Chapter 154: Divine Serum
I rushed alongside Mari-chan to the city's evacuation shelter where the citizens of Tokyo are gathered… well… should be gathered. Instead they are scattered all around the city…and a zombie apocalypse is not to blame apparently, even though it certainly is present, spreading mayhem to city.
"What in the world…?" Mari-chan mutters quietly in disbelief at the situation.
"You there! What's going on!? Why aren't the people in the evacuation shelter!?" I called out to one of the soldier from the Japanese Self Defense Force (which thankfully sided more with the prime minister rather than the emperor, which makes them not part of the imperial forces) who's trying to protect the citizens from the zombies by firing at them, which didn't do much to stop them considering they kept moving no matter how many bullets pierced their flesh.
"Y-You're… the Savior!?" The soldier says whilst panicking.
"Answer me!"
"Y-Yes, ma'am!" He saluted at me before continuing. It seems that even in Tokyo my reputation precedes me. "The emperor's son and a bunch of thugs he hired took the evacuation shelter for themselves and barricaded the entrance! He forced the people, save for a few girls, out of the evacuation shelter!" That piece of shit!
"Why is he using the evacuation shelter meant for the people and not the imperial palace!?"
"I don't know! Honestly I thought he's just a piece of trash! And now our jobs get harder because of him!"
"Very well. We'll help. Just get the people to safety!" I say as both me and Mari-chan rushes towards the zombies.
I decapitate one of the zombies but its headless body still stood and try to choke me.
The thought that these creatures used to be people indeed terrifies me. But that's not what stuns me, surprisingly. I've probably been spoiled by those zombie movies and it made me treat these zombies the way I treat monsters… as threats instead of people. What surprises me most is their resilience! Seriously! This thing is headless and yet it's still choking me so strongly!
"Ugh!" I grunt as my neck is choked with surprising amount of force. It seems that the zombies gain enough strength to compete with awakeners after death even though they used to be normal civilians.
"Mari Blue Love Pure Beam!"
*BOOM*
A blue explosion flash behind the zombie, making it drop on the ground and no longer moving.
"Yes! It seems that the spell I developed is a success!" Mari exclaims as she strikes a winning pose.
"Mari! How did you-!?" My words are interrupted by another zombie attacking. This time I cut its feet off in order to stop it but to my surprise it still moves by crawling at me with its hands, ignoring its injuries.
"I'll explain later! For now, just cut off their limbs and I'll finish them off!" She says as she casts blue spells at the zombies with her new weapon, a wand with heart shaped blue gem at the tip.
So that's the result of her training with the elder monk Aragaki. She's now more and more like a magical girl, not to mention getting stronger... Whereas I…
"Akane-chan! Focus!" Her words snaps me out of my thoughts and I immediately turn to slash the limbs of a zombie who tried to attack me from behind. I mustn't let my thoughts distract me from this fight!
"HAAAA!"
It took us a while to clear the zombies from the city (with help from other fighters obviously). The battle has already started outside though, and the defenders worked as hard as they can to prevent the undead army outside from breaching the walls. Luckily the giant monster army and the three giant robots haven't made their moves yet and thus we need to bring the citizens to safety before they do.
To do that we need to claim the evacuation shelter from the shitty prince and his guards (who are apparently yakuza thugs instead of the imperial forces) so it can function the way it is intended to do.
The fact that he surrounds himself with yakuza thugs instead of the imperial forces, and even has to take shelter outside the imperial palace shows that he has fallen out of his father's favour, perhaps even disowned?
Anyway, as we approach the shelter, we hear the muffled voice of two thugs having a conversation behind the locked door.
"So… you know that guy who runs Akihabara? The guy who dressed like a funny animal thingy and owns that magical girl group?"
"That Kuzaya guy, isn't it? What about him?"
"You know… if you arrange the letters a bit, his name becomes Yakuza!"
"Seriously, bro? I thought his name came from Kazuya!"
"Me too, bro. At least until I recently heard us being called yakuza again and suddenly it just… clicks on my mind."
"I know what you mean."
"Come to think of it, isn't there another character named Kuzaya in this series? You know, that Count Kuzaya guy? He's even canon, unlike that other guy!"
"You're right! This fanfic's author must've forgotten and named one of his OCs the same as-" The two tattooed thugs' conversation is interrupted as the door to the evacuation shelter's entrance is smashed open, revealing two female figures, which is us. The two thugs stood up from the chairs they were sitting on and tries to reach for the guns they hid within their pockets.
"Who the fu-" I punched him in the face before he can finish his swearing. Mari-chan punched the other one and they're both out for the count.
