"Wait what battle….? Issei asked in confusion, Ddraig seem a little confused before realizing
[Oh I never told you, to get these pieces out of your body you'll have to fight them one on one and then only you'll be able to get them out, but there is a time limit to it you'll only have two hours to do it, if you fail then its game over] Ddraig explained to issei, hoping that he will be able to defeat the pieces and free his soul in the process.
"Ok then all I have to do is beat them but when I use only a little bit of magic the corruption takes over…..then how can I fight?" issei asked a little confused by the situation.
[That's where I come in I will be keeping the corruption at the bey while you fight for control of your body, remember you cannot use the illegal move, or the Cardinal promotion, so you'll only have your balance breaker] Ddraig informed him.
"Ddraig information like this are something you should give first…..but it doesn't matter my base has gotten stronger and since the effect of corruption wont be there I can put up a good fight in my base." Issei reassured Ddraig, sat crossed leg and went into his consciousness in front of him stood the giant form of Ddraig holding both his hands together and in deep meditation around him a faint red aura glowing, issei heard his voice in his head.
[Go partner from that gate its your fight, now go and show those bastards who the real boss of this body is.] Ddraig motivated issei and he entered the gate to the battle field, a destroyed version of Kuoh with destroyed buildings, cratered streets and a feeling of melancholy, like a war passed through the city and in the air above was the source of this destruction a glowing black orb constantly changing its shape, a black energy was launched from the orb and a figure came out from it with blue hair and two giant swords in hand and a mad grin on its face.
Seeing the figure issei's blood started to boil (this fucker is playing with me, sending fakes with their face to fight me…..do he really think I will hesitate to end them just because they share the same face) "Ascalon…" he muttered.
[BLADE]
A European sword with a reddish-purple grip and a golden hilt with stylized crosses at the edges of the guard appeared in his hand, Ascalon the sword that saint George used to slay an evil dragon, its power was comparable to that of durandel making it one of the best holy sword with the edge being its dragon slayer property.
Issei gripped the blade in his right hand as it was covered in a reddish aura another trick issei got after watching bleach and one piece he transfers his magical energy in the blade for a compressed slash of attack like getsuga tenshou. The overflowing energy got in the blade as the edge of the sword gained a red tint and then issei swung the Xenovia clone brought its blade together but didn't except the blast to be a decoy as issei appeared behind her and decapitated it in one swing.
Without looking back, he moved forward when he was almost hit by a tree thrown at him from behind and flames from the front he jumped upwards but had to block an slash from hauteclere the force of which created a shockwave, "So three at once now huh very well it saves my time." Summoning Ascalon he pushed Irina lookalike back and throwed his sword charged with red draconic energy at it, piercing it through the chest and called the sword back before dodging the fire balls thrown at him flipping from one roof to another in the process he charged the blade with enough magical energy and sanded a giant slash of energy making the fireballs dispel in the process and hitting the caster but it was not enough to finish it,( that damn thing even copied the regeneration of phoenix). He appeared behind the ravel lookalike and attempted to decapitate it but was caught in his gut by a punch from the koneko lookalike, issei skidded through the ground by planting his blade in the road and disappeared from his position, a [BOOST] sounding out as he covered his left fist in draconic flames and blowed the fake kitty's head off, moments later a large fireball was thrown at his place but he just absorbed the flames and once again threw the blade at the phoenix piercing her brain and killing her in the process.
Not even giving them a glance he moved towards the Kuoh academy, in the way he encountered a Asia and Akeno lookalike, while Asia was easy to defeat akeno was a bit annoying, as it was keeping his distance and hotting him with lightning attacks, when he reached the academy he found Rias that damn clone tried to play mind games with him but was skewered by Ascalon when issei had enough.
The defense mechanism the corruption was using against him would have worked if they all were not already dead for issei, and piercing them actually served as a kind of revenge for all the shit he had been through but in the end, he felt as he just killed a part of himself.
Throughout the fight issei never felt the need to use balance breaker just sticking to Ascalon and his fire attacks, but when the 7th piece was defeated, the orb started moving, it absorbed the 7 pieces and a giant dragon with seven heads appeared in front of him, towering over even the academy of Kuoh with a deep black miasma blocking its identity, the dragon roared.
