Chapter 47: Turnabout Tactics

Hunching like a mindless mob were a wave of scientific messes. The creatures ranged from snakes walking on human legs, three-headed dogs and ravens, goats with the legs of giraffes, ears of a dragon, and the wings of the bed. Much more were sighted, but their appearance was too unsightly to even focus on it.

The scorching sun set focus all around as the masters of the Nebiros House leg their chimeras towards the city of El Cairo, Egypt. Grand architecture, sunny sands, and much more under the threat of destruction from a bunch of misfits. Only orders stopped them from laying the place to ruin.

Everything appeared to be in place, only for the world to be inverted, and dark clouds began to cloak the sky. Despite this, they patiently waited for Rizevim's order to attack.

Pistol shots of water began to hit them, also infusing them with confusion. "It's the dry season at this point in the human world, isn't it?" one of them said. "So why is it raining?"

The answer was given in the worst way possible. A shadow mountain began to arise from the pits of nothing as the Nebiros devils turned to see a titanic tsunami running at them... from out of nowhere in the desert!

Amidst the bubbling fear that came with the charging torrents, they noted a giant sea serpent dragon riding the wild water wave. An excess of cerulean motes of light began gathering as another person was sighted, singing? Singing on the sea serpent that threatened to crush them! It would have been ridiculous, had it not been scary for the fact that they were probably approaching death; they were worthless to their master, Rizevim.

'I won't fail Keiji and the rest!' Ingvild encouraged herself, continuing to let the power of her Longinus empower the full forced attack the Leviathan-esque duo were bringing.

A gluttonous outcry came, followed by the shaking of the plains of El Cairo. "I'll show Tohru who is the best dragon alongside my cousin!" Elma proclaimed, which left the Nebiros in a state of confusion, but it didn't matter as the wrath of water trampled them.

"It'll take more than that to take down a devil from the House of Nebiros! Charge at them, don't be afraid!" 

Water sprouted out like the wings of the surviving devils, but everything was brought to a chilling halt. A scraping sound passing by, and the environment was a cold, solid canvas, calculated by the mischievous magical girl that had arrived.

Spinning, she gave a peace sign to the side, near her eye. "Ta-dah! The Leviathan Devil, Levi-tan has arrived!"

'S-Serafall... The worst!' were the fleeting thoughts of the Nebiros devil, forced to watch what he deemed as the degeneracy of devils as his eyes slowly gave in to eternal sleep.

"My dear So-tan's plan was amazing! We really showed them the amazing powers of our combo-magic, right?!" Serafall asked Ingvild and Elma, with both of them nodding.

"Amazing..."

"Lady Leviathan sure is something else."

"I'm just glad they were able to take care of it."

Together, the random troops all sweat-dropped at the sight of power they could only dream of attaining. At the very least, they were grateful their jobs were mostly pointing to clean-up and keeping the barrier up to prevent the people from Egypt from noticing the madness. 

***

Mountainous spires decorated by steep differences and grooves in shape and size as well as the cloaks of grass they wore. It was a beautiful sight that spoke of the beauty of China. The humming stream of the water persuading peace around it.

Plaguing the priceless architecture were armies made of stray devils, fallen and Greek beasts. Guiding from atop were a triune of might.

The first one was a sculpted, Greek God hollow body, more akin to a phantom; no human features painted on him; a jet black body, with blazing eyes spreading out. Horns came out of the back of his head and a chaotic pulse emanated from his body.

The second one looked more human. A ruddy male in the prime of his years with black hair and crimson eyes. His tattered black cloak was outshined by the dark aura leaking out of him. His armour was light-black and that of a high ranking general.

The final one dwarfed the others in many aspects, whether it be from the fact it was shaped as a hundred-meter sphere. Further adding to the esoteric build, it boasted an army of tentacles and eyes. Each movement it made was complimented with a heavy haze.

"It's almost time," the phantom-bodied being spoke.

Erebus nodded. "It's a shame my little sister, Nyx, refused to join us, Angra Mainyu. At the very least, having Tartarus is a boost of power to our forces."

