Well... this took some time to write.
Hello all! Thank you for being extremely patient with me on thi9s chapter!
I'll be honest, while it had mostly been parts of exhaustion from working 7 day work weeks (Seriously, I did 56 hours last week, the hell?!) and the ever-changing temperatures that cause my severe asthma to act up have not been the same been fun. It was also to do with the lack of motivation caused by the season.
That aside, I once again thank you all for the patience while writing this and I do hope you enjoy it! The next chapter is going to be spicy so just as for warning if you want to skip over it, you can, but there will be some plot mixed in (I will mark the smut if you want to skip it :) )
But in other news... HOLY SHIT WE MADE IT TO CHAPTER 50! thank you all for making it here with me and hope you continue to support and enjoy the story. I have no idea where I'll end it, but it won't be for a while I can assure you of that.
No reviews answered this time, but I'll get them in the next chapter so enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to My Hero Academia and Final Fantasy XIV, they belong to their copyright holders.
Chapter 50
Pride of a Father
"W-what is that thing?" the pro hero Native asked as he stood aghast and full of fright, along with the three hero students standing with him as whatever spoke from within the plume of smoke slowly moved from the crater it had made when it first appeared and can now see what the monster looked like.
Standing before them was a massive and hellish looking creature, approximately fifteen to eighteen feet tall had it fully extended its body covered in what could be described as chitinous plates that ranged in various shades of red, lithe in its build but possibly to hide its true strength, with two massive spikes jutting out from it's hunched back, and drool dripping out of its jagged maw of a mouth that when it landed on the street below it, the asphalt sizzled loudly.
If anything with a point to its body, be its claws, talons, the end of its tail, the two back spikes, or its front-pointed horns, looked to be molten hot in color, let alone the fact that everyone could feel the heat coming from the beast.
Its fiery eyes kept its sight on Izuku, who merely clenched his sword and shield tightly in his hand as Tenya had said something that made all of those around him look upon his, "I-Is that a brain in between its horns?"
Gazing upon the apparent sight of a brain in between the two massive horns, both Todoroki and Izuku knew precisely what was standing in front of them. Or at least what it was.
"A Nomu… but nothing like the one at the USJ." Shouto said while squinting his eyes, moving into a stance to freeze the creature should it move, followed by Izuku and Tenya as Native looked on in horror at the three.
"The hell do you three think you are doing?! We need to get out of here!" spoke the aboriginal-themed pro hero, as he held the still unconscious Stain beside him.
"I think not." A voice called out that echoed around them, even with the burning and sizzling of the environment, as a dark portal suddenly opened up beside the towering beast, which further caused the three students to prepare themselves for the worst.
However, who they were expecting wasn't the one to meet them.
From out of the portal, a black-robed individual stepped out of the darkness, their arms covered in various ornate braces with clawed gauntlets covering their hands, with the hood covering most of the stranger's head aside from the smug-looking smirk across their lips with a tiny fang peeking out. The red mask they wore seemed to be delicately decorated with a bright red hue that nearly matched the shade of the creature beside them, "Well, it's finally time for the two of us to meet. I had hoped to do so earlier, but the furball's wards are nigh impenetrable."
"Sir, I w-would recommend stepping away from the creature for your own safety!" Native called out, clearly lost and having no idea what to do, but still trying to act like the pro hero he is. The robed man slowly turned his gaze towards Native, the smirk disappearing for a moment and replaced by a distasteful-looking sneer.
"Ugh, to think that an insect-like you would address me, as well as having these two other pests here, will ruin things." was all he said before with a gesture of movement from his hand caused a large dark portal to appear underneath both Native the still unconscious Stain, as well as Todoroki and Iida instantly falling through each of their own portals. Native had reappeared above one of the few remaining cars half a block away, landing on the roof of the said car with a sickening crunch of bone and metal. When Tenya and Shoto had phased through their own and were falling to the hard cement. However, the son of the rank two hero was quick enough to create an icy slope that while the metal-encased class president would tumble down for a bit, he was relatively unharmed.
Izuku watched as Shoto helped Tenya up from the ground before quickly saying a few words that caused the speedster to rush over to the car Native and Stain had landed on, while Shoto made a mad dash with his ice back towards him. However, a wall of fire soon barred the dual-quirked young man's path as Izuku could see the beginning of the hexagonal barrier he had seen once more.
