Rise Of Steele

The Noble Darkness 2

"Adacus!"

Maggie and Vorus ran up to the fainted old man.

He had single-handedly slain 230 clones. He had taken a considerable amount of damage from them and passed out due to fatigue.

The clown planned to take care of the strongest on the field.

'If I don't knock him out, he'll reveal my secret.'

Vorus picked him up.

"I'll get him to safety."

He scanned the battlefield for a safe place to keep the retired Saint but to his disappointment, the entire outpost was completely ravaged.

He decided to make his way back to the city where it's safe.

He dashed towards the city with Adacus on his back. He reached there in no time due to him using speed doping.

"There. Now to ge-"

"Leaving so soon?"

Vorus's body began to shake upon hearing the voice behind him.

He wasn't overwhelmed with fear, on the contrary, he was overtaken by rage.

Electricity crackled around him as he swing his hammer around.

"Woah there, Didn't they teach you guys not to use tools carelessly and to rely on a mechanic or something?"

The man in front of him was none other than Jester. The original Jester...

Vorus charged at the clown and lead a barrage of attacks with none landing a blow on the target.

Jester was too swift and dance around him while dodging his attacks.

Their difference in abilities was evident from the beginning.

"Your attacks leave you wide open... Kind of like that guy I killed."

"Shut it! You don't get to say his name."

"What's his name again... Uhm... Bane? Sane? Aha!" Jester snapped his fingers as he dodged another attack from Vorus. This time he jumps and lands on the head of the hammer.

"It's Cain!" He said with a malevolent smile as he kicked Vorus in the face pushing him back.

"Jester!"

"Hahaha. That was the same way he called out to me when I impaled his partners... Are they friends of yours too? Oops!" He laughs mockingly as he puts his hand on his mask right where his mouth was.

"Oh, the look of despair on his face as he helplessly watched me massacre his friends. Driven by rage, he charged at me."

"Stop!"

Vorus couldn't bear to hear the Jester talk. It was exactly what Ace had feared would happen. That the clown would get into the head of his friend.

"I stabbed him. Again and again and again! I watched as the color of life escaped his eyes. Do you know what the punchline is?"

Jester dodges another attack as he sends Vorus flying with a kick to the face.

"He called out to your name as I dissected him. And you didn't show up! Don't worry, you'll see him very soon. Hahahaha!"

The maniacal laughter of the mad clown echoed through the heart of Vorus.

Meanwhile...

"Huff. Huff."

Reginald was having trouble breathing as he stabs a clone in the chest. The backlash from being stabbed by Jester was finally taking a toll on him.

"Not... Yet." He parries an attack from a clone and then kicks him away.

"Time to even things a little... Snatch Steal!"

Snatch Steal is the ability of Reginald's relic, Lupin's Hat which allows him to copy the ability of any relic.

[LUPIN'S HAT/B-GRADE/ACCESSORY-TYPE]

His hat transformed into a masked which he then goes on to put on his face.

"Jester's Confit!"

Dozens of Reginald clones appeared on the field as they all scrambled to fight off the clown's clones.

"Pierce!"

"Arc!"

"Rain!"

"40 clones is all I could do... Win, everyone."

The battlefield was once again becoming even as Reginald gave a big huff as he plops to the ground.

"X Black!"

Ace and Rohan were fighting off the clones that blocked their path leading to Khan as he saw Reginald passed away.

"Regi!"

"Twin Eclipse Slash! Go! I'll take care of things here."

Ace ran to Reginald while shredding through the clones stood in his way.

"You're bleeding! Why didn't you say anything you fool? Shadow Rea-"

A weakened Reginald who was barely conscious halted the assassin.

"Don't. You can't put me in there again. You won't be able to use your relic if you do. You're crucial to us winning."

"But.."

Ace shakes his head and picks up his teammate as he made his way to Conroy.

"Patch him up."

Conroy tears a piece of his clothing as he uses it to apply pressure on Reginald's wound.

