Nexus HWR 14.8 The Root of All Evil:
The Capital
Underneath the Colosseum in the center of the southern Business Quarter of the Cooperative's Capital, Black Star roused from his sleep and sat up with his back against the steel wall behind him. His cell was very empty, only three prisoners inside it other than himself, one of whom woke up the same time that he did. Black Star sat up and stared into the middle of the cell with a dark look on his face at how empty the room was. This place is dead, he thought, a bored look replacing the dark one on his face.
Black Star leaned back his head too and closed his eyes. He put his hands behind his head and interlocked his fingers in his blue spiky hair, then let out a small, relaxed sigh. At least not everyone got killed down here. He frowned thinking about that night again, thinking on how he faced Pitou and lost to the woman and the puppet she used against him. When he awoke inside his cell the next day, he learned all about the prison break that went on while he started one of his own in the infirmary. Some must have gotten out, he thought, though he had been to the Colosseum since that night. He had seen the bodies that lined the walls of the arena, dozens of fighters he had faced over the past few months here, so many who he wondered what had happened to them, only to have to fight a match while they stared at him. Many of their eyes were still open while they rotted out in the sun, so it felt like they had been watching his last matches. By his most recent match however, the eyes of the former gladiators who had failed to escape, and of the ones who had tried to free them, had all been devoured by crows and insects.
Once again Black Star's dark look lifted though, and he shook his head around before smiling with a small chuckle. "We know you know where they went! You were brought here with him!" That prick Zarbon lost Soul and Maka. He really thought I knew where they went, but even if I did, I never would have cracked. Black Star opened his eyes and stared into the center of the cell, a dark look reappearing on his face again. Wonder how they managed to get out of the city though. I don't see a way out. Even if I get out again, if it's not Pitou, who I could totally beat the next time we fight, it could be any number of these assholes who fill the Capital. Pitou… "You can leave… But then, you'll never know what became of, Gon." She was messing with me! She played me and I fell into her trap, that's all it was! He screamed this in his head, but doubt filled him.
"Black Star, you need to sleep," Tsubaki said to her Meister. She had stayed lying down after she awoke, but she felt him getting more and more restless as he sat next to her, and she finally sat up next to him. She spoke in a quiet whisper so as not to wake their cellmates, "We have another match tomorrow."
"I know," he muttered darkly. Though he said it like he would try to go to sleep again, his mind continued to wander. Gray, where the fuck did you go? Where did those bastards take Axel? He's gotta be at the Organization HQ now, right? He was a Nobody that whole time! Why didn't he tell me?! It's not like I would have cared. Black Star started glaring forward harsher. Kiba, where did they… "…you'll never know what became of, Gon."
Gon, what happened to you? Did, did they catch you trying to escape? What about Mario? Was he with you? Black Star ground his teeth in frustration. Why do you guys, keep trying to escape, without telling me? He shook his head of the thought, as he knew when he last tried to flee too that he could not waste time looking around for the others, or he would be recaptured for sure. All that matters is you made it. You all made it, right?! Gon, you got out of here, and Pitou was just messing with me, RIGHT?! And Zarbon wasn't just fucking with me was he? Soul and Maka really got out, didn't they? Or is this some new form of torture? Are they just trying to fuck with me?! ARE THEY?! I'LL KILL THEM!
Tsubaki looked at the side of her Meister's face with a worried gaze. He is so angry. Every day it's like this now. Before, even after we were captured, as long as we were all together, he was holding it together. It's just us now though. We haven't seen anyone, for so long. Tsubaki clenched her eyes shut, How long, until even the two of us are separated? She had to hold back tears at the thought which was why she shut her eyes so hard. Kid lost Liz, and Soul and Maka were separated, and, and I don't know how much longer-
"Tsubaki," Black Star growled, his voice so low it was barely audible. Her eyes snapped open and she spun to the boy on her right whose eyes were shadowed over by his spiky bangs and who did not turn her way while he spoke. "I will never let them take you," he said. Their souls had been connected long enough that he could feel what she was thinking, just as she was stuck awake because of him. "Ever," he hissed, and Tsubaki felt afraid even as she felt reassured by his words. She felt afraid because the way he said that told her that he would do unspeakable things to anyone who tried to make him break that vow.
