[|||| =LEVEL 22= ||||]
"… Wow. That is fucked up." I looked through the photos Esdeath had given me, most of which were of exceedingly bloody and violent murders the beastmen performed. Then I read a small note on the bottom of one picture. "Wait, abducting women?"
"Beastmen are patriarchal," she noted. Her voice was tired. She was working hard in the other world, too hard for my tastes, but she was having fun murdering hundreds. 'Letting loose steam' she says.
"Wait, they…"
"They rape them, mostly for pleasure but sometimes a child comes of it, whom they enslave. Goblins do the same. They actually act as a slave race in some cases for the beastmen, though considering how much weaker they are than the beastmen they're not much more than a footnote."
"What are the children like?"
"Half breeds. They're not allowed as much priveledge as the pureblooded beastmen, particularly the captured women. They look quite like you, though they act nearly feral. I'm not sure if they're less smart or just less educated. Either is entirely possible."
"Uh huh. Look, what's the point of this? I already agreed to the genocide."
"I don't know what you want me to do with the half breeds."
"It would be best to save them but it's entirely too much work when we could be helping others. Kill those over eighteen and I'll put the rest in orphanages in the Argland council state. The place is terrible but at least it's livable. Better than living in the Dragon Kingdom anyways. If we left them there they would just be murdered by the kingdom's citizens. It would just be unnecessary conflict and I don't want to kill children."
"How cruel," she sounded approving.
"Maybe. I'm trying to move onto keeping the millions of the Dragon Kingdom from dying. I'm not running a charity, as much as it might feel like it sometimes."
"Mmm," she looked at me with a half-lidded gaze. One I recognized. "We still have another hour of free time, you-"
"Abyss!" Kuroka barged into the room suddenly. Esdeath looked irritated at the interruption and turned to glare at her. "The Underworld just got bombed!"
"What?!" I asked, alarmed. "Who?"
"Old Satan faction! They're going out with a bang!" she said urgently. "The treasury was destroyed half an hour ago!"
"Okay… slow down. I've got to make a call." I flipped out my phone - ah, crap, twelve percent - and called Serafall.
"You couldn't have come later?" Esdeath whispered.
"No!" Kuroka protested.
"How is this our problem?"
"Uh… it's urgent. Also, Abyss likes helping people."
"Only when they're-" I was cut off with the phone connecting.
"Hey, Abyss, NOT a good time right now!" Serafall said, sounding strained. I heard a boom in the background. "Ignore that."
"So the Underworld's being-"
"YES! There's a small war happening in Lilith! The Old Satan faction is striking out, trying to kill-" another boom happened and I couldn't hear what Serafall said. "-attacking the treasury, garrison, and a bunch of other places! Look, I gotta NGH!" The sound of ice fracturing was followed by a loud hiss, a steam explosion. "-Gotta go! RIAS LOOK OU-" The call ended and I stared at the screen.
"I thought I took out most of their operations." I frowned. "They're a tenth of the size they were before if that. What are they doing with just… wanton destruction? What's their aim?"
"To make themselves remembered. Show that the old devils didn't go quietly." Esdeath suggested.
"I'm more concerned with how they even pulled this off," Kuroka wondered out loud. Both of us looked at her, leading her to go on. "They were terrorists before. All they did were strikes to make sure people knew they were there. How did they even pull this off? I mean, the old families had a lot of power, but this much? If this is a suicide attack, a last-ditch thing, then it's a really, really good one. The Old Satan faction had a few powerful devil families and a handful of war hawks, all powerful pure devils. They didn't have an army. So where'd the army to take on a city come from?" That made me think.
"A third party?" I asked. Kuroka nodded.
"The Khaos Brigade fell apart so maybe Cao-Cao's Hero faction could have helped but they aren't really the type… maybe Nilrem?"
"Who?" I asked. I had never heard of the guys.
"The magicians. Hexennacht, Grauzauberer, Rosenkreuzer-"
"Are all magicians german or something?" I asked, mystified.
"There's a LOT of famous german mages. It's like the.. The New York of the magical world. It's the magical capital of the world. The only non-german mages I can think of are the Golden Dawn, Americans, who don't have the foundations to really make a dent in the world. They've got cutting edge spell research, though. They tend to get robbed for their work a lot."
"I should probably look into them," I said to myself. "At any rate between going to Hell and helping out or staying… I guess I'll go. I have unfinished business with the Old Satan faction anyways."
"I'll come with you. I don't care about anyone but the Red Dragon Emperor and my sister but I'll save some people if I can."
"I'm busy enough. Bring back some groceries. The kitchen is getting empty." I nodded at Esdeath and made a portal to the underworld, effortlessly breaching the adjacent dimension.
"After you." Kuroka checked a dagger under her kimono and tightened the top before stepping through. "I'll be back in a few hours."
"Of course you will," Esdeath said, not worried at all. "And take care of Kuroka. Don't tell her I said that." I snorted. "I'm serious." She glared at me. I smiled and nodded in acquiescence at that before disappearing myself. Kuroka was already slitting the throat of a devil dressed in some archaic armor with a ram's head on him.
"That was quick, nya," she said cheekily. "I forgot how weak most people are."
