Dance With the Devil
Betrayal Chapter 11
Disclaimer: I own none of the series involved, for if I did there would be a lot more sex.
Sighing as she looked out at the night sky, Valerie Tepes, who was wearing her typical clothes, could only shake her head. "It's times like this I wish I could see myself in a mirror." Tonight was the night that she was going to marry Demitri. She didn't have any feelings for him in the slightest, but if marrying him kept him from destroying her family and the few friends she had, she supposed it was worth it.
"Why did you agree?" A male voice spoke up and she turned to see a Vampire a bit older than her. "Surely you would..."
"Brother..." Valerie shook her head. "Considering that you despise me, why would you care about what happens to me?"
"I don't despise you, I just..." He trailed off as she glared at him. "We are family, surely you..."
"Regardless of the fact that we have the same father, I am an impure Vampire," Valerie interrupted him. "If not for the power that I happened to be born with, I would have been cast out the same as any impure Vampire." Turning away, she walked away from him. "And I do not care for most of the Vampires, but I do not wish to see us wiped out because of Lord Maximoff. If marrying him keeps him from eradicating all of you, then it's a small sacrifice, do you not agree?" She looked back at him and gave him a small smirk. "Or would you rather die?"
"Valerie, please, you know that I..." He gripped his throat as he felt invisible hands grabbing it and squeezing.
"You wish for me to betray our lord? You wish for me to go back to the way things were before I became the ruler of the Vampires?" She turned and walked towards him, a soft glow around her body. "Perhaps you would care to bring your concerns up to Lord Demitri yourself? Or perhaps you wish to manipulate me like you did in the past?" She narrowed her eyes at him as she got close to him. "Remember, I care nothing for you, I just do not wish to see the Vampires end."
Grimacing, he forced a small smile out. "You've changed, so much, sister."
Scoffing, she turned and left, allowing him to fall to the floor. "I have no time for you, I must prepare for later tonight."
Coughing, Marius Tepes could only watch as his half-sister left the room. "That bitch! I did everything for her! Helping her get stronger! And all she does is turn around and demote me after becoming the leader of the Vampires?! And she has the gall to treat me like this?!" He would regain his position, he knew it, and his little bitch of a half-sister would know her place...
Under his heel.
(-)
Meanwhile...
"I'm surprised that no one's seen us yet." Ranma commented to Jedah, who merely smirked at him.
"Amazing what you can do when you can just make your flying fortress look like a large cloud. Anyway," he chuckled as he flew upwards and Ranma followed after him, the two stopping as the throne room floor opened up and revealed a massive amount of large mechanical creatures.
"The fuck?!" Bulleta screamed as she and the others, who had been sitting on some hovering chairs, gaped at what she saw, "those are Phobos! Several of them!"
Jedah smirked as the Phobos, all of which looked like Dogu figurines with relatively thin bodies and large shoulders and faces with nearly closed eyes, all started to light up. "Don't worry, they won't do anything too bad, I just need them to cause a bit of..." He trailed off and saw Rizevim walk into the room on the upper levels. "Carnage."
A beeping sound caught his attention and he chuckled. "Well then, it's time." A flash of energy caught most people's attention as his left hand was covered by an orange gauntlet.
"What is that?" The masked Hunter asked as she looked at what was on his hand curiously.
"A replica of Boosted Gear, nothing more." Jedah chuckled as the green gem started to glow. "And thanks to Leonardo and Akane, it finally has enough Dragon souls in it to do this."
"Boost." A purely mechanical voice came out of it.
"Now then, it looks like your friends are here, Saotome." Jedah continued to grin as he snapped his gauntlet-covered fingers. "It's too early for them to interfere, however, so let's... Liven things up."
(-)
Issei groaned as he looked around. "Where the hell am I?" He and the others had just arrived at the edges of the Vampire territory when a sudden blinding light covered them and they all vanished. The area he was in looked like some sort of swamp, complete with rotting trees, mold-covered logs, broken trees sticking out of the water and ankle-deep water and mud around his feet. "Ewww, who knows what's in here?"
Hearing a frog croaking in the distance, he turned and gaped. "Since when do frogs have three heads? And are the size of big dogs and breathing fire?!"
"Partner, you may want to do something about that." Ddrag commented as Issei's arm was covered with his Sacred Gear. "BOOST!"
