Faster update because I love you too~
…
No, it's just a joke. I'm straight as sword. Faster update but shorter chapter so Rhongomyniad will appear in next chapter.
Also for the reviewer who guessed about the contract...
How do you know that? No, it's actually not that important, probably but Issei can't be killed that easily with Avalon so don't worry about that! I don't hate Rias but this is AU so I don't know if Rias in canon want Issei to die too, if I say that Rias is manipulative then I'm going to get an earful from Rias's fans.
I've given few hints in previous chapter about how Rias still wanted Issei to be killed. So yes, indeed she tweaked a few things about the contract but Issei doesn't know that. Forget to add this but the contract is written in Devil language so Issei can't read it neither does Mittelt.
Issei can't harm Mittelt but Mittelt can, Issei just guessed that it was vice versa because he can't harm her. Mittelt of course found out about this and take advantage of it but is it really betrayal? He, in the end, is still a human albeit a very smart one. He doesn't know everything, no matter how careful he is, in reality it won't go as planned.
-0-
"How about dying?"
The angel of death says while smiling.
The light spear in his hand gleaming through the wall of this house, of course I'm still trying to think what is fallen angel doing here and why did he mentioned Mittelt name. He threw the blue light spear at me who still trying to cope with the situation, the speed he used to throw the light spear was not something to play with. It's not something that I can see like Mittelt or even seen by normal human's eyes, the spear reach its target with in-human speed and I already know what's going to happen through the use of Instinct.
Light blue wings spread from my back the moment I willed it to appear and I jumped back to the air to maintain the altitude. The spear embedded into the floor didn't disappear into small lights like the one I see before but instead, it exploded in bright blue light that makes this whole house shook slightly. The light that came from the exploding spear blinded me for a moment before I opened it again only to find the fallen angel already making his way to me while wielding another light spear in his hand.
I clicked my tongue and readied Excalibur to block his spear attack. Unlike the weak light spear that Mittelt used, it didn't consumed by the light that Excalibur radiated but instead, matching it, making us locking our weapon against each other, trying to overpowering each other. The light spear was smaller than before, but that's what makes it dangerous, it was specifically created to engage in close-range combat not to be thrown as projectile. I could feel him pushing me back with more force than normal human can and Excalibur is shaking because I only hold it with one hand.
Retreating from our current state, I carefully assessed the situation before me. My brain already understand and processed down what is already in my line of sight, things like how the fallen angel calm breathing and how he wielded the spear only with one hand, obviously decreasing its power.
"You didn't use your left hand?" I asked the fallen angel who stopped when hearing my question.
"It's only for the fun you see," He answered me before twirling his light spear with one hand. "Aren't you the same though? You can't use yours too right?"
"You must be really stupid to battle with a state like that." I said, stating the fact.
It was true. Anyone who wanted to win will obviously take any advantage they can get to win the battle, whether it's a minor wound, weakness, weapon, or magic. I don't think that something as simple as that will change in supernatural side too, unless the opponent in front of me doesn't want to kill me.
"No, no, no. You misunderstand me kid," The fallen angel replied before lifting his hat slightly to show his feral grin. "It's because I can kill you instantly that I handicapped myself."
I pay no mind to his boast and not going to ignore the chance, charged at him with slower speed than he used previously. It's still hard to control the [Flight] ability of Divine Dividing, I know that I can be more faster than this, this was after all the wings of one of Heavenly Dragons. But still I can't even fly with not even quarter of its original, if what the legend said is true then Dragon can fly with speed that surpassed, if not matching, the jet flight.
The fallen angel threw his blue light spear which I quickly avoided in the air by using some air maneuver. Reaching the range of where Excalibur can be used, I slew down my opponent with speed excelling anything I've used before.
!
"Wha…?"
My surprise was justified.
Excalibur, the legendary holy sword said to be the symbol of victory wielded by king of Britain, is supposed to split my opponent in two easily like that stray devil. It supposed to settle the match even before the fallen angel can think about regretting holding back against me.
"No… way."
I, who was still in the posture of having swung the sword with my only right hand, stare at my opponent in front of me with blank amazement. Even my brain and instinct does not understand what happened. Such a thing shouldn't be possible, my brain told me that. The perfect strike that was slashed vertically, cleaving my opponent in two…
Was stopped when he caught the blade.
The sword has stopped before slashing his body, being caught by his hand.
I read about it once, that there's a technique to stop an enemy's blade with bare hands.
What I don't know is that it actually existed and this man can somehow use it against me.
"See what I'm talking about?" His voice cut through my confusion and reminded me that I was still in a battle.
My body moves before the fallen angel can say anything again, I pull back the sword with all of my might left in my right hand.
"If you can keep up with me then I can show you why I don't bother to use two hands." He said while fixing his hat with his free hand and with that hand too created another spear.
The fallen angel disappears once he has created the spear.
Not disappear but moving in speed that can't be seen by normal human eyes, it surpassed even the speed that I can achieve with the use of Haste and my light wings right now. My instinct played the crucial role in this battle as it acted for my life-link, I can see the future where I died. Without even thought about the image of death, I lifted Excalibur with my working right hand and blocked the attack from the six-winged fallen angel.
Sadly that didn't work the same way I thought.
The fallen angel didn't stop his assault when his light spears met my holy sword. He keep putting more force to push me back, he's using both of his hands to do it combined with the fact that I can't use my other hand, it putting me into a state of losing. True to his boast, his strength before didn't even hold a candle to his strength right now.
In aerial battle like this, it will be hard to keep myself flying while being pushed down like this. It was much harder than on the ground. Clicking my tongue, I retracted Excalibur and let the light spears cleave through my body while at the same time shifting my body slightly to avoid the vital organ. My feet moved to push the fallen angel away but he didn't waste any movement and used one of his spears to block my feet.
