Chapter Text
"...Mmmmmm...Ugh...!"
"?!"
In the hours that followed, Simon had taken to shredding the cross that once bound his fellow gang member to it like it were a carrot and he was a cook chopping with a knife. He didn't want the first thing she'd see to be the thing that probably tormented her for a long time, he wouldn't be surprised if that was the case since Lucifer was indeed an unrepenting sad*st. The thought only fuelled his desire to master these new abilities he had as an internalized Ghoul, if only so he could apply the idea of freedom and liberty on that asshole's face, separating it from his shoulders.
It took a while to do since the thing seemed to have been built to restrain an Infernalized Ghoul, and by the time the job had done a good 20 minutes passed, at the end of which the girl started to come to once more. The male had heard this and immediately leapt to her, landing with a low THUD next to the girl as she slowly got on all fours and held her head with a pained groan leaving her lips. "Ugh, anyone got a name for the f*cker that hit me...?"
"Not really, but I do think some ass-whooping is in order old friend."
"?!"
She initially made such a comment not expecting a response with a sense of additional fatigue too. But the moment she got a response from someone outside her thoughts, the girl known as Diana sharply raised her head to expose the wide eyes she had on. Eyes that fell onto Simon's form with the first thing she saw being the amused smirk on his lips. "Wakey wakey sleeping beauty. daddy's gotta go to work-"
SCHING!
Immediately his smirk turned into a surprised gasp when he quickly leaned himself backwards to avoid a large black form that suddenly shot out of the woman's body. Before long he had to avoid a second one that came in for an overhead smash by leaping back, the attacker quickly getting to her feet and charging at him.
"Whoa, Jesus!"
Simon paled as he saw the girl's eyes, now both in their Kakugan forms, blazing with a fury akin to a thousand angry maidens confronting their playboy boyfriend. She looked livid and that look might as well leave him with PTSD, there were many times when Diana got annoyed over something but she never resorted to using her Kagune. No that was reserved for things she wanted to send into the afterlife on a one-way trip, and right now she looked like she wanted to tear his ass to pieces.
Before he could try saying anything, Simon saw her Kagune for the first time in several years protruding out from beneath her shoulder blades. The Kagune itself held a predominantly black colour scheme with a bit of red here and there, something Simon believed now to be a sign of Infernalisation.
As a Koukaku the Kagune took the form of a pair of black Tendrils shaped seemingly out of many plates of both flesh and metal. Their tips were shaped from greyish metal plates in the form of canine-shaped heads adorned with maws filled with dagger-like teeth, and horns protruding out their heads pointing forwards. They each had glowing crimson eyes and hollow red interiors like they were the pits of hell themselves. It didn't help that they had these small arms that ended in sharpened, v-shaped blades on their outer sides.
That Kagune was also getting rapidly close to him like its owner thanks to her leaping at him. The right one got reared back before lunging down at him from above forcing Simon to jump to the side, flipping over the second one coming in for a wide sweeping motion. 'Looks like she hasn't lost her touch this one...!' he realised, landing on all fours as he hurriedly released his Bikaku.
"Now hold on just a minute here-!"
"Shut it Demon, and feed my hunger already!"
When Simon tried to say something to the woman, Diana forcefully shut him up by attacking once more. This time her hounds struck like long whips by having their Tendril parts extend further for additional range, swinging their makeshift blades at him to try and cut Simon's head off. The male promptly responded by dashing forth and leaping into the air right when they passed under him, stabbing the ground with 3 of his Tails to allow for the rest to launch their lashings onto the woman below him.
'...?! This is...!'
Growls as animalistic as a canine ripped from her furious eyes as she had her Hounds retract back to her side before they started raising their blades to block and parry Simon's swings, the sounds of metal clashing against metal filling the air for a bit until she saw the Tails open themselves like flowers, revealing their many maws before they lunged down at her.
BOOM!
A large explosion rocked the vicinity when the Tails hit their mark, the rest of them bending to lower Simon to the ground with the male landing in a crouch. He quickly got back to his feet and manifested his Koukaku, forming a shield with his right one and the left becoming a large claw. He knew for a FACT that wouldn't be enough to keep that woman down, he knew her far too well.
Someone christened by the codename CANINE, as well as having earned the title 'Hellhound' from her peers in the Black Hand didn't go down with just a few taps.
Soon enough he found himself vindicated, but not in the way he expected.
"Guh!"
STAB!
From the ground beneath his feet, a pair of long blades burst out and cut right into his hips, scraping muscle and bone clean off him as the blades held on tight like he were between a pair of scissors. The hounds they were attached to soon rose out from the ground like someone rising from a pile of boxes, their gleaming eyes blazing with bloodlust that was mirrored by their owner. If he didn't do something he'd be victimized by the most potent ability this woman had, and he could see signs of it already coming into effect when he saw the saliva on those things maws.
