Chapter 13

Off The Beaten Path

xXx

oOoOoOoOo Vashyr Furtur oOoOoOoOo

Vashyr and Karasuba descended to the ground, the mingling stenches of the bodies charred by his lightning lances and the coppery tinge of blood wafting around them. He recoiled slightly from it, his nose twitching slightly at the odor. He'd caught the charred scent before but it had never been anywhere near overpowering as this.

Karasuba, for her own part, seemed completely unaffected by the smell as she darted around in search of survivors to put down. At least that's what he assumed she was doing, but considering her personality he'd be surprised if he was wrong. Probably not helped by the fact that she likely had a massive case of blue-balls after this.

…..Wait, that didn't sound quite right. Blue-balls was supposed to be a guy thing. What would the equivalent term for a girl? Actually, what would be the best term for Karasuba?

That line of thinking was compounded as he observed her dart around, checking the corpses for even an errant twitch to signify life. Her speed actually made the process a bit more difficult, considering she hadn't gotten used to it yet. She tripped almost constantly over the masses of corpses, misplaced earth, blown body parts and rims of recently made craters. What should've taken moments seemed to take her more than a few minutes.

Finally she stopped, frozen in place with her hand clenching her sword so hard that it moved with every twitch of her hand, her palm blue from what must've been an agonizingly tight grip.

'…Hold on. Blue-palm?'

Karasuba turned to him right as he thought the word, almost looking on the verge of tears with a downright pained look on her face at the carnage she didn't have the chance to participate in, her cheeks seeming red from a built up tension she never had the chance to relieve. When she spoke next, it came out as a pitiful whimper so sad and disappointed that he almost felt sorry for her. "You're pure evil."

'Oh yeah, definitely blue-palm.'

Still, funny as it was to see her like this, he needed to keep her focused. Especially since there was still more to do and there was no telling what could be waiting ahead. For all he knew these Chimera's could've been disposable cannon fodder and there was much worse waiting. Fortunately, he knew exactly how to get her focused again.

"You do know that there's bound to be much more where we're going, right?"

The minute shakes of her sword hand stopped, her sword immediately stilling as the expression on her face shifted almost instantly to one of expectation. "What?"

"Do you really think the people who sent these things out would've sent their heavy hitters in the first wave? No way are we that lucky, these things were just to tire us out." He turned to one of the tunnels that a small portion of the flood of Chimera's had emerged from, hands in his pockets as he approached it. "There's bound to be more dangerous things inside, so let's head down and-"

He wasn't even able to finish before Karasuba rushed past him at the speed of thought, releasing a keening howl for blood as she immediately descended into the maw in the earth.

He suppressed a sigh. 'What the hell am I gonna do if she kills the person we're here for?'

oOoOoOoOo Lucy oOoOoOoOo

Cold stone, empty hallways, the scuttling of footsteps.

The sound of ripping flesh as her vectors shredded yet another Chimera to ribbons, the unfortunate creature not even having time to yelp or howl before it was dead and reduced to bloody strips of meat.

Anyone else would consider it impressive, terrifying even, but to Lucy the display was merely a sign of her own increasing weakness.

She wouldn't survive the day. She knew she wouldn't survive the day.

Her vectors were so sluggish now, seeming heavy despite being nothing more than weightless constructs born of her own power. They'd been getting slower all day, gradually becoming harder and harder to move at all. It was inevitable, but at least manageable. But then all those Chimeras appeared and she had to use them so much, now using them was getting so difficult. If this continued then she'd…

No! No, she couldn't think like that. Not now, not when she was so close. That bastard was here, she could fucking feel it in her bones, and she wouldn't stop until he was paste on the floor and walls. Even if it killed her.

Then again, considering her current state, she obviously wouldn't survive it anyway. Not at the rate her body was breaking down. That exertion outside had probably shaved even more time off the time she had left.

…Worth it.

And if nothing else, she still had that trump card left if all else failed. And she'd bring this whole mountain down on everyone's heads.

oOoOoOoOo Karasuba Asama oOoOoOoOo

A shining arc cut through the air, bringing yet another Chimera to a quick and bloody death as its head suddenly hit the floor. Its several companions quickly followed suit, attempting to charge at her only to die before they even stepped forward. Such was her new speed that none of these creatures could even get in a single attack before the quick skirmish was over.

Unfortunately, now that the initial rush was over, Karasuba was starting to get bored. Sure, slaughtering dozens of these things was a great warm-up, but as an only option? Yeah, they quickly got repetitive and boring. Where the hell were the challenging fights down here? Didn't Sparky say something about there being stronger enemies further in?

'Wait a sec, HE DIDN'T JUST MAKE THAT UP TO SEND ME IN, DID HE?'

…..Oh, if that were true than he was the worst kind of jackass. Getting a girl all excited only to leave them hanging like this was all kinds of cruel.

But she was a generous young woman, just like her parents taught her to be, so she'd give this a little more time before she rushed right back to find him and give him a piece of her sword.

Another five minutes should be fair, right?

Running further into the passages of this hidden underground lair (seriously, why is it always an underground lair?) in search of greater prey.

It didn't take her long to find some more Chimera's, but they died quickly like all the rest. All it took was a few cuts and they went down. On a slightly more positive note she seemed to have cut a major artery in one of them, resulting in a sudden gush of blood that coated some of the wall.

Unfortunately it wasn't even close to enough to get her excited. If anything she was winding down now.

'Four minutes left. Something better happen soon.'

She turned away, ready to head off in another direction to add to her kill count, before stopping as she heard a strange noise.

It was vaguely similar to….clanging? Scraping? No, more like both together. Turning around she noticed it was coming from where she'd just killed the Chimera's.

Behind the wall? But how would…wait a sec.

Walking closer to the wall the sound was coming from, she took a quick look at the metal beneath the covering of fresh blood. It was hard to make out, but she thought she could see thin lines set in it. Was it like some kind of door-

BANG!

She immediately leapt away and to the side, the possible door being revealed as an actual door as it was sent flying from its position by some great force and slammed against the wall in a great CLANG that was probably echoing throughout the halls of the rest of the base.

'The hell just-'

She didn't even have time to finish that half formed question before she got her answer, a fucking claw bigger than her own body grasping over the left edge of the suddenly made entrance, red and scaly.

She could only watch in rapt fascination as the creature fully exited whatever room it was contained in, occasionally needing to shift to get its bulk through the doorway.

It was…she wasn't even entirely sure what it was. It could've been another Chimera, but whatever its creators had done to it they'd obviously put this one a few steps ahead of the others. The typical Chimera was an obvious mish-mash of various creatures, multiple traits and features merged together into a crude facsimile of a lifeform that could obviously never exist naturally.

Hell, just in her way here she'd seen a Chimera that was part lizard, goat, lion, and even shark! How the hell could different biological systems like that even get together, much less function?

But that didn't fit with this creature her, it was more streamlined that any Chimera she'd even seen before. It was predominantly reptilian, covered all over in a layer of thick scales of deep crimson. It also showed what appeared to be a large muzzle, slightly flattened, like the one you'd find on a crocodile. And its muscles seemed to move with a fluidity that reminded her of a snake of some kind. All of the different aspects seemed to work.

Then the creature turned toward her, its eye a yellow and malicious slit as it honed in on her with a predatory glare.

Then before she knew what happened, it was on her.

