Hello, and welcome to the next chapter!
KobayashiSenpai; Thanks! Yeah, it is going to be getting good~ Hehe, that would be spoilers. But lets say, Ophis isn't going to stay silent about this. And thanks, I will try my hardest!
hellspam; Ophis is indeed pissed, she's lost her friend to some unknown place. I'm glad that you did, it ties Jeanne into the story even more than it did beforehand. And wait no longer my friend, the fight is going to start this chapter!
Tohka123; Hehe, exactly~ It makes it get hyped, and all that other good stuff~ I'm glad that you did, give some levity to the situation that was going on right now. Ophis, definitely isn't pleased, I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of her anyway, she will do something to you, and it won't be pretty either.
DocSlendy; I suppose that she is like that~
Skull Flame; Yup, he's her elder brother, and there's gonna be some good stuff with that going towards the future too. He does, and there could be a reason for it, there's still we don't know about Lancer right now. Walburga is gonna be...well, that would be spoilers, I can't say anything about her just now. Zenki doll is very...scary, isn't it? Well Akeno did fire lightning at it, but it didn't do anything to it, it is quite the monster. Yup, he is quite exceptional, and in both good, and bad ways too, which spells trouble for Zenki and the gang. Yeah, she's not happy right now, Ophis isn't happy at all. And thank you!
gundam 09; Hehe, she will be doing something alright~ And who made that doll, well, it will be someone, quite likely actually~
Harem Master123; Thank you! I am happy that you do! Yeah, she's really beginning to accept herself too, as a person, and not just a 'yes' girl. Yeah, Jeanne has gone through quite a few things in the past few chapters, but she is going to be getting her own good conclusion, eventually. Heh, I would be shocked if he did win.
BlueBlade87; Yup, you guessed right~ She's not a happy Dragon, that's for sure. Zenki doll, that's a very scary thing, indeed. She is in quite some danger, and yup~
Nivek Beldo; Yup, the conclusions are coming quite soon, it is going to be, something alright~ Exactly, she's really getting her thoughts in order. That's a good question, she'll need some help, and if she gets rescued as a human or Devil...well, that will be shown more in the future. Yup, it was her elder brother in the end, and that's gonna be some good drama too. It is a unique technique, I can say that. Naga isn't an ordinary opponent, and is gonna be posing problems for Zenki and the group for a little while. You're right there, poor Gasper. Yeah! I'm happy that you liked it~ It was something huh~ Naga was pretty intelligent, and even knows how to scare people too~ Well, Ophis isn't pleased, that much can be said. And thanks, glad that you liked it.
RangerElk76; Well, I can't say just yet, but it is going to be, interesting, whatever happens. The questions will be answered eventually~
Blue Eyes Pendulum Dragon; Someone's going to be that close anyway.
NinjaFang1331; Thank you! I am ecstatic that you liked it!
dragonsayianblue; Yup, we got some plot with them alright~ That's moving along rather nicely. Jeanne's evil brother, he's going to be a good development for Jeanne, as a character. Killer doll mini arc? I suppose an out of the world doll comes and tries to replace the real Zenki or something. Naga better watch out, huh~? At this moment, he is going to be very strong, and Zenki alone cannot defeat him, just yet anyway.
Guest 1; I haven't played the games, honestly. I've watched some of the anime that the franchise is attached too. But yeah, that looks awesome to me~ Thanks for the suggestion.
Beelzeboss; Indeed, massive reveal! Ophis isn't happy either! Yeah, that all looks good to me. That would be pretty funny actually, I could see that happening. And yeah, there are some good ones on there, thanks for the tip!
ShadowUzumaki55; Yup, Raynare has realized her feelings, and now is going to have a dilemma to go through. Well, it will soon become apparent on how they are going to find out about this. Yup, he's Jeanne's brother, and it is going to be something good when they have their proper battle. They are on their own, for now, anyway. That's a good question, and that answer will...have to wait for now. Ophis indeed isn't happy right now, which will show as the chapters go on.
Frozen Shadow 95; Yeah, that would be pretty cool actually~ I will take it into consideration.
Mrgamerandwatcher; Indeed sir/madam, it was a SAO abridged reference.
Anime PJ; They have indeed pissed off Ophis, and you don't want to do something like that. Yup, there's going to be quite a bit of action for the rest of this arc, mostly anyway, with some good and strong character development thrown in there too.
Neonlight01; Yup, she did indeed have an elder brother. Well, it is up to debate if he is actually crazy, or there's an ulterior motive for what he is doing. I wouldn't say he's like Freed, but I suppose hints of Freed will be seen. Well, Naga has his own goals that will extend out of this part of the story. They'll have their work ahead of them.
Lightwave; She's realizing many things about herself that even she didn't know that she knew about. She's going through quite the amazing things in her life. Exactly, since they are, there is going to be a reconciliation between them, eventually anyway. Well, I can't say how she is going to get out of it just yet, and just because she's pervy, doesn't mean she can't feel fear. Issei's a pervert, and he's been afraid before.
Cf96; Thank you!
AlphaOmega; Raynare will earn that back eventually, how she does, will be shown as the chapters go on~ Well, it is going to be a difficult road for Aika, huh. How is she going to escape, that's a good question, I can't deny that, it is going to be a good question on how she is going to get out of there. Hmmm, that's also a good question, how are they going to do something like that? I can't say yet, but they aren't going to go down so easily. Naga has a plan for Zenki, but I can't say what that thing is just yet. And Ophis...damn, don't piss off her, or she will really become upset.
Guest 2; Yeah, I don't see why not, it sounds good to me!
Silver crow; Well, I am overjoyed that you did! Yup, that's the plan I had from the beginning since Jeanne was introduced. Le Fay and her antics, she's really a funny girl, isn't she? I don't think many people would be surprised that Gasper would want something like that, or Akeno would want to receive it back. He has made Ophis angry, and it might be harder to find than usual. It isn't exactly going to be easy for Zenki and co. Here's the next update, enjoy!
Well, with those reviews out of the way, it is time to start the chapter!
The big fight part 2!
"Please…please let me go."
Aika, inside of a cage, begged Raynare who came to give her something to eat. Raynare didn't look happy about Aika being in the cage. In fact, she didn't think it was a good idea for her to even be in a cage, it didn't make sense to her.
"Look, I'm sorry. Dohnaseek is stronger than myself, I cannot possibly hope to understand something like that. So, don't look at me with those sad eyes." Aika's eyes turned watery. "Please, don't start crying. This isn't something that I want to happen, you know that?"
Raynare couldn't take when she saw Aika shedding tears.
The past Raynare, wouldn't of bat an eyelid.
But now, she couldn't stand it.
She couldn't even breathe right when seeing Aika crying. It just tore her up that she had to see something like that, she couldn't even think that straight, and then even that wasn't something she wanted to do.
"Here, have something to eat."
Raynare passed some food through the bars, but Aika didn't accept it, going over to a corner and huddled there.
Raynare placed the tray of food down onto the cold ground of the cage, and took a few steps back.
"You know, starving yourself isn't going to be good, you won't be able to escape like that. It, isn't something that you should do, you know that, right? Do you think that it will allow you to escape with having such a weak disposition?"
The girl didn't know what Raynare was talking about, only feeling her coldness of the ground through her torn clothes. She was sure that Dohnaseek loved seeing her in such a state, and Raynare thought the same.
"I…I want to go home…"
She sobbed, Raynare lowering her eyes so she couldn't and wouldn't have eye contact with this person, it being too difficult for her to make eye contact with Aika as it would've broken her down mentally too.
"I know that you do…I know you want to go home, and if it was up to me, I would let you go. But, I can't let you go this time, I'm sorry but that's how it is. I can't even think straight right now, I really can't help you, so don't ask me."
Raynare couldn't take looking at Aika, and turned her head away.
"Please…don't leave me here."
Raynare was stopped from taking a step when Aika called back to her.
Turning her head, she saw that Aika was in floods of tears.
"Please don't cry young girl, I know that you're scared, but you've got to understand, I can't defy Dohnaseek. He's too strong. My own leaders have turned on me, one of my leaders even undermined me, and made me feel like he's going to turn on us, or just use myself, and Kalawarner, for his golden boy Dohnaseek. I know that this isn't your fault, I know that this isn't your fault, and I'm sorry that you were brought into this situation when you shouldn't of been. I really do feel sorry for your predicament, I never wanted you to feel like this, you know? If I could help you, then I really would do. But, as I am, I can't do anything to help you. All I can do is say I'm sorry and give you food, that's it."
For the Raynare now, thanks to Issei's influence, she didn't want to hurt anyone anymore.
She couldn't stand it anymore, she couldn't understand why she even enjoyed it in the first place.
She felt herself changing, and she was scared.
It was a new experience she never thought that she'd go through, she never thought that she'd have to go through something like this when she always thought that she would stay the same since she fell down from God, and landed on the earth as a Fallen Angel.
"Please…help me…"
Aika tried again.
Raynare was the only one that could do anything for her now.
Aika saw the spark of humanity inside of her, and now wanted to have her by her side, and allow her to escape the cage, and go back home.
Raynare felt like she was giving in.
She felt like she wouldn't be able to do anything.
She felt her heart beat slowly, her eyes flickering between open and closed. Palpitations erupted inside of her chest, her heart being as if it was going to rupture from the thudding that made her feel like she was going to die.
"I'm sorry, young girl, I won't be able to do anything for you. I know it seems like I am going to be heartless to you, but I can't afford to try and break you out, if I did, I'd end up dead too. I know what you're going to say, as I am feeling it too deep inside of my body, where I feel shit about leaving you like this…but I can't do anything other than allow you to be hurt, it sounds like a bitchy move for me to do, but that's how it is, after all."
Raynare lowered her eyebrows, and felt like she was going to cry out from the pain that she felt inside of her heart at the desperate pleas that Aika was giving, both vocal and not vocal too, so it truly was hard to get her head around it all.
"But…why do they want me here? Why do you want me? I don't even know what that Sacred Gear thing is. What is it? And why does anyone want one of those things? Can't you just let me go already?"
"A Sacred Gear is something that people are born with sometimes. Humans that are born with them, are said to be able to be big people inside of the world of the humans, and that's with low tier Sacred Gear's. According to Dohnaseek, you seem to have a good Sacred Gear too. It isn't like Ise-kun's or anything, but it is useful."
"Humans…with Sacred Gear's…Ise has a Sacred Gear as well?"
Raynare nodded without looking.
"He does, and you do too. From what I know, your Sacred Gear is…it doesn't matter anymore. I've got to go now."
Raynare then left the caging area, unable to hear anything that she was able to hear anymore.
