Apocrypha - Book 2: War

by LoneTaker

After weathering the storm of Demons, the world lulls back to a normal calm. But with every calm, a new storm brews as ghosts of the past and new threats alike all ready themselves for the second wave. If the world desires peace, then they must be ready for war.

13. Saga 13: Screaming for Vengeance PartFin

Disclaimer: Black Clover is owned by Yūki Tabata, Studio Pierrot, and Shonen Jump.

Saga 13: Screaming for Vengeance Part Finale

---

Ymir, the Mountain, Libratium, Spade Kingdom, Dawn

---

At once where Residential District #2 stood, a giant chasm had opened up from below, and beneath it were [Bringer of War - Mars] (projected through Charlemagne's PROTEA), knuckling out against [Ymir, the Mountain] in a brutal melee between the titans.

PROTEA in its armored form raked its superheated claw on its right across the stone giant's waist while Ymir punched its magma fist across the PROTEA's head unit. In turn, Charlemagne stuck his mech's short sword into the golem's left shoulder while Ymir formed a massive blade out of its glaciers from its right arm before it slammed the flat across the mech's waist, the resulting exchanging causing both to tumble down to their knees.

Inside PROTEA, Charlemagne was gripping onto the controls as if his life depended on it, forcing the PROTEA's projected armor to get back up while Ymir did the same. "COME ON!" he roared as he activated his short sword's "hi-frequency" option, the tuned vibration across the weapon allows it to chip off the tip of Ymir's glacier sword before driving the shank into the giant's lower belly all the way into the cross guard.

Ymir then kicks away [Bringer of War - Mars] with its molten feet before unleashing a bombardment of volcanic eruptions from its left shoulder. Charlemagne points its heated claw before authorizing its "pulsar" option from its palm, unleashing a wave of irradiated heat that caused the barrage of molten earth raining from above to prematurely explode.

"EAT LASER ARM, BITCH!" the Premier roared as he then switched his heat claw function to its "volley" option, allowing the mech to fire a volley of superheated shots from his mana tank that exploded all over the giant while Charlemagne repositioned himself to get a better angle to fight against Ymir.

Ymir then lets out an echoing roar before turning its left arm into a glowing hot barrel of molten earth that began to spew out a stream of fresh magma towards PROTEA. Charlemagne activates all of his mech's verniers to avoid being slagged by the oncoming deluge, the cape-like extensions around its shoulders and back spreading out and firing all of its thrusters to get itself into the air while the spewing magma missed its mark, albeit barely.

Inside the cockpit, Charlemagne was sweating and heaving. He was never a fighter, but still persisted despite his weak body. He had to contribute, no matter what it takes. With his resolve affirmed, he then pushes [Bringer of War - Mars] towards Ymir before giving the rocky bastard a hard, superheated punch across its stoney face from the air as its thrusters deactivated before they overheated.

Premier! spoke the coffee guy through the PROTEA's comms.

"A little busy here, over!" said Charlemagne as he resumed his boxing match against the titan.

The hangar just got breached, over! the coffee guy spoke out before a clanging sound followed up by a heavy whack coming near the speaker, THEY'RE COMING THROUGH THE VENTS!

GET FUCKED YOU ANOREXIC PASTIES! roared Eiha before a sound of an explosion was heard from the background.

Sorry sir, but you're on your own, apologized the coffee guy while Charlemagne continued grappling with the giant of frozen and molten earth, have to help out the others after a few MASS packs got trashed in the carnage. Already sent a distress signal to the outside... gonna be a little silent for a good while. Just wanted to let you know, over.

"... Acknowledged," gulped Charlemagne as he shot another blast of superheated mana towards Ymir before backing off to gain some distance, "good luck soldier, over."

Rodger that, the comms from the hangar then go silent as Ymir then charges towards PROTEA before the two exchanged punches that landed on each others' faces.

"Come on, you oversized piece of landscaping!" taunted the Premier as his cockpit rattled, "I'LL MELT YOU INTO CONCRETE!"

As the battle between two titans raged evermore, inside the earthen beast, another, equally harrowing battle took place inside the heart of the titan. Surrounded from all sides by mud-sculpted copies their loved ones, Fanzell, Dominante and Iris fought off the infinite horde sent by their determined killer, Atlas.

Fanzell swung his [Falchion], ripping through the mud dolls with his array of wind blades and slashes. Dominante weaved hammers and drills with her [Cloth Magic], ripping and smashing her oppositions while her arms and legs were wrapped in ribbons acting as an additional layer of muscles to increase her physical strength. Iris, despite being an amateur at fighting, didn't waste her usage of her own [Wind Magic] by creating a buffer zone in the middle of the shambling horde and maintaining it, even going far as to set the winds to attack any spawn that tries to attack them from below.

Meanwhile, Atlas continues pouring his own mana through Ymir, controlling both the spawns and the titan outside in this two front war, deriving his power from the suffering and torment of the kidnapped children that were being forced to watch it all.

"NOT ENOUGH!" roared Atlas, "NOT ENOUGH!"

The roar echoed throughout the earth and the aether, emitting a localized tremor around the whole city-state.

"WHY CAN'T YOU IMBECILES JUST DIE ALREADY?!" raged the abomination as more and more mud dolls spilled out of the walls and ceilings around the chamber, "JUST ACCEPT THAT I AM RIGHT! I AM JUST! DIE THAT SO MY PEOPLE CAN BE AVENGED PROPERLY!"

"DO THEY EVEN WANT THIS TO HAPPEN?!" Fanzell retorted as he swung his [Winter Wind] at the spawns, "LOOK AT YOURSELF! THIS ISN'T JUST ABOUT REVENGE ANYMORE! ALL YOU'RE DOING IS DRAGGING INNOCENTS INTO YOUR FUCKING MESS!"

"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT THAT EVERYTHING HAD TO BE THIS WAY!" raged Atlas as more mud clones of the children and Lotus were summoned.

"REAL GROWN-UP OF YOU ATLAS!" Dominante sarcastically and caustically pointed out, "WAY TO BE A BIGGER MAN TAKING CHILDREN AS HOSTAGES!"

"I DON'T NEED TO BE THE BIGGER MAN THAT YOU CLAIM AS!" Atlas then began converging the majority of the clones into a giant copy of Smurf to crush past the buffer zone, with its earthen fist clashing against Iris' barrier of wind, "I ONLY NEED TO BE THE LAST ONE STANDING! ONLY THEN I WILL BE THAT 'BIGGER MAN' THAT YOU SPEAK OF!"

"So that's it, huh?" Iris heaved out in rage upon Atlas' slip, "... this was never about your people..." she snarled as the wind barrier around the three of them whipped up into a localized storm, "... THIS IS REALLY ALL ABOUT YOU, ISN'T IT?!"

The barrier of strong winds then scattered the copy-[Gnome] all over into their original visages of their loved ones before Dominante and Fanzell took the offensive.

"[Cloth Creation Magic]!" the witch then summons a giant dish rag to soak up all the grime and dirt that was scattered throughout the air, causing the mud dolls to lose form and be completely absorbed into the cleaning rag, "[Handkerchief]!"

"[Wind Magic: Slashing Wind Emperor]!" the ex-army captain of the now-defunct Diamond Kingdom slashes his sword across the dirtied rag with Atlas' mana inside of it, cutting it into ribbons to kill off the creations without having them to retreat back into the earth and respawn, "[Gust]!"

The two combatants then land back into the buffer zone, noticing that the mud dolls that were slain were being replaced.

"I get it," smirked Fanzell, "it's not like you have infinite mana."

"You're 2v1ed, Atlas," Dominante pointed towards the beating core, "you can't fight us yourself because you're too busy fighting the guy who signs my hubby's paycheck!"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" roared Atlas as the whole chambers then turned into the insides of an active volcano, "I'LL JUST HAVE TO KILL YOU ALL AT ONCE!"

Outside, Ymir's whole body begins to smolder and crack. Just like fresh lava seeping from the sloppy crust of an erupting volcano, the whole earthen giant belts out an earthshaking roar before its whole body, both inside and out, to erupt, scattering molten bits of earth indiscriminately as the burning giant charged towards [Bringer of War - Mars] in a blazing rampage.

Charlemagne then switches his heated right claw to its "pulsar" option before adjusting the output to its maximum. It then fired a giant shockwave of supercharged irradiated mana towards Ymir to push it back, the earth, the pillars, the sewage and even the giant rats the size of cows, all around them, began to melt under the combined heat of the converging flames.

"Dammit!" Charlemagne knew that it was impossible to stop the giant completely with just his heat claw alone. Realizing that there was no other option, he then opens up all of his verniers and pushes the mech to charge towards the giant at full speed, pushing its emitted shockwave towards Ymir while every last of its thrusters flared at their brightest. "Getting close... getting close..." his main projector screen then inched towards the giant before receiving a "caution" alert for the incoming collision. "NOW!"

He then pulls [Joyeuse] up from the console to activate the "eject" option, purging PROTEA from [Bringer of War - Mars] as the now-unoccupied mech rammed itself against Ymir while the pod flew away, mostly-intact. With the heat claw left on at maximum output, it was inevitable that the weapon would overheat, and combined with the radiating heat from Ymir, would result in the abandoned mech being blown up point-blank at the earthen giant, causing it to fall onto its back.

However, that sacrificial play resulted the PROTEA having to purge one of its own mana batteries to keep the weapon functional long enough for it to explode, with the rest of the unit now only having 40% left in its fuel capacity. And worst of all, control at the hanger was being overrun, so he can't call for help, let alone request for a spare fuel charge.

"... I asked for this," he grumbled to himself before he absentmindedly opened up a small glove compartment below his controls, only to have a crapton of coffee-scented candies spill to the floor of the PROTEA's cockpit. "What the-" Charlemagne then spotted a note that read the following: "careful, one piece contains 100k calories. Also, check the feature I added in case of an emergency, - Eiha."

That "feature" was a cable with a syringe tip, which was connected to the console itself.

"... Directly sapping my own mana into the controls and functions while the candy is there to make sure I don't get sucked dry..." sighed the Premier, "... what the actual hell."

He then rolls up his left sleeve before jabbing the need into his arm as the suckling of his own mana began to occur. Charlemagne then quickly grabs a handful of candies and shoves it into his mouth, suddenly the fuel gauge shooting to 100% capacity in an instant as his whole body flared up with excess mana that caused his heart rate to skyrocket.

"Alright..." he growled with a renewed sense of vigor as Ymir stood back up, wiping the blood now dripping from his nose from the accidental overdose, "ROUND 2, BITCH!"

The PROTEA then once more furls out its emitters before another giant armor mech was formed around the pod. This time, the armor was white and gold with a pair of glowing wings made of turquoise light akin to feathered wings. Behind its winged back were a pair of longswords sheathed behind its lower, quadrupedal, equine body. And it's white armor of gold and white had ruby gems dotted in its joints, all three of the colors shining radiantly like the sun.

"[Armor Magic]," declared Charlemagne declared as its new unit drew both of its ruby-bladed longswords, "[Bringer of Peace - Venus]!"

The new armor around PROTEA then gallops towards Ymir, thrusting both of its blades towards the giant, the titan swings its molten fist towards the [Centaur]-like mech.

Inside Ymir, once again, everyone inside were fighting for their lives. Only this time, everyone was tossed and turned all over, and worst of all, separated.

"... Ow," groaned Fanzell as he found himself inside an ice cave, "... well, hopefully, the mud copies don't come out where I walk-"

Blades of ice starts shooting from where he stood, forcing him to move or get impaled.

