Chapter 256
Hours had passed since the earth-shaking clash between Draco and Alfia, though to call it a true battle felt inaccurate.
It was more akin to a grand, boisterous duel, a vibrant exchange of power between two individuals who, despite their immense capabilities, held no intent to inflict true harm, let alone kill.
Their contest had left a deep mark on the landscape, yet remarkably, it carried none of the grim, blood-soaked aftermath of a genuine war.
Above, the clouds were gradually yielding to the western winds, scattering like wisps of torn cotton across a canvas that bled from steel grey into the first, delicate strokes of twilight purple.
For the first time in what felt like ages, the muted hues of dusk painted the ravaged world with a fleeting, ethereal beauty, offering a poignant contrast to the raw devastation below.
Ryuu, her lithe figure moving with an almost ghost-like quietness, navigated the scene of the recent skirmish.
A knot of apprehension tightened in her stomach with every step.
Her sky-blue eyes, widened almost imperceptibly as they swept across the landscape.
The sheer scale of destruction defied belief.
"This is where the explosive sounds came from," she murmured to herself, her voice barely a whisper in the echoing silence.
"But there's no one here."
Everywhere she looked, the urban sprawl had been systematically dismantled.
Buildings groaned on the verge of collapse, their skeletal frames reaching for the twilight sky.
Interspersed among the wreckage were bizarre, almost organic earthen structures, some still partially formed, others fractured and crumbling.
A wave of relief washed over her as she confirmed the absence of bodies, no sign of life or death—a small mercy amidst the chaos.
Yet, the situation remained deeply unsettling, an enigma of immense power wielded without apparent consequence.
Reaching up, Ryuu slowly unfastened the clasps of her mask, letting it fall away to reveal a face etched with concern.
She took a deep, deliberate breath, drawing the scent of the ravaged air into her keen senses.
Her nose twitched, immediately catching a familiar, sharp tang.
“Gunpowder,” she stated, the recognition a cold certainty.
Her mind raced, sifting through possibilities.
‘Was Lyra here? If so, I need to search more thoroughly.’
Her focus sharpened.
She began a meticulous sweep of the blast zone, her gaze sharp as she scoured the debris.
It wasn't long before her eyes snagged on something small, distinctly out of place: a scattering of metal fragments, the size of a thumbnail.
‘Lyra’s "boomlet" fragments’
Her heart sank, a cold confirmation of her worst fears.
Lyra, had undoubtedly been involved in whatever cataclysm had unfolded here.
Lyra was notoriously frugal with her self-crafted items.
Compared to her other companions, she was significantly weaker; her strength lay in her sharp mind, her intricate schemes, and her meticulously prepared contingency plans for most conceivable scenarios.
The very fact that she had been compelled to deploy her precious explosive devices could only signify one terrifying truth: she had encountered an insurmountable force, something or someone that defied her prowess, leaving retreat as the sole, logical recourse.
Ryuu’s eyes narrowed, her jaw tightening.
She extended her search, her anxiety mounting.
Moments later, her gaze snagged on another tell-tale sign—the hilt of a katana, half-buried beneath a pile of rubble.
It was undeniably Kaguya’s.
The hilt, adorned with a distinctive far eastern design, was an unmistakable signature of her friend's weapon.
A choked gasp escaped Ryuu's lips.
Her heart, a moment ago beating with a steady rhythm, now faltered, skipping wildly in her chest before resuming an erratic hammering.
Though her relationship with Kaguya was often fraught with playful jabs and competitive rivalry, the thought of her friend in peril was unbearable.
‘No, Ryuu, don’t spiral,’ she commanded herself, her internal voice sharp, a desperate anchor in the churning sea of fear.
‘They cannot be dead. There are no bodies, no evidence of lethal blows. They must have escaped, fled whatever horror they faced.’ She repeated the mantra, clinging to it like a lifeline, slowly regaining a semblance of control.
A newfound resolve now steeling her, Ryuu approached one of the peculiar earthen structures.
These were littered across the devastated street, some were rounded and dome-like, others like a wall or pointy spike, in varying in sizes.
Cautiously, she extended a hand, her fingers brushing against its oddly smooth, yet brittle surface.
The structure, seemingly solid, emitted a low, resonant groan, a sound of ancient earth disturbed, before collapsing in on itself with a soft sigh, dissolving into a fine, pale dust at her touch.
