Chapter 1 – Flight

When the girl came to sit down beside him, Alex Mercer paid her little mind. He only looked up from the outdated magazine in his hands to give her a brief once-over. She was a small girl, young, and had long golden hair, fair skin, and clear green eyes. She wore a simple dress made of a thick teal fabric which was devoid of decorations – ideal for traveling. The only piece of ornament that she wore was a silver cross around her neck.

The girl dragged behind her an over-sized suitcase, which she tried to push up into the overhead bin. Despite its size, she somehow managed to get it up above her head, using the crown of her skull to help balance the beast. But the overhead was too high for one of her height and the weight of the suitcase was too much. She began to teeter perilously. The other passengers watched with a morbid curiosity as they wondered whether or not she would fall. Alex quickly stood up and caught the suitcase before that could happen and stuffed it into the overhead for her.

"Thank you," the girl sighed with relief as they sat down again. "I think I put too much stuff into my suitcase." She laughed sheepishly, a clear bell-like sound.

"You're welcome," Alex replied as he flipped through his magazine again. Damn. He had lost his page.

"Could I ask what your name is, Mister?" the girl asked. "I'm Asia Argento."

Alex glanced over at the window to check his reflection. His hair was still a bright fiery red and freckles still dotted his tanned skin. His clothes was still a casual outfit consisting of a gray t-shirt and blue jeans. It was the face he had chosen to wear in order to get into the airport. Alex Mercer was a known terrorist, and though he doubted that the Italian airport security would be on the lookout for an American terrorist, it never hurt to be careful.

Alex turned back to the girl and effected a polite smile, the way the man whose face he was wearing would have. "My name is David Salone. Pleased to meet you."

"Likewise," Asia replied. She looked relieved that he was conversing with her, though Alex wondered why. Had her first impression of him been that bad? No, that couldn't be it. So far all he had done was help her put her suitcase away. "So you're going to Japan, too?"

"That's where this flight is taking all of us, yes."

"Oh, right." Asia laughed again, more nervously this time. Her face had flushed slightly as she realized the stupidity of her question. She looked around while wringing her hands together in front of her. "Um... do you know how long it takes for us to get there? To Japan, I mean."

"About twelve hours?" Alex shrugged. "Just go to sleep while we're flying. The time will go by more quickly."

"If only I could sleep," the girl muttered darkly.

"Why can't you?" Alex asked. "Do you have insomnia?"

"Huh?" Asia blinked at him. She had not meant for Alex to hear her. "Oh, no no. Nothing like that. It's just... well... this is my first time on a plane and..." She looked around again before leaning in conspiratorially. "Are you sure we'll be okay? What if the plane crashes or something?"

"Don't worry about it," Alex said. "Plane crashes are really rare."

"That means that they do happen," Asia argued. "What if it happens to this one?"

"It won't."

"But if we do?"

"Trust me, we won't."

"But what if?"

"Then I guess we'll all die," Alex responded irritably.

The girl's face blanched. "Do you... do you really think so?" she fretted. "Oh. Maybe... maybe I should go to the pilots. We could pray together. For a safe flight."

Alex snorted and said nothing, his attention already returning to a new article in his magazine. Meanwhile, Asia came to a conclusion on her own.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'll do," Asia declared. "I'll be right back, Mister Salone."

The girl stood up and walked down the aisle towards the cabin at the front of the plane. She was stopped there by a flight attendant and after a brief exchange of words, she returned to her seat, dejected. "They said I'm not allowed in the cabin and that the pilots are too busy to pray with me."

"Mmhmm..." Alex turned another page. He couldn't help but to wonder, what had this girl been expecting?

"I know!" the girl declared brightly. "Would you like to pray with me instead, Mister Salone?"

"I'm not religious."

"That's okay. You can think of it as a good luck charm."

"No."

"Please?"

