Wrath Reincarnated

JULES

Kaizen, it's time.

Hold on, kiddo. I told you I only ever had one rival. You're about to witness why.

A column of black light shot up from Greed's body—or perhaps his corpse. His back arched and twisted in agony Jules never wanted to experience first-hand.

The column flickered out in a few small parts, and then a few more, until nearly a third of it had faded out. The Iron Maiden released Her chokehold grip, and before he fell to the ground, both of Her hands grabbed his temple, like She tried to cave it in. Even through the pain and roaring blast of the light, Jules heard him laugh, and then cackle maniacally.

"This is all you've got!?" he taunted Her. "You did worse a decade ago!" His skin turned gray, and his eyes coal black, but still he somehow resisted Her spell.

"A Child of the Damned, indeed. Once again, you will make a useful test subject. But for now, you are in My way." She caved his head in. Brains and chunks of skull rained down, and chains eviscerated his body; they yanked out pieces of bone and organs and severed limbs, and wound up tight around them every piece of Greed that remained.

«« Imprison, Iron Maiden »» [The Iron Maiden]

The chains all recoiled back toward the galley, and spun around themselves into some form of rough cylinder, and then they transitioned back into a standing sarcophagus with iron spikes pointing both inward and outward—and pierced through each spike was a unique piece of Greed.

"What…did you just do to him?" Jules' mouth was hanging wide open. She activated Her Vessel and called it…Her own name?

"Death cannot overcome Greed, no matter how hard I try. It appears to be the disparity between his and Lust's Regeneration. I still have much to learn, Wrath, and you four will show Me the way."

"Why?" Jules asked. He could fall to his knees, but fear had set in so much no that he couldn't' even do that. "Why do You want to exterminate us so badly?"

"Your kind is the scourge of Salvatica. You were not meant for this world—"

"WHY!?" The Unlock Rune hummed in Jules' ear. "There's more to it than that, and I need to know why."

"Because you are not of this world, you are too powerful. All of your powers must be contained, Sins and Virtues alike."

"By You? And what the bloody hell have You done for this world, besides cause war?" Jules motioned around to his friends and the battlefield that laid beyond. "You are not the saint You think You are." The Ryoku Cyrus infused in Jules continued to grow, and he realized his surviving friends were giving as much as they could spare. Thankfully Cyrus' Ryoku isn't in that number.

"The Iron Maiden is a vassal, a means to an end. I have lived long before She ever existed, and I will live long after She has departed this world."

"Over my dead fucking body."

"Consider yourself lucky, Jules Tideshaper. Greed has entrapped My most trusted Vessel. Now, I must draw out My oldest." She reached out a hand, and a wooden cross-brace materialized in it.

«« Pray at the Cross »» [The Iron Maiden]

« Integrate » [Jules]

Jules closed his eyes. He'd never done it before, but he trusted in their combined abilities. Part of Jules' soul shifted to the Sound of Fury, while he lined up Kaizen's with Rukia's and crammed it inside of her. Let's hunt. When he opened his eyes again, the cross-brace had become a massive claymore, taller than even The Maiden.

Their blades collided and pushed them apart from each other. Upon their second strike, they locked in firmly against the other, bodies shaking for control. A blur of white passed through, and The Iron Maiden found Herself in the sand, with a tiger-sized beast on top of Her, snapping at Her neck.

Rukia looked brilliant, and Jules wondered if this was the form she'd taken in the Riftwatch Outpost Shrine. Crimson trails of fur lined her body like tattoos, similar to the Warg of Coralhaven, and nine long tails swept behind her every move. The Maiden wedged Her claymore between Rukia's sharpened fangs—each one like its own dagger—and pushed her off. She rolled back to Her feet and blasted a golden light at the Familiar. Fur singed, and flesh blasted away, but Rukia and Kaizen dove straight into the beam.

Jules executed a downward power attack, and The Maiden stopped Her energy beam and—Clang!—blocked it with the claymore. She retreated a step backward and raised Her blade up right between Her piercing cold eyes.

