The song had finished and Neo strolled off stage, grabbing a cup of punch and downing it quickly before looking at her group, the ORC and DWMA students looking at her. Rias had her mouth slightly opened, having watched and listened to Neo sing the whole song. It made her start to think about her words earlier.
"Well I'm guessing from your reactions that you'd like 'I Prevail'? Love that band" Neo confessed, seeing Neopolitan touch her chin and point at her.
"You like my singing better? Is that a compliment or boasting?" Neo shot her a teasing wink.
"You can sing too huh? And what band? Might have to check them out" Soul asked, nodding in appreciation for another music appreciator.
"I take no credit for my beautiful voice" Neo felt her arm being hugged by Neopolitan, who preened from her compliment.
-Outside the DWMA-
The robed woman who accompanied Arachne took her position atop a building near the DWMA. Her target was the dance hall. She waited there robotically until she heard the words from Arachne in her mind.
"It's ready, Mabaa. Trap them all" Arachne spoke softly in her mind as the woman responded.
"Nyau.." And unleashed her soul protect.
Her soul's magic wavelength was felt immediately all over Death City. Maka nearly had her knees buckle from the revelation and started gasping. Meanwhile, Arturia, who had caught one of the Arachnophobia members stiffened and turned her head to where the intense magical signature was coming from.
"Just as Master feared.." Arturia dropped the member and tried to rush back to the DWMA but a spatial lock magic cube encased the entirety of the dance hall.
-DWMA Dance hall-
As soon as the magic wavelength was felt by Neo, she quickly took a look at Pyrrha, Raven and Neopolitan. Seeing them nod, Pyrrha cocked her fist back and completely demolished part of the floor near them, creating a hole to escape into. Raven was the first to enter, hopping in as the dress fluttered under her. Neopolitan hopped in after, giving Neo a nod before falling in. Pyrrha was right behind her, apologizing for the mess as she jumped in.
"We'll deal with this" Neo commented and jumped.
Rias, seeing her jump into danger seemed to move automatically, leaping in after her without saying anything.
"Rias!!" Akeno shouted and tried to jump in after her, but the cube was totally locked down by then and she couldn't.
They reached the floor below them quickly, all landing gracefully. Except for Rias, who had jumped in on the spur of the moment because Neo had done the same. Rias instead, had landed into Neo's arms. She raised her brow and looked at the redhead as if to ask 'Why the Hell did you jump in too'.
"I.. I saw you jumping and I wanted.. Urgh.. nevermind" Rias deflated when she saw Neo's exasperation.
"You don't even know what's going on though. You likely won't be strong enough to face the reincarnator and the Kishin with us" Neo bluntly informed her.
"Especially since you don't have your family here with you. Honestly, it would have been safer for you to be up there with everyone else. You'd have gotten out unscathed but.. I guess it's not your fault. You didn't know, so I'll explain on our way to the Kishin" Neo told her and set her down.
"Actually we should change out of our dresses. We do have our regular clothes in our inventory and nobody's here" Raven mentioned and abruptly began to change right there.
"Oh good idea. After that, we head to the lowest floor, into the dungeon where Death keeps the Kishin" Neo did the same, this time with a red faced observer who couldn't look away.
"Rias.. come on. There's no time for that" Pyrrha chided her as she quickly changed with Neopolitan.
"Sorry I just.. What do you think I should do?" Rias looked away and asked.
"It'll get crowded down there with all of us and you're connected with us via chatroom so it'd be a decent idea to have you go help Arturia outside and report what's going on. Try to help her too" Raven responded and Neo nodded.
"It's a good idea. I was just gonna have you follow us but that's more because I worry. Raven's right though. You can get messages to Arturia from us once we're down there" Neo agreed, watching Rias' nod determinedly.
"Once you get to Arturia, let us know the situation in chat" Neo told her before Rias took off running.
"Okay, be safe!" Rias yelled as she ran.
"Alright come on, crew" Neo finished dressing, pulling her boot up to her thigh above her black pants.
-Outside DWMA-
Arachne had discovered exactly what area leads down into the tunnels where the Kishin was kept locked up and snapped, summoning her magic while her Arachnophobia henchmen began to wreak havoc across the city. She noticed Freed and Medusa were inside the cube, which accelerated her plans due to Freed's spatial magic fighting against Mabaa's, who she had been puppeting. At the rate they were currently at, she needed to hurry and release him within the next thirty minutes or Death will get out and it'll turn very disadvantageous for her. She was strong, stronger than the original Arachne but Death was still the strongest being in the world.
~I can only hope Tenmei fully integrated the powers by now or we'll have a bitch of a time getting away~ Arachne then fired her magic in a concentrated beam that bore through the ground, leaving a large and deep hole which she wasted no time jumping into.
Kicking up dust as she landed, she looked around and saw the old tunnels. She coughed the dust out of her face and turned to where she felt the strength of the madness wavelength was. Smiling, she started a quick jaunt through the ancient hall and noticed the magic wavelengths of a group behind her. Not wanting them to reach her, she pulled a card from seemingly out of nowhere and activated it.
The card shone a brilliant gold light as Gilgamesh was summoned. The blond King looking at Arachne as if she were a pest. Like she truly were a spider. Arachne just smiled to herself and shrugged before giving her order.
"Stop any who tries to get past this point. Kill them all, if that's not too much trouble?" Arachne gave her command as a subtle glow emanated from Gilgamesh.
