“GUYS, YOU SAID THAT NONE OF YOU HAS SECOND STATE, RIGHT? THEN WHAT IS DIVA-CHAN DOING RIGHT NOW?” shouts Eissen.
“YOU GOT IT WRONG, EISSEN-SAMA!!” shouts Raven.
“SHE IS NOT DOING SECOND STATE AS SHE NEVER HAS ONE!!” shouts Martina.
“THAT IS SOMETHING ELSE!!” shouts Robert.
The black sphere breaks apart slowly, and Diva emerges from inside with a completely foreign look.
*!*
Everyone takes a look at Diva’s new appearance.
Her hair turns completely white, her sclerae turn black, and her pupils turn red. Her veins are becoming visible near her eyes. Her skin color turns to a very dark purple. There is a pair of black horns growing from each side of her forehead that curves a bit to the front. She has two sets of fangs from her upper and lower teeth, each. She now only wears a black bra on her top and a pair of black, short skirts, with black fishnets as a pair of socks, and her feet are left bare. She has long claws growing on her fingers, with each claw being 50cm in length. She has a pair of pitch-black bat wings growing from her lower back, with each wing having a wing span of one meter. She has a tail with a spade on its tip growing from her tailbone, with a length of 1,5m. Across her entire body, there are small ‘cracks’ all over the place on various parts of her skin. There are also bigger ‘cracks’ across her entire body, which are located in her left cheek, her right waist, her left shoulder, her right forearms, her left thigh, her right shin, on her back to the left, and on the back of her left palm.
“D-Diva-chan. . .?” said Eissen.
“W-What is that?” said Mari.
“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
*!!!*
Diva suddenly shouts and lets out a very inhuman-like screech at a very high pitch, and it hurts everyone’s ears in the vicinity, except Mari. Everyone collectively covers both of their ears with their hands in quick reflex, except for Mari.
“AAAARRRRGGHHH!!!” shouts Eissen.
“H-Huh? I am not affected?” said Mari.
“AAAAAARRRRGGHHH!!!” shouts Martina.
“UUUUUUURRRGGGHHHH!!!” shouts Raiya.
“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
“AAAAAAAAAARRRGGHHH!!!” shouts Robert.
“IT HUURRTTSSS!!” said Raven.
. . . . .
And then Diva suddenly stops. Everyone focuses their gaze on Diva, and they all see her looking up, staring at the crescent moon above.
“Diva-chan! Are you there? What is that appearance?” asks Eissen.
. . . . . .
But Diva did not respond, nor did any part of her body move an inch or react to him.
*BWOOOOOOOOOSSSSSHHHHHHH*
Until suddenly, pre-emptively, Diva disappears from her spot, and she jumps forward towards a certain someone.
*!!!*
Diva swings her right claw at that someone.
*GRABS*
But that someone catches her arm on the wrist.
*!!!*
Everyone realizes too late when they finally see that Diva is attacking Mari for no concrete reason. Mari was the only one who saw her move due to her danger sense, and to her, she moved instinctively rather than something she planned from the start.
“So, why are you attacking me? If I recall, I’ve never met you in my life before. You have some kind of grudge against me?”
“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!”
“Understandable! I agree!”
Diva swings her left claw at Mari’s neck, but Mari simply stands still and lets her claw graze her.
*DAHK*
*!*
But Diva’s claw did not scratch even a bit of Mari’s skin. She has her Vein armor active, protecting her neck.
*BAAAMMM*
In turn, Mari punches Diva on her belly.
“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGHHHH!!!”
She grunts in pain and is sent flying 15 meters into the sky.
*FLAPS*
She flaps her wings and recovers in the air. She floats stably while looking down towards Mari.
“Okay, Ei-chan! Wanna explain what’s going on with your ex-girlfriend? Don’t tell me that she’s jealous of me since I am the one close to you right now!”
“I-I don’t think that’s the case! This has to be something else regarding her current form!”
Eissen turns towards his other friends.
“GUYS!! EXPLAIN!!”
“. . .”
Raven did not respond.
“Eissen-sama! This is. . . how should I say this. . . Maybe it is our last resort!” says Raiya.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Last resort?”
“We knew how strong and fast you are compared to all of us combined, and that’s why you’re our leader. But in order to fulfill our creed, the one that you yourself created. We’re not sure if we can kill you even when we gang up on you!” adds Martina.
