Chapter Text
Ryukyu, despite the beaming smile on her face, couldn’t help but say, “I thought you said you weren’t coming?”
Dabi smiled. “I say a lot of stupid things. You could use an AOE fire Hero to back you up. It’s not like I trust my father to protect you.”
Ryukyu’s pride flared for just a moment, and she couldn’t help but say, “I can handle myself.”
Thankfully, Dabi just chuckled at her. “Obviously, but I’m allowed a bit of chivalry now and again, no?”
“Well, I’ll feel safer having you around,” Ryukyu said, correcting for her pride. “But what about Thomas Andre? Are you allowed to go on a Raid like this outside of your Scavenger Guild contract?”
Dabi winced. “Er… he said… something along the lines of ‘go get the girl.’”
“Sounds like you’ve got quite the wingman for a boss.”
“Yeah… I don’t think his assistant, Laura, would put it so nicely.” Despite his mostly ambivalent nature, Thomas Andre could be a bit of a womanizer. So when he told Dabi to get the girl, it was more of a… sexist remark than anything else, something Dabi wouldn’t repeat to Ryukyu if he valued his safety.
The fact that Andre had the same assistant for five years, one that he hadn’t slept with, and that hadn’t filed a sexual harassment claim, was nothing short of a miracle that not even magic could explain. Laura was constantly referred to as the world’s only National-Rank assistant, which was not a far cry from the truth despite her not even being Awakened.
Ryukyu opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by a blaring alarm. It wasn’t one for emergencies though, it was just to grab the base’s attention.
“All units! The Jeju Island Assault Fleet is loading up! Departure is in approximately one hour! Begin boarding now!”
Ryukyu reached for her Hero belt, where a few grenades were stored, and handed two to her partner.
“Uh… I’m not sure these will do much…”
Ryukyu chuckled. “Midnight filled them with her sleep gas. Tests indicate that her Quirk should be able to affect the Nomu, but her Ranking is too low to go into the actual Raid, it's too dangerous. These are our ‘break in case of emergency’ grenades.”
“Will they work on the evolved Nomu?” Dabi asked, referring to the insect-like Villains.
Ryukyu grimaced. “We have no idea. No one has actually encountered this sort of Nomu before. But at most, there should only be 100 evolved Nomu, so even if the gas doesn’t work on them, we’ll be okay.”
“Key word being ‘should.’”
“That’s how it goes…”
Dabi smiled. “Yeah…”
“What?”
“When we first met, during that A-Rank Gate that broke open, we were told we’d have to handle the situation ourselves, because the other S-Ranks were busy.” Dabi looked off into the ocean, a wistful gaze in his eye. “You just smiled and said ‘that’s how it goes.’”
“And then we proceeded to kick ass.”
“I’d say, ‘this time will be no different,’”
“But then you’d have to jinx us,” Ryukyu smirked. “I think we both know this isn’t going to be so easy.”
Though they had one of the strongest forces ever assembled in Heroic History, history also spoke out against them. Every single Raid that was S-Rank or higher, had claimed at least one S-Rank life. And Jeju had already shown its capacity to wipe out S-Ranks. It was something on everyone’s mind, but something that no one was willing to say.
Ryukyu wasn’t sure if Endeavor was overconfident, or overcompensating for his own nerves. Though she appeared calm on the outside, she was shaking on the inside. But this was her job, she chose this path. She couldn’t turn around, her pride refused to allow it.
That’s how it goes.
*******
“Your daughter?” Momo asked, the question of how a Tenebris and Lux bred being on her mind. Both species were technically naked, and she saw no genitalia.
As if sensing the question Merix said, “Tenebris and Lux are made to breed through magical means, that way reproduction is swift and can produce more soldiers for the war effort.”
“But before us,” Quorra clarified, “there had never been a half-breed.”
“So she’s a Nephilim?” Izuku asked.
“That’s actually a misconception,” Momo interrupted. “Nephilim can be described as giants, breeds between fallen angels and humans, and more. Some things get lost in translation. Technically a Nephalem is an angel demon breed.”
“I don’t know what you’re referring to,” Merix said, “but our daughter is not a… neph… a neph… She’s not that .”
Quorra covered for her husband as he became annoyed with the pronunciation. “We have no name for what she is. And we did not want to come up with a specific name for her. She is simply Esil. Differentiating species based on nothing more than appearance has not done well for the Tenebris or the Lux.”
