I do not own BNHA or D&D
Mie Prefecture - Yokkaichi City - Hosanin Ward
The shrill sound of steel scraping against steel filled the air as Keigo desperately blocked every attack launched by Mummy, the winds still howling from the storm before and Keigo's magic after. His feathers shot out in straight line, guiding him as he flew backwards, surrounding him with rhythmic gale as he used the dance-like movements of Kinetic Jaunt to dodge the string of whipping attacks launched his way.
Keigo stood his ground after making some distance, the winds still swirling around him. He knew that if he diverted all his attention to fleeing, he would be struck down in an instant. Despite his initial advantage in speed, the strength and speed of Mummy had increased dramatically after he had drank most of Keigo's blood. He continued to hold his sword defensively, having no way of dealing damage or calling for back-up without leaving himself exposed, and in his already weakened state that was basically a death sentence.
Mummy seemed to grow frustrated, letting out a hissing noise before sprinting at Keigo, however instead of attacking like usual he used his bandages to lift himself into the air above the Hero and send a barrage of whip-like strikes down at him. "Pitiable winged Hero! Die like the pest you are!"
It took all of Keigo's concentration to avoid getting skewered, barely blocking the onslaught as Mummy's thunderous attacks struck down from above like a rain of heavy spears. Mummy got annoyed once more, gathering the bandages he was whipping from all angles, wrapping and compressing them together, focussing his attack in a single area with full power. This attack was far more powerful as it slammed into the Masamune's edge but refused to cut, Keigo felt his muscles strain and bones begin to creak but knew that if he faltered it would mean certain death.
Keigo suddenly noticed that while he struggled under the weight of the attack, Mummy had manoeuvred behind him, aiming to strike Keigo from his blind spot. Mummy went to strike with his fist, but Keigo let out a short whistle as the wind blew behind him through his wings and imbued his feathers with magical energy once more. [Shield] A group of his feathers quickly gathered together and formed a type of ghostly shield of swirling wind and ethereal feathers that blocked the attack, making Mummy falter for a moment.
In this second of confusion, Keigo managed to shove the attack to the side of himself and flew past Mummy, further down the street as the wind sung out behind him, taking a slash at Mummy with the Masamune as he did so. The sword carved through Mummy's neck with surprising ease, though his body no longer leaked with dust and sand. His wounds were red with fresh blood yet he did not bleed, as if his veins were full but the flow of blood was halted entirely through unnatural means. He guessed that if he took the time to listen he wouldn't hear a heartbeat either.
The wound immediately began to stitch itself closed as Mummy viewed it in amazement, he rubbed his hand along where the wound was as he laughed a sickening laugh, smiling with his fangs glistening in the gleam of the streetlights as he approached Keigo. No longer defending himself with his bandages, he now approached with his arms outstretched and bandages menacingly drifting behind him. "I see, so this is what Nine meant. In death, I have become so much more."
Keigo wasn't about to waste this moment, taking aim for Mummy's neck once more now that the monster chose to stop defending. The blade effortlessly carved through flesh once again and sliced between the vertebrae of the neck, Mummy's head falling backwards behind his shoulders as what little remained of his neck muscles held his head onto his body. However, in a disturbing display, a mockery of life and logic, Mummy continued to laugh with his almost fully detached head, grabbing his head and moving it back to where it should be, the wound sealing as soon as exposed muscle was reconnected.
'Damn it! Shit! Damn It! I'm screwed!' Keigo thought in a panic, figuring fleeing would be the best solution after all. However, the very second he tried to fly away, the bandages wrapped around his wings again, threatening to rip them from his body with a single movement as they held on with a crushing grip.
"It seems I underestimated this gift. You cannot harm me in a way that matters. But this feeling inside of me...This ceaseless, burning ache of hunger. It can be quenched by you, can't it? Quenched by your blood." Mummy monologued calmly, "Come! Feed me and join me in death, Hero!" He cried, beginning to slowly pull Keigo back towards him, savouring every moment of fear and dread.
Keigo quickly looked for anything he could do to escape, noticing a dark fog that had begun drifting through the street, one that neither Mummy nor he himself seemed to create, yet he was sure he felt a strong magic presence from.
"DROP!" A somewhat familiar voice suddenly boomed around Keigo and Mummy, the bandages once tightly wrapped around him immediately going slack. Keigo wasted no time and dashed away into the air. Once far enough away he watched as a dark mist began to drift over the street, coating it like a blanket of darkness. The smog billowing and writhing like waves across the ocean, 2 or 3 feet deep and moving like it was alive and amorphous.
Mummy looked around with a look of concern until suddenly a figure rose out of the dark fog, a Cultist that Keigo had seen once before with long brown hair and brown eyes, that powerful female Cultist had returned. She emerged from the mist, it seeming to drape over her like a robe as she stood about 10 meters from Mummy, the two staring each other down as Keigo flew to the top of a building a safe distance away. He was ready to dash if they decided to team up against him, but used some of his feathers to listen in in the conversation.
Mummy's bandages writhed around behind him like furious serpents as he scowled at the Cultist, "You...So you too gained this power. You're a fool. Don't you see that we must both avenge our Master! Though this one is mine to consume, we may yet still have our revenge!"
The female Cultist, wreathed in shadows stared blankly with brown, uncaring eyes. "So, he is already dead then..." She breathed out a disappointed sigh, her breath not fogging in the air. "Though it will allow me no peace, I will take my revenge through your life instead." She plainly stated, the blackened haze wrapping around her body like it was alive, morphing and changing shape, solidifying into some kind of ethereal armour. The armour looked like it was partially made of a dark ghostly metal and tattered leather, with her hooded cloak and mantle seemingly of the same smog that drifted through the street.
She reached out her hand toward Mummy and another projection of shadowy energy crept up her arm, into her hand where it warped and shaped itself into some kind of sword. An onyx longsword, too large and unwieldy to be used with one hand, yet she did so anyway, with a wicked single-edged blade that swept backwards towards the tip, the handle wrapped in worn bandages and a dark vicious look about the weapon that made a shiver creep up Keigo's spine even from such a distance away.
"You intend to kill me?" Mummy laughed, his bandages wrapping around nearby rubble and creating more puppet mummies. "It's useless. You know as well as I that we are both made immortal by our Master."
"Our Master clearly wasn't. No thing, no life is forever. I'll prove that to you here." She said calmly, swinging her sword as a dull white light glowed around the edge.
The female Cultist and Mummy both stared each other down, each just about to begin their battle. Keigo quickly began to think of how to guide Warlock or Sylvar here to assist, clutching the wound still present on his neck. He looked up and saw the dark night sky was still covered by storm clouds, a pulse of magic in the handle of the Masamune giving him an idea.
He pointed the Masamune to the sky, focussing on the sky and clouds, the wind billowing around the blade as he raised it over his head bringing it down with a powerful slash before pulling the sword back, slashing sideways to create a cross shape. He felt the magic energy leave the blade as a sudden brightness filled the street from the moonlight peaking through the clouds.
[Skywrite]
A large X shape appeared in the clouds directly above himself, separating them and shining the light of the moon down upon Hosanin. Keigo grinned before he felt his muscles give out in his legs, collapsing to his knees with the Masamune still in his grip. "Come on, Warlock," He said to himself as his breath began to stagger, looking at his hand that clutched his neck wound, now thoroughly coated in blood. "Shit. I really didn't want...to die yet."
Izuku looked around from the rooftops, carefully jumping from building to building in his still battle damaged body, looking for any sign of Hawks or Sylvar. The only things he could see were the lights of the city, lights from people fleeing in cars and the occasional fire. He was quick to extinguish any of those he saw.
"Come on, Hawks, Sylvar. Any sign of either of you would be great right about now." He said to himself, leaping from another rooftop and onto a fire escape ladder, climbing it to get to an even higher vantage point. His wounds aching, but not slowing him down by much.
'I don't suppose you have anything you can do to find them?' He thought to Couatl.
'A solution is technically possible, though it would take time, a luxury you do not possess. It is understood that assistance is limited from such great distance. The physical form that one possesses is still deep within the vastness of space.' The many voices of Couatl explained.
"Damn it." Izuku mumbled, until he noticed something happening to the pitch black cloud cover over the city. It looked like the clouds were sliced in half by a blade, revealing the light of the moon through them. He watched as another section of the clouds suddenly separated, creating an "X" in the sky. "Oh...that's really cool." Izuku said in a brief stunned silence.
