Disclaimer: Black Clover is owned by Yūki Tabata, Studio Pierrot, and Shonen Jump.
Saga 38: Fortunate Son Part 2
Mimo Amazon, Heart Kingdom, Morning
The Queen of Dama now found herself alone in the wilderness.
"Where am I?" Scheherazade remarked before her ears heard rumbling coming from a distance. "... Oh no."
Sounds akin to drums and stamping hooves drew closer towards her before they were followed up by the scent of something burning wafting throughout the natural air.
"ZIZ!"
The infernal screech then heralds the Demon of [Tyranny] himself, raining naught but ruin and death below his sail-like wings that were blacker than the depths of the abyss itself. Lightning, rain, hail, storms, and whatever rubble or stray tree it picked up. Everything that can and will be picked up by the infernal avian fell upon the earth, pummeling whoever was caught in its shadow.
She had no other option...
"[BAHAMUT]!"
... But to stand her ground.
"WHAAATTT?!"
A titanic whale swimming through the air rammed its nose into the condor's chest, the latter letting out a pained squawk as the former's rider, now bleeding from her eyes and nostrils, emanating an unholy fury fitting of a queen of a desert nation that has long since fell to ruin.
"You may be my people's god..." the Queen heaved out, "but I will not let you destroy this nation just for the sake of your own ego!"
Ziz then lets out a stormy screech as he confronts Scheherazade.
"MOVE OR I WILL MAKE YOU!"
The air shook with the reverberations of their declaration of mutual hatred as the two fliers charged towards one another.
At the Dragon Fossil Site...
"C-Chosen Child?!" Lolopeckha stammered in astonishment. "... M-ME?!"
The young Queen then looks towards her Undine companion, to which the latter looks away apprehensively before turning towards the cherubic Archangel of Water.
"... Lady Archangel," she greeted with a familiar tone.
"Rise, Undine, my herald," Djibril ordered. "Be not afraid, for chastisement is not the current due. Rather, I must praise you for your diligence and self-sacrifice for this very moment."
Lolopeckha looks around confusedly. "... Esteemed Archangel."
"Call me by thy name, Chosen Child."
"Lady Djibril," the Queen corrected. "What is going on here?! This whole 'Chosen Child'-business, the place where we end up at a Dragon's final resting place... and... and-MY MIND IS FRAYING AT THE SECOND THE MORE I TRY AND COMPREHEND WHAT IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW!"
Djibril then places her hand onto the young Queen's head before the palm began glowing in a cerulean light.
"[Ichor Recovery Magic: Calm]." The blood rushing through Lolopeckha's brain then slows its flow, lessening her aching as the flow of endorphins and serotonins were promoted, ushering a wave of calm into the necrotic monarch's mind. "... Now breathe."
Lolopeckha then takes a deep breath in before releasing it, reestablishing a renewed equilibrium. "... Forgive me for my impertinence, Lady Djibril."
"Naught need for apologizes, but time is of the essence," she reassured. "As you are aware, this whole world teeters on the brink of absolute ruin. Hell's Eleven Elusive Evils have begun to make their move. Their supplicants are spurred to act upon this chaos. And now magic itself is beginning to take its dying gasps."
The latter statement takes both Queen and Water Spirit for a complete tailspin. "... I'm sorry, WHAT?!"
"... I have talked with Dryad after I have found her on the verge of death at the machinations of the Prince of [Famine]," Djibril revealed. "Her powers in tandem with mine should've revitalized all of the damaged nature throughout your domain, but a deeper, more malicious rot has taken root."
Undine's eyes widened. "... The Demons have become this strong?!"
"I do not know how, but all I know is that this evil must be fought," the Archangel answered. "Chosen Child, it is now time."
"For what, exactly?" she replied.
The Archangel narrows her eyes as Lolopeckha spots the Archangel touch the Dragon's bones.
"What are you doing?!" Undine protested. "Lady Archangel! Please remove yourself from there-!"
"Cease."
Grabbing the Water Spirit's arm was the Elven Patron Spirit herself, Dryad.
"... What is the plan here?!" Undine asks.
"As much as she's grown through her recent tribulations, it's not enough," the Nature Spirit revealed. "Hence, we must take drastic measures."
"What 'drastic measures'?!" Lolopeckha pointed out as Jibril then successfully extracts an orb of red energy from the Dragon's remnants.
"... It is time," she reveals. "My Chosen Child, it is time to fulfill your destiny as this world's champion."
The Archangel then plants the extracted mana into the earth, forming a large array onto the earth itself.
"We must now form a pact."
At Rotten Elysium...
"HOLD STILL, YOU FUCKING FOP!"
"MY SKINCARE IS WORTH MORE THAN YOUR DAMNED LIFE, YOU INSECT!"
Meroleona then blasts a gout of [Fire Magic] at the peacock Demon of [Vanity] pranced around the battlefield that was a tropical island in a middle of a jungle.
Nonsensical as the setting was, the fight itself was just agonizing to deal with, in that NONE of their attacks were landing onto the vain Demon.
"Oh, how I overestimated you humans," Adramelech sneered. "Make us spur into action and suddenly, all of Hell is up in arms of your uggos being a threat, and yet here you are, not able to land a single scratch on my immaculate, jet-black skin shining as freshly-polished sable."
"I honestly don't know what hurts more..." Jack groaned. "... His personality, or THE FUCKING FACT THAT I CAN'T HIT HIM FOR SHIT!"
"By all means, worship me," the peacock Demon boasted as he leaned back deeply and struck a haughty pose, his head looking behind himself and his finger pointing downwards before the two Captains. "It be easy to kill you both right now-"
Meroleona then pounces as she saw the Demon of [Vanity] leave himself open so blatantly, but Adramelech dodges her flaming strike before clotheslining her with a rolling flip-kick gouging into her stomach, leaving her hanging on his shin like a wet clothes hanging on the pole to dry in the sun.
"But alas," he snickered as the Demon leaned over to the groaning Meroleona while balancing on one toe like a pro ballerino. "Power lies not within savagery nor it lies in experience."
Adramelech then pitches the Crimson Lion King up into the sky while Jack was charging at him with his [Death Scythes].
"IT IS ABOUT HOW ONE CONDUCTS THEMSELVES!" The Demon then effortlessly dodges Jack's swipes before slashing him with his tailfeathers spinning around in a graceful axle before following it up with a swift kick into his jaw that sent him flying towards where Meroleona was falling towards.
The two Captains collide into each other midair, causing both of them to land in the briny waters of the "ocean."
Jack then gets up first, screaming in fury. "FUCK! I THOUGHT I HAD THAT TWINK!" he cursed. "HOW IS HE ALWAYS GIVING US THE SLIP?!"
"Well, would you like to know?" Adramelech smirks as he then explains his powers. "I am the master of [Projection Magic], the art of creating facsimiles of reality indistinguishable from reality itself! I can create anything! From this paradise, [Eden], to your personal information."
Meroleona then spits out the saltwater from her mouth. "... Shit."
Adramelech then lets out a chortle as he then peers through a circle made by his index finger and thumb.
"[Projection Magic: Ali Dance]," he revealed. "I can tell what moves you are all going to make next! Muscle reflexes, synapses flares, the twitch of your eyeballs and fingers that you aren't even aware of...! What you can and cannot understand... I can see perfectly! You two might as well be playing cards completely naked while showing your hands! I CAN LITERALLY SEE ALL OF YOUR MOVEMENTS BEFORE YOU CAN EVEN CONCIEVE THEM!"
Normally, a Demon's boast this detailed would be both demoralizing and enlightening at the same time. However, both Captains, after going through their own share of Demons and other denizens of Hell, knew better to take his words as is.
There are some kernels of truth within this vain Demon's words, but the truth itself was still beyond them.
"... So you're just another typical wise-guy, huh?"
Adramelech's eyebrow was raised at Jack's statement. "... Crudely put, but yes. I am better than both of you combined."
For some weird reason, Jack and Meroleona, who spent the last several months at each others throats for every possible reason known to man, came to a common consensus.
"... You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Not at all?"
Both Captains grinned wickedly as they then resume their offensive.
"Useless!" Adramelech boasted as he dodged both of their attacks. "[Ali Dance] renders me untouchable! Purge your mind of all thoughts you want! NOTHING WILL EVER REACH ME!"
