Hey everyone, and get ready for this chapter. This chapter will be centered entirely around fighting. For the first time in a while, we'll be seeing Shirou's brutality, this time in the most extreme way. I hope you enjoy it as much as I will.

Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody. Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX, and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.


"Shirou" Regular speech.

"Shirou" Thoughts.

DRAGON SHOT Attack names.

(Shirou) Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

[Ddraig] Dragon talking.


Savage Wrath And Deeps Of Despair


—…

Inside the shrine was a spacious place. It felt like there was no end to the spacious hall. There were just giant pillars inside the shrine, and nothing else was there. Shirou wasn't fazed by the emptiness of the shine or the fact that he was alone. Entering a large, oppressive location to fight a large number of enemies by himself was just business as usual for him, considering how often he fought whole gangs on their turf back home.

When he got through the shrine, another shrine appeared right ahead, so he went toward it. As he kept on repeating that process, soon enough, he felt a presence within one of the shrines.

Shirou stopped and looked up at the ceiling. He felt the presence of Diodora coming from above.

{Well, this is a surprise. Why is there only one of you?}

Diodora's voice echoed throughout the shrine. Shirou responded with no concern.

"I sent the others off so that I could end you myself. After all, you don't need an army to crush a rat."

{Hahaha, Red Dragon Emperor. You're truly too arrogant for your own good. This time, it shall finally be the cause of your death. I'm disappointed Asia isn't here for me to take, but I suppose it's fine for now. I can always claim her later. After I present to her your corpse, she'll be perfect for the taking.}

"You talk big for someone hiding in the shadows." Shirou reprimanded. "Why don't you come out and face me? Or are you the coward I know that you are?"

{Don't flatter yourself. I just don't want to bother myself in coming to you. Instead, you come to me. I'm waiting at the end of another shrine for you—Let's play. It's a substitute for the Rating Game, which has been canceled.}

"So now you wanna play?" Shirou narrowed his eyes. "Fine, just don't whine when I beat you."

{As arrogant and foolhardy as always. I planned on having a match while using my "pieces" against Rias Gremory's, but having them one-sidedly overwhelming you might be more fun. The rule was that you couldn't use the same pieces again until you reached where I am at, but that isn't relevant anymore. Other than that, anything is okay. For the first match, I will be sending my 8 Pawns and 2 Rooks. By the way, all of my Pawns have been promoted to Queen. Hahaha, it's 8 Queens from the beginning, but that is okay, right? After all, Red Dragon Emperor, you came here intending to battle all of my servants alone, remember?}

"Hmph, a few measly promotions, and I'm supposed to be intimidated?" Shirou scoffed at Diodora's confidence. "If you hadn't taken every opportunity to stack the deck before we began, I'd feel underestimated."

{I'm glad you're so understanding. Now, let's start.}

—!

Along with Diodora's words, his servants made their appearance known to Shirou. Ten individuals, all dressed in long robes that covered everything except the lower half of their faces, appeared from a magic circle. These were Diodora's Pawns and both of his Rooks. At one time, they were all maidens of the Church, and all of them were seduced and deceived into becoming Diodora's property, but regardless, they were enemies now, and Shirou intended to show them no mercy.

"Ha, such a small group of sex slaves." Shirou taunted them as he stepped forward.

Two of the Pawns stepped forward.

"We will be the ones to face you in place of our master."

"As is our sworn duty, we shall defeat you here as you pose a threat to our master."

"Threat? Threat?" The very word seemed to amuse Shirou as he smirked dangerously at them. "I didn't come here to be a simple threat. I'm here to kill. That means you, Diodora, and everyone else who's suicidal enough to challenge me."

His words upset all of them as all ten members of the Astaroth peerage prepared for battle.

"You'll find that we won't fall so easily, not compared to your previous adversaries. We studied the recording of you defeating the eight Pawns of the Phenex peerage single handle, but their abilities aren't in the same realm as ours. Not to mention, we have our Rooks with us."

"I missed the part where I'm supposed to care." Shirou's expression didn't change. "What does it matter if one group of sex slaves is stronger than another? It doesn't change what you are, weak women who have no Pride."

His continuous insults to them upset the members of Diodora's peerage, so they made the first move. All eight Pawns moved in to attack while the Rooks stayed behind. Deciding not to get in the way, the two Rooks disappeared via magic circle. With the speed of Knights, the Pawns circled around him as three of them flanked him from the side in order to strike him simultaneously.

Shirou was unimpressed by their speed of coordination and merely tilted his body a bit when they closed in so that each of their strikes missed him by just a few inches. He followed up by counterattacking and extended both his arms along with one leg to strike all three of them at the same time, knocking them away.

The second he knocked back the first wave of his enemy's offense, the second wave was already upon him. While the first three Pawns charged, the other five had never stopped circling him. When they failed to land their attacks, another set of three Pawns closed in on Shirou. This time, one came in low, the other came down from above, and the third attacked him from behind.

Once again, Shirou was unfazed. Shirou held out his hand and caught the arm of the one trying to attack him from behind without even trying around to look at her. He lifted her off the ground and threw her into the Pawn, aiming to attack him from above. As the two Pawns were knocked into each other, the third one closed in, but with the other two gone, she was completely visible, and Shirou kicked out his leg. He kicked her head like it was a soccer ball and sent her flying backward.

The remaining two Pawns were already in close range and were in the process of bringing down their palms to strike Shirou. Shirou raised both his arms and blocked their attacks with his elbows. He then jumped and did a midair split, kicking out both of his legs to kick both enemy Pawns in the head simultaneously, knocking them away from him.

Oddly enough, though, as he knocked back the remaining two, the previous six Pawns were up and about again. They circled around him once more, and in only seconds, the two he had just knocked back were on their feet and moving around with the rest of them. While they were creating an encirclement around him, Shirou unpackaged what he knew so far.

"Toughness aside, their best weapon seems to be their coordination. It goes beyond just good teamwork. It's like they all share a mind. Their movements, timing, and synchronicity are flawless. It's watching an expert dance group choreographing a music video; they don't miss a beat, and their rhythm is perfect. But…."

Once again, the Pawns went on the attack. Shirou opened his fists into palms, relaxed his stance, and planted his feet on the ground like a tree, committed to standing his ground.

They soon closed the gap, and one Pawn came in from the front and attacked his right. Shirou dodged her with a gentle sidestep to the left. A second Pawn also came in from the front and attacked his left, and Shirou dodged again with a sidestep to the right. A third Pawn came in from the side and attacked his flank, which Shirou evaded with a backstep.

Another Pawn came at him with a flying jump-kick but pivoted, and she sailed right past him. A different Pawn closed in and threw a chopping right at Shirou, but he stopped it by catching her attack by the arm and countered by kicking his knee into her stomach with so much force her whole body bent forward.

As he was doing that, another Pawn was behind him and threw a high kick at the back of his neck, but Shirou shifted his body around and faced her. He reached out his hand at her leg, and his palm made contact with her ankle, which allowed him to redirect the direction of her kick away from him. Then he kicked out his own leg and kicked her in the abdomen.

He immediately followed up by shifting his body away from her to face the next Pawn that was already running toward him. She leaped in the air and brought down a descending heel kick aimed at his head. Shirou caught her kick by the sole of her foot and twisted his body around to build momentum before he tossed her away.

The next Pawn pounced at him while he was focused on a different Pawn, but Shirou saw her coming from a mile away and threw a vicious falcon punch that hit her right across the face, slamming her into the ground.

