Ride 24: Re:Inforce
2nd of June, 2019 AD
"You know..." Koneko remarked as she, Pandora, and Takeshi all slouched on the living room couch as Star Twinkle Pretty Cure Episode 18, "Publish That New Story: Mom's Manga Journey!" was airing on the TV screen. "... We really should be looking for senpai right about now."
"Pacing about all of Gifu like a flock of headless chickens is not making progress." Takeshi then bit into his morning spoonful of Cornfrost as the screen shows one of the main heroines' mother trips down the stairs after hearing an unexpected news over her phone. "Get our weekend sugar intake first before we run ourselves ragged."
Pandora nods in agreement as she watches the TV screen cut to the heroines reading the mother's manga, with Lala being amazed by it while the daughter herself, Hikaru, was apprehensive at the possibility of the news of serialization. "... Speaking of progress, how's the investigation over how the enemy got the drop on us last week going?"
"Last I heard, the President managed to find a lead," Koneko revealed as the publishing company revealed that the mother wasn't given any assistants, prompting the main heroines to fill in. "... Dunno how it's gonna turn out, but all we can do is hope for the best while we do our part."
All three of the Devils nod in agreement as the main heroines begin their crash course through the manga industry, with deadlines and dealing with asshole publishers expecting too much from their talent. Being a kids show, it doesn't get too nitty-gritty, but it does show that working in the manga industry is an ORDEAL.
... I am confounded that you humans keep finding new ways to work more for even less, Nidhogg deadpanned as the screen shows the manga being about Starscape Girl Lun, who is based on Lala herself. Even the slaves up north were treated better than this sweatshop. At least a quick death was to be their release.
I'm more surprised that the bitch didn't have the common sense to kick that asshole in the balls for disrespecting her craft! Grendel commented as the big day of the publication came, the draft being sent to the publisher in hopes of being serialized. Screw the power discrepancies! Any form of disrespect is not to be tolerated!
Eh, this is weaksauce compared to what I did back in Yomi, Yamata no Orochi snickered as the mother reveals to her family that her manga failed to be published while putting on a strong front to not worry her husband and daughter. ... You know those stories where stillborn children are forced to stack up rocks as their way out? I'm the one knocking them down when they climb up. I just wait for them to reach right before the exit... and then BAM! Their screams as they careened back to the ground, the light of salvation shrinking before their eyes as it is pulled from their reach... followed up by the sounds of their flesh and bone crunching onto the gravelly shores of Sanzu River the moment they land. Oh baby... their wails of agony and despair are just divine!
Yes, you clearly are a threatening Evil Dragon enjoying tormenting small children, Takeshi internally grumbled as the Notraiders ambush the mother while she was in her funk, with Tenjo the Tengu leading the charge as her minions kidnap her, converting her into the monster of the week as the Pretty Cures were forced to fight. ... Then again, I'm already aware that you have no standards, so I won't judge.
Ka~ka ka ka ka! The Evil Dragon of Lust chortles as the fight proceeds, with the episode eventually ending with Tenjo and her remaining minions to retreat, the mother being purified from her monster form after one [Southern Cross Shot], and reaffirming her love for both her mangaka aspirations and her family, as she tries again, with Hikaru posing for her next draft to submit.
Koneko then notices Takeshi slightly grimacing even as the episode ended on a high note. "... Evil Dragon bullshit again?"
"Yamata no Orochi, despite being the Deadly Sin of Lust, seems to be really proud of their 'accomplishments'," Takeshi confirmed as Kamen Rider Zi-O begins airing its 38th episode, "2019: The Chosen Kabuto". "... Now if they weren't honking their own horn every time they open their mouths."
The episode begins with last week's asteroid carrying a Worm colony approaching Earth while Black Woz narrates.
"... By the way, Takeshi," Pandora said out loud as the main characters returned to the clock repair shop to discuss their next course of action. "... I have to ask, but why are you so... lax around the Exorcists?"
"Yeah, it's kinda weird that you're the one playing peacemaker between us along with Ainsworth-san." Koneko then shifts her body around in the sofa as Geiz meets up with one of the Hell Brothers while Sougo and Woz plan to head to the asteroid itself to detonate it with the latter's newfound [Woz Ginga] form's power of the Sun. "Not gonna lie, but I thought that you were going to a bit more... testy around the Church's operatives."
"Yeah, it's weird, I know," Takeshi confirmed as the hostage exchange occurs between Geiz and the Hell Brothers, only for the former to pull a bait-and-switch, rescuing the hostage, Kagami, while allowing him to keep the desired object needed for the latter's plans to bring the Worm colony down to Earth, resulting in an altercation that ends with Another Kabuto forcing Geiz and the hostage to retreat. "But the mere thought of Leon turning on me for the sake of duty? I can't allow that to happen, and I'm pretty sure that he agrees too."
"You're assuming that the Church is above using deception and subterfuge to get a drop on us Devils," Pandora pointed out as everyone reconvenes back to the 9-5 DO shop.
"Even if that were the case, I rather get angry later on than right out of the gate," Takeshi countered as the hostage is later revealed to be an alternative version of a prior character in Kamen Rider Kabuto, inadvertently revealing that there are now TWO timelines of the same series on the verge of merging. "... Remember, you tend to catch more flies with honey than vinegar. I'd prefer reserving my right to be a dick to people who deserve it. Like that bastard Freed that I sent to Hell last month. And that Kokabiel motherfucker is next on the chopping block."
... Hmm, so you prefer to wait and react rather than take initiative, Nidhogg commented as the scene then cuts to the Hell Brothers being screwed over by the Time Jackers and having their RideWatches stolen, and letting the asteroid with the Worm colony fall without the former's input. ... I'd criticize, but the fact that your head seems to be one of your more... unsung assets in life and battle that have proven itself, I therefore, cannot.
I don't care where the blood is drawn as long as I get my share! Grendel cackled as the scene then cuts to Tsukuyomi finding herself in the year 2058 at her own childhood home (at this point, the show itself is so convoluted that the Evil Dragons use it as white noise). You choose to only slay those deserving to die? Fine then! Make sure that their final moments of living absolute Hell!
The only head you should be thinking with is the one on your crotch, bro, Yamata no Orochi scoffed as the Hell Brothers take the field to cause as much havoc as they can with what little is left of their ruined plans. Idiots like you who overthink every probability are likely to get merked as the bricks-for-brains who run dick-first into an active minefield. Just try every stupid option possible and see what works! Have fun! Live a little!
... I'll have fun, when the world isn't at stake, Takeshi countered as the Hell Brothers are confronted by Geiz and Kagami as Sougo and Woz head towards outer space to exterminate the Worm colony inside the falling asteroid. I can't have fun when the End of Days or Ragnarök becomes reality, no?
The scene then depicts the Worm colony being successfully purged by Woz's powers of the sun... but the asteroid itself is still falling towards the Earth, forcing Tsukuyomi to use her newfound powers... of which are like that of the Time Jackers, allowing Woz to finish the job of detonating the falling asteroid before millions could die from the fallout.
The episode ends with the Worm mimicking the deceased Hell Brother dying, rejecting the living Hell Brother in his last breath, allowing the latter to move on from his homicidal grief, allowing the main characters to obtain the [Kabuto RideWatch], and return to 9-5 DO as a sound of a train could be heard from overhead.
"... That episode was fucking weird," Pandora commented.
"My head feels like when I was reviewing math equations..." Koneko groaned as she could feel her brain smoke like an overheated engine.
"I'm just surprised that me watching Kamen Rider Kabuto back when I was a kid helped me keep up to speed despite this show losing its plot a few weeks back after the White Woz-bullshit," Takeshi added as Ryusoulger's 12th episode, "Scorching Illusion," began airing.
The episode begins with a conflict between the two Kishiryu, with Tyramigo being pissy over DimeVolcano hogging all of the popularity due to recency bias.
"... You know, I just realized something," Takeshi remarked as Towa and Bamba meet up with Melto to investigate where last week's Shen Minosaur came from. "... May 30th was Yuuto's birthday, right?"
"Remember, senpai, it's merely a birthday, not a break," Koneko pointed out as the aforementioned monster of the week reappears, giving the Ryusoulgers the runabout with its illusory mists that it exhales. "... For the record, I was lucky to have a birthday back in Junior High."
"Still though..." Pandora sighs as she then summons Gin for comfort, the Cath Palug kitten's fuzzy coat rubbing against her chest and face while DimeVolcano gets beguiled by an illusion of a female version of itself. "... Yuuto's going through Hell right now. I... I honestly wish that we could've done anything for him to at least... soothe his pain."
Takeshi grumbles before slapping both of his cheeks while the scene cuts to Ui realizing who the Shen Minosaur's host is, that being her high school kouhai, who was once dreaming to be a movie director but was found attending a firefighter academy. "... Alright, I decided!" He then pulls out his phone as he then buys two tickets for Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum for the 16th of June. "Even if ORC gets blown up to kingdom come, I'm gonna get something good out of this month! Because no matter what, everyone deserves a happy ending!"
Finally, we shall see the remnants of these "dinosaurs," Nidhogg mused as DimeVolcano was snapped out of his simp phase after revealing that the female version of itself was merely the Shen Minosaur's illusion. ... Will they ever hope to measure up against us?
Their bones must be stronger than mine if they're still intact after millions upon millions of years! Grendel snickered like an excited child as Tyramigo and DimeVolcano finally make up with their differences and combine into KishiryuOh DimeVolcano. ... I won't lie, brat. I actually look forward to how our predecessors have looked, of how they ruled this savage world before the advent of gods, demons, and mankind!
Eh, I ain't interested in dead fogeys or anything venerating them, Yamata no Orochi dismissively remarked as the episode ends with Wiserue and Gaisorg confronting each other, the latter mistaken for a heavily-armored Ryusoulger after the latter reveals that they were the one who unsealed DimeVolcano in the first place before offering to act as their informant.
And with that, Super Hero Time ends.
"... You already told your mom and dad that you're gonna be heading out today, right?" asked Koneko as she and everyone else got off the couch.
"Taking my motorbike with me," Takeshi confirms as he then went to get his keys.
"We will find Yuuto," Pandora acknowledged as she then dismisses her familiar from the material plane. "... There is no alternative."
All three of the Devils nod before heading out of the house and towards Gifu, in the search for both Yuuto and Kokabiel.
5th of June, 2019 AD
"Hmm..." Father Galilei was scrutinizing over something while hunched over in his workshop, with sparks shining every now and then in this dimly-lit space.
*knock-knock*
"You may enter!" The door then creaks open, revealing Yozakura, now wearing her hannya mask in place of her broken Kitsune one. "Ah! My dear Yozakura! How have you been?"
"Same as usual." The Stray Exorcist then sits herself down on the casket with the window showing a pre-teen girl's face behind its misty ambiance, gazing at it with indifference before looking up at the hanging lamp swinging from the ceiling akin to a rusty pendulum. "... You are quite a dedicated man of your craft to tolerate being in this cramped space for this prolonged period of time."
"What else can I say?" the Archbishop chuckled as he remained unbroken of his focus of his work before him. "I love making superheroes!"
That repetition, the same use of that word: "superhero," began to itch in Yozakura's mind.
"... Father Galilei," she began. "I'm curious, but you're a man of God, correct?"
"Always have, and always will!" he replied without hesitation.
"So what is it with your obsession with these... 'superheroes'?" the Stray Exorcist asked. "Surely, the way you go on about them sounds like you're almost... worshipping them in place of Deus Trinity."
Father Galilei mirthfully chortles before putting one of his tools down. "... Curious, aren't you?" he pointed out. "Well, I for one, am curious about you as well!"
"Meaning?" Yozakura replied.
"I'll tell you a little bit about myself..." The Archbishop then picks up another tool before resuming his work. "... If you tell me about yourself. It's only fair, after all."
Yozakura scoffs before looking away. "... You strike a hard bargain, Father Galilei."
"I won't force you!" he cheerfully remarked.
"I didn't say 'no,' didn't I?" Yozakura sighs as she then takes off her mask, looking at the girl's face and her own inkblot-like face at the window's murky reflection. "... I will only tell you this once, Father. And with confidence, too."
"I am all ears, my lass," the Archbishop reassured as he continued his work. "... You may speak."
The Stray Exorcist sighs before divulging her own past to the "Genocide Archbishop" himself.
"... Have you ever heard of Darfur?" she began.
"You mean the country of Sudan?" Father Galilei replied before connecting the dots. "... Ah. I see. You hail from that Hell on Earth, don't you?"
The Stray Exorcist scoffs before looking down on her own feet. "... I was only six years old when I saw my family being reduced to grease spots from a mortar shell."
Yozakura can remember vividly the time where she saw her whole family die in front of her eyes. She can remember the screams of others married with the horrific sounds of gunfire and the stamping of horses' hooves drumming across the arid earth.
"... The Janjaweed took everything from me," she snarled, her hand trembling, her teeth gnashing, and her heart rate steadily increasing. "... My family, my home... my dignity."
She could literally see her own six year old self being raped and brutalized to near-death by her marauders, leaving her to rot with what's left her own kin because she was "too ugly" to be "sold."
It was the only time in her life that she was thankful for her vitiligo.
"... I see," Father Galilei remarked, feeling a hint of compassion for the young woman and her prior ordeal.
"I was nothing more than a corpse waiting for the vultures to take me while the rest of my country burned," she revealed. "Then, as if it were an act of God, a Church Exorcist then found little, old, me, among the pile of bodies left to rot in the sun."
"Ah, so it was our Lord's will that you were saved!" Father Galilei remarked, causing Yozakura to briefly emit a burst of murderous intent, enough so to let the former take a hint and shut up.
"... 'Saved'?" she scoffed with utter malice. "... That word implies that they wanted me as a human being."
Then she remembers the next chapter of her life at the Church, with her being inducted as an Acolyte upon her holy energy signature being off the charts a year after she was evacuated from Darfur.
"From one war to another..." she snickered bitterly as she recalled how she was able to complete her training within a year. "... I began thinking to myself: 'Am I doomed to forever live in conflict wherever I go'?"
She then could recall the withering stares aimed at her back, with her gazed at envy of her young talent and being subjected to bullying simply because she was the only African within the halls of the Church.
"... 'Cow-face,' they called me, because of my marred skin," she recalled with a hint of sardonic mirth. "Apparently, brutalizing my instructor in front of my peers wasn't enough to get them to shut up."
"Did you at least report your treatment to the other members of the Clergy?" asked the Archbishop. "... I mean, we're all children of God, aren't we? Surely, bullying won't be tolerated in His halls!"
Yozakura snorts before laughing. "... Coming from the man who gassed children who hailed from the same institution?!" she pointed out as her laughter peters out. "... That's rich."
She then lets out a sigh before resuming the rest of her recounting.
"You know when I said that if they were really meant to save me, then they would've treated me like a person?" Yozakura remarked. "... Well, turns out that visit to Darfur wasn't merely charity work. They were looking for a special bloodline. Mine specifically. I was never a person to them, even as I became an Intermediate Exorcist with the blood of those so-called 'heretics' covering me from head to toe before girls my age had their first period. I wasn't a person, even as I outclassed my so-called peers who were twice my age to the point where I was set to become an Inquisitor answering only to the Magisterium."
Father Galilei continued to listen attentively as he continued with his work, noting that Yozakura's illustrious career as an Exorcist would've sanctified her as a legend akin to the current Grand Master, the "Strongest Exorcist of the Church." But as he continued to listen, the Archbishop understood why she was so bitter.
"... I was merely a 'weapon'," she answered. "My accomplishments and inputs were irrelevant. My concerns were secondary-no, tertiary to the 'greater good.' My objections were ignored as I was transferred to the Islam Faith of the Church as an Executor, hoping that my talents would be used to bring order to the branch that has been in civil war for generations, with me as their next 'Muhammad,' despite me being born without a dick and a pair of balls, all so that they themselves don't have to get their hands dirty dealing with that bedlam of their own creation."
Father Galilei blinked at how STUPID the Magisterium's decision was regarding her. "... Wow," he deadpanned. "... Remind me, what were they thinking of making you work with those who have made you suffer, albeit in association only?"
Yozakura snickered sardonically. "... Who knows?" she remarked. "... Maybe they wanted me to seek redemption rather than revenge. Maybe they thought my strength alone would've been enough to put aside their Shia-Sunni-bullshit and finally do the Church's bidding. Honestly, I couldn't care less. They didn't listen to a single word I said nor as much as glanced at my accomplishments of slaying Stray Devils and Exorcists alike, save for their rancor and condescension simply because I was not a man."
She then recalls her final mission, where her contingency of Executors were sent to Afghanistan to intercept a Cluster of Stray Exorcists from joining the Taliban.
Unlike other Stray Exorcists, the groups like the Taliban, ISIS, and Al-Qaeda were TOO overt with their operations, with cameras, media footage, and recently, social media, on them, 24/7, even going as far as some of them becoming a part of the legitimate government of whatever nation they're operating in, meaning that the moment the Church takes direct action against them, the risk of the masquerade between the mundane and the supernatural world collapsing would be too much. As a result, the next best thing was to prevent their ranks from swelling with actual Stray Exorcists who are well-versed in supernatural warfare.
"'Let the US military and NATO handle them,' they said," Yozakura reminiscenced. "So, we Executors did what we do best: disappear people who look at the Church the wrong way."
Father Galilei then looks back as sees the young woman smiling maniacally.
"... They wanted a weapon." She then began to chuckle to herself, giddily like a child. "... Going by that analogy, I gave them the strongest, the most deadliest weapon there was."
Yozakura then happily remembers on how she slaughtered "friend" and foe alike, leaving the mountains of Afghanistan littered with corpses of her so-called "allies" who did nothing but look and talk down to her for every little thing she did, and the enemies, to which they stood for what she despised the most: slaughtering people they don't like in the name of God.
"... I gave them a landmine."
Father Galilei's eyes then widened to remember a certain rumor where a retired Exorcist, who became a Father of a local chapel in Sicily, met his end via a bomb package.
That explosion killed three others and horrifically injured several more bystanders nearby, with rumors that a mafia hitman had done this horrific deed. But now he was certain that the same Father was the one who had "rescued" Yozakura and the latter had enacted her revenge with said weapon analogy.
"After cutting off all of my ties with the Church, I ran East," she continued. "Me, all the age of thirteen, going Stray. First Pakistan, where the Church's Executors led by one of the Magisterium proved to be a challenge for once, given that I almost died fighting a hundred of them all at once on top of a train. Then, I found my Holy Sword that I keep sheathed in India. Traversing through Bangladesh, I then found myself at Myanmar, spending a couple months as a mercenary fighting for both the junta and various ethnic militia groups. I then picked up Jianshu and Wing Chun in China, both mastered in less than a year total. And after stealing a fishing boat, I found myself washed ashore in South Korea, where I met Re:Live, who then hired me after they were done stealing billion dollars worth of won from Samsung chaebol's liquid assets. Under them, I did covert jobs, secured assets, and trained two of House Phenex's brats on how to dodge attacks, and they were one of the few who made me draw my Holy Sword. All of that, within five to ten, very eventful years."
