Chapter 17
Taking the initiative to attack first and hopefully land the first attack before anything else could happen, Shiro summoned his Nightingale and unloaded a bunch of divine energy arrows into the large woman's eyes. He had intended to blind her so he could then target her other body parts like those breasts of hers or other vital areas, to find a spot to deliver a fatal blow. As much as he would have liked to torment the bitch or her part to play in his childhood, Shiro retained the mental knowledge that he didn't have the time to waste dealing with garbage like her.
Brihanna needed to be brought out of this damn place before it killed her or worse.
However, it appeared the woman who had been his mother, the one who had given birth to him in her human life, had tricks of her own for she promptly held a hand over her face which had the back of it facing the approaching energy arrows. They impacted, causing a cloud of smoke to erupt from the following explosion.
BOOM!
Using the smoke as cover, Shiro hopped backwards so that his mother wouldn't be able to counter him as easily, a tactic he had learned from his years spent fighting Apostles. It had given him plenty of experience fighting enemies greater in size to himself, hence thanks to that experience Shiro had predicted that the woman would try to use her massive size to her advantage and pummel him with those fists of hers, and although that attack he'd launched had hit, there was no doubt in his mind that it wasn't very effective. This woman wasn't his mother anymore, she was a ruler of a Circle of Hell chosen by that Lucifer guy, and from what he recalled of their encounter (beyond his own desire to rip him apart for taking Brihanna hostage that is) he didn't seem like the type to choose just anyone for such a role.
As the smoke faded away to reveal her face…
Shiro's instincts got proven to be correct thanks to the woman's fist being largely unharmed… although there had been a change that had taken place under the smoke's concealment which Shiro hadn't anticipated but had predicted would have been presented at some point, since he hardly knew this woman's capabilities as a Demon. What was that change, one might ask? Whelp…
The whole of her fist including her forearm, now possessed a jet black steel gauntlet covering its form, shielding the fist and providing an extra layer of defence against aggression.
'Hmm, those might be a problem…' Shiro thought to himself as he quickly summoned Rashomon in its beast head form, promptly launching it towards the armored arm as a test to see what would happen if he were to attack it. The end result… wasn't very favorable, as Shiro had anticipated, for the moment that the Sacred Gear had made contact with the arm by opening its maw to bite down into it, an action that would have chomped through the armor thanks to the great devouring ability it had… the whole head suddenly exploded like it had swallowed some kind of dynamite, C4 or other kind of explosive. The sheer shockwave from this attack sent Shiro stumbling backwards a few steps, the head having nothing remaining of it so the tendril it was once connected to simply retracted within himself. Fortunately, Shiro had long since discovered that while that beast head had been its base form, Rashomon's true essence lay within him so it wouldn't be affected if its manifestations were damaged like that, hence why he had pulled that risky move out of his ass.
'Hmmm… from what I can tell, it seems that she can mix her energy within her blood, allowing her to manipulate it at will. Not only that, but it seems to be combustible too, which means that I'll have to avoid getting hit by that gauntlet if I don't want to be blown to bits.'
Deducing this within a few seconds in his mind, Shiro held his Nightingale at the ready, knowing that his close combat weapons were out for the time being due to them putting him too close to that gauntlet.
"You like playing with cheap toys, son? Ufufufufu, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree it seems."
"Yeah, you would know all about cheap toys like that dried up crotch area, wouldn't you?"
At the sharp retort from her son, the woman growled under her breath while her eyes started to shine with a menacing light to them. Instead of retorting against that or spouting some kind of cliche villain line, she proved herself to stand out amongst the many Shiro had faced previously by simply swinging her arm about like a whip, intending to 'slap' her son off the tower itself. However, she missed thanks to the male pumping energy into his legs and leaping over the strike, forging a bunch of arrows on Nightingale's bowstring and letting them loose towards her face. The fact that they were enhanced in that they were made from divine fire was a difference between them and the ones he'd launched previously.
However, just like before his mother held her gauntlet in front of her face to successfully block the rounds, which caused her gauntlet to explode. Though like before, the smoke revealed that no damage had been dealt after its clearing, much to Shrio's frustration, prompting the male to try to form some more Arrows on Nightingale's bowstring…
"Not so fast!"
Something which his mother prevented by flexing her other hand (placing her elbow on the tower to keep herself balanced on it, something which Shiro noticed), purple electricity starting to spark around it.
Instantly, Shiro sensed danger coming at him from above, and thus promptly rolled to the side to avoid a quick purple lightning strike that struck his position from the purple storm clouds. More purple electricity gathered around the gargantuan woman's hand which she kept constantly making the 'come hither' gesture with a sultry moan accompanying those movements. Following these actions, various purple flashes erupted within the tornado surrounding the tower, and afterwards a whole ONSLAUGHT of various lightning strikes rained down on the tower's top, all targeting her human son.
Yet, as fast and numerous as they were, Shiro proved that he would not go down without a fight, as he constantly shifted his upper body about to avoid the majority of them, with a few times forcing him to twist his lower body so that he could avoid ones aiming for his legs, almost ,making it look like he were doing some kind of weird voodoo dance or something along those lines.
"Surrender to the storm of lust!"
Not done with him yet, the woman dismissed the lightning strikes and promptly made a small sweeping motion close to her side of the tower. From that sweeping motion, she generated a small tornado mixed with wind and electricity that surged across the tower's top towards Shiro. Obviously not wanting to get such a likely electrifying experience, the silver haired male scowled while he hopped into the air and avoided the tornado all together.
Her eyes flashed menacingly, and soon Shiro realized with wide eyes that he had fallen into a trap of sorts, seeing her gauntlet arm rapidly closing in for a punch. 'Oh shit!' he cursed, realizing her intent to get him up into the air so that she could strike with her gauntlet. Although it was a destructive weapon, within this barrier and the tower being the only anchor she could use, the power of that gauntlet would also be considered a double edged sword. One misuse, and she could destroy the one thing keeping her giant form upright, hence she probably needed to get him into a position where she could use her power without worry for the tower's destruction.
Up in the air had seemed like a viable option, and of course like a gullible douche, Shiro had fallen for it.