A different Pawn closed in and tried to leap at him during her attack. Shirou was ready for her and threw a punch at her while she was in the air, but her leap was only a feint as she quickly dropped to the ground and crouched on one knee when she was right in front of him as she prepared to attack from below. But even that wasn't enough as he halted his punch halfway through and turned it into an elbow strike that he brought down on the top of her skull. The dame hit her right away, and she fell to the ground.

After that, four of the Pawns came at him at the same time and surrounded him as they all threw a punch simultaneously. Shirou was faster than them and ducked, avoiding each other punches before he slipped past their encirclement and pushed two of them so they'd lose their footing, and now, instead of a circle, the four of them were lined up. Shirou finished by throwing a barrage of fast-paced punches that consumed the four of them and blew them away.

At this point, one picked themselves off the ground and gazed at him. "Bastard, how are you predicting our every move?"

"Are you reading our minds?"

"It's simpler than that. What I'm reading is the pattern of your attacks. You might think your teamwork is an advantage, but having perfect coordination is also a weakness. Your timing and rhythm are so on-point in precision that you're not even off by a second. Once I memorized the timing, predicting and throwing off your rhythm was so easy, I could do it with my eyes closed."

"But we only just started. How could you have memorized our timing so quickly?"

"It's obvious. It's because I'm so much faster than you and have so much more experience. Those two factors made this fight a losing battle for you before we even started. It doesn't matter if you share a mind if all eight bodies are weak."

The rest of the Pawns all stood up and glared at him, planning their next move. As Shirou watched them rise, his expression changed into one of suspicion.

"Something's not right, though. I don't care if you've all been promoted to Queen. There's no way you should be able to withstand all of my attacks up to this point." Shirou noticed as he narrowed his eyes. "It's one thing not to be defeated yet, but you don't even look like you're in pain despite attacks you've all taken. What's going on?"

{I see that you've finally taken notice of how now of my servants have responded to any of the damage you've hit them with. I cast a spell on them that seals away any feelings of pain or fatigue so they'll never fall, no matter how much you rough them up.}

"So, you're telling me they don't feel pain?"

{That's right. They'll stand up and fight as many times as necessary, all the way till midnight even. So, you can't defeat them the way you have previous opponents.}

"They can't feel pain…?" Shirou repeated quickly while lowering his head. "I can't believe this…."

Two more Pawns charged at him. "It's no use! You'll never stop us!"

"Even if you can predict our moves, we'll still overwhelm you with our numbers!"

"I can't believe…. How stupid you are."

SLICK!

Play OST — Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken — Saiseki

With one swift motion, Shirou thrust his hand forward at one of the Pawns after she closed in. He pointed his palm like a spear, and just as one would do, he pierced his hand through the flesh of her chest so far that his hand came out the other and was sticking out of her back. All the other Pawns halted, and the one who was hit froze completely/

She barely had time to register what had happened as her blood ran cold, and her body had become heavy. Even though she couldn't feel pain, she could sense that something was wrong, and she gazed down to see that her chest had been brutally pierced. She only saw it for a moment as Shirou pulled back his arm and removed his hand from her flesh. She vomited out some blood that splattered on the floor before she fell to the floor herself. This time, she wouldn't be getting back up. As is the case with most Devil corpses, her body soon vanished without a trace.

The now seven remaining Pawns looked away from the small puddle of blood that was all that remained of their comrade and looked up at Shirou, who looked at all of them with the eyes of a merciless predator that had already cornered its prey.

"I came here to kill you. What does it matter if you can feel it or not?"

His voice was ice-cold and deadly serious, like all the other times he faced an enemy he truly wanted to kill. This time, Diodora had no response and didn't magically send his voice through the shrine, but Shirou could still sense he was watching, so he responded for him.

"Don't be surprised. Remember, you're the one who said this wasn't a game. You joined a terrorist organization and openly became a criminal for treason on a battlefield. Just like how you planned on killing us, I plan on killing all of you. The difference is I'm doing it personally. So, I didn't come here to defeat any of you; I came here to gore you."

The area where the shine became much more oppressive around Shirou as the Pawns became much more hesitant to go on the offensive now. Seeing the brutal way Shirou murdered one of them made them understand precisely what they were up against and that they were in much greater danger than they had realized.

But Shirou had no plans to wait for them, and now he went on the offensive. Shirou immediately closed the distance between him and one of the Pawns. Once he was in front of her, he swung his arm at her and slapped her across the cheek with so much force that it actually twisted her neck to such an extreme that her whole head twisted 180 degrees, and her face was facing behind her. She was dead before she even realized what had happened, and her body disappeared before it hit the ground.

Snapping out of their shock, two other Pawns charged in at Shirou's flanks, now realizing they had to fight for their survival. They hoped they could stop him from predicting their moves by altering their rhythm and throwing off his timing, but decelerating their top speed only made it easier for Shirou to see them coming. Shirou faced the one on the right and kicked her in the stomach so hard that he sent her flying into a wall. She crashed into the stone wall, and a crater was formed in the shape of her body.

He grabbed the other one by the neck and slammed down onto the floor before he stomped on her stomach, knocking the air out of her lungs. His savagery had only begun, though, as he dug his heel harder into her body to hold her in place while he grabbed onto her ankle, tightened her grip like a vice, and pulled with so much strength and force until, to the horror of everyone watching, he ripped her leg off by the kneecap.

KLLLRRRRRPPPPPP!

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

She screamed a scream that was unimaginable to anyone who hadn't experienced what she was at that very second. She couldn't tell which was worse, the absolute terror of having her leg manually torn off and the nightmarish pain that came with it, though, honestly, it was likely she wasn't really thinking at the moment as fear and panic was all that she was capable of right now.

As her blood was oozing out of her severed limb like a fountain and her screams echoed throughout the halls, Shirou turned away from her and faced the Pawn he had previously slammed into a wall. She was still embedded in the wall, and Shirou dashed toward her like a cannonball. Using the maximum amount of speed necessary, Shirou swung his leg out and collided the sole of his shoe into the center of her head.

CRAAAAAACCCKKKKKKKKK!

With the combined weight and G-force of his attack, his kick tore through her face, shattered her skull, and cracked open her head like a watermelon. A messy and horrific splatter of blood, bone, and scrambled brains burst out everywhere as her headless body fell to the floor and subsequently disappeared. With all the emotion of a monster from a horror movie, Shirou acted as though he had completely forgotten she had existed after she was dead and turned his attention to his next victim.

The Pawn, who had just had her leg torn off a moment ago, was now silent. Because no one was paying attention to her, they didn't notice the moment when she bled to death from all the blood pooling out of her missing limb. The light had left her eyes, and she was resting in a puddle of blood before her body vanished into nothing.

Fear had started to consume the remaining four Pawns; their numbers had been cut in half, and they had been the audience of the nightmarish massacre of their comrades. Their legs started to shake. They wanted to run. Their devotion to Diodora was the only thing holding their minds together at this point.

Shirou started to walk toward them. Two of the Pawns acted immediately and summoned magic circles from their hands. Realizing they were wasting their time trying to match him in close combat and being afraid to even get near him, they switched to firing bullets of demonic power at him from a safe distance. Sadly, this, too, proved to be futile, as Shirou just kept walking through their bullets, not even flinching as their magic bullets were as useless as rubber bullets were to a man made of concrete. Even with their promotions, their demonic power was too weak to register against someone like Shirou.

And yet still they fired as if hoping beyond hope that eventually they would stop him, or simply not knowing what else they could do. It wasn't long before Shirou was right in front of them. He didn't stop walking and just swung his arms out when he was right beside them. Then, when he walked past them, they stopped shooting, and their bodies ceased moving like puppets whose strings had been cut.

The reason why soon showed revealed itself as cuts opened around their necks so deep that their heads fell from their bodies and landed at their feet. Shirou had decapitated with the ease of taking a stroll through the park. Before their blood could pool on the ground, their bodies disappeared like all the rest.

