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"Rias" – Speech
'Issei' – Thought
[BOOST!] - Sacred Gear Ability/ Ddraig and Albion Speech
Beta'd by BigCC
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Once up on a time, there was a girl who had lost everything.
Her mother had been murdered in front of her, awakening her power, which was used to slay those who had slain her mother. She swore to never lose anyone ever again.
Reborn as a creature of the shadows, she gathered a new family about her, one that she loved as much as she had her mother. But then...
All but one of her adopted sisters were cruelly stolen from her once again, all in front of her own eyes.
In her rage, she pushed the powers she'd striven to obtain beyond the limits of most of her peers and superiors.
Using this power, she struck down the one responsible for the death of her beloved family, destroying them utterly.
Her last sister, traumatized and on the verge of breaking, begged to have her memory altered, so she could keep going on.
Although it rent her heart to do so, the girl complied.
Through blood, pain, hatred and sheer stubborn refusal, the lonely girl spent the next three years seeking to undo the latest evil done against her, no matter the cost.
No cost, no sacrifice was too great to reach her final goal; she paid them all gladly of her own blood, body and soul, slowly withering herself away.
Now that lonely child has all that she needs to reclaim what she had lost and nothing shall stop her from reaching her goal.
No barrier shall slow her, no force shall impede her, no enemy shall quail her and no morality will slow her in her quest.
She straddles the thin line between life and death, and the line itself trembles beneath her in fear of what the girl shall do.
For even Death itself knows that something comes to face it that even the ultimate end cannot hope to stop.
Not until she claims what she is due.
- Final entry in the diary of Mei Schwarzwald.
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The Twenty-Third Move: Endgame Part 2
"What are you talking about?!" Rias Gremory barked in a mixture of anger and a creeping unease. Ever since the [Head of Pandemonium] had lit up, her entire body had begun to tense from the quickly mounting energy filling the air, the instinctive part of her mind recognizing a growing threat and preparing for a fight-or-flight response.
Right now 'flight' seemed to be the far more favoured outcome.
"All of us standing here now arrived via a transportation circle that had been concealed beneath my [Throne of Power], Rias Gremory." Mei offered serenely, completely unbothered by the energy. "The meaning of that should be blatantly obvious if one but takes a moment to think on it. This is not the first time I have ventured to the Old Capital, and since I am still technically the [Queen] of that louse Amadeus' Peerage, one can also infer that I would have been able to pierce the original barrier guarding this place. So tell me, given those facts, what do you think I've done with the Atonement Ritual System?"
"You…you wouldn't have activated it as it was, that would have only helped the people you despise so…so you must have…altered it?!" Ravel exclaimed in slowly mounting alarm. "How!? The seal surrounding the [Head of Pandemonium] is still intact!"
"An excellent question." Ajuka Beelzebub offered calmly as he and the rest of the Maō teleported in.
"So, you managed to mimic the signature of Amadeus's [Evil Piece] Set." the Stray Devil offered calmly, not even remotely surprised or worried. "I admit it didn't take you nearly as long as I expected Lord Beelzebub, but then again you are the man who created the [Evil Piece] System, I suppose."
"Aside from Azazel, who created Heaven's [Brave Saint] System, there is no one more familiar with the how the [Evil Piece] System functions than I am." the Maō Beelzebub returned with a slight shrug. "I must admit that your shield was a rather spectacular creation; had it been anyone else attempting it, I very much doubt they'd have a chance of succeeding."
"I am humbled by your praise." Mei responded with a slight nod.
"I think this has gone on long enough; Mei, just what have you done now?" Sizrechs demanded impatiently, the Crimson Lucifer taking a protective step in front of his little sister and her friends. He didn't know what the Queen of Strays was planning now, but he knew enough to not want his little sister at what could be ground zero of it.
