You guys see that new episode of FT? I've never been one to feel bad for villains, but poor Rustyrose man. I hope he does join Crime Sociere. For any wondering, it's basically canon, as the author said he had to leave some stuff out of the manga because of time restrictions.
Of course if Rusty does join, I' have to make up some BS reason as to why he wasn't in the Devil Advocate arc...
Enjoy!
Drake had been following the slight sound of footsteps, making sure he kept his distance so that Quintus wold not become wise to Drake. trailing him. It was a pain trying to follow footsteps all the while avoiding shadow walls and falling in the water and alerting Quintus, but Drake could only do so much at one time. One another matter, Drake found it a bit suspicious that Quintus was not aware he was being followed. Had he not kept his eye on Drake after we went down that pipe? Didn't matter, he was still following him. Quintus footsteps were very close now, Drake had closed the distance considerably in the past few minutes. Any moment now, he could strike the man and that was that.
Quintus stopped for a moment, and Drake held his breath. Had he been discovered? Was this going to start a brawl? No, he was fine. Quintus had only paused for a moment before he continued. Drake let out a shaky breath before he continued his tracking, keeping his hands on the walls to make sure he kept his balance and didn't fall in the water or anything. While he did so, Drake had some time to think about the situation at hand. He and Winter were separated, Apocalypse was on his way to the cannon and, as far as Drake knew, nobody was on their way to stop him. That was easily the biggest problem out of them all thus far. If the man got his hands on that cannon, there was no telling what would happen or who would pay the price.
Of course, maybe he's not even going to fire it an anyone.
It was always a possibility the cannon was being used to power up the Olympians, or whatever it is they wanted. After all, they could just pull a Tower of Heaven, right? Whatever the aim was didn't matter. it needed to be stopped. Drake had gained a little bit of speed since he'd been absorbed into his thoughts, and was much closer to Quintus now.
Time to strike.
getting closer behind Quintus, Drake decided to attack. Launching forward and twisting the arm he'd grabbed, Drake grappled with Quintus until he had him against the wall.
"Caught you, you bastard." Drake hissed.
"...Drake?" Drake's eyes widened.
"...Winter?" After a little bit of light struck the area, Drake could see the girls face mere inches from his, looking rather startled. "What the... I was tracking you?"
"You were tracking me?" Winter asked weakly. Drake released her and stepped back, sighing.
"I heard footsteps. I assumed we'd been split up to far away for it to be you, but..." Drake growled. "Looks like I was tricked."
"Yeah." Winter agreed quietly.
"I should've seen that coming, why would Quintus be walking around freely? That'd make no sense." Drake wallowed in his stupidity before he looked over at Winter. "Anything interesting happen on your end?"
"No, not at all." Winter replied earnestly. "Before you got back here." Drake growled and crossed his arms. They were right back at square one, with no more leads than they'd had before.
"Well, let's just go in this direction." he said, pointing the way Winter had been going regardless. "We don't have much of a choice."
"Alright, after you." Now that Drake had been reunited with Winter, they had nothing more on Quintus or Apocalypse than before. Just how the hell were they supposed to get this guy? The shadows were everywhere, which meant Quintus was too. He could've tormented both of them while they were alone, but he hadn't. What was his goal.
To distract us, right.
Quintus obviously had no intention of killing Drake or Winter. He just needed to keep them busy, just like he'd said. This only infuriated Drake more, as the man was doing nothing more than toying with the two of them.
"We don't have time for this crap." Drake hissed as the two continued on. "What if no one on they're way to stop them?"
"Then we done messed up." Winter replied. "We aren't in the position to stop and wonder."
"Yeah you're right, but this is getting...!" Drake's sentence was cut off as his next step entered empty space, and he fell forward.
It wasn't into the water, it was into empty space.
Drake reacted as fast as he could, torquing his falling body in an attempt to grab the ledge he'd fallen off of. He felt his fingers grasp something, but due to the immense darkness he saw absolute nothing.
"What happened?!" Winter asked above him.
"There's a ledge!" Drake replied. Using sound magic, he gauged the difference between himself and Winter. At least twenty feet was between them, too long for Winter to try and help. His magic bounced downwards as well, revealing a very long drop into a cesspool below. "Don't move, you'll fall too!"
"Uh, alright." Winter replied unsteadily. "Are you sure you're alright? Are you right below me?"
"Give or take twenty feet." Drake said, looking around in the pitch black. "There's water below me, but I'm sure you're aware what it's like striking water from to high..."
"Yeah, like hitting pavement. Maybe if I try and control the air currents, I could..."
"Don't." Drake said, cutting her off. " You need to be able to see for that. Without your eyesight you might do more harm than good." Silence fell over the pair, neither sure what to do. Drake had a pretty firm grip on the ledge, but even he couldn't hold on forever. If only there was a way to slow my fall...Wait.
"Winter." Drake said, voice steady and confident. "I have an idea."
"I'm all ears."
"The only way I can think to get out of this is to have you fall down with me."
"Eh?!"
"I'll grab you, it's fine. I can sense your presence with my sound magic! Fall off the ledge, and I'll grab you. Once I do that I'm going to let go of the ledge, and you need to slow our fall as much as possible. Sound good?"