“I guess that’s fair.” Izuku had discreetly been looking around the room and it told him everything he needed to know. There was no half-breed angel/demon in the small log cabin. “So the help you need is to save your daughter? That’s why you saved us?”
The two nodded. “The Tenebris used magic to influence her mental state. They made her more curious, more interested in the world outside of this cabin. And one night she escaped the pocket dimension. But before the Tenebris could take her, the Lux used their speed to snatch her up. She could be on any floor…”
“The only reason we know she’s alive is that the Lux will fully study something before exterminating it. Quorra escaped their order of execution because they took a few moments to analyze her wound and determine that it would affect her perfection. They didn’t expect her to immediately run. It was the thing that saved her life.”
“Well, we’ll help however we can,” Izuku said, “but you saw… the Lux had us on the ropes. Not even our Stealth worked.”
“That’s because you’re a bad matchup for them. The Lux have a special Skill called Purity, which allows them to sense any imperfections in the area. It is the strongest detection Skill in the universe.” Quorra responded.
“For that reason, we must go down first, not up,” Merix finished.
“Down, to the Tenebris?”
Merix nodded. “You have the ability to call upon the dead, do you not?”
“Yeah?”
“The Tenebris and Lux are mirrors of each other. The Particle Storm of the Tenebris is meant to counter the Lux, who’s speed cannot be matched. In an encounter between one of each species, the end result will be both of their deaths. But if you can sustain the Tenebris past the Lux’s deadly speed, then we will have the advantage.”
“In the Lux culture,” Quorra began, “there is a legend that has been passed around, of a God who could resurrect the fallen. And through his use of the Tenebris, he nearly exterminated all of the Lux with his rage.”
Izuku and Momo exchanged a glance. “Do you, by any chance, know what a Ruler is?”
Quorra pursed her lips. “That… is another story that has been told countless times.”
“To the Tenebris, the Rulers are the greatest enemy.”
“And to the Lux, they are our greatest object of worship.”
“What are they?” Izuku asked.
“We… don’t know…” Quorra answered. “Their names have been sung for centuries, but no physical proof of their existence has ever been documented inside of our world.”
“So they’re like your Gods, a metaphysical belief?”
Merix shrugged. “I guess… The Tenebris have Monarchs as an opposing force, but they’re just as unreal as the Rulers.”
“Uhhh…” Izuku smothered an awkward grin. “My power to resurrect the dead… that’s the Shadow Monarch powers.”
Merix didn’t seem all that perturbed by it. “Many Skills are named after non-existent things. No offense, but I do not take you for one of our Gods.”
“Yeah me neither…” Izuku agreed. “Just thought I’d mention it.” He looked to Momo again. “So it’s not just Rulers. There is more to this, just like you thought. There are Monarchs… Which means Arcka might not have been referring to a Ruler when he mentioned his ‘liege’ in that Gate.”
“Forgive me,” Merix said, interrupting, “But we do not know any more on such a subject. And time is of the essence.”
Izuku shook himself out of his thoughts and stood from the table. “Right, then let’s get going. Where do we start?”
“The floor you two were saved from was one of the main fronts for the Tenebris/Lux Wars. It is easy to use Spatial Magic within, but the other floors are not so easy,” Merix informed them. “At best, I can port us onto floor -15, which means we’ll have to traverse 135 floors manually to reach the bottom.” If the Lux had the same amount of floors, which was likely inside a Dungeon so obsessed with balance, that meant there were 300 floors in total. An absurd amount for even the most dangerous of normal Gates.
“What’s at the bottom?” Momo asked.
“The strongest of us all,” Merix answered, “The Demon King.”
*******
“Are you certain you are willing to go through with this for us?”
Izuku and Momo nodded to Quorra’s question. In the background, Merix was constructing what looked like a Gate. “We have similar goals.” Izuku said, which was technically the truth if they wanted to abide by the System Quests, and also, the duo had quickly endeared themselves to the Shadow Monarchs. As Heroes, it was their duty to save the innocent, and a young girl born into a world at war, and swiftly captured for study, was certainly deserving of rescue.
“It’s ready,” Merix said, gesturing to the Gate. “We’ll come out directly in front of the Tenebris Bastion. If things haven’t changed since I abandoned them, it should be little more than a few guards.”