"To answer the little firebrand's earlier question, despite what your researchers may have believed when going over the Redeemers' notes, the [Head of Pandemonium] is not the heart of the Atonement Ritual System, merely the most powerful component of it. It is a…I suppose calling it a projector would be a good term, or perhaps the mouthpiece would be a more accurate term. The [Head of Pandemonium] would allow the effects generated by the rest of the Atonement Ritual System to be spread across the entirety of the Underworld in a single moment. It is the parts around us that actual make the System itself function." Mei explained simply, waving a hand around to indicate the various esoteric objects and machinery filling the room. "They are what gather the power and create the effects, and of course select the targets the [Head] would broadcast to. The fools of the Old Maō Faction had previously changed the targets from [All Creatures of Shadow] as the Redeemers originally planned to [Reincarnated Devils]. Of course, to do so they had to input the wavelengths from all four [King] monuments within the realms governed by the Maō. Anyone who had used one of those monuments would be then become a target, and through them their Peerage."
The gasp that went through the Gremory Group was audible. Using that kind of method…not only the Reincarnated Devils but nearly every High Class Devil of the younger generation, and a large portion of several older generations, would become a target.
The entire population of the Underworld would likely be reduced to less than a tenth of its current numbers! Their species would almost certainly have gone extinct had the Old Maō succeeded.
"Of course, I wasn't about to leave it as they wanted. I spent months working on overhauling this sad, pathetic excuse of an Artificial Sacred Gear, using only the means and materials left behind when the last of the Redeemers sealed this place behind them, but I have succeeded in completely repurposing it into something far more grand!" the [Queen] announced proudly. "Now, only the orders that I have hard-coded into the System will come into effect once the seal comes undone, which should be happening any moment now."
"What do you…" Akeno frowned before her eyes widened in shock and quickly darted to the ghostly forms of Mei's 'sisters,' all of whom had their Sacred Gears still floating above their heads. "You managed to alter the seal, didn't you? Enough that it would begin to unlock when all the required Sacred Gear were invoked nearby!?"
"Hm. Unexpectedly, you managed to hit the nail on the head. Very good." Mei agreed, tilting her head slightly toward the [Priestess of Thunder and Lightning]. "Honestly, you should be thanking me. Had I not intervened, the seal would have been corroded away years ago by the malignant magic of the area. The only reason the Old Maō couldn't abuse it for their own twisted whims is because I reached it first."
"Mei, just what did you do? What have you done to the Atonement Ritual System and who is its target?" Serafall asked, any of her usual exuberance gone and her face dead serious.
"Hmm…I honestly don't feel like explaining that to you." the Stray Devil responded coolly. "Besides, the process has already started. There's no stopping this now, so the time for masks has long passed."
With that, she reached up and grabbed her mask with her free hand. With a single movement she ripped it from her face and tossed it negligently to once side. It shattered to pieces as it impacted the ground, the sound completely ignored as the entire group stared at her full face, either for the first time or for the first time in several years.
"Mei…what have you done?" Sizrechs breathed out in shock.
Mei Schwarzwald had once been a stunning beauty, even among Devil-kind, and indeed, even now she could still be called striking or even pretty if one looked at her from a certain angle. Where once her skin had smooth and silken, it was now carved by lines carved deeply by years of hatred and pain. Subtle wrinkles and faint scar-lines covered most of her face. A single black pupil blazed in her right eye, glowing with a ferocious mix of determination, weariness, and anticipation. As for her other eye…
The left eye, as well as some of the cheek, was concealed by a metal cover, with the implications clear: that eye was clearly no longer there. Still, none of the lines, scars and weariness present took away from the inhuman level of determination etched into her expression.
"Shocking to see, is it not, Sirzechs-sama?" Mei mused aloud, reaching up to touch her face. "Knowledge on the same level as Odin Allfather does not come without its price. Odin himself had to rip out his own eye and crucify himself before impaling himself through the heart on his own trusted Gungnir in order to earn the right to drink from the Well of Mímir. While my own price was not as…dramatic as the Allfather's, I was still forced to pay a steep cost in order to obtain the Well's wisdom. The Well of Mímir itself drank of my life-force, drawing away three-quarters of my lifespan, before I was even allowed to sacrifice my eye. Still, the knowledge and wisdom I gained in exchange…well, all I have wrought is evidence enough that the cost was well worth paying in the end."
"Nee-sama…" one of the ghost whispered sadly.
"So this is how it must end, Aneki? Must your last days be filled with even more blood, violence and pain?" Takanome Arisu asked sadly.
