21

Chapter Text

This whole situation sucks.

That's all I can really say.

Especially since I'm sort of, you know, in the middle of something here.

Mary Sue out.

-=-=-=-

Late Morning

Base Level, Strategic Military HQ

Xerxes, Eastern Empire

Clang!

Sparks flashed through the air. Mary and Nin engaged in that same deadly dance, green magisteel against darkened metallic claws.

Clash!

They broke off for a split second. Nin swiped up, clipping Mary's eyebrow. She ducked back, squeezing one eye shut so blood didn't trickle in.

He's getting faster!

Nin got right back in her face before she could bring her sword up. Mary crouched, his arms swiping overhead, then rammed her shoulder into his chest, sending him flying backwards. Nin caught himself in midair, pushing off the ground with one hand and flipping back into a crouch.

Mary took the momentary reprieve to wipe the blood away from her closed eye, a light green glow shining briefly over the small gash in her eyebrow.

And he's using his abilities better, too.

She opened both eyes again, her gaze locking in on Nin's forearms and hands.

Instead of the single blade from earlier, both arms were transfigured, his forearms and hands covered in some thick metallic coating. His fingers ended in razor sharps claws, and spikes poked out from his elbows and knuckles.

That was annoying enough, given how shifty and flexible he was as an opponent. Even worse though, was-

Nin's hands slapped against the ground, red sparks following a wave of earth swiftly shooting her way. Mary jumped, spinning with her katana in a vice grip, a whirlwind of water magic following right behind as she blasted the attack to pieces.

Nin could change his hands into that, and still use his transfiguring ability. As long as they were still hands, he could do so.

Obvious, in retrospect, but clearly something he had only realized on the fly. The fact that he hadn't realized or done this earlier only solidified her impression of him: he was green.

Not like her katana, but like a rookie. He was a novice. The fact that he could fight this well was impressive, but his lack of experience showed.

That being said, Mary didn't really want to think about what else he might not have figured out. She planned to defeat him before this got any worse, thank you very much.

"Pathetic. Pathetic!" Nin yelled, red electricity trailing around him. "You weaklings are always so pathetic! No matter what, you keep struggling! You keep fighting! You never fucking learn!"

A pillar of stone, then a grapeshot of metal spikes.

Mary ducked past the first, slashing up and severing the earthen cylinder in several pieces. Orange magic crawled along her blade, shifting the now uncontrolled stone such that it landed in perfectly in her path. She ducked behind it, that same orange magic covering the chunk of stone and reinforcing it, just in time for the second attack to smash itself to pieces against her impromptu cover.

Mary darted out from behind it a second later, dashing toward Nin's position.

"We learn plenty!" She closed in on him, cutting down. Nin raised his arm in an X, blocking the strike with a flurry of scraping sparks.

"Humans can't change who they are!" He snarled up at her, even as she bore down on him, "Such a pathetic species, stuck in your ways, always doubling back, returning to the mud. No matter how far you advance, that will never change."

He uncrossed his arms, slipping back a step before cutting forward with an arm.

The same move-

Mary leapt back instead of taking advantage, right as a second swing moved to catch her.

Nice try.

"No." Mary frowned, sliding to a halt, "You're wrong. Humans can change."

After all, haven't I?

"The ones you call weak are far more than you think."

"What I think?" Nin laughed, straightening up and pointing at her with a clawed finger, "That's not what I think. That's what I know! Not just humans, either. You weaklings love this talk of growth, of moving forward, always looking ahead to something greater, brighter, better! And you're always, always, wrong!!"

He kept laughing.

"Weaklings are weak. It's in the name! They cannot be any more than that. Do you really think you can be anything more than pathetic? I wonder if those Goblinas you came to rescue thought the same. In fact, I hope they did! I hope they were just as stupidly optimistic as you are now."

Nin grinned unnaturally wide, his eyes shining with a violent, disgusting light.

"Because that makes their deaths at my hand that much sweeter."

Her blood roared in her ears. Mary's face went blank.

"Why are you laughing?" Her eyes glowed a bright, poisonous green. "I don't understand. What's so funny about this? Is this really entertaining? Amusing? Enjoyable?"

She stared at him.

"Is this a game to you? Is this how you get your kicks? What do you take life for, exactly?"

Nin froze.

What is this? This feeling, this... familiar pressure? I feel like I've heard these words before…

"Why don't you understand? How can you do such things? How can you say that and truly believe it? Aren't you human somewhere deep down, even if you won't acknowledge it? Aren't you based on a human image? Don't tell me you haven't realized. You just won't acknowledge it."

It was her that said them... Tasha...!!!

A slight breeze.

Mary vanished. Nin's eyes went wide. On pure instinct, he sidestepped.

It saved his life, in that instant.

She appeared in front of him, blade raised high. It came down like a supersonic guillotine, invisible to the naked eye. With his sidestep already in motion, Nin was narrowly able to avoid being bisected.

His former position, on the other hand, was split in two, green electricity sparking in the gap of a massive gash cutting through the earth.