Turning his attention back to the now smirking robed man, he put his shield up and gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, "That was you!" Izuku called out with an angered look on him, "That was you who sabotaged the sports festival, causing that giant creature to fall from the sky!"
The robed being cackled loudly, clapping his hands mockingly, "And the 'obvious' award goes to the pathetic Warrior of Light before me!" The smirking man licked his lips, revealing a pair of pointed canine teeth to the student, "Admittedly, I was hoping for the Rotten Goobbue to kill that explosion-happy upstart so I could probably assess how far along in your 'reawakening' you are." spoke the man under the mask with Izuku's angered look getting more serious, which was merely shrugged off as he continued, "But sadly, that experiment was tainted, so I had to look for an alternative."
The robed being raised his hands up towards the alien-looking Nomu beside him, "Enter the Nomu, a wonderful quirk-infused corpse filled with the various powers given to these pathetic humans nearly two hundred years ago by that pain in the ass furball, Noggle Mog the XIV."
"Tell me, boy." The robed figure lowered his hands down, moving them behind his back, "Did the furball tell you how 'special' aether is to someone?" When he was met with silence, the Ascian smiled and chuckled, "Aether is what makes up a person's soul… including their personalities and their memories… it flows through the spiritual and physical aspects of each of us."
"This Nomu… or shall I say 'Primal' Nomu now, feeds off of that same aether from the various quirks within the body of this beast, not needing the use of aether crystals to sustain itself."
The being slowly began to rise above the ground, floating up as Izuku watched them ascend up, still talking aloud, "This Nomu's original form was quite interesting, to say the least, holding a quirk that befitted the lord of the inferno himself. Do you wish to know what that quirk was?"
The Ascian smiled widely as Izuku gritted his teeth, but soon the facial expression of the teenage warrior of light shifted from anger to one of pure horror as what the robed person said next nearly shattered his entire being.
"It was fire-breathing."
The beast suddenly roared, the various windows that had not yet been shattered did so as Izuku took a defensive stance from the roar as the floating person above him cackled loudly, "That expression! So beautiful and priceless! A reunion with one's long-dead father, who is now a monster ready to bring a quick end to his own son!"
"What the hell do you want?!" Izuku shouted, staring up at the man who was still chuckling, albeit slightly now, as he crossed his arms over his chest.
"What I want is what was taken from me so long ago… and use it to bring fear and despair to this new world." The robed figure rose even further up, now at the height where he was at the top of some buildings, "I will have what should be rightfully mine, boy, for I am Nabriales, the last Ascian." The now identified man turned his head to the primal Nomu, who turned its head up once called by name.
"Ifrit, I think it's time to see just how strong this 'warrior' has become… Kill him."
Tenya slammed his fists against the barrier, feverishly more so now as he heard the beast roar loudly and watched in abject horror as Izuku was now doing his best to dodge and slam the monstrous strikes away, "Midoriya!"
"Don't distract him!" Shoto shouted to him, watching both his fire and ice bounce off of the barrier with a tsk coming from his mouth, before looking towards his class president, "That is the last thing he needs while we try and figure out how to get this barrier down!"
"But Todoroki-" "I know!" Shoto interrupted with a shout to interrupt his class president, which was somewhat uncharacteristic for the usually calm and stoic boy, and after taking a deep breath to calm himself, he spoke once again, "I know that we cannot sit back and do nothing, but this barrier is like the one back at the Sports Festival… if All Might nor Endeavor could break through, what chance do we have?"
Both the young adults turned to watch as Izuku had dodged some rather nasty looking spikes that landed all around him, each one attempting to skewer him, only the currently paladin-clad boy to strike back at the giant Primal, only to have his blade ricochet off and allow the beast to send Izuku flying back with a backhanded attack.
The two UA student's attention was caught when they heard a bellowing voice call out to them; it was the number two rated hero Endeavor, followed by a small group of sidekicks and small-time heroes and a… very short old man, "SHOOOOTOOOOO!"
