"All warfare is based off deception" - Sun Tzu
-XxXxXxX-
With Isaac and co. / one route to the eastern orthodox church somewhere outside of turkey
The plane ride to our next objective was a long one, with all the tension in the air it was hard not to think of the coming events which brought the passing of time to crawl at a painful pace
About a haft hour ago we finished discussing our news to both Claire and Arndell who both seemed extremely shaken by the news, I wasn't fully invested with the Excalibur fragments but I knew they were a powerful item - if not the most powerful - the church had in their possession so with the news of a demon running around with the blueprint to reconstructing the full sword was terrifying
Then came to the next part of our objective
Find and lock down all Excalibur fragments, easy in the long run but considering this operation was off the grid we couldn't exactly contact the church housing them and tell them to lock down all their daily activities
I couldn't stress this enough, the only people in the church outfitted with the skills and training to take on the supernatural were exorcists, everyone else were simply civilians following their beliefs, so calling them and telling them to take the day off would upset a few people and attention was not what we wanted
With the info of the demon Malthus running around we knew right of the bat his intentions were war, and what better to start it then to destroy a whole continent with the weapon of holy decent
Pin the blame on someone else is always the easiest way to start a war, and I knew Malthus was gonna pin the blame on his captures; he's probably been driven mad with anger with the amount of time he's spent up in heavens prison.
"I was wondering about something" started Xenovia forcing me from my thoughts "if this demon – Malthus – is the culprit, then why were their rogue priests there as a mop up crew?"
Irina piped up with Xenovia's words
"Yeah, I was wondering about that as well"
That thought also triggered a few questions but only one of them made the best of sense
"It would be best to rule them as followers of Malthus; since one of them had his sigil on his neck I guess Malthus has found himself a group of loyal followers... heathens" I said with distain, leave it to a bunch of un-happy priests to start a posy with a freaking demon, they definitely fell into temptation
Xenovia growled lightly at my words while Irina frowned deeply, I knew why they were pissed; rogue priests weather they liked it or not still carried a small portion of the church's rep with them and for them to fall into temptation was a sign that the word of god could still be corrupted
I myself despised heretics but to a curtain degree, it wasn't completely common but some followers of the church do get exiled due to an over-zealous bishop or Archbishop who are extremely quick to pass judgment, something I dislike greatly
Say my beliefs are flexible but one haft of me hates the true heretic's but the other haft of me dislikes the churches upper brass and their power tripping leaders who are far too quick to exile the ones who are willing to repent, Asia's exile was one of the first events that caused my discontent for the upper echelon and it's frantic believers
Didn't change my dislike for the ones who actually, truly, fell into temptation, and if my guess was on the mark then we had a small or large regime of rogues on the loose as well as a demon leading them
'Greeeeaaat' I groaned inwardly, as excited as my inner swordsmen was I still couldn't get my nervous side to tap out, for all my years experience with the church I hadn't actually been involved with a real anti terrorist operation involving a demon
Guess my training will finally be put to full use this time around
"Father Blackburn?" called out the co-pilot
"Yes"
"We'll be arriving at the designated location shortly"
I nodded
"Alright, so a full briefing is in order" I started while catching the other two's attention
"I'm sure you all realize our next stop is outside the city of turkey, due to the nature of this churches content, its purpose is confidential to the public eye and as a matter of fact its location is unknown to the public as well" I explained calmly
"Is this church located near a city?" asked Irina
"No, I did some digging while we were flying and apparently this churches main goal is to hold an a Excalibur fragment and thus its location is off the grid and off the streets, since it would be a prime target for rogues, fallen angels and maybe devils I figure that's a good step in securing this fragment, no need to worry about collateral... but if you're worried about scratching the paintings then..." I left my light joke hang just to alleviate some pent up stress
Didn't really work, Xenovia was un-moved and Irina smiled but I could tell it was forced... tough crowd
"What fragment are we locking down?" asked Xenovia while she looked down to a document containing the information of the seven fragments
"Nightmare" was my simple answer, Irina shivered
"Hard to believe something so divine would harbor something so terrifying" she muttered, she must've read over the effects of nightmare and I had to agree, nightmares effects is extremely... disturbing
Makes the mid night game seem like a simple game of hid and seek with no worry of insanity... or death
While the two skimmed over their separate documents I glanced over to our fourth passenger, for the most part she seemed fine, for the majority of the trip she'd been a sleep but before that I was able to get Irina's help in changing her and cleaning her up in the jets small barracks near the rear of the cabin
Good thing to, wouldn't feel very comfortable sleeping in dirty clothing and after she'd changed she'd been out like a light and hadn't woken up since then.
I wouldn't be asking her questions anytime soon anyway, not only do we know who were after but we know his intentions as well so asking her the questions would be redundant as well as irresponsible, so I'll just leave her be for now.
The best description I could have for the church we are going to would be this: it looked to be like a castle but smaller then what you may or may not be thinking, looked to cover about 100 acres of land, yeah big in retrospect but compared to some churches I've seen this one was small – medium, but just because this church was "big" didn't mean it wasn't invisible, its location was placed on the other side of a small mountain outside of any sort of view and it was away from public air space about a couple miles and there was no sign of civilization for a few miles as well, so yeah, it was invisible
In my opinion, it seemed odd for a church this historical to be left from the public but you'd be amazed at some of the other churches the public have yet to even notice, this also made our jobs much easier, no large amounts of innocents and no civilian priests, Arndell had contacted me an hour ago to clarify our destination as well as the occupants of said destination
Fifty men guarded the facility, each one carrying exorcist experience under their belt, if I wasn't paying much attention I would have guessed Arndell had already forwarded the attack to them already, a lot was in our favor it seemed but I wasn't counting my chickens just yet
A lot could happen in any moment so with all that was in our favor really never helped me in dropping my nervous yet ready persona, this was the closest church that held an Excalibur fragment, it was our best bet in intercepting Malthus and his followers
An attack was as good as imminent; I just hoped we could prepare the ones down on the ground before they get thrusted up shit creek without a paddle
"What will we do about the exorcist on the ground? Arndell said this operation is confidential to only us" questioned Irina while looking to me, guess she was thinking the same thing I was
I simply shrugged
"Guess will just tell them to expect an attack, if they ask 'who' or 'why' then we adlib, the 'who' part will be best described as fallen angels, Malthus is most likely alone in this so I wouldn't expect devils, the current regime in the underworld has so many followers the old maou fraction has pretty much gone dark, so our best excuse would be Rogues and fallen angels, the 'why' part... well we'll just say we found information on a group of fallen angels had learned of the location of a secret church based out here, we'll leave out the Excalibur part out for now" I answered casually, Irina simply giggled in response
"What's so funny?" I asked with confusion
"Nothing really, you just seem really experienced with all this" she said with admiration I could even sense envy in her tone, I hadn't worked any operations with these two so think of my reaction at her blatant sign of admiration to my skills and personality
Griselda said they looked up to me but I didn't think it was this much, even Xenovia nodded at her words which clearly said she agreed as well but god forbid she said it out loud
'With the amount of time I've worked with the church it'd be heresy if I wasn't this experienced' I said internally but I was flattered with the open complement, still felt weird though
"It's hard to believe you're only a year ahead of us" mentioned Xenovia; she even looked openly impressed with that information... very rare to see indeed
"Not to mention you graduated from scholar's class so quickly" piped Irina happily; all this attention had caused me to look to them with blank confusion as they continued to mention my accomplishments or impressive features
'The hell did this come from?' I must've found their clicking point as the more they agreed on something the more they engaged in conversation
"I also remember the time you sparred against Dulio-sama" Gushed Irina with sparkles in her eyes; I myself even fell into the memory of one of my closer friends
The spar between us was rather... peculiar, it was a rare instant were he wanted to actually "test" me and my abilities, that was before he vanished when I mentioned a curtain chiffon cake I rather enjoyed on my previous mission
The spar was peculiar because as Dulio and I sparred all we did was talk about food and exotic foods while we practically leveled the court yard we were in, and only I was left to clean up the mess while he was no were to be seen, I didn't even realize Irina and Xenovia witnessed that rare moment... one of the lucky few it seemed
"That was rare... I never heard of Dulio-sama looking to battle" muttered Xenovia with her hand on her chin
For the rest of the flight the two continued to pass comments of interest either involving me or someone close to me until finally we were on our final run to the private landing strip a mile away from the church, the tense air from before was pretty much washed away with the friendly conversation my two partners were engaged in, I did pip in a few times but it was good to see the two get some stress released
Once we landed on the landing strip we were greeted by a greyish white car with a crucifix engraved on the side of the doors and hood, must be some kind of warding magic so to keep the vehicles out of unholy hands
From inside the vehicle came a young man about my age appearance wise with dirty blonde hair and green eyes, the usual church priest attire adored his features but there was a few personal modifications such as a personalized crucifix located on his right sleeve and a golden crucifix hung from his neck
"Greetings, my name is father Emin Bulut, to who do I owe the pleasure of this visit" greeted father Bulut politely but I could tell he was confused
"It nice to meet you father Bulut, I'm father Isaac Blackburn and these are my associates" I introduced while stepping to the side
Irina came first with a bow of Japanese etiquette "My name is Irina shidou, pleasure to meet you father Bulut" she said with a friendly mannerism
Next came Xenovia who seemed polite yet serious at the same time "and my name is Xenovia" she said with a firm nod, I frowned slightly at her neglecting of her last name but I ignored it, it was a recent change to her life, it takes time before it can sink in
"It's a pleasure to meet you all, may I inquire of your affiliation?" he asked simply
I nodded simply "the three of us are associates of the Vatican headquarters" was my answer, Bulut's facial expression fell for a moment before he picked it back up again and waved us aboard the grey car
Once we were aboard Bulut started up again
"If you are agents of the Vatican then I can safely assume your business has something of a high importance then?" he asked causing me to nod before he continued
"Forgive my intrusion of your business but or facility runs on tight security, we don't get many visitors but we do train in accordance to all forms of 'visitors' so for all intents and purposes I would like to conduct a security check up before we proceed to the castle" he informed
"Seems you have things done to the letter father Bulut" I said with an impressed edge to my tone, Bulut smiled at my praise
"thank you for the complement but the man in change is who came up with the regime, we'll meet up with him shortly" after he finished speaking we pulled up to a security check point at the end of the landing strip, all of us filed out and headed inside
I wasn't shocked at all when I saw Vatican class computers blinking about in the main office, since this facility worked off the grid you'd be curtain they'd have the tech to work modernly about it, stone age level facilities have outlived their time and they are hard to maintain, Vatican class hardware worked efficient and was considered one of the hardest systems to corrupt, not even a low orbit EMP could take them out, and all it took was a total of ten or so people to keep a system running when it takes a hundred people to run an out dated castle
"If this isn't too much trouble, please leave all metallic items on the table" advised Bulut while he pointed to a pull up table, Xenovia and Irina both dropped their swords on the table while I simply left two light grenades on the table
"Light packer father Blackburn?" asked Bulut with surprise
"Something like that" was my reply before I stepped through the metal detecting frame.
