The group had all been sitting around lazing with nothing to do. It had been two days since the whole 'curse being lifted' thing happened and Akira was getting bored. "That's it, I'm doing a quest and I don't care how hard it is." He said standing. Ash was gone that day and surprisingly Megumin and Aqua had gone to do something together themselves. That left himself, Darkness, and Kazuma there alone.
"You sure that's a good idea?" Kazuma asked as Akira walked to the board.
Darkness began to breath a bit hard. "The thought of going on a quest far above my level...the danger the monsters bring...as a crusader I can let you go alone without protection!" She says going to Akira. The young man shrugged.
"I don't much care if you come with me since you'll get levels but don't expect me to hold your hands along the way: you better be useful and do something." Akira said. However he knew that maybe only Kazuma would benefit from this, Darkness however wouldn't. She'd be more of a 'hit me while I don't hit you and gain no experience from this aside from completion rates' kind of person on this job.
The three wandered to the board and grabbed a job. It was relatively simple, killing a small pack of wolves that prayed on a farm. Good XP from it all things considered and good pay. Next was a simple guard quest; no creatures ended up appearing but they still got a good cut from it all things considered- the cargo being some high value products on its way to the next town and they needed to escort it to the halfway point. The last thing they did was goblin slaying. While the two others with Akira were hesitant when it came to the children Akira knew otherwise; he had read a report from a high leveled adventurer once that: 'You must kill all of them. Even the children; they learn from what they go through and if they experience your mistakes they learn this too. Goblins hold a grudge for life so leave none left to victimize others.' He took this as solid advice for a beginner and went through the grueling task of taking care of business. After this however the other two wanted to rest for the day.
Akira looked at the board and saw most the jobs were now gone. "Damn it. Still could use some points." He said to himself. Before he turned however he heard a voice from behind him.
"Are you the one they call 'Akira of the Strong Style'?" A man says making Akira turn. He wore a cloak over formal clothing, a half-scared face with a milky left eye looking at Akira.
The fighter looked him over for any threats or weapons seeing none. "Well I am Akira, didn't know they started calling me that last bit though." He said cautiously. The man kept his neutral stare as he walked a circle around the teen, as if examining him intently. "You got a problem with me or something?" Akira asks as he follows the man's path.
"No" he replies "quite the opposite in fact." He stops before Akira's front again and reaches into his cloak making Akira tense up. He quickly pulled out what he had a hold of and Akira put his fists up in preparation only to see...a job flyer. "You and your other friend are the exact people I am looking for. The one who holds the title of 'Ash the Dark Slayer' and 'Million Cuts Ash'. I wish to employ you on a job of grave importance to this world, one that if you do not take could spell the very end of the Human World." The man says. Akira's eyes widened a bit before he grabbed the paper.
"What exactly are you wanting us to do?" He asks looking it over.
The man chuckled- the first thing of emotion he has done- and speaks again. "I shall give the details tomorrow at the location on the request you have. If you both come then I will see it as an acceptance; and do believe me when I say it is vital for Ash and yourself to be there. Only you both together can do this." He says turning swiftly, making his cloak flutter a bit. "I will see you then." He says as he exits the guild.
Akira looks back to the job paper after a brief second of making sure the guy was actually gone. It did indeed have a location listed, as well as the two adventurers the man requested; but other than that it had nothing else. No difficulty, no reward, no job poster, nothing. "Well then...this ought to be an interesting party." Akira says as he walks to the door himself to go find Ash.
/The Next Day\\
"And you believed this man?" Ash asks as he and Akira walk along the directions on the job poster.
"Not really? It's hard to explain; a part of me Doesn't but another part of me thinks it's worth checking out. Normally when something like this happens in an RPG then it is a major event flag." Akira says to Ash as they look out into the distance and see a long abandoned dilapidated house with a small water wheel behind it and a stream moving it to this day. "Well that must be the place, his directions end here. Pretty spooky place if you ask me." Akira says.
Ash looks around before drawing Yamato and slashing, just barely missing the back of Akira's neck and stopping just before a cloaked figure. "State your business." Ash says to him.
"My my, your reflexes and reaction time are far greater than I first imagined. I see you brought him Akira, good. This sword will be vital to what is needed here." The man says gingerly sliding his finger across the flat side of Yamato's blade.
Akira turned to see the man from yesterday without a care in the world that a literal dimension cutting blade was mere inches from cutting his head off. "And what is it you want us to do?" Akira asks him.
The man walks forward and points to the old house before them. "I need you both to go in and destroy the Devil within." He says simply.
