"You dare?" Cao Cao's question almost got drowned by the sound of clashing blades and magic blasts. He looked very pissed off now, and L****s had the weird feeling that the hero's feelings were directed at him "You'd steal what is ours by birthright? Does your greed know no bounds?!"
L****s blinked a couple of times, preoccupied with keeping everyone from getting blown to bits by the Hero Faction's powers. Still feeling Genshirou take from the reserves he obtained and having his body put back together by Asia's Twilight Healing.
"Man, that's the shittiest thing to get angry over… Since forever." L****s changed his surroundings and pushed everyone away from the path of Cao Cao's spear, throwing Xenovia at him as L****s found himself surrounded by him and Bel on the other side.
Genshirou fought Bel as well as he could, transferring power and taking the holy element poisoning the devils between him and L****s. But this measurement wouldn't last.
Irina threw javelins at Bel, trying to encircle the Vanishing Dragon with them and conjure some sort of holy ward to keep her in. But it didn't quite work out. Bel noticed she had been trapped, and touched one of the javelins to divide its power until the ward shattered. Letting her move out freely again.
She kept her distance from Genshirou now, used more demonic blasts that L****s redirected whenever possible. She went on close quarters against Irina instead, and used the (natural) redhead as a meat shield whenever Genshirou tried to blast Bel with his cursed flames.
She was changing, adapting. Genshirou needed Kuroka's help and Bel had already figured out his gameplan.
"Whatever you mean by birthright? You guys just so happened to be born powerful! You weren't destined for anything, you just got lucky!" L****s kept speaking, unable to focus on the whole battlefield. And only seeing glimpses of his allies "I want to make the game field more even, and I should be allowed to!"
Fate Weaver shot a pillar of pure light in the middle of the battlefield, vaporizing Freed without much effort and bursting with speed to separate Bel from Genshirou.
"All you want is to take everything from mankind! Your filthy hands are filled with the blood of our people!" Cao Cao released a wave of holy energy that found Yuuto's wave of demonic power. They clashed in the middle, but Cao Cao's won out in the end.
Still, Yuuto hadn't just been using the powerful blasts of his new weapons.
Xenovia held a Caliburn in her hands, her Durandal sheathed in its dimensional pocket now. And a demonic sword of wind helped her push back Dimension Lost when the mist got too close.
Miyuzuin held another demonic sword, one that L****s didn't recognize, with her teeth. As she manipulated her own version of Durandal to stave off Siegfried's demonic swords.
The Hero Faction still wasn't using their Balance Breakers, but with Georg fighting for control over his own Sacred Gear with L****s; the fight seemed more even than before. His main concerns were now Bel and Cao Cao, with the first having Fate Weaver too occupied to help in other areas, and the latter breaking Yuuto's demon sword replicas with ease. Forcing the swordsman to spend even more power recreating them.
He wouldn't last. The first Balance Breaker activation always took a toll on its user, more than the next ones. And L****s couldn't just lose his new tool right off the bat. They needed to keep Yuuto on the field at least to make things more even.
"Genshirou, give more power to Yuuto!" L****s commanded, and almost got crushed by the True Longinus' blast of holy power.
Miyuzuin weakened the blast at the same time as Genshirou threw cursed flames against the blast. With the fire turning into a form of barrier as the added effects of Absorption Line and Delete Field separated from it.
L****s was pushed back, but Asia repaired the damage in the next second. Allowing the fake devil to regain his footing against Georg's spells.
Arthur came into view, but Shinon created a barrier of demonic swords that absorbed the Caliburn's holy aura with sheer proximity. They shattered instants later, sending debris against Arthur, who had to block because Miyuzuin made him get caught at the wrong time.
L****s blinked again, trying to remember what Cao Cao had said last. Before he barked out more orders for his team.
Not yet, no Balance Breaker. Did they have more to fight with?