"... On second thought," Fanzelled rolled his eyes as he ran from the blades shooting out towards him from behind, "... spoke too soon."

At the other side, Dominante found herself hanging off of a ledge over a pool of magma with Iris clinging onto her legs.

"Hanging in there?" Dominante asked, "... dad joke. Tryin' to lighten the mood."

"... Can we please get back up?" begged Iris, only a choir of animalistic shrieks to take place followed up by a rumbling that resonated throughout the whole Dungeon.

From above and below, a pair of giant [Gargoyles], one of made lava and the other made of obsidian, flew towards the two women trapped in a rock and a hot place.

"Crap crap crap crap crap!" the widow freaked out.

"HANG ON!" Dominante then lets go of the ledge before the two [Gargoyles] collided against each other mid-flight. The witch then uses her [Muscle Weave] spell to then both dig her fingers into the rock face while kicking up Iris off of her legs and have her land onto her back.

"You could've warned me!" said the widow as she clung onto the witch's back in a piggyback.

"I told you to hang on, didn't I?" Dominante remarked with a snark as the two [Gargoyles] came flying towards them, "again, hang on!"

The witch then begins climbing up the cliffside before the pool of bubbling magma while the widow hung onto the former for dear life as the two women were being chased down by the [Gargoyles].

At Fanzell's end, he continued to run from the trail of ice blades that chased after him, with the whole area being nothing short of a contact-activated bobby trap that triggered on every place where he'd set foot on. There was no other alternative but to run, and run he did.

The trap where he'd ended up was simple but effective on its purpose. But then he begun to realize something.

"Wait, I only ran on the ice, didn't I?" he mused before he then dove onto his belly and slid across the ice, with his feet no longer touching the floor and the blades stopped spawning from behind him, "ha ha! Eat that, Atlas!"

The cave entrance before him began to close itself shut as a wall of spiked ice appeared behind him as it closed in on him.

"Too little, too late," he smirked as he drew his [Falchion], "[Wind Magic: Slashing Wind Emperor]!" Fanzell then thrusted his blade forth as hard as he could, "[Gale]!"

The wind then thrusts him forth in a jetstream that threw the nude Chevalier right out of the closing exit and into the stone halls of the cave before the walls closed in on him as he rolled and tumbled across the rock-hard floor. With that, he was able to escape on time from the trap that he was flung into.

"Now to find my way back..." muttered Fanzell as then a horde of stone and mud dolls of Lotus and his daughters spawned before him, "... right after this."

As Fanzell then fought his way through the renewed horde, Dominante and Iris were now in a literal uphill battle against the two [Gargoyles] flying around them, with one hurling balls of molten earth at them while the other ground its talons across the cliff and towards the two that climbing back up, with both of their attacks aimed and positioned to make sure that the two don't make it up to the top.

"Hey, Iris?" spoke Dominante as she clung onto the side of the cliff while hopping side to side from rock face to rock face to avoid getting either burnt or scratched (or both), "you mind taking those guys on? One of us has to climb, you know."

"Right," she nodded as she looked out into the smoldering open, "... I'll do my best-"

The whole area then shook, to which then Dominante then began making a mad dash back up to the peak, causing the [Gargoyles] to go after them with extreme prejudice. The lava-forged one slung balls of molten earth towards the two, to which Iris used her [Wind Magic] to cool down the lava to solids rocks before she erected a small shield of wind to deflect the now-physical projectiles. The other [Gargoyle] then divebombs towards them, only for Iris to sweep the obsidian beast by its wings with her [Wind Magic] to cause it to sail off-course, right directly between them and the lava [Gargoyle]'s projectiles, causing its wings to melt off of its hinges and fall to its fiery death shortly after.

With one threat down, Dominante then quickly climbs up towards the peak of the cliff as the last, remaining [Gargoyle] continued to hurl its magma balls at them.

"Out of the frying pan and into the fire," Dominante sighed as she and Iris ran towards wider ground to avoid falling into any magma pits, "by the way, good work back there."

"Thanks," replied Iris as she ran, "... I just got lucky."

"Well, now I owe you," the witch spoke as she and the widow then ran towards the spawning mud copies of their loved ones with the flaming [Gargoyle] right behind them. "... Let them fight?"

"On my mark," Iris then kept running alongside Dominante as they both led the molten [Gargoyle] towards the slobbering mud dolls, "... NOW!"

The two women the jump towards their sides, leaping out of the way and allowing the molten [Gargoyle] and the mud dolls to collide against each other, the former's heat baking the latter until both were congealed into an inanimate, amorphous blob of hardened clay that can no longer harm them, let alone move.

"... You took pottery lessons?" asked Dominante.

"Enough to know that mud need moisture to remain fluid," smirked Iris, "come on. We got your man to look for and my man's killer to kill."

Both parties then successfully escape their traps as on the outside, the battle continued to rage between the two titans of metal and earth.

Ymir lets out another earthshaking roar as it swings its massive glacial blade towards [Bringer of Peace - Venus], only for the latter to stamp its hooves down onto the flat before galloping up it before climbing all the way up to the monster's shoulder and cutting off its right arm of ice with both of its rubicund blades.

As both the severed arm and the PROTEA mech came down, Charlemagne then sets its wings to "free float" option, allowing [Bringer of Peace - Venus] to gallop in the air in its descent, hacking and slashing across several areas of Ymir before quickly retreating back to a safe distance from the giant and its volcanic retaliation.

"... Okay," heaved Charlemagne as he felt his own heart palpitate in irregular beats due to the doping and his condition rearing its ugly head, "... even after self-destructing [Bringer of War - Mars] point-blank, you still won't go down?!"

Ymir answers by reattaching its severed arm back onto its stump. The rended stone bonding themselves back together like glue.

"Silver lining, [Bringer of Peace - Venus] isn't the biggest of my [Armor Magic] so it's less mana-consuming..." he gritted his teeth as the Premier counted whatever blessing he had with him now, noting that his current mech was only a third size of his prior [Bringer of War - Mars], "... fuel capacity, 87%... weapons... limited to two longswords and the energy wings..." he groans at the trade-off of having to rely on conventional hit-and-run tactics rather than anything else.

In truth, [Armor Magic] was in fact, a weak magic. All it can do is create armor for Charlemagne to wear, with some having built-in features, but really no more than two at most. This was due to him being born with an inverted bodily anatomy, meaning that his heart was on his right side of his chest and his intestines being twisted into an opposite direction, making it rather difficult for him to get replacements since he has a limited number of donors for his organ replacements (ie, only himself), so his heart has mechanical implants inside that regulates his mana properly and let him have the stamina of a normal, functional person.

Honestly, he already took an adrenaline shot to his leg a couple hours prior before this crisis took place for his usual late-night shifts. The coffee tablets that he'd ingested are the ones that are keeping him alive at this breaking point. Charlemagne, by all means, was a person who was born weak in both magic and body, yet his will surpassed that of anyone else's.

"I'm not stopping," he snarled as he wiped his nose of blood, "not until I put you to the ground for good!"

[Bringer of Peace - Venus] then gallops towards Ymir, switching its energy wings from "free flight" to "land spinner" option, the back wings then providing propulsion that boosted PROTEA's speed as Ymir fired another stream of magma towards the smaller mech.

The speed provided to be a boon for the PROTEA, allowing it to evade the shots with ease, forcing the golem shell to then stomping on the ground to cause the ground itself to heat up and explode, but by then, Charlemagne quickly switches to the "free flight" option for his wings, jumping off of the exploding ground and begin galloping across the air as it then raked both of its swords into Ymir's left thigh. However, the cut was't deep enough to sever it, but at least Charlemagne was able to avoid getting slagged.

Even still, the stalemate wasn't broken, as neither titan could take each other down, much to the two's mounting frustrations.

"JUST DIE ALREADY!" the two yelled from their insides of their giants as the two resumed their fight.

However, above the open chasm and at the dawn sky, a bright rainbow was spotted coming their way.

"... Rainbow?" Charlemagne remarked before he realized what was about to come, "... OH GOD DAMMIT-"

"HERE! I! COME! TO! SAVE! DE! DAY!" sang Fergus as he rode from atop his [Caladbolg] traveling across the rainbow that was created from his [Love Magic].

The giant Relic then plants itself through the giant's mouth and the blade to land inside the chamber were Atlas was at, the titanic blade narrowly missing him and his core by mere inches.

Charlemagne lets out an annoyed groan before he turned the proximity comms on. "Fergus, what the actual fuck are you doing here?!"

"It's my fault, sorry," apologized Scathach as she floated towards the PROTEA's main camera, "as soon as I blurted out 'giant earth monster', he cut his usual sex rounds to half so that he can get a piece of whatever I was seeing to get his rocks off on something else more... exciting."

"That and well," growled Cath Palug, who landed on [Bringer of Peace - Venus]'s shoulder, "... if that thing is let loose onto our lands, there will be nowhere left for me and my children to hunt our meals! Be grateful that you're not the one being eaten right now, human!"

"Obliged," snarked Charlemagne, "and I suppose the whole three tribes of Ulster came along from that rainbow as well?"

"Not just us," Rinaldo spoke through the mech's internal comms from his earpiece as he and the others came around the hole that contained Ymir.

Everyone, from the Magic Knights from the Clover Kingdom (sans William, he went with Mariella and Hama to where Fana was at), to the Order of the Spade Cross and their Inquisitors, to every surviving Chevalier and Dragoon that made it in time, all of those who fought off Fenrir, Hel, and Jormungandr all gathered to confront Ymir with their leader.

In this very rare occasion, the three states of the fractured Spade Kingdom (and outsiders) had come together to this united front against this overwhelming evil.

"Wow..." Dorothy remarked in awe, "different nations all uniting to stop a great evil... kinda something out of a fairy tale!"

"Don't get used to it," Makarov grumbled, "give it week, and no one will bat an eye when some guy ends up eating the other."

"Read the room, would you?" Nozel grumbled.

"What room?" Heracles pounded his fist against his open palm, "but that guy down there looks really fun to punch!"

"We don't get paid to be social," Bizon pointed out as he brandished his [Labrys] into the air, "OMNE MALUM!"

"DESTROY ALL EVIL!" recited the Thaumaturges as they raised their weapons into the air.

"First one to reach de core is the de winna!" Fergus cried out from where he'd landed as he begun to punch his way through the layer of rock and earth, "TAKE ME SWORD'S RAINBOW TO CROSS! GOTTA MAKE THIS COMPETITION FAIR!"

"FOLLOW OUR PREMIER!" Rinaldo ordered, "TAKE OUT THE MONSTER BEFORE HE DESTROYS ALL THAT WE'VE BUILT!"

"ATTACK!" Roland roars as he then led the charge towards the beast, the combined force cross the rainbow bridge that [Caladbolg] had left behind.

As the army crossed the rainbow bridge, Ymir lets out a bellowing roar as its volcano on its left shoulder erupted. But instead of scattering plumes of molten earth into the air, in unleashes a swarm of molten [Gargoyles] towards the charging army.

"ANTI-AIR!" ordered Makarov as the Thaumaturges aimed their [Firebolt M3] bowguns at the flock before shooting mana bolts at them, beginning a siege into the beast of earth from all directions. "ME AND MY FORCES WILL HOLD THEM OFF FROM HERE!" he barked out, "THE REST OF YOU, BREAK THROUGH THE ENEMY LINES!"

Everyone complies, except for Nozel, who stays behind with Makarov and his troops.

