Disclaimer: Black Clover is owned by Yūki Tabata, Studio Pierrot, and Shonen Jump.
"So," spoke Corrin as she with Ogmios and Brigid watched the carnage unfold from the void of consciousness, all three of them reclining on lawn chairs sharing a single bucket of popcorn, "what's the likelihood of Heart Kingdom having to be evacuated after this shitfest is over?"
"Guaranteed," answered Brigid. "They're not just facing one elemental Demon, but six at once. If the people don't vacate, the environment will."
"That's all good and all, but one thing is bothering me," Ogmios pointed out before switching to a playback recording of a green bolt of lightning being parried by this Rudra, "that mana signature... is kinda powerful, right?"
"Shot all the way from the moon?" Brigid remarked. "Not easy for weaklings, that's for sure."
"So how did a spell that powerful get backhanded like a common whore?" asked the androgynous [Memory Magic] user. "Twice?!"
"Funny that you're talking about the spell itself rather than asking the who in the equation," Brigid pointed out as it then switched to the projection showing a giant condor Demon on a chalky-white craggy surface superimposed behind an empty void sans but the starts glimmering from afar.
"Okay..." Corrin remarked nervously upon realizing who was on the moon that was over everyone's heads this whole time, "... who is that?"
"Here's the thing," the artificial magical spirit pointed out, "I have no clue, but, I did figure out its optics from its one attack alone," it began to explain its findings. "That wasn't [Lightning Magic]. It was [Wind Magic] specifically designed to kill the Water Spirit, Undine."
Ogmios thinks for a few moments before connecting the dots himself. "... When you say 'specifically,' it means that if it targets anyone else but the Water Spirit... it'll be just as effective as a Tier 1 or Tier 0 magic user's spell. Powerful, but not fully optimized."
"Exactly, as expected of my student," Brigid beamed. "Specifically, the Demon's spell speed is its most dangerous feature."
"So it's a literal anti-Water Spirit stationed on the moon," commented Corrin, "meaning that the very thing designed to kneecap the entirety of the Heart Kingdom is now being upstaged by six other beings who're doing a better job at it." The ex-Golden Dawn Magic Knight then reminiscences of Yuno's own Wind Spirit that he'd come into contact with. "Though I wonder," she pondered when compared that condor Demon to the actual Wind Spirit, "how strong are magical spirits compared to Demons?"
Brigid looks to the side, as if it's trying to dodge the question, but ultimately fails. "... You know, I was created for that reason."
"What reason?" asked Corrin.
Brigid let out a sigh as it passed the bucket to Ogmios. "It has been a... contentious debate over which species of casters are considered the strongest. Some consider it the spirits, like the elemental four and the other totem nature spirits, due to their ability to draw power from the lands they've come from. Some default to Dragons as the living example, given that well, they're still alive to an extent, and they've confirmed that were the first spellcasters in the history of this world. Some say it's the Angels and the Demons whose powers defy all conventions and logic of the physical world."
"So, who's stronger?" asked Corrin while she reached out towards the popcorn.
"Honestly, combining all historical, developmental and visual context from all three races is..." the artificial spirit sighed as it pinched the bridge of its nose, "... complicated, to say the least, but to an extent, I'm coming up with a theory of how those three races connect."
"First time hearing it," said Ogmios. "Care to explain?"
"Here's how it goes..." it began to explain, "Dragons are weak to Angels and Demons, Angels and Demons are weak to Spirits, and Spirits are weak to Dragons. Don't ask me, but the results speak for themselves, and while I did some testing with different magics, results are still inconclusive, even with Libratium's help."
"Why not ask the Dragons for help?" Corrin pointed out.
"Same reason why I don't ask the other two," it answered with a click of its tongue, "too biased and/or too dead/not here to be available."
Saga 21: Crawling Part 2
Ruined Royal Palace, Heart Kingdom, Night
"[Fire Magic: Spiraling Flames]!"
"[Fire Magic: Leo Rugiens]!"
Two blasts of scorching flames arced towards Rudra, who made no attempts to dodge the incoming attacks.
"You have shown me your convictions through action," said the Demon as the flames burned ever brighter at his face. "Very well, I shall respond in kind."
Rudra's wings began to vibrate faster and faster, until the translucent two pairs began to turn nigh-invisible from the sheer speed of its flapping.
The flame columns connect, the two spells exploding where the Demon was hovering at in a glorious blaze. "... Did we get him?" asked Leopold.
"Be vigilant," Fuegoleon warned. "I still can't sense its mana signature even after we've come close."
The fire gradually dies out, revealing the Demon to not only be alive, but it and the ground that it was hovering over wasn't even burned in the slightest. A small, clean patch of grass flourished around a charcoal-black circle of their combined [Fire Magic].
"Wha-What did you just do?!" Leopold asked.
Rudra raised its right hand over its head. "I shall answer your question after you survive this attack." The open palm then began sucking in air into itself like a vacuum until in an instant, a localized tornado's worth of wind was concentrated into his very hand. "[Primal Wind Magic]..."
"Primal?" Fuegoleon wondered out loud before all of the sudden, the expected mana signature that a Demon of Rudra's caliber was now felt by both of the present Vermillion brothers, coming from the incoming attack itself.
"... [Ventus Virgule]!" the gathered wind from Rudra's one hand whipped out into a massive blade of wind and towards the direction of the two.
"GET DOWN!" Fuegoleon then tackles Leopold to the ground, the speedy wind blade narrowly missing the Captain save for his tied hair and a large section of the surrounding forest, all of its trees cut down to stumps and their upper halves sent careening into the air.
"By the way," said the Demon as it then pointed it other hand up towards the night sky, "my attack isn't over yet."
Looking up, the two brothers then saw the cut trees now raining down towards their heads. One or few trees, they can burn through just fine. But roughly an acre's worth?
The two of them were forced to scramble for survival with whatever means necessary. Both used their [Fire Magic] in conjunction with their [Mana Skin] to evade the plummeting towards them, the entire ground that Rudra hovered before now carpet bombed with felled lumber.
The Demon remains still as the dust settled, revealing Leopold and Fuegoleon to be alive and well, except for their clothes which were now shredded by the plank-sized splinters.
"Brother!" Leopold cried out as he climbed out of the crashed trees. "You still alive?!"
"I'm here!" he responded, now missing his shirt.
"Now I shall answer your question," said Rudra. "What I did to your initial barrage of [Fire Magic], I simply created a localized vacuum with my own magic to prevent fire itself from burning me or my local surroundings. Without oxygen, even the hottest flames would peter out and wither into nothing. Normally, asphyxiation is a risk for any normal caster attempting such thing, but my biology allows me to store reserve air within my own internal sacs to circumvent that."
"... Then what about your magic itself?" Fuegoleon pointed out. "You said [Primal Wind Magic], so what makes it different from regular [Wind Magic]?!"
"In the simplest of terms, my [Wind Magic] was given the [Primal-] prefix during my and my other siblings' conception," answered Rudra. "Unlike regular mortal mages, our [Primal Magic] allows us to draw power from the Dragons themselves! In other words, my magic is that of a Wind Dragon's [Primal Wind Magic], the most superior brand of [Wind Magic] that not even the famed Sylph can fathom to match!"
"That's bullshit," growled Leopold. "Dragons don't exist!"
Rudra cracks his neck to the side. "Survive this next barrage and I shall elaborate and dispel your assumptions," he declared. "For now, I suggest both of you to make your next moves."
