Cardfight Megami Tensei

Grade 6

Let's Survive

Disclaimer: I do not own Cardfight! Vanguard or the Megami Tensei franchise. All creative rights go to their respective owners, Bushiroad and Atlus. I do however, own the Megaten clan and my OC's Kazuya Minegishi, Daichi Shijima, and Louisa Ferre. Fenikkusumaru owns his OC Kurogasa Kururugi and the Courier Saints clan, while The Azure Guardian owns his OC, Kaoru Ichinose.

"Boosted by Apsaras, Pale Rider attacks the Vanguard!"

"I guard with Chestnut Bullet! And… I Intercept with Gene!"

"Twin Drive, check!" I declared as I flipped over my top two cards, smirking as one of them revealed a yellow icon. "That's one Critical Trigger for me, and both effects go to Yoshitsune! And now boosted by Jack-o-Lantern, Yoshitsune attacks the Vanguard!"

"Ah… I don't guard. Damage check." Kaoru shook his head as his last damage fell in, revealing no triggers. That marked the third fight we'd had this afternoon.

"Not bad." I told my new teammate. "In fact, you're getting better. However…"

"However?" Kaoru repeated. I reached over and fanned out the cards in Kaoru's Drop Zone.

"You still need a little work when it comes to guarding." I explained. "See, you were guarding my attacks every chance you got, so you ended up running low on cards, especially towards the end."

"I see. Do you have any advice perhaps?" Kaoru asked, tilting his head to the side.

In response I picked up a few of the cards in the Drop Zone that Kaoru had used to guard earlier in the game and showed them to him. I also started gesturing to my cards as I began my explanation. "A general practice for guarding would be to stop what I call 'pokes', or basically the low-powered attacks that generally only deal one damage; also, take the high-power attacks and don't bother with guarding them all the time."

"Why is that?"

"Because those attacks usually come from the Vanguard and are much harder to guard, and not to mention it eats up precious hand resources." I explained. "Let's set up a little scenario here…" I handed Kaoru some of his discarded cards before gesturing to my formation. "So pretend that I have a formation set up for three powerful attacks, like this. I have two Rearguard attacks of 16000 Power each and a Vanguard attack that clocks in at 36000; all of these attacks only boast one Critical each. The Rearguard attacks can easily be blocked with minimal Shields, so you'd be fine blocking those; however, that Vanguard attack is way too strong for you to gamble on tossing out your hand, so it's in your best interest to just take that one. Regardless of the massive Power level, one damage is one damage."

"I see…" Kaoru replied in surprise. "I didn't realize that there was so much to this."

"Also!" I added. "You should always take damage before you commit to guarding. Never guard when you're below the three damage threshold. Unless you're in an incredibly bizarre situation, you won't lose while you're at such an early point. And then most importantly, understand your opponent's units and what they're capable of before committing to your defense. This will let you know just how much to commit before push comes to shove."

"Thank you for the advice. I'll be sure to make use of it." Kaoru bowed politely.

"Man, you sure know your stuff." Kamui commented, having been watching the cardfight with the other members of Aichi's team. "Even I've never really thought that deeply about it before."

"Hmph." Broody-Faced Kai scoffed over in the corner.

"Eh? Well, I guess." I just shrugged off the comments and turned my attention elsewhere in my thoughts. It had occurred to me over the past few days while training Kaoru, but…

I've run out of strong opponents here in this shop. I have Aichi's team, sure, but I'm forcing myself to not fight them for the time being. Mostly because Misaki already has a grasp on my deck, and that's all the advantage I want to allow them. Kaoru is still learning, so he won't be a threat any time soon up until the tournament itself. And then everyone else is just too weak for me to get any real challenge out of them.

In short, I need to find stronger opponents to get stronger myself.

With this in mind, I made the impromptu decision to gather up my cards and walk towards the entrance, a single destination already in mind.

"Kazuya, where are you going?" Kaoru asked.

"I just remembered I have to be somewhere." I lied. "We'll continue this tomorrow the same time. Got it?"