"..."
"Winter I know it sounds insane, but you need to trust me, okay? I'd never do anything that got you hurt." Winter sighed, Drake could sense her exasperation.
"And you wonder why women like you so much, I mean really."
"What?"
"If you want girls you meet to not fall in love with you, stop putting them ahead of your own safety." Drake could feel Winter's intense gaze bearing down on him. "Seriously, girls like that shit." He chuckled as he recalled a very similiar situation with a girl with dark purple hair.
"I see what you mean. Now, do you trust me or not?" Once Drake cast out another wave of sound magic, he had to at quickly as Winter fell nearly right on top of him, and he felt his hands clasp her upper arm. "Idiot! Tell me when you do that!"
"I thought you knew." Winter replied. "Now, let go and let's pray we don't die." Drake nodded, even thought Winter couldn't see that simple motion, and slowing unclasped his fingers from the ledge. Both of them tumbled through the open air, and Drake heard Winter curse.
"What's the matter?" he asked as the speed of their fall increased.
"There's barely a current in here!" She shouted back. "I can barely soften this at all!" Drake gulped. One more sound wave told him they'd hit the water very shortly.
He didn't have time for this. He found Winter's body by following her arm, and he latched onto her and positioned himself towards the water below.
"What the hell...?! I JUST SAID THIS IS WHY GIRLS LIKE YOU!"
Drake was about to reply when he felt his back hit the water, and everything went black.
"Iron Rock Pillar!" Damien caught the pillar and swung it towards the others, breaking them. This gave him enough time to jump out of Terra's way, as she had propelled her self towards him. Shuichi laughed as Damien landed.
"This is quite the show Damien." he said with a smile. "I suppose Terra is more than enough of a challenge for you."
"..." Replying wouldn't do him any good, Damien had to focus. Blasting rays of darkness magic at Terra, all were blocked by walls that came up out of the ground, and Terra was darting between them to make as much use of them as possible. A fist was slammed into his face once she reached him, and he used this momentum to blast upwards with his wings, and then right back down into Terra, creating a small crater.
"One thing still bothers me though, Damien." Damien cast an eye over at Shuichi as he tried to gain the upper hand against Terra.
"What?"
"Don't play stupid." Shuichi scolded. "I can sense it, I know you have what I have." Damien rolled his eyes at this. This was going to become the same problem he'd had with Taisho. Arguing about releasing Xisplate, and Damien would be forced to do it. Perhaps if he could free Terra from the mans control, they could do it together instead of Xisplate being released.
"I'm not playing stupid." Damien replied, throwing Terra towards Shuichi, ho waved the items in his hands which caused the earth to rise up and catch the girl. "If I was I'd have already released him and this battle would be over. I'm trying to solve this without death."
"Huh. I suppose I should have seen that coming." Shuichi said, taking a moment to consider something. "But you defeated Devil Advocate's Lord in that manner, why not now?"
"I didn't want to do it then." Damien shivered at the memories. They were hazy, barely even decipherable, but he very clearly remembered being engulfed by rage and killing Taisho, and then absorbing his soul. "I did because if I didn't, my friends would have died. The situation is not that drastic yet." Shuichi laughed, a dark sound that made Damien tense up.
"This is not a dire situation? Surely you remember that Apocalypse is after an Etherion Cannon?! In fact, the long term consequences of this fight far overshadow the one with Taisho." Damien knew that, but he also knew he did not have complete control over the Lord of Death. He;d lose himself in the anger again and, more likely than not, hurt innocent people.
"Surely you remember, Damien." Damien flinched as the smooth voice reached his ears. "A Lord cannot be bested by a mere demon."
"Terra is no Lord." Damien whispered back to Xisplate. "I don't want to hurt her."
"Fair enough, but just because Akirelys is physically weak does not mean he'll go down easily. He is a Lord, like Vantros and I."
"I know, but..." Damien weighed his options carefully as he kept his eyes on Shuichi's hands to make sure he didn't command Terra to do anything while he thought. On one hand, releasing Xisplate wouldn't be good. He knew full well after the DA battle he did not have complete control, the anger of the souls in the 12th Circle would once again overwhelm him. If he didn't, Shuichi would not be bested. Neither situation was all to pleasurable.
"What if I just don't defeat him?" Damien asked. "If I free Terra and flee, I could..."
"No." Xisplate interrupted. "He'll hunt you down, he'll find you. I understand Apocalypse needs to be stopped, but we are talking about another Demon Lord here. Fleeing is no an option."
"Then what do I do?!" Damien hissed. "I can't release you again, there's way to many innocent people around here!"
"There's always another way, Dreyar." Damien's eyes widened. He hadn't heard that voice in a long time, not since Taisho. "Not matter what, you find a way to defeat the enemy." At these words, a shiver went down Damien's spine.
Not from the words, from the drop in temperature around him.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Xisplate demanded. The other voice laughed as Damien slowly turned to face it.
"Whatever do you mean, Xissy?" Vantros from the 10th Circle of Judgment asked. "Am I not allowed to spectate?"
Where did Vantros come from? I hope you enjoyed, leave a review! Let's try and get ten!