He stumbled, to the side, then backwards, his expression belying his absolute shock.

Mary turned her head, glaring at him with nothing less than pure, unadulterated fury.

"Go ahead, Nin Gen. Pray for forgiveness. Repent."

She moved.

Her blade flashed up, somehow even faster than before. Nin jerked back desperately.

But not desperately enough.

The tip of her blade slashed through his cheek, then his eye and brow, a bloody gash opening across the right side of his face.

"Fucking-" He jumped back, his hand covering his face, "Bitch!!"

His uninjured eye widened even further.

She was right in front of him.

Shink.

Her blade stabbed through his chest. Neon crawled along her blade.

"I won't forgive you." Mary tightened her grip. "Don't expect your death to be a painless one."

Nin hunched over, blood leaking out between the blade and flesh.

"That's-" His arm blurred, his palm slapping over Mary's face. "-my line!"

He grinned, his expression one of bloody triumph.

It didn't last.

"Was that supposed to do something?"

Nin gaped. "Wha- why isn't it working?!"

He panicked, his fingers pressing tighter against the skin of her face. At the same time, a green glow shone through gaps in his digits.

Mary ripped her arms violently down and to the side. Her katana tore a bloody gash through Nin's torso, exiting just above his left hip.

Nin stumbled backwards, gripping painfully at his face and torso as he waited for his regeneration to kick in.

"I touched you! I definitely touched you!! Why didn't-"

His legs gave out, and he collapsed to the ground. Nin looked down, the bleeding from the massive wound through half his torso not showing any signs of slowing down.

"This doesn't make any sense." He gasped, dark maroon staining his lips. "My transfiguration didn't work. My regeneration is-"

He coughed, blood splattering on and around him.

"What did you do to me?!"

"Your ability allows you to morph yourself and other things to your liking. It's strong." Mary stood over him, resting the tip of her katana against his forehead. Cracks ran along her cheeks, neon green fading and leaving behind streaks of red. "In the hands of someone more experienced, it would have been a real issue. Fortunately, you had it instead."

"Wha-" Nin coughed. And coughed. And coughed, until his throat was scraped raw. "…How?"

"You're dying, so I'll just tell you." She smiled.

It wasn't a nice smile.

"That's my Unique Skill: Ability Severance in action. Since you're someone who relies entirely on his abilities to be strong, I'd say I'm a bad matchup for you."

Nin stared at her, his breathing growing more laborious by the second.

For a single, stark moment, he understood his position.

He wasn't perfect. He wasn't going to be a God.

He was going to die here, and now. And no one, perhaps not even Father, would care.

It was a bleak thought.

And in the face of this situation, with his abilities wholly unusable and the abyss roaring just behind, in front, and all around him, its gaping maw aching to devour the abomination of a soul amalgamate he was, that Drake had twisted various spiritual and human sacrifices into to create, there was really only a few things Nin could say.

His death would not be a glorious one. He would die here, in the dirt, bleeding and gasping for breath, just like those same weak, pathetic creatures he had so thoroughly denounced. Killed by some random human with a lucky Skill that allowed her to be his counter.

At the very least, he could go out with a good word or two.

"Well," He coughed, his lips splotched with crimson, "that's not fair at all."

"I'm sorry." Mary flipped her katana into an underhand grip, raising it slightly as neon burned along its blade. Tiny trickles of blood outlined her cheeks and jaw. "I don't give a fuck."

She stabbed down.

-=-=-=-

Around the Same Time

Deep Underground, Strategic Military HQ

Xerxes, Eastern Empire

Fuck!

This. Fucking. Sucked. There had been several moments in Tanya's multiple lives that she had this very same thought. Which spoke well to her surviving this, since she'd been through this shit before.

But then again, there was one time she'd thought this and then, well, died and ended up reincarnated for the second time, so maybe that wasn't a positive at all.

Let's lay down the brass tacks.

Tanya and Octavius had been going at it for what felt like forever now. That was bad enough. Exhaustion, shortness of breath, lowering magic reserves… these were all unfortunate byproducts of the still continuing conflict.

Really though, simply being tired was the least of her problems.

The wounds along her right arm and the side of her forehead hurt. They weren't bleeding, yes, but they were cauterized and only roughly healed.

She'd been slowly forced to rely more on her legs for exchanges rather than her arms, and even then, she was slowly being reminded why extended fights were something to be avoided no matter how well you continued to adapt.

Every punch and kick, Octavius's or her own, rattled her senses. Her nerve endings were on fire all across the board, stabs of angry flame shooting directly up to her brain and making her wince with every movement.

Even this wasn't the worst problem.

With enough magic backing up her reinforcement and enhancement formulae, all of the aforementioned was manageable. Not enjoyable, but tolerable to the extent that she could continue fighting near her full strength, even while she was effectively down her right arm and seriously lacking in breath and not lacking at all for pain.

Side note: it was a good thing she was ambidextrous.

The real, real problem with this battle was, she didn't know how much longer "manageable" was in the cards.

