Cherreads

Chapter 31 - Aftermath of Agony

Hey guys!

Y'know, you will NEVER know just what people are doing inside of the comfort of their own homes. I was watching season 5 of The Boys and genuinely had to pause for a second when Homelander got visited by the ghost of breast-milk past that stroked his ego off and made some new motivation for him… People who haven't seen it yet think I'm joking, I AM NOT!!

Enjoy the show!

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Niffty never usually does this, going out by herself.

She couldn't remember the last time that she went out like this, let alone in a whole suit and tie. Usually she would get a dress or something like that, but not today, after-all it was special to her: She was gonna look really damn sexy in front of her Hubby! 

After what James did to Vox, Niffty knew that their deal still hadn't been broken, but decided not to tell him. Even though she really wanted to, deep down inside her heart, she knew that her Hubby could pull through against that TV-head in a one on one…She knew.

Okay, she was nervous, alright? James barely has any soul contracts and is simply coasting about with his legend and that woman, Daki. Even though she was near Overlord strength, in hell, the quantity of soul contracts mattered much more than the quality.

Sure, early on, a single Overlord-level soul contract is much greater than 20 normal contracts, but having an Overlord-level soul under your possession would be only stepping a foot into the big boy leagues, and that's with a few hundred normal souls and a sufficient legend as well.

Niffty herself even has quite a few normal contracts under her belt. A year or two when she first got down here and realized how the system worked, she basically spawn-camped a whole bunch of people and tortured them until they pleaded themselves to her.

Yeah, it admittedly wasn't her best moment, hell, she doesn't even contact the whole lot of them anymore, but the Overlord-level ones, she still keeps in touch with, and that's why she's here right now.

One of the aforementioned souls was a prominent fashionista, not too far off from Velvette from the Vee's. Whenever Niffty wanted to, she could just go in there and walk out with anything she wanted to.

She knew her way around a few dresses, but she was also going straight for the lingerie. She always knew that the way to keep a partner is fifth their heart loved, their stomach full and their balls absolutely fucking drained.

She had plenty of experience with the first two and she planned on getting some "hands-on" experience with the last one later tonight. However, as she was looking around the lingerie, she accidentally dropped one, bending down to pick it up, only to hear–

"Woo~Woo!"

…Was that supposed to be a wolf-whistle?

She picked it up, turning around to see a duo of sinners looking at her with obvious lust in their eyes. She shrugged, figuring she needed to relieve some stress anyway and decided to stare at them saucily before walking to the bathroom while beckoning them with her finger.

***8 Minutes later***

"I can't leave you guys for 5 fucking minutes without you dissapearing!" A sinner said, walking onwards to the counter. "Excuse me, have you seen my friends? They're two bozo's who've been harassing men and women all their time here."

"They went to the bathroom a couple minutes ago." The cashier said apathetically, the man rushing in the bathroom, only to see carnage.

The only thing resembling the sinners at that point were their heads, their faces trapped in a screaming expression like they were tortured. Aside from that, there was almost nothing left of them, no corpses, only blood painting the walls, ceiling and floor of the bathroom. 

The man quickly threw up before passing out, while Niffty walked out and was on her way to the hotel, a pep in her step and clothes in her briefcase to put on the bed before she got her man~.

Armageddon was the only way to describe it.

Like a storm of violence, James pressed forward, destroying anything and anyone in his path. Right after he was met with the mob, he had two options: either try to run away for his life, or attempt to fight an angry mob of over a thousand people that were all armed with angelic steel. All logic and common sense dictated that he should just run away, that he should just go…

But that's how losers think!

It's clear that his Hanma blood had changed him, obviously it changed his genes but it also changed his mindset. Normally, even though James liked to fight, he wouldn't jump into a blender full of angelic steel for no reason., but a Hanma was different.

Hanma's were the greatest fighters, bred for violence and combat, enjoying it to their fullest extent. So when a Hanma was met with a challenge to their strength? They absolutely dominated it and made sure it knew that they were superior in every way possible.

So that's what he did, dropping down from the building he was in, and spreading his arms out in a challenging gesture.

[You have another ability slot, making 3!]

[1x Bronze ticket: Unlock your third ability slot]

'What the hell?' He thought, trying to not break his expression with confusion. 'I didn't even get an ability?'

