Last of the Line
I do not own Highschool DxD or any of it's characters. I own only Vale Beleth.
Chapter 15- Rumble at Kuoh Academy
Katarea Leviathan landed on top of the gymnasium and stumbled behind one of the air conditioners on top of the building before leaning against it and letting herself slide to the ground with her chest heaving from the effort of running away. She had summoned several magicians and Devils to distract Vali, the Beleth Brat, and the two girls. She had no idea how Vale had transformed into the false Lucifer with that book, but it was a convincing transformation, supposedly no one in all of Creation had that much control of the Power of Destruction as the false Lucifer did, but somehow Vale had copied his technique with that book.
She bared her teeth in a scowl as she remembered exactly why she hated the Beleth heir. There was no way to formulate a strategy against him, he could copy and analyze any technique used against him in a matter of minutes, sometime less than that. Usually the next time you battled him he was totally protected against it. You could throw demonic power at him all day, and you'd end up doing more damage to yourself than him. She had underestimated his power and how well he fought with Vali, she would not make that mistake again
Katarea was however, startled from her musings by a loud CRACK!, coming behind the air conditioner she was hiding behind, she turned to peek out from behind the air conditioner to see the false Lucifer standing on the roof next to the girl with the strange ears and the green hair. Though now, the girl had transformed one arm into a large sword, while the other had transformed into a firearm of some sort. The crimson-haired Devil began to scan the rooftop as Katarea ducked behind the air conditioner
and fished out a flask from one of the pockets in her dress before stepping out from behind the air conditioner.
"You know, it's not very sporting to gang up on a lady." She said as she popped the stopper on the flask that contained a small black snake
"You shut your clown whore mouth!You're no lady, especially considering how often you let Shalba, Creusery, and Euclid "gang up" on you." Vale shot back with a sneer. Katarea scowled back at the Beleth heir. Vale opened his mouth to speak when his body was suddenly covered in soft, blue light. It faded after a few seconds, revealing him standing once more with his normal appearance of long, black hair and bright silver eyes.
"Well, looks like whatever magic you used to copy Sirzechs' abilities is up. See how long you can last against me after I do this!" "Katarea exclaimed as she raised the flask to her lips and swallowed the small black snake inside in a single gulp. Shortly after, her body became wrapped in a deep, black aura.
"Vale, scans indicate that the enemy's demonic power has increased by several magnitudes. Records indicate that her current power level is roughly equal to that of the original Leviathan. Additional scans reveal that the catalyst for the power increase is draconic in origin." the girl with the green hair and unusual ears chimed in a flat, emotionless tone.
"Thank you for the info, Chachamaru-neesan. I wish I had more time with Sirzechs' abilities but oh well. Let's see how you handle this!" Vale exclaimed as a book with the letters CC printed on the front flew to his hand from the nearby book spiral. Without wasting a second, he summoned the Trident of the Fisher King to his hand as he inserted the bookmark into the book with a small use of demonic power telekinesis before removing it once more as he was surrounded by the column of light once again. The light cleared shortly after to reveal a handsome young man with short black hair. He wore a combination of a Japanese school uniform (more specifically, the gakuran worn by Japanese schoolboys in the fall) and ancient Chinese attire. He grinned as he tapped the trident against his shoulder,
"Now this should be fun. This person is significantly weaker than I, so I should be able to maintain it near indefinitely. But, he is significantly better with pole arms than I am, more specifically spears. He's also brilliant, this should be quite a fun handicap." he said confidently as he continued to tap the trident against his shoulder.
"Hmph, fine. Handicap yourself if you want. But it will only lead to your death. Take this, ha!" Katarea called as she launched a wave of demonic power at Vale and Chachamaru. Vale disappeared in a bur of movement well before the wave reached him. Chachamaru however raised her arms and attempted to erect a barrier. The wave of power however crashed into the barrier, decimating it before continuing on to separate Chachamaru's torso from her legs with the sound of tearing metal.
Katarea smirked before noticing Vale was nowhere to be seen. She felt a faint presence behind her, and turned just in time to jump back and dodge a thrust aimed at her stomach before launching a hail of demonic power bullets at her assailant. Vale charged at Katarea and dodged between the bullets as he launched a flurry of thrusts and stabs at Katarea. Katarea managed to just narrowly avoid or block all of the would-be fatal strikes though Vale managed to land several scratches and shallow wounds on his opponent.
