Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Aki Hayakawa had ten days left to live.

Devil Hunters had always had one foot on earth, and one foot in the afterlife, ready to slip and fall into their eternal slumber at any given moment. It was the danger that came with the job. Being a Devil Hunter was never a stable career choice, it was always a risk. But it meant something.

At least, that’s how it used to be.

That was when they still stood a chance against the Devils they were fighting, but in recent times things had changed. The relative standstill between Devils and Humans had shifted to an all-out war, a demonic siege to take Earth from its current inhabitants. It was absolute mayhem, carnage like never seen before. Cities had been leveled, destroyed by some of the stronger Devils, while the lower levels of their horde terrorized the people still alive, wandering the streets like hellhounds.

Aki stalked through the lower levels of a ruined London, cloaked in shadows and hidden between rubble and tight alleyways. He was walking through a maze of red brick, practically blind if not for an almost instinctual level of direction guiding him along. Coming to the end of another alleyway, he gave himself a moment to rest, leaning against a rusty pipe as she surveyed his surroundings.

In front of him laid the River Thames, previously the pride of London’s waters, now reduced to naught but a repository for sunken warships that had fruitlessly been used to fight the Devils in the early days of their invasion. It was saturated with rusted scrap and dead bodies, blood tinging the waters a light red color.

He carefully stepped forward through crumbled asphalt and rubble, his shoes trudging through ashes that had long since stopped smoldering. Eventually, he reached the crooked railing that separated land from water, and he looked over at what lay on the other side of the River Thames.

London’s St. Malfeasance Penitentiary. One of the few jails for Devils in the whole world that was still ‘standing’. Although calling it that was probably an overstatement. From the long distance between Aki and the prison, he could spot the building's crumbling walls, deteriorating like practically everything he’d passed through in this city. The two top floors of the building had been smashed right off, leaving behind rubble on the makeshift roof fashioned like ramparts to a castle. And the structure’s likeness to a castle did not stop there, as Aki could also spot a set of wooden spikes lining the area in front of the building, a defense to ward away any unwanted visitors.

Not that it had been any help.

Aki let out a sigh, removing his hands from the crooked railing, and letting one of his hands rest on the katana strapped to his hip as he looked out for a bridge to the other side of the river.

Eventually, he managed to get his feet onto the remains of Westminster bridge. The general structure of the bridge was still intact, but it was riddled with rubble and holes, not even to mention the mess of abandoned cars strewn about like a makeshift parking lot. As he started to walk, stepping between the empty cars, the barrenness of the city was really starting to hit him.

So many people had died in the early days of the invasion, and there wasn’t a single thing any of them were able to do. Not that the Devil Hunters didn’t try. So many of Aki’s colleagues had fought until the very end, but in the end, it had meant nothing. They got overpowered, the Japanese public safety Devil Hunter office fell, and most Devil Hunter agencies around the world failed to make a difference.

Aki reached the other side of the bridge and shook the doubts off. He wasn’t dead yet, he still had a chance to make it right. To make sure his friends hadn’t died in vain. He made his way to the entrance, light on his feet so he wouldn’t accidentally get the attention of any Devils. Aki was good at fighting Devils, but since the invasion had started, they’d been getting a lot better at fighting in groups.

And so he stepped into the prison, pushing open the front door with his free hand, keeping a tight grip on the blade hanging off his hip with the other. He started to wade through the first cellblock, walking past broken metal doors hanging off shoddy hinges and stepping over bodies of British Devil Hunters. Most of the cells were empty, the Devils that resided in them long gone to wreak havoc on the remainder of London’s population. But there had to be some left, at least a few that he could strike a contract with.

Empty cell, empty cell, empty cell, it was beginning to feel like a looping hallway to Aki. But as his hand reached out to push open the so manyeth door of the cell complex, it came to a sudden halt, not being able to budge the metal at all. He turned his head to the steel door, peeking through the metal bars only to stare straight into a mess of pitch-black darkness. If he wanted to make a contract with whatever Devil was in here, he was gonna need to walk right in.

His fingers gripped onto the cold metal handle, before pulling open the door with a creak and stepping into the cell. Inside, it was still dark, but something about the air inside gave away the fact that this was not a regularly sized cell. It was at least twice as large as the majority of cells he’d been able to get a peek into. He put another foot forward, his footstep echoing through the room as the door behind him snapped shut.

“Where are you…” Aki mumbled softly, his lips barely moving as he kept his hand gripped tightly around his blade’s handle. And as if on command, the room gave him a sign. Because as he stood there in the dark, he felt the air around him grow warmer, a hot breeze softly blowing against his chest and waving his suit jacket back past his sides.

-- [Doctor Kill and the Death Destroyers - Nonstop Nonstarter] --

There you are.

Aki didn’t have future sight, but he knew a dangerous situation when he felt it. He quickly dashed to the side, his suspicions being proven right as a jet of blue flame blasted the spot he was just in, lighting up the whole room for a single instant. And as it did so, it revealed the Devil that resided in this cell. A long serpentine-like face adorned with blue scales seemed to be the culprit of the fire, a face that Aki managed to connect to a Devil he’d heard about before.

“Dragon Devil,” Aki mumbled, being met by a loud roar as the room returned to dark. Acting quickly, he pulled his katana out of its sheath and moved into a two-handed defensive stance.

Fortunately, he acted just in time, as a huge claw covered in the same blue scales came down on him from the shadows. Keratin hit steel, sending Aki skidding backward as he did his best to block the attack.

Unfortunately, Aki’s strength was not enough to hold back the attack, and the Dragon Devil’s claw broke through his defense with a massive show of force. Aki’s sword detached itself from his hands as he fell down on his back, sliding backward on the concrete-like floor. He heard his blade clang against the wall behind him as he pushed himself up off the floor with a grunt.

Suddenly, he heard a voice echo through his head.

“Leave me, Curse! I will not join your invasion!” The voice yelled, causing Aki to grab for his temple with one of his hands as he meekly pushed himself up. But the exclamation echoing through his skull made him realize something. He felt inside of his jacket, his fingers touching the cursed nail hidden inside. Aki had figured out what was going on, now he just had to make sure the Dragon Devil didn’t kill him before he could explain.

And as he felt the winds shift, he dashed to the side again, just able to dodge another claw coming down upon his head. It slammed down into the floor beside him, shaking the ground and destabilizing his stance somewhat. But he stood tall, and before the Dragon Devil could throw any more attacks at him, he opened his mouth in a shout.

“I am not the Curse Devil! I am a Devil Hunter by the name of Aki Hayakawa!” Aki yelled in a desperate move.

He stood there, heaving, dreading the Dragon Devil’s next move. And after a few moments, Dragon’s voice echoed through his head again.

“A Devil Hunter yet lives?” Dragon asked in a more soft-spoken voice than before. Aki’s mouth became slightly agape for a second before he quickly shut his lips again.

Our numbers have thinned a lot, but the ones of us that survived are heading small resistances around the world. He thought in his head, hoping that Dragon would be able to hear it. Dragon fell silent once again, leaving Aki in the dark — both literally and figuratively — for a few moments.

“Why are you here, Hayakawa?” Dragon asked.

“I want to strike a contract.”

“You wish to fight against the Devils’ invasion?”

“My motives are none of your concern, Devil.”

“I shall choose to ignore your insulting tone, human. I can grant you part of my power, one on condition.”

“What do you want from me?”

Dragon fell silent again, as the sound of clanging metal started moving in Aki’s direction. After a few moments, one of Dragon’s claws slid into Aki’s field of view from the shadows. The first thing he noticed was the thick metal chain attached to the clasp around their wrist. The Devil spoke up again.

“Freedom.”

Aki nodded before replying again. “Let me grab my sword.”

Aki stood outside the cell he’d just left, its door and the surrounding concrete blown off by the Dragon Devil that just flew through it. Light now streamed into the cell block from the newly created hole in the wall as Aki looked down at his hands. Blue flames sputtered from the tips of his fingers for a moment, before he let out a sigh. The Dragon Devil’s fire was said to be hot enough to melt most any metal, but Aki still felt like it wasn’t enough.

He was waging a one-man war against all of hell’s forces, and he’d arguably just created another enemy for himself. He needed more contracts. He needed more power. Aki wiped away stray hairs from his forehead as he mulled over his options.

That was when a voice behind him spoke up.

“A Devil Hunter, huh?”

Aki’s hand quickly moved to the grip of his katana, anticipating this new figure to make the first move.

“I’m not here to harm you.” The voice continued. “Although I understand why you wouldn’t trust me.”

“What Devil are you?” Aki muttered carefully.

“Really? How do you know I’m not human, you haven’t even seen me yet?”

“No human would be dwelling in a place like this, and if you were a Devil Hunter I would probably recognize your voice. So tell me who you are before I cut your head off.”

The voice let out an entertained chuckle, before replying. “You’re an entertaining one, Aki Hayakawa. My name is Maleficent, although most humans would probably call me-”

Aki’s eyes shot open wide as he came to the realization of who he was talking to. “-the Sleep Devil.” He acted quickly, pulling out his katana in an instant and slashing the space behind him. His blade cut through the air, the trajectory heading straight for Maleficent’s neck. But before it could even come close to her skin, Maleficent lifted her hand in the middle of the blade’s trajectory. Her fingers sputtered with verdant energy, tendrils of glowing green magic shooting out of her hands and wrapping around Aki’s blade, stopping it mid-swing.

Aki’s eyes skittered to Maleficent's face, scanning past the softly confident smile on her face and the black horns on top of her head, trying to find a vulnerability in her stance. But his analysis wasn’t fast enough. Maleficent moved her other hand to Aki’s stomach. Suddenly, her palm blasted with fiery, verdant energy, shooting Aki backward onto the floor a few meters away.

His back hit the concrete with a low thump, his hand, however, still gripped tightly around his sword. Quickly, he tried to push himself to get up, but upon tilting his head up slightly, his movement was quickly stopped by the tip of Maleficent’s staff pressed against his forehead.

“Nice try.” Maleficent mocked. “Again, I’m not here to harm you.”

“Then why are you here? I heard the Sleep Devil was one of the few leaders amongst Devils. So why aren’t you leading their armies?”

“Unlike my fellow Devils, I don’t wish to see Earth in the same state as hell. And I’m sure you don’t either.”

“Good job, you figured out I don’t want humanity to die,” Aki replied as he felt the pressure of Maleficent’s staff on his forehead increase.

“Watch the attitude, Hayakawa. I could end your crusade right now.” Aki stayed silent this time, allowing Maleficent to keep talking. “I want to help you.”

“A contract?”

“Yes. I wish to grant you part of my power, in exchange for letting me help you close the Hellgates…” Aki’s face barely moved, except for one of his eyebrows raising in a spot of confusion. “… and…” Maleficent continued, as she crouched down to match Aki’s current height. She moved her head to the side of Aki’s, before whispering something quietly into his ear.

Maleficent moved her head back, as she stared at Aki’s face, anticipating any kind of response. A few moments passed as Aki milled over the thoughts in his head, before he let out a sigh, and nodded in agreement.

“Splendid,” Maleficent said, a slight smile growing on her face.

When Aki and Maleficent walked through the institute’s front door, back into the dark outside, it was silent. The moon in the sky had moved somewhere past the center of the heavens and was starting its descent back towards the horizon. Their feet tapped on the short staircase leading back down to the ground, when a sound in front of them alerted them to a… new arrival.

“Decided to join the fight, Sleep Devil?” A spry voice in the shadows spoke out to them, causing the two of them to turn their heads to the source of the noise.

“And you are?” Maleficent asked, a mocking tone present in her voice. The figure addressing them stood confidently, holding a single-edged sword with one hand, letting it rest blunt side on his shoulder. The newly appeared Devil wore a long blue jacket, reaching down to just below his knees, along with a mop of white hair resting upon his head. But the most distinctive part of his appearance would have to be his claw-like right hand, adorned with red chitin-reminiscent material and glowing blue veins running through it.

“Ehhh, they always call me the ‘Faith Fiend’, but I prefer Nero.” He replied with a self-confident smirk. “If you’re done with the questions, the big man wants to talk to you.”

“I’m not joining your invasion.”

“Awwwww,” Nero replied, a sarcastic pout growing on his face. “I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to beat you up. Not that I’ll have much trouble dealing with you.” He continued, moving his gaze to Aki. “Or your little Devil Hunter.”

Aki’s face stayed neutral at the new Devil’s remark, staying vigilant and keeping his hand gripped tightly around his sheathed katana.

-- [Dealer - Grotesque] --

“Is he shy?” Nero remarked as he looked back at Maleficent. “Whatever, let’s just get this over with.” He said, lifting his blade into the air before stabbing it tip-down into the ground, revving the handle like a motorcycle. Suddenly, Nero started running at the pair, blade swiftly lifted above his head, ready to strike. Aki quickly unsheathed his own weapon, but before he himself could attack, Maleficent calmly stepped forward into Nero’s path.

Nero quickly got into range, and as his sword swung down upon Maleficent, a smirk flashed on his face. But Maleficent intercepted the attack, moving her free hand in the trajectory of the blade. Fiery, green tendrils shot out of the palm of her hand, pushing the blade out of its predetermined path and to her side.

Unfortunately, Nero caught this little action, and as his sword moved to the side of her head, he revved the handle again, setting the blade ablaze in a bright orange flame. On the fly, Nero also moved his sword’s trajectory, back into Maleficent’s direction. Her eyes went wide as she realized what just happened. She dashed out of the way as quickly as she could, but it wasn’t fast enough as the blade cut a deep gash into her upper arm, singing her flesh in an instant with the heat of the flame.

Maleficent let out a pained grunt, clenching her hand around the newly created wound before hearing a clashing of steel behind her. She turned her head to the sound, seeing Aki blocking Nero’s blade. The attack had followed through in Aki’s direction, and the block had sent him sliding back on his feet from the impact, the burning rubber under his shoes leaving behind skid marks.

“I’m fine, focus on him!” Aki shouted, seemingly in response to Maleficent’s look over at him.

“I wasn’t worried about yo-” Maleficent turned her head back to Nero’s direction, but she was cut off mid-sentence when his glowing blue fist hit her right in the face. The attack hit her hard, sending her flying back through a gray brick fence, tearing it apart and impacting her into the floor behind it.

Maleficent figured Nero wouldn’t let up on her even a bit, and as she quickly pushed herself out of the newly created crater, her suspicions were proven right by a huge, translucent blue fist striking into the hole she was in only moments ago. Pushing herself up, her eyes skittered around to find where Nero had disappeared to.

“My eyes are up here!” Nero’s voice yelled from above, and as she turned her head to look at him, she spotted him crashing down in her direction, sword held with both hands. Maleficent moved her hands together, making some kind of ritualistic motion before stretching her arms out in Nero’s direction. And from the center of her palms shot a jet of verdant flames, engulfing Nero completely before he could reach her. Moments passed as she kept the assault up, and a confident smile started to grow on her face as she thought he had probably been turned to ash by now.