[Yyyyeeaaahhhhhh, your tenth was the exoskeleton, buuuut, I kinda forgot]

'...Gimmie my ticket, bro.'

[Intermediate Discipline]

|Uncommon Skill|

Your discipline is remarkable. You are fairly disciplined, being able to endure hardship such as discomfort and pain without audible complaints. You can force yourself to train even when you don't want to and get out of bed even when it's very comfortable, you are pretty good at maintaining focus. People would say you have an excellent work ethic.

'Good.' He thinks, already feeling his mind becoming more focused. 'Slot in exoskeleton and armament haki, I'm gonna mess these guys up the only way I know how…By being a juggernaut, bitch!'

ROARING X KNIGHT 

In nary a moment, the exoskeleton began to creep up upon his skin. At first, it was a white sheen, like bone, but soon with the introduction of armament haki, it turned into a dark sheen, as if all of the sin in the world was concentrating into it.

It was shaped on his body in foreign shapes and sizes, being completely covered and protected in some places like his vital organs and head, while leaving things like his neck and arms only partially covered.

Yet, it didn't stop there, no, there was one more piece missing from the tank that he was becoming. Soon, a claw began to form on his right hand, something that he hadn't used for a little bit, but now its use would be apparent.

ROARING X KNIGHT

So with that, James began his slaughter. 

The horde of sinners that had given their life and souls to Vox, the horde of sinners that were confident in themselves, confident in their heavenly arms and their abilities were beginning to funnel into their own demise.

James ducked, punching a sinner in their gut while sweeping the legs of another, using his body as a weapon and knocking multiple away from him. He jumped up and stretched his spectral claw out, grabbing a sinner by the back of his shirt and throwing him deep into the crowd.

He quickly dodged a swipe from an angelic knife and caught a thrust from an angelic spear, knocking the weapons out of both of the sinners' hands, crouching down and focusing all of his haki into his claw before punching the ground as hard as he could. 

The ground cracked and crumbled under the power of James, making part of the crowd stutter and bumble over themselves before a good chunk of them fell into the underground sewers. James didn't pay them any mind, thinking that, 'If they wanted to jump and kill me, maybe they deserve to have a taste of some shitty water.'

He was going to leap over the hole to keep fighting when he suddenly felt something approach the back of his head rapidly. He quickly looked back, catching the arm that was about to strike him, yet couldn't get a good look at the face at all before red gas began to consume his vision.

He let out a couple of coughs before pulling the arm closer to him and head-butting the person attached to the arm. He didn't feel his head collide with any nose or cartilage, but he felt a tooth being chipped on his forehead along with a groan of pain, so he thinks he hit his shot as well as he could anyway.

He slams the person on the ground before jumping back out of the smoke, though his coughing was getting much worse. He struggled to take breaths, sounding like a wheezing corpse before he suddenly had an idea, attempting to activate total concentration breathing.

It was a gamble, total concentration breathing being entirely dependent on the lungs that were currently wheezing, but James was willing to try. Staving back every instinct and muscle in his body to cough and breathing in deep to activate total concentration breathing.

The first breath was like heaven on his lungs, but he couldn't experience it for long, as he quickly had to parry a flying kick to the face from someone, slamming them onto the ground. The person was a tall, moth person with four arms, a lavish coat and a top-hat that'd been ruined.

Unfortunately for James, that wasn't it. He quickly swerved and blocked another attack, but this time, it was intentional. As soon as he blocked it, he noticed that he couldn't move his arm, a purple lock being inscribed onto it and making it stay in its position.

"Vox, Val, don't forget the plan!" A voice yelled. Looking on the rooftops, James saw a dark-skinned woman with red eyes and hair sitting with her legs crossed while texting on her phone, cameras being set up around her.

Before he could process it, he could only do his best to dodge a flurry of punches by the moth-man, getting grazed and even straight up hit by a few. The lack of movement was affecting him, being unable to move his arm from its position, forcing him to stay in place was a huge detriment to his fighting style.

It only got worse for him, however, as behind him, a familiar hand punched him straight in the liver. "How does that fuckin' feel, huh?" Vox asked, clearly reveling in the power he held over James in this moment. 