However, the attacks instead hit the paradise itself, causing the two Captains to smirk with satisfaction upon seeing their spells make contact and confirming their theory.
"Thanks for telling us how your magic works...!" Meroleona snickered as her iris lit ablaze in a menacing wisp accentuating her wrath.
"NOW WE'RE GONNA RIP EVERYTHING AROUND US A FRESH NEW ONE!" Jack's [Death Scythe] then fans itself out into a set of three blades on each of his forearms. "[SEVERING MAGIC: SLAUGHTER SWEEP]!"
The Demon dodges the barrage of spinning slashes with the greatest of ease, but looking up, he then spots Meroleona pouncing at Adramelech mid-dodge.
"Hmph!" The peacock Demon limbos deeper down as the Crimson Lion King's Captain's dive kick misses before dodging her next sequence of lightning-quick blows. "And what was that supposed to accomplish?"
Jack then lets out a rilling shriek as he brought down his [Giant Killer] blade upon the Demon of [Vanity], switching in with Meroleona as the latter retreats with an explosive fire blast that covered her movement before the Green Mantis Captain closes in on Adramelech.
"Think you can easily best me with that improvised tag team of yours?!" the Demon of [Vanity] scoffed as his tailfeathers parried Jack's blades while the rest of himself danced around the fusillade of fireballs from Meroleona. "Beauty...! Is my right! AND YOU EYESORES ARE OVERDUE FOR TERMINATION!"
The eye-patterns on the tailfeathers shine menacingly.
"[Projection Magic: Galgalim Glare]!"
All of the eye patterns then fire bright beams of unearthly light everywhere, tearing through the false paradise's very fabric as the two Captains frantically dodge the random scattering of indiscriminate destruction everywhere.
"All according to plan...!" Meroleona snickered as she dodged the random shots.
"Fops with heads shoved up their own asses are really easy to annoy!" Jack cackled as he slips through the barrage. "They always think that they're in control, but really, chance itself is a cruel mistress!"
Adramelech was so in of himself that he failed to notice that his [Galgalim Glare] was tearing through the artificial reality like old wallpaper and mortar. It was simply too powerful to counter, that not even the Demon himself was immune to its own failings.
Mainly, it tipped his hand so blatantly that the Captains couldn't help but laugh at the Demon's own stupidity spurred by his vanity-fueled rage, to which he was able to subside a moment too late.
"... Shit."
"What do you know?" Jack snickered as the shattered blue sky reveals a violet void dotted with blinking eyes. "THE WALLS GOT EYES BEHIND THEM!"
"Let's poke em!" Meroleona then unleashes a barrage of [Calidus Brachium] spells that each punched an eye right into its iris.
"DON'T TOUCH MY EYES!" Adramelech screeched as he then leapt towards Meroleona in desperation, but Jack parries his kick with his [Death Scythes] crossed together.
"What do you know? I CAN FINALLY SHANK YOU!" Jack then morphs his [Death Scythes] into a burr of arrowhead-shaped blades across his forearms.
"DON'T YOU DARE-!"
"[Severing Magic: Gutless Gouger]!" Then Jack unleashes an explosion of blades that covered all directions, allowing Meroleona to switch in with Jack during the intermission where Adramelech was dodging the barrage.
"KNOCK-KNOCK, MOTHERFUCKER!" Meroleona then delivers a blazing uppercut flat across his chin, smashing the Demon's lower jaw into the rest of his skull before sending him careening across the air in utter disbelief.
"How...?!" he shuddered. "HOW DID YOU HIT ME?!"
"You damn well know better than us, genius!" the Crimson Lion King Captain boasted. "... All of the eyes in the world, and yet you chose to use them to solely looking at your own damn self."
Just as the Demon was about to retaliate, a ball of light formed around Meroleona's sole hand.
"Don't blink." She then crushes the miniature sun in her hand. "[Fire Magic: Sol Micare]."
A blinding hot flash shines from the epicenter of the false paradise of [Eden], the eyes spectating upon his diorama now seared by the light so refulgent that their irises boiled and burst like an egg's whites popping on the surface of a oiled-up frying pan.
"All yours, Jack."
As Adramelech was flailing after all of his eyes that were conduits of his [Projection Magic] were destroyed, the Green Mantis Captain then extends his [Death Scythe] out of his forearm as long as he could make it in order to behead the vain fiend with a single stroke.
"OPEN WIDE, PRETTY-BOY!" Jack then swings his blade with all of his might, as hard as he could, and as fast as he could.
But amidst the blind flailing, Adramelech had somehow dodged Jack's swipe, barely leaving behind a nick no more life-threatening than a common papercut.
But luckily, Meroleona herself was the contingency to that little possibility.
"[Fire Magic]...!" The Crimson Lion King Captain then balls her fist as her flames temporarily turns blue from the sheer heat generated from her boosted focus. "[Calidus Brachium - Superbia]!"
Meroleona's fist burrows deep into the Demon's sternum until the imprint of her fist was jutting through Adramelech's back. The swell then began to glow faintly, to which it then inflated further outwards until it was nothing more than a bubble of heat made of meat on the verge of popping.
"DROP DEAD!"
The meat balloon bursts, punching a messy hole into Adramelech's chest as the ensuing explosion sends both Jack and Meroleona flying out of the destroyed [Eden].
Both Jack and Meroleona then find themselves inside a rotten and foul-smelling hollow of a dead forest, its ground littered with the withered corpses of its former inhabitants.
"... Sheesh, and they didn't bother cleaning up," Meroleona commented.
"Keh." Jack then spits a wad of blood to the side. "... We got bigger problems to worry about."
Heaving, trembling, and coughing blood onto the floor was Adramelech. His jaw was unhinged, his eyes pulsating, his punched-in chest sporting a hole that continued shift in and out, and a small trickle of black blood dripped from his sable skin.
"You...!" he growled out. "Do you realize... what you have done?!"
"Yep," Jack snickered as he brandishes his [Death Scythes]. "... Let me get that little off the top for you."
The Green Mantis and Crimson Lion King Captains both lunge towards the dying Demon, but the latter summons all of his ire to grab both of their arms out of the air and slams them both down into the fetid floor of the rotten paradise.
"YOU! NICKED! MY! FACE!" the Demon roared into their faces before slamming them to the other side of the where he stood.
He then picks them up and then swings them back down.
"NOBODY!"
Adramelech then beats their bodies into the dirt with each punctuation.
"TOUCHES!"
With each blow, bones shattered as their consciousness barely held on.
"MY!"
Just as the Demon had underestimated them, Meroleona and Jack had also made the same grave error by judging his resilience to be in tandem with his self-image.
"FACE!"
With that final blow, Adramelech then releases Jack and Meroleona, now all of their remaining limbs snapped like twigs, their skulls shattered and piercing their brains, and their souls on the verge of accepting damnation.
Both sides were now on their last legs, with the Clover Kingdom's Magic Knight Captains getting up, powering through their snapped limbs piercing their muscles inside of their limbs, and the Demon, even with sporting a hole in his chest, was too enraged by his beautiful face being marred by mere humans of all beings.
"... How... ugly," Adramelech snarled as he stared at the Captains' defiance.
"... I can make... it uglier." Jack then stuck out his tongue spitefully.
"This is... nothing..." Meroleona snickered. "... I ain't quitting... until you're the one rotting before... my feet."
Adramelech gnashes his teeth until his molars slipped from their gums that they were resting upon. "... So base... so primitive... points for authenticity, human filths."
He then plunges his hand into his open chest cavity, pulling something out of his body at where the human heart was supposed to be located, revealing it to be a black apple with "Xs" for eyes, and a smile resembling a stitched-shut mouth.
"... A bit late for your last meal," Jack deadpanned.
The peacock Demon snickers before cramming the infernal fruit whole into his unhinged jaw, crushing the flesh and skin by punching in his lower jaw into his skull, scattering its juices all over below laboriously swallowing the chunks whole.
"... It will be the last thing you'll ever see."
The Demon's body then contorts and swells like a tumor.
"Invoke..." declared Adramelech. "... The Law of [Vanity]."
I am my own god
In a world where decay reigns supreme.
Throughout the ages were mankind crawled through mud
I am their only light across the heavens
Worship me without the fear of going old
And ascend into a being truly sublime.
No more unsightly norms spreading like mold.
It is time for a new age
Where we venture into the divine and bold.