“We all agreed that we should kill you, but none of us can guarantee that we wouldn’t hesitate when the time comes, no matter how strong a front we put up ourselves. So, that's where those syringes came from.” said Robert.
“We found a dealer in the Underworld and bought five of them, but Diva-chan insisted that she herself would find a backup plan in case the syringes turned out to be busts!” said Raiya.
“And that form right now seems to be what she was talking about back then! I apologize, Eissen-sama! We don’t really know the details.” adds Martina.
“. . .I should’ve never made that stupid creed!” said Eissen.
*BANG*
*!!!*
Diva suddenly fires her unmissable shot after summoning her sniper rifle.
*GRABS*
Mari catches the energy bullet with her bare hands, and it disperses in her hand. But then Diva summons the same sniper rifle in her other hand.
*BANG BANG*
And she now shoots two of her unmissable bullets at the same time at Mari.
*GRAB GRAB*
Mari once again flawlessly catches the two energy bullets with both hands.
“Ei-chan, you know her longer than I do. Was she always able to summon two sniper rifles at once? I don’t think she has ever done that before this transformation!”
“No! Her Faith power is simply that one sniper rifle that fires a bullet that always hits the target!”
“Then what am I seeing right now?”
*!!!*
Everyone looks towards Diva above, and she is suddenly summoning hundreds of her sniper rifles that float in the air around her, and they are all aimed and angled towards Mari on the ground.
“HOW IS SHE DOING THAT?” said Robert.
“IT’S PROBABLY BECAUSE OF THAT FORM OF HERS!!” said Raiya.
“Yet they’re all targeted towards me. Any idea why Ei-chan?? I had one, though!”
“Maybe it’s because that’s a genuine demon, and it fears you as a follower of God?”
“But you are also a follower of God!”
“The demon probably prioritizes the strongest person out of all of us here.”
“Eeeehhh?? Is that so? HEHEHEHEHE!! I am flattered!” said Mari, grinning widely like an idiot as she put her hand behind her head.
*BWOOOOONNNNNGGGGG*
*!*
Diva shot all of her sniper rifles, firing hundreds of red energy bullets towards Mari.
“M-MARI-CHAN!!”
Mari raises her right arm to the right and opens it. She summons her giant scythe, and its blade burns bright green.
“No worries, Ei-chan! I’m fine!”
Mari moves her scythe backward and swings it horizontally upwards.
*FWOOOOOOMMMM*
She sends out a large green fire slash four meters in length.
*BRSH BRSH BRSH BRSH BRSH BRSH BRSH BRSH BRSH BRSH*
And all of Diva’s energy bullets were eaten up by her green fire slash.
“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGGHHHH!!!”
Diva unsummons all of her sniper rifles, and she moves downwards towards Mari. She dodges Mari’s green fire slash easily, and it explodes into a giant explosion of green fire high above the sky.
*BWOOOOSSHHH*
Mari jumps up, approaching her, and she also surprises Diva with how fast she moved. They suddenly met in the air, four meters above the ground.
*!*
Mari is ready to swing her scythe, but Diva suddenly opens her right palm, and a pitch-black energy appears.
“(HUH? Yet something new, unrelated to her Faith power?)”
The pitch-black energy quickly shapes itself into a giant scythe as well, similar in size to Mari’s.
“HEEEE??? ARE YOU SO ARROGANT YOU WANNA COPY MY SCYTHE YOU LOW DEMON? FINE BY ME!!”
“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHH!!!”
Mari swings her scythe horizontally while Diva swings her scythe vertically downwards.
*CTANG*
*!*
“(EEHH?? That pitch black scythe of hers clashes as if it’s metal?)”
Both of their scythes’ blades connected with each other, but Mari’s swing was a lot more powerful, and it sent Diva’s pitch-black scythe away.
Mari immediately swings her scythe without giving her a break.
*ZRAAASSSHHHH*
But Diva swiftly moves down. Mari was aiming for her torso, but her left wing got cut in half instead. Diva swings her left leg upwards towards Mari’s chin.
*DAHK*
But Mari lets her kick land on her chin, and it does nothing to her. She looks downwards and smiles confidently.
“YOUR POWER COMES FROM DEMON, MY POWER COMES FROM GOD!! SOMEONE WHO RELIES ON DEMONS COULD NEVER HOPE TO COMPETE WITH SOMEONE WHO RELIES ON GOD!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!”