"... You lived quite the storied life, didn't you?" Father Galilei commented. "... You have quite a backstory akin to that of an anti-hero, like the Punisher or Spawn."
"You think my penchant for masks and horrific backstory makes me superhero-material?" Yozakura deadpanned. "... My life is not one of glory or renown. It's simply one of death. Nothing more. I'm nothing but a corpse propelled by violence, because that's all I know in my life. The notion of 'God' is simply an excuse to commit atrocity. At least I don't deny my actions as my own doing."
Father Galilei didn't know what to make of that last line. "... Well, at least you're honest," the Archbishop replied. "That's better than most people."
"Including you?" she deadpanned.
"Oh no, I am simply doing the Lord's work, but I have long-term investments to coincide with it," he answered as Father Galilei then shared his own backstory while continuing his work. "... Believe it or not, I was an orphan myself."
Yozakura blinks. "... Really now."
"Yes, yes, I am aware of the irony." The Archbishop waves her off before resuming his life story. "... Indeed, I never knew my parents. Just some ragamuffin in the streets of Palmero, rummaging through trash for his next meal, fighting other street rats for whatever we had on our backs, and getting kicked out of whatever underfunded orphanages because the director forgot to pay 'protection money.' We were a bunch of troublemakers back then. Never knew the light of God in my life, only the pit in my soul that screamed in hunger, demanding that it be filled, was my first friend in life."
"... So you found God by running into a Church?" Yozakura deadpanned.
"Yes, but also no," the Archbishop corrected. "Before my fateful encounter with Deus Trinity... a certain dumpster dive changed my life forever."
He then fondly smiles as he remembers that warm and fuzzy feeling upon finding the very thing that defined his very existence.
"... It was a First-Edition copy of Superman Volume 1, published in the year of our Lord, 1939," revealed the Archbishop. "My bible before the Church's good book! 'Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!' Superman, THE superhero!"
All Yozakura could do was roll her eyes in exasperation, wondering how a street rat-turned-comic book-geek became a man of God.
"And when the Church took me in at the age of ten... I was enraptured!" he continued. "Various heroes anointed by Deus Trinity's light! From Moses, the Great Liberator! Samson, the Judge of Philistines! Jesus Christ, the Great Martyr! Saint Peter, the Luminary and Founder of the Church itself! I read and memorized their great deeds by heart, and aspired to do the same! I cut my teeth as an Exorcist for twenty years and became Archbishop after serving the Lord in the front lines! After years of hardship, I finally understood why I was born into this world!"
If Yozakura were able to look at the "Genocide Archbishop" in the eyes right now, then she would be utterly shocked to find a childlike innocent gleaming in his mad and glazed gaze.
"The world I was born in is cast in darkness, so a champion is needed to bring the people towards our Lord and Savior! In essence, this world needs a superhero!" Father Galilei remarked without malice. "The Holy Sword Project was of my design to bring that vision to reality! It was to turn the meek and weak into the greatest superhero there is! The next King Arthur! The next Charlemagne! The next Superman! I sought to make the ultimate superhero so that I can bring people the hope that they've long been denied!"
"And of the bodies you left behind?" Yozakura pointed out. "And may I reiterate: I kill because it was my choice, not because of the name of God."
"Eh, can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs," the Archbishop dismissed. "Even I knew that my life's work would be questionable or 'inhumane' to some, but as long as I see it complete, then I will die without any regrets. Be it Heaven or Hell, as long as my labor brings this world hope, I am content."
All the Stray Exorcist could do was chuckle. "... I see, you're not evil as the Church makes you out to be," she commented. "... You're insane beyond all reason."
"Bah! Everyone's a critic nowadays..." Father Galilei then resumes his work. "... And that's all there is of me. Just a man who really likes superheroes."
"Sublime." Yozakura then hops off the casket she was sitting on before heading towards the door as she put her hannya mask back on. "... I shall resume with my duties as you are, so excuse me."
*SLAM*
Father Galilei sighs as he then looks at the casket's window showing the young girl's face slumbering behind it.
"What a waste of a superhero origin story, I'd tell you..." he grumbled before fully returning to his work. "Kids these days... all with their doom and gloom."
8th of June, 2019 AD
"... We now literally covered all of Gifu."
Leon, Xenovia, Irina, Takeshi, Koneko, Pandora, and Raynare all looked down at the marked map of the whole prefecture, with the areas they searched on the map being crossed out.
After a whole week of searching, nothing.
"Are... you FUCKING KIDDING ME?!" Irina then grabs the camp table before flipping it and everything else on it over in a fit of rage, following it up with grabbing the Fallen Angel by the collar of her sweater and pulling her towards her. "WE LITERALLY HAVE NOTHING?!"
"DON'T BLAME ME FOR THAT CRAP!" Raynare defended as she was being throttled around. "MY BOSS DIDN'T GIVE ME ANY POINTERS WHEN THEY DEPLOYED ME HERE!"
"Speaking of..." Koneko then turned towards Takeshi. "... Anything?"
The Evil Dragon User shook his head as he checked his phone, turning up with nothing sans his unreplied messages. "Nope. Radio silence."
"Wonderful," Xenovia groaned as she sat on the grass. "We have no idea where the enemy is, nor do we know where that damn Knight that went Stray last week is! At this point, I'm assuming that he's probably dead in some random ditch in who-knows-where!"
"If that were the case, then we would've received a text from the President," Pandora pointed out. "After all, the Evil Piece System keeps track of its Holders' lifeforce. If Yuuto had truly died, then she would be the very first to know."
Leon sighs as he sits down on the camping chair. "... Something's not adding up," he pointed out. "At this point, the enemy probably knows that we're already here, so why is it that they haven't sent anyone to at least spy on us?"
"I think you answered your own question there, man." Takeshi remarked as he picked up the mess on the ground before picking the table back up and setting back onto its proper orientation. "... At this point, it's a game of chicken. Whoever plays their first loses. Remember, Kokabiel is a SSS-Ranked Stray and a veteran of the Great War, but realistically, he can't fight a war with only what he has within his reach. My guess is that the stolen [Excalibur] fragments are a crux of whatever his cockamamy plan may entail."
"Never took a survivor of the Great War to be such a pussy!" Yamata no Orochi cackled.
"May be rich coming from me, an Evil Dragon, but I'm honestly starting to consider praying for a miracle that our enemy does something monumentally stupid in our favor," Nidhogg deadpanned, bored out of his mind after a whole week of nothing.
"ANYTHING TO RID OURSELVES OF THIS TEDIUM!" Grendel roared out with such intensity that it caused [Cataclysm Zone] around Takeshi's waist to rock in place, slightly jostling him around.
Everyone groans in annoyance as they realize they're out of options save for waiting for Kokabiel to finish his plans (again, whatever they may be) and react accordingly.
Takeshi himself plops onto the grass as he looks above at the sunsetting sky, completely exhausted from the whole week of searching all of Gifu.
"Senpai, we're going for another sweep with my familiars and on the road before we wrap up for today," Koneko said as she crouched down before his head (probably on purpose). "... You coming?"
"Give me like... five minutes... of shuteye," he grumbled before closing his eyes, trying to take a nap before repeating the slog again.
Honestly, for him, it was starting to become too much, even for him.
The various deadlines of stopping whatever Kokabiel was planning, to finding Yuuto, and recruiting another Peerage member before the 15th lest ORC's building gets blown up. All of it, weighing upon his head at once, was nothing short of tumultuous.
Takeshi could feel his head thumping like a piston as he closes his eyes, the synapses in his brain begging for mercy as the sounds of pounding kept rhythmically drumming into his ears-
"... Wait a freaking minute." Takeshi then opened his eyes as his eyes then looked towards his right, feeling that there was something coming from the forest next to them. "... Guys?"
"What is it?" Leon asks after Irina then lets Raynare go.
He then groggily gets up before walking towards the forest where he could swear that he could hear those thumping sounds coming from that direction. "... You guys... hear anything coming from... like, over there?"
Everyone looked towards where the Evil Dragon User was pointing towards.
"... Can't sense anything coming from it, no," Pandora remarked as she lowered her shades from her eyes. "No spirits are being disturbed. Everything seems normal."
"Oh, I get it," Xenovia deadpanned. "You've finally gone insane."
Maybe she was right. Maybe Takeshi has gone insane to be hearing something from a place that they've already checked earlier this week.
Then, an errant thought emerged from the depths of his consciousness.
"Koneko, Pandora," he said, calling towards them as he kept staring into the forest. "... Remind me, but who came up with the magical formula that was a thing during our training camp at Mt. Ishizuchi?"
"I think it was Lord Beelzebub... and-" Pandora then suddenly goes slack-jawed. "... Oh my gods."
Koneko smacks her face in disbelief. "Re:Live."
The three of them then begin running into that part of the forest as they begin searching.
"What's happening?!" Irina asked.
"Call me crazy, but I think my friend might be onto something!" Leon replied as he and the rest of the Exorcists witnessed Takeshi pressing his ear against the dirt.
"You're right, I'm thinking that you're crazy, Inquisitor," Xenovia deadpanned as Raynare began panicking before pulling out her phone, texting Re:Live on where they are right now.
Still nothing. "GODDAMMIT!"
Takeshi then continued listening to the ground, and now realizing that the thumping sound was becoming more prominent.
Rather than the thumping sound coming from another space entirely, it sounded as if there was someone stamping the ground on where he was laid on the ground right now, as if Takeshi himself was the incorporeal ghost in the room occupied by people.
"... Okay, so just a refresher, but how does the space-time formula work, exactly?" he asked.
"If I remember correctly, Lord Beelzebub's formula erects a 'parallel space' within the area it was erected in, effectively creating a pocket dimension within said same space," Koneko recalled as she then emits her ki to feel for any ambient life forces. "Simply put, the 'admin' can lock out the area from outsiders unless they allow them in."
"So how does it look from the outsiders who aren't allowed in?" Takeshi asked another question as he mentally notes the sounds of thumping becoming more consistent.
"Depending on the quality, I think the area it occupies either comes out as deserted, or we won't notice anything changing," Pandora pointed out as she summons Gin to further survey the area. "However, depending on how much activity goes on within the space, the rate of degradation can vary."
The way she had described it, it reminded Takeshi of the reports he read about Zenkō Temple in Nagano, in how the Yomi Faction had taken it over and used the ley lines connecting it to teleport in and out of Shimane when they took Koneko.
"... Son of a bitch, WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT SOONER?!" Takeshi growled as he scratched his head furiously before calming down. "... Guys, I have a plan, but you're not gonna like it."
"Anything, because even I find the lack of progress very disturbing!" Leon consented as the Evil Dragon User sighs.
Pandora and Koneko immediately bolt out of the forest with Raynare upon picking up on his implication behind the sigh.
"... I just remembered that the Evil Dragons hate magic," Takeshi explained. "So if I'm able to... say, exploit that little tidbit to our advantage, then maybe, just maybe, I might be able to at least, test my hypothesis."
Irina and Xenovia look at each other. "What are you going to do, exactly?"
Takeshi then takes a deep breath before walking up towards Leon and turning his back towards him. "... Hold onto me," he requested. "... I'm gonna do a Dragon's roar."
With that in mind, the two Exorcists then take several steps back before muffling their ears with their hands.
"[Excalibur Blessing] ready?" Takeshi asks Leon. "I do not want to be responsible for your eardrums getting ruptured."
The Inquisitor nods as his Holy Sword glows in activation. "Do it."
Taking a deep breath once more, Takeshi then taps into his [Cataclysm Zone]'s innate draconic energy before bellowing out a bassy roar that causes all of the forest's trees to shake in place.
Koneko, Pandora (w/Gin), and Raynare all collapse in agony as the sound of the roar rippled through the air, vibrating their muscle tissues violently as they could feel their nerves being throttled by the Evil Dragon's roar rocking the world itself.
"OH MY GOD! THIS IS SOMEHOW JUST AS BAD AS HIS INFERNAL SINGING!" the Fallen Angel cried out in agony.
Koneko then pivots her head around as she lays on the dirt, seeing a slight distortion within the space where the roar was coming from. "... It's-IT'S WORKING!" she confirmed. "I CAN SEE THE SPATIAL BOUNDARY BEING EXPOSED!"
"WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?!" Pandora then dismisses Gin from the material plane. "COME ON!"
Takeshi keeps roaring as the space before his and the Church operatives' eyes distorted and rippled like water, outlining a dome-like space being outlined from its sea of translucency.
"THE SPACE WAS RIGHT NEXT TO US THIS WHOLE TIME?!" Irina pointed out.
"HOW ARE WE GOING TO GET IN?!" Xenovia asked.
"I HAVE AN IDEA!" Leon then unsheathes his [Fragarach]. "DDRAIG!"
"[Dragon Booster]!" Then around the Inquisitor's left arm, [Boosted Gear] manifests. "[Boost]! [Boost]! [Boost]!"
With a single swing, Leon then rakes his Holy Sword towards the spatial distortion, cutting open a faint gap in space.
"WE HAVE OUR WAY IN!" Takeshi then leaps towards the gap before jumping in. "EVERYONE FOLLOW ME!"
First Takeshi, then Leon, followed up by Irina and Xenovia, and lastly, Koneko, Pandora, and Raynare jumped into the open spatial gap.
All of them land onto a pile the moment they end up inside the isolated pocket dimension.
"Ow..." Takeshi grimaced as he crawled out of the mosh pit. "... Okay, so, where are we-?"
*CLANG!*
Acting quickly, Takeshi then catches a flung sword by clapping one between his hands before it could reach his face, while at the same time, another lands right between his legs, narrowly castrating him by a mere few centimeters (and a stroke of good luck).
"... I think I pissed myself," Takeshi winced.
"Given that you nearly turned to that tin man from last week, I'd say amen to that, bro," Yamata no Orochi agreed as did everyone else, the latter slowly coming to and finding themselves in this spatial bubble.
Everyone then looks around their new surroundings, and found themselves in an area that can best be described as a wasteland in the making.
The trees were snapped in two and/or in various states of destruction brought upon by the elements. The ground itself was cracked, arid, and planted with so many chipped, dented, and broken blades akin to that of a battlefield deserted of its soldiers or a mass graveyard for those who have fought before. The sky was dark and murky, as if the spatial bubble itself was illuminated through a veil of murky black akin to ink drawn from its stone.
"... You knew, that this place, WAS RIGHT NEXT TO US THIS WHOLE TIME?!" Irina then grabbed Raynare by her tits and pulled her down to her eye level.
"MY BOSS DIDN'T TELL ME ANYTHING, I SWEAR!" the Fallen Angel pleaded.
"Your 'sponsor' is turning out to be more of a villain than you, Evil Dragon User," Xenovia deadpanned as she saw Takeshi pluck out one of the swords planted into the earth before scrutinizing it.
"... Yep, definitely Yuuto's." He then tosses the blade aside, shattering it as it hits the ground. "Alright, let's go find him in this damned hellhole..."
It didn't take long for the group of seven to find Yuuto and Re:Live, the former attacking the latter with his Demonic Swords from his [Sword Birth].
"It's been 30 days," the superhero pointed out as they easily blocked the Knight's blows with their rainbow-bladed [Caladbolg]. "... I find your lack of progress extremely disturbing."
Yuuto was then pushed back, flying across the dead land as he was sliding across the arid earth, dislodging several more of his own creations from their earthen prisons before he came to a halt.
He then tries to get up, using his basic Demonic Sword as a crutch to lift up his trembling and battered body. "... Not yet!"
Takeshi, Koneko, and Pandora saw the state where their fellow Knight was in. His shirt was basically gone to the shredder, his exposed torso was sporting scratches on top of the faded scars that marred his body, his blond hair was disheveled and dirtied with grime and sweat, and his demeanor was verging on becoming completely feral.
"Senpai!" Koneko then tried calling out to him, but Yuuto didn't pay her any heed.
"He's not listening...!" Pandora pointed out as she tried to reach towards him with her Charm, but Yuuto was too blinded with rage to even register her presence, let alone anyone else's. "... How?!"
"IS THAT [CALADBOLG]?!" Irina cried out as she recognized the Holy Sword held by Re:Live. "I THOUGHT IT WENT MISSING FROM DUBLIN'S ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL TWENTY YEARS AGO!"
"I think we now know who was behind that grand theft..." Xenovia grimaces as Yuuto then rushes towards the armored superhero for the umpteenth time in a row.
Manifesting both [Blast Ogre] and [Flame Delete] in his hands, the Knight swings down both blades towards Re:Live as the latter easily dodges his attacks and the following flurry of stabs and slashes.
Re:Live didn't even so much as lift their Holy Sword above waist-level, instead letting it hang in their grip as if it were a mere accessory.
"... Are my eyes deceiving me?" Leon remarked. "Re:Live's moving like a lightweight boxer while carrying that thing?!"
"Is it really that odd?" Takeshi asked as he looked at the rainbow-bladed broadsword dancing with Re:Live as they dodged Yuuto's increasingly-inflamed and sloppy attacks. "I mean, that thing looks cumbersome, but I think it's within the realm of possibility that one can master it if given enough time..."
"You're a fool, Evil Dragon User," the Catholic Exorcist dismissed. "[Caladbolg] is an odd Holy Sword, in that literally anyone can use it in its full power... but no one can actually wield it due to weighing as much as a mountain."
"I heard alleged rumors that the blade was forged from a meteorite that was actually a piece of a collapsed sun's core," Irina interjected. "A mere 1/100,000,000,000th of it, hypothetically speaking. At least, that's what the Church researchers have claimed, but even then, the results are still... inconclusive, to say the least."
Raynare nods as she sees her boss utterly clown Yuuto without doing anything. "... I can vouch for that,' she confirmed. "... Before I got 'hired,' I got suckered into using that thing before they punched me in the face with Thor's gauntlets while I was trying to pull that thing out of the ground."
"Good riddance." Irina rolled her eyes.
"Oh, so that's how you got caught..." Koneko remarked as she and the others continued spectating in Yuuto's fight against Re:Live, who despite the former's repeated efforts, couldn't make up the sheer power and skill difference between himself and the superhero, who was wielding a sword that literally no one on the planet can wield (sans themselves) one-handed, and with barely any effort.
Yuuto then moves in for a double-pincer swing towards Re:Live's neck, but just then, the superhero shifts [Caladbolg] narrowly into the former's line of sight...
*CLANG!*
"... Did he just...?" Takeshi then rubs his eyes and making sure that he and the others weren't just seeing things, only for him to be proven wrong on his initial assumptions as everyone saw Yuuto concentrate all of his attacks onto [Caladbolg] itself, breaking one Demonic Sword after another, his [Sword Birth]'s production rate barely keeping up with the attrition rate that the User was straining himself towards. "... Now everything makes sense."