Even though it was blocked, it still served the original purpose of making some distance with the fallen angel. The wound that he created is already healing, the move before was a gamble, a death gamble, one that will cost my life if I failed to do it perfectly. I already know that I won't escape unscathed but the real gamble is whether or not the wound will heal, thankfully the wound is healed rapidly and moment later, I'm already in perfect state.
No time to say my thanks for the healing, I moved once again to intercept the attack coming from my left flank. It's hard to do so with only my right hand but I somehow manage to do it. He did not stop after I stopped his attack and his other hand which was equipped with another light spear moved with the speed that's harder for me to comprehend.
The holy sword clashed against the twin light spears. He used his spear in a way that's similar to fencing. Everytime his spear attacked me, it always going for my vital organ. My brain is going overdriving itself to keep up with his attack but in midst of all that, my brain still have another spare room to count the amount of his attack while at the same time the time that has passed when we're exchanging strikes.
Blocking yet another attack, I counted the amount of attack that he has launched on me. 27, 28, the number keeps increasing in the span of second. Some attack managed to hit my wrist, decreasing my swing power but it quickly healed by whatever it is. When our weapon meet, there's no sound produced from it, proof to what I'm clashing with is something in-human.
And yet despite the impossibility I managed to survive all of that.
I can feel my body started to strain by every attack that I couldn't block and avoided. He switched to attacking from all kind of random sides, ignoring his previous attack which always going straight for the kill. He increased his speed once again to the point that I can't keep up with all his attacks, I keep avoiding all of the fatal attacks but at this rate then slowly but surely I will die in his hands. My healing power keeping me from dying but I've not yet checked whether or not I can heal from fatal wound.
Due to the force of our clashes, I could hear the sound of cracking. No matter what, Excalibur is indestructible weapon so that means the only possible source of sound came from my opponent light spears. The fallen angel paid no mind to his weapon state and keeps his attack going with his going-to-be-broken spears. I could understand why he does that, because the moment he's trying to reconstruct it, I will be there already slashing my sword at him.
True to my prediction, the twin light spears broke into disappearing light, my opponent is now empty-handed, I just need to cleave him in two and I'm sure this time he can't caught my blade.
But…
The fallen angel who supposedly had his spears destroyed comes up to me empty-handed and spins and executes a roundhouse kick.
The wall of the house flies past me. My battered chest is numb and I cannot breathe for a moment, I was flying but not by Divine Dividing. I, never in my life, thought of being sent flying by a mere roundhouse kick. I fall to the hard floor of the house with my back. I can't breathe due to the force of the kick it packed, my vision is blurred but I still manage to stand and with my remaining might, swing behind me.
"Keh!"
The fallen angel hesitates a moment as I deflected his spear thrust.
Surprise attack was useless on me since I have instinct and precognition, I would have died if I swung too early or too late but I managed to deflect it at the exact time. I didn't know the exact force or weight he put into that surprise attack and because of that, I've to swing what left of my strength to deflect his attack that used up all of my energy.
I managed to stand up straightly and set my eyes on my opponent.
"You're not supposed to can see that attack," The fallen angel said suddenly while I was trying to steady my breath. "Don't you?"
"Is it? Sorry but I don't think that you who've caught a blade with his bare hand is in the position to say that."
He grinned before replying. "Truthfully I didn't think I would do so well against your holy sword," He replied. "In fact, before was a gamble to check my prediction."
"Meaning? That I was able to hurt you?"
"No. The moment I saw you, we both already know that we have the means of killing each other right?" He said while pointing my holy sword. "That sword, it's weakened."
My breath stopped the moment he said that but I quickly snapped my confusion and take a peek at the sword in my hand. It didn't shine in golden light like before. It just looks like a normal well-made steel sword right now. Ah, right I'm supposed to channel my energy through this sword to increase the slash power huh. But now my reserve is in brink of empty due to me maintaining the [Flight] using Divine Dividing, to put it simply, it automatically stopped channeling energy anymore.
"You won't use Divine Dividing won't you?"
I didn't immediately reply but instead relieving through my memories of what happens yesterday, it was real, I would die yesterday. The sense where your body isn't yourselves anymore, the feeling when your body would explode from inside and yet at the same time dying by the pressure outside, I've experienced it all, and I know very well where the source came from.
It's not just an image due to my eyesight, that day I'm seeing my back explode from inside sprouting out a pair of wing, real dragon wings. Whatever it is healing me before, also prevented it from happening so I guess I was spared before but I won't forget that the wings actually tried to kill me.
I sighed before replying. "No, unless it's necessary in this battle I won't use it."
"I see," The fallen angel mused as if understanding what I'm implying. "You must be really stupid to think that you can beat me without it."
"You won't know unless you try right?"
"It was stupid to think like that kid," He said while showing his beast-like grin. "But I like it."
"I think I prefer when you only use one hand." I said trying to joke with him.
My opponent didn't reply before chuckle came from his mouth. "You're really saying that right now? If I know you can battle me with body like that, then I won't hold back in the first place." He replied while his eyes darted over to where the wound that he makes was supposed to be. "But then again even without an arm you can still heal right?"
I didn't immediately reply but instead flexed my right arm trying to check for any wound, I can still move even blocking an attack with my supposed-to-be broken arm. "That too, I don't know. Maybe it was Sacred Gear effect?"
"Divine Dividing with healing effect? That's some crazy ability you got there kid." The man said while spinning his spears and rested one of them on his shoulder. "Eh, not really my problem though."
"Not your problem huh? And here you are trying to kill me."
"This and that is different kid. Now, shall we get to killing?"
I realized the tone he used and quickly prepared the defensive magic circle once the light spears in his hand become longer. He threw two of them not at the same time due to the decreasing force it will caused if he throw it at the same time but not exactly after he threw the first one. The exact time he threw his second spear after the first one was near simultaneously, in fact, if not for my instinct, I don't think I can see the difference between the speeds he threw.