Angra nodded. "She wasn't a coward for nothing. Under normal circumstances, we would have never trusted Rizevim ourselves, and the devil's insane plan, but this is for the sake of preventing a world where the every-day-stronger Longinus users will grow in power and end up causing the end of gods like ourselves. We must ensure their destruction!"

The tentacles of Tartarus' began to spiral out of control. "Something is wrong... Several mighty auras have appeared between us and our objective."

Slicing in the air made the trio of evil gods look as the distortion of reality as the regally-armoured clad Lucifer appeared into the air. "Well done for keeping us hidden long enough, Ajuka."

His fellow Satan emerged by his side. "It would have been impossible if Keiji hadn't boosted me right before we all split up." he humbly spoke, turning his eyes to the two Greek gods and the Evil God of Zoroastrianism in Persian mythology. "In any case, the Booster Gear's power truly shouldn't be in the hands of people as strong as you," Ajuka spoke to the deities, with Erebus being the only one that could show proper annoyance at the sight, "especially as it allowed me to hide all of us against such strong people," he finished.

On that cue, Azazel, Micheal, Gabriel, Odin, and Yasaka also revealed themselves from the realm of out-of-nowhere.

"It truly feels like the end of times, all of us fighting together like this," Azazel commented.

Michael smiled. "But because of that, with this senseless fighting aside, the fact that we have been able to put our differences aside and join forces like this is something I'm sure Father would be joyous about."

"How is it possible you are all here?!" Erebus shouted. "Our reports clearly stated that all the main forces were concentrated in Japan and in Europe!"

Odin laughed. "We calculated that, naturally. We were also all but sure that some of you would be likely to still have some of Samael's poison, provided by that little devil. I can already tell you thought we would send Ophis to deal with the three of you as the most obvious threat," Odin told them, causing them to flinch.

"It wasn't a bad plan, but... unlike your group, which mostly care for themselves, we have reliable comrades in arms and second-in-commands that can leader in our place if us main leaders are absent," Sirzechs announced.

Around the front lines of the fallen angel army, Shemhazai and Baraquiel took to leading as examples. Shemhazai focusing more on the tactics while Baraquiel rained holy lightning on the armies ahead.

For the army of angels, Raphael and Uriel took the leadership roles. The latter unleashed his flaming sword at the enemies, the effect resulting in a wave of boiled-to-death bodies lying in the wake and making way to advance.

"Stand your ground!" Falbium shouted, unleashing several magical circles and creating densely-packed shields of demonic energy. "Youkais! Focus on the enemies who you hold an advantage against!"

Bolts of thunder slammed the heads of enemies as a mountain of man came crashing forward. His hammer plundered through waves of opponents but perfectly returned back to him. One foolishly tried to stop its path but their hand was severed.

"Only those who are worthy may hold Mjölnir!" Thor declared, smacking the head off the foolish, unworthy heathen who dared challenge him. Next Thor ended up blowing a lightning-infused tornado that brought skeletons of his enemies. "Charge!"

Meanwhile in Kyoto, Kunou was garbed in priestly clothes like her mother's ceremonial outfit. Her duty was keeping the ley line stable so she could be out there fighting. 'Mother... Keiji... everyone else...'

The leaders of the Three Factions, the youkai, and the Norse Gods stayed in silence as they continued to gaze against Tartarus, Erebus and Angra Mainyu.

"There is no need to fight, Tartarus... Erebus... Angra Mainyu. Will you not stop this? Are you truly okay with what Rizevim is doing?" Gabriel asked them, an earnest look on her face.

Azazel had his hands behind his shoulders with his usual carefree grin, but he was still fully ready to go. 'Leave it to Gabriel to try and find the best of things.'

Erebus shook his head. "As long as the Three Factions and their allies enable the wielders of those accursed Longinus to prosper and get stronger, then we will never accept the world they wish to create! Our fight will continue until we have exterminated them all!" Erebus shouted back.

Gabriel's features tensed downwards at the madness Erebus was spitting out. "I won't allow you to harm my beloved!"

A gaping pit opened up and Gabriel felt a force grab her body whole and try crushing her into an angel-paste cube, making her gasp at the primordial force exerted. 'It's strong!'