"You know my opinion on starting and finishing things, Arisu-chan." Mei softly admonished her. "Any endeavour, once undertaken, must be seen through to its conclusion, otherwise everything involved become moot and worthless. Besides…I don't have much time left either way. In just a handful more days, my body will have degraded to the point that not even my [Throne] will be able to keep me mobile. My entire body will simply give out on me and I'll be rendered an utter invalid, unable to even move under my own power. After everything I've obtained, all the strength I've earned and the magic I've obtained, and I'll be forced to spend the rest of my short life unable to even move on my own? No, I won't allow myself to suffer such an ignoble fate!"
"Mei, even if you have changed it, the Maō cannot allow the Atonement Ritual System to be activated, the risk is simply too great." Ajuka stated, stepping forward and falling into a casual battle stance, Serafall and Sizrechs moving to stand with him. "Especially, since the ones you're most likely to target with it would be the Pureblooded Devils."
Mei's face scrunched slightly in distaste. "Kindly don't lump me in with those self-righteous bastards in the Old Maō Faction, Ajuka-sama." she snipped back with a frown. "Besides, when did I ever suggest that you had any say in what was going to happen?"
The broken mask, ignored until now flashed before vanishing. In its place, a large barrier enclosed the Gremory Group, Sirzechs, Serafall and Ajuka, trapping them inside a bubble made of both [Barrier of Solomon: Devil] and [Barrier of Solomon: Angel].
"When did you implant this spell into your mask?" the Crimson Lucifer asked, eyes narrow as he took in the barriers surrounding them.
"As soon as I received the core of the Red Dragon Golem." the Stray Devil replied with a tired smile. "It is always wise to have one or two trump cards up your sleeve, isn't it? Now then, it's time to begin..."
Reaching up to the metal cover concealing her left eye, Mei carefully removed and cast it aside also, revealing a beautiful false eye seemingly carved from a single prismatic crystal and rimmed with gold. The beautiful artefact seemed to merge with the flesh surrounding her eye, looking as if it had been fused with her flesh and bone to replace her lost eye.
"Now, Artificial Sacred Gear [Eye of Odin], activate!" Mei commanded as she turned to face the [Head of Pandemonium].
Instantly responding to its mistress's command, the false eye seemed to ignite with a fierce, internal radiance, bathing the area in a brilliant rainbow glow. The light lasted only a second before it seemed to focus inward, concentrating back into the Eye itself before it fired a beam of prismatic light directly at the statue of a screaming woman, just as barrier surrounding it seemed to dissolve into nothingness.
The beam of light impacted the statue dead-centre in its chest, right over where the heart would be, and the effect was immediate and obvious. Multiple lines of crackling, multicoloured energy seemed to spread outward from the point of impact as the ancient Proto-Artificial Sacred Gear suddenly whirled to life after millennia of dormancy, the ancient mystic machinery used to forge it whining softly as it slowly came to life once more.
"Damnit! This was her plan all along!" Ajuka cursed violently, eyes sharpening as things became much more clear. "She created an Artificial Sacred Gear for the sole purpose of interfacing with and reawakening the [Head of Pandemonium]. The Old Maō Faction never had a chance of using it themselves."
Even if they'd somehow managed to overwhelm Mei, take her Sacred Gear and finish their plot, the Old Maō Faction would have been unable to finish their plan without Mei's [Eye of Odin]. Ajuka was willing to bet his status as a Maō that the occular Artificial Sacred Gear was directly linked to Mei's own life-force. If she died, it would likely shatter and disappear, leaving the [Head of Pandemonium] as nothing more than a worthless pile of aged scrap.
Even if she didn't win, Mei had made sure that, at the very least, her enemies would lose as well.
The Maō Beelzebub could honestly say he was impressed.
"Hyōdō, start charging your [Boosted Gear]." Mei ordered aloud as the machinery began to whirl even louder around them. "Charge it to the maximum extent that you can."
[Boost!]
Silently, the Sekiryūtei moved his left arm into a sloppy ready stance as his Sacred Gear called out [Boost!] every ten seconds. While he did that, Mei began to prepare and manipulate the Atonement Ritual System itself.
Within the barriers, Sirzechs raised his hand, ready to make an attempt to escape and disrupt whatever was happening, only for Ajuka to grab his arm and force it back down with a shake of his head.
"Ajuka?" the Crimson Lucifer asked, frowning at his long-time friend.
