AN: I feel like Overlord Season 2's Opening is the perfect song for this part of Arc 9, I just thought. I also feel like Pride's theme song is Roub Dougan's 'There's Only Me' it kind of fits... Without further ado, ENJOY.

ARC Nine: Infinite Crisis

Chapter Eighty Eight: Rainbow in Blackness

Held by his mother, Rigel looked around as the rain continued to drench them, the absolute severity of what was happening around them was evident. In front of them, Reinhard and Halibel were slicing way any Black Lantern that got too close. To the their sides Knight Subaru and Priscilla fired projectile attacks at several Black Lanterns that were trying to make it around them. Behind their fleeing group they could see Wilhelm and Rom contending with Pride.

Up above them, a display of beams and lights filled the hazy skies, so many different colors firing away and encasing the skies; like a rainbow in blackness.

Halibel sliced down another random Black Lantern before he blocked a sword strike by the Black Lantern Ricardo.

"Let's play a bit, I heard you were one of the strongest swordsman next to the Sword Saint! Bet you'd be a real challenge."

He swung down but Halibel kicked a piece of debri through his head, before kicking him into an already collapsed building, damaging it further. Only for Ricardo to quickly sit up, his wounds being mended to by some black veins that sprouted from it. He laughed at him, cheerfully as always, just as other Black Lanterns emerged from the cloud of smoke.

Married Rem nearly collapsed when she saw who it was, her sister in particular held her daughter and let out a blood curdling scream. So loud, that it got Flash's attention, he made a dash away from his own fight as he tried to see what happened. When he got there, he saw why Ram was screaming and was sickened by it.

With Ricardo were Kadomon, Miklotov, Marcos, Liliana, Dias Fatsblam and of course...Sylvia and Yuuji.

Ram's eyes wavered as tears drenched her trembling cheeks, Yuuji's white eyes stared back at her.

"Ram! How could you take my daughter away from me? I love her with all my heart! And I love you as well! Can you not see that?!"

"Yuuji...I.."

"I know what's best for the both of you! Come here, let's be together...the three of us."

He offered his hand to her, before putting on a simple smile, making Ram further weep.

"Join us, we'll be together always then-"

Halibel sliced Yuuji's head off before chopping down Sylvia and kicking several knives at the other Lanterns. Ram fell to her knees, still clutching her daughter's head...breathing ever so slightly. Right then and there, a Green and Red Lantern fired beams from their rings engulfing Miklotov and Dias in it, they evaporated into nothing and their dark rings shattered. Soon above them more Black Lanterns were descending; the two Lanterns aimed their rings again and fired at them. Reinhard looked up while he shielded Felt, the young man nearly screamed, realizing who they were.

The Van Astrea Nobility; his cousins, nephews, aunts and everyone he ever knew...they were all Black Lanterns and now were vaporized...freed from their horrid fates. Reinhard kept holding his blade's hilt, but he trembled slightly.

"My family…"

"Reinhard?"

"My family...they're…"

Reinhard let the rain continue to fall on him as he realized how he and his grandfather, were essentially the last of the Van Astrea family. With himself, the last of the lineage...and the last Sword Saint.

One Lantern survived the blast but lost his legs and began slowly crawling towards them...Crusch and Ferris instantly recognized who it was.

"Oh my beautiful daughter, help you dear old father would you?"

Meckart Karsten, Crusch's father, was crawling to them.

"Ferris, be a dear and heal these egregious wounds for me please?"

Crusch fell to her knees and let out a whimper as she saw the cold expressionless eyes her father had. A stressed, yet gentle and worrisome person...now he was dead and clearly trying to kill them both. Crusch looked away as he was finished off by the other two Lanterns, his howling screams would be the last thing she would ever hear from the man who raised her.

His ring tumbled over to them, before it disintegrated into nothing but dust. Before they could truly mourn his death Marcos activated his rock armor and aimed his fist towards them, Karagarian Batman created a humongous sword of light in his hands and leapt into the air.

"Yang Spell: Durendal!"

He swung down and sliced him clean in half before aiming the blade at a healing Yuuji and Sylvia.

"Fire."

The sword shot out of his hand and stabbed through the both of them, sending their bodies flying with the spell before it crashed into a fountain and exploded, water flew high into the air, mixing with the still falling rain. Behind the fountain, they could see the fire was still spreading, sending smoke high into the air...but the two of them got up and were clearly healing from their wounds. Knight Subaru blocked a kick by Frederica and a punch by Garfiel, the two siblings smiling at him. He roared out as he fired a black strike that sent them flying back, Beatrice floated next to him and put up a barrier, saving him from a strike from Petra. She looked at him longingly, hurting Subaru even more.

