Another One Bites the Dust

Underworld, Satan Territory, Capital City, Lilith.

In the part of Lilith reserved for the research institutes, a tall building, a skyscraper if you would, stood overlooking the rest of the city. In this skyscraper, the publicly recognized, most intelligent man in the Underworld, Ajuka Beelzebub of the Four Great Satans, conducted most, if not all, of his research. At the top of this building is an impressively designed sky garden where Ajuka would come to either relax or ponder over problems in his research in solitude.

"These kids from the Hero Faction sure are making a mess." Ajuka said as he looked down at the commotions going on around Lilith. "So many [Balance Breaker] users. Not to mention, monsters from [Annihilation Maker]."

Today, unlike his usual trips to the sky garden, Ajuka was using his time to monitor the situation during the Hero Faction's attack. And as time went by, he was liking what he saw less and less.

"Those monsters from [Annihilation Maker] are beginning to gain the anti-devil property." Ajuka said as he used the [Kankara Formula] to analyze the monsters Leonardo created. "That boy should be our main priority for extermination."

"Oh, to think that one of the Four great Satans would consider killing a child like that." A male voice said from the edge of the roof. "I wonder what the rest of the devils would think if they heard that."

"They would expect that of me." Ajuka said without turning around. "Devils must be strong, calculating, and ruthless, after all."

"yeah, I thought so." The male voice said in a nonchalant manner.

As that short conversation went on, the young man who infiltrated Ajuka's private sanctuary, Siegfried of the Hero Faction, approached Ajuka leisurely.

"Scaling the side of this building is rather impressive." Ajuka said. "Especially without getting caught. You have a rather impressive death wish."

"Thank you for your praise." Siegfried said with a smile. "However, you don't have to worry about my will to live. After all, I came here to keep you from interfering, not to throw my life away."

"Oh, I wonder how you intend to do that?" Ajuka asked, finally turning toward Siegfried.

"With this." Siegfried said as he pulled out a small device. "This is a barrier generator that Georg, the wielder of [Dimension Lost] created. It should be able to trap you for at least three hours."

As he spoke, Siegfried activated the device and tossed it at Ajuka's feet.

"And what made you so sure that I wouldn't stop you from activating that thing?" Ajuka said as he used the [Kankara Formula] to analyze the barrier. "Oh, not bad. it really would take me about three hours to break this barrier."

"We banked on the arrogance that most powerful devils have." Siegfried said while shrugging his shoulders. "And it would seem that our hypothesis proved correct."

"Yes, it is true that most powerful devils are quite arrogant." Ajuka said with a nod while continuing to analyze the barrier. "However, you should know that I am not one of them."

"If that is true, then why would you allow yourself to be stuck in that barrier?" Siegfried asked, genuinely curious to hear the excuse that Ajuka would come up with.

"That's simple, actually." Ajuka said, not even looking at Siegfried by this point. "Because there is someone else who will take care of you while I have fun with this barrier."

"Really, I hope yo're not talking about that kid from Kyoto who could barely keep up with me." Siegfried said with a smile. "It hasn't been long enough for him to be a real challenge yet."

"No, he's talking about me." James said from right behind Siegfried.

Hearing the somewhat familiar voice from so close by, Siegfried was startled into taking some distance. Then, when he turned around and saw that the speaker was James, he was stunned into silence for a few seconds.

"You really look like you're having fun, Ajuka." James said after turning his attention toward the Satan whose expression looked like he got a new toy for Christmas.

"This is quite the incredible piece of magical work." Ajuka replied. "Over nine hundred times a second, the pattern of the mana making up this barrier changes. That boy, Georg Faust, really is the magical genius he was made out to be."

"*Sigh* So you left me to do the cleanup work because you wanted to play, huh?" James said with a smile.

"Something like that." Ajuka replied.

While James and Ajuka were joking with each other, Siegfried was staring at James with shock and confusion. He could not understand how James was standing in front of him. With Cao Cao's new eye, he should have been killed by now.

"How are you here?" Siegfried asked with confusion in his tone. "You're supposed to be dead. What happened to Cao Cao and Georg?"

"Oh, their corpses were probably destroyed along with that little dimension." James replied with a shrug. "I mean, why do you look so confused? Even with that new eye Cao Cao got, which was hideous on him. By the way, I don't' know why any of you expected a someone approaching the peak of the minor god-rank to die at the hands of someone almost a full rank lower."

"You killed Cao Cao?" Siegfried said as rage began to seep into his tone.

"Sure did." James replied with a nod. "That Georg guy, too. Oh, don't forget Shalba Beelzebub, too. Though, Master did most of the heavy lifting with that last one. I just cut his head off after he tried to play dead."

"Oh, that should be the last, living descendant of the Original Satans." Ajuka said. "Well, the last one whose whereabouts we know of, anyway."

"You mean Lucifer's son, right?" James replied. "One of the three 'Super Devils' who eclipsed the original Lucifer, like you and Sirzechs, right?"

"That's right." Ajuka said, still analyzing the barrier as he spoke. "We lost track of him shortly before the Civil War five hundred plus years ago."

Once again, while James and Ajuka spoke, Siegfried was processing the situation. On top of that, he had trouble believing what James said to be true. However, since James was here and Cao Cao had yet to contact him, he was beginning to lean toward the fact that James was telling the truth.