Despite the pain he was in, James managed to find the strength to look behind him and smirk. "Oh, I remember you…Didn't I have my fist deep in yo guts, nigga? I'm sure you and your sidekicks from fucking relevancy league really enjoyed that."

Although it was good to trash-talk, James was also buying time. He was concentrating on focusing all of his haki into arm, attempting to break out of the woman's stun on his arm.

His thought process was that his haki could overpower any of the magic bullshit that was going on with his arm.

"Voxy, was that true? Was the big bad knight over here fist deep in you? You know only I can do that!" Val said teasingly, before looking at and holding onto James' throat. "Me and you will have some fun when you regenerate."

"...I have one question. Are you Valentino?" James asked.

"Yeah, why? You a fan or something?" He asked, but James didn't give an answer, only looking down before Vox spoke.

"Shut up, Val! And stop talking like we already on, we still gotta kill this fucker first." He said, though he couldn't hide a sickening glee that creeped into his voice as James heard a shuffling of clothes and a knife was placed against the back of his neck, a small spot where his exoskeleton didn't protect, revealing his flesh .

"May I have some last words?" James asked.

"No, you may not, dickface–" Vox started, beginning to reel the knife back to stab him before James suddenly tore his arm out of his paralysis, socking Vox in the face while grabbing and kneeing Valentino as hard as he could.

He didn't do it unscathed, his arm being dislocated in the process. He had to bite down on his lip so hard he drew blood, yet he didn't scream, only getting on top of Valentino and beginning to beat him brutally. He had to act quick, but got in a good few punches with his good arm before having to flip back to avoid another of the energy things. 

He quickly retreated to cover, jumping inside of an abandoned building while holding up his arm. He beat Valentino like that for a reason, targeting his jaw and nose specifically to draw as much blood as he could from him in a short amount of time. Although he wasn't exactly a bleeder, James had more than enough to cover his fist which he hesitantly licked.

Like a cat, he licked at the blood until his hand was completely clean and his arm completely healed. He could sense the three outside talking to one another, but couldn't get the details. He didn't need them, he was already formulating a plan.

He would take the caster out first, if she got him again, assuming the worst, she wouldn't be overconfident and paralyze all of him instead of just his arm. Going off of his game knowledge, he knew that most mages were weak physically, so he decided to just take her out at a range.

He looked around and easily pulled a brick out the wall in the back. He went over to it, breaking it easily and picked up one of the shards. His plan was simple: 1. Throw brick at woman, 2.???, 3. Kill Vox and Valentino, 4. Profit.

For some extra insurance, he made sure to imbue some of his armament haki into the brick, causing it to turn black, darker than dark for sure. He got out of the broken window, standing on the windowsill to jump to the roof to get a clear shot.

Unfortunately, as soon as he got up there, he had to dodge low from one of the blasts that was aimed at his head. In the middle of dodging, he felt a tingle down his spine, leaping to another roof just as lightning struck down on the building, Vox standing in the middle of it. "Awwww, is the big bad Knight afraid?" He taunted, disappearing in lightning once again.

"Shit." James cursed under his breath, disregarding Vox for a moment to search for the woman. Using all of his senses, he saw that she was sitting in another building near them, being inside of it and using the window to peek through instead of being in the line of sight.

Without wasting time, James leaped up again, avoiding Vox's lightning and chucking the brick shard at the woman. He could tell that she tried to go behind cover, getting away from the window and behind the wall. But thanks to the haki in the brick along with James having bad aim, it went through the wall and into her stomach.

He pumped his fist, excited to only have to deal with Vox now before suddenly feeling someone approaching him at the last second. Instead of blocking or dodging, the only thing he could do at this moment was brace himself as a hand came down and planted his face into the bricks and debris of the destroyed building.

"You little fuck, you ruined my face!" Valentino yelled, every breath that he expelled also bringing about more and more of that red gas upon James' face. He quickly stopped breathing it in, holding his breath while Valentino yelled, struggling to get out from his grasp.

Yet, struggling as he might, he couldn't get out in time before Vox appeared and kicked him in the face, sending him tumbling down the street. He got up, holding his nose in pain as he glared at the two.