And with that, there were two. Shirou faced them with the intention of making one of them his next victim. His eyes were glowing gold in a manner that made him look more intimidating, like a physical incarnation of death who was here to reap their lives. It all became too much for one of them. Loyal, subservience, devotion, all those things were stripped away by fear until all that remained was the unsurpassable desire to stay alive. She wanted to live. She didn't care about anything else. She just wanted to live.

"Iyaaaaahhhh!" The Pawn shrieked and turned to run away.

Where would she run? She didn't know. All she knew was that she wanted to run away. If it meant surviving, and if it got her away from Shirou, she'd run to the furthest ends of the world if need be. But Shirou was not a merciful man and didn't let her get very far. Despite running away, she still felt he was right behind her, which turned out to be accurate as he caught up to her in a second.

With a thrust of his hand, he pierced his fingers through her back and cut through the flesh until he could actually feel her spine. She froze. She tried to scream, but no sound could escape her mouth as her voice grew hoarse. Shirou speared his fingers further into her along with his entire hand as he pierced through her inner ribcage and her internal organs until finally, his hand escaped and burst out of her stomach. But now, the girl was already dead as his body went limp.

This time, Shirou didn't have to pull back his hand as her corpse vanished first, and there was no longer anything around his arm. Only one Pawn remained. Shirou walked toward her as she stood there, not daring to make a sound. Although it seemed impossible, she was even more afraid than the last one.

Her whole body trembled with fear. Her body had become so heavy she felt like she was drowning; her breathing had become shallow, and she could hear her heart beating in her ear. The sound of her heartbeat was loud to her, but it was second only to the sound of Shirou's footsteps, which seemed to echo throughout the hall, becoming louder and louder with each step. To her, those footsteps were the bells of her execution.

It was only a matter of seconds before Shirou was right in front of her. She felt so overwhelmed that her legs finally gave out, and she collapsed to the floor. She sat there, her whole body trembling, as she looked up at Shirou. He towered over her like a giant from her perspective. His face was shadowed out, but his eyes were glowing like golden likes in the darkness, and that only made him look more terrifying.

Her teeth chattered, her eyes boggled, and her face broke out in a cold sweat. It was all she could do to hold her sanity together.

"H-Help… Someone… Master… Save me…" She whispered, barely able to muster words as is.

"It's dawning on you, isn't it? You gave up everything. You abandon God and your faith for the sweet whispers of the Devil, and now that you are faced with true despair, both have abandoned you."

She couldn't respond. She only trembled further as Shirou leaned down so his face was right in front of her and he could look her directly in the eye. Their eyes were only inches apart as he looked at her as though he was gazing into her soul.

"When Devils die, they leave behind neither a body nor a soul; they just vanish into oblivion. As a former believer, I'd imagine that's terrifying for you. So, how should I kill you?"

Music Off

Finally, it was all too much for her to handle as her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she fell backward. She hit the floor and was completely still. Shirou could tell from a glance that she went into a state of shock and lost consciousness. He had seen that sort of thing happen before. With no reaction to this development, Shirou stepped forward, lifted his leg, and stomped down on her throat, crushing it like a twig and ending her life right away.

When the last body disappeared, Shirou walked away. "She was the luckiest. She didn't feel a thing."

Shirou kept walking until he exited that room in the shrine and entered the next room. Here, he saw two more cloaked individuals. This time, he was facing the two Rooks from before.

"It seems you managed to defeat our Pawns."

"We'll be your opponents next."

Shirou didn't stop walking and just kept approaching them while they prepared to face him in battle.

"Even if they were promoted to Queens, promotions don't give you the true power of a genuine piece. Those Pawns didn't possess the true power that we command."

"Our abilities are on a different level than the ones you've faced before, as you will soon learn. On our honor as servants to our Lord master, we won't let you leave here alive."

FLASH!

Before they could even register what had happened, Shirou, who was still walking toward them, vanished from their sight and reappeared behind them. His hands were glowing in the bright golden aura of Holy energy, the Holy energy of his Holy Swords, which he used to generate his Heavenly Fist ability. Shirou had used his Heavenly Fist to slice through the flesh of his enemy Rooks, using his fingers like they were claws, and ripped out chunks of their flesh from their torsos.

Despite their durability being extremely high due to being Rooks, they were only better at enduring pain and damage. They could still be cut, and Devils had no defense against Light or Holy energy, so not only was Shirou's attack lethal, it was toxic. Their bodies disappeared without a trace like paper being burned away by a candle. The two Rooks perished.

"Do you know what the honor of a whore is worth?" Shirou spoke as he still kept walking. "Absolutely nothing."

With that settled, he then moved on to the next shrine. He entered to find an open-spaced room identical to the last one.

Then the ones who were waiting for him next were five enemies. Clearly, these were the remaining members of Diodora's peerage: His Queen, his Kmights, and his Bishops. The Queen was the main power force, while the Bishops were her support. The remaining two Knights were nowhere near Kiba's level and were likely backup. This was what Shirou believed after seeing them fight, as he and the others saw them on the video.

Like the rest of Diodora's peerage, all of them were women wearing hoods so that he couldn't see their faces. From the video, the supporting skills of the two Bishops were splendid. In terms of demonic powers, they are superior to Gasper and Asia. In terms of Support, it was likely that the Gremory Bishops were superior. After all, one of them was a healer and the other a time-stopper.

The problem was the Queen. This Queen fought head-on against the Queen from the house of Agares, and she won in the end. From what he saw, her fire demonic powers were amazing. But that would only have been the case if she were fighting the other members of the Gremory peerage, as far as Shirou was concerned.

"We were waiting for you, Pawn of Rias Gremory-sama."

Diodora's Queen took off the hood and revealed her face. She was a beautiful woman who appeared to be a few years older than Rias. She had shiny violet hair, hazel eyes, and emerald gems embedded into her hair next to her ears. Everything about her was beautiful, except for her expression. It was the expression of a woman who took pride in committing cruelties for her master.

"My name is Shirou Amakusa-sama." Shirou corrected her coldly, almost insulted that she would call him anything else. "Address me with respect, or don't address me at all."

"You believe you are entitled to respect, do you?" The Queen scoffed at him. "Regardless of how highly you hold your own importance, the fact remains that you are just a low-born servant of the Gremory family, which puts you beneath all of us, not to mention our great master."

"Heh, and I'd imagine you'd know all there is to know about being "beneath", considering who your master is." Shirou shot back.

She sneered at him. "You're disgusting."

"That's hilarious coming from a woman who takes pride in being some rich kid's live-in prostitute and still has the nerve to think she's in any position to look down on me. The only thing that's disgusting around here is a woman who lets herself fall for scum, and I see five who traded away everything, including self-respect, all because they fell in love with a cock."

FLASH!

Having had enough of his insults, the Knights vanished using their enhanced speed and dashed around the room before closing in on him from both sides. Both Knights stopped when they were only a step away from him, and both of them raised their Swords, bringing them down upon his head.

"You're slow."

Sadly, because they hadn't seen him dispose of the Pawns, they didn't know that trying to beat him with speed was an exercise of futility. Shirou held out both of his hands and caught both Swords by their grips. He stopped the Swords and held them in place. He gripped his hands over the hands of the two Knights, preventing them from moving or letting go.

As the Knights struggled to release themselves from Shirou's grip, he only gave them seconds to deal with that issue. He used his superior strength to flip the Swords around so that the blades would face the wielders instead of him. He then ended it by pushing the Swords forward so that they could be stabbed through the chests of the Knights holding them.