"Black Star," Tsubaki whispered. "I-"
"Sooo, would the two of you like to escape?" Both Meister and weapon froze and their eyes started growing wide at the sound of that voice. It came from inside their heads, yet also from all around them. They thought that maybe they had imagined it. Even if both of them had heard it, they could pass that off as their soul connection making tricks of the mind mess with both of them. That idea went out the window though, as the floor in front of Black Star's feet started shifting and he pulled his legs back fast and jumped to his feet. He opened his mouth to shout something, but the voice spoke first, "Shhh… wouldn't want to make a scene now, would you?"
The first thing the spooky voice that came precisely from the middle of the cell this time said echoed in the two of their minds. "Escape?" Black Star whispered, while the middle of his cell's floor turned into something that was not steel. It got darker so that it looked like a weird black ooze, and then that ooze started lifting up into a solid form. Two red eyes appeared at the top of the ooze when it reached six feet tall, but other than that and a creepy dark smile that morphed under the eyes, the sludge just stayed in a weird form. It did not grow arms or legs, it just stayed as a tall lump of ooze that rounded at the top and had a scary face.
"What are you?" Tsubaki whispered as she got to her feet next to Black Star. She glanced over at their cellmates, but neither seemed to be roused by the dark figure that appeared before them.
"I have many names. I am the Lord of the Flies, the Demon King of Insects…" Black Star and Tsubaki looked at him with wide eyes as he mentioned being a Demon King. The sludgy form finished with the corners of its mouth curling up higher to the sides of its oozing head. "However you may call me, Beelzebub." A cold wind rushed through the cell and gave the two in front of the demon chills.
"And you, want to help us escape?" Tsubaki whispered to the demon. She did not like how this was going, and she kept darting her eyes towards the bars in fear that guards would show up any second.
"Not without a price," Beelzebub replied. His voice echoed in the minds of the two in front of him, making them wonder if he was actually speaking aloud at all, even though his mouth was moving.
"Make a deal with the devil, for a price?" Tsubaki asked while narrowing her eyebrows. The tall woman next to Black Star gave the demon a harsh look, and she snapped in a hiss, "Do you think we are fools?"
"I do not want your souls," Beelzebub claimed, as that seemed to be what Tsubaki was implying. "I am but a messenger. I was told to bring you to Hell, where Satan has a deal to offer you."
The mention of Satan made Tsubaki's face cover in sweat, and she really did not like this conversation at all. She turned to Black Star to tell him that they should deny him already, but Black Star had a much sterner, more thoughtful look on his face. "Black Star?" Tsubaki questioned. "You can't be, considering this?"
"We've been here for months," Black Star whispered back. His fists were clenched at his sides, but the corners of his lips curled up as he stared into the red eyes of the demonic form in front of him. "But if this fucker thinks that's enough to make me get in bed with Satan, he's the real fool."
"Why are you so against it?" Beelzebub questioned. "I would think that someone of your, background, would willingly accept freedom in exchange for something so trivial as a meeting with my Lord." Black Star's expression darkened even as his eyes widened in confusion. "What? Did you not think we knew? Why else would I be here, if not for the Star Clan blood running through your veins?" Black Star's eyes darkened even more and he glared forward in a furious way at the demon that just smirked more at his look. "Why deny it? Your father has long since accepted Satan's offer…"
Black Star froze and his dark expression vanished, shock covering his face instead. My, father? He thought.
"White Star," Beelzebub hissed. "You could meet him. You could join him. You could kill him." Beelzebub offered all the options he thought the teen might be considering, and Black Star's fists clenched at his sides while a more thoughtful expression filled his face. "Do you really want to spend the rest of your life here? Wasting away in a cage? I offer you freedom… think about it." Beelzebub's form started slinking back into the floor.
