Chapter 28: Ending the Game

Oritsu kept his eyes on the prize, he had his soldiers move faster, so they could reach the Master's fortress, so he can finally kill him along with the Lord of Madness, an evil grin covered his face, he was ready to have everything at his fingertips, like it should have always been, with him being the king of everything.

"You know Oritsu, the view from here is quite something." A male voice spoke up.

Oritsu's eyes widened, as his gaze moved up to find Ripa sitting atop his throne, Ripa had his right elbow on his right knee, with his chin resting in his open palm, Oritsu jumped off the throne, ordering his soldiers to attack. Ripa hopped off the throne, walking toward the soldiers, then just simply walked past them, a few seconds after walking by them, the soldiers fell to the ground and they weren't reforming.

Oritsu couldn't believe what he was seeing, because he couldn't see anything, all he saw was Ripa walk past the soldiers, then they dropped dead a few seconds later.

"Oritsu, what is wrong? You seem tense, would you like a shoulder massage?" Ripa said, raising his right hand, flexing his fingers, as the Death Scythe appeared in his hands, with the blade of it nestled lightly against the back of Oritsu's neck. "One quick pull and it would get all that big ego off your weak shoulders."

"How dare you say that I have a big ego!" Oritsu said, clearing his mind, sending a thought wave toward Ripa to take control of him once again.

Ripa stopped in place, Oritsu started laughing out loudly and gleefully, since he had regained control over his most faithful plaything.

"Now Ripa go and kill your comrades one again!" Oritsu yelled.

"How does Kaiza do it again?" Ripa questioned, then raised up his left arm, flipping Oritsu off. "How about fuck you?"

"How, how is it that you're able to resist my power!" Oritsu shouted.

"Maybe because you no longer have control of me and my mind." Ripa said, sending a thought wave into Oritsu's mind.

Oritsu took a hold of his head, falling to the ground causing a small rust colored, he let out a blood curdling scream, feeling his mind slowly get eaten away, or what felt like it anyway, he fell to the ground, shaking as he continued screaming.

"Oh poor screaming lowlife peasant, you look nothing like an actual king." Ripa said, looking down at Oritsu.

"Don't be so full of yourself!" Oritsu yelled.

His body started convulsing differently than before, he yelled up into the sky, as his head split in two, a large black ooze tentacle shot out from the middle of it, it slammed into the ground, lifting Oritsu's lifeless body into the sky, more black ooze tentacles shot out, each one slammed into the ground, the first one grew into a long snake-like tail, while the remaining tentacles became nine black ooze snake-like heads.

Ripa watched faking a yawn, then started running toward the large black ooze hydra, Ripa arched back his right arm, shooting it forward, throwing the Death Scythe, with the speed and force, it acted like a large buzzsaw, one of the snake-like heads tried to stop it, but the scythe, beheading the snake-like head. Two of the heads slammed down toward the ground, Ripa got down, from running fast, sliding under the attack, pushing himself off the ground, getting back onto his feet, he summon a War Ax, slamming it into the side of the hydra, then started running again, cutting a deep gash along its side.

The hydra roared out, moving to the side, slamming its tail into the side of Rip, in turn slamming him into its side, as he was also hit into the other side of his War Ax, gasping out for air. He slumped over the tail, then took a hold of it, the hydra whipped the tail into the sky, once this happened, he let go floating in the air for a bit and slapped his hands together, spreading them apart summoning several Famine Daggers.

He moved his hands back, then shot them forward, sending all the daggers into the hydra's back, he summoned the Pestilence Spear, then put the Conquest Ring into the Apocalypse Driver.

"Apocalyptic Finisher!" Apocalypse Driver chimed. "Sickly Slice."

A long green energy blade, extended from the tip of the spear's blade, then started spinning downward toward the hydra's back, forming a green sawblade-like attack, right before he made contact the blade expanded and cut the hydra right down the middle. Ripa shot forward, watching as the hydra withered in pain, then it started slowly reforming, as Ripa took this chance, to put the Conquest Ring into the Apocalypse Driver again.

"Apocalyptic Finished!" Apocalypse Driver chimed. "Conquest Over the Horizon!"

Ripa slapped his hands together, then brought them up above his head, spreading them open creating a peacock-like tail array of all the weapons that Ripa has personally used, then shot his hands forward, launching all the weapons he summoned, into the hydra, as each blade proceeded to rip apart the hydra, the hydra let out a cry of pain, until it fell done slowly fading away.

Ripa started walking toward the decaying hydra, seeing a dying Oritsu.

"You cannot kill the great and mighty Oritsu!" Oritsu yelled, while coughing up blood.

Ripa just looked down at him, without saying anything, he slowly raised his right foot, then slammed it down, the only thing that could be heard was Oritsu screaming and the sound of a crunch as Ripa curb stomped Oritsu's head in. He removed the Apocalyptic Driver, letting his form fade away, staying there quietly, until he heard footsteps walking up behind him.

"Hey Akumu are you okay over there?" Gishiki asked.

Akumu turned his head toward them, giving them a genuine smile.

"Oh hey guys, I'm perfect, how about you guys?" Akumu said.