Mimo Amazon, Bordering Heart Kingdom, Night
"Hm," Sally remarked as she cupped her ear as her group traversed through the jungle, "... it's too quiet. I can't even hear the bugs."
"Good," grunted Rades as he pushed through the thick brush, "means no fucking mosquitos. Like seriously, why do they need to exist?!"
"I've heard that fishes and bats eat them and its young," Valtos explained. "Should they no longer exist, not only the fishing industry would be crippled, but other bugs that bats eat would be allowed to prosper in their place."
"Neeerrrd," Angra booed as her grafted-in vents slightly hissed out steam. "... This is what it feels like to walk as a living fire hazard."
"Always wondered why regular [Fire Magic] users didn't live like that," asked Morris.
"I think it's nature's way of having its magic users not get killed by their own spells," Tesla remarked as he floated over the majority of the natural obstacles. "Although I am admittedly curious why that's considered the default case. I mean, part of the reason why I began my research into poltergeists is because that I was constantly being shocked or burned by my own magic every time I used it. So, it got me thinking, what is considered the 'natural' threshold of a human's magic?"
Mammon and Morris were silent at that train of thought. "... Come to think of it," commented the Devil, "no one even bothered asking why. Everyone was so focused on getting stronger with their own magic that they never asked why."
"Seconded and guilty as charged," confessed Morris. "Even though it did give the perfect incentive to further my research, I think I suffered brain poisoning because of the damn king's 'power, more power' rant to 'defeat the Clover Kingdom' that it pretty much killed any sense for discourse."
"I wrote a whole paper about it when I was fourteen," Sally surprised everyone. "And that's why I don't consider you a scientist, Morrison. You were no different from a regular 9-5 shift worker if all you were expected to do every day was pump out more of the same shit."
"Had to get started somewhere," defended Morris, "blame the king that I was working under, not me."
The group all slightly chuckle before the dead quiet set in once again during their trek through the jungle. "... So anyone know why it's so fucking quiet?" Sally asked again.
But from a fair distance, all of them could smell something burning.
"... All in the favor of walking around whatever's on fire due to my [Result Magic] being unable to both hide our presences and prevent smoke from contaminating all of our lungs, say 'aye'."
"Aye."
Ruined Residential Sector, Heart Kingdom, Night
"HEADS DOWN!" Yami ordered as another bolt whizzed by that struck another patch of ground before exploding upon impact.
Over the past few minutes, Finral was trying to develop a plan to send the bolt back to its sender with his [Spatial Magic], but at the sheer speed of the projectile coupled with the lack of forewarning of where the shot is going to come next proved to be too much of a risk unless he wants his head blown off.
Vanessa was trying her best to forecast the next incoming shot with her spread out [Thread Magic] acting as feelers, but so far, she'd been tricked more than once so far when one instance ended up having her strings connected her left and right caused Magna to nearly lose his head if it weren't for Henry creating a small sinkhole underneath the delinquent's feet with his [Rearrangement Magic].
Meanwhile on the counteroffensive, Yami and Gauche, were still waiting for the right to attack the Demon if it came out. The distance between their position and the sniper's cover was a half-mile no man's land, since the buildings can't do shit as cover give that the fired bolts punch through both wood and stone like a thumb through a pie crust.
In short, they weren't able to make any notable progress against the Demon pinning them down.
"Okay, any ideas?!" Finral asked as another bolt was shot from the forest before landing elsewhere. "... Because I'm too panicked to think of one!"
Thinking of no other ideas, Yami then suggests the following after seeing the bolt. "Finral, I need you to get me one of the bolts fired," he ordered. "Call it a gut feeling, but I think our sniper's no longer missing his shots by accident."
Finral then opens up a [Fallen's Gate] underneath where one of the bolts had landed and it lands inside the murder hole that they were in.
"So, what's this thing's story?" Gauche remarked as he looked at the crossbow bolt roughly the size of a jousting lance. He tried to reach out towards the bolt's shaft, only for it to deliver a nasty shock that fried him all over and left him semi-conscious.
"Gauche!" Vanessa cried out.
"He's alright!" Magna remarked as he checked the [Mirror Magic] user's pulse. "Still though..." he looked at the spear-like bolt before them, "just what the hell is he planning?! Creating some kind of bug zapper?!"
"Wait a minute," Finral remarked before he quickly peeked over the ledge and found several more bolts fencing around where they were. "SHIT! GUYS! IT'S GONNA TRY AND FRY ALL OF US AT THE SAME TIME!"
At the end of the forest, Indra looks out to its handiwork of several of his fired bolts in formation. "Status: All bolts in position," he declared as it then activated its bio-electrodes throughout his body. "Attack: Executing. [Primal Lighting Magic: Dysphoric Flashes]."
"FINRAL! TRASH THE THING!" Yami ordered as the [Spatial Magic] user moved the bolt with the opened shaft elsewhere before the whole no man's land lit up with a blanket of electric flashes brighter than the sun's rays.
Amidst the chaos, Indra then flies out of the forest and towards where the Black Bulls were hiding at, only for him to find the ditch completely empty.
"Error," it spoke in confusion, "error-"
Just above where Indra was hovering at, a portal opened, spilling out Yami and the other Black Bulls from the sky.
"GOTCHA BITCH!" Magna roared as then readied his magic from the unsuspecting Demon, their panicked minds scrambling his faint brain wave sensitivity beyond recognition. "[FIRE MAGIC: EXPLODING FIREBALL]!"
The thrown fireball explodes on contact, sending Indra off course before another portal opened next to him.
"It's now your turn to get zapped!" the half-conscious but raging Gauche declared as he then tackled the reeling Demon into the portal before throwing one of his mirrors inside of the spatial gap right when it closed. "FIRNAL!"
"One [Compound Magic] coming right up!" Finral grinned as he, Gauche and Henry combined their attributes together.
Inside the spatial void, Indra suddenly found himself in a hall of mirrors that warped his reflections into different shapes and sizes. He then tried to find its way out, only for the mirrors to begin shining with gathering mana.
"[Mirror + Spatial + Reformation Compound Magic]!" the three declared as they combined their magics together. "[Hall of Mirrors, Loser's Vanity Fair]!"
The different mirrors in the spatial void all fired out beams of concentrated mana towards Indra as the void itself shifted and changed to prevent the Demon from escaping the whole attack. Once the mirrors have finished their blasts, Indra was then let go from the spatial prison upon all three of the casters expending all of their strength.
"I got the three of them!" Vanessa reassured as she caught the three with her [Thread Magic]. "Finish him off Captain!"
Yami then takes a deep breath as he entered into a state of complete calm for about a second. No time to think, he thought to himself as he clicked his kodachi blade out of its sheathe, perceive, then feel!
His eyes locked onto Indra's own that was closing in on his sphere, creating the connection that was needed for his new attack.
"[Dark Magic]," he whispered as the blade slid out from his scabbard, silent and elusive as the night sky without stars, "[Yamimatoi Iaigiri]."
In a single quick draw, the drawn blade connects with the Demon, cutting off both of its right arms, including the crossbow contraption along with a good chunk of his upper torso and wing.
The bolts staked below then cease their bright lights as the two opposing sides landed onto the ground. Vanessa's [Thread Magic] catches Yami and Magna in a trampoline-like construct webbed over their trench prior whereas Indra crashed into the burned-out house in a heap.
