Eurydice broke out of the hold of Jelly, dodging each of his lunging strikes and began firing volleys of bullets at him with her rifle, aiming for his core. Jelly swapped back to Defense Mode, using his Impervious Regen to deflect the bullets back to her at twice the speed.
Eurydice teleported out of the way of the bullets then tossed her gun in the air, Seven using his Stormbind to attract her rifle into his hands using a magnetic field. He charged up an attack, pulling the trigger and releasing a lightning blast toward Jelly.
Jelly took the impact head on, the blast destroying his core and his body dissolving into Mana particles. The girls gasped at Jelly's sudden defeat, but I remained calm in my expression, an impressed hum sounding in my throat.
"So, you managed to defeat Jelly. Impressive, so that means you found the weakness?" I asked, my gaze turning directly to Seven.
Seven tossed Eurydice's rifle back to her then pushed up his glasses, turning around to face me with a light hum. "It was simple with a bit of analyzing. Gelatin creatures, Daemon or Monster, are mainly weak to magic attacks or at least weapons that can emit elemental energies. Physical damage doesn't do well against them."
"Heh, and this is why Lady Bethel keeps Specs around..~ Ahh, me and this guy go way back," Eurydice chuckled, patting Seven on his back gently.
I chuckled softly at the two and got off the table, rolling my shoulders then reached into my back pockets and tossed them both small bottles with green liquids inside. The girls gasped in shock as I tossed them both healing potions, their faces showing visible confusion.
"N-Nox? Why are you giving them potions? Squad IV wants to destroy you! You're making a mistake!" Effie warned, closing her notebook and stood up from the table.
"Get behind me, Terminus! You no not of what my Father commands! Just watch," I said, holding my hand out and summoning one of my hidden butterflies toward me.
Effie flinched at me calling her Terminus, not understanding why but she sat back down, sitting near Fleur for comfort. "Terminus..? Why did he call me The Devil..?"
"It must...be one of those parables or something..." Fleur said softly with an awkward giggle, holding Effie closely and clearing her throat.
Luciel and Scarlet watched me closely, the two of them now closely studying the battle after spending a bit of time with me. Scarlet reached out toward me with both hands, her wings fluttering cutely and her body emitting light aura.
〘Monster: Vampire Girl〙
〘Index No.: 23〙
〘Ranking: 4 Star〙
〘Ability: Scarlet Aurora〙
〘Ability Desc.: Grants all Monsters, Allies, and Dark Lord Spirit Drain when in combat, Grants Dark Lord Vampire in combat.〙
I stared at Eurydice and Seven, watching them drink their potions and recover their Strength and Spirit completely. I smiled at the two of them, crossing my arms and tilting my head. "You know as much as I do that we don't have to fight... especially not on the first day."
"You're right...and it's not that me and Seven want to fight you out of malice. It's just you're our first real challenge in years! Fighting The Messiah, the true Messiah? It's bound to bring fun in this draining institution!" Eurydice replied, swapping her rifle for a black bladed katana.
Seven exhaled softly and pushed up his glasses with his eyes closed, resting his hands at his side. "As much as I like to say, 'Curiosity killed the cat', I can't help but to be curious about you. That's why I'm willing to challenge you."
"So you're willing to deny me fully just for a bit of sport? Alright, how about this...if I defeat you two, you have to join me to the Altar for confession. How's that sound?" I asked, uncrossing my arm and using my aura to construct a broadsword.
"It's fair to me...not that we'll actually lose to you!" Eurydice laughed, readying herself as well and locked onto me.
I smirked at Eurydice then launched my sword toward her then warped toward it, catching it in mid-air then slashed downward with a powerful slice. Eurydice blocked my attack, grunting heavily but gathering enough strength to push me back.
I landed on the ground then Phased throughout Seven's blindside attack, countering with a back kick to knock him away. Eurydice dashed toward me from the left, leaping into a slice but I dodged her attack into a spinning slice, knocking her away as well.