Raw destruction broke down the void-space attack as Sirzechs was standing before the archangel with a frown. "It appears the negotiations have failed," he spoke.

The Beelzebub Satan walked to stand by his friend's side, a twitch of irritable deriding his handsome features. With a snap of his fingers, Ajuka was now wearing a black shirt with a sash-like cloth on each side of his shoulder reaching all the way to his thighs. That along with his shirt is being tied tightly with a black rope to his waist. He also wears baggy black leggings and a pair of laced mid-calf boots. 

"How long has it been since we last fought together?" Ajuka asked with a serious face.

A soft grin dawned on Sirzechs' face. "Not since the Great War," he replied back, breaking the fabric of reality as the Power of Destruction began to robe up around him. "I'm counting on you to stop me if I lose control."

Ajuka shook his head. "I'll have your back, as always."

"We'll deal with the rest of them!" Azazel shouted, more relaxed than most if they saw an entire army changing at them. A lightning spear in his hand.

Michael forged a double-edged light sword with a cross guard, a golden glow to his while Gabriel fashioned bow and arrows of light. Odin summoned Gungnir and Yasaka began to unleash her full Nine-Tails form.

"For the sake of my future where I can live happily with my daughter and Keiji, I won't be sparing any of them," Yasaka warned them, though it naturally fell on deaf ears.

Sirzechs blasted a beam of his bloodline power, with Angra countering with multiple dense light spears but the force of destruction was easily pushing through. Luckily, Angra was spared from early damage as the Zoroastrian god found the tentacles of Tartarus regenerating.

"Thanks, Tartarus! The Lucifer devil is far more menacing than he is portrayed."

Erebus swung his blade at Ajuka, but his magic circle easily blocked the attack. When Erebus tried to swarm him with darkness, the attack was only reverted right back at him, making Erebus teleport out of it.

"You're the worst type of opponent for me it seems."

Ajuka rolled his eyes. "You chose to end up as my opponent when you chose to go down this silly path."

Erebus grinned as more darkness spawned around him and his frame began flickering in and out. "Such are the Greek Gods!"

***

Several hooded figures traversed the area. Their leader wore a purple gothic lolita outfit but they had the appearance of a woman in their early 20s; short hair adorned with small ribbons.

'This should be no problem. Not only do I have the Hexennacht group on my side, but the entirety of the magicians that were under Euclid's command in the Khaos Brigade to support me. All that is left for me to do is burn a town or turn and create as much as chaos as possible. This should be an easy job.'

A grin came on her face as she looked to see that she had already gotten started on causing entropy. The magicians accompanying her using their strongest spells against the town they had been overlooking from a nearby cliff.

Her confidence shattered at the black power emerging that swallowed the spell barrage with no effort... while taking the form of a black snake. Soon, all of them were sweating bullets and frozen at seeing the scantily-clad dragon god gazing at them with boredom.

"One chance... One chance to surrender... in the name of my mate. I care not for your existence or your erasure, but if it saves me from erasing you from existence, I won't say no. My interests lay elsewhere..."

"W-we will!" Walburga shouted. "Everyone! Stand down!" she spoke, nervous laughter falling off of her.

Ophis dully nodded as she turned away from Walburga, only for Walburga to immediately assume her Balance Breaker, Incinerate Antiphona Calvario.

The purple flames assumed the shape of a dragon, one which made Ophis turn around with slightly wide eyes as the flaming tendrils of the copied Dragon Eater shoot towards her. "I absorbed some of Samael's poison within my Sacred Gear to do this! It's my victory!" Walburga maniacally shouted in trump.

Pulsing in the air was a suddenly formed hole, engulfing half the tendrils, while a massive mirror appeared before the other half, both repelling the holy dragon-eating flames and making Walburga's toes tip backwards while some of the magicians wanted to try and teleport away but the presence of Ophis made it hard for them to even focus.

Kuisha and Tsubaki revealed themselves with their panting, and soon the rest of the Bael and Sitri Peerages. The ones missing were Sona, Genshirou, Sairaorg and Regulus.

"This is why you are Sairaorg's Queen!" Coriana proudly spoke, giving a nudge to Kuisha, who just smiled back.