"... Jackpot," grinned Yami before he got up, "... or is what I like to say if I can still hear your heartbeat. So stop playing dead and get up."
Emerging from the rubble, Indra rose, gravely injured as it now purged his bio-electrodes from his body in order to regenerate his arms and wing.
"... Hey," Finral heaved out, "I think... its mana has gotten lower."
"Yeah, but now fresh its compared to us," Vanessa pointed out Indra was now back at 100%, but only physically.
"Situation: Magic and tactics alone has proven insufficient," spoke the Demon as it then pulled out two pairs of its fired bolts from the ground with his four arms as impromptu weapons. "Proclamation: Your tactics paired with your recklessness has proven superior. Declaration: But as a Demon with a Dragon's biology grafted into this body, I will prove superior in physical combat."
Undeterred, Yami then readies himself for a melee with his kodachi at the ready. "Put your money where your mouth is and I might bother listening."
Environmental Sector, Heart Kingdom, Night
"[Severing Magic: Death Scythe]!"
"[Primal Iron Magic: Scatter Scale Slather]."
The magical slash attack was parried with Vishnu's scattered scales by their sheer collective density. Vishnu himself was completely unharmed and untouched whereas Jack was covered in more of the silvery powder that added to his excess weight placed onto him.
He then spits to the side. "For a Demon, you're such a fucking pansy."
"I know what I want," Vishnu refuted, "and what I want is to not have to touch your filthy human skin. Like seriously, do you know what bathing is?"
Jack in rage lashes out his [Death Scythes] again towards Vishnu, only for the latter to stop them in their tracks by applying his scales onto the projectiles themselves to weigh them down enough to cause them to completely miss. "There's such thing as a definition of insanity, you know," the Demon snarked. "It's doing the same shit over and over again while expecting something different to happen every time! But then again, I suppose that you're not exactly the picture-perfect exemplar of mental health."
"STOP TALKING AND FIGHT ME!" Jack roared as he wound back his right arm as his [Death Scythe] sprouting from its length fanned out into a triplet set. "[SEVERING MAGIC: SLAUGHTER SWEEP]!"
The triple projectiles came towards Vishnu in an oscillating fan-like pattern that boomeranged around the air before they all converged towards the Demon from surrounding directions. "Different," he commented before he dodged all three while catching one of the thrown blades before touching it, transforming it into a metallic version of itself, "but derivative."
The caught blade is then used to parry the other two blades that continued boomeranging around the Demon before said parried blades were then stuck onto the former, transforming it into a bladed ring that gleamed in the moonlight.
"[Primal Iron Creation Magic]," declared the Demon as its ring's blade turned jagged and pointed like a buzzsaw and begun to spin rapidly over Vishnu's head, "[Calamity Chakram, Brahmastra]."
The spinning blade ring then was thrown towards Jack, who tried to dodge the attack, but now found that both of his legs were each now roughly weighing as much as his total body mass. Pinned down, Jack thinks of trying to parry the blade, but with an execution of his quick thinking, Jack severs the laces of his boots that were acting as shackles before slipping out of them to dodge out of the way.
With his successful escape, Jack then lashes out his [Death Scythe] from his left arm in a surprise attack, which Vishnu dodged, but a small nick was scratched open on his upper right brow during his evasion.
"... You touched me," snarled Vishnu as it caught the returning [Brahmastra] while a small dew of black blood trickled down across his eyelid. "... You, a human filth, had the gall, to fucking touch me."
Jack smirks before flipping him off. "Wuss."
A giant metal fist then collided against Jack's entire body, the sheer force of the impact sending him through an entire row of metallic trees that wrecked his body further with each one broken through and its organic insides now liberated to the world.
"... Finally," coughed Jack as he got up to see Vishnu finally come down as the metallic chaff that the whole forest and himself was covered in receded back to the Demon like ants retreating back to their hill, freeing the entire forest that was trapped and letting them run free, "... you finally came down."
"You, made me, do this," growled the Demon as its collected iron shavings began to go over his body akin to a suit of of armor. "You made me, destroy my ideal world, that I was in the middle of creating, the very same one that I was generous enough to let you and the others be part of."
All of the liberated mages and animals didn't make it far enough as every last one of them were impaled through with an array of thin iron spires that came from the Demon's forming armor, covering his unearthly-beautiful form (for which Jack himself didn't give two shits) into that of an eight-armed monstrosity armed with a sword, a bow with a nocked arrow held on its other hand, a trident, and a spike-knuckled cestus on its right arms, a meteor hammer with a skull-like hammerhead at the end of its chain, an axe, and a battering ram with an open palm as its head held on its three right arms. A horse-headed helmet shrouded its face before the giant of collected iron shavings then kicked its dropped chakram and had it placed behind on his back akin to a backlit halo.
"TO HELL WITH YOU, DEFILER!" Vishnu roared through his horse helmet. "AFTER I RID THIS WORLD OF YOUR HORRID EXISTENCE, I SHALL FIND ANOTHER LAND TO BE THE BEDROCK FOR THE CREATION OF MY PERFECT WORLD! [PRIMAL IRON INVOCATION MAGIC: HERALD OF TWILIGHT, KALKI]!"
As the monster of metal enveloped around the vain Demon roared, Jack then tore off his shirt and cloak before three blades grew out of his knuckles like a set of claws, now bouncing on his feet, feeling lighter than he'd ever felt in his life.
"I'll destroy your so-called 'world' before you even try," the Green Mantis Captain declared.
Northeastern Jungle Border, Heart Kingdom, Night
"... (Smoke)," Akane sniffed the air around herself, "(coming further into the Heart Kingdom itself)."
The Mitsurugi sisters then take the long way around to avoid getting into any more needless confrontations.
"(I sense a fight coming about)," said Mari as she followed behind Akane. "(This feels like the work of a Demon)."
Akane nods in agreement, given what they've witnessed back at the rotten and hollowed-out hideout that they'd ran into. "... (This whole country is going to hell)," she commented. "(Nevertheless, we must have faith in that braided man's lead, for this nation's chaos is our opportunity)."
"(Remind me, but why does he wear his braid in between his eyes when braids are usually meant to keep hair out of one's face)?" Mari asked.
"(We mustn't judge foreigners or their taste in apparel)," Akane answered. "(After all, we spent 15 years here fraternizing with them and their culture. We have no such right to do so)."
The twins kept up with their journey, with one having doubts cloud her mind of this lead's validity while the older twin held firm to her resolve to finally return her and her sister back home with the traitor's head in tow.
(I cannot afford to fail), Akane thought as a certain shadow loomed over in the back of her mind, (not after all that she did for me).
Environmental Sector, Heart Kingdom, Night
"[PRIMAL IRON MAGIC: PALM OF DIVINE JUDGEMENT, GAUTAMA BUDDHA]!"
Jack blocks the incoming open palm strike by crossing his blades together, the dampened blow allowing him to jump off of the tree that he'd collided against rather than break through it. The palm strikes resumed into a blinding flurry, for which Jack dodged by simply knowing where they were all coming from.
After all, it was easier to dodge a flurry of punching coming from one hand since there wasn't another vector to throw his perception off. He only needed to take one blow from the palm strike to completely figure it out.
"HOLD STILL, YOU INSECT!" Vishnu continued to rage as the flurry continued just for the sake of that one shallow cut above his brow. And if Jack thought anything, is that the Demon's insistence of using his [Primal Iron Magic] defensively for the sake of his vanity was the reason why Vishnu's getting sloppier with each failed attack.
