A/N Hey guys I'm back! Sorry it took so long, I've been a little preoccupied with school and setting up study abroad for next semester (I'm going to Tokyo!) Anyway, I did not realize it until right now as I am starting to edit, but this is the longest chapter of Nexus or Nexus Heroes Will Rise... by 10,000 words. This chapter is over 40,000 words long, so I hope it makes up for the long wait! Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I still do not own any of the media you recognize characters or settings from in this story. None of the movies, anime, tv shows, manga, comics, or books where I got these characters from belong to me. Just clarifying.
Nexus HWR 10.7 Juvia:
Royal Palace Second Floor, Pyraxas
On the second floor of the most magnificent building in all of Pyraxas, two guards stood in front of a set of doors that looked much more intricate in design than any others on the floor, and perhaps any others in the entire Palace. The two were wearing scary white masks over their faces with two black holes at the top, and three dark slits on the bottom near where their mouths would be. Around the white of their masks was a hard red exterior that spiked out to the sides and up above their heads making them have the appearances of demons with large horns. Even the rest of their armor was a much darker red than most soldiers of the Fire Nation, giving them a deadly feel just like the twin hilts of the curved blades they had sticking out over their shoulders, and the submachine guns on their waists.
Both of the guards had their hands on their machine guns, and one of them pulled the gun on his right side out as another crash shook the building. "I think we should go check it out," the man spoke, his voice deep and muffled by the mask.
"Our orders have not changed," the other soldier began, her voice higher pitched, though because of their identical armor it would be impossible to tell she was a woman if not for it. "We are never to leave this post, unless directly ordered to do so."
"Heh," the deeper voice chuckled, and he lowered his submachine gun back down a little. "Sounds good to me," he muttered. "If they're able to make it this far, I would rather let one of the Lords deal with them."
Clank The two guards turned their heads together and looked down the hallway to their left. The woman leaned forward as she was on the right of the male guard and had to peer around him to see what made that noise. The two of them stared at a metal grate lying on the floor only twenty feet away from them, and their gazes then lifted to the ceiling above where the grate lay. "Huh," the male guard began, a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face at the sight. "Must have, fallen," he muttered.
The woman behind him was not as convinced and she took a step towards him to get a better look at his side of the hall. Thud The ground beneath her vibrated and she heard the sound of feet hitting the floor behind her. The noise was not loud, and the man in front of her was still looking towards the grate and the open hole on the vent in the ceiling, so he did not witness it as his fellow guard started to turn, only to get a hand wrapped around her face. The female guard tried pulling a weapon, but as she breathed in through the holes on her mask, she suddenly felt very drowsy and her eyes closed on their own.
Clank! The sound of the woman's submachine gun hitting the floor made the man in front of her spin around. His eyes opened wide behind the mask at the sight of a woman clad in all black leather pressed tight to her body staring straight at him through a black mask that had pointy ears on top like those of a cat. She dropped the woman who fell limp in her arms, then stepped towards the man and did a cartwheel towards him while he rose his weapon, already firing before he had even aimed correctly. Bullets flew, but the cat-like woman lifted up in her cartwheel and her feet came down on top of the barrel the guard was raising. He reached his free hand up over his shoulder and grabbed a hilt, drawing and slashing his sword over his other arm quickly to try and cut the strange woman.
Selina Kyle was not expecting the guard's reactions to be so fast, but she tapped her right foot down to push his gun arm away, then kicked up her left into his chin before his slashing arm came around. The curved blade in mid-swipe flew from his grasp and imbedded in the wall right next to the door on the right, satisfying the woman who landed on the ground between his legs. "It would have been a shame to carve into such a beautiful design," she mentioned while looking at the door next to the blade, wondering how she could take it off its hinges. "I believe it could go for a great price on the market," she darted her eyes back down as the man was reaching to his side for his other gun, and he stopped and reached that hand up as if telling her to 'wait!' because she brought back a foot, then slammed it forward. The legs she was standing between arched up as the man stopped shouting 'wait,' and could only make out a high-pitched yelp at the pain he felt jolt through his entire body. Then, his legs dropped down and his head fell limply to the side.
The thief looked back and forth between the two guards, then let out a deep breath before turning back to the doors. "Now, let's see my prize," she stepped forward and pushed her hands into the doors. The entrance creaked as the large wooden doors opened, and Selina was careful as she pushed them not to put her hands on the most intricately painted parts that she did not want to smudge the most. You can barely call these doors, they're art in… oh my God. The woman in all black shiny leather stared forward with a dropped jaw, and her mouth curled up every second she stared inside the treasure room in front of her. Forget the doors. I've struck gold.
She meant what she thought in a very literal term, and she ran inside looking around her at piles of gold bricks and coins lining the walls. There were huge stones of various colors, shiny gems on top of golden pedestals, and even more valuable things than she could count. Selina stopped in the center of the room and did a full spin to take it all in. Then, the woman reached down and pulled out a black sack she had tied around her waist. "Jackpot."
The entire Royal Palace shook while Selina Kyle packed as many treasures as she could into her sack. She lifted her gaze to the ceiling at one point as she heard a rumble come from right above her. Already on the third floor? What the heck is going on in this city right now? Whatever it is, they're giving me exactly what I need. A small crack formed on the ceiling and little chips of it broke off and fell around her. She reached down and grabbed another ruby from a pile of shiny gems in front of her. Just a few more and I'll- She tensed up. "Another cat burglar huh?" A voice asked.
Selina spun around and reached behind her back, pulling out and drawing a silenced pistol from her waistband. She did not want to resort to using it, but she would at least be a lot more threatening holding one up than not doing so. "Who are you?" She snapped.
"Whoa whoa," the woman in the doorway began, holding up her hands defensively with a small grin on her face. She walked in confidently, the woman with long orange hair, and spoke as she gazed around with greedy eyes, "There's enough gold to go around." Her eyes suddenly looked even more than greedy, turning blue and shiny as she spotted something on the opposite side of the room as her. Nami sprinted towards the diamond she saw that looked larger than all of the gems around it, almost as if it were the crown jewel of the room. "So," she began, while bending down in front of the diamond and examining it from all sides to try and appraise it herself. The other woman had not lowered her weapon yet, but Nami started small talk by asking, "What are your plans for escaping the city, um…?"
"You can call me Catwoman," Selina Kyle said, hearing the hesitation at the end of Nami's question like the younger woman was looking for her name. She would not be giving that away so easily, but an alias was just as good to Nami who at least had something to call her by now. "As for how I'm getting out," she continued, and smirked devilishly, "I have a way, but you'll be swarmed by guards before you even escape the palace."
"Who's escaping?" Nami questioned, while standing back up fully and lifting the diamond in front of her face as she did. She turned around and smirked at the confused woman behind her, "We're the ones attacking." Nami chuckled at the shocked, then nervous reactions the other thief had, before she started walking back towards the doorway herself. Nami had to swing her bag around her front to shove the giant diamond into, as there was not enough space in one of her pockets for it. This one is even more expensive-looking than the one I bought with my earnings at the CA$INO. As she put her bag back on her back, she added for the woman she knew was still watching her, "You might want to hurry up in here, Catwoman. There's no telling for how much longer this building is going to stay standing."
Nami turned her head sideways and looked back into the woman's eyes, "And my name is Cat Burglar Nami, tell your friends there's a new thief in town." Nami smirked, and then Selina's eyes doubled in size as the woman in front of her started to fade away. Catwoman had to rub her eyes to check if she was seeing things, but when she lowered them from her face, the thief in front of her was gone.
Royal Palace Courtyard, Pyraxas
Kairi ran around the eastern side of the Royal Palace and stopped when she got a good view of the courtyard. After she had pushed open the gates that Xigbar and Juvia had partially knocked open in their fight, (that she had found a lot harder to push open on her own), she had planned on going straight inside after her comrade. However, after entering she felt a strange feeling in her chest and it made her spin towards the walls curving around her to the south. All the smoke rising from the Palace was coming from that direction, and she knew that at least one of her friends was there fighting. She had turned back to the eastern entrance to the Palace reluctantly, because the expression on Juvia's face as she stormed off was one she wanted to get rid of as soon as possible, but turned away again when the feeling in her heart got even stronger.
She ran around the side of the Palace and out into the courtyard, where she was greeted with a terrible sight. Kairi stared forward in shock as she saw her black haired ninja friend get slammed by a fist of white steel so large that even though the boy tried blocking with both of his swords, the Ganmen's fist pushed through his defenses and sent him flying back through the courtyard and into a wall. Kirito desperately tried slowing himself before he hit the wall, but he was in so much pain from blocking the punch alone that he could not focus enough on his already depleted ki, and he slammed into the stone wall hard enough that a loud crack sounded from his spine.
His eyes cracked open as he was imbedded in the wall, and he stared towards the dozen guards and four Ganmen charging his way. God damn it. What am I doing here? Why am I, fighting all of them alone? He let out a low growl as he tried and succeeded at ripping his right arm from where it was lodged in the wall. He even managed to keep his hand gripped around the hilt of his black sword, though there was little he could do from that position. Natsu, and Luffy, going ahead to fight the Fire Lord, that made sense. But Nami, he grit his teeth and ripped his other arm out of the wall, she snuck right past. She's not going to fight Sozin. I thought she might help, at least a little, but why would I think something like that? His eyes narrowed and he glared furiously towards the Byakou charging past the rest of the men to get a finishing blow on him. I'm all on my own out here.
"Riku! Usopp!" Kairi shouted. Kirito's eyes darted from Thymilph's personal Ganmen to his right, and he saw Kairi hopping over a hedge on the side of the east garden far from him. She was looking his direction, only a little to his right, closer to the southern gate of the Palace. "Save Kirito!" Kairi shouted, and though Kirito's mind was still boggled from that hard slam into the wall, he managed to make out what she yelled.
Usopp and Riku were jogging through the open gates to the Palace, and Riku had just sarcastically asked who Usopp thought ripped the gates off their hinges, but the two of them skid to short stops at the sound of that shout. They spun to the east side of the Palace and their jaws dropped, but Kairi had no time to be surprised at the sight of friends she had not seen for over a week. The panicked expression on her face and what she shouted echoed in the two shocked men's minds, and they spun to all the enemies charging to a spot on the wall on their left, and then looked at that spot in the wall where they saw Kirito pushing his hands back against it trying to pry the rest of his body from a crater.
Thymilph darted his gaze to the side and saw the enemies in the southern entrance. Finish this one first, then focus on the others! He brought back a giant metal fist while a tired Kirito was still trying to pull himself from the wall.
Usopp reached into his bag to pull out a Pop Green to use, but he was low on ammo after he and Riku had to fend off a pack of Sun Marines on their way to the Palace. Nami had left the two behind to "go help Luffy" as she claimed, though her eyes were in the shapes of dollar signs ever since she hit a fire-bending officer with a lightning bolt and discovered where the Fire Nation kept their treasury. Usopp found ammo that he could use, but he was too late to arm his slingshot and fire at the Ganmen about to slam a fist into his friend.
I can't lock on to him from this far! Kairi thought in fear, waving her Keyblade to no avail as the Cure magic would not reach Kirito from that distance.
Only one of them would make it in time, and he knew it. Riku's hands covered in a black aura so thick that his skin became impossible to see beneath them. It looked like black flames erupted in his palms, and he rose them up while yelling out, "RISE!"
Usopp's eyes darted to his left at the taller teen next to him, then his eyes looked back towards Kirito, and he dropped the Pop Green he was trying to load into his Black Kabuto. Kirito's hands stopped pushing against the wall behind him, and Thymilph skid to as short a stop as he could, before stumbling backwards with his Ganmen. The floor of the courtyard in between Kirito and Thymilph descended into darkness in an instant, and less than a second later, an hand ten meters wide shot out of the center of that darkness and reached for the sky. The long black arm sticking off of the hand continued to rise up, then bent at an elbow ten meters down from the hand, making the hand push down on the blackened floor and push more of the monster up. The head of the Darkside rose next along with its other hand that it used to push its body up faster. The waving black tentacles of hair and creepy yellow eyes of the Darkside scared half of the remaining dozen elite guards in between Thymilph's Ganmen squad to flee for the Palace.
Kirito stared forward in silence as the back of the monster rose up in front of him, and his eyes just slowly followed the back of the beast's head until it finally stopped at a height half of that of Thymilph's Byakou, which still made it five meters taller than the other three giant Ganmen robots in the courtyard, and much more terrifying than any of them. Thymilph glared through the red eyes of his Ganmen at the floor around the beast, and he watched as small black monsters he recognized crawled out of the ground. Heartless, he thought at the sight of the small dog-like Shadows. His gaze shifted to the tall teenage boy who lowered his arms and let out a breath of relief as his comrade was not killed. Who is this boy to summon such creatures?
"Riku," Usopp growled, glaring next to him at the teen who turned in surprise at the sound of Usopp's voice.
"What?" Riku snapped. "It was that, or let him hit Kirito. That punch could have killed him," Riku glared back into Usopp's eyes, but the other man was not backing down and continued to glare back.
"Cure!" Kairi yelled, and the two turned their heads to see the auburn-haired girl running past them and swinging her Keyblade in front of her. This time as she swung it, a green flash emitted from the tip of the silver shaft, and Kirito's body covered with that green light. Riku shook his head around then rose his right hand and formed a Keyblade in it as well, before waving it and casting his own Cure magic on Kirito who fully ripped himself from the wall and dropped down to be with the other three.
Usopp shook off his anger at watching Riku use so much of the darkness, and he ran towards Kairi and Kirito. "What are you guys doing here?" He exclaimed at them. "I thought you were going south to join the Resistance?!"
"We did," Kairi said, turning to Usopp once she saw that Kirito's burns and other external injuries had mostly faded. "But they sent us here hoping that Natsu could beat the Fire Lord." Her smile as she said it lowered a little and she continued, "And also, we found out that Gray's friends were mostly captured, and sent to the Capital much farther north. So after we're finished here, we'll be heading north again." This time she smiled more genuinely and her face brightened as she mentioned it.
"In that case," Riku said, turning to his childhood friend with a smile of his own that matched hers. "Our two groups can travel together again."
"KEYBEARERS!" A voice boomed, and all four humans spun to the thirty meter tall Ganmen facing off against Riku's summoned Darkside. They were not directly behind the Darkside, so they were able to look at the Byakou's face and see its red eyes narrow almost like the robot itself was glaring at them, and from the amount of rage they heard in that voice that just shouted at them, they would not be surprised if it did. "I knew you were coming, and I have been waiting for you!" Thymilph bellowed, and his men behind him started to feel more confident at how pissed off their commander sounded.
"Do you, know this guy?" Kirito muttered, turning his head to his right as he asked. Riku shrugged his shoulders, but then Kirito, Riku, and Usopp all turned to Kairi whose eyebrows narrowed in towards the center of her face.
Riku's eyes suddenly popped open wide, and he whispered in a quiet voice, "Usopp, you remember that town, where Ansem took us?" Usopp nodded his head, a dark expression on his face as he continued to glare towards Thymilph. "Sora mentioned the Ganmen when we first saw them in the sky," Riku continued, "he sounded like he had run into them before."
"A long, long time ago," Kairi said, continuing for her friend. "On the very first days of this world, the beastmen, and Sora, and I, we all got acquainted," Kairi explained. She did not sound too nostalgic about their meeting, and Thymilph even less so from the tone of his shouts.
"RAAA!" Thymilph roared, and he charged at the smaller black monster in front of him. The Darkside may have been half the Byakou's height, but the Heartless monster was not to be trifled with lightly. It brought back a huge black fist that it slammed forward right when Byakou did the same. The two fists collided and a shockwave rippled out through the courtyard, pushing wind into all the remaining guards and fighters still standing.
A yellow beam flew towards Usopp who scrambled backwards just in time to see it whiz in front of his eyes. He spun and glared between two of the Ganmen behind Byakou to see a guard wearing all black armor including a helmet over his head turn his rifle a little and fire again. The man was less fazed by everything going on around them than his comrades, even those inside the three giant robots on his sides who were still hesitating from the sight of the giant Heartless. Usopp rose up his slingshot and started running to the right to dodge the man's shots that he was seeing come at him seconds before they actually fired. He fired a Pop Green towards the man, but the soldier pointed his rifle at it and shot the green ball before it reached him, destroying the plant inside before it even popped out.
Thymilph roared again inside his Ganmen while he pushed against the Darkside, and Riku's eyes widened below as his monster's feet were lifted off the ground and it was thrown backwards into the wall where Kirito had ripped himself out of a minute before. The Darkside was not down yet though, and after it hit the wall, its chest opened up into a swirling pit of darkness with a deep purple core in the middle. All at once, dozens of black spheres with burning orange cores shot out of the monster's body and curved through the air before shooting back towards Thymilph. The beastman darted his eyes around inside his Ganmen and saw his sensors picking up the trajectories of every one of the attacks, and he smirked at the speeds at which they were moving. The bottom of Byakou's metal feet opened up and jets appeared around it, while wheels popped out below them giving the robot even greater mobility.
The Byakou dodged every single one of the Darkside's attacks, then lifted its right arm that had its wrist pop open and reveal another missile sliding into place. Kirito's eyes widened at the sight of the missile the same size as the ones he dodged in the sky and still got badly burnt by the explosions just from being in the vicinity of them. "Move!" He yelled at Riku and Kairi, and then ran straight forward towards the rest of the enemies, as the farther he got from the wall the Darkside was leaning against, the better. As Kirito ran forward, he slashed his swords in front of him and cut apart beams of light from his enemies who went wide-eyed as the slurred, slow motions of the boy they had cornered only a few minutes ago had sped up immensely thanks to the magic of his comrades.
Riku shot over Kirito's head and slammed his Keyblade into the face of a Ganmen who was approaching the dark haired teen with a sword pulled back behind it. The beastman pilot inside the robot was not expecting the speed at which the silver-haired Keybearer was going to move, and definitely did not expect the strength of the slash Riku hit him with. Riku hit the Ganmen once, then bashed the other way against it, before doing a seven-twenty spin in the air that sent flying slashes out despite being close enough that he hit the robot physically. Chunks of steel went flying out from the sparking robot that got lifted off the ground and pushed higher with every single slash of Riku's Keyblade.
"Stop him!" one of the other pilots of a Ganmen shouted, and he and the other remaining Ganmen below Riku pointed their rifle arms up. As they aimed up, storm clouds suddenly formed above them and the pilots dropped their jaws.
"Thunder!" Kairi shouted, holding her Keyblade up and making bolts of lightning drop down on either of the Ganmen aiming at Riku. Her thunder magic was not very strong, and it took so much out of her after curing Kirito that she had to drop her arms to her side and take a few deep breaths after, but considering she was fighting giant robots, the attacks did a lot of damage. The monsters inside surrounded by metal had all their fur stand on end before they were zapped, being forced to let go and pull back from their controls. Their Ganmen stumbled around without anyone holding onto their controls and bumped into each other, causing both of them to fall off of their feet and topple backwards.
Usopp had just gotten cornered by two of his enemies' beam rifles, but as he saw the next attack he coming from both sides, one of those beams faded from his Observational Haki's vision. He ran that direction the beam should have came from, while looking towards the man who should have shot it. The pirate sharpshooter winced at the sight of a robot on its back right where the guard who was firing at him was just standing. He did not hesitate for long though, unlike the second guard who turned towards his comrade in horror, going as far as lowering his weapon. Usopp took the guard's shock to his advantage and fired a Pop Green at the man's feet, surrounding him in vines that forced him to let go of his weapon altogether.
Riku finished his combo in the air while the two pilots of the Ganmen below were regaining control of their machines, and the two stared up with giant eyes at the sight of the third remaining member of their Ganmen squad falling to pieces above them. Thymilph glared backwards out the corners of his eyes at the sight of one of his Ganmen breaking apart, then snapped back forward with a furious snarl on his face. "Take this scum!" He yelled, and fired the missile from his arm at the giant black monster pulling a fist back again and stepping away from the wall.
A few of the guards saw Kairi and Kirito sprinting at them and rose their weapons, but the two ignored them as they sprinted straight towards the Palace. The guards were confused for a few seconds, until the explosion on the other side of the courtyard blew apart the entire gateway in the south along with a huge portion of the wall around it. They turned to run, but the blast force hit them first and threw them off their feet. Kirito saw the bright light behind him and he dove left to grab Kairi, but before he even touched her, a yellow bubble surrounded both of them and they shot their gazes up to see Riku holding his Keyblade high with a relieved look on his face.
Thanks, Kirito thought, though he did not say it out loud as he was already turning back around towards the enemy he felt behind him. Kirito faced the explosion and watched as Thymilph stepped out of it, unharmed inside his Byakou that still looked untouched after their entire battle. Behind him, he could hear fighting as Riku descended and started bashing the other two Ganmen with his Keyblades. Thymilph started charging the Keybearer attacking his squad's giant robots, but stopped as a figure flew straight up in the air between him and Riku.
Kirito slashed his swords in front of his body and then held them up in the dual-wielding stance he mastered inside virtual reality years ago. He held his thinner blue blade up near his shoulder-level and the other at his side by his waist. His eyes were dark as her glared into the red glass ones of the Byakou, wondering if he was glaring straight into Thymilph's eyes as well. "Guys," he said, shouting in a loud enough voice that Usopp, Kairi, and Riku could all hear him from where they were finishing off the other remaining enemies in the courtyard. Riku just sent a Thundaga into the remaining Ganmen that had them lying incapacitated on the floor, and he and the other two turned around to see Kirito floating in the path of Thymilph and them. "Thanks for the assist," Kirito continued, then a white veil surrounded his body, and a pitch black coating surrounded both of his swords, adding a purple tint to his body's white aura. "But I'm going to finish this on my own."
"You got it!" Usopp called out, already turning his back and running for the Royal Palace. Just one look at the giant thirty-meter-tall robot that came out of a massive explosion undamaged was enough to send the sniper running towards what could potentially be even more danger.
Kairi giggled at Usopp's fast retreat towards more enemies, then waved a hand towards Kirito that she hoped he could see through his peripheral vision. "Good luck," she called to him. As she turned, her eyes lingered on the giant white robot for a second, and her smile faded, the memory of a robot just like it appearing in her mind.
Riku glanced back and forth at the robots on the ground at his sides, and then an empty one off to the side of the courtyard. None of the three were out of commission, but he could feel the two pilots inside the ones he just defeated were unconscious, and there was no pilot for the third in the first place. He glanced back towards Kirito before flying off, Should I leave some help here for him? After a second, he frowned and turned away. It was not the fact that Kirito seemed to want to fight alone that made him stop what he was thinking, it was the set of eyes he felt boring into him, and he looked towards the Palace doors to see a muscular young man glaring his direction like he knew what Riku was thinking.
