Chapter 23: Candid Actions

Kaiza woke up, finding himself on a beach, he sat up slowly, looking around, seeing a different location, then the location he was last time. He removed the shirt from his head, due to the screaming no longer roaring out, he got up looking around, seeing that the three were missing and he started walking down the beach.

The area was quiet and empty for what felt like hours, a small gust of wind blew up, hitting his eyes, he went to cover them, once the wind died down, Kaiza opened his eyes and was met with a long line of humanoid beings, he stepped out of the line and started walking down the line, looking forward an end.

What felt like ever once again, Kaiza was finally able to make it to the front of the line, at least what looked like the front of the line, but what greeted him, was a tall visage of a man, wearing a long cloak, with a long snake tail, the man was wrapping their tail around different points of one of the people in line, the tail was wrapped around different number of times, before they were sent through the gate.

The man turned their head, looking down at Kaiza.

"Have ye come, to be given the trial to see which gate you are to be sent to?" The Man asked.

"Um I'm not too sure, is there any other way to go down to the next floor?" Kaiza asked.

"There is no other path down, you have to be given my trial to be sent down." The Man said.

Kaiza started looking around, then thought back through the time he ran down the line, finding something odd.

"Hey excuse me." Kaiza said.

"I am King Minos." Minos said.

"Yeah whatever, so have you seen three humanoid animals, a horny Leopard, angry Lion and a shifty looking She-Wolf?" Kaiza asked.

"I have, I have taken care of them, they have left the area they were meant to guard." Minos said.

"What do you mean by 'taken care of?" Kaiza asked, glaring up at the man.

"I have sent them to their respective floors of the Nine Trials." Minos said.

Kaiza ran up, but before he was able to do anything, as he felt short of breath, falling to his knees, gasping for air, looking up at Minos.

"Foolish mortal, the air is different the closer you are to the gate of the second floor, the air is sucked out of this area, to accumulate in the floor below." Minos said. "Shortness of breath, fast movement, moving around too much will only weaken you more, that is the first test of the Nine Trials, making it past me, until then."

The snake tail connected to Minos, picked up Kaiza and threw him all the way back, to the back of the line. Kaiza hit the ground rolling, punching the ground yelling.

"King Minos, I'm going to beat this damn trail and save my companions!" Kaiza yelled, using up the rest of his breath, passing out.

Ōritsu's Noble House

Of the few times Hikari was let out of her room, long enough to do few necessary livable customs, she would see the silent moving Ripa, she would try to call out to him, gaining no response and a few snide remarks from Ōritsu the few times he was at the Noble House. Hikari didn't know where he would go when he was gone, but he would most likely be at the location of the Lord of Madness or Master of the Sinful Seven.

While locked in her room, Hikari would tie up her dress she was given, checking if the window was unlocked, she pulled out a knife that she snuck away. She used the knife to mess with the lock, to break it open, opening the curtains, peeking her head out the window, seeing a few story drop, she moved into a sitting position on the windowsill, then pulled herself up onto the roof.

"For being a cop, if I want to save my man, I'm going to have to break a lot of rules, but seeing how this isn't the normal world, it doesn't matter." Hikari thought to herself.

She stood up, but kept herself in crouched position, moving herself along the roofs tiles, as she continued making her way along the roof, hiding herself away while there were guards, getting close to her location, until she heard something, but moved slightly closer, but the tile under one of her feet, slipped out under her, falling off the roof.

She wanted to scream out, but kept quiet. The only thing that kept her going was rescuing Akumu, she held her eyes tight, right before she hit the ground, her movement slowed and she landed gently on the ground, behind some bushes. She moved up slowly, looking around, then looked up, seeing from where she fell.

"That is odd, I fell roughly three stories, while the fall wouldn't have killed me, it would have most likely injured me, then how did I survive?" Hikari thought to herself.

