Stage 6 – Levy's Level, Cocytus, Home of the Envy Devils

The four girls found themselves in a stark contrast to the fiery depths they had traversed before. This time, they stood upon a frozen, frosty sea of icebergs and glaciers, shrouded beneath a sky of eternal twilight . The air was bitingly cold, almost to the point of being unbearably so.

"This place is even worse than the last one!" Iku shivered as she voiced her discontent, "Who could possibly live here? Who would even want to?"

"Envy devils!" Responded Eiki, "This is Cocytus, the Sixth Level of the Infernal Hell! They love cold, ice, darkness, and water, and this place has all four! Ladies… Our journey's almost at an end."

"Really?"

"Yes," Eiki nodded, "After this Level, there's only one Level left in this part of Hell. The bad news is that the Queen of the Level, Levy Tu Modo Secundum Rate, is one of the most, if not the most difficult, wretched, and pathetic of all the rulers of Hell."

"How can she possibly be worse than Mom-mam?!" asked Iku in confusion.

"She isn't as bad as Mom-mam." Eiki clarified, "But at least Mom-mam, as utterly greedy and cruel as she is, at least has people she genuinely cares about! Levy, Levy only cares about herself. She doesn't have even the slightest bit of empathy or compassion. She'd stab her own sister in the back if she'd get something out of it. In fact, she actually did! Poor Steery… Trapped forever in her own magic wand! She hates everyone and cares only about making a profit. Unless someone pays her off, she'll probably just let us pass just to get rid of us, so we probably won't even have to fight her. Just make sure you don't piss her off too much. Trust me; you do NOT want her to punish you!"

Reimu looked at Eiki and raised an eyebrow. "You sound like you speak from personal experience."

Eiki sighed. "I am. A couple of years or so ago, I met Levy in Gensokyo proper. As is my duty, I decided to pass judgment on her. As I did so, she got increasingly more aggravated. Eventually, she couldn't take it anymore and..."

"So what, she tried to kill you?"

"Kill me?" Eiki shook her head. "Oh, no. Levy is a coward. What she did do was use her magic to trap me in my own mirror, break it into four pieces, and scatter them across Gensokyo. Fortunately, Komachi gathered the pieces, fixed the mirror, and freed me."

"Komachi made her pay, didn't she?"

"Yes," Eiki affirmed, "She was far from the first, too. There's a reason why most of her body is covered with scar tissue."

"Yeesh," Interjected Marisa, "She sounds really bad. But, it's not like we gotta choice, ze. Let's get this over with. Where's her castle, Eiki?"

"It's carved out of that giant iceberg. Don't be fooled by its size; she lives alone. She's a complete recluse among the envy devils, but personally, I think it's just because her personality is just that caustic."

"Still bitter about her punishment, eh?" Said Reimu.

"Is it that obvious?" Eiki responded flatly, "Let's just get this over with; I want to spend as little time around her as possible."

The girls entered the castle. After entering they walked through the vast empty hallways, they can't help but notice the icy effigies of envy devils and various other creatures that cover the walls and crowd the floor. Many of them have been shattered or are broken in some way. The four of them couldn't help but feel that the statues are watching them.

"Ugh… What's with all of these creepy statues?" Asked Reimu, unease evident in her voice, "And why are there so many of them?"

"They're effigies of people Levy hates." Eiki explained, "She creates them with her magic, and then destroys them at her pleasure. The ones she really hates are weak and fragile, so they're easier to break."

"How disturbing…" Remarked Reimu, "You were not kidding when you said she hated everyone! Why are most of them statues of one person?"

"Those are effigies of herself! Out of everyone she hates, she hates herself most of all. True to her name, Levy is jealous of those stronger and who have it better than her, for they are able to feel love and make friends. And that, for all of her power and grandstanding, is the one thing she can never do."

Levy must be even more miserable than Faygir… This feeling of sheer melancholy is so intense it's giving me a headache! Thought Reimu. However, she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye and decided to alert the others.

"…Eh?! Girls, I think I just saw one of these statues move!"

"Huh?" Asked Marisa as she inspected one of the statues, "I don't see any-AGH!"

Suddenly the statue Marisa was inspecting backhanded her! At that moment all of the intact statues came to life and attacked them. They tried to fight back, but for every one they destroyed, two more took its place. Still, they continued to struggle, but eventually they noticed that the statues were trying to force them to go somewhere. Realizing they had no other choice, they allowed themselves to be taken to the throne room of the castle. Once there, the statues formed a wall, trapping them. They then heard a young girl's voice coming from all around them. It was slow, slurred, and deep and distorted, as if it was coming from deep underwater.

