Full Summary:
Hyoudou Issei remembers little to nothing about his life before attending the church at the age of five. He was trained by the strongest exorcists of the Vatican to become part of the elite task force: The Templars. For a time, he put his faith in the God of the bible and used his strength to slay evil in his name. He coldly murdered many evil creatures, be it devils, fallen angels, vampires or even werewolves. And after taking out several SS-class stray devils on his own, it became undeniable that he was the strongest Templar the church ever had at its disposal. That was when his hidden powers surfaced. To say that the church wasn't scared shitless of magic would be an understatement. It would have been fine if it was normal magic; however, he had shown great potential towards unholy magic—even going as far as summoning that wicked thing. The church, judging him guilty, concluded that he was a nuisance and must be dealt with. Issei found himself in the situation where he had to choose whether to be murdered by those he once called brother and sister, or to kill them himself. He chose the latter. However, his acts bore heavy consequences on his mind and led him to wander aimlessly. A man found him and took him to the magic academy where this story about Issei's adventures in the DxD universe will begin—with the worst possible outcome. The prologue is about Issei before his arrival at Kuoh Town. This story features a strong but obviously not overpowered Issei. Not perverted at first, but he will slowly develop this trait. Also intelligent—as a magician, it's this or he's worth nothing. Rated M for precaution
Author's Note:
Sup guys, Leon here. I would first like to thank you all for taking the time to read this fic. Thank you for all the reviews and your participation in the story by giving your ideas on which peerage Issei should join. I will make sure to keep them in mind when making the final decision.
Special thanks for my bro who test-read this chapter. His English proficiency is at the same level as mine, or slightly better, so he can't correct all grammar errors, but he is pretty good at every other brick that builds a story.
Many thanks to author Revan's Wraith for inviting me to the Exelica discord server. I should have put this in the first chapter, but, well, I forgot.
And without any further ado, let us begin the second, and maybe last, chapter of Fallen Templar.
Chapter 02: Death.
The gentle rays of the morning sun first caressed the different top parts of Vienna's imperial buildings. The star's light was slowly chasing away the darkness, waking up the morning people, while its heat warmed robins and house sparrows, urging them to sing the chant of dawn. The first hours of morning were the only time the Capital of Austria tasted silence. The two million inhabitants along with the large influx of tourists made of this city a hive of activity.
Though, there existed places light couldn't reach at that hour of day. Alleyways, for example, were among such described places. It was at that time that, amidst an alleyway, the young woman known only as "Kuroka" emerged out of the darkness. Her face bore a satisfied smile as she took out a decent number of red paper money from a man's wallet.
"Men can be so stupid, nyaa~ . . . that's why I love them so much."
Her cheeks slightly reddening, she giggled before hiding the money between her black kimono and her generous breasts. In fact, Kuroka was not in need of money. Stealing was more of a habit and a time-killer for her rather than a need.
She joined her hands behind her back and engaged in walking, when a blue magic circle begun glowing intensely on the ground near her. Kuroka, being an expert at magic, quickly recognized it as a teleportation spell and hid both her body and presence with the use of yojutsu.
The light faded away, revealing a young man who still didn't count two decades in his age. His face showed light-brown hair that tumbled over his eyes, along with wrinkled brows and a narrowed mouth. He lifted up his head, saying to himself, "I spent the night searching for traces of fallen angels, yet I still have no clue on their whereabouts."
Narrowing his eyes in a glare, he punched the wall on his left and continued, "How could they so easily slip through my fingers?!"
With a sigh, he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms, eyes closed. He lived the night once again in his mind and started listing the possible reasons for his failure. But, once again, it was to no avail. Then, a sparkling light pushed him out of his train of thought and forced him to move his arm in front of his eyes.
Once the brightness was gone, a beautiful girl around his age intruded his sight. Her lips curved, expressing a huge, affectionate smile, "you seem to be in trouble, Issei."
"Silver-white hair . . . purple, lilac eyes? Smiling, and she knows my name. Only one person fits this description, and I last saw her a couple hours ago."
With his face bearing a serious tone, he asked her, "Stephany, right? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in the girls' dorm?"
The girl laid her finger on her lips, gazing away as though she was trying to remember something. "Hmm . . . Should I? I believe I didn't set foot in the dorm since yesterday morning."
Issei smirked, "Oh, and where have you been?"
She turned and pointed towards the direction where she supposedly was before joining him.
Issei enhanced his smirk as he guessed what place she was referring to. "That's surprising, I didn't think you were that type of girl."
"So, you don't find me attractive. Is that it?"
"Perhaps."
Stephany gently held her breasts by the sides, obviously trying to seduce the man.
"What are you starring at? Pervert."
". . . huh?"
"I saw you deflowering my breasts like a beast with your lecherous eyes. You were thinking about doing pervert 'things' to them, weren't you? Pervert."
Issei understood she was joking from the start, but hell she was bad at it.
"Okay, cut the crap, would you? And, weren't you supposed to be all shy and timid?
Hearing that, Stephany released her breasts and put her hand on her cheek, smiling gently. "It seems like with you, I can be myself."
He released a sigh before smiling back at her. "So, what are you really doing out here?"
"Stalking you."
"And here I believed we were done with the tasteless jokes." The boy said, starting to get annoyed.
Stephany pouted, "It's not a joke. It's the truth. I have been following you since when you defended me against . . . I still haven't thanked you for that yet, have I? I really appreciate your intervention."
Then, she bowed and expressed her sincere gratitude, "thank you."
A few minutes passed with her keeping her head still starring at the ground, before Issei released a sigh and addressed her. "Alright, I believe you. But, how come I didn't sense your presence at all? The thought of someone following me didn't even cross my mind, and I am no novice mage. If magic was being cast, I would have known immediately."