"O-Oh, yes!" Kaoru quickly nodded. "And again, thank you." I inclined my head to him before walking through the double doors and out onto the streets of the city.

"Okay, so remind me why we're here again?"

I strode into a mall downtown as Louisa asked me that question. I kept looking ahead, not once even so much as glancing back at her. Instead, I sighed out loud, making it seem as though I were sighing to myself.

'Because,' I answered with my thoughts. 'There's some people I need to see. I'm sure you remember those girls we met after you dropped me here.'

"Yeah. What about them?"

'They should be able to help me sharpen my skills for the upcoming tournament.' I replied. 'I have to get as much practice in as I can, and sticking around Card Capital the whole time won't get me anywhere.'

"I see. Makes sense." Louisa nodded.

'And then there's something else…'

"Hm?"

'...Back then, they saw you.' I told her.

"!" Her eyes widened in realization. "You're right… So then you think they know something?"

'That remains to be seen...' I reasoned. 'Given their involvement in events to come, I have no doubts that there's something more going on here due to my interference.' It wasn't long before I'd rounded a corner and saw a small, dark corridor up ahead that seemed familiar. 'Looks like we made it.'

And so, we walked down into the corridor, soon finding the doors to Card Shop PSY waiting in front of us. Walking inside, I was greeted with a familiar room that was filled with odd-looking display units for Vanguard cards. "Hello?" I called out in hopes of grabbing someone's attention.

Silence. "Anyone?"

Once again, silence. And by now I was just getting irritated. "Okay I know you're here, so just come out already!" I said more loudly than before.

"Welcome to Card Shop PSY," I heard someone greet towards the back. I saw the three girls from before step out from behind the curtained-off area on the far side of the room. Going by the voice, it was Suiko that had spoken. "Ah, it's you. Welcome back. Let's see… Kazuya, right?"

"What's up?" Rekka's chipper voice asked me.

"I'm competing in the next Regional Tournament, and I need to get as strong as I can be before then." I explained. "So to do that, I'd like you three to cardfight me. So far you're the best challenge I can get around here."

"Well aren't you forward?" Suiko commented jokingly and smiled. "Well then, if it's a fight you came looking for, then we'd be glad to give it to you. We're not ones to turn down a challenge." Her sisters nodded in agreement.

"So which one of you will fight first? I don't care who though." I got straight to the point.

"I'll be first."

I turned to see Kourin had responded and was now stepping forward.

"We can get this out of the way since we've already fought before. And I can get some payback for our match the other day." she showed a hint of a smirk.

"Hmph. Fine by me." I responded. The four of us wordlessly migrated to the back where the Motion Figure System still stood proudly. Kourin and I each took our spots on either side of the machine and prepped ourselves.

Or at least, that's what I thought was going to happen.

But just then, I felt the whole room rumble softly. I took my eyes away from the playing field and looked around in confusion.

'What was that? An earthquake? No, that was just one tremor...'

Then there was a second rumble, and it felt slightly stronger than the first one. This time the girls started darting their eyes around the area, likely noticing it now too.

'What's going on here? What are these tremors all about? Wait… Is it just me or are they getting closer?' I wondered to myself. While my head was trying to put all this together, I saw the girls share a look. It wasn't even ten seconds later when they all suddenly bolted out of the room, leaving me behind. Just then, Kourin turned back around to look at me.

"Hey! You should get going too!" she called back before turning around and chasing after her sisters, leaving me and Louisa totally alone in the shop.

"Kazuya…" Louisa suddenly spoke up. "I have a bad feeling about this. Something isn't right." I just nodded to her and took off out of the back room myself. Whatever the hell is causing these tremors is on the move, and it's headed this way to boot. I have no intentions of staying behind to find out what it is either. I ran out of the shop and into the alley just as a stronger tremor rocked the entire building, accompanied by what sounded like people screaming. I had to quickly steady myself on the wall to keep from falling over, and once I felt it was safe I kept going until I'd come out into the main part of the mall.