Alex tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and let out a long-suffering groan – a gesture Asia misconstrued for a sign of acceptance. She bowed her head and clasped her hands in front of her and began to speak quiet words of prayer. Alex pinched the bridge of his nose.

This was going to be one long flight.

Alex eventually came to the realization that while he didn't particularly dislike Asia Argento, she still annoyed him. She was polite, spoke gently and was a friendly soul. The problem was that she spoke to him relentlessly. Seconds to minutes; minutes to hours; hours upon hours of talking and talking and talking.

It wasn't her fault. Alex knew that. The girl was just afraid of flying in a plane for the first time, and talking was just her way of coping with the stress – a fairly common response by those suffering from aviophobia. But his patience had limits, and he had never been an altogether patient man in the first place.

"Asia," Alex broke in on the middle of the girl's story of some cat she had befriended a month prior. "I'm tired now and I want to go to sleep for a few hours."

"Oh, of course," the girl said hastily. "I'm sorry. I was going on for so long about myself I didn't even think of how tired you might be. We've been flying for a long time now, haven't we? Yeah, it's not surprising if you'd want to sleep. I'm sorry. I should have been more considerate and... I... um... I'll just be quiet now," she finished meekly.

"Right." Alex closed his eyes. "Thanks."

Finally, some peace and quiet.

Skritch. Skritch.

… Or not.

Alex sighed as Asia began to fidget uncomfortably in her seat. Deprived of her conversational partner, she was once more attentive to the fact that she was, in her mind, on a potential flying deathtrap. The constant rustling of her dress as she squirmed in place grated on his nerves. After ten minutes of this, he finally gave up on trying to escape from the girl.

"You know what? Never mind." He opened his eyes. "I'm not as tired as I thought."

"Really?" Asia brightened.

"Yes," Alex sighed. Oh, well. If he was going to have to listen to Asia talk, it may as well be in a proper conversation rather than a one-sided speech. "Anyway, why are you going to Japan? You don't really look like a tourist."

"Ah... that..." Asia smiled without quite reaching the corners of her eyes. Alex wondered if he had said something wrong. "I'm being... transferred, I suppose you could say, to a church in Japan. I'm to live there with my new convent brothers and sisters."

"I see," Alex nodded. "Japan doesn't have a large Christian population, though."

"No," Asia sighed. "No it doesn't."

"You don't want to go there?"

"I suppose not," Asia admitted. "This will be my first time going to a foreign country by myself, living with strangers."

"Sounds like you lived a pretty sheltered life."

"I guess I did. I was... I mean, I am a nun."

Alex arched his eyebrow. "At your age? Aren't you like, what, fourteen? Fifteen?"

"Please don't make fun of me," Asia pouted. "I'm seventeen. And it's your faith that counts, not your age."

Alex shrugged.

Asia looked past him and out the window. She stared off at the sprawling sea of white clouds for a long pregnant moment.

"First flight, first time living in another country, first time going anywhere alone – with this trip, I will be experiencing many things for the first time," Asia said sadly.

"Are you afraid?"

"A little," Asia said. "I'm trying to think of this as a trial God set before me to test me. I'm also trying to think of this as a good chance to see more of the world that He created." She sighed a long forlorn sigh. "I'm sorry. I think I'm rambling again."

"No, you're fine."

Asia smiled at him. "What about you, Mister Salone? Why are you going to Japan?"

"I'm just traveling."

"Do you travel often?"

"A little. This will be my first time going this far east though."

"Then I hope it will be a good experience for both of us."

And like that, the two of them continued to pass their time talking of mundane, unimportant things, until Asia finally lost her energy and fell asleep. When next she awoke, the plane had landed in Japan. There they bid their farewells and went their separate ways.

The next time Alex saw Asia was by pure chance. From the far side of an otherwise empty park, he saw her sitting on a bench with a local boy, chatting cheerfully with him as she held a yellow mouse doll tightly in her arms – a gift from the boy, Alex assumed.