And if pattern recognition is a thing, he's gonna get sloppier once I dig a little deeper into his paper-thin skin, he grinned before Jack began taunting the Demon. "You suck at swatting insects for a guy with a big-ass hand. Why don't you off yourself just to break even?!"
"[PRIMAL IRON MAGIC: FIST OF VENGEANCE, KRISHNA]!" the flurry of open-palm strikes recede in favor of a swift jab from the spike-knuckled cestus, for which Jack just dodged since it had the exact same trajectory pattern as his prior attack, only coming from the other side, which made no discernible difference.
It has six arms, so why doesn't it attack with at least one more? Jack thought before he was then reminded of a reputation of a certain Coral Peacock's Vice Captain. ... Keh, still worried about keeping appearances despite your insistence to kill me? For shame, I am being underestimated.
As if it were to have read Jack's thoughts, Vishnu then swings its flail in conjuncture with it stabbing towards the Captain's direction with its trident. Jack dodges the former while blocking the latter with his blades, only for him to be pinned against a tree.
"NOW DIE!" Vishnu then swung back his meteor hammer towards Jack as he was pinned down. "[PRIMAL IRON MAGIC: WEIGHT OF SIN, VAMANA]!
Jack simply retracts his blades back into his body before using his own lithe frame to slip out of the trident's gaps, causing the flail to hit the spear while the former was then traveled upon by Jack running across the chain and closing in towards Vishnu.
First the Demon whips the chain itself to knock the Captain off, only for him to jump off and land back onto the length before continuing to run. Then the Demon swings its sword and axe towards the Captain, only for him to jump between the gap between the blades in a sideways rolling flip before continuing onwards towards the Demon.
Vishnu pulls out its trident from the tree before it stabbed it towards Jack's back, only for him to duck under it and have it instead stab into Vishnu's own arm, opening a gap between the armor that Jack cut through with his blades.
The arm that held the meteor hammer was then severed from the stump, causing Vishnu to scream in pain and fear. "YOU MADE ME BLEED! AGAIN!"
Jack says nothing except give a sneer to his direction. In desperation, Vishnu then fires it back-mounted chakram as Jack got onto his shoulder, using it as a remote drone to get the Captain off of him while at the same time, using his remaining weapons to swat the captain off of its body.
Realizing that he now had the high ground, Jack dodges all of Vishnu's sloppy attacks as they instead hit the attacker instead, busting open gaps in the armor's layer that Jack more than gladly took advantage of by cutting open the soft flesh underneath, causing the Demon to bleed more.
And the more he bled, with each scar and nick left on his once-immaculate skin, Vishnu grew sloppier and sloppier with his desperate flails, and the more desperate and sloppy he became with each failed attempt, the more he'd hurt himself. "Man, you suck at close combat," Jack commented in a taunting and genuinely criticizing manner as he both dodged and cut the Demon's self-created gaps in his armor. "You actually had me on the ropes when you were scattering your iron dust around, so why'd you go and stop that after that love tap?"
"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT THAT I AM LIKE THIS!" raved Vishnu as it continued flailing about with its myriad weapons. "EVERYTHING WAS PERFECT UNTIL YOU CAME ALONG AND SPAT ON MY MASTERPIECE! WHY ARE YOU SO FUCKING RUDE?!"
Rather than call out the Demon's entitlement, Jack chooses to play along and egg him on even more. "Guilty as charged!"
He then blocks a trident stab with his blade while his other blade parried the flying giant chakram towards the arm that held the weapon, cutting it off and sending the Demon into further hysteria. "I am rude because nothing gets done when I'm nice! I am me dammit! Don't got pushing your own expectations onto me because I sure as hell won't take it lying down!"
Vishnu then swings its sword and axe towards Jack from both directions, only him to jump over both swings. In that moment, Vishnu then fires his arrow from his bow towards Jack's direction to finish him off at a position where he can't dodge the next attack.
As the arrow was shot, Jack, rather than make any attempts to block or dodge out of the way midair, simply opts to grab onto the arrow by hitching a ride on its shaft and used his blades as fins to fly up towards the night sky above Vishnu's head.
Both new that their next attacks would be the one that would finish this fight once and for all. Now resolved to end this farce, Vishnu commands his Chakram to fly towards Jack's direction while he then loaded his axe and sword as impromptu arrows into his bow before then were let loose towards the heavens above.
Jack meanwhile, after the arrow had reached the zenith of its trajectory, saw the chakram coming and used his blades to parry it. But rather than simply collide with the bladed ring, the blades simply absorbed the chakram into themselves, enlarging Jack's [Severing Magic] blades to become bigger and heavier.
He made a huge mistake when he still held onto my own spell and used it as his own weapon, Jack smirked. The Heart Kingdom eggheads said something about using arrays to absorb the natural mana to empower their powers, huh? Figured that I can use the air's ambient mana to take back my own spell while making myself stronger!
Jack then clasps his hands together, combining both of his blades into that of a singular massive blade the size of a giant from the tales that he'd read in his childhood. Since he didn't believe in the existence of actual giants, Jack knew that to defeat an impossible creature, he needed an impossible weapon.
Normally, this blade that he'd created would be the textbook definition of impractical, since it was too heavy and unwieldy for him to swing about normally.
... Unless he wasn't planted onto the ground. Then that's where the other inspiration came to him; the Rain of Steel-incident.
If a blade is large and heavy enough, then sharpness be damned. Right now, Jack wasn't Jack the "Ripper," his blades cutting apart foes in the speed of light. Rather, he was now Jack, the "Giant Killer," a single sword that can and will topple even the most arrogant of divines.
"OPEN WIDE, SHITHEEL!" Jack cackled as he fell towards Vishnu like a meteorite, his new blade breaking through the sword and axe shot towards his descent. "[TRUE SEVERING MAGIC: GIANT KILLER]!"
As the titanic blade descended towards the Demon, he realized that there was nothing he could do to stop the force of gravity in play.
... All, sans to look at the blade in utter awe. "... It's perfect."
The gargantuan blade mulches through the Demon, bifurcating him vertically as the whole ground where the giant blade had landed exploded into a cloud of dead wood and dirt.
As the dust settles, Jack climbs out of the crater with both of his arms and one leg fractured, several gashes spewing small jets of blood found all over his body, and his body sore all over, but well enough to walk away from his dead prey.
He then looks back at the dead Demon, checking if he was truly dead from his attack. Jack saw its half-face in complete and utter bliss as if it had saw something truly beautiful. Jack didn't care and moved on elsewhere.
Ruined Residential District, Heart Kingdom, Night
The Black Bulls continued to watch the duel between their Captain and Indra, blade and spear colliding against each other in a show of sparks and blurred silhouettes dancing in an illusory grace.
The duel itself was an uphill confrontation for Yami, since Indra had proven right about his physical prowess being formidable enough to keep Yami on the back foot. Indra's four lances, despite their low initial voltage compared to when the Demon was at full power, still stung like hell every time so much as a graze was inflicted upon the Captain. It's speed and reaction time was also nothing to joke about as well, due to its insectoid biology's compoundeyes allowing him to see everything that Yami can throw at him in terms of basic swordsmanship.