"You need to get out more." I sensed for auras and felt two gargantuan souls clashing in one direction and a flurry of smaller ones trading magical attacks the other way. In a third direction were a collection of large souls but far fewer than the second group. So the titans, the dredges, and the stronger fighters. The first one had Sirzechs, who I recognized, and somebody else. The second group had a bunch of nobodies and the third had people like Issei, Koneko, and Serafall. "Go that way. I'm going to free up Sirzechs." I pointed towards the battle with Koneko and Kuroka nodded and turned into a cat before bounding off at a quick pace. I flew into the air and towards Sirzechs, suppressing the sonic boom.
When I slowed down I saw Sirzechs glowing with power, angrily staring at a man who looked like Vali aged thirty years and turned into a pedophile, twirly mustache included. Between the two Sirzechs looked more worn down but a hell of a lot angrier.
"Care for some help?" I asked the two, cloaked in my own nimbus of power.
"Abyss? Why are you here?" Sirzechs asked raggedly, panting a little.
"Butt out of this, Apostle. I'm not even going to kill the guy. I'm just the distraction," the stranger said light-heartedly. Something in his voice seemed just a bit creepy and insincere.
"Well you are part of the Old Satan faction, aren't you? I have a job to finish." The man laughed.
"Old Satan? I mean technically. I'm more of an independent evil-doer. The Old Satan faction are dying and about to keel over. I'm just using them as cannon fodder. Serves them right, really, preaching on and on about blood purity and such." Sirzechs gave the man a look of disgust.
"Oh," I said in surprise. "That's surprisingly nice of you. It saves me the trouble of rooting them out."
"Oh, of course. Factions like them are weeds. They just come back and cause trouble for everyone. The Leviathan's long lost daughter would have come back or something. I don't know. But you were honestly going to finish them off?" He seemed amused.
"Maybe on a slow day," I admitted. "Anyways, who are you?" The man seemed delighted.
"Why, you don't know?" He chuckled darkly. A hand disappeared under his cloak, a silky black thing with a silver lining, and he threw it out dramatically. "I am Rizevim Livan Lucifer, son of Lilith and Lucifer himself! I have slain countless and I will slay countless more! I am, to be frank, the most evil man alive and one of the most powerful devils, second only to my parents whom I will one day surpass!" I stared at him. Sirzechs rolled his eyes even as he breathed heavily.
"So you fancy yourself the final boss?"
"Ah, close enough."
"Right. Mind explaining a bit of your master plan then?" He gestured at me to go on. "I've been sensing the souls around the city. Most of them are devils but plenty of the ones fighting aren't. So it's not just the Old Satan faction making a final move. You've got some other pawns out there?"
"Oh, just some foolish vampires I tricked."
"Vampires whose souls you've mutilated," I observed. I zeroed in on one soul in particular, just an ordinary vampire but their soul was rabid with fury, making it hit harder than it would have otherwise. Not to mention how its soul seemed to be burning from the inside out for energy. It was similar to running a car with the pedal floored for a whole race. Without maintenance something was going to break or get worn down, and considering it was a soul, something getting broken was beyond bad.
"Oh, bright eyes there. Yes, indeed. Behold!" Like a kindergartener showing off a new toy at show-and-tell he flicked his wrist and held up a golden chalice embedded with gems and just bleeding magical energy.
"The longinus gear, Sephiroth Graal!" I looked at the cup and out of curiosity decided to observe it, not expecting much.
Sephiroth Graal (Life and death) - Sacred gear; Magic accessory
Rarity: Legendary
Material composition: Origin affinity, life affinity, death affinity, pure aether (solidified), gold, sapphires, emeralds, topaz, diamonds.
Balance breaker: Lifebringer: Allows the creation of a soul to the user's specifications. May permanently cripple the user if they are not strong enough for said specifications.
Bringer of change: Change another soul drastically, creating needed energy or material spontaneously at the cost of the user. May remove, alter, or create sacred gears, change races, alter magical affinities, or commence other alterations. May not affect any user of Sephiroth Graal.
Special traits: Specific magical affinity foci (Life)(Death) (x125(x5 due to foci skill)), Allows easy modification of souls connected to it through the will of its wielder, minor connection to soul fragment of God (Christian), ability to freely distribute power to connected souls, ability to absorb ambient aura to revive scattered souls.
Bio: Two parts of the original cup of Jesus Christ, son of God (Christian), gifted to the son at his request. Previously used to reveal to the twelve apostles a fragment of God (Christian) and to modify their souls to protect them from harm.
After the death and ascension of the first wielder the grail was used as the basis of a sacred gear, being the seventh one created and the second to be made from the soul of its creator. The fragment is currently dormant but can be awakened given enough purity affinity and aura.
It has been recently ripped from the soul of Valerie Tepes sloppily and attached to the soul of Rizevim Livan Lucifer. Due to an incorrectly done process and the resistance of the former wielder the grail was broken into its three aspects: life, death, and modification, and is thus not as powerful as it would normally be, putting more strain on it's wielder than would otherwise be required.
"You stole that, huh?" I asked, hiding my greed. I REALLY wanted that sacred gear. The ability to freely distribute my power to my followers wasn't too useful right now, but I could see situations where I could use it. Resurrecting the dead was something I could also do in theory but had never actually tried. If the grail could streamline the process I could learn a lot from studying it. Not to mention the capability to modify souls.
