Hello everyone and welcome to the start of chapter 55 of the story! Summer has now almost gone by and so did our vacations, with the Summer Event on NA being a goodbye before we go back to our mundane routines (Or already have). Anyways, here's another chapter to make all the suffering of the week worth it.
Let's get into it!
DISCLAIMER: All the Nasuverse characters belong to Nasu and are property of Type-Moon, with the exception of the OC's that belong to me, the author.
"Mephistopheles!?" Faust exclaimed in shock as he stared at the clown-like man standing in front of him. The alchemist couldn't believe it. He didn't want to believe it. It was like he was gazing at a haunting ghost. Because that's what Mephistopheles was to him. Even in a temporary short second life, Faust still couldn't run away from this abomination desguised as a prankster. No matter where the alchemist went, he couldn't hide from his chaser.
"Mephisto-what?!" Nala replied back as she waved the dust around her away, not fully getting the clown's name.
"I think I've hear him about him before." Mash speaked, this not being her first time hearing the name of Mephistopheles. Once the dots were connected, she lowly gasped and looked worridly at Faust. "He's your-"
"Yes." Faust sighed with a mix of bothersome and dread as he talked back to Mash. He cleenched his teeth, staring back at Mephistopheles. "My personal demon."
"Huh? That guy is a demon?" Ritsuka asked confused. "Looking better at him, that clown really looks freakish."
"He definetly is a servant. But a demon?" Peko said, also having a bit of an hard time to believe the servant in front of them was a demon.
"Remember what I told you about scary clowns Peko." Ritsuka told him.
"I think Faust is just being metaphorical about it." Nala told to the two.
However, Mash knew it better. "Not really." She said, about to correct them. "Mephistopheles is indeed a demon who-"
"Leave that piece of explanation for later!" Mordred said as she interrupted Mash, staring furiously at the servant who threw a surprise bomb at her. "What was that part of 'Victor Frankenstein is no longer available' you were talking about? What have you done to him jackass?!" Mordred shouted, demanding an answer from Mephistopheles about the scientist's situation.
"Oh? That? Well, he's dead of course, whooohahahaoahahaha!" Delivering the terrible news with laughter, the clown demon delighted at the expression of sudden shock on each one of his enemies faces.
"Grrr...Why you..!" Mordred grunted, her grasp on the sword's tilt getting tighter.
"Ah! But just for your information, I didn't actually killed him." Mephistopheles explained. "Poor guy blew up himself!"
"What?!" Faust exclaimed, incredulous.
"He decided to end his own life rather than join forces with my employers when I asked him politely so." Mephistopheles informed them. "How sad, he would still be alive if he had chosen the better option."
"Then we arrived too late..." Peko said with regret. All that walking and fighting they did minutes ago for nothing.
"Not late enough to punch this clown in the face altough!" Mordred responded. "Who's with me?"
Faust stepped in by her side. "You got a volunteer right here!"
"Ooooh, you don't know how much I missed you Faust-dono!" Mephistopheles asked to the alchemist. "I was really looking forward to encounter you again! Altough not in a fight. But I guess it turns this whole situation funnier to me and the fight just more worth it."
"There's nothing fun to be deemed here!" Faust shouted at Mephistopheles.
"With you, every moment in my life is fun Faust-dono!" Mephistopheles responded, his annoying voice starting to get on Faust's nerves.
Having enough talk, the alchemist aimed the lamp of his staff at the clown demon. "Then I'll make sure this will be your last one!" Faust yelled, sending a dark laser beam torwards Mephistopheles.
"Aww, why so much animosity Faust-dono?" The clown servant asked with a sad frown, avoiding Faust's beam. "Can't you see I'm happy for our reunion?" He sneakily went to grab something behind his back.
"And can't you see I'm NOT happy?" Faust replied back.
"Ohohoho, but that's the whole gimmick. Annoying you is pure joy to me." Mephistopheles took out a large pair of scissors from his back. "Wich is why I'll spare you for now, Faust-dono." He gave a sadistic grin to his opponents, licking the sharp blade of his scissors. "And those royal twins too. My employers ordered for it."
That last statement raised some few questions on Chaldea group, specially to Peko and Nala.
"Royal twins?" Mash said in confusion.
"He's he talking about us?" Peko thought.
"Hmhm, we must be getting famous!" Nala said with a cocky smile and face, putting a thumb under her chin.
"I think that isn't a good thing." Peko told to his sister, a drop of sweat appearing on his forhead.
"Why do you want them?" Ritsuka questioned to know the answer from Mephistopheles.
"Hmmmmmm, top secret. I'm not allowed to say to you." The clown demon responded with a cheeky smile while putting a finger in front of his lips.
Mordred charged immediatly torwards Mephistopheles. "Then shut up already and die!" With a swing of her sword, the knight's blade clashed with Mephistopheles scissors.
"Oh yes, I can die. But it will be from laughing at your corpses!" Mephistopheles try to cut Mordred's head off with the pair of blades from his scissors. Mordred saw the attack coming and leaned her back backwards, dodging the hit and proceeding to kick Mephistopheles hand and be fast enough to still deliver a small blow on the clown's cheek with her sword.
Faust obviously didn't stood there watching and used the light from the lamp to reflect an alchemy symbol on the ground, evoking dark purple flames from it to attack Mephistopheles. As the clown dodged it, the alchemist summoned another symbol, this time creating a large earth pillar to hit Mephistopheles from behind, taking some strays of hair from him.
"So this is the warm welcome I get Faust-dono? You trying to kill me?" He said with a big sad clown face, trying to deal some blow in Mordred.
"You attacked us and expect us to not fight back?" Mordred replied to Mephistopheles despite he was calling for Faust, almost hitting the clown on the face again before he retreated a bit.
"Wohahaha, but unlike the rest of you...Faust-dono has plenty of reasons to kill me." Mephistopheles smiled evily at the alchemist, seeing in there the person he adored to torment.