L****s lost Rias and Benia in his confusion, seeing only Loup projecting wolf claws to help fight against Siegfried. Akeno ran interference with her lightning, buying L****s the precious seconds he needed to regain his footing against all the spells he was trying to change, and the Miracle Children…
…
Where was Sin Devourer? What about the ninja and the dark haired woman?
Kuroka punctured Siegfried's shoulder and disappeared again, dark energy spreading through his body as Shirone used another legendary sword replica like a club. Making it release holy power but pretty much just throwing it alongside the attack for maximum effect.
"Enough!" Cao Cao snarled as Kuroka tried to curse him too, but failed to land a hit that didn't touch the True Longinus "Your defiance has been worth being praised but this is over!"
He lifted his spear.
"Genshirou!" L****s barked, pullin from the dark tendrils to get his Rook by his side.
"Woah?!"
"I need you to be me for a moment!"
Having seen how Yuuto reacted to his brainwashing, L****s had an idea. He took Genshirou by the shoulders and used the vampiric trait to absorb part of Genshirou, take from him on a more fundamental level.
He felt a connection form, either because of Absorption Line or his senjutsu, or perhaps even because the Rook already formed a tighter bond to the peerage's King.
L****s felt trepidation as the blond gave him part of himself and in turn took back from L****s. He felt a lot of emotions he couldn't identify, and found Genshirou's expression changing in turn. Originally, L****s intended only to use him as a catalyst. To do this through Genshirou as he realized his reserves wouldn't be depleted in time.
"This is… This is Lucius-san…?" Genshirou sounded colder, cruel. Almost displeased by the invasion.
L****s felt like crying, but his mental spell staved the foreign emotions.
They turned to face the Khaos Brigade.
"Trick Shot…" L****s stated.
"Absorption Line model…" Genshirou continued, the synchronization coming to its peak.
"Model…" L****s caught up to him.
Tendrils erupted from behind Genshirou's back.
"All is Mine!"
The problem with using the spell again was with how it worked. In theory, L****s' All is Mine could be considered akin to how Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing worked, maybe closer to Absorption Line. But people could understand such a thing… They'd be wrong.
All is Mine worked in a deeper, more permanent, way. All is Mine allowed L****s to essentially 'eat' power. The spell itself worked for just a couple of seconds, breaking down any sort of power into its rawest form and then pulled it within L****s' body. In this form, he could 'digest' it, add it to the mass that already belonged to him.
It wasn't a power boost, but a permanent upgrade that fed a circular system. All is Mine made L****s stronger after he digested the power he took, and in turn that'd make the next All is Mine even stronger. Capable of draining even more power.
The reason why he asked Genshirou to specifically target the energy he took through All is Mine, was so he could fire it off again without rupturing his body due to the overload of energy. Genshirou still hurt him, because that power was more intimately linked to L****s' body than the power stored by Boosted Gear or Absorption Line itself, but since he wasn't breaking his body with Ophis' power Asia was able to heal him.
And now… This. Genshirou gave the spell more focus, a better sense of what to take and from whom. While L****s gave him the characteristics that made it work, the 'L****s-ness' so to speak.
He felt the connection break as Genshirou took the brunt of the power absorption, feeling his body strain as L****s took some part of it. But not enough to die from becoming a magic balloon.
Sin Devourer caught him, the power left behind by the connection turning into nothing as the darkness within the Miracle Child's hood turned to him.
"You helped us link up?"
"A simple miracle goes a long way to pull off a last-minute victory." The distorted voice said "Just don't do it again. You are protected by your spell, but there's no saying what would happen to Genshirou Saji's mind if you keep forcing yourself into…"
Genshirou screamed, power surging from his body as darkness enveloped him.
The Hero Faction had largely lost their power. With only Cao Cao being able to stand after the pseudo-All is Mine went off.
Snakes materialized from the darkness, hissing and howling as fire erupted all around Dimension Lost and ate away at the mist. Turning it into more cursed flames as everyone felt an overwhelming presence taking its place in the world.