Both of the Knights gasped in shock as they were stabbed through the heart by their own blades before the light faded from their eyes a moment later. Shirou let go of their hands as they dropped their Swords, and they clattered to the ground before their wielders followed. The now-dead Knights hit the floor before their bodies disappeared to nothing.

"And to think, after all of those times they'd stabbed by Diodora's "Sword", you'd think they would be immune to blades by now."

The Queen clenched her fists in frustration; their numbers were dropping like flies, and their enemy was only getting bolder. She turned her anger into fuel for magic and emitted a green, fiery aura around her body.

"You've taken this far enough! I'll deal with you personally ."

"Oh, the boss bitch wants to roar?" Shirou taunted her. "Fine, you're the last wall between me and Diodora. Once that's out of the way, I can take my time taking him apart."

Her flames grew more intense. "How dare you. I won't allow anyone to threaten my master."

"Threaten? As in: I'm going to open your master from balls to brains and find out what Astaroths look like on the inside."

FLAME!

With a wave of her hands, she let loose a torrent of emerald flames at Shirou. Shirou made no bid to move out of the way or showed any kind of concern as the flames closed in; he merely held out his hand and opened his palm as if to catch something. The scorching flames consumed him and burst out into an inferno that swirled around the entire section of the room.

The Queen watched with satisfaction at seeing her flames swallow Shirou and believed he had been burned to a crisp. That's why she was very shocked when she witnessed her fire spell burst apart from the inside before the flames were blown away like a candle in the wind.

The fire was blown out by the wind pressure that Shirou generated simply by swinging his arm. He then gave her a look of complete condescension. "If you're going to use fire against me, at least hit me with something that surpasses Raiser's flames."

Diodora's Queen looked upset, but it didn't last as she summoned another magic circle. "If you think you've seen the limits of my abilities, think again!"

The two Bishops behind her held up their hands and generated pools of green magic power that streamed from their bodies and coated their Queen, which in turn greatly increased her magic reserves, and her one magic circle multiplied into six. Using the support magic of the Bishops, the Queen fired another fire spell. This time, it was a volley of green fireballs that shot out of the magic circles like cannonballs.

And yet, Shirou was still not impressed as he evaded the fireballs by smoothly sidestepping each time one of them came close. Although the fire magic was more powerful thanks to the support of the Bishops, the attack itself was still rather simple and straightforward, without the necessary speed or power to be a threat; as far as Shirou was concerned, they might as well have been firecrackers.

"Now then, I think it's time I end this."

With those words, Shirou dashed forth and vanished from sight as the fireballs ceased. Before the Queen or the Bishops could even look for him, Shirou appeared behind one of the Bishops and reached out to wrap both of his arms around her neck with his hands on her face.

CLACK!

With a twisting motion of his arms, Shirou twisted and completely bent the head of the Bishop until it was upside down, her forehead was facing the floor, her chin was facing the ceiling, and her neck had been completely broken off of her spin. She died before she even realized what had happened. All she saw was one second, the world suddenly turned upside down, and the next, she was dead.

The audible sound of bones breaking alerted the remaining two enemies as they both turned to see Shirou let go of the body of their comrade and witnessed her falling dead at his feet.

Shirou moved in on the next Bishops. With no time to think, all she could do was act on reflex, which, in this case, made her let out a shriek and raise her hands in front of her face. This amounted to nothing as Shirou swung his fist at her. His punch collided with her face, and once again, the sound of bones breaking could be heard. His punch not only broke her nose, but it also tore through her flesh and cracked open her skull.

The last remaining Bishop stood there, frozen with her mouth hanging open as blood leaked out of her mouth, nose, ears, and eyelids. Shards of her broken skull pierced her brain and caused her death. She just stayed there, motionless, as though her body hadn't realized she had died just before she finally fell like a tree that had been chopped down.

The bodies of both of the Bishops faded away into nothing like all the others, and now, the Queen found herself as the lone surviving servant of her peerage. With no one left, Shirou directed his predatory gaze at her.

"I had a feeling you'd be the last one."

Pure frustration consumed the Queen as she used her Knight-like speed to create some distance between them before she held up her hands and summoned yet another magic circle. As if hoping to ignore all the facts that her fire was useless against Shirou, she unleashed another burst of green fire at him. "Die!"

"You still think that means anything? Why don't I show you what real fire looks like!"

As the green flames were closing in, Shirou stood his ground, inhaled a deep breath, and exhaled while leaning his head forward as a wave of scorching red Dragon fire shot out of his mouth. During his training with Tannin, he learned to be more intuned with the Dragon traits he had acquired from the Dragon aura from the Boosted Gear. One such trait was the lungs of a Dragon that gave him the ability to use a Dragon's fire breath, which he was using right now.

His fire breath collided with her fire magic, and the two clashed for a moment before his fire proved itself to be superior and burned through her fire. Shirou's Dragon fire scorched through her emerald flames and torrented toward her until she was about to be consumed by fire. She held up her arms and tried to use her magic to block the flames, but they were too much for her and broke through her magic defense.

"Aaaahhhhhh!" She cried out in agony as the fire burned her flesh.

She wasn't fully consumed by the flames, but her arms took the entire brunt of the Dragon fire. Now, the skin and flesh from her hands to her shoulders were violently burned and crisped. Not only was she in horrible pain, but she could also no longer make use of her arms as it hurt to even slightly move them.

"There's the rub." Shirou commented as he appeared right in front of her. "It's the folly that every fire user tends to make; you learn how to use fire, but you don't learn to become immune to fire. A fire master who burned to death, it's as ironic as a fish that died of drowning."

Any confidence she might have had before was now as dead as the Bishops. Now, she was trembling with fear, her knees were shaking, and her sweat had turned cold. "…Y-You monster…"

Shirou only smirked when he saw her. "There's that look. I've seen it on face after face for 7 years. You all fear me—Monster, beast, embodiment of evil. All of you have so much confidence—In yourselves or in someone or something else—But when faced with my overwhelming power, it all comes crumbling down, and fear is all that remains. I can't wait to see the fear on your master's face. It'll be even deeper than yours."

She couldn't say anything. All she could do was stand there and tremble as Shirou stood in front of her. He then reached out and grabbed her wrists as if to hold her steady while he gazed downward at her face so he could stare down at her in the eye.

"What's wrong? Don't feel like roaring anyone? In that case—Here me roar!"

Taking another deep breath, Shirou pointed his head upward at the ceiling. He filled his lungs with more Dragon fire before he brought his head back down, faced the Astaroth Queen, and opened his mouth to her.

FLAME!

With the roar of a mighty Dragon, Shirou unleashed another burst of Dragon fire breath. This time, it was point blank at the Queen's head and consumed her entirely before she even had the time to scream. Her beautiful face was scorched and torched by burns as her skill melted away, her eyeballs combusted from the heat, her hair burned away, her flesh melted away, and soon, even the bones of her skull burned under the fire.

By the time Shirou closed his mouth and let the flames burn away to embers, there was nothing left. Her head was gone. Any trace of her head had vanished, and all that was left were a few ashes on top of the charred stub above her neck. Shirou let go of her arms, and her body fell before it vanished like the rest.

It was complete. All the members of the Astaroth peerage were dead. Now Shirou only had one target left—Diodora Astaroth.

Shirou marched past the shrine and exited it until he found himself outside again. This time, he found another upward-rising stone slope leading to a miniature castle structure far above the shrine; no doubt that was where Diodora would be waiting for him.


The place he arrived in was a large entryway with nothing but walls, a massive blue curtain wall, and a red carpet located at the deepest end. Slowly, the blue curtains rose to reveal the Devil lounging on a luxurious throne. Behind him was a circular device that was carved into the wall. There were jewels located in various parts, and they also had mysterious symbols and letters in them. It was portraying some sort of magic circle.

