Important: So! By sheer virtue of the fact cloudflare on FF is once again having issues with cloudflare via not letting me switch to desktop since it just continues to load that human verification over and over I had to dig out an old tablet I stopped using because it stopped really displaying right. Literally it has to have another light source shining on the screen to see anything. But Nephilim Witch 56 uploaded on AO3 on Monday and I had no other way to get in touch with FF exclusive readers. In short, I cannot keep uploading like that, and the next chapter is already ready to be uploaded on next Monday, so if it doesn't by Tuesday, I'm still having issues uploading here, and I cannot fight with that tablet again.
AN: I don't exactly need comments, I'm not an attention whore, but I do tend to use that as a gauge of how people like chapters, so was the lack of them that no one was really feeling the Berserk Blade arc, or more out of a lack of anything to say? Or maybe even just the notice on the last chapter that I'd done a bigger cleanup sending people back to reread?
She's once more woken by an attack to her mind, but this time Voldemort doesn't say anything to her, so she elects to ignore him, especially since Pandora is also back. She tilts her head vaguely at the woman, 'It's strange that both times you were here was when Voldemort was as well.'
Pandora turns her regal disapproval in her direction, "That isn't a coincidence I don't believe. Lucifer has long tired of the depravity of the living. I, on the other hand, could not ignore such a horrendous beast." She narrows her eyes, "Not that you couldn't easily make him pay for his sins, if only you acknowledged the power at your disposal."
Her gaze drifts away, 'So you both keep mentioning. Though Lucifer claims I'm not, I see no other reason I'd be seeing the long dead who left no ghosts if I have gone insane, so it makes me wonder what my subconscious is trying to tell me. Or what delusions it's conjured.'
Pandora snorts, yet somehow she makes even that stately, "I suppose it means little coming from me given the madness others accused me of in my desperate attempt to strike a mighty enough blow against the Demons for them to at least leave us be for a time and save what was left of my people, but you have not lost your senses."
She eyes her, "Well, I suppose there's an argument to be made that your refusal to acknowledge the power which you have attained could be seen as willingly subjecting yourself to this monster, but I don't believe even your subconscious has chosen that it would be better to suffer him than face the truth."
She sighs in annoyance, 'You guys keep mentioning that, but clearly I don't know what you're talking about despite what you keep saying about me not knowing what I know or whatever, so isn't there anything you can give me?'
Pandora eyes her, "I'm not one for spelling out the answers for people. They can either figure it out themselves or not."
Her face twitches, 'Lucifer said something similar, but at this point I'm not asking for answers. Just... something.'
Pandora's gaze drifts away, "I keep getting hints of thoughts about it being 'cold as a ghost' or 'frigid as a tomb' though they are idle thoughts not directed at me."
Her gaze snaps back to mine, "That is part of why we have both insisted that it seems like you do know. Think on that."
Even before her consciousness leaves her, Pandora gives one last hateful scowl at Voldemort then disappears into thin air.
She lets her gaze drift as she mulls that over. The cold she's been feeling? Well, that started when that weird stone tried to make some sort of bond with her. Which lines up with what Lucifer said actually. Though, from what he said it had been at least partly successful, which to some degree explained why it was still affecting her despite being in magical isolation. Sort of. It gave it an avenue to reach her certainly, and the isolation explained why it couldn't still affect her magic despite that, but that should have been enough to cut off all but a strong soul bond.
And given the increasingly stringent barriers her family had been putting into place after she first woke up and reported the cold and they realized it was still affecting her, albeit weakly. Though while they hadn't given her the details every time, what they had told her as well as their ever growing concern, incredulousness, and freaked out and disturbed expressions it definitely shouldn't be reaching her now. Especially if Kazuto has been subconsciously protecting her as much as possible.
If it had some sort of bond with her very soul though, while it still doesn't fully explain it, makes it a bit easier to understand. Though the newfound knowledge does come with the question of how the hell it's reaching her past the curse Voldemort placed on her. Especially since being so well versed in magic in general and dark magic in particular means she knows damn well the sort of curse Voldemort would have had to cast on her, and she can't think of anything strong enough to break through that.
Well, except maybe the Resurrection Stone, but that's just a child's bedtime story.(1)
So. A stone with some sort of connection to death.
So, objects related to death, objects related to death… Hmm. As she flips through her mental catalog she discards them each as she thinks of them, 'No, spear, spear, myth made up by psychos about making pants from a dead dude's skin, cauldron, herbs, sword, some of the stones at the epicenter of the Yellow Flood incident absorbed quite a bit of magic and have some power or another related to death because of the sheer number of people who died but even those aren't powerful enough.'
She feels another flicker of frustration. Most of the objects she can think of just kill people, which means their only real relation to ghosts and tombs is in that they make them. And she doubts that's the case. Well, it had resonated with Pandora's box, which was made with an awful lot of death, but that doesn't tend to cause the sort of resonating that had occurred between the two. Oh sure, objects like that do tend to resonate with each other to some extent, but not that strongly.
And despite what non-magicals tend to think, given that as far as magic goes, killing people takes only a wand and two words, they don't actually tend to be that powerful anyway.
Really the only thing she can think of is that old story about the Resurrection Stone.
As she feels her consciousness begin to fade again, she briefly spares a thought that at least she seems to be getting better, at least a bit, given that she was definitely awake longer. Right before she passes out once more she makes a mental note to expand her mental search of her mindscape's archives to magical objects related to ghosts and tombs or graves rather than death specifically.
The next day, he sets out with Lily and Shuraba practically first thing in the morning. Yui had analyzed the coordinates of where they had found the other two compared to their estimated landing area and had gotten a rough estimate on how quickly they were moving. Afterwards, she had updated his map with what she estimated was both the minimum range they could have moved in, as well as the maximum distance she believes they could have covered.
This time though, they decide to start by heading through each of the basement doors into all the hideouts within the zone.