Moving with a speed and awareness that far surpassed any Chimera she'd encountered up to that point, its claws met her blade in a clash that physically forced her back and skidding along the ground by her feet. If she'd been any slower, any less skilled, that clash may have very well ended with her body in two pieces.

But she was alive. She could still fight. And from the looks of it, this thing was dangerous.

It was also quite displeased that she wasn't dead yet, if the narrowing of its eyes was any indication. Its body tensed up as it observed her, a visible and predatory intelligence shining in its yellow orbs.

It was fast. It was strong. And it could think!

Karasuba vaguely felt her body start to shudder. And it wasn't at all from fear.

'Where has something like this BEEN all my life?'

"I don't suppose you could give me a name?"

The only response was a predatory growl rumbling from its throat. Oh well, she tried.

Feeling the manic grin on her face, she took the offensive as her blood started singing in her veins again. A piercing cry came keening from deep within her chest as she rushed forward, calling out in challenge.

The creature responded with a roar, accepting her call for battle.

oOoOoOoOo Vashyr Furtur oOoOoOoOo

Vashyr Furtur looked at the Chimera corpses strewn about in the hallway, their scorch marks still present from the quick bolts of lightning he used to kill them.

'What the hell have they been doing here?'

The obvious answer would've been just making Chimeras, but that struck him as a bit too straightforward. He wasn't exactly an expert, but Vashyron's own research told that Chimeras were a known and easily made resource, not to mention rarely all that impressive for all their intimidating appearances. The average Low-Class Devil could beat one with little trouble, so even making them in large amounts would, at best, just mean a sudden influx of cannon fodder to any conflict they were involved in.

That meant there had to be a bigger reason for it hidden away here. And whatever it was, it happened to be involved with the girl that Sirzechs wanted him to find.

He sighed. "Just what the hell did Sirzechs go and push me into here?"

It also didn't help that he was going into completely unfamiliar territory. It didn't help that his only real experience with Highschool DxD was from the animated show, but he was pretty damn sure something like this had ever showed up in it.

That meant that everything he was doing here was outside of canon, with threats and enemies completely untouched by the actual series. This was the equivalent to walking into a trap filled room with a blindfold on.

'Then again,' he thought, taking barely a moment to disintegrate another charging Chimera, 'I'm not exactly helpless in this situation. I guess that's a plus in my favor.'

Taking a deep breath to try and let that fact sink in, something to help him get a little more anchored, he moved further into the complex. The hallways were all metallic and wide all-around, giving him plenty of room to move. They were obviously made with larger creatures being moved around in mind.

As he went further in, the sheer quantity of creatures seemed to drop. Were they running out, or was there simply something else going on?

Unfortunately, he was in for a rather rude interruption during that line of thought. A sudden clanging sound from further in quickly shocked him out of his thoughts, leaving him alert.

Then it was followed by a scream that sounded very familiar.

'Oh, crap. PLEASE tell me she isn't fighting the one we're supposed to find!'

Rushing after the sound as quickly as his feet could carry him, Vashyr prepared himself for a fight. He wasn't sure what the hell Karasuba had gotten into, but a scream like that could only mean she was excited, and excited meant difficult, which meant she could be in trouble.

After a quick rush through the hallways, he found Karasuba and discovered exactly what she'd gotten herself into.

The creature she was fighting, looking vaguely like a heavily Draconic Chimera, was certainly an imposing sight. Tall, heavily built, and covered in scales that even Karasuba seemed to have trouble with cutting. Every move seemed to throw around several hundred pounds of pure muscle, crashing into the walls with enough force to drastically dent it and create at least another full foot of space. A single hit like that and Karasuba would definitely be in trouble.

Fortunately, for all its strength and durability, it was still very limited by its current location. The hallway was far too small to grant it ease of movement, every motion was visibly awkward and compact due to the stifling surroundings.

That said, Karasuba wasn't exactly having the easiest time either. She was fast enough to dodge around the attacks, but there was so little room that she couldn't dodge by too much of a margin unless she retreated backward, which meant she would need to completely sacrifice any chance at an offensive to keep herself safe. Not a favorable situation at all. Not to mention the fact that her sword couldn't seem to cut through the scales very easily, only causing shallow rents in them.

In summation, the fight seemed to be the classic example of unable to hit vs. unable to hurt. Unless something happened to swing the scales then this could go on for a while.

oOoOoOoOo Karasuba Asama oOoOoOoOo

'Now THIS is fun!'

The pumping blood in her veins, the shock of her arms as her sword clanged against the scales, the air whistling past her as she narrowly dodged every strike from the creature before her. The sheer rush that flowed through her whenever she got into a fight, a real fight where her life was well and truly on the line.

And on the line her life definitely was. Her speed might allow her to dodge the blows, but this thing was fast for its size. Fast even in spite of the hallway limiting its mobility, and powerful enough that she honestly thought her sword would've broken from that first block she used it for. And in cramped places like this her own speed could only save her life by centimeters with every attack it sent her way.

Another blow came out, a strike with claws extended to take off her head. She dodged down, the claws barely missing the top of her head. 'An opening!'

She pivoted slightly and cut out with her sword, aiming for the underside of the arm that was only lightly covered.

She was rewarded for the effort with the sweet sensation of her sword slicing through flesh and the pained shrieking sound the Chimera let out as it retracted its arm. Its reaction seemed a little slow, as if the pain had been more of a shock than anything serious. Had it never been hurt before?

Putting her speed to use again, Karasuba darted in close to the creature before quickly moving back as it tried to strike at her again with its injured arm, the attack coming out slightly slower than before. Maybe she could use that?

Then the opposite arm came out with a vicious sweep, much faster than the last with enough speed that she barely dodged and carrying enough force that it crumpled the wall outward like the reverse of what would happen to a crushed tin can, creating a dent that was several feet deep.

Anyone else likely would've gotten scared at that, probably even turned tail and ran off. But Karasuba? It just gave her an idea.

oOoOoOoOo Vashyr Furtur

Seeing the most recent attack of the Chimera, Vashyr wondered again if he should get involved in the fight.

For all that Karasuba was holding her own, she certainly wasn't winning. The creature was only really hurt by that one attack she managed to get on the interior of its arm, and it learned from the mistake to make sure it wouldn't happen again. It was keeping its attacks more compact now, the openings to the vulnerable areas of its arms were becoming smaller, and that made it all the harder for Karasuba to injure it again.

'It would take only one lance, ONE!' That's really all that it would take, he knew better than anyone how powerful his lances were, and there were few things that could rival the sheer piercing power or a condensed lightning bolt. But in cramped quarters like this there was too great of a chance of hitting Karasuba along with it. And calling out to her for a withdrawal to give him shooting room could very well prove to be a fatal distraction.

Watching with bated breath, Vashyr waited in silence as the fight continued, neither side giving a quarter.

Then, ever so slowly and slightly, Karasuba moved back from the Chimera. The monster seemed to see it as a chance, because it moved forward immediately when she was on her back foot, swinging out an attack. But Karasuba was ready, rebounding and dashing forward and to the Chimera's right side.

The monstrous arm impacted against the wall, caving it in with a heavy sound. But something was missing, something crucial.

There was no sound of smacking flesh or breaking bone.

The Chimera seemed a little confused by that as well, if the look on its face was any indication. Then its expression changed into a rictus of pain and it screamed out in agony, dropping onto its knees as blood pooled on the ground from its legs.