The silver-haired teen acted like he did not see the glare and flew down to the girl running towards the entrance of the Palace. Riku landed at Kairi's side and ran with her up to Usopp who turned and led them inside. As they were running towards the doors though, Thymilph's voice roared from the courtyard, "Don't think I'll let you escape that easily!" None of them turned around, and they did not need to, as the Ganmen who charged straight at Kirito was not expecting the teenager to fly straight back at him.
All of the individual Kirito Shadow Clones who Thymilph had faced so far tried to use their speed and agility to fight him, and all of them failed. Kirito remembered what all the clones faced in their battles though; he already had experience fighting Thymilph several times. He flew straight towards the monstrous robot who could tear down the tallest and thickest walls in the city with its arsenal, and he slashed his right sword down for the face of the Ganmen. Thymilph brought up his left arm and slammed it into the bottom of Kirito's sword, and despite the Haki put into the weapon, the size of Thymilph's arm was too much and parried his sword away. Kirito spun after the strike was blocked and he brought his left hand's sword around in a three-sixty spin that caused a slash to fly off of his weapon. The slash went in a full circle around him, carving into the second floor walls of the Palace, shattering all the remaining windows of that story, creating a large slash on either of the Palace walls on his sides, and slicing through part of the white steel of the Byakou's body.
Thymilph saw a red light flash on his center console and received a visual of the damage on the monitor in front of his face. The cut was not deep, but the fact that Kirito could cut him, made all the difference to both fighters. Thymilph rolled backwards, jets emerging on the front of his ankles that pushed him back at record speeds for the Ganmen. Kirito's eyes darted down and he watched as panels all over Thymilph's legs opened up, jets appearing out of them on all sides. Bright orange light shone from inside each of the small jets that appeared, and then flames shot out of the ones behind his legs, sending the Ganmen flying at the teenager even faster than it rolled back.
Kirito dodged to the right, but jets came out of the right side of Thymilph's legs as he did, and sent the incoming Byakou straight into Kirito's path. Thymilph rose an arm and his Byakou did the same, then both slammed that arm down and Kirito was nailed in the left side by a huge white fist. He had brought up one of his Haki-covered swords to block with, but once again the punch was too much to handle and he was slammed into the floor of the courtyard, tearing through it like it was dirt instead of stone all the way to the eastern edge near some flaming bushes. Kirito winced but stood up as fast as he could, and he growled as he was already panting after that short exchange.
As I thought, Kairi and Riku can heal me as much as they want, but fatigue is much harder to cure. It's mental as much as physical. The teenager stood up straight and got back into his swordsman's stance. As he stared a hundred meters away though at the giant robot about to charge him, and the small, shallow cut in its center, he grimaced and ground his teeth in resignation. Thymilph was about to charge forward, but Kirito's hands unclenched and the beastman watched as the weapons fell from the boy's hands, clattering on the ground and falling still.
"You may have given the Keybearers time to escape me, for now," Thymilph began, the speakers of his Byakou echoing around the courtyard. Behind him there were flames all around the rubble of the wall and gateway he had knocked down, the gardens on his sides were engulfed in even more because there was a lot more to catch on fire inside them, and the marble floor between the two was upturned or cracked at every step. The engines on the back of the Byakou's legs started glowing brighter and brighter red as energy built up inside them, getting ready to be released all at once. "But you will perish for that!" Thymilph screamed, and he brought back his right fist at the same moment that his legs expelled all the flames to send him flying towards Kirito at a hundred meters per second, so that in a single second, he was bringing his fist down towards the wide-eyed ninja staring back at him. "DIE!" Thymilph screamed, and then the entire courtyard around his fist broke upwards as his fist hit the floor.
The foundation of the Royal Palace itself was in jeopardy, and many of the ceilings and floors all over the Palace cracked to the dismay of those inside. Out in the courtyard, chunks of stone that weighed up to a ton were lifting in the air like they weighed nothing, before dropping back to the ground with thunderous crashes. "Haa, haa, ahhh," Thymilph took some deep breaths with a huge grin on his face. "I, a beastman, was the one to kill, the man who killed Ra's al Ghul." The smug look on his face could not get any cockier. Beep-beep-BEEP-BEEP… Thymilph's smug look wiped from his face as his sensors blared at him, and his monitor showed something still floating behind him even after the rest of the debris fell.
Thymilph's eyes darted to the ground below his Ganmen's fist, and as he started to lift it up, he saw no human body beneath it, only more shattered stones. He started to turn the Byakou around, while the beeping got even louder, and the swordless ninja behind him flew forwards with his right fist pulled back behind him. "I can crack it," Kirito shouted, while the front of the Byakou was about to be right in front of him again. He was lined up perfectly with the slash he made in it before, "I can crack anything, and everything," he yelled, bringing his fist forward towards the crack that told him exactly how much power he was going to need to put into this blow. "EVEN YOU!" Kirito roared, and the red eyes of the Byakou widened in that second, right before Kirito's fist slammed into the slash he carved with his black sword, and a vertical crack split that slash down the middle. The vertical cut stopped right at the top and bottom of the slash, for a moment, then Kirito screamed, "RRAAAA!" And he pushed his fist even harder than he thought he needed to, putting in even the energy he was going to try and spare, putting in everything he had. The vertical cut escaped from the shallow slash and continued up and down the Byakou, breaking right through the monitor in front of Thymilph's face as the beastman roared behind it.
"NO!" Thymilph screamed, pressing buttons and pulling the arms of his Ganmen as hard as he could in to try and smack the teenager away. His arms responded at first, but before they hit Kirito they went limp, and then the entire cockpit of Thymilph's Byakou flashed so bright red that his fur and armor even looked that color. His monitor cut off and the blank screen showed only his own reflection for a second, a crack straight through it, but the fear still visibly spread across his face.
BOOOOOOM! The Byakou started to split down the middle, before erupting in an explosion that rivaled some of its previous attacks' explosions. Kirito flew away from the explosion, keeping a small white veil around him to protect himself from the blast he knew was coming when he started his attack. He had hoped that Thymilph had already used all of his largest rockets, but even if that was so, there seemed to be enough smaller ones remaining inside it that caused an explosion powerful enough to slam Kirito painfully into the ground even with his aura. His veil faded once he hit the floor, but he only bounced once before flipping himself and landing on his feet. He still had a lot of momentum even after landing though, so he stumbled backwards and finally toppled down on his butt when he hit a slanted piece of marble sticking out of the floor. It made for a good seat actually, and he sat on it staring forward at the explosion near the middle of the courtyard, only a little closer to the Palace than the collapsed walls behind Kirito.
"Ahh, haaa, ahhh, haa," Kirito wheezed as he could breathe after using all that energy. Naruto said that if I use all my chakra I can die, and Goku told me never to use up every piece of my strength, because there's no telling when an enemy will come back, but sometimes I feel like I drain every last bit I have. He pushed his right hand down on the stone next to him, a stone similar to the one he used for his Transformation Jutsu to trick Thymilph into attacking while he hid beneath the ground. Kirito stood up and started walking towards the flaming debris in the middle of the courtyard that was still surrounded in smoke, but no longer had a giant explosion around it. He walked to the right to avoid the heat from the rubble, and just in case there was a missile that had not yet exploded stuck inside the broken Ganmen that could erupt out of its casing at any moment.
He got around the broken, burning rubble, and stared up at the Royal Palace in front of him. Even with the broken windows, slashes, and scorch marks, the Palace still looked like quite a magnificent building. Kirito thought about the bodies he saw in the Upper Residential Area, the small slave boy he saw hanging for attempting to run away. The elegance of this Palace made him sick as he thought about the way those corpses looked, and he stomped towards it ready to tear the place down. He took a single stomp- thud. The sound of a foot hitting the ground made Kirito freeze in place. It was loud, and the ground beneath his feet vibrated after it, but he did not stomp down that hard. Thud! Kirito's head started to turn, sweat appearing on both sides and dripping down while he did.
"You," a deep voice snarled, in a raspy, hateful tone. Kirito finished turning his head, then spun the rest of his body after seeing the silhouette in the smoke. The figure stood just outside of the rubble of the Byakou, standing around four times the size of the teenager, with smoke coming off of his body and adding to the shroud around him. There was also the shadow of something very large and long in the right hand of the shadow, and as the beast stomped forward again, Kirito heard dragging of steel across the broken stone of the courtyard. He heard the stone crunching under the weight of the object, before the shadow that was getting clearer by the second rose it up with one hand, and smacked it down on his other so hard that the smoke around him cleared.
The smoke dispersed, and Kirito stared at the huge gorilla with scorched blue fur and blackened armor, holding a massive war hammer in his hands that left a trail of crushed rock in the wake of where it was dragged. "I will not," Thymilph started in a deep snarl. "Let you step one foot, in the Palace." Thymilph snapped his head up and his eyes were bloodshot as he glared into Kirito's eyes. He had scorched fur all over his face and Kirito wondered if the beastman's eyes were open when the explosion went off. "This, is where, you die," Thymilph started charging forward, not looking slowed at all by the weight of his hammer.
Kirito reached up for a sword over his back, as he still had them unlike the transformation who dropped them before getting slammed into pebbles. He stopped though when he was close to grabbing it, as he knew if he tried to parry a weapon like that hammer, which looked to weigh close to a ton, his guard and all the bones in his arms would break. Thymilph swung his hammer down, and Kirito hopped backwards to evade its reach. He made it only a few feet past the edge of the weapon, but was not expecting the amount of debris to fly at him when Thymilph's hammer hit the marble chunk he had been sitting on. A gash ripped through Kirito's left side, tearing his black shirt and making blood splash out, while another less-sharp rock slammed him straight in the face and made him flip backwards.
The teenager fell on his back, botching his landing because of the rubble that hit him in the face. He was disoriented, but his Haki was still working and he could see even with his eyes closed that Thymilph was rising over him. His eyes snapped open and he saw the gorilla falling from the air, a high height for such a monster to jump. Kirito slammed his hands together in a hand sign and dropped into the floor beneath him, and dropped as far as he could as fast as he could, before hearing the ground above him get smashed to smithereens by Thymilph's hammer. Kirito's face had an expression of panic on it as he felt the hammer break through the rocks right above him, and then he oofed in pain as the weapon slammed into his chest. The hammer was at the end of its strike, so there was not much power in it, but it weighed enough that even that much was enough to crush Kirito's lungs. He gasped for breath, but the hammer was too heavy and he had to bring his hands in over the top of his body and push the weapon up as hard as he could.
Thymilph felt the pressure against his hammer and he smirked in a ravenous way, knowing that he had gotten the boy. "THIS IS WHERE YOU DIE!" Thymilph put both hands on the back of his hammer's shaft, then pushed straight down twice as hard.
Kirito had just lifted the hammer off him a bit, but the doubled pressure was making his arms creak and scream out in pain. He would have screamed, but his head was surrounded by marble that he had been sinking through. He could not focus on a jutsu and keep pushing Thymilph away at the same time, so he could not escape any farther into the floor. He's crushing me! I'm running out of air, and I can't push him away! I can't! Kirito's eyes were bloodshot and his face was turning red. All of the muscles in his arms were straining, and veins were popping all over his skin. His heart rate was through the roof, and he could hear its thunderous thumping in his head. He was afraid. His thoughts blurred like his vision. The pressure he could put against the hammer was diminishing, and he was out of breath. He was afraid. He was going to die. He was already beneath the ground, already in his grave.
The boy opened his mouth and he screamed. It was a shout of terror and agony, and so loud that the beastman above the ground smirked ear to ear. The smirk on Thymilph's face disappeared and his eyes darted to either side as giant cracks ripped through the already destroyed courtyard. There were four cracks making an X with the point directly beneath Thymilph, stretching all the way to the sides of the courtyard and then cutting through the flaming gardens next to it. Those four cracks suddenly doubled to eight, then sixteen, and then he looked down as he heard the scream below get higher pitched, and louder, and then the entire courtyard shattered. Every single chunk of rubble or large boulder of marble still over a hundred pounds on the surface broke into pieces, and Thymilph fell backwards as that included the piece he was standing on to give him a sturdy enough balance to press his hammer into Kirito.
As the beastman fell backwards with his hammer falling with him, a figure leapt out of the ground in front of him with eyes of pure red, blood trails from the corners of his lips to his chin, and veins all over his arm muscles showing since the sleeves of his shirt were ripped right off. Kirito's face no longer looked human. He was lost in rage. His cognizant mind had been overwhelmed by survival instincts. A second ago he was a cornered animal about to die, and a cornered animal is a dangerous thing. Thymilph was more animal than man himself, so he recognized the look in Kirito's eyes well. He had pushed the boy into a corner, and it lashed out at him with everything it had. He rose up his hammer and blocked the right fist Kirito swung at him, and the boy screamed out again in pain as his knuckles cracked on the steel. "AAHHH!" Kirito yelled, and the air in front of him reverberated and slammed into Thymilph.
The shout knocked Thymilph stumbling backwards, as Kirito landed on the shattered floor and started running over all the small rocks he made. He punched his left fist forward, then ducked down as Thymilph swung his hammer around in front of him, a defensive swing to keep Kirito away from him. The boy's duck allowed the hammer to swing inches over the top of his head, any lower and it would have smashed through his skull. Kirito's reflexes were better than anyone Thymilph had ever met before though, and at the moment they were heightened to their peak. His body was reacting to every movement of Thymilph's eyes, every twitch of his arms or legs, every tiny thing he might need to worry about.
Kirito stuck his right leg out while the hammer swung over him and he used it to swipe Thymilph's legs out from under him. The blue-furred gorilla beastman winced in pain as Kirito slammed a leg into his, but he did not get lifted off the ground by the weak kick. He finished swinging his hammer and brought it behind him, then his eyes opened wide as he saw the boy already dodging to the right, way before he had even started swinging the hammer towards him. He started shifting the direction he was swinging, but Kirito dodged the opposite direction now, and Thymilph's bottom lip lowered as the boy's initial dodge was only to make him swing in such a manner. He had left his entire right side open, and Kirito drew the black sword from his back as he got around that side.
The boy slashed his sword, and he cut through Thymilph's fur and the flesh behind it. The cut was deep, but Thymilph's large body protected the vital organs Kirito was trying to connect with. The fatty flesh he cut was too thick, and his cut actually stopped before he managed to slash all the way through the other side. He tried tugging his sword out while Thymilph brought his hammer back around, but his eyes widened and he brought his head back, too slow to avoid Thymilph's elbow. He had only seen it coming at the last second when Thymilph let go of his hammer, allowing his arm to move much faster than it previously was and whip straight into him at full force.
Kirito was thrown from his sword, his hands ripped from its hilt, and he bounced over and over before shoving his hands into the rocks beneath him and dragging himself to a stop before he flew into a flaming garden. He dug his hands down farther and wrapped them around a rock each, while Thymilph picked back up his hammer and started charging his way again. Kirito bent his knees and lifted up his heels, putting all his weight on the balls of his feet. He pounced, shooting towards Thymilph in a serpentine path, moving left, right, left again. Thymilph did not know where Kirito was going to attack from, so he put the hammer in only his right hand and whipped a wide arc in front of his body with it. Kirito had to leap up to get over the swing, and Thymilph slammed his other fist forward in the path the teen was going, his arms thrown behind him. Kirito tried to fly backwards, but the attempt failed, so instead he tried focusing Haki in his stomach where he was about to be hit, which worked a little better. He prepared for the punch, and winced in pain as it hit him, but then bent over Thymilph's arm and threw his arms that were behind him forward. He already knew he would be able to focus Haki on his stomach, because he had done the same thing to the rocks he grabbed from the courtyard's debris.
Thymilph gasped as a rock hit him in the forehead, then roared, "RAA!" The second rock hit him in the side of the neck, but his fatty neck protected him more than the thick skull of his forehead. His fur there was already burnt thin, so Kirito was able to see the blood pouring out of the gash he made with the rock. Kirito dropped his arms down to Thymilph's wrist of the fist still slammed into his stomach, and he flipped the rest of his body up with an agonizing push. He flipped over Thymilph's head and slammed a fist down into the same spot he hit with the rock, and Thymilph roared again, but slammed his other fist upwards as he did. Kirito knew he could not fly, but this time he did not manage to even cover himself in Haki, and the fist slammed into his back and knocked him away from Thymilph and into the floor again. He rolled head over heels three times before extending his legs during a roll and bouncing up to his feet. He spun around and glared at the beastman whose punch was nowhere near as strong as the Byakou's, but at the strength Kirito was at now, it hurt twice as much. His back ached, his lungs felt like someone was squeezing them, making him wheeze as he faced Thymilph, but the battle damage was clear on his enemy too.
The two looked straight into each other's bloodshot eyes. They knew the damage caused to the person in front of them was thanks to their own actions. They stood there staring at one another, in a fight of life or death, and neither of them said a word, but they knew the next clash was the final one. Kirito's breathing slowed, and Thymilph put both hands on his war hammer. Kirito rose his right fist to his side, his eyes closed, and he heard the footsteps of his opponent charging towards him. Thymilph was closing the gap, swinging his hammer around and around, picking up speed with every swing. Kirito took a deep breath, the fist on his right side opened, and he curled his fingers up around his palm. Kirito's eyes snapped open, and blue light started swirling around over his palm, getting brighter and more defined every second. Thymilph was five meters from him, and he made one more warm-up swing that was the widest of them all, going far back behind him this time so that he would have the biggest wind-up for the most powerful finishing strike. As the hammer finished moving in front of him though, Kirito sprinted forward. Thymilph's hammer kept going around behind him, but Kirito reached him before he could bring it around again. His entire torso was exposed, and the beastman's eyes opened huge as Kirito shoved his right hand forward, yelling at the top of his lungs as he did, "RASENGAN!"
The swirling ball of blue light connected with Thymilph's armored chestplate. It shattered. His Rasengan slammed into Thymilph's chest and the beastman started roaring, his voice full of agony. Kirito slammed his right foot forward and pushed upwards with all his might. Thymilph's feet lifted off the ground, and the gorilla beastman roaring in pain started spinning as he flew off of Kirito's hand. He spun around and around through the air, his screaming stopped, and he flew so fast away from the boy in the courtyard that he rose right over the top of the Palace and kept going. Kirito kept following through with the arm he made the Rasengan with, while his legs came out from under him, and his mind started to blank. He put his hands out in front of him, and just avoided slamming face-first into the ground.
Kirito only held himself up for a second, before collapsing onto his face and chest. His elbows bent fully at his sides, and he coughed into the floor once. He tried taking a deep breath, but just wound up coughing a dozen more times. I'm so exhausted, he thought, as he was needing to force his eyelids to stay open. His arms fell limp at his sides and he turned his head sideways, looking towards one side of the courtyard and the flames rising from the garden there. He stared at them, flickering, flaring, blazing, an inferno enveloping everything around and turning it into ash. Kirito kept panting while staring at those flames, and his heart rate was not slowing down. I've got nothing. No strength left at all.
Kirito's eyes started closing once again. Then, Kirito saw something. In his mind, he saw Metropolis. He saw the moment he was at his absolute weakest moment. Kirito saw himself lying on the floor, having just given all of his remaining energy to Goku to fight Luthor with. Around him were all the other fighters, people he had fought alongside, and who had all given Goku their full powers as well. Ben was at his side, chuckling as Goku landed near them after defeating Luthor. He had said that he always thought Goku could do it, and then Luthor dropped down in front of them, alive, breathing, and all the hope Kirito had was lost. But then, Goku, looking like he had no strength at all, managed to stand back up. He turned into a Super Saiyan, and landed a blow that was so strong it ripped Luthor's arm clean off, almost at the cost of his own life. Kirito wanted to get up so much and run to him, to help him, but he had already given Goku all of his strength, and it didn't make a difference.
Kirito's arms tensed up at his sides as he stared at the flames of the garden. He tried gripping the ground, but even his fingers seemed to want to ignore him, and he was having a hard time finding a grip. In his head, he watched as Luthor pointed his left hand at Goku, and then something stunned him. He grit his teeth in the present, as he had watched Sora walk on shaky legs up to Goku, legs so shaky that as soon as he reached Goku, he had collapsed. Kirito remembered trying so hard to get up. But did I? In his mind he watched as that man Tsuna walked over, and Natsu, on the verge of death, looking like a corpse, staggered over as well. And then, in his mind as he watched himself trying to push his body up, his arms shaking beneath him, out the corners of his eyes he saw something that made him look up in shock. He stared at Ben, the boy looking like one of his arms was broken, like he had been fighting as hard as Kirito had, or harder, the entire day. And he watched as that child stood up, and staggered into the crater, all the way to Goku and Sora who he collapsed next to.
All of them were able to do it. Kirito thought, and his gaze stopped focusing on those flames, and darted to the Royal Palace instead. His arms stopped shaking as much as he gripped stones beneath him, and his elbows started to unbend. His chest rose and he pushed his forehead down on the floor, dragging his knees up over the ground and groaning as he did. He stopped groaning after a second, gritting his teeth instead through the pain. Bear it! He curled his right hand into a fist, crushing the rock he had grabbed with it. Kirito slammed that fist into the floor and the other rocks around him trembled. He crushed the rock in his right hand and punched that one down too, pushing more of his body up as he did. He was on his hands and knees, and he rose up his left leg first, stomping down hard with a leg that stopped shaking as he glared at it. I can't be the only one. Not again. The others, are still fighting. I can't, I can't! Kirito brought his other leg up and pushed his hands off the ground once and for all, rising back to his feet. I'm not just going to collapse here, hoping that one of my friends comes to get me, hoping that Riku or Kairi will come to me, hoping that they can handle whatever enemies are ahead without my help.
The injuries he received from Thymilph were severe. He was bloody and bruised all over. His mind was clear though. Kirito stared ahead at the Royal Palace, and he started walking towards it. He could hear explosions coming from inside, as well as explosions coming from behind him, out in the city and beyond its walls. I won't fall here, Kirito thought. His walking turned into jogging, and his facial expression hardened. Not again. Not, while my friends still need my help.
Royal Palace Second Floor, Pyraxas
"Ahh!"
Nami turned to the right as she heard screaming coming down the hall from that direction. The halls were covered in red carpets, the walls lined with paintings, everything was luxurious. There was so much for her to steal, but the sound of that horrified scream made her heart clench up.
She started walking in the direction the scream came from. Another man's voice yelled out in horror but was cut off just like the first's. What's going on? I don't recognize their voices, so they're probably enemies. Then why, why do they sound so... Nami walked through an open doorway, and she turned right down a hallway on the other side of it.
The orange haired woman froze. She stopped moving for many reasons. The biggest reason was because of the blue haired woman standing down the hall from her. "Juv-" Nami began, her eyes widening and her mouth curling up into a smile at the first glance at her. A second later though, Nami was no longer smiling. She was instead staring at the younger girl's hands, both held out in front of her with large spheres of water growing out in front of them.
Those water spheres surrounded Juvia's hands, but they also covered the heads of two Fire Nation guards down on their knees whose faces her palms were gripping. The men were grabbing up at their throats and trying to escape, but Juvia's water spheres kept them trapped in the bubbles. They gasped for air and air bubbles floated out of their mouths. Their faces were scrunching up in pain and their eyes got red as they bulged out.