'Aw hell no!'
Immediately Simon countered by bashing the left hound's face with enough force to knock it back, freeing him so he could wrap the other in his Bikaku and tug backwards, both freeing the other blade from his body and also yanking Diana out of the dust cloud she'd been using to hide herself. She had been expecting this though cause she dismissed the Hound that had been shield bashed before to resummon it back to her side and reared back for a swing.
"Die motherf*cking Demon!"
"I'm no demon, it's me Simon you moron!"
"Aw hell no, you are NOT impersonating him again! I ain't falling for your sh*t takes on them!"
'Ugh, looks like she truly won't see that it's me...' Simon thought, wincing at both the annoyance of having to deal with Diana when her temper flared, and at the signs he was just now noticing about her current mental state's origins. He had noticed how her dress had fluttered showing a series of scars adorning her once stainless flesh, scars which varied in depth and savage appearance. The dress had hidden them well, but it would seem that she had gone through a LOT in the inferno up to this point and based on the sense of fear and despair he was sensing behind her rage it must have f*cked her over mentally.
More than that, he had quickly noticed something about her Kagune too, and that was that it was incredibly... weak. The Diana he knew would have cut him in half if they had been fighting, she had no qualms with such injuries as back then while his regeneration left room for improvement he nevertheless never let it get that bad in the first place. Had she been malnourished too? The thought made him wince and curse the Demons alongside their dark master all the more, to a Ghoul their hunger is sheer agony. Depraving them of food would chip away at their sanity...
Now that he thought about it, it seemed pretty obvious Lucifer would pull such sh*t.
Looked like he had to beat her back to her senses, then.
Instead of deflecting the blow with his shield, Simon parried the blade with his claw before bashing Diana in the face with his shield, his Bikaku leaping into action when she stumbled backwards off balance. His Bikaku then quickly snapped forwards like uncoiling ropes, slicing off her Kagune (which further cemented his idea of her being starving) and then promptly bound her arms and legs, holding her like an X in the air before him.
The sight of her like this, her mind seemingly being reduced to a rambling mess as she hurled profanity and insults galore into seemingly the air itself like a mad woman, made Simon curse himself inside. He was essentially doing the same as what the Demons had done, and that made him feel like an utter asshole when he remembered where he had found her in. How much of a hypocrite was he if he claimed to be any better than Lucifer when they once more met?
But Simon pushed on, shaking his head vowing to free her once he made her understand that it was him.
"It's me you dumbass! You're not running from this beating bitch!"
"f*ck you-f*ck you-f*ck you-f*ck you-f*ck you-f*ck you-f*ck you-f*ck you-fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck yoooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"
This wasn't getting them anywhere and he could sense her state deteriorating fast. She couldn't summon her Kagune anymore it seemed but her Kakugan betrayed all the madness currently plaguing her starved mind. This was what it was like for normal Ghouls who went hungry, his mom had been like this a few times when he'd been a child but his dad had been there for her, to keep her from slipping and sating the voracious appetite she had. He'd seen it a few times outside the family, but never this bad, even against his Bikaku Simon could feel her being about to tear her ankles and wrists off to get to him, blood already starting to splatter forth from those areas.
In essence, there was only one thing that could solve this.
"Ugh, this is pointless, have a snickers bitch!"
"FU-MMMPH!"
Simon didn't waste any time in slicing off his shield arm with his claw from the forearm down. Even as deranged as she was the sight still sent Diana into a state of shock, but that soon intensified when the male just shoved the tip right into her mouth, really ramming it in there so hard that she reared back against his Bikaku restraints. Seeing that it was too big for her to fit in her mouth didn't faze the male, since he saw how she instinctively chomped down on the kagune which shot her Kakugan eyes wide open...
Before she went to town on the male's severed limb.
"NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM!"
The moment she first tasted the Koukaku's tip on her tongue and her senses identified the foreign intruder as something she could eat, any semblance of control over her instincts got shattered as she began digging into the Koukaku, chomping and swallowing like she was wolfing down a large stake in the messiest manner he had ever seen. Though Ghouls as savage as her didn't give any sh*t about manners or decorum when their hungry, something he had seen enough times to understand and not blame them for.
There's a reason why he mentioned a Snickers earlier, Diana wasn't herself when she was hungry.
As she continued eating the limb, Simon felt his severed stump start growing a new arm, a further sign that his regeneration had been augmented since by the time Diana had eaten half of what had been put in, his Koukaku claw keeping it in place, his arm had regenerated the same amount. If anything it seemed like it was healing a bit faster than her ravaging of his former limb, clothes and all. Simon wondered if she'd get indigestion from his clothes, but seeing as how his clothes fixed themselves alongside his arm he figured that its demonic properties might be good seasoning. He might have to try that himself some time.
