Ride 4: Re:Tribute
16th of March, 2019 AD
Takeshi and ORC all entered the decrepit warehouse complex as night settled in.
Empty barrels and crates laid strewn everywhere visible under the dim lighting. Creaking of old lanterns hanging from the ceilings filled the ambient air as time began to slow to a crawl.
"Well aren't they taking their sweet time..." grumbled Takeshi.
"Patience," Rias ordered. "Recklessness is what the enemy wants from us."
Akeno nodded. "... They're oddly meticulous, though," she pointed out as she then began to get a feel for the whole area with her instincts. "Although, after their near-capture of one of their members, I suppose that they chose a labyrinthian area rather than somewhere out in the open."
"What? You expect those monsters to jump us at the park while we're having a picnic?" Takeshi snidely remarked as a way to cope with him being admittedly at his nerve's end. "... If I were an evil kaijin, the last thing I want is to terrorize people out in the open alone. They only do that during midday. And with lots of backup."
Koneko rolled her eyes. "Applying TV logic to life-or-death scenarios..." she commented. "... I hate that he's sort of right."
"Anyway, keep your eyes peeled, everyone," Rias remarked as she then stopped her group. "... Hold on, I spotted something."
Takeshi and the rest of ORC then see the whole frontal area ahead of them be entangled with several red lines stretched and strewn across their path, turning the way forward into a maze.
Yuuto then conjures a basic blade from his [Sword Birth]. "... Think we can cut our way through?"
"Nah, it's gotta be an alarm or something," Takeshi shook his head. "Red lines in the dark? Either that's Mission: Impossible or some Resident Evil-shit."
"Regardless, we're wasting time," Rias then begins to tap into her own powers, a bright red aura emitting from her very being. "Stand back! I'm breaching this obstacle-!"
*snap*
Everyone then hears something falling from above. They all look up, and sees a massive net made of the same red spiderwebs, the whole contraption weighed down by empty metal barrels stuck on each loose end of the intersecting netting.
"... Crap."
*FWHOOM*
Takeshi and the entirety of ORC vanish as soon as the web draped over them.
Deeper in the Complex...
"Alright, the group has been divided into Checkpoints A, B, and C," Cordelia confirmed as she contacted everyone by speaking into her thread-telephone (none of them have smartphones save for Astrid and communication magic is shelved in favor of offensive magic). "All Checkpoints, prepare to engage the enemy upon their arrival."
"Roger," all of the cups replied back before she hung up, her spider legs crawling across the net of spiderwebs of her making as she approached Astrid from behind in her impromptu-sniper's nest.
"Comfortable?" the Arachne asked, to which the Dark Elf nodded as she nocked an arrow into her bowstring. "Good."
She then looks down, and spots Takeshi teleport beneath them all by himself.
"Show's about to start," she remarked with a sinister grin as the Arachne saw the human flail around in confusion.
"Shit, I'm alone," grimaced Takeshi as he looked around. "... Okay, so first, where will the enemy come from-"
A feral shriek followed up by numerous crates knocked down then revealed Selia, armed with a spear and shield, lunged at him with her weapons.
"Whoa!" Takeshi then leapt out of the way before recovering his footing. "... Hell of an entrance you got there."
Cordelia sighs as she facepalms. "... That's not what I meant by 'surprise attack'."
"Remember me?" the Lamia hissed with both rage and glee.
"Flattery will get you nowhere, lady," Takeshi tapped into his Sacred Gear. "Henshin!"
As he transforms into his armored form, the Lamia then makes her move to attack Takeshi, but before her spear could strike him, he dodges on time before delivering a punch aimed at her stomach, to which she blocked with her shield, only knocking her back a few meters with no injury.
"Goddamn! That was like punching a brick wall...!" he grimaced as he shook off the soreness.
"I'm a lot ssstronger than before," Selia boasted.
"Took the words right out of my mouth, you bitch," Takeshi then got into his fighting stance. "This time... I'll be the one to defeat you-!"
*click*
By instinct, Takeshi then leaps out of the way as then a hail of gunfire drummed from behind where he stood.
Talon the Gargoyle was still clumsy with his handling of an Exorcist's MP5K, but was still proud of himself for not dropping it mid-fire as he reloaded his weapon for the next burst.
"OH COME ON!" he bemoaned as the Lamia then attacked him before another burst of gunfire was sprayed towards him from another direction, the knowledge of him having to take on two opponents at the same time doing him no favors.
Watching from above, Cordelia chuckles. "... So far, so good," she then walked across towards another corner of her web and towards Nell's borrowed crystal ball. "Now let's see how the others are faring..."
As the Arachne then observes the other parts of the battlefield, Astrid then pulls her bowstring back before shooting an arrow into one of the red threads, disappearing upon making contact.
At Checkpoint B...
Rias and Yuuto both then land next to each other, now finding themselves at a gravel field outside of the warehouses, surrounded with various partitions and unused concrete pipes.
"President, are you okay?" asked Yuuto.
"I'm fine, thank you," she replied as both of them stood back up, dusting off their clothes. "... Great. Taken by surprise and now we're separated from everyone."
The two then began exploring their surroundings, walking towards the warehouse before them.
"... Someone's coming!" warned Rias as she and Yuuto readied themselves.
*CRASH*
The shutters of the warehouse then blast open as a headless knight riding upon his flaming horse leapt towards them. Following him was a provocatively-dressed winged woman streaking across the air before hovering next to her companion mid-flight.
"A Dullahan and a Succubus," Rias observed their opponents.
"How great of an honor to receive for a High-Class Devil to acknowledge our meager existences," Nell replied with venom.
"This is a fight for our survival," Valdes spoke as he drew his longsword. "Nothing personal, but all of you must die, nobility or not."
"Then that's enough words then," Rias then unfurled her wings. "Yuuto! Prepare to engage!"
"Yes President!" Yuuto then manifests a pair of swords with his [Sword Birth] in his hands as then charged at the Dullahan.
As he broke blades against the mounted knight, Rias then pursed Nell in a low-altitude dogfight, both exchanging bolts of demonic power at each other, although Rias' proved to be on level of military-grade warheads compared to Nell's output, demonstrating a discrepancy of power between the two denizens of the Underworld.
"The offer still stands, Stray," Rias warned as she continued her chase. "Surrender now and I will offer clemency!"
"I'd sooner die free than live in bondage!" the Succubus spat back as she accelerated her flight as the two resumed their one-sided dogfight.
Back at the ground, Yuuto was dodging all of the mounted Dullahan's heavy blows both from his sword and his horse, with the latter having a harder time keeping up with the former, in contrast to his attack doing nothing to the headless knight.
My swords aren't getting through his thick armor! thought Yuuto as he ditched his broken pair with a replacement.
"Your intuition does not betray you, boy," the Dullahan replied to his thoughts. "I was a former Rook, and judging by your speed, you must be a Knight. Pity that you are still green. I would've loved to face you at your peak, but alas."
Yuuto stands his ground, undeterred by his threats, as he then brandishes his blades. "... Don't underestimate me," he answered as his swords then turned into a pair of red and white blades. "If I can't break through your defenses, then I'll pry them open myself!"
The Dullahan smiles from his disembodied head. "THEN BY ALL MEANS!"
Kicking his phantom horse's side, it then charges towards Yuuto, who in turn advances to meet the horseman.
"I AM VALDES THE STRAY! FORMER ROOK OF MY DETESTABLE MASTER AND PROUD DULLAHAN!" declared the headless knight. "WITH MY BEQUEATHED SACRED GEAR, [CATAPHRACT'S PACT], MY PHANTOM STEED AND I SHALL TRAMPLE OVER YOUR BONES TO ACHIEVE OUR LONG-AWAITED FREEDOM!"
"I am Kiba Yuuto of the Occult Research Club!" he declared as he dragged his twin blades across the gravel, one side hissing and the other crackling. "By President Gremory's will, I shall stop your rampage from advancing past this very night!"
The two swordsmen then clashed their blades, with Valdes unleashing a demonic sword wave from his swing whereas Yuuto parried the oncoming attack with a steam explosion created by the properties of his elemental blades converging into a cross, kicking up a wave of gravel from underneath as the two attack collided.
Breaking through the smokescreen, Yuuto and Valdes met their blades at the crossing, the former even getting onto the latter's mount to do so.
"Well done coming this far," praised the Dullahan. "Here's your gold star!"
Flipping open his visor, the disembodied head then vomits out a splash of rotten-smelling blood that stung Yuuto's eyes before the headless rider then bashes Yuuto's stomach with the pommel of his blade, knocking him off of his horse and land onto the gravelly earth.
