Volume 14 - CH 19

Chapter 19: Showdown between Demonic Beings

In the present, the representative battle between the terrorists representing Cradleland and the team representing Vermillion is leaning towards in favor of Vermillion. 4 people on Vermillion’s side are still standing while only 2 people on Cradleland’s side are left. However, it is still far from over since Cradleland’s side still has their main forces which consists of Or-Gaule who is capable of putting an entire country under his control and Naseem Al-Salem who possesses power that has destroyed many countries. While Iris Ascarid is facing Or-Gaule, Nene is facing Naseem. Nene and Naseem remain at the same place where Naseem released his Noble Art that blew everyone else far away during the beginning of the battle. After they released “Jibakujin” and “Mictlan · Tormenta”, Nene then uses “Kokutou · Yatagarasu”. Her Device “Beniiro Ageha” is a pair of iron fans and a gravity blade is formed on the closed fans with the appearance of a black light that is over 3 meters long. Nene makes an elegant dance movement that is similar to a Noh dance while swinging her sword towards Naseem. Nene’s fighting style is combat dance, which is a combination of her mastery of dance movements and the swordsmanship she learned from Nangou. Her sword dance only uses her senses and doesn’t require thought intervention to deliver a series of fast attacks like Ouma’s “Amatsukaze”. But unlike “Amatsukaze”, Nene’s fast movements don’t require fixed patterns and so it should be impossible for her opponent to read them. If Edelweiss’ sword technique is said to be the pinnacle of techniques, then the combination of Nene’s rare battle sense and aesthetic sense can be considered the pinnacle of talents. There shouldn’t be a way to sever this sword dance. Nene launches slashes towards Naseem but they are all intercepted by jabs from Naseem’s left hand that is protected by his gauntlet-shaped Device “Toxcatl”. Even though Nene has a reputation of being superior at close combat even in the A-League, she maintains the length of her gravity blade to deliver slashes from a certain distance. It is because she’s being cautious of Naseem’s right fist that can deliver his finishing move “Dead End Blow”. Naseem’s right fist which has destroyed a number of countries and killed a lot of people is even capable of crushing Nene’s “Hadou Tensei” in just one hit, so it’s natural that Nene doesn’t want to get close to him.

As Nene tries to maintain distance, Naseem tries to get close to her. Naseem’s advancing speed is faster than Nene’s retreating speed so eventually he will caught up to her. Once Naseem is close to her, Nene adjusts the reach of her gravity blade and parries the barrage of Naseem’s jabs. The difference in their body height makes it easier for Nene to narrow down the trajectory of Naseem’s incoming jabs which are aiming at her head. Nene then uses her gravity magic to create a spatial distortion in order to twist the trajectory of Naseem’s jab and so he pulls back his left fist. But during that moment, Nene bends her body very low to attack Naseem’s ankle with her gravity blade. Naseem’s boxing style fighting has a weakness of leaving his lower body nearly unprotected. Nene’s attack should be unavoidable, but Naseem is able to stop the incoming blade by stomping on it. Naseem then uses his finishing move “Dead End Blow”, which his right fist is powered by his drying ability. He launches “Dead End Blow” in a form of uppercut that targets Nene’s chin, but Nene let goes of her stomped Device in order to dodge his attack. Nene then creates a distance from Naseem and gets her Device back in her hand using gravitational pull. They both end up back where they started, but Naseem is convinced that he’s the superior one in this battle.

Nene then recreates her 3 meter long gravity blades again in order to keep maintaining her distance. Naseem is moving in towards Nene and once again is getting closer while Nene is trying to maintain her distance by moving backwards and keeps swinging her blades towards Naseem who just sweeps away the incoming attacks by punching them. Suddenly, the crushed gravity blades crumble and the crumbled pieces become countless black butterflies. Nene is using her Noble Art “Kokushichou” to create 200 butterfly-shaped super gravity energy mines that are surrounding Naseem. But Naseem is not agitated and is just standing there with his eyes closed. Nene causes the butterflies to explode and Naseem shouldn’t be able to defend with just using his left hand. However, Naseem ends up being okay despite being hit by the blows of the gravity mines. Out of the 200 butterflies, only 12 of them were lethal to him while the rest were just decoys that would only give him pain. So all Naseem had to do was using his left hand to crush the lethal ones and let the rest of the butterflies hit him. Nene is surprised that Naseem was able to tell and Naseem says it’s because he can predict the future. Naseem was born from the belly of a woman that got hit by a bomb in a place where dictators and rebels had war for half a century, and so death was always around him. Because he was born in such condition, he has developed a sixth sense which he refers to as “super war sensitivity”. Naseem is able to sense his enemy’s killing intent even before it is inside the enemy’s head to send out commands to their body. Thus, he will always be ready to deal with his enemy’s next move and surprise attacks don’t work on him. Naseem says the only way for Nene to defeat him is to unleash a powerful attack with everything she’s got.