Seeing as though I made zero alarms go off I smiled to Bulut just to alleviate him of the nervousness he had picked up from my dodgy reply, after that we proceeded to do three more security checks, the first after the metal detecting frame was retinal scanner to confirm our identity then a blood scanner for added reassurance, after that they made us swig back a bottle of holy water.. Primitive but it was a good sign of professionalism I respected
None of us complained during all this due to the nature of it reassuring us of the security the facility carried and during all of our checkups we all noticed a small squad of black clad priests standing off near the entrance, the patch of a white cross with white angel wings could be seen on the right arm
That's some back up, black clad exorcists signify a high degree of holy devotion and experience with the art of combating the unholy or fallen, I myself have one I just don't like the color black that much, all I had that signified my experience was the patch on my inner cassock
I took pride in it but if the other two saw it I wouldn't be able to hear the end of all the questions they'd have about how I "got it so early in my career with the church" so I left to simply wearing it out of view
"I would like to apologise again for taking your time with this check up" started Bulut but I stopped him with a dismissive wave
"Think nothing of it father Bulut, we all know the importance of security and seeing how thorough it was showed a good level of professionalism" I said causing Bulut to smile widely
"you honor we with your words father Blackburn" soon after that we left the check point, and thankfully father Bulut allowed both Xenovia and Irina possession of their weapons saying it was alright due to them checking out with flying colors
"So who's in charge of this facility?" asked Irina from her spot in the back seat
"Bishop Haluk Altan, a good man in my opinion, not much of us up here talk about our grimy accomplishments but some of the younger batch like me pass on information just to see how some us came to be assigned here, it helps in killing the time when were aren't locking the hell out of this facility" replied Bulut with a much more laid back attitude, seemed the positive check up had caused him to drop his worries
"What'd you learn about him?" I asked with interest
"Not much, all me and my friends know is that bishop Altan was formerly stationed in St. Esprit cathedral for a good sum of his career, did a good job to, me and my friends learned he'd taken care of a lot of people in serious binds, I'm talking Youkai mafia's holding people in debt, rogue fallen angels up to no good and even a few heretics looking for trouble, but that's not all he did, violent history aside he was actually quite popular with all kinds of other things" explained Bulut, seemed Altan was a good man
And he organized this facility all by himself? Guys got experience I'll give him that
"What you guys do mostly?" he asked calmly while he looked at his rear view mirror
"Oh, I just joined because my father was an exorcist as well" replied Irina with no less amount of pride, Bulut smiled in return
"Following the family line I see... your Japanese right?" asked Bulut
"Yes, my mother's side is Japanese but my father was born in Rome and grew up in the Vatican"
"Your Dad must be proud he raised such a fine young women" rolling the smooth flirts on Irina eh Bulut?
Irina smiled kindly at his words "thank you for the complement" if Bulut had a hat I swear he would have tipped it in her direction
"And what about you miss Xenovia?" he asked suddenly and I practically flinched when he did, Irina's past was fine to bring up but god I felt sorry for Bulut when he spotted Xenovia's glare
"Guess I shouldn't have asked, my apologies, some of my friends didn't have a good up bringing as well, so I apologise for my rude question Xenovia" good save Bulut Xenovia actually looked calmed at his tone of apology
"It's alright father Bulut" replied the bluenette dismissively, Bulut took the hint and left his next questions out in favor of driving to the main building.
The castles structure seemed mostly flat in nature, there was no raise or decline in the ground floor and all of the buildings seemed sectioned off in various areas all around the bricked off outer wall, I noticed a single floor building to our left on our way in, barracks most likely or a sleeping quarters, the whole facility looked more like a military encampment then a place full of followers of the church so I felt like I was in a much more... laid back environment
Church atmosphere was usually up tight but this felt much more lax then what I've been around for so long, I liked it but I could tell Irina and Xenovia were either disappointed or couldn't care less
"Bishop Altan is located in the chapel just ahead of us, I wish I could accompany you but my business continues elsewhere" informed Bulut, I simply outstretched my hand to him
"Pleasure talking to you father Bulut" I said while shaking his hand
"Pleasure was all mine father Blackburn... ladies" Bulut replied while tipping his imaginary hat to the girls in the back seat
"Nice meeting you Bulut" piped Irina while Xenovia nodded to him politely
The three of us departed soon after leaving Bulut to pull out and drive off to another section of the castle while we walked to the chapel a good jaunt away
The chapel was finally taken care of as the flooring was carpeted down the middle while the rest was hard wood and polished to shin, the pews were also well kept and even showed a luxurious design to the arm rests
The last was the alter down to the other end of the chapel, Irina even commented on the well painted roof that had similar paintings like the one in London, the alter however had a massive stone crucifix on a stone alter table with various flowers and cloths
One man stood at the altar, from behind he look well built, nothing like Sylvester Stallone but he was built, he wore a black priest outfit and a patch similar to the men and women at the security gate, the wings of the holy spread proudly on his right arm, his skin seemed tan to a degree and his hair was dirty blonde just like Bulut's
"You three must be my visitors from the Vatican" he called out with a light but gravel voice before turning to look to us calmly, the security team at the gate must've already informed him of us
"You've got a tight security unit bishop Altan, you must be proud" I said in return, his lips raised at the complement before he nodded
"Yes, as a matter of fact I am, they even dug up a few things about you just now... the three of you were just seen in London, St. Paul's cathedral about a day ago if I recall" he said while sitting down on one of the pews
"Word gets around quickly it seems"
He chuckled lightly "well what can a man do when his job is to watch over one of the strongest and most historical artifact that is an Excalibur fragment" after he said that he waved me over to sit down to which I ablidged, the tension in the room dropped down to extreme business
"You were aware of the attack then?" I asked with slight surprise
"Hmm, you're not very close in the loop are you father Blackburn?" his counter question brought me down a peg a little, was I in the loop? With how well Altan had learned of my name as well as my business had me guess I wasn't just dealing with rusty exorcists but ready and involved exorcists
"Could you enlighten me then bishop Altan?" I asked politely, he nodded
"When I learned of the attack of St. Paul's cathedral I knew a storm was heading my way... my security wasn't always that thorough father Blackburn" he said while placing his grey and aged eyes on my blue and "young" eyes
"Were the front lines father Blackburn, the blueprint the heretic's stole uses riddles to hide the location of all the fragments but the easiest one is always the first one... A good plan to lure in the ones who dared to steal what is ours" continued Altan with a serious tone
"You must know a lot about the blue print then" I muttered but he answered quickly
"Well that's because it was my plan to lure in the thieves" my eyes widened
"You're one of the few who created the blue print then?" I asked and he nodded
"It would be irresponsible of me to not guard what I've created, almost all the Excalibur fragments are guarded by the ones who created a reconstruction blueprint" he informed before he gestured for all three of us to follow him "Come, and I will show you your objective"
Placing his hand on the stone a blue light shown through the stone and the table jutted out to reveal a set of stairs leading down into a basement similar to the cathedral, I could feel the holy energy emitting off the stone ways, it felt cold but warming at the same time no doubt Excalibur nightmares doing, its aura was said to cast a ominous vibe all around it for miles, this tome was probably more a seal then a hiding spot
"I don't know who's attacking but what I do know is that if the Vatican sends in three agents then I know a storm is truly heading our way" he started while we walked down into the basement, the stone entrance way soon closed and UV lights kicked in to allow light in the cold dark stair way
"I know the contingency, I organized it so I know when to step back at let you guys do your thing, your jobs to lock down the Excalibur fragment while we deal with the attacks, but if need be I'd rather no one be down here however, the walls are thick but that doesn't mean your divinity is invisible, I've tested it, we got the Excalibur's true aura lock away but its ominous vibe remains only when the door is opened everything else however can still be sensed" explain Altan
"This is just a tour then" I muttered
"In a sense yes, I'm sure you want to see your objective first hand and I already log you guys in as pass code's via hand print scanner I copied from the watch tower when you did your little security check... just don't lose your hand" advised Altan
"Father Bulut said you were experienced, but this is taking the cake" I said with loads of respect
"I like to prepare for the worst, and the worst is happening" was his final words before we entered the basement room, it was a full dome about 15 feet high and various metal contraptions hooked up to a sleek glass container which was hook to the floor by what seemed to be steel bolts, and inside floated Excalibur nightmare
It looked like a guard less roman short sword except it was much longer and had a blackish white glow to its blade that seemed to pulse if you look at it to long
"I thought this was a fragment, why is it in sword form?" questioned Xenovia while looking to Altan
"Don't ask me, couple years ago a few of your Vatican zealots dropped it off here a few months before I was finally stationed here, I never actual knew what the Excalibur's looked like until I laid my eyes on it"
I remained silent while I skimmed over the swords security, and all I could say was it was snug, it'd take a lot power to knock that glass over and even more to shatter it
"What do you think father Blackburn? Is she a work of modern security or something better?" asked Altan with a knowing smirk
"I'd say the latter; it'd take a hell of a lot of man power to break it, and that would take a serious amount of time to do it"
"Glad you like my handy work, now if you all could follow me I'd like to keep this section of the castle off limits... were going into lock down soon so if you will all follow me" he gestured to which we all filed out of the basement
-XxXxXxX-
When we reached the top of the chapel's secret entrance the entrance to the basement shut and sealed off, I knew now what he meant about no one being down there, as soon as the entrance closed the Excalibur's aura diminished as well leaving its presents completely sealed off from the rest of the world
"What's the plan of defense bishop Altan?" asked Xenovia after a minute of silence
Altan glanced to her before answering "Well miss Xenovia, for now I'd say nothing, but when the inevitable attack does occur, we defend the castle, simple as that" he started before he shrugged
"I'm sure you know a few contingencies on defending a location; we really don't have a set plan as most of the time plans usual lead to disappointment or confusion, so all I did was prioritizing specific locations for us to keep under protection. Obviously the chapel is the main priority, but since I'd rather not make it seem that way I've sent more of my defence over to the cathedral which has all of the fake paintings you can imagine, then after that the rest are spread out evenly all across the castles perimeter"
"Good idea as any" I said calmly, he had this pretty well thought out
