Usagi: aaaand we're nearing the climax of the Netherworld arc peps! I really enjoyed writing this arc.

Zakura: must be why it lasted for over half the fanfic so far.

Laharl: Why should someone NOT love an arc I'm in?

Usagi: very good point Prince.

Laharl: …I am Overlord you know.

Usagi: okay Prince Overlord.

Laharl: hey!

Usagi: but also, in this chapter I came to think there is one cool character from Disgaea who's been left out so far…

(Prism Rangers show up.)

Usagi: …no, not you.

(Seraph Lamington shows up)

Usagi: DEFINITELY not you. I'm talking about Mid-Boss!

Mid-Boss: that's not my name!

Laharl: it is now!

Mid-Boss: aw…

Usagi: enjoy!

Chapter 13

The Clash of the Heartless

Just a couple of kilometers away from the Overlord's castle, a massive eight-headed snake made his way through the mountain ranges, followed by two humans.

"This is boring. Can't we take a dark portal instead? What's wrong with taking the backstreets?" Deym said.

"Do you have any idea how much energy it takes to get such a large demon through a portal? Shut your mouse trap we're almost there" Xehanort said.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that!" said an unfamiliar voice with a French accent.

The two humanoid heartless looked past Orochi, all of his eight heads were staring with a puzzled expression by a humanoid demon who was holding a rose in his hand.

"And who might you be?" Xehanort asked.

"Moi? I am the Dark Adonis Vyers!" the demon said. "And I'm afraid if you want to get to the overlord's castle, you have to go through me first!"

"Who do you think you are? The final boss?" Orochi asked.

"Hardly, more like a mid-boss" said another head.

Vyers fell backwards in shock. "I am NOT a mid-boss! I am the Dark Adonis! Why does no one get my name right?" he said.

"Whatever, we don't have time for this" Orochi said and flicked Mid-Boss/Vyers away with one of his tail.

"Well that was strange and needless" Deym said.

Meanwhile Laharl and Kyuubi were still standing by the castle ruins waiting, when Mid-boss crash-landed on his face into the rubble next to them.

"You really need to work on your entrances, Mid-boss" the overlord said.

"Ugh, for the last time, it's the dark Adonis Vyers!" Mid-boss said, rubbing his nose. "And I wouldn't be too cocky if I were you, some reeeeally strong heartless are coming this way."

"Strong heartless huh?" Laharl said and smirked. "Let them come, I've been looking for some strong opponents anyway, maybe I'll even make them my vassals afterwards."

He then started laughing, Kyuubi and Mid-boss just stood by waiting for him to finish.

"You shouldn't underestimate these guys" Mid-Boss said once Laharl had stopped laughing. "Besides working too close with heartless could be dangerous."

"I AM a heartless you moron" Laharl commented.

"Oh right… but be careful all the same" Mid-Boss said. "I'd love to help you but I'm already injured enough as it is." He added before limping of.

"Who was that guy?" Kyuubi asked.

"No one of importance" Laharl said.

Just then the heartless of Orochi decided to make an entrance. He slithered across the mountains faster than anyone would expect a snake (or eight) of that size would move, and soon he was right in front of the lava pit, smirking at Laharl and Kyuubi.

"You!" Kyuubi said snarling.

"What are you smiling at? Are you that eager to get beaten up?" Laharl asked.

"Step aside boy, I have no interest in you, I just want to fight Kyuubi" Orochi said.

"What do you mean "no interest?" I'm the Overlord!" Laharl said, obviously offended. "I've fought earth worms bigger than you!"

A few other heartless started crawling out of the ruins and stood at their leader's side, glaring at the snake-demon as to empathize his point.

"I'm sure that's a very fascinating story how you work in your garden boy, but Yamata no Orochi is only here so he can have a rematch with his old enemy" said Xehanort, who just appeared next to Orochi along with Deym, who had a bucket full of popcorn in his hand. "So I'll just ask you nicely to sit this one out".

Laharl's vassals took a few steps back, but the overlord himself only raised an eyebrow.

"So you're the guy who's been trying to gain control of the heartless in this area huh?" he said. "Sorry to break it to you, but I'm not about to bow down to anyone."

