if he was trying to scream in pain yet no sound would escape his throat.
[There's nothing you brats can do! This is something no one in the Underworld can hope to survive against!] Azmuth's voice bellowed out again between the shockwaves.
From above them, where the ceiling had been blown off, a large tendril descended from somewhere high above the Petrosapien palace, its origin out of sight, and snaked its way down to Ben. The moment it made contact with the tendrils surrounding Ben it seemed to send an electrical shock through Ben's entire body as it convulsed and thrashed madly as though he was being electrocuted, the tendrils pulsating even stronger than before.
"EhT kNiL sI EdAm. EhT lAuTiR sAh NuGeB!" a voice that was very much not Ben's roared out, the spine-chilling, malicious sound easily heard by everyone despite the noises and intense, still growing, magical power. As it exclaimed this, several more tendrils shot out of Ben's mouth and began to join the others in swirling around Ben like a protective cocoon, slowly consuming him entirely.
It was at this point that two of the swirling tendrils finally took notice Azmuth's Gear and swarmed it, wrapping themselves around it tightly though, unlike with Ddraig, Azmuth's Gear was putting up a much stronger fight against them, the tendrils seeming to be pushed away from the Gear as a faint, emerald light rippled out of the Gear, holding the dark energy at bay.
[You must go NOW! I will do everything I can to protect him but if you stay here any longer you WILL die!]
"But…." Rias tried to argue. It was breaking her heart at the prospect of leaving her beloved behind while he was suffering so much.
The tendrils seemed to have grown too strong for Azmuth's Gear to defend against as they attacked the Gear with great prejudice, grabbing hold of it and covering its surface with their dark auras.
[You must warn Michael and Azazel! Tell them it's Dago–.]
Azmuth's voice suddenly died as his Gear was also completely consumed, the last part of Ben left visible before he disappeared entirely to the swarm of tendrils.
As he did so the energy waves ceased, being replaced by a single incredible aura which was rapidly growing stronger and stronger in power.
"We have to go now!" Kiba shouted, sensing something bad was about to happen.
"But Ben…," Rias trailed off, still holding out hope that they could do something to help him.
"You heard Azmuth! If we don't go now then we're all dead! I want to help Ben as much as you do but there's nothing we can do right now! We need to get help!"
Hating herself and vowing never to forgive herself for it, Rias backed away from the dark sphere which now encompassed Ben and was rapidly growing in power by the second before turning her back on it and following the others as they all ran out of the throne room, the prone form of Diodora, completely unaware of everything that had been happening, remained behind, a thin line of drool trickling out of the corner of his jabbering mouth.
One they'd escaped, they unfurled their wings and quickly took to the sky before rapidly flying away from the damaged throne room, descending to the ground where they could regroup and come up a new plan.
Near the end of their descent though, the noise behind them which had been growing in power and noise, the very air around it vibrating intensely, suddenly stopped. The void was immediately filled by silence for a few brief seconds before the sound of the real explosion overcame the battlefield, the massive shockwave sent out by the titanic explosion rippling out across the ancient, dead city, knocking airborne warriors out of the sky from its power and many building, particularly the ones closest to the epicentre were completely destroyed, the ancient crystals either collapsing to the dark sand or sending out a massive shotgun of deadly shards, impaling any unfortunate to be nearby, whether they were divine, damned or otherwise, killing many.
The blast knocked Rias and the others out of the sky and sent them falling to the ground. Thankfully, though, they weren't far from it so the damage was minimal. As they turned around to see the results of the explosion, the first thing they noted was that the entire palace was crumbling to the ground. The once proud, towering structure had finally met its match; after eons of standing tall, standing vigil over the dead city and a beacon across the dark desert, and was now falling out of the sky, the black mass that had consumed Ben falling with it until it struck the floor, the large tendril still connected to it maintaining the contact. As some of them followed the large tendril back up its line they saw that it was protruding out of what looked like a huge tear in the very air above them.
Though it was easily the biggest, it wasn't just the only tear though. As they looked up to the sky they could see many more, smaller tears in space started to rip open all over the battlefield, each one a different size from the last, some so small they could barely be seen, and others so large a mid-sized Vaxasaurian could walk through with ease.
