'For something without a physical form, this is really fucking heavy...' thought Vahn, his draconic visage fixed into a determined glower as he did his best to prevent the mountainous Five Elements Suppressing Seal from descending. The seal was actively suppressing his mental, physical, and spiritual bodies, but thanks to the adaptability of Source Energy and the compounding potency of his Chainbreaker, his power was increasing along with the strain he was forced to endure.
THOOM THOOM
Briefly diverting Vahn's focus, a series of powerful shockwaves rippled through the area a short distance from him, drawing his attention to Issei in his Scale Mail and Sairaorg in his golden, lion-themed armor, the former shouting, "Don't give up, Vahn! We're right here with you!" as bright green energy erupting from his shoulders like afterburners.
"And they're not the only ones...!" shouted Rias, appearing alongside her mother and the rest of the executive members of the Dragon's Pavilion, the two beauties producing concentrated crimson beams formed from the Power of Destruction. Their attacks didn't deal any notable damage to the Five Elements Suppressing Seal, but Vahn could feel its weight decreasing as everyone combined their power to combat its descent.
"Thanks for the assist...!" exclaimed Vahn, doing his best to shoulder as much of the Five Elements Suppressing Seal's weight as possible as he appended, "But we need to take out the gates and those empowering the seal!"
"Grayfia is already on it," revealed Venelana, smiling confidently as she asserted, "And with the equipment you've provided, it shouldn't be long before—"
Cutting off Venelana's words, a massive, silver-hued explosion appeared like a miniature star to the west, causing the rest of Termina to appear dim in comparison to its radiance. For a split second, the explosion maintained its structure as a near-perfect and ostensibly weighty sphere that caused the ground beneath it to buckle, but only briefly before producing a much larger blast that spread out for several kilometers before rising in the form of a silver-hued mushroom cloud.
Losing one of its principal power sources, the Five Elements Suppressing Seal became noticeably translucent, reinforcing the sentiment it wasn't a physical object.
'Amazing...' thought Vahn, his fiery, presently golden eyes focusing on Grayfia in the distance as the silver-haired Devil, ostensibly sensing his gaze, turned to him and smiled alluringly before moving on to the next gate. Even without the benefit of his numerous gifts, she was at the zenith of the Ultimate Class. With them, even the Satan classification might not be enough.
Feeling his confidence swell, Vahn shifted his gaze to Issei and Sairaorg, stating, "I'm trusting the two of you to lead the charge against the enemy. I'll remain here to prevent the seal from falling and then come to back you up as soon as I can."
"Alright! Time to repay some of my debt...!" responded Sairaorg, causing the weight of the Five Elements Suppressing Seal to increase drastically as he separated from it and made a beeline for the nearest pillar to the west.
"Uh...is that okay...?" asked Issei, directing the question to Rias, who, in response, nodded affirmingly and ordered, "Go. Prove to us that allowing you to stay in the world of To Love Ru wasn't a mistake."
"R-Right...!" responded Issei, causing the weight of the Five Elements Suppressing Seal to increase nearly as much as when Sairaorg separated from it. Fortunately, Grayfia wasn't the only one who had benefitted from Vahn's System Shop, nor were Issei and Sairaorg the only two physical powerhouses present. Xenovia frequently teamed up with Erza and had developed her own form of Requip Magic using the System's Equipment Function, so she promptly transitioned from blasting the mountain with a pair of laser cannons to pushing against it using futuristic, angel-themed power armor with six energy-formed wings...
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"Looks like your plan is going awry~" hummed Azazel, causing Shalba, bleeding from his branded forehead, to glare at him with considerable hatred in his previously brown, now pale green eyes. He had heard that those closest to Vahn were endowed with weapons and armaments that boosted their capabilities, but he believed the suppressive effects of the Five Elements Suppressing Seal would render them moot. Had he known Grayfia could exhibit power on par with Sirzechs, he would have focused on eliminating or removing her from the equation first...
'Damn you, Euclid...' thought Shalba, charging to meet Azazel head-on as his swarm completed their spherical encirclement. The failure of the Five Elements Suppressing Seal seemed inevitable, but they still had an army of Mages and specially prepared Demonic Beasts with Anti-Demon, Anti-Divine, and Anti-Dragon capabilities. Vahn had reportedly been defeated handily by Vali, so as intimidating as his appearance was, the real threats were Azazel, Grayfia, and the Sekiryuutei(Issei).
"Hey, now. Are you sure you want to exhaust your Demonic Power fighting little old me?" asked Azazel, evading Shalba's attempt to skewer him with a spear of pale-green energy and using his twelve wings to shield himself from the encircling bee's pestilence-spreading beam attacks. Fortunately, one of the first items he had requested from Vahn was an S-Rank [Mythric Silver Bangle] that granted immunity to Status Ailments and Curses below the same Rank.
"You—" started Shalba.
"Think fast," interrupted Azazel, grinning beneath his visor as he removed what looked like a golden grenade with a luminous white crystal core from his Inventory and tossed it underhanded into Shalba's face. There was no explosion, but the blinding light it emitted had a potent purification effect, compelling Shalba to retreat and veil himself with his many wings as most of his shadow-formed swarm vaporized.
