Disclaimer: Black Clover is owned by Yūki Tabata, Studio Pierrot, and Shonen Jump.
Saga 39: Fortunate Son Part 3
Elysium Underground Ruins, Heart Kingdom, Morning
"Hey... what do you mean a Dragon's fossil?!" Jack cried out as he, Meroleona, and everyone else who literally fell underground wondered. "... Can't see with all this blood on my eyes."
"Someone turn on the lights... I can't see shit..." grumble Meroleona as she light her hand with [Fire Magic] for illumination.
"THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE CONCERNED ABOUT?!" Vanessa cried out at the two captains' horrific-looking injuries. "Actually, never mind that for a hot second, BUT HOW ARE YOU BOTH STILL STANDING?!"
Taking those questions into consideration, Mari then coil's her hands like a pair of foxes' heads, crisscrosses their "ears," intertwine her fingers to form a hole, and then peers her eye into the formed gap, looking through it like a window.
"What are you doing?" En asked.
"The Fox's Window," answered the Hanafudan as her peering eye lit up like a blue torch. "An unaffiliated Yōjutsu, or spell in my country's own system of magic, that allows the practitioner see the true form of what's around them."
Gauche then notices that Mari was looking at the two captains in particular. "... So, are they okay?"
Mari herself was too stunned for words. "... No," she revealed. "... They're dead... but at the same time... their souls are still hanging onto their corpses like puppets!"
Leopald!Rades' eyes widened at that reveal. "YOU'RE SAYING THAT THEY'RE RIPPING ME OFF?!"
That initial shock then transforms into glee as he then tries to take advantages of that factoid, opening his one-pager grimoire to link his mana with the two captains.
"BECOME MY PETS, YOU HAS-BEENS-!"
Suddenly, Geri and Adramelech who'd fallen with them make themselves known before they resumed tearing each other apart, their cacophony reactivating the Adramelech-clones that had fallen in with them as chaos erupted back to life.
"ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!" Angra snarled as she then unleashes her [Hellfire Magic] to incinerate the clones into ashes, only for more to take their places shortly after. "THIS IS ASS!"
"... Well, can't do shit," Mainyu remarked as he disappears from his Contractor's eye. "Good luck!"
Valtos then conjure his [Spatial Magic] to redirect the clones elsewhere, only for the clones to be replaced by their creator while he was still fighting the ravenous wolf god.
"Hoo boy, we're up shit creek without a paddle, aren't we?" Sally asked as she used her [Gel Magic] constructs to hole the clones back.
Valtos then pushes everyone else aside from the rolling of the fight between Geri and Adramelech, the latter pair rolling over the tailbone of the fossil and crushing it to crumbs.
"NOOO! DON'T DAMAGE THE RARE SAMPLES!" the Contractor/Demon-hybrid begged before then unleashing a wave of [Result & Implant Magic] to forcibly make the clones and the ground they tread on explode. "DON'T YOU DARE GET NEAR MY WORK!"
The now-dying Meroleona and Jack lunge towards Adramelech as he was fighting Geri, blinding a couple more its eyes, much to the wolf god's displeasure.
"I despise sharing my food!" the wolf god growled before sinking his fangs into one more of the Demon's eyeballs like a fruit.
"Don't give a shit, Fido!" Jack then unleashes his last reservoirs of [Severing Magic] towards the Demon before he passes on.
"Whatever it takes... WE WILL KILL THAT BASTARD!" Meroleona then belches out a bright gout of fire akin to a fiery lion's roar at the blinking disc.
The whole underground had now descended into pure chaos, the clones endlessly respawning while the others who weren't jumping in headfirst into the bloodshed were now found in crosshairs of this madness.
"SHIT! EVERYONE, RUN!" Charmy cried out.
"WHERE, SPECIFICALLY?!" asked Mosin as she tries to use her [Gleipnir] Relics to control the clones, but was forced to abort to prevent her fingers from getting ripped off.
"OVER HERE!"
Everyone whose minds weren't completely drunk with blood or fear heard the restored Dryad's voice, with her and Undine protecting the Pact between Lolopeckha and Jibril from the swarming clones.
"YOUR HIGHNESS!" Gaja cried out as he then blitzed towards the magic circle on a bolt of lightning. "EVERYONE! RALLY AROUND THE SPIRITS! THEY'RE OUR ONLY CHANCE OF SURVIVAL!"
"I'll clear the way." Mari then dual-wields her [Shien] kamitsurugi and lighting-forged masakari-axe as she was joined by Mosin, Gauche, and Charmy. "Rest of you who cannot fight, focus on running and nothing else!"
Everyone who'd gathered around the survivors broke through the crowd of the Demon's clones as their final stand too place in the depths of the Dragon's final resting place.
"HEY! CAN YOU USE YOUR MAGIC TO MAKE THEM SUBSERVIANT TO ME?!" the necromancer barked out as he unleashes his corpse's [Giga Flame Breaker] to scatter the clones.
"PATIENCE, RADES!" Morris/Mammon admonished as they began studying the Dragon's bones obsessively while leaving the rest of his company to fend for themselves.
As he tries to feel out the bones with his magic, it was then violently repelled, sending the composite being of sin flying so hard that they bowl through several clones and into a wall, leaving behind a very noticeable imprint of himself.
"... Of course it wouldn't be that easy," he growled out as the fused being wiped the blood off of their lips. "... All the more reason why I want it!"
Meanwhile, in the Skies...
"DIE, YAMI!"
"GET A THESAURUS, DUMB BITCH!"
"HELLO?!" the large Demon condor cried out as the two Hanafudans were having their grudge match on top of his feathered back, the latter pair treating it no less roughly as common soil. "DO I NOT EXIST HERE OR WHAT-?!"
"WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP?!"
Akane and Yami's fists crossed into each others' faces ala a cross-counter as their [Yamata no Orochi] and [Asura] avatars emerging from their backs continued wrestling against each other, reflective of their respective hosts' hostilities towards another.
Meanwhile, Scheherazade, sitting cross-legged on the back of her (heavily-exhausted) Bahamut, could do nothing but stare and watch as she dared not to risk drawing either (or both) of their ire, nor she could realistically do anything to make a difference.
"... First, I felt fear for my people and my own life," she muttered to herself as the chaos ensued before her. "... Then, I felt rage for the very friend I have made here on this foreign land. Now?"
Akane then delivers a piledriver after lifting up Yami by his waist before trying to stake him with her [Murasame], but the latter dodges in time, the poisoned blade stabbing into the Demon instead, causing it let out a hawking screech before its whole body dipped down several dozen meters of altitude, its belly grazing against the tips of the withered trees of the now-desolate jungle.
"OWW! THE FUCK?!"
Akane and Yami ignored the Demon's indignations as they simply resumed fighting on his back, the Demon in question trying to throw them off, but even the sudden shift in orientation seemed to do naught to their perseverance and ire, save for letting them get more... shall we say-
"FUCK!" Ziz screeched as he felt his quills pulled against like hair. "STOP IT, YOU BLOODY PEASANTS-!"
"YEEEARRRT!" Both Akane and Yami kept punching, kicking, and slashing their blades against each other's flesh even as they hung from the feathers as the avian flew upside-down.
... More creative with their circumstances. A certain sense of praise could be administered to the Hanafudan pair for their sheer adaptive ingenuity.
"... I think the whole world has now turned into an absurd comedy," deadpanned the deposed Queen of Dama as she saw Ziz now blast bolts of lighting out from its body in his desperate attempts to remove the two Hanafudans clinging onto his feathers like ticks. "... Take advantage of this chaos to bring the Demon down once and for all, or link up with Lolopeckha and shore up our defenses?"
She narrowly dodges a stray lightning bolt slung from Ziz's increasingly-desperate flailing, with Scheherazade spotting the eight-forked serpent made of pure filth and venom wailing itself against the six-armed chthonic god of war's flurry of fists.
"... I should go." The Queen the makes her choice to link up with her fellow Queen, leaving the Demon alone to sort out the Hanafudan pair by himself.
"NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE IN THE WORLD, I WILL FIND YOU AND FUCKING KILL YOU!" Akane screeched as she lunged with her [Yamata no Orochi] heads towards her prey.
"GEEZ! GET A HOBBY, WOMAN!" Yami then parries the savage strike with his kodachi and [Asura]'s fists, the collision causing Ziz to flinch at the force of the unleashed impact. "Guys don't like girls that are complete psychos-"
"ENOUGH!"
Ziz finally succeeds in removing the two Hanafudans from his body by unleashing a massive updraft by swatting both of his sail-like wings towards the earth, using his unique brand of [Wind Magic] to "bounce" the turbulence like a ball.
Upon flicking the pair off, Ziz past them and towards the sun.
"All you've done show me nothing, but disrespect after disrespect!" the Demon condor screeched. "I am Ziz! One of the Fallout Four, the Demon of [Tyranny], and the bane of Undine!"
For the first time in a long day, both Akane and Yami come to a mutual agreement.
"... Who are you?"
Ziz then felt of his veins rupture in pure fury.
"Die."
The Demon condor then winds both of his wings back as his back faced the sun's rays.
"[Wind Magic]!" declared the Demon as the air around him grew hotter. "[Desert Storm]!"
With a tempestuous flap, Ziz then unleashes a massive heatwave that set the oxygen itself ablaze.
Akane and Yami both confront the Demon in their own unique ways, the former pulling out her [Murasame] and concentrating her ki through its envenomated blade, whereas the latter expanded his mass of darkness to form a mantle that he uses to ride the current with like a kite, banking on his [Yagyū] spell to keep him intact.
"Zetten!"
With a single downwards swipe of her blade, Akane splits the scorching storm in twain, the parted gale hitting the ground in two separate patches, carving out streaks of desertified land in an instant behind her.
Of course the freaking bitch can sling out the Zetten technique like if she were handing out candy... Yami internally commented as he drifted along the petering breeze that was still hot enough to make his skin underneath his [Yagyū] boil slightly. ... So why isn't she using it more regularly on me? I sure as hell would've done it at every opportunity.
"IMPOSSIBLE!" Ziz hawked out as he witnessed his [Wind Magic] being nullified. "NO MERE MORTAL COULD-!"
As the Demon was expressing his disbelief, Akane had kneed right into his eyeball before stabbing it with her [Muramasa], further envenomating him as more of its infernal kegare coursed through the condor's veins.
She literally just kicked her way up towards the Demon with nothing but her raw strength... or it seems at first glance, Yami thought as he kept his eyes locked onto Akane even as he slowly descended back to the wastelands below. ... Hate to admit it, but her mastery of ki is second to none. She's able to fly without magic just by simply using ki to stabilize her leg muscles without rupturing them from the amount of exerted force needed to keep her aloft!
Akane then lets out a roar as she then kicks Ziz's head in before grabbing the Demon by its elongated neck and plummeting herself and the giant condor right towards where Yami is landing towards at.
"I'M COMING FOR YOU, YAMI!" Akane then executes an impromptu-Brainbuster with Ziz as her piledriver's payload and [Yamata no Orochi]'s serpentine necks constricting the Demon's wings and body to keep it steady. "YOU WILL DIE TODAY!"
"GODDAMMIT!" Summoning [Asura], Yami then performs a deadlift with all of his six arms present, grabbing Ziz by his beak as Akane summons [Yamata no Orochi] in return, all eight of its serpentine maws opening up with bubbling gouts of filth ready to be unleashed point-blank upon their designated prey. "PIPE DOWN, ALREADY!"
Yami then releases the bound Demon and Akane by executing a bridging suplex before using said technique as a bridge to spring himself off the ground from the misfired tidal wave of corrosive filth that further polluted the Heart Kingdom.
A few splashes of kegare splatter onto his skin, hissing on contact as each dab burned like acid.
"ARGH! YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" Yami growled in pain as Akane then proceeds to throw Ziz towards him, only for the former to use [Asura] to catch the bird before using said Demon as a bludgeon to parry Akane's [Murasame] slash. "WHAT ARE YOU?! MY FUCKING EX?!"
"WHY ARE YOU DISRESPECTING ME-?!" The Demon's indignation was cut off my Akane's punch that burrowed into his gut as she was trying to kill Yami.
"SHUT IT, YOU INSIGNIFICANT PEST!" Akane cried out as she charges with her [Yamata no Orochi], sending Ziz back towards the sky upon collision. "YOUR LITTLE GAMES WITH THIS DAMNED PATCH OF DIRT IS IRRELEVENT TO MY MISSION!"
"YOU BOTH THINK YOU'RE HOT SHIT!" Yami and [Asura] clash against their killers once more, his [Ankokuken, Kurogane] now manifested as a pair of black blades, their spectral edges grinding against the caustic [Murasame]. "I TOOK BIGGER SHITS AFTER CHARMY'S DINNER! STOP THINKING THAT EITHER OF YOU ARE THE CENTER OF THE FUCKING UNIVERSE! NO ONE FUCKING CARES!"
"HOW DARE YOU!" Akane roared as she and [Yamata no Orochi] pushed Yami and [Asura] back. "SPEAK ILL OF YOUR PLACE IN THE WORLD, AND I WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER WAY WORSE THAN YOUR SISTER EVER DID!"
"ALREADY DOING THAT AND THEN SOME!" Yami then anchors [Murasame] by pushing his spectral blades down as hard as he could before smashing in her nose with a ki-infused headbutt, mirroring that act of reckless valor by having [Asura] tie up [Yamata no Orochi]'s heads into a knot before piledriving the squirming bundle into the dirt. "I'M SICK OF LISTENING TO YOU! HURRY UP AND FUCKING DIE YOURSELF!"
"You and me both."
Thunder rumbles from the heavens as the skies darken instantly. Growling and snarling like a hungry beast, the dark storm clouds then unleash a barrage of serrated lightning cast down like a raging god's temper.
Akane and Yami dodge the bolts of lightning before the darkened skies start precipitating, the dewdrops of rain quickly turning into blades of ice.
"ARE YOU SHITTING ME?!" Yami then parried the sword-sized icicles with his [Kurogane] whereas Akane flipped out of the way of the sharp barrage, nimbly dodging the rain with ease.
Then the skies immediately part, unleashing a scorching blast of heat that came down like a tempest.
"ZETTEN-!"
Both were caught in the all-encompassing heat blast, the entirety of their surroundings turning into an arid wasteland as its infernal winds of [Desert Storm] swept across the despoiled nature.
"The winds... are the world's very emotions."
Flapping its wings, Ziz slowly descends from the gap of the dark clouds, standing upright and proud in spite of its prior humiliation.
"To control them... is to control the world itself," the Demon boasted. "Forests and lush jungles turn into deserts, wastelands and blighted earth become noxious bogs, and even volcanos freeze over when the winds herald the bite of winter! My [Wind Magic] is no mere parlor trick that you mortals claim as '[Wind Magic]'! The very weather itself is my weapon! I simply held back this whole time because I wanted to rule this beautiful land myself for how immaculate... it was."
Ziz then lets out a hawkish cry that causes the dark clouds to gurgle with ire.
"AND LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO TO IT!" he ranted. "... Alas, I must do what I've done to the southern lands... for it is my act of mercy for this once-beautiful land-!"
A horrid crack was heard followed up by Ziz spotting a massive chunk of earth hurling towards him, and riding on it were Akane and Yami, still fighting each other like a pair of squabbling schoolchildren.
Ziz didn't even have a chance to even let out a squawk as the uplifted earth cold-clocks him before breaking apart into earthen shrapnel, releasing both Akane and Yami from the earth as its sole passengers.
"DAMN BITCH! HOLD STILL!"
"YOU HOLD STILL, CUR!"
"HOW DID YOU GET UP HERE?!" Ziz panicked as now he was forced to become the Hanafudan pair's ride as they resume their fight while riding atop of the Demon's back and against his will.
