Chapter 662: A Destined Showdown.
"And this is the last-... ORAAA!" Leona punched a Behemoth in the head and sent it flying into the sky.
She kicked the Behemoth in the air and caught the monster by the legs; then, with ridiculous force, she spun in the air and threw the Behemoth towards a pile of monster corpses.
She disappeared again, reappearing above the Behemoth, and punched the monster, opening a hole in its head.
BOOOOM!
The monster fell to the ground with a crash that caused a tremor all around them.
The 10-meter-tall gigantic monster was treated like a fancy toy by the Werewolf girl.
"Ahhh! Leona! What are you doing? Don't destroy the monster's body! We need it to create more armor!!"
"Shut up, Eleonor! I'm still angry, okay!?"
"And you Werewolves say our Race is temperamental!" Eleonor grumbled.
"Look at that, and say you're wrong." Leona pointed to a particular location.
"...." Eleonor looked where Leona pointed and saw Sasha and Violet cooking a Hunter.
"Hey, Hey. Don't you think it's ridiculous? My Husband has been kidnapped. He's alone, hungry, and in a dark place, and I can't do anything about it. It's annoying, you know?"
The Hunter screamed in agony as Violet literally cooked its insides.
"Don't scream! Talk to me! I need explanations! My emotions are shaken! And I need to talk!"
"Here, Violet. Try this method." Sasha pulled out a dagger imbued with Lightning and handed it to Violet, who took it and began slowly cutting the flesh of the still-living monster.
"It's unfair. My Husband can't take care of himself; he needs us with him to spoil him and for him to spoil us too. Ahhh, I miss him so much. I need to smell him on me again… This is all your fault… All your fault…. You fucking monsters…."
Violet's tone was utterly distorted into various negative emotions, anger, hate, despair, and disappointment.
"....."
"See? Even you don't know how to react." Leona spoke.
"Isn't she getting worse every day?" Eleonor asked.
"Yes, she is, but she's coping with many 'items' that Victor used. She practically sleeps in his clothes now, to smell him throughout her sleep."
"Fuck, she needs help," Eleonor murmured.
"Wrong, she needs Victor." A voice was heard all around.
Leona and Eleonor looked to the side and saw Ruby accompanied by her sisters.
"If Victor had left normally, she wouldn't be like this. She's going back to her old self, and that's bad," Ruby said.
"Is it safe to say that Agnes will be the same?"
"Not just Agnes… Eve, Leona, Nero, Roberta, Kaguya, possibly Sasha, Ophis, and Bruna too." Ruby spoke.
"Don't forget to add yourself to the list too, Ruby," Lacus spoke in a neutral tone.
"...." Ruby was silent.
"My little sister can hide it really well, but she misses him the most," Pepper added.
"Right, me too." Ruby sighed.
"I will not deny what you said about me… Because you are correct… But girls, you are forgetting something important." Leona added
"... What?"
"Who will tell Victor's parents about what happened?" Leona asked.
"…Fuck." Ruby and Siena spoke at the same time.
"Can we just ignore that?" Pepper spoke uncertainly.
"Not ideal. If Anna finds out her son has gone to literal Hell, and we didn't tell her, she'll be very upset in the future and worried too." Leona spoke.
"Not to mention, we have to think about the possibility that Victor probably won't be back anytime soon," Eleonor said.
"..." The girls looked at Eleonor.
"What? It's just a possibility, you're blatantly ignoring it, and someone needs to tell you the reality of the situation."
Ruby sighed, "Although I don't want to admit it, Eleonor is correct."
"The best way to deal with this is to take it one step at a time. Victor is completely fine, and his bond with Aphrodite and Roberta runs very deep, something even a 'hell' of a lot of distance can't erase." Siena spoke and continued:
"We must figure out what to do now and calm these girls down… Especially Sasha. I've never seen her act like this before."
"Haah, you're right too, Sis," Ruby spoke.
"Are we back to work then?" Eleonor spoke.
"Yes, back to work." Ruby nodded.
…
A week had passed, and there was only one week left. Helena still hadn't moved; she was spending time getting to know each of her subordinates in order to put together a definitive strategy.
Vine, Vepar, and Helena looked at each other in a circle away from Victor.
"So, do you already have a plan in mind?" Vine asked.
"Yes, I do, but even my best one is impossible to do without casualties," Helena replied while biting her lip; she couldn't find a plan she could execute without risking casualties.
