Chapter 30: Coup D'etat
"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK WAS THAT?!"
Momo hated agreeing with Kaibara right now, but yeah, what on God's green earth was that?! One minute, they had almost twenty F-15s in the sky, mowing down wyverns and digging magical attacks like a boss, and then the next, a massive explosion erupted, and over half of their planes were sent falling towards the ground as molten slag.
"Shoto, Fuyumi, did your father –?!"
"He did," Shoto answered. "He unleashed an eruption of crimson death upon everyone in the vicinity. Allies, enemies, everyone. He must be getting really serious now."
The black-haired woman gulped at that notion. If this was the Emperor of Flames when the gloves were off, then it was understandable why he was such a tactical menace.
The sky filled with the loud hum of machines, as Momo watched the rest of the F-15s retreat from anywhere near the blast zone, and began cruising behind the airship.
"Second Lieutenant Yoarashi, come in! What are you doing…?"
"We just got orders from Shield, ma'am!" Yoarashi answered, his usual boisterous volume gone. "She'll handle the big red bastard, we're to stay as far away from their dogfight as possible!"
Momo didn't like the idea of leaving Melissa on her own against such a clear societal menace, but she understood why it had to be done. "Alright, just clear out as many of the wyvern riders as you can! As soon as you're done with that, be prepared to receive your new orders!"
"Roger, ma'am! I just hope you know what you're planning…"
"Yeah," the raven-haired soldier whispered. "Same here."
Melissa could see the Emperor of Flames clearly now.
Despite the fact that he was one of the most powerful men in the world, he couldn't fly. Melissa was sure that if he used his fire-based magic creatively, Enji Todoroki would be able to prevent himself from falling, but actual flight that he could do subconsciously? Not a chance.
In order to use magic that could allow you to fly, the most popular methods were the following: Spells that allowed flight, spells that negate gravity, a mix of earth, wind, and light magic, full-blown wind magic, or the usage of an outside force, with a dash of magic sprinkled in. If the Emperor of Flames wanted to try to fly without any help, his best bet would be the last option: Using something else, and potentially using his own mana as a boost.
Several kinds of mages already use such a thing: Witches imbue their brooms with mana, allowing them to fly. The elves have their magic crystals and spirits that allow them to travel via airship, and Melissa has seen a few mages use translucent boards, and she had heard a tale or two about some mages being crazy enough to use something like crystals or light to fly.
Enji Todoroki was not using any of those options. A broom would not only burn up if he tried an attack like the one he just pulled off, but frankly, it would look ridiculous. The elves would never grant him an airship, not even a small one for him to ride into battle, plus, the majority of those were still made with wood. And since all of the other methods Melissa listed off required other types of magic, the Emperor of Flames wouldn't be able to use them by himself.
So, his choice of transportation was a red wyvern. Much like their bigger cousins, the red dragons, these beasts were immune to fire, with a couple of them even capable of either generating it or covering themselves in flames, depending on the breed. However, unlike the red dragons, red wyverns had a few key differences: Physically speaking, dragons had four limbs and two wings, whereas wyverns only had two legs and two wings. Additionally, and probably more importantly, true dragons were actually capable of thought and speech (and sometimes magic), as opposed to wyverns, who were just animals (with a few glaring exceptions).
Because of that, the Todoroki Empire had figured out how to tame and domesticate wyverns. There had been a few legends every now and then about someone riding a dragon like a steed, but what those stories left out was that the dragon allowed the usually very squishy person to ride them. The Empire was smart enough to know that was a fickle idea, so they did the next best thing, and raised wyverns. Just like the domestication of any other animal, the best results usually result when they have an owner, even as hatchlings. They'll form a bond, and then once they're big and ready, the Imperial soldiers would have a flying steed of their very own.
The catch was the quality of the wyvern. While there were dozens, if not hundreds of different breeds all across the world, the most common ones were the common copper-colored ones. Sure, on occasion, higher-ranking officers might get a prettier color, like a bright blue wyvern, but the majority of riders got the ones with the tan scales. And since those were the most basic of wyverns, they don't come with anything special: No breath attacks, no resistances, nothing.
