There was a lull during which the civilians didn't perceive the threat looming over them.

The rain pelted hard, the ground was muddy.

Still too many people, confused, were scrambling to their feet, haggard, trying to figure out where they were and what to do.

Endeavor, heart pounding, muscles tense, had just finished looking at the circling Nomus, water trickling down his bare arms.

Black portals were still opening here and there, dumping new creatures on the buildings' roofs.

Civilians made a slow, limp exodus toward the shrine's steps, clustering around the Torii, barely beginning - or not - the ascent.

They talked loudly, the infernal din of their discussions mingling with the downpour.

Endeavor, taut as a bow, hadn't slept in 36 hours, keeping his eyes open thanks to sheer adrenaline pumping through his bloodstream.

Shoto, exhausted, was tense, tension of anticipation stiffening his muscles and knotting his shoulders.

Endeavor's eyes darted from one Nomu to the next, his expression harder each time one emerged from a portal.

He tried to gauge the magnitude of the impending disaster, but even in the wildest situation he'd ever been in, he'd never had to protect so many civilians.

The longer they waited, the more absurd the number of Nomus grew ; yet if they attacked first, they risked provoking an onslaught they weren't sure they could handle - even with two of them.

Shoto was sweating profusely, his chest rising and falling quickly, his breath still short and sharp from the evacuation.

Water trickled down his burning skin, mixing with his sweat and seeping under his clothes.

His eyes were nothing more than two slits, his eyes so narrowed they looked like snake's.

His hair was slicked on his forehead and cheekbones, making a dark curtain over a sharingan that glowed malevolently.

They were too many of them, they both knew it.

"Dad-"

"Civilians first," Endeavor growled in a low voice. "But you're not allowed to die, do you hear me ?"

Thunder rumbled.

Two thin ice knives appeared in Shoto's palms.

"Be careful", he answered quietly.

Neither of them took their eyes off the swarming Nomus high up.

Shoto bent his legs, a shiver of adrenalin and apprehension electrifying his body.

Every time he thought he'd come full counted them all, new Nomus would emerge from dark portals, increasing his restlessness.

If it had been merely him and his father, they could have used God Mode in concert in an unparalleled display of power ; yet civilians were too weak and frail for his father to even bring lava out of the earth's crust.

The heat would cause the humid air to boil, and the civilians would end up roasting in their own skin.

Shoto himself was more than a little spent - in part because All for One had stunned him by sending him headfirst through cement and metal - and mostly because of all the energy he'd been exerting continuously for the past few months.

There would be no flashy jutsus nor grand displays of strength.

It would be a brutal, gruesome bloodbath of unprecedented violence.

Shoto tightened his grip on his knives.

For the first time in many years, he considered the possibility of losing.

His eyes flicked back to his father.

He would never agree to abandon civilians to their fate ; Shoto wasted no time suggesting the idea.

A genjutsu-clad clone of Shoto suddenly appeared on his right, his headache now pounding against the walls of his skull.

This was no fighting clone - Shoto had enough left to make one.

They shared a short look and the clone disappeared, sneaking through the Nomu's iron vice.

Suddenly, Shoto's head snapped to the right, his ears picking up sound faster than his mind, his wet hair flying around his face spraying drops of water everywhere.

A Nomu with huge mosquito wings swooped down on the civilians gathered at the foot of the shrine, arms outstretched to grasp.

Shoto's knife transformed into a frozen spear ; it whistled out of his right hand, slicing through air like a razor blade.

The Nomu turned his head to Shoto just as the tip of the spear pierced his skull from side to side.

He was dragged along like a rag doll, his legs flapping like a wind-swept banner behind him, blood spurting from his throat.

Civilians below were soaked in blood and bits of flesh.

They raised their heads a second too late, stunned, pieces of shattered skull - like shards of glass - sliding down their hair.

The spear struck the sixth step of the shrine's stairs, skewering the Nomu there, cracks spreading in web.

The tip had blown out his brain ; he was already dead.

Blood and grey matter, sticky, pooled on the steps.

The first civilians screamed.

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Shoto rose from his crouch, his right arm - the one he'd thrown with - slowly retracting to his side.

He exhaled a cloud of vapor.