Aika was left in the cage along, left to contemplate what was going to happen with her life now, silently crying for someone to come and save her, someone that would come and be able to take her back home…she was ready to come back home.
"What the hell just happened…?"
Those were the first thoughts out of Zenki as he, and the others looked around. The space around them had changed into something completely different. They were inside of Yasaka's private room before, but now, they were in a different place all together.
"That's a good question…ooh, my freaking head…teleporting like that was…so hard…"
Xenovia put a hand to her forehead, as pain came to her brain.
Even Irina felt the same pain as well, but she didn't say anything, attempting to get her baring's straight again, but that was highly difficult in attaining, since the pain was quite hard to understand for them all.
"We just…got teleported…somewhere by force."
Koneko murmured, sticking close to Zenki himself.
"I don't know how that happened though! I mean, how could we get teleported around like that!?"
Despite being in pain, Jeanne seemed to be the only one who was in a good and proper manner. It just felt like she had prayed, and she always loved that. So, by now, Jeanne had actually come accustomed to being in such a headache type of pain, she enjoyed herself with the pain, no one else enjoyed the pain though.
"Even here, you're so full of life Jeanne-san."
Asia wasn't quite as peppy as Jeanne was, despite having the same level of pain inside of their heads.
"Yeah…we got teleported, somehow. With some magic…bullshit…I fucking hate magic…it really is bad for someone like me to deal with magic…I can't handle something like that, it just doesn't make sense to me…stupid magic, I really hate magic…"
"It was a Dragon's Gate type deal, Mittelt-sama. I don't know how it was used to transport us non Dragon's, unless I am wrong and it can, then I don't understand how we were transported as well, it doesn't make sense."
Le Fay answered Mittelt's doubts, attempting to come to terms with what she was thinking about right now.
"It was a rough ride, I know that much. Couldn't of this Naga have been a little more gentle with the teleportation? I just can't even think straight with all of this, it just doesn't make sense to someone like me, I really hate it all, I really don't like this."
Yasaka, who felt a little dizzy, crossed her arms under her bust, and attempted to think clearly.
"Nii-chan, this is really weird. We were teleported here by force. Why did he want do to this to us? We haven't done anything to this person, why did he take us away like this exactly? What could this mans goals be?"
Kunou went over to Zenki, who gave her a little pat on the head, but felt a surge of pain ripple through his entire head, the others feeling something similar from the very fast, and forced teleportation of the peerage, and the others.
"I honestly don't know right now, Kunou-tan."
Zenki's reply didn't really make her feel relieved, it would make her feel a little weirded out that she didn't even get anything that could be happening to her, and her friends, the people that she cared about.
"Ooh, I feel dizzy now…"
Valerie put a hand to her forehead, rubbing gently to get the cobwebs out of her mind, as well as what had happened beforehand. The teleportation of them all really did make them feel dizzy, even Zenki felt dizzy.
"Great, teleportation really sucks nyaaa." Kuroka looked around, and saw…a lobby. "Wait…is this a hotel or something?" She asked, not getting a response straight away. "Yeah, this has to be the lobby of our hotel, right nyaaaa?"
"It seems like it." Ravel spoke up, but felt a little weirded out. "But this place seems different. It doesn't feel like the world we were in before. I don't know how quite to say it, but I can't even think about what had just happened."
"The colours seems to be a little…off, don't you think?"
Valerie gave her thoughts, with Zenki nodding his head.
"It seems off. It just seems like it isn't the exact same…Naga said that this was a final battlefield…could this be a different dimension?"
"It could be." Yasaka added. "It seems like this isn't the normal world…this man Naga really thought about this. This takes time, effort. This is a battlefield, no doubt. But if we're here, where is this Naga exactly? We're here alone right now, haven't we come here for a battle? I thought that we would've been attacked by now, but seeing how this isn't really that big of a place, I don't even know where he could be."
At her words, the others got on alert, looking around for anything that could give them an indication that Naga was around. But no one saw him, Zenki's eyes going towards Kuroka and Koneko, knowing what he wanted, so activated their Senjutsu, and twitched their ears.
"…Ugh, this place really is pissing me off nyaaa. Seems like they've gone to the extra mile to make sure that we can't sense anything that is around. Damn this place nyaaa. I am really not that happy with this fucking Naga bastard."
"…I can't sense much around us Zenki-senpai. I cannot feel anything that is around us right now, Senpai."
Hearing the opinions of his Pawn and Rook respectably, Zenki sighed openly.
"First, we have to establish where we are, what's going on, and how we're going to get out of here-"
Suddenly, from the front door of the hotel, a large fireball came smashing through, heading straight for Asia and Jeanne.
Before Zenki could block it, Yasaka appeared, and outstretched her hand, blocking the giant ball of fire, keeping the pair of them safe from what is going on with the fire, crushing her hand on the fireball, turning it into nothingness.
"Y-Yasaka-sama saved us, thank you."
Asia gave her gratitude, Yasaka nodding and narrowing her eyes towards the door.
Appearing at the door, was Naga, Lancer, and Walburga, all walking together. Naga had a smile on his face, Lancer had a certain type of armour on his body, and Walburga had purple flames dancing in her hands.
"Naga…"
Zenki growled as they got into a formation. Zenki got to the front, together with Jeanne, and Yasaka along with Koneko and Xenovia. Kuroka, Irina, and Valerie appeared in the middle of the formation, and Ravel went to the back together with Le Fay, Mittelt, Asia, and Kunou. This formation was the best for fighting, if and when it was going to happen.
"Yo, Zenki. It has been a while. And even Yasaka-sama too, Queen of the Youkai, it is a pleasure to meet you."
Zenki sharpened his eyes upon the man, as Jeanne looked towards Lancer.
"Onii-sama…that's you, isn't it? You're my Onii-sama, aren't you?"
Lancer cast a stone cold glare towards Jeanne, making her flinch.
"Seems like you're really a Devil. It has been many years since the last time we met. During that time, we've been together like this, I didn't think I would meet you as a Devil." Jeanne's eyes went low. "So, how does being a Devil suit you exactly? Is being a Devil something you love? Do you hate it exactly?"
"…I love being a Devil, but Onii-sama. Why…Why are you doing this exactly? Please just stop this already. I don't want you to be involved with something like this, I'm begging you to stop doing this. So, please!"
Jeanne begged with her heart being poured out towards him.
But Lancer just looked like he didn't care.
"Sorry, but I don't really speak with Devils. If you value your new life, I'd suggest fighting too. Don't even think about holding back because of our former ties with one another. If you even show a slight hesitation, I definitely will take advantage of you, and kill you with this spear, and sword of mine."
Lancer banged his spear on the ground, and held the holy sword up high.
"Onii-sama…why would you do this? Joining terrorists? I thought that Onii-sama was better than that! Didn't we have a dream to protect the innocent or something like that!? Since when did our dream die like that!?"
"Tch, speaking like you've not given up that dream either."
"I-I don't…"
Jeanne was lost for words, but Lancer stared coldly.
"You gave up that dream by becoming a Devil."
"There were circumstances behind that though." She spoke with a pained smile. "I was forced by many people to do whatever they wanted, and Zenki-chan gave me the chance to live for myself! For years, I've been living as myself, and get to do what I want! So, please don't do anything weird, and stop this! Please, for me! I'm your Imouto, you know that? We're family, aren't we? Please don't do this Onii-sama, I don't want to fight you. My body can't accept that you want to have a fight like this, I can't have a fight with Onii-chan, he's too important to me. Please, don't do anything weird and just come back to me…I really missed you."
Jeanne spoke from her heart.
Even the others around heard that she was speaking from the heart.
She was being quite understood by everyone who was around.
But for Lancer, he just didn't even bat an eyelid at all, he couldn't bat an eyelid in the slightest, he just wouldn't be able to do something like that.
"I'm sorry Jeanne, but you've become a Devil. Our ties were cut since you became a Devil. I cannot stand looking at you, you're just a Devil, and that means nothing to me." Lancer raised his spear, pointing it at Jeanne. "I said it before, that we'd be fighting. If you don't fight me back, we'll definitely have to fight against each other, and only one of us is going to be able to walk away from here, and if you're not careful, it is going to me that walks away with his life over the Devil girl that is before me."
Jeanne couldn't believe what he was saying.
She wouldn't believe what he was saying.
She wouldn't accept it, she couldn't accept it.
She felt angry, and scared at the same time. She felt like she was going to fall and wasn't going to be picked up by anything or anyone. Her elder brother has essentially rejected her, and wouldn't allow her to escape.
"Calm down, for the moment, Lancer."
Naga silenced Lancer, so he did as he asked, and just kept himself silent for the moment.
"Hey! My names Walburga~ Isn't that a good thing?"
Walburga named herself, but none of them cared.
No one even acknowledged that she spoke.
A tick mark appeared above her forehead, clenching her teeth together.
"What a cheeky bunch of people you are. Hohohohoho, would this be a situation where I would be depressed? But, oh! This isn't fair! Why aren't I getting the attention that I deserve too~? I think that would be better than this, wouldn't it~? Yeah, I think that this would be a better thing that that, you know that right~?"
"Ooh, please just shut up. Just, shut your mouth. That space between your cheeks, just keep that closed, and we'll be fine. Your voice is like nails on a chalkboard. Could you please just keep your voice quiet, so I don't have to deal with anything like this? It would be better if that happened, alright? I can't stand it if you do something like getting in my way."
Ravel showed a displeased face, Walburga not liking that.
"What a cheeky little whore you are."
Kuroka tittered to herself, Ravel looking livid.
"D-Don't call me a whore! I am so sick to death that people call me a whore! I am not a whore! You're a whore!"
"I'm a whore!?" Walburga raised her anger and put her hand outwards with magical power, but Ravel didn't flinch even slightly. "D-Don't you dare call me something like that! I'm beautiful! I'm better than you! But, you're nothing to me little Phenex bitch! I don't like you! I hate you in fact!"
"I hate you too you bitch! You want to see real fire!? I'll show you real fire in a minute sweetheart!"
Kuroka was surprised that it was Ravel who was getting into an argument with someone, and it wasn't her for a change. That, was surprising to her, she really was surprised that she wouldn't be able to do something like argue with someone.
"Fucking hell Ravel-chan, who released the beast nyaaa?"
Even everyone wanted to know that, never seeing Ravel so pissed off before, and probably wouldn't see her like that again in the future either, Ravel just seemed like she had had enough from the people that was before her.
Ravel held herself with a straight look to her face, and answered Kuroka while smiling.
"Because I know how to deal with someone like her before me. I've had enough to be spent before them before me. And if it is thunder tits over there, then I will beat her. My boobs are bigger than yours damn it!"