Before she could react fully, a bell started ringing, she didn't want to admit it, but it was mostly likely a bell to signal that she had been found that she had ran away, she moved to get up, but a small glint from a buried spot in the ground, she dug it up, finding a small jewelry box, she slid it into her dress, by the time the guards found her taking her to Ōritsu.

"Do you really think you could break out within my domain and not get away with it?" Ōritsu asked.

Hikari simply spit on his face, causing Ōritsu to wipe it off his face, then slapped her face hard, then ordered his men to bring her to a new room that she shouldn't be able to get out from. Once Hikari was thrown into her new room, she started rummaging through her dress, finding the jewelry box and taking it out, opening it.

Once the box was opened, a musical song started playing, looking through the box, not finding anything except for the song. At a different part of the Noble House, where Ripa currently was, unknown to the others due to his helmet, tears were running down his cheeks, even though he was still under control.

Once the song finally ended, a small light shone from within, coming out slowly, floating in front of Hikari.

"Hello dear child, you may not believe but I am the spirit of Shi Hikari, I was never able to fully pass on." Shi Hikari spoke.

"How was that jewelry box even there, shouldn't it just be a location within the Chaos Realm?" Hikari asked.

"That is true, but it was created by the original. I used some magic while hiding key items, to save Akumu." Shi Hikari said.

"Then whose memory of the past is correct, Akumu or Oritsu's?" Hikari asked.

"The thing is, they are both correct, but there are still missing pieces that I will help you with by showing you them, but to learn the complete story you will need to find three more items." Shi Hikari said. "But you may have trouble getting out of here, so with each memory you recover, I will assist you with finding the next."

Hikari nodded, as the light slowly floated toward her, then into head, as pieces of memories started flowing in fragments.

833 Years Ago

Akumu was sitting on a bed, there was fresh blood on his face, that didn't belong to him, tears streaming down his cheeks, hearing the sound of the door opening, looking up to see Shi Hikari, her eyes widened, as he turned his head away so she wouldn't have to see,

"T-They are all dead, Ōritsu made me kill my entire clan. I-I thought it would be a simple job, but something inside of me made me slaughter them." Akumu said.

Hikari walked over to him, wrapping her arms around her head, pulling it into her stomach, not caring if blood messes up her dress.

"You couldn't help it, Ōritsu's power has control over all of us, the only way to end him would be for one of us to get close enough to kill him." Hikari said.

Unknown time went by

Akumu was staking out a location for Ōritsu, finding an old marking that was a symbol of his clan, once raising his right hand and lightly touched it, the sound of a whistle rang through his ears, he placed his remaining hand on the symbol, trembling as tears ran down his cheeks.

"You're all still alive!" Akumu said a loud, turning around seeing the ghostly visages of his remaining members, until they faded away by the wind.

Akumu fell to his knees, slamming his fists into the ground screaming out loud, crying even louder, until the shine of a small object shone from the location, the visages of his clan were located. He moved toward picking up the small object, seeing it was a ring, which looked similar to the family rings, but this was one that he knew nothing about, but he felt a warm feeling from within.

Present Day

"So what did anything of that tell me?" Hikari asked.

"Akumu may have killed his clan, but there may be ones who have remained, but are staying in hiding." Shi Hikari said.

"Where is the …" Before Hikari could finish.

Someone pounded on her door, with Shi Hikari returning to a ball of light, floating into Hikari, as a location for the next item appeared in Hikari's mind. She took a deep breath, then focused herself, with her next plan to find the location.

Dreadnought Crusader

Arch and Ochita were fighting each other, Ochita brought his hands up, bringing his claws down toward Arch, as Arch used his Sanitatem Polearm to block the attack, by using the length of the polearm to block the attack, he then proceeded to spin the polearm around, using the butt of the polearm to smack Ochita in the face, causing Ochita to stumble back, but only to reveal an evil grin.

"I know your fighting style and this isn't it, you have strayed too far from your old way of fighting." Ochita said.

