Chapter VI: True Destruction

"Shit… all this running and I can't even see the top of the staircase."

Ragna had been running up the staircase to the top of the Kagutsuchi branch for awhile now and was becoming more and more irritated as a result. Hell, if he was going to face Terumi, he'd rather finish it quickly than deal with a suspenseful run up the stairs.

At least it seems like the fighting's stopped. I can still sense Makoto and Jin, but their magic doesn't seem to be spiking anymore, and that little prick is walking away from the two of us. Wonder how Makoto got Jin off my ass, that's more than reason enough to keep her along… he thought grimly. Ragna could also sense his master Jubei down below, but his master didn't seem to be in perfect condition. Who the hell could've been powerful enough to hurt him of all people? Terumi? No, he's at the top of the stairs.

Ragna finally saw the light at the end of the stair case. "Ah, finally," he said as he drew Blood-Scythe and stepped outside. On the rooftop he was this strange black pillar with a strange, winged orb floating atop it. And standing in front of that pillar…

"Well now, someone sure took their damn sweet time getting here. Though. I guess you showed up earlier than I was expecting."

"Terumi," Ragna said simply, trying to control his anger. Rushing him now would be suicidal, so Ragna opted to stay back until he could find a weak point or catch his tormentor off guard. "What the hell have you done to Noel?"

"Huh, Noel…" Hazama said mockingly. "Can't say I know anyone by that name. Let me think for a moment. Noel, Noel… Oh, do you mean Mu by chance? Oh, that explains the error. You and that little subhuman bitch still call her by that name don't you? DON'T YOU!? Do you have even the SLIGHTEST idea what blondie really is?!"

"I dunno; a Murakumo unit?" Ragna answered, rolling his eyes.

"SHE'S A MUROKU-! …Okay, when and how?"

"You think I'm a complete idiot?!" Ragna shouted, his rage threatening to over boil. "Every Murakumo unit I've fought has in some way resembles Saya and Noel's no different! If you think I wouldn't have caught onto a dick move like that, you're sorely mistaken!"

"Oh, I see… You're all proud of yourself now that you've solved that little puzzle! Arrogant bastard!" Hazama held a glare at Ragna before muttering under his breath. "What the hell's going on? He's never figured it out before, never! And this isn't even Takamagahara's influence either…"

"Quit muttering to yourself, you freak…" Ragna sighed as he slowly started to close the distance between him and Terumi.

(Cue 'Silent Scream' from BlazBlue Chrono Phantasma Extend)

"Aw!" Terumi stated. "How cute! The little puppy wants to play with uncle Hazzy. Now that is just adorable! What do you want to do play fetch?! Or would you rather roll over and play de-!?"

Right when Hazama thought Ragna was close enough to attempt to an attack, he prepared himself to start the fight. However, Ragna gave Hazama the worst insult he could; the Grim Reaper simply walked past the NOL captain, completely ignoring him.

"-ad…?" Hazama barely finished, standing still for a moment. He slowly turned and Ragna raising his sword preparing to strike the column.

So Noel's inside this… whatever it is. Time to open this thing up.

"YOU PIECE OF SHIT! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IGNORING ME!?" Now Hazama was the one seething with anger.

Ragna turned his head so that its side faced his opponent, a smug grin covering his face. "Sorry… you say something?"

"OUROBOROS YOU JACKASS!" Hazama yelled as he sent out his Nox Nyctores's chain to impale Ragna.

Ragna swung Blood-Scythe to deflect the chain before rushing at Hazama. His sword met with Hazama's butterfly knife and the two blades clashed. Ragna tried to deliver a crippling punch to Terumi's gut, but his attack was deflected from Hazama's knee.

"Venom Sword!" Hazama shouted as a blur of dark green energy erupted from his hand to strike Ragna. Quickly as he could, Ragna brought a magic barrier into existence and attempted to block the attack. Hazama then took the opportunity to sweep Ragna's feet beneath him. "SERPENTS INFERNAL RAPTURE!" he yelled as he delivered a bone shattering kick to Ragna's chest sending him into the air. "HUNGRY COILS!" Hazama caught Ragna mid-air with Ouroboros and threw him into the pillar.