Kuroka once again was blown away by the argumentative attitude she was revealing. Something about Walburga really had toughened herself up, and she wouldn't be recovering from the sight that was before her for a little while.
Zenki turned his attention towards Naga, and sharpened his expression.
"Naga…what are your objectives, exactly?"
Zenki spat out his question, Naga himself just giving a dirty smile on his face.
"I have quite a few objectives, in my goals."
"Don't speak cryptic with me, and tell me what's going on. I don't have time to going through something like that."
Zenki expressed his rage, and tightened his hands, demonic power being around his opened palm.
Naga wore an impressed face with the levels of hostility that he was being displayed with.
"The match between you, and a certain someone was pretty good." Naga looked behind him, at Asia. "To save that holy girl there, wasn't it?" Asia felt danger to her body, Zenki stepping in front of the line of sight, so Naga had to stare at him instead. "That's right, you got all those wounds. I remember hearing about it, I remember even watching a recording of the battle too. It was a valiant fight that you had, and since then, you've been training yourself to the utmost. I think that I am seriously excited to see the progress you've made."
The way he spoke sounded mocking, yet also praising at the same time.
It was hard to discern who the person before them was. It truly was a difficult thing to even think about.
"Hmph, hearing that from you makes me feel complicated. Should I be excited that you're praising me since you've become a terrorist? But in either case, it seems like we've been transported here for some final fight we're meant to have?"
Though Zenki cared for the person that was before him, he didn't allow that emotion to break through to his voice, keeping it pretty level, keeping it calm, and cool, despite the fact that the flames in the woman's hands were making him, and his Devils peerage uncomfortable. Even Kunou and Yasaka weren't doing so hot either, Mittelt and Le Fay having worried looks on their faces.
"I was astonished when I first heard that you had been fighting for such a while, seems like my advice to your parents didn't work out that well? I guess sometimes it really does mean that you've become a strong young man."
Zenki clicked his tongue, Yasaka taking a step forward.
"My name is Yasaka, and I run the Kyoto city, and I would like to ask why you have teleported us to this different location? I believe that you mentioned a final battle beforehand? Could it be that you wish to fight all of us like this?"
Yasaka kept her eyes focused on the person that was going to hurt them, and made them feel like they were going to be murdered by Yasaka's intense face, and even her power was flowing around her, the power of a woman that wanted to take out someone out there.
"Actually, my main target is Zenki himself, to persuade him to come to my side of the fight, before anything negative happens."
"Hah, fat fucking chance nyaaa." Kuroka spun her fingers towards Naga. "He wouldn't join someone like you."
Though Kuroka sounded sure of herself, the way that Naga had his face on, it just seemed like he was too confident. Not cocky confident, but a confident where he wouldn't even have to lift a finger and have them be worried about anything, he almost seemed like he had won already, the majestic aura around him gave the others that indication that he was important.
"Maybe right now, not. But, once he loses the people important to him, wouldn't it be a case where he'd fall down into a depression and would have to turn to something to exact vengeance onto this world?"
At his daring words, Zenki hissed at him, but didn't strike right away.
"I told you last time, and I'm telling you now. Threaten my peerage again, and I will make sure that you die, painfully. I already said it that my peerage are not to be targets of you, and if you attempt to hurt them, then I will have to kill you myself."
Zenki's words were harsh, but stern, and powerful.
He wasn't joking, he wasn't messing around. He was going to destroy anything that was before them. He wouldn't allow anyone to do anything to his peerage members, it wasn't going to happen again.
"I thought my Zenki would say something like that. But…"
Naga suddenly disappeared. His speed was incredible, even Zenki couldn't track him with his eyes.
"H-He just disappeared! I can't even get a read on him!"
"…He's too fast, even I can't get a good read on him either. He's too good."
Both Kuroka and Koneko couldn't keep up with his speed with their Senjutsu aura reading abilities.
The others looked around, but couldn't find out where he had gone…
"Gwaaah!"
The next moment, Naga appeared in front of Zenki, having his fist embedded into his stomach, coughing up blood from the sheer speed Naga had. His eyes widened when feeling the attack being overwhelming to him.
"Blast away!"
Zenki's body erupted in power from the mans hand before him, and was blasted away, receiving a critical wound, scattering his blood around the battlefield, smashing his body against the battlefield, sending his body backwards, only to be caught by Jeanne's impressive speed.
"Asia-chan!"
Jeanne called, Asia's eyes widening so wide she was shocked that she didn't lose her eyes, rushing over to Zenki as fast as she could. She came over to him, as the peerage surrounded him, seeing that he had a large wound against his chest, finding it hard to breathe.
"You Harley Quinn! How dare you!"
While having an uneasy heart, Xenovia brought up her Durandal, and swung it downwards, releasing a strong wave of holy power. It was a good attack, but Naga put his hand out, and caught the wave with his own hand, crushing the wave of holy power easily.
"X-Xenovia, it didn't work!"
Irina was surprised, and turned her Excalibur into a whip to smack the man before them. She swung her arm outwards, but just as the whip was about to hit her, Naga dodged it effortlessly, the whip hitting the ground and cracked it.
Sharpening her eyes, Irina held her Excalibur in front of her (in katana form now), Xenovia having both Durandal and her Excalibur in her hands, a duel wielding type of style that she liked to use for this kind of opponent, which she needed right now.
"Harley Quinn huh…"
Naga didn't know how to respond, so he just kept his head tilted.
Asia put her hands over Zenki's wounds, seeing how hard he was breathing from just a single attack, she didn't know how much longer he would be able to survive an attack of that magnitude if it came down to it.
"Z-Zenki-san! Please wait, I will heal you!"
Asia activated her Sacred Gear, and began healing his wound. Her green light washed over his wound, Valerie activating her own Sacred Gear, and filled it up with healing water that she had. Pouring it over Zenki's wounds, his breath became lighter, calming down his existence of dying to a normal existence again.
"You piece of shit nyaaa! Do you think you'd get away with that!? Die you arsehole!"
Kuroka couldn't take the way that he had been attacked, her King, and summoned a ball of Senjutsu and Youjutsu mixed together for a truly devastating power that would rip apart most things that it came into contact with, firing off the blast straight away.
Naga didn't even bat an eyelid as he raised his hand, and released an aura, crushing the Senjutsu straight away, surprising that of Kuroka.
"Seems like I've upset you. Don't be concerned, I won't be killing him straight away, I do need him after all. I was just giving a little taster of what I can do, and it seems that he was taken by surprise, I am overjoyed that his peerage attacked me the moment that I attacked him, it does make me feel good. But for now, Walburga why don't we summon our surprise?"
Surprise…
None of them could've predicted what he was talking about.
"Aye aye sir~ You sure it is alright~?"
"If it is for this type of deal, we'll be alright. Zenki is here, Yasaka is here. His peerage are here, and the holy sisters are here too. Even an added bonus is a magician girl, and a Fallen Angel, I don't think we could ask for more than this."
Walburga who puts on a smile activates a magic circle that took up a quarter of the large lobby area.
An intense vibration shook the entire hotel! A very ominous aura was emitted from the magic circle.
"T-This chilling feeling…"
Le Fay gripped her arms as she felt her body shivering.
"This feeling makes me feel like I'm being sucked into the depths of despair, and wouldn't be able to be released so easily either. Just what is this feeling that's overcoming me? I can't understand this feeling, it really is scary."
Valerie had a face that was showing her fear and hesitation in fighting against such a creature, she really wasn't sure what was going to happen now, she was going to fall over if she had to fight something like this soon, she really felt like she was going to crumble away.
….A cold air that gave everyone chills. An intense pressure none of them had never felt before was coming from the magic circle. A pressure that freezes both body and soul…from looking at the sight before them, it looked like they were staring at the jaws of hell and were ready to be sucked into it.
Then a gigantic ominous thing started appearing from the magic-circle…
Head. Torso…a dark pair of eyes that directed pain and suffering outwards, it looked like the embodiment of resentment that wouldn't be released.
Something was impaled into a cross that looked like it was made from flames that were purple like that of the flames in the girls, Walburga's, hands. Restraint tools were intensely binding its body. There were so many restraining tools placed all over its body and there are creepy letters written on the tools. There were ones that were placed on its eyes and there were tears of blood dripping from them.
The moment its whole body appeared from the magic circle, everyone's breath stopped because of the bizarre existence. It had the lower-body of a…. Snake…?
No.
There are scales on it. …A skinny appearance like that of something of a snake. The upper-body of a Dragon and lower-body of a snake. On both hands, tail, and all over its body, there were countless nails driven through! Even on its eyes too.
Just looking at its appearance tells everyone how painful it is
[OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…]
A creepy voice emitted from the criminal's mouth echoes throughout the lobby. From its mouth covered in fangs, there was blood and saliva coming out as well.
Pain. Jealousy. Suffering. Resentment. A sound that is mixed with all kinds of negative emotions. You can tell it is a being that was judged by someone who harboured great anger towards it. There was a black aura and mist coming out of the creature that was spreading throughout the lobby.
….A sensation where their skin is being poked with needles…a disgusting sensation that covers everyone's whole body….
Zenki's eyes changed and his expression changed to that of anger with Asia and Valerie finishing healing him, so he stood up, and assessed what was going on.
"Just what is that creature…? It looks to be in pain…yet, it looks like those black creatures too…just what the hell is it that I'm looking at right now…? It makes me feel worried about what I am seeing before me right now…Naga, just what is it that I'm looking at right now?"
Naga took a step forward, and showed a cheery smile.
"This type of enemy was made with my blood, and the blood of some famous creatures around the world. Even with the proto types you've been facing, the 'creatures' as you've named them, are made from my blood, and a Devils blood too. Though it seems like we've not done anything too spectacular with them. We intended to create an army, but we've discovered that they can't be that strong just yet."
"Just thinking about this right now…but wait, this poisonous aura is…"
Yasaka seemed to be recalling something, so Naga nodded his head.
"You're thinking about what we're seeing right now. It is true, we've also gathered a sample DNA from a creature in the Underworld…no, rather, in Cocytus, a place where the damned, are sent for all eternity. Samael, is the name of the creature we got some DNA off."
"S-Samael!?"
Zenki seemed to know the name and showed distress, his entire body erupting in some small shivering that usually wouldn't happen but now Zenki was showing a fearful face that wouldn't even be able to do anything other than shiver, but Kuroka didn't know who that was, and neither did a majority of the others.
"What's a Samael exactly nyaaa?"