"Give me your fear. Give me your hate. Give me your rage. Give me your sorrow. Give me your suffering."

"LEVY!" Demanded Eiki angrily, "Stop trying to mess with us! It's not working. Show yourself!"

A small puddle of cold water began to bubble up in front of them. As it grew, a moving dark shape began to form within it. When the shape grew to about the size of a person, the head of a young girl with long blue green pigtails and very dark green, almost black pits for eyes rises from the water. This is followed by the rest of her body, rising up on a waterspout. She hopped off of the waterspout and seemed to glare at them. This was Levy Tu Modo Secundum Rate, the Queen of the envy devils.

Levy was dressed like a weird parody of your typical magical girl. She wore a puffy light green dress with two bows arranged at either side of her skirt, underneath which she wore what looked like a deep sea diving suit. She sports two bows in her hair, supporting her twin-tails, as well as a blue ribbon around her neck, which is tied in a bow in the back. The front of her torso had a pale green segment surrounded by dark green frills with a dark green placket running down the center, decorated by five blue buttons. She has two small straps that connect from the front to the back of the dress over her shoulders, and short, puffy sleeves with frilly ends. In between her shoulder blades and just below her neck, there was a heart-shaped hole in the back of her dress.

Her skirt's ends were akin to a deep sea fish's fins; each one decorated with very dark blue-green edges and three teal teardrop-shaped designs lay atop a big, dark blue petticoat, which is notably frilly underneath. Under her skirt were blue and green striped tights and on her feet were shoes that resembled flippers. She wore a pair of diving goggles on her forehead and she carried with her an aquamarine magic wand that resembles a high-tech sniper rifle that had a green heart-shaped ring with a dark blue gemstone inside it. Her wings looked like spiny lime green dorsal fins and the visible parts of her body were covered in green scales.

"So you're Levy." Stated Reimu, not wanting to get punished, "We don't want any trouble; we just want to get to the next Level. Just let us leave and-"

"No." interrupted Levy, "You're not going to go any farther."

"Why?" Protested Marisa, "Did we say something wrong, ze?"

"It's nothing personal, you lot. Just a job," Levy explained, "I've been paid to halt your progress by any means necessary. This includes killing you, but for some reason, my employer doesn't want to take the easy way out, so I'll give you the option to just leave."

"A job?!" questioned the bewildered Iku,"What are you talking about?"

"Ugh. Isn't it obvious?" Levy replied with terminal aggravation in her voice, "I'm a mercenary. People pay me to do stuff for them, and I do it. You clearly can't make a better offer, so just get out of here." She narrowed her eyes hatefully, "The sight of you four sickens me."

"I can see why you said she can never be able to feel love and make friends, Eiki Shiki," Noted Iku, who was more than a little turned off by her rude behavior, "With an attitude like this, she must be hated as much as she hates everyone else."

"It's true." Levy shrugged. "I won't deny what you said, Eiki. No matter how hard you try, at least one person is going to hate you, so why bother trying at all? It's just as pointless and worthless and useless as everyone and everything else in this puke stain of a world."

"Enough!" Reimu declared, "I don't care about your cynicism, Levy, and we're not going anywhere except to the next Level. How about this? Marisa and I have a Spell Card Battle with you, and if you win, you let us pass."

"Eh. Why not? If it'll get you lot out of my face… But when I win, you have to leave Hell entirely."

"You're awfully cocky. Deal. Let's go, Marisa!"

"Be careful, you two," warned Eiki, "Levy may talk a big game and act like a big shot, but she more than has the skills to back her up."

"Is she really that strong?" Asked Marisa with a skeptical tone of voice.

"Oh yes. Even Hecatia acknowledges her skill and power, outright calling her one of the best mages in Hell."

"Yeah?" Reimu added, clearly unafraid, "Well, considering we're the ones who defeated Hecatia, I'm not too worried."

"Not ta mention I'm one'a the best mages in Gensokyo!" Chimed in Marisa, "But enough talk. Let's kick her butt already!"

Levy was beyond unimpressed. She seemed to roll her eyes at them and pointed her magic wand at them as she gave them both a big thumbs down.

"Hrmph! Whatever. Let's just get this over with. I want you out of here ASAP."