“I’ll go first,” Izuku said, stepping forwards. “We ready?” He looked back at the strange group they had assembled, they all nodded.
Izuku passed through the Gate like he had done a million times, and a few moments later, when the other three realized he wasn’t running back to them, they followed.
They emerged to a cavernous pocket, the rocks surrounding them a dark-red, as if stained with blood. Embedded in the cavern wall was a fortress to rival that of Helm’s Deep. Laying at the foot of the fortress were the corpses of a dozen Tenebris.
“Sorry!” Izuku said, siphoning the Soul from the twelve, “I got a little spooked. Didn’t want them using Particle Storm before you all came through.”
Merix waved away his concerns as Momo asked, “Why so few guards? Isn’t this the entrance to the rest of the floors?”
“It’s one of the entrances. And the battle has been stuck at a stalemate for so long that no Lux has ever gotten this far. Even the five-thousand Tenebris you killed on the battlefront won’t make a difference in this endless bloodshed.”
“So then the lower floors will be mostly empty?”
Merix shook his head. “The nobility have a cushy life, and plenty of guards. Even though the majority of the Lux and Tenebris forces are on floors -10 to 10, there are more than enough enemies in this fortress to be concerned for your life. The most elite forces reside within these floors.” Merix walked up to the bastion gates, staring at them intently.
“Behemoth, give us a hand?” Izuku asked, directing the Shadow to pry open the five-inch thick doors bolted shut. Behemoth tore them open like paper.
“If the war is at a stalemate, why keep the elite guys here? Shouldn’t they be used on the battlefield?”
“Most Tenebris are essentially meat shields,” Said Quorra. “The same is true of the Lux. The upper brackets of both hierarchies have… delusions about the war effort and their own goals. The Tenebris nobility have no care for those under them, it is chaotic, just as they like it. By maintaining the status quo of the war, that being a stalemate, they continue to enjoy their luxuries without involving themselves. The Lux nobility live in a city of utopia, and they believe that expending more effort would ruin what they currently have. They wish to hold onto their perfection, without care for the imperfections and sufferings that others must endure.”
Izuku grimaced. “Sounds like they’re more human than they imagine themselves to be.”
“I didn’t think mortals would suffer from such hierarchy issues with the lifespans you have.”
Momo shook her head at Quorra. “Unfortunately, it seems like this particular problem affects all species.”
“I see.”
Izuku, leading the group, descended into the bastion, which was surprisingly well lit. “This architecture reminds me of the Orc halls that I told you about.”
“You said it also looked like the Gate you found Igris in right?”
Izuku nodded. “Strange how it's so similar…” He trailed off as a cold sensation assailed him. “Woah… that’s… strong.” Merix and Quorra walked straight past him as he stopped. “Wait, shouldn’t we like… plan this out?”
“We do not have time to plan out every battle. It is a matter of strength. We either can force our way through, or we cannot.”
Izuku looked to Momo, who shrugged. “Sometimes you just gotta go in guns blazing.”
The two smirked before following the couple down the hellish corridor, Behemoth covering their rear. In fact, the hallway was so large it almost appeared to be its own long room, as opposed to an entrance.
“You could fit hundreds of thousands of Tenebris down this path at once…” Momo instantly assessed, shuddering at the thought of them all rushing down on top of them, using the Particle Storm to turn them into ash. Thankfully, they only sensed one being waiting for them.
“Brother…” Merix froze in fear as the word echoed off the cavern walls. It was as deep as any demons, but Izuku was surprised at how nice it sounded. It sounded like a father looking over his son. “You stand against me?”
Merix gritted his teeth, spitting out the few words he could manage. “I… have no… choice.” It was only then that Izuku realized that Merix was not frozen in fear, but sadness. His words were filled with grief.
“I see… Then nor do I.”
Everything went quiet for a moment, but it didn’t take long for a low scuttling noise to start approaching.
“Not this again…” Momo bemoaned, visions of the statue-headed creature filling her mind.
From the darkness of the tunnel, six human legs emerged, crawling along the ground, scythe-like limbs covered in pale skin leading them. Despite the insectoid sounds it made, it was anything but insect-like.