Something they're all immensely glad of, when upon stepping through the door to the base, he and Shuraba immediately feel a faint presence indicating one of them.
He barely spares a glance at his mother in law as they rush to leave, "This way!"
Thankfully, partially since attempting to sense them without tiring her out was the whole reason they'd tried using the basement doors and partly since she's just quick on the uptake, she doesn't even ask about it, simply follows them immediately.
With the speed they're going, it thankfully isn't too long before they're finding a form he isn't familiar with at all. Nephthys(2) presumably, since he's met the rest, and even with their distorted appearances, given he knows Osiris, the only other one it could be, has hair that's a teal color and the one shambling along aimlessly, as they now know, has hair that's a deep red, there's really no mistaking her identity.
He can't really tell what she's supposed to look like though, since he's never seen her undistorted form. In her hands were two Scimitars with hilts of the same silvery metal of Osiris' scythe shaft, decorated with the same ruby-like jewels adorning something of a circlet and earrings on her human form.
Unsurprisingly, Shuraba's weapon form clashing with her own does not instigate a reabsorption, but he'd already assumed from the incident with Aquila yesterday that it would be the case, and clearly from their lack of surprise, it was true for the other two as well.
Shuraba doesn't hesitate to end the lock of weapons and engage Nephthys properly so as to begin working towards tiring her out.
She gets in three fast hits before she's forced to jump away due to the lightning fast blows from Nephthys' weapon forms.
He immediately switches with her, though he only manages to get in two hits of his own before she suddenly seems to spin with one of his blows even though he hadn't thought he'd put enough force into it for something like that. He only barely notices the way she's moving in time and kicks her in the gut to avoid one of them taking off his head.
He lets out a shuddering breath as Shuraba rushes past him to where Nephthys had been thrown fairly hard into the trunk of a tree to re-engage. He hadn't realized until then, that instead of just fighting them like normal enemies, that he'd been relying on the knowledge of how Marzanna fought with their weapon forms to predict how they move.
It had created a rather close call. It was entirely his own fault, since he hasn't been carefully watching them to work out how they'll fight him or react until now.
Which, in retrospect, was one hell of a miscalculation on his part, even if it was more subconscious. One that had nearly cost him his life. Which he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt his mate wouldn't want, not for something like tracking down her Nephilim Blade's forms, which, while important, wasn't something she would ever consider worth him genuinely risking his life for. Few things were so in her opinion, to be honest.
Shaking off the unsettlingly close call when he sees Shuraba begin to shift her weight in a way that tells him she's about to disengage, he moves closer to the fight in preparation of a switch.
The moment she moves back he rushes in, being watchful of Nephthys as a being currently an enemy instead of his, unintentional, former relaxed, almost absent approach to fighting them.
After he lands his forth blow before stepping back out of a sudden spike of sand, which he absolutely would've missed the sign of in the form of the ground dissolving into it if he hadn't started paying attention after that close call before, he notices Nephthys falter briefly. He tilts his head towards his shoulder and calls back to Shuraba, "Hey! I think she's hitting the end of her rope!"
Shuraba answers without hesitation, "I was just thinking that myself!" The sand under his feet stirs, which seems to prompt her to continue, "I think she's about to make one of those miniature sand tornadoes she's capable of! Be prepared to dodge, but you should wait until the last moment when the sand just starts to lift so she can't adjust her aim, as they're fairly stationary!"
He nods, "Alright!"
Then he manages to get in two more blows before the sign Shuraba had told him about forces him to jump back. Shuraba, for obvious reasons, doesn't charge straight forward only to get caught in the tornado, but she does shift forward to move forward as soon as it's gone, which she does as soon as it runs its course.
She manages to lock weapons with Nephthys almost immediately, and much like Aquila had, Nephthys goes slack and begins to turn into streams of energy. However, after a couple seconds things go… maybe wrong isn't the correct word, but weird, as Nephthys suddenly jerks away with a painted shout, "No! I can't!"
Shuraba steps forward reaching her hand forward with a sort of desperate confusion, "Nephthys, what-?"
She's cut off by the Scimitar, who seems to have regained her sanity at least whirling away as a wave of sand rises beneath her feet, "I can't!"
Before any of them can say anything else though, she's rushing off, the wave of sand propelling her even faster. He takes a step forward to give chase, his hand raising desperately of its own accord as though hoping to grab her, but quickly changes his mind when he sees the sheer speed she's now moving at. He couldn't begin to hope to catch up, that much is immediately obvious.
Hell, he's not even sure Alessio or Eva could.
He lowers it slowly, "What… What the hell was that about?"
Shuraba stares after Nephthys in equal bewilderment, "I…. I haven't the faintest idea…."
A heavy silence hangs over the small forested area they'd found her in. After a few stunned moments however, Lily shakes herself, "Then… back through the basement doors to try and locate Osiris?"
Shuraba looks down towards the ground, "That… Honestly, we can try, but if she really is in control of herself, then with her nature being what it is, it may be better to aim for any Death Eater bases we'd suspected before we broke apart that are near her crash zone."
Lily nods slowly, "Well, either way, there isn't really a point to hanging around here."
He nods reluctantly and they turn to begin making their way back to the base they'd found from.
He's not the only one to throw one last confused and somewhat worried glance behind them.
She's jolted awake by a stab into one of her worryingly still open wounds, not that she hasn't known since the first time she woke up and sensed the twisted and warped Demonic and Angelic energy that still lingers in them exactly why that was. Especially as it was warping a good chunk of her own energy, but in general and particularly when it moves towards the wounds in an attempt to purify and heal. Actually, since she noticed she's been carefully keeping some of her still recovering reserves away from her wounds so as to let them replenish so she'll have a reserve of energy to use if she needs it.
