Minato Ward—-
Shion dropped his mask and sized Zaria up. "Ah. Zaria, Zaria, Zaria."
He crushed her spear in his hand as she formed another one. Shion laughed. "You remind me of one of my peers. Yeah. He had that same drive you did."
His mask reformed. "I hoped you had a good time with Omariro. There will be no more!"
As he lashed out at her, Omariro quickly grabbed her and put her on his back, carrying her to safety. The Seventh Herald slammed the ground where she stood, turning his head to glare at them.
Omariro sat Zaria down, and she wrapped him in a hug, crying. "Master!"
He gave her a pat on the head. "Girl."
"Sir, Han betrayed us! He helped the Heralds! He gave them the files! Everything! I'm sorry, I didn't see through his lies! Please, forgive me—-!"
He stopped her with a hand. "Girl fine. All will be fixed."
She wiped her eyes. "A—are you sure, sir?"
Omariro nodded. "Herald must be dealt with."
The Seventh slowly stood up, eyes blazing. "YOU DID THIS! YOU WILL TAKE ME BACK! I WAS YOUR MOST TALENTED STUDENT, and you left me to DIE!"
His body began to charge with a mix of purple and white energy. Omariro tapped his staff. "Boy, stop!"
"Jugen-Daraku: Monsutā no Kakusei!"
An inhuman sound came from him as his armor crackled with dark energy, coating his body and giving him a more feral appearance. Two more eyes spawned from his mask, boring straight through Omariro.
"Sir, what's he doing?"
"Back, girl!"
With a swipe of his hand, blades the size of buildings flung through the streets, causing buildings all around to topple.
Zaria ducked off into an alleyway as Shion sent the blades flying at Omariro, who blasted them back with a powerful golden light blast.
Shion formed a large spear, sending it flying at Omariro.
"This is what you want, no? The lies you tell. The people you use. You were our father, and the moment you found the chance, you locked us away in the Abyss Dungeon, for DECADES! Now, you're coming TOO!"
He lunged at Omariro, tackling him, but Omariro teleported away and slammed him into the ground by his neck. "Boy will go back. Only place for boy."
The Seventh backhanded Omariro off of him with his right arm, forming a pair of charged axes that followed Omariro, exploding on impact.
By the time the smoke cleared, Zaria saw Omariro and Shion dueling in the center, going blow for blow. The Seventh's movements started becoming more erratic, his laughter echoing through the streets.
"He's losing his mind!" Zaria realized. "I've gotta help Master!"
Zaria rushed in, swinging her spear at Shion, but he blocked it with one arm, delivering a powerful backwards kick to her chest.
Zaria retaliated by throwing her spear at his helmet, but he caught it as she kicked him in the face, eliciting a laugh from him. "So this is the new top student? I see. I'll rip out her guts and splatter them across your walls! You'll have NOTHING! Nothing but us!"
He tried to punch Zaria, but Omariro stopped the blow with the palm of his hand. The Sevent punched Omariro in the face, but Omariro withstood the blow, rolling away.
"Boy does not realize mistake even now. Boy too far gone. Cage only portion."
"Hahahaha!"
He swung at Omariro's temple, but the latter dodged and countered with a barrage of blades, which Shion matched with his own. His claws extended, and he began slashing so hard that entire buildings collapsed.
Civilians ran, as Zaria pointed them to the exits. "All of you, ditch!"
The Seventh turned his head at an unnatural angle, looking at Zaria. Zaria tightened her grip on her spear, staring back at him.
In the blink of an eye, he was in front of her. She blocked his claws with her spear, but he delivered a slash to her shoulder, grazing it. Zaria thrust her spear at him again and again, but he effortlessly blocked them all with one hand.
"Hmph."
She kicked him in the head, briefly stumbling him, before he tossed her aside like a ragdoll. Omariro caught her, just as the Seventh formed dancing katanas around them, sending them forth.
Meanwhile—-
Gakuto was busy trading blows with Yuka, while Sōshin and the others dealt with the rest of the Dokkōdan army.