"That is your baptism of your demise, boy," Valdes declared before shutting back his visor. "No one who has been anointed by my sanguine marker shall live past tonight!"
Yuuto then snickers as he stands back up. "... You missed a spot."
The headless knight then turns around in surprise as he spots that his white-bladed sword had planted itself into the ground near him, causing a trail of ice to spawn from its epicenter and travel upwards across his mount's entire hindquarters.
"FOOL!" Valdes then orders his mount to shake off the frost. "YOU THINK THAT WILL HOLD ME-?!"
While he was busy monologuing, Yuuto already threw his flaming red blade towards the Dullahan, the searing tip then making contact with the ice-cold steel platings of his armor.
*KABOOM!*
The Dullahan was then blasted off of his horse as the flaming sword exploded, the latter now returning to its skull form, separated from its user and no longer radiating the energy to be usable.
"... Crafty one, aren't you?!" snickered Valdes as his now-damaged armor began to fall off at their seams. "... Aye, it appears I've given you ill respect, boy."
Yuuto then manifests another pair of blades in his hands. "... Sorry, but I can't die until I accomplish my own goals."
The dismounted Dullahan then brandishes his blade. "... Then have at thee!"
As the duel between Yuuto and Valdes resumed, the air duel between Rias and Nell continued as it always had: horribly one-sided in the former's favor.
Rias herself was completely immaculate, nary a scratch marring her skin nor clothes, whereas Nell's wings and garments were akin to moth-eaten fabric.
"... Pitiful fool," Rias then readies to unleash her powers. "I'll make it painless."
The Succubus smirks. "... You're the fool here!"
Then shot up between them was an arrow with a glowing tip akin to a firefly's.
TWANG!
A blinding ball of light erupted from the arrow like a flashbang, blinding Rias long enough for Nell to move in for a decisive blow. Extending her pointed nails, she then raked her claws across Rias, the latter instinctively dodging it by back-stepping midair, but her forearms were nicked in the process.
"Ugh, did not see that coming..." sighed Rias before shaking herself off. "Now then, where were we?"
Nell, despite her failed attempt to take Rias' life, smirked. "... You're going nowhere, Gremory brat."
*thump*
Rias' body then suddenly becomes inflamed from within, her heartbeat and breathing suddenly becoming erratic.
"... Poison?!" she thought out loud as her face blushed red with heat. "... No, it's something else...! It feels... good?!"
Nell chuckles lightly before laughing out loud. "High-Class Devil or not, no living creature can ever resist their utmost carnal urges!" she boasted as she brandished her painted nails while licking them. "My acquired Sacred Gear, [Moonbane Kiss], is an extremely potent aphrodisiac that causes one's circulatory and respiratory systems to overclock on those coming into contact with them! My former master loved using this very similar method to intoxicate me into a state of helplessness before he always had his way with me! Now it's your turn to suffer like I have!"
Rias tried to focus, but as soon as her eyes met Nell's, she fell under the latter's innate charm. Due to the foreign concoction swimming through her veins, it took all of Rias' willpower to resist becoming entirely beguiled to her whims, left in a disadvantageous state where she couldn't even use her powers properly, let alone move, without orgasming herself to near-death.
"My charm usually works only on men," Nell revealed as her eyes glowed pink. "But once your libido goes out of control... anyone will do. Catch my drift?"
"... Is this... all you got?!" Rias growled as she continued to resist both the Succubus' hold over her mind and her highly-aroused body, knowing that it took everything Nell had to maintain her charm onto a High-Class Devil like her, resulting in the Succubus being rendered immobile herself. "... At this rate... all you're doing is... prolonging the inevitable!"
Nell smirks during the deadlock. "... I'm not doing this alone."
*twack*
Rias looks back at where she was struck from, seeing an arrow buried into her lower back.
"I know for sure one arrow isn't enough to kill a High-Class Devil," taunted the Succubus as she maintained her focus on immobilizing her prey. "... So let's see how many more you can take while both of your hands are tied."
More arrows were then shot towards her from unknown directions, striking her leg and one of her wings as the quills flew towards Rias' general vicinity, each of them feeling like Heaven despite pain being shocked into her brain.
"PRESIDENT!" Yuuto cried out as he spotted another volley of arrows striking into her. ... Where's it coming from-?!
"EYES TO THE FRONT, BOY!" Valdes then unleashes another wave of demonic energy from his sword swing towards him before he dodges the attack. "... So you've caught onto our ploy, did you?"
Yuuto growls as locked eyes onto the Dullahan.
"You wish to save her?!" he declared as the headless knight buckled down. "THEN BEST ME!"
Back at Checkpoint A...
"Move to Point E4," instructed Cordelia as Astrid then shot her bow into one other spiderweb that they were standing on while Takeshi's fight against Selia and Talon commenced below where the pair stood. "Maintain fire upon Checkpoint B's proximity. That Gremory brat is not invincible, so keep shooting until you run out of arrows."
Astrid nods as she maintains her shots to slowly whittle Rias away from a safe place thanks to her client's spatial displacement magic specialty. As she kept one eye on the crystal ball depicting Rias Gremory being riddled with arrows while resisting Nell's charms, she then walked over to another orb (borrowed from Arnett) where it showed a massive underground discharge channel built under Kuoh Town itself.
"They should come into view at any moment..." mused the Arachne as she then saw Toujou Koneko and Himejima Akeno in view. "... Perfect."
She then pulls one of her string telephones.
"Checkpoint C, this is Checkpoint A," she spoke into the cup. "Prepare to engage."
"Already on our way," Arnett replied before cutting off.
Below Cordelia's command center, Takeshi himself was parrying Selia's spear thrust with his punches while minding Talon's submachine gun fire, evading when hearing the slap and click combo he'd memorized.
"Ssslipery little bassstard... aren't you?!" hissed the Lamia after retreated from her offense prior.
"Coming from a literal snake-!" Takeshi then dodges another burst of gunfire that was slow compared to Akeno's thunderbolts. "... I'll take that as a compliment."
Talon meanwhile, was fumbling with his reload, accidentally drops his 15-round magazine on the floor, giving his position away.
"THERE YOU ARE!" Takeshi then kicks a rusty barrel towards where the sound had come from, knocking over several more crates as Talon retreated further into the warehouse to keep what little element of surprise in his hands.
Selia then moves in to defend her wingman, preventing Takeshi from advancing further in and exposing the Gargoyle to him, continuing the bout as before.
At Checkpoint C...
"... It smells here," Koneko wrinkled her nose as she and Akeno walked about the underground channels held up by giant concrete pillars.
"Ara, I guess our Strays are smarter than they look," the latter commented while keeping a lookout. "Granted, it's simple, but I guess it works as intended-"
Koneko then tenses up before stopping Akeno. "... Here they come!"
From further ahead, a pair of lanterns could be seen floating next to a burly Centaur carrying a Witch on his backside.
"WELL LOOKIE OVER THERE!" Denas sneered as he pulled out his crossbow loaded with a bolt. "TWO VIRGIN MAIDENS RIPE FOR THE PICKING!"
"Good thing your murder-boner is pointed in the right direction..." sighed Arnett as she then pulled out her book and enchants her companion's upcoming shot with fire magic. "... Bombs away."
The massive Centaur then shoots his magical bolt towards the pair, separating Koneko and Akeno from each other with an imbued explosion.
"Alright, I'll take the left," the Witch then disembarked from Denas' back to divide and conquer their foes.
"I'LL HEAD WHERE THE ONE WITH THE BIG BOOBS WENT!" the Centaur remarked as he turned right.
Separated, Koneko then quickly gets back up to her feet, shaking off the explosion and limbering up.
"... I hate it here," she remarked before swiftly dodging another crossbow bolt that struck the pillar next to her.
"AW COME ON! HOW DID I END UP WITH THE MIDGET?!" Denas bemoaned in an upset tone as he approached her while unsheathing his longsword and broadsword after putting away his crossbow. "I SWEAR THAT TRAMP WITH BOUNTIFUL BOSOMS WENT RIGHT!"
Koneko sighs before cracking her neck and shoulders. "... I must be a pervert magnet."
"... You know what, fuck it," the Centaur then brushes his hoof against the ground, readying himself to charge. "... I'll cut your limbs off and then have as much fun with what's left of you."
Koneko then took up a fighting stance. "... Bring it."
As the Centaur charged towards Koneko with his twin swords, the Witch then found herself standing before Akeno.
"... I thought the midget went this way," Arnett grumbled. "... Why did I run into you, cow-tits?"