Though, after the last two times she'd awoken, and realized she was getting either somewhat better, or at least her body was acclimating given that she was staying awake longer, that underneath the heavy saturation of the twisted energies that there was magic lingering in the wounds too. It too, was twisted and warped, but even beyond that, she can still sense the death in it.
Which tells her that at least some of the Killing Curse had washed over her. Not enough to kill her, clearly, assuming it even could kill a Nephilim which they hadn't exactly been keen to test, but still there, and presumably only making her body's attempts to correct her current state even harder, given the nature of the magic in question.
Voldemort smiles lightly, "I'm surprised you even woke up. The last time I had to get more blood you didn't even stir." He eyes her thoughtfully, "Actually, you didn't even wake when I attempted to access your mind prior to harvesting some blood before I leave."
She smiles back at him mockingly after a quick mental check to make sure he hadn't breached her mind, and was in fact, still struggling with her outer castle defenses, "Oh, I have no reason to wake for something that's proven not to be a threat."
He twitches, and his smile turns cruel as he magically forces the knife to twist in just that bit deeper, "I really am going to enjoy breaking you before the end of this."
She refuses to even twitch, though her body certainly wants to, even if Sugou stabbing her even just once in Alfheim with the pain absorption system off hurt more. Though whether that's just because she'd grown entirely unused to even a hint of pain for the two years prior or that Voldemort was just actually doing a worse job trying to hurt her, she couldn't say.
So she chooses to just ignore him as she turns her attention back to searching through her mental archives for what in the hell that stone could be. Because so far, the only thing that's coming to mind is the Resurrection Stone, but… that's not supposed to be real, so.
She hears a snort off to the side as Voldemort begins to finish up with his blood collection. She glances over, then blinks, 'Can you hear me?'
Lucifer takes his eyes off of where he'd been eyeing Voldemort tiredly as he finishes up, "Yeah, I can. My Devil Arm may not have the sort of connection Pandora's Box does to you, but it does have a bond, weaker though it may be."
She tilts her head, 'I'm surprised you're here while he is, given that Pandora said you were avoiding him because you were done with the depravity of the living or something.'
He hums, "She's not wrong. But he's leaving, so."
She nods slowly as she watches Voldemort head out, waiting until he's properly closed the door and moves away if the sound of his footsteps is any indication, "I guess it's not too surprising, if you two are just delusions of my broken mind."
He stretches idly, "Not delusions. And while there is damage from your soul bound weapon breaking, your mind isn't broken nor, as I've said, is your sanity."
She shrugs, then goes back to flipping through her mental files. Really, other than that myth of the Resurrection Stone, what else was powerful enough for something like that?
The problem is, no matter how much she thinks on it, she's drawing a blank. And something that powerful would've been practically impossible to keep hidden.
As the darkness once more begins to close in on her some time later she frowns slightly at the lack of possibilities of what it could be.
Kazuto stares at the map on the TV in the kitchen blankly as everyone currently in the house throws suggestions back and forth as to where Marzanna could be. They'd found Nephthys the day before yesterday, but after she'd fled, they'd spent the rest of that day, as well as yesterday, trying to re-find her or track down Osiris, to no avail. On top of that, the girls haven't found anything new, or at least nothing pertaining to Marzanna and her Nephilim Blade.
He shudders as a sort of helpless despair washes over him.
Marzanna often calls him a sap for thinking of her as something of his personal Goddess, but if she was, and he was her devotee, he feels like a man desperately praying for her safety. But… that doesn't exactly work now does it? You can't pray to a Goddess for their own well being, now can you? Well, he isn't actually religious, and he's fully aware she's not actually a Goddess of course, but she's the closest thing to one for him.
He searches his mind desperately, hoping for another flash of inspiration like when he'd thought to consult Yui on the forms' locations. But no matter how he wracks his mind or looks around hoping for something, anything, to spark an idea, he continues to draw a blank.
Even Shuraba had only possessed vague ideas of where Osiris would have gone, none of which have panned out barring a Death Eater base they'd found destroyed, with all of them left behind tied up for retrieval.
He, and everyone else for that matter, are given one hell of a surprise when an exhausted looking Eryx suddenly manifests next to Shuraba, turning her tired gaze towards where Trish was discussing with Kat, "Osiris wouldn't be focusing on Death Eater bases, she'd be looking for the Demons V-Mort has."
Shuraba is the first to respond, though her stunned, faint voice indicates she hasn't necessarily recovered from the surprise, "You seem a bit more talkative than usual."
Eryx shrugs, "Wouldn't understand me."
Shuraba smiles tiredly, "No, I guess without Aquila to translate your more minimal speech pattern most people wouldn't understand you." Then she shakes herself, "I didn't even notice you were conscious again. You doing alright?"
Eryx shrugs again, "Couple minutes. Well as can be."
Shuraba nods slowly in understanding. Eva speaks up at that moment, "Didn't Shuraba initially manifesting cause a huge drain on Kazuto and Mike?"
She ends off by giving him a concerned look, and he blinks in surprise, "I didn't sense anything like that."
Shuraba tilts her head thoughtfully, "Actually… given you guys didn't get additional drains when they manifested, it's possible that enough of our bond continued to exist that they manifested when I did." She shoots him a thoughtful look, "Or when I gained the ability anyway. The fact that there isn't a more constant drain on you nor one when Eryx manifested implies that the drain was because I needed the boost in energy to gain the ability rather than directly for a manifestation, and since at least some of our bond remains given we can sense each other and I can reabsorb them, as well as the fact I'm the central form…" She shrugs, "It's not to surprising that much like with my sentience, once I gained it, they followed "
Eva nods in relief, and her husband steps forward, "I don't suppose you have any hint of an idea of where Marzanna is? Or where Osiris would be going specifically?"
Eryx shakes her head silently, and he sighs as he gazes at the TV, "Well, just knowing that she'd be focusing on tracking down the Demons helps of course." He looks back with furrowed brows, "Though I'm a bit confused as to why Eryx would know that better than Shuraba."