However, that didn't mean that he didn't have a way to get out of this, as Shiro soon demonstrated by summoning Rashomon in its many jaws form, each jaw tipped Tendril lunging towards the tower's roof and biting into its edge, yanking him back down into the tower roof and out of the gauntlet's way. A loud grunt escaped him since, although he had evaded that move, it had left him with no time to land as stylishly as he usually did, so instead Shiro had crashed into the tower's roof backfirst, although he hardly complained since that would be better than being blasted to bits.
Quickly getting to his feet with Nightingale at the ready, Shiro eyed the hand that glowed with purple electricity, a telltale sign of another bunch of lightning strikes soon to be upon him. 'She's using her arms to try and keep herself on the Tower, so I should target them to knock her off.' he thought to himself, already forming a plan in mind to accomplish this objective and likely gain a lead in this fight against her.
"Hold still!"
"...No."
Looking to be growing frustrated, his former mother roared at him as she summoned more lightning strikes to turn Shiro into a piece of charred barbecue that her many demonic legions would enjoy feasting on, although that was more the gluttony circle's thing. Unfortunately for her, those strikes ended up missing just like the previous ones, thanks to Shiro being way too fast with too fast a set of reflexes for them to properly hit. For context, these lightning strikes were as fast as normal ones, which were about 270,000 miles per hour (MPH), but they were not fast enough to catch Shiro off guard.
Went to show his speed and reflexes, huh?
Not only that, but the male had taken advantage of her growing volatile attitude and goaded her further. In his mind, she was wasting energy by calling all these useless strikes against him, plus the one threat to his being, that gauntlet, wasn't something she seemed willing to risk her own safety for, so he felt relatively safe for the moment.
Though, how long that would last for would be anyone's guess…
Soon that answer became apparent when, in a fit of fury mixed with her frustration of not being able to hit her prey, the former mother of Shiro swung her unarmored hand and conjured a bunch of tornadoes. Ones that proceeded to encircle the male from multiple different directions while Shiro glanced from side to side warily, cautious for any sneak attacks in this limited space. He didn't want to jump upwards like he had done before since that would put him in range of that gauntlet, and in that scenario he bet that his former mother would have a contingency plan in case he used Rashomon again.
Not too long afterwards, his former mother made her move. She did so by launching a much LARGER lightning strike directly on top of Shiro's position, pumping more energy into it so that the strike would deal greater damage as well as move slightly faster about 300,000 MPH, in addition to having enough brightness to it that any normal person would have had their sight permanently destroyed by its flash.
FLASH!
BZZZZT!
At once, the strike came cascading down like it were sent down from the heavens by the lord almighty himself to smite an unruly mortal off the plane of existence. Just as it was about to contact Shiro, the male quickly unleashed Rashomon's devouring space ability, forming its usual shield above his head to block the attack from hitting him.
The defence proved successful, sure…
But then a second attack came from the side which Shiro didn't see until the last moment.
"Guh!"
A loud grunt escaped his lips when he felt his neck get grasped onto by a pair of clawed digits, an index finger and thumb. Those two digits lifted him up into the air showing that they belonged to his former mother who held him in front of her face, a dark sneer on her. Shiro would have tried to escape by recalling Rashomon for some offensive actions…
But that didn't have the chance to occur thanks to his former mother, who slammed her gauntlet right into his body before he could counter it. Well, he probably could have if he had been able to see it coming, but he couldn't hence why it had hit. Being held in the air and immobilized at that didn't help either.
BOOM!
A loud pained scream escaped his lips, as Shiro felt a surge of pain rush through his system, feeling like he had been burned by his own flames from the inside out. Not only that, but he could feel a large portion of his clothes get burnt to a crisp thanks to that attack, something which his former mother now tormentor gave a sadistic grin at seeing, immense pleasure shining within her demonic red eyes.
"HAHAHAHAHA! Not so tough now, are you boy?! There's no next time, but you better respect your mother in what little you have left!"
"...Fuck… you…"
Obviously not too keen on this disrespect from her damaged son, his former mother's brow twitched irritably before she raised her son, and then slammed him right into the centre of the tower's roof with enough force to create a large dent in it.
"Gah!"
An eruption of blood exploded out of his mouth when this happened to him, yet the male still glared upward at his former mother in defiance before Rashomon manifested beneath the rooftop, shoving dozens of spikes into the hand's softer areas. This resulted in the woman screeching in anger at the injuries while being forced to pull her hand back, the male being freed from her as a result.
However, this also resulted in the amount of damage Shiro had taken being exposed, with his coat's right sleeve having completely burned away alongside the left side of its lower half, the coat still covering both sides of his torso although the lower right side had a huge ass hole in it. The body parts exposed to the elements also weren't in tip-top shape either, with numerous scratch marks both big and small littering them like they were junkyards, some even sporting trails of blood which ran down his body and dripped to the ground below whilst several areas supported varying degree burns from the earlier gauntlet attack. It had only been thanks to both his clothes and Rashomon that he had even survived the hit, having unleashed the latter's second ability at the last second before impact.
"Tch, this is getting us nowhere…"
The woman said this under her breath while Shiro's legs trembled, struggling to support his weight as he hunched over, clutching his left arm's bicep with his right hand as he glared upwards at his former mother with one barely open eye, the other shut with varying burn marks on his face.
In an effort to finally put an end to this farce, the woman leaned forwards and erupted in a flash of purple light, causing Shiro to cover his eye the best way he could: by closing it. When the flash died down, he felt it and opened his eye weakly, viewing his former mother but in a more human sized form. Not only that, but her arms, legs AND shoulders now had jet black steel armor on them, armor which he bet had the same properties as the one she had used against him earlier.
"I'll admit, it's been a decent bit of exercise getting to know you, son. I can so imagine how many sluts you would have banged if you just HADN'T gotten in my master's way. Oh well. Time to end this…"
Just as she was about to kill her own son, Shiro once again made to get up and avoid his former mother's next attack, barely stumbling out of the way in time to avoid a kick that would have sliced his head clean off. "Grrrhhhh… is it really all you care about… sex, lust? Is all that shit always on your mind? Never once even cared about others?" he growled at her, utter frustration present in his voice.