Plans usually only work best with small units but if one is working with fifty experienced men and women then plans are only hindrances, each person should know what the defending contingencies are at this point not to mention the idea of predicting the supernatural is almost as hard as guessing the temperature with a toaster, everything in this business is random and will always will be
For better or worse
"So what will you three be doing until our uninvited guests arrive?" asked Altan
"Do you happen to have a direct connection to the Vatican headquarters? I'd like to update the Archbishop of our status" was my reply, Altan nodded before he waved for us to follow him to a two story building in the middle of the castles interior; from there we climbed the stairs and entered a control room with a flat screen over the window so to allow zero light in the room
"The line is open to all church frequencies just punch in whatever signal numbers you need and it'll connect you shortly" informed Altan before he left the room to give us our privacy
'Alright... now how on earth did I do this the last time' I said inwardly while fumbling with the frequency dial, for about a minute I worked my nonexistent magic on the dial before Irina reached in and turned it to the correct frequency before pressing the green button above the dial
Glancing to my assistant I spotted Irina nervously smile at me before she rounded behind Xenovia commercially, guess she saw my eye brow twitch... cheeky women
Ignoring my desire to call her out I directed my attention to the blue loading bar on the white screen that which had shown to life from Irina's tampering
"This is Archbishop Arndell... voice confirmation and call sign required" came Arndell's mechanically enhanced voice then followed his image
"Father Isaac Blackburn, call sign: Paladin" there was a pause before he replied
"Good to hear from you father Blackburn, what's your status?" Asked Arndell with a pleased tone
"Positive" I relied firmly
"Good to hear, how's the setup looking? Is the Excalibur fragment in lock down?" pressed Arndell, I could tell he was nervous, the mechanized tone over the speaker didn't hide that amount of emotion, and anxiety was his best classification right now
"As far as a military class lock down can go Archbishop, all seems well; the security is tight and the location of the fragment has been isolated and all aura of the Excalibur is all but nonexistent" I informed, I myself was impressed with the security
"And now all you're doing is waiting for the culprits to arrive?" he asked, it seemed like a clarification then a real question
"As far as our movements are concerned, yes, however I'd like to know of the status of the other Excalibur fragments" I was worried the demon was far more intelligent than I thought so I just felt it was necessary to know if this was his next intended target
There was a pause before he answered "I just check over the status of all of them, everyone of them seem to be in working order and I have yet to hear any lock down procedures occurring in any of them"
So all was in the clear, this was hard to work with in the long run, the attack on St. Paul's cathedral happened almost a full three hours ahead of us and it seemed the demon had a head start in taken the Excalibur's but the fact we were here and with no sign of attack made me almost bite my nails in nervousness
"Were missing something here" I said while putting my hand on my chin
Then I thought of something that I hadn't acted on since we left the cathedral in London
"Hey Xenovia, do you still have those recorded video feeds from our investigation in the cathedral?" I asked, the bluenette in question raised her eyes to me quickly before she quickly nodded and reached into her large white cloak and handed me a single video tape... sadly it was VHS
Even I know that's ancient tech right there
'Who the hell uses VHS these days' gotta hand it to the church, they know how to keep it classic... and really old
"the priest that helped me burn this one off said it was the best camera they had, and all they had left was one tape that only turns on during a supernatural attack, this is all they had that could possibly help us shed light on the attacker" she said to which I nodded, at least they had a contingency for an attack with no survivors
It took me some time but I managed to find a dusty VHS player among some other techno gadgets I had little time to even know what they were
"I may have a small lead Archbishop, give me a moment while I look this over" I said, Arndell nodded
"Take all the time you need father Blackburn, any lead is as good as any"
For a moment I looked to the VHS tape and back to the VHS player and then I looked to Irina who seemed to lock on to my gaze with confusion
"Alright you technology wizard, do you know how to work a VHS player?" I asked simply
"Y-yeah, just plug the – never mind just let me hook it up for you" Irina quickly snatched the VHS tape and did a bunch of mumbo jumbo with the player and soon enough she beckoned us over to the TV she had also hook up for us as well
Both Xenovia and I looked to her, silently and ignorantly asking her why it wasn't playing
"Jeez, you guys ever use a TV before?" she asked, completely perplexed on our ignorance to modern technology
"No" we said in unison, Irina simply grumbled while muttering how Xenovia managed to handle even getting the copy before she tapped a sideways triangular button on the player and soon the tape began its long course, thankfully the angle was directly center to the main hall
But my expression darkened when the attack actually took course
The video was full of mild static but all of us I'm sure made out a figure leaving the secret basement we found on our investigation, the scene quickly turned R rated as almost all of the churches Exorcists rushed the dark figure we had yet to even distinguish
The first two seemed to be bisected before they could even realize it and quickly fell to the floor dead, I spotted a glimmer or what looked to be a sword held in the figures right hand then a few flashes resonated and three priests fell to the floor, this time a gun was seen in his left hand
I was starting to connect the dots, the person we were watching was none other than Malthus himself, the video was full of static but that couldn't hide the dark inhumanly sized smile on his features and glowing orange orbs for eyes glaring at all who opposed him
After that it all went straight to hell, with the massacre playing before me I watched as Malthus practically played with the little few in charge of security, men, women and even a small boy were victim to has rampage
I could feel my hands shaking when I saw, in slow motion, the look of pain and fear on the boys face as the life faded from his eyes, tears streaking down his cheeks slowly
Malthus was truly a demon, in the ways of demonology it is said that any that fall victim to a demon have their souls dragged from their bodies and eaten by the demon and they remain with the demon until the demon is exorcised
My previous fear of Malthus was gone the minute I saw that sight, all that remained was a sheer drive to erase that creature with extreme prejudice
The others expressions differed from my own, Xenovia was silent but her eyes almost glowed with anger at seeing her fellow exorcists fall at the hands of Malthus and they were narrowed much farther than I had ever seen
Irina however was much different
I felt a tug on my cassock sleeve and turned to see her fighting tears, she just silently held my sleeve before she hugged it tightly, and the amount of emotion she was feeling was far different then me and Xenovia's anger
She was more sad at the deaths then angered by Malthus's deeds
With Irina as she was I continued to watch, I had to, any information can help shed light on his intentions, all I had to do was see it and I'd clarify my suspicion
After another minute or so things started to turn weird, when for a moment the screen showed the demon walk off to the left towards a set of doors before entering them, I heard over the volume a set of screams and a few gun shots before they stopped, then it got weird
Seeing Malthus exit the room he had entered the demon walked slowly over to the middle of the room before he stopped, my blood ran cold at what he did next
Malthus looked calm but his eyes reignited in an orange glow and his head snapped to look straight the screen, for a moment he just stood there and stared down the camera that was high up in the roofs canopy for him to even reach it but I felt a sense that he was not just looking at the screen
No
He was looking at me
When I finally came to that conclusion Malthus waved to the camera with his evil smile before he walked himself back into the secret room down below, after that the screen went into a static blizzard signifying the end of the footage
"There will be no place where you can hide demon" growled Xenovia, she usually kept her emotions low and in check but she didn't hide it here, she looked pissed
My previous anger for Malthus subsided albeit slightly when I remembered the look Malthus had sent towards the camera, it felt like it was silent threat, a promise that the bloodshed was not over
And that I was next
'your mind games won't work on me demon' this was as about as angry as I've ever been in a long time, I took great care in keeping my anger low and out of mind but right now, if I started swinging, my blade would be tainted with the need of retribution and my skills would be dull
"Father Blackburn... Are you still there?" came Arndell's voice
"Yeah, I'm here archbishop" I replied while walking to sit in front of the screen, Irina let go of my arm and went and stood a distance away from the screen but Arndell spotted this and looked to me
"I take you saw something you wish to forget" he said as more of a fact then a question, I had to agree, I wanted nothing more than to get that image of the boy out of my head, there are things even I can't handle with a cleared head and that image kept playing over and over and with each time I remembered the boys expression the hotter my anger became
"More then you can imagine" I replied, Arndell nodded before he got back onto topic
"We need a lead father Blackburn, if you learned anything then can you tell me?" he asked while pressing toward the bigger picture
I shook my head "all I learned is that Malthus..." I was about to say something witty and anger filled but then I suddenly thought of something
"Jesus... the last thing I saw before the screen cut out was him returning to the Excalibur blueprints hiding place, that was all I saw before the screen cut out" I started before I looked to Xenovia
"Did you happen to learn anything else about the type of camera they had up there?" I asked, Xenovia didn't look like she wanted to talk but she forced it out
"All he said was it activates when a supernatural being is inside the cathedral, and it turns off when there isn't... oh" it dawned on her when she finished her explanation
Arndell however picked up from our train of conversation "what you two are talking about is a newly distributed camera feature, we don't have a classification name for it but all it does is as Sister Quart–Xenovia said" he started while fixing his mistake
"Its function is to read the perimeters aura readings and only activates it recording feature when a being or supernatural decent enters the area, it deactivates when the aura leaves its effective range"
Well that leaves me confused, if the camera turned off when Malthus went into the basement then that means he left inside the church but that was even harder to believe, the runes below may have been practically faded to uselessness but that didn't mean crap if the whole damn cathedral is already protected with a divine aura exclusive to pretty much ever church around the world
Nothing gets in or out without dying painfully, and I knew Malthus was still alive, there would be no way that demon did all that just to die from a brain dead mistake, he may have gotten into the cathedral but it must've taken a hell of a pain threshold but then again, since Malthus was a former prisoner from heaven then I'm sure he's built some kind of tolerance to the divine, still would hurt like hell but it wouldn't be anything he isn't too familiar with
But that didn't explain anything else, the camera feed cut out meaning he had left the premise, but from the cameras footage he was not leaving but going back into the Excalibur blueprints secret holding place
I-I...Di-didn't...do...it
Amelia's words for some reason resounded in my head, something about her comment bugged me greatly, and why would she say something like that? Did she think we were accusing her of being the attacker?