"Then you should stop adressing me as if we were in good terms." Faust told him with animosity.
"Oh, but Faust-dono, understand that I always treat my contractors as friends of mine." Mephistopheles smile grew a bit, irritating Faust slightly.
Thankfully, a shot of one of Peko's light bullets made the clown temporarily lost his grin as it hit him in the shoulder. "Stop provoking him!" The boy said, jumping to the front line of the battle alongside Nala, Mash and Ritsuka who was more on the behind.
"Preparing to engage in combat!" Mash declared, looking behind to Ritsuka. "Watch for your back master!"
"Got it! Be careful with him too!" Ritsuka replied, warning Mash and the twins about Mephistopheles.
"Roger that!" Nala responded, before lashing out at the clown. As the two changed some clashes with their weapons, Mash came in to block one of Mephistopheles attacks, allowing Nala to get an opening and slash the enemy on the side of his abdomen. The shielder then tried to hit him with her shield but Mephistopheles was quicker to react, throwing some bombs at them as he took a few steps back.
"Behind me!" Mash ordered Nala as she put herself in front of her companion and tried to protect both of them by using her shield against the explosions. Once the explosions had passed away, Mash fell in one knee to the ground. "Didn't expect the explosion to be that strong!"
"You okay Mash?" Nala asked behind her a bit concerned. It took some energy to tank those explosions.
"Ihihihihihi! The first victim of today!" Mephistopheles jumped torwards the open Mash, looking to critically wound her with his scissors. Nala prepared to put herself in front of Mash to block the blow of the clown demon. But that wasn't needed as Mordred stopped Mephistopheles intentions by delivering a kick on him.
"You ain't killing nobody today!" She shouted before pushing the enemy away and looking at Mash who was still on her knees. "And you get up already! Or does a shitty explosion is all that it takes to put you down?"
Mash was slightly taken aback by Mordred's words before quickly recomposing herself. "O-of course not!" She replied, getting back up on her feet.
"Good! And you don't stand there just watching shortie!" Mordred replied back and speaked to Nala before running torwards Mephistopheles who was now fighting Peko and Faust.
Nala immediatly went right after. "What does it look like I'm doing!?"
Before Mash could also rejoin them, Ritsuka used a spell on her, approaching his servant, much to her surprise. "S-Senpai?"
"This should help you a little more." He said, smilling to her. "Just because I can't fight a servant doesn't mean I'll do nothing."
Mash smiled back to him before going back to fight Mephistopheles. "Understood!"
"Metabolism!"
"Ohohohooo! Trying to weaken me Faust-dono? That isn't nice! Not nice at all!" Mephistopheles scissors hit Faust's staff while the demon clowned speaked with him. "Killing me won't transform your wrongs into rights! All the flaws that you have, you created them yourself! There is no scapegoat here!"
"I'm aware of that!" Faust responded, keeping up with Mephistopheles attacks. "But you were the anchor that still pushed me down!"
"And who created that anchor in the first place, hm?" Mephistopheles asked with an annoying smirk, his eyes locking on Faust's.
"Enough!" Faust strucked the bottom of his staff on the ground, creating another alchemy symbol that fended off Mephistopheles by molding the ground into an earth pillar to attack the demon.
Peko didn't wasted the opportunity and fired a light bullet while Mephistopheles was still in the air. The demon managed to dodge it. "Missed m-ggrgh!?" Or so that what he thought as the light bullet changed its trajectory to hit him in the back.
"That's what you would think!" Peko said before attacking Mephistopheles with his sword. The clown pulled out his scissors again and blocked the first hit from Peko and jumped over the boy to avoid the second one, surprising Peko.
"I can't kill you, so perhaps one of these hits will be enough to knock you down." Mephistopheles speaked as he landed behind Peko and tried to put him out with an attack from his weapon. However, Faust was faster in standing beetween the two, taking the hit for Peko in his shoulder.
"Faust!" Peko exclaimed.
"Oh oh? When did you started caring about others Fasut-dono? That is so unusual from you." Mephistopheles told to the alchemist before removing the scissors from his shoulder.
"Ggh!" Faust flinched a bit in pain as Peko tried to slash Mephistopheles, resulting in forcing the enemy to create some distance beetween them.
"Is it bad Fau-" Peko tried to check if everything was alright with the alchemist before his eyes spotted a strong flow of hot wind coming out of Faust's wounded and bloodied shoulder. "Is that...steam?"
Faust put an hand over his injured shoulder almost immediatly. "I'm good. Thank you for worrying." The alchemist said to Peko, not noticing what the boy had just saw coming out from him.
Meanwhile, Mephistopheles was in a hard position as he had both Mordred and Nala attacking him with Mash also supporting the two by blocking majority of the demon's attack.
After parrying some attacks, Mordred was able to hit Mephistopheles in the neck with the back of her sword. "Take this!"
Slightly stunned, Mephistopheles was trying to recover as he got a kicked in the face by Nala. "And this one!"
Mash then bashed her shield into his body, throwing Mephistopheles some meters away.
And just as the clown was starting to get up, an alchemy symbol appeard on the ground beneath him. "Uh oh." The flames erupted from it, almost burning Mephistopheles who barely managed to escape.
"The numerical advantage is quite significant here." Ritsuka commented to himself as he saw the battle occuring.
"An advice for next time you go to a fight: Bring more people." Mordred told him as she and the rest stood in front of Mephistopheles, ready to jump him down again. "Trying to win against five opponents alone isn't quite smart."
"Nmgh...Yes. Ain't that a big truth?" Mephistopheles talked back, cleaning the blood from his face. "A game like that has no fun to me." He said before grinning psychotically to them. "Wich is why I brought another person with me!"
"He isn't alone?" Peko asked surprised.
Mordred noticed the environment had slowly changed around them. "Looks like it."