“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHH!!!”
Diva only shrieks loudly in response. Mari spins herself and does a spinning axe kick as she starts descending from the momentum of her jump.
“FALL!! DEMON!!”
*BAAAAAAAMMMM*
“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGGHHH!!!”
Mari kicks Diva right at the top of her head with her spinning axe kick. She tried to block the kick by raising her arms, but Mari’s kick came down a lot faster than her movement speed.
*GRAAAAHHKK*
Diva crashes into the ground headfirst, and she creates a 5-meter deep crater on impact.
*THUD*
Mari lands just outside the crater.
“Say, Ei-chan! From what I’ve observed, she behaves similarly to someone who’s in a Berserker state. She acts nothing like her usual self, and she has never spoken a word ever since she transformed. What do you suppose I do that is best for her?” said Mari as she turned her head around towards Eissen.
Eissen runs and stops next to Mari.
“Then, is it alright if we save her using the Sword of Purification’s Restoration method?”
“But of course!”
Mari opens her left hand and summons the Sword of Purification. She jumps into the crater towards the center, where Diva is. She is currently planted half into the ground, where only her waist and her legs are above the ground.
*THUD*
Mari lands next to her and grabs her left leg. She tries to pull her out of the ground.
*!*
*BRSSHHH*
But as she starts pulling her leg up, something sharp also came out of the ground from behind Mari, and it was aimed at her back.
*GRABS*
Mari swiftly unsummons her giant scythe and turns her body around, and catches the sharp object, just 2cm away from actually impaling her.
*?*
“Is this your tail? Oh, c’mon now! Sneak attacks don’t work against Armament-type Believers! Your host is an Armament-type Believer herself; you should’ve known about this, stupid, lowly demon!”
*BRRRSSSHHHH*
Suddenly, Diva’s head emerges from under the ground. She opens her mouth, and black energy starts swelling up from the inside of her mouth.
“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!”
*BWOOOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGG*
She shot a black laser from her mouth at Mari’s head. Mari swiftly moves her head minimally away and narrowly dodges the black laser. The distance between the black laser and her face was only 1,4cm away. The black laser quickly fades away afterward.
“Nice try!!”
*BAAAAAAMMMM*
*GRAAAHHKKKK*
“RAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!”
Mari lifts her right leg and stomps on Diva’s head into the ground quite hard. The ground around them was cracked in a three meters diameter radius. Diva’s head was forced to be buried deep back into the ground.
*BRRRSSSHHH*
Mari is still grabbing her leg, and she pulls her entire body out of the ground forcefully.
*DAHK*
She slams Diva down to the ground behind her. She walks towards her torso and crouches down.
“Alright, Ei-chan! I’m doing it now!”
“Please do, Mari-chan!” said Eissen.
Mari lifts the Sword of Purification to stab Diva on her chest.
“. . .*Sigh*”
Mari lets out a sigh. Her hand was suddenly grabbed by Raven on the wrist, who jumped next to her as soon as she crouched down.
Mari stands up and looks towards Raven.
“Alright, what do you want? Unhand me this instant! I’d rather be held by Ei-chan than any other man!”
“It seems like whatever it is you’re about to do will take Diva-chan out of her current form, correct?”
“Yup! Yup! This Sword is basically a power from God to save humanity from their acts of sin. It also works perfectly against demons and their kind!”
*thud thud*
Martina, Raiya, and Robert also suddenly stand close to Mari, surrounding her in the middle.
“And what’s with you all, now? You guys were pretty laid back during the entire time I was handling this friend of yours.” said Mari as she pointed at Diva on the ground.
“We can’t let you do that, then!” said Robert.
“Huh?? I’m basically saying I’m saving your friend from whatever demon is currently possessing her! Why are you trying to get in my way?”
“Because we need her to be in that form so that she can finally kill Eissen-sama!!” said Martina.
“HUH?”
“None of us is strong enough, or willing enough to actually kill Eissen-sama as we all fondly hold him dear in our hearts.” said Raiya.
“Everyone. . .” said Eissen.
“So, you’re saying, you want to push all of this responsibility on his ex to do all the dirty work?”
*!!!!!*
The four of them suddenly went silent after hearing what Mari said. They slowly realized the weight of the current situation really is.
It has been quite a while since Eissen has seen them all together like this, which triggers some memories of his past that he has long thrown away.
