Chapter 38: And the front yard is on fire
"I'm getting a really bad feeling." Xenovia noted as the group of Devils waded through the swamp, making as much ruckus as they could, felling trees in their path and creating bridges over deep swamps with their powers, the security team taking flight and flapping around the advancing force to keep an eye out for the enemy. "Aren't swamps usually full of life? I'm not a fan of mosquitoes or bugs or parasites or whatever else lurks below water's surface, but there hasn't been even a single bug here…"
"Which means that there is ambush about. Good deduction, Xenovia-san." Belial nodded, seemingly approving of Xenovia's observation. The blue haired girl wasn't happy that a devil acknowledged her.
"Incoming!" A security devil announced from above, and dodged a rod that looked like a thick arrow.
The second rod soon followed, impacting the now-out of position devil and the thick arrow turned very flexible, tying itself around the suit-wearing devil woman and elicing a scream from her as the undead snake, seemingly shot out of some kind of huge bow, had bit down hard into the woman's stomach and was disrupting her flight by crushing her with its constrining grasp around her body.
The devil fell into the swamp, but before she could be submerged under the water a pair of huge jaws sprang out of the water and snatched her leg, turning the struggle into a long scream as the undead alligator that had bit her rolled around, causing the leg to let a sickening crunch and tear off like a cooked chicken leg.
Belial was beside the woman before the alligator could go for another bite, however, and drop-kicked the undead lizard which sunk below the foul water with a huge splash.
The champion of the Rating Games then reached down to pull the snake off the woman and tear it into pieces as losing its head didn't seem to stop the tail from trying to choke whoever dared to be near it.
"Asia-san, Rias-san! I believe you had some high-speed healing ability?" Belial called as he jumped back to the group with a brief flare of his wings, depositing the dying woman in front of utterly shocked Asia.
"A-ah! Y-yes, I have, ah… please work, [Twilight Healing]!" Asia seemed to get her bearings straight as the situation hit her, breaking her from her stupor. She placed her hands on the wounded woman's shoulders, causing a green light to enter the now-pale woman… and then get rejected back out. "Wha… ow!"
Asia recoiled as the dying devil woman let a groan and lunged at the blonde girl, causing her to fall on her back in the foul knee-deep water.
The now-dead and undead woman groaned as she tried to climb over Asia's prone body to bite her, but Rias kicked the undead security-devil and sent her flying. She followed the attack by throwing a ball of [Power of Destruction] that blasted a huge chunk out the woman's chest, then followed by a ball of fire from Lady Phenix which incinerated the undead devil entirely.
"Be wary. Our enemies use venom." Lady Phenix called to everyone present, then directed the words to the team above which was doing its best to avoid being shot down. "Security team, land on trees! The enemy holds the air!"
"We saw large skeletal figures, looking like combinations of animals and human bones, who were using bows to shoot snakes at us from a long distance away! Who does that?!" One of the security devils reported in a less-than-professional way, which was expected as the woman was clearly shaken by the fate her comrade had suffered. "They use undead snakes as anti-air missiles!"
"That's brilliant!" Belial seemed to be thoroughly amused, which did not help the security-devil's mood. "Doesn't change the fact our enemy is foul, vile being, but still, the tactics are quite good! [Worthless] in the end, however."
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An undead created by Elder Lich by [Stitch]ing an eagle's head, a devil corpse, and the essence of an Undead Archer together into one creature reached for another undead snake to string to its bow and launch at an enemy.
However before it could draw the snake fully, some sort of energy seemed to imbue itself into the snake and cause it to flop over, limp. The creature was still fully intact, but it seemed to be utterly limp when drawn, making it worthless as an arrow even if it could still move and attack otherwise.
The undead was baffled for a while, or at least as baffled as a brainless amalgamation of a creature could be.
After a moment it moved on and pulled another undead creation on its bow, and loosed the arrow tipped with the next projectile-undead.
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A huge splash accompanied a shrill girly scream of a security-devil woman who had been told by Belial to take a look above the treeline as 'he had dealt with the enemy's ranged capability'.
The woman fell back down under the treeline, latching onto Asia for her dear life. "Heal me! Please! Pleasepleasepleaseplease!"