Soon, one of the gems housing the Six Witches activated, summoning Typhon who used her Authority to break them apart. Their limbs fell to pieces, only for them to grow new ones with the use of their tendrils. They laughed off the attack, frightening them to no end. Daphne appeared and used her coffin's large crab legs to split apart several Lanterns. Ricardo tackled her back.

"Dumbass! You're just a specter! No heart to take! You're useless, get the hell outta here!"

"Dog man should keep his mouth shut...IT RUINS MY APPETITE!"

She had her arms clash with his sword. The other witches came out as well, as many more adversaries arrived. Flash trioed to race over and help them...but Hal Jordan and Barbara Gordon tackled him through a wall. As he flipped himself back up, Barbara and Hal stared him down as they floated in the air.

"I die for a little over a five years and this shit happens Barry? I thought I could trust you guys to take care of Earth! Seems I was stupidly ignorant to your knack of being always too late!"

Flash got into a running stance as he was prepared to fight two of his friends. At least, he hoped he could fight them off.

Soon, Rigel held his head, muttering as he looked around the chaos around them…

"Why?"

"Rigel?"

"Why mom...WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? WE WERE ON THE WAY TO VISIT BRUCE-JII SAN. And now, so many terrible things...too many...why us? WHY?"

His muttering made his mother hold him tighter, even as she saw the Black Lanterns shambling towards them all. All of them, muttering and groaning.

"Flesh." "Hearts." "Give us your Flesh." "Fear us." "Hate us." "Love us." "ANYTHING." "DIE." DIE." DIE!" "FLESH!" "DIE AND BRING US FLESH!"

Wilhelm jumped the side of a wall and sliced open Pride's throat, letting air escape the grisly wound. He kicked off the floor and sliced off his legs next, as he let the wet ground let him slide away...Rom used the support beam and smashed him to the ground, sending blood and guts flying into the air.

Rom breathed ragged breaths as he used all his strength in that last attack. Wilhelm wiped the blood off his sword, when he saw something metallic with wood come out of the pile of death and fire.

BANG!

Rom fell back as he grasped his now bleeding abdomen, Wilhelm hurried over, and watched as Pride got up, the tendrils fixing him like new.

"Heh."

"Pride!"

Wilhelm dashed forward.

Pride reloaded his sawed off shotgun and proceeded to aim it the swordsman; only for Wilhelm to slice the weapon in two and stab through his chest. He looked up and saw a calm Pride looking down at him, then...an expression of absolute glee. Pride grabbed onto the blade and held it there.

"Stupid old man, so used to fight the single minded warrior of the past. Some random goons for you to chop up, or some magic user that slaved away to get his power."

Wilhelm tried pulling out the blade, but was shocked by the strength Pride had, as he was ready to just let the sword go...Pride grabbed his face with his black hand.

"Ahh...NGUAHHHHH!"

"You're time is done! You can't beat someone strong like me! Someone who can use death as a gift, not a curse!"

Wilhelm's wrinkles soon began to bleed and his cheeks soon began to dry up and crack...but Rom uppercutted him away and caught Wilhelm.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Y-Yes...that hand of his very dangerous, keep your distance from it!"

Rom was then caught in the leg by chain constructs and dragged away. He let out a yell as he was forced to break through a couple of houses before hitting one that collapsed on top of him. Pride made his way forward as he smiled at Wilhelm. The two leered at each other for a while...then both ran forward to clash.

Pride summoned a shield construct for himself, the two weapons crashed into each other as the opponents were now face to face with each other. Wilhelm sneered at him, while Pride simply chuckled a bit, taking a deep breath.

He spat out a black ooze from his mouth and it sprayed all over Wilhelm's face, causing steam to escape his face, Wilhelm grunted as he was knocked back by a shield thrust by Pride, that was before Pride made a construct of a snake that bit down on a distracted Wilhelm's shoulder. Pride then grinned as he had the snake pull him back towards him, Wilhlem stabbed him through the head...only Pride to kick him in the groin and then punch him away with his black hand. Now free from the impalement, he soon began healing again…

"URAGGHHHHH!"

Rom emerged from the rubble of the building...only he was several stories taller and looking down at the two of them. Pride played with his soaked hair as he looked up at him.

"So...he really was a giant…"

Wilhelm rubbed the last of the ooze off his face, before Pride clapped his hands at the sight.