"Juvia," a male's voice said sternly from behind her. "Stop this."
Nami looked behind Juvia and saw Kirito standing there. The ninja wearing black clothes with the sleeves ripped off looked worse for the wear. He was staring at Juvia's back and the girl looked over her right shoulder back at him. She smirked a smirk so menacing, so devious, neither Nami nor Kirito recognized her at the moment. "No," Juvia said, and she looked back forwards and watched the men whose faces turned pale, then blue as they ran out of air.
"They're dying," Kirito said, his voice quieter now. He had felt her presence with his Observational Haki as soon as he entered the Palace, and when he sensed it he knew something was wrong. If it was any of his other friends who he felt, he might have just thought they were enraged, but he had been warned about this. Ra's, Silva, even the first League of Assassins' member he tortured to find the Pit's location, they all warned him of the Lazarus Pit's effects. He whispered softer, "You're killing them."
Nami was slowly walking into the room but the other two hadn't noticed yet. Kirito took a step towards Juvia's back, "Do you really want to do this? Think about it Juvia, this isn't you."
Juvia's hands started shaking and the solid water spheres vibrated almost like they were going to fall apart. The girl's mouth flattened and started trembling, but steadied after a few seconds and lowered into a deep snarl. "It's your fault," Juvia growled, and then she clenched her fists shut. The water started boiling around the two dying men's heads. They would have been in tremendous burning pain, but a second after she started, they drowned inside her balls of water and stopped moving. Juvia released her clenched fists and the guards collapsed forward motionless as the spheres burst.
Juvia spun around and she looked furious. "You did this to Juvia! Kirito and Gray-sama brought her back!" She grabbed the sides of her head and then looked back down at the floor and the dead men behind her. "I couldn't help it," she whispered, tears coming to her eyes. "Juvia wanted to let them go, but, but at the same time, I needed to kill them!"
She shook her head over and over and clenched at the blue hair on her temples. "Kirito, you should not have brought Juvia back. You should have let me stay dead."
"You died?" A voice whispered twenty feet to Juvia's left. Both her and Kirito spun to see Nami standing there. The sight of the woman made Juvia drop her jaw, but Nami just took another step forward. "How? Why? When, did you, die?"
"She got assassinated-" Kirito began.
"How could you let that happen?!" Nami screamed over at him, making the teen step back in surprise as he was not expecting that. "Juvia," Nami whispered, looking back over at her friend who looked so scared right now. "I'm so sorry," Nami whispered, her voice cracking as she did. "You, died- and I- I wasn't even there to help when you were in trouble!"
"Nami left Juvia!" Juvia yelled. Nami leaned back in shock, half-expecting Juvia to forgive her right away. Juvia took a step towards her pirate friend, and shouted louder, "Nami, and Luffy, everyone left her. Only Juvia's real friends stayed, but Juvia still died! Nami was not there to help Juvia! Juvia died because of Nami!" Juvia kept walking forward every time she shouted, and as she shouted that last sentence she froze in place.
The Rain Woman regretted saying what she just said to her friend. She wanted to apologize. Before Juvia could though, before she lost the furious expression on her face, her eyes focused on Nami's face only a few inches in front of her. And as she read the expression Nami had, her own look of anger vanished. Her lips trembled and her body shook. She had no idea that while she was yelling at Nami and storming towards her, that her own body was getting taller and her arms were steaming. All she knew, was that the woman in front of her was looking at her as if she was a demon.
Juvia looked to her right at the dead bodies of the men she just mercilessly slaughtered. Her eyes widened and she turned from them back to Nami. "Nami is not safe around Juvia," she whispered.
Nami's scared look lowered as she realized what Juvia was so freaked out about. "J-Juvia no, it's not-"
"Nami thinks Juvia is a monster," Juvia stated, while lifting up her palms and staring at them in horror. "Juvia is a monster." She added in realization, and her arms dropped down to her sides limply.
"Juvia," Kirito began, reaching an arm out towards her.
"No!" Nami yelled, starting to run forward at the blue haired girl. Her whole body was telling her she needed to get to Juvia now! "I don't! Juvia is-"
The girl in front of Nami exploded. Her solid form turned completely into blue water the same shade as her hair, and it burst out before dropping to the floor in one large puddle. Nami gasped and screamed, "JUVIA!"
"Juvia, are you," Kirito started, but stopped himself as he saw the puddle shimmer. The puddle of water slid across the floor and the other two stared at it in surprise for a second. They saw where it was heading and started running towards it, but even Kirito was too slow to catch the water before it got in the vent, not that he knew what he would have done if he caught it in the first place.
Nami dropped to the floor and leaned in towards the air vent's grate. "Juvia! Juvia!" She shouted into the vent. After calling her name a dozen more times, she fell backwards and put her face in her hands, shaking her head around sadly. "She ran away. She's gone."
"Don't overreact," Kirito muttered. Nami snapped her gaze up and glared at him furiously, but Kirito did not even flinch. It reminded her of when he mentioned her taking the reward money from Dressrosa right before they split apart. He was not afraid of her. He looked down at her and said in a non-caring tone, "And next time you see her, be less of a bitch."
A tick mark formed on the side of Nami's head and she jumped up to her feet. "You may not fear me right now, but I am going to-"
"I told you Juvia got killed, and you started yelling at me," Kirito said in his same monotonous voice. He interrupted Nami without fearing any consequences, and the orange haired woman took a step back away from him. He took a step towards her though and kept his face close. "You put the blame on me," he continued, his eyes and voice dark. She stepped back again and he took another step to follow, "But it was you guys who left us. Juvia begged you to stay with her. She accused you all of leaving her behind for a different friend. And you know what?" Kirito asked, leaning in even farther and shoving a finger in Nami's chest right above her breasts. "She. Was. Right."
He poked his finger into her each time he spoke and pushed Nami back with his forcefulness. She gawked at him as he glared at her in such a pissed-off way. "She thought she could trust you. And now, after seeing her for the first time in over a month, you looked at her like she was some kind of monster." Kirito's voice sounded disgusted and Nami had to look away in shame. "The way we brought Juvia back," Kirito continued, and as Nami looked up she saw it was his turn to look away ashamedly. "We were told it would not bring her back, exactly the same as she was before. But even after finding out about her bloodlust, not once," he said, and looked up into Nami's brown eyes with ones full of fury, "not once did any of us look at her like you just did."
Nami felt like Kirito just stabbed her in the heart. She could not even move as he marched right past her, making sure he gave her a rough shove with his right shoulder as he did. Nami stumbled to the side and the hit knocked her out of her stupor. She spun around and looked at Kirito's back as he walked away. She wanted to shout her reasons, or just yell angry things at him, or even apologize. Instead, she called out, "Wh-where are you going?"
Kirito stopped walking for a second. The images he thought about out in the courtyard flashed in his head, but then faded away just as fast. He balled his fists at his sides and closed his eyes. He clenched his teeth so hard with his lips pulled apart that he was baring them like a wild beast. "I'm going to see if I have a single friend left."
Goku, Gray, Juvia, Nami... To think, I actually thought we were all comrades. To think I would make that stupid pact with these people! No matter what? Goku let us all die according to Ben. Nami's a greedy, mean woman. Gray... Kirito's angered expression as he walked down the hallway distorted even further. How could I forgive him? Telling myself day in and day out to let it go. No! I won't. I'm not such a nice person that I can just forget and forgive. I trusted you. I let you guard my back. And you, you plotted to kill me! The good guys? Give me a break. We're all just monsters when it comes down to it.
Upper Residential Area, Pyraxas
"We're almost there," Robin said. She dropped her arms back to her side and took a deep breath, before starting up a jog again and running right past a dozen Fire Nation soldiers lying on the floor. The huge walls to the Royal Palace were only one more block ahead of them, or at least, where the walls used to be. Her and the man who landed at her side and started jogging with her again were coming straight from the south, so the walls in front of them were demolished a few minutes ago by a massive explosion that sent debris flying through the Upper Residential Area. The explosion had actually slowed their advance, as Sanji insisted on destroying the debris and helping the women of the Upper Residential Area who were threatened by the blast, and Robin had to face the soldiers who came rushing towards the explosion from around the city.
Sanji was taking deep breaths and could not even shout something happy and affirmative at his dear Robin-chan. He had a hole in his shirt on the lower right side, and there was a lot of blood coming from the wound. Luckily there was no bullet lodged inside him, but the beam rifle he was shot with ripped right through his skin and he had no idea the extent of the internal damage. Bastard, shooting me while I held up the rubble for those women to escape out from under.
The two pirates neared the fallen southern walls to the Royal Palace's courtyard. Right as they were getting close, they spotted a figure stepping out from behind one of the buildings on the street closest to the walls. The sight of him made the pirates' eyes widen, and they headed towards him when he turned their direction and made eye contact. "Franky, what happened to you?" Sanji asked, stopping in front of the cyborg whose large red hands had lost a lot of their paint, and whose skin on several parts of his body looked melted off. Franky had made a few emergency repairs in the last twenty minutes, but when he was about to head back into the courtyard to help out, the entire wall exploded and sent him flying through the building behind him. If the other two pirates who walked to him were to look around the side of the building Franky just came around, they would see most of the wall was torn down as Franky was not the only thing to slam through it.
"Nothing this Super robot couldn't handle," Franky bragged, though he did it with less of his usual enthusiasm. He turned towards the wall closest to them where they could see some marble chunks sticking out of the ground with a gap between them. It looked like that was the old massive gateway, and Franky grimaced imagining what would have happened if he had been a few seconds faster in his repairs, as he would have been in that gateway during the explosion. "I'm recharged on cola, and ready to get in there," he said, grinning again and turning to the other two who smiled back.
"Same," Sanji said. He frowned after saying it and muttered, "I mean, about being ready, not the cola thing…" He pulled out a cigarette and lit it while frowning at the laughter from the cyborg in front of him.
The three of them started for the Royal Palace together. They walked over large chunks of wall that were covered in black like they had been burned. Sanji felt better thanks to the troll's healing magic, and Franky felt energized thanks to his cola, but both of them and Robin felt tired from their battles so far in the city. They each showed a little battle damage, though for Robin that just meant her left sleeve was ripped, but it was nothing they could not handle.
Brmm An explosion went off in the direction of the Palace, but the pirates could not see what caused it. The building was huge: three stories tall, but each story was twice what a floor would be on a normal building, and the third floor was even taller than that. The pirates stopped as they were about to walk through the giant opening in the walls completely, and they turned and looked at each other, sweat forming all over their faces. The ground was shaking, and explosions started going off faster and faster together, but the Palace in front of them was not shaking as this happened. They saw it out the corners of their eyes, but none of them really wanted to look that way.
Finally, the three stepped back outside the Palace walls, and all three of them turned to the west. They looked out past the walls of the Upper Residential Area, and the ones surrounding the city of Pyraxas as a whole. They stared outside of the city, at a bumpy white mass outside of the city that grew bigger and bigger every second. The three of them stared at the mass in shock, as until a few seconds ago, it had somehow evaded their sight entirely. "What, the Hell, is that thing?" Franky mumbled, rubbing his eyes and then leaning back as it was still there when he lowered his hands from his face.
Suddenly, a flash of blue ignited on one side of the mass, and the ground shook as an explosion of blue flames blasted on the side of the monster closest to the city. The pirates looking that way all recognized the flames. Sanji frowned and he looked behind him, then back out into the city. Rin might need our help. Luffy wouldn't want us busting in on his fight with the Fire Lord, but Sozin might have other allies Luffy needs me to take care of so he can get his one on one fight… And if Rin found who he was coming here for, if that's, the demon he was after...
Sanji was not the only one hesitant as he stared outside of the city. A battle between demons was not something any of them were keen on running into. The stories Killua told them about Astaroth, the way Rin looked when he really lost it, and all of their encounters with demons so far, told them that joining that battle was not a decision to be made lightly. Then, all three of the pirates dropped their jaws, Sanji's cigarette dropping to the floor. Even Robin, the most composed of the Straw Hats, lowered her bottom lip and gawked at the flash of green light she saw outside of the city.
Robin rose her gaze as out of that green light formed a giant so tall he topped the height of the bumpy white mass, at least for now. The disgusting white creature that they thought they could make out a face on the side facing the giant was getting bigger every second, so even the giant alien they recognized might not be the tallest for long. Robin focused on the more humanoid giant, with huge white arms and legs, but also red spikes sticking out of his shoulders and on top of his head, as well as sticking off his forearms and lower legs. Way Big, Robin remembered Ben using that form to fight against Enoch when she and him were the only ones to escape the Perfect Day their comrades had had before arriving in the Forever Kingdom. She watched as the alien punched a hand forward, but that massive hand got stuck inside the monster that Ben punched at and he had to grab his wrist with his other hand to pull his hand out.
"What's Ben doing here?!" Sanji shouted, finally getting over the shock of seeing him enough to shout.
Franky's mouth had closed the fastest of the three pirates, as this was less shocking to him than the others. "He's not the only one," he said. Robin and Sanji turned towards him and Franky explained, "Kirito-bro was here fighting with me and Luffy earlier, and Natsu headed in after him to try and get to the Fire Lord first." The other two pirates were shocked, but when they looked back at the courtyard covered in broken giant robots, destroyed walls, and flaming gardens, it was not hard to believe that Luffy had some help messing the place up this badly. It would have been a lot for even their crazy Captain to do alone in that amount of time.
"We should go in after them," Sanji said. The other two seemed in agreement, though they did look back out to the west again when a huge beam of light fired from the crossing point of Way Big's arms.
Sanji and Franky started heading back into the courtyard, but Robin spoke up behind them, "Wait." The two men turned, and saw Robin no longer looking out to the west over the Upper Residential Area to the giant monster battle beyond Pyraxas. Instead, she was staring the opposite direction, turned to the east with a serious feel to her expression. The two men ran out to get by her sides, and they looked east as well.
"This isn't good," Sanji muttered, and he wished he had not dropped his cigarette when he saw Ben. There was no time to light another one though, as there was a zeppelin like one of the ones they saw hovering above Sin City heading their direction from the northeast. It was far outside of the city, at the moment at least, but the ship looked intimidating with its dark red cover and turrets all over the bottom metal piece. They could also see a lot of smoke billowing up from the northern side of the Palace, making the pirates wonder what was going on on the other side of the city, and if their friends who they had not seen in over a week had something to do with it.
"Reinforcements?" Franky questioned. "How many you think are in there?"
"A large number to be sure," Robin replied, though she herself had no idea what that number would be. "Word that their capital city is under attack must have been relayed to their armies all over the region. I would not be surprised- yes, there is another," she pointed and the men followed the point across the east towards the Cataclysm line they could see pretty well from the high elevation of the center of Pyraxas. There was a zeppelin rising from the Cataclysm what looked like fifty miles east of them, a little farther than the one they saw coming from the north. Both were moving fast however, and those distances would be closing fast.
"All those soldiers coming into the city, fresh," Sanji muttered. "It's not going to be good." His eyes narrowed and he frowned as he took another glance back towards the Royal Palace. Sanji grimaced and turned away, then took a step to the east. "We can't let those zeppelins reach the city. Luffy needs time to face the Fire Lord." The chef looked back and said in a serious voice, "I'll take the one coming from the north."
Franky nodded his head, and Robin told him, "Good luck."
"Thank you, Robin-channn!" He leapt up in the air into a front-flip, then kicked the air behind him and shot off like a missile.
Robin chuckled, then Franky began in a quiet voice, "If Zoro was here, bet Sanji would have went after both on his own." Franky was thinking about previous fights where the two would compete to take down more enemies.
The woman at his side smiled at his nostalgic tone, then she crossed her arms in front of her body. "Cinco Cien Fleur: Wings!"
Franky started turning his head to look at Robin, but he let out a yelp as suddenly hundreds of arms were sprouting from his back and merging together. The woman next to him had a hundred arms appear on either side of her back, while she added a few more to the wings she sprouted from Franky as he did weigh more than her. She flapped her own wings and his at the same time, and the two of them flew up into the air with ease. She had a very large wingspan proportional to her body, while Franky's looked more natural. She liked having the larger wings though, as a single flap made her fly so far considering her small body. "Come, Sanji-san is leaving the other one to us. Let us prepare a trap for it at the outer walls."
The cyborg got over his initial shock and started laughing. "You got it sis! Not really my style, but I'll make the most Super trap you've ever seen!" Robin chuckled at his enthusiasm, and the two of them flew away to hold off the Fire Nation reinforcements coming from the southeast.
Western Gate of Pyraxas
On top of the tall gates on the far west side of Pyraxas's Lower Residential Area, two men were standing and looking out at a crazy sight. The battle occurring before their eyes was unlike the others going on around Pyraxas. Whether it was the two hundred meter tall mass of white that looked more mountain than beast, or the almost-as-enormous humanoid alien firing beams out of its arms trying to fight it, the fight was out of control.
"The miasma's getting close to the city," the younger of the two men on the wall mentioned. He pulled out a piece of cloth and wrapped it around the bottom of his face like a bandanna to keep the small grayish-white specks from getting in his lungs. Around the young man standing on the wall were unconscious Fire Nation and Sun Marine soldiers. Ten meters to his right, the heavyset inventor and one of Admiral Komei's best men, Captain Dojaku, lay still with half of his body draped over the outer wall's stone rail and his butt sticking up in the air.
The older figure on the wall did not bother covering his mouth and just continued to stare out at the fight ahead of him. He looked at the giant alien's feet, and the base of the Impure King's mountainous form, where there was another fight going on that he was more interested in. The man had black hair unlike his comrade's that was dyed bright pink. He wore a pair of glasses and had freckles all over his face. Saburota Todo frowned as he watched a figure covered in blue flames go flying at a hundred miles an hour into the floor. Debris flew up in the air and dust mixed in with the dangerous miasma coming off of the Impure King's body, making the air in the vicinity even hazier.
Todo and the boy next to him lowered their gazes to a point closer to the wall they were on. A shadow on the ground came out of the thicker miasma and became visible to them. It already seemed to know they were there before they saw it though, as when they turned to the shadow it was moving in a straight path in their direction. Renzou Shima's eyes darted from the shadow sliding across the floor back to the fight around the rapidly expanding base of the Impure King. He could still see a shadowy figure in that direction with goat horns over his head and glowing red eyes, so the teenager looked back in surprise as that shadow reached the wall and shot up it in a second so it stopped right in front of him and Todo.
The shadow emerged from the ground, without any of the color that the real demon out on the field had to his body. This being was a shade, nothing more. It stood there in front of the two men, and a face started to appear on the shadow's head, giving Shima the creeps even though he just stood there grinning at it. "What are you two doing here?" The mouth that formed on the shadow's head first asked, while the eyes and ears were still forming.
"I heard that Okumura Rin was in Pyraxas, so I came to see for myself, Lord Astaroth," Todo responded to the demonic shadow in front of him.
Shima did not turn his head to the man next to him, though as he continued to face Astaroth's shade, he thought, Heh, Todo's smart making it out like he had no idea Rin was here. I know you saw him in Dressrosa. "I also wanted to see if my old pal Rin was here," Shima mentioned. He peered out with a hand against his forehead and whistled as Astaroth sent Rin flying again, "You're really handing it to him," he mentioned.
"Of course," Astaroth growled. "The boy will be brought to Hell and presented before Lord Satan. I will be the one who presents our father with this. No one else," he narrowed the darker black circles on his face that the two thought to be his eyes.
"You don't want any help?" Shima asked, looking surprised though secretly happy by that statement.
Astaroth's shade swung a fist and Shima watched it fly, but did not back away. The eighteen year old got hit and sprawled backwards, grabbing his face in pain and showing a look of shock on his face like he had no idea that punch was coming. "You imbecile," Astaroth snarled. "You think I require your pathetic help?" The demon's shade scoffed, then turned back to the other man, "Saburota Todo, assist the Fire Lord and stop the others who arrived with Okumura Rin in this city."
Todo's eyebrows lifted, and the freckle-faced man questioned, "Is it a good idea for me to reveal the Umbrella Corp's presence in the city? High Lord Sozin is strongly opposed to-" The shade lashed out again and Todo stumbled back, his glasses cracked as he was punched straight in the face. After a second Todo closed his mouth, stared forward through the cracked lenses, and simply said, "Understood, my Lord." Astaroth smirked at the two in front of him, and then the shadow exploded, turning into black wisps that faded away in the air in seconds.
Shima stood up on Todo's side, and looked at the Southwest Regional Director of the Umbrella Corporation who for some reason started smirking despite the cracked glasses. Todo reached up, grabbed his glasses, and dropped them on the floor in front of him. He continued to stare out past the wall though towards Okumura Rin, and he sighed as he watched Rin's friends run in and use different attacks to keep Astaroth away as Rin was struggling to stand back up after the last time Astaroth hit him. I am glad I already got to see what Rin can do, but I pity young Okumura to have to face the King of Rot. I had such plans for you. Todo shook his head and turned to the teen next to him, "Renzou-kun," he began, and Shima looked into his eyes with a mischievous look on his face. "What was your purpose for coming to Pyraxas?"
Shima shrugged and opened his mouth, but after examining Todo's expression he closed it, and his face returned to having a mischievous look to it. "I'm guessing, the same reason as you," he replied. Todo's eyes narrowed and the boy's snarky look suddenly looked a little more dangerous, as he stared straight back with a grin that showed Shima knew exactly what he was talking about.
"Hnhnhn," Todo chuckled, keeping his mouth closed so it sounded like short breaths of air coming out of his nose while he hummed. "Be careful, spy. One of these days you will get yourself killed with that tongue of yours."
Shima chuckled himself and then looked back out towards the battle that seemed to intensify after Astaroth's shade vanished. The miasma was thicker, the Impure King was even more massive, and a flash of green light returned the massive alien fighting it and keeping it at bay to the size of a young teenage boy. "Nah," Shima started. Though his voice had a joking tone to it, his smile was gone and he was just staring out at the flickering blue flames around his old friend in the distance. He glanced out the corners of his eyes at the man standing next to him, "This tongue of mine is what's gonna keep me alive."
A Mile West of Pyraxas
Okumura Rin was on his hands and knees. He stared at the grass beneath him, covered in his blue flames, burning brighter than his aura that he was staring through to look at them. He clenched his teeth and snapped his head up, snarling towards the demon in the distance who sent him flying him so far away with every hit. So strong, Rin thought, while getting back up on two feet. He grit his teeth and could feel them sharpening, but he took a deep breath and they shrank back. Don't lose control. He's the demon. This isn't a fight between two demons. I can't beat him like that. Not like the first time I beat Amaimon. I need to beat him as me, as a human! If I don't, then what's the point?