The girl proudly smiled with her eyes closed. She put her left hand on her waist and her right hand on her mouth before coughing. "Ahem! My specialty is space-manipulation magic. Last time, I marked you with my magic, and when you went off to the principal's bureau, I entered my pocket dimension and watched you from there."
"You say that you managed putting a tracer on me, and one on such high level that even I can't detect it? Bullshit. The principal himself couldn't pull it off."
"I am surprised, and hurt, to see how much you underestimate my abilities."
"You can't really blame for that now, can you? I barely sense any magic coming from,"
He suddenly stopped as he noticed her lip corners slightly pulling down and her gaze dropping to the ground. The sad expression she made caused pain in his heart. He took some steps towards her, trying to figure out which words fit that kind of situation.
"I . . .you know . . . I . . . didn't mean it that way . . ."
"It is alright, Issei."
She wiped a tear that was about to fall from her eye, before her face contorted into a gentle smile. "It's alright."
A heavy silence filled the scenery for a couple seconds, before the boy broke it.
"I am sorry, Stephany. I really am."
"My last name."
A puzzled expression struck Issei's face as he heard that. He was expecting many things, but that was not even at the bottom of the list.
"I'm sorry?"
"My last name. You didn't ask me about my last name."
"Ahh . . ." He started, his contracted facial muscles loosening. "Sorry, I guess? How do they call your family? I don't really know many families specializing in teleportation magic . . . is it the"
"It's Sylvia."
"Sylvia? Aren't they specialized in elemental magic?"
No answer came out of the girl's mouth. Issei had a perplexed look for a moment. He thoroughly analyzed the information he had, and finally came to the conclusion. The reason why she was a timid girl, why the other students laughed at her, and why she reacted like that to his comment about her magic. "An Irregular, huh?"
"I see." Sounded Issei's voice. He didn't really know what to say. They didn't teach him how to socialize back in the church. And even if they did, he already buried everything related to that time in his life.
"Do you mine listening to me complaining about my life, Issei?"
Issei swore he would never get close to what people called friendship, let alone being involved with it. After all, life taught him the hard way about how friends could be one's deadliest enemy. Yet, he cared about the students of Vienna's Magic Academy watched over. The seventh mystery, it was not some kind of ghost or demon that haunted the school, no, it was the ghost that secretly helped them and inspired them in their journey to becoming better mages. Stephany was the girl that was closest to him. They never spoke to each other, but they have always been at a close distance within the green space behind the academy. He didn't have much of a choice now, did he? She even drew a picture of him on her notebook.
He certainly was bad at socializing, but she only asked to listen, right?
"We should go somewhere else then?"
"No, this is perfect for me."
"Okay, as you wish. I am ready, I will listen to every word you say."
Raising her fingers to her lips, she couldn't help but release a few giggles and chuckles.
"What?"
"It's nothing," she chortled. "Thank you, Issei."
After taking a deep breath, she begun narrating her story.
Within the vast garden of the Sylvia family's vacation house in japan stood a seven-year-old girl wearing a delightful smocked dress with two ribbons tying her hair in pigtails. She was playing with a small round ball painted in light orange with red geometric patterns cared all over it.
Repeatedly bouncing the ball from her left hand to her right hand, she sung.
"Where are you from?
From Higo. — Where in Higo?
In Kumamoto. — Where in Kumamoto?
In Senba.
A tanuki is in the Senba mountains.
A hunter shoots it with a gun:
Boils it — Roasts it — Eats it.
Let's hide it in the leaves."
She kept playing and singing when her dad suddenly passed by the garden accompanied by several other men. They didn't pay attention to her and headed towards a certain room within the house. The expression the face of her father bore was unusually worried and anxious. But, her father always told her that whenever she saw him talking with other grown-ups, she shouldn't interrupt him. For a while, she continued playing, until a sudden loud voice terrified her.
"How dare you––! To threaten the Sylvia name before me, Ekon Sylvia, the head of the house! As long as I still breathe, my family will never keel before the likes of you!"
As the angry and loud voice of her father reached her, Stephany stopped playing with the ball, worried. But still, she couldn't go inside. She first thought of going to her mother, but she couldn't make the decision.
A while had passed. Worried as she was, she couldn't help but nervously wait by the door leading to the room where her father was. Inside her mind, different terrifying scenarios followed each other in a chain. She sat on the ground and wrapped her hands around her knees, scared. She was only seven years old.
And then, the sound of the door opening broke the flow of her thoughts. The grown-ups that came with her father slowly walked past the garden, leaving the mansion. Without hesitation, the young Stephany burst into the room and joined her father.
"Dad!" Sounded her crying voice as she lunged at him, tears rolling down her cheeks like rain on a dusty pane. She sobbed into his chest unceasingly and wrapped her hands around him in a tight hug.
"Dad! Dad, are you alright? Did these men hurt you? Did they say bad words to you? I heard you yelling at them earlier . . ."
In a brusque gesture, her father held her by the collar and threw her away from him without any hesitation. The poor girl harshly landed on the wooden floor, coughing heavily due to the collar of her dress having strangled her. She put her hand on her throat to help her breathing and lifted up her wide-opened eyes to gaze at her father.
"F-Father . . . what I did wrong . . .please forgive me for it."
"Your sins cannot be forgiven you ungrateful child! After all I did for you and your worthless mother . . . but I guess I was foolish. A foolish man I was, indeed. For failing to understand that a failure can only give birth to a failure! Not only did she not give me a boy, but she also gave me a child than can't even freeze a cup of water! Your trash of a mother brought shame to our house, and so do I by keeping you here and feeding you! If it was only for me, I would have killed you with my own hands the moment I knew." He paused for a second. "I contacted an acquaintance of mine. You will go with him and he will be in charge of you from now on. Now, begone! Out of my sight! And don't ever think about coming back to this house!"
