"You killed someone I liked…"
The fallen angel quickly got over his initial worry at the extreme amount of power that poured from the boy in front of him. A cocky smile formed on his face and he summoned a rather oddly shaped spear at his side.
"Yeah? What of it? I planned to kill her from the start! Since the second I requested her to come here! If you want to blame someone, blame God. He was the one that allowed her to have the sacred gear 'Twilight Healing.' Don't let it worry your pathetic, fragile human heart. You'll be joining her soon enough." The fallen angel laughed. He thought killing her was nothing more than a game…
Issei rushed to the girl and grabbed her hand in his.
"Issei?" she said desperately. She was scared. And Issei didn't know what to do, his chest began to ache, and his eyes began to burn as he looked at the girl.
"It's okay… I'm here with you. You'll be alright, okay Asia?" Issei said to her, trying to keep the girl speaking until someone came to help her.
"Issei… it hurts. And… I can't see you. Why can't I see you?" She said, struggling to speak through her own pain and loss of blood.
"Don't worry about it, I'm here with you, I promise. Everything will be fine, Asia. I cannot let you die without you knowing you are cared for. You have me and many others, even if you are not aware of it. You'll be fine, just stay with me for now…" he said to her, trying to sound as smoothing as possible.
"Issei… you don't have to lie to me. I already know what happens next…" the girl said, squeezing his hand with the last of her strength as her voice began to fade into an audible whisper. "will you be my friend? I've always wanted a friend… someone kind and caring like you."
That was what squeezed his heart strings. Being beside someone in their dying moments was something he did not want to experience again. He could not bring himself to accept the reality of the situation he found himself in, what if it were anyone else in this girl's shoes? What if it was Kunou? What if it was Yasaka? Could he even be able to handle it? He couldn't and he knew it.
"Yeah… of course we are friends. And when this is all over, when you survive this, we can go and eat out somewhere nice, maybe see a movie like true friends, doesn't that sound nice?" Issei said, trying desperately to keep the girl with him alive and striving to survive. His book appeared before him and flipped through its own pages and landed on a page dedicated to healing spells and properties.
"I've only ever eaten bread and soup with noodles… going to eat with you… sounds wonderful." The girl said, just as tears began to trickle down the sides of her face. "Issei… thanks for being kind."
And that was it. He wasn't fast enough to heal her. The nicest, kindest girl he had ever met was dead on the ground in a puddle of her own blood in a church. The same building where she had dedicated her entire life to this point, and it was all because he was too stupid to tell her otherwise even when he knew the dangers the church held. He could have saved her if he wasn't so careless… and the girl called him kind. He wasn't kind, he wasn't even nice. If he were kind… he would have saved her because it would have been the right thing to do.
He should have felt anger, he should have felt sadness as he listened to the last of the girl's breaths leave her lips, but he felt none of those things. It was like he was used to the feeling. Her hand went limp and fell to her sides. Why… why did he have to be so careless? Why couldn't he have just saved the girl when he knew there was a problem? What was wrong with him? Why couldn't he have been fast enough to heal her?
Issei had tried so desperately to remain emotional, but something inside him that he thought he did not have begun to crawl its way out. The Id inside his innermost, darkest thoughts began to float outward and project itself into his actions. Where there should have been extreme anger was nothing more than blankness on his face. Everything felt so familiar to him.
He kept his composure, but the vile of his energy seeped through his pores as a red mist that lingered in the air around him for a period of time, but it never reflected on his face. Soon enough, the energy that had seeped around him in an ominous twisting way began to shift once more, flowing around his body before concentrating around his hands to form a dense black and red aura that began to twist and move with a mind of its own. From a distance, it was just a red space around his hands that impaired its surrounding colors. In the astrophysics, the energy that formed around Issei's hand was causing what was known as an 'Event Horizon:' the boundary around a spinning singularity that no light or radiation could possibly escape.
And the mass in his hand that began to have only the feintest of motions, was created from the depths of his darkest thoughts, a collection of all his magic mixed with the most violent force of nature and energy he could imagine in the universe.
