Chapter 16

The girls, Jinako, Xuanzang and Ushi were around helping people from their injuries including her father as he had a cast on one of his arms.

"AH! Be careful with that!" He said to his daughter as she was tying bandages on him.

"Then you better hold still father. I can't finish wrapping bandages on you if you keep moving." Jinako retorted as she continued to wrap bandages on him. She looked sad but held it in, she could've lost her father to the apostle, even while he was powerful he could still be killed and she couldn't find Shiro anywhere.

A woman came inside of the room as she is a beautiful woman with a voluptuous body, long dark glittering hair and circles around her crown. She wore a quite loose and revealing indian outfit.

This was Paravati, Ganesha's mother and grandmother to Jinako.

"Dear, let me handle this." she said as she put a hand on Jinako.

"But grandma I can handle it." she protested to Paravati as she shook her head.

"Don't worry about your father, go ahead and find the rest of your friends." She insisted as Jinako looked at Paravati's hand before letting go of the bandages.

"Alright grandma." She said before leaving the room.

As she left the room she was joined with the rest of the group as they sat down before looking at her. Xuanzang asked. "Is your father in good health?" she asked her which she nodded.

"Yes, thankfully. He's a powerful god. Nothing can stop him."

"He is." Ushi said before sighing, she looks down at the floor. "Then how about…...Shiro? The moment when your father said that the apostle was invading the Hindu faction he looked for the first time scared and worried." She questioned, reminding them of what happened when he heard the news.

Jinako looked down in thought before remembering something. "Shiro…..he visited Mount Meru where Indra resided. He always went there everyday to check on something before leaving. You think that..." she began, before stopping. She looked at the others as they thought about it.

"It could be, let's check it out to see if Shiro is still there…. Or not." she said before leaving for Mount Meru.

Shiro was walking through the halls with Virgil, as they walked he saw Charon was there as he glared at him.

"Divine power made me. Eternal I endure." He said, mocking Shiro as is he couldn't kill him, Shiro glared at Charon as he pulled out his Kurogane and walked to him, he pulled his spear back before thrusting it to Charon.

"AHHHHHH!" He screamed in pain as Shiro used his fire powers to heat the blade which is causing him to be burned slowly before becoming in flames.

"I told you that I would blow your ship to smithereens and your soul will disappear."

After dealing with the stupid head (a LITERAL stupid head he would later coin it as), Shiro walked a couple steps before turning left to find himself in a slightly curving right walkway akin to those that a castle would have, which made him believe that this was indeed dome kind of castle or fortress. Walking along this hallway for a bit, Shiro later turned right when he saw a door with a gargoyle-like Demon embedded into it similar to that one he had speared with his Scythe back at the Shipyard.

So, that was what he did.

Afterwards, Shiro entered a large, stone-made chamber which soon got blocked off by flames causing him to facepalm. 'Great, looks like I have to... whoa... holy...' He began to think, only for his thought process to change from one of annoyance to one of shock, horror and revulsion when he saw something crawling out of what LOOKED like the efficacy of a pregnant woman wreathed in blazing orange flames.

Before his eyes, stood a baby-like Demon, he knew this to be true due to its grotesque looking appearance, being up to his waist in height whilst looking disfigured and utterly tormented, with gray skin, glowing eyes and scars all around its eyes and body as if they had been sewn together. From their bellies, Simon noticed an umbilical cord was wrapped around its body, whilst Their most outstanding trait seemed to be how their arms were severed at the halfway point and replaced with bony and razor-sharp blades.

...

... Okay, Shiro was REALLY starting to hate this place more and more now. Virgil may have warned him about the horrors that awaited unbaptized babies, heck he had heard that there were a bunch of sick assholes who just LOVED to torment children before, but to be forced to do so himself so he could proceed? Whoever thought this was a good idea, he wanted to rip them to pieces!

Hypocritical of him to be thinking that sure, but while he may not believe in God, this DEFINITELY didn't help him gain any.

Before Shiro could think further, he noticed the Baby-like Demon quickly rush at him at high speeds, slightly surprising him before he rolled to the side to dodge the diagonal downward slash that it attempted on his ass. Whilst he recovered, the male looked back at it and quickly sent out a single Rashomon Thread with it's tip extra sharp, quickly stabbing it right through the head and through it's brain before it could react in time.

The Demon died instantly.

'Tch, I may kill anything in my way, but there's something foul about killing kids. Maybe Vergil was onto something when he mentioned about me having some humanity left… cause beasts wouldn't think twice of butchering younglings.' Shiro thought to himself before several MORE children-shaped Demons burst forth from various flashes of light around him and rushed him with their blades ready to skewer him alive. They were supported by a bunch of quick looking Zombie esque Demons, prompting him to pretty much paint the ENTIRE room red with their blood through the use of his Rashomon.

Once they were all dead, Shiro growled once again under his breath as he retracted his Rashomon threads into himself, the flames barring his path disappearing after this as he shuddered. All the rage building up inside of him from all the horrors he had seen so far within this p;lace threatened to make him explode and destroy this place with a Brahamastra, despite his attempts to control himself, though this did remind him of something.

He had once heard that humans were referred to as a pack hunter-like species, similar to Grey Wolves, with there being cases where 'pack mentality' became prominent amongst them. Pack mentality had been seen as a phenomenon in which people made decisions based upon the actions of others, sometimes without even realizing it, stemming from the animalistic drive to want to fit in. No matter their race, apparently it's a fact that they often go with what the majority thinks and align their behaviors with the pack in an effort to not get left behind. This had been demonstrated in the animal kingdom constantly; such as a flock of birds migrating south for the winter in a clear formation. Throughout the history of evolution, Pack mentality showed evolutionary benefits, since oftentimes an animal that was left behind had a hard time surviving in the wild. One could see pack mentality in humans in any situation where there was a social script that would usually be followed.

Yet, despite this mentality leading to situations one normally wouldn't find themselves in, it was just another form of social interaction, and it had been shown that things like interacting with people were quite influential on one's mental/physical health. Essentially, everyone needed to have SOMEONE to talk to, even online, and those who are COMPLETELY alone... well, lets just say that they'd not fare too well.

Looked like he was experiencing this firsthand himself. All this shit was getting to him, and aside from Vergil (who had vanished before all this started) he really was alone here. Even more so when one considered his demonic Brand.

Yet, before Shiro could continue to think on this subject, the teen narrowed his eyes when he saw more Demons pop out of nowhere, more of those children and a horned Demon it seemed. Of course, killing them proved itself to be a cakewalk for him, but this did NOT mean he enjoyed it, far from it.

After dispatching them quickly, a rather sour-looking Shiro proceeded to head on his way, pocketing his hands inside his Coat whilst looking like he wanted to commit mass slaughter for all this shit.