"Ara, you mean to face Koneko-chan?" Akeno replied with a serene smile. "You should count yourself lucky. I'm painless compared to what she might've done to you."
Then the Witch's very senses are assaulted by Akeno's welling power akin to a coming thunderstorm.
"... Don't underestimate me!" the Witch swallowed her fear as she then summoned her spellbook Sacred Gear while conjuring a spell from the tip of her staff. "... If I can't beat you in power... then I'll beat you in variety with my [False Prophet]!"
Thunder and blasts of various magic could be heard from a distance as Koneko and Denas clashed physical might against one another.
The Centaur's mighty swings of his blade was sharp and hard enough to leave deep gashes into the surrounding pillars, but when then made contact with Koneko, she instead parried them with her bare limbs, deflecting them with her own jabs and kicks.
"Guess you're tougher than you look, twerp!" Denas growled as he brought down both of his swords onto Koneko, which she dodged. "Who would've thought that us Rooks have something in common, but I never thought someone lithe as you has taken up that role-!"
*CRACK!*
A piece of loose debris was then thrown into the Centaur's mouth by Koneko.
"... Please shut the fuck up," she grimaced with visible discomfort. "I'm not here to talk."
Denas then roars with rage as he then charges towards Koneko, dragging both of his swords behind him to deliver a cross-slash at her. Koneko, being the nimbler of the two, not only dodges the oncoming attack, but also uses said attack as a springboard to then deliver a flying knee into the ornery Centaur's face.
However, her knee didn't so much as cause Denas to even stagger, and instead, he then grabbed her by her waist, buck upwards, before slamming her back down as hard as he could, cratering the concrete floor as it rattled Koneko's skull and bones upon impact. Wasting no time, he then pins her down with his hooves, only stopped from completely crushing her underneath by Koneko bench-pressing the hooves away from herself.
"You got moxie, brat, but you ain't nowhere as hard as me!" boasted Denas as he pinned down Koneko with his whole body weight. "Normally, an attack like that might've drawn blood, but my gifted Sacred Gear, [Rust Escutcheon], allows me to harden my skin like iron on top of my defenses as my former status of a Rook! You're strong, girl, but let the records show that men are always the stronger sex!"
The underground drummed with bloodlust as both Akeno and Koneko fought their respective Strays, who in turn were fighting with everything they had to muster.
Back at Checkpoint A...
"... That busty chick looks like a total unknown save for her being close second to that Gremory brat," sighed Cordelia as she kept an eye on Checkpoint C.
The Arachne then treads over towards the orb where Checkpoint B was being shown, seeing that Rias was still alive and well enough to resist Nell's charms despite having arrows stuck all over her body like a pincushion while the blond boy was still clashing blades against Valdes.
"Well damn, she's one tough bitch," Cordelia grumbled at the sight of her physical and mental resilience. "Normally, if I were in Nell's shoes I'd take my chances to inflict more of that sweet aphrodisiac... but I think that redhead would rip me apart at that range, so... yeah, I'd play safe too. Speaking of..."
As she turned around, Astrid had now shot her final arrow. The Arachne then turns back towards the orb showing Checkpoint B, but the results are still the same.
"... Well shit, good thing I had a Plan B," Cordelia then pulls down a hidden string telephone from above. "... Enishi, move to Checkpoint A. Time to topple the King."
"En route," he replied from the other side of the line.
After giving him her order, Takeshi's fight against Selia was starting to even out as the former began to familiarize himself with her behavioral and attack patterns.
"WHY WON'T YOU JUST FUCKING DIE?!" the Lamia hissed as she rammed through the crates with her shield before thrusting her envenomated spear towards him.
Takeshi doesn't not dignify her with an answer, his brain now in top gear, free of distractions and in complete clarity as he struck back with a kick.
As he sees the Lamia being knocked into the barrels, he then runs towards where the gunfire had rapped from, spotting the copper-skinned Gargoyle in the dark.
"I FOUND YOU!" Takeshi then switches engagement with Talon as the latter tried to raise his MP5K to kill Takeshi, but he slaps it out of his hand, smashing it into pieces upon impact.
As he was about to take Talon out of the fight, Selia moves in to intercept Takeshi, bashing him away with her shield before helping him up.
"... Thanks," the Gargoyle grunted.
"Can you ussse your wingsss?!" asked the Lamia.
Talon then moved the joints of his wings and attempted to fly with them. However, he winces from the immense pain that was felt where his wing was ripped off before, causing him to land back down. "... Sorry, but I'm still grounded."
"Then we'll take him on two on one!" the Lamia then lunged towards the recovering Takeshi, the latter narrowly dodging her spear thrust before blocking the Gargoyle's claw swipe.
Meanwhile, as the melee shifted towards their side's favor, Cordelia then looks over towards Astrid, looking as if she's ready to join in on the fight.
"Not now," instructed the Arachne. "... For now, we'll have to keep an eye on everyone else and make sure that they win their fights."
On the Way Towards Checkpoint B...
Running between the numerous warehouses, Enishi made a beeline towards his designated location for his part of the plan.
Their plan was simple: divide the Peerage into manageable chunks, each will then pair up with whoever is the best synergized with each other, concentrate their strongest fighters to take on the Gremory brat, and send the weakest to take out the human with the Sacred Gear.
Out of the Strays in the Cluster, Enishi was the nimblest of the lot, being a Knight like Selia, but more experienced in vertical movements as well as horizontal. And thanks to his new Sacred Gear, [Aether Lead], it gave him the punching power of a Rook while being completely weightless to the wearer.
I have to do this... he thought as his feet continued stamping the earth beneath him. Just a little more... and maybe I'll get some answers about what happened to my family!
Their previous master was cruel, a commonality for the majority of the old-money Underworld's minor nobility.
Unlike most Strays, who voluntarily entered into a contract with their former master before cutting themselves off without their consent, their prior master turned them into Reincarnated Devils without their input.
He could remember the tales that they each shared throughout their time in their master's manor while they weren't being treated as disposable pawns.
Nell was a streetwalker who was left to rot and wished for the freedom of death.
Valdes was a Scottish knight that fell bravely in battle who was robbed of his dignity.
Enishi was in debt to the various Ronin and Yakuza with a family to support.
Talon spent his days perched atop of a library as a statue before he was forcibly taken.
Denas... was Denas, who ran into the misfortune of mugging the wrong person.
Arnett was a Witch Academy dropout who was content working at her family's apothecary shop.
And Selia was sold off as a child by her parents to their former master.
They knew that they weren't good people. They wanted to live free regardless.
Even Enishi knew that his family was long dead, and that his goal after obtaining freedom was ultimately worthless. But it was that sole delusion was his only thing that kept him going past the point of madness.
It was the only thing they had left to claim for their own meager existences in the grand scheme of things.
"... I'm almost there!" Enishi heaved as he then turned the corner. "A little more... and we'll finally be free-!"
Someone stood in the way of his path.
"... No."
Enishi knew the flutter of that cloak from somewhere.
"... It can't be!" he exclaimed as Enishi felt fear from their presence.
The figure then takes a step forth.
"... Who... WHO ARE YOU?!" Enishi cried out.
The figure scoffs before adopting a fighting stance. "I am your worst nightmare."
Now Playing: "Ultimate Darkness" by Norio Sakai (Kamen Rider Kuuga)
In desperation, Enishi then bulks up, his human skin giving away to brown fur as his nails and teeth elongated into claws and fangs, his body becoming hunched over, and his visage becoming bestial.
Enishi reveals himself as a Werewolf, howling under the moon closing in towards being full before commencing his attack.
The Werewolf swipes his claws towards the cloaked figure, who dodged his attacks seamlessly, almost as if he's toying with him, like if he's fluttering a lure to a cat with his cloak even evading his swift rends as they instead gouged into the surrounding edifice and ground.
"DON'T TOY WITH ME, YOU WORTHLESS HUMAN!" roared Enishi as he then lunged towards the figure in an attempt to kill the unknown figure quickly as possible.
Tapping into his Sacred Gear, he then raises his physical output to its maximum, enough power to rip apart an entire acre of a dense forest with one blow.
"DIE!" the Werewolf then brings down his claws with all of his might towards the cloaked figure...
*BOOM*
The surroundings collapsed first as Enishi's physical bearing had landed onto the figure, the latter of which was completely unharmed as their hands caught both claws as if they were mere paper.
The figure sighs with disappointment. "... Pitiful."
*SPLURCH*
Enishi's arms were ripped out of their shoulders as the figure tugged onto them with barely any effort, leaving him howling in pain and flailing about incoherently as a pair of bloody stumps squirted blood everywhere.
