As Noctis stepped through the now vacant door frame, he took notice of the gruesome scene he had created. The section he had detonated was charred beyond recognition, the corpses of the guards left behind were completely unable to be found. The walls and floor cracked apart violently and the bodies of the scientists in the rooms they guarded were cooked to death from the heat and thrown leftover concussive force. The collateral damage was a shame, but Noctis had yet been given an opportunity to really go wild with his abilities, meaning his fine control over certain aspects of his techniques were still lacking.

As he continued, he looked upon the blackened steel door that had crumpled and smashed into the next, the blood and viscera from the guards on duty created a macabre work of art against the sturdy seal. It was unfortunate that the longleg hadn't been powerful enough to blast his way through in it's entirety, but it was difficult to expect less from a place designed to create and distribute less than legal explosive ordinance. His masked visage turned to face the scientists who remained in the new set of rooms to his sides, as they were forced to hear the sound of their guardians crushed to death in an instant. They cowered along the walls as the man who had brought them under attack stared them down from the hall. Yet, before they could voice their pleas, they struggled to find their breath.

Placing both hands to his sides, Noctis directed his abilities into the rooms, pulling out the air within as the scientists scrambled to try figure out what was happening to them. Projecting his voice so that the men within could hear him, Noctis gave his demands, "Open the doors and you might just get to see tomorrow." Unable to voice a counter or response, the scientists closest to the panels quickly held up their cards as their vision began to blur. It took for what felt like the suffocating men an eternity, but eventually the panels flashed their confirmation as their bodies dropped to the floor unconscious.

As the doors whirred open, the guards within were armed and ready, their guns ready to fire upon anyone they failed to recognize. The leader of the group had managed to identify Noctis' presence even before the cloaked man had been revealed standing among the crushed remains of their comrades, something Noctis managed to chalk up to the Color of Observation. Unfortunately, even with the assistance of haki, they were far from prepared to handle Noctis strength. With a single command the men and women began to fire upon Noctis' form, the bullets passing through him harmlessly as he readied Kuroi.

Pressing off the ground with Nagare, the speed at which Noctis approached the two guards at his left were far beyond their scope of comprehension, even with the assistance of Kenbunshoku as a blur cleaved through them, the length of Kuroi cutting their lives short. As Noctis pivoted at his top speed, he traversed the width of the hallway as he thrust the blunt top of his blade into the midsection of the guard across from him, incapacitating him instantly as he was crushed into the stone wall. The one remaining guard lifted her gun to defend herself as Noctis arced his weapon down towards her head. To Noctis' surprise however, he was met with resistance as Kuroi clashed with the Buso covered rifle. Yet the small window of hope the security detail may have had was quickly shut as Noctis used his free hand to thrust into the woman's heart, a blade of wind sending blood onto the door behind her.

With the fodder cleared up in this section, Noctis proceeded to blast the doors down with a swift burst of wind, not wanting to waste anymore time. "Doors, open, now." The cloaked longleg didn't even bother to acknowledge or threaten the scientists beyond his presence and the scene of carnage that he stood amidst. The longer he spent causing a ruckus up here, the more time was left for the Sin Priest to prepare and gather reinforcements. Sure enough, the untrained scientists didn't give any lip or conflict to the intruder as the doors eventually began to hum to life in front of Noctis.

At this point, Noctis had already dispatched 16 armed guards capable of utilizing haki to some degree, but for the most part it didn't require much effort on his end. Still, Noctis couldn't help but feel as if he had been caught up in this hallway for far longer than he had anticipated, the security and durability of the building having been a surprise to say the least. Noctis' form dissolved invisibly into the air just before the steel doorway began to lift itself upward, the seal having been broken as air rushed through to equalize the pressure between the two sections. In that moment, the gas intruder let himself be carried undetected through the crack as he looked on at the scene before him.

The hall came to it's conclusion with the presence of stairs leading upward as the final four guards moved into the vacant room, demanding to know where the intruder had gone to the scientists who had just witnessed the cloaked man fade away into nothing. Not willing to stick around to see how the interrogation concluded, Noctis quickly flew up the stairwell stealthily, ready to confront Lust at last.

With the hall tapering off to a final, beat up door, Noctis couldn't help but feel that the encounter with the Sin Priest of Lust was finally upon him. Noctis reformed as he began to build up strength in his right leg, Rokumori gas forming around his body as it began to fill the pathway. Pulling out his steel vessel, Noctis directed the flow of gas into the container before resealing it tightly, the contents now under a decent bit of pressure.