None of that mattered right now though, cause as the male watched her feed Diana's form started struggling less as her eyes started regaining a sense of clarity to them. Now that her hunger was being sated with a BUNCH of powerful cells from his body (tooting his own horn here, he knew but just didn't care (hey, he had a right to be arrogant with everything he'd pulled off, sue him!)), Simon could see that the woman was slowly beginning to eat more rationally, still eating but the sight of her recovering body with how her wrists and ankles were repairing themselves was a welcome one to see.
Considering how rare welcome sights were here, Simon would take what he could get.
At long last, Diana finished off the last spec of his arm and licked her bloody lips as if to try and continue relishing the taste of her meal with a content hum leaving her lips alongside a matching exhale. Her eyes, closed as they were, sported none of the veins that signified the Kakugan's activation which he took as a good sign.
So good in fact, that he decided to take a risk and lowered Diana to the ground, untangling his Bikaku from her and keeping it reared back behind him. Their tips remained posed to strike naturally, perhaps it was due to his stay in this hellhole but Simon didn't want to risk getting jumped right now. "You feeling yourself now, moron?" he questioned slowly, an amused smirk returning to his face as he pocketed his hands inside his crimson coat.
In that moment Diana opened her now human-looking green eyes, taking a deep breath before settling her gaze upon him. Simon briefly tensed when he thought she would strike him down once more, but she instead just stared at him with stunned disbelief, no shock would be the better word to use here like she lost her higher brain functions once more just from looking at him. There was no hostility in her eyes though, which he found personally relatable right now, he'd seen that look in himself...
When he met up with one of the biggest bros he had ever known after years of thinking that impossible.
"... It's you, isn't it you little lizard?"
Brow twitching despite the smirk on his lips, Simon nodded his head in confirmation. "The one and only, bitch in heat." he snorted back, reaching into his shirt's collar and pulling out his necklace with its shape all but confirming it for her.
Then like a puppet cut from its strings, Diana slumped her shoulders and fell onto her knees like one did when the law came. Simon immediately kneeled before her with a quickness one only expressed in emergencies as Diana heaved yet another exhausted sigh, choking a bit as she grimaced at the same time. "D-Damnit... never thought I'd s-see...a familiar face... I d-d-didn't want to punch..." she muttered, and judging from the tone it was clear she was trying not to sob like a little bitch.
He couldn't blame her though, she had her pride... which was why he didn't give that much thought in favor of putting a hand on his knee. "Yeah well, I didn't expect to see a firecracker like you down in this hellhole. But hey, at least this place's full of assholes whose faces need to meet your fists, eh?" he remarked, chuckling a bit to try and brighten her spirits. She had been proving with he actions just how much she had gone through.
"Heh... that's true..." Diana commented in a hoarse voice as her throat tightened inside of her. She didn't break completely though, taking several shaky breaths and quietening her breathing. She repeated these tasks in tandem till she had regained a moderate amount of her prior composure. From there she lifted her head to face him with a sheepish look crossing on her face when she remembered what had happened earlier. "... sorry for almost snapping your neck. Guess I went a bit crazy there." she apologized, awkwardly rubbing the back of her head.
"I'll say, you nearly botched this beautiful mug of mine!"
"Heh, the yearly male beauty contests you entered and came dead last in beg to differ."
Simon had the decency to look appalled at the insinuation that he was anything less than sad. "Slanderous, woman! I have impeccable pride in my looks!" he bellowed with a haughty laugh, standing up with his hands on his hips in a classic superhero pose. This didn't last long though as he remembered his fight with Lorrence... and the physical reminder of it on his face, his right hand's fingertips being placed on the wrinkly flesh. "Well, I did anyways..."
For a moment Diana blinked in confusion as to why the kid she remembered introducing her to her future hubby (she just LOVED their first time together, if she had her way he and she would be screwing like rabbits forever - hey that rhymed!) sounded as tired as she had just now. But then she took a closer look at him and immediately noticed the changes to his person... the biggest being the horrific burn scarring half his face. "...Holy sh*t you look like you've been through the ringer."
Yeah he did, didn't he? Simon chuckled, though this one proved weaker than the last few he did before he fell onto his ass, Bikaku steadying him before he finally dismissed it. He wasn't gonna be struck anytime soon, his instincts told him. "Story of my life recently... though speaking of stories..." he began, cutting her off when she tried asking him something based on how she opened her mouth. "How the hell did you get down here? Demons are all over the place."
He of course wasn't going to tell her what HE knew of her death just yet, cause while he knew the result he had not seen the finer details... he also wasn't sure how much she knew about who killed her. He could imagine her reaction...
It'd be the same as his.
"... Well it wasn't easy," Diana responded after some silence. Her eyes told him that she had been torn about both telling the story as well as the suspicions she had about him, which he knew he had to confront but didn't want to do that just yet. Not now anyways. "Vision went back when I got shanked by something, don't remember what." she began nonetheless, reflexively reaching for her back. "Think in the spine and neck at the same time, so probably by two people. Next thing I know I wake up chained, in this HORRID excuse for a dress... and I'm being judged by this furry ass-looking motherf*cker."
