[Meanwhile- Seven Hills 'Arena']

Tetsuya held his shield up. Agnes turned crimson and its shape warped, developing ridges akin to those of flames. A burgundy beam shot out of the emerald core, striking the clouds.

Leviathan gasped. She charged at Tetsuya, but my father and uncle swarmed her. She raised her forearms in front of her, blocking their blades with the shield and sword-like protrusions in her armor.

"Move aside!" she yelled, pushing both of them back.

I stared at Tetsuya as he stayed still. He seemed to be struggling to keep the rain from pouring down. We had to finish this quickly, else the entire valley would get wiped out.

Aventine appeared behind Leviathan and slashed at her, but Leviathan caught the energy copy of my sword and snapped it in half.

"My poor Zini married a weak girl. Not that he was very strong to begin with," Leviathan said, snickering.

That's right, that woman was technically the ancestor of the Kasai no Ki, given she split from Renata after the conception of the Seven Flames and Zinnia. Just like Ifrit with us Kuroriku...

I gasped. Conrad! If one of the Seven is here, are the other Archdemons around too? This might be a distraction while the others get my little brother!

I gritted my teeth. The air around me crackled, pushing away the dirt and rocks around me and the clouds above.

Tetsuya sighed with relief and lowered his shield. If I'd known that would've helped him, I would've gone into Third Heaven a lot sooner.

"Oh?" Leviathan said, eyeing me. She reached her hands out and grasped my father and uncle's swords, spinning the twins around as if they were a human version of a wave swinger.

I held both hands out and grabbed my uncle and father with giant paws of stone.

"Argh, couldn't you have gone for something softer?" Father said.

I rolled my eyes. "Maybe I should've allowed you to hit the mountain face instead."

Father grumbled.

Uncle sighed and got up. "Serrano's right, you should be glad that he even caught us to begin with. Now, if you have time to complain, then you have time to fight."

"Alright, I get it. Time to pick things up." He smiled as the air around him crackled.

"Good. Conrad could be in trouble," I said, covering my twin swords in my aura.

Father furrowed his brow. "Your mother should be there in a bit."

Right, hopefully she would keep him safe. But a few days of training might not make a big enough difference. Then again, Naoru and Plum should also have been with him. Naoru would likely delay the demons or call Setty himself. Setsuko and the Seven Hills should've been able to keep him safe. At least long enough for us to arrive, if not outright push them back.

I gasped as I felt something rush behind me. Spinning around, I watched as Tetsuya blocked Leviathan's tail. How had he moved so fast? Had he shadow warped?

"Cuz, you really got to work on keeping your guard up!" Tetsu said, smiling past the pain as he attempted to push back against the sea dragon's tail.

A cloud of sand hugged Tetsuya from behind as he was pushed back.

"Tetsu, allow us to handle her," I said as my guardian angel rushed to my side.

"Fine. I'll try to gather mana in the meantime," he said, sitting down on the sand with his legs crossed.

I nodded and slammed the ground. Leviathan spun around in a circle, blowing the sand back with her tail.

"Even in that form, you're pathetic. My grandchildren are a disappointment, losing to the likesss of you."

Uncle appeared in front of me and pushed her back with his sword.

"Your grandsons gave me and my generation the fights of our lives outside of the clash with the Monkey King," he said, glaring at her.

"Oh? Hold some level of respect for them, don't you? That still doesn't change thingsss. Losing to weak doves like you makesss them losersss," she said, covering Uncle in a globe of water.

"Osamu!" Father yelled, dashing over. The water burst upon touching his aura.

"Not bad. Asss expected of the one who beat Mammon!"  She slammed her tail against the ground. Geysers of water shot out of the mountain, sending all of us stumbling to the ground.

"I can't focus like this!" Tetsuya snapped, slamming his fists against the ground. Twin trails of stone spikes rushed toward Leviathan. The dragon lady sidestepped them by going left and slashed them with the sharp tip of her tail as soon as she noticed they were curving toward her.