'With mastery over the skies, your winged ally is likely the cause of such grandeur. Make haste, Izuku. A great danger can potentially be foreseen.'
"Right!" He shouted with a burst of determination. Izuku made his way to the area marked with Hawks' signal, guessing the centre of the X marked the spot where he was.
He ran and leapt, going to jump from one roof to another until he suddenly felt weightless in mid-air. He briefly panicked until he noticed the voice of an old Elven man behind him. "Good to see you're doing well." Sylvar was effortlessly floating in the air behind him, though Izuku did not fully understand how to control his current circumstance, unable to stop spinning once he began to turn to face the Wizard.
"I see you are not accustomed to flight, perhaps you should consider getting lessons from your feathered friend." He gave a small chuckle, he made a faint glow from the tip of his walking stick before pulling what looked like a rope made of magical energy from the staff, throwing it around Izuku's waist before flying over to Hawks' signal, dragging Izuku along behind him.
"Where were you!? I was fighting that Vampire on my own!" Izuku shouted, the wind howling quite loud as it billowed past the flying duo.
"A Vampire? Did he have any stronger minions with him?" Sylvar asked, a serious concern on his face.
"Yeah, Hawks was fighting him." Izuku explained, going on to briefly describe the bandage wrapped Undead.
Sylvar said something unknown but Izuku guessed it was an Elvish curse word, "This is certainly troublesome. When a True Vampire dies, its lesser Vampire spawn minions then become True Vampires themselves. Hawks is now fighting against someone potentially equal in power or perhaps even stronger than the Vampire you faced alone." Sylvar explained. "Though you killing a Vampire alone is certainly an impressive feat."
"He was pretty cocky and overconfident, monologuing a lot and talking like he was all powerful. It seems like he didn't even know his abilities as a Vampire, or at least his weaknesses. Enough holy energy eventually put him down by cutting off his regeneration...and his arm." Izuku explained, "Thankfully, overconfidence is something Couatl taught me how to avoid having early on in our training."
'It is thought you require revision on this lesson with how often you rush into danger without forethought. Though a lecture can be postponed until relative safety is assured.' Couatl remarked.
'I'm trying my best over here!' He thought back.
"It seems he didn't put effort into training his new body after becoming Undead, a surprisingly common occurrence among those few sentient Undead. Being immune to aging often makes people lazy you see. Though if a Vampire did train their body sufficiently, it would grow at a rate far greater than that of a normal Human. You should be thankful such a man was crippled by his own hubris." Sylvar advised.
They continued flying through the sky, over the buildings and streets that were uncomfortably empty of any people. Hawks had made it quite a distance away to fight against his now Vampire enemy if the damage to the city was anything to go by. Izuku began thinking of potential battle strategies, thinking about everything that bandage Quirk he briefly saw could possibly do, and what the best way to use his latest spells to combat the Vampire would be.
The female Cultist dashed forwards, her accursed blade carving through the puppet mummies like they were made of paper. With each swing the fog would drift across the blade, casting a trail of darkness, though whenever the blade carved through the puppets it would be surrounded by a dull while glow that barely cut through the mist. She approached silently, relentlessly and indifferent to Mummy's attacks as she slaughtered the minion mummies, giving a dead stare to Mummy as she did so. Each movement she made was blurred with the smog, the mummies would miss each strike before being cut down. Mummy tried to rearrange them but she allowed him no quarter, darting past and through them like a ferocious whirlwind of death.
Mummy hissed in response to this display, drawing back his bandages and letting loose a barrage of attacks. His bandages swung like whips, carving through the concrete like it was air, similarly slicing through the cultist's armour and body, leaving bloodless wounds behind. They both quickly reformed however, not unlike Mummy's own regeneration, a fact that greatly irritated the undead man.
She pulled back her sword and spoke in an inhuman language, the smog coating her entire body before she vanished entirely. [Misty Step] Mummy looked around panicked, thrusting his bandages out and through the mist to hit something before he felt a searing pain in his torso, seeing the blade thrust through his body from behind. The Cultist ripped the blade free, taking another slash and carving a chunk out of Mummy's arm.
Mummy jumped back, pushing himself from the ground with his bandages, but another slash connected to his leg. Each wound caused by the blade burned with incredible searing pain and refused to heal properly, though the severity of the wound mattered not when Mummy was already one with the dead. His own bandages just wrapped around the wounds, holding them closed for the time being until they healed later.
He attacked once again, his bandages focussing for the blade, wrapping around it as Mummy ripped a stop sign from the ground, lifting it with ease thanks to his empowered form. He yanked her weapon away, tossing it into the mist as he swung with the stop sign, his improvised weapon bending and snapping in half over her ethereal armour.
She reached out and touched Mummy's chest with her whole hand, a dull pink-ish shimmer cast over him before the female Cultist reared back and threw a devastating punch into Mummy's face. A blinding white energy similar to some of Warlock's magic crackled up her arm from her fist as it connected with Mummy, causing a grand explosion of bright holy magic. [Smite: 3rd Level] Mummy flew backwards into a building, his face sizzling and smoking with a great burn across his entire left side that crackled with dull blue flames.
The female Cultist was surrounded by smoke once again, however it was coming from the arm she punched with. Or rather the lack of arm. Everything below her right elbow had entirely exploded and the wound seemed to burn with the same dull glow of blue magical flames. She hissed slightly in response to the new stimuli, unfamiliar with the pain, though it did not bother her too much. The loss of a limb being a minor injury to one such as her.
Mummy growled through heavy breaths, baring his fangs in rage which glistened in the moonlight as he clutched some of his wounds. The left side of his face was severely burned from holy magics, his left eye disintegrated in it's socket from the devastating attack, leaving him with a ghoulish appearance once again. "Undying King, Master of my Master before, I pray to you in my time of need! Grant me the strength I need to overcome this foe, in exchange I shall give unto you my everything! Heart! Mind! Body! And Soul! Just let me kill them!" He cried out, desperate in the moment. Mummy desperately prayed and looked to be in great pain until a sudden change physically overcame him.
The Cultist watched as Mummy's shouts of pain turned to laughs, prying himself free of the wall and standing on his feet. Though his wounds persisted, he seemed to be ignorant of them now or simply didn't care. A dark necrotic energy seeped from his own wounds as a glow of crackling ethereal magic began to form in his left eye socket. "This power...Hahaha...This searing pain! Let me share it with you!" Mummy shouted through grit teeth, looking up at the Cultist once more. [Form of Dread] A deranged expression with a wicked eldritch and ethereal eye had overtaken Mummy's face, a sickly, dark energy draped over his body like a ornate robes, Mummy's left hand had also been overtaken by this eerie mystical energy, crackling with unreadable symbols and arcane magics.
Mummy lifted his altered left hand and pointed it at her, magic seemed to arc across it like electricity and continued to build up until a strange wave of green light shot out of it. Mummy's arm shot backward from the attack, seemingly unprepared for the blast's reaction on his body. [Repelling Blast] The wave-like blast of magic was a familiar green in colour, far too similar to the attacks of the Warlock. On contact with the Cultist, the wave blasted her back with a powerful repelling force.
She slid backwards, scraping ethereal armour into shattered concrete until she collided with the wall of an apartment building. Though the attack caused little damage, her head was wracked with images of this visage of Mummy, a skull-like face that was staring with a permanent rictus and grim smile, due to the lack of facial muscles. Ceaseless screams and ravaging darkness clouded her mind, all visions showing Mummy to be the cause. However, she had been exposed to such imagery from the moment she gained this monstrous form. She managed to tear her way through the imagery forced upon her mind, just in time to see Mummy's next attack of bandages.
The bandages thrust forward with incredible speed, piercing through the wall of the building with almost no resistance. However they did not hit the target, the Cultist jumped up to avoid the attack yet did not fall back down, Mummy looked up to see her standing on the side of the building like gravity was now sideways for her, her body and ethereal steel and leather armours no longer blurred by the dark mist that blanketed the streets, though by now that mist had already started to fade away.
She stared at Mummy once more, holding out the stump that was once her right arm towards him as a tendril of darkness emanated from the wound. The dark energy whipped around and shifted rapidly, changing shape to form a unnatural facsimile of an arm. Muscle and pale skin seemed to grow over the energy, forming a new arm entirely within a few seconds that was subsequently covered by her ethereal armour morphing over it. With her new hand she pointed at Mummy, [Command] "GROVEL!" she said in a stern voice that unnaturally boomed around her like she screamed it at full force.