The figure then steps up while winding back a closed fist encased in gray armor. After taking another step, they then swing their fist into Enishi's chest, striking right where his diaphragm was located, sending him back flying before then delivering a somersault flying kick into the exact same spot.
Enishi landed on his back before sliding across the ground. After that combo, the cloaked figure then turns his back on the Werewolf before walking away.
"... Where do you... think you're going?!" growled the armless Werewolf. "... I AIN'T DEAD YET!"
The figure kept walking away as they clicked the tally counter to "004". "... You're already dead."
Then a magic circle then glowed from Enishi's chest. It was Nell's self-destruct formula that she'd put on all of the Strays in case they were about to be taken alive, which then they would activate on themselves to deny their captors any meaningful trophies.
The figure had somehow triggered it with a simple punch and kick-combo.
"... W-WAIT-!"
*KABOOM!*
The figure walks away as the pyroclastic plume of an explosion is set off behind them, leaving no trace of the Werewolf save for his ashes.
"Now, Ryuugamine Takeshi..." the figure then detects a red thread connected to a cup before snatching it, "... your ordeal begins now."
Taking a deep breath, the figure then roars into the cup as loud as he could.
At Checkpoint A...
A bellowing blast of a bestial roar was sounded out from above as Takeshi was fighting against Selia and Talon, both of them proving to be resilient against his enhanced punches despite his growing proficiency in combat.
"WHAT THE?!" Cordelia cried out as both the Arachne and the Dark Elf clasped their ears shut from this earth-shattering roar, causing them to slip off of where they were standing and fall towards the stack of crates below.
*CRASH!*
"There were more of you creeps?!" exclaimed Takeshi as he then spotted spider legs and a pair of pointy ears from the dust cloud, revealing Cordelia and Astrid to the armored fighter. "... A spider, a bat, a snake, and some Dark Elf-chick that looked like she walked out of an eroge... Jesus Christ, I'm literally fighting a whole trifecta of SHOCKER kaijin today, aren't I?!"
"Welp, cat's out of the bag," sighed the Arachne as she cleaned out her earholes. "... Selia, mind if we both help you out?"
"Just remember," the Lamia hissed as she raised her shield, "... I'm the one that killsss him."
"Noted," Cordelia then spins a length of red webs to fish out her [Aeolus Sack]. "GET HIM!"
The four of them then all lunge towards Takeshi all at once, now turning this semi-manageable battle into an upcoming curb-stomp.
"... Well shit."
*BOOM*
At Checkpoint B...
... Where the Hell is Enishi?! thought Nell as she kept her concentration onto the wounded Rias, locking her in place with her charm boosted by her [Moonbane Kiss] pumping through her veins. I know that Astrid doesn't have infinite arrows but he should've come by about now-!
*BOOM*
The Succubus then turns her gaze to the rising plume of smoking coming from his designated footpath that Cordelia had laid out. Her eyes widened at the realization of why he's late.
"... No!" she gasped. "ENISHI-!"
"Caught you napping."
*TWACK!*
Rias then slugs a demon energy-infused fist into Nell's face as hard as she could, sending her along with her molars flying into the stack of unused concrete pipes.
Rias grunts as the paradoxical sensations keep burning through her nerves. "... Just a minute or two," she then administered magical first-aid onto herself, "for me to... ween off the effects. By Satan, I need a cold shower afterwards..."
Back at the ground, Yuuto and Valdes were continuing to clash steel against each other, with the former taking advantage of his superior speed and the latter's weakening armor.
He'd decided that if he cannot defeat his opponent with a single decisive blow, he'll instead whittle him down through thousands of quick blows.
"You're picking up speed," commented Valdes as Yuuto began blitzing around him from all sides. "DON'T THINK YOU'LL BE ABLE TO OUTWIT ME LIKE THAT!"
The Dullahan then plants his sword into the gravely earth, sending a wave of demonic energy through it, unleashing a massive updraft of earth that erupted around him, dissipating Yuuto's afterimages in an attempt to slow him down.
He then pulls his sword out of the ground before then swinging his sword in a 360-degree arc of demonic energy, making sure to cover his surrounding proximity in hope of taking the young Knight down while clearing the smoke.
All he hit instead were nothing but the unused pipes and more gravel, with Yuuto nowhere to be found.
"What?!" the Dullahan then threw his disembodied head up to the sky in order for a bird's eye view. "SHOW YOURSELF, BOY-!"
*SCRUNCH*
Yuuto had been above him the whole time, planting his sword right between the gaps on helmet's visor with a black dagger with a jade butterfly as its cross guard.
"Good thing I spotted a bird nearby, otherwise, that attack might've killed me," he pointed out he drove his dagger into the head even deeper, using the floating head to slow his descent. "Thank you, [Fae Marker]."
"THERE YOU ARE!" the Dullahan then swings his blade with a demonic energy crescent towards above.
Yuuto counters by conjuring a copy of his [Fae Marker] sword before throwing it towards the attack. But rather than parry it, Yuuto and the attack itself switch places with each other, taking out the head as the young Knight then skydives towards the now-headless Dullahan with a new pair of blades in his hands.
The headless knight then jumps up to meet the boy head-on, his sword clashing against the young Knight's own mid-air.
"TRULY, YOU'RE OF GREAT TALENT!" Valdes laughed elatedly as he and Yuuto continued clashing mid-air. "YOUR SACRED GEAR SUITS YOU! WERE YOU BORN A FEW CENTURIES SOONER, YOU'D MADE A GREAT HERO!"
"My problems and concerns are with the here and now, so don't shove hypotheticals into my face!" The young Knight struck back as the two then broke off from each other, with the Dullahan sliding his heel against the gravel while Yuuto landed atop of one of the concrete pipes.
Both sides were now reaching their very limit. They knew that their next confrontation would be their last.
"Come, Kiba Yuuto," the Dullahan's voice flickered with his will-o-wisp dancing on his head as the Stray readied himself. "... One of us shall die a hero tonight."
Yuuto then manifests a pair of rapiers in his hands. "... En garde."
The two swordsmen then ran towards each other with their blades drawn and swung towards their opposition, commencing their duel.
Valdes with his single longsword kept Yuuto on his toes, with his wide arcs of his swings and demonic energy forcing the boy to take him seriously lest he wishes to die. Yuuto, in turn, utilized his current arsenal to their utmost advantages, striking the various weak points of the Dullahan's weakening armor, building up the material stress on each individual part each with a calculated blow.
Slowly but surely, Yuuto had whittled Valde's armor down to merely his breastplate, gauntlets, and grieves, revealing that the Stray's whole body was ethereal, and that his head was the only organic thing left of him.
"... So you're a ghost," Yuuto commented.
"Indeed. My body expired ages ago save for my head, if only through my former master's whim," the Dullahan answered. "... I will never understand his intent, nor do I care anymore. Try and kill a man who's already dead, boy."
Yuuto nods. "Gladly."
The Knight then blitzes towards the Rook with his dual rapiers as the Dullahan brings down his longsword, unleashing an arc of demonic energy towards the boy.
He parries the attack with one of his blades, absorbing it into itself as Yuuto continues his advance.
Valdes meets Yuuto head on, swinging his blade horizontally in order to take the Knight's head, only for Yuuto to duck underneath it and thrust his rapier into the armor's central chest area.
It breaks upon contact.
"YOU FOOL! MY CHEST ARMOR IS THE HARDEST THERE IS IN MY ARSENAL!" boasted Valdes as he then prepared to retaliate.
Yuuto smirks. "That was on purpose."
Spotting a pigment of rust on the armor, Yuuto then thrusts his other rapier into the blemish, breaching through the point and striking the Dullahan's very core.
Valdes then staggered as he dropped his weapon while Yuuto dismissed his blade from his hand.
"... How?" he groaned as his heavy form clanged against the ground. "... My armor... was perfect!"
"[Sword Birth] lets me create blades imbued with various properties depending on the user's strength," answered Yuuto. "My [Rust Order] lets me corrode any metal that it touches before it breaks upon a few uses, and my [Starlight Flash] lets me absorb demonic energy to hone its edge further, making it an ideal anti-armor combo. But in order to do that, I needed to wear down your other defenses first with lesser methods, such as my [Fire Brand] and [Frost Bite] swords cooling and heating pieces of your armor at spontaneous rates to the point where the improper process of martensite made it brittle."
The Dullahan cackles dryly after being thoroughly explained how he was bested. "... Kiba Yuuto... you speak that your goals are not... yet fulfilled?"
