Disclaimer: Black Clover is owned by Yūki Tabata, Studio Pierrot, and Shonen Jump.
Saga 11: Screaming for Vengeance Part 6
Governmental Building, Central District, Libratium, Spade Kingdom, Midnight
Upon the whole night sky lighting up with a sudden downpour and a thunderstorm followed up the sighting of a Devil and three monsters rampaging throughout the city-state, it's made obvious that no one could even comprehend the idea of sleep now.
The center of all of Libratium's administrative affairs was now in complete "work" mode, with every single staff member (down to the coffee guy) were footing it around every single hallway throughout the office complex, relaying all the information and sortie orders in hand to other departments to keep the flow of new information flowing.
At the central office, sitting alone in the meeting room for the Twelve Peers was Charlemagne, a 16-year old Premier of Libratium, now had to make his choice to put the entire city under emergency.
The choice was obvious as the giant red button opened itself up before the Premier's desk before it was then slammed down by his fist.
Every single siren throughout Libratium then blared out an alarm as the boy leader then quickly approved an emergency sortie order to not only evacuate the civilians out of the combat zone, but also to engage the threat to their nation with extreme prejudice.
"Everything is going to fine..." the young Premier sighed out, "... everything's going to be fine-"
The doors to the meeting room then burst open. "Sir!" the clerk cried out, "something's hacking into our PA systems!"
The Premier then follows the panicked man into the central command chamber, his sheathed [Joyeuse] in hand, just in case if the main threat managed to breach the command center. Upon arriving, the panicked operators tried to stamp out the interference that is affecting their alarms, the blares of the sirens becoming extremely distorted.
If Charlemagne were able to describe it, he would mentally compare it to a snake being strangled by a man who is being strangled by another snake who is being strangled by another man. Complete confusion at the bizarre happening right now.
"What the actual hell is going on here?!" the Premier asked as the operators tried to figure out what is going on with their system, "what got inside?!"
The alarm sirens suddenly fall completely silent. "... Apparently, an outside shutdown," the operator remarked, "... to be fair, we never expect the threat to attack the system itself-"
But then, the sirens then flare back to life. It then begins playing something. A tune. A slow, distorted tune that begins straightening itself out as it kept playing before it then began playing for real.
An orchestra, playing a brass symphony of whimsical joy and childish obnoxiousness that is less out place in a traveling performance troupe or a circus.
"Sorry about the changing of the station, folks," Loki's distorted voice spoke over the speakers playing the circus tunes inside the command center, "but I'm taking a few liberties to stamp out any buzzkills. Haters gonna hate!"
The tune then kept playing. The obnoxious, childish, whimsical circus music kept playing over and over again, stuck in an infinite loop as the feeling of dread slowly morphed into annoyance.
"... Someone please," begged the young Premier as the sound of brass and horns playing an overly jolly and whimsy melody blared throughout every single loudspeaker all over Libratium, including the command center's, at the loudest volume set possible, "... remove my ears."
Geatland Hills, Ulster Territory, Spade Kingdom, Midnight
"Alright boys and girls! It's time!" Scathach cried out.
"You don't have to shout," Nozel deadpanned as the other Magic Knights gathered around the rouge witch's teepee, "we're right here. Ever since you told us not to sleep."
"Sorry, got a little excited," she apologized sheepishly, "anyway, Tokarev just told me that their new transport is currently in it's test flight has redirected it's course to where we are!"
"Wait," Salim remarked, "... flight?"
"That's what he told me," Scathach replied before a sudden turbulence buzzed above their heads.
Everyone looks up, and spots a flying ship hovering over their heads. The ship in question was akin to a boat without sails, but at the side hulls were pairs of wing-like protrusions all connected with a giant engine inside the ship, radiating through the hulls with more than enough mana strong enough to carry the giant vessel, and at it's hind were a volley of funnels that glowed with noticeable bulbs warm blue flares.
"... Oh my god," David gawked.
"A FLYING SHIP?!" Letoile cried out in disbelief, "THAT SHOULDN'T BE SCIENTIFICALLY POSSIBLE!"
"We came from a land where flying carpets and brooms are our method of transportation and are currently in a land where consensual cannibalism is a way of life, amongst many other things that are too horrid to describe to regular Clover Kingdom civilians," Jericho pointed out, "... and scientifically speaking, why didn't we invest in flying ships when we have all the mana in the world back home?"
"Eh, asshole nobles," Dorothy pointed out, "bunch of buzzkills too lazy to imagine anything new, I'd tell you."
"I guess this savage land has a form of proper aesthetics," Kirsch commented at the flying ship hovering over their heads as it made their landing, "but judging by its rough appearance, I'm assuming that this is a prototype?"
The flying ship then protrudes out legs that helped it stabilize itself upon landing on the solid earth. A bridge then appeared from the side of the ship, followed up by a lightly-armored Thaumaturge, who is the test pilot.
"All aboard, Clover Kingdom Magic Knights only!" said the pilot, signaling the others to come on into the ship.
As the Magic Knights got onboard, they were all directed to the ship's cabins laden with passenger seats.
"Please put seatbelts on before the flight," instructed the pilot.
"Quick question," asked William, "just how far is Libratium from here?"
"Even with this hunk of untested junk?" shrugged the pilot, "about a day, sadly."
"What?!" Nebra exclaimed, "how are we supposed to get there unless we arrive at the end of the battle?!"
The pilot then lets out a nervous chuckle before heading inside to his own cockpit. "... That's the fun part."
Suddenly, the whole ship itself then lurches upwards despite the engines being completely silent. Outside, Fergus himself was lifting the whole ship over his head with his raw strength alone.
"... I kinda always forget that Ulster's a home to a bunch of superhuman freaks," commented Corrin (she's not coming on the account that she's a civilian and not a Magic Knight) as she stood next to Dagda.
"Eh, wat can ye do?" the half-Demon shrugged as they both saw the Offsprings' chieftain place the ship on his stupidly gargantuan Relic, [Caladbolg], "normal ere' does dat to people."
Once the ship was perched on top of the titanic blade's flat (read: the sword is bigger than the ship; barely covering the Relic's cross guard), Fergus then lifts the blade itself up into an angle until the blade's tip faced the moonlit sky.
"OI SCATHACH!" Fergus cried out, "WHICH WAY'S WEST?!"
"Over here, you big dumb lug of lust!" Scathach flipped the chieftain from afar, causing the man to adjust the ship's direction towards right where she was at.
"THANK YOU!" he replied as he then began pumping the sword with his own mana as he held it up.
"Uh, what's going on?" asked Salim, his hands sweating a puddle.
The speakers in the cabin flared to life before speaking. "This is your pilot speaking," he announced, "thank you for being the first passengers for [Camelot Mk.I]'s maiden voyage. Sadly, due to circumstances, our flight will be..." he then smacked his lips before continuing, "... expedited."
"Defined 'expedited'," asked Shiren, whose cool stone-faced facade hid well the fact that he was just as nervous as everyone else.
Fergus then lets out a cackle as the mana stored into the blade that he held up by its opposite flat reached its proper limit. "ERE' WE GO!" he roared out joyfully, "[LOVE MAGIC: IN THE AIR]!"
No one had even the minutia of a chance to even scream as [Camelot Mk.I] rocketed off of [Caladbolg]'s flat like a projectile slung from a catapult wound back to its breaking point.
Every single one of the passengers were ripped off from their seatbelts before sticking onto the cabin walls behind their seats like thrown tomatoes staining the wall while the ship traveled at Mach 3, speeding towards Libratium like a bat out of hell, except if said bat out of hell were made of cotton candy and a little girl's dreams, as evidenced by the bright rainbow trail left behind in its flight path.
"... So Fergus," Scathach deadpanned, "you managed to make the damn thing fly without getting a blowjob."
"Eh, I'm randy," replied Fergus, "... mind if I fuck yer lassies and yer sister?"
"Only if you get me something to eat first while I watch the shitshow that is about to occur," smirked the witch as she turned on the Projection Orb.
Commercial District #3, Libratium, Spade Kingdom, Midnight
"Ow..." grunted Duhat as he scrambled up from the rough landing from the dispersed [Hestia] separating the group, "... still alive. Excellent."
"Can't blame her for that one..." Nacht emerged from the pile of bricks that he was buried under, "... do I have... a concussion? I'm hearing circus music."
"Nope, it's real," Duhat dryly confirmed as the entirety of Libratium played the marching tune of the clowns over a scenery straight out hell, "world's gone to crazytown."
Nacht lets out an annoyed groan. "Out of all the Devils and Demons I had the displeasure of facing, this one is the worst."
"Come on," Duhat grunted, "gotta look for the spawns that sent us flying before it finds us-"
Right before Nacht's eyes, Duhat was sent flying to the side towards hitting a lamppost and bending it upon impact.
So fast! thought Nacht as he immediately went into [Union Mode: Felis], can't even sense him or spot him! Just what kind of thing is he?! he frantically looked around his surroundings for the unseen perpetrator, well, considering that it physically hit Duhat, I'm assuming it's Fenrir.
It's scary... commented Plumade, ... it's like it's waiting for us to make a mistake!