That was when Nero’s cocky face broke through the green flames, the smirk on his face followed quickly by his blade embedding itself into Maleficent’s chest. The impact sent Maleficent to the floor back first, landing on the stone with a loud thud. Nero stayed mounted on her front, his knees planted on the floor on both sides of her body.

He pulled his sword back out of the wound, a pained grunt coming from Maleficent’s mouth as Nero rested his blade back on his shoulder.

“Damn, that was close, you almost burned my hair off!” Nero mocked, shaking his head in a single stroke, extinguishing the fledgling green flames that remained on the tips of his white hair.

Maleficent’s expression turned to an annoyed scowl, and out of Nero’s sight, she started channeling her magic in her right hand, green flames growing in her palm. But before she could finish charging her spell, she was abruptly cut off by Nero’s fist planting itself in her face.

Nero didn’t let up for a second, delivering an unrelenting volley of punches to Maleficent’s face. Nero’s Devil Bringer met the flesh of Maleficent’s face over and over again, enough to crush the skull of any lesser being, but these two were anything but lesser.

After a while, Nero stopped his volley, pulling his arm back before Maleficent tried to catch her breath. Her nose was broken, bleeding, oozing with crimson red blood like most of her face. Minor wounds, compared to the puddle of blood and brain matter she would’ve been, were she a human.

Nero flashed a smirk at her, steadying the sword resting on his shoulder.

“Weren’t you supposed to be one of the big ones?” Nero taunted. “I heard you took it up with the big guy years ago, but kicking your ass was barely any harder than that group of Devil Hunters I killed this morning.”

Maleficent stayed silent, lips shut tightly as she threw a death stare back at Nero. But it didn’t seem to affect him, as he just chuckled back at the notion that she had any power over him.

“But, I guess that’s why you were taking that little Devil Hunter along with you. Although he doesn’t seem to be much he-”

Unfortunately for him, Nero’s boastful mocking session was abruptly cut short by an attack, originating from neither Maleficent nor her partner Aki. No, as a jet of cobalt blue flame engulfed Nero’s form entirely, it became clear that this was a force he had never faced before. For a second, the flames faltered, revealing the figure of Nero, set alight with blue fire, shortly before getting slammed off of his current position by another figure that was only a blue blur to Maleficent and Aki.

But as it came to a halt — Nero’s body flailing headfirst through a row of houses — its form visually materialized into the shape of a dragon.

“Dragon Devil!” Aki yelled as he ran up to Maleficent. He quickly helped her stand up, letting her lean on his shoulder as the Dragon Devil craned its neck back to face them.

“You chose to help us, Saphira?” Maleficent asked through pained grunts.

“Saphira?” Aki mumbled confusedly.

“Our goals align. Hell can not be sealed by a single Devil or Devil Hunter.” Saphira explained. “If we wish to stave off this invasion, to seal the hellgates for good, we have to work together.”

Aki nodded at Saphira’s request, his face stern. Maleficent let out a sigh, her eyes closed as she mulled over the decision for a moment.

“You’re right, let us work together.” She conceded. “We-” Maleficent was abruptly cut off by a loud shout, echoing through the streets of London like a bomb.

“I’M NOT DONE WITH YOU YET!” Nero yelled, and as Saphira turned her head to the sound, she spotted Nero flying through the practically cylindrical hole torn through the row of houses he’d previously been thrown through. Saphira had no time to react, and in the instant she had to move her head, Nero’s Devil Bringer fist collided with her skull. The impact was fierce, sending Saphira’s head swinging back like a flail and almost toppling her body sideways.

Nero didn’t stop there, however. Apparently having left his sword behind, he landed on the ground behind Saphira and immediately went for Maleficent again. His Devil Bringer arm gripped tightly around Maleficent’s neck before she even had the time to react. He lifted her up off the floor with his one hand, and as Aki tried to slash at him with his sword, Nero simply pushed him away with his free hand. Nero’s strength clashed with Aki’s, and due to Aki’s human nature, he was quickly overpowered, being thrown back multiple meters, his body flailing over rubble before landing on the floor.

Maleficent struggled against her opponent’s grip, but Nero’s strength more than eclipsed her own. Her previous injuries weren’t fatal, but they were enough to seriously shake her up, meaning that magic wasn’t going to be an option either. Getting out of this situation was going to be harder than she thought it would be.

“YOU SHOULD HAVE JOINED THE WAR, MALEFICENT,” Nero shouted in her face, his voice modulated strangely. It seemed deeper, more guttural than before. But beyond that, his voice didn’t sound like his own, it was like another voice had been layered over it. A voice strangely familiar to Maleficent. “DON’T WORRY, WE’LL SCOOP YOU UP WHEN YOU END BACK UP IN HELL. MAYBE YOU’LL HAVE A DEVELOPED A MORE SENSIBLE PERSONALITY.”

Maleficent felt her windpipe shut closed as Nero tightened his grip, his fingers digging into the flesh of her neck as he tried to snuff her life out. But before his hand could completely crush Maleficent’s neck, he was abruptly knocked away by Saphira’s tail.

Maleficent fell to the floor, landing on her knees, her breath ragged as she tried to recover. She was still alive, but for now, she wasn’t going to be able to keep fighting.

Not that Saphira seemingly needed much help at the moment. Nero recovered quickly from her tail strike, but before he could return to Maleficent he had to deal with the Nero-sized dragon claw that was coming right at him. He reacted quickly, raising his own Devil Bringer, as a hard light projection of it about the size of his enemy’s claw appeared in the empty space between them.

Translucent blue fingers intertwined with Saphira's talons as the two engaged in a match of pushing each other's strength. Nero slowly started getting ahead, pushing back Saphira’s claw with all his strength. But because of the tunnel vision his focused strength had pushed him into, he failed to recognize the fact that Aki had managed to sneak up behind him.

One second, he saw blue flames erupt in his peripheral vision.

The next, he felt a sharp blade cut through his Devil Bringer arm, the wounds singed by flames hotter than most on earth.

Nero yelled out in a guttural roar, his Devil Bringer dropping to the floor as he turned to Aki. Aki tried to retreat from his current position as Nero pulled back a punch with his remaining hand. But what the white-haired Devil failed to realize, was that his Devil Bringer was no longer holding back Saphira’s claw.

And so, before he could his knuckles could make contact with Aki’s face, he was abruptly swept away by Saphira’s claws. Talons dug into his chest, tearing through flesh and bone. Nero screamed in pain as his body was torn horizontally in two, torso and legs falling in two separate places with a bloody splat.

Footsteps sounded through the dark of night as Nero’s life was quickly fading away. Moments from now his memories would be erased, and the Faith Devil would revive back in hell. But for now, he tried to focus on the person walking up to him.

“M… Maleficent…” He managed to mutter, as said Sleep Devil appeared above him, looking down on him.

“For shame,” Maleficent said with a sigh as she pressed her hands together, preparing for a spell. “You were a noble warrior, Nero. Yet, you still fell for the lie of a righteous invasion of Earth. May you remember your name, in your next life.” She spoke softly, as green energy started pulsating in the space between her hands. Glowing, verdant tendrils began growing from the cracks between her fingers.

Nero stared up at Maleficent, at the light show happening in her hands. Why was he even fighting them? Did he truly believe Devilkind would be better off if they had control of Earth, were they to have eradicated all humanity? He honestly didn’t remember. All he knew was that he had been bested.

So he took his defeat in stride, and as Maleficent’s magic grew in eerie silence, he closed his eyes, letting her spell snuff out his life.

Seconds passed as Nero’s body lay on the floor lifelessly. Aki walked up next to her, sheathing his blade as he did so.

“There’ll be more like him,” Maleficent told him. “Now that they know we’re coming to close off the hellgates, they’ll do anything to stop us. Especially with Saphira in tow, we’re all a walking target for any fledgling Devil springing to prove itself.”

“I understand,” Aki replied sternly.

“You’re still willing to continue on this journey?”

Aki reached into the inside of his coat again, his fingers making contact with the cursed nail inside as a soft voice spoke a quiet ‘ten days…’ inside of his head. He let out a sigh.

“Yes. It’s all that I… wish to do.”

“Splendid.”

Chapter Text

It was hell on Earth. Literally.

Hell’s forces, the army of Devils had been putting Earth under a constant siege for the last three days. Or was it two? However long it had been, Devil Hunters from around the world had done everything they could to fight back, but their efforts were starting to prove fruitless.

About half a day ago, Aki’s squad had lost contact with one of the Private Devil Hunter squads led by Hirofumi Yoshida. They’d gotten split up during an ambush by a group of Devils, and presuming they would be dead soon, Aki’s squad had gone ahead and made a run for it.

Aki nervously tugged at the collar of his shirt as he stared into the Tokyo skyline. Him, Himeno, and Kusakabe had sequestered themselves off to the ruins of a toppled skyscraper. They’d been fighting non-stop since the start of the invasion, and any minutes of rest they could get were incredibly precious. Not all of them agreed, however.

“We can’t just stay here,” Kusakabe mumbled, his feet shuffling through broken concrete. “We’re burning minutes-”

“Hey hey hey!” Himeno cut him off. “We can’t keep fighting all day, we need to take breaks or we’ll die from exhaustion before the Devils can even get to us.”

“If we sit on our asses for any longer there won’t be any more break spots, just fire and brimstone.”

“We can’t just go out there and start attacking random Devils, we’ll just end up dying before we can make an impact.”

“Well, we can’t just do nothing either-”

“Shut up.” Aki interrupted both of them. “You’re both wasting oxygen.” He kept it at that. In his head, he agreed with Himeno, to some extent at least. In the first day or so of the war, they’d gotten direct orders from higher-ups in the Public Safety Devil Hunter Office, but it didn’t take long for those orders to stop coming, and for the fighting to become aimless.

The Devils were overwhelming. Any important landmarks they took, any barriers they could erect, they’d quickly be overrun by a new group of Devils along with a whole new count of losses. It felt like there was nothing they could do at all. Himeno hadn’t stopped believing yet, though.

“We need to get the Bavarium,” She said. “It’s the only chance we have at stopping the invasion. If we don’t close the hellgates, they’ll keep coming.”

“I agree.” Kusakabe conceded. “But there’s none left, they ransacked all the mines down to the bone.”

“None in Japan,” Himeno interjected. “But eDen has mines all around the world, and enough labs to cover the moon. They can’t have taken everything. If we can get some, we can use it to seal the hellgates.”

“How are you plann-” Kusakabe was once again cut off, although this time not by one of his comrades. No, closely outside of the ruined building they were hiding in echoed a sound they’d been lucky to evade for the past few hours. A roar tearing through the thin air, a trademark of more visceral, predatory Devils. Devils that had no motive beyond killing and murdering whatever humans they came across. It was a sign of their lack of communication, their lesser form of cognitive function.

The group went silent, Aki turning his head away from the shattered window he was staring through to look at his team. He saw Kusakabe silent reach for the pistol holstered under his jacket — a weapon he’d begun using after his contract with the Stone Devil had been broken after the invasion started — as Himeno visibly became more on edge. There was no reason to think that whatever Devil that was had found where they were, but that didn’t mean that the chance didn’t exist.

A few moments of grueling silence went by, only interrupted by the whistling of the air and the soft crunching of something stone-like outside the ruin walls. A bead of sweat slipped down the skin of Kusakabe’s forehead, as Himeno’s eye skittered over to look back at Aki. Her expression was pretty neutral, seemingly cool and confident to anyone who didn’t know her.

But Aki wasn’t just anyone.

His grip tightened around the handle of his katana attached to his waist. And that was when a wall beside Kusakabe blasted open in an explosion of dust and-

Aki’s eyes snapped open as he sat up in an instant. His breath was ragged, slowly recovering from the nightmare he’d just woken up from. The wind washed away his fear, his untied hair flowing from the breeze as they soared through the sky.

On the back of Saphira, Maleficent had crafted a platform for them to rest on from wood and branches. It wasn’t the most comfortable place to sleep, but seeing that Aki had been awake for the past week or so, any sleep he could get was more than welcome.

Aki’s eyes flittered over to Maleficent, as he mulled over their newly formed alliance. He hated Devils. He’d always hated Devils. They’d taken everything, everyone from him, and they would never give anything back. Their nature was one of chaos and murder, fire and brimstone, they could only kill and take. Naturalistic, brutal pillagers.

He let out a sigh as he looked over the edge of the platform, staring down into the clouds below. Devil Hunters had to work with them, but it was always more of a parasitic relationship than a mutualistic one.

His hand moved to rest on the blade that sat beside him, nestled in the branches created by Maleficent. Fox, Curse, he’d always trusted them as far as he could throw them. And that wouldn’t be any different now.

Suddenly, Aki felt Saphira worm her way into his thoughts again, and he pushed his gripes away for the time being.

“You are awake, young Devil hunter,” Saphira stated plainly.

“Barely,” Aki replied in his thoughts. Telepathy was still weird to him, but communicating like this to Saphira was slowly starting to become more normal.

“Maleficent is still asleep, recovering from her battle against Nero. She is a Devil, you are a human, why aren’t you still recovering?”

“I wasn’t all that hurt, she took the brunt of the assault.”

“You should not push yourself too hard, young Devil hunter.”

Aki fell silent, as he pushed Saphira’s voice out of his mind again. She barely gave any resistance, letting the Devil Hunter return his mind to his own to sit in silence. He shifted his gaze over to Maleficent, who was sleeping on her side. The soft moonlight tickled her attire, her whole body, absorbed by the matte black texture of her horns while reflecting off of her skin.

Aki had seen a lot of Devils in his lifetime. Over the years, he’d noticed that they tended to range in strength, in power. There were a few telltale signs of a Devil's power, one of which was their size. Bigger Devils tended to be stronger, it was pretty straightforward. But another one was how humanoid they were.

And in all his years, Maleficent was the most human-like Devil he’d ever seen. As far as pure Devils were concerned, anyway.

Her horns were an obvious giveaway, but besides them, Maleficent was practically a human. Nero had called her one of the ‘big ones’, and other Devil Hunters touted the Sleep Devil as an urban legend. A myth.

Legends told of the Sleep Devil working with the four Horsemen along with the Darkness Devil in ancient times. They worked together as a single coven, conquering Earth for the Devils and murdering any humans they came across. At some point, however, Sleep and the Darkness Devil rebelled against their former allies, banishing them from Earth before sealing the two realms from each other.

Obviously, their seal wasn’t foolproof. If that were the case, Devil Hunters wouldn’t have to exist. But it had apparently saved Earth from demonic dominion.

Aki never believed all of that though.

And now, after meeting the Sleep Devil, fighting alongside her, he still didn’t.