Naseem manages to get very close to Nene and fires a barrage of left punches again. Nene tries to twist the trajectory of the punches by creating spatial distortion with her gravity magic like before, but Naseem is able to fix the bent trajectory immediately. Nene is able to repel the barrage of punches with her dance movements and Device. Even though it looks like a fierce close range battle, Naseem feels like he’s only hitting cloth and all of his punches are being repelled. He thinks that Nene is using Nangou’s boasted technique called “Kenkyoku · Tsurugi no Mai (Sword Music · Dance of the Sword)”, which the user endures the enemy’s attacks until the threat passes by receiving the enemy’s attacks infinitely with soft defense and rotating their body as if dancing in order to repel the impact of the attacks. Nangou was left unscathed during the fierce battles in the southern front of World War 2 and was nicknamed “Flawless” at the time. However, Nene replies that the beautiful dance she’s using right now is actually something much better than the octopus-like dancing that Nangou uses. Nene is only focusing on defense, so Naseem can’t sense any killing intent from her. But he can tell that Nene is inviting him to attack her with his right hand. Naseem then launches his right fist towards Nene and she moves back to get out of the range of “Dead End Blow”. However, Naseem uses “Alquimia · Hierro” to create a thick iron wall behind Nene in order to prevent her escape. “Dead End Blow” then launches towards Nene’s head and at that moment Nene moves the Device in her hand. It shouldn’t be possible to deal with “Dead End Blow” while struggling to escape. However, “Dead End Blow” ends up passing above Nene’s head and crushes the iron wall behind her. Nene then is about to launch a counterattack at Naseem with her Device in both hands. Naseem realizes this is Nene’s aim and he is surprised because he didn’t sense her killing intent. Nene’s gravity blades prevent Naseem turning into sand, and so the ten slashes she delivers cut off parts of his body with blood coming out and organs exposed. Nene says Naseem’s ability to sense his enemy’s killing intent is incredible but that also means he’s reading his enemy’s heart. For Nene, killing Naseem is like killing an insect and so her heart won’t be moved from that.

The black aura that Nene and Naseem scattered in the beginning of their battle made it difficult for Boomer and the people watching live coverage of the war to see their battle. But the afterglow of magic power has cleared up and everyone watching can now see that the area where Nene and Naseem are fighting has turned into a waste land of 3 km in diameter. Everyone watching also sees that Nene is standing on the battlefield while Naseem is on the ground with his body shredded. Everyone in Vermillion is cheering at this development and praises Nene. Boomer comments that Naseem in his current state might not be saved even if he is put into a Capsule immediately and that anyone surviving this state can’t be human. However, Nene knows that it is still not over yet because Naseem is not stupid enough to get defeated like this and so she tells him to get back up. Suddenly, Naseem is laughing and raises his body. Boomer is shocked that Naseem is alive and treats it like it was nothing even though Naseem’s body is heavily damaged with so many blood and his guts coming out. Nene understands how this is possible while looking at her fingers that are bent in unlikely directions. Other than his “super war sensitivity” that enables him to sense his enemy’s killing intent even before it commands their body to attack, Naseem also possesses fast reaction speed which limits his opponent’s surprise attacks. During Nene’s counterattack, Naseem hit Nene’s fingers with his left hand which caused Nene’s advance and slashes to be shallow. A person can remain alive for tens of seconds even if their heart is pulled out and so it is necessary to split their brain into two to ensure instant death. But Nene’s slashing to Naseem’s head didn’t reach his brain and so he can recover after reconstructing his body. After Nene fixes her broken fingers by applying compression and gravity magic, Naseem has gotten up but for some reason he didn’t fix the lacerations on his face and left it bleeding.

