The Ultimate Interdimensional War
Chapter 2: Return of Number 96
Date: September 19th, 2023
I use my best attack to deal a huge blow to the enemy forces although it was a struggle to since they were right in my face neatly the entire time. But still, it wiped out a good number in the end. But Naofumi didn't seem to notice. Raphtalia yells: "Naofumi! Don't do it!" "Master! Please don't become mean and scary!" "Kiddo, keep yourself calm!" "Mother, it's happening right before us.." "I know, Melty.. Shield Hero.. Naofumi! Dont give in to the darkness inside of you!" Alice shouts: "I sense an evil presence inside of him!" Sinon adds: "Our enemies despite how many were just wiped out are quickly advancing on us once again!" And then, Naofumi's eyes turn red as his body and outfit undergo a transformation. A demonic like transformation. "Go, Rage Shield! Destroy my enemies! Burn them to ashes!" The fiery power of that shield burns many approaching enemies to cinders as his body becomes more and more consumed by darkness. "Damn it! I can't let Artist's Eye go unused! I shall use it to wipe out so many enemies that Naofumi's anger will be easier to qwell once it's through! We can't let him fall under the darkness! His darkness isn't like mine. His is connected to a entity. Mine is just the unstable part of me when it alone is in control!" I use Artist's Eye to conjure a lot of explosives set to detonate. After I'm finished doing that, I'm forced to shut my left eye closed due to the strain. The explosives rain down on the enemies, having enough combined explosive power to even bring down several Ultimate Ancient Gear Golems. But my plan to use that in order to help calm Naofumi fails. His anger doesn't waver in the slightest. Raphtalia and Fill start hugging him despite the fact it burns them.
L'Arc yells: "Wish I could join in hugging Kiddo but this isn't the time. Many more of our enemies have been destroyed but the rest are coming quickly. This city has almost been wiped off the map from what I can see.." Glass does her best to blow them back but they just keep coming. Melty joins in on hugging Naofumi. "I activate the field spell Artistic Haven!" Our surroundings change around us into something beautiful and serene. I sigh: "My field spell won't last long but perhaps it's positive energy will help Naofumi remember beyond just his anger and hatred. I know how he feels. But like you said L'Arc, they're coming fast. Yes, I know who everyone here is. Let's worry about that later!" Seconds later, the flames around Naofumi vanish just as our enemies come at us. I get ready to cut any foes I can into pieces with my sword. Thrusting is inefficient in this situation. And there's not enough space and too many enemies to take 'em all out with a stab to the heart or power source. When they get wayyy too close, I pierce them with my sword and use them to knock their comrades down and as a meat or metal shield before finishing them off. I even put away my shield, trusting in the power of my restored armor. Therese shouts: "There's too many to fight separately! We need to coordinate our attacks and work as a team!" Kizuna nods: "Yeah but we need to ensure Naofumi and the others are okay first. Can anyone heal them?" I yell: "Some of my stuff can. Even the burns Melty, Raphtalia, and Filo sustained from hugging Naofumi. But I'll need to get to them first and our foes must be kept off of myself and the 4 of them." Sinon replies: "Don't worry about that. We'll take care of dealing with these enemies while you do that. You know, a bullet is deadly even at close range." Alice nods: "We shall hold them off for as long as we can!"
I get to work: "Air Break Slash! Out of my way, enemies! I gotta get to them and fast!" I slice and dice my way to the 4 who make up Naofumi's party including him of course. I get out some HP bananas and urgently yell: "Eat these bananas! They will heal you of all your injuries!" They for several reasons accept them without saying anything. As a result, they find themselves looking as good as new and feeling a lot better once they eat them. "No time for thanks! We have to work together with everyone as a large team. *resumes slicing the enemy* These enemies are easy to beat alone but there's so many that we'll eventually be overrun if they just keep coming like this with no sign of stopping anytime soon. I'll keep holding them off. You all should focus on planning a group formation based on what you know about all of us. I simply can't afford to strategize myself right now given all these enemies and the state of my left eye." Melty nods: "Don't worry! We'll figure this out! Just keep fighting!" "I shall do so! Haaaaaaaaa!" I focus on the battle in front of me. Enemies go down quickly. "I'm going to kill you! This world belongs to- Gaaaaaaaahhhhh!" "You won't be able to stop- Acccccckkkk!" "Why you-" "Once again, I'm forced to slay countless opponents. This is not what I wanted or signed up for when I was summoned to the Animal Crossing universe." I just keep going and going until Naofumi yells: "I have a plan!" Shouting over the battle, he goes over the formation he has in mind. Glass in the sky above us. Myself, Raphtalia, Rishia, Kirito, Alice, Hearts, and L'Arc in the front and sides. Kizuna, Elrasla, and Therese behind. Naofumi, Filo, and Sinon in the center. Naofumi promised to protect all of us with his shield whenever it was required. In her Filolial form, Filo is much bigger than any of us with mostly white fur and wings(with some pink here and there), her blue eyes, and a crown on her head signifying her status as Filolial Queen Fitoria's successor.
Our current enemies consist of ice androids, Obelisk Force, Sector Security, Barian fighters, the once scattered remains of Pmurt Nedib's forces, and Roget himself. With the formation in place, we cause our enemies to largely focus on the area that contains just us as the field spell I activated starts having its landscape get destroyed. But even as we more efficiently take them down, it becomes obvious that there still isn't any way for us to win as things are going now. "Damn it! If only I had more power.. Then I could protect everyone. But I won't lose myself to the darkness again today! I don't know where else battles for this world are being fought but I do know that we can't give up!" But then, the monsters from the Wave start decimating our foes from the opposite side of the battle to us. In time, Roget ends up getting frustrated again: "That's it! I have no choice! Since none of you will eliminate any of my enemies successfully, I will do it myself! I see you over there with your duel disk! Face me and be destroyed!" I yell back: "I accept your challenge but know this. It isn't going to end well for you!" The duel against Roget was intense but I was able to win. I would have written about it if it weren't for the fact I dislike writing duels and there's still so much to cover about what happened in Raphtalia's World. "Aaaaaa! Damn you! Damn you all! I'm not done yet! If I can't win fairly, then I will just have to do this! Go, Barian Battlemorph!" Roget activates a giant red Barian Sphere Field. All within its range end up floating around. The tyrant who tried to take over the Synchro Dimension grins as his form changes to that of a Barian humanoid snake.