Ace scanned the field. The allied army was fighting off to the best of their abilities but like Adacus said, fatigue was catching up to them.

"Our mantra has ended."

"Huff. Even with the Reginald clones, Jester's clones keep multiplying."

The blowback for using mantra for so long is the inability to use Ain or relic abilities, Falkner and Lexi cannot fight anymore.

"Conroy, take Reginald to them, they can't fight for the meantime. Have them look after Reginald."

Conroy nods as makes his way to Falkner and Lexi.

Rhea runs up to Ace.

"Ace! Finally... We have to do it now!"

"You're also tired, I can feel it. Everyone is."

His Seismic Insight allows him to get a perfect review on the status of the battle at hand.

Ace faced Rhea with a determined look on his face.

"Let's do it."

"I've gathered enough soul energy from the soldiers, I couldn't with the clones as they're not technically living beings."

She spins her scythe around her head and the green soul fragments obtained from all the soldiers that were slashed, beaten, or killed from gathered around her.

"This is far greater than when we fought!" Ace said as he stares in awe at the soul fragments gathered.

It was one of the abilities of her Grim Reaper's Scythe relic. In battle, the soul fragments of the injured and dead are steadily being drained away whenever they take damage. Of course, she excluded her allies. But there were over a thousand soldiers on the enemy side who were either dead or fatally wounded.

As such it was easy for her to gather this much soul energy.

"Ready!?"

Ace nods as he places his hands on the ground.

She maneuvers her scythe as the soul fragments gathered around her and she slams her scythe hard on the ground.

The two said in unison

"Soul Shadow Arts: Black Golem!"

The earth beneath them rumbled as Ace's shadow, the soul fragments, and the earth itself combined.

"What's going on?"

"My liege! It's Ace. He's done something..."

Rada Khan peered at the Battlefield to where the rumbling came from.

"What the *$#& are those!?"

Five black golems were stumping the Jester clones.

"We did it!"

"A success! Thanks to Reginald..."

Ace ordered one of the golems to go to where Falkner, Lexi, and Reginald were. As Conroy was barely fending off the clones.

The golem smashed and stomped the clones destroying all of them in the process.

"Sir Ace! This is... Ehem... Awesome!" Conroy exclaims with glistering eyes.

The golems made quick work of the clones as they have used up all the soul energy and returned to the rocks they were.

Current Battle Analysis:

Enemy Army: Rada Khan, Kira, Jester.

Ally Army (Able Fighters): Ace, Conroy, Chase, Jake, Rohan, Rhea, Maggie, Bellamy, and Gantala.

Ace stared blankly at the Jester th "Begun vile humans! Grand Torrent!"

A massive wave created by Ciel crashed into the enemy forces like a waterfall.

"What is the keeper of the Aquarius zodiac crypt doing here.

[FLASHBACK]

After Ace's and Ciel's battle, the crew was ready to be beamed out of the crypt by the keeper.

He handed Ace a flute.

"What's this?"

"Use this whenever you need my aid, I shall come to your assistance."

They all gasped at the words of the man.

"Do keep in mind young braves, you can only call for me three times and once in 6 months, then the flute will disintegrate and I can only stay for a minute. So make sure you know what you seek from me before playing the flute. Also, you cannot summon me inside another crypt."

[FLASHBACK ENDS]

That was the case, Ciel had handed them a flute that could summon him from within his crypt, and although he can only stay for a minute, the havoc he was reigning on their enemies currently was worth it.

Upon his arrival, he had taken out the fifty soldiers that had attempted to attack Reginald.

After using his powerful attack, the current state of both sides on the battlefield were as follows:

Enemy Army: 300

Ally Army: 9

Only the Aegises, the Enders, Adacus, and Ciel remained from the Ally army.

Ciel's attack managed to further cut the enemy ranks in two but he failed to deal any damage to Rada Khan and Jester as the former had shielded them using a golden shield.

"This relic is most useful."