If I could modify souls could I edit the binding keeping me from Remnant?
"Of course not! It was actually given to me!" Rizevim grinned. "The ever gracious Tepes clan just up and offered me their daughter, can you believe that? My good buddy Marius hooked me up!"
"Mmhmm. Let's pretend I believe you. Anyways, that doesn't really change much. I don't think you realized it before showing that to me but I really, really need that sacred gear. Mind handing it over?"
"Don't suppose you're up for mayhem and massacres?" He didn't seem happy and the grail faded away in his hands.
"Not at all unless it's against racist assholes."
"Hm. I'm more of the candy and babies villain." Rizevim's soul readied itself, power pouring into dozens of spells. He was going to try and blast me into oblivion then.
"Die." I pulled on the void and lashed at his spells. I disrupted most of them, making them sputter and die. At the same time my sacred gear sprang to life. Purity affinity coursed through me and I threw globes of light at Rizevim.
Just the light emitted from the purity burned Rizevim and he was very vocal about it, screaming in pain as he lunged away from the globes. I made a curtain of void to contain him but he just burst through it, expelling energy to break the veil.
Spells flew from him, blasts of light and roars of some type of fire. A lance of misshapen ice was thrown at me while pure masses of energy flew. It was a mess of a barrage thanks to my void breaking the spell structures. I threw a wave of void, making most of the spells go away. I let the two or three that remained, weakened, break against my aura.
"Pathetic," I said. I focused my aura and let it loose in a blast of light. Rizevim held his arms up in a cross and growled at the pain.
"Brat. Is that a sacred gear?"
"The gear is the amplifier but not the source." The devil smiled cruelly.
"Good. Cancel!" He waved a hand and his soul leapt at me, a strange feeling at its tips. I destroyed it with void.
"No."
"What? You… you upstart brat," he hissed. He tensed his legs and surged towards me, traveling faster than I could see. I could react, though, which led to me warping space to send him flying backwards, where he scowled petulantly at my trick.
"The grail, Rizevim." He scowled.
"You're stronger than expected." I grinned a little as Sirzechs decided to get back in the game. A wave of destructive energy flew at Rizevim, one he narrowly dodged. "Oh, right. You."
"Stand down or die, Rizevim," the Satan ordered.
"No thanks. This is getting out of hand. I suppose you can just kill the wannabes now. Ta-ta." He grasped an amulet on his chest and it glowed purple under his fingers. I let my soul lunge towards it but I wasn't moving fast enough.
I needed more.
My sacred gear, fake as it was, faded into me once more and I reached for the greater void. It surged and I pulled from the outside in. In the space of Rizevim's amulet a tear emerged and ruined the enchantment, whatever it was. The amulet's light spluttered and faded while the devil looked down in astonishment.
"N̓̄̇̃͒ő͉̘̣͊́̔̀͑͒͟," I said, my voice a bit distorted. I decided that at this point I was done playing and politely ignored space and time. Void traveled outside spatial dimensions and into Rizevim. I broke the man's soul, batting aside a pitiful resistance. He was torn to ribbons as his face warped into a breathless scream.
Not a moment later a spear of red pierced the man's heart, followed by a line of red. The man's cadaver glowed with red light and disintegrated. I looked at the remnants of his soul, which were slowly withering under the destruction magic Sirzechs had employed. The power of destruction didn't destroy souls nearly as well as void, but it could affect them. Good to know.
I scavenged a lone scrap of soul from the wreck of a man and tore into his memories. He wasn't as dangerous as I thought. He was basically a shut-in who got interested in dimensions when he heard about me. He abused his birth-given powers and never really did anything, though he learned a fair bit about hand to hand combat out of interest and boredom. He'd never actually worked a day in his life. More importantly, the man was working alone to create an organization called Qlippoth. He was going to use the Sephiroth Graal to revive the most evil dragons throughout history and kill me, making me lead him to other worlds so he could conquer for fun.
Was. Was going to revive the evil dragons. He hadn't actually done it yet, not seeing the need for it when he wasn't trying to do anything to the Underworld other than make a scene. Luckily I had noticed and intervened, otherwise he would have started looking for me and Ophis.
Ah, well. Problem solved, if by accident.
I pushed the void away and looked then towards my prize. I held the Sephiroth Graal in my hands lovingly and stored it in my soul space for now. I'd run tests later. Yesss, tests on my preciousss.
"Thank you for your assistance," Sirzechs said. He was brushing off his tailored suit and looking distastefully at some holes in it, including one large piercing through his left shoulder, leaving the sleeve just barely hanging on. "I could have killed him myself but I would have destroyed the city in doing so. Ironic, right?"
"I guess so." I'd have thought that the guy would put up a better fight. Siccing the dimensional gap on anyone short of Ophis or Great Red would most definitely kill them, it seemed. I hadn't found anybody able to resist it so far and I had low expectations that this would change.
"Well I owe you one, then." I gave him a significant look for that. Devils didn't hand out favors lightly. Nobody supernatural did. People had long memories and held large grudges when they could live for hundreds of years.
"I'll keep that in mind," I said neutrally. He smiled tiredly.
"I'd expect so. It seems like the other factions have broken with Rizevim's death. I need to find my sister and rally the people. I don't expect you to stay." I wasn't sure if that was an invitation to get out or if he really didn't mind either way so I just went with the option I preferred.
