Chapter 3: Democracy Under The Charred Chouncil

After a moment had passed, Arisu finally managed to gain conscienceness.

"Where am I?" Arisu wondered as she looked around her whereabouts. She appeared to be in a volcanic cavern, but didn't remember how she got there. But before she could go any further, she heard someone behind her, It was Rei, who was still alive, no longer skewered in half and unconscience. "Rei!"Arisu reacted joyfully seeing her friend alive once again and hugged her. This then got Rei back into consciousness.

"Huh?" Rei said, "Arisu? W-What's going on? What happened?" But before Arisu could tell her, they heard more sounds from her right, where everyone else was also there.

"Mwaaa, morning, everyone..." Shizuka said waking up, "I just had a very awful dream. There was a really bad meteor storm. We were fighting both 'Them' and demons. But most of all, I met the man of my dreams in it. And he was certainly my type."

"It wasn't a dream. It really happened!" Arisu informed Shizuka and then remembered her sacrifice, "Oh, that's right. We... died."

"Ah, man. What happened?" Saeko said now regaining consciousness, "I could've sworn we all died together."

"We did." Rei answered Saeko's wondering, "But that's impossible. We're still alive."

"Uuhhh, what's with the noise?" Saiya said, like the others, regaining consciousness, "Whatever it is, can you please keep it down?"

Rei and Shizuka looked at Saiya with a surprised look on their faces, whilst Shizuka covered Arisu's eyes.

"What are you all looking at?" Saiya smarttalked her friends pissed.

"You might want to check your lower area." Saeko teased Takagi.

"What are you talking abo-" Takagi was about to say, until she felt something wrapped around her hips. She turned to find, to her horror, Hirano cuddling beside her. Soon after, she kicked him off in fury. "Get off of me, lardo!" she roared after kicking him off, where the latter then woke up at last.

"Huh?..." Hirano said as he took a look at where he was, then panicked after seeing his arms with Takagi's legs and pulled them away, "I-I'M SORRY, TAKAGI! I DIDN'T MEAN TO DO IT ON PURPOSE! IT WAS JUST-"

"Shut it." Takagi responded, "And if you mention to anyone other than the others, I will make your life a living hell. Got it?"

Hirano nodded in fear to Takagi's threat. Rei and Shizuka, on the other hand, were slightly giggling at what happened, whilst Saeko gave a slight smile.

"What are you all laughing at?" Takagi talked back at the others.

"As much as I like to see Takagi's little romance here." Saeko remarked, "I think we need to figure out where we ended up in."

"Well, we can't be in Hell." Rei said, "I mean, Arisu's with us."

"True, but we're neither in Heaven, either." Saeko responded, "Speaking of which, am I the only one to notice that Komuro is the only one not her with us?"

"Yeah, you're right." Rei soon agreed, "Where did he-" She then stopped and had of Takashi sucked into a portal earlier, "Wait. I think I remember."

"Really?" Arisu asked, "You know what happened to him?"

"Well, I think it was-" Rei was about to say, until.

"The Law is clear..." A deep, beast-like voice said out of nowhere, "When the Seven Seals are broken, Four Horseman shall ride forth to punish the wicked..." The group looked behind them and behind a row of stalagmites to see where the voice came from and instead found three, large heads rising from a pool of lava. It was the Charred Council, the ancient entity that had kept order for eons and they were now charging War of the previous events that had occured.

"Hey, guys, look!" Arisu called to the group, "It's him, the big, muscly man who helped fight that giant monster!"

"The big man?! Let me see!" Shizuka reacted excitedly as she dashed to where Arisu was and unintentionally knocked her to the side to see for herelf, "Oh, my God! He's here, too! Oh, yes!"

"What?!" Takagi exclaimed in disbelief, "Even after death, you STILL idolize that guy?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, he's obviously a dream boat." Shizuka answered as she drifted off into her own wonderland. But she soon noticed something was wrong about War's position. "Hey. He looks... like he's in pain..."

"...be they Sons of Men, Lords of Heaven, or the Dregs of Hell..." They then learned that it was the Council they heard talking, "All upon the Earth will be judged, and the pact forged anew..."

"All upon the Earth... judged? By... Horsemen?" Saiya whispered, "Wait- Oh, no. No way..."

"Takagi?" Rei asked Takagi in concern.