"What do we do now?" Gasper whimpered, absolutely terrified at what he was witnessing. He let out another terrified gasp when the large tendril started bulging as though it was pushing something down its length, starting from the opening in space down to the pulsating ball of dark energy.
"Rias!"
They turned to see Jen and Gwen running towards them, both looking dishevelled and worse for wear compared to the last time they saw them.
"Jen? Gwen? Are you two alright?"
"Are we alright?!" Gwen replied incredulously, wiping off some sweat from her brow.
"What the fuck happened here?! We were just finishing off the last remnants of the Old Satan faction's forces and then all hell broke loose!"
"What do you mean?"
"Rips in the fabric of space started opening up all over the place and hordes of demons and strange-looking monsters started pouring out of them, taking our forces by surprise!" Jen exclaimed.
"What?!" Rias gasped in shock, the others similarly taken aback by what Jen had said.
"Yeah! We were ambushed by a pack of some strange lizard-like gelatinous creatures that we've never seen nor heard of before while we were still fighting some of Animo's monsters. They ripped into the monsters, making short work of them, before turning their attention on us," Gwen added with a slight shake of her head as she thought back to their recent fight.
As Gwen was talking, Jen's gaze was drawn behind Rias to her peerage where she immediately noticed someone was missing.
"Hey," she interjected, attracting everyone's attention. "Where's Ben? Why isn't he with you?"
At the mention of his name, Rias took a sharp intake of breath at what had happened in the Petrosapien throne room and her head snapped back to the epicentre of the huge explosion which just erupted.
"Something happened to him."
"What? What do you mean? What happened to him."
"After he defeated Diodora, Ben transformed into an…Ectonurite, I think it was, and…."
Both Jen and Gwen gasped at this.
"He did what?! Why did he do that?"
"Azazel told us that that form had been sealed away by Azmuth, that it was too dangerous to be let out."
"He had no choice. Diodora had trapped Asia in something that was completely indestructible and was about to consume Asia and kill her as a failsafe. Nothing we tried worked!"
"Okay, then what happened after he freed her then?" Jen demanded, eager to return the conversation to what mattered.
"We don't know. He cancelled the transformation but then started to act strangely; thrashing and shaking violently…," Rias started to explain but found it too difficult to recount what they saw happening and had to stop.
Thankfully, Akeno was beside her and, while she felt similar to Rias, was able to continue for her.
"Some strange magic surrounded Ben and started to encase him in a shell of dark magic. We tried to free him but the magic wouldn't let us get near him. It was so intense and powerful that we were pushed back from it."
"You left him?" Jen accused in disbelief.
This brought Rias back instantly.
"We didn't want to! Even with Azmuth ordering us to leave, telling us that we stood no chance against what had taken him, we didn't want to leave him behind…but we were forced to flee when the magic was about to explode."
Jen didn't respond. Instead, she walked past them all to see the pulsating pool of dark magic. Even from the distance she was at she could still feel the powerful, incredibly malicious aura resonating from the ball of energy, and a feeling of nausea bubbling within her as she stared at it. Rias and the others joined her and stared at the mass of energy, experiencing the same nauseous feeling as Jen.
"Is Ben…is he still…," Jen struggled to say but found it impossible to finish her own sentence, unwilling to even contemplate it.
Much to her subconscious relief though, Rias knew what she was trying to ask and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently.
"Yes, he's still alive!" Rias told her firmly, without a shred of doubt in her mind. "Not only do I believe that with all my heart, Azmuth swore he'd protect Ben."
At the mention of Azmuth's promise, Rias abruptly remembered his last order to them, the message that Azmuth told them to pass on.
"Azmuth knew what took Ben!" she blurted out at the recollection, and while the others also remembered this Rias pressed her hand to her ear and activated the communication spell.
"Azazel?!"
"Rias? I'm kinda busy here. You beat that bastard, Diodora, and free Asia yet?"
"Yes, but something's happened. Something bad."
"Hang on. Were you kids at the palace? Do you know anything about the strange creatures that came from these dimensional rifts that just opened and that huge explosion just now?"