"Nox, look out!" Effie warned, pointing at Seven who threw daggers at me.
I phased through each dagger with back steps then stuck my sword into the ground to catch the last two daggers. I launched them back at Seven, tagging him with both daggers then warped toward him with a dropkick, the impact launching him through a picnic table.
A few onlookers gasped at the impressive blow, some taking their phones out to watch while others retreated for safety. The girls couldn't take their eyes off the battle either, the stakes were very high, the Dark Lord was on the scene.
Eurydice grunted softly as she looked over at Seven, watching him stumble onto his feet then turned her gaze back toward me, a bead of sweat rolling down her cheek. "What is that power you hold? That warping ability you have?"
"It's Spirit Warp, an ability only those of True Eyican Blood can wield. It's an ability originating from Genesis that she gave to Henosis, to never be touched by evil. It's also called the Steps of Truth, meaning to always walk in Truth," I answered, looking at my butterfly perched upon my shoulder.
"It's an Expression of Omnipresence, so it's not as if I were everywhere at once though I can be in a sense with it's perfected state, Spirit Blink. With that, I leave behind a fraction of my Spirit behind which can act on its own until he's hit," I added, turning my gaze back to Eurydice with a smirk.
"Just exposing your secrets like that? Hmph, bold one aren't you? Let's hope that doesn't come back to bite you!" Eurydice laughed, teleporting toward me with a spinning kick.
I phased through her attack then noticed a misdirected slash headed my way, forcing me to phase through her attack once more. I launched my butterfly behind me, my body becoming a dark blue silhouette and warping toward my butterfly, allowing me to avoid her third attack.
Eurydice propelled herself forward with a flurry of slashes, clashing with me as I guarded against each of her attacks. Within our series of clashes, Eurydice managed to land a few cuts upon my skin, each cut boosting her own ego to the moon.
"What's wrong?! Not so confident anymore once you're on the back foot?!" Eurydice boasted, continuing her onslaught of strikes and slamming her katana against my broadsword.
I used my aura to shift my broadsword into my Steel Buster, my larger blade boosting my Strength and giving me enough room to enter my Avenger Stance to parry each of her slices. Parrying her final slice and knocking her off balance, I let out a bellow as I sliced forward in a circular motion, launching her away.
Eurydice groaned as my slice landed true, shards of her Spirit Energy leaving her and entering into mine, boosting my Spirit. Through her wound, blood red particles exited her wound and entered into mine, healing my own wounds.
"Papa! Papa!" Scarlet called out to me, pointing to the air.
I looked over at Scarlet then glanced in the air, noticing a man in the air with his sword drawn, coming down at me with a radiant slice. Quickly, I leaped away from his attack then readied my sword once again.
The man slowly stood up from his kneeled position, his white long coat flowing behind him with the wind. He opened his eyes, both eyes glowing mama blue and his platinum hair shimmering under the sunlight. He took his fiery great sword from the ground, the blade emitting orange flames.
I looked at the man's sword, noticing his blade was a fiery orangish-red hue, burning in temperatures that could melt the hardest metal on Earth, Adamantium, like butter. "That sword...it looks like one of those Divine Keys many Valkyrias talk about.."
The man looked at his sword as well, humming softly and turning his gaze back to me. "It is. My name is Kevin Laslow, and I am a descendant of one of the greatest Valkyria of all time, Orishi Ashikaga."
The name was familiar to me as I've studied Valkyrias from history books back when I was a child. I looked Kevin up and down, studying him intently and exhaled softly. "So, you too want a shot at taking me down?"
"Stand in line, buddy! We were here first!" Eurydice called out, grunting softly as she stood onto her feet, using her shadows to heal her wound.
Kevin looked over at Eurydice and scoffed softly at her. "You're already fighting a losing battle. It's time for you all to move aside and allow a true Hero to take down a Dark Lord."
"I said, back away!" Eurydice bellowed, summoning her pistol and began firing shadow bullets toward Kevin.