After Rada Khan had overthrown the king of Cronoa, he went on to take a powerful relic stored deep within a secret section of the castle.

It was the Hands of Midas relic. Midas was a man that was given the gift of turning everything he touched into gold.

Khan trained intensively under Jester to skillfully master the relic's ability. He would wave his hand and transform the very air around him into hard golden objects. It was so skillfully done that it had looked like a shield had teleported to protect them.

[HANDS OF MIDAS/S-GRADE/IMPLANT-TYPE]

"That was close Radaa." Jester's sweatdropped as he glared at the keeper.

'His presence has shifted the condition of the battle.'

"Oh yeah!"

"Nice work Ciel."

"I'm afraid I used up much of my energy with that attack, I am limited when I'm outside the crypt an-"

Reginald nods. "Times up. Thanks for your help."

Ciel beamed out of the battlefield.

Jester led out a peal of maniacal laughter.

"Th-that's it? Hahahahaha! I was actually worried there you know. Now, prepare to die!"

Jester runs towards Reginald as he pulls out a knife.

The thief blocked the attack and seemed to be pushing the clown back.

"Behind you."

"Huh?"

"Reginald!"

He was impaled from behind by none other than Jester.

"A clone?"

Thankfully, he missed his vital organs.

The clown pulled his knife out of Reginald causing the thief to groan in pain.

Vorus swings his hammer and clears away the soldiers standing in his path as he dashes towards Reginald and Jester.

"Grand Thunder Toss!" Electricity crackled as he throws his Mjolnir at the Jester.

"Oops." He jumps out of harm's way. And while in the air...

"Purifier!"

Lexi fires a stream of her arrows.

"Thunder Spear!" Falkner followed suit and tosses his lightning Spear.

"Tck, you have to try harder than that."

Jester created two more clones to take the incoming attacks as he safely lands.

"He did that in mid-air!?" Falkner exclaimed, asking no one in particular.

"I've got you now, clown!"

He turns back and barely dodges an attack from Adacus.

Adacus was covered in blood, it was the blood of the countless clones that he had cut.

"You single-handedly destroyed a hundred of my clones in less than an hour!? Hahaha."

He then goes on to dodge a series of attacks from the alliance. They paid no heed to the remaining soldiers on the field as they were being taken out by Chase, Rhea, and Kaz.

Current Battle Analysis:

Enemy Army: 240

Ally Army: 8

"Grr."

Rada Khan looks up as the alliance made quick work of the remaining soldiers.

"My liege," Kira called out to him.

"What!?" He was agitated over the loss of essentially a thousand soldiers to an army of a hundred. 'How can this be happening?'

As if to spite him, Kira points to the sky. "Above us my liege."

"Khan!"

Khan's face expressed his distress over recognizing the voice.

"Ace!"

Ace was descending from the sky as he had jumped off the sliver ark.

"Kill Switch!"

BOOM.

With a loud boom that shook the entire field, the leader of the Aegis clan struck down the golden shield that the mad King had erected instinctively.

The ark lands and the cavalry descended to aid their allies.

Rada Khan pulled out his sword and looks past Ace.

"Hello, brother." Rohan waved at him with a smile.

"Grr... No wonder you were nowhere to be seen, you had gone off to free my brother and these miscreants."

"Surrender, Khan."

"Oh, you call my name correctly now? Have I made such an impact on your life? Well, you have in mine!"

Most of his frustration had always been directed at Ace.

Rada Khan would have successfully invaded Kondo had Ace not intervened.

If he had then he won't have been captured and kept Hostage by Rhea.

He tightened the grip of his sword.

"You! You're the bane to my very existence and I shall wipe you off the face of the world!"

Current Battle Analysis:

Enemy Army: 180

Ally Army: 70

A look of hope crossed the faces of the alliance upon the arrival of backup.

"We're still outnumbered."

"But the odds are looking much better now."

Rhea and Kaz said as they ran across the field fighting off the enemy ranks.

