Chapter 31: Coming Home

"I love to keep talking mom, but I have somewhere I need to be." Kaiza said.

Beatrice smiled gently, hugging him, with Kaiza returning the hug.

"I will always be watching over you Kaiza." Beatrice said gently.

Kaiza stepped back, feeling like he finally knew who he was and what he had to do, his appearance started to fade and he heard his mother call out to him.

"Don't forget to say hi to your…" Beatrice couldn't finish before Kaiza vanished.

Kaiza awake in the large crater he had created while fighting the demonic wolf, the wolf had long since faded, he got up looking toward the location of Geryon, he was no longer there, he didn't have time to check if he was alive or not, Kaiza made his way toward the gate to the final trail and proceeded to make his way toward the final floor.

Back with the others

Heilige was half hunched over, holding onto his bad arm, blood was trickling from his helmet, he was badly damaged from the fight with Acedia, Ripa had come to his aid shortly after Puppeteer and had stopped the attack the Lord of Madness launched at her. Heilige cracked his neck, opening his helmet a bit, to let blood flow out and he spit out some blood, then closed his helmet, his robotic Dire Wolf came up to assist him.

He lowered his hands, the Dire Wolf split into two large rifles, he took a deep breath grabbing a hold of the rifles, then started running toward Acedia and the Lord of Madness fights, shooting at the both of them, Lord of Madness created a small magic circle barrier, to block the remaining bullets, but didn't bother with covering the bullets from hitting Acedia.

"What the hell was that for, you should have covered me as well!" Acedia yelled.

"Not my problem, you have something special from that vile man, you should be able to do anything to protect yourself and where the hell is he anyway!" Lord of Madness yelled back.

"How should I know?" Acedia said.

"Oh did you miss me?" The Master appeared out of nowhere.

"Where the hell have you been!?" Lord of Madness yelled.

"Oh I had a nice long walk on the beach." The Master said calmly.

"Fucking take this real!" Lord of Madness shouted.

"Oh I am, while on my walk, I found what you were looking for." The Master said.

Lord of Madness became quiet, until a wide grin covered his snake mouth, his hands shot out toward the Master, until he had was he had wanted, he had pulled out a small crown like object, placing it on his head, as the item fused into his head, his scales turned pale green, yellow and red, venom slowly dripped from his fangs, as the venom fell onto the ground, it begun sizzling and causing the sand to erode.

"Uh guys, I think we're in even more trouble than we were before." Heilige said. "Where is Ripa?"

"Sorry I'm late guys, I got held up with something." Akumu said from behind.

Akumu ran up, pulling out a ring, taking a deep breath, then slammed it into the Apocalyptic Driver.

"Henshin!" Akumu yelled.

"Pesuto Ripa!" The driver chimed.

Akumu transformed into Ripa, then green smoke was blown downwards, covering his body with a sickly green, his cloak split down the middle, forming what looked like wings. He lightly held his chest saying a brief prayer.

"Thank you, for freeing me Hikari, I will see you as soon as I can."

Akumu pressed the Pesuto Ripa ring back into the Apocalyptic Driver, as the Pesuto Spear appeared in his right hand.

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

A long green energy blade, extended from the tip of the spear's blade, arching the weapon to the side, then threw it like a disc. The spear spun toward the villains, without even looking back the Master, held his left hand back and easily grabbed the spear.

"That isn't nice, we are trying to have a conversation here." The Master said, turning toward the group, then tossed Ripa's weapon back at him. "Here you go."

"What the hell, what would you give him back his weapon!" The Lord of Madness yelled.

"Oh it doesn't matter, it's not like they can stop us." The Master said calmly.

Ripa caught his weapon, then looked toward the villains, he moved his spear into his right hand, extending his left hand, as his Ripa Scythe appeared, he ran forward, swinging his weapons toward the Lord of Madness, the Master stepped out of the way, the Lord of Madness weaved out of the way, then spit his venom toward Ripa. He leaned backwards, putting his hands on the ground, double kicking the Lord of Madness, then pushed himself back up, slashing the Lord of Madness across the chest, then jumped back, dodging the next attack.

The hissing sound of the venom coming from the wound on the Lord of Madness' chest, as his wound slowly closed up, as a sly grin covered his face.

Over to the Gishiki and Ochita fight

Arch rapidly thrusted his Sanitatem Polearm toward Ochita, as he either hit him, or Ochita had dodged out of the way, Arch jumped backwards and transformed into his Gabriel Form, the Sanitatem Polearm slowly changed shape into Fluctus Bow, he pulled the string back, as an energy arrow appeared, charging with three rings on the tip, once he let go of the string, three arrows shot forward, two hitting Ochita and the last one was caught by him, snapping the energy arrow in half.