Synchronization Rate: 666%
[Adramelech], the Demon of [Vanity]: REALIZATION COMPLETE
Apocrypha Form: SUCCESS
Demon Form: TERMINATED
New Form: APPROVED
Gone were his limbs and torso. Gone was any shape of familiarity where it resembled a living being. And gone was all logic and sense, all of which were sacrificed in the name of [Vanity].
"... What I am even looking at?" Meroleona dryly chuckled as she and Jack witness Adramelech's transformation.
Jack was utterly speechless and motionless as he bore witness to the sole thing in his whole life that made absolutely zero sense.
Throughout both of their lives, both Jack and Meroleona were able to register into their brains on what was considered "living" and what was "abstract" through the culmination of their experiences living lives in a world with laws, where up went up, down went down, fruits grew on trees, animals lived, ate, shit, and died, and could guarantee that the sun and the moon would be up at the sky every day.
From the very moment when they laid their eyes upon the reborn Adramelech, their very perception of common sense died.
Eyes. There are nothing but eyes staring at them. Orbiting like the stars in the sky, the heavens parting to usher in a being beyond all mortal comprehension.
It wasn't chthonic by any means, nor it was divine like anything inspiring reassurance.
It was pure, unadulterated ego made into alien form.
It was simply beautiful. Too beautiful that no physical vessel can contain such majesty.
"[Projection Creation Magic]."
The eyes opened as tears fell from the sky like rain.
"[Annunciation of Vainglory]."
Contained within the droplets were copies of Adramelech's initial form, now stark-white and golden, becoming angelic in form as they surrounded themselves around the two broken Captains.
One of them then raised their hand over Jack...
"... Oh HELL NO!"
Before parrying the blow with his [Death Scythe] swipe as Meroleona then belts out a bright gout of fire from her mouth, eliminating the Adramelech-copies as more rained down from above.
"Son of a bitch fancies himself like sort of god..." the Crimson Lion King Captain growled. "... Good thing my stupid brothers aren't around to see this."
Despite their bodies being past the point of being broken, both Captains stuck to each other back-to-back, making their last stand as the army of clones summoned from the nonsensical being hanging over their heads, too self-absorbed in their own "beauty" to even acknowledge their existence.
If anything, Adramelech, upon his "ascension," saw the whole world below them as a mere curiosity than an actual basis in reality as of now.
"... Ready for one more round?" Jack asked as he uses his [Severing Magic] to piece his own body with blades back together, determined to go out fighting as hard as he could, just like his father did as his days as a common hunter.
Meroleona snarled as she slowly began replacing her missing body parts with flame copies, becoming more fire than blood and bone.
"... Go out roaring."
"KEH KEH KEH!" Jack cackled. "NOT BAD FOR YOUR LAST WORDS, WOMAN!"
The Adramelech-copies all pounced as the two Captains made their final stand in this pit of bleak hopelessness, refusing to yield to despair of these impossible odds.
En Route to Rotten Elysium...
"[Hellfire Magic: Foul Baile]!"
"[True Lightning Magic: Nadaras do Astrauza]!"
As the last Spirit Guardian blasted several bolts of lighting towards the Contractor from his various arrays molded by Heart Kingdom's ambient mana, the latter dances through the barrage while occasionally kicking a few shots out of her way.
"Hey! Back me up!" Angra barked out as she then dodges another bolt of lightning guided by Mosin's [Gleipnir] before kicking aside a bundle of cotton with her flaming feet. "3v1 is harder than it looks!"
Rades, housed inside Leopold's corpse, then cracks open the corpse's grimoire as if it were his own.
"[Fire Magic: Twin Flame Spirals]!" Rades!Leopold then blasts a pair of spiraling flames at the High Inquisitor and Spirit Guardian, with both flames being both blocked by the Black Bull's patron totem god, Geri, eating the flames as they turned into common foodstuff upon reaching the reach of his ever-devouring maw. "HOLY SHIT! THIS IS HOW REGULAR MAGIC FEELS LIKE USING?! NOW I NEVER WANT TO GO BACK TO MY CRAPPY OLD GRIMOIRE!"
"Yeah, yeah, it feels good, may all of our enemies burn in Hell," Mainyu muttered before looking back at the rest of his group. "OI! WHERE THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?!"
"Time spent fighting can easily be used as time spent looking for the Dragon's bones!" Morris/Mammon remarked with Valdes and Sally (with Vanessa held as her hostage). "Thank you for your volunteer work!"
"GET BACK HERE!" Rades!Leopold then runs after them with Angra following shortly behind.
"THEY'RE GETTING AWAY!" Gaja then got on a lightning bolt before riding through the forest with Mosin picking up Charmy like a doll before swinging from branch to branch like a simian swinging from vine to vine.
"STOP FOLLOWING ME!" The raccoon Demon then pulls out his host's grimoire. "[Result & Implant Compound Magic: Lost Wanderer]!"
Fudging the world's logic and causality with the denizen of Hell's otherworldly powers, the jungle's path becoming twisted and disoriented to the naked eye.
"THEY'RE TRYING TO GIVE US THE SLIP!" Mosin exclaimed as her and Gaja's sense of direction began to quickly muddle.
"THEY CAN TRY!" Geri then forcibly stretches his already-massive maw open even wider with his claws, becoming wide enough to devour an entire acre of the jungle before them with a single bite.
As the whole segment of the forest is consumed, their senses of direction were returned to somewhat normal.
"The Demon's magic makes for great dressing for this salad!" Geri cackled as his drooled from his snapping fangs and teeth as he kept up the chase. "FINALLY! THE ONLY TIME WHERE I DON'T BALK AT THE PROSPECTS OF VEGETARIANISM!"
"I'M SO SORRY!" Charmy bawled as her patron god now found the idea of mass deforestation appetizing.
All Gaja could do was let the Dwarven god do his own thing, since it was their only real counter against the reality-defying magic of the Demon fused with his Contractor host.
Then just as the befuddlement could set upon them once more, Geri relieves them of that nuisance by devouring another whole acre of the jungle whole with a single chomp, exposing the fleeing members of Illuminati ahead of them.
"HOW DID YOU FIND US?!" Morris/Mammon cried out as they were now found in a mad pursuit.
"YOU CAN RUN, BUT CAN NEVER HIDE!" Geri boasted. "ALL SHALL BE CONSUMED! ALL ARE FODDER BEFORE GERI THE FAMINE-BRINGER!"
The bestial god then stretches his mouth open once more, winding back his fanged clamps as far as he could until the tip of his tongue wiggled freely and unincumbered out in the open air.
"WAIT! GERI!" Charmy cried out. "MY FRIEND VANESSA IS WITH THEM!"
"I don't think he's listening anymore!" Mosin pointed out as she turned towards Gaja. "WE MUST SAVE HER BEFOER THE DEVOURING!"
"TEN SECONDS!" Gaja then speeds ahead of them with Mosin and Charmy following shortly behind.
"FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!" Rades!Leopold then shoots a barrage of explosive fireballs that were all shot back by Gaja's [True Lightning Magic].
Angra then unleashes a wave of bluish [Hellfire Magic] with a wave of her hand, but Mosin vaults over the inferno with her finger wires.
Valdes wastes no time using his [Spatial Magic] to transport some of the blue flames and dump them over their heads, but Charmy counters it with her [Cotton Magic] forming a thick canopy and pushing the flames up and away from them as far as she could take them.
"Brace yourself, Miss Pappitson!" The High Inquisitor then grabs her by the hair bun before chucking the miniature Black Bull Magic Knight towards where Vanessa was held at.
"YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" Valdes then uses his [Spatial Magic] to open a rift to misdirect the Dwarven descendent, but Charmy instead shoots a giant gout of cotton from her magic and stuffs the hole with a log of fluff, running across it before knocking out the [Spatial Magic] user with a swift kick across his jaw mid-jump.
"I'M PASSING EITHER WAY!" Charmy then lets out a scream as she makes her way towards Vanessa, to which Sally then blocks her path...
"Eh, you can have her."
The mad scientist then releases the witch from her strawberry-flavored slime prison before throwing her onto the short Magic Knight, pinning her down.
"A hostage situation isn't worth the trade-off for our lives, anyway!" Sally then uses her [Gel Magic] to pull back her more trigger-happy fellows (Angra and Rades!Leopold) while Valdes aided in their escape. "Later!"