Katarea launched herself skyward in an attempt to distance herself from her adversary before spreading her wings to remain aloft and safely out of Vale's reach, for the moment. As soon as she felt she was at a safe distance she began to gather her demonic power in the air above her. The demonic power manifested itself a a large dark blue and black sphere of power. The surface of the sphere began to ripple and flow like molten metal as Vale felt the concentration of power begin to rise to incredible levels higher than anything he'd felt in a long time anyways. Vale felt the increasing level of power in the air above his head as the sphere began to shrink until it was the size of a bowling ball. The concentration of power was incredible, far beyond anything Katarea should be able to muster. This deeply troubled Vale, as he doubted that Katarea was the only member of her organization to possess that type of power-up.
"So, before I end you. Mind if I ask how that little trick of yours works?" Katarea asked as the sphere of power settled into her palm. Her dress was tattered and torn, but her aura of snobbishness was still, regrettably, intact.
"Right, like I'm gonna tell you how my pactio artifact, To Fyuron To Biographiconis, works. God, you're almost as stupid as you look." he sneered.
"Fine, it's your funeral. Take this!" Katarea exclaimed as she hurled the or at Vale.
"Don't think so!" Vale said as he pointed the trident at Katarea. She watched as a round orb of ice materialized at the end and shot toward her attack. It collided with the orb with a might BTOOOM! as the orb of demonic power exploded in a cloud of acrid smoke, obscuring both Vale and Katarea's vision. Fortunately, the smoke cleared just in time for Katarea to see the orb of ice zooming toward her...
"The orb slammed into her stomach and launched her into and through the building behind her. Katarea was launched clear across the campus before slamming into the barrier and falling to the ground with a thud.
Katarea shakily pushed herself to her knees, her dress was destroyed, and she was bruised, battered, and bloodied beyond belief. Every cell of her body was on fire, she was in more pain than she ever thought possible. She tasted blood and felt at least 3 sizable shards of glass still inside her. Her vision was blurry and her head was swimming as she heard two familiar voices,
"See Shalba, told you Vale and Vali were too much for her. Thankfully, Vali's off fighting mages or she'd be dead now. This whole fiasco has been a disaster, the Vampire woman decimated most of our mages. Vali is making mincemeat of most of our Devil comrades. Maybe we should just pull back." one voice said.
"No Creusery, if we don't stop Vale and Vali here, we will be in quite the bad situation. Besides, we'll never have a better shot a the Three Powers leaders than now. First we deal with Vale, then the false Satans. Get the Phoenix Tears." Shalba said as he slipped his favorite toy over his forearm...
Vale ducked under the strike from the burly Valefor Devil as he he swiped at him with the katana he'd made of ice in one hand, his left hand held the blood-soaked Juuchi Yosamu as he jabbed at the Amon clan member who was on his other side. He caught a glimpse of several Devils charging him from behind as he turned to swipe at the Valefor member once again. With a flick of his demonic powers he activated his artifact. More specifically, a book labeled simply S. His hair turned silver in a flash of light as four silver, scaly arms burst from his back, each holding a katana made of ice, and stabbed the ambushing Devils. Simultaneously, he decapitated the Amon clan member, a wiry red haired teen boy of about 18, while he shoved his other sword through the windpipe of the burly, white-haired, Valefor member before spinning around, killing his six assailants.
He had killed 89 Devils already, albeit with Vali sporadically helping out. His uniform was covered in small rips and cuts but nothing major, he could fight circles around most of the Old Satan Faction. He had yet to sustain anything worse than a paper cut thanks to his Abyss Physique forms and artifact. Mil-tan and Kanda were off raising hell, Kanda had some nasty gashes but nothing major. Mil-tan was unharmed, some mage had destroyed his cosplay... this, as it turned out was the last mistake that mage ever made. Vali was... well, the White Dragon Emperor was having the time of his life.
He was about to charge off and slaughter a few more Brigade members when he heard a man call out,
"Pitiful, no Devil should ever stoop to copying a human. Even if that human is a Hero." Vale whipped around to see two handsome young men, one wearing the clothes of a noble, the other wearing light armor, hovering next to a healed Katarea Leviathan. Each of them radiated the same aura Katarea had after consuming the flask that had powered her up.
"Go to Heaven, Shalba. Your sanctimonious attitude will be right at home, there." Vale sneered as he dismissed the transformation and started the Balance-Breaker countdown.
"You did well against Katarea, but against the three of us you will surely perish." Creusery Asmodeus chimed in.
"You think so?" Vale asked with a grin.
[ABYSSAL DRAGON BALANCE-BREAKER!]
The black tail announced as it appeared on his back and covered his body in the black aura before resolving into the horned armor. Vale grinned as he saw two wings of crimson light extend from his shoulder blades. Vale had used Drain Zero on Divine Dividing a few weeks ago, he had some very interesting abilities to test drive.
"Hmph, an artificial Sacred Gear won't save you here." Creusery said with a derisive laugh.
"We'll see."