A short walk later, Shiro found himself going through two things: one, his mood had slightly improved thanks to that little walk allowing him to calm down a bit. The second thing, was that he had found himself standing in another outside walkway... however, this time he could see much more clearly what it was that had been yelling stuff like treachery, violence, fraud etc... and DAMN was the sight an ugly one or what?

The cause turned out to be... some kind of withered, elderly humanoid-looking monster with a large, skeletal crown fused onto its head like some kind of perverse royalty. It possessed two slitted nostrils, scaled shoulder guards, a squid-like torso with a pale pinkish protrusion at the bottom (though that part was hardly visible from where he stood), and a chain of officials made from dammed corpses. Also, it looked like there was a Tail involved, since he saw said limb move about hooking around its body a varied amount of times whenever the creature grabbed a body and yelled something out.

'If I were to guess, then I would say that what that thing's yelling is what Circle of Hell those things are being sent to...' Shiro thought to himself, staring with apathy towards how brutal the creature treated each humanoid being. He saw how, once it had been done with a corpse, impaled it on some kind of... wheel, as Shiro had managed to identify when elevating himself upwards with some Rashomon threads, before it would spin it, the corpse vanishing out of sight. He bet that it had something to do with the other Circles though, and internally wondered if THAT would be his way towards the others too. Likely not due to it being used for prisoners like the lost souls, and he didn't want to waste more time than necessary.

A ghostly cold feeling overcame him, causing Shiro to look to the side and see Vergil appear there. He didn't bother with that though, having grown used to it and instead asked the soul something of greater importance. "You know what that thing is?" He asked, pointing towards the massive abomination.

"Indeed. That is King Minos, the Judge of the Damned. This is his court, where he sends the lost souls to differing circles based off their sins. Be careful, this will not be an easy fight, for that is what will happen since you wish to descend on your own will. That wheel does take you to other circles, but your soul would be trapped among many for all eternity, so it is best not to use it." Virgil replied, unknowingly confirming Shiro's earlier assumptions about that thing.

"Got it. Might want to vanish for a bit, cause things are going to get messy." Shiro advised darkly, his gaze reflecting his tone which told Vergil all he needed to know. Once the spirit had completely vanished with that cold feeling leaving as well, Shiro took a few deep breaths before nodding to himself as a form of building and fortifying his resolution. His left hand went inside his matching Coat pocket whilst his right drew his Scythe from his back, holding it diagonally in place as he started strolling across the curving walkway, turning onto the straight one which would lead him over to the Judge of the Damn's 'court' as it were. He didn't see the fact that the way towards him seemed to have been elevated, instead used his Sacred Gear to propel himself up into the air and up onto the elevated walkway, landing just by it's ledge before continuing on.

By the time that he had arrived in the centre of the 'courtroom', the Judge of the Damned, King Minos, had just finished condemning yet another Soul to one of the Circles, and had been about to go for another when it suddenly paused, remaining still for a few seconds. The Demon then set about sniffing through the air and wound up registering a foreign presence.

Now, interestingly enough Shiro furrowed his brows when he felt the atmosphere go cold as he looked up at the towering monstrosity. The being looked at him for a moment, though he wasn't sure if that could be possible since the thing looked to be blind, but he SWORE he could smell... fear, panic and dread coming from this thing for that one moment. What the hell could spook a freaking Judge of the Damned/once tyrannical King so badly?

Nevertheless, it vanished by the time its voice echoed across the area.

"Who dares come into my house of pain?"

The Demonic king's voice boomed through the air, although it's undertone allowed Shiro to distinguish how this Demon still had an ounce of masculinity from his life as a human king according to Greek mythology. Thus, he decided to identify this Demon as a male while scowling and glaring up at the Demon, non-affected by the intimidating aura he possessed. "Fuck off, fuckface. If you don't want to get minced to bits, then let me through. Got not time to be babysitting your ugly ass." Shiro demanded.

His demands, alongside his glare and absolutely ferocious killing intent floundered the Judge of the Damned for a moment, before it settled down once more as if he had ignored such bold statements.

"...Mortal..." King Minos growled like an animal, his growl sending a slight wave of force throughout the courtroom and nearly sending Shiro over to the wheel at the centre near the back. However, the male stood his ground and stabbed the rear end of his Scythe into it, keeping himself rooted in place. Briefly Shiro wondered if the Demon would try to kill him or attack him or something, but then his demeanor changed to a mildly curious one as he leaned downward and started... sniffing him. Ignoring Shiro's discomfort with that gesture, a thoughtful hum escaped the Judge of the Damned's mouth afterwards as it rubbed its chin. "I smell nothing but a filthy beast, one let off his leash a few too many times. Your smell... I see, so THAT's your situation. For one who has cheated death, death still seems to like you in some form..."

Instinctively, Shiro put his formerly pocketed hand over his Brand, sensing that the entity before him had referred to it. Memories of the Eclipse reared their ugly heads in the back of his mind, infuriating the male all over again as well as wiping out what little mercy he had been willing to offer the Demon. "Alright, you damn reject that's it. Was willing to move on without causing any problems somewhat, but that's just sealed your fate. Time to get eviscerated you bloody Demon!" Shiro roared, his eyes glowing with bloodlust while he readied his Scythe for battle.

"...you DARE besmirch me, the Judge of the Damned?! I shall have your repugnant soul, Mortal!"

Utterly outraged, King Minos reared back and roared, signalling the start of their battle. Whilst this happened, Shiro glanced down when he heard crackling sounds, spotting the ground starting to form cracks which alerted him to the Demon's starter attack.

Quickly rolling to the side, he saw how he had not only avoided the first strike which took the form of the Tail surfacing from where he had once stood, but also summoned Rashomon in the form of multiple long threads to slice away at the creature's face. To combat him, the Demon kept a hand in front of his face, the demonic flesh that made up his massive form showing itself to be quite resilient to Rashomon's influence, to Shiro's dismay,

'Tch, guess this guy couldn't be called a Judge of the Damned with nothing to show for it...' the descendant of Karna remarked thoughtfully as he once again dodged another ground attack, sliding across the ground till he halted and threw his Scythe like a boomerang towards the enemy's belly area. Unfortunately for him, Shiro saw that the weapon simply bounced off it and back to his hand when he grasped it out of the air, shocking him further. 'Great, just great...'

"Hah! I am eternal, mortal! You can't kill me! That's not true for the opposite though!" King Minos declared, howling in laughter with an almost maniacal cackle escaping his fanged mouth. Afterwards, he raised both fists and began pummelling the ground in which Shiro stood, the lad quickly jumping about like a human bunny rabbit playing whack-a-mole with the enemy. Every fist slam, delivered with such speeds that it created the illusion of thousands of fists descending upon the enemy, shook the entire structure down to it's foundations like someone was shaking a child back and forth by their neck, fierce and devastating shockwaves ripping their way through the air.

BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM!

'Ugh!' the silver haired teen thought as he dodged about like his life depended on it, which was sort of the case here. He kept dodging by straining his parkour skills to the mask, escaping the fate of being flattened like a pancake with only inches to spare. Sometimes in order to escape some particularly fast blows, he had to jump onto alternative surfaces like the pillars or the walls of the courtroom.

Yet as Shiro kept playing the game of 'do-not-get-squashed-by-the-two-giant-hands-of-death' like Jinako and Ushi did whenever they played that game called Super Smash Bros Ultimate, he soon saw saw King Minos getting tired of missing him all the damn time and stopped his offensive, switching back to striking away with his Tail by stabbing at him from underground.

One lucky strike managed to land however, cutting through Shiro's entire right side and causing a line of blood to splatter across the ground whilst he fell to the ground dropping his Scythe in the process. 'Urgh! Argh, shit! Now that stings!' He couldn't help but think, for the first time in a while, actually being moderately injured in this place as he felt a painful stinging sensation from his wound. Sure he managed to heal it with his divine energy, but that wouldn't last him forever and he'd rather use it more productively.

However, Shiro soon found his thoughts focused on survival once more when he saw the Tail looming over him, rearing back to try and stab into the male. He quickly rolled to the left to avoid it, noticing how it drove it's tip into the ground to the halfway point. Combine that with the fact that this Demon could get past his defences, and Shiro suddenly felt a new wave of pressure land itself on his shoulders. Instead of wallowing on that however, he quickly rolled to the opposite side where his Scythe lay, after having avoided a second lunge by the Tail's doing.

Once he grabbed onto it and got to his feet, Shiro quickly jumped into the air, using a combination of his Scythe's rear end as well as a couple Rashomon threads to give him extra height. Once he'd reached the maximum ascension which also coincidentally resulted in him being near the Demon's face, Shiro quickly began haling away at it, stabbing with additional threads as well as swinging his Scythe about in various arcs, striking as if he were an artist drawing an exquisite picture... even though it didn't prove too effective against this creature's hide.

This only lasted a few seconds before he dropped to the ground though.

"You cheated death once, mortal! Not this time!"

"?!"

His instincts quickly going off, Shiro instinctively pointed his Scythe at a wall, switching it into Spear Mode and extending it to there before retracting once the blade had been embedded into the wall, taking him along for the ride.

He had done this due to King Minos preparing for a large-scale attack... with his breath. He let out a large exhale across the ground, his breath coming out in the form of this light greenish yellow colored smoke, causing Sion to scowl. 'For some reason, my instincts tell me to not let myself get hit by that otherwise I'll be in for a bad time.' He thought internally, dropping down once the attack had been concluded before rushing forwards whilst avoiding the Tail that kept surfacing to impale him.

This resulted in Shiro stopping before the being's large head, the said being remaining in this position which told him that the previous tactic left him exhausted and vulnerable. 'Alright you fucker, lets see how you REALLY like the pain you dish out to others...' the male thought, twirling his Scythe before repeatedly hacking away at the twisted demonic flesh like a mad man, putting everything he had into each swing. All the while, he barely managed to avoid the Tongue (which was shaped like a snake which Shiro found quite fitting for this guy) which would be launched by the creature like either a shot put or a Javelin.

"Stop dodging!"

"Fuck right off, dickhead!"

Eventually, King Minos howled in pain as he recoiled from all the consecutive blows Shiro had managed to land on him thanks to his superhuman levels of speed. The creature leaned backwards whilst holding its brutalized face, which he noticed left his Underbelly open to attack, so with a grin not so unbefitting for a serial killer, Shiro quickly struck, his Scythe in its Spear Mode being rapidly thrusted into and out of the soft, tender flesh that the demonic hide didn't cover.

JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-JAB-!

Jabbing sounds filled the air, although they came at a frequency that they sounded more like machine gun fire than anything else.

This didn't last very long unfortunately, as King Minos recovered enough to bring his fist down on top of Shiro's head, therefore he quickly jumped backwards and used his Scythe to slow himself to a halt... right in time for a bunch of those Zombie-like motherfuckers to crawl out of the Courtroom's floor. '... Alright, I have mixed feelings about that. On one hand I see calling some of the weakest Demons here to fight me is uper dumb since this guy SHOULD know I'm no pushover, plus with all the talk about my Scythe he SHOULD have at least summoned something stronger. On the other hand, one thing these guys do have is their numbers, since they usually come at me in large groups and I have to take about a couple minutes of my time to take them all out.'

After distracting King Minos by filling his sockets with a bunch of arrows from a newly-summoned Nightingale, Shiro switched back to his Scythe while relishing in the Demon's screams as it struggled to pull each energy arrow out, being burned by the divinity attribute within them. Fortunately since all there were just those zombies, it provided an easy time dispatching them through a bunch of Scythe swings and bites from Rashomon.

Good thing too, because it looked like the big boss King Minos had fully recovered from the previous instances against him... which Shiro guessed was another good use for those Minions, they could serve as a viable dustraction to buy precious time. 'Still, I think I have an idea for how I can bring this fucker down for good... with some nice poetic justice thrown into the mix.' Shiro thought as a plan formulated itself within his mind.

"You will be a slave to Hell, forever!"

"Not in a million years!"

Upon yelling that and receiving Shiro's retort in turn, King Minos once again tried to slam his right fist on top of the silver haired teen, who jumped out the way. However, instead of just letting the fist get raised back up, Shiro stabbed into the back of it with a downward slash of his Scythe that he did post twirling it like someone flipping forwards, hopping onto the hand as the furious Judge of the Damned raised his hand up, snarling like a beast before rearing the hand back and making to smack him into a wall.

However, the male quickly jumped off the hand, pulling the Scythe out with him as he became eye level with the massive monstrosity, quickly shifting his Scythe into Spear Mode before thrusting it forwards, the shaft extending till the blade pierced through one of the empty sockets which COULD count as eyes. Retracting the Scythe to pull him onto the thing's face, Shiro summoned Kurogane into his free hand, letting it form its maw which then proceeded to rip a good chunk of the Demon's face off, before he viciously YANKED the Scythe out as violently as possible, hopping off afterwards.

Thanks to this yank, the whole body lurched forwards briefly, until King Minos covered his face and howled up to the heavens, exposing his underbelly once again... though this time, there weren't any foes coming at him to distract the descendant of Karna. 'Heh, a King isn't a General or a soldier, that's for sure...' Shiro thought as he raced forth towards the underbelly, his bloodlust-dominated eyes widening whilst he reset his Scythe to its Spear mode again, the weapon having resetted before his previous landing. 'Didn't even realize that spawning dumbass Minions whenever his Underbelly is exposed could be a way to protect his only weak spot!'