Two spear of lights strike the shield made of magic circle in front of me, this was different magic circle than the one I used with Stray Devil. It was more smaller but more concentrated to reflect the attack that made contact with this shield, the fallen angel should be doing something instead of smiling at me so why?
Ah…
My brain took control of me even before my instinct warned me. I should know it, after all I've experienced it the firsthand. It will explode. My instinct and my experience told me that, there's a reason why he's smiling even though the spear will be reflected, there's a reason why he's standing calmly doing nothing but staring at me.
Because I will die nonetheless.
I retracted my hand from the barrier circle and retreating from the twin spears that's already making its way to me. The world seemed to slow down at that instant but the exact thing was different, it's not really slowing down and I don't exactly became faster but it was something entirely different. When thinking or making strategy while in battle, I always used three-no five seconds to asses my situation and processed the information with my brain.
I can think faster now, I can make out how to getting out alive. Using my brain to its limit currently, I'm able to think up four ways for me to escape from this alive, it didn't stop at four counts but it automatically created one after another and dismissing the one that has the least chance of success. I, the vessel of that brain, was able to understand perfectly and completely about the plan to ensure that I was alive, to ensure that this body can survive.
I commanded the wings of light on my back to do its job.
[Divide]
The wings screamed while at the same time, the fallen angel's smiling did not escape my attention as his power was halved and absorbed to me. I could feel my reserves filled once again by foreign energy but it quickly changed into my own energy. The twin light spears which is the main problem seems smaller than before and without even thought about the risk of using Divine Dividing, I kicked off the "empty" air in front of me to gain some distance from the exploding light.
The air which supposed to be devoid of anything suddenly gained a color of white before from it formed a magic circle which I used as stepping stone. Successfully gaining some distance from my certain death, I glared at the spear of light which exploded in blue light creating a big orb that engulfed everything around it. After the spear disappeared, there's nothing left inside the area that was engulfed in bright blue light.
Which means it also destroyed the corpse of Stray Devil too, another thing that I don't bother taking care of. I can't say my thanks to him though he will try to kill me before I can say that to him.
I've avoided my death, gained more power while at the same time weakened my opponent. My opponent should've groaned in frustration or begin to take things seriously, so why?
Why's he still smiling?
"Finally, I thought that you would never use it." My opponent said while lifting his hat to allow me to have a sight of his grin once again.
I'm not supposed to use Divine Dividing because of the fear of losing control but I instantly discarded that thought once I formulate the plan that will definitely succeed. If I die then that's the end, but if I use Divine Dividing then I still have the chance to win. It was obvious what the choice was, for now I won't think about the result of my action, whether my body will destroyed like yesterday or I will just die, I will erase such a thought that will hinder this battle.
My battle is something that can be won by controlling what I already have, using instinct and at the same time using information provided by the gathering of my five senses. My brain processed down the information at great speed, faster than normal human can.
That's why I called my brain super computer.
It won't allow me to get panic and it also negated anything some sort of mental hindrance like stress, hypnotize, or sleep deprivation. The problem isn't that sadly, in theory it was possible to win against him but in the end it's just a theory created inside my mind.
The problem was whether or not my body can keep up with my mind.
My body is, in the end, still a human body. While it certainly stronger than normal human, it was still a prison of flesh and bone. That's why I used Endurance, when I falls after being kicked by that Fallen angel I should've died either due to brain shock or broken bones all over my body. It enhances my body endurance to the limit that's impossible for normal human to achieve. I don't think that my healing power could heal me when my brain was destroyed.
In my opinion every battle is winnable as long as one has the means of killing their opponent. There's no such a thing as zero chance to win when you can kill your opponent, the problem isn't whether or not I have the means to kill the man in front of me but whether I will have the chance to kill him. Every normal human out there who have weapon that can harm Fallen Angel has the capability of winning this battle, even though it's only 0.1%.
As long as each one of them haves the means of killing each other then it can be called battle. My fight with Mittelt can't even be called a battle, when I haven't yet awakened my Sacred Gear it was just a one-sided beating up. That is no battle but what I'm fighting with right now is a real deal, something that shouldn't be fought without using carefully prepared plan and cooked up strategy.
I'm capable of matching him only by a little, even then I've used every enhancement magic on me and yet I'm still losing. If I can use my left arm then… no, even then he's still superior in every way than me. I guess I've advantage over him in speed. Divine Dividing haven't yet reach its full potential. I can't able to tap even quarter of its power. I guess battle is also the process of learning and experiencing life-and-death situation until you can win.
This is a six-winged fallen angel, one that's stronger than Mittelt. He's also different than the stray devil because he's human-sized opponent who is much stronger and actually engaged in close-range battle.
"You seems to take it too well when I'm winning against you."
"Who? You, win against me?" The fallen angel chuckled once he said that. "Certainly you have a chance of winning against me with that holy sword and Divine Dividing boosted your winning rate but it's just that." He said so while creating another light spear. "Doesn't mean that it ensure you getting out of here alive."
"You, you're enjoying this aren't you?" I ask him while dismissing Excalibur, the fallen angel squinted his eyes at me before he laughed.
"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. I guess we're in the same ground now."
"Same ground? You're clearly stronger than me and yet you say that?"
"Your healing power," The fallen angel said while pointing the edge of his light spear at me. "It's really cheating to use that sort of power in this battle. I guess the only way to kill you is to destroy you completely?"
"Really? I don't think that I can survive from being stabbed to the heart though." I replied him while my right hand is making its way to my pocket, grabbing another magic circle secretly.
I can't hope to match his speed in battle without another enhancement. This is the stronger version of Haste that I've just used, but sadly I can't stack it up with the one before. That's enough. The danger of using stronger enhancement is whether or not my body can endure the magic from it and my reserves is still enough to use it without it draining my life force. I know that my reserves will be emptied out after I used this and if the healing power is using my magic power then that means I will giving up my only way to survive for this.