It crouched over, Karasuba behind it with a bloody sword and an insane smile. She didn't give it any respite, jumping onto the Chimeras back and digging her sword into the spot between its arm and upper body, cutting her sword cleanly through the exposed skin and the muscle beneath.

The monster was beside itself, screaming in agony and wracked with pain so badly that it couldn't bring itself to mount a defense, leaving it open for he to do the same with its other arm. Then, with both means of attack out of commission, she jumped down to its front and sheathed her sword into its skull right through the eye socket.

The blade seemed to also reach into the throat, because the scream immediately died even as the Chimera still lived, the pupil of the other eye dilating and shaking in terror and pain before the life slowly left it.

With the bloody work done, Karasuba pulled her sword back out, briefly slashing it through the air to get rid of the stains before re-sheathing it.

Then, in what seemed like a bizarre display of almost childish politeness, she stood up straight and gave it a traditional Japanese bow as she said "Thank you for the fight."

Taking note of the odd mannerism. He slowly stepped forward, careful to make his steps heavy enough for her to hear them and stopped just far enough away that he wasn't within sword distance.

….What? She was probably just coming off a battle high and would attack something because of the leftover adrenaline, don't judge!

"How exactly did you do that?" He asked, looking her over for any injuries.

She turned around to give him a smile that could almost be considered an innocent kind of happy and pointed to the wall beside her, particularly the massive dent. "That thing made a huge opening for me barely a minute ago, so I just lured it forward a bit and used it to go around and take it from behind."

'That was it?' Looking at the spot she gestured to he noticed that there was a rather significant dent in the wall. Easily big enough for her to fit into it, even with the Chimera standing beside it. Speaking of which….

"Where did that thing come from, anyway?"

She pointed back to an opening in the wall, an entrance of some kind. "Wouldn't have even noticed it was there if the damned thing hadn't started slamming against it. Guess it smelled the blood and got excited."

He looked at the doorway with some trepidation. He shouldn't be worrying about this, they were here for a specific objective, to find the girl and get out, that's it. But…..but he just couldn't shake the nagging notion in the back of his mind that there was something dangerous going on here, something he needed to look into.

Particularly because everything that had happened so far was leagues out of canon. What he'd encountered here was such a complete unknown that his own knowledge of the series essentially would amount to nothing. That was dangerous, which meant he had to know what the hell he was getting into.

And considering just the strength of that irregular Chimera, he was willing to bet that this was more dangerous than even the regular unknown variable.

Sighing, he walked to the opening in the wall and entered the room.

'A lab. Of course, why should it be anything else?'

Giving the room a quick once-over, he noticed quite a few panels built into what looked like terminals. Controls? Maybe monitoring equipment?

He didn't miss the gigantic vat further in the corner, the glass broken and strewed outside it and the floor covered in some liquid that seemed to have been from inside the apparatus itself. Guess he found where the Chimera had gotten out from.

Seeing the several ripped up corpses that had been tossed around, it also looked like the thing hadn't been alone when it woke up. Poor people apparently couldn't get out before it escaped the tank and killed them.

Then again, involvement in whatever was going on here meant they probably had this coming anyway. Seriously, a scientist working in a place filled to the brim with freak of nature Chimera's, isolated from the rest of the world because they knew they'd get in trouble for playing God? Yeah, chances were these guys definitely had it coming.

Stepping further in, he looked around for an undamaged terminal, or at least one that was intact enough to work at all. That monster had torn this place up pretty bad when he broke out and started the massacre.

Fortunately he found one. Over in another corner, largely away from the carnage and only lightly tinted with some blood. Approaching it to see the interface, he looked for any kind of switches that could turn it on so he could find out what was really going on here.

….Unfortunately, it was at that moment that he realized something that was rather painfully obvious in hindsight.

"What the hell, is this thing out of Star Wars? I don't even recognize most of the damn buttons!"

Turns out that experience with internet surfing and computer games didn't equate to mastery of computers and operating systems in general, especially one this advanced.

oOoOoOoOo Karasuba Asama oOoOoOoOo

Watching the outburst with a wry smile, Karasuba couldn't help but find it ironic. Coming into this room to try and find some answers only to find that he had no idea how to use the damn computers.

Seeing him look closely at the terminal, her ears still caught something. A light rustling from behind her and to the side.

She turned about with her newfound speed and brought her sword to bear, holding it in a guard stance to ward off anything that came her way. But rather than some kind of sneak attack it was…..

A scientist. Barely clinging to life and dragging himself along the floor to the doorway, his coat covered in blood and opened in several areas with deep gashes.

'How the hell is he still alive?'

She heard Vashyr say "Karasuba?" behind her, probably curious what had caused her sudden movement. Looks like he'll need to work on his awareness a bit, if that sound was from an ambusher and she wasn't here then he'd probably be dead.

"Just a survivor," she said, turning back to him and dismissing the man crawling away. "Nobody important."

He smiled at her. "I beg to differ," he said, walking past her to the man trying to escape. Not exactly hard, he obviously wasn't going anywhere.

He reached the man and roughly picked him up, getting a brief groan of pain out of him. "I'd like to make you a deal."

The scientist blinked at him, eyes still slightly unfocused from the pain. "A deal?"

Vashyr nodded. "I'm going to heal you, and in return you'll activate that terminal for me. You'll also open all the files so I can sift through it to find whatever I want. Deal?"

The bleeding scientist almost answered immediately, but something stopped him. His eyes darted around the room as if looking for something to help him escape, something to distract them.

'He's nervous,' she thought. 'That means there's something he REALY doesn't want us to find out.'

Judging from the narrowing of his eyes, Vashyr noticed it too. "Answer me in the next five seconds or you'll die anyway."

The man's eyes immediately widened after that, then widened even further when Vashyr actually started counting. "O-okay okay, I'll do it!"

As soon as he got his answer, Vashyr hoisted the man up a little higher and held out a glowing hand. Slowly, the light encompassed the man's body, healing his wounds as it spread throughout. In barely a minute, all of the previous injures were gone. "Done."

Task finished, he lowered the scientist back to his feet with nary a word before roughly pulling him along to the terminal, the poor man seeming to stumble on his own feet slightly at the rough treatment. After the quick game of follow-the-leader, Vashyr pushed him towards the terminal. "Activate it. And of you do anything to block something off or erase any information, you'll die here."

Karasuba honestly thought for a moment that the guy was gonna faint from terror, his skin had certainly gone pale enough to give the impression, but he got to the task regardless and, rather reluctantly, started working on the terminal. Vashyr kept a close eye on him the whole time, making sure he didn't try anything.

After a minute full of the sound of tapping keys and some chiming from the machine itself, everything seemed to be in order and the researcher stepped back from it with a deep breath. "Okay, it's all done," he stated nervously, backing away steadily but with a barely hidden urgency. "Now, if you don't mind I think I'll be-"

"Oh, but I do mind," Vashyr interrupted. "Karasuba, block the doorway."

She had already dashed over before he'd even finished talking, if only to see a bit more panic on the face of the cornered man.

"What!?" he yelped out, panicking. "But-but you said that-"

"I said I'd heal you, I don't remember saying I'd let you go. And depending on what I find in here," he tapped the monitor slightly with his finger," I might let you go alive."

The man whimpered at that, clearly worried as Vashyr started reading.

Honestly, Karasuba wasn't entirely concerned. She came here to fight and kill monsters and that's all she gave a damn about. So what if these guys were breeding them by the thousands, that just meant more cannon fodder.

