Chapter Twenty-Six

Saving Grace

It all happened in a flash. One minute Momo and the rest of her classmates were preparing for today's training course to become better heroes, the next she found herself in a burning city, running for her life down the burning streets of the mysterious city along with Tokoyami, Jirou, Sato, Sero, and Aoyama.

"Keep running! He'll catch up to us if we stop!" Momo yelled as she and her classmates continued to run down the streets of the city they were in.

"We're running as fast as we can! But even with that, we can't outrun him!" Sero yelled as he occasionally looked behind herself to make sure their pursuer wasn't following them. "Seriously! Just who is that person!?"

"We can figure that out once we find a place to hide. Right now we need to keep running before-" Before Sato could finish his sentence, a small sword was thrown into the back of his head, causing the others to look over at him in shock from what they saw.

"Sato!" Jirou yelled as she watched him collapse to the ground. The moment he fell to the ground a man wearing old Edo-style samurai clothing appeared next to him. Though could that thing be considered a man seeing how his skin was black and his eyes were demonic.

"Running away won't solve anything," Izo said as he pulled the sword he threw out of Sato's skull. "If anything you're just making this fun to kill you all."

"If you think we're going to let ourselves be killed then you're sorely mistaken. Dark Shadow!" Tokoyami said as he summoned dark shadow to attack the servant. The assassin servant drew his sword before quickly dodging Dark Shadow. The moment he did that, he quickly jumped out of the way of Aoyama's navel laser. It's not like he couldn't easily deflect the attack, he was just interested in seeing what they'll do in a situation like this. As he was dodging their attacks with little to no effort, Jirou and Sero made their way over Momo as Jirou placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to flinch for a moment before sighing upon realizing who it was that did that.

"Please tell me you have a plan for us to escape?" Jirou asked.

"Given what happened to Ojiro and Sato. I don't think we can escape him." Momo said while watching Ido dodging Dark Shadow and Aoyama's navel laser. "But that doesn't mean we can't hide from him."

"What do you mean?" She asked before noticing Momo using her quirk to make a combination of smoke and flash grenades.

"We can't face him in a head-on fight, but we can hide from him with these." She said as the grenades she made fell to the ground. "We'll use the flash grenades to stun him, then we can escape and hide with the help of the smoke grenades."

"You think that will work?" Sero asked as Momo picked up a flash grenade and a smoke grenade.

"We don't know much about this villain, but what we do know is that he's still human. Everyone has a weakness no matter how good they are with their quirk." She said before looking over at Aoyama and Tokoyami. "Aoyama, Tokoyami, come here quickly!"

"Didn't you learn what happened the last time you tried to escape?" Izo asked as he quickly darted toward the Aoyama and Tokoyami as they were retreating. The servant was about to attack Aoyama but stopped due to a flash grenade going off in his face. Ido closed his eyes from the sudden sneak attack as he stopped and began rubbing his eyes due to the pain he felt. He soon heard the sound of air hissing as he slowly began to regain his vision. When his vision returned, he noticed that the area was filled with smoke.

"Heh, smart move on their part." He thought as his ears picked up the sound of footsteps heading off to the right of him. "But even with that, it's not going to help them in this case." With that, he brought his sword back and took up a throwing stance. The servant soon closed his eyes and began to concentrate on the location where he heard the sound coming from. In a matter of seconds, he heard the footsteps from the group of children running as he threw his weapons once again.

There was a moment of silence within the area as the sound of a sword piercing through flesh and Jirou's scream filled the air. If there was a smile on Izo's face, there would be one due to hitting his target as he quickly made his way over to where the scream came from. Within a matter of seconds, he appeared near an abandoned building. Looking over it, he notices his sword was embedded into the wall. He walked over to the walk and quickly pulled it out of the wall. Upon doing that, the sound of a body falling to the ground from inside.

"Looks like I hit someone." He said before quickly slicing the wall where the sword was embedded as he made a new entrance into the building. As he entered the room, he looked to the side to see Aoyama's dead body on the ground. "Nothing personal kid, just following orders from the one that cursed me."