"Oh…" L****s didn't know what else to say. Maybe he should stop being so reckless "Welp, guess it's happening now."
"What did you do?" Miyuzuin gasped as she recovered from the last spell, her replica of Durandal still in the middle of breaking down.
"Oh, jeez…" Fate Weaver gasped from his spot further back "This feeling…"
"Everyone." L****s lifted his hands, almost like he was surrendering "And I do mean everyone. Let's all agree to turn our back and run away to our respective hideouts."
Genshirou started floating, the snakes extending and pointing at everyone present. Power began being consumed by them. Regardless of distance or strength. The evil dragon's power drained everyone of the remaining power they had. Seemingly only leaving L****s and Georg standing as their respective snakes prevented them from being depowered altogether.
"What did you do, devil?!" Cao Cao snarled as his Balance Breaker was drained of power and broken down. Being pulled into the mass of fire and darkness.
L****s smiled awkwardly.
"I kind of revived an Evil Dragon in the middle of this." He felt Genshirou's power entering a zenith, the absorption getting to the point that Dimension Lost finally gave out and got completely erased. Leaving the remnants of Kuoh Town in play sight "My bad."
Vritra roared, a sound that pierced through everyone's eardrums and set everything ablaze as the specter of the Prison Dragon materialized in the Human World.
The fake vampire princess straightened her back, feeling more alive than ever before. Allowing herself some respite after the long days feeling her soul being pulled in every possible direction all the time.
"Man, this feels good. No wonder vampires are such assholes." She cheerfully spoke as she allowed the boy's body to fall to the ground.
He had died even before she took the last drop of his blood, his soul having been destroyed as A*****l's new bodyguard forced his Longinus out of his body.
Star Seeker remained a few meters away from her, Sacred Gear out and absorbing the mist so neither of them would be shunted into the battlefield. She held Gasper's limp form on hand, though A*****l didn't really care about the boy. She wanted to keep drinking blood, but just developing an addiction wouldn't do. She needed to be responsible about this. More than any other time, even.
"That's two in a row." Star Seeker pointed out, giving the fake vampire princess her back "Is Luci gonna be alright?"
"What do you think?" A*****l asked without much interest.
"I think he's crazy, but that's probably not the question." Star Seeker turned and gave her companion a small teasing smile.
Through the Sephiroth Graal, A*****l could see that the fragment of herself that was placed in Star Seeker's body had been assimilated completely.
"Playing the fool, huh. Are you trying to use my own tricks against me?" The fake vampire princess scoffed "You were dumbly clinging to that act before, but now you know better. Get your shit together, not-me."
"I am better than you, not-me." Star Seeker turned to stare at the battle in the distance again "In every way possible. As soon as I take that second Longinus, you're dead. Your soul won't be able to endure the strain."
"You are not going to." The fake princess stated the obvious.
"Oh, c'mon. Let me feel threatening for once." Star Seeker pouted.
"Why would you try to threaten good ol' me, though?" The Invader smiled, twisting her eyebrows just enough to look like Star Seeker's words worried her. Perfectly aligned with the tilt of her head.
Star Seeker scoffed.
"I can now tell that you're a faker."
"Cry me a river, sweetheart. You're bound to me now. Cope."
"Only losers have to." Star Seeker shrugged "And now I—."
A dark aura erupted from further into the town, washing over everything and tainting it to the point that A*****l's Longinus stopped showing her the aura and power and death all around the town. It eclipsed the information overload, and made her head hurt a lot worse than when she had woken up. Making her feel like she was both falling and being crushed by immense pressure at once.
"Oh, that's probably not good." Star Seeker commented without sounding like she cared too much.
"That was…"
Star Seeker bowed.
"I greet the Evil Dragon King, the Prison Dragon Vritra." Then, she turned toward A*****l with a stern look "What the hell did your brother do this time?"