Issei was almost blown away by that roar so he decided to go all out from the start summoning his balance breaker he started using Ascalon to attack the dragon because of the size difference he was able to get some hits in but the damage he did was recovered instantly, so this behemoth also had instant regeneration, just great iseei thought as he started to charge Ascalon with his aura continuous shouts of [Boost] echoing as the sword grew to large proportions dwarfing issei's form and he swung,
**Fwoosh**
A large shockwave appearing that blew the miasma for a bit and collided with the dragon's skin but as it collided...….
**clang**
The blade shattered, the dragon slayer Ascalon that was said to be on par with Balmung, in slaying dragons was shattered in one swing.
As the blade shattered the dragon's mouths started to charge blasts of seven different colors and fired at issei, he tried to dodge but his right hand was caught in the blast, disintegrated in seconds as issei stood freezing in the face of overwhelming might, issei felt fear this monster no this absolute beast was on another level he had faced evil dragons before but the aura this beast excluded reminded him of something else entirely, a beast who he wanted to forget about the one that took all the faction leaders and the two heavenly dragons to combine forces it reminded him of.....................
Trihexa
Although something was weird, when issei originally fought 666 he wasn't even able t scratch it with both the Ascalons and the diablo form, but now he was able to damage the beast a little but there was still hope maybe it isn't as powerful as before or maybe it is the source of the darkness in me, that Ddraig was mentioning something like Momoshiki, and if I die here it might free it to cause havoc, with this issei made his mind but it looked like Trihexa was tired of waiting and charged another blast this time larger then the one before, but before issei could do anything a bright light emitted in his mindscape making him go blind for a moment.
When he opened his eyes, It looked like time was frozen as he was now standing in a place that was unfamiliar to him and as he wondered where he was, a voice asked him...…
"Tell me incarnate of Red Dragon even after a shattered heart why you still draw your blade." A cold and monotone voice sounding as if the wielder is a broken shell echoed. "Even after getting your dreams crushed your pride trampled upon and losing the ones you love getting all your dreams crushed why you still strive to live this pitiful life." The voice asked him almost as if confused at his drive to live but issei was feeling a bit unnerve how does this voice know so much about him.
"The secret of our identity does not matter all we want to know is about your resolve and what motivates you to live even after such a tragic life."
This question made issei think again about his decision, why was he here trying to fight, why was he trying to live, after everything that had happen was it worth to live anymore, for whom should he live now there was no one anymore, should he just give-up, what even is the point of living anymore, the people who gave him a reason, all turned on him, yeah there is no reason anymore...…..yeah he should die
The voice reading his thoughts just sighed, another one she saw a potential in will succumb to his despair, it looked like it's the fate of every red dragon spawn to meet his fate while succumbing to despair, but she cannot blame the red- no this man Issei Hyoudou for it, betrayel was something she was all too familiar with, as she herself faced it countless times, being betrayed by someone close to you breaks a person and that is the reason she is sealed here and seeing another one succumbing to the same fate as her just broke her heart even though she might be the cold hearted queen of winter she is still the same fairy who came to give the world a hope, but suddenly she felt something in his thoughts began to change, something she was surprised of she felt a sudden surge hope in the boy and t reminded it her of the same feelings she had in the past.......
With issei about o succumb to despair, he felt something no he heard the voice of someone, his mom his dad, gasper, Rosseweisse, Kiba and most of all Ddraig all those are someone who he actually have then his thoughts went towards another girl his younger sister whom he had not seen in quite some time, remembering about all of them gave him hope and his armor began to change it got a little bulky and gained black highlights with the original red color, a second pair of dragon wings appear on his back totaling to four, the scale mail looked a little like the juggernaut drive but instead of despair it gave the feeling of hope.
I see so you have chosen your path then allow Tonelico to guide you to your destiny, and if you are able to do it then help the witch queen to regain her smile, with that the glow from the crystal transferred to issei boosting his power and time resumed, he saw the beast firing the blast but instead of dodging he brought his right hand forward and a shout echoed from it
[Divide] [Divide] [Divide] [Divide]
And the blast was dwindled down to a mere ember of its original size, issei brought his right hand forward and slammed it on the ground...