"…Samael, to cut a long story short, is a Dragon Eater. It was sent to Cocytus years upon years ago. Though, I don't know how you got even a sample of DNA from the creature. I thought Hades wouldn't allow something like that…"
"It's true." Naga informed. "We couldn't get permission, it seems like permission wasn't on the list when coming to people like myself, and they decided that we wouldn't be allowed to have it, yet they took notice of some certain 'Hero's' and allowed them to attain such permission. So, I snuck into Cocytus, and captured some of its DNA along with some other creatures. Though it doesn't have the Dragon Slaying aspect to a degree of the original Samael, it still does pack a punch, and could be in the league of Ascalon. If you ask nicely, I will allow you to give it a taste, and allow you to suffer from a good and strong fight, alright? Also, it seems to be able to detain creatures such as Youkai if it needs to do something like that."
"Even Youkai…" Yasaka slowly opened her eyes. "…just what are you intending to do with this creature exactly? Just what is your objectives exactly? Are you thinking about facing off against someone like us and winning?"
Yasaka showed hostility, and so did the others.
Naga showed a dirty smirk, and clicked his fingers.
"Devour her."
At the very instance he said that, something very fast went past their faces.
Then the sound of being gobbled up could be heard from behind.
Turning around, everyone saw that Kunou had a black blob around her body, keeping her trapped inside of there.
From the black block, there was a tentacle growing out. When I looked at where the tentacle was leading to, it was connected to the fallen-angel dragon that was pinned to the cross! There was a very black tentacle, his tongue, growing out from his mouth.
[Onii-chan! Kaa-chan! Please help me!]
Kunou pleaded, attempting to get out of the black block. But, it was proving to be very difficult, she was having a hard time in even moving within the sphere of black, it was too hard for her, and it dyed the others eyes with the colour of hate.
"Kunou!"
Immediately, Yasaka didn't wait for anything, and summoned her foxfire to her mouth, and shot off a large flame towards the black blob. But when it touched, the black blob instantly was devoured, and left nothing behind.
"Impossible…"
Zenki was stunned to even speak properly, not sure how they were going to get out of it.
He attempted to scan it with his scanning magic, but no ideas were coming to his head. There were no weak point's, there were nothing that could help them, it just seemed perfect to keep someone tightly handled.
"Then, allow me to cut it!"
Jeanne made a holy sword in her hand, and rushed forward towards the blob.
Using her blade, she attempted to cut into the blob, however the sword was devoured like the flames of the fox from Yasaka, and broke her sword in half, leaving nothing but a hilt in her hand.
"Damn this, and this type of attack. But, I can't allow my pride as a Knight to dwindle! Allow me to cut through it again!"
Jeanne created another holy sword and slashed it towards the tentacle, the creature's tongue. But it achieved the same results as before. When she went to cut it, the part of the blade that touched it was erased, and the tip of the blade got split in two.
"Doesn't seem to have worked, does it?"
Lancer announced from near Naga, Jeanne not having an impressed face.
"Well, if swords won't cut it, maybe the fire of a Phenex will also burn it off her!"
Ravel stuck out her hand and made a wheel of flames from the Phenex, which would be able to burn even the most sturdy of foes. She launched it forward with a flick of her hand, but like the attacks beforehand, the blob sucked in the flames, and destroyed them from even existing.
"Seems like even Ravel-chan's fire isn't working. But if not for fire, what about my Senjutsu!?"
"Kuroka-tan, promote to Queen!"
Zenki gave her the authorization so she nodded, and gained the power of a Queen right away with every benefit that came with it too.
Kuroka mixed her Senjutsu and Youjutsu techniques together, and made a sphere within her hand. Her idea was to use it to disrupt the block of black with her power. But when it hit, it had the same results that it had beforehand, reducing her attack to nothing at all.
"Nothing is working at all, we can't even break through it. But even then I cannot stand by and leave nothing there!"
Though she knew it probably wouldn't work, Valerie allowed some shadowy hands to appear and shot them towards the black block. Both hands appeared around the sphere, and enclosed around it. But the instant it touched the sphere, they broke the shadows apart, killing them off from this world, leaving nothing behind.
While making a creepy voice, the tentacle attached to the block is getting bigger and is taking it towards Samael's mouth. It seems like it is absorbing something from Kunou who is inside…
"You're absorbing something from her!"
"That's right." Naga inclined his head towards Zenki. "Because it is something like that, we'll be absorbing her life force from her. Because she is a unique existence, this has been our plan from the beginning. Though Yasaka would've been preferred, it seems that the young Princess of Kyoto will have to do. It also will help with our plans with such a strong life force."
Yasaka didn't like that for even an instance, and showed it with her power flowing from her.
"Give me back my daughter!"
Losing all composure, and seeing the threat of her daughter being killed, the others saw a Mother protecting her child, and opened her mouth. A large ball of foxfire gathered there, which would be able to incinerate even a Ultimate Class Devil, showing how she wasn't messing around, and fired it off towards Naga himself.
"Such a simple movement, isn't it?" Naga gathered a strong aura from his hand, and made what appeared to be a shield. "But don't worry, I understand how it is with such a thing. Having something like your child disappear would be pretty bad, wouldn't it?"
The shield of aura blocked the attack from the Youkai right away, surprising everyone that was around.
"Xenovia-san! Please swing down your Durandal towards the body of this disfigured creature! Since it is still made from the power of the creatures, they are weakened by holy power, so your Durandal would be the best!"
"Yes Z-fizzle!"
While saying something weird, Xenovia brought up her Durandal blade, and swung down the sword in her hand. From her sword, the ultimate attack of holy power was gathered, and shot straight for the large creature.
But as her sword was about to touch the creature, Lancer appeared and knocked her blade to the side, something that Zenki found suspicious, Lancer wearing a devious smile on his face, his eyes shining wildly.
"Sorry, but I'll interfere here. Hey, sword user-chan. Remember the last time that I beat you down? Shall we see what's going to happen again this time? I think it might be good if we fight again and show you how you're going to be defeated."
Xenovia hissed and pulled away, going next to Irina.
"So, our opponent is an Evil Dragon, a holy sword and demonic spear user, along with a Witch that has purple flames nearby. Okay, I think this is going to be very tough, so get ready everyone. We've got to do this!"
With Zenki's words, everyone got into a fighting stance. His peerage, Yasaka, Le Fay, Mittelt, and even the Exorcist girls did the same thing too. It's clear what their target was, the creature that was restraining Kunou, and since attacking the tongue and block, the body was the way to go.
While looking at their battle stances, Naga put on an impressed look.
"My opponents are good. It will be dangerous if I don't get serious, so I think this is a place where I cannot hold myself back. Since we're here, we might as well do what we do best, and fight with the best of our abilities, isn't that right Zenki? Walburga, I'll leave the care of our 'creature' as they so-rightly called it, to you. Though don't be afraid to use your holy flames too."
Zenki's ears picked up holy flames, Walburga nodding her head without a care in the world.
"Can you take on the son of Maou-sama, and Illuyanka, along with the leader of Kyoto, the wielder of Durandal, and Excalibur girls along with Zenki's peerage alone your sexy manliness you~?"
"I'll be having Lancer back me up just in case. If I can't fight these guys, my life as an Evil Dragon wouldn't amount to anything. I have to fight with the mentality that I will win, isn't that right Zenki Astaroth?"
Saying that, Naga increased the aura around him, and developed some marking's on his body. His hands and face were covered in scales of a Dragon, his fingernails sharpened into claws, and his eyes narrowed to slits. Though he hadn't gone full Dragon form, he was tabbing into his Dragon powers to fight against them.
"Careful, Naga has some special abilities. His flames are very dangerous, and he also has some knowledge on magic too. Be careful though, because even I don't know the extent of his abilities, but he's tough, I know that much."
Zenki warned them, Naga giving a cheerful smile on his face.
"Good Zenki, show me your strength."
At that moment, Naga disappeared, but this time, Zenki sent his aura around the room, and could feel where he was coming from, the Dragon appearing right before Zenki with his fist heading for the boys face.
"I don't think so!"
Zenki activated many defensive circles to defend himself against the attack, knowing his current body wouldn't be able to deal with it, and he didn't have the time to activate a certain something that he had, and pulled back.
"Good move Zenki, but that isn't going to be enough!"
The Dragon's hands smashed through each of them baring the last one where Zenki put his power into the circle and defended the attack that he received. The attack of the Dragon and circle of Zenki had a struggle, neither letting up for even a few seconds.
"You little punk ass bastard nyaaa!"
Kuroka immediately swung her arms forward, and released a hail of Senjutsu and Youjutsu combined bullets towards him. Naga didn't even pat an eyelid with Lancer appearing, and swung his demonic spear, cutting through each of the attacks, the so-called piercing ability being evident right now.
"Sorry little girl, but you can't do that~"
Hearing his singsong voice, Jeanne couldn't take it, and made a sword in her hand. Though her hands were shaking, she yelled "I'm coming!" and swung her blade horizontally for the mans chest. He pulled away just in time, so Jeanne came at him again and again, swinging her blade for the mans body.
"Onii-sama! Please stop this now!"
"Sorry." Lancer blocked Jeanne's sword, and pushed her hands upwards, the sword going upwards too. "Your movements are hesitant, and easy to read. With your eyes, I can tell that there's something going to happen with you."
Jeanne watched as Lancer stabbed forward and pierced Jeanne's stomach, the girl coughing up blood, and fell down to the ground.
"Asia-tan! Heal Jeanne-tan! Valerie-tan, use your Sacred Gear to reduce our weaknesses as much as possible and then join the fight against Naga! Xenovia-san, and Irina-san, please work together with Ravel-tan and Mittelt-san to fight off Lancer, everyone else converge on Naga!"
Zenki gave his orders, thinking on the fly, and everyone, even Yasaka, inclined their heads, and went forward.
"Okay! Leave this to me immediately!"
Valerie allowed her cup to shine from in front of her. Each of the people from the peerage and the others on their team were surrounded by a golden aura. The same for the cup. The power of the reduction of the weaknesses from the Devils and the others were lowered as much as they possibly could be.
"Jeanne-san, please be okay."
Asia activated her Sacred Gear, and her body erupted in a green aura. She put her hands outwards, and allowed the green aura to surround Jeanne, slowly healing her body as she rushed forward, making it to Jeanne and allowed her direct touch to heal her faster.
"Hah!"
"Hyaaa!"
Xenovia and Irina came charging in with their weapons straight away.
Lancer read their movements easily, blocking the swords with his own sword, and spear respectably, his face growing into a smirk, but that stopped when Ravel flung fire towards him with her hand outwards and Mittelt used a light spear to fire it off at the same time.
"S-Shit!"