Feels like I'm fighting Bakasura all over again, he recalled to the time where he fought the Stag Beetle Drone wielding two blades. Only this time, rather than facing one being emulating a master swordsman of his homeland, he was now fighting an entire unit of spearmen composed of a trio of masked spearmen and the swordsman's warrior monk rival. The way it's using its eyes... feels like it's emulating my ki-reading but with a shorter lag.
As their duel continued with Yami dodging and parrying Indra's four-pronged barrage of thrusts, the Black Bulls tried to to help, but most of their group were heavily exhausted to contribute. Vanessa herself was beating herself up the hardest due to being relatively unharmed compared to the others, but her [Thread Magic]'s limited utility in combat made her effectively pointless as of right now.
"Dammit," she grit her teeth as all she could do was continue watching from afar, "... is there anything we can do?"
In this desperate state of helplessness, Vanessa had unwittingly trudged up old memories about her time before the Black Bulls.
The times of her being locked in a cage, until she was able to master "that power."
The same one where her mother had placed upon her to master.
... Can I do it? she thought to herself as she then began to notice the scattered bolts laid around the ruined district began to light up.
But just as she could do or say anything, all of them lit up to unleash their [Dysphoric Flashes] once again, blinding everyone in a hot glow that engulfed them all.
"NO!" she cried out only for her eyes to return to normalcy. Looking around, she'd realized that the rods weren't glowing and everything was the same as it was shortly before.
"... Vanessa?" Gauche asked as he up from her yell. "... Is something the matter?"
The witch blinked before she'd realized that she'd done something that she couldn't accomplish during her childhood. ... Did I just see the future?
During the duel, Yami noticed that Indra was looking towards Vanessa as they clashed weapons. "Oi, what are you looking at?!" Yami cried out as he pressed the advantage.
"Situation: One witch developed an anomalous power with [Thread Magic]," spoke the Demon, catching everyone's attention. "Confirmation: Powers are precognition. Solution: Eliminate the threat."
"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Yami then intercepted Indra's attempt to switch targets. "DON'T PUSSY OUT WHEN I'M STILL HERE!"
Indra redoubled its efforts to break through the deadlock, but Yami proved obstinate enough not let him through.
"Declaration: You will let me through. Reason: Your witch has proven to be a greater potential threat to my operation," droned Indra as it kept pushing.
"Rebuttal: Over my dead body," mocked Yami as he then delivered a headbutt against one of Indra's compoundeyes before slashing off one of its arms. Indra retrieves the severed arm before reattaching back instantly and resuming their deadlock. "Question: Just how did you know what was going on inside her noggin?"
"Answer: My [Primal Lightning Magic], even at a weakened state, is able to pick up neuroelectric patterns happening within your brains from a mile-wide radius," the Demon revealed bluntly as it then read Yami's next move, forcing the latter to react and readjust his next move to not get stabbed and zapped at the same time. "Elaboration: It is this alone of how I was able to pick up what you were about to do, but you Black Bulls have proven to be quick at adapting at the last probable second."
Yami smirks. "The Black Bulls didn't get far by being dumbasses!"
"Addendum: Your intellect isn't the factor, rather it's the pace you're able to readjust at any point of contention is," Indra pointed out before he tried to sneak in a kick to Yami's crotch, only for him to jump onto his leg and deliver a dropkick into his stomach. "Statement: The power you call "ki," is not so different from my own powers. Addendum: You alone are enough, but having two is unacceptable."
Yami then looked back towards Vanessa and others. "You do whatever you were trying to do!" he ordered as he then pressed onto Indra's face as the latter hovered to regain footing before resuming its attack. "I'll hold him back!"
"What am I supposed to do?!" Vanessa asked.
"THAT FEELING YOU FELT ABOUT SEEING A SHITTY FUTURE?!" he pointed out as his kodachi successfully disarmed one of the spears from Indra's hands as a lance stabbed and shocked his thigh. The witch then sees her Captain fight through the numbness and pain by stabbing his own leg with his sword before delivering a [Dark Magic]-enhanced punch across the Demon's face. "... Find that feeling... hold onto it... AND SURPASS YOUR LIMITS!"
"Surpass... my limit," the witch never gave much thought onto his catchphrase until now. The orders were clear.
Vanessa has to overcome her feelings of fear and fast, or else everyone will die as seen in her future vision prior. Swallowing whatever doubts and fears that she had in her mind, Vanessa began brute-forcing through her trauma as she now confronted her own fear of that of her mother.
She doesn't matter now, Vanessa thought as she tried to find that feeling, my mother is no longer my priority, but the Black Bulls and our mission is the first thing I have to do!
The feeling of uselessness chipped away with each sound of blade and lance clashing against each other heard by the witch. The declaration of her own self-actualization slowly built up with each crack of thunder that pierced her ears.
Her eyes then saw the harrowing future once again, now drawing closer than ever. But before said vision, was that of a red cat formed form her thread.
The cat meows, as if it were to ask: "What is your next move?"
Vanessa smiles. "Defy it."
The cat gleefully meows as it then enters into Vanessa's very soul, her pink threads now turning bright red.
"Let's do this, all or nothing!" declared Vanessa as she opened her grimoire. "[Thread Magic: Red Thread of Fate]!"
The red thread connects to Yami, to which then he foresaw Indra's next attack pattern.
"Attagirl," he smiled as he dodged the next barrage before delivering a critical swing across the Demon's chest, splashing black blood across Yami's face as it retreated back a couple paces.
Indra turns its head towards Vanessa, figuring out that she now lended her precognitive powers to Yami for the latter to gain the upper hand. He then finds one of his purged electrodes on the ground, and wasting no time, he immediately devours it whole to grant a temporary boost to his powers.
Vanessa catches wise of this and tries to forecast what was it about to do, only for Indra, with his boosted power, uses his [Primal Lightning Magic] to remotely overload the witch's own electrons flaring inside her brain, causing her to faint and start foaming at the mouth.
"VANESSA!" Yami cried out as he then tried to catch up to Indra, only for the latter to fly up into the sky with its amplified electricity crackling across the sky like a thunderstorm.
"Declaration: Your own powers have proven a major issue," he said as it began gathering voltage from its two lances while one pointed downwards. "Solution: I wlll attempt to wipe you all out from here, for you're now all out of feasible options to reach me."
He then lets go of the lance as it began floating in place, held up by the electric tethers linked throughout all of the staked bolts in the area.
"Attack: Executing," said Indra as the gathered lightning then aimed towards where the Black Bulls were at, where Yami was running back towards. "[Primal Lightning Magic: Assassination Spear, Vritrahan]."
The spear was then fired akin to railgun shot, jettisoning itself faster than Yami could make it.
But just before it can claim its intended victims, the earth itself moved once again, with Henry now awake and drawing mana not from the earth, but from the lightning rods staked around the area and into himself.
"HENRY!" Yami cried out as the earth turned and shifted like the ocean's waves.
"... I... got this... CAPTAIN!" he reassured as he began controlling the rods themselves, manipulating their output and redirecting the shot back to Indra's direction.
"Error, error, error," the Demon declared as it tried to regain control of the rods from Henry, but as the tug-of-war continued, the rods began to overheat and glow bright orange.
Realizing that he had no other options, Henry then uses his [Reformation Magic] to bury Yami into the ground deep as possible along with the rest of the Black Bulls behind him to protect them from what's coming next.