The reserves within her TLE Skill were rapidly running dry. Like, rapidly rapidly. As in, nearly as fast as people vacating a room when Shion decided to cook.

She was down to, at most, 18% or so of what she'd started the battle with.

Tanya grit her teeth as she deflected a shockwave-inducing haymaker. She fired a kick back, her boot crashing into Octavius's forearm as he narrowly blocked.

…17% was probably more accurate now.

In short, she was running out of juice.

The upside to that, if we were to look at this whole thing with an incredibly optimistic view, was that Octavius seemed to be waning as well.

His regeneration wasn't nearly what it was earlier, and his blood boosting ability was no longer a constant affliction. Instead, it seemed to flicker on and off in bursts. That was nice.

Additionally, Tanya was taking less hits overall, her skill, quickness, and overall fighting ability leagues ahead of the shut-in vampire who hadn't fought a worthy opponent in centuries.

Too bad that barely mattered if her TLE reserves ran out before she won. Octavius without his blood boosting ability was stronger than her without a certain level of TLE boosting her reinforcements and enhancements.

Ultimately, the battle had become one of attrition and time. Would Octavius outlast her, or would Tanya defeat him before that point?

It was far from an ideal situation.

Isn't this the point where I get a powerup or something? That's how this is supposed to work, right?

Tanya narrowly dodged another blow, the force of it enough to cut her cheek.

Come on already! Merge my Skills! Give me a new one! Grant me some absurd, OP as hell piece of magic!

She ducked, the wind from Octavius's punch ruffling her hair.

Come on world, give me something here! Haven't I endured enough? Haven't I felt enough pain, dealt with enough life-or-death scenarios? Why am I the one always drawing the short end of the stick?

She deflected a knee strike with her own knee, grimacing at the force behind it.

I never get it easy. Any power I've gotten elsewhere has always been followed by consequences. Why would that change now? There's not going to be some miraculous, Deus Ex Machina here. Get real.

Tanya stepped back, a backhand fist barely missing the tip of her nose.

That's right. The world's always been fighting against me; when have I ever been handed what I wanted? What I needed? No, my path is one I've carved with my own hands. So, I'll just deal with this myself, like always.

Another series of rapid punches flew her way. Tanya dodged and deflected to the best of her ability, bruises and cuts appearing wherever they connected.

This formula isn't one I've perfected yet, but it doesn't matter at this point. It works enough. My right arm is already fucked anyway. All I really need to worry about is managing the pain enough to not black out.

The last punch was a straight. She could see it a mile away, even in this state.

I just need a few seconds to breathe. That's all.

Tanya dodged under and inside, her right arm shooting for Octavius's abdomen.

BOOM!!!

A massive explosion, a concave wave of fire and smoke blasting from her palm, the air and shockwave curving forward and away from her.

A concentrated explosion formula, directed by the shape of her hand. Something she'd been working on in her spare time.

Octavius blasted backwards, his stomach now a gaping hole in his torso.

Though, it wasn't quite perfected. There was still some force that was unable to be properly redirected away from the user. It was something she'd fix in time. Time that she didn't have in the heat of battle.

Thus, a risk.

Fuck!

Tanya breathed, doing her best to focus despite the bone-deep ache along her right side.

Even with reinforcement and enhancement spells minimizing the recoil, it still hurt like a motherfucker. Not to mention, her shoulder had a cauterized hole through it. She simply couldn't raise her right arm high enough.

That was fine. Everything was fine. She'd known that beforehand. Her goal hadn't been to kill. Just to gain a few seconds.

It was a good thing she didn't actually need her right arm for this next part.

Tanya held her left arm tight to her side, her palm and the inside of her gloved fingers glowing red, then orange, then white.

There was something to be said about Tanya's use of fire magic. Generally, the flames Tanya produced were blue, with a tealish tint along the edges.

This is because the specific magic she used to create these flames was incredibly saturated with magicules. Created in a technically failed attempt at recreating Rimuru's Extra Skill: Black Flame, Tanya's own Blue Flame magic operated basically the same. The temperature could be adjusted based on the amount of magicules used, though in general, Black Flame's base state was hotter than Blue Flame.

However, Blue Flame was far more conductive to magicules overall, allowing it to absorb them faster and in greater total amount. This meant, if one had magicules to spare, then in the right circumstances, Blue Flame could become much, much hotter and much, much more powerful.

TLE reserves are at about… 15… maybe 16% what I started with.

Her hand flashed again, turning blue. Flames licked the air around her, bright blue fire lashing about and swirling violently. Sweat and blood trickled down her brow.

That's over three months' worth of stored magicules, gone in a single day. Damnit- no, that doesn't matter. Just use it.

The glow poured inward, peeling away from her fingers and palm and compressing in a tight ball. The flames around her gravitated towards it, swirling in tight and compact. Space almost seemed to warp around her, heat waves boiling the nearby air.

Use it. The rest of it. Level Four. Full throttle, everything I've got left.

The heat was painful to be near, even as the one using it. Blue Flame couldn't hurt the user, in theory, and yet… well, just keeping her focus was a hellish affair.