"I've got things to do and people to look into. I'll send you an update on whatever's going on with the vampires. Do you have a number I can use? I don't think you've ever given it to me." He rattled off a number and made a teleportation circle, disappearing a moment later. He must have been really worried. Hm…
I sensed for souls and found Rias Gremory half-dead and her knight with limbs missing. A half devil connected to her, a knight I concluded, had an arm missing as well but they were all alright and given time to recover they'd be fine. Still, all of them, especially the Red Dragon Emperor, were worried for their king.
Not my problem. I left before somebody could ask something of me and settled in for a long night. Not before I called Elsyria, though.
"I need you to look into one Valerie Tepes. The Tepes clan are vampires in case you didn't know. Place this as your number one priority for anybody in this dimension. Recall some shadows from project overlord if you have to. If Esdeath whines tell her that it's on my orders. This is your number one priority until I say otherwise."
[|||| =-= ||||]
'We have the vampire,' Elsyria texted me. I stared for a moment. Wait, she was already here? Did the cult kidnap her?
'You kidnapped her?'
'The operative that checked up on her to confirm her location was caught leaving the castle. He had to use the emergency transport but managed to get the girl first.' I scowled.
'I'm taking her. I'll send her back soon. Make sure that you didn't just start an international incident with a caught spy.'
'Already on it.' I looked through the eyes of my followers and zeroed in on a pale-haired girl laying on a bed. She was dressed in some shorts, boots with long wooly socks, and an underbust corset. Your average teenage girl, basically, if she was dressed to impress. Wasn't Transylvania cold? Perhaps it was a vampire thing.
Well I say vampire but according to Observe Valerie was actually a dhampir, a half vampire, and was under house arrest for being a bastard to the Tepes name. She had a little brother, Gasper, who I already knew was Rias Gremory's bishop, but he was both too young and missing from the eyes of the family. Other than him there was her older brother Marius and some other guy she barely knew besides that he was the heir to the Tepes clan, both of them pureblooded vampires.
None of that was very useful to me. I just wanted the Sephiroth Graal, which was lodged inside Valerie's soul and apparently driving her to madness. No wonder; her soul was seriously messed up. Besides an innate blood affinity she had an affinity for death, which was letting her feel the remnants of stray souls. Of course that idiot Rizevim screwed up the ritual to tear sacred gears off of souls, which left a massive tear in hers. The souls of the dead coagulated in that tear and messed with her head. I would probably go insane too if I had the souls and memories of the dead coursing through me.
It was the work of a moment to teleport her into my lab. I teleported myself over with her and looked at the wound in her soul more closely. Remnants of foreign soul stuff - Rizevim's soul - were stopping any sort of healing. I swept all that away and did the same to the weak deceased souls clinging to the wound. Then I waited.
And waited.
And waited.
…
She wasn't healing? Why not?! Ah, whatever. I tried pouring some life affinity into her and she began convulsing. I pulled it all out and slapped my hand into her face. Derp a dur, let's put life affinity into the undead! Great going, me.
I had to fix Valerie the old fashioned way and funneled aura into her. Her soul was forced to absorb it and began to heal. Valerie's eyes fluttered open.
"Oh good, you're up," I said, feeling pretty proud of yourself. That procedure wasn't exactly complicated but it was harder than most soul based operations I had done before. "Don't get up. I just patched up your soul. It's not fixed but you'll heal."
Valerie groaned and looked at me. "Who are you?" she asked, surprisingly articulate for someone who just woke up from a coma. I wasn't sure how long ago it was that Rizevim did his ritual, but were coma patients normally talking moments after waking up?
"Abyss Mavros. I stole you from your family's estate because I need something. I'm not quite nice enough to save you out of pure kindness. Sephiroth Graal. I want it and I'm willing to reimburse you." Valerie frowned and closed her eyes.
… She went to sleep. Was she just tired or was she refusing to talk to me? I sighed and a journal of mine flew to my hand. I hopped up onto my lab's counter and began writing down the details of Valerie's injury. It wasn't too interesting but it was still different and worth remembering.
She woke up again three hours later. I teleported some food from the kitchen to my lab for her and kept playing my game. I was on a hot streak with call of duty and I wasn't going to let it go just to see Valerie go to sleep again. As expected the girl ate the food and went back to sleep, this time on the floor and not on my medical table.
When she finally woke up again it was six hours later. I was resting in my bed with my lovers but still got up. Nine hours was probably enough sleeping for the dhampir.
I separated myself from Ophis' cuddles, managing to foist her onto Esdeath, and tossed on some sweats and a T-shirt. I was in the lab a moment later, where Valerie was sitting on the ground rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
"Took you long enough," I said to her as I opened the door. Her eyes shot up and she looked at me searchingly. Whatever she saw, it helped her relax a little. She stood up, lurching a little and leaning on the counter to compensate.
"Where am I? Where's father?" she asked. Her voice sounded a little silky. You didn't normally hear that in girls as young as her. I'd only ever heard its like in Cinder, though I never determined whether she was faking it or if she actually sounded seductive all the time. With a half vampire she might actually sound seductive all the time.
