Chapter 23: Water and Fire V


Ignis/Marli's Hubris

Ignis was frustrated that not only was his offspring bred for combat and discarded was now alive- awakening her proper inhuman traits, but was now allying with the daughter of the woman who sided with a human.

He took a deep breath, his eyes focusing on Murasaki and her newfound ally. His aura grew even more intense, the heat from his body threatening to melt the very ice that coated the beach. He knew he had to end this now.

Ignis raised his arms, and the sky above them darkened as the clouds churned with malicious intent. "Very well," he sneered. "If it's a spectacle you wish to see, then behold the true power of Gula: Helios!"

The colossal red crimson grid fireballs that had become his signature attack. They rained down upon the beach, each one the size of a small moon, the heat they radiated causing the very air to shimmer and distort. The ground trembled as the beach was pummeled by these fiery behemoths, the impact sending shockwaves through the earth and shattering the ice that Tsurarahime had conjured.

Murasaki and Tsurarahime braced themselves, their eyes locked on the fiery projectiles that descended upon them. The indigo-haired warrior's gaze never left the book in her hands, searching for any semblance of a countermeasure within its ancient pages. Yomihime, still reeling from her rebirth, spread her wings wide, the flaming feathers fluttering fiercely as she prepared to dive into the fray.

The first few Big Boys were met with a barrage of phoenix flames from Yomihime, which managed to deflect the flaming orbs aided by Tsurarahime's icicles. The clash of fire and ice was a dazzling display, casting a kaleidoscope of light and shadow across the battlefield. However, one of the Big Boys slipped through, hurtling straight towards Murasaki.

With a shout, Yomihime dove in front of her, her wings enveloping them both in a fiery embrace. The flaming sphere made contact with Ignis' right chest, the force of the impact causing a scorched sphere to briefly appear around the area, revealing his weak point. The once untouchable king of fire was now exposed, his vulnerability laid bare for all to see.

"Murasaki! Yomihime! Now! Combine temporally!," Tsurarahime commanded.

The two warriors nodded in understanding, their bodies glowing with an eerie light as they moved closer together. The power of the Rongo-Rongo book pulsed in Murasaki's grasp, and the heat from Yomihime's fiery wings grew more intense. Their essences melded, swirling together like a maelstrom of ice and fire.

For a brief moment, the beach was bathed in an otherworldly glow as the two fused into one being. When the light subsided, standing before Ignis was a dark-skinned female warrior with crimson eyes, a fiery phoenix tail fluttering from her waist, and icicles jutting from her shoulders like a crown of cold fury. Her long, flowing hair was a mix of red and indigo, the colors of their respective elemental natures. Her attire was a seamless blend of their original armor, a testament to their newfound unity.

The combined form of Murasaki and Yomihime was a sight to behold, an embodiment of power that sent a shiver down Ignis' spine.

Ignis then generates flame discs as he warps from place to place, consuming the oxygen to swell up for one final attack.

His flames were now able to not be extinguished by ice or water, deleting the space as it did so. The flames formed into a fire-drake.

"Agni Virtira!," he shouted.

He had his dragon flames clash with Murasaki's new combined form but she activated a technique-

"Saṃghāta"

Her energy then summons a pair of huge masses of magma rock that smash together and crush the user and the dragon into a bloody jelly.

Suddenly, emerging from the sand, demons, bears, and birds of hell dragged the body away as Ignis began to crawl away desperately to save his life, but the Eagles with flaming beaks tore out his organs as he was pulled into a void that collapsed in on itself.


Unknown Space

Ignis awakes to see a beautiful woman who reminds him of Tsurarahime- the woman he once loved sitting upon a tree and who beckons them to climb up. While climbing, hot sword leaves slice into the body, but the inmate is filled with so much desire that they reach the top, discovering that the woman is below the tree beckoning them down. This is repeated and the prisoner spends hundreds of thousands of years in this cycle. His eyes crying as he was driven insane.


Marli's Hubris

Ignis' realm tried one desperate attempt to generate fireballs to attack Murasaki, but they sizzled as the realm broke apart. All that was left was Marli's beach dimension, with the battle still raging.

Marli watched the terrifying spectacle unfold before his eyes, his expression a complex tapestry of emotions. On one hand, he was concerned about the sheer power that Murasaki had just displayed. The technique 'Saṃghāta' was not one to be taken lightly. It was the ultimate fusion of ice and fire, a force that could threaten even the most formidable of beings. Yet, on the other hand, the sight of Ignis being torn apart by the very flames he had once wielded filled him with a sense of grim satisfaction.