!?
'Oh sh- my thoughts quickly changed into realization
The one thing I forgot about demons was their natural ability to possess weak humans through negative emotions be it through, sadness, anger, fear and lastly nervousness, if the demon is strong enough
And one of the other abilities that follows that is if a demon feels it is in danger of exorcism then it can bury itself within the victims soul, it pretty much hide's its presents perfectly when that occurs
And all this added up to my realization but by the time I had realized my mistake it was already too late
BOOOOOOM
A grand explosion resounded from the air field and from the window I could see the watch tower in the distance fall in a massive fire ball, the screams of the exorcists near the inferno reverberated as well
Soon after that explosion magic circles sprouted all around the perimeter of the castle
Fallen angels, dozens of them rushed out of the vertically summoned magic circles and headed directly down to the castles wall, many priests I saw quickly filed into an expert formation in front of the walls now closed doors while others formed a secondary defence along the road
Weapons of various types were drawn; the close range types looked ready to battle the devil himself while the ones with range weapons like Bows, rifles, pistols and even a freaking Gatling gun set up in front row positions
This was almost like watching a modern war inside an outdated castle
I didn't have a clue as to why the fallen hadn't flown over the wall but I guessed there was something there from keeping from doing so, the inevitable fire fight was about to commence when suddenly the door opened and Altan came in with a look that was ready for war
He was seen carrying an olden styled single edged Ottoman sword with golden trim and a few silver crucifixes were also seen on its hilt-less guard
"Looks like your gamble was correct Bishop Altan" I said hollowly
"Aye, as much as I'm happy it actually has I'm not entirely sure if it's good or bad to be proud of it, it was my people in that watch tower" he said with a calm tone but I could tell he was angry
"So the fallen angels are the culprits? Damn crows, pecking at anything that shines to bright" growled Altan with a amused tone
Forgetting my thoughts for now I rolled my shoulders so to prepare
"You appear un-armed father Blackburn, May I suggest a trip to the armory?" he asked while eyeing my lack of weaponry, a flash of soft white light and he quickly forgot of that
"Never mind, seems you're already prepared" he said while eyeing my Zetsurin sword with keen interest
"I like to plan ahead" was my only answer before I moved on to brass taxes "the three of us will handle the retrieval of wounded and help deal with the higher ranked fallen angels if we see them while you tend to your people bishop Altan" I said while checking my gears inventory "but our main goal is to make sure no one even looks at the chapel" I finished
Altan nodded before he pointed out a window, towards a second gate smaller then the main one just near the rear of the castle on the left side, I saw various emplacements of various weapon establishments near said gate as well
"If things become too hairy a fall back point is located on the other side of the gate, not a priority but if you do happen to find any wounded then bring them there" he informed before two of his officials came by
"We'll keep that in mind bishop, stay safe" I said
Altan nodded "and to you as well Father Blackburn"
I watched as the two officials escorted the bishop before I looked outside again
Jesus, this didn't feel like a castle full of church officials but one with ex military soldiers wearing church attire. Then again every single one of them were exorcists, each one of them has seen what the supernatural are capable of and there was also no worry of civilian witnesses as well
Guess this is what it looks like when fifty exorcists command over a castle, there is no beating around the bush nor was there any fear of the public eye watching over their every move, none of that bared down on the castle or the occupants, all that bared down them was a damn near close comparison to what a shadow war looks like when the gloves are off
By this time we started to here the fire fight take full force, the two with me had long since prepared by dropping their white cloaks to reveal their black skin tight... leotards, with leather thigh highs and arm sleeves, various straps and buckles ran along a few areas making it so the attire remained tight
I shook my head at the sight... damn near left no room for the imagination, I had a hard time when I first saw them and I still question their design even today
"Y-your staring senpai" called out Irina which launched me from my thoughts
"Eh?" I asked with confusion before I saw a lightly blushing Irina whom was covering her chest; Xenovia was just glaring but was also covering up
"Stop staring, its embarrassing enough wearing these as it is" continued Irina while fanning towards me
Calmly I turned around so to appear in control but I was red at being caught doing that, my damn male hormones had caused me to lock my sights
Thinking quickly I Glanced out the window towards the front gate and I released a calmed breath at the steady line of defense, sure the fallen were in large numbers, larger then I'd seen in while, but the exorcists in charge of crowd control seemed to be holding steady... still didn't mean we should remain idle
Glancing back to my fellow Vatican agents who seemed to drop have forcefully forgotten the event prior I started a rundown of our operating routine
"Alright you two, listen up" my voice felt like it was much more serious as I intended, but I continued none the less when they looked to me just as serious "since you two haven't actually trained in operating with the division I'll run down how we perform in the field" the two stood to attention, I smiled before continuing
"We act as unit, max number of three per team, small manoeuvrable unit that hits hard when needed and leaves when the jobs done" I paused so to see if they understood, all I got was two firm nods "we use hit and run tactics, nothing more and nothing less, Xenovia you've got the big sword so you're the guard breaker you see anything in need of smashing then give 'em hell" Xenovia nodded before I turned to Irina "Irina you're good in speed runs and quick retreats so you're my runner, if I need something down quick and it's in your power then I expect it down to the best of you ability, understood?" she seemed taken aback by my serious tone but she nodded seriously anyway
"yes senpai!" there's the Japanese decent kicking in, I hadn't realized it but whenever she uses Japanese in her sentences it means she's "in control" as in her emotions are in check
Excellent!
"Alright then ladies... let's get a move on" once we got our rolls down we high tailed it to the exit and hulled ass down stairs
-XxXxXxX-
The situation outside was hell, the forces of the exorcists and the fallen angels were at a near stalemate and it seemed no side was giving in, I had long since classified our situation as a powder keg, any slip in defence and this could go a thousand miles south to FUBAR
The number of fallen seemed to vary but I could tell we were outnumbered but we could still hold. I had yet to see a leader class take the field however, all that came in were single winged and maybe a few four winged fallen but it didn't seem to alter the Gatling guns efficient crowd control, almost every two winged fallen that got unlucky was almost torn to shreds by the gun emplacement but the few that did make it through found themselves locked in combat with the many close quarters exorcists outfitted with various swords and blunt force weapons
It was a serious warzone out here
"Isaac!" called out Xenovia as she pointed at a small squad of fallen bearing down on our position
Two of the three fallen summoned a set of light spears of different color before they threw them towards me and Irina
In a flash of movement the light spears shattered before they hit their mark courtesy of my quick Iaido sword skills, the three fallen seemed shocked but they only quicken their pace towards us, they'd try CQC instead
Not exactly a good choice
The three fallen were unaware as Xenovia kicked off a wall and used her lower body strength to kick off the wall and hurl herself at the fallen at impressive speeds
The first chosen target Xenovia had sped to received a powerful thrust of a massive sword into his upper torso while a second one received a quick round house kick mid air due to Xenovia spinner herself on her blade handle, a audible crunch resounded signifying a broken noise
When her damage was done Xenovia looked to the third fallen whom had finally realized his allies had been engaged quicker then he'd even noticed
"Die priest" he yelled but it was all he got out before a long gash appeared on his chest
Irina landed a good distance from the third fallen and swiped her blade to clean it of the blood she had received from her attack, the wounds on the fallen seemed more fatal when Irina finally sheathed her blade
"Gahhhh" coughed the fallen as he fell from the sky, dead before he touched the ground
By this time I finally started to realize the sheer amount of brawls all around us, thinking quickly I signalled a regroup sign with my finger swirling in the air, the two quickly bound back to me and remained in ready positions
"Our duty is the retrieval of wounded if at all possible, when you get the chance ask anyone if there are any of our people pinned down and we'll retrieve them!" I yelled, the loudness of the brawl and gun fire made it exceptionally hard to communicate
"Hai!" came Irina's affirmative; Xenovia just turned to me and nodded
Soon we were moving, our location was a couple blocks from the actual defensive line were a large brawl of fallen single sets fought professional veteran exorcists we seemed to be holding but I knew a party crasher was in bound and it seemed he was taking his sweet time in getting here
Pretty soon the three of us spotted a cluster of fallen surrounding a small contingent of gunmen and women inside a small cabin sized building down the road, with a flick of my wrist I sent a signal finger towards the four fallen
"Irina, you're up" the level of chaos wasn't enough for me to lose focus so I took a small chance in tossing some last minute training into Xenovia and Irina's first division operation
The two didn't even say anything as Irina took off, she may as well be the fastest female exorcists in her grade and her favoring of a katana class weapon helped complement that aspect perfectly. In a quick flurry of sudden movement the fallen angels had zero time to avoid the quick none life threatening slashes that left large none lethal gashes on their torso's however a single fallen was much more weaker from the others and happened to find the gash lethal and fell from his squad of four
He bled out on the ground below
Then came Xenovia, her weapon was large and looked reminiscent of the "buster sword" I've seen in many weapon replica stores, its bladed wasn't as massive and looked more narrow and slightly longer then what I remembered and its blade was much thicker then the handle
All this sword did was almost shred any targets defense if they were dumb enough to actually block instead of dodge, I hadn't really asked Xenovia her reason of favoring the "breaker sword" but it did a great job in breaking guards, first time I sparred with her I made the mistake of blocking and reaped my mistake through a sore, almost sprained, wrist
Sure did break my guard though, damn near broke my wrist
Xenovia moved slower then Irina but her speed meant nothing if her opponents were either off balance or too busy with turning their aim towards a target opposite of where Xenovia was making her charge
The first fallen seemed to realize he was being flanked and quickly turned to respond, however his arrogance had almost ordered him to block and not dodge like a skilled fighter and he suffered almost as bad as I did but instead he got the worst case scenario
CRUUUNNCH!