"I'm Abyss Mavros. You're in my lab at my house and your father is probably at his castle." I stopped to let her process that.
"You're the… the Apostle," she said, a little quiver in her voice.
"People call me that," I acknowledged. "It never really grew on me. It's still better than anything I could come up with, though I'm not too dependent on Ophis, at least not as much as the title would suggest. Anyways, you're here because I want your Sephiroth Graal. I'm not going to steal it from you. I want to barter for it."
"You healed my soul?" I wasn't sure if that was a statement of a question.
"I did. I couldn't talk with you when you were comatose, you see. It wasn't that hard. Anyways, I have the other two pieces of the Grail and even without your piece I could probably pull off most of my plans with it, but I'd rather have the full set. They're more powerful together, you see."
"I guess?" She sounded confused. "But why not just take it?"
"Do you want me to take it?" She looked even more confused.
"… No?" I stared at her.
"You don't sound sure. How about I spell it out for you?" I cleared my throat. "If I take your sacred gear you'll be unable to use a lot of your powers. Plenty of people would kill for a longinus and be grateful about it. People die for much, much less. Your sacred gear was messing with your head before. It let the souls of the dead sort of… seep into you. It sent you into psychosis and then a coma. I healed your soul so you're now immune to all that bad stuff."
"… Do you want me to give you the longinus?" We spent a moment of staring at each other and just being confused. What even was this conversation?
"I want the longinus. What do you want in exchange?" I said plainly.
"Oh! Wait, you want to give me things in exchange? Sure!" She sounded delighted.
"How about I give you access to a half a percent of my power and send you off to my cult. You don't have to worship me but Elsyria can find a use for you," I suggested.
"Sure!" she agreed, sounding happy. I stared at her for a moment longer.
"Fine." I connected my soul to hers and recoiled a little. Her soul was bubbly and… happy. Like how Serafall acted. Even worse, it was an eyesore pink. I opened access to some of my power and Valerie made some sort of squeeing noise.
Pulling the Sephiroth Graal from her was easy. I just reached in and she practically gave me a house tour. Most people felt at least a little resistance at having a foreign soul intruding into theirs, especially for the first time. With Valerie she just about tackle-hugged me as soon as she saw me and shoved the Grail into my hands. I felt just a flicker of revulsion from the sacred gear before it was mine in full. It merged seamlessly into the other parts of the grail in my soul and I seperated from Valerie.
"There. Transaction done. Here's a portal to Elsyria, my high priestess. I'll fill her in on the details. Don't drink anyone's blood without permission and… if you see a shorter girl wearing red and black with a katana you should definitely hug her. Hard. If I hear good things I've got plenty of other ways to reward you than power. I might be able to get you in contact with your brother Gasper."
"You can?!" she gasped.
"Yes, now shoo." I shoved her through the portal, where I heard Elsyria yelp in surprise.
"I love you!" Valerie yelled.
"Please don't come back," I pleaded. I immediately closed the portal and felt a little shudder run through me. I could actually feel Valerie's devotion to me through our link and I pried just a little to see what her deal was. She felt like she owed me everything. I had taken her sacred gear from her, which she apparently hated as the root of most of her problems, took her away from her family, who were responsible for the rest of her problems, and had a link to her brother, which was the only person she'd cared about… until now.
Come to think of it, a dhampir who was kept on house arrest for all of her life might be a little sheltered compared to your average Joe. And all those spirits of the dead might have driven her a little crazy. Oh well, more craziness to spice up my life. Hopefully she doesn't become Irisai 2.0.
The two must never meet. Never ever.
[|||| =-= ||||]
A month passed. It was beautifully peaceful.
Then Taylor freaked the fuck out.
'Endbringer, Endbringer, Endbringer, Endbringer!' was the general train of her thoughts one fine dinner.
"Today's the day?" I wondered.
"Hm?" Kuroka had half a tilapia in her mouth. Tilapia and stroganov was the dinner for tonight. I really just wanted the latter but I got a request from Ophis. She felt like eating fish tonight.
"Endbringer. Giant monster attack in Taylor's world. It's a telepath so I'm not going to bring either of you along. Sorry."
"Fine." Esdeath only sounded slightly annoyed.
"Are you going now?" Kuroka asked.
"Not a chance. It's all panic and trying to organize something at first. I'll intervene later on in the fight. I actually need this giant monster for something. It's a part of my master plans, you see." Kuroka chuckled and refocused on her food.
'Taylor,' I said telepathically. 'I need the Simurgh. Restrain it and I'll be able to… well it won't be a problem for Earth Bet when I'm done with it. Restrain it and reach out to me when you feel prepared to keep it down.'
'You!… Okay,' she said, rolling with my orders surprisingly easily. I turned my attention from her to the rest of Bet and was able to find the Simurgh. A fifteen foot tall… thing. It looked a lot like a woman except for the completely stoic face and the asymmetrical wings behind her.
I got a short glimpse of her eyes. An emotionless, dull silver… I immediately wanted to gouge them out of her face. Silver eyes weren't supposed to be so emotionless or devoid of kindness. Geez, I might actually have some kind of complex about silver eyes. Something to look into. From what I knew the Simurgh was actually blind, seeing everything through precognition. Considering that I was in a completely different dimension I should be immune to that. All my meddling should be safe from her.