"Dammit! What the hell is going on?" I grunted. "Louisa, do you-" I looked over at the demoness to find she had this distant look in her eyes. "Louisa? Earth to Louisa! Hey, I'm talking to you!"

"What's…?" she muttered. "This doesn't feel like normal energy… What is this-? Kazuya, look out!"

I didn't have time to ask her what she was talking about, because the next thing I knew, I was throwing myself to the side to dodge something small and reddish crashing through the glass display of one of the nearby stores. I threw my hands up to my face to protect it from the flying shards, and when I uncovered it again, I was again forced to roll to the side to dodge something lunging at me.

I managed to get to my feet just in time to see a small shape now charging towards me again, but this time I was ready. I quickly got into a stance and waited for just the right moment; once the small thing was close enough, and right as it looked like it was about to attack, I let out a brief yell and slammed my foot into its face with a powerful side kick. I heard a strange noise coming from whatever it was I just hit and then I heard a thud. I looked forward down my leg, still being held in the air, only to see the small thing now laying on the ground a few feet away, totally motionless.

Okay, I have one very simple question here...

What. The fuck. Just happened.

I took a deep breath to calm myself down a little and relaxed my stance. I cautiously walked towards the now unconscious… thing, half expecting it to jump up again and attack me. However as I got closer, that6 possibility was looking a little slimmer; but that's not all, when I had gotten closer to it, I was able to see what it looked like more clearly. And what I found made my blood run cold for half a second.

Lying on the ground in front of me was a small creature with reddish-orange skin that, while it looked humanoid, was clearly not so because of the glaringly obvious four-fingered hands and two-toed feet. It had reddish-brown hair styled in a sort of bowl cut on top and tied into an outrageously long braid in the back, with a pair of tiny red horns peeking out at the top of its head. Possibly the most notable feature of the creature was the sucker-like spots on its chest, arms, and fingertips. I took a quick look and found that it really was just unconscious, not dead.

To most people this would be some sort of freak of nature or a monster. I know what this thing really is. And the implications of this had my head spinning.

"Obariyon: Jaki race." I recited out loud. "What the hell…?"

"Kazuya?"

OH, RIGHT! YOU!

I immediately whipped around and grabbed Louisa roughly by the shoulders. The alarm in her eyes was plain as day but right now I didn't give a damn. I needed answers.

"Now you listen here and you listen well." I told her while pointing to the Obariyon I knocked out. "What the hell is going on here? Why are there demons here? And why are they attacking a shopping mall?"

"Well part of that question is easy to answer." Louisa replied. "Demons have always existed here, but…"

"'But' what? What aren't you telling me?"

"Well that's just it… I'm just as confused as you are." she said. "Normally you don't see demons like Obariyon going around and attacking people; they're really not hostile at all if you don't make them angry. Something happened to make it go wild like that."

"'Something'?" I prodded.

"I have no idea what could have done it," the demoness answered. "But I've been getting this weird feeling ever since we left the store, like there's some sort of abnormal energy coming from nearby." I watched as she pointed down one path going through the mall. It took me a minute to realize it, but when it hit me I couldn't help but sigh.

"So in other words we have to get by whatever's making these demons run wild if we want to leave." she nodded at me. "Oh, that's just lovely." I let go of her and looked over towards where we needed to go. Motioning over my shoulder for her to follow, I started off down that way, hearing the clack of Louisa's boots hitting the floor as she hurried to catch up.

"So how did you do that back there? Against the Obariyon, I mean." I heard her ask. Assuming she meant how I knocked the demon out cold, I gave my answer.

"I spent most of middle school taking Tae Kwon Do," I answered. "I had some… emotions I wanted to try channeling into something. I never finished, but at least I'm a competent enough fighter that I can defend myself." Louisa nodded in understanding.

"I see, that's good. You'll need to if we want to get out of here alive." Louisa noted.

"Other than that, I'm just a regular old human." I shrugged.