The one who appeared from the side of the device was Diodora Astaroth. His gentle yet diabolical smile was still plastered to his face. Shirou gave him an emotionless expression as he approached until he stopped a few feet away from the throne.

"You sure took your time. I got pretty bored of waiting for you."

Shirou narrowed his eyes. "I wanted to take my time. I pulverized your brigade of hookers. It looks like you'll be pleasuring yourself from now on."

Diodora just smiled at the statement he gave him. "Not a concern. I can also get some more. If anything, this is a good thing. Now that all my Evil pieces are free, I can go out searching for new Holy women to seduce. The worst part of filling up my peerage was that I couldn't go on any more conquests. I missed that. Now I can start over again." He licked his lips. "I can't wait to see who I'll find this time."

"Listen, bootleg Ted Bundy, in case you've forgotten, you'll have to live to see tomorrow for that plan to work. And I'm here to see to it that you don't."

"You low-born fool, do you honestly believe that I can be stopped by the likes of you? I've got the Old Satan Faction and the whole Khaos Brigade on my side."

"And you've got the entirety of the Trinity Factions and the Norse Faction against you. Since you're not a gambling man, you might realize it, but the odds are hopelessly stacked in my favor."

"So you'd think, but not when I still have this."

Diodora gestured to the large device above his head.

"Impressive, isn't it? This is the Longinus seal."

"And here I thought it was a fancy piece of art made to brighten up the room." Shirou sarcastically replied but didn't ignore the "Longinus" part. "What is it for?"

"It's for Asia, in fact. This device can only be used once due to its mechanism, but it's made so that it won't stop unless you use it once. Once I strap Asia to it, it won't stop unless Asia's ability is activated."

"And what does that accomplish?"

When he asked, Diodora looked gleeful, as if he was hoping he'd ask that question.

"This device is one of the special barriers created by a Longinus possessor. The strong barrier protecting this field was also made by him. Dimension Lost is the ultimate barrier-type Sacred Gear. Having the possessor in the center spreads an unlimited amount of mist. It can seal everything inside its zone, and it can even teleport it to a different dimension. When it reaches Balance-Breaker, it changes its ability in which it can create any type of barrier device the possessor wishes with the mists. Dimension Create. The barrier made can't be stopped unless it is activated once properly." Diodora then dramatically held out his arms. "And the activation requirement…. That is, either someone affiliated with us or I will give the signal to start. The ability of the barrier is to increase the power of the one in the restraint, in this case, Asia, and reverse its effect."

"Reverse?" That word immediately flashes a memory in Shirou's mind as he had not only witnessed but felt the result of Asia's ability being reversed, and that had only happened once. "…The match against Sitri."

Diodora shook his head.

"…No. It seems like the possibility of it was predicted quite some time ago. Except, since the ones in the Sitri group used it, the plan was proved to work…." He continued. "The traitor among the Fallen Angels remained in the organization and let Sona Sitri borrow "Reverse" so that they could gather the necessary data from it. After they confirmed it, it was brought back for our use."

"So you planned on using against me and the rest of the peerage?" Shirou accused him.

"Fufufu!" He laughed at that assumption. "You're thinking too small. This device not only forcibly activates an ability, it greatly amplifies the depth and range. Asia's Sacred Gear's ability to heal is enormous! It can even heal Devils and Fallen Angels! If that were to amplify and be reversed, it would become an immense damage field that would tear apart, ravage, and violently kill everyone within it! And the range of its effect is this field and the viewing room where the observers are presently at."

Shirou's face turns into that of anger. "….Your target was the leaders of each Faction…!"

"That's right! Once the plan is set in motion, the leaders of every major Faction will be eliminated. And when that happens, all of the human world, the Underworld, and Heaven will be in serious trouble!"

"You're on the battlefield too." Shirou pointed out. "You'll eliminate yourselves while you're at it."

"Do you think we'd be so careless? The leaders of the Old Satan Faction aren't present on this battlefield, and everything inside this shrine is protected by a different special barrier, so as long as I stay inside here, I'll be safe when the damage field actives."

"And what about the rest? Your side has a whole army out there fighting against us. What happens to them?"

"Who cares?" Diodora cold-heartedly dismissed them like it wasn't even worth thinking about. "They're just disposable footsoldiers. We can always get more of them."

Those words made Shirou's glare deepen. "You people really are scum."

"And you Gremorys really are too emotional, but that might as be a good thing. Once I have Asia in my hands, I will tell her. Fufufu, you and your twisted sister practically ruined the reveal by telling her the truth back at the clubroom, but when I tell her that it's all true from my own mouth, I still get to cherish the enjoyment. At that moment, she'll have the best expression. The face Asia will make when she finds out that everything was going according to my plan will be the best. Look, I'll even make a video of it. I'll keep replaying it. She'll have had a splendid face. The expression of the women affiliated with the Church falling, no matter how many times I see it, I never get bored of it." Diodora kept laughing until he slowly calmed down and gazed at Shirou. "But I think it'll still be lacking. Asia still has hope inside her. Yes, I'm talking about you guys from the Gremory Peerage—Especially you, filthy big bad Red Dragon Emperor. Because you saved Asia, my plan turned into a failure."

"Let me guess, when you say "plan," you're talking about those Fallen Angels that tried to steal her Sacred Gear back when Asia was human."

Diodora blinked, now thrown off at Shirou's accusation.

"How do you know that?"

"My friend Ren was with me that night. He took out the enemies outside, and after the fighting, he told me he sensed another High-Class Devil nearby. When you reappeared, he confirmed that the Devil he sensed was you. So I knew you were lurking in the shadows back then."

"Tch… I should have known your dog would have sniffed me out. You're right. That Fallen-Angel woman….Raynare. I was supposed to appear and kill Raynare after she killed Asia once, and I was planning to give my Evil Piece then. I thought you wouldn't win, even if you were to interfere. Then I found out you are the Red Dragon Emperor. It's an interesting occurrence. My plan was postponed quite a lot thanks to that, but she finally returned to me. Now I can enjoy Asia."

"First of all, quit talking about Asia as though you already have her. You still have to get past me first, which is never going to happen. And second…." Shirou then looked especially angered when saying the next part. "That "dog" is my best friend and a bigger man than you could ever dream to be—Ren Todo. Disrespect him again, and you'll suffer for it."

"Hahaha! Do you know how ridiculous you sound? You expect me to show respect to some crossbred furry beast you don't even have the decency to put a leash on?" Diodora mocked, paying no heed to Shirou's warning. "And I talk as though I already have Asia because she is mine for the talking. You're no concern to me. Now tell me, Asia is still a virgin, right? I like to train them from virgins, and I would hate it if she was already "used" by the Red Dragon Emperor. Ah, but maybe it might be fun to NTR from the Red Dragon Emperor? Our own custom version of prima-nocta. Maybe it would be good to forcefully have sex with her while she screams out your name."

"Are you serious right now? You're saying you want the woman you're having sex with to say another man's name? That's usually the part most guys hate the most."

"Well, most guys have never known the pleasure of stealing a woman for themselves."

"And you won't either. Since words won't get through to you, I'll have to show what I showed your peerage, the difference in power between us that'll leave you in a pit of despair. You lost your chance of ever getting Asia the moment you let her meet me."

"Oh, are you saying you'll protect her?" Diodora taunted him. "I find it hard to feel any confidence in that notion, considering the track record of your bloodline."

Everything stopped. That last line came as out of nowhere as a stealth jet.

"….…What did you just say to me?"

Shirou's tone was quiet, as though he was just daring him to speak again, and he did.