"I'm not letting you show me up after last time," he smirked as his [Mercury Magic] shot a blob of liquid metal before exploding into a cluster of [Silver Rain] that hit the [Gargoyles] from the air, "now, we're even."

Makarov smirks back as he drew his [Chernabog] from his back. "Don't drag me down, you pampered nobleman."

"Likewise, you bloodthirsty mongrel," the two and the Thaumaturges then fend of the repeatedly-spawning flocks of molten and frozen [Gargoyles] that swarmed the air around them.

However, a cluster of them were bound together by an unseen force before they all exploded into a cloud of steam from their converging heat and cold.

"Now now boys," spoke a flirtatious voice, revealing to be Luciel, sitting atop of her own Devil, Jezebel, "let me have a taste, would you?"

"An elf with a Devil," Nozel rolled his eyes, "... I'm not even surprised anymore."

Towards the chest crest where the main entrance laid, a [Spirit Army]-summoned horde of golems appear before the group.

"Some of us are going to have to stay here and guard the advance's rear," Jericho remarked as he brandished his [Stardust Knuckles] around his arms before clanging them together.

"Agreed," Kirsch interjected as he furled open his fan, "these ugly filth have no right to breathe the same air as us."

"Tag team again?" asked the Black Bull.

"You'll make a fine stallion to my gallant hero," answered the Coral Peacock.

"Guess that leaves me to them, then," Rinaldo grumbled as he drew his [Froberge], the bladeless sword morphing into a wavy blade, "any other volunteers?"

Conchobar, still silent as ever, steps up as he drew his sword from his kite-shield.

"I will act as the rearguard," Shiren remarked as he stepped up, "none shall get past under my watch."

"I hate closed, dark spaces anyway," Nebra grumbled as she counted her risk factors before dragging Salim by the ear, "Salim dear, be there for me as my shield in case I'm in danger, would you?"

The penal Silver Eagle sobs in defeat. "... I hate my life."

"Leave this to us," Bradamante remarked as she and Astolfo stepped up, "... because one of us has some shit to work out while the other makes sure that the former doesn't run off the edge."

"They won't die if I break them into a thousand pieces, right?" the effeminate Paladin growled, still reeling over losing his [Précieuse], "come on... LET ME AT EM!"

"Alright, that's our lineup," Dorothy remarked as she looked towards the walls of golems standing before them, "now we need a way forward."

"Then let us begin, with the utmost of of elegance," Kirsch then swings his fan outward to cover the whole battlefield with a cloud of cherry blossoms, "[Cherry Blossom Magic: Dance of the 100 Million Cherry Blossoms]!"

Multiple streams of cherry blossoms shot out from the Coral Peacock vice-Captain as the golems were harried by the storm of flower petals that tore through them as fast as they were replaced.

Conchorbar and Jericho jumped in, both physically pushing the remaining golems back with their shield and gauntlets respectively. "EVERYONE! ON ME!"

Astolfo then uses the bent metal club to smash through the golems while Bradamante used her [Maltet] to control the direction of the scattered stone to turn them into a stone-storm to shred and spawning golems that came from them below. "DIEEEE YOU LITTLE SHITS!" he screamed out the tops of his lungs while savagely beating the golems around him with the improvised club to vent out his sadness and rage of losing his Relic.

Meanwhile, Shiren worked in silence to erect earthen barricades around the battlefield to hamper the golems' movements and attacks, all the while making sure that his own [Stone Magic] doesn't get assimilated by Ymir's own powers.

"Mademoiselle, with me?" Rinaldo proposed Nebra's cooperation as the chaos ensued.

"Goodness, work me like a dog, why won't you?!" she growled as she then opened her grimoire, "[Mist Magic: Mist Spider's Thread]!"

A blast of gummy mist shot outwards and around the golems that were being summoned to entrap them in a pile of mud and mist.

"[Mercury Magic]," Rinaldo then swung his sword of liquid metal to send various lines of iron around the dome in a cage-like formation, "[Mamba Basket]."

The cage bars then jut out both inside and out spiked rods that dug into both the golems and the ones that were caught outside.

"That's your cue," spoke the Paladin.

"Uh, right!" Salim then opened his grimoire, aiming his spells towards the spikes around the liquid metal cage that the golems were in, "[Lightning Magic: The God of Thunderclap, Flashing Salim]!"

A quick bolt of lightning sped across the air before striking one of the rods, causing the electricity to conduct all over the trapped golems before they were burnt into glass and charcoal.

"Hm, guess you can pull it off when you put your mind to it," Nebra smugly complimented her subordinate.

"Cut down the length of the invocation, at the very least," criticized the Paladin, "your spells are a mouthful."

"COAST IS CLEAR!" Jericho cried out as he dropkicked a golem into bits, "GO! NOW!"

Roland then leads the charge through the cut path as the group them enters inside Ymir's caves, which were now swarming with various golems and mud dolls of a middle-aged man and three kinds of girls.

"Lotus... Violet... Peony... and Daisy..." growled Akane as she recognized the faces of the constructs, "... that bastard has no shame!"

"Let's kill em all!" Roland then grabbed one of the golems before barreling through the cluster of minions, ramming them through with his kidnapped golem.

Everyone then followed the buff Paladin, through the caves of lava and ice alike, each crawling with their own nightmares that the madman has sculpted to kill them. Dorothy herself was saving her [Dream Magic] to abduct the one behind this monstrosity to end the fight quickly as possible, while everyone else had to fight off the monsters that were coming at them from every possible direction.

Top, down, left, right, adjacent, parallel, forward, behind. There was nowhere that were free of spawning contracts, booby traps, and any possible way to kill a man in the most gruesome way possible.

"Ahahaha!" Heracles laughed as he lariated his way through the continuously-spawning golems, "this place is a blast! They just keep coming and coming! Perfect for getting stronger!"

"NONE SHALL STAND AGAINST US! NONE!" Bizon roared as he swung his [Labrys] through the endless horde, cutting them down as Roland continued to lead the charge forward.

Suddenly, the very earth that they were walking on began to gurgle and wobble, right before they were sucked into it and ending up in separate areas throughout the Dungeon.

"(... Shit)," Akane growled in her native tongue before switch to this land's tongue, "... well, at least Mari isn't here. Whole body being too numb to fight and all... and having all of her muscles and ligaments being replaced as I continued to breathe."

"Yeah, she kinda pushed herself a little too far back then," Dorothy commented as she got off the Chevalier in the red-and-black sailor suit with skirt and armor, "come on, others aren't gonna wait for us-"

"Akane!" a man's voice called out from ahead, revealing to be Fanzell, "... oh, who's the witch with you?"

"Coral Peacock Captain, Dorothy Unsworth, at your service!" she answered before shaking the man's hand, "... also, why are you naked?"

"He's with Roland's order," answered Akane.

"Ah," remarked the witch, "no matter. So, whereto?"

At the other spot throughout Ymir, Roland has found himself landing on top of two women before he himself was landed by Letoile and David.

"Sorry about that!" apologized the nude Paladin before he recognized one of the women, "hey, you're my new recruit's wife, aren't ya?"

"Yes, pleasure meeting you," grumbled Dominante as she obscured her eyes with her hands from Roland's privates.

"And you are?" asked David.

"A widow who's out to avenge her husband's murder," replied Iris as she hid the fact that she's ex-Diamond Kingdom from two Golden Dawn members that Iris had recognized just from their robes, "... care to lead us out of here? It's taking too long with just the two of us."

Heracles and Bizon, meanwhile, were elsewhere, completely surrounded by golems and [Gargoyles], but in reality, the latter group were the ones trapped with the former.

The separated groups then all traversed through the caves inside Ymir, with everyone else scattered throughout the tunnels trying to find their way back together. Speaking of whom, back outside, the earthen titan itself was trying to swat off Fergus trying to break through from above, only for its hands to be cut off by Cath Palug's blades and Scathach's slithering shadow hands.

"He's my prey, mountain," growled the Elderbeast, "sit still like one while I break you!" the giant leopard then lets out a roar before it's blades on its back glowed green as the beast traversed up the titan's body upwards, "[Severing Magic: Hunting Blades - 64 Massacre]!"

The arm made of lava was cut into 64 pieces upon the Elderbeast flashing through it. Upon finding its arm into multiple pieces, the pieces then grow legs to climb back up to their origin, only for them to be dragged into the darkness of the open catacombs by numerous shadow hands grabbing them all over the pieces.

"[Shadow Curse Magic: Invitation to Darkness]," Scathach smirked as she floated about in the air, "you go high, I go low."

"As long as they don't come back!" Cath Palug remarked as he then let out a roar before slashing through other golems that were being summons from all over Ymir's body, no longer caring where they come from and where they go, as long as the numbers are filled, "[Severing Magic: Pursuit Blades - 128 Sacrifice]!"

The glowing green blades scattered from the leopard's back as it remotely ripped through the spawning golems while the beast itself tore out a molten [Gargoyle]'s throat, its fangs and teeth not being bothered by the heat.

"IT'LL TAKE MORE THAN FIRE TO KILL ME!" he snarled as the Elderbeast scratched a frozen [Gargoyle]'s chest open before devouring its mana core out of its cavity, "NOTHING CAN TOPPLE ME! NOTHING!"

Ymir then begins summoning even more golems of ice, fire and earth, still intending to overwhelm its opposition blindly.

"HEY FATASS!" Cath Palug called out towards Fergus as he kept boring through rock and stone with his fists (already burrowing at least 100 feet deep in span of mere minutes), "WATCH YOUR HEAD! THEY'RE COMING FOR YOU!"

Fergus looks up to find a shitload of golems jumping towards him.

"Aw, ye all wanna hug?" he then opened his arms towards them, "den BRING IT IN! [LOVE MAGIC: I'LL BE THERE FOR YOU]!"

Fergus' arms then grow giant-sized into rainbow-colored projections of his own arms and bosom that managed to grab all of the falling golems into his embrace before they were all squeezed to the point where they all popped from the pressure of his crushing bear hug.

"Now dat was a gud hug," grinned Fergus before he raised his fist into the air, "... well, if de man wants me to bring it in, then why make him wait?!" huge amounts of mana then began gathering into his hand as a light of rainbow hue glowed from his fist, "SHOT THROUGH DE HEART! AND YOU'RE TO BLAME!"

"Aw fuck," groaned Cath Palug as he ran away from what's was coming next as it was heralded by the Offsprings chieftain's awful and horrid singing.

"[LOVE MAGIC]!" the rotund man bellowed from the top of his lungs, "[YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME]!"

As Fergus drove his fist into the the earth below him, a massive rainbow geyser burst from where Ymir's head was and all the way towards the heavens. Even Ziz, who was on the moon, saw the rainbow and it nearly roasted his tail feathers if he hadn't dodged out of the way.

Back on the surface, the rainbow beam dug all the way through the giant golem's body, with the rainbow beam ripping through Ymir's posterior and illuminating the darkness of the rank catacombs, causing the cow-sized rats and the evolved [Skaven] Elderbeasts to flee from the light of pure love.

Atlas then looked up, before looking down. If he hadn't retreated inside of the core along with the children and reinforce said core with about 30% of [Gnome]'s mana, then that attack would've ended him right then and there.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Atlas roared as Fergus jumped down from above while singing his lungs out in a state of pure euphoria.

Fergus then grabs onto one of the strands of earth holding Atlas and the core inside Ymir. "Just someone livin' on a praya'," he grinned as the others who were separated throughout Ymir's body came back.

