Shinji towered over the completely weakened, beaten Nebula with his regenerating arm aimed directly at her.
Nebula coughs up a mountain of blood, much to the rage-fuelled Shinji's joy.
"N-NO!! I WON'T LET YOU!" Nebula shouts, "YOU…" She is unable to finish her sentence.
"PETRIFICATION!!!" Shinji, with enough of his arm regenerated, blasts Nebula with the petrifaction beam, hastily spreading, turning her whole body into stone.
"C-COUNTER!" Nebula throws out the last of her MP, ultimately just delaying her death.
"Tch, Dark beam-"
"Fuck you, demon" Nebula cuts Shinji off, piquing his interest, "I loved killing your father, *cough, cough* I enjoyed killing him and all the other MONSTERS IN THIS SHIT HOLE SO MUCH!! *cough* I only wish… that I could do it again, *cough, cough* just to see the look on your disgusting little face, SHINJI YUU!-" Nebula coughs up what seems to be a litre of blood, making her unable to continue. Shinji, still standing over the dying Nebula, stared into her soul.
"Finished?" He mockingly asks.
"…" Nebula gasps for air, almost falling out of consciousness, completely drained of MP.
"GOOD, NOW l'VE GOT A GIFT FOR YOU" his devilish smile returns to his face, "DARK BEAM PULSE!" He shouts, finally landing the attack, leaving Nebula poisoned and in even more severe pain than she already was. She stared at Shinji, unable to do anything else, defeated by the one she called a weakling. Before Nebula died from the attack, Shinji cast petrification again, this time with no interruption, "PETRIFICATION!" As the petrification reached her neck, Shinji decapitated her with his Black Viper Scythe, leaving the head to be the only part that wasn't stone, killing Nebula completely.
"AHAHAHA! HAHAHAhaha haha hahaha ha…" Shinji Achieved victory, killing the source of his rage, avenging his parents and fallen townspeople - he got his revenge.
However, now that the catalyst for Demonic Punishment was dead, the ability ended, thus resulting in Shinji having to bare the after effects of using it. First, he started to lose all of his stamina, leading to an extreme drowsiness and weakness feeling; followed by this is the worst pain any being could ever comprehend, worse than the pain endured during the battle 100,000 times over. Most other users of the ability would have died just from how overwhelming the feeling was, but then again, most other users wouldn't be able to use the ability to the extent that and the amount of time that Shinji did without dying. Shinji writhed on the floor screaming as he fell unconscious, still bearing the rest of the after effects - but it didn't matter to him, he won.
…
..
.
Enough time had passed. The city of Limbo was mourning the devastating losses caused by the three Celestial Mages, with the intention to start a war against the Demons. Shinji lay on his back, in a pool of his own blood, facing the decapitated head of his fallen foe.
"!!!" He heard muffled words around him, as he began to regain consciousness, "Shinji!" He heard.
"Are you… Okay!?" Kasumi asks, not knowing that Shinji had just now became conscious again.
"Mmnngh… …" He mumbled as he started to sit up, cracking his bones. "I… Won." Shinji declared, now sat up.
"I know, we watched most of it, that's a dangerous ability you have." Aki states, making his presence known.
"Wait. How long have i been out for?" Shinji asks, making a realisation.
"I don't know, no more than an hour, I'm sure." Aki answers, without full confidence.
"That should be fine, but I need to be quick." Shinji frantically stands up and rushes to the petrified corpse of Nebula, disintegrating it to the stone equivalent of ash, "it might be too late, I don't really know how this works." He says, before eating the ashes, the same way he did to his parents'.
- Master, please say Absorb is working? -
"I'm afraid not, Shinji, you are not compatible…"
- Fuck, what a waste. -
"I'm not compatible" Shinji says, with ashes around his lips.
"What do you mean? You said that earlier, why do you EAT ASHES!?" Kasumi asks, slightly traumatised from the last time Shinji ate ashes.
"Did I not tell you? It's my ability, Absorb. It lets me gain some of the abilities of a recently fallen individual, whom you are compatible to - but only the ones they had at my current class." Shinji explains, "I wouldn't get the best abilities, but it's better than nothing"
"There's still an option for your advantage, Shinji…"
- What do you mean?. -
"One of your father's abilities, Merge, it allows you to select any ability that a corpse housed when they were alive and merge with it to make it your own. It can only be done once per target but can be largely more useful than Absorb…"
- I see. Say, would this work with user specific skills, such as that Holy Skill, perhaps? -
"There's no reason why it wouldn't…"
"Oh, so I guess it didn't work then." Aki says, understanding the ability.
"Yeah, forget about all that, I've got something better" Shinji brushes him off, approaching the head of Nebula.
"Merge."
Shinji suddenly witnessed an interface of some sort appear in front of him. It contained a list of all of Nebula's abilities and a brief description of each one, with a select button next to them all. Wasting no time, Shinji went straight for the Holy Skill: Recharge. Once selected, the interface disappeared and Shinji felt a short rush of energy within him.
"It's weird, a B- Class Demon having such a powerful ability, one given only to Celestial Mages. Shinji thinks out loud. Aki looks at Shinji in surprise as he used Class Scanner.
"B- Class? You're much more than that now!" Aki reveals, "You've grown to A Class, Shinji!"
"What? Really!?" Shinji smiled sincerely for the first time in a while. Tears were begging to develop in his eyes. "Finally! It only took 17 years, a few traumatic experiences and a battle to the death, hahaha!" He laughed, as a single tear ran down his cheek, feeling true joy. Kasumi hugged Shinji, unable to hold her tears in any longer.
"At least what you put yourself through, what you had to do, was not just for revenge." She tries to say while sobbing, making it less understandable.
Shinji wipes her tears, as his own had all but disappeared. Kasumi steps back towards Aki, who comforts her as Shinji speaks.
"It's not over yet, that was only the beginning," he says, looking at the severed head of Nebula, that almost looked as though it stared right back at him with a blank expression, "There are still 7 other celestials, as well as their leader, that will no doubt stand in our way. Not only that, but they have undeniably instigated a war between the holy and unholy. Long story short, there is a lot that stands in our way, so are you still willing to join me?"
Aki and Kasumi, unlike Shinji, are both mortal but also are both a higher class than him, making them useful in any future endeavours with high powers.
"Of course I am, who else is going to look after you?" Kasumi says, making a joke to lighten the mood a bit.
"What kind of brother would let their sister run away with an immortal? And, also, I do want to see what the human realm is like, as well as fight some strong enemies." Aki responds, after hearing Kasumi's response.
"That's good, I'm glad you guys are coming, even if it won't be forever." Shinji smiles once again, "But Aki, how did you know we would be headed to the human realm?"
"I just figured it's a must, how else are we supposed to go against the celestial's when the time comes?" Aki responds, thinking ahead.
"You're right, more specifically, it's their leader that we want." Shinji explains.
"I heard Diablo speak about them, he called them The Blinded One." Aki informs.
"Yes, they will most definitely be important in helping me reach my goal." Shinji instates. "Now, before we do anything, what is the nearest Human city and how far away from the border is it?"
"Universal Map!" Kasumi generates a giant map of the whole world, showing every realm, every city and major town and all of the surrounding landscape. "There it is, Tesmuth, that's the nearest relevant city" She relays her findings, "It's only a few hours away from the boarder too!"
"Thank you Kasumi, Tesmuth it is." Shinji solidifies the decision. "There's one more thing to discus before we set off."
"We're going to have to disguise ourselves as humans."