Unbeknownst to anyone, a small, hunchbacked vulture-like Demon whose presence was akin to that of an old withered crone chuckled as she walked away from a streak of distorted earth that stretched behind her like a serpent.
Contrary to popular belief, she actually never said anything about immediately making her way towards the other kingdoms to instill
"... They trust too much," Ereshkigal snickered to herself. "... Poor, poor, fools."
The Demon under everyone's notice then disappears from plain sight, letting the chaos go about unabated.
Back at the Underground Ruins...
The once-quiet final resting place of a nameless Dragon had now turned into a scene that only the most deranged artist who'd given his soul up to the Devil itself can only paint.
Pure, unadulterated, chaos, where men became beasts, Demons became gods, and gods became monsters.
Yes. Monsters. In this little pocket of the world, resting within a land once lush and full of life, now it's hellish rot seeping outwards like an infection.
Jack and Meroleona both roar as they lunged towards both Geri and Adramelech.
[Death Scythe] clashed against the wolf god's claws and rain of dining utensils the size of towers. [Calidus Brachium] pummeled against the Demon's onslaught of rapidly-mass-produced clones of his former self while the malformed original's eyes blasted beams of unholy light from its glaring irises.
"Eager to be eaten?!" Geri then opens its maw towards Jack as the latter kept the former from closing in by keeping the jaws pried open with his blades.
"REVERE ME! WORSHIP ME!" Adramelech ranted as he continuously throwing everything he had haphazardly in his vain attempts to recover some of his lost face. "I AM STRONG! I AM WISE! ME! I AM BEAUTIFUL! AND ABOVE ALL ELSE, I AM RIGHTEOUS! ME! AND NO ONE ELSE!"
Meroleona's roar gradually drifts to becoming more bestial, her flames becoming more mane-like, and her eyes now burning like that of the sun itself.
"... Is it just me, or Captain Meroleona losing her shit?" En asked before he then erects a wall of [Mr. Towering Mushrooms] to barricade the coming horde of Adramelech-clones, letting Mari and Gaja cut them down with their masakari-axe and [Lightning Magic] respectively.
"SHUT UP AND KEEP MOVING!" both of them cried out as Mosin then lashes out her lengths of [Gleipnir] to rend through the clones while Gauche moves in with an omni-directional barrage of [Reflect Refrains] to widen their perimeter.
"Holding up?" Mosin asked.
"Barely!" Gauche replied as his breath was becoming strained from exhaustion. "... No time to stop...! Have to keep going-!"
"Whoa mister!" Vanessa then supports her fellow Black Bulls' body with her thread magic while sewing Charmy's [Cotton Magic] into hardier constructs to better repel the clones, the resulting barriers being tough enough to serve as mobile battering rams. "Don't crap out on us yet!"
Mari then turns her back to Charmy, who was starting to become more slack due to the lack of rest and nutrition.
"... You're hungry, aren't you?" she asked as she pulled out her [Shien] from a slain Adramelech-clone.
"... Bad day... to skip meals..." groaned Charmy as she willed her weakened body to keep moving forward.
"Here! Catch!" Mari then throws a small, black, lacquered box decorated with a knot of red cord towards the [Cotton Magic] user, to which she then summons a [Fluffy Sheep] to catch the box before handing it to its caster.
As she was picked up by Mosin as she then swept her Relic across the crowd of swarming clones, Charmy then opens the box, spotting small, marble sized balls that looked to be made of dirt.
"... The hell is this?!" she cried out.
"Hyorogan!" Mari answered as she then headbutts an Adramelech-clone before throwing her lightning axe with Gaja's [Lightning Magic], combining the two attacks into an explosive thunderbolt. "Pack with enough nutrients to bring someone back from the brink of death!"
Charmy grimaces at the fact that Mari had just handed her equivalent to emergency rations.
"... Screw it!"
In one swift motion, she then downs then entire box's worth of contents into her mouth before clamping her teeth shut and releasing the balls' flavors and nutrients into her mouth.
Charmy tries not to gag as this so-called hyorogan tasted literally like a mix of dirt, sugar, and herbs. But food was food, and the more she chewed onto the bundle, the more she felt that her starve body was becoming revitalized.
"... Little one?" Mosin remarked as she could feel that Charmy's body was starting to heat up.
"La... la...!"
As the group ran towards the enclosure protected by Undine and Dryad, the spirits could sense that a spike of mana was heading towards their way.
"... Are you feeling what I'm feeling-?"
"LAAAAAAA!"
Charmy then leaps out of Mosin's arm and into the air, her eyes shining like stars as her body was fully revitalized.
"... Miss Mari," Gauche asked plainly. "... How powerful are those hyorogan?"
"Uh..." The Hanafudan then nervously looked to the side while sweating. "... You're only supposed to take it one at a time. Each ball packs enough stored mana to make a common magic-user turn superhuman upon... ingestion."
Everyone finds the small medicine box that Mari had passed to Charmy was now empty.
"AND YOU DIDN'T TELL HER THAT?!"
"THEIR UNAPPITIZING APPEARENCE ARE MEANT TO ACT AS A MODERATING DETERRANCE!"
Now Charmy had now caught everyone's attention as she opened her grimoire, her mana now reaching towards the divine in sheer power.
"What the shit?!" Leopold!Rades cried out.
"I see another god!" Sally then suddenly brandishes her surgical forceps and pilers as her [Gel Magic] continued collecting the Demon's clones with the help of Valtos' [Spatial Magic]. "... And I wanna cut her open!"
"If I live, I'm gonna burn down every damn church and temple I see..." growled Angra as her body then vents excess heat from her use of [Hellfire Magic].
Geri then lets out a cackle even as he was pushing the maddened Jack the Ripper back. "How delectable!" the bestial god cheered. "AS EXPECTED OF MY WORSHIPPER!"
"SOMETHING...! BRIGHTER! THAN ME?!" Adramelech then converges all of his eyes towards a singular point to concentrate his [Galgalim Glare] into a single pillar of death. "UNACCEPTABLE! [PROJECTION MAGIC: THRONES MILLENNIUM]!"
An all-encompassing beam of demonic energy fired towards the airborne Charmy as she then chooses her spell.
"[Cotton Magic]."
A cloud of fluff begins forming below her as the burning beam closed in on her.
"[God Fleece - Chrysomallos]."
The cotton then turns golden, its bright sheen reflecting [Thrones Millennium], diffusing it and scattering its payload indiscriminately. forcing everyone to dance unless they want to get shot.
"CRAP, CRAP, CRAP!" Gauche and everyone who has a working brain ran for their lives while covering their heads.
"IN HERE!" Mosin then plants her [Gleipnir] into the dirt as a silver dome made of iron strings formed around her. "WITH ME! NOW!"
Everyone then jumps into the closing dome as the golden cotton swelled in size, becoming bigger and bigger as [Thrones Millennium] kept firing at it in vain.
The golden cloud of divine cotton then fully forms into a giant ram-like construct similar in appearance to her [Sheep Cooks] and [Fluffy Sheep], only golden, wearing a king's crown, and having a tiny pair of white angel's wings flapping in vain to keep its disproportionately-sized body aloft.
Morris/Mammon sees the end result well before it could happen. "... NOPE."
Using his [Result Magic], he then digs himself deeper underground as the giant golden ram plummeted back to earth's gravity.
"VATLOS!" Angra cried out.
He then tries to open a portal, but couldn't keep it steady long enough to maintain a way out.
"DAMMIT!" he cursed. "WHERE'S THE INTERFERENCE COMING FROM?!"
"THE PACT!" Undine cried out.
"WITH ME!" Dryad then grabbed her fellow spirit's hand as they combined their powers to form a interlocking barrier of trees fed with water around themselves and the rite, bracing themselves for the crushing of a lifetime.
Everyone else who couldn't make an attempt to escape could now only stare at the titanic golden sheep-thing falling towards them.
"I looked at the sun," Sally shrugged. "... I blinked first."
"FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" Leopold cursed in denial before spotting the Dragon's fossil and hoping for the best as he made a break for it. "I REFUSE TO DIE LIKE THIS!"