Ragna held onto his sword as he painfully fell from the pillar landing on the ground. Hazama sent out Ouroboros for another attack, but the Reaper was ready. He dodged the attack and lunged forward. "HELL'S FANG!" Ragna yelled as his fist connected with Hazama's face. When his opponent tried to counterattack Ragna had already prepared his next move. "GUANTLET HADES!" he yelled as he somersaulted over Hazama and delivered a kick to the back of his head. Ragna brought his sword down on his long-time tormentor, drawing blood before smashing him away with his sword.

Hazama rolled on the ground for a moment before bringing himself to his feet. "So you wanna play do ya!? Okay Raggy, you've had your fun now let's hear you SCREAM! "

"Get out of my way you asshole! Restriction 666 Released! Dimensional Interference Force Field Deployed!" Ragna froze as he realized Hazama was mimicking him "What are you-!"

Hazama, no Terumi, gave a shrill chorus of laughter. "Code S.O.L.! BlazBlue Activate!" A green ring appeared around him as he continued laughing. "This is why you can't beat me Raggy. I can shut down that little toy of yours and there's nothing you can do to stop it!"

"How do you have a BlazBlue!?" Ragna yelled before he was bound by green chains. "What the-!"

"ETERNAL COILS OF THE DRAGON SERPENT!" Terumi yelled before using Ouroboros to grapple Ragna towards him and cut him countless time with his knives. Terumi then created five glowing snake-like magic surges behind him. "LET ME SHOW WHAT THE CREATOR OF BLAZBLUE CAN DO!" he yelled as the snakes slammed into Ragna sending him flying.

Ragna landed hard on the ground and coughed up blood. "Damn… it…"

"Wow, you sure talk a big game and know how to disappoint, but I guess you always did have more bark than bite you stupid mutt. Looks like this shift is back on track!"

Ragna slowly attempted to bring himself to his knees. His healing factor was starting to take effect, but Terumi's attacks had been just too much for him.

"Ragna!" he heard a voice shout, he turned and saw his newly appointed partner.

*End song*

"MAKOTO, RUN! GET OUT OF HERE!"

"The hell I am! We're getting out of this mess together!"

"Blegh, I hate sappy moments like this, oh well," Terumi said before trying to act surprised. "But wait. That means that I outmanned, oh what to do, what to do. Oh, Kusanagiiiiii!"

(Go to the link below if you haven't seen this scene, seriously I can't do it justice)

watch?v=uLbs0Yici9s

"Noel!" Makoto screamed. The girl once known as Noel Vermillion did nothing to acknowledge her. She just kept staring ahead wearing that blank expression.

"Wrong name bitch!" Terumi yelled as he sent Ouroboros towards Makoto. Ragna intervened to deflect what attacks he could, but the rest impaled his chest as he grunted in the pain as he fell to his knees. "Protecting an NOL agent!? Shit Rags, the old man wasn't wrong, you are unpredictable this time around! Hey Kusanagi, I think I can take these two no problem, go kill Amaterasu for me, kay?"

"Affirmative," Kusanagi said in a lifeless, monotone voice. She then summoned her sword and transformed into her Murakumo stage before flying off towards the lower levels.

"Makoto," Ragna barely managed to make out. "Get out of here now. I'll stall him, but you need to go after Noel, the two of us won't be able to do anything, so I need you to go understand?"

The part that broke Makoto's heart the most was that she did understand. She knew that if she wanted to help Noel, she'd have to leave Ragna behind. "Whatever you do, don't die, I don't want to lose you," she begged with tears in her eyes before running. Surprisingly, Terumi decided to let her go.

"Okay, so you're just gonna die here after all, just to let miss acorn brains over there run off? Man, I was hoping for something a little more exciting, but I guess Rachel did say something about you… oh what was it, single digit IQ? I think that's right. Glad I left her alone in the dark, I wonder how much she's gonna cry when she find out you're dead?" Ragna glared at Terumi before smirking and rising to full height.

"Who says I'm dying here?" Terumi scowled at Ragna's cockiness. "I'm not dead yet, but I know one thing. The single thing I was able to do right in my life was save Makoto. I saved her from that Puppet Master and I'll save her from you! Don't you get it Terumi!? I'm not going through the pain of losing anyone again! I'M THROUGH WITH LOSING TO YOU!"