'Oh yea...' Simon thought, recalling that wolf monstrosity in which he got his first taste of a Sovereign whooping his ass. Ah, how times were more simple back then... damn, that sounded like an old man talking there.
Unaware of his thoughts, Diana continued while getting up to her feet and stretching her arms above her head. "It said Gluttony, I felt pain and the next thing I know I'm in this pile of mud and sh*t about to be eaten by this worm motherf*cker. But you know me, I'm not the type to submit, I make others submit."
At this, Simon just had to chuckle while making the following comment uncaring for his safety. "Oh that I know, those bruises on Aabid's neck that looked strangely like hickeys and fingernails speak volumes." Just like he thought, she glared at him for that one but the way she blushed indicated embarrassment rather than rage.
"f*ck you, Aabid liked it since he's a bit of a bottom," she stated, smirking at how Simon nearly gagged at the thoughts that her words invoked in his mind about his friend. No amount of brain bleach would be enough to EVER rid him of those cursed images. "And I know you liked it When Mrs Hana was all bouncing up and down on your pole. I heard yea, I took a break from the festivities on the second floor."
...sh*t, he hoped nobody else found out about that, but he guessed it didn't matter now that she was gone. The mention of his teacher still sent pangs of pain through his chest, but for now, he felt like he was starting to get used to it. He didn't know how to feel about that one honestly.
Diana then shook her head to get herself back on track, hanging out with her two favourite boys usually brought out this snarky competitive side in her and she loved it. It was a welcome change from being a source of fear by her peers, especially the weak-ass females, seriously they called themselves women but they held none of the feminine pride that one should have. "In any case, sex aside I devoured that worm before it could eat me, then ate a bunch of assholes to escape. Heard some fighting in the distance so I sneaked past it and managed to get myself there. Found the one who ran this damn cesspit a short while ago... I think, I dunno time practically doesn't exist in this place. I do remember getting my ass handed to me though, and the next thing I know I'm on that cross... you can guess the rest yourself."
On that he could agree with her, having just survived being potentially turned into a meal by this hungry Ghoul.
Simon would have said something had it not been for the dry look he got from the girl before him who crossed her arms beneath her chest. "Yeah... and while we're on this topic? You used a dead meme like the Snickers commercial?" she remarked in exasperation, exhaling audibly.
"Heh, good memes never die. Just look at the Minion or Pokemon memes."
"Hmph, at least you didn't leave the stove on right?"
"Who do you think I am, your dad? You remember the great bonfire incident don't you?"
At this Diana just glared heatedly at him like she had seen him break her favourite toy. "Don't you dare bring that up, mister! I couldn't look at my dad the same for weeks afterwards, and mom became a Demon for the next month after that crap!" she bellowed, only to get snickers of amusem*nt from the hybrid.
There had been an incident when she had wanted to show her man how well she could cook for him in a fit of wanting to be more... feminine, the word utterly disgusting to her. Not as much as when it considered her boyfriend though strangely enough, but anyway she'd tried to cook something she remembered her mom had been cooking for her for years... she may or may not have nearly set their house on fire for that one.
The woman snorted to herself, Simon could only get away with this stuff cause of his strength and the fact he just whooped her ass.
She'd get her payback, of that she felt certain.
But first, she wanted to ask some questions of her own to do with the male and she was not going to let him off the hook till she got them either. "So what about you? What's your story, how the hell did you get down here of all places?" she questioned, looking at him with a look that said no BS, otherwise She would strike him once more and this time she had her senses to working order so it'd hurt a LOT more.
For a moment Simon debated on what to say because where the f*ck could he even BEGIN? For one there'd been a sh*t load of things that came to light post the Severing that she had never been made aware of, especially the specifics behind her demise. Simon even now burned with righteous fury at the mention of THAT particular part of the atrocity, cause it had played a crucial part in twisting him into the monster he became near the end of the Jones Crusade.
But that part was also the most important due to its connection to her... so how the hell could he tell her?
"...Well honestly a lot of things went down in the few years that followed your... demise." Simon began with a wince, stiffening as he looked to the side and rubbed the back of his head, a conflicted look on his face and a snarl leaving his lips. Each word felt so foreign to him, so alien, as they left his vocal cords and shot through the air as sound waves. "I don't even know where to start. I think... this might be the first time someone's asked me that in years," he admitted, becoming stunned with himself too.
Holy... that was honestly more truthful than he had ever thought possible. He couldn't recall the last time someone asked him his side of the story throughout the entire Crusade he went on, only seeing him as a terrorist that put Osama Bin Laden on the side like he were an unruly child. Not even his bro had asked, cause he had taken the initiative to explain what had happened which he'd been initially conflicted about involving him. Shock didn't even begin to describe the emotions welling up inside his chest at this revelation that he had to thank Diana for bringing to his attention.