"We can't risk attacking or otherwise distracting her at this point." the Maō Beelzebub explained, letting out a frustrated breath. "If we try and interrupt while she is directly interfacing with the [Head of Pandemonium] and the Atonement Ritual System, we risk causing a catastrophic error within the system. The same kind of error that caused the destruction of Old Lilith in the first place, only on a far grander scale. At best it would simply destabilize the area around us and wipe all of us out of existence, at worse the entire Underworld could go the way of Old Lilith."
"So we just sit back and watch?" Sirzechs growled back. He was unused to being so…powerless in a situation. It was an altogether new feeling for the Crimson Lucifer.
One he didn't like, not at all!
"For now." Ajuka agreed unhappily, sharing his friend's frustrations. "All we can do is watch and wait and hope we get an opportunity to step in before she can finish whatever it is Mei is planning."
The Maō's mounting annoyance was even more pronounced among the younger generation, who were once agreed reduced to mere spectators as Mei went about her plans.
The whining of the machinery around them continued to rise in pitch and tenor, even as energy started to gather in the [Head of Pandemonium].
"All specifications entered...all limiters disengaged." the Queen of Blood and Betrayal (false as that title had been proven to be) muttered. "Releasing safety interlocks one through three."
Three magic circles flickered into existence around the statue before shattering to pieces. The arms of the [Head of Pandemonium] opened up from being crossed over its chest to being spread out at its sides in an open gesture, as if it was welcoming something.
"All safeties disengaged. Atonement Ritual System ready to be activated. Locking in final countdown." Mei stated. "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six..."
"Who are you going to kill with that?!" Serafall demanded.
"If all goes well, myself and myself alone." the Stray Devil offered offhandedly. "...three, two, one...zero. Activate."
A column of light appeared around the statue before shooting up through a hole in the ceiling, which turned transparent, revealing the roiling clouds of burning and shifting magical energies that hovered just outside of the barrier in Old Lilith. However, just as the light touched the barrier, the eternally churning ocean of toxic magical residue seemed to freeze for just a moment, as if frozen in time. That moment of stillness then shattered as the enormous mass of pure arcane energy began to rapidly spiral inward, like water going down a drain, all flowing towards a single point.
Directly above the [Head of Pandemonium].
"She's using it to draw in the toxic magic that was covering the Old Capital!?" Ajuka exclaimed in shock, blinking as he watched the sight. "But…how…of course! Mei called the [Head] a projector, a device meant to spread the energies created by the Atonement Ritual System across the Underworld. She must have somehow reversed its systems, turning it into a massive magical suction device to draw in the rampant magic covering the Old Lilith."
"But why?" Sirzechs asked nervously, glancing between his friend and the display in front of their eyes.
"Even as tainted as they are by the original activation of the Atonement Ritual System, the storm that surrounds the Old Capital is still an immense amount of incredibly potent magical energy. More than any being outside an Elder God could produce on their own." the Beelzebub stated clinically, his eyes still locked onto the statue. "She must be drawing it in for something, some way to harness it. And if she is somehow able to harness even a fraction of the energies surrounding Old Lilith, she will shoot past Ultimate Class level and be fast approaching reaching Satan-level."
"All systems are working perfectly; testing is now complete...cranking up to full power!" Mei declared, the beam of light from her Sacred Gear eye growing stronger. "Absorb all of the toxic magic in the Underworld, [Head of Pandemonium]!"
With that, the column of light unleashed a wave from its pinnacle, one that shot in all directions and quickly passed beyond the city limits of Old Lilith. Where it passed, the toxic magical energy that had permeated the oldest parts of of the Underworld for centuries were all drawn inwards towards the beckoning light of the Atonement Ritual System.
All Devils and Fallen present in the Underworld looked up sharply as the light passed over them, gawping in shock as even the smallest patches of toxic magic were excised and drawn towards the Wastelands, where no Devil had set foot since shortly after the end of the Devil Civil War.
"So much raw power...!" Serafall breathed, eyes wide at the sheer amount of energy being drawn in by the [Head of Pandemonium]. "If this keeps up, the very laws of reality will start to bend and fracture from having all of it concentrated in a single point."