"And so, I was banished from my house by my own father. My mother committed suicide soon after I left. She couldn't bear both the hole I left in her heart and the harsh treatment of her husband constantly blaming her." Spoke Stephany in a calm tone, even though her body was trembling.
She wiped the tears before covering her face with her hands. Silence grew for a couple seconds. Then, her body suddenly felt the young man's warmth as his left hand wrapped around her back, slightly over her waist, while his right hand pushed her head against his chest. Issei could feel the droplets coming out of her eyes wet his shirt as he looked up at the sky. For a moment, they stood like that, alone amidst a dark alley, silence broken only by the whimpers of the girl. The boy didn't know what to say, what words would help the girl that just opened herself to him, the girl that is shedding tears on his chest. It was a delicate matter. He cursed the church for never letting him attend school and make friends. For a normal life he yearned all those past years, yet he knew he couldn't, and would never get one. Mustering up the courage, he finally spoke.
"From now on, and to the end of time, I, Hyoudou Issei, will be your new family. I was born an orphan, so I never experienced what having a family felt like, but I promise you, I will do my best to be the ideal family figure you ever had."
He was taller than her, so she had to lift up her head in order to look at him. Her eyes, full of teardrops, seemed to tremble because of emotion. Then, abruptly, she took one step backwards. Tears of sadness and joy interlaced as she started releasing soft laughs. Her cheeks reddened and her voice gradually became louder until she finally burst out laughing, an expression of happiness clearly visible on her face.
Issei, misinterpreting the situation, asked with a puzzled face, "did I say something weird?"
But that only intensified the girl's laughing.
After regaining her breath, her face shined for a second with a warm, delightful smile before she lunged at him and tightly hugged him. "Thank you . . . Thank you so much, Issei."
The boy could only answer by laying his hands on her back in an affectionate cuddle.
Unbeknownst to Issei and Stephany, Kuroka was standing only a few meters farther from their position, wrapped in her magic. She attentively watched and listened to the conversation between the two as she deemed unnecessary and utterly selfish to interrupt them at such an important moment. Teasing people and being a pain in the ass were one of her many habits, true, but even her knew when not to disturb the flow of the river. Also, she may not openly admit it, but she enjoyed watching as the two teenagers got close to each other. In some way, the girl reminded her a little of her sister back when both of them were still in the same peerage, serving under the same master. But that was talk for another day. "You're only young once, nyaa~" as she said to herself.
"Issei, can I be a little more selfish?"
Without hesitation, he replied, "Yes."
"What is the relationship between you and the principal?"
"Ah, yes." Issei nearly forgot she followed him to the principal's office, if one could say it that way. Her powers were really amazing, neither he nor the director noticed her magic. Such mastery of data manipulation . . . her father was indeed a fool – for letting go his prodigy of a daughter, that is.
An untraceable pocket dimension. Usually, using the dimensional gap as support for the created dimension required a direct link between it and the dimension where the mage was, e.g., the underworld, the human world, and heaven. In that matter, even if it was difficult, qualified mages were able to sense and detect such links. Though it may not have been the case for Issei, the principal sure was capable of detecting traces of magic, i.e., distortions or misbehaviors of the data within the office's ground. Not to mention that she made a visual link between the two dimensions, otherwise, she would have never been able to spy on him. Yet, all of it slid through both his and the professor's grasp. According to Issei's reasoning, it was impossible to accomplish such a feat. Yet she did. The ability to minutely manipulate the alphabet in such a way that that even a grand master of magic could not see through . . . It simply was awesome.
'What is the relationship between you and the principal?' Issei pondered the question for a couple seconds. True, she made the first step and opened up to him. But, the things she saw and experienced were not even comparable to a tenth of what he had to live through. Just the thought of it made him want to throw up. What should he do? Avoid the subject and weaken the thin bond of friendship he just made, or go against his will and vow to answer her question?
At that thought, memories of the past flashed through his mind.
Issei's facial muscles froze as his eyelids spread wide. With his reddened lips slightly widened, and as the droplets of blood straining his face iced in place, he slowly walked across the white feather cushion of that cold, freezing night. His brain had already shut down when he started aimlessly wandering in the snow, his hollow eyes seeming to have run out of vitality. This fifteen-year-old kid felt nothing as the chill air etiolated his skin.
The snow didn't look any different than the usual and ordinary white snow that every one of us knows, but for him, it was as red as fresh blood. In his mind, the sound of the howling wind embodied the cries of the souls executed by his sword, tirelessly haunting him. He continued walking for a long time, never halting, never resting. It seemed as if he was looking for something, something that didn't exist, something that he couldn't explain. And so, he was wandering aimlessly, when a voice finally stopped him.
"Do you feel the pain in your heart, kid?"
He slowly, somehow lazily, looked around himself and saw a man with an average build that wore a grey coat and hat.
"If you do, that means there's still an ounce of humanity left in you."
Issei was listening carefully, his facial expression untouched.
"Hold on to it, if you don't want to lose to yourself."
The boy was reactionless, but he didn't ignore the man…
"Hyoudou."
That was when he finally reacted, even if only by a simple wink.
"Can you remember, kid?"
Issei closed his mouth.
"If that is what you seek, come with me. I shall grant you my knowledge."
Without uttering a single word, he followed him. Issei couldn't properly think about it, let alone say it; but, he wasn't wandering aimlessly. He was looking for his parents. That was the only thing he had left.