"You've kept a strong will, even as a heartless, fascinating" Xehanort said. "Though it doesn't say that much, even this idiot here refuses to obey me most of the time" he added pointing to Deym. "It's a pity though; you could have made a great soldier under my command, who knows? Maybe even my second in command as I take over the worlds?"

"I'm not second in command to anyone!" Laharl growled, the air around him practically sparkled, his hair stood up and the cape flew to the sides shaped like giant demon wings. But before he got time to give Xehanort a piece of his mind, a familiar voice hit his ears.

"Laharl!"

The bijuu demons appeared on the scene, and Flonne jumped of Raijuu's back and ran over to the edge of the lava pit. "Thank the Seraph you're okay" she said.

Laharl just snorted, he didn't have time for love-crazy ex-angels right now, so instead he crossed the wall of lava surrounding him and Kyuubi (and also Mid-Boss who was standing just behind them, after having noticed there was no longer any bridge leading from the castle and one of his wings were injured so he couldn't leave) and landed in front of Xehanort.

"You are not taking this world" he threatened. "If you as much as move I will kill you".

"Do it now!" Riku shouted

"Uhm, shouldn't we do something?" Kairi asked.

"If we break in now we may have to fight ALL of them" Nekomata said.

Sure enough, Kyuubi was now standing in front of Orochi, Laharl had his sword pointed at Xehanort, Mid-Boss stood awkwardly back in the ruins, Deym sat on a rock watching the action while eating popcorn and then there was the party looking at this whole scene, adding a slight confused glance over at Deym and Mid-boss.

"Then…shouldn't someone help the guy standing by the ruins?" Kairi asked.

"Who? Oh look Flonne, its Mid-boss again" Etna said.

"Oh yeah, I didn't recognize him at first with all the dust on him, hi Mid-boss!" Flonne said waving. Mid-boss just waved back.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Laharl suddenly yelled, he jumped up in the air and slashed his sword through the air at such speed, the mere air pressure created could have been lethal, hadn't Xehanort jumped out of the way at just the right time.

At the same time, Kyuubi charged too, and bit on to one of Orochi's eight heads.

The remaining seven heads however bit on to various body parts on the fox, and pulled him of, before throwing him into a nearby mountain.

"Hah! Who's the bijuu king now?" the snake said.

"Get your stinking fangs of him!" Shukaku yelled, forgetting everything Nekomata had said about intervening, he shook of his passengers before charging at Orochi.

The first attack came in the form of a massive ball of sand, which the snake easily dodged, and then he grabbed the tanuki by the scruff of his neck and threw him into Kyuubi.

Laharl was having problems of his own, as Xehanort's guardian had shown up, and was now holding him by a death grip around the neck.

"Ready to give up, "King" Laharl?" Xehanort asked.

"N-never!" Laharl said.

"Shame" Xehanort said, his guardian strengthened his grip on Laharl's neck. "In that case I just have to kill you, sure there is a chance you'll get reborn if you by any chance have a nobody running around somewhere, but do know you may not be reborn the same way you are now. Maybe your second incarnation will be more obedient. Finish him of."

The guardian readied himself for a final blow, but suddenly an arrow made from light suddenly hit the arm he was holding Laharl with, making him drop the demon heartless to the ground. Xehanort, the guardian and Laharl looked in the direction the arrow had come, and noticed Flonne standing with a magical bow in her arms.

"Leave him alone" she said.

"Go play with someone your own size" Xehanort said and summoned a small group of soldier heartless who quickly surrounded Flonne.

Flonne tried to keep the heartless at bay but there were too many, luckily for her Etna and the prinny squad decided to join as well, and eventually annihilated all of the heartless.

Orochi, now seemingly tired of watching Kyuubi struggle to get Shukaku of his back, and Shukaku struggle to get free of Kyuubi's tails as he somehow got himself entangled, two of the snake's heads turned their attention towards the demons.

"Haven't you girls learned it's rude to interrupt other people's fights?" he asked mockingly.

"Save your attention for your own battle Yamata!" Kyuubi snarled. Lifting his tails he threw Shukaku into one of the heads before biting on to another.

"If you're bored I'll give you all something to do" Xehanort said and whistled. Several heartless of all forms appeared out of dark portals, surrounding the battle field looking for someone to pick a fight with. A small shadow even decided to bite Deym in the leg.