"... Do you think the test is actually carrying out the plan without casualties?" Vepar asked.
"..." The two Demon women looked at Vepar with raised eyebrows.
"What do you mean?" Vine asked.
"I mean, no matter how you look at it, it's impossible to avoid casualties in war, especially when you attack a Pillar Rank that has over a million Demons at its command."
"Even if my Master is a kind man, I don't think he would care so much about the death of random Demons. After all, these deaths are not true 'death' as he caused." Vepar spoke.
Vine hesitated briefly and said, "... Probably not, but-."
"But I will do it anyway." Helena interrupted Vine.
Vine and Vepar look at Helena.
"He is the first to recognize me as Helena, not a 'Gremory'. He is a Lord worth serving, unlike my father. I want to prove his trust in me is correct."
"..." The two already had nothing more to add if she was so determined.
Demons were simple Beings.
The reason for this was their society, where the strong had more voice. Hell was a place where only the strong were right.
If you were defeated, there were no 'laws' that could help you.
Here, the Law of The Jungle reigned supreme.
And usually, in this kind of environment, female Demons hardly had a chance to become 'powerhouses'.
Look at the history of Demons; just how many women were featured?
Lilith, and her General, The Reaper.
Just two women.
The rest were all male Demons. Even the most famous Demon was a male.
Lucifer, The First of The Fallen.
For someone like Victor, who was giving the women a chance to prove themselves and giving them strength if they lived up to his expectations, he was a gentleman worthy to serve.
All he was looking for was competence; in return, he would give you power,
Power that would make everyone recognize her for who she was and not for the name she carried.
'I will do this. I will conquer the city,' Helena thought with determination as she looked at Victor sitting on his Ice Throne.
Suddenly, Victor opened his eyes, and that scared Helena a little.
'Was I watching too much?' Helena thought.
Victor remained in the same position, but his broad smile was now evident to everyone. Something was happening, something they couldn't see; that fact was painfully obvious.
"Lord Vic-." When Vine was about to ask what was wrong,
She heard the sound of a horse neighing, and she quickly turned towards where Victor was looking, and soon she saw... Four Horsemen.
A Being with utterly black armor mounted on a black horse with green flames coming out of its eyes, hooves, and tail. On his back were two scythes connected into a giant scythe, The Horseman of The Apocalypse, Death.
Beside Death was his brother, riding a red horse that, like his brother's, was also wreathed in flames, the Flames of Hell. He was wearing deep black armor with shades of red, and behind him was a massive greatsword, The Horseman of The Apocalypse, War.
Next to War was a Knight wearing only a cloak, very different from his previous brothers, who were in full armor. In addition, the knight had a slashing spear that looked very plain, like an ordinary spear found anywhere.
He was riding a horse that looked like it hadn't been fed in years. But even though it seemed so frail, the horse still had a fierce glow on its face, a glow that was swallowed up by the blue flames produced by its eyes.
He was the Horseman of The Apocalypse, Famine.
Beside him was a corrupted knight, as if he had come out of the depths of a foreboding part of Hell. The representation of disease was there with his pale horse full of worms, covered in white flames.
The Horseman of The Apocalypse, Pestilence.
The Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse were here.
Diablo's executioners, Beings, who would, according to the Bible, usher in the Apocalypse. The Elite Demons that everyone, even Pillar Rank Demons, feared.
Everyone's tension was visible. Even if there were only four foes before them, the Demons were even tenser than when they fought Victor.
Surprisingly, Helena was the first to leave their collective stupor as she assumed a severe expression, "All of you, get out of the way now! Use your wings and fly as far away from the Horsemen as possible!"
Helena's scream was heard across the entire battlefield, which woke all the Demons from their stupor.
Including Vine and Vepar.
Soon the two Pillar-Rank Demons started giving orders to drive away the Demons.
Making a mental note to reward Helena for her quick thinking and understanding of the situation, Victor continued to look at the riders on their respective horses heading toward him.
Soon, all the Demons had gotten as far away from Victor as possible, and the Four Horsemen as they looked on from afar with curious, apprehensive faces.
In this case, those with apprehensive faces were more from Vepar, Vine, and Helena.
"What should we do? What should we do?" Helena muttered several times while biting her nail with her teeth. She was using her brain to the fullest but couldn't find solutions for this situation other than using force.
"We can't do anything. This is not something we can interfere with." Vine spoke.