"His hatred for Holy Swords runs so deep that he views the blades themselves as the enemy rather than the ones wielding them..." Pandora revealed as everyone saw that Yuuto's attacks were solely dedicated to breaking [Caladbolg], only for his efforts to be proven utterly fruitless as more broken blades littered the wasteland of his own making.
"Now I understand why he's so weak," Xenovia added as Yuuto's advance failed to do anything to Re:Live, let alone damage their Holy Sword. "... His mind is clouded by hatred of the very concept that has ruined him."
"I grow tired of this farce." Re:Live then flips [Caladbolg]'s grip to have them hold the Holy Sword by its prismatic blade. "Stay down."
*CRACK!*
Yuuto screams in agony as the side of his knee was struck by the Holy Sword's crossguard before he was then whacked across his face by the sword's pommel, and then as Re:Live then lifted up their weapon over their head like a hammer, the crossguard then smashed itself into Yuuto's head, striking him down like a rail spike that it sent Yuuto crashing face-first into the dirt.
"That was the mordhau technique..." Irina commented as Re:Live then planted [Caladbolg] into the ground with such force that it emits a quaking shockwave that vibrates the earth like the face of a struck drum. "... They aren't just strong. They actually know how to use all parts of the sword in its full effectiveness."
The superhero scoffs before turning towards the group of seven. "... You gonna heal him or what?"
Screaming in panic upon being noticed, all of them then rushes towards the downed Yuuto, with Leon using his [Excalibur Blessing] to heal the Knight's wounds while Pandora and Koneko apply their own healing magic to mend his wounds and injuries.
"Come to think of it, [Excalibur Blessing] is a Holy Sword, right?" Takeshi asks Leon. "I'm kinda curious, but why is it healing Devils without any ill-effects? Not that I'm complaining, that is."
"Remember, [Excalibur Blessing] is a sword that can't cut," Leon answered as he surgically inputs his Holy Sword's regenerative properties towards where Yuuto needed it the most. "The only time when it does actual, purposeful harm is when any Devil tries to wield it assuming that it's a weapon that can cut. It punishes selfishness and malice while rewarding altruism and goodwill. A paradoxical weapon that fits well with my personal beliefs."
Takeshi sighs in relief that there weren't any (technical) strings attached behind [Excalibur Blessing]'s healing abilities as Yuuto slowly came to. "Oh thank the Satans, you're alright-!"
The Knight shoves everyone aside as he then makes his way back towards Re:Live. "... Not yet!" he snarled. "I'm not done-!"
"No." The superhero then slouches their back onto the flat of their planted [Caladbolg] while sitting on the ground. "... You're done."
Yuuto then gnashes his teeth in rage, his seething rage boiling over as he was held back by Pandora, Koneko, and Takeshi before the former could do anything stupid. "WHY?!" he shouted. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT I'M DONE?!"
Re:Live scoffs as they remained impassive. "... Tell me," they asked. "... Did you learn anything during our time spent here?"
The Stray Knight tries to answer, but nothing comes out of his mouth as his head comes empty. "... What was I supposed to learn that I already don't know?!" he pointed out. "I KNOW THAT I'M NOT STRONG ENOUGH-!"
"No," Re:Live rebuffed. "You assume that strength is the end-all be-all."
The superhero just sat before their planted [Caladbolg], their relaxed posture indicating that Yuuto's no longer a threat to them.
"I'll put it into a way that an idiot like you can understand," they revealed. "You've learned nothing."
Those last words cause all the fight in Yuuto to leave his body, crushing what little of his soul left into irrelevance as Re:Live stood up and approached the Knight, towering over them like a god to a common peasant.
"Behold, the monuments of your repeated failure." They then stretched out their arms towards the field of broken blades around them. "Every blade you see here is not the sign of your efforts, but your insistence on being stubborn to your old ways where you believe that you are entitled to whatever sense of revenge you think you deserve. All this time, you only assumed that you were taking baby steps towards the path you think will lead you to your ultimate realization, but have you ever considered, even once, that you're on the wrong path?"
Yuuto's whole body trembles as he falls onto his knees, released by his fellow Peerage members as tears begin to cascade from his eyes. "... I can't be wrong!" he sobbed. "... I... I'M NOT WRONG!"
"Really now?" Re:Live then goes back to their seat before sitting back down on the dirt. "... Then tell me why. Tell me, Kiba Yuuto, of why your can't be wrong despite your 16-year long streak of repeat performances and stubborn insistence of viewing the Holy Swords themselves as the enemy!"
The Evil Dragons snicker in anticipation from within [Cataclysm Zone] as they along with everyone else began to listen attentively.
"... I never had parents," he revealed. "... In fact, I wasn't even born naturally. I was synthetically produced as a homunculus for the Holy Sword Project, under the designation 'Isaiah'."
Takeshi blinked stupidly before looking back at the Church operatives, who in turn were looking away in varying degrees of shame. "... Your organization literally played God."
"To be fair, we were forced into that after you Devils kept killing our faithful faster than we could draw in new followers," Xenovia defended, to which Koneko rolled her eyes while Pandora sighs and shook her head in disbelief.
"Both of you, shut the fuck up," Raynare warned as Yuuto continued his backstory.
"... I was basically a lab rat ever since I could walk on my own. While the orphanage I was raised in began taking children who longed to know who their parents were, I had nothing waiting for me outside," he continued. "... I knew that as someone who had nothing, I had to protect those who had something to lose in their lives. So I was always the first to be tested on, the first to step up during examinations, and the first to take the brunt of everyone's suffering... all just to give them one more day, another single day just to make sure that bastard who 'raised' us doesn't take whatever hope we had left in our lives. Another day... where I could hope to protect those who were younger than me from that demon in human skin's perversions."
The Evil Dragons' malicious laughter boomed from the gem of [Cataclysm Zone].
"Given that they're not around, I suppose that in the end, it was all for naught," taunted Nidhogg.
"Bro, you were just some bedwarmer bitch getting probed every night. What sort of leverage did you think you had over that pedo?" the Evil Dragon of Lust pointed out. "Then again, stupid kids being stupid is something I can't blame you for, even if you didn't come out of someone else's vagina."
Yuuto grits his teeth as his hands clump up the dirt in his grip coiling with his rage and despair. "... Don't tell me what I already know!" he cried out, his breathing becoming more strained with sorrow. "It's because of those Holy Swords! It's because those who wanted to make weapons out of lives that they cannot control! It's... because of them... That they all died. They all died! Because of me! Because of those Holy Swords that are greedy for Users that can meet their expectations! I HATE THEM! I HATE THE HOLY SWORDS FOR KILLING EVERYONE THAT I WAS TRYING TO SAVE! I hate them...! I hate them... that I failed to protect those who still had a future!"
Takeshi connected the dots of Yuuto's whole background. He could internalize that being born as an artificial human being without any self-worth would make him the perfect martyr. But at the same time, it just felt wrong on an instinctual and fundamental level.
"And above all else... the architect of my despair... escaped justice," Yuuto revealed. "... I can't avenge those who I failed to protect... so at the very least, I sought to become strong enough to destroy the Holy Swords with my own two hands! I'll show the Church that their Holy Swords are not perfect! THAT THEY DON'T DESERVE MILLIONS TO BE SACRIFICED BEFORE THE VERY ALTAR THAT WHICH THEY REST UPON!"
Takeshi was beyond horrified at how far Yuuto's rancor stretched. "... You're wrong," he muttered. "... What about you? What about us? What about ORC?!"
"... I don't care," Yuuto replied. "... I know well enough that it sounds stupid-"
"BECAUSE YOU ARE BEING STUPID, YOU DUMBASS!"
*WHACK!*
Takeshi punches Yuuto across his face in a fit of rage, sending the latter tumbling across the arid ground.
"... What the Hell?!" the Stray Knight hissed as he wiped the blood seeping from his lips. "WHAT THE FUCK, RYUUGAMINE?!"
"LISTEN TO YOURSELF, YOU FUCKING DUMBASS!" Takeshi shouted back. "TRYING TO BE SOME HERO FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE ALREADY DEAD?! GET REAL! THE DEAD DON'T COME BACK, AND JOINING THEM ISN'T DOING ANYONE A FAVOR, ESPECIALLY YOU!"
Yuuto's rage peaks past its boiling point as he then gets back up. "... WHAT DO YOU KNOW?!"
*WHACK!*
Now it was Takeshi's turn to get clocked across the face and tumble across the dirt.
"WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MY PAIN?!" Yuuto cried out as Takeshi got up. "WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MY LIFE THAT I DON'T?!"
"I DON'T!"
*WHACK!*
Yuuto gets punched in the face again, the two now engaging in a fistfight as they shoved, punched, and kicked each other in this extremely-heated exchange of emotions.
"We have to stop them!" Irina pointed out as she and everyone else tried to intervene, only to be stopped by Re:Live shooting their Beretta 92FS Inox at their feet.
"Let them be," they ordered. "They need to lay their emotions bare. Through unmasking their mutual rage to each other, they will reach true understanding."
Raynare nods in agreement. "... Boss has a point," she commented as she and the others watch Takeshi and Yuuto brutalize each other with nothing but their physical prowess, neither side even dodging or guarding from each others' attacks, letting their fists do all the talking in their place. "... Not like we can do anything else to actually help."
And so, Takeshi and Yuuto kept punching each other in their faces, pouring out all of their bottled-up emotions to each other until both of them were too exhausted to continue.
"STAY OUT OF THIS, RYUUGAMINE!" Yuuto then drove his fist into Takeshi's face. "THIS IS MY FIGHT! I ALONE HAVE TO SETTLE THIS!"
"YOU IDIOT!" Takeshi then retaliates by punching Yuuto in the face. "QUIT PLAYING THE HERO! THIS IS MORE THAN JUST ABOUT YOURSELF, KIBA!"
After a prolonged exchange of fists, the two Devils end the fight with both of their fists ending up onto each other's faces simultaneously. With that final exchange, both of them collapse onto their backs in exhaustion, their faces swelled, bruised, and bloodied, finally able to be in each others' presences, with nothing to hide behind after laying all of their grievances bare.
"... Feeling better?" Takeshi mumbled. "I for one... can't feel my face."
Yuuto grits his teeth in apprehension.
"... Why?"
"... Can you repeat that?" the Evil Dragon User requested.
"Why are you going this far...?" the Stray Knight asked. "For me... of all people?"
"Stupidest question you've ever asked, Yuuto," Takeshi replied. "... I care. That's all."
The Evil Dragon User sighs as he then continues with his response.
"... First of all, I'm really sorry if I didn't notice sooner," he apologized. "... The Evil Dragons in my soul took precedent, but that's no excuse to ignore anything that isn't my problem."
Everyone else nods in agreement about the whole "Evil Dragons taking precedent"-part.
"... And besides!" Takeshi then heaves as he looks up towards the murky sky. "Being the Peerage's designated reckless idiot... is my job. So quit biting my style, would ya?"
Yuuto began to weep as he did his best to hold back his tears. "... Why?" he asked as tears trickled down across his marred cheeks. "I don't understand...! Why are you going this far for me?! What's the point for sacrificing so much for someone like me?! Why are you risking so much for someone worthless as me?!"
After a few seconds of silence, Takeshi gives his answer.
"Because if I see you die... I'm going to become like the way you are right now."
Now it was Takeshi's turn to cry, wiping his eyes with his dirtied forearms.
"Your rage... is real," he sobbed, trying his best to hold back his tears. "... Your pain... is real. But you are also real! You're a real person, Yuuto! Don't throw your life away just because that bastard destroyed your soul!"
Everyone listened as a sense of epiphany struck their souls like an arrow to their hearts.
"... I also once thought that my life was for my own before I met you guys. Before I met ORC!" he revealed. "But once I found myself here... I finally understood! No one can live their lives alone, tethered solely to their past! Your friends back then are dead, but what do you think will happen to us if you die?!"
Yuuto looks away. "... I joined ORC because the President ordered as so-"
"BULLSHIT!" Takeshi rebutted fiercely. "'ORDERED AS SO' MY ASS! WE'RE NOT JUST DEVILS SERVING OUR PRESIDENT! WE'RE COMRADES THAT BLEED TOGETHER THROUGH THICK AND THIN! RIAS DIDN'T JUST TAKE YOU UNDER HER WING AS A CHARITY CASE! SHE DID IT BECAUSE SHE CARES ABOUT YOU, DAMMIT! SHE CARES ABOUT ALL OF US! She cares... because we're more than just some Peerage or some unsanctioned school club... We're a family, dammit. Don't go out there being a hero all by yourself."
Even after that appeal, Yuuto's heart stubbornly refused to fully open up to itself. "... You, let alone ORC, can't replace those who I failed to save."
"So are you saying that we don't matter to you after all this time?!" Takeshi rebutted, his tears now freely cascading down his cheeks. "... I don't want you or anyone else in ORC to die... so live dammit. Live the life that you have right now... because if you throw it away... then everything you've been through will truly be for nothing. Lives are born into this world... not manufactured. We can't replace you, man... You're the only Kiba Yuuto we know and love."
Koneko and Pandora silently agreed.
"... I don't want senpai, let alone anyone in ORC to die."
Pandora nods in agreement with Koneko's statement. "... Life is something I never thought I'd have before I met you all," she consented. "Please... don't make the same mistakes like I have!"
"She's right!" Irina added, her heart feeling the same pain as Takeshi and the other Devils are feeling right now. "... I know we won't be able to atone for what we in the Church have done to you and your friends... but please, that's no reason to flagellate yourself!"
"There's a whole life ahead of you, so please, don't waste it!" Leon begged. "Don't let your life be solely defined by despair!"
"I fucked up a lot in my own life, but Re:Live gave me a chance to turn things around," Raynare stated. "... You still have that time to change."
Xenovia was speechless, but even she silently agreed on what the others were saying. "... Don't let your demons prevail over you."
Yuuto couldn't understand why people were still supporting him. "... Why?" he asked. "... I don't deserve any of this... I'm... I'm not worth it-!"
"Bullshit that you aren't, you fucking brat."
From [Cataclysm Zone]'s now-verdant gem was Grendel's voice.
"Listen to yourself," the Evil Dragon of Wrath's bassy voice snarled. "... You claim that your path will be long and arduous, but are you certain that your former tormentors are going to give you that privilege of waiting for that long?! LOOK AT YOURSELF! THIS IS REALITY! AS YOU ARE NOW, YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A SLAVE! A WHIPPING BOY WORSHIPPING YOUR OWN SHAME!"
As much as everyone tried to protest, none could deny that Grendel, of all beings, raises a valid point.
"YOUR RAGE IS YOUR WEAPON! THE SOLE INSTRUMENT OF YOUR REDEMPTION!" Grendel continued his volcanic tirade that stirred Yuuto's shackled heart. "I SEE NAUGHT A WARRIOR NOR A SOLDIER DRIVEN BY RIGHTEOUS HATE, BUT A WEAK CHILD ABUSED BY HIS OWN FEARS LIKE A DOG! YOUR ORIGINS MATTER NOT! YOU ARE YOUR OWN MASTER OF YOUR DESTINY, AND THE ONE RESPONSIBLE FOR CHOOSING THE RIGHT CHOICE! SO QUIT YOUR FUCKING ONE-BITCH PITY-PARTY, GROW A FUCKING PAIR, AND BRANDISH YOUR BLADES TOWARDS YOUR ENEMY, NOT AT YOURSELF!"
Then it was at that moment, the chains around Yuuto's heart broke, setting his soul free.
"... I can?" he asked. "I... can choose my own... destiny?"
"That is the dumbest question that you could ever ask, brat. And given that I can't read for shit, then I suggest you take what I say to heart, because there's only one dumbass I'm willing to tolerate in my life," the Evil Dragon of Wrath replied. "... You're here. So do something with your life rather than let your pain enslave you. Blood is what determines the worth of your ire, not some cheap concept that your former tormentors seem to worship in place of their so-called God. So start drawing blood, BY ACTUALLY RUNNING YOUR BLADES THROUGH THEIR FUCKING CHEST AND NOT SOLELY AIM TO BREAK THEIR TOOLS! THAT PROVES NOTHING SAVE FOR THE FACT THAT YOU'RE AN IDIOT! THE BIGGEST IDIOT TO HAVE EVER GRACED THIS WORLD OF WANNABES AND HAS-BEENS!"
Yuuto now realizes why he'd failed to destroy [Excalibur] in the first place. "... All this time," he said as he looked at his own reflection projected by one of his many broken Demonic Swords scattered about, "I truly was a fool."
Re:Live then walks up towards where Yuuto and Takeshi were before lightly planting their [Caladbolg] between their heads. "You finally learned something."
The Knight then looks at his own reflection casted by the rainbow blade of the Holy Sword, now seeing it for what it really is.
"A sword is merely a sword. A tool, no matter how powerful it is, is simply a tool," declared the superhero. "And yet here you were, treating it like an evil god that you must slay. An idol that you must topple from its pedestal. Oh the irony of becoming as loathsome as your tormentor."
Yuuto gasps in realization as the flash of his tormentor's visage took place in his own reflection. "... Me... becoming like him?"
Then the realization struck him: his own hatred for the Holy Swords was no different from that bastard's mad reverence towards those things that he'd murdered countless children for.
Suddenly, that sense of hatred that he'd thought of as righteous... was nothing more than a delusion rooted in the worst kind of irony, causing him to look back at his initial rancor with naught but shame and embarrassment.
"You were never in any danger from the Holy Swords themselves to begin with." Re:Live then pulled out [Caladbolg] from the earth before they walked away. "... If it helps, I'll tell you this."
As soon as the superhero dematerialized their Holy Sword, the space around them began to disintegrate as the air before them rippled like water.
"... Father Galilei lives."
With that confirmation uttered out loud, Re:Live disappears without a trace as they all return back to the default setting of reality.
"I. Freaking. KNEW IT!" Takeshi then lets out a groan of frustrated realization.
Yuuto then bitterly chuckles in agreement. "... You know, it's funny," he stated. "... All this time, I thought my enemy was the Holy Swords themselves... when in reality, the real enemy was staring at my face back at the train out of Akihabara."
"So that cloaked man with the Stray Exorcists...!" Koneko gasped as she and everyone began connecting the dots.
"Of course the director of the Holy Sword Project would be the one to benefit the most from the theft of the [Excalibur] fragments..." Pandora grimaced.
Upon returning to reality, everyone shares a sigh of relief before reorienting themselves back to normal-colored night skies.
"... I'm so sorry for inconveniencing you all," Yuuto apologized before everyone.
"Like I care," Xenovia scoffed, to which she was then elbowed to the side by Irina. "What the?!"