"Hey! Let go of me, I'm on your side…mostly anyway" Deym said and shook the shadow of.

"Okay fine, watching other people fight is boring anyway" Riku said as he summoned Road to Dawn, just as a wyvern heartless decided to charge at him, Riku stabbed it and went for a group of about five of dragon-like heartless nearby.

The others also picked out a random batch of heartless as Kyuubi and Shukaku kept fighting Orochi, and Laharl continued to fight Xehanort and his guardian plus a few soldier heartless, now somewhat assisted by Etna, Flonne and the prinny squad, who were used as missiles by both Laharl and Etna.

"You know I could take him on my own" Laharl said.

"Then why are you throwing my vassals at him?" Etna asked.

"They keep getting in the way" Laharl said, and tossed another prinny towards the guardian, who exploded on impact.

Kyuubi however wasn't so lucky. Shukaku had been knocked out and now even the nine tailed fox was struggling.

"What's the matter "Your majesty?" Not as feisty as you used to be are you? Or maybe my new form is too much for you" Orochi said mockingly.

Kyuubi merely growled, he looked about ready to collapse with his feet all scarred, but still kept himself standing right in front of the lava pit and the ruins of the Overlord's castle. And mid-boss.

"I feel more ignored than usual" Mid-boss muttered.

"Fine then. I'm getting tired, I'd rather this battle don't last another 100 years" Orochi said. "So why don't you just give up now?" Four heads grabbed on to each of Kyuubi's feet and tossed him onto the ruins, Mid-Boss finally decided his wings were just fine and flew of to safety just before the fox hit the ground, and next the floor cracked and he fell down into a hole.

"Whoa, I didn't know the castle had a basement that deep" Flonne said.

"No!" Laharl yelled. "Don't let him go down there!"

"W-why? What's down there?" Flonne asked.

Laharl didn't answer, he just pushed her out of the way and ran to follow Orochi, who moved his gigantic body over the lava pit and disappeared into the hole, quickly followed by the overlord.

The heartless suddenly stopped fighting as everyone turned around to see what happened to the two demons.

Shukaku even struggled to his feet.

"Shouldn't someone stop them?" he asked.

"I'm afraid it's too late for that" Xehanort said smirking.

"LAHARL!" Flonne yelled, she was about to fly over to the ruins when Etna and Sora grabbed her.

"Don't go, I think we better get out of here" Sora said.

Just as he said that, the ground started shaking and what was left of the castle fell down into the lava. Next thing a large black hole appeared in the sky.

"Wha-what is that thing?" Flonne asked.

"The end of the Netherworld" Riku said.

Usagi: Uh oh…

Zakura: did you not just say the Netherworld was your favourite part of LiD?

Usagi: Yup

Zakura: …and now you break it?

Usagi: that's correct.

Sora: are you surprised? She turned me into a heartless and Zexion into a kid's pet, being that girl's favourite is NOT a good thing. Whether it's a person or a world.

Usagi: Shadow-boy is right.

Mid-Boss: why didn't I get to pwn anyone?

Usagi: since when did you ever pwn anyone?

Mid-Boss: well I did beat you first round around in Di…

Usagi: ENOUGH! I should probably explain some stuff for those of you who don't know this guy.

Mid-Boss/Vyers is a character from Disgaea (big shock there) and of the two introductions I've seen him have (that is Disgaea and Disgaea 2) he's always been given the nickname Mid-Boss for some awkward reason. Then somehow everyone ends up calling him that.

Is he more than just a "Mid-Boss" you ask? Well yes... but in LiD he plays no important part.

Vyers: hey!

Usagi: Hey, be at least happy I didn't write your name wrong last time.

Vyers: Oh... HURRAY!

Usagi: but to more important matters…what's going to happen to our heroes? Will they be able to escape the Netherworld in time or get trashed with it?

Laharl: where did I go?

Usagi: To the End of the World.

Zakura: wow… she actually answered.

Usagi: PLEASE REVIEW PEPS! Laharl demands it!

Laharl: if it gives me more appearances in this series…

Usagi: that could be arranged.

Laharl: ALRIGHT! Do review or I'll throw an exploding penguin at you! Cause yeah, prinnies explode when thrown.

Usagi: …and I did not just make that up, they actually do.