Aventine took a deep breath and swung her energy replica of her namesake weapon. Leviathan raised her arms in front of her as a blast of energy tore through the land. The demoness gritted her teeth as she tried to maintain her footing. The attack had pushed her back a meter and buried her in two feet of dirt.

"Guess that you aren't as much of a disappointment as I thought," Leviathan said, pushing away the dirt around her with her tail, creating a meter wide crater.

Aventine smirked. "My, aren't you a hard to please 'mother-in-law'? I guess that I'll have to up the ante!" Her body glowed with my Third Heaven aura.

I smiled. Seemed that channeling it to her worked!

My guardian angel held her arms out, forming a long ebony whip sword out of the aura I'd given her.

"Isn't that the sword that she claimed was Dad's 'true form' of Aventine?" Tetsuya asked.

I laughed. "Weren't you complaining about not being able to focus a minute ago?"

He shrugged. "That was just a pretext to attack her, but you're right. I'll go back to gathering mana. Especially as you're starting to run out."

I turned away. So, he saw through me. Hopefully, I could keep this up long enough for Aventine to finish her off.

"We can't stay idle either," Uncle said. He took a deep breath and appeared behind Leviathan.

"Regained your focusss, huh?" Leviathan said as she blocked multiple jabs from him.

He scoffed as he aimed for her neck. "Never really lost it."

That's right, it's just that Zen Mode was better for defense than attack. Tabiki saw through that in their fight. That said, it did allow one to strike multiple times, letting one to gradually chip away at their opponent.

Father dashed as Leviathan, striking the center of her armor with his sword. Leviathan gasped as cracks appeared on her armor. She grasped Father with her tail and swung him at Uncle. The scales on her tail looked as if they had been worn while she had a hold on him. 

The king grabbed his brother and shot a blast of darkness at the dragon. Leviathan unleashed a dark blue aura from her hands and thrust them toward the sphere, forming a barrier, deflecting the attack back at him.

Uncle swung his hand up, flinging the deflected sphere toward the sky before it could even touch him.

"That's odd, why didn't he fling it back at her?" Tetsuya mumbled.

"Less talking and more focusing on recuperating your mana," I said, sighing.

He blushed and closed his eyes.

Aventine flicked her sword at Leviathan's back. The barrier spun around its owner, flinging the sword back at Aventine. My guardian angel raised the sword up and swung it straight down, hitting the ground. The earth trembled, but it didn't shatter unlike when I had hit it with my twin swords. I could feel mana course through it in a gradual manner. Aventine must've not wanted to ruin the area more than it already was.

Leviathan stared at the ground and flew upward, creating powerful gales with her draconic wings.

"Argh," I said, trying to keep myself from being blown away. If this is how strong a gale from the Mistress of the Sea was, I would hate to face one from the Ruler of the Sky.

Suddenly, scorpion-tail-like rock formations rose from the ground, reaching out for Leviathan. The dragon lady slashed them with her sword and flew straight down.

Aventine smiled as another tail appeared from the earth, grasping the dragon.

Leviathan gritted her teeth as the other tails grabbed her.

"Go to sleep," Aventine said, curling her fingers.

The sea beast smiled. "Sleep? The Mistress of the Dark Depths doesn't sleep." A watery extension of her tail appeared, grasping the giant boulders pressed again her body. The giant rocks exploded under the intense pressure as the water expanded outward and swallowed them.

"Yikes," Tetsuya said.

I gritted my teeth.

Aventine sighed and ran in a straight line, cutting the water veil in half.

Leviathan grasped the area of her armor that Father had chipped off. Aventine's attack had widened the crack. Letting go of her chest, the shattered armor bits flew forward.

Aventine grabbed me and rushed of the way.

"Tetsu!" I yelled.

Tetsuya opened his eyes and formed a barrier. The air crackled as the discarded bits pushed against it. Leviathan lurged at him and opened her mouth. My cousin stood up as she reverted back to her dragon form.