**woosh** **woosh**
And a large torrent of flame engulfed the beast of apocalypse, but it was relatively unharmed as the miasma surrounding it was acting as a shield against all the attacks, issei thought on how to land a critical hit when the dragon began charging another blast this time the miasma mixing with the orb giving it a jet black color and it fired
**Boom**
A loud sound echoed as the orb was hurled towards him and he raised his hands a white glow around them
[REFLECT]
Using the white dragons special ability he reflected the blast back at the beast and began charging his assault, as the blast hit the beast its miasma became a little less dense and issei seeing the opportunity called on "Ascalon II"….
[BLADE II]
A copy of the holy sword appear in issei's hand as he began charging with a flaming aura, the temperature in his mindscape began to rise as issei prepared his final attack..
"Blazing inferno....
Issei began flying at high speed, his D&D armor making him look like a missile ready to nuke Japan and before he struck the dragon a sound echoed….
[PENETRATE]
Scorching Slash !!!"
And cleaved the beast right in half igniting both the half but before its regeneration kicked in he began slashing at the two pieces at a speed that would make Hermes jealous and slashed the beast in countless pieces and once all the pieces flew closer he struck again...
[BOOST] X 69
"Blazing inferno of Scorching Flames"
The pieces of the beast were starting to burn, but issei began charging his final attack...
[BOOST] X 100
[Longinus Smasher]
A titanic green blast of energy began forming at issei's chest and was fired at the raging inferno of flames causing a huge explosion that covered all of the Kuoh, if someone from 1940's Japan saw it they would have PTSD from the sight of it.
"Fucking bastard emptied all of my reserves, oh great now only the hilt of my blade remains, but, if that sudden boost hadn't come, I would have been a dragon toast."
As issei said that he saw the embers from the blast coming towards his blade and began reforming his sword, as the glow died down his blade was now more demonic looking, the blade was now in the form of a two-handed sword, with sharper edges, and in a proportionally larger size making it look like devil's favorite blade.
When issei grabbed the now reformed blade a myriad of memories hit him and on instinct he gave it a test swing that almost created a crater in front of him.
"That is pretty op I guess, I will have to look into it some other time. he thought as he began to wake up.
IN THE CLEARING
One could see a dark-brown-haired boy laying down on the ground. A black spot swirling in his heart, but said spot started to disappear and in its place a bright crimson Pawn Piece was sent flying. It made a great arc and landed on the only path in and out of this cave. However, the boy did not woke up after that. One could see a black mark on his forehead, shinning in a violet light, yet no signs of life came from the boy.
More than 10 minutes passed until a bright red aura started to come out from the boy. It was similar to the one that started the entire 'process' but this one was different, this one was more dark, and even some parts were shining with violet light giving it a cold feeling. After a few moments, the aura disappeared and the boy, opened his eyes.
*Pant! Pant! Pant!*
He started to breath heavily but he was only capable of that, he still couldn't move. His body was numb. He leaned on his side, coughing continuously and gasping for breath.
"I'm… alive?" - The boy said in between breaths, not believing what happened. He thought that this was another cruel prank from the world, but the pain he felt and the sensation of his body working properly, proved him otherwise.
"… I'm Alive…" - Repeating again the same words, he slowly recovered his breath. "I AM ALIVE!" - Howling at the heavens, he screamed with every fiber of his being. That last Pawn Piece was a failsafe that 666 used to reincarnate it self through the use of issei's body but now that fragment was gone and from what issei could assume his powers were available to use! That thought sent a chill down his spine. Even if he couldn't move, he was alive. (My vision is blurry. My senses are twisted. And my mind, well, just by the fact that I am speaking like this is proof enough that I'm not well.) - The dark-brown-haired boy thought to himself.
"Well, it seems that I need to wait. Since the procedure was done, I can finally use my Aura to fix my body. After that, I need to go back to Kuoh. There are things I need to do." - He said to no one in particular.
"HaHaHaHa! Let's see what awaits us! Now world, I'll show you what I'm made of!" - Issei said as a vicious grin adorned his entire face. I really do wonder, what exactly will happen from now on…