"Dark Shadow!" Tokoyami yelled as a dark shadow darted from the shadow and attempted to punch the assassin in the face. Izo quickly moved out of the way of the punch with little effort as he countered with a vertical strike to the shadow's chest. Dark Shadow recoils back from the pain he felt, but quickly recovers and begins sending out a barrage of punches to the servant. Izo effortlessly parried and dodged Dark Shadow's attack and in return countered with slash and thrust attacks to the shadow. Just as Izo parried Dark Shadow to the side, he quickly sliced an oncoming object in two. Though upon doing that, he was soon covered in a sticky substance along with the floor. The moment he tried to move, the substance covering his body quickly hardened, preventing him from moving any part of his body except his head.

"Sero, Jirou, now!" Momo ordered as Jirou used her quirk as she unleashed a soundwave at the ceiling above Izo. In a matter of seconds, the ceiling broke as the debris fell around the servant. Sero quickly used his tape to latch onto the debris before circling Izo. In doing so, the rubble would bunch up against the servant as it along with the tape prevented him from moving at all.

"Did it work?" Jirou asked as she noticed the servant struggling in his restraints.

"Seems like it," Tokoyami said before making his way over to the others while keeping an eye on Izo. "We'll leave him here when the authorities come. Right now we need to get out of here and find the others."

"And you think you'll be able to survive long enough to find them?" Izo said, which caught the attention of the four students.

"I wouldn't be talking if I were you, villain." Dark Shadow said as he glared at the assassin. "Less you want us to put tape on your mouth."

"I don't know where you people came from. But if you think I'm the only one in this city you have to worry about, then you have no idea what you'll be facing. Especially when you'll be fighting against others just like me if not powerful."

"And you expect us to believe that?" Jirou said as the manslayer turned his attention onto her. "Once we find Mr. Aizawa, you and your cronies won't stand a chance once your quirks are erased."

"...The hell are you talking about kid?"

"Your quirk? That is the power you were using to increase your ability beyond human capability?" Momo answers as the servant stares at her for a moment before busting out laughing. "What's so funny?"

"I don't know where you humans came from, but what I just did wasn't a quirk as you call it. It's my natural ability as a servant." He said which caused the group to look at each other in confusion before looking back at Izo.

"...What do you mean by that?" Sero said as Izo's laughter came to a slow stop.

"...You don't know what's going on do you?"

"Care to explain? Because there's no way a human like you can have the ability to do what you just did without a quirk." Jirou asked as Izo shook his head.

"Sorry kid, but I can't say much about it." He said before looking over

"And why is that?" Tokoyami asked.

"Because explaining it to a bunch of dead people wouldn't matter in the long run," Izo answered.

"In case you've forgotten, you're currently trapped." Dark Shadow said as the assassin looked over at him and Tokoyami.

"Who said I was the one that's going to kill you," he said as Tokoyami felt a surge of pain coming from his chest along with the sound of flesh being pierced. Looking down, he saw a black lance sticking out from his chest as he placed a hand on it slowly.

"D-Damn." Dark Shadow said before disappearing into nothingness as Tokoyami's body was tossed to the side.

"Tokoyami!" Jirou yelled as she quickly turned around to see who it was that did it. Her eyes widened in shock upon seeing a tall knight in black-colored armor with a feather-like cape, and a lance covered in crimson blood-colored spikes. Before he could react or say anything, the knight raised its lance and was about to strike down Jirou, only for Momo to appear in front of her and summon up a shield to block the oncoming attack. It worked but the force behind the knight's attack shattered the shield and sent the two girls flying through the doorway of the building they were in. The moment they were outside, the sound of stone breaking followed by Sero's scream and gurgling noise was heard before his dead body flew out of the building and off to the side. Both the knight and Izo exit from the building as the two remaining members of the group stagger to their feet. "W-What do we do now?"

"I…I don't know." Momo said as she used her quirk to make a metal pole appear in her hand. "I didn't expect there to be two of them."

"Think we can try and escape as we did before?"

"It could work, but one of us will have to stay behind and distract them," Momo said as she used her quirk to create smoke grenades as they fell onto the ground. "Use one of them to give us some cover, then I want you to gather them up and run away."