As the small group quickly made their way towards the pair, the two older and professional heroes could see an unconscious and heavily bleeding Native on the ground with … a bound up and bleeding Stain. Endeavor looked to his son, though while wearing the always present 'scowl' he was known for, one could actually see the worry within his gaze as he addressed the dual-quirked student, "Shoto, are you alright? We followed the coordinates you mentioned, and when we got here, it's literally a hellscape!"
"Endeavor," Shoto stood up to his father, not in a way that was rude or condescending to the number two, but more of a professional sort of stance, "I encountered both my classmates engaged with the hero killer, Stain and I intercepted, where Midorya, aka Azem, as able to knock him out with a hard blow to his rib cage." As everyone looked towards the still-out cold hero killer on the ground, a few of the sidekicks further restraining him but also checking him over for injuries, Shoto continued.
"As we were about to regroup with the search party, a massive Nomu-like creature called a 'Primal Nomu' landed on the street, causing an explosive discharge that leveled most of the environment. Azem was able to block it from us with one of his quirk's kits, and from a shadowy portal, that man came out." Shoto spoke while turning and pointed towards the floating Ascian. His back turned and watching the fight, ignoring the hero group.
"His name is Nabriales, an Ascian… No idea what that means, but he claimed to be the last of them; he teleported Iida, Native, Stain, and myself far from Azem and the creature. When I attempted to rejoin Azem to provide assistance, a wall of fire appeared with a barrier similar to the one at the sports festival barred my path."
Endeavor looked up to see the barrier glimmering at times before turning back to see the fight and the student struggling to block and dodge the attacks. From his side, a rather rough huff came from the retired Pro Hero that had helped him deal with the two previous 'lesser' Nomu's.
"Is there no way to get in there?" asked Gran Torino, who was still listening to the surroundings, but his gaze was focused on his intern, clearly fighting for his life.
"Not even I or All Might could break through the barrier before, and while we have stronger quirks with us than we did at the festival, even All Might could not put a dent in it." Endeavor said with a furious scowl on his face, his attention turning from the fight to the older man beside him, "It is easy to assume that either the creature is the cause of the barrier or is tied to it, let alone if it's this Nabriales character that's causing it with his own quirk. But now we have other problems."
"Huh, like wha-" Gran Torino suddenly spoke up but was cut off when the sound of a helicopter interrupted him; looking up with everyone else, he grunted when he realized whose helicopter it was, "Ugh, damned press!"
"Given that beam of light earlier and the explosion caused by that creature, it makes sense the vultures would be circling." Endeavor spoke before looking down to assess the situation, before looking to those gathered around him, "We cannot get past the barrier, but it seems we have no choice but to ready ourselves when it goes down. I have that Mid-Azem can accomplish this as he did back at the festival." His fiery gaze turned towards the two UA students, "Shoto, are you and your classmate still able to fight?"
"I am still able too, however-" "Endeavor, sir!" Tenya suddenly spoke up, interrupting Shoto, who merely raised an inquisitive eyebrow at his class president, "I am injured, but I cannot leave my classmate to die out there! I am still able to run, but I cannot fight! Please! Allow me to assist you in any way possible!"
The fierce look in his eyes was not ignored by the flame-spewing pro hero, who merely stared back at the blue-haired student with his own stony gaze, silent words being exchanged between the two before Endeavor finally spoke up, "What is your hero name, boy?"
"Ingenium, sir, given to me by my brother and reminded of what the mantle entails by Azem." Tenya spoke up proudly, causing Endeavor to nod his head.
"Fine, Ingenium, your task when the barrier goes down is to recover Azem and evacuate the battlefield, understood?"
Seeing the nod and hearing the 'Yes, sir!' from the blue-haired boy, Endeavor looked towards Shoto and Gran Torino, "Gran Torino, sir, would you be able to strike from above should we get you to a higher elevation?"
"Ha! I see what you're thinking youngin, count me in… I really want to kick that bastard's teeth in." Gran Torino smiled with a dark look to his smirk that Endeavor ignored for now when he focused on his son.
"Shoto, assist with aiding Gran Torino up onto the rooftops, then return here and aid me in providing cover with our combined fire attacks while your classmate evacuates Azem."
