Chapter Text
“Why do you care about Bakugo so much?!” Momo screamed through the wind whipping past them. They were falling through the air at terminal velocity, which meant hitting the ground was kinda a non-issue for them. They were essentially S-Ranks, after all. So it was more about waiting for the ground to come to them.
“He used to be my friend! We had a lot of fun together! It would be different if he had always been a jerk! But… I had a really great childhood between him, my sister, my father, and my mother!” Momo knew this. Up until Izuku’s mother fell into a coma and his father vanished behind a Gate, Izuku had love and care in abundance. “I still have Kei, but Bakugo is a part of that past… a past that I want back!”
Momo could only somewhat understand Izuku’s reasoning. She saw the past as something to be put behind you, killed if necessary. It was, in a lot of ways, hard for her to really grasp the concept of someone like Bakugo deserving redemption. She saw him in the same light as her parents. He didn’t show remorse, or any sort of thoughtful introspection, so what was the point?
The reason Momo cared so deeply for Izuku was that he helped her move forwards, but at the same time, he was looking to reclaim his past. Getting his mother and father back? Momo didn’t question that. Bakugo however? Even her extreme intelligence couldn’t get that. Izuku’s mother and father had been taken by events outside their control, they hadn’t suddenly become evil, arrogant, assholes like Bakugo.
“What does Kei think about him?!”
“She hates his guts! Her and Bakugo used to be friends too because he spent so much time around my family! If she could, she’d beat him until he was black and blue!”
“Smart girl!” Momo shouted back, grinning ear-to-ear, and even Izuku was forced to crack a smile.
“Alright! Time to get serious!” Izuku said, bending his knees as the ground approached them.
Anyone who had ever seen a bomb go off would know it's less of a fireball and more of a dust cloud. So it was no exaggeration to say Momo and Izuku hit the ground and decimated it like they were bombs.
*******
[Quest: As Above, So Below Part 1]
- The Lux and Tenebris fill this world. Because of their feud, reality is tearing apart. Restore balance by quelling their armies.
[Requirements:]
- 5,000 Tenebris Souls
- 5,000 Lux Souls
*******
“Tenebris! Isn’t that what Arcka is?”
Izuku nodded. “It means the Dark… and the Lux means the Light.”
“So Demons and Angels… Five-thousand of each…”
As if on cue, the city exploded with high-pitched shrieks, like a cross between a bat and a record-scratch.
““Come Forth””
The Shadow Army heeded the call of their Master and Mistress, now totalling 750 in number. Izuku had added an additional 442 High-Orcs after expanding his Intelligence Stat. They filled the streets of the hellish Tokyo landscape, with Izuku’s “heads” of the army closest to him. Igris, Behemoth, Baruka, Tusk, Arcka, and Rasaka.
“We’re playing a numbers game, so you should have this!” Momo shouted up to Tusk, lobbing him the Orb of Avarice.
“Arcka… is there any chance we can talk to these guys?” Izuku asked his Shadow of the same species as the approaching Demons. But the Shadow just shook his head, eyes wide at the numerous screeches getting closer and closer. He drew a line across his neck. “Well… I suppose I expected that.”
“Here they come,” Momo cautioned, putting on her Empress outfit and pulling out a semi-auto rifle from beneath her cloak. It didn’t give any sort of numerical advantage as it was just an illusion, but it allowed her to hide her creations under the fabric and surprise enemies. Also… she felt cool wearing it and Izuku was no different.
Taking upon their outfits, they looked like actual leaders of this army, and Izuku may have been imagining it, but he felt like it boosted morale amongst the troops.
The northern sky began to cloud with a dark shape, like thousands of crows flocking together.
“They have wings? Arcka didn’t…”
Arcka shook his head, which Izuku took to mean that his augmentations from his ‘liege’ had made him different from his original species.
“I think now would be a good time to start shooting…” Momo said, lifting the rifle to her eye and shouting. “Artillery fire!”
The Ice Bears’ Mana suddenly exploded outwards, launching dozens of explosive magical icicles. Momo added to it with her bullets, and Izuku raised his gauntlets, shooting off his own icicle blasts whilst holding the Cryonic Entropy to boost his Ice Magic.
“Oh crap I promised to give this back to Baruka…”
[Tenebris Flock are using Particle Storm.]