"Tetsu!" I screamed, escaping Aventine's grasp.

"Serrano!" Aventine yelled, chasing after me.

I stabbed Leviathan's side with both swords, but her scales failed to shatter even with the boost from Third Heaven. Was Margaret this durable? Or perhaps worse? If so, how were we to beat her? No, right now I had to focus on defeating her mother, or else we might have no future!

"Move aside, Serrano!" Aventine yelled.

I looked up and saw her flying straight at me. I let go of my sword and rolled out of the way. Aventine kicked the swords, plowing them deep into Leviathan's skin. The beast of the sea moved her head back and forth and thrashed, shaking the land.

"You insects!" Leviathan screeched, her tail flailing in the air.

I jumped up and grabbed the tail, using it as a leaping board to the other side.

"Huh? Impressive move there, child. You're definitely agile, and despite your appearance, you're hardy to boot."

I smiled. "How bittersweet, being complimented by the likes of you," I said, raising my right index and middle fingers up. My tiger swords flew out of her body and landed back in my hands. "En garde!" I deflected her tail with my swords like I'd done Uncle Takeshi's tail during our last spar. Having two made it a lot easier. Doubted I would've been able to push her back with only one.

If only I could've trained more with him, or if only Hyosetsu had given me some more sword fighting tips. Oh, well. If I'd learned anything during my years, it was that lamenting didn't change a thing.

I gasped as an arm swooped me up from the ground. Father's sword flung Leviathan's tail away.

"Dang, she's a monster! Literally!" Father said, jumping away as the tail swung back at him.

"Well, the Dragon Emperor did have a hard time against her," I said. My eyes shifted toward the still clear skies. We were fortunate that she wasn't making full of her powers, yet.

Leviathan roared, causing dark clouds to appear overhead.

"No!" I yelled.

"Hold your screaming," Tetsuya said, smiling as he jumped out of his barrier. It'd withstood that scale barrage? He raised his crimson shield up, striking the clouds with another burgundy beam.

Leviathan gritted her teeth and swung her tail at him.

"Not so fast!" Uncle Osamu yelled, appearing in front of Tetsu. His hands were glowing bright orange. He'd switched over to Second Heaven. "Celestial Knuckle!" He punched the tail, shattering some of her scales and pushing her away from my cousin.

Tetsuya laughed. "T-thanks."

The king scoffed. "I didn't do that to save you, kid. If anything, you should be the one protecting me. Or are you not a knight?"

My cousin's eyes widened.

Uncle snickered. "Though, I guess that you are, keeping this valley dry."

Leviathan shot up into the air and struck the burgundy beam with her tail, causing the upper part to vanish. "It ends here, insects!" She gritted her teeth as she fell to the ground. Steam rose from the tip of her tail, now blackened by the intense heat that had come off of Tetsuya's shield.

"Oho! It appears that I arrived for the good part," a voice called out from higher up.

I turned around and saw a green-haired girl smirking at us.

"Nice of you to join us, Anestarte. Did you retrieve Ifrit?" Leviathan asked, reverting to her humanoid form.

My eyes widened. Conrad!

I gasped as thunder echoed in the distance as the clouds released their load.

"Not so fast!" Tetsuya yelled, raising his hands up. A wave of red light struck the rain, evaporating it.

Anestarte chuckled. "My, this guy really has a habit of getting in people's way, doesn't he? No wonder Eii wanted to get rid of him. I should do him that favor."

I pointed my swords at her and flew straight at her. "You'll need to get past me first!" She swatted my left sword out of my hand and stabbed me in the chest with her tail.

"On the other hand, killing you should awaken the rage within your little bro," Anestarte whispered into my ear as my aura vanished.

S-sorry, Conrad, Tetsu, Setty, I went ahead and messed up again.

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter ^^ Seven chapters left to go! Thoughts? Theories? Predictions?**