Actually, maybe she should ask if there were more of those big Dragon Chimera's like the one she'd fought barely five minutes ago. Those things were fun! A few more and she'd be satisfied for maybe a-

"Human resources?" Vashyr muttered, tone low and dangerous. "Is that what you call all the people who died for you to make these things?"

….Wait, what?

oOoOoOoOo Vashyr Furtur oOoOoOoOo

The files in the database were, if nothing else, thorough. They went into great detail regarding the work that had been done and was in the process of being done here in this facility. The processes the test subjects went through, cataloguing the results and grouping them together to find patterns, finding points of commonality to discern potentially favorable outcomes. It was quite impressive from a scientific standpoint.

It was also rather horrific just how much it seemed to distance itself from what it was actually doing.

"Deaths are failed projects, people are listed as resources, don't bother with names at all and just give them numbers. What the hell kind of bullshit are you doing this fo-"

He didn't have time to finish before he heard the sound of a quickly unsheathed blade and the resulting gargle of a throat filled with its own blood.

He turned around and saw the man lying dead on the ground, face down in a growing puddle of blood from a gash in his throat.

He didn't even need to see the blood on Karasuba's sword to now she was responsible, she was literally the only other person in the room, and the thought of her killing someone wasn't exactly hard to conceptualize.

But the look on her face was definitely not what he'd expect from her.

Gone was the strangely dissonant smirk and lazy expression I her eyes, gone was her relaxed posture and any semblance of apparent calm. Her eyes were cold and hard, face set in a vicious glower as she glared down in seething contempt at the dead man before her.

"Trash," she said lowly, the words dripping venom as she seemed to spit them out. With a quick swish of her sword to get the blood off, she sheathed it with a quick and tense motion that betrayed how tightly wound she suddenly was.

After a moment of visibly calming herself down, she seemed to regain some of her former calm. Certainly not entirely, if her lack of a previous smile was any indication.

She seemed to finally notice his staring, turning to him with an eyebrow raised in question. "What?"

"It just seems…..a little odd seeing you react like that."

That definitely wasn't the best response, Karasuba's face changing into a combined expression of annoyance and a hint of disgust. "Why, because I like killing things?"

She looked back down at the now dead scientist, even more disgust creeping onto her face. She moved to speak, her mouth opening but the words failed to come out, leaving her standing still and silent. She tried to say something again, only for the same result to occur.

Eventually, she just gave up trying to find the words to explain. "Forget it," she intoned. "It's a long story and there's no damn point right now. Let's just get this done with."

Her piece said, Karasuba walked over to a corner of the room without a word and leaned against hi, the matter done with.

Vashyr had to admit that he was rather surprised at her behavior. Karasuba, at least her canon version in Sekirei, had never shown a side like this. She was just a homicidal maniac who wanted to watch the world burn, that's all there generally was to her, so seeing a side like this was….unexpected.

Certainly not unwelcome, but it was definitely different from what he'd predicted the moment he saw her profile.

Shaking his head slightly to get rid of the distracting thoughts, he got back to the terminal. There was still more for him to learn that could be the difference between life and death, whether now or further down the line.

He counted his blessings that the now dead man hadn't done anything to make this thing harder to use, meaning he could go over the files without much difficulty. Though the information itself was certainly far from pleasant.

Even disregarding the sheer volume of experimentation and the people involved, the apparent goals were deeply worrying.

'Great, so now we have someone trying to make a clone of Ddraig. Why not? Everything else is already getting screwed up.'

When it came to levels of power in DxD, Ddraig was definitely a heavy hitter. He only remembered a few characters or entities that were decidedly more powerful than him, generally because there were so few at all, and that made the thought of a clone of him all the more worrying.

Fortunately the files showed that the process wasn't anywhere near perfect yet. Their clearest and most recent success hadn't gained his ability to Boost, hadn't even inherited a thousandth of his actual level of power. There were even some notes that implied it could take more than a century of live combat and conditioning before it could reach that level of power.

Thank God for small miracles, because if there was even a ghost of a chance of running into Ddraig 2.0 then he'd probably just run out of here as fast as he possibly could.

There were also a couple other files of note, but none of them were connected with major experiments in the facility they were currently raiding, so he only gave them some brief moments of attention. The only one that stood out was something called…..

"Project: Argent," he muttered. Why did that send a slight chill down his spine? It didn't match up with any terms he knew from the series itself. Food for thought.

Either way, they were almost done here. Just a moment to get a map up and….got it!

"Alright," he rose from the terminal and headed to the entrance, rout now set. "Let's finish this."

He heard Karasuba push herself off the wall and follow behind him, muttering "About damn time".

oOoOoOoOo Grigorio Iscamenty oOoOoOoOo

The chamber was abuzz with activity. Scientists running to and fro, materials being transported, personnel being called for attendance. All being organized for transportation to another facility through the teleportation array, a pair of massive pillars of quartz inscribed with intricate Rune overlays.

Part of him couldn't help but be a little disgruntled at the sudden move, but little could be done about it now. It was either get out of here or die, and he refused to let all these years of research vanish simply due to some prideful attempt at a last stand. Horribly wasteful.

'Just a little longer and everything will be ready to move. Now all we're missing is-'

An alarm suddenly sounded within the room, indicating an incoming hostile.

He couldn't hold back a smile. "Bring out the Vector Suppressors and position them around the edges of the room. Spread them out."

oOoOoOoOo Lucy oOoOoOoOo

Lucy smiled as her vectors reached out to the door, the final obstruction that barred her way to vengeance at last.

At least three feet thick, the metal reinforced and alloyed for maximum strength, all to keep out intruders for just a little bit longer to buy time and escape. Against most it would've been almost overkill, something insurmountable.

Against her vectors, it may as well have been made of tinfoil.

Hardened steel crumpled, hard metal torn apart and shredded by an invisible force. With a horrible cacophony of the shrieking sounds of bent and ripped steel, the door was reduced to naught but particularly valuable scrap metal.

And just like that, the way was opened.

Her smile stretched further across her face, almost splitting it in half horizontally, a mad glint in her eyes as she staled forward like a predator out for blood.

"Activate the Suppressors and block the entrance!"

She barely had a moment to process what she'd just heard before her mind became a haze of burning pain, her thoughts filled by a static and white noise that almost left her curled up on the floor and almost screaming as she suffered the worst migraine she'd ever felt in her life.

Perhaps worst of all was the effect she could feel it having on her vectors, her only means of attack and defense, forcing them to fade away as she seemed to lose the mental ability to summon and control them. She tried summoning them back, beginning to feel them form and take shape only to stop as she was struck by an even worse migraine, their would-be forms immediately dispersing.

She tried again, then again, and again, but the result was always the same. Every time she tried to summon them up the headache got worse and they lost their form, her head almost feeling like it was splitting open from the migraine even as she felt her body begin to break down from the continued attempts. And for the first time, she felt helpless and vulnerable again.

She didn't even notice she was crying until she felt a tear slide down her cheek.

"Did you really think I'd spend all that time developing you and observing your abilities without devising countermeasures?"

She forced herself to look up at those words, glaring death at the one who spoke. At the man responsible for all of this. Grigorio Iscamenty!

The smile on his face infuriated her.