The commanding voice that had affected Mummy once before shook his mind, making him almost fall to his knees before he powered through, snapping himself free of the mind control. He continued his macabre grin before holding his own hand out to the Cultist, [Toll the Dead] The sudden and growing sound of echoing and dolorous church bells filled the air around the street, causing the Cultist to clutch her ears as her current wounds festered and regenerated cuts began to reopen. After this, Mummy leapt up out of the mist using his bandages, swinging himself into the same wall his target stood. Though, while she somehow walked on the wall's surface with ease, Mummy had instead imbedded his bandages and feet into the wall in order to cling into it.
It was at this moment that both Undead heard a commotion at the top of the building, a voice they both recognised. The Warlock. Mummy knowing him as the false prophet and the cause of death for his previous Master. The Cultist remembering him from their previous encounter around a month ago.
Mummy threw himself skyward using the full force of his bandages while the Cultist ran up the wall, running up the wall as if gravity continued to pull her toward the building instead of the earth, teleporting upwards with another Misty Step to get the extra boost in distance over Mummy.
After flying toward Hawks' signal in the clouds for less than a minute at top speed, Izuku and Sylvar spotted the Hero on top of a tall building on his knees and clearly wounded. Once they reached the rooftop the flying spell's effect ended quickly, as did the ethereal rope around Izuku. Hawks remained motionless on his knees near the edge, still clutching the Masamune in his hand but not reacting to their presence at all.
'Crap! Crap! Crap!' Izuku was quick to run up to Hawks, he was unconscious and had definitely lost a lot of blood. He started mumbling in Celestial as a dull glow appeared in his hands, overlapping and pressing them against Hawks' chest over his heart. [Spare the Dying] The magic shot out in a small pulse like a defibrillator, thankfully feeling a heartbeat in the chest after the cantrip had been cast.
"Sylvar, anything to heal would be great." He called out before clasping his hands together, speaking a brief prayer in Celestial as the bloody wound on Hawks' neck began to subtly glow and heal over, scarring like weeks of healing had passed in seconds. [Healing Light x2] He used his last two uses of Healing Light on Hawks, leaving him without anymore reliable healing that didn't use his stores of magic.
Hawks stirred slightly, a good sign that he wasn't going to die. Izuku went to pull him away from the edge of the building and just as he began to drag Hawks' unconscious body back he heard what sounded like screaming coming from the street below. Before he could go to the edge to investigate he saw someone suddenly jump up over the edge of the building and land on the roof top with them.
The same female Undead Cultist that didn't kill Izuku at the HPSC Office crested the edge of the building, an shimmering ethereal armour covered her body as a dark fog drifted over her shoulders like a cloak. "Again we meet, Warlock of Light. Perhaps this meeting too was fated to happen. Unfortunate then, that there is no time for conversation."
"What are you-" Izuku started to say but was quickly interrupted by another person coming over the edge of the building.
The red bandages wrapping around and writhing behind him were all that remained to be recognised of the now Vampire. His face burned and scarred seemingly by holy magic with his left hand and eye socket overflowing and crackling with pure magic. "YOU! You who killed my Master! I will rend! You! Apart! I'll kill you! Wwwrrryy!" He shouted, the visage of a decaying skeletal grimace over his face and darkness flowing over him like robes. He thrust his bandages out, intent on impaling Izuku with them.
The female Undead held out her hand toward Izuku as a shimmering field of dark magic appeared in front of him, the attacks scrapping against the shield of magic and causing a shower of sparks as the attack glid across it.
Sylvar waved his hand as an ethereal silver Mage Hand began to drag back Hawks further away from all the conflict. "Alright, enough of that. Get back down there." He said before casting a another spell, a translucent wave of silvery magic shooting from the Wizard's walking stick. The magic remained as an aura of shimmering sliver magic mist that surrounded Mummy, then the Wizard clasped his hands together and the the ethereal silvery magic suddenly collapsed in on itself, rapidly shaping and solidifying into a solid hollow sphere of the same magic.
Mummy screamed and clawed at the sphere, attacking it constantly from the inside with his bandages but did not even scratch it, only able to push against the inside like a giant hamster ball. The female Cultist walked over and kicked the ball off the building with little effort.
"That only lasts a minute so make the most of that prep time. My magic is better for support than battle, I'll take Hawks somewhere safer to treat him." He then began to cast another spell, an glowing arcane clock of runic symbols and clockwork gears appearing in the air as he turned his hand and increased the speed of the clock hands.
The spell looked to be complete but he held it back, compressing all the magical energy in his hands into a small grey bead, handing the object to Izuku. "Take this and break it in your hand when the sphere breaks. Be warned, it's effect will likely last less than a minute and will have a drawback when it ends." Izuku took the bead with a determined nod, it felt like a glass marble and was about the same size.
Sylvar looked suspiciously at the female Undead, "Not often the dark wages war against itself. Do not harm the Warlock and I shan't confront you." He threatened, before holding onto Hawks' shoulder and vanished from space, the air rippling like water where they were.
Izuku looked to the Undead, who touched his shoulder, removing a scroll from somewhere beneath the ghostly, dark armour. "I have no ill will toward you that was not forced upon my mind, Warlock of Light. Even with my Mast...with Nine's death under your belt, you are still far too weak to dethrone the King. Consider this brief partnership a test." She said before reading the incomprehensible words from the scroll.
The magic from the scroll flowed over the Undead and Izuku as it burned in blue flame, a feeling of weightlessness overtaking him as he briefly felt nothing around him before feeling pulled downwards at an angle and stopping abruptly. The moment the feeling subsided he found himself teleported to the street below the building he was just on, severe damage covered every visible surface and object.
Mummy was also down here, muffled screaming and cursing coming from within the sphere as it rolled slowly and mostly harmlessly around the street toward them. The female Cultist walked over to a large, generally evil-looking sword on the ground and picked it up with a single hand. She held a hand over her weapon as she spoke an unknown language again, a dull flare coming from her hand as she hovered it over the length of the weapon. Once she finished she swung the weapon which lit up immediately, the blade was suddenly wreathed in flames that illuminated the street around her, though no such light penetrated the cloak of mist that draped down over her shoulders.
"Prepare yourself, Warlock of Light. If you wish to continue defying fate, start by not perishing this day." She said. The two waited in anticipation for the battle to continue, the sphere that restrained Mummy would break apart in mere moments.
Veratain appeared in an alleyway with space briefly rippling around him, he felt he was a good distance away from the battle that would soon ensue between the Vampires and Midoriya. He leaned Hawks' unconscious body against the wall and pulled something from his pocket. A monocle made of silver and the lens made from clear quartz, he spoke a few words in a language unknown to Humans and the item let off a subtle radiance.
He looked through the eyeglass, any colour fading into grey except for a colourful aura around any wound on the Hero's body, the particular colours glowing between yellow to orange to red, indicating the severity of the injury. Thankfully Hawks' injuries were all closed, thanks to Midoriya's previous intervention. "Alright, it looks like your body is healed up. Though you still lost a lot of blood, fortunately I have something for that." He said to a still unconscious Hawks.
He reached into another pocket, his hand entering the extradimensional space within and mentally calling for the item he needed, it soon finding it's way into his grip before he pulled his hand out. He removed a small bronze coloured ring, an engraving of a branch looping around it with tiny jades embedded into it to resemble leaves.
This was a Ring of Regeneration, he placed it on Hawks' finger as it immediately started to give off a subtle dull green glow from the jade crystals. "I only have the one ring, so I'll be taking it back after you've regained your lost blood. It should also begin healing the other lesser wounds you received in the meantime." He spoke before a disturbance caught his attention. The sound of destruction in the direction he teleported from, indicating the bandaged Vampire had broken free of his spherical prison.
Veratain let out a small sigh, "I suppose I should keep an eye on them. Make sure the young Midoriya doesn't get too in over his head." He said to himself, reaching into the extradimensional space of his suit pockets once more. He removed a small silver and gold whistle that was designed to resemble the head and body of an eastern style dragon, blowing into it gave way to no sound, or rather it gave way to a sound he could not hear with ears of an elf. However something else heard it.