Ash and Akira look to one another before Ash talks. "Explain carefully, or else I may slip." He threatens getting an amused chuckle as the man then turns back to the blade, still pointed at him, and runs his finger across the sharpened edge this time. A small amount of blood began to leak out of his hand as he finished.
"I know what you are, Ash the Dark Slayer, I know you are half Devil." He says shocking the two adventures. "Before you needlessly threaten me again I will tell you how: I know the feel of Demonic Power. Anything and anyone can learn how to detect even the slightest bit of Demonic Power so long as they have the patience and time to train themselves to do so." He turns his gaze to the two Devil Arms his companions held. "I can also feel the Demonic Power being let off by your weapons, obviously Devil Arms. Your blade Ash is vital to this mission: I need you to close a portal to Hell; and I feel your blade can do such a thing." The man said simply.
"A portal to the underworld?" Ash asks looking to the house.
"Yes. You see not so long ago that house used to be mine. I myself was an adventure who lived to dabble in magic- so much so I became obsessed with it. I tried to learn all I could until eventually I came across the one thing I should have never learned." The man said looking to the ground.
Akira has the pieces fall into place easily. "That there were other worlds connected to this one, and that the Demon World could have magics you hadn't seen before." He said getting a nod from the man.
"Indeed. I was so infatuated with the idea of a new branch of magic unexplored by humans that I pursued it vigorously. I found any and all books speaking of the Devil's, found the proper incantations and symbols, and drew a circle to begin my ritual." He paused as memories came back to him of that day. "I summoned a Devil to this world and tried to make a deal with it. But I was stupid, foolish. It laughed in my face and used its power to destroy the house and open a portal to Hell right there. As I left the house I forgot the one thing that should have been far more important to me than any magic: my wife and daughter. They died that day, and the scar on my face given by that Devil is a reminder of my stupidity."
The man took a moment to breath and rest his mind from digging up his painful memories. Akira and Ash shared another look to one another as they felt a bit bad about his story. No one deserved to live through that and have the ultimate punishment be forced upon them.
The man, now ready to speak again, looked up to them. "So with the reward of whatever money I can give, I ask you to close that portal. Kill that Devil. I've asked many adventures to try this but they all failed, and now I know why: they lacked what you have. Strong wills and weapons to see this to the end. Please...I beg of you! Avenge my Kalina and Marry!" He says dropping to his hands and knees pleading with the two.
Just those two names made Ash and Akira realize exactly who this man was; it sort of made sense, after all they were in another world. Whether it be pure coincidence or some cosmic fate the man before them was none other than this world's version of Devil May Cry's Arkham. He had been far different than his game counterpart in their world- but the face, voice, and scar matches up. They shared the same thought in that moment after realization as well: at least he wouldn't be betraying them here also, and thank god there was no Jester in sight. Akira walks up to his left side while Ash takes the right, the former patting the man on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it, we'll handle this." He said as they walked forward.
"Thank you...thank you both." Arkham said through sobs and tears as he turned to see them approaching the house.
"So what is the plan?" Ash asks as they get nearer to the door.
Akira pops his neck and knuckles as they were right before the door. "Go in, kick ass stylishly, and get home before dark." He says.
"Works for me." And with that Akira kicked in the door easily shattering its wooden body. The two carefully entered the old house and looked around: upturned furniture, burn marks everywhere. "This feeling...there is a Devil here, and a portal below us." Ash says looking through a bookcase that had nothing but the charred remains of old books.
"Guess I better work on that thing Arkham said because I can only feel strong magic. So if it's below us then I'm guessing basement." Akira says walking through what he assumed used to be the living room. "Question is how do we get there?" He asks as Ash enters the remains of the kitchen.
They continue to look around noticing the small details of the place until something catches Ash's eye. He grabs hold of a ceremonial looking dagger stored within the knife drawer and goes over to the bookshelf again. He looks through it as Akira turns to him. Before anything could've been asked Ash shoves the books off the shelf to reveal a hole the shape and size of the daggers blade. "I guess he was hoping to keep his Demon summoning a secret." Ash says as he pushes in the dagger and turns it. The bookshelf unlatched and became a door which when Ash moved revealed the wall. However that didn't fool the two; the clear outline they saw let them know it opened as well. "Find the way to open this, it must be lever activated." Ash says to Akira, getting a nod.
They start looking over everything again before Akira heads up the old and broken stairs. He heads into what he assumes to be the master room and finds old looking lanterns on the wall. Out of curiosity he goes up to one and pulls on the bar connecting it to the wall to find it moved down and a clicking noise was heard. "It's opening!" Ash called out from down stairs making Akira rush back down. Indeed the wall was opening to reveal the entrance to a basement.