"He just came out of a harrowing experience!" the Protestant Exorcist pointed out. "At least show some sympathy!"
"We're just glad you're okay." Takeshi then hugs Yuuto tightly. "... Don't you ever do anything like that ever again. At least, not without letting us know beforehand. But even so!"
Everyone shares an awkward chuckle.
"Anyway, I guess that's one case solved," Leon pointed out as he drew his [Excalibur Blessing] while approaching Takeshi and Yuuto. "You two, hold still."
Waving his Holy Sword's flat across their faces, their swells and bruises instantly heal.
"Now all that's left is to find Kokabiel's holdout and end this farce once and for all..." Raynare sighed. "... You guys are still up for that one more sweep before we wrap up for today, right?"
"I'm game." Koneko then summons her bat familiars.
Takeshi then walks ahead back to the base camp. "I'll go get my bike-"
"Whelp, heads up." The gem on [Cataclysm Zone]'s gem turns gray, indicating Nidhogg's presence being at the forefront. "I'm detecting strong presences coming up ahead."
Meanwhile, at Nemichi Shrine...
Lailah let out a deep breath as her [Shining Superstar] shone in her right eye as she sat in meditation supervised by Kokabiel.
For the past week or so, the broken Fallen Angel has been in this very spot where she sat and contemplated without so much as moving an inch from it, trying to center her own powers that have somehow, miraculously returned.
"... You can do it," the Stray Cadre reassured, resisting the urge to drink while watching over her as to maintain a sign of goodwill. "... You're still alive, so you still have a chance."
As Lailah remained in place to find her oneness, a wave of discomfort washes over the Cadre's head.
"... No, not yet!" Kokabiel's head throbbed as he clutched his head. "... No, please! Just a little longer!"
The pain he felt right now was unbearable, but nothing new.
He can remember everything that had happened during the Great War.
He could hear them, telling him to avenge their deaths.
He could see their apparitions, surrounding him like a fog.
He could remember all the battles they've fought together, both before and after his wings blackened.
He could still feel the despair of having his so-called leader call it quits when the fight has yet won while there were still many in his ranks who were willing-nay, desiring to lay down their lives for the fight, only to be ordered to drop their weapons and surrender.
He could never understand why.
"Damn you, Azazel...!" he growled as he resisted the urge to drink his pain away, something that he'd normally done for the past century or so. "... Do our lives mean nothing to you?!"
Then just as he was about to plummet back to his ever-revisited episodes, another pained cry caught his attention.
"... Lailah!"
The Stray Cadre then snaps out of his own spiral before coming to, witnessing his fellow Fallen Angel writhing in agony as her back begins to pulsate like boiling water.
Emerging from her bare back, the joints where the three of her six wings were destroyed and amputated, swelled up, like eggs that were about to be hatched.
"Such powers that I've-nay, naught even one of Heaven's Host hath witnessed...!" Kokabiel gasped in awe as Lailah's groans turned to screams, her body now thrashing within itself, prompting the Cadre to then hold her around his arms tightly as he did his best to act as his subordinate's sole anchor in her tumultuous voyage towards self-actualization and recovery. "... Hold fast, Lailah! I will ensure that you'll see it through!"
Donating his holy energy towards the Fallen Angel in agony, Lailah's boils emerging from her back swelled to the size of watermelons, until...
*SPLAT!*
Screaming as if she were giving birth, her missing wings have regrown, each quilled limb dripping wet and moist like a newborn chick.
"... It's over," Kokabiel reassured, feeling his subordinate's heaving pulsating into his own chest. "... You're well, Lailah. Be proud."
"... Yes, Milord." Then the Stray Cadre aids in standing Lailah back up to her feet. "... My wings! They've returned!"
Kokabiel nods before noticing something else different about her. "... Yes, and... that's not there's to it, it seems."
"What do you mean, Milord?" the Fallen Angel asked before her superior then pointed his finger towards the moonlit koi pond.
Heading towards it, she then looks down at her own cast reflection, seeing that her only eye, once sporting [Shining Superstar], was now replaced by something else entirely.
Gone was the lunar sigil of [Moody Phantom] and the solar sigil of [Shining Superstar], branded on her pupil was an entirely new sigil, one that vaguely resembles that of the sun and moon superimposed over each other, forming a brand-new ecliptic sigil with powers that signaled her [Urnal Binary]'s evolution.
And in the place of her overly-saccharine looking dress that she was forced to wear during her manifestation of [Shining Superstar], was a dark, gothic-style dress with bare (and toned) arms shown off to the rest of her world, but the rest of her body was conservatively covered, with dark legging under her slit long skirt and her pumps being raised barely in a centimeter-tall incline, making this outfit more practical for all forms of combat while retaining a sense of mature allure that Lailah was more attuned towards.
"... I can't believe it," Lailah remarked in disbelief. "... I had no idea that I could push my innate gifts to ever become this strong."
Kokabiel nods in agreement. "... I for one, have long given up on the rest of our kind striving towards greater heights," he pointed out. "... Apparently, I gave up too soon."
Both Fallen Angels sigh in relief that their objective is over.
"... Lord Kokabiel, I finally understand how you feel," said the Fallen Angel. "... To fight on in spite of the whole world being against us... who have long turned their backs against us simply because we're part of some 'history' that they declared obsolete... At first, I was apathetic, almost nonchalant, even thinking that the moment I became a Fallen Angel, is the moment where I simply wait to die."
"... That changed, didn't it?" he asked, her words somewhat resonating with him and his raison d'être.
Lailah nods in confirmation as her hand was placed over her navel, slowly balling into a fist as to hide something, even from her superior. "... I've been dead for the past century from my exile from Heaven, Lord Kokabiel," she declared. "... From now on, however short it may be... today is the day I live."
The Stray Cadre smiles. "... In the name of our fallen."
Lailah then places her fist over her heart. "... They shall be avenged."
After exchanging their wills and affirmations, the two then return back inside.
"... Yozakura."
*SWOOSH*
At Kokabiel's word, she then suddenly appears between them like a (fictitious and overblown) ninja, surprising Lailah.
"Sorry, blind spot." The Fallen Angel pointed towards her eyepatch.
"An update," the Stray Cadre ordered.
"The spatial barrier is still operational within capacity and currently maintained by our men after my daily input," the Stray Exorcist reported.
"What about our own little second iteration of the Holy Sword Project?" he asked.
"Father Galilei is working diligently and he is entering the final phase of his personal contribution," she revealed. "Unfortunately, after our delivery of the casket, I regret to inform you that any further shipments from our sponsor are unavailable after our Cerberus was reportedly intercepted by Asmodeus' men of the IMP."
Kokabiel grinds his teeth in frustration. "... Of all times, why now?!"
The IMP, or "Internal Matters Police," is Hell's equivalent of Japan's PubSec or America's FBI. A semi-clandestine law enforcement agency directed by Falbium Asmodeus, who in the Great War has proven his mettle as a brilliant tactician whose ploys and gambits have led many of Hell's victories.
Said victories came at the cost of lives of Kokabiel's comrades-in-arms, many of whom he'd known before his descent as a Fallen Angel and have followed him since.
Calming down upon realizing that there's no other feasible option to address that little hiccup, the Stray Cadre lets out a sigh before continuing. "... And what of the [Excalibur] fragments?"
"Coming together smoothly, thanks to the Holy Swords that your forces have acquired here in Japan," Yozakura confirmed. "The [Ichimonji], the [Masamune], and the [Kotetsu] are doing their jobs as both batteries and stabilizers for the recombination process. Last I checked in, [Nightmare], [Transparency], [Destruction], and [Mimic] are at 88% completion."
"Excellent, I'll notify the rest of our men to ensure that the process isn't disturbed," Kokabiel replied before grimacing, failing to hide his displeasure of having to ask this million-dollar question next. "... Where's Gadreel and Nuriel? They're at least ten minutes overdue from returning from their patrols."
Yozakura grumbles, sharing in her boss' annoyance. "... I'll go find them," she requested. "And I'll need a few men of my own. Strong as I am, I only have two hands, and I'll be needing both to drag back just one."
Kokabiel sighs. "... See to it that you do."
*SWOOSH*
Yozakura then disappears like a (again, fictitious) ninja, startling Lailah once again.
"... I didn't know she could do such a thing," the Fallen Angel commented.
"She's a woman of many talents, one that I greatly appreciate having around," Kokabiel replied before finally taking his long-awaited nip of whisky from his flask. "... And that's why I drink. My men are dedicated, but have occasionally proven themselves to be rather lacking."
"Nuriel included?" Lailah pointed out. "... I don't need to ask about Gadreel, Milord. Even I can tell that man is delusional, playing himself off as an 'artist'."
Kokabiel sighs. "... It's not that Nuriel is incompetent, in fact, they're quite capable of holding their own," he confided. "It's just that... out of all of us here, they're the mentally youngest. The Great War basically broke their soul so now I have to keep them on a short leash unless someone gives them any ideas."
"Overly dependent?" she pointed out.
"More like extremely gullible," the Stray Cadre confirmed before sighing. "... I shouldn't have kept my eyes off of them for a moment."
"Greetings, you Devil scum, Exorcist supplicants, and the damned traitor..."
Appearing in the middle of the destroyed base camp was none other than Gadreel with his (nonbinary) wingman, Nuriel, the latter being responsible for the destruction present, as evidenced by the number of hill-sized glaciers that have crushed everything that it had landed upon...
*CRUNCH*
... Including Takeshi's motorbike, crushed underneath a broken piece of the iceberg and reduced to scrap metal.
Again.
"MOTHERFUCKER!" Takeshi cursed.
"Language!" the matador-garbed Fallen Angel chided. "... As I was about to say."
He then brandishes a pair of sabres made of his own [Arms Ovation] trait as Nuriel flies higher up towards the night sky as they conjured several more magic sigils that summoned forth even more of the giant glaciers ready to be pelt down towards the group of eights' collective heads.
"Consider the following payback for what you all have done to me in Akihabara."
Meanwhile, at Kuoh Town...
It has been about two or three weeks since he was planted in House Sitri's service.
It's not uncommon for a Magician (especially ones down on their luck: magic alone doesn't pay the bills) to book their services between various Underworld noble Houses at the same time.
Granted, that arrangement is tolerated between allied Houses (House Gremory and Sitri are pretty tight-knit, even among Hell's nobility), but non-affiliated ones are at best, stretching the norms a bit.
Then again, it was that very same moral gray area (by the standards of ethics regarding doing business with Devils) that the freelance Magicians use is why he was able to keep his head above the financial drowning pit that he was in (as with many others in Japan; and probably the rest of the First World).
Anything to live another day-
*CRASH!*
The doors to his one-room apartment were kicked off of its hinges and landed next to him, with none other than Rias Gremory standing beyond the hole where the door once was.
"We need to talk."
But just before he could run for it...!
*ZAP!*
Akeno immediately shuts down his escape attempt via magic circle in the closet where he keeps his magic circle inside, via stunning him with a shot from her taser gun.
Unable to feel anything but pain below his neck and body, Rias then ties him up with magical red chains, suspends him up the ceiling with her [Lock Control], and yanks his sweatpants and boxers down while Akeno was putting on a massive, spike-studded, electricity-crackling, horse-cock strap-on the size of his entire forearm (with no signs of lube being applied) while Rias proceeds to turn his own living space into an impromptu torture chamber via erecting a soundproof barrier after repairing the door with her magic.
"Tell us who sent you to work for my friend Sona's House or you'll be shitting in a bag for the rest of your life."
He then immediately begins confessing, spurred by the terror of being paralyzed from the waist down via losing his first time in the worst possible way imaginable.
Back in Gifu Prefecture...
"DIE, DEVIL SCUM-!"
"AND FUCK YOU TOO, BRO!"
*CLANG!*
Takeshi parries Gadreel's sabre strike with a kick as Leon swung his [Fragarach] towards the combative Fallen Angel, who in turn parried his reprisal with other blade before swinging out dual crescent projectiles from his weapons that each swelled in size the further they traveled towards their targets.
"GET BEHIND ME!" Leon then manifests his [Evalach] while boosting its defensive properties with his [Excalibur Blessing] to block the giant slashes, to which Gadreel rushes in with a double thrust with his blades, using the sheer force of his push to send both boys flying back.
Takeshi and Leon flailed across the air before landing with a tumble as the Fallen Angel pushed his offense further.
"How did he get this formidable this quickly?!" Leon remarked before parrying both blades with his [Excalibur Blessing] and [Fragarach]. "His blows weren't as potent when starting out!"
"My [Arms Ovation] rewards my competence in mastery of armaments with boosted power!" Gadreel boasted as he pushed the Inquisitor back. "I've been alive for centuries-nay, millennia to master every known weapon of war to further my craft-!"
*DING-DONG*
Leon could swear that he'd heard something rupture between the Fallen Angel's crotch as he let out a pig-like squeal before falling towards the ground with his ass raised to the night sky and left foaming at the mouth, revealing Takeshi standing behind him, having had kicked Gadreel in the dick while he was busy with Leon.
"Well I learned that from anime and manga!" he boasted while flipping the double bird towards his downed opponent. "THAT WAS FOR WRECKING MY BIKE, YOU COCKSUCKER!"
"... You do know that you can repair it with magic, right?" Leon pointed out as he tried not to cringe at the shared male pain (that Takeshi was somehow immune to).
"IT HAS A SENTIMENTAL VALUE!"
Gadreel then recovers from his destroyed testicles, screaming and thrashing through the pain and humiliation as he then resets his [Arms Ovation]'s bonuses by summoning a gladius sword and a round shield, standing up snarling and foaming like a rabid animal.
"... How disgusting... YOU BARBARIAN-!"
*TWACK*
Takeshi shuts him up by throwing a chunk of ice that he'd broken off into the Fallen Angel's mouth.
"Let's wrap this up, I can't stand to hear one more word come out of that mouth-hole of his," Takeshi declared as he pressed a certain button on the buckle of his Sacred Gear. "Nidhogg, you're up!"
"You seem to be holding a grudge against him, my friend," Leon pointed out. "... Is it because of your bike?"
*CRUNCH*
"IT'S BECAUSE OF MY BIKE!" Takeshi roars as Gadreel then charges furiously towards the pair after breaking the ice between his teeth. "DAI DAI HENSHIN!"
"[Malice Rise]!" announced [Cataclysm Zone] as a wave of ash clashes against the light shield as Takeshi's Balance Breaker form, [Dead Shore Advent], manifests around his base armor. "[Abyss Rage Awakening]!"
Takeshi then pushes him back with heavy swing of his [Mayhem Striker] dane axe before uplifting a wave of coarse ash towards the Fallen Angel, to which he rends through with a vertical swing of his short sword, to which Leon then follows up with a vacuum slash from his [Fragarach] enhanced by [Blessing]'s properties.
The Fallen Angel parries the attack aside with his shield before thrusting his sword towards the pair, firing a holy projectile with the motion, to which Takeshi parries the shot out of the air with the swing of his axe.
"Finally, you use a weapon!" Gadreel then lets out rapturous laughter. "Now we can finally kill each other in earnest! Like civilized gentlemen!"
"I don't think 'civilized gentlemen' are inclined towards murder in general..." Leon sighed as he shook his head.
"If it gets him to shut his trap, then I guess we're on the right track!" Takeshi hissed as he slams his [Mayhem Striker] into the ground. "Ready, Nidhogg?!"
"I too, am growing sick and tired of that man's gratingly-pompous tone!" the Evil Dragon of Envy commented. "Ensure that he dies screaming!"
"[Dragon Booster]!" The Inquisitor then summons [Boosted Gear] on his left arm as he and Takeshi charged towards Gadreel towards their duel to the death.
At the other side of what was left of their base camp, Koneko, Pandora, Yuuto, Irina, Xenovia, and Raynare were trying to reach the cherubic nonbinary Fallen Angel as they continuously pelted hill-sized (or bigger) glaciers from high above the night sky.
*CRACK!*
"Ow..." Koneko then blew on her hands to ward off the numbness of having to act as the group's impromptu icebreaker, but the increasing number of ice attempting to cold-press their bodies into sanguine juice wasn't helping matters. "... Just who are you?! For a Middle-Class Fallen Angel, you're a real pain in the ass!"
"Nuriel." The Fallen Angel then conjures even more magic sigils on top of the ones they've already established. "Die."
Everyone screams in panic as even more ice the size of houses fell onto their heads, with their density even going as far as to shatter Yuuto's [Fire Brand] blades after a single stroke.
Pandora then tries to charm the ice spirits present to unleash a fusillade of ice spikes towards the Fallen Angel, but as soon as they reach them, the projectiles immediately dissipate around their presence.
"What the?!" Xenovia exclaimed.
"Even the Charmed ice spirits hold no sway?!" Pandora commented.
"[Hailstorm]." Nuriel reveals the name of their trait. "My ice. My rules."
The fallen ice around them begins shifting in shape and size, spawning an entire army of ice-constructed humanoids resembling marionettes from the shrinking glaciers.
"Die."
Upon that signal, the ice dolls all pounce onto the group, with Raynare blasting her holy energy shots at the army, Koneko using her [Kasha] technique to kick the grunts aside with her flaming wheels, and Yuuto unleashing [Full Release: Fire Brand] to consume the ice constructs into an inferno that dissipated their numbers significantly.
"We'll hold the line, so go!" Upon Raynare's prompting, Pandora, Irina, and Xenovia all advance towards Nuriel's path as they continue evading the falling icebergs pelted from the sky.
"THIS IS NUTS!" the Protestant Exorcist exclaimed as she used [Rapidly]'s properties to dodge the giant projectiles. "I KNEW WE WERE IN FOR IT, BUT CHEESE AND RICE, WE'RE UP THE CREEK WITHOUT A PADDLE!"
"... You know that you can swear, right?" Pandora replied as she erects several earthen spikes with her cane.
"Training as Acolytes ensures us that we do not use our Lord's name in vain," Xenovia commented as she dodged another iceberg. "... In fact, that is literally the first thing we're trained to do, followed up by getting rid of our accents and anything that they perceive as 'bad habits.' I, for one, passed with flying colors."
"Stop talking." Nuriel then conjures EVEN MORE magic sigils around themselves to summon EVEN MORE glaciers to pelt their enemies' heads with. "You face me."
The air itself was now steadily becoming more ice than actual breathable air, as indicated by everyone being able to see their own breaths the more of the Fallen Angel's ice rained from above, with Pandora's Charm being the only thing that letting them survive the bombardment of ice enough to save the polar ice caps from global warming, as she carves out a "safe space" where the ice spirits falling for her Charm "clears out" upon entering a certain radius, all the while, wrestling her influence against Nuriel's, who instead opts to do the bare minimum (make themselves immune to all ice attacks while letting Pandora have carte-blanche on what ice they can muster out).