Asia was on point with her healing this time, and managed to heal the devil before she would perish from her condition and turn undead.
"They are using undead beehives as anti-air artillery!" The devil woman screamed while Lady Phenix was searing the woman with her fire, causing the undead bees stuck to her body to burn while Asia healed the woman's wounds and the burns.
"Aha! I'm liking this enemy's tactics more and more! But that too is [Wor…" Belial began, but Lady Phenix put her hand on the man's mouth before he could invoke his signature power, [Worthless] which allowed Belial to reduce the power of an enemy's ability in proportion to his understanding of it's function.
"Please, I have a feeling that if you continue your experiments I'm going to run out of security staff, and I think the undead have made it clear they dominate the sky… for now. We aren't supposed to defeat them too quickly, no?" Lady Phenix reminded the man who shrugged.
"Quite correct, my deepest apologies. I got too excited." Belial apologized to Lady Phenix, then turned to give the security-devil a heart-warming smile. "I didn't mean to belittle your comrade's sacrifices, nor your own bravery. I merely found an enemy that was both cunning and worthy, and got too excited. I hope you'll forgive me, my lady?"
The security-devil woman's cheeks turned slightly red and she muttered something to the side, so Belial stepped forward and gently turned her head towards him by placing his thumb on her chin and forefinger under it.
"I… I forgive you…" The flustered security-devil muttered out cutely, and Belial kissed the woman's cheek. "Eep!"
"My deepest thanks." Belial moved on, leaving the blushing woman behind who had to shake herself out of her stupor.
"Heads up, incoming undead!" A male security-devil announced from the branch he was sitting on while opening fire with small magical circles that bounced off the shields of skeletons that were starting to converge towards the group, shielding a larger number of mis-mashed undead from ranged fire.
"Alright, let's make a ruckus so Momon can rescue Ravel." Lady Phenix ordered as the shield-bearing skeletons opened their testudo and let a wave of sword-and-spear wielding skeletons, zombies and undead animals charge at the group. "Judging by the amount of undead here this is the enemy's main force! Remember to not destroy it too quickly or the enemy won't think that it's winning!"
"Assuming we can destroy it effortlessly…" Yubelluna seemed a bit worried as she began bombarding the undead with her explosive magic, turning the organized undead charge into a far less organized one as the metal spheres she conjured exploded and tossed the formation apart, allowing Xuelan to charge in like a battering ram and begin kicking and punching the undead that crumbled before her attacks.
"Don't get separated from the group!" Yuuto called as the boy, Xenovia and Irina joined Xuelan's assault, tearing into the horde of weak undead. "Don't get too cocky either! The enemy is cunning, as we saw! This may be a trap!"
Rias and the rest of Momon's Peerage's ranged fighters continued to rain ranged attacks on the undead while holding back on the intensity as it looked like the undead, while imposing and scary, were quite vulnerable to attacks and crumbled easily. Koneko guarded the ranged attackers while Lady Phenix and Belial were merely holding back and keeping themselves separate from the fight.
"Something doesn't add up." Lady Phenix was beginning to worry as the waves of undead seemed to subside after the failed attack. "These undead are far weaker than the ones that attacked the Rating Grounds."
"If we combine that with our enemy's expert tactics and intelligence, I guess that they're throwing weak chaff at us to make us expend energy, and tiring us out." Belial nodded towards Asia who was healing a security-devil woman who had been chewed out by an undead dog before she managed to beat it back. It seemed that constant use of Asia's healing [Sacred Gear] was quite exhausting, as the girl's face was starting to look a bit tired. "It's working, no?"
"Quite so. Asia? Let Rias heal for now. She's got much more energy than you, while you can heal far more severe injuries. Save your energy for later." Lady Phenix called out to Asia and she reluctantly passed over the healing role to Rias.
"More from the east! They're fast-Ugh!" A male security-devil called out from above and fell from the branch as a thrown spear pierced its chest, pinning him to a crooked swampland-tree nearby.
The body fell to the swamp-water after the spear, nay, thrown lance disintegrated into motes of dark energy.