Ochita roared out, cracking the ground under him, he charged toward Arch, holding both of his arms back, thrusting them forward slamming both of his palms into Arch's chest, which knocked him backwards, he fell onto his right knee, gripping his chest with his left hand, under his armor blood was trickling out of his mouth, he was breathing hard, it felt like Ochita just cracked his sternum, he closed his eyes trying to fix his breathing. Once Arch opened his eyes, they soon went wide seeing Ochita arching his left foot toward him, he proceeded to roll backwards, pushing himself back onto his feet, he slid a Contract Card through Heaven's Schiff, turning into his Uriel Form, tearing two pages out of the Lucet Nouvelle.

"Duplex Polearm." Heaven's Schiff Chimed.

Two Polearms formed in front of him, he phased the Lucet Nouvelle out of his sight, taking hold of both of them, charging toward Ochita, even though with each movement his cracked sternum caused pain, he only yelled out and pushed forward. Arch thrusted both of the polearms toward Ochita, while Ochita swooped his arms, blocking both of the polearms, holding them under his arms and slamming his head into Arch's head several times. Arch's head slumped backwards heavily dazed, Ochita let go of his weapons, as Arch slumped onto the ground, then he started slamming his foot into Arch's chest.

Arch's consciousness was slowly blacking out, with one final kick, knocking him out of his armor form, seeing that Ochita was angry, turning to leave.

Unknown Area

Gishiki was floating around in a dark void, he shot up with a loud scream, soon he heard his mother yelling for him to set up or he would be late for school. Gishiki started looking around frantically, while checking his body, until he looked at the date, it was roughly 10 years, he can't remember what he was dreaming about, but he knew today was the day his gang would fight with the delinquent Devil Kizer, he got up getting ready for school, right before he left he heard a voice.

"Son, get in here now!" A Gruff voice roared out.

Gishiki went into the kitchen, seeing his parents and younger sister, his mother was busy cleaning some dishes, his father was reading a newspaper and his younger sister was getting ready for her first day of middle school.

"I have heard you and your little group of friends have been causing trouble for everyone again." His father was starting to yell. "I can't help you out every time!"

He slammed his newspaper down, turning his attention to Gishiki, to continue berating him, but he was caught off guard seeing tears running down Gishiki's cheeks, his mother noticed coming over to Gishiki.

"Sweetie, what is wrong? Your father loves you dearly, don't worry about his yelling." His mother said.

"I-I just miss you all, I haven't been able to see or hear from any of you. I-I having a bad fight with Ochita, he said he killed you, I can't concentrate, I want to give up and leave, finding a way to get back to see if you're all safe and alive." Gishiki said, as he continued crying.

"But you won't leave your friends." His younger sister spoke up. "You're my hero brother, you act out but you do the right thing in the end."

"But I don't think I will ever return after all of this." Gishiki said.

"Son." His father said, getting up and going over to him. "No matter what you do, we're proud of you and who you have become."

After this, the doorbell rang and Ochita walked into the room, seeing what was going on.

"Uh hey guys, did I miss something, Gishiki did you get chewed out by your father again?" Ochita asked.

Gishiki started wiping his eyes, laughing a bit and smiled.

"Yeah, I did but I think I'm going to listen to him this time." Gishiki said his goodbye and left his house.

"Hey Gishiki, wait for me!" Ochita yelled out, bowing to Gishiki's family and ran out following him and they both laughed, while talking about something.

Back in the present

Ochita was making his way toward Gishiki's allies to finish them off, until he was stopped when a sudden burst of a strong aura blew up behind him, he turned around seeing the bloodied body of Gishiki standing, his breathing was ragged from his cracked bones, he proceeded to pull out a Contract Card, bringing it down toward Heaven's Schiff, Ochita launched himself toward Gishiki to finish him off.

"Henshin!" Gishiki yelled, sliding the Contract Card through Heaven's Schiff, a new explosive aura shot out launching Ochita backwards, he slid backwards for a while, breathing in anger, until he realized his chest was in pain, looking down seeing that his chest was heavily singed and not healing.

Gishiki's Arch armor started covering his body, followed by the fire that was powered by his Will of living up to his family's faith in him and taking care of Ochita. His Arch armor gained a fire like design, a long cape formed from his shoulder blades, the remaining fire formed the form of a sword, Arch took a hold of the Flammeus Sword, he felt his courage return as he became Arch Micheal Form.