She seemed too weak to stand up against the legendary four Horsemen in his eyes, and beyond that, he never could believe that a Devil would stand on the side of humanity without some ulterior motive. They would help humans, but only if they got something in return.

Why else would they only agree to help people in exchange for a contract?

He let out a sigh, pushing the thoughts out of his mind. None of this mattered right now. What mattered was using the time he had left to seal the hellgates, to kick every last Devil from Earth.

And so, he lay back down again.

A low crashing sound signaled the group’s arrival at the docks of Marseille, their landing on the road cracking the asphalt and sending out a plume of smoke in a large area around them.

Marseille, France. The previously second most populated city in France, home of the eDen corporation’s headquarters and the city that the insurgency had been planning to hit as their first target. All three of them knew that to close the hellgates, and specifically the primary one located at the top of the Temen-Ni-Gru, they would need to gather enough Bavarium. Bavarium’s innate anti-Devil property was one of the main reasons eDen had pumped so much funding into the research of Bavarium-based weapons. A way to buff up Devil Hunter armories, a new form of energy, but most importantly a contingency plan in case the Devils pulled anything drastic.

Funny how that worked out, huh?

Aki hopped off of Saphira’s back, shortly followed by Maleficent who floated down in a cloud of green smoke. He slowly oriented himself to his surroundings, as Saphira wormed her way into both his and Maleficent’s heads.

“I spotted the eDen laboratory before I landed, if we continue to move along the shore we’re bound to reach it quickly.”

“Why didn’t you land us any closer?” Aki asked.

“If someone was tracking or watching us, it’ll be harder for them to know where we’re going if we’re not in the air,” Maleficent replied in Saphira’s place. “Or they’ll have to come down here to face us directly.”

Aki accepted the answer as he let out a sigh, tying his katana’s sageo back to the clip on his belt before letting it hang off his hip. “We should get going then, before anything can catch up to us.” He replied as the group started walking.

When Aki had arrived in London, he’d been concealed by the cover of night as he stalked through the destroyed streets. But now they were soaking up the golden rays of the morning sun as they stepped through the war-torn docks of Marseille. Aki’s feet echoed off the asphalt beneath him as the group walked through the rubble of a knocked-down lighthouse. A short bit ahead lay the eDen headquarters, and Aki had long blocked out the damages this war had caused out of his mind.

Saphira, however, hadn’t had the chance yet. Her capture by Devil Hunters had happened only a few days before the invasion began. Saphira formed another mental link between her and Aki before beginning to speak to him.

“Young Devil Hunter, this war… how much has it ravaged?”

“Everything.” He replied bluntly. “All your brethren have laid every city, every town, all of it to waste. Even outposts in the Arctic Circle had reported attacks before all communication was cut.”

“They are not my kin.” Saphira rebutted. “A lot of Devils are bloodthirsty murderers, but not all of us are out to murder and destroy.”

Aki stayed silent at the Dragon Devil’s assertion, choosing to ignore it as he switched to another topic. “How did the British Devil Hunters manage to catch you?”

“We… I had been living in the Norwegian mountains for decades, in peace. The local communities respected me and I respected them back. I protected them, and they hid me from Devil Hunters.”

“How’d they find you then?”

“An outsider. He arrived in my village, he befriended Er… someone I trusted. After a few weeks he left the village, only to come back with a group of Devil Hunters. They wanted to convict the entire village for harboring a dangerous Devil, but I offered to let them take me if they left the village alone.”

Aki fell silent at Saphira’s story. For all he knew, she was lying, but the voice echoing in his head… well, it sounded pretty sincere.

“I hope they’re still okay,” Saphira added, before being abruptly cut off by the sound of a loud impact in front of the group. They all turned their heads to the source of the sound, and out of a rapidly fading plume of smoke in the middle of the road stepped a humanoid figure. A skin-tight suit of some kind of black material wrapped itself around their new arrival, accented with an open chest and most remarkably a garish butterfly mask upon their face.

“La résistance est arrivée en France, je vois. Si tu pars maintenant, je ne te traquerai pas.” He spoke in a smooth, confident voice as his arms crossed in front of his chest. Aki could parse that he was speaking French, but it was not a language he himself understood.

“Quand le vin est tiré, il faut le boire. Tu comprends, Papillon?” Maleficent replied, as she stepped out in front of the group. Aki looked over at Maleficent in confusion, wondering when or where she’d learned to speak french.

A smirk grew on the figure’s — apparently named Papillon — face as he let his arms drop to his sides. “You are an interesting one, Sleep Devil.”

“I’ve been on this earth longer than you have, Butterfly Devil,” Maleficent replied, pressing her staff into the floor. “You’re here to stop us, I presume?”

“I’m here to observe.” He corrected. “The horsemen want me to keep an eye on you three… I’m sure you know why.”

“The horsemen have no power over me anymore.” She said, raising her free hand as it glowed with green flames. “Now leave.”

“I won’t take up any more of your time, mademoiselle,” Papillon said, the smirk on his face growing as a massive set of butterfly wings grew from his back. Papillon flew away, seemingly in the opposite direction of the eDen lab.

Aki let out a sigh as he sheathed his sword again, his gaze turned to the eDen headquarters.

“He’ll be back,” Maleficent said as she walked up next to Aki.

“Then we should move quickly.”

The inside of eDen’s headquarters was… so much different than the world right outside the doors. Using Saphira’s flames, Aki had burned a roughly Maleficent-sized hole into the thick steel plating that had separated the inside of the building from the outside, leaving Saphira by herself outside to warn them of any incoming threats.

The large lobby floor was sterile. In contrast with everywhere else, it felt like all the people that had previously been here had just disappeared, gone to the rapture. The only signs of the apocalypse happening outside were the large dents in the metal plating covering the doors and windows.

“They couldn’t get in,” Aki remarked. “So if they stored any Bavarium here, it should still be here.”

“Oh how lucky,” Maleficent replied, stepping forward into the large hall with Aki in tow. “We should find some kind of administration room so we can track their inventory.”

“Sounds good,” Aki replied as he set his gaze on the still escalator leading up to the upper level of the lobby. They made their way to the escalator, taking the steps up and arriving at the second level of the building. They walked past a sign on the wall, attached to the sterile white metal plating next to an elevator. One part of the sign showed the departments that resided on the other floors, including the Energy, Medical, and Devil Arms Research departments respectively.

The other part of the sign had different arrows pointing in the direction of the hallways that branched off from this point. The arrow pointing to the hallway right of the elevator had another list of rooms under it, but for their purposes, only one was of any importance.

The administration room.

They followed the sign's directions, and as they did so, walking deeper into the hallway, the pristine veneer of the building was slowly starting to erode. The walls were still a stark white, but they were not as clean as the ones they’d seen before. Signs of scratches littered the surface, although at a certain point they seemingly stopped, replaced by an irregular pattern of bloody handprints. And as they got closer to the room itself, another thing that was seemingly missing from the building was also starting to reappear.

Sound.

Further down the hall stood the door to the administration room, and as they had gotten closer they heard the sound of something falling down inside of it, echoing loudly through the hallway. Both Aki and Maleficent had gotten the hint that, whether that was someone dropping something, or just an unlucky toppled bookshelf, it was better to be safe than sorry. Aki silently unsheathed his blade, as the two of them slowed down their stride to silence their footsteps.

Slowly, but surely, they neared the door, and the cacophony inside had largely subsided. The sound had mostly quieted down, reduced to a repeated clicking sound and a murmuring voice that confirmed their suspicions.

It took a few moments, but eventually, Aki had reached the door to the administration room, Maleficent stood about a meter behind him. He let in a deep breath, before taking an arm’s length distance from the doorpost — a technique he’d learned from an Ex-SF Devil Hunter he’d worked with on a job years ago — and peeking into the open room.

The inside was almost pitch black, a gradual transition from the soft lighting outside, but still jarring. The only source of light came from somewhere in the back of the room, behind a toppled metal shelf and a variety of objects on the floor. The blue-tinged light of the computer screen was slightly blocked by something… or someone.

Aki set one foot into the room, and right as the tip of his toe crossed the doorway, he was immediately met by a bullet whizzing past his head.

“The next one will be planted in your brain, bosh’tet.” A voice coming from the same source of the gunshot spoke. The voice sounded vaguely Eastern-European, although he couldn’t exactly place where.

“Oh, I wouldn’t do that,” Maleficent said as she stepped out from behind Aki. Walking into the room, her body stood alight in small green flames, lighting up the room enough for every person to spot each other.

The person wore a dark blue coat reminiscent of a lab coat, adorned with makeshift metal plating around certain vital areas like the shoulders. But the most distinctive part of their outfit had to be the mask they were wearing beneath the hood attached to their lab coat. The mask was reminiscent of a gas mask, some kind of air filter covering the mouth while the rest of their face was covered by a dark glass that didn’t show anything through. A hood in the same navy blue sat draped over their head.

“Now, tell me. Who are you?” She asked, flashing a bright smile at the gunperson.

“You are…” They said, their voice trailing off not in a questioning tone, but in the knowledge that they knew exactly who they were talking to. “I know you are not with the other Devils, Sleep Devil. I watched you fight Papillon on the camera feed outside. So why are you here?”

“I thought I asked you a question, sweetie?” Maleficent simply answered as the flames emanating from her body flashed brighter for a mere moment.

“Tasi, I am nobody important.” She replied, hoping that Maleficent would let her off on that answer. But when Maleficent’s eyes did not divert, she let out a sigh. “I am… Tali’zorah, I’m human. I was a researcher here before the invasion began.”

“Why are you still here?” Aki chimed in. “Everything is closed.”

“It’s closed because of me.” She explained. “I stayed behind when the Devils came, took control of the system, and set up defenses. There are too many things in here that would be catastrophic in their hands.”

“Like Bavarium?”

“No. We don’t store any Bavarium onsite, the storage facility was purposefully concealed from anyone who wasn’t a higher up.”

“What do you mean, then?”

“I mean the entire Devil Arms Research department. The Chaos Emeralds, Tamiyo’s Journal, The Omnitri-”

Maleficent’s ears perked up, as she cut Tali off. “The Omnitrix is stored in this facility?”

“Yes, our scientists were never able to decipher its true use, but-”

“Of course, you couldn’t figure out how to use it.” Maleficent mocked as she crossed her arms. “The Omnitrix was forged by Hephaestus the Creation Devil before the First Invasions in the Nar as-samum, it can not interface with humans.”

“Nar as-samum?” Aki asked.

“The fires from which Devils themselves are born,” Tali answered in Maleficent’s place. “Said to burn even brighter than the Dragon Devil’s own flames.”

“They do. Hot enough for Hephaestus to forge his artifacts.” Maleficent confirmed as she moved her gaze back to Tali. “If the Omnitrix is being stored here, then-” Suddenly, the entire room was filled with the loud sound of an alarm.

“Oh no,” Tali mumbled, as she quickly turned around to the computer again. She leaned over the keyboard, pulling up a camera feed of some kind of storage room on the screen. “The Angel Devil, she managed to break through the defenses I set up in Devil Arms Research department!”

At that same moment, Saphira’s voice made itself known in Aki’s and Maleficent’s heads again.

“The Butterfly Devil is back, I need help.”

What?! Aki thought to himself. At the same time Angel breaks in, Papillon attacks again, this can’t be a coincidence. He turned to Maleficent.

“We have to get the Omnitrix,” Maleficent said, already turning to the door.

“No.” Aki rebutted. “You should help Saphira, Tali and I will go up to the top floor and stop the Angel Devil from taking the Omnitrix.”

Maleficent’s head swiveled in Aki’s direction, one of her eyebrows raised in an asking expression. “Are you sure?” She asked, only to be met with a nod from Aki. Maleficent turned her head again, before walking out of the room.

A simple tune played in the confined walls of the elevator Aki and Tali had found themselves in. The air inside was dry, it was thin, heightening the stress of the situation. Aki solemnly stared a hole into the floor, as Tali inspected the pistol she’d fired at Aki.

“Your friends, they can probably handle the Butterfly Devil,” Tali said in an attempt to make small talk.

“They’re not my friends, we’re only working together.”

“What’s the difference? You’re still protecting each other, fighting side by side.”

“I’m not protecting either of them. All I care about is closing the hellgates before it’s too late.”

“Then why did you send Maleficent to help Saphira?”

Aki fell silent. He wanted to rationalize it with the desire to keep his contract with the Dragon Devil, but it felt flimsy. Not very convincing.

“You don’t know me, scientist. Just cover me while I’m fighting the Angel Devil.” He mumbled back, quickly followed by the ding of the elevator having arrived at its destination.

The doors in front of them slowly opened with a light mechanical whirring, revealing a dark room with the light streaming into it from only one side. From inside, the sound of shuffling metal greaves softly echoed.

Aki silently stepped out of the lift, Tali following closely behind him, her pistol raised. And as they walked around the corner, peeking to the left of the elevator deeper into the room. Aki looked past sterile metal tables meant for testing, through the glass of artifact cases, at the Angel Devil herself in the back of the room.

“There you are,” Tali spoke, stepping out from behind Aki as she kept her aim trained on the angel in the corner.

“Leave the Omnitrix, Devil.” Aki demanded, pointing his blade forward.

The metal of the Angel Devil’s greaves shook again, the sound of it echoing through the chamber as she turned to face the pair. Stark white hair flowed down the ridges of her black metal armor, a two-tipped spear resting in her hand. Long sleeves covered her arms. Her face stood neutral, her mouth practically a straight horizontal line. Her spear made a hollow thud as she rested the bottom of the weapon on the floor.

“Why would I follow an adversary’s orders?” She asked rhetorically. As her eyes zipped over in Aki’s direction, she slightly raised an eyebrow. “Especially one with only nine days left on this Earth.”

Tali turned her head to Aki in confusion, although her aim stayed true. Aki just grit his teeth in frustration, steeling himself as he tightened his stance. Tali slowly turned her gaze back to her opponent, her finger itching to pull the trigger.

“I see now you won’t stand down.” The Angel Devil solemnly spoke, letting out a disappointed sigh as she raised her weapon into a two-handed stance. “So be it. Then may you remember Avacyn the Angel Devil as the one who struck you down.”

As Maleficent rushed out of the eDen headquarters, stepping out onto the ruined asphalt, she was immediately alerted by a draconic roar echoing through the skies. She looked up into the air, and spotted Saphira blasting a huge spout of blue flames. After a few moments, Saphira’s flames dried up, revealing the figure of Papillon Mask floating right in front of her.

Seemingly unfazed by the flames, Papillon retaliated in an instant, sending out a single small butterfly in Saphira’s direction. Maleficent’s eyes followed the butterfly’s flight pattern, as it weaved majestically through the air, before reaching the space in front of Saphira’s face and-

BOOM!