"Hmph.. This Mongrel has guts I see. I am compelled to listen but do not mistake that for obedience and willingness to serve, Mongrel!" He shouted and focused his gaze on the hall, ignoring her now.
"Pffft.. you Tsundere" Arachne chuckled as she quickly took off down the hall, leaving a thoroughly annoyed Gilgamesh to stand as a sentry.
~Hmm.. just to be safe~ Arachne then clapped her hands and touched a wall, sealing the hallway as she passed by.
Back with Neo and her group. They had found the entrance to the underground tunnel and for some reason she couldn't understand, it was just one, long tunnel with a few decorations of Death scattered about. She knew there were a few large rooms the hallway led to but she didn't really understand the need for it, if the purpose of all this was to contain Asura. She was running with everyone when the chatroom notification went off.
[>Don'tbashmebruh: Hey Neo? I just encountered Arturia and she's fighting this strange woman with one eye?<]
[>Neo²: Wait what? The Grand Witch? Does she look weird? Short?<]
[>Don'tbashmebruh: Yes actually.. is that bad?<]
"Fuck me.. At least Arturia is the one fighting her" Neo sighed.
[>Neo²: Assist when you can with your power of destruction, okay? Stay with Arturia<]
Neo just finished sending the message when Neopolitan tackled her out of the way of an incoming golden sword. There were more flying weapons coming at them which Raven dodged and Pyrrha blocked with her shield. Neopolitan helped Neo up and avoided the incoming weapons fired at them.
Neo narrowed her eyes as the weapons flew at them. She knew exactly who was ahead of them. Of course it wouldn't be so easy as to just catch one Witch.
"For fuck sakes.. she summoned the OG 'Young Master' for us" Neo spat, dodging a spear flung at her.
"Who is it?" Raven ran beside her as Neo pulled out Yamato and deflected another Noble Phantasm.
"King of Heroes, rank S in being a dick.. I respect that part though. He's a pain in the ass but so far he doesn't take us seriously. Otherwise he'd pull out Ea and I'm not talking about the shitty game development studio" Neo finally saw the man himself, who was scoffing at her words.
"You think I need Ea for mongrels such as yourselves?" Gilgamesh seemed more insulted at the insinuation than when she called him a dick.
"Yeah, see? It's his default" Neo commented but before anything else could be done, they felt an incoming wave of madness fill the hall, making Gilgamesh's expression crack, along with Neo and Neopolitan's.
Shaking his head, he scowled and turned his attention back on the group before him.
"Neo.. you need to go deal with that. I can deal with him" Pyrrha stood in front of her and prepared to fight him.
"I don't feel good about you taking him on alone, Pyr.. He killed the original possessor of God Hand" Neo whispered, sounding nervous at the prospect of Pyrrha fighting him alone.
"You forget her bloodline and skill? Along with her magic? That being said, he's definitely strong. I'll help her out while you two carry on" Raven responded, squeezing Neo's shoulder.
"If it's two of you, I can rest easy.. okay, you got this then" Neo agreed, less anxious now.
When more weapons of a higher rank started flying at them, Neo grabbed Neopolitan and used her lightning magic to run ahead and dodge them. Heading straight for Gilgamesh, she saw him smirk as Gate of Babylon opened behind and in front of her. The Noble Phantasms fired at her as if they were shot out of a cannon, only to be stopped a meter from her, to the shock of Gilgamesh. He turned to Pyrrha, who was using her enhanced semblance to hold the weapons in place. Pulling a sword from a gate created next to him, he cut a golden fireball in half and looked at Raven, who launched it at him.
He looked at his sword, which had begun to melt from the extreme heat and annoyance flashed through his eyes. Neo and Neopolitan quickly blitzed past him and kept going as Pyrrha, Raven and Gilgamesh began their fight.
-Kishin's sealing room-
Arachne finally arrived, seeing the man in white robes that resembled a priest's. He was wearing a cross around his neck. Though he also had numerous chains on below his robes, Arachne could tell by the many 'clinking' sounds coming from.
"Are you awake, Tenmei? You should have fully absorbed Asura by now, yes?" Arachne asked, waving her hand in front of his face, hearing a long yawn in response.
"Mmmn...? It finally time? Yeah, I ate his orgin. Though I could only do that because I was already a 'Kishin'. Just not from Soul Eater. Mind getting me loose now?" He asked, though his tone lacked any enthusiasm. He sounded bored.
Arachne pointed at the bindings as magic flew from her hands and runes covered the seals binding him, tearing them to pieces after three seconds. He stood up to his feet afterwards and started to crack his neck, back, arms, hips and legs, taking a small amount of pleasure from each crack.
"So now we just have to kill off the main characters, Death and.. hm... who else? Been a long time since I was awake" Tenmei asked.
"It's everyone. Now that you have the madness wavelength we can do it on a larger scale and amp it with your power and my magic. Now come on and.. Oh for god sakes.. You had one job, Gilgamesh.." Arachne sighed as they saw someone approach.
The figure was wielding a demonic spear and was fully covered in green armor. He was big and slowly made his way over to them with an extremely threatening look.
"Is.. that the.." Tenmei felt his throat go dry.
"No.. NO.. You aren't being serious right fucking now..!" Arachne stared slack jawed at someone who should not be here and internally, both started to panic.
Meanwhile..
[>Neo²: Good idea, OG. If we ran in they'd probably start the fight immediately. But what.. is the principle from Rosario Vampire doing here? Shit.. okay.. here's the plan..<]