"FUCK YOU!" Angra then punched aside, her mind now completely gone mad with the fear of death. "FUCK YOU!"
Valtos then let out feral roar as the sheep finally made landfall, triggering an impact so dense and voluminous that it felt like an earthquake.
From the epicenter then unleashed a massive tidal wave of earth and rock, ripping the remaining Adramelech-clones to shreds and all of those who were caught under it to be mulched underneath the fluff that was heavy as iron.
"NO! NO! I DON'T TO WANT TO DIE TO THIS UGLY FILLLLITH-!"
Geri then lets out a triumphant and howling laughter as he uses his final breath to express his mirth while being crushed alongside with the Demon and those who sought to slay them out of pure spite.
Then, silence. A dead lull rolls across the barren underground, with [Chrysomallos] dissipating, leaving behind only Charmy as she laid on the dirt face-down.
The iron dome protecting the runners then unravels itself, revealing the others to be okay.
"... Alright, I'm gonna be real with you guys for just a hot second," Vanessa remarked as she and everyone else catch their breath. "... But how is this place still standing?"
"Magic," Gaja answered. "... Heart Kingdom is a land rich with magic, almost to the point where the entire environment is akin to a living human body. No matter what, this land shall not fall that easily."
"So what? Does that make us like the 'germs' or something like that?" Gauche asked as he then retrieves Charmy's body, checking its pulse to see that its still alive. "... Actually, I don't wanna think about that right now. Where's the damn Demon and god?"
En then points his finger towards the pulverized corpse of Adramelech, now released from its Apocrypha Form and back to looking like a common pigeon that got ran over. Laid next to it was the fading Geri, with a content smile curling his maw like a satisfied customer.
"... One second." Mosin then reaches her hand into her skirt before straining for a few moments and pulling out a conical vial of golden liquid akin to melted gold, revealing it to be EVE, the sole bane of Hellspawns.
"... Where did you pull that out from?" asked En as he noticed the vial looking extra-shiny.
"Don't ask." The High Inquisitor then throws the vial towards the writhing Demon's corpse, shattering it and setting the cadaver ablaze with holy fire as soon as the liquid made contact with chthonian elements.
A few gurgles were heard right before the last death throes of the Demon were croaked out, sending the damned creature of [Vanity] back to Hell where it came from, stripped of all of its adaptations and powers upon its next rebirth.
"That's one headache down..." Mosin groaned as she then turned towards the unraveling dome of trees to reveal Undine and Dryad, with the rite still going on. "... Now we can regroup."
They then regroup with the spirits as Morris/Mammon dig themselves out of their hiding hole, where the first thing he sees were the flattened corpses of his fellow Illuminati members.
"First Tesla and now them... useless... those fools!" he scoffed as he then looked for his prize. "... NO!"
As the Contractor/Devil hybrid sprinted towards the Dragon's fossil in its heavily-damaged state, everyone then successfully regroups.
"... Is her highness well?" asked Gaja.
"Lolopeckha is fine, Gaja," Undine answered. "More importantly, I'm glad that most of you made it."
"Most of us?!" Gauche then looks around to see if anyone was still missing. "... Crap, FINRAL!"
Before he could run off to search for him, Dryad places her hand onto his shoulder before shaking her head.
"I'm sorry," she apologized.
Vanessa weeps as Gauche falls to his knees. "... How many more?"
En then looks solemnly at the bloodied Green Mantis Magic Knights robe drifting in the wind. "... Can't say," he answered. "... Don't let it be in vain."
Mari and Mosin both make a small prayer for the deceased right before they noticed Morris/Mammon crawling towards the Dragon's bones.
"Hey..." Vanessa gasped. "Isn't that?!"
Mari wastes no time invoking Urabe no Suetake's spirit as her [Soul Magic] then manifests itself into his famed yumi bow and arrow.
"[Soul Magic: Hamaya]!" The Hanafudan then lets her purifying arrow loose, striking the fiend in his rib, causing him to scream in agony.
"DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU!" Morris/Mammon panics as they crawl faster. "[RESULT MAGIC]-"
Another [Hamaya] strikes true into his back before he could cast his spell, forcing him to instead to crawl towards his prize faster.
"Don't get close to it," Mosin warned. "It's magic can bend all natural laws."
"... Mosin-san," Mari asks. "I need your help guiding my next arrow."
The High Inquisitor nods as she then reinforces the bowstring with her Relic [Gleipnir]'s threads as she also adds her own mana into the next [Hamaya] arrow.
Desperate, mad, and in panic, Morris/Mammon continue crawling faster and faster, reduced to a mere bug as all he could keep thinking about was his prize: the Dragon's bones, now reduced to only an intact skull with broken horns and chipped fangs.
"My... prize...!" he cravenly wept, his vision becoming dark as his vitality crumbled like a sandcastle against the tides. "... My... prize-!"
The third and final [Hamaya] burrows through his horned temple, with only his hand sliding down against the skull that he'd long coveted.
"... And good riddance," Mari scoffed.
"May he journey through the depths of Hell, that wretched sinner," Mosin agreed. "... So, now what-?"
Then the skull that the fiend had touched lights up to life, its hollows, long extinguished, now burning with life.
"WHAT'S HAPPENING?!" Vanessa cried out in panic.
Unbeknownst to everyone, in response to Morris/Mammon's [Selfishness], their body had automatically imparted a portion of their mana into the magic-rich fossil, triggering a violent reaction that reawakens the skull's long-lost power.
"PROTECT THE PRINCESS-!"
Before Gaja could finish delivering his order, he was then pushed aside by Mari as she took the full blast of the dead Dragon's beam of red energy that crackled like lightning.
"MISS MARI!" En cried out as the Hanafudan screamed in agony as her eyes and mouth lit up like flames.
However, the unexpected happens the following after.
In response to her trauma heralding death, Mari's [Soul Magic] goes berserk, inadvertently connecting her own soul to everyone else's, causing them to share in this sensation of suffering together.
The souls present, both mortal and spirit alike, reaches singularity.
Approaching Rotten Elysium...
"I have to hurry...!" Scheherazade heaved as she expends more of her mana to spur her [Bahamut] to fly faster towards the lands once known as "Elysium," home of the elves now serving as a rotten carcass of its former self.
She isn't certain that Lolopeckha, let alone, the others, would be at that location n particular. However, her gut instincts combined with the experience of causation and correlation lining up like clockwork as of late, she had no other other option but to run forward with nothing but her mere assumptions as her only proof.
It beat flying around blindly, all things considered.
"We're almost there...!" Scheherazade then spots the rotting tree that towers over the others around the surrounding jungle. "... We're almost there-!"
Then from the tree then emits a massive, transparent pulse akin to a crushing wave of the ocean. The deposed Queen of Dama felt her head become heavier, as if the bones of her skull had turned to granite.
"... What-what's happening?!" she growled as the feeling of her soul being... called out towards the epicenter drew her in like a whirlpool. "My vision...! I'm... I'm disappearing-!"
Her connected mind slowly enters singularity while also serving as a beacon and a jumping-off point for the pulse to travel even further, reaching Ziz, Akane, and Yami, while the latter two were still beating the crap out of each other in a mutual blood-rage on the former's back.
"YAMI-!"
"AKANE-!"
"WHAT THE FUCK-?!"
Their minds were immediately pulled towards the gathering of hearts, minds, and sensations, with Mari of the Mitsurugi Clan being their sole receptacle.
- Scheherazade gets caught in the singularity, to which her own soul gets used as a jumping off point to reach Akane, Yami, and Ziz.
Within the Singularity...
"Wha-What's happening?!" Gauche cried out as he and the others found themselves floating in an infinite white sea of aether like ghosts before spotting a familiar face. "CAPTAIN!"
Yami then spots Gauche floating from him, trying to reach out towards him, but unable to move himself. "... Dammit," he cursed as he continued bobbing and floating like an apple in a bucket of water. "... Guess we're stuck."
Akane thrashed in place as she tries to kill Yami despite her body not answering her at all, impotently bumping her face against his ass and bouncing off.