"Are you alright, Tsubaki? You did well!" Momo spoke.

Tsubaki shook her head. "Couldn't have done it without Kuisha. How's the barrier going?" she asked.

Tomoe arrived with a blazing blade of both light and darkness welded together. "It's all good. The barrier we put around the city is holding too."

"WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO DO THAT?! I-I'M A LONGINUS WIELDER! THERE'S NO WAY THIS SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED!" Walburga complained.

Tsubaki grinned at the ranting Incinerate Anthem user. "Our King anticipated Rizevim would probably give Samael's poison to more than one group if he had enough, so we've already assigned the best people with counter type abilities to guard Ophis, especially after Azazel explained about how the most troublesome abilities of the Longinus are the ones that have represented the cross in which Jesus Christ was crucified."

Walburga was still before going off in fit of laughs, purple flames decorating her macabre laugh. "Do you really think DEVILS will be able to stand my holy flames once more?!" she shouted.

Kuisha chuckled. "No. We obviously won't... but we don't need to anymore."

Like the snap of the fingers, annihilation spread across Walburga and her entire army before Walburga could muster a response. 

"I wonder if she really understood that Ophis doesn't need protection?" some of them spoke, finding the Longinus user was too delusional to believe that she could take down Ophis herself. Their only role there was so that the one specific thing in the enemy's hand that could hinder Ophis wouldn't catch her off guard.

Ophis scoffed at the audacity of the magician. "We should move on... I want this to be done soon so I can sit on my mate's lap once again," she spoke, gaining mixed reactions from the devils.

"What's that there?" Momo said, making everyone turn to see a floating purple flame among the annihilated army.

Ophis snagged the purple flame, gazing at it. "It's the Longinus the idiot woman possessed," she explained, gaining surprised looks as Sacred Gears usually returned back to the system once the user had died. "I remember one had the ability to move on from a host to the other if they wanted to. If it happened... they weren't worthy... and this Sacred Gear left her. That's because she fucking sucks."

Some snickers came at hearing Ophis casually swear, but they raised their eyebrows at seeing her casually stash it in her chest. "I'll give it to my mate later," she said, refused to elaborate further, and moved on.

"I guess we just follow," Reya muttered, sweatdropping like the rest of the group.

***

Somewhere in Europe, Euclid arrived out of a distortion in space, followed by an army that was a mix of everything the allies were fighting: stray magicians, devils, fallen, remnants of the Hero Faction, some more chimeras. At this point, most of the strong units were present. While lacking the quantity, they held the quality ahead, which was logical given it was especially selected by Euclid himself under Rizevim's orders.

'All the other groups are locked in combat, meaning this is the chance for me to advance and begin my attack. Nothing should be able to stop me, especially using the notes Lord Rizevim gave me on Dimension Lost.'

His eyes widened as fireworks of teleportation spells broke out, revealing a group composed of the Slash Dog team (minus Jin and Sae), Ravel and the former Phenex Peerage, his own SISTER... and a cheerful-looking Jeannae at the front, with her arm around a nervous/annoyed looking boy and Valerie standing proudly at her side.

For once, Grayfia had forsaken her maid outfit. Instead, she wore a black shirt with golden-caramel accents at the edges of the shirt and spread horizontally near the bottom, with two light golden trims going down the shirt; and the shirt splits slightly above her stomach, exposing her midriff. Around her neck and shoulders is a long, cyan scarf made from light material that reaches her hips. Her jeans are blue, with a white outline at the top.

"It's been a long time... brother... Euclid! I want you to surrender now!" she shouted, one that showed how she still held care.

"How did you find my group so easily?" Euclid coldly replied back, ignoring his sister's earnest request.

Ravel huffed. "We were waiting with Valerie's Sephiroth Graal active as we expected Rizevim would try and pull something the moment we were all distracted on other fronts. After that, the grail detected an unexpected shift in this area's space just in time."

Euclid nodded at the explanation, then his face morphed into a menacing gaze. "Do you really think a bunch of weak devils and humans will beat us all?" Euclid looked towards his sister. "And don't forget I've always been stronger than you, dear sister," Euclid confidently replied back, making Grayfia's feature scowl with sadness directed at him.