Shiro honestly didn't understand it, what was with people, perverts especially, always wanting to stay these kinds of desires? Didn't they see how pathetic it made them? How it pretty much dictated how they would live their lives and, to an extent, affect their image in the eyes of others? Shiro himself didn't personally give a crap about the second one himself, people could get fucked for all he cared, but to be solely obsessed on something like lust was just plain STUPID to him. Especially since there were more productive things one could do with their time.
On her side, the woman narrowed her eyes and put her right hand on his cheek, something which must obviously not count as her hitting him since he didn't explode.
"Disrespectful as ever, son. If I hadn't made the decision of not aborting you….then you wouldn't have caused so much mess for us."
Shiro's eyes widened in sheer, unrelenting storm-like anger. That did it: he lost what little care he still had for his former mother-no, this BITCH before him. Something inside of him was about to be released, the monster inside of him to rip and tear this slut's body to shreds and burn her soul from existence.
"Ok that's it!" A female voice was heard nearby, one which caused both of the former family members to widen their eyes before...
SCHWING!
BOOM!
"Aaaahhhhhh!"
A loud scream of pain erupted from the woman's lips when, out of nowhere something flashed by her, and in the following seconds her arm was cut off. Blood exploded out of the gaping wound, now an empty socket where her arm had once been while the woman stumbled backwards, nearly falling to one knee like Shiro had been doing earlier. Only she had more likelihood to do so due to excessive blood loss.
Glancing towards the direction that the Axe that had cut his former mother's arm off had come from, the weapon now embedded into the tower's roof, Shiro saw who saved him: Jinako... and she didn't look happy in the slightest.
Appearing by her axe in a short burst of speed, the brown haired demigoddess plucked it out from its resting spot before shouldering it, turning to glare with utter malice towards Shiro's mother. "You know, I've seen many mothers always express their love to their child, giving them happiness or sometimes abandoning them wishing for a better life than them. I've always imagined how Shiro's parents would be if we found them, but you saying that to your own son?" She gripped her axe in anger before looking at her with fury. "You made a death wish for saying that! You're even worse than any kinds of women who would say such a thing! You might as well die and get sent to even a worse hell just for you!"
"ARROGANT WOMEN! YOU DARE SAY SUCH A THING TO ME?! I'LL MAKE SURE THE INCUBI WILL TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOU!"
The blood that oozed out of her stump soon started to behave like a writhing mass, reshaping itself as well as absorbing back the blood that had landed on the ground beside her. In seconds, the woman had her arm back to normal while jet black steel armor coated it once again, although according to their senses it had taken a considerable amount of energy to do so. Additionally, from out her back a pair of wings shaped like a bat's sprouted, flaring outwards to allow the woman to shoot forth through the air like a bullet towards Jinako, right fist reared back for a punch.
Over on his end of things, as much as he didn't understand what the hell Jinako was doing here (or even how she had come down to these circles in the first place) Shiro had nonetheless tried to warn his companion of the dangers behind that armor of hers. However, it soon became apparent that he didn't need to since Jinako kept dodging the armor anyways, bending her body about to avoid punches and kicks while those she couldn't do that to avoid she would instead pivot herself around them.
Evading one such attack in the form of a roundhouse kick to her head by ducking, Jinako reared herself back and launched a straight kick towards the woman's face, landing the hit and causing her to stumble backwards. Not willing to let this advantage slip past her, Jinako pressed the attack by leaping forwards and swinging her Axe diagonally to try and cleave the woman in half from her shoulder to her hip.
Unable to block in time, the woman struck out with her left leg with the intent of touching the ae blade with its armor…
Only for Jinako to pull a fast one on her and swing her axe into the ground instead, propelling herself up into a handstand and then promptly grabbing her by the sides of her head with her bare feet. With a loud war cry escaping her, the brown haired demigoddess flipped her legs backwards to throw the woman across the rooftop… right towards a waiting Shiro.
Said male had used this opportunity to quickly repair some of the damage done to his body, although evidence of him not being 100% still persisted. Regardless, he still managed to summon a bunch of spikes using Rashomon that quickly impaled her, thrusting the woman up into the air before slamming her into the tower's rooftop like she had done with him earlier. He then pulled his Sacred Gear back to him while getting right up to Jinako's side, the demigoddess reciprocating the gesture.
"...No idea how you got here or why, but be careful. Her armor makes things explode upon contact."
"You bet your ass I'll be scolding you after this, but I'll keep that info in mind. Always did get a bad vibe from them…"
This short, quick conversation blew past the two of them, pretty much summarizing everything they wanted to say to one another at the current time. Afterwards, they glared upon the recovering woman whose burning gaze could have melted them if looks could kill. The three of them glared at one another…
Before they charged forth once again to finally finish this fight off.
By the time they got close enough to one another, Jinako swung her axe towards the woman's head which she leaned back to avoid, before throwing a twisting roundhouse kick towards Shiro's direction before he could attack himself, prompting the male to duck underneath it. He then got back up and, with his Kurogane summoned into his waiting right hand, struck with a thrust towards the woman's face. Knowing she'd dodge it by moving her head sideways, he stopped the thrust mid motion to pull a feint, switching to the rear end and smacking her upside the head in a reverse diagonal slash from down low up to the skies above.
At this, the woman jumped back to avoid it as well as get some distance between the two, then proceeded to envelop both her arms in lightning before swinging them forth. Upon doing so, a bunch of mini tornados, about 4 for each of the two making 8 in total, got formed which then rushed towards their targets with the intent of their mistress to try and trap them. That way, she would be able to finish them off with a good few lightning strikes that would immobilize them, in which case the woman intended for her minions to have some new playmates.
However, those plans would show themselves to be harder to make bear fruit than expected since Jinako swung her axe horizontally, creating a shockwave just from the wind pressure alone that blew away ALL the tornados, pretty much negating her attack entirely. A smug, dark smirk graced Jinako's lips when this happened while she absolutely DRANK the disbelieving expression the enemy had formed. "Hah, gotta do better than that, bitch!" she roared, gripping her Axe tightly within her two arms and then throwing it like a boomerang towards the woman, who promptly took to the skies to dodge it.