He successfully created something that could take everything light based and consume it indefinitely. Essentially… he had created the exact opposite of light magic. Something that could consume light endlessly, and so, so much more.
He took several steps forward past Asia, the mass moving with him, the silence of the church pressed closer with each step, which was horrifying for the two other fallen angels who dared to hang from the rafters of the church's internal structure.
"Why did she have to die?" Issei asked, his voice steady and low.
"Haa? What the fuck is up with that? Did you not listen to a single damn word I said? Hahaha. I will laugh at this. You could get a reward for being funny. And stupid. Funny and stupid! I mean wow, a lowly human who knows some flashy magic can't even listen to basic things. Okay then, listen carefully you shitty little excuse of an already pathetic existence. Your pathetic little power that you use is demonic in its own nature, which means some devil, somewhere, has taught you how to use it. That makes you a threat to angels like me, well… not a threat, but fun prey, nonetheless. As soon as you picked up that torch you sacrificed your pathetic humanity. That's why you are going to die along with this girl. Since we can't have her running around healing devils, she needs to die. And now you will too. Call it… being in the wrong place at the wrong time." The deranged man screamed, not knowing the danger he was in.
The priest fallen pulled a sword and gun out from under his coat and held it so Issei could see.
"Behold! The weapons that I am going to kill you with! I'm going to stab you in the heart with my spear of light and blow your ugly head away with my gun!"
Before Issei could react, the gun was pointed at him, and there was smoke coming from the gun. His left calf had taken the hit. He fell to the ground to support himself. This pain… was nothing compared to what he had already been through. Nothing compared to the pain the girl behind him had went through. And it was nothing compared to that night when his parents were taken from him.
"How is it!? The special bullet made for the Exorcists, the bullets of light! And it doesn't make any sound since it's a bullet of light. This is turning me on, is it turning you on? I'm sure it's turning the both of us on, isn't it?"
The pain of light. It was a lingering, burning pain that shot through his body in wave after horrible wave. The blood that was splattered on the ground was a clear indication that he had been shot, and the hole in his calf was bleeding profusely. He knew, looking at the blood that coated his pant leg, that even if he were to use fire in an attempt to cauterize his wound, it wouldn't work… and even so, why use fire when he could just use the healing spells in his book?
He stood, the mass of red energy still coating his hands that was also more than capable of killing anyone in this room, even himself if he screwed up. But he pushed through the pain in his leg and concentrated his thoughts to the power alone as it flowed through him. Perhaps if he was better at multitasking, he could simultaneously heal his leg and keep the energy from losing control. But… now wasn't the time to test his own capabilities, especially when he was fighting alone and surrounded.
"Oh? Still feel like fighting? Look at you… you are outnumbered. It's a three versus one." The male said with a laugh, just as the two fallen angels took another step away from him. They seemed unsure of their own actions and didn't make any attempt to attack him.
"You are right. I'm outnumbered… but you are severely outmatched." Issei said, looking at the fallen as more of his energy began to pour out and around him in a thick mist.
The male lunged at him, sword drawn and ready to slash, but just as the blade was about to connect, Issei moved his hand, the energy following and absorbing the sword. Almost immediately, the sword seemed to stretch into the redness of the energy, turning the metal into a silhouette as it did, it broke the sword down into nothing and vanished in seconds, showing the terror that such power could cause. Just as the sword was destroyed, the man's arm unfortunately connected with energy, and just as it did, the fallen angel coiled away in extreme pain.
The fallen angel had his arm ripped away at his shoulder, and from the movement, blood sprayed over Issei and coated his torso. He looked down and saw immediately that the gun of the fallen angel priest was at his left foot. He also noticed that the hole in his calf from the bullet had been healed without a single trace left that it was ever there to begin with. His eyes traced the blood on the ground of the church that led to the man, and his eyes, which glowed brown with a hint of golden glimmer pierced the darkness around him and judged the man before him with animosity.