"Now the fun can really begin! All of my pawns will now be made useful! Just you wait! All of you are going to be destroyed! And when you are, you will be reincarnated as Barian soldiers, loyal to Don Thousand!" Multiple Ultimate Ancient Gear Golems were among those sent into the sphere field with us. Hearts smirks: "You think a change in form is going to scare me?" I power up with my Ki: "I wouldn't underestimate him if I were you. Damn, fighting here is going to be interesting. The formation just isn't going to work here. And that's how it is." Roget smirks: "You have easily defeated almost every single member of Don Thousand's army you've each faced so far. But now, I'll just leave the surviving members to deal with Melromarc's remaining army as well as the Wave! Instead of facing them, you'll be facing me! But not just me! I activate Super Polymerization to fuse myself with every single creature that I have command over in this sphere field in order to make myself indestructible!" Roget fuses with ice androids, Ultimate Ancient Gear Golems, and more, becoming even more powerful as a result. I sweat heavily: "And here I thought Roget would be the easiest foe to get rid of.." We all start attacking him but our attacks have no effect on him. "Useless! You're all nothing to me! You're just pawns in a game far beyond your understanding! As someone who understands that game better than any of you, that means that you'll all be mine soon enough!" We had used our typical most common moves against him. Kirito and Alice start using Enhance Armament. Because Alice is from the Underworld and Kirito is his avatar right now, they've had no trouble doing that kind of stuff while I've had lots of trouble doing it since there's little reason for me to use my duel disk to transform into my own digital avatar. Our foe laughs: "Do you all honestly believe that you stand a chance against me now that I have reached this level of power?! Hahahahaha! It's so pitiful! I see now that I've been playing with the wrong kind of power now. It's far more satisfying to destroy your enemies yourself! I'll make sure to find and destroy that traitor Sergey once you're all finished!"
"We shall not let you get away with what you have planned! Release Recollection! Go, my flowers!" "Release Recollection! Go to hell!" "Face the full power of Hecate!" "Kiddo! Check this out! Spirit Scythe: Protection Break!" All of us join in. "I think I can do this one more time without any healing. Continuous Great Infernal Tornado Slash: 45! Haaaaaa! I better not start rotting away anytime soon!" "Let's go! Master! I'm doing it! High Quick!" Roget gasps as we actually do some damage to him. "This is impossible! No one should be able to damage me! I had everything set up perfectly to prevent this! No! How is this happening?" Elrasla smirks: "Looks like someone has not yet learned to never underestimate an opponent! Guess it's about time for you to learn!" But then, Roget grins maniacally: "Don't you realize it?! I was supposed to have been turned into a tree by-" He screams as Kirito's Night Sky Blade's true power starts turning him into a tree. Kirito pants: "I think that's it when it comes to Release Recollection for me for a while." In seconds, Roget finished being transformed into a tree, shattering the Barian Sphere Field around us. We fall to the ground but quickly recover in time to see Melromarc's army push back Don Thousand's army. However, something happens before we could join them. The tree that was Roget starts breaking apart, revealing a bloodied and drained Roget still transformed. In fact, the symbol of Barian appears on his forehead as Barian energy surrounds him. In the sky, a huge Barian crystal appears and he absorbs it. His wounds heal and he undergoes a transformation causing him to look even more terrifying. The villain grins as a portal opens, revealing more Sector Security on duel runners to join the battle. "I won't let any of you defeat me! I have learned my lesson from my past failures. Reiji Akaba kept me locked in an infinite loop sometime ago. I was lost in another dimension after I made a foolish mistake. But now, bear witness to the power granted to me by Don Thousand himself as his army destroys the Wave and Melromarc's army!"
There was nothing we could do. We were now constantly attacked by Barian energy blasts used by Roget. He didn't stop attacking for even just a moment. It was dire, we were helpless against what he was doing. 30 minutes passed of this. All of us were beaten to a pulp, on the brink of death except for me since I'm already dead. I manage to get back up: "You think you've won. You may be close to killing the others but you can't kill me. I'm dead already." "How is that possible?!" "Energy I collected is how. It's more complicated than that but if you want to defeat me like the others, you'll have to destroy not only my armor but my entire body as well! My armor is in okay shape right now." "YOU!" Roget starts relentlessly attacking me and does everything in his power to destroy me. I let out cries of agony but keep countering everything thrown my way as best as I can. "I won't let you win so easily! I hope my comrades will continue to live but right now, I can't help them. Because I have no choice but to stop you in your tracks alone! Get ready! I'm going to make a gamble! *eats HP banana* Because I have long mastered eating a hp banana very quickly, you can now take this! Continuous Great Infernal Tornado Slash: 150! This would kill me if I weren't dead already!" I feel my body tear apart on the inside as I unleash the deadly attack but wasn't ripped to shreds thankfully. I had cleverly led Roget away from the others to much of the area where the battle was going on earlier until we decimated so much of the enemy force. That meant I didn't have to hold anything back. The attack caught him off guard and ripped through part of him as well as the nearest portion of the foes he directly commands. His right arm falls right off and is destroyed. Roget is dying.
