Chapter Text
“Shouldn’t we have let them see Atric before we went past them?” Izuku asked as he followed on Merix’s heels. He was still recovering from the emotional rollercoaster, but he seemed to be in better shape than Merix himself, who was shambling in a stupor.
The question seemed to snap him out of it for a moment. “Uhh… no.”
“The Tenebris and Lux have very specific customs for their dead. The Lux are perhaps more… emotionless about it.” Quorra expanded on her husband’s answer. “But both species… destroy their dead.”
“Destroy?” Izuku asked. “Like cremation?”
“No. We were raised in war. No time to mourn, no time to scatter or bury any remains. Using magic, we completely deconstruct their bodies. Down to such nothingness that it cannot even be seen.”
“Molecular deconstruction?” Momo piped up. “That sounds… powerful.”
Quorra shook her head. “It is not quick, and it can only be done on a perfectly still creature. In other words, it can only be performed on the dead. But it’s more potent than even the Particle Storm.”
“Besides…” Merix muttered. “Atric was in pain, they wouldn’t want to remember him anyways.”
“You don’t remember your dead?”
“It’s… complicated. Like she said, we grew up not expecting the demon or angel next to us to be alive the next day. The fact that we’re still alive after all this time is… well it’s insane. It’s a probability that cannot be calculated.”
Quorra nodded. “The longer we live, the stronger we get, and the more of a target we become to the other side. Myself and Merix are amongst the strongest of our kind. But like the rest of our kind, we are expendable.”
Merix scoffed. “Not even the nobility are excluded. I was blaming them… all this time… But they don’t feel good about it either… They just wanted to end it all. All this pain…”
Izuku exchanged a worried glance with Momo, concerned for Merix’s mental health, but she shook her head. She knew he was fine… well… he was stable enough to not compromise the team.
“They still did something wrong, though.” Izuku pointed out. “I’m not saying you should never forgive them, just that you should know that your animosity towards them isn’t unfounded. You have a right to feel the way you do.”
“I… see… You sound like you have experience in dealing with one who wronged you…”
Izuku and Momo practically barked out a laugh. “Yeah, you could say I’ve had some… troubles with one person in particular.”
“Would you… tell me of them? We do have 50 more Floors to traverse before reaching the Demon King. And with all of the remaining Tenebris behind us, it would do well to talk.”
“Oh jeez… where do I even start?”
*******
“And that is where we are today.” Izuku finished, glancing at Merix with concern. Not because of anything serious. It was just that he was appalled that the tales of Bakugo managed to keep him occupied for 49 of the 50 Floors. His face was contorted into an ugly shape, even by demonic standards.
Even though they had been running through the tunnels and caverns for the sake of time, it had still been a couple of hours.
“Well… I suppose Yaoyorozu truly was correct… More suffering condensed into a shorter life…”
“Things haven’t been all bad though,” Izuku responded, exchanging a small smile with his Raiding Partner, his Empress.
“No,” Merix agreed, doing the same with his wife. But soon after, the memory of his daughter surfaced in his mind, and his focus was once more on the task at hand, the task right at their face.
“Well that’s… actually kinda pleasant…”
The door before them was pure darkness, onyx, as if forged of obsidian and decorated with golden tracings.
It depicted humanoids of some kind, dancing around a fire, smiles clear on their faces. There were images of men and women in bed, holding hands in such intimacy. Children ran around the village in the gildings, swinging sticks and playing pretend. One child looked to be resting on the ground with an injured leg, but even still he smiled and laughed. And hovering above their heads was a golden moon, showering the people with joy.
“I expected torture racks and blood,” Momo remarked.
“Chaos is not pain alone. Chaos is what all that sentience seeks,” Merix declared, confidently striding forwards, and putting his hands against the door. But he did not need to push.
Both doors swung open, revealing a massive forge, lit by molten metal flowing from the many foundries. And at the center of the forge was a large figure, sitting on a throne in silent contemplation, his hands on his chin.
“I will not yield as your brothers and sisters did,” The voice shook with such force that the molten liquids distorted from the intensity. It was like being at a concert where you were standing inches from the speakers.
“Why not?” Izuku asked, doing his best to sound somewhat naive. He didn’t want to insinuate superiority, just genuine curiosity.
“Ah… It’s been so long since I’ve heard a voice like yours… human.”
[Bael, The Demon of Science]
“That’s… a real name…” Izuku muttered.