Keep your wits about you, snapped the Contractor, ... it wants to outspeed us? Two can play that game!
[Union Mode: Felis] then speeds out of the wrecked building faster than the naked eye, but sadly, Nacht was only fast enough to finally see that Fenrir was literally right on top of him, waiting for him from the same corner that was behind Nacht.
... Sometimes I curse own squad for this act of recklessness, growled Nacht.
I think it's clear to me now, Plumade squawked in fear, that thing has no mana signature!
Nacht was then punched to the ground by Fenrir before being picked up by his head grasped between the diamond werewolf's claws.
"Terminate," it spoke as it transformed its left hand into an [Ares Javelin].
"You first!" Nacht snapped as he switched to [Union Mode: Gallus] before letting out a horrid point-blank shriek that caused the beast to recoil from the sound, enough to let him go from his grasp.
From the side, a hot blast of ash and brimstone sprayed onto Fenrir as it was rattled from the noise, blasting it back several feet.
"Took you long enough!" Nacht remarked as he switched to [Union Mode: Equus] to ward off Fenrir's next assault, "careful! He's a slippery one!"
Fenrir disappears from sight before reappearing before Dune with such speed before either of them could react. However, upon nearly reaching Duhat, Duhat himself explodes as soon as Fenrir tries to back off, sending the wolf construct flying back.
"What the hell was that?!" Nacht cried out, "I didn't know [Geb Replica] could do that!"
"It wasn't," Duhat's voice remarked as he climbed up on the same roof where Naach was standing at, "took a few bits from Fana's new spells upon observation, and lo and behold, my own take."
The surroundings then all gather around the scattered ash as it then reconstructs an ashen copy of Duhat himself. The copy looks up before giving him a thumbs up.
"Meet [Geb Persona]," Duhat greeted, "Wadjet's in there, so now she can fight alongside me. Also works as a reusable proximity bomb like the old."
Fenrir then gets out of the pile he was blasted back into before calmly analyzing the situation.
"Situation: speed alone - insufficient," recited Fenrir as he observed the other two above at the rooftop observing him back in turn, "conclusion: further observation is required - switching to general offense."
"Okay, he's also a thinker too," Nacht groaned, "if there's one kind of enemy I despise, are the ones that actually think."
"[Diamond Creation Magic]," declared Fenrir as its arms morphed into a pair of triple-barreled guns, "[Hephaestus Heatmaker]."
The barrels spin before spitting out a volley of diamond shrapnel that sprayed towards whatever it was in front of it. Both Nacht and Duhat got on the move away from the fire, with Nacht switching to his [Union Mode: Felis] to run faster while Duhat recalled [Geb Persona] to watch his back, Wadjat using her own [Density Magic] to harden her body to use as a buffer from the shots.
Fenrir stops firing from one of his barrels before recalibrating its aim before aiming right where Nacht was running towards, the surprise volley catching him off guard, causing the [Shadow Magic] user to double back before dragging Duhat with himself back into the shadows for some cover.
"Addressing situation," Fenrir declared as it kept firing from one of its [Hephaestus Heatmaker] before transforming one of its hands into a pointed shell, "[Diamond Magic: Apollo Arrow]."
The payload fires off of Fenrir's arm, boosted by loaded mana rocketing towards where the shadows were at, forcing Nacht to pull himself and Duhat out before [Apollo Arrow] blew up the very underground that they were hiding at.
Suddenly, the triple-barreled gun on Fenrir's left stops firing before hissing with smoke. "Cooldown required," the beast declared, it's left arm locking and clacking, unable to revert back, "left arm unusable."
"NOW!" Duhat declared as he and Nacht came out, "[Brimstone Magic: Apophis Exhaust - Eclipse Blast]!"
A giant ashen cobra manifests behind Duhat before exhaling a giant concentrated stream of superheated volcanic ash akin to a fire blast.
Upon seeing the construct be buffered by the pressure of the blast coming from Duhat's spell, Nacht incorporates [Union Mode: Canis] into his [Felis], forming a [Dual Union: Canis x Felis]. With the combined features of [Felis]'s "agility" and [Canis]'s "pack", Nacht unleashes a deadly mob of shadow clones of Nacht that overwhelmed Fenrir with both numbers and speed together.
Both attacks connect as a big ball of violence trapped Fenrir into a deadlock. "God I love chantless spells," smirked Nacht, "saves a lot of time without compromising power."
"I want to say that 'we got him'," Duhat remarked, "... but just to be sure, I gotta check," he then summons Wadjet through his [Geb Persona] to then punch the earth before her as Wadjet kicked up a tidal wave of brick and dirt that engulfs the construct whole before hardening the earth that it was trapped inside into that of diamond with her [Density Magic], "... not gonna say or assume anything."
"In any case, keep an eye on it," Nacht pointed out as he then swapped out [Felis] for [Equus] to form [Dual Union: Canis x Equus] to summon out a pack of giant shadowy dogs to act as a phalanx between it and the trapped Fenrir, "... not only is it got both bulk and speed, but brains too. If he were a Magic Knight, literally every single Magic Knight Captain would be drooling over him."
"Speaking from experience?" pointed out Duhat as he manifested [Requiem Anubis] into his hands.
"You have no idea," sighed Nacht before he then hears a crack forming in the earthen dome, "here it comes!"
The mound then breaks off as Fenrir frees itself from its prison. "Situation: offense alone - insufficient," the construct declared, "... analysis complete."
Without saying a word, Nacht orders the shadowy beasts to pounce onto Fenrir before it could do anything, only for it to transform both of its hands (the left finally cooled off to be in use again) into two giant halves of a clam's shell before snapping it together, catching the beasts inside of it. Nacht tries to recall them out of existence, but finds that he's lost connection with his own chantless spell.
"[Diamond Curse Magic]," Fenrir declared before unleashing the beasts towards Nacht and Duhat, "[Aphrodite's Affection]."
The sabotaged spells turned against the two forces the two into a hasty retreat, the beasts behind them tearing through the buildings and streets alike, their snapping maws nearly catching them between their teeth.
"NACHT! GET US OUT OF HERE!" cried out Duhat as he used his own [Requiem Anubis]'s segmented handle like a grappling hook to get from place to place faster.
"I CAN'T!" he replies as he scrambled away before transforming into [Union Mode: Felis] to pick up speed in lieu of simply jumping into whatever shadow cast before him for a quick escape, "THAT BASTARD TOOK MY OWN SHADOW MANIPULATION! DAMN CLAM SHELL MUST'VE SUPERSEDED MY CONTROL OVER IT!"
Behind the pack pursing Nacht and Duhat, Fenrir was following shortly behind, mentally calculating for the twos' positions using his stolen shadows as additional pairs of eyes, seeing what the pack are also seeing in real time.
"Positioning confirmed," Fenrir then morphed its right hand into a giant fist with numerous thrusters behind its elbow, "targets located. Proceeding to termination."
The rockets then flare up with a roar of pure, unconcentrated mana gathered around from the very air as Fenrir kept running after his prey. The flares then erupt into a howl as it propelled Fenrir across the road, behind him leaving a trail of dead civilians that he didn't even bother to register.
"[Diamond Magic]," declared Fenrir as it tore through its stolen shadows like a shot beam of pure rage, inadvertently relinquishing the control back to Nacht, "[Zeus Cestus]."
In a spilt second, Nacht hastily jumps into the nearest shadow cast before him as soon as the diamond rocket gauntlet hit the dirt.
Upon contact, a massive explosion of raw mana erupts out. The dome of light devours everything that it woke towards, the sound of its blast temporarily drowning out the circus music that played throughout the whole city.
Once the light dies down, Duhat tries to look around the ruined area of Libratium for Nacht. "Nacht!" he cried out as he scrambled back up to his feet from his rough landing, "Nacht-"
A sharp sensation was shot through the side of his stomach, his insides ripping through by an unknown projectile, causing him to collapse in fresh pain.
"[Diamond Creation Magic]," Fenrir declared as it came out of the smoke and fire, its left arm now a single long-barreled gun with a scope atop of it, "[Artemis Aim]."
The barrel was then pressed against the Demonologist's forehead.
"I will not miss this time," declared Fenrir as he readied to blow off Duhat's head.
But before the gun can fire point-blank into Duhat's skull, a tangle of silver thorns pull the barrel away from the Demonologist's head and have it fire elsewhere. Before anything could be done, a giant liquid metal blade crashes atop of Fenrir's head, nearly missing Duhat's own crotch in the process.
"Well, thank the fucking nine hells that you're not there," Luciel remarked as she brandished her whip with [Cnámh Sith] carrying a portable MASS pack on its bony back, "you alive enough to keep kicking ass?"
"Gotta find Nacht first," Duhat remarked, "wait for us and we'll be back good and fresh."
"Careful," Rinaldo pointed out, "streets are crawling with weird shit right now-"
An animalistic shriek was heard from above before a [Wyvern] crashed before the three of them.
"Woohoo!" whooped Roland as he emerged from the dust cloud after riding atop of the Wilderbeast, "I fucking love this night!"
"And lacking in wardrobe as always," sighed the elf Demonologist, "what of the remaining civilians?"