"Human's magic eh? Kokabiel told me that it could be dangerous when you've already researched it enough."
"Calculating phenomenon in this world using formulae isn't something dangerous though," I said, replying him while brought the magic circle on my line of sight showing him the drawing circle. "If you can't use magic then yeah, it's not dangerous enough to get you killed."
Activating the magic circle, I feel my renewed speed and moving my finger to get the feel of my new strength. It certainly moves faster than before, for example I could move each of my fingers that they will be seen like a blur in normal human eyes easily without getting tired. I let my wings disappear and with Lightweight, I softly landed on the ground, the fallen angel keep his eyes at me but he too in the end was standing on the same ground as me without his wings.
The man grinned once before saying, "You really planned to end this huh," He said while readying his twin spears. "Now that it's already gotten out of wa-"
"Wait." I said suddenly stopping him immediately. "Are you sure that you want to kill me? I'm only here to kill Stray Devil not to engage with Fallen Angel faction."
From what I've gathered, the strength of Fallen Angel is counted by how much wings they have. Azazel, the leader of Fallen Angel, was said by Mittelt to be the strongest Fallen Angel and the first Angel that has fallen from its grace with 12 wings, easily placing him to be the leader of Grigori. This man in front of me, if what I'm seeing is true then he must be some sort of important figure in Grigori, I don't know what could've placed me in his list of kill since I've only awakened my Sacred Gear yesterday.
I've just harmed Mittelt one time and even that I don't kill her. I've spared her with the contract made by Gremory-san in exchange for her to never harming me again, unless she somehow informed me about my action and requested me to be killed then…
No, that alone is already impossible since Mittelt was bound by the contract to never "Harm" me again. That is not limited by physical pain but any action that can bring harm to me is prohibited forever for her. It supposed to be impossible for her to inform the fallen angel faction to give order for me to be killed. So why am I still hunted by Fallen Angels?
"It's not the matter of our faction or not, human, devil, or angel, I would kill them if he ordered me to do so," He replied me lazily as if stating the obvious. "So it's not my problem to complain or think about them. He gives me the job, I'm the one who do it, whether you'll hate me when I do it or not I won't care about it."
"You… you don't even care about your order?"
"Nope," The fallen angel said nonchalantly without caring about what he's just answering. "Even if he ordered me to attack the god too then who am I to complain about it? It's my job, my duty and my only purpose."
He's… insane. I don't think I've seen anyone who will follow someone as dedicated as him. He's so loyal to this person that I don't see anything wrong with his logic and reason. No, maybe in the first place I don't think of his action as wrong since my morality is already messed up in the first place.
There's no stopping him from doing his mission, I can't persuade someone like him. If it's Mittelt, her reasoning is to survive and for that it was pretty easy to seal a deal with her by giving what she wanted. But this man in front of me is different. I guess once again I was wrong to think that supernatural was the same as human, only abnormal being could hope to understand the way he's thinking.
Thinking about it again, I'm not exactly normal aren't I?
But there's something that confused me, like how he mentioned the person that ordered him as "He" so I can safely assume that it was male, Mittelt is out for now since I've "checked" yesterday that she's definitely female inside too. He mentioned Kokabiel so does it possible that this Kokabiel person is the one that ordered my death?
"You will kill me just because an order? Without even caring about the lives you took?"
"Enough talk," He said with the tone that basically said no further talk. "I came here to kill you, just that."
That's the signal.
I ducked to avoid his thrust, before I won't be able to avoid it but with my new speed now I could do it. It's not exactly overwhelming feeling that I got from the chant yesterday, like how I could take on everything but it gave me reassuring that I could hope to match him. I performed a sweep across his feet, knocking him off the ground. Usually it would not be possible for normal human to do this to fallen angel whose body is stronger than human but I've enhanced myself to the limit that's impossible for normal human to achieve.
But again, this man in front of me proved that such a thing would not hinder him. With light spear in his hand, he slashed me down without having his feet touched the ground. Avoiding his slash, the spear embedded into the floor which he used to spin himself and delivered a kick. Grunting in surprise, I blocked his kick with my sword but it still shocked me how he was able to does an impossible moves without flying.
I was pushed back by his kick, testament to how strong his physical is. He didn't recreate his spear, but instead as if responding to his silent calls the embedded spear flew straight into his grip. I take a step forward, predicting his counterattack, how to avoid it… I throw everything away and kick the ground. I swing the holy sword. In less than second, I close distance between us, concentrate everything I have in my right arm, and swing down with all my might.
My attack's parried. Ignoring it, I quickly regained my stance and swing it again. It does no good since he ward off my attack with quite an effort because I could see how he too have a hard time catching up with my new speed. His spear moved, lunges to pierce my throat, aiming for the kill. My body moves again without my consent, avoiding death once again, my right hand, still shaking a bit due to our clashing, swing the holy sword with what left of my strength.
I read the future ahead of me, ensuring my survival in next ten seconds for each attack I parry. I grunted in frustration. I'm able to keep up with him but all I can do is just fending of his attack. He too must've feels the same about me since I was able to deflect all of his attacks without even letting his spear touched my body again.
I breathe out the air in my lungs. I only have a few magic circles left that I can't use right now since I know, I knew that if I ever let my grip loosen up even a bit, I would die for certain. Fending off another thrust that aimed at my throat, I keep the sight of his predatory grin plastered across his face. He must've thought of this as fun, battle-maniac, someone who takes pleasure in the heat of battle, someone who enjoyed the thrilling experience, knowing that each second passed, you've avoided death for countless time.
I don't share that sentiment though. My mind predicted the line of his attack and executed the action to deflect his attack. My body begins to strain with the overusing of magic and this overdrive that will slowly lead me to my death. True to my theory, my body didn't heal any sign of wound because of my almost-empty reserves. Look like I will really die for certain this time.