Regardless, Shiro indeed noticed it himself, that Jinako was wielding the same axe as the one she used in her Godly Trigger state that she had as the daughter of Ganesha. Something which he would have questioned her but decided to practice what he preached and focus on the battle instead. Plus, his strength was waning fast so he doubted that he would have time for pointless questions anyways.
That decided on, Shiro then roared as he threw his left arm forwards. "Rashomon: ENDLESS JAWS!" From what remained of his coat, dozens of tendrils tipped in Rashomon's jaws emerged, shooting forth towards the woman with their jaws open wide, intending on ripping into her for their master's pleasure. Yet as he saw her weave in and out of their paths, expertly dodging the jaws which would quickly give chase to her, Shiro switched out his Kurogane for his Nightingale, pulling back the bowstring and beginning to charge up an arrow.
He wouldn't have much of an opening, but as long as one got prepared…
Glancing to the side and seeing what he was doing, Jinako internally deduced that her comrade wanted to ground their enemy and clip her wings, something which she felt totally down for happening. Hence why she decided to help out a bit by rearing her Axe back as if it were a golf club, planting her feet firmly on the ground for stability. "Hey, ugly bitch!" she yelled, getting the woman's attention though she couldn't show it due to being occupied with Rashomon's many jaws. "Give them wings a rest, why don't ya?!"
FWOOSH!"
"?!"
With a mighty swinging motion, Jinako launched her axe boomerang style once more, this time augmenting her strength with divine energy which resulted in the weapon itself sporting a nearly golden glow to it. As a result, the woman sensed the energy coming towards her and quickly identified Jinako's target, promptly swerving out the way just seconds before the axe could hit its target. After it sailed passed her, the woman aimed a mocking smile at the younger female down below, a sneer escaping her alongside the following words.
"Hah, missed me you whore!"
"Who said she was aiming for you?"
FWOOSH!
SCHULUCK!
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Unexpectedly for the woman, it wasn't Jinako but a darkly grinning Shiro who had retorted to his former mother's words, having seen what she had done and mentally thanked her for helping provide an opening. A second later, he unleashed the shot which sped through the air far too fast for his opponent to avoid, hence her right wing which had been flapping about constantly like its sibling left wing, got speared through by the energy arrow and completely severed from her body.
As a result, a shriek of agony erupted from the woman's lips as she fell towards the centre of the tower's rooftop, crashing into it unceremoniously with enough force to dent it. Not like the woman had any sense of dignity to begin with though, as she had already more than proven to the two fighters while she got up onto all fours and hissed like a twisted serpent.
Now at this point, in any other circumstance Shiro would have just struck her from afar with his Arrows, since he didn't want to be anywhere near this bitch due to the fear of catching some kind of disease from her (she likely had many in her from all the dick she took), but as of this moment every fibre of his being screamed at him to utterly shred her in his signature battlefield: up close and personal. Therefore, as he summoned Kurogane into his hand after dismissing his bow, Shiro gripped the shaft hard in his right hand while deciding to try something new. Something which he had been inspired to do during one of his latest training sessions but hadn't had enough time to properly practice.
Whelp, what better place to try than on the battlefield, eh?
Calling upon his divine energy, Shiro condensed it into his arm and had it travel down the said limb into his Spear. He felt it greedily devour the energy within though, which caused him to frown internally as he lost the connection to said energy. 'Looks like I'll have to practice a bit off battle, then…' he thought in disappointment, before shelving the idea for a later date. Thus, Shiro promptly charged in with his Spear at the ready, swinging towards the woman's head from the right to the left.
Seeing the attack coming, she quickly performed a roundhouse kick towards him with the intent of exploding the Spear upon collision, but Shiro pulled back at the last second and twirled a full 360 degrees, swinging from the opposite direction towards her abdomen. Thanks to it being undefended with the strike being too fast to avoid, she got hit there with the blade cutting deep into her abdomen causing the woman to let out a cursed expletive, stumbling backwards and holding her gut with her left hand.
His chance here, Shiro pressed the advantage by re-summoning Rashomon in its many threads form, having them lash out towards his foe like they were whips which resulted in a lashing… one which she would NOT enjoy unlike those she got in life sometimes, across her body.
LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH-LASH!
Constant strikes rained down upon her with the ferocity of a furious animal on a blood rage, thirsting for her blood specifically while intending to rip apart her very life force bit by bit to make it hurt for the longest time possible. The woman of course, kept shrieking and cawing at this as she struggled to raise her arms to block these strikes from hitting anywhere vital, but eventually he steel armor couldn't take the constant punishment Rashomon kept dishing out to personify its master's fury, resulting in the armor over her arms shattering, leaving her open to continued aggression.
"RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!"
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Her screams got drowned out by the furious, animalistic roar that erupted out of Shiro's mouth that got combined with a loud roar from Rashomon deep within the back of his mind. Finally, the last lash landed upon her already brutalized abdomen, sending her flying across the tower's rooftop, the woman's body sliding along it for a few seconds before it finally halted… and BOY what a state she had been left in.
Her abdomen looked to have lost the majority of the skin it should have had, exposing her innards while the intestines looked to be about to fall out of their places with blood trails oozing out like waterfalls down to the floor beneath her. Her torso looked even worse, with her breasts having been sliced vertically so that they peeled open like a banana, all four halves falling to opposite sides to expose the pus-filled innards within. Her neck looked to be similar to her abdomen in appearance, and numerous vicious markings and holes adorned the rest of her body. Her hair had been sliced to a neck-length thanks to the many threads, with her mouth seemingly split into four while both her eyes had been forced shut thanks to vertical slashes having gouged them out.
Yeah… even Jinako couldn't look at her anymore after seeing her brutalized to such a degree.
But overall she still clung to life, though one wouldn't be wrong in assuming she wished she wasn't.
"Guh…..uhhhh….gah!"
Shiro, still simmering within his volcanic rage, slowly strode forth towards his former mother. Rashomon's threads decreased their numbers to 4 before they each impaled the woman by her hands and feet, immobilizing her in place alongside electing screams out of her. Stopping before her, he reached out and gripped her neck in a manner which aggravated her injuries eyen more, holding her head close to her face.