Shuraba smiles thinly, "Osiris and I have been… butting heads practically since we gained our sentience for a multitude of reasons. I'm calmer and she's more bloodthirsty, she's bitter that Mistress using a falcata in Aincrad has created a stronger tendency to rely on me and weakened the likelihood of her shifting forms since she grew out of the habit somewhat due to how long it would take to switch between weapons in Aincrad, and as an extension of the last one she's been taking pot shots at Mistress because she's lashing out a bit, which none of the rest of us agree with, but due to the fact I'm both the central core of the weapon and the fact Mistress has been relying on me more since Aincrad she tends to be somewhat aggressive towards me in general and especially when I try to get onto her for lashing out at Mistress."
The entirety of the Sparda family just sort of. Stares at Shuraba in surprise. It's Vergil who breaks the silence, "I'm aware you said she hadn't spoken to us, especially mother, about your collective sentience out of a combination of them generally not being in the house at the same time, her being distracted with important projects, and a lack of desire to distract anyone with everything going on." He raises an eyebrow, "But I was not expecting things to practically have been a TV drama in Marzanna's head since she woke up."
Shuraba snorts in tired amusement, "Well, it sorta has been." Then she glances at Eryx, "Point being, unless she was aggressively complaining to me, we didn't tend to talk much, whereas Eryx is quiet enough that we all tend to speak more freely around her in general. Partly to fill the silence, partly to vent to someone if we're frustrated about something to someone that generally doesn't interrupt, and partly due to the fact that unless she says something, while it's a little easier at the moment with her exhaustion, it's generally hard to get a read on if she agrees or disagrees."
She tilts her head at Eryx thoughtfully, "Combined with the fact Osiris tends to assume anyone who doesn't disagree with her agrees, Eryx likely knows her best." She turns her attention back to Alessio, "If she says Osiris would prioritize the Demons, I'd put money on her being right. I mean, she's not a Occlumens, and even if she was it's not like Osiris is here obviously, so if there's something running through her head that's made her focus on the Death Eaters, Eryx could be wrong, but I sincerely doubt it."
Alessio rubs at his temples as he nods tiredly, "Then we'll go with that. And assume she's going for the Demons we've been trying to track down for months."
Vergil crosses his arms, "In other words, we're basically back at square one in regards to locating her."
Alessio nods again, then turns to the TV, "In which case, I suppose we should shift the entirety of our focus to finding Marzanna."
There's a murmur of agreement in the room as he stares at the map, 'Where on that map are you Marzanna?'
The next time she opens her eyes, she's once more alone barring Lucifer, but as her mind immediately begins to drift towards the stone he seems content to let her think rather than initiate a conversation.
No matter how much she checks every scrap of knowledge she possesses, she just keeps drawing a blank.
Except for that old children's story anyway.
But. That's impossible isn't it? It's just an old story. Finally, utterly fed up, she turns to an amused looking Lucifer, who given what he and Pandora have both said about catching fragments of her thoughts is likely amused at whatever he's been hearing.
She scowls, "It seems impossible. But improbably, impossibly, the Resurrection Stone sounds like it's the best bet." Her tone turns somewhat sarcastic, "Is that close enough for you, or do I have to somehow guarantee it to myself that it's correct before you'll verify it?"
His grin spreads wider, "Bingo Little Devil. Y'know, given how many times I heard vague mentions of it coming from your mind, I was wondering how long it'd take you to accept it really is the bona-fide Resurrection Stone."
She stares at him in stunned silence, "Wait what?! It's… It's real?"
He nods, "Yup."
He pops the 'p' almost gleefully, and she stares at him in some more stunned silence, "I wasn't even looking for it though! And- And I've heard of 'questers' as they call themselves who dedicate their entire lives to looking for the Hallows!"
He throws his head back to laugh. When he's done and has returned his amused gaze to her, he replies with a cheerfully amused tone, "Guess you're just lucky then!"
She stares at him some more before her brow furrows, "But… I mean, obviously the story isn't totally accurate since there's no way they met Death itself, they had to have just been particularly brilliant wizards, but whether in the original tale or the stories of them popping up, there's never been any mention of the Resurrection Stone resonating and bonding with someone."
He shrugs, everything from his posture to his expression still screaming mirth, "Mmm. Yeah, but from what I know that's because it chose you as its actual master, which to my knowledge it's never done before." He studies her in interest, "Given how it was made, it's not that strange it resonated with Pandora's little box, and from there it probably noticed you from a combination of your bond with it and the association with death you have by virtue of being the last of not one but two species. After that though…"
He shrugs, "Something about you interested it. Enough that with its semi-sentience it chose you as its master as it has never done before, at least to my knowledge." He looks away thoughtfully, "Which, honestly, is the only reason me and Pandora have been here. Normally, you'd have to have it, and not only that, you'd have to actively turn it over three times while concentrating on the person you wanted. With the way it's bonded to you though… Well, you don't need to worry about constantly being bothered by the dead, but you are something of a… beacon for us. Mind you, from my understanding the only reason me and Pandora could come to you is because you posses our weapons and were alarmingly close to death when we first came to you, which given its relation to death only strengthened your bond with it, as well as the fact it was flaring up, since I don't think it's too keen on losing the only master it's ever acknowledged."
She stares up at the ceiling, trying to wrap her head around that, something which much like when she'd been going over possibilities Lucifer seems content to let her do. At least until something of a mad thought crosses her mind. One that he clearly catches from the way he straightens sharply, with a calculating expression on his face, "... As you know, Devil Arm's abilities are determined by the abilities of who it's made from, and I do have the precision for that, so if that is possible, you would absolutely physically need the stone in hand."
She looks away tiredly, "Well, that's useless then. It's in the most stringent magical isolation my family could come up with at home."
He snorts as he climbs to his feet, "Not even that nor Voldemort's curse on you can block its connection to you. And as I stated, you're it's true master as far as it's concerned. Do you really think it can't and won't come to you if you call for it?"
She looks up at the ceiling, or more accurately where her hands are bound, somewhat hesitantly. After a moment, she takes a deep breath and dives into her mind to locate its connection to her. Which. Her mate has absolutely been subconsciously trying to protect her from, since following the thread, which she hadn't really noticed until she properly understood what it was and that it's connection can't be truly blocked and actively searched for it, leads her to one of his Aincrad coats hidden under the bed in the part of her mind that's his.
Though it also tells her that it was absolutely subconscious and not just something he'd hidden from her, since if he'd done it consciously he'd have done a much better job hiding it.
Shaking off the thought, she unwraps it and sets the coat on the bed as she eyes the Resurrection Stone.
The moment she wraps it in her magic and hesitantly tugs, she feels it fall into her actual hand outside of her mind.
Opening her eyes, and staring in somewhat stunned surprise, she takes a shaky deep breath and gathers up as much Demonic energy as she dares to spare at the moment before turning her attention to Lucifer, "Up to you if you try this mad hatter idea of yours."
To buy some time while she gives it one last think over, she's fully aware that's the reason, she numbly mumbles to him, "After your time."
He smiles thinly, "Yes. And so was Pandora. My Devil Arm's connection to your mind, and therefore my connection, supplied essentially a TL;DR rundown of the time since."
She nods faintly, then musters herself. Before she can talk herself out of it she reaches through the Resurrection Stone to her connection to Devil Arm Lucifer, and through that, the man himself and sends all of the Demonic energy she was willing to spare.
In an instant, his ghostly form becomes solid, and he surges forward as the same explosive red needles his Devil Arm produces appear in his hands, though the ones he's holding are significantly slimmer and smaller. They're promptly stabbed into the roof and ground, threading through the chains that split to each of her hands and ankles in the process, and immediately detonate.
She stumbles forward when the ones above her head break and stop helping to hold her steady, and to her surprise when Lucifer reaches out, he actually catches her with his forearm. She takes a moment, then realizing she can feel his arm rapidly becoming less solid, quickly steadies herself on her own feet.
She glances at her own shackles, still wrapped around her wrists and ankles but useless with the chains attached to them gone, "I honestly didn't actually think that would work…"
Before he can get a chance to reply, when she turns the Resurrection Stone in her hand, it suddenly seems to practically melt before flowing over her hand and wrapping around her thumb. Then it solidifies. When it's done it looks like a ring of pure obsidian with the Symbol of the Deathly Hallows carved on it glowing in a green similar to the Killing Curse, though the glow quickly fades, leaving the symbol subtle enough that even knowing it's there even to her Nephilim eyesight it's faint. Strangely enough, actually accepting the stone makes the ghost-like cold go away rather than get worse.
Lucifer stares, "... Neat." Then he snorts, "And honestly? Neither did I. Wouldn't if it was anyone you didn't happen to have the Devil Arm of."
She nods slowly, then pulls Pandora out of her Devil Bringer now that she has both the room she was lacking above her chained hands and enough dexterity to use it. At the same time, she calls Devil Arm Lucifer out of herself to its usual resting place on her back. Normally, she'd use her Blade and be careful, but…
She smiles grimly at Lucifer as he wiggles his fingers in a goodbye, which makes sense if he's long done with the living for the most part. She hasn't needed to see her in a while, but given she does not have the energy nor the time for it today, then unless Voldemort is the only one who visits wherever she's being kept, she's probably going to need to book more appointments with Maki by the time she's free.
He's staring at Dumbledore with mounting rage. This… man, has the audacity to show up at the Sparda's after requesting a meeting regarding Marzanna, and not only did the old fool not have any information and is merely there to offer assistance, but on top of that he was trying to negotiate his so-called assistance in return for weaseling some control over Mike?
How fucking dare he try to use his Goddess's safety as a bargining tool. If he doesn't shut the hell up he is going to learn the hard way why it is not a good idea to basically threaten someone's soulmate. Especially when that someone is The Black Swordsman. Particularly when said Black Swordsman is now significantly stronger than when he received that name now that he's become a Nephilim.
He's very much contemplating pulling his swords on the man, and from the expressions of basically everyone else he doesn't think he's alone in that regard. Honestly, the only one who looks remotely calm is Alessio, and he's more stoney faced than anything. At this point Kazuto is rather convinced that he's only allowing Dumbledore to continue so as to let the man dig his own grave deeper and deeper.
Then the most divine voice Kazuto's ever heard cuts into his infuriating attempts, "No one here wants nor needs your assistance Dumbledore."
"Marzanna!" The shout releases itself from him before he can even think about it, much less turn, though when he does register that it's Marzanna's voice, he feels a wave of incredible confusion since he still can't sense her.
His utter relief and excitement dies a swift death when he turns to his wife. Her condition is the most terribly heart wrenching blasphemy that he's ever laid eyes on. His poor Goddess looks like she was almost as poorly off as paper that had gone through a shredder. And at that she only barely wins out by virtue of still being in one physical piece, even if that piece is agonizingly battered. And also infuriatingly wearing shackles with broken chains on her wrists and ankles, even if he can understand why.
Quite frankly, she looks like a harsh breath on her may just finish her off.
That doesn't stop her in the slightest from striding confidently into the room. The irritating imbecile responds, though while the quick glance he gives him is tremendously difficult by virtue of it necessitating him pulling his gaze away from his mate, in a way he's glad, because it means he doesn't miss the irritated twitch in his face that makes it clear he's unhappy that Marzanna is alright, or more likely that he hadn't managed to pry anything out of them for her safety.