Lancer pulled away and dispelled the flames with his spear, and also smashed through the spear of light with his own spear of demonic energies, keeping himself safe from what was going to happen in the future if he received those attacks.
"Be judged by God!"
However, that gave Xenovia the chance to swing down her Durandal, and release an overwhelming aura, a holy aura at that which was stronger than what Xenovia could release from the Excalibur alone.
Lancer was caught since he couldn't activate his spears ability and only had the chance to block with some magic circles, but the wave smashed through them, and continued for his body. Clicking his tongue, he went to jump away, but something wrapped around his leg…it was a rope.
"Sorry!" Irina apologized cutely. "You're not going anywhere this time!"
"You hateful bitch!"
Lancer swung his spear around and smashed it against the rope holding onto him. From the strength of the spear, he managed to smack off the rope, only for the holy wave to hit his body with the black armour on, blowing him away off his feet.
Xenovia thought that he would be done for…but that was proven wrong when his body raised upwards, the armour only having a small slit in it, surprising the others that were around with such an intensity that it wasn't even funny.
"Seems like it is going to be steady for now, I shall have to get serious."
Irina, Xenovia, Ravel, and Mittelt all made hard faces, and combatted the creature known as Lancer.
"Hah!"
Zenki pushed against the fist of the Dragon with his barrier, pushing him away from his body and sent a kick right for his face. Naga smirked as he caught Zenki's foot, gripped it tightly, and threw him against the ground, smashing it apart with his body, Zenki wincing.
"H-How dare you do something like that!"
"I'll kill you nyaaa!"
Yasaka and Kuroka both charged for Naga with foxfire and Senjutsu and Youjutsu orbs being in their hands. Naga glanced at the pair of them, seeing Yasaka made it first, and fire off a volley of fire attacks with her fox powers.
"Seems good, but it won't work with me."
Naga dodged the fire easily, and sent a wave of power towards her.
"No way!"
Le Fay used her magic to fly over to Yasaka and appeared before her, activating a magic circle from her magical powers. However, as the aura touched her magical barriers, it broke them and ended up hitting both of the girls as they cried, pushing them down to the ground.
"You cheeky bastard! how dare you!"
Kuroka was pissed, and sent blasts of her power towards Naga in complicated movements. He didn't even move and sent his aura outwards all around him, breaking apart her attacks like they were nothing at all, surprising her.
"…You're open!"
From the shadows, Koneko worked her way around, and had the blue energy from her Senjutsu in her hand. She made it behind the Dragon man, and thrusted her hand forward towards the Dragon itself, but he caught her movements, and twisted his body, catching her hand inches before it could even touch him.
"Hmmm, a young Nekomata huh. Well, sorry little girl, but I can't have you attacking me like this."
Naga tightened his hand, and summoned an aura around his fist. Koneko gasped, and wanted to pull away, but Naga didn't allow that, keeping his hand tightly around her wrist. Koneko winced when feeling his hand grip her tightly.
"Knock it off!"
Zenki recovered from being slammed into the ground, and charged for the Dragon. Before his fist could touch Koneko, Zenki jumped and slammed his demonic powered foot into the back of the head of the Dragon, causing him to wince, and release Koneko's wrist, just enough for her to get away from him.
"Zenki, that won't do."
He twisted around to Zenki as the boy landed on the ground, tightening his Dragon fist.
Naga went strike, but then found he couldn't.
"Ara?"
He attempted to move his body, but it was like he was enclosed around in something. He looked over to Kuroka, and saw that she was moving her fingers in a complicated fashion, activating her ability to control space, blocking off his movements all together.
"Good Kuroka-tan! Try this!"
Zenki put his hands forward, and made a large wave of green demonic power. it was the size of the lobby, and even tore into the ground. The power was that of beyond a High Class Devil, and sent it forward towards the trapped Naga.
"D-Damn you!"
Naga was caught by Zenki's attack, and the power waved over him. it created a large crashing sound to surround the area, and also broke apart the ground below him, and caused the shaking of the ground to happen.
When the demonic power disappeared, Naga's body was covered in slight wounds. His demonic power had managed to injure the Dragon's body, Zenki giving a smirk when he revealed equations in his hands.
"This kind of power was enhanced with Dragon slaying magic. Since you're a Dragon, it was also able to affect your body directly too. With this, we have a way to affect your body too, doesn't that feel good to have on your skin?"
Naga's eyes turned hateful, and allowed flames to dance by his mouth.
"I won't have you do that to me!"
Naga shot off a ball of black flames towards Zenki.
The boy pulled away and activated the Kankura Formula, taking control of the power, albeit with some difficulty. Because it was stronger than usual, he had to put in more effort into controlling it, but he managed to take control of it.
"Have it back!"
Lacing together the fire with his own Dragon slaying magic, Zenki sent back the attack with the object to seriously injure Naga. His power was high, and the attack was strong too, but Naga didn't allow it to happen, and put his hand forward.
"You're good, taking control within a few seconds…but that's the weakness, Zenki. You can't control straight away, you've always got that little weakness that allows us to use that time window, the fact that it takes a few seconds to control it."
Zenki hated to admit it, but he was right. Unlike Ajuka who could control straight away, Zenki had a delay on when his formula would control, and depending on the power, it truly was difficult for them to even think about it.
The aura from the Dragon's hand was unleashed, and made a hole in the sky. Zenki and the others were dumbfounded as the hole absorbed the attack, making it disappear all together. Zenki was baffled, he hadn't seen Naga ever use such a thing beforehand.
"My attack, it can absorb anything it comes into contact with. I stole it from a certain house from the Underworld."
"The Hole ability from the Abaddon clan! To think you have a power like that too!"
"I just borrowed it. And as you'll see, they can open up anywhere."
As he said that, Zenki heard a sound that was near Asia.
He looked to see that the hole ability had opened up right near her, who was healing Jeanne.
"Noooooooooooooooooooo!"
Zenki put his hand out and activated the formula. His power wrapped around the attack, mere inches away from the girl and Jeanne herself, saving Asia and Jeanne from being incinerated out of existence.
"Good boy, good boy."
Naga praised him, as he saw Xenovia and Irina tag teaming Lancer. While he managed to handle most of their attacks, the added bonus of Ravel and Mittelt were giving Lancer a hard time, something Naga regretted.
"You bastard!" Zenki brought the sphere away from Asia and Jeanne, and split it up many times over, all having the Dragon slaying aura around them. "You managed to hole it last time, but let's see if you're good enough to use all of the holes power!"
Zenki, not having the patience for Naga, swung down his arms and released all of the attacks at the same time. His power allowed him to control them all, and this time he was doing his best to not allow Naga to open a hole up near the girls, or anyone else that he cared about.
"I don't need the holes power Zenki. All I have to do is fight fire, with fire."
Naga stood there in the middle, and summoned his flames around his body, like a shield. Zenki watched as the attacks fell onto the body of the mans flames, but all of them were extinguished by the flames of Naga.
"N-No way, to think that he could do that…"
"Even then, we're not giving up!"
Valerie and Koneko couldn't take seeing their comrades being attacked, so Valerie summoned lightning to her hand from demonic power, and shot it forward. Koneko made an orb of Senjutsu, and fired it forward.
"Hole."
With that single word, a hole was created, and gobbled their attacks. Both were caught by surprise when the hole opened up behind them, giving Valerie a little shock, and Koneko hit by her own attack, Zenki not fast enough to stop their attacks from hitting them.
At that moment, Asia finished healing Jeanne, who stood up, and held a holy sword in her hand. Asia immediately went over to Koneko and Valerie to see if she could offer her assistance there, Jeanne heading for her elder brother.
"Onii-sama! Even though you're like this, I cannot stop myself from fighting you!"
Jeanne lunged forward with her sword, and aided Irina and Xenovia, who had cuts on them, but nothing serious. She appeared next to Lancer, and with teary eyes, she swung for his face, surprising him so he brought up Ascalon, blocking the sword with his own sword.
"Don't be so worried Jeanne, I won't be killing everyone around, just you first my dear Imouto."
"D-Don't even say something like that! Onii-chan! Please stop! I'm begging you!"
"Well, I don't want you to even come near me anymore!"
Lancer raised Ascalon and went to slice down on Jeanne, and she was hesitant to move.
"As if we'll allow anything to happen!"
"We're going to stop you!"
But then Xenovia came in and blocked the blade, Irina taking a swipe at Lancer, but he jumped back.
"Try this!"
"And this too!"
That gave Ravel the chance to shoot off a ball of flames towards him, which he used his spear to cut apart, only for Mittelt to launch a spear of light, penetrating the mans body, the armour of shadows he was wearing, forcing his body backwards.
His body landed on the ground, and Xenovia swung her sword downwards, releasing a strong wave of holy power towards him. Lancer gritted his teeth, bringing up his sword, his Ascalon and used it in tandem with his spear, managing to stop the holy wave.
"Jeanne-sama! We've got to counterstrike this person now!"
Jeanne nodded, but it was weak, so the battle of swords continued onwards.
At the same time that happened, devastation came over Kuroka at seeing her little sister being hurt, and had her hands tightened, her eyes having some tears that wouldn't be let go by anyone else, she was truly pissed off.
"That's my Imouto you're hitting there you piece of horse shit! How dare you think you'd be able to even do anything like that!?"
Kuroka lost all self reason from seeing Koneko go down, so she summoned orbs of Senjutsu and Youjutsu around her. She ran forward, and shot them forward at the same time. Naga whistled a little bit.
"You're angry. It's understandable with people with families. But you're foolish, running in like this."
Kuroka didn't care what he said, and continued rushing forward, shooting off her attacks. The aura gathered around him, and destroyed any of the attacks that would've hit him, taking off all of the attacks that was before them.
"You're really such a bastard, aren't you nyaaa?"
Kuroka hissed, only for Naga to cross the distance with breakneck speeds. She took a step back and was about to activate a magic circle when he thrusted his hand forward towards her, his fist nearly making contact with her, but was stopped when a single cut appeared on Naga's face, accompanied by a fist that punched away Naga, Zenki's fist being the one that hit him, coated with the power to defeat Dragon's being there.
Naga went flying away from Kuroka and Zenki, knocking him against a wall. His body dropped to the ground, Kuroka putting a hand to her chest and flushed at him saving her like he did, but he turned to Le Fay and Yasaka.
"Le Fay-san! Yasaka-san! It's time now! Break that creature apart! Le Fay-san, use light magic! It will work!"
Since they were the least injured or tired, it made sense for them to do it, so they nodded, Le Fay pointing her hands towards the creature with light magic dancing between her fingers, Yasaka making foxfire appear by her mouth, Walburga taking notice and smirked evilly.