"Issei?"
He shook his head to banish the memories and keep them from resurfacing again. "Simply put, I am a stray exorcist. I have been one for three years now. I joined the church when I was five years old. I remember nothing prior to that. I don't remember who my parents were. They may have been normal people living their life, owners of some big tech industry, wanted criminals, or part of the supernatural world . . . I don't know. I want to know. They are the only thing I have left. And when the principal offered me a place to stay and promised to tell me all he knows about my parents in exchange for running some errands like this one? I didn't hesitate."
"You never asked him how he knew about your parents?"
"No. I don't care how; I just need the information."
"What about what he's trying to do with those artifacts?"
"He's collecting them for God-knows why – I didn't care to ask, and I don't care to ask."
With a cold glare, Issei approached the street that was gradually getting crowded. "I am sorry, Steph. This is the last errand I run for him. You know what that means, right? Of course you do."
He paused for a moment.
"There is a group of fallen angels in this city at the moment. According to the headmaster, the artifact should be in their possession. He put up a barrier around the city to prevent them from teleporting away, but I need to find them before they find out the breaches in the spell. I have to go."
"Hasn't it occurred to you that maybe it is because of that barrier that you haven't found them yet?"
He turned back at her.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, let's suppose they have some skills in magic. If they can put in place a pocket dimension, even the simplest possible one, the data misbehaviors caused by the large barrier would be easily able to mislead you to believing that the distortion caused by the pocket dimension is part of the distortions caused by the barrier."
After thinking about it for a couple seconds, he replied.
"So my vision of the situation was blurred the whole time . . ." He bit his bottom lip. "Damn angels, I should have known better. Still, knowing that doesn't really help me. What am I supposed to do? I can't find them using magic . . . and that's all I have."
Hearing that, Stephany winked an eye at him with her lips curved into a proud smile. "Actually it's not difficult, finding them is a piece of cake . . . if it was me looking for them, that is."
Alright, Issei understood the situation very well. If she just directly asked to join him he would have obviously refused without hesitation. Knowing that, she made use of the situation to put him in a position where he had to ask her to help him. She didn't just convince him that he needed her, she forced him to ask for her help.
Stephany kept starring at him with those eyes saying "Take the deal mister Issei. I've cornered you and you know it. There is nothing you can do about it. Just accept your destiny and kneel before your fate" until he submitted.
"Steph, could you give me a hand in searching for these fallen angels?"
She lifted up her eyebrows and slightly moved down her head, intensifying her glare.
"Stephany, please help me to find these fallen angels."
No answer came out of her mouth.
"Please Stephany, I really need your help. I can't do it on my own."
Still no answers. That annoyed him, but he had to continue.
He clapped his hands in front of his chest and did a slight bow.
"You did a really good job figuring out their trick, Stephany. But unfortunately, I still can't find them on my own. I need your help, Steph. I can't do it without you. Please consider giving me a hand."
"Now I truly can't do better than that. Stop teasing me already," he thought.
"Alright," she started as her face contorted into a soft smile. "If you insist that much, I will gladly help you out."
"Thank the Gods." He smiled back. She didn't truly annoy him, and moreover, all he said was the truth.
A somehow large magic circle swiftly formed on the ground, glowing intensely. As the girl lifted her hand towards the magic, the light coming out of the circle dropped in intensity and molded into a large map portraying the city.
"I have already found their location, to be honest. The breach to their pocket dimension is just near Stadtpark. Right there, look." She said, pointing at the aforementioned park with her finger.
"Oh, when did you find their location?"
"The moment you teleported here, of course."
"And why didn't you tell me back then?"
"Because it wouldn't have been fun. Now, let's get going." She jokingly replied as she took the first steps towards the street.
"This girl I swear . . ." Issei said in a sigh.
A picture of her at school flashed through his mind, then did the memory of her being bullied by the girls, and finally the image of the face she had just moments ago. The first two may have been coherent, but the last one was clearly "out of place". Did she have different personalities? He couldn't help but sigh, "Oh well."
As the two teenagers disappeared out of sight, the black-haired woman that saw everything from the shadows emerged out of them.
Meanwhile, within the magic academy's grounds.
The ceiling must have been at least a hundred feet high. The light had shied away from the vast circular hall that the six hundred students were standing in. Uneasy and worried whispers first started filling the hall, then followed by loud questionings. The audience present that day had no clue about how nor why they suddenly found themselves in such a place.
In the dark, they could barely recognize each other's faces, when, hovering across the hall, candles lit by blueish flames progressively lightened the place. The students were now finally able to visualize the scenery.
The flat ground and the walls were formed of black rocks. Interlacing red magic circles covered the ground and multiple paintings of mythological creatures were hanged on the walls, providing the place a gloomy atmosphere. At first, the students were looking around silently, trying to answer their questions for themselves. But as no one could understand what was happening, they started shouting and yelling until their voices filled the place and echoed through the hall.
Some of teenagers assumed it was some kind of unannounced test or event held by the academy, and thus begun their campaign towards converting the rest of the students to their belief, but, as time passed, people started panicking. After all, they had no evidence to support their claim and the fact that no instructor had yet to come made them question their own belief.
It was true, the more time passed, the worse the situation got. As some of the students started fighting each other, he showed up.
"I see that amongst you there are brave students impatient and eager to accomplish their duty. I feel blessed. Worry not, I will not have your wait longer than necessary." Came the calm voice of the principal who was hovering high above the students.
"Headmaster!" sounded the loud voice of one of the girls believing it was all a kind of test, "please, could you explain to the students the purpose of our gathering in this place?"