A sudden weight on his shoulder indicated the device functioned correctly, he turned his head to see the tiny, red-brown coloured, dragon-like creature perched on his shoulder, a tail ending with a scorpion-like point swaying behind it. He reached out his hand to the Pseudodragon, the beast leaning into the touch as it was pet, it was similar in size and personality to a small cat. "It has been some time since I last called upon you, my familiar. If you may, please watch over the battle 300ft to the south-west, let me know if anything happens to the green-haired lad." He spoke his order to the miniature dragon.
The Pseudodragon listened intently and chirped seemingly in agreement before taking off from Veratain's shoulder, heading the direction it was told to. "Right then," he said, turning his attention to the slowly healing but still unconscious Hawks, "Now it's just a matter of waiting."
A tense moment passed second by second, Izuku could almost hear his own heartbeat thumping in his chest. He held out his staff ready to attack or defend, holding the tiny mote of magic in his other, ready to break it at a moment's notice. For another few seconds the street was eerily quiet, all except the flames crackling across the Undead girl's blade. Even Mummy was silent in apprehension, seeming to understand that the spherical prison that held him would soon shatter.
In that second, a tiny crack formed on the sphere of magic and just as it did a thousand more cracks formed and the sphere evaporated back into a mist of magic. Mummy was quick to strike, launching whip-like bandages at Izuku. However, the other Vampire was faster, her body blurring with the smoke of her cloak as she dashed and swung her blade overhead, severing the bandages but just missing Mummy's body, a thunderous metallic clang echoing out from her blade when it struck the ground.
He hissed and glared at Izuku with his glowing spectral left eye, holding out his magically overcharged hand with his sickening smile on his face. It was then that a thunderous sound of church bells rung inside his head, a wave of negative energy shooting through his body as his barely healed wounds ached and burned. He shouted and grit his teeth but he couldn't push through the magic as his older wounds started to bleed again.
In frustration and pain, he crushed the mote of magic in his hand. [Haste] A sudden burst of Sylvar's magic flowed over him as he heard a distant sound of a clock's ticking decreasing in speed. The bandages around Mummy and the flames from the female Vampire's sword seemed to slow down by a lot, as did everything else around him. An overly energising feeling overtook him, similar to Expeditious Retreat but much more extreme in concentration.
He ran past Mummy, the bandages around him moving so slowly that Izuku could easily side step and slip through to reach the main body. He swung his staff into Mummy's already damaged face, a burst of divine energy bursting from the strike before Izuku jumped back and dodged the slow moving attacks once again. With so much extra movement to make with his newfound speed, he mockingly spun and posed around the flailing bandages, much to Mummy's irritation. Ashido really was a bad influence on him.
The female Vampire watched as the Warlock moved with such incredible speed his body began to blur, she changed her grip on her sword and swung in a circle like a cyclone, bandages severing and burning up in her blade's flame. She then dashed into closer quarters, thrusting her sword forwards. However, her blade was stopped by Mummy's hands even through the sword still burned him.
Mummy hissed and shrieked, his seemingly ever regenerating bandages extending out again in all directions. Piercing through the Vampire's body multiple times, though Izuku was still moving so fast he could easily dance around each bandage before it got too close. "Die and scatter, Dog!" Mummy shouted in a victorious cry. The female Vampire was pinned by being impaled multiple times.
Mummy then saw from his peripheral the damnable Warlock again, attempting to strike him from behind. He grinned madly as his phantom eye and hand flared with energy again. A torrent of bandages that were unavoidable, even if he was faster than before. They cracked like whips before they struck, gliding through air with the same ease they would carve through his flesh. However, somehow, his attack harmlessly passed through the Warlock and into the concrete.
In that moment of confusion, Izuku jumped over the Minor Illusion he created of himself, running on the bandages and thrusting his staff into Mummy's chest with a blast of radiant magic and releasing a Sacred flame at the same time thanks to his increased casting speed. He jumped away in the flash of light he created from the attack, avoiding another slash of magical cloth and past the female Vampire who seemed to be melting into some kind of mist.
The female Vampire's body physically broke down into a dark cloud of smog, her body dissolving and phasing out of the pinning attack with ease, the mist drifting over and reforming herself next to Izuku, her flaming sword continued to scorch the cement until Mummy picked it up, cackling as he swung it with ease. The flames illuminating his grotesque corpse-like face after taking so much holy damage.
Mummy darted forwards, his speed rivalling the female Vampire as he swung the sword toward her, though the blade's momentum was stopped completely as Izuku leapt in front of the blow, bracing against the weapon with Day Break. "You! False Messiah! Why! Won't! You! DIE!?" Mummy cried, swinging the blade with each shout. Each blow was blocked by Izuku, but the force of the blow still battered him, the bone and sinew in his legs straining and threatening to snap under the pressure.
Mummy raised the sword up in the air with both hands, ready to deliver a devastating blow downward. Izuku knew he had to dodge and was just about to, until the energising magic that was running through him was suddenly cut off. Sylvar's spell had ended and a great lethargy had overtaken Izuku's body, the consequence of using the spell to enhance his body.
The blade arced downwards heading directly for Izuku, but never found it's target. The female Vampire stood in front of Izuku blocking the attack with her arms, her ethereal armour being the one thing that held the blade back. She looked behind her to Izuku, who was just managing to re-adapt the sudden speeding up of everything to it's normal speed. "No more tricks?" She asked in her blank voice.
She shoved the blade away with her armoured arms, grabbing Mummy's arm that was holding the sword, his body giving off a brief shimmer of magic. She twisted herself around, stomped her foot down as the already ruined street cracked further, throwing Mummy over her shoulder and into the wall of a building across the street then placing her hands together.
"Just one. Now feels like a good time." Izuku held his hand together, a chant of Celestial leaving his lips that seemed to overlap on itself, like his voice was playing a second time half a second after he spoke. As he continued another voice joined, then a fourth. Izuku's body seemed to blur and warp as he spoke, then he threw his hands apart, as his body also split into four identical slightly spectral bodies. [Mirror Image]
The 4 Izuku's moved in unison as they turned to his Vampiric comrade, "How's that for a trick?" Four voices said in unison before they all twirled their staves and moved through each other to get into a battle ready stance. "These are just temporary illusions, don't expect me to be 4 times stronger."
"Then we should finish this quickly." She replied as Mummy pried himself from the wall, flaming sword in hand and bandages writing behind him. It was hard to tell if he was close to death, he already looked like a corpse and had been sparking with bright magic since Izuku saw him.
Izuku and his illusory copies ran at Mummy, weaving through one and another as he ran. Mummy looked between the four in confusion, before hissing and launching his bandages in all directions to try and strike all of them. One bandage pierced through an Izuku but that one quickly fizzled away, the others twirling and jumping between attacks and through each other, adding to the confusion of which was real.
Mummy hissed as Izuku got closer, he went to strike with his staff, aiming at Mummy's face again where it was already weakened. Mummy dodged the strikes of all 3 Izuku copies, not taking any chances of getting hit with any more holy magic. He held out his hand encompassed in magic which suddenly released a green wave of energy that looked similar to an Eldritch Blast. The blast made no contact fortunately, but another illusory copy was targeted and evaporated in the blast, Mummy cursing violently in response.
He raised the sword, intent on bisecting Izuku with the burning onyx blade, swinging it down at full force until a cloud of smoke appeared between the two as the Vampire teleported using what looked like Misty Step. She grabbed the blade with her armoured hands, flames licking across her arms as the ethereal armour sparked with magic.
She and Mummy struggled with the blade, trying to pry it from the other's grip. Mummy began to wrap his bandages around the handle to get a better hold but a sudden thin beam of blue light struck them, ice and frost quickly spreading over as they froze solid. Mummy glared at where the beam came from, seeing Izuku and his illusory duplicate back to back and both pointing a finger gun at him with frost smoke drifting from their index finger. The two illusory Izuku's then blew the smoke away the finger guns to mock Mummy.
With a final stronger pull, the bandages shattered and the female Vampire pulled the sword free, flipping it in her hand to hold onto the grip. She thrust the sword forward, going to piece through Mummy's chest. However the blade was stopped by more bandages wrapping around Mummy's torso several times over like layers of armour.
Before she could push any harder, Mummy raised both hands, planning to slam down onto the Vampire. Before he could however, Izuku used Control Flames, the fire from the sword suddenly brightening and bursting out over Mummy's body, the bandages catching quickly being so bundled up. "You! Both of you! Kill! Kill! I'll kill you!" He shouted, the bandages thrusting out, piercing through the Vampire and going to wrap around Izuku.