Kevin used the wide blade of his sword to effortlessly block the bullets, turning his attention toward Eurydice and slashed downward at her, releasing a fiery cutting wave. Eurydice smirked as she expanded her own shadow and covered a medium area with blacl smoke.
With everyone's vision obscured by Eurydice's smoke, I took this chance to escape the chaos, warping toward the table where the girls sat then warped each of us to a different room nearby. The black smoke began to clear, Kevin swinging his sword in a giant circle to help clear the smoke faster.
He looked around the courtyard, grunting softly as he noticed the girls and I were gone. He clenched his teeth then turned toward Eurydice, gripping the handle of his sword tightly. "You did that on purpose to let him get away, didn't you?!"
Eurydice shrugged her shoulders, her smirk growing wider upon her lips. "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't... however all I know was I wasn't going to let you get to him before I do."
Kevin scoffed at Eurydice then ran off to try and find me once more. Eurydice and Seven decided to go back to their safe haven for the day, claiming themselves defeated and as such, a white marking formed on their foreheads, signalling for none of my allies to strike them.
--------------------------------
Moon-li and Eun-Song huffed as they ran through the halls of the Libra Department, Moon-li glancing behind her to see a group of delinquents chasing after them. Cursing to herself, she decided to stop running and turned around to face the delinquents.
"Come on, man...it's only 10:50 AM, why are y'all after us?" Moon-li sighed softly, looking ahead and noticed Tang walking forward from the group of delinquents.
"Moon-li, you don't even know Nox, so why are you even in his squad. You just heard about him yesterday and you're suddenly rocking with him? What did you do for that? Oh, wait I know..." Tang said, holding his hands in front of him using them to charade intercourse.
Moon-li's face became a hot red hue at Tang's insinuation, squeaking lightly and shaking her head in fierce denial. "What do you even take me for?! I'd never stoop that low for some opportunity!"
"We're friends with Chester and Queen and they introduced us to Nox and Squad V! You need to take your mind out of the gutter, whatever you and Moon-li had before is over!" Eun-Song spoke up, stepping forward in defense of her best friend.
Tang laughed at both Eun-Song and Moon-li, walking toward them and grabbing a metal bat from one of his friends. "Doesn't matter anymore, right? With you all allied with that poser, it doesn't matter what happens to you right?"
Tang fiercely swung his bat at the girls, but they both evaded the heavy swing, the bat hitting the wall and leaving a hole in it. Both girls hurried away from Tang, but Tang quickly gave chase to the both of them with the delinquents not too far behind.
Both Moon-li and Eun-Song called out for help against the pack of wolves chasing after them, their cries for help unheard from those against me. They quickly descended the stairs as fast as they could, but Eun-Song slipped one of the steps, causing her to stumble and roll down the steps.
Moon-li glanced back at her friend, noticing her on the ground holding her ankle then looked up as she heard Tang and his forces pushing down the stairs. "Hurry, get up Myong..!"
Moon-li grunted as she helped her friend off the ground and carried her toward the exit, both of them making it out onto the courtyard and looking around for a safe place to hide. Suddenly, they began to hear whispers in the wind, a gentle voice speaking to them.
Quickly...
The Gym...
Go hide there...it is a part of the Libra Battle Room...
Both girls listened closely to the gentle voice of the Floral Dark Lord, both of them hurrying toward the gym per Floria's command. Soon, Tang and his crew exited the Libra Department and looked around the courtyard, wondering where the two could've disappeared off to.
"Check everywhere, bring them both to me unharmed. I'll deal with them," Tang ordered, walking over to one of the courtyard tables.
The delinquents began spreading out into different directions, each of them on the hunt for the two friends. Tang looked around himself, his gaze scanning the environment until his eyes stopped at the gym, goosebumps slowly creeping onto his neck.
Moon-li and Eun-Song hurried to the second floor of the gym, hiding in the office of the gym and noticing someone sitting in the chair, both of them feeling their hearts drop. The person in the chair turned around, a smirk forming on his face.