SHIK
"This is what happens when you attempt to play Maou with no meaningful combat experience..." remarked Azazel, his expression and tone devoid of their usual playfulness as his two-pronged spear of light produced a loud, searing sound, the smell of burning flesh filling the air as it protruded from the stunned Shalba's back after piercing the center of his chest.
"You were holding back....all this time..." realized Shalba, black, green-tinted blood leaking from his mouth as he clutched Azazel's spear and clawed at him with the scythe-like claws of his remaining appendages. Unfortunately, they could not pierce the armor covering the latter's body, only causing surface-level scratches as Azazel thrust his gauntleted left hand forward to grasp his throat.
"If you wish to live a while longer, you'll answer my questions..." declared Azazel, his voice uncharacteristically callous as he tightened his grip on Shalba's throat and asserted, "Based on their previous interaction, I can't imagine Ophis condoning this attack on her beloved younger brother. Who authorized you to come here...?"
"You think I'm a pawn others can order around...?" asked Shalba, aiming his right hand at Azazel's face with his fingers spread, producing a pale-green Magic Circle.
Releasing his hold on Shalba's neck, Azazel backhanded the former's hand away, causing the sickly-green beam he unleashed to cut a deep, glowing trail through the evaporated hot springs. In the same motion, he surged forward, driving his spear further into Shalba's body and slamming his forehead into the indignant Devil's before reversing direction, wresting his spear free and revealing, "I'm aware that you're one of the big shots in the Khaos Brigade, but you're ultimately only a representative. With Ophis and Vali in the picture, there's no way someone of your middling caliber is calling the shots..."
"Middling caliber? Me? You're pushing your luck..." growled Shalba, the wound through his body healing rapidly, albeit much slower than before.
"Hoooo? You can even heal from that? I'm going to enjoy performing the autopsy on your body..." hummed Azazel, his tone regaining a semblance of its usual humor.
"I will rip the wings from your body and feed them to you...!" exclaimed Shalba, pulling away from Azazel at high speed and spreading his cape to unleash another swarm of bees.
bump
"Huh?"
Crashing into something soft yet extremely resilient, Shalba peered over his shoulder, the pupils of his already frantic eyes contracting as he found what appeared to be a luminous, ivory-hued pillar barring his retreat. And when he looked up, he found more pillars separated into distinct sections that sloped away from him, bordered by golden scales.
"Are you responsible for this...?" asked a soul-quiveringly deep voice emanating from the fiery-eyed draconic visage staring down at Shalba from above.
'How did he appear without my notice...?' Shalba asked himself, backing away from the colossal Dragon as quickly as his reflexes allowed, placing him between it and Azazel.
"Good to see you free and flying about, Vahn," stated Azazel, shouldering his two-pronged spear of light before asking, "Should I continue lending a hand, or do you got this? This guy might look like a bug, but you shouldn't underestimate him."
"I will fight..." asserted Vahn, his hate-filled gaze locked on Shalba as he appended, "But, just in case, you should stick around...I'd rather risk your life than the life of someone I care about..."
"Ha! Well, aren't you an honest one...!" exclaimed Azazel, believing that Vahn's words were his attempt at a joke. He did not doubt for a moment that Vahn would rather him die than a member of his harem, but as fierce as the golden Dragon God looked, he wasn't the type to sacrifice others when he still had his own life to give.
Interpreting Vahn's and Azazel's exchange to mean the latter wouldn't attack him unless requested, Shalba's tension turned to fury as he glared at the colossal Dragon before him and asserted, "If you have any honor to speak of, a fight between us is meaningless! You know better than anyone that you don't belong in our world, so leave us be...!"
"I'm not in your world..." responded Vahn, his eyes narrowing as he flicked his elongated tail like a whip, failing to strike Shalba but following the man with his gaze as he seethed, "It's you and your army invading my home...!"
"But only because your influence is gradually spreading through ours! You left us no choice but to take action before your creations spread through our reality like wildfire...!" countered Shalba, feeling immense pressure but evading Vahn's attacks with room to spare.
"If they did, it would be because someone from your reality spread them!" roared Vahn, spreading and emitting countless homing beams of golden light from his wings as he asserted, "And the only reason you fear that is because your wickedness precludes your access to them! If I had sided with the Khaos Brigade, monsters like you would gleefully be abusing my power to persecute and oppress others! You're just pissy because none of the status and authority you enjoy is legitimate!"
'This glorified snake...' growled Shalba, clenching his teeth as he used a pale green barrier to deflect many of Vahn's homing beams. Fortunately, there was very little power behind them; they were simply too numerous to evade.
Taking advantage of a brief lull in the onslaught, Shalba sent a beam of highly concentrated, sickly green Demonic Energy at Vahn's elongated abdomen. On contact, the beam scattered like a pressurized stream of water impacting a rock, but there was notable damage to the surface of Vahn's body, verifying Vali's assertion that he wasn't nearly as powerful as his reputation would suggest. Unfortunately, there was another part to Vali's report...
While regenerating just as quickly as he sustained damage, Vahn's throat swelled with a golden hue before he expelled a column of golden flames with such pressure that they resembled a more than twenty-meter-wide energy beam. It wasn't a particularly fast attack, but as Shalba attempted to teleport to safety, he was stunned to find his destination directly in the beam's path. A second and third attempt ended with the same result, so all he could do was protect himself with his wings as Vahn's breath attack slammed into him with the force of a hundred locomotives fired from a rail gun...
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