"Yes, dear child, of course I can. But, will I? Should I? That I do not know. All I can say is that today is the day of your graduation."
"Graduation?" Asked a boy who was standing outside the director's field of view.
Without turning to face him, the headmaster answered, "Yes, I believe that is what I said."
"But there are first years here?!"
"Will you stop telling me things I already know? Yes, all the students of the academy were gathered here tonight . . . because it is a special night. There remains only one task you need to complete in order to graduate as full-fledged magicians."
He paused for a few seconds, all eyes impatiently starring at him and all ears carefully waiting for his words. Then he said, "Die."
The word resonated in the students' ears for several minutes. The definition of the word "die" was a very simple one, yet they had a hard time understanding it. When you order someone to die, you want to tell him "stop living". But in the situation they were in, it was impossible to logically link that definition with the context . . . or not? For all they know, they have been suddenly teleported into a gloomy place filled with magic circles glowing in red . . . No, it was impossible. The headmaster would never . . .
Then panic struck their mind. Was it truly real? Was it truly possible? Were they really going to die, just like that? They didn't want to believe it. Unfortunately, reality and beliefs are two different things.
"This is a joke . . . right?" Finally came out the voice of one of the students.
"This is no joke, my child. Within the light of Selene, I seek only the dream."
The director's ambiguous words were followed by the angry voices of the almost everyone in the hall.
"Stop screwing around! What is the meaning of this?!"
"Die? What the hell do you mean by 'Die'?
"This is some kind of test, right? Right?!"
"What are you saying, headmaster?"
"Guys, let's get the fuck out of here."
"Open the door, you freaking bastard!"
Then, to the students' surprise, several men and women wearing black robes emerged out of nowhere and cast lethal destructive magic at them. Screams of agony and despair soon replaced the previous atmosphere of the scenery as waves of fire, lightning, ice, and all sorts of destructive projectiles lashed the students.
"If you shalt not kill each other, my puppets will."
The words of one of the students came out like an answer to the principal's words, "Let us not fight each other. If we want to survive, we need to work together and–"
Blood spread out of his neck as his head abandoned his body, tainting his friends' clothes and the ground where they stood. His warm body fell to the ground as his soul traveled from this world to the other. The guys that were standing close to him wide opened their mouth in shock. A student near the body was laughing like a madman, holding a sword strained in blood. "Fool! No one will survive! Didn't you hear what he just said? 'Within the light of Selene, I seek only the dream.'"
A spear pierced him in the chest before he could say anything else. Blood massively sprawl out of his chest as his body fell to the ground. Droplets of the red liquid fell into one of the girl's mouth as she was screaming in fear. As she felt the salty taste of blood in her mouth, her screaming was soon replaced by the sounds of vomit as it streamed out of her mouth.
The boy with a spear rushed looked over the headless body of his dead friend as tears fell out his eyes.
Not so far from them, a group of students rushed towards the door and tried breaking it using magic. They launched at it everything they got, but to no avail. Two of the students then took the lead, of them summoned a rather big Golem made out of steel while the other created a battering ram by the size of the Golem. The others soon followed by using magic on the battering ram to aid the Golem in breaking the door.
Unfortunately for them, one of the men wearing black robes descended from above and broke the Golem with a single punch. He approached the battering ram, put his palm on it and that was all it took for him to make it scatter into a thousand pieces.
They could too easily recognize the face of the man that stood before them. "Professor Dominik!" Shouted one of the girls, but he didn't answer.
"It's useless. He doesn't recognize us! Just look at his eyes, they are like that of a dead fish!"
A magic circle appeared beneath Dominik as he spread out his arms. Then, a devastating whirlwind – first surrounding the teacher, then growing bigger and bigger – dismembered the students in no time.
Killing finally became the sole purpose of every person present in the building, turning the place into a living hell, all for the headmaster's joy.
"Now, all that is left is for you to return, my dear Issei."
Inside the nave of a small country church stood four fallen angels: three women and one man. The vestibule was absent at the entrance of the church, and the altar along with the tabernacle and statutes were destroyed and scattered in pieces.
The only man inside the church approached the woman who looked like their leader and said, "what do we do now, Raynare? We have been locked here for hours. Don't forget it was your idea to use that artifact to make this mess of a pocket dimension."
"Shut your mouth, Dohnaseek," the woman named Raynare replied with a glare. "If I didn't do that, that mage would have already killed us by now."
"Just do as you are told, thickhead," Mittelt said.
Dressed in what looked like a gothic Lolita attire, she had the appearance of a young girl with blue eyes and blonde hair styled into twintails, despite her being older than any human.
"Tsk." sounded Dohnaseek's reply.
The other woman in the group stood silent. She was a tall and buxom woman with brown eyes and long, navy blue hair that obscured her right eye.
Unbeknownst to them, a small distortion in the pocket dimension manifested near the church's main door. Heads first, Issei and Stephany emerged out of the magic.
"Seems like they haven't noticed our presence."
"They will soon enough," replied Issei. "Three low-class fallen angels and one middle-class . . . seems like the governor of the fallen angels doesn't care much about this artifact."
"Issei . . ." started Stephany's low voice, "I think I forgot to tell you something."
"What?"
She chuckled. "I fear I am useless in fights."
"It's alright, I don't need help killing bees." Issei simpered.
"Also," he said as he started walking towards the fallen, "I have no intention of hiding myself."
"I see." Came the girl's voice as she got in her own pocket dimension, a soft smile on her face.
Kalawarner was the first to notice the boy, "Dohnaseek, Mittelt, Raynare, we have got company!"
"Oh ho, I see that the defects of heaven are having a little chat."
The four black-wined angels readied themselves with spears of light.