"Oh god, he is too happy, what happened to his doom and gloom, I'm scared." Jan said.

"Akumu are you okay, what about Hikari?" Sora asked.

"I will see here once this is all over, I have no anger anymore, all that is left is to take out the Lord of Madness and the Master." Akumu said.

Gishiki stayed quiet, as he knew he would be having to fight Ochita very soon, Akumu caught up on his reaction, walking up to him, lightly punching his left shoulder with his right fist.

"You got this, I will stay out of your fight." Akumu said.

Gishiki looked at him slightly in shock, but just lightly shook his head.

"Alright everyone Oritsu was heading in that direction." Akumu said, pointing toward the direction Oritsu was going before he was stopped. "That is most likely the direction of the current location of the Master of Madness and the Master, so onward to victory!"

Akumu made his way toward the Dreadnought Crusader, as the other three looked at each other.

"I'm already missing the old version of Akumu." Jan said.

Sora sighed then started making her way toward the Dreadnought Crusader, as the other two started following her from behind.

Nine Trials: Floor Six Heresy

As Kaiza made his way through the gates to the City of Dis, he lightly shook his back, feeling what felt like the angel wings started folding up, until they disappeared, he stretched his arms back, patting the spots that the wings just were.

"Well that was weird, say anyway, where am I?" Kaiza said, then waited for a bit. "Great, I'm talking to myself now."

Kaiza rubbed his head, looking around, seeing the land before him looked like it had been easily charred from many burnings, he started walking along the land, seeing tomb-like indentations in the ground, with tombstones both them, he made is way toward one of them, looking inside of it seeing a man withering in pain and screaming. Kaiza wondered why he couldn't hear the screaming at first, he lightly picked his ear, then looked down at the screaming man, as pieces of the tombstone broke and fell off, catching fire and stoning the man.

Kaiza looked around, seeing similar holes, there were some people trying to crawl out of the holes, but were stopped by Fallen Angels that appeared before them, pushing them back into the hole, Kaiza just shrugged making his way through the charred lands, some Fallen Angels appeared before him, trying to push him into a hole, but right before their hands touched him, they would stop and vanish.

As Kaiza continued walking, he found a large tomb-like indentation, looking inside of the hole, seeing a man wearing an outfit of oriental and modern looking, the man was holding his head, screaming loudly about having his head broken by the damn grim reaper, this caught Kaiza's attention.

"So the big bad grim reaper got you?" Kaiza asked. "And how did her do that, with a scythe, maybe a war ax, oh wait maybe it was a bunch of daggers."

The man looked up toward Kaiza, his eyes showing pure anger.

"You!" Oritsu yelled. "How can you still be alive, the Master of Madness, said you would easily die down here without the power of wanting to protect your friends."

"And why would he think that, my friends don't need my protection, since one of them easily killed you." Kaiza said, crouching down, placing his elbows on his knees, resting his head in his palms. "So are you having fun down there, or are you going to keep screaming like a big baby?"

Oritsu roared at him, getting up jumping at him, until a fallen angel appeared, pushing him back in, Kaiza raised his right hand, for a high five, but the fallen angel just vanished, seeing that Kaiza's hand and head drooped low. Looking back down at Oritsu, watching him scream in pain again, as he was stoned with a flaming piece of rock, Kaiza sat there watching the man scream in pain, he then let out a sigh, got up and started strolling along the charred path.

While walking along the path, he started clapping his hands and humming, he was bored out of his mind, it's been some time he was all on his own, since the destruction of Hell's Access II Kai had been silent, he started doing a small dance, looking up he saw a fallen angel just staring at him, Kaiza did a jig over to the fallen angel, he raised his right hand for a high five, but the fallen angel vanished, as Kaiza's head and hand drooped down.

Kaiza just stretched, then started walking along the path, he saw what looked like the end of the path, signifying the end of of his time on this floor, hoping he will have something more eventful to do on the next floor then this one, while walking toward the next gate, though it wasn't a large gate as the others, it was more of a smaller in design, connecting to the smaller gate was a metal fence, most likely there to keep people from falling into the next floor. While looking down toward the next floor, he could vaguely see what looked like a boiling red lake, the roar of a lion roared up from the floor, as Kaiza gripped the metal fence, knowing the next floor would be pretty dangerous without the ability to transform.

Kaiza continued along the path to finish his journey, but before he reached the gate a small group of Fallen Angels appeared in front of him.

"Wow thanks everyone for the celebration of me leaving, I felt so loved while I was here, I was just so bored from the lack of anything to do." Kaiza said.

Upon looking at the small group of the Fallen Angels, Kaiza noticed that they had a more noble-like appearance from the ones working on keeping the people in their burning tombs, so they must have been the head honchos or something.

"So the prophesied child has come upon us?" The Head Fallen Angel said.

"Holy crap you guys can talk?" Kaiza asked.

"Ignoring that, you're the Child of the Demon are you not?" The Head Fallen Angel asked.

Kaiza raised his left hand, showing them the symbol on the back of his hand, the Head of the Fallen Angels lightly nodded his head, looking intently at Kaiza, then began to speak.