The explosion rocked the floor, and dug into the structure of the eDen headquarters, sending down debris in Maleficent’s direction. She quickly moved forward, dodging girders and concrete as she rushed to get out of the danger zone. And as she did so, she quickly focused back on the battle, trying to reestablish her mental link with Saphira seeing as the dragon had been blown out of her sight. It took a bit of mental work, but after a few moments, she succeeded.

“Saphira, are you alright?”

“I’m hurt, but alive. Papillon is much stronger than I anticipated.”

“I can’t fly up to help you, do you think you can lead him down here?”

“I can try,” Saphira replied as she pushed herself up. Her talons crushed a small cubicle, as she stared out of the large hole the explosion had made her create. In the center floated Papillon, arms crossed as his self-content smile did all the talking for him. That didn’t stop him, however.

“Are you ready to give up, Dragon Devil?” Papillon asked as he floated down to the floor, stepping through the rubble from the explosion he’d just created.

She just threw a glare at him, an aggressive purr emanating from her direction.

He let out a disappointed sigh. “I wasn’t expecting anything less.” He continued as he floated into the air again, his wings fluttering as they carried him up. “Then die!”

Saphira let out a roar as Papillon charged at her. She started swiping at him with her claws, but Papillon was too agile, managing to maneuver between swings, flowing through the obstacles like water. After some time, though, he noticed that his constant dodging wasn’t getting him any closer to Saphira. In fact, Saphira’s incessant attacks were beginning to push him back towards the hole they came in through.

Another of Saphira’s claws was coming straight for his head, but this time instead of dodging, he went on the offensive. A platoon of butterflies detached themselves from his wings and started flying towards Saphira’s head. Saphira reacted quickly, breathing a jet of blue flames in the direction of the butterfly swarm. Butterflies dropped dead, singed, and burning with sputtering blue flames.

Unfortunately for her, one of the butterflies made it through her barrage, and as it landed on her snout it quickly exploded. The blast swung her head to the right, stopping her barrage and stunning her for if only a moment. But as soon as she recovered, Papillon had closed the distance between the two of them. Before she could react, his fist had contacted the scales that covered her snout.

The punch didn’t do much damage, however.

Saphira barely felt the impact, immediately retaliating as she opened her massive jaws. This time, Papillon was not fast enough, and before his wings could pull him out of there, Saphira’s teeth closed around him. Saphira’s massive wings flapped in one big motion, launching her out of the building and sending her into the air.

As soon as she had left the building, Saphira went into a dive bomb, aiming to get down to the street level where Maleficent was waiting for her. But as she soared through the air, gravity accelerating her to terminal velocity, Papillon was still trying to get out. First it started out as a light pushing and punching of the roof of her mouth.

And then the explosion came.

Saphira’s mouth burst open in a blast twice the size of the one that had blown a hole into the building, her draconic body flailing about as she was still accelerating to the ground. Papillon wasn’t unscathed either, however. As his body was ejected from the dragon’s maw, blood exploded from his body, and he was launched in the opposite direction of Saphira.

Both their bodies were still falling at roughly the same speed and it only took a few more moments for them to reach the streets, cratering the concrete and covering the whole area in a thick cloud of smoke.

Maleficent waded through the thick cloud of dust, the tip of her staff alight in verdant flames, looking for Saphira. She tried to reach out to her dragon companion mentally, but she didn’t manage. They were separated for now.

That was when Maleficent noticed the voice behind her.

-- [Born Of Osiris - Bow Down] --

Aki’s heels dug into the floor beneath him as Avacyn’s spear pushed against his blade.

“Stop resisting and let me smite you, foul beast.” Avacyn spoke.

Aki simply gritted his teeth, putting all his strength into the block. Avacyn was barely pushing back, however, her gaze staring into Aki’s eyes as she kept her stance straight. Suddenly, however, Avacyn lifted her weapon up and ended their clash for only a moment.

Aki stepped back in confusion, and just as he was about to start a counter-attack, he saw the holy light of Avacyn’s weapon light up above him. He looked up to the spear coming down on him, his own weapon out of position to move into a block and his body not fast enough to dodge. His arms moved in vain, hoping they’d be able to get his blade into a defensive stance in time.

But as the walls seemed to be closing, he was suddenly given another breath of fresh air by a bullet tearing through the air like flames melting through ice.

Aki’s eyes skittered over to Tali. Moments ago she’d been slapped away by Avacyn, slamming into the wall with a loud thud. But she’d managed to get up while Avacyn was focussing on Aki. As Avacyn looked over in the scientist’s direction, she fired another shot at the angel.

Avacyn simply shrugged off the shots. Bullets bouncing off of her armor, she stretched her hand out in Tali’s direction as a beam of holy light charged itself in her palm. Aki quickly acted to protect his companion, but as his own sword swung down on Avacyn, he simply heard her let out a sigh as she moved her weapon to block his attack.

Avacyn let the beam of light loose from her hand, its trajectory slightly off from where she wanted it to go due to Aki’s distraction before she turned her head back in his direction.

“I’m done with you, Devil Hunter.”

Avacyn swung her weapon upwards, staggering Aki and sending him stumbling backward. And she didn’t give him a single moment of reprieve, immediately barraging him with a flurry of swings. Block, block, block, his blade met the dull part of Avacyn’s spear over and over, and it was quickly becoming clear that he was struggling to keep up with her superior speed. Steel sparked against moonsilver time after time. Aki had to do something. He had to attack, he had to defend himself, he couldn’t keep-

CRACK!

As he held his katana with both hands, the blade horizontally in front of his eyes, blocking the Angel Devil’s overhead swing, he saw a fracture travel through the metal of his sword in real time. Down, down, down it went before his sword completely broke in two parts.

No.

A sweat bead fell down his forehead, his eyes going wide as Avacyn’s spear dug into the flesh of his shoulder. He let out a loud yell of pain as blood sputtered out of the wound, staining his reinforced suit and the edge of his enemy’s weapon.

“Say your prayers.” Avacyn spoke, before dislodging her weapon by way of a boot in Aki’s chest. The kick sent him flying, his leg getting caught on a metal table and sending his body flailing. His body flew through the air like a rag doll for a few moments, before crashing into a glass display case in the back of a building. Glass shattered, embedding shards into his back and sending him down to the floor with the whole case on top of him.

Everything in his head was silent for a moment, his brain scrambled and likely concussed, as a ringing sound was the only thing he could hear. After a while, his hearing returned, being welcomed by the sound of clashing steel, gunshots and grunts.

“Tali…” Aki managed to get out. He had to get out of here, he couldn’t just stay here. He still had to close the hellgates, he still had to help Tali. He couldn’t die here, not now.

Aki let out a pained grunt, as his muscles worked to their max, trying to push the case off of his back. But it was to no avail. The more he stressed, the more the glass shards dug into his back, and the case itself was barely even budging. His face, squished into the floor, tried to move as his gaze skittered over to his right hand.

His blade, broken in half and rendered completely useless. Aki’s fighting spirit was close to snuffing out, along with his life itself. The muscles in his fingers relaxed, letting the blade drop the short distance to the floor as he let out a pained sigh.

Aki tried to turn his head, but the case was pressing down too hard, and he only managed to slightly skew the angle of his neck. But it was seemingly enough because this new angle gave him a good view of a weapon that had fallen out of the display through the broken glass. It was buried under the same case as he was, the weapon’s stark white handle only inches away from his hand.

His fingers ached, and his biceps screamed for him to stop. But he couldn’t. His arm pained itself as it moved, changing its position inch by inch as his fingers stretched themselves out to reach the sword in front of him.

Just a bit more! Aki thought to himself. Four, three, two inches. His fingers grasped for the weapon, and seemingly like a miracle, his index tip touched the tight ito wrapping around the blade’s handle.

And everything stood still.

At first, he didn’t even notice, as he started to pull the blade closer to him. But after a few moments, he started to feel the air standing still around him. Then he noticed that the fighting had stopped. He kept pulling at the weapon, and only when all his fingers had wrapped themselves around the weapon, did he begin to hear the voice.

“Most impressive.” A gruff, raspy voice spoke from beyond his field of view. “Here, let me help you with that.” Footsteps echoed loudly before Aki felt the weight remove itself from his back in a single go. His hand shifted to the blade’s scabbard, pushing himself up using the weapon like a cane.

Aki's eyes moved up from the floor, skittering over to the source of the voice that had helped him. And in front of him stood a figure towering tall over his own slumped-over figure. A dark hood covered the figure's face, concealing his identity as it did the rest of his body. He let out a grunt as he rested his weight upon the weapon.

“Who… what are you?” Aki asked.

“My name is none of your concern, Devil Hunter.” He answered. “That sword, do you know what it is?” Aki shook his head from left to right, as the figure let out a sigh. “Good. It belongs to me.” He explained as he turned his back to Aki.

“I thought it lost for the past few…years. I’ve been looking for it ever since, but I’ve never been able to find it. Until your hands made contact with it and awoke it from its slumber.”

“What do you want from me?”

The figure went silent, as he turned back around to Aki. Footsteps echoed through paused time, as he walked up to only a few centimeters in front of Aki.

“I want to make a contract. I will allow you to use the full power of my blade to defeat your enemies however you see fit.”

“In exchange for…” Aki posited, being met by another sigh from the figure.

“So impatient, you humans.” He replied. “In exchange, you will not die here. You will continue your journey to the Temen-ni-gru, and you will close the hellgates.”

Aki’s gaze skittered up from the floor to the figure in front of him, as confusion set into him. That’s it? He thought to himself, trying to understand what the figure could possibly gain from this. But after a few moments of silence, and the feeling of a set of eyes burning holes into him, he conceded the thought and opened his mouth.

“…deal.” Aki muttered. Suddenly, Aki felt a cold shock travel through the arm that was holding the weapon. The sensation was painful, hot like fire and cold like ice at the same time, pushing his nerves to their limit. The pain pushed him back down to his knees, a grunt escaping his lips. If it went on for any longer, the pain would’ve probably overwhelmed him, but in a single instant, it suddenly stopped.

Aki’s vision cleared up as his rapid heaving slowly came to a halt. He felt…invigorated, power flowed through his veins like he’d never felt before. It was intoxicating, if not overwhelming. A numbing pain still lingered in his right hand, though. So as he passed the weapon over to his other hand, grabbing it by the scabbard, he looked back up at his opponent.

Time had resumed once again, and Tali’Zorah was losing the fight against the Angel Devil. Tali’s gun had been dropped to the floor, and Avacyn’s fingers wrapped around the scientist's throat lifting her body up into the air by her neck. Aki looked down at the weapon in his hand, and looked back at Avacyn.

And then he started running.

Tali’s struggling and Avacyn were temporarily interrupted by the metallic tapping of Aki’s feet rhythmically hitting the floor. Slowly speeding up as he got closer and closer, his right hand gripped the handle of his newly gained katana and he felt the power rush through his body again. Fingers tingled, muscles ached, but he was powering through it. He had to.

Almost there. Aki thought, seeing Avacyn raise her spear, ready to jam it through Tali’s body.

Just a little bit more.

“Now!” He yelled, unsheathing his katana in one smooth motion. The attack revealed the weapon’s sharp blade, cutting through the air like a knife through butter in an upward motion headed for the shaft of Avacyn’s weapon between her hand and the tip. Avacyn turned her head at the Devil Hunter’s war cry, but her reaction was too late.

Aki’s katana made contact with Avacyn’s spear, hoping to knock it off course enough to spare Tali from her fate just a little longer. Metal hit metal like it had so many times before, but this time, something was different. As the edge of Aki’s weapon dug into Avacyn’s weapon, it didn’t slow down at all.

It cut straight through.

“I am DONE,” Papillon’s voice shouted through the thick smoke as Maleficent just about dodged a butterfly that whizzed past her head. “with ALL OF YOU!” Quickly, his previous attack was followed by another barrage of butterflies. Maleficent stretched out her hands forward, blasting the butterflies with a gust of green flames. But her coverage wasn’t enough, and a butterfly slipped through the cracks, blowing up in her face before she could react.

The explosion was tame compared to the one from before, but it was enough to clear the smoke in the area and send Maleficent flying back into a nearby wall. The impact crumbled concrete before she fell back down to the floor. Pushing herself to stand back up, her hand held to a wound in her stomach, she looked up to see Papillon shambling through the smoke in her direction.

He was a…mess, to say the least. The blast he’d triggered to escape from Saphira’s clutches certainly hadn’t left him unharmed, as one of his arms had been blasted off completely, his outfit had turned to tatters and wounds littered the surface of his body. He was a walking corpse. And still… Maleficent knew she couldn’t finish him off on her own.

She rested her staff on the floor again, as the wood began pulsating a bright green.

“You.” Papillon muttered as he pointed his remaining finger at Maleficent. “Why aren’t you dead?”

“I don’t die that easily, Papillon. Your boss didn’t tell you that?”

“No. I mean, you died along with the Darkness Devil, didn’t you?” Papillon asked, the only answer he got being Maleficent’s eyes burning holes through his own. “What does it matter, all that matters is that you die right now!” He shouted as the butterflies comprising his wings began mobilizing. But Maleficent… she was just a bit quicker.

Quickly, the green energy in her staff flared up, coinciding with a mess of roots bursting from the asphalt before wrapping themselves tightly around Papillon. The Butterfly Devil struggled against her grip, but it was naught. He’d run himself dry, on power and on energy. He’d run out of the strength to break free and he’d run out of time.

Maleficent slowly walked forward, her own wounds aching as she got in range of Papillon.

“Tell me, Papillon. Who is leading the four horsemen these days?”

He turned his head away from her, refusing to answer.

“Oh my, is he that scary?” She mocked. “We both know that those four fools couldn’t churn butter if they didn’t have someone to tell them what to do, so just tell me and I’ll think about sparing you.”

“If I tell you, I’m more than dead. There’s nothing you could do to convince me.”

Maleficent let out a sigh, as she placed her hand on Papillon’s head. “What a shame.” Papillon began struggling harder against his binds, as green light shone from the cracks between Maleficent’s fingers. Papillon let out a bloodcurdling scream, before suddenly falling silent with the sound of a wet splat.

Maleficent removed her hand, revealing tree branches and plants grown through Papillon’s eyes socket, dripping with his blood. She wiped the blood from her hand, before turning her back to his body.

“He’s dead,” Maleficent said as she heard Saphira’s feet stomping in her direction on the asphalt beside her. She turned her head towards the dragon.

“He had no heart, he was already dead before we met him.” Saphira beamed into Maleficent’s mind. “Did you get anything from him?”

“Nothing.”

Aki dashed back, one of Avacyn’s light beams grazing his cheek. He moved back into a fighting stance, his weapon raised as the two enemies circled each other. Avacyn’s broken spear laid on the ground, her raised fists glowing with holy light.

“You’ve become more powerful, how?”

Aki remained silent, his stance strong and his blade grip tight. She was right, the weapon itself wasn’t just a sword, it was empowering him. He had felt the katana’s effect on him since he picked it up, sending power through his veins. The sensation burned, but he didn’t mind.