Once again, more jabbing sounds filled the air thanks to Shiro repeatedly stabbing away at the tender flesh with his Scythe. Furthermore, he could see long trails of blood starting to fall forth from the injuries he was inflicting upon that particular body part. Eventually, the same song and dance as before happened when Shiro noticed the towering monstrosity cover his exposed underbelly again and summon more forces to attack him... this time though, there were a bunch of Brats as well as a Horned Demon that were brought forth to take him on.

Again, they got dispatched mostly by Rashomon.

This fight was getting too long for him now, but luckily Shiro formed a plan in mind for how to finish it, when he landed beside the wheel that would normally be sending lost souls to the other Circles. 'Alright, now lets get that fucker...' the male thought, narrowing his eyes at the demonic King.

Said King looked like it wanted to cause bloody genocide like it had done during it's time in the world of the living, he felt like.

"...You will... die, mortal."

"Oh, i've no doubt about that. I'll die, humans will die, monsters will die, we all will die. Just not today."

Fuelled by outrage at the mockery being shown to him (though in Shiro's defence he was stating more of a fact than anything, but maybe there was a little mockery sprinkled in a bit there), King Minos launched his Tail at the male, expecting Shiro to dodge it. However, the silver haired Descendant of Karna instead readied his Rashomon in its beast head form, and... grabbed onto it, impaling it at several portions of its form. This of course sent shock through the demonic King at the shift in tactics, though Shiro wasn't done there as he pulled out his Nightingale after sheathing his Scythe.

PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW!

"GUUUUUAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Following that, Shiro peppered the Tail with a bunch of arrows in rapid succession, utterly reducing the tail to mush, a shadow of its former state. Now without the majority of it's tip King Minos howled in anger and pain at the loss of one of his primary tools, before he made to strike Shiro down by smashing his fist over his head, leaning forward slightly to do so. However, Shiro had already anticipated this attack coming, so he raised his arms… and managed to catch onto the limb as well as hold it in place above him, causing Shiro to internally exhale in relief. 'Whew, now THAT was a close one, any later and I'd have been flattened like a pancake.'

Before the massive Demon could react, Shiro YANKED the arm backwards, pulling the Demon even closer towards him. Twirling his Scythe after forming a couple arms using Rashomon, Shiro then promptly swung it in an upward wheel like slash which tore off the arm just below the elbow joint, the male having found this to potentially work due to having managed to impale the hand earlier.

Once again, more howls escaped the large Demon although these were more on the painful side than anything. Whilst he howled however, Shiro took his chance to go for the golden target, launching many Rashomon threads into King Minos' mouth and grasping onto his serpentine tongue, yanking it out into the outside world as well.

At this point, King Minos finally figured out what Shiro had intended to do with his Tongue, and as such his form lost any and all colour that it could have possessed if it were possible. "N-No, please-!"

"Too late, lets see how your wheel of fortune fares for YOU, shall we?!"

SQUELCH!

Instantly, Shiro hopped into the air before coming down and stabbing the Tongue onto the wheel's sharp as fuck-looking spikes, landing beside it's lever. Ignoring the gargled cries of his foe who tried to pull back in vain mostly due to him not being able to properly leverage himself, he then grabbed onto it and used his strength to start rotating it rapidly, pulling the towering Demon across the final bit of distance necessary for the neck to be within range of the wheel's spikes.

Finally, Shiro cranked that damn lever, forcing the wheel to spin and... pretty much rip a massive hole right through the face of the enemy which got split in two, the massive form soon becoming motionless as a result.

It was over…

The Court case had been decided, and the silver haired male was pronounced the victor.

'Finally, that's over...' Shiro mused after a moment's worth of rest. He then looked towards the cave entrance ahead of him, guessing that was the way forward.

Something which Virgil appeared at his side to confirm when he set about gesturing towards the path. "Here, go through the entrance and it will take you further to the circle." Virgil said to Shiro.

The male stared at it for a few seconds, before glancing at the damned who were running away.

"The damned are trying to flee, he will not be pleased." Virgil remarked as he stared at the damned.

Shiro looks at Virgil. "'He' you say? Do you mean the Demon who runs this place? If so then tell me who is 'he' Virgil?" He asked him as he knew who was the warden of the nine circle but did not speak of his name, he must have been the person who took Brihanna.

"I would tell you, but like I said, we don't have enough time. The more we are distracted, the more pain the girl will be in." Virgil said he would tell who was the shadowy person but the girl is still trapped and wonders what he is doing to her.

Shiro gripped his fist before nodding to Virgil. "Fine, lets go." he said to him before jumping across the ledge and landing on the other side.

The girls

Jinako, Ushi, and Xuanzang arrived at the destroyed temple where Shiro always comes to, there were many rooms so they had to split up.

Ushi to the left, Xuanzang to the right and Jinako to straight. She looked through each room, finding which one was it that he always visited. Was he even here or he already left she thought.

As she walked through the halls, she came across the room which had scratches and debris on the door, it was as if they were trying to get something like a divine artifact. As she entered, she came across what looked like a coffin which was very well laid out since it's the only thing in the room which was not destroyed.

"You won't find anything here daughter of Ganesha nor will you find him." a man's voice was heard behind her as she turned around, she saw Indra was leaning on the doorway and had his arms crossed.

"What do you mean lord Indra?" she asked him, he continued to not look at her and began to speak.

"The main thing the Apostle would always go after is the brand which was marked on them, no matter what they will sense it and go to the marked person for all eternity." he said reminding her of what the brands are which she already knows yet he continues to speak. "Shiro was not the first person to arrive here."

This made Jinako very confused on what Indra was trying to tell her as if it was a puzzle. It was not long before her eyes were shot up in realization, the reason why he never spoke of his past, the reason why he always visited this place.

"He was with someone else, a friend." she whispered in shock, now understanding it all.

Indra nodded at her answer. "I told Karna to not worry about him, I sent Shiro to the last place where he would find her before it's too late."

"Sent him? Do you mean you know where he is?" She asked him.

"Yes I do."

"...I have a feeling that you're not telling me everything, lord Indra." she narrowed her eyes at him which caused him to look at her with a single raised eyebrow at her.

"Oh? What makes you say that?" he asked her.

"Years of living in a constant lie gives you an ability to know who is lying or telling the truth." She answered, evenly while giving Indra a look similar to a wife who knows her husband has been naughty.

Being unable to withstand that look caused him to sigh. "(SIGH) always the smart one, including your father. Very well." he brought his back forward and looked at her with a serious gaze. "Tell me, are you familiar with the nine circles?" he asked her which caused her to think for a while.

"Hmmmmm, the nine circles? You mean the fictional poem made by Dante Alighieri?" she said to him.

"Yes, but you know there is more to it than you think." he said to her which caused her to narrow her eyes at him.