"S-s-shiro…..my son….p-please…..I can…..give you…...what you want….I'll even….offer my bo-" She stopped talking when Shiro brought her face slightly closer to him, having gripped her throat harder to render her ability to speak finally gone for good.
"There is nothing you can do, to offer me what I want." With that said, Shiro snarled while he yanked hard, utterly RIPPING her head clean off her shoulders with brute force alone. He then stood up and gazed down at her headless body, the head in his hand while Rashomon pulled its threads back into his coat's remains.
For a moment, all remained silent while Shiro looked at the body, before it got broken by him taking a big inhale...
"(INHALE) RRRRRRROOOOOOAAARRRRRRR!" and unleashing a fiery breath like that which normally comes out from a dragon, one which burned her body slowly before he threw her head into the fire. Shiro stared at the fire, Jinako remaining silent as she looked at Shiro with concern.
After what his mother said, it can really mess one's mind, even worse if it's a family member saying that to you. She approached him with careful steps to him.
"Are you….alright Shiro?" She asked him, slowly.
Instead of answering her, Shiro kept silent with his Spear having vanished, only worrying the girl more.
"Give him a few moments young lady." Virgil appeared at her side, which prompted her to sharply turn her gaze towards him with a gasp of surprise. "Sometimes a family reunion can be good, bad or worse but from what his former mother said to him, he just experienced something far worse than what any other relative would say." what he said is true as he looks sadly at Shiro.
Jinako looked at him before looking at Shiro, she really does feel sorry for Shiro. When she was reunited with her father she was at first confused, sad, and despair when Ganesha revealed to her that he is her father, then her grandfather gave her some light that even still there is still love from anyone who cares about her.
She always thought that one day they might find Shiro's parents, hoping that he might have the same love she has.
But instead when she heard all that coming from his mother, all that feeling was lost.
"Who are you spirit?" she asked him.
"Oh! Where are my manners, I am Virgil, the poet of Rome."
"Wait a minute, are you really Virgil, glory of the poets, the treasure of Rome?" she was surprised to see a legendary figure right before her eyes.
"Hmmm, that's what they called me when I was still living, seems you've done your research young lady." Virgil said with amusement as she blushed a little before facing Shiro as he broke out of the trance and walked to her.
"What are you doing here Jinako?" he asked her but it sounded like more of a demand.
"Oh right what am I doing here? Let me see….oh yeah."
PUNCH!
"GAH!" Jinako punched Shiro at the gut as he held it before looking at her with anger as she responded the same.
"Thats for making us fucking worry about you! You suddenly left and disappeared on us without any explanation and instead I found you here in this underworld, the nine circles to be precise!" she yelled at him.
"What does it matter to you Jinako?! I didn't want anyone to know that I was here!"
"Everything matters to me Shiro! Including you! What makes you do these reckless actions in the first place?"
"It doesn't matter." he turned around ignoring her question as he was about to continue forward deeper to the circle but she wasn't done
"WHO ARE YOU EVEN TRYING TO SAVE?!"
"BRIHANNA!" Shiro yelled out the answer to her as he turned around. "There! I said it! I came to this godforsaken world just to save her! The only friend I had left after that fucking eclipse." his voice got lower as his head went down. "Life as you know… was hell for me after that, but her safety was my anchor, my means of sanity. This bow…" Briefly flexing his arm out, Shiro summoned his Nightingale before holding it out horizontally before the stunned demigoddess. "It's one of the few things I have aside from this fucking brand that ties me closer to her, since she liked archery back then." he told her, tugging his collar aside to show her his Brand.
Jinako looked at this before softening her expression. "If…..you really wanted to save her…...why didn't you tell us? Why kept this secret from us?" she asked him with a soft tone.
"...I-"
RUMBLE!
"?!" Before he could even answer, the building shook around them as they tried to keep their ground.
"What's happening Virgil?!" Jinako exclaimed.
"The building cannot hold without someone stabilizing it! Your former mother was an anchor to keep this place holding, now that she's dead there is nothing holding this place!" Vergil urgently replied, quickly floating to the side which they followed before seeing a path there which had the golden statue of women down below. "Over there lies the third circle entrance! Quickly, we must go!" he said before disappearing, soon enough the building begins to crack into debris.
"I got an idea!" Jinako exclaimed, catching Shiro's attention as she prepared to make a sprint towards the direction that Vergil had gestured, the direction of the third circle entrance. "Get those legs ready, we're gonna need em!"
Instantly, it clicked in Shiro's mind what Jinako had intended for them to do, to which his eyes nearly flew out his sockets. "That's fucking nuts!" he yelled, getting an outraged glare from her in return.
"Mr kettle, Mr pot called, he says you're black!"
"I'm the BEAST IN BLACK, woman!"
Yet despite yelling this at her, Shiro found himself getting ready like an olympic athlete about to run the 100 meters beside her. By the time the rooftop began to crumble, cracks spreading across it, the two of them had already made a mad dash towards the ledge Vergil had been at, leaping off it after pushing as much energy into their legs as they could.
PHEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
The two flew right through the air, using pieces of debris that fell underneath them as makeshift platforms before they started falling downwards towards a single thin pathway down below, a pathway which Shiro remembered seeing when he first entered this accursed circle. Looked like this would be a close one though, the rocky pathway looked to be coming up fast which meant this would be a rough landing.
"Guh!"
"Gah!"
Pained grunts escaped their lips when the two finally landed, just short of falling off the tip into the dark abyss below. Their landing much to Shiro's predictions, wasn;t nearly as cool or collected as previous ones since it involved them tumbling across the stony ground like sausage rolls, nearly curving off towards the ledges several times had the male not stopped that using Rashomon's threads (although that proved to be more difficult than normal due to the dizziness he felt during the rolling).
By the time the two had stopped rolling, pained groans, cringes, grimaces and grunts escaped their lips while the two slowly came back to some sense of rationality, their vision swimming while their heads throbbed horribly.
"Ugh….." Shiro groaned to himself, slowly recovering enough to raise himself onto all fours before finishing up by getting into a one-legged kneeling position. He grimaced, holding his forehead with his right hand, feeling his temples aching terribly alongside the throbbing.