Above the building, the writhing chaos that once enclosed Old Lilith was gone, instead replaced with a massive twister of pure magical power that was slowly being drawn more and more into the [Head of Pandemonium]. The sheer pressure of so much raw energy being drawn into a single place was bearing down on the weaker members of the gathered group like a physical weight.
"Hyōdō, it's time. Place your left hand on me and give me the power you've stockpiled." the Stray Devil ordered brusquely. "Once you've done that, begin [Boost]ing to your limit once more."
Rias almost bit her lip in fury as she was forced to watch her Ise being used as if he was just some tool.
As the gauntlet touched Mei's armoured shoulder, Issei said tonelessly, "Boosted Gear Gift!"
[Transfer!]
[Reset!]
Mei almost staggered at the amount of raw power that flooded into her at that point. [Boosted Gear] truly deserved its place as one of the Ten Longinus. With just a single use, she'd gone from being on her last legs to feeling like she could tear through the entirety of the Old Maō Faction with her bare hands!
Now she had all the power she needed to cast one last spell.
A spell she'd designed for just this moment.
A spell she'd been working on since the world once again robbed her of her happiness and she'd vowed she would reclaim it no matter the cost.
Slowly, Mei began to chant. Her free hand rose and began to slowly weave a new magical circle into existence from scratch, the design seemingly shifting and changing with every passing moment as more and more layers were added into it.
"What manner of spell is she...?" Ajuka squinted at forming circle before his eyes widened in realization. "She can't be!?"
"What?" Serafall asked with a frown. She, and Sirzechs for that matter, were decent spell-crafters themselves (you had to be when one reached their level since no one else could create spells to utilize their level of power), but this was on a level that only Ajuka would be able to understand.
"She's planning on absorbing and integrating all of that toxic magic into herself!" the Maō Beelzebub growled out in disgust. "It is utter suicide! Even a small amount is capable of ripping a weaker Devil apart from within if its absorbed! It's why even we couldn't approach the Old Capital normally! To try and absorb all of it at once…it's insane! It's like trying to chug down a vat of nuclear waste or get a blood transfusion of pure acid!"
"Eavesdroppers and backseat spell-crafters, kindly keep your noses out of my business." Mei shouted as the building started to groan from the pressure of the gathered magic. "I will live out my life as and when I please!"
Suddenly a voice spoke up, soft and unemotional, from the statue. "Warning, magical draw approaching safety limitations. Access code required to continue."
"My candle burns at both ends; It will not last the night; But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends — It gives a lovely light." the Stray Devil recited immediately.
"Access code accepted. Continuing with magic draw."
Even as she dealt with the [Head of Pandemonium], Mei's hand kept moving until finally, the Magic Circle locked in place, all of its components completed.
"Now, execute! Atonement Ritual System: TRANSCENDENCE!" the Stray Devil ordered, making her creation appear horizontally above the head of the statue. Once it was in place, it started to rotate, drawing a small trickle of toxic magic down from the vortex above and through the centre of the magic circle and then flowing directly into [Head of Pandemonium]'s open mouth.
In the next second, a vast amount of pure power started funnelling its way down the pillar of light, forcing several members of Rias' Peerage, Asia and Gaspar among them, to fall to their knees at the sheer pressure of overwhelming might coming near them. Sirzechs absently snapped a finger and raised another barrier inside the one they were trapped in that took the edge off of the feeling of power.
"Is...is she insane?" Rias gulped. She wasn't affected as badly as Asia and Gaspar, but the feeling of being physically drowned in raw magical power was still an unpleasant one. "There's no way she can survive absorbing that much magical energy at once, toxic or not. No one can!"
"Aneki is simply beyond caring at this point." Takanome Arisu's spirit offered sadly. "She simply wishes for her goal to be completed so she can rest at last. For our sake more than hers."
"She has always tried to shelter us from the pain she suffers from." the spirit of Kurozuka Maya added before anyone could ask for clarification. "In spite of that, Mei-nee-sama has never forgiven herself for falling for Amadeus's plot, and this plan full of pain for her is something like punishment she has given herself. To her mind, this is a fate she has earned for herself, and nothing we or anyone else can say will change her mind."
"Sisters, we are distracting Mei-nee-sama with our presence." Shinobu put in gently. "We should return to our Sacred Gears and recover our strength for the final act. Materializing for so long is taxing on us, after all."