'Shit.' He thought, staring the two down. 'Constantly using full-body haki is getting me close to empty even if I can keep the exoskeleton up for longer. Even if I can regenerate, I can't replenish my stamina, and that gas…it's siphoning my strength along with messing up all of my senses. I feel way weaker than before!' He painfully set his nose back, not being able to suppress the slight gasp of pain he let out as he cracked his neck and stared down the duo, formulating an idea.

"You think you have me, but you aren't even close to beating me…" He says, extending his arms and legs into a mocking position. "Right here and now, I'll show you one of the ancient techniques of the Richardson-Hanma clan!"

Both Vox and Valentino took a step back.

"RUNNING AWAY TO STALL FOR TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" He yelled, dipping behind a building and skedaddling instantly. Vox and Valentino couldn't believe it for a second, being shocked into silence.

"...You motherfucker!!" Vox yelled, dissipating into lightning while Valentino began to take off to the skies.

'B2A, reset!' James yelled in his mind, feeling a sensation in his body leave suddenly along with the feeling of his entire skeleton shivering. 'God, I can never use that on the fly. Alright B2A, give me JJK, HunterxHunter, Chainsawman, Jojo's, and Full-metal Alchemist!' He yelled in his mind, his soul having 5 slots being inserted into it.

RoLlIng RolliNg…

Cursed energy, Jujutsu Kaisen… Yuji Itadori's body

'Gimmie that shit!' He yelled in his mind, ducking inside of another building while looking into his soul. He could feel B2A reaching out, but only using instinct to guide him, instead of using his roaring knight armor, he instead put up his ability to make Monokuma and Jevil instead.

Off of nothing but instinct, James embodied a true sorcerer, giving up something that is useless in order to gain a great power.

A true con-artist.

He opened his eyes, feeling around his body, not feeling a noticeable difference. 'I really hope it's multiplicative.' He thought before he concentrated. In an instant, his armor appeared on him as he summoned cursed energy to his hands and reinforcing his body. 'I'll turn haki off for now and thug it out with cursed energy for now.'

However, while James was preparing, Vox had already found him. In an instant he felt shivers up his spine, no doubt a warning, but he couldn't tell where it was coming from. In the end, he decided to just drop and roll, which was the best action as the roof caved in from Vox's arrival.

'Shit, that fucking red shit is messing with my senses!' He yelled in his mind, activating total concentration breathing and engaging with Vox. At first he was laying into Vox, his spectral claw doing a lot of the heavy lifting with his strikes.

However, soon enough something strange began to happen. Without rhyme or reason, the building started to fill up with red gas, more concentrated than anything that he's ever breathed in before. The gas disoriented it even more now, Vox punching James square in the temple, knocking him back and making him dizzy on his feet.

'I can't keep doing this shit, this gas is gonna make me fall eventually…' He thought, slapping himself on the face. '...Another idea, this one is gonna be foolproof, foolproof!' He quickly lunged at Vox, yet missed by a wide margin, actually running directly out of the building.

He looked back at the house, noticing that the gas was wafting from all of the windows like steam before he enacted his plan. He ran into the street, dodging a car that was driving backwards. "Get off the fucking road, nigga!" He yelled, the driver flipping him off before he saw his target: a street-light.

He jumped up, grabbing the thinner piece of metal before breaking it off. He smashed the light on the ground, snapping the metal into a simple rod. He lifted it up, reinforcing it with cursed energy before quickly dodging to the side.

Valentino didn't let up though, still trying to fight James, but it was all for naught as he parried the punches. 'Man, why didn't I think of this earlier? The reach on this is insane and it's one helluva improvement from my fists in lethality.' He thinks, being too used to using his fists instead of his environment, before attempting to do something crazy.

For no other reason than 'it'd be cool.', he decided to face-tank a punch from Valentino. It hurt him like hell, he could have sworn he even heard a slight crack on his temple, but he kept his face straight and simply stared at him. Valentino paled and deep inside of James, somewhere hidden underneath layers and layers of warmth…

Something felt joy looking at him like this.

He didn't drag it out, though, putting some haki at the tip of the rod and jamming it in his stomach. "A rod in your guts? You know all about this, huh, baby-dick ass boy?" He taunted, lifting him up in the air with the rod as Valentino struggled, weakly punching him and gargling his blood.