"YOU FORGET YOUR POST, HORSEMAN! YOU FORGET THE LAW!" The middle head scolded War of his actions, who just sat to the floor on his knees, powerless, "No call was given! Yet the Destroyer marched, and you were found - under his black banner if the claims are true."

"To hell with your claims!" War shouted in protest, "The Seals were broken! I was summoned!"

"But where are the other Horsemen?" The head on the right questioned War, "Were they not 'summoned' as well?"

"The Seven Seals are hidden, as they have since the pact was forged, after the Death and Ascension of Christ..." The middle head reminded War, which then got Takagi's interest more, "...all of them intact... there was no call."

"You aided both the Dead and the Dark Ones. Broke a sacred covenant that has doomed Mankind, and threatened the Balance." The right head claimed, "Do you deny it?"

War was then thinking of what happened back on Earth, then rose his head to speak, "When I rode... Heaven and Hell were already at war, both wanting their hands on the Dead..." War reminisced, "Abaddon was there. He KNEW something, about the battle and the corpses that walked among the living..!"

"Abaddon fell, fighting off the chaos you unleashed!" The middle head shrugged off War's statement.

"I fought powerless against the demons alongside others!" War testified, "And still you accuse me?!"

"Your defeat proves nothing." The left head of the Council shrugged off War's statement, "Likely, the Destroyer cast you aside when he was finished with you..."

"You have defiled the Law, Horseman." The right head informed War, "You will be punished."

"If I may ask, what did he do wrong? All he did was butchering demons." Takagi rose from her hiding place and asked the Council, "And if so, how do you expect to get away with this?"

"How did you get here?" War asked Takagi demanding her presence.

"She's not the only one." Rei's voice was heard as she came out from behind the stalagmite as well as everyone else, "We've all seen what he's done and he did nothing to be punished for."

"You... You are all the ones that aided me during the battle with Straga." War acknowledged recognizing all members of the group, "And you're all here. But... This can't be." War soon slammed his fist to the ground in distraught.

"So, it appears that you are acquantences with these mortals." The right head said.

"Yes. Likely you had brought them here by means of defense." The left head assumed.

"I didn't." War testified, "These humans are here by mistake."

"If that's the case, then how did we get here?" Saeko questioned, "And also, who are you?"

"We are the Charred Council. We are the preservers of the very fabric of the universe. And we have already told you of your places here." The left head said, "You were brought here simply by the Horseman as a means to defend in his case."

"Horseman?" Hirano repeated, "Are you guys talking about him?" He then pointed to War.

"Yeah, dummy. He works for them." Takagi said, "And he is one of THE Horsemen, in case you didn't get it already."

"So, you mean he is of supernatural importance or something?" Saeko asked.

"This is almost exactly as in the Book of Revelations back in the New Testament." Takagi further theorized, "Four Horsemen are to bring judgement upon the Earth and take away peace at the End of Days."

"Correct." The right head replied.

"And now they're accusing him of starting all this?!" Rei shouted in outrage, "That's not fair! I mean they have no actual prove. And he-"

"I serve only the Council." War interrupted affirming of his loyalty to the Balance, "Only the Balance. As the Horsemen always have. Send me back and I will punish the ones responsible."

"That's not a bad idea." Takagi thought, then turned her attention back toward the Council, "Alright, how about this? You let us tag along with Bruce Willis here and we'll help him find prove of his innocense."

"How?" The middle head questioned, "What hope do you all have against the Destroyer's armies? You are all powerless!"

"Then, I guess we'll fail and stay here." Saeko said.

"Yes." War finished Saeko's statement, agreeing with her opinion, "And the demons will have carried out your sentence."

This caused the middle head to pause for a moment without saying anything.

"Very well." The middle head finally spoke and agreed to the group's deal, "You will all return to the Earth..."

"Really?!" Rei said in satisfaction, "We get to go back?!"

"Hooray! We get to go home!" Shizuka cheered with Arisu, who had the same reaction.

"Yeah!" Arisu exclaimed in joy.

"Wow. I didn't think it would be that easy." Hirano said.

"Hold it!" Takagi told her friends, "What's the catch?"

"The 'catch' is you all will be watched." The middle head explained, "War, come forth."

And with that, War rose to his feet and walked toward the small lake of lava, where he soon rams his left fist into it. This caught the group by surprise as War was now grieving in pain from the heat inside his gauntlet. After some black mist enveloped War's hand in the pool, he then withdrawed it from the lava.