It was humanoid… in a sense. The torso was completely normal, and the legs, though an unnatural number, and moving strangely looked human. Even the scythes, covered in human skin, could be mistaken for genetic deformations. But the face… there was no mistaking that.
“You’ve seen John Carpenter’s The Thing right?” Momo asked, taking an instinctual step backwards.
“Yeah…” Izuku whispered breathlessly.
The face was stretched and deformed in such a manner that, despite being a human’s, was ungodly. The jaw extended too far out, as if wailing in agony. The eyes were pure black. Its entire being looked… sad.
For just a moment, Izuku almost felt bad for the creature. But then its jaw stretched even further, and let out a wail too horrifying to imagine. For just a moment, Izuku felt like his life was flashing before his eyes, but that sensation was an old friend. Izuku managed to stay coherent during the scream, whilst the others remained petrified by fear.
And as it screamed, it charged forwards, its scythes ready to cleave the husband and wife in twain as they stood still in shock.
Izuku instinctively used Dominator’s Touch to yank them back, whilst simultaneously letting fly several different types of elemental attacks from his Omni-Elemental Gem.
The Tenebris and Lux were pulled to safety, but the elements did little more than obscure the demon’s vision.
*******
[Vexor, The Demon of Lost Hope]
Rank: XS
Species: Tenebris Mutate
Skills: Wail of the Devoured, Scythe Shockwave, Sloth
*******
“Guys?!” Izuku looked around at his party members as their bodies shook with exertion, tears pouring from their faces. Even Momo was stuck staring hopelessly at the ground.
“Baruka!” Izuku called, hoping the Ice Elf’s Passive Skill would free them whatever Vexor was doing to them.
*******
[Skill: Wail of the Devoured]
- Active Skill
- Description: Causes the affected to be stuck in a state of severe depression.
*******
“It’s not even a debuff… it’s just a mental attack!” Izuku didn’t take the time to ponder why he wasn’t affected, instead using Dominator’s Touch to once more withdraw his teammates, so that they were covered behind Behemoth.
“Come Forth.”
The space between Izuku and Behemoth became packed with the dark summons, putting even more of a shield between Vexor and his victims.
“Do you not feel despair?” Vexor asked, unconcerned with the sudden army he was facing. “No…” Vexor’s face contorted once more, the jaw misaligning to form a broken frown. “You have already confronted your greatest fears and still you stand…” The demon imperceptibly lowered his head as if in respect. “Then…”
[Enemy is using Skill: Scythe Shockwave]
Slamming his disgusting scythes down, they cut through the blood-red rocks like butter, causing cracks to erupt and spread like a disease through the cavern. The roof and walls began to fall away, collapsing on top of and crushing many of the lesser Shadows. The debris, so hardened from millenia of absorbing the Mana of its surroundings, even forced Izuku and Igris to dive forwards in order to avoid getting hit.
Behemoth had no problem acting as a shield for a good portion of the army, as well as Momo, Merix, and Quorra, but it didn’t stop the rubble from cutting off Izuku, Igris, and Rasaka from the rest of the army. Now, it was a three-versus-one as opposed to one-thousand-versus-one.
Izuku simply could’ve recalled the Shadows onto his side of the cave-in, but it was starting to get smaller and smaller, and he wasn’t sure if the cave would collapse even more if he re-summoned them. So for now, he’d stick with the two by his side and recall everything aside from Behemoth taking care of the other three.
“Woah!” Izuku shouted, his voice echoing in the cave as he rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the scythe that dug into the floor. Whipping his hand, he threw a large amount of Earth Magic at Vexor. But it wasn’t anything crazy, like boulders, spears, or any other weapon. Izuku literally just conjured a bunch of sand in the hopes of blinding the demon.
“KSSSSSSK!” Rasaka hissed at Vexor, snapping forwards to wrap his jaws around the demon’s neck. He coiled the rest of his body around Vexor’s legs, trying to restrain him as Izuku and Igris got to their feet and charged head on.
But Vexor was undeterred by the Elite-Knight Grade, his entire body flexing and beginning to tear the snake apart. He reared back his scythe, ready to slam it into the cavern walls again and bring even more rock down.
Realizing that he couldn’t use raw strength alone, Rasaka withdrew his fangs from the demon’s neck, coming to eye level and staring directly into the eyes of pure darkness.