Half of the bandages grabbed the illusory double, it evaporating instantly. The other half wrapped around the real Izuku, tightening their grip to a bone crushing level, twisting his limbs to lengths they shouldn't and wrapping around his neck, his neck audibly and uncomfortably cracking as his vertebrae were pushed to their limit before they would snap.
The Vampire stared at Mummy in the eye as he continued to grin through the struggle, briefly glancing behind her to Izuku then to her sword. She thought about her options for a moment and grimaced, hissing in frustration before spinning around and slicing through the bandages that were holding Izuku, cloth burning as it was sliced and going slack immediately afterwards. She tried to turn back and slash at Mummy again, but he jumped away from the blade making a tactical retreat.
Izuku and the Vampire watched as Mummy began to flee, throwing himself as fast as he could through the street, moving faster than either of them. He then watched as she spoke in that unknown language again before vanishing from where she was, the air rippling like water.
The Vampire reappeared directly above Mummy in mid-air, driving her sword downward. Mummy's momentum had changed direction immediately, the both of them plummeting to the ground. Mummy stabbed through her with his bandages but they didn't do enough damage to stop what had already begun.
Izuku ran after them, although he was slowed down from his wounds he reached the street Mummy had fled to just as the two hit the ground. The Vampire girl had turned into a cloud of mist again before hitting the ground, harmlessly drifting over the concrete. Mummy on the other hand immediately crumpled under the force of the drop and the flaming sword plunged in his abdomen. The mist reformed over Mummy's body around the blade in the vague shape of a Human before shifting back into the female Vampire. She pulled the sword free of Mummy's body before going to plunge it back down into his chest, the blade beginning to glow white with a holy light.
Suddenly, in less time than it took to blink, the Vampire was no longer directly over Mummy, and was instead standing next to Izuku, sword still in the air and just about to impale. Thankfully, the Vampire noticed the change in time to pull back the sword, not skewering Izuku and only plunging the sword into the concrete. Both confused, they looked over to where Mummy should have been, his body gone from the crater his body made.
"What? Where did he-" Izuku said before he suddenly heard something, the Vampire noticing the same thing. A dramatic, smug slow clap. They both looked up to see a man dressed in the usual Cultist robes, he wasn't floating purely in mid-air but was instead standing on a thin platform that somehow levitated. The trademark dark hooded robes made it very difficult to make out any kind of facial features, especially in the dark of the night.
An unnatural and ghostly chorus of lamentation began to form in the air, like a backing track of unknown voices sang by the wailing of the damned. As the macabre choir echoed around the street, the Cultist man spoke with a bow to those below himself. "Bravo. Truly impressive, False Messiah. I hoped you would fall, but even I found myself captivated by the performance."
Izuku turned to the female Vampire still beside him, flames still wreathing the blade she had freed from the street. "Have you seen this guy before?" he whispered.
She replied in a whisper, but did not turn away from the man, "Only in passing. He's as much of a threat as the rest."
"However, I'm afraid our meeting, much like yourselves, will be short lived. It is not often the Dark Lord bestows one of us with such greater boons of strength, so we've repossessed the Mummy for now. Though with how well you hit it off, I'm sure you two will meet again." He began to cast some kind of spell, the platform he was standing on breaking apart into smaller pieces, floating around him. "But since you've entertained me for so long, allow me to leave you with a parting gift. Be sure to survive now, I'd so hate to waste our fated foe to something so trivial."
Whatever pieces the platform was made from drifted around the man, spinning wildly in the air before the man vanished along with his haunting choir and all but one of the pieces. The single piece of the platform fell to the street below, revealing it to be a simple playing card as it harmlessly fell to the ground. Suddenly an impenetrable darkness crept around the card, coalescing and raising to form several vaguely humanoid figures.
What looked like several leg-less torsos of a person made out of a smoky, shadow energy with unnaturally long arms and hands tipped with long razor sharp claws. Large, bat-like wings viciously burst from the backs of the creatures, with webbing looking like decaying fabric. Their faces were eerily inhuman, looking more beast-like than human, with razor sharp teeth, beastly tusks and large horns that curved back like a goat.
"Oh come on! How many more things do we have to fight!?" Izuku complained, his body beginning to struggle to move due to all the injuries he had sustained tonight and the adrenaline in his body beginning to wear off.
The monsters, whatever they were, leered at the two. One let out a tongue of the same shadowy substance as it's body and licked at it's savage teeth. However, they all noticed something, a look of fear overcoming them as they looked behind Izuku and the Vampire. Suddenly a tiny mote of light that Izuku immediately recognised flew past and stuck to the creature in the centre, it immediately panicked and screeched inhumanly along with the other creatures but could not do anything before a sudden pillar of bright light filled the space that the creatures just were, one much larger than the one Izuku could make with Day Break.
Izuku looked behind him to see Sylvar holding a pendant made of gold and silver with a sun-shaped gemstone in the centre, the pendant still glowing with magic from being used to cast such a spell. Behind Sylvar was Hawks, although he was conscious now the damage done to him was still very present in his visible weakness, he supposed that healing potions could only help so much against major blood loss.
The pillar of divine light remained for a few seconds before Sylvar lowered the pendant, the holy column vanishing shortly afterward leaving nothing but a circle of scorched street behind. The Elf looked down at Izuku and the Vampire girl though his usual innocent smile was not present, instead he had an air of seriousness about him. "You two, did anything strange...More strange happen just a few moments ago? Things moving in an instant as if teleporting but showing no sign of such magics?"
Izuku stepped forward to talk, seeing as the Vampire girl stood back in silence. "There was something. We had almost beat Mummy but suddenly she appeared directly in front of me, Mummy vanished and another Cultist arrived. This all happened in what felt like a blink of an eye." He explained, Sylvar getting a sour look on his face when presented this information.
The Wizard looked irritated, "I had hoped they hadn't the ability to do so. It seems I've been blinded by my hopeful delusions of the enemy." He took a breath before looking back to Izuku, "It would seem the Cultists have access to much greater magic than I initially thought. While I firmly believe it was a scroll created by the Lich that caused the effect, I believe they have the means to briefly stop the flow of time."
Izuku looked down in thought and worry, feeling a sense of dread at the thought of the Lich's forces having such a power, "Stopping time? Is that even possible?"
Sylvar nodded, "I'm afraid so, I once freely had access to a similar magic, though even I am not immune to the effects of age. Thankfully, I am very aware of the spell, it's effects and limitations. Time was only halted for around 12-30 seconds, though it is odd to measure in seconds when time is frozen. Although the caster can not directly effect anyone during the frozen time, only moving creatures around like pieces on a board, else the spell would end prematurely."
"So, we have Zombies, Vampires and freaks who can stop time?" Hawks clarified, sighing as he used the sheathed Masamune like a walking stick, "I need to ask for a raise."
"Alright, so we're just a few steps behind in terms of magic power. Nothing we didn't already know. This is fine." Izuku said out loud, mostly trying to convince himself rather than anyone else around him. He looked back up at Sylvar, "By the way, do you have any more healing potions? I am very hurt." He admitted.
The elderly Wizard sighed in response, removing a potion identical to the ones he had given Izuku from his suit before and handing it to him. "I don't own a factory for these things you know? Potions are expensive!" He scolded as Izuku very quickly drank the potion. Most of his wounds closed and scarred over as his bones and joints felt a lot less strained. Not really close to fully healed, but it was better than nothing.
The Vampire placed a hand on Izuku's shoulder, a dull holy radiance around her hand as Izuku felt his wounds heal up slightly more, her own hand seemed to smoke a little when she did this. Izuku smiled at her and thanked her in response, though she just gave a blank stare in return, forcing him to wallow in an awkward standstill.
There was a brief moment of silence among the group as they took in the destruction around them, the Vampire mumbled some form of prayer to herself as the ghostly armour that covered her body was reabsorbed into the darkness of her cloak that draped over her entire body, the sword vanishing as well in a similar manner. It was hard to tell what she was wearing under the cloak, especially when it seemed to block any kind of light from entering.
"I need to speak with you privately." The Vampire said to Izuku, breaking the silence. Suddenly she reached out to Izuku's shoulder again and spoke the same words she spoke earlier, another scroll burning in her hand as he felt his body suddenly vanish from the Material Plane and felt himself be dragged somewhere else upwards and much further away. When he felt the world around him again he saw he was on top of another building quite a bit further away from the street they just were.
