# # #

  Part 10

  # # #

  ??????

  5 hours earlier…

  I woke up in a dark room, with restraints on my arms and feet, while hovering in the air. The glow of the restraints was what attracted my attention, they looked like symbols etched into the metal. Also, I felt really weak for some reason.

  I pulled on them, trying to break them; however, the Runes on the manacles and the chains holding me there began glowing brighter, and I felt myself weakening even more and lost consciousness. When I came to myself again, I understood that those things restraining me at my wrist and ankles were draining me of my lifeforce.

  I was furious! I’ve been captured so easily because I have no defenses against magic. “I'll kill them.”

  Suddenly, there was a grinding sound, and the entrance to the cell I was imprisoned in opened. A man in a suit appeared; he had short bck hair, gsses, and haunting purple eyes.

  “Who will kill whom?” He said, his voice grating on my ear. It was the kind of annoying voice you'd find a vilin to have in an anime. I hated this world sometimes, it was terribly unpredictable in what it dishes out.

  “Did the cat get your tongue, Iori?” The man said mockingly.

  I frowned at the familiarity the man used as he addressed me, and I defiantly and bluntly asked, “Who might you be?”

  The man leaned against the frame of the door and crossed his arms. An annoying smirk on his face. “Ah, so polite, so courageous, even in the face of danger. I like that. I will answer your question, Iori. I am Rufus Andrealphus, heir of the Devil Pilr House of Andrealphus. Your new King.”

  He held his hand before him, and a bck colored chest piece appeared in his palm.

  “Oh hell no! You won't reincarnate me!” I yelled as I began struggling against my restraints. But yet again, the magic on them was draining my power.

  That Rufus guy slowly walked up to me and started to slip the Evil Piece into me…

  # # #

  (Witchbde)

  Witchbde was old, he had spent twenty thousand years since his birth moving from wielder to wielder. Until he was picked up by a being even beyond The Darkness and The Angelus, the being changed him, even gave him the ability to speak and make his emotions known.

  He was given an offer to go to another world and bond with the wielder of the being's choice. Witchbde demanded to meet the wielder first and… the being accepted; he wasn't disappointed, she was perfect. Her soul shone brighter than his more powerful wielders, she could easily become what he envisioned a hero to be.

  The two of them were thrown into this strange world where the Supernatural is more organized than their original world.

  Unlike Sara Pezzini and Danielle Baptist, Iori didn't fear Witchbde. She embraced him, treating him like a friend or a lover; his new wielder respected his power and was eager to learn how to defend herself and use the Witchbde's might.

  When Iori used him for her first real battle, Witchbde was impressed by her willingness to trust him; if Iori died, he wouldn't be able to find another host like her. He might have to wait for another ten thousand years…

  Which is why when Iori got captured and was about to get her species changed because of the parasite before her, Witchbde unleashed his might and yelled, {NO}

  In an explosion of golden, fiery light, Witchbde swatted the parasite away from his wielder, throwing him outside the room. He manifested his gauntlet form and… generated enough metallic constructs in the form of ruby-eyed snakes to fill the entire room to prevent access. Witchbde protected Iori by encasing her in a cocoon of metal to prevent the weight of the other construct from crushing her.

  # # #

  (Rufus Andrealfus)

  Rufus had wanted to see the look of despair on Usagiyama's beautiful face as she got reincarnated with his Queen Piece. He was about to cim his prize but was violently expelled out of the room, his Queen Piece smacked right into his left cheek.

  That's when he knew he fucked up. He had thought her at his mercy, and that she would be an easy pick; however, he hadn't accounted for her strange sacred gear. Rufus had heard the masculine voice just before he got bitch spped out of the cell.

  “Fuck!” Rufus took the queen piece out of his face, it had left a deep red mark on his cheek.

  His eyes bulged when he saw the room filled with snakes made of metal, slithering out of the cell. They coiled on themselves and attacked him, forcing Rufus to roll on the right and out of the way.

  Kshaaa! Thunk! Thunk! The snakes turned into spears that embedded themselves into the wall.

  Rufus immediately focused on his magic and shot a fire spell at the snake. To no effect, the magical fire was absorbed by the metallic construct. The spears turned back into snakes, shaking loose from the destroyed wall.

  *D-discretion might be the best part of Valor right now.* Rufus quickly teleported himself to safety in his study.

  Once he successfully arrived, he found Selene looking at him with arm. She ran toward him and asked, “Rufus, what happened?”

  “It seems that our means to weaken Miss Usagiyama weren't enough. Her sacred gear is rampaging.” The Andrealphus devil said as he was helped up by his Selene.