"They're being evacuated as we speak!" declared Roland before sobering up a little, "... at least, the ones we were able to evacuate in time. Hopefully, they'll be able to find the bodies before they rot."
Fenrir then emerges from the ground he was caved into, with one of its eyes shining bright red.
"... Situation... altered..." he grunted, "... new... factors... processing."
"Careful!" warned Duhat, "that thing's smarter than it looks!"
"Good thing we have Roland," snarked Rinaldo as the aforementioned Paladin then reaches into the ground before pulling out Nacht by his ankle, "he's literally the dumbest man in the entirety of the Spade Kingdom, to the point where logic and reason itself no longer even factors to him anymore."
"Wait, is that Nacht?!" Duhat pointed out, his yelling waking up the surly Contractor with his four lesser Devils.
"MASTER!" all four of them cried out, "WAKE UP!"
"... I'm awake, you runts," he grumbled before looking around, "... why am I upside down-"
"Commencing... recalculation," Fenrir then forms [Ares Javelin] in one hand and a round shield with a mirror-like sheen on the other before engaging the group.
"Bring it, sparky!" Roland yelled out as he then proceeded to use Nacht as his own weapon, swinging him around by his ankle as the poor bastard literally goes into his [Union Mode: Equus] just to not have all of his bones broken.
Upon immediate first contact, about 75% of Nacht's skeleton was structurally compromised.
"... [Cnámh Sith]," spoke Luciel, "be a dear and make sure that my boy toy doesn't end up too broken."
"Roland's got that freak on the ropes!" Rinaldo pointed out as he drew his [Froberge], transforming its amorphous blade into that of a singular, long, rapier-like blade, "back him up, now!"
Over the circus music playing, Roland laughing in pure joy of combat, Nacht screaming his lungs out in terror and pain of being used as the psycho Paladin's weapon in lieu of [Durandal], the battle rages on against [Fenrir, the Devourer] at one part of the city-state submerging further into chaos.
Red Lights District, Libratium, Spade Kingdom, Midnight
"[Blacklight Magic: Infernal Blade Rain of Penance]," Hel chanted as a rain of swords of darkness fell down indiscriminately towards civilian and Chevalier alike.
The Red Light District, despite being the are of the city-state that is usually never asleep, finds itself unable to evacuate its populace due to said district being part of the inner city, aka, the most likely place to get bombarded by a rain of demonic magic.
Casualty rates were superseding more than the MASS can handle, and the disastrous evacuation being played over a clown music just added salt to the wound.
"My ears are ringing..." groaned Mariella as she scrambled through the alleyways while leaving everyone else to their fate (logically speaking, what is one mage with rudimentary [Ice Magic] is able to do against a floating WMD), "... if this is the way Devils have fun, then Hell must be real."
As the circus music kept playing in tandem with the screams of many, the skies pouring with rain and lighting boomed before it was followed by animalistic shrieks and roars filling the streets.
Mariella peeks outside, and finds an entire parade from Hell happening before her. [Wyverns] flocking around the air, winged lions breathing fire and giant skeletal bears playing comically-tiny accordions while tumbling on top of giant metal spheres riddled with spikes as it rolled down the streets and crushing others caught under its barbed sheen and countless other horrors that were blatant mismatches of the colorful and the morose.
"... I'm in Hell now," she gulped as she witnessed the horrors rampage their way through the streets, the rain and thunder compounded by the bloodshed gone mad before here, "... gotta get a grip," she then slapped herself in the face, "... gotta get a grip-"
"[Blacklight Magic]," Hel spoke behind Mariella, appearing before her without notice as it summoned a giant hammer of darkness from above, "[Demonic Gavel of the Guilty]."
Mariella ditches her cloak in place of her getting crushed and disintegrated by the hammer of death crashing from above.
Okay, I got near him, and I felt my own skin off my back being scorched off back there, thought Mariella as she weaved her way through the alleyways as Hel followed her from behind, shooting blades of darkness down the cramped corridors, my [Ice Magic] is going to melt if I so much as I get close to that miniature black sun! she looks back, seeing that the mortar and brick melting and the rain vaporizing off around Hel as it slowly approached her while not letting up its volley of sword projectiles, ... gotta lose it fast!
If Mariella was confident about one thing, was that was sneaky. Hel seemed like the kind of unit that prioritized "shoot first, ask questions never", so it might not be at the highest when it came to brains. Spotting a corner, Mariella then erects up a wall of ice behind her to block off Hel's view before it was then shot to shit by the [Infernal Blade Rain of Penance], only to not see her anymore.
Hel looks around his surroundings, only to find no lifeforms for it to shoot at. Realizing that it can't see through these buildings in the way, Hel then opts to address then conundrum.
"[Blacklight Creation Magic]," he declared as a massive sword of darkness formed into his grasp, "[Black Blade of Punishment]."
Hel then swings the massive blade around itself, cutting down every single building and living being alike, with Mariella ducking just in time under the swing that leveled about a whole third of the Red Lights District instantaneously.
Realizing that she has no cover left, Mariella then makes a hasty escape using her [Ice Magic] to surf on the erected spires of ice left behind her, with said ice quickly melting as Hel gave pursuit. As the construct of light and darkness fused together began chipping away at the ice trail with its [Infernal Blade Rain of Penance] raining down behind her in a deluge of death and darkness that forces Mariella into an active retreat.
"[Blacklight Creation Magic]," Hel declared as it then formed a bow with a simple arrow of darkness nocked at the end of its string, "[Pursing Bow of Persecution]."
The arrow takes flight faster than the blade rain itself, ripping through everything as it chased after her. Realizing that her way out was going to fail, Mariella bails out, the arrow singing her left arm and upper left rib to the bone in a near-miss before she then crashed and rolled onto the broken pavement.
"Gotta... get up-" she then lets out a screech as her exposed bones and nerves scratched against the rubble, "... fuck!" she cursed as she then looked behind her, only for to be met by a coming rain of swords of darkness.
Mariella was fucked. She never stood a chance against this sun before her. She knew that she was going to die, and not even her corpse was going to be left behind.
"... Not like this," she sobbed, "... not like this..."
But suddenly, the swords turned back. The swords that were once falling towards Hel then began to turn back towards Hel and attacked him instead.
"Hey there," a young woman's voice called out, "you alright?"
Mariella then spotted a blonde woman with long pigtails in a red, white, and blue spandex under her white military coat and bits of golden armor around her legs and torso. Held in her hands behind her back was a lance with a silver shaft wrapped in a leather cord connected to her wristband and an obsidian-black spearhead with a red arrow imprinted on its flat.
"... Who..." Mariella spoke, "who are you?"
"Name's Bradamante!" she greeted, "I'm one of the 12 Paladins and I was in this shithole in the first place looking for my assigned partner."
"Partner?" then a sound of earth and brick bursting out was heard from behind Hel, revealing to be a feminine-looking man with short black hair with strands of strawberry-blond hair hanging off of the former, completely naked in his lithe yet muscular bodily frame.
"What the hell bro?!" the young man cried out, his feminine voice sounding really familiar, "you had to go and attack this place, did you?!" he complained, "these girls and boys were working hard and you killed them! Also, why's circus music playing through my PA system?"
"Hey, Astolfo!" Bradamante hollered out, "put your back pants on! We're under attack!"
Hel then aims his [Infernal Blade Rain of Penance] towards the nude Paladin before sending the deluge down. Astolfo, not even bothered, easily dodged all of the blades without batting an eye before picking up his sheathed sword with his toes mid-flip before unsheathing it to swing out a long, segmented whip-like golden blade that proceeds to parry the dark swords with ease.
"Tough shit, bro," sneered Astolfo, "[Précieuse, the Gilded] measures the value of your spells and augments itself to become stronger than it. You made a horrible mistake fighting a Paladin with magic alone!"
"Here," Bradamante then tosses a portable MASS pack at Mariella, "bones look better when they're not seen, you know."
"... Thanks," she then presses the button as the mana surgical lasers then scan her wounds before replicating her tissue over her exposed bone, "I can't even get near the guy without burning myself to the bone!"
"Don't worry!" Bradamante smiled as Astolfo fended off Hel's assault while multitasking to search for his pants amidst the brothel reduced to rubble, "we got this!"
The female Paladin then plants her lance into the ground, erecting a barrier around the battlefield.
"My Relic, [Maltet, the Dictator] shall control the flow of the battlefield!" she declared, "nothing's gonna get past us without my permission!"
"[Blacklight Magic]," Hel then forms a magic circle over his head emitting infernal mana from above, "[Heretical Rays of Retribution]."
A flurry of black beams shot towards them from above, only for all of them to instead shoot towards Hel instead.
"Denied!" Bradmante boasted, only for Hel to come back our unscathed, "huh, guess the whole 'return to sender' trick didn't work."
"So all we can do is keep it contained?" Mariella pointed out as Astolfo swung his [Précieuse] towards Hel, only for it to match Astolfo in swordsmanship with his own [Black Blade of Punishment] parrying the former's blows coming from multiple angles.
"We'll get through this deadlock, trust me!" Bradamante optimistically stated, "at least we'll give the Chevaliers and the Dragoons some breathing room!"
"HOLD STILL YOU HALF-AND-HALF FUCK!" cursed Astolfo, his cutesy voice clashing horribly with his potty mouth.