"WE GOT VANESSA BACK!" Charmy cried out before Mosin retrieves both of them with her [Gleipnir]'s wires as Gaja then picks them up while riding his lightning.
"HANG ON TIGHT!" Geri then closes in his jaws that were stretched back past their limit, snapping back into each other, consuming the entire jungle before them.
Thankfully, the three of them were able to escape on time with the Witch in tow, the latter coughing after being released from her containment.
"... Thanks for saving me," Vanessa remarked. "... What did I miss?"
"Too much and not enough time to explain in detail," Gaja answered. "Come on. We must head towards their destination."
The four then resume their chase as Geri follows behind them.
"... So, who's your friend?" the Witch asked.
"None of your business, mortal," Geri snarled.
Vanessa rolls her eyes at the bestial god's curt remark. "... Real charmer, that one."
All Charmy could do was grimace as even she was at a loss on how to deal with her asshole of a patron god who saw everyone and everything but her as food.
"I see them! Dead ahead!" Mosin cried out as she and Gaja spotted Illuminati.
"DAMMIT! THEY CAUGHT UP!" Rades!Leopold groaned.
"SHUT UP AND DON'T STOP RUNNING!" Morris/Mammon cried out. "THE LONGER WE TARRY HERE, THE MORE LIKELY THAT THE DRAGON FOSSIL WILL BE CLAIMED BY ANOTHER! AND I REFUSE TO GIVE THAT AWAY TO ANYONE ELSE!"
Both sides wasted no time shooting and running at each other, everyone constantly moving in one direction towards their desired destination.
About a Couple Paces Away...
"(DIE)!"
Yami was pushed back by Akane's [Murasame], his own [Ankokuken, Kurogane] barely holding onto its structural integrity after one blow.
"CAPTAIN!" Gauche then runs towards Yami while summoning his mirrors to aid him.
"STAY BACK!" Yami ordered as he pushed back against Akane's offensive. "THEY'RE AFTER ME!"
"He's right."
Several of Gauche's mirrors shatter after being struck by arrows.
"DUCK!" En then tackles the [Mirror Magic] user out of another arrow's way, with another nocked back by Mari as she sniped from the treetops with her ghostly bow.
"Please, stay out of ane-sama's way," she begged. "We are only after his life, not yours!"
"THEN I'LL SETTLE FOR KILLING YOUR BITCH-ASS INSTEAD!" Gauche then unleashes a barrage of [Reflect Refrain] while Mari opts for a defensive posture with her bow and arrows.
"He's behind all reason..." Mari briskly sighed.
"(To be fair, you have started this fight)," the ghost of Urabe no Suetake pointed out. "(If it's for your duty, see it through)."
En grits his teeth before joining Gauche in his offensive in hopes of at least not get him killed as Akane continues roaring with each blow of her violet blade emitting wisps of poisonous mist.
"(STOP RESISTING AND ACCEPT YOUR DUE PUNISHMENT)!" the older Mitsurugi twin roared out in her native language.
"(WHAT KIND OF AUTHORITY DO I HAVE TO ANSWER TO, HUH)?!" Yami rebutted as he rebuilt his [Kurogane] with his own [Dark Magic]. "(I DON'T GIVE TWO SHITS ABOUT THE DAIMIYO I HAVE LEFT BEHIND TWENTY YEARS AGO)!"
"(Brushing off those mere twenty years like they were nothing)?!" Akane snarled as she also pushed her blade back harder. "(DO YOU NOT CARE WHAT HAD HAPPENED TO YOUR FAMILY BECAUSE OF YOUR ACTIONS)?!"
"WHATEVER I HAVE DONE WITH MY LIFE IS NONE OF THEIR FUCKING BUSINESS!" Yami then briefly slips from his Hanafudan language as he then kicks Akane away from himself before swinging his [Kurogane] at the girl, unleashing a flurry of black crescents towards the girl.
Akane parries one slash of darkness before dodging another and then catching a third between her teeth before crunching it between her pearly whites, snapping the attack like a stale cookie.
"... (How selfish are you)?" Akane remarked. "(What does it say of you when men like you unflinchingly risked their lives for our home while you went off and ended up here, selling your soul to the land you weren't born in)?"
"And what does that have to do with you, dog?" Yami remarked as he flipped his shadowy blade into a reverse-grip.
Akane then lunges back towards Yami as the two then move their duel into the thick of the jungle. The former uses her [Murasame]'s corrosive edge to eat through all forms of vegetation as she move her way through her bounty, whereas the latter, after months of familiarizing with the jungle environment, opted for more of a reposed and calmer approach, knowing that a prolonged fight with a Mitsurugi would be equal to suicide.
Gotta keep my cards in the bay at the moment-
"(Don't assume that you can hide anything from me)!" Akane accused as she then plants her blade into the dirt before ripping it out, unleashing a corrosive wave of filth that ate through everything alive in order to reach Yami. "(Your breath, the stench of your sweat down to every pore, and the sounds of your muscles twitching underneath their skin...! I can sense your ki from here)!"
Akane then lunges towards one of the trees he was hiding behind, smashing the great shaft into splinters as she clove her blade through the tree's length, exposing Yami lying underneath her.
Without saying anything, Yami then grabs her by her wrists before flipping her over where he was situated at, performing a reversal that used her own aggression against herself, sending her crashing through more trees as Yami then closed in the distance while she was disoriented.
"[Dark Magic: Dark Cloaked Pratigha Thrust]!" The length of [Kurogane] extends as Yami thrusted his blade towards her in his advance, snaking around the trees, swiftly zigzagging around the foliage as it ambushed Akane during her retreat.
The blade of darkness was impaled through Akane's back and out of her chest as Yami himself then drew himself closer towards his marked target, running his kodachi through where his [Dark Cloaked Pratigha Thrust] had landed.
"... It's over." Yami then tries pulling his blade, only for him to see that Akane was grabbing his sword by its blade, preventing Yami from pulling back his sword.
"(YOU WILL NOT... BEST ME LIKE THIS)!" Akane then plants [Murasame] into the dirt, channeling her mana and ki through her corrosive kamitsurugi, causing it to glow bright purple as she then unleashes a burst of corrosive energy that rots and decays everything within her surroundings.
Yami struggles to pull out as the rot begins settling in.
"(The time for guises and facades have come to an end)...!" she snarled as her hand then moved to the blade itself, drawing blood from the poisoned blade as she strokes her palm across its caustic edge. "... (Fifteen years, scion of the Yami Clan. ... I've waited fifteen... long years for this moment)!"
From where the blood was drawn, small red tattoos of centipedes began marking her arms and all the way up to her bare shoulders and cheeks.
"(Restriction Seal Release: Approved)," she declared. "(Usage of [Kodoku Yōjutsu]: Confirmed)."
Yami can now feel his skin burning, like if were bathing in acid.
"(Now witness)..." Akane then smirks wickedly as [Murasame] spread its unholy blight upon the rotten earth. "... (My true power)!"
She then belches before gagging, a lacquered wooden cylinder coming out of her mouth before catching the phlegm-drenched shaft in her bleeding hand before cracking it in her grip.
At the other side of the jungle, Gauche and En were still confronting Mari, even as the latter was jumping from tree to tree, firing her ghostly bow and arrow.
"QUIT RUNNING, YOU BITCH!" Gauche then aims his mirrors at the Hanafudan girl, but the latter easily shatters the mirrors by doing nothing by casting stone at the reflective surfaces, shattering them and rendering them inert. "HOW ARE DOING THAT?!"
"Your anger is palpable, stranger," Mari answered as she then returns his attempted attack with another shot arrow.
En then erects a mushroom with his [Mushroom Magic], its waxy and thick stem easily absorbing the arrow shot.
"Don't blindly rush in," the Green Mantis Magic Knight warned. "... Her behavior... it's reactive."
"Oh really?!" Gauche remarked. "Well excuse me for being a little upset, but as you can clearly see, THE LAST FEW MONTHS HERE WEREN'T EXACTLY A PICNIC-!"
A crushing sense of dread then invaded their atmosphere.
This perverse aura was so all-encompassing that even Gauche was snapped out of his single-minded ire towards Mari, and the latter to take notice at this sudden shift in the atmosphere.
"... What's going on here?!" En asked as an instinctual feeling of fear gripped his heart and mind. "... What... What is this feeling?!"