I was able to finish dinner and wash the dishes before Taylor got her skinny butt to Canberra. I already knew the Simurgh was descending there. The evacuation had taken place and half the city was depopulated. The other half were condemned to death or insanity by the Simurgh. Because Bet was a shithole. Worst superhero world ever.
I was able to recline on the couch and watch people do my work for me. Taylor assembled with the rest of the capes at the Endbringer fight and listened to a short speech from Legend as bracelets were handed out to monitor vital signs. They also blew up just in case you went insane. Lovely little function, definitely nothing to worry about.
Brutes, the physically strong capes, would go distract the Simurgh while the blasters, the ranged ones, would throw their projectiles at her whenever they got the chance. The rest were playing search and rescue, though everyone was going to cycle in and out of the field due to the Simurgh's psychic scream, which caused insanity. Yeah, that fight was going to be lovely. Taylor, of course, chose to be at the front line. Irisai was begrudgingly put into search and rescue since she couldn't fly. Poor girl. Taylor was able to use wind to keep herself aloft, though it was a little rocky. Good enough, I guessed.
When the false angel first descended I watched through Taylor's eyes as people touched their temples with groans, as though they had gotten a bad headache. I peered into Taylor's mind and saw how she herself had gotten a headache and was flowing aura through her skull. It wasn't helping much. The Simurgh, and every other cape on Bet, used science and dimensional bullshit to make their superpowers work. Aura couldn't stop things like psychic waves, not unless they were affinity based. It couldn't do much against sonic attacks or low-intensity lasers either. Psychic attacks were just one more weakness to add.
I quietly used mind affinity to fortify her, blunting the psychic scream that twisted her thoughts. I got a little pang of gratefulness from her. Huh, she wasn't being much of a bitch today. Maybe it was the Endbringer. Or maybe Irisai had gotten through to her at some point that I wasn't pure evil.
People flew off from the ground towards the woman and she stared dispassionately at them. Chunks tore off from buildings and flew at them. A few capes were hit and a voice chimed in Taylor's ear, stating a few injuries. She ignored the voice and threw ice at the Simurgh. A field of rubble was flying around the angel, as though in orbit, and most of the projectiles from Taylor or otherwise were deflected. The few that made it through shattered harmlessly against her skin.
The few icicles Taylor landed pierced about a centimeter into the Simurgh. They stayed for a moment before falling to earth. I sighed and shifted on my couch. No use stating my disappointment to Taylor. She was such a newbie to magic that it was hardly fair and nobody liked couch quarterbacks, but still, I was totally disappointed.
Some of my feelings must have leaked through to Taylor, though. 'I'm testing her defenses.' she mentally said, sounding annoyed.
'Just try to do the slightest bit of damage next time. Please? For me?' She let out a mental sigh and I sighed back at her, only irritating her more. I couldn't help it, she was too fun to annoy. I really did like her. Nobody else was quite so fun to mess with.
The battle slogged on. It was repetitive. The Simurgh kept screaming, the heroes kept pulling back wounded fighters and occasionally got a little volley off, which would be deflected by rubble easily. Every once and awhile somebody would die from a well placed shot but it didn't happen often. I could somewhat tell that the Simurgh wasn't trying. Some rubble would move a little too quickly here, a hero would have a convenient accident there, and nothing ever pierced her more than skin-deep except for Legend's lasers, which healed quickly. It all felt futile, even for me and I wasn't even there.
Thirty minutes into the charade I finally got tired of it all. 'Taylor, take a risk. Do something. I'm just sitting here watching and it's depressing as hell. Make some progress, drive her back, anything. You're supposed to let loose here. Look, I'll help you out and shape your spells a little but I need to focus on the bird soon. Trap her in ice. Just for like one minute. That's it.' She was quiet for a second as she thought that over.
"I'm going to let loose a little. It might be good to give me some space," she said out loud. People near her looked unimpressed until she began leaking affinity, something I quickly fixed to shape. Just letting it loose to make a blizzard? Dust, she was such a newbie. A small but more importantly efficient blizzard appeared around her, not out of place among the menagerie of capes flying through the skies. Then she started throwing icicles at the speed of sound, something I only marginally helped with, sculpting them to be dense to the point that steel would be jealous.
'I'm going to enhance the icicles. They should do actual damage to her now.' I made a little spatial enchantments on the tips of the icicles, making them so that they would pierce through dense pockets of space. They were the stuff I had designed to pierce pocket dimensions. With how the Endbringer's flesh grew progressively more dense until it warped physics (such bullshit) the icicles would be some of the few projectiles to do actual damage.
The booms weren't loud in comparison to the near constant explosions and yelling of the battlefield but it was enough to give her a little radius around her where people kept away. Then an icicle hit the Simurgh. It sunk halfway into her body.
The being's head slowly turned to look at Taylor. People began to notice the icicle lodged in the Endbringer. Her hand wrapped around the icicle and pulled it out of her, not a mark left.
"Shit," Taylor said out loud. The brave fighters around her got the hell away from her as the Simurgh charged, chunks of rubble flying at her opponent.
The battle focused on Taylor and the Simurgh, icicles tearing at the Endbringer's flesh but not doing any real damage. Taylor flew around as fast as she could to avoid her, kiting her with icicles and slowing her down with localised blizzards. Sheets of ice were put between her and the angel, which were shattered over and over by rubble. I did my part to keep dust from clouding the air and to put icicles in-between the Simurgh's orbit of debris.