The fallen may have the advantage over humans with their superior strength and speed but that meant jack when it came to our similar defense prowess, and single set fallen were no exception to this fact. The fallen had set his hand against his light spear/sword for added defense, hoping his strength would be enough to overpower the momentum built by Xenovia's "breaker sword"
Horrendous mistake
The wrist of the fallen almost completely folded in haft as the massive sword dwarfed the fallen's yellow light spear and with the force behind Xenovia's swing, almost completely shattered the fallen's spear/sword
"AHHH!" he yelled as the momentum built behind Xenovia's swing sent the now unfocused fallen flying down towards the small contingent of exorcists who no doubt would finish Xenovia's job
A single gunshot confirmed that theory
Using the weight of the fallen that she had just sent to his doom Xenovia pulled her sword in the opposite direction and spun mid air towards the second last fallen whom wasn't as unprepared as the first and quickly dunked under her swing but he never expected to receive a follow up kick to his jaw
With Xenovia's momentum off course she allowed the sword to carry her to the ground below while Irina switched with her and quickly did a second pass
"Damn bitch!" yelled one of the fallen as a second gash was seen on his back this time
Before the two fallen could regroup to attack Irina I stepped in and sped past the fallen
The fallen seemed to be frozen in place but the appearance of ten more gashes, deeper than the ones Irina dealt, appeared and caused them to fall to the floor dead
Click
Softly sheathing my sword calmly I looked to the contingent of exorcists within the cabin
"Everyone alright?" I asked out loud over the distant gun fire and yelling
A single un-damaged female exorcist quickly left the cabin and stepped in front of me "For the most part we are, we have wounded and a few in a critical state" she said through a worried set of eyes
Aside from contrary belief not all exorcists are hardened individuals with impenetrable consciousnesses, they may face against the unknown daily but that didn't mean they weren't still "human" and the women before me was a good example of that
Any other person in a warzone like this wouldn't face emotions such as worry or nervousness openly as it could end one's life but since exorcists weren't soldiers it was much more common and a single male exorcist with a silver ring on his wedding hand and a stomach wound had helped me understand the women's fears
"Irina, Xenovia, prepare to escort the wounded" I beckoned, the two still remaining alert quickly dropped their guards and ran into the cabin, this was a standard training exorcise for everyone in the Vatican
Exorcists aren't just assassins dealing out god's word and retribution via blade or bullet but we actually, more than likely, specialize in search and rescue... of supernatural occurrences or course
And this was almost drilled into our cranium since day one
Xenovia and Irina made quick efficient work of any untreated field dressing before they helped the low man power escort the less mobile wounded with stretchers while others simply had a shoulder to lean on
"We'll help you escort them to safety" I said calmly while glancing towards the front gate, a flurry of movement and I spotted a group of exorcists run up to the gunner's position which caused me to sigh in relief
I was prepared to help if it was necessary and I feared my decision to divert from helping the tiring gunner had me think I was abandoning him to die, good thing my worry was short lived
"Thank you" muttered the female exorcist before she moved to help the man with a gut wound
Normally a wound that critical would be considered a lost cause but I knew the church officials had magic on our side to help heal a wound like his
Soon after I had Irina and Xenovia help carry the wounded I took point along a few exorcists, one held a set of dual wielded church grade hand cannons while another had a European sword with no guard and the last one held two light swords, he seemed injured but his angered look and determined expression kept me from asking him to "take a knee"
It'd also pisses him off if a seemingly young exorcist polity asked him to stay back
The old breed did have their reputation to uphold for the young ones and it seemed pain threshold was his daily lesson for the younger exorcist to his left
As the small squad of ours hustled through the hell zone it became well aware to the fallen that we were easy targets and as such they almost rushed us, we would have been massacred if it wasn't for the defensive line we made around the wounded
Any unlucky or bold fallen would catch a bullet in either his face or somewhere lethal and fell from the sky like a wet rag doll and any fallen smart enough to classify our gunner as priority were quickly taken down by either me or any other CQC styled exorcist
During the whole escapade of escorting the wounded to the rear exit I was taking the sparse time in evaluating the situation, I made it curtain our next stop was the gunner as I'm sure he's wishing a retreat is in order
Due to the defensive lines effectiveness most of the invading fallen were almost completely cut in haft, there was a small chance of a leader class invading but I highly doubted it, fallen captains don't particularly like hanging back when a fight is presented, they usually cut loose as much as their fellow man so if one was here I would have already noticed by now
BANG! BANG!
The exorcist beside me reported two more shots concluding two fallen's lives permanently before he clipped in two more magazines into his weapons and continued to lay down suppressive fire, one fallen had attempted to bound in on our rear but the dual wielding light swordsmen quickly jumped in and cleaved both his wings off, by the time we rounded the corner to the rear exit the support fire from the Gatling gun emplacement finally started to repel more fallen with its massive calibre rounds
I was glad I had managed to help escort every exorcist we had found, I had expected some casualties but I was heavily relieved we hadn't and now my fellow Vatican agents and I were watching them enter the rear entrances
"Thank you again father, we are in your debt" called out the female exorcist, I simply nodded firmly before me, Irina and Xenovia turned tail and ran back down the road we came in by
Xenovia stopped at the Gatling guns weapons cache and quickly pick up two belts of ammo and hoisted them over her shoulder
Gotta hand it to the two before me, they seemed like a duo of inexperienced exorcists but they were actually more opened minded then even some I've worked with
The three of us rounded the corner only to notice the road we had come down completely full of single set fallen and even a few four winged fallen, the remnants of the exorcists beforehand were completely vacant or dead
However the three of us didn't stop in our full tilt sprint, both me and Irina quickly un-sheathed our weapons and gunned it ahead of Xenovia whom was weighed down by the ammo belt
"More exorcist scum, eradicate them!" beckoned a loud voice, from behind the large platoon of fallen I spotted a six winged fallen point towards the three of us with an expression of conviction
'Found a lieutenant class' I thought while I locked my rush into his direction
Due to our predicament of one of our squad members being weigh down both me and Irina had no choice but to rush through them and deal lethal hits as best as we could, Xenovia may be weighed down but her swing carried more force than Irina so any stragglers she may leave would be dealt with by Xenovia
"Engage!" I yelled and in a flurry of quick movement the front row of fallen fell from deep cuts courtesy of both me and Irina, two fallen staggered through our first strikes but they were quickly cut down by two swings from Xenovia's "breaker sword"
"Your sins shall be answered, amen!" bellowed Irina as she continued to cut through the fallen alongside myself
By the time a second wave came down on us the first row was neutralized efficiently, and the second line of defense met the same fate as the first
Irina ducked a horizontal swing from a fallen and quickly whipped around and swung diagonally down on the shocked fallen, ending the fallen quickly, Irina's senses were sharper then some of the other exorcists in her class so she quickly rolled to her side when a red light spear smacked into the dirt road where she formerly stood
Wasting no time in Irina's opening the fallen fired a second light spear; well he would have if I hadn't quickly relieved him of his throwing arm
"AHHH- SING
Before the fallen could finish his yell of pain I ended him with a quick swing to his throat
While I landed Irina sped passed me and sunk her blade into a fallen baring down me, with herself wide open due to her weapon being sheathed in a fallen's gut I quickly recovered from my landing and barreled past Irina and did in two more fallen who were moving in to take her out
Ripping the blade from the fallen she had stabbed Irina quickly swiped her blade clean and continued taking down fallen
Xenovia seemed the least in tuned in the action due to her carrying the ammo belt but she was considered the most muscular in her class, she may have a small form to others but she was highly capable with using heavy swords with deadly efficiency
Using the moment from her previous swing Xenovia carried her swing to a second fallen that had managed to survive mine and Irina's on slot and ended him quickly with a wet 'Thunk'. for a moment Xenovia was wide open for an attack and it seemed a fallen was well aware of the opportunity
"Die!" yelled the older fallen as he barrelled towards her open ribs
Before the fallen could manage a hit he was surprised when Xenovia poll vaulted over him when her sword crashed into the ground
Using her strength Xenovia gritted her teeth and brought her large sword to bear and swung down on the fallen that was too caught up in being shown up that he wasn't able to block let alone dodge the life ending strike that dug into his back gruesomely
"GAH" coughed the fallen before he fell over dead
Xenovia didn't give a second glance as she continued to mop up the fallen Irina or I may have missed
By this time the fallen numbers down the road dwindled down to a rough margarine it once was, and now the fallen were only ten strong instead of the fifteen or twenty they had before but this made them more rabid then before
They may have put their superior pride away but that didn't mean they weren't completely blinded by anger of their fallen brethren
During the whole of the skirmish my sword always returned to the sheath but now that their numbers became smaller as well as more sporadic the level of danger the fallen had grew immensely
Normally a fighter who grows angry gets weaker but fallen were strong in numbers and can easily overwhelm a small group of three with relative ease and add their anger made them dangerous but right now I had a contingency to cut that danger down before my allies received any wounds of critical level
By this time the fallen had grouped up in front of us causing a halt in the slaughter, both Irina and Xenovia showed they would consider the fallen's small retreat a chance to catch their breath
Xenovia and Irina seemed all but drained of adrenaline due to the stop in combat which now left them vulnerable
'Looks like I have no choice' I thought bitterly
The fallen became extremely angry when we stopped and waited for them to choose their next move, fallen by nature are extremely prideful, due to their close relation to Lucifer, the demon of pride who was once an angel, they seemed to carry his aspect closely and the sight of us inferior beings waiting for them to choose whatever action they wanted was basically us saying "do what you wish, it will not change the outcome"
So imagine what it'd feel having ten or so extremely salty fallen giving a gnarly stink eye to the three of us, and then add the amount of fuel Xenovia was adding with her silent glare was basically pouring napalm fuel on the flame
"You damn priests..." growled the six winged fallen who was almost shaking with rage but it quickly exploded a minute after "Kill them all, I want them all dead NOW!" yelled the six winged fallen who raised his hand like an executioners axe, and the effect caused every fallen to bear down on us like a platoon of javelin missiles
The two beside me seemed to ready themselves but I simply held my sheathed blade horizontally before me, a calm yet cold expression held on my facial features that, for a split second, caused the last remaining fallen to second guess their decision in charging use blindly
Time slowed down to a crawl as all sound in the immediate vicinity was neutralized and all that remained was a single sound of a blade leaving a sheath
And bright light followed after causing the fallen to faultier in their charge while both Irina and Xenovia closed and shielded their eyes from the light
Wasting zero time with my distraction I quickly changed my grip into a reverse grip and raised the blade above my head
VVVVVVVVVM
With each inch my blade was raised a charging sound could be heard and when my blade reached a reasonable height I stabbed it into the ground before me
The sound that followed would be the equivalent of a bass drop at maximum volume
DOOOOOOOOM!