"Okay, I'm officially out of ideas," the Knight declared as even more ice was pelted around them. "We need to take the fight to them, out of all of us, I'm the only one who can fly, and the concentration of ice spirits in the air is so sporadic that I'm a little worried that the Fallen Angel will pull a fast one and get the drop on all three of us!"
Irina then looks up at the air, seeing that the ice falling from the sigils were being released at a rhythmic rate. "... Okay, I might have an inkling of an idea," the Exorcist pointed out. "But first, can you make a pair of ice cleats for my boots with your earth spirits?"
"What are you planning?!" Xenovia asks as Pandora then wraps Irina's feet with earthen spikes to better resist the ice's lack of surface friction.
The Protestant Exorcist then takes a deep breath before running as fast as she could with her [Excalibur Rapidly] can take her. "DISTRACTION!"
As she runs out of the radius, Irina then kicks her feet into the ice to gain aerial momentum, using [Rapidly]'s speed boost to gain extra travel distance from one iceberg to another, turning the hail itself into her footholds, steadily reaching where Nuriel had situated themselves at.
"You move fast." The Fallen Angel then conjures a smaller sigil in front of their hand. "Slow down."
From the magic circle, Nuriel then fires a barrage of smaller, but sharpened ice shards towards Irina like a machine gun, forcing her back as she keeps jumping from iceberg to iceberg, diverting their attention from the battle, and overall reducing Pandora's workload.
"Okay, so she got Nuriel's attention," the Knight commented. "Now we need to exploit that opening she gave us."
"Think you can nail them with your ice spirits?" Xenovia asked.
"Maybe, but I doubt that they'll be generous enough to give us multiple chances," Pandora replied. "... At best, we've only got one shot."
Xenovia gulps quietly as she then summons forth her own magic circle. "... One chance is more than enough."
The Catholic Exorcist then plunges her hand into the glyph, pulling out a massive lapis-blue greatsword with a golden edge with a semicircular guard on the left side of the handle that extends to the bottom just above the pommel, unleashing a weapon that was just as massive as [Excalibur Destruction], if not moreso, surpassing the wielder herself in terms of overall height.
"Miss Othrys, I request that you carve out a slope aimed towards that Fallen Angel in the sky," requested Xenovia as she orients the pointed tip of her Holy Sword behind herself. "... Also, be sure to step aside from my blade's reach. By that, I mean at least several paces away from me."
Taking her word for it, Pandora then starts constructing an upwards slope out of the charmed ice spirits inhabiting the littered glaciers while getting back as far as she could from her.
"ALRIGHT! WHENEVER YOU'RE READY!" the Knight cried out after finishing carving out a crude slope aimed towards where the Fallen Angel and Irina were at.
Xenovia, feeling a bit more adventurous than usual, gives Pandora a finger salute. "... Buon viaggio."
The Catholic Exorcist then takes off running towards the incline as her cerulean greatsword is glowing, emitting large quantities of holy energy from it.
"... Roar," she declared as her foot touched the ice. "[DURANDAL]!"
*KABOOM!*
Pandora braces herself as she covers herself with her arms as Xenovia's Holy Sword unleashes a massive eruption of holy energy that acted as a propellant that sent her footing across the icy incline and slid towards the air with great force to achieve flight.
"That power..." the Knight commented as she could sense a familiar wavelength from [Durandal]'s burst right before the Exorcist took off towards the night sky. "... It's like the President's [Power of Destruction]."
Xenovia, as she was careening through the air with her greatsword in hand, then let out a piercing howl that caught Nuriel's attention.
"Another one." The Fallen Angel then redirects their fire towards the Catholic Exorcist, giving Irina enough breathing room to reposition to a more advantageous foothold.
"HEY!" Irina then further divides Nuriel's attention span by calling out towards them while Xenovia tanks the ice shot with her blade and body, the latter further propelling herself by unleashing another burst of holy energy from the blade to maintain her course.
"... I am surrounded." The Fallen Angel then realizes that they found themselves pincered. "... Situation unfavorable."
"IN THE NAME OF OUR LORD...!" Irina declared as her [Excalibur Rapidly] was brandished towards her foe.
"WE SHALL SMITE THEE!" Xenovia then roars as she swung her [Durandal] towards Nuriel at the same time that her partner delivered her killing blow-
"No."
*CLANG!*
Suddenly appearing out of nowhere like a ghost, Yozakura, dropping herself in before the Fallen Angel, parries both attacks with her sheathed jian and a kick respectively.
"WHAT?!" Xenovia exclaimed before she and Irina were then both shot in their chests by the Stray Exorcist's AMT Longslides, the hollow-point bullets filled with Hell's ambient energy exploding upon contact, sending them careening back towards the ground under the merciless pull of Earth's gravity.
"OH CRAP!" Pandora, seeing that their counteroffensive had failed, hastily reforms the surrounding ice into slides to safely retrieve the two falling Exorcists, first catching them in funnels before leading them down into a winding tube that spiraled them back down into the softened earth that the Knight had laid out for them ahead of time. "Are you two okay?!"
Both Xenovia and Irina groaned, nursing their dizzied heads before getting back up. "... I hate her... so much."
Irina groggily looks up towards where Yozakura was at, who was now hanging by the Fallen Angel's ankles while the latter was gradually losing altitude due to having to carry a passenger that they weren't prepared for.
"Too heavy," they monotonically pointed out while struggling to keep themselves aloft.
"Excuse me for carrying over 25 kilograms of weaponry on my person at all times," the Stray Exorcist deadpanned before pulling out her phone and speaking into it. "... All units, fire at will."
"GET THEM!" Suddenly, emerging from the woods, several more Stray Exorcists armed with Uzis appeared, firing their submachine guns towards anyone not on their sides.
"OH SHIT! OH SHIT! OH SHIT!" Pandora cursed as she, Irina, and Xenovia were forced to reposition upon being greeted by a hail of bullets, running through the storm of hot lead, leading them back to where Yuuto, Koneko, and Raynare were at. "EVERYONE! WE GOT A PROBLEM!"
"WE KNOW!" Raynare then fired her holy energy shots and threw even more javelins made of the same source towards both the ice dolls and gunmen.
Nuriel then uses their [Hailstorm] trait to turn all of the ice on the battlefield into even more ice dolls to supplement the firing squad, surrounding the group of six into a packed horde from all sides.
"Okay, we're officially in trouble," Koneko pointed out as she reignited her [Kasha] technique around her ankles. "Anyone got any ideas-?"
*FWOOSH*
Everyone then looks up to find a cloak lined with grenades falling towards them from above courtesy of Yozakura.
"SCATTER!"
Everyone then leaps out of the way of the oncoming explosion, separating them into different groups in the chaos of the battlefield.
"KONEKO!" Pandora cried out as the Nekomata shook herself free of dirt.
"... I hate today," she hissed before dodging another barrage of gunfire coming from the treetops. "Perfect, they're camping and taking potshots at us while these popsicles are blocking our way."
"I can do something about these ice dolls with my own golems..." Pandora remarked as she summoned Gin to supplement their lack of numbers. "... Provided if I have an opening."
"I can buy you about a minute," the Rook stated as she tapped into her Evil Piece's innate powers.
"That'll do!" The two Devils of Gremory then engage the horde of ice dolls and Stray Exorcists.
Meanwhile, Yuuto had found himself in the same situation before he'd run off on his own: being the only Devil in a group of Holy Sword Users.
"You three disappointments again," Yozakura deadpanned as she brandished her sheathed jian. "... And new toys to play with too. What? Begged the Church to give you new ones after I took your old ones from you?"
"I swear, our prior encounter will not repeat itself," Xenovia declared as she brandished her [Durandal], with Irina steadying her [Excalibur Rapidly] and Yuuto summoning forth [Cyclone Call] and [Dust Devil] blades in his hands.
Beneath her hannya mask, the Stray Exorcist smirks. "... Prove it."
Unlike last time, Yozakura takes initiative by first attacking Xenovia, clashing her sheathed blade against her [Durandal]. The latter quickly pushes her back with the sheer force of her weapon, allowing Irina to close in and deliver a blinding barrage of strikes with her [Excalibur Rapidly], to which she easily parries every last blow with minimal effort.
"How are you-?"
"Speed matters little as long as I know where to guard, doubly so when you're solely aiming for my vitals." Yozakura then kicks Irina in the gut, burrowing her heel into her body before shoving her back to Xenovia, ceasing her advance to catch her comrade as Yuuto then jumps in.
Yuuto first establishes a smokescreen by combining his two blades' properties, forcing Yozakura on the defensive as she then parries a thrown [Cyclone Call] with her jian before looking back to see that Yuuto had tucked in low to perform a backstab.
The Stray Exorcist then backflips over the Knight's sneak attack while pulling out her AMT Longslide, but just before the gun could fire, Yuuto then triggers [Dust Devil] to erupt, unleashing a blast of dense dust that clogs up her gun's internals, first causing it to jam before misfiring, the shot missing the Knight by a couple inches before he disappears into the thick veil of smoke of his own creation once again.
"... You've changed." Yozakura the jumps out of the way of [Full Release: Holy Eater] right as Yuuto then appears out of the ground wielding a drill-bladed weapon that he'd used as a digging tool before throwing it at her, forcing her to dodge and right into another [Full Release], this time, being six [Gravity Nails] planted underground and bundled up even more tightly, concentrating the well into a smaller, but more oppressive force that anchored one of her feet into the ground.
Just then, Irina then shows up swinging her [Excalibur Rapidly], to which Yozakura easily parries back with her sheathed blade...
"You fell for it."
... Only for the smoke to clear up, allowing the Stray Exorcist to spot Xenovia charging up a well of holy energy within her [Durandal] right as the Protestant Exorcist was in its way.
"DO IT!" Irina cried out as Xenovia then swung her massive Holy Sword, unleashing a massive, burning blue crescent slash.
However, as it traveled through its set trajectory, the Protestant Exorcist then does the unthinkable: adding her own holy energy-infused slash into the Catholic Exorcist's own while seamlessly dodging out of its way midair, increasing the intensity of said projectile as it now swelled in size while traveling at an even faster rate.
Yozakura tries to escape, but then another gravitational pull was added upon her current shackle, with Yuuto unleashing another [Full Release: Gravity Nail] underground, forcing her to take a knee as he throws a small dagger-like blade towards her head.
Seeing that her parrying prior had put her into this mess, the Stray Exorcist leans under the thrown blade as it then traveled under the flaming blue slash, to which in its place was replaced by none other than the Gremory Peerage's Knight himself, now wielding three pairs of [Holy Eaters] between his fingers like a pair of claws.
Then, in another twist, Yuuto then absorbs said slash with his Demonic Swords, to which he then uses the moment of the absorbed projectile's residual force to then propel himself towards Yozakura right before unleashing a fused explosion of both holy and demonic energy...
*KABOOM!*
... Point-blank. Right before her face, sending her tumbling across the dirt while Yuuto was seeing careening across the night sky.
"I got you!" Irina then catches him out of the air after he was sent flying back by the blast he'd delivered personally. "Seriously, that was like... cutting it way too close!"
"I... did something I never thought I would've ever... considered..." Yuuto heaves as he is then let back down onto his feet. "... I trusted you two... and worked with your instincts."
Xenovia, admittedly impressed by the Knight's sudden showing of ingenuity, scoffed dismissively. "... Don't get used to it."
"... Finally taking me seriously, aren't you, hatchlings?"
The three's backs stiffen upon hearing Yozakura's voice coming through the smoke, emerging from the thick screen, her combat suit from the Church barely sporting more than a few scratches, and her hannya mask crumbling off of her face, exposing her vitiligo-spotted face before them.
"Your prior tricks have gotten old," Xenovia pointed out. "As the Church's Exorcist, I made it my principle to ensure that I don't fall for the same trick twice."
"Indeed! For our resolve is stronger than your hate!" Irina declared as she pointed her [Excalibur Rapidly] towards Yozakura. "In the name of the Lord, we shall prevail! Amen!"
"I will fight you as I am," Yuuto answered as he then summoned another pair of [Holy Eaters] into his hands. "... You are my enemy. The man whom you protect, is my true enemy! If you stand in our way, then I will cut you down! No ifs, ands, or buts!"
Yozakura snickers to herself.
"... What's so funny?" Irina asked as the Stray Exorcist continued chuckling to herself.
"Perhaps she'd lost whatever composure she had prior," Xenovia hypothesized as Yozakura's chortle then erupts into a full-blown cackle, ringing the air with her innate madness that she'd kept locked deep within her heart all this time, unleashing it fully in this very moment.
"... Forgive me for underestimating you all," she mockingly apologized as she then grabbed the sheath of her blade. "Consider yourselves finally worthy... to face me at my strongest."
"NO YOU DON'T-!"
In a single moment, the handle around Yozakura's jian morphs into that of an ornate design akin to that of the Hindu Pantheon's vajra.
*click*
*FWOOSH*
As soon as the Stray Exorcist exposes her blade to the open world after a long time, a massive wave of hellish heat was swept outwards towards the three, buffering them back several meters from the sheer force of the unleashed heatwave.
"I... can't move!" Irina tries to push herself through the blazing force with her [Excalibur Rapidly], only for the force of the inferno to prove greater than her Holy Sword's own speed boost.
Xenovia tried to lift, let alone swing her blade towards Yozakura, but couldn't, as if she were in the middle of a stormy sea, her insignificant little body being battered from all sides by ceaseless barrage of waves and rain, completely immobilizing her.
Yuuto tries to use his [Full Release: Holy Eater] in order to stymie the oncoming tide of heat coming from the slowly-unsheathed Holy Sword, but the very two blades he was holding onto explode, preventing him from preventing what was about to happen next.
The marred sable skin of Yozakura then sports glowing tribal tattoos whose luminance was akin to that of molten iron emerging from the furnace, her pupils doing the very same the moment she'd opened her eyes as she began her chant.
"Homage to all Vajras! O you who are violent and very wrathful! Rend!"
The more of the jian was pulled from its scabbard, the more intense and hotter the heat became.
"I stand in the cleansing flames of Acala, the Immovable Wisdom King, and Slayer of the Three Poisons of Mankind!"
The three then faintly spot an iconography of an Eastern Dragon engraved across the blade's brass flat the more it emerged from its sheath.
"I now purge myself of all that binds me from enlightenment, as I remove the facade that I have cowered behind!" she declares, her voice becoming more echoey and divine as the blade that the Stray Exorcist kept locked within its scabbard has now fully unleashed its full splendor. "My true name is Yogesh ibnat-Abara al-Igwe! And I am the last descendant of Yasuke!"
"WHAT?!" Everyone exclaimed at the reveal of her legendary lineage as the world around her was set ablaze, with Yozakura raising her Holy Sword towards the night sky.
"... Enlighten." The Eastern Dragon carved into the blade's flat as if it were coiling around brass jian's length and circumference glowed even brighter than that of the sun. "[Kulikah]!"
She then swings down her flaming Holy Sword, summoning forth a massive Eastern Dragon made of holy fire that snaked towards the trio.
Xenovia tries to counter with her [Durandal], but the unleashed holy energy was overpowered by [Kulikah]'s own, ramming the Exorcist aside as the fiery wyrm then made its way towards her partner.
"IRINA-!"
*CHOMP*
The Protestant Exorcist was taken hostage by the Eastern Dragon's maw before it flew away with her as if she were its prey.
"The cleansing flames of Acala shall consume all attachments that you have upon this diseased world," Yozakura declared, brandishing her fiery Holy Sword towards Xenovia and Yuuto. "Will you stand firm or fall like the many that hath come before you?"
Yuuto grits his teeth as he readies himself, keeping his seething rage in check in order to better survive past this night. "... I will not fall!"
"THEN PROVE YOURSELVES!" The Stray Exorcist then moves with the flames as if they were an extension of her own being, bringing forth fire and brimstone upon both Devil and Exorcist alike.
"Oh come on, why you of all people?!"
Raynare, in all of her rotten luck, found herself facing Nuriel, a Fallen Angel that she'd hoped to avoid fighting directly.
Contrary to their youthful appearance, Raynare knew full and well that Nuriel actually fought in the Great War. To that comparison, she herself didn't.
"Low-Class weakling." The Fallen Angel conjures a sigil that summons forth an ice spike from within. "Die."
"Hey, is it just me, or are there more assholes around us-?!"
*CLANG!*
"EYES ON ME, EVIL DRAGON USER!" Gadreel then swings down his gladius to strike against Takeshi's [Mayhem Striker] before quickly punching it out of the way with his round shield and following it up with a quick thrust of his pointed blade.
Takeshi then leans under the attack before delivering a high kick, only for it to be parried by the Fallen Angel's shield, but the Devil uses the force against him to gain some space between himself and his opponent, allowing Leon to step in by swinging his [Fragarach] boosted by his [Boosted Gear] and [Excalibur Blessing], generating a vacuum slash so powerful that it shatters both of Gadreel's weapons upon contact.
"Now that's more like it...!" The Fallen Angel cackles as he then manifests a quarterstaff-chain flail-hybrid weapon. "You show me promise with your mastery of arms-!"
"Come to think of it, indeed, the swelling number of our enemies is becoming rather concerning." Leon flat-out ignores Gadreel to answer Takeshi's concerns.
"Leave this fop to me," Takeshi reassured. "You go out there and thin their numbers."
"Are you sure about that-?"
"LOOK AT ME-!"
*CLANG!*
Takeshi easily parries Gadreel's surprise attack without so much as looking at his direction with his [Mayhem Striker].
"... Yeah, I think you'll be fine." The Inquisitor then pivots his heel towards where the ice dolls were concentrated at. "Good luck, my friend!"
"[Boost]! [Boost]! [Boost]!" announced [Boosted Gear] before Leon then unleashes a giant cyclone from his Holy Sword to sweep up the frozen constructs to clear his way towards Koneko and Pandora.
Now Playing: "Don't Lose Your Mind" by S.S.P.D. Steel Sound Police Dept. (from Kamen Rider Drive)
"How much disrespect... are you going to pile upon me?!" Gadreel then twirls his chain-staff as Takeshi strikes back with his dane axe.
"'Disrespect'?" The Evil Dragon User then scoffs before unleashing a wave of coarse ash towards the Fallen Angel, to which the latter took off the ground with his wings, to which Takeshi follows soon after with his own ashen wings. "That implies that I had any respect for you, Gadreel! You don't even deserve my scorn. Just another asshole that I need to rip open!"
Incensed by his words, Gadreel spins his flails faster until the chains connected to the spiked flails extend in length, the Fallen Angel now whipping them around like a pair of gyrating whips.
"DIE BEAUTIFULLY, EVIL DRAGON FILTH!" howled Gadreel as he kept whipping his chains with the spinning motion of his staff as his target dodged each strike coming at an odd angle. "IT'S THE LEAST YOU DESERVE FOR BEING SUCH AN UNCIVILIZED TROGLODYTE!"