With my left hand, I activate Defusion to undo his fusion with some of the army. But even unfused, Roget is still dying. I use the opportunity to eat another hp banana before I use too much of the energy I need to prevent myself from rotting away just to heal myself instead(it turns out that for some reason, healing magic is working on my undead body as Bray was able to heal me previously). With me back to full health, I take down the individuals and machines that Roget fused with with ease. Even though my armor is severely damaged, I continue moving forward. I'm so lucky my closest friends will always make sure every lost piece of my armor is recovered someway somehow when it gets fixed. That's why I barely worry about what comes off of my armor when it's broken. Besides, when it's magically repaired, we don't necessarily need every broken off piece of it to fix it or any at all. The villain grunts and gets back up: "You think our fight is over? Well, let me prove you wrong!" Roget pulls out a vial of something. It looks blood red. "What the hell is that?" "It's your destruction and I'm drinking it!" He drinks it and immediately undergoes a transformation. I could feel divine energy radiating from him now as his transformation continued. My comrades were able to recover and get back into the fight in time to see this by standing right alongside me. "Damn it! How is Roget qualified to become a god in this way? I refuse to believe it. There's no way this is going to work out for him." We watch in horror as the transformation continues. In fact, it even manages to be completed. Roget smirks. However, he falls to the ground right after and what looks to be a battle between 2 sides happens in his body in front of us. He squirms and screams in agony. The rest of Don Thousand's forces start weakening nearby as Roget attempts to draw power from them in order to stabilize himself. However, it isn't long before he starts losing to whatever the other side is inside of his body. "Noooo! I came so close! So close! So close! I'm a god now! How is this happening?! Neo Domino City and all cities are easy to control now but something is inside of me and it's destroying me! Aaaaaaa!" His body starts brutally getting torn into pieces. Blood splatters everywhere as his screams continue.
Finally, he is reduced to a clump of mass. But the madness doesn't stop there. Don Thousand himself appears in the sky and extracts Roget's soul from the clump. He booms: "My army, continue to invade this world as planned. Roget failed and was killed by the very power he desired. He remains useful to me so I will resurrect him in time. Lay waste to this world and claim this dimension for the League of One Supreme World. My organization. Failure will not be tolerated from any of you. If you fail, you will be destroyed just like most of those who tried to prevent our takeover of the Fusion Dimension or the other half of the world the Barians reside in." He vanishes right before our eyes. Another Barian crystal of huge size appears. This time, it's energy flows into the remainder of our foes, granting them great strength. I curse under my breath: "Damn it! It just never ends, does it?! We'll have to push ourselves beyond our limits in every single battle of this Interdimensional War. We'll constantly have to risk everything to even just lay a scratch on Don Thousand's most loyal followers like Roget and Yappa Yappa. As things stand, so many lives are going to end up being destroyed across the multiverse!" We are soon surrounded by a large number of foes once again. This time, we couldn't even defeat a single one of them. Naofumi protects us with his shield but it wouldn't be long until he runs out of mana to sustain that protection. Raphtalia shouts: "Even though we're in formation again.. We have so little hope of winning this.." "Raphtalia! Don't give up! We just have to believe! There has to be a way to win this!" "You're right, Filo.." "Not even Graceful Protector can puncture just one of these foes. We'd have to combine all of our powers and abilities to have a shot at winning this. Melromarc's army is getting slaughtered out there. Hold on.. I've been barely using my mana. I forgot I could repair my armor. I cast Repair! *my armor is fixed* I can be all that a knight is supposed to be again. We must combine our moves and powers!"
"That's a plan! I don't know how much longer I can keep protecting all of you! Air Strike Shield!" "Kiddo! I have an idea. Using your shield as a conduit, we could combine everything we got into a single attack." "Now that sounds like a plan! You youngsters always impress me when you come up with good plans like what you just suggested!" "It's our only choice now. I must lead my troops to victory as soon as I can. I have been unable to get to them due to the ferocity of this battle. We must reach them as quickly as possible. Their morale can't be at a good level at this point." "I agree with you, mother! Naofumi! Allow us all to grant you our strength!" Melty puts all of her mana to water magic while Filo and Raphtalia use the fact that they're linked to Naofumi to directly transfer what they have to him in addition to unleashing their main attacks. I push myself as I unleash all that I can. The others join us in doing the same exact thing. I yell: "Naofumi! Absorb our attacks with the shield granted to you by defeating those Mirror Monsters I heard you defeated in the Infinityverse and putting a dropped material from them into your Legendary Shield! Quickly!" "Right! I am Naofumi Iwatani, Shield Hero, one of this world's 4 Cardinal Heroes! Friends and foe alike will feel our combined strength! For the future of this world, we will combine all of our power into one!" Naofumi's shield transforms into one no one had ever seen before. It was brimming with the power we had given him. He yells: "Go! Unity Shield!" The shield detaches from Naofumi, flies into the sky and unleashes an incredible burst of energy. Instantly, our remaining foes are completely destroyed. The area becomes quiet and several things become clear: that combination was more powerful than expected, the city is almost completely gone, we won the battle, and there's no more Wave monsters around.
The Queen starts walking towards the surviving members of her army. I find Chocolate hiding nearby: "It's okay, Chocolate. We won. For now. *I pet her* We really need to train you to become a fully fledged fighter. It's always sad when someone is unable to fight their best because they haven't gotten the training or equipment required to do so. Tell you what, if we have some time before I need you to come with me to another universe, I'll make damn sure you can learn to fight far more effectively somewhere. For now, we need to do some helping." She nods: "I understand. I thank you for your offer. Let's do that someday." "Good. Now come on, we can't leave the others hanging. They're all exhausted. I am too. We won but the price was heavy." I mount Chocolate and we head to the others. Similarly, Filo lets pretty much everyone else ride her around as she still has plenty of energy left. Naofumi sighs: "The city.. There's almost nothing left.. Where are the innocent people? Are they okay?" The Queen returns on horseback to us with the remainder of her army closely following behind: "Shield Hero and friends. Im at a loss of what to do. I do not know where any of the innocent people are. Nor does anyone else. It can't be true.. We lost all of them.." "Mother. I wouldn't lose hope just yet. We haven't even started looking for them yet, have we? After the enemy retreated last night, we were able to save and evacuate a lot of people. But now that where they all were has been destroyed, who knows where they are now?" "You're right. We must look for them." I speak: "Hold on. I can sense Ki aka life energy. Just allow me to concentrate. Don't mind my left eye's state. It does hold me back when I fight and it gets like this but I'm used to it." I'm looked at with skepticism from some people.