  What Rufus also wanted to know was how the girl knew about Evil Pieces. Wasn't she supposed to know barely anything about Devils and the supernatural or did the Yokai inform her? More importantly, what was that voice that he heard when he was pushed back? Rufus stomped on the ground and said in an impatient tone, “Selene, gather the other girls, we need to pacify Usagiyama again.”

  The blonde reincarnated devil asked him with doubt clear on her face, “Are you sure that she’s worth all the trouble, my King?”

  There was the glint of mania in Rufus’ eyes as he replied, “She may be powerful, but she will break.”

  # # #

  (Sofia)

  In a bedchamber reserved for Rufus’s harem members sat an athletic and beautiful brunette. That girl was Sofia, one of Rufus Andrealphus’s Knight. Etched on her face was a furious expression, which had not changed since she returned from Japan.

  Sofia wanted that bitch’s blood, she broke her best spear and she humiliated her by treating her like she’s some sort of third rate mook. She looked at the expensive weapon in her hand, it was crafted by Dwarves; the spearhead was made of an alloy of bck adamantium, and the shaft consisted of dark iron wood, a material so durable that it may as well have been steel.

  Rufus had bought it for her on the bck market in South America in case her spear, enchanted with the curse of ceration, was ever in need of being maintained or if it was destroyed. What this one in her hand did was just channel mana and ki more efficiently than a normal spear would. It was still pretty and one of her favorite weapons because it was Rufus’ gift.

  Sofia was going to stab the smug bitch in the dungeon with it. The brunette heard a sudden buzz, the clear sign of a magic communication circle manifesting.

  “Sofia, there's trouble.” She heard the voice of Selene say.

  Sofia liked Selene, she was a straightforward woman and not the sort to hide things from the brunette.

  With a frown, the brunette asked, “What's going on, Sel?”

  With a frustrated tone, Selene replied, “Usagiyama is resisting her reincarnation, and her sacred gear has gone berserk.”

  “Oooh, she needs to be shown her pce! I'm coming!” Sofia's grip tightened on her spear, and she stood up from her bed.

  The heavy oak door to her room was open with a snap of her finger, the enchantment on it responding to her mana signature. A paranoid measure that Sofia's Rufus has taken to protect them.

  As she left the wing where her room was located, Sofia didn't notice the two glowing eyes looking at her in the unlit part of the corridor.

  # # #

  (Usagiyama Iori)

  Once again, I find myself in the mindscape that Witchbde and I share. Lying on the grass and a tree shading the overhead noon sun. The tree suddenly turned from a wooden tree to a metal one; the leaves of the tree were still green, but there was an inner glow to them.

  But it wasn't what caught my attention. There was a huge metal snake wrapped around the trunk, its eyes were of different colors, one sapphire blue and the other ruby red. It slithered toward me, its head barely one meter from mine.

  “Witchbde?”

  {My Host, why so surprised?} I heard mirth in his voice.

  I touched his head with my two hands, it felt like metal but warm to the touch. “This is the first time we’ve met face to face.”

  Snakes weren't the best animals to me, originally I am deeply afraid of them but they were the best and simplest constructs Witchbde could materialize. The godly artifact must have sensed my fear as he said, {I could take a humanoid form, but not right now, the situation is quite urgent.}

  Witchbde was rather pragmatic in all our dealings, I could always count on him to stay focused. I tried to mimic the way he was because living life like this was truly freeing. Speaking of freedom… “I got captured because I was too cocky and I have no defenses against magic.”

  {Yes, and this is why I brought you here while I am distracting your captors with my construct and summons. I'll help you.} Witchbde once again was saving the day, he really was my partner!

  *But how will he help me out of this situation?*

  I heard footsteps hitting the grass behind me, causing me to turn around and see a beautiful veiled woman with long purple hair and red eyes wearing a full-body outfit that highlighted her curvaceous body, with metallic pauldrons.

  “This is why I'm here, Young Iori.” The woman with a cold tone addressed me.

  My gauntlet immediately appeared on my forearm, extending to my shoulder and creating my sharp pauldron. “Who the hell are you?”

  Then the woman smiled and conjured a blood-red spear in her hand. My eyes opened wide with recognition. “Wait! Aren't you…”

  The woman stood tall before me and decred with poise, “I am Scáthach, the Goddess of the Land of Shadows, the Witch of Dun Scaith, I am also known as the Warrior Queen and teacher of Heroes.”

  *Did she just pull a Daenerys on me?* I asked myself, because her introduction sounded like what the Targaryen Queen would do. Never in my life would I guess the answer to that question, at least not for now…

  The Goddess looked at herself, opening and closing her fist, her red eyes now focused on me, when she finished her inspection. “I am intrigued by this form I have taken, is this how you perceive me?”