"Look at you, fancying yourself a poet," Nidhogg deadpanned as his host easily dodged all of the incoming attacks due to the dispersed ash acting as their feelers, granting them general awareness of their situation from all sides. "... It's assholes like him that end up on my dinner plate. Hurry up and send him on his way."
"Yes sir!" Takeshi then lets out a shrieking battle cry as his dane axe crashes against Gadreel's quarterstaff.
Back on the ground, Leon then throws his [Evalach] to block incoming gunfire coming from the forest before arriving on time to deal with the ice dolls that were slowly encroaching on Pandora and Koneko.
"Sorry for the holdup!" the Inquisitor apologized.
"Nah, you're just in time." Koneko then dropkicks another ice doll into several more of its kind, knocking them over like struck bowling pins.
"ALRIGHT! IT'S READY!" Pandora declared as she finished formulating a magic circle to summon her golems while she and Gin were fending off the other ice dolls and blocking gunfire.
"THEN DO IT!" Leon then punches an ice doll into the forest with his [Boosted Gear].
The Knight then channels her Charm and innate demonic powers to summon her golems resembling sour-faced humanoids wearing gray spandex and enlarged hands made of stone.
"DEFEND US!" Upon their master's order, the golems begin acting as living shields from the gunfire as Pandora puts the finishing touches on the sigil to have it generate golems on its own before joining the battle. "GIN!"
The Cath Palug kitten then blasts a laser of demonic energy from her eyes, rending through both the ice doll and the forest where the Stray Exorcists were hiding.
"FUCK! PULL BACK! PULL BACK!" The gunmen then repositioned after their initial cover was blown.
"AFTER THEM!" Pandora then orders her golems to pursue the Stray Exorcists into the woods.
Soon enough, she, Leon, and Koneko stuck each other back-to-back.
"Ready?!"
Koneko then taps into her Nekoshō form, glowing bright white with ki. "Fuck yeah."
As the ground was soon to be littered with broken remains of artificial constructs, Takeshi and Gadreel were preoccupying the skies, clashing arms and exchanging holy energy and draconic ash blasts in their multi-melee dogfight.
"HOW DARE YOU KEEP INSULTING ME!" Gadreel then twirls his chain flail-quarterstaff towards Takeshi like a helicopter blade.
"SAYS THE PERSISTENT BASTARD!" Takeshi parries one chain swing before dodging another, slamming the pommel of his [Mayhem Striker] into the Fallen Angel's chest, stunning him long enough or Takeshi to deliver an ash-infused punch into his jaw, sending him careening across the air as he then pursues him with the intent to finish him off here and now.
"I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU!" Gadreel then throws his chain-staff like a bola, to which the Evil Dragon User snaps the weapon in two with a single swing...
*KABOOM!*
But at the last minute, Gadreel had turned the flail heads into improvised explosives that he's overcharged with his own holy energy prior.
"You dare to keep making mockery... OF MY ART OF MURDER!" the Fallen Angel hysterically screeched as Takeshi reveals himself to have covered himself up with an orb of ash made from the manifested wings, dampening the damage done to him by the explosion. "I HAVE BEEN WITH HUMANITY SINCE THE BRONZE AGE! I HAVE TAUGHT THEM TO CRAFT AND MASTER THE TOOLS OF WAR! YOU, A REBELLIOUS SHEEP WHO KNOWS NAUGHT OF HIS PLACE, MUST BE CORRECTED THROUGH DEATH-!"
*BAM!*
Gadreel screams as his face was blasted with flesh-eating ashes by Takeshi. "You really must love the sound of your own voice," he deadpanned as the Fallen Angel scrapes off the ashes coating his visage, revealing a skinned head now missing his nose, lips, and eyelids. "... Get over yourself. You may have claimed to teach humanity how to make and use weapons... but it ultimately was our choice to pursue murder in the first place."
Now Playing: "Revolution" by Hiroshi Kitadani (from Kamen Rider Ryuki)
"[Charge]!" Takeshi then slams both sides of his [Cataclysm Zone]. "[Malice Overflow]!"
The dispersed ashes around the air all gather around the Evil Dragon User, summoning forth not only Nidhogg's ashen avatar, but tendrils tipped with various ashen copies of weapons of war that were attached to his back.
"You seem to not understand, so we'll show you," the Evil Dragon of Envy made manifest hissed. "... That this battle is no longer yours."
Enraged, Gadreel then charges as he then unleashes the full might of his innate trait, [Arms Ovation], summoning forth a storm of light weapons that rained upon the Evil Dragon User and his guest's avatar.
Takeshi easily parries all of the weapons out of the air with his numerous arms as the Fallen Angel grabs a spear and an axe from the air during his advance.
"DIE-!"
*CLANG*
Takeshi parries both weapons out of Gadreel's hands before delivering a wicked uppercut straight into his jawline, pitching him upward, and giving the Evil Dragon User enough leeway to slam both sides of his Sacred Gear once again.
The ashes that made up the weapons, Nidhogg's avatar, and the air all concentrated into Takeshi's quad-wings, enlarging the length of the sails as soon as he looked over the now-falling Fallen Angel.
"[Abyss Blast Execution]!"
The four wings then envelop around Takeshi's whole body, transforming him into a giant drill that bores into Gadreel's chest as both begin plummeting back to the earth like a meteorite.
"SEIYAAA!"
"... Was that Takeshi's voice?" Leon asked after shattering another ice doll with his Holy Sword.
Koneko then looks up to see where exactly her boyfriend's killing blow was going to land. "... We should run."
Pandora nods before she picks up Gin before everyone else gets the Hell out of dodge.
*CRASH*
All three of them were blown back by the sheer force of the impact, with Takeshi himself sliding out of the smoke and right in between the fleeing trio without looking much worse for wear.
"Alright everyone," Takeshi said as he stood upright after landing. "Be sure to strike a pose."
"What do you mean, 'strike a pose'?" Ddraig asked from [Boosted Gear] as Koneko, Pandora, and Leon now striking their own poses, with his own host planting [Fragarach] into the ground with his adjacent hand extended outwards. "... Seriously? Now?"
Koneko then tosses her phone to her bat familiar as it began recording before she and struck their own poses, with the Nekomata striking crossing her right arm across her chest and towards her left in a flared stance, whereas Pandora opts for a much simpler stance as she held up her right hand supported by her left, forming an "L" with the arms as she pointed out three fingers.
Gadreel gags as he stumbled in the dirt before looking down at his chest, now sporting a smoothly-bored hole that had run itself through him. "... Beautiful."
His legs then lost all of their strength. And then, as soon as his body hit the dirt for his final rest...
*KABOOM!*
"Nailed it." Takeshi smirks while doing his own Den-O pose as the afterglow of the pyrotechnics shone onto their backs.
"Why...?" Ddraig asked in a confused tone. "... No, seriously. HOW DID THAT FALLEN ANGEL EXPLODE POST-MORTEM?!"
"Don't question it." Koneko then retrieves her phone from her bat familiar before looking at her shot. "Huh, took out a couple mooks from that blast as well. Go us."
Then the skies above illuminated.
"... Is that another Dragon?" Pandora remarked as she and the others witnessed a flaming Eastern Dragon flying through the night skies.
"AND IT'S GOT IRINA!" Koneko cried out as she saw the Protestant Exorcist caught between its maws.
Leon tries to rescue her, but then the hail gunfire resumes, summoning [Evalach] to block the sneak attack. "Curses! They recovered their bearings."
"We have more problems!" Pandora then pointed towards another wave of ice dolls marching towards them.
"Hey Nidhogg, up for one more?" Takeshi asked.
The Evil Dragon of Envy lets out a hissing snarl. "I'll show that wyrm that there can only be one Dragon ruling the skies!"
"[Charge]!" Takeshi then runs up towards the flaming Eastern Dragon before jumping into the air. "[Malice Overflow]!"
Nidhogg reemerges in his ashen avatar form, ascending together with his host towards the flaming wyrm to face it.
"HOLD NOTHING BACK!"
Takeshi then slams both sides of his belt buckle once more.
"[Abyss Blast Fever]!" Takeshi then lets out a roar as his flying kick was propelled by Nidhogg's [Helfrost] breath towards the flaming Eastern Dragon holding Irina in its mouth.
Both streams of fire and ice collide in the air, but the Eastern Dragon's illuminance overwhelms the deathly cold of Hel's embrace, blasting both Takeshi and Nidhogg out of the sky.
"SENPAI!" Koneko cried out as she and the other saw the Evil Dragon User plummet into a forest as he fell. "GET OUT OF THE WAY, YOU DAMN POPSICLES!"
Takeshi, now back to his base armor form, breaks through several tree branches with his armored body before landing on the rough terrain like lead.
"... Ow," he grunted as he got back up. "Where am I-?"
*BANG*
"... I-I DID IT!" A Stray Exorcist holding a Smith & Wesson Model 500 had successfully shot Takeshi right onto his head from behind. "I'VE SLAIN THE EVIL DRAGON!"
Several more of his comrades in arms gather around their fellow's bounty.
"Well done, brother!" A Stray Exorcist then hugged her fellow heretic tightly. "You've done a great service to Deus Trinity!"
"Finally, a kill worthy of our cause rather than some soulless golems!" a priest declared.
"Now, for the coup de grâce!" Then every last of them pointed their guns at the downed Evil Dragon User. "FIRE-!"
*crack*
The Stray Exorcist who issued the order felt his ankle snap in two, causing him to lose his balance and fall...
"Peekaboo, bitch."
... Right next to the presumed-dead Evil Dragon User, now staring into a pair of topaz-yellow eyes illuminating through the grill visor.
Now Playing: "Spinnin' Around" by Takashi Hagino (from Kamen Rider Ryuki)
"[Transfer]!" announced [Cataclysm Zone] as Stray Exorcist was quickly pulled out of the Evil Dragon User's reach. "[Kokatsu Denryū]!"
An eight-branched urumi blade manifests in the Evil Dragon User's hand as the rest of his body slithers back upright like a snake.
"W-WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!" the nun cried out as she pointed her Uzi while helping up the Stray Exorcist who's now short of one foot. "SHOOT HIM-!"
*SLASH*
In a blink, the Stray Exorcists found all of their weapons disassembled in their hands, now standing hapless around none other than Yamata no Orochi.
"HEY BOYS AND GIRLS! WHO WANTS TO SEE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO?!"
The forest quickly turned into a cacophonic symphony of screams of utter horror and cackling of rapturous glee.
"Weak."
Raynare screams as her holy energy barrier shatters after blocking another ice shard shot at her by Nuriel.
"Fuck...!" The Fallen Angel winces in pain as she is forced back to the ground. "... I knew fighting you was a bad idea-"
"So why?" asked Nuriel as more sigils began summoning icicles the size of ballistic missiles. "You are weak. And stupid. Die."
Even as Raynare faced insurmountable odds, something felt... off about herself.
"Why... why am I doing this?!" she said to herself as she narrowly dodges the heavy barrage as she runs towards Nuriel before taking off. "... Why?! Why am I doing this to myself?!"
"Don't know." Nuriel then fires the rapid-fire fusillade of their [Hailstorm] towards the Low-Class Fallen Angel. "I am alive. You will not."
Even as Raynare did her best to dodge the barrage, several shards struck her wings and body, sending her plummeting back to the ground in a bloodied and beaten mess.
"Raynare. You are weak," said Nuriel as they descended towards the lesser Fallen Angel. "Traitor. Idiot. Short-sighted. Unworthy. Need to die. Now."
Raynare couldn't deny their accusations. "... Yeah," she replied. "... I'm all that."
"Why?" Nuriel asked as they then conjured a sigil that aimed a needle-like spike of ice towards her head. "Why struggle? Why resist? Why do this? Everything?"
Raynare never was asked or had to reckon with those questions.
Why am I still doing this? she asked herself.
Nuriel sighs as they primed their aim. "... Do not struggle."
As she was about to face death right in its eyes, her hand instinctively brushed over her stitched neck.
"... Oh," Raynare remarked. "... I know why."
She understood why she was weak.
As far as she could remember, all she did was pick on those weaker than her.
This insatiable need to assert her dominance over those below her... stagnated her.
Re:Live showed her that her prior place in life was that of a precarious one.
The Phenex Peerage showed her that the truly strong are never content, nor can they grow simply by taking the easy path.
And Yozakura showed her that surrounding herself with strong allies means nothing when she's weak.
Those lessons that have been imparted to her, burned into her very being, awoken something deep in her.
"... I'm weak."
Those words now had new meaning.
"I'm weak...!"
"I know." Nuriel then fires their icicle shot towards her head.
But suddenly, in a faint reflex, Raynare pivots her head out of the way, the rending ice shard tearing her left ear off of her head as she then lunged her (bigger) body into the cherubic Fallen Angel, mounting them as she begins pummeling their face with her fist.
"I'M WEAK!" she declared as her primal instincts propelled her forth to this act beyond all logic, continuously pounding her fist into their visage. "I AM WEAK! I'VE SPENT MY WHOLE LIFE LOOKING UP AT THOSE WHO LOOKED DOWN AT ME! I SOUGHT TO RAISE MYSELF BY PREYING ON THOSE BELOW ME! I KNOW THAT I'M WEAK... AND I HATE IT-!"
*SCHRUCK*
Raynare chokes on her blood as an ice spike was driven through her stomach by Nuriel, but the former refuses to relent as she uses the pain of her encroaching death to not only keep fighting, but to also fight against the very thing that held her back all this time.
She raged, beat, and pummeled at her own cowardice, moving her dying body to express her great discontent.
"Why...?" Nuriel began to panic at this lesser Fallen Angel's sudden burst of energy despite having one foot in her grave. "Why?"
Using [Hailstorm], the Middle-Class Fallen Angel grabs an icicle by its pointed tip before swinging it across Raynare's right temple, knocking her off of them before they then leapt atop of her to stake the ice spike into her head.
*SCHRUCK!*
Raynare stops the spike from boring through her skull with her hand being pierced through by the icicle.
"Why?!" Nuriel then lost their composure. "YOU ARE WEAK! WHY RESIST?!"
"I DON'T KNOW!" Raynare retorted, the heat in her soul burning ever so hotter by the second. "... BUT I'M NOT GOING TO DIE JUST TO FIGURE OUT WHY!"
As the two Fallen Angels struggled, the corner of Raynare's eye saw the stars gleaming in the night sky.
... Why? Why am I looking at them? She thought until her soul remembered something.
Something that she thought she never had, but was with her since she was born.
It was something fundamental to her very being, but she could not put a finger on what it exactly is.
... You know what, fuck it, she remarked to herself to harden her resolve. It's do or die!
Raynare then moves her stabbed hand aside as raises her other hand towards Nuriel's direction.
"[ORION]!"
*BANG*
For the record, Raynare had closed her eyes as soon as she raised her hand towards the other Fallen Angel. So to her surprise, she found herself covered in Nuriel's blood, and said Fallen Angel was now sporting several holes across his head, body, and torso, as if they were shot point-blank by a Flak cannon.
"Lord..." The eviscerated Fallen Angel reached out towards Raynare. "Kokabiel?"
Nuriel dies before her feet, the ice that they've summoned now all disappearing, including the one stabbed through Raynare's stomach.
"Oh God, it's really starting to hurt...!" The Fallen Angel then stumbles through her pain. "... Ow... FUCK!"
*SHATTER*
"Hey! The ice dolls are shattering!" Pandora pointed out as the frozen marionettes all fell apart where they stood.
"And not a moment too soon..." Leon sighed out, looking back at the pile of broken dolls that he'd disposed of on his own. "... Real life isn't like Tokusatsu, even after six years of training."
"Speaking of..." Koneko then looked around the battlefield, spotting only Yozakura fighting against Yuuto and Xenovia, the former using her [Kulikah]'s flaming Eastern Dragon avatar (who's still throttling Irina like a dog's chew toy) to fend off against the Devil's [Sword Birth] and the Exorcist's [Durandal]. "... Where's senpai-?"
"HERE I COME TO SAVE THE DAY! KA~KA KA KA KA!"
"... Oh crud."
Leon, Koneko, and Pandora all get out of the way as Yamata no Orochi leaps into action, their [Kokatsu Denryū]'s eight prongs now being a length of Stray Exorcists skewered from their asses in and out of their mouths, the former connected to the latter, the auxiliary Sacred Gear now looking more akin to an eight-branched human centipede-hydra.
And worst of all, all of them, impaled through the urumi blade like kebabs were STILL ALIVE and in lots of pain, their expressions being both that of great euphoria and the worst kinds of torture; their moans and gurgles indicating both at their sensational extremes. Yamata no Orochi has taken extra-care to ensure that their blades actually slithered through their victims' bowels and orifices rather than just simply taking the "short way through" (according to them, they hold on and "last" longer that way).
"MY EYES!" Koneko howls in utter horror at what she was seeing.
"Gin, please make me blind for like... the next half hour." Pandora then points the Cath Palug at her own eyes before doing just that.
"... It's a good thing I came here with my stomach empty," Leon commented with a dry chuckle as he tried not to faint at the horrific sight. "Wow, I never thought I'd say that."
"Is that why that pervert took so long?" Ddraig grumbled. "... Now I'm starting to doubt who the real enemy is."
Yamata no Orochi, using Takeshi's body as their vessel, swung their macabre weapon towards Yozakura, to which she countered by swinging her [Kulikah] against the urumi blades skewering the suffering Stray Exorcists, unleashing a wave of purifying fire with her slash, inadvertently turning them into a stack of Roman candles used by the infamous Emperor Nero.
"That's..." Yuuto and Xenovia could swear that they heard choked laughter as the Stray Exorcists were set ablaze, while they were being swung around like a t-shirt in a rock concert against Yozakura's flaming slashes. "... Actually, that's even more disturbing."
"How is a mere Evil Dragon more vile than the worst of Devils?!" The Catholic Exorcist gasped in horror while doing the sign of the cross in hopes of finding absolution in a world gone utterly mad.
"You meant to say, 'why aren't the worst of Devils as evil as yours truly?'. KA~KA KA KA KA!"
The pair of topaz-yellow eyes then locked towards Yozakura.
"The Evil Dragon of Lust lives once more...!" the Stray Exorcist under Acala's influence declared, as if the Immovable Wisdom King himself had spoken. "But as long I still stand, your poison shall not decay this world!"
Yamata no Orochi cackles as Yozakura then recalls her flaming Eastern Dragon back to her Holy Sword, releasing Irina as she was dropped to the ground.
"The only good bitch is a bitch gettin' 'er ass whipped!" declared the Evil Dragon of Lust. "SO LET'S MAKE YOU REAL GOOD!"
Both the Stray Exorcist and Evil Dragon rushed towards each other in a final clash to decide it all, with none to object, due to either being too injured or too paralyzed with fear at what they were witnessing.
