Chapter 129: Reversing Nomus

People nearby watched as a twelve-year-old girl in a dress smash a nomu's brain to oblivion and became speechless.

Everyone who was currently present was a pro hero that was strong in their own right. Otherwise, they wouldn't be allowed to be here fighting on the front lines - they would be at the rear end to support from the back or be helping the citizens evacuate.

Several heroes faced against a single nomu, yet they still could not fight evenly against one nomu. It was a humiliating scene.

"Hey! That girl can kill a nomu by herself! Why can't we do it?!"

A random hero suddenly spoke up, causing everyone to wake up from their stupor, "If she can do it, why can't we, the pro heroes who were supposed to protect the people, do it as well?!"

The hero's words were awe-inspiring, and many heroes started to rise up and fight back against the nomus with more might.

Eri didn't lag behind the hero and played her flute once more.

"March!"

It was a strange tune to come out from a flute, yet it sounded oddly unique to the ears.

Heroes who were initially struggling to even dodge the fast punches and abilities now had more strength to defend themselves so that they would at least not fly back fifty meters every time a punch was landed on them.

Eri's flute was not only an instrument, and unlike a piano that Shido had, Eri's seventy centimeters long flute could be used as a very durable weapon as well. Though she wouldn't use it to pierce through the brain matter since she would be placing her mouth on the flute, she could redirect some of the attacks aimed at her.

A vine-like tentacle that was barbed with thorns slashed in her direction. Eri didn't panic and calmly used her flute to reflect the tentacle back at the attacker.

Angels were separated into ten different categories known as 'Genus'.

The first genus was light; the second, Information; the third, Shadow; the fourth, Ice; the fifth, Fire; the sixth, Sealing; the seventh, Transformation; the eighth, Wind; the ninth, Sound; and the tenth, Substance or Material.

According to Rasiel, Genus 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 accounted for 80% of all Angels. Genus 2, 6, 7 are viewed as uncommon, with Genus 3 being extremely rare below 1%.

Eri's Angel was known as Ariel, made up of a powerful combination of the ninth and tenth genus, Sound and Time, respectively. There was a minor part belonging to the first genus, Light, and more specifically, under the 'healing' category.

Ariel's abilities have a wide range of uses, from mind manipulation and sound attacks to minor healing and buffing her allies.

It was even capable of boosting Eri's central ability, Time manipulation. Though it wasn't as good as Zafkiel based on the variety of uses, Ariel was capable of rewinding and fast-forwarding time in an area, something Zafkiel cannot do since Zafkiel leaned more towards single targets rather than an area of effect.

"Original move: Sound of Rewinding Time."

Dodging each and every blow from the tentacled, bird-like nomu, Eri started playing her flute again.

This time, however, the music played wasn't good. In fact, it was downright terrible.

The music sounded as if it was being played backwards.

However, the effects were anything but terrible. The nomus who heard it slowly started spasming on the spot, and taking the opportunity given, the heroes immediately unleashed all their super moves at the nomus.

However, the normal heroes couldn't deal much damage to the nomus since their defense and regeneration were too high for them.

However, the nomus couldn't defend against a natural world order, 'time'.

Their abnormalities - wings, tentacles, chainsaw limbs, spiked backs, vein-like tongues, razor-sharp teeth, bird-like beaks, and many more - started shrinking back to their body.

"ARRRGHAAH!"

"BALRUGHRFA!!"

"KEEKEEKEE!!!!"

Random sounds and noises were produced by those nomus as they grabbed their heads and brains in pain.

Their disgustingly long and dirty fingernails shrunk back into their fingers, the black skins returning to their original colors. Their exposed brains, which pulsed gruesomely, were slowly shrinking back to their original size, though it wasn't by much.

Their screams slowly turned recognizable as all sorts of yelling could be heard from the now-humans now.

"ARGH!! MY BODY!!! IT HURTS!!!!!!"

"MY BRAIN!!! I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!!"

"HELP! END THIS SUFFERING!!"

"MY EARS! THIS MUSIC IS SO TERRIBLE!!"

Eri pouted at that last comment and started playing even more vigorously, obviously aiming at those nomus as their bodies slowly changed back to their human shapes.

However, Eri had to pause her music as she saw a colossal rubble piece flying towards her and felt a vast shockwave coming from the fight.

"Tch!"

Eri clicked her tongue in annoyance as she started flying away. She didn't need to dodge the rubble as her music would handle it for her, but the shockwave on the ground would make her lose her balance, something that would have put her in danger in a fight.

Eri's compatibility with the Sephira crystal was above average, so she could immediately play some tunes that were ingrained into her mind the moment her integration was over.

Even then, she could not become a professional musician in just one month. She could play while standing still, but simultaneously moving around, dodging the attacks, and playing the music was still a bit too hard for her.

Thus, she opted to fly towards the air and immediately continued playing her horrible music.

Those nomus, now humans, were relieved when the music ended. However, because they weren't fully rewound, the multiple quirks still in their body were going berserk.

"ARGHHHHHHH!!!"

Upon hearing the music again, the ex-nomus started calming down as they felt all the power leaving their bodies.

"Phew..." After ensuring that all the integrated quirks had disappeared from their bodies, Eri sighed in relief as she looked at where the main fight was happening.

"Nooo!!"

Although most of the humans were happy, some were crying in sadness. Most were forced into these cruel experiments without their consent. However, unlike them, some actually wanted more power regardless of any consequences.