After all, this was far more than just Blue Flame.

This was something else entirely. Something far more… magical.

This was an evolution. Of sorts.

Her magic practically sang through her body, even as it burned.

Don't stop. Give it everything!

The rest of her TLE reserves. Approximately a month's worth, give or take. More than she'd shot Milim with during their battle all that time ago.

Naming your attacks is stupid. I stand by this. Yet…

"Ignite!"

Some hypocrisies must be allowed.

A fire willing to burn even a Deity, with enough magic.

Tanya thrust her arm forward.

A fitting name for that could only be-

"Babylon!"

The ball of compressed flame shot forward, filled to the brim with enough magical energy to kill a normal human just from standing near it, assuming the heat didn't kill them first.

A fire hot enough to burn, down to the smallest possible level. Burn, in such a viscious, hellish manner, leaving not even ash in its wake.

In the face of such heresy, the world burned.

Confirmed. Extra Skill: Flames of Babylon... successfully created.

-=-

A dull roar flooded the senses, alongside an incredible heat that drove any faint semblance of the earlier icy chill from existence. Flames danced, crackling and hissing as they flooded the area, vibrant blue slowly fading into typical red, orange, and yellow.

The hall was falling apart. It had been falling apart, in truth, from the very moment the battle had begun in earnest. An enclosed space, even one so large and accommodating, could not hope to remain intact in the face of such immense power as was wielded by these two blonde titans.

A quarter of the stone pillars had been demolished, with a quarter more showing some heavy extent of damage, whether it be craters or cracks circling the surface. The floor had seen better days; it was more likely to see a cracked tile, or to not see one at all, than to see an intact one. Chunks of ceiling, and the walls, fell to the floor at intermittent intervals, sending sparks flurrying and whipping up flames anew as they smashed to pieces upon their descent's end.

Barely, just barely, the hall was still standing.

It was not the only one here with this feature.

Near center of the hall, the flames fanning out in an arc in front of her position, Tanya stood as tall as she could. She lowered her left arm, the burnt, tattered remains of her glove disintegrating and falling away.

-=-

Art by Me @tanjaded

-=-

Her hair tie, a scrap of spare cloth that had by some miracle survived up to this point, did not in fact survive past this point. It had disintegrated as well, Tanya's long locks falling down and waving about in the heat created wind.

Thump.

A muffled sound, from the largest portion of raging flame, several meters directly in front of her. Tanya's mouth set in a thin line.

Thump.

"Damn it..."

Tanya tried lifting her arms up. Her muscles spasmed, a deep, aching soreness making itself known. Cauterized wounds and scraped skin tugged harshly along her right side. On the left, her palm was red and blistering, the fingers only slightly better off.

She breathed as deeply as she could in the suffocating heat.

She was exhausted.

But, she was still alive. And that meant she had to keep fighting.

"Even after all that, you're still coming at me? You're fucking insane."

TLE was empty. She didn't even need to check.

Her internal pool of magicules, however, had not run dry quite yet.

A green glow washed over her for the briefest second, taking the edge off her latest set of injuries. She was far away from a genuine healing at this point in the battle, the bare minimum magic she could afford for the spell giving bare minimum results.

It was enough to make raising her arms possible again and closing her left hand marginally painful as opposed to incredibly painful, but that was the extent of it.

Not ideal by any means. Hardly even manageable at this point. Especially with her right arm basically out of commission, barring a truly breathtaking third (fourth? Fifth?) wind and an extra rush of adrenaline that she probably didn't have in her.

Thump.

"I'm... insane...?" Octavius's voice was warped. Wet and burnt at the same time, raspy and drowning in the crackle of the flames. "No. This is... fun!"

Thump.

His foot emerged from the fiery wall, slapping against the blackened tile.

"Two beings... fighting to the death... with all they have."

Thump.

Another step. His lower half was visible now, the flesh red and cracked, white and black with burns deep enough to kill most anyone else.

"There's nothing... nothing in this world..."

Thump. Thump.

He emerged fully from the raging flames.

Tanya's breath froze in her lungs.

His right arm was gone. Completely, utterly, the socket cauterized so thoroughly that the arm might as well have never existed. The right side of his face was meticulously stitching back together, skin and tendrils of blood slowly, very slowly weaving through one another.

But that wasn't what froze her. Not quite.

"..nothing… that could be better than this."

It was his eyes. They were shining. Not with magic, not really. It was more like... excitement. Joy. That struck her, certainly…

But what struck her even more was the color.

Octavius had yellow eyes. It hadn't registered in her mind as important, but she was aware of it. And in truth, it wasn't important. He had yellow eyes. Big deal. So did Rimuru.

But right now, with the flames reflecting off of them and the shine he had... right now, they appeared golden.

Octavius crouched slightly, the ground cratering beneath him as he leapt straight towards her.

And Tanya... hesitated.

This situation…

For the briefest, barest hint of a second, she wasn't in Xerxes.

She was back in Tiegenhoff.

And her foe wasn't Octavius Valentin, walking out of a wall of flames. Eyes glowing with a furious light, their attention on one person, and one person alone.