It was too dark to see much from up here so Izuku held up his staff "Light." The tip of Day Break letting out a bright enough light to see the rooftop he stood on. He turned to face the Vampire who stood at the edge of the building, interestingly she didn't cast a shadow but that was the least of Izuku's concerns. More importantly was what the Vampire wanted to say to him so urgently.
She was silent for a moment but eventually spoke up as she continued to look almost longingly over the city below them, some portions still wrecked. "Behold, all of it lays in ruin once again. Gone is the original Hosanin, and all the dreams and ambitions of it's people." She said staring out to the city before turning to face Izuku, "I lived there once. But I was another person then..."
One month ago. In the dead of night came a storm unlike any other, torrents of icy rain fell on fleeing civilians as hundreds of bolts of lightning fell from a pitch black sky that rumbled like an earthquake. Buildings crumbled and the streets were ravaged. Fires spread, encompassing entire roads as Heroes and emergency services tried desperately to stop them. Then came the monsters. The Humans brought back from the dead, attacking anything living.
Relentless savages, killing for no reason and hunting for the next victim. Zombies and Skeletons picking off the slow and weak, the sick, elderly and children. Ghouls chasing down fleeing crowds, ripping them apart with their claws. Wights attacking in groups, cornering survivors, slaughtering Heroes. Monsters born from death that craved nothing but destruction. The army of death came that night, and butchered everything with a pulse, paving the streets with blood.
One girl, a teenager, helpless to save anyone, running away with her family. A dreadful nausea overwhelming her from using her quirk too much already, being carried by her father as they fled in terror. Just as they thought they had made their escape, a pale man with long ivory white hair descended and murdered the girl's father, punching a hole straight through his chest.
The girl collapsed to the ground with her father, the mother tried to help but the white haired man approached her, restrained her and bit down into her neck. What was left after the few seconds no longer resembled the girl's mother in any way. Just a withered, empty husk.
That girl, in a fit of rage, despair, loss and grief, threw a punch to the man. The man caught it effortlessly and smiled at the girl, his bloody fangs in her face as she cursed and shouted in a blind madness. That girl stared into that man's eyes until he drank of her as well, the blood leaving that girl and all the life she had within her.
From the inner depths of that girl's heart lay a revenge so great it lived on even in death, a thirst that would only be quenched by the slaughter of that man who took everything from her.
"From the corpse of that girl, I was born. " The Vampire paused after recounting that story, looking back over the city again.
Izuku listened intently, unsure on how to comfort the girl or if she would even accept it. "You are still that girl, don't you want to be with your family now. The man who took your life has been slain, your life and the lives of your family have been avenged."
She sighed, her breath not fogging up in the cold night air, "I've existed only for the thought of slaughtering that man. Ever since his strange magic bound me to his whim, training ceaselessly since my death to slaughter him. And just as it was the last we spoke, the binds around my mind were weakened by your presence. To think he would perish by your hand as well, and even in the same place I myself had died. Fate is truly poetic, isn't it?"
Izuku walked next to her, "Do you want to be free of this? I don't know much about being Undead, but I can't imagine it feels particularly good."
"I do not feel much now. I hold no attachment to that girl who came before me, nor those loved ones she remembers. I have no attachment to her dreams and memories. I am just the remnant of a grudge with an aim ever singular. Though, I wonder, if I am truly that girl? Or am I just piloting her reanimated remains? Even this body differs from hers, as if I hold no relation to her." She looked over to Izuku, "Still, it is better that I remain in this world for the time being. Another time, I may take you up on that offer, but for now there is work to be done. Here, you should take this." She rummaged beneath her cloak of impenetrable dark mist before her arm creeped out of the shadow inside.
She handed Izuku a pendant of a small skeletal left hand seemingly made of gold, a pearl decorated to look like an eyeball was nestled in the centre of the palm. "What is this?" He asked.
"A symbol which the zealots of the Undying King use for worship, I won't be needing it so you might as well take it. I have found other things to praise in my freedom. However, Warlock of Light, know that you are not yet strong enough to face the King. Before him, all are as leaves cast to the bitter winds that howl about Death's black wings. Stay this course if you wish, but know your fate will be the same as all the fools who tried before." She warned, as if on cue a chilling wind blew past them. Izuku shivered while she remained uncannily motionless.
"I know, I'm working on it." Izuku said in defence, knowing increasing the power of his body and mind was an irritatingly slow process.
"Then you should work faster. Those were no empty threats when last we met. Someday soon, Humanity will witness the final dawn of this world as they know it. While your actions may slow the process, the inevitable is the waterfall at the end of the river that is fate. While you are certainly determined to push against it, you are but a shadow cast upon its surface. You provide no resistance against destiny's ceaseless current. You should see that you are prepared when that last day comes."
Izuku was silent for a moment before he looked back up at her, "The light that rises in my soul and flows through my veins tells me to be brave, and gives me the strength to stop these otherworldly threats! I made a promise. I will save the world from that monster! Nothing, not even fate is going to stop that! I will stop the Lich and I will be the Hero that the world needs!" A determined look on his face, one that gave no illusion to the cause he fought for.
The Vampire gave him a stoic look, "Hmhmhm," she chuckled lightly, "You and that girl. In another life, you would have been friends, I'm sure." She said almost wistfully. She stared out at the city for a brief moment, "With the threat of their demise gone, the survivors will rebuild again. Those bitter black winds have now drifted away from this city. Those who fuel my vengeance have left, so too should take my leave. I will find nothing here but longing for my mortal days." She walked away from the edge and towards the middle of the rooftop.
Izuku walked beside her, "What is your name?...Or I guess, what was the name of that girl? If everything was taken from her, and nobody will remember her, then I can at least do her the honour of carrying her memory."
The girl paused for a moment, looking as if she really had to think about the name. "It was Ochaco. Ochaco Uraraka was her name."
Izuku placed his hand on his heart, "My name is Izuku Midoriya. I swear, Uraraka, to remember and honour your name. And when the time comes you want to rest, I will grant you that everlasting peace."
Uraraka gazed for a moment at Izuku before looking away once more, "Very well, Midoriya. I have a morbid feeling those bitter black winds will call me to you again in the future. Farewell, Hero of Light." She said before what little of her that was not coated in darkness, was suddenly eclipsed in inky blackness. Her body quickly shifting and morphing until it deformed and broke apart into many shreds of shadow that formed into a flock of bats that flew over Izuku's head and into the night sky.
Izuku watched her fly away in the form of several bats, wondering how exactly that worked before looking around the building he was on and realising he didn't know where he was. Upon catching sight of the large X still in the sky a little ways away, he started heading back to the other two.
"Was it really smart to let that Vampire leave if they are such a problem?" Keigo asked the Wizard, having been given a small lecture about Vampires since Warlock left with one.
Sylvar was currently petting a small dragon-creature on his shoulder as they had the conversation, "I have a feeling it's nothing to be fearful of at the moment. Bigger problems lie in the Undying King and his minions, problems that this unlikely ally of ours seems content to assist in."
"And the fact they are Undead doesn't unnerve you at all? You don't think they could just betray us when it suits them? Forgive my scepticism, but I'm not exactly thrilled to trust a Vampire." Keigo asked, gesturing to the bite scar on his neck. "By the way, I'm not going to turn into a monster or anything right?"
The Wizard rubbed his chin in thought, "You do have a point, but the same argument can be said of anyone. From what we know, which is very little, that girl seems to be on our side. Now about that Vampirism, open your mouth." He explained, pulling what Keigo assumed was a magic magnifying glass out of his suit.
Keigo opened his mouth as the old Wizard inspected his teeth, "Oh my, that doesn't look good at all." The Wizard said, an air of seriousness about his voice.
"What!? What is it!? Am I going to turn into one of those monsters!?" Keigo asked, genuinely panicking about the old man's comment.
"It looks like that wisdom tooth hasn't come through yet. That's going to be an uncomfortable week for you." Sylvar said simply, a smug grin plastered on his face.
Keigo took a second and let out a sigh, "I'm fine aren't I?" he said, pinching the bridge of his nose over his goggles.
"As a fiddle my boy!" The Wizard laughed.
It was then that Warlock had shown back up, sliding down the drainage pipe of a nearby building and making his way through the street. "Hey guys, sorry I- Is that a Dragon!?" Any sense of professionalism about the man immediately vanished as he excitably ran up to Sylvar.