The energy formed from anger and hatred that surrounded Issei began to grown so thick you could almost taste it in the air, and it made the air hard to breathe as the two angel that stood to his side began to back away in complete fear at what Issei had done to the fallen that had taken control over them from his sheer power alone.
And now, the two angels saw the rage, vanity and vile from a creature far more powerful than all of them combined. They had unleashed hell upon themselves and they could only watch as it delivered its punishment. And the boy did exactly that, not allowing any more words to be spoken between anyone in the building. And the scariest part, was the lack of expression on his face. He didn't frown and he didn't look upset. It was the expression of a stone-cold killer and the combinations of power and expression scared them to their cores.
They watched as the boy moved in half movements. He dragged his right foot outward and placed it in front of him, almost like he was drawing a half circle and lowered his center mass slightly. His arms moved with the movement, almost like he was trying to rotate the energy around in his hands. He followed the initial movement with a second, this time moving his left foot around in the same direction, drawing three-fourths of a circle and lowering his center gravity to the ground even further like he was performing a stretch. His arms moved like water through the motions with his body, and just as his left foot planted, his arm slashed upward, and just as it did, a blade of the red energy slashed out with the movement.
They watched in horror as the blade of energy connected with the male and took his other arm off so fast and clean that he didn't seem to notice until he heard the sound of his arm hit the floor. Just as the man noticed the blood that covered the other side of his body, the horror on his face become so twisted it terrified the two other fallen angels as well. The fallen angel fell to the ground and landed on his knees with enough force to dislocate them, and the boy gave another half circular movement, planting his left foot as his left arm swung around with his foot and gave another slashing movement. However, the angle and trajectory of this slash wasn't an upward or diagonal motion, and it was aimed at the same height as his shoulder. It was instead horizontal…
Which meant the next attack wasn't meant to prolong the pain of the fallen anymore. It was aimed for the head. And with the same sound of a meat clever cutting through meat, the fallen angel priest's head was sent tumbling to the ground as blood shot up high into the air, losing more force with each gush.
The two other angels watched the head of the man as the muscles in his face twitched and moved for close to seven seconds after it had hit the floor. The mouth moved, but words never formed and neither did sounds, its eyes locked with theirs and just as the moving of its mouth stopped, so did all other movements. The fallen angel had been executed with ease and no hesitation from the boy.
Issei stood from his stance. It was a maneuver that Yasaka had taught him to use with his sword, but he had managed to use it his own way, and the result… was terrifying. What was the point in using a sword if he could turn his magic into swords or slashing weapons themselves? What was the swords purpose?
It was a staff before he got it… why did he decide to make it a sword?
He turned and looked at each of the two fallen angels that coward away from him in fear. His brown eyes stared at them with an emotionless glow. They were scared… terrified of him. That was his power. No matter how much power he had, it always brought destruction and death. His power was the power that a monster would have.
He wanted the power for good. He wanted to use it to save people, he wanted to protect people. He wanted it so he could get revenge on the people who took his parents from him. And so far… the only thing he had done was endanger the people around him… Kunou had her life threatened, and now a girl was dead on his hands.
He couldn't even save a human girl because he was too careless to tell her not to go in this church. Because he was getting cocky with his magic. Because he thought… everything would be fine with his power. That was the worst part… how he just disregarded her life because he thought.
He was a monster.
Maybe not physically. But he was the worst kind of monster.
A monster that looked like everyone else.
The red energy began to crawl around him and dance on the light with a mind of its own. The flowing was unlike anything he had ever seen before, besides its resemblance to a roaring fire. Fury overwhelmed his thoughts and he lost himself as he stared upward at nothing. The red energy exploded around him and pulled downward, shattering the marble floor at his knees and forming a large bend in the floor around him. Spiderweb cracks shot outward around the church, and each crack filled with his energy like veins that belonged to the church.
The aura from his own magic began to envelope him slowly, his eyes tumbled in on themselves, blinding him as he developed what he could only explain to be tunnel vision. His skin felt dry and leathery, mainly due to the energy that felt as hot and dead as what he could call hell. The feeling was strange to him, he hadn't felt a heat like this since awaking in the hospital and being told he was immune to fire. And it scared him. His body spasmed and twitched, and just as soon as he thought he could not bear the trauma of his own magic's repercussions anymore, it faded away, almost like it was sinking deep into his body.