"Seems like our times up."
Walburga spoke as the creatures body was bombarded with the attacks of Le Fay and Yasaka, forcing it backwards. Though it wasn't destroyed, it was injured badly, and Walburga had no choice but to send it away, which released Kunou from the block.
Before she could hit the ground, Zenki rushed, and caught her in his arms. He looked down at her face, and saw that she looked…ill. She looked like she had come down with a bad fever, her breathing was heavy and shallow.
"Kunou-tan, it's alright, I'm here now."
As he said that, Yasaka rushed over, Kunou opening her eyes.
"Zenki-nii…always comes to save me…"
Kunou felt weak, Yasaka taking Kunou's body from Zenki and hugged her daughter tightly, her eyes soggy with tears.
"Kunou, it's alright, I'm here now, there's no need to worry, I've come to help you. Don't cry or anything like that, we're going to be okay, alright Kunou? You're going to be okay now, I'm here for you."
Yasaka cried for her daughter, Zenki seeing Naga coming out of the wall, and casually strolled over towards Walburga, the punch having caused him some pain, he couldn't deny that to be true, but he didn't show any hesitation in his walking.
"How much were you able to take?"
"Nearly all of it."
Walburga answered with a sinister smile on her face.
"Good. We've been able to hold them off, and got one of our objectives. Now, it's time to kill all of them here."
Everyone gasped as Lancer joined his masters side, Walburga going towards his side. Ravel, Mittelt, Jeanne, Irina and Xenovia went to the others to regroup with them, and made sure that they were all together should whatever happens, is going to happen.
"Naga! Don't you dare!"
Zenki wouldn't allow it, and instantly moved forward. He moved faster than Lancer or Walburga could see, but Naga saw him coming, and caught him by the throat, holding him upwards and gave him a punch to the stomach, making him cough up blood.
"I'm sorry Zenki, but I can't have you interfering with my plan for a little while. Don't worry, I won't be killing you, but your peerage and the others, I will be killing you, so don't worry about anything. I'm just going to be killing them now!"
Naga smashed Zenki's face against the floor, and Zenki closed his eyes, appearing to be knocked out.
[ZENKI-SAN/CHAN/SAMA/KUN/NII!]
Everyone yelled for him, Naga tossing him towards Asia.
"There, girl. You may heal him."
"Zenki-san! Please be okay!"
Asia couldn't take it, and activated her Sacred Gear on the behest of the others.
"You're really getting on my patience for the last time! How dare you not only attack my daughter, but also attack my friends too!? You're going to die for this!" Yasaka put her hands down onto the ground, and changed from her usual form, into the form of a giant fox, breaking apart the building around them, but didn't allow it to crumble. "Time to die for what you've done here you horrible monster!"
Yasaka couldn't take seeing her family and people she'd call friends being hurt, so she charged forward once laying Kunou on the ground, and shot off two large balls of pure foxfire from her mouth, heading for the Dragon's human type body.
Naga didn't even bother dodging it, and shot off a large ball of fire from his mouth too. It clashed violently with Yasaka's own attack, however neither could win, and cancelled the other one out, resulting in a distribution of hot air towards everyone else around.
But then, Naga jumps into the air, and punches forward. Pushing past all of Yasaka's expectations, punched Yasaka in the face, and sent her down to the ground. The others gasped at the sights before them, and only a miracle would save them now.
"You're all pretty worried. But now, who should I kill first?" He weighed up his options, his eyes going over all of them, with each of them contemplating what they should do. "Well, I think that killing the previous nun Asia Argento will hurt Zenki quite a lot, but maybe leave her to last for now. So, if not her…then who shall I target next…? Hmmm, fighting fire with fire would be good…yes, the little Phenex girl. She was mouthing off before. Yes, that would do it. It would give him some motivations to become shrouded in darkness." Ravel's eyes widened as Naga waved his hand towards Walburga. "Do it."
"Aye aye sir~"
Walburga put her hand outwards, and before anyone could react, a purple flamed cross was shot off towards Ravel.
"Aaah!"
Ravel's eyes widened, and she wanted to move…but she was frozen.
She felt frozen, even though she actually wasn't.
Her fears were building up inside of her body, and she couldn't release them.
She was scared, and that fear didn't allow her to move.
But then she saw a blur move by her eyes, and appear before her.
When she looked…
It was Kuroka who had appeared before her, shocking Ravel immensely as she was standing before her, her arms outstretched.
"Kuroka-sama!"
"Just don't do anything weird!"
Kuroka was ready to defend Ravel…when something appeared next to her, and Ravel.
Zenki's body had appeared next to them, with a Dragon aura around him, throwing Ravel and Kuroka towards the others, Ravel's eyes widening as did Kuroka's.
He didn't have time to direct the flames somewhere else, so he activated countless layers of demonic circles, but the flames crashed through all of them, and made contact with his skin.
"…!"
The roaring flames of the holy fire overshadowed his cries.
When the fire disappears, only Zenki's body remained standing there. His body was covered in burns, smoke came from his body. His eyes barely held life, he looked like he was dying from just being exposed to the holy fire, but the Dragon's aura around him gave him protection, even if it was only slight, it saved his life.
"Zenki-sama! W-Why did you have to go this far for me!? Y-You could die!"
Ravel cried, her tears running down her face.
Zenki didn't answer, like he was in a trance.
Around him, his aura was growing stronger, and stronger.
He was ready to destroy anything that could come for him.
His mind replayed what he had seen before, how all of his peerage were being hurt.
Despite his body being in immense pain, he couldn't stop thinking about how everyone he loved was in pain…and he hated it.
His anger had reached new heights. He hadn't felt this angry before, and now it was showing with his anger.
Asia.
Valerie.
Koneko.
Kuroka.
Ravel.
Kunou.
Yasaka.
Jeanne.
Irina.
Xenovia.
Le Fay.
Mittelt.
All of them had been hurt by Naga, Lancer, and Walburga, and for the caring Zenki…it was too much, and he had had enough of everything, and everyone that had hurt his peerage and friends…he wasn't going to stand it anymore.
"Naga…I told you…my peerage are…the most important…thing to me…and I won't have anyone…hurt them…" Zenki, with a deranged look on his face, put his hand outwards. "That's why…I'll kill you…targeting my peerage…you've hurt my peerage…you've hurt Kunou-tan…you're even attempted to kill my peerage…all of you shall die!"
Zenki's power immediately went into overdrive.
His power surrounded him, destroying his surrounding's. An unnatural wind swept around his body, his power rising by the second. Fuelled with the rage of his Dragon side that happened when seeing his peerage being in such a state, his power rose higher and higher.
"D-Damn! Zenki-chan's power is huge nyaaaa!"
Kuroka was almost blown away by Zenki's power, the others huddling together.
"Th-This power, it couldn't be something like…"
Yasaka had seen it before, and knew what it was, Ravel lowering her eyes.
"It's Dragon's Outrage mode…"
"Dragon's Outrage?"
Asia hadn't come across the term before, so Ravel explained.
"I saw it once when I was very young when Zenki-sama and I were attacked by this large Devil that attempted to kidnap me, and made me feel pain. The…Dragon Outrage mode increased Zenki-sama's abilities exponentially, but the drawback was…"
"…What was it?"
Asia's hesitant voice
"Zenki-sama was unconscious for days, and even then, it was a while before he regained the use of his abilities again. Essentially, he was left powerless for days on end. I can't even remember how long…maybe even weeks, I'm not sure. It truly was a scary thought."
They gasped, and saw Zenki walking forward. His aura was so thick that it broke the ground below him, and made itself truly shine wildly, almost as if its very pressure would be able to kill anything that was within its sights.
"W-What is this power!?"
Lancer's roar was overshadowed by Zenki's aura making a humming buzzing noise.
It rose into the sky, and surrounded the entire building. It shook everything that was around them. The power around him turned into the form of a floating Dragon head that looked like Zenki's when he turned into a large Dragon.
The ones that had seen it before recognized the Dragon, but for people like Irina and Xenovia, they had never come across such a thing before, such an existence before, and it looked like they were going to pass out with the amount of power he was releasing.
"This is it Zenki…unleash that rage, and come to my-" Before Naga could finish, Zenki disappeared, and reappeared in front of Naga, his fist embedded into Naga's stomach. "Gwaaaaaah!"
Naga coughed up blood, and Zenki activated his demonic power laced with Dragon slaying magic.
"You messed with the wrong person."
Zenki's green demonic power was released from right before Naga's stomach. Because it was powered by his Outrage Mode, Naga couldn't even react and had a large wound in his stomach, being blasted out of the door, no one seeing the vial of blood that Zenki extracted from Naga's body when piercing his stomach, putting it in his pocket.
"Y-You piece of trash!"
Lancer brought up Ascalon, and swung it downwards to release a holy aura.
"Don't toy around!"
Zenki caught it with his hand alone, and flung it right back towards Lancer, adding his own aura towards it, which cut deeply into Lancer's body, throwing him out of the door where Naga was.
Zenki's eyes then went towards Walburga, her eyes being stained with the colour of fear.
"S-Stay away from me you bastard!" Walburga put her hands forward, and fired holy flames towards him. But rather than dodge, Zenki activated a powerful barrier and blocked the holy flames from even touching him. "N-No way! S-Stay away! Get away! Don't come near me!"
Walburga thrusted her hands forward, and unleashed a storm of spells. But they didn't get through Zenki's thick wall of aura. The spells were mixture of light, dark, wind, fire, water, lightning, and other elements that made up elements to fire at Zenki, like a full burst attack, but nothing penetrated his defences.
"You Witch."
With those words, Zenki unleashed a truly strong blast from his mouth. Blue flames erupted from his mouth, and sprang forward towards the Witch named Walburga.
"N-No! Get back!"
Walburga went on the defensive, and made a holy fire cross, sending it towards the flames of the Dragon boy.
He however didn't stop his attack, and completely engulfed the flames of holy from Walburga and continued onwards. Walburga fired numerous crosses towards the enemy, and wouldn't stop shooting them towards the fire of blue from Zenki. But each cross didn't do anything, just increasing the flames of the blue from the Dragon boy.
"Iyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Walburga's body was hit by the flames, and she was flung out of the lobby. Before she was hit, she placed a strong barrier around her body, and while it didn't stop her from receiving the attack, she was able to avoid the worst of it all, and saved her life.
Zenki looked outside to see Naga and the others regrouping. While Walburga was down for the moment, Lancer was trying his best to stand up. Naga himself had a wound from his stomach that was bleeding profusely.
"Le Fay-san!"