“What…?” Ryuu muttered, startled, her composure briefly shattered.
But her training quickly kicked in, and she regained her footing.
She knelt, examining the lingering dust, a faint energy shimmering within it.
‘This is magic,’ she realized, a chilling certainty settling in.
‘It’s incredibly faint now, but this resonance… it feels strikingly similar to Draco’s magical signature.’
The pieces clicked into place, forming a terrifying mosaic.
"There was definitely a monumental fight here, and Draco, Lyra, and Kaguya were undoubtedly involved," she concluded aloud, her voice taut with a renewed, escalating dread.
A single, agonizing question now consumed her thoughts, echoing hollowly in the ruins: ‘Who could possibly confront Draco, Lyra, and Kaguya simultaneously, and moreover, force such a formidable trio to retreat?’
As the weight of this terrifying question pressed down on her, a structure on the periphery of her vision suddenly arrested her attention.
It was a stark anomaly, almost impossible to miss once seen, yet somehow she had overlooked it until now.
Amidst the universal devastation, where every other building lay in shambles, this one stood remarkably, eerily intact.
“A church?” Ryuu whispered, her brow furrowing.
“How did it survive this… and why am I only noticing it now?” A deep sense of unease settled upon her, the structure exuding an inexplicable sense of having materialized from thin air, revealing itself only when it chose.
Despite the creeping apprehension, Ryuu's instincts pulled her forward.
She approached the church with a cautious, almost reverent step, her gaze meticulously scanning its scarred stone walls and the jagged remnants of its broken roof.
The facade was ancient, weathered by countless seasons, its wooden double doors dark with age and heavy with the passage of time.
With a loud, protesting creak and a guttural groan, Ryuu pushed the massive doors inward, stepping into the deep silence within.
The interior was a study in desolate grandeur.
Rough-hewn wooden floors stretched before her, leading to a central nave flanked by austere stone walls.
To her left, a winding stone staircase descended into shadow, leading to an unseen lower level.
At the far end, beyond the altar, a great stained-glass window, once a kaleidoscope of vibrant hues, was now shattered, its fractured beauty allowing a chill, mournful breeze to whistle through the cracks, offering a fleeting glimpse of the purple twilight beyond.
Around her, wooden pews lay splintered and overturned, like skeletal remains of a long-abandoned congregation.
Carved into every towering stone pillar that supported the vaulted ceiling were the solemn visages of various goddesses, their expressions immutable, their stone eyes seeming to follow Ryuu, to judge her from every angle.
Even in its current state of ruin, the solemn, sacred atmosphere of this place of worship was palpable, sending a shiver down Ryuu's spine.
She tried to shake off the unsettling sensation, to rationalize the creeping cold, when a voice, clear and resonant, suddenly shattered the oppressive silence, making her jump.
“To meet again in such a place,” the voice purred, a silken thread weaving through the air, “I can’t help but feel this is fate, wouldn’t you agree, my little egg of justice?”
Ryuu spun around instantly, her hand instinctively going to the hilt of her blade, her eyes locking onto the source of the voice.
A figure emerged from the deep shadows near one of the massive stone pillars, stepping into the faint, fading twilight filtering through the shattered window.
As the features became discernible, Ryuu’s face contorted in an expression of pure, unadulterated disgust.
“Erebus,” she spat, her voice laced with venomous threat.
“Why are you here?”
A maddeningly calm, almost playful chuckle echoed through the cavernous space.
“Why, Ryuu, my dear,” Erebus replied, his voice annoyingly smooth, like polished stone, “I’ve been searching for you everywhere.”
“Enough with your games!” Ryuu snarled, her patience snapping.
“You lied to me. You lied to us. Eren? Who would have believed…” Her voice hitched, a torrent of suppressed rage threatening to burst forth.
Erebus, however, merely waved a dismissive hand, a gesture of casual disregard that only fuelled her fury.
“Oh, please, let’s forgo that tiresome rehashing for now. I’ve already had that delightful conversation with your… friends. Can we simply skip that part this time?”
“M-my… my friends?” Ryuu stammered, the rage momentarily eclipsed by a fresh wave of terror.
“You mean Lyra, Draco, and Kaguya? You mad god, what have you done to them?!” she demanded, her voice raw with desperation.