Watching him react like this, Diana gaped at him having lost control over her jaw at the downright BAFFLING sight present before her. Who the hell was this? Was this the same Simon she knew? The guy who made other gangs sh*t their pants with his presence on the battlefield? The guy that gave her the best thing she had ever gotten in the form of a boyfriend she'd intended to stay with till old age took them down? She had known this guy for a good few years as one of their gang's better enforcers and someone who took no sh*t from anyone, someone who had a prominent level of respect from the majority of the Ghoul community with a whole line of them wanting to run the fade with the dude.
Yet none of this could be seen from the male before her. His eyes once brimming with life now seemed darkened with malice, his flames now twisted and his scent now hardly any different from the Demons. Based on that exchange they had she could tell he had been going through a lot since it was nothing like what she remembered. Part of her wondered just how much had changed, and though she'd take it to her... uh... second grave she felt scared of the answer. She got the feeling she would be opening Pandora's box if she tried to inquire into it, and as much as she wanted to stop being a little bitch about it and ask she glanced to the side and narrowed her eyes, a spark of anger igniting inside her chest into a chaotic bonfire. "Yeah well, we can talk later. Right now some ass needs whooping," she stated, gesturing forth.
Following her gesture and tracing the woman's line of sight visually, Simon narrowed his eyes when he saw what looked like the remains of a European tower in the distance, shrouded by branches and other forms of wilderness.
Yet the moment he saw it Simon found himself getting an indescribable yet familiar feeling from it. Pondering it made Simon think of ALUCARD and the prior sovereigns, which clued him in on something that surprised him inside. "You're kidding me... is that...?" he wondered, trailing off before glancing at the woman beside him.
Diana nodded, confirming his thoughts through both her actions and the words that followed. "Yeah that's the Lair of this place's top dog, quickly found that out the hard way. A real asshole, I'll tell you, dude's made that tower seem like nothing at first glance but it's a real bitch to navigate. One moment you in a forest the next you in a warzone like you trying to survive against warriors more ancient than the boss was." she explained, growling to herself at the phantom pains from the worst beating she'd been dealt in her life like the thing had some kind of grudge against her. "Tried challenging that thing myself, but... well, this is the result." She admitted, grumbling in annoyance as she glared up at the spot where she had once been imprisoned...
She didn't need to say more.
Simon glowered at the tower at that one, bristling while feeling his inner Ghoul fuming at the disrespect shown to his companion. So, the Sovereign of Anger was there then huh? Surprised he had managed to find the bastard so soon, but no way was he going to miss this opportunity. By what he had heard from Diana, it would seem this Sovereign had turned the tower into some kind of gauntlet arena with some reality-warping BS. That's the only reason that could explain how her first run thought it could have kicked her ass so thoroughly.
None of that bothered him though, none of this changed his response to such sh*tty treatment. The thought that he was responsible for doing his companion dirty like this already guaranteed that he would be throwing hands with this bitch, he'd be looking forward to ripping out his spine and impaling him with it. He wasn't sure if this was a male Sovereign since Hana was a thing, but he had a feeling it was.
His fangs were rated E for everyone, man or woman, child or senior citizen, he'd be beating the sh*t outta their ass.
Taking a moment to compose himself, Simon stared back at Diana who responded in kind, a small silence soon enveloping the atmosphere around them. "...Wanna go together to get the get back?" A quick question got thrown out...
"f*ck yes!"
...And an equally quick if excited response was what he got. "Welcome aboard."
(Scene Change)
In the following minutes that passed since their journey together began, several things became apparent to the half-ghoul.
The first thing was that he had seen his new companion showing a LOT of anger to the demons that appeared to bar their path, the woman turning into a mix of a crazed serial killer and a downright sad*stic torturer who slaughtered them in ways that made even he wince in slight sympathy for. He was one of the ghouls who razed an entire city order to the dust. She'd use her Kagune to isolate her foes from their comrades then leap on them and rip them apart like a wild animal. She'd use their weapons or dismembered, rapidly disintegrated parts as tools to shred her opponents to bits. Aside from beating Demons with what may or not have been their family members, she'd perform kills in such gory manners that the whole nickname of hers was done prouder than an aisan-in-law discovering their child's spouse made six-figure sums.
Simon had NO idea what his bro saw in her.
The second thing was the greater volume of Demons that came to attack them like they didn't even get a chance to take a few steps forward before the next demon wave attacked them. They came from the ground, the skies above the forest and the various wilderness around them like they were trying to mob rush the duo. Nonetheless, Simon had never seen so many Demons rushing at them from all directions before, not to mention that they had all been Demons that he had fought before which made dealing with them easier, but the fact remained that they relied on rush tactics when they previously relied more on group ambushes like in-game enemies spawning around the player character when they're close enough. The fact they were capable of using tactics wasn't that unnerving, especially since Diana kept pulverizing them alongside him, but it remained noteworthy nonetheless.