Tsubaki opened her mouth to say that they did not need to think on it to know their answer, but she froze as she thought again about Soul and Maka, Kid and Liz, Kiba and Akamaru. She darted her gaze over to Black Star with fear in her eyes of being separated from him. Black Star's head was bowed though, the top half of his face shadowed over by his blue hair. Beelzebub disappeared into the floor and left no trace that he was ever there at all, but still Black Star did not lift his gaze. Freedom. The Star Clan. My father. That isn't the path I chose, but I also didn't choose to get trapped in this prison. No one's coming to save me. I've gotta find a way out of here on my own, but like this? It doesn't sit right. "Go to sleep Tsubaki," Black Star said, then he front-flipped and landed on his left index finger. "I'm going to train until morning." There's no way I'm sleeping tonight.
22,000 Miles East and 36,000 Miles South of the Capital
"Ughhh," Sakamoto Tatsuma threw up over the side of the vehicle rolling across the hot desert in the middle of the Alvarez Empire. The Saharabian Desert stretched for hundreds of miles in every direction of the land rover rolling up and down dunes on a pair of thick treads.
"How are you even worse on this vehicle than you were on your own airship?" Lin Tohsaka asked the man behind her, only glancing back for a second before spinning away as Sakamoto gagged and lost more of his stomach off the side of the ship. "You know," she called out while facing straight forward, "they do have pills for that sort of thing." Lin had a sun hat on with the rim going around her whole head, and since the suns were straight up in the sky she had a shadow cast over her body. She was still sweating in the harsh climate of the desert, mumbling to herself after calling to Sakamoto, "Isn't it supposed to be winter already?"
"It is," Asuka said. Asuka Kudou stood in front of Lin, wearing a low cut tee on that exposed her stomach, a pair of short-shorts, and sandals. It was a sharp contrast to the usual modest dress she wore, but Asuka did not seem to care as she stared off to the east off the vehicle they recently acquired from the traders they met at the edge of the desert the night before. The traders had tried robbing them when they saw how light the group was traveling. They did not have much on them after Sakamoto's airship he had picked them up from Pyraxas in crashed during, and thanks to, the War of the Saiyan Mountains. Every member of their group was glad the traders decided to try and rob them, because now they had the traders' land rover and all of the supplies those men had on them too.
Asuka continued to the girl behind her, "Tonight, this desert will reach temperatures of negative twenty or lower."
"Negative twenty?" Lin repeated in surprise. "I know deserts get cold at night, but still…"
"Last night we were still partially in a temperate zone," Asuka said. "The change will be drastic with the distance we've traveled today."
"Hmm," Lin hummed to herself. CHR-CLUNK! Both girls stumbled forward and then regained their balance at the front of the rover. Sakamoto fell flat on his back a little behind them on the right side of the vehicle, and then he let out a deep sigh of elated relief as their vehicle skid to a stop.
"Damn it," Asuka said. She walked to the left side of the vehicle and looked down, then she looked back behind their vehicle and saw the tread that ripped off was discarded a few meters behind them. The brown-haired girl cupped her hands to her mouth and called out, "Check around for extra treads!"
Zabuza lifted his head from where he was sitting with it resting on the seat-back behind him. He lifted his arms up and winced, but he started rolling them around in his shoulders and then reached for the bandages and tore them off. "Mph," he grunted in a satisfied way at the sight of none of the wounds re-opening right away.
"Oh Zabuza," Takeshi said as he was walking by the seat Zabuza just got up from. "You doing alright?"
"Yeah," Zabuza muttered from behind the white mask over his face.
"I just found some extra treads. Help me replace them?" Takeshi asked, and Zabuza grunted in agreement. Takeshi turned back the way he just came from, and he asked while glancing over his shoulder, "I never asked, but who injured you so badly? Must've been one great fighter."
"It wasn't one, man," Zabuza said in his deep voice while they started descending the stairs into the lower compartment of the vehicle that was mostly filled with supplies and trading goods. Takeshi pointed out the extra treads that were behind a great deal of supplies which was why he had to go get someone else to come help him with this, then he and Zabuza started moving things out of the way to get the treads out from back there. "Bastard sent all his minions at me."
"'Minions?'" Takeshi asked with a half-laugh, as it sounded like a weird choice of phrasing to him.