"You're not the only one who did some research. People may call your ancestor "The Man Chosen By God", but that doesn't change the facts. He was a failure who convinced a legion of fools to follow him on some worthless crusade that only succeeded in getting them all killed. I guess God made a poor choice, especially after failing so pitifully."

"You better shut up…."

"But it didn't end there. His failures continued to pile up even after death. Becoming a mindless ghost passing from one vessel in hopes of resurrecting only to fail and be absorbed by you, all he was good for was being a glorified power up."

"I said shut up."

"And the only thing worse than him were his descendants, all that power and potential granted to them from birth, and what were they good for? They were nothing more than domesticated foot soldiers for the Church who only knew how to obey without any mind of their own and breeding stock meant to spit out more generations of them. Could there be a more disgraceful existence?"

"Diodora….!"

The more he went on, the more Shirou's rage turned into bloodlust. Every word Diodora spoke made Shirou want to kill him even further, and the death he had planned kept getting more and more brutal. But this would be what seals his fate.

"And the worst were the ones who came before you. Despite their grandstanding posture of leaving the Church and attempting to be more than broodmares and human weapons, they failed in the most colossal way. Your parents got killed without accomplishing a thing, and they didn't rescue you or your sister from your torture. They couldn't protect anyone, not you or themselves, so I suppose that makes them the biggest failures in the entire family tree!"

SNAP!

DOOOOOOOOOON!

That was the last straw. Something had snapped inside of Shirou. He had always come with the intention of killing Diodora, but now killing him wasn't enough. He wanted to utterly destroy him in a way that would make even the cruelest of men shutter. The darkness inside of him responded to that desire. A geyser of darkness erupted from his body, and he was engulfed by the jet-black aura.

"Ddraig, can you hear me?"

[What is it, Partner.]

"Hang back this time. I want him for myself."

[…Have it your way.]

Seeing him, Diodora smiled widely.

"Amazing! So this is the Power of Darkness! But that's not all I wanted to see. Bring out your armor! I want to see the power of the Red Dragon Emperor before I crush it!"

"My armor?" Shirou spoke in his cold-blooded tone. "Don't flatter yourself. I won't be using my armor or my Sacred Gear in any way during this fight, nor will I be using any of my Swords. I also won't be using my magic, my Senjutsu, or my Touki. My hands are all I need against you."

Hearing him made Diodora laugh with joy. His whole body was wrapped in its own profound black aura.

"Ahahahaha! Fine then, it's your funeral! But I also powered up! With the snake, Ophis gave me, that is! I can kill you instan—!"

BANG!

With the speed that left Knights in the dust, he closed the distance immediately and stood right in front of Diodora. Shirou then punched sharply into Diodora's stomach before he could finish his sentence with so much force that you could almost see the impact from his back.

"…Gaa!"

Diodora's body bent. His face got distorted to that of receiving intense pain. It seemed like he couldn't react to his speed. Shirou barely had to push his fist forward, and it still felt like he came close to destroying his insides.

"Gough…!"

Diodora vomits things inside his stomach, along with blood.

"You talk too much."

He lifted Diodora by his collar and pulled him off his throne before he tossed him to the floor like a rag doll. Diodora hit the floor and was holding onto his stomach while lifting his face up to glare at him. His expression doesn't have the confidence he had before.

"Ku! Don't joke around! I'm a High-Class Devil, you wretched boar! Part of the bloodline of the current Devil King Beelzebub!" Diodora put his hand forward and made many bullets of demonic powers. "How could a wellbred Noble high blood like me lose to a lowly, filthy, and vulgar reincarnated savage like you!? It just isn't right! It isn't faiiirrrrrr!"

Diodora's infinite number of demonic-powered bullets shower down on Shirou like raindrops. Shirou just walked forward without dodging it. He didn't even bother to raise his hands as the bullets came into contact with his body. Even if the bullets hit, the extreme difference in their power made it so Shirou could advance forward without any care.

When Shirou was right in front of him, Diodora stopped attacking and tried to protect himself by creating many defense barriers. Shirou responded by raising his leg before bringing it down.

BREAK!

His boot broke through all of his defense barriers with ease.

It followed through and stomped into his face. Because of the impact of being hit, Diodora slammed onto the ground. His face was bleeding, and he also had tears in his eyes. "…Aaahhh! Aah! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! My beautiful face! Aaahh! Why?! My demonic power hit you!?"

Shirou followed up by stomping on Diodora's stomach and grinding his heel deeper. Diodora felt the air knocked out of his lungs and was crying out in pain as he felt his internal organs being crushed under Shirou's heel.

Shirou gazed down at Diodora with a look of utter contempt and disgust. "Oh, look that, I'm standing on a pile of bullshit. I guess I'll have to get some new shoes after this."

"I don't understand. I was supposed to have had my power increased drastically with Ophis' power! Guha! Gaha!"

"Oh, you have." Shirou assured him, unconcerned. "At your current level, you're way stronger than Rias or Sona. Sadly, that makes you a hundred times weaker than me."

Shirou continued to dig his heel into Diodora's torso. Soon enough, you could practically hear the sound of his ribs starting to crack.

"Aaaahhhh! Enough! I refuse to let a damn filthy Dragon beat me like this!"

DON!

Diodora puts his left hand forward and creates a thick wall of aura. It was an emerald green wall that was transparent and resembled glass. Diodora stood up and held out his hands, now feeling confident again as the two of them were separated by a wall.

"Ahahahahahaha! Did you see it? My magic barrier is impenetrable! I have higher demonic power than you! There is no way that a worthless failure of the Amakusa can defeat me!"

"You must have really lost your mind if you think a wall can stop me."

Instead of attacking the wall, Shirou just tilted his head upward and stared at the ceiling. He then leaped into the air, elevating so high that he reached the ceiling and broke through it. Diodora was now confused as to what the reason could there be for such an action. He quickly got his answer as Shirou broke another hole in the ceiling and came back down, this time on the other side of the wall.

Diodora's magic barrier didn't extend beyond the room they were in, so Shirou merely went over the wall. When Shirou landed, he was right beside Diodora, and Diodora's expression changed right away.

"Oh, and, in case you were wondering if I actually wanted to break the barrier…."

Shirou then backhanded the wall behind him with his fist.

BANG!

A small crack was made in the wall. And then….

BREAK!

The wall perished under his fist and shattered like glass as though it was just as brittle.

"I could have whenever I wanted. I just wanted to demonstrate how simple-minded you are to use like a one-dimensional tactic."

"Hee!" Diodora's expression was contorted with fear as Shirou raised his fist and released his punch.

CRUSH!

He crushed and bent Diodora's left hand, which was put forward, and from there, he directed my fist toward his face.

BANG!

His fist nailed his face. With that strike, Diodora flew back and crashed against a pillar. Diodora, who fell on the ground, got up and then shouted.

"This must be a lie! There is no way I will be beaten! I won against Agares! I'm also planning to win against Bael! There's no way I will lose to the untalented heir of the Great King! And there's no way I will lose to Gremory, who can't even be my opponent! I am Diodora from the House of Astaroth!"

When Diodora put his hand upwards, many circular sharp blades made from demonic power appeared around his body. The sharp objects were pointed toward Shirou and were prepared to come at him like missiles.

"The House of Astaroth is only a mid-teer family. Aside from the fact that Beelzebub came from there, that family is still beneath all the other families you just listed." Shirou bluntly reminded him.

"THIS IS MY WORLD! RED DRAGON EMPEROR!" Diodora unleashed his attack.

"Oh no, it's not. This world belongs to me."