Jeanne laughed. "I think you're forgetting that we have THREE top-tier Longinus users on our side!"

Euclid froze at that proclamation, forcing him to count: 'The dhampir and the grail... the Grigori agent and her Absolute demise... That's two, right?'

His eyes widened at seeing the boy squirming in Jeanne's grasp. "I'm so happy we are working together again!" Jeanne spoke.

A fierce expression of annoyance vocally shot from Leonardo's noise. "You didn't really give me much of a choice. It was this or probably staying locked up until I was 20." The young male sighed at his circumstances, gaze on the Hero Faction members. "Let's just get this over and done with," he said, extending his hand out.

Valerie smiled and grasped it, the golden glow of the grail materializing over their joined palms. It was enough to make Euclid's eyes pop in horrified understanding. "ATTACK!" Euclid shouted towards his troops.

"Balance Breaker..." Leonardo whispered.

The ground unveiled against a force rivalling Mother Nature as titanic Kaiju-like Anti-Monster materialized and bulldozed their way through Euclid's army, causing utter chaos and mayhem onto those who were trying to fight it. Ironically, those trying to disturb the peace found the peace of their ranks in jeopardy.

"Balance Breaker... Assoluto Argento Mondo!"

Euclid's eyes glinted towards an iceberg of a woman appearing. "I should have expected as much!" he spoke with gritted teeth.

A persisting blizzard ensued as several enemies were slain by the creation. An ally of the Three Factions covered his face as an icicle was thrown his way but the direction was altered and instead pierced the enemy behind him.

Seeing that the attack could distinguish between friend and foe, the army charged against the scattering ranks of Euclid's group.

"This is for Tobio, you bastards!" Kouki shouted, turning his arms into electricity spears and spiralling around in speeds that made blood burst out of bodies, only for the flesh to be seared by the heat of the lightning.

Ravel looked towards the Phenex girls. "Provide cover! We can't let anyone escape!"

Jeanne held her rapier together as she summoned her Stake Victim Dragoon. "I won't allow anyone to get close to Valerie and Leonardo!"

Confidence cracked over Euclid. "If my plan fails, I can at least kill the grail user! I must do that much!"

Flaring his power, Euclid dodged the Kaiju Anti-Monsters, using his own troops and leading them to be slaughtered as his sights were diving straight towards where Jeanne was easily fending off those trying to reach Leonardo and Valerie.

Barely, Euclid avoided being skewered by a wave of demonic power. He didn't even need to be told who it was as he scowled at Grayfia, who was flying near him with her wings out.

"It doesn't have to be this way, brother!" Grayfia shouted.

"If I have to hurt you to accomplish my goals, I will. It's sad that my beloved sister has truly been corrupted by those fake devils... and that disgusting dragon!"

Grayfia's power flared up the insults, a chilling elegy. "You'll never be half the man Keiji is!" she replied back, only for her own dark grin to appear. "Do you want to see how much this dragon has corrupted me?!" she replied.

Euclid flinched at the explosion of the crimson aura, only to look in shock and scream in rage at seeing Grayfia clad in her own copied Boosted Gear Balance Breaker Scale Mail.

"H-how is this possible?!"

"It's simple, brother. Before this battle, Keiji spent a good while transferring portions of his power to every girl who was compatible enough with it so we could have several trump cards split across the battlefield to surprise everyone with!"

Fire crackers went off as Ravel was also in the armour, using the power provided to incinerate a bunch of enemies trying to get on top of the Kaiju Anti-Monsters. Ingvild was using her armour to argument her already omnipotent control over water to summon titanic geysers of water to blast any reinforcements that the Nebiros had hopelessly tried calling forth.

The Sitri Peerage flew around Ophis in their own as she casually vaporized another mass of enemies... 'This is boring...'

"Usually we would be mostly matched... but while this armour only last 5 minutes, I'll only need its power for 1 minute to put you down."

"Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!"

Hearing the resonating chant made Euclid snap like someone had applied a spring to him, demonic energy flaring out and his speeds skyrocketing. "GRAYFIA!!!!"

"Euclid!" Grayfia answered in kind, exploding towards her brother like a living comet.