"How did it get this bad?" Nonoka questioned.
"We should have been here!" Rika lamented. "If it wasn't for Han, we could have still had our home! Now we have nothing, and they're coming to take our only hope!"
Rei blasted Mizuki and Kōichi back, who avoided her beams. "They won't! They'll pay for this!"
She stomped the ground, and moonlight erupted from it, blinding a wave of Dokkōdan thugs. Sōshin cleared through and knocked them all to the ground. One tried to grab Nonoka, but she tossed him off and sent him towards Rei, who blasted him.
Yuka slammed her hands on the ground, and a large ice hill formed, carrying her up. "Jugen-Mahōshi: Hyōga Sōmetsu!"
The ice shot out in waves, striking Gakuto repeatedly, but he crossed his arms and withstood it long enough to take off his helmet and fling it at the ice hill, cracking it. "Rika! Can you give me a hand, girlie!"
"Got it, Mr. Gakuto!"
She clasped her hands together and formed a sigil.
〈Sigil Created: Siphon.〉
An ice wave shot out, and Rika met it head-on, taking the brunt of the blow and shivering from the bitter cold.
The ice shot back, shattering Yuka's hill completely as Gakuto brushed the ice off Rika. "Nice work!"
"Thank you."
Mizuki and Kōichi regrouped with Yuka as Nonoka and the others ran behind Gakuto. "Mr. Gakuto, what's the play?"
"No idea," Gakuto admitted.
"No idea?" Nonoka gasped. "How? You're a Kaidanchō!"
"Yeah, but this is way outta my depth! Saving mind-controlled allies? That's more of a you kids thing!"
Rei tried to trap them in a shield, but Mizuki punched and kicked it until it cracked. A helicopter flew overhead, dropping more thugs onto the field.
"Just when you thought they couldn't get any deeper," Rika moaned. "This…this is ridiculous!"
They ran towards the group, but Nonoka tossed Sōshin at them, and he rolled into a ball, striking them down like bowling pins.
Kōichi trapped them all in a web as Yuka used another ice attack to freeze them in place.
"Shit!" Nonoka exclaimed. "I can't move!"
"Who should we execute first?" Kōichi questioned.
"Let's start with the Kaidanchō," Yuka proposed.
As she prepared an attack, a loud voice could be heard from above, catching everyone's attention.
"Jugen-Henshōsha: Kokuyōseki no Kentōshi!"
A large centaur golem slammed into the ground, shaking the entire area. Nonoka immediately recognized who it was. "Dad!"
Atsushi kicked various Dokkōdan thugs with his hind legs, before punching Mizuki and Kōichi into the ground. Yuka jumped back, her ice legs forming to match him.
"Should have stayed away, Kaidanchō of Stone," she warned.
Kaoru slid off his back, processing the scene. "My goodness, everything's a mess…
Atsushi split Kōichi's web with a slash of his arm, dropping the others to the ground and freezing them. He briefly shifted back to normal as Nonoka rushed to hug him. "Dad! What took you so long? Master's home is destroyed and we don't know if he's okay!"
"Nyugawa is a capable man," Atsushi assured. "Even more so than me. If I thought some traitorous Heralds could beat him, I would not have sent you to him."
Atsushi turned his attention to the rival Kaidanchō. "First you all leave the organization and slander our name. Then you allow these vermin to take hold of your minds. You are all failures to the Kaitansha HQ, one I must rectify."
They got into fighting stances as Atsushi looked at his group. "Yuka is mine. I hope you can handle the rest."
The group nodded.
Yuka wasted no time forming a massive ice eagle and directing it towards Atsushi as the latter scaled back into his golem form, catching the eagle in mid-air and ripping it apart.
Two more crashed into him, knocking him off balance. Yuka hopped on an eagle and followed Atsushi as they separated from the rest.
"That just leaves these two to us," Gakuto noted, pointing to Kōichi and Mizuki. "Be careful and don't hold back, they're still Kaidanchō!"