As soon as the pain faded, he looked up at them. And then looked past them. He saw something behind them, like a ghost, but they stared at him. Watched him. And they were very much alive. He spoke though, averting his eyes as though seeing them was merely a coincidence.
"It's okay… I will not hurt you. I know it is not your faults. You're both safe now." Issei tried to reassure the two girls that looked utterly terrified.
But he couldn't see what they saw. And they couldn't see what he saw behind them.
From their view, Issei was a figure shrouded in red energy pure enough to vaporize them. The ground under him had cracked under the pressure like fragile glass despite it being thick concrete and marble, and beyond that… his shadow that should have been like theirs… was what belonged to a dragon. Wings that stretched from each side of the building, darkening out the giant cross in the church, and scaly by design alone. He looked utterly terrifying, and it seemed the further he got away from them, the brighter and more piercing his eyes became.
If the angel that had forced them to obey his every command was a demon, the thing in front of them was far more. Far stronger than anyone could possibly imagine, not even the writer of a genius supernatural story could even guess at the grandeur of such power and figure. They were entranced, but not only in amazement. They were like deer in headlights, like prey watching the oncoming lights of a car at full speed with no reactive measure except to accept their fate.
And yet, the boy spared them. So much loss, anger and sadness… yet the boy had the heart to spare their useless lives.
It was kindness.
He was being kind.
And for Issei, he watched the figure behind the fallen angels with peripherals, not daring to avert his eyes away from the girls to look at the group of three ghosts. The male in the group made a feeling of fire spark inside him that made him fill with the sudden urge to attack. But he restrained himself. Now, Issei was watching intently, with questions filling his head. When had they got here? Who are they? Why are they here? Why does one girl have two cat-like tails and cat ears? And why does one look like some witch from a Wicked Wonderland (my next book)?
'Partner don't attack them. The male is the White Dragon. But be careful.' Ddraig said. He wanted to the rivalry between the two of them to end with his victory like it was meant to be, how history had planned for it to be. But he was smart about his victories. He knew his partner was able to destroy everything that stood in his way indefinitely. Hell, not even the moon would be a large enough force to stop Issei, but that doesn't mean the fight needed to happen now. No… not now.
"You… you won't hurt us?"the girl with blonde hair styled into twintails asked Issei, her blue eyes sparkling with hope and fear. Issei nodded his head.
"I promise… he isn't here to control you anymore. Can you tell me your name? Mine's Issei Hyoudou."
Almost immediately, the girl's eyes widened, and an upbeat attitude formed with her personality.
"Issei Hyoudou? You're the boy Raynare went on a date with! I'm Mittelt and this is Kalawarner, we are friends with Raynare!" the girl said, standing and approaching Issei, getting over his appearance as the magic around him began to fade away.
"You know Raynare? Where is she? Does she know about this?" Issei asked, his curiosity beginning to spike. The girl backed away at his sudden change of tone.
"Yes… and we don't know what happened to her. She didn't know about this either, she was in control of this group, but since she left… he took over with force." She explained looking down as though she were ashamed.
She didn't need to say anymore for him to understand their predicament. The bad apple of the group took over, and since he was more powerful, they couldn't fight back. It made sense.
"I'm sorry… I didn't mean to scare you. I'm just shocked... its almost like I'm seeing spirits…" Issei froze and he turned his head back to Asia who laid dead on the floor. He could save her. No, he could prolong her existence for long enough for Rias to turn her into a Devil. He rushed over to the girl, the book of Merlin forming beside him.
Almost immediately, his hands began to glow as he thought of the power he wanted to use to heal the girl of her fatal wounds. And words flowed into his head as he read the book, a healing spell powerful enough to mind the spirit world and the physical world and sever the links woven between the two.
"As I have ordered the elements, let the spirits heed to me as well. As the Heