A dark skinned man checked the trees of the small village he managed to pull together, pink circles and rough lines breaking his skin as the scars carved in ritualistic offering to his duty made it impossible to not recognize him. He smiled at the little boys and girls watering the plants, thin almost to the point of sickness, but otherwise happy. Safe now that he had managed to push back the invading forces that threatened to destroy everything just to get to the dark liquid lying underneath their small village.
If everything went well, he wouldn't have to fight in a couple of weeks. But things seldom went well. He could call for Azazel, ask for a couple of favors but… No. Human problems had to be dealt with by humans. The resources that the archaic entity gifted him were more than enough. This man had a purpose, and he'd not give it up no matter what.
He spun on his heel, attempting to go check on the people that needed medical care and—.
Light, glory. The black dragon roared in defiance as the god loomed over him. Clearly injured beyond his ability to recover. The god said something, but the words were nothing but gibberish. The god used his weapon and the dragon died.
The man came back to his senses, finding himself on the floor as the people he seeked to protect gathered around him. Troubled, some even outright scared. His first instinct was to tell them he was okay, but no words came out of his mouth. Something had changed, again, and even his powers threatened to rebel against him at this very moment.
What did Azazel do now?
A nun walked alongside the pond that her chapel had installed to the right of the building, throwing fish food for the little critters that called it their home. Expression blank, and not really caring where the food fell. Some landed on the grass, some on rock. The squirrels would probably eat those, it didn't matter. To this nun, very little did. She simply followed her routine and avoided working as much as she could. In this way, she lived the days that remained in her long, bloody, life.
A young woman with long black hair followed her closely, wearing similar clothes to those of the nun but not really being affiliated with the congregation. She, unlike the nun, could do as she pleased. So of course the nun used her as her spokesperson, to speak on her behalf and explain the things that the nun couldn't be bothered with.
When she finished feeding the fishes, she took a cigar from a hidden pocket in her attire and pressed a finger against one of the ends as she took the thing between her lips. A small black flame lit up the thing and she took a drag as she handed the raven haired helper the fish food.
The nun turned around to go back inside. She now wanted a drink, even if the children in her care got angry. Perhaps some wine would—.
Black flames encroached the land, vaporizing the sacred waters of the river that the dragon had seeked to swallow whole. The light of the deity shone upon the creature, but it was too small and too little… Or so it seemed. The blast pierced its skull, a certain hit that made the dragon feel its bones part and the gray matter within be vaporized as the god's weapon devastated everything in its path…
The nun reacted in the only way she could. Decades of violence concentrated into a needle's hole: She attacked, punched her helper with so much intensity that the young woman's nose cracked under the force. The nun panted, feeling disoriented but finding no foes to beat. Her flames roared and stole the life of plantlife and fish alike. The young woman didn't protest and merely put her nose back together, yelling at the children to come see their surrogate mother. A bit of panic in her voice.
The nun needed some time to recognize anyone.
A man walked in slow motion, lunar debris kicked off by his gait. His space suit looked between normal and a futuristic cosplay of some sort. Kind of slim, with patterns that looked straight out of a movie, and tendrils that should connect to somewhere floating around carelessly. Earth loomed overhead, but the man had long since stopped staring longingly at it. This place would become his grave, and he had accepted that fact a long time ago. Be it by his hubris, or by any other factors… It didn't matter. It had stopped mattering a long time ago.
Energy flared up in his helmet, a purple shot of fire lighting up the figure of an empty skull. Whether this was caused by the things happening on Earth or not… The man wouldn't know. He didn't know much about anything anymore, and the backlash from the Evil Dragon King's soul trying to force itself together made the man on the moon only stop in his tracks. His consciousness, for however long it had vanished, took stock of his surroundings for the briefest of moments.
He looked up, and Earth looked the same as it had before. A hand reached out, but the man's mind didn't stay for long. Soon enough, he returned to his monotonous walking. His goals and hopes long forgotten against the arid surface of the celestial body.
A tired-looking man worked on a person lying unconscious on the operation table, his arms coated in gauntlets that had at least two tools in each finger. Meant to cut, separate, grab, and pierce; some doing more than one thing even. He hid his face with a mask that had magnifying glasses on one eye, and several smaller glasses on the other. Working tirelessly but meticulously. Slow enough that he might seem like a statue save for his hands, but making obvious progress.
He felt the soul within stir, stopped in his tracks instants before the wave hit him.
The black snake coiled in on itself, agony spreading all over its body. With black flames erupting from within as the god pushed the attack. It howled, a sad and pathetic noise that all the same made the earth rumble. Forced the lifeforce out of everything around because the being suffering was still a Dragon King, and an Evil Dragon to boot. It fought, even while half dead. And it knew that its carcass would defile the land long after its passing… Still, it didn't want to die. It willed itself back to life, injuries closing due to the sheer power a dragon carried. But it was too slow, too little. It had already died, its soul simply hadn't noticed yet.
The man took off his mask, noticing how he stabbed into his patient while the hallucination took place.
The man scoffed and took off his gauntlets in a very annoyed fashion. He went to the edge of the room and pulled a lever. The patient's bed turned around and moved on its own as a furnace opened up to reveal the liquid fire within. The patient, if they were lucky, would not wake up before the door closed again.
Sin Devourer saw the lights. Hundreds, thousands. Pulled from within the void as Vritra's dying will made the soul fragments converge, pulled back in the way it had meant while it lived. The lights were not pieces of Vritra, confined as they were by the Sacred Gear system. Instead, these motes took other forms: A child, a pumpkin-mask wearing young girl, Elijah the Witch Hunter. These were the fragments, the vestiges of past Vritra hosts. Those that tore loose from the Heavenly System as Vritra called for itself, those that should've been resting in peace but couldn't. Forever trapped within their Sacred Gears… Until now.
The vestiges answered the call, and one by one allowed themselves to be absorbed back into the bigger whole. Sin Devourer hadn't been born with Absorption Line, but the Sacred Gear's pull was unmistakable. Almost hurtful to resist in the way that the Miracle Child did. But the Nemesis found purchase in the moment of hesitation, and his Snake of Infinity blocked out the power absorption in a small area. Just big enough to squeeze a couple more people, but small enough that Sin Devourer had to hug the Nemesis closer to give room for Miyuzuin Yaegaki-Belial and Yuuto Kiba.
"Imagine Dragon…" Sin Devourer murmured as the ghastly form of Vritra blocked out the sun, and its reptilian body coiled as it took in its surroundings. All shadowy spikes and scales, oozing a miasma of black flames and dark aura that forced everything to wither and die in seconds "It is awake, but it isn't complete. It seeks out the rest of itself but…"
"Less talking, more fixing." The Nemesis groaned, pushing the domain of infinity a bit further to let more people in "His Vritra Promotion just activated and I…"
"Imagine Dragon." Sin Devourer repeated "I named it first. Therefore, it is now called Imagine Dragon."
Miyuzuin Yaegaki-Belial lifted up her palm, and the curses receded. Her Worthless kept them at bait, and the nekomata sisters caught up to her.
They used their own purifying powers to stave off the cursed flames, relieving everyone within the Nemesis' zone to stop slowly dying a painful death by the curses.
"Thanks." Said Rias Gremory's swordsman.
"What now?" The smaller nekomata asked.
The Nemesis turned to his Queen.
"Don't look at me like that. If you want me to do something, then give me enough context to make the call."
"This is a transformation that comes from his Sacred Gears working in tandem… I believe it activated because Vritra just woke up." The dragon roared as the Nemesis spoke, fighting something or someone on the other side. Its movements displaced the air, but the Nemesis' Kankara Formula kept everyone anchored in place.
Trees unrooted and flew in the air, buildings lost structure and collapsed against the tornados left behind by the ghastly giant snake. Sin Devourer felt the souls of the regular townsfolk perishing one by one, of those that hadn't been displaced by Dimension Lost.
Carnage. Regardless of whether this pushed the Hero Faction back or not, very little would remain in Kuoh Town to salvage.
"So Gen's inside of that thing?" The older nekomata asked.
"Yes."
"Okay, I can probably find where exactly." She replied and her attention shifted toward the giant snake.
"Yuuto, do you have any dragon slayer weapons?" The Nemesis nodded and moved on.
"Eh? Don't tell me…"
"Gen's strong enough to survive Gram, if it comes to it." Miyuzuin added, her mind already spinning around to form a plan "Furthermore, if it's the replica he has, it should be even more okay."
"Wait, you don't mean to attack your own peerage member with my Gram… Right? It's a bluff, right?!" Kiba Yuuto looked very taken aback, probably because of the Nemesis' influence keeping his mind from centering itself. Way too many negative emotions at once for his own good.
"Yes." Miyuzuin turned to the Nemesis, who looked just as worried as Kiba Yuuto "It'll work. Gen's strong like that."
"Okay, but how do you suggest we get close enough to… That." The swordsman pointed at the being that had slithered its way closer to the center of the town.
A spear extended for kilometers on end. It struck the ghastly being, but the attack only seemed to have angered it more. Its aura bloated out the sky, making everything look desaturated. Darker, deader. The energy that the dragon acquired went to good use. The infinity and sacred powers from the Nemesis and Cao Cao's Longinus made for a very strong structure. That it kept on leeching off from the world itself helped, and the heroes couldn't quite deal with the wave of darkness and weakness that came with it.
Another youkai landed close by the sandwiched group, a young man.
"This is a mess." Bikou stated, bringing Bel Lucifer close to him to carry her like a bag of potatoes "I told you not to get involved with the racist humans."
"Shut up." The Vanishing Dragon gritted her teeth "It just caught me by surprise, that's all."
"Yeah, right. Let's go. You had your fun, and Ophis will get bored of blocking the Demon Lords sooner than later."
"Actually, I'd love to have this girl help us bring Genshirou out of… That form." The Nemesis eyes Sin Devourer, a bit annoyed but otherwise focused "I can give her strength to keep fighting."
"Not like I'd turn you down normally, but I'd rather not." Bikou replied "She already got her hands very deeply into this mess, we don't need to—."
"We can tell Azazel she helped, this once." The Nemesis interrupted him "I can help her bluff just this once, in exchange for my subordinate's safety."
"You'd betray everyone's trust for this guy?" Bikou sounded surprised.
"I'd tear this world apart for his and my girls' happiness." The Nemesis stated in a single breath.
"Can you guys stop being melodramatic?!" Kuroka hissed, almost clawing at the Nemesis' face but stopping as she remembered the carvings on his face "I… I found Gen. It's close to the head of that thing."
"Imagine Dragon." Sin Devourer reminded her.
"Wow, okay." Bikou looked taken aback, like the mood whiplash didn't really let him say his part "Bel? That's your call, of course."
"That damn thing ignores my dividing abilities." The heiress of Lucifer pushed herself off the youkai's shoulder. Landing on her feet "Asshole. I was going easy on him so we could enjoy ourselves, but I'm done. I'll show him what fighting me is really about."
Her Divine Dividing rematerialized, Balance Breaker and all, as the Nemesis' power of infinity covered for her loss of power.
[DIVIDE] [DIVIDE] [DIVIDE] [DIVIDE] [DIVIDE] [DIVIDE] [DIVIDE] [DIVIDE]
The Nemesis groaned as power left his body, but his powers remained. The snake within him was too deeply engraved into his being now, even the two dragons working together wouldn't leave him powerless anymore. They could weaken him, sure. But he wouldn't stop fueling his spells. It didn't work like that for him anymore.
"I have a bad feeling about this…" The Nemesis stated before the Scale Mail armor spread its wings to their maximum capacity.
[Half Dimension]
"I fucking knew it!"
Sin Devourer pushed him, startling both the Invader and his group.
"Go, Nemesis. I shall take with me the rest of our forces!" Sin Devourer disappeared, still aware of the group's movements as they took the hint and started their plan "Make it so we don't regret this day."
The cursed flames ate away at his health, but Kuroka purified everyone's bodies just as quickly as the miasma took hold. L****s dragged them all by warping gravity and wind at once, pushing them forward faster than any of them could fly. Almost too fast, in fact, as the steering through his Kankara Formula could only compare to a drunk duck trying to fly like an eagle does.
The ghost of the Prison Dragon stiffened, forced into incredible pressure by Bel's move as the Hero Faction scrambled to push back the imaginary dragon. Genshirou answered with more flame, but the Divine Dividing forced that to shrink too, making the attack a lot less potent than it should be.