I jumped back. I can't keep our clashing forever. My body would not be able to keep up with it as it begun to show the sign of straining. Trying to catch my breath, my eyes never leave from his form. My muscle look like it will explode anytime right now. I gritted my teeth to prevent me from losing consciousness, maybe it better that I can feel pain right now, the sign of me being alive.
Two steps. All that it took for us to reach each other distance. I look down at my body and it certainly have experienced more worse, as long as I'm not death then that's fine isn't it?
My vision wavering and at the same time too I lost the sight of my opponent.
Too late.
Without even knowing what happens, my body was lifted up in the air by the fallen angel. His finger dug deep into my neck, easily squeezing the breath inside it. My neck is crushed and I will die either due to lack of air inside me or to the fallen angel. The holy sword falls from my hand and at the same time my hand is reaching out for my opponent's arm.
I poured all of my magic energy on my finger and it glowed in blue light. My death is coming in four seconds. It's enough to do it. The fallen angel didn't seemed to care about what I'm going to do and continued to put more force to crush my neck, my glowing finger moved to draw the strange character on the fallen angel sleeves.
This was my last remaining magical energy. I originally would only use this to do an emergency escape with Divine Dividing's [Flight] but now that I know I will die either way I don't bother to care about what I'm going to do if I escape. Two seconds, my finger still moving and the fallen angel didn't even notice what I'm going to do.
This is it.
"Ansuz!"
My remaining energy drained itself from my reserves leaving me empty of magical energy, the small unnoticeable rune in his sleeve glowing in blue light before it burst into flames. He released his grip upon me and I quickly used the time to breathe in some air, the flames on his sleeve was quickly put out but before I can even notice it, he's already charged his light spear and threw it at me.
Light wing sprouted out from my back and I let it do its job.
[Divide]
The spear got smaller in the middle of flight but it didn't stop its course of flight. Not having energy to fight anymore, I can't move my body and the spear flew straight to my heart crushing whatever inside of it. Looking down at my body, I discovered that the spear is already disappeared leaving nothing but a hole to where my heart is supposed to be. My body falls and the blood came out from the hole creating a pool of blood where I lay on.
"You're really creating a hard work for me to do eh?" A voice that's similar to the fallen angel said that, I can't look up to see his face but I'm sure that the one who talks right now is that fallen angel. "Well now that your heart is destroyed, I don't know what kind of magic that can heal you."
Sound of wing flapping entered my ear but I don't care about that. There's a reason why I used [Divide] on him before instead of avoiding the spear. My reserves were empty before but now it was filled with magical energy that I gained from that fallen angel and that's enough for me to do the rest. My sight begun to distort and feeling vanishes from the tip of my finger before it begin to spread. I cough up blood adding the amount of pool of blood under my body.
I already felt this. I already know what it felt to die. This is how it feels to die. I don't care about any of that. The healing power should've already done the work right now. It was a gamble to do but if the end result is the same then I see no reason why I shouldn't do it. Feeling returns to my body. Slowly, bit by bit, like a drop of water going down a leaf, feeling returns to my body. The place where my heart is supposed to be became incredibly hot, it was incredibly hot that the frozen blood melted and started to flow again.
I can't see what's happening but I know it. My body is healing itself right now, recreating the holed-up flesh and at the same time restored my heart in process. My heart resumes its activity. My mind stopped to recover the energy to wake up again.
Huh?
Is that… Gremory-san? With what left of my blurry sight I'm seeing the all-too-familiar crimson shade of her hair when I was dying. Why am I seeing Gremory-san in front of me? I can't mistake her crimson shade of hair even in my state like this, out of people I've seen in my life, Gremory-san is the one that had the rarest color hair.
Must be illusion because of headache, when I opened my eyes again, the image disappeared along with the sound of wings flapping that doesn't resemble a bird at all.
….
I wake up.
I wake up to the loud sound of sirens outside the house. From the windows, I could see the blue and red color of mixed light along with the sound of siren that strangely matched to what I've seen a lot in movies, like how it is when the polices came t-
My mind remembers it.
I feel sick once I remember what have just happened. I've died once and I've died once again, my whole body is in pain, and I have sharp headache each time my heart throbs. My new heart, it feels unreal for sure, something that can't be experienced even for supernatural. I kind of remember he once said that it was nigh-impossible to recover human hearts. And yet here I am, standing on my own two feet when a moment ago I was lying on my own pool of blood.
My head is hazy and I'm pretty sure that I don't need to clean up my own pool of blood since a lot of them were under this house. It looks like a murder scene but then again, the Stray Devil did indeed kills a lot of people inside this house.
"I… really?"
Had my heart destroyed?
Had died once?
Had my chest pierced?
All of them.
Bearing the pain, I get out from the house where I've died. It will be hard to explain why I was in there bloodied up with my own blood to the police so I guess I must escape for now.
-0-
"I'm home."
When I entered my home, I was greeted by the sight of worried brown-haired woman waiting in front of my door. Ah, I must've forgets to text her to not wait for me.
"Issei!? Where did you get… Blood?" The woman suddenly said out of panic and rushed up to my bloody form.
"No, it's fine Kazumi-san. I've just involved in unnecessary conflict," I said trying to calm her down. "Beside look, I don't have any wound, it's just my clothes." While smiling I assured her and lifted up my ripen clothes to show a perfectly healthy body beneath it.
I don't really want to lie to someone who I've been thought as family but I don't really have a choice here do I? When walking home I've recovered a good amount of energy to recover myself from any minor wound like bruise and cut. It was hard to not letting people see me to avoid unnecessary attention but beside it, I'm fine and all.
"T-Then where are you going when it's already night-time? You know that I'm worried about you and I've already texted your phone."
Is it? I want to answer her but when I'm battling that fallen angel I was kicked and crashed into the floor really hard that I'm certain that normal people would die. My phone was destroyed too in process because of that, but I guess it's a good thing that it was destroyed. I don't want police to track my phone and having to answer the questions that would seem really out-of-place. I mean what kind of answer I would give if I have to answer truthfully to them? That the people in there were kidnapped by devil?