With his left hand, the longleg formed a fist as he steadily began to generate and compress Rokumori gas within, all of which was concealed underneath his darkened cloak. With his body becoming increasingly vaporous, Noctis reached towards the door handle, pulling it towards him slowly to finally come face to mask with Lust.

Having come prepared for a fight to the death, Noctis was immediately taken back by Lust's appearance as a frail girl likely even younger than he was. She didn't even seem to be aware of Noctis' presence or concerned with the chaos that had been happening only moments earlier. It wasn't until the door shut behind the longleg that she tore her attention away from her work to acknowledge Noctis.

He didn't respond to her initial greeting, due to a combination of both surprise and caution taking hold of his thoughts, but as Lust rambled on, Noctis' focus gradually returned to him. "It was nothing but chance. I'm here to clean up Baltigo, and La Bomba isn't exactly the easiest guy in the world to find. So, here I am." he replied, continuing his preparations as he locked eyes with the woman's own. "I don't so much have a problem with your passion. It's more who you're using it for. Whether or not that's innocent doesn't matter to me in the slightest, Los Diablos is going to be broken for my interests and mine alone."

With his weapon Kuroi in hand, Noctis let the flat end of the blade rest along the ground as he delivered his ultimatum; "You can tell me where your boss is and come work for me, or I'm afraid you won't be around to make another explosive again." While Noctis wasn't exactly in a position to be delivering demands, he found the girl interesting enough to offer a choice in the matter. Still, the cloaked man continued gathering power in his leg and gas in his fist, prepared for the woman's passions and loyalty to trump her curiosity.

"Fair enough." Noctis responded, an ounce of disappointment in his voice. It was enough to note that the Sins of Greed and Envy were in charge of the finances of Los Diablos to a degree, meaning Noctis had a good idea where to start his next pursuit. However, before his mind wandered too far to the future, he had a fight to handle in the present, as a bundle of dynamite was already airborne, headed directly at Noctis' feet.

Hoisting Kuroi up at the bomb as fast as possible, Noctis generated a blade of wind to impact and break the explosive apart and detonate it before it managed to hit the ground. With the force of the swing and the speed at which it was generated, the explosive force as well as the blade of wind itself should be forced back at Lust who stood five meters away. With his Teibaku and Hakai still building themselves up discreetly, the cloaked longleg made his move.

Not wanting to give the woman further time to respond, Noctis pressed off the ground with Nagare immediately following his swing, moving to position himself behind the Sin Priest, thrusting Kuroi down at her midsection, unleashing another speed generated blade, this time composed of Rokumori gas. All the meanwhile, Noctis pulled the air out of the immediate area, a 15 diameter dome centered around both Lust and himself, leaving only a small section of breathable gas around the perimeter of the room, roughly around a meter outside of the dome.

"Oh?" Noctis said half in response to Lust's own choice of words, half to her personality which seemed to indicate that she had yet to bring out her big guns. While she was certainly fast, Lust was a good clip slower than Noctis at his top speed with Nagare. However, what struck Noctis the most was her potent awareness of both the longlegs movements and her surroundings. While it certainly appeared to be her natural prowess, Noctis couldn't rule out Observation Haki as a potential cause.

Noctis moved to follow his opponent as she hopped out of range, but stopped in his tracks as she tossed out a number of explosives to cover her vector of escape. Still out of range of the explosives, Noctis shielded his face and upper body with Kuroi just as a precaution. Sure enough, the moment they hit the ground a few meters in front of Noctis, the grenades ruptured violently. The force wasn't nearly as significant as he anticipated, meaning either his opponent was taking the intruder here far too lightly, or it was meant to serve as a distraction. Further more, the explosives had managed to detonate even without the presence of air, meaning their source of oxygen must come from elsewhere, likely chemically.

The smoke from her explosives being cleared and forced out of the still present partial vacuum lingered along the perimeter of the room, giving Noctis a clear view of Lust as she pulled another explosive, this time significantly larger than the previous. However, as the Sin Priest wound up to throw her creation, Noctis would release his Musou, causing the pressure differential between the outer edge of the room and the center where Noctis stood to rapidly reach equilibrium, causing a yanking force to pull at the bomb just at the moment of release.