"Oh, don't be like that! You should be proud that I considered you enough of a threat to devise such a thing." His hand rose up, fingers cupping his chin as his expression changed from smug to thoughtful. "Although, I must admit, I never expected you to develop your abilities this quickly. Perhaps this requires a more….in-depth analysis."

The fingers left his chin, snapping in command. "Restrain her and bring her with us! We might get some useful data after all."

She stopped glaring once the words left his mouth, her expression morphing to desperation and terror. "No!" she screamed, struggling and failing to get to her feet and escape. She had collapsed back to her knees two times before three men had reached her, holding her down as she screamed and struggled while they forced a straitjacket onto her.

"Oh, don't be such a whiner," Grigorio complained. "Just a few pokes and prods and everything will be done. It's not like you'll liv much longer anyway, so just-"

"Bishop Grigorio, we have two more intruders incoming."

oOoOoOoOo Vashyr Furtur oOoOoOoOo

As he ran down the halls, the walls coated with blood and floor littered with the shredded remains of Chimera's, Vashyr couldn't help but wonder how the hell things had taken a turn like this at all.

Waking up in the body of a Devil from a fucking anime had been a massive shock on its own, he was surprised he hadn't collapsed in panic when it started, but at least he knew the basic structure of events that was to come.

Then he found out it was around four years before can actually occurred, meaning he was in territory practically unknown beyond a few cursory events.

And here he was, so far outside of anything known to canon that he was effectively blind to everything that was happening around him and whatever it was leading to. Part of him just wanted to ditch everything that was happening here and get the hell out before things got any crazier.

But he knew that wasn't an option. He'd been sent here on an assignment by Sirzechs Lucifer, THE Lucifer of the Underworld, and turning around and abandoning that task would be akin to shooting himself in the foot with an assault rifle!

Not to mention what was apparently happening here. It might not be canon, but it was something that could become a very real problem if left unaddressed. He had no idea how it couldn't have shown up in the original series, but right now it looked like he would need to interfere to keep it that way and prevent a very dangerous future problem from rearing its ugly head.

Then he saw it up ahead, a massive opening surrounded by twisted and broken metal. The entrance to the deepest and final section of this damned maze of mad science and chrome, the place here this whole nightmare could be put to an end and he could personally put this detour and its implications permanently behind him.

In retrospect, running straight in without knowing what could happen may have actually been the worst approach he could've done.

Because the second he and Karasuba crossed the threshold he could feel something wrong in the air, something heavy and oppressive with a sensation similar to….to… 'Walter's wires!'

Then a second door sealed shut behind them and left them with no means of escape, and Karasuba collapsed on the ground with a pained gasp. The sword slipped from her hand as she fall and seemed to curl in on herself, twitching occasionally in obvious discomfort.

'What the hell!?'

Yeah, that really wasn't good. Anything that could disable Karasuba that easily wasn't something he wanted to deal with, so he was about to start throwing around lightning bolts to melt apart whatever in the room was responsible.

But when he reached within to feel the power, he found he somehow couldn't even touch it. Something was blocking him!

He looked around to find the source, noticing that he and Karasuba were both definitely surrounded on all sides, though they fortunately seemed to be more of the same researchers he'd found dead in that room some distance back. But there were still some oddities that drew his attention.

First was an array of strange devices placed along the railing above. They looked like tri-pods several feet high with long vertically placed cylinders held by the legs, glowing brightly. It was very subtle, but he was sure he could feel something emanating from them, like a thrumming in the very back of his own mind. Could those be what was blocking his powers and forcing Karasuba to the ground?

No, not them. The contraptions were odd but they weren't the source of the power that was shutting him down.

Fortunately he didn't need to ponder for long, because another pulse hit him and he felt that same sensation as when he stormed into the room. 'The ceiling!'

He looked, seeing what looked like a…high-tech and glowing chandelier? Was it supposed to look like that in general, or was it just particular to this model in particular?

"Surprised?"

He turned to the voice, caught off guard enough that the shock was still evident on his face.

The man who spoke was visibly old, maybe 60 to 70 in age, hair completely whitened from the years he'd seen.

Despite that, he seemed to stand with a strength and vigor that would be easier found in some less than half that age, his cold eyes unflinching as he stared down upon him from a railing held above the ground.

"It's a little security measure I devised against Devil attackers," he said, a cruel grin forming on his face. "I won't set your head spinning with the details, but it produces a potent Holy Aura that dispels Devil Magic and paralyzes them by interfering with its flow in their body and its connection to their soul."

His grin slowly disappeared, replaced by an expression of thought. "Although…it's rather strange that you haven't collapsed like you companion," he gestured to Karasuba behind him. "Oh well, it blocks your Magic and that's good enough for now. I suppose later we could strap your corpse to a table and-"

The old man was interrupted by the sounds of a struggle, both their attentions turning to the noise.

'It's her.'

Lucy, the pink haired girl he'd come looking for, restrained by several figures and being bound up in a straitjacket.

She definitely wasn't making it easy for them, struggling like a wild animal and fueled by adrenaline, taking all the strength the men had just to hold her.

Then one of their heads seemed to shatter inwards like some reverse of breaking an egg and she screamed in agony, seeming to bleed from her eyes. 'Did she just do what I think she did?'

"Keep those Vector Suppressors activated at all times!" the old man commanded. "Full power! We can't let her have use of her vectors again!"

More jammers of some kind? They had something like that for her too? Though perhaps it shouldn't be too surprising they would have something like that, they'd definitely need it to keep her in check. And it looked like she was connected to this place somehow, so they'd obviously know her abilities.

But how…no, he didn't have time to think about that. He had his own problems to get out of right now and he couldn't afford a distraction. But the more he looked at his situation the more he realized the only way out was to fight. And considering his Devil powers had been sealed, and his skill in Sage Arts was definitely not powerful enough to win this on their own, the odds weren't at all likely.

'Damnit.'

oOoOoOoOo Lucy oOoOoOoOo

'DAMNIT!'

She was so close! The fucking bastard who ruined her was literally in the same room, but she was weak, bound up, and couldn't do anything!

Attempting yet another minor struggle in her straitjacket, she barely managed to even twitch her arms before she was stopped by a cuff to the head from one of the bastards holding her. Gritting her teeth and hissing, she tried yet again to summon up a vector to rip them both apart, only to feel it fall apart as her focus was broken by seething pain that shaped in her mind. Those fucking Suppressors.

Was this how it ended? Helpless and unable to escape? Captured and about to be sentenced to the same Hell all over again?

….No. NO! She fucking refused to go back to that, even if she had to bring this whole damned mountain down on top of her own head, she'd see that bastard die! But how?

Struggling against the pain in her head and her own swimming vision, Lucy opened her eyes to survey her surroundings.

It wasn't easy to make out everything clearly, it was all so blurry from her migraine that it took a moment to really come into focus.

Her attention as first drawn to those damned things keeping her from ripping everyone apart, those Vector Suppressors. She tried destroying them a few times, but she could barely even form the beginnings of a single vector before she lost it as her head felt like it was going to split open, and it got worse as she tried to push her vector closer to destroy it.

Her attention moved away from it, turning to the other people around her in the large room before landing on someone she didn't recognize. Two such people, in fact.

The first looked like she wouldn't be able to do much, some silver haired lady curled up on the ground with a sword beside her.

The second though, a young man with brown hair, was still standing. He might be able to fight, but she could tell there was something holding him back. A tension in him, something keeping him rooted in place. What was wrong? Couldn't he do anything?