"Right…" I heard her say. There was something about the tone of her voice just now that seemed odd, but I didn't bother questioning it. It wasn't likely to get me anywhere. It took us a few minutes, and even more time to sneak past the demons that were festering around the mall, but we finally managed to get close to the front of the building. Just then, I felt another small tremor nearby, and the sound of someone grunting. Looking to Louisa for a split second, I dashed off towards the entrance, only to be met with the sight of what equates to a battlefield.

Scattered about the small foyer-like area just inside the entrance were three figures, teenagers it looked like, each one being accompanied by some sort of demon at their side, which I recognized as Megami Sarasvati, Femme Lilim, and Touki Gozuki.

One of the teens, the one fighting with the Lilim, was a short girl with shoulder-length auburn hair, kept back by a floral bandana, and brown eyes. She wore a blue and white striped bra under a backless pink shirt, with long pink strings on the back, front, and bottom, a blue mini skirt, black thigh high socks and pink sandals.

With her was a tall boy with brown eyes and short black hair, under a white cap with a black clip. He was dressed in a blue hoodie, gray pants, and brown shoes. He also had a white wristwatch on his left arm and a blue wristband on his right. He was the one who seemed to be giving orders to the Sarasvati.

And then next to him was a slightly taller boy, maybe a couple of years older too, with spiked back dark pink hair, matching eyes and sharp features. He was wearing a black tracksuit, with strips of blue lining the jacket's collar and arms, and black shoes. He was the one commanding the Gozuki, and he had a wild, almost feral look to him as he did so.

Standing opposite to them all and basically guarding the entrance was another demon I recognized; a purple-skinned humanoid with red eyes, pointed ears, a gray beard, black horns, and your stereotypical thin demon tail with a small arrowhead point at the tip. The demon wore nothing but studded yellow kid gloves and studded yellow socks that did nothing to cover up the clawed toes on his feet.

But you wanna know the best part about this one?

He's just casually sitting on a toilet.

Wait…

"Louisa, is that the one you were talking about?" I asked the demoness. "The demon that's been making other demons act all aggro?"

She focused for a brief second on the demon I pointed to and then gave me a quick nod. "Yeah, that's him." she replied.

"So, it's Vile Belphegor…" I mused. I saw Louisa shake her head just out of the corner of my eye.

"That's not a Vile demon." she told me.

The shit? "What is it then? Fallen? Tyrant?" I questioned. I tried to think of what other races Belphegor had appeared under throughout the Megami Tensei games, but my guesses were all met with negative confirmation from the demoness. "Then what is he?"

"I can't tell." was all she said.

"What?"

"I'm not kidding. I can't figure out what his race is at all. But there's definitely something different about this one."

As we were talking out of earshot of the combatants, I watched as the guy in the tracksuit commanded his Gozuki to charge forward and deliver some quick attacks to Belphegor, but the other demon countered by swatting away Gozuki's strikes before headbutting it and sending the Yoma flying back into the wall. As soon as it collided though, it seemed to dissolve into greenish data that vanished into the air.

"Ugh, great! That was definitely not what I needed right now." the taller boy groaned as he glanced at something on his phone as soon as Gozuki had vanished- Oh… I get it. That makes a lot of sense, actually.

"They're all Devil Summoners," I mused out loud.

"What?"

"Wait, you seriously don't know?" I asked the demoness. "They're humans with the ability to summon demons, usually through a special Demon Summoning Program. See their phones? It's likely they have something like that on them that lets them summon demons to fight."

"Ah, I see." Louisa nodded.

"Wait, who the hell are you?"

I blinked when I heard the sudden voice and turned back to where the three were still fighting. Mr. Tracksuit had turned his back on the battle and was looking right at the two of us. I guess we weren't as quiet as I thought.

"What are you doing here?" he questioned me. "It's dangerous, you should run while you still can."

"Sorry, but I'm just unlucky that way." I shrugged. "Plus, Belphegor is blocking my only way out."

"Wait, how do you know-"

"I know a lot of things." I cut him off. "I know you three are Devil Summoners, I know about Belphegor, and I know he isn't normal."

"Then can you help us?" he asked. "You're a Summoner too, right?"