"Heh, don't need to tell me twice." Issei grinned as he felt his strength double at that moment. Charging up an energy attack, he punched forward, sending a bolt of energy at it, he nearly cheered as the frog exploded from that. "Ha, nothing for..." He trailed off as more and more large frogs started to ribbit and raise themselves out of the muck. "Um, Ddrag..."
"Stop talking and start shooting!" Ddrag yelled as Issei complied and blasting the frogs. There were a lot of them, and they were big, and they could breathe fire. 'What's up with random fire breathing things?!' Issei mentally yelled as he extended Ascalon from his left hand and cut the frogs into pieces. "Just what are these things?"
"I don't know, I've never seen them before, but at least they aren't that tough." Ddrag replied, getting a nod from Issei.
After a few minutes of slicing, blasting and killing the frogs, Issei stood there, panting all alone. "Is that all of them."
"Look out." A familiar voice spoke up and Issei turned only to see a large frog nearly on top of him before it exploded messily. "Seriously, Issei? Frogs? Better than the imps I was dealing with."
"Xenovia!" Issei smiled as he saw the blue-haired girl in her skin-tight black body suit. "If you're here, then the others..." He trailed off as she shook her head. "I mean..."
"I have no clue where any of them are at. For all we know they could be near an active volcano or something." Xenovia didn't like that thought and hoped no one was near one.
(-)
Gasper looked down below at the glowing molten rock and then looked up at the monster made of said molten rock that was staring at him. "Why does it have to be a volcano monster?!" He cried out in despair.
The creature had no answer as it punched at him, only to find that Gasper wasn't there anymore.
"No fair!" Gasper pouted from behind a rock. "How do you fight a giant lava monster anyway?"
"BGLARGH!"
"Exactly!" Gasper yelled at the creature, agreeing with it before activating his Sacred Gear and getting away from it.
(-)
Meanwhile...
"What did you do to them?" Ranma asked Jedah, noticing that several people that were on the deck had disappeared as well.
"Random teleportation to various locations in Makai." Jedah said as he shrugged at Ranma's surprised look. "But I do like games, so if they can overcome what's in front of them somehow..."
"You sent the half Vampire to fight a lava monster?" Ranma deadpanned, getting a shrug from Jedah.
"I never said I was fair." He laughed and leaned back in his chair to watch the events unfold.
"So, what do you want me to do then?" Ranma asked as Jedah turned to look at him.
"I need you to go down and collect the target." Jedah gave him a grin.
"Fine." Ranma answered as he caught sight of what happened to Gasper on the screen. "The one you showed me before, right?" Jedah nodded, grinning and Ranma turned to leave, CC following after him.
"Now then..." Jedah turned back to look at what happened to the others. He frowned in confusion as he looked at where Gasper was.
Or rather, wasn't.
"What the fuck?! Where did he go?!"
(-)
A few moments earlier...
"Dang it!" Gasper yelled as he avoided a flaming boulder heading his way. Using his Sacred Gear, he quickly ducked behind a rock and out of sight of the scary lava monster. 'What kind of thing is this?! I've never heard of one in Hell!' Maybe it was out in some wild areas? If he survived this, he would have to ask Rias if there were any lava monsters like this.
Before he could even think about anything else, a glowing circle appeared in front of him. 'Head to the light or fight the giant lava monster, not much choice!' He thought as he lunged into the glowing circle and disappeared.
(-)
Elsewhere...
Akeno looked around the area she had been transported to and frowned in confusion. "I'm pretty sure this isn't Romania... The grass is too dead."
"Of course it's not." A female voice said from above. Looking up, she gawked at the green-haired female in the air. "You're in Makai," the woman smirked, "and, unfortunately for you, I, Morrigan Aensland, am your opponent."
"...You wouldn't happen to be related to Lilith, would you?"
Morrigan narrowed her eyes at Akeno, who spread her Devil wings and rose into the air to meet her. "You know the other half of my soul, huh?
Akeno gave her a flat look. "How does half a soul survive?"
Morrigan shrugged. "I don't know, you could ask my father if he were alive, after all, I survived as one fourth of a soul for ages until he gave it back to me."
Akeno sweat-dropped heavily. If her wings could sweat, she was sure they'd be doing the same thing as her. "Are you kidding me?"
