Demonic Battle! Hell vs. Vintage
1806
The Underworld, a vast dark dimension that connected every fiber of the cosmos to one another. In this realm where demons, youkai, and other supernatural abominations lived, were several great subsections, like Makai and the Abyss, the ancestral homelands of all demonkind. But by far the most imposing region of them all, the grand capital of the underworld, was Hell itself. Heated from beneath by the nuclear plant founded in the ruins of the previous Hell, the capital was a fiery, nightmarish city, where all the souls of the dead ultimately went. Here was the greatest of the Yama, those judges of the dead, and the very Ruler of Hell herself. And in the middle of Hell, was the great Palace of Shadows, where the Ruler of all Demonkind, Persephone, ruled. It was a towering and imposing structure that could be seen from all across the rest of the Underworld. It was a symbol of power and authority, one that few dare to question.
However, far off in the distance, standing up upon a cliff ledge, with a vast cloud of darkness behind her, was one such demon who was ready to overthrow Hell. She was a tall figure, of roughly 6 feet, with short white hair, pale skin, and a cloak over the rest of her. She also wore a pair of glasses, something that most demons frowned upon, for it was a trait of humanism, something they wished to avoid. Her name was Fiore, which she had named herself after the demon she had seen in the other dimension that was called, “TKFA”
“Lord Akuro, we are ready to begin the assault over here. Delta Team should also be in position by now.” She whispered into a small device that extended from her ear to the front of her mouth.
“ Good… Begin the assault then.” A raspy voice hissed from the microphone. Fiore took the microphone from her ear, turned it off, and put it into her pocket. Then, she raised up her hand.
It was the signal to attack.
From the cloud behind her, an orange beam shot out and raced across the sky before it impacted one of the spires of the Palace of Shadows. The spire groaned, before it collapsed, descending down to the ground below, where numerous demons were now panicking and running for their lives.
The battle, had just begun.
The dark cloud echoed with screeches and hoots as giant, demonic bats flew out and headed right for Hell. With wingspans of over 30 meters, these were far larger, and more dangerous than the average bat. The female demon leapt up and grabbed the leg of the largest bat, a 120 meter monster of a bat, and hoisted herself onto it’s back. As they flew overhead, the bats let out their horrible sonic blasts, tearing apart the city as they came. More and more bats poured out of the dark cloud, unopposed…
But Hell wasn’t going to go down without a fight
Above their heads, the bats suddenly began to hear the sounds of leathery wings beating, before a sonic cutter sliced through one bat, then another. Before long, the bats were getting sliced apart. In retaliation, many of the bat squads turned upward to take on the threat. Above them, were the Gyaos flocks, millions strong. These were the main protectors of Hell, and any who dared attack the city would be devoured and sliced to bits. The Gyaos descended from above, and before long, the skies were filled with sonic blasts and sonic cutters, bodies of Gyaos and bats alike falling down to the ground in mutual death. But no matter the numbers of the bats, the Gyaos hordes were far too great. Fiore ducked just as a Gyaos nearly slammed into her bat. She needed reinforcements, and fast.
A bombardment of lasers from off in the distance was her saving grace. The lasers flew into the Gyaos ranks, blasting them apart, blood and scales raining down onto the streets of Hell. Fiore looked off in that direction, and let out a sigh of relief.
Delta Team was now officially in the battle.
Portals opened up in the sky, and out of them flew the machines, large machines shaped like raptors. These were the Dimensional Beasts, or DAMON, as the other Vintage forces called them. Normally reserved for only the most brutal battles, their power was a cut above the average demon, and for good reason. With personal shields that could withstand a nuke at close range, tough hides capable of all but the most powerful attacks, and electrical tentacles extending from their thighs, they were the most powerful forces under Lord Akuro’s command. And now, they were ready to tear apart Hell’s defenders.
The Dimensional Beasts landed on the ground, then aimed their mouths upward and fired once more into the sky. Gyaos by the hundreds fell down, their hides and flesh melting from the power of the DAMON. On the ground, Hellian demon forces engaged in battle with them, but the DAMON sliced through their ranks with ease. For any one DAMON that was destroyed, hundreds took it’s place, as the power core that was inside each DAMON vanished almost immediately upon it’s owner’s destruction.
Back up in the sky, Fiore nudged her bat, then pointed it to the Palace of Shadows. With a responding screech, it flew off toward the castle, ready to slice apart the castle with its sonic blasts. But as it neared it, a large orb of pure raw energy flew from one of the windows of the tallest spire. The bat tried to roll out of the way, but the orb suddenly veered to the right, and exploded against the bat. The mammal was vaporized in the explosion, but Fiore, either by chance or by fare, was sent flying right into the window. Glass shattered all around her as she sprawled to a stop inside the room. For a few moments, she lay there, but then, slowly, she rose up onto her feet… and found herself frozen in place by a powerful spell. She couldn't speak, couldn't move, couldn't do anything... She was trapped.
In front of her, were three woman, taller than her, and looking right at her. One of them had white hair just like she did, but it was longer, reaching down to her waist, and her skin was tanned dark. She wore a …rather revealing outfit that left nothing to the imagination, and her hands and hair were adorned with countless rings and bands. Fiore recognized her as Persephone, the Ruler of Hell. The other two, she didn’t know, for she had never seen them before. One of them had long, golden hair, wore a white dress with a large purple stripe running down it that seemed to be a mash of western and eastern design, and had an umbrella over her head. The other had very short, pink hair, and wore a light blue kimono with a dark blue trim around it, a blue cap on her head, and she had a fan in her hand.