"Are you done?"

Her head swiveled to the side as she heard that voice, one both familiar and so utterly hated. One that had haunted her in the moments of blissful unconsciousness she'd had.

And there he was, leaning forward into a railing on the same level as her, looking at her with an expression of high and mighty annoyance. "Your struggling isn't at all appreciated or productive, so just be quiet during transit."

She almost lost it right there, nearly forming another vector to rip him apart before remembering what happened the last several times. Shaking in frustration, she halted its manifestation with a growl.

His smile almost made her try again. "Very good." Then he turned his attention back to the two people below, the guy in particular. "Now, if you don't mind, I think we'll just get this done so my people and I can get back on to our work." Grigorio smiled down on him, condescending and smugness rolling off of him. "Not that you could do anything about it anyway."

The guy below grimaced slightly at that, something about Grigorio's words really hitting a nerve.

But then he did something that seemed a little odd to her, out of place, however small it seemed.

He looked directly up for a moment, the grimace on his face growing even more severe from what he saw. And so her own eyes were drawn upwards to the ceiling. More specifically, the device hanging down from it.

She had never seen anything quite matching it before, but it still showed some telltale signs of Grigorio's design preferences. Sharp angles along the edges, the chassis shining perfectly like chrome, the symmetrical glowing lines across it that showed the flow of power making it work.

She didn't need to be a genius to put two and two together here, that thing was keeping the guy below from fighting.

That meant she had her opening.

"HEY!"

Everything froze in the room at her shout, that one word coming out at the top of her lungs and with enough volume that the mooks directly around her probably had their ears ringing about now. All eyes were on her, and whatever Grigorio was about to order had been interrupted, even the bastard himself turning his attention to her.

But what mattered was that she got the attention of the person below. "You," she gestured to him as she said the word. "You want him dead too, right? To get out of here?"

To his credit he didn't take long to answer. Barely even a second of hesitation and his features had already gained a serious look, nodding at her. "Yeah."

She smiled again, gesturing to the device above them. "Then if I destroy that thing above you, you'll kill him for me?"

He didn't even hesitate. "Yes."

And with a new smile on her face, baring teeth and a killing instinct, she formed a vector. Not just one of those little tendrils from before, but the biggest and strongest she possibly could.

The pain in her head was almost immediate, so intense and raw that she could practically feel the sensation of her head splitting in half. It would be even worse if she was aiming for one of those Vector Suppressors, like a wire with live current getting patched right into her brain.

But that's not what she was aiming for this time.

"NO!" Well, Grigorio seemed to finally catch on. "STOP HER! STOP HER NOW!"

But it was too late. Will all the willpower she could muster, all of the pain and spite, with all of her whole life behind it, she threw her vector right at the machine hanging from the ceiling.

She barely registered the sound of ripping steel before she blacked out, and then she knew no more.

That was the moment when Lucy's life was all but snuffed out.

oOoOoOoOo Vashyr Furtur oOoOoOoOo

'And we're back in business!'

With that damn thing down he could feel his power flowing again, pulsing through his body with an odd combination of static, wind, and a cool chill.

He wasted no time in making the first move, summoning up a number of lances, all of them small enough that he wouldn't need to worry about caving this place in. He fired them into the railings around him to kill the surrounding enemies, more than a dozen of them dying from that one volley.

Most of them died before they could even scream, vaporized by the condensed plasma that made the lances up at all. Others weren't so lucky, getting close enough that the heat partially melted their skin and flesh, their clothes being set instantly aflame from the convection. Those unfortunate fools died screaming from the pain.

Turning around to give Karasuba a quick check and see if she was okay, he was relieved to see she was already getting back on her feet. She wasn't exactly steady, but at least she was getting up and had her sword in hand.

She groaned. "God-OW!" she flinched, feeling the unfortunate consequences of using the G-word in spite of being a Devil. "Ugh, I feel like I have a hangover."

"Complain later," he said, getting ready to leap up to the railings above. "Kill now."

He jumped, landing on the railing where Lucy had collapsed. Killing Grigorio was an objective, but she was still the priority at the moment.

Summoning up another lance in his hand, he easily dispatched the men near her on his way over. They went down quickly, no resistance against the sheer heat of his weapon, merely the sizzling of flesh and the stench of burnt meat, the occasional scream of pain when the wound wasn't instantly lethal.

Unfortunately, by the time he got close to observe her, he knew he'd arrived too late. He didn't even need to check her pulse to know it.

Lucy was dead. The strain of her last act simply too much for her body to support. He could feel the last remains of the one tiny flicker of her life from after it faded away.

Strange. He'd thought he would've had a stronger reaction as he stood there over her lifeless body, but…there wasn't really anything. Maybe some mild disappointment, but that was all.

…Then again, he had a rather large supply of Evil Pieces anyway. He could easily bring her back.

He might've spent a moment pondering over the hypocrisy of that, considering he gave Akame a choice, two choices even, both before and after. But that was a thought for later.

Right now, he had someone to kill.

Turning from her body, he turned his attention towards the man behind everything in this little tangent from canon. He had already started moving, heading towards some circle drawn into the ground some distance back from his previous position, a large glass tank being brought alongside him. Vashyr didn't recognize what the circle was, but he wasn't about to let the bastard use it.

Rushing forward with lance ready, he got prepared to spear him down.

Only to stop in his tracks as he ran into some kind of barrier, his reserves of Devilish power being suppressed again. "Oh, what the hell!"

Seriously, was the bastard really going to get away now? After all this? With a string of enraged curses flying from his mouth, he just started punching the damn thing. At this point it barely even registered to him that it might not work, he just wanted to fucking hit something!

That seemed to get the old man's attention, because he turned to him with a seething glare of loathing and contempt at his attempt at physical battery. "What? This circle is the primary means of evacuation, did you honestly think I'd leave it without wards or defenses for your kind?" He turned away with a scoff, continuing his stride.

Vashyr barely heard him as he kept punching the barrier, intent on somehow finding a way through. He was not about to let this bastard get away, not after coming this far, NO WAY!

But with every strike he could hear his power waning, seemingly drained away by the barrier. His lances had proven useless when it winked out on contact with the damn thing, and his physical attacks were faring little better.

Panting slightly from the exertion, he pulled back. This was obviously getting him nowhere, not the direct approach. He needed to try this differently, approach it from a different angle. But how?

oOoOoOoOo Grigorio Iscamenty oOoOoOoOo

'Damn it. DAMN IT!'

How the hell could things have gone this bad? How could this have gone from any other day of research and development into Hell in a handbasket in less than three hours, and with a whole research facility needing to be liquidated? So much data compromised, so many resources lost, including a very prominent test subject and source of data!

And it was all because one random Devil showed up and decided to start blowing everything away for some little reason that Grigorio honestly couldn't give a damn about. Even if he knew what it was.

'Murphy, you son of a BITCH!'

With a forced effort to calm himself back down, he tried to put at least the few positives into perspective. Such as how the damn interloper would be dying soon as this whole facility was liquidated. The power reactor would reach critical soon and the whole facility would be destroyed.

Oh, and he'd still managed to retain the most important test subject; Project Crimson. It wasn't perfected, not by a long shot, but it was still a big step in the right direction.

Yes, this could still be salvaged. It was a loss, but not an insurmountable one. He could still bounce back, he could….what the….?