Eri made sure that her music affected them even more, rewinding back to a time before quirks even existed, making them as powerless as an ordinary quirkless person.

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Seeing Ryukyu move forward and stopping Shigaraki from reaching him, Aizawa let out a cry of worry, "Ryukyu!!"

Ryukyu's entire body was bloodied and full of wounds, but it didn't stop her from intercepting Shigaraki.

"Argh!" Ryuku roared in pain as she felt Shigaraki's arm pierce through scales and claws, reaching the other end.

"SHIGARAKI!! I can't forgive the likes of you!!" Izuku yelled out in righteous anger as he wrapped his black whip around Shigaraki and tried to pull him back.

"I don't forgive any of you!!" Shigaraki said, and before Izuku could process what he had just said, he felt a decisive blow to his stomach.

Unlike during training, where everyone held back at him, Shigaraki's action contained no traces of holding back. Izuku spat out some blood from his mouth from the impact into his solar plexus, while his eyes showed white, but a year of being a punching back had trained him to be more durable.

'Convert this rage...into power!!'

Remembering the pro hero's words, Izuku gritted his teeth in pain as the black whip thickened even further.

"Hold him tight, black whip!!"

Izuku was so focused on holding Shigaraki at the spot that he didn't even realize he had just talked to an inanimate object.

"Maintain that exact position Deku!!!" Endeavor commanded as he propelled himself forward to face Shigaraki.

'One more hit!! Squeeze it out!! If I can land just one more hit...'

Endeavor was already severely injured, but his determination to get rid of this villain motivated him to squeeze out his last drop of strength.

Shigaraki aimed the bullet at Aizawa through the small gap he could see, but Izuku obviously noticed it and tried to deal with Shigaraki.

"100% Wyoming smash!!!!!"

Shigaraki could feel that the heavy impact would land directly on his back, but his mouth still didn't let out a single scream and just bit the hand Izuku currently had across his neck.

Shigaraki had already released the bullet towards Aizawa, and his smile remained maniacal as he watched Aizawa immediately cut off his leg that got shot.

'I'll say it again...You're pretty cool, Eraser. However, my admiration doesn't trump your impending fate.'

Shigaraki's jaw was already dislocated, but it didn't stop him from using the remaining of his strength.

BOOOOM!

A huge shockwave was created as Izuku's attack finally landed. Using the opportunity that Izuku was knocked back, Shigarakai ignored the stinging pain on his back and immediately rushed forward to end the most irritating person's life: Aizawa's.

His quirk was still 'erased' as Aizawa managed to cut off the leg before his quirk was erased, but Shigaraki's physical strength could not be erased. All he needed to do, was to grab Aizawa's face and rip it off his head.

His fingers had already landed on Aizawa's face as he watched Aizawa glare back at him without flinching, but before he could swipe his claw-like fingers down, a huge ice block suddenly appeared from his left and pushed him away from Aizawa and straight into Izuku's left hook.

SMASH!!

Shigaraki's body flew back and smashed against the ice, creating more explosions, causing the ice shards to dig into Shigaraki's open back.

He immediately stood back up as he realized that he had successfully injured Aizawa's face, resulting in him closing his eyes.

"After you protect him, then what? Even if you so desperately try to delay it..."

The mist dispersed, revealing Shigaraki's upper body full of scars and smiling creepily, "...the only thing that awaits you is destruction..."

Shigaraki didn't care about the glare that the user of One for All was sending him. Now that Aizawa had finally closed his eyes, his quirk had returned.

"Now...die!"

Just as he was about to activate his quirk, a sudden gash appeared, cutting through from his right arm all the way to his left lung. Though it wasn't deep enough to injure his vital organs, it was deep enough that blood spluttered out of the wound without stopping.

"Eh? But...just now...oh...I see..." Shigaraki calmly observed his own wounds and made an analysis, "Surpassing my limits must have put a strain on my body. But shouldn't I be instantly healing from this wound from my regeneration? I've ascended now...I should be able to quickly...unless..."

"Hey..." Shigaraki looked up with his bloodshot eyes that matched the color of his hair, "What's today's date?"

Seeing Izuku remain silent at his question, Shigaraki wasn't mad. He knew that he had probably awakened earlier than expected, so his body had not entirely been 'completed' yet.

"It's fine. It's time to end this."

Saying this, Shigaraki activated his quirk, causing his entire surroundings within five meters to instantly become dust.

Izuku remembered Gran Torino's words and immediately used his black whip to tie all of the heroes present to bring them high up to the air where the decay would spread slower.

"Flying?"

As much as Izuku wanted to pound Shigaraki into pieces, he knew that he couldn't even touch Shigaraki for now when the decay was spreading 360 degrees from him.

Choosing to save the heroes' lives in his hands first, he quickly used the seventh user of OFA's quirk, float to fly them out of range, careful not to touch any decaying debris.

"You want to escape? Not until you give me One for All...!"

Shigaraki's physical capabilities were truly showcased at this point as he jumped up to reach Deku's height and started decaying the air, hoping for the decay to manage to spread to them fast enough before they move away.

Izuku managed to 'float' all of them away from the initial point of conflict, but before he could move any further than twenty meters, he saw Shigaraki jumping again to reach less than two meters away from them.

"No!"

Izuku yelled out in shock as he saw one of the heroes dangling behind him get hit by decay.

The hero started screaming in pain, but before Shigaraki could spread the decay even further, the same distorted music arrived in their ears, and the hero's leg was successfully regrown.

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