The [Mirror Magic] user gulps, realizing that this exact feeling was like when he and everyone else were facing down Caligula's Demons. "... Nothing good."
Mari then jumps down from the branches as her bow disappears back into her partially-unsheathed [Shien]. "... She actually gone and done it," she remarked to herself before grabbing the other two by their shoulders. "... Run if you wish to live!"
Having no time to argue, the three ran for their lives, their survival instincts spurring them to think of nothing else other than their own self-preservation, reducing their cognitive states to that of frightened animals.
Back at the epicenter, Yami was still trying to pull out his blade, but then realized that he could simply let it go, only to discover that his hands were frozen white-knuckled around the sword's grip, paralyzed by this primal fear that Akane herself was inspiring.
With one last squeeze, Akane then shatters the cylinder in her hand, revealing a rolled-up scroll contained within, unfurling its length and exposing its heretical text as each letter glowed in its unholy, blood-hued light.
"A scroll?!" Yami exclaimed, finding familiarity with the text written on the parchment.
"... [Kodoku Yōjutsu: Gensui]/[減衰]."
From where Akane stood, a wave of pure rot was unleashed, spreading its infectious decay throughout the whole jungle as Yami was in the front-row seats to this welcoming of this great calamity.
Trees were withered instantly. The earth itself was churned and blighted into waste. Stones were ground to arid dust. Water was turned into rancid muck. And the air swimming with mana was soiled beyond recognition.
As soon as the land itself was nothing but death, Akane then lets go of Yami's kodachi before looking back.
"... (You still stand)."
Yami's body was now wracked by the effects of [Gensui]. His skin was grayed out and flaked like old clothing eaten by moths, his exposed muscles and bone were decayed in places where chunks of his body were falling off like eroded cliffs, and his eyes were pruned and loose, slipping out of his eye sockets like rotten teeth.
Akane then grabs her [Murasame] as she walks out of Yami's kodachi impaling her chest. "... (Now, recite your death poem)."
Yami remains silent as the land they find themselves standing at.
"... (Fine)," she remarked as she wound back her blade. "(Die forgotten, traitor)."
Akane then swings her sword towards Yami's neck...
... Only for him to catch it between his teeth before punching Akane right in her face, sending her flying across the rotten muck of her own creation, sending her kamitsurugi flying loose from her grip.
"(HOW)?!" Akane exclaimed as Yami's body slowly stimmed itself back to life. "... (HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIVE AFTER RECIEVING [GENSUI])?!"
Yami smirks before spitting out a few pieces of his teeth that caught [Murasame]. "... I got better."
It was funny. Yami felt more alive the closer he got to death.
The fear that felt "human" was now gone. His eyes were completely gone, letting him see only darkness, yet this was the most intimate he felt with the world that he found himself in.
It felt... nostalgic. This new, alien sensation felt right where he belonged all this time.
Not that rotten old manor where his father Kuroki spent his days beating him when not getting drunk off of cheap swill. Not the old small providence where young boys like him were eager to be sent to their deaths in a war that had nothing to do with them, especially him. And certainly not the Clover Kingdom where he thought he could start his own path in life.
Akane's eyes widened as she could feel his ki growing despite his body falling apart at the seams. "... (No, it cannot be)!"
Yami snickers as he then reaches his hand out to grab his now-tattered grimoire.
"Dunno what's going on here..." he mumbled bemusedly, "... but I think I'll just wing it."
With a single clench, Yami's fingers punch through the book's cover and pages, absorbing the grimoire's latent mana into his own body, marrying it with his kit and turning the ambient filth into his own vitality.
"[Yami Yōjutsu]," he declared as his grayed-out skin turns obsidian-black. "... [Yagyū]."
His body swelled up and turned bovine below his waist, bellowing out a shaking bray as he then sped towards Akane, the latter guarding his charge with her [Murasame] after reclaiming it from the ground.
"(MY [KODOKU] ISN'T WORKING)?!" she exclaimed as she resisted against the rampaging Yami, revitalized back to full through his own powers.
"Surpass... MY LIMITS!" Yami then lets out a bull-like howl before slugging Akane across her face, breaking her body through the withered trees as he continued his rampage through the land of death.
Akane retaliates with equal measure, now their fists colliding against each other's, their mutual sheer forcing tearing the earth and air asunder.
"WHAT IS HAPPENING BACK THERE?!" En cried out.
"I DON'T KNOW!" Mari replied. "ANE-SAMA USUALLY STOPS RAMPAGING AFTER A MINUTE OR SO!"
Gauche however, despite having no logical basis of this feeling, wasn't surprised.
"... Typical Captain Yami," he smirked with absolute confidence as they ran away from the fallout. "Practicing what he always preaches."
Back at the toxic swamp, Yami and Akane exchanged a myriad of blows unto each other, with Yami's fist clashing equally against Akane's corrosive steel and skills.
"(I WILL TAKE YOUR HEAD, YAMI)!" Akane then channels her ki and mana through her [Murasame] as her centipede tattoos began slithering and skittering like the real thing. "([KODOKU YŌJUTSU: DŌKOKUSHI]/[慟哭死])!"
Akane then unleashes a massive slash of ethereal poison that rent through their surroundings, unleashing a haunting visage of a shrieking woman screaming bloody murder. Yami rams through the attack before delivering a lariat before grabbing her from behind and then arching each other back into a bridging suplex.
Akane however, refused to yield, instead outmuscling Yami while her head was driven neck-deep into the rancid muck, using nothing but her neck strength to then toss Yami off of his grapple and then spring the rest of her body towards the flying Black Bulls Captain, spinning into his torso feet-first like a drill.
Yami then grabs her by her legs before swinging her back and body through several rotten trees before jumping up and then planting her with a brutal pile driver, but Akane counters by wrapping her thighs around Yami's neck with a triangle choke.
"(YAMI)!" Akane shrieked out as her bounty grabs her head with his shadowy arms. "... (Whatever it takes)... (I WILL BE THE ONE TO BRING YOUR HEAD IN)!"
"YOU'RE ASKING FOR IT, YOU BLOODY BITCH!" The shadowy swirls around Yami's limbs swelled as Akane's centipede tattoos grew in length and animation as the two continued to struggle for supremacy.
Elsewhere, En, Gauche, and Mari eventually stop running, with the former pair being more winded than the latter after reaching deep into the non-rotten parts of the jungle left over.
"Sweet Sephira... how fast of a runner are you?!" Gauche heaved out.
"I'm surprised that both of you were able to keep up with me," Mari replied before closing her eyes and looking around her surroundings. "... Okay, we're safe for now."
En then lets out a sigh of relief. "... So," the [Mushroom Magic] user remarked, "... I can already tell that your heart's not in on this whole 'killing' business unlike your twin."
Gauche then looks at En confusedly. "... What do you mean?!" he remarked in an offended tone. "I saw her taking potshot at us!"
"... Let's just say that while I was being held hostage, I got to know them a little better," En explained, much to Gauche and Mari's shared surprise. "... Look, Miss. Just because I can't use this 'ki' doesn't mean I'm inept at reading people. Being raised out in the sticks lets you pick up what others don't. Usually the ability to tell how one's feeling when they're hiding it. Nobles are usually too stuck-up to even care about that."
Mari lets out a sigh as she nods in confirmation. "... The truth is, we're only after Yami's head because he's our condition to let us return to our home."
Gauche sputters at the revelation. "And what did he do to deserve that kind of bullcrap?!" he pointed out. "Look, he's an asshole at the worst of times, but he's no criminal!"
"In my land, he is," Mari vaguely revealed. "... Look, I know that here, he's done nothing but good for the community that had taken him in after his desertion, but honestly, me and my sister are also doing this for the sake of our own community back at Hanafuda as well."
But just as either Gauche or En could press for more answers, Morris/Mammon comes running out of the brush, followed by Sally, Valdes, Rades!Leopold, and Angra.
"AW FUCK! THERE'S MORE OF THEM?!" the necromancer possessing a Crimson Lion King Magic Knight's corpse exclaimed.
"BREAK THROUGH THEM!" Valdes then unleashes a barrage of [Dimensional Cutters] across the ground.
Mari wastes no time unsheathing her [Shien], swinging out a flaming blue arc that which whose flames "purified" the area, rendering the [Spatial Magic] spell that "disturbed" the fabric of reality to be rendered inert.