"Hey," greeted Dorothy as she was carried by Akane over her shoulder, "followed someone's singing."

"Eh, wasn't that bad," Roland remarked as he carried the unconscious David and Letoile under his arms, "hello. I take it that the 'jockstrap incident' is water under the bridge-"

"ENOUGH!" roared Atlas as he then began Ymir to move more violently, "ALL OF YOU! WHY DO YOU ALL KEEP GETTING IN MY WAY?!"

"Because you blew this whole shit out of proportion?" Fanzell deadpanned, "seriously, I heard making mountains out of molehills, but this is getting stupid."

"DIE."

The caves then begin to close in onto themselves. "THROW ME!" Dorothy cried out as Akane threw the Captain towards Atlas, "[Dream Magic: Glamour World]!"

Everyone, including [Bringer of Peace - Venus] (who galloping up the bored-through hole from the bottom to check what was going on) were all teleported into Dorothy's dreamland. Outside, the golems and [Gargoyles] all stopped mass-spawning but there were still too many of them crawling around Ymir's now-inanimate body to let them be.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Atlas cried out as gravity itself turned upside-down as he and the core were vanished as the four children (one headless) all fell from his grasp.

"MOMMA'S GOT YOU!" Iris cried out as she then jumped with Dominante and Fanzell to catch the kids.

"MOM!" both Peony and Daisy cried out with tears.

"Don't worry," she reassured her children, "momma's here to save you all."

"Here!" Akane then threw down a portable MASS pack towards them as she drew her [Murasame], "use that to reattach Violet's head if you have her's. Hurry!"

"Leave the fighting to us!" Dominante reassured, to which the widow nodded.

"I'll keep them safe from the crossfire!" Dorothy then conjured her emerald knights and her tin man butler, Mr. Heartless to defend the five inside the MASS, "go nuts!"

As the fighters then all surrounded Atlas in his deplorable state within [Glamour World], the malignant aura coming from the former refused to cease, even as the [Earth Spirit] was clearly in pain.

"End of the line, you fuck," snarled Fanzell as he and the others pointed their Relics and arms towards him.

Atlas then lets out a cackle before taking out a small black stake before stabbing [Gnome] along with his heart with it. "NOT BY A LONGSHOT!"

As the Stigmata was buried into both him and the [Earth Spirit], combining both of them into a Demon-like form made of earth and darkness, taking the form of a turtle-like being with a shell that resembled screaming faces contorted in pain and rage, all of which being [Gnome]'s.

"NO... PRICE... TOO... GREAT!" Atlas bellowed as the monstrosity grew in size until it dwarfed all of them in size until it rivaled [Bringer of Peace - Venus], "... FIRST... LOVE... FROM... LOKI! AND... NOW... MY... BEING... TO...!"

The faces on the shell then all screamed out beams of darkness towards random directions, forcing everyone to evade the shots.

"SON OF A BITCH! HE HAD A STIGMATA WITH HIM THIS WHOLE TIME?!" Akane barked out as she jumped from floating object to object, "JUST WHICH DEMON IS HE NOW CONTRACTING WITH THIS TIME?!

"I don't know how the actual hell that got past customs!" Charlemagne pointed out as he maneuvered his PROTEA around the open space in its "free flight" option, "still, another Demon in amidst changes nothing!"

"YOU SACRIFICED LOVE?!" Fergus roared out in fury at what the man had done, "HOW COULD YOU?!" he then grabbed his [Caladbolg] by its tree-trunk-sized handle before swing the titanic blade down to the turtle-Demon, "HOW COULD YOU?! WHY?!"

"BECAUSE I HATE YOU ALL!" Atlas then breathes out a sandstorm from its mouth that blocked the coming sword before it swept across the aether before Roland imagined a castle wall to block it.

"We're in a dream world, remember?" the Paladin pointed out as he then summoned numerous copies of random people that he knew before he grabbed one of them as a bludgeon while drawing his [Durandal] in a dual-wielding stance, "anything goes!"

Hearing that, Charlemagne then imagines [Bringer of War - Mars] next to his current PROTEA as an autonomous unit that would fight alongside him. "EVERYONE!" he yelled out through his proximity comms, "GO NUTS!"

Akane then imagines an eight-headed serpent monster, the [Yamata-no-Orochi] that she rides upon while transforming her clothes into that of the Jomon warrior-deity's clothes and an imaginary copy of [Ama-no-Habakiri], the very first kamitsurugi, to wield in tandem with her [Murasame]. She then charged towards the turtle-Demon as the eight-headed monster breathed multi-elemental blasts from their mouths that overwhelmed Atlas before Akane herself brought down both blades towards Atlas' head, ripping through the head and skull with the monster.

Letoile then imagines her [Compass Magic: Another Atlas] as a giant compass in the air then allowed her to become the primordial goddess of direction itself. She then uses her newfound authority to twist and contort the Demon's insides, causing him to writhe in agony until he began spitting out black blood, vomiting out entire biles and streams of gore everywhere.

David then manifests his ancestor, the legendary gambler of the Swallow Family, Monte Carlo, aka, "the Swallow", to his side. "Well, great-great-great-great grandpa," he spoke, "shall we?"

"Have it your way," the imaginary Monte then threw his normal dice into the air, "now, go right ahead. Call whatever dice and result you wish for."

"[Relentless Dice]," David spoke as one dice turned purple with golden pips as it landed on a six, "[Crazy Dice]," another turned into a chaotic, pitch-black dice that landed on a 4, "and finally, [Lucky Dice]," the last dice transformed into green dice with purple pips that was about to tumble onto a six, but then David then conjures up a metallic, golden four-sided die before flicking the said dice towards the [Lucky Dice], splitting the dice in half with the sharper one and technically landing on a 1 and 6, making it a 7.

"Not bad, kiddo," Monte complimented his descendent for his foul play loophole abuse, "well, have fun!"

[Relentless Dice] then empowers everyone on David's side, boosting their power sixfold that was enough to make their spells start leaving behind cracks on Atlas' carapace, [Crazy Dice] then summons a black hole to suck up most of the dark blasts away from the others and allowing them to move in towards the Demon at a safer method, and [Lucky Dice] summons another copy of [Bringer of War - Mars] to aid everyone in their fight against Atlas.

Dorothy then summons her other dream friends, with Joe the Prince riding atop of Bowie the Lion and Hank the Scarecrow to assist the others on the battlefield. Bowie first grows a pair of wings before taking off as Hank shot his own straw towards Atlas, each strand turning sharp as arrows as they stuck themselves into the turtle's flesh before Joe threw a javelin towards Atlas as Bowie breathed out a beam of light out of its jaws, both attacks hitting the Demon as it sent hims careening across the empty space and into both [Bringer of War - Mars] and [Bringer of Peace - Venus]'s attack range.

"EAT LASER ARMS, BITCH!" Charlemagne yelled as he remotely controlled the other PROTEA units unleashed their heat claws into their "pulsar" options while his own piloted unit then brandished its twin longswords as it then activated their "destroy" option, the rubicund blades emitting shockwaves that ripped across the Demon's body like hot knife through butter as the rest of it was burnt and charbroiled whole by the two [Bringer of War - Mars].

However, the Demon held on, despite the abuse that it took, and healed all of its wounds that was inflicted onto him. Only pure hate and rage kept it alive right now, and the pain only fed his lifeline.

"HE STILL WON'T DIE?!" Letoile cried out as Atlas then charged towards the group.

"It's Jormungandr all over again, isn't it?" groaned Dorothy as Toto nuzzled against her to comfort the witch, "well, no matter. Time for me to step in personally!"

Dorothy then jump into the battle as she then summons her armada of flying monkeys towards Atlas while she then furled herself with a green cloak to summon a bigger projection of herself that began shooting beams of light out of her eyes and mouth. Both attacks make contact against the Demon, with the winged monkeys swarming the turtle's head while the beam shots from the witch's projection burned onto the monster's shell-faces. Joe and Hank come into assist their friend, both firing their attacks towards the Demon that refused to die even as it was physically falling apart.

"THIS... WON'T... KILL ME!" roared Atlas as he was then smacked across the side by Roland with his [Durandal] and the copy-Heracles held in his other hand.

"Sure looks like you can," snarked Roland as the Demon then began rending its claws across the space as it began tearing through the fabric between [Glamour World] and the real world, "uh, what's it doing?"

Atlas then pours in a breath of darkness into the gap, causing the [Glamour World] itself to distort and and begin to fade along with everyone else's imaginary products. Dorothy suddenly then feels nauseous, as if her mind was being invaded by someone else. Someone like Atlas, who is polluting her [Dream Magic].

"Oh no..." Dorothy gasped as she saw a loose seam in her [Glamour World] ([Dream Magic], while powerful, is technically based off her state of mind, meaning that when she herself has been running all over the place, her "focus" isn't as strong as it usually is), "... I LOST FOCUS FOR A BRIEF MOMENT! HE'S EXPLOITING THE GAP!"

"NOW... EXPERIENCE HELL!" declared the Demon as it poured its infernal mana into the headspace to pollute [Glamour World] itself.

Dorothy then begins to suffer a massive headache as her friends and the dreams conjured by the others around her began fading away. "...GODAMMIT!" she cursed as she tried to retain control over her invaded domain, "I WON'T LET YOU!"

"[EARTH CURSE MAGIC]!" Atlas declared as [Glamour World] withered away into a desolate wasteland and a ruined metropolis around them, "[DESOLATE WORLD]!"

"[DREAM CREATION MAGIC]!" Dorothy declared as she held onto whatever was left of her fading reality, "[IDEAL ALIVE]!"

Both a nightmare and a dream came to be inside this amalgam of a metaphysical plain. Everyone suddenly were back on their feet on solid ground but at the same time, the bizarreness throughout the air never went away, with the skies being green and tint of everyone's colors being more gradient-orange or purple (it didn't matter which, everyone's eyes were hurting from just thinking about it).

"What is this place?" asked David as he and others looked around, "... looks like a shithole."

"... It's the Diamond Kingdom's capital, Sparta!" Iris answered as she recognized the surroundings, "... Atlas... he was from here... like us."

"Well, except for the fact that everyone's dead," Fanzell sighed out before he spotted a lone boy running across the wasted city before he passed through him, "what the?"

That boy was then followed up by an illusion of angry men with rods held in their hands as the boy ran with the bag held around his arms.

"... I think I can take a couple guesses," Dominante remarked as she saw the boy being beaten to near-death, "... but I think that boy was Atlas."

"You're right," he spoke as his rage and hatred subsided in a moment of lucidity, the Demon floating in the air as it slowly descended towards the ground, "... I was never born into the Earth Temple Acolytes. I was just some crook brat who had no purpose of living aside from bare survival. I was merely adopted into the acolytes, but they gave me purpose."

The illusions then turned into a barren wasteland with the now adult Atlas holding the dead baby Klein in his arms as he trudged through the wastes, completely haggard and empty-eyed as if the very soul was sucked out of his very being.

"... Everything... even the thought of me resenting them for being weak... they were the only ones that accepted me without hate," Atlas spoke, "Lotus took that away from me. Everything that mattered to my life was taken from me. Nothing mattered anymore. My soul wasn't of consequence anymore. My life wasn't even a factor that mattered anymore."

Fanzell was shaken by this revelation. "... Why," he growled, "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US ABOUT THIS SOONER?!"

"Would've it mattered to a dead man?" Atlas replied before he snickered, "no, all Loki gave me was a pretense of hope. Hope that I can somewhat find a reason to live before you all walked into my door. Nothing mattered. But after Loki, it made things... matter, in a manner of speaking... I wanted to live... and find purpose... through others..."