[SALVAGE DRAIN!] the jewels on his armor called as Vale felt his armor begin to absorb the leftover power, stamina, and unused lifespan of the nearby corpses
[JET!] Vale charged toward Creusery, narrowly avoiding a magic bullet before nailing the Satan descendant with an uppercut and using the aura concentrated in the gauntlet to nail Creusery with a bullet of dragon power. He didn't have time to observe his handiwork, as Katarea began to pelt him with magic bullets but thankfully his armor managed to negate most of the damage as he put the distance between himself and his enemies. He watched as Katarea formed dozens of magic circles in front of her as several huge blasts of elemental magic rocketed towards hims, a massive mix, of ice, lightning, flame, stone, and wind. He focused all of his aura in front of his armor about 4 inches in front of his outstretched gauntlet, watching as a black sphere manifested in front of the gauntlet.
[VORTEX!] The jewels called as a cyclone exploded out from the sphere, drawing the magical barrage directly into his armor. He felt his power soar, higher than even Azazel's and Kokabiel's. Higher than even Michael's, then it began to hurt... It began to build and build, until it felt like his entire body was going to self-destruct when he felt the armor stop functioning as he heard.
[DISCHARGE!] the Jewels announced as Vale felt the power level begin to fall as the excess power vented out the wings.
"Gotcha now!" Shalba yelled from behind him as he extended a gauntleted fist and shot a spear of light from the gauntlet, Vale whipped around just in to see it shatter his chest plate and skewer his heart...
On the roof of a nearby building Evangeline, Sirzechs, Ajuka, Serafall, Rias, and Vali stood on top of the roof watching the battle between Vale and the Old Satan leaders.
"Vali, make sure all the students are evacuated. Rias, you may wanna make sure your servants are safely away. This will be impressive, but you don't want your servants in the crossfire. The rest of you, watch closely. I've only seen this once, but it still give me chills to this day. You've seen how useful Drain Zero is, now you'll see the true power of the Beleth Clan. I once saw it wound a Vampire more powerful than even me." Vali nodded before disappearing in a streak of white light.
"What are you taking about Evangeline-sama? Why aren't we going to help? He could die!" Rias asked worriedly as she saw Vale fall to the ground. She ran forward and bent her legs to take flight when Sirzechs laid a hand on her shoulder.
"Rias, Eva-dono told me what is about to happen. Trust me Vale will not die so easily."
"Yeah! I won't let So-tan's friend Vale-chan die! Levia-tan believes in him! If he looks like he's in trouble, we'll go help. But for now, we watch." Serafall remarked with a wink as she made a peace sign. Rias looked around apprehensively, but remained where she was.
Back at the school track Shalba laughed maniacally as he saw Vale hit the ground with a clang as his armored form fell onto the track.
"Overconfident whelp! Looks like all his bluster, was just overconfidence. Come, my fellow Satans let us reclaim our titles." Shalba said as he swirld his cape and turned to leave.
"Shalba, if he's dead, why do I still feel his presence." Katarea asked slowlyas she looked at the pile of armor that was Vale Beleth.
"...Because he's not dead. Shalba, Katarea, look!" Creusery shouted as they all turned to see a deep blackness covering his armor. It kept crawling over the armor, obscuring the crimson and and gold accents. It began to... condense was the best word for it, until he looked like a flat, two-dimensional object before it...exploded. An enormous column of black energy rocketed towards the heavens before dissipating to reveal something standing inside.
The creature, if you could call it that. Stood roughly six foot tall with three, large, thorny spurs growing from each shoulder. It's lean, muscular body was covered in matte black scales. It's scaly arms ended in wicked claws, obviously meant for disemboweling victims. It's thick, black, scaly legs ended in feet with enormous black talons. Black boney spurs extended from each elbow. It's black hair was easily twelve feet long. It sported a thick black tail at least 6 feet long. It above all was, unnatural. It was not something evolved in this world. It obviously hailed from somewhere, dark, cold, and devoid of life as we know it. It stood deathly still before, in one quick blur, it leaped forward at speeds none of the Satan descendants could follow...
The next day...
Vale awoke with a start to the sight of the school's infirmary. He was in a hospital gown, laying down on one of the cots. He looked down to see Rias laying down with her head in his lap. She had obiously been there all night. He patted himself down to find he was uninjured
"What the hell?" he asked, bewildered...
Author's Note: Here you are guys. I know it's short, but look at the last chapter, I think it all evens out. As always, I'd appreciate you taking the time to review. You'll see the thrilling conclusion to the fight and conference next chapter. Figured I'd show you Vale's Super Devil form and then end with a cliffy. Because, like I said, I'm the devil. Peace out! This is The 19th Angel, signing off...