"NGHII!" A nay of an undead horse invaded the ears of the entire group, and forced them to scatter as a cavalry wedge crashed into their formation, emerging from the undergrowth without breaking stride.
Asia let out a cry of fear as the undead horse nearly crushed her skull when tramping over her, the hoof landing mere inches away from her face, all the while Momon's Peerage recoiled from the sudden impact and from the sheer horror the cavalry charge had inflicted on the group's neat battleline, scattering them all over their chosen battlefield in the swamp.
"W-what the hell are those things?" Yubelluna stood up after getting knocked over into the foul water, then dodged to the side as an undead snake tried to bite her after advancing close to her under the cover of the knee-deep water.
Koneko stomped on the snake multiple times, crushing the undead with the Rook's strength.
One of the undead cavalry-knights turned around on the other end of the battlefield, swinging its lance as if to signal another charge- Which came in the form of a line of shields formed by a group of the very same shield-and-flamberge bearing undead Knights that had almost killed Rias's entire Peerage, alone, back during the initial undead attack in the Rating Game grounds.
Yet, this time there were six of them, and each was followed by a sizable group of weaker skeletons and undead animals.
The weaker undead charged, seemingly out-of-synch with their larger and more imposing brethren, but making way as the larger undead group let howls and charged at the battle-force as well, running past the weaker undead to divide the Peerage's melee fighters from their support.
"Well then, I believe you were correct. They were testing us and tiring us out earlier." Lady Phenix noted to Belial. "However, I feel that this is the enemy's main…"
Belial put a finger on his lips, and Lady Phenix cut herself off mid-speech.
"Good point. Let's not jinx ourselves." Lady Phenix agreed and followed by throwing a ball of fire at the advancing undead.
"Well then, I suppose I should make myself useful." Belial noted as the undead cavalry charged again, causing the devils of Momon's Peerage to scatter in front of the dread knights that practically oozed an aura of inevitable death.
Unfortunately for the cavalry, Belial wasn't particularly affected by the aura thanks to his mental fortitude and strength built over hundreds of battles against far worse odds in the Rating Games, and instead of fleeing he took the charge head-on.
A lance was knocked to the side before it could skewer his chest, and Belial grappled the front of the undead horse, forcing the mount and the rider to come to a near complete stop after pushing Belial a few feet back, digging his feet into the muddy ground beneath the water.
The Champion then leveraged his strength, pulling the horse off its feet and suplexing the horse and its rider into the marshy water, knocking the rider off the mount.
"Not so tough now, eh?" Belial taunted as the undead knight got up and thrust its lance at Belial, missing as the devil knocked the cumbersome weapon away- a lance made a poor on-foot weapon.
The Champion stepped closer and knocked the undead creature's head clean off its shoulders with a thundercrack-like punch before it could draw a sword that was on its waist, followed by tearing off its arm bearing the Lance.
The mount attempted to get up and brain Belial with its hooves, but Belial lifted the lance like a spear before it could disappear into motes of dark energy, causing the undead horse to skewer itself on the lance and miss its target.
"I imagine these things would be quite dangerous to, hm, high-tier devils?" Belial mused as he finished off the mount, leaving the undead creature to melt into a dark mass and disappear. "Interesting. So these were entirely magically created? The other undead creatures left bodies behind… Or are these two entirely different types of undead?"
Belial's musings ended as Lady Phenix came to a stop near him, sending a wave of murky water as she made a wedge of mud in the ground below water after getting thrown back.
"Grrh…" Lady Phenix let an impressive growl and climbed back on her feet, her beautiful red dress stained with mud, vines and small wriggling undead bugs trying to burrow through the dress and into her skin.
She flared her flames, causing her to be cloaked in fire and burning the undead parasites away, but the display did nothing to improve the condition of her ruined dress. It seemed that the woman didn't quite have the strength to stop the charging undead cavalry on their tracks, seeing that the undead horse had run a train on her.
The undead cavalry-knights disappeared back into the undergrowth, somehow not breaking the legs of their mounts despite moving at such speed over unstable ground, having managed to pull off a second successful charge and break the devil's battleline apart utterly.
Indeed, Belial saw that the organized singular fighting force had turned into pockets of resistance in the swampland around them, with pairs or trios of devils fighting to regain foothold in the unstable ground.