James pulled the rod out of him, leaving Valentino to fall to the ground…

Only to stab him in the head.

"...I'm not trying to play, Vox, just come out and die for Pete's sake." He said, sighing and rubbing the blood off of his rod. Although he definitely looked okay, his insides were far from it. 

"M̶̺͝y̵̨̾ ̸̜͒ȁ̵ͅp̸̤̊o̵̪̅ḻ̵̾ö̸̯́g̸̙̃i̵̜̐e̸̖͆ş̶̏,̶̀ͅ ̴̡̄b̸̻͌u̸̧͊t̵̹̎ ̸͎͆i̷͙̔t̸̝̽ ̷͈̀a̵̞͝p̷̰͑p̸̲̓e̸̳̾a̶͉͑ȓ̴̭s̵͙̾ ̶̬̈́V̶̝͋ỉ̶̻n̷̗̒c̷̛͉e̵̱͋n̴̻̈́ẗ̴͖ ̴̛͔h̵̳́á̷̦s̷̨͒ ̴͖͋a̶̺̽ḻ̶̀r̶̡͝e̶̼͊à̴͇d̸͕̐ý̸ͅ ̸̘́d̷̩̃o̸̢͊ň̵̢ḙ̶̈́ ̸̪̄ỳ̷͕o̶̲̽u̶̥̒r̴̯̈́ ̴͙͂t̷͎͑a̸̞͗s̵̠͐k̴̳͠.̸̞̓" A voice so out of tune, that it sounded like a broken record, but the familiarity scratched James' brain like a horrible itch.

He turned around, seeing Alastor with a creepy grin, holding two pieces of Vox's head. The TV was cracked down the middle, an oily-black blood dripping down as his pained expression was still burned into the screen.

Out of dark green voodoo symbols, Alastor summoned a cane to his hands. It was slim and black with a small radio at the top with a small eye on the front. "Let's end this quickly, shall we?" He asked, lazily swiping his cane at James.

He could barely put the rod up in time before a tentacle sprouted up and knocked him in the chest. He thankfully blocked it, but the sheer impact left his arms trembling and he even had to force himself to grip on the rod even tighter to not have it leave his grasp.

The Hanma side of his mind could instantly tell that Alastor was on a completely different level than him, if Alastor really wanted to, he'd kill him in an instant…But his blood sang at that opportunity. The idea of a fight between the two, to defy his own expectations and destroy Alastor at his own game…It was almost overpowering.

However, his rational and free-thinking side of his brain told him to 'GET THE FUCK OUTTA DODGE' and thanks to his discipline, he could listen to reason. 

Please keep in mind that this entire decision was only a second in James' mind… But Alastor was somehow even faster than that.

He couldn't even react before another tentacle was shot at him, and this time not only did it break through the rod, it also broke through James' stomach, the armor folding like wet napkins against the tentacle.

He was in shock, bleeding through the mouth as he stared down at Alastor who was unseriously strolling towards him. "My apologies my good-man, but you must put food on the table somehow, hmmm?" He asked mockingly, reaching in his pocket and pulling out a knife made from angelic steel. "Just a shame it has to be you."

SHINK

He could thug it out before when it was just dislocation or a nose out of place… But getting an arm lobbed off? For the first time in forever, James let out a scream of unadulterated agony that Alastor clearly loved.

"Can you not scream please?" He asked in a babying tone, clearly loving his pain as he took big bites out of his arm. "Mmm-mmm, this claw you have is exotic, I must say." He praised genuinely, focusing all of his attention into scarfing down the arm.

James couldn't even reply, he felt numb, like the nub of his arm had red-hot needles pressed into it constantly. He couldn't think, could barely breathe, yet had to await the aftermath of agony that awaited him.

Alastor let himself take one more bite, before staring into James' eyes. "Curious, these seem to be much different from any of the other sinner rabble I've seen around here." He says, twirling his cane in his free hand and summoning a rocking chair while having James move closer down next to him.

With yet another twirl, he summoned a small coin. "Heads or tails?" He asked, knowing fully well that James couldn't answer right now. "I'll pick for you. Heads, I take another arm and tails I take your eye." With that, he flipped it up and it landed directly on his palm.

…Tails. 