"Neat. I always wanted to see a giant...though in my world he was already dead anyways, this is like a treat-"

He couldn't even finish his sentence as he was crushed under Rom's giant fist. The resulting strike shook the ground and uprooted several houses around them. He breathed ragged breaths as he raised his fist.

"But...being giant only makes you and easier target."

A construct of a javelin shot through the air and stabbed into Rom's left eye, he clutched his face in pain as he fell back on his behind. Wilhelm ran towards where the remains of his enemy should be, but saw that he shot out of the hole and formed another construct, this time of a large butcher knife.

Pride licked his lips as he flew forward. Wilhelm jumped from rooftop to rooftop to try and stop him…

Subaru and Beatrice saw in the distance how the giant Rom was injured.

"Rom-jii!"

Subaru, Patrasche and Beatrice began racing towards the battlefield, only for a wall of flames to block them off. They backed off, and were able to see a single girl float down in front of them.

"Y-You're the spirit contracted with Pride, I suppose. IRIS!"

The spirit nodded as her eyes narrowed in front of them. Sticking out her index finger and waving it around...telling them they would not interfere.

Pride flew forward in the air, Rom saw him and chopped into the air. Only for all his fingers to chopped away and Pride kept moving forward. Pride, then had a look to him that Rom simply couldn't fathom.

A look...of compassion.

"Rom, you were one of the first persons I tried to protect with all my might...back when I was still weak and had no understanding of the world around me...I really tried to save you...I really did."

"...?!"

"But...I guess...IT'S YOUR DESTINY TO DIE."

Pride shot forward and sliced open the giant Rom's neck open shooting out constructs of blades reminiscent to Elsa's at his open wound, making a geyser of blood shoot out of him. Wilhelm gritted his teeth seeing this...the blood sprayed all over the place, streets flooded with it, building painted with it...Felt got covered in some of it. She didn't blink or move as she simply fell to her knees. Her eyes drenched in tears devoid of any glimmer to them...she looked up as Rom fell on top of a house, that barely supported his gigantic weight. Rom opened his slinching eyes and caught the sight of Felt.

He had hated humans in the past. He really did, it explained his participation in the Demi-Human Civil war all those years ago. However, things happened that were outside his control so many years ago at the end of that conflict and he now found himself living with them...he grew accustomed to it in some way. But he felt he had nowhere to go, nothing to do...no purpose.

Then, one day several years ago...he found a baby abandoned in the slums where he lived. He was surprised to see such an adorable thing, though he still wanted to leave it..he felt he had no right to take care of such a thing.

That was, until the baby opened her eyes and he saw the pure innocent gaze in her red eyes...she didn't judge him, belittle him or look away. She saw him as him. So he took the child into his care.

In those years, he cared for her. Eventually, naming her Felt.

He helped her read, teach her skills in fighting, help make her clothes...even if he was bad at it, give her advice on the world and eventually, grew to love her as what he came to see her as.

His daughter. His one and only daughter.

The days where he would keep her company, the nights when he would give her warm milk to go to sleep and even the special day where he would actually steal a cake from a bakery for her...the smile she would give him; made him feel alive.

"F...Felt…"

He moved his hand out to reach out to her, making the young girl weep even harder. Ferris wanted to get over to him, but they were being hounded by Black Lanterns and were barely able to move at all.

"Fe...lt...Don't cry…"

He wanted to wipe away her tears as he did in the past, to help her and one day...see her off and become something great, with a smile…

"Felt...my chi-"

Rom was then stabbed through the head with a spear construct.

His giant hand fell limp and it simply crashed to the ground...the colors in his eyes, left him, the only thing that could be seen in them was Felt.

Felt trembled and looked at her hands, her gloves were covered in blood so she tried to wipe them off, nothing worked and she began panicking...soon she began tearing up again.

"No...NO...NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! ROM! ROM!"

"Felt-sama…"

Felt grabbed at her head...she let out a pained scream that was so loud it attracted everyone's attention, even in the midst of battle.

"R-ROM!"

Felt clawed at her face, the rain barely helping to get the blood off her, even her tears...they did nothing. The memory of her birthday with him shuttered into her mind for a split second. Pain.

"PAPAAAAAAAAAA!"

Reinhard closed his eyes and held back his emotions as he guarded Felt from a jab. Subaru heard the screams and clenched his fists, tears escaping his helmet.

"Rom…"

Pride stood atop of Rom's head looking down at the others, with his eyes seemingly glowing red and a smirk on his face…

"PRIDE! YOU SCUM OF THIS WORLD!"