Good for her, he thought to himself. Perhaps a date would help her acclimate to her new environment. He turned to move on quietly. They were not so close that he needed to call out to her as a friend, and her date was none of his concern besides. But as he began to walk away, he felt something nip at the edges of his consciousness: a rush of wind, the rustling of feathers, but something too heavy and loud to be a bird. He turned back around and saw a woman held aloft in the air by two black feather wings.

"What the...?" Alex muttered to himself. Keeping low to the ground, he crept closer to them and hid himself behind a nearby tree to observe.

"Yuuma?" the boy said with disbelief as he stared up at the crow. "W-what are you...?"

"Surprised to see me?" said the crow. "I suppose that makes the two of us. To think that you're still alive, and as a devil, no less. The work of that Sitri bitch or the Gremory whore, I presume?"

"Don't call her that," the boy said heatedly.

"Why? Does it make you mad?" The crow laughed. "At least you've fallen into the role of the obedient slave well enough."

"Shut up!" the boy snapped. "Rias saved me after you... you... you tried to kill me. Why?"

"Because you disgust me," the crow replied. "Because you were a useless specimen of the human race. Because you had no future worth mentioning. Because a hundred other reasons, take your pick, it doesn't matter. That's not what I'm here for." She looked past the boy, at Asia, who was cowering behind his back. "I'm here for you."

"I... Miss Raynare..." Asia stammered.

"What do you want with her?" the boy demanded.

"She's one of us," Raynare said. "One of mine. I'm just bringing my little runaway girl back home."

"Miss Raynare," Asia said meekly, "I... I don't want to go back... not back there."

"I wasn't asking." The crow descended to the ground and walked past the boy to Asia. She held out a hand to her. "Come, we're leaving."

"She's not going anywhere." The boy grabbed Raynare by the wrist. "Not with you, at least."

"Do not touch me," Raynare snarled and drove a shining fist into the boy's face. He let out a shrill shriek as he reeled away from her. There was no noticeable bruise on his face, but only because the skin where he had been punched was burnt black and horrific, as though someone had pressed a hot iron pan against his face.

"Issei!" Asia screamed as she rushed to his side and put her hands to his face. A green glow emanated from her hands turning the burnt skin pink and hale once more. "Are you all right?"

"I'm okay," the boy growled as he got back to his feet. "Thank you. Now stand back."

A crimson metal gauntlet materialized around Issei's left hand and he charged forward to engage the crow in close combat.

The boy was fast, Alex gave him that. But his method of fighting was neither skillful nor wild or animalistic – it was simply crude and clumsy. His fists flailed about in front of him in ungainly swings, each thrown on a desperate hope that one might hit by chance or fortune. However, the crow dodged each blow with ease, smiling lightly all the while. She didn't strike back against the boy. She contented herself to letting his fists brush past her by a hairsbreadth, taking the boy's measure.

When the boy began to slow down from the fatigue of his nonstop barrage, that was when Raynare struck back. She dove in diagonally past a straight punch and slapped her hand over his face, digging her fingers into his flesh. Her hand became infused with light. The acrid smell of burning meat began to fill the air.

"Ahhhh!" Issei screamed as he clawed at Raynare's arms to try to break free. But the light spread from her hand all the way up to her shoulder like a long glove, and the moment his hands touched her arm, they too became seared.

"Stop!" Asia flung herself at Raynare, who didn't even budge at her weight. "You're killing him!"

"And?" Raynare said, not even looking at her. "What does it matter if I do?"

"Please," Asia said. "I'll go back with you. I won't leave again. I'm begging you, just let him go. Please."

"Don't... say... that... Asia..." Issei growled. His face was beyond recognition, but still his eyes blazed with defiance. He grabbed Raynare's arm with both hands, ignoring how his skin burned and flaked away like ash, and swung his leg up, hard. He caught Raynare above the hip, forcing her to loosen her grip just enough for him to break free. He was unsteady on his feet. The slightest breeze would have knocked him over. Yet still did he raise his fists. "I said... she's not going... with... you..."