One of the security-devils tried to fly up from her branch in the tree to avoid getting cornered and killed by a flock of undead bats, but a undead monkey bodied her after swinging to her with the help of a vine, knocking the woman into the swamp where she was quickly surrounded by a horde of the dead and turned into one of them in a flail of appendages and then loose organs.
"Hm, I think we might have to intervene a bit more, or we're going to go from 'creating a distraction to Momon' to actually losing most of our 'troops' against this chaff." Belial mused, creating a steel spear with his [Power of Imagination], a power inherent to all devils that allowed them to manipulate their energy into effects of their desire, and throwing the weapon to skewer a undead alligator that was creeping up on the now-grounded security-devil woman whom Belial had ear-marked, so to say, and who was defending Asia against a group of skeletons.
"...We might have been too careless." Lady Phenix agreed, looking more than a little worried while channelling her powers to clear the 'chaff' undead. The heavier shield-bearing undead Knights seemed to be more interested in blocking Momon's Peerage than actually slaying them, giving the group some breathing room. "Are those knights buying time by not killing Momon's Peerage? For who are they buying time? No, wait… ah, of course. That thing puppetting my son's corpse must be on its way here to 'finish us off', as we planned. However I feel that our battle-plan is starting to crumble. Should we contact Sirzechs?"
"Contact him if the 'Supreme Being' appears or if I fall, hm?" Belial noted as he glanced up and saw a group of undead monkeys gang up on the rest of the security devils that were still perched on the branches above, knocking them off the branches and moving on to try to drown the now-grounded devils. "After all, isn't this working exactly according to the plan?"
"...True. Although I expected fewer losses." Lady Phenix agreed while casting her fire at the undead monkeys, blasting the undead apart and giving the security team time to get their bearings after getting surrounded and nearly drowned. "I trust your strength and the nobility of your heart, Belial."
If Lady Phenix had been looking at Belial's face when she told him of her trust in his nobility she might have been much more worried.
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"This is worrisome." Sirzechs noted as the group were spying on the battle raging in the distance, standing in a circle around a puddle of perfectly clear water that Serafall had made before departing to spy on Momon through traditional means.
Beelzebub had cast a long-range observation spell on the group of devils marching through the swamp, and the spell had realized itself as a mirror-like view on the surface of the water in front of the group.
The Maous, plus Grayfia and Souji, had seen the group of Devils they were shadowing get hit twice with a massive undead assault, first with chaff to gauge their fighting power and second time with the full force.
"I think we can rule out the possibility of Lady Phenix being renegade now?" Sirzechs offered as the group saw the woman getting knocked off her feet and used as a makeshift plow on the swampland by a huge undead cavalry-knight.
"Possibly, or maybe she's deliberately feeding her security team to the undead…" Beelzebub started but stopped as Sirzechs sighed deeply. "I'm just saying."
"Right, nevermind, next line of thoughts… Should we intervene?" Sirzechs was quite worried as he saw Rias doding a wild swing from a shield-bearing undead Knight, the same kind which had almost managed to corner Grayfia and kill her back in the battle in the Rating Grounds. "I'd say that getting a chance to ambush this 'Supreme Being' is not worth this sacrifice."
"If Rias was not there, would your answer be different?" Beelzebub asked and shut up again as Sirzechs sent the man a look.
"The moment a single thing down there hurts Rias, we're going in full-force, 'Supreme Being' or not." Sirzechs declared while Grayfia nodded severely from the side. "Capiche?"
"Clear." Beelzebub backed off, more than a little intimidated by Grayfia's glare.
"Speaking of interfering and favoritism, could you perhaps send me and Gray-chan if Yuuto-kun gets his butt kicked?" Souji asked. "I'd rather not see my cute little pupil get gutted by undead this early in his development and specifically after I've spent like five years tutoring him in swordplay, please and thank you."
"Speaking of getting gutted by the undead, we should contact Serafall. She's supposed to be spying on Momon-san." Grayfia noted. "And she's not answering her phone, which means something has probably happened."
"...Alright." Beelzebub turned around to cast the observation spell to Serafall and frowned as it was blocked by something.