"I WILL KILL YOU, YOU ASSHOLE!" Akane cursed back as she floated around.
"Queen Scheherazade?!" Mosin remarked as she spotted the deposed Queen of Dama floating near her. "I thought you weren't with us!"
"Trust me, I am confused as the rest of you on what is happening right now!" she replied as she then took headcount of everyone currently present. "... Where's Lolopeckha?!"
"Huh?!" a familiar voice cried out, with everyone looking up towards the young Queen of the Heart Kingdom floating with everyone else, albeit in a bizarre angle, hanging upside-down like a bat. "Wh-WHERE AM I?! DID THE PACT FAIL?!"
"It did not," reassured Jibril, who unlike the others could move around freely, flapping her waterfall-wings to traverse her way through the white void. "... It's still happening, albeit only because I ensured Undine and Dryad to resume our rite should we are interrupted. However, I did not anticipate that our spirits would be disembodied towards a concentrated point... from a mere mortal."
"You can move, right?!" Vanessa pointed out. "Then get us out of here!"
The Archangel shakes her head in dismissal. "I cannot."
"Why?!" En asked.
"My Heavenly Restriction that prevents me from abusing my powers," she explained. "[Determination] permits me from attacking, forcing my [Ichor Magic] to solely specialize in defensive and supportive spells. The purpose of the rite is to merge with my chosen child so that we may fight together without worry."
"It's true," Mosin confirmed. "... I hate to be the one that says it, but the difference between the denizens of Heaven and Hell are that limitation alone."
"FOR WHAT?!" Akane barked out. "POWER SHOULD BE USED TO ENFORCE ORDER AT ALL COSTS!"
"To prevent the second coming Armageddon," Jibril answered. "... We've nearly destroyed this world once. We will not make that same mistake ever again."
"Well you're doing a real banger of a job, aren't you?!" Yami jeered in disappointment before Charmy bumped into his chest. "... Hey, Charmy. You okay?"
A small snore was heard coming from her.
"... What happened to her?"
"I think she ate something called a 'hyorogan,' which I recall you're only supposed to eat one of them at a time," Gauche quickly explained. "... She emptied the whole pill box in one go."
Yami sighs, thankful that the ultra-nutrient balls only put her into a food coma and not kill her from hyper-overloading.
"You fed that midget my sister's emergency rations?!" Akane barked out. "HOW?! SHE'S STRONGER THAN ALL OF YOU COMBINED!"
"She cooperated with us," Gaja pointed out matter-of-factly. "Doubt us all you want. It happened regardless."
Speaking of which, Akane then begins to shift her eyes around to search for her twin. "... WHERE THE HELL IS SHE?!"
The white void then begins to shift, warping and stirring like milk and oats.
"What's going on now?!" Lolopeckha cried out.
The white sea then parted like clouds as everyone flew towards an island nation whose seas were black as pitch and its lands were on the cusp of ruin.
"... Captain?" Vanessa remarked as they all floated down towards the blighted land.
Yami sighs. "... Hanafuda," he grumbled. "Can't escape from you even after over twenty years..."
Vanessa then flails as she was about to collide against a straw-thatched rooftop, only for her to phase through it harmlessly.
"... We're only spirits in his unknown plane," the Witch remarked. "... Just where is this place taking us?"
The floating group then stop before an old temple, where they can hear the cries of infants coming from inside.
Suddenly, Scheherazade's fable then opens up on its own, spilling out its text and scattering them about like dust.
"... Milady!" a man's voice said from within the temple.
"He speaks your language?!" Akane remarked as she heard a Hanafudan man speak the continental language.
"No, he speaks Dama text," the Queen of Dama replied. "... My fable moved on its own. It must be translating it for us!"
The group floats as they listened from the outside.
"The children," a woman's voice answered. "... How are they?"
"Alive. Both of them."
The woman then lets out a sigh of regret. "... Then it appears that our prophecy of calamity is all but inevitable," she remarked. "... Send the younger one to the chambermaids. Leave the eldest to me personally."
The group then sees the man take the younger of the infants outside and out the halls.
"So what's the deal?" asked Gauche. "What's with the whole 'prophecy of calamity' that the old bag is talking about?!"
Akane grits her teeth, telling the others that she knows what this vision was all about, and knowing equally as well that she had no reason to deny or hide anything when it's staring dead right at their faces..
"... In Hanafuda, the birth of identical twins is a sign of impending calamity," she explained. "It's a sign that the cycle of reincarnation had made an error, when one soul got split in two."
They then see the woman carry the other twin outside, cradling the infant in her arms while looking down at it with a hint of distain in her tired eyes after labor.
"... Normally, we'd kill one of the twins either by leaving it in the wilds or to have someone else raise the baby instead," Akane continued. "... My mother, Kikuchiyo, stubborn to make use out of everyone ever since she'd been appointed as the Matsugane Clan's chief retainer, sought to defy fate."
The clouds then shut like curtains before opening up to another scene, with the mother guiding the child, who's loose hair resembled the current Akane's, by her hand as the pair entered a cave.
"... Mother," the child said. "Where are you taking me-?"
A slight sound of a thud was heard from within.
"MOTHER! IT HURTS!" the child cried out. "SAVE ME, MOTHER! IT'S SO DARK DOWN HERE!"
The woman then walks out of the cave alone, approached by two armed men wielding pikes and carrying bundles of explosives.
"One-hundred and eight days," she ordered coldly. "Make sure that she doesn't escape."
The armed men then nod as they rig the entrance with explosives.
"MOTHER-!"
The whole cave explodes once the lit fuses reach their payloads, burying the child alive inside the cave all by herself.
"... Oh my god," Vanessa gasped. "Even my own mother didn't treat me like vermin."
"What kind of mother would treat their own blood with such... such bile?!" Mosin then looked towards Akane from the corner of her eye, seeing her... smile?
"... She condemned me when I was only four years old," she spoke nostalgically. "To defy the prophesized calamity, she threw me into a cavern full of Hanafuda's most vicious Yōkai in order to conduct the Kodoku Ritual."
Yami choked on his own spit as his eyes widened at the mention of that terminology.
"... Captain?" Gauche saw that his Captain Yami had lost composure for a second. "... What is that thing she mentioned?"
"Taboo," he explained. "... Basically Hanafuda's own take on heretical arts. It involves confining numerous venomous creatures into an urn or a secure container and have them fight it out and cannibalize until only one remained standing. That sole survivor... becomes the ideal vessel for containing countless curses."
Akane begins chuckles like a child who got her favorite toy for her birthday. "... One-hundred and eight days spent in the closest that this world had to actual Hell."
Many moons and suns passed as the same woman escorted by numerous armed men wielding dual-pronged catchpoles and ropes approached the collapsed cave and began digging.
"I can't watch this anymore...!" Lolopeckha cried out as the men present in the vision treated this atrocity like if it was another day of menial labor.
"Good thing Charmy isn't awake for this..." En remarked as he tried to look for the [Cotton Magic] user. "... I hope."
Once the men successfully excavate the caved-in entrance, a blur springs out of the mouth and lunges something sharp into one of the men's throats.
The object revealed itself to be a sharp fang, and its wielder revealed to be the young Akane, now gone completely feral and insane, her clothes nothing more than rags stitched with human and bestial hides, her hair now a messy mop, and her skin marred with cuts, bites, and scratches that all looked infected and discolored.
The other men immediately move in to apprehend her, but the young Akane proved too wild to be contained.
Throats were ripped out, eyes were gouged out, and limbs flew across the air like confetti in the insane child's warpath honed by her days spent down there.
The remaining soldiers looked increasingly panicked, but the mother present was smiling even as the very same child that she'd condemned to literal Hell is slaughtering her escorts like nobody's business, looking almost... proud of the carnage happening.
Even as one of the wounded soldiers begged for retreat, the malevolent matriarch simply kicked the poor lad towards Akane's direction before he had his throat eaten out by the feral child.
"... That Kikuchiyo-woman is a Devil all but in blood," Mosin spat in disgust.