"SHE HAS THE SAME MAGIC AS ME?!" Angra cried out.
"NOW I WANT HER FOR SCIENCE!" Sally's inquisitiveness then goes into overdrive as her [Gel Magic] then unleashes a barrage of tendrils towards her, but the ghostly blade then manifests a yellow-lightning masakari axe in her other hand to mulch through the grabbers in tandem with her blades.
"Sorry, but I belong to no one but my family," Mari snarled.
"WE'RE WASTING TIME!" the Demon/Contractor fusion exclaimed as Mosin, Charmy, Gaja, and Vanessa came running after the fleeing Illuminati.
"VANESSA?!" Gauche exclaimed.
"NO TIME TO EXPLAIN!" Charmy cried back as Geri emerged from the forest following both of them. "COME WITH US IF YOU DON'T WANT TO GET EATEN!"
With little choice in the matter, En, Gauche, and Mari join the four in their chase towards the Illuminati, who in turn are seeking out the Dragon's fossil that may (or may not) exist.
"By and by, who is that thing?" Mari asked as she pointed towards the white wolf chasing them.
"Yeah, I'd like to know, too!" En agreed.
"THERE'S NO NUANCE WITH THAT BEAST!" Gauche answered. "HE JUST WANTS TO EAT EVERY LAST ONE OF US!"
"A foreigner...!" Geri cackled in anticipation. "ANOTHER TASTE TO ADD TO MY PALATE!"
"... (Damn dog is insane beyond reason)," the ghost of Sakata Kintoki commented.
"Insane?!" growled the bestial god as he devoured every tree and every last speck of dirt that stood before. "I'm nowhere near 'insane' as you would assume, phantom. I AM HUNGER INCARNATE! I WILL DEVOUR EVERYTHING THAT I CAN CRAM INTO MY MAW!"
"HE UNDERSTANDS HANAFUDAN?!" both Mari and the ghost exclaimed in complete shock at the fact that a god understood their foreign tongue and not the fact that he can see ghosts.
"HANAFUDA?! SOUNDS LIKE A WONDERFUL PLACE!" Geri remarked as he continued pursing his next meal. "AFTER I'M DONE WITH THIS CONTINENT, I THINK I'LL GO AND PAY THEM A VISIT!"
As the wolf god chased its prey closer towards Rotten Elysium, Yami and Akane were still exchanging fists and steel against one another, with Yami managing to recover his kodachi and stashed it away for later use as Akane continued unleashing attack after attack that inflicted more irreparable damage to the environment that they were fighting in.
"Way to break the stereotype of girls being adverse to the icky shit," deadpanned Yami as he maintained his [Yagyū] form, now stabilized on his skin like inked tattoos. "Because all you're doing is flinging shit around with your sword."
"(Whatever it takes to kill you)...!" Akane hissed as she then runs her [Murasame] across his forearm, inking more of the same red-colored centipede tattoos that spread all over her body like fungi. "... (Whatever it takes...! TO FINALLY GO HOME)!"
Akane then smashes her [Murasame] towards Yami with a hard, two-handed downwards swing, continuously swinging down after every miss.
To an onlooker, it appears that Akane had now lost her marbles, sacrificing prowess for raw power as her patience drew thin, but Yami knew better.
Every one of those downward swings weren't the work of an amateur's. They were straight, they were quick, and they fell down in succession like lightning cast from gods. Yami could feel each swing rippling through the air, an instance where he's glad that his eyes weren't there to trick him with such a misconception.
"Jigen-ryū?" Yami deadpanned as he kept backstepping from every downwards swing delivered by Akane. "Too bad for you, the basics don't work on me-"
In a surprise maneuver, Akane then kicks up the muck into Yami's face to muddle his senses, to which Akane then stops mid-swing until the tip of her [Murasame] was pointed towards Yami's face, to which she then pulls herself towards where the sword was positioned at, allowing her to wind back her weapon without having to kill her momentum mid-step, her stomp after the kick being her pivot maneuver.
"(DIE)!" Akane then thrusts her blade towards Yami as she and him met chest to chest, but Yami catches the blade between his hands, slides them both until he reached the tsuba, and then shoves the blade down away from his vitals, performing a lock without having to draw his own weapon.
"And what do you mean that you'll do whatever it takes to go home?" Yami pointed out as he confronted his would-be-killer. "You're plenty strong enough and I'm pretty sure that your twin sister isn't a slouch herself. So what do you have to worry about when you come back empty-handed?!"
"(You have no idea what's at stake, Yami)!" Akane rebutted. "(Our province is always under threat by the other lords! Everyone is playing their part, and I am no different! If I don't make an example, then what of our home's integrity)?!"
"'Integrity,' my ass!" Yami pushed back as he and Akane continued struggling over [Murasame]. "What is that 'integrity' worth when it permits abuse under the bullshit related to honor that has no place in reality?! Why bother serving a Daimyo who sees us as nothing more than expendable pawns and sees no value in any of our lives?!"
"(The lord is no concern of mine, but it's the people within our province that is my utmost priority)!" Akane shouted back as she pushes harder, causing Yami to bleed from his hands clapping her kamitsurugi together, but no less obstinate in his resistance. "(OUR PEOPLE NEED TO STAND AS ONE AGAINST OUR ENEMIES! REGARDLESS OF WHAT MAY AIL THEM, IT IS OUR DUTY TO PRESERVE OUR WAY OF LIFE)!"
"IT'S BEEN OVER TWO DECADES! GET OVER YOURSELF!"
Both Yami and Akane then headbutt into each other as hard as they could before the former elbows into her jugular while the latter kicks him in the balls, causing both to let go of [Murasame] and end up lying on the muck across from each other.
"... Be realistic," Yami growled as he slowly gets up, his pelvis feeling extremely numb from the swift low-blow. "... Do you honestly think that the Matsugane Province can hold out for two decades during when our whole island nation has been at civil war for over the last four centuries?! Do you really think that a new Shogun hasn't been reinstated by then?! Do you think that things will be the same by the time you get back?!"
Akane, rather than taking any offense, simply giggles. "... Oh you have no idea, don't you?"
Yami growls as his killer lets out a broken cackle akin to a mountain crone's, the light of her irises glimmering under the shade of her fringes of her bangs.
"... 'Shogun,' I sort of remember a certain person professing such naïve dream," she pointed out, speaking in continental language used by the Four Kingdoms. "... I'm sure you're a little muddled after spending twenty long year fraternizing with these people that don't consider you their own, but are familiar with the name 'Ryudo Ryuya'?"
Yami's demeanor darkens upon his ears picking up that name. "... How did you know?!"
If Yami could see Akane right now, then he would be bearing witness to the most wicked, malicious, and heartless sneer that looked as if it belonged to a Demon. But Yami needed naught sight to know that Akane was emitting those very same things with the following words:
"... I killed him and your dearest friends after you left."
Yami's heart sank like a stone cast into a sea of pure darkness.
"Oh the look on that traitor's face when I poisoned his drink...!" Akane giggled, trying not to drool at recalling her greatest achievement (save for taking Yami's head). "... I think I went by the alias 'Kikuko' when I infiltrated his rebel cell, hovelled together from a few disparate ninjas, vagabonds, apothecaries, priests, and your younger sister, Ichika. They had everything figured out. Surprisingly organized with several pockets spread throughout other provinces. Too bad that they never saw a six-year old girl being the cause of their downfall coming."
Yami was paralyzed by pure rage as Akane continued boasting.
"And I can still recall how your little sister cry and beg for mercy right unto her very last breath, screaming for your name, 'Suke-nee, tasukete!' after I beheaded the rest of the captured rebel cell like common crooks!" Akane cackled in triumph. "... Remember, my Clan, the Mitsurugi, are Matsugane Clan's chief retainers. Your Yami Clan fell to the wayside after their recent patriarch was forced to retire from the battlefield after a severed tendon. It is only fitting that I have brought divine punishment upon them. For daring to stir the pot when times were already turbulent enough as is!"
Yami bared his teeth, seething in rage. "... Why?"
"Why?" she replied. "It's because disorder in an age of chaos is the greatest evil there is! If everyone is not on the 'same page,' as you Westerners put it, then what other alternatives were there but to enact justice? The Heavens were on my side on that very day, Sukehiro of the Yami Clan. You may see me as a monster, but the people see me as their savior-"
Yami then punches Akane in her head, to which the latter took the blow by parrying it with the very spot that was struck.