"Yeah, they were like clones or something," Zabuza muttered, and Takeshi lost his grin as he realized Zabuza chose that wording intentionally. "Anyway, that swirly-eyebrowed fuck would attack whenever I was off guard or too busy with ten of his guys. Took me a while, but I kicked his ass after pretending to drop my guard one of the times. Would have cut straight through him, but his armor electrocuted me right after I cut through its side. Made me lose all momentum." Zabuza lifted up a steel drum that was full of some sort of liquid, which he hoped was booze and not oil, and he placed it down behind him before pushing it into the pile of stuff on the other side to give them more room to take out the treads. "Anyway, after I fell back from getting shocked, his clones rushed in and got him out of there, then the rest swarmed me."
"You ever figure out who it was?" Takeshi asked.
"I knew who it was," Zabuza said. "One of the Germa Lords, Niji."
Swirly-eyebrowed fuck, huh? Zoro thought from the staircase he was standing on that he had stopped walking down while listening to the conversation below. He continued walking after Zabuza finished with the name, even though he had already known who Zabuza got in the fight with. Didn't see the swirly cook there, but he was probably with Luffy too. Still, would have paid to see the two of them go at it. Zoro imagined Zabuza and Sanji kicking the crap out of each other, and it made a small smile actually come to his face. Hold on, that smile lowered back down and Zoro scrunched up his gigai's face. What the Hell? Niji, Yonji, Ichiji. Swirly eyebrows… that almost seems like, a coincidence? Zoro shrugged his shoulders, not caring enough about it to think any harder on the matter.
"You got it?" Zoro asked while looking at the two who were trying to pull the treads off the hooks on the wall now that there was nothing in their way.
"Yeah we're good," Takeshi assured him. "If you want to hold up the rover though while we attach it, that'd be good."
Zoro nodded once then turned and started back up the stairs. He moved through the main room of the speeder and turned to the men sitting at a counter on his left with their heads down on it while snoring loudly. "Oi," he said. "It's the middle of the day. Stop being so lazy."
"Hughhh. Zzzz. Naps are important. Hughhh," Gintoki muttered rapidly between loud snores to pretend like he was still sleeping and avoid having to get up and do any work. The ninja next to him stayed much more silent as he also pretended to sleep, though Zoro was not convinced by him either.
Zoro noticed the other two coming up behind him and he turned and kept walking until he got out onto the outer section of the rover. As soon as he stepped out the door though, the poles holding up the stools Gin and Hattori Zenzou were fake-sleeping on sliced, and the two of them fell backwards with loud crashes. Zoro's Shuusui that had only an inch of steel showing clicked back into its sheath at the same moment, and Zoro smirked as he heard a shout behind him from the man with wavy white hair.
Some of the group got to fixing up the rover, while Asuka, Lin, and Jewelry Bonney went over to the old treads to see what might have made them come off. "Doesn't look like foul play," Lin said after examining it for a few seconds.
"Probably just a shoddy ride," Bonney said. She lifted a bag of potato chips she found in the 'shoddy ride' and shoved a few in her mouth, then she continued while crunching on them, "Those idiots wouldn't have tried robbing us if they had better shit on them."
"Maybe," Asuka agreed. She focused on the part of the treads that were cut through though, then she turned and looked a little farther back to where their rover started skidding. She glanced over her shoulder, then she sighed and said, "Well it doesn't seem like there are any monsters here." The fact that none of the strongest members in the group had worried or on-guard looks made the girls feel like this really was just an accident.
Saber, Mystogan, and Raiden came over to them when they saw they were not needed over at the rover, and they grabbed the damaged treads to bring back and put on board. "Don't know how long we're going to be stuck with this thing," Saber said as she started walking side-by-side with Lin, though the blonde was the only one holding the heavy treads. Saber was wearing a black top without any sleeves that did not cover up any of her stomach, and she had on a pair of tight black shorts as well, as even she could not take the heat and had gotten out of her usual knight's armor. "So we should try to fix up the extra parts. Takeshi said they only had one back-up for the treads."