"How did you find out?!" Raynare exclaimed.
"I have to admit that your strategy was good, really good. But, as the saying goes, 'it's not what you look at that matters; it's what you see."
Without hesitation, Dohnaseek fired the starting gun as he rushed towards Issei.
In a grace movement of the body, he attempted piercing the boy in the chest with his spear of light.
Issei manifested a sharp and strong wind on his palm and blocked the spear. The wind suddenly burst out and sent the fallen angel flying towards the ceiling.
Another spear of light sent by the blonde girl came piercing through the air in his direction. But, surprisingly, Mittelt missed.
"How!" She yelled as she pointed her hand towards Issei and switched it to look like a finger gun. Bullets made out of light crafted themselves at the end of her finger and fired. Unfortunately for her, every single one of them got diverted away from the boy right upon hitting him. That was when she noticed the wind barrier covering up his body.
"Impossible . . ." she uttered.
Issei's hand aimed at the blonde girl when a small magic circle manifested inches from his palm.
Kalawarner quickly placed herself in front of the small girl and formed a barrier of light.
Issei smirked as he lifted his arm up to aim at Dohnaseek instead. The guy had just regained control over his body.
Six ice spikes emerged out of the blue magic circle and fired at the fallen angel. Unexpectedly, Issei missed – or so they thought.
Dohnaseek smiled as he readied multiple spears of light to fire at the young man, when Raynare's voice intruded his mind.
"Behind you!"
He swiftly turned back, only to see the six ice spikes merging together to form a mirror of ice.
Issei's smile widened. "Maybe you shouldn't have listened to your comrade – Mirror Binding."
The mirror started to glow, and before he knew it, Dohnaseek found himself imprisoned inside the piece of glass.
And then, causing the eyes of the fallen to widen, the mirror fell into pieces, revealing no sign of Dohnaseek.
"From light he came, and to light he will return." Came Issei's voice.
He turned his gaze at Raynare. She didn't make a single move since the start of the battle.
"Well . . . if you will not come at me, I will come at you."
Icy mist gathered in front of Issei's hand before taking the shape of sword and transforming into ice. He held the weapon on its grip and rushed towards Raynare.
Kalawarner moved in front of him and rushed towards him, a dagger of light in both her hands. At the same time, Mittelt fired five spears of light at the boy.
He swiftly moved to the sides to avoid the spears and, as he was about ten feet from Kalawarner, he abruptly stopped running and pointed at the woman with finger gun.
"did you forget I was a mage?" he grinned, "at least I hope you remember your comrade's bullets of light. I'm sure they hurt quite a lot."
Light gathered at the point of his finger and fired at the woman, piercing through her body.
"Kalawarner!" Mittelt screamed. "You are gonna regret this!"
That was when Rayanare finally advanced to the battle.
"Raynare, no don't! If you use more of your powers, this artificial dimension will not last!"
"If I have to die, then at least I will take him with me," came her reply as she directed her hand towards the sky, forming a large spear of light.
"Fallen angel combat style is so monotonous, don't you know nothing but that shape light into spears?"
Cracks started appearing everywhere inside the church as Raynare put more magic into the spear, making it grow larger.
Issei said. He was about to prepare a spell against the fallen angel when a small space distortion manifested behind Raynare. The hand of a familiar girl popped out of the distortion, her fingers switched to form the letter V.
Issei smiled.
The massive spear headed towards Issei when another distortion in space appeared before him and swallowed the light.
"What?!" Shouted both the fallen angel girls at the same time.
Before they could say or do anything else, the same spear that was swallowed seconds ago emerged out of the previously formed distortion behind Raynare and struck the fallen angel without mercy.
Light submerged the room for a few a seconds as Raynare screamed her lungs out. After the light faded away, the black feathers of the dead angel slowly fell either to the ground or on Issei's shoulders as he started walking towards the blonde.
An agonizing expression was carved into the girl's face, her whole body shaking in fear. She quickly went over the altar and took what looked like a fragment of a horn. Turning back to face the young man, she threw the piece that fell inches away from his feet.
"Here, take the damn thing and let me go!"
Issei looked at the fragment and confirmed it was the artifact he was looking for. He extended his arm as he crouched to pick up the thing, when Mittelt's bullet of light fired at him. He was disappointed, to say the least.
With a swift movement of hand, he grabbed the bullet of light, imprisoning it at the heart of his fist, and said, "You might have lived yet another day, you know?"
He opened his hand and released the bullet of light in direction of the blonde, mercilessly piercing through her heart. The body fell to the ground, deprived of its soul.
The whole place soon begun falling apart as the only person who maintained it had died.
Issei quickly picked up the grieving horn and went inside Stephany's pocket dimension. The dimensional gap clearly was no place for a human to visit.
Vienne's Magic Academy was nothing like it was when Issei and Stephany went back. The familiar buildings that once served as classrooms and laboratories were now gone, replaced by a big forty-meters-high tower that had the look of an abandoned castle from the medieval age. The atmosphere was heavy and the sky was covered with dark grey clouds. Issei and Stephany were speechless. The blades of grass swayed to the wind's command as the two of them run towards the entrance to the tower.
The door opened in a cracking sound.
What welcomed them first was the smell. The acidic, festering smell of warm, fresh blood spilled and wasted on the ground was mixed with the vile pungent smell of the aged blood that would suffocate your breath. Next were the human leftovers made by slashing blades or magical explosion; arms, legs, and heads were scattered across the scenery. The sound of clashing blades and blasts of spells along with the endless screams nearly caused Issei's head to explode. It was madness.
The place could only be described as a living hell.