Beelzebub voiced as much, and Sirzechs scratched his chin. "I wonder… does Momon-san know about anti-observation wards? If so, perhaps Serafall is too close to him for the spell to function properly. Try to cast it on Momon."
Beelzebub cast the spell again, and Sirzechs suddenly saw a huge ball of fire approaching very quickly from above.
The clearing exploded.
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Serafall was flying desperately.
She had sensed something odd.
There was nothing odd about the sensation, as it was quite familiar to her. What was odd was the fact she had sensed it here. It was something she should not have sensed at that time, in that place, localized entirely within the swamp.
It was something that should have been in Kuoh after getting a full night's rest, waking up from a comfy bed, getting into comfy slippers, and getting a delicious and filling breakfast from the staff of Sitri's mansion in Kuoh, Japan.
It was something that should not have been in the hell-like swamp crawling with undead in the Underworld.
"SONA!" Serafall cried out in terror as she came to a stop at the edge of a clearing in the swamp, her feet floating a few inches above the gross water.
In front of her was a Fallen Angel, Kokabiel, who was holding Sona Sitri's naked, unconscious body from her neck, with the girl facing towards Serafall.
"Ah, you're here. Excellent timing, Serafall-chan!" Kokabiel's voice was sweet and caring, while being utterly repulsive and lying, making Serafall want to throw up. "I was about to contact Sirzechs-kun and invite him to hear our manifesto. But you'll do as well. Aha, perhaps, indeed, I seem to recall this sack of meat is somewhat of a relative to you?"
Serafall twitched towards the Fallen Angel, but before she could conjure the swamp-water into spears that would pierce through the foul creature from a hundred different directions, the grip on Sona's neck tightened.
"Ah, ah, ah! Naughty, Sera-tan! Please listen to the end before we start fighting… now, where was I. Oh, yes. My manifesto. You see…" Kokabiel chuckled at Serafall's despair, then waved his hand to seemingly cancel something. The cracking sound of an observation spell being blocked rang in the clearing. "Oh? Let's leave that for later. I can practise the tone with you. It would be troublesome if those two busybodies came over now to investigate and to stop you, so let's leave that for later."
"Ah yes, so, back to my manifesto… Haven't you found that everything is so boringlately? That it's so hard to make a living as a good, honest warmonger? It's quite unfair, I'll tell you. The craftsman types get all the jobs, women, and all sorts of benefits back home! Indeed, while a good, hard-working soldier gets home all he can look forward to is a chunk of mouldy cheese for dinner, and his wife cheating in the next room! Have you ever thought about that, Sera-tan?" Kokabiel went on while Serafall was furiously trying to think about a way to rescue Sona.
"N-no, not particularly…" Serafall noted, breaking out of her magical girl character as her brain worked on overdrive and she moved tiny water molecules around Kokabiel's eyes to form a pair of miniature needles… and the delicate manipulation was broken as Kokabiel moved to the side, dodging the needles before they could blind him.
"Ah! But you don't realize how painful it is for the warmongers! And I'm not the only one- Azazel's peace-loving ways are of the past, and for a long time there has been a rising resentment amongst the ranks of soldiers of all factions, urging for war so they can do something else than move mothballs and be cucked on every front imaginable!" Kokabiel continued without missing a breath. "Listen, Serafall Leviathan!"
Serafall froze before she could try another trick to distract Kokabiel enough for her to rescue Sona and destroy the Fallen Angel, Truce or not.
Sona let a groan, blinked awake and saw Serafall. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened.
"This is the will of me, and of Heavens, and of the Fallen Angels! Give War a chance!" Kokabiel announced, before moving his free hand and causing Serafall to spring forth like a lightning strike through raincloud. "The Truce is over!"
She was not fast enough.
A sword made of light pierced through Sona's back and came out of her chest, having pierced straight through the devil's heart.
"Se…" Sona's mouth moved slightly and her eyes glazed over, her now-unseeing gaze locked with Serafall's eyes.
"And just like that, the war begins!"
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Serafall's scream overpowered the sound of the Fallen Angel's joyful announcement.
And the roar of sudden thunder joined her scream of despair.
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