"Alright. Let's go in." I say as me, Mari-chan and a few other fighters from various factions behind us go in, ready to beat some yakuza thugs. We would not kill them, not out of morality, as we have killed people before, especially during the war against the Doomsday Cult, but because there's a possibility that the dead may rise as zombies, which we cannot afford to have right now. We just need to beat them unconscious, which is easy considering not all of the thugs are awakeners. And even If they are, they are still untrained brutes, not real capable fighters like us.
We beat some thugs but as we get deeper and deeper, we start noticing that the number of thugs, which is supposed to have increased the deeper we went, is decreasing instead. In fact, we actually expect some kind of alarm should've sounded right now and we should be surrounded by enemies already, but no. There's not many of them anymore. How sloppy, even for a bunch of thugs. Though thanks to that our advance went smoother than expected.
"Akane-chan. Look!" Mari-chan pointed out at a corps—no… an unconscious thug dropped on the floor.
"Someone else went ahead of us and beaten this thug before we came." One of the awakeners from Akihabara faction comments when he saw the bloody unconscious thug. When I inspect the thug, however, I noticed that the injury he suffered is from a blunt weapon… it's almost like…
"We need to go in quickly." I say as I rush in deeper into the shelter, passing through more unconscious thugs until we reached the deepest room where we hear the screams of a man.
"AAAGHH! PLEASE STOP! I'LL PAY WHATEVER IT TAKES! I'LL LEAVE THAT AKANE WHORE AND ALL OTHER WHORES ALONE! JUST-" *POW* "AAAAAGHHH!"
The voice belongs to that imperial prince Satoshi. Finally we found him. I rush to open the door and there I see Satoshi being bound on a chair and beaten to a bloody pulp and…
"I-It's Stylish-sama!" One of the fighters following us, who happens to belong to the Kamen Rider faction, recognized the second person in the room.
"Mino… Stylish Bandit Slay-!?" There I see a man standing beside the prince, wielding a pair of bloody crowbars and wearing a balaclavas mask concealing his face… like he did… he also wore a standard bodysuit worn by most awakeners.
"No. You're not him." I frown as I know it in my heart that he can't be him. I know because… I know he's dead. I glare at the impostor hatefully, probably emitting some killing intent while I'm at it.
"Y-You're…?" He says nervously.
"Mask… take them off now!" I say as I point my sword at him, which intimidates him more.
"…" He silently relents and removes his mask. The face which is revealed to me is familiar… one of the faces I hated as much than prince Satoshi's.
"You… What are you doing here? And why are you…?" I ask the man, whom I recognize as the thug who once kidnapped me alongside Astaroth, the one who nearly raped me if Minoru-kun didn't rescue me back then.
"S-Savior-sama. I…" He didn't dare call me by name and shows remorse and shame for his past action. But I still don't trust him. How could I? After being subjected to such horrors that reawakens my past trauma?
"Speak!"
"A-Alright, Savior-sama. After the… incident… I was sent to prison alongside my partner, as you know. While I was in prison, we got arranged for some early release due to our yakuza connections. There I began noticing a change in my partner. He began obsessing about this serial killer called the Occult Killer. He's convinced that… the Occult Killer had killed your rescuer, the real Stylish Bandit Slayer, because news about Stylish Bandit Slayer, or his other name, the Balaclavas Berserker, vanished from the media at around the same time that news about the Occult Killer started to rise. The biker gangs who used to be his main victims also reported that they are no longer attacked by him. It changed my partner. Being a former soldier of the Self Defense Force, he was scary already but the bloodlust in his eyes made him much scarier. It scares me… so much that when he offered me to join his gang of serial killers… which turned into a cult… I refused. I don't wanna be a monster like him. And I… To atone for my sins, I took up Stylish's identity and started to fight crimes in his place."
"And yet we never saw you fighting the Doomsday Cult." I say accusingly, to which he nods.
"Yes… I was still too cowardly. I can only beat up small time thugs like these… Not real monsters like my old partner and his cult. And then there's the Occult Killer himself, the one who commands those zombies… I… I…" He began hyperventilating. I decided to let him off the hook, for now, and pull back my killing intent.
"Well… At least you've done more something I suppose." I say as I sheathe my sword and turn my back on him.
"Savior-sama. I… I'm sorry for…"
"I know. And I… cannot forgive you yet. Please understand." That reawakening my old trauma is not something that's easily forgiven.
"I don't expect to… Just know that I'll do what I can to aid you. Just like now." He says as he points his crowbar at the prince, who whines at the approaching tool turned weapon.