"No can do." I shook my head. "I'm no Summoner, I'm just a regular guy who happens to have knowledge on demons."

"Well in that case, it's time for you to put that knowledge to use." the tall one added. "I can give you the program."

Wut?

"Wait, how?" I questioned.

"Our Demon Summoning App comes with a function that lets us send copies of it to other people," he explained as he started fiddling with the phone. "I just need your email address." Still not really getting the situation but not caring at the moment, I took out my phone and quickly sent him a blank email once he'd given me some contact info. "Alright, I got it!" And with that, he fiddled a bit more while his buddies kept fighting; a few seconds later I got an email from him that only contained some sort of download link.

"Okay, I got it." I notified him.

"Good. use that to start the download and then just wait. We'll keep going until you're ready!" Mr. Tracksuit explained quickly before he jumped back into the fight, pressing a few buttons on his phone again. "Kobold!" And then suddenly, in a pillar of greenish light, a new demon emerged to fight with the group. This one was a very tall, muscular wolf man donning holden chest armor, as well as matching arm guards and shin guards. A thin leather belt was fastened around his waist and a thick green scarf was wrapped around him just below that, acting as a sort of loincloth. In his right hand the wolfman wielded a long silver weapon not dissimilar to a club, but much more cylindrical in shape.

I watched as the Kobold charged ahead and joined the demons of the other two in assaulting Belphegor. Then after a second I glanced down at my phone to see the progress of the download. The screen read '15%', and a progress bar at the bottom reflected that percentage. At this point, I was left with no choice but to be a sitting duck while I wait.

I kept watching as the trio and their demons kept attacking, but Belphegor seemed to be putting up a decent fight and wasn't going down that easily. Every now and then I'd glance down at my phone to check the progress again, and it seemed to be going at a steady pace. It was already past fifty percent after just a couple of minutes.

"How's it going back there?!" the tallest guy asked as he also issued orders to Kobold. I glanced down at my screen again.

"It just hit sixty percent!" I replied. "Think you can hold out a little longer?"

"Hell yeah!" he nodded. Just then, I heard a low, dark chuckle coming from Belphegor.

"No matter what you do, it's fruitless." he said evenly as his eyes began to glow with a sickly purple light. "Mana Pressure…" And then, before I was able to figure out what he was doing, a weird-looking wave of dark power seemed to surge out from his body and wash over the other demons present. Almost immediately they all started moving sluggishly like they'd suddenly gotten fatigued. Kobold seemed to be the most well off out of the three of them, but even he looked like he was starting to tire out.

"What's going on?" the girl questioned no one in particular.

"What? Sarasvati's mana levels are…" the guy in the hoodie trailed off as he looked at his phone.

"And Lilim..." the girl added as she too looked at her phone.

'What's going on?' I wondered. I checked the phone again; still roughly twenty-five percent to go. 'How is a demon like Belphegor so strong? And what was that skill just now? I've never heard of it...'

"Power Hit…" Belphegor bellowed. Just then, he shot forward while still on his toilet, ramming and headbutting Kobold in succession. I was about to ask if Louisa could get a better reading, when…

"Look out!"

"Wha-?"I turned at the sound of the girl's voice, only to see Kobold flying towards me at breakneck speeds. I didn't have even a fraction of a second to react as the canine demon slammed into me, sending me flying back with him into something that felt very solid. I couldn't really figure out what it was though. I was too busy struggling not to pass out from the feeling of something - or I guess everything inside of me getting smashed and the unbearable pain that followed.

I… I…

Dammit...

Where... Am I…?

I opened my eyes to find myself standing on a rocky pathway. I took a look around me, noting that the sky above me was blood red, and the only thing ahead of me was some sort of pillar of sickly light. It was also the only true source of light around here, making everything else appear dimly lit at best.

Where the hell is everything? Am I… dead? For that matter, is this Hell?