"Cao Cao... is dead?" Siegfried muttered.

"Yup." James said with a nod and a smile. "Cutting his head off felt great, too."

Instead of replying to James, Siegfried lowered his head and spoke quietly.

"[Balance Break: Chaos Edge Asura Ravage]."

Just like his battle with Yuuto back in Kyoto, Siegfried grew a third arm, covered in silver dragon scales, from his back. Unlike the battle with Yuuto, however, the dragon arms continued to grow from his back until he had a total of four dragon scale covered arms. Now, including his normal arms, Siegfried had six, enough to wield each of the six swords on his waist.

"So, he could make more of those weird dragon arms, huh?" James said.

"[Partner, you need to be careful with this guy.]" Ddraig said hurriedly. "[That one sword is a dragon slaying sword.]"

"Yeah, it is Gram, after all." James replied with a nod as Siegfried began drawing his swords. "I'm guessing that reforging that one into a katana would be a no-no, huh?"

"[If you don't mind your hands burning every time you held it, go on ahead.]" Ddraig replied with a scoff.

"Yeah, I'll pass on that." James said with a smile. "The other four are promising, though."

*Clang!*

"How rude." James said. "Can't you see I was in the middle of a conversation. I promise you'll be joining your friends shortly. Just be patient, please."

"I'll kill you!" Siegfried shouted.

As he shouted, Siegfried began to swing his swords with the skill of a master swordsman. However, thanks to his much greater physical parameters, James was able to fend off all six of Siegfried's swords with only Mangetsu no Shita de. On top of that, James was no worse in terms of swordsmanship than Siegfried.

"Kiba didn't talk him up at all." James said with a bit of praise in his tone. "He's really quite good."

"[If he wasn't so weak, this might be a challenge for you.]" Ddraig replied. "[But he should be taught his place for challenging a dragon.]"

"Agreed." James said as a bloodthirsty smile appeared on his face.

As he finished his conversation with Ddraig, James stepped forward. Instead of defending from Siegfried's sword strikes as he had been doing, he swung his sword, seemingly very slowly. However, once he stepped past Siegfried, all six of his arms fell, with the six swords still held tightly in each hand. Then, James spoke the name of his technique as he slid Mangetsu no Shita de back into its sheath.

"Seven Blooming Cherry Blossoms."

*Click!*

As the sound of Mangetsu no Shita de's handguard contacting the sheath rang out, Siegfried's chest began to spray blood from where his heart would be.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you were on par with Okita Souji in terms of swordsmanship at this point." Ajuka commented. "Seven simultaneous slashes using only technique and bodily strength is quite impressive."

"If you think that's impressive, you should see me when I circulate my demonic energy through my body and sword." James replied with a smile. Then, he turned toward Siegfried's corpse and raised his hand with his palm pointing toward it. "[Hado Number 33: Sokatsui]"

From James' palm, a stream of high temperature, pale blue flames were fired and engulfed Siegfried's corpse, setting it ablaze swiftly. After a few seconds, the flames died down. When they did, there was nothing left but ash that was blown away by the wind.

"Well, now that that's taken care of, I'll just take these and be on my way." James said as he began to pick up the five demonic swords. "I think Yuuto may be able to use this four I decide to not use."

"I'll be here for a while." Ajuka said. "Help as many people as you can, okay?"

"Of course, you'll be there for a while." James said while rolling his eyes. "Letting yourself get caught like that will do that to you, ya know."

Ajuka could only chuckle in response. He knows, like most scientists, he sometimes allows himself to be taken over by his curiosity in situations when he should not. But since there was someone here that could deal with the enemy, he was all right with it.

"Oh, where is Sirzechs?" James asked. "I haven't felt his presence since I got out of the temporary dimension."

"Oh, as soon as Azazel got out, he contacted us and when Sirzechs heard that there were so many Grim Reapers involved, he grabbed Azazel and dragged him along to Hades' Land of the Dead." Ajuka replied.

"I'm sure he'll have something to say about Samael as well." James said in a solemn tone.

"This is the first time I'm hearing about that." Ajuka said, finally turning his attention away from the barrier he was trying to analyze.

"I bet Sirzechs, the sis-con took off as soon as he heard that Rias was attacked by Grim Reapers." James said with a wry smile.

Ajuka returned a wry smile as his response. Then, James shrugged his shoulders and continued.

"Yeah, the Hero Faction fuckers and Shalba Beelzebub summoned him and sicked him on Ophis." James said in a nonchalant tone. "But I grabbed her and dodged his attacks until the summoning timed out. It's a good thing I did, too. They were playing on the fact that she would never see that thing as a threat, so she tried to tank the attack."

"That was a good decision." Ajuka said with a nod. "Samael's poison is potent enough to seriously injure the likes of Ophis and great red. Though they would never die from it."

"I figured." James replied with another shrug. "But she's just a ball of innocence. A stupidly powerful one, mind you. But she doesn't deserve to be betrayed like that."

"Anyway, I'll be here for the next few hours." Ajuka said. "If you wouldn't mind, could you keep the citizens safe."

"I planned on it." James replied. "The next move is to secure the kid using [Annihilation Maker], at least until someone who can extract it is free. And on that note, I'll see you later, Ajuka."

With that, James finished storing the swords Siegfried left behind, spread his wings, and flew from the sky garden.