"I lost my phone in my way if I know that you would come I won't go anywhere."
"You still haven't answer where did you go Issei." She said while keeping her eyes at my bloody clothes.
"I'm really tired today that I would die if I don't rest soon, Kazumi-san~" I said joking with her but she didn't seemed to believe me. "No, I'm really tired Kazumi-san. Don't worry about the clothes okay? We both know that we can buy it again."
"What I'm worried about is not your clothes," She said while loosening her gaze, her warm hand caressed my cheeks. "It's your well-being Issei. If you're really tired then I want you to sleep early but tomorrow please go home early, I want to have a talk with you about this."
"Right, thank you Kazumi-san."
"Also if you're still hungry, I've made a dinner but by now it probably would've became cold." She said while checking my wound and touching the surface of my new skin, I heard her mumbling something about my wound before finally continued. "If you wanted to then I could warm it up for you."
"Don't worry, I can do it myself." I said trying to reassure her while at the same time intending to make her go home. "I'm just a bit tired over today event. Maybe some good sleep is all I need."
"Are you sure?" She asked me and I could feel her gaze inspecting every inch of my body. "It looks like I must sleep here to watch over you, who know what will you do when I wasn't here?"
"No, no, no, you don't need to do that Kazumi-san. Murayama is waiting for you to come home so you don't need to worry about me."
"Good idea, I will invite Murayama to sleep here too so we can watch over you together."
"How did it come to this?" I said dumbfounded at how my plan backfired to me. "Anyway, I'm not a kid anymore Kazumi-san, it's perfectly normal for teenager like me to get hurt a bit right?"
"Somehow I don't really believe your word…"
Neither do I, in the first place, I don't think that it was normal for middle-schooler to fight a supernatural and came back home after died once. But it's not important. I don't want Kazumi-san to sleep over here because I need to do magic-related things in the morning. I don't know how Mittelt break the contract but the fact that I can't harm her is the problem itself, some of the tomes and scrolls maybe have the information that I needed.
"I'm just tired and the blood isn't exactly mine in the first place so can you erase your worry?"
"Even though I'm not your real parents, I'm still your guardian Issei," She said reminding me of the fact that this woman in front of me is someone that has taken care of me ever since I was a child. "You just need to tell me who did this and the police will take care of the rest."
"I think the police have already solved that…" I mumbled quietly so the person next to me can't hear it.
"You said something?"
"No," I said while making a dismissive motion with my hand, not long after that the silence reigned upon us again. Seeing no further action I rubbed my temple and sighed. "Look, it's just some 'personal' thing that I need to do when there's nobody home okay?"
"Ara?" She suddenly quirked up her eyes at the mention of my personal thing, she smiled scarily at me as if I've said a wrong thing. "'Personal' thing you said? Now I'm starting to be more curious about what you're going to do."
"Sorry, let me say it again, important personal thing that nobody should know except me is what I'm going to do." I said to her while sliding open the exit door. "Kazumi-san, please trust me in this one…"
She didn't seem to believe me and the way her eyes watching my moves, it kind of remind me to a beast watching over its prey. Just as I started to give up, she sighed. "Alright then Issei, I will believe you for now. But if you need anything just call my home okay? I will come immediately."
I can't be more grateful to her and saying my thanks to her. I get out of the way from the entrance and before she exited my home I stopped her. "I apologize that I've made you worry Kazumi-san. I can't imagine what I will become without you."
"Likewise, thanks to you I've experienced how it is to have a problematic son." She said while reaching out to my head but because of our similar height, it kind of awkward for her to do. "Hmm? Did you get taller when I was gone?"
"It's just your imagination, there's no way that I can get taller in short amount of time right?"
"I guess you're right…" She replied before finally leaving my home for real, I caught the sight of her smiling kindly at me while waving her hand.
….
I warmed up the dinner and turn on the TV just so that it's not really silent for the home. Well what can I do? There's no one in this house except me so I just longing for someone to accompany me for dinner and the TV exactly did just that.
When I take the first bite of the meal, I kind of remembered when I was eating together with Elisha and Kazumi-san here…
-0-
Once again I'm seeing a weird dream.
But this one is different, although I can't say the same about the scenery, I'm pretty sure that this dream is different than the one I seen when I was a child.
I still remembered it like it was yesterday because of how bizarre it was. Peoples walking past me with smoke and fog covering their face, the scenery was seen in black and white, I was in some sort of castle and my reflection in the mirror was no more than a distorted human figure. It was pretty strange dream for a kid right? That's not even counting the fact that I rarely dream of something when I sleep.
This time it different, the people I could see it clearly and I could move wherever I wanted through this castle. I can't see my body but it was fine, at least I could move unlike the one before that I have to view the strangeness through other person eyes.
"Aaa…" I checked my voice and a bit surprised that I could speak but it seems like no one hear me, they didn't even realize I'm here. It was too real to be a dream so it can't be that, I could smell and move like in the real world but my presence here is an anomaly, something that shouldn't be here.
And soon I realizes.
This was a memories, a memories of a certain king.
How could I forget? I was wielding his legendary holy sword just a moment ago.
The scene changed again this time on the remains of battle that I strangely recognize.
There is no emotion. For him, such scenes must have been ordinary. Leaning on his golden sword, he breathed deeply once and slowly relaxes his shoulder. The battle is over, glancing at the bodies of fallen soldier, he didn't show any emotion across his face and return to his camp.
That was only his exterior.
Somehow I knew very well that despite his lack of emotion, he's still a normal human albeit one that's trained to not show any emotion – to be perfects – no matter what his trouble is.
And so I see the dream of a king.
From the moment he drew the sword from the stone, he was not human. After becoming a feudal lord like his father, he became a king with many knights.