"Damn…" I sighed to myself. "Dead before I can even do anything…" I looked towards the pillar of light, just shrugging. "Well, I guess that's where I'm headed. Not like I have much of a choice." And with that, left with no options, I started walking down the rocky path towards that light, noting how sluggish and heavy my body felt as I walked, making it seem like I wasn't moving much with each step.

"Wait just one moment…"

"Huh…?"

I blinked, turning around as I heard the voice that sounded bizarrely similar to mine. Standing a few feet away was a tall figure, his appearance distorted by some sort of dark aura around him, but I was able to tell that he was wearing some sort of armor and carrying a large sword, the type of which I couldn't tell through the darkness.

Who the hell…?

"What's the matter...? Are you just going to roll over and die?" the figure asked me. "Will you simply forsake them? Death awaits the lot of them if you do nothing…"

"Tch, like I care." I replied. "I don't even know them anyways."

"And the girl?" he countered. "Will you forsake her too?"

I guess by 'girl', he means Louisa… While I don't have any real attachment to her either, I guess I do owe her... "Even if I wanted to help her, what the hell can I do if I'm dead? And even then, I don't have any power of my own."

"I can grant your life, boy." the figure replied. "As for power, I will also lend you my strength. Doing so will require us to form a contract."

"I see…" I said. I clenched my fist as I thought it over. "While it's true that living was shitty already, I don't have any plans of dying yet either. I intend to make something out of my shitty life before I kick the bucket. Alright… I'll form that contract of yours! I want power so I can at least fight!"

"Very well… I have heeded your desires." the figure seemed to nod. "From this day forth, we are to fight as one! Now then, invoke thy rage! Show to me thy will of rebellion, though thou be chained to Hell itself!"

And then, suddenly, as the figure raised their sword, a blinding light filled the area, and I lost my vision for a few seconds...

...When I could see again, I was back in the mall, lying on my ass and staring up at the skylight. I started with a gasp as my senses came back to me fully. My whole body ached like hell as I went to stand up, but I could still move at least. I rolled onto my stomach and pushed myself up that way, barely managing to stay on my feet.

"Holy shit…" I heard the older teen say under his breath. "He's still alive, even after that?"

"Kazuya!" I heard someone call my name, and turning my head I saw Louisa was rushing at me. "Kazuya, are you alright?"

"Uh… Yeah, I'm fine…" I answered halfheartedly, looking around for my phone, which I guess I dropped when I got crushed before. I found it lying on the ground closeby and picked it up, looking at the screen and seeing the download had finished while I was dead. The screen was blank, except for a single sentence that flashed on for only a few moments.

"Peaceful days have died - let's survive."

Moments later, a menu for the application popped up; thinking quickly, I pressed the big 'Summon' button at the bottom and watched as some sort of big glowing circle or glyph appeared in front of me. However, I also suddenly felt my head spinning, and my vision starting to blur, almost like I was losing consciousness, when…

(BGM - "Byakko" - Devil Survivor 2: The Animation Original Soundtrack Volume 2)

Kazuya suddenly clutched his head as if he were in pain, but it seemed to pass after a second. But as he drew his hand away and he regained himself, to the others, something seemed different about the young man from just a moment ago. He seemed a lot more distant, more cold. Almost like nothing else mattered other than what he was about to do - take down the enemy in front of him.

Then, the summoning circle in front of him erupted with some sort of intense power, the likes of which the three Summoners had never felt before. As power surged forth from the circle, even Belphegor seemed to be on edge, watching as a new figure materialized in front of Kazuya.

Floating there silently was a tall and lean male figure clad in bluish green armor over a grayish purple shirt and matching baggy pants. His hands were covered in sleek gauntlets the same color as his armor, while armor also protected his legs from the knees down; the strange thing though was that the figure didn't have any feet, rather his legs simply ended in points created by his armor, making his legs almost seem like blades. The figure's face was covered by a bluish green mask, while dark purple hair with red patches flew out behind him, and in his hand he carried a large bastard sword with a golden hilt and silver blade.