Bael’s laugh reverberated through Izuku’s chest, making his heart pound and his ribs shake. “You recognize the importance of it do you not? It feels like just yesterday I was telling those primitive mortals to remember it.”
“The Bastion…” Momo breathed. “In the arctic, that was yours?”
Bael scoffed. “No… no… That was… his… I simply followed the Lux to Earth with my brothers. Where your ancestors would witness true power for the first time.”
Izuku almost couldn’t breathe. Mana was believed to have been released from the Bastion when it was unearthed, triggering the Gates and the Awakenings, but Magical Beings… they had visited Earth long before that.
“Myths…”
“Some of them are just that,” Bael said, standing from his throne, an imposing dark figure surrounded by swirling black particles that hid the finer details of his body. However, Izuku could make out four arms and two sets of wings. He was at least four times as large as Izuku was. “Heroes like Hercules, and legends like the son of God himself, were little more than tales, created to give humanity a semblance of hope and control over their fate in the face of such power. But the stories you heard about the monsters that went thump in the night… well… I inspired a good deal of them myself.”
The fog around Bael’s face cleared, revealing red eyes teeming with malice, long scars running down his molted black skin, and a mouth closer to that of a dragon. It was a sharp protruding jaw, with bony tusk-like implements sticking out the side, just as sharp as the teeth inside his mouth.
“Then… why are humans still alive?”
“Not all of us want true extermination for you. The Monarchs promised me this planet and all of its people, just as the Rulers promised Raziel-”
“You know about the Monarchs and the Rulers?” Momo interrupted.
Bael smiled wickedly. “But of course! They are the source of all of this!” Bael gestured wildly around him. “Had it not been for that fool, Raia Cadmus, we never would’ve been locked away in here!”
“Was Raia the one who created the Gates?”
Bael scoffed. “The Lord of Synthetics is behind…” His face fell and his tone became somber. “He is the Architect of our fates, working for someone behind the scenes. This planet was supposed to be mine… but instead I was locked away, forced to fight an endless battle with an empty hope for freedom!”
“W-We can’t give you the planet, but maybe we can help you get your freedom,” Izuku hesitantly offered. Always one to look for a peaceful resolution, even he believed there was only one way this conflict ended.
“Hah… You know nothing of freedom.” Bael said, taking a solemn step back, as if in defeat. “But I can grant you freedom from this war.”
[Bael is using Skill: Sin]
Izuku, Momo, Merix, and Quorra immediately collapsed to the ground.
Izuku gasped for air, his chest tight with pain. Breathing rapidly, his body was alight, but not with pain.
“Chaos, Sin, whatever you may call it, is freedom. But when amplified, it traps you within that freedom, those emotions you hold so dear are what’s killing you right now.”
Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Envy, and Pride. All of them and more swirled within Izuku. His anger towards Bakugo and fate itself, his deepest desires with Momo, his want to indulge in power and wealth. Inside of himself, he wanted nothing more than to sit on a couch and laze away, never to concern himself with the dangers of Hero Work, and completely opposite that… was his Pride. The one thing he claimed to never have, the one thing he threw away all the time to survive, and the one thing he held over Bakugo, as if he was atop some high horse. He felt ashamed. Shame that he had crawled away from fights like a pathetic worm so many times. Shame that others had been hurt in place of him. Shame that he had taken money for such little contribution.
“Within all of you humans, there are contradictions of your own freedom. Even the best of you lie, cheat, steal, and ignore your own flaws to attack the downfalls of others. You only function because you suppress your own freedoms. Without those suppressions, you are worthless!”
Bael stomped over to Izuku, picking him up with one of his massive hands, massive enough to wrap entirely around his chest.
“C-Come… forth…”
Several Shadows, small enough to fight within the confines of the forge, emerged… and collapsed alongside their Empress.
“No one is free of their Sins, Shadow Monarch. Not even your soldiers.”
However, Bael was wrong. There was one amongst the legion who refused such a decree. In defiance of all that weighed upon him, Igris planted his sword into the solid onyx beneath him, and stood.
Bael scoffed. “You are not even worth my time or my effort.”
But Igris slammed a fist against his chest, just over his heart, and raised his blade with one hand, leveling it at Bael.
Bael narrowed his eyes. “You… I remember you…” He dropped Izuku to crumple into a heap on the floor. “The brave knight who stood against the demons,” He said mockingly, “And who denounced the angels.”
Igris lowered himself into a fighting stance, his movements becoming more sure and steady with each passing second, as if screaming to the world, “I will not yield!”
