July 12th, 2059. It had been a month since the evolution of humanity's new capital, the haven for the new world, Acheron, thriving more than ever. The sight of the demonic temple having expanded out to create its island so that demons with corrupt and criminal humans may find a place to thrive while fulfilling their selfish needs. Murderers satiate their lust for blood as they kill seemingly innocents laying dormant in rest in the quarters of their sleep. Rapists defiling the slumbering anatomies of men and women alike, their moans not filled with pleasure, as their hands flailing around attempting to escape, the 'humans' kept going.
While these two crimes were separate from one another; also being some of the worst, that didn't mean that there only remained rape and murder in the Devilish Temple's lower cities. Cannibalism, serial killings, torture, amputation, anything and everything horrible you could think of that was like the following, those crimes riddled the lower cities of the Devil's Domain. Surrounded by a barrier of invisible Takyr that strengthened the outside from any exterior attacks, Lucifer couldn't help but laugh, standing at the very top of the Temple with his arms raised into the air. Claws pointing out as they grew sharper and sharper, all four of his oculars glistening in the moonlight, the Prince of Hell giggled with the volume of a banshee screaming into the night,
"Ahh, I KNEW IT! HOW BEAUTIFUL AND WONDROUS THE MOON WOULD FEEL AGAINST THE SKIN..! This new incarnation is so marvelous, that insolent Rivera's body, so writhing and disgusting, I FEEL SO FREE! Women, children, men, dogs, cats, animals, everything that sprang out from this world at the tips of my fingers. How truly and amazingly magnificent,"
Clawing at his skinned face with his edged nails, the Fallen Angel bathed in the moonlight, clouds pushed away. Rays from that lunar body shining against his body, abs, muscles, all that assortment of locations around his taller person. The energy began to drain out from his heart and soul, Lucifer breathing out so that the air would seethe out from that crack between his rows of teeth. Chest steadily rising and then falling as he sucked in the air from the chilling summer night, the voice of the one he named his Right Hand came flying into his eardrums,
"I realize you're a crazy person, my Lord, but do you have to scream at such a volume that you wake up everyone sleeping in the Temple you're standing on top of? It's incredibly incessant, no wonder the Allfather cast you out from the Heavens. No offense, Prince, but you're sort of a freak, aren't you?"
As he turned his head to face her features, Lucifer was unable to withhold his laughter from escaping his throat, Morningstar fell onto his bottom. Stretching his arms to the air, feeling his joints crack out, allowing him to unleash a pleasurable moan, Rahab followed that, sitting right to the left of her superior. Arm draping over her knee, she threw her head back so that her hood wouldn't cover her shadowed features, her Prince to the right sighed,
"So, how does it feel? A physical incarnation of flesh, the Merger of dimensions thanks to the Herald of All-Knowing Death. From here on out, it's only downward into the Abyss of Distortion, causality wills it so,"
Lucifer scratched at his chin, claws sinking into his beard and shaving off his facial hair gradually. The Prince then turned his head toward his Right Hand, Rahab smiling at him as her features reflected in the pentagram shape in the center of his eyeballs… the end was eventual. Coming over them like a wave of destruction, she was the one to take his hand in her own, their fingers interlocking together, Lucifer and Rahab shared a moment.
Both of their children together, Sirilla, Lilith, cast into the dimension between Heaven and Hell so that their lost souls would finally find some sort of peace together- the Fallen Angel, said to be the most beautiful one of the bunch, couldn't help but grin. The end of the journey is said to have been foretold by the author of the Bible, for when the time would come to a foreseen conclusion, just as Satan had said to their brother, it is not always… a happy thing.
With the Incarnations fully physically realized in these forms of their ruling over the capital of the new world after the Merger, gifted with the title of Acheron, it was deemed impossible to get in or out without proper clearance. Infiltrators usually were hunted down and located within 12 hours, then sent up to the Temple where the Devil's forces laid bare, and the infiltrators would be punished for their insolence. Among those who attempted invading were two of those people who we know, one with white flowing hair, eyelashes fluttering as her purple eyes glowed in the darkness of the night. Surrounded by nothing but the shadowing nature of the dark as she stood on the top of the gate, his boots made a gentle audio radiate out from the impact as he landed be to the right of his baby sister.
Pupils gifted with a crimson coloration to mimic the shade of blood decorating the walls after a crime scene, the Hunter and the Empress shared similar looks. The older brother and sister of the Guardian Uraku shared looks, before then venturing off into this new chaotic world that took their brother away from them. Jason went about his ninja stalker way, enhanced speed aiding his movements as he leaped from rooftop to rooftop, residents of the lower Heavenly city of Acheron gasping in surprise at the sounds from Hunter's boots impacted the peaks of these apartments.