"The Watcher is now bound to all of you." The middle head explained the situation, "It will ensure your loyalty."

Afterward, a creature evaporated out of the mist coming from War's hand. It was the Watcher and it chuckled deviously while doing it.

"Remember that... Or I will really get under your skins.' The Watcher threatened both War and the group, then suddenly turned his attention to Shizuka, "And speaking of skin."

The Watcher then teleported to Shizuka and suddenly began groping her big breasts around, much to both her dismay and to the Watcher's amusement.

"Mrs. Shizuka!" Arisu reacted at her situation.

Then War and everyone else but the Watcher, who evaporated back into the gauntlet, felt a paralyzing pain that caused them all to fall to their knees.

"ENOUGH!" The middle head declared, "Rise, War and humans... and arm yourselves!"

With that, the pain was gone and both the Horseman and the group got up to do as it had instructed. Shortly, War's blade from earlier then rose out of the ground just behind the left of them.

"Chaoseater." The middle head acknowledged at the sight of the weapon, "The angry blade thirsts for destruction."

"I'm a little thirsty for practically water right about now." Takagi conplained.

"Silence!" The middle head ordered her.

"Okay! Okay!" Takagi told the Council member.

"Now it is your turn, humans." The right head said to the group, "These were the weapons you acquanted yourselves with, correct?"

Everything the group used against "Them" back on Earth then rose from where Chaoseater was; all their guns and rifles.

"Uh, yeah, they're ours." Rei then affirmed the Council as she and the rest of her friends then ran over and retrieved their belongings.

"ALRIGHT!" Hirano exclaimed as he then did a pose aiming his MK-47 in typical anime-style, "I AM BACK IN THE GAME, BABY!"

"Somethings never change." Saeko remarked as she turned her attention to her sword. She picked it up and drew it from its sheath, but that was when she noticed there was something engraved on the blade she didn't even realize before, "What is this?" Saeko questioned in awe and amazement, "There's something written here."

"That is an angelic weapon!" The middle head exclaimed at Saeko's weapon, "Where did you aquire that?"

"This is the Murada Sword." Saeko informed the Council, "It was given in my possession by it's previous owner, General Souichiro Takagi of Earth. He-"

"Takagi... Yes! I knew I heard that name before." The middle head acknowledged remembering something seemingly important, "That blade you wield once belonged to a now long-lost angel warrior. But he was defeated by another warrior bearing that name during your country's ancient times."

"Yes, and it seems that said human had passed it down claiming to be his own creation, knowing the origins of its true intention."

"Hold on." Takagi butted in, "Are you telling me that my family has been in possession of a supernatural weapon since Feudal Japan?!"

"Yes!" All heads answered in unison.

"That's... actually kinda cool, now that I think about it." Takagi then remarked.

"Amazing..." Saeko astonished, admiring the texture of the ancient blade, then slid it back into its sheathe and then bowed to the Council, "I will not let it of my reach and of my sight. I will have it by my side always This, I swear, you won't regret it." She got back up after that.

"Alright." Rei said, "What's next?"

Then, to an area opposite where they got their weapons, they saw a large, dark blue vortex coming out of the ground, with what appear to be bright, blue spheres. They all went there, seeing that it's their next destination.

"The souls of the dead will be your currency." The left head informed War and the group, "Some enemies are more easily bought than killed."

"Say what?" Rei exclaimed, "You're expecting us to use souls as money? That's sick!"

"Then you won't be returning to Earth." The left headstated.

"But it-" Rei was about to say, until War walked past her and claimed the souls into his gauntlet.

"We don't have a choice." Saeko said to Rei from the latter's right, "This is what needs to be done." With that, Rei understood the situation and had to let this pass... for now.

"Seek the demon, Vulgrim." The middle head instructed them, "Few can afford his services, but perhaps one of you can strike a bargain."

"The Council confers with demons now, does it?" War responded.

"Yeah, you're so quick to start working with the enemy without any hesitation." Takagi agreed, "Aren't you a little worried about your own reputation?"

"Since the truce was broken, young lady, some demons have fallen from the Destroyer's favor." The left head explained to Takagi, "Vulgrim is one such outcast. And he has long sought an audience with us."

"How long have I been here?" War questioned.

"What was that- AAAHHH!" Rei said to War until she noticed fire was forming around her.

It then happened to everyone else, including War, but the latter didn'et seem to care as everything started to go white.