“The knight who lost his home, his heartbeat, and his wife to the demon standing in front-”
FWOOM!
Igris shot from the ground like a shell from a cannon, bringing his sword to bear as if he were to cut Bael in half. Predictably, Bael’s arms came up to deflect the blow, blocking the angle it was swinging at.
So Igris let go of his sword, Damocles, and drove his fist into the grotesque jaw of the demon, shattering one of the tusks on the right side of his mouth.
It stunned Bael for a moment, but he was no pushover. He was not the Lord of Hell for no reason. Even as his head snapped to the side from the punch, his arms rose to punch Igris in the chest, mid-air. It sent the knight flying into the forge’s ceiling, cracking the walls and falling back to the ground.
His feet hit the floor just in time for Bael to slam his monstrous foot into his head. Igris again bounced off the black stone, his Shadow body rippling as the trauma piled up.
“I’ll kill you a second time then!” Bael roared, sweeping his arms as if he was flinging off a cape. And his coat of dark mist followed his motions, coalescing in one of his hands as a massive broadsword, the length of a car. Its serrated blade was burning with black flames, a self-contained Particle Storm.
Igris rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding a swipe that cleaved through the wall of the forge like butter. He took the opportunity to scoop up his sword, Damocles, once more, turning around just in time to see Bael winding up a swing.
Bael was a monster swinging a club, Igris was a knight.
A single tap was all Igris needed with his sword to send Bael’s off-course, skewering the ground next to him, but leaving Igris unharmed. He had gotten his aggression out of his system and gotten Bael focused on himself, now, it was time to dance, to buy time.
A lesser blade, a lesser body, but better footwork. Damocles was holding up against Bael’s sword, if barely, but only because it was an extension of Igris’s body. Every swipe, every jab, it was calculated, so much so that Igris seemed to be more computer than man… or Shadow.
He appeared to be fencing rather than sword fighting. The image of Inigo Montoya deflecting heavy attacks with light brushes of his beautiful rapier filled Izuku’s mind for just a moment as he writhed on the floor.
Bael roared in frustration, one of his arms flicking out to the open air, as if calling to something.
Black metal flew through the forge, propelled by the same blue energy that the Lux gave off. It slammed into place along Bael’s arm, forming a gauntlet. The next time Igris delicately redirected Bael’s sword, he was forced to face the might of demonic metal.
Igris tried to use the flat side of Damocles to help shield him from the blow, but the gauntlet exploded with blue energy at the point of contact. He was being thrown around like a ragdoll, but it had its purpose.
More metal flew to Bael, covering his other three arms with the same gauntlets. He cast aside his sword, done with the charade, allowing it to disperse and cover him like a cloak once more. He punched out at Igris, the cloak masking most of his movements. Even still, Igris managed to duck under the jab, throwing Damocles with all his might into the gap in the armor by Bael’s wrist.
“RARGH!” Bael shouted in anger and pain as the blade bisected his bone and muscle, leaving a single hand completely paralyzed from the trauma.
“So you can stand to bear your sins!” Bael yelled, slamming his fists atop the knight’s armor, flinging him to the ground. “But you cannot stand against me!” He punched Igris’s back, time and time again, smashing his Shadows apart and into the ground. “You are just a lesser lifefor-”
[Skill: Monarch’s Domain has been activated.]
Igris’s form vanished from beneath Bael’s fists, reappearing behind the Lord of Hell, standing besides his Monarchs.
Izuku wiped some sweat from his brow. He was pale and panting, but he was standing.
“How…”
“You really think that’s enough to kill us? Memories? Emotions?” Izuku asked. “Maybe that’s enough to keep others down, but I’m not afraid of them. Your people know it better than you do. We all carry sins, the only thing you can do is accept your mistakes and move forwards, be a better person. We can’t control our emotions, but we can control our actions.”
Momo scowled at Bael. “Maybe you see us as lesser life forms, but our bodies will break long before our minds. We fought our way to be the dominant species of our planet, and it’s not because we could punch the hardest. We’re no different than the Tenebris. Willing to do whatever it takes to reach peace and happiness. Overcoming a little anger? A little jealousy or lust?” Her scowl reversed, becoming a shockingly similar visage of the way Bakugo smirked when he was being cocky. “Come on… give us pathetic humans a real challenge.”
“Insolent bugs!” Bael screamed.
“Insolent,” Momo responded, “But not harmless.” The Shadow Empress vanished into Stealth as Izuku and Igris charged Bael.