Enji Todoroki's wyvern was anything but basic.
For starters, the creature he was riding was fucking massive. For perspective, most wyvern species, from head to legs, were only about as long as two horses; the tails aren't included in the equation because, aside from not coming anywhere close to the actual mass of the wyvern's main body, they also came in various lengths due to breeder's selection. The red wyvern that the Emperor of Flames commanded, meanwhile, was several horses bigger and longer than any other wyvern, hell, it was almost big enough to rival actual dragons! To put it to scale, one of the talons on its toes was bigger than Melissa's body, from the head to toes. That meant if the creature really wanted to eviscerate her with its feet, it was actually viable to do so.
The next thing was to make this monster a specimen above all other wyverns were the amount of spikes this thing was covered in. Sure, the standard wyvern also had spikes trailing down from its head to its tail, but those things only had one row going down their backs, maybe three for some of the higher-quality beasts. This thing had spikes EVERYWHERE. Melissa could easily count at least five rows of sharp scales on it back, and there were even more of them everywhere else. Its entire neck was covered in them, it had them growing out of its underbelly, a couple on the wings, hell, the only place it seemed to not be covered in spikes were its legs. You know, the place with the giant sharp claw-toes that could kill her.
Oh, no, wait, she just noticed a bunch of tiny spikes on its hind legs, wonderful.
And then to top it all off, this thing had red scares that reminded Melissa of the color blood had, along with at least two pairs of horns adorning the top of its head. Seriously, did Emperor Todoroki see a red dragon, say "I want that," and then bred the most armored-out monster he could imagine as compensation when he learned it wouldn't be feasible to actually try and ride a red dragon?! Because not even red dragons were covered in this many fucking spikes!
Melissa dashed away any thoughts of this guy maybe compensating for something with his choice of steed, as she saw that he was approaching, riding on the top of the beast's neck, his hands wrapped around its horns, as if he was riding a Harley Davidson.
Yes, Momo had shown her pictures.
The giant reptile flew in close, and then suddenly stopped, flapping its wings in mid-air. She knew what was going on now. There was a tradition on the continent that, when two people of incredible strength were about to fight, they would give their name to the other. Now, not everyone followed that tradition, it wasn't a straight-up rule, but Melissa did appreciate that the Emperor of Flames was adamant of using it. It meant he acknowledged her strength.
"I recognize you," he spoke. "From the Ranking. You didn't have wings back then."
"Yeah, it's called a disguise," Melissa retorted back.
"So, this was an organized infiltration of my home," the redhead said, his eyes narrowing. "You have my children. Return them to me now, and your punishment shall be minimal."
"You make it sound like we kidnapped them. They went voluntarily."
"Is that so?" He didn't believe her. "Regardless, I shall have them back once you and that raven-haired leader of yours burn. I am Enji Todoroki, the Emperor of Flames."
"Melissa Shield, lover of the most powerful man in Occidens."
She could see the human's eyes widen at that. Good, that meant he knew who she was referring to, and who he was dealing with. "So be it. PREPARE TO DIE, MONSTER!"
Momo watched anxiously as the battle in the sky began.
Emperor Todoroki had brought some huge-ass monster as his ride, easily six times larger than the rest of the wyverns in his army. And worse than that, it could breathe fire like a living flamethrower, as that was the first thing the creature did once the battle started.
Right now, all that she, or anyone else could do, was watch as Melissa flew past the winged behemoth, dodging any attack the beast made. They couldn't interfere. If Yoarashi or any of the other pilots tried to shoot that thing, there was a good chance that Todoroki would launch some kind of long-ranged fire spell that would shoot everyone out of the sky, like a laser.
Most of the crew was currently silent as they watched, which allowed Momo to overhear the long-distance conversation Fuyumi was having "Natsuo, how is our progress going?"
"Most of the city is ours! We're securing the palace now!"
The white-and-red woman nodded, as she quickly approached Momo. "Lieutenant Yaoyorozu, our coup is almost complete back at Endeavor City. All that's left is our father."