"No," Scheherazade rebuked. "... Even the worst of Devils are born to act evil. She chose all of this willingly."
"Just what is the purpose of this barbarity?!" Gaja asked. "This is nothing but cruelty... for the sake of cruelty-!"
Then, the last Spirit Guardian then bumps into Ziz, whose giant avian form was helpless as everyone else, save for Jibril.
"YOU!" he hissed out.
"Eh, I would've done the same if I could," the Demon condor remarked. "... Come to think of it, why didn't I think of that sooner?"
With only the mother and child left, the latter lets out a shrieking howl as she lunged at the monster made her into the way she is with then intent to kill her...
Only for the mother to catch the child by her head before slamming her down into the dirt face-first, caving in a sizable crater upon impact, knocking the feral four-year old out instantly.
"... SO WHY DID SHE EVEN BRING ESCORTS IN THE FIRST PLACE?!" Gauche pointed out. "SHE'S PERFECTLY FINE ON HER OWN IF YOU ASK ME!"
"What nobility doesn't delegate menial labor to their lesser?" Akane rolled her eyes as the scene then continues with her mother lifting the concussed Akane up by her hair.
"... You pass."
The mother then binds the child in rope from neck to ankle before dragging her deranged daughter back to her estate, leaving the corpses of her hapless subordinates for the crows.
"And thus... began our 'training'."
The scene then blurs and fades into two opposing worlds: one of which where a young Mari, dressed in a white and red ceremonial dress surrounded by priests and priestesses dressed in the same colors, helped the young girl attune with her own powers to commune with the souls of the deceased, and learning how to cook hyorogan and perform her duties as the next priestess of the line. As for the young Akane, her arms, legs, neck, and torso were bound by thick lengths of rope hanging with paper tags that were glowing an amber-like hue of light that was anything but comforting, with the sole and constant company being that of her mother, carrying a small candle on a dish as she sits down before her, with nothing but the cell's bars dividing them physically, as the matriarch tells the young girl the same story over and over again, several times in repeat in just a single day, and for her meals, it consisting nothing but poisonous bugs forcefully fed by the bucketful, and with nothing but pails of toxic concoctions of muck and venom to wash it all down.
"... You survived," Jibril spoke to Akane. "... But you didn't."
Akane then begins chuckling as she then works her laughter all the way up to maddening cackles as the diametrically-different scenes played out in unison, with the only constant between them being that Kikuchiyo was always within an arm's distance of her daughters.
"Who cares? I came out stronger!" she boasted. "My human body that I was born in was weak! My soul, a mere half of my sister's, was returned to its rightful place as my very own soul was forged through years of tribulations after tribulations! All for the sake of protecting my home... just like how my mother's parents, their ancestors, and their ancestor's ancestors have done unflinchingly!"
Everyone was taken aback how... grateful she was of her own mother's abuse towards her.
"... You're a fucking loon, that's what!" Gauche pointed out. "And for what?!"
The scene then cuts to Akane breaking her bindings and ripping the bars from her jail cell, escaping as she kills her jailors and make her way to her mother.
Her body was gaunt yet muscular, unearthly yet divine, and demonic, but also celestial.
She then reaches her mother as she was having a lone stroll with an attendant carrying a paper lantern and parasol, slaughtering the help as both mother and daughter clashed, their veins and eyes now glowing a burning amber, and their brows jutting out with a pair of crystalline horns that burned bright like fire.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS?!" Vanessa cried out.
Akane lets out a low chuckle before she explained. "... You see, my Mitsurugi Clan and the Yami Clan share a similar blood trait," she reveals. "You see, a fair amount of noble blood lineages can trace their descent back to the Kijin."
"Kijin?" Gaja parroted.
"What in Sephira's name are those?!" Mosin asked.
Yami growled as he could recall countless times how his own father, Kuroki, ranted about how their Clan was once feared as "Kijin" during his benders whenever not beating his ass in with a wooden sword. "... Basically, Demon Gods."
Everyone took notice upon that last pair of words he'd said.
"... Demon Gods?" Gauche gawked.
"Huh, so like me?" Ziz pointed out.
"Physical gods who were the champions of the heavens," Akane revealed. "Strength of a thousand men, wisdom of a thousand sages, and beings who protected Hanafuda from all calamities that befouled our land. Whereas the Yami Clan's bloodline was diluted from centuries of marrying commoners, my Clan specifically-bred each of our offspring with other Kijin-descendants to ensure that not only our powers remain intact through the ravages of time, but to also gain more specializations unique to each Clan. All of that 'torture' you accused my mother of doing? It was all for this very moment!"
Even if Akane was able to visibly injure her mother, it was for naught, as Kikuchiyo proceeded to lay her own daughter out flat on her ass.
"And thus, my training was complete."
The scene then cuts to Akane being led by her mother into her estate, the once-feral daughter now disciplined and focused like a warrior, all of that before she even hit puberty.
Upon kneeling before the door, with Mari kneeling in said room in meditation, Kikuchiyo said the following:
"This is Mari, my heir," the mother revealed. "Your training have led up to this very purpose: her well-being."
A certain feeling of bile welled up in everyone's throats as they heard the absolute gall that the bitch that dared to call herself Akane's mother said those words without irony nor shame.
"Protect her with your very life," she ordered as she then hands a sheathed [Murasame] to her eldest twin daughter. "Protect our home, for you shall be our people's blade of justice."
Akane accepts the blade without hesitation.
"Death to all those who defy our peace."
"And my work began..." she revealed. "... The quashing of the rumored insurrection."
The scene then cuts to an even more lifeless coastal village standing before the ever-black sea. Walking through the streets was Akane, now around 8 or 9 years old in appearance, dressed in a simple beige kimono with a green sash around her torso.
She was then accosted by a larger, slovenly-looking drunkard, but just as when she was about to reach for her stowed tanto dagger, the man itself was stopped by another man, scaring him off and letting the girl go.
"... My target literally came to me," she chuckled. "I suppose having my birth stricken from the legal records has its advantages."
She then follows the man, professing her desire to join him for saving her. The two then meet up at a rotted-out manor by the ocean, where its halls were broken and its splendor now nothing more than a husk of its former self.
"... Ichika!" Yami cried out as another girl with Yami's eyes and around the young Akane/Kikuko's age came out of the abandoned estate.
"Getting nostalgic for a dead sister that you never talked ever since you murdered your own father after his antics went too far?" Akane scoffed, knowing the truth but choosing to omit that fact. "Trust me, I wish I could kill him myself. In fact, no one liked your father Kuroki, with the only reason why he lived to that point being that he was still strong despite being way past his prime."
"... You killed your own father?" asked Lolopeckha, causing Yami to grimace.
"... It was either him or my sister," he justified. "I chose my sister because she's not an asshole."
"The name's Ryudo Ryuya!" the man revealed. "And I am the man who will change this country by becoming the next Shogun!"
Akane snorts. "What a fool."
Then at the secret base of the rebel cell she was assigned to flush out, the young Akane watched in glee as Ryuya died via choking on his poisoned cup of sake as the rest of his companions watched in horror.
"By the time they found me out, my mother's personal battalion stormed their little secret club."
Then the scenery cuts to the blood-soaked execution grounds, with Akane holding her [Murasame] in one hand, and the decapitated head of Ichika in another.
"And thus, the calamity I was told that I was raised to avert had been fulfilled," Akane narrated. "... Until that happened."
Then the whole village was now being further drained of life, its inhabitants falling ill from a plague, as evidenced by the sickly-red colored dots all over their skin.
"Smallpox?!" Lolopeckha cried out as she and everyone else saw that the sick and infirmed were being stuffed into a boat set to drift, with Mari and Akane, now barely entering their pre-teens, were also being stuffed on board.
"... Our Daimyo, Lord Matsugane, ordered us to seek out the last of the Yami Clan, Yami Sukehiro," Akane explained. "Since he was still alive and was rumored to be affiliated with that Ryuya bastard, the prophecy wasn't averted, and thus, in order to avert it, me and my sister were forced on board to retrieve his head, and not to come back otherwise."