With the weapon now ever so slightly off kilter, Noctis gathered the air around the bomb as it traveled, creating a powerful gust of wind to slow it in it's tracks. While the Sin Priest of Lust was talented and perceptive, her physical strength left much to be desired, the force and speed of her throws being only very slightly beyond that of an average person, not even bordering on superhuman. Meaning that manipulating the air to stop and hold the bomb before it impacted anything was a simple feat for Noctis. With the explosive hovering in the air 10 meters away, Noctis took a moment to inspect the craftsmanship before directing his attention to the Sin Priest.

"Self-oxidizing, pressure sensitive, no fuse. You certainly are a talent." Noctis praised, using his gaseous hold over the explosive to throw it towards the Sin Priest at a much higher velocity than she initially dished out [4]. With his Teibaku and Hakai rapidly approaching their maximum thresholds, it was time to test the waters and gauge the Sin Priest's reactions. Thrusting Kuroi into the ground, Noctis held his position at the center of the room as Rokumori Gas began to generate within and flood the 16 meter room in it's entirety. It took only a few seconds, but eventually visibility would reach a minimum. In a small area around Noctis, no more than a few inches surrounding his form was a clear outline of breathable, clear air. With his visibility at a minimum, Noctis prepared himself to allow Kenbunshoku to kick in, in order further enhance his reactions. Letting the battle drag on into a battle of attrition was fine normally, but with an unknown number of potential reinforcements, it was a gamble Noctis didn't want to take.

Haki Stamina 6/6

With Lust now feeling the pressure Noctis was exerting on her, the longleg smiled as her normally carefree and relaxed demeanor began to shift towards concern. With Noctis continuing to fill the room with Rokumori Gas, and the Teibaku in his hand having reached it's maximum limit, it became apparent that Noctis had to make his move while the time was ripe to do so. His hand trembled with the pressure and force the gas within held, hidden away underneath his cloak, and his leg ached with the energy he had built up all this time.

Still, Lust moved swiftly, utilizing a technique not too dissimilar from Noctis own, as he struggled to keep track of the blur that moved out of the way of the explosion at the edge of the room. Still, the woman found opportunity to analyze the situation in detail, covering her movements with the force of the blast from a gun, pushing the gas away temporarily while she took that moment to hold her breath and grab a gas mask Noctis had overlooked. With both Noctis' and Lust's vision now completely obscured by the thick Rokumori gas in the room, the dynamic shifted dramatically.

Noctis, now preparing himself for a massive explosion caused by Lust in the room full of dense Rokumori gas, began to shift his composition to something that would survive the blast. It wasn't nearly as stealthy as his normal state and clearly displayed a unique appearance and coloration, but hiding his ability was no longer the concern at this point. His body became opaque and cloudy first before becoming completely translucent and colorless nitrogen. Thanks to it's abundance, the transition didn't take longer than a second or so, and with it's inert and inflammable nature, the force and heat of an explosion would do little more than scatter him. Of course, this was simply a precaution and had it's own set of limitations involved, but for now, it was safer to prepare for the worst.

Taking a deep 'breath', as much as a gas man could 'breathe', Noctis activated his Kenbunshoku to aid his perception through the dense Rokumori cloud around him. It was rough around the edges, unrefined and imperfect, but it was enough to bolster Noctis' awareness of the world around him and allow him to react to Lust's standard method of attack, even if he couldn't immediately see it. Driving Kuroi into the ground, Noctis retrieved his steel vessel that was hooked onto his belt and dangled it from his finger. As soon as the explosives she tossed out became visible through the gas, Noctis whipped the container at the same smaller grenades. With the speed she was capable of throwing, Noctis had ample opportunity to react and counter, as the impact caused the explosives to detonate around the vessel, rupturing it as another plume of dense Rokumori gas filled the room, nearly doubling the current concentration [4 turns].

Still, Noctis was surprised at how predictable her patterns were, and knew immediately that the first wave of attacks was surely a distraction for something much bigger and far more potent. With the amount of Rokumori Gas now in the small room, even a simple spark would cause a violent explosion, something Noctis had prepared for, but still didn't want to be directly in the center of. Grabbing Kuroi and hopping back at full speed with Nagare, the burst of air that followed was enough to create a brief opening in which he saw the larger projectile already in air. Still, it was slow [0], as Noctis took the fully prepped Teibaku [5 turns] and launched it at the traveling bomb before the sight was once again obscured by the Rokumori gas. As Noctis landed, he kicked against the wall at his back with Hakai, the full force of the strike [7] enough to create a small crack in the wall leading to the outside. As his Teibaku made contact with the bomb in flight, both attacks exploded violently, the Sin Priest's bomb igniting the attack as well as all of the dark purple gas in the room to create an immense explosion.