"No, I'm not." Morrigan punched forward, a glowing bat of Youkai energy rushed out and blasted Akeno before she could react, sending her down to the ground. "Is that all? That was just a love tap." She did find it amusing that Akeno landed on her chest and bounced onto her back. 'Her tits are bigger than mine, this'll be fun to put her in her place.'
"I'll show you love tap." Akeno grumbled as she got up and shook her head. "I must thank you though, it's not often I get to cut loose against a strong opponent." One of her wings disappeared and became a Fallen Angel wing in its place. Lightning started to dance around her hands, creating light around her body and casting parts of her body in shadow in the process. "Now I'll show you that you shouldn't take me lightly."
Morrigan grinned at her. "This might be fun." A powerful aura surrounded her as she held her hands upwards and flexed her fingers. "Do try to keep me entertained, I'd rather not die of boredom."
Akeno let out a scream as she launched the lightning at Morrigan, who countered with a flurry of Youki blasts, which exploded on contact, kicking up dust and dirt in the air and obscuring the vision of both combatants for a few moments.
Morrigan just grinned as the smoke from the explosion cleared and revealed a determined looking Akeno. "Well, let's see how long your determination lasts, girl."
(-)
Meanwhile...
"Lord Vali, why didn't we use Lord Odin's teleportation array?" La Fey looked at Vali as the two flew into the Vampire's territory. "It would have been faster than mine."
"Because of what happened, you sensed it didn't you?" He looked at her. "Kind of sucks for them, but whatever."
The two landed near some trees that overlooked the Vampire's castle. "So now what, Lord Vali?" La Fey could see something was going on inside the castle, but what it was, she didn't know.
"I'm going to wait for a bit." Vali slowly grinned, hopefully his grandfather would show up. "And if he does..." He whispered to himself. And even if his grandfather didn't, he still had a score to settle with a few people that were supposed to show up.
"Too bad that Bikou's ancestor wanted to talk with him, huh?" La Fey said, getting a nod from Vali. Vali would have loved to face Indra's vanguard in a fight, but not when he was in a no-nonsense mood.
(-)
Looking around, Atsuko wondered where she was. All she could see was large rocks all around her while the sky itself was really dark. "Sheesh, even with my vision I can barely see anything." At least there wasn't a lot of tall grass around her, with her luck there would be a bunch of small monsters in the grass ready to jump out and attack her for no reason.
Of course, it could be worse, there could be mechanical spider-like bots with powerful lasers that could snipe her from a distance running around. "And me with no shield to reflect them either."
A crack of lightning lit up the sky and Atsuko could see a large body on top of the rock formation. "GRRRRR!" The person growled before jumping high into the air and landing right in front of Atsuko, causing a tremor, cracking the ground and causing her to fall on her ass.
"Oh, it's Victor!" Atsuko rolled backwards and got back to her feet as she took a stance in front of him. "Here for a rematch, huh?"
He didn't answer and when the lightning in the air flashed again, Atsuko could see his eyes were white and blank even though he was growling and glaring at her.
"Not much for conversation, huh?" Atsuko yelped at he rushed forward, faster than he did the last time they fought, and tried to cave her face in. Ducking under the punch, she grabbed his outstretched arm and, using his momentum against him, flipped him onto his back, cratering the ground. Before she could let go, a powerful surge of electricity rushed through her, lighting her body and causing her to scream out as she spasmed and twitched, rolling away in pain. "I hate... Hate... HATE this weakness!" Her muscles were all cramped up, her bones wouldn't move and it felt like her hair was sticking out in all directions.
Seeing a shadow above her, Atsuko could only grimace as Victor lowered his foot to stomp on her. "This is going to hurt, isn't it?" For some reason, this felt really familiar to her.
As Victor slammed his foot down over and over again, Atsuko could only cry out in pain as the ground around her cracked and broke in all directions.
"No...NOT THIS TIME! BALANCE BREAK!"
Victor's eyes widened as a surge of power launched him off of Atsuko. Shaking his head and standing back up, he could only stare as Atsuko was wearing a skimpy outfit that hid almost nothing, a mechanical tail coming out of her backside just above her butt and two mechanical ears on her head while her eyes were slitted like a cat's and an aura of energy surrounded her.