The galleon then sets drift towards the black sea and the storm ahead.
"... I knew why we were sent away," Akane remarked. "... It was the price of my failure to prevent the coming calamity."
The boat full of the sick and infirmed, Mari and Akane clung onto each other for dear life as the waves and thunder rocked the boat that had long ago lost its mast.
From within the sea, a massive, box-headed whale-like being the size of a small mountain surfaced, letting out a sonorous funeral dirge to signal their date with the bottom of the ocean. The passengers either despaired at their inevitable end or held onto their loved ones as their final moments in their life, with the sick mother holding her baby in her arms as if her fading life depended on it.
"... I don't know how we survived."
Akane and Mari were found in the grotto near the ocean, heaving and panting weakly.
"... I don't know how."
Then just as the story could continue, the whole white void encroaches back to the singularity, pulling everyone back out.
Back Outside...
Everyone screams as they were expelled from Mari's singularity.
"Wha-WHAT HAPPENED?!" Gauche cried out as he and everyone else found themselves back in the waking world after that bizarre shared experience.
"... Back to normal, it seems," En grunted out as he adjusted his glasses before one of the lenses fell off the frame and shattered. "... Blast."
"More importantly, where's Miss Mari?" asked Mosin as she and everyone else looked around before spotting the girl standing where she was prior.
"Mari!" Vanessa and everyone else runs up towards her, only to find her unresponsive.
Worried, they then check her pulse, only to feel nothing.
"... She's dead," Gaja revealed before looking at her chest, now sporting a fresh hole that was burned into her very ribs. "... That blast she took prior cost her own very life."
Everyone goes into states of silent shocks as Charmy the lets out a yawn before smacking her lips. "... What happened while I was out?"
Gauche then volunteers to fill her in on what they saw while she was asleep while everyone else discussed what to do next.
"So, the rite," Mosin pointed out. "... The young Queen is still alright as we speak, correct?"
Gaja nods. "And thank Sephira for that," he acknowledged. "I could ask the spirits how far until they are finished, but I wish to not interrupt their divine work."
"I'm more surprised that she's now friends with an Archangel," En remarked. "... If anything, I think the reason why we aren't all freaking out at another supernatural presence is that either we've seen way too many Demons in our lifetime, or we're all subconsciously glad that we has someone extremely backing our corner."
"I just hope that she comes out strong enough to deal with another problem in our amidst..." Vanessa pointed out. "... That Akane bitch."
Meanwhile, Gauche and Charmy were discussing what the former and everyone else had seen elsewhere.
"WHAT?!" Charmy cried out. "So Captain Yami's real name is... Sukehiro Yami?"
"Apparently, switching his first and last names around are easy if we don't speak his language," the [Mirror Magic] user pointed out. "... And that's not getting into his own home life."
"Yeah, I'd be pretty eager to leave my home if my own parents are drunk pieces of shit who beat my siblings out of resentment," the [Cotton Magic] user groaned. "... Still though, to think that Akane's own mother could be such a monster."
Gauche sighs as he shook his head. "... Honestly, I don't think talking is an option."
Charmy nods before the sound of flapping could be heard from above.
"EVERYONE!" Scheherazade then descends down through the open pit above while hanging onto her [Roc]'s talons before landing, collapsing to her knees upon landing. "... Thank goodness you're all okay!"
Gaja and Mosin help her back up to her feet before taking her towards everyone else.
"Where were you after we all got separated?" asked Gauche.
"By myself and right at Ziz's line of sight, why?" the Queen of Dama answered.
Vanessa then shoves Gauche aside to ask her own question. "WHERE'S CAPTAIN YAMI RIGHT NOW-?!"
Then a shrill and hawking shriek was heard coming from outside.
"... I hate myself sometimes," the Witch grimaced.
"Welcome to the club..." En sighed before he and everyone else ran out of the way for Ziz come crashing into the cavern with Akane and Yami in tow, the latter continuing to fight like if nothing else in the world mattered, even as their ride bumped and tumbled his way into the pit before crashing belly-first.
"YAMI!" Akane bellowed out from the sounds of blades clanging against each other. "STOP RESISTING AND LET ME TAKE YOUR HEAD ALREADY!"
"GET OVER YOURSELF, YOU CRAZY BITCH!" Yami retorted as his [Kurogane] and kodachi blocked his killer's [Murasame]. "EVERYONE BACK HOME MIGHT AS WELL BE DEAD, SO WHY BOTHER?!"
"YOU DARE DISREGARD THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE YOU HAVE CONDEMNED?!" Akane roared back as her [Yamata no Orochi] then lashes out all of its serpentine heads towards her prey.
"AFTER YOU KILLED ALL OF MY FRIENDS BACK HOME?! THEN SCREW THEM ALL!" Yami then unleashes his [Asura] to combat the eight-forked serpent with its six arms of pure muscle.
Everyone then looks at each other to vote on which is the more immediate problem.
"Akane?"
Everyone nods.
"GET HER!" Mosin then leads the charge by sending her [Gleipnir] threads towards the Hanafudan from behind, only for Akane to seamlessly dodge the steel webbing and continue with her fight with Yami unimpeded.
"GET OUT OF MY WAY, OUTSIDERS!" Akane yelled as she was then flanked by Gauche, Vanessa, and Charmy. "[Kodoku Yōjutsu: Kokatsu Denryū]!"
She then unleashes a massive pulse of pure blight from her [Yamata no Orochi]'s mouths, spreading it throughout the ground like seeping water.
"GET AWAY!" Mosin then grabs Charmy with her [Gleipnir]. "EVERYONE! OUTSIDE!"
"BUT THE QUEEN!" Gaja pointed out as he ran outside with the others. "THE RITE!"
"We'll protect her with our lives, so go!" Dryad then erects a thick barrier of trees with her powers around the rite's location to dam the coming blight, but the trees began rotting as quickly as if they weren't being impeded by anything.
In fact, the rot spread faster, causing the nature spirit to decay instantly into a husk of her former splendor, killing her on the spot.
"DRYAD!" Undine then unleashes a massive gout of water in an attempt to wash away the encroaching pollution, but all that it did was simply pollute the water that she herself was touched, her form now hissing and boiling as she'd dipped her limb into acid. "DAMN IT ALL!"
"FACE IT, YAMI!" Akane boasted as she then brought down her [Murasame] onto Yami, putting the latter's back against the floor as he tries to push back with his twin blades. "YOU HAVE NO ALLIES HERE TO PROTECT YOU FROM MY WRATH! JUST ACCEPT YOUR FATE AND LET ME AND MY SISTER FINALLY GO HOME!"
"WHAT SISTER?!" Yami pointed out. "THE ONE THAT YOU'RE ROTTING RIGHT BEHIND YOU RIGHT NOW?!"
Akane's eyes then widened before turning back to find that her [Kokatsu Denryū] was had now rotted Mari's body from exposure.
"... Mari-chan?"
Akane, dropping everything prior to this very moment, sprints towards her sister to find that she was already dead on her feet, and that her own [Kodoku Yōjutsu] had begun decomposing her body, as evident by her one arm falling off of its elbow.
"... (Who did this to you)?" she said in Hanafudan, feeling her own heart breaking at this horrid sight. "WHO DID THIS TO YOU-?!"
Yami then swings down his [Kurogane] from behind in hopes of finishing her off.
"If it's any consolation..." Yami declared as his dark blade rent across Akane's back, "... then blame me for that crap."
But just as Yami tries to take Akane's head to seal her fate, she then violently torques her head towards the direction of the blade's swing and catches the edge with her teeth and breaking it between her bite.
"You're dead...! You're dead...! YOU'RE ALL FUCKING DEAD!"
But just as when Akane tries to drive her [Murasame] into Yami's chest as retribution...
"STOP... IGNORING ME!"
Ziz then returns to the waking world with him unleashing a massive storm of wind with a single flap of his gargantuan wings, sending everything and everyone flying off of their feet, clearing out the whole cavern and successfully interrupting the rite.
"NO!" Undine cried out as she was also blown away with her host and Archangel.