"Lord Indra, I would like to ask you to…...no, he didn't." she was about to apprehend Indra before she realized what he meant by that. Her skin paled as horror and realization dawned on her.

Emotions which Indra confirmed by nodding his head. "Yes, your friend has descended down into the nine circles of hell. The true underworld." This made her go into a NEW level of panic, terror and worry.

"But why would he do that?! No one is suicidal to even go to that place!" She screamed at him.

Indra couldn't agree with her more than on the fact of Shiro's insanity. "Apparently he is. The Apostle had someone on their side, someone who helped them break through our defences, capture Shiro's friend, and take her to the nine circles. Your friend has descended into that cursed place to save her."

Jinako bit her lips hard to almost cause herself to bleed and her hands shake.

"Th-th-then take me there!" Indra was stunned and surprised at her answer before he continued to have a neutral face.

"NO, its already bad enough I sent him there but you won't survive here, Jinako. No one in the world of the living can for long, I took a very big risk of sending him there and the entrance to the circle is closely monitored by the devils. Even if you try to go there you would have to get past the devils and even THEN you'd have to navigate the circles to try to catch up to him."

"I don't care! Shiro risked his life to save me from that torment I had, I've always wanted to repay him back for that! He always told me there is nothing on our way that can control our fate. If you don't help then I'll go there myself! Even if I die… I could at least think that I managed to even do something that can help him." Indra was silent as Jinako had her eyes hidden by her hair.

After a moment of silence, she turned to start walking towards the entrance, intending to leave for the nine circles to practice what she preached… that is if Indra hadn't put his hand on her shoulder first.

This caused her to glance behind her at the elder God, her eyes unrelenting in her conviction. "It will be hard to even go to the circle." she was about to roll her shoulders to make his hand get off her. "But there is another way to enter the circle."

"?!"

Indra put his hand away and walked inside of the room, he put his hand in front of his face and gripped it into a fist, lighting appearing around him as immense power began to radiate from his form.

On her side of things, Jinako could feel the intense power over him before he waved his hand like he was attacking.

Fire started to become a circle as if slithering around before it opened a dark portal,to which she stared hard into it before looking at Indra who felt a bit pale. "In the portal, will take you to one of the nine circle, it could be any I'm not sure but whatever it can be will lead you either ahead or behind Shiro. Are you willingly taking this chance?" he asked her one last time, wanting to know if she had ANY doubts residing within her.

Jinako just gazed at the dark portal in front of her, initially rendered silent by the feelings of corruption and twisted malice coming from it. However, it did not change the resolve burning in her eyes, her Axe manifesting within her right hand as she proceeded forwards. "He'll be the one regretting not taking me with him, I'll make sure of it." she declared darkly with a tone which Indra shuddered at, remembering the times when he had pissed off his wie enough for her to hunt him down across the entire hindu pantheon.

Women could be real damn scary when they wanted something.

With her piece said, Jinako stormed inside the portal as if sinking to the ocean before it closed behind her, leaving Indra alone.

Indra looked at the spot where the portal was, but despite her words he still couldn't help but worry about the daughter of Ganesha… as well as Karna's descendant. Out of this worry, he used his future prediction ability to see what was held in store for them, only for his eyes to widen before he gained a smile. "I'm sure you will, it seems fate has favored you." he said before leaving the area.

Back to Shiro

BOOM!

A cloud of dust surrounds the figure as he was kneeling down before getting up, it was Shiro, but while he overall looked the same if one looked upon him, they would see that he had several things… off, with him. First, at some point he had lost his hat, while his cosy looked to be a bit shredded apart near the bottom and his hair grew a little longer to reach his neck.

Nevertheless, he didn't give much of a shit about that, he instead looked around to examine his surroundings, finding himself to be standing on what seemed to be a walkway that curved to the left and descended downward slightly, all to connect to one long headland-like walkway that loomed over a vast and rocky chasm with the structural ends of a broken bridge residing on each side. The bridge itself was lined in golden statues... of what he supposed were meant to be lovers, separated at the left and right of the bridge with purple lightning arcing between them. Whether this was meant to symbolise how they were torn apart by tragedy or something else, the male wasn't sure nor did he care too much. Between the ends, Shiro saw nothing but a pit of vast darkness, making him wonder how he would be able to proceed further...

"What is this place?" he looked around and asked Virgil

"This is the second circle! Lust!" Virgil replied, appearing by Shiro's side and looking unaffected by the wind coursing throughout this open space. Up ahead, Shiro observed how he could hear people screaming as they were carried away by the wind... but something caught his attention and grew concern within the male, for amongst the screams one could hear a bit of a moan if you listened closely.

"The wind of lust smite these damned No hope of less pain, no hope of rest ever comforts them!" He screamed in order for Shiro to hear him and he pointed at an incoming dam.

"See there: Paris and Helen of troy!" Shiro dodged them while continuing to look. "Other people who committed carnal lust to the world."

Shiro can now see that this might be his favorite circle, why? He hated perverts and would do just about anything to have something that can pleasure them, after all seeing how he had seen many people become Apostles to seek their own pleasures, one even doing so after taking advantage of one of his group members. He narrowed his eyes at the ever growing moan which even in the storm they still feel pleasure.

He put up his hand which made Virgill raise his eyebrow in confusion before he saw him conjure a great flame, burning the damned which instead of carnal pleasure there were screams of pain.

"You seem to enjoy torturing the damned here." Virgil remarked to him.

"One of the things that I hate the most is perverts. Carnal pleasure? Pft. Please, that's just an excuse for them to do something to satisfy their own pathetic needs." Shiro growled, his eyes glowing from within his blindfold.

"Hmmm I can't blame you here but let us go, the more we dally within the circle, the more influence it can affect us, including you." He urged, vanishing after moving across the bridge. This made Shiro shake his head before following him. As he crossed the bridge with the golden statues, he heard something rumbling which caused him to pause mid stride, glancing around for the source. He soon found out where it came from though: a great tower that began to rise up from within the gap between the two walkways. One of the most distinguished features the Tower had, much to Shiro's disgust, was that it had a rather… phallic appearance, shaped similar to an erected piece of male genitalia. 'Ugh, gross…' the mlae thought with revulsion while he watched it continue to grow even to a point where it surpassed the heights of any skyscraper in modern cities.

Not only that, but a massive figure could be seen climbing the tower, easily a quarter of its height. This figure turned out to be a gargantuan-sized woman, a tall and fair-skinned woman with knee-length silver hair that has bangs swept to the right side, though one could easily tell her demonic status thanks to her eyes, which showed their demonic nature through some red irises with slit pupils. Regarding her outfit, it seemed to be quite the revealing one, more so than many of the female outfit choices he'd seen modern humans or hindu beings wear, especially when the outfit showed off her breasts, kind of reminding him of how an indian prostate would be. The only reason why he knew this was thanks to some of the older band of the hawk members who… frequented such people between missions. Fortunately, him and Jamal never took any interest in such pathetic practices, they had their pride as men still intact.