That was the last of his strength, because when the last word left his lips, he crumpled to the ground and did not move.

"This bastard," Raynare hissed as she clutched her side. A spear of light formed in her other hand. "This piece of trash!"

"NO!" Asia screamed and threw herself between the boy and the crow. "Don't. Don't kill him."

"He hurt me," Raynare snarled. "He hurt me."

"Please, Miss Raynare," Asia said with tears in her eyes. "I beg you to have mercy."

Raynare gripped her spear so tightly that it trembled in her hand. She raised it into the air, and for a moment Alex feared that she intended to run both Asia and the boy through. But then she stabbed the spear into the ground and forced herself to slowly exhale.

"If I kill him here, it will cause problems with his master later," she said. "Fine, heal him. Then we leave."

"Yes," Asia sighed with relief. "Thank you."

Asia turned her attention to restoring the boy's physical health. Alex waited for her to finish her task before rising from his hiding place. The flesh of his right arm began to slag down its length like molten metal, becoming long and lined with blades, tipped at the very end by two barbed spikes.

He reared this arm back, then pitched it forward. The arm shot across the air like a snake, stretching to many times its original length. Asia was the first to see it, and she let out a startled cry, alerting Raynare at the last second. She saw the barbed end aiming for her back and fell sideways to avoid it. The whipfist only managed to catch a fistful of feathers from her wing.

Damn. Alex's arm turned into a crescent blade nearly as long as he was tall and as wide as he was at its center. He ran forward, but Raynare grabbed Asia, wrapped her wings around both of them, and they disappeared from sight.

The content of Alex's eyes changed immediately. The world became painted in solid shades of color. The places of cooler temperature appeared in blues and purples, while places of warmth and heat came out in varying hues of red and orange. Alex looked around the park and found that only he and Issei remained. Raynare and Asia were no longer here.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Alex's eyes and arms turned back to normal. He looked at the boy unconscious near his feet, at the gauntlet that remained on his arm. Where had that come from? And the crow woman, where had she taken Asia? How? What was she? And as for Asia herself, how had she healed the boy? Was that... magic?

Alex shook his head. None of that mattered right now. He did not want to leave Asia to whatever fate Raynare had in store for her, because whatever she had planned, it could not be good. He could get answers after he saved Asia. The only trouble was where to start looking.

He would not be able to find Raynare by tracking her scent because the trail ran cold where he stood. Searching the entire city inch by inch was likewise impossible. The city was too large for him to blindly comb through.

But maybe there's another way. Alex looked down at the unconscious boy as the gears began to turn in his mind. Here it was, a clue that had been left behind for him to follow. He crouched down and reached for the boy.

By the time Alex arrived at the dilapidated church that served as Raynare's hideout, the sun had begun to set in the horizon, casting a fiery blaze across the sky. But here in the forest on the outskirts of the city, precious little of that dying light reached past the trees. It was already like night here, and the creatures of the night were making their presence known. In the distance, owls hooted, wild cats padded softly through the brushes, and the night bugs made their song.

Thick wooden doors served as the main point of entrance into the church. They were old to the point of being ancient, splintered and molding from the long siege of the elements. Alex gave the doors a push to test them. He could not hear the sound of a lock or chain on the other side. Despite that, the doors did not budge, not because of its rusty hinges, but because some other mechanism locked them in place.

Alex took a step back and circled the church. There were no other doors, which meant that he would either need to break in from the main entrance or find an alternate means in. Stained glass windows decorated the upper parts of the walls. They were boarded up with planks of wood, but those could be easily dislodged, though not without some level of noise. If there was anyone directly inside, they would notice, no matter how silent he tried to be.

Thermal vision showed that inside only one person stood on guard on the ground level; a male, judging from the outline of his body. Further below the ground, in some kind of cavernous basement, there was another person. Someone with wings.