Standing up straight, Atsuko glared at the confused creature. "This time, Victor, I'll win cleanly."
Victor merely growled and rushed forward as Atsuko did at the same time. The two punched at each other at the same time, with Victor's fist covered in electrical energy as it clashed with Atsuko's flaming aura-covered fist. The two energies clashed against each other before exploding backwards and causing the ground to become uneven as large rocks that were buried under ground were pulled to the surface while the two fighters were launched away from each other.
"SMASH!" Victor roared out.
Atsuko was looking at her fist that had clashed with Victor and grinned as she squeezed it. "Well, that's good to know. Seems that this aura protects me from electrical powers." She really hoped that information on her weakness didn't get out, it would suck if she had to use the NK-SG-D on even random mooks just so they couldn't blast her with a taser and short her out for a bit.
(-)
Meanwhile...
Jedah chuckled as he watched Atsuko and Victor trade Earth-shattering blows. "Too bad for Victor, he was rather simple-minded."
"What did you do to him?" Rivezim asked, chuckling as he watched Victor get punched through a large slab of rock before he grabbed it and slammed it into Atsuko.
"Nothing much, I assure you." Jedah shook his head. "I merely told him that if he destroys that girl then I shall help him revive his family, pretty simple, huh?" Of course, making it so that the poor fool could feel nothing but rage and destruction was just a small price to pay for such a useful tool.
It was simply amazing how much his Sacred Gear could destroy people's minds when its influence was forced upon them for too long.
(-)
Atsuko shook her head as she shook off the effects of that last giant rock to the head. "I know that I've got a hard skull, but that still hurts!" Looking at Victor, who was pushing himself onto his feet again, she took a deep breath to try and calm down, or stop the spinning, she wasn't sure which. Atsuko held her hand in front of her as her aura pooled to a point in front of her. "Take this! Nuku Nuku SHOT!" Snapping her arm back, she found herself sliding backwards as the ball of energy rocketed forward at Victor, only to increase in size as it continued to travel onward.
The large blue-skinned creature's eyes widened as the energy ball crashed in on him. "NnnGAAAAAH!" He screamed as he was lifted off his feet and sent flying back several feet before the energy exploded and sent him crashing onto the ground hard where he slid, digging up a trench until he crashed into a large rock that had been pulled up in their fight. "That...Can't..." He groaned, trying to move but finding that his body would not respond to him in the slightest.
All was silent for several minutes, not even thunder could be heard, even though lightning was arcing overhead and lighting the area up.
"Hey..." Victor opened his eyes to see Atsuko, who was still in that skimpy outfit and had one hand on her head and some blood running from the top of her scalp. "I win."
"You did." Victor grinned at her, his eyes returning to normal. "Victor apologizes, only wanted to help family. They... Don't move anymore."
"So you worked for Jedah because he could help you?"
"He said that he found something that could bring the dead back to life. Victor just had to be useful to him."
Atsuko looked at him sadly. "I'm sorry. I kind of know where you come from though. My brother found me when I was a kitten and then after I got shot by mama's underlings, he and papa saved my life by putting my brain into an android's body."
"Interesting, Victor had no idea that father's research could be used like that." The large man chuckled before coughing. "Please, Victor only wishes to save his family."
"...I don't know." Atsuko shook her head. "The dead should stay dead, don't you think?"
"Victor was once dead, so were you, is it wrong to wish to live? Or to wish those you love to live?" He looked at her curiously.
"...I don't know. In many ways it's selfish, wanting to bring back the dead. But I guess that's what makes us similar to humans, huh?" She smiled at him gently. "But I can't grant your wish. I don't think Jedah can either."
"Even if it's not possible, Victor just wants to see them again." He closed his eyes. "Sometimes Victor can see their ghosts, but they never stick around long."
"Who were they?"
Victor smiled at her. "Father was Professor Gerdenheim, he didn't move after Victor woke up and Emily stopped moving a long time ago."
"Gerdenheim?" Atsuko's eyes widened. "He was blacklisted from the scientific community for inhumane experiments that involved trying to bring the dead back to life." She frowned as she thought about something. "Wait, he created an artificial doll that could move, but there was a lot wrong with it. Papa-san told me that Eimi and I were based on his research."
"Then... You are Victor's sister?" Victor looked at her curiously.