[Rasaka is using Skill: Basilisk’s Gaze]
[Enemy’s resistance is too high. Skill’s effect will be limited.]
Vexor was stuttering, his body moving in stiff choppy motions, as if he was an NPC from a video game suffering from lag.
It was plenty of time for Igris to sprint up to the first scythe limb, slashing it from the main body with his Damocles sword.
*******
[Item: Damocles]
- Item Class: A
- Item Type: Sword
- Attack: +200
- Gem Slots: 0
- Forged with Cryo Steel by the Ice Elves. Capable of slashing through even S-Rank enemies.
*******
As the fleshy limb flopped to the ground, Vexor let his jaw extend into an inhuman grin, his neck snapping 180 degrees around to avoid Rasaka’s gaze.
Izuku dropped into a slide, as if he was diving for home base, narrowly missing the remaining scythe that breezed just above his head.
[Skill: Echo Attack has activated]
Izuku slammed his fist into the nearest knee of the six legs, bending it the wrong way, the bone jutting out and black blood spraying forth. When the Echo Attack kicked in, the limb practically exploded at the knee.
All the while, Rasaka kept attempting to get eye-to-eye with Vexor, but the demon managed to keep moving his head unnaturally to avoid it. Hissing in annoyance, he attempted to coil around the remaining scythe so that Igris and Izuku could manage the killing blow, but it gave Vexor the chance to spin his head back around and turn the tables by biting down onto Rasaka, just at the nape of his neck and throwing him into the side of the cave.
At the same time, the remaining scythe slammed down atop Igris, piercing straight through his sternum and to the floor of the cavern, his sword skidding to a stop a few meters away.
By then, Vexor was barely standing on two legs, wobbling back and forth thanks to Izuku punching out his kneecaps.
[Mana: 3,431/43,542]
Izuku’s eyes snapped open in shock. Between the cave-in, and Vexor’s constant damage to Igris, Izuku’s Mana was dropping like a stone. So he left the demon to stumble around on two legs, rocketing over to where Igris was pinned.
He grabbed the scythe limb at both ends of the elbow joint and with his immense Strength Stat, he tore the limb in half, spraying more black blood onto the rocks beneath him. It gave Igris the leverage to yank the weapon from his chest and hurl it back at Vexor as revenge.
Vexor’s own scythe tore through the same place on his torso that it had on Igris’s torso. His remaining legs gave out, and he collapsed, head spasming as if trying to escape from the very body it was attached to.
[Vexor is using Skill: Sloth]
“Despair… despair… When you sit… watching your life waste away, you will know-”
BANG!!!
A bullet tore through Vexor’s forehead, stopping his speech, and his Skill, dead in their tracks.
[You have gained 5 Levels!]
[You have obtained items!]
From the rocky collapse behind Izuku, Momo had emerged, her face pale and covered in sweat. “No more… from you…” She panted. Behemoth was crouched behind her, using his massive form to dig out several of the larger boulders and hold up the rocks around her. Merix and Quorra were close behind, helping pull her onto the other side of the cave-in.
Izuku rushed over to her, the danger passed. There was a small cut on her forehead from the cave-in that she had yet to heal. But Izuku’s main concern was just how distraught she looked.
He hefted her into his arms, pulling her away from the debris and towards safety so that he could set her down.
“Are you okay?” He asked, looking her over for any other injuries.
Her hands reached over to tightly grasp his. She shook her head. “No… It was like… reliving it all… all of my past…”
Izuku realized that the small flash of his past that he had gotten was the demon’s attempt to inspire despair. He had shaken himself out of it almost immediately, but the others weren’t so lucky. He’d been through a lot in his life, but even his troubles seemed paltry compared to the life Momo had been forced to live. Constantly on the run, constantly in fear…
“Just… Just hold me for a minute…” She said breathlessly, flashes of despair still running through her mind.
Izuku pulled her up into a sitting position, and held her close to his chest. When he did so, he noticed Quorra doing the same for her husband, who looked barely conscious.
“I didn’t think… I’d ever feel like this again…” Momo shuddered. Her body was warm, but she felt like she was in the arctic.
Izuku wasn’t sure what to say, all he could do was pull her closer and let her know that he was there, that she was safe in his arms.
Suddenly, the Particle Storm of the Tenebris seemed far less dangerous than that of their brethrens' powers. This truly was… Hell.