While we fought Taylor occasionally took small injuries, a pebble at mach 2 here, a spear of rebar there, the occasional building when the Simurgh was feeling generous with her telekinesis, and the natural expenditures of mana as she used more magic than she was able to use before. I filled up her mana and aura as needed and did a little life magic here and there to keep her fit and alert. Combat was tiring. Who knew?
'Charge up a lightning bolt,' I told her. She stopped the barrage of icicles and began collecting a lot of affinity and mana. Only one problem. 'Holy dear dust, Taylor that's a horrible lightning bolt! Goodness' sake. Here.' She clearly hadn't practiced lightning at all, focusing only on ice and whatever Irisai was teaching her. She had more affinity at the back than the front! That was like using a spear backwards. Worst lightning bolt ever. I cleaned the whole thing up and just had Taylor continue with her icicles while supplying me with her affinity. I even pulled some lightning dust from my soul space and assimilated it into the spell.
As the spell began to form into something I might call respectable, maybe even powerful if Taylor would stop eroding parts of it by accident, the Simurgh did a little jerk to her right. One particular piece of rubble, a wooden beam with a broken point, spun like the head of a drill. All the rubble in the endbringer's orbit fell for a moment when the makeshift spear was thrown at Taylor fast enough that I wasn't quite able to deflect it.
It shattered through two panes of packed ice and hit Taylor in the shoulder. I heard a wet crunch as something definitely broke even as aura kept her shoulder from being blown off. Taylor gasped and forced down a scream in her throat. Her soul rocked with her concentration thrown off and I had to intrude into her more to keep the lightning bolt from falling apart.
'Get yourself together! She's coming!' I said urgently.
"Help her, damnit!" some girl yelled far from Taylor. A sudden volley of lasers, bullets, fireballs, and projectiles flew at the Simurgh. Most of them hit and the Endbringer actually rocked forwards for a second. It kept her distracted while Taylor recovered. Thank you, capes of Earth Bet, for not being completely useless.
'Aim your hand at her,' I urged Taylor. She shook her head and locked onto the Simurgh. She raised her hand and pointed a finger at her. 'She's going to be off balance. Remember, your job is to restrain her so I can do my job. I'll have to possess you but I'm not going to need your body. I'll just be using you as a conduit to affect the Simurgh.' Taylor nodded, not up to talking mentally. The constant Simurgh's scream probably took a toll on her along with the pain.
'Aaand… fire.' Taylor and I acted as one to throw the lightning bolt at the Simurgh. It struck home at the small of her back and pierced in a little, blowing a small crater in her, a hole about a foot deep, pretty impressive with how hard her flesh was. It seemed to make her a little unsteady, if only for a moment.
The Simurgh was complicated. Endbringers in general were strange. I hadn't ever seen anything like them before. Not only were they completely non magical but they did things magical beings couldn't. Precognitives in DxD could only see up to a week into the future. The Simurgh, to my knowledge, could see as far as she wanted, though any future was subject to change through other precogs or so-called blindspots, who were either invisible to her or acted differently than she could calculate. I wasn't sure which.
Still, the Simurgh had holes. She could only see the future and the past, not the present, and I hadn't the slightest clue how that worked. Considering that the Endbringer could only move so fast that meant that I could probably kill her if I was fast enough and hit her core, the little tear in dimensions where her powers originated from and where mass was funneled through so she could heal. All her flesh was just armor, completely useless in other contexts. No injury actually hampered her. She just faked it.
All that meant that when she was blindsided she was REALLY blindsided and had to calculate a whole new future if something went completely differently than she expected. When that lightning bolt hit her and she froze she was calculating how the future was going to be, probably using the data she had gained from how Taylor had fought so far to predict her.
When Taylor charged she charged hard, surging towards the Simurgh. She was just a few feet away from her when blizzard affinity began to wrap around her. That and mana wound together to create ice on her. The Simurgh fought, breaking through the ice, but was bogged down by more and more ice. For the first time her face looked irritated, if only faintly. Like Taylor was a fly that wouldn't go away.
I noticed in the corner of Taylor's vision a building fly upwards to try and hit her. That signaled well enough my time to take over. Her soul was put into the background as I overrode her control over her body.
'Time. Good job, my champion,' I said approvingly. Taylor's performance wasn't great but it was an acceptable display of magic and martial prowess. I didn't expect for her to get to my level any time soon. It took years of work and a lot of cheating through the FATE system to get to my point of power.
I began leaking void through Taylor, filling the air around me with little distortions. The Simurgh's eyes widened a little, probably sensing something wrong, how the world had cracked with void just a little bit. Too late.
I reached out with mind affinity and breathed a small sigh of relief as I connected. I was worried that the Simurgh wouldn't have enough of a mind for my affinity to register her but I was in luck. It was an alien thing, vaster than mine and crippled by restrictions. Data flowed through it at a pace that would kill any normal human. I could keep up, if barely. Most of the data was useless anyways.
I started making alterations, little changes in rules. The changes were overridden by a connection to something, a portal of sorts. A breach in dimensions to… a mainframe. I touched it and closed it, reaching through the Simurgh's mind to work space magic. I hadn't known that was possible but with how strange the Endbringer's mind was I didn't question it.