Nodding to one another in agreement, the ghosts of Mei's Peerage turned into balls of light and sped back inside their respective Sacred Gears. Meanwhile, Mei was struggling to keep things under control.
"Hyōdō, again!" she ordered, and got another gift of power from the Sekiryūtei. As a reaction to this, her arms started to bleed, blood seeping through the cracks in the armour before the Balance Breaker she wore managed to heal them.
"C'mon, stupid body...we've almost reached the end. Just hold on a little longer...!" the Stray Devil muttered in an undertone, strain in her voice.
Then it was done. All of the toxic magic that had previously filled Old Lilith and the surrounding lands was contained within the [Head of Pandemonium], although it looked as if that was only a temporary state of affairs, as the ancient statue was literally cracking at the seams, thin strands and sparks of multi-coloured and warped purple magical energy seemingly leaking from every small seam and crack in its surface
"Warning, internal storage compromised. Estimated thirty seconds to catastrophic breech." the statue warned.
"[Head of Pandemonium]! Activate Final Protocol. Atonement Ritual System: TRANSFERENCE!" Mei ordered, throwing her arms wide in imitation of the statue itself.
"Commencing transfer." the statue replied. Then its head, shifted to face the Stray Devil, a magic circle appeared in front of its face, and a blast of multicoloured light erupted from its mouth, reaching over to strike Mei full on.
The shriek of agony that was ripped from her mouth was only slightly weaker than the one she'd released when Amadeus had ripped his way out of her very soul. Purple energy seemed to crackle over every inch of her skin as the toxic magic tried to boil her alive from the inside. And yet, through nothing more than sheer stubbornness and unadulterated determination, she managed to not only remain conscious, but remain standing as she continued to absorb more and more of the foul energy.
Cracks quickly began to form across the armour of the [Set of the Ruling Monarch], the magical pressure emanating from the Devil contained reaching a level far beyond what it was designed to contain and control. Minutes dragged on as Mei forced herself to absorb more magic than her body could ever hope to hold, even as her will was forced to constantly battle and force the surging force of pure toxic magic from ripping her apart from the inside.
Not even Ajuka knew what would become of her if she actually managed to absorb it all.
"Warning! Warning! Life force of subject has become increasingly unstable." the Demi-Sacred Gear she wore chimed out. "Remaining lifespan: two days, four hours, five minutes and counting!"
Knowing that Mei had only a limited time left was one thing, but hearing it laid out so starkly was more jarring than Rias expected. She frowned at the Stray Devil [Queen] as the flow of magic slowed and then cut off entirely.
Mei turned around, looking dully at them for a moment before vomiting a fountain of blood from her mouth, a good litre or so, at the very least, splattering against the cold stone of the building. A second, if less large, spurt came up shortly afterwards, with Mei breathing hoarsely, a rattle in her lungs, even as they were forcibly repaired by her Balance Breaker.
"Mei...!" Sirzechs ground his teeth. "Stop this...!"
Swaying where she stood, kept upright only by her staff, the Stray Devil simply smirked at him with blood-covered lips before frowning in concentration, healing energy gathering at her throat.
"I have come too far to stop now, Sirzechs." she offered hoarsely once her throat was repaired enough that she could speak again. "Now comes the most tricky and critical stage...retrieving the final puzzle piece I need."
With that cryptic statement, she threw her staff into the air and surrounded it in magic circles, all bearing the seal of the Queen. With a set of almost silent clicks, the staff folded into what looked like a Rubik's cube, except this one was the same size as a medicine ball.
With twists of her wrists and flicks of her fingers, Mei started to solve the puzzle at a rapid rate, the magic circles following her commands and rotating parts of the cube in sync with her commands. Interestingly enough, with every rotation, the cube became larger and larger.
"What is she doing?" Serafall blinked in surprise. "Is there some secret to [Fatal Attraction] that we don't know about?"
"Could it be?!" Ajuka muttered, eyes wide. "Mei, don't! If you unlock that seal, all you'll do is doom yourself!"
"Ajuka? Care to share with the class?" Sirzechs invited dryly.