“Well well well, look what we have here? Do you know this person, Persephone?” The golden-haired lady asked, eyeing Fiore slowly.
“Yes, Yukari, I know of her. She’s the little general in charge of this attack going on. I’ve dealt with her several times in the past, but this is the largest assault by Vintage I’ve ever seen.” Persephone responded, her mother-like tone making Fiore very, VERY uneasy. This was indeed the 5th time Vintage had tried to take down Hell, but time and time again, Persephone had single-handedly blasted them away. And now that she had been captured, Fiore knew what was about to happen without a doubt. “Yuyuko, could you please get rid of these noisy pests for me? I’d like this rebellious soul to have a front seat to a power greater than my own…”
“As you wish…” The princess of the Netherworld replied, in an almost child-like voice, before she hovered out of the window, Fiore also following her against her will. The ghost raised up her fan, and a giant image of it appeared behind her. “Now child, watch as your forces are devoured by the Butterfly of Death.” Yuyuko spoke, her voice like the chilling wind, before she waved her fan. At once, hundreds of butterflies, more than Fiore could count, seemed to spread out from the massive fan. The butterflies flew off toward the battle. The Gyaos and hellion demons, sensing their presence, backed off immediately and retreated. This confused the Vintage ranks, until one butterfly landed on the nose of a DAMON…
And exploded with a force rivaling the eruption of Krakatoa, held within by a shield generated around each butterfly that expanded just far enough to include the poor victim upon explosion. By the hundreds, both Dimensional Beasts and bats were blasted apart and vaporized, and not even the cores of the DAMON’s escaped. Confusion and panic tore through the enemy ranks, and the bats tried to fly away from the massacre, while the DAMON all howled in rage and charged, plowing through anything in their way as they headed right for Yuyuko.
“And now, for the grand finale in the realm of the dead.” Yuyuko spoke. Once more, the fan raised up, and an orb of pure energy began to form in front of her. “Harrowen! Feast of the Vampire Lord!” She announced, in a voice that seemed to boom all across the Underworld. At once, the orb swelled in size, dwarfing her by a magnitude, before it flew forward with a speed that Fiore thought was impossible. As it flew, the orb changed shape, turning into a crimson butterfly that screeched into the sky, before…
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM.
A bright white light blinded Fiore, and a wave of shearing heat slammed into her. Her skin baked for all of 5 seconds, until she could see once more. She has horrified to see that all of her forces had been wiped out in one attack. The DAMON, the bats, they were all gone, with not even a bone or scrap of metal left, and yet, no damage done to anything in Hell at all. It astonished her. Never had she seen such incredible power before. For one to not only devastate her entire army with such ease, and yet not damage anything else was unheard of. Sweat was now running down her face, and her throat turned dry as she saw Yuyuko float back into the room, where Yukari and Persephone were watching.
“And we get another wonderful performance from the Princess of the Netherworld.” Yukari announced, clapping her hands. Yuyuko simply blushed in response. “But now, what do we do to her? Should we skin her alive and send both the corpse and the skin back to whoever she works for?”
“No. Instead…” Here, Persephone snapped her fingers, and Fiore found herself falling, falling, down to the earth below. But at the last moment, a shroud of darkness surrounded her, and she vanished, with the three women watching from above.
“Why did you let her go, Persephone? We could have accessed her mind and found out who she’s working for…” Yuyuko asked, tilting her head.
Persephone yawned. “Why bother on a fruitless thing like that. Vintage can’t do anything to us. So long as I’m here, they can’t win, so why bother figuring out who’s in charge?”
“ Besides, there’s still the problem of the three stooges you have as generals… Orochi, Ruko, and Dusknoir, who just so happened to have meetings to go to right before Vintage attacked.” Yukari pointed out.
“Don’t worry, I’ll deal with them soon enough. But for now, I still have use for them. I’ve known of their treachery for quite some time now…” Persephone responded. But back to the reason why I invited both of you here… The Feast of the Demons has just been finished downstairs. And Yuyuko, please don’t devour it all like you did last time, okay? Only have your fair share.”
“As you wish…” She replied. “Though, I do wish that Shinki and your shikigami hadn’t had business to do elsewhere. Otherwise, we would have had more than three people to share the food with.”
“Yeah… so much for Shinki being the Goddess of the Underworld… Ran’s busy taking care of Chen, and Persephone’s shikigami is, as you said, off with Shinki…" Yukari replied, and with that, the three went off, changing their topic to who was going to clean up the mess that Hell was in right now...
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Fiore landed on her feet. Her eyes looked around, and she saw that she was back in the Dark Realm, a distant dimension inhabited only by-
“I take it that the attack was a failure, as usual.” A voice rumbled behind her. Fiore turned, and bowed down before the giant, one-eyed cloud hovering just above the ground. A mouth, eerily similar to that of a human mouth, housed the sole eye of the entity, the Dark Lord Akuro.
“Yes, Master. Out of our total forces, we have lost 17% of our army. The enemy proved far stronger than we imagined. She had two woman helping her out, and one of them wiped out our forces like they were nothing…”
“I see…” Akuro murmured. “So long as Persephone is still there, I cannot risk heading out into battle myself. But there will come a day, when Persephone is weak. That is when we shall overtake Hell, and bring forth a world without pain, without sorrow, without death… but until then, all we can do is lull her into a false sense of superiority with these mock attacks…"
“I understand, Master.” Fiore replied, before turning and walking away. Whatever she could do for her Master, she would try her hardest…And not even the Ruler of Hell would stand in her way to bring forth the perfect world that Akuro desired most…
Winner: Hell