"It's that type of mist again." Ritsuka noticed, this being the second time he was seeing it. "Then that means-"
"We're here!" Said the voice of Jack the Ripper, the assassin girl appearing on the top of a column that belonged to the entrance's gate of Victor Frankenstein's manor. "Glad we joined the fun in time!" She said with a smile.
"Jack the Ripper has appeard again!" Mash exclaimed.
"Woah! Oliver! You're here too?" She said happily upon spotting Peko. "Hehehe. That's good! Very good! It means we can all play together!"
"Can you cut off that Oliver crap already?" Nala speaked hostilely to Jack.
"So she still thinks I am that Oliver kid..." Peko thought, seeing that the assassin servant had truly convinced herself of that.
"No need to be mean Oliver's sister. We will also play with you." Jack replied to Nala with an innocent smile, not having read the mood in the other girl's face.
"IT'S NOT ABOUT THAT!" Nala screamed at Jack.
"Be careful! Remember the way she can vanish and reappear instantly." Faust warned them.
"Oi, assassin. Have you got anything noteworthy while searching Victor's house?" Mephistopheles asked to Jack who shaked her head.
"All that we did found was some sort of human sized doll in the laboratory." Jack informed him. "But she was lifeless and boring, so we left her there."
"A human sized doll?" Ritsuka rised an eyebrow.
"Perhaps that's what Victor wanted to show us." Faust said, repositioning his staff. "We'll have to see it for ourselves after this fight."
"I see." Mephistopheles replied to Jack. "Leaving that aside, are you ready to join the game assassin?"
"We are! We are!" Jack hoped up and down. "Hey, hey! Can we also choose our playmates ?"
"Sure dear assassin! Anyone that you like!" Mephistopheles told her. "Only with the exception of that red-eyed alchemist. I've already choosened him."
"Okay! We also have our partners in mind too!" Jack said before moving her head to stare at Peko and Nala, more precisely torwards Peko. "Time to play Oliver!" She launched her body from the top of the column torwards the two siblings.
"Here she comes!" Peko shouted, with him and Nala getting ready to face Jack again.
However, Mash anticipated that and blocked Jack's dash with her shield, much to the serial killer's annoyance. "Hey! We didn't choosed you to be our playmate! Go find someone else!"Jack told Mash, briefly landing her feet on the shield to jump over her and then perform a slash on Mash's back.
"Aargh!" Mash cried from the sharp pain she ended up receiving.
"Mash!" Peko shout her name before clashing with Jack. "What did I told you about not hurting them? I thought you wouldn't do that again!" Peko speaked angrily to Jack.
And the serial killer had the audacity to react with a pout. "She was on our way Oliver, you dummie! No one should try and ruin our fun!" She then looked at Peko with curiosity. "Also, since when do you carry a sword Oliver? We always thought you were better at sneaking and stealing people."
"Don't change subject! You hurt one of my friends!" Peko said as he unmade the clash with Jack who took a few steps back.
Nala came in shortly, standing by Peko's side. "And for someone who likes 'Oliver', why are you trying to kill him and us now?"
"Oh, we actually aren't." Jack responded. "We have no plans in killing Oliver or you. And mommy also told us to bring you alive, wich we were already planning on doing that."
"It has to do with the group you work for wanting them, doesn't it?" Ritsuka questioned Jack as he went to pay assistance to Mash's wound. "For what purpose?"
"We aren't telling you." Jack responded to Ritsuka with a cold stare.
"So that means you are planning to kill the rest here." Peko told to Jack, putting his sword in position. "And I'm not letting you do that!"
Nala did the same with her sword. "We both aren't!"
Seeing that, Jack giggled with innocence. Or at least it sounded like that. "Good, good, good! We can play that game! You two defend your friends as we try to kill them!" She exclaimed joyfully despite the twisted premise of her game. "But you better don't slack." Jack said with a sadistic smile as she took out some new pair of knives. "We also have sharp toys!"
"Bring it!" Nala responded, going ahead to clash with Jack first while Peko followed behind.
As that was happening, Ritsuka was helping Mash to get back up. "Are you fine?"
"Y-Yeah. The cut wasn't that deep." Mash told to Ritsuka, feeling guilty for the hit she took from Jack. "Sorry mas-"
"That doesn't matter. We have people to defeat first." Ritsuka interrupted her. "And I know you still have a lot more energy in you Mash!"
Mash nodded. "I do have master! I'll use it to help the others!" She said before running into battle.
"Clown's Laugh!"
"Instinct!
"Two can play the game asshole!" Mordred responded to Mephistopheles casting a spell by also using a spell herself.
"Sure! I am always in favour of fairness after all!" Mephistopheles responded, summoning one of his bombs and throwing it at Mordred and Faust.
"Watch it!" Faust shouted as he and Mordred both evaded the explosion and the alchemist proceeded to summon an alchemy symnol near Mordred. "Jump on it!" The alchemist told her as an earth pillar emerged from the ground, with the knight jumping at the top of it, coming torwards Mephistopheles.
The clown demon leaped to the air, launching a bomb in the pillar's direction. Upon contact, the bomb went off. Still, Mordred came out from the cloud of smoke and runned to the tip of the pillar, jumping torwards Mephistopheles while swinging her sword to hit him. The clown parried her attack with his scissors, altough a second after the impact of their weapons, Mordred used her strenght to push Mephistopheles all the way to the ground below.
Observing the free fall of the enemy on the floor, Faust pointed the lamp of his staff at Mephistopheles. A dark purple beam was fired in the clown's direction who barely managed to avoid. "Faust-donooooooo!" Mephisopheles screamed from excitment, attacking Faust once he had landed. The two traded some blows with each other. "It pleases me how much you are into the game Faust-dono. Just to know you also have been summoned to this place...Woooahahahaha, it certainly means our fates are bounded to one another!"
Faust tried to hit him with his staff in response. "Shut up!"