Naseem says he was surprised that “Dead End Blow” was deflected but now understands that Nene had used Naseem’s own strength. Nene confirms it by explaining that the technique she used can circulate the force of the opponent’s attack and return it back while in a dance. Unlike Ikki’s “Madoka” that returns back the power of the absorbed attack immediately, the combination of Nene’s dance movements and gravity ability makes it possible to accumulate all of the power she continuously absorbed. Thus, Nene was stealing all of the power from Naseem’s jabs and uses it to deflect “Dead End Blow”. This is her Noble Art “Yaksha Kagura” that she developed based on Nangou’s technique. It is a remarkable technique but what made Naseem surprised the most was how his “super war sensitivity” didn’t sense Nene’s killing intent. Killing intent is a strong feeling that can overcome a person’s primal repulsion in killing another person. Even if killing intent can be hidden by training, Naseem’s “super war sensitivity” can still detect it as long as it’s not removed completely. He had never failed to notice any killing intent before, even when he faced Edelweiss in the Middle East as a government mercenary. Killing someone without having a killing intent can only be done by someone who doesn’t value life like Naseem. Therefore, Naseem believes Nene is like him, a person who doesn’t have such moral feelings and is a monster covered in human skin. It’s because she’s such a monster that she is capable of killing him, and so this makes him happy. Naseem became so strong that he got tired of living and so he accepted Or-Gaule’s invitation in the hope of being fulfilled from making half of the world his enemy. He believes Nene can satisfy his thirst for war and so declares to her that the real war starts now.

Naseem puts his fingers on the wound on his face and strongly tears the skin off as shown in a pic. He then releases a huge scream and an aura from his whole body which becomes a strong gust of wind. The black mana surrounding him is gradually turning into a golden glow that illuminates the night and his physical appearance is changing. When the dust is clear everyone can see that Naseem’s body has gotten bigger and the color of his muscles become black with obsidian-like gloss, tearing his skin and clothes. The flesh on his face peeled down to the ground and his eyes melted like a burned corpse. Water buffalo-like horns are protruding from his skeleton-like head, bat-like wings have risen from his back, and reptile-like tail has grown from his waist. Boomer comments that Naseem’s appearance is like that of a demon and wonders what kind of Noble Art this transformation is. But Nene understands it is not a Noble Art from the golden shine in Naseem’s empty eye sockets and drastic change in his amount of mana. This transformation is called “Excessive Awakening”. Achieving “Brute Soul” is when a Blazer overcomes fate and transforms their soul into a person not bound by fate, and so it is called that because it is like having the soul of a beast. There is a rumor that a Desperado using the power from undergoing “Brute Soul” too much will result in their body changing to match the shape of their changed soul and they will also gain enormous power in exchange of losing their humanity. Desperados are rare and so this rumor was never verified, but Nene mutters that it seems it’s not just a rumor. Naseem replies, in a voice with low growl that is like bellows, that this form represents his true self. What he wants is not a relaxing life, but devoting everything he has by being very close to death. He also believes that Nene desires the same thing even right now. Nene replies that she won’t turn into something hideous like him, but Naseem replies that she will because he will force her to.

Naseem rushes towards Nene though it is slower than before. Nene thinks his huge demonic body increases his attack power but decreases his speed. He is also using kicks with big motion instead of just jabs and so the number of strikes he’s delivering at Nene is less than half of it was before. Nene is receiving the strikes with “Yaksha Kagura” and it shouldn’t be possible for Naseem to break through her Noble Art with a rush that is even slower than before. However, Nene is actually having a hard time because each of Naseem’s strike is much more powerful than before. The amount of mana Naseem possesses now easily surpasses even Stella’s that is said to be the highest in the League of Mage-Knight Nations and his mana control is also very high now. All of his enormous mana is put into his punches and kicks. There is a limit to how much of the absorbed power that Nene’s “Yaksha Kagura” can accumulate. If Nene continues to receive Naseem’s powerful attacks with her dance, her body will be twisted. Thus she slips into a gap in his rush and delivers ten fast consecutive slashes at him. However, there is not even a scratch on his black body. Nene realizes that the mana protecting his body is much stronger than the energy of Nene’s “Yatagarasu” gravity blades. Once again Nene is caught by Naseem’s rush and she endures his strikes with “Yaksha Kagura”. Nene suffers some mental damage after seeing Naseem defended against her Noble Art with just mana alone, but her defense hasn’t weakened. She slips into a gap in Naseem’s rush and delivers a slash powered with all the energy accumulated by “Yaksha Kagura” at him. However, Naseem uses his tail to turn his body around sideways in order to dodge the slash. He then counterattacks by launching an uppercut with his glowing left arm which Nene manages to evade with just a graze on her right arm. Suddenly, Nene cuts off her right arm from the shoulder with her Device in left hand. When her arm crumbles as soon as it drops to the ground, everyone watching understands that if she hadn’t cut it off then the rest of her body would have crumbled as well from Naseem’s drying ability. From Naseem’s very lethal power, Nene is convinced that he now possesses fighting power comparable to Arthur Bright, Abraham Carter and the “Tyrant”.