"[Fatal Attraction] is one of the oldest Sacred Gears in existence, and there are even rumours that it was the First True Sacred Gear. Part of that rumour is that the Biblical God did not discover the process of creating them on his own, that his first creations were done in concert with other deities of the ancient pantheons." the Maō Beelzebub replied quickly, sweat beading at his head. "The rumour goes that he worked with the Primordial Goddess Gaia in order to create [Fatal Attraction], one of the oldest creator goddesses that was said to have helped form the world itself. And the only the only thing that Gaia would possess that could aid Mei in her goals now is…a [Spark of Divinity]."
The way both her brother and Serafall seemed to freeze in shock and alarm at the very idea made Rias ask the question she knew the rest of her Peerage (plus Ravel and Irina) were wondering. "What's a [Spark of Divinity], Onii-sama?"
"It's…I suppose you could call it the Grecian equivalent to the Evil Piece Set, only far more powerful." the Crimson Lucifer offered with a frown. "They were created by the Grecian Primordials, Titans and Gods and could, if the legends are true, uplift a mortal into a God. No one has so much as seen one for millennia and Zeus and his Pantheon control all the information about how they were created with an iron fist. But that's not the biggest issue."
"The issue is that, unlike Evil Pieces, utilising a [Spark of Divinity] isn't a safe or instantaneous process. Godhood isn't something any creature can handle easily; the process is supposedly lethal for all but a rare few." Ajuka explained. "And even then, everything we do know confirms that it requires another God in order to guide the process. No amount of determination or stubbornness would be able to offset that."
"But what about the knowledge she gained from the Well of Mímir?" Kiba pointed out, making the Maō falter at that reminder.
"Ah...well, that's...I suppose…maybe it could…but that would be…I never even thought of that..." Ajuka mentally fumbled, having not even considered combining the two rarest and most powerful relics from two separate pantheons. "I suppose that technically it might suffice..." he offered weakly, before swallowing, "...but it would still be an astronomical risk."
"You do know that I can still hear you, correct?" Mei offered casually as she continued to focus on the ever-expanding puzzle-box that had once been her Sacred Gear, which had now reached the size of a minivan. "And I'd advise you not to underestimate me, Lord Beelzebub. Even this copy of Pandora's Box, hidden by Gaea within her and and the God of the Bible's first and only shared creation to safe-keep her greatest treasure, is nothing before my intellect!"
With that declaration the puzzle was finally solved, lines of silver light criss-crossing over the massive collection of hundreds of cubes before they slowly slid apart, revealing a stark white expanse of pure nothingness within, with only a single drop of gold floating at its centre.
Just the sight of that single fleck of light made the entirety of the Gremory Group tremble for some unknowable reason. Even the Satans felt the slightest shiver run down their spines as they laid eyes on the ancient relic.
"At last…the final key is within my grasp." the Stray Devil said in relief. "The final [Divine Spark] created by Gaea of the Primordials, the only one left free from the control of the Olympians! By my right as the Master of [Fatal Attraction] and she who solved Gaea's final puzzle, I claim my prize!"
The drop of gold seemed to respond to Mei declaration, shining even bright before it began to lazily float toward Mei, ululating and seeming to bend over and into itself as it flowed through the air. Just watching it was making Koneko's enhanced senses go a bit haywire, forcing the young Nekoshō to look away from the blob every moment or so, only for her eyes to invariably be drawn back.
However, after crossing a bit more than half the way towards Mei, the [Divine Spark] seemed to slow its movement to almost nothing.
Mei eyed the stationary object for a brief moment before huffing in annoyance, but she was otherwise unfazed. "As I expected, I doubted Gaea would give up her last treasure so easy. Time to prove my worth once more, I suppose."
Raising both hands, Mei surrounded the drop of gold in magic circles and started pulling it towards her. At first it responded almost readily to the magical guidance, but soon enough it began to visibly resist the attempts to pull it ever closer.
"Trying to fight me now? Not happening, I've already won far too many battles to let a half-born spark beat me." the Stray Devil growled out, even more magic circles appearing around the [Spark] forcing it forward over the remaining distance in a single powerful thrust. Mei easily caught the small speck of golden divinity, her body lighting up with a bright purple glow as she used her own magic to keep it in place as she dismissed the circles.