"Hiiii! Akane! Please! Save me from this monster!" The prince had the gall to beg me for help after everything he has done to me. I respond by unsheathing my blade and bring it down to his crotch.
"HIIIIIEEEEE!" He squeals like a pig even though my blade is just barely inches to cutting his manhood, cutting a part of the chair he is sitting on instead, leading him to piss in his pants. Ugh, disgusting. That's why I don't want to actually cut him. I don't wanna stain my blade in his piss. After screeching and soiling his pants, he passed out.
"Take this garbage out of the shelter and let the people in." I commanded and the fighters following us obeyed as me and Mari-chan head out towards the entrance alongside the fake Stylish Bandit Slayer to join the battle outside.
Foolish youngsters! Foolish! Foolish Foolish! They can't see that I AM the future of mankind! I alone can lead us all to a new world! ME! The Divine Emperor of Japan! If they don't want to become a part of this new world, then so be it! They shall die and rot like the pieces of shit that they are!
I slash through another zombie with my katana but no matter how much I cut them off, they cannot die, not even when I decapitate them or bisect them. How infuriating!
If only I could be that immortal.
"Burn the bodies! Burn them all!" I commanded my soldiers and they brought flamethrowers to dispose of the bodies that have been sliced to pieces. Even if it risks burning the whole imperial palace down. It's fine. The palace can be rebuilt. I, however, must survive no matter what it takes!
"Keep them at bay and don't let them breach deeper!" I ordered my soldiers to keep the zombies at bay while also not allowing them to head deeper to reduce the risks of them turning into zombies and jeopardizing my efforts. My research is far too important to be destroyed here! I may have backup labs in other locations but they have all been compromised because the Occult Killer already knows where they are! The one underneath the imperial palace is the only one I've got!
I must survive. And to do that, I must head down to the secret lab located underneath the palace! Although the Divine Serum is still in experimental level, it seems that I must use it now or I'll die before claiming my rightful place as the emperor of the world!
Damn you, Occult Killer! I'll repay this insolence a hundred times more! And then you will fade into the ashes of history and be forgotten whereas I shall reign supreme forever!
I enter the secret lab and immediately take the syringe containing the experimental serum. But just as I was about to inject myself with it, I hear a demonic chuckle behind me.
"Who's there!?" I unsheathe my blade and point it towards the source of the voice, which is a tall man clad in dark cloak wearing a skull mask, like one of those Doomsday Cultists… with his shining red eyes to distinguish him from the rest. I know who he is. I've seen him in the Kyoto video footage.
"Impressive setup. All those people locked in those tubes certainly gave this lab a more evil scientist lab vibe." He comments nonchalantly as he gazed upon the people... the lab rats locked within the tubes around the lab for experimentation.
"Occult Killer." I glare at him hatefully. How did he get here? And how could he sneak behind me without me noticing!? How did he evade my heightened senses?
"Heh heh heh. So that's your plan, Emperor Akuto? To inject yourself with such crude injection made out of monster cells?"
"Shut up! I will not have you insult my research, you damned psychopath! With this, I shall become immortal! And you will be ground to dust!"
"Ha! I never thought I'd find someone so similar to the Rounds here on Earth. You'd fit greatly with the Cult."
"I will not become a part of your stupid cult! Behold! My divine transformation!" I say as I inject the serum into my veins. The fool didn't even stop me. That would be his undoing!
The effect was instantaneous. My muscle bulges, ripping through my imperial uniform, and my power increases exponentially!
"Ha ha ha ha! My power! It's overflowing!" I bask in my newfound power. But as I gaze upon the fool, he merely clapped his hands nonchalantly.
"Congratulations. You've managed to create a cruder version of the Red Pills commonly used by the Cult. Perhaps you're in the right track to create your version of the Tears of Diablos after all." He says sarcastically as if unimpressed by my transforma—no… my divine ascension. How dare he…!
"We'll see who laughs last, Occult Killer! HAAAA!" I form a blade out of my bones on my right wrist and use it to strike him, which he blocked with easily with his fingers.
"WHAT!?" I exclaim. It's unbelievable that he could stop my strike with just his fingers.
"Oh come on. Surely this is not all that you can do if you want to become a god."
"Don't you mock MEEEE!" I form another blade from my left wrist and strike him with it, but he blocks it again with his fingers from his other hand.
I form a horn from my forehead and try to stab him with it through a headbutt but he kicks me out of the way before I could do that. Just a kick from his slender foot and he managed to knock me to the wall… even though my muscle mass and power has increased exponentially…
"How… How did you…?"
"By being better than you, obviously."