"By the way, have you grown wiser throughout all this years of being dead? That's what you wanted, wasn't it?" Mephistopheles continued to irritate the alchemist. "That means your life now is no longer boring as it was before."
"Stop saying nonsense!" Faust replied, going to the point of trying to punch Mephistopheles in the face, failling it.
"Hmm, true. With me, your life stopped being boring! Thank you for reminding me of that Faust-dono!" Mephistopheles said with a smile, pointing his scissors at Faust's chest now that he was exposed. "Here's a gift of mine!"
Thankfully for Faust, Mash appeard right in time, blocking the attack with her shield and fending Mephistopheles off at the same time. "Need help?"
"Gladly accept it." Faust responded to her.
"Take this bastard!" Mordred shouted, brandishing her blade against Mephistopheles. The clown demon dodged the swings and dared enough to hit Mordred on the arm, making a small cut. "Tsk!"
"Kihhihihihihi! That must have hurt." Mephistopheles laughed, throwing two bombs at Mordred. "But not as much as this!"
The knight dodged jumped away from the first bomb and deflected the second one with her blade. "Is attacking with scissors and bombs the only thing you know to do asshole?!"
"Hmmm, is it becoming tedious to you knight?" Mephistopheles said sadly before having an idea. "Then how about six bombs at once?" He speaked, grabbing three bombs in each hands and launching them at Mordred.
"Khh! Trying to make things hard eh?" Mordred watched the bombs going torwards her, ready to try her best in avoiding all of them.
"You should pay attention on other fighters too Mephistopheles!" Faust talked, destroying three of Mephistopheles bombs while Mash deflected the other three.
"You're still in numerical disadvantage!" Mash told to the clown.
"Heh! Good to see you still know how to move that shield." Mordred told to Mash. "I was gettin worried you had become sloppy.
"Why are you even saying those things?" Mash said with a mix of confusion and slight anger.
Mordred gave a backhanded tap on Mash's shoulder. "Just messing with ya!"
Faust stepped to the two girls side. "This isn't time to be messing around. Not when we have to deal with the likes of him." The alchemist said, staring at Mephistopheles.
"Ohohoho! All that concern for me is making me flattered Faust-dono." Mephistopheles responded, using one of his skills.
"Witchcraft!"
"And we will make you dead within the next minutes!" Mordred replied before looking at Faust. "If you wanna have the finishing blow, just say it."
"Having that honor or not, it doesn't matter to me." Faust told to the knight, preparing to use another alchemy symbol. "I only care about him being defeated right here and now!"
"Murderer of the Misty Night!"
Activiting one of her habilities, Jack dodged perfectly from Peko and Nala's attacks, with Ritsuka watching the fight.
"She's pretty fast!" Peko said.
"That's what you think!" Nala responded, charging torwards Jack.
"Hehehehehe! You're pretty fun to play with. We like you!" Jack found Nala's insistence on trying to land a hit on her amusing. "We wished Oliver had told us sooner about you!" The serial killer then rised her knee to hit on Nala's chin.
"Air Step!"
Nala dodged the attack by centimeters. Yet, that was only the beggining of Jack's wave of attacks. Nala was managing to barely dodge from every slash coming at her, slightly surprising the serial killer. It wasn't like Jack was purposefully trying to kill Nala, after all she had orders to not to. However, that didn't meant Jack couldn't play a bit with them and damage Nala's body with some cuts. In her mind, this battle was nothing more but a fun game.
"The two's speed are almost in the same level that it's insane!" Ritsuka noticed, watching Nala and Jack moving and dodging from each other's blows at a scary speed.
"Wow! You're pretty good at dodging!" Jack said amused before landing a cut on Nala's left side of the chest. "Almost as good as us."
"Ngh! She got me..." Nala covered her wound with the hand for a moment. "Seems I'll have to experiment something else."
Ritsuka went to lend some aid to her. "Got hurt Nala?"
Peko went immediatly against Jack, preventing the serial killer to continue attacking his sister. "Stop it!"
"We love how committed you are to this game Oliver! Altough we don't really wish to hurt you." Jack advised him, not looking to hurt the boy she assumed to be Oliver. "But we'd figure you love to play swords as a hero." Jack let out an happy giggle.
Peko was still clueless on how the serial killer was mistaking him for another person. And a fictional character at that. "How did you even knew it was me in the first place?" Peko asked to Jack, pretending to be Oliver to get an answer from her. Jack looked at him with a confused stare.
"What do you mean? Your scent of course!" She smiled to Peko.
"My scent?" Peko said confused.
"Hm hm! You always had that smell. And we have a good nose to distinguish it." Jack explained, pointing at her own nose.
"Does that mean she confunded me with Oliver because he and I have the same scent?" Peko thought about the new information Jack gave him.
"But anyways, you shouldn't be distracted now Oliver!" Jack said, caughting Peko off guard. The serial killer easily made him lose his balance, and proceeded to went after Ritsuka who was checking on Nala's condition. "Now who's going to protect him?"
"Oh no! Ritsuka! Nala!" Peko shouted at the two, trying to warn the two about Jack.
"She's about to attack us!" Ritsuka said as he was about to move his body to protect the girl from Jack. Nala however had some trick on her sleeve.
"Gonna use this now!" Nala quickly got up from the ground and recomposed herself, instantly swinging her sword at an incredible speed to the arriving serial killer.
"Precise Stroke!" (Buffs Nala with Attack Up and Ignore Evasion skill)
"Gggrhg!" Jack grunted in pain as Nala managed to land her attack on the assassin's body, making a significant damage.
"Liked that?" Nala said, happy to see her new skill had worked.
"That was incredible Nala!" Ritsuka said astonished.
"When did you learned that?" Peko asked to her, also amazed.
"In training." Nala responded with a cheeky smile. "Told you nothing would be stopping us!"