Naofumi asks: "Can you REALLY do that?" "I can demonstrate. *dismounts Chocolate* Chocolate, hide somewhere good! Don't make it obvious! I'll find you!" She nods and gallops off. Melty smiles: "Wow, it sounds like you have a knack for working with animals!" "It's much easier when the animals can actually talk back to you in words you understand. I didn't exactly spend much time learning how to build trust with animals. But I guess if you're around people long enough and consume enough content, earning an animal's trust is easier." I close my eyes and start concentrating. As I run towards where she hid, Filo (and by extension, everyone riding her) follows me closely. In a few minutes, I find where Chocolate is hiding. She even went into a nearby forest for cover but I still found her and moved like I knew where she was the entire time. As if that weren't enough, I got back on her and directed her back to where the Queen and her men still were. We make it in no time. This impresses and intrigues a lot of people. "Okay, now that I have proven myself, I shall seek out the whereabouts of the innocent inhabitants of this city. Please hold your comments and questions until later. I don't think this world is safe yet. Until a lot more defenses are put up, we will have to keep returning here to help repel future invasions." No one objects and after 15 minutes, we have arrived to the location where the innocent people are. Naofumi widens his eyes: "Why are they here?" In the darkness of a path that is almost never traveled by people who have good intentions, we find ourselves in a sketchy location that has a circus tent of sorts as a facade. Soon, we reach it. The location of the Melromarc slave merchant, Beloukas's business.. The Queen speaks: "The innocent people of this kingdom are here in this location? Just how much corruption has been allowed to run rampant in this kingdom? Naofumi, you know something about this place. I know of it too but I never chose to come here personally. I never took action either. I just couldn't."
"..." The Slave Merchant with his bald head, light skin, top hat, glasses with a small chain, white gloves, red bow tie, and classic circus ringmaster's outfit, and classic old style mustache smiles: "Welcome welcome! Ah, Naofumi! My favorite customer! So good to see you! Are you interested in buying more of my 'merchandise'?! Oh, what's this?! Raphtalia, Filo, a lot of strangers, and even Princess Melty as well as the Queen?! What a splendid surprise! What can I do for you?" Naofumi nods to me. I step forward. "What's this? You're letting a stranger, a knight no less, do the talking this time? You're always so full of surprises!" I speak up: "I have detected the life forces of the many innocent people who dwelled in the city until the battles fought in it began and started to destroy almost everything inside of it, forcing them to flee for their lives. Even the safe places they were evacuated to last night were destroyed in today's battle. Where are they?" "Ah! You must be talking about my newest shipment of 'merchandise'! Follow me!" What's left of my blood practically turns to ice upon hearing those words. But none of us say a word as we follow him further inside. The Queen and Melty alongside so many others are horrified at all the cages they see. So many demihumans are locked up and suffering: even ones who would normally fit the bill of monsters. We keep following him further into his business until finally, we see the inhabitants of the city locked up. Naofumi grabs Beloukas by the bow tie and lifts him off the ground: "What did you do?!" "I told you! I accepted a new shipment of slaves!" The Queen is angered: "This is unacceptable! Slavery isn't against the law in Melromarc but this has gone too far. The people didn't do anything to deserve being locked up and sold as slaves. Beloukas, you are under arrest for enslaving the entire city. Your trial will begin as soon as the city is rebuilt. Guards, release the people. Naofumi, I order you and your party to restrain him."
Beloukas laughs: "Such a shame! I would have sold them all to you for a once in a lifetime discount! It would have been so nice but there's nothing you can do now!" The Barian symbol appears on his forehead. Naofumi is forced to let go of him: "What the hell is going on?" Beloukas chants: "Barian power, born of chaos. Cast your judgement upon this world of filth!" He transforms into a humanoid Barian ant before us and grins widely: "You see, the invasions you've defeated were only the beginning! In case they failed, another plan was set up! I was recruited to join Don Thousand's army and the League of One Supreme World. They promised me all the riches in the world if I helped them! And now, this world will become as Barian as Don Thousand's realm!" I yell: "Damn it! No you didn't! Crap! Everything! This is very bad! Fake number cards. Millions of them must be raining down on this world right now, corrupting anyone who touches them and sending them to the Barians in order to be assimilated into their ranks." "That's right! And all of you will be joining them!" "..This is even worse than what Pmurt Nedib was able to do. Life as we know it will be gone in the multiverse if we don't win this war." Beloukas was short before his transformation. Now, he's not at all. Instead of fighting us, he says: "Now, I'm going to be taking my leave. I do hope you understand!" He leaves. I tighten my grip on Graceful Protector so hard that I nearly caused my gloved hand to bleed. "Everyone.. This world will be fused into the Astral-Barian World which has allegedly fallen completely under Don Thousand's control if enough people are corrupted by the power of those fake number cards. I brought number cards to this world so now, we can't time travel to prevent this from happening to begin with."
Melty speaks: "What else haven't you been telling us?" "Way too much to explain right now. At this point, the only way to save this world from being fused with Astral-Barian World is to stop people from getting their hands on those evil cards and defeat them if they do get them. This is beyond just an emergency. I know realize what kind of twisted singular dimension our enemies want to create. But I thought this dimension had a crucial item that our foes need to control the entire multiverse." And then, a familiar black organism moves around freely and widely, knocking all of us unconscious. When we wake up, we immediately begin heading back up to the surface. There, Number 96: Black Mist is holding a key and grinning as the world begins to transform into a wicked fusion of itself and Astral-Barian World. Other comrades teleport from other locations. Reiji Akaba speaks: "We were unable to stop this. This world is now in the hands of Don Thousand. We may have defeated the invasions of this dimension but that wasn't enough. If it's like this for all dimensions under attack, it won't be long until we lose this war and the multiverse with it." Athena tries to stop the fusion with her radiant golden cosmo but it does nothing against the Barian corruption. Akari, Yuma's sister speaks: "This is bad.. I remember when Heartland City was fused with Barian World. It was not pleasant. We have to alert the other BRAINS members." Orbital 7 speaks up: "I'm already on it! An emergency message is being sent to every member!" Black Mist looks pleased with himself as he ignores all of us in favor of admiring the key. So that's it. He knocked us out, using the chance to take the key to the Nexus held by this dimension. The message gets a lot of responses. The AI, GADGET appears out of the ground near us. A clone of Dominic's detaches from one of Melromarc's guards/soldiers.