It was...

Then, Tanya was back.

Octavius was practically on top of her now, his arm pulled back for a deadly left hook.

Move. Move. Move!

Her barrier flickered into being. It was all she could do to bring her arms up.

Her barrier cracked, then shattered. The blow slammed into her guard.

Except…

Her right arm didn't quite make it, and her guard ended up being only half what it should have been.

She went flying.

Octavius watched her tumble and crash several meters away, his arm lowering to his side as he slowly strode forward.

"Yes… this is fun. Truly, I have never enjoyed myself like I am now."

Thump. Thump.

"Perhaps you are right though. No, you certainly were right. My desires have consumed me. And, I'd say there's nothing wrong with that. How could there be?"

Thump. Thump.

"How can giving in be wrong? My desires are consuming me, yes. Yet, I feel as though I am consuming… everything. I truly understand now. My mind, body, and soul are operating all at once; they are singing together in glorious harmony. It feels amazing. How can this be wrong, if it feels so good?"

Thump. Thump.

"Death stared me in the face, and I could only grin. Isn't that absurd? I've never truly thought about dying. Why would I? Yet, in that moment, I could feel it. It called to me. Imagine that. After all these millennia, all this time, now death has chosen to whisper in my ear. And it's all thanks to you. Truly, you are a worthy equal, Tanya."

Thump. Thump.

"I would have died, too. If that blast of yours had hit dead on. I was able to dodge, just a step or so to my left before it hit, and because of that I was spared. In the space of less than a single breath, one instinctual impulse yanked me from the edge of oblivion. Any longer, any hesitation, and that would have been it. Amazing. Amazing!"

Octavius laughed, the motion pulling at his wounds. Blood trickled down his torso and face, yet he continued to laugh.

Thump. Thump.

"And even with that, without my Greater Fire Resistance, without reinforcing my body, pushing my limits farther than ever before, I would have died. Just from proximity. Unbelievable. Again, I commend you. I can only commend you. My arm… I'm amazed. I can't regenerate it. I have my doubts that I could regenerate it ever, even at full strength. This residue, this magic that saturates the wound in in the aftermath. I wonder if even the legendary full potion could return it."

Thump.

"I've reached my limits. The parts of my body that remain exist in a state of tear and pain I have never before felt. My magicules are drained. My regeneration has never been so thoroughly tested. And, similarly, it has never failed like it is now. It is keeping me alive, but little more. Amazing. Amazing."

Octavius stopped, looming over her fallen form.

"You really are amazing. I was right. I have been right since the moment I decided to offer you not one, but two separate blood pacts. You are the one most worthy to fight me. You are one of the chosen, as was I once upon a time."

He raised his arm back for one final strike, fingers extended in a knife hand.

"It is a shame for you to die here. I'd offer you a truce, a place at my side, fighting me forever, if I believed you would take it. But you won't. We both know that. So, you will die here, with honor. Rest well, Tanya. You have rekindled my spirit, and for that, I thank you. From the bottom of my heart."

He leaned down, his hand shooting forward.

A blur of motion.

CRRSH!!!

"Gah-!"

A gasp. A pained grimace. Shock. Disbelief.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Fire crackled in the background. Crimson dotted the smashed tiles below.

"'From the bottom of my heart,' you said?" Tanya coughed painfully, her grimace turning to a smirk. "There's some irony in that, I'd say."

Octavius stared down at her in shock, his hand frozen in the air.

She'd… been playing dead. That much was obvious.

She avoided his strike. Pushed herself to the side, slightly, holding up her arm and…

He hunched over, blood beginning to trickle down his torso.

"You let your guard down. Finally."

Octavius looked down, disbelief painting his face.

Tanya was grasping at open air, her hand closed tight around something, invisible to the naked eye. Slowly, a swirl appeared just over her hand, magical mist and air crawling past and making the invisible visible once more.

The handle was revealed first. A dark grey leather gripped tight in burnt, bloody fingers. Then, the hilt. Slightly curved up on either side, with winged silver lines running along it perpendicular to the handle, curling up and back slightly near the ends.

After that, the blade. Black. Shadow given form, a deep, light absorbing color that bore no reflection and seemed to glint with no light. There was an inscription there, just above the hilt.

A set of symbols.

生存

"Being"? No… "survival".

The blade revealed itself more and more, until it was fully visible, sticking through the center of his chest and out through his spine.

"Your- sword-!"

"I stored it away at the start. And I never forgot that I had it. But you did, didn't you?"

Octavius brought his lone hand up, his fingers shaking and clenching.

"Don't."

Blue flame swirled along the blade, stopping just before his chest.

"Your heart's stabbed clear through. Do anything that even slightly resembles a threat, and I'll burn whatever remains right out the back of your torso."

Octavius let his hand drop. His head dropped slightly as well, his incredulous gaze locked onto the midnight blade and cobalt fire poised to end his millennia-long existence.

Tanya tightened her grip. "I win."

He coughed, wet and bloody. Then, a nod.