"You were someone I used to like as a fellow angel and a fellow demon, but you proved weak. So no need to feel remorse for something that died.," Marli remarked.

He then condensed the atmosphere into spears that automatically appeared just as they were about to pierce the girls, but Wave kicked them away. Several pieced his flesh.

"Condensation.," Marli explained.

Wave threw a kick, but Marli generated water so viscous that it was like gelatin.

He then turned the water into steam and then into a hardened blue plasma to strike through Wave.

His frill enlarged as he spat out a condensed stream of water that pierced through Wave's armor.

He then threw his lance to skewer Wave, but Wave's wings deflected the strike.

He generated a mini water bubble around Wave with intense water pressure.

"Ikhthyes!"

He condensed his remaining water into a massive swordfish-shark lance and lunged to skewer Wave with it.

However, he noticed none of the girls were worried.

"So this is what it's like to be strong.," Wave said with confidence.

Wave proceeded to burst through the bubble, smash through the spear, and then slice Marli in half.

Marli's top half landed on the sand with a wet thump, his eyes wide with shock and disbelief. The bottom half of his body remained standing for a moment before collapsing, the plasma swordfish shark dissipating into steam.

He looked up to Wave dissipating his transformation and looking at him with contempt and a cold, unfeeling stare. Marli scared out of his mind, flees, flopping till he grabs Kurome with his claws at her throat.

"You think you can beat me?! You're just a pawn in this whole mess!," he shouts as he then notices that Kurome had Leone's metal plat in her mouth and swallowed it.

"She's eating it.," Yomihime noted.

"Yup.," Murasaki noted, taking on a trademark Akame disinterested expression.

Kurome then proceeds to grow cat ears and a leonine tail as she kicks Marli into pieces and he screams the entire way.

He thinks about how he and Ignis would rape women and young boys, grinning maliciously as they did so. Then a glimmer of their past lives as noble protectors, protecting the innocent, but that was a flicker to his fiendish desires.

"I wanted to rape more shotas...," Marli's voice rang as he vanished.


Capital

The space disappears as the group is back in the capital.

Yomihime does a fist bump with Murasaki as Tsurarahime smiles. Poney and Najasho stand on the side as Wave looks at Kurome.

She was now a combination of Leone and Kurome appearance-wise- reaching a medium of the a young, curvaceous woman with long blonde hair with two long tufts that framed the sides of her head and golden eyes; and a young teenage girl with short, black hair in a twin-tail style and black eyes. While wearing Kurome's clothes that were now too small for her.

Her voice, however, remained Kurome's. "You're looking at the new and improved version of myself. Thanks to that metal plate, I've got Leone's power and memories," she said with a melancholy smile.

Murasaki gave a soft smile. However, something was amiss.

Suddenly, the scenery warped into a completely alien location- a realm that seemed to embody the very essence of duality. On one side, gleaming white structures stretched into the sky, their intricate carvings appearing to be made from the very bones of the damned. The bones twisted and turned, creating an eerie beauty that was both awe-inspiring and terrifying. It was a place where the macabre met the divine, a stark reminder of the fragility of existence and the ever-present shadow of the afterlife.

The other half of the hellish realm was a stark contrast, a sea of obsidian that reflected the flickering flames of torment. Demonic structures loomed over the landscape, each one a testament to the perverse creativity of the realm's denizens. The air was thick with the scent of brimstone and despair, the very ground beneath their feet seeming to pulse with malevolent energy.

Wave recognized the usage resembling Shambhala, the dimension warping Teigu that once belonged to Syura.

"This isn't the real capital. It's a pocket dimension," Wave said, his eyes narrowing as he surveyed the twisted environment.

"No, it's terraforming. The Great One must be impatient.," explained Tsurarahime.

"It's technically home for me.," she added.

"What?," asked Poney.

"Humans would call this Hell and the Damned do go here. But it's also home to the Evil Beings.," Tsurarahime explained.

"So what happened?," asked Najasho.

"It means no time for celebrations.," the blue-haired woman explained.


Berli

The bob-cut-haired Kaiserin gave an exaggerated gasp as she yelled at the West Great One-

"Eh?!, He left for home?! He has a lot of nerve! After everything we did for him!"