All he got was a silent nod by the dual-colored haired boy before he and Gran Torino took off into an alley close by to get the old-timer up on the rooftops. Endeavor looked back towards his sidekick's, "Burnin'! Take charge of the evacuation of Native and Stain, then head back towards the rendezvous point!"
After getting the flame-haired woman's salute, the second-ranked pro hero looked back towards the battlefield, watching the fight continue and gritting his teeth, preparing himself to instantly set in motion his plan when that insufferable barrier would come down.
As he and the others were preparing themselves, the sounds of the rotating blades of the helicopter echoed out into the night as the reporter within described the scene while the cameras rolled and recorded and displayed the fight between the boy and the monster.
All of Japan watched the skirmish, and from the hero agencies across the city where members of Class 1-A watched on in abject horror as Izuku was fighting for his life. Many of them growling and angered by what was happening and demanding aloud for something to be done or lamenting that they couldn't join him and help out. While certain members of the class were reacting to the situation differently.
Mina held onto Kinoko tightly, watching from the break room of Jivin' Beats agency, her eyes clenched tightly as tears stream down her cheeks while the mushroom-loving girl also was crying, though it was hard to tell if hers were open or not as the pro hero was standing behind them on the couch, her warm hands on each other their shoulders hoping to comfort her interns while also gritting her teeth at the lack of support the boy was getting, even if the barrier was preventing anyone from getting in.
Across town at the Uwabami Agency, Momo was silently praying with all her might that Izuku would survive this horror, as the Class 1-B president, Itsuka Kendo, had her hands on her shoulders to try and comfort her, all the while taking glimpses of the television screen, almost not believing what she was seeing.
Out on the ocean, within the small breakroom of the Oki Mariner, Tsuyu was sitting alone as the rest of the crew had long since gone to bed after taking down a serious drug smuggling convoy, and the frog girl had her hands clasped over mouth while tears streamed from her eyes. She didn't blink, afraid that missing a single moment would make her lose the boy she loved in an instant. So she kept staring, watching the screen with her heart beating hard against her chest and the hollow feeling in her gut that she would never see her mate ever again.
Kyoka was snarling at the screen, her jacks poised to strike as she was sitting in the teacher's lounge with Midnight beside her, currently out of her hero suit and in more casual clothing and gently rubbing the punk rocker's back trying to get the girl to calm down, even just a little. All the while, Aizawa was leaning back against the wall, his eyes squinting at the screen while he was doing his best to calm down Emi on the other line, who was freaking out so much from what was happening out in Hosu.
And within the 1-A dorms, holding and cradling a crying Eri, Inko was gently humming a song to try and calm down her granddaughter, who was babbling out for the "bright lady" to protect her papa, all the while clutching the small crystal in her hands as if it could possibly help the person she was calling out to hear her.
Izuku cried out in pain as he was tossed far into a lone street lamp post, caused when the Primal Nomu Ifrit had sent the student flying into one of the many boney pillars it had summoned and launched at him, where it exploded upon breaking the thing and hurtling him far from the creature.
He gasped for breath as he landed hard on the ground, his metal armor seemingly doing more harm than good as he coughed, trying to slowly get back up while the Ascain above him was cackling loudly.
"Is this all the successor to Quinn has to offer? PATHETIC!" howled the robed figure in a sarcastic tone of voice. While he continued to laugh maniacally, Ifrit had jumped and landed close to the fallen student's body, its large and sharp claws suddenly gripping the upper body of the boy, lifting him up and then slamming him not once or twice, but three times into the nearly molten asphalt before tossing the student once again into an almost burn out car, denting the side of the thing and causing Izuku to spit out blood, landing on the ground with his back now resting against the dent he had caused and his head hung down, blood dripping down his chest.
Nabriales sighed as he floated towards and beside the Nomu Primal, causing it to stop in its advance, "Utterly useless… to think that such a gift and blessing was wasted on such a one as you, and to take from me what I desired and dreamed of… not only once, but twice!" snarled out the Ascian, "You are no Warrior of Light! You are even less of a bearer of the seat of Azem!"
However, the words being spoken to the battered and bruised hero in training were lost as within his mind, Izuku could hear someone calling out to him.
"Midoriya, you must get up."
Slowly raising his head up, and with a blurry look in his eyes, Izuku spoke softly to answer back, "F.. Fray?"