"GRRR….! FUCK YOOUUUUUUU!" I rage and rage and rage… and it caused my muscles to bulge even more… painfully so. But the pain only increases my anger... and power.
"GRRRRAAAAAHHHH!" I rush to slice him again with my blade but once again he blocks it with his fingers. What the hell!?
"With that sloppy control you've proven yourself unworthy to even become a First Child… let alone a Second Child. And here I thought you have the makings of a Rounds member." He nonchalantly comments, as calm as ever in the face of overwhelming power.
"What nonsense are you… spouting!?"
"I'm comparing you to other villains I've encountered in another world. And to be honest, you disappoint me more and more despite following their footsteps nicely enough at first." What… another… world…? Another… No! Curse you! CURSE YOUUU!
"GRAAAAAHHHH!" I roar and charge at him again but he knocks me away with a finger, once again sending me to the wall.
"GUUAAAAHHHHH!" I roar again and try to charge at him but… as my muscles bulge even more, I stumbled to the floor and noticed my feet are… rotting!?
"A… AAAAAAGHHHH!" I screamed at the immense pain that not even my anger could subdue.
"Oh look. You've caught the Magic Overload, or as the people from the other world likes to call it, Demonic Possession." He comments nonchalantly as the rot spreads from my feet to the rest of my body… painfully so.
"AAAGHHH! NOOO! I MUST NOT DIE HEREEE! AAAGHHHH!"
"I'd comment on how this is karma for experimenting on those poor people in the tubes but I'm not a hero. I'm a villain through and through. And all I will say is that this is an amusing sight to behold indeed. Ha ha ha ha!" he laughs… he laughs while I, the emperor of mankind… is suffering!
No… I don't want this! I don't want to suffer! I don't want to die! I want to be the emperor!
"Don't worry. In that condition, you won't die. Not even when you wished for it. The rampaging magic inside you will keep you sustained even if you didn't consume any sustenance as it keeps you in perpetual pain. While you're at it, let's have you watch my handiwork firsthand, shall we?"
"Where… you… taking…. me….?" I try to speak as the cancerous rot and my own bulging muscles make it difficult for me to speak.
"Tokyo Tower. From there we should be able to watch the massacre unfolds. Heh heh heh." He chuckles as he drags my deformed body, which now resembles a giant meatball, out of the lab with only one hand.
Akane-chan and I managed to rescue the girls kidnapped by the imperial prince and get the people into the shelter. Hopefully this will protect them from the battle currently raging outside the walls.
*BOOM*
Just in time for the monsters to breach the walls I guess. The three robots, which are colored red, green and blue, also finally make their move. And I have an idea on who's piloting them based on their colors.
It seems that the rangers finally finished creating their Zords.
We watch nervously as the giant robots approach the city, expecting it to start massacring our army. But we didn't expect them to turn on the monsters instead.
"Huh?" Even Akane is surprised as she didn't expect those cowardly rangers to actually turn against their masters like that.
It nonetheless raised our army's morale, causing them to start cheering for the rangers. Heh. It seems that they finally became the heroes they're supposed to be.
"Brace yourselves! Incoming!" An adult awakener and a commander of the Japanese Self Defense Force shouts, prompting us to be ready for the rush of monsters and zombies.
With the help of the robo—Zords, we managed to keep the monster and zombie army at bay, not allowing them into the city and keeping them at the breach. The assistance of the occultist faction and their magic is quite crucial to this endeavour, be it their magic spells, barriers or their shikigami familiars providing additional manpower.
The other warriors also contributed by slicing the zombies to pieces, allowing the occultists to finish them off with magic, which is more effective against the zombies. They also fought the giant monsters alongside the shikigamis on the front lines.
But how long can we keep up? No matter how strong our defences are, we cannot keep it up for long… and there's still plenty of more monsters and zombies waiting for their turn outside the walls! If only there'd be more of them turning against their own…
*BOOM*
Just as I thought about that, I saw a bright purple explosion outside the city, devastating a portion of the monster army. The explosion shakes the ground that the entire city felt its impact.
"What the hell was that!?" One of the soldiers exclaims. We also felt an enormous amount of magic… bigger than anything we've ever felt save for the Occult Killer. In fact, the amount of magic we felt outside almost match if not greater than the Occult Killer's!
"Look! Outside the city! That thing… it's responsible for that purple explosion!" One of the men who manned the wall shouts while pointing outside the wall.
*BOOM*
Another purple explosion shakes the ground and devastates the monster army outside before any of us could ask what the hell those soldiers saw outside the wall.