In his rage, Zenki had the mind to think of a plan, and called towards Le Fay.
"Y-Yes Zenki-sama?"
"Use this power, this power from this rage, and surround this hotel with a barrier. In the current condition of Naga, and the others, it should keep us safe for at least half a day, if not longer. B-But I can't keep it going and make the barrier by myself, so please hurry."
"Y-Yes! I'm coming!"
Le Fay rushed off, and grasped Zenki's hand. Under her feet, she made a magic circle, and began casting a spell. However, before she could get more into it, Yasaka also came to the side of them, and put her hand out.
"With the power of the ley-lanes flowing through me, what power I have, is yours for this barrier. As we are, we cannot defeat them, since our bigger hitters are out, we need to regroup and make a plan, so take what power I have."
"Y-Yes! Please leave it to me!"
Le Fay did her best, and activated magical circles that spread out across the area. They appeared on the outside of the hotel, and coated it in the power of Zenki's Outrage, and Yasaka's own power to make a truly powerful barrier.
"N-No! I won't let you!"
Naga, while clutching his stomach, attempted to come into the hotel again, but Kuroka quickly moved her fingers, and the ground beneath him became like mud, and he began sinking down into the ground like quicksand.
"We're not letting you through nyaaa."
Kuroka put his hand outwards, and shot off bullets of Senjutsu and Youjutsu while shooting blasts of power towards him. Naga received the attacks while brushing them off, Valerie sharpening her eyes and put her hands together, making shadows dance from the ground around Naga, hands being raised and grasped Naga's arms, restraining him.
"She's right, you're not going anywhere!"
Naga felt his body tense, and grasped at the shadows, pulling them away from him.
"We don't think so~!"
"We won't allow you to do anything!"
Irina put her hand forward, and a strange light appeared. Most were naturally baffled when Irina's hand made a light ring, and she launched it. The ring went towards Naga, and wrapped around his body, restraining him.
Jeanne also stabbed the ground, and from around Naga, holy swords appeared, stabbing into his body, but barely pierced his Dragon skin. But it all helped in restraining him.
"Grrrr! You damn little bitches! Don't get in my way!"
Naga's mouth opened to release a large ball of fire, but before he could, Xenovia and Koneko put their sword, and hands out respectably, holy energy around Durandal, and Senjutsu around Koneko's fists.
"Don't even try anything like that!"
"…We're also going to stop you!"
Xenovia released her wave of holy energy, and Koneko shot off a sphere of Senjutsu power, hitting Naga's mouth, and caused his fire to explode before it could be released, halting his body from doing anything.
Mittelt, Asia and Ravel could only look on as Naga broke free, of what was restraining him, and was about to walk forward, when Le Fay stomped her foot on the ground, and the spell was complete, the barrier being raised, and stopped Naga from moving forward.
His hand touched the barrier, but he was repelled by the barrier.
"Y-You bunch of bitches."
Naga hissed, but Kuroka walked over to the entrance, and cocked a smile on her face.
"Sorry, invitation has been revoked nyaaa."
Naga's eyes changed when that was said, using his hands to bang on the barrier, but the barrier didn't even shake. Le Fay was impressed by Zenki's Outrage power, and Yasaka's power, keeping them all safe.
But then, Naga's eyes softened, and looked at the barely conscious Zenki.
"Very well, seems like we're not going to be finishing our battle for the moment. Alright, let's take it in a different direction, shall we? I think that if we're going to have a fight, it might as well be after this. So, when the barrier drops, our forces will be waiting outside. I'll tell you how to get out of here. There's a barrier device around, and I'll be waiting for you there Zenki, to have a fight. I want to see the power that you hold inside Zenki, I want to see it. I've already gotten my objective from the fox girl, and now I want to have your power fighting against me."
"…Don't even mess around…"
His voice was weak, and felt like it was fleeting. The aura around his body disappeared, Zenki being out of his rage mode, and Yasaka looked weak too, but she was doing a margin better than Zenki was right now.
"Well, we'll see you there, Zenki!"
With a dirty laugh, Naga walked towards his comrades and pulled them away from the others.
"…"
[ZENKIII-SAMA/SAN/CHAN/KUN!]
Soon afterwards, Zenki fell unconscious, the others crying out and rushing to his aide.
A while later, outside of a room, was Irina, Xenovia, Mittelt, Le Fay, Ravel who looked depressed, and also Jeanne sat there too with a depressed look on her face, all having to wait for whatever was going to happen. Yasaka was resting in a room, the same for Kunou. Asia and Valerie were making sure that Zenki survived, and Kuroka and Koneko were supporting them too.
"That battle was ruthless."
Xenovia breathed out, Irina nodding her head.
"I'll say, that was really difficult. I didn't think that I would be able to see such a power. So, that's the power of these Evil Dragon's? It really threw me for a loop. If it was just Walnut-san I think her name was, and Lancer, I think we would've won. But that Dragon-sama really was the strongest foe I have ever seen before in my life."
Irina wasn't really confident on Walburga's name, and got it wrong, the others didn't even realize that though.
"Agreed. Now, Zen-fizzle is out, Yasaka-sama is down too. God knows what's going to happen to that little girl…erm, Kunou-san I think her name was, and we've only got so much time before the barrier breaks."
"Actually." Le Fay interjected. "If all goes well, we'll have a few days before anything happens. The barrier is sturdy. The power from Yasaka-sama and Zenki-sama really did help the barrier, and we're able to defend ourselves well. I think that because it is a place where we can't be attacked, it is safe to say that we can relax."
Irina felt relieved that it turned out like that, and Xenovia also. Jeanne on the other hand had her mind on something else.
"Onii-sama really has gone to the dark side now. He even stabbed me…the Onii-sama I loved and admired actually stabbed me…how could he do something like that to me? Why would he do something like that to me…? Didn't he love me before…? But now, why is he like this with me? I can't, I can't think about it. Onii-sama really betrayed me, and attacked me."
Jeanne couldn't get that out of her head, her elder brother actually attacking her like that. It just was something she didn't think would happen. The elder brother that would do that, hurt her mentally, and she wasn't sure if she was going to be able to recover.
As Jeanne was having a personal battle, Ravel was also having her own personal battle.
"I…I really did something like that…I froze in battle…I thought that I had prepared myself mentally, but I can't…I couldn't do anything else…if I had moved, Zenki-sama wouldn't of been hurt…even Kuroka-sama moved to defend me…she was willing to take the attack for me, and Zenki-sama ended up taking the attack for me…some Bishop I am. I truly am a worthless coward that couldn't even do anything at all."
Ravel beat herself up mentally.
She beat herself up, and couldn't even think straight right now, she felt like she was going to fall down to the ground.
Soon, Valerie, and Kuroka came out of the room. Koneko and Asia remained in the room, the others bracing themselves for whatever was going to happen.
"S-So? How is he?"
Le Fay asked for the group, Kuroka nodding her head.
"While his physical injuries have been healed, he's not awake nyaa." Ravel visibly stiffened. "His power is pretty much depleted, I can barely even sense it. From the power he does have, it isn't that much. Shirone and I are using our Senjutsu to restore his stamina…but I don't know when he is going to wake up."
Ravel lowered her eyes to the ground, Jeanne looking depressed, along with Le Fay and even Mittelt. Irina and Xenovia shared a worried look, Valerie being the one who continued speaking after Kuroka to inform them more.
"Also, with Kunou-san. It seems like her energies…her life force is depleting. No matter what we try, it just won't stop. The methods we're using right now, the Senjutsu girls, aren't going to be enough to save her life, more than likely. Even with my Longinus, it isn't working at all. Maybe it is like a curse, or they knew that we would try my Longinus, and set it up in a way where we weren't able to do anything."
"Ooh God…just what could they want with her life force?"
Irina's question wasn't answered, Kuroka sighing openly.
"We've lost Zenki-chan nyaaa. We've all been injured, and we're all tired. But, we're not out of the woods by any means, it isn't anything like that. We've got to think of something that we can do to make it better nyaaa. We've got to come up with a plan. Ravel-chan, you think-"
"That's right, blame me."
Confusion wrote itself over Kuroka's face, and the others.
"I-I wasn't nyaaa."
Kuroka spoke truth, but Ravel just shook her head.
"It is my fault though. I didn't do everything that I could, and I ended up endangering everyone else that was around me. I couldn't even do anything like move. If I had only moved, Zenki-sama wouldn't off ended up in this state where he is unconscious, and wouldn't be able to do anything at all. Because of me, I haven't been able to do anything! I'm useless!"
Each of the females looked on with soft gazes, and could understand how angry and upset she was right now, how hurt, and in pain she is right now, she wouldn't be able to do anything other than what she was doing now.
"Ravel-san, you can't blame yourself, you've done nothing to be blamed for."
Valerie conveyed a personal sense of love and affection of the Bishop, but Ravel's eyes tugged with tears.
"You're wrong! You all managed to even hold off Naga! But me, I wasn't even able to move out of the way! I pledged myself to be the Bishop of Zenki-sama's always, and I've let him down! Out of everyone here, I'm useless, even more so than Mittelt-san!"
Mittelt felt offense, as if she was being personally attacked, Le Fay patting her back gently.
"W-Why did she single me out?"
"You're the weakest here, sorry."
Apologizing while bowing her head, Le Fay continued to rub the girls back as she teared up.
Seeing the struggle of Ravel, Kuroka folded her arms.
"Ooh Ravel-chan, you're a freaking idiot. We're not blaming you, you didn't do anything wrong. You froze, alright. Deal with it, and move on Ravel-chan. That's all you can do right now nyaaa."
"…I can't, I hate it. I can't! I'm sorry!"
Ravel couldn't take it, and ran away with tears stinging her eyes.
Le Fay, being as kind as she was, was about to go forward to go and say something, but Kuroka placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Kuroka-sama?"
"Allow me to go and talk with the bird-chan nyaaa. We might not look it, but I'll be able to get through to the idiot because we're not so bad about being friends and all. She's just blaming herself over things that she doesn't even need to blame herself over. I don't blame her for freezing, and neither does Zenki-chan either. Everyone knows what he'd do for us all, so she shouldn't blame herself nyaaa."
Le Fay nodded, and so did the others, Kuroka going to go and chase after Ravel.
As they walked Kuroka walk away, Jeanne, Mittelt and Le Fay quietly went into the room where Zenki was, seeing Koneko laying next to him, using her Senjutsu to the best of her ability, Asia holding Zenki's hand, both having teary eyes.