"Uh-huh…" Momo half-said, as she was spending most of her brain power watching the fight in the skies. Melissa was doing a lot of dodging, and seemed to be only going in for attacks that would provoke and anger the red wyvern. What was her plan? Was she trying to lead the Emperor of Flames away from the airship? Where could she be leading them…?
"Wait a minute, Fuyumi. You said that Endeavor City is pretty much yours, right?"
"Well, ninety percent of it," the princess said. "But essentially, yeah."
Momo's brain was now turning faster than before. The last time her team went to Endeavor City, it took them less than three days. If the Imperials hadn't just attacked them, they would arrive at the capital by this afternoon. Quickly rewatching all of the attacks Melissa was doing right now, and then doing the math, she would be sending Emperor Todoroki back home in a little over an hour. But would she really be able to hold out that long? He was nigh-unstoppable…
"For the first reason, mages still need time to strategize and call upon their spells. Theoretically speaking, Aoyama would still be able to kill an Ultimate with a sniper rifle if he was from a distance. Plus, anti-magic still exists. Trap them in a barrier of that stuff, and the only thing they would have left would be their natural abilities and Skills."
That old memory of Melissa back at Yuuei-Shiketsu City hit Momo like a truck. Of course! Mages, even Ultimate-level ones, still had limits! Okay, time to think! Since the man was using a wyvern to fly, that probably meant he was incapable of flight himself. And if Melissa kept attacking the wyvern, he would be forced to use his magic to defend it! Use enough of it, and there was a good chance he would run out of mana, leaving him essentially defenseless!
Melissa was trying to turn this into a battle of endurance!
"Everyone, listen up!" Momo called out to both her squad and into the comms. "Melissa is trying to wear out Emperor Todoroki and lure him back to Endeavor City! We're gonna follow them from a distance, and the second we see that man truly weakened, we take him down!"
"READ YOU LOUD AND CLEAR, YAOYOROZU!" Yoarashi whooped.
Momo nodded, as she looked back at her crew. "Awase! Keep the ship steady and clear of the battle! Uraraka and Aoyama! Make sure those harpoon cannons are ready and aimed at Emperor Todoroki at all times! Everyone else… keep your weapons ready."
As everyone quickly rushed to get their jobs done, Momo looked back at the sky. The black-haired woman seriously hoped Melissa would be able to pull this off.
"ERUPIT IACULUM!"
FWOOOM!
Melissa dodged a second javelin of flames by flying above it, as she kept her gaze steady on Emperor Todoroki and his giant wyvern. In the back, she could see Momo's airship and the remaining F-15s following her, but not attacking just yet. Good.
It had been twenty minutes since their fight had begun, and for the majority of it, bit by bit, Melissa had been using hit-and-run tactics to try and send the oversized reptile falling. So far, she managed to cut off a tip of its tail with her sword, but that was mostly it.
The Emperor of Flames had figured out what she was trying to do, and had now retaliated by using his magic to try and turn her into a cooked angel. Great. All she needed to do now was lure the guy back towards the city, all while trying to get him to drain his mana.
She knew he was being conservative with his magic. That massive burst before their battle must have taken a lot out of him, but it was more than enough to send several military-grade planes plummeting downward. Melissa certainly didn't want him to use it again, but she knew that if he could, he would. She has been exhausting his wyvern, and a few more good hits would send it crashing. If Melissa was in his position, he would unleash the sun on her again the second she got close. Which meant that he was either unable to do it, or it would take too long.
The second option was a valid concern. The last time he did it, a massive magic circle full of runes appeared. The last time he managed to get so many targets was because they were too busy taking on the wyvern riders. If he tried to do it now in the middle of a clear sky, Melissa would immediately notice, and fly out of its range, making it a waste of mana.
Enji Todoroki was a brute, but he clearly had a strategic mind.
At the current moment, the two of them (the wyvern was on Enji's team, so, one person) were in a high-stakes game of chicken: If Melissa tried to close in and cut him down, Todoroki would blast her with his flames. If the wyvern tried to burn her, she'd dodge and cut off another piece of its body. If Todoroki tried to burn her, she'd dodge again, wasting his mana. All the "players" knew what they were supposed to do in case the other tried to attack them.