"Get up, boy! I know you have some fight left in you." The disembodied voice of the darkness spoke out to him.
"But I… I can't harm it… any one of my strikes or spells just bounce off of it."
"The pillars, Midoriya!" Fray spoke with haste in his voice, "They are a part of that creature's body; they protect it, take them out and then strike down your foe!"
"But they… explode… when destroyed," Izuku said as he coughed loudly, more blood sputtering down his chest.
"Then destroy them from afar! YOU HAVE THE MEANS TO DO SO! Or do you not remember the dance you shared with your pink lover?"
"M-mina?" Izuku said aloud this time, causing Nabriales to tilt his head in confusion as to what the fallen student had muttered out as he couldn't quite hear him.
"Yes, Mina! Do you think she will be safe if you fall here? Do you think ANY of them will be safe?"
Izuku groaned as the burning pain in his back rippled through his body as he slowly began to pull himself up, the burnt and charred armor of his paladin kit disappearing and putting him back into his now torn and tattered hero suit with Fray continuing on.
"The Ascian will hunt down those you love, he will torture them, kill them… perhaps turn them into whatever that creature that imitates the lord of the inferno that I know and fought. "
"No…" Izuku breathed out, lifting his head slowly to show the fierce determination in his eyes despite the trail of blood flowing from atop his head.
"It is time, Midoriya." Fray said cryptically, "It is time for you to stop holding back. Your foe stands before you. It is no longer the father you remembered, merely using his corpse as a puppet and feeding upon his aether, his SOUL, Midoriya."
Izuku grit his teeth, standing up slowly while using the shell of the car as a way to help himself stand as Nabriales was now sneering at the struggling hero, "You are finished, boy! I will kill you and take what is mine after all these centuries!"
"Shut up!" Izuku called out, standing now on his own two feet with his fists raised up as the sparks of golden light started to flash intermittently, the Ascian gasping in shock at what he was witnessing, "I don't care about what you lost! I am going to put a stop to this! Your plans, your monster, EVERYTHING!"
A flash of light surrounded the boy, causing the Ascian and Primal to shield their eyes and weird the wheezing of blades past them before small explosions went off to their sides, causing the robed figure to whirl around in the air and snarl as Ifrit shrieked in pain.
The chakrams whizzed out once again to strike at another couple of pillars, slicing them in two and exploding before the weapons returned to their wielder. Nabriales whirled around to see the furious-looking dancer staring up at him, sending his two razor-sharp chakrams towards the Ascian, who barely dodged the whirling blades of death and turned back to Ifrit, "KILL HIM, YOU STUPID PRIMAL!"
Said primal roared once again and launched itself towards Izuku, who nimbly dodged and slipped past the creature who collided with the car it had tossed the boy into prior and shrieked loudly as Izuku shifted into his Gunbreaker kit, sliding along the ground while flicking the "barrel" of his sword to reveal the cartridges and slamming his hand down to charge them with his aether.
Ifrit at this point had shredded the remains of the car and stumbled towards Izuku, who had at this point launched himself back towards the beast and swung his gunblade down, slicing towards the Nomu and taking off one of its horns to be followed up by an explosion that sent Ifrit to the side, howling in pain with what looked to be molten lava pouring out of the wound.
This, however, did not stop Izuku's assault as he shifted into his dragoon form, kicking off in the air with the blazing blue mist of serpentine scales and flew once again into the Primal, slicing its side and repeating the process over and over again as the creature was overwhelmed by the quickness and speed of the assault.
Nabriales could only watch on in startled horror as Izuku slid across the ground, his body sparking once again with brilliant golden light as Izuku readied his spear and the serpentine swirls of mist around him began to glow and grow out, "Dad!" the dragoon called out, his left eye blazing red and humming in power as Ifrit weakly began to lift its head by the call out.
"If any part of you still exists in there, know that I never forgot about you! And I always looked up to you as my hero! Please! Watch over me as you see me become the hero you told me I could be!" Izuku shouted out as the coiling mists grew much more prominent, brimming with golden light as a dragon's massive head soon appeared slightly behind and above the dragoon. The spectral head was looming over the weakened Primal's body, snarling at it as Izuku raised the tip of the spear up into the air, the blade sparking and flickering with the same golden light as Izuku shouted to the high heavens.