She smiled at him gently. "Yeah, I guess... You know, I can't save Professor Gerdenheim, but I bet we can save Emily."
"Huh?" His eyes widened. "What do you mean?"
Atsuko winked at him. "Trust me, Victor, when it comes to things like this, my family's full of geniuses. If Emily is like I was, then we can fix her up no problem!"
Victor smiled and closed his eyes. "Thank you. Victor tired now."
A glowing circle appeared not far from Atsuko. Standing up, she picked Victor up and threw him over her shoulders. "I can't leave you here. Come on then, let's go."
Victor didn't answer, he simply smiled in contentment.
(-)
Meanwhile...
"So, where..." Issei was looking around before jumping and dodging to the side as an energy beam came rushing through. Regaining his balance, he saw a very tall robotic being marching through the swamp, though he noticed that it sank into the murk and muck pretty easily, showing its massive weight.
"What is that thing?" Xenovia asked as she swung Ex-Durandal at it, launching a wave of power that caused the murk and mud to spread out like the Red Sea. The thing held out a hand and a barrier appeared in front of it, blocking the attack from Xenovia.
"Hey, partner, I don't think we need to play around with this one." Issei nodded as flames erupted around him. "Welsh Dragon, Balance Breaker!"
Lighting up boosters on his back, Issei rushed forward. "Let's get a measure of this thing, shall we?"
"Not a problem. BOOST!"
As he charged in on the large machine, Issei idly noted that the two circular clasps on its chest started to glow before light came out of them and washed over him. "What the?" For a moment, he was confused as to what was going on, he couldn't feel any actual power in the light before his whole body throbbed and he fell into the mud face-first, where he bounced and slid until he landed on his back, his Scale Mail armor disappearing while his face was screwed shut and he twitched and contorted his body while groaning in agony. "What...Is...ARNNGH!"
"Issei!" Xenovia yelled, shocked at what she was seeing.
(-)
"And what the hell is that thing anyway?" Rivezim asked Jedah in confusion.
The tall Devil merely grinned at Lucifer's son. "Phobos, or as the Mexicans call it, Huitzil. It was a weapon created millions of years ago by aliens or something and was created with the sole purpose of eliminating all life on the planet."
"Must not have been much back then." Rivezim scoffed and looked at the masked person in the room, wondering why he was feeling hostility directed at him before shrugging it off.
"I dunno, ask the Dinosaurs, those things eliminated them." Jedah chuckled softly. "I discovered a bunch of them ages ago, but when I saw what they were programmed to do, I stored them away and tried to find a way to make them work for me. I doubt I need to tell you that having something uncontrollable working under you is a bad thing."
"So I guess you succeeded then?"
Jedah laughed and shook his head. "No, I failed miserably. I was about to scrap the whole thing when Vali gave me what I needed to make it work." Rivezim gave him a confused look and Jedah grinned. "Gogmagog, a weapon created by the Ancient Gods to fight their war. It was a lot easier to study that than Huitzil, and the information I gained from studying it helped me finish programming those Dinosaur slayers. And to answer your next question, I put a large chunk of Dragonice in each of them. Poor Red Dragon Emperor, facing a robot with a radioactive rock in its chest and capable of using it as a beam to hurt him."
"I swear I've heard this plot somewhere before." Rivezim muttered, wondering where he had heard it before shaking his head, it didn't matter, this was rather amusing.
"Indeed. I'm curious as to where this will go."
"So why did you send that blue-haired girl with him anyway?"
Jedah smirked as he leaned back in his chair. "A game is boring if it's too easy after all."
(-)
"Yaaaaah!" Xenovia yelled as she swung Ex-Durandal down, sending another wave of energy at Phobos, who held up a hand and blocked it with a barrier. "Sunnvabitch! How the hell can I get through that barrier?!" When the robot lowered its barrier, it blasted Issei with more of that light that was causing him to cry and groan in pain. "DAMN YOU!" She rushed forward and swung at it, only to find that a sword-like claw extended from its left hand to parry her attack and sent her flying backwards.
Landing in the mud and sliding back, Xenovia grimaced. She couldn't tell what that light was doing to Issei, but it looked like it was killing him. "How can I...?"