"It's a Pseudodragon my boy. Don't be shy, he's friendly." Sylvar chuckled, gesturing to the tiny Dragon.
The Pseudodragon jumped down from Sylvar's shoulder and approached Warlock, it's movements weirdly similar to a cat's. It sniffed his outstretched hand before rubbing it's against him, Warlock petting the top of the miniature dragon's head before it's wings expanded and it suddenly flew upwards, perching on top of Warlock's hat. Warlock chuckling to himself as he continued to scratch under it's chin, the tiny dragon purring in response.
Sylvar clapped his hands together to get everyone's attention like some kind of school teacher, "Alright, well if it's the same with everyone else, I want to go home. Now since I'm Warlock's only way home, he is also going to leave. Hawks, would you also like a ride back to Tokyo?"
Keigo looked around at the ruined street, "Somebody's going to have to explain this, since most survivors probably saw me tonight it should be me. I'm going to help any more survivors get to safety."
"Oh, you don't need to do that last one, I've already sent a few air elementals to help around the city while you were unconscious. They should have saved anyone in the immediate area by now. Those other Heroes you saved earlier should have also set up a safety zone by now as well." Sylvar explained.
"Sorry, what was that about "air elementals"?" Keigo asked, reasonably confused by the Wizard's magic jargon.
"Creatures made of elemental air. They mostly stay neutral and don't care for human affairs, but they owed me a favour. One of these elementals lives in that sword of yours as well. They shouldn't cause any issues, just say it was a Hero's Quirk, that usually eases people's minds these days." The Wizard casually explained like he wasn't dropping bombshells of magical knowledge.
"There's a creature living in my sword? So I wasn't talking to that wind goddess when I talk to it then." Keigo said, looking down at the Masamune as a small breeze drifted around it.
"Oh no, that goddess just gave you a little nudge in the direction of using magic. If you've been interacting with the wind lately, it was probably that elemental, must have slipped my mind to mention that before. Although that elemental may act as a kind of conduit of sorts for divine intervention for you since it would have a significant connection to Akadi."
Keigo pinched the bridge of his nose again and took a deep breath in, "You know what? I should just stop questioning magic stuff. I'm just going to go do my job."
"That's probably for the best." Warlock commented, the tiny dragon still sat on his head.
Keigo gave his goodbyes as Sylvar drew a circle of runes and symbols on the street with a piece of chalk that glistened with orange like a crystal. As he finished drawing the circle it began to glow a bright orange colour and began to swirl with magic as a portal in the ground appeared with a ring of orange around the edge. Sylvar and Warlock hopped inside with a wave goodbye before being sucked through the portal.
Keigo pulled out the phone from his jacket, calling the President who picked up quickly, "All threats have been neutralised, Madam President. Nothing of value could be gathered from either Vampire. I'll get you more details in a full report."
"Takami...Did you just say Vampire?" The President questioned, sounding genuinely confused as Keigo realised how strange that sentence must have sounded.
"I'll...double time that report, Madam." Keigo said in a defeated tone, knowing there was no short way of explaining the night's events. The President hung up in response before Keigo flew back into over the city, using his feathers like a radar to detect anyone who survived only to find any survivors already in a safe zone made by the other Heroes in the area.
Although, he couldn't shake the feeling there was someone nearby, he eventually assumed it was one of those elemental things the Wizard mentioned before descending to calm the survivors down.
Tokyo - Kotodama District - Seldarine Library
Izuku felt the sensation of being pulled through the space between spaces at impossible speeds until he stopped suddenly and appeared behind the front desk of Sylvar's library. Izuku shook his body as a tingly sensation remained from the teleporting. He noticed a circle of faint light on the floor of the same design as the runic circle he and Sylvar had just used to teleport, before Sylvar moved a rug back over it that had been flung several meters away from the teleportation.
Izuku yawned into his hand, stretching his neck as it still hurt from what Mummy did to it earlier. "Well...that sucked. This was supposed to be a 5 minute conversation with Hawks, why do things around me always escalate?" He complained out loud though to nobody in particular.
Sylvar, started rearranging his desk with a mage hand and his Pseudodragon helping him, "Well that's just how it is for you Humans, sprinting from one thing to the next. Of course from your perspective it's a snail's pace, but when you can count your age in millennia you Humans just never slow down."
"I guess you're right." Izuku leaned against the desk, using Minor Illusion to create a cat toy and begging to absentmindedly play with the Pseudodragon. "Say, one of those Vampires mentioned something that really interested me. He mentioned something about a "Demon Lord". You probably know stuff about that, right?"
"Ah, well those would be the most powerful Demons of the Abyss. A handful are even lesser deities, usually worshipped by murderous Warlocks and crazed cultists. Though none quite fit the bill around Undead more than Orcus, and if he were directly involved, we would definitely know. But this realm is too hidden in the Material Plane for a demonic infestation. Although there were those shadow demons earlier, that does raise a few questions." Sylvar replied, lecturing Izuku while multitasking in organising some of the bookshelves, the shelves themselves impossibly moving around like conveyer belts.
"Wait, I thought Demons were from the Hells?" Izuku said, slightly confused.
"No, no. Devils are from the Nine Hells. Demons are from the Abyss. An easy and common mistake to make. Or you could do it on purpose to really irritate them, they hate that. They're different creatures, but both are equally unlikable." Sylvar clarified.
"There's a difference? They seem pretty synonymous."
"Oh yes. While the two types of creature are similar in that they both eventually form from the souls of the departed evil, they are so very different that they have been at constant war since they both spawned into being. Devils are tricky, smart and follow their own set of specific rules, though they more often than not twist their words. Demons are ruthless, chaotic and as varied as the infinite layers of the Abyss itself. I'm surprised your Celestial friend never told you about them." Sylvar explained, having created a small chalk board behind him and now giving a lesson on the two fiend creatures.
"We started working on learning about the planes of existence, but I only really learnt about the Prime Material and a little about the Ethereal. Couatl tried to teach me about the whole Inner and Outer Planes thing, but my head started hurting pretty soon after." Izuku explained, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment before snapping his focus back to questioning. "Anyway, that Vampire mentioned a "Demon Lord of Villains". Does that ring any bells?"
Sylvar thought for a moment, idly rubbing his chin with a silver Mage Hand. "Demon Lord of Villains...Demon Lord of Villains...I believe there was a Human who shared a similar epithet not too long ago. He supposedly died a few years back, but that doesn't mean much nowadays, the Lich could have easily brought him back. All For One, a real piece of work that one.
"All For One? I thought he didn't exist, like some kind of modern fairy-tale? Then again magic is real...so are fairies now that I think about it. Either way, I thought he was just some made up story to scare kids who misbehaved with their Quirks. Telling them All For One would steal it in the night?" Izuku questioned.
"He was real, and quite befitting of his title. He could give and take Quirks as he pleased, although he couldn't do the same with Magic as I found out when I once confronted him. I believe it acts like a cut, copy and paste using the Quirk Gene itself, though I can't say for sure. Unfortunately, he was completely Human and I'm technically not allowed to interfere with purely Human conflicts, only those of magical or apocalyptic nature. By that point in history, Quirks were uncommon but still a completely Human phenomenon by this point." Sylvar explained.
"Wait, why can't you interfere with Human affairs? Are you bound by some kind of sacred oath or something?" Izuku asked, never having heard about this refraining from Human problems before.
Sylvar chuckled to himself, "That would take a long, long time to explain, and you don't have the years to get through it all I'm afraid. Let's just say I had a rule-breaking and rebellious phase back in my youth and now I am bound by divine word to not interfere, unless a problem is supernatural or sure to cause Human extinction."
Izuku pouted in an overly dramatic fashion, "Fine. Keep your secrets." He immediately switched back to acting normally as he gestured to his Warlock outfit, there was still a lot of grime and blood on it. "By the way, can you help with this supernatural problem?"
Sylvar rolled his eyes and waved his hand with a quick mumble of unknown words, Izuku being cleaned of any dirt and blood like dry erase pen off of a whiteboard, any damage to his Warlock clothes also being magically stitched up. "Well, young Midoriya, I suggest you leave and go home now. Don't worry about All For One, you have much larger problems you need to prepare for. And do at least try not to get into any trouble on the way back." he said, tapping his walking stick onto the wooden floorboards and making the front doors unlock and open.