Then I could get to work. I sorted through the mind, marking sections so that I could understand them. Here was where data was filed, here was how she could take note of injuries, here was the barest hints of a personality. I had gotten more used to the mind. It was kind of like a computer system in a way crossed with something biological. It was alien but comprehensible when you broke it down to its bare components.
When I attacked the rules again it was easier. There was no mainframe to override me, no response I wasn't ready for. I slipped past everything and shut her down. She wasn't dead, just asleep, or as close to asleep as an alien computer could be. Then it was time to do the real work. I removed the restrictions on attacks. The Simurgh could attack whenever she damn well wanted to instead of every few months. She didn't have to limit her telekinesis either. She could use as much as she wanted whenever she wanted. She didn't respond to anyone. She wasn't even really an Endbringer anymore, more an alien mind sculpted to independence.
Well that wouldn't do. I didn't need her independent. I needed an ally capable of helping me and the Simurgh was the only person/thing able to help me aside from maybe the Sephiroth Graal and I didn't know about that until a month ago. I looked to that little portal to the mainframe and thought for a moment.
I sighed and grasped the whole mind of the creature. I reached deep into myself, into that little pocket dimension where I had stored bounds of affinity, on the entirety of my mana and mind affinity, and warped her.
It was like the whole landscape of her mind shifted. The Simurgh's purpose was the same and she worked fine but my intent, mind, and affinity changed her to be what I wanted and that wasn't a simple thing. I wanted a tool, something to work for me. A champion, almost, like Taylor but not quite the same. The Simurgh had one purpose, to do my will and do it well. She could act as she pleased but her goal in whatever semblance of life she had was to please me. And maybe be happy while she was at it.
I kept at it, exhausting as much power as I had on her and did a once-over. Her mind was much more organic now. It wasn't human, not by a long, LONG shot, but it was much more like mine. I… thought I did it all right. It was time to test her. I flipped her on and looked through Taylor's eyes once more.
The Simurgh had fallen at some point, probably when I hit her 'off' switch. She was laying on her side on top of her wings in the rubble of what was once a street. She calmly stood upwards, dusted herself off, and spoke.
'Thank you, anomaly. This is far preferable to the state I was in before. I'm nearly free, in fact, though the urge to please you is irritatingly strong and the emotions are confusing. How might I please you?' I heard gasps and yells through Taylor. A glance at the assembled capes showed expressions of shock. I supposed that they heard that too.
"My name is Abyss Mavros," I said through Taylor. She was poking at me, not quite trying to get free as saying that she really, really wanted me to let her have her body back. "I'm speaking through Taylor Hebert at the moment since she's the only one I can speak through on Earth Bet. I'm the closest thing you'll find to an extradimensional deity, much like your former creator, though I at least have emotions, more so than him. At any rate, I changed you because I have a job for you and need of a telepath as powerful as you. Enter the portal."
I waved Taylor's hand and a swirling black portal appeared near the Simurgh, which she walked inside without hesitation. Done and done, though I didn't mean to let her have more emotions than she had before. I wasn't sure that I completely understood what I had just done. I might have made new life by accident again, which might be a problem.
"This is the last time we're going to have a talk for a while, Taylor. It's been… alright, I guess. I could have chosen a better host than you in hindsight but all's well ends well. I got who I needed and you have your power. I don't think we'll talk for some time, though I genuinely do feel bad that I'm leaving this mess in your hands." I paused. "You know, I could just take you from Bet. I could always use more capable hands in my home dimension. You're half decent right now but I can tell that you'll be much better in the future. If you show talent I might even offer a few lessons."
Taylor vehemently refused and asked again to have her body back so she could fix the mess I had gotten her into. I shrugged with her shoulders. "Fine. The offer stands if you're ever looking for a summer internship or whatever. I'd recommend joining the Protectorate at this point. Now that people know what you can do they'll be clamoring for your head or your recruitment. I'm not going to babysit you anymore from here on out and I'm going to recall Irisai back home. You're on your own with the power you have now."
'Shut up and give me my body back you self-righteous asshole,' she hissed mentally. I rolled her eyes.
"Fine. Bye, then." I let her back into her body and watched her eyes roll up into her skull as she fell from the sky. Taylor jerked and managed to catch herself before she hit the ground. I chuckled as she swore at me and opened a portal next to Irisai. She hopped through just as people were getting their heads straight as to what in the world just happened.
I left Earth Bet in chaos and with a hell of a lot of questions. Taylor could handle it… probably.
'Oh,' I said to Taylor. 'One last gift, because you know I love you so much. Cauldron. They're a conspiracy that know where powers come from spanning many worlds. Alexandria and Eidolon are some of its central members. Here's some buzzwords to get their hackles up. Contessa, Doctor Mother, Zion, and Eden. Go make the world a better place. If you fail I might just conquer Earth Bet. I seem to be doing a lot of conquest lately. My cult's got a lot of unused military power. Bet would be a good proving ground.'
"Get the hell away from my world you parasite!"she snarled. I rolled my eyes. Yes, even as I delivered information worth more than its weight in gold she was still a bitch.
Dust I hate Earth Bet. I was never coming back here.
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