“What does it matter, you aren’t the only one with tricks,” Avacyn said, as she pulled up the swooping sleeve that covered her right wrist. The motion exposed her wrist, and as it did so Aki raised an eyebrow in surprise.

“You already took it,” Aki mumbled as Avacyn lifted her wrist up to her chest. “The Omnitrix.”

“I didn’t need it,” She said, tapping on the garishly green watch face with her other hand. “Not until now.” The watch face popped out, as a green hologram flickered above the surface of the watch. She turned the face, the hologram morphing into a new shape with every click of the ratcheting joint. Stopping on one specific hologram, she slapped her hand down on the watch face, pushing the piece back into place and filling the room with a bright green light.

Aki closed his eyes, covering them with one of his arms until the light had subsided. And as he felt the glare through his eyelids lessen, he opened them again, only for his gaze to fall upon Avacyn’s new… form.

-- [Alpha Wolf - Sub-Zero] --

Her body had completely changed shape, now sporting a monstrous, short green stature reminiscent of a fantasy goblin or gremlin. She growled in a high-pitched tone, her massive mouth gaping wide open.

“OGREMON!” She roared, her voice modified to sound rougher, before charging at Aki with a club raised above her head. Aki adjusted his stance accordingly, holding his blade in a stance to counter the trajectory of her club. But as the weapon came down on him, instead of cutting through like he’d done before, the club impacted against his blade and sent him backward skidding along his feet.

He shook his head in disbelief, and as soon as his stance had recovered, he noticed the energy blast coming for his head preceded by a loud shout of “HAOUKEN!”. The blast glowed with a bright purple light, and he moved his blade to block the attack as quickly as he could. His arms moved faster than before, and as the blast diverged and sputtered into nothingness upon impact with his blade, he was immediately alerted by a voice shouting above him.

“Samus!” Avacyn yelled, as her new form blasted another set of energy blasts at him mid-jump. Her new form looked more mechanical, an orange and yellow robot body with a laser cannon replacing her right arm. Aki moved quickly, blocking whatever blasts he could, but one of them grazed his shoulder, burning his flesh and causing him to reach a hand out to clutch the wound.

He quickly stepped back, holding his weapon with only one hand as Avacyn continued to attack him after she landed on the ground again. Aki’s one-handed stance was sloppy, it was unbalanced, but it would have to suffice for now. His blade cut through a beam of ice, deflected a bolt of lightning and redirected it to a nearby wall, and blocked a series of beams split in three. Avacyn’s new laser blaster switched between firing modes on the fly, keeping Aki on his toes both literally and figuratively, his footwork struggling to keep up with her speed.

Avacyn had him on the ropes, forcing him into fighting defensively at risk of getting hit by any one of her shots. But Aki was sick of playing defense. Sidestepping another blast of energy, this one the size of his torso, he quickly used the opportunity to close the gap. He sprinted forward, and once he was in range, he raised his weapon above his head before quickly slashing down upon Avacyn.

As Avacyn saw the blade come down on her, she reached for the watch face embedded in her chest and turned it a few clicks, before slamming it down and filling the room with light once again. Aki didn’t flinch this time, however, keeping his blade’s trajectory straight despite his current blindness. However, it was suddenly stopped to a grinding halt by a recognizably not fleshy impact.

Light perished, the room returning to a normal level of luminance as a feral shout tore through the air.

“CHAINSAW DEVIL!”

The revving of dual chainsaws filled the room as Aki felt them cutting away at his blade. He pulled his weapon out of the saw’s teeth before dashing backward.

“How long can you keep this up?” Aki asked. He took his hand off the wound, letting out a grunt as he moved it back to his weapon’s handle and stepped into a two-handed defensive stance.

“I should ask you the same thing, Hayakawa,” Avacyn replied, her voice gruff and mechanical as she raised her chainsaw fists forward. Her white shirt hung loosely over her body, the green watch face plastered just above her chest to the right, her head replaced with a roughly head-sized chainsaw. “That would be if I cared, at least.” She said, before dashing in Aki’s direction, a chainsaw pulled back ready to be jabbed right in his face.

Aki acted quickly, moving his sword quickly to intercept the chainsaw. The chainsaw hit the flat of his katana, grinding against the metal as the impact pushed Aki back. He held back against the push for a while, until he noticed the second chainsaw fist coming right for his face. He managed to move his head back just a smidge, getting his face out of the chainsaw’s range. Although he could still the air being pushed by the saw’s rapidly spinning chain.

Aki shifted his left foot back, changing his posture and moving his katana downwards to let Avacyn’s momentum and own effort carry her past him. She stumbled forward, her right chainsaw digging into the floor behind him and placing her right next to him.

Avacyn turned her head to face Aki, the Devil Hunter ducking under her chainsaw face before shoulder bashing her. The hit was good, sending her stumbling back a good few meters and disorienting her if only for a few moments. But those few moments? They were precious for Aki.

He sheathed his katana almost habitually, keeping it horizontally at his hip as he sprinted forward into Avacyn’s range, his stance low and compact. Instinct — one which wasn’t his own — took over, as his grip on the katana’s handle tightened and he breathed in deeply. He closed his eyes, his lips pursed, his muscles tingled, and he mouthed the words.

“This is the end…”

His blade unsheathed in an instant and he delivered what felt like tens of cuts to Avacyn in a matter of a few moments. His hand moved at immense speeds, blood tainting his blade almost as much as splatters of the stuff covered the immediate area around him. The technique was alien to him, yet it felt familiar somehow.

After a few moments, his barrage stopped, and his hand moved back to sheathe his blade. Almost the entire blade had been pressed back into place, sans the habaki, as Aki looked Avacyn into where he reckoned her eyes should be.

“Goodbye, Angel Devil.” He muttered, before fully pushing the blade back into its scabbard. In an instant, it felt like air moved freely again as Avacyn’s body fell into a thousand pieces to the floor. A gorey death fit for an unholy warrior.

Aki felt himself become more cognizant of his situation, suddenly remembering Tali and running to where he remembered she was.

The scientist had already gotten herself up somewhat, and as Aki put an arm around her shoulder to help her to her feet fully, she spoke up.

“You saved me,” Tali remarked. “I thought you didn’t care about your partners.”

“Avacyn was going to kill me too,” Aki scoffed. “Besides, we still don’t know where to find Bavarium.”

“If you say so, Aki.” She said, the rolling of her eyes obvious even outside of her helmet. “I am not a Von, not an idiot.”

Aki let out a sigh, as he looked out of the hole in the storage room’s wall. “Fine.” He mumbled. “I don’t think you’re all that annoying.”

Chapter Text

“That’s what it’s called?” Aki asked, his right hand gliding across his new weapon’s dark blue scabbard.

“That’s what the writings my team recovered said, at least. The Darkness Devil was rumored to be the best swordsman ever to live, and when he sealed the hellgates, he split his power into two weapons before disappearing without a trace. One of those was-”

“The Yamato.” Aki said, finishing her sentence before she could.

“Great Harmony in Japanese, this blade was said to be able to cut through anything. You yourself saw the raw cutting power of the weapon when you fought Avacyn, but some of the texts I’ve read have suggested its cutting power to be more… metaphysical.”

“What does that mean?”

“Stories of other wielders of the blade tell of it being able to cut through space itself, cut through time to skip forward a few moments, and even more outlandish things. Eventually, however, most of them seemed to succumb to the weapon’s power, dying horrible deaths before they could complete their goals. ”

Aki nodded in understanding, his right index finger absently tracing the wood grain patterns of the scabbard. “And what about the other one?” He asked as he looked over to Tali. Her legs dangled over the edge of the platform on Saphira’s back, her eyes trained on the Omnitrix she held in her hands. After their fight with Avacyn, Tali had swiped the green and black watch from the Angel Devil’s “body” (it was more akin to a pile of flesh, but alas). Since they’d gotten on the Dragon Devil’s back, she’d been trying to make it work again, to no avail so far.

Aki’s eyes moved to the side of her head, and for a moment he wondered what kind of face resided underneath that mask of her hears. He quickly pushed the thought aside, however, as Tali spoke up again.

“The Rebellion.” She replied. “Compared to the Yamato, we could find even less about it. All we know is that the blade is easily twice the size of your weapon.”

Aki looked back at the Yamato again, trying to imagine what the weapon would even look like. Was it also a katana? Or was it something else? He had no idea what to imagine, but it didn’t really matter all that much. What was important, was that Aki knew how to use this weapon, not some other theoretical super weapon.

“You felt his power, didn’t you?” She suddenly asked, causing Aki to look over at her again. “I could see it. When you used the Yamato, you were faster, you were stronger, it was like a piece of him had entered you.”

Aki stayed silent for a moment, mulling over the thoughts in his brain. Because he had felt the Darkness Devil’s strength, that much was true. The cold shock in his right arm followed by a surge of power did happen. He just hadn’t told her about it. Nor had he told her about the Devil that made a contract with him. Was it The Darkness Devil? No, that was impossible. He hadn’t been seen since the sealing of the hellgates, since the end of the first Invasions.

“Who had this sword before me?” He asked.

“I don’t know. There’ve been multiple stories of Yamato wielders throughout the years, even in medieval Europe, a place where a katana would already be a rare sight. However, mentions of the Yamato stopped appearing in writings around a hundred years ago. For all I know, it’s been nedas for the past few decades.”

“Nedas?”

“Nowhere,” Tali mumbled in response, before cursing under her breath. “Vot! It’s broken.” She said, referring to the Omnitrix. Her hands clenched around the green watch as she stuff it back into one of her pockets. “At least we still have your Yamato.”

“Great,” Aki mumbled before letting out a sigh. Behind him, at the crook of Saphira’s neck, stood Maleficent looking forward as they soared through the clouds. After the group had reconvened, Tali had revealed to them the place where the eDen corp stored most of their Bavarium, and they’d set off in that direction.

Maleficent laid a hand on one of the scales on the back of Saphira’s neck. She projected her voice in the Dragon’s mind.

“Do you think we’re going in the right direction?”

“Are you distrusting the scientist or disrespecting my sense of direction?”

Maleficent snickered for a moment. “The scientist. She’s holding something back, she’s not being fully honest but I can’t tell what.” “You suspect she’s working with the Horsemen?”

“No, I don’t think she’s a spy.” Maleficent clarified. “But she’s not being truthful about everything. Do you think you can keep an eye on her for me?”

“You’re growing paranoid, Maleficent.”

“It’s called being careful, dear.” Maleficent replied as she took her hand off Saphira’s neck. “You should think abou-” Abruptly, Maleficent’s sentence was cut off as the ground beneath her shook violently. She felt the mental link between her and Saphira snap, followed by a visceral growl escaping the Dragon’s maw.

Maleficent’s eyes shot over in Aki’s direction. She didn’t know what had happened, but she didn’t need to know to understand what was going to happen. Saphira was crashing, and Aki wouldn’t survive that. Not on his own, not even with the Yamato, not yet. And so, as Maleficent saw Aki stumble to his feet through the turbulence of their crash, she acted quickly.

The Sleep Devil broke into a sprint, headed in a beeline straight for Aki. Wind rushed past her as she could feel gravity pulling her down, but she pushed through, not stopping even once. And once she reached Aki, she opened her arms and clutched his body tightly.

And she jumped off.

Tali’Zorah nar Rayya’s back had never hurt more than right now. As her eyes slowly opened, multiple sources of light streaming into her irises, pain singed her nerves. Back pain smoldered around her spine as she pushed herself up into a sitting position. Looking around, she noticed she’d found herself inside of a roughly Saphira-sized crater. It took her a few moments, but she was beginning to understand what had just happened.

She reached a right hand towards her face. As her fingers touched the glass that hid away her features, she let out a soft sigh of relief. Her mask was still fine. Tali got up to her feet again, the smell of a smoldering fire finally getting through to her as she did so. A draconic growl tore through the air, alerting Tali.

She stumbled in the sound’s direction, wading through a plume of smoke to find a certain large, blue dragon dug into the dirt. The smoke cleared, a soft whimpering emanating from the dragon’s direction.

“Saphira? Is that you?”

Tali could see the dragon’s head slowly crane over in her direction before a headache suddenly wrenched itself into her mind. A few moments passed before the headache suddenly subsided, replaced by a female voice.

“Tali’Zorah. I must say… I’m glad to see you.”

Tali mentally gasped, surprised at the way Saphira was communicating with her. “Is that… are you using telepathy to talk to me?” She muttered.

“You are correct.”

“Keelah, that is fascinating.” She mumbled, crossing her arms as she began to ponder. “In that case, if I think to myself…”

…you should be able to hear it.

“Once again correct.”

“What happened?” Tali thought.

“Something pierced one of my wings, severed my scales, and caused me to lose control. Aki and Maleficent have been separated from us because of the crash. If they’re even still alive.”

“You think they’re dead?”

“I hope not. But I believe we should stick together and move in case they are.”

Tali nodded, retreating into her thoughts before replying. “Your wing, which one got hit?”

“My right,” Saphira replied as she dragged the wing in front of Tali. The girl crouched down, dragging a gloved finger across the edge of a huge wound. Broken scales hung off fleshy strings of under skin down into the hole created by whatever had attacked her.

“This is bad.”

“I can’t fly like this, not until I heal up at least.”

Tali let out a sigh. “Then we walk. Let’s get out of this hole first.” Saphira nodded, as the two walked up the curvature of the crater. And as they waded out of the smoke, they realized they were standing in the middle of the road.

Asphalt surrounded them, houses on either side and a thin road stretching out in front of them. They were… somewhere. From what Tali could tell, it was some kind of small town, but it was quiet. Not in the way a war-torn battlefield would be. The group had seen enough bloodbaths to know what that looked like. No, the air stood still as if the inhabitants of this town had just up and disappeared.

It was eerie.

The two stalked through the quiet streets of the town, growing increasingly warier of the fact that there was not a single soul here. But the deeper in they got, they began to notice that this small town had one big outlier.

“Keelah…” Tali mumbled as her eyes trailed up into the sky, her stride coming to a slow halt. Towering into the clouds stood a skyscraper taller than all the buildings in this town combined, erected from the center of the village like a CPU on (most) motherboards.

“What is that symbol?” Saphira projected into Tali’s mind, the scientist’s eyes flittering over to the logo on the side of the building. A large, neon yellow letter ‘m’, curved tips with square bottoms, a shape recognizable to most people on this Earth.

“McDonald’s?”

“Where are we?” Aki asked, his right hand resting on the Yamato strapped to his hip as he and Maleficent strode through a seemingly endless field of emerald green grass. The sun tickled the back of Aki’s neck as the skin underneath his suit lightly sweated from the heat.