He nods.
"... Fellow warrior... to warrior," he spoke in his dying throes, "... do not stop."
"... I won't," Yuuto then walks away, leaving Valdes to die, the latter satisfied to have reached his goal of dying at the hands of a true warrior.
A wave of fatigue then washes over the young Knight, causing him to stagger a few steps before recovering his footing. He then spots Rias Gremory from afar, now recovered from her state of involuntary arousal, standing over a downed Succubus slumped on a pile of smashed concrete.
"... President-!"
"Stand back!" she ordered. "... She's a Succubus."
Yuuto nods in acknowledgement as he turns his gaze away from the remaining Stray, leaving his superior to deal with the problem herself.
Nell laboriously breathed, her consciousness gradually fading away as the crimson-haired Gremory approached her.
"... Go ahead," the Succubus scoffed. "... Laugh."
Rias shook her head in disappointment at the Stray's last request. "... Are you proud of yourself?"
"Huh...?" Nell remarked. "... What are you talking about?"
Rias sighs at the pitiful sigh of the dying Nell. "... You stated that your goal was freedom," she pointed out. "Of which, I understand, painfully so, given how common your kind of circumstances are throughout the Underworld's societal structure. But do you know why I opposed you and your companions regardless of that fact?"
Rias' eyes then glowed with a blazing crimson.
"Those people you've murdered had their freedom, and you all took it away from them," she pointed out. "And even if you'd managed to reach your goal of liberation, then what? More mass murder until someone else comes along and puts you down like the rabid animals you all are?"
"... Tch... don't act... all high and mighty," growled Nell, her body no longer strong enough to put up a token resistance. "... You're a Devil too."
"I know," Rias then points her palm towards the Stray. "... But I choose to be free from my so-called 'natural' inclinations, unlike you."
A black mass of power gathered before the Succubus' dying body from Rias' palm.
"In the name of Duke Gremory..." she recited as a wave of power concentrated towards her, "... I sentence you to oblivion!"
A pillar of black flames then devours Nell whole, incinerating her and the surrounding gravel into airy dust.
"... And that's their leader," Rias then turned her gaze towards where Yuuto was standing. "... You can come back now!"
Yuuto then runs towards Rias as the two reunite after defeating their foes.
"Excellent work as always, President," he complimented. "... Your [Power of Destruction] is always a sight to behold."
"Thank you, but you've also done your share as well," Rias replied before looking around. "... I'll save what I want to say to you for the after-action reports. We need to go find Ryuugamine-kun, now."
The two then dash off towards deeper into the warehouses in search of their new companion.
At Checkpoint 3...
"COME ON, YOU BITCH! JUST GET CRUSHED ALREADY!" Denas roared as he kept pressing his increased body weight onto Koneko.
The latter was still figuring out a way to remove herself from the pin while bench pressing the Centaur by his hooves. She wonders why he hasn't attacked her with his blades or his crossbow while he's got her on the ropes.
Then she smelled something funny coming from under her nose.
"... Ew," she cringed upon noticing that the Centaur had an erection, now understanding what he was planning to do with her rather than be a smart person and finish the job.
"Like what you see?!" cackled Denas. "Don't bother kicking it! It's as hard as my skin-!"
*CRUNCH*
Denas screams in agony as Koneko kicks the Centaur by his balls after throwing herself off of under his pin, and reaching deep enough to have her kick reach his tenders.
The Centaur bucks over backwards as he then collapses and writhes onto his side in unimaginable pain, with blood coming from his hindquarters.
"... I kicked sandbags that were much harder," scoffed Koneko as she stood back.
"... YOU...! YOU FUCKING BITCH!" Denas then gets up before blitzing towards the girl in a blind rage, now swinging his blades hard enough to cut through the entire width of the surrounding pillars, intending to kill her slowly and painfully to avenge his now-compromised manhood.
One blow manages to visibly injure Koneko, leaving a massive purple bruise across her forearms before colliding against another pillar.
"THIS IS FOR MY DICK THAT YOU BROKE IN HALF!" Denas then leapt towards her from afar. "DIE!"
*BOOM!*
Denas grins as he knew that he struck the killing blow with both of his blades before lifting them up, hooking the girl's school uniform's top at its tip.
But as the dust settled, there was no blood on the pavement, causing confusion to the Centaur. "... Wha-WHERE IS SHE?!"
He then hears a whip of air coming from the side, causing him to swing his other sword towards that direction in hopes of drawing blood.
Denas only then finds a skirt that had caught itself by his sword's tip, angering him even further.
"WHERE ARE YOU, DAMMIT?!" he roared with his rage peaking, stamping his heavy hooves into the concrete floor while swinging his swords blindly. "COME OUT SO I CAN KILL YOU ALREADY-!"
Then from nowhere, Koneko, now in her sports bra and bike shorts, constricts her arms and legs around the Centaur's thick neck, triggering his gag reflex that causes him to drop both of his weapons in order to pry her off of himself.
But no matter how hard his fingers dug into her skin, Koneko was undeterred.
"Your skin is like iron?" she remarked cooly as her limbs squeezed his neck underneath his thick beard. "... Guess you never read Heracles and how he killed the Nemean Lion."
Denas began rocking and bucking around violently, using whatever air left in his multiple lungs to pry the girl off of his neck through whatever means necessary.
He rammed her into the pillars, he jerked around wildly as he could to shake her off, he even tried to reach of his weapons through his magic, but Koneko jerked her whole body away from them, using his neck like a bridle, steering him away from anything that can be used as his advantage.
"By the way, if you must know, I frequent Kuoh Junior High's Wrestling, Aikido, and Judo Clubs as a part-time helper," Koneko explained. "... Devils forgo technique for raw power, but when it comes to taking on guys bigger than me, it doesn't hurt to be technical."
Denas' face then slowly turns blue as he begins foaming at the mouth.
"... Mercy," he choked out as the last of his air left his lungs before he collapsed onto his knees.
Koneko simply answers by slowly constricting his neck around even more. Rather than suddenly snap inward like a mousetrap (in fear of triggering his gag reflex that might lead into a burst of hysterical strength), she slowly winds inward, like how anacondas kill their prey.
Using her skin to feel the circulation of the Centaur slowly come to a grinding halt, Koneko kept an iron death grip around his neck before Denas toppled over, his cheeks now cold as ice.
"... And checkmate."
*SNAP*
As a coup de grâce, Koneko snaps the bastard's thick neck with a burst of her own strength, making sure that the perverted Stray doesn't get back up.
After confirming his passing, Koneko then lets his neck go, now looking akin to a fruit that was juiced dry. "Ugh..." she shuddered in disgust. "... Freaking pervert."
Seeing that her clothes were damaged beyond salvaging, Koneko retrieves the scraps before heading towards where Akeno's thunderbolts were heard from.
By the time Koneko had arrived, the Witch was slumped against the pillar, her staff broken in two, and her spellbook burnt to a crisp.
For the record, the Witch did not last a minute against Akeno's lightning.
"Ara, you're back," Akeno said as she saw her kouhai in a state of undress. "... Trying out something new?"
"Ha ha," Koneko dryly laughed before looking at the sorry state that the Stray Witch was in. "... Senpai, did you really have to go this far?"
"Forgive me," Akeno apologized semi-sincerely, "but seeing her trying so hard made me want to do the same."
Koneko shoots a glare towards her senpai. "... Isn't that the same thing you said about Ryuugamine-senpai?"
"Was it?" she replied.
"You...!" hissed Arnett as she was revealed to be miraculously alive. "... You hags... gonna keep... yappin'?"
The burnt Witch struggles to get back up with her absolutely scorched body, propelled by her own rage and indignation at her defeat, the two raw emotions being the sole things that kept her wrecked legs and back semi-upright.
"Oh good," Akeno casually remarked. "... You mind telling us where the exit is?"
The Witch then cackles as a magic sigil was formed around her chest.
"How about... I instead..." cackled Arnett as her veins began to glow like a furnace as her charred skin began to crack, "... send you all to Hell... myself-!"
*CRACK*
Koneko punches Arnett in the face as hard as she could, sending the Witch flying towards the other side of the underground channel, exploding open a hole into a wall before the self-destruct formula could explode in front of them.
"... I found the exit," Koneko pointed at the gaping hole. "... Let's go, senpai."
"Coming!" Akeno quickly followed the lithe girl through the hole, finding themselves in an underground tunnel where power workers would come in and conduct maintenance on the town's power grid.
Both of them quickly made their way upstairs and out the door, reaching outside.