"You've… won."

A wave rushed over both of them then. A magical bond forged in blood tightened, and then faded away. A victor had been decided. The pact had been completed.

Octavius collapsed to his knees.

Tanya kept a hold on her sword, shifting her one-handed grip slightly to keep it in one place as he fell, blade stabbed directly through the ancient vampire's gnarled heart.

"Yes… you've won." He huffed a wet, gurling sort of laugh, the noise quickly shifting into a painful cough. "Amazing…"

"Don't die on me yet, Octavius Valentin."

"Of course. Of course…" Blood stained his burnt skin, red against red. "To the victor, go the spoils. Ask."

Tanya nodded.

"I need to kill your boss next. So, tell me about him. Drake. Why work with him?"

"Drake. Right, Drake." Octavius blinked slowly, having to pause between words constantly, "I owe a certain… responsibility, to Drake. He is here because of me."

"What?" Tanya frowned. "Elaborate, quickly."

"Drake is an Otherworlder. I summoned him many years ago, when my boredom had-" Octavius coughed, "…I had begun to lose myself. Out of desperation, I... oh, but Drake was weak. He barely survived the journey, and his body was ready to die as soon as he'd arrived."

Yet more blood trickled past his lips.

"I was... displeased. I'd wasted time, and power. In anger, I imbued him with a Greater Spirit of Space I'd ensnared long ago. The shapeshifter fiend, Lycaon. And then, Drake's Unique Skill, his reward for passing over… it activated. A transmogrification of the self. Drake is no longer a human."

Octavius paused, his breathing growing more labored.

"No. he never was human. His evolution merely brought this fact into reality."

"What is he then?" Tanya said impatiently, "Tell me already. Before you die, tell me."

"…Tanya. Your desires." Octavius shuddered, one eye closing tight, "Have they not consumed you… just as I?"

"Huh?"

"This desperation of yours… it is worrysome."

Tanya narrowed her eyes. "Mind you, I'm the one holding your life right now. Don't get-"

She paused.

Notice: the individual Octavius Valentin is attempting to transfer control of his Demon Lord Seed, to the individual known as Tanya von Degurechaff.

Voice of the World?

Tanya twisted the blade ever so slightly, more crimson leaking out onto Octavius' chest.

"What's this all about, Octavius?"

"Ah. You could tell?" Octavius smiled through his pain, his fanged teeth crimson stained, "I mean no harm. I assure you. I have no use for it anymore."

"I have no intention of becoming a Demon Lord."

"Neither did I. And I never became one, not truly." His other eye closed, his head drooping, "But you would be a fool to turn this down. The difference between those with a Demon Lord Seed, and those without is-"

"Like that between the world and the moon." Tanya repeated his statement from earlier. "Yes, I'm aware of what you believe."

"Believe? It is true. Accept, Tanya. You are one of the chosen in this world. Grow stronger, so that your flame is not unfairly snuffed out."

Notice: the individual Octavius Valentin is attempting to transfer control of his Demon Lord Seed, to the individual known as Tanya von Degurechaff.

"Tch."

I don't want it. The potential to become a Demon Lord, I mean. That's just inviting trouble. But maybe there's another option.

"Fine."

Notice: the individual-

Voice of the World, I request a repurposing of Octavius Valentin's relinquished Demon Lord Seed.

-=-

Tanya stumbled away from Octavius' body, a massive burnt hole through where his heart used to be. Behind her, the fire from before grew and roared, consuming the hall at large.

Combining Unique Skills, gaining power… I was being sarcastic earlier, but this works well enough.

Tanya did not possess a Demon Lord Seed. Thus, she was not a Demon Lord Seed herself.

She would never become a Demon Lord. That much was certain.

That was fine.

There were more than enough Demon Lords to go around. Too many, honestly.

She made it to the doors, shoving them open with her shoulder and biting back a cry of pain. Then, she stepped through, limping down the hallway she'd earlier traversed down to get here, her sword acting like a crutch.

Stairs…

Her vision was fading, black spots dancing about. Blood pounded in her ears, barely drowning out the sound of her own ragged breathing. Her mouth was drier than she could ever recall it being, the combination of blood loss and extreme magic-enhanced heat.

She'd put on a tough façade when ending Octavius's life, but with the rush of battle fading to nothing, now she was truly feeling every second of the conflict. Each step was painful, each movement pulling at something, yanking a burn or a cut.

The fact that she could move at all was a credit to her remarkable willpower.

The stairs are-

Right there.

Tanya slowly stepped up, heavy footfalls landing on the first, the second, the third…

Then, it all finally caught up to her. She pitched forward, collapsing on the stairwell.

Honestly, it was a miracle she'd made it up that many steps at all.

"Ugh…" Tanya lay there for a moment, before trying to push herself up

Keep moving…

-=-

Octavius stared up at the cracked and falling to pieces ceiling, his eyes fluttering open and closed as his lifeforce slowly faded.

Blood control could only keep him alive so long without the core of his being to assist. He was out of power, anyway. Willpower and magicules both.