"Something took Ben's body. I think it's possessing his body. Before whatever it is consumed Ddraig and Azmuth, Azmuth knew what it was and told us to–."
"Wait. You're saying something consumed Azmuth and Ddraig's Gear?! That's impossible."
"It happened before my eyes, Azazel. Before it did though Azmuth told us to warn you and Michael but he disappeared before he could give us a full name, all he got out was "Dago-". Do you know what he's talking about?"
Azazel didn't respond and went silent.
"Azazel?" Rias called out, disturbed by his sudden silence.
"No," Azazel finally replied with a firmness in his voice that Rias couldn't recall ever hearing before. "Azmuth must've been mistaken. There's no way that's true…it just can't be."
"Azmuth didn't sound mistaken when he told us to warn you," Rias retorted.
"The magic. The magic that took Ben and consumed Azmuth and Ddraig's Gears, describe it to me. Quickly."
"What?"
"There's no time for this! How did you feel when you stood near it and were looking at it?!"
"It made me feel sick to my core, like all the light in the world was being drained away."
"Fucking shit! Fuck! Azmuth warned us but we didn't listen. Not even God. Shit, that'll explain these beasts that ambushed our forces then. You kids need to get out of there…right now."
"Bullshit!" Jen butted in, joining in with the conversation by activating her own connected magical communication device. "I'm not leaving my little brother behind!"
"Whatever took him needs him for something. We won't leave him," Rias added, doing her best to remain composed despite feeling the same anger as Jen.
"There's nothing any of you kids can do for him, dammit! Dagon is a monster this dimension was thought safe from for literal eons. Shit! With God dead, Azmuth gone, and Great Red impossible to find I don't think there's anything left that can fight it and win anymore. I can't even call Sirzechs or Odin as they're fighting something powerful and deadly that came from one of the portals…."
Azazel's voice was cut off when the pulsating ball of energy which had been steadily growing in energy from the connected tendril started moving and contrasting unnaturally, the air around it vibrating intensely enough to make their teeth and their ears ache in pain. As they flinched from the attack on their senses a huge, intrinsically designed magic circle etched materialised into being around the bubbling ball.
"What was that?!" Azazel's voice called out as the vibrations eased up a little though the wind around Rias and the others had unexplainably picked up and began swirling around the centre, gradually picking up speed.
"Something's happening with it. A magic circle just appeared around it and its growing in size," Rias replied as she released the hold she had on her ears like most of her peerage.
"Wait. You said that it still has Ben, right?"
"Yes."
"And it's still connected to the tendril?"
"It's still passing power to it, yes."
"Then we might have a chance."
"What do you mean?"
"Dagon was sealed away in an inescapable prison deep in the Dimensional Gap. Somehow it must've found a way to try and escape from there but it's limited in how it can do this. It sounds like it found a way to establish a connection between its prison in the Gap and this universe through Ben somehow."
"Ben had to transform into an Ectonurite to rescue Asia from Diodora," Rias told him, hoping to give him any information that would lead to Ben being rescued and returned to her side.
"Crap. That'll do it. Ectonurites were extremely dangerous creatures, created directly from Dagon's vile essence to act as his shock troopers and spies. They are linked directly to it in every single way. Even if it was only for a split second it was all Dagon would need to latch itself onto him and start a ritual to bring the rest of it here."
"And Ben? What happens to him when the ritual is complete?"
It took Azazel a brief moment before he answered again, telling them their worst fears.
"I'm afraid that it'll consume his body entirely."
"So what do we need to do?" Gwen asked, her eyes glued to the bubbling ball as it began to change shapes.
"I've told you kids…."
"With the greatest respect, Azazel, but you can go fuck yourself roughly with a rusty pike if you think I'm just going to stand by and watch some world-ending monster kill my brother."
"Same here," Rias added, joined by defiant calls of agreement by the others.
There was an audible sigh from Azazel before he responded to their declaration.
"I can't change your minds, can I? I shouldn't expect anything different from you kids. Okay. I don't know how much time we've got left but we'll need to act fast. The key to stopping the ritual is severing that tendril connecting Dagon's essence to our dimension. If we do that then it should also sever the connection to the other portals."