"... Finally!" Akeno then stretched her arms and wings. "Fresh air."
"Uh, senpai?" Koneko then pointed towards the street sign. "... We have a problem."
Upon looking at the street sign, the two then realize that they were literally at the other side of Kuoh Town.
And worst of all, they didn't have enough time to set up a teleportation array to fast-travel to the warehouses.
"... Double time, Koneko-chan," Akeno ordered.
"Right behind you," Koneko then also unfurled her wings before both took to the skies.
With ORC having finished their battles, they all converge towards Takeshi's location, correctly assuming that he's also caught in a confrontation as they were prior.
Outside Checkpoint A...
Things have taken a turn for the worse for Ryuugamine Takeshi.
Initially, he was getting used to fighting two Low-Class Devils after learning of their patterns and putting his training to a good use, but after the introduction of Cordelia and Astrid into the fray, he was now being overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
All he could do was defend himself as best he could, but given that two out of four of his opponents were armed while he himself was bare-handed, it proved to be an uphill ordeal.
"HEY! DON'T HIT HIM SSSO HARD THAT HE DIESSS!" Selia complained as she shoved Talon aside. "HE'SSS MINE!"
Takeshi dodges the spear thrust, only for Talon to tackle him with the width of his metallic wings acting as a cover, sending the armored teen through another window leading inside another warehouse.
"Oh please, that was barely enough to kill him," the Gargoyle pointed out. "He's like a crab at this point. Just gotta break the shell to get to the gooey soft insides-"
*WHAM*
Takeshi dropkicks Talon from the breached window before laying the hurt onto the Lamia, forcibly taking her shield to use it as a weapon while beating her face in with it.
Just as he was about to continue, Astrid draws her hunting knife from her coat before slashing Takeshi with it, scratching against his claimed shield before being blasted from behind by a burst of strong wind coming from Cordelia's Sacred Gear.
"HE'S DOWN! FINISH HIM OFF!" ordered the Arachne as she then unleashed a gust of wind against Takeshi, allowing her allies to ride the gale as a tailwind.
First, Talon delivers a tackle with his wings acting as a ram, battering Takeshi through a solid concrete wall from the impact.
Then Astrid rushes in with her knife, lacerating his unarmored parts of his Sacred Gear to inflict as much damage to him.
And finally, Selia unfurls her wings, riding the wind and using her innate Knight's speed to then thrust her lance towards Takeshi at supersonic speed.
*SPLURT*
Takeshi looked down to see himself impaled through his chest and armor, causing him to cough out blood from within his helmet before the weapon was pulled out of his chest before the Lamia reclaimed her shield.
"... You... are sssuch... a pain in the assss," Selia hissed, seething at his persistence that was slowly coming to an end.
"What are you waiting for?! Finish the prick off!" Talon jeered.
"Now now, let her enjoy her kill," Cordelia interjected. "... It's not like our little human friend can do much of anything now."
As Takeshi laid on the ground bleeding, he was then picked up by the Lamia before being punched across his helmeted face, knocking him into a pillar.
"YOU! WHY DID YOU RESISSST?!" Selia hissed before striking Takeshi again. "DON'T YOU UNDERSSSTAND THAT THE HUMANSSS ARE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE FOOD CHAIN?! YOU THOUGHT YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE... BUT YOU'RE JUST A WEAK HUMAN!"
The Lamia then continues tossing the dying Takeshi around the warehouse like a ragdoll, denying him of a peaceful death.
"IT'S BECAUSSSE THOSE DEVILSSS LIKE THE GREMORY THAT YOU HUMANSSS LIVE LIKE SSSHEEP! IGNORANT TO YOUR PLACE IN THE WORLD UNTIL IT'SSS TOO LATE!" ranted Selia as she began beating his face in with her bare hands. "YOU DON'T GET THE RIGHT TO LIVE BECAUSSSE YOU'RE WEAK! A WEAK HUMAN!"
She was right. Takeshi was merely a weak human with a weak Sacred Gear.
There was nothing left for him to do except to die.
... I don't like it, thought Takeshi as the beatdown continued. ... I shouldn't have come. ... I'm too weak.
He only came because the world he knew a week prior felt normal.
Maybe he was better off as a normal high schooler bumming by with good grades and a stable future. But once he was forced to acknowledge that the world he knew was merely a facade hiding the truth, he couldn't look back.
Gods and monsters existed. Angels and Devils did their patrons work. All the while, in the past human history since time immemorial, humans lived in complete, utter, ignorance, dismissing the truth as mere "myths" and "fairy tales."
He wanted to make a difference in that world. He wanted to be part of it, if only to make sense of his ignorance that was irreparably shattered.
So should he die as all trespassers that came before him.
"... No."
With the embers of his willpower, Takeshi catches the Lamia's next punch that was about to be brought down to him.
"... You're right... I'm weak," he confessed. "... I shouldn't have come... but I came regardless... because I wanted power!"
*THUMP*
The dying embers in his soul rekindled.
"I SAW POWER! ... AND I WANT IT!" Takeshi resisted. "MY WEAKNESS... IS SOMETHING I WILL NEVER ACCEPT!"
*THUMP*
The moments where he let fate take control of his life were now viewed with pure scorn.
"POWER... I NEED POWER!" roared Takeshi. "GOD! SATAN! I DON'T CARE... WHO OR WHERE IT COMES FROM! I NEED POWER! I REFUSE... TO DIE WEAK!"
*THUMP*
Then the world stopped as a low rumble came from within the abyss of Takeshi's Sacred Gear.
"About time you came crawling to me for help," a spiteful voice spoke from the gem. "... Let me take it from here."
*FWHOOM*
An eruption of black miasma erupted from Takeshi, sending the four flying back from him as every remaining window around the building shattered from the emitted pressure.
"[Connection Complete]."
Within the vortex of darkness, Takeshi rises back up to his feet, both his bodily wounds and armor mending themselves within the chthonic inferno that he was surrounded in, and the gem around the buckle turns from black to ash-gray.
"WHAT THE HELL ISSS GOING ON?!" Selia cried out as she and the others tried to hold on as the dark storm raged.
"This spike in power..." Cordelia shuddered as she witnessed either a divine miracle or an infernal intervention, "... IT'S COMING FROM HIS SACRED GEAR!"
The storm dissipates, revealing Takeshi, back onto his feet, his armor fully repaired, and his presence no longer the insignificant whelp that he once was.
The hatchling then lets out his very first, true roar, as he then instinctively presses one of the many buttons on his belt.
"[Transfer]!" announced the Sacred Gear as a massive, broad-headed dane axe materialized in Takeshi's hand. "[Mayhem Striker]!"
"Who... who are you?!" Talon heaved out as his wings vibrated with fear.
Takeshi lets out a low chuckle as a pair of red-violet wisps shone from behind the grill of his visored helmet.
"You ask... for my name...?" "Takeshi" answered, his voice now a low guttural click of his former self, devoid of all emotion save for one, cold, and obvious detail.
Spite.
It was pure, unadulterated spite to everything that wasn't itself. Complete and utter contempt to all forms of life that existed, seeing them as nothing but grubs to be trampled over at a whim.
"... Here's a few hints," snickered and hissed the voice that spoke through Takeshi's mouth, every syllable coming out of his mouth full of contempt and malice. "... 'Abyss Rage Dragon'... 'Extrajudicial Death Dragon'... 'Eater of Yggdrasil's Roots'... 'Wyrm Waiting at the World's End'... 'Dweller of the Refuse Pit'... 'Primordial Parasite'... Ring any bells?"
Astrid's eyes widened as her breathing quickened upon being the first to recognize those titles.
Everyone else present then quickly caught up on who they were dealing with.
"... No way," Cordelia chuckled nervously, "... that Sacred Gear... was... It... IT CAN'T BE!"
Now Playing: "Spinnin' Around" by Takashi Hagino (from Kamen Rider Ryuki)
"Takeshi" smirked behind his helmet as a wave of anathema surged from his Sacred Gear before he then let out a rolling cackle akin to booming thunder.
"Nidhogg has returned," declared the armored human possessed by a hidden evil greater than all of the Cluster combined.
As soon as his true name was uttered out loud to the rest of the world, it began to feel colder than the dead of Winter.
"He-he's just bluffing!" Selia cried out as she then charged to kill him once again. "YOU'RE STILL NOTHING-!"
*SCRAPE*
Her spear was then caught by his [Mayhem Striker], the tip and shaft split down across its twain, neither halves of the sharp point even coming close to reaching his head.
"Then you should've never been born, maggot," Nidhogg then kicks his axe further down, splitting the weapon in twain along with the Lamia's fingers. "SCREAM FOR ME!"