"[Blacklight Magic]," Hel kept chanting its spells, completely ignoring the others as it kept firing his spells indiscriminately, "[Infernal Blade Rain of Penance]."
"I don't think so!" Bradamante then uses [Maltet]'s authority to send the blades back towards Hel.
However, Hel then parries back the blade towards Astolfo with a clean backhand swing, forcing him back on the defensive lest he gets burnt to a skeleton.
"... Okay, assumptions have been disproved," Mari remarked, "... it has a brain. Just took a while to use it."
"You been fighting that thing for how long?" asked Bradamante as she then switched her authority to instead send the blade rain elsewhere rather than back towards it to keep it in a better check, "... forgot that [Maltet] can only assume command once for... well everything. After one order, anything goes."
"So no active control over these blades or those skeleton clowns coming in right now?!" Mariella pointed towards the shambling horde behind them.
"Dammit, they doubled back," the Paladin grumbled, "those guys outta be more your weight class, right?"
Mariella nods as she then manifests a pair of [Crystal Kris] in her hands. "At least they won't burn me to the touch."
Two battles then occurred within [Maltet]'s domain. One was a nude Paladin with a golden whip sword facing against an embodiment of light and darkness, and the other was an ex-assassin girl taking on a horde of skeleton clowns.
Thankfully, Maltet's domain filtered out the circus music playing in the background, sparing some of their collective dignity along with their eardrums as [Hel, the Paradox] was fought.
Commercial District #6, Libratium, Spade Kingdom, Midnight
"Hurry up!" Akane shouted as Jormungandr hovered over their heads, raining lighting and storms over their heads as the twins ran for their lives amidst the circus music playing over the rumbling and drizzling.
"I hate the rain as much as I hate the droughts back home!" Mari seethed in rage, "why can't the weather here be normal for once?! At least the local weather and nature Kami back home can be negotiated with!"
"Don't assume that monster over our heads to be that as a Kami!" Akane pointed out, "... just pretend that thing to be a [Lindwyrm] that learned how to fly."
"How is that any better?!" Mari replied before Jormungandr above then summoned a giant flood rushing behind them, forcing the twins to jump up to the buildings lest they get washed away.
As the two clung to the sides of the marketplace stalls, Akane sniffs the air and notices something about the floodwaters. "... That's sake," she pointed out before looking up to find that Jormungandr has uncorked its drinking gourd held in one of its claws. "Shit," she than began slurring in her words before Mari caught her mid-fall, "... I'm feeling... a little... lightheaded."
Mari then moves the two of them up towards the roof. "If we can only reach it..." she cursed, "or at the very least, it would come down here..."
(Give it a rest, youngster), Urabe no Sueteke spoke to Mari in Hanafudan from one of her four magatama beads hung around her neck, (giant beasts like that one up there, playing the role of a false Kami? Their weaknesses are made obvious).
"(What do you mean)?" Mari replied back in the same language, "(I have no means to reach it)!"
(It has to come down eventually), Sakata Kintoki pointed out, (even Tsuchigumo have to leave underground to take initiative).
(Point being, catch its attention), Watanabe no Tsuna advised, (one cannot cut off an Oni's head until it bares its neck).
(Battles are not won through attrition), spoke Usui Sadamitsu, (it is through a decisive moment where the enemy shows weakness)!
Jormungandr then lets out a pained roar as it then raised its seven-branched sword into the air before swinging it down to generate a tornado that ripped apart buildings and people alike caught in its wake.
"... KILL... ME!" the monster screamed, Lotus' soul begging for death beneath the beast's facade, "... [STORM MAGIC]... [SKY SPLITTER]!"
Jormungandr swings its blade horizontally, generating a turbulent gale that uprooted every last building throughout the whole distinct.
However, that moment, Mari saw an opening. She was now face to face with the demonic beast.
"WATANABE-SAMA!" she called, allowing the swordsman of the Four Heavenly Kings to possess her through using [Possession Magic] as a bridge, imprinting the swordmaster's agility and prowess as Mari hopped from flying building to building while carrying Akane over her shoulder, drawing [Shien] from her scabbard as she/Watanabe got closer towards Jormungandr.
"([Water Breathing: First Form])!" Mari!Watanabe declared as the blade's trajectory flowed like a river towards the beast's neck, "([Water Surface Slash])!"
The blazing blue blade rips through the beast's neck, drawing out both blood and souls alike from the gash, but the cut itself was too shallow to be considered a killing blow.
"(BLAST IT)!" cursed Mari!Watanabe as he failed to decapitated the surprisingly hardy beast soaring above, "(NOT DEEP ENOUGH)!" the possessed vessel then looked down, seeing nothing but water, "(HOLD ON! WE'RE GONNA SWIM)!"
Mari takes a deep breath before she and her sister plunged into the sea of booze flooding the whole area in an endless deluge from the gourd. Knowing that swimming in a middle of a thunderstorm was ill-advised, Mari quickly drags herself and Akane out of the water as lightning begins to hit the waters that they were in.
Thankfully, a still-intact fruit cart served well as a raft. "Ane-sama!" Mari plead, "please, wake up!"
Akane then lets out a dry groan, slowly regaining consciousness before letting out a cough and finally waking up.
"Oh, hey," Akane still slurred in her words, "damn booze... how the fuck is it stronger than my venom I use on myself?"
"I don't wish to know," Mari replied before looking up, Jormungandr pouring its gourd down once again, "... but I get the feeling that we're gonna find out regardless."
"[Storm Magic]..." the serpent in the air bellowed out in agony, "... [Heavy Flood]-"
Suddenly, a shattering sound was heard from above, the AEON system being breached by an outside rainbow. Followed that was a flying boat with wings and thrusters crashing on top of Jormungandr's head like a speeding bullet before sending the beast to crash towards the earth with a bright, multicolored flair.
"... Ane-sama," spoke Mari as Jormungandr hit the dirt wearing the ship as a hat with a rainbow crest tail, "... it seems that I am also drunk."
"Feeling's real though," Akane remarked as the beast then crashed into the city-state's walls before coming to a stop.
On top of the crashed serpent, the Magic Knights from Clover Kingdom finally arrived at Libratium from Ulster at record time (4 minutes and 32 seconds). Everyone then stumbles out of the cabin, completely dazed and nauseous from their perilously-short maiden voyage of [Camelot Mk.I].
Jericho then vomits upon feeling solid ground. "... Never... flying... again..." he heaved.
"Did we hit something?" Salim asked as he stumbled out of the flight cabin before seeing his surroundings consisting of a ruined settlement and a giant serpent monster with a human face, "OH FUCK! WE HIT SOMETHING!"
"... Dorothy," asked William while his elven guest inside of his soul was tossing chunks of his own inside their mind, "... is it just me, or am I hearing circus music?"
"It's real," confirmed the Coral Peacock Captain, "... either that, or we traveled to another dimension."
"You two!" Nozel cried out towards the Mitsurugi twins, "where are we right now?!"
"Libratium?!" Akane cried back.
"Okay, we're in the right place," David sighed out as he helped the unconscious Shiren and Letolie off the crash-landed ship, "... took a huge gamble on that one."
"That said, you might wanna get off before that thing wakes up again," Mari pointed out, "because I don't think it's dead yet-"
Right on cue, Jormungandr wakes up before slowly taking off ground once again, with [Camelot Mk.I] firmly buried inside the back of its human-like head as it let out a horrific, human-like scream of pain and terror that rippled through the air and blew an intense gale from its sound alone.
"... Elder brother," Nebra spoke in horrified muteness, "... it appears that I've soiled myself."
"Yeah..." Akane sighed out as she pointed towards Jormungandr, "... that used to be a human being."
Jericho then counts the number of people with them right now, only to find that two of them are missing. "OH SHIT!" he then looked towards the ship embedded into the snake's skull, realizing that there were still people there inside, "KIRSCH AND THE PILOT ARE STILL INSIDE!"
"What are we waiting for?!" William pointed out, "after it!"
"Follow us!" Mari remarked, "we know this place better than you newcomers!"
With no time to argue, the joint group of Magic Knights and the Mitsurugi twins. On their way through the ruined district smelling like alcohol and noisy with repetitive circus music playing from half-broken PA speakers, the two groups then quickly exchanged their respective informations about each other.
"So, you guys linked up with Vice-Inquisitor Makarov in this joint operation?" Akane remarked, "well, you came to the right place for a brawl."
"We were honestly lucky to have met up with the local equivalent of law enforcement as soon as we crashed here," Willaim replied, "I'd say, you two are... quite familar-"
"Pleasantries later," Nozel cut in, realizing the similarities between the twins and Yami, but chooses not to say it, "right now, we have a suffering creature to put down right now!"
"Yeah, I don't my [Dream Magic] can even fit that giant thing in," Dorothy remarked as she looked at the sheer scale of the flying serpent raining thunder, water and wind from above in tandem with its screams of agony sounding like a man suffering through torture, "I mean, I could, but I'm afraid my head might explode just trying to contain that thing."
Up ahead, Bizon, Makarov and Heracles were spotted, the last one waving his hand. Upon getting close, the three then join up with the group in pursuit of Jormungandr, not after the greetings between the newcomers and their hosts for the mission of course.
