Chapter 30: Equal Answers

Gishiki sat in the middle of his room, with the necessary materials laid out, performing a ritual to get a hold of an angel for some divine protection for his upcoming fight. He prayed while waiting for the angel to appear, his mind went to a white void, and a female angel appeared before him.

"Thank you for accepting my prayers, I need your help for an upcoming fight." Gishiki said.

"I'm not here to help you." The angel said.

"Then why are you here?" Gishiki asked.

"She is here, to work as a vassal for me to appear." A voice spoke up.

An angel appeared with a crown upon his head, red cloth draped along his shoulders, he held a banner in his left hand and sword in his right hand, Gishiki could feel the immense aura radiating off of this angel, as he realized who it was, he dropped down to one knee, showing that he wasn't worthy to be in front of the noble archangel Micheal.

"Oh noble Micheal, what do I do to honor your appearance upon me?" Gishiki asked.

"You will be coming upon a difficult fight, I have come to offer you my assistance, I will bestow upon you my protection." Micheal said.

He raised up his sword bringing it down gently upon Gishiki's head, the tip of the blade started to shine brightly, the white void slowly faded, until his eyes slowly opened within his room on the Dreadnought Crusader, he looked around slowly, then looked down at his hands, placing them together, saying a small pray of thanks to the Archangel Michael. He stood up with a new sense of courage, leaving his room, making his way through the ship, passing a window, from the corner of his eye he saw something moving fast toward him, in a split second he changed into Arch (Raphael Form) blocking the attack with his polearm, the being gripped the pole hard and threw Arch out of the ship.

Arch tumbled along the the crimson sand, after slamming the polearm into the ground to stop his rolling, he looked up to see, a large demonic humanoid tiger hopping out of the hole, the creature started making his way toward Arch, an alarm from the Dreadnought Crusader started ringing out, as Arch's gaze was focused the tiger, until he noticed the large scar on its right eye, Arch was in shock as the words just came out of his mouth.

"Ochita?"

The demonic tiger only roared out.

"Ochita!" Arch screamed.

He fully got up, pulling his polearm back with his right hand, then starting spinning it around with one hand, with his left hand he pulled out a Contract Card, bringing it against Heaven's Schiff.

"Empowerment!" Heaven's Schiff chimed.

This caught Arch off guard, since this wasn't a card he had owned before, the polearm started changing in appearance, the bottom of the polearm's blade gained an angel wing like guard, but with the sharpness of a blade, the pole had white and gold colors spiraling down it. Strong energy then erupted from the spinning weapon, the energy flowed into Arch, his mind felt clear for the first time in a long time, his sight shifted toward the monstrous appearance of his former friend, he knew what he had to do, even if he hated it, but that is the thing, if he wasn't stopped now then him and the demons he is working for will break out and kill humans.

"Ochita, I'm sorry for throwing you away, but I will fight you with everything I got, I will protect the lives of all of our old gang, even if they don't know about my accomplishments, that is because a hero acts on what is right and not being self, I will defeat you even if it costs me my life!" Arch yelled out, gripping the polearm in both hands, slicing the ground to his right, unleashing a large white energy slice toward Ochita.

The energy slash, soared along the ground cutting a path toward Ochita, the slash collided with Ochita, once the dust cloud subsided, Arch could see Ochita was missing his right arm, part of his right said of his face and parts of his right leg. But before he could react, Ochita was already regenerating his lost pieces, in the blink of an eye, Ochita was already in front of Arch, punching him hard in the stomach, causing Arch to gasp for air.

Arch fell down onto his knees, trying to get his breathing straight.

"Arch!" A voice rang out.

Arch looked up to see Puppeteer in her Earth Phase, gliding along the sand, pulling out Diavolo's Hell Blade, slashing Ochita across the back, this distracting Ochita long enough for Arch to stab him in the chest. Ochita only roared out, causing a shockwave, but Arch and Puppeteer held on, Ochita grabbed the back of both of her necks and threw them to the side.

Dreadnought Crusader

Jan was standing in the giant hole that Ochita created to get Arch, he was holding bad arm, watching his two comrades fighting with all their all, since the encounter of transforming to save Hikari, the effects of Final Life were going faster, maybe if he stopped fighting now he could have a peaceful life, with Nora, he didn't want to admit it, for the first time in a long time he felt scared.

"Why are you not out there helping them?" A voice spoke up.

Jan looked over seeing Nora.

"Oh haha not feeling too well, I must have eaten something bad." Jan laughed off the question.

A faint slap echoed through the hallway, Jan looked toward Nora, raising her right hand to his cheek, Nora looked angry with tears in her eyes.

"Not feeling well!?" Nora yelled. "You're fucking scared, what happened to the man I married, you knew the results of using the damn move, you sacrificed your life to a guy you barely knew!"

Nora started slamming the bottom of her fists into his chest.

"Some guy who hasn't treated you right, he teases you, he yells at you!" Nora was still yelling, but her voice was getting shaky. "But I know you did the right thing, you're a great man, you're an idiot, but you never hated a comrade, Kaiza may have been a criminal but you knew better of him."