Alastor shrugged. "I would have preferred an arm, but meat is meat." He said before deliberately and slowly putting his hand on James' face and slowly pulling out his eye. The blood freely poured down from his face. "Do you know what is great about this place? The body doesn't have a sense of shock, nor can the brain produce the pain-numbing agent of adrenaline."

He kept talking and talking, all the while pulling his eye out as slowly as he could. Eventually he pulled it out so much, only the optic nerve still connected it to James and he was as good as dead.

Well, he would've been… If there wasn't a certain someone that had his back.

The woosh of air was loud as a knife was thrown with considerable force at the back of his head. He was too busy digging in the arm to notice until the last second, yet it didn't even matter as the dagger only gave him a slight nick at best.

Nevertheless, he looked back and tried to see who was there, yet couldn't find anything, though when he looked back he could only see a small mane of red hair holding onto James while both were turning into bugs and disappearing.

He quickly put the arm down, stood up, grabbed his cane and prepared to teleport after them, but his shadow disconnected from his body. "What is it?" He asked impatiently while his shadows transformed into multiple people who were taking pictures.

Alastor grit his teeth, his smile being strained as he knew what his shadow was talking about. He couldn't go out in public, not yet, so he had to let the knight go for now.

But he'll get him, if not purely for the meat and his delectable screams. 

Meanwhile, James was fading in and out of consciousness, only knowing that he was moving as he looked up and saw Niffty running as fast as she could with a dead serious expression on her face.

"Nif...N..." He tried to speak, yet couldn't formulate a single word. He barely cranes his neck and slowly saw a street chok-full of people looking at him and Niffty.

"Shhh." She said trying but failing o give a calming expression, but for James it didn't matter at all.

2x Platinum ticket(s): Reverse jump an army with angelic steel and win against an ambush from 3 Overlords]

[1x Golden Ticket: Survive against an Alastor who's trying to kill you]

Go ahead and roll them for me, I think I'm gonna…Take a quick nap real quick.

[Hera's Breastmilk]

|Elite Item|

"Hey, it worked for Hercules" A bottle filled to the brim with the Goddess Hera's freshly squeezed breastmilk, when someone consumes the entire bottle, the potential of their body will vastly increase, allowing even a regular human to train to reach superhuman levels of strength and durability. This does not, however, increase your talent or the speed at which you will reach that strength. Restock Timer: 168

[Silver Chariot]

|Elite Familiar|

JoJo - Silver Chariot is a stand that is bound to your soul; it can only be a certain range from around you, and whatever damage it takes is inflicted back onto you. While it does not excel in brute force, Silver Chariot is an Expert Swords-master with insane agility and dexterity, capable of moving so fast that it can leave behind afterimages that look like clones. While Silver Chariot comes equipped with a simple rapier, it can use any weapon the user can use. As a stand, the power of Silver Chariot scales with your energy levels and consumes your energy to stay active and use its superspeed.

[Deep Sea Knight Anchor]

|Elite Item|

Black Souls - The Anchor wielded by the Knight of the Deep Seas blessed by the blessing of the Secret Princess. Wielding this anchor doubles your strength and boosts the power of all water-based abilities.

'Yeah, I think I need to take a nap--'

SHINK!

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THE END

Ohhhh, what happened at the end, OoOOOOOoOooooOooHHHHhhhHh!

Those rolls at the end were fucking nutty, huh?

Anyway, uhh… Don't watch The Boys, I just got off of episode 4 of season 5 and it felt like they were just freestyling to keep the main boys alive from Homelander.

I'm prolly gonna go on sabbatical or something after this. Not because Im losing motivation or dropping this, but I just...don't know what to do after.

I have the rest of the story in broad strokes, but I only planned up until this point in time. I'll prolly write another fic while this is on break just to keep the creative juices flowing, y'know?

I already got a few ideas, but let me know if you think of something interesting. I'm thinking of making a JJK and Undertale crossover fic along with just doing a run of the lt ourmov worm CYOA and see what I can cook up without it being egregiously OP.

Also, for anybody wondering why James can't just one-shot both Val and Vox, it's because when James donuted Vox he had a black flash. If you don't know, a black flash is stupid strong, raising your attack potency by an EXPONET of 2.5.

Ok bbbbyyyyeeee! 

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