The effect caused an immediate explosion of white light and from within my blade shot small light spears that sped out and impaled the fallen barrelling down on us with the force to cause the fallen to fly back with the velocity the 'javelin's' carried
Click
With the damage done the need of my blade was then confided back in the sheath and with its exposure concealed the bright light dropped letting the effects of my attack for the two to see
Their expression's were as I suspected them to be, Irina was wide eyed and probably downloading a few questions I was not going to answer while Xenovia looked actually similar to her partner, normally she doesn't let her expressions show but right now her eyes were un-characteristically large
The damage before them looked to be like a scene from a horror movie except minus the heavy amount of mutilation and blood and replacing that were pure white, translucent replicas of my sword being impaled in the fallen that were previously charging us and left most of them pinned into the brick buildings at our sides
A flurry of white particles waved around were my sword had stabbed the ground and adding to that my sheath seemed to be glowing but only for a moment before it died down
The two slowly looked to me
"What. Was. That?" they asked in almost perfect unison
I fought the desire to laugh while they simply looked to me with shocked, questioning expressions and none of them looked like they would let it go
Still didn't mean I would tell them though
"Classified, but consider yourselves duly in formed just by witnessing it" I said in returned, Irina pouted while Xenovia narrowed her eyes
"The defensive line –
I was interrupted by a light spear speeding past my cheek; if I hadn't tilted my head to the right I would've been decapitated
Turning my gaze from Irina and Xenovia I looked towards the rude little fallen who interrupted me with a cold glare, by the inspection, I saw the six winged fallen survived, I had no idea how but by the amount of damage done to him and his wings I guessed it was by a very small margin
"You are no ordinary priest are you?" the fallen all but growled out, he scan my freezing gaze before he smirked "Huh, the boss will like this one" he said while smiling darkly
The fallen was not flying nor was he wielding a light spear... guess he thought he'd fall here
"Prepare yourselves priests, the –
The fallen didn't finish, in a manner far faster than human perception could follow I disappeared from my position then reappeared back to my position in a mere second, however when I reappeared my sword was partially un-sheathed
"An eye for an eye... as they say" *click*
FSSSSSSS
The sound of blood spraying out violently echoed out as the fallen fell over after receiving twenty deep gashes in multiple locations of critical interest all over his body, the fallen angel had no idea he was dead before he hit the ground but by that time he was already passed on
I brushed my grey cassock calmly before I re-addressed my allies "now as I was saying, the defensive line is waiting for us, we need to move" the two looked like they wouldn't have it but I was similar "Now" I said quickly before any pointless questions could be asked
Both Irina and Xenovia cracked glances at each other before they fell into a lazy formation similar to an "arrow head" facing away from our destination
The two remained silent as we jogged along toward our destination, they hadn't really noticed but there were a reasonably sized amount of exorcists scattered all around our path, all of them dead by various wounds
This diverted the current topic off to another one
"These poor people" muttered Irina as she looked away from a dead female exorcists whom was holding a male exorcist, both were pinned to the ground by a single light spear, Irina did the "father and the sun and the holy spirit" gesture before she looked onward
"They'll be avenged Irina, we'll make sure of it" replied Xenovia with a level of contempt laced with her words
"I'm guessing the fallen are in league with the demon Malthus" I piped in causing Irina to look begrudgingly agreeable to my comment
"Why though, why would they go in league with a demon?" called out Xenovia questioningly
"Guess they thought there'd be a mutual benefit between them, the demon wants war and the fallen angel's always seem driven to prove their superiority between the three fractions" I mentioned evenly
"But doesn't Azazel disagree with the need of war, wasn't it his decision that caused them to pull out before the other three fractions?" muttered Irina, the sounds of conflict had died down considerably so I heard her words
"it was, but his other leaders disagreed with his choice, however, most of them started to see his decision was a wise one, only one still disagrees with his choice" I said, Xenovia said nothing while Irina gazed to me questioningly
"Kokabiel, the only other fallen angel besides, shemhazai and Baraqiel whom were mentioned in the bible, Baraqiel is the vice governor general and he agrees with Azazel through and through along with shemhazai, Kokabiel is the only leader class who is known as a liability, Azazel hasn't made precautions because of his rather... volatile personality but the Vatican has" I started
Xenovia grumbled
"The church has been following his movements for a while now and all he's done is fuel blood feuds between Youkai clans and disrupt almost anything that would strengthen the cease fire between the three races, not to mention he's been the head honcho for all of the church incursions all for a total of five years" finishing my little story Xenovia cut in
"so I guess he's behind this then" she said as more of a fact then a question "which means all of the fallen we've ended are his followers and that also means he's enacted a small war all on his own right at this moment" she continued
I shook my head however
"Not this moment, I said five years this has been happening, this may be the largest skirmish between us but there has been similar occurrences all over the world in the five years we've been hunting him" I informed, Xenovia grumbled while muttering hateful comments towards the blood thirsty fallen angel
"Hunting him? We've already ordered a tag of retribution on him?" asked Irina as we turned down a road and continued our jog... no fallen obstruction, seems the fight is elsewhere or its dying down
"from what I've heard, his hands be called even before we joined the Vatican" I said completely lying about the 'we' part, I was the one who's been order to end him if I got the chance but he's been reclusive for almost as long as the incursions on the church so I haven't gotten sight of him for five years
Sneaky bastards a small phrase to describe his 'rat' like actions
"You're kidding"
"Not really"
Irina shook her head while I kept a straight face, it was a high possible chance he was behind this but we couldn't fully assume, he was a leader class among shemhazai and Azazel so killing him would be horrible for keeping the peace but if he was a part of this little alliance then all the previously vague accusations we had on him would allow us the go ahead in ending him without the political lash backs
Azazel had the right idea of peace in mind but he was either too lazy to take action with his own people, or he believes 'reason' is still in Kokabiel's vocabulary... if it was the latter reason then I'd question the fallen angel governor's intelligence
In a manner of minutes the three of us finally arrived at the gun emplacements location and I could thoroughly say it looked like an extremely dug in emplacement, the gunner, thankfully, was still alive but the white bandages and red stains had me guess he's taken lickings here and there but he looked determined to hold the line
Spent gun shells littered the emplacements position while some wounded and or dead exorcists were seen scattered all around the emplacements position, the situation however wasn't idle as several fallen angels were engaging a select few exorcists who seemed far too tired to fight back
I wasted no time in my orders
"Xenovia head to the gun emplacement and give him the ammo, Irina assist the wounded and escort them to the building to my right!" I ordered and the two quickly jolted to their duties, Xenovia all but gunned it (no pun intended) towards the emplacement while Irina quickly picked up a wounded female exorcist and carried her towards the single level building to my right - the one we had been in before the conflict had started - before repeating the action with a male exorcist
I on the other hand barrelled towards the small contingent of exorcists battling five fallen, with the lethargic natural the exorcists were moving the fallen had opted to moving in slowly for the kill
A mistake on their part because it gave me the chance to take down their first two allies with quick and precise swipes of my sword before I began my work on the third fallen
Unsheathing my blade partially the fallen's light spear collided with my exposed blade before I forced him to keep his blade locked with my, a feasible trick which had forced him to put force into his own light sword but I didn't stay locked with him to allow his superior strength to show, instead I ducked and unlocked my blade from his the second I felt him put force into his locked blade
The effect cause him to fall off balance and I capitalized by shifting my position to be behind him and fully unsheathing my sword to carve a deep gash in his back, deep enough to reach arteries and also powerfully enough to slice his lower spine in two
If he didn't die from wounds then his damaged spin would leave him paralyzed from the waist down
The last two fallen stopped their attack on the tired exorcists and quickly turned to their immediate danger, leaving my sword unsheathed I used my scabbard to smack away a light spear while I used my sword to block and redirect and swing from a fallen angel, this knocked them both off balanced and wide open
Seeing as the fallen I had used my scabbard on was the closet and the least off balance I chose to give a single uncut swing to his neck before I turned and sliced the last fallen horizontally
Calmly I swiped my blade clean of blood before sheathing my sword, a feint but audible 'click' resounded and the previously 'frozen' fallen angels fell in two separate pieces, the fallen angel whom received the uppercut had his head roll off while the other fallen's torso fell from the waist
Their bodies hit the ground a second after I finished sheathing my sword
"Holy sh – muttered a wounded but alive exorcist as the three stared at me wide eyed, arguably expected, being that lethal as well as that 'stylish' can have that effect on the ones who are watching
It embarrasses and flatters me at the same time
"You three alright?" I asked seriously, the three before me were surprisingly "younger" than me and I could thoroughly say I was extremely glad I reached them in time
They all nodded sheepishly at me which had me sigh in relief
"If any of you are wounded then head towards the command building across the street, one of my associates with help escort you to the evacuation point" I informed, the three quickly nodded and jogged towards the building I instructed, before they left I heard one of them say to the other
"He's one of the them"
Huh? I'm one of whom? Did Altan inform his people that Vatican agents are here?