"THIS IS THE PRICE THAT YOU SHALL ALL PAY FOR MAKING A MOCKERY OF ME!" Ziz declared as he then unleashes another torrent of tempestuous winds, with Jibril doing her best to shield her host and spirit partner were blown back even further away. "I SHALL SLAY ALL OF YOU WHERE YOU STAND, AND THE RUIN I SHALL LEAVE BEHIND WILL BECOME A MOMUMENT TO MY GREATNESS!"
Lolopeckha screams as she was then separated from her Archangel and Undine, her back crashing into the pillar that had stood behind them this whole time.
But as soon as the surface of her hand touched the surface of the tower...
[Authorization Confirmed]
"Wait, WHAT?!" Lolopeckha cried out as the tower then opened its surface before taking the young Queen inside.
"LOLO!" Undine and Jibril then follow their protectorate inside the pillar, to which then they find an elaborate console surrounding the seat that Lolopeckha herself was sitting at. "WHAT IS ALL THIS?!"
"I-I DON'T KNOW!" she panicked as the screens and buttons lit up to life. "WHAT IS HAPPENING-?!"
[Launch Sequence: Babel - Activated]
[T-Minus: 10 Seconds]
Then the number counts down as Ziz then rams his body against the pillar.
"HOW DO I GET OUT OF HERE?!" Lolopeckha panicked. "WHAT IS HAPPENING?! LADY ARCHANGEL! WHAT IS GOING ON?!"
Jibril gulped as she then straps a pair of belts around the girls body from the chair. "... Brace yourself. Both of you."
[3]
"I WILL NOT LET YOU ESCAPE!" Ziz cried out as he then raked his talons across the pillar's upper shaft.
[2]
"Anyone hear that?" Gauche pointed out as he and everyone else heard the countdown and rumbling coming from where they have escaped out of.
[1]
Akane then bares witness as the pillar's base then lights up like the sun as it was then launched from the ground, with Ziz's disturbance causing its trajectory to alter, having its tip to instead point directly towards Ziz himself.
"WHAT THE FUUUCCCK?!" the Demon condor screamed as he and the pillar that Lolopeckha was inside of were sent flying all the way towards the moon above.
"... They're gonna be okay, right?" Charmy asked.
"YOUR HIGHNESS!" Gaja cried out towards the heavens where his beloved liege was heading towards.
Then the ground itself begins crumbling.
"... Guys?" Vanessa remarked. "The-The cavern! IT'S GONNA COLLAPSE!"
"CAPTAIN!" Gauche cried out.
"I GOT THEM! GO!" Mosin then uses her [Gleipnir]'s threads to fish both Akane and Yami out of the pit before running away with everyone else.
As soon as everyone gets into the clear, the great tree that once was Elysium's symbol of glory was now devoured by the collapsing earth that once held it aloft.
Their battlefield prior was now nothing more than a pit stuffed with rock and rotten trees, and all those who've died in their now had to make that inglorious place their shared grave.
"Captain Yami's barely breathing!" En pointed out. "He needs help!"
Vanessa then volunteers to check on his condition with her [Thread Magic] with everyone else doing whatever they can to aid his ailing body, leaving Akane to fall onto her knees before the devastation.
"Mari..." she moaned despondently.
Gauche then glanced back at her before looking back at the crowd. "... Not it."
Mosin sighs. "... I'll go talk to her."
The High Inquisitor then approaches the despondent Hanafudan, barely catching her attention.
"... You don't have to do this anymore," Mosin pointed out.
Akane glances aside before turning back to face the pit where her twin sister has been buried in.
"You... I understand why you're like this," she continued. "To be robbed of your very being before you could make your first choice... living as nothing but a slave to your mother all for the sake of defying fate... perhaps you can start anew."
"... Huh?" Akane remarked.
"You can live for your sister's sake," Mosin pointed out. "I've talked to her only for a few moments, but I can tell that she wants what's best for you. She never saw you as a mere protector. She saw you as her only family. And as her only family... perhaps you can honor her love that she had for you-"
"Shut up."
Akane's voice was ice-cold.
"... What do you know?!" she hissed. "... What do you know about my life where all I had was my family?! AND YOU EXPECT ME TO START OVER AFTER I LOST EVERYTHING?!"
Mosin then hastily guards the oncoming backhand blow with her [Gleipnir] weaving itself into a net, sending her flying back and tumbling over everyone else as Akane stood back up to her feet, her eyes steamy and her teeth clenched in rage.
"High Inquisitor!" Gaja cried out.
"GET YOUR CAPTAIN TO SAFETY!" En then stood with the last Spirit Guardian and High Inquisitor as the remaining Black Bulls retreated with their wounded Captain Yami in tow.
As soon as the three cleared out, Akane then stretches out her right hand, cracking her finger as she then wills [Murasame] to her grasp.
"Impossible!" Mosin remarked.
"Given what we've been through so far?" Scheherazade commented. "... Unlikely."
"[Murasame] is a kamitsurugi, so mere ravages would so much as nick its edge," Akane explained as she flipped the orientation of her blade around, holding it in reverse. "... You said that you wanted me to live, despite everything, all of the sake of Mari that you only knew for at least an hour in front of my face?!"
Before anyone could react, Akane then lodges her own poisoned blade through her chest and out of her back.
"... To hell... with you all."
The Hanafudan then falls to her knees and slumps over dead, slain by her own hand, out of pure spite.
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: This fic is basically my "write cool bullshit" after watching all of the episodes of Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress and other mid-2010s anime-bullshit back at High School. I started this on pure cringe and I'm doing my best to own up to it in the only way I know how: sticking to the script that I wrote out.
I'm owning up to my cringe by embracing my inner insanity ala this fic. Also my own refection as how far I came as a writer.
Anyway, about this chapter:
Most of this chapter was just fights, with Akane and Yami having at it at each other, while Scheherazade getting the hell out of dodge, and Ziz being nothing more than an overglorified fight arena, much to his ire, and everyone else dealing with everyone else dealing with the mess that is Adramelech and Geri.
Yeah, I'm not done dropping bridges (or Charmy's own take on the Greek Golden Fleece) just yet. But then again, I'm only committing to fulfill my due of finishing this mess.
Moving on, more of the background stuff:
Akane's birth and childhood is a massive deconstruction on the whole "Screw Destiny"-trope. While defying fate sounds easy enough (relatively, if you're a well-established spiritual leader like Mitsurugi Kikuchiyo), even one's attempts to subvert a prophecy can easily be screwed over via "Prophecy Twist," ala Yami Sukehiro counting as one of the rebels in Ryuya's cell, despite being about a whole ocean's length of distance away, because of SEMANTICS.
Just because you rebel against fate for being fickle, doesn't mean that fate can be even MORE fickle out of pure spite. And that's why the Greeks always say: "Don't tempt the Fates."
And if you're wondering, yes, the smallpox outbreak is a reference to the plague that Ryuya had stopped by giving up his magic to find the cure. Needless to say, everyone back at Yami's old hometown is dead, and Akane's long outlived her usefulness to the authorities that had used her as their instrument of order. That and smallpox is so ubiquitous in Japanese history that there's a Yōkai/god who is the purveyor of it, Hōsōgami.
As for why the pillar, Babel, is a rocket ship, well I just wanted to see what would happen if the setting like Black Clover has a space battle. I mean, swords and sorcery fantasy rarely leaves the atmosphere unless its DnD, so I might as well see what happens. That and it's a good excuse to crash into Ziz's home base/sniper nest.
And yes, I've been keeping up with the manga's recent chapter. Suffice it to say, I've moved onto other works and I can't wait for the finale to come and resolve everything.
Unlike the Elf Reincarnation Arc, I can forgive the Arc Fatigue present in the Final Arc, since the Tataba-sensei is not uploading weekly. If this work is not your cup of tea, read my other works. They do not have the prior cringe that carried over since High School.
And Akane unalives herself with the loss of her twin sister. Tune in next time, to those still reading my work (to which I say, thank you), as the flashback arcs finally come to an end!