Briefly pausing in her climbing of the tower, the giant woman glanced to her right and looked forth towards Shiro, before evilly smiling at him.

What came from her mouth made Shiro freeze to the bone.

"Hello son."

"...what?" he whispered in shock with wide eyes, his skill [the discremination of the poor], which allowed him to see if people were lying and who was telling the truth… told him she was speaking the truth, as much as his befuddled mind struggled to process such a notion.

Instead of answering or perhaps elaborating on her statement, the white haired woman raised her right hand up and conjured lighting within it, lightning which she then shot upwards towards the sky for a few moments before screaming at Shiro.

RRRAAAAGGGHHHH!

As she screamed, Storm clouds appeared, gathering overhead while some went and started spiralling downwards around the Tower, completely covering it while she continued to climb.

Shiro ignored that and processed what she said.

"This is unexpected isn't it young man?" Virgil appeared at Shiro as he did not answer him. "To think that one of your relatives arrived here in the circle. It seems your past has come to haunt you."

Shiro looked at the storm without any expression, not long before he began to speak. "I've never even known my parents, always thought that they were dead or abandoned me…" He whispered under his breath, before shaking his head after the memory of Brihanna and, strangely enough Jinako, entered his mind. Opening his previously closed eyes, none of the shock from before remained, replaced by a stone cold expression while Rashomon growled with approval in the back of his mind. "No matter who they are, if they get in my way, I'll kill them all. Besides, I never had any special relationship nor did I give a shit about them." he declared, confirming his choice more to himself than his companion, to which Virgil hummed before vanishing.

Now that he was alone, Shiro looked at the storm which was covering the disgusting tower. The storm seemed to be a bit strong, and if he wanted access to that thing (something he didn't really but it seemed to be the only way to proceed), then he would have to figure out a way past it. In his mind, he felt a few options appear before him like some kind of business presentation. The first option, Shiro could use the brahmastra to destroy this whole thing, but what if…...Brihanna was there? If there was even the slightest chance that Brihanna may be locked within that tower like some damn princess (of which she would probably loathe for the rest of her days, he knew), then that option wasn't going to happen. Way too risky as much as he revelled in his destructive tendencies.

Thus, he had to find another way.

To that end, after exhausting his options Shiro looked around to see if there was anything worth noticing that he could use, before seeing a lighting ball that going back across the bridge towards the space where Shiro stood, charged by lighting before disappearing at the forth statue. 'Hm? Interesting…' the male mused, quickly noticing a switch at the third statue and proceeding towards it. As soon as he activated it, the bottom turned forward as soon as the lighting ball went to it as it was charged before going back to the Tower, soon it grew to a sizeable size and crashed into the storm clouds as it revealed a hole, an entrance to the tower.

'There we go!' Shiro thought victoriously as he broke into a mad sprint towards it when he noticed the hole being quite volatile. Instinctively, he could tell that it wasn't going to last for long therefore upon getting close enough Shiro leaped into the air and shot forth like a human bullet, shooting through the hole before it completely closed.

Now through the hole, Shiro slammed into the ground in a crouch, quickly getting to his feet and grasping his Scythe with both hands in a ready stance. Good thing too, because aside from the occasional moans and gasps of... what he could only assume to be pleasure or something, echoed throughout the tower, sounds of squelching came from his right prompting him to turn his gaze towards that direction.

"Alright, come at me whatever... you... are..." He began to yell, before slowly quieting and trailing off while losing control over his jaw. His eyes shot wide open behind his blindfold while reducing his iris size to that of dots, his face losing all color it had whilst a tinge of green could be seen to showcase the building disgust and revulsion circling within his core.

'Oh... my... god...'

The source of the squelching sounds turned out to be something which could only come out of some twisted, demented and downright perverse porn flick that those guys over in Japan seem to be fond of. Hentai he remembered its name being, but that's not the issue here. For what came out of what looked to be a 'crack' like the crack of an ass (he SO would be haunted by that image for years to come if he survived this whole ordeal...), looked to be a feminine humanoid being.

This being looked to have once been a human woman, being very voluptuous from breasts to hips to buttocks: The ideal female form according to many horny males. However, the being before him looked to be as far from that idea as possible, resembling a grey-skinned demonic slave to her own carnal desire. What little clothing that she wore was a ripped shawl lazily draped around her legs with gold bracelets decorating her limbs and which looked to now be somehow permanently 'fused' onto her skin. As she rose to her feet, the feminine being frequently moaned in a sexual manner, rubbing herself all over and posing in very ultry, sinful positions much to Shiro's dismay.

Even so however, the male looked and noted the metal claws she possessed, which made him believe those were her main weapons of attack. Then, the secondary weapon came out, that being something which nearly made Shiro lose the struggle to not vomit in pure revulsion: a long, retractable, scorpion-like tendril protruding from a blood spewing opening from the sternum to the navel down to the vagina, seemingly an unholy fusion of corrupted genitals. The torso-spanning opening greatly resembled what was once a female vulva while the inside resembled a vagina and the tendril resembled a human (Albeit pointed and barbed) phallus, truly a manifestation of the corruption in both types of human genitalia.

Didn't help that the creature moaned in even greater pleasure when the damn Tendril burst out like it were suddenly being penetrated…

Ugh, he was going to stop now before the imagery got even worse.

Setting himself into his stance, Shiro quickly launched his first attack by switching over to Nightingale (REALLY not wanting to get too close to that thing) before unloading a bunch of Arrows, intending to shred her limbs to pieces so he could finish her off (ugh, that sounded revolting even if it wasn't intentional) with a beheading with his Scythe.

However, the creature before him managed to get the first attack out instead when it's Tendril burst out, excited moans escaping it during this whilst the Tendril swished about faster than the eye could track, swatting away his projectiles before lashing out towards him intending to thwack him in the abdomen.

Not wanting that thing to even GRAZE him because he feared he might catch something disgusting like some demonic form of AIDS or other STDs (no, he was NOT joking that was a legit concern in his mind), Shiro rolled to the side and avoided it before he snarled, switching to Kurogane for a downward stabbing motion that impaled the Tendril from above before it could react. He didn't waste the opportunity either since he flung the Tendril upwards till it reached a position where he could slice it in half with a reverse horizontal slash, then quickly dashed forth to close the distance between him and the enemy.