"... Thanks everyone," he grinned as every single rod exploded, with both Henry and Indra caught in the collective blast that lit up the whole area like a miniature sun. As the bright light engulfed the area, continuing to devour is surroundings further outwards, the glowing dome sphere fades back into nothing, leaving behind only a land riddled with craters with half-buried Black Bull Magic Knights found gasping for air.
"... Shit," Yami growled as he dug himself out, "HENRY!"
He runs across the blasted patch of land, with only his charred corpse wearing the Black Bulls robe around his shoulders being found laying flat against the few pieces of rubble found. "... Dammit," he growled, "... I didn't get to pay back the rent in full."
"Captain!" he heard Magna's voice. Yami turned to find the rest of the Black Bulls slumping towards his direction. Magna was carrying Finral over his shoulder while Gauche piggybacked Vanessa, the latter regained her consciousness, to a limited extent.
They all find Henry's body. No words were said but quiet tears.
But just before they can grieve, another explosion of rubble was heard from afar.
It was Indra, now badly injured, but no less driven to fulfill its objective. Its wings were gone, it only had one arm and compound eye left, and looks more akin to a shambling corpse than that of a living being.
"S-st-st-staus: Bodily function at critical," it declared as the Demon ran a self-diagnosis with a glitched out voice. "U-u-update: Vishnu's signal lost; mana input down to 80%. Re-re-re-recalibrating: Error, body no longer able to withstand another usage of [Primal Lightning Magic]."
"... Son of a bitch, it's still alive?!" Gauche remarked as he tried to finish it off with his [Mirror Magic], only for him to overtax himself before collapsing.
Yami scoffs as the Demon's doggedness. "... You're about to die, but you sound as if you don't care."
The Demon gives its answer by picking up one last intact bolt from the ground before stabbing it within itself to charge it.
"... So be it," the Captain then crouches down with his drawn kodachi in hand.
In the dead calm of the ruins, this next attack will be their last. Yami exhales to completely shut down his mind in order to enter a state of calm so surreal that it defies the human imagination.
The untethered journey into the spiritual nothingness was spurred by the death of his fellow Black Bull. Not just Henry, but Noelle and Luck's deaths pushed him further into the darkness that he'd entered.
In a cruel world, resolve is built upon loss, he recited to himself. How well it remains upheld is dependent on one's limits. Surpass them to achieve immortality.
In a quiet so serene that one can hear a pin drop from afar, the two blitz towards each other like charging bulls ready to gore each other with their horns.
"[Primal Lightning Magic]," it declared as its lance crackled with amplified voltage of the Demon's dying light, "[Sudden Shock, Vajra-Mushti]."
But just before Yami can declare his attack, the spear impales through Yami's stomach and out of his lower back.
"CAPTAIN YAMI!" Magna cried out.
Upon confirming its hit, Indra then tries to remove his lance, only for it to remain stuck inside Yami. It took no less than a second for it to figure out that Yami was still alive, one of his hands enhanced with [Dark Magic] was found gripping around Indra's wrist, and now has got him where he wanted.
"[Dark Magic]," Yami's grin glinted as he then rammed his [Dark Magic]-enhanced blade into where the Demon's heart was located at, "... [Yamimatoi Shikeikiri]!"
He then rips his blade through Indra's chest and shoulder, excavating out of the Demon's body in a rain of blackened gore that spewed from its body like a geyser.
Indra's regenerative system given to him by Caligula that was used to both keep its powerful [Primal Lightning Magic] regulated and his body from imploding was now compromised. With that swift reversal, Indra fell dead into a partially-bifurcated heap before the still-standing Yami Sukehiro.
He turns his head back with an audacious grin smeared across his face. "... Got em," he spoke before he fell flat onto his face.
"CAPTAIN!" Vanessa snapped out of her delirium and scrambled towards the wounded Captain. "HE'S LOSING BLOOD! WE NEED TO STOP IT SOMEHOW!"
"HIS STOMACH GOT STABBED!" Magna pointed out as they all carried Yami onto a flat surface. "I'LL TRY CAUTERIZING THE WOUNDS! GAUCHE, WE NEED LIGHT, ASAP!"
The Black Bulls then hastily perform open-field surgery on their Captain to the best of their rudimentary knowledge and limited options.
"CAPTAIN YAMI, DON'T YOU DARE DIE ON US!" Finral yelled out. Normally he would find help but frankly, there wasn't anyone left available, nor he had enough magic to keep open a portal for all of them.
They'd won, but the Black Bulls weren't able to fight on any longer in their given state.
Ruined Royal Palace, Heart Kingdom, Midnight
"[Primal Wind Magic: Forgotten God's Roar]!"
Rudra then exhales a massive blast of wind that shredded stone and tree alike into gravel and chips.
"MOVE!" Fuegoleon ordered as the two brothers dodged out of the way of the blast in two separate directions. Rudra, realizing that they were planning to distract him with one while the other move in to attack him during his breath attack, optimizes his [Forgotten God's Roar] from a steady stream to that of an area of effect attack by aiming the blast to the ground in order to create a dome of cutting wind around himself with his attack, which then unleashed a spread shot of smaller wind blades from the barrier's centrifugal force.
"Shit!" cursed Leopold as he and Fuegoleon were forced back as the attack ceded.
"Now, I shall answer your question, lionet," spoke the Demon as its dragonfly wings buzzed, "yes, Dragons have existed in this world, with one such fossil being found underneath a Grand Magic Zone. Rather, it was the Dragon's bones themselves that were the source of all Grand Magic Zones, since even after their death, their remains exude so much power that it warps the environment that they've claimed as their final resting place. Our's is especially powerful, since not only it continues to grow in power rather than ebb and decline, but its overflowing essence has bled into Heart Kingdom's very own leylines, merging the two powers into one greater superpower that flows across this very land, incidentally allowing us to directly draw power from it like its inhabitants, but to a much grander and sophisticated scale since our mana doesn't come from our bodies, but rather this whole land's very mana is our source that we draw our powers from!"
It didn't take Fuegoleon very long to put the two and two together. "That's why we couldn't even sense you during your initial attack!"
"Can't tell water apart from water when they're both in the same container, can you?" Rudra pointed out, but just before he can continue, a sudden spike of agony overcomes the Demon, causing him to swerve and stagger in his hovering. "... What?! No! Impossible!"
"What's going on?!" Leopold asked.
"Whatever it is, he's open!" Fuegoleon ordered as he readied his attack. "HIT HIM WITH EVERYTHING YOU GOT!"
The two Crimson Lion Kings then unleash their most powerful attack available to take advantage of this sudden opening.
"EAT THIS!" Leopold roared out as he then unleashed a giant cone of spiraling flames around his hand before he rocketed towards the struggling Demon. "[FIRE MAGIC: GIGA FLAME BREAKER]!"
The flaming drill bores into the Demon's carapace as the spinning tip ground out sparks from the high-heat blow until the spell itself exploded upon an extended period of impact. From the blast, a faint spark glowed through the smoke, revealing Fuegoleon with his artificial arm's [Palma Fiocina] now opened up fully, the center of his palm charging up with mana gathered into a small, but extremely hot orb.
"[Fire Magic: Sol Linea-Fulgor Aurorae]!" a massive beam of pure heat was then shot towards Rudra, but before the beam can completely engulf the Demon in its brilliance, Rudra quickly counters it with his [Forgotten God's Roar], the two spells collide into their own struggle, resulting both spells exploding and sending both attackers flying from the combined blast.