"Chester...what the heck are you doing here? You scared the hell out of us!" Moon-li groaned softly, bringing Eun-Song inside the office and sitting her down in a chair.
"Something told me to come here...Aah...some Divine Voice saying to come to the gym and wait here. Could be the voice of God...could be Nox? Who knows..." Chester said, turning back around and looking at the cameras of the gym.
Eun-Song grunted softly as she reached down to run her ankle gently, sighing heavily. "Where's Queen?"
"In class, so she's safe I assume," Chester answered, leaning forward in his seat as he noticed a few delinquents walking inside. "Oh..? It's those guys..."
Moon-li got up from her seat and walked over to the monitors and looked down at them, noticing the delinquents roaming inside to search for her and Eun-Song. "They're looking for us, Chester...Tang, he's still after me I fear..."
Chester rolled back his seat and stood up from his seat, walking over to the control panel and opening the small silver door. "I see...I had a hunch that's why I was brought here, so I spent the last hour thinking of what I would do should any moment arise.."
Moon-li watched as Chester turned on the fans of the gym, hearing the loud mechanical roars of the fans outside then watched as Chester began making his way out of the office. She turned to look back at Eun-Song, gesturing for her to stay inside here.
Eun-Song nodded, watching Moon-li leave the office then slowly got up to sit in the rolling chair to watch the cameras. "Please be safe, Chester and Moon-li..."
The delinquents looked around at the fans, feeling the air in the gym grow cooler inside and searched even harder for the two girls. Suddenly, their movements stopped as they heard the blow of a loud whistle, each of them looking up at the balcony of the gym.
Chester leaned upon the rails of the second floor, looking down at each of the guys and smirked at them. "Thought you all could use a little air in here! You're all working so hard to look for something, the heat could get a bit tiring!"
One delinquent scoffed at Chester, pointing his bat up at him. "Yo, white washed Asian, tell us where those two bitches are hiding! I know you saw them!"
Chester glanced to his right, watching as Moon-li walked toward him and hummed softly at her bravery to come out of the office. "Well, one of them is here. However, the other I have no clue where she could be."
"Bullshit! Those two damsels are never apart, so I know you're a lying, two-faced phony! Tell us where the other is or we'll beat you for the answers!" Another delinquent threatened, banging her crowbar against the ground.
Chester smirked and vaulted over the railing, free falling onto the first floor with a single flip, landing perfectly upon one knee perfectly. He stood up straight from the ground, sticking his hands into his pockets. "I've been looking for an excuse to get a bit active, so I'll use you all for some exercise...this will be easy..."
The delinquents charged toward Chester, wildly swinging their weapons at him, but Chester quickly evaded their attacks with his hands in his pockets. Ducking under one swung, he countered with a sweep kick, knocking the man off balance, causing another delinquent to strike his back with a metal pole.
Another delinquent charged forward with a swing of his crowbar, but Chester read him perfectly, taking his hands out of his pockets to swing a rack in front of him then pushed it toward the delinquent. The delinquent dodged the rack and lunged forward, but Chester pulled a hard ball from behind him and smashed it again the delinquent's head.
Moon-li watched as Chester perfectly handled each delinquent with calculated easy, using their momentum and strengths against them. Unbeknownst to her, one of the delinquents were able to slip away from the crowd, using the sound of the loud fan and the chaos to sneak up upon her.
Suddenly, Eun-Song rushed out of the office, tackling the delinquent onto the ground and began wrestling him for the metal bat. Moon-li quickly turned around at the sound of the struggle, noticing Eun-Song and a delinquent fighting for the weapon.
"You dumb bitch, get off me!" The delinquent yelled, punching Eun-Song's ribs hard and pushing her off his body.
He got up quickly and went to kick her, but Moon-li dashed toward the man with a clean right hook, dazing the delinquent to seeing small stars. The delinquent recovered quickly, dodging Moon-li's next attack the swung his bat at her side.