Upon getting close enough, Shiro thrusted Kurogane towards the screeching creature (its screeches reminding him of a feline, honestly), watching as the blade deep into the creature's exposed abdomen whilst trying not to think of anything sexual considering the circumstances, the fact that this whole place wreaked of certain 'scents' did not help him there, as he quickly pulled upwards to make his weapon rise upwards too, slicing through his opponent and leaving them like a peeled banana. "Ugh, fucking foul…"

Muttering that to himself while holding his nose as if to try and stop a nosebleed, Shiro

Took a few steps back as the Demon vanished into black smoke like the ones before it. "Virgil…" he whispered, the said spirit appearing beside him. He then pointed Kurogane's tip to where the Demon had been beforehand. "Any idea on what the fuck I killed?"

"That would be a Temptress." Virgil replied, Shiro's gaze prompting him to explain. "Each Circle has their own unique Demons to them aside from the Minions and the Pests, those zombies and wasp monsters you've seen about. In the case of the Temptresses, once upon a time when they were alive, these creatures had been beautiful women who were highly lustful, much like the boss of this Circle. In death, they are the personification of uncontrollable lust, remaining the servants of Queen Cleopatra. By the way, this isn't the only one we have to worry about, I remember there once being something called the 'Seductress' around in this Circle, as well. The Seductress exists as a variant of the Temptress, one can tell by how their hair is up compared to how Temptress's hair is usually down. Regardless of the change in hairstyle, they're the same as the temptress, but possess the ability to draw unwary intruders toward them."

At this, Shiro's face contorted into an expression similar to one made when someone smelled something utterly foul. "Tch, how pathetic. It's so pathetic that I want to laugh at how primitive these people are." he sneered, twirling Kurogane in his right hand.

"I agree, however for different reasons. Whilst these foul beasts are of lust, THOSE were the results of Unbaptized children who died before they could be baptized, such as during a miscarriage or being a stillborn, condemning them to Limbo. There is no mercy for those who are without faith... a fact that has remained true throughout history, unfortunately." Virgil explained further, and as much as Shiro loathed to admit it, the Spirit wasn't wrong there.

After all, religion and faith were major causes of conflict even in the current era, no it was more like humanity had never changed that trait. Therefore, he hated it but he could see how a place like Hell wouldn't have that kind of mercy for those who had no chance to even receive that 'truth' before their untimely demise.

Life was just cruel... Why should the afterlife be any different?

Before he could continue brooding like an emo, Shiro's eyes blinked behind his blindfold whilst his ears twitched, hearing the sounds of more squelching which indicated some reinforcements. 'Ugh, so not what I need right now...' the male thought as he snarled, Vergil vanishing again since the boy had some more 'cleansing' to do.

The sounds of flesh being torn once again resounded throughout the tower...

Once the last foul Temptress had been slain by a quick slash from Shiro's Scythe and dissipated, the said silver haired teen grimaced as he huffed and panted, looking somewhat drained by the endeavor. It hadn't helped that he had to fight about 10 or so Waves of those damn things, some of those waves even having extras like those bulky 'Guardian Demons' (those horned demons with massive swords which, in some cases, had seemed to try and 'jerk off' to the Temptresses or something, really threw him off and would have been dangerous had his Sacred Gear not protected him from surprise attacks launched at him during those times).

Now that they were all dead, however, Shiro finally could move on... although he soon wished he didn't have to when he saw that his only way forwards... turned out to involve him using his Sacred Gear to turn a crank in order to lift a snake-like stone head, destroying it's stone fangs and completely pulling the crank so that the head had completely opened wide. Since well, it made him think of the female genitalia thanks to all the decor and 'lust' based stuff he'd seen so far.

Jumping atop the Tongue and doing so again, Shiro landed atop the front of what looked to be some kind of platform, one which soon lifted upwards like some kind of elevator for another one to take its place. 'Oooookaaaaaay...' he couldn't help but think whilst looking weirded out by this. But seeing as there were hardly any enemies around Shiro dismissed his Kurogane whilst tethering his Scythe to his back.

As he did this, Vergil appeared in orb form as he floated there, seeming to be observing the place. "I remember this place... To this place was judged Semiramis, the Queen of Assyria as well as the Empress of Tongues. Her passion ruled her and her Kingdom."

"You knew her?"

Vergil shook his head. "No… but she does remind me of what women of my time went through on a daily basis."

Choosing not to comment on that since he didn't really give a damn, Shiro simply nodded his head.

Instead, Shiro opted to continue... and where else could he go but up? In order to do that, the male realized that he had to do three things, and those three things he did:

One, pull out a tall statue shaped like a bunch of bodies embracing each other onto the elevator platform.

Two, pull a lever on the bottom left side which would serve to move it upwards yet not too high that Simon couldn't get onto it.

Three, pull a second lever which opened an opening to allow the Elevator Platform to shoot up onwards, its journey unimpeded and with Simon on top of it…

Which led to the male standing in the centre of the platform next to the statue and looking outside, seeing a familiar face keeping pace (unintentional rhyme there) with the elevator platform as it ascended up the Phalic tower.

"Clever boy, but you will never make it to the top if I have anything to say about it!"

The moment that she said that, several Demons manifested from the Elevator platform's floor, a Temptress as well as a Guardian Demon and a bunch of Minions, numbering at 30 in total. Shiro, seeing this mentally sighed to himself before getting to work, drawing his Kurogane and jumping into battle, shredding through his opponents whilst the sounds of flesh being ripped asunder distracted him from hearing the massive woman's taunting jeets... to the point where he could hardly hear what she was saying since he'd been so focused on the bloodshed... something which Shiro appreciated really.

Bloodshed was his forte after all, not all this crap about sex and sin.

One time, the male had seen how the woman had saw fit to interrupt the carnage by breaking a hole from outside the tower, reach in with what looked to have been her right fist and SMASH it onto the platform, making it enter a flipping motion which would have sent him to the ground below like it had done for the remaining Demons who DIDN'T get slaughtered by his hand... had it not been for his quick thinking by jumping onto and latching onto another part of the wall, using Rashomon to help keep him in place.

Afterwards, the woman growled as they continued ascending, with more Demons coming at Shiro once the platform had righted itself and continued ascending, only adding to the slaughterhouse that was inside this Tower if one asked him.

Though, oddly enough during the second bout of combat, Shiro had noticed that the gargantuan woman had been nowhere to be found, much to his surprise and internal confusion... although his fighting soon brought his attention away from that fact as he simply added his Sacred Gear to the mix.

...

... Yet, in a splendid showing of the phrase 'SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKER!', the woman suddenly burst through once again during combat just as Shiro had butchered the last Minion, and grabbed onto the Platform to hold it in place. Shiro turned, glaring heatedly at her whilst holding his Scythe (having switched out from Kurogane halfway into the battle) at the ready, thinking that she may be FINALLY willing to fight him head-to-head now... only to nearly barf his lunch at what he had seen happen next.