She too groaned in pain, slowly placing her hands on the ground to lift her upper body from the dirt. She hung her head in front of herself, wincing a bit at the pain before weakly smiling. "Well… that worked out…..well." She said while groaning in pain.
Shiro glared at her. "Did it? How about our broken bones?" he questioned her, to which she at least had the decency to look sheepish. While they had indeed managed to escape in a manner akin to the daredevils of the skies back in WW1, they hadn't done so unscathed. On top of his previous injuries Shiro could feel like multiple bones had cracked with some of them being completely broken. This would have to be dealt with soon since broken bones would impede his fighting ability, which in turn would slow his journey to rescuing Brihanna from Lucifer, something which he would NOT allow.
"Well… at least we're still alive." she responded to Shiro, but before he could dignify her with a response Virgil appeared and looked amused at the two adults.
"Well, looks like you two get along well."
"Eat my ass, asshole." he said to Virgil before getting up and stood up to his feet. He put his hand on his back before it cracked.
C-C-C-CCRACK!
"A-Arg, shit… ugh, I'll be feeling that for a while." he groaned at the sounds his back had made, before he stood up straight and looked down at the pathway. Upon doing so, the male arched a brow behind his blindfold when he saw a bunch of human bodies piled up on top of each other into a makeshift rope.
Before he could consider continuing forwards though, a certain dead spirit had a few choice words to relay to him. "Your injuries look to be too much to handle Shiro, the demons here will take advantage of you in that state of yours." Virgil said to Shiro as he glared at him.
"This is nothing to me Virgil, simple broken bones won't stop me." The adult male replied hotly, growling under his breath like the beast that he saw himself as. Thinking back, Shiro had known how he had gone through much worse situations than this and had still kept on going, so something as simple as a few broken bones weren't going to stop him from doing what he needed to.
"Maybe, but still. It would be wise to heed my suggestion, you may have immense willpower but your human body will wear itself out,soon enough. If you don't give it a chance to recover, it won't be long until it collapses on you."
Jinako nodded at the poet's explanation. "He's right Shiro, how else were you almost defeated by your mo-" she stopped as she almost said 'his mother' to which his glare intensified in her direction. Biting back the urge to gulp at the possibility of his rage being directed at her, Jinako quickly chose some other words that could be used to describe that woman. She thought she would have had a hard time doing so, but to her surprise that wasn;t the case at all. "That bitch almost defeated you?"
Shiro glared at her as he narrowed his eyes behind his blindfold, before he eventually growled under his breath. He scratched the top of his hatless head, grunting in building frustration as he forced himself to see the logic behind their words. "Then what do you propose Jinako? As far as I can tell there is nothing here that can help us recover."
"You are mistaken." Virgil gestured at a fountain which was a few feet away from them, one which contained what looked to be some strange liquid which smelled of herbs, much to the weirdness that went on in these circles.
Shiro glanced back at the spirit after eying the fountain for a moment, his suspicion increasing gradually. "I've seen those before, what can they do?" he questioned slowly.
"They are the fountains that can be used to heal a person's body, demons used this to heal the damned and torture them for eternity." Virgil explained, causing Jinako to look in disgust.
"Demons drink from this fountain? Ugh that's too-Shiro what are you doing?!" she made a disgusted sound, before noticing and yelling at her companion Shiro who had already made his way to that fountain. Without hesitation, he had dunked his head into the green liquid and thus, began savagely slurping up the fountain's contents like drinking from a pond. "That's so disgusting ugh!" she exclaimed, a mix of shock, disgust and revolution at the fact that Shiro had actually gone and drunk from that stuff. She had no idea how sanitary it was, hence why she didn't do the same herself.
Before long, Shiro stopped slurping and took a step back. Almost instantly he could feel the mentioned effects kicking in, the male grunting and shuddering on the spot while he felt his body starting to repair itself. He could feel the cracks in his bones start getting fixed with extra bone marrow covering them like some kind of sticky paste gluing them shut, while the bones that had been completely broken had gotten themselves reset back into their proper positions with their damage reversed till nothing had remained. This also went for his other injuries, including those which he had gotten before the fight with that bitch of a woman.
By the end of it, Shiro rolled his shoulder before looking at Jinako with a look that basically creamed his nonchalance about what he had just done. "If you want to be stuck with broken bones and feel weak, be my guest. I'm not about to let something so fruitful be put to waste." he stated bluntly, leaving no room for any BS that could be sent his way. He saw himself as the kind of beast who did what it took to get something done, so if he were needing to use something as vile as that stuff from the fountains he had seen a few times, then so be it. Thus, Shiro gestured to the deeper part of the circle, already proceeding to make his way forth towards it to leave Jinako back at the edge of the pathway.
Back where she sat, Jinako trembled as she made a complicated face, internally waging war with herself on whether to drink the liquid from the fountain, or to be stuck with broken bones and wait until they naturally recover. Not only did that second option seem less feasible, but also she had no doubts that things wouldn't get worse since the Demons would start taking advantage of her weakened state in that scenario.
Jinako slowly walked to the fountain and stared at it for a while, she slowly put her hand on the pond and stared at it.
That did it for Shiro, his patience with her finally exploding.
"For the love of all-just DRINK IT!" Shiro roared, finally unable to take it anymore. Before she could react in time, the male reared a hand back and had Rashomon release its clawed Tendril appendage from what remained of his coat sleeve. He then had it grab onto the back of a startled Jinako's head before roughly shoving it right smack into the middle of the fountain.
SPLASH!
BLUP!BLUP!BLUP!BLUP!
Jinako wiggled around, struggling to get out of Rashomon's grasp, but couldn't due to the strength difference. As a side effect, her situation pretty much forced her to drink the fountain for a good few moments, before Shiro finally felt that she had enough in her system to recover her injuries. Once he saw how her body had begun repairing itself, the male mentally retracted Rashomon's appendage into his coat sleeve, effectively letting go of her head.
The very SECOND she felt the weight of Rashomon's claw leave the back of her skull, Jinako abruptly raised her head out of the fountain with a large splashing sound and a shrill gasp escaping her lips, her burning lungs desperately gasping for air.
