THE SEVENTH MASQUERADE CHAP. 1 [FEAT. MIKONO & ALEXENDRE]

By the millisecond that the thin hollow centering of the lieutenant’s sealed blade met the air, strands of purple colored hair had materialized in his peripherals, and blood was gushing into the atmosphere. His female companion that had seemed so safe only a moment ago had a dextral hand had turned her stomach into a pincushion, and her bright light-blue optics steadily grew vacant. Violet eyes more dispassionate than Ashton’s own met for a target, and upon his next heartbeat a swift, long right leg was arched backwards to knock the consciousness out of him.

The kick smashed into moving strands of wine-colored hair, and even Ashton was surprised that his reflexes had allowed him to dodge a blow so swift. The soul reaper had distanced himself with a flash step and skid backwards into the steaming crater, his right hand actively gripped upon his soul-forged armament while the other rested in his pocket. Judging from the immense power gravitating onto his shoulders, he could easily tell that the opponent held a spiritual power to slightly outweigh his own, and he would need every ounce of his wit to come out a victor.

“Nice to meet you. You must our Bount friend, Alexendre?” Ashton said, casually watching as the enemy slug his defeated partner into a tree. The man of the hour paced onto the edge of the crater, the entirety of his exotic form bare under the moonlight. The Bount nodded cordially, a smirk curling upon his lips as blood waltzed from his fingers to the dirt. “Bonjour.” Alexendre greeted; voice a deeper baritone than his challenger. “Your power is delicious, Vice-Captain Arterius. I need to devour you, I hope you don’t mind.”

Ashton’s eyebrow steadied upwards, he found himself wondering how a simple intruder could know a detail like that. But his pondering had to come to an end; he structured a defensive stance as he watched the long-haired combatant dart forward with an almost unreadable high-speed step. He’s as fast as Itada. Before he could determine the action or much less react to it, a black gauntlet had torn into his left sleeve and dripped a minor amount of red liquid into the shared crater.

The lieutenant almost felt like an amateur trying to calculate the artificial spirit’s unpredictable movements. He crouched slightly, and lunged forth his blade to impale his opponent through the side. But the Bount’s almost drunken movements fooled the death god, and with an aerial twirl the imposing figure was already behind the redhead; left hand posed his body upon the ground with a right leg curving and slamming right into his ribcage. Surprisingly, the redhead’s grin stayed plastered on his face as he twisted against the ground the ignored pain of his bones fracturing.

Almost too fast.

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GS

Rich blue eyes slowly awakened to the feel of an overwhelming spiritual power, tender feminine hands curving over a hole punctured into her belly button. The noble woman’s cheeks slowly expanded as she stared with blurring vision at a man she trusted so much; yet every feel tethered the crimson essence engulfing her superior made her want to vacate the premises. She sat powerlessly against a tree as pure palpable sin and maliciousness invaded her spiritual senses and sickened her with the sheer malevolence—and before she knew it chunks of acidic vomit plummeted out of her bleeding mouth and soured her garbs.

The ground vibrated beneath Ashton, and his opponent widened his eyes in true awe and disgust from the power radiating off the lieutenant. Dust and debris from the spiritual strength twisted and twirled about the crimson red reiryoku viciously encircling the Shinigami, a demonic dual-toned cackle manifesting a bead of sweat upon his enemy’s forehead. With the slash of a blade, the swirling debris faded into the ether and gradually revealed the form of a devil incarnate.

Ashton stood sadistic with bare muscular torso mutated with satanic red skin, sharp black lines running underneath his eyes and halting upon the draw of his chin, the lower half of his shihakushō left in a tattered fashion with a maroon obi sash whisking in the wind. The black fingernails of a dextral hand gripped a shortened maroon daitō, the black and red rose swirled into a square of a guard, black colored lips parting and exposing elongated canine teeth. “Mugen no Misutoresu.” The demonic voice named.

Not a second after, the battle was on—and it was hot!

The violet-haired intruder gripped and withdrew the grand, unorthodox sword upon his back, and charged at Ashton with a howl, “Zeige Dich!” The lieutenant transformed the lower half of his body into blood and turned his body into a humanoid jet as he flew forward at a near hyper-sonic speed. He kept his left palm wide and lunged forth, while keeping his Zanpakutō in a reverse-grip behind his body. His signature grin amplified, for he knew victory was upon him.

Or so he thought.

The eye upon the Bount’s armament; his doll opened and enveloped the entirety of the weapon in a light-purple aura. The two powerful, glowing forces clashed—Alexendre’s body phased right into the Shinigami, whom simply allowed his body to splash through him and brought the curve of the blade behind him to slit the enemy’s throat! The opponent’s doll torqued upward at the last moment, and somehow contacted with the thin long sword and suctioned the overwhelming amount of energy emanating from the lieutenant in one fell clink.

Through that millisecond, Ashton had returned to his normal form with his normal attire. His golden eyes widened to notice a black fur collar rapping against his jawline ever so softly. A loud grunt surfaced out of a wavered grin as blood erupted from his back; a slice almost severed to his spine! What the fuck? Ashton thought, falling to the ground with all of his power stolen from him, a sealed Kenketsusha dropping into the cratered dirt beside him.

Behind him, a victorious Bount trembled with laughter while red liquid trickled off his awakened blade. A crimson red aura—Ashton’s aura—swirled about his tall form and steadily seeped into the pores of his skin. “Thank you very much, Vice-Captain Arterius.” Alexendre laughed, pacing towards the defeated lieutenant as he twirled his massive blade into one-handed reverse grip, hovering it in the air above his opponent’s downed body. And as he slammed it down to deliver a final blow the Shinigami, his violet orbs expanded at the sight of a surprising feminine figure imposing her own soul-fledged steel in the inch required to usurp the consciousness of her superior.

She looked pathetic with her blood cascading out of the hole punctured in her stomach with vomit all over her clothing, and her stance and leftover strength was even more pathetic. Within a second, she was knocked cold on the floor with the blunt side of the giant doll; her power no match for the new amount of strength seeping out of the Bount. A bemused smile came over his face as he strolled towards her, “You care about him.” Alexendre chuckled, “Then you can bleed out with him.”

His arm waved into the air, and the wide blade slashed her from hip to breast, blood rapping into the dirt next to unconscious form. The Bount’s head shook, sealing his doll before replacing it upon his back, walking away with slow, yet purposeful strides. As his form faded and he acquired distance, his power radiated anew, and stretched into an all-new dimension. The Nanabantai had failed, but it seemed as if hope sang a different tune.

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GS