Which. The man had already dug himself into such a hole by trying to barter for Marzanna's safety that Kazuto was genuinely thinking about just killing him, and had been holding himself back by pure virtue of the fact Marzanna would likely be displeased if he did since the man does unfortunately still have a use, if only as a deterrent against Voldemort attacking the school over there and subsequently the children taking refuge in its halls. That twitch though, takes him straight from thinking about cutting the man in two to seeing just how drawn out and painful he is capable of making someone's death.
The dead man walking gives her an annoyed smile, "Miss Sparda. It's wonderful to see you're alright."
She snorts, "First of all, is Mrs Kirigaya-Sparda. I'm a married woman, and my last name is hyphenated, and if you're going to assault me with your infuriating voice, I would ask you to get it correct, if you're capable of such, though your long string of incompetence suggests it may be too much for you."
Dumbledore's face twitches again, and this time he feels gleeful delight at his mate putting the infuriating fool in his place, before the old fool smiles, "I'm afraid I don't know what you mean Mis- Mrs Kirigaya-Sparda."
She raises an eyebrow as she moves over to be directly beside him gazing down at him, "I'm not normally one to judge soulmates, but yours says an awful lot. That yours is Grindelwald of all people that is. And that you coined the phrase 'For the Greater Good' as a slogan for his crusade for wizarding dominance. It says even more that the only thing that altered your course from his twisted ideology was a duel gone wrong that killed your poor younger sister." She taps the side of her nose in the same spot Dumbledore's is crooked, "You absolutely deserved that broken nose your brother gave you at her funeral for the record."
She gives him an almost board contemplating look, like she isn't tearing him to even worse shreds than her physical condition, "Honestly, the only thing that surprises me is that her death managed to do even that to you, considering how bitter and resentful you were at her mother's oh so untimely death. It was such a pain, having your little coming of age world tour trip with, what was his name? Elphias Doge? Your little world tour trip with Doge being denied by suddenly having to take care of your siblings, that they were holding you back and weighing you down from the greatness you've always deluded yourself into thinking you have, wasn't it?"
He suddenly shoots to his feet, face white as a ghost, "Well! If you're quite alright Miss Sparda-"
"Mrs Kirigaya-Sparda."
He twitches, "Mrs Kirigaya-Sparda. If you're quite all right then obviously House Sparda does not require any assistance in locating you. I shall be taking my leave."
She eyes him derisively as she brings a hand up to rest her chin on her first, which for some reason now has an obsidian ring on her thumb? The arm itself resting on the other which she had casually crossed across her body, and her eyes flick away briefly before she nods, "Mmm. Run away, little sororicide committing coward." She leans forward intently, "None of you ever knew who's spell gone awry killed her, right? Let me answer that question for you. It was yours. You killed poor Ariana. For the record, she hates your guts and very much does not forgive you."
Dumbledore stiffens like he's turned to stone, face a picture of terrified horror, and she leans back, "So run away. Like you always have. I mean, it took you a whole nineteen years to do anything about your old boyfriend's crusade of terror back when he did all that stuff like slaughter non-magicals, kill people who opposed him, and you know, allied with the literal Nazis to name a few things. Since you were too busy running away from the fact the general plan he was using you helped him make, too busy running from your past."
He flicks a terrified look at her as he hurries past, but surprisingly, given how much he seems to love his own voice and his surety in coming out on top, he doesn't say anything back. Then again, given he was still white enough to fit in with sheets of paper and his hands were shaking fiercely, he supposes it wasn't that surprising.
When the man is gone, Vergil turns to Marzanna, "How in the hell do you know all that? Did you learn it from V-Mort?"
She snorts as she settles down, much more gingerly now that Dumbledore is gone and she doesn't feel any need to pretend she's fine, which he assumes is the reason she'd strode in the way she had. Eva rushes over and places a hand on her shoulder, hissing at whatever she can sense before her hand begins to glow with a white sort of gold color.
She waves her hand vaguely, "No. That. Is actually kind of a story to explain. Actually, at first I thought I was going insane. That maybe the damage done to my mind by my soul bound weapon breaking had broken my mind as well somehow. Well, in fairness, while it turned out there was a perfectly understandable reason, I was being visited by Lucifer and Pandora over this past week. Or at least their ghosts."
Alessio shoots to his feet, "What?!"
She shrugs, then her tone turns dry, "There's a reason I originally thought I was insane. Turned out I wasn't though. Also, did you know we're apparently direct descendants of Lucifer? And apparently great grandma wasn't the first time a succubus had a kid with someone in our bloodline, or at least that was his response when I commented on the fact he was better looking than I was under the impression most Devils looked."
Air is choked on all around her. She gazes into the distance, "But yeah. Turns out there's more truth than I thought to even a magical children's tale…"
Her dad tilts her head still looking somewhat thrown by the previous revelation, "What?"
She looks up at him thoughtfully, then sweeps her gaze over the room, "Are any of you barring mom familiar with the Tale of the Three Brothers, also known as the Story of the Deathly Hallows?"
Her mom straightens in surprise, but everyone else shakes their heads, so she sighs and runs a hand through her bangs, before she can say anything, Yui tearfully crawls up on the couch Dumbledore had vacated and she'd taken over, and mindful of her wounds on Marzanna's torso, lays down and buries her face in her leg.
Marzanna smiles softly at their daughter and starts running her fingers through her hair, "Three brothers, traveling along a lonely, winding road at twilight reached a deep treacherous river where anyone who attempted to swim or wade would drown. Learned in the magical arts, the brothers conjured a bridge with their wands and proceeded to cross.
Yui lifts her teary gaze to look at her, "Halfway through the bridge, a hooded figure stood before them. The figure was the enraged spirit of Death, cheated of his due as almost everyone else who attempted to cross had died. But he had a plan. So Death cunningly pretended to congratulate them and proceeded to award them with gifts of their own choosing."