A piece of Ovenzilla appears. GADGET speaks: "I am deploying all available clones to the dimensions currently under attack." Dominic's clone adds: "We have been monitoring the situation across much of the multiverse. New clones are being created. They along with other clones as well as any available robots and drones will soon depart for those same dimensions. What a sleep mode initializer." Finally, the piece of Ovenzilla says: "I'm sending most of myself to the dimensions that are under threat at the moment! We won't lose them!" Ultimate Shaggy appears: "Like man, I thought you could all handle this yourselves. But I was wrong. I'll help you out for now on. Just 1% of my power will be enough to repel an invasion. Now then, I like gotta go to another dimension! See you again soon!" Black Mist finally speaks to us: "You pathetic creatures. You won't be able to win here. Even if you combined all of your strength together, you wouldn't be able to retrieve this key from me. I am Black Mist! Astral, don't you remember when we were one?! Don't you want that again? It was so much better that way! I didn't appreciate being reverted to a puppet like state but now that my free will has been restored, I will show all of you my full power! This location is far too destroyed for my tastes! If you want to save this world from the corruption, you'll have to find and destroy me! It's your last chance to save this dimension!" Astral replies: "Black Mist! We were never the same. You're just a piece of Don Thousand that was placed inside of me." "Oh Astral, didn't it feel good to embrace the power of hatred to form Dark Zexal?!" "I was manipulated and turned against Yuma. That's not the same thing." "Oh but it is!" Black Mist is like the dark version of Astral with earring like things, a humanoid appearance, a black aura, mostly black body, one golden eye, one black eye, and various red and green markings. He then laughs again: "I'm not going to waste any time holding back my full power! Instead, I'm going to Rank Up! I activate Rank Up Magic Barian's Force!"
Black Mist grows immensely in size, his muscles get much bigger, he sprouts wings, and the Barian symbol appears on his forehead. "Now let the real thrill begin! I am now Black Storm! I'm going to destroy all of you! But first.. I'm going to take a host to gain even more power! Who should I possess? Oh, I know! Hahahaha! The Shield Hero!" Black Storm easily takes control of Naofumi before forming a portal and vanishing through it. Future Trunks sighs: "The power level I just felt is incredibly high. We have to follow him. With the amount of power he and the Shield Hero have together, tracking him down will be an easy but dangerous task." Indeed, it was. About 50 of us BRAINS members had worked to repel the earlier invasions of Raphtalia's World as I ended up finding out. We catch up with Black Storm who has full control over Naofumi's body. He grins: "Oh good! You're all here! Notice where we are? It's none other than Naofumi's precious village!" Raphtalia cries: "Get out of Naofumi and leave this village alone!" "Oh but why would I ever listen to you?! No, I'm going to destroy it to speed up the rebirth of its people into Barian warriors! Go, Rage Shield!" He combines the Rage Shield with purple energy blasts to decimate the entire village, killing every single person that was inside of it. L'Arc grits his teeth: "This bastard is nuts! Kyo was bad enough but this guy?! Far worse! Kiddo! Break free! Kiddo! We're counting on you!" "He can't hear you! As long as I'm in control, he will never hear you! Do me a favor and get ready to perish painfully and miserably!" We all try to attack him but nothing works initially. Instead, we're all repelled. "Crap! His power level is less than Baby Frieza's was but still.. We don't have what we need to defeat him without anyone else's help.. I swear by Graceful Protector that we will find a way to make the impossible possible. There still has to be a way to defeat Black Storm."
Athena speaks: "Naofumi's soul must be struggling against Black Storm. There has to be a way to remove Black Storm from his body. If we can do that, our chances of winning will dramatically increase." Deku defiantly clenches his gauntlets: "We'll do it! We'll go beyond! Plus Ultra! Black Storm won't be able to overcome us! I know we can do this!" Libra Dohko(Roshi) who has returned to the form he had in his youth featuring shoulder length auburn hair, the Libra Gold Cloth and all its weapons, tan skin, and green eyes replies: "Indeed. But we can't afford to underestimate the pure malevolent energy coming from our enemy. It is not a cosmo. It's a power more dangerous than a cosmo." Even though Seiya and the others had defeated Hades by now, Dohko and the other Gold Saints were revived as their strength is needed for the BRAINS Collective's objectives to succeed. Konan adds: "From what I've heard, Black Storm is a tricky individual to deal with." She tries to use paper bomb clones to do damage but Black Storm just uses Shield Prison to protect himself. Our foe is laughing incredibly hard: "Try as you might but none of you will ever defeat me!" I pull out a certain notebook, turn to a page in it, and write in it before putting it away. "We shall see about that! I doubt even someone like you knows the full extent of all of our abilities! Release Recollection! Attack him, my flowers!" Filo screams: "Stop! That's still Naofumi! We can't just hurt him!" Alice hesitates for a moment: "That may be so but we don't have any other choice." Sinon speaks up: "Filo has a point. That's still Naofumi. We need to fight more defensively until we can figure out a way to draw Black Storm out of his body. I believe in Hecate's firepower." Black Storm laughs: "If you're done attacking, it's my turn! I'm going to destroy all of you right here and now!" Without warning, he starts firing energy blast after energy blast at all of us. Anyone hit by one experiences great pain.