There you are, Raynare, Alex thought. Wait... where's Asia?

No matter where he looked, Alex could not find Asia's glowing silhouette. He pursed his lips tightly together. Four claws took the place of the fingers of his right hand, while his hand and arm became a twisted black mass of muscles and tendons. Each claw was a foot long and razor sharp, more like daggers or small swords than the natural weaponry of beasts.

He thrust his claws into the ground. There his hands began to morph again. His claws stretched out and tunneled their way forward, below the foundation of the church until they lay beneath the sentry. There they burst upward through the floor, perforating the man with spears of hard biomass.

With the guard dead, Alex retracted his claws and let them give way to fingers once more. He leaned against the door and slowly pushed against it. The rusty hinges groaned with effort, before finally giving way. The doors cracked open, and Alex slipped inside.

Scattered pieces of wood showed where the pastor's pulpit had once been, just behind the ruined body of a silver haired man. It had been destroyed by Alex as collateral damage, revealing the hidden stairwell beneath. He descended down the steps until he reached the basement.

Fluorescent lights were wired to the ceiling, but they had fallen apart from age and disuse. Instead, the entire room was brightly lit with orbs of light hanging in the air like chandeliers. Steel pillars served as support, holding up the massive weight of the entire church above them.

Alex switched off his thermal vision while hiding behind one of the pillars. Raynare was standing on top of a constructed altar, playing with a green glow in her hands. Beside her was a steel cross. Chained to that cross...

Asia!

For what felt like an eternity, Alex stood there, rooted to the spot. He stared at Asia. She had no external wounds, though her clothes were in tatters, but she wasn't moving. And her body... Alex switched back to thermal sights and then back again. Her body was so cold.

Suddenly, an overwhelming desire to put the crow in his hands tear her into pieces filled Alex. He did not want to believe it, but the evidence lay before his very eyes. Asia was dead. And it was the crow's fault.

Alex emerged from his hiding place, seething, and sprinted towards the altar. His heavy footsteps caught the crow's attention, and she turned to meet him, too late. In a single bound, he leaped to the top of the altar and collided bodily into the crow. Her arms came up to try to shield herself from the onslaught of razor sharp claws that carved away at her flesh and bones. They fell, but the crow managed to shake Alex off in the air and caught the air with her wings. He landed on the ground; she stayed afloat.

"You," Raynare hissed, trying hard not to cry out with pain. Her arms were bloody ribbons. Fingers were missing and the whites of the bones could have been seen if they had not been dyed crimson by the bloody meat dangling there. "You again."

Before Alex's very eyes, the same green light from before, the light that Raynare had been playing with and the light that Asia had used before that, covered the crow's arms. The flesh regenerated, the bones became fixed, and lost fingers regrown. It was a little like watching himself regenerate, Alex thought, though at a much faster pace.

"Who are you?" Raynare demanded. "What are you? Do you even know who I am?"

"I've got no fuckin' idea." Alex's left arm transformed into the whipfist. "Why did you kill Asia? What the hell did she do to deserve that?"

"I don't need to explain myself to you," Raynare spat out. "Besides, what relation do you have with her? I've kept an eye on her from the moment she stepped foot in this city. You've never even met each other!"

The whipfist shot out snake-fast, streaking through the air like black lightning. Raynare dove down to avoid it, bringing up a spear of light to angle the bladed tentacle away from her. Alex retracted his arm and tried again, and again the crow dodged. But this time, as soon as she moved to avoid the first strike, a second whipfist cut through the air and caught the crow by her legs. The blades chewed through her boots and into her muscles, preventing her from slipping away. Alex pulled and reeled her back to the ground, her struggling all the while.

Alex grabbed Raynare by her long black hair once she was in arm's reach, pulling her tightly by the roots. Her forced her head up, and she glared at him defiantly. A low guttural sound rose up from his throat, unbidden.

"Why did you kill Asia?" Alex said again.