"The eldest brother, a power hungry man, asked for a wand more powerful than any in existence. Death granted his wish by fashioning the Elder Wand from a branch of a nearby elder tree standing on the banks of the river. The second brother, an arrogant man, chose to further humiliate Death further and asked for the power to recall the deceased from the grave. Death granted his wish by crafting the Resurrection Stone from a stone picked from the riverbank. The third and youngest brother, who was the most humble and wise, did not trust Death and asked for something to enable him to go forth without Death being able to follow. A reluctant Death, most unwillingly, handed over his own Invisibility Cloak."
"The three brothers took their prizes and soon went their separate ways. The eldest brother traveled to a village where a wizard with whom he had quarreled lived. He sought out a duel and fought the wizard using the wand, instantly killing him. Drunk of power, the eldest brother boasted of this wand gifted by Death and his own invincibility. That very night, another wizard crept to the inn as the eldest brother slept, drunk from wine. The wizard slit the eldest brother's throat for good measure and stole the wand. And Death took the first brother."
The second brother returned to his home where he lived alone. Turning the stone thrice in his hand the figure of the girl he had once hoped to marry, before her untimely death, appeared at once before him, much to his delight. Yet she was sad and cold, separated from him as by a veil. Though she had returned to the mortal world, she did not truly belong there and suffered. Finally, the second brother, driven mad with hopeless longing, committed suicide by hanging from his house's balcony so as truly to join her. And Death took the second brother as planned."
"However, when it came to the third brother, Death searched and searched as years passed but never succeeded in finding him. It was only when the third brother reached a great age, that he took off the Cloak of Invisibility and gave it to his son. Greeting Death as an old friend, they departed this life as equals."
Yui's eyes unfocus as she thinks over the story, and Dante shifts in confusion, "Ok, but what's that gotta do with you seeing people who very much did not leave ghosts?"
She smiles thinly, "That stone? The one that was resonating with me after Dumbledore brought that Horcrux and keeps messing with me? Apparently it's legitimately the apparently very much real Resurrection Stone."
Eyes blow wide around the room, and she runs her fingers of the hand not still smoothing through Yui's hair through her own bangs, "Apparently, Pandora was resonating with it because of how it was made, which made me catch its attention between my bond with it and having a connection to death by virtue of being among the last of two different species, and then something about me made it decide with its semi-sentience that I'd be a good master."
She shrugs, "I doubt they met Death itself despite the story and were just powerful wizards, but it can't be denied that it's a powerful artifact, which explains why it could still reach me despite all the barriers you were trying to put between us. And with me close to death, my bond with it strengthened, and between that and the fact that it apparently basically makes me a beacon for the dead, and that while I wasn't actively calling them the fact I have Pandora's Box and Lucifer's Devil Arm all of it put together was opening a path to me for them."
She shrugs again, "That's how I escaped too. I realized that if the Devil Arm created enough of a connection to him to call him, then I could possibly give him energy and he may be able to do something. Also, speaking of that, Lucifer said even if the idea worked, which it obviously did, that I'd need to physically have the Resurrection Stone, and as it turns out, once I knew what it was and went looking for the connection, and partly once Kazuto's connection to me was blocked as it turned out he was subconsciously trying to protect me from it, it wasn't hard to find the representation of its connection to me in my mind."
Surprise washes over him, since he had no idea he's been trying to protect her from it. Faint amusement takes over her face, "Actually, it was part of what reinforced the fact it was subconscious, since Kazuto would've done a much better job hiding it if he'd done so consciously given that in my mindscape it was hidden under the bed in his soul connection to me wrapped in one of his coats from Aincrad." He blushes faintly at the weak attempt to hide it his subconscious had made, "Anyway, I was absolutely able to summon it past all the blocks you tried to put on it, so it's not there anymore."
Lily frowns and cuts in, "Please tell me you didn't store it in your Devil Bringer. We have no idea what sort of effects that could have."
She snorts, then lifts her hand and wiggles her thumb, "Think it's 'cause it decided I was its master since both the original story and the ones that have popped up about it surfacing since all say it looks like a normal black rock, but not long after I summoned it the Stone changed its form, so I had no reason to."
Lily eyes it thoughtfully, then nods sharply, "We'll have to look into this… bond it has with you later, but that's good enough for now." She waves a hand, "Continue."
She tilts her head for a moment, "Anyway, I almost knocked myself out giving him as much as I dared, but the Devil Arm made from his power ought to make it clear that the ability to make those explosive needle blades is one of his many powers. I was right about giving him energy through the Resurrection Stone and then his Devil Arm, and while he only really had a couple seconds, he only really needed a single second to use some of his explosive needle blades to get my hands and feet free. From there it was just a matter of getting to wherever they were keeping my Sparda Family ring and using the emergency portkey it has."
She blinks as she untangles her hand from Yui's hair and reaches to take her ring off, "Speaking of, you may want to pull the last coordinates departed from the spell history, since one of their bases is there. Or what's left of it anyway. With my condition I had to use Pandora's Box and Lucifer rather than my own magic, energy, or even guns given the recoil on them that Pandora very much lacks, and I didn't exactly have the luxury of going out of my way to be non-lethal, so I left a lot of dead Death Eaters behind. A lot of pissed ones too…"
She glances at Vergil as Lily accepts it, "And I also need you to see if you can't remove a curse he put on me that's hiding and blocking me from Kazuto and the others connected to me."
Stunned at all the relevations, his mouth works on its own as he blurts out, "Is that why I can't sense you?"
She smiles tiredly at him as Vergil steps forward intently, "Yeah, from Lucifer's reckoning, it's thorough enough that even if there'd only been a thin layer of dirt between me and the surface and you were standing right above me you still wouldn't have sensed me. Which seems to be true since I still can't sense you."
He winces, then nods slowly. Then Trish leans forward, "Ok, that all made sense, but how'd you know all that about Dumbledore?"