*Flash*
"You know..." Hilda, a pretty Valkyrie shook her head at Xenovia, "your sword has all these special powers, yet you only use it one way. If you weren't such a muscle-head, you'd probably be pretty dangerous. I mean, don't you have all sorts of Excalibur fragments in it?"
Xenovia nodded, wondering why she was bring this up.
Hilda grinned at her. "Well, why don't'cha try using them? Can't it change forms, make you invisible, go super fast and other things? Maybe instead of using just Destruction, you should try the others out too?"
*End Flash*
"Well, I suppose it couldn't hurt, could it?" Xenovia closed her eyes and a Holy aura surrounded her. "Let's see..."
Issei, meanwhile, could only jerk and groan in pain. "Ddrag...What..."
"Can't...Help..." The Dragon in his gauntlet groaned in pain as even that dissolved. "Whatever...that...is...it..."
Suddenly the light stopped and Issei gasped as the pain suddenly disappeared. His eyes snapping open, he could only gasp in relief as a giant version of Ex-Durandal was passing over his head and slamming into Huitzil and knocking it away with an explosion of power.
"Issei!" Xenovia was by his side, Ex-Druandal back to normal as she helped pick him out of the mud and put him over her shoulders in a fireman's carry. "Let's get out of here!" Her form blurred and she disappeared.
Huitzil watched as the girl became invisible to its normal sight, which was fine, it could still see the aura of both of its targets, though the one with the big sword was moving at a very fast speed through the air. If Huitzil had human emotions, it would simply shrug. Instead, the large machine hovered into the air before going after the two targets.
(-)
Panting after getting a few miles away from the machine, Xenovia laid Issei down on some rocks before sliding down and sitting in the mud. "You know," she panted and grinned, "this kind of reminds me of the first time Irina and I were on a mission to hunt down some apostates in Ireland."
"Oh?" Issei asked, his body still wracked with pain as he turned to look at her. "What happened?"
Xenovia grinned at him, her body and even face were covered in mud, "ended up on a pig farm and got sat on by a pot-bellied pig. It took us hours to get clean after that."
Issei laughed before groaning. "Hurts to laugh. What was that light?"
"Whatever it was, it was attacking me as well, partner." A gem on Issei's wrist spoke up. "I seriously felt like I was going to die and I wouldn't be able to see any other partners."
"Eh?" Issei looked at his wrist weakly. "What do you mean?"
"I mean it felt like my whole being was being torn apart on a spiritual level." Ddrag groaned out. "I'm sure that if you need my power in the near future, I can give it, but I doubt that you could do more than the basic Balance Breaker, partner."
"Right now I feel nothing but exhaustion and pain down to my bones." Issei looked at Xenovia. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" Xenovia stood up and looked back the way they came before gulping. "Oh fudgecicle." When Issei asked what was wrong, she sighed. "Looks like the robot was able to follow us, I can see it closing in." Her eyes widened and she yelped before ducking down as an energy beam passed over where her head was a moment ago. "Sunnva!"
"Dammit!" Issei groaned and pushed himself to his knees and he got into the mud again. "Ddrag, Xenovia, if we don't make it out of this, it's been a lot of fun."
"Don't talk like that, partner, because otherwise we will die."
"Just saying my goodbyes now in case I don't get to later." Issei looked at Xenovia. "Can we get out of here like we did last time?"
"I can't run forever." Xenovia shook her head. "That thing was able to follow us even though I was using Transparency and Rapidly to get out of there undetected."
Issei groaned and closed his eyes. "Dammit!"
"Hey... Issei." Xenovia spoke up after a few moments. "Can you do me a favor?" Issei looked at her and nodded. "If..." She took a deep breath. "If we get out of this, I want you to marry me."
Issei gawked at her. "HUH?!"
She looked at him seriously. "I mean it. Promise me, right here, right now, if we get out of this alive, save Ranma and get home that you'll marry me."
Issei looked at her and slowly nodded. "Sure. I'll marry you. I'll even set the wedding date if you want. When we graduate from high school."
Xenovia smiled and was blushing as she thought about it. "That's a promise, right? You won't go back on it, right?"
"Yeah, I won't. I promise."
Xenovia smiled happily at him. "Thank you." The next thing she knew she was starting to glow. "What the heck?"
Issei looked at himself and noticed a few things. First of all, he was glowing the same color as Xenovia, secondly, the pain he had been feeling was gone as though it had never been there to begin with. "Um... You don't think..."