The key of this game was speed: Were your reflexes fast enough to manage to deal some damage without getting hit? Or would you be too slow at dodging and get hurt?
However, Melissa did have both an extra requirement to win the game, along with what could be considered an ace up her sleeve: The extra requirement was that she slowly lure Todoroki back to his capital city, all while tiring him out. That meant that she would need to actively provoke him to keep draining his power, all while trying not to get burnt in the process.
The potential ace up her sleeve was the Dungeon Crawlers. While her crew weren't always the sharpest of tools, Momo was a bright woman, and Melissa could safely bet that she understood what the fallen angel's plan was. So, Melissa would keep on fighting Emperor Todoroki, and the second they reached the capital and he was out of juice, Momo and friends would shoot him.
All she needed to do was trap Emperor Todoroki right where she wanted him.
Easier said than done.
"I admire your tenacity," the redhead said. "However, it is ultimately pointless. I suggest you surrender and die quietly. Removing you from your life will be a boon to the world."
"No…" Melissa grunted. "If you wanna win… YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO KILL ME!"
"So be it," the Emperor of Flames said, as he narrowed his eyes towards the fallen angel, before bringing up yet another fire spell. "Intempestivo… Crepitus… Disperge… IECIT!"
Back into the fray, Melissa figured.
Rei Himura could hear the sounds of buildings collapsing even in her room.
It seemed like her childrens' little power struggle against their father was being met with some resistance. It made sense; he is the most powerful human on the continent, both magic-wise and in terms of status, there would no doubt be people loyal to him until the very end.
Still, she had to admit, it was somewhat impressive that her little babies had organized this without their father ever figuring out. Truly, they had grown up.
Which made Rei somewhat bitter that she missed out a major chunk of their formative years. Sure, she got the occasional visit, but she was still stuck in this little tower of hers, with the only thing keeping her occupied being practicing her magic and whatever gossip she heard.
Speaking of gossip, the things that Natsuo brought her to hear, wow. She honestly didn't expect Fuyumi and Moe to be a thing, but if they were happy with their choices, then who was she to judge? But the prospect of little Shoto having himself a girlfriend? That, she needed to see.
Hmm… If this coup went off without a hitch, then it would be more than likely that Shoto would be here, presenting his sweetheart to the masses without fear of repercussions from his father. Rei would definitely want to see that, and well… It has been a while since she left her room…
Getting up from her bed, Rei picked up the frost-imbued scythe she used to wield back when she was the Mistress of the Himura Clan in the north. Even after her defeat at Enji's hands, she kept to serve as a memory of the lands she once ruled, even if she didn't need it.
She was an Ultimate, her magic in the ice unparalleled. She didn't exactly need a weapon to help her fight, but more options was always nice. Plus, her scythe looked cool as hell.
With her scythe now in hand, she quickly froze off the door in her room from its hinges. Heavy metal doors would work against normal prisoners, but honestly, the only reason Rei ever stayed in her room was because she wanted to. If Enji really wanted to make sure that she never escaped, he could have sent her to Tartarus, where her ice magic would be completely useless. Ehh, she figured that deep down inside, he still cared about her. Somewhat.
Now then! Time for the Empress of Ice to go find her children…
Forty minutes.
Melissa had spent another forty minutes on this seemingly endless cycle of luring the red wyvern to where she wanted it, feeling from her spot every time either it or Emperor Todoroki decided to attack, and then attacking during whatever small window of opportunity she had.
Fuck, her wings were tired.
However, she needed to be persistent. The wyvern was on the edge of collapsing now, and she could see that they had made it back into the walls of Endeavor City. All the fallen angel needed to do now was lure them towards the palace, and then help Momo finish them off.
Which meant it was time for more dodging. Fun.
The wyvern sent another plume of flames towards her direction once more, causing Melissa to have to steer clear of. Flying towards the back where the wyverns wings were, she dived down in an attempt to rip some holes in the massive monster's wings, when –
"CALIDUS BRACHIUM BARRAGE!"
Crap, he noticed her. Several rods of fire left Emperor Todoroki's body, as they shot out in every which way. Thankfully, Melissa was no longer anywhere near the wyvern by then.
"What the…?!"