Rin started running back towards the battle, because he could not let his friends fight Astaroth on their own. Ben was down there with them now, all three of them facing the demon instead of the giant monster that was making the area hazier and hazier by the second. Ben, Dash, and Gray were all able to see the monsters they were fighting, and Rin was at least glad that Astaroth's powerful demonic presence was enough to make Astaroth and his pet visible. The Impure King was looking less like a giant blob of white now, as the monster took on a more solid form with giant walls, archways, and even towers emerging around it. Ben's earlier attacks as Way Big tore huge sections out of the Impure King, but it only slowed the gradual construction of the Impure King's body that repaired itself faster than they could destroy.
At the base of the Impure King's southern edge, Astaroth cackled maniacally at them with his arms held out to the sides. "Dash out of the way!" Gray yelled, pointing the ice cannon in his arm forward. The boy running towards Astaroth grimaced and turned mid-sprint, running to the left instead. He coughed into his arm as he ran, wincing with every step. I'm getting in the way! Dash thought, angry at himself as he was barely running any faster than the rest of his friends. His pants from his knees down were shredded and his legs were in a lot of pain from Astaroth's initial sneak attack, a trap that he fell right into.
"Ice Make: Ice Cannon!" A huge ball of light-blue light fired from the giant ice cannon twice as long as Gray was tall. The light flew towards the demon before them, looking more terrifying every second. The light blast from Gray's cannon got close to Astaroth, but the demon slammed his right fist from his side out in front of him, and the sphere of light dissipated into thin air. Gray lowered his cannon with wide eyes at the sight of his attack vanishing like it was nothing, and his eyes grew even larger as through that light he could see Astaroth staring straight into his eyes, into his soul, with glowing red eyes that he recognized from somewhere. Gray knew exactly where he had seen those eyes again, and he thought on his nightmare from the night before, the terrifying monster in it that was scary, but nowhere near as monstrous as the real-life monster in front of him now.
"Die!" Astaroth yelled, and he charged at Gray like a beast. His legs were hairy like a goats, and every stomp of his clawed hooves on the floor ripped the blackened ground apart. Dirt chunks rose up from beneath the dead grass, and the demon cackled as all the nutrients in the debris that lifted up were rotted away, and even the dirt shifted gray and turned to ash.
Ben and Dash looked towards Gray who they saw take a step back with Astaroth charging straight at him. A flash of green surrounded Ben, while Dash just changed directions he was moving and sprinted towards their older friend. Ben turned into XLR8 and shot across the black ground that was getting grayer every second, and the thirteen year old spotted Dash's blurry form running over as well, but slower than he was moving. Damn it, all of us need to be fighting, but I also need to take some time and heal up Dash's legs! I can't risk going Tentacure and waste time on the Omnitrix- XLR8 lifted his right arm while he ran, and a flash of yellow light appeared in front of his hand. He sprinted in between Gray and the demon only ten meters away from him, and the boy moving insanely fast swung the weapon in his hands forward.
Astaroth's red eyes lost their ominous glow and grew as wide as saucers. He could not stop his momentum, though he had the time to raise an arm and parry, clashing his bumpy orange-skinned right arm into the weapon. He pressed against it and the alien pushed back against him, a strained look on its blue face though Astaroth could not see it behind the black mask XLR8 had up. "A Keyblade?" Astaroth snarled, his shocked look snapping down to a more furious one. "It's your damn fault we're here," the demon said, and Ben's Keyblade lost the pressure pushing back against him as the boy dropped his jaw in shock. Astaroth felt the lowered pressure, and he brought up his right knee while the boy was distracted, and nailed Ben straight in the gut with it.
XLR8 rose up in the air, coughing in pain. He hit the top of his arc and glared down, but shook his head of that anger and focused on what he originally pulled the Keyblade out for. He had to save Gray first, but now he swung the Keyblade and a flash of green light emitted from the tip. Another speedster sprinting towards Astaroth's back suddenly took another step, only to find that his body did not shoot with pain this time.
Dash looked down in awe, seeing the rotted skin that fell off his knee before was all back, and his legs barely looked red at all anymore. Yes! The boy thought, while Astaroth lifted his arms and extended the claws from his fingers. "No one will care if a Guardian or two gets skewered!" Astaroth screamed, and he brought his claws up at the alien dropping towards him. BAM! Astaroth's face filled with an expression of pain, and the monster was lifted off the ground as Dash slammed him in the back with a double-fisted punch. Astaroth flew off of Dash's fists, and the kid yelled, "Gray!"
Gray had stopped stepping back when Ben attacked Astaroth, and he had been too afraid to step forward even when Astaroth was going to impale Ben, but he bit down hard and planted his feet as hard as he could exactly where he was standing. There is no running from this monster! Either we win or we die, so deal with the fear, and handle this like a man! Gray clenched his fingers into the Ice Cannon he was still holding, and he twisted his body all the way around, swinging the cannon right into Astaroth's face as the demon flew towards him. The cannon clotheslined the demon and snapped his head back and straight into the floor. Gray's Ice Cannon shattered upon contact with Astaroth's face showing how hard he swung it, and the mage and the speedsters stared at the monster on the ground hopefully as it did not move after the hit.
"Hehe, HEHEHEHE!" Astaroth's cackling laughter made Gray step back again against his wishes, though the other two fighting with him had to back up as well. Ben lit up green and turned back into a child, and now that they were able to see it, Gray and Dash could see that he had just as much fear plastered across his face as the two of them. Ben started coughing, and he brought an arm up and pressed it hard against the ripped suit jacket he had tied around the bottom of his face. The effort did not help, and he kept coughing while Astaroth's laughter grew in volume. The air around Ben was so hazy that he could barely see Gray past the figure on the floor, and even Dash only a few yards away from him was starting to get blurry.
"The miasma has spread to the west side of Pyraxas," Astaroth said. The demon kicked its legs up and landed on its feet, glaring forward at Gray and then far past him at the distant walls of the Fire Nation's Capital. "You pathetic weaklings could not stop it, and now so many are suffering from the Impure King's attack on their bodies." The ground beneath them started shaking at that moment, and Dash and Ben had to turn around to see what it was that made Gray suddenly drop his jaw and stumble backwards. The two boys stared at the base of the Impure King in shock, as a wave of miasma so much thicker than anything they had seen so far erupted from the demon's city-like form. It moved towards them like the edge of an explosion, and Astaroth just laughed at their horrified looks.
"Get on!" a voice yelled, and Dash and Ben looked up, then brought their gazes down as the figure dropping from the air landed between them. Astaroth glanced backwards and the Demon King's smile lowered a little, his eyes glowing bright red at the sight of the creature covered in black fur that landed between the two boys.
"Kuro!" Ben exclaimed at the sight of the cat. He reached over and grabbed some fur on the giant cat's side. Dash thought he could outrun the miasma, but he would have to get by Astaroth and the thought of doing that alone made him scared enough to grab Kuro's fur with no questions asked.
Kuro leapt as soon as Dash's hands grabbed tufts of his fur, and he leapt to the right, then forward, then left towards Gray, giving Astaroth as wide a berth as he could while still getting to Gray before the explosion of miasma. "Where's Rin?" Gray asked as he jumped towards where Kuro was landing, grabbing on and allowing the cat to instantly jump towards its next location.
"Kuro! You have two tails?" Dash asked, looking behind the cat at the tail that split in two.
Ben scrunched up his face as he was sure he had seen Kuro's tail before, but he was shocked to see that Dash was not seeing things and the tail really was in two parts.
"Focus!" Gray yelled at the two farther back on the cat's long body than where he was grabbing on to. The kids looked forward at Gray, then turned as the sides of their vision filled with white. The sight behind them had everyone on Kuro's back speechless. The wave of white was twenty meters tall, rushing towards them like a wall of death, while behind that wall they could see towers of more solid white rising to the sky, archways that spewed miasma connecting giant bumpy masses of pure demonic rot, white houses and streets and high-rises, it looked like an entire city was forming where the Impure King emerged from. And then in the middle of the sea of white between the wave they were escaping from and that city, a figure surrounded in black wisps arose.
"Where do you think you're going?!" Astaroth screamed, and the sky around him darkened. All the way in the center of that massive city behind Astaroth, the most giant bump of rot that looked like it was about to pop, started to distort and gain a more solid shape. Two black eyes formed across that giant bump and glared past Astaroth at the three figures escaping on Kuro's back. The sight of the Demon King and his pet that took up miles of space, it was too much for them to handle.
"We need to get out of here!" Dash yelled, turning around like facing the opposite direction as hard as he could would make them move faster. Kuro's eyes darted to the floor and the familiar was as afraid as any of the humans on his back, as he saw the ground beneath his paws turning gray every step he took. He had to move faster as he spotted the spots where his paws touched down getting consumed by rot that came out of the floor moments after he touched down. Finally, his back left paw got touched by the rot, and Kuro let out a yell and did one last pounce to lift himself as high as he could. The boys on Kuro's back let out yells, and then Kuro's paws lifted up just high enough that the wall of white crashed beneath them.
The outer walls of Pyraxas were close, but they were not going to reach them, and Kuro was at the top of his arc. "We're going to fall in that?!" Dash screamed, tears forming in his eyes as they were about to drop into a sea of miasma so thick there was no way they would be able to breathe.
"No we're not!" Ben yelled, and a white aura surrounded his body. He started coughing violently as he took a deep breath to fill himself with strength, but even as he coughed, Kuro stopped descending towards the miasma. It was getting higher up, but they started to do the same, as Ben carried Kuro, Gray, and Dash up in the air. He bared his teeth and veins popped all over his forehead, his muscles strained, and Ben yelled out as he flew towards the outer walls of Pyraxas.
Gray was relieved that Ben managed to pick them up, but he saw a flash of red light out the corner of his eye and turned around to see Astaroth had just shot a ball of fire five times as large as Kuro's body in their direction. He only had one arm and had to use it to keep holding on to Kuro's back, and the realization that he could not use any magic to stop that fireball had him cursing at the top of his lungs. Dash and Ben looked back as Gray screamed profanity, and the two of them let out yells as well, though theirs were of fear then pain as the fireball slammed into them and sent them flying twice as fast towards the wall they were already close to. Ben managed to keep his eyes open inside the flames, as he focused the aura around him strongest over his face. He clenched his mouth shut and listened to the screams of his friends as he directed the trajectory of their crash landing, and managed to drop them right on top of a wall covered in unconscious soldiers.
The flames dispersed as they crashed, though Ben started patting down Kuro's fur as the cat was whimpering in pain and still smoldering. He stopped helping the familiar that shrank down into a small house cat, and turned around, the only one left standing to face the terrifying enemies they were battling. "Kuro," Ben began, staring out in fear as Astaroth laughed in his direction, making fun of him as he was still trying to stand against him. Astaroth's horns twisted around and he rose his arms, making the sea of miasma beneath him start rumbling, large bubbles forming throughout it and then popping, releasing huge masses of spores into the air that were spreading far and wide. The black cat behind Ben opened its clenched-shut eyes and looked up at the boy's back. Ben's arms had some rotting skin visible on them, same with his left cheek, and he had burns all the way down his legs that he protected the least when they were hit by Astaroth's fireball.
"Ben, if you can run-" Kuro began.
"Where is Rin?" Ben asked, repeating the question Gray asked as soon as the cat picked them up. The boy looked around the sea of white in front of him, and he started coughing into his left arm as another breath sucked in another cluster of the poisonous spores.
"Snn, snn," Kuro sniffled a few times while facing the railing to the outer wall, unable to look out over the Impure King from where he lay on his side. "He said he had a plan, and told me to get everyone out of there," Kuro began. Ben's eyes opened wide, and Kuro continued in a sad tone, sounding on the verge of tears, "I didn't want to leave him behind, but, but Rin said it would be okay."
Dash was on his hands and knees, his face pressed into the stone floor of the wall. He was in excruciating pain, like the ice mage a few feet away from him who had a fist clenched beneath his forehead and was trying to deal with the agony. Gray flattened his right fist out and pushed down, getting up to one foot, then the next. He turned out towards Astaroth who cackled even more at the sight of another one of them getting up. Rin's out there? That stuff would fill your lungs in seconds. Maybe, because he's part demon, the sound of Kuro crying at his feet stopped Gray's thought process, and he ground his teeth in fury. Damn it, we can't do anything against him!
"I will finish you fools off once and for all, then I will have the Impure King spit up Rin for me," Astaroth mocked his defeated enemies. Even as they stood against him, he could see the looks in their eyes. They knew as well as he did that they did not stand a chance against him and the Impure King. "I will rot the flesh from your bones and feast on your eyeballs! And once you are dead, I will find you in Hell, and the torture will never stop!" Ben and Gray gained horrified expressions on their faces, while Dash's eyes snapped open and he started shaking as he stared at the floor beneath him. "That's right! You think losing here means death? Means it's the end?! NO! You don't get to die just once, you get to die forever! I'll enjoy killing you in every way you have ever imagined, and thousands of even more terrible ways your mortal minds can not comprehend! HEEEEHEHEHE!"
Ben was trying to look strong. He stood defiantly before their enemy, but what Astaroth just said made him want to cry. He wanted to back away, but there was an entire city full of people behind him, and he knew Astaroth would continue his attacks even if his targets were in a populated area. All he could do was gulp, and his eyes darted to his Omnitrix, still in the green. It was the most powerful weapon on his world, one of the strongest things in existence, but it gave him no consolation as he looked from it back to the monsters ahead of him. Heatblast? Rin's flames seemed to be working pretty well, but so did Way Big's beams, for a few seconds. The Impure King just kept surging no matter how much we tore away. Any others? Saiyan Ben? I could try turning into Dominator, but I haven't done that successfully since the Forever Kingdom!
Juvia, get out of the city! Natsu, don't try coming here after you finish off the Fire Lord. I know you will, but, but just get Juvia and get out of the city as fast as you can! Please!
Mom, Dad, Violet, someone!
Astaroth flew forward. He gave them no warning. Ben took a step backwards in fear, Gray clenched his fist and a sword hilt formed in it as his face filled with determination, and Dash got up to his feet and ran to the inner side of the wall, all in the same moment. "ASTAROTH!" A voice screamed, and Astaroth stopped moving, his eyes going wide, while all four of those on the wall in front of him felt their minds fill with hope. Even Kuro managed to get back up and jump on the outer wall's railing to look out over the sea of miasma. Dash stopped running, hearing the voice that lowered his fear enough for him to realize what he was doing. The blond kid stared inside Pyraxas from the railing of the inner side of the wall he was standing on, and his eyes widened even more as he spotted people staggering through the streets, trying to help each other and collapsing in fits of coughs. The entire western side of the city was full of thick miasma, not as bad as outside the walls, but enough that those normal citizens were falling one by one. Dash turned and ran back so he stood in between Gray and Ben behind the railing that Kuro stood on, and all four of them stared out beyond Astaroth.
The Demon King of Rot slowly turned around, and a hole appeared in the base of the Impure King, very close to the main body of the monster that Astaroth considered like a pet. Okumura Rin flew out of that hole and hovered above the sea of miasma, rotted skin all over his face, arms, and legs. His clothes had deteriorated, leaving only tattered rags around his waist, shoulders, and upper thighs. Rin floated there, taking deep breaths for the first time in a few minutes as he had escaped the thickest part of the miasma. He started a violent coughing fit, and blood splashed out of his mouth, but the teenager was careful to move his flaming sword in the path of his blood.
"Stay away from my friends," Rin growled. Though his body was not covered in blue flames, and he did not look all that intimidating, Astaroth felt something deep inside of him that enraged him, because it felt a little like fear.
Miles away, on top of a hotel in the Lower Residential Area that was closer to the walls of the Upper Residential Area than the city's outer ones, Todo looked out miles and hummed to himself at the sight of Rin's appearance. "What will you do, Okumura-kun? I devoured Karura, the Myouda's way of keeping the Impure King at bay. Even with your blue flames, the Impure King has grown too large to destroy without a high-level fire-" Todo's eyes grew huge and the man took an excited step forward on the roof of the hotel.
Astaroth glared at the Kouma Ken in Rin's hands, and his snarl grew even more furious as Rin pointed the weapon at him with both hands held on the hilt. He had the hilt right in front of his waist with the blade pointed out and up towards Astaroth's snarling mouth. "I'm going to defeat you, Astaroth," Rin called over, his voice a less furious snarl than before, and more calm, serious, though still very angry. "And you are going to tell me where my little brother is." Rin turned around. He turned his back to Astaroth and continued in an even louder voice, "But first, I am going to destroy the Impure King!"
The demon facing Rin's back stopped snarling so furiously, and instead his lips curled up to the sides of his face. He started laughing, cackling, his voice echoing over the landscape and the nearby city where terrified, dying civilians held their ears shut in fear. "EEHAHAHA! YOU THINK YOU CAN DEFEAT THE IMPURE KING ON YOUR OWN?" Astaroth screamed at Rin's back. "LAST TIME YOU HAD THE HELP OF UCCHUSMA, AND THIS TIME YOU MUST FACE ME AS WELL! I CREATED THIS MONSTER, AND IT IS MY STRONGEST! I AM THE DEMON KING OF ROT! THE KING OF DESTRUCTION! THE MIASMA WILL SPREAD AND KILL EVERYONE HERE, EVERYONE IN PYRAXAS! FUCK THE FIRE LORD! FUCK THE FIRE NATION! ILL WATCH IT ALL ROT AND TURN THIS LAND INTO THE IMPURE CITY!"
The Impure King already looked a lot like a city, but after Astaroth's screaming rant, the towers reaching for the sky grew even taller, their points extending for the clouds. The mountainous top of the Impure King bubbled furiously, a dozen more black eyes appearing on it, and then out from its head emerged four giant tendrils that stretched out from its body then curled up and in over its head. All the time it grew, more and more miasma pulsed out of its giant body, filling the sky with gray and turning the landscape for miles into ash. Dojaku brought Dash, Gray, and Ben pretty far from Pyraxas and any town around it, but the walls of the city were turning gray just like every town within a few miles of where Astaroth laid his trap. The task was daunting, but Rin took another deep breath, and this time he resisted the urge to cough. Instead, he questioned in a deep voice, "'Last time?'" Astaroth became confused, not sure as to what Rin was referring to by repeating what he said like that.
Astaroth's eyes shifted to Rin's arms, and the Demon King stared at them in even more confusion as he saw trails of blood from his upper arms going all the way down to his hands that were wrapped around the hilt of his demonic sword. No blood dripped through the cracks in his fingers though, none dripped off the hilt and into the sea of white below. Rin's skin looked paler than usual, but Astaroth thought that was just the rot at first, but even the areas where there was no rot damage, his skin was white. "This is enough, right?" Rin thought.
"Usually I require the blood signatures of several Upper Class Tamers, I should feel ashamed to accept the blood of one exorcist alone, but your blood is special. I will fight with you again, Okumura Rin, human, and son of Satan."
Rin lifted up his sword, and out from the tip of it emerged blue flames so bright that the sky lost its bleak appearance. Blue light shone between every spore of miasma and flashed over and over, making Astaroth reel back and raise an arm up in front of his face as he hissed. When he lowered his arm, Astaroth stared above Rin in shock at the sight of the giant flaming bird that he recognized well, though never before in this color. Kin of Iblis, the Demon King of Fire, rot's natural weakness. Astaroth started trembling in rage, absolute fury as he stared forward, and watched as the thirty foot tall flaming bird turned its head and looked back towards him with glowing green eyes. "Ucchusma," Astaroth snarled.
Ucchusma spread its wings out to reveal its wingspan of around fifty feet wide. All the miasma spores around it disintegrated when they touched Ucchusma's body, but that was not going to be enough, and Rin knew it. Last time, Suguro's flame barrier kept the Impure King from spreading as much. It's already so much bigger, so much more powerful, and Astaroth is right behind me. Rin coughed a few times, but he kept his sword steady in his grasp. "My sworn enemy, what a form you have taken on this time," Ucchusma remarked, staring upon the Impure King's giant body with disgust in its eyes. In Rin's mind, Ucchusma spoke, "Speak the mantra, I will prepare-"
"You will not have the chance!" Astaroth roared, and his voice echoed in Rin's mind, interrupting the demon that he summoned while inside the miasma. The teenager spun around, though Ucchusma continued to face the Impure King, getting larger while blue flames continued to trail off of Rin's sword and merge with his body. Astaroth brought his right arm back, and when he slashed it at Rin, Rin saw the very air itself cutting from Astaroth's claws. He brought his Kurikara up and blocked, but the collision caused all of the miasma around them to push away making a clear area in the sky the two were pressing against each other in. The last few times Astaroth clashed with Rin, he sent the boy flying even when he blocked. This time however, Rin pushed back and Astaroth's eyes opened wide as the teen was holding him back.
Behind Astaroth, at the wall to Pyraxas, Rin saw the thickest miasma spilling over the railing. He watched as it bubbled over Kuro, who could no longer crawl away and got overtaken by it. The others who thought they needed to make one last stand collapsed when Rin emerged looking like he had a plan, but they were backing away from the miasma with the fear of death and much worse in their eyes. He could hear Dash's screams, and see the looks of horror on all their faces. From where he was floating in the air, he could see over the walls too and inside Pyraxas, inside the city full of people coughing up blood and slowly rotting to death. His eyes burned bright blue and an aura of blue fire flared around his body furiously. "You're wrong Astaroth! I am not alone! I have friends who are important to me, who I need to protect! I will NOT let you hurt them!" Rin's muscles twitched and his teeth sharpened, as he snarled out a roar, "ANYMORE!" He brought his sword down harder and Astaroth's defense was broken, a slash of blue flames slamming into his chest after cutting his arm, and making him scream in agony and fly away from his younger brother, falling into the sea of white below.
"I am ready," Ucchusma said behind Rin. The boy turned and flew forward, stopping beneath the giant flaming bird demon and raising his sword once again. Ucchusma's wingspan was almost two hundred feet wide and half that tall, and it pulsed blue light again before stopping and settling to a constant size and shade. "I will return to the Kouma Ken," Ucchusma looked back and down at the half-demon. "Your demon sword is made for fire demons like myself. I have to share the room with your heart, but there is enough space in there for two… Goodbye, Okumura Rin."
"Thank you," Rin replied, and then Ucchusma's giant flaming body retreated back into his sword. His sword already normally was covered in blue fire, but as Ucchusma's massive body all sucked into the weapon at once, it looked like Rin was staring at a blue sun, in the shape of a sword. His hilt grew hotter, and the aura around his body burst five times as large as usual. He was panting furiously, not just from the miasma that weakened his lungs, but from the amount of power he had to use to summon such a high-level demon, as well as utilize its powers to an extent he never had before. He closed his mouth though and did not think about how much more powerful Ucchusma was this time, because the Impure King was stronger too, but then again, so was he.
