Ashera Tepes (Chapter)

"Ashera Tepes" (阿朱羅ツェペシ) is the eighty-eighth chapter of the Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign manga series, written by Takaya Kagami and illustrated by Yamato Yamamoto.

Synopsis
Transforming into a demon leaves Yu unresponsive in the ceiling. Noya is fended off with thousand blades powers. Suspecting these are new spells from Ashera, Noya returns to Guren's weapon to fight that way.

Mika uses the chance to have him and Yu escape before learning that he is speaking to Ashera who shares half of Yu's consciousness. Guren reaches them and the three prepare to battle.

Summary
After a pained transformation and a perplexed Mika watching, Yu finds himself stuck in the ceiling after turning into a demon. Mika attempts to get Yu's attention but is only able to get angered demon responses. Mika panics at what is happening, wondering how they are supposed to escape when Yu is like this.

Determined to do the impossible, Mika works on trying to pull Yu back down before Guren catches up. Whilst he is set on capturing them both, Noya floats upwards and smashes into the building to find Yu's head through the floor above and speaks to Ashera. With no response, Noya gleefully resolves to remove his head before he can awaken.

Reacting to this, Yu invokes Asura-kannon, thousand blades which creates a circular warp in the space around Yu. Noya finds out what is coming in the multitude of blades that pierce upwards, before the katanas all fly towards Noya. He can defend himself with the two swords he is wielding, so Yu responds with Asura-kannon, ten thousand blades, knot of fate. This conjures a gigantic flattened oval horizontally around the building he is in, with the sheer mass of blades crashing into the structure where Noya is.

Noya is sat with his right arm and left leg cut off, and answers Guren it was not Yu that almost got him, but Ashera. He is able to use spells that Noya has never seen before and is with his human. Guren makes fun of his excuses to which Noya rebuffs his attitude and proceeds to suggest to Guren that he returns to him as his Cursed Gear.

Mika uses the chance to have himself and Yu escape, to find that he is gone from his place in the ceiling. Pulled upwards, Mika asks Yu who he is having just addressed him as "Mikaela". The voice from Yu's lips mentions that they are not possessed, rather their consciousness is split halfway between Yu and Ashera Tepes. As a result, Mika makes the connection between Ashera and Krul, while Ashera insists on fighting Guren together since Yu is yelling loudly to protect Mika as his family.

Smiling warmly, Mika feels the situation is looking up since with himself and Yu together he is sure they can pull this off. Commanding his sword to drink his blood, and with Yu using his hands to prepare an infinite phantom blades power, they both face the newly powered-up Guren.

Characters
List of characters in order of appearance:

Gallery
Manga panels provide a visual overview of the events of chapter 88 with depictions of the characters, Seraph of the End world and scenarios.