Nene then escapes to the night sky using her gravity ability. Naseem follows by kicking the ground strongly and soars to the sky with his wings flapping. Nene then uses “Hadou Tensei” at maximum firepower, which a shower of thirteen meteorites with diameter of 20 meters fall towards Naseem. Soon afterwards, Naseem’s whole body is shining brightly and he uses “Mictlan · Tormenta”. The golden light from his body and the black dust wind have merged together to form a giant tornado that is rising towards the sky. The tornado swallows all of the meteorites, turning them into dust, and it continues to rise towards Nene. She uses her gravity ability to place her two fan-shaped Devices in front of her and forms a butterfly-shaped magic shield. The tornado swallows Nene and she does her best to endure it. After it passes, her device is worn out with countless cracks and her skin is dry with loss of complexion. Naseem then suddenly gets above Nene and launches “Dead End Blow” towards her with his shining right arm. Nene tries to block with her Device but Naseem’s finishing move crushes the embodiment of her soul, causing her loss of consciousness at the same time. The right fist ends up hitting Nene’s chest and then her body is blown away from the sky towards the ground hard. Desperados have human bodies but their souls are not that of humans, making them existences that are on the boundary between humans and demons. Naseem has crossed over that boundary, which he stopped being human and became a demon. As a result, he is able to fully exercise the power of an inhuman soul which couldn’t be done if he still had a human body. Naseem descends down to the ground to check Nene’s status and he finds her still standing. However, Nene is making an eerie smile and then laughs in a sharp voice with her shoulder shaking. Naseem understands that the blow just now had crushed the ego belonging to Nene as a human and now something buried deep within the Desperado known as the “Yaksha Princess” has awakened. He then says that they are the same like he thought and tells her to not hold back anymore. At that moment, black mana with red light rises from Nene’s whole body and her body is changing. Her lost right arm is now replaced with a new one made from super gravity magic, her white eyes have become dark with the irises shining as if burning, and a pair of horns has grown on her forehead. As shown in a pic, her appearance has become like that of a demon. Immediately after, the killing between two monsters has begun.

Nene rushes towards Naseem and launches her right fist at him, which he intercepts with his left fist. The collision between the two fists cause a huge shockwave but the two Desperados remain in the center of the waste land. Naseem then hits Nene’s head with his right fist which would have killed the usual her from before but she is able to withstand it now. Nene also hits Naseem’s side with her left fist but he doesn’t waver. He then joins both of his fists together and drops them down like a hammer towards the back of Nene’s head. She doesn’t fall to the ground and instead jumps up to deliver a knee strike to Naseem’s chin. As he moves one step back, she immediately delivers a jump kick that hits his head. Naseem doesn’t falter and grabs Nene’s ankle to throw her down towards the ground. He tries to stomp Nene’s face but she kicks the approaching foot with both of her own feet. His body is blown away from her while she gets back up, causing them to stand opposite of each other. They then exchange blows with their fists, just beating up each other without skills and tactics. Everyone who is watching doesn’t understand the power Naseem and Nene are displaying but they do know that they are fighting equally now. The people of Vermillion are cheering for Nene but Sirius is giving out cold sweat since he understands better than the others just how terrifying Nene is in her current form. Back when Stella and the others were going to Edelberg and Nene was going to prepare for this battle, Sirius became frightened when Nene seriously told him not to let anyone come close to her and he also thought he saw horns on her head. He wonders if this female demon can be stopped even if she defeats Naseem.