Nora continued slamming her fists into Jan's chest, tears running down her cheeks.

"Y-You have made me the happiest woman, Robert-Jan van de Dood I love you with all my heart, I wish this world was pretty for the both of us, I wanted to raise a family." Nora continued, grabbing a hold of Jan's shirt, shaking lightly.

Jan stood there lightly, he knew what he had to do, he hated making his wife upset, he moved his right hand down, taking a hold of Nora's chin, raising her head gently, wiping her tears away with his left hand, kissing her forehead, then kisses her lips and said under his breath.

"I love you and thank you."

He gave her a big hug, one last kiss, turning toward the fight going on, putting on Deus Vult and yelled.

"Henshin!"

Becoming Snelheid Heilige, briefly doubling over in pain, then shot out of the hole, yelling out loud. Nora fell to her knees, gripping her chest and started crying loudly.

Back with the Fight

Ochita roared out, blocking or being cut, Heilige kneed him in the back of the head, then did a somersault slamming his heel into Ochita's face, then landed on his feet, snapping his arms back letting a blade extend from both wrists, slamming them into his chest.

"His regeneration is fast, we all have to attack him as fast as we can, then we should be able to defeat him!" Jan yelled.

"I think not!" A voice rang out, grabbing a hold of Heilige's shoulders, ripping him off Ochita and throwing him into a large rock.

Heilige bounced off the rock, falling to the ground, a small amount of sand air shooting into the gently landing on top of him, he got up onto his feet, looking at who or what just threw him, seeing a more gorestgue version of Acedia.

"What happened to you, you went through a woodchipper?" Heilige asked.

Acedia just let out a made laugh, charging toward Heilige, pulling her right hand back, forming a fist, bringing it fast toward Heilige, he blocked his face with his arms, Acedia smirked, turning her momentum and slammed her left fist into Heilige's stomach. She then took hold of his arms, pulling them down and slamming her head into his.

"Don't take me lightly human, I have reached my strongest state, you have one chance of defeating me!" Acedia yelled.

"You better watch your back!" Puppeteer yelled.

Puppeteer was about to land of blow on Acedia, but something wrapped around her waist, throwing her to the side, she looked up seeing a large snakelike person, slithering along the ground, raising both of his hands creating two green energy blades, unleashing them toward Puppeteer.

Nine Trials: Level Eight

Kaiza awakened, feeling a soft breeze against his face, his eyes began to adjust, looking around until he noticed he was laying on top of a large creature, this monster general shape of a wyvern but with the tail of a scorpion, hairy arms, a gaudily-marked reptilian body, and the face of a just and honest man.

"Ah you have awoken Child of the Demon, I am Geryon, I sensed you needed help so I came to bring you onto your next trail." Geryon said.

"So I didn't die then, that is good to hear." Kaiza said.

"You're running out of time, I will bring you toward the location that you need to be." Geryon said.

Kaiza looked down toward the floor, passing different trenches, one with people walking with their heads turned around, another with demons through people into a large tar pit, another with people carrying different broken rocks of a bridge.

"Luckily I wasn't down there, it looks to be a very boring walk through this floor." Kaiza said. "What trial is this anyway?"

"The Trial of Fraud is one of the biggest, there are roughly 10 different rings, each more deadly than the previous." Geryon said.

"Why are you helping me, I know I'm part of the whole prophecy thing, but why me?" Kaiza asked.

"While the prophecy has its secrets, the child must learn for themselves, as for myself, Kai you're original self, kept me safe while I was a hatchling." Geryon said. "Are you able to talk to him right now?"

"No, I haven't been able to sense him since my belt shattered, if I can't find help like in my previous fight, I may be screwed in the upcoming fight, I won't have you fight for me." Kaiza said.

A large howl echoed from below as Kaiza leaned to the side, looking down toward the location where the howl came from, finding a large demonic looking wolf, its head shot up toward them, opening its mouth, creating a small crimson orb in its mouth.

"Fuck move, get out of the way!" Kaiza shouted.

But before Geryon could even react, the small crimson ball erupted, creating a large beam, blasting across the right side of Geryon. The blast shot Kaiza off from Geryon, but Geryon took a hold of Kaiza, covering him from the next blast.

"Don't worry about me, just protect yourself!" Kaiza shouted, trying to struggle free. "I'm not worth protecting!"

Geryon let out a hearty life, getting hit one more time, until it hit the ground hard going limp, Kaiza got up, beating on the large creature's chest, shouting for it to wake up, from the corner of his eye, he could see the crimson glow of the demonic wolf's attack. Looking up, knowing he wouldn't be able to stop the blast, he took a deep breath, sliding off Geryon's limp body, standing in front of the large beast, spreading his arms.

"Come at me fucker, I will stop your attack and protect this creature with my life!" Kaiza shouted.