"Oh yeah, Wilhelm."

He turned around and saw Wilhelm leaping to him with his sword at hand, so Pride made two kitchen knife constructs, before charging at him as well. The two were dead set on finishing each other off for good, Wilhelm kicked at the air and did masterful movements to slice Pride into countless pieces. He then made it to the edge of the roof and backflipped off of it, even he knew Pride wasn't really dead from such an attack-

"Gosh...kkk...hk-I am impressed by-hk...you-kkkk…"

A still regenerating Pride looked up at him, simply a hideous mass of black tendrils with eyeballs and teeth without gums. Wilhelm wouldn't let up and he had to punish the Sin Archbishop for all the deaths he's directly caused...He spun in the air and sliced the tendrils in half...only for a hook construct to stab through his shoulder.

"Ugh!"

"Here...we go!"

He was swung into the rooftop where Rom's corpse laid on, plowing into it forming a crater underneath his body. Pride quickly landed on the roof and sprinted quite insanely at his opponent; Wilhelm got up and held the sword with his opposite arm...the other was barely hanging on by a few muscle fibers and clearly shattered bones. Wilhelm concentrated as he was aiming to slice off his head, only for Pride to whistle playfully and had the decapitated head of the first Subaru, the one he had with him all this time, block the hit and sliced the thing apart...Wilhelm was quite stunned, only for Pride to be simply winking at him.

Pulling Adam Strange's ray gun, he shot Wilhelm several times in the chest and legs. Wilhelm spat out chunks of blood as Pride punched him across the face, more blood and this time teeth flew out of his mouth.

Then...as if to inflict a punishment of his own…

Pride used his black hand to poke out Wilhelms eyes.

"GUAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Pride shot him again, this time it blasted apart his cheek, Wilhelm then sliced upwards and cut off his arm. Pride made a bashful smile, before kicking his neck and sending his body falling off the rooftop. As Wilhelm fell...thoughts ran across his mind.

He thought back on it. The success of hunting down the White Whale and avenging his wife. Fulfilling his duty in protecting his master, Crusch Karsten, to the very end.

But was it enough?

Did he ever truly repay his debts to Subaru for helping him attain his revenge and getting his masters memories back? Or Batman, for saving them from the clutches of the spies sent to possibly assassinate them? Or even Deathstroke for helping them to mend the wounds their family had for Thearesia?

Thearesia.

His wife.

His love.

His second half.

Would he be able to see her again?

The rain falling on his face...it reminded him of when it was rainy day so many years ago. He sat there in their home watching as the garden was soaking in the rain water. The flowers attaining their rewards for their beauty. It was that same moment when she told him she was pregnant, it made him joyful to no end...it was one of the happiest moments of his life. He held her and hugged tightly, hearing her happy chuckles and the rain falling down outside…

Yet, in the dark void he was looking at, there was nothing-

"Wi….em…"

A voice.

Something gentle, yet familiar, a voice he treasured…

"Wilhelm."

"...resia..?"

From the darkness, the blackness of this void, a white light came out and so did a hand. Wilhelm hesitated, but soon he saw that white light was wrapped around someone...someone he longed to see again. He began to cry as he reached out to her...looking exactly as she did when they first met.

Thearesia Van Astrea.

She smiled at him, beautiful yellow flower petals flowing around her and the white light growing ever brighter. Wilhelm finally reached his hand out...the white light encasing everything.

"So it was love huh? Isn't that cute?"

Pride said this as he pulled Wilhelm's heart out of his chest while they were still in free fall.

Pride laughed as he watched the heart evaporate in his hand. Wilhelm's body broke apart as it impacted the ground.

Crusch and Ferris, trembled in absolute horror seeing this. Crusch had a hard time trying to find the words to say flinching as she did, Ferris did, he knew what to scream.

"WILL-JII!"

"W...W…"

Finally Crusch began to cry, her memories of the kind yet strong man who helped her all this time, flooded her mind...now he was gone.

"WILHELM!"

Reinhard held his tears as they began to form in the corner of his eyes.

"G-Grandfather...Wilhelm…"

Pride made a chainsaw construct and made boisterous pose as he pointed it at them.

"What's with the long faces? See?! They're going to be alright!"

{Valga Cromwell of Lugnica.}

{Wilhelm Van Astrea of Lugnica}

{RISE.}

The corpses of their deceased rose up and let out hideous gurgles as they now had become Black Lanterns. Felt simply smiled with no true expression of happiness, while Crusch and Ferris had tears trickle down their cheeks.