He was called King Arthur.
A perfect king, there's no perfect human but if there's one it would be someone like him.
He gained a part of immortality from the holy sword that makes him cannot suffer wound or age. Excalibur bears the protection of the fairies, making its possessor immortal.
The king was truly invincible.
The people living in fear of savage invasion wanted a strong king, and the knights of the battlefield would only follow an excellent commander. The king met all these criteria. And so, no one questioned who the king was. There's no room for look or size, as long as it can function as the "king" to protect the country, no one will question his way of thinking.
The new king was fair and selfless, and always stood in front of the army, defeating enemies on the battlefield. Many enemies and people died, but the king's choices were always correct and he served as the "king" better than anyone else. There was no doubt and no need for doubt while the king was right. Knowing no loss on battlefield, the king always comes out victorious.
It was normal practice to meet military needs by sucking everything out of the local village for the battle to protect the country. In that regard, there could not be any knights that killed more people than him. Maybe he found it a burden but it was necessary for the country.
But there is no doubt in his figure, running through the battlefield. He does not even narrow his eyes in grief when he sits on the throne.
A king is not human.
One cannot protect the people with human emotions.
Somehow that statement did not feel very far off from me.
He kept the oath strictly. He settled every problem and worked hard in government affairs. He balanced the country without any deviations and punished people without a single mistake. And after ending another battle in victory, commanding the people without disorder, and punishing hundreds of criminals…
"King Arthur does not understand human feelings." A knight close to him murmured.
That…
I don't know why but it feels like I have heard a similar thing said to me. I don't understand human feelings before and I'm pretty sure that even though I've changed a little, I only capable of small range of human emotions. Maybe someone said it to me when I was a child? When I was a child strangely I matched what the knight said.
But even though the one who said it was only one knight, perhaps everyone felt the same. The more perfect he became as the king, the more they questioned him as a ruler.
A person without emotion cannot rule over other…. Is it true?
Several reputable knights left Camelot, but the king took it as a natural event and accepted it as part of the process of government. Thus, the fair king honored by his knights isolated himself.
What's this? Even though I'm sure this was memories of King Arthur, it seems… familiar to me in a sense.
The king will not change his mind even if he's abandoned, feared, or betrayed. There's no right or wrong. He abandoned his emotions from the moment he decided to pull out the sword.
And the final battle began.
The battle at Badon Hill ended in complete victory, and because of the overwhelming results, the savages sought reconciliation. The country that would have just awaited destruction earned a brief period of peace. The chaos that demanded absolute hero has ended. Britain is finally returning to the country that he has dreamed of.
…The scene started to fade away. I will lose consciousness and wake up soon. But before that something is really bugging me.
King Arthur was too much like me. Our personality is so similar that it's almost scary, the only difference was that I was born without emotion and King Arthur abandoned his emotion the moment he drew the sword from stone.
I know he need to put away his emotion and become someone like me – person without emotion – but I still find it weird that human would throw away something so important. Normal person would obviously say the same but it comes from me, someone who was born without it.
It's just… frustrating.
I seek for it endlessly and yet he threw it away…
I hate it.
Like how I hate myself.
-0-
I've wake up from that dream, from the memories of King Arthur. I've no doubt that the sword that I have now was Excalibur, the sword that bring victory to the wielder. But, there are still some things that didn't match up. Mittelt didn't say anything about Sacred Gear showing memories. Does this mean that Excalibur isn't a Sacred Gear?
A lock of blonde hair caught in my eyes snapped me out of my thinking, touching the lock of blonde stuck on my hair I sighed as I realized what's coming. Rolling the futon and putting it on its place, I went to the bathroom, to the place where there's a full body mirror in there.
"It's growing huh?" I muttered to no one.
Half of my hair already turning into blonde and my left eye's brown shade has gone, mixed into it was combination between green and brown. I can't go to school like this, not when I have this hair. Maybe I could use some disguise magic to hide my hair and eye? It seems like a good idea to do but I probably would be late to school since I'm trying to learn the magic.
….The first period isn't exactly necessary too but Kazumi-san will notice if I don't go to school.
I can already use my left hand although I admit it's still heavy, that's good. With this I probably could hold my ground against that fallen angel. Its reaction time was far slower than usual but I could do it… with this… no, I'm sure that fallen angel still haves something that he doesn't show me, his eyes told me that he's a veteran probably from the war or more worse Great War. That means I'm going against something that was more powerful and ancient than what I've encountered in my life, there's no sure way to win except to try.
Sighing once again, I went to my room. The scrolls and tomes maybe have some way to hide this, with magic or if I wanted to, I can call Matsuda or Motohama to buy me some hair spray and eye-patch. Or I could call the teacher that I was sick and I'm sure that Kazumi-san will understand considering how worried she is yesterday of course.
There's still a matter with Fallen Angel too of course, not to mention when someone high-standing is probably ordered my death. It was probably a good thing if I call in that I'm sick, that way I could gather more information probably from Gremory-san in Kuoh Academy or I could search for the fallen angel alone and if I can extract information from him.
To do that, I probably need to defeat him first but I can't do that, not when he's obviously stronger than me and will kill me on sight.
Mittelt, god I really need her right now. I should've asked more about supernatural before she ran away, but something is really bugging me to no end about what that male fallen angel said. He said that he know Divine Dividing possessor is me from Mittelt but that doesn't match what the contract does, I can't hurt her that much I already know, I've tested it before so the contract is working but is by any chance Mittelt is using some loophole giving out information about me?
Or is there any way for the contract to be broken? Mittelt is using that? Or more worse was there's a third party in this? The only third party that I can think of is Gremory-san the one who created the contract but now that the contract is gone, I don't have any proof about it.
I searched frantically around my room for cell phone but once again remembered that it was destroyed yesterday. Using the phone in my house, I called Motohama.
"Motohama, can you tell the teacher that I'm sick today?"