Erebus’s lips curled into a slow, unsettling smile, a chillingly predatory expression.
“Relax, Ryuu. I merely had a bit of… fun with them. But don’t fret, they are mostly safe. That remarkable Draco boy managed to save them, though I assure you, they aren’t entirely unscathed by our little encounter.”
A visible flood of relief washed over Ryuu, yet it was swiftly replaced by a gnawing worry. ‘Mostly safe’ and ‘not unscathed’ were phrases that promised a fresh set of horrors.
Her mind, beginning to formulate a desperate plan.
‘Should I try to capture…?’
Before the thought could fully form, Erebus’s voice cut through her internal monologue, sharp and laced with an unmistakable warning.
“It would be quite… troublesome, if you were to entertain any ‘funny’ ideas, Ryuu. Unless, of course, you wish to end up precisely like your friends. But unlike them, dearest, there will be no Draco to save you.”
Ryuu flinched, a visceral jolt of pure terror running through her.
As if on cue, a second figure emerged from the deeper shadows, a silent, imposing presence that materialized beside Erebus.
Her breath caught in her throat.
“Y-you… from the Hera Familia,” she stuttered, her voice barely audible.
With Alfia, now standing silently beside Erebus, Ryuu felt an icy dread grip her.
It was as if the grim reaper’s scythe, was already pressed against her throat.
A single, cold bead of sweat traced a path along the curve of her long ears, trailing down the side of her neck.
The air in the quiet church shifted, growing heavy, almost suffocating, as Alfia's presence filled the space.
“I haven’t come here for a confrontation, Ryuu,” Erebus stated, his voice a silken murmur that seemed to caress the silence rather than break it.
“You have nothing to fear, provided you don’t attempt anything... foolish. Simply indulge me, as you did during my time as Eren.”
Ryuu’s breath hitched, a phantom chill tracing the path of her spine.
Her head dipped in an involuntary, almost imperceptible nod – a primal instinct overriding conscious thought.
The ingrained impulse to seize him, to fulfill her perceived duty, withered under the pressure of Alfia’s gaze.
Capturing Erebus right now, was a fantasy, a suicidal folly.
“What… what do you want?” she managed, the question laced with a raw frustration.
It was a concession, an admission of powerlessness that gnawed at her.
A faint, knowing smile touched Erebus’s lips, a subtle curve that sent a shiver down Ryuu’s arm.
He found a quiet satisfaction in her current behaviour, a stark contrast to the volatile irrationality of others he’d encountered, like Lyra or the impulsive Kaguya.
“I have come to ascertain if your answer to a certain question has evolved since last we met,” Erebus announced, his voice deepening with an almost theatrical gravitas.
At his words, a familiar icy grip seized Ryuu’s chest, squeezing the air from her lungs until her heart felt poised to shatter.
The sound of her surname, a whisper from the lips of a dark god, resonated like a death knell. “Leon,” he intoned, and the single syllable stripped away her defences, laying bare the raw nerve of her existence.
“What is justice?” he asked, the question echoing.
Ryuu felt an agonizing thirst parch her throat, her head throbbing with a dull, relentless ache.
It was a nightmare reborn, a torment she had fled from, a deep question that had driven her from her familia's embrace and haunted her every waking moment since her first encounter with this deity.
“Why are you asking me this?” she finally choked out, her voice a fragile tremor.
She truly didn’t know the answer anymore.
Her once unshakable convictions, the clear lines of right and wrong that had defined her life, had been violently fractured by his earlier machinations, leaving her adrift in a sea of moral ambiguity.
Erebus’s expression softened, a disconcerting shift that transformed his features into something almost gentle.
“My dear Ryuu, it’s all because I fell in love with you. The moment I met you, amidst the chaos and striving of this transient world, I immediately recognized a potential, a brilliance within your soul.” His confession, spoken with disarming tenderness, startled her, yet she recovered swiftly.
This was an evil god; she couldn’t afford the luxury of believing a single word he uttered, especially not one so manipulative.
“Why… why does evil care so much about justice?” Ryuu stammered, the words catching in her throat.
It was difficult to maintain composure when a literal level seven threat, held her in her gaze.