"Still, these two should've gave up before they even tried...hell, maybe even killed themselves to spare me the trouble-"

"-HOLD YOUR TONGUE!"

Crusch leered at him as she screamed out this enraged demand...Pride tilted his head before he stuck his tongue out and proceeded to bite it off completely, he spat out the bloody chunk before opening his mouth to show the tendrils healing his wound, sickening everyone that witnessed it.

"Hehehe, it's nicer to have friends kill you instead, right?"

"MONSTER!"

Crusch fired her Hundred Man Sword Strike with absolute rage, but it was sliced away by Wilhelm, who glared at her, Rom raised his giant fist into the air and slammed it down. The force separated Crusch and Ferris from the others, Crusch held onto Ferris as her back hit a wall.

After the proceeding attack, Pride ran forward, letting the chainsaw drag on the floor, sending sparks flying behind him. He laughed viciously at them...his eyes glowing red and black slime slipping out of his mouth. Only for Natsuki Subaru to fly around and tackle him through a wall. The others were shocked seeing this, watching as Subaru took off his helmet, showing his bloodshot eyes as he glared down at him. The Sin Archbishop slumped back up and grinned at his other self.

"Fake Subaru."

"BASTARD."

"Ouch, not even going to use my name, huh?"

"Fuck you."

Pride snickered at this, before he summoned a construct of Wilhelm's sword and Subaru got out his Unseen Hand. The two men charged at each other, in the distance, Beatrice and Iris were continuing their vicious sky battle against one another.

Two spirits and their masters were now locked in deadly combat.

The fire spread. The rain kept falling. The morning sky was still hazy.

Crusch was helped up by Ferris as they looked over the situation.

"Crusch-sama, we've been separated from the others!"

"Yes, we have to get back to them."

"Yes, as you commanyd!"

Then they heard footsteps behind them, obviously walking into a puddle.

Crusch got her sword ready and turned around ready to defend herself...only for Crusch and Ferris to stare blankly.

"No…"

"It-It's nyot…"

In front of them, in clothes reminiscent to ones he wore long ago...a dear old friend.

"Ferris, Crusch...I'm glad to see you again."

Crusch dropped her sword to the ground, it splashed water around from the impact. Crusch's eyes wavered, Ferris trembled, not from being soaking wet, but from seeing...him.

"Majesty…"

"Ferris, you've protected Cursch all this time without me around...I'm proud of you."

"HK."

Then...his red eyes fell upon the jade haired woman who had tears escape her tired eyes.

"...And the woman...I loved so dearly...I'm so happy to see you again, I could just cry."

"...Please...NO."

He held his hands out to her...and Crusch took a step forward...to Fourier Lugnica.

"I'm back."

Out in space, atop the remnants of the Augria Sand Dunes, Anti-Monitor and Satella looked out and saw the very thing they were waiting to encounter, but never got the chance to see. Now it was here.

"You took your time did you not? All this death and destruction and yet you allowed it all to occur? What a terrible protector you truly are."

"You...helped...take….FLUGEL...pay...PAY...PAY…"

The two masterminds now faced it, the Great Dragon Volcanica.

His grand grey wings emanated a rainbow hue to them as his sharp eyes glared at them.

"Yes, while the sacrifices were many, I had to allow it to regain some strength."

He then looked behind them and saw the Black Lantern Battery Core.

"Though it seems that I will require more power."

"Hmph. And where do you intend to garner such power?"

"All I can say is...that it will require more sacrifices. HOWEVER!"

He spread out his mighty wings and let out a gigantic gust of wind, sending sand and rocks flying into the air. His eyes began to glow and his entire body began glowing with the rainbow hue.

"If it is to defeat the two of you, then these sacrifices will be necessary! Even if humanity comes to hate me for what I am about to do, SO BE IT! I DO THIS FOR THEIR SAKE!"

"Die….DIE...VOLCANICA…"

Anti-Monitor held Satella on his palm as he walked forward, the two of them ready to simply kill this dragon and continue with their plans…

"RAAAAGROOOOOAAAAAARRRRR!"

Volcanica let out a ear shattering roar, the shockwave blowing away more sand and showing just how powerful he was.

But still, the dead would continue piling up...necessary to his ambitions alone.

{Battery Power Level: 91.48%}

Behold, death would show no mercy and hold no chance for hope to last.

AN: Played the Oregairu ending song "Everyday World" while writing this. Don't know why. Ahem, anyways, tune in next time for more despair and action!