Nene’s body is blown back after receiving continuous blows in the abdomen, but she stops her blown away body with gravity magic. As Nene approaches him, Naseem uses “Alquimia · Hierro” to create a line of spears coming out from the ground. However, Nene just breaks through the line of spears while knocking down the blades without receiving even a single cut on her exposed skin. After Nene and Naseem achieved “Excessive Awakening”, their bodies are now wrapped in high amount of mana and the only way to break through each other’s armor is to deliver directly a blow charged with even more powerful mana. Nene delivers a punch with her right arm that is filled with high amount of mana but Naseem blocks it by crossing his arms. He then returns a punch back to her but she deflects it with “Yaksha Kagura”. She uses the power of the blow she just received to power up a turning kick that hits his body’s flank. Nene continues her rush of attacks and Naseem feels impressed while defending. Nene should be still unconscious after gotten hit by “Dead End Blow”, but her trained body knows what to do on its own. Nene has gotten much stronger due to the increase of mana from “Excessive Awakening”, but Naseem is confident that he will win. He survived wars as a mercenary and is now feared to the point that no country wants to hire him anymore and many countries in the Middle East would band together just to kill him. Going up against the entire world is his war and his “Brute Soul” is the power he gained to overcome this war. Nene on the other hand obtained “Brute Soul” from her time in the KOK A-League which is just a fighting entertainment show to Naseem and she also had achieved “Excessive Awakening” just now. Naseem launches a powerful “Dead End Blow” on Nene but she delivers a powerful counter to his abdomen. He is confused because he can tell that the power didn’t come from his own power stolen by “Yaksha Kagura”. He then launches a kick and a tail attack, but both don’t affect her. Nene then launches a rush of attacks and Naseem is being pushed back. As he is guarding himself from Nene’s fists and kicks, cracks are formed on his body and his black flesh begins to peel off. Naseem understands now that Nene’s mana is continuing to rise above his level. She already had this much mana from the start but couldn’t use it while in human form. Naseem can’t believe that Nene could have increased her mana this much after achieving “Brute Soul” since she has been immersed in a warm environment by being part of the League of Mage-Knight Nations.

Nene’s mana finally reaches the level where Naseem can no longer receive her blows, and her fist crushes both of his arms. His arms shattered like ore and golden body fluid is gushing out. He tries to fight back using kicks but Nene immediately crushes his legs up to the knees. With his limbs gone, he collapses to the ground and then tries to use his tail to attack. However, Nene grabs his tail and tears it off. She then strikes Naseem’s body with “Jibakujin”, preventing him from regenerating his limbs. She also grabs his body on the ground to turn it over and then stomps on his chest many times. When someone enters the state of “Excessive Awakening”, their whole body becomes one with their Device and thus their body is as strong as their Device. Despite having such strong body, cracks are formed and body fluid spurts out every time his chest is hit. Nene is soaked with his body fluid that is a mixture of his blood and mana. She licks the body fluid that has scattered on her cheek and straddles Naseem who is lying on his back. As shown in a pic, Nene lays her body on top of Naseem’s and licks the wound on his chest while laughing in a seductive way. Everyone who is watching becomes silent after realizing that this demon is a completely different existence from the Nene they know. Nene herself, who is finally starting to emerge from a dark place in her vague consciousness, is staring at her changed self. Looking at herself in such state, Nene makes a bitter smile. She knew that she’s similar to Naseem, a person who is addicted to violence and craves to exert their power. Ever since the day she beat her stepfather to death, she had felt pleasure in seriously beating up people who annoy her without feeling guilt. There was only one reason why someone like her didn’t end up becoming like Or-Gaule or Naseem and became part of the League of Mage-Knight Nations. She wanted to settle her score with Kurono and pay back to her the humiliation she had experienced for the first time in her life by ten times. However, Nene’s wish didn’t come true when Kurono retired. As a result she didn’t feel like aiming for the top in the KOK and since then her frustration accumulated. But now the power she obtained after achieving “Brute Soul” for the purpose of fighting Kurono can be used on the enemy right in front of her instead. The fulfillment she’s having right now is what she has always been seeking and so what happens to the “human” named Nene Saikyo shouldn’t matter. However, she wonders if that’s really the case.