"Looking for me, asshat?"
Emperor Enji looked back up towards the sky, and saw the fallen celestial right back to where she was before his wyvern attacked. "So, you can teleport," he sneered.
"I could have teleported whenever I wanted," Melissa lied. Yeah, no, she was completely talking out of her ass right now. Ever since she got cast out of the heavens, her magic was limited. Whatever tricks she used during her adventures with the Dungeon Crawlers usually took a lot out of her, so the only things she could reliably do were "punch hard" and "fly."
Her teleportation right there was just a one-time gag. It'd be impossible for her to even consider trying it for the rest of the day. Right now, she was just hoping that the Emperor of Flames didn't call her out on her bluff, maybe have him thinking twice about what spells to use.
"Come on, whatcha waiting for, a personal invitation?!" Melissa shouted, extending her arms horizontally in a sort of intimidation tactic. "I'm right here! Come at me, bro!"
The wyvern obliged, as it began chasing her around the air once more. Huh, it seemed to be more pissed off at her rather than focused on obeying its master's orders. Good, she could use that to her advantage. Melissa kept flying, and flying, avoiding all of the fire attacks on the way, until… She saw the round dome of white and gold, with multiple spires and columns.
They had arrived above the Emperor of Flames' palace.
Melissa smiled. "Gotcha."
THUNK! THUNK!
Before he even had a chance to figure out that this was a trap, two massive harpoons shot their way into the wings of the red wyvern. The massive creature roared in pain, before it suddenly began to descend towards the ground. Melissa wasn't sure how they pulled it off, but her friends on the airship managed to hit both of the wyvern's joint bone areas in the wings, right between the ulna and humerus bones, the same kind the humans had in their arms.
That was essentially the equivalent of shooting an arrow through a man's elbow joints: It was painful, and you didn't need to be a doctor to know that there's a good chance some serious damage was just dealt to your arms' abilities to move. Now, normally, with enough healing and physical therapy, the damage could be fixed, and your joints could be good as new.
If you managed to live long enough to get the proper health care, that is.
With those joints out of commission in the red wyvern's wings, all it could do right now was fall in style until it suddenly died of impact the second it hit the ground. Sure, there might have been a possibility that the red wyvern would survive the fall, but given the fact that heavier objects with more streamlined bodies hit terminal velocity faster, along with the fact that Melissa was high enough to see all the people down there look like ants, and that possibility began to drop.
Emperor Todoroki, meanwhile, knew exactly what to do the second he felt his steed begin to plummet. He leaped from his falling beast, chanted some spell Melissa was too exhausted to remember the name of, and was suddenly now glowing orange, as if on fire.
No, wait, scratch that, he was the fire. Whatever the hell that spell was, it seemed to have merged him with his own fire magic, turning him into some kind of orange monster. Whatever the spell turned him into exactly, Melissa could feel the heat emanating off of him as he got closer to her. Oh, he was planning to take her down with him, wasn't he?
BLAM!
Well, a bullet to his head seemed to have other plans.
"Excellent shot, Aoyama."
"You are too kind, Lieutenant."
As Momo watched the Emperor of Flames' go crash down into his own palace, the black-haired woman sighed in relief. It seemed like Melissa's plan worked, thank goodness. Still, Momo wanted to even the odds of success a bit more, so while Uraraka fired one of the harpoons into the wyvern's wings, she swapped out Aoyama with Sato for the second gun.
And thus, she gave Aoyama the pleasure of sniping the Emperor out of the sky himself.
Momo looked over to the other end of the airship's bow, and saw the Todoroki siblings watching their father's body plummet down to the earth, the expressions on their faces… It was honestly quite hard to tell what they were thinking. Still, this was their father. Even if he was awful to them, he was still their parent. The raven-haired soldier took it upon herself to talk to them. Walking up towards them, she prepared what she would say to them –
"He's not dead," Shoto said.
Come again?
Momo shook her head in disbelief. "What? But, we shot him –"
"Look," Fuyumi said, as she pointed down.
Momo looked over the bow once more, the color in her face draining when she saw Enji Todoroki's body spin mid-air, creating a mini fire tornado, and basically piercing through the domed roof of his own palace, before the flames dispersed, leaving a hole in the roof.
