“Pearl….”

Tony and Lucas looked at Pearl and who stood beside her.

“The Devil King, huh?”

Tony showed a smile.

“You’ve gotten yourself quite the backing, Pearl.”

“I originally didn’t plan to use him but you’ve pushed my hand, Tony.”

“Devil King, this matter doesn’t involve you.”

Lucas said.

“True.”

Rory immediately admitted.

“Don’t worry, I’m only here to make sure this war ends as soon as possible. You three can duke it out without minding me.”

He smiled.

“After meeting you all in person and peeking into your hearts, I have nothing to worry about.”

He walked away from Pearl’s side and sat on a piece of rubble nearby.

“I’ll just watch from here.”

He nodded at Pearl, who faced her former friends.

“What, he isn’t fighting? What a disappointment.”

Tony glanced at Rory and said.

“Well, at least I still have you two.”

He faced his friends and pulled his weapons.

“Let’s finish this once and for all.”

“That was my intention from the beginning.”

Lucas lifted his fists up, while Pearl silently took a fight stance.

“Go!”

The three charged at each other simultaneously. Tony fired two shots at Pearl and Lucas, Pearl swung her hands and wires shot out of her gloves towards the two, while Lucas threw a double punch at his opponents.

*BAM!*

The three’s attacks clashed and canceled each other out with a loud explosion.

Lucas rushed towards Tony with his fist glowing gold. Tony smirked at him and threw his guns in the air just before Lucas fists could reach him. He threw a punch and hit Lucas in his face before Lucas could hit him. Lucas was propelled back with a bloody nose.

“Did you forget, Lucas? I might use guns but you’ve never beaten me in a fist fight.”

Tony moved his head and then grabbed Pearl’s wires with his Anima coated hands.

“Also Pearl, did you forget that I was the one you used to practice using your wires?”

“What you’re talking about is in the past.”

“Hm?”

Tony looked around and saw that he was surrounded by a web of wires.

“When did she….?”

“This is the present, Tony!”

A crackling sound reached Tony ears. He looked and saw static running through the wires that surrounded him.

“Static Web!”

*Boom!*

Electricity came from all directions and hit Tony, instantly immobilizing him.

“Ugh!”

Tony could feel electricity traveling through all parts of his body. If he hadn’t reacted quickly and protected his organs with anima he would’ve died already. However, he still couldn’t move as he pleased.

“Tony!”

That’s when he heard Lucas voice.

“Clinch your teeth because you might lose them!”

Peeking at the corner of his eye, Tony saw a golden brass knuckle approaching his face.

“Ah?!”

However, it never came. He saw Lucas being electrocuted and immobilized as well.

“Pearl!”

“What, I never said I was planning on teaming up with you to take Tony down.”

Pearl looked at the two with a cold gaze.

“Ending the both of you was always my intention.”

Pearl stomp her feet on the ground and wires covered in electricity, wrapped together and formed two spikes. These spikes stabbed into both Tony and Lucas.

“Guh?!”

Blood gust out their wounds and even more electricity flowed into their bodies.

“Whew. Cold and merciless. Attagirl.”

The spectator, Rory clapped and said.

“She pinned them down with cunning and effective attacks rather than flashy and overbearing moves. She could be a great assassin.”

He looked around and noticed that they were people spectating from the shadows. They were most likely members of the three gangs.

“If a scuffle with these people break out, this war may get needlessly longer.”

He stood up and clenched his uninjured hand and then swung it to the side.

*Bam!*

Green waves of Anima flew in the direction he swung his fists and hit the mountains of rubble. The rubble was instantly reduced to dust and people were seen being blown away like leaves in a storm.

“This war can’t needlessly continue any longer. It must end now.”

Black Anima coated his fingers and transformed into a giant five headed snake.

“Orochi Improvised Version: Hydra.”

The five-headed snake looked down on all who were hiding in the shadows.

“Anyone interferes will become snake food. Got it?”

After saying that, Rory retook his seat.

“….Thanks.”

Pearl looked at him and said.

“No problem.”

He smiled and got comfy.

(He looks like he’s enjoying a show.)

Pearl faced Tony and Lucas. They both had painful expressions on their faces. Because of the wires that had pierced into them, they had a difficult time protecting their insides from the electric current which was flowing directly into their bodies.

“Damn, I always knew that you were secretly a sadist, Pearl!”

Tony tried his best to move his body but the electricity was preventing him from controlling his body.

“Looks like this isn’t time to play around!”

*Pulse!*

Tony’s entire body started pulsating and his limbs started expanding one after the other. His overall body doubled in size and his skin became rougher and tougher, and his face turned into one resembling a wild pig. He had taken his orc form.

“Ahh!”

He roared and started moving again. He used his hand and tore the wires from inside of him.

“?!”

This shocked Pearl. Tony charged at her ignoring the fact that he was being electrocuted. Pearl stomped the ground and even more wires pierced towards him.

“Such little tricks….!”

He swung his arm and a powerful shockwave destroyed the wires.

“Are a waste of time!”

Tony quickly appeared in front of Pearl drew his arm back to punch her.

*BAM!*

He was punched from behind before he could. Lucas, who had reverted to his Minotaur form, had sent him flying to the side. Pearl looked and saw that there was a pair of golden gauntlets on his hands. The gauntlet had three slots on them like a slot machine.

“Animus: Lucky Shot.”

