Chapter 18A: Battle Between Evils I – Shuren Versus Rasputin (Perspective: None)

"Ha ha ha," Rasputin laughs as he raises the white blade of the two swords that make up his Soul Slayer. "I don't care for my hypocrisy. I consider my existence of the greatest of importance, yours however, I can live without!" As Rasputin swings his sword a white aura wave is shot towards Shuren.

"Haaah!" Shuren roars as he gathered condensed flames over his fist and punches the oncoming attack, dispersing it.

Several fireballs shoot out from Shuren's still extended fist, Rasputin swats every one aside with his two blades whilst releasing several bursts of white and black aura. Shuren, knowing he couldn't dodge or deflect them all, charged straight through towards Rasputin using his flames as a propulsion to increase his speed.

"Guh!" The attacks assaulted Shuren's body and he cringes in pain, but the many cuts quickly regenerated. Shuren throws his flame charged fist at Rasputin, who stops it dead with his white blade. The two push on their respective weapons to try and gain ground to no avail. Shuren tries to lash out with his other fist only for it to be blocked by the black blade.

"That is quite the interesting ability you've got there," Rasputin states as he smiles gleefully, "You would make a perfect research specimen." Rasputin's blades slowly pushes Shuren back.

"Research specimen?" Shuren questions as he increases the strength in his legs to push back.

"In order to better harness my own abilities, I've been researching the soul fragments of both Human Anomalies and regular Soul Anomalies that the Slayers defeated. The fact that I have lived so long despite how many enemies I have is thanks to my research." Rasputin further pushes as his smile widens, "If I can decipher your regeneration, I will reach an even higher plane!!"

Shuren upon hearing the ridiculous statement releases a torrent of flames from his fists, Rasputin quickly jumps back and swings his black blade in a circular motion creating a black rift. "Einherjar Asgard!" He shouts as two spectres walk out of the dark rift.

Both spectres were muscular men, however one looked much older with a long beard and an eye patch covering one of his eyes, in his hand he held a gold coloured spear. The younger looking spectre wore nothing on its upper body that was covered with battle scars and was wielding a large gold coloured hammer.

The gold coloured weapons they both wielded reminded Shuren of the two segments that made up the Soul Slayer his deceased lover once held, Gungnir-Mjölnir.

"Odin and Thor?" Shuren questioned, Rasputin readily nodded.

"Two of the most battle orientated gods of Norse mythology," Rasputin adds, "It's time to extinguish your life."

Thor slams his hammer into the ground and a huge bolt of lightning crashed through the roof and headed straight for Shuren, who quickly surrounded himself with a pillar of flames that intercepted the attack. As Shuren's and Thor's attacks muscled against one another, Odin charged at Shuren who was unable to move due to Thor's attack. His spear coated itself with lightning creating a lightning spear that extended several metres out of his weapon. The same ability of Gungnir-Mjölnir's spear segment.

"URGHH!" Odin's vertical slash managed to pierce through and destroy the flame pillar, Allowing Thor's attack to finally hit its target. Shuren quickly jumped out of the attack as the flames surround his body and restore him back to perfect condition.

"It seems despite your rejuvenation you still feel pain, especially when your soul is attacked," Rasputin chuckles to himself at this realisation. "Your very own power could easily become your own curse, Shuren." Shuren responds to this by shooting a pillar of fire out of his fist, however Odin intercepts the attack before it can hit Rasputin, who holds his arms out horizontally and closes his eyes.

"My soul is one of madness." Rasputin chants

"Demented, insane and psychotic."

"Forever hiding my lust and desires behind my calm."

"And my corruption infects the mind of all existence." A dark mist emanates from Rasputin's body. "Now lets end this little game," he smiles.

Thor slams his hammer down to the ground as another lightning bolt descends from the sky, Shuren jumps back into the air and dodges it, Odin's lightning spear tries to pierce through Shuren's body, who suddenly sprouts wings made of flames and flaps them to dodge the second attack and takes himself higher into the skies.

"You want an aerial battle?" Rasputin asks rhetorically as the dark mist gathers around his back and solidifies into his own pair of jet black wings and follows after Shuren. Odin and Thor, being spectres float into the sky as well.

Shuren shoots another burst of flames at his now airborne targets who each skilfully dodge the attacks. Odin shoots a stream of lightning from his spear, Shuren erects a wall of fire to fend off the attack whilst at the same time creating a several metre blade of fire around one of his hands. He swings his long weapon at his foes, as several other flame blades branch out from the original one attacking his enemies from multiple angles and directions. All three cease their attacks and dodge the many fire blades. Shuren noticing the shift in momentum uses his other hand to use the same move again to create more fire blades. However Rasputin creates his own blades from his black mist and severed the original two blades, this caused a domino effect on the branching blades, causing them to dissipate into nothingness.

Odin and Thor quickly returned to the offensive as Thor summoned another lightning bolt and Odin shot a stream of lightning of his own. Shuren quickly accelerates and heats the surrounding atmosphere. Suddenly several images of Shuren appear in the sky. "Optical illusions created through heat," Rasputin analyses. The several attacks from the two Norse gods hit nothing but illusions that dispersed when attacked.

Then all of a sudden two holes pierced through the unsuspecting Odin and Thor, the attack wasn't visible to the naked eye. The two spectres slowly dissipated into nothingness as Shuren once again stared at his nemesis.