"Release me right now," Raynare replied. "I am Raynare of Grigori. If you lay another finger on me, you will become the enemy of all fallen angels."

"WHY DID YOU KILL HER?" Alex roared, shaking her violently by the head. "She was a little girl! What the fuck was the point of killing her?"

Raynare shouted and plunged a small dagger, forged from the same light-stuff as the spear, straight into Alex's face. For a moment, her face twisted into the curl of victory. A second later, her eyes widened with horror.

"That wasn't smart," Alex said as his body slowly pushed the dagger out of his face and the hole filled in with new flesh and organ.

"What are you?" Raynare said again, whispering this time. "What in the world are you?" When Alex didn't reply, she stabbed him again and shrieked, "Die, you damn monster!"

Alex's spare hand came up and grabbed Raynare by the wrist. He squeezed and crushed the bones, and the maintained his grip so that Raynare couldn't heal it again.

"If you kill me," Raynare gasped, "if you kill me, you will make an enemy of Grigori. Do you understand? You will have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. My comrades will hunt you down and kill are you. Are you truly prepared for that? Are you prepared to run and hide for the rest of your life for some girl you don't even know?"

"I do know her," Alex said. "I sat beside her on the flight here."

"Just for that?" Raynare said disbelievingly. "You would throw away your life for a person like that?"

The corners of Alex's lips twitched upwards as many tendrils of flesh grew out from his body and connected to Raynare's. "I'm not throwing anything away. By the time I'm done here, they won't even know who to look for."

I balled my hands into tight fists and took a breath. The door in front of me had never seemed so daunting before. I wanted to leave and run away, pretend that I had never received my orders at all, but I couldn't. There was something I needed to ask; something I needed to hear. So I knocked and entered the room once I was given permission.

"Lord Azazel." I bowed from the waist. "Did you call for me?"

"I did." He stood there, looking at me, dressed in his fine clothes and as handsome as ever, and yet my heart did not flutter with the usual excitement. "I have an assignment for you, if you're willing."

"Of course. For you, I would do anything."

He smiled at my words, at me, and some of my fears began to melt away. "Your sentiment is appreciated."

It was not mere sentiment, I wanted to say, it was the truth. Instead, I held my tongue and waited for him to continue.

"I need you to go to Japan and infiltrate the Gremory territory there."

I frowned but nodded. "Yes, my lord. Though if you would have me assassinate the ruling devil there, I fear that the task might be a little beyond me."

"What? Assassinate?" Lord Azazel looked startled. "Oh, good heavens, no. No, I just need you to go to Japan to keep an eye on this boy." He handed me a small picture of a boy and my lips instinctively curled with disdain. He was so unlike my beloved lord. He had a foolish countenance to him, and plain to the point of ugliness. "His name is Issei Hyoudou. Observe him from a distance and report back to me if you notice anything out of the ordinary. My fears may be unfounded, but if they're true..." My lord shook his head. "In any case, can you do this thing for me?"

"Of course, Lord Azazel. I shall leave at once." But despite my words, I did not leave. It was now or never. If I wanted to dispel the doubts and fears that hung in my mind, then I needed to act now. "Before I go, might I ask a question of another matter?"

"What is it?"

"Is it true that you sent for Asia Argento to be brought to you?"

"Where did you hear about that?"

"It is no great secret amongst the rest of Grigori."

"Really?" He looked amused. "What else do they say about me?"

"They say... they say that you've fallen in love with her and that you're using her recent excommunication to draw her to your side." Quickly, I added, "Of course, I know that those rumors are all just nonsense. She's just an insignificant little girl, after all."

"I would not be so quick to disregard her," Lord Azazel warned me."I suppose you could say it's love, in a sense. She possesses Twilight Healing, a most valuable Sacred Gear. I would sincerely love to have the chance to study it more closely. But do not concern yourself with that matter. It's being taken care of by others. Hmm? Raynare? Are you listening to me?"