“I have no idea,” Maleficent replied as she looked over the sprawling fields. High grass grazed the surface of her staff as the two of them walked forward, the wood of her stave paving holes through the grass. “I think we’re still somewhere in Europe, but I can’t tell where without flying up somehow.”

“The Sleep Devil can’t fly?” Aki asked, being met with silence by Maleficent. “I just thought, in the old stories you were described as having a set of two great wings, sleek as a hawk’s feathers yet sturdier than a dragon’s scales.”

“Those are just myths.” She mumbled. “My wings were as fallible as the rest of my body is.” She replied, her gaze kept solemnly forward as the two kept walking. Frustration grew into the edge of Aki’s mouth as his cheek hooked upwards ever so slightly.

Aki liked to know who he was working with. Not just on a need-to-know basis, although his demeanor might give off that impression. Aki wanted to understand his partners, like Himeno had always understood him to a certain extent. And he understood Saphira, the stoic, wise dragon who had braved the mountains of Norway and lived there for centuries. A Devil more primordial than others, maybe not as blood lusted as the majority of them, but still as selfish in her reasons for closing the hellgates.

Or like Tali’Zorah, the standoffish scientist he’d grown to appreciate more since meeting her. A marvelous researcher in her own right, a crack shot with a pistol with the cleverness to match.

But Maleficent? She was like an enigma to him. The Sleep Devil’s choice to seal the hellgates the first time had never made sense to him, and now that she was making the same choice again he still didn’t understand. She seemingly placed no worth in human lives, yet still wanted to save Earth. It was all just a mystery.

Not that it mattered. He had no desire to become buddies with the First Queen of the Underworld, he’d just dispose of her once the gates had been closed. No doubt that her plan was no different. It was all-

“Aki.” Maleficent suddenly spoke, her stride coming to a halt slowly followed by Aki stopping as well. “What’s left for you?”

“Huh?”

“Out there, once we close the hellgates forever, what’s left? You’ve spent your life fighting, you’ve already lost everything. So why are you still here?”

“I’m fighting to save humanity. What’s left of it, anyway.”

“And what if there’s no one left?”

“Then I’m fighting to avenge them, to make the Devils pay.”

“All of them?”

“Every last one.”

“Hmm,” Maleficent mumbled, as she began walking again. Aki stared at the back of her neck, fingers tingling as his hand moved to the Yamato’s handle.

This could be it, he could end it now. The big bad Sleep Devil finally dead.

He let out a sigh and pushed both of his hands into his pockets.

“Nevermind.”

“Welcome to McDonald’s, can I take your order?”

Tali stared at the girl in front of her, the eyes hidden behind her mask searing a hole into her irises. But the girl’s expression stayed the same. A friendly smile pointed right at where Tali’s face would be, waiting for her to give an answer.

“I have a, uhh…friend who’s too large to fit through the door, is it okay if she comes in anyway?”

Tali could see the gears turn in the girl’s head, trying to decipher whether this request was serious or if it was some kind of stupid joke. After a few moments, she answered.

“Yes, your friend is more than welcome!” She stated, one eyebrow raised slightly in an anticipating confusion.

“Thank you…” Tali leaned in, trying to read the name tag on her bright red uniform. “… Jill!” She said before telepathically contacting Saphira. Seconds passed before Jill could suddenly feel the ground beneath her tremble. Both hands grabbed onto the desk in front of her in a hopeful bid to stay standing. And luckily, she rolled the right dice.

Less lucky, however, was the 12-foot dragon barging in through the establishment’s front door and tearing down that whole section of wall along with a part of the ceiling.

Jill was ready to screech if it wasn't for the fact that doing that might cause the dragon to turn her into a chicken nugget. She pursed her lips shut with all her might as she looked back at Tali.

“Is that your friend?” She managed to get out through gritted teeth.

“Yes! I probably should have told you she is a dragon, but I did say she was quite large.”

Jill merely nodded in response, before letting out a long, labored sigh.

“Welcome to Mcdonald's, could I take your order?”

Saphira tilted her head as Tali struggled to keep her laugh in. After a few moments, Tali turned to Jill again.

“I appreciate the hospitality. But I would just like to know where we are exactly.”

“How do you not know where you are?”

“We…crash-landed.”

“Oh, well, you've found yourself in the middle of our little town of Cagliostro, home to the McDonald's headquarters!”

“Why are you… still running?”

“Huh?”

“The Devils started invading Earth weeks ago, how have they not reached this place yet?”

“Invasion? Ma’am, I’m sorry if this is rude, but if an invasion had started I’m sure management would have informed us of that. Besides, we haven’t noticed a thing of the invasions!”

“Where’s the rest of this town, anyway?”

“The mayor called a curfew.”

“It’s not even night yet.”

“Our mayor is very careful. Look, I don’t want to be rude, but I’m not here to answer questions. If you’re not here to order, I would politely ask you to leave the premises.”

Tali looked back at Saphira, the dragon nodding at her before she turned her head back to Jill.

“Do you have anything that’s vegan?”

Maleficent and Aki had reached the edge of a cliff. The drop-down reached into a valley hundreds of meters down into the Earth, water rushing across the rocks down at the bottom, chipping away at the stone. On the other side of the ravine, stood a small village built upon the side of a cliff. But above the stone houses rose a skyscraper that reached into the heavens, the light streaming from the windows lighting up the night skies.

Stone crumbled underneath Aki’s feet as he looked forward into the night.

“They’re in that town,” Maleficent remarked. “I can feel Saphira’s presence in my mind, coming from that direction.”

“I can feel it too,” Aki said, turning his head to the left. In that direction lay the sea, stretching into hyperbolic infinity, a distance further than the human eye could see. Turning his head to the right he could see the ravine stretch further, a distance they could probably cross.

Although it would probably take a few days to walk.

His head turned to look forward again, the shortest route to the other side of the ravine. “Your wings would come in handy right about now.” He said as he turned his head to Maleficent again. She turned to look back into his eyes, as he spotted a small green flame burn in her iris.

“You could’ve made a contract with Saphira to grow a pair of wings, too.”

“Hmph,” Aki mumbled.

“It’s too far for me to grow a tree bridge as well.”

“Of course,” He said, his hand shifting to rest on the Yamato’s scabbard. He remembered his conversation with Tali earlier, the one on Saphira’s back, and an idea started cooking up in his head. Slowly, he unsheathed the blade, pain shooting through the veins in his arm once again. But he persevered, and once the blade had fully left its scabbard, he gripped the handle with both his hands.

Maleficent’s head perked up as she saw Aki pull his weapon out.

Aki’s fingers intertwined tightly around the Yamato’s handle, letting in a deep breath before closing his eyes. He allowed the Yamato’s influence to enter him once again, as it sent a surge of memories into his brain. Along with that, he could feel one specific technique being transported into his brain.

He let out a breath, taking control of his own body again and raising the sword above his head. And in an instant, his muscles carried the motion of a slash down before an almost immediate follow-up of a horizontal cut crossing through the first one. His eyes still closed, he sheathed his blade again, before slowly opening them up.

In front of him stood a moody crimson red glow lined with a brighter blue light, formed in the shape he had just cut. A low oscillating noise emanated from the void in front of him, rumbling Aki to his core.

“You… cut a hole through space?” Maleficent asked, a smirk crawling on her face just out of Aki’s sight.

“I think so,” He mumbled aloofly. His thumb rested against the bottom edge of the Yamato’s hand guard. “That should get us to the other s-ARGH.” Suddenly, Aki fell to his knees with a scream, clutching his left forearm in pain.

“What happened?” Maleficent asked as she quickly crouched down next to him. Aki couldn’t let much out through the grunting and gritting through his team, although the hand clutching at his other arm gave her a pretty good clue. She carefully reached over, pulling up his left sleeve only to let out a gasp as she laid eyes on what lay under there.

Scaly red skin covered patches of the surface of Aki’s arm, a streak of the texture running from his elbow to his index finger. Aki’s fingers dug into the floor in pain, his teeth gritting against each other as he tried to hold back a shout.

But Maleficent saw more than the pain. No, the affliction spreading across his body, she’d seen it before. She just couldn’t place where.

Tali’s arms remained crossed as she leaned back on the bench across from Saphira. Between them stood a small table, one that was filled with a huge stack of vegetarian Big Macs only a few moments ago.

“Are you enjoying that?”

Saphira looked up from the table, staring at Tali for a few moments before establishing their mental link again. “I asked you if you wanted some.”

“That’s not the point, I don’t trust this place. We should be looking for Aki and Maleficent.”

“You offered to pay.”

“I didn’t think you’d order this much! I would like to have some money left after we quell this invasion!”

Saphira scoffed as she backed herself out of the still broken front door, bumping into trash cans and chairs alike. “I will wait for you outside.” She projected into Tali’s mind.

Tali sighed as she pushed herself up, hands stuffed into her jacket’s pockets as she started making her way towards the counter. The breeze came in through the open “doorway”, yet the air in this place still felt arid. She hadn’t been able to shake the feeling that something in this town was wrong, even if she couldn’t tell what it was.

As she arrived at the counter, Jill was… not there. No, instead of the girl who’d previously helped her stood something new. He was wearing the same red tinged with yellow McDonald's outfit, his short black hair sticking through the top of his half-cap as he wore a bright smile on his face.

“I hope you enjoyed your meal!” He practically yelled as Tali leaned in to read his name tag.

“Thanks, Sadao. Where did Jill go?”

“She said she was feeling… lightheaded, so I told her to go home and that I’d finish her shift.”

“Are you the manager?”

“Yes! But the CEO personally likes to manage this establishment, so I don’t do a whole lot!”

“Hm.” Tali mumbled, her eyes drifting past Sadao’s head. She was getting the feeling that something about this guy was… off. When she was talking to Jill earlier, she didn’t seem sick at all, maybe a bit confused by her and Saphira’s appearance, but otherwise totally normal. And the fact that she didn’t even know the Devils had begun their invasion of Earth, it just…wasn’t adding up. And the way this guy was acting? That was the final straw.

Slowly, she reached for the gun hidden beneath her jacket, her fingers grasping for the pistol’s grip and-

“Ah, seriously? Couldn’t you just play along?” Sadao suddenly spoke as Tali’s eyes shot back in his direction. Her eyes widened, and Sadao’s palm pointed right at her face as a bright purple glow charged in its center. She jumped back quickly, but it was too late, and as the energy blast left his hand, it struck Tali’s stomach in an instant.

The impact was signaled by a sound reminiscent of a thousand hammers hitting the side of a freighter ship, as it send Tali flying. She tore through signs hanging off the ceiling, before being blasted out of the building entirely and scraping across the stone floor outside.

A few moments passed wherein all that Tali could sense was the pain in her stomach, the static in her eyes, and the ringing in her ears. Eventually, she began recovering. Her vision was hazy as she pushed herself up to her knees, but it was sharp enough for her to see Sadao stepping out the ruined front door of the Mcdonald's establishment. Saphira stood beside her as he began to speak.

“I really didn’t want to do this, alright? But you gave me no choice. Now that Jill knows about the invasion, she has to be executed.”

“What!?” Tali replied.

“Boss’s orders, sorry. Really, it’s your fault. If you hadn't told her we wouldn’t have to do this.”

Tali’s teeth gritted at that statement, but her muscles hurt too much for her to even think about attacking him. Saphira snarled at Sadao, which only caused him to chuckle.

“Just get out of here, before he finds out strangers came into town. Don’t waste your lives for a stranger.” He advised before wings sprouted from his back and he launched himself into the air, soaring up to the upper layers of the McDonald's HQ.

Tali grunted as she pushed herself up to her feet.

“We should look for Aki and Maleficent,” Saphira projected into Tali’s mind.

“No,” She replied, one hand held to her stomach as the other finally freed her pistol from its holster. “We have to save Jill.”

“This town is too quiet,” Maleficent spoke as Aki and she roamed the streets of Cagliostro. Her staff tapped the stone tiling beneath her arrhythmically as they walked along the road, Maleficent following the traces of Saphira’s mental link with her.

“I agree,” Aki mumbled through gritted teeth as his left arm rested on the Yamato’s scabbard. His sleeve covered the rot that covered his arm as a glove hid away the strain of it that reached out to his index finger. He had convinced Maleficent to let it be, that he had it under control. But Aki had no plans to cure himself of whatever affliction had gotten into him. He knew that it had something to do with the Yamato, that much he had learned from Tali. But he couldn’t stop using the blade.

The Yamato was his only ticket to standing on the same level as the Devils they were going to be facing. The power it imbued in him, it was intoxicating, it was probably going to kill him, but it didn’t matter. He was gonna die in a week anyway, he had to take whatever advantage he could get in the time he had left.

As they stepped through the silent streets, Maleficent could sense a presence watching them from somewhere. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly where, but as she began feeling it she started growing warier. The McDonald’s HQ was only a bit further away, but getting there was going to be harder than either of them had expected.

“Why do you people have to be so annoying?” A voice behind them suddenly spoke. Aki and Maleficent came to a sudden halt before turning on a dime to face the new voice. Behind them stood a young man wearing what seemed to be a McDonald’s uniform. A red half-cap rested on the top of his head, serving as a visor.

“Do we know you-”

“That’s hardly a way to address strangers, dear.” Maleficent spoke, rudely cutting off Aki as he crossed his arms. “Especially not your superiors.”

“You’re not my superior, Sleep Devil. The only people I answer to are the McDonald’s executives. Besides, no one’s scared of you anymore. The horsemen are stronger than ever and you’re lugging around a Devil Hunter, you’ve become a laughing stock!”

Maleficent’s confident grin turned to an annoyed scowl, as she pressed her staff against the floor again. “What do you want from us, Sadao?”

“You remember my name?”

“What do you want?”

Sadao scoffed as he crossed his arms. “I want you two to leave this town, your friends have done enough damage.”

“So Tali and Saphira are here?” Aki chimed in.

“Yes! I never actually learned their names, but they went around asking people if they knew about the invasion, and we can’t have that happening now can we?”

“Why can’t they know about the invasion?”

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about!” Sadao suddenly yelled as his hands made an exasperated gesture before dropping to his sides. “There’s no helping you people, is there?” He said with a sigh, before pulling a box cutter out of his back pocket. He flicked the blade out of its chassis, standing at a tall two inches.

Aki went on high alert at that, his fingers wrapping around the Yamato’s handle preemptively. His suspicions turned out to be correct, and as Sadao pulled his arm back, the box cutter transformed into a one-handed straight sword. The motion quickly pared into a swing at Aki, but Aki was prepared and he pulled the Yamato out in an instant to block the slash.

Metal hit metal with a loud clang, but Aki didn’t let up for a second. Immediately, he used the speed boost the Yamato gave him and dashed into Sadao’s range before slashing his head off in one fell swoop.

His opponent’s head soared through the sky for a few moments, and as Aki’s Yamato entered its scabbard again, so did Sadao’s head hit the floor with a wet splat. Aki turned his head to Maleficent, his lips parting to make way for the words he was about to speak. And then another voice spoke up.