She snorts, "When I heard his voice up here through the one way silencing spells we put on the basement the portkeys drop us in so that the sounds coming through the doorways wouldn't keep us up I used the Resurrection Stone to summon the sister everyone knows he used to have since its not exactly hidden even if the details of his life are, and like I said the others may have been too distracted to notice until she dropped dead, but she absolutely saw who's spell killed her, and between that and the shit he'd been up to up until then she was perfectly happy to tell me all the sordid details and point me in the direction of someone who knew him in his childhood, interestingly enough it was Bagshot, who wrote most of the history text books Hogwarts uses. Anyway, she actually died recently and while she didn't follow his life that much, she was able to give me those other details Ariana didn't know from after her death."
Her gaze drifts away, "Speaking of, the rest of you may not be able to see her, but Ariana is still here. I passed on your message that no matter how many times he begs for forgiveness you will never forgive him for killing you, and you asked for that in return for the info, so I assume you're happy now?"
She's quiet for a beat, then nods, "Ok. I can pass that to Aberforth, in Hogsmeade at The Hogs Head from what Bagshot said, right?"
There's another beat, then she nods, "Thank you Ariana. Yes, goodbye." She turns back to them and tilts her head, "Anyway, Bagshot also pointed me towards some people she knows are dead that may or may not have more on him, but I figured I had enough to spook him by wondering what I know and how I know it, so I'd have to look into it later."
Trish tilts her head at her, "Y'know, normally I'd agree you did go insane since you're talking to what looks like thin air, but given that shit you said to Dumbledore was clearly true…"
Marzanna shrugs, "And also there's extra verification available in whether there really is an Aberforth Dumbledore who owns the Hog's Head bar in Hogsmeade because he wanted to keep an eye on his idiot of a brother to try and make sure he didn't do anything else stupid, not that what Dumbledore's been doing is his fault since it's not like he knows everything his brother gets up to. And also, to prove the message came from her, Ariana told me the spot the two of them liked to hide as children and the little game they made up to pass the time, all of which only she and Aberforth knew. And in the fact that despite the attempts to lock it down, the stone is indeed gone and its magical signature matches my new ring."
As she finishes saying that, Vergil gets far enough that he can finally sense his wife. His eyes tear up. His mate. His Goddess. He's incredibly torn between feeling relief that she's back and he can sense her and the fact he can feel how much pain she's in.
Her shoulders also relax at the same time Shuraba lets out a sharp breath and his ability to sense her comes back, but Vergil swiftly gives her a look, "I'm not done yet."
She nods, and Eva huffs, "Alessio, come over here." He does as asked without hesitation, and she doesn't so much as glance at him from where she's utterly focused on Marzanna, "Help me out. The Angelic and Demonic energy around her wounds is warped beyond belief and resisting my attempts to correct it."
Marzanna, who's eyes had slipped closed, hums tiredly, "That's because they got bathed in the energy from Shuraba breaking from the Killing Curse, and at least some of the curse contaminated my wounds because of it. It's been warping all of my own energy that tries to move over to the infected area to fix it, which probably only strengthens the problem. I've been trying to hold a good portion of my power away from it because of that, but since at least some of it was slowly trickling through the tangled mess of energy to work on my wounds, I couldn't really try to withhold my energies from them entirely. And that's without taking into account that if I had it probably would have killed me."
Lily drops the family membership ring the portkey is attached to as she strides over to join the crowd growing around Marzanna in an attempt to treat her, "I may be able to help then, since I know how to drain a magical saturation, and while I'm not to sure how it'll take to that sort of mess, and I don't even know if it'll work on Angelic and Demonic energy, I can at the very least probably get rid of the Killing Curse residue."
Marzanna hums tiredly, and Lilt gives her a concerned look as she begins waving her wand, "Sweetie?"
Marzanna seems to pry her eyelids open, "Been passing out."
Then her eyes seem to close of their own accord, and Eva runs the fingers of her free hand through her bangs, "Sleep, honey. You're back with us and we've got you."
Marzanna mumbles something, then goes slack as she passes out. Once Vergil is done, he glares at the manacles before tearing them open, though he's careful not to hurt her in the process. After he tosses them away, he glances at his parents, and Alessio nods, "While it's true that sometimes too many people working on the same thing may get in each other's way, I'm pretty sure we could use all the help we can get." He glances over his shoulder, "On that note, since you're more familiar with actually using your power since Kyrie prefers not to fight, even if it's not your forte, I'm pretty sure you two could also help, Dante, Nero."
As the two quickly get to their feet and move over to them, Alessio glances at him, "Sorry Kazuto, but I don't think you've gotten enough familiarity with using your powers to be of much help."
And it doesn't necessarily feel good that he can't help his own mate, but since it's a matter of skill and his mate is being helped he'll content himself with just being near her, even if it's currently too crowded for him to go to her without getting in someone's way.
Honestly, he's pretty sure Yui's only being left alone because she's out of the way curled into Marzanna's lap. He supposes he's also grateful that his daughter at least gets to cling to her mother after so much time spent heartbroken at what had happened and terrified for her.
He'll just have to wait for now.
(1): I can practically hear some of you screaming at her right about now….
(2): Nephthys… is abso-fuckin-lutely based off of Gerudo from Legend of Zelda, fuckin sue me (don't do that, I'm broke as fuck) and I'm pretty sure a Scimitar, which is based on the LoZ Gerudo Scimitars, counts as a fast, light weapon if you had to classify it between that and slow, heavy weapon. Also, it just felt mean and didn't sit right with me to make it Demonic given the shitstorm with Ganon already giving them a bad name in universe even if DMC Demon isn't necessarily inherently evil, so. Anyway, for ff readers I uploaded the images of both the character creator view of her human form as well as the specific LoZ Gerudo Scimitar I'm using as a source for her weapon form over on my DeviantArt.