"Huh? You're lying right? Ever since we became friend, I never once seeing you get sick."
"Well," I paused trying to search for a suitable answer. "Let's just say that I don't have a good sleep yesterday, because of that I have a really bad headache."
"Is it really that bad? No offense but you seems like the type that seems endurable to pain."
"I've get sick once when I was a child so your statement is a bit incorrect but other than that yeah, in fact yesterday, every time my heart is beating, it gives me a sharp headache."
"Surely it can't be that bad, you're joking or not with me right now?"
"I'm not," I said while rustling through my blonde hair, I guess it can be called disease? "Anyway, I can't go to school right now so tell it to the teacher alright?"
"Okay, but tomorrow comes to my home alright? I have something really cool to show you!"
"Cool? Is it porn again? If it just that then tell Matsuda not me, I've better things to do than that."
"I won't deny that it's an eroge but it has a good storyline, maybe it will even warm the heart of someone like you."
"That's harsh," I replied while chuckling at the thought of such a game. "I will consider coming to your house tomorrow but for now just do what I said okay?"
"Okay, take care then… if you're really sick that is."
I closed the phone. Going to my room to continue my search of something useful, I discovered that there's a lot of thing I didn't know about magic. Ansuz rune that I used yesterday was one of the primordial rune created by Odin himself, calculating magic is magic system that Merlin Ambrosius created during his life-time and it was the most common magic to this day.
There's a lot of notes about researching phenomenon formulae magic, things like creating a tornado with magic by calculating the velocity of the wind and amount of magic put into that, creating the formulae needed to do that and applying it to the magic circle which then can be used easily. Unfortunately it's not yet finished, in fact a lot of magic circles in this room were all half-finished.
Is the one who created all of this is Elisha or someone else?
There's other type of magic like Rune magic that I used yesterday. I don't think that it would actually really become useful in battle, I just learnt Ansuz rune because of its effect. Strengthening and Enchantments rune seems complicated but it may be worth it. I can apply it to my clothes to further boosted my chance to win, rune to enhance my sight may actually become useful too if I found myself fighting in long-range battle. Speed enhancing rune, I need this to be inscribes into my shoes when I fight that fallen angel again.
…
There's too much, simply too much magic and that's not even counting the one that is not written in the scrolls and tomes. Magic has really developed huh? And there's a lot of human that's living their live without even knowing this sort of thing exist. For now, I will just use calculation to use magic and some Rune written on my casual clothes. I've made some magic circle of my own made with calculation of high-schooler, I doubt that it would be that much use in real battle though.
Maybe I should consider learning math seriously now that I know magic is using calculation and formula of math. There's even half-finished magic circle of someone who's making a formula about time on one's body, to alter it slightly, accelerating or slowing it. It was a fail project, I don't know if it was because the one who made this have already died or it's just that hard to calculate the time which is always moving.
If I succeed in finishing this magic circle then it could expand my chance of winning by large margin, if this was stacked with Haste, I could move with double the speed I've used yesterday. Considering that the fallen angel himself seems to have a hard time finding an opening when I used Haste, I know that I would win if I happen to be able to finish the formulae.
It was also mentioned that altering the time on one's body will cost a tremendous amount of magical energy, probably about half of average magician reserve so that means I who isn't magician will use more than half. I think that's enough, if I have twice the amount of speed I used with Haste then I can fatally wound him using that. Well, if what the dream mentioned is true then I can use that to pierce him. At my current rate, that is more effective to use than Excalibur.
I will just learn Rune magic in case that I can learn all of them today which is impossible.
Well if it's just the issue of using then I could do it actually, it's just an inscribed character after all. But the actual mastering is the problem, speed enhancing rune that I could use right now was far from mastery. Far from that, I've read how the primordial rune that Odin used is different than the one I used right now which is modern runes. But that doesn't change the fact that Rune magic was extremely useful for newbie like me who's still confused about magic.
I really wanted to try Strengthening myself, I really wanted to try it… but I digress. If I try enhancing my sight and failed then my eyes would explode, if I try enhancing my legs and I failed then I would cripple myself, I don't really wanted to risk myself dying again, who know that my healing power could actually ran out when I was on the verge of dying? For now, using magic circle to strengthen myself is safer.
The best course of action right now was probably to visit Gremory-san which means entering Kuoh Academy again. It's probably not the best thing if battle did indeed take place in there, I would be at severely disadvantage because of the unknown trap that she could have laid combined with how there's also other Devil like Souna Shitori and Akeno Himejima.
But at this rate I won't have any information regarding what happened in this town. What to do…
My thought was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell ringing and the sliding door opened which can only be caused by my guardian.
Ah… it looks like I've some explaining to do.
….
I originally planned to wrap the entire arc with one chapter but I figured it will be too long so I separated the chapter but on the bright side, you guys get a faster update.
I never mentioned this but what Issei summon is not "Servant" but "Heroic Spirit without class container". It normally weaker than its servant counterpart but in exchange of that, the heroic spirit did not have Noble Phantasm limited by class so that means, Issei have all weapon linked to King Arthur which is currently sealed by the way. Carnwennan: Little White Hilt, Caliburn: Golden Sword of Assured Victory, and nameless horses that Arturia Alter Lancer ride on.
Issei's view about King Arthur from Nasuverse isn't exactly a good thing, he knew exactly how it felt to live without emotion so of course he hate how he threw away his emotion easily even though he know it's for a good thing.
About DxD's magic, I'm going to play by the rules of DxD world and maybe stretch out its limit to some extent. Issei won't be limited himself to just sword skills, he will learn various magic from other patheons like Norse magic and Egypt magic maybe. In this chapter, you get the preview of Issei using Ansuz rune.
I will make Issei suffer, I don't hate him but I must make him experience what it feels like to fight with the risk of dying. Issei will get hurt a lot in this story but he has Avalon so it's not like he will die.