“Sorry!” Sadao said as he walked back onto the asphalt. Aki and Maleficent turned their heads to him, as he himself flinched at the image of his own dead body on the floor. “That never gets any easier to see, but whatever.” He said, as a black cloak suddenly appeared around his shoulder, eclipsing his McDonald’s uniform in boldness.

“How did you do that?” Aki asked.

“What? Oh, you don’t know! As long as I’m in this town…”

“… I can’t die!”

It was a lot harder to hold onto a dragon’s back without a saddle. And the fact that Saphira was flying with one semi-busted wing certainly did not make it any easier. But Tali managed to hold on to the grooves between Saphira’s cobalt blue scales as the dragon soared into the air, breaking through the clouds and making their way to the top of the McDonald’s HQ.

“Are we almost there!?” Tali shouted out loud.

“Almost, young scientist!” Saphira projected into Tali’s mind, reminding her once again that was a thing they could do. “Be patient, you know my wing still has not fully healed up.”

Tali grunted as she tried to tilt her head forward, powering through the drag of the air and the strength of gravity pulling her back. The force was more than she had expected when they launched from ground level, but she’d have to deal with it.

Mere moments later, they broke through the clouds and ended up only a few layers below the heavens. Saphira’s flight stabilized as they floated at a stable altitude, a fair distance away from the upper floors of the McDonald’s HQ. As Saphira stabilized, Tali crawled over her back to the brace of her neck to get a better look at the building.

From the bottom, they knew the headquarters stood the tallest out of any building in Cagliostro, but seeing it rise above the clouds like this was definitely putting it more in perspective.

“Keelah, this has to be one of the tallest buildings in the world.”

“The tallest that’s still standing,” Saphira added, as she began flying closer to the building. She began scanning through the windows of each floor, looking for any sign of Jill. The trail had seemingly gone cold, as all the floors she flew past seemed to be filled with cubicles stuffed to the brim with workers, and not a single one of them looked anything like Jill.

That was until they reached the final floor.

This level of the building was unlike any other, about as tall as four normal floors. The walls were entirely made of glass, surrounding one singular, barren room. In the center stood an ornate wooden desk, patterns etched into the surface that, too intricate to be made out from the distance Tali and Saphira were looking from. Behind it sat a chair that could more accurately be described as a throne, chiseled from some kind of stone and now melded into its spot for eternity.

But the most extraordinary feature of the room had to be the aquarium. Taking up almost half the room, the aquarium was strangely filled with only one fish. A huge whale, easily the size of a semi-truck, filled up the waters of the office’s aquarium, floating around like a plastic bag without much room to move. If the whale were to put all of its energy into swinging one way, it could probably crack the glass. But it looked strangely tranquil with its existence.

Inside the room were two people. One was a tall, blonde man wearing an outfit that could only be described as the peak of eccentricity. From Saphira’s position, they could only see his back, but it was enough to make out the garishly yellow jacket and the equally gaudy neon green headband wrapped around his forehead.

In front of him stood Jill, her hands crossed down at waist level as she stared at the ground beneath her. Her McDonald’s cap had been removed from her head, now resting in the clutches of her hands as she stood in front of whoever this man was.

“There she is,” Tali mumbled. “Do you think you can use your telepathy on her to hear what that man is saying?” She said to Saphira as she pulled the screen on her own her forearm up. “I have a plan.”

“I can try,” Saphira replied in Tali’s mind, before she started digging into Jill’s. It took a few moments, but breaking into the girl’s brain was a lot easier than Saphira was expecting. And as their minds connected, Saphira loaned Jill’s hearing and listened along to what the man was talking about.

“-oh you’re all so ungrateful, aren’t you? Like children, you have no concept of the world around you and the effort people put in to take protect you. You just keep pulling on that thread until the hammock breaks and you fall into the pit of magma boiling beneath your feet.”

“M-Mr. Dio, I just wanted to-”

“If you tell everyone else in Cagliostro about the invasion, could you imagine the panic that would break out?” Dio asked as he started slowly approaching Jill. “And then the deal would be over.”

“D-deal?”

“Oh, you don’t understand of course.” He said as he let out a sigh. Standing only a short distance away from Jill, he put his hands on her shoulders. “There’s so much you don’t understand. That’s why I made this deal, because none of you would understand if they knew what was going on. You’re like a turtle stuck in its shell, one that’s never seen anything outside and wouldn’t know what to do if they did.”

“And I’ll put you out of your misery.”

From her angle, Tali could see Dio pull a knife out of his jacket pocket.

“He’s going to kill her!” Tali said as she pulled her pistol out of her holster. “Go! Now!”

Saphira simply nodded in response, before converging her wings and starting a dive bomb in Dio’s direction. She tore through the thin air of the atmosphere up here, and as her scaled snout hit the glass, it began shattering from a single point. Shards flew around her as Tali made her frame more slender and practically pushed herself into Saphira’s back.

A huge dragon crashing through the window wasn’t exactly sneaky, however. And as the glass shattered, so did Dio turn around in the direction of this sound. Saphira could spot Dio’s expression turning from a somewhat neutral one to an inexplicable smile as the distance between them grew closer and closer.

Saphira roared, her maw only a few meters away from Dio, preparing to completely gobble him up. Moments later, Saphira felt herself crash into the floor, her velocity coming to a slow halt as her claw dug into the marble tiling. Eventually, she came to a full stop, and quickly thereafter Tali jumped off her back.

Gun in hand, she quickly sprinted up to Jill who was still standing in the same spot, frozen. With her free hand, Tali grabbed her shoulder, shaking her out of her trance.

“You…you’re the girl that ordered 20 Veggie McChickens?” It was the first thing that Jill said, causing Tali to let out a slightly annoyed groan.

“What was going on?”

“Mr. Dio, he was really angry that I learned about “the invasion”, I don’t know what he was going to do to me, but-”

“You’re fine now, Dio is-”

“Gone.” Saphira suddenly projected into Tali’s mind. “I thought I had him, but he disappeared somehow.”

“Ax’kah…” Tali mumbled, taking her hand off Jill’s shoulder and two-handing the pistol in her other hand. “Jill, get out of here, we’ll deal with this-” Tali wouldn’t get to finish what she was saying, however, as a bright yellow boot hit her square in the face mid-sentence.

Tali’s own feet left the floor in less than a second, as the impact sent her flying towards one of the windows that stood yet unbroken. Soaring through the sky, the pain hadn’t fully hit her yet, but what she did notice was the sound of Saphira’s wings once again stirring the air. Moments later, instead of hitting the glass, Tali’s back slammed into Saphira’s thick scales before falling down to the floor.

Tali carefully pushed herself back up to her feet, as shards of glass somehow still fell on the floor in front of her. It didn’t take long for her to realize what had happened, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it. Pulling the hood deeper over her head, she raised her pistol in Dio’s direction again.

In the meantime, Dio had grabbed Jill into a headlock, his other hand holding a knife to the girl’s throat. Jill stood frozen like an icicle, knowing that her very next move could spell the end if she wasn’t careful.

“That was a most welcome surprise, I must admit,” Dio spoke in his recognizably suave and intimidating tone. “How unfortunate that you were not fast enough, right?” He rhetorically asked as the corners of his mouth curved up into a smile. “I have to thank you for spicing up my day, truly. Life was getting boring, to be fair.”

“Who are you?” Tali asked, causing an expression of hurt to shoot onto Dio’s face.

“Oh, you truly do not know? Dio Brando? CEO of the McDonald’s brand?”

Tali’s eyebrows scrunched in the shadow of her hood as she kept her aim true. “Never heard the name.” She mumbled in response.

“Maybe you’ll recognize this name…” Dio spoke calmly, his face returning to a more pleased expression. The air was tense for a few moments, their little standoff standing still like air chimes in a vacuum chamber. And then, in the span of a second, Dio dropped the knife out of his hand before stabbing four of his fingers straight into Jill’s jugular. “S… I AM DIO, THE VAMPIRE DEVIL!”

Jill’s visceral scream echoed through the air, shortly followed by the hail of gunfire originating from Tali’s pistol. But every bullet seemingly missed, and as she went to fire another shot and the gun clicked emptily, she tossed the pistol to the floor before sprinting straight at Dio.

The two were roughly at opposite ends of the room and as Dio was seemingly too preoccupied sucking the blood from Jill, Tali knew before she started running that she couldn’t just run up and punch Dio in the face. She also thought she would have enough distance to come up with some kind of plan on the fly. But as she started to get in the single-digit range she realized that there was only one thing left she could do.

Thinking quickly, she pulled the broken Omnitrix out of her coat’s breast pocket and clutched it in her right hand, covering the whole thing with her fingers. Mid-sprint, she closed her eyes, as electricity began arcing through the course of her right hand. The arcs became more and more pronounced, creating bigger and bigger sparks as they eventually evaporated her hood, letting her hair flow freely. For a second, the lightning spreading across her body turned a bright, neon green before disappearing completely.

Now, only meters away, Tali’s eyes opened to see Dio still too busy with feeding off of Jill’s blood. The veins in his fingers had grown to bulge through his skin, pulsating with every new drop of blood that coursed through them.

Two meters.

Tali looked down at the display attached to her forearm, as it snapped on with a new green tint. She quickly navigated through the new UI, browsing through a list of options before finding one that she could work with. She swiped the green, pirate hat-shaped symbol upwards, as green lightning enveloped her body with light. After a few moments, her entire body turned into an amalgamous form forged from that same green light, almost bright enough to fill the whole room with its warm glow. And certainly bright enough to finally catch Dio’s attention.

"TRAFALGAR LAW!" Tali shouted in her new form.

And as the Vampire Devil turned his head in Tali’s direction, he was quickly met by a man wearing a black-speckled white hat coming for his head. As the tip of his sword began intruding on Dio’s personal space, his lips curved up into a gleeful smile.

Oh, he was really having fun.

Aki was not having fun. As he cut the head off of another Sadao, adding another kill to his personal tally of about six, he was starting to get really annoyed. It wasn’t even the fact that his enemy was somehow appearing in multiple places at once, it was more so the fact that this constant fighting meant that they were not getting any closer to finding Tali and Saphira.

Quickly, he felt the wind behind him shift, signaling to him that another punch was coming for his head. On a dime, he crouched down, and as the fist sailed above his head he dashed in his enemy’s direction, dragging the Yamato’s blade through the Sadao clone’s stomach at an immense speed. Behind him, he could hear the clone’s upper body fall to the floor with a splat, but he had no time to even think as another sword was already coming for his neck.

He blocked in time, a swing that was barely enough to push back against his own strength. But he knew that Sadao’s current power did not lay in individual strength, but in numbers. And as he pushed the clone into a stagger, he immediately crouched down, prefacing the kick that soared over his head and landed right in the staggered clone’s face. Aki quickly stood back up, ramming the Yamato’s handle into the other clone’s stomach causing him to keel over.

Aki turned to face him in an instant, before slashing his head off in a single motion. Aki removed the blood from his blade in a symbolic Chiburi motion, as three more Sadao clones appeared right in front of him. They synchronously cracked their knuckles, Aki letting out an annoyed sigh at the same time.

He had to do something, Aki knew that. As the triplet clones slowly marched in his direction, he took the opportunity to look over at Maleficent. She was having no trouble fighting off the — probably twice as many — clones that were trying to kill her. He wasn’t worried about her safety, but it did confirm the notion that Sadao wasn’t trying to kill them. He was just trying to keep them occupied.

But as his eyes started moving back to the three clones in front of him, they passed over something interesting. All the way in the back, behind Maleficent and the clones she was fighting, stood another Sadao. Unlike the others, however, this one wasn’t wearing a McDonald’s uniform. Besides the fact that he was shirtless, he was also standing about twice as tall and had a rippling six-pack. Oh yeah, and the set of horns protruding from his skull.

That’s gotta be the main one. Aki thought to himself, as he looked back at the three clones in front of him again. He breathed out, staring the central clone straight in the eyes, before rushing at him at full speed. Kicking up dust, Aki ran straight forward with the tip of his Yamato pointed forward.

Apparently, the first Sadao clone wasn’t expecting this kind of speed, and before he could react, the Yamato’s blade had already turned his heart into a kebab. Aki unsheathed the blade from his opponent’s chest, moving it into position to block an overhead swing from the second clone. The thought of parrying the hit crossed his mind, but his instincts saved him. He tilted his head back, causing the third clone’s magic blast to just barely scrape his cheek.

The hit was enough to make him flinch, and as he let out a grunt, his stance faltered. He stumbled back, as the second clone’s blade started making its way for his shoulder. Aki wasn’t out for long, however, and before the sword could hit him, he dashed to the right and delivered a mean kick to the second clone’s side. The impact was fierce, causing the air to ripple as it sent the clone flying into his third brother, sending them both meters away.

Seeing the three clones disposed of, Aki was determined to not wait for backup this time. Immediately, he set off running in the direction of Sadao. A few moments later, he passed Maleficent, and only a bit after that did Sadao Prime notice that Aki was coming right for him. Sadao’s expression remained neutral, as he lifted a single hand in Aki’s direction.

Aki noted the movement, and mid-sprint sheathed his Yamato again. Purple energy had begun gathering around Sadao’s hand, and Aki knew that this would probably be some kind of ranged attack. His sprinting feet rhythmically tapped on the asphalt, his hand gripped tightly around the Yamato’s handle, waiting for the perfect moment. The light around Sadao’s hand deformed, as the growth of energy suddenly came to a stop.

Aki unsheathed the Yamato, and at the same time, a beam of purple magic shot out of Sadao’s palm. The blast cratered the ground where Aki was standing, lighting up the street for only a moment in a bright, purple flash. And as the beam dissipated, all that was left in Aki’s place was a crater and a smoking pile of ash.

Sadao let out a content sigh, as he dropped his arm to his side again. Turning his eyes to Maleficent, he wondered whether he should chime in and help his clones defeat her. But he didn’t really want to. Besides, he still had to plan everyone’s shift for next week. With Jill gone, it was going to be really hard to find someone who delivers as much work as she does, but he’d have to deal with the cards he’d been deal-

SLASH

Aki carefully sheathed the Yamato again, standing in the spot Sadao had stood only a few moments ago. Staring at the McDonald’s HQ skyscraper, he could hear Maleficent finishing off the last few clones behind him before walking up to Aki.

“You killed him?”

“He should be at the bottom of that ravine back there by now.”

“Ah, so he’s not in this town anymore. That’s smart.” Maleficent admitted, standing next to Aki and tilting her head to look up at the same building he was looking at. “They’re in there, I can feel it.”

“Hm,” Aki mumbled. “Let’s not waste any time, then.”