"Ahahahaaahahaahahahaha!" A crazed laugh came out from Jack as the serial killer girl recovered from the pain of the wound Nala inflicted her. "You managed to hit us again! We knew it! We knew it you would be fun!" Jack speaked, staring with a wide smile and a fixated, almost obssessive, gaze at Nala. "You're definetly the best playmate we have had to date!"
Nala reacted with a bit of disgust. "This girl clearly isn't well in the head."
"Already had the impressions of it." Ritsuka responded.
"I can't even tell if she perceives all of this thing as serious as we do." Peko commented, still thinking about what Jack told him. "But how can I have the same smell as Oliver?"
"Yaah!" Mordred shouted, brandishing her sword at Mephistopheles who dodged from the blow as well as from Faust's attack from behind. Mephistopheles responded by throwing more bombs at them, with Mash protecting the two servants from the explosions with her shield.
Both Faust and Mordred took the chance to rush at Mephistopheles and attack him, with the alchemist summoning flames and earth pillars.
Mephistopheles destroyed the pillars with his scissors while avoiding the flames. However, no matter how much he did to avoid Faust's attacks, Mordred reached next to him and slashed the clown demon on the chest. "Got you now prick!"
"Is that so?" Mephistopheles asked as he continued on his feet and charged torwards Mordred, intentioning to hit the knight with his weapon. Trying to trick her with the next movement, Mephistopheles moved one of his hands behind his back, pretending he would throw another bomb at Mordred.
Unfortunately for him, Mordred was able to tell his movements, not falling for the trick and block the attack from Mephistopheles scissors at the same time. "Yes it damn is!" Mordred responded, winning the clash against the clown, punching him in the face and throwing him at Faust. "Here!"
Having charged up his lamp, Faust fired a beam right into Mephistopheles core. The clown still made contact with the end of Faust's staff who then used it to pin the clown to the ground, piercing his skin. "It's over for you." Faust told Mephistopheles, certain that the blow he delivered was fatal for the clown demon. Despite being with a calm and stoic face, Faust's eyes looked at Mephistopheles with a silent enmity.
"C-crgh!...Aww, feeling sad about this F-Faust-dono?" Mephistopheles asked to Faust as he coughed blood from his mouth.
Faust responded by putting his staff deeper into Mephistopheles skin. "I feel anything but pity for you at this moment."
"Hehehe...that's so mean...Faust-dono..." Mephistopheles said, slowly moving his hand to summon a bomb. He got stop right in the moment by Mash shoving her shield into his hand.
"Your tricks won't save you now." Mash told to the fallen clown.
"Still talking with him?" Mordred said to Mash and Faust as she approached them. "Just end with the bastard already."
"A good idea." Faust said, about to deliver the finishing blow on Mephistopheles.
"Heh...It won't come back..." Mephistopheles said all of a sudden. "Your old life...aspirations...status...friends...All of those things have been gone and lost forever!" He smiled at the alchemist. "I'm the only thing that remained for you! The one that reminds of your own weaknesses!"
"SHUT UP!" Faust yelled, agressively piercing his staff on Mephistopheles a second time. Even in a situation where he had come on top against Mephistopheles, the clown demon would still mess with his head. "Your face disgusts me! Your laughs and voice angers me! Your entire being is nothing but a body of pure filth!" The alchemist said in fury, being done with Mephistopheles comments.
"Calm down please, Faust-san!" Mash said to Faust.
"Hihihihihihi!" Mephistopheles laughed at Faust's anger. It was delicious for him. "And yet...Am I the one to blame for everything in the end?"
Faust said nothing but cleench his teeth and close his hand into a fist.
"Just shut up and die! Guys like you are damn annoying!" Mordred tried to shut Mephistopheles up by kicking him in the head, proceeding to point her sword at the clown's face and staring at Faust. "If you ain't going to kill him, then I will."
"But not before...my parting gift..." Mephistopheles responded. "And who knows...perhaps I'll drag you all with me..." Those words reacted some quick sense of shock and panic on the other three.
"What do you mean by that?" Mash questioned Mephistopheles.
"A final stunt..." Mephistopheles responded, magically revealing an enormous quantity of bombs strapped into his body. "It normally isn't a suicidal Noble Phantasm but...you gave me no choice."
"You fuckin-" Mordred was about to try and finish him off before Mephistopheles could unleash his Noble Phantasm, but got interrupted by Faust who grabbed her in the arm and proceeded to do the same with Mash. "H-Hey!"
"Faust-san!"
"Sorry but we have to get as far from him as we can!" Faust justified his action while creating some distance beetween them and Mephistopheles. "That fiend is really crazy enough to do that!"
"Please respectfullyyyy obey meeee
Both eyes, flank, knee, spinal cord. Installation complete!"
Stopping some meters away from Mephistopheles, Faust realized thag it probay wouldn't be enough to escape from the huge explosion thag was about to happen. "I need to do something or else it will be our end!" Quickly taking action, the alchemist placed both his hands on the ground. "I won't allow you to have that satisfaction Mephistopheles! I won't!"
With a different alchemy symbol appearing beneath the time-bomb Mephistopheles, a metallic substance started to take form of a iron sphere, about to trap Mephistopheles inside.
"Dozing Bomb: TickTock Bomb!"
In the moment the metal sphere had finished taking total form, it almost cracked into thousand pieces as violent and explosive blue flames came out of it, being close to break the sphere entirely. It was so powerful that even contained, it let out a huge shockwave and sound in the surrounding area.
It even made the other fight that was happening to be interrupted.
"Oh?" Jack looked around, with her opponents as confused as her.
"What was that sound?" Nala speaked.
"I think it came from the others fight with Mephistopheles!" Peko exclaimed.
"Then we have to check if they are alright!" Ritsuka replied, wishing that the explosive sound they've heard didn't meant anything bad had happened to Mash or either Mordred and Faust.