Giant tendrils sticking off of the Impure King's head curled away from its body and stretched down towards the boy floating in front of it. Rin's eyes closed, Ucchusma wants to use Kashou Zanmai, burn everything for twenty miles, and is willing to kill so many people in the process. But I don't need to worry about that last part. I have control over my flames now. It has been years since I was not able to draw my sword from its sheath. The old me would have been worried I would mess up, but not today, not right now. "Shuri shuri mamari mari shushuri," Rin could hear the voice in his head and he repeated the mantra. All of the bright blue light on his sword moved towards the tip and he continued, "Kuroda nou un jaku." Rin brought his hilt to his right side, gripping it with both hands, pointing the blade back behind him, while the flames at the tip of his sword started to form a sphere of blue light so condensed that it was making the sky and the earth shake with its power. The sphere doubled in size at the tip of his blade, then tripled, then tripled from what was already triple its size.
The tendrils of the Impure King slammed down towards Rin, who screamed, "RAAAA!" His aura flared and the Impure King's appendages could not handle the heat of the teen's aura alone, shredding apart inside it. The monster pulled its giant tendrils back, then the entire city and mountainous mass inside it seemed to lean away as Rin's sphere of blue fire doubled in size again, right as the boy started slashing it around the side of his body. "DAI KASHOU ZANMAI!" The sphere of light shot off of Rin's sword, and a shockwave rippled out through the air like an explosion when the light flew off the tip of Rin's sword. The sphere dropped like a bomb towards the Impure King, which surrounded the area the bomb was falling with a bumpy mass of white that shot upwards to intercept the attack. The giant Kashou Zanmai pushed straight through all that bumpy rot though, not hesitating for a second, and then it hit the ground and an explosion so high that it reached where Rin floated a hundred meters up went off. The blast created a blue light so bright that everyone in Pyraxas could see it, it blinded many of them, and it expanded like a bomb too.
Sanji stopped Sky-Walking around the zeppelin which kept shooting fireballs and bullets at him out of its turrets. The turrets all stopped firing though too, as every Fire Nation soldier manning one of them dropped their jaws at the sight of the explosion on the other side of their capital. Robin and Franky stood on top of another zeppelin far to the south of the one Sanji was battling, and the two of them stared in shock in the direction of that blue light. Franky wanted to whistle, or mention something about how Rin is stronger than he knew, but the sight of that explosion stretching towards Pyraxas was nerve-wracking.
Ben, Dash, and Gray were just outside of the miasma, though a lot of it had stretched up parts of their bodies. Their skin was covered in rot and they were coughing up their lungs. The fear of rotting moved to the backs of their minds though, as the blue flames of Rin's explosion shot away from the epicenter and towards them at speeds none of them would be able to dodge at their current strengths. They each let out screams, and then the blue flames hit them, and they felt warm.
Ben stopped yelling and he looked down at his skin. He watched as the rotting flesh, the bubbles sticking out of his appendages, it was all fading away. All of the rot was vanishing, and around him on top of the wall he could see it shredding off of Kuro's covered body and all the bodies of the Fire Nation soldiers and Sun Marines who could not crawl away like he had. Gray looked down at his right hand and Dash to his feet, and they watched as all of the rot covering them burned away, but their bodies were not getting hurt at all.
In the sky high above Pyraxas, a figure looking down rose the corners of his lips. The thing that Aebrith has been missing from day one. I always hoped it would come. The return, of the Blue Exorcist.
All over the Lower Residential Area, citizens were opening back up their eyes, and looking down at their bodies and seeing that they were alright. The blue flames surrounding them, surrounding their homes, they were not burning anything away except for the miasma. The blue flames could burn anything, but unlike what many thought, they were not demonic flames. Rin's blue flames burnt demons, they burnt spirits, and impurities, and the demon he summoned called them something he never heard anyone else call his flames. Ucchusma called them "holy flames." Rin did not know if that was right or not, but he knew he could control them, and he could decide what burns and what does not.
The explosion stretched farther than the Upper Residential Area, rising all the way up to the Royal Palace and stopping just outside. It stretched farther than the miasma ever reached, which meant that every single piece of the Impure King, every trace of it inside of Pyraxas and out, it was all gone. Rin's blue aura faded while his sword was still out of its sheath. The horns made of blue flames that were ignited on his head shrank down so they were barely sticking out of his messy mop of hair. He started dropping from the air, exhausted, breathing heavily, and deeply for the first time possible since the miasma started attacking him. His body was naturally resistant to it, his flames burned it away faster than it could tear at him, but he had to lower his guard when he focused all of his strength on summoning Ucchusma. During the attack though, the flames burned away all the rot on him like it did to everyone else in the city.
Rin fell all the way to the gray ground. The miasma coating may have burned away, but the grassy fields had already been too badly destroyed to be restored just by the removal of the rot. He fell flat on his back but did not wince. He just fell still and stared straight into the cleared sky above him. There was a smile on his face. I did it. I saved, everyone. "You," a voice hissed, and Rin's smile wiped from his face. The teen started turning his head, putting his hands down at his sides to try and push himself up. Before he managed to get an inch off the ground though, a foot slammed into his left side so hard that he was lifted off the ground. He rose five feet, then as he opened his eyes that clenched shut from the pain, he let out a nervous yelp right before the two fists held together over his head slammed down straight into his face.
The teenager slammed into the ground hard, so hard that cracks shot out from his collision with the floor in every direction. Rin clenched his right hand around his Kouma Ken tightly and he snapped his eyes open, burning bright blue flames. "Grr-AH!" He started to growl, and then a hoof stomped straight on his face and slammed him into the ground.
Astaroth stood over Rin, his eyes looking like small red fireballs, his goat horns twisting and growing bigger while black smoke seeped off of them. The hoof he was stomping Rin's face with suddenly grew claws, and Astaroth pointed those claws down before dragging his hoof across Rin's face. "AHHH!" Rin screamed in agony, blood splashing from three lines going vertically down his face. The half-demon reached up his left hand to grab his agonized face, while slashing his right hand in front of him to make Astaroth back away. Astaroth leaned back to avoid the sword, letting a slash of blue flames fly off the weapon and up through the air in front of him. Rin was not watching where he was swinging with a hand over his face, so Astaroth just rose up his hoof, then stomped it down on Rin's chest this time, making the boy try to scream but be unable to with his lungs crushing in.
Rin's eyes bulged and he stared straight up at Astaroth, the demon eight feet tall, and covered in blood. Astaroth's right arm was covered in it, and blood smeared his torso as well in a line where Rin's slash sent him crashing down before. The fur coming out of his body was singed, but Rin realized how wrong he was when he thought he destroyed Astaroth with the Impure King, because the monster over him looked as strong as ever. "Do you know," Astaroth began snarling at the boy whose lungs he pressed down on harder, making it even more impossible for Rin to breath. He continued, "How long it took me to recreate the Impure King? I made it stronger, and it took years to get it to this point!"
Rin mustered as much strength as he could and slashed for Astaroth's stomping leg. The Demon King of Rot leapt up into a backflip, and Rin pushed himself up quickly to get ready for him to charge back in. He coughed a few times, then muttered while raising his sword and gripping it with both hands, "You had to make it again? It didn't, come back on this world?"
"You destroyed it with Satan's flames," Astaroth snarled, though his lips did curl up as he said it. "You think there was anything left of it for the Gods of this world to bring back?" Astaroth lost his small grin, and he charged at Rin while the boy looked surprised at that last statement. Rin turned his sword sideways to block the slash of Astaroth's left arm, but the demon was faking him out and ran to his other side, pulling back his right arm that splashed blood on Rin's body, before he brought it forward at the teen. Rin saw that the first attack was a feint, but just lifting his sword to block that first hit was almost too much for him.
He was exhausted. He used all of his strength to make sure that every bit of miasma hurting the people of Pyraxas and surrounding towns would be destroyed. Rin did not hold anything back, and now he was paying the price as Astaroth's right claw collided with him and blood splashed out of Rin's left side. Blue flames flared out of Rin's wound, but blood continued to pour out as well as the boy hit his hands and knees. Rin looked down at his chest, and he thought he could almost see his own ribs through his skin, that's how deep the wound felt. No, Rin thought, and he lifted his head to look back towards Astaroth. The demon was smirking at him, but his enraged expression returned at that look of defiance from the boy on his hands and knees.
"Okumura Rin, if you will not come on your own volition, then I will bring you to Satan the old-fashioned way." Astaroth rose his right hand, and his claws coked in Rin's blood extended, growing sharper and glistening in the sunlight. "Come now, Rin," Astaroth said, his eyes darkening as he started taking steps towards the afraid boy on the ground. "Don't you want to be with your brother?"
Rin tensed up and his urge to back away vanished. He sat there with his head up, staring in shock into Astaroth's burning red eyes. Astaroth saw his look and grinned while continuing to walk towards him, "That's right, Yukio is already in Hell. Father is giving him, special treatment. Hehehe, HEHEHE! HEEEHEHE!" Flames rose on either of Astaroth's sides, and the demon yelled down at the boy he was only ten feet from now, "The tortures he is enduring, you don't want him to go through those alone, do you? I'll help you! I'll send you to him! All you need to do, is DIE!" Astaroth lifted his right hand and Rin stared at it in confusion, shock, terror, hesitation, regret. He did not know whether to move or not, even while his body and mind screamed at him that he did not want to die.
"Get away from him!" A voice yelled, and Astaroth snapped his gaze up, only to drop his jaw at what was flying straight at him. He tried jumping backwards, but the figure made of molten rock who had jets of flames coming out the soles of his feet, slammed his hands behind him and made extra jets that propelled him even faster at the demon now in the air with less ability to dodge. Rin looked up in shock as Heatblast flew over his head, then did a flip over Astaroth's head as the demon tried slashing at it, stopping only once he was behind the Demon King's back. Astaroth started to turn, but Ben already had both of his hands pointed at the demon, glowing so bright orange that Astaroth leaned back from the brightness. "HAA!" Ben yelled, and two bursts of flames so thick that they merged into one collided with Astaroth and sent the monster flying back the direction Ben came from.
Ben dropped to the ground in front of Rin, and he looked at the older teen with wide glowing orange eyes. His face was made of red molten rocks, but there were two large glowing circles showing Rin where the alien's eyes were. Ben rose his right hand, and in it formed a green hilt, one that Ben swung and called out in a strange voice, "Cure!" Green light came out of the Keyblade, and Rin looked down at his chest to see the blood stop pouring out from his wounds, and then stop bleeding completely. He reached up a hand and touched his face, but the more shallow wounds were not even there anymore unlike the thin lines he could still see on his chest.
"Ben," Rin whispered, then he turned his head as he heard a loud shout of pain. He stared behind him with huge eyes as a hundred lances of ice dropped from the sky like rain on top of Astaroth who was already slammed into the ground. Dust and dirt rose up all around and kept making the area around the Demon King of Rot less visible with every spear that hit the ground. "Gray," Rin muttered, and he started getting up to his feet. He saw a shadow in the air and looked up, to see a ten foot long black cat soaring towards them from the direction of Pyraxas. "Kuro," Rin said, his heart racing faster. A tiny figure leapt off of Kuro's back at the top of its arc, and the boy pointed his shaking right hand down at the dust and ash where Gray's ice lances dropped. The kid yelled out, then fired a sphere of white light into the ash that got rid of all of it, filling the area instead with a huge dome of white light the destroyed everything in its path. "Dash," Rin finished, looking around at the four of them with huge eyes.
What was I thinking? Astaroth could have been lying to me, and I almost just sat there and let him kill me! Even if he isn't lying, I can't just let myself die! There have to be other ways to get to Yukio, get to Hell, without dying. If I died, Kuro, my friends, I would be leaving them all behind, leaving them in this dangerous place without my help. I can't do that. Rin watched as the explosion died down, as did the others near him who were all panting, all tired. Kuro and Dash landed on the opposite side of the domed explosion as Gray was on, and Ben and Rin were on the side opposite the western walls of Pyraxas.
No one said a word. They all stared at that white explosion that was so powerful they could all feel they heat and wind from it. Each of them started moving towards where the explosion was fading. They took steps, swords and fists raised, their breathing steady. Then, a shadow became visible in the dust that was settling after the blast. They kept moving towards it, because that shadow was on its hands and knees, and not moving.
It's time to finish him off.
We have to finish him now!
If he gets back up, it's all over.
"Astaroth," Rin snarled towards the shadow that became more visible as he got close. The demon no longer looked as terrifying as it once did. In fact, it was back to its original appearance, a middle-aged man with red hair, though his clothes were shredded now, and so was a lot of his skin. Ben, Dash, and Gray all dealt huge amounts of damage with each of their attacks. Compounded with the injuries Rin already gave him, Astaroth could barely hold himself up anymore. "What you said about Yukio," Rin growled towards the man on the ground, facing the floor with a shadow cast over his face.
"He is being tortured," Astaroth said, his voice smug, his tone not what the others would expect from a man who appeared on the verge of death. "Brutalized in every way possible, and you can't do anything about it," Astaroth lifted his head, and the look in his eyes made Rin freeze. What he said about Yukio made him enraged, but though his demon side wanted to take over, his more rational mind saw the look in Astaroth's eyes, and he took a step back instead. Kuro, Dash, Ben, and Gray all felt terrified as Astaroth started cackling, because it was not the laughter of someone who had gone mad, or accepted that he had lost. Astaroth was laughing in victory.
"See you there, Okumura Rin," Astaroth said, and then his entire body glowed red. His skin started to bubble, looking almost like the miasma that spread over their skin earlier, except this was not rot that was bubbling on him. The bubbles on his skin were bright red, and flashing, faster and faster each second.
Gray took a step back and started to turn, "Guys! Run!"
Dash's eyes started to widen, and he backpedaled fast as Astaroth's body gave off a wave of heat so strong he felt it burn his skin. He was about to turn, but he tripped while he was stumbling backwards, and landed on his butt right as Astaroth's entire body puffed out. The demon's neck got thicker and surrounded most of his face with skin, his arms puffed out, his stomach bloated, and then his body flashed one last time with bright red light that caused the ground for a hundred meters in every direction of him to glow the same color.
He's self-destructing? Rin thought, his mind filling with horror as he looked around and saw his friends all so close to this demon. I got everyone killed! The regret that filled his mind made him feel despair like he had never felt before.
Ben had turned and started to run, but he saw Dash on his butt to his right, and the ground for a long ways in front of him glow red. He's blowing himself up! Ben thought in horror, so afraid that he did not even think about transforming. The sight of his best friend falling made him hesitate even more, and that final flash he knew was the one where Astaroth was going to explode. The ground shook like an earthquake hit, and Ben yelled out in panic. The ground stopped shaking. Ben clenched his eyes and put his hands on the sides of his head, but the ground stopped shaking almost like the explosion had been stopped. He spun around, and stared at Astaroth's body, puffed out to the point that he was about to explode, and Ben's eyes opened huge as he saw Astaroth's skin ripped in certain areas, and flames coming out of those areas of skin.
But the flames were not moving. Ben turned towards Dash to yell at his friend that they needed to run while they had the chance, but Dash was not moving either. The younger boy sat there staring in utter horror at the demon behind them, but he did not move to stand up, he was not moving a muscle. The whole moment felt surreal. It was like he was in a movie and someone had pressed pause. Ben looked to either side and saw Kuro, Rin, and Gray all frozen just like Dash, all looking just as panicked and afraid, though Rin also looked really guilty too, like he thought the fact that they were about to die was all his fault. Ben kind of wanted to tell him differently, but he doubted the older teen would be able to hear him.
"Well this sure is a treat," a voice said above Ben. The kid snapped his head up, then stumbled backwards at the sight of the figure floating there. The man looked surprised at Ben's reaction, then rose his arms and looked down. "Ah," he said, realizing what Ben was so startled by. His appearance had drastically changed in the last half hour, though in reality it only changed in an instant, when he got in a battle for life or death and barely pulled a victory out of his white top hat, the only article of clothing he wore that was not currently in tatters. That instantaneous fight took a toll on his body too, and his face had skin peeling off of it, like his arms, legs, and bloody torso. His dark purple hair was a mess and shortened in many areas, like his beard that was no longer a pointy goatee, but a shriveled and burnt husk of its former glory. "Yes," the demon said while turning his arms over and looking at the backs as well as the fronts, "this deteriorating body can not take much more damage. I must search out Ichimaru Gin and request he make me a new gigai, it has worked so well."
"Who are you?!" Ben shouted up at the messed-up monster above him. It was speaking way too calmly for this situation. Time was frozen, his body was falling apart, and Ben could not handle this. "Did you," Ben began, while the figure looked down with small green eyes into Ben's wider ones. Ben gulped but continued, "Freeze time?"
"Verwunderliche!" The deteriorating man called down. He floated down in the air and stopped when he was only ten feet off the floor in front of Ben. He was smiling despite his appearance, and he continued, "I truly am surprised, that you figured it out so quickly." The demon chuckled a few times, then continued with a more knowing tone, "I would almost go as far as to say that you have seen something like it before, Benjamin."
Ben's face was covered in sweat. He took a step back, and repeated nervously, "Who, are you?" He did not shout this time, he kept his voice quiet, and fearful, as this was beyond what he was expecting the day to entail, and he had been expecting the worst.
"My name, is Mephisto Pheles," the demon replied to the boy. He smirked and looked deeper into Ben's eyes, "But I am also the Demon King of Time." Ben gulped as he said it. A glance behind the demon reminded Ben of what a Demon King could do, and here was another one before their fight with the first ever reached its conclusion.
Mephisto rose his left hand, and Ben stared at it in fear, but then his eyes darted to his side as something moved. He stared at a blond-haired little boy who was lifted off the floor, and he spun back to Mephisto angrily, shouting, "What are you doing?" Ben saw his other friends lifting up in his peripheral vision, and he stepped towards Mephisto, no longer looking like the afraid boy who faced him a minute ago. "Put them down," Ben ordered, trying to sound as threatening as possible.
"If I did such a thing," Mephisto began, while casually floating forward towards Ben, and then right past the boy who turned his head and watched the demon float overhead. "Then all of you would surely die," Mephisto finished, and Ben suddenly noticed which direction Mephisto was floating, and which way the figures he had picked up telekinetically were moving as well. He's moving away from Astaroth, Ben thought, staring at the distant Pyraxas walls Mephisto was flying towards.
Ben realized he was getting left behind and started chasing after the mysterious demon. He was confused, and somewhat grateful, and he could not decide which was more important. "Um, thanks for helping us," Ben began, "but why are you helping us?" He added, and Mephisto chuckled at what was an expected reaction from the boy.
Mephisto was nearing the western walls of Pyraxas's Lower Residential Area, and he looked back at Ben to respond. "I used Er Stofven to freeze all of Pyraxas and the surrounding area for a hundred miles. It is more than I usually cover with Er Stofven, and because of that I will not be able to keep the time inside the barrier frozen for months, but mere hours. However, I will not keep it frozen for more than a few minutes, as my brother would notice that he has been frozen very soon, and I do not wish for that to happen." Mephisto looked over Ben's head and back towards Astaroth. He could not see his brother's eyes because of all the bloated skin and red light around it, but the last expression he saw was a ravenous smirk on Astaroth's face as he was about to destroy everything for a mile around him in all directions. Mephisto frowned for a second, then looked back to Ben who he smiled at again and said, "As for why I helped you, I did not want my other brother to face such a demise after fighting so bravely."
"Brother?" Ben wondered, and he looked up at Rin who could be the only one Mephisto was referring to. Before Ben could elaborate on his question, Mephisto looked down into Ben's eyes and he stopped moving towards Pyraxas altogether. Mephisto had a look of disdain and pity in his eyes, and something Ben was not even thinking about suddenly rose to the surface. "Why," Ben began softly, "am I not frozen like the others? Did you, want to ask me something?"
"No," Mephisto replied. "I am afraid, I could not freeze your time even if I wanted to." His eyes shifted from Ben's face down, towards his pants, and Ben's eyes widened as he darted his own eyes down to his right pocket. Ben was going to ask something about the glowing cube in his pocket, but Mephisto continued first, in a dark tone, "You have cursed yourself by meddling with time." Ben looked up, and the boy filled with fear at how Mephisto was shaking his head, knowingly, like there was nothing Ben could do about a fate that only he knew.
"I, I only turned back time once!" Ben yelled up at the demon.
Mephisto chuckled darkly, his eyes shadowing over by his messy purple hair. "Once?" He asked in a soft whisper, so that Ben wondered if he actually heard him. Mephisto turned his back and started floating away again, the other figures around him floating over as well.
Ben ran after him and opened his mouth to shout about that ominous conversation. Just then however, Mephisto snapped his fingers, and four voices yelled out in panic as they thought an explosion was racing at their backs. The figures realizing they were not engulfed in flames were not put at ease, as they were so confused by the fact that they were floating through the air towards the Pyraxas walls that most of them kept screaming. Rin spun his head around, and his eyes bugged open wide, "Mephisto!" he yelled, seeing the demon. Before he yelled anything, Rin winced at the sight of all the injuries on Mephisto's body that looked a lot worse than he or any of his friends had endured. "What happened to you?" Rin asked, while Kuro, Dash, and Gray all turned towards the demon who seemed to be the one carrying them through the air.
"Another time perhaps," Mephisto replied to the teen, not wanting to go into his battle with Sadao Maou at the moment.
Gray had so many questions for this figure in front of him, but the name Rin shouted echoed in his mind, and his expression darkened. "Mephisto," Gray muttered. "One of the NEG members who knew about the Underworld alliance?" He asked, and from the demon's look when it turned to him, Gray knew he was right.
Ben snapped his head back to Mephisto with a shocked look as this was news to him. None of his friends seemed to put together the fact that Ben was currently jogging below them with the fact that he was not frozen until an instant ago like the rest of them. Almost like Mephisto did not want them to figure it out, Ben suddenly found himself lifted off the ground so that he was floating after his friends. Dash turned around and looked past a floating Ben, all the way to the exploding demon far behind them who Dash thought was about to kill them all a few seconds ago. "You, saved us," Dash said, turning in confusion to the figure carrying them away.
Gray's angered look was shaken and he spun to see the same thing Dash was looking at. The sight of the demon in mid-explosion shocked the Fairy Tail mage. "Why are you here, Mephisto?" Rin asked, and Mephisto turned to the teen with a flaming sword in his hand that he had yet to sheath. "I thought you did not want to help me?" Rin questioned, using a tone to show that Mephisto was doing exactly what he said he would not do.
"One moment Rin-kun," Mephisto said. They had just reached the wall, and Mephisto lowered down, landing right on the wall's outer railing. The others were all put down by his telekinetic powers right behind him, amidst unconscious Marines and Fire Nation soldiers. Mephisto looked behind him into the city, and he frowned as he could sense figures in there who he could not risk unfreezing time and being spotted by. He turned back towards Astaroth, and rose his left hand to point towards the Demon King of Rot. "Everyone, please stand back," he said, and then he opened his left hand into a flat palm and held it in front of him, creating a massive translucent barrier with dark edges that the boys could see, but also see through.