Even my armor wasn't enough to protect me from one. I screamed in so many pain when that happened. And I ended up losing more of the little blood I had left, causing my skin to become paler than usual. We all start using our abilities far more defensively to hold out against our foe's attacks even as the world continues to be fused into Astral-Barian World with no say in the matter. Fake number cards continue to fall to the ground from the sky. I use Continuous Great Infernal Tornado Slash: 45 as a defensive shield around all of us but it only lasts for a minute against Black Storm's powers combined with Naofumi's. Nagato grows concerned as he continues to absorb as many energy blasts as he can while fighting alongside his Pains. "I won't be able to keep this up for much longer. When my chakra runs out, it's over for me." Quietly, I wait for what I wrote to do it's magic. We continue to struggle for a few more minutes. And then, Black Storm starts being forced out of Naofumi's body. When the last of him is out, Naofumi opens his eyes to find our foe thrashing around in pain. And without warning, Black Storm literally explodes, spraying a lot of us with his body in the process. However, Black Storm somehow comes back to life and reforms. Angered by what just happened, he yells: "Who dares kill me?!" I step forward: "I dare!" "You miserable knight! I'll make you pay for doing that! I know how you did it. You used the Death Note and now, I'm going to take it from you!" He steals the Death Note from me without warning and disappears with a trace. Xeno Pan exclaims: "This is bad! I can't feel his Ki anywhere!" Future Trunks replies: "I can't feel it either.." We begin hunting for Black Storm but we don't find any clues that could lead to his whereabouts. But things take a turn for the worst as Raphtalia's World is fully fused into Astral-Barian World.
The overwhelming presence of Don Thousand makes all of us shake a little bit. Without warning, we start dropping dead. Yuma. Naofumi. The Queen. Xeno Pan. Athena asks: "What's going on?! Their life forces have all been suddenly extinguished!" She dies next. Ryuk floats from somewhere over to me and laughs: "Looks like someone really screwed up today!" "..." Everyone ends up dying around me. I was the only one still moving because I'm already dead. "..Damn it.. This is all my fault.. If I had just left the Death Note locked away somewhere instead of bringing it just in case.. They would all still be alive.. I don't know what to do anymore." I sit down on the ground and feel a lot of emotions at once. Black Storm appears before me with a sinister grin: "Thank you for allowing me to borrow the Death Note! Since you won't die, I will just have to completely destroy you myself. Actually, I have a better idea than that! I'm going to make you live with the consequences of your mistakes! And I will watch you as you experience despair!" He attacks me just enough to send me face first into the ground after knocking me into the air first. For a while, all I do is try to heal myself with hp bananas and experience my pain. Black Storm laughs the entire time. Finally, he gets bored of watching me suffer. He prepares to finish me. I see this and use Quantum Leap to teleport away. I go to Universe 7, find the Black Star Dragon Balls, and use them to revive everyone who died in opposition to Don Thousand in Raphtalia's World. When I'm done, I feel a little better and make a plan to retrieve those balls in case the DBS timeline ends up doing GT stuff in spite of everything that has been said and done to the contrary. I teleport back to find the others fighting a furious Black Storm. "How did all of you return to life?! Now I have to use the Death Note again!" He doesn't notice me so I decide to steal it back.
Because of how quiet my armor was modified to be and the sheer intensity of the battle, I am able to sneak up on Black Storm. Right as he prepares to attack again, I jump at him and plunge my sword deep inside of him. He is knocked to the ground by my efforts. And I get on top of him, using the weight of myself and my armor to hold him down as long as I can as I grab for the Death Note. But my plan fails. I got it back but he blasts me, destroying the Death Note as well as damaging my armor in the process. He laughs but then, he stops laughing: "You! Your little plan managed to destroy MY Death Note! I didn't hurt you enough with that last attack! Now, I'm finally going to destroy you! Just you wait!" "Harem Jutsu!" A bunch of womanly versions of Naruto appear. This confuses our foe: "What kind of trick is this?" I sweat drop: "Thanks for completely disrupting the entire battle, Naruto.. This is one of the worst times you could have ever used that. I'm going to learn that jutsu someday for its comedic and strategic use but.. Really?! Ow. I'm in so much pain. As usual." Black Storm destroys all of the transformed shadow clones: "Enough of this! I'm tired of having to fight all of you! This is the end of all of you!" Black Storm starts creating an enormous orb of dark energy. Naruto appears next to me: "Hey! Just got here from successfully saving a world that has lots of robots in everywhere! Robots for everyone! Funny Hair Sunglasses was an interesting guy to fight!" "..Funny Hair Sunglasses? ..Do you mean Dr. K?" "Yep! Funny Hair Sunglasses!" "Even the Cubix universe was a target. I didn't see that coming. Well, it'd be great if we could deal with orb of death over there.. At least I redeemed myself for causing the deaths of so many by bringing them back. I feel better now. Wasn't expecting to get the Death Note destroyed but if it's destroyed, neither side can use or take it. Kind of a relief, I guess."
Goku's voice speaks telepathically: "Come on everyone! Give me your energy! I'm going to form a Spirit Bomb!" I'm among the first to raise their hands up. Goku yells: "We need more energy! People of this world, please let me have some of your energy!" More energy comes in. Just as Black Storm is about to destroy us all, a lot of us attack with our remaining energy to slow down the release of his gigantic attack in order to buy time for the completion of the Spirit Bomb. I attacked with an emphasis on defensive style moves. When the Spirit Bomb is completed, Aeos shouts: "Everyone! Get back!" The Spirit Bomb collides with Black Storm's attack. It felt like neither one was going to give as the clashing energy started opening a whole in the depressing Barian sky. But then, Black Storm's attacked started pushing the Spirit Bomb back. As that happened, the ground shook as something big started moving in our direction. Seconds later, the Queen yells: "It's the Spirit Tortoise! Be careful!" Rishia cheers: "Ost must be here to help! I can't believe it! She's back!" The Queen replies: "Perhaps you're right. As we learned, the Spirit Tortoise only has the best of intentions." The Spirit Tortoise begins sending attacks at Black Storm and his huge attack in order to start helping push against it. Sinon loads Hecate and shouts: "I don't know how much I can help but let's see what I can do. I've been holding fire for a while now. Time to unleash all of my firepower." "There's no more need to hold back! Release Recollection! My flowers, cut through Black Storm!" Glass uses a huge amount of spirit power to unleash a massive amount of attack power with her fan as she continues to hover in the sky. Nagato and his Pains unleash everything. Weapons, summonings, you name it. Deku performs a smash beyond his limits. You get the picture. None of us are holding anything back or choosing to abstain from helping for now at this point. The Spirit Tortoise starts unleashing more devastating attacks against Black Storm such as several Gravity Magic attacks.