"[Kojutsu]!" The flames around the corpses carried by [Kokatsu Denryū] get infused with their kegare, tuning them from bright shade of rubicund to dark-violet. "[Taika - Hametsu no Kokuchi]!"
The flames around the bodies morph into flaming Eastern Dragons, perverted forms of [Kulikah]'s cleansing flames that now solely exist to indiscriminately burn everything down in its path.
Yozakura however, remains undeterred in the face of this upcoming calamity heading towards her, keeping her grip steady around her [Kulikah], all to deliver a counter strike needing only one, but precise stroke.
"[Manjushri]."
A bright flash of the blade rending through space itself clashed against the Evil Dragon's corrupted flames, instantly rupturing the structural integrity of both attacks...
*KABOOM!*
... The resulting explosion sent literally everyone flying back. No one, not even the combatants, were spared from being blown back by the blast's sheer concussive force.
"PANDORA!" Koneko then uses her body and Rook's constitution to cushion both of their falls.
"YOU'VE GOTTA BE SHITTING MEEE-!" Raynare herself was also sent flying before Xenovia and Yuuto landed right on top of her. "... Someone just kill me already."
"TAKESHI!" Leon held on as he planted his [Fragarach] into the ground, only for said ground to be uplifted and sent flying along with the rest.
Once the explosion dies down, all that was left was a smoldering crater, with the unarmored Takeshi laid unconscious at its rim, and Yozakura on her knees, seriously burnt from the blast with only her [Kulikah] acting as her crutch, and Irina's body laid behind her.
"... I haven't... fought this hard-" Yozakura then coughs out a wad of blood, indicating that the Evil Dragon of Lust had proven themselves to be the strongest opponent that she'd faced. "... Nay. Not even the Magisterium... has ever pushed me to the brink."
Seeing that she was now all that's left of her side, she then pulls out a ofuda talisman.
"If you wish to continue..." she stated. "... Then find my boss."
"W-WAIT-!"
*POOF*
Yozakura then disappears from plain sight, leaving the group to collect themselves in the fallout.
Meanwhile, in the Underworld...
*bzzt-bzzt*
"It's me." Falbium then picks up his phone.
"Lord Asmodeus, we've gathered enough evidence to form an arrest warrant after receiving that anonymous tip," the IMP officer said through the phone's speaker. "Permission to dispatch the investigators to our suspect's living space?"
"See to it that you do." The Asmodeus then disconnects the call before looking at said "anonymous tip."
It was a file of a magician currently subcontracted to House Sitri. Date of birth, physical information, first day on the job, specialties, everything.
By all metrics, he was painfully average as a magician; just did his job properly without excelling in anything.
Completely beneath notice. Just like Falbium himself.
"At least I take my laziness seriously enough to not be exploited..." he grumbled to himself. "... Then again, human problems aren't my concern. Maybe that's why he slipped under our notice-"
*bzzt-bzzt*
"It's me." Falbium picks up his phone once again.
"Lord Asmodeus, our suspect is not present within our searching grounds," the IMP officer reported over the faint sounds of rummaging coming from his subordinates. "We're currently beginning interrogations with the current residents, but it is highly likely that our suspect has caught wind of us."
"I want you to know everything that our suspect did for the past month-no, past three months, minimum," Falbium ordered. "What food they ate, what business ventures they've partook in, what places they've visited, everything, and do not leave so much as a single stone unturned."
"At once," replied the IMP officer before relaying the orders to the investigators.
"Report back to me on any important updates. Until then, stay vigilant." With that, the Asmodeus then hangs up before sighing on the smooth surface of his mahogany desk. "... Oh, you really like putting me to work, huh?"
He then pulls out the guest list of last month's post-Rating Game gala, with a certain name circled out as the most likely culprit behind this little conspiracy.
"Well, if they're going to bring their own friends from high places..." Falbium then turns on his phone before making a call. "... Then I suppose two can play that game."
The phone rings on hold before a click is heard.
"Hello, Lady Venelana," he greeted. "It has been a good while since we last talked together. Say, are you interested in a potluck dinner?"
"Oh?" the current matriarch of House Gremory remarked with a wry tone. "And what's the occasion?"
Falbium then picks out his military cap from the coat and hat rack next to his office entrance before putting it on his bald head on his way out.
"Dress formally."
Back at Nemichi Shrine...
"... So, good news, bad news," Yozakura said as she returns to her base covered in burns that were being healed by the Stray Exorcists. "... Which one would you like to hear first?"
"I already know that the bad news is that Gadreel and Nuriel got themselves killed," Kokabiel deadpanned to hide his rage (and somewhat succeeding).
"To be fair, it's not their fault that the Evil Dragon User caught wind of them," the Stray Exorcist commented as she held up her personal Holy Sword. "In fact, the boy had no intention of letting any of us go the moment they laid our eyes on us. Forced me to use my [Kulikah] a lot sooner than I'd like."
"So he's really as savage as you say..." The Stray Cadre then looked towards Lailah.
"And by her accounts, a lot stronger than my last encounter with him," she replied before sighing as she turned towards Yozakura. "... So, the 'good news' you were alluding to."
Without saying anything, the Stray Exorcist then pulls out her loot.
"[Excalibur Rapidly]?!" one of the other Stray Exorcists remarked. "You've reclaimed it?!"
"The moment Yamata no Orochi corrupted [Kulikah]'s purifying flames and used it to fuel their own [Kojutsu], or 'Curse Technique' in your tongue, I knew that the battle was lost," she explained. "So, to make sure that tonight wasn't a wasted one, I snatched the fragment during the explosion between that Evil Dragon and I unleashed after our power struggle while I was sent flying. I was going to bring that Exorcist wielding it as a hostage, but time was scarce so I took what I could get."
"... Acceptable." Kokabiel then takes a nip from his flask, only for it to run empty. "... Lailah, what are our chances of making a tactical retreat?"
"Very little, given that Hell's IMP are getting involved, so our sponsor is compromised," she revealed. "And consequently, we do not have the means of hiring a third party to aid us."
"So in essence, we're stuck," the Stray Cadre pointed out. "No outside allies, no plausible, long-term escape routes... This is to be our last stand."
Lailah nods. "... It has been an honor to fight alongside you, Lord Kokabiel."
Kokabiel nods before turning to his remaining Stray Exorcists as Yozakura and Lailah stand in attention. "Brothers, sisters, and my remaining kin, we've all gathered here in hopes of doing what our fellow brothers and sisters of Deus Trinity have proven themselves too gutless to do for the past millennia: finishing the good fight that we've started since the Great War."
Lailah nods as her hand instinctively touches her midsection, something that Yozakura notices.
"Our former leaders, whether it's the Four Great Seraphs or that blasted Cadre led by that coward Governor Azazel, however diametrically opposed they are to each other, have one thing in common!" the Stray Cadre declared. "They damn those who have fought for them! They refuse to acknowledge those who have died for them! Those who have fought alongside us, bleeding for them! After centuries of this so-called 'peace' that we have suffered for, what do our leaders bestow us with naught but pity and apathy?! NOTHING! WE ARE DAMNED TO WANDER IN THIS PURGATORY OF THEIR OWN MAKING! WHERE OUR LEADERS PREFER TO PLAY POLITICIANS AND WITH THEIR TOYS INSTEAD OF DOING THEIR FUCKING JOBS AND LEADING US! TONIGHT IS THE END OF THAT CHARADE THAT THEY HAVE FORCED UPON US TO ACT AS ITS PLAYERS!"
Kokabiel no longer held back his rage that he'd kept back with his centuries of self-medication/alcoholism.
"OUR SPILLED BLOOD! OUR FAITH! UNREWARDED! OUR SORROWS! OUR RAGE! UNANSWERED! WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED ANY LONGER! WE WILL SHOW THE WHOLE WORLD WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEIR FAITH IN DEUS TRINITY BECOMES NAUGHT BUT MERE IDOLATRY!" he roared out from the bottom of his heart. "WE WILL SHOW OUR SO-CALLED LEADERS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PEACE WITHOUT PROPER RESOLUTION IS THEIR SOLE PRIORITY! WE WILL SHOW THEM THAT PEACE BUILT UPON FATIGUE AND APATHY IS NAUGHT BUT SHIFTING SANDS! We shall show them all...! THAT THE GREAT WAR ENDS WITH OUR TRIUMPH! WE WILL NOT GO QUIETLY IN THE FACE OF DEATH! WE SHALL LIVE ON IN THE HEARTS OF OUR ENEMIES FOREVER AS OUR CRIES OF HATE AND RAGE ECHO IN THEIR SOULS FOR THE REST OF ETERNITY!"
The Stray Exorcists, their souls alight by their leader's words, all let out a rallying cry of their own resolve in response to Kokabiel's declaration.
"WE ARE WITH YOU, LORD KOKABIEL!" a priest with a pair of Metal Storm MAUL shotguns cried out.
"MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS DIED FOR THIS VERY MOMENT!" a nun with an M249 SAW screamed as tears cascaded from her eyes. "I SWEAR THAT THEIR DEATHS ARE AVENGED ALONG WITH THOSE WHO CAME BEFORE US, MILORD!"
"WE WILL NEVER HAVE PEACE UNTIL THOSE RESPONSIBLE PAY WITH THEIR DEATHS!" a priest with a Milkor MGL howled.
Meanwhile, Yozakura herself was apathetic, rolling her eyes at their dogma.
In her eyes, if they weren't pretending, then they were seriously mentally ill. Then again, she knows that she isn't the one to talk, given how screwed-up she herself is.
"Not bright, but enthusiastic, I suppose," she deadpanned.
Kokabiel, looking through the crowd of their remaining Stray Exorcists, looks at Lailah with a nod.
The ecliptic sigil on her right eye then begins glowing, resonating with the inflamed Cluster as they each felt their own holy energy reserves increasing.
"IN THE NAME OF OUR FALLEN!" Kokabiel roared out as he raised his fist into the air. "THEY SHALL BE AVENGED!"
"THEY SHALL BE AVENGED!"
Back in his workshop, after installing [Excalibur Rapidly] into the magic circle containing [Destruction], [Nightmare], [Mimic], and [Transparency], all surrounded by three katanas, [Ichimonji], [Masamune], and [Kotetsu], the devices connected to the casket in his workshop begins beeping loudly, detecting a spike of holy energy coming from within the coffin.
"It's almost time...!" Father Galilei squealed in delight as Yozakura entered. "Ah! Perfect timing! I am in great need of your help!"
"Let me guess," she commented as she looked at the girl's face through the coffin's window while the Archbishop was putting the finishing touches on his device, revealing a contraption akin to a Spiritron Engine, but more compact and with that eerie-looking gem that he'd had acting as its "core". "Carry that box outside?"
"It is a shame that I am not as young as I used to be..." he sighed before leaning back to stretch his aged body. "... Well, off we go!"
As soon as Yozakura lifted up the coffin, she could feel something... alive, yet at the same time, not, within it.
"... Father Galilei, I must ask, but who is that girl inside?" she asked.
"Ah, I suppose there's no harm in letting you know during this juncture," he replied as he and Yozakura carried the coffin outside. "... Let's just say that she's a consequence."
"Of what?" asked Yozakura.
Father Galilei sighs. "... Of not checking if the bodies I've thrown out were actually dead-"
*hum*
Then, a bright light shines from within the workshop, much to the Archbishop's delight.
"IT'S FINALLY DONE!" he squealed excitedly as he ran back inside.
"I call dibs on the three Holy Swords used for your Holy Sword Project." Yozakura then followed Father Galilei back inside.
Meanwhile, at the (Ruined) Base Camp...
"Ow..." Takeshi winces as his wounds along with everyone else's were being healed by Leon's [Excalibur Blessing]. "... I swear, I did not actually watch the Human Centipede."
"And thank God that you didn't," the Inquisitor sighed. "... I mean, not that I have myself, but still, that movie is so unkosher that people generally steer away from it."
"By the way, whelp," Nidhogg's voice grunted out, wincing from the pain that he'd also felt while facing [Kulikah]'s powers. "... You've got 69,000 years remaining. All of that from those 'cleansing flames of Acala'."
"Forget about that..." Pandora groaned as she was being healed by Koneko's basic Senjutsu, but still blind via Gin's actions that she'd ordered. "How's Irina?! Is she okay?!"
Xenovia checks her pulse and feels nothing.
"... She's dead."
Everyone then goes into shock, suffering their first casualty in their battle.
"... Oh shit," Raynare gasped.
"... Dammit!" Takeshi cursed. "... Why?!"
"This is your fault," Xenovia cursed at Takeshi. "... If you haven't unleashed Yamata no Orochi-!"
"To be fair, even if my bro didn't, I recall her being barbequed alive by Fudo Myo-O's cleansing flames," the Evil Dragon of Lust countered. "... That fucker burns your very soul until it is cleansed. Hell, it's the only thing on this planet that can counter my kegare, but even then, I can easily corrupt it into my Kojutsu techniques."
Yuuto sighs, frustrated that he couldn't save her. "... I'm so sorry."
"I don't need your pity...!" The Catholic Exorcist then walked away from the group to sob where no one can see her.
"Such is war, I suppose," Koneko sighed. "... And after all I said about me not wanting to see anyone else die."
"Why did I let myself get shot in the head back in the woods?!" Takeshi gritted his teeth in rage.
"Can't be helped, bro," Yamata no Orochi commented in false reassurance. "... You were kinda punching above your own weight when trying to fight her flames, so of course you'd be a bit out of it afterwards."
Pandora then cuddles against Gin's fur coat. "... Now what?"
"Normally, we'd take the body and transfer it to her next of kin," Leon answered as he looked at Irina's motionless body. "... It's happening again... DAMMIT ALL!"
*CRACK*
In frustration, Leon punches the earth, leaving a sizable dent under his [Booster Gear]'s fist.
"Why...?!" he sobbed. "... Why can't I save anyone with my powers?! Am I not still worthy...?! Am I doomed to have those I care for die around me while I still live?!"
"Leon..." Takeshi's own heart begins sinking as he tries to think of something in spite of this impossible situation- "Wait a minute."
Then suddenly, he remembered the Phenex VS Gremory Rating Game, specifically where he fought Riser and Mira.
"... Yamata no Orochi, you never said anything about her flames burning her physical body, right?" he asked the Evil Dragon of Lust.
"Yeah, it only feels hot, with all of its abundance of holy energy and whatnot, but even Devils turn out intact after coming into contact," they answered. "Otherwise, your pretty little bodies are still untouched and fuckable for a few days before it starts rotting."
Takeshi elected to ignore that last part as his head rushes with the most daring, and nigh-dumbest idea he could ever muster just by recalling that one specific experience recontextualized by that anecdote.
"Everyone," Takeshi announced. "... I think I have an idea."
"Which is?" Leon asked as he saw his friend press a button on his Sacred gear.
"[Atrocity Rise]!" [Cataclysm Zone] announced. "[Crime Force Awakening]!"
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Xenovia cried out as she rushed towards Takeshi in his [Savage Predator Incarnation] Balance Breaker form. "DO INTEND TO DESECRATE HER EVEN FURTHER-?!"
"STAND BACK!" the Evil Dragon User roared back. "I'M GONNA DO SOMETHING STUPID!"
Takeshi then extends both of his hands towards the laying Irina as Xenovia raises her [Durandal], only for her to stop as the former just stood there in absolute concentration.
"... What in the Lord's name are you doing?" she asked as Takeshi stood there even with the massive Holy Sword hanging over his head, his hands placed over each other, forming a triangle with his thumbs and index fingers, with the indentation aimed towards Irina. "... Are you not... attacking her corpse?!"
Pandora, despite not being able to see anything right now, can easily tell from her gut feeling on what Takeshi was doing. "... Leon, please pull Xenovia back. As far as possible."
"Uh... okay." The Inquisitor then pulls the Catholic Exorcist back from Takeshi as far as possible. "... I must ask, but what is he planning-?"
*thump*
"THERE!" Takeshi, upon setting a rhythm for a human heartbeat, forcibly restarts Irina's heart by tapping into her brain's primal instincts.
Then, in what can be described as a miracle, Irina comes screaming back to life, her pained screeches and her thrashing body indicative of someone coming back to life.
"UP AND AT 'EM, SOLDIER!" Grendel barked like a drill sergeant at the resurrected Exorcist. "DUTY CALLS, AND DEATH IS NOT AN EXCUSE TO SHIRK!"
Irina, upon being brought back to life against her will, lunges towards Takeshi like a predator cat.
"I GOT HER!" Takeshi then grabs ahold of the now-berserk Irina as she thrashes around his grasp like a rabid animal. "HEAL HER! NOW!"
Acting quickly, Leon, Koneko, and Yuuto all rush towards Takeshi before utilizing their respective methods of healing.
Eventually, after using [Excalibur Blessing], Koneko's Senjutsu, and Yuuto's [Pain Killer] blades, Irina's savage rage calms down, breathing heavily as her eyes come to.
"She's okay now." Takeshi then lets her go, causing her to stumble into the three's arms. "... You're okay, right?"
Irina winces in pain as she feels her whole body in shock, cramping all over as if she'd slept on rocks for a whole week.
"... What... What the heck happened?!" the Protestant Exorcist remarked. "... I kinda remember... being chewed up... by a... flaming Dragon-"
She then feels something was missing on her person.
"... Where did [Excalibur Rapidly] go?!" she cried out.
"Yozakura took it during the chaos, it seems," Leon hypothesized. "All the more reason to give chase-"
Then out of nowhere, Xenovia hugs Irina.
"... You're okay," she sobbed. "You're okay..."
"Yeah..." Irina then hugs back. "... Thank the Lord that I am."
The two Exorcists hug it out while everyone else watches, with Pandora being guided by her hand by Koneko.
"So..." Raynare chuckled awkwardly. "... From one formerly-dead person to another, how did you come back to life?"
"I-I... don't know, really," Irina explained. "But it felt like I was drowning... almost falling into an endless sea of black... my body was robbed of all movement... until it didn't, and I just... swam back up."
Pandora snaps her fingers in realization. "... It's Grendel's blood rage, isn't it?"
Takeshi nods as everyone else unfamiliar with it looks towards him. "... Yeah, I kinda remembered back in the Rating Game, Grendel... kinda forcibly restarted what was left of Mira's heart after rupturing it with a one-inch punch," he explained his rationale. "I mean... inhumane as it is, it kinda kept her in the fight, so I figured that I can do the same to her since... well, her body was mostly intact and fresh enough to not register rigor mortis."
Xenovia and Irina's eyes go wide as dinner plates as Leon and Ddraig are shocked into silence.
"An Evil Dragon's Deadly Sin of Wrath..." Xenovia couldn't even believe what she just heard. "... Used to perform a miraculous act?! Impossible!"
"Using inhumanity to benefit humanity..." the Red Dragon Emperor commented. "... You're either brilliant or utterly insane to use Grendel's powers in such a novel way, boy."