"Are you insane!? You can't expect me to just abandon you like that? Did you not see what they did to the others?"

"Yes, I know. But it's not like we both can make a break for it." Momo said as she watched the knight walking over to them. "We can't face them on our own. But if you can find Todoroki, Bakugo, Mr. Aizawa, or Lily, then we have a fighting chance to take them down."

"Then why not go together, that way we can-"

"This isn't up for debate!" She said before glaring at her. "You need to get out of here before it's too-" Before Momo could finish her sentence, she felt herself being lifted from the ground. Looking over to see who it was that was doing it, she saw the knight that killed Sero lifting her by her throat. Jirou was taken by surprise by this as she was about to use her quirk to unleash a soundwave attack, but stopped upon seeing Izo appear in front of her as she was sent flying backward by a punch to her stomach.

"Sorry kid, just following orders," Izo said before looking over at Momo and the knight.

"W-Why…" Momo asked as she felt herself having trouble breathing due to the grip of the knight's hand on her neck. "Why are you doing this to us? W-What have we ever done to you to make you want to kill us?" There was a moment of silence hanging in the air for a moment. The knight simply stared at the girl, but the knight did give Momo an answer. That answer would be him snapping her neck as the sickly sound of bone snapping broke the silence. Blood trickled down the side of Momo's mouth upon feeling her neck being snapped as the knight tossed the lifeless body of Momo off to the side and landed next to Jirou. Jirou took notice of this as she couldn't scream or say anything at this time. Mainly thanks to Izo hitting her with enough force to paralyze her body.

The knight looked over at Jirou as he lifted his lance at the pair. The spikes on the lance shattered into pieces as the weapon began to spin at an alarming rate. Dark purple-colored energy started to surge from the lance as the ground began to shake. Once the lance had reached max capacity, the knight brought the lance back as pieces of the ground started to break.

"Rhongomyniad." He said before unleashing a storm-like blast at the two. Jirou closed her eyes as she waited for the oncoming attack to hit her, but the blast never came. If anything, something landed in front of her followed by a new voice. Her eyes open up to see a girl with long red hair with a pair of horns on her head, a black jacket, a black dress, thigh-high knee socks, grayish black shoes with metal on the toes, and a burning sword that lights up as bright as the sun.

"The time has come to bring about the end!" The female said as a sword radiated heat similar to that of the sun. "Oh star, oh planet, oh cosmos of the universe. Return to ash and be reborn!" She yelled as the sword lit up even more as she brought it above her head. "The sword of fire renders everything to nothingness! Loptre Regalun!" Upon bringing the sword down, she unleashes a torrent of fire shot out and collides with Rhongomyniad. The moment their attacks made contact with each other, a huge explosion erupted from their attacks canceling each other out. Jirou and Momo were sent flying backward from the force behind the explosion but were soon caught by Aizawa, Iida, and Toru who was on the back of a giant pure white colored wolf with a scarf wrapped around his neck.

"M-Mr…A-Aizawa?" Jirou asked

"Rest kid, we'll get you someplace safe." He said before looking over at Iida who caught Momo. He noticed a grim expression on his face which told all he needed to know about Momo. "She's dead…isn't she?"

"...Yes," Iida said as Toru gasped in shock.

"Dammit," Aizawa said before looking at the girl with the flaming sword. "Hey, fire starter."

"The name's Surtr, jackass. I know what to do." Surtr said before looking over at the knight and Izo. "You're lucky I'm not here to kill you both. But don't think this will be the last time we meet." She said before jumping onto the back of the wolf. "Fenrir, freeze their asses."

The wolf growled before taking in a deep breath and unleashing a burst of ice from his mouth and creating a wall of ice between him and the other servants. The moment he was done, Fenrir turned around and bolted down the street they were in at an alarming speed. Izo was about to go after them, but the knight ordered him to stop as they watched the two servants and the humans leave.

"You sure you want to let them leave? I thought you said to kill all the humans in this place." Izo said as the knight turned around and began to leave. "Fine, I suppose I can kill them later. But don't blame me if this comes back to bite you in the ass later on." He said before vanishing into magical dust.