“Got five minutes,” Izuku said to Igris, referring to the 50% Boost from Monarch’s Domain, “Let’s kill him.”
“I’ve seen your weapons, mortal!” Bael said. “Those guns of yours won’t work on me, even if I can’t see you!” He faced down Izuku and Igris with confidence, knowing that his cloak would reduce the bullets to little more than a rock being thrown at him.
“What makes you think I’d use a gun?” Momo asked, her voice appearing behind Bael as she swung a massive warhammer into the side of his right knee.
Bael’s legs buckled as his knee was shattered into a dozen bone fragments, but before he could cry out in pain, his jaw was locked shut by a double uppercut from Izuku and Igris. He quite literally fell onto their fists, breaking the other tusk on his mouth.
Several shockwaves from Izuku’s new Quirk erupted beneath Bael’s chin. The punch was so strong that Bael should’ve been flung into the ceiling, as he had done to Igris earlier, but his feet couldn’t leave the ground. Encased in metal, Bael’s feet were locked to the ground by traps Momo constructed around them the second he began to crumple.
Because he couldn’t escape the floor, the force of the punch sent him tumbling backwards, exposing his head for another powerful swing from Momo’s hammer.
“BAH!” Bael roared, adrenaline taking over his body as he slammed his gauntlets against the ground, creating explosions of blue energy, knocking back the trio for a moment. Operating with no concern for his own safety, Bael stood on his damaged leg, giving him the leverage to bend down and rip the traps from his feet.
Bael did his best to stand proud in the face of such danger, but with a crippled hand, and a severely mangled knee, it was hard for him to appear as threatening as before.
“I-I will turn you to DUST!”
“Yeah…” Izuku said, recovering from the shockwaves. “Well… I’m not afraid of things that go thump in the night…” He confidently strolled forwards, Igris and Momo holding off as he did so.
“RAAAAH!” Bael punched forwards, his entire fist filling Izuku’s vision.
[Skill: Shatterspeed (Ice) has been activated.]
Bael seemed to move in slow motion as Izuku took a few steps to the side and forwards, lining himself up with Bael’s extended elbow.
To Bael, it looked like he had punched thin air, because Izuku was gone from that spot, throwing his weight into Bael’s arm. The joint bent… in the direction joints aren’t supposed to bend.
But Bael was incensed. Wrath had taken over his body, Wrath and Envy. Envy of the raw power Izuku was displaying. He wanted to beat it. He had to beat it, otherwise, he was dead.
Izuku leaned to the right of the next punch as well, wrapping his arms entirely around the fist, like he was trying to hug a bear. And he squeezed.
The gauntlet, and the hand, were crushed into an unrecognizable mess.
“Emotions are what make us human. Feeling it all… it only drives us to fight harder.” Izuku said as he confronted Bael’s one remaining arm.
Whether it was out of confusion, or out of spite, Bael challenged fate, throwing one last punch. This time, Izuku didn’t avoid it, he met it head on with his own punch.
The second the knuckles made contact, Izuku’s first explosive force countered the raw power of the Lux energy erupting from the gauntlet. But the second and third didn’t have to work against anything. Epicenter’s multiple shockwaves cracked the lines of energy running along the armor, and then, the final two shockwaves tore the metal off of Bael’s hand itself.
The Demon let out one final groan of pain as he fell onto his side. “This world… should’ve been… mine…”
Igris strolled up to Bael’s chest, and plunged Damocles deep into his heart.
[You have gained 10 Levels!]
[You have acquired items!]
[You have killed Bael, The Demon of Science and the Lord of Hell.]
[You have completed an Optional Quest!]
[The Demon King’s Soul has escaped your grasp.]
Izuku let out a sigh, falling onto his own knees. “Wow… that was… intense…” Momo did the same as Quorra and Merix gasped for breath, freedom from their emotional prison.
“So,” Izuku began, looking up to Igris, “You’re a human?”
Igris averted his eyes.
“I get it,” Izuku responded. “The past can suck.”
Igris nodded, kneeling in front of Izuku and placing his hand over his chest, pledging his fealty.
“I trust you,” Izuku said. “I don’t need to know you’re past, just that you’re on my side.”
Igris nodded. Izuku and Momo shared a glance, shrugging as the Shadow slunk back into the darkness.
“Well, shall we give the Lux another try?” Izuku asked, looking back at the recovering parents.
“Oh,” Momo smirked, looking at the tech and armor around them, “I think we’ve got some new toys to play with.”