Still gave him the chance to work on those debuffing and buffing spells he got from his internalization though, which was the third thing he had noticed. Simon had gotten the chance to try out the majority of the spells that he had found he could use for the majority of the circles he visited. There were those that he could use from the circles yet to come, too, but he wanted to save those for when he mastered the ones before them. Didn't mean he didn't use them on occasion, though he kept them rare due to wanting to master the ones up to the current circle first.
Each spell worked as follows:
1. [Limbo] puts enemies to sleep or heightens Simon's senses as well as boosting his mental faculties. A side effect is that the spell's usage overwhelmed his mind with the need for sleep as well, so depending on how much he used it or how often he might fall victim to its effects after usage.
2. [Lust] debuffs enemies by making them want to screw one another distracting them, and heals Simon or any allies. He did NOT like using this one near Diana though because of the side effect, since it acted like an aphrodisiac and made him want to screw something senseless. Nonetheless, he never fell to those urges, he refused to dishonour his bro Aabid that way. He had already hurt him too much by dying for his revenge against those corrupt asshats.
3. [Gluttony] reduces enemies' intelligence to a primitive level, while it can also transfer slain enemies' innards and fluids to him as energy, empowering Simon. Aside from the second part relied on physical contact to work as with how his Kagune had been touching those Demons when the spell was activated, Simon attributed this one's side effect to his Ghoul side's eternal hunger for flesh, trying to reduce him to a starved state of mind much like what happened to Diana.
4. [Greed] is magnetism, it pulls or pushes enemies away from Simon who later learns to apply it to separate spaces like between two walls. Now THIS one was a REAL bitch to handle, cause it made him want to try and take everything that he wanted to take for himself. It made him want to forsake his code of conduct and just take Diana as his own which, while similar to the [Lust] spell, there were differences.
5. [Anger] shows Simon combat data about his enemies and how to defeat them, whereas it can also redirect physical attacks to where he pleases. This one heightened his aggression to near-kakuja levels to the point where Simon could sometimes struggle to tell Diana apart from the other Demons around them.
Those were the ones he was close to mastering right now, and alongside their usage, they had various side effects based on what sin they responded to. He already had experienced a few of them himself like the [Limbo] spell, which was another reason behind his lack of using the others. Speaking of others, they were as follows:
1. [Heresy] is poison in that it can poison enemies through physical contact, or it can act as an antidote for Simon if he gets poisoned.
2. [Violence] depowers enemies and empowers Simon, the amount depending on how long a fight has lasted.
3. [Fraud] can hypnotise enemies into seeing their ideal fantasies, or Simon can conjure physical illusions that he can use to distract foes.
4. [Treachery] forcefully rewrites the enemy's mind to turn them into followers of Simon's will, empowering them till they have half of Simon's total physical ability.
Unlike the first five, Simon wasn't sure of their effects since he didn't use them too much, but he DID feel some changes negatively happen to his mental state when using them. Thus he would need to further study them on his own time... just like that blood and hellfire sh*t he can do now which had also seen increased usage throughout the battle... though it did spook poor Diana seeing replicas of herself made from blood that attacked their enemies alongside her.
Nearly made her strangle Simon for such conduct, not helped by what she learned about Infernalisation and the powers he got from it. As much as she valued his honesty about such things, she did NOT appreciate the side effects certain spells had on him. Ideally, she wanted him to never use those spells again or at least not in her presence (which if what she feared came to pass it wouldn't be long before that happened anyway), but reality wasn't so kind.
It's why they're both down here.
Despite the setbacks they both faced, however, both of them managed to reach the tower they desperately wanted to reach, more specifically they found themselves slightly beneath its main entrance. Skidding to a halt, Simon raised his head to gaze up at the ruined-looking place whilst casting his gaze into their surroundings. "Huh... so this is it, then..." he mused, thoughtfully.
Despite his prior fury, the male noticed certain features and feelings he was getting from this tower were stronger than when he was further away. Simon could feel this otherworldly sense about it like he was standing on the edge of a cliff overlooking this great, vast ocean. This coincided with what he hadn't truly noticed until after the encounter with the prior Sovereigns, meaning that despite its appearances this WAS a Sovereign's lair. The thought made him grin inside as malicious intent started swelling inside his gut, his inner ghoul laughing eagerly at the prospect of more violence.
"Yup, this is it." Diana, who stopped beside him, stated while looking around warily, looking for any signs of traps that the enemy may have set up since her last 'visit' to this place. She did not want to take any chances after what had happened before, no sane Ghoul would wanna go through the hell that she did. "f*cker's atop this, but I dunno how but he makes it look even bigger than it is. It may look like this now but once you enter, it becomes something else entirely, like we're teleported to some far-off land."