He looked up as some part of the ceiling above started creaking, slowly being pushed down by something from above. But the facility shouldn't be damaged enough for the internal structure to start collapsing yet, so what-

His thought was interrupted as the section of metal tore away to reveal what looked to be, of all things, a gigantic root! Then it was followed by others as they all started to expand the opening and come down thrashing. Ducking as he ran for the circle, he just narrowly managed to escape getting his head knocked off.

'How the Hell did THAT happen!?'

Stumbling through the roots swinging through the air, he saw an assistant get hit by one of them. Saw him get struck so hard that he flew through the air with a sickening crack before hitting the nearby wall with a dull thud, then fall to the ground motionless besides some errant twitches.

He didn't bother giving him a second glance.

But that momentary look still gave him a glimpse behind, and then he knew how this had happened.

It was that damn Devil on the other side, covered by a faint green outline as he seemed to stand in some meditation. And if that wasn't damning enough, a large number of those massive roots were converging on the barrier he'd been so pointlessly throwing himself against. Worse yet they seemed to be having something of an effect, the one measure of protection slowly fading as the roots continued pushing with enough force to split boulders. But how…

'Sage Arts!? Are you kidding me!?'

Finally, after a timespan of barely ten seconds that somehow felt like it took ten years off of his lifespan, Grigorio reached the circle. Touching the array below, he channeled power into it to start the teleportation. "Teleport; Kerberos Facility."

The circle reacted, energy flowing through it and beginning to isolate the space and occupants within as the teleportation began. They were going to make it!

'I've won!'

And then, as if fate itself had decided to take him low by an act of spite, one of the many thrashing roots from above, one that had strayed away from the barrier, struck out fast as a whip, and hit the tank of Project Crimson right out of the damn circle!

He didn't even have time to let out a scream of outrage before he and his few remaining followers were swallowed by the light of the circle, right as the ward finally failed.

oOoOoOoOo Vashyr Furtur oOoOoOoOo

"Oh, God, DAMMIT!"

"Hey!" Karasuba shouted, now on another railing herself as she cut down some more people. "How come you get to say it?"

"Long and complicated story," he answered, rushing into the newly unlocked area. Carefully going around the roots, he reached the circle where that damn researcher and his fucking friends had vanished right as he finally broke down that damned barrier.

He wouldn't say he'd really gotten far along with Kuroka's training, but she'd been sure to drill him hard with the basics and he'd dedicated just as much time to it as everything else. You'd be surprised how much you could do with a good knowledge of the basics and enough stubbornness.

He had no way of getting through the barrier with his usual approach, it was pretty much the same as that machine that left his powers locked away but focused into a physical force. Fortunately he had access to something besides the Magic granted to him as a Devil, otherwise there would've been no way to get through. All he'd really done was use Sage Arts to take control of a number of tree and plant roots from the earth above and had them rapidly grow downward until they'd reached him. They could naturally split some pretty strong materials given time, all he had to do was push a little.

The guy probably never expected for a Devil to bother to learn Sage Arts, though Vashyr was pretty sure he wouldn't be so lucky next time he met him. And if the feeling in his gut was any indication, he was definitely gonna run into him again.

Turning away from the now inert Magic circle, his attention shifted to the strange tank that had been knocked aside when he'd been manipulating the roots. Odd that the old man had been so obsessed with bringing it with him, especially when the compound was under attack. It must've been important.

It looked like a mostly metallic tank with a glass front for viewing in, several smaller modules around the chassis apparently keeping it running and sustaining whatever was inside while in transit. There was also a number of tubes that seemed to constantly filter the fluid inside and kept the subject alive.

His eyes were drawn to the glass, peering to see the subject inside. It was….a young girl? Probably no older than ten or eleven, judging by her size, with long hair of a color he couldn't quite discern.

Then he saw a name plate on it and he immediately found out why it was so important. Because on the front and above the glass were the clear words PROJECT: CRIMSON.

He groaned, the dull sound of his palm slapping right into his own forehead. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me! THIS is supposed to be the big deal, THIS is Ddraig 2.0? Some little girl?"

Honestly, this was starting to sound like something out of a fanfiction of some kind. The one where the writer decided EVERY important character somehow had to be female.

…..Okay, throwing that thought away now, don't even think about the implications. The last thing he needed was to start pondering over the possibility that he'd been dropped into a fucking fanfiction. He didn't die to be entertainment for people.

Fortunately, he didn't have much time to pursue that particular line of thought. The moment it materialized in his mind an alarm started going off, red lights flashing in warning.

"Alert!" blared an electronic voice, broadcasted through some kind of intercom. "Reactor status is reaching critical! Immediate evacuation is recommended!"

"What?" Karasuba shouted, running up to him with bloodied blade in hand. "How the hell did that happen? We haven't even run into anything like that on the way here."

Vashyr gritted his teeth. "It wasn't us. That bastard must've done something to make this happen before he left, we've gotta get out of here." He pointed to the still body of Lucy on the railing nearby. "Pick her up and take her with us."

Karasuba looked over her with a raised eyebrow. "She's dead, why the hell bother?"

"No time to explain, just DO it!"

Karasuba almost looked like she was about to protest, but she shut her mouth at the last moment and shook her head in resignation and sheathed her sword, moving to carry her. "What, the boss man is scared of girls or something?"

"No," he said, turning to the tank. "There's just something heavier for me."

In a matter of moments they had both picked up their burdens and started running for dear life, trying to retrace the path they'd taken to arrive at the sight of their little showdown with an honest to God Mad Scientist and escape his soon to explode underground lab.

'Why do I have a feeling this is gonna become the norm for me?'

oOoOoOoOo 1 Minute Later oOoOoOoOo

Okay, news to him, but it turned out that trying to find your way out of a huge underground lab on your first excursion and retrace your steps to get out wasn't actually very easy! Why the hell did they make it so easy in the movies, were they trying to give people the wrong fucking idea!?

And to make matters worse, the alarms were starting to get louder! He wasn't sure if that meant something, but if nonexistent luck so far was any indication, it probably meant nothing good.

"CRITICAL! CRITICAL! CRITICAL! CRITICAL! CRITICAL! CRITICAL!"

Oh, great, now that was a thing!

"Screw it!" he shouted, shuffling the tank in his grasp so it was held by a single arm, his free hand crackling with lightning as he formed a lance. "I'm making us a new way out!"

Throwing his hand forward and letting the lance loose, this time he kept some more control over the Magic that gave it form and consistency. Rather than exploding on contact it kept in physical form, melting through the metal of the hall and then the earth and rock beyond that. The bits of rock made a few patches of magma, but that meant little when he summoned up some water to douse and solidify it.

After barely twenty seconds of forcing the lance forward, it finally broke free into the open air and natural light came pouring in.

"Why the hell didn't you do that before!?"

"Just move it!"

With a way out finally in front of them, they started sprinting just as the complex started to shake. They'd only cleared the improvised exit as they felt extreme heat starting to follow them on the way out, immediately succeeded by roaring flames coming out from the hole as the two of them conjured their wings and took off.

Looking below, Vashyr breathed a sigh of relief as he saw what they had narrowly escaped. The whole complex seemed be melting down, turned into something akin to a caldera of rapidly forming lava. Looks like the plans for destroying it hadn't involved blowing it up so much as literally liquidating it.

Then again, this was much easier to outrun. Or outfly, as it were.