With the explosion finished and under control, Faust fell to his knees utterly exhausted. "Blerghg! Grgghr!" All the mana and energy he had spent in that exact moment to hold off a powerful explosion, made the alchemist vomit and cough some blood.
"Faust-san!" Mash put an hand on his shoulder, scared by Faust's condition. She hoped he'd still be alright.
"You're freaking crazy!" Mordred yelled at Faust for the risky decision he just did. "I could have killed him there and spare you from all that stupidity you pulled off!"
"So what..? Only you are allowed to act brashly and impulsively?" Faust asked to Mordred, mustering some strenght to smile.
"Well, sorry for expecting an alchemist mage to behave like a damn alchemist mage." Mordred responded, having calmed down. "Anyways, I bet that must have ended the freak-"
"Woooahahahahahahahaha! Well done Faust-dono! Simply amazing!" The irritable laugh and voice from Mephistopheles sounded as the metal sphere Faust had created slowly dissapeard, liberaring all the smoke inside it. And as Mash and Mordred were preparing already to still continue their fight with the clown demon, they soon noticed that it wouldn't be necessary. Mephistopheles body was starting to vanish in the air. "Does this means you are finally free? That your redemption is on the way?"
Faust didn't respond him, still staring at Mephistopheles with the same cold eyes.
"Aaaah, I seriously doubt that. Wherever you went, I'd always go along!" Mephistopheles contiued to speak as there was almost nothing left of his body. "We have been connected for an eternity! Do you even know how to live without me, Faust-dono?"
Ritsuka, Peko and Nala had reached to the spot of the fight, being able to witness the clown demon last moments. Jack was also there seeing it.
"Mephitopheles is fading away." Ritsuka said.
"That means he's been defeated." Nala responded.
Catching their voices, Mephistopheles attention changed to the people of Chaldea. "Oh, seeing such group like yours united...it's quite amusing."
"What are you trying to say?" Peko asked to Mephistopheles.
"That such group can only end in betrayals and backstabs of course!" Mephistopheles grinned. "After all, that's the joy of having people working together. To in the end kill them by surprise and see the shock on their faces!"
"You're out of your mind if you think we'd ever do something like that!" Nala responded to the clown demon, being perplexed at the enemy for speaking what she believed to be a bunch of nonsense.
"Hmmm, you never know. All of us have our own demons inside us with urges." Mephistopheles responded, eying Faust. "Isn't that right, Faust-dono?"
"..." Faust continued to not give a reply to Mephistopheles, just gazing at him as he would dissapear.
"As for you, girl with a shield. Your a servant and the older boy over there your master, right?" Mephistopheles asked to Mash, bringing up her bond with Ritsuka as master and servant.
"Yes I am." Mash responded to the clown demon who smiled widely.
"Then don't miss your chances to betray him! They are several and will only continue to appear!" He exclaimed. "Once you do it, you will realize how fun it is!"
"Mmm..." Mash response was of a slight troubled and perturbed face. The thoughts Mephistopheles was trying to put on her mind were monstrous to even think about them.
Thankfully, he had no more time left. "That is all I have to say! I wished I could've only enjoyed this second materialization of mine more." He then gave a final look at Faust. "Until next time, my creator! May the peace you find be nothing but mere illusion. Hihihihihihihihihihihihihihi..." And with a last hunting clownish laugh, Mephistopheles had dissapeard for good.
"Thank god he kicked the bucket already. Couldn't stand those laughs anymore." Mordred commented, rubbing her own ear.
"He really seemed a creepy individual." Peko added. "Those things about we ending up betraying one another...it's just-"
"A load of gibberish." Ritsuka told to the boy. "No one will be backstabbing here. He just wanted to mess with us."
"Yeah! We shouldn't pay attention to whatever stupid thing that clown had to say." Nala agreed with Ritsuka.
"Still, to think he tried to get under our skin with that." Mash said, wondering how Mephistopheles could say and do such vile things.
"Mephistopheles is like that. A twisted demon to the core. You really shouldn't think about it." Faust told to the shielder, gathering the strenght ti get back up. "Rather, be grateful that he won't be a problem to us again."
As they were chatting, Peko suddenly remembered that they were forgetting about another enemy. "Wait! We still have to deal with Jack!" As he reminded them, everyone was about to go into their battle positions again when they heard the sound of Jack clapping her hands.
"No. Don't worry about us. You've won the game Oliver." She said happily to Peko. "We are the ones who let our friend die, so we lost."
"Then what? You won't fight us anymore now that your buddy is gone?" Mordred asked, pointing her sword at Jack.
The serial killer shaked her head. "No. We already had enough fun for now. Hehehe, it was definetly worth it!"
"Hey, since we've won the game, we should at least have the right to know the identity of the people you are working for." Peko demanded to Jack. However the girl declined.
"Sorry but it's a secret. You aren't the only one who can have those Oliver." Jack giggled, before waving goodbye at them. "Well, mommy must have already prepared a lunch for us! Until next time Oliver and Oliver's sister! It was fun playing with you!" And so, she dissapeard behind the curtain of mist.
The group could rest knowing the danger was gone for now.
"She will be a constant stone in our shoe, won't she?" Nala sighed, unsummoning her sword.
"I got that feeling too." Ritsuka said. "Every time we'll go out, she'll probably be waiting to attack us."
"Specially that we now know the people she works for want Peko and Nala for some reason." Mash commented, now with the information that their enemies in this Singularity would be looking to capture the twins. "I wonder why?"
"That means me and Nala have become permanent targets here." Peko added. "But I too wonder why."
Faust changed the subject before they could start theorizing about that. "We should think on that later. For now we should search Victor's Frankenstein house."
"Yep. Jack the Ripper said something about a human sized doll in the lab right?" Mordred speaked, bringing up that topic. "I know where it is. Let's hope it's still there."
Ritsuka and the rest of the team agreed with the two servants before walking inside the residence. "Sure."