Endeavor, side by side with his son but facing the opposite direction, prepared for the assault, flames licking his fingertips.

All hell broke loose.

Nomus sprang from all sides like an army bent on destroying them all.

The flying ones were so numerous they looked like swarms of giant mosquitoes ; for a moment they converged, blotting out the meager light projected by the thunderbolts.

The whole shrine was shrouded in darkness as if there was an eclipse.

Fire gushed from Endeavor's back, charring a flying Nomu that had tried to catch him off guard.

The creature let out a shrill scream but kept moving ; Endeavor spinned smoothly around and grabbed him by the skull, his nails digging into his exposed brain.

Blue fire blasted from his hand.

The Nomu's screams grew agonizing ; Endeavor, merciless, charred him, his skin looking like glass.

The bust of a Nomu emerged from the ground behind Endeavor's ankles ; he opened his jaw on a row of bloody fangs.

A shadow was cast across his face ; he lifted his head.

Shoto's knife sliced savagely through his skull.

He struck three times, shattering the skull with the first blow, pulverizing the brain with the second, and overreacting with the third.

Blood splattered across his face.

Still panting, Shoto struck a fourth time.

His red eyes shone malevolently as he looked around.

He's saved all the civilians ; he'd done what his father or Keigo would have done, did what the good Shoto, the better Shoto, would have done.

Now that blood had to be shed, he could satisfy his inner Shoto until drunkeness.

Endeavor let go off the charred Nomu.

The body crashed heavily into the mud.

The screams of the civilians were horrific, like sinners burning in hell.

Blood, chaos and pain were everywhere.

At the edge of the field a Nomu was bent over a woman, holding her with both hands as if she were a piece of meat ; she struggled, screamed, begged.

He bit off her throat.

Civilians at the foot of the shrine's screamed like damned, pushing each other violently, trampling those who had fallen in order to reach the stairs, clogging the entrance in their panic.

Two winged Nomus hovered above them.

One of them dove.

Shoto's eyes flashed : he spun sideways, hurling his second knife at full speed.

His eyes briefly met his father's : Endeavor faintly nodded, face solemn.

Shoto disappeared in a kawarimi, substituting himselsf with the knife he'd thrown, which fell into the mud at Endeavor's feet.

Shoto suddenly reappeared above the crowd, parallel to and back to them, body perpendicular to the falling Nomu.

The creature jerked back in surprise, its wings turning the other way to lift him up.

Far above him, to his left, the other Nomu was flying : he noticed Shoto and swooped down on them.

Shoto cupped his hands around his mouth.

Katon : Goukakyuu no Jutsu

A fireball the size of a meteorite shot out of his mouth, incinerating both Nomus at close range.

Rain crackled upon contact with the heat, turning to steam.

The top of the surrounding trees burst into flames, the nearest ones incinerated from leaf to root in a matter of seconds, a blackened, cracking trunk the only trace of their existence.

The group of civilians beneath him screamed as they scattered, people pushing and shoving each other to escape the mayhem.

It wouldn't be enough.

Shoto grabbed the Nomu above him by the throat, spun them around, and with a short but powerful blast of Hell Flame, sent them both crashing headfirst into the ground below.

They landed at the bottom of the stairs, where the steps met the grassy slope.

The Nomu hit the edge of the steps at full speed, his neck snapping under the impact, the crushed edge turning to dust and pebbles.

Shoto was still holding him by the neck : a sharp bolt of pain shot up his right arm , rattling his teeth.

He stood up, his foot on the creature's neck to hold him down, shoving his head deep in the mud he couldn't breathe.

The Nomu flapped his arms and legs like a fish out of water, unable of moving his torso because of his broken upper spine : but already steam was escaping from his limp neck, proof that he was already healing.

Civilians ran around him, giving Shoto looks he didn't bother to notice, shouting things he couldn't hear.

All his attention was absorbed by the Nomu under his shoe, bucking and rolling, trying to push him away thanks to sharp, violent jerks.

Shoto grabbed the mosquito wings that spread around him like fans, huge and translucent, and ripped them off cruelly.

*

A/N : If you like the story and want to read ahead of schedule, go check the story's P@treon, Nar_cisseENG