"Well, let's get going I guess." Akira says with a smirk as they move forward and down some old steps. They take glances at old symbols carved into the wall and Demonic letters sprawled about with books to back them, all charred and burnt to a crisp. "Lets see...if I were a Devil summoned here by force who opened a portal up what would I do to hide it?" Akira asks as Ash pushes aside some books and notices something.
"Look" he says holding up a perfectly untouched book with no cover or title "of all the things here this is the only thing that survived? I highly doubt it." Ash says as he starts to flip through the pages. He stops, looking through a specific section of the book with interest. "Now this, this is interesting." Ash mutters time himself, making Akira come over.
"What ya got there? What's interesting?" He asks looking over Ash's shoulder. The halfling simply smirked and chuckled before quickly and unexpectedly unsheathing Yamato and swinging while forcing Akira to the side.
While at first glance it looked like he was swinging at nothing, that was clearly wrong. His blade scraped across something that had flesh because after it finished it's arc a small cut appeared on thin air with a trickle of blood going down.
"GAAAAH!" A deep voice yelled out as the illusion faded and the Demon stumbled back with the giant hash in its chest. "You'll pay for that you bastard half-breed!" It said pointing a clawed finger at Ash. The two adventurers got a good look at it: a curved head with a sort of 'mane' of white hair. A scaly appearance with clawed hands and feet, it almost looked like an overgrown lizard. "This is my domain! What business do you have being here!?" It bellowed in anger as the two devil hunters for a day smirked.
"Well actually..." Ash began as he sheathed Yamato again.
"We came for you." Akira finished as he took his fighting stance with his fists up.
The Demon laughed as it looked them over. "You!? Come to kill me!? This must be some stupid joke!" It said laughing harder before quickly dashing past them as they went for an attack. The wall behind it opened and the entire place shook as it used its powers. "You came into MY domain! Now you'll feel the consequences for that!" It called out floating into the hole and making it close behind itself.
The two looked at one another wondering what was supposed to happen next as suddenly the floor beneath them opened up with two holes sized specifically for them. They both were separated but experienced a slide as they were forced down into what they assumed was toward the portal. "You'll die here bitches! And then I'm feasting on your flesh and taking your power!" They heard the voice of the Demon say. "Then, and only then will they finally see me as a TRUE DEVIL! THEY'LL HAVE TO! HAHAHAHHAHA!" It descended into mad laughs as the two finally touched solid ground again but now split from each other.
Ash looked around and noticed how the area had changed substantially; now looking like it was actually merging with the Demon World through a portal. "Hm...this seems more like it. I hope Akira will be ok." He says as he takes notice of the groups of smaller demons popping up now, most likely servants to the bigger one they just met upstairs. "Because it'd be unfair of me to get a higher kill-count if he was hurt when he landed." Ash said as he moved Yamato up to eye level and, with his thumb, flicked the blade slightly out of its scabbard while smirking at the canon-fodder.
/Elsewhere\\
Akira landed with a heavy thud as he looked around. "Alright then, lets see what he's got Ash...Ash?" He turns to see his companion absent. "Yo Ash! Where ya at fam?" He calls out turning around and looking.
The area rumbles a bit as a deep dark chuckle from the Demon is let out. "Your half-breed companion has been dealt with for causing me such an injury. Rest assured his death is guaranteed, and it will be a long, grueling, and painful experience!" The demon said, trying to be dramatic.
Akira looked around not seeing the enemy. "Gotta really look into this Demonic Detection stuff...so what did you do with him? Might as well tell since he's basically as good as dead!" Akira yells out hoping this Demon was pretty dumb. To his delight it was slightly dumber then it let on.
"I had my demonic followers go after him. The pure number alone shall prove to be his downfall!" The Demon says making Akira chuckle. "What's so funny, human!? Your partner will die and you laugh?!" It yells out in frustration.
Akira wipes away a fake tear from laughing. "No no, it's not that. It's just...oh give me a minute." He says leaning over Ana's catching his breath. "It's just that you think that guy will be done in by numbers alone. You're really stupid ain't ya?" Akira asks rhetorically.
"You dare!" It yells out. "Fine human, I would have offered you amazing powers and riches beyond your wildest dreams but I simply shall kill you!"
The area shook again and a blinding light appeared in a tear in what Akira guessed was 'space'. He looked around and shrugged. "No other way but that way it seems. Let's get this done." He says, walking into the tear.