Gliding through the air, Jason felt the wind fly through his body, flapping through his skin as he soared throughout the skies. Each new second he'd land near his eventual end of the jump he made, the lightning jolted throughout his brain, and once more, he left another shockwave reverberating out from his feet, launching right into the air again. Reaching out his arm to the Heavens, his flying sister had caught it right then and there, the Empress of Light and the Hunter of Justice sharing a collective knowing stare.
Spotting one of the newly reincarnated Archangels casually strolling and patrolling the streets below Jason's very feet, he hit his sister on the shoulder. Groaning for a moment as she looked back down once again, she knew the message he was trying to send. So, utilizing her free hand, she pushed all of her fingers together and cleaved right through space to create a fissure in the world as we know it, and entered the Blanketed reality of light she manipulated.
Right into the belly of the beast, Jason took just another glance at the Castle ahead, flashes of that time when he was younger came to mind… when he wasn't strong enough to save him then. When he just ran away and didn't even bother trying on his own, when he needed other people to help him because he was scared. But this time was different, none of them were teenagers anymore, he was stronger than ever and so was she. So, without a shadow of a doubt, no matter what it takes, and no matter how bad of a person Ben is, he was their baby brother, they'd go through anything- to get him back.
Minutes later…
They'd been clashing with the angels protecting the interior of the Castle, sword against a spear, the enemy with wings widened their eyes. Turning their head up, Jason giggled, jumping back as his sister had come crashing down with her knee slamming down onto the top of their angelic opponent's face. The fluids inside of their body splattering onto her face as their 'skull' had been destroyed from that attack, she landed onto their body and entrails, dirtying her attire. Jason's hair now revealed, he examined his sword, situated on his knees as he checked for any chips on the blade's curved metal.
"That wasn't so bad, now, was it?" Sarcastically asked the older brother of the two; to which she scoffed, wiping her face with a towel he'd thrown over to her. Giving a false gag at the taste of the liquid that'd painted her face, Madi rolled her eyes as she responded as she unbuttoned her shirt,
"Why can't these things just bleed right? No one wants white… ugh, I can't even say it, I hate fighting these things,"
"Looks like we won't have to kill anymore,"
After he'd stated that, she turned her head to face where he was, and there it was, the sight of the huge doors. 20 feet tall, maybe even taller, they held the engraving of the Devil with a goat ahead. Legs crossed, one hand in the air with two fingers together, the eyes of the Goat God pierced the hearts of the two siblings, Jason and Madi turning to one another and nodding. Sheathing his sword in the cover he'd made appear in his hand, he watched as only the grip popped out from the back, yawning, the younger of the duo had walked closer, placing her fingers upon the entrance,
"Ultimate- eh?" Just about to invoke the same power that her little brother had done when he opened the doors to Zeus's dungeon- something else had happened. She didn't even feel the energy fly out from her palm as the doors to this dungeon opened wide, to which Madi and Jason were granted full access to the inner contents of whatever laid inside of this unknown room.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary despite its unnatural size, the way that the pillars on each side of the walls, left and right- held the statues of those gods who laid the foundation for Acheron's foretold existence later down the timeline. They weren't the natural gods though, like Hermès or Thor, for example, they were collectively the gods that ruled over the Heavens and Hell at one point in time. On the far left, you'd have Hades engraved in stone with Zeus to his right, each of them with their pose. The former of which, the brother to the Thunder God, slouching on a throne with a long black beard, eyes aflame and a shoulder guard with a golden skull on it visible. Zeus, however, had been given the illusion of a caring father, holding all of his children under his huge arms with that false grin over his lips.
"Ew," As she made that comment, her eyes searched to the right of the Thunder, to see his Norse counterpart.
Odin, the Allfather of Asgard, standing tall with his scepter in hand slamming the rear end onto the ground. Golden tendrils of energy flowing out from that area as he stared right ahead, white hair and all, helmet holding two wings to symbolize the ravens he held control over. To the right, once more, there laid the opposite, the embodiment of Hel itself and the daughter of the Trickster God Loki. The right side of her face was scarred, markings that served as maybe some sort of ancient language engraved onto her skin while her eye remained a singular color- white, not to mention the darkness of her skin compared to the whiteness on the left. Blonde on the left and black on the right, the same as Jason, causing him to roll his eyes…
There laid more on the right side of the wall, for Japanese culture, Izanami singular as she was the primordial creator god. For there was no Japanese equivalent of the Devil in this Asian mythology. Amun-Ra was the god of gods in Egyptian mythology and folklore, with Osiris being the opposite to rule over the Underworld and Hell. Finally, we reached the fourth one, that being the Supreme God of Aztec mythology, there was Huitzilopochtli.