"... Dad," Klein sobbed in horror as he saw his real self's corpse being carried by his parent's past self.

The Demon's chest begins to pulsate with invigorated dark energy.

"How you all lived... while I was dead..." spoke Atlas as he towered over them in the wastes as it landed onto its fours before them, "... I WILL STRIP YOU ALL BARE!"

The screaming faces from its shell then all fired their beams of darkness all over the place.

"EVERYONE, BEHIND ME!" Charlemagne then purged the wings from his [Bringer of Peace - Venus] to emit a barrier with their energy wings to block the blasts aimed all over everyone.

As the beams of darkness ripped across the wastes around them, everyone hung on even as the shield failed, forcing Charlemagne to use his own unit to shield the blasts from them itself. As the dust clouds settled, [Bringer of Peace - Venus] was badly slagged and damaged all over, only held upright by the swords that it had planted onto the ground.

"... Status..." he looked at the darkened and red inside his cockpit, "... 15% energy remaining... purging."

He then ejects PROTEA out of [Bringer of Peace - Venus] as the armor was dismissed. The pod crashed onto the ground before the cockpit hissed opened to have he Premier crawl out of his seat, coughing out blood from the overdose of coffee tablets he'd ingested prior.

Akane then catches the young Premier in her arms. "... You alright, sir?"

"I'll live..." he coughed out, "... the rest is up to you all."

Fanzell then steps forth Atlas as Dominante and Iris stepped forth. The others tried to step in but Roland stopped them. "It's their fight," he pointed out, "let them settle this here and now."

The rest concede as the others watched the fight take place before them.

"Atlas..." he growled, "... all that you did... throughout your whole life... is simply exchange one mistake after another!"

"You did nothing to fulfill your emptiness!" Dominante pointed out, "all you did was simply suck in others like the empty void you are!"

"You're a cowardly scum," Iris growled, "you're never satisfied with anything you have, even after the Acolytes gave you everything! You're no different from the King that you hated! All you do is run your mouth about love and revenge when it's really about you this whole time!"

Atlas then belts out a roar before attacking with its Demonic powers, now completely losing itself as it rampaged, shooting beams of darkness across the [Desolate World] as the three charged.

Dominante then used her [Cloth Magic] to float her and Iris into the air as Fanzell rained [Winter Wind] from above and across the Demon's screaming carapace before raking his [Falchion] across the Demon's eye as Dominante brought down a flurry of [Knuckle Weaves] across its back-faces to have the artillery explode before they could fire.

Iris then throws a ball of compressed wind into one of the mouths before it shot a beam of darkness. The spell prematurely detonates, causing the Demon to cough out blood before it resumed in its rage-fueled rampage.

"So..." Dorothy asked Fergus, "... think those three can win?"

"Dey have wat dat empty shell lacks," he pointed out with absolute seriousness, "... love. De reason for all life on this world. It moves itself. Dat bastard gave up moving, so dat's why he's goin' to die."

"That's why you fuck a lot?" the witch asked.

"Love is me reason for living," answered the chieftain, "to love is to fight and remember. To love to eat and share everything. To love... is to accept everythin' dat the world can give and give back more of. Dat's why I love. To not stop livin' and to not let de others die for nothin' by givin' meself everythin' I got. To not deny or turn away others, either love or hate... dat's me meanin' of love. Fuckin' just helps me git close to other people, so dat I could learn all about em down to de last detail, der shame and honor, der likes and dislikes. I like connecting wit em. Helps me love em from the bottom of me heart."

"So you're saying that..." Letoile adjusted her cracked glasses, "that they have something to fight and live for... while he doesn't?"

"You know, that woman recognized this place as if she lived there before..." David remarked, "... aw well, if this is how the Diamond Kingdom's gonna go out for reals, I can't think of anything worse."

"It's not just about the Kingdom we've lost anymore," spoke Violet as she slowly got up from her MASS treatment, "it's a matter of our future."

"Dad worked hard... for all of us..." sobbed Peony as she hugged the now-despondent Klein, "now mom, uncle and auntie are now working hard too... because Klein's dad never liked any of us."

"... Mommy..." sobbed Daisy before she belt out a yell, "MOMMY! UNCLE! AUNTIE! YOU ALL HAVE TO WIN THIS!"

Fanzell then swings his sword across the Demon's face once again, only this time, the blade to be caught between the monster's teeth before snapping it into two. "Dammit!" he cursed as he looked at his broken Relic, "had to kill my buzz right then and there..."

"FANZELL!" Roland yelled out as he threw [Durandal] towards Fanzell, the Relic landing before the latter, "USE IT!"

"... ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" Fanzell pointed out, "YOU KNOW THAT I CAN'T USE THIS WITHOUT GOING INTO A MURDEROUS RAMPAGE!"

"You're not alone this time, aren't you?!" the Paladin pointed out as Iris and Dominante landed next to him, "normally, a cursed sword can only drive it's user mad. As in singular."

Fanzell then looks at his wife and Iris for their consent.

"Anything that could end this now?" the witch spoke, "I'm game."

"She's right," Iris agreed, "Atlas needs to die, now."

Fanzell nods before taking a dry gulp. "... On my mark," he stated as he and the other reached for the sword.

Suddenly, the turtle Demon then lunges towards the three of them, only to be held back by Fergus and Akane physically pushing back the Demon himself.

"WHAT ARE YOU ALL WAITING FOR?!" Akane shouted out as she pushed back against the Demon, "END THIS, NOW!"

"DE FINALE IS HERE!" Fergus pointed out as he grabbed one of the Demon's arm over his shoulder before flipping him over his shoulder and sent the turtle into the air, causing it to land on its shell as it struggled to get back up to its proper orientation, "END IT WITH FEELIN'!"

"THREE!" Fanzell cried out as he, Dominante and Iris grabbed onto [Durandal]'s grip all at once, flooding their minds of images of numerous battles and carnage that previously drove Fanzell into a blind rage.

Get a grip... get a grip... Fanzell and the others thought as their minds were flooded with lost battles of old and the voice telling them to kill.

Kill now, it spoke through them, you hate. Kill now. Enemy everywhere. Kill them.

THE ONLY ENEMY IS ATLAS! Iris pointed out, I WON'T FALL INTO THE SAME PIT THAT HE FELL IN!

Give up. Real world. Very cruel. Kill back. Use me. Me kill. For you, the cursed blade kept persuading them.

Barking up the wrong tree, bro, Dominante defied, yeah, the world's a shitty place, but you don't see us lying down and taking it and we were already doing fine without your help.

Why reject? What reason? You persist? Without death? asked the sword.

I'll tell you why, Fanzell answered, the tide of chaos and madness overtaking his mind being no longer as maddening with company around, it's because we have someone waiting for us back home. Someone who we can continue living for because we raise them.

Because we cherish them, answered Iris as the tides of chaos were replaced with the memories of her with Lotus raising their three girls.

Because we love them, Dominante answered as the images of war and death were superseded by the memories of living together with Mariella and Fanzell along with the rest of their found family.

That's why we fight, answered Fanzell, now driving the sword's impure influence back into the corner, there's no good in power for the sake of power alone! We need power... to end this cycle of hatred and revenge forevermore! SO THAT WE CAN FINALLY BE ABLE LIVE WITH OUR LOVED ONES!

The dark tides then cease as all three then see a winged figure floating before them, its head obscured in blinding light, but the air around it being gentle and calm as the spring breeze, healing the wounds of their soul as it then points its finger towards Atlas.

"Then go," spoke the winged being before the winds from its wings then blew towards the three of them, invigorating them with an unspeakable power that bordered on the divine, "free him. From suffering."

Fanzell, Dominante and Iris' grimoires then all scribed down a new spell for each of them. They looked back, and even through they couldn't hear what they were saying, the sight of their children speaking to them, their earnest emotions being understood by their parental instincts, was more them enough to conquer [Durandal]'s bloodlust and receive its pure blessing.

"Deus ex machina or something that was hiding in plain sight?" asked Fanzell as he and the other two mothers held the now-divine Relic, free of its impure influence upon the war-wary weapon learning what they were fighting for, "either way," he then glared towards Atlas, still struggling to get back up from its shell, "let's put him to bed. For good this time."

All three parents nod as they all charged towards Atlas as the latter then blasted a stream of darkness from its jagged maw along with its face-lasers on its shell to get itself off of the ground and back onto its proper orientation.

"Here's my new number!" Dominante then cast her grimoire's new spell, with three capes tied around their shoulders that enchanted their speed and coordination, allowing them to dodge the turtle Demon's attacks with ease, "[Cloth Enchantment Magic: Hero's Mantle]!"

The caped trio then all charged towards the Demon as it then dislodges all of the screaming faces on its shell to start remotely attack them with volleys of dark blasts shot out of their screaming maws.

"NOT ON MY WATCH!" Iris then used her new spell to create a turbulent buffer of wind around them to disorient the blasts that were shot towards them, damaging the screaming heads while healing them at the same time, "[Wind Abjuration Magic: Authority of Mother's Love]!"

Atlas lets out another animalistic roar as it then stood up on its hind legs before letting out numerous blasts of darkness made of pure hate and emptiness of his own condemned soul from his shell vents, his fingers and his mouth all at once as the trio dodged and weaved around the volley of blasts, roaring with conviction to end this madness once and for all.

"ATLAS!" Fanzell roared out as he, Dominante and Iris quickly closed in on towards the man they once trusted through the volley of streams of darkness shot towards them, "IT'S TIME TO LET GO OF THE PAST! FOR THOSE WHO WISH FOR THE FUTURE!"

Atlas then opens its plastron to reveal a crystal with [Gnome] inside of it before it then began emitting a similar energy patter akin to the blasts of darkness they were dodging, only higher-powered and large enough to wipe out everyone present.

"NO YOU FUCKING DON'T!" Fanzell yelled out from the top of his lungs as [Durandal] begun tapping into the 15 years of his experience both in and out of the Diamond Kingdom's Royal Army to come up with the spell that took the best aspect of each of his branched spells to create his ultimate spell.

All 22 aspects of [Wayward Wind Fool], [Tempestuous Wind Magician], [Calm Wind Priestess], [Slashing Wind Emperor], [Dancing Wind Empress], [Turbulent Wind Lovers], [Heavy Wind Chariot], [Roaring Wind Strength], [Stirring Wind Hermit], [Fair Wind Fortune], [Relentless Wind Justice], [Struggling Wind Hangman], [Eroding Wind Death], [Eventide Wind Temperance], [Dusty Wind Devil], [Calamitous Wind Tower], [New Wind Star], [Lulling Wind Moon], [Rising Wind Sun], [Apex Wind Judgement], and [Divine Wind World], all gathered into one, ultimate spell that was granted to him for this very moment.

"Bladestorm" Kruger has now returned to the battlefield, for the final time before the past is put to bed for good.

"[Wind Invocation Magic]!" Fanzell roared as he, Dominante and Iris all thrusted [Durandal] into the glowing core, shattering it with the blade's tip, freeing [Gnome] from the corrupt influence of the Stigmata as the winds around them stirred into a new world.

A new world, where not even Dorothy's imagination could ever possibly conjure for how pure it was. Even as her [Glamour World] took back the territory that was stolen from the Demon's [Desolate World], nothing can compare to the purity that were coming from the three parents fighting for their children.