« Fate Look Down and Bless Me »» [The Iron Maiden]

The Script encased the claymore in a golden, wavering aura. Holy Magic.

«« Darkness Consume Me »» [Jules]

Black flames swept across Jules' sword and entire body. Rukia and Kaizen cautioned him as one.

"Careful of annihilation, Jules."

Perhaps. Their blades met again, and golden sparks from Her claymore scattered into the air, and then rained down on him like a homing beacon. His flames stopped some, but some landed in and scalded his skin, which locally impeded his Regeneration. Dammit, I need all the Regeneration I can get with these Darkness flames…

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Jules continued to parry Her one-handed strikes, while Rukia and Kaizen clipped Her from the side, but even they couldn't fight against Her free arm. She would just grab Rukia's paw or maw and twist her off to the side after each assault.

Rukia circled around back and charged from behind, while Jules crushed down on The Maiden in another power attack, but She twisted away, grabbed Rukia, and flung her into him. While Jules recovered, The Maiden spun Her off hand around in the air.

«« Falling Stars » » [The Iron Maiden]

A relentless assault of golden stars rained down on Jules form on high—and Rukia leapt on top of him and took the brunt of it. They wheezed out a simple message.

"Jules, time to switch places."

Right, you mastered Holy magic.

« Switch » [Jules]

Even as the stars rained down on them, Jules shifted their souls around. Jules' split awareness between his own body and the Sound fully restored in his body, and Kaizen flooded into the Sound of Fury, and what Jules expected to happen, like it had with Rukia, did not. The Sound's blade morphed into a waving edges, chipped in various places along its entire edge, and a shield covered his left arm instead of his right. Instinctively, he shielded both himself and Rukia's restored miniature body from the stars until their end.

"Is this the sword you fought with, old man? Looks like a piece of crap." Kaizen responded from the Sound.

"It's covered with the blood and fat of those I've slain, Jules, and with each one, it became stronger."

So is that a yes?

The Iron Maiden slammed down on him, and Jules stopped Her blade just inches from his ear.

Jules' other hand shot to the Sound's grip, and he pushed Her away, then slashed at Her again. When his blade connected—for the very first time tonight—Her open wound ignited in white flames. Quickly, She pressed a hand into the wound and snuffed it out, and Jules took the opportunity to strike again, and again and again and again. He pushed her back toward her galley, toward Greed's new prison.

"If we're gonna win here, Jules…"

Clang! Shunk! Clank! Jules spun all the way around in a power spin that knocked Her back a step. No—Not yet. It's time for you two to share space again.

"Jules, we haven't trained that—"

« Integrate » [Jules]

Jules lined up Rukia's soul and pressed her into the Sound alongside Kaizen's—and in his haste and arrogance, he allowed a trickle of Wrath to snake his way inward and push out against Rukia. Keep your cool, Jules, stay calm.

MY, MY, JULES. YOU SHOULD BE MORE CAREFUL.

Kaizen said there's only space for two in there, I just need to—

Through the Sound, Kaizen flung himself upward and blocked a strike, so it only sliced off one of Jules' ears.

THUMP-THUMP. THUMP-THUMP.

Wrath flooded into the Sound, which ejected Rukia back into the sand.

Jules shouted in pain and dropped his blade, which had become much too hot for even him to bear.

The Iron Maiden didn't hesitate. She raised Her claymore up high and swung down on him.

Jules' life flashed before his eyes.

He recollected the moments he had met them all. Cyrus, and eventually Rukia, back in Coralhaven. Katarina, Whiskers, and Kaizen in Aquilantis. Maddie and Salty Pete in Siren's Cove. Seraphina and Raven—though he didn't know his identity at the time—in Shinsora. Greed in the Arcane Divide.

And Patience, who he'd met on this very battlefield; who'd tried to capture and kill Jules, his family, and his friends—

And who now stood before him, one-armed, having just saved his life.

The horizontal blade of Patience's rapier trembled under the enormous weight and power of The Iron Maiden and Her claymore. Again…

Saved again, and by him of all people. How many more times will I—

"Are you confused, young Pat of the Dunes?" The Iron Maiden asked. If She gave him any benefit of the doubt, She certainly didn't show it. "I am in the middle of an execution."