There was a reason these Four Horsemen were Diablo's executioners.
They were, without a doubt, the strongest.
"And My Lord will not back down from a challenge… He will never do that; that is his pride." Vepar added.
"We can't even run away either, and if we do run away, where will we go? We don't have a base of operations." Helena spoke.
"… Everything depends on our Lord now," Vine said while nodding.
"..." The three women looked worriedly at the scene before them.
The Four Horsemen stopped their approach in front of Victor and lifted their heads.
Victor was sitting on a hill on the same Ice Throne with an amused expression; the smile of interest on his face was unmistakable.
'Arrogant.' Death snarled in thought but didn't speak aloud.
"Looks like we've met again, Alucard," War spoke in a deep, heavy voice, his eyes behind the Helmet glowing with Hellfire itself.
"…Oh?" Victor's smile widened, "You weren't as blind as I expected, huh."
"I'm War; that's natural. I could feel your desire to fight even though I wasn't looking at you."
"I didn't expect the opportunity to appear so suddenly. I'm really quite fortunate."
"You feel lucky...?" The Horseman, hidden by the cloak, spoke with disbelief visible in his tone of voice, "This is not the reaction I expected."
"Heh~? What reaction did you expect, Horseman of the Apocalypse, Famine?"
"I expected to see you shaking with fear and hiding."
"..." Silence fell around until a chuckle began to be heard.
"Hahahaha-..." Victor put his hand on his face and started laughing even harder, "HAHAHAHAHA!"
Until his laughter disappeared utterly, and a neutral face was seen:
"Me? Hide and tremble with fear...?" His voice started to get even heavier, "From who? You?"
"That's the funniest joke I've ever heard in my entire life."
"Tell me." An invisible pressure began to cover everyone, Victor's long hair began to defy gravity, and the moment Victor placed his hand back on his chin, he asked the question:
"Why should I hide?"
FUSHHHHHHH.
A pillar of red Power soared into the heavens, and as if the world itself had fallen on top of everyone, gravity seemed to multiply several times over.
"!!!!" Everyone opened their eyes in disbelief.
"Why should I tremble with fear?"
With just Victor's presence, the entire atmosphere became hundreds of times more suffocating, and with every question he asked, it felt like Hell itself was bending to his will.
"I-Impossible-..." Death spoke in disbelief. Long ago, the four riders had fallen from their respective horses and were trying not to kneel on the ground.
"Shouldn't it be the other way around?" Victor stood from his Throne, grabbed Junketsu, and spread both arms in an open pose, and the pressure he was exuding seemed to multiply even more. Not even Victor's appearance was visible now; only his silhouette and blood-red eyes were visible.
'S-So much Power…' Famine thought while having trouble breathing.
'He's gotten insanely stronger since the last time... In fact, was he this strong before?' War thought as, with sheer willpower, he stood up while looking at the Being before him.
Wrong, the monster.
And that look in his eyes sparked a memory of before he came to Hell.
War now understood Baal's warning.
Before coming to this mission, Baal warned everyone not to underestimate Victor, or they would lose.
Something that even War himself, who was very cautious, snorted in disdain at. They were the Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse, you know? Only the 1st Rank Demon Pillar and 'Wrath' of The Deadly Sins could deal with them together, of course, not counting their King.
"I-Incredible... That's my Lord's Power." Vine commented in disbelief, with fanaticism shining on her face.
Helena didn't even say anything as she just stared at this vision as if she were burning the image into her brain,
The image of Victor standing on top of a hill with literal Power pouring out of his body as the Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse, the most feared Demons in Hell, were helpless in his mere presence.
'I was correct...' Vepar thought: 'My instincts weren't wrong, he's exceptional... Wrong, he's beyond exceptional.' Exceptional was an insult to him.
War gritted his teeth, grabbed the greatsword behind him, and Hellfire covered the greatsword's blade.
With a battle roar, he forced his power out of his body and fought that heavy feeling.
Driven by their older brother's actions,
Death, Pestilence, and Famine did the same.
Death took out his two scythes.
Pestilence picked up a whip that seemed to cut through flesh easily.
Famine grabbed the Glaive behind him.
Victor's smile grew again, and the pillar of pure power stopped coming out of his body. He pointed his right hand forward toward the Four Horsemen, and with a calling gesture, he said:
"Come on, Horsemen. Let's dance."
.....