  My eyes focused on Witchbde, who oozed smugness right now. He did find me the best trainer ever. Then I turned my head toward the Goddess and said, “You're quite famous in my previous world, Goddess Scáthach, because… you're the best waifu in some stories that have been written recently for fans, where you feature as a teacher and a mother figure.”

  She tilted her head. “What is a waifu? Is it some sort of idol?”

  Scáthach wasn't completely wrong… that's why I nodded and expined, “Yes, Waifus are... worshiped for their beauty, desirability, and by how strong they are, you're judged to be one of the strongest goddesses in the world.”

  A proud smile blossomed on her face. “How fttering, it is good that my legend wasn't forgotten and that I am still worshiped.”

  Witchbde said in an impatient tone, {Scáthach, get to the point.}

  The Goddess looked at him and said in a contrite manner, “Don't be so impatient, my Lord. Time has no meaning in this pce, I will be teaching young Iori how to harness your power correctly and how to make her enemies fall in despair.”

  The snake construct Witchbde controlled nodded. I was excited; each time I got instructions from someone, my combat capabilities always soared higher. As an example, Red Sonja and Conan had made me a stronger swordswoman after everytime time we fought.

  “You're going to teach me?”

  Scáthach walked up to me, eyed me with an appraising gaze that made me step back. I felt as if I was being sized up by a deadly predator. “Yes, child, the lesson starts now.”

  Child? I may be sixteen physically, but mentally, I am an adult. Scáthach started walking in a circle around me. “I've seen your mettle through your own eyes. You tend to look down on your opponents.”

  “I…” There was barely anything I could say; I was guilty of overconfidence, and I relished in my power. Sue me, I liked fighting! To best my enemies, but if they folded as easily as my st foes did, I put them out of their misery.

  Scáthach continued to circle me. “Despite having the instincts of a killer, you hold back subconsciously. You wouldn't be in your current position if you had listened to your instincts and killed those Devils with your full power from the start.”

  She stopped moving, stepped into my personal space, lifted my face with her hand and told me bluntly, “The Witchbde has helped you find your inner warrior, now I will help you refine your battle instincts, situational awareness, and develop your own judgment as well as work on a bag of tricks that will allow you to escape your current situation.”

  I couldn't help but ask, “Will this be enough to truly break free and punish those who wronged me?”

  The look Scáthach just gave me in answer to my question was freezing, “When I am done with you, child. You'll be a power unto yourself in this world, but don't get cocky. After we're done, more formal teaching will be given once you are safe at your home Hearth.”

  She let go of my face, and I said in pcation, “I will defer to your experience…”

  Scáthach stabbed the butt of her spear in the ground. “Good, now let's get down to business, my child.”

  The fist that she threw in my face was so fast that I didn't see it and it killed me, making everything go dark…

  # # #

  (Miriam)

  Miriam deflected a metal snake with her sword, she was getting the hang of defending herself. The snake bounced but used its tail as a whip, coiling around her sword. Then it destroyed it by constricting the bde and rendering it useless.

  “That's my favorite sword!”

  The only answer she received to her outburst was a cone of fire so hot that it almost melted the stone walls around her. Miriam let go of her sword and jumped in the air, deploying her wings to stay aloft. Extending her hand, she summoned a giant bck sword, the bde sucking in the light around her.

  Miriam used the vaulted ceiling as a spring and unched herself toward the fire-breathing metal snake. Once again, it shot fire from its mouth at Miriam, who pced her giant sword before her, letting the magic metal absorb the fmes.

  In the next moment, she severed the metal snake's head. Miriam jumped out of the way when she sensed that she was about to get stabbed in the back.

  She was surprised to see a hideous short humanoid with green glowing eyes stare back at her. It has a bloody bck spear in its hands. Miriam recognized it and she yelled, “That's Sofia's…!”

  Before it could do anything, the creature was torn apart by multiple wind scythe. Recognizing that mana signature, Miriam turned and saw her lover and King dismiss the elemental magic circle he used to kill the strange creature.

  “Mimi, are you okay?” Rufus asked with worry in his voice and facial expression.

  Miriam ran to him. “Rufus, you arrived just in time!”

  Then she pulled him toward the remains of the creature and showed him the bck spear. “Wait is that… let's go look for Sofia!”

  It was at this moment that more and more of those creatures appeared from the shadows and sticking to the walls or ceiling. Some of them looked like humanoids, others like reptilian abominations drooling on the ground. But it seemed that they would need to take down this new threat which appeared.

  Miriam guessed right that the metal snakes were only the beginning; now Usagiyama's sacred gear was summoning monsters! Was her gear simir to Annihition Maker? How does making armor, using fire, and summoning demonic constructs rete to each other? There was never a sacred gear with power so broad; if there was one, it would have been a famous one.