The door behind Issei quickly closed. He put his hand on his hand as he leaned against the door. What he saw, heard, and smelled was exactly the same as three years ago. His blurry mind started to interlace his memories and the reality before him.
He looked around him, Stephany was nowhere to be found. She probably couldn't take it and went inside her dimension.
He started walking forwards very slowly, and as if his couldn't bear his weight. With people mrcilessly killing each other all around him, memories of the ones he once called friends flashed through his mind, making him suffer from an unbearable pain.
A glowing white figure stood before him. His eyes spread wide as he recognized the person in front him. "Luna…"
"Issei, please . . . die for me."
The glowing figure readied her sword in a combat stance.
"Noooo!" Issei screamed out of fear.
His hand pointing towards the girl, a magic circle instantly manifested followed by countless spears of ice emerged and rushed towards her, stabbing her all over her body.
Then, the radiant light emanating from the girl suddenly faded away.
Seeing that, Issei's eyes got wider, and his skin paler as he felt shivering cold chills running through his body. He put his hand on his mouth as a dying Melany replaced the body he was previously fighting. Her face's expression was frozen on an emotion that screamed terror and helplessness.
"W-Why…? I-I… only… wan…ted… you… to… hel…me…" She said with a single tear pouring out of her eye, just before expelling her last breath.
"MELANYYYYY!" Melodia screamed at the top of her lungs. Her voice was so high that she had almost torn apart her vocal cords. Without a second thought, she dashed towards Issei with all her might, scythe at hand.
Issei's well-trained body reacted without his mind's consent.
His balled his hand, causing a light blue magic circle to form on the ground Melodia would soon step on. Three ice spikes emerged from it and stabbed the redhead in her chest and belly, terminating her life.
It was as though the ice spikes stabbed his own heart as he witnessed the life force in her eyes almost instantly fading away.
Issei took a look around him, the students he cared so much about were killing each other without mercy. Blood was being spread, and the teachers seemed to take a role in it too. What was happening? Why did that happen?
It was the same as three years ago. So what he had to do was . . .
"No… No… No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Not again! This isn't happening again! Everybody stop! Please stop! STOP! NILFHEIM!"
Cold blue mist started to gather and spin around Issei's body. The spinning speed progressively increased with more of the mist created, until finally making a devastating, outraged tornado that covered the boy. And then, in a blink of an eye, the mist spread across the vast hall, freezing everyone and everything on its way.
Issei was breathing heavily, blood was pouring out of his mouth, eyes, and ears. He stood amidst the frozen land he created, like the lone wolf he was. He looked around him, ice was everywhere… it was cold and lonely. But, the screaming was gone, the scent was gone. The hall went silent – and that was much better.
He stared at the frozen bodies of Melany and Melodia. His face became sunk in tears as he related the events of their deaths.
"I'm sorry…" he apologized. "I'm so sorry…"
"Well, well. I couldn't expect any less from you, Issei." The director's cheerful voice sounded.
Issei wiped off his tears and glared at the man with eyes burning with anger.
"What have you done, Rodrick!"
"I merely did what you allowed me to."
His ambiguous words spread conflict in Issei's mind.
"What do you mean?"
In response to his question, twelve artifacts in different shapes appeared within the hall at great distances between each other. Those were all the artifacts that Issei retrieved for the principal in the last three years.
"Those are! What did you do? I sense an immense evil power emanating from them!"
The headmaster simply smiled, before he clapped his fingers, calling for the grieving horn that was inside Issei's body to go over to him. As soon as he caught the artifact, it glowed in a bright yellow light and suddenly started absorbing what looked like blood droplets from the frozen bodies of the dead.
"I have dedicated those last three years to collect life essence for my research on sacred gears, you joining this Academy was solely to fetch these artifacts for me. Now, my research is complete, and in a few moments, I will become one of the strongest beings on this earth! For aiding me in my journey, thank you very much, Issei!"
So that was it. Issei was merely a pawn for this man. He never intended to tell him about his parents, if he ever knew about them, nor did he intend to offer him a new life. Issei had just lost everything he had, everything that made him who he was. A single teardrop rolled down his cheek before his mind completely shut down.
"I'm sorry… both of you."
Issei started a chant as he was walking towards the headmaster.
Be without fear, for you are fearless. Be brave and upright, for you are honest. Never lose faith, for you know the truth. Slay evil, for you are a Templar!
A purple circle of magic showed at Issei's right side. Without wasting time, he put his hand right inside it.
Let red be the color, for my soul is hungry. Evil blood shall be spilled, in the name of I. Stick to my hand, O worthy one. This, is my command!
A glowing, bright light emerged from the magic circle as Issei slowly took out his hand. As the grip of the sword started manifesting, he abruptly and swiftly took out the weapon in one go, causing red lightning to break the ground he stood on.
"Dainsleif!" Issei shouted.
It was a long red colored demonic sword that resembled Excalibur, with Latin alphabets that spelled "ESURIIT", which means "hungry", carved on it. The sword that can never be sheathed if it didn't cause a man's death, that was King Hogni's sword, Dainsleif.
"Oh! So you have finally decided to accept your fate! Issei, you were, are, and always will be, The Black Templar!" Shouted the headmaster in excitement.
Issei had sparkling red lightning interlacing all over him. Three magic circles appeared behind his back and fired a countless number of ice spikes towards the director.
But the headmaster easily materialized a shield of light that melted all the fired ice spikes.
While busy sustaining his shield, the director only noticed at the last second the ice dragon that rushed at him from behind at great speed. Even though it was a close call, the principal managed to slightly move sideways and avoid the dragon's bite.