“Because it embodies the ultimate debate, the very essence of existence that will ultimately dictate the fate of the mortal world,” Erebus replied, his voice acquiring a chillingly precise cadence, as if his answers had been meticulously rehearsed over eons.
There was a potent force, a singular obsession, woven into every syllable he spoke.
“Right now, Orario stands as a chilling microcosm of the entire mortal realm,” he elucidated, sweeping a hand out as if encompassing the city beyond the church walls.
“Since the fall of the Zeus and Hera Familia to the Black Dragon, the world was plunged into disarray. Perhaps driven by desperation, greed, base desires, people across the land engage in every conceivable nefarious act – stealing, killing, despoiling, betraying. The fabric of society frays, day by day.” He paused, allowing the desolate image to settle.
“The mortal realm has become an immense battleground, caught in a perpetual tug-of-war between the forces of order and the encroaching chaos, all awaiting the eventual emergence of some foretold hero. The scales of good and evil are in a constant, agonizing tether, never quite settling.” The dark god’s gaze sharpened, piercing.
“The world must make a definitive choice: to embrace the encroaching darkness of this age, or to usher in a new era, bathed in light. It cannot, must not, be allowed to languish in this perpetual, debilitating grey.”
Ryuu, stunned into silence, could offer no response as Erebus continued.
“While my allegiance is unequivocally with the camp of absolute evil, I confess, I harbour an insatiable curiosity about the precise role justice will play in the events yet to unfold,” Erebus stated, his eyes locking with Ryuu’s, a suffocating intensity radiating from them.
She felt as though her very soul was being meticulously dissected, laid bare for his divine scrutiny.
“I desire to know if justice possesses the inherent strength, the sheer resilience, to truly serve as the mainstay in the coming new era.”
As his voice faded, a deep silence descended upon the church, heavy and expectant.
Ryuu prayed, with every fibre of her being, that the quiet would simply last forever.
Her instincts shrieked, a primal warning.
She knew, with chilling certainty, that when the dark god’s monologue reached its inevitable conclusion, it would unleash a truth that would utterly shatter her.
But the dark god, a wicked, knowing grin spreading across his face, granted her no such reprieve. “Leon,” Erebus called her by her surname once more, the sound a soft, intimate torment.
“I firmly believe that good and evil, in their purest forms, possess an inherent validity. But do you not agree that they truly achieve their incandescent brilliance only when pitted against one another?” His voice became impossibly gentle, his tone eerily akin to that of a benevolent priest delivering a sermon.
A metaphorical noose tightened around Ryuu’s neck, cutting off her breath.
“What… what are you trying to say?” she barely managed, her voice raw.
“Conflict, my dear, is the crucible that forges necessity for growth, particularly for zealous adventurers such as yourselves. I am certain you understand this truth, do you not?” His gaze held hers, compelling.
“After both forces – good and evil – have been honed, perfected through incessant friction, they shall, at long last, birth the ideals of the new era. One of ultimate, unyielding good, and one of ultimate, uncompromised evil.” He paused, allowing the chilling weight of his words to sink deep into her consciousness, as if reciting a dark, forbidden scripture.
“Then, and only then, can the final, defining showdown commence. The victor shall inherit the world… or perhaps, destroy it entirely,” Erebus concluded, a bright, terrifying smile illuminating his face.
He dramatically extended his arms heavenward, his figure briefly silhouetted, almost haloed, by the fractured, filtered light streaming through the vibrant stained-glass windows.
A/N: Hey guys, sorry about the battle last chapter. I know it wasn't as epic as everyone was expecting ?. Now that I reread it, Draco was just slinging around spells, looking like an idiot while Alfia indulged him.
My plan is to push the crazy battles towards the last 2 days of the war, while also letting Erebus and Arachnia’s plans marinate. I don’t want a situation where the key figures on the evilus or adventurers side get taken out before the final battle. There may be other ways to go about things, sadly I am not smart enough to figure it out yet…..
As for this chapter, well I already made Ryuu an object Erebus obsession like in the original, so that’s why she gets soooooooo much screen time, it’s kinda hard to incorporate Draco into these type of scenes.
I should also try to make chapters with the Bahamut familia members, it’s been a while since they were shown. Also got to update their status sheets……sigh, so much to do and keep track of…….sorry for the long rant..
Feel free to read ahead on pat3on and donate.