Oh, now that made sense to the male. "That's probably some kind of reality warping." Simon said, drawing a 'how the hell do u know that?' kind of gaze from the Ghoul next to him. "Seen it a few times now, when Demons tried ambushing me on the deeper circles and then the prior Sovereigns I've killed. The difference is Sovereigns seem to be doing it better than their grunts and lackeys cause the latter can't replicate the environments nearly as well as them," he explained, wincing at the probing look she aimed at him.
He just KNEW she was going to demand an explanation when this was all over. He just didn't know if he would be able to explain it... not to mention the likely beating she was going to give him once she learned everything that had happened.
"...Well, in any case, we won't be strangers to it at least." After a moment of tense silence, Diana finally relented from the questions on the tip of her tongue and shifted her gaze towards the tower. She would get those answers later, right now there are greater priorities to deal with. "Once we go in, all hell's gonna break loose... whatever happens, this whole sh*t's going down in flames." she declared, growling as she leapt into the air and manifested her Kagune. Her Kakugan eyes bore no small amounts of malice as she slammed both heads into the wall in front of her and used their blades as climbing gear to scale the rest of the way up.
Simon soon followed suit after manifesting his Bikaku and slamming them into the ground, propelling him into the air. Just as she scaled the wall to reach the bottom of the tower's destroyed wall serving as a makeshift entrance, the male landed next to her with his Kagune dispersing into nothingness, hers doing the same as he drew Metentis from his back.
'Alright, now let's see what...'
BA-BUMP!
"Guh!"
All of a sudden a pulse ran through his body as his mind started screaming at him, forcing Simon to stumble about right as the area surrounding them turned into a distorted, swaying mess. Diana, having prepared herself for this, used her Kagune again to impale the ground as an anchor to keep herself from keeling over, while the male himself impaled the same ground with Metentis' rear end.
Yet all the while, he found himself entering yet another flashback against his will.
(Scene Change)
"YOU!"
A lone black figure ran up to a white figure, both of them having their features distorted by some kind of mosaic. But their voices seemed eerily familiar to his ears.
"Huh? Oh, your-"
"YOU f*ckING THIEF!"
Immediately the blackened figure leapt at the whitened one, several extensions breaking out of his back to try and skewer the whitened figure who barely rolled out of the way. It didn't help though cause he got pinned to the ground when the blackened figure rammed into him knocking the air out of his lungs.
"Wait, wh-what the f*ck are you on about?! I stole nothing you ass, I bet my right hand on it!"
The whitened man didn't like the fact he was being accused of stealing something when he had never done so, he'd been taught well what that would mean to his people and culture. He did NOT want to lose anything valuable like his right hand.
The blackened man wasn't having any of it though, having stabbed those extensions into the ground and pinned the boy's wrists in place.
"HAH, FAT CHANCE I'D TAKE YOUR LIFE FOR SUCH A SIN! YOU RAT-FACED, BITCHY-ASS nigg*! YOUR PRESENCE NEAR HER IS A SIN, SHE'S MINE! MINE-MINE-MINE!"
At this point, the blackened man reached into one of the extensions next to him and pulled something out, something shaped like a dagger. The sight of it caused the whitened figure to tense up which caused a downright deranged grin to spread across the blackened man's face.
That is...
"OI, WHAT THE f*ck ARE YOU DOING?!"
WHAM!
(Scene Change)
"Oi, Simon! Get a grip ya f*cking lunatic!"
Simon gasped as his headache-inducing flashback snapped out of existence and his sense of self returned to the real world. Once more that had happened, he was beginning to grow suspicious about Metentis now, but more than that he didn't have the time to ponder the implications of this flashback in particular. Simon knew this from the moment his gaze frantically shot around to get a grip of his surroundings... finding NOTHING of the same watchtower that had been there before.
Instead, the boy found himself standing alongside Diana in the midst of what he could only describe as a grand coliseum, much like what ancient Romans would have built for their gladiator matches. The arena had a cylindrical form he could sense, with the ground beneath them being made from sand itself whilst the walls surrounding the arena were made from stone. Up above, instead of the cloudy black skies that he had grown used to, Simon saw nothing but a storm like those that would take place in a desert, kicking up dust clouds that encircled the place like a makeshift cage.
No... it WAS some kind of cage. The maker wanted to trap them in this wolf den...
Behind those walls were stands filled to the brim with werewolf-like Demons, much like the ones that the male had fought against before when he entered the circle of Greed, each one howling and roaring like football fans seeing their favourite teams going head to head. If they had clothes he bet they would have torn them off to expose graffiti shaped like their team's emblems or something. Nonetheless, their deafening cries filled the arena so much that Simon could hardly hear himself think let alone that of his companion Diana whose features suggested her clear irritation with everything.