Before Arch could respond, Ochita vanished from his view, as Ochita had moved fast enough out of the way, to appear to the right of him, bringing his clawed hand against the right side of Arch's head, hitting him hard enough sending him sprawling along the ground. Arch got up slowly, looking forward, just in time to see Ochita's left knee slam into his face.

"Come on, fight like you used to, fight like the guy, I grew to admire, fucking fight me!" Ochita screamed.

Panting, getting up slowly, vision blurry, Arch pulled out a card, slipping it into Heaven's Schiff, turning into Arch (Uriel), opening Lucet Nouvelle and ripped out two pieces of paper.

"Luce Ens!" Heaven's Schiff chimed.

Arch threw the pieces of paper, which created clones of him, one in his Raphael and Gabriel forms. Seeing this Ochita only let out a half-pleased laugh, as Arch stood up, the Raphael charged at Ochita, repeatedly at Ochita, with him swaying away from the attacks, until he felt three arrows lodge into his back, this caused him to slow down, as the Raphael clone, smacked him several times with the butt of it's Polearm.

As the attack was aiming for his head, Ochita in a swift motion grabbed a hold of the polearm, spitting blood out of his mouth.

"I thought you would come out to fight me seriously and kill me!" Ochita yelled. "But no you only used your clones to fight and subdue me, you aren't taking this fight seriously!"

"I am fighting you …" Before Arch could finish Ochita yelled out.

"If you fucking fought me seriously, you would give them the orders to kill me!" Ochita yelled out, pulling the polearm toward him, pulling the clone with it.

The Gabriel clone shot arrows at him, Ochita took the Raphael clone, using him as a shield to block the arrows, then pushed the body toward the other clone, taking the polearm and throwing it through them, looking toward Arch angry.

"I fucking killed your parents, to get to where I am!" Ochita yelled.

Something snapped inside Arch, causing him to roar out, charging at Ochita, pulling out another piece of paper.

"Cultrum lucere!" Heaven's Schiff chimed, forming a knife in Arch's hand.

He lunged at Ochita, knocking him to the ground, raising the knife above him, yelling out slamming the knife down toward Ochita, but before the knife could connect, a barrier covered Ochita, causing Ochita to groan.

"Looks like my time is up, it was fun seeing you." Ochita said, grinning.

Arch let out another roar, pushing the knife through the barrier hard enough, jamming the knife into his tiger stripe birthmark, causing Ochita to scream out in pain and vanish. Arch fell to the ground screaming loudly, slamming his fists into the ground, as Sora, Jan and Ryu watched from the command center.

Jan looked down at his gloved hand, then looked up at Ryu, who had a concerned look on his face, Jan closed his hand, leaving the room, looking at his own reflection in a pane of glass, he blinked then was met with his grotesque form that he had taken when he used the Forbidden Arts against Wrath, what Jan didn't see was the grotesque was slowly spreading up his arm.

Unknown Location

Ochita fell to the ground, clenching his now missing eye screaming in pain, he heard footsteps, looking up to see the Lord of Madness.

"Give me the powers to kill them all!" Ochita yelled.

Lord of Madness only looked down at him displeased, charging an energy blast in his hands, aiming it at him, this only caused Ochita to get angier, as he stood his ground creating his claws.

"A dog shouldn't bare his fangs, at the one who helped him, you were useless, now it is only right to kill you." Lord of Madness said.

"You bastard!" Ochita roared, the wound glowed, gaining a slight demonic appearance.

Lord of Madness unleashed the blast, until it was easily stopped by the Master, the Lord of Madness looked at him angry.

"What was that for, I have all the rights to kill this useless mongrel!" Lord of Madness yelled.

The Master looked back at him, then went over to Ochita, grabbing him by the head, tilting it to the side, to examine the slight demonic eye, then threw him to the ground, walking toward his throne.

"The fuck was that for!?" Ochita yelled.

The Master simply sat down, then looked toward him, raising his right hand creating a seal in front of him and only said.

"Form a contract with me and you will have all the power you crave."

"He is mine, you have no right!" Lord of Madness yelled.