"Got it!" the kids replied.
"Ready? Attack!"
The two sides charged at each other.
Minato Ward—-
Zaria was holding on tight to Omariro's back as the latter evaded a furious Shion's attacks, each of which began dropping buildings after buildings.
"Sir, if we don't do something, he'll destroy the entire ward!"
A large greatsword impaled itself in the ground near the duo's feet. Another came from above, but surprisingly, it disappeared.
Shino ran over to them, breathing hard. "Sorry, guys! I'm here!"
"Shino, why did you follow me?" Zaria questioned.
"Because I wanna help!"
Omariro looked at her. "Girl brave. Fight will be deadly."
"That's okay, sir! I can take it!"
The Seventh watched, energy surging through his body. "So you've got a whole party forming, eh? Let's turn up the heat!"
His armor turned into a giant mech-like contraption, with four arms sprouting from his back and two massive legs. "Jugen-Henshōsha: Ruinform!"
Shino's eyes widened. "What is THAT?"
"He's as big as Kaidanchō Atsushi!" Zaria realized.
Without warning, the Seventh attempted to crush them all underfoot, but Omariro stopped it with his arm.
Zaria chucked her spear at the mech's head, but it merely bounced off his helmet. "Shino! Can you try chipping away at him?"
Shino flicked her fingers, erasing chunks of the Seventh's armor, but bit by bit, they regrew. "He's got regen! We need to hit him harder!"
As if in response, Omariro flung the Seventh into one of the abandoned buildings, decimating it entirely. The mech recovered immediately, forming a large spear just like Zaria's.
"What the—-? Sir, look out!"
Shion threw it like a javelin, but Omariro sliced it in half. "Jugen-Metsusha: Jigen Danretsu!"
The slash took off his mech's right arm as well, and Omariro pointed to it. "Opening clear. Move!"
Shino took the opportunity to erase more pieces of Shion's armor, while Zaria slid forward and kicked his right leg hard enough to crack it.
She jumped back as he used two of his arms to slam the ground near her feet, ripping off the top of the closest house and tossing the rubble at them.
Shino erased it as the damage to the Seventh's armor healed, good as new. He and Omariro locked eyes with each other.
"It's time we finish this, Master."
"Boy correct."
Shion prepared to step forward, but a portal opened above their heads, and from it Eighth and the Sixth dropped, landing between the two fighters.
"You," Zaria said, gritting her teeth.
Shino turned to Omariro. "Sir, watch out! He's on their side! He helped capture us!"
Han didn't move or speak.
The Sixth stepped forward, her voice a distorted mess. "I wanted to be nice. I wanted to politely invite you back. All of this was so you'd realize what you're missing. You think I wanted this, all this destruction?"
Omariro tightened his grip on his blade.
"But no. It seems violence is the ONLY LANGUAGE YOU SPEAK."
She slammed her hand against one of the houses, crumbling the entire city block on top of Omariro and the girls.
Omariro redirected the rubble back at the Sixth, but the Eighth formed an electric gate and used it to block it from hitting her.
Zaria threw her spear at Han, but he caught it, flinging it aside. The Seventh shifted out of his armor, landing beside the other Heralds.
"Three of them…" Shino worried. "What do we do?"
As the Sixth prepared her orbs, an ice eagle swooped in, catching her off guard and striking her in the face.
When the trio turned around, they saw Yuka, riding on the back of Atsushi's centaur form, along with the rest of the Kaidanchō and the rookies.
"Impossible…" Mirei gasped. "My control can't be undone!"
"Unfortunately for you," Yuka replied. "It would seem that a sufficient blow to the head can temporarily interrupt your transmission."
"And that was all we needed to pull them back!" Gakuto declared.
They all hopped off the centaur as the Sixth began to grow more unstable. "Argh! Why can't you all just die? Die! DIE!"
"Sorry," Kōichi shrugged. "I guess we're just hard to kill."
They all got into fighting stances as the Sixth stared them down, a look of madness in her eye.
"We'll see."
——