"What do you see!?" I shout at the men in the walls but they're shaking, unable to form words from how in disbelief they are.
*BOOM*
Another purple explosion. Despite how much it shakes the ground, I climb the stairs on the wall in order to get a better look at what kind of creature wields such power, hoping that it is on our side rather than just a random rampaging monster who would turn against us when it is done with our enemies. If that creature is on our side… we could have hope against the Occult Killer, who wields power equivalent to a nuke!
Akane-chan and the fake Stylish-san follow me closely behind, no doubt curious as to who or what could've made those explosions.
*BOOM*
Another explosion occurs before we reach the top, almost knocking me off the stairs, though I was saved by the fake Stylish-san who caught my hand before I fall off the stairs.
"Are you okay, Mari Blue?"
"I'm okay. Thanks, fake Stylish-san." I thank him with a bright smile, which caused him to blush.
"… You're welcome."
"What's your name, by the way? I can't keep calling you fake Stylish-san forever after all."
"No. I've abandoned my old name along with my past. You can call me whatever you like."
"O-Okay then…" I decide not to press the topic any further as it is clear that he regretted his past action so much after witnessing how his former comrade turned into serial killers, something I symphatize with.
*BOOM*
Another explosion. Just how much magic power does that creature possess?
"What manner of creature do you think possess that power, Akane-chan?" I ask Akane-chan, who appears stunned at the sight of the purplish blue flash coming from outside the walls.
"I don't know… but… I have a feeling that… he's here…" Akane remarks with a slight smile.
"You mean… Your Mino-san?"
"Minoru-kun. Kageno Minoru-kun. The real Stylish Bandit Slayer." So that's the name of the guy who saved her when she was kidnapped. The fake Stylish-san also widens his eyes at the mention of the real name of the person he's currently impersonating.
"He's… here? How did you know?" Fake Stylish-san asks as he cannot believe it. He knows as much as we do that the real Stylish Bandit Slayer, Kageno Minoru, is dead, though he seem to believe that the Stylish Bandit Slayer was killed by the Occult Killer, which is why the real Stylish Bandit Slayer vanished right around the same time that the Occult Killer started his murdering spree.
"I… It's difficult to say… It's just… my intuition. It also allowed me to recognize the Occult Killer when we met in Messiah." Intuition, huh. I understand that completely.
*BOOM*
Another explosion snaps us out of our conversation.
"We've talked long enough! Lets go!" I say as all three of us continue climbing the stairs and finally reach the top where we can finally see the battlefield outside the walls.
We see several craters formed by the purple explosions… and we see it… the black creature wrapped in purple magic responsible for all those explosions.
"T-That's…!"
Author's Note:
Is it him!? Has the Stylish Bandit Slayer finally returned to his old world? Find out in the next episode of The Cliffhanger in Shadow!
By the way, about Kuzaya, Mari-chan's manager, I totally forgot about where I got his name until I read the latest chapter of The Eminence in Shadow manga where I realized I took the name from a canon character. It's too late to change his name so I decided to make a 4th wall breaking joke out of it.
Also, it's finally the right time to say Happy 1 Year Anniversary to The Necromancer in Shadow! It's been a long journey indeed! The previous auxiliary chapter was supposed to be the chapter to celebrate the anniversary but it is too short and I couldn't wait to release it so now I've written a long chapter for the anniversary instead.
Hope to continue entertaining you for years to come!
Receive The Wind Humbly: I'm still reading author! Don't get discouraged.
Answer: Thank goodness!
DerTrap: Oh so Nu has a crush on Claude, I wonder what Claude/Necromancer would do if he found out. Would be a shame if he would abuse her feelings. Actually if he gains the ability to corrupt souls after absorbing Thanatos, she would be a perfect victim for this ability, as he could use it to corrupt her to instead join Claude/Necromancer's cause, it would make her a perfect spy for him within Shadow Garden.
Also members of Shadow Garden suspect that something could be up with Claude, oh if only they knew. I wonder what they will do when the king finally returns from his little business journey. Oh I am so excited for the Necromancer Games already!
Oh also congratulation's for the first anniversary of this fanfiction, even if it is in advance. I wonder what the next chapter will be like, will it be some kind of special anniversary chapter?
Answer: Here is the anniversary chapter! Couldn't think of any omake chapter so have a long chapter with cliffhanger instead!
omega9028: I know that canonically there are 9 worlds, but wouldn't it be better if Claude could go to multiple realities or in this case another series/manga/anime to spread his evil and take the resources and elements of those other worlds to have MORE POWER
your own multiverse of madness
Answer: Of course I already thought of that. You will see.