"Pleasure to meet you in person, Vice-Inquisitor," spoke William.
"Call me Makarov," he replied, "easier on the tongue."
"Man! That looks fucking awesome!" Heracles cried out in joy before activating his [Gravity Magic] to float up in the air, "I call dibs-"
"You fool!" Bizon chided, "take us all with you!"
"Hold on!" Heracles' [Gravity Magic] then begins to float everyone's feet off of the ground before they all flew towards the giant serpent flying in the air (with Bizon handling the controls of their flight path with his own [Gravity Magic]), "now this is more like it! A battle in the air! Without anything holding us back!"
"... Shiren," asked William, lightly slapping him awake, "can I borrow your [Stone Magic] as a catalyst for my own [World Tree Magic]?"
Shiren looks down, realizes that his feet were no longer on the ground before looking back at his captain with the same stone-faced look. "... I will not question why sir."
"Good," Letolie remarked, "saves a lot of time freaking out. ... Nor I have enough will left to even bother, anyway."
As the flying got closer towards the serpent, the latter begins calling for more thunder to cast down upon their heads with its [Breaking Skies] fired from its wheellock pistol.
"Evasive manuvers!" ordered William as the group dodged the lighting raining from above.
"... Please..." begged the beast, with Lotus fighting against his creation to hold the Infinite back as much as possible, "... kill... me!"
Jormungandr, with one last roar that echoed across the thundering and raining skies around it, suppresses its Lotus' influence for good as the rest of its souls made from it assumed more direct control, as evidenced by the beast now unfurling its scroll to unleash a carpet of wet earth and stone akin to an aerial mudslide.
"I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS!" William then opened his grimoire as he then connected his own mana to the earth spilled out of the scroll's tapestry, "[WORLD TREE MAGIC: MAGIC WARDING ASH]!"
Titanic roots and branches then sprouted from the loose earth, compacting the spilt landmass and transforming the landslide into a second layer of earth, allowing the [Earth] attribute-adjacent casters to have a ground to cast their spells without having to go back down while preventing any further damages happening below ground level.
"BURY US ALL YOU WANT!" boasted the Golden Dawn Captain, "BUT NO MATTER WHAT, NO MATTER HOW DEEP OR DARK THE EARTH IS, THE SEED CALLED 'HOPE' WILL ALWAYS SPROUT TO THE GLORIOUS DAWN!"
"KILL... YOU..." cursed Jormungandr as it opened its human maw with a bolt of lightning forming in its mouth, "... KILL... YOU!"
A giant beam of lighting is then spit out from the serpent's maw, it's infernal glory being seen all across Libratium like a giant flash of lighting coming from the gods.
"I DON'T THINK SO!" Shiren declared as he then flew before everyone else, "[STONE CREATION MAGIC: ABSOLUTE BASTION]!"
A giant stone castle wall was then erected from the earth created from [Magic Warding Ash], blocking the blast of electricity, dispersing it into numerous directions as it kept pressing itself against the blockade. Upon seeing that it's current output wasn't enough, Jormungandr then adds more to it, causing the wall to start chipping away from the sheer pressure of the blast.
"Not on my watch!" David then threw his die towards the ground, "[Dice Magic: Grateful Dice]! Come on, give me a six! Give me a fucking six!"
The dice from David's grimoire fell towards the earth, and upon landing, it tumbles one before landing, about to hit a one instead of six.
"No no no no no!" panicked David as he was about to get the worst possible outcome.
"Not yet!" Letolie then speeds towards where David's die had landed as fast as he could as her grimoire opened, "[Compass Magic: Willful Compass]!"
A magical compass is than summoned between her and the dice, the spinning needle actively manipulating the dice's tumbling into landing on a six.
"That was close," she sighed in relief as David then donates about 60% of his mana into Shiren's own pool.
"I ain't complaining about a fixed game!" David complimented Letolie's intervention before he threw down another dice, this time, colored black and its pips red, "mind fixing another die to a six for me? [Spiteful Dice] needs to take this snake down a peg!"
As the dark dice landed, Letolie then rigs the results into that of six with her [Compass Magic] manipulating the dice's tumbling physics, directly siphoning 60% of Jormungandr's mana and into everyone else opposing the serpent.
With the sudden surge of power flowing into his being, Shiren, with the help of Bizon, Heracles, and Makarov, all push [Absolute Bastion] towards the beast's mouth to clog it shut, the built up blast slowly expanding on itself before exploding within the beast's head.
"I think we got em!" Nebra spoke then too soon as it then rose up, more angrier than ever, "OH COME ON! TWO HEAD INJURIES AREN'T ENOUGH TO KILL IT?!"
"Then it's asking for a third," Makarov then drew his [Chernobog] as Bizon with his [Labrys], "no mercy."
"Never had any!" Akane then drew her [Murasame] from her scabbard as Mari switched from Watanabe no Tsuna to Sakata Kintoki with her [Possession Magic].
"(LET'S KILL HIS ASS)!" Mari!Kintoki shouted out in Hanafudan as [Shien] crackled with blue electricity.
"Don't know what you just said now," snarked Nozel as he readied his [Mercury Magic], "but if you mean to kill him, then yes. Let's."
"DIBS!" Heracles then flew in first towards the serpent as it then unleashed gale slashes large enough to deforest entire environments with the swings of its seven-branched sword, "[Gravity Magic: Vector Ray]!"
A beam of pure gravity then punches the snake in the face before Heracles actually punches the serpent on the same spot, sending it keeling back as the other charged towards [Jormungandr, the Infinite].
Residential District #2, Libratium, Spade Kingdom, Midnight
"Iris!" Dominante cried out as she ran towards the mother over the endless circus music playing throughout Libratium, "Iris! You alive?!"
"... Being a stay-at-home-mother has its disadvantages," grunted Iris as she was then helped up by the witch, "... I'm not a fighter like Lotus. Never killed a man in my entire life."
"And yet, your existence has killed my entire family," spoke Atlas as he came floating down while riding atop of the hovering ball of earth trapped with the four kids. He then looks next to himself, seeing what was left of Terra Cotta Dormitory. "... Funny," he sneered, "to think that my new life after 10 years of running and hiding will be the very exact hole which I will bury you and your entire family in myself."
"Leave her alone you monster-" Violet, along with everyone else's mouths were then gagged shut by rocks stuffed between their teeth.
"LEAVE THEM OUT OF THIS!" begged Iris as she wept, "... they've done nothing wrong."
"No," Atlas bluntly answered, "why should they live when my entire family have died? Why should their compliance be an excuse to let my whole order go unavenged? Why should I forgive you for the King's crimes of sentencing my people to damnation?!"
"IT WASN'T THEIR IDEA TO KILL YOUR PEOPLE KRIEGER!" Dominante defended her fellow mother, "IT WAS BEYOND THEIR CONTROL! NO ONE WANTED TO MAKE THAT CHOICE!"
"BECAUSE FAMILY, RIGHT?!" barked Atlas, "... family. Yes, family. We'd do anything for them. Even murder. Even lie. Even sell our very soul to the fucking Devil as long as they're safe," the last Earth Temple Acolyte then began cackling madly as the last vestiges of his mind and sanity eroded, "look what's around us: ruin. Nothing but ruin. Because you and your husband had to come back into my life, AFTER 10 FUCKING YEARS OF RELIVING THE SAME NIGHTMARE OVER AND OVER AGAIN! REMINDED OF MY FAILURES AND WEAKNESSES AND OUR STUPIDITY! ... The world doesn't care. No one fucking cares."
Smurf then waddles up to Atlas' shoulder.
"... [Gnome]," spoke Atlas, "destroy them."
The tiny clay doll then dive into the earth below, molding and reshaping the very ground as the wrecked houses and pavement alike rose up into humanoid shapes until an army of golems surrounded the two women.
"[Earth Spirit Magic]," Atlas declared, "[Spirit Army]."
The golems then began attacking the two, forcing Dominate grab Iris by her wrist before using her own [Cloth Magic] to escape the gridlock by lassoing towards higher ground.
"You're using [Gnome] as a weapon?!" Dominante pointed out at the audacious act on the pious man's heresy, "just how low are you willing to sink for the sake of your revenge?!"
"I DON'T CARE!" Atlas rebuked as he ordered the golems to purse the two, "MY FAITH DOESN'T MATTER ANYMORE! NOTHING ELSE MATTERS ANYMORE OTHER THAN GETTING EVEN FOR WHAT SHE AND HER FUCKING FAMILY DID TO MY PEOPLE!"
"IRIS DID NOTHING WRONG!" the witch rebuked as she swung her [Hammer Weave] behind herself and the widow to knock away a golem that got too close to their heels, "IRIS IS HER OWN PERSON WITH HER OWN FREE WILL!"
"AND WHAT DID SHE DO WITH IT?! NOTHING!" Atlas then slams his hands into the earth, summoning more golems to chase after the two while the golem made from his former home kept a tight hold around the captured kids, "SHE STOOD THERE AS HER FATHER APPROVED OF THE ORDER! SHE DID NOTHING TO DISSUADE THE GENERAL THAT PRECEDED LOTUS TO KILL MY PEOPLE! WHY SHOULD I SHOW MERCY TO HER WHEN NONE WAS GIVEN TO MY PEOPLE?!"