Deciding to kick the battle off before someone as supposedly as powerful as Levy could try anything too terrible, Reimu and Marisa launched into an immediate assault. But Levy was quick to evade; with a splash, she jumped into the ground, navigating the space between spaces on the ground like an expert swimmer. The duo fired shots at her elusive silhouette, but their efforts proved futile.

Abruptly, Levy burst from the ground, unleashing a barrage of bullets. A counterattack ensued, each side striving to outgun the other. As the girls managed to land hits, they discerned a pattern in Levy's movements. She alternated between swimming beneath the surface, surfacing to snipe, and executing a leaping arc attack, and other attacks such as sending whirlpools at them to chase them around, shears of ice to cut them in half and clawed arms of crackling darkness that reached out to claw at them from random portions of them room.

After several successful hits, Levy, seething with resentment, unleashed her first Spell Card: Invidia Sign "Dead". She emerged from the ground and started spinning at a rapid pace, emitting waves of white coldness that turned the surrounding area into a frozen wasteland.

Every wave missed its mark, which was met with scornful glares from the archdevil even as she was pelted by the constant stream of attacks from the two girls. Undeterred, she launched right into her second Spell Card: Invidia Sign "Submerge". She started too rapidly and repeatedly fire bullets of compressed water from her magic wand into the ground that made powerful geysers and tidal waves appear shortly after each bullet hit the ground only to face the same outcome: a miss and retaliatory strikes from Reimu and Marisa.

Dissolving back into the earth, Levy shifted tactics. Now she traversed not just the ground but also the walls and ceiling, complicating the fight. Despite her elusive maneuvers, the duo continued their onslaught, hitting her relentlessly. Frustrated, Levy resorted to using both her third and fourth Spell Cards at once, hoping to turn the tide. First, she used Invidia Sign "Revolution". She raised her magic wand while spinning and unleashes a rapidly expanding swirling vortex of blue and green ribbon, tooth, and spine shaped projectiles made of destructive energy, while a big bright vertical light green beam of magical power appeared all around her. While she was doing that, she was secretly charging up her next Spell Card.

This Card was Invidia Sign "Nothing". No sooner had the vortex vanished than did she raise her magic wand again and generated a field of crackling dark power and lightning around her that she absorbed into her wand, then did a spinning dive into the ground as she rushed right at them, popped up in front of them and fires it at their closest vital part at point-blank range. The resulting blast was absolutely massive; it took up more than half of the entire throne room and completely obliterated the wall of solid ice blocking the exit. But Reimu and Marisa couldn't turn tail and run now, so they just took a quick break to see if Iku and Eiki were unharmed.

Judging by the angry shouting of the two young-looking women, who had just gotten out of the blast by the skin of their teeth, they were just fine. Reimu and Marisa also couldn't help but notice that not only did Levy not seem to care that the two bystanders didn't get hit, but she actually seemed disappointed that they weren't hit! Even Reimu had to frown at that part.

I'm starting to see why everyone hates her so much, thought Reimu to herself. Everyone I've ever fought when there are innocent bystanders has tried to avoid accidentally hitting people with Danmaku! But with her… I get the feeling she would take hostages if it gave her a leg up during fights. Reimu shook her head, We'd better settle this before she gets an idea like that!

A pause then followed as Levy's increasingly frustrated voice (although from what Reimu, Marisa and Iku could tell, she always sounded like that), echoed from all around them. It was slow, slurred, deep and distorted again, as she had submerged once more.

"Tch. Let's see how you two handle some synchronized swimming."

Her single silhouette began to multiply at an astounding pace until there were hundreds if not thousands of her swimming around, emerging from the icy, water-soaked floor. They absorbed the girls' attacks, fired off even more bullets of water, ice and magic, and detonated violently when hit.

Amidst the chaos, Levy used yet another Spell Card, this one being Invidia Sign "World". Aiming her wand at the two girls, she fired five bullets into a dimensional rift she created in front of her. After that, rifts surrounded them both and fired out countless bullets, yet it too veered off course. The discerning eye of Reimu and Marisa soon pinpointed the authentic Levy, the one adhering to her established pattern and in general was staying underground the longest.