Lucas hit his fists together and the slots started rolling. The slots on his right fist stopped on the number “3” while the one on his left stopped on the word “Speed”.

“How lucky.”

He lifted his hand in front of him and turned to Pearl.

*Bam!*

Pearl suddenly felt a sharp blow to her stomach. She looked down and saw that Lucas’s gauntlet was pressing into her stomach.

“Couldn’t react?”

“You-”

*Bam!*

Pearl was hit under the chin and was forced off her feet and into the air.

“Oh? That was a fast punch.”

Rory commented.

“However, it wasn’t as heavy as the one Tony was hit with. Did he hold back or…”

He stared at the gauntlets and the slots on it. At that moment, Tony was seen walking towards Lucas with his jaw hanging down. He used his hand to shift it back into place.

“Impressive Animus.”

*Bam!*

Lucas suddenly appeared in front of Tony and punched him a couple times in a span of a second. Tony head leant back and he froze in place.

“It didn’t work.”

Tony brought his head forward and smiled at Lucas.

“Was that it?”

“Hm….Tony is a level above them. He’s just playing around with them even now.”

Rory commented.

*Bam!*

Lucas was sent flying after being uppercut by tony.

“Now that, Superfly, is how you throw a punch.”

Tony started walking towards Pearl who was laid out on the floor.

“A woman who got scared and abandoned her friends and chose to save herself.”

Tony stopped and looked at Lucas who was also laid out on the ground.

“A man who in his weakness decided to shut out everything and threw away his girlfriend and best friend in the process.”

Tony had a puzzled look on his face.

“Why are you two trying so hard? Guilt? Pity? Love? If so you’re just wasting your time. I no longer see you two as anything more than a way to entertain myself. A joke, if you will.”

Pearl and Lucas immediately became angry which Tony noticed and frowned.

“What, did I make you angry? If that’s the case then that is strange because you guys don’t have the right to be angry.”

Pearl and Lucas slowly got to their feet and glared at tony.

“Stop fucking around Tony. You’re going to take us seriously.”

“We’ve messed up so we must clean up our messes.”

A dull look appeared in Tony’s eyes.

“I see. Then I’ll take you seriously like you wanted and hit you with all of my anger and resentment. Just don’t die too fast, or it will be injustice.”

Red raging Anima started seeping from Tony’s body.

“Animus: Loose Cannon.”

*BAM!*

Anima rushed outside of Tony’s body like a flood and covered the entire area. Cracks started appearing in the ground and the debris surrounding him were lifted into the air and started circling around him. Tony’s huge body contracted to size of a normal human, but his rock hard muscles looked like they packed even more power. His skin became red like tomato and steam started coming off his body.

“This is me being serious.”

Tony looked at the two and then disappeared from where he stood.

*BAM!*

He appeared in front of Lucas and lodged his fist in his stomach.

“Guh?!”

Lucas bent over and vomited more than a mouthful of blood. Tony grabbed his face and then forced his head and entire upper body into the ground.

“Woah!”

Rory rose to his feet in shock.

“So this is his true strength. It’s pretty impressive.”

Tony turned and looked at Pearl and started walking towards her. Seeing that, Pearl took a fighting stance.

“Ah, I forgot. I can’t let her die.”

Rory sighed.

“And it was getting good too.”

“Rory.”

He suddenly heard a voice behind. Hearing the voice made him frown. He turned around and faced the person behind him.

“What is it, Lucian?”

Lucian stood behind him with a smile on his face despite being bandaged up.

“There’s a bit of a situation.”

“If you came here instead of going to the Pure Land and wait like I told you, then it must be serious.”

Lucian nodded.

“Kur got involved with this city.”

“Say what?”

“Kur got involved with this city.”

“I heard you the first time.”

Rory suddenly had a headache.

“Who?”

“Anput, but it looks like she was here on Thanatos behalf.”

“So, did they steal a corpse or did they reanimate one?”

“The latter.”

Rory made an exaggerated sigh.

“Salvatore Riina?”

“Yup. How did you know?”

“I once asked Pearl where he was buried so that I could go and piss on his grave, but when I went there I found out that his corpse wasn’t there. So when you said Kur was here he was the only high level corpse I could think of that would draw their attention.”

“There’s another corpse though. It’s of the police Chief for the city. The ones controlling them is the mayor of the city.”

“So the mayor is using the corpse of a don and the police chief to terrorize the city? Sounds like a bad horror flick to me.”

“What are we going to do? Should I kill those three and reanimate their corpse to counter them?”

“Zombie vs zombie? The fact that you thought of that isn’t surprising in the least.”

“Wouldn’t the old you do that?”

“Hey, the current me would still do it you know? It’s just that if we play with necromancy too much the Sacred Army will have a fit. They might deploy a General if they heard that we were involved. I don’t want to bring that kind of drama to Guanyin’s place.”

He looked at Pearl who was trying her best to avoid being hit by Tony.

“Also, the elf is a friend and relative of one of my benefactors. I can’t just turn her into a zombie.”

Rory looked at Lucian.

“By the way, you can use necromancy?”

Lucian nodded.

“It’s one of the applications of Dark Anima so I was taught the basics.”

“Really? Your standing is higher than I thought. I thought that you being a Hybrid would….”

Rory shook his head.

“We’re getting off topic. Go ahead I’ll handle things here.”

“Alright.”

Lucian turned into a beam of light and shot across the sky. Rory turned his attention to the Three Dons and smiled.

“Now then, let’s spank some brats.”