Without a word, the armored figure rushed forward, blowing past the other Summoners' demons and charging straight for Belphegor. He gripped his sword tightly and swung once he was in a good range, but Belphegor, still riding on his toilet, simply dodged backwards to avoid the swing.

However, the armored figure wasn't letting up, and he simply continued to lunge forward and attack in a somewhat manic way, yet despite the wildness of his attacks, there seemed to be an odd finesse to them too underneath that. Finally, he managed to get one good hit in on the demon, nicking him in the shoulder just as Belphegor was going to dodge again. The toilet-mounted demon simply grunted and rushed forward, intending to headbutt the swordsman, but the latter simply blocked the attack with the flat of his sword and pushed back with all his might, sending Belphegor back into a more comfortable range.

"That's it…" Kazuya said, a strange expression on his face as he stood back and watched the fight between the two, not even having to issue orders to the swordsman. "Kill him, fight to your heart's content, rip and tear him apart until your soul is satisfied! Do it, Abel!"

"Wait, did he say Abel?" the redhead wondered out loud.

"As in the first murder victim?" her dark-haired friend asked. "What's a demon like that doing here?"

"More importantly, I didn't even know a demon like that existed…" the older one added.

Everyone watched in surprise as the swordsman, Abel, seemed to start getting faster as he kept trying to attack Belphegor with everything he had. It was clear that the other demon was starting to have trouble avoiding his opponent consistently, and was starting to take many more grazing hits over time.

"This is ridiculous!" Belphegor bellowed in anger as he felt Abel's sword graze him again. His eyes lit up with a sickly light in response. "Mana Pressure!" Just then, another wave of force seemed to sweep out from the purple-skinned demon's form, but even as it passed over Abel, he seemed to be unfazed by it, leaving Belphegor to look in shock as the swordsman got one good hit in, running his large sword through the other demon's shoulder even as he tried to evade again.

He roared in pain as the swordsman drew his blade back forcefully, still reeling from the pain, he noticed a little too late as Abel thrust his sword forward again, this time managing to run him through his midsection, making his opponent roar in pain again. The demon swordsman roughly drew his sword back again, causing ichor to fly and spurt out from the gaping wound left in Belphegor's stomach, while more poured out from the wound in his shoulder.

Kazuya watched quietly, smiling in an odd way at seeing the purple-skinned demon in such agony, unable to fight back with how severe his wounds were. He turned to Abel and spoke only a few words, but they were all that were needed.

"Finish him."

In response, the demon swordsman's eyes flashed with a red light behind his mask as he charged forward once more, his sword poised for one final swing. Andt with Belphegor unable to fight back…

...He struck quick and true, a single swing of his blade all that was required to cleave the other demon's head clean off, said demon's face in his last moments being one of pure shock. The severed head fell to the floor with a thud as ichor spurted out from the place where its head used to be, and within seconds of being beheaded, Belphegor's body fell forward and hit the ground with another thud, the toilet he once mounted simply disintegrating into nothing.

Kazuya silently watched with satisfaction as his former enemy dissolved into a pool of black ichor, and soon enough that seemed to vanish too. But as it did, the cardfighter threw his hand to his head as pain flashed through it, and before anyone could ask if he was alright, he found himself falling to the floor as darkness rose up to pull him down.

Welp, this was a long time coming. And I do mean a seriously long time coming. Now I can finally start getting things kicked off the right way in this story. There's still gonna be some of the old plot going on, naturally, but this is the point where things really get going. Well in any case, I finally got this updated, so celebrations are in order. And while I go pat myself on the back for finally doing something, I hope you all will stay tuned for the next chapter and the chapters to come! Don't forget to follow/favorite, and write reviews. I'm always up for the feedback.

Cheers, mates.

Preview:

Louisa: A young man's quest for power has now taken a new and unexpected turn… Even so, he must continue his search to form a team. Time is of the essence.

Daichi: You want to fight me? Really? Alright, let's go!

Kazuya: Well if it's a show of strength you want, then I'm happy to give it to you.

Kazuya: Next time on Cardfight Megami Tensei: "Daichi Shijima!" Stand up, my Vanguard!