Mephisto clenched his open palm. The ground shook, and all of Pyraxas trembled as a flash ignited in the west. Astaroth was no longer frozen, but Mephisto had waited until his brother was at the moment of his demise, when he would not be able to process that there were no longer figures in front of him to be exterminated by his self-destruction. The entire west shredded by the blast though, and the boys who were about to be caught in that dropped their jaws at how powerful it was. The light blocked the sight of the explosion for a few seconds, and then when their eyes adjusted a bit, they were able to see the pillar of flames rising a hundred meters in the air and curling out at the top in every direction. Smoke billowed off of it, and at the bottom, the ground tore apart in waves. The wind traveled fastest, picking up only the dust and smallest debris, then the force of the blast above the ground sent cracks through the landscape, before the underground blast sent everything flying up in the air, only to be incinerated by the fast-moving flames.
The blast hit Mephisto's barrier around the wall, and the demon instantly had to raise his other hand up and grab the first one by the wrist. I have never faced Astaroth, but you are stronger than I gave you credit for brother. Iblis' rumors otherwise were unfounded. Mephisto's barrier was shaking, and a giant diagonal crack formed in it from its top straight in front of them all the way to the bottom thirty feet to their right. Branched cracks ripped off of the largest one, but Mephisto's shaking arm became more steady, and the Demon King of Time managed to hold everything after the initial blast without issue. What formed the crack was the first collision with the explosion, but now Mephisto was just holding off its flames until it settled.
While the explosion settled down, Mephisto spoke to the boys behind him, "My physical body will not last much longer. Get on your way to your next destination, I hope you can make it there before time unfreezes." The young men behind Mephisto, and the cat with them, looked around at each other wondering what they should do. Mephisto continued, "Rin-kun, would you mind staying behind for just a moment?"
Gray stared at the explosion beyond Mephisto's barrier, and then he spun around and looked back into Pyraxas. His eyes opened wide as he could see some people from atop the wall, and those people were still frozen in time. This is perfect! I don't know how much longer it will last, but everyone else is probably at the Palace already. We need to get up there and not have to fight our ways there the entire time. He glanced back at Mephisto again, someone he knew was in on the NEG and Underworld alliance from reports after the battle that he, unlike most of his Fairy Tail friends, was interested in. His look of anger did not return though, as Kirito's face appeared in his mind, saving him in a very similar way as Mephisto just did. "Thank you," Gray said, surprising his friends around him.
"Y-Yeah," Dash said after a few seconds. He looked at the scary demon's back and said, "Thanks a lot!"
"Rin, are you okay staying here with this guy?" Gray questioned.
Ben looked at Gray in surprise, then realized what Gray was thinking as he gazed back into Pyraxas himself. He frowned though, while Rin told Gray they could go and Gray told them to follow him. He frowned and looked at Mephisto, and he saw Mephisto glance back his way out the corner of his eyes. The Demon King of Time, does he know about the Eliacube? Does he know how it works? Why did he laugh, when I said I only turned it back once? Ben had so many questions, but Gray repeated himself to him and Ben had to turn and nod, agreeing that they should go to the Palace right now. Why don't I ask? He would answer me, he would have to! He's stuck holding that explosion back. What's the downside of asking right now? Right now! Everyone would know. Ben's eyes snapped open wide, and he only just then realized that there was a warm feeling in his right pocket, filling his leg and then his entire body with its warmth.
Ben turned fully and leapt off the inner wall, and Gray and Dash hopped off after him, somewhat confused as it seemed like he was the one hesitating there the most. They ran up to his sides, and though they did not ask anything about it, in the corners of their visions they could see Ben staring straight ahead, though his mind looked a thousand miles away. Why am I not telling them? They're looking at me curiously. They want to know what's up. I could tell them right now, tell them everything. About the Eliacube, about how I can turn back time if I want, but the King would get me if I did. Why don't I?! Why do I keep stopping myself? From the very first day I had it, the urge to talk about it is met with resistance! Is the cube, stopping me? I can do it though, I'm choosing not to! It's my choice, to prevent everyone from fighting over its powers. Besides, if I told Gray about it now, he would be furious that I let Juvia die.
A small smile moved across Ben's face, and he stopped thinking about talking about the Eliacube, and the glowing warmth filling him faded away, though he did not notice. "We should get to the Fire Lord as fast as we can," Ben suggested, looking left at Dash, then right at Gray to see if they agreed. The other two nodded with him, and then Ben looked ahead and continued, "I'm worried about Natsu. He always thinks he can handle everything alone, but he might need our help. So let's go!"
"Right!" Dash exclaimed. He picked up his jog, and pushed the pace for the other two who ran as fast as they could to stay with him. Ben would have transformed, but he doubted he would be able to make it through the day without transforming again, and he did not want to waste the Omnitrix's time limit just getting to that fight.
Hundreds of meters behind the boys running through Pyraxas, Mephisto finally lowered his arms and the cracked barrier in front of him vanished. He gazed over the devastated landscape that looked like it was just bombed, and as Rin did the same, the half demon noticed that there was a thin translucent wall right at the edge of the city. "I had to shrink the time barrier to release Astaroth, while still keeping the rest of us frozen. There are some in this city who I do not wish to see me helping you," Mephisto explained, and he turned to face Rin.
Kuro stood as his house cat form on Rin's left side, and Mephisto flashed the creature a smile. Kuro smiled back, and Rin saw this out the corner of his eye. He looked at his familiar quizzically, and Mephisto explained, "I have known Kuro since long ago, perhaps before even Shiro-san." Rin heard his father's name and his expression darkened, because it reminded him about his family.
"Why are you here Mephisto?" Rin questioned, turning back to the demon and narrowing his eyes at him. Mephisto did not respond for a moment, and Rin continued, "Are you following me? If so, then why not just help me? Help me save Yukio."
"I am afraid, I cannot do that," Mephisto said. Rin frowned deeply, but he sheathed his sword, and the small blue horns sticking out of his hair vanished. Mephisto saw the dejected look on Rin's face, and he started to explain, "I did not want Astaroth to tell our Father that you were here. At the same time however, I did not want to prevent the two of you from meeting, as the reason I told you to seek out the King of Rot in the first place was to see if you at your current level could beat him." Rin's eyes widened a little, while Mephisto frowned and tssked, mainly to himself. "I am thus annoyed," he continued, "because since Astaroth destroyed himself, and you did not do it with your blue flames, he will return to Hell and there is nothing I can do to stop it."
Rin's expression darkened again, this time more than before as he realized that Astaroth's self-destructing really meant very little. If only I had used more flames. If only I had destroyed him! Now, Satan will know where I am. He'll be able to find me… and my friends.
"If I had left Astaroth frozen for too long, our brother would have noticed his position and reported on my actions when he reforms in Hell." Mephisto continued to explain his actions to Rin who he hoped would stop looking so depressed. "I was very impressed younger brother, by your control over your blue flames, and the ability to use such a high-powered attack on the Impure King." Rin started to feel a little better and he looked into Mephisto's eyes, but despite what he was saying, Mephisto was frowning. "At the same time," Mephisto continued, "without your friends, you would have been defeated by the King of Rot, who is not the strongest of the Demon Kings, not even in the top three. And there are others, besides us Demon Kings, who reside under Satan in Hell and are even more powerful than Astaroth, some even more-so than myself."
Rin's face filled with shock. How many? How many monsters at Astaroth's level, or stronger, are there that I have to fight? I didn't even destroy Astaroth! He's still down there, along with all of them, along with Satan… and along with Yukio. Rin's expression hardened and he clenched his fists at his sides. "Give up," Mephisto said, and Rin glared into his eyes harshly at the suggestion.
"I don't care how strong they are," Rin growled. He lifted up his Kouma Ken in his right hand and held it above his head. "I am going to save Yukio. No matter how strong my enemies are, I will get to him, and I will save him. And when I am done with that, I am going to kick the shit out of Satan!"
Mephisto's eyes widened. He stared at the teen in front of him, who years before told him the same thing at Shiro Fujimoto's funeral. At the time, he had burst out laughing at the idea. Satan's son, working as an exorcist? The idea was mad! This time, he did not start laughing though. He stared at the determined look on Rin's face, and after a long pause, he bowed his head and sighed. Mephisto looked up slowly and through eyes shadowed over he made eye contact with Rin. "In that case, Yukio is in Hell. I do not know how much you got out of the King of Rot, but he is in the Tenth Level of Hell, all the way at the bottom. I invite you to come down and try to face Satan and all of his armies, in a futile attempt to save Yukio-kun-"
"I will," Rin said, not a trace of hesitation in his voice.
Mephisto laughed darkly at how fast Rin was to respond. He lifted off the ground and tipped his hat to the boy watching him float away, "Of course you will." Mephisto shot up into the sky, and within seconds he was gone from Rin's sight.
Okumura Rin turned back around and looked into Pyraxas. He stared out towards the walls to the Upper Residential Area that he never reached earlier, as he had felt Astaroth's presence appear in the west of Pyraxas. He saw pillars of billowing black smoke rising from that area, but also beyond it even farther east and higher up in the city built on a hill. The black smoke started to shift around, then rise up, and Rin knew time had been continued. He took a deep breath, then glanced at his side at the cat standing there. "You ready?" He asked.
Kuro nodded back at him, tired from their battle, but unwilling to show it on his face. "Then come on, we've still got a fight to win," Rin said. He leapt off the wall, and Kuro hopped off next to him, transforming back into a giant cat again so that he was ready to fight at a moment's notice. After all, their next target, was the Fire Lord.
First Royal Battalion Military Base, Pyraxas
More of them are figuring it out, James Ramirez thought, while lowering the M4A1 assault rifle he just unloaded into several soldiers. Click-BOOM! Ramirez spun around and started sprinting back down the hall from the back door towards the front entrance. One of the claymores, he stopped at the corner before the front lobby of the command building's first floor. There were bodies littered all over the floor, but Ramirez overlooked them to a mirror he had placed while setting up a defensive position in the base. The smoke from the claymore was still settling, but he frowned seeing that his enemies were not hit by the explosion, but instead set it off in a controlled blast so that they could make it through the now-destroyed front doors.
Ramirez pulled out his magazine and slid a new one in, frowning deeper as the one he grabbed was the last one of his extras. He still had twin pistols, one on either side of his waist, as well as his army knife and any of the various weapons lying around the floor of the base, so he was not too concerned. What did unnerve him though, were the orders he heard from the front doors where a squad of soldiers were moving in. "…Yes sir, it's confirmed, the command building has been taken over. We're moving in to try and regain control now. Echo and Bravo teams are going around the back…"
The Resistance Corporal standing at the corner was about to pop out and fire on the squad, but they were moving slowly and he had time. They were looking around at their comrades' bodies lying on the floor, and murmuring to each other wondering if they could handle whatever did this to them. Since they were taking so much time, Ramirez had the moment he needed to pull the detonator for the two C4 packs he had left above the back entrance to the command building. He took a deep breath, then pressed the button on the detonator. His equipment was feeling lighter by the second, as another explosion went off behind him and shook the entire building.
"What was that?!"
"Contact! At the back-" The soldier in front of the squad who started sprinting forward to get to the other side of the building where it seemed like their enemies were, could not even skid to a stop when the man popped out from around the corner and pointed the barrel of a rifle in his face. The assault rifle clicked with barely a sound, but the man in full-sprint had his head snapped backwards and his legs thrown out in front of him. Ramirez kept firing as the soldier's head snapped back, hitting the man behind him, and the one behind that. The others who were steadying themselves from the explosion and starting to sprint after their squad leader were not expecting the sudden ambush, but two of them managed to lift up their spears before Ramirez targeted them.
The Resistance fighter dove to the left, but the spears fired yellow beams of light and not bullets. Just missing a direct hit from the weapons did not ensure his safety, and one of them came too close to his back and burned straight through his gear. Ramirez's eyes bugged at the sight of one of his grenades rolling on the floor beneath him, the pin pulled right off as where it was clipped to his vest got burned through. He ignored the pain of his burnt skin, and after he finished his roll he immediately got back up in a full sprint, dropped his empty weapon from his hands for the extra burst of speed, and leapt for one of the shattered windows of the front of the building. BOOOM! The men behind him who were turning their spears to fire more shots, screamed as the shrapnel of Ramirez's grenade hit them and the room filled with flames.
Ramirez hit the ground on the other side of the window on his arms that were protected by his thick clothing and avoided having the glass shards all over the floor from imbedding in them. Ramirez rolled into a stand while whipping his arms to his sides and grabbing each of his pistols, pulling them out in front of him and firing at the two men who were running across the tarmac in his direction. The two were a good distance away and his pistols had a lot of recoil, but Ramirez's aim was impeccable and after five shots from either of his pistols, the enemy soldiers were motionless on the ground. Ramirez darted his eyes to the left, then right, pointing his M9 pistols wherever he gazed so there would be no gap between when he saw an enemy and that enemy dropped.
"Ramirez!" a voice shouted behind him, and Ramirez spun around with his arms held straight out in front of his chest, M9s focused on the hole where the entrance to the barracks used to be. Sergeant Foley held an open palm towards him, telling him to lower his weapon. He had hoped his voice was enough to steady the soldier, and seeing that Ramirez's reaction speed was that great did not unnerve him one bit. "Good job soldier," Foley said, while thinking, Damn am I glad you're on our side.
"Shit dude," Dunn began as he walked into the entranceway next, behind Foley who started walking out towards Ramirez. Dunn glanced behind him, then looked back at his comrade and said, "What'd you take down? Thirty of them?" Ramirez lowered his weapons more and gave no response, and Dunn just shook his head, muttering, "Hooah man." He saw Ramirez snap his guns back up towards him and he opened his eyes wide for a second, before remembering something and holding his arms out to his sides.
"Lower your weapons soldier, he's an ally!" Foley yelled, seeing Ramirez had his fingers pressing on the trigger like he was ready to shoot above and below Dunn's arms to hit the figure who just appeared in the entrance behind him.
Ramirez lowered his M9s, though he was slow to do it. Dunn moved out of the way and let out a breath of relief. The figure behind him in Fire Nation armor was also looking around like Dunn had, staring at all the carnage in the lobby. Lu Ten then shifted his gaze outside to the soldier standing there with pistols in his hands at his sides, a serious look on his face, and cuts on his face, back, and chest through his vest and clothing. His hands were bloody, his knuckles still bleeding, but he showed no sign of fatigue from the battle damage. This is no soldier, he is a warrior. "I am Lu Ten," the man began while walking out towards Ramirez. He was the only one not holding a weapon, but Ramirez did not think that meant he was not armed, as for the man to be their ally yet not be holding a weapon in their situation, it would be suicidal.
Fire bender, Ramirez thought, and he nodded at the figure in front of him without asking any questions about him or why he was there helping out.
"Alright men," Foley began, and the other three turned towards the Sergeant. "There's a whole lot of noise coming from the Palace, and the messages we were sending out of command here have been cut off. We've gotta get to that Palace and find out if the Fire Lord's been taken care of or not. Everybody we sent north is gonna be comin' back this way now, so we gotta get off this base ASAP."
"Sir, if the Fire Lord's not been taken out, what's the point of us going there?" Dunn asked, then turned his head around and looked up the city towards that very building as an explosion went off that shook the ground under his feet. "If the guy they specifically sent to take him out couldn't do it-"
"Quiet soldier," Foley snapped, and Dunn grumbled but closed his mouth. "Even if the mission has failed, our exfil is going to pick us up straight from the Royal Palace. So we either find those allies of ours and help them finish the mission at hand, or get the Hell out of this city before the soldiers we've sent scattering regain control of the situation." Foley locked and loaded in his weapon then turned and started running around the front of the command building. "But we can't stay here! Taking back this base will be the first move the First Battalion makes. We need to move fast up the city, and hit them hard while we've still got the upper hand!"
Lu Ten looked at each of the soldiers in front of them as they ran around the side of the building. They moved for the fence, and he watched as Dunn pulled out a pair of small bolt cutters from his vest and started snipping the chain links one by one. "Foley," he started, once they were through enough of the fence that their leader could pull it to the side and usher his men through. Foley looked back and Ramirez stopped bending down to crawl through the fence like Dunn had just done. "You and your men continue your mission, I will put my faith that the Fire Lord is being taken out at this moment, and proceed with the second part of my own plan."
"And what was that?" Dunn questioned from the other side of the fence. The first part of Lu Ten's plan was similar to theirs with the way he misdirected all of the city's soldiers.
The Prince of the Fire Nation turned his head north and glared the direction the Fire Nation's soldiers would be returning from. "I am in the line of succession, even if my great grandfather does not recognize it. I will face the army of the Fire Nation and bring them word that a new Fire Lord has come to take his place on the throne. And if my cousin rears her head, I will put my training to the test and fight her for the sake of our people."
Ramirez's eyes narrowed as the man behind them spoke. He is making a power move. Did he get the Sergeant and Dunn on his side, to further his own goals? Is he, only using us, not helping us? After we help him take power, what type of ruler would this man make?
"Well good luck to you," Foley said to the Fire Nation Prince. He saw Ramirez watching Lu Ten start to walk away north, and he called out, "Get a move on Ramirez! We're on a schedule here!" Ramirez turned and nodded at his Sergeant, then ducked down and crawled through the fence that Foley was holding back for him. The Sergeant watched his man go through, then held the bent fence up while he himself ducked down and made his way through it, only letting go once he was safely on the other side, though it did not snap down very fast at his back.
"Think that guy has a chance?" Dunn asked the other two who finally made it through the fence.
"We've got other things to worry about," Foley said, trying to get his men to refocus. "Now let's go, we're joining up with the assault team. Time's running out." He started running, and Dunn and Ramirez followed after him on either side of his back.
Back inside the military base, walking north on the tarmac full of zeppelin and plane wreckage, a smirk was spreading across Lu Ten's face. The serious, justice-seeking son, smirked in a dangerous way that one of the soldiers he was just with had dreaded. Stupid Resistance fools, Lu Ten thought. Once I am the High Lord and have control of the Supernova, I will crush you all in one fell swoop.
Ironforge
Two miles south and four miles below Pyraxas, in the dwarven capital of Ironforge, hundreds of dwarves were rushing through the forges and gathering up their strongest weapons and armor. Short, bearded men grabbed large double-sided axes, and massive war hammers larger than their own bodies, or for some, double-barreled shotguns and automatic rifles. The soldiers of Ironforge were all heading towards the Central Forge, but when they arrived they were not met with coherent orders telling them what their objective was. Instead, they found themselves gathering in a growing circle of dwarves in the middle of the Central Forge, in the center of which there were two dwarves getting louder and louder as they shouted at each other.
The first of the dwarves was the High King, Modimus Anvilmar, wielding a giant war hammer that he held by its long steel shaft in both hands. He slammed the hammer down on the ground on his right side and roared, "There is no argument to be had! We have received a request for aid from our allies in Pyraxas! Admiral Komei-"
"'ALLIES?'" Another voice bellowed, this one coming from the dwarf ten meters in front of Anvilmar. The malcontent dwarf wearing less shiny armor, though still with gold on his weapon, on the bottom of the shaft and right beneath the head of his axe, smacked the shaft of his weapon into his other open palm so loudly that it sounded like it must have hurt. "They are not our allies, but our conquerors! Why should we fight by their sides?!" Gimli roared, and many of the dwarves around the growing circle of his brethren started murmuring in agreement.
"It is because they have already shown their ability to conquer us, that we must go to their aid when they request it," Anvilmar began, while stomping a foot towards Gimli and raising up his war hammer again. "I will not have my people exterminated, and that is exactly what will happen when the Fire Lord is finished with those attacking right now! If, we do not come when his advisors request-"
"'Request, request, request,' they are not requesting anything!" Gimli yelled at his King. "They are ordering you to send us into battle for them! I do not fight for the Fire Lord!" Many of the other dwarves around the circle rose their voices this time. Many others yelled at the ones who rose their voices with Gimli to quiet down, as they were on the side of their High King, but Anvilmar looked around and saw more than he thought looking restless like this most outspoken dwarf in front of him. "I do not fight for anyone, I do not find fit!" Gimli added in a shout. "And if fighting for this High Lord is your command, then I will not fight for you!" Gimli narrowed his eyes and Anvilmar glared back into them as Gimli was speaking treason.
"Then what will you do, Gimli son of Gloin?" Anvilmar questioned, his hammer glowing bright red, the stone beneath his feet cracking down. If I am held up here by internal conflict while the fight goes on above, I have the excuse I need not to send my people to war. Anvilmar grinned as Gimli lifted his axe then yelled out a war cry and charged straight at him. The High King spoke, "If it is a challenge against your King, then I will gladly accept! Come Gimli, let us see if you can defeat me, this time!" Anvilmar rushed forward and pulled back his hammer. The rest of the dwarves around them roared out their King or Gimli's names, and the two swung their weapons together in a clash of steel that echoed through the forges for all the dwarves to hear.
Royal Palace First Floor, Pyraxas
Inside the west wing of the first floor of the Fire Lord's Palace, Zachary Miller had his back up against the wall on one side of a doorway. He looked across the open entrance and took a few deep breaths, before nodding at the soldier standing there looking back at the visor of his helmet. The elite guard he nodded at gulped, then popped out around the doorway that no longer had a door which could be seen by the wooden shards lying all over the floor. "Raaa!" The man yelled, charging through the door and firing his automatic rifle as fast as he could.
Miller took a few more deep breaths before twisting his left foot to pop out behind the door too. "AHH!" He heard the same soldier's voice yell out, and then an explosion flashed yellow light through the opening, and a second later his comrade came flying through the doorway in a cloud of smoke. The man hit the ground and bounced farther into the room Miller was already inside, and the Captain of the Royal Palace's security force stared down at his comrade, his only remaining comrade's, twitching form.
Through the door and thirty feet down the hallway, a tall, silver-haired man lowered his Keyblade, and the girl next to him asked, "So how did you get so far east? Was it all on Mama Hawk's back?"
Riku shook his head no, and the other, longer-nosed man in the hall replied, "We took the train after Luffy beat the Dread Fort's Lord."
Kairi laughed and mentioned, "We heard about that."
Usopp tilted his head to the side and questioned, "What about you? The train took us pretty far away, but I heard there were not any train lines south of the one we took."
"We took a Scarab Tank that some Resistance people we met had. That's how we got east at least, then we took a flying bison north, and then a train from Sin City," Kairi explained to the boys.
Riku sighed, and said, "Luffy couldn't get on that train. It didn't matter though, since he wanted to cross the Cataclysm on foot anyway."
Kairi started giggling, "I thought so," she said.
The other two looked at her with confused glances. "What do you mean?" Usopp asked from the left of the girl walking down the center of the hall.
Kairi waved it off like it was nothing, then said, "Gray couldn't take the train either, so he needed a fake ID. We had to disguise ourselves as a family and were sneaking around the city on a stealth mission to take down the Fire Lord."