This pins down our foe and causes his attack to get closer to the ground while still clashing with the Spirit Bomb. But that still wasn't enough to stop Black Storm as we noticed that a huge Barian crystal was resonating with him. It was nearby and hard to miss. That meant that Black Storm was far more powerful than ever before now. Fitoria appears. She has blue feathers of various shades around her neck, a long feather reaching from the back of her head, and 5 golden feather on the top of her head as well as mostly white feathers otherwise and red eyes. Fitoria contributes to attacking Black Storm: "Dont worry! I'm here now too. When a threat to this world appears and the Legendary Heroes aren't enough to stop it, I must come to help." She, much like the Spirit Tortoise is gigantic, larger in size than a Minecraftian woodland mansion. Black Storm decides to grow to such a large size too out of anger as he fully absorbs the Barian crystal. That wasn't the end of our problems, however. His attack was still clashing with the Spirit Bomb and countless other attacks. We need to defeat his attack so that the Spirit Bomb can obliterate him. All of us start draining ourselves to the greatest extent possible without dying in order to help defeat Black Storm. After a few minutes, Black Storm wavers for a moment, costing him the fight. So many attacks roll into one, creating a Unified Spirit Bomb that breaks through Black Storm's attack, sending him back extremely far and wiping him out. When the attack faded away, Black Storm was on the ground, greatly weakened and dying. He gets back up: "This isn't over. All of you will be destroyed along with your precious universes you call home!" "*unison* KAAAAAAAAAAAME HAAAAAAAAAMEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Multiple Kamehameha blasts nail him as he shrinks in size. He coughs up blood and glares at all of us.
The villain begins to vanish through a portal: "I won't allow myself to be killed by the likes of you! This is goodbye for now! You'll all pay for this! Just you wait. I'm effortlessly going to make each and every one of you forget about your defeat of me today by destroying everything you hold dear!" After he finishes vanishing, the Spirit Tortoise's or rather, Ost's voice is heard: "I must gather sacrifices to build enough power to block future Waves for now. I will have no choice but to destroy inhabited parts of Don Thousand's territory. Farewell for now." As the Spirit Tortoise moves in a specific direction, Fitoria turns to all of us and sighs: "Even now, the 3 other Cardinal Heroes prove to be little help in protecting this world. They chose not to help in any of the recent battles. Now that this world has been fused with a far more hostile one, I have little choice but to step up to not only protect it but to ask all of you to continue helping protect it as well. Humans can be very problematic and are often greedy and selfish. But the threats coming from what this world was fused with cannot be ignored nor can the disappearance of many humans who resided in this world until they were corrupted." The Queen replies: "Then we must be in an incredibly tight situation right now." I nod: "That isn't even the half of it. It would be best to save and find anyone we can from this world. A mass rescuing operation if you will. We'll also need to start putting up defenses. Hopefully, some more help will arrive soon from various universes. But if worst comes to worst, this world will have to be eventually evacuated.." And so, we decide to work together in order to save any living humans across the entire world by using multiple means of teleportation to get from place to place.
A warped evening soon falls when we have finished. Suddenly, more comrades from BRAINS appear as the existence of BRAINS is explained to the likes of Fitoria, the Queen, and Melty. It also turned out that Eclair, a knight high up in command in Melromarc who helped run Naofumi's village before it was destroyed was killed during one of the invasions. Rest in power. I spot Dominic among those newly arrived. He yawns with his lab coat covered in dried blood: "What a nap causation. Protecting Robloxia was so difficult. And now, I'm here to help too. Okay, can someone tell me just how many things were destroyed and how many people were killed in this world?" I wave him over and tell him the details. "Restoring what was destroyed.. Eh, as long as I get a lot of help, it shouldn't be that hard to pull off. Swiftdrawer, would you be interested in helping?" "Well, my left eye feels well enough to use Artist's Eye in again so why not? I could restore a few buildings at most before I strain my eye too much." And so, a lot of individuals start working together around the world to restore what was destroyed. Once that was done, Dominic and some other scientists draw up some blueprints for advanced defenses for inhabited locations across Raphtalia's World. They present them to the Queen and other leaders who were teleported to Melromarc. Between that and Dominic in the others showing up, only 2 hours passed. All of the leaders were stunned from what I heard. Me personally, I was helping fortify defenses and consoling the innocent. I saw a small family starving. I went over to them: "Hey, you all look hungry. Allow me, I have some food I can give you."
I pull out some foods from my ender pouch and give them to the poor people. The youngest of them exclaims: "This is.. amazing! *starts crying joys of happiness* Mommy and mum have been so scared of going hungry for weeks.. I can't remember the last time I had a real meal.." One of the women among them adds: "Thank you so much, kind knight. It's so rare to see armored warriors help the likes of us these days." "Of course. Please take care. I'm not from this world. Things are going to get a lot more dangerous from here on out. The Queen of this kingdom will make an announcement about what's going on soon. I must go. I have other duties to attend to as well. Be well and stay safe." I end up mounting Chocolate to quickly make it to a meeting with Bray and Dominic while also raising the spirits of the innocent inhabitants of Melromarc. Countless people across different dimensions and eras admire armored knights on horseback and draw hope and joy from seeing them ride. Dominic gives a sleepy smile while Bray gives a warm smile as I reach them while riding Chocolate. They both pet her gently. "So why did you two want to meet with me specifically now?" Bray replies: "We're about to resurrect as many of those who have died here as possible. We felt you should be among the first to hear." Dominic adds: "That and we have a problem. No, 2 problems. Can't you feel it?" I feel a sharp pain in my chest: "Damn it. I was so focused that I didn't even notice the pain. We're needed again somewhere. I'm glad I finally got a lot to eat earlier after we stopped Black Storm for now. What's the other problem?" "A lot of innocent people as well as the likes of the knight Eclair have been reincarnated as Barians and we have to defeat them." "Crap. Well, did Fitoria and various others at least agree to join BRAINS just as Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Filo did back when we were still trapped in the Infinityverse?" Before either could answer, something starts pulling us. We weren't the only ones being pulled.