My inner musing stopped when I felt a gust of wind blow my grey cassock jacket open slightly revealing the white crucifix and wings patch on my white under cassock
'Oops' quickly I redid the strap that had kept my upper torso from view but I left the lower haft of my cassock jacket free to do the "trench coat" effect
Gotta look cool at some point heheh
With my quick field styling complete I looked to Xenovia whom was giving first aid to the gunner, this caused me to drop my amused expression and replace it with worry
"Stay with me" mumbled Xenovia as she did a tight and efficient field dressing to the almost dying gunner
His wounds looked pretty bad, a torso gash ran horizontal all across his chest signifying he had come close to falling to a light spear swipe. A few bits of what I could guess was rock was seen etched into the side of his ribs, a small crater to the gunners right side confirmed he had survived a light spear detonation, he's lucky it was a single set fallen and not anything larger or the explosion could've ripped him apart
His gut looked like it was addressed with a field dressing prior to our arrival but it looked like it needed cleaning, seeing to his assist I quickly cut the bandage before I refit a new, fresh gauze over the bleeding wound, I caught a glance at his stomach wound and guessed he'd die if he didn't reach a real medic in ten minutes
"Xenovia, he needs a medic" I said
"I know, his stomach wound was the oldest and it seems adrenaline's been keeping him alive" she replied calmly
"The gunner will die if you don't get him to safety Xenovia, go and take him along with Irina, she's escorting the other wounded" I said while pointing to Irina whom was busy prioritizing the wounded
"What about you? Wait; don't tell me you're staying behind" she said with small, barely noticeable worry
"Yeah, what of it?" I replied with confusion
"You'll fall if you don't have backup" she growled at my obvious fake confusion
"And what kind of prodigy falls from a bunch of single set fallen?" I asked in return, Xenovia just looked to me with a unimpressed expression, one I returned but with more flamboyancy in it
I simply put my hand on her head and smiled confidently "I have been trained in doing operations of this level solo ya know" I said but she still stared at me calmly
*sigh*
"You do realize with the amount of time you waste in staring at me with those passionate eyes Xenovia, you waste the time you can spend in getting the wounded to safety and then return to me before the fallen regroup" I said finally, Xenovia blushed at the 'passionate' part before she growled at my words
"Fine... But don't you dare die" she said while lifting the gunner up
"~Aww, Xenovia-Chan you're so cute when you're angry~" I gushed teasingly with a hand on my cheek I add in the Japanese because I heard it affected her most, I don't know if it was weird or just plain outta character of me but the effect it had, had caused Xenovia to widen her eyes and blush the deepest shade of red I had ever seen on a blueberry
"S-s-shut up" was her feeble reply of embarrassment before she raced after Irina whom seemed highly confused of Xenovia's speed and red composition
Irina was so confused she didn't even look back to see if I was following, yeah sure it hurt a little bit but it was better than talking Xenovia down then Irina, I could just tell she would have absolutely nothing of what I'd say and she'd simply drop Anker then leave any allies behind so with her oblivious of my apparent 'sacrifice' had me better off then explaining the situation to a more teenaged female then Xenovia
Hey Irina had a more loving life the Xenovia! It's obvious she'd act more her age then the blue berry badass.
By the time the two bound the corner towards the rear of the castle I remained at the front gate, sounds of remnant battles scattered the castle but they were too small to leave any long lasting sound to break the silence and suspense I was felling
I knew who was coming, I just knew it
"Don't leave me in suspense... Malthus" I said to no one but myself but I could tell he heard me
A cold chill ran down my spine when a small and feasible gust of wind rush through the destroyed gate towards me, I heard it, the footsteps of a single individual slowly and methodically came closer to the gates entrance way but I couldn't see who it was, a black cloud covered my view passed the gate so my imagination ran wild
Then came clapping, slow but loud
"So you were waiting for me huh?" questioned a distorted voice, by the sound of it, it seemed the person speaking was all around me
I didn't answer
"Oh? The silent type? How rude, even after I chose to spare the blue haired girl you still give me attitude tsk, tsk, tsk, very rude indeed" continued the voicebut my eyes narrowed dangerously
"You would've 'tried' demon but it wouldn't happen, not on my watch" I replied keeping curtain my attention was spread all around me
"There we go! You actually spoke haha! I was beginning this was gonna be one of those fights... ugh the drama that would entail" this demon loves his own voice it seems
Again I remained quiet and simply glared in any direction the voice sounded strongest
"Gone quiet again? Aw for fu – ya know what, enough with the spooky voice scene, CUT!" yelled the demon, and when he yelled 'cut' every shadow in the area that stood out to much quickly vanished and turned to smoke and raced to one spot
And pretty soon a cloud of black smoke built itself up near the entrance of the gate and quickly curliest into a human figure
"There... we... go" mumbled the demon as its 'real' form came into my vision
He stood almost the same height as myself and had short messy black hair, he look a tad bit older then myself but none the less still looked young, he wore a black overcoat over top a black dress shirt and grey designer vest, and he also wore black dress pants and shoes with a few accessories concealed from view
"Much better, feels better being out in the open then stuck in that sister's body" he mumbled with a normal voice, my hand tightened painfully when the implication of his words hit me
"What did you do to Amelia?" I asked quietly, a dangerously cold tone following
"Huh? Where those passionate emotions come from? Oh! Now I get it! You're wondering if I left that poor little sister alive" he said energetically, a kind of energetic I was not tolerating in the least
So I showed him how serious my question was
VVVVVVVVV... SHING
A highly condensed vertical wave of unknown energy sped pasted the demons side and went through the massive gate behind him, a moment later and a section of the gate slid off like it was cut cleanly by a laser sharp knife
The demon smiled "Ah, seems that may be a delicate question" he said before he glanced back to the gate
"My, my, that would've hurt... I may even could consider that life threatening" he said with a tone of amusement "you are an interesting man, Isaac Blackburn... if that is even your name" he said as he looked to me like I was an interesting specimen
"Your soul is far brighter than all the others, hell, I could even see you as one of them" he started before he began to walk in circles around me
With each step he continued like I wasn't a threat in the least
"That attack you just used isn't possible for a mere human to be able to do, maybe a legendary spirit but I highly doubt it, that was just a simple swipe of your blade was it not?" he asked while I kept my eyes locked on his calm orange orbs
"No answer? Fine, I'll poke around more then... party pooper" he mumbled the last part but I heard it
"Then comes the next part... oh I like this, seems your way older than your little friends over there" he said before he looked to me like I'd have any sort of reaction
"Tsk... you're seriously boring ya know that right?" he said with a bored and disappointed tone while placing his hands on his hips
"Was I supposed to entertain you demon? Cause I see no need in drawing out an inevitable fight" I replied with a bitter tone "you also haven't answered my question, so why don't you just spill it so we can get on with this"
"She's dead num nuts" he said giving me a glance while he turned to look out to the landing pad "thought it'd be obvious, ya know... a demon like me alone on a plane with one girl and two chicken shit pilots, the pilots were boring but the sister was much better"
He stopped when a very cold sensation filled the area and for a moment he actually looked apprehensive
"Oh, I forgot to mention... you're the possessor of that" he said while he looked to me with readiness
I didn't give a damn what he said, his laid back yet psychotic personality only made my killing intent flood the field more as the images of the little boy passed by my mind and then came Amelia's terrified, sad and pain expression
"Your journey ends here Malthus" I announced causing the demon before me to smile dangerously
"So you know my name... didn't realize that until now" he muttered before a cloud of smoke covered his right hand, a second later and a hilt-less double edged sword was seen being held in his hand
"Alright Isaac, I'll play a few rounds with ya but I can't stay for too long, I kinda have this thing I need to attend with a curtain sword fragment" he hinted with a knowing smile
"I said it once and I'll say it again... Your journey ends here"
"If you wish to fulfill that then come at me! My time is short and so is your window of opportunity!" by this time his orange eyes were now fully blazing like in the video recording and his smile was turning crazed "so quit talking and attack me!"