"We can do that…," Rias declared before she felt a faint vibration in the ground and heard the distinct sound of hundreds of footsteps thundering closer and closer towards them.
"Incoming!" Kiba shouted, drawing his blade as he faced the opposite way to the rest of them. They glanced back, looking up the long stretch of sand that once acted as a main street for the dead city to see a writhing mass of strange-looking creatures charging towards them.
"What is it?" Jen wondered, unable to see them clearly due to her lack of enhanced senses like the others.
"It's the same creatures that tried to ambush us from before," Gwen told her as she also unsheathed her weapons.
"They must be coming to protect Dagon's essence from any attack while it completes the ritual," Akeno realised, looking back at the growing orb of malicious energy.
"Rias," Jen called out to the Gremory heiress with a determined expression on her face.
"Yeah?"
"Gwen and I will hold off those fuckers for you. You bring him home. You bring my little brother back to me, okay?"
Rias returned the stare and nodded her head confidently.
That was all Jen needed before she leapt down and joined Gwen, the pair of them charging towards the rapidly approaching horde to intercept them.
Not long after they left the ground shook again, far more violently then before. They turned back to the centre where the palace had once stood to see the pulsating ball of black energy had flattened out, stopping at the edge of the magic circle. As they watched, something started to emerge up out of the middle of it, rising up into the air, its mass transforming into a humanoid/draconic-like shape.
When it reached its full height, it reached a gargantuan height of 100 feet tall. Its body, pitch black in colour with its chest and stomach being dark purple, was covered in armoured scales and bulging muscles, a pair of huge, menacing wings protruding from the creature's back and arcing out across the sky and flapping slowly. Sprouting from between the creature's shoulders were three long, muscular necks, attached to which were three roaring dragon heads, each one roaring wildly as they snapped their heads around, examining their surroundings.
Once the creature had fully formed its three heads let out another thunderous roar. As it did countless bolts of dark magic formed around its hulking form and fired out in all directions, creating a bombardment of destruction all around it as the bolts exploded violently against everything they struck.
"Well that complicates things," Akeno stated as she quickly brought up a defensive barrier between them and the beast as the bolts started to land around them, exploding against the barrier when they struck it.
"What are we supposed to do now?!" Gasper squealed fearfully.
Rias contacted Azazel again.
"Azazel! We're running out of time!"
"I know. I can hear and see it. Michael and I are on our way with some back up; it's just taking us some time. The good news is that it looks like Dagon can only bring its physical body through right now so we've still got a chance. Without Dagon's mind, that thing is just a mindless beast…."
"I had a feeling something was going on here."
Rias and the others jumped at the sudden voice and looked up at a toppled crystalline building to see Valerie, Sun Wukong and another, blond-haired man emerging from a portal that was already sealing shut behind them.
"Valerie?"
Valerie glanced down at them and gave them a bored smile before leaping down to them, her two companions following after her.
"What are you doing here?"
"We were searching for something in the Dimensional Gap when I sensed Ben's power suddenly change and came to see what it was." She turned her head towards the roaring beast. "Is that him over there? What happened?"
"He's been possessed by a monster called Dagon who's using his body to escape from the Dimensional Gap," Rias told her, noticing a look of recognition in her eyes at the mention of Dagon's name. "You know of it?"
"I'd heard rumours of something else lurking in the Gap aside from Great Red but that was all it was…until today that is. Ben's body is being used as a link, you say? You'll need to detach him from that thing before it completely consumes his life force."
"We know."
"Can you help us save him?" Akeno pleaded, stepping up to Valerie.
"Please! We're begging you to do whatever you can to help us save Ben," Asia begged her pleadingly.
"Even with the power of the White Dragon Emperor, are you strong enough to fight that thing?" Xenovia asked with concern as the beast's bombardment continued to rain down all around them.
Valerie stared at them for a moment before glancing back at Dagon's physical form for a moment before she glanced over her shoulder to her companions.
"Arthur. Sun. You two help out against the incoming swarms. Make sure they don't enter the main square and get in my way."