"So little Raggy decided to grow up," Terumi said with a very annoyed sneer. "LIKE I GIVE A DAMN!" He shouted as several chain whipped around him cutting deep into Ragna. The Grim Reaper could only grunt through the pain and attempt to stay on his feet. "YOU THINK YOU CAN STAND UP TO ME! YOU KNOW WHAT?! THIS ISN'T FUN ANYMORE! DIE! DIE! DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Terumi sent out a final Ouroboros attack towards Ragna to end his life, but the attack never hit home.

"Rag…na…" came the weak, dying call from the blonde Murakumo unit who had taken the hit.

"Nu?!"

"OH, YOU WANT TO GET IN MY WAY!? DIE WITH HIM!"

Terumi shot out several blades to impale the two, but Lambda turned her body and took the full force of the attack. Her bladed petals fell to the ground as she fell back into Ragna's arms. Despite her fatal wound, she had to talk to him.

"Ra-a-a-Ragna, Nu is… so sorry for… what she did to you… at the Cauldron. S-s-s-so sorry. C-c-c-could you ever f-f-forgive Nu!"

"Don't you dare! DON'T YOU DARE ASK THAT!" Ragna shouted at her. "I'm getting you out of this, just hang on!" Lambda put her hand to the side of Ragna's face in comforting way. She had started glowing; slowly beginning to fade.

"P-p-please Ragna… don't ever give up… it's part of why… Nu loved you," Lambda barely managed to finish before glowing brightened and she started to vanish at a faster rate. Despite the mountains high altitude, it started to rain on the top of the NOL branch. Ragna slowly leaned towards Nu.

"Lambda, Nu, whoever you are, I don't care. I forgive you."

The Murakumo unit died with a smile.

Lambda's golden remain slowly started to be absorbed into Ragna, who held his head in shame. Even though he had been almost killed by both of those Murakumo units, he couldn't stand the fact that they'd both died because of him. It was… it was bullshit!

"Aw… gonna cry your eyes out Raggy?" Hazama laughed at Ragna's misfortune before looking up into the sky. "Though I guess you got lucky with this storm, you can cry to your heart's content and nobody can tell that they're your tears and call you a wuss. Oh, wait… I TOTALLY CAN YOU WUSS!" When Ragna only continued to hold his head in his shame, Terumi decided to insult him further.

"No reaction, oh that's no good, what can I do to make you feel alive again? Oh, I know, maybe I can have some fun with that Beastkin. I have the perfect strategy, I'll ambush her out of nowhere, but I won't kill her, no not yet. First come the torture, physical first, then I'll do a mental and that's where were gonna start havin' fun. Then, after I've added a little rape to the equation, I can give her back to you, just in time to have her die in your arms."

SNAP!

"TERUMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" Ragna roared at the top of his lungs. In a split second he was in front of Terumi, who was only dazed by his speed. Ragna's fist connected with Terumi's face as Ragna smashed his head into the ground.

(Cue Metal Gear Rising: Stains of Time; Vocal or Non-Vocal)

"What the hell!" Terumi yelled as Ragna grabbed him by the collar. The Grim Reaper was blind with fury as he proceeded to rapidly smash his fist into the bastards face. "Gah!" he groaned before Ragna grabbed his leg and whipped Terumi from the air to the ground again and again. Then Ragna used Blood-Scythe to slash Terumi countless times. Each of this hit coated in soul eater only making Ragna stronger and healing him from the battle.

Ragna then amassed all of his strength and threw Terumi into the pillar as hard as he could causing it to crack. When Terumi hit this side of it, a moment later he felt himself getting pierced into it. He opened his swollen eyes and say that Ragna had impaled him by throwing Lambda's petals into his chest.

"I may not be able to kill you because of that damn life link, but I swear to god, the second you move at my friends, I'LL MURDER YOU SO PAINFULLY YOU'LL HAVE TO BEG ME TO FINISH YOU!"

Terumi didn't even have the strength to belittle Ragna. He could only watch as Ragna reset his sword and ran towards the cauldron. What's going on, I can't feel Takamagahara or Amaterasu. Damn it Rags... what the hell did you do!?

And that is the end of what is so far my longest and, in my personal opinion, most epic chapter that I've written. Moral of the story; don't piss of Ragna, you won't live when he's pissed off. Anyways, next chapter will mark the end of the Continuum Shift arc and I'll do a few intermission chapters after that. Thanks for your continued support and be sure to keep your eyes peeled for the first chapter of my other BlazBlue story "A Reaper and A Mercenary." Ciao!

I don't own BlazBlue. All rights belong to Arc Systems Works.