"Bahamut Knuckle!"

Kaz's fist glowed red as he channels his aura which took the form of two dragon heads. He made quick work of any enemy soldier that came his way.

"Reaper's Dance!"

With swift and uncanny motion, Rhea maneuvers through the battlefield like a butterfly in a garden as she cuts down her opponents and drains their souls.

"Devil woman!"

Reginal called onto the Grim reaper.

She looks at him as he nods at her... It was time to execute the next phase of their plan.

She dashes in the direction of Ace and Rada Khan.

'Good, things are going according to plan.' Reginald thought to himself as he struggled to fight off Two Jester clones

'Tsk, these clones are as powerful as the original. It's like he can make an endless amount of them.'

It was understandable due to the high Ain reserves that the clown possesses.

The alliance was being pushed around by Jester's army of clones.

"Lexi!" Falkner called out to his clanmate.

The two nodded at each other. And began chanting words in an odd language repeatedly.

"What are you doing?" Vorus said.

"Sir Vorus! Sir Reginald!" Conroy ran towards them as he fires a couple of arrows through the hearts of the clones.

"Protect those two, they're going to power up."

Of course, Reginald and Vorus had no idea what Conroy was referring to.

The two continued chanting as markings began to emerge on their bodies.

"Mantra Point!" Their eyes turned orange

'This power... He didn't use this when we fought.' Almost as if Falkner could read his mind.

"I hate using mantra..."

Falkner and Lexi will then go on to start making physical contact with the clones. Whenever they touch one, it will burst up and disappear.

It was the ability of the mantra that sucks away ain.

Jester seemed to be caught off guard by this.

'Not to worry, it's not as if these two can touch me.'

I'll just make more clones.

He went ahead to channel more of his ain and created more clones to surround them all.

"Vortex Palm!"

"Sun Purge!"

"Blinding Rush!"

Maggie, Conroy, and Jake who had joined the battle against the clones led a frontal assault in a bid to create room for Falkner and Lexi to reach the original.

"Bellamy! Gantala! Help us out."

"We're kind of occupied at the moment Jakey boy."

Bellamy and Gantala also struggled to fight off the clones.

Each clone shared a portion of the abilities and strengths that the original had.

Ever since the battle began. The Ally army was outnumbered.

They managed to even the stakes with the arrival of backup, but Jester had decided to up his game by creating more clones rapidly.

"Hahahaha. Five clones for you. Ten for you. Oh, I haven't forgotten about you. Step right up and get your freshly baked doom!"

He dances and spins around the battlefield creating clones with every step.

The Ain reserves of a Don were truly limitless.

"My relic ability showcases its true capabilities during situations like this. Hahaha, I don't have to lift a hand!"

He was under the possession of the Mask of Raktabija.

Raktabija was said to be an Ashura, a demon with the ability to create clones of himself. And with each blood he spills, a new clone emerges.

[THE MASK OF RAKTABIJA/S-GRADE/ACCESSORY-TYPE]

Rohan and Ace were clashing with Khan as the latter was being pushed by the two.

"He has gotten stronger."

"So have we... X Black!"

A clone stood between them just as the attack was about to make contact.

"Jester!"

"These clones are starting to get annoying."

It was true that if it hadn't been for Jester and his cloning relic's ability, the battle would have been easier.

Even the former saint, Adacus whom Ace had brought with them to aid them was being pushed aside.

"It's human to fall to fatigue, especially at such an old age. "

Adacus plopped to the ground and fainted.

He had spent over an hour fighting off hundreds of clones created by Jester.

"Adacus!"

"Hahaha! I don't even have to take you on now, I'll let the clones finish you off."

Current Battle Analysis:

Enemy Army: 0 Soldiers, 300+ Clones.

Ally Army: 40.at was beside Rada Khan.

"That's a clone!" He exclaims pointing at the three that stood still on the opposing army.

"Wait, where's Vorus?"

Little did they know that Vorus was fighting? against the original.