Leaping out of the ground, Levy shielded herself with a shell of ice, relentlessly firing shots that homed in on the duo. Despite a brief respite between blasts, Both Reimu and Marisa knew that the ice shell needed dismantling. The girls succeeded, only to find Levy soaring out, unscathed; initiating her next Spell Card. This one was Invidia Sign "Inflation". She fired off a thin beam of light that created a powerful vortex that sucked them in as well as many smaller shots.

They flew as fast and as far as they could while zipping around the smaller shots and copies of Levy that still exploded when they got too close, not wanting to get sucked in. They didn't even want to know what would happen if they were trapped inside that thing, but fortunately they never got a chance to find out. Nimble dodges and a potent counterattack sent her crashing into the walls.

Undeterred, Levy surfaced from the ceiling, armed with her last two Spell Cards, and these were her two of the most powerful Cards she had. First, she used Invidia Sign "Honeymoon". She raised her magic wand and started spinning at a rapid pace, releasing heart shaped walls of destructive light everywhere around her. Reimu and Marisa were almost completely crushed by the walls, but they managed to blast through them all.

But alas, they were only greeted by Invidia Sign "Planet". She split into ten copies of herself and nine of them started firing off countless large energy balls at them, followed by the tenth zipping in front of them and firing off a gigantic blast aimed at their cores.

The duo skillfully dodged the onslaught, and Levy started sinking again, this time in midair. But Reimu seized the opportunity and unleashed one of her Last Words, this one being Divine Arts "Omnidirectional Dragon-Slaying Circle". Levy was only up to her knees when it hit, and therefore had no choice but to take it. The powerful Card instantly incapacitated her, forcing her to drop her wand as she plummeted to the ground, the silence being broken only by a resounding splash. She sank into the ground and as she reemerged, all her injuries were miraculously healed.

"It's over, Levy!" Asserted Reimu, pointing at her, "We won fair and square. Now let us pass."

"Oh, of course I will! …Not. When I said your journey stops here, I meant it!"

"WHAT!? Yer not playin' fair, Levy!" Exclaimed Marisa, outraged.

"Play fair?" Levy retorted in a deadpan tone, "You do realize I'm a devil, right? We're all a bunch of greedy, self-serving, arrogant, envious, indolent, lustful, wrathful, and ambitious monsters. So why, then, should I play by your rules? Why should any of our kind?"

In a final attempt, the girls charged at Levy, but she submerged into the ground, swam up the walls and emerged on the ceiling. She pointed her magic wand at them. "Don't bother," Levy coldly declared, "I guess I'll just have to kill you all, then…"

Before Levy could act further, her magic wand started to shake, rattle and glow. Puzzled, Levy halted her aggressive stance, holding the wand up to her face, a visible scowl etched on her features as she glared at the gem embedded in it.

"Look sis, I'm busy right now and I'm not in the mood for-" Levy grumbled, but her sister seemed to cut her off, "…What, really? You're sure? Hmmm… Now that you mention it, they do have a depressing tendency to stick their noses where they don't belong. …Alright, alright, I'll do it."

With an abrupt movement, Levy leaped into the ceiling, swam down the walls and emerged in front of the four girls. Raising her wand, she created an immense waterfall that materialized in midair, splashing onto the ground. The descending water formed a curtain, parting down the middle and revealing a thick shroud of mist beyond.

"As much as I hate to admit it, my sister has brought up some good points," Levy announced, "So I've changed my mind. You can all pass."

The sudden shift in Levy's demeanor left the girls befuddled. Nevertheless, they collectively shrugged off their confusion, thanked her, and proceeded to exit the throne room. The waterfall ceased behind them as Levy lingered, looking up at the ceiling. As she spoke to Lucy, who had been watching the fight from afar, her tone carryed an undercurrent of fear.

"Queen Lucy, boss… Please hear me out." Levy pleaded, "My sister has told me that regardless of how your plan goes, those two will get in your way sooner or later, and for once I actually agree with her. You're better off letting them come to you once you're free, then completely crushing them. I take it you'll be free by the time they reach you?"

A warm golden light descended from above, accompanied by Lucy's voice.

"Indeed, I will." Lucy assured, "But you needn't worry, my dear, sweet Levy. I'm not mad at all. Everything that has happened so far has gone according to my design. I think I've gathered enough data on their skill that I should be able to beat them if they don't listen to reason. Now please gather the other Archdevils. My freedom can only be done as a group effort, after all. Hahahaha…"

"You got it, boss."

Levy saluted in response before leaping into the ground with a splash and swiftly swimming away, her form disappearing into the depths of the icy, wet floor.