"Good thinking," Lin said. "The damage doesn't seem that severe. Though if it's not that bad but fell anyway, it might have more to do with the rover's-"
Saber's eyes opened wide and Lin froze mid-sentence at the sight of Saber's expression. She dropped her side of the treads and stepped forward while raising both of her arms. Over Saber's body formed her heavy silver and blue armor dress, woven by her magical energy. It covered her from her neck to her feet in steel protection, and in her hands that she rose up shimmered an invisible sword that she held just on her right side with the blade pointed straight up.
Zoro lowered the rover they had just gotten the treads on, and he said while still facing the vehicle he was putting down, "Thanks for waiting until we finished."
The dark form rising out of the ground twenty feet behind Zoro froze midway out of the sand. Did he know I was here?
"But if you don't leave right now," Zoro continued, and he turned his head sideways. His glare into the red eyes of the black ooze that had risen out of the ground would have terrified most men. "You're going to get cut," Zoro finished.
"No need to be so hostile. I promise I had nothing to do with your ride breaking down. I would have just appeared inside, but those men really did not take care of their things." The sludge grew to six feet tall and focused only on Zoro, though everyone was on the sand now staring at it. Gintoki, Sakamoto, and Zenzou had fallen off the other side of the rover after they had been leaning over the edge asking if the others had fixed the rover yet, only for Zoro to suddenly lift it up fast and throw them off the far side. They had come around the back of the rover and were now standing just at the rear while facing the sludge with serious, or seriously grossed-out looks.
The group formed a line with a few of them standing several meters behind the ride, some standing just behind it, and the others standing just on its left side. The sludge figure stared straight at Roronoa Zoro with its glowing red eyes, and it continued, "It was difficult to find you, but those men were very willing to give you up."
"What do you want?" Lin snapped over at the strange being that was giving her seriously bad vibes.
"Why were you looking for us?" Asuka added in a harsh tone.
Bonney slowly lifted a hand up and bit down on a potato chip, though she kept her chewing as silent as possible.
"Lord Satan is collecting the nastiest, scariest demon-types in the world," Beelzebub said, and its dark indent of a mouth beneath its glowing red eyes rose up at the corners in a more twisted way. "How could I not come here? Heh heh heh," the demon's laughter chilled a few of those staring at him. After mentioning Satan there was no doubt in their minds any longer as to what this thing before them was. What it was talking about unnerved them even more though. "You fall into that category," he said while facing Zoro. "You too, if you'd like," Beelzebub continued and glanced to his left towards the woman with the invisible sword that she clenched tighter at his words.
Beelzebub looked straight forward once again, but as his eyes passed over a man with wavy white hair, his smirk rose up even more. Gin's expression lost the grossed-out expression that matched Sakamoto's, turning much more serious. Beelzebub looked at the man directly on Zoro's left, "And you could return to Hell as well, since you are already a real demon."
Zabuza snarled at the demon and then growled out, "I have no more demon blood in my system."
"It's fine. You can have more if you want," the demon smirked, and that smirk rose more at the wide-eyed look on Zabuza's face. The ninja swordsman leaned forward, while a few of the people in the group who were confused at what was going on looked at him in fear, and others had nervous expressions at that hungry look on his face. Zabuza realized what he was doing before his foot left the ground, though he had felt the weight lifting off it like he was going to step forward. He cursed internally at the addiction his body craved, and Beelzebub snickered at his frustrated look before turning away.
Beelzebub continued while re-facing Zoro, "I came specifically for you, however… you can bring all of your friends. I'm sure Lord-" Zoro suddenly vanished from in front of the demon whose red eyes opened huge and then started twitching.
Standing on Beelzebub's right side, just a little farther past him so he could only see the back of the man's head, Zoro started, "I said get lost." The sword he had curved around Beelzebub's neck pulled closer, cutting through the black ooze just as Zoro promised. The demon's black face covered in sweat, and then a darker circle spread on the ground and neared Zoro's feet, making the swordsman back away. Beelzebub sank into the ground and let the dark ooze close over him, then the demon started panting before snarling furiously.