"I don't, I'm just a dumb muscle-head after all." Xenovia winked at Issei. "But this feels..."
"Well, well, you two finally managed to do what I thought was impossible." Ddrag spoke up, his voice as strong as ever as Boosted Gear formed over Issei's left arm. "I'm guessing that Xenovia wanted to ask you to marry her for awhile but was worried about your response, so that's why you two kept failing."
"Heh, guess so..." Xenovia rubbed the back of her head nervously. "So, um, now what?"
A crashing sound caught their attention and the two stood up to see Huitzil standing over them.
The two glared at the robot as their energies swirled, mixed and melded together.
"Welsh Dragon, Combination Balance Break!"
(-)
"What's this?!" Jedah exclaimed, staring in shock at what he was seeing. "Since when can Sacred Gears do this?!"
(-)
When the energies dissipated, Issei was standing there in his Scale Mail armor, the design was the same as before but instead of red, it was gold in color with emerald green gems. "Woah?! What the heck?!"
"Partner, I don't know if you know this, but I'm brimming with Holy energy right now. I'd almost say that we transcended any known limits right now."
Next to him, Xenovia looked at herself, her body was covered in a scale mail armor, though hers was red and the gems were gold in color, that looked like Issei's, except for the part where her thighs were uncovered, most of the outer sides of her butt were exposed and there was only a strap across the middle of her breasts, leaving the tops and bottoms of them exposed. "Sheesh! What's with all the skin?" The gauntlets on her arms were a bit thinner than Issei's were.
"What are you talking about? That's standard for any Red Dragon Empress." Ddrag commented, though shockingly it came from Xenovia's armor. "Don't ask me how I'm in two places at once, but do remember that this guy has something that will cripple us if it shines on us."
"Right." Xenovia nodded and hefted Ex-Durandal, but noticed that the blade looked more scaly than she remembered it being, but decided to ignore it and focus on Huitzil, whose chest was starting to glow again. "DODGE!" She screamed as boosters erupted from their backs and sent them zipping to the side as light cascaded over where they had been a moment ago.
Issei's eyes were wide behind his helmet. "Ddrag, did we..."
"Move as fast as we can in Knight form? Yes. I'm surprised myself." Ddrag admitted.
Grinning under his helmet, Issei did a back-flip to avoid a beam of energy that Huitzil fired at him. As he hung in mid-air, he extended his left hand. "Well, let's see just how strong this is." When he landed, a large ball of energy formed in front of him. Issei's eyes widened at the size of it before he punched forward with his right hand. "DRAGON SHOT!"
Huitzil immediately raised its arms to block the shot, which quickly grew to be larger than it was, and was pushed back several feet before it bathed the energy ball in the light from its chest, dissipating the energy after only a few moments.
As soon as it put its arms down, Xenovia was there next to it and was swinging her sword. Putting its arm up, Huitzil blocked the attack, only to find that the sword wasn't slicing into its arm like a normal sword, but tearing into it as though the scales were like a chainsaw and its arm was a log. If it could feel human emotions, Huitzil would have been panicking as Xenovia cut through its arm with a sound similar to a car crashing into a tree and getting torn apart in the process. Letting out a scream, Xenovia cut the thing's arm off completely and watched with some satisfaction as it stumbled backwards.
"Hey! UGLY!" Issei yelled as he rushed in at high speeds. "TAKE THIS!"
"BOOST! BOOST! BOOST!"
Issei's next punch was so hard that the two ton ancient machine was lifted off its feet and sent flying backwards. "Xenovia!"
"On it!" She yelled from the air. "Now then, let's see about this..."
"BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST!"
Xenovia's eyes widened as she felt her power suddenly spike upwards as her armor actually started to boost her power. "Seems like this isn't just for show, I might be a dumb muscle-head, but right now, this works perfectly for me! TAKE THIS! SWORD SMITE!" The scales that were curved along the edge of the sword suddenly bent forward and made the sword look like it had super sharp teeth. In all, six "teeth" seemingly formed on the sword and then, on the blade, where those teeth were situated, swords of different shapes appeared. Swinging her sword down, the six swords under her blade launched at Huitzil, two piercing it in the chest, one in each arm and one in each eye.