"Bitch."
"Cur."
Now they understood each other perfectly. All remaining doubts were cleared.
Only one of them were coming out alive.
"[YAMI YŌJUTSU: ASURA]!" From Yami's back, a set of six muscular and gigantic arms made of pure darkness enveloped Akane.
"[KODOKU YŌJUTSU: YAMATA NO OROCHI]!" In retaliation, Akane then unleashes eight giant serpentine avatars made of pure filth lunged towards Yami as the two then charged at one another, both of them drawing their weapons as their respective Eastern Magic spells clashed.
Arm and serpent exchanged rapid flurries with each other as Yami and Akane clashed one another, [Kurogane] and [Murasame] drawing sparks with each collision spurred by mutual animosity so poignant that it exceeds the level of mere hatred.
It was a genuine, heartfelt desire of each other's deaths, with one out to avenge, and the other to fulfill her duty.
"AFTER I SKIN YOUR ASS, I'M COMING AFTER YOUR BITCH SISTER NEXT!" Yami roared out in pure rage as he smashed his [Kurogane] in with each swing.
"YOU WON'T LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO TRY, TRAITOROUS CUR!" Akane's [Murasame] then begins glowing menacingly. "I WILL ROT YOUR MEAT OFF OF YOUR BONES, SINEW BY SINEW!"
[Asura] and [Yamata no Orochi] mirrored their caster's hostility towards one another, with the former now becoming a fully-fledged avatar of Yami's own wrath and the latter becoming corrosive and toxic as Akane's zeal.
Their fight destroyed what little life is there left on the jungle that was already torn apart by Demons. All that mattered now getting even.
But as their fight continued in their earnest, a deluge of rain, thunder, and hail drew towards the pair.
"NANI-?!"
"THE FUCK-?!"
Both of them were swept up by this disastrous storm of natural wrath gone mad was ushered in by Ziz, who was engaged in an aerial clash with Scheherazade riding atop of her [Bahamut].
"[ROC]!" The Queen of Dama then summons a stone-scaled eagle that flew towards the Demon of [Tyranny].
"BEGONE!" Ziz then blasts a bolt of lightning that fried the bird out of the sky as Scheherazade then follows it up with her summoning a whole swarm of [Ifrit] to unleash a combined blast of fire towards the unearthly condor.
"BURN!" The Queen then orders her creatures from her fable to fire a massive sun-like sphere of conflagration towards the Demon bird, but Ziz easily dodges the slow-moving attack with ease.
"YOU ARE A FOOL TO THINK THAT SUCH A SLUGGISH ATTACK WOULD BE ENOUGH TO BEST ME!" Ziz boasted as he flew up higher, his shadow engulfing Scheherazade's whole being from above. "AND EVEN A BIGGER FOOL TO FIGHT ME IN MY DOMAIN-!"
His tirades were cut off as soon as Yami and Akane landed on his back, along with [Asura] and [Yamata no Orochi], the sudden increase of passenger weight limit causing Ziz to buckle under and have his belly be singed by the massive fireball that he initially tried to dodge, grazing it during his sudden descent.
"WHO DARES-!" Then two absolutely-feral cries of pure hatred interrupted his speech before the fight between Yami and Akane resumed on top of his back. "ARE YOU FUCKING IGNORING ME-?!"
Scheherazade watched the two avatars go at it, completely perplexed by this sudden shift in development, and more so that one of the contributors to this madness is coming from her side.
"... Should I intervene or should I be smart about this?" she thought out loud, to which she then turned towards the [Ifrit] for counsel, but the latter group simply shrugged.
"ENOUGH!" Ziz screeched out as his feathers began generating lightning. "I WILL NOT TOLERATE THIS DISRESPECT ANY LONGER!"
The Queen of Dama then makes her fateful descision. "... Nothing I can do. Time to fall back and regroup."
"[WIND MAGIC: SKY-SUNDERER]!"
The heavens themselves turned into a divine thunderstorm, with lightning and rain pelted down in equal measure.
At Rotten Elysium...
"[SEVERING MAGIC: SLAUGHTER SWEEP]!"
"[FIRE MAGIC: CALIDUS BRACHIUM]!"
Flurry of slashes and flaming fists flew as the Adramelech-copies continued surrounding them from all directions. All of the Demon's spawns were as strong as the original, but each of them went down in a single hit.
The real issue was their rate in which they were deployed after every loss. For every one or dozen that were disposed of, a literal army of the copies took their place.
As far as their eyes could see, all they could see were Adramelech. That is, assuming if they are not inside another constructed reality crafted by the Demon of [Vanity], to which it was also an equal possibility.
Regardless whether their situation was genuine or simulated, it didn't change the fact that the two Captains were on the verge of being absolutely fucked beyond all repair.
"Have to admit...!" Jack wheezed as his back laid against Meroleona's. "... I can think of worse ways to die. ... And worse people to die with."
"... Is this what it means to 'take a compliment'?" she snickered as one of her eyes was losing function. "... Yeah. Right back at you, string bean."
"Worship me! Revere me! FOR I ALONE AM HONORED UNDER HEAVEN!" Adramelech boasted as his copies continued descending without end. "STRUGGLE IN FUTILITY AGAINST MY INFINITY! LET MY SUBLIME BEAUTY RADIATE OFF OF THE REFLECTION OF YOUR FILTHY, MORTAL BLOOD-!"
"AW, SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Both Jack and Meroleona sweep through the horde just as they were quickly replaced.
"Self-absorbed pricks like you do nothing for this world!" Meroleona snarled out.
"Can't fuck, can't build, can't do shit...!" Jack growled out as he planted both of his [Death Scythes] into the ground as his crutch. "... Look at us. We're still kicking ass even after over half of our bodies are broken!"
"It is all useless before me," the Demon rebuffed. "I am the sole truth of this world. What difference does it make even if you survive this? What good will you do as you continue to age, enervate, decay, and die, knowing that the people you fight for will inevitably revert back to pigs who do nothing but eat their fill and piss until they die, replaced by their xerox who will only repeat what they and their forefathers have done?"
"... You have a point there, damn fop." Jack grimaces, knowing that his life wasn't kind enough to tell him otherwise. "BUT STILL!"
Even with their broken bodies, their limbs hanging by a thread, and their bones pressing their fractures against each others', neither refused to yield.
"I RATHER LIVE A LIFE WHERE I'M SURROUNDED BY ASSHOLES WHO ALWAYS KEEP TELLING ME TO FUCKING QUIT!" the Green Mantis Captain declared as his [Death Scythes] clove through the clones. "MY LIFE IS WORTH LIVING STEWING IN THEIR FRUSTRATIONS AND ANGER! I WANT TO KEEP LIVING SO I CAN PISS THEM OFF AND PISS ON THEIR LAWNS JUST TO PISS 'EM OFF EVEN MORE!"
"You don't tell fire to stop burning just because you can reason with it!" Meroleona then grabs one of the clones and smashes her head against it's own, sending it flying into the crowd, parting it like a sea before exploding into a fiery plume, taking out more of its copies right up its respawn points. "I NEVER GAVE MY PARENTS THE TIME OF DAY, SO WHY SHOULD I LISTEN TO YOU?! IN FACT, WHY ARE YOU EVEN BOTHERING TRYING TO REASON WITH US WITH YOUR RHETORIC?! THIS ISN'T A STAGE! THIS IS A BATTLEFIELD! SHOW SOME FUCKING RESPECT TO THOSE WHO YOU ARE TRYING TO KILL!"
"I see no point of showing respect to inferiors," Adramelech scoffed as he continued sending more clones onto the Captains. "... Hell, I can't be the only one who can't bother giving everyone I meet their time of day, now can I?"
The eyes surrounding them then begins summoning even more clones at a faster rate, intending to swarm the pair to death like a drowning pit filling up with bodies rather than actual liquid.
"I tried being patient, thinking that I can somewhat make your deaths somewhat beautiful, but alas," the Demon sighed in disappointment as Jack and Meroleona were being stuff into each other from all sides by the wave of bodies flooding into their reality. "... Get out of my sight."
Meroleona roars defiantly as she and Jack continue fighting back against the endless wave of Adramelech-copies.
"Die, die, die, die, JUST DIE ALREADY-!"
Then a crack was heard, a sound akin to a glass window pane fracturing after a pebble was flicked onto it.