Each of them had their histories, some more known than others, some mostly used for creative purposes like consumable media like video games or movies, like for Greek and Norse mythology. Yet there remained a fraction of the population in this world, no matter what proof they'd been given of Christianity being the truthful and righteous religion, believed in the others stated before. Aztec, Japanese, Egyptian. Their stroll ended, their feet reaching a platform where steps had led up to a station not even that high. The contents of which would usually be visible from this angle, yet the brother and sister paid it no mind, still on their guard, their legs propelling them forward so they could reach the end.
Unbeknownst to them, however, on each side of the miniature excuse of a stairway up, engraved in stone; there was God on the left and Satan, the Embodiment of Evil, on the right. For the former, the benevolent Allfather of all time and space, He had His hands together, each of the tips of His fingers pushed against the other. Yet for the latter of the contrasting deities, the god who ruled over darkness and everything, they who named themself chaos incarnate, was shrouded on the darkness of their given cloak. To which only their horns protruded out of their forehead, aiming right toward the sky, Satan was carved into stone.
Right at the end of their destined path, there laid a tube, the bright blue shade shining onto their faces, both Jason and Madi stared right ahead in shock. Their brother, adrift in the water, was unconscious, swimming around for an invisible bubble of air to protect his body. And the weirdest thing about the scenery in front of them all..? Of course, it was the way that their younger sibling, floating in the fluids that healed every wound he'd ever made, was unharmed. Reaching out her hand so she could press her finger against the glass, she was powerless, if they'd been gone with him, if they pushed him further, they could've been able to prevent this.
"Benny…"
"Maybe we shouldn't let him out- maybe it's better we leave him in there, I don't doubt that it's… good in there. He's probably dreaming a thousand beautiful dreams, maybe that's the right way to live, without without pain, without suffering,"
Expanding her pupils in shock at what her big brother just said, what the man she'd known for all of her life stated without a single change in his face. She couldn't even tell, for his head had fallen, what he was going through visually, she couldn't tell. As she reached to yank his arm back so she could stare right at him, he hit her hand away, inching closer so he'd be standing in front of his slumbering little brother. Madisyn stumbling back after her older sibling had pushed her away, she closed her fists so her veins would slide out from her insides and become visible through her skin,
"How can you even say that? He's done some stuff he regrets, sure, he hates himself for it, but he can't stay like this! It's ignorance, and you might think that's better than suffering through life, but I'd rather live in reality than go through some dream-like lie-!"
"Cut the bullshit, Mad. We both know… how he is. If he gets out, he'd just start blaming himself, he'd try to hurt himself again and again, thinking about how it was all of his fault. Mother, even leaving Cecilia, Emmy and Genny, August, too, he'd start wallowing about how he never got the chance to save any of them, or say goodbye. It's better this way, isn't it?"
In the depths of her very soul, a part of her realizes that the words her elder sibling was stating, held some truth to them. Part for her only spoke of the ideals she held to herself, that she believed to be the truth that she didn't deny no matter what, that it's better to struggle on and on no matter what until you reach the end, dedicating your heart to the cause until you reach the eventuality of the outcome you seek. Speaking out from her morals, though, the thing that they'd assumed Ben had been experiencing, was what she'd always wished for, ever since the death of their beloved mother.
A fantasy where she'd been alive, elderly and maybe she'd die a peaceful death surrounded by a family who loved and cared for her no matter what. That was the life she'd deserved, if only none of them had been born, if only their father had never met that woman, then she'd be living a wonderful life full of happiness and pure nirvana. Even if their family was different, all of the siblings, despite their clashing ideologies, had agreed, even if it meant never having that woman as their mother, they'd always want her to be happy, especially if it meant giving up their lives to do so.
~Ignorance is bliss, more than ever, I realize that I, more than anyone else, tried to forget. I, too, was powerless, that day, but it wasn't just that, it was everyone else too. Mother, August, Ellie, Henry, I wish I could've known that I was the same as you. But why did I ever think it was different? Of course, we shared the same technique, it was etched into our bones, we knew it from the beginning… or rather I knew. But I didn't want to believe it, so whenever she was brought up, every time that memory of her emerged, I remembered. How powerless and helpless I felt. And I hated that part of myself because I was supposed to protect you, I was supposed to protect HER! But, like always, I felt the same way, and I couldn't do anything to change the past. I did all these things, helping you because that's what seemed right, that's what I'd thought. But maybe he's right, maybe you are like this, maybe this is what you need, or maybe it's what you deserve. So you can't hurt anyone else, brother… I'm sorry, but… maybe this is the best, for you~
But none of them could know the truth for sure, was he adrift in a fantasy or experiencing a tortuous enhancement of an event? Despite Jason being the one most adamant on leaving his brother in there to live out his fantasies, he was the one to cut open the glass layer separating him from his relative, a simple downward slash cutting through the material. The water immediately poured onto the ground as Jason caught his younger brother in his arms, Madi went right over to throw his left arm over the back of her neck, his beard intact yet his long hair gone, Madisyn opened a portal to their hideout.