"Ochita, we will end this here and now, I will make sure you will die by my hands!" Arch yelled.

Ochita only roared out, rushing toward Arch, Arch swung his sword toward Ochita launching a flame slash toward him, then rushed forward, thrusting his the tip of his blade toward Ochita, the flame slash collided with Ochita briefly staggering him and the tip of the blade was pushed through the center of his chest. Arch hopped up pressing his feet against Ochita's thighs, rolling backwards, slicing upwards aiming for Ochita's head, but he had regained consciousness and punched the blade while burning his fingers, but he was able to get the blade out of the way from getting his head.

Arch jumped backwards, pulling out another Contract Card.

"I'm sorry Ochita, I know you want a good long fight, but I can't do that, I will end it with one final attack." Arch said, pulling out another Contract Card. "Forgive me."

He slid the card through Heaven's Schiff.

"Schiff Finisher! Scales of Judgment" Heaven's Schiff chimed.

Two large fire-like wings shot out from Arch's back, he jumped up high into the air, a large weighing scale appeared behind him, Arch reached out his right hand, an energy rod appeared before him, grasping it as a long banner appeared behind him. Pulling his arm back, then threw the banner's point toward Ochita, pressing through his chest. The banner's color turned into a dark gray color, Arch stayed quite, noting that Ochita is still in there trying to fight of these urges, the banner flew up toward the scales, splitting the gray in the very little white and a lot of black into the two scales, with the black color weighing down the scales.

Arch took a deep breath, then yelled out, launching himself down toward Ochita, sticking out his right foot, toward the energy rod, still sticking out through Ocita, the sole of arch's foot connected with the end of the rod, shooting out a bolt of Holy energy through the rod, blowing up Ochita through the inside. Arch landed on the ground behind the burning body, once the smoke of the attack faded, the human form of Ochita was standing in place, he was missing his left arm and had a large piece missing from his right side.

He started to fall toward the ground, but Arch caught him, moving him slowly in his arms.

"Hey buddy, come on wake up, I can heal you and take you home with us." Arch said, not wanting to lose his best friend.

"H-Hey Gishiki, it feels like a heavy weight has been taken off my shoulders." Ochita started speaking, until he started coughing up blood. "I-I don't think I will be able to last long."

"Very funny buddy, he just had a fight, you're stronger than this, we have been through so much together." Arch said, fighting back the tears, watching the color slowly fade from Ochita's face.

"I-I have to tell you, I-I didn't kill your family, I-I didn't kill mine either, I couldn't do it, after you left I went down a dark path mentally, t-that demon told me just what I wanted to hear, I just wanted to see you again." Ochita laughed softly, coughing up more blood. "Beware of the demon with red eyes …"

Before he could finish, The Master appeared before them, easily thrusting his left hand through Ochita's back, ripping out his heart. Arch couldn't believe his eyes, in a split second The Master was there and the next second he was holding Ochita's heart.

"OCHITA!" Arch screamed.

"I-I loved you Gishiki." Ochita said, before fading away in Arch's arms.

Tears rolled down Arch's cheeks under his helmet, turning toward The Master.

"I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!" Arch screamed, launching toward The Master.

Nine Trials: Floor Nine Treachery

Kaiza made his way through the frozen frozen lake, his arms wrapped around his body, with his hands under his armpits.

"Geez, it's so cold down here, I can even freaking feel my nipples, I don't even want to mention what else is so cold." Kaiza spoke to himself.

As he continued walked, he passed different people stuck within the frozen lake, make his way by them, trying not to hit any of them, throughout the large area wind blew out, which sounded like the large roar of a beast, Kaiza's mind drifted back to around when he was first started out as a hero, well forced into being one, his first mission was the Yetis, Kaiza shook his head, then thought that how things have been going he will get help from the Ice Power while he was here, he just doesn't know how it will.

Kaiza continued his journey, an uneasy feeling filled him, the wind quieted down the further he journeyed toward the center of the Nine Trials, reaching the bottom, finding a large silver pillar, seeing words written into the pillar, his tattoo one his hand started to glow as he started reading.

"Nine lands that seal away the Demon."

"Nine problems up in the Air."

"Nine sins that draw Near."

"Nine causes that bring ruin to Terra."

"This will be the Child of the Demon's End."

Kaiza slid his fingers along the cold silver pillar, over the last word of each line, as the letters slipped out of his lips.

"D, A, N, T, E."