"That honor…doesn't belong to you," Patience said through labored breath.

The Iron Maiden tilted Her head at his exposed scalp. "I see." She shifted the attack and ran Her blade along the edge to strike him down.

Jules felt time slow down as his mind raced. What do I do? I have to save him, or I damn everyone. Integrate with Rukia? Or Kaizen, and possibly Death himself? Or…Wrath? Or do I—

Wait. He glanced at the Sound of Fury, then back at The Maiden's blade.

"That you again, Wrath?" Cruel laughter haunted Jules' mind, but it came from the Sound.

"WHICH OPTION WILL YOU CHOOSE, JULES TIDESHAPER?"

"This isn't like last time, in Marina Veridia, when you stopped Zeke from killing me."

"NO. I LEFT THE CLOCK TICKING FOR YOU TONIGHT, JULES. YOUR DECISION IS…INEVITABLE."

"Kaizen and Rukia?"

"WE ARE ALONE."

Jules looked at Rukia's body in the sand, nearly frozen in time as well. Then he glanced at the Sound of Fury. Kaizen is in there somewhere. If only I could get him out…

"TICK. TOCK. THUMP. THUMP."

"Looks like I'm out of options." Jules grabbed his sword.

« Shift » [Jules]

Jules protected his body and made sure only Kaizen entered. Before the samurai armor had fully rolled out across his body, the Sound pierced the flat edge of The Maiden's claymore. When he'd nudged it just enough away from Patience's path, time returned to its normal flow, and a crack of thunder from Jules' and Kaizen's movement followed.

Patience laughed into the night sky. "Oh, thank you, Voice. Thank you."

Kaizen and Jules exchanged blows with The Maiden, and She leapt back in retreat. Jules took in their new armor, as well as their new sword, which now housed only Wrath. It was the serrated blade of Jules' nightmare, dripping with an endless source of blood.

"I suppose I should thank you, Patience."

"We're even." Patience walked away. "The Magi have one weakness, Jules."

"Oh yeah, and what's that?"

"Oh, you know." He sheathed his rapier with his left hand, and his empty right sleeve flapped in the wind. "Our mutual acquaintance."

Great. The Iron Maiden muttered behind him, and Jules spun around to see Her kneeling down in a prayer, invoking some long ritual.

"Jules."

"Didn't you say you have an ultimate spell or something, Kaizen?"

Jules stabbed the Sound of Fury into the ground and abandoned it for now. A simultaneous final attack and hard reset sounded like a great victory plan to him. There was only one loose end.

"I sure as hell did, kid—"

"Can you keep Cy out of it?"

"There are no guarantees, Jules."

The Maiden shifted Her finger positioning and palms around. Whatever She planned, he doubted Cyrus would have better odds.

"Do it."

Her eyes shot open, blacker than the sky, and She interrupted Her own Script.

«« Gates of Hell »» [Jules]

«« Imprison, Iron Maiden »» [The Iron Maiden]

Wrought iron burst from the sand. The sarcophagus that imprisoned Greed morphed to chains and released him, and the Maiden resumed Her longer Script. Bars of iron folded across one another in a mesh pattern. Chains rushed back to The Maiden. The iron mesh formed a cage that folded over Her. Her iron chains slipped through the cracks. The metal cage turned red and ripped molten iron onto Her. Chains wrapped around Her inside. The cage melted into itself in a molten ball. She was lost from Jules' sight; in the distance, Greed reassembled himself, his flesh freed and once again gray.

As he stitched his last piece together and became whole again, the molten ball in front of Jules exploded like lava from a volcano and showered them all. In the middle of the rupture stood the sarcophagus, glowing red hot. Its hinged door opened, and The Maiden knelt praying, Her shins splintered by the bottom iron spikes. She completed the invocation with two words.

«« Black Sacrament »» [The Iron Maiden]

From the Sound of Fury by Jules' side, Wrath spoke.

"ALLOW ME TO COME TO YOUR AID."