Without even saying anything, Jeanne went to his sleeping side too, and rested her hand against the place Zenki's head was, and whispered "I'm sorry I couldn't fight Onii-chan to the best of my ability." and vowed inside of her heart that she was going to fight harder next time, she wasn't going to hesitate, she was going to destroy anything that came upon her, even if it meant fighting her elder brother.
Le Fay also went to his side and looked sombre about Zenki being in a situation like he was, and Mittelt did the same, both silently wishing for his swift recovery, since they needed him right now, everyone needed to be back at full strength if they were going to get out of this situation.
Outside of the room, Xenovia and Irina looked towards Valerie.
"Say, think we could go and see your Master too?"
Valerie was taken by surprise from the blue haired girl.
"Y-You want to visit Zenki-kun?"
Xenovia nodded her head, and explained.
"Yes…besides the fact that he has just saved us again, he was…well, he looked cool when saving that Ravel girl, and how he went into a rage because of us being hurt. I think…well, my opinions of him have changed from the initial ones that I had."
Irina was also surprised that Xenovia felt like that, and could even hear how sincere she was with her tone too.
"Also…we owe our lives to you guys. This mission would've been over if Zenki-kun didn't save us, and we mean over with our lives disappearing, it would've happened, and I wouldn't be alive anymore, that's how it is. S-So, can we go and see him too?"
Valerie didn't even have to think, and allowed her head to incline with agreement.
"Yes, please follow after me."
They inclined their heads, following after Valerie.
As soon as they entered the room, Irina's eyes watered.
"Ooh Lord! He looks to be in real pain! B-But, we can endure this for the sake of Zenki-kun too! We have to do something! We have to do something that can bring this about! Y-Yes, we'll also become stronger!"
Xenovia rolled her eyes, and went over to Asia.
"How is his condition?"
Even though she got the rundown from Valerie a little while ago, she still needed to ask the question to Asia.
"…Zenki-san is fine personally…but, his mind won't allow him to wake up…no matter how much we heal him, he still refuses to wake up…and if what Ravel-san said is true, then even if he does wake up, he won't have much power for a while. B-But I don't care about that…Z-Zenki-san is…I-I need to see Zenki-san awaken again…I-I love Zenki-san and he does so much for all of us…I feel helpless to do anything to help him…Zenki-san needs us, and we can't even do anything for him…I feel so useless right now for Zenki-san that I might lose everything that I am because…"
Xenovia laid a hand on Asia's shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze.
"Don't worry, he'll wake up. He's too stubborn to stay asleep for too long, I assure you."
Those words comforted Asia, and she couldn't help but feel grateful for Xenovia's kind words.
Kuroka went down the corridor quite a bit, and saw Ravel still walking, her head in the clouds, she wasn't able to concentrate.
"Ravel-chan! Wait for me nyaaa!"
No response.
Kuroka's eyebrows twitched.
"Oi, ignorant nyaaa! Wait for me!"
Once again, Ravel didn't stop, and continued walking.
Kuroka clicked her tongue and moved closer.
"Peppa Pig! Please!"
Ravel stopped, and shot a dirty look towards Kuroka.
"Don't call me Peppa Pig at this time please!"
"Well, it was the only way for you to stop, so please just stop right now! I can't run after you much longer nyaaa! You do realize that I am exhausted right now nyaaa? I've been doing many things together with the unconscious Zenki-chan, and I cannot do anything like that nyaaa."
Ravel's eyes went downwards with sadness and depression entering her eyes, and seeped through her soul, Kuroka inching closer.
"Kuroka-sama, I really have been horrible as a Bishop, haven't I?"
"No, you're not nyaaa."
Kuroka spoke with a soft tone, something she rarely ever used with Ravel, or anyone besides Koneko and Zenki.
Ravel didn't believe her, her body hitting the back wall near the window. Kuroka gained a sympathetic face, and moved closer to the Phenex girl to give a comforting look, and also a comforting smile too.
"Ravel-chan, you're really down, aren't you?"
"W-Wouldn't you be!?" She argued with tears stinging her eyes. "I-I didn't move Kuroka-sama! I didn't even attempt to move either! I-I couldn't move, I wouldn't move! W-Why wouldn't I move Kuroka-sama!? I tried my best to move, but I couldn't move at all, I couldn't do anything, and I ended up not being able to do anything at all! I wasn't able to do anything, I was stuck and I wasn't able to do anything Kuroka-sama! I got Zenki-sama hurt because of my inability to move, and even you attempted to defend the weak me! I hate it Kuroka-sama! I'm so weak, I couldn't even be strong when I was needed to be! Even though everyone else was battered down, I still stood there like an idiot, and Zenki-sama received an attack that could've killed him!"
Ravel was distraught, her eyes springing forth more tears than Kuroka had ever seen Ravel shed before.
"It didn't kill him though nyaaa." Kuroka comforted, slowly petting the girls head as she continued shedding tears. "He, didn't die, and he had Valerie-chan lower his weakness to holy stuff, being a Devil and all, she lowered that to the best that she could, and his Dragon aura also protected him. He knew, he knew that if he took the attack over you, he'd survive, so he did it because it was the practical response. But even if you don't want to say that, then he did because he cares about you nyaaa."
Ravel wished she could believe Kuroka, but her mind just kept going back to why she wasn't able to move, why she wasn't able to do much of anything, and she hated herself.
"I always say that…I always said that I was strong, powerful…I always held myself as a High Class Devil, but in that fight, I acted like a newbie, and didn't even read the signs that I was being attacked until it was too late. So, you can call me names if you like Kuroka-sama. You can blame me if you like Kuroka-sama…y-you can even hate me if you like Kuroka-sama. P-Please…please hate me for getting Zenki-sama hurt…please…"
Kuroka's sympathy rose, and she did something quite unexpected.
She hugged Ravel into her chest, and petted the back of her head.
Ravel wanted to break free, but Kuroka kept her head on her bust, and kept her level. She kept her safe, and was just there for Ravel. Ravel just sobbed into her chest, with Kuroka just hugging onto the girl.
"I don't hate you nyaa. Don't speak like that nyaa. Stop blaming yourself Ravel-chan, you froze, and it is natural in a fight. No one thinks any less of you nyaa. You're just a young girl, and this was a scary battle. That Naga bastard was strong, stronger than all of us. He was immensely prepared, nyaaa. He was prepared for all of us nyaa. He had done his research, and caught us off guard. Even though we fought our best, he still was strong nyaaa. And that holy flamed bitch, and that bastard Lancer shit, they triple teamed us, and if this happened, then it isn't anyone's fault other than who attacked us nyaa. You've got nothing to blame for, and if you think that you need to release that anger, then do it against the Witch bitch that hurt Zenki-chan. Do it against Lancer who hurt the Exorcist girls. Do it against Naga that hurt us all. Don't beat yourself up for something that isn't something you have to worry about nyaa. We need you Ravel-chan. Next to Zenki-chan, you're the best strategist that we have, and with Zenki-chan out, we need your skills here. So, pick yourself up, and come back to us as a strong, confident woman that doesn't need to smoke…"
"W-What…?"
Ravel looked genuinely confused, Kuroka rolling her eyes at herself, but snickered at the words she said, which were completely accidental, but she enjoyed them all the same, she liked them herself anyway, and didn't say anything else about it other than she enjoyed it.
"Never mind. But the point is, we have to do something nyaa. We've got to have you in our court, or something else is going to happen nyaa. So, are you going to stop with this self blame and step up for all our sakes? Or, are you going to be set back by something no one blames you for nyaa?"
Kuroka's words…filled Ravel with courage.
She didn't expect it, but she felt her courage being built up by the second.
She could feel it bubbling inside of her stomach, and felt like she was going to be built up to something else.
She felt like she was going to be a strong person.
"Alright, Kuroka-sama. You're right, I need to come back from this, I need to bounce back from this…I feel regret about this situation, but I will do my best for everyone, and make sure that I am doing what I need to do."
Kuroka smiled gently, petting Ravel's head.
"Good girl, now we've got to do something, alright? We've got to find a way to get out of here nyaaa. If we pull our resources, we'll be able to come up with something, anything that would be able to help us nyaaa."
Ravel nodded, and was about to break the hug, when she realized that Kuroka was actually hugging her.
"Kuroka-sama, why is it that you're comforting me right now? It isn't like you care about me, right?"
Kuroka scratched her cheek, and looked away.
"O-Of course."
"Of course, what exactly?"
Kuroka turned her head with some pink on her cheeks.
"Just because we have our banter-"
"I don't think it was banter."
"-it doesn't mean that I don't care about you." Kuroka continued. "Of course I care about you Ravel-chan, you're someone that I care about, so don't worry about such complicated things. So, let's go and do what you need to do, alright Ravel-chan?"
Ravel was confused a little more, but she allowed her head bob along, and walked past Kuroka.
"We've got to get out of here, Kuroka-sama. But even then...Kuroka-sama, Zenki-sama is..."
"I know Ravel-chan, I know. We have to be strong now...but even I'm finding it difficult too."
It wasn't easy for Kuroka to admit, but that's how she really felt right now.
"Kuroka-sama..."
With sadness that they both had for their shared King, they held one another, and despite the strained relationship that they actually did have a close bond together, and were both determined to get out of the place they were in, but right now, they were more concerned with Zenki's pain and how he essentially sacrificed himself for them all. They wanted to be strong...but they were really finding it difficult now.
End chapter!
So, this chapter was pretty battle heavy, but also proved a point, by Zenki and his peerage being pretty much demolished by Naga and his group, plus it also opened up some character development, with Jeanne and Ravel to name a few. How they are going to overcome this? Well, there was some evidence in this chapter how they are going to do this. And how Zenki is going to recover? Previous chapters would have the answer to that~
Since this chapter was pretty action heavy, next chapter is going to be pretty character driven with some surprising revelations and such before the climactic battle, so yeah. With nothing else to say, until next chapter!
Zenki; Asia, Koneko, Kuroka, Jeanne, Valerie, Xenovia, Serafall, Ravel, Irina, Sona, Ophis, Le Fay, Kunou, Akeno, Gabriel, Vali (fem), Mittelt, Gasper (fem).
Issei; Aika, Tsubasa, Kiyome, Isabela, Rossweisse, Elmenhilde, Raynare, Rias, Kalawarner.
Zenki's Peerage
Queen; Valerie.
Rooks; Koneko, Xenovia.
Bishops; Asia, Ravel.
Knights; Jeanne, Irina.
Pawns; Kuroka (5 pieces) Le Fay (2 pieces) Kunou (1 mutation piece)
Rias Peerage
Queen; Akeno.
Rooks; Aika, Rossweisse.
Bishops; Gasper (two pieces)
Knights; Kiba, Raynare.
Pawns; Issei (8 pieces).