Moon-li grunted as she was cracked on her side, but caught the bat with her arm then chopped the wrist of the delinquent, disarming him to gain control of the bat. She wildly swung the bat, but the delinquent dodged her attack and charged at her, pushing her toward the rails, causing her to drop the bat to the ground.
Eun-Song grunted in pain from her bruised ankle and her damaged rib, dragging herself to the rails for support onto her feet. She looked up, noticing Moon-li in a struggle against the delinquent. "Pok... Moon-li...!"
Moon-li grunted and gasped for air as the delinquent wrapped his hands around her neck, doing everything she could to break the hold. Unable to think of anything else, she struck the delinquent's groin with her knee, causing him to groan loudly in pain and fall to the ground.
Moon-li herself fell to the ground, gasping and coughing, crawling away from the delinquent quickly toward the office for safety. "I can't die here...God, you can't let me die here..!"
Eun-Song looked down at the first floor, noticing the delinquents starting to gain an upperhand on Chester, a few more backup from West's faction arriving at the gym to help Tang's group. Her heart began to stop, the sudden dangers seemingly growing too quickly for her.
As the chaos increased and the delinquents began to win in their brawl against Chester and the girls, my Harpy curiously became attracted to the noise, poking her head inside the gym and watching the Delinquents gang up on Chester with stomps. She squawked with surprise, flying inside with ferocious speed.
One delinquent looked up from his assault, noticing my Harpy flying at great speeds and striking him with her talons, her sharp nails piercing through his body and forcing him to release a painful scream. His friends all stopped attacking Chester, looking up in the air to see my Harpy suspending the delinquent in the air by her talons.
〘Battle Room: Frenzy〙
〘Battle Room Description: With every enemy that enters the room, all Monsters gain +10% Fury per enemy. Fury boosts the Strength and Battle Drive of Monsters per boost.〙
〘Battle Room Location: Courtyard/Gym - Libra Department〙
"What...? This gym is part of the Battle Room..?" A delinquent asked in disbelief, looking up at her friend being carried in the air.
Chester chuckled softly at the delinquents, crawling his way away from the delinquents and resting upon the bleachers, panting softly. "Heh, I knew that Harpy was here...and with her being an Avian Type monster, those fans will constantly boost her Wind Abilities...all I needed was enough commotion to bring her curiosity here..."
The Harpy screeched furiously and launched the delinquent in her talons across the gym, his body crashing through a rack of balls, each ball crashing down upon his body. The delinquents began to retreat with terrified screams, the Harpy flying after them and terrorizing them with wind blasts.
The lone delinquent slowly recovered onto his feet, looking up at Eun-Song and noticing she was unguarded, a crude smirk forming on his lips. He sprung to his feet, charging after Eun-Song and tackling her to the ground, pinning her hands over her head.
"Stop, struggling! You're mine now...I know Tang only wants your friend, so I think I'll keep you for myself..!" The delinquent chuckled, keeping her pinned down onto the ground using his full weight.
Eun-Song panicked under his weight, seeing his greedy and lustful gaze, fearful tears welling in her eyes as she screamed for help. She thrashed as much as she could to escape, but he was simply too heavy for her to push off. "Moon-li!!!"
Without hesitation, Moon-li rushed around the corner with a pen in hand. She lunged toward the delinquents with pure adrenaline, stabbing the delinquent with the pen on the side of his neck, forcing his actions to suddenly come to a stop.
Eun-Song panted heavily as she looked up at the delinquent in horror, watching him fall onto his side, his head hitting against the rails. She screamed and pushed herself away from the delinquent, covering herself and shaking heavily.
Moon-li stared at the man in complete horror, questioning what she had done to him in the moment. Her body began to grow cold and hot at the same time, her first instinct to hurry to Eun-Song and pick her up to escape the scene.
Chester watched as the two girls left the gym, his gaze turning up to the delinquent left on the balcony, noticing vines and flora flowing upon the man's body. He let out a soft exhale, turning away from the scene. "And so...the Dark Lord's game truly begins..."