"Dammit, he still had some fight left in him..." groaned Leopold as he got up with the help of Fuegoleon.
"Stay vigilant, that cannot be said enough," the older brother replied as the two then heard a thundering roar that blew off the surrounding dust and smoke to reveal the Demon, now sporting fresh wounds on his body.
"Impressive, lionet," spoke the Demon as its wounds began to close on itself, "For you of the pair to have finally land a hit on me. A pity, given that two of my own brothers are now dead."
"What do you mean?" Leopold snarled as he got into a fighting stance. "Don't tell that's your excuse of us finally kicking your ass!"
Rudra lets out a faint chuckle before answering. "I'm afraid to admit that it's no exaggeration," he confessed, "for all six of us DEVAs need to remain functional in order for us to properly regulate our excessive mana that we draw in with our bodies. We can't turn it off, so our mana-regulatory systems are forced to compromise by lowering the overall shared output. The others see it as a hinderance, but I see it as a necessary sacrifice. What good is power, when one is doomed to be consumed by it?"
Rudra's wounds finished healing, but the carapace remained cracked open where it was struck. "I wish to quit while I'm ahead, but there would be no point doing so," he confessed. "I've killed too many people. Innocents that didn't deserve to die, and only did so for my creator's sick sense of amusement. I'm now your enemy, so I shall die like a dog."
The Demon's flesh beneath his carapace squirmed and squelched before several bursts were heard popping throughout his body, growing smaller sets of wings all throughout his body. Once the growths ceased, Rudra takes to the skies once again, this time, completely out reach from the brothers' [Fire Magic].
"Now, overcome this, if you can," Rudra declared as all of newly-grown wings began to buzz and stir the air around itself. "[Primal Wind Magic: Solid Quake]."
Before either Vermillion brother could react, suddenly the whole area's gravity increased tenfold. But it wasn't just them being the ones grounded to the earth. The surrounding objects and edifices began to crumble and shatter into piles of scrap and rubble.
"... Can't... move..." grunted Leopold as he began to taste blood in his mouth. "... Feels like... being sat on..."
Fuegoleon coughs up blood as he tried to crawl on the ground that he and his brother had been pushed down onto. "... Leopold!" he cried out as he continued to struggle underneath the oppression.
The brothers then began to feel their bones slowly break, like a dough being flattened underneath a rolling pin.
"My [Solid Quake] vibrates the very air itself with such intensity that the mere disturbance causes a general structural compromise, as long as I remain where I am," stated Rudra as he winced in pain, due to him no longer being immune to his own magic by that of his weakened state brought on by the death of two DEVAs. "How long will it take for the vibrations to make which one of us keel over and die first? The answer that I know is that none of us will leave this night alive, that is, unless your human sense of determination finds a way to overcome me. So what will you do?! Will you two accept death or struggle towards the faintest of hope to the bitter end?! SHOW ME!"
As the air itself continued to quake, the two brothers felt their bones crack in several places while their muscles began to feel feverish in places that shouldn't be. Neither of them could lift their arms up to fire their spells towards the Demon hovering above anymore.
"... It's over," sobbed Leopold as he now found himself at rock bottom, "... I've hit my limit-"
"YOU FOOL!" roared Fuegoleon as he vomited blood and his face slightly swelling from the heat generated by the vibrations rippling across the air. "... Just because we're about to die... YOU CHOOSE TO INVITE IT WILLINGLY?! FOR SHAME!"
Fuegoleon then begins exerting his mana outwards as soon as his artificial arm crumples into scraps, forming an array before him. Leopold knows what he was doing, but the doubt as the inevitable came staring at his face began to give him second thoughts.
"... Brother..." Leopold sobbed, "... what are you doing?! ... YOU'LL DIE!"
"THAT'S THE POINT!" Fuegoleon roared back as he spent what's left of his mana into building the array, even taking his own grimoire down with him, the cover and its pages beginning to burn out from the strenuous casting. "This fight... IS NOT JUST ABOUT US ANYMORE!"
He was right. Leopold's dream of being the Wizard King came into a retrospective light. In hindsight, what did he want to when he became the Wizard King other than simply fulfill a promise of strength?
His brother was there, greeting death in the eye and spitting on it, determined to take the enemy down with him, so that others can dream naively like he did. It was merely a childish privilege.
Something Leopold had to let go for the greater good. He then summoned the last of his courage and began contributing into Fuegoleon's array.
"... I WON'T LET YOU DIE ALONE, YOU STUPID BIG BROTHER!" Leopold roared as his own grimoire began to burn. "I'D RATHER DIE AS A MAN THAN LIVE ANY LONGER AS A KID!"
Fuegoleon smiles at his younger brother's self-evolution. "... You know, Meroleona's gonna get super mad at us if we actually die."
"FUCK! HER!" the two brothers then poured what little of mana they had left in their bodies and finally completed their combined spell, ready to fire underneath Rudra.
Rudra then looks down at the sun-like magic circle that is glowing beneath his feet. He'd realized that the two brothers had figured out that their [Fire Magic] has no solid structure to compromise due to its gaseous composition, which unlike air, cannot be disturbed since fire itself is already a disturbance via accelerated molecules. It's just that the mage itself had a solid body that can interrupt their casting, but the two brothers had proven to stubborn to die quick enough to actually let that sink in.
He smiles, with his curiosity now sated for his remainder time on this plane of existence. "... Well done, lionhearts."
The Vermillion brothers then unleashed their combined spell. "[TRUE COMPOUND FIRE MAGIC: LEONIS REGNUM]!"
A massive roaring head of a lion made from the brightest and hottest flames that the two mages can unleash ascended towards the heavens with the Demon crushed between its fiery maw. Upon reaching the zenith and imposing itself where the moon was at, the spell erupts like a volcano, with the only things that rained from the sky were the pieces of Rudra, burnt like charcoal.
The gravity returns then returns to normal, leaving the brothers now feeling every last of their bone now being completely broken, and a fair majority of their muscles hissing and steaming like hams out of a oven.
"... Brother," Leopold grunted, completely spent, his grimoire now tattered with singed pages and a missing cover, "... I can't move."
Fuegoleon belts a dry chuckle as he tried to roll onto his back, only for him to faceplant back down. "... Neither can I... it seems."
"Well isn't that unfortunate."
The two brothers then hear another demonic voice followed up with several more footsteps coming out of the brushes and approaching towards their direction.
"Two fine specimens of Clover Kingdom's finest Crimson Lion King Knights," spoke the voice, which Leopold looks up to find a raccoon Demon's face glowering at him pitifully. "Alas, all good things have to come to an undignified end," spoke Morris before he looked back, "... I have no need for damaged goods. Rades my man, would like some additional samples?"
The name Rades felt familiar to both of the brothers. He was that infamous necromancer who'd attacked the Capital several months ago, to which given their current circumstances, was the worst possible situation they could've run him into.
"Why not?" said the necromancer as he then drew a knife from its sheath. "[El Gigante] needs more firepower anyway. Almost makes the several hour-long trek worth it."
Leopold's head was then pulled up by a rotten hand of a zombie's to where he can see Rades place his knife before Fuegoleon's throat.
"Doubly so when I can make him watch."
Leopold then sees the knife rip through his brother's throat, spilling out a stream of sanguine blood from the breathed esophagus before he was left to die like a common cattle for slaughter.