"How… how…?"
"That spell he used merged his entire body with fire," Shoto explained. "That bullet you shot at him most likely melted by the time it reached his skin. The impact was probably enough to cause him pain and a nasty headache, but not enough to pierce through his skull."
Wonderful, so their big bad was probably not dead. Momo sighed, as she quickly grabbed her walkie-talkie and said, "Attention everyone, this is Lieutenant Yaoyorozu. Prepare to land."
Both the soldiers on the airship and the remaining pilots in the F-15s prepared to land in the palace courtyard, as Momo discussed strategy with Fuyumi. Apparently, they received word that both Moe and Natsuo took care of the city, and were ready to storm the palace.
Good, we could use the two of them, Momo thought to herself. "Kendo, you're in charge of everyone who's staying behind at the airship and the pilots. Myself and the resistance leaders, along with a few members of the squad are gonna take care of the Emperor."
"Understood, ma'am!"
The airship descended down into the palace courtyard with little fanfare. The members of the rebellion were more impressed with the F-15s. Still, they were welcoming the foreign aid, and Melissa was especially glad that she could now lay down on the airship deck.
The fight against the red wyvern tired her out completely. Kodai said that she'd be fine by the end of the day, but that was all of the fighting she would do for today. Now, it was Momo's turn (along with the rest of her team) to finish off the Emperor of Flames for good.
According to Fuyumi, the room where her father crashed into was the throne room. It looked the same as the guest room the Ranking party took place less than two weeks ago, just smaller, and with far fewer decorations. That meant that only a small squad of elites would be going in.
Aside from all three of the Todoroki siblings and Moe, the ones going would be Momo, Monoma, Uraraka, Aoyama, and Kodai. Any more people and the room would get crowded.
When they got to the throne room, sure enough, there was a massive hole in the roof letting the sunlight in, and Enji Todoroki was there, limping next to his throne, and holding a sword. He looked like a mess; his head was bleeding, one of his eyes looked punched-out, and by the way he was standing, it seemed like several of the bones in his limbs were busted.
And yet, despite all that, everyone was still on their guard.
"Shoto… Fuyumi… Natsuo…" Enji rasped out, as each breath he took sounded laborious. "My own children… willful traitors, one in all… Touya would have never done this… and YOU."
Momo blinked. "Me?"
"I could see Fuyumi and Natsuo doing this on their own, but Shoto? You must have done something to influence him," the redhead hissed. "I remember you from the Ranking. The "countess" my son was interested in courting. Yes, you must have seduced him –"
"Alright, that's it!" Shoto shouted. "Momo did not "seduce me" until last night!"
Everyone stared at the peppermint-haired boy, as Momo's face began to burn. Emperor Enji, on the other hand, seemed to be flip-flopping between confirmation and confusion. "What?"
"You heard me! Momo did not seduce me until last night!" Shoto repeated, ignoring all of the looks he's getting from everyone else. "In fact, before last night, she was nothing but kind and professional to me! In fact, she was the nicest woman I ever came across! And maybe that had to do with you isolating me during my formative years, but I like to think that she simply brought me out of my shell! She showed me the amazing things her world had to offer: Massive towers that breach the sky, technology that eclipses magic, and even saucy puppet shows!"
Momo looked back at Monoma, who simply said, "He watched Avenue Q back in Japan."
She was gonna kill Kaibara and Tsuburaba when she got back.
"But that's not all! Momo showed me kindness and friendship! She showed me that strength isn't about power, but rather the ability to retain your ideals during times of struggle! Do be willing to help those around you to do the right thing! THAT'S WHAT TRUE STRENGTH THIS! Momo Yaoyorozu of the JSDF, of the Dungeon Crawlers, and the Arms of Fire, taught me that!"
Everyone was silent, and somewhat amazed at what Shoto had said. Well, everyone except his father, who, in anger, raised his hand in anger and shouted, "AUGUE!"