Inside the house of the now deceased scientist, Victor Frankenstein, Mordred led the group in the path torwards the laboratory. The house from the inside was quite well kept and almost similar in aesthetic with the residence of Jekyll. Perhaps was a common pattern among scientists and scholars. Due to have exploded himself, the corpse of Victor Frankenstein had left no trace behind except some medium amount of damage in a certain part of the house. The group stopped by it to contemplate a bit before going back on track.
"To have decided to go away like that, he really mustn't have wanted Mephistopheles and other bad people to take advantage of his knowledge." Mash speaked as they continued to walk.
"I can understand him." Faust replied. "Having your creations attached to something that could be used to cause harm and destruction is considered a disgraceful thing to those who have a conscience. I wonder what kind of person Victor Frankenstein must have been like."
"Meh. Don't go thinking he was some kind of selfless hero. Dude has his ego." Mordred told to the alchemist, being the only of the group who had some interactions with the deceased scientist. "At least he was somewhat tolerable. But to think he would prefer to kill himself rather than helping our enemies to save his own ass...Guess I may have misjudged him a bit." Mordred groaned a bit while rubbing her forhead. "Now I'll have to deliver the news to Jekyll."
"Hope he can take it well." Peko replied.
As they continued to walk on the hallway, Nala speaked to Faust. "What was that clown's deal in calling you Faust-dono? You knew each other before, didn't you?"
"Yes we did." Faust responded, deciding to tell them the relationship he had with Mephistopheles. "I was the one who created him."
Nala, Peko and Ritsuka reacted in surprise. Mash not so much.
"Really?! You created Mephistopheles!?" Ritsuka asked to Faust.
"A creation that I doubt you were proud of." Peko added.
"Yes indeed. In all of my life as an alchemist and mage, he may have been my gratest mistake." Faust said sadly,cpainfully remembering of old times.
"It's alright if you don't want to speak about that." Mash told to the alchemist, noticing that bringing up Mephistopheles wasn't a good thing for Faust.
"No. It's fine." Faust replied. "Mephistopheles was a barrier I had to overcome. One I hope it was achieved now. Perhaps, that's the motive I was summoned here. To confront him."
"But how exactly did you created that guy?" Ritsuka asked him with curiosity.
"I was having...some dark times during a certain point of my life." Faust responded.
"And that led you to make the pact stated in your legend, right?" Mash said, figuring what could have possibly happened next.
"True. A forbidden one." Faust put an hand on his own chest, grasping it. "It opened new ways of sorcery I could have never attained before. And so, with the recent knowledge I gained at the time, it allowed me to create Mephistopheles through illicit magic. But the end result, you guys already figured it out."
"Yes. Thanks for creating that jerk to give us trouble in the future." Mordred responded, having silently heard their conversation until now.
"I'm sure Faust wasn't expecting it would turn out that way. Don't be so mean." Peko said to Mordred.
"But then, that means you found the reason why you were summoned here." Ritsuka speaked to the alchemist. "Altough you weren't probably expecting to discover like that. At least I'm sure that ends the case now that you fought against Mephistopheles."
"He won't be able to torment you anymore." Nala said to Faust who smiled a bit and scratched the back of his head.
"That surely sounds nice..." Faust whispered to himself.
"What did you said?" Ritsuka asked him, not having quite heard the words Faust said.
"Oh! N-Nothing. Just mumbling again." Faust replied. "Talking about other important things, it seems the enemy is trying to abduct the two siblings from you." He stared at Peko and Nala. " 'Royal Twins' huh? You never told us you belonged to royalty."
"Yeah. What's up with that anyway?" Mordred speaked, also not being aware of that side from Peko and Nala.
"Well...we kinda don't know much about our own past." Peko said to the two servants.
"Hm? You don't?" Mordred raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Our memories about our home, family, lives, we can't recall any of it." Nala explained. "One of the only clues we have is of a tatto'ish' magic crest that has a design of a crown on me and my brother's back."
That information caught both Mordred and Faust off guard.
"That sounds...peculiar." Faust replied, his eyelids moving a bit.
"Odd as hell too." Mordred said. "Then ya two shorties want to rediscover those memories, isn't it?"
"Yeah. That's what we're looking for." Peko responded.
Mordred then looked at Ritsuka. "And how about you? Are you some kind of saviour god inside a human or some shit like that?"
"E-Eeeh no. I'm as regular as a human can be." Ritsuka told to the knight, smiling shyly.
"But that makes me wonder why people like Jack and Mephistopheles who we never knew, wanted us. I mean, Jack thinks she knows me as that character Oliver but it still doesn't make much sense." Peko talked, trying to think why those two wanted him and his sister.
"Could it be that the people they work for are somehow related to you?" Mash pondered, making the siblings think a bit about that possibility.
"It could be..." Nala replied, looking to the ground thoughtfully.
"Whatever it may be, I hope you two can achieve that goal, whether now or after a longtime." Faust said with a smile, staring at the entire Chaldea group. "I hope all of you can."
"Thanks Faust-san." Mash replied to the alchemist.
"I too will be wishing the best for you, but now we should focus on other things." Mordred told them as she stopped in front of a metallic door. "Like the lab here." She pointed at the door.
"Didn't even noticed we had reached it already." Peko commented.
"Talking is always a nice way to spend time." Ritsuka added.
"Let's not lose anymore time and enter the laboratory. We may find some useful information." Faust told them before turning around and accidentaly hit the tip of his boot into a leg of a random furniture and trip over. "Ouch!"
Everyone stared at him with awkward faces and smiles.
"Eeeh, I think walking while talking and looking at behind at the same time isn't a smart thing to do." Nala told to the alchemist who laid on the ground.
"Got anything broken Faust?" Ritsuka asked him.
"My nose perhaps..." Faust responded as he slowly went to get back up, with Mash offering some help.
"That's the problem with bookworms like you. Can't pay attention to anything else." Mordred said with a smirk to Faust before she opened the door that would give them access to Victor's lab.