"EWWWW, GROSS OLD HAG!" He yelled as he saw multiple 'Brats' as he once heard Vergil call during his prepping the elevator, crawl out her... breasts, which had holes instead of nipples. "YOU REALLY THINK ANYONE'S GONNA LUST AFTER YOU WITH SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!"

"Ufufufufufu, you would be surprised about what men are willing to endure for a chance at my feet, boy!"

With that haughty response, the woman grasped the Brats which crawled almost adoringly over her Breast, numbering at about 10, before dropping them off onto the platform to which they looked and noticed Shiro's presence. Immediately, like they were children protecting their parents, they each gave loud howls similar to baby cries as they bared their blades at him, quickly rushing forward to engage the 'enemy' of their 'mother'...

Who proceeded to thoroughly spear through them each with a well-placed Rashomon thread stab to their heads.

'Prime way for dealing with those midgets painlessly...' Shiro thought to himself, noticing the left hand that was currently keeping the Platform from continuing it's ascent. Thus, with his goal in mind, Shiro quickly launched his Rashomon threads at the hands at enough of a velocity to resemble multiple knives entering her flesh.

"ARGH!"

A sharp cry escaped her lips as the woman checked her hand over as if she were checking nail polish, gritting her teeth to try and bare with the pain which he had brought onto her. Whilst this happened, Shiro felt the platform start to ascend again albeit in a gradual pace... that is, until the woman also noticed this and promptly put an end to that, quickly smashing her hand back down onto the Platform back to where it had been previously.

'Shit, well that ain't going to work.' the teen thought, shuddering at the possibilities entering his mind. However, instead of focusing on that he instead glanced around to see if there was anything he could work with. Doing this allowed him to notice multiple levers on either side of some small platforms attached to the walls, as well as some serpent-shaped structures with their mouths permanently open, spiralling around a bunch of support pillars. 'Hmmmm...'

Deciding to test a theory, Shiro quickly launched his 30 Rashomon Threads, some of them spearing through Brats and a bunch of summoned Minions at the same time, until they grabbed a hold of each lever, the left one being pulled first. This resulted in the Serpent heads turning whilst looking like they were slithering down the pillars, until they now faced the gargantuan woman.

After the second lever was pulled...

FFFWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!

Unholy shrieks and caws escaped her as the woman got bathed in white hot flames... and they weren't the flames of lust that she was likely used to, either. No, pure, TRUE fire burned away at her body, tongues of it licking away and seering at her flesh with a ravenous fury, brought about by the intensity of the Serpents.

"D-DAMN YOU!"

Utterly outraged yet refusing to try and strike back thanks to the flames, the woman proceeded to climb further up the Tower prompting Shiro to return to the Platform and do the same thing.

As soon as he reached the top, there was literally nothing here than just storms and lighting around him. Just as he was about to leave, there was another presence which Rashomon growled and he glanced back before slowly turned around.

CLAP!CLAP!CLAP!

"Hmhmhmhmhmhm impressive boy, very impressive." it was the shadowy figure as he clapped at him for amusement and joy.

It was him who took Brihanna.

"You…." he growled at him before taking out both his scythe and Kurogane as Rashomon appeared at his side and growled.

"Why the hostilities, young man? You are the first to ever come here willingly and survive the hoards of my servants." he questioned with fake innocence, smiling at him but it was more of a malicious and mock at him which hardened Shiro's glare.

Despite this, the descendant of Karna did not say anything to him but asked him one question. "Who…..the fuck are you?" He asked him which he put a fist on his chin while pretending to think.

"Who am I, you say? That's a good question, I am known to be many things, Satan, Helel, the morning star, the original devil, he who rebelled god but there is one I am best known for…. You may call me….Lucifer." That answer stunned Shiro, he recalled that his ancestor told him of the Great war between three factions, the one who was supposed to die.

"Lucifer?... but you're supposed to be dead during the great war?!" He screamed at him.

This prompted Lucifer to erupt into laughter, laughter of both amusement and not so small fury at that assumption. "Hah! Me? Die at the hands of him?" He pointed to the sky "He is always too merciful, instead of killing me he banished me to this place! These damn circles!" He screamed while looking at the sky before returning his smile at Shiro.

"But now, an opportunity has arrived. Soon I shall be free from this cursed place and once I do, I will have my revenge. You have to thank the god Hades for bringing me the girl."

"RRRRAAAAHHHHH!"

Shiro screamed in rage as he flew to Lucifer, attempting to cut him but instead it went through like water.

"Hahahahaha so full of rage and fury. You'll fit perfectly well in the circle of fury. Now I must go, my servant shall be the one to keep you company." Shiro didn't listen to those words, having been fuelled by his fury to the point where he saw red. Right now, the male intended to butcher Lucifer even if he didn't have any flesh on him.

Unfortunately before Shiro could continue his offensive, Lucifer disappeared leaving Shiro to be enraged before rumbling happened and there was the giant woman who was supposed to be his mother.

"It seems the king of the circle has taken interest in you boy, or son I should say?" She said in amusement.

Shiro looked at her with hardened glare at her. "If your really supposed to be my mother, why the fuck did you leave me at the orphanage? Tell me." he growled at her, to which she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Such disrespect boy, you were not taught manners were you?" He did not answer her as she continued to speak. "You want to know the truth? I'll show you." he waved her hand as magic appeared in front of Shiro in the form of a smoke, showing her appearance.

"In order to survive I had to live the life of a prostitute." The image showed her in a sleazy outfit, offering her body to several men who were around her. "I've always wished for everything that I could get, money, wealth, fame, and power." It showed her sitting on a throne with gold coins around her and people bowed to her, but instead it showed her of a poor appearance and a pregnant belly. "But I couldn't get it all, instead I had you." She sneered and pointed to Shiro as he gripped both of his weapons hard so that they would break. "I could not even take care of you or even try to raise you, there was one choice I had." The image changed and it showed that she had a bundle before putting it at a building which Shiro recognized as the orphanage. "Abandoning you was the best choice I had, no regrets, no pain, no sorrow for you." Shiro aura began to show as Rashomon became an angry wolf or monster if it could get any more angrier like his wielder. It showed her the same appearance as if repeating her story. "I continued my life as a prostitute hoping that I would get to be in a life of luxury but instead one of them was too obsessed with me." It showed a man wielding a dagger before stabbing her heart which made Shiro gleam at joy from the sight of it. "He killed me and the gods judged me to be in the circle, sending me here, my eternal torment but it's not actually torment, it is a blessing that I get to live my life free of what I am! A sinner who can be free of their lustful nature! A Hedonism, no one can stop us from receiving carnal pleasure!" The image was gone as the magic dispelled.

"Is that what you want? Eternal pleasure is it?...mother." Shiro finally questioned before facing her with a hardened glare. "If that's the case then let me send you to somewhere where there is a life for you…. A place where you burn for eternity." he said before releasing his fiery aura at her.

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