The West Old One's humanoid form is largely indistinguishable from that of normal humans, with the only noticeable traits being his pointed, protruding ears, sharp canine teeth that flared at times, and his above-average height, being taller than 6'2 human to the point they'd reach his waist. His skin had an inhumanly pale complexion, with black, wavy shoulder-length hair which he keeps combed back, long but tidy sideburns, and a widow's peak. His irises were purple with no visible pupils, his face elongated and somewhat gaunt, with marked facial features and a pointed nose. He has a hint of a goatee on his chin, coming in the form of well-kept stubble.

He wore a black obsidian attire of a dark suit, which is composed of a long coat partially held closed, reaching down below his knees, sporting an extremely wide, arched collar and a dark gray inner section, and matching pants. Running on the coat's edges, on the sleeves and legs' sides, and on the cuffs are dark gray bat wing patterns, and in correspondence to the biceps sit additional motifs: a figure reminiscent of an "infinite symbol" with its upper circle left open on the backside and two short stripes.

He also wore a feet-long cape with jagged edges, bearing his organization's insignia in a grey tint on the back. His attire is completed by a white shirt and purple tie, gloves, and pointed shoes.

Dragula- West Great One.

"He was on the verge of death, forced to scamper to here to avoid being hunted and you took him in out of pity. And his side essentially took over everything while his own freeloaders essentially made things worse for you!" she screamed.

"Thou speaketh as if thy aren't not one of those 'freeloaders', Berli," Dragula retorted, his voice low and filled with a hint of anger. "Thoust now stuck with us. And his side provided more mercenary work than we could do on our own."

"Yeah, don't pester him.," the bored-looking Kaiser pleaded.

The Center Great One left? I haven't seen him since that one-time ages ago. A large, round nightmare. It means we might have a chance., the Prime Minister, a hunchback man thought.

"We went back a long way and this was repayment for a debt. And he ended up failing due to the machinations of others. Now he can finally achieve his goal.," Dragula explained.

"He got a pair of twin brats, why didn't you hold them hostage?," asked the Kaiserin.

Dragula fell to his knees when this was mentioned.

"The Center Great One...Nefarious' purpose was clear from the beginning," Dragula began, his eyes reflecting the flickering flames of the demonic realm. "He was meant to sire heirs who would stand as beacons of hope for our kind. The double twins, born of divine and demonic blood, were to be the messiahs we've awaited for millennia. Foretold by the first Evil Ones."

Dragula comments, "Humans can't sense Energy of the Soul, so they wouldn't understand despite having the means to defeat Evil Beings with their tools. If they did, they'd be feeling the fear of God like Dragula did. I had a notion about scolding one for being too irritating, but once I felt that Energy of the Soul, our gaps were too wide. I am just a mere imp in comparison."

"Grr. You men are all useless!," she screamed as she stormed off.

That Akubuki (Evil Weapon) that was just used a few days back...I gotta learn how to reactivate it. I'll make damn sure that that turncoat learns his place., she thought.

Suddenly, the Kaiserin felt the ground rumble as if the land itself was being pulled towards something.


Center Continent

Within the main structure of the divided citadel, the currently obscured Great One of the Center, Nefarious, a being of immense power and age, stood atop a throne of bone and ash. His red eyes, like twin stars of cosmic malice, bore into the fabric of reality as he spoke in a thunderous voice that seemed to echo through time itself.

"We shall return to the days of old when the lands were one. Neo Pangaea.," he decreed, his fingers crackling with arcane energy. With a single snap of his fingers, the very earth beneath them trembled and groaned in protest. The islands of Wakoku and Berli began to move with a speed that defied the very laws of nature, the oceans churning and parting to accommodate their collision. The skies above were torn asunder by the sheer force of his will, the very fabric of the universe bending to his command.

All the continents collided with one another, shaking violently until it subsided.

From an orbital perspective, all the landmasses were now joined as one landmass.

Neo Pangaea.


Next Chapter: Zeboiim-Zoar- Murasaki and her cohorts have to navigate the stronghold of the Evil Beings of the Center

Author Notes: This concludes the Ignis and Marli fights, with Yomihime and the Esdeath aspect of Murasaki resolving those inner demons.

Now the entire world has been shifted into an entirely different locale- mainly for me to make things easier to navigate.

Leone physically died but her essence is now in Kurome.

Dragula and Nefarious have a shared history that I'll reveal later on.