"Sure thing," Sun nodded and took to the air, careful to avoid the indiscriminate bombardment blasts as he went to patrol the perimetre as instructed while Arthur merely gave a short nod in confirmation and headed off himself."
As they left, Val suddenly shot up into the air and flew straight towards the beast.
"Koneko. Xenovia. Akeno. You three go and assist Jen and Gwen in holding back those creatures. I don't want a single one making it here."
""You got it, Rias,"" they replied in unison before heading off to join the other two while Rias turned to the rest of her peerage.
"The rest of you. Lets destroy that monster and get Ben back!"
""Yeah!"" they cried out defiantly and sprang into action.
. . . . .
Demonomicum extract:
Piscciss Volann
Appearance: While humanoid in overall shape and stature, the Piscciss Volann shares many of its traits with aquatic life that can be found in the human world, such as an alligator, an eel, a leech, an anglerfish, and a shark. Combining the traits of these deadly and adaptable creatures into a single organism, the Piscciss Volann can be described as the perfect underwater hunter and predator, unmatched by any aquatic creature or demon and more than a match out of water for many land-based demon too when discounting the limited time they can stay out of water. Attached to their heads is a phosphorescent light which helps them traverse the deepest parts of the Underworld's ocean and seas and to lure in unsuspecting prey.
While in their natural environment the Piscciss Volann's set of gills enables them to remain underwater indefinitely and their lower half which takes the shape of a fishtail enables them to swim through water at incredible speeds and unmatched agility while, on land, they can freely transform their tail into a pair of humanoid legs though their gills remain which means they will eventually dry out and have difficulty breathing the air, leading to their inevitable death unless they return to the water.
Bio: Similar to the other aquatic demonic species of the Underworld, such as the Orishans, Piscciss Volanns can be found dwelling deep in the Great Ocean and the adjoining seas. As I expected while writing my chapter on the Orishans, the fragile peace didn't last long and the two species were once again at war with one another, the ocean turning into a battlefield of carnage and violence.
As I also stated in my Orishan chapter, the borders of the two sides hasn't changed much despite the intense fighting between them, mainly due to how evenly matched the two species are in power despite being so different in magical abilities. While unable to leave the water indefinitely like the Orishans, the Piscciss Volanns retain the title of masters of underwater combat, able to outswim and outmanoeuvre any of their enemies.
Unlike their Orishan foes, while the Piscciss Volann can also access the vast wealth of valuable minerals found in the deepest parts of the ocean, they make no effort to harvest it for themselves, finding no value in the 'shiny rocks'. Their xenophobic, isolated kingdom puts no value on wealth and has no concept of currency within their society, particularly since they have no diplomatic ties with any other nation species, preferring to keep to themselves. Whatever little trading that does occur within their society happens on a bartering system solely between other Piscciss Volann though even this is a rare event.
I expect that the war will end after a decade or two once both sides have worn out their energy to fight and another fragile peace will be agreed again. How long this one will last though is a question I doubt even the Orishan or Piscciss Volanns know themselves.
Power level: High-class Devil
Threat level:
Out of water: Medium
Underwater: High
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A/N: And there we go.
First off, just in case there's some confusion for you guys, it was actually Toepick that Ben turned into to scare the literal shit out of Diodora. I couldn't find any official name of his species so I made up one of my own. For any of you who didn't take Latin in school, the names literally translates to "Terror monster"…or it should do at least.
In regard to Dagon's physical form, try imagining a much, much larger Juggernaut Drive appearance with three dragon heads instead of one. In Ben 10 canon, Dagon is a shapeshifter so I wasn't limited in what he looks like so I wanted to make his dragon form more DxD in nature.
I hope this has taken enough of an alternate path from the canon DxD story for people as I promised it would. After this arc is completed I have a new arc that I was inspired to use by another, brilliant fanfic author. I received permission to use it for my story years ago; it's just taken me too long to get to the point where I can actually write it.
Anyway, that's something to talk about in a few chapters time. Stay tuned for the next chapter where, as well as the battle against Dagon's physical form, we'll be seeing who Sirzechs and Odin were fighting against. It's something that's not a pushover and something that'll force them to take it seriously if they want to survive.
Until next time. See y'all later!