"LIMIT BREAK: DRAGONSONG DIVE!"
Izuku then leaped high into the air, traveling with such force that it shattered the barrier like that of glass while hurtling back down to the ground and striking the fallen Primal, where Izuku leapt back to where he originally was as a pillar of bright blue energy with golden lightning surrounded and engulfed the Ifrit, who screeched loudly in extreme pain as from the pillar came out a spiraling visage of a great dragon, barely missing the Ascian in the air and flying in front of the cameras of the helicopter before fizzling out.
Izuku stood there, his spear still at the ready but was panting heavily as the pillar soon dissipated just as quickly as it appeared, the charred remains of Ifrit twitching. Suddenly the Primal began to crumble, piece by piece falling away from it and disappearing into brilliant blue sparkles of aether flowing out into the winds,
"I̸͔͆ż̷̧̞u̸̟̣͐k̵̙̈͌u̸̧̗̇̕.̵͔̭̋.̴̻̄.̷̨̛̺͒" The beast spoke in its otherworldly tone of voice, causing the named student to blink in surprise for a moment as the head of the beast suddenly fell off of its disappearing body and laid on the ground, its eyes no longer fiery but pure white as it's mouth twitched one final thing before it too faded into the wind.
"P̴̼͆r̵͔̯͛̒o̴̲̙̐ű̷̩̺̌d̸͖̕ ̶̼̼̑ö̴̦͉f̸̰̼̎ ̴̡̜́ŷ̸̲̜͠ő̶̲͇̑û̵̠̺͝.̷̗̈́.̸̗͗.̸̞̋͛"
There was silence all around him, the words striking him as he suddenly choked out, tears falling from his eyes as his dragoon armor and weapon disappeared in a flash, and the green-haired boy collapsed to the ground, his energy all but drained from the fights that night, only to be caught by Tenya who quickly took hold of his passed out classmate before picking him up in a fireman carry and dashing off.
A few meters in the air, Nabriales was fuming at what he had just witnessed, his plans wasted and losing the essence of a primal because of it. But before he could do anything else, the Ascian was suddenly dodging two flaming bursts of fire that were headed towards him. Looking down, the robed figure snarled, looking upon both the fire wielders, and was about to counter with his own attack when he got blindsided by a kick to the head by Gran Torino, who had launched himself to the other side of the rooftops, looking to strike again.
The mask that Nabriales had been wearing was knocked off, and the two heroes and one student engaged with him looked on in horror as they saw the now maskless Ascian's face.
Looking down at them was a face that looked withered with white curled bangs above the one visible cat-like eye that looked glassed over, while the other was merely nothing but an eye socket and part of the bone exposed.
Nabriales hissed down at them like a cat, disappearing into a shadowy portal before they could launch another attack, leaving behind nothing but a partially cracked red mask on the ground.
Nana Shimura groaned as she could feel the touch of grass tickle against her nose; her head was throbbing hard as she slowly began to pull herself up and grunted from the ever-increasing headache, "What the hell hap-" she had started to say before immediately stopping and gasped loudly, staring down at her hands before hearing another groan coming from someone close to her. The black-haired woman quickly turned her head only to gasp out loudly, "EN?!"
"Mmn… what is it… Nana?!" The sixth wielder of One for All said while rubbing his head before suddenly looking up in shock towards the woman he had passed the quirk onto. Quickly standing up, the two previous holders could see the other wielders began to rise up, first in pain but then in shock as every one of them looked about.
"What is all this?" asked Yoichi Shigarakai, moving some of his white hair from his eyes to look over the vast grasslands they were all currently standing in; off in the distance, they could see extensive mountain ranges with what looked to be giant crystals flowing beside them.
"I'm only going to ask you this once." a voice dripping in darkness spoke out to the seven people, who all immediately turned to see an angry looking man with cat-like ears firmly pressed against his head with a tail that seemed to be puffing up behind him and flicking rapidly.
The man was staring at the intruders to his realm, his cat-like eyes shrinking down as he hissed while wearing rather dark-looking armor and a giant two-handed greatsword across his shoulder.
"Who are you? And what are you doing inside of the boy's mind?"