Stepping into the room made of grey brick walls, the group saw all type of machinery and other electronic devices layed around the laboratory. And at the other end of it, there was a giant white curtain covering something behind. As impressive as the machines were to look at, it was all deactivated, probably by Victor's own hand.
"Wow! This person sure knew how to had a busy time." Nala said, looking at the lab's ambience.
"Yes indeed! I mean, check out all of this." Peko responded, as he went next to a machine, curiously touching the buttons on it.
"Hmm, I don't think we should be touching that." Mash told to Peko, a little apprehensive that they boy could accidentally turn the machine on.
"Don't worry Mash. The entire energy of this lab is turned off. The machines are completely useless." Ritsuka told her.
Mash noticed how messy the room was as well, with paper notes and other pieces of metal scattered in the ground. "Jack the Ripper must had searched every meter of this room. I hope she didn't took something valuable from here."
"Hey! I found a note recently written by Victor Frankenstein himself! It looks to have been his last one before dying." Faust called the group's attention, standing near a desk with a paper note on his hand. Everyone went there to see it except for Mordred who continued to inspect the place. "Take a look." Faust said, handing the note to Ritsuka.
"Huh? 'P', 'B' and 'M'? Is this supposed to be some sort of acronym?" Ritsuka asked as he saw the three highlighted letters on the paper. He handed to the others so they could watch the content too.
"According to what's written in there, they are supposed to represent the people who are behind all of this chaos in London as of late. And they were looking forward to recruit Victor Frankenstein. But it seems he feared the enemied had opted for a more radical alternative when he denied the invite." Faust told them.
" 'Project Demonic Fog'? Sounds like an operation." Peko said, staring at the words from the note.
"It must be. And the people with those three letters must be the ones behind it." Mash replied.
"If those letters are meant to be initials...then does it mean Mephistopheles was the 'M' guy?" Nala wondered. "Or maybe he was just a lackey like Jack?"
"It could be either of those." Ritsuka said.
"The end part of the note is Victor Frankenstein mention how he himself destroyed and burned anything that could be used as a weapon for the enemies before they arrived here. So I doubt we will find that much in the lab here." Faust informed the group. It seemed had taken all the knowledge and creations with him. Well, all except one. His most recent and ambitious one.
Shoving the white curtain away, Mordred laid her eyes upon a thing resting on a metal table that absolutely picked her intrest, and would certainly pick the others as well. "Oi! All of you, come here! Looks like we won't be exiting from here empty handed!"
"So it's true? Mephistopheles has been defeated?"
"It is. Jack confirmed it to me."
A female voice responded to a male one, sounding inside a large and dimly lighted cavern where the only source of light was of a purple object shinning weakly above five mysterious silhouettes.
"Hm. What a weakling. Had I been sended and we wouldn't have suffered such lose." Another female voice sounded, reacting to the information given by the voice of the first woman in the cavern.
"Do not fret about it. Losing Mephistopheles isn't as damaging as it would be losing you." The voice of the man who had made the question speaked to the second woman.
"What is the purpose of sending a weak large army, when you can win the battle with just one strong soldier?" The second woman replied to the man. "The way you retain to use my full power to smash the entire city annoys me deeply, master."
"Because we aren't looking to destroy London yet." A second man, to the left of the first man, speaked. "It all needs to be prepared and in condition for the arrival of our leader. Only then, you shall ravage London as you please, King of Storms."
"Indeed. We have yet to conclude our Demonic Fog project." A robotic voise speaked, to the right of the first man. "The royal twins have also escaped us and so did Victor Frankenstein. Errors like that can cost us greatly. We need to stay composed and proceed with the plan normally."
"We know. But that alchemist servant who appeard is doing us no good." The first woman lamented a bit. "He was there, right with the people from Chaldea and that lady knight."
"So we assume he is an enemy too?" The second woman asked.
"I'd still like to know more about the servant before deeming him as such." The man in the middle, the first man, said. "His materialization to this Singularity wasn't in the plans."
"Trully. Neither summoned by our leader nor the Counter Force." The second man replied. "A wild card. It would be a shame if the chaldeans fully convinced him to join them. Plus, a talk with another alchemist is intresting for me."
"We shall make it sure that doesn't happen." The first man responded before staring at the silhouette of the first woman. "Continue to send Jack after them to update us on their situation. We need to be always a step ahead."
"Understood. My precious little Jack has been doing a wonderful job at that. She won't dissapoint us." The first woman replied before dissapearing from the cavern.
"In the meantime, I'll continue to work on my upgrades of the Helter Skelter. There are still aspects I would like to better on them." The person with the robotic voice speaked before dissapearing from the cavern too.
"Good." The first man said, stretching his arms while looking to the ceilling. "We shall capture those royal twins and bring the end to human civilization with them as per our leader's commands."
To be continued...
And that was it for chapter 55!
A chapter to show how Faust absolutely loves his goofy demonic clownish creation Mephistopheles. I think the Faust inclusion in the game would actually give a lot more nuance to Mephistopheles. His design his cool as well as the premise but the rest is just...meh.
Also Jack continues with her delusions of confunding Peko for a fictional character and has taking a like for Nala who had attained a new skill. And we got a bit spicy with that last scene of the chapter. What's the whole deal with the villains of this Singularity with wanting Peko and Nala? We shall see.
For now, that's all I wanted to say and see you next time on chapter 56! Peace!
P.S:
Nursery Rhyme: Hello Nemo. Would you like to come play with us?
Nemo: I'm sorry but I refuse it with all the politeness. I have more important things to do than drinking tea or playing house.
Nursery Rhyme: Okay...(Walks away)
Nemo: Psst, Peko.
Peko: What is it Nemo?
Nemo: 4PM I want you to be logged in at Subnautica. We still need to explore that area understood?
Peko: Crystal clear captain.
(The two proceed to game session all night)