As if his words were an order I broke into a full tilt sprint towards him, hand firmly placed on my sword poised to strike when in range
"Let's get ready to rummmmmmmblllllle!" he yelled insanely while readying his own sword
When I got within range I unleashed my attack at maximum power
In a similar fashion as the one move I used on Raynare I disappeared from view only to be seen on the other side of the demon who was quiet surprised to see he had lost track of me, but only for a second
"Sneaky priest" he muttered before he made a burst of black smoke cover his form in order to protect him from the blade storm that unleashed itself all around him
"Try harder Isaac! Simple tricks like that only work on weaklings... and it seems even they can avoid that attack" he said out loud while muttering the last part
Simple demon ability, it's easy for them to read the memories of others if their powerful enough and this guy is close in power to a maou right now... he is a prince of hell after all
Before he could recover I used my unnatural speed to appear before him and bring my blade down on him to whom he blocked easily, the effect of our blades colliding caused a powerful boom to resound and a rain of sparks sprang out
Quickly I disengaged and sped around the demon with speed that created after images of myself all around, the demon simply smiled
"So it seems your actually gonna show me your potential and not keep those real tricks of yours hidden" he said with a tone akin to happiness
"If you keep talking, you may lose that tongue of yours" I said calmly
He laughed
"You got attitude, a like that"
To show his level of happiness he swung horizontally which caught me completely off guard due to it actually coming straight at me
BOOM
The loud thoom of our blades resounded again as I had no choice but to block his swing, we didn't stop their however, before we kept our blades locked we unleashed a volley of swings in any direction causing multiple booms to explode out from our swords collision
When our strikes stopped Malthus was left open while my sword was poised to strike his open ribs
I took it
"Gah!" grunted Malthus as a deep gash was then quickly seen on his ribs
While he was distracted, I continued to land a few extra cuts and gashes to his side before a black cloud of smoke shot out to his side and soon enough a plate of dirty silver armor covered his ribs on both sides
'What the?' I questioned before I ducked a vicious swing from Malthus before I felt a follow up kick impact my solar plexus, the added force of his supernatural strength caused me to rocket back a few feet all the while leaving a trench in the ground
"You little – that hurt!" he yelled out with anger, but it seemed child - like more than genuine anger
Standing from my place in the ground I brushed off my cassock before I looked to him impassively and analyzed the physical changes
For the most part I must've dealt considerable damage as he completely covered his lower body with armor plating that covered his stomach, ribs, and lower back, everything else was still exposing the fashion clothing
Before he could start talking again I disappeared from my spot and reappeared behind him but I froze when he was already swinging towards me, thinking quickly I repurposed my swing to block his horizontal one causing a boom in responses
However Malthus responded by extending his other hand and summoned a second similar sword in a split second and sent that sword at me in the other direction
Seeing as I couldn't block I put all my strength into my legs and jumped over Malthus before I could be bisected
WOOOOSSSHHHH!
The effect of his swung sword caused all loose rock in the direction of his swing to fly back at the force produced
'Jesus' I muttered, Malthus quickly and unnatural, jerked his head in my direction with a look of stoic anger covering his expression
For the first time in this fight Malthus moved from his spot across from me, however, 'moved' couldn't truly describe it, more like 'sprinted madly' towards me with a look akin to bloody murder was a better description
His speed was great and my hesitation at his sudden expression change left me frozen, so all I could do was block his incoming double swing
Placing my scabbard and sword side by side I positioned them in front of the two swords and accepted the incoming strike with bated breath
BOOM!
Because of my unbalanced natural of being caught unprofessionally off guard I wasn't properly foot to accept the supernaturally strengthened baseball swing and it showed considerably as I was sent careening towards a building down the street
CRASH!
Rather than slam painfully against the brick wall and grind to a back breaking halt, the brick wall behind me caved in almost like a cushion though it still forced the air out of my lungs
*cough* *cough*
My back throbbed at the physical trauma and my lungs heaved at the lack of air, my strength remained as it was but my equilibrium was off considerably
"Oh come on! Don't tell me your still holding back!" yelled a voice, no doubt it was Malthus
I ignored him and focused on regrouping my senses, I had no idea where I landed all I know is I hit something hard and I was discombobulated
I heard the sounds of footsteps crunching broken glass a few feet away from me which caused me to look to see Malthus standing at the entrance of a completely destroyed entrance way
"Sheesh... ya look like hammered shit" he said with that smile of his
By this time the opening Malthus had left and my senses were back, my head wasn't rolling from an obvious concussion and my back was throbbing less then it was before
Seeing as the my sword was still in hand I rested it in the crook of me left elbow which was held defensively across my chest, scabbard held in a reverse grip
By this time I also distinguished my surroundings, tight corridor, pews surrounded me, they were strewn out but they tightened the already tight spacing dramatically
I was best suited to use quick thrusts and vary disciplined swings that didn't over compensate damage output and leave me open, I was in the worst position a swordsmen could find himself in... A corner
Before Malthus started talking... again, I rushed forward and swung twice in two different directions and then unloaded quick thrusts at lightning speed. Malthus responded by deflecting the swings with a stoic expression before he quickly shifted his head to avoid being run through
His response after the thrusts was to send my sword up so to see if my guard was open but I quickly dropped my sword down on his responding thrust to my gut, after my sword redirected his, Malthus used the momentum built from the redirection in order to come back around the opposite way and drop a vertical sing down towards my open neck
Responding quickly I raised my sword and locked my sword with his, before I could do anything I quickly remembered his second sword, Malthus saw this and quickly thrusted his second sword to my open gut
However, his thrust was redirect by me pushing my reverse griped scabbard into his swords thrust causing it to sink into the massive stone crucifix behind me instead, seeing as this caused a very small opening I twisted from the locked blade and switched my sword grip into a reverse grip and without hesitation I thrusted the sword behind me
Hearing a grunt and a wet Thunk I quickly retracted my sword and flipped over the shocked and now kneeling Malthus before sheathing my sword
The sight before me was a ironic one; Malthus sat kneeling with blood leaking out of his stab wound while a massive stone crucifix sat before him
"It's over Malthus" I said while keeping distance from him
"Ha...haha...hahaha" he laughed while lifting his head so to look at the crucifix "that was so damn cliché hehehehe, I didn't have to try and I'd known you'd say that" he commented while giggling
"Your fallen forces are all but scattered and defeated, your goal to reigniting the Great War is all but over, so why the laughter?"I said and Malthus stopped laughing and glanced back to me
"for a moment I thought you'd be more open minded" he started sounding disappointed "not once have we met prior to this yet you immediately knew my name the minute we actually faced and I know for sure you know what that name entitles right?" he asked calmly but it sounded... gitty, like he was excited for something
"Where are you going with this?" I asked while keeping my hand on my sword handle, something isn't right. Malthus simply titled his head. Confused
"Don't you remember?" he asked before starting up again
"All men can see these tactic's whereby I conquer, but what none can see is a strategy out which victory is evolved. Be extremely subtle, even to the point of soundlessness thereby you can be the director of your enemies fate... all warfare... is based off deception" he quoted while his smile grew larger, and I knew what he meant but when I chose to take action everything went black
The last thing I saw before I passed out from the pain was Malthus's kneeling form dispersing in a black mist before a second pair of dress shoes stood over my falling form
"Sleep tight... Isaciel"
A/N:
Well shit, ok so for this chapter we learn a few things, Isaac is a _ and his real name has been present as well (I – Za – Kiel) if you don't know exactly how to pronounce it then copy and paste it into Google translate and have the computer say it out loud... English that's just a reminder cause it doesn't have no fancy language being its base and we get to see more of Malthus
Did you like the encounter? I did, it was fun to write! Demons are by nature extremely arrogant but they have grounds to be that way and this allows me to right a dialogue set completely off the serious track, I always like a villain who is extremely nutty but absolutely funny at the same time, Vaas was a good villain cause he was 'funny' at some points while the joker can be as well
Batman Arkham knight had helped me fully appreciate the Jokers charisma
Ok so forgetting the new villain I have I want everyone to take one big guess on what Isaac is, I've been hinting it a few times all throughout my story so far and I chose now to reveal it partially cause I've been asked a few times who exactly he is or what he is... understandable yes, I've once been brought to near insanity by one story that seemed to find it exceptionally hard to reveal any sort of character related secret and so I learned to not hold character secrets to long ;)
Seriously, if you haven't figure it out yet then Imma question my hinting skills -_-
To add to the string of twists, yes I'm sure you've notice that Isaciel does have a sacred gear, though what it is exactly will be left for a later chapter (next one or the one after maybe)
And to add a visual aid to the ability Isaciel used against the ten fallen angels was reminiscent to the game Warframe, the frame Excalibur uses a final ability called "radial javelin" and it does as the story had preserved it as ;) impale the crows!
Now I'd like to address the harem members being added into the list
Currently I have: Rosswiesse, Gabriel, Irina, Serafall, Xenovia and maybe Yasaka
Sona I'm gonna turn her down as she's an overused harem member in my opinion, their isn't many fanfic's out there that ignore the girls in Rias' peerage and there's always at least one of them in a harem *ignores Xenovia being in the harem completely* and so I'm gonna slowly set that done calmly and gently before I anger the Sona fans out there
Wait a minute, this reminds me of something
Yeah now I remember! Side pairings
Currently I don't even register Sona as a real character as she just... shows up, whenever the writer feels it necessary, third season just had her show up to face a GOD and that was just... just no, not to mention... she's a bloody stick in the none existent mud, Isaciel may not show it but he's way more laid back then Sona so they'd probably not have any chemistry, maybe as friends but other than that it'd wouldn't be anything romantic
She hasn't actually gotten any screen time as well. I didn't even know they were in the underworld let alone relevant to third season, I thought third season was all about pair of tits #1's jealousy problem
Anyways, I'm gonna be a nice writer and I'll let saji's dream in getting her pregnant come true
*Crazy perverted scream in the distance*
Ooook then, adding into that is a subject I had never really focused on since I started this story and that is Gabriel
First before people ask when her debut Is I'll say she has already made an appearance, a very small one but I like small hints in stories and she will be making her debut soon (maybe one or two chapters away)
And then comes a personality change to her as well, it'd be considerably annoying to write a harem with a chick who has no idea she's in one so imma change her personality a tad bit, she won't be the cliché dumb blonde character Japan likes rolling like a sweat roll and instead she'll have a brain, instead of 'two' if ya know what I mean
I read her character bio and I was confused when I read 'wise' and 'ignorant'... wat? How the heck can you be wise yet ignorant at the same time!? Last time I check 'ignorant' means a lack of experience and knowledge while 'wise' means the complete opposite
Come on wiki writers, stop dropping the ball! Your my only source of knowledge
I'm also modifying her 'dense' nature as well to a more adorable level then unrealistically retarded, she'll now what pervert means and she'll know what sex means as well, I mean she's lived how long and she hasn't learned that stuff yet
My brother starting knowing more stuff about sex then even my dad at the age of 12, ya I know, school isn't all sun shine and lolly pops parents so for a multi century old being like her she should know some stuff so it won't be totally awkward
And then comes... lemons!
Hell ya I'm making lemons! And one of them is with two angels (a system change is in order for this but I'll get to that later)
Ok
Read and review ya beautiful reviewers ;)
In the mean time imma edit the shiiiit outta this chapter... peace ;)