He didn't have enough time to process the tidal wave of horror that washed over his soul before he then found the necromancer's sneering face staring at him as the latter placed the knife's blade onto his throat.
"Any last words?" Rades cruelly smiled. "Time's up."
The knife rips across Leopold's throat before his head was let go. As his face hit the ground, the coldness of death sets in with the last thing Leopold sees with his fading eyes are both his and Fuegoleon's grimoires now burning to ash with their departure.
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: So, yep, Henry, Leopold and Fuegoleon are now dead.
I was pussyfooting the last time when I brought death into my Book 1 fic, but this, people are going to die, and I mean it.
Admittedly, I was writing this chapter due to a combination of a writer's block, having to wrestle with my thoughts of me applying for an internship for my resume, my birthday coming up and me not being a heavy spender, and I have a doctor's appointment this week, needless to say, I couldn't leave my own feelings at the door and working with a five year old MacBook Pro isn't doing me any favors (seriously, the keys are falling apart and have been running into cases of multi-tapping).
Personal complaining aside, this chapter is meant to explain a few things about a few plotholes found in the prior chapter while establishing future dynamic for the story as a whole going forward.
Now, onto the DEVAs in this chapter and why they lost.
Vishnu's fatal flaw, he hates being touched, not because of vanity, but rather he considers anything to be made of meat/organic to be disgusting, hence why he was coating everything with his iron dust to turn everything around him into an iron statue museum. He hates it so much that just one nick is enough for him to abandon his defensive and reactive fighting style in favor of punishing Jack personally, despite not being good at close combat. Effectively, he epitomizes the phrase "chain's only strong as their weakest link," given by his fancy, but ultimately meaningless spells that he'd unleashed during the latter half of his fight.
Indra's fatal flaw is his hyperfocus on one thing at a time, but rather than stick to one objective obstinately, he switches priorities too quickly, making him come off as ironically unfocused because of his heightened focus. In a way, an insect Demon-Dragon hybrid with slight ADD has a really bad matchup with the Black Bulls, who are known to be flexible and creative, and paired with their refusal to lay down and die, Indra was fucked when his sniper tactics failed, and part of the reason why he never quit.
Rudra's fatal flaw is his sense of fair play. Powerful, but way too lenient with his opponents. Reason for this is not arrogance, but really, curiosity. He's a Demon that is genuinely intrigued with humanity (in his own way) and wishes to discourse with them rather than fight, but his Demon biology says "kill," he must oblige, resulting in a powerful foe that sucks at both of his strengths. A deconstruction of the "Noble Demon" trope, which he partially lampshades in this chapter.
The other DEVAs will get their moments to break down in their own specific way in the next chapter, where they now have to fight at around 50% effectiveness or you know, risk getting blown up. I'll think of something.
And for Vanessa finally having access to her precognitive powers, I did it so she can do something, and the Black Bulls were in a pretty bad place so figured that she's stressed out enough to push past her limits. Then again, she just woke up her powers, so Indra giving her the big NOPE was my way of balancing it out.
Anyhoo, see guys in this fic in about two weeks.
References:
- Vishnu's [Primal Iron Creation Magic: Calamity Chakram, Brahmastra] is named after Rama's Noble Phantasm from Fate/Grand Order, named after the Hindu astra/star that will destroy all of creation which only the chief Hindu Devas have the authorization to activate the proverbial nuke. It is mythologically fitting since in Hindu mythology, Prince Rama is one of Vishnu's ten (specifically, Rama is the fifth) avatars, collectively known as the Dashvatara, in the Ramayana.
- Vishnu's [Primal Iron Invocation Magic: Herald of Twilight, Kalki] transformation-install spell is named after Vishnu's 10th avatar, who is said to descend upon the appointed end of Kali Yuga/the "Hell on Earth"-stage of the reincarnation cycle, and reset the cycle back to its initial state.
- Jack's choice of Wolverine claws and going shirtless is taken from Bruce Lee, specifically from his 1973 film, "Enter the Dragon."
- Vishnu's other attacks such as [Palm of Divine Judgement, Gautama Buddha], [Fist of Vengeance, Krishna], and [Weight of Sin, Vamana], are named after Vishnu's 9th, 8th, and 5th avatars respectively.
- Jack's finishing attack against's Vishnu, [True Severing Magic: Giant Killer] is named after the Captain's namesake inspiration, "Jack the Giant Killer," a Cornish fairy tale taking place in Arthurian lore where the titular Jack goes around killing evil giants, rather known for its excessive gore even by its current, pre-modern standards of acceptability, which explains a lot about Jack's canonical personality. The way [Giant Killer] was performed was in a similar vein of how Gundam Barbatos finished off Gundam Gusion's first pilot from Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans, with the philosophy of Godo's Dragonslayer from Berserk acting as the inspiration.
- Yami's allusion to a "trio of masked spearmen" and "swordsman's warrior monk rival" when fighting Indra are each a reference to the real-life Miyoshi Triumvirate (the Miyoshi Clan's top three retainers) and Hōzōin Kakuzenbō In'ei, the founder of Hōzōin-ryū of Sōjutsu respectively.
- Indra's deathblow attack to Henry, [Primal Lightning Magic: Assassination Spear, Vritrahan] is named after one of Indra's many accolades, Vritrahan ("Slayer of Vritra" in Hindi).
- Indra's final attack, [Primal Lightning Magic: Sudden Shock, Vajra-Mushti], is named after Balthus's personal Relic Weapon from Fire Emblem Three Houses, meaning either "Diamond Fist" or "Thunder Fist" in Hindi. Also a reference to Indra's namesake as the Hindu God of Lightning, who was just as thunderbolt-happy as Zeus of Greek Mythology, if not worse due to the former's volcanic temperament (Family Guy of all shows actually somewhat accurately portrays Indra, albeit mistakenly referred to him as Shiva, who despite his job as the God of Destruction and Rebirth, was a chill guy compared to Indra).
- Yami's finishing attack, [Dark Magic: Yamimatoi Shikenkiri], is based off Okada Izo's Noble Phantasm from Fate/Grand Order, [Shimatsuken] (meaning "Blade of Disposal" in Japanese). Also, the name "shikeikiri" (spelled as "死刑斬り") can either mean "Execution Slash/Cut" as a wording pun (the giri-suffix being prevalent throughout Yami's spell repertoire), or its literal definition of "Death Penalty."
- The way Rudra explains how the DEVAs use their magic is like that of how Fairy Tail: 100 Year Quest's alchemists use magic without a supposed limit. But their limitations of having to draw in mana constantly without an off-switch is akin to how real-life semi-conductors work in power plants, in that they need several sub-generators (the other DEVAs) to regulate the immense flow of power unless they all overload and die/blow up.
- Rudra's [Primal Wind Magic: Solid Quake] is named after the corporation from Deca-Dence and its effects are a reference to Fuuto P.I.'s Meganeura Dopant's powers to hyper-vibrate the surrounding area's air with its wings to increase the weightiness of a localized area, with an additional effect of rupturing the Vermillion brothers' muscles being similar to that of how real-life microwaves work (ever put a hot dog in there and watch it blow up? Yeah, think that happening inside a human body's meat suit, ignoring [Mana Skin]).
- The Vermillion brothers' final spell [True Compound Fire Magic: Leonis Regnum] means "Lion's Kingdom" in Latin.
And as usual, please leave a comment or a review, for I'd love to know what my readers think!