Usopp's eyes were wide as she spoke, but he groaned at the end of her sentence. "You guys sound like you had a much better plan than we did. We just rushed right in here haphazardly." Usopp was taking another step towards the entrance, but Riku leaned forward and held up a hand for the pirate to stop. Usopp turned to him, and Riku pointed at the doorway, then to the right side of it with a small grin.
The long-nosed pirate lifted up the corners of his lips, but as did, he thought about what happened out in the courtyard of the Palace, and his sour mood returned. His shifted his gaze back to the doorway in the middle of the hall leading into some room they were heading towards, and Riku frowned at the side of his head as he thought they were about to have some fun with this. Riku started frowning deeply at Usopp's annoyed expression, one that did not disappear even after he fired a Pop Green through the doorway at the floor beyond, and the screams of panic filled the air from the soldier laying in wait for them.
Usopp started walking forward again, and Kairi gave Riku a quick smile before following after him. Riku shook his head around a few times, then followed after Kairi and tried pushing his mind to something else. He walked through the door and glanced right at a figure hanging upside-down by his ankles, the top half of his body stuck inside a green plant that looked almost like a mouth, getting fed to it by arm-like vines. He chuckled, then slashed at the man with his Keyblade, knocking him out of the plant and into the wall twenty feet past it. He hit Miller so hard that the guard slammed into the wall, then slumped over to his side motionless.
"Ughh," Usopp groaned, and Riku looked ahead with a pissed-off expression. His angry look disappeared though, as Usopp was not looking at him like he thought, annoyed at another little thing he did. The sniper was in the center of the room, looking around it and groaning as there were no other doors in here besides one in the back left corner that they could tell only led to a bathroom. "A dead end," Usopp said, turning around to face the two behind him.
Kairi gazed around the room interestedly. There was a large bed pressed up against the back wall, with four wooden poles sticking out of its corners and holding up a velvety red canopy over it. The blanket was embroidered with Fire Nation symbols, and the curtains on the right wall that were currently closed and preventing them to see what was outside were similarly patterned, though the curtains had golden highlights on the edges of the red fabric they were made of. "This is a nice room," Kairi said, looking around at more of the room's designs and details. "But we should get going. I want to find Juvia, and help the others too." She turned to Riku and looked up at the taller teenager, "Where should we go from here?"
Riku hummed to himself and thought about the design of the building from what he saw outside. This place is massive, there have to be hundreds of rooms for us to search. He opened his mouth and began, "I'll send out some Shadows to figure out what's going on around-"
"No!" Usopp yelled, interrupting the other teen. Riku ground his teeth, but before he could argue, Usopp took a step in his direction and snapped at him, "You keep using the Heartless, and for what? Because it's easy? Those things are evil!"
"We are wasting time with this," Riku growled back at him through clenched teeth, trying not to sound too annoyed at the man whose anger he could understand. "And we would be wasting even more time by searching every room of this Palace, instead of just using the Heartless!"
Usopp's hands clenched into fists and he yelled, "Why don't you get it?! Using the darkness is what got you taken over by Ansem in the first place! It's what got me taken! And you keep doing it! You haven't learned anything!"
"I learned how to control it!" Riku yelled back.
"Guys," Kairi urged, trying to step in before this got any farther, as her friends were getting angrier by the second. "Let's just calm down for a second okay? Maybe, the three of us should just search the Palace ourselves?" She suggested, looking to Riku softly.
He turned to her with wide eyes, shocked she was taking Usopp's side. They were in the middle of a battle against real enemies, and he was going to use everything in his power against them. "The time I could save using Shadows to help us, could save one of our friends' lives," Riku said, his voice dark. He turned from Kairi who looked surprised by how serious he suddenly got, and turned instead to see what Usopp thought about that. The angry, unaccepting look on Usopp's face even after that explanation only made him angrier.
CRASH! The wall on the right side of the room blasted open. All three of those in the center of the room looked over. If someone was blowing a hole in the Royal Palace, it was likely one of their friends. Kairi was secretly happy they were just interrupted from that serious question, and she opened her mouth to greet whoever it was that finally reached the Palace. Usopp looked towards the hole in the wall with settling dust around it, and he did not look as excited as Kairi. He was still angry from what they were just arguing about, and also he was not as confident that she was that the one who smashed a hole in the wall was a friend. Unfortunately for him, he was right.
Kairi closed her open mouth, because the sight of the figure floating in the hole in the wall made her entire body tense up. He was wearing a black cloak with a silver zipper down the middle of it and in a loop around the hood at the top. The hood was all bunched up behind his neck at the moment, revealing the young cloaked figure's face. Kairi stared at the face for a second, then two, and her nervous look started to fade. She took a step back, her bottom lip lowering, while the figure in the hole floated forwards. He lowered down to the ground twenty feet in front of the three, and glared at each of them one by one. When he saw Kairi's expression, his own eyes widened and he took a step towards her, but then, his gaze shifted to the tallest figure in the room who was looking towards him with a similar look as Kairi's, only much, much darker.
This boy. Riku thought, his eyes shadowed over by his silver bangs, his long hair waving around in a sudden gust of wind behind him. His fists clenched furiously at his sides, so tight that his fingernails dug into his palms and drew blood. He stared in silent fury at the figure who had black hair sticking up off the top of his head in a bunch of tiny five-inch spikes. I know him. The figure was almost full foot shorter than him, and a little shorter than both Kairi and Usopp. I, created him. The whites of the boy's eyes took up most of the space in them, but right in the centers of those eyes, were coal-black dots that stared straight into Riku's green eyes. I created a monster.
The short figure opened his mouth to speak, but as he did, Riku's mouth opened, and the tallest figure in the room, laughed. Riku's head bowed and the two behind him stopped facing the short figure, instead turning to their comrade whose laughter was very deep in tone. He was shaking, his entire body trembling, as he laughed harder and harder. Kairi turned her head and the shock she had on her face from looking at the Nobody who entered the room doubled at the sight of one of her best friends.
"Hahaha, haha," Riku's deep laughter was creeping out his friends at his sides. "Finally," he said. His lips curled up and he cracked his neck to the left, then the right, while Kairi's face filled with terror, and the other two in the room stared at him in total confusion. Riku lifted up his right hand and stared at its fist as he unclenched it, and examined the blood coming out of where his nails dug into it. He stared at it for a few seconds, then clenched it tightly again, and in a menacing voice, he growled, "I am free."
Royal Palace Third Floor, Pyraxas
"Jackal, guard from intrusions from the west wing. There are less men posted there." Admiral Komei of the Sun Marines stood in the hallway directly outside of the Fire Lord's throne room. He had looked inside only a few minutes ago when he arrived, and to his dismay the Fire Lord was already in the midst of a battle with one of the intruders. The man in a cream-colored robe with burnt sleeves pointed his fan to the west, and the shorter figure in front of him frowned in annoyance.
"What was that?" Jackal asked, twisting a finger around in one ear. The demon of Tartaros had cat ears and a long tail with fur the same color as his dark blond hair. He wore a green tank top pressed tight against his torso, and a pair of tight-fitting black pants. His arms from the forearms down to his fingers were pitch black, with more speckled black dots between the middle of his forearm and his elbow, and some of those dots were on his face above and below his right eye. The left side of Jackal's face was covered by a flip of his dark blond hair, the demon had a thin and pointed nose, and the shiny white teeth in his mouth were sharpened like a cat's.
Komei frowned back at the figure before him. "They are in the Palace already," he said in a harsh tone. "I do not have time for insubordination."
"Yeah yeah," Jackal kept twisting the finger in his ear, but he took it out and blew on it, then started walking the opposite direction as the one Komei pointed in. Komei opened his mouth to order him to turn around, but the Marine shut it and ground his teeth instead. Jackal smirked and started laughing at Komei's cowardice.
Wasting any more time arguing with that demon would be foolish. I must handle the side with less guards on my own. Komei started walking towards the west wing where only a few men were stationed on this floor. I am losing contact with soldiers all over the Palace. There is no telling how many have infiltrated at this point. I made contact with the soldiers of the First Royal Battalion, and they are on their way to the Palace, but they have no leadership with them. For them to have sabotaged our entire standing army, I did not give these fighters their due respect. Now however, they will be stopped. Two zeppelins have reported in from the east, and five Lords have relayed to me their eagerness to help the King. They are quickly mobilizing and approaching the capital, and the dwarves should have arrived at the southern gates already, though I have not received word of their arrival.
The leader of the Sun Marines in Pyraxas froze as he heard a loud noise come from the west wing. It sounded like something crashing, maybe through a wall, or the floor, and it unsettled him. He lifted his fan and covered it in Haki, making the weapon extend to the length of a longsword. They are coming.
On the opposite side of the hall, Jackal turned around and frowned as he also heard the noise come from that direction. He and Komei were each halfway from the center of the hall to the respective wings they were supposed to be guarding. The ceiling was over thirty feet above their heads, and the walls were covered in ornate decorations and fancy tapestry. The demon smirked as he thought about blowing all the beautiful decorations to pieces, and then he froze and spun around. He turned because he felt something, and the demon with features of a cat sniffed a few times before going wide eyed.
In the east wing, several soldiers were on guard, machine guns in hand with blades sticking off the bottoms of their weapons. Two stood in a doorway one room down from the main hallway of the floor that the throne room was centered in. One of the men was bald and had scars all over his face, while the other wore a lot thicker black armor including a helmet over his face that shielded his face. The one in the helmet had his weapon lowered and he was looking at the man next to him while speaking in a hushed, nervous tone, "I'm telling you, I saw it! I thought they were just rumors, but the entire city filled with them only a few minutes ago!"
Neither of the men saw the thin figure walking towards a doorway on their left, fists clenched at his sides and a smirk on his face. The skinny man hesitated though as the bald man replied to his comrade, "You're sure? Blue flames! We're fucked man!" The pirate through the next doorway got a confused look on his face, and then the bald man continued louder, "Fucked! Why the Hell is Satan attacking us now of all times?!"
Luffy stomped through the doorway. The two guards spun towards him and rose up their weapons. They unloaded, no hesitation, their reflexes fast hence their position on the third floor of the Royal Palace. Luffy just marched straight towards them though, his body leaning left and right, weaving between the yellow beams like he was not even trying. The men backed up, but their backs were to the wall on either side of the door behind them.
Jackal heard all the gunfire and he turned straight towards the doorway. Loud screams echoed from the east, and then the wall on either side of the doorway he was facing blasted into pieces. Two men came flying through the wall with palms clenched on their faces. The visor of the more-armored-man's helmet shattered, while Luffy crushed down on the two of them, and then slammed them each into the floor so hard they got sent crashing down to the floor below.
On the other side of the hallway, Komei spun around as he heard the crash, then turned back to face the west wing a second later as another crash came from this side of the hallway. He heard screams coming from inside the west wing.
"We've got him!"
"No one could survive all those flames!"
"HOLY SH-"
"AHH!"
The walls around the corner of the west wing covered in flames, and all of the elite Fire Nation soldiers Komei had posted there came flying backwards covered in burns. Komei's teeth clenched, because he knew there was only one figure who could be coming around this corner. He backed up so he was closer to the door of the throne room, while lifting up his Haki-covered fan and holding it sideways protectively in front of his body.
On the east side of the main hallway of the third floor, Luffy stepped through the settling dust from the wall he smashed through. He glared forward a dozen meters at the figure in front of him with golden-furred ears and tail and dark blond hair. One look told the pirate captain that this figure was stronger than any of the ones he had faced on his way up there. As Luffy looked at the figure though, his eyes grew three times in size and his gaze shifted over Jackal's left shoulder.
On the opposite side of the hall, a man just walked through the flames surrounding the corner. He stepped out and glared forward, "I found you," Natsu snarled at the Sun Marine Admiral. "I was wondering when you were going to show your ugly face," he said, as he knew Komei was not taken down during their earlier skirmishes. Natsu's fists burst into even more flames, and then he saw over Komei's shoulder and down the hall, two other men. One of those men was looking straight back towards him, and Natsu's eyes bugged out for a second, before darting to his left while still looking past Komei.
Luffy followed Natsu's gaze, shifting his own to the right side of the hall, and he looked straight at a massive doorway sticking all the way up towards the ceiling. The pirate realized what Natsu was thinking, and he snapped his gaze back down with a much more serious look than he had just by facing Jackal. Natsu's fists covered in five times as many flames, shocking Komei who was already hesitant about attacking because his flames had doubled.
"What are you looking at?!" Jackal yelled at the pirate in front of him. "Your opponent is right here!" He rose his arms.
Luffy punched his right fist out to the side, and his skin pumped, turning red with steam coming off of it.
Komei yelled out and his entire body covered in a purple aura. He brought back his fan and the weapon extended to ten feet long before he started swinging it back in front of his body.
Natsu bent his knees. He pushed off the ground and the wood beneath him cracked down, then burst into flames after a second. Flames rose behind him as he charged at Komei, then the Dragon Slayer darted to the right, then left as Komei changed the trajectory of his swipe to hit him.
"Gear Second," Luffy said. Jackal grinned, but Luffy saw it coming. The entire hallway around where Luffy was standing exploded.
"HEHE-" Jackal stopped cackling after only two laughs, his voice catching in his throat. The pirate was not inside the explosion he created out of thin air. Luffy stood straight in front of him, teeth grinding, his right fist still far behind him so that it was in the middle of that explosion. Luckily for Luffy, his entire fist was covered in a coating of Armament Haki. And now, it was already covered in flames, though more were forming around it as he brought his fist forward faster than Jackal could follow with his widening eyes.
Komei missed his slash and his sword sent a flying slash all the way through the corner connecting their hall to the west wing, and then through a wall so that it ripped a crack to the outside. Komei's weapon jammed into the floor, while he turned his head to the right where Natsu sidestepped a second time. All of the flames on Natsu's left hand vanished, and the enormous flames around his right hand doubled in size once again. Komei's bottom lip started dropping, while Natsu's fist far behind his body swung forward with a massive fireball surrounding it.
"FIRE DRAGON'S DEVASTATION TALON!"
"HAWK BULLET!"
A fist slammed into the center of Komei's face and sent the Admiral flying all the way back through the hallway surrounded in a ball of fire. A different fist slammed into Jackal's right cheek, and an explosion of flames ripped out of the left side of his face. The demon was lifted off the ground for only a second, before slamming into the ground beneath where Komei was flying, then sent bouncing through the entire hallway. Natsu was sprinting forward, and the Dragon Slayer hopped up when the bouncing form neared him, slamming a hand down on the top of the figure's face to push it right under his legs. Luffy sprinted forward from the other side, and he snapped his body sideways as the Admiral-filled fireball flew at him, before continuing his sprint as fast as he could.
Natsu was getting close to the door first, but Luffy was still in Gear Second, and the pirate pushed his legs down before pouncing down the hall. The two of them almost collided with each other as they met outside the door, and they growled at each other considering it was too close. They opened their mouths and at the same time shouted, "I call fighting-" neither of them finished as they were too annoyed that the other was shouting at the same time, and even more annoyed that they were saying the same exact thing.
"I'm first," Natsu argued, reaching out for the door.
"No! I wanted to fight him all day!" Luffy grabbed Natsu's wrist, then put his hand on the other door to start pushing
"Well I've wanted to fight him all week!" Natsu yelled back and wrestled with Luffy's arms so he could be the one to push the door open.
"I wanted to fight him all year!"
"You didn't even know he existed all year!"
The doors to the throne room were thrown open at the same time. Two figures stumbled inside, then pushed away from each other with frustrated looks on their faces. They turned forward, and then both of them dropped their jaws at the sight in front of them.
Natsu glanced left and right at the sides of the throne room past all the tall pillars reaching up towards the ceiling. On the sides of the room were flames rising from every square inch of floor, rising up over twenty feet in height so that there would be no way for anyone to get through there. Near the opposite side of the room as the doorway, where Sozin's throne sat atop a staircase, the entire floor and stairwell were enflamed similarly. The Fire Lord was currently floating above those high-rising flames, out of the reach of a figure closer to Natsu and Luffy, standing near the center of the room in the middle of a flaming carpet, though around where the kid stood, the carpet was torn to shreds. There was a circle of lightning sparking on the floor around the boy standing in the center of the room, but as the two behind him looked his way, they saw that lightning and the electric aura around the kid's body fade, his spiky white hair lowering down as well and losing some of its intense spikiness.
Luffy looked past the kid in front of them who he was stunned to see already in the throne room. He looked past and all the way to Sozin, but then looked beneath the Fire Lord who he was seeing for the first time, but knew from a first glance that that was who this man was. Beneath him, was something that made Luffy's heart race. He stared at the glowing sphere of yellow light, but his eyes quickly adjusted to the brightness to show him that yellow was just the glow the outside of the sphere was giving off. A closer look let him see the orange and red core to that sphere, burning so densely that it looked like a sun. In Luffy's mind, he saw something like it, an attack that his brother Ace made back when they fought Shadow Shanks in Hollow Bastion. The size of Ace's Supernova was a lot smaller though. That thing feels a hundred times more powerful than Ace's! And we beat Shanks with it, even if, it was his weakened Shadow.
"Luffy, Natsu," Killua muttered. "It took you long enough," the kid said, but he did not turn to the two behind him.
"Killua," Natsu said, shocked even more so by the kid's being here than by Luffy. He glanced up over Killua's head, then down at the kid again. Sozin had a little bit of blood on his body, on the side of his exposed and muscular torso. Killua's arms also had some scratches on them though, and anyone could see that he had first and second degree burns all over his exposed skin. His ankles had melted flesh on them, and Killua's shoes were gone, burnt through completely by all the flames rising from the floor. What is he doing? Why, is he fighting Sozin alone? Natsu thought, not understanding this situation at all.
"Monkey D. Luffy," Sozin announced, his voice booming. He shifted his gaze a little, "Natsu Dragneel." Sozin's eyes narrowed more at the Fire Dragon Slayer than they did at the pirate. "I was expecting your arrivals. I had hoped to be finished with young Killua Zoldyck before you arrived, but it is no matter."
Killua was panting. Godspeed just ran out on him, and his feet and ankles were in so much pain that he was finding it hard not to let Sozin see his legs shake. His hands clenched into fists at his sides. Luffy and Natsu are here! I, I couldn't beat him, before they arrived, but they don't seem too injured from their previous fights. They can take him. He'll probably come after me first to finish me off before taking them on, so, so I should get out of here! Killua's feet would not move. Fuck! Killua cursed mentally. What is wrong with me?! Sozin's proven himself to be stronger than me! This entire room is built to support his powers, and every second he floats there in the light of his Supernova, he gets faster, stronger, and his flames burn hotter. He said so himself, and I can see it happening! At my decreased speed right now, I, I won't be able to do anything!
"Why are you here?" Natsu asked, and Killua's eyes snapped shut.
In the kid's mind, he saw himself a little over a week before, his extended fingernails pressing against Natsu's throat like claws, just to make a point. He thought about the Boar's Head bar, when Natsu asked him which group he would be going with, the glare on Natsu's face as he asked it.
Sozin was not going to stand there and let them reminisce. The Fire Lord shot through the air faster than Natsu or Luffy were expecting, and Killua tried leaping backwards, but Sozin was too fast. He crossed his arms in front of his body and formed a small Nen barrier around him, but Sozin's fist hit him in the crossed arms and sent him flying towards the left side of the room. Luffy's eyes opened huge as he saw how huge the flames were that Killua was about to fall into, and then all at once, all of those flames stopped burning so hot and high. All of the flames on the left side of the room pulled in one direction, and the Fire Dragon Slayer stuck his chest out as he sucked it all in.
Killua dropped down on a floor no longer covered in flames, and he rolled up onto one knee and a foot, though he found it difficult to get back up. Get out of here already! You're too weak to keep fighting… except I'm not! I can keep going!
As Killua snapped his head up, he watched as two other figures leapt up in the air towards the Fire Lord. Natsu with his recently ingested flames, and Luffy covered in steam, yelling out powerful attacks towards the older man who was looking towards Killua. Killua kept up eye contact with Sozin even as the Fire Lord rose his hands and caught each of his enemies attacks. There's no way! Killua thought, then watched as Sozin slammed his two enemies' heads into each other, then tossed them to opposite sides where they each slammed into pillars so hard that they smashed straight through them.
"The two of you," Sozin snarled, turning his head and glaring down at Luffy's shadow in the dust that was pushing itself off the ground. "Have the audacity to come here now," the Fire Lord continued. "At least Killua came straight here, but you two, how much of my city have you destroyed?!" Sozin roared the last part, and the two about to leap back towards him with new attacks found themselves hesitating as a massive flame surrounded Sozin and flared over his body. "To have reached this far, you must have defeated my advisors, and broken your way through my Palace, and I am beyond enraged!" Sozin's eyes glowed bright white through the flaming veil, but Natsu smirked as the aura grew larger.
Natsu opened his mouth and sucked in, and the aura around Sozin started to shift directions and head towards him. When the start of the trail of flames was almost at Natsu's mouth however, Natsu's jaw dropped and he stopped breathing in, because Sozin was suddenly in front of him with his left elbows stuck forward. Natsu leaned away to dodge, then a foot slammed under his chin and snapped his head back so hard he was thrown all the way to the ceiling that cracked in a dozen different directions when he collided. Sozin heard Luffy flying towards his back, and the Fire Lord roared and his aura flared behind him thirty feet. Luffy yelled in pain and stopped himself in midair, throwing his arms backwards and grabbing a pillar to swing himself back to.
Killua ran back to the middle of the room. He glanced up and watched Natsu fall from the ceiling, then the Fire Dragon Slayer hit the ground on his right side. Natsu had his hands and knees on the floor and was looking down with wide eyes as he could not even follow Sozin's movements during that last attack. Killua's eyes darted to his left and he saw Luffy land next to a pillar and start patting his chest down, then rip off the flaming shirt he had on and toss it to the side. Kil looked back towards Sozin who floated before them, eyes glowing bright white, a huge flaming aura around him that grew larger by the second. Suddenly, the floor beneath the three fighters challenging the Fire Lord shook, and Natsu fell back to his hands and knees as he was halfway through standing up.
"What, was that?" Natsu muttered. He looked up and staggered onto his feet, then stared past Sozin's floating form and lowered his bottom lip a few inches.
Sozin saw where the other three were looking, and he looked back over his shoulder. "Is it, supposed to do that?" Killua shouted.
They all stared at the Supernova. They watched flares of orange whip off of the sphere, dragging across the floor and digging through it. A whip snapped off the miniature sun and cut straight through a pillar, and the entire pillar started collapsing. "No, it is not," Sozin said, his voice dark, and full of rage.
"Well aren't you going to do something?!" Killua shouted up, his voice semi-panicked as he had enough sense to be able to tell that this was seriously bad. "How do you get it under control?!"
Sozin's expression darkened and he turned back forward to face his opponents. "My top scientist, Doctor Octavius, was the expert on the Supernova," Sozin said. Killua's heart fell, and Sozin continued, "But you killed him, and now, I don't know what will happen." Despite what he said, Sozin's lips curled up at the corners, and all three of those facing him got very bad feelings about this. Killua took a step back, but his eyes widened as the two on his sides took steps forward instead.