As the two storms approached each other, one of ice and one of darkness, the Tenebris began furiously swarming around, creating some sort of mist in front of them.
Izuku thought it was a retaliatory attack at first and prepared to defend or evade. After all, in a city, there were plenty of places to hide and take cover. But the name Particle Storm, as badass as it sounded, was misleading.
The icicle artillery burrowed into the misty cloud of darkness. Or rather, that’s what it looked like. In actuality, the Particle Storm, as it were, consumed the icicles the second they made contact, like a swarm of ants devouring a cow, just a thousand times faster.
“Izu… they’re getting closer…” Momo continued unloading her rifle, but even her shots couldn’t penetrate the cloud. At this rate, they were going to consume the entire army.
“TUSK!”
[Tusk is using Skill: Hymn of the Fire Dragon.]
A gargantuan dragon’s head, twice the size of Tusk himself, thanks to the Orb of Avarice, formed from the Orc’s cloak, rising into the air and letting off an extremely condensed fire blast. It looked more like a Hyper Beam from Pokemon than anything else if Izuku was being honest.
It impacted the cloud, spreading out and creating a wall of energy. But it was still getting pushed back by the cloud.
“Arcka is this gonna work?” Momo and Izuku looked over to the Shadow but he was just making the same continuous motions, dragging a finger across his throat and making an ‘X’ with his arms.
“Oh… that’s what you meant…”
Izuku tilted his head to the side and made a light chuckle of hysteria before calling all the Shadows, aside from Tusk, back to him.
[Skill: Stealth has activated.]
Momo and Izuku vanished from sight, leaving only a giant High-Orc Shaman standing on the streets. Of course, they weren’t gonna leave him there, they just needed a bit of time.
Sprinting through the abandoned urban landscape, Izuku felt like those guys on Youtube who were constantly exploring creepy decaying buildings. Only, in this exploration of an abandoned landscape, they were being chased by genuine demons.
As the cloud began bearing down on their street, Izuku and Momo started running perpendicular to the demons, dashing through alleyways and office buildings. And just before the cloud reached Tusk, Izuku recalled him, saving him at the last second.
Which left Momo and Izuku inside a high-rise, just a few stories up, looking down at the cloud from a broken window. With their Stealth, they were impossible to detect by most things, physically and magically. Not only were the sounds they made muted, but their magic signatures were completely erased.
“Let’s get a higher vantage point,” Izuku whispered, not that he needed to. The two of them, when cloaked, could communicate as loudly as possible and only be heard by each other. It was just a habit to be quiet when something dangerous was near.
The building they were in looked to be the Sumida City Offices, or at least one that had gone through an apocalypse.
“Then I’ve got a better suggestion than this place.” Momo said with a smile.
*******
“I didn’t take you for someone to be scared of heights!” Momo shouted down at Izuku as they scaled the Tokyo Skytree, the Eiffel Tower of Tokyo in a sense. “Didn’t we just fall from a few hundred feet up?!”
Izuku’s hands shook as they gripped the rusted and decaying metals. The elevator was obviously wrecked, so they had to free climb the tower.
“I’m not afraid of heights!” He shouted back. “It’s just that I’m unsure of my grip! I feel like I’m gonna fall!”
“But you’d only be afraid of falling if you were afraid of heights!”
“I’ve never been afraid of flying or roller coasters or anything because I trust the machinery! But situations like this make me nervous! I have too much time to think!”
“Well don’t give up on me now! You can do it!” Momo shouted back. “Because I’ve got an idea on how to deal with that Skill those Tenebris had!”
“Yeah?”
“But uhm… how fast are the High-Orcs?”
Izuku’s brow scrunched up in understanding. “Oh… That could work…”
“I left a couple at the bottom of the Skytree in advance!” Momo said.
“Smart!” The sentence left his mouth just as his fingers cleared the gap to the window of the Skytree’s observation deck. “See! I made it up just fine when I wasn’t thinking about it!”
Momo gave Izuku a goofy grin as she pulled herself over the edge of the shattered windows. “You could take down the Skytree with your bare hands, you don’t need to worry about falling from it.”
“No one said that fear is supposed to be rational.”
“Fair point.”
“Baruka,” Izuku called out, the Ice Elf emerging with the Everfrost Bow in hand. “I’m not one to break a promise,” He said, handing the Elf his dagger back.