"So," Karasuba muttered beside him, dead pinkette still held over her shoulder as she was floating in the air, staring down at the now molten facility. "Is this kinda thing gonna be common around you?"

He honestly gave the question some thought before he gave an answer. "I can't say for sure, but my gut is giving me a loud yes."

…..Dear GOD, what the hell has his life turned into?

xXx

WHOA! Long wait, huh? Well, I won't lie, it's not entirely due to circumstance. I've always had a bit of a procrastination problem and it tends to get me at the worst times. Though I can say my unfortunate habit isn't entirely responsible. I've gotten a job for one thing, a night shift one, so you can imagine how awkward that can make things when it comes to timing. My mom and I have also moved AGAIN, but this is pretty definitively gonna be the LAST time. Why? Because we are now the proud owners of our own house! YAY!

Once again, as much as you're probably tired of hearing it, I'm NOT gonna drop this, or ANY of my other fics. The waits may be long sometimes but you will ALWAYS count on me to keep these going unless I'm either crippled or dead.

Now, onto the chapter itself.

If you think the interaction between Vashyr and Grigorio could've gone a little narratively smoother, I really can't complain. I had some trouble writing that part, and it's because I've already got an idea of the kind of character I'm trying to portray Grigorio himself as. He's smart, competent, doesn't take chances, doesn't waste time gloating, and covers his bases. A SMART antagonist, essentially. Sounds easy, but then you get to writing them out and realize, "Wait a minute, how's the protagonist gonna survive a run in with someone like that?" I had to rewrite several parts of it to make sure it made sense and make sure nothing contradicted, so I'm sorry if some of it might seem a bit off.

As for the girl in the tank, Project: Crimson, don't worry about her being too powerful. She's not gonna be anywhere NEAR as powerful as the actual Ddraig for the duration of the fic, she doesn't even have his ability to Boost. The reason Grigorio considered her so vital is because she's the most RECENT successful step, and losing her means he'll essentially have to restart DECADES of work to repeat the process again just to get to the point where he made her. Don't get me wrong, she IS extremely strong, she's essentially a humanoid mini-Ddraig, but she's nowhere near as powerful as her progenitor.

Regarding Lucy's ability to use her Vector at ALL when near those Vector Suppressors, it doesn't so much completely erase her ability to make and use them so much as make it EXTREMELY difficult and physically harmful For comparison, has anyone seen A Certain Scientific Accelerator? Remember that episode where Mikoto and Kuroko were countered by that sound machine? They could still ACTIVATE their powers, but they became next to impossible to really use effectively, so it's kinda like that. The one that countered Devil powers was a straight up nullifier, and the reason Vashyr wasn't brought to the floor with migraines like Karasuba was….well, I think you can guess. It's not hard.

EDIT: The jammer that affected Vashyr and Karasuba DOES have a limit to how much power it can hold back, but neither was powerful enough. Only an Ultimate Class Devil or above would be more or less unaffected. As for why they aren't more widespread, Grigorio has been working on them for YEARS, and he's keeping them as a trump card, he doesn't want anyone knowing about them. Guess that's another reason he's gonna be pissed with Vashyr.

Also, to address some pints raised in reviews from the last chapter.

Lightning Armor: You're wrong. The Lightning Armor from Naruto does NOT provide physical protection at all, it just enhances speed and reflexes, it's on the damn Naruto wiki. If you want to point something out in reviews, please do your research first.

EDIT: Sorry, I was incorrect about this. It DOES boost defense in Naruto, it turns out I didn't read the full description. Either way, this version only affects speed and reflexes, NOT defense.

Vashyr's Identity: I thought I'd already explained this, but I guess I'll go through it a little more thoroughly this time. Rita had already figured out that something was going on with Vashyr, the behavior disparity between him and Vashyron was REALLY that big by that point. He had no real way to hide it from her and lying would've soured their relationship between them. Besides that, coming clean with her and being able to talk with her honestly meant he could also ask questions that he NEVER could've otherwise, it would've been too suspicious. Kuroka was much the same, she could tell from the start that there was something off with him due to her Sage Arts and she wasn't gonna let up until she found out what was going on and she was absolutely sure her sister was safe. Rita vouching for her also did a lot to help, if she hadn't then Vashyr would've been MUCH more reluctant to tell her. As for Walter, that was pretty much the same. Walter already KNEW there was something off with him because he was completely unaffected by Holy Aura's. Devils shouldn't be CAPABLE of that, so he'd obviously be suspicious of him and try to investigate on his own. Vashyr told him as much as he did for DAMAGE CONTROL. He told him bits and pieces to keep him from trying to look for the WHOLE THING. Same with Sirzechs, though with an added twist. Twist being: What would happen if you lied to the most powerful person in the Underworld, and he found out later? And don't think Sirzechs wouldn't be able to put the dots together over time, the dude is the Lucifer for a reason. And as a last nail in the argument: How many people has he told? Four. FOUR PEOPLE. That's less than the number of people who know BATMAN'S secret identity. And Vashyr NEVER told any of them that he was a Human before his change, and especially not that he was someone from a world where THEIR world is a damn Visual Novel and Anime.

Issei: I have to admit, I had some trouble coming up with a counter for this one. Saying that Issei actually HAS lost something for his power ups, and that he actually CAN be a pretty cool character? I put some responses down, but I honestly couldn't think of anything concrete until I really looked at the series. By then I started laughing, because I realized that the argument on this was even shallower than I thought. First off, WHAT consequences did Issei really suffer to get it? Some of his life span? The occasional transformation of his arm? Let's work on the first one. He's a Devil, and that already mean he's got a LONG lifespan, at least several thousand years, so unless activating that cheap Balance Breaker managed to shave off a MILLENIA of his lifespan, that argument holds no weight at all. And it holds NEGATIVE weight if his being the holder of Boosted Gear affects his physiology as much as is implied, because if Dragons are FUCKING AGELESS, in which case a cost of lifespan means LITERALLY nothing to him. As for his arm, take a look at what happens to calm it down. Akeno Himejima SUCKS HIS FINGER. If anything Issei ENJOYS that, he's getting fingerplay from the hottest girl in Kuoh Academy, so it's OBVIOUSLY not a downside. If Ishibumi put REAL consequences and costs to it, then it would be much better, but what pisses me off is that these attempts are SO half-assed that they aren't consequences at all. You wanna see consequences for immediate power ups? Go and look at what happens to Gon when he powers up to beat Pitou in Hunter x Hunter. The kid is left in a coma afterwards, and the process of bringing him back removes his powers entirely, with his own father saying he got off fucking easily. THAT'S consequence.

*SIGH* Well, I thing that covers it. I'm gonna be going for a chapter for A Scorpion's Successor next and then World of Remnant: Online. Bit of info, though, my imagination has been MURDERING me recently. I'm not sure if I'll be able to hold back the story ideas for much longer before something comes out, but I think I've got an idea.

You know that part at the end where I ask for you to look for typos or errors? Here's a bit of extra incentive. For every one you find, you get to pick one of two rewards. 1) You can ask ONE question per error found about any of my fics, and I will answer it. INCLUDING spoiler ones, under the assumption that you will keep it completely confidential. And yes, you can ask questions about the new fic ideas too. 2) You get to put down a vote, on a ratio of one error/typo found equaling one vote for which new fic you'd like me to work on. I'll put the details for some of them on my Profile on this site. I suggest you go over the reviews to make sure you find any such typos FIRST.

Anyway, review and have a nice day!