"Whatever it is you're trying, I won't let you do it," Natsu growled. He rose his fists and this time, they covered in both fire and lightning bolts.
Luffy snapped his head to the side, spitting on the floor to his right as he did. He turned back and glared at Sozin, his body still steaming and his skin red, though now his fists were black with Haki too. "He's mine," Luffy said.
The two did not look at each other. They ignored the person next to them and leapt up at Sozin at the same time. They were leaping straight towards him, and all Sozin had to do was fly twenty feet backwards. He was already floating back, but now, he got to witness the two who leapt at him reach the point in the air he was just in simultaneously. The best part was, he knew either of them could have changed their trajectories to come after him, but since they were both thinking about that, neither thought about the other person attacking at the same time, and Sozin watched as the two collided in midair and started flipping over each other before crashing down to the floor.
Sozin almost laughed. Instead though, he just glared at the two on the floor in front of his shaking Supernova who started arguing about how the other got in their way. Sozin's eyes moved around the Supernova, and again his lips curled up as flares of flames and whips of the sun tore off of it. "This fake sun is becoming unstable," Sozin started, not really speaking to the men beneath him, as he was just speaking out loud. "Without Doc Ock to get it under control, I have no other choice than to harness all of the excess energy myself." Sozin slowly started lifting his arms, and the Palace stopped shaking. Another orange whip came off of the Supernova, but this one curled up in the air towards Sozin.
Unlike the other energy they saw leaving the Supernova and heading to Sozin though, this flare did not absorb into his body. The flare curved up over the top of Sozin's head, right above his hands that he had over his head, palms up towards the sky. All of the haze in the room started moving to that point, and the Supernova below him that was violently pulsing light and burning everything around it, started to settle down. Natsu and Luffy stopped squabbling as Killua shouted at them, "Idiots! Look above you!"
Look up they did. Natsu and Luffy lowered their fists and dropped their jaws at what was floating above Sozin's head. The Supernova only a few meters ahead of them might have been the more condensed energy, but just the Supernova's scraps and flares created so much fire energy that there was now a fireball above Sozin twenty times as large as the sphere coming out of the throne room's steps. That sphere already was taller than a normal person, so the one Sozin held above his head was enormous. It grew so large so fast, that the roof of the throne room could not handle it and shredded into the fire. It burst into flames for a single second before disintegrating as all the fire's fuel was burned through. Sozin had to float higher up because he thought that if he let the sphere get any bigger, it would tear apart all the walls of his throne room as well.
Sozin floated at the level the ceiling used to be, glaring down at his enemies with a malicious smirk on his face, and a bright burning sun held over his head. Everyone in Pyraxas could see the sun and they all stopped moving as they wondered what was going to happen with it. It was almost as wide and long as the throne room itself, and Natsu gawked at the daunting size of it. Could I eat all that on my own? If I start to, will Sozin attack me again? I need to wait for my moment.
If he throws that down here, I need to get above it, Luffy thought, looking towards a corner of the room that would not get hit if the fireball were to descend where he would escape from to get above and closer to Sozin.
We're dead. There's nothing any of us can do against that! Killua thought in terror, already able to feel the heat from the giant sun attack though the Fire Lord had not even thrown it yet.
Sozin looked at the faces of those below him, and his eyes opened wider for a second. "Oh no," he said, scoffing, almost chuckling at the idea of it. "You think I am going to throw this at you? You, who stand in my home?" The fighters beneath him looked at him in utter confusion. "An attack of this magnitude would destroy my entire Palace, no, a large chunk of my capital city! This attack is not meant for you." Sozin grinned more menacingly, then rose up only his right palm, while turning his back to the enemies below him. As he turned his back to them, flames shot out of the ground in front of the three to prevent anyone from having any bright ideas of attacking while his guard was down.
"If it's not for us," Killua began confusedly.
"Then who?" Luffy asked, similarly confused.
Natsu almost voiced his confused sentiment as well, but he was not as slow as most people thought. He knew the layout of the Palace, and thought about where they were inside it, and where the Fire Lord was facing as he floated out of the ceiling. "You think you can attack Pyraxas and there will be no consequences? The debt must be paid," Sozin bellowed. Sozin was facing south, and he looked to be focusing on something. Natsu's eyes were growing larger and larger, and he heard Sozin continue, "Even if every man, woman, child, and animal wears a Power Blocker, there is one energy they can not hide."
"Don't!" Natsu shouted. His friends looked over at him in confusion as Natsu started sprinting forward, opening his mouth and chomping straight through the wall of flames blocking him. "STOP IT!" Natsu roared.
Sozin brought his right hand down, and the giant fireball over his head started to move. Natsu opened his mouth and started sucking in. He sucked so hard that all the flames behind the throne and still on the sides of the room pulled towards him, the rest of the wall at his back still holding Killua and Luffy away too, but as the back of the fireball started to pull his way, Sozin turned his head furiously and his eyes glowed so bright that anyone could tell what was coming. Natsu was in the middle of taking a deep breath so he could not even scream as the two white beams that shot out of Sozin's eyes slammed into his chest. The beams of white had orange tints to the outsides of them, and they left nickel-sized burns on either side of Natsu's chest.
Without Natsu pulling it back anymore, the fireball Sozin threw picked up speed and shot away from the Palace at an alarming speed into the south. Luffy and Killua were confused as to where Sozin was aiming that attack, but Natsu's eyes snapped open while he faced the floor where he landed. "You bastard," Natsu snarled. His body covered in an orange aura, and he snapped up his gaze with such a furious look on his face that a rare few would dare getting in his way. Dragon scales spread up his arms starting at his hands, and formed on his cheeks as well, while the orange aura around his body sparked lightning and flared blazing hot flames.
"I am not bastard," Sozin growled, glaring right back into Natsu's eyes without flinching at the sight of his power-up. "I am High Lord Sozin! Ruler of the Fire Nation! And you are nothing!"
Natsu shot off the ground moving faster than he had since entering Pyraxas. He flew up towards Sozin and pulled a fist back. Sozin pulled his right fist back as well, and the stable Supernova down below him sent a haze of red in his direction that formed around his arm and made it glow bright red. "RAA!" Sozin yelled.
The Fire Lord slammed his fist down as Natsu punched forward, shouting, "Arcosian Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" The fists collided and a blast of wind slammed down into Killua who took a step back, and Luffy who stood there taking it without flinching. Natsu pushed harder into his attack, veins popping all over his face, but as he pushed harder using sheer force of will alone, Sozin had a physical force giving his punch more strength every second. As hard as Natsu tried, the increase in Sozin's strength through the short span the two of them had their fists together was too much. The haze got thicker and surrounded Sozin, and the Fire Lord smirked through the veil, before snapping his arm the rest of the way forward, bending Natsu's arm at the elbow and slamming the Dragon Slayer in the face.
"Eagle-" Sozin's eyes snapped up from where he sent Natsu flying, and the pirate hovering in front of him grit his teeth at how fast Sozin reacted to his appearance. Luffy did not stop however, and he finished screaming, "BAZOOKA!" His steaming red arms shot forward, and the black fists at the ends of them covered in flames right before flying straight into the aura around Sozin. Luffy was used to his fists getting hot with attacks like these, but before his palms had even slammed into Sozin's exposed torso, he could feel his skin burning beneath the Haki. "AHHH!" Luffy screamed in pain, but he only pushed harder into the attack and slammed his open palms into a smirking Sozin's chest.
Sozin's eyes popped open wide at the force behind Luffy's attack, and he was sent flying backwards through the air, doing a backflip as the force of the attack was focused on the top half of his body. After the flip, Sozin put his hands behind him and expelled so much flames that the entire north wall of his throne room, right behind his throne, blew to fiery pieces and flew away. The flaming chunks of wall went right over the wall surrounding his Palace, and thousands in the Upper Residential Area looked up in fear as flaming debris fell like meteorites onto their city. Hotels, restaurants, apartments, gardens, trees, everything in the City of Fire was so flammable.
Luffy landed on the floor of the throne room and looked straight ahead towards Sozin, floating above his throne and behind the Supernova. Past him, flames started to rise beyond the wall and the city looked to have a red glow that filled the air above it with smoke. Sozin stood between Luffy and that red glow, and his body gained a red tint to it even more so than it already did. "Straw Hat Luffy," Sozin growled. He looked down into Luffy's eyes, eyes that dilated and formed smaller circles inside of them as Luffy gave off a powerful blast of Haki. "Haki of the Conquering King?" Sozin questioned. Then, the Fire Lord started laughing, before snapping his gaze back down with narrowed eyes of his own that had small white circles in the middle of his irises. "In this room, who is the real King?" Sozin shouted, a Haki aura expelling off of his body that made the flames near him quiver and the walls tremble.
"I get stronger by the day! At the moment the Ant King may rule the Cooperative," Sozin continued in a booming voice, while around his body formed flames more powerful than ever. "But soon enough, I will surpass him! Aizen! Zeref! The Saiyans! The Kryptonians! All will bow before me! All will bow before the might of the Fire-"
BOOOM! Luffy saw it coming, but he was no longer covered in steam. Without Gear Second, there was no way he could dodge in time. Sozin's eyes widened for a split second as the ground beneath Luffy exploded, and the rubber pirate went flying and screaming through the air. Killua turned left and ahead where Luffy was just standing defiantly, "What just-" BOOM! The ground next to where just exploded ripped apart in a dome of yellow light, then three more appeared in a line towards Killua who crossed his arms and surrounded himself with Nen, only to still scream out in pain as the next explosion occurred right on top of him.
"What's going on?" Natsu growled, picking himself back up finally after Sozin's punch had his head jumbled for a minute. He put a hand back on a chunk of pillar on the floor behind him to steady himself, while Killua and Luffy both staggered out of their explosions and turned as well.
In the doorway of the throne room, a figure with a giant welt on his cheek stood. The thin man had light skin, but it turned black near his hands with speckled black dots up his arms and a matching few on his face. His eyes were rolled back in his head, but he was facing towards Luffy who looked back at the figure with a deep frown. I thought I took care of him, Luffy thought in slight annoyance.
"YOU!" Jackal screamed while facing Luffy, the man who punched him in the hallway so hard he fell unconscious. Jackal was up again though, and his rage had bubbled over. "I'm going to kill you!" Jackal screamed. "I'm going to blow you to pieces!" He roared, and rose up his hands at his sides. His arm muscles started rippling, his green tank-top shredded to pieces, and the three fighters facing the Fire Lord went wide eyed as Jackal's body transformed. The black on his hands spread farther up his arms, while all of his light skin turned yellow and covered in a light coating of fur like was already on his ears and tail. He grew twice as tall, and much more muscular, while his mouth extended out and sharp teeth came out of his jaws. "RAAA!" Jackal roared.
"He, turned into a monster," Natsu muttered.
"Now you, DIE!" Jackal screamed, his voice much deeper than before, and bone-chilling with the way he shouted it through bared teeth. The demon took a step forward towards its enemies, and then all three of those it was facing froze and their eyes focused behind the monster.
Jackal started to turn around, but when he was only halfway around, sweat covered his entire face and his blood started pumping much faster than usual. There was a red glow to the room behind him and his fur was getting hotter by the second. "What did I say about speaking out of turn again?" The voice behind him questioned. Jackal's mouth started to open, but Sozin reached a hand forward as he did and placed his palm softly against Jackal's forehead right as the beast finished turning. Jackal's words caught in his throat, the demon's eyes grew huge, and Sozin finished, "I said I would incinerate you."
Sozin's expression was emotionless as Jackal's body glowed bright red. The beast tried to let out a scream, but nothing came out of its mouth. The other three in the throne room stared forward in shocked silence. Jackal, a monster that had all three of them on edge a few seconds ago, stopped glowing, but his body no longer had any color to it. Only seconds after Sozin pressed a palm to his forehead, Jackal's entire body was gray. And then it crumbled into a pile of ash.
The Fire Lord turned back to the three closer to the center of his throne room. Killua took a step back. He just killed that man, mercilessly, unceremoniously. He wants to kill us in the same way, and if he gets his hands on us, it's all over. He's become too strong! I needed to finish this in the beginning! I should have gone Godspeed from the start, then maybe, maybe I could have stopped him before… Killua's eyes darted to either side, and the kid clenched his fists and teeth in anger, frustration, and regret.
Sozin lifted off the ground, and he floated back over Killua's head towards his throne. Luffy and Natsu walked back towards the center of the room, both with a lot of visible damage on their bodies like Killua, and in part like Sozin. Still, the Fire Lord covered in his magnificent flaming aura, with his Supernova now at his back again, was easily the most intimidating figure in the room. Luffy rose up his fists and they covered in Haki, but in his mind he was starting to understand that this might not be enough. Natsu snarled and glanced back towards the ceiling in the south, before growling even more gutturally and raising his fists that covered once again in hot red flames.
Why are they still thinking about fighting?! They aren't fast enough to face him! Killua's mouth opened, We should run. We don't have a chance! "I," Killua began. Run! RUN! "I want… to be better." Luffy's eyes darted to his right and Natsu's to his left at the boy standing between them. Killua's head bowed for a second and he clenched his teeth so hard, before gasping out and continuing, "I want to deserve it! I, want to deserve, to travel with Son Goku, and Timmy Turner, and Sora, and all of you, because I want," Killua's fists clenched and his head snapped up as he shouted, "Because I want to be a hero like the rest of you!"
Natsu's eyes widened at the sight of the wet younger boy's eyes, and Luffy did not even frown when Killua called him a hero. Killua slowly started to unclench his fists, and sparks of electricity came off of his fingers as he did. "I have done, so many horrible things," Killua continued, while Sozin's eyes shifted down to the boys hands that he could see lightning sparking off of. "I have run away from fights all my life!" Killua shouted. "But right here, right now, I can make the change! Here is where I can choose to fight, and not run!" More electricity started sparking off of his entire body now, off his shoulders, his legs, his face, and up in his spiky white hair. "I was saving power the entire time in case I needed to flee the city later, because I wanted to make sure I had the strength to fight off enemies on my way out. But I should have gone all out from the start, because as much as I deny it, I know I can trust my comrades to get me out of here if I use so much power that I can't even walk anymore."
A white aura flashed around Killua, full of lightning that sparked out in every direction. All of those random strikes were shifting to the right though, hitting the floor around his right side, while all the aura around the left side of his body shrank in. Then, the aura closer to his head and feet moved towards the center of his body, all while moving to the right. Killua's entire right arm started shaking, covered in a white aura so thick it was becoming hard to see his skin underneath. All of his clothes on the right side of his body started tearing apart, and his shirt shredded on his right arm while it shook from the power of the thick coating of electricity around it. Killua was clenching his teeth in pain, while Natsu took steps away to the side from the kid whose face looked agonized, who was trembling in pain while lightning rippled around his right arm. "Even if it takes all of my strength," Killua said, his aura of lightning condensing even more as it moved from his entire arm, to only his forearm and below, and then down to only his hand. "I want to be good!"
Killua lifted up his right hand, and as much as it pained him to do so, he curled in his pinky and ring fingers. Any movement at all hurt, though he was already in constant pain from all the electricity around his hand. He was trained to withstand torture from electricity, it was one of the reasons he chose it as the element he would transform his Nen into while fighting. This much though, it was more than he had ever gathered because he knew that even his body could not withstand the strain it would put on him. He stuck his index and middle fingers up at the ceiling in front of him, and all of the electricity around his hand shifted up even more so that it was solely around those two fingers. If I had used this much on Sugar, there would have been nothing left of her body. This is not Sugar though, this is a High Lord. It's all or nothing!
Sozin glared across the room at Killua, and his eyes shifted to the two fingers the kid had pointed up in front of him. Sozin stomped his right foot down, then planted his left foot in front of himself. He put one hand down in front of him, and the other up behind the back of his head. Killua's eyes widened as it looked like the man was going to try and take his attack head-on, and then the corners of the kid's mouth curled up even while his face was still covered in an expression of pain. Here goes then! Killua snapped his arm down so his two extended fingers pressed together pointed straight at the Fire Lord. He grabbed his violently shaking arm with his left hand to steady it, then stuck his thumb straight up over his right hand. "SUPER LIGHTNING GUN!" Killua shouted, and he pressed his thumb down onto the top of his index finger. His thumb did not touch the electricity though, as by that moment, all of the condensed lightning Killua had created was at the very tips of his two extended fingers. Then it fired.
The force of the release from his hand sent Killua's arm flying up with recoil like a real gun, and the kid stumbled backwards a step. His entire right arm filled with agony from the force that jolted his bones, but thanks to his left hand steadying his arm, he prevented any muscles from tearing. As Killua stumbled a step back, his eyes stayed focused straight ahead of him at the Fire Lord whose eyes opened huge at the sight of the small blast of white light that got bigger as it flew towards him. Lightning sparked off of Killua's attack, and the blast became so bright that Luffy and Natsu had to bring their arms up in front of their faces. Killua's attack moved as fast as lightning, and Sozin brought his left hand from in front of his waist up a foot, the only movement he was able to make in the instant Killua's attack flew at him. He brought his hand in front of the blast, and Killua's attack connected, and the lightning collided with Sozin's fingertips. The lightning raced up his arm and Sozin directed it all to his right hand that he held behind him pointing up towards the ceiling. Killua stopped moving and the kid's jaw dropped at the sight of all the lightning he attacked with getting directed by Sozin, moving from one hand to the other. Sozin's body trembled and the floor beneath his feet cracked, then the Fire Lord lifted up his right foot, and his moved his arms fluidly, snapping his right hand down in front of his chest, and then out in front of his body while he stomped his right foot in front of him, and he redirected the lightning.
A/N BAM! Cliffhanger! I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thanks for reading! It took me all day to edit alone, and almost a month to finish, but there are now two parts remaining of the Pyraxas chapter. A lot is happening all over the city. Enemies are falling and new ones are appearing all the time. Thymilph, Astaroth and the Impure King, Komei, and Jackal all fall, but our heroes are spread thin and getting weaker while the enemies continue calling in reinforcements from all over. Will they be able to take out the Fire Lord who has managed to redirect Killua's strongest attack? Will they be able to take on the Fire Nation and all of its allies? Find out in the next two chapters of Nexus: Heroes Will Rise!
joebob323 chapter 64 . Sep 16
Wait... You can put people into pokeballs?! Also, it would be cool to see what the beast guy fighting Kirito does when he finds out Kirito was trained by the 4th Hokage and then Son Goku... Good chapter man!
Who knew? I figured if Pokemon could be put into pokeballs, then why not people? They're not so different. Thymilph goes down without learning about who taught Kirito, but I hope you like that battle anyway! Thanks for the review!
Espada-001 chapter 64 . Sep 16
Well I definitely enjoyed these last two chapters and I loved hearing about a war between Satan's. Although that just left me a very large question. (Actually more like a number of questions that all go together.) First if there was a huge battle to determine the true title of Satan where Gods of the underworld involved in this? Second, I believe it was stated earlier but I think I remember somebody saying that the gates of hell have been opened for the demons. And if that happened I can't exactly see the Gods and guardians of the supernatural simply allowing that without a fus, so was there a war between the Divines and supernatural overall? Anyway moving forward it was nice seeing the heroes getting together again. However I was looking over the wiki for the Lazarus pit the other day and it said that it only the user temporarily insane so I don't think Juvia would actually go feral especially since she isn't naturally that violent to begin with. Anyway moving onto this chapter I find it amusing that every time Sanji gets a girl to like him he ends up having to leave them behind shortly after. (Poor Sanji lol) And here's something I meant to bring up a long time ago, what happened to Sengoku after we last saw him? Last we saw of him he was injured but he wasn't dead and now that I think about he probably should have ended up with the same job Kong had before arriving on Nexus since I doubt the old Marine would just retire after arriving on a new world. Also it was cool to see Maou get all prepared for combat especially since on a world like Nexus he should be several times stronger than any time we saw him before. And from what I know about fire benders they should be naturally stronger on Nexus as well due to having two suns above them. This last bit is a bit rushed since I'm on a time crunch but Anyway thanks for another amazing chapter and I look forward to next time! Have a good day!
Glad you enjoyed the last chapters, and I hope the wait for this one wasn't too long! A lot of good questions, thought not many I am going to elaborate on as they'll definitely be explained in the story (when the time is right XD ). Gods, Satans, and lots of other mysteries currently surrounding the world of Nexus will definitely be explained throughout the Saga. The team's back together... mostly! As for Juvia, I am taking the effects of it off of what I saw on the tv show Arrow if you've ever seen it. In it, the Lazarus Pit does make the person temporarily insane like you said, but that was what I was showing right when Juvia was brought back to life when she rabidly attacked Kirito and Gray. After that, the insanity is less-pronounced, with the characters brought back to life feeling a bloodlust that makes them more and more rabid until they satisfy it, then it goes down for a little until they sate it again. Hope that explains it well enough. Haha poor Sanji, though he did get a kiss so it's a good day for him in general. Sengoku... ;) there might be some plans for him down the road a little, but no spoilers (though I'm glad you remembered him from the Madara fight). Didn't get to see the Maou vs Mephisto fight, though I did not elaborate much into how it ended so it's a mystery for now, though we saw that Mephisto definitely got a lot of damage dealt to him during it, enough to make him need a new physical body. I liked what you said about Nexus having a few suns (though there are 3) so the fire benders should be stronger, since I never actually thought about that before. Might make sense how they were able to build such a large country on a world with so many powerful people though. Thanks for another review!
Guest chapter 64 . Sep 16
killua now takes on sozin now, and I watched Spider Man 2 and I know what tritium can, that if they don't stop that machine, mayham will be released in pyraxas or even nexus
Yeah we've already started to see the Supernova going out of control, as just the flares from it were enough to let Sozin create a massive fireball that he sent, somewhere... Sozin and Killua's fight comes to a head as Luffy and Natsu arrive on the scene, and I hope you enjoyed it!
Guest chapter 64 . Sep 19
its also interesting to see foley from call of duty, wow there aligned for the fire nation, I bet he dosen't
know that they are evil, the battle with sanji and yunja was awesome, I find it funny to that you can put people in pokeballs, I also see the slaves that sanji saved are going to help them, but I can also see that someone is trying to capture kairi and this person want to have her
Don't know if this is the same guest from above, but thanks to you for reviewing too (if you're not). If you didn't catch on last chapter, I hope you noticed this time that Foley, Dunn, and Ramirez were not actually aligned with the Fire Nation, but Resistance spies in their midst. Glad you liked the Sanji vs Yunju battle, and we get another closer look at the short figure who has been mentioned a lot in recent chapters as he comes for Kairi. Wonder if anyone can guess who's Nobody he is/ what his name is? Thanks again to everyone for reviewing, reading, favoriting, and following this story! 'Till next time!