The individuals from Glass' World as well as Naofumi's party(including Rishia and Melty) and various others start being pulled too. I look behind us and couldn't believe my eyes at what I saw we were being pulled into. Or more specifically who was pulling us in. Truck-kun but humanoid. Truck-kun speaks: "I am the Isekai God, Truck-kun. I have been tasked with transporting the chosen heroes required to be sent to Glass' World. That is because it is currently impossible to reach that world through teleportation due to the fusion of Astral-Barian World with this world: Raphtalia's World. I apologize for all inconveniences I've caused in the past. It is my duty to bring chosen heroes to the worlds they are meant to protect, even if it requires me to take or inhabit the form of an ordinary truck." "..." A minute later, we're inside Glass' World or that's what I thought at first. Kizuna exclaims: "Damn it! I thought we destroyed this place! Why are we in the Infinite Labyrinth?! I was trapped here for a very long time.." I sigh: "Well, I can certainly relate. Being trapped in a death game sucked. Was going to be killed and then I got saved and eventually brainwashed to be an Integrity Knight loyal to a tyrant known as Queen Quinella/Administrator. Thank goodness that's over." Suddenly, the sky of the Infinite Labyrinth goes black as something covers it. Then, familiar eyes appear in the sky. Kaito stared firmly: "It's him." Black Storm laughs: "I hope you didn't miss me too much! It didn't take long for my lord Don Thousand to heal me! And now that I'm back, I'm going to enjoy finally killing all of you and getting my revenge for the humiliation I suffered earlier!" Yuma yells: "We won't allow that! Number 96, let's duel!" "Very well! But this time, if you lose, everyone here will willingly surrender and let me kill them!" "Bastard! If I win, you'll surrender to us!"
"I suppose that's fair enough! Let the duel begin! It's my turn! I activate my skill: Mist Draw!" "What?! You have a skill?!" "That's right, YUMA! At the cost of 1000 life points, I get to draw a random monster card from my deck! Very good! I'll set the Pendulum scale with scale 1 Malicevorous Spork and Scale 3 Malicevorous Chop Sticks! With that, I can summon all the level 2 monsters I need to destroy you! Malicevorous Fork, Spoon, and Knife: appear! And now that you're here, I will overlay you in order to build the Overlay Network! I Xyz summon! A copy of myself! Number 96: Black Mist!" The duel continues from there. Black Storm upgrades his number to well, Black Storm and Yuma eventually has to use Hope Beyond to defeat him. It's a very Yugioh Zexal duel with a Pendulum summoning twist that was very tense and intense as all battle damage was real. Because Black Mist lost, it was time for him to pay the price of losing: "Nooo! Impossible! How could I lose to you?! I knew all of your strategies!" "I've gotten better since the last time we faced you, Number 96! And so has Astral!" "Curse you both! Very well! I surrender! Just kidding! I was just buying time for my real plan. I only accepted your challenge to distract you long enough to finish what I have prepared for all of you!" Our foe forms huge and long tentacles. On each of them is a Rank Up Magic Barian's Force card. "I don't like this. Continuous Great Infernal Tornado Slash: 45! Haaaaaaaaa!" My move did nothing except leave me panting quite a bit. "You think that move of yours will do anything to help you escape your fate?!" Before we knew it, the tentacles suddenly pushed each card into all of us. I could feel what was still left of my blood get drained. I collapse to the ground from the shock. Black Storm laughs: "All of you will now slowly have your blood drain until you finally die! I'm going to enjoy watching all of you suffer!" I manage to get back up after some effort while trying to fight off the card that was forced inside of me's influence. "I'm already dead, Black Storm. You can't kill me!"
"I'll deal with you later! You no longer have the strength needed to fight me in the shape you're in! You look like you never healed from the earlier battle today!" "Like hell I'll stop here. I still have some strength left.. And I'll use it to pull out those cards you forced into the others!" "I won't allow you! I'll crush you until you can't move anymore and when they're all dead, I'll destroy you personally!" He uses the tentacles to try to crush me. I pull out my daggers and slide my sword back into its scabbard. As the tentacles come for me, I run around and hold my daggers out so I can let 'em tear through the tentacles in a sliding like way. "Black Storm, I won't let you keep having the upper hand anymore. My daggers are coated in a substance that slowly destroys the target from the inside, eventually reducing them to goop. That goop is a biohazard and spreads by consuming ANY organic matter that is touching it except bacteria as was found out sometime ago. If I were you, I'd think twice about restraining me because a lot of that substance is now running through your tentacles. Like a poison, it'll spread until it affects your entire body as it continues along destroying your insides." "Damn you! You dare stand in my way?! I don't believe you! You're lyin- What is this pain?! Is this what pain is?! It's so unpleasant!" "It'll slowly get worse at an accelerating rate. You'll have to remove your tentacles to survive. Now, you really can't stop me from saving my comrades who have found themselves trapped here too. I guess being dead really does have more upsides than expected when you're not actively rotting away." "You'll pay for this!" He painstakingly begins ripping his own tentacles off. In the meantime, I begin running over to my comrades and working to pull out the Barian cards out of them one by one after I pulled the one that was inside of me out before it could start really taking control of me. This is not how I expected this war to go so far but all wars are different. I don't think we'll nail Black Storm for good for a long time. To be continued..