"(GASP)! (PANT)(PANT)(PANT)...(INHALE) what the fuck was that for?!" she screamed as the liquid dripped from her face as she looked in anger at Shiro. "What's wrong with you?! I could've just drank it myself you don't need to-ugh oh god I think I drank too much of it." she turned green as she almost vomited it but held it in.
"You were taking too long.'' Shiro stated bluntly without any hint of shame or remorse for his actions whatsoever. That simple answer really made Jinako almost become enraged to the point of insanity, a furious look crossing onto her features as she walked to him before raising her leg and kicking him in the groin.
CLANG!
They were in that position for seemingly forever, staring at one another intently before...
"OUCH!"
Jinako said as she hopped on one leg, holding on to the other in pain as her leg was the one in pain, not Shiro. She glared at him. "What's….your groin made out of? How is it I'm the one in pain and you're not?" she asked Shiro.
"Simple, I train a lot." Shiro answered her, having the audacity to smirk smugly in an 'I'm better than you and we both know it' tone. Though the real answer was that he had activated his armor around that spot right at the moment when Jinako had begun walking towards him, despite knowing the risks of using it especially within a place like the nine circles. He had figured where she would be kicking him at, and thus made sure he wouldn't be the one groaning in pain.
"As satisfying this gets, this needs to stop. We must proceed to the circle." Virgil declared in an amused tone, clearly being entertained by the stuff going on in front of him. Though unlike the two dorks before him Virgil remained aware of the greater picture due to being more experienced and aware.
Shiro shook his head before going to the ledge and dropped down.
"Hey, wait up!" Jinako shouted, rushing to the ledge after Shiro. By the time she had reached it, she became witness to the sight of him climbing alongside a large wall using the makeshift rope which made her grunt in revulsion, before shaking her head and forming a determined expression.
As they climbed down, some kind of disgusting thing similar to human pores began spewing out fire which she had to wait until it stopped but it didn't affect Shiro at all. He reached to the skeleton rope and swung by as he went back and forth, eventually seeing a chain blocking his way forwards. However, with a quick few strikes from his Scythe, Shiro managed to destroy it with practiced ease. One time he had mistimed his swings which had resulted in Shiro being briefly touched by those flames from the pores, the said flames reaching a part of his arm. However, Shiro remained unaffected by the flames thanks to having endured much worse, before he continued along his journey by jumping to another makeshift rope.
Jinako catched up to him as she was a bit burnt, she glared at him for not waiting for her but it soon turned into horror on seeing what was surrounding her. "Holy….. What is this place?" There was flesh around her literally even the floor was flesh and the rivers were some kind of liquid.
To answer her query, Virgil appeared before them. "This is the third circle, the circle of Gluttony. Gluttonous souls who were not satisfied in life, even in death they will be denied for eternity."
After hearing that, Shiro thought about those who were fat, they would really be in for a surprise when they found out about this circle, then there was some kind of monster below them. It compromised of a turtle like body covered in the cloths of a noble, and what looked like some kind of ovular hole which they once thought was a mouth for a moment. Furthermore, two long, large and thick arms ending in similar looking human hands protruded out its sides, making Shiro wonder just what the fuck that was about. There also looked to be some sort of muddy swamp down there with several large platforms, and within the swamp one could see dozens of lost souls trapped beneath the surface trying to escape only for something to pull them back every time right as they were about to make it.
"What the hell is that thing?" Shiro asked Virgil, pointing at the thing below them.
"That is the guardian of the third circle, cerberus."
"Cerberus?! But how? Don't they belong to the greek god hades?" Jinako asked in shock.
"I myself don't know, but what I DO is that the biblical God used a lot of Greek influence in creating the Nine Circles. That speaks volumes about his perception of them, if you ask me."
"... you know what, that's not something I can be mad at." Shiro admitted after a moment of silence, a wave of understanding briefly pushing through his beastly demeanor. If the biblical God hated the Greeks then he could understand why he'd make the nine circles use a lot of their stuff, it'd definitely incentivise others to not believe in those assholes, and he could see why this would be the case. After all, the Greeks were almost universally hated by other Factions due to their past transgressions, the only reason none of them ever moved to wipe them off the face of the planet was due to how powerful they were. Regardless, he could understand if the biblical God hated the greeks, he HAD to have hated them a whole lot if THIS was the result.
Something his companion agreed with if the look on her face was of any indication. "I see, that could explain some greek stuff here in the circle." Jinako said as she put a hand on her face before looking at the supposed creature of Cerberus.
Beside her, Shiro stared at it for a while, Rashomon growling at the site of the creature in the back of his mind. Unbeknownst to him however, the growl seemed slightly louder than normal, as if the beast was getting 'closer' to him or something. Not only that, but behind him his hair slowly started to shift, eventually becoming more wild, unruly-like, and reached down to his shoulders in length.
Neither he or Jinako noticed this, too distracted by the sight of the supposedly feared one who guarded the gates of the underworld. Though in Shiro's mind, a strong hunger for combat and a desire to dominate started to swell within him, just like it would in an ordinary battle… only slightly greater in this case. Not like he noticed as a small, bloodthirsty smile similar to a Vampire about to feed off his or her prey while his eyes gained a look which matched his smirk. 'Let's see who was more of a monster…'
With that thought in mind, Shiro launched his sneak attack.
Gluttonous.
The Cerberus could be described as such, as it embodied this sin of humanity, endlessly indulging in excess and copious amounts of food.
Be it souls, mud, ash, whatever as long as it was physical and it was matter, then it would consume it without hesitation, indulge in it with ravenous desire.
That was its eternal pleasure, its eternal delight.
It cared not for the state matter was in, nor if it was alive or dead. It cared not for the screams it sometimes heard, nor did it give a flying fuck about what would happen around it.
For eternity, it would remain here, indulging itself with almost sacrilegious fervor upon everything it ever could have wished for in this existence it led.
Movements? It mattered not, such useless things would not end with it satisfying the eternal gluttony that it personified.
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... Wait, these movements didn't belong to it, it didn't require movements! These were strenuous ones too! What the-
SQUELCH!