"FOR FUCK'S SAKE! THANK ABOUT SOMEONE ELSE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!" Dominatne roared out as her arms, legs and torso were wrapped in magical cloth, forming another layer of muscle over her body, as its boon evidenced by the witch punching several golems into the air with her fists, "[CLOTH CREATION MAGIC: MUSCLE WEAVE]!" now carrying Iris over her shoulder while her other shoulder tackled through the giant earthen statue as they ran pursued by Atlas, "THE WHOLE WORLD ISN'T SOLELY ABOUT YOU! PEOPLE DIE! MISTAKES ARE MADE! AND THAT'S WHY WE HAVE TO FORGIVE!"
"WILL YOU FORGIVE ME IF I DO THIS?!"
A snap sound was heard, as the kids all saw Violet's head twist around completely, the bones and skin holding up her head falling off of her.
Iris then belts out a horrid scream upon seeing her eldest daughter getting beheaded. Sure the MASS can bring her back, but to see her get her pride and joy's head ripped off before her was beyond traumatic. It was soul-crushing.
"Silver lining," Atlas smirked, "I gave her a quick and painless death, WHERAS MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS DIED SLOWLY AND PAINFULLY!"
Atlas then summons a bramble of earthen fists speeding towards the two women.
"After all..." Atlas the slammed the earth beneath his bare feet to erect rows of earthen spikes that traveled across the fists to make them more deadly, "... in this world, MAGIC IS EVERYTHING!" he declared, "MY BROTHERS, MY SISTERS, MY FAMILY, MY PEOPLE DIED BECAUSE THEY REFUSED TO USE THE POWERS THAT THEY WERE GIVEN TO THEM LIKE THE FOOLS THEY WERE!"
"Dominante!" Iris then uses her [Wind Magic] to boost the two of them in the air as the witch's cloth lifted them further up with the updraft like a sail to dodge the fist after breaking out of her funk.
"That is the ultimate truth," Atlas declared as more earthen spikes are erected from below, now being tall enough to reach Dominante and Iris parachuting in the air, "THE STRONG LIVE, THE WEAK DIE! EVERYTHING ELSE IS EPHEMERAL! EVERYTHING THAT WAS HELD SACRED TO MY PEOPLE MATTERED NOT IN THE END BECAUSE THEY REUSED TO SHOW THEIR TEETH! THE WEAK CANNOT MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THIS WORLD! THE WORLD DOESN'T FORGIVE THOSE WHO ARE WEAK!"
"THEN WHY?!" Dominante asked as she kept Iris over her shoulder as she punched and kicked her way through the golems and earthen spikes, "IF THE WEAK ISN'T FORGIVEN, THEN WHY IS YOUR NEPHEW STILL ALIVE?!"
"BECAUSE THAT THING ISN'T MY NEPHEW!"
Dominate freezes in place in complete shock. "... What?"
The last Earth Acolyte then sucker punches the witch across the broken earth, releasing Iris from her grasp.
"... What did you expect?" sobbed Atlas, "... Klein was a newborn, IN A MIDDLE OF A SMOKE-FILLED TUNNELS! I WAS FUCKING CARRYING HIS CORPSE THROUGH THE FUCKING WASTELAND 10 YEARS AGO! THE 'KLEIN' YOU SEE RIGHT NOW IS MERELY A COPY CREATED BY LOKI!"
Klein himself was hearing all of this, unable to fathom what he was hearing right now, unable to believe the fact that he was a fake.
"That was the terms and conditions of Loki's contract," Atlas stated, "he'll help me with my revenge when the time comes, and the damn fake was used as a reminder that I will never escape my past failures and weaknesses," he sobbed while cackling madly, "... Dune thinks that I was lying to him for the past week... WHAT A FUCKING JOKE! I'VE BEEN LYING TO MYSELF FOR 10 YEARS THINKING THAT I STILL HAD A FAMILY!"
He the pins Iris down to the ground while wringing her throat.
"Look at me," he snarled, "LOOK AT ME AND SEE THE EYES THAT YOU'VE FAILED TO HEAR THE SCREAMS OF MY VERY SOUL!" screamed Atlas as his hands crushed the woman's windpipe from both sides as the widow struggled like a worm caught by a bird, "IT IS SCREAMING FOR VENGEANCE-"
Suddenly a gust of heavy wind shot Atlas off of Iris as he was sent tumbling across the earth.
"That's enough," snarled Fanzell, whom despite his nakedness, didn't detract how furious he was towards Atlas right now. With his recently-commissioned R-rank Relic [Falchion] in his hands, the blade dancing and swirling with his wind. "Iris," he spoke to the coughing woman before she was handed Violet's severed-off head and spine, "hold onto that, and don't let it go. No matter what!"
Iris nods before running for safety as Fanzell confronts the now-gone-insane-Atlas.
"As an aspiring father, I get it the whole 'avenge my family and clan'-thing now," Fanzell stated, "still, do others deserve to die for the sake of your peace of mind?"
"Ask me that again..." taunted Atlas, "... it won't make a difference. I lost everything that mattered to me... SO I'M TAKING YOU SHITS DOWN WITH ME!"
Suddenly, an influx of dark mana akin to that of a Devil's began flowing into the earth where Smurf was cloistered at. Fanzell tried to stop him, but a literal army of golems pushed him back until his back was touching Dominante's and Iris'.
"... Fun fact," sneered Atlas, "[Spirit] and [Curse] magic are polar opposites, with the former representing 'light' while the latter is 'darkness'!" he lectured as he began corrupting the [Earth Spirit] itself, "however, if there was one, ONE GOOD THING, that the King of the Diamond Kingdom has given me... was a template," he revealed, "all of the history, from the first to the most recent, all of their names, remembered or forgotten, all were wielders of [Chaos Magic]! The fusion of [Light Magic] and [Dark Magic], polar opposites of each other, yet coexisting together without one compromising over the other, unlike Hel's [Blacklight Magic] or the long-lost [Whitedark Magic]! Through the principles of the esoteric art, I've created a new spell, the perfect fusion of the purest of [Spirit Magic] and [Curse Magic]!"
Atlas begins cackling like a madman condemned to the darkest circle of Hell as he submerged into the earth along with the kids held hostage.
"... [EaRTh]... [sPiRiT]... [CURsE]... [maGic]..." Atlas' distorted voice echoed from below as a giant of stone, earth, glacier and magma emerged from the earth before stamping the ground, turning the earth itself into magma as spikes of glaciers erupted in random places, forcing the three parents to fight their way to higher ground lest they want to get burnt or stabbed to death, "... [DARK SPIRIT DIVE - GARDEN OF SINNERS]!"
The titan of corrupted earth lets out a belting roar that shook the very earth below their feet. Its titanic size made the walls of Libratium barely come up to the peak of its toes.
"... Okay, that is just a dick move," Fanzell remarked as he looked up towards the titan's head piercing past the clouds above the night sky.
"Getting cold feet, mister?" Dominante smirked defiantly.
"Oh hell no," Fanzell replied as he readied himself for the fight of his fucking life, "not when kids are involved!"
Iris, realizing that Atlas and his words had a point, of how the weak are punished and that she did nothing about her own circumstances and realizing that she let Lotus do all the fighting for her, now chooses to swallow all of her fear and steps forth.
"I'm coming too," she stated, "like you said, my kids are involved!" she pointed out, "and I don't care of Klein is fake! He's still a child that is in need of help! I refuse to sit by and do nothing as the world around me goes to hell!"
"... You sure?" asked Fanzell, "I mean, as far as first kills go, Atlas is a little up there."
Iris then spits to the side as she then rips the side of her skirt up to her waist, followed up by wrapping Violet's severed head with a bundle of cloth she took from Dominante around her chest like how she used to carry her when she was a baby. "THEN HE'LL BE MY FIRST FUCKING KILL!"
"Going up!" Dominante remarked as she then manifested a parachute sail for her, Fanzell and Iris to ride on, "if you will."
Both of their [Wind Magic] then set the three flying up towards the titan reborn, with one of its shoulders transforming into an active volcano to rain down molten earth towards the three as they made their way towards the monster born of unyielding vengeance.
It ends tonight. Hell's gates will soon close to this chaos as the world around came to an end.
Magia Academia, Libratium, Spade Kingdom, Midnight
"AND HERE COMES OUR STRONGMAN IN TONIGHT'S SURPRISE APPEARANCE!" Loki bombastically announced without missing a beat as it cracked its flame whip to form another ring of fire to summon an entire pride of fire-breathing winged lions from the souls that came out of his hat and passed through the ring, "BEHOLD! THE STRONGEST CREATURE TO HAVE WALKED THIS VERY FUCKING PLANET! [YMIR, THE MOUNTAIN]!"
"JUST SHUT UP AND FIGHT ME YOURSELF ALREADY, YOU COWARD!" Elf!Fana roared out as she breathed a stream of fire out of [Galatea]'s mouth while her human counterpart and [Salamander] did the same towards the flock of [Wyverns] that first appeared as doves before transforming into those flying Wilderbeasts mid-flight, "STOP SENDING YOUR PETS TO FIGHT YOUR BATTLES!"