Kaiza winced in pain, the cold metal pillar caused his skin to break a bit, a drop of blood dripped down the letters, shining brightly. Kaiza covered his eyes, once he could see again, his eyes went wide a bit, within the reflections of the pillar wasn't Kaiza but Diavolo, though the biggest difference was instead of the crimson color of the armor, it was a gray color. The Diavolo lunged forward jumping out of the reflection, Kaiza jumped back getting into a fighting stance, the other Diavolo got into the same position and shot forward, both swinging their right fist, slamming it right into their left cheek.

They started trading blows with each other, swinging fists, kicks or any other kind of unarmed combat, as the continued fighting Kaiza couldn't get over the strange feeling filling his heart, his head shot back, after getting punched hard in the face, moving it back and spat out some blood, with a big grin on his face.

"That isn't all you got is it?" Kaiza asked. "No holding back, I'm not as weak as I used to be."

The other Diavolo just stayed quite, running up then jumped, performing a drop kick to Kaiza's chest, but Kaiza blocked the attack by crossing his arms over his chest, knocking his legs out of the way, Kaiza spun around for no apparent reason, slamming his fist into the other Diavolo's head slamming it into the ground, the other Diavolo stood up, pressing their hand against their Hell's Access.

"Dark Overload Finished!" Hell's Access chimed. "Black Cross."

"Well shit, I'm going to need help!" Kaiza yelled.

The other Diavolo's feet started emitting black energy, running toward Kaiza, they jumped up, bringing their right foot down, rotating clockwise, shooting their left foot through the air, crossing the area the right foot went through, creating a black cross, the cross shot out toward Kaiza, colliding with him.

Once the cross faded, but Kaiza stayed in the same spot, but surrounded by a blue aura, raising both of his hands, sticking out his fingers, bringing them down, creating energy claws launching them at the other Diavolo.

"Arctic Sickles." Kaiza said.

They connected the other Diavolo, knocking them down to the ground for good, Kaiza made his way over to the other Diavolo, leaning down, reaching his hand out to help the other Diavolo up.

"Here let me help you up Dad." Kaiza said.

The other Diavolo grabbed Kaiza's hand, getting up to his feet, with his armor breaking away revealing a man in his forties, his face was covered in a few scars, messy black hair, with piercing gray eyes.

"You have grown Kaiza, I bet you have already met your mother." Dante said.

"Yeah, it was quite the emotional scene, I broke down crying." Kaiza said.

"What, not going to cry for dear old dad?" Dante asked.

Laughing a bit Kaiza, lightly punched Dante's chest, Dante grabbed his hand, pulling him into a big hug and Kaiza returned the hug. After a bit, Kaiza stepped back, whipping the few tears from his eyes, taking a deep breath looking around.

"So this is the bottom of the Nine Trials, how the hell am I supposed to get out?" Kaiza asked.

"This pillar needs to be charged with the user's energy, it will shoot you out." Dante said.

"I don't think that is possible, my powers are currently still unstable for a few floors now." Kaiza said.

"Don't worry, channel your energy into the pillar and you will be able to get out." Dante said.

Kaiza gave a small nod, stepping toward the silver pillar, placing his hands against it, closing his eyes, focusing on channeling his energy, feeling two forces behind him, a dark energy on his right side and a light energy on his left side. Giving one final push, Kaiza grew out an angel and demon wing, shooting up into the sky and through every floor.

"Say hello to your …" Dante yelled, but Kaiza couldn't hear what he yelled.

Back to the Others

Arch continued screaming, throwing his fists at The Master, but the Master side stepped each attack, causing more anger to swell inside of Arch. The Master tripped Arch, causing him to stumble along the ground, Puppeteer, Heilige and Ripa fell to the ground next him, they were all panting, they were barely able to land any attacks on the three demons before them.

"Your journey has come to an end, one of you is about to turn into a demon, one has already died, one lingers from death, one is angered over a death and the fifth will demon alone from his friends." The Master said.

"Fuck you." Puppeteer said, getting up shakingly. "We are nowhere near defeated yet and Kaiza will return."

"I'm going to fight until my last breath as a human." Heilige said, getting up to his feet.

"I will end this curse on the lives I cared for." Ripa said, standing up.

"I will avenge my best friend's death." Arch said, getting back on his feet.

"Because we will all, fucking end you!" The four of them yelled in unison.

"If that is what you want, kill them now!" The Master yelled.

The ground beneath The Master broke open, causing him to look down, only to see a fist coming up and upper cutting him hard in the chin, knocking him off his feet. The person that did it, landed in front of the others.

"I'm here to chew ass, and kick bubblegum, but I'm all out of bubblegum." Kaiza said, standing there for a few seconds of silence. "Crap, I said that wrong."