"Yours?" The Master said. "The useless mongrel, or is it you're really upset because I have offered him a contract."

The Master looked toward him, grinning evilly.

"You can't tell me you're not interested, on what could happen when a human forms a contract only meant for demons?" The Master said calmly.

The Lord of Madness was a loss for words to what he was hearing.

"Will it kill me?" Ochita asked.

The Lord of Madness looked at him, then The Master spoke up.

"Yes."

"Then I will sign it." Ochita said, getting up, going toward The Master, placing his hand upon the seal, then let out a scream of pain.

Nine Trails: Floor One Limbo

Kaiza was once again launched back to the end of the line, he let out a loud scream and hit the ground. He got up, walking over to a rock, scratching a line into the rock, showing a total of fifty lines. Kaiza slumped to the ground against the rock, he pulled out a small flask of water that he was able to build from some scraps laying around, he took a sip of the water forcing it down.

"Fuck that tastes horrible, pretty sure what I just drank was that of someone's liquefied soul, but it's the only thing I could drink, welp who ever you were, thanks for the drink." Kaiza said to himself, raising the flask into the air, then hearing the ting of something clicking against it followed by a voice.

"Thank you for being my last drinking partner, my actions while alive cost me too much, I just wish my family were better off without me around." A Female's Voice said.

Kaiza looked toward the direction of the voice, then he stood up, pointing his right index and middle fingers toward the voice, the white gem around his neck started glowing, he then moved his fingers in a circles, pulling his hand back, then thrusts his entire palm forward, as a light started surrounding the voice, they slowly grew a figure of a tired looking business women, she looked up at Kaiza, with tears in her eyes.

"T-They didn't hate me, I-I thought negatively of them, t-thank you for showing me that." The Female said, smiling then fading away.

Kaiza tossed his flask away, walking around the rock, scratching a line into it, showing a total of one hundred lines, a booming voice roared out.

"HOW DARE YOU, GET OVER HERE NOW!"

"Looks like that would be enough to get him angry, time for this trial over once and for all." Kaiza said.

He got into a good position then started toward the direction of King Minos, getting there in no time, his time here was very screwy, there is no light and dark, nothing to show how much time has passed, it felt like everything was in the state of Limbo. In no time Kaiza made it back to King Minos, looking up seeing the fury in his eyes and Kaiza could only give a smirk.

"Oh no is the big meany, all angy from all the help I have been causing him, what should I do, but feel oh so sad, for what I did." Kaiza said, in a mocking tone.

King Minos' teeth started grinding, using two of his snake tails to go and grab a hold of Kaiza to rip him apart.

"I only let you live, because I thought you would shrivel up and die, but you have been a thorn in my side, I'm just going to kill you here and now!" King Minos said loudly.

"Get in line, so many people want me dead." Kaiza said, jumping out of the way from the attack. "You may be a literal big bad guy, you aren't a problem for me, my time here has made me able to handle this thin air, now if you don't mind, I have some unlikely allies to save."

Kaiza ran toward the entrance of the Second Trial, as he continued dodging the attacks of King Minos, as the roar of King Minos echoed from behind Kaiza as he made it past him, going through the doors and down into the Second Trial. Once he finally set foot at the bottom of the steps, a strong gust of wind took a hold of him, knocking him backwards, hitting the wall hard, trying to stand up straight he was knocked side to side, due to all the strong gusts of wind.

A low growl rippled through the sound of the strong wind, covering his eyes from the wind, Kaiza caught the glimpse of a large monstrous Demon-Like Leopard.

"Be is that you, I came to help." Kaiza said.

The Leopard only growled even louder, lounging at Kaiza, he rolled to the side and ended up hanging from a rock ledge, watching the Leopard move closer, Kaiza took a breath, then let go of the ledge, following down into the dark void.

Dreadnought Crusader Garage

From within the garage of the Dreadnaught Crusader, Angelic Chariot Arch's personal motorcycle, started to roar alive, with no driver at all.