Baruka, in turn, tried to hand over the Everfrost Bow, knowing the plan that was about to be enacted, but Izuku waved it off. “That’s one of the last things you have of your people. Keep it. I’ve got something else in mind.”
Izuku opened the store, scrolling down to a listing he had seen a few days ago when combing through the vast amounts of options.
*******
[Item: Escape Velocity]
- Item Class: S
- Item Type: Bow
- Attack: +450
- Gem Slots: 0
- Description: When Mana is channeled through this bow, its arrows are unaffected by gravity or wind. It will move in a straight line. If an arrow passes completely through an enemy, that target will be inflicted with ‘Hemorrhage’ and will bleed out within 60 seconds unless they are resistant to the debuff or are healed within that time frame.
*******
It cost a cool 90 million gold. Most of Izuku’s coffers. But it was well worth it for its effects. Especially since Izuku had only fired a bow a few times before. The absence of other factors on the arrow would allow him to fire closer to Momo’s rate and accuracy.
“Here,” She said, tossing him an eyepiece that matched his Shadow Monarch mask. “Just stick it on, it should automatically attach.”
“You’re starting to get good at making magical implements that others can use, huh?” Izuku commented, snatching the thing out of the air and affixing it to his mask.
But she shook her head. “These are little things. The concept is similar to my potions. Because they have a single function, there’s no way for the Mana to go crazy and become uncontrollable. I’m still a long ways off from making actual artifacts and weapons for others.”
Izuku nodded. “But still, it is impressive, and you gotta start somewhere right?”
Momo gave a light smile. “Yeah… Yeah I guess so.”
“Now, before we start playing ‘fish in a barrel’ I wanna see what these guys have to offer.” Izuku zoomed in on one of the clouds of Tenebris in the distance, using Documentarian to get information on them.
*******
[Tenebris]
Description: One of the fundamental species of the universe. They are connected to the source of Primordial Darkness, as opposed to the Lux’s connection to the source of Primordial Light. They worship the dark side of the Primordial Forces, giving them extremely powerful abilities. In recent times, they have sided with the !@#$%^&]
*******
[Error, information not found.]
“Never seen that before…” Izuku mumbled, thinking back on the high-pitched static he had heard when the Ice Elf tried to tell him something.
“It sounds like Star Wars,” Momo acknowledged with a slight grin. “Do you think they use hate to channel their powers?” It was a question made in jest.
“Whatever the case, they don’t sound like the good guys,” Izuku said, silently admonishing himself for being narrow-minded. No one would have assumed an E-Rank would be in the position he was in now. But all the same, the Dungeon required its sacrifice.
So Momo commanded the Shadows at the base of the tower to spread out throughout the city. When running away, Momo had noticed something about the Tenebris Particle Storm Skill. It was only forward facing. So despite its asinine defensive and offensive capabilities, it was, like many formations, weak to flanking maneuvers.
“All right,” Momo announced her intention to the Shadow army, “Time to begin Operation Fish In a Barrel!”
The High-Orcs across the city let their Mana flare, attracting the ire of the Tenebris in the sky. It was time for the two forces of Darkness to clash.
*******
A few hours ago, before Momo and Izuku went into their special Gate, Takashi, the new leader of the Chaos Cult, picked up the phone. He had just received a call from the two about the Raid that was going to happen soon.
It was a standard handheld set in appearance, but it was heavily encrypted, so that no one could invade his calls. He inputted a special number that he hadn’t used in months. When it rang twice, then went silent, he spoke.
“The Monarch and Empress wish for you to accompany the Heroes to Jeju Island… as a precaution. I assured them as one of the heads of the Commission Agency that Jeju would be an easy target for the strike team, but they insisted you go. Do your job well. They’re relying on us to handle this… so that they may be ready…”
On a rooftop miles away from the mansion Takashi was in, a woman with bi-colored hair lowered the phone. A joyful grin stretched across her face. “I shall finally serve them… Maybe I will even receive their praise…” She shuddered in reverence just thinking of the moment.
She was a secret, hidden in plain sight. Many assumed Endeavor was the second strongest Japan had to offer, but in truth… There was only one woman who could be called the right hand of Death. The Lovely Lady Nagant.