This was to be his end. He knew this.

Octavius lay there, his breathing growing slower, the intervals between growing longer. Blood slowly leeched out all around him, sizzling in the overwhelming heat. A dark flower of crimson staining his outline. The hole in his chest pulsed, the control he had over his blood finally fading into nothingness.

He stared silently upwards, through the cracked ceiling, to the floor above.

They were too far underground for the sky to be in view. They'd need to have broken through countless more ceilings for that.

Octavius closed his eyes.

But, oh, he could imagine it.

It was a beautiful day. The sunlight carried itself down brightly, unmarred by magic barriers or cloud coverage.

Above him, the sky was clear and brutal.

He breathed again. Again.

Then, it stopped.

Then, he was consumed by the flame.

And all the while… with a smile on his face.

-=-=-=-

Footsteps pounded on tiled floors.

Come on, come on.

Mary leapt the rest of the way down the stairwell, turning a corner and sprinting down another hallway several levels below.

She's down here somewhere. Come on, where-

A tug at the edge of her Magic Sense.

Mary skid to a halt, running back and pushing through the door she'd just bolted past.

Another set of stairs met her.

Without hesitation, she ran down them, jumping down and pushing off the walls to keep her momentum as she descended. Once the bottom of the stairwell was in sight just a couple stories below, Mary slid over the railing as she'd done in the previous stairwell, dropping quickly.

As she did, a flash of yellow and green caught her eye.

Mary landed hard into a roll, popping up and running right back up the couple flights of stairs she'd elected to skip just seconds earlier.

Two stories came and went, the steps practically flying under her boots until-

There!

"Tanya- whoa!"

Mary froze, as a black blade rested against her throat.

"Oh." Tanya stared at her, before lowering her sword. Her voice was raspy. "Sue."

She coughed, the sound painful to even hear.

"What happened to you?" Mary's eyes were wide, barely suppressed panic evident in her voice and face. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Mary noted that Tanya's hair was out of its ponytail.

Seriously though, she looked like the victim of a vicious artillery shelling. Take her word for it; she'd certainly seen enough of them during the Great War to say so.

Blood soaked Tanya's right sleeve, the arm itself hanging limp, and red coated the right side of her face. The side bang on the right side of Tanya's face was gone, a cauterized gash underneath painting a clear enough picture as to how that had happened. Various minor cuts and flecks of damaged skin were visible at certain points. Overall, she was red, either from heat, adrenaline, future bruising, blood, or all the above.

"How are you even standing? Wait, you shouldn't be standing right now. Here."

She grabbed Tanya by the non-injured shoulder, quickly and gently guiding her into a seated position on the steps.

Tanya allowed this without protest, which was enough of a warning sign as anything else.

I can't heal this much with my own magic.

Mary reached for a pouch on her belt, pulling out a familiar flask.

Good thing, I didn't use all of this earlier. There's just about a half left, which should be plenty.

"Here, drink- hey!" Mary's hand pulled back, empty now as Tanya snatched the flask from her and downed it in one go. "I was going to help you. Asshole."

Tanya swallowed, before slipping the flask into a pouch on her own belt. A light shone across her body, the worst of her injuries healing in a flash.

"You were taking too long." She flexed her left hand, her burns gone. A quick roll of her right shoulder and a fingertip brushing against the side of her forehead confirmed that they had been healed as well.

"You know, I had to fight two Heads of Scylla to get here. You could at least show a little gratitude."

"Oh, relax." Tanya rolled her eyes. She raised a hand, patting Mary's head once, "I was getting to that. Thanks. Seriously."

"Hmph." Mary looked to the side. "You're welcome."

She blinked, as her gaze fell over the open stairwell.

"Actually, how did you make it up so many stairs in that condition?"

"Very painfully." Tanya said, in a matter-of-fact manner. She rose, "Now come on, we've still got to-"

"Well, this is quite heartwarming."

The tip of a blade touched lightly against Tanya's throat.

"What?" Mary placed a hand on her katana's handle. A silent gesture from Tanya had her keeping the blade in its sheathe. For now.

"General Garmstrong." Tanya held up her hands placatingly, Gamstrong's blade one bad movement away from stabbing her in a very important place. "Hello again. Odd welcome party you've got here."

"I could say the same, Tasha. Or rather, Tanya." Garmstrong tilted her head. "What a surprise. You've got a friend you never told us about."

"Alright, that's fair enough." Tanya said, "But, as much as I'd love to play this game, we don't have time for this. Until Drake is dealt with-"

"Drake has been dealt with already." Garmstrong cut her off, narrowing her eyes, "Scylla's treasonous remnants are being rounded up as we speak. The only thing left to deal with regarding today's crisis are two non-citizens of the Eastern Empire. And wouldn't you know it; I found them."

"You found us." Tanya acknowledged, "So, is this the part where we join hands and sing hallelujah to cooperation and a job well done?"

"No. This is the part where I arrest you for interfering in internal military affairs of another country."

"Is that so? Careful now, General. Remember who you're dealing with before you make any unwise decisions."