"No need to describe yourself, ya lunatic!"
"Oh suck a dick!"
"I believe that's your job with Aabid, honey!"
"Oh, why I outta...!"
Giving the now smirking Simon the middle finger, a red-faced Diana made to stomp on over to the red-tipped male a piece of her mind. One she knew the bastard wouldn't just take willy-nilly unlike her stud of a boyfriend she loved dominating in the bedroom...
"BEHOLD!"
Only for them to be interrupted by a loud, inhuman and gluttora voice echoing throughout the atmosphere and overwhelming the hollars from the other demons with just the might of it alone. Both Ghouls widened their eyes, Kakugans forming out of reflex as they turned to the source, their forms as tense as a pressured spring as they tried to discern where it had come from. The minute they had heard that voice, their very INSTINCTS screamed to cut the BS and focus on the more immediate threat to their lives, a strong sense of danger much unlike that of any average Demon they'd faced thus far... and every Ghoul followed their instincts.
Soon enough their eyes laid their gaze on the source of their instincts' warnings, a single entity standing atop a throne made of skulls and skeletons, many of them human and others not so much. The entity in question stood at nearly 8 feet tall, towering over the other werewolves with ease while sporting a frame rivalling some of the world's best bodybuilders. Fur coated its arms, legs and around its head behind its snout, with the arms ending in long claws alongside the feet. Instead of 2 arms, however, four protruded out of the beast's shoulders whilst two stunted-looking wing protrusions could be seen behind its back. Two glowing orange eyes with pupils as slitted as crescent blades, bore down on the two of them like a hungry lion about to feast on a helpless deer.
Neither of them ignored the large scythe leaning on a pillar next to him, made from bones and skulls with a long metallic blade.
"That's... a big doggie," Diana stated bluntly, and Simon had to suppress his urge to call it her cousin. She promptly glared at him as if she could read his mind like any woman could read her man's thoughts.
"OBSERVE CLOSELY, THESE MORTALS! DO NOT BE DECEIVED BY THEIR APPEARANCE, THEY ARE PROVEN WARRIORS! ONE-HALF FOOT IN THE LAKES OF MADNESS, READY TO BE SWIPED DOWN THE ANULLS OF INSANITY AT A MOMENT'S NOTICE! ANOTHER MORE AKIN TO US THAN THEIR SPECIES!"
The entity bellowed these words out and the Demonic werewolves, who had already been loudly roaring before, now seemed to cheer even louder if that was even possible. The thought of seeing bonafide warriors seemed to invigorate these Demons, it seemed. Simon and Diana took note of this as they tried to find a way out with their eyes, only to come up short. There had been no entrances, and there were no exits.
Immediately Simon felt a punch to his gut in a metaphorical sense when he heard all this, it just now clicked to him what this was all along: a show. This demon had a showman's mentality to hype up the crowd to generate excitement. This had never happened before in the Inferno, he'd only seen Demons wanting to just straight up murder him, this was the first time they were making a show out of it. Plus if this was a show then other Circles had to be watching, which includes other Sovereigns... and perhaps Lucifer himself.
Simon did NOT like that possibility.
"DO YOU SEEK THEIR DEMISE? WHO DO YOU WISH TO SEE DESTROY THEM?!"
UUUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Once more the beasti*al entity made a mighty bellow directed at the wolf crowd which went wild once more, their gazes pointing directly at the entity itself. At this point, seeing how the entity drunk in the attention like it was a drug, Simon and Diana could tell how this was going to end as they glanced at one another, a conversation soon taking place with just their eyes alone.
Simon: I'm the vanguard, you're the assassin?
Diana: Sure.
Simon: ... Alright then.
It just went to show how close fellow warriors could be after having survived so many life-or-death battles alongside one another. As much as the two liked to bicker and banter like they were at one another's throats all the time, something Aabid fretted over quite a bit in the initial stages of their relationship, when the going got tough the two of them got tougher. There was a reason why they were seen by other gangs as a new generation of menaces to Ghoul and humans alike. It's just that now they had a new opponent, a new piece of meat to sample, and they would be itching to do just that.
Today, this moment specifically, would be no different.
"YES! I, VOLF, MASTER OF STORMS...!"
The entity which called itself Volf, howled as it slowly reached for the scythe leaning against the pillar next to its throne, grasping its shaft by gingerly feeling it within his lower right claw. From there, it then proceeded to leap into the air and crash into the ground like a comet, creating a rumbling shockwave throughout the trembling arena that made their prior unified excited roars feel like mild sounds by comparison. Both Simon and Diana had to quickly steady themselves by widening their stances, the duo of Ghouls quickly releasing their full Kagune while deploying their weapons... the latter being more applicable to Simon due to Metentis.
"SHALL BE THE ONE TO GIVE THEM AN HOURABLE...DEATH!"