Geryon weakly opened its eyes, looking toward Kaiza, seeing the visage of Kai standing next to him saying the same and smiled weakly. Kaiza closed his eyes waiting for the blast to kill him, once it didn't happen, he opened his eyes, seeing a yellow visage before him, once his eyes adjusted he realized it was the golem that he had met before.

Kaiza blinked a bit, then the words slipped out easily.

"Your animals are in safe hands."

The golem turned his head, giving a faint smile, then the visage flew backwards, into Kaiza. Kaiza's head shot back, his eyes became bright yellow, the ground beneath him broke under the density of his weight, his head lowered looking toward the wolf, charging up another blast. Kaiza began walking toward the beast, with each foot step, cracking the ground beneath him, pulling his right hand back, forming a fist, shooting it up fast and uppercutting the large wolf, the creature was flipped backwards.

Kaiza took a hold of the wolf's tail and shouted.

"Earthen tremor slam!"

Kaiza slammed the beast down as hard as he could, slamming the wolf through the ground, he crawled on top of the beast's chest, raising both of his fists up, interlocking his fingers and slamming them both into the beast's chest. The beast laid there limp, but Kaiza could see the beast, slowly starting to reform from its damage, Kaiza placed both hands onto the beast' chest and started to concentrate.

Once Kaiza opened his eyes, he found himself in a dark void, he started walking in a straight line, until he came across the she-wolf he met a few days ago, shaking in pain, while laying on the floor, he crouched down and poked it.

"You put up quite the fight." Kaiza said.

"That was quite the fast turn around you had there." Ice said, laughing softly and wincing in pain.

"I didn't even know my own strength." Kaiza said, laughing a bit. "But we both know, this isn't your true form, I saw with Atr, the strange woman, who is she?"

Ice laughed softly, weakling lifting her hands, as the last orb Kaiza needed formed in her hands.

"Talk to her yourself you punk." Ice laughed weakly. "Goodbye Kaiza."

Ice faded away, causing the orb to fall to the ground, gently bouncing toward Kaiza, he looked down at it, picking it up.

"Goodbye Ice." Kaiza said gently.

Pulling the two other orbs out, the three of them fused together, as the words that came from his mouth weren't his own.

"Come forth, Beatrice."

Kaiza was shot backwards, the orb floated into the air, creating a beautiful woman, wearing a long white dress, dark brown hair that stopped at her shoulders, a pair of white angel wings, were folded up behind her, the woman's eyes slowly opened revealing beautiful blue eyes, her head started looking around worried.

"Dante, where are you, my spirit is once together, help me stop Wrath!" The Woman shouted.

"Wrath is already dead." Kaiza said, slowly getting up.

The woman looked toward Kaiza, surprised then a bit shocked.

"You look like Dante, but you're not him, who are you?" The woman asked.

Kaiza walked over to the woman, rubbing his head a bit, looking at the woman.

"I don't know Dante, my name is Kaiza." Kaiza said.

The woman's eyes went wide from what looked like shock, until tears started running down her cheeks.

"Woah lady, you don't have to cry, I'm pretty sure you will be able to find this Dante fellow." Kaiza said, trying to calm her down.

She wiped her eyes, shaking her head gently and smiling at Kaiza.

"I'm Beatrice and Dante is my husband, that makes both of us your parents." Beatrice said calmly.

Kaiza stood there without saying anything, until tears started running down his cheeks, he spoke but his voice was shaky.

"M-Mom?"

She smiled gently, as Kaiza took a hold of her, giving her a big hug, as he started crying.

A few minutes later

"You have grown into such a handsome young man Kaiza, just like your father used to look like." Beatrice said, gently stroking Kaiza's head, which was laying on her lap.

"I'm sorry, I had to be born as one of the prophesied children, it cost you your life." Kaiza said, still shook from the reveal.

"Hush Kaiza, no matter what, we would have done it all again." Beatrice said.

Kaiza sat up looking at Beatrice.

"If you were alive, I bet you would love Sora." Kaiza said.

"Oh is it a girl my young man loves?" Beatrice asked.

"Yes, she is the love of my life." Kaiza said, looking down a bit. "I probably wouldn't have gotten this far without her pushing me along when I needed it."

"Mom I have a big question for you, I know I'm a demon, well sort of a demon. But I grew angel wings and well you have angel wings, what am I?" Kaiza asked.

Beatrice looked at him, smiling gently, placing her hands onto his cheeks, gently rubbing her thumbs against his scarred face and kissed his forehead.

"You're a child born between an angel and a demon, you're a Nephilim." Beatrice said.

Once the final word left her lips, the Child of the Demon symbol on Kaiza's left hand started to glow, changing its shape, becoming a jaw of sharp teeth, the upper half becoming angel wings and the lower half becoming demon wings. The light began to fade, as Kaiza held his chest lightly, his mind was no longer jumbled on his origins, he was loved dearly, he wasn't the Child of the Demon, he was Kaiza, the child of Beatrice and Dante.

Kaiza looked at his mother and smiled, kissing her forehead.

"Thank you for telling me mother." Kaiza said.