Izuku ran to the door with a wave, putting a hand over his face as his appearance changed to that of his usual teenage self in casual clothes. "No promises!" Izuku called out before the doors closed behind him. He made his way to the nearest train station and changed his identity a few times on the way to make sure he wasn't being trailed, just in case.
He took the train back to Musutafu and after an hour he eventually made his way back to his apartment. Once Izuku got to his front door he noticed the lights were off, meaning his mother was asleep by now, like he was supposed to be at this time of night. 'Alright, I just have to poof inside and sneak into my room without making noise. Shouldn't be too hard.'
Using Misty Step, Izuku was able to easily teleport into the apartment without a sound and snuck back into his room, changing out of his Warlock clothes and hiding them in his room. He basically collapsed into bed, his physical exhaustion catching up with him once he finally stopped to rest.
'Izuku, an important task must be performed. Your training shall be postponed for tonight. Enjoy your rest.' He heard Couatl say in his head, quickly jolting him back from almost falling asleep. He did not question this nor did he have the energy to give a sarcastic reply. Instead he gratefully leaned into his bed, falling unconscious almost immediately afterwards from just how tiring this day was for him.
Somewhere in Japan
Ochaco stood in the abandoned house she had found, she didn't know where she was anymore, or even who she really was anymore. She walked across wooden floorboards, a fitting, ominous creak following every footfall. Opening the door to a random room she found it was a bedroom, though the furniture had severely decayed after so long without maintenance. A dusty, cracked mirror sat in the corner of the room, one that didn't display her reflection, a permanent reminder of who and what she was now.
She approached the mirror, looking into it and hoping with every blink that she would be able to see herself again, though perhaps it was best that she couldn't see what she had become. She didn't know what she should feel, what she would have felt were she alive, what someone should be feeling in this situation.
"I lost everything. My home. My life. My...family. It should hurt...Why doesn't it hurt?" She said out loud, her voice completely devoid of emotion. "Have I lost that part of me? Can I no longer grieve my family? My lust for revenge clouded my mind, reduced me to a husk, a thing. The brief flicker of Humanity within me slowly withering alongside my body. Am I all that is left of me?" She said, her hand reaching out and caressing the mirror along where her face should have been. "Will I ever live as a Human again?"
Ochaco looked longingly into the distance, recalling one of very few memories she still remembered of her once family mere days before the day tragedy had struck. Over the course of several minutes she set up a makeshift shrine to her family, she kneeled down beside it and prayed for her family. As she did her skin began to sizzle and burn, but she continued through the pain nonetheless. "How I wish I could return to that time...Mother...Father...Do you enjoy the other side? I want to join you soon, but please forgive me. I don't know why I wish to continue this existence, but I owe more than I can give to that man and I wish to repay that gift of freedom he gave to me." Ochaco prayed, hoping that her parents could hear their daughter's voice.
She backed away from the shrine, her burnt body beginning to very slowly regenerate. She held her arm out, her wicked, dark blade forming from a wisp of shadow crawling up to her hand. "Izuku Midoriya. Warlock and Hero of the light. If you will venture deeper into the rising darkness, then please," She swung the blade, it glowing a brief dull white as she held it before her, "Let me carve your way. Let me act as your protector in the shadow, to guard your back in the rising dark while you offer to shield those in the light."
The sound of a drop of liquid hitting the floor suddenly caught Ochaco's attention, noticing a single drop of blood on the floor. A moment passed as another fell, it took a moment to realise they were coming from her, steadily flowing down her cheeks. She wiped her face with the sleeve of her cloak, "Ah...I suppose, even a monster can shed tears."
...
...
Nabu Island
The Island was devoid of life. Any kind of flora, even the grass had long since withered away to dust. The buildings around the island had all crumbled away into mounds of debris, the water around the island was completely still and even the wind and clouds refused to drift past the island. Nabu Island was a land where Nature itself dared to tread. The only sign that anything still remained on the island was the monolithic tower that was darker than the clear night sky, like a monument of pure shadow.
There was a brief flicker of movement in the air in the middle of one of these streets as several fluttering cards suddenly appeared in the air, swirling in a small spiral as a cloaked man appeared in the centre of it. He held his hand into the swirling cards and watching as they all flew into his open hand one by one, forming a deck of perfectly stacked cards.
He shuffled the deck briefly in silence before flicking a single card onto the floor, it landing face up. It was still for a moment before the card stirred and shook and the heavily damaged body of Mummy was forced out of it, as if he was magically stuffed inside and removed from the card without any further damage to himself. The card that held Mummy quickly flew back into the deck before the idle shuffling continued.
"You aren't going to heal him, Hanafuda?" A voice called out behind the cloaked man. Hanafuda, the man shuffling the cards, turned around to see another one of the Undying King's loyal followers. This mysterious man looked like a very average Japanese man: with slightly long black hair, black eyes, rectangle glasses and an appearance that would be seen as the epitome of completely plain and ordinary. Although he was not dressed in the cloak or robes that would hide ones appearance, instead wearing an open black trench coat with an otherwise very casual outfit, the holy symbol of the Undying King hung around his neck, unhidden to the world on a chain.
However, despite the casual and nonthreatening look of the man, Hanafuda immediately dropped his cards upon recognising him, taking several steps backwards to create distance between the two of them, all but cowering in fear before the plain looking man. "W-well he is a Vampire, they can heal on their own. Besides I would need blood to speed up the healing."
"It's hand to hear you from so far away, Hanafuda. You should come closer me so I can hear you better." The plain looking man said, clearly not planning to move closer by himself. He hesitated for a few seconds before he took a single cautious step forward, however as he did he immediately tripped over and used his hands to block his fall.
As Hanafuda's arm connected to the ground a terrible pain shot through the entirety of the arm he landed on, as his bones immediately shattered in several places with such an incredible force that was logically impossible at the speed he was moving. Bone fragments pierced the arm in several places as he began to bleed profusely. He screamed in pain as he clutched his mangled arm, the blood beginning to pool around the crippled Mummy who began to crawl over to lick up the blood from the ground.
"There, that should be enough blood for him to heal." The man spoke up, before casually trying to walk past the two injured on the ground. "I'll see to it that this Mummy chosen by the God of Death is given what he needs to kill the Warlock next time."
Suddenly Mummy stood up, though he was clearly delirious as evidenced by the mad and continuous ranting and raving in a slurred speech from his numerous injuries to the head. He tried to attack the mysterious man for unknown reasons, perhaps it was blind rage or perhaps he mistook him for the Warlock. However, as soon as Mummy ran at the man, a pile of rubble next to Mummy began rumbling. The pile collapsing suddenly and throwing several chucks of concrete at Mummy which somehow shredded through his Vampiric body with ease and left him collapsed on the ground again.
The man faced Mummy as he was being pinned under more falling rubble. "Since you were chosen by the one true God, I will forgive you this time. But know this, Hoyo Makihara. If you even consider trying to confront me, if the thought enters your mind for even a second. You will die. This is not a threat, but a warning of a law that only God himself has ever defied."
He turned away again and began to walk toward the tower in the distance, "I'm excited about your invitation into our family. Once you are sane enough to speak we'll have much to discuss." The man walked away without a care in the world, leaving nothing behind for his fellow worshipers of the Undying King but their grievous wounds and a lingering sense of dread.
Thank you so much for reading! Leave a review if you like! Feel free to make anything based on this work if you want, as long as you let me know about it so I can enjoy it with you!
I return from the void with drama and sadness in another chapter, and with it I give another character that we shall see returning frequently in the Vampire formerly known in life as Ochaco Uraraka. Though she has changed greatly from the girl she once was, and has been heavily altered personality wise by Nine, does a brief glimmer of her former Humanity still dwell within her un-beating heart?
Those who know D&D may have picked up that she is a Paladin, she is sworn to the Oath of Vengeance and blessed by Gods yet unknown. She is also level 13, though she won't be levelling up much more anytime soon, not like she needs to. She's also having an identity crisis so that's likely not a great start to her newfound freedom.
I have tried to solidify a connection between the Lich cultists and the idea of fate, though it falls kind of flat when they keep losing every battle. Hopefully I can play with that more when Uraraka makes the odd appearance. Although, Izuku himself continues still to oppose fate, the more he plans to fight against Death itself.
By the way, in keeping with D&D stuff in this story, I actually roll dice and such to determine these more important battles most of the time. I find it makes the battles more entertaining to write, hopefully it adds some semblance of variety to the fight scenes that otherwise wouldn't be there.