"I concur," Leon agreed, chuckling nervously. "... Not every day that one sees an Evil Dragon use their infectious blood rage as a makeshift defibrillator."
Irina also nods in agreement. "... Thanks, Takeshi-kun," she thanked. "... I mean, some of my body still hurts like Hell, but I can still fight thanks to you."
"The fight has yet to be won." Koneko then hands Irina a pair of loaded Uzis she'd salvaged from the battlefield. "... Better than going in completely unarmed."
"Right, so whereto?" Takeshi asked.
"Allow me." Nidhogg then speaks from [Cataclysm Zone]'s gem before sniffing the air, now able to get a better read on where their enemy might be hiding since he'd fought one of them personally. "Ah... I can smell them! Her ashen scent! It is coming from the South of where we are!"
Koneko then pulls out her phone before looking at the digital map. "... Seki City," she revealed. "... And there's only one place within city limits where there are active ley lines!"
She then DMs everyone with a phone of the following location.
"Nemichi Shrine..." Leon remarked. "So our final battle awaits us there."
"We can get there in half an hour, provided if we hurry," Koneko pointed out as she unfurled her wings. "Everyone good to go?"
"Yeah, stomach pain is all gone and stuff," Raynare answered as she then unfurled her blackened wings. "Who's coming with me?"
Irina then steps up before being carried by the Fallen Angel. "... I'll make an exception since you're not a Devil."
"I'll carry Pandora and Irina," Koneko volunteers as she takes her hand. "So who's carrying the boys?"
"We'll do it." Yuuto then unfurls his Devil wings as Takeshi puts his wrecked bike away into a magic circle. "You coming?"
"One second!" Takeshi then tries to fly with his [Savage Predator Incarnation] on, but then immediately falls flat on his face. "Shit! I'm too heavy to fly on my own!"
"Come on, really?!" Raynare complained.
"Guess he's hoofing it, then," Xenovia commented with a smirk.
Leon sighs. "... You really enjoy unearthing my secrets, do you, Grendel?"
"You can't hide who you really are during a fight, boy," the Evil Dragon of Wrath sneered. "... So out with it."
The Inquisitor sighs as his back unfurls a pair of rubicund wings belonging to an Angel, shocking everyone, including Irina and Xenovia.
"... I have so many questions," Takeshi said on everyone's behalf.
"I'll answer them after this battle is over," Leon reassured as he and Yuuto lifted Takeshi up as they took flight. "For now, to Seki!"
"BANZAI!" Everyone then flies across the night sky after sharing a rallying cry.
As they made their way to the enemy, a few errant discussions began popping up.
"So, one question, Irina-san," Koneko said as she and Pandora were holding hands while carrying Irina. "... Did you see God while you were dead?"
"Miss Toujou!" the blind Knight hissed. "Sorry, you don't need to answer that-"
"Nah, it's cool, really," Irina reassured before she answered. "... I saw nothing."
Both Devils widened their eyes upon her blunt answer.
"... As in... nothing, nothing?" Pandora pointed out. "Like nothing... but pitch black? No Devils or Angels taking your soul?"
Irina shook her head. "... Maybe I would've seen something if I'd laid about a bit longer, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna flirt with death just to get an answer!" she proclaimed in order to stave off her possible existential crisis. "I'm alive now! I will fight to the bitter end with the life that the Lord has given to me!"
The two Devils nod as they fly towards the South, with Raynare and Xenovia having the urge to converse.
"How did you survive your encounter with Nuriel?" the Catholic Exorcist asked. "... I mean, I recall that you're Low-Class while they were Middle-Class."
"Honestly, I think I just got lucky-"
"No, like, how-argh, let me rephrase that." Xenovia sighs before reiterating her prior question. "... What was that technique you called out... [Orion]? Yeah, that. How did you know how to use that? And when did you learn it?"
"Legit, I don't know," Raynare answered. "I just... had a weird feeling in my gut that sort of... remembered that name in particular. I don't know why, but never once in my life, I had that name come up to me every time I look at starry skies."
Even though Xenovia was displeased by that non-answer, it somehow prompted another question to be uttered from the Exorcist's lips.
"... What year were you born exactly?"
"Uhh..." Raynare then racked her brain around for a definitive answer until remembering a small snippet. "... Taisho Era Year 4?"
Xenovia's eyes widened upon hearing said answer. "... You're Japanese?!"
"And another hybrid, it seems," Takeshi pointed out as he, Leon, and Yuuto flew up towards Raynare. "Guess Akeno-senpai's in good company."
"What do you mean, 'hybrid'?!" Raynare barked back. "I'm a fully-fledged Fallen Angel like everyone else-!"
"Miss Raynare, Fallen Angels don't have legal nationalities and their population has been in a freefall since the Great War," Leon informed. "At their youngest, they're about 500-600 years old minimum. Either that, or they're exiled from Heaven. Fallen Angels aren't 'born' per se... unless you're a hybrid."
Now it was Raynare's turn to be shocked, her eyes trembling and her jaw agape in disbelief. "... I've been lied to this whole time," she muttered before her emotions just exploded. "THOSE LYING SONS OF BITCHES BACK AT THE GRIGORI LIED TO ME THIS WHOLE TIME?!"
Grendel cackles at her indignation. "I DON'T KNOW WHY I AM LAUGHING, BUT MAN, YOU'RE ONE DUMB BITCH!"
"For about 103 years, it seems," Yuuto pointed out. "... That explains why you look older than you look, Raynare-san. Hybrids... mature faster than their pure-blooded counterparts. A case can be said for a 17-year old hybrid to be mistaken for 300-400 years old by the supernatural community."
"Oh, so that's how old the President is..." Takeshi mused to himself before lining up the dates in his head. "... Huh, so she was born during the Age of Enlightenment? Cool!"
"Now I'm wondering who her parents are..." Yuuto muttered to himself, admittedly curious about this situation. "... Or Himejima-senpai's, for that matter."
Raynare was now an emotional mess, unable to comprehend what she'd learned about her whole life being nothing short of being lied to and manipulated, until she was "enslaved"/"hired" by Re:Live.
"... I'm gonna take out my frustrations on those bastards at Nemichi Shrine," she grumbled to herself. "... Maybe that'll be good practice for my [Orion] technique."
"Guess you're in luck, then." Takeshi then pointed his finger up ahead. "Look!"
Flying from the shrine's base were a legion of Stray Exorcists armed to the teeth with their guns and blades, but all of them are now each sporting a pair of dark-light wings and halos, as if they were some sort of pseudo-Fallen Angels.
"... I'm honestly not even surprised anymore," Leon deadpanned. "... Or I might be getting sick of this nonsense."
"Alright everyone, T-minus one minute until engagement." Takeshi then conjures a magic circle before pulling out a sheathed European-style longsword. "For you, man."
"For me?" Yuuto replied as he was handed the estoc.
"Got it from a client from one of my commissions," he explained. "Have a gut feeling that you might need it in case you run out of juice."
As the weapon was handed over, Grendel smiles, pleased with the show of rapport.
... Just one more push.
"Hey! That's not fair!" Irina cried out as she pulled out her dual Uzis. "Why don't I get a sword?!"
Xenovia then looks at her peer with the flattest look imaginable. "... You honestly want to use something that an Evil Dragon User had touched?" she pointed out. "Especially after Yamata no Orochi's reawakening?"
Irina promptly shuts up, recalling what she had seen while she was being a flaming Eastern Dragon's chew toy while ebbing in and out of unconsciousness. "... Good point."
"Alright, let's wrap this up as quickly as possible!" Takeshi declared. "I am not missing out on another Super Hero Time just because some asshole is about to start his version of World War Three!"
"Nor save the ORC building from getting blown up..." Koneko deadpanned.
Xenovia blinks. "... What's Super Hero Time?"
"Telly program," Irina answered, causing the Catholic Exorcist to roll her eyes.
But just before she was about to snark...
"CONTACT!" Upon Takeshi's warning, the empowered Stray Exorcists unleash Hell upon the eight.
"FOR THE FALLEN!" they all cried out as they shot their guns and holy energy shots like actual Fallen Angels.
"SINCE WHEN WERE THEY THIS JACKED?!" Koneko remarked as she and everyone else entered into a dogfight.
"NO TIME TO FIGURE OUT WHY!" Takeshi then looked up at Yuuto and Leon. "YOU TWO! THROW ME TOWARDS THEM! I'M GONNA CUT A PATH OPEN FOR US!"
Trusting their friend's judgement, the two boys nod before swinging Takeshi back and forth like a swing.
"And a one, and a two...!" They recited as they steadily built up their momentum, with Leon using [Excalibur Blessing] to increase Takeshi's durability. "And a one, and a two...!"
"HURRY UP, YOU ASSHOLES!" Raynare cried out as she fired [Orion] while Xenovia swung her [Durandal] to unleash holy energy slashes at the Stray Exorcists, who are proving especially obstinate in the face of death.
"AND A ONE, AND A TWO, AND A THREE!"
Takeshi was then released from both of their grasps, with the Evil Dragon User propelling himself further by firing jets of flames from his armor like thrusters, turning him into a fiery payload of death.
"Is he seriously flying right now?!" Xenovia exclaimed as she and everyone else saw Takeshi ram his way through the Stray Exorcists.
"That's not flying!" Irina pointed out as she fired her Uzis, hitting nothing but keeping the enemies on the backpedal. "IT'S FALLING IN STYLE!"
Her claim was true, since Takeshi's overall launch trajectory was slanted downwards, falling more akin to a meteorite than a guided missile.
"You know, he could have warned us if he was planning to do an Iron Man," Leon deadpanned.
"Wait, hold on!" Pandora remarked after shooting a fusillade of wind arrows with her Spirit Charming. "... You mean Iron Man 2?!"
Raynare's face then goes pale upon figuring out what the Evil Dragon User was planning. "FUCK THIS!"
Following her lead, everyone else who was aware of what's about to happen next retreats.
"WHY ARE YOU RUNNING AWAY?!" Xenovia pointed out.
"HE'S GOING TO SING-"
"I WAS CAUGHT! IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RAILROAD TRACK!"
Then all of the Stray Exorcists ceased up mid-air.
"I LOOKED AROUND! AND I KNEW THERE WAS NO TURNING BACK!"
A few Stray Exorcists then begin coughing blood.
"MY MIND RACED! AND I THOUGHT, WHAT CAN I DO?!"
"... It doesn't count as a war crime if we don't report it, right?" Koneko asked while she was crying tears of blood.
"AND I KNEW! THAT THERE WAS NO HELP! NO HELP FROM YOU!"
"... I swear, that boy is cursed," Ddraig commented as he tried not to pass out from Takeshi's singing.
"SOUND OF THE DRUMS! BEATING IN MY HEART!"
"... If I said that Takeshi had this before [Cataclysm Zone] manifested, would you believe us?" Yuuto pointed out as he then coughed out a wad of blood.
"THE THUNDER OF GUNS! TORE ME APART!"
"You're right." Xenovia then vomits from the nausea-inducing singing of one Ryuugamine Takeshi while Irina was having a nosebleed from both nostrils. "I don't believe you."
Takeshi and Grendel smirked as they were close to their destination.
"You've been...!"
*KABOOM!*
"THUNDERSTRUCK!"
Takeshi slides out from his crash site and across the main entrance on his knees like a rockstar, setting off bursts of flaming pillars like a concert's pyrotechnics and raising up the corna sign with both hands.
"... It's over, right?" Raynare asks, spotting that the Stray Exorcists caught in the middle of the Evil Dragon User's infernal singing falling from the sky like dead birds.
Leon sighs as he rubs his throbbing head, with [Excalibur Blessing] keeping his brain from suffering an aneurysm. "... Let's just go."
The battle for Nemichi Shrine begins.
To Be Continued...
And that concludes the reboot's "Chapter 24" and HOLY CRAP, WHY DO THIS TO MYSELF.
I kid, I kid, but still, writing this much within less than a week after a week-off from writing is both miraculous and terrifying at the same time. I'd say that part of my success is due to good planning, but honestly, I was just having fun with the process.
Alright, enough bullcrap, let's get to the nitty gritty, starting with Yuuto.
In the original fic, when I was reading through it, I sort of... felt off about his development. Sure, he was still going from point A to point B, but my counterargument is that if one is going to call themselves stupid, then they better suffer the consequences, because just being self-aware isn't enough to solve your problems.
I would know, because I went through the same thing. Not as badly as Takeshi VS Yuuto fistfight, but my point still stands.
Still, he needed a serious, legit wake-up-call, and that he needed to direct his hatred to the people wielding the Holy Swords, not the Holy Swords themselves, because at the end of the day, they are nothing more than tools.
Also, sidenote, I kinda based Yuuto's habit of attacking the Holy Swords exclusively (look up the "Flynning" on Tv Tropes) on his flaw demonstrated in Fate DxD AU fic, and Grendel, during his speech, points out how STUPID said trope is. And if an illiterate Evil Dragon of Wrath says that you're being dumber than he is, THEN YOU HAVE A PROBLEM.
Speaking of the Holy Swords, Father Galilei.
I will say this; he's not conventionally evil as he is BATSHIT INSANE.
To put it mildly, his moral compass revolves around "superheroes," in that it's part-"Protagonist-Centered Morality," part-"Utopia Justify the Means," and added with a dash of "Moral Myopia"-tropes, and then you have Father Valper Galilei, aka, the "Genocide Archbishop."
Despite all of his horrible acts he'd committed (refer to Yamata no Orochi's comments as an example), he genuinely thinks he's being heroic, or at the least, promoting heroism. In reality, the man is DELUDED beyond all logic, with his personalized "Blue and Orange-Morality" labeling Takeshi as the "ultimate supervillain" just by being an Evil Dragon User and labeling anything regarding his Holy Sword Project as "heroic" and inspiring hope, trying to create his own "King Arthur 2.0" as the modern-day "Superman."
In a manner of speaking: he's a man who never grew up. He's basically Takeshi, if his hero fanboying took him down a REALLY dark path, or more specifically, what Takeshi would've been like if he took Nidhogg's offer of relinquishing his soul to said Evil Dragon back in Arc 2.
Yeah. Out of all the villains in this Arc, he's the biggest scumbag.
Speaking of the villains, Yozakura.
... Yeah, no bones about it, but she's the embodiment of this little African proverb: "A child not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth."
Look up 2003's War in Darfur for further reference. She was SIX. And LIVED.
And frankly, the Church didn't do her any favors to her mental health either, upon discovering the fact that her holy energy output being abnormally large, and her heroic lineage of Yasuke, the Black Samurai (and before anyone says anything, no, Assassin's Creed Shadows was NOT an influence), made the Exorcists raising her see her less as a person and more as a weapon.
With that comes the Church's (and by extension, the entire supernatural world's) Fatal Flaw: their insistence of raw power being the be-all end-all.
Yozakura was strong as she grew up, but they didn't exactly make her "feel at home," and brushed off her bullying from her peers as a non-factor since she can easily trounce her Exorcist instructor three times her age in less than a second, so she would be fine, right?
... Strong and utterly traumatized that she is, she was TEN. She was mentally mature for her age, but her mental defenses were CRAP, and as a result, you get a maladjusted little girl who can and will kill someone in her sleep.
As for why she's the prodigy, aside from being Yasuke's descendent/reincarnation (my fic's in-universe theory is that Yasuke hailed from Nigeria but got sent back to the wrong part of Africa because the people who bought and sold him assumed that black people can live anywhere in the continent; it was the 17th century, the people weren't as enlightened back then), I kinda based that on One Piece's Jewelry Bonney during the Egghead Arc, where her mental state is explored, and based on real-life studies that traumatized children undergo accelerated mental development, but really, all that did for Yozakura was make her "crash out" before she could hit puberty.
... And then assigning her to work in the ISLAM BRANCH (aka, where the Janjaweed hails from) of the Church was the final straw. This goes back to the Church (and the supernatural world) valuing strength over individuality, and just because she was strong enough to bring everyone to heel doesn't mean that said branch of faith was going to listen to her, let alone accept her as the new Muhammad.
As for her Holy Sword, [Kulikah] (better known as [Kurikara] in various Japanese works like Blue Exorcist), is the flaming sword held by Acala (aka: Fudo Myo-O). I based the design on Fire Emblem Fates' [Yato] (specifically, the vajra-handle part), and conceptually, I remembered The Secret Saturdays from Cartoon Network, where Drew wielded a flaming khadga of Manjushri, bodhisattva of insight and wisdom, and it just stuck from there.
Its flames target the soul rather than the body, Yozakura herself included, but given how... empty she is, from the moment she took that sword from India, she became the very thing that she'd hated being perceived as: a weapon.
Ultimately, Yozakura is a deconstruction of the "Enlightened Antagonist"-trope. All of her trials and tribulations could've made her a better person, but instead it just hollowed her out, and cared not for morals or ideals, but the ultimate truth that she's settled on: that life itself is not meant for glory or fame, and that's it.
As for why she betrayed Re:Live, well, it's not exactly "betray" if she was merely a mercenary, but given that she lied through her teeth regarding the circumstances around Gadreel and Nuriel's deaths (ala "Exact Words")... results are still inconclusive on whose side is she on (if any).
As for Kokabiel and Lailah, both of them will be fully explored in the following chapter, but for the former, I kinda based his mannerisms off of the IJA soldiers who still fought on after WWII ended, along with some real-life resentments regarding military veterans post-Vietnam and Middle East.
Anyway, I'd like to talk more about my process, such as Gadreel, Nuriel, Yamata no Orochi's [Kojutsu] mastery, Grendel literally doing what he did to Mira to Irina (but to do an act of good), and the multi-party behind-the-scenes investigation of the conspiracy propelling all of this crap happening in the current Arc, but for now, I'll leave it as such.
Tune in next time... where shit is about to get real. And it might be even longer than this chapter.
PRAY FOR ME.
Until then!
Tokusatsu References:
- The fistfight between Takeshi and Yuuto during the latter's outburst is a homage to a Showa Era-trope where two conflicted characters air out their grievances and emotions via fisticuffs. For reference, I kinda based that scene on Tokumei Sentai Gobusters VS Dobutsu Sentai Gobusters, where AU Hiromu and Ryuji duke it out in front of Yoko (in a vaguely-defined idealist VS realist debate: but with fists), as a parody of that said particular trope.
- Lailah's new dress upon evolving her [Urnal Binary] trait is based on Clotho's default outfit from Kamen Rider Gotchard (with some elements of Cinder Fall's post-timeskip outfit from RWBY).
- Takeshi, Leon, Koneko, and Pandora posing with Gadreel's explosion going off behind them, they each posed like Kamen Rider Den-O, Blade, Ichigo, and V3 respectively.
- Takeshi does the Union of Alchemists' hand sigil from Kamen Rider Gotchard when reviving Irina from the brink via Grendel's blood rage.