Xenovia gawked in shock. "Those were illusionary copies of each Excalibur fragment, how did they pierce it?" She had another move she was going to do, but this worked too.
Ddrag started to laugh at her. "Did you really think that using my power wouldn't have some benefits? Besides, the swords might be illusionary, but the energy around them isn't."
"Well, that's convenient." Xenovia muttered as her sword started to glow a light blue. "Issei! Let's finish this!"
"RIGHT!" Issei yelled as two familiar cannons formed on his back. "Hey, Ddrag, just for clarification, I haven't been using any of my promoted powers, have I?"
"No, that's what makes this so shocking to me as well. I don't know what's going on here."
Issei smirked as power started to build up. "Well, let's just blame Ranma, this is all his fault anyway." After all, if Ranma hadn't joined Jedah, then they wouldn't have started to learn this in earnest and they wouldn't be in a murky swamp fighting a giant robot.
"Agreed."
"BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST!" Was heard from both Issei and Xenovia's armors.
"TAKE THIS! DRAGON CANNON!" Issei yelled as he fired a double cannon blast.
Xenovia smiled as she saw a light blue aura around her sword. "In this form, I'll call you... Dragon Durandal. Now! GO!" Swinging her sword down, she launched an arcing blue wave of energy that slammed onto Huitzil just as Issei's Dragon cannon attack slammed into it from the front.
The two energies mixed and built up before exploding and sending pieces of Huitzil and the Dragonice crystal in its chest everywhere.
"Holy crap!" Issei gaped as he returned to normal. "What was that?!"
"That was what happens when you mix Holy and Devil powers and boost them with my own." Ddrag commented from the gem on Issei's wrist.
"Yeah I... Hey!" Issei gaped as he looked at the gem on his wrist.
"What?"
"Ddrag, why do you have a gold center?"
"Hmm... I don't know, but if I had to guess, it's because of Xenovia's Holy energy and your Devil energy mixing together."
"Um..." Xenovia spoke up and Issei looked at her, she was back in normal form with Ex-Durandal held in her right hand. "Issei, how do you make Ddrag's gem disappear?" She held up her left hand and Issei gaped at it.
In the center of the back of her hand was an emerald green gem.
(-)
"Well... That happened." Rivezim muttered in awe.
Jedah narrowed his eyes. 'The question remains was that a permanent thing or a one-time deal? And if it's permanent, can they do it without the other one?'
Still, this was most interesting, he had never heard of the Red Dragon Emperor doing anything like this before. "Makes me wonder what other secrets Sacred Gears hold in them."
(-)
Elsewhere...
Mittelt looked around, frowning in confusion as she looked at the forest she had been transported to. "Where am I? I don't recognize this place." A white mist slowly crept up from the ground and gave her the shivers. "I feel like I'm in a bad horror film or something."
"Oh really?" A familiar voice had Mittelt's eyes widening and her face turn ashen pale as a tall and powerful figure walked out from the shadows in front of her. "Would it happen to be a slasher film?"
"Ko...ka...biel..?" Mittelt trembled as she saw someone who shouldn't have been there, someone who was supposedly sealed away in Cocytus, someone that Azazel had personally dealt with. "But...But how?! I thought Lord Azazel sealed you away!"
Kokabiel grinned at her and laughed. "You can thank Jedah Dohma for freeing me." He flexed his fingers and a sword of light magic appeared in his each hand. "I do believe that I still need to punish you... Daughter."
Mittelt gulped, even with her promotion to a four-winged Fallen Angel, Kokabiel was a ten-winged Fallen Angel.
And she was facing him all alone.
...Uh oh.
And yes, Issei and Xenovia FINALLY got to pull that off.
Fun fact, I originally wasn't going to have Victor survive, but as I read up on his backstory for research purposes, the things that I discovered made me go "huh, he could easily have a connection to Atsuko", and that's what happened.
Omake by Innortal
"Humans do have some interesting ideas after all." Jedah laughed as he forced a portal open. "Let us go! To the land of the Vampires!" Of course, moving something this large would take some time, even for him.
"Which one?" Ranma asked. "We have Romania, Makai, a few places in South America..."
"Why South America?" asked Euclid.
"Fuckers like eating Nazis because no one cares if they kill them," smirked Bulleta.