However, that was only a distraction for Issei, who was hanging on the ice dragon, to get behind Rodrick's back. He swung his Dainsleif engulfed in red lightning against the principal with such force that the lightning which emerged from the impact made serious damage to the entire building.
Rodrick was sent flying and crashed into the wall, causing multiple debris to scatter across the hall.
"You are foolish."
That voice came from above!
Issei lifted his head up, and what he saw made his eyes spread wide. The headmaster, not bearing even a single scratch!
He looked down at the wall, there was nothing! Nothing of what he saw actually happened.
"An illusion?!" Shouted Issei in astonishment.
Rodrick lifted pointed his hand towards him.
"I believe it is time for you to join your comrades, Issei."
The brown-haired boy felt a surge of immensely powerful forces fiercely push him down to the ground. A cracking sound echoed within the hall as ground debris scattered across the place.
Issei coughed blood from his mouth, all his body was covered in the red liquid. He felt his conscious fading away, when the white-haired girl emerged out of a space distortion.
"Issei, just lay down for a moment and play the dead, I know what to do!" Stephany said with a low voice.
The magic circles drawn on the ground started glowing in red as the headmaster stood at the center of the hall, and shouted, "I call upon you, hear my voice and come to my side! Vanishing Dragon!"
Crimson red glowing light filled the whole space, sinking Issei and the headmaster in dark reddish realm of agony.
Kill him. Kill him! Kill him! I will never forgive you! Suffer! What have you done! Melany! Christopher! Die! Why do this?! Nooo! Spare me! Please! I will survive this! Kill him!
All the thoughts and emotions of the six thousand persons who died for the sake of that ritual poured into Issei's head. He found himself surrounded by thousands of individuals that condemned him for their death and wanted revenge. The boy couldn't withstand the pain; it was like having millions, no, billions of negative thoughts at the same time. Anybody could have collapsed from that. He screamed like he never did before, from the very depths of his being he screamed, "STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!"
"Hold in there, Issei!" echoed Stephany's voice in his mind. But Issei screamed even louder than before. There was blood falling from his eyes due to the intense force he applied to his screaming. If that did not stop quickly, he would probably die from blood loss. That was when the red glowing light finally faded away.
Issei was standing, but barely able to do so. The piercing feeling of fatigue that was running through his body caused the majority of his muscles to go numb.
After trying several times to move his head, he finally became able to check out his body.
"What happened to me?" he said just as he noticed the pair of white draconic wings on his back.
"Y-You!" Yelled the principal in extreme anger. "What did you do?! Why did Divine Dividing choose you instead of me! That shouldn't be possible!"
"I am the responsible for that." Sounded Stephany's voice.
The principal looked around for the source of the sound, he couldn't find anything, until the white-haired girl emerged out of a space distortion behind Issei.
"You bitch! What did you do?!"
"I changed your magical sequence, instead of poor bastard I put in sacred hero!" She yelled back at him.
The headmaster's plan was to kill all the magicians, students and teachers alike. Thus, he didn't make a very complicated formula, and that mistake alone was what caused his end.
That got on Rodrick's nerves. He directed his hand at her, and from the magical circle that manifested, a great sphere of lightning energy progressively formed.
"That's enough." Sounded Issei's calm voice.
With his Dainsleif in his left hand, interlacing silver-white lightning struck his body, completely covering it. Then a deep, gravelly voice came from within sacred gear.
{Vanishing Dragon, Balance Breaker!}
Devastating pure-white lightning spreading out of Issei's body followed the voice, destroying the ground and lifting up the stone debris. A beautiful armor white in color formed on his body as the chains of lighting interlaced with each other. That was divine dividing's authentic balance breaker: Divine Dividing: Scale Mail.
Stephany starred intensely at Issei's eyes, they were not the same as before. They lacked all emotion, and reason for life. They were the best reflection of the void, endless nothingness.
"Today, the Black Templar will take the last evil soul of his carrier, and go back to the void where he belongs. Then I, Hyoudou Issei, will finally be freed of my eternal curse."
Issei closed his eyes.
Then the voice came out again, {Divide, Divide, Divide, Divide, Divide, Divide, Divide, Divide, Divide! Compression Divider!}
Compression Divider usually divides the target until it vanishes from existence, but what Issei tried to divide was way too powerful and complex. His target was the side effect of his own spell.
He opened his eyes and, in a very low voice, he uttered,
"Freezing."
What developed with Issei's body as its center was a transparent, half a sphere of energy that made the hall and everything inside black and white in color.
Time froze.
Only Issei could now freely move within the hall. He crossed the distanced between him and the principal in the blink of an eye and cut him in half with his soul-eating sword. Yet no blood came out of his body, nor did the two halves move away from each other.
Time went back to normal as Issei fell to the ground, unconscious. Blood spread out of the principal's body as it fell into two pieces, and splashed on the ground.
"Issei!" Stephany cried as she rushed towards the boy, only to find him unconscious and with very low heart rate. Terrified of the fact he only had a couple minutes to live, and without any idea on what to do, she just started calling out his name a hundred times. That was when a glowing light interrupted her.
With twelve black wings on his back, black hair with golden bangs and a black goatee, the governor of the fallen angels, Azazel, finally made his appearance.
Author's note:
So, here we are at the end of the second chapter. I don't know if I will continue this story or start another one. Since I probably can't work on both fics at the same time, one of them will eventually end abandoned, and I don't want that to happen.
I would really appreciate it if you guys leave a review in the review section or directly PM me, whichever works with you. So, please don't hesitate to say what you think about this chapter. It doesn't have to be a long, complex review, just what you think about the chapter.
Thanks to all in advance.
If you feel like joining our server full of fanfic writers, here's the link: discord. gg/xEApPAS