Shirou didn't try to dodge it. As the pale white magic missiles were let loose and closed in on him with the intent to end his life, Shirou stood his ground, gathered his strength, and, with a grunt, unleashed his own demonic power around his body and made it expand outward like a field barrier. The strength of his aura was so great that it suppressed Diodora's attack and blocked the missiles until they dissolved into nothing.

Diodora lowered his arms. His eyes twitched when he saw the full force of his demonic power unleashed, rendered to nothing by his enemy simply powering up. Diodora trembled while his teeth chatted.

"H-How can this be…?"

"Astaroth, Agares, Bael, Gremory. So many names that all mean the same thing—A household that somehow believes its line stands above them all—But that honor belongs to the Amakusa." With gleaming golden eyes, Shirou approached him. "The Amakusa are the greatest power in this world; you are nothing. Don't you dare look down on us."

"I-I just need more power… That's it… More of Ophis' snake… Then I'll be able to beat you… I'll have Asia."

At this point, Diodora was merely babbling out of desperation. He was utterly defeated and had no way to overturn the situation, yet his mind still hadn't accepted defeat. Shirou planned to rectify that.

"It would be so easy to kill you right now, but that would be too quick. After you've done—Wracking Asia's life, hurling insults at my best friend, disrespecting and condemning Dragon, destroying your family's good name, putting your brother underfire for the crimes you committed for the rest of his life, insulting my ancestor and my entire bloodline… And most of all."

With everything he listed down, Shirou just kept getting angrier and angrier. This last one was made on the brink of going over the edge.

"Every word you said about my parents—That alone is reason enough for you to die."

"Gah, I won't accept this…" Diodora struggled and shook but managed to stand up, still on unsteady legs. "I refuse to let it end like this. Not here and least of all by you."

"You're still under the misassumption that you get to choose." Shirou then activates his darkness. At first, the darkness only surrounds his body, but with every second, it gets thicker and spreads wider until it seeps into the floor. "Now sink into an endless abyss of despair."

DOOOOOOOONNN!

Then, like a broken dam, the Power of Darkness bursts out of Shirou's body like a tsunami and consumes everything around them. The floor, the walls, the ceiling, and the entire building become swallowed in darkness, and the only thing that isn't is the Young Devil in the middle of it all.

Diodora looked around in shock and confusion, trying to make sense of what was happening. It was like he had been transported to another dimension, one that was an empty void of darkness that stretched out endlessly and was as vast as it was silent. It was hard to tell direction, considering there was nothing, no matter where he looked. Even the ceiling felt like the sky, as he couldn't see the top if there ever was one. The only way he could tell which way was down was the fact that he could feel the ground beneath his feet.

Something else he couldn't see was Shirou. He seemed to have vanished in the darkness along with everything else.

What is this?" Diodora now looked thrown off and unbalanced. "Where have you taken me?!"

"Those aren't the questions you should be asking!"

Diodora heard the echoing sound of Shirou's voice coming from the void, but he couldn't make out from which direction. He kept looking around as though he could spot him somehow.

CRUNCH!

"Aaaahh!"

Diodora cried out as he felt someone painfully gripping his nose, pulling his head around. Diodora swung his arm around and freed himself as the invisible hand gripping his nose let go. He then tried to throw a punch at whatever was in front of him, but he felt no impact, and his fist connected with nothing.

"I see you! You don't see me!"

Now, Diodora growled in frustration as he kept looking around, angrily determined to find Shirou.

"Why are you hiding?! Come out and face me like a man! You coward!"

CRUSH!

A sour sound echoes throughout the void. A kick hit Diodora's right thigh, and it seemed like it crushed his bone.

"Daaaaamn it!"

Diodora, who put on a painful expression, pointed his hand toward the void and started gathering demonic powers immediately. He was trying to shoot the demonic power with his utmost level.

DOOOOOOON!

A massive amount of demonic power was shot from Diodora's hand. But it hit nothing and kept sailing forth into the void until it vanished like it ceased to exist.

"So! Fight me like a man, huh?! What does that even mean?!"

Diodora was stunned. He couldn't compose himself during this ordeal.

"I mean! What do you think we're doing here in the first place?! Our "fight" already ended in your defeat! All that was left was my killing you! But instead of simply crushing your heart! I decided to take my time first!"

"Tch…Damn." Diodora breathed out.

"You're about to know true despair! And all the terror that comes with it!"

Diodora continued to turn his head back and forth. "He's out there. I should be able to find him somewhere, so why can't I? This is impossible! Impossible! Impossible!"

CRUNCH!

This time, a strong punch hit Diodora dead center in the face and bloodied his nose as he was knocked back a few steps.

"Augh! Where is he?!"

POW!

He was kicked in his damaged thigh right after that, which only hurt him more as he screamed. "Aaaahh!" He gripped tightly onto his leg, trying to soothe the pain as the pressure on his mind kept growing. "This is insane! How am I supposed to fight like this!?"

Next, softly and suddenly, Shirou gently placed some of his fingers on Diodora's ear. Like someone who felt an insect buzzing nearby, Diodora instinctively swatted his arm out to his ear and once again felt he hit nothing.

Shirou continued his mind games by softly tapping one finger on the tip of Diodora's throat, and once more, he instinctively reacted by swinging his arm out at nothing.

"He's just toying me…." Diodora realized as the terror started sinking in.

"Got your attention?!"

Diodora flinched when he heard the voice again.

"Then consider yourself warned! Your death may come at any moment! It's simply a matter of time!"

Diodora didn't know what to do. He was completely at the mercy of a faceless enemy he couldn't see or touch, and he was becoming disoriented by all the pressure that was piling up.

CRUSH!

The next blow was a sharp kick to Diodora's ankle that broke the skin and pierced his flesh like a knife.

"Aaagghh!" Diodora cried out again and fell to one knee.

SLICK!

"AAAAGGGHHHHH!"

What followed was much worse as Diodora felt a finger pierce into each of his eyeballs and push them into his eye sockets. He bled horribly from his eyes, fell into a fetal position while clenching his face, and his mind was going crazy. It was one thing to be in a void of shadows, but to be suddenly and painfully blinded, he felt like his mind was breaking apart from this psychological damage.

Diodora was then gasping for air and trying to steady his breathing as he kept his eyes closed. They were stinging from all the blood, and he was filled with excruciating pain. While he was suffering through all that, Shirou spoke again.

"If you can't see anyway! There's not much need for eyes!"

POW!

Before he could respond, Shirou struck him with a powerful kick to the solar plexus, and Diodora's body was hunched over as he felt like he was hit by a wrecking ball that ruptured some of his organs. He fell on his knees again and hunched over as he vomited out a mouth full of blood and bile, coughing out whatever was inside before he merely sat there and moaned painfully, barely able to think straight anymore.

"Have you noticed a pattern yet!? I hit you with a single attack once every ten seconds! But even with all that time in between each blow! All you're doing is waiting for the next! That says a look about you!"

Diodora heard every word and was trying to come to terms with it all. Ten seconds—Could that really be true? Every attack had come after only that small amount of time. If that was the case, that meant he knew when the next one would come, and what was worse in his mind, there would be a next one.

"10!"

"9!"

"8!"

"7!"

"6!"

"5!"

Diodora just sat there, trembling at what was to come. "In another five seconds, he's going to strike me again."

"4!"

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"This is it. Here it comes… Here it—"

POW!

Before he could finish that, though, he was kicked in the face and knocked over to his back as more blood from his already damaged face.

"10!"

"9!"

Hearing the countdown start up again chilled Diodora to the bone, and he shot up from the ground. His eyes were wide and bloodshot with fear as the count went on.

"8!"

"7!"

"6!"

"5!"

"4!"

