Chapter 26

Vincent was extremely depressed at this moment. Not only did he notice that a potential power up resource had fled unnoticed, he now had to fight an awakened, pissed off Noah while trying to keep everyone else from dying. Yup, being the protagonist was the best job in the world. 

Vincent: (If I had to deal with this, I would have preferred my first world to have been highschool dxd or to love ru...It could be worse. At least there aren't any other akuma left around. It seems like Klaud and everyone else took care of most of them while the rest seemed to instantly be destroyed since they were right next to Road when she transformed. So, all I got to do is defeat Road, take her dimension powers, and get the hell out of here. Piece of cake, though I don't want anymore surprises after this. Who knows if reinforcements will come via the Ark, cause that is something I don't want to deal with just yet...) Alright everyone, we just have to take her down and we win.

Klaud: Alright, but can you explain what exactly are we fighting?

Lenalee: Vince-niichan, what happened to the girl? S-She looks like a monster.

Alex: More of a demon to me, with them red eyes.

Takeo: ...At least Tim doesn't have to be a part of the final battle. I feel like this is gonna be a long fight.

Erin: Yeah, I don't know if I have the energy for it.

Vincent: (Aw, poor Takeo...)Okay, everyone eat one of these. They should help you out.

Vincent then proceeded to toss out Senzu beans, making sure everyone got one. (Road chose to just continue her power up without interrupting them, just like the good little antagonist she is.)

Alex: ...um, I don't think these will help much.

Vincent: Just eat it.

Everyone, except for Lenalee who already knew about the Senzu beans, gave each other a strange look before consuming them. The effects were immediate, and everyone felt that it was unbelievable that something so small could be full of so much energy.

Klaud: Where did you get those? With them, we might be able to survive fighting that.

Vincent: I sort of managed to bond the innocence we found to my sword here and it gave it the ability to produce them.

Alex: But wasn't that sword already something like innocence? How could you fuse them?

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Vincent: They were both already related to plants, so it wasn't really that hard. Besides, weren't they originally one? !!! Anyways, enough talking, I think that's all the time she's given us to talk.

After Vincent gave his half-assed lie, it seemed that Road would no longer give them any more prep time. She started acting up, letting them know that there standard "turn-the-tide" planning time was all used up.

Road: Killkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkill…Ahhhhh!

Takeo: Oi, why is the world becoming even more messed up. There's ripples and cracks everywhere and they seem to be becoming even more violent. Also, what's that black mist!? It's making my innocence react violently! I've never seen this before...

Takeo’s innocence, a black whip, seemed to be rattling in his hand as if it yearned to run away as fast as possible away from the blob of darkness. Everyone except for Vincent’s innocence acted this way, even Lau who had all his hair standing up, making him look nearly twice his size (B: Biology lesson right there.)

Lenalee: ...Vincent-niichan, s-should we run?

Klaud: I think it might be for the best, that is, if we could leave. I'm not so sure anymore. 

During their conversation, the space around them seemed to become increasingly distorted until there surroundings changed from the remnants of a forest into an infinite pitch black darkness. When the darkness faded, they were now in a dark room, full of candles everywhere for light.

Vincent: (...this is probably Road’s basic dimension, but why does it look way more sinister than in the anime... )

Road: Kill. The. Brat. ROARRRRR!

The blob of darkness that was once Road Camelot started to slowly make its ways towards Vincent, it's red eyes completely focusing on him. It was as if all it saw in its vision was him. To any man, that kind of treatment would be welcome from a girl, but absolutely not from a black blob of death that personally wants to kill you in the most painful way imaginable. (A: Just like my ex-wife...)(B: But he never married...)

Alex: !!!Vincent, it seems to want you. Hurry, move to the back and we'll try to stall it. Come on everyone!

Vincent didn't want to hide behind them, but everyone else was already moving before he could protest. All he could at the moment was stay behind and try to recover his energy from the earlier battle. Of course, that could easily take a second with a Senzu bean, but he wanted to see how things would play out. However, the second something went wrong, he'd transport everyone into his spatial farm. Still, he wouldn't use that trump card unless absolutely necessary. Besides, if someone did die, then he could just use his shinigami powers that catch their soul and make them into one of his contracted sentient beings. He was planning on asking Klaud, Alex, and Lenalee some day anyways, so it's not like it was a last resort or anything. He was confident his bond with everyone was at a high enough level to where they would still accept him. He was the protagonist after all, and every heroine accepts the protagonist! (B: umm… check the more recent ones...) Of course, he hoped to save them before they died, but he wasn't sure of how things would play out just yet, so he thought it would be better to hold onto some of his cards before he chose to reveal them...

And so, the battle began without Vincent’s influence. The first ones to make a move were Takeo, Erin, and Lau since they were the tanks of the group. Takeo had a whip that could grow to any length and that he could control with ease while Erin had gauntlets that generated explosive punches and could change their weight. Takeo first tried restraining the blob’s movement by having his whip coil around it, but he found that whenever his whip came into contact with it, it would just phase through it as if it wasn't real. The same results were given when Erin and Lau tried attacking. They just couldn't make their attacks hit. Eventually though, the blob seemed to get annoyed and made a loud screeching sound, enough to make everyone cover their ears with their hands. Poor Lau had it worse since his body was designed to have higher specs and he was close to the black blob. Once the sound ended, Erin, Takeo, and Lau were kicked out of the dimension.

Klaud: Lau!!!

Vincent: (...I kind of feel bad for Erin and Takeo.) Oh god, Klaud!

Road: Roar!!!

When Vincent let down his guard because of the comedic scene of Erin, Takeo, and Lau falling through a hole, Road had taken the initiative to use the black mist to attack the now defenseless Klaud. It instantly transformed into black stakes which impaled Klaud, leaving her lying on the floor in her pool of blood while her life force started to sharply decline. At this point, Vincent instantly regretted his reckless actions, cursing himself for thinking that he was strong enough as he was. Although Vincent had already consumed some Senzu beans, he was still caught off guard and didn't make it to Klaud on time. So under everyone's watchful eye, Vincent and Klaud disappeared into a patch of black mist.