"... The fuck was that?"
One crack. One blemish in Adramelech's perfect reality was more than enough to compromise the facade.
"WHO DARES-?!"
Breaking through the manufactured reality was none other than Morris/Mammon, Sally, Valdes, Rades!Leopold, Angra, and Mainyu, who in turn were being pursed by Gaja, Mosin, Charmy, Vanessa, Mari, Gauche, and En.
"CAPTAIN?!" the [Mushroom Magic] user exclaimed.
"YOU!" Meroleona snared out as she spots her brother's killer and defiler, trying to reach him only for her body to fail at the last minute.
"HEY! SHE LOOKS DEAD ENOUGH!" the necromancer remarked with glee. "IMMA STITCH YOUR TITS AND HIPS ONTO THIS BODY AND MAKE IT EVEN MORE POWERFUL-!"
Then the two groups stopped in their tracks upon seeing what was above their heads.
"... What the Hell is that thing?!" Gaja asked.
"A Demon..." Mosin gasped. "... But my heart... it feels at ease."
"Can't... look away," Gauche remarked as he began to weep at the alien beauty.
"Too many eyes..." Vanessa mumbled as she felt her head get fuzzy.
"Laaa..." Charmy moaned as she felt like her being was being fulfilled without eating anything.
"What kind of monster is he...?" Mari remarked as even her soul, trained like her sister's, was somehow being beguiled by this presence of pure vanity. "... Why... Why am I drawn to this... this thing?!"
"... How sublime." Valdes' eyes begin tearing at the pure awe of this Demon's radiance.
"... I feel... content." Sally then falls to her knees.
Morris/Mammon and Angra (with Mainyu) meanwhile, were in agony at this thing's presence.
"NO! HOW?! HOW CAN SUCH FARCICAL BEING EVER EXIST?!" the Contractor/Demon hybrid steamed.
"MY HEAD IS ON FIRE!" both Angra and Mainyu screamed as they fell to their knees in agony.
"WORSHIP ME! REVERE ME! FOR I AM THE ALMIGHTY!" declared Adramelech as he lorded over the newcomers and their minds who weren't used to his [Law of Vanity]. "SUBMIT! BOW! AS I BRING YOU ALL DIVINE PUNISHMENT-!"
Then the giant white wolf in the proverbial room enters the fractured reality, completely nulling its effects as Geri immediately pounces onto the biggest thing he could sink his fangs into.
"YOU GET IN MY BELLY!" the Dwarven wolf god of hunger declared as he bit into one of the eyes around Adramelech's disk and rings, his endless hunger not even stymied by the Demon of [Vanity]'s distorting presence.
"GET OFF OF ME!" Adramelech screamed as he and the wolf god descended onto where the others were standing at.
Once everyone snapped out of their funk, the two titans crashed onto the earth, beaching the ground itself to reveal a massive put below their feet, causing everyone to fall into it.
"WHAT IS HAPPENING?!" Vanessa cried out.
"EVERYONE! FLY OUT!" Gaja ordered before realizing that the Adramelech clones were also falling in with them, forming a thick buffer layer between them and the surface. "DAMN IT ALL!"
Screams and howls echoed as they all fell into the abyss, taking the rest of the Rotten Elysium down with them.
Meanwhile...
"... Did anyone hear something?" asked Lolopeckha.
"Focus," Djibril ordered as she continued the ritual with her Chosen Child within her magic circle. "... We're almost done-"
Then a segment of the cavern roof collapses to reveal everyone falling from the surface and into the Dragon's resting spot.
"... Lady Archangel," the weakened Undine stated. "We might need to hurry."
"Agreed." The Dryad then readies herself to fight upon spotting the Demon and Famine-Bringer resuming their wrestling through the underground. "... It appears that our enemies not giving us a moment to rest is becoming a pattern."
Everyone else who fell then wakes up shortly after.
"... Where... where the Hell are we?!" Angra asked.
Morris/Mammon begin cackling upon setting eyes on their desired objective.
"I knew it...!" they giggled with elation upon their eyes laying at the Dragon's bones. "I KNEW IT WASN'T A MERE MYTH AND HEARSAY!"
Upon hearing the Contractor-Demon fusion make his declaration, everyone bore witness to the giant bones laid before the giant spire holding up the stone ceiling like a godly pillar.
"THE DRAGON'S FOSSIL! IT IS REAL!"
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: I'm back after like what, one or two months?
Anyway, I have to confess something, in that this working on this fic is like battling depression: I want to relent, but I don't want to stop. In fact, this whole Book 2 is about the whole "Do Not Go Gentle" for everyone, despite the world itself coming apart. Maybe it's a metaphor for my own depression, which in itself might be rooted in my late-2010s-early 2020s edge phase that I have completely shrugged off nowadays.
So in a sense, this fic is a bit of a throwback. With that said, I have no shame for working on this, but then again, the gulf between this and my DxD reboot fic is basically night and day. However, I'm still putting my best foot forward, for the sake of my integrity as a writer.
Anyway, here's a few of my few mental notes regarding this chapter's development:
Adramelech's fatal flaw is his own vanity. [Projection Magic] as a concept is a menace, but Adramelech hampers his potential by focusing his skillset solely around himself. He's basically an evil Kirsch, but at least Kirsch is willing to let others shine with him so that he can shine brighter (a degree of pragmatism that he's willing to tolerate for the greater good at times), but Adramelech is about shallow and fake as his [Eden]. Even Apocrypha form, which while it's based off biblically accurate angels (as mind-shattering abominations), all it does is simply promote himself and nothing beyond it. "Powerful, but Incompetent"-trope is a common trope ever since I introduced Ulster, but Adramelech makes them look professional in comparison.
Mitsurugi Akane (family name first), is a "Corrupted Character Copy" of her inspiration, Akame from Akame Ga Kill!, in that she's basically Akame is she stayed as the Empire's greatest Assassin, and falling into their corrupt culture of sadism and psychopathy disguised "duty" or "Heaven's will." However, the only shred of humanity she has is for her younger sister, and even then, it's slightly implied that she's a bit abusive, the latter of which will be explained later down this arc. It's even accentuated by her subtle animal motif of centipedes, where in the context of various schools of Asian mysticism, they represent curses, and the evil side of achieving immortality.
Everything else, I have planned to explain in the next chapter, while a few more "Interesting Situation Duels" are added (look at Yami VS Akane on top of Ziz's back who is being occupied with Scheherazade and her [Bahamut]), and my only regret is that I did not incorporate enough Ninja Slayer references in this chapter. Maybe I'll add more Asian-adjacent media references in the meantime, particularly with the attack names (my favorite name is [Slaughter Sweep], because it just rolls off the tongue).
Oh well, maybe next time.
Speaking of next time, I will have a new upload schedule implemented on the New Year's of 2025, along with a sequel to my other fic. Pray for me that I commit to it to the bitter end.
And yeah, as for the most recent chapter of Black Clover, I feel like ever since Avengers: Infinity War, these "everyone is here"-finales are now a given, but at least we got some good closure with some character interactions, and my only gripe is that ever since the original author went out of weekly uploads (due to him having to take care of his family, which I do not hold him or his family against for), it's been a little hard to get invested... which can be the same for my fic as well.
Live and learn, I suppose.
References:
- Adramelech strikes a pose from One Piece Boa Hancock.
- Adramelech's [Ali Dance] is named after the same Passive Skill used in various Shin Megami Tensei games.
- Adramelech's Apocrypha Form is based off biblically accurate angels (aka, sanity-shattering beings beyond mortal comprehension), and FU's final form from No More Heroes III. It's [Projection Creation Magic: Annunciation of Vainglory] is based off Doom's [Mirror Thirds: Hundred Avatar Mirage] spell from Mashle.
- Akane's process of her Restriction Seal Release is based off Akame's activation of her [Murasame]'s [Trump Card] technique from Akame Ga Kill, with them being centipedes to represent the evil path of immortality/the "immortality immorality"-trope in some schools of Asian mysticism (such as Kengan Ashura's Worm Organization's symbol being a centipede).
- Akane's method of retrieving her scroll is based off Orochimaru's method of retrieving his sword, [Kusanagi].
- Akane's unleashing of her [Kodoku Yōjutsu] is based off My Hero Academia's Shigaraki unleashing his [Decay] Quirk during the Meta Liberation Army Arc.