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

In fear of the oncoming blow, he swung his arms around in a vain attempt to defend himself.

POW!

This time, he was hit by an uppercut to the chin that knocked him on his back one more and cracked his jaw.

"10!"

"9!"

"8!"

"7!"

"6!"

"5!"

"4!"

This time, Diodora didn't move while hearing the countdown. He merely lay there like someone who knew danger was coming and that he couldn't stop it as the terror with each passing second. All he did was curl into a ball with his hands over his hand, and his teeth were chattering. He had been reduced to a child who was scared of a bad nightmare.

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

POW!

His position didn't help as Shirou stomped on the top of his head and dug his heel into him. Diodora was pinned to the ground and cried out painfully as he felt his skull starting to crack under the weight of Shirou's heel.

"Guggghhhhhhh!"

"5!"

"4!"

At this point, there was no resistance left in Diodora. Once Shirou stepped off of him, he was now just lying on the floor, crying and whimpering as though he didn't know what else to do. He just wanted the pain to stop and would pray if he weren't a Devil.

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

POW!

Now Shirou kicked him in the side of his torso and broke a few more ribs as Diodora was knocked over to the ground in a sideways position. He didn't move from there and kept whimpering with his hands clenching his head.

"5!"

"4!"

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

POW!

Shirou continued demonstrating his ruthlessness by low-kicking Diodora on the floor and knocking him back a few feet. More blood spilled from his face, and if his nose took any more damage, he'd likely need surgery or Asia.

POW!

This time, he didn't bother to count and just kicked him again. He was hit in the torso once more, but this time on the other side, and thus, more of his ribs were broken. It was as though he didn't have to think anymore and just instinctively cowered after being struck, as his whimpering didn't stop either.

"5!"

"4!"

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"STOP! PLEASE! NO MORE! NO MORE!"

Diodora begged with his face covered in tears, snot, drool, and, most of all, blood. His flesh was torn, his limbs were hacked, his handsome face broken beyond recognition, his bones cracked like glass, and his organs damaged worse than any disease. And none of that could compare to the horrified damage done to his mind. Any confidence, pride, arrogance, vanity, or strength of will had been destroyed, and all that was still was the pitiful sight trembling before him.

"Please! I give up! I'll do whatever you want! Just no more! Please! I'm begging you!"

WHOOSH!

Like a cyclone of wind, the darkness creating the void they were in blew away around them until it all faded, and light returned to the world. They were now back in the shrine where they stood when the battle began, and Shirou reappeared standing directly in front of him, and he stood over the cowering Diodora.

"Do you remember the euphoric sense of anticipation you felt when you imagined targeting more women or when you got your hands on Asia? The same feeling any predator would have when thinking of his victims. Have you ever noticed the difference?" Shirou asked stoically. "When you await the arrival of something joyful, the time you have until it arrives is nothing sort of pure bliss. But, when it's terror that's on its way, the time you spend waiting for it to arrive is nothing but despair."

Diodora didn't respond or ever react. He merely kept sitting there cowering and whimpering as if he feared that if he said anything, he'd be hit again.

Shirou looked down at him with an empty and emotionless expression. He beat him so severely that he let out all the anger and hatred he had for this High-Class Devil. Now, he felt nothing for him, nothing but the feeling anyone would have when faced with a broken man who was a shell of his former self, just another face he would soon forget.

Shirou reached out and grabbed Diodora by his collar as he lifted him from the ground. Diodora couldn't even speak anymore. He just looked at him and kept sniffing and hiccuping. He was unable to do anything else in the state he was in. Shirou gave him one last stoic look before he glared and braced himself, and he thrust his arm forward and speared his palm through Diodora's chest.

CRUSH!

His thrust pierced through Diodora's chest, cutting through flesh, bone, and finally, the heart that was torn apart and destroyed. The color faded from Diodora's eyes, and the heir to the House of Astaroth was slain. Shirou pulled back and removed his arm as he dropped Diodora. His body hit the floor with a loud, echoing thud.

Shirou looked down at his body as he magically wiped the blood from his hands. After all that he had done, all the people he had hurt, all the lives he had ruined, it was now over. His end was pitiful and disgraceful, which was precisely what he desired.

His body vanished soon enough, and there was nothing of Diodora Astaroth left behind. It took less than five seconds for Shirou to forget about him and move on. Shirou walked toward the throne and turned his attention to what was above it—The Longinus seal.

Even though it couldn't activate without Asia, Shirou still didn't like the idea of leaving search a device here after knowing what it could potentially do.

"Ddraig, could I destroy that device using the Boosted Gear? I mean, using a Longinus to break another Longinus?"

[No, Dimension Lost is a higher rank Longinus than the Boosted Gear. And if it reaches Balance-Breaker, it's near limitless. Please remember it. Longinus, more powerful than the Boosted Gear exists.]

"In that case, I'll use something better suited for the job."

Shirou held out his hand and brought out a large sphere of darkness that was twice the size of his fist. He then pulled back and hurled his darkness at the Longinus seal.

SCORCH!

That Power of Darkness spread out and consumed the Longinus seal like a flame, and like a tree being devoted by fire, the device looked like it was slowly dissolving and being broken apart by the darkness. Knowing that his job was and the seal would be fully destroyed after a while, Shirou turned to walk away.

"Well, it's finally over. Now, I just need to meet up with the others and tell them the good news. Then, Azazel—"

{And thus, a maggot dies.}

CHILLS!

Shirou froze like an ice sculpture as he heard a new voice echo throughout the shrine. But it wasn't new; it was familiar to him. From above, near the ceiling, a lavender magic circle appeared with an unfamiliar sigil on it. It was neither the sigil for Astaroth nor the Old Satan Faction; it was the sigil recorded in the history books of both the Underworld and the Church. The sigil of the Old Beelzebub. And from that magic circle came a magic floating above Shirou.

"An object made from a Longinus perishes from the attack of the Amakusa, huh? Damn, Mist-user, he must have eased up or didn't calibrate this into his design. It's necessary to readjust the plan."

Shirou knew that voice, just like when he first heard the voice of Cattleya Leviathan. It was a voice he'd remember for the rest of his life. When Shirou looked at the direction it came from, he saw the man floating in the sky.

He had the appearance of a handsome man dressed in black armor with a cape. His armor seemed skintight and hugged his body with purple metal armaments over his abdomen, his arms had heavy metal gauntlets, and his legs had heavy metal boots with the toes splitting down the middle, making them look like talons. His cape was long enough to reach his ankles. It was the same color as his armor and had fur around the collar. He had long brown hair that went to his hips, with many bangs covering his right eye. His eyes were dark gray.

There was no question in Shirou's man. This man was Shalba Beelzebub. The man who was personally responsible for torturing him and killing his parents.

When Shirou saw him, he almost lost it as he clenched his fists, bore his fangs, and felt his anger reigniting much hotter than before.

"It's yooouuuuuu!"

—…

Ō ō


And that's the chapter. First of all, tell me, what did you all think of the savage annihilation of Diodora's entire peerage? It was a little hard coming up with fifteen different deaths and making them all savage deaths, but in the end, I found a way. I wanted this to fully showcase the brutality and ruthlessness that Shirou is capable of and suppresses around the others.

And his beatdown of Diodora was an absolute demonstration of merciless slaughter. It wasn't enough to beat him or break him. I wanted Shirou to completely destroy every part of him until nothing was left. It took a while to put it all together in a way that I liked, but I'm overall satisfied with how it turned out. The next chapter will be the final chapter of this Arc, so I plan to wrap up everything there.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed. If you want more, then be sure to leave a review. If you like the story, click the follow/favorite, and as always, have an awesome day. Happy New Year to all.