With Noctis' gaseous nitrogen form already flowing through the exit he had made, the building detonated with indescribable force in 100 meters centered around Lust's room [12 power from 9 turns worth of Rokumori Gas accumulation]. The gaseous Noctis was outside of the building, but still nowhere near out of the range of the blast as his form was launched and blown apart by the shockwave. Even through his intangibility and careful preparation around the blast, Noctis was in rough shape as his body slowly regathered itself in the air. His leg, which had torn the muscles from utilizing a full fledged Hakai and burned from the blast, was the worst off [Moderate x 2]. The rest of his body was covered in identical burns which while extremely painful, weren't life threatening.

His lower half quickly dispersed into gas in order to maintain his flight, but the longleg found it difficult to maneuver to the best of his ability on account of the injury he had sustained. While he was fairly confident that the blast had finished the fight, Noctis floated up to and stayed hovering and cloaked
almost 15 meters outside of his smoldering handiwork, scanning for signs of life with his Kenbunshoku.

Haki 5/6

As Noctis composed himself, a secondary explosion bellowed out from the building, decimating the block below and sending a great plume of smoke into the sky. Noctis who was still in his gaseous state was pushed back by the force of the blast, but not much beyond that as he floated down onto the scorched earth. The buildings in the immediate vicinity that hadn't been leveled were burning violently, and the screams of what few survivors remained echoed behind the roar of the blaze. Yet Noctis had steeled himself to the pain of those around him. While it was something he acknowledged, he couldn't allow it to weigh on his mind, he couldn't afford for it to.

Wincing as his leg came under the pressure of his body weight, it became more clear to Noctis the extent of his injuries. While he had certainly experienced worse, and would almost certainly recover over time, the wound took on a different tone knowing he had to continue pursuing the Sin Priest's immediately, leaving his recovery time at a minimum. Given the number of targets he had left, and the nature by which he wanted to take them out, avoiding injury of any kind would become a far more pressing concern, as they would easily compound into something much worse as he continued to exert himself.

With the challenges that Lust presented, and her general level of ability, Noctis wagered that the rest of the Sin Priests would sit around the same degree of power, with a decent margin of error. He would need to control the flow of battle more efficiently, and bring his power under greater finesse, seeing as the longleg likely shouldn't blow up a building for every enemy he encounters. That result was simply ignorance on his part, a lack of fine control over his strength. To take down Los Diablos and La Bomba, he needed to be better.

Still, even with how sketchy the situation had become, he had still managed to swipe a number of stolen technology used by Lust before their encounter, and he planned to analyze it in full upon the conclusion of his crusade. Cloaked and ready to move on to his next target, the burned and bruised longleg tucked himself out of sight and began his path to the financial sector. Greed and Envy awaited.

With the annihilation of the distribution center, word would spread fast to every sector of the Sixth District, with everyone on high alert for suspicious individuals. This would especially be the case for the financial sector, thanks to it's close proximity to Lust's own domain. As Noctis walked the streets, things began to appear very dystopian and unsettling in nature, almost every building was indistinguishable and uniform. It was that very trait that drove the longleg into a corner. His reconnaissance ability was acceptable at best, but only if he had a location in mind already. Yet here, there was no spire or towers clearly standing out from the rest, no center or headquarters.

Going door to door would only serve to waste time, allowing for Los Diablos to prepare and fortify themselves accordingly, yet his only lead on the other Sin Priests stopped here. Few avenues were left for Noctis to scope out, and if this was to truly send a message to the underworld, and to La Bomba himself, striking from the shadows wasn't always going to be an option. Lust was simply dipping his toes into the water, now it was time to dive in.

The masked and cloaked figure continued walking further into the financial sector until he found himself at what he could roughly gather as the 'center'. Noctis body ached from his past encounter, but he quickly shoved it into the back of his mind, his ambitions swiftly filling the gap and fueling him. Rokumori Gas began to form in the air around him, spilling out into the streets steadily, making no attempt to conceal his position from his enemies. His form shuddered slightly as his intangible nature quickly took hold, the longleg now looking more akin to a shrouded apparition than any real man. No matter who or what came for him now, his path was clear. Noctis would draw out the rulers of this district, or raze it to the ground in their absence.