The kids couldn't ask for better parents, Dorothy smiled at the three kids cheering for their mother and peer family members, while the boy looked on in a confusion of sadness and disbelief at what he'd just witnessed, ... I hope that the boy can heal from their love. He's going to need it.

"[Genesis Wind Aeon]," Fanzell muttered as he, his wife and the widow firmly held the blade before driving it deeper into the Demon's chest as all three of them belted out a roar of absolute conviction, "[GRAND AETHER]!"

A hurricane blasts out of the back of Atlas' now-broken carapace, a force so pure and so powerful that it shatters through Dorothy's reclaimed [Glamour World] as one of its doors leading to the outside was forcibly breached through, ripping though Ymir's chest and out towards the outside physical world, catching everyone's attention at the sudden turbulence shooting out of the monster's chest.

"WHAT THE?!" Nozel exclaimed as his [Silver Star of Execution] offhanded the remaining few [Gargoyles].

Makarov grins in amusement and approval. "They did it," he pointed out.

"And good riddance," Luciel flipped off towards the giant while Jezebel sucked her prey dry.

At the chest crest where the golems were being fought off, the rearguard felt the massive tremor that came from [Grand Aether].

Jericho looks down, only to find a massive hole bored through Ymir's chest. "THEY DID IT!" he cried out, "THE MONSTER'S DEAD!"

"Our efforts paid off," Rinaldo remarked as he and the others finished off the remaining golems.

"Hey Rinaldo!" Bradamante called out to her peer as she carried the now tired Astolfo under her arms like a sack, "I think he finally let the sleeping dogs lie. Or that he's too tired to rage any longer."

"Glad's she's not the only one," Nebra then pointed towards the unconscious Salim, whose soul was now in the process of escaping his body from his mouth.

Conchobar then yanks down Astolfo's pants, revealing his dick to everyone to show them that he's a guy, much to everyone's surprise (except for Shiren, who already noticed Astolfo's Adam's Apple and thought that the others did the same, much to his disappointment when they didn't).

"WHAT?!" Kirsch barked out as Nebra screams in horror, "how could beautiful maiden be a man?! Also, why don't you tell us in the first place?!"

Conchobar opens his mouth to reveal that he has no tongue, revealing that he's involuntarily mute.

"Ah," Jericho remarked as he pulled Astolfo's pants back up to his waist, "explains why. Although why are you Fergus' advisor then-"

Ymir lets out a growl once again, still moving even after its core had disappeared from its chest. Suddenly, from the head of the hole where [Caladbolg] was planted into, Fergus and the others that went in came flying right out of the hole, along with the several other Ulsterian tribespeople and Libratium's Chevaliers and Dragoons, along with Avalon's Order of the Spade Cross, all of them riding atop of the Offsprings chieftain's rainbow.

"Man, this sucks," pouted Heracles as he looked at the dying Ymir, "... I missed something awesome."

Bizon pats his shoulder as a sign of solidarity.

"BOYOS! IT'S TIME TO GO!" Fergus cried out towards everyone below as Ymir itself began to warm up all over, "DAT THIN'S GONNA BLOW!"

No one questions him as the rainbow bridges were then connect to the giant towards the ledges around the hole as everyone began evacuating the battlefield. As soon as everyone reached the solid ground, Ymir itself now shone in a menacing light that was akin to standing close to the sun.

"How many..." Dorothy groaned out, her head still pounding like a drum due to the overuse of [Glamour World] to pick up over hundreds, if not thousands of people over and over again for prolonged periods of time as Fergus led the others throughout the titan's body in his rainbow ride, "... how many are left?"

"We got all of them," Akane reassured as she looked at the heating Ymir, "... although I get the feeling that we're not out of the wood just yet."

The three chieftains nod before they jump back in. The others tried to stop them, but Conchobar stops them before giving them a confident smile and a thumbs-up.

Upon reaching the bottom, the three chieftains then all look up towards the giant before giving each other a nod.

"[Severing Magic]!" roared Cath Palug as he sped towards the earthen titan in blinding speeds as the blades on its back multiplied tenfold before extending outwards into a pair of mandibles made of swords, "[Execution Blade - 1080 Ruination]!"

Ymir was then cut and shredded into exactly 1,080 pieces vertically, causing the falling pieces to explode into lava upon hitting the ground below, feeding off the impending explosion to stifle the coming blast prematurely.

"[Shadow Necromancy Magic: Memento Mori]," Scathach's own shadow then turned into a giant pool of black as a massive spiked pillar roughly the size of Fergus' [Caladbolg] with a quad-pointed spearhead at its tip, "[Gae Bolg Draighean]."

The thorny shadow spear then pierced into the stone giant before each individual thorn grew out into their own spears that tangled and pierced through the individual falling pieces of Ymir into a crude bramble, with none of the remaining bits ever touching the ground as they were all staked by her Relic.

"Me turn," Fergus then sped towards where his Relic was planted at, jumping from branch to branch from Scathach's spell webbing throughout the whole giant before he reached his sword. Upon climbing up to the giant pommel, Fergus then jumps down, grasping at the pommel tip and dragging down the whole sword with it, bisecting the piecemeal golem piece by piece, each blast being contained to smaller blasts that mitigated the damage from possibly leveling the entire city-state to bedrock.

As the salvos of explosions popped all the way down to the bottom of the catacombs below, Ymir was finally defeated, with relatively minor collateral damage. Everyone then cheers at their victory against the giant.

"... I feel like they could've done that sooner," Jericho pointed out the three chieftains' spells and prowess of them slaying Ymir.

"And piss off the giant more in the process?!" Charlemagne replied, now being treated of his reckless overdose by the others in his staff while he offhandedly worked on repairing his damaged PROTEA, "... we'll talk more about... everything... later," he the looked towards the center of Libratium, "... because the battle ain't over just yet."

"... You know, the whole battle feels like it's going on longer than it should have," Dorothy pointed out before she puked.

"For once, I agree," Nozel nodded in a huff.

---

Magia Academia, Libratium, Spade Kingdom, Morning

---

"It's official," Nacht remarked as he bashed away a skeleton clown with the shields of his [Union Mode: Equus], "I hate clowns."

"Name one person who unironically doesn't!" Duhat remarked as he swung his [Requiem Anubis] towards a winged lion before coiling around its neck and decapitating it.

"To be fair..." Hama remarked as he kept throwing his paper talismans all over the place to seal away the enemy combatants with his [Sealing Magic], "... tis too soon to let the public judge on their preference on clowns."

"He's right," Mariella remarked as she slashed her way through the horde with her black ice dagger in her [Union Mode: Avenger], "our task is at hand right now! Talk later!"

William then summons a bramble of roots before the horde to suffocate their movements, allowing them to all make their way through the ruined school grounds. My word, he thought as he looked around the place where the Devil's troupe wrecked havoc, all of this in a single night? Suddenly, I feel as if this is what going insane feels like.

You fought longer battles before, didn't you? Patry pointed out, recalling his past memories fighting in wars against the Diamond Kingdom.

True, but nothing ever this chaotic, William then swung down his [Mistilteinn Blade] onto a winged lion's head, if we were to go to war against the Spade Kingdom, I feel as if things would be just as so due to how nature here seems to be actively out to kill us all for existing.

One denizen of darkness after another, hungrier and deadlier then the last, Patry rolled his eyes, truly, this place is indeed the "Demon Kingdom".

As the group then closed onto the campus itself, Duhat kicks down the gate before they entered into the school building itself, finding more skeletons littering throughout the hallways.

"This is taking too long!" Nacht then switched to his [Union Mode: Felis] for speed-killing, "there's no end to these fucks!"

"One of the proposed advantages of an undead army is that they don't know the definition of 'retreat'," Hama pointed out as he took out a grimoire before unlocking it with a key around his neck, "still, I agree, this is starting to irk me."

The unlocked grimoire then opens to reveal glowing paper talismans as pages for the priest's grimoire before he ripped off one of the pages.

"All of you, cover your eyes," Hama remarked as he threw the loose paper before snapping finger, unleashing a massive beam of light that scorched through the entire hallway of skeletons and winged lions before they were all reduced to nothing, naught but their ashes remained. "Phew," the priest wiped his brow with his sleeve, "glad the talisman wasn't facing us."

"What the fuck was that?!" Nacht exclaimed before they all began running through the emptied halls.

"You said it was taking too long, so I simply unsealed one of Kouha's [Phosphoratorium] spells that I had sealed inside my stronger talismans years ago," Hama answered bluntly, "and before you say anything more, I only keep these sealed in a locked grimoire because normal seals can't contain it for long in my usual talismans that I use normally. Oh, and that spell that I've just unleashed? Only .01% of her power. Any more, and this whole city-state goes up into flames."

"Is that why the Dragons don't exactly get involved?" asked Mariella.

"That and well, their grandmother," answered the Priest, "she rather not nor her kin destroy the world by complete accident. They kinda live here. One doesn't shit inside the floor of their own home, now do they?"

And that's why Dragons are considered the world's very first spell casters before humans or even us elves, Patry agreed, hell, our ancestors first learned how to use magic from them.

Sephira was there to iron out the wrinkles, per say, Licht remarked, raw mana is actually deadly to even us elves. And when we say we're "loved" by mana, we really mean that they're less likely to kill us from the radiation.

How quaint that I'm learning new things about mana, given that we're at a school, mused William before a loud explosion followed up by Fana in her [Brave Union] punching Loki through several walls and buildings in a fireball of pure rage and indignation.

"... Found her," Mariella remarked.

"I think she's gotten a lot stronger," Duhat nervously chuckled, "... I mean, like by a huge margin."

We should go after them, Lumiere suggested.

"All the more reason to follow her," William parroted the ghost's statement.

Everyone then runs through the holes punched by Fana and Loki. Upon reaching the outside, all four of them saw Fana solo against Loki as the latter summoned more undead clowns and [Wyverns] out of its silk top hat while swinging its flaming sword of black blaze towards the former and her relentless barrage of attacks.

"... So," Nacht looked up at the dawn sky being bright as midday's, "... any one of you idiots want to stick their necks out into that inferno up there? My [Shadow Magic] will literally burn itself out if I so much as step into that light."

Mariella shook her head. "That, and I also can't fly."

"Not in my place to stop her," Hama pointed out before he threw a talisman at the divebombing [Wyvern], sealing it away before it could attack them, "also, we have other problems."

"I'll go," William spoke.

"Uh, dude, your magic will be reduced to charcoal if you so much as walk in there!" Duhat pointed out at the inferno happening above their heads.

"I know," the Golden Dawn Captain acknowledged, "but not his."

William then takes off his mask, allowing Patry to take over his body, his short, ash-chestnut hair to long strands of silver-white hair, his [Port Wine Curse] being faded away from his face in favor of red markings dotted around his face and eyes, and his ears growing longer and pointed, just like an elf's.

"Explain," Nacht demanded.

"I have two souls in one body, more on that later," Patry then takes off towards where Fana was fighting at.

As the rest of the group were left on the ground to fend off the coming horde, Fana was roaring and screaming in focused fury towards Loki for his misdeeds for all of his time he'd existed. Her arm blades clashed against the Devil's [Laevatein], being slowly pushed back even as more [Copy Magic] spells of turning his captive souls into monsters was increased in its rate of production, all of them simply burned to a crisp by her mere presence.

"LOKI!" the two Fanas and Ezel roared out in unison as their [Brave Union] shone brilliantly in the dawn sky, "DON'T YOU RUN AWAY FROM YOUR PUNISHMENT!"