"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Oh, how sweet the sound that filled his ears seemed to him, Shiro internally mused as he heard the signs of the beast's howls. Howls which had erupted as a result of a barrage of divine flame empowered Arrows launched from his Nightingale, the bowstring resetting back to its default position. So numerous and sharp they were, that they had punctured a large portion of the lips of the large mouth. Since the lips contained over a million nerve endings in the body, as well as were an area with the thinnest skin layer... an arrow assule of about over a thousand-number volley from above like an army shooting down at their opponents from afar would really catch one by surprise and ruin ANYONE's day.
However, Shiro's true goal wasn't the lips at all... rather, what lay inside it was his TRUE objective.
Part of him DID get creeped out when the mouth opened though and three long, thick looking Tentacles burst out, each one ending with a worm/dragon/snake like blood red head which each sported decayed teeth, a fish tail fin crest and instead of eyes each one had three pairs of mini mouths. Each one howled and roared in different tones, really sending chills down the two warriors' spines, and neither of them had even gone down to the enemy's level yet! Just stayed atop an overlooking platform which they had used as a perch, like a web being made to house a Spider's home.
'There we go, now STRIKE!'
Glancing over to Jinako, the two of them gave a unified nod before the male launched his second offensive, dismissing his Nightingale before summoning Rashomon in the form of many long Threads. Threads which lunged forth towards the enemy heads while Jinako launched a flurry of Dangos made from her divine energy, having summoned her dango goblet holder to do so.
Out of the three heads, one of them seemed to sniff slightly and catch the scent of the approaching Threads and energy dangos. Thus, it quickly retreated inside the mouth for protection which made Shiro cursed under his breath, since that would mean he couldn't completely eradicate it.
However, this didn't stop their attack with the Threads slowing down to let the energy dangos land first, each one peppering the head to the left which caused it to howl in pain from the explosions which rocked against its form.
As for the right head, Shiro's Threads descended mercilessly down upon it, intent on shredding it to bits by the will of its master. This time however, the head wouldn't go down without a fight as shown when it reared itself back to avoid the initial lunge, many Threads impaling the platform beneath it. The head then lunged forwards to try and bite into the Threads before they could retract to their maker, only for a few extra ones to pluck themselves out just in tome and grab onto it by its smaller mouths, holding it at bay while the rest… they shot straight up in the form of spikes to impale it from the bottom several times over, shooting up and out its top.
Nevertheless, despite the time that it took being different between the two shots both strikes managed to take out two of the heads quite quickly, leaving only the third one left. The third one, sensing the destruction of its brethren, then promptly emerged from the mouth while howling, lunging and biting into Rashomon's threads. In the following seconds it yanked backwards, promptly ripping them in half and quickly devouring what it had severed.
"Urgh!"
"Shiro!" Jinako exclaimed when she noticed the male cringe and slouch slightly right at the moment of the severing of his Threads that quickly recoiled back to his position. The male shuddered and trembled visibly, looking to have FELT the ripping apart of those threads like he'd just lost an arm or a leg, much to the Demigoddess's worry. "U alright?!"
Shiro raised his head which had been hanging down since the retaliation against his sneak attack, a look of fury on his face. "I'm fine!" he spat, harshly as he glared down at the beast. "Just got a bit of a wakeup call, apparently. Anyways, the element of surprise is gone, so-" Before he could finish, both warriors quickly paled when they noticed what looked like a massive ball of mud shooting towards their position, quickly prompting a response from the two.
That response being to leap into the air and shoot towards the ground. While this took place, Jinako launched a bunch of Dangos at their enemy while they did so since said enemy had launched more mud projectiles from its maw at them like some kind of anti aircraft battery. When they were finally close to the ground, the two flipped forwards and landed in kneeling positions, before quickly splitting off to the opposite sides of one another RIGHT as more projectiles slammed into them.
"Shiro, I'll distract that thing, you try to restrain it for the finishing blow!"
"Got it, woman!"
A quick communication occurred between them with Jinako quickly showcasing that she could indeed pull her weight when it counted. Maybe Shiro would have said it to her face and used his armor to protect himself from the bitch slap she'd use in return, but that was theoretical at best. In any case, after the two had split, Shiro retracted all threads into him while he watched as the head moved itself out the line of fire from Jinako's dangos, the woman having summoned her axe in her opposite hand. 'Note to self: eventually ask how she did that…' he thought internally, before a roar from Rashomon brought him back to the battlefield.
While Jinako did her thing by flipping about over the head's lunges to cut into its hide with her axe, as well as bombard it with energy dangos that it swerved about to avoid, Shiro mentally drew up another plan of attack. Since the last one didn't work out so well he would have to change tactics and attack differently, and differently he would attack. 'Alright, lets see how this fucker likes getting the HAND!' he shouted in his mind, getting a loud roar of glee from Rashomon while he threw his right arm forwards. "Rashomon: MURAKUMO!"
From his arm, the claw-tipped Tendril emerged that then promptly shot forth towards the head at high speeds, the head being far too focused on Jinako's harassment tactics to notice it in time. By the time it DID notice it, only a second remained before the clawed hand grabbed onto the head by its front, stopping it from opening that maw to launch the mud projectiles it was so fond of. Furious shrieks of anger erupted from within the creature's maw, muffled by the grip on it Shiro's Sacred Gear possessed, as it writhed and shook in a frenzy to try and rip itself free of its unexpected and unwelcome restraints, but Rashomon wouldn't let its prey go so easily. Not in a battle of monsters, nor any situation.
While this happened...
"Jinako, strike the open mouth! Uproot this fucker like plucking a weed!"
"Right!"
Shiro quickly shouted the following command to his companion who gave her acknowledgement. Summoning a bunch of Dangos, Jinako had them hurled into the open mouth from which the remaining head protruded from, causing massive explosions a few seconds after they sank inside. These explosions elected a furious yet pained cry from within the Tentacle Shiro had restrained, the male cringing as he felt its movements become increasingly erratic as a result of this. However, he forced it to remain still despite its attempts to violently break free, keeping it steady…
RIGHT as Jinako shot forwards and, with a war cry similar to a nordic valkyrie charging into battle, hacked into the weakened base with her axe to completely cleave the Tentacle out from the root.