Just about to all walk in together, the pupils of the Hunter shrank, the whistling sound belonging to that of the ninja weapon kunai entering his eardrums. Raising his leg, swiftly relinquishing hold of his sibling, he kicked the projectile out of the way, spotting it aimed at the back of his sister's head. Throwing Ben into the portal she'd just opened, by her will, it automatically shut apart.
The unconscious unaware Emperor falling onto the grass field, the shadow of the Reaper cast over his slumbering body, for the son guided his father to his quarters beyond the trees. Disappearing behind the leaves, August vanished before anyone or anything
could spot the way the white-haired man dragged his dad into a bush that led to a vast forest.
I digress. Back with the two Rivera siblings, they were met by an invisible enemy, their eyes scanning as Madi's back had met Jason's very own- searching and examining everything around them so they could make out anything in this world from out of the ordinary. Just then, in the blink of an eye, a fist had abruptly appeared, with each passing millisecond, inching closer and closer, about to beat her face into an immense pulp. Yet, she didn't even waver knowing this immense speed that her opponent held, for she was the daughter of the Son of God, the Empress of Light. She was… so much better than such lofty reflexes that impressed even the most pathetic of people.
WOOSH!! Her fist had moved at twice the speed the fist of her opponent had, they were unable to react at all, so all they did was take the blow to the stomach as blood coughed out from inside of their throats. Throwing her limb forward, a stream of energy that could only be described as purple out had flowed out from her elbow to surge right into her knuckles on the second of impact.
Liquid splattering right onto the beautiful structure skin of her face, she scoffed at the irritating feeling she'd just experienced what with it splashing onto her eyes and all. As the body of the unknown opponent had flown right ahead from her blow to their gut, she reeled back, stumbling and hitting her brother in the shoulder. Leaning herself back so her arm could rest for a second and quickly heal as she rejuvenated her strength slowly, Madi stared straight ahead, pointing her singular index finger in case anyone manifested in front of her again.
~Madi just punched someone behind me, and in such an instant that even I had trouble noticing it. Either meaning that Madi is faster than me or the enemy is just as fast as I am… but I already know who the enemy is. That pathetic old man who calls Himself God, He likely wanted this to happen, seeing as how we met little to no resistance when coming in here. Did He account for these assassins or… were these part of his plan?~
"Show yourself! I know what you are, so reveal your face… Samurai,"
Moving their armor with their body, they leaped down from the cast shadows of the ceiling above, likely clinging to the rafters. Crouching as he landed against the ground, he shed himself of the helmet he'd donned and revealed the shade along with the tint of his eyes and locks. Hair in a ponytail, the shade of his eyes was pure white like he was blind, and sure enough, as Jason waved his hand from side to side, that was the truth. He was blind, as his enemy didn't make any comments about the movement of his hand in the slightest.
"You seem to be the Grandson of God, and one of the Devil's distant offspring, you reek of demonicfr blood… from where I come from, samurais and ninjas fused together. Using the intuitive warrior skills of a swordsman and the sneaky ways of an infiltrator, I am a part of the Elite Upper Two of the Shogun Guard. I know the ways of the Moon, now reveal thine sword and ready for battle,"
It seemed as though there'd been a bounty placed on his head, but not only his but for Madi too, maybe even Ben as well. Then again, for all he knew, it could be specifically Ben with he and Madisyn only being a maybe for collectibles. Or rather, they were likely just bonuses in the way, but seeing as how the Emperor had been thrown into the portal his sister had made, these two were the only way to locate the whereabouts of not only their younger brother but his son, her son, Azazel, Kristie…
But Jason chuckled at the comment this Moon Swordsman had made, deciding to shrug it off as he threw out his left arm. That smirk staining his bloodied lips, pupils slitting to mimic the shape of a cat's, the Hunter revealed the sheath of his blade attached to his hip,
"If you really want me to then-"
Tearing the katana out from the cover it'd been hidden within, sparks of red lightning and electricity broke out, the metallic steel pointing toward the ground. The tip of the metal continuously sparking as he aimed the Ketsueki with his left hand, holding the cover in his right, he sent a blazing glare to his fellow swordsman enemy. Madi simply glanced back at her brother knowing he was about to fall into a battle with an elemental katana Samurai, the air began to spark and vibrate, feet implanting themselves then letting out cracks, boots stuck in the floor below. The reflection of the Moon Third Swordsman shining in the center of his crimson blood-like eyes, Rivera smirked, sparks and bolts flying around every part of his anatomy, lips parting,
"You'll die a painful death... when I feast on your flesh."
To Be Continued to the Next Chapter - The Hunter of Justice wielding the Blade of Blood, Ketsueki, battles against the Moon Swordsman, while his sister, the Empress of Light fights against an unknown enemy. Chapter 92 will be named... Beneath The Stars and Skies.