  *Unless… she’s not a Sacred Gear user.* Miriam charged into the swarm of creatures, breaking the blockade they had in the stone corridor. The bck ichor of the creatures stained her armor as she tore them apart.

  Rufus used his wind magic to mow them down while Miriam kept him safe from sneak attacks as waves of their enemies kept coming.

  *What have we invited into our home?* Miriam thought as she saw some of the Devil servants being attacked and pulled into the shadows while screaming.

  Before Miriam could save any of them, they disappeared somewhere. They finally exited the main corridor that led to the dungeon, walking up the stairs that led to the Great Hall of the Andrealphus pace.

  The noise of battle and weapons cshing against each other resonated in the pace. When Rufus and Miriam emerged from the stairs leading to the dungeon, they saw some servants and guards were fighting and winning against the creatures while forming groups to stay alive.

  It was at this point that they rejoined Selene, who battled against one of those creatures, looking like a dinosaur in the internal courtyard. The creature was fast and vicious, trying to cw at Selene, who evaded its tail's swipe and jumped charge easily with her agile movements.

  The beast was relentless, not giving her time to cast any magic. Selene tried to pierce through the scaled abomination with her rapier, but her weapon bounced off its scales.

  “Damn you! Die!” She jumped and tried to skewer inside the lizard's fanged muzzle with her mithril rapier.

  However, she missed and her neck was about to get mauled by the dinosaur look-alike. Fortunately for her, Rufus intervened in time with his signature wind spell.

  “Air bind!” The purple-eyed male devil shouted

  Woosh! The creature became encased in a sphere of wind, floating in the air while being constricted.

  “My King!” Selene finally noticed their approach.

  Rufus immediately started giving orders. “Miriam, take care of that shifty beast! Selene, weaken it!”

  “Yes!” both women shouted in reply.

  Miriam used all her strength to jump toward the creature, preparing an overhead strike with her giant sword. Selene cast a weakening curse on the creature and Rufus enchanted Miriam's with wind magic, giving the bde of her sword’s bde a sort of monomolecur edge.

  Unlike Selene, Miriam succeeded in cleaving the creature in two, its scales unable to protect it against the spells and curse arrayed against it. Rufus dismissed his control spell, and the dead fake dinosaur fell on the garden's wn, dead, each part of its body showing bck blood, organs, and skeleton.

  “Let's go.” Rufus said as he stepped forward toward the other entrance of the internal courtyard that led to the concubines' wing.

  Just as they arrived before the doors to the wing reserved for them, Miriam stopped as she spotted something pced on a rolling tray. There y the severed head of Rufus’s first knight, Sofia. Her facial expression was one of pain and surprise, with blood staining her hair.

  Miriam almost let go of her sword in shock, Selene swore and Rufus cried out the name of his murdered knight. “SOFIA!!”

  He ran toward the head to retrieve it; however, ten new creatures appeared from the shadows; they looked stronger than the rabble the trio had been battling at the start.

  They stood taller, and had powerful muscuture; they had leathery bat wings on their back and the fangs in their mouth and cws at their hands and feet looked wicked sharp. One of them took the head of Sofia and brought her head to its mouth to munch on it.

  “NO!” Miriam shouted, attacking immediately the monster about to desecrate the remains of her friend.

  The creature gobbled up the head, and Miriam watched with Horror as the creature bulked up and grew white hair, just like when Sophia boosted herself.

  <>

  Selene's eyes widened. “They can talk?!”

  Miriam panicked. “They absorb traits from people they devour?!”

  Rufus didn't notice as he was blinded by rage. “You dare kill what's mine?!”

  A humongous magic circle formed under his feet, then a tornado made of Wind magic burst from around the creatures.

  WOOOSH!!! The tornado raged and exploded outward, destroying part of the wing, only to let the trio be exposed to the night sky as part of the ceiling was missing.

  The creatures have disappeared, but Miriam felt like they weren't dead as she saw them take refuge in the shadows to avoid being torn up by Rufus.

  “Rufus!” Miriam saw the shadow under Rufus move, and she pushed him out of the way, a long sword almost severing his legs.

  From the shadows around them, the trio of devils heard, <>

  Miriam saw Rufus’ eyes squinted into determined ones; he was furious. The devil stood up helping Miriam up and with a voice which brokered no argument said, “Selene, Miriam, forget about capturing that bitch. We're going to kill her.”

  Rufus turned to the way they came from, toward the dungeon once more.

  “Yes, my King!” The two women said in unison.

  Still, they took to the air to avoid being ambushed by the shadowy monster sent by Usagiyama.

  <

  >

  A/N: Heya guys! So a lot of you wanted the chapter right here, right now, but don't worry next one will be this Saturday! I hope you remember that Iori as a cheat mindscape like the time chamber of DBZ...

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