He then raised his axe over his head, with the Lamia trying to block it with her shield, only for her to be pulled back by Cordelia's web and have the attack miss.
"WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?!" the Arachne cried out. "RUN, YOU FUCKS!"
The four then all retreated by using Cordelia's webs, teleporting into different locations to evade this awakened evil, but Nidhogg had already devised countermeasures for it.
"It's funny that you can even think of escaping me," grains of ash and dust seep out of his shadow before they all spread throughout the whole complex, instantly ascertaining their new locations. "... Now who to start with?"
He then detects a brush of metal with his feelers, causing him to chuckle.
"... He'll do nicely," Nidhogg then punches down a wall before walking through the breaching, continuing to break through every obstacle in his way all the while walking at a casual pace.
At where Talon had escaped from, he was trying to take off with his wings, but the mended wing still hadn't fully healed, preventing him from taking off properly as he stumbled back down to the earth.
"Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" the Gargoyle cursed as he struggled to fly. "... If only that son of a bitch haven't tore off my wing... then I would've-"
*CRASH*
A hand then breaches the wall adjacent to Talon's face, the hand grabbing his snout before it then pulls him in through the same hole it had emerged from, prying the hole into a larger width until he came face to face with his pursuer.
"Hi," Nidhogg then brings his [Mayhem Striker] down upon the Gargoyle, only for the latter to squirm out of the way just in time, barely getting decapitated before retaliating with his wing-tackle that busted through the wall that he was pulled into prior.
Nidhogg stops it by placing his foot onto the metal wing before kicking him away.
"And what was that supposed to do?" he mocked before pressing his button, gathering the ashes around his axe. "Actually, don't answer that."
He then swung his [Mayhem Striker] towards Talon, unleashing a wave of dust and ash that smothered the Gargoyle into a sphere of grains swarming around his whole body, trapping him within.
Muffled screams could be heard in tandem with metallic scraping within the ball. Once the sphere of ash dissipates, bones picked clean of their flesh and skin dropped before his feet.
From above, Selia and Astrid then jump down with their weapons in hopes of slaying this human, but Nidhogg snaps his fingers, transmogrifying the ashes floating in the air into spikes that shoot towards the pair like a volley of arrows.
Selia manages to dodge most of them whereas Astrid was turned into a pincushion midair, landing onto the ground into a bloody mess.
"... YOU... YOU MONSTER!" the Lamia screeched as she then tried to ram the possessed Takeshi with her shield.
*SHWAUCK*
The shield and the arm that it was strapped around was then clove through, now leaving Selia completely armless as she flailed about in agony, screaming and thrashing, unable to comprehend what was happening to her right now.
"... By the way," Nidhogg growled as he approached the panicking Stray, dragging his [Mayhem Striker] behind himself, "... you called me 'weak' back there, didn't you?"
Selia chokes in pure terror as Nidhogg glowered over her, his red-violet eyes burning into her very soul.
"... I'm going to enjoy this more than I should."
Screams were heard as the melody of flesh being gouged out, bones being chopped like wood, and screams of fear turning into that of agony before all three harmonized into the perfect death knell.
Cordelia was attempting to escape, now realizing that this operation was a bust, and the only thing she can do is cut her losses, and report her findings to her client.
Hastily spinning a web imbued with her own spatial magic, she then attempts to teleport out of this place, only for when she stepped onto them...
"It's not working?!" she panicked as she tried to imbue more magic into her web. "WHY ISN'T IT WORKING-?!"
*SHANK*
Four of her eight legs to her right were dismembered from her joints, causing her to topple over to her side, bleeding out from her stumps, and preventing her from standing upright.
"FUCK!" she cursed as the Arachne saw Takeshi approach her, his armor covered with splashes of blood on its chrome platings, reaching out his hand to recall his thrown [Mayhem Striker] back to him. "You...! How did you deny... me of my escape?!"
Nidhogg snickers. "Take a closer look."
Cordelia then picks up her failed web and sees that it has lost its viscosity and powers due to the amount of finely-ground ashes clinging onto its surface, turning it into a mere string.
"Those ashes weren't just for show," Nidhogg pointed out. "As far as first impressions go, you're not a fighter, aren't you?"
Cordelia, rather than feel any dread, chuckled in resignation.
"... It was supposed to be an easy in-and-out-job," she hoarsely remarked. "Of all the rotten luck... why did that Sacred Gear... had to be none other than [Cataclysm Zone]?"
Nidhogg looks down at the belt. "... You're familiar with my prison?"
"... Who doesn't know," she snickered, "... of Deus Trinity's greatest folly?"
Nidhogg, upon hearing that, snorts in amusement before laughing with the dying Arachne. "... I admit, I found that a little funny."
"To think... that an Evil Dragon would show himself in this day... and age," the Arachne dryly cackled as the malevolent shadow of the axe was then cast over her broken body. "... Tell the boy... that he's gonna need... all the luck he can get... or else... he's not long for this world-"
[Mayhem Striker] is then brought down towards her head, splitting her skull in twain before it cleaves across the rest of her torso, spilling her organs into a sanguine cascade of viscera and bile.
"Cute," smirked Nidhogg as he turned away from his most recent kill, resting his ax over his host's shoulder while basking himself under the moonlight.
"RYUUGAMINE-KUN!" Rias cried out as she and Yuuto arrived at where he was situated, standing before the slain Arachne as if it were normal. "... Something's off."
Yuuto nodded, feeling the hair on the back of his neck standing on their ends from the sheer wrongness that was coming from Takeshi as he was now.
"President! Senpai!" Koneko cried out as she and Akeno landed. "Sorry for the holdup. Got teleported to the other side-what the?!"
Nidhogg snickers as ORC had gathered before him, every last of them flabbergasted at what they were witnessing. "... Well look at the spread we have here."
Akeno's and everyone else's eyes widened as they heard him speak. "... That's not Ryuugamine," she remarked. "... It's someone else!"
"Takeshi" then slammed his axe back onto the ground before crouching for a runner's start. "More prey..." his voice trembled with excitement, "... JUST FOR ME!"
Takeshi's possessed body then lunges towards them, causing everyone to prepare themselves for another fight.
However, just before the axe could be brought down onto one of them, it stopped mid-swing.
"... Huh?" Yuuto remarked as he and the rest of ORC saw Takeshi hold tight onto his ax arm with his right hand grasped around it.
"You...!" hissed Nidhogg. "... The Hel's name are you thinking?!"
The ash-gray gem flickers to black in coloration. "I... I won't..." a familiar voice buzzed out from within the Sacred Gear. "... I won't...! Let you... KILL THEM!"
"You ingrate!" the Evil Dragon hissed back as he tried to retake control over his host's body. "I saved your life and this is the thanks I receive?!"
"Ryuugamine-kun?!" Rias called out as the struggle over the body continued over two different entities.
"... They... They're... my friends!" Takeshi's voice crackled out of the Sacred Gear. "... I won't...! LET YOU...! KILL THEM!"
Nidhogg sighs in pure disgust as he then relents. "... So you're one of those people."
The hostility emitted from Takeshi's body then dissipates, allowing everyone to calm themselves.
"I lost my appetite," declared the Evil Dragon as he then pressed the button on his Sacred Gear, dismissing his [Mayhem Striker]. "... Enjoy your respite, whelp."
The armor around Takeshi's body then disappears, causing him to collapse onto the earth face-first.
"Ryuugamine!" Rias cried out as she and everyone else ran towards him, picking him back up from the ground to retrieve him.
"... He's okay," Koneko remarked. "... I think he's just tired."
"Can't blame him," Yuuto agreed. "... We all need a shower after this."
Everyone present nods before Rias pulls out her smartphone to make her call.
"Sona, it's me, Rias," she called. "Can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear," the other side replied instantaneously. "Judging by the lack of magical signatures and our barrier being immaculate... I suppose it's mission complete?"
"Indeed," Rias replied. "Several of us have gone through quite an ordeal, but all of the Strays have been accounted for and dealt with."
"Luckily on my end, no one got hurt," replied Sona. "... Although, several members of my peerage have spotted damaged magic circles that looked to have summoned golems upon being triggered... but someone else got to them before any of us fell for it."
"Stranger still, I saw an explosion that one of the Strays recognized and reacted with distraught," Rias shared her information to her confidants. "... Think they might be from the same person?"
"Maybe, but until we get concrete evidence, it's just pure conjecture," Sona replied. "... Any evidence of their unidentified benefactor?"