"But I want to show everyone my entire troupe!" Loki defended himself as he then tapped the rim of his hat before another flock to doves-turned-[Wyverns] flew out, "after all, if I were to skip to the ending right now, then all of this would've been for nothing! I'm a crowdpleaser! I entertain extravagantly or I don't do it at all!"
"DO THE LATTER!" Fana retorted as she and [Salamander] fended off the new flock while bombarding the campus grounds crawling with skeleton clowns with her [Crystal Magic] dropping sharpened chunks below, "THIS SHOW OF YOURS IS TAKING TOO LONG!"
"Nevertheless..." the Devil then puts his hat back onto his head before transforming back his wand into a flaming sword, "THE SHOW MUST GO ON!"
Loki then comes riding atop one of the winged lions breathing fire, his mount jumping through the flaming hoops, growing bigger and bigger with each ring passed through until its size dwarfed the [Fire Spirit].
[Salamander] dodges the beast's aerial swipe before blasting its underside with his fire breath, forcing Loki to abandon it and take the field himself.
"I GOT YOU!" Fana declared as she then summoned a gigantic crystalline sword that was then grabbed by Elf!Fana by its handle before it was swung down towards the Devil, "[CRYSTAL CREATION MAGIC: LAEVATEIN]!"
Loki simply turns his sword back into its candlestick form before blocking the blade's blow with the tip of the candle alone. "... Honestly, I'm offended by that overbloated, cheap copy of that thing that you dare call [Laevatein]," he remarked with a disappointed sigh, "because that's not a [Laevatein]."
The candlestick in the Devil's hand then lights all three of its candles before unleashing a black inferno that melted Fana's spell into slag. The giant flame blade then swings down towards Elf!Fana, forcing her to abandon [Galatea] as her crystalline body was melted into a carbon-based puddle that landed on one of the bear skeleton tumblers, causing it to panic and rampage among its own numbers.
"That's a [Laevatein]," boasted Loki as he held the blazing candlestick, "[Laevatein, the Flickering Wand], aka, the real fucking deal. Like fire, it has no one form."
Loki then pulls out a tablecloth before unfurling it to kick a carriage without a horse flying towards Fana, only for her to dodge it and the carriage itself exploding upon landing, revealing a flood of more skeleton clowns that were allegedly inside the small wagon.
The Devil then jumps towards Fana atop [Salamander] with its flaming blade raised over its head, only for instead of swinging it down like a sword, he instead then fires a black beam from the candlestick's tip, forcing the two to evade the blast that sets the entire academy ablaze along with the outside forces coming into suppress the numbers.
"What's wrong?" taunted Loki, "out of things to hit me with?!"
Fana then lets out an enraged yell as she summons a flurry of [Harpe] blades towards the Devil.
"Knife throwing?!" cackled the Devil, "I accept!"
All the blades then stick into Loki's body. However, all that did was simply stretch the body out from behind, as if Loki were made of the world's most elastic rubber.
"Joke's on you!" Loki laughed as he grabbed his own eyelids and lips with his fingers before pulling them all across in all directions before swallowing himself whole before coming back out perfectly fine, with the [Harpe] blades transformed into a bundle of carrots that he devoured all of it in a matter of seconds, "the ringmaster won't be taken down that easily!"
Loki then transforms his [Laevatein] back into a flaming whip, flinging more rings and hoops of flame towards Fana as the three of them tried to find a way forward.
Okay, so his body is made of rubber or something that is even more bendy than natural rubber, Elf!Fana pointed out while Fana and [Salamander] dodged the projectiles of both flame and creatures being thrown towards them in the like, zipping and twisting across the air like a manic dogfight, even after we know what he can do, like summoning nightmarish clown creatures, fling black flames that burn everything to the touch much quicker than our own, and his hat contains souls that the Devil can use at a whim and has a nigh-infinite supply of, we still don't know what his magic is because he's so fucking tight-lipped about it!
"To be fair, I am a magician first, a Devil second," Loki responded to the ghost's rant, much to Elf!Fana's surprise, "and the first rule of a stage magician: NEVER REVEAL YOUR SECRETS."
He then tosses a skeletal bear clown through one of his flaming hoops, transforming the bear skeleton into that of a flaming bear before it exploded into a blazing flash that singed Fana as Loki appeared behind her, grabbing onto her shoulders before shoving her off the [Fire Spirit]'s back and embedding Fana's body into the marble walls like a piece of a puzzle. Meanwhile, with [Salamander] left alone surrounded by a flock of [Wyverns] and winged lions, both being ridden by skeleton clowns and bears, was kept "busy".
"But to be fair, I'm willing to indulge in one little secret," teased the Devil, "just between you and me, yeah, I know which massacre the elf bitch was talking about now."
Loki then takes off his hat and shows the bottom to Fana, seeing someone's soul chained to it below.
"Say hello to my 'assistant'," smirked the Devil, "for the past 500 years."
Elf!Fana instinctively takes over Fana's body upon seeing who there below. "... Raia?" she sobbed, "then... what... who was that back then?"
"Oh that was the just a copy," Loki answered, "a copy that I made 500 years ago that was so real and so alive that he was instead taken a part of... ah, what was that brat's name again... Patry? Ah yes, Patry. Yes, Patry's [Reincarnation Magic] ritual that he was planning to bring you guys back through the guise of a terrorist/revolutionary group calling themselves the Eye of the Midnight Sun or something," the Devil recounted everything that only she, Raia, Vetto and Patry knew, "his job? Take out the group from within as soon as they stopped being fun, but that upstart Prince of War did it for me. And I forced the real deal to watch every last moment your group fell into chaos, then corruption, and finally, death, down to their final, gasping moment."
Both Fanas were taken aback at this revelation. For Fana, she knew that Loki's knack for deception went deep, but out of all the acts that he'd committed for the past 666 years of his visit, this was easily the most vile and evil act that he'd ever done. Dragging the innocent into a path of evil, just for his amusement and "showmanship". For Elf!Fana, this was a massive punch to the gut that bored a hole through her very soul. All this time, from the moment she'd made him a close friend and peer to that last moment where she'd thought that he'd saved her to carry their dreams on within her while they sacrificed themselves for the greater good, only to reveal that the man who'd she'd looked up to as a close friend was the same betrayer who's been a Devil's meat puppet for the past 500 years.
"... How long," she sobbed, "since... when?!"
"Hmm... I'd say about a day before the wedding," answered Loki as he fondly remembered him snapping Raia's neck around 360 degrees before replacing him with a fake with all of the original's memories and behaviors, only under his direct control, "caught wise of Zagred's plans to send in the human nobles to suck you elves dry with the [Swallowtail]. Then I saw Lucifer passing along the Elf Village eyeing on Raia long before I have replaced him... so yeah..." he sheepishly chuckled as if he were recalling a horrific tragedy as if it were an embarrassing incident, "... let's just say that the Elf Village Massacre was a logistical clusterfuck on our parts. For that, I am sorry."
"... Why..." Elf!Fana sobbed, with her human half doing the same because no one deserves that kind of horrid fate, "... all we wanted to do was to live in peace and find love... SO WHY?!" she cried out in despair and rage, "WHY?! WHY US?!"
"Hard to say, really," shrugged Loki, "Zagred just wanted to come to the real world with a real body and fuck shit up, Lucifer's playing the long game of all long games that I am even going to bother knowing what or why," he listed off the possible motives of his "peers", "as for me... I simply desired a soul."
... A soul? Fana parroted the Devil's paradoxical ambitions.
"Yes, a soul that I could call my own," Loki began his prose, "a soul that I was denied simply because I was born and made of the world's collective sins. My desire for a soul came from Hell's stagnation, from Luciferio's loose-handed anarchy to Satan's iron-fisted tyranny, nothing changed for me. Nothing... excited me. Humans, I have begun to take interest. Humans... are dynamism personified," he told with genuine awe and reverence, something that which disgusted both Fana to no end, "love, hate, courage, cowardice, hope, despair, desire, humility... it was living a human's life, their very soul, I sought to desire for myself. Me, a being unable to live, wished to live the life of dynamism and hypocrisy... to live like a human... yes, a soul, for a pitiful, loathsome Devil such as I."
Loki then lets out an enraged yell of anguish as then punched down a tower next to Fana.
"And yet... and yet... AND YET!" he snapped, "again and again my being curses me to stagnation once more! EVEN AFTER I WAS FREED FROM THAT PUCKERING SHITHOLE FROM DOWN UNDER!" Loki screeched with real emotion, no longer hiding who he is, "I DESIRED FRIENDS, BUT I KILLED THEM IN THE END! I DESIRED A FAMILY, YET I KILLED MY OWN WIFE AND SON AND TURNED BOTH OF THEM INTO MY PUPPETS! I CAN'T ESCAPE MY EVIL! I CAN'T FEEL SORROW NOR JOY FROM MY ACTIONS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES! I HAVE TO LIE, LIE, LIIIEEE! LIE TO MYSELF, THINKING THAT THIS IS HOW IT SHOULD BE! I CAN'T HAVE A SOUL, WHEN I FUCKING KEEP THINKING LIKE A DEVIL! I HATE MYSELF! I WANT TO DIE AND START OVER AS A HUMAN! I WANT TO BRING SMILES TO EVERYONE THAT HATES ME! I WANT TO BE FUCKING HAPPY! IS IT SO WRONG TO KEEP TRYING?!"