They stared at one another for a few more seconds.

"Hmph. Only joking, of course." Garmstrong stepped back, resting against her sword like a walking stick. "Your note was too vague. And if your friend there hadn't shown up, we would have been slaughtered anyway. Were you trying to make us fail?"

"No, of course not." Tanya shook her head, discretely rubbing her throat. "But I couldn't exactly slip your man Charger a novella. Handing over even the smallest note, discretely, while being cuffed in plain sight of other officers, was difficult enough."

"It all worked out, didn't it?" Mary tacked on, "What's the problem?"

"Exactly. Your city is, well mostly, safe." Tanya said, "Be happy about that, if nothing else."

"Tch." Garmstrong rolled her eyes. "Take a good look at this situation and tell me: how in the hell should I be anything resembling happy? 'Nothing else' is a correct statement here."

"You're still alive, General. Many don't get that privilege."

"Fine, fair enough." Garmstrong frowned. She moved to the side, gesturing up the stairs. "Go. Show yourselves out."

"As you wish."

She and Mary slipped by, the former seemingly unconcerned and the latter glaring openly.

Garmstrong called up to them after a moment.

"I don't know where you holed up, but don't waste any time grabbing whatever you brought here. Then get the fuck out of my city."

"Can you handle that giant winged serpent by yourselves?" Mary asked before she could stop herself. "The one along the outer walls."

Tanya paused, glancing back.

"And the Shades?" Mary continued.

"Shades? What Shades?" Garmstrong raised an eyebrow. "I had sent scouts out as soon as those barriers came down. All that's left are a bunch of rotten puddles of black blood. Those beasts are either all dead or long gone, and good riddance."

She hesitated.

"…What isn't gone, however, are the massive trails of blood painting the four main roads." Garmstrong turned, continuing down the stairs. "Never mind. That's our problem to handle. Now again, get the fuck out of my city. Don't make me say it a third time."

Her voice faded as she descended from view.

Mary's expression twisted into one of confusion.

"The barriers went down?"

But, those were connected to Eve, weren't they? Or at least, the green barrier coming that winged snake Quetz was.

Was it on some sort of time limit? Did the snakes go away? Or was Eve…

A hand landed on her shoulder.

"Come on." Tanya tugged once, before letting go and beginning to move, "We can figure out how's and why's later. We're getting out of here."

Mary let out a breath.

"Yeah, okay."

It was going to be a long walk back to the inn.

-=-=-=-

Later

Somewhere North of Xerxes

Imperial Territory, Eastern Empire

"Hrck! Hrrr- gah!"

Drake hunched over, bracing himself against a tree as he vomited.

"Hah… haaahh…"

He pushed off the tree, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand as he stumbled forward awkwardly. He only made it a couple steps before collapsing.

"N- no…" Drake groaned, the backlash of the failed ritual taking its toll on his body. Icy, frozen spikes of pain stabbed across every nerve ending, his muscles spasming and his head pounding.

"No… no…"

He could barely tell where he was. He barely knew his own name, the pain was so great.

It had all fallen apart. Years of work, countless hours of research, of refinement, of spreading his organization grasp as far as it dared to go under the watchful eye of the Eastern Empire's true leadership.

All for it to vanish into thin air in a single day.

Oh, it hurt.

It hurt alright. Physically. Mentally. Spiritually.

But the pain would subside. Eventually, it would give way. The backlash would come to an end. The loss of his organization, of his finest creation and son, and of his friends… it would all move into the backdrop.

Behind a carefully pulled curtain.

Not gone. Just out of sight.

And replacing it all at center stage, would be a furious, burning rage. 

Scylla may have been finished. For now.

But he was far from done.

~END: SCYLLA RISING ARC~

-=-=-=-=-=-

Known Skills List

Tanya:

Common Skill: Thought Communication

Extra Skill: Flames of Babylon

Extra Skill: Magic Sense

Extra Skill: Magic Aura

Extra Skill: Voice of the World Communication

Unique Skill: Tetra Breaker

Mary:

Extra Skill: Magic Sense

Extra Skill: Magic Aura

Extra/Intrinsic Skill: Physical Enhancement

Unique Skill: Ability Severance

Notes:

生存 (Seizon) = roughly meaning "survival", "existing", or "being". Specifically here, it means "survival. I chose it because of the pun, that being on the word 存在 (Sonzai). Better known in Youjo Senki for "Sonzai X" or "Being X". I'll actually draw the sword itself soon. Maybe for next chapter's art.

And thus concludes the Scylla Rising Arc. That was certainly a ride, wasn't it? A new, more familiar arc begins next time. See you next chapter, in: "Interlude III".

I post about Youjo Senki and other stuff on tumblr here, including excerpts from my WIP chapters and progress updates on various fics (This fic, Crushing on a Devil, Fragile Mortality, etc). If you're in to that sort of thing.

 PolicyContact UsPolicy Questions & Abuse ReportsTechnical Support & FeedbackDevelopmentotwarchive v0.9.367.15Known IssuesGPL-2.0-or-later by the OTW