"I WANT TO KEEP RUNNING THOUGH!" he whined as more [Wyverns] and skeletons spilled out of his hat, "YOU WANT THE ENDING YOU DESERVE?! THEN TAKE IT FROM ME! IF YOU CAN!"

Another [Ginnungagap] was shot from [Laevatein], but this time, the sphere of void was then cut in half by Fana's blades with the other thrust towards Loki before unleashing a stream of fire that rivaled that of the sun's. Loki then absorbs the fire blast into his hat before spitting it back out in a blast of black flames.

"SWITCH!" The [Salamander] then takes over Fana's body before inhaling the rebound fire into his mouth, restocking its mana reserves in an instant before belching out a wave of brilliant flames from its mouth towards Loki.

Loki simply jumps from building to building to dodge the oncoming assault, but only to simply fly into Fana's foot before being kicked back down to the ground followed up by her arm-blades being dragged across the earth before unleashing a tidal wave of molten earth on top of the Demon.

The scalding goo then completely engulfs Loki before Fana then slashed apart the shell along with the Devil, only for him to come out damaged, but still alive.

"Amazing..." cackled Loki as Fana kept beating him closer towards death, "... this... is what a soul is! Rage, hope! Sin, virtue! DYNAMISM! Oh but why?! WHY CAN I NOT COMPARE?! WHY AM I STILL STRUGGLING AND FIGHTING EVEN THOUGH I DESERVE THIS BRILLIANT END?! WHY MUST EVIL FESTER... WITHIN THE NONEXISTENCE THAT IS MY VERY BEING?!"

"I DON'T GIVE A SHIT!" Fana then kicks Loki across his face and into the clock tower of the school before the whole thing came down onto his head, "I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU DESIRE! YOU HURT AND KILLED TOO MANY FOR IT!"

"... Even so..." he croaked out as he came bounding out of the wreckage before revealing his top hat to summon a black-scaled [Lindwyrm] from it, "I JUST CAN'T STOP! I WANT TO SEE IT THROUGH! TO ITS CONCLUSION!"

"Then let me help you along, HELLSPAWN!" Patry then flew towards the Loki bound midair as he fired a giant ray of burning light towards the Devil, "[LIGHT MAGIC: RAY OF DIVINE PUNISHMENT]!"

Loki smirks before forcing his son Raia to copy said magic before shooting it back at Patry's own from his top hat, the two same spells clashing against each other before exploding midair. "Well well well, what do we have here?" he spoke to the scowling elf male with a smarmy tone, "another familiar face?"

"YOU!" Patry pointed at the Devil, "IT WAS YOU THAT ATTACKED OUR VILLAGE 500 YEARS AGO!"

"Old news, what of it?" Loki deadpanned, "what you gonna do, stop me-"

Many [Light Swords of Conviction] were stuck into the Devil's body, but not before the latter pinched his lips before inflating himself to pop off the blades of light without any ill effects onto him.

"No way..." Fana remarked as she flew towards the other elf, "... PATRY?!"

Before he can tell about the First Wizard King and their village chief, Fana lunged at him with a tight embrace.

Fana pulls in the elf for a tight hug. "... You dummy," she sobbed, "... I thought you gone and died."

"I'm just glad that you made it..." he sighed out in heartbreak at the thought of Raia betraying them without Fana's knowledge, "... despite everything."

"Uh..." Fana then looked towards the side, "... about that." Fana then fills in on the memo that the "Raia" that they've been talking to for the past 500 years was in fact, a fake created by Loki, while the real "Raia" had his soul imprisoned by Loki, who was his real biological father, and made him watch everything as his "assistant", including the Elf Village Massacre and the Dissolution of Eye of the Midnight Sun.

Meanwhile, Loki had just snapped a bucket of popcorn into existence before swallowing the whole thing with a pleased grin on his face as Patry, Licht and Lumiere's souls looked at him in utter aghast.

Loki then reveals what was inside his hat, that being the chained soul of Raia at the bottom. "... Like I was about to say prior to being rudely interrupted..." he then puts his hat back onto his head, "what you gonna do? Stop me?"

Patry and Fana's collective rage and indignation skyrocket past critical mass in an instant. Even William was utterly furious at this Devil's disrespect and dishonor upon simply hearing what the Devil had done all for the sake of wanting a soul for his own.

"YOU ARE DEAD, LOOKKKIIIIII!" Patry then blasts the Devil with his barrage of [Light Magic] as Fana, together with her human half and Ezel the [Salamander] all converged towards the being of pure evil before them.

"HEEERRRE COMES THE NEEEEWWW CHALLLAANGER!" Loki then hops from ray to ray before slugging Patry with a dropkick before he zipped out of the way.

The enraged Fana then swiped her arm blades towards Loki, only for him to bend his body out of the swing's way before snaking around her and jumping off of her flaming body before delivering another surprise dropkick towards Patry from behind.

"GOD, DAMMIT!" Patry groaned out as he stood back up, "... forgot that this body's on a loan. Sorry."

Just don't kill it, and we're good, William pointed out before Patry jumped back in.

Meanwhile, Fana herself was still trying to pin down Loki, but she noticed that on a whim, Loki was dodging more than usual, implying that prior to this threshold, the whole "taking the ending that she deserves" was simply him toying with her.

We need a new plan! proposed Elf!Fana, Loki's done playing nice and now we're going to have to actually catch him first before we can take him out!

Fana swings down her arm blades only for them to miss as Loki hops away in random intervals while Patry chases him down with his [Light Magic] aimed towards him.

Two against one isn't enough, apparently, Human!Fana remarked before she looked down at the chaos happening below, not like we can call for help, given that everyone's busy.

"HEY! HAMA!" Nacht remarked as he sped through the crowd with [Union Mode: Felis] before switching to [Union Mode: Canis] to summon out a pack of shadow dogs to swarm against the skeleton army, "GOOD AS TIME ANY TO USE THOSE SUPER-POWERED TALISMANS RIGHT NOW!"

"AND HIT YOU IN THE PROCESS?!" Hama pointed out before sealing away more of Loki's nigh-endless troupe, "THIS IS A CRUCIAL MOMENT! WE CAN'T AFFORD TO BE RECKLESS AND MAKE THINGS WORSE!"

"He's right," Mariella pointed out as stuck to her [Union Mode: Avenger] with Megaera's influence controlling her [Ice Magic], "we have to be surgical and not overextend ourselves before that thing can pull the wool over our eyes and make a run for it!"

Duhat then summons a giant ashen cobra to sweep across the horde to give his allies more breathing room before swinging his [Requiem Anubis] around himself like a bladed whip. "Keep all attacks limited to this whole courtyard at maximum! Don't make the chaos more unmanageable than it has to be! FOCUS ON WHAT WE CAN DO RIGHT NOW WITHOUT LOSING SIGHT AT THE BIGGER PICTURE!"

Fana then comes up with a new idea. If power doesn't work, then maybe dialing it down to focus on something else might work. In fact, she has two spells in mind that would allow her to make that come to fruition.

... I have an idea, Human!Fana proposed as Patry kept firing his [Light Magic] towards the Devil, the latter somehow dodging all of his spells despite the volley coming at him at the speed of light.

"This is getting boring, kiddo," Loki hopped from ray to ray while dodging all of Patry's spells, "you're strong and fast and all, but your attacks are just dull, dull, dull! I MEAN FOR FUCK'S SAKE, HOW DO YOU MAKE [LIGHT MAGIC] OF ALL THINGS NOT FLASHY ENOUGH?!"

Patry still continues to shoot his [Light Magic] spells at the Devil, only for Loki to suddenly appear right before his face.

"Tch tch tch tch tch," he sucked his teeth in disapproval, "I take it back. Stay out of this, you wannabe."

The Devil flicks him across his forehead before he could react, sending him flying all the way towards the school library and breaking through several more bookshelves in the process.

"LOKI!" Fana roared out as she swung down her arm-blades towards the Devil.

Loki then tries to dodge the blade by contorting his body around the singular vector, but Fana has an answer for that, by splitting herself into two forms.

One was Fana made of pure fire, now swinging down a pair of sabers with blades that looked like flames, while the other was a crystal being with simpler arm blades coming from her wrists, both attacking at once and gashing open the Devil himself, causing him to finally bleed out black blood from his real wound.

"Had to come up with this on the fly," Human!Fana snickered in her [Salamander Soul - Immortal Flame Cowl] form.

"This time, you're facing both of us at once!" Elf!Fana declared in her [Galatea] form.

"[Fire Spirit Magic]!" both chanted at once, summoning copies of [Salamander] for each of them at once, "[Salamander's Breath]!"

Twin fireballs shot towards Loki, for which he'd dodged, but one [Salamander] then began unleashing volleys of fireballs towards him while the other then sprayed a stream of flame toward the Devil, the two intersecting modes of fire luring him towards the two Fanas to strike him again.

"PLAYING DIRTY?! I LIKE IT!" complimented Loki as he came out of the smoke, "two souls, now working together without the limitations of being in one body! HOW INSPIRING!"

"Not gonna lie, this is first for me too," Ezel remarked as the pair of Fanas kept attacking the Devil while the offshoots of his powers coordinated with the girls' minds and souls to entrap Loki in an unescapable gridlock of flank attacks and backstabs, "... first time divvying up my powers between two unique individuals that are just alike enough to be viable... Hot damn, they're good!"

At the library, Patry then saw Fana and her human counterpart separate into two unique bodies without compromising their overall effectiveness. Realizing that they're also on the same boat, the two began brainstorming.

"Okay, how do we exactly make a body for each of us?" asked the elf boy in a man's body, "I mean, my [Light Magic] is like [Fire Magic]... but I never thought to do anything like it save for you know... wrecking shit."

Same for me with my own [World Tree Magic], William pointed out, I get the feeling that creating a body suitable for a living soul isn't covered on my own [Creation Magic].

You are right, spoke another voice coming from the library itself.

"Wait a minute, who are you?!" asked Patry.

I am the library itself, the same one that has been razed throughout this whole night, it spoke akin to an elderly lady librarian, the bitterness in her voice being prevelant of her age, however, I will have the vandals pay me in full later. For now... I suggest you two to brace yourselves.

Before either of them could ask, both of them begin having their heads be flooded with so much unknown knowledge and information that tears of blood begin spilling out of their eyes as both of their grimoires fluttered open as new spells were being written into their pages, without their user's imput. After the episode ends, Patry and William both heave and gag at their heads nearly exploding from that sudden ordeal.

"Did she... gave us new spells?!" Patry remarked.

I read your minds, both of them, spoke the library, that's all I need for you to know.

Whoever you are, much obliged, thanked William.

Just hurry up and end this farce so that I can mete out the coming punishment to whoever damaged my books, the voice then ceases as both Patry and William collect their bearing before putting their idea into action.

"Alright..." gulped the elven boy, "here we go!"

First, the boy then turns his body into [Light Magic] itself, physical mass slowly being converted into incorporeal form of pure energy. Then, he switches over to William, who with his ebbing influence, plants a seed with his [World Tree Magic] to grow a humanoid body made of roots and barks like a humanoid tree. Upon the body finishing growing up, William then transfers Patry's soul into it before establishing a link between the two of them, since unlike Fana with her artificially-implanted [Crystal Magic] and both of their [Fire Magic] being nature, William and Patry had completely different magic attributes, making their mutual compatibility dubious at best.

It was a risky move, switching attributes to opposing bodies. Nevertheless, both trusted each other, and shared a conviction to hold each other firm. Patry's [Light Abjuration Magic: Celestial Transformation] was now William's new form, while William's [World Tree Enchantment Magic: Sylvan Seedling] became Patry's new/temporary body.