Several things happened in the last few seconds. A small ball of fire, almost like a mini-sun, was conjured from the Emperor's hand, sent flying straight towards Momo. The black-haired soldier could see the fireball shooting towards her. She could see from the corner of her eyes everyone turning towards her in a panic, some of her allies trying to run over to her to intercept the fireball, or to push her out of the way, but they couldn't. It was as if the world slowed.
Oh… so this is how I am going –
"CAELESTI GLACIES DENTE!"
SHHHK–BOOOOM!
Before anyone could figure out what happened, a massive semi-formed wall of ice appeared from the left, taking the hit for Momo. The ice evaporated into steam as soon as the fireball landed, and as the wind blew all around Momo's face in a tiny faux explosion.
"What?!"
"Stand down, Enji."
Everyone looked towards the left, to see a newcomer had entered through the door on the side. A woman with long white hair and gray eyes, wearing a dress that looked like the cross between a gown and a fur coat, and armed with a massive scythe covered in ice.
"Rei?! What are you –?!"
Before the Emperor of Flames had a chance to finish his sentence, the white-haired woman swung her scythe again, causing ice to spawn from the floor, covering Enji Todoroki's entire body, save for his neck and above. "Enji, it's over. Surrender with dignity."
The red-haired man stared into the eyes of the white-haired woman for several seconds, as everyone held their breath, until Emperor Todoroki sighed. "I yield."
"Uhh…" Momo leaned towards Shoto. "Who the heck is that?"
"Rei Himura. The Empress of Ice," Shoto said. "And… my mother."
Oh. Momo's future mother-in-law was a total badass.
"Hey, Kosei," Sen called out to his friend. "Did you just get the feeling that…"
"...that Lieutenant Yaomomo is mad at us?" Kosei said. "Yeah, I felt it, too."
"Huh," Sen said, as he and Kosei kept guarding the airship outside. "Well, shit."
Author's Note: The Avenue Q references will come back in a future chapter.
Now, in terms of references, a lot of the magic used in these last few chapters were actually spells from Black Clover, with their names just translated from English into Latin. The red wyvern Enji was riding in this chapter was actually the Hellkite (or Bridge) Wyvern from the first Dark Souls game. I also drew some inspiration from Crossbreed Priscilla, and maybe Sister Friede from the third game (to a lesser degree) for Rei. But that's enough blocks of text for this chapter; let's move on to… the comments!
Shin: I've done internet deep-dives before as well, thought mostly out of boredom, not insomnia; I usually just lay in bed when that happens. I'm not really looking into the lore and naming schemes of MTG since I don't know what kind of world it is; is it like Pokemon? Is there a canon story, maybe a TV show? But D works for me. And I understand the pain between the two different kinds of kobolds. Until next time!
GreenBoy9000: Enji pulled up in the last chapter, and was solemnly defeated in this one. Guess that's what happens when you've got an angel on your side. I think Enji would be more angry about the fact his kids turned against him, but the loss of his wyverns was kinda their fault, too, sooo… Hope this chapter lived up to your expectations!
MostOfYouNeedTherapy: I actually haven't watched the anime, but from the pieces I've seen, I can safely say there's no way Kota will ever get to Iruma's harem levels.
VinHD15: Glad to see you're so excited for the very thing you were pushing for. Also, I finally found the reference you were talking about, and I can safely say that I hate it.
valkrus: HAHAHA! I've got you! The JASDF actually stands for the Japanese Air-Self Defense Force! HAHAHA! But anyways, I was actually referencing Jojo's "Yes-No" meme, not KSI. Now, let's see if I can make a streak out of this error-free chapter…
Honey- (Guest): ARE YOU STILL EXCITED AND SHOCKED?!
Anyways, back to the regular old shilling…
I'm pretty sure as you all know now, I have also made a Twitter account to post my art, so if anyone is interested in checking it out, /ErnaloreProf is the link.
If you want more content, visit my Discord, the link is /3PFYSt8Dqz. You can chat with others, post memes, fanfic recommendations and prompts, role play, fan art, and we even have a writer's corner now! I'll also drop by with announcements and chat with you all every now and then! Also, if you want to add me as a friend, my username is Ernalore#8663! Just please make sure to follow the rules.
Thanks for reading, and once again, see you next time!
- Ernalore