Dio let out a devilish laugh as he dodged under a boulder about twice his own size. His feet cratered the marbled tiling beneath his feet as he sprinted towards Tali, his profile kept low to make him a harder target. More boulders bulging with shards of glass flew over Dio’s head, as he made a lot of headway in a short amount of time, and Tali was getting nervous.

“Did you get Jill to safety yet?” Tali beamed into Saphira’s mind as she launched another boulder at Dio.

“As safe as possible,” Saphira replied. “How are you holding up?”

“I’ll be better if you can find Aki and Maleficent,” Tali responded, before abruptly cutting off their communication. She leaned back, managing to dodge one of Dio’s punches, before promptly receiving an ax kick right to the face.

The impact sent her straight to the floor, cratering the marble tile she was previously standing on with her back. Quickly recovering, she rolled to the side with a hand on her new form’s hat to prevent it from falling off, managing to dodge another fist that lodged itself into the ground beside her. Now a fair distance away from Dio, Tali pushed herself up to her feet in a single motion, as Dio dislodged his fist from the floor.

The Vampire Devil crossed his arms, raising his head up to look down on Tali. “You’re fast, little girl. Like a cockroach running from a blowtorch’s flame. You impress me, a feat I can’t say I see a whole lot. But you keep running.”

“You’re not bad either, kiyet.” Tali said as she reached for the Omnitrix logo branded on her chest, twisting it clockwise a few times before slamming it down again. Her body once again erupted with green lightning as her form shifted once more. Her height was severely shafted, standing significantly shorter than she did even while normal. Her skin was now covered in red fur, as long spikey manes covered the back of her head.

“KNUCKLES!” Tali yelled, her voice now gruff and aggressive, a big shift from how she normally sounded. She began sprinting in Dio’s direction and immediately noticed that she was considerably slower than she was before. Dio stood tall, his grin static on his face as he waited for Tali to reach him. It only took a few moments before Tali reached him. Mid-run she jumped into the air with her fist raised, preparing to smash him flat into the ground.

But as gravity pulled her down, she was suddenly hit by an immense backdraft. At the same time, Dio had disappeared, and Tali’s attack slammed her into the floor where he used to be. The impact rippled through the floor as Tali got back up to her feet. But before she could look around and find Dio, she was rudely interrupted by a set of daggers digging into the flesh on her back.

“AAAGH!” She shouted at the top of her lungs as she turned around and broke into a sprint in Dio’s direction again. The blonde-haired man looked smugger than ever, and as she spotted him raising a hand in her direction, she took advantage of his confidence and slammed both of her fists into the ground.

The attack shook the floor, causing a faux-earthquake and shaking Dio from his stable stance. Tali’s new form stood unshaken, however, and continued sprinting at Dio while he recovered. The distance between them quickly shortened, and as Tali raised her fist to dig into Dio’s skull, she breathed in deeply to prepare for the attack.

And then Dio disappeared again.

And then, Dio’s fist had found its way into Tali’s face.

Tali could feel her nasal ridge crack, as she was sent flying back first into the aquarium on the other side of the room. As she hit the glass, she could feel it crack from the impact, but not enough to fully break. She fell to the floor as green lightning enveloped her body, morphing her back to her regular shape.

Her fatigued arm muscles managed to push herself up to sit against the glass, but nothing more than that. She was out. A dagger tip still jutted out through her right shoulder, her brain had been thoroughly boggled, her muscles ached and the Omnitrix seemed to be completely out of juice. The jolt of power she’d given it early had run out.

She let out a grunt as Dio slowly approached her.

“It’s a shame, really.” He mumbled as he dug his heel into her stomach. He chuckled at her pained groans as he crossed his arms. “I would turn you into my thrall, you’d be a great asset. But you, you’re too rebellious. You’re like a dog rescued from a dog fighting ring, you would never truly surrender yourself to my command.” He explained as he kneeled down to stare more closely at Tali. “Would you?”

“Kiyet.” She mumbled, her airways restricted from the pressure still being exerted against her stomach.

“Of course not, what did I expect?” Dio conceded with a sigh, pulling another dagger out of his back pocket. She could spot the glint of the metal appearing, the light reflecting off of its surface, but in this state, she was in no shape to react. She tried anyway, but before she could so much as lift her arm, the blade had already been stabbed through her collarbone.

Tali managed to suppress a full-on scream, although the sound that did leave her mouth wasn’t a particularly pretty one. That was until the other three knives got jammed into her body.

Dio stood back up with a self-content chuckle, turning his back to the writhing Tali and facing the window side of the room again. But as he pivoted around, he came face to face with something he wasn’t expecting.

Aki jumped off of Saphira’s back as she landed on the top floor of the McDonald’s HQ, closely followed by Maleficent floating down behind him. As his feet touched the ground, he was immediately alerted by a mumbling voice.

“Oh, so there’s your backup.” The voice said, before clearing their throat.

Aki looked over in the voice’s direction, only for his eyes to land upon maybe the most eccentrically dressed person he’d ever met. “Where’s Tali’Zorah?” Aki asked, letting his sword rest in its scabbard for just a little longer.

“Is that who I think it is?” Dio replied, staring past Aki. “The Sleep Devil in the flesh?”

“I thought I would never see you again, Brando,” Maleficent said as she stepped next to Aki. “I was happier that way.”

Dio performed a faux-frown as he crossed his arms. “Surely you don’t mean that.”

“Oh, but I do,” Maleficent said. “Now, answer us. Where’s the girl?”

Dio let out a sigh. “Don’t worry, she’s right here.” He said before stepping to the side, revealing Tali propped up against the aquarium behind him.

“TALI!” Aki screamed, his hand reaching for the Yamato’s handle as he planned to sprint forward. But before he could, pain shot through his whole body once again. He dropped to his knees as he screamed out in agony, his hands digging into the floor as he tried to make the pain stop. Slowly, his vision faded as he could feel himself pass out. His eyesight became blurrier, his senses numbed, and before he knew it-

26th of Harvest, 672 A.D.

I have set off towards Castle Redmane in hopes of drawing a peace treaty with General Radahn of the Redmanes. Please forgive me for making this decision without your input, dear brother. I simply could not bear to see you and our people suffer any longer. I will be back before harvest yet ends.

Much love, Malenia.

That was the letter that Malenia had left to her brother Miquella before she left. While it was mostly truthful, she had obfuscated certain facts in her message. Namely, that she had no plans to broker peace with the dreadful General Radahn. No, Radahn was a dangerous barbarian, a Devil down to the bone. And a literal one, at that, if the rumors of his meddling with the Gravity Devil had any truth to them.

None of that mattered to Malenia, however. She had arrived at Redmane Castle earlier that day with a small group of Cleanrot Knights in pursuit of ending the General's continued assaults on the Miquellan Empire. With her trusted Yamato in hand, she had stormed the castle with her small group of five, decimating any Redmanes that dare stand in her way. It had been a bloodbath, and it wasn’t in the General’s favor.

But now, standing between the corpses of her comrades, favor had seemingly changed. Malenia held her prosthetic to the wound in her chest, as her other hand clung tightly to the Yamato’s handle. She looked up at Radahn.

“You yet persist, Malenia? Simply give up, and concede the Miquellan Empire to my rule.”

“Never. So long as Miquella breathes, I will stand and fight for his rule.”

“Then you are nothing but a valiant fool,” Radahn said as he gripped his mighty Rebellion greatsword with two hands. “And you will die as one.”

“I…” Malenia breathed in, before removing her prosthetic hand from the gaping wound in her chest and moving it to her Yamato’s handle. “…am Malenia, Blade of Miquella. And I have never known defeat.”

Radahn let out a war cry as he raised the Rebellion above his head, before slamming it down unto Malenia. Instead of dodging, Malenia jumped straight into the attack’s path and slashed a horizontal cut. Before the dodge could even graze her, the Yamato teleported her meters above Radahn.

Radahn’s Rebellion slammed into the ground, as Malenia stared down at him and pulled her sword back for an attack. As she was about to swing, a horde of red butterflies escaped from between the folds in her clothing, forming into twin clones on either side of her. At the same time, they sped downward, digging into Radahn’s armor with their blades slash by slash. Before they could cause any serious damage, however, they abruptly swiped away by a single arm movement from Radahn.

The attack erased Malenia’s clones and sent the original flying over the red sands beneath her. She soared for a little bit, before landing in a small mound of sand, the impact digging her back into it. She tried to get up as fast as she could, but even her fastest wasn’t enough, it could’ve never been. Dying here was her destiny.

Malenia screamed out in agony as she felt the Rebellion’s blade pierce her chest, digging through her flesh and embedding her into the sand below. Blood spurted from the ever-growing wound as Radahn leaned down into the stab, tilting his head down to stare Malenia in the eyes as he watched her life fade away.

She felt the General pick her winged helmet up from her head before throwing it away. This was it. Malenia had finally known defeat. She wasn’t feeling any anger, not at her opponent at least. She was frustrated with herself, for condemning the Miquellan Empire to its doom. If only she could have defeated Radahn. Maybe, in some-

Aki gasped as his eyes snapped open. His vision was still fuzzy, but his hearing was clear enough to perceive the sounds of fighting. He had found himself on the floor, apparently having passed out. He pushed himself up to his feet, using the Yamato as a makeshift cane. After a few moments, his vision cleared up and he could spot Maleficent and Saphira battling the blonde-haired man from earlier.

Saphira was mainly concerned with fighting the vampire head-on, while Maleficent stayed back and threw spells whenever she could. The vampire, however, was on another level. His hits rocked Saphira’s entire body when they landed, he could tank Saphira’s flames and most of Maleficent’s spells, and his speed was something else. It looked like he could be at multiple places at once. As if he could teleport.

Aki reached his left hand for the Yamato’s handle, gripping it tightly and letting its power invigorate him. He’d need it. As he began walking forward to join the fray, he heard Saphira’s voice echo through his head.

“Young Devil Hunter! You have awoken-” Before she could finish, Aki could spot Saphira being knocked on her back by one of the Vampire Devil’s uppercuts.

Dammit! Aki thought as he broke into a sprint. Maleficent and Saphira were faltering, Tali wasn’t any better, and Dio was much faster than any of them. He needed a way to even the playing field, and as he thought back to the dream he had while he was knocked out, he got an idea. Mid-sprint, he closed his eyes, letting the Yamato’s power infuse itself in him. Once again, he felt power course through his veins, and as he opened his eyes again he unsheathed the Yamato at the same time.

As he kept sprinting, closing the distance centimeter by centimeter, he could feel his clothes ruffle a few times, like an internal pressure was pushing at them. Moments later, a swarm of butterflies suddenly emerged from the creases between his clothes, flying into the sky as he had seen in his vision. He let out a sigh of relief.

Aki was practically silent, save a grunt or two, as he swung the Yamato with two hands at Dio. The Vampire Devil seemed to be hyperfocused on going after Maleficent, but before Aki’s horizontal swing had even reached him, he had turned to face Aki in what felt like an instant. What was worse, was that Aki’s swing had also been stopped midair by Dio’s hand.

Dio flashed a cocky grin at Aki as he held the Yamato’s blade with his hand.

“Nice sword, I’ve heard stories of a katana like this. A blade sharp enough to cut anything, even the toughest of materials.”

“Then this is probably the one you’re thinking of.”

Dio was about to shoot back some kind of retort when he was rudely interrupted by a boot hitting him in the back of his head. The hit caused him to let go of the blade and stumble forward, right into Aki’s knee upwards. Dio’s head shot upwards as his stumbling direction flipped and he moved backward.

Dio stumbled a few meters before he eventually recovered. He spotted Aki jumping down onto him with a downward slash of his Yamato, and Dio pulled out a knife to block the attack. As Aki landed, the Yamato easily cut through, of course, but that wasn’t the point. Because as Aki was focused on landing the Yamato on Dio’s shoulder, he was unable to notice the bright red beam coming from Dio’s eyes.

The beams hit Aki right under his collarbones, digging through his entire body and sending him stumbling backward. He hadn’t been staggered, but he did have to react quickly when Dio launched his barrage of kicks and punches at him. He managed to block every hit with the flat of his blade, and before Dio could even think about gaining the advantage, he quickly felt another blade enter his side.

Dio let out a devilish shriek, and as he looked to the side from where he had been stabbed, he spotted one of Aki’s butterfly clones. He didn’t hesitate for a second, immediately grabbing the clone by the throat and slamming him to the ground. The clone — along with the faux-Yamato — quickly dissipated upon the first hit, but it was enough to provide Aki a window to attack.

The real Yamato tore through Dio’s back, barely missing his spinal column and tearing a hole into his stomach, causing another screech to escape his lips. Suddenly his voice was cut off and he disappeared from his spot. Aki didn’t even have a moment to look for his opponent when he suddenly felt Dio’s bulky arms wrap around his neck.

“Enough playing, Devil Hunter! Someone of your caliber has no place in my world!”

Aki barely struggled against his grip, as he carefully sheathed his Yamato again. His breathing slowed down, his lips pursed to say something.

“Any last words?”

“Saphira…now!” Aki yelled, as he unsheathed his Yamato. Aki disappeared in an instant, and Saphira’s maw closed around Dio’s head. She bit through his neck, separating the head from the body. Moments later, she spit his head back out, and while it was still talking, Aki moved back in again and shot a barrage of slashes in his direction.

When he was done, Dio’s head fell to the floor in a thousand pieces.

Aki didn’t wait to see what his carnage had wrought, immediately running over to Tali as she still sat, bloodied against the aquarium. Aki crouched down next to her, dropping the Yamato on the floor as he began speaking to her.

“Tali, are you alright?”

“Kiyet, do I look alright? I’m… I’m not gonna make it, Aki.”

Aki gulped silently, as he looked at her face. Now, uncovered, he could actually see it. The way her hair flowed and how her eye looked, as the other one was covered by some kind of robotic prosthetic. She reminded him of Himeno, in a way.

“Aki, I want you to know… I lied. I’m not human, I’m… I’ve been living as the Technology Fiend here on Earth for as long as I can remember.”

Aki’s expression turned to one of confusion and anger, as his right fist balled up. “Why wouldn’t you tell us?”

“Because… why would I tell a Devil Hunter I’m exactly the kind of person he was trying to kill. I am no von, right?”

Aki couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle. “So, when you die, what happens?”

“I don’t… I don’t know. I’ve never died before.” Tali said, reaching her hand up to her mouth to catch the blood that came out with her cough. Tali could feel her strength fading and grabbed onto Aki’s forearm. “If reincarnation is real…” She said with another cough. “… I hope I remember you, so I can help you make a world for Devils and humans.”

Aki’s words got stuck in his throat, and before he could say his final words to Tali, he could see the life evaporate through her eyes.

He reached a hand forward, gently closing her eyelids, before closed his own.

Aki was alone again.

Chapter Text

yeah, like the chapter title says, no more. lost in round 2, was a good run. but if you're here for my writing, stick around bcuz the next scramble season is starting soon.