"Is Lord Ziolos with us now?"

Kaiza shook his head, explaining his problem with not being able to speak with Kia, after Hell's Access II broke apart, the Head of the Fallen Angels, soaked in this information thinking what to do.

"Was Kia the Child of the Demon when he was alive?" Kaiza asked.

"No and his siblings weren't known as their Epitaphs either, well maybe except for one of them, you are all meant to go through a deadly trial to fully come upon your title as a Child of Destiny, you are about to finish your trial young Master Kaiza, you just have two major revelations left to find out." The Head Fallen Angel explains.

"Then what are the last two revelations that I need to learn?" Kaiza asked.

"That is something I cannot say, for you have to continue your journey through the last three gates before you can return to your friends safely, you have to hurry because a terrifying man is about to be reborn." The Head Fallen Angel said.

"Wait what!" Kaiza said aloud. "Isn't the final fight against the Lord of Madness and the Master of the Sinful Seven?"

"They are just pawns of the true mastermind, we cannot sense this man, his presence has been missing for centuries, so be on the look-out when fighting them, this man could be anywhere." The Head Fallen Angel said.

Kaiza starts trying to figure out the knowledge he was just given, then remembering he shouldn't be focused on this right now, since we still have to continue his way through the Nine Trials.

"Thank you, for informing me, I will try my best to finish the Nine Trial before my life is fully sucked away." Kaiza said determined. "Anyway, do you know how long I have been in the Nine Trials?"

"Yes, we have been tracking you since you first entered the Nine Trials." The Head Fallen Angel said, looking back at one of the other noble looking Fallen Angel, which gave him a small scroll.

The Head unrolled the scroll reading it for a bit, until his face turned sorrowful.

"You have roughly 2 days left to live." The Head said.

"Welp I better start running now." Kaiza said, running off toward the gates.

As he was running, a different Fallen Angel appeared in front of him, they raised their right hand, this caused Kaiza to grin, running by them and slapping their right hand with his for a high five, then pushed the smaller metal gates and started running down the steps.

"Sir he has less than 2 days, why did you tell him he had about 2 days?" A Fallen Angel asked.

"Who knows, I have a feeling like he can save us all." The Head said.

Lord of Madness' Main Fortress

"Oritsu has fallen, which means the feeble humans will be on their way here." The Lord of Madness said.

The Master was humming softly, while putting on a button up shirt, his human appearance was fully revived, he had brown hair slicked back, piercing gray eyes, he left the upper half of the shirt unbutton, to feel cocky, while wearing pressed black dress pants and dress up shoes.

"Are you even fucking paying attention to me!" The Lord of Madness yelled.

"Of course I am, does it even matter, we will be able to take them." The Master said calmly.

"Why the fuck should I be calm, we lost a quarter of this army!" The Lord of Madness yelled.

From the corner of his eye, he saw movement, looking toward the movement, seeing a black ooze snake, making its way toward the Master, saying nothing hoping that it will just attack and kill him, since he was revived he has been annoying him the entire time with his cocky attitude. The black ooze snake, coiled back, launched toward the Master, slamming into his back, seeping into him.

The Master hunched back, yelling in pain, as the Lord of Master watched gleefully, the Master raised his left hand toward the Lord of Madness, like a call for help, but he didn't want to help him at all, before he knew it, a black ooze tendril shot out, wrapping around his throat, he was toward the Master and slammed into the wall, with the Master only grinning evilly.

"Poor simple fool, do you really think that would really kill me? I was waiting for it to return, so I will have a small portion of my powers to return." The Master said, then dropped the Lord of Madness on the ground, walking away.

The Lord of Madness gasped for air, looking toward the Master, catching a glimpse of his face from a mirror he walked by, seeing his gray eyes, the color red, until they returned to normal.

"If you are going to be serious about this upcoming fight, then I recommend returning to your normal form, the form of a child will do you nothing, with people trying to kill you." The Master spoke.

The Lord of Madness sat there, standing up as his form started to shudder, until he grew into a medium sized being, with gray scales, with the appearance of long slender arms, his waist was connected to a large snake-like tail, his face extended into that of a viper.

The Master sounded off a small whistle, summoning Acadia, she looked upon the true form of the Lord of Madness for the first time, the slyness of a snake was always there, Shortly after Acadia entered the room, another being entered the room, their appearance was that of a large demonic humanoid looking tiger, with a large scar covering his right eye, his hulky mass looked like he could rip anyone apart with ease.

"Welcome to the start of our eternal party everyone, it is time to begin our slaughter of these feeble humans" The Master said. "Acadia, has your setup been completed?"

"Yes my lord, I finished it mere minutes ago." Acadia said.

"This is good to know, when we are ready, I will let you know when to open the gates to the Human World." The Master said.

"As you wish my lord." Acadia said.

"Now let's go meet our little feeble humans and see who will be coming out alive in the end." The Master said, then started laughing loudly.

The Lord of Madness felt unnerved again, as he noticed the Master's eyes turned into the color red once again, until they returned to being gray. The Lord of Madness had no idea what was happening inside the Master, as he was being transformed from the inside into something or someone terrifying.