"Yes... yes, of course. I'll just... I'll just get going on my mission."

"Thank you. And remember, Raynare: Avoid direct contact with both the boy and the devils of that land."

Alex clutched his head as the last rush of his newly gained memories finished playing in his mind.

"Mmm... damn..." he groaned. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head slowly, rubbing at his temples with his thumbs. It took minutes for the throbbing pain to finally recede.

Whenever Alex consumed someone, he gained for himself all of their knowledge, skills, and memories. He typically preferred to assimilate them slowly, picking through them over a longer period of time. But his natural instincts, and the method he used when he had an immediate need for information, was absorbing it all in one go.

It was a painful process; reliving a person's entire life in the span of only a few seconds sent such a tremendous surge of information through his mind that it gave him debilitating headaches. The longer a person lived their life or the more that they had experienced, the more painful it was to consume them – and Raynare had lived a truly long life indeed. Longer than some civilizations and countries that now lay dead, in fact.

He knew what she was now: she was a fallen angel – an honest-to-goodness supernatural being. And he knew now what existed in this world: gods and devils and monsters and magic. Every myth was a fact; every tale told to children, truth.

It was a lot to take in.

Alex took solace in the fact that at least Raynare had been lying. She acted as a rogue agent against the orders of her boss. Chances were good that that even if Azazel found out who had killed his subordinate, if presented with evidence of her wrongdoing, he would not seek recompense for it.

The bad news was that Asia was still dead, and he knew exactly what Raynare had done to her, right down to the very last terrific detail.

She had, in a fit of jealousy, ripped Asia's soul in two in order to steal away Twilight Healing. By doing so, Raynare had hoped that she could transfer Azazel's attention from Asia to herself.

However, there was a chance that he could make things right. Hanging in the air where Raynare had once been was a orb of green light – the physical representation of Twilight Healing. Alex gently took it in his hands, carried it to the top of the altar and carefully pushed it back into Asia. It sank easily into her chest. Then he ripped the chains off her and carefully lowered her to the ground.

Her body was cold. Raynare had conducted the ritual to steal the Sacred Gear as soon as she had returned from the park. Asia's body was already in the process of decomposition, and her brain had long gone into a state of brain death.

He could fix that.

Though the method was something he was absolutely loathe to do, Alex resolved to do it anyway. He had a need for this girl. There was someone he cared about that needed this girl.

"Please don't come back wrong," Alex whispered before driving his hand straight into her stomach and releasing a specialized strain of the Blacklight virus into her bloodstream.

The virus coursed throughout the corpse, binding itself to all the dead or dying cells, infecting them, reactivating them, bringing them back to life and making them stronger than ever before. It took only a few minutes for the changes to complete. When Alex withdrew his hand, the hole in Asia's stomach mended itself immediately.

"Hey." Alex lightly patted her on the cheek. When she didn't stir, he urged her harder. "Hey, Asia. Wake up. Wake up!"

Alex placed his two forefingers to Asia's neck. He could feel a strong, steady pulse. She was definitely alive again, but she remained as silent and unmoving as the corpse she had been. But that was impossible. Alex had revived her physical body and placed her Sacred Gear back where it belonged. By all rights, she ought to be up and talking to him right now, or at least trying to kill him if she came back as a Runner.

Alex didn't understand. Had he failed? What was going on?

Any further thoughts was interrupted by a metal-clad fist that knocked Alex off the altar. He had been so absorbed by Asia that he had failed to notice the three people entering the basement and sneaking up behind him. He saw them now.

Two of them he recognized only by name from Raynare's memories. The short girl with hair so pale that it appeared white was Koneko Toujou, the Rook of Rias Gremory's peerage. The taller blond boy with swords in hand was Yuuto Kiba, the Knight of the same.

And then the last one, the one who had punched him, wore a crimson gauntlet over his left hand and had a furious look on his face.

"Oh," Alex sighed. "It's you."