The aura weakened due to the warped space, and for a moment L****s had the opportunity to accelerate and find the spot that Kuroka mentioned. Now, there was only one problem…
"How the fuck do we invade the space warped by Half Dimension?" L****s murmured as they hovered above the imaginary dragon, sweating profusely as the heat of the flames reached him while still being several meters above.
"I can't render it Worthless, Bel's stronger than me." Miyuzuin dutifully informed him as they saw Cao Cao push back the dragon again, buying his teammates time to disappear through Dimension Lost.
The mist tried to swallow the dragon too, but it quickly heated up and became more cursed flames as the dragon angrily pushed for the Hero.
If Cao Cao was pushed too far, he'd activate Truth Idea. L****s didn't want Cao Cao to activate Truth Idea.
"I can fire All is Mine." He suggested "I… Genshirou didn't take it all away, but if he absorbs all the power I stockpiled…"
"You'll die." Miyuzuin stated.
"I won't." L****s assured her "I just… Need to be very quick."
"No. We don't do death gambits in this team." Miyuzuin sounded a lot more venomous than usual, actually angry instead of just annoyed.
"There's no time for keeping the white globe on, Miyuzuin." L****s spoke freely, as they only took Yuuto's sword with them. Not the guy himself.
"No. And that's final." The Belial girl gave him a devastatingly sure stare "Just no."
L****s could hear the hurt in her voice, even if she tried to drown it with anger. She looked so lonely…
L****s turned to Kuroka.
"I know what you'll ask, I can try. But the closer we get…"
"Why didn't we take your sister?"
"Because I don't want her to die!" Kuroka tried to claw at L****s, but he kept her pinned in her spot.
"Then, we lunge all together." L****s motioned with his hand, and the Gram replica flew into Miyuzuin's hands.
"Don't do this, don't try to kill yourself." She warned him, voice cold but filled with sorrow.
"I'll keep you guys safe, Kuroka will purify our surroundings… Use your Worthless." L****s spoke calmly, trying to bring Miyuzuin back to reality "You know where to aim?"
She took a moment, but after she grabbed the weapon her eyes got sharp again.
"I… Yes. I won't miss."
"Okay." L****s looked down, the dragon had been reduced in size several times already, but nothing kept Bel from having her power drained. So Genshirou took back his strength faster now, not as confined as the Half Dimension that Bel was so proud of.
It just hit L****s that he should've given her the power to activate her Juggernaut Drive. That'd have…
Wait, where is Fate Weaver?
"Where's that asshole?"
"Must've left to protect the devil girls, meow." Kuroka looked away "He obviously has a thing for them."
"He could've helped!"
"Do you really feel confident in leaving Genshirou's wellbeing to him?" Miyuzuin retorted.
"...Let's finish this." L****s ignored the question.
He reached out to his mind's eye, to the place in his unconscious that operated the formulae that kept his demonic power functioning. His Kankara Formula took power and twisted reality with it. Changing his surroundings to work in the way that he intended for them.
L****s reversed the equation, forcing the atmosphere itself to push them all down with the force of a meteorite.
They dove for the neck of the imaginary dragon, with Kankara Formula compensating for the air drag so they wouldn't catch fire. Keeping the conditions ideal, so they wouldn't kill themselves in the process.
"There!" Kuroka pointed, and Miyuzuin pressed the sword forward. Dark aura was purified by the catgirl, its power dampened by the Belial girl's Worthless as L****s protected them with a coat of infinity for Genshirou to drain instead of their power.
The transformation was massive, within seconds all they could see was the dark wispy form of its snake-like body. It took a couple of seconds more for them to land, but L****s had to change the formulae beforehand, to give enough time for his power to arrest their fall.
Miyuzuin got loose from their formation, keeping her momentum. She swung the Gram replica with practiced ease, slicing through it with a wave of demonic power that allowed her to enter the projected body of the dragon.
A ghastly screech pierced L****s' eardrums, shaking him to his very bones.
Miyuzuin pierced through the other side of the Imagine Dragon, Genshirou under the other arm.
L****s was close to losing consciousness, but he tried to grab her with Kankara Formula all the same.
He smirked, the free-falling form of that silver haired girl raising her hand in obvious victory feeling like the most radiant thing he had ever seen in his whole life.
He passed out due to the toll the adrenaline had in his body, blissfully ignorant to how everyone would clean up this mess.
Kuroka had to keep him from turning into a smear on the ground.