"I see, to think your flames could go to such a high temperature it isn't even visible," Rasputin smiled widely, "If I was to be hit with that I would disintegrate instantly." Rasputin seemed even more pleased about seeing the prospect of his own demise as his smile did not fade.

"True to your Soul ID lyrics, to your very core you are insane."

"I cannot learn the truth of the world by sticking to human morals, Shuren. My curiosity knows no bounds, I want to see what I can do, what I can create, what I can achieve."

"Is that why you created that Chimera Anomaly!?" Shuren asks as his flames encompass his body. Rasputin just merely smiles back, Shuren takes this as confirmation. The flames around Shuren suddenly disappear, including his wings, however he was still flying in the air. All his flames, fuelled by his anger, had reached such a high temperature that none of them could be seen.

Shuren swings down his arm in a vertical swing, Rasputin quickly calculates the trajectory of the invisible attack and raises both of his blades and blocks the attack, however the force sends him crashing down into the ground, Rasputin's wings turn back into mist from the sudden impact. Blood seeps out between his lips, which he licks up with his tongue and ingests back into his system with a smile.

"Ha ha ha," He laughs out loud as he slowly gets back onto his feat again. "To think you would force me to use my final trump card, ha ha ha. I never know what life will throw at me despite living for well over a century." Rasputin holds both his blades up into the sky as the chain that once held them together separates from the two swords and suddenly expands in size.

A dark void appears in the ground that the now colossal chain shoots into, after a few seconds the gold chain pulls up something out of the dark void. A towering sized wolf appears with the chain gripping it around the neck. It glares menacingly at Shuren, who continues to float in the sky. As the void disappears the chain releases the wolf that howls a loud battle cry. Shuren looks on questioningly at the huge wolf below him.

"This is one of the most dangerous creatures in all Norse mythology, Fenrir," Rasputin explains as he carves another huge hole with his dark sword and another huge monstrosity moves out of it, "Einherjar Muspelheim." A even bigger figure appears that is so huge it almost pierces the sky. Its body, although humanoid, was anything but human. Its skin was red like a poker, its hair was long and dirty, and its blade, although heavily chipped, was the size of a skyscraper.

Rasputin's wings re-manifest themselves and he ascended back into the sky until he was at the same altitude as Shuren.

"I have the entirety of Norse mythology at my disposal, tell me Shuren, do you realise just what kind of hopeless situation you are in?"

"My soul is one of vengeance, Rasputin. No matter what you say, I will make you pay for what you've done!"

"How pitiful. However, your life's flame will soon burn out, Fenrir, Sutr!" The two monstrosities' roars shook the sky as Shuren prepared himself for round two against his nemesis and his two new puppets.

Chapter 18B: Battle Between Evils – Masked Man's Objective (Perspective: None)

The man hidden behind the mask had slowly made his way past the Midgard Einherjar and into another section of the Slayer's base. After descending several flights of stairs he came across something that looked like a prison. There was something behind the rusty bars, however it wasn't human. Its body consisted of many different creatures all mingled together.

"As I suspected, they kept it alive," the masked man gazed at the creature that was lying down on the floor with low grunts escaping from its many heads.

"A Human Anomaly," The creature stated weakly as it gazed at the Masked Man. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to collect the church's research on Chimera Anomalies such as yourself, as well as one other reason." The masked man glared at the creature that looked on the verge of death, "I want the soul of the girl who sacrificed herself to defeat you."

The creature before the masked man grunted as it remembered the woman who shattered her own soul to save the lives of a little girl and the reaper he was lured to several years ago. "Are you not also out to use me?" The Chimera Anomaly asked in disdain.

"I have no use for a church's hand-me-down, logically why use something broken when I can create several superior new ones?" The masked man asked with his emotionless voice, "But I will be taking Nadia Ivana's soul," The masked man pulled out something that looked like a jar and removed the lid, "Soul Extraction," he said as a dust like substance started exiting from the Chimera Anomaly's many mouths, as it writhed in pain, and went into the open jar.

After about a minute elapsed and Nadia's soul was sealed inside the bottle the Chimera got onto its many feet filled with anger. It slammed through the bars of its cage and tried to swipe at the masked man with one of its claws, the masked man easily dodged it.

He then took out a sheathed jet black sword from a pocket dimension and quickly unsheathed the blade.

"Muramasa-Masamune?" The Chimera Anomaly deduced.

The masked man didn't answer he simply swung his Soul Slayer several times, shooting multiple shock waves, however none of them hit the Chimera Anomaly.

"You missed," it mocked.

"I was not aiming for you," He stated as the ceiling and the roof collapsed opening up a view of the night sky. The Chimera Anomaly destroyed all the oncoming debris that would have otherwise hit it with its many claws, arms, and wings. It then returned its gaze back to the masked man, who simply swung the sword one more time, "The pieces are set." He stated as heavy black rain drops fell from the now open sky.

"Urgghhaaaahhhh!" The many heads of the Chimera Anomaly screeched as the raindrops hit them, forcing the monstrosity back onto the ground. "Muramasa-Masamune's Soul Shattering Rain? How are you unaffected by it?" It asked weakly.

"Muramasa-Masamune has long since submitted to me, it knows whose soul to devour." The masked man answered in his usual monotonous voice.

The Chimera Anomaly continued to scream until there was nothing left of it but an ugly green liquid.

The masked man glared for a second at the former Chimera Anomaly whilst muttering, "Whether it is the church, or the Thanatos family, they seem to be delving themselves into the fusion of souls."