"... You're... you're Raia's dad?" gasped Elf!Fana.
"He wasn't lying when he told Patry and Vetto that he was the world's very first half-Demon," Loki told Fana, "even then, that was a lie. My son Raia is the world's only half-Devil, born half-evil yet chose to be good," his voice trembled, "... something that I desired, a soul... it should've been my hope... yet I only saw it as despair because I cannot escape my own static nature of pure evil. I envied him, so I took it out on his own mother and brought her back as a meat puppet without telling him before I ordered her to hang herself right in front of him to break him twice over. I then later killed my son because I was afraid what the other two would do to exploit him, but in truth, I resented him for being the me that I can never become. In the end, I only know how to play one game. Lie, cheat, steal and win. What a joke... what a joke... and I'm the only one laughing..."
Elf!Fana and Human!Fana felt no pity for this sad, pathetic excuse of a being that was standing before them. All they felt was indignation. Indignation that all this time, this clown got the better of them all for such a minuscule goal for a soul that he would call his so that he can "live", when in reality, Loki never deserved to "live" in the first place.
"Do you think..." snarled both Fanas as the body's arm then slowly ripped itself out of the imprinted marble, "... that justifies everything... THAT ALL YOU HAVE DONE?!"
A blazing fist strikes Loki's face, sending him flying and spinning into the air as the girl chosen by the flames freed herself from her pinned prison. Fana's eyes open, with one half being the human's empathic fury like an undying flame amidst a surging storm of chaos and tragedy, while the elven half roared and blazed like a primal inferno fueled by vengeance and righteous anger.
Simply put, Loki desired for death in order to live. His wish was now about to come true.
"HELL ISN'T HOT ENOUGH FOR SCUM LIKE YOU, LOKI!"
The night sky momentarily turns into day as the sun rose in tandem with the moon.
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: I SWEAR TO GOD, I AM NOT DOING THIS ON PURPOSE.
Simply put, me making cuts to my original draft (I had to cut out the debut of the first named TALOS unit to save the kids), and it's not making much of a difference in the length of the writing. The only thing I can hope for is that the fic writes out itself better than originally planned.
So anyway, Libratium's gonna be leveled to bedrock by the time this arc is over. And the people there are gonna be left in serious trouble once the smoke dies down. Anyway, about the fights.
[Fenrir, the Devourer] is a single-target specialist/duelist, meaning that he's a PvPer's worst nightmare (Elsword flashbacks, and the reason why I stopped playing) but he runs into the fatal flaw that he's not built for multi-target, with [Hephaestus Heatmaker] being meant to be used as covering fire rather than AoE while [Apollo Arrow] is a magical equivalent of an M203 that can only fire AP grenades (not shrapnel or frags), so Fenrir's a walking case of "Not the Intended Use" trope since, well, if he deviates or uses one spell for too long, he's forced into a cooldown and the only way that he can use his spells is through his arms, so he's a bit limited in the number of spells he can deploy, unlike the original Mars, who despite being mentally blocked through his "conditioning", was able to throw out multiple spells and adapt according to plan.
[Hel, the Paradox] is a walking AoE nuke, aka, PvEer's worst nightmare. Fast, can use more spells that cover a lot of area and do devastating damage, with the only drawback that Hel's a retarded version of the original Licht, meaning that he lack's the original's grace and prowess with a sword, so it's basically Loki telling a master swordsman to fight with a gun, in a way, an enforced paradox of forcing a former close-range combatant to now fight as a long-ranged fighter. It doesn't work that way IRL. Also, casting a spell that disrupts mana is one good way to defang Hel's arsenal, or in Astolfo's case, just be nimbler than him. Mariella's gonna have to find a way to find an opening and finally break past her limits of her past...
[Jormungandr, the Infinite] is... a Shadow of the Colossus boss but way more aggressive and tortured due being made of countless souls. It's powerful, tanky as hell, and versatile. By essence, he's a raid boss. Compared to the other other two, he's painfully simple to deal with, but then again, you had to get up to him first. [Camelot. Mk.I]'s job was to provide air support, but with its being overshot into the snake's skull and buried inside, the team's gonna have to improvise with DBZ shit. And the Magic Knights, knowing that they lack individual powers, their teamwork is solid enough to impress their Spade Kingdom counterparts, with David's [Dice Magic] being rigged to always land a 6 by Letolie's [Compass Magic], and William's [World Tree Magic] being used to counter the serpent's landslide attack and form a ground where Shiren's [Stone Magic] (and everyone else) can stand on. The next chapter will show everyone else off, so don't worry.
Atlas/[Ymir, the Mountain] is the surprise enemy of the encounter. Corrupting the [Earth Spirit] to turn it into a veritable Titan (about the size of the Colossus Titan from Attack on Titan, but safer to approach due to there being no steam vents). More on him later.
And finally, Loki. The dude isn't that different from his partner Atlas, the only difference being that Atlas is motivated by "Despair Event Horizon"-trope while Loki is motivated by his sin [Desperation], or rather, "Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life"-trope. The latter trope is meant as a deconstruction on "Made of Evil" and "Always Chaotic Evil"-tropes that the Devils in the canon Black Clover subscribe to. Loki is born evil and he'll stay evil, but unfortunately for him, he knew full and well that the reason why "Being Evil Sucks" is that he can never find happiness outside of it. Loki's wish for a soul is stemmed by his desperation to escape his innate nature, but every attempt ends in failure. However, that doesn't change the fact that both Atlas and Loki are selfish, in that one discarded his humanity in the name of "getting even", even going far as to say that Klein right now is a fake right in front of his face, while Loki's desire for his own humanity ironically killed a lot of said humanity in a genuinely confused attempt to defy his own innate nature. Point being, those two are a mental mess and the only way to stop them is to give them the deaths that they so desire.
References:
- Charlemagne is the name of the King of France in the Matter of France, and he's physically designed after Heinz Nehrich Windermere III from Macross Delta, The Emperor from Akame ga Kill!, and Prince Harry from Dragon Quest V.
- Bradamante is inspired by her Fate/Grand Order iteration, while Astolfo is a hybrid design of Rui Ninomiya and his LOAD GALAX persona from Gatchaman Crowds appearance-wise. Also, both of their Relics, [Précieuse] and [Maltet] are weapons that were wielded by an antagonist-figure from The Matters of France, Baligant.
- Astolfo's insult to Hel is a reference to My Hero Academia, specifically Bakugou's earlier nickname/insult towards Todoroki, "Half-and-half" amongst other things.
- David's [Grateful Dice] and [Spiteful Dice] are based off Joey Wheeler/Katsuya Jonouichi's [Graceful Dice] and [Skull Dice] from Yu-Gi-Oh!
- Fanzell's line towards understanding Atlas' madness is a reference to Mortal Kombat 11's fight intro exchange between Scorpion and Johnny Cage ("I get the 'avenge my family and clan' thing now.").
- Atlas' [Earth Spirit Curse Magic: Dark Spirit Dive - Garden of Sinners] is a reference to Kinoko Nasu's light-novel of the same name, Kara no Kyokai. Also his avatar of earth, glacier and magma is a reference to [Number 6: Chronomaly Atlandis] from Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal. Also, Loki's name of [Ymir, the Mountain] to Atlas' new form is a reference to the frost giant whose corpse was used to create the mortal world/Midgard, kinda like how the aforementioned Yu-Gi-Oh reference is a literal civilization on legs (with arms). Also, unintentional TRIPLE-visual pun, Atlas was the name of the Greek Titan that was sentenced to carry the whole world on its back, Ymir's corpse became Midgard, and [Number 6: Chronomaly Atlandis], again, is a civilization on legs (and arms), making the fucking giant reaching towards the sky a walking world of itself. I'm sorry, my brain just blew up back there, now I'm obliged to use the World Arcana-themed spell for Fanzell in the next chapter.
- Loki's line during the clash against Fana's [Laevatain] with his own [Laevatain, the Flickering Wand] is a reference to Crocodile Dundee ("That's not a knife. That's a knife.").
- Loki's rubbery bodily constitution/toon physics is inspired by Luffy's Awakened Devil Fruit, [Human-Human Fruit: Model - Nika] and Bugs Bunny from Looney Toons. Or as another Yu-Gi-Oh! reference, Maximillion Pegasus' [Toon World]-adjacent monsters.
- Both Fana's line to Loki at the last part of the Saga is a reference to Fist of the North Star, when Kenshiro says this line upon finding out that Jagi was still alive and declares to go after him ("Hell isn't hot enough for the likes of you, Jagi!").
Hypothetical Voice Actors:
- Bradamante: Chitose Morinaga (JPN), Tiffiny Grant (ENG)
- Astolfo: Tomoko Kaneda (JPN), Jessica Calvello (ENG)
And as usual, please leave a comment or a review, for I'd love to know what my readers think!