"Now, I complete my journey and cast away this dying shell so that I may reach for my final goal." Mei stated grimly as her aura intensified. Her bright purple magical aura, heavily laced with the power of gravity inherited from mastering her Sacred Gear, seemed to explode outward even as it darkened by several shades. Thin tendrils of purple magic wrapped around the [Divine Spark] bringing it upward toward Mei's mouth.
"Is…Is she actually going to EAT that!?" Ravel exclaimed in shock.
"The [Divine Spark] is also called the [Golden Fruit of Immortality] in some legends." Sirzechs stated with a wince. "This is where things can go really badly, especially since Mei doesn't have an actual guide. One wrong move and the Spark will turn against her, and rip her apart body and soul, her very essence shredded and scattered across all of time and space, never to be reborn again."
"Not to mention likely wiping all of Old Lilith off the face of the Underworld in the resulting blast, with all of us still inside it." Ajuka muttered darkly, too low for the younger members to hear. His hands were already twitching as he readied himself to cast the most powerful barrier he could around them, Serafall and Sirzechs doing the same.
He honestly doubted it would be enough.
"If you would rise above the Reasoning of the Earth (Humanity), and you would deny the Reasoning of the Heavens (God), then the only path left for you is the Reasoning of the Underworld (Demon)!" Mei whispered to herself, before biting down on the [Divine Spark] and swallowing it in a single gulp.
For a moment, nothing happened, but then Mei hunched over with a scream as bulges appeared running up and down her spine.
Ripripripriprip!
Holes were punched through the back of her clothes and armour, the damage being too great for even her throne's Balance Breaker to withstand. It shattered into thousands of flecks of gold and white, each vanishing into the surrounding air, as eight massive purple and black bat-like erupted from Mei's back and spread out behind her.
"Four pairs of wings...!" Irina said in a trembling voice.
Purple energy swept over Mei's body, replacing the ragged, blood-soaked and torn robes with a skintight suit of pure black, with a single symbol in red, emblazoned across her chest; the symbol of the [Queen] chess piece.
Finally pooling across her face, the energy rippled and flowed, each pass restoring years of damage and stress and restoring her beauty to its pinnacle. Countless old blemishes and scars, every wrinkle and age line. seemed to vanish with each pass and pulse of violent energy swept across her skin. The [Eye of Odin] resting in her left eye socket shattered in an instant, dissolving into specks of multicoloured light as her original eye was restored and replaced it. The dying shell of her mortal body was being utterly and completely rejuvenated as divine power merged with her very essence
"So...this is the power of a Demon Goddess...?" Mei mused, her voice roiling with power as she flexed her hands experimentally, before swiping one at the [Head of Pandemonium] behind her. In a burst of purple light, the focal point of the Atonement Ritual System was utterly destroyed. Another pair of swipes disintegrated the rows of support machinery that it had used. Such a display of pure power rendered the Gremory Group speechless.
"Hmm...such power...and yet, this is only the larval state of apotheosis..." the former Stray Devil mused aloud, her voice practically crackling with pure power. "I have yet to approach the true apex of my godhood. Well, such a thing isn't important. What is important is that I now have all I need to free my sisters from their prisons, and restore them to their bodies and life once more!"
With a gesture, the scattered floating Sacred Gears inside the field of barriers vanished and reappeared, floating around Mei like satellites.
"The barriers imprisoning you shall fall in the next twenty minutes or thereabout." she informed her prisoners. "Hyōdō Issei shall accompany me to ensure that I am left undisturbed in my tower by your forces. When he is returned to you, come and arrest me if you please. I likely will not be in any state to resist you in any case."
In another flash, the Demon Goddess Mei vanished alongside her Sacred Gears and Issei.
"What did she mean? By her not being in any state to resist?" Koneko asked, looking at the gathered Mao who were merely staring after Mei in shock.
"Ordinarily, a newly arisen god or goddess will spend their divine power at this stage laying the foundations of their new status, which could take decades to do." Serafall replied quietly. "Instead, Mei clearly intends to use her power to instead revive her sisters. By not doing so, she will simply squander it all and fall back into mortality, in the exact same state she was in before she started her ascension. And given everything she's just done to reach that state, she'll likely have only hours, perhaps even just minutes, of life left in her when that happens."
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Next Chapter: The Twenty-Fourth Move: Endgame Part 3
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