"Negative," Rias shook her head as she searched the Arachne's corpse before finding a smartphone gutted of all of its internals. "... They had the foresight to use conventional communications and destroy all evidence before we got here, themselves included. Think you can trace a few calls with what I found?"
"I'll twist a few arms and see if I can dig up anything on my end," answered Sona. "I'll get in contact with the Archduke's aide to request for outside experts to aid in our investigation."
"I'll pitch in too," Rias reassured. "My family knows a few Magicians they've contracted with. And we'll probably have to call a few cleaners, because I doubt we can do this all by ourselves."
"We'll discuss this in-depth after you submit your report," Sona spoke. "... Hell of a mess we got ourselves into, but nothing we can't solve."
"Good luck," Rias then hangs up before facing back to the rest of ORC.
"Rias," Akeno said, her eyes narrowed. "... What do we do with Ryuugamine?"
She then looks at his Sacred Gear. "I know what you want to say," replied Rias. "To think he of all people is the 'calamity' of this generation..."
"You know the universal policy," Akeno pointed out. "... We cannot guarantee his safety."
"I'm aware of what has to be done," Rias remarked, her expression souring at the revelation. "... But I just can't condemn him out of good conscience."
Akeno tries to protest, but Koneko stops her. "... She's right, senpai," she interjected. "... He's not a bad person."
"I concur," Yuuto remarked. "... Before he could attack us, Takeshi managed to rein that monster in on time. I don't know... but maybe... we can do something about it! Something that doesn't involve murdering someone just because fate put them in this position!"
Akeno sighs. "... I just can't stop you all, can I?" she remarked with consternation. "... Very well. I'll pitch in too. Someone has to keep you all safe in case of the worst."
ORC then leaves the area by walking back into the place where they teleported in from, arriving before the Ryuugamine residence's front door at the dead of night.
"... By the way, President," Koneko remarked. "... We should probably increase the number of teleportation points throughout the town in case some of us get warped to the opposite side of our objective."
"Noted," Rias then rings the doorbell as she tries to quickly come up with another cover story for why Takeshi's back so late.
At an Undisclosed Location...
"Even after going out of our way to hire a professional, they failed regardless," a woman's voice spoke with disdain, revealing herself as a woman with short auburn hair, yellow eyes, and a voluptuous body with a white halter top dress hugging around the shapely frame, and three pairs of black feathered wings sprouting from her exposed back. "... As expected of trash."
"It is as you say, Lailah," agreed in a gentlemanly voice, revealing himself to be a man with short, black, ponytailed hair dressed in a butler's suit accentuating his slender frame with two pairs of his female companion's wings coming from his back. "Even as disposable pawns, all they accomplished was evading two Peerages' worth of detection for a mere few weeks."
"Even so, we mustn't doubt our master's judgment, Turel," Laliah advocated. "At least she managed to destroy all of the evidence pertaining to our direct involvement."
Turel nods. "... Now, about the unexpected factor."
"You speak of the Evil Dragon and boy that it inhabits?" Laliah asked.
"Indeed," answered Turel. "Although... I think this time around, a quote from a book I've read in my spare time is appropriate."
"Which is?" Laliah asks as her cohort then pulls out a paperback book titled "Bleach" along with a written report.
"I think the saying goes as... ah right," he then recited as he then looked at the report mentioning the something about the "Calamity Witch", "... 'Lives that were saved by good fortune must be swept aside by equal ill fortune'."
Laliah then raises an eyebrow at what her cohort was implying. "... You propose that we use her to counter our most recent anomaly?"
"I've been given clearance by our master," Turel reassured. "... We'll use our own harbinger of misfortune to destroy that other harbinger of misfortune. It's only fair."
Laliah chuckles in amusement. "And once that brat and those damned Peerages are out of our way...!"
Turel nods. "... Then our glorious war shall resume," he answered as a magic circle appeared beneath their feet. "... And this time, we will avenge our fallen."
The two then vanish from the abandoned cathedral they were situated at, but unbeknownst to them, the cloaked stranger was hiding behind the walls leading into the entrance of the main chapel with his phone out, recording everything they've uttered out loud.
Upon finishing collecting the evidence, the figure then walks away, approaching a spatial ripple akin to a silvery aurora draped before them like a curtain.
"... Amateurs," they then vanish after walking into the veil.
Arc 1: Ride or Die - COMPLETE
To Be Continued...
And thus ends the reboot's "Chapter 4."
Holy shit, this chapter was an ordeal to write, mainly the whole chimeric amalgamating bits of the first four chapters of the original dvdryms fic while excising some of the content (like Akeno's picnic date at the park used as a lure, the golems used as cannon fodder because the planned fight was already hectic enough, etc) and compressing all of the arc into one day (the deadline being a thing in-story) rather than a process of several undisclosed several days to maintain cohesion between my own storyline and the timeline. Apparently, NOT copying the story beat for beat with different wording is hard. Who would've thunk?
That said, I'm going to be needing a break from this fic to work on my other fanfic projects alongside some other projects outside of fanfic. And to reignite my love for this revival project and avoid burnout.
So, here's a few things I had in mind while writing this.
Firstly, the whole "divvying up the fights." I kinda got used to this writing, and if I'm going to put in cannon fodder into the fights, I rather put them separately, since in all Tokusatsu, the grunts don't usually coordinate with the kaijin of the week, with the latter being better off fighting solo.
Second, Nidhogg and Takeshi. Former, I kinda based his physical debut (using Takeshi as a meat suit) out of various horror movies and video games. Extra points since he's wielding an axe. And as for Takeshi not resisting when killing the Strays but does when ORC is on the line, it's simple in that he values their lives that much. Also, on a side note, Nidhogg and the rest of the Evil Dragons are going to have more speaking lines, and will directly converse with supernatural beings. Look forward to it.
Third, Takeshi's performance. I sort see him as "Well-Trained, but Inexperienced," in that while he can take on (relative) lightweights like Selia and (injured Talon) in his base form thanks to him being able to learn the ropes of fighting monsters quickly, 4v1-matches are a death sentence and he's nowhere near that strong, forcing him to tap into his own desperation and allow Nidhogg to take over from there.
And finally, Rias pseudo-worf effect. To be honest, even if she was blocked from healing and being turned into a pincushion, she wasn't exactly in any danger of dying. Not only that, but I wanted to present her greatest strength (in my opinion), that being her willpower. Logically speaking, solving the Stray-problem down to its fundamentals is a herculean task even for a High-Class Devil, so upon figuring that out, I realized that the only thing stronger than her bloodline is her own will, which Takeshi is unknowingly attracted to and aspires (after all, he did call ORC "superheroes").
Hope you readers enjoy the changes I made. It was kinda hard making all of it coherent, but I did it regardless.
The next chapter will be a breather before entering the next arc. See you then!
Toku References:
- Cordelia and Astrid providing remote fire support while Nell is keeping Rias immobilized is loosely based off Kamen Rider Double's Zone Dopant utilizing her spatial manipulation abilities to give the heroes a hard time while her partner-in-crime, Beast Dopant, acts as her muscle.
- The fight between Rias and Yuuto against Nell and Valdes took place in another Tokusatsu filming area, loosely based off Tokushusensaku Gunku Airsoft Arena and the Nihon Koatsu Concrete Saitama Plant.
- The area where Koneko and Akeno fight against Denas and Arnett takes place is loosely based off the Metropolitan Area Underground Discharge Channel, another iconic Tokusatsu filming location.
- Takeshi's brain being in "top gear" when getting used to fighting Selia and Talon at the same time is a reference to Kamen Rider Drive.
- Enishi's death at the hands of the cloaked stranger is based off how Kamen Rider Zein offed Mimei in Kamen Rider Gotchard, Episode 33: "The Legend-ary Rider? 100 Years Too Early!" The stranger also quotes Power Ranger: Lightspeed Rescue's Titanium Ranger's first line before the beatdown.
- Nidhogg's Sacred Gear, [Mayhem Striker], is now a two-handed Dane Axe based off Kamen Rider Chaser's Signal Axe weapon.
- The cloaked stranger literally used the Aurora Curtain from Kamen Rider Decade to get around different places after spying on the Fallen Angels.
OC Fancast:
- Nidhogg: Naoya Uchida (JPN), Steve Blum (ENG - think Teen Titan's Slade/Deathstroke)
- Cataclysm Zone Announcer: Maxwell Powers (JPN & ENG - the man is underrated as hell)
- Laliah: Yu Shimamura (JPN), Arielle Corti (ENG)
- Turel: Show Hayami (JPN), Aaron LaPlante (ENG)