"So," asked William while he got used to his body now being pure light, "how does it feel?"

Patry, in his new body, heard his limbs creak like wooden planks. "... Let's just end this quickly," he remarked uncomfortably as he then bloomed a flower from his hand and aiming at Loki's back. "[Light Magic: Heaven-Splitting Flash]!"

The pistils of the flower then fired numerous rays of light towards the Devil, causing him to retreat from the blast that began chasing after him. However, instead of the rays simply chasing after him directly, half of them began taking unpredictable directions for which not even the Devil could see coming, with four of striking directly at the pads of feet while the rest burrowed into Loki's wounds, searing them and causing tremendous pain for the Devil.

Seeing an opening, William then uses his new body to speed towards Loki before he can double back and escape. With his [Mistileteinn Blade] in hand, William then swung the sword towards Loki's head, only for the Devil to catch it between his teeth with a smirk.

"You're a bunch of amateurs, you know that?" taunted the Devil before William snickered at him.

"Then it's a good thing that I'm not the one taking you out, am I?!" he sneered as both of the blazing Fana's sabers rammed through the lop-eared Devil's back and out of his chest.

"DO IT! NOW!" Fana yelled out as the other Fana in her [Galatea] body yelled out in fury as both Human!Fana and William held the Devil in his place.

"THIS IS FOR EVERYONE'S LIVES THAT YOU HAVE DESTROYED!" Elf!Fana roared out the two [Salamanders] went into her arm blades as they transformed into flaming talons of Ezel itself.

"LET ALL OF OUR JUSTICE BURN BRIGHT!" Ezel roared out as he then flew towards Loki before he bit down his legs with his burning fangs, clamping them from going anywhere.

Loki then tries to stretch out his neck, only for the remaining lasers form Patry's [Heaven-Splitting Flash] to burn out both of Loki's eyes. "NOT COOL, BRO!"

"[FIRE SPIRIT MAGIC]!" Elf!Fana roared out as her arm blades were then thrusted down into Loki's shoulders and reaching into his chest, "[SALAMANDER'S CLAW - REFULGENT BLADES]!"

Everyone then streaks their weapons across Loki's body, butchering him from several directions as they all fell back towards the earth. But before anyone but the Devil can hit the ground, Ezel comes flying in his flaming dragon form to catch all of them before they can hit the ground below.

At where the others were fighting off the skeleton clowns, Loki's mutilated body then crashes into the middle of the mob, scattering everyone inside the circle in an explosion of bodies and bones alike.

Either way, it didn't make any difference. Loki was finally defeated.

"... She did it!" Duhat remarked, "Fana actually did it!"

Speaking of whom, [Galatea] shatters as Fana's shared body then transforms back from flame into flesh (and damaged clothes), the same being said William's turning from light into blood and bones. "... Well, that..." she muttered out as she looked at the marred face of the Golden Dawn Magic Captain, "... wasn't so bad for teamwork."

"I'd say," sighed out William as he rolled onto the broken earth, "although... that could've gone better."

... Is it possible for disembodied souls to feel like years were shaven off of their lifespans? asked Patry.

Don't worry, Elf!Fana remarked as she helped the elf boy guide his soul back to William, ... you'll get used to it.

Nacht and Mariella then spot the Devil's coughing body ahead of them. The former tries to move in to deliver the finishing blow, but tumbles before he could reach any further before being caught by Mariella.

"... Don't take your eyes off of that thing," Nacht ordered.

Outside the wrecked academy, everyone present throughout the battle then arrive to see Loki finally at death's door. Upon from a few crawling skeletons who were being taken care of by Ezel himself, it was clear that the Devil was in a checkmate.

"... End of the fucking line, Loki," Fana declared as she heaved while standing with the others.

The Devil was proud of his heroine and her companions that she'd gathered before her. Ah... such a beautiful soul... he mused with a broken smile, oh how I wish for such thing to be mine... all mine...

Normally, anyone, including every Devil in Hell would consider conceding at this juncture. But Loki was no ordinary Devil. In fact, even compared to the old Luciferio, Loki was a Devil beyond all reason in the name of showmanship.

Not if opportunity was staring right at his face. Specifically, an abnormally-powerful soul that he saw next to Heracles. A soul, that was like his own, that burned like the sun, without anyone noticing it.

A soul... of a Demon. Whose vile nature and darkness like an empty void surpassed both his and Atlas' combined.

"Fire at will," ordered Makarov as the Thaumaturges aimed their [Firebolt M3]s at the dying Devil, along with everyone aiming their spells towards him, ready to deliver the coup de grâce.

"NOT IN A MILLION YEARS, SHITHEELS!"

Loki's arm then stretches out towards the soul above Heracles before claiming for himself. Quickly, with what little of himself he had left, Loki then summons with all of the remaining souls in his possession, including Raia's, to summon his ultimate creation.

A titan was spotted from the sky, heralded by a morning dawn. It was a pitch-black giant of pure fire and darkness, with nothing more than a pair of miniature suns for unblinking eyes in its horned visage. In its hand was a giant, flaming sword, molten and cracked like a volcano across the blade to its hilt. And through its pure dark body that set the air itself on fire came down a colossus that only spoke and committed to one thing, and one thing only: destruction.

"... My... Final... ACT!" the dying Devil declared, "... behold... [SURTR, THE DESTROYER]-"

Loki was then crushed underfoot by his own creation in an instant, denying everyone the chance to perform the finishing blow onto this monster. Surtr looks down at what he'd stepped on, confused at what he'd just done.

"... huh?"

With one last expression of confusion, [Surtr, the Destroyer] has only existed for five whole seconds before erasing itself with a pop.

"... DAT'S IT?!" Fergus cried out indignantly.

---

To Be Continued...

---

Author's Notes: After over 30-40k words of pure heartbreak and rage, all it took to kill Loki was a simple five-second mistake of his own making.

Yeah, I ended up making the longest arc I've ever written and I ended it anti-climatically. At first, I only planned this as a contrast to the whole "war arc" to have it end all of the sudden, but as I've created this monster of a story arc, I realized that it sort of became a self-fulfilling prophecy the longer I did this shit, and at that point, even after cutting the fat and omitting other details for this chapter, I realized that I had to end this now.

Anyway, I'm taking a week off from writing because this shit. I cannot handle going the way of Shonen Jump Weekly any longer. I am not a high schooler with creative adrenaline pumping through my veins anymore. I am slowly becoming an adult with only 1 year left in college. Can't afford to live in my own la-la-land forever.

So, both Atlas and Loki are finally dead, and both had... contrasting deaths.

Atlas ultimately died empty, as everyone saw his true past as a street rat who only got adopted into the Acolytes, meaning that every single moment of his life, with the exception of his childhood and his post-revenge rampage, was a big lie. Atlas only had nothing but lies in his life, from his "son" Klein to him not even being related to him by blood, yet he partially believes in his own lies to the point where he's willing to use [Gnome] and turn into a Demon himself because he really has no other options to compromise. Ultimately, Atlas is delusional, which is why no one pities him, and Klein himself is more devastated at the fact that Atlas lied to him about everything rather than being betrayed, but honestly, from a man who was literally born with nothing and ended up with nothing and says nothing for it, which hurts more?

For Loki, it was more karmic. He wanted it all, a soul, a show, and above all else, acknowledgement. He got none of those, which while unlike Atlas, who actually tried to do something to fill in the void, it was more of a case of a man dying of thirst (him) watching another man drown to death (Atlas). Both are quite a pair, since both are empty beings, but whereas Atlas was okay with being empty if it meant making others suffer (really, he kinda saw the King both as an object of hatred and aspiration), Loki was never satisfied. He wants to be bantered with, he really wants to be that "friendly enemy" trope, but upon reveling in the acts that he'd done for the sake of showmanship, no one is willing to give him the time of day. In hindsight, Loki knew that he wasn't being "appreciated", so [Surtr, the Destroyer] is really a final act of spite just to get back at them, without taking into account that he really shouldn't have summoned it right above him.

Anyway, that's it for this arc. Moral of the story, revenge ultimately amounts to nothing but mass death and destruction, ala Jasper Batt Jr. from No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. See you all at the epilogue of this giant-ass war arc.

References:

- "Laser Arm" is a reference to Code MENT.

- [Bringer of Peace - Venus], continuing with Gustav Holst's "The Planets" theme naming, is physically based off the Lancelot Albion from Code Geass R2, while it's centaur-like appearance is based off [Great Cosmic Hero, Grandgallop] from Cardfight! Vanguard and Odyessus' [Troia Hippos] Noble Phantasm from Fate/Grand Order. Coincidently, both Suzaku Kururugi and Hiroki Moriyama from their respective series have a bad case of "Knight Templar" bordering on childish and unhealthy degrees, so the whole moniker of "Bringer of Peace" is symbolically ironic in a meta-sense.

- Charlemagne's situs inversus and implied dextrocardia (basically, the position and orientation of his organs are inverted, such as his heart being at the right of his body rather than the usual left) is based off Thouzer's "Emperor's Armour"/condition (yes, I gave the shota Premier this condition for the sake of a pun) from Fist of the North Star.

- Fergus' [Love Magic: I'll Be There For You] [You Give You a Bad Name] are both named after Bon Jovi songs. Also, yes, he quoted Melvin from Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged Series ("Now that was a good hug").

- The "jockstrap incident" is a gag from Dragon Ball Z Abridged, which is mentioned by the Freiza Army that involved a lot of people dying. The same is implied to have happened involving Roland, hence partially-explaining his ban from Ulster.

- Atlas' Demon form is based off Jinmen from Devilman.

- Letoile using her [Dream Magic]-granted privileges had her perform a feat with her [Another Atlas] similar to Ermac's "Innards Out" Fatality from Mortal Kombat X.

- The Swallow Family's founder/the first one who took up the [Hell Dice - Devil's Gambit] is named after the place where the term "Gambler's Fallacy" first took hold, the Monte Carlo Casino. Also, physically, he takes after [Sand Gambler] from Yu-Gi-Oh. Also, [Relentless Dice], [Crazy Dice] and [Lucky Dice] are loosely based off [Orgoth the Relentless], [Number 85: Crazy Box] and [Number 7: Lucky Straight] respectively. The dice-splitting to land a 7 is based off how Yami Yugi beat the ZTV Director from the original Yu-Gi-Oh manga in the dice game (Yugi rolls a six, ZTV throws the dice against the former only for said dice to split in half by the Millennium Puzzle's tip, making it a seven).

- [Earth Curse Magic: Desolate World] is based off Primal Groudon's [Desolate Land] ability from Pokémon.

- The destruction of Demon!Atlas is based off the destruction of the Destroy Gundam at the hands of Freedom Gundam at the Battle of Berlin from Gundam SEED Destiny.

- The two Fanas separating into their own bodies to allow them to echo-cast their spells have forms based off different versions of Cardfight! Vanguard's Ezel. [Salamander Soul - Immortal Flame Cowl] with [Brave Union] is based off [Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel] while [Galatea] with [Brave Union] takes after [Blazing Lion, Platina Ezel].

- Patry's [Celestial Transformation] is named after the Yu-Gi-Oh! spell card with the same name.

- The nature and manner of Loki's undignified death is based off Oldface's (accidental) death by the hands of his own brother Beefcake from One Punch Man.

And as usual, please leave a comment or a review, for I'd love to know what my readers think!