"Rrrr," Beelzebub's snarl died down and he just grimaced to himself. The black ooze beneath the sand shot under the desert for miles before rising up and out from below the surface. It rose up into the air no longer as a mass of dark ooze, but a swarm of locusts a few hundred feet wide and tall, a terrifying sight for anyone unlucky enough to witness it. Thinking of that look in Zoro's eyes, how fast he was to get the sword up against the throat of even just a piece of the Demon King's body, it made Beelzebub grimace in regret. He grumbled in a low voice while flying as a swarm of insects, "He would have been a great applicant."
Beelzebub flew for hundreds of miles before descending towards a town just past the edge of the desert, in an area with low grass and chaparral. Tumbleweeds rolled across the empty streets of the town as the swarm of locusts flew down. It flew down the street and Beelzebub's voice came out of it, "One last stop." The swarm hit the center of town and flew through the gateway, and a few seconds later it emerged from another door twenty thousand miles away.
The swarm shot out of the new gateway and rose up in the sky while people in the city below pointed at it and many yelled out in fear. He would have enjoyed it, (and he did), but he could not enjoy it more as there were matters to attend to. He flew even farther west than he just teleported, rising up the edge of a mountain until he hit its peak and could look down. His scattered locusts all pulled together as he stood on the edge of a small mountain, facing the west and a town in the valley ahead of him. On his right to the north were much taller mountains that stretched so high into the clouds that he could not see any sky beyond them. He stayed focused on the town to his front though, ignoring what floated above it, to focus on the clock tower in the center.
Beelzebub's eyes narrowed towards that clock tower where he spotted three people sitting. Then his eyes lowered down the clock tower and he scanned the town below. When his insects had pulled together to form one human-like body of locusts, not all of them had done so. Several of the locusts had gone off on their own into the town below, though none of them flew above. Too risky to send any into their Headquarters, but if I'm lucky. Beelzebub smirked as one of the locusts, a part of his own body, landed on the wall of a building on the other side of Twilight Town. That insect could see two figures in black cloaks walking down the road in front of it, both of them with their hoods down as they talked.
The Nobody he focused on had messy black hair and looked like a boy in his teens. Beelzebub smirked as his bugs on the mountain's edge started to scatter. We may not be able to get to you, Okumura Rin. But I have the next best thing right here.
A/N Hope you enjoyed. What are Beelzebub, and Satan's, plans for the most demonic types around? Will any of them take his offer? One final part of chapter 14 coming at you tomorrow! Thanks for reading! Short list below then a couple of review responses:
Blue Exorcist: Okumura Rin, Beelzebub, Satan
Kingdom Hearts: Organization, Axel, Nobodies, Twilight Town
Naruto: Kiba, Akamaru, Zabuza
Hunter x Hunter: Meruem, Pitou, Gon
Soul Eater: Soul, Maka, Liz, Patty, Kid, Tsubaki, Black Star, White Star
Gintama: Gintoki, Hattori Zenzou, Sakamoto Tatsuma
Fate Stay/Night: Lin Tohsaka, Saber
Problem Children are Coming from Another World: Asuka Kudou
One Piece: Niji, Ichiji, Yonji, Sanji, Germa, Zoro, Jewelry Bonney, Luffy
Hitman Reborn: Yamamoto Takeshi
Metal Gear: Raiden
Nintendo: Mario
Fairy Tail: Gray, Mystogan
joebob323 chapter 102 . 8h ago
Is it Satan?
Close! Beelzebub's carrying out Satan's bidding at least. Thanks for the review!
Limit-Breaking chapter 102 . 12h ago
Hey great chapter again you really are good at this kind of thing, bsides that i don't really have much to say except three things.
is Turles being the leader of every bounty hunter really that impressive in the land of aebirth and how exactly does that work.
Third thing is when can we get more flashbacks about the events in the two year time skip, like the third war or what happened during those times and how did the countries get established and stuff.
Also i just felt like getting this out their cause i just found this out right now
From 2017 april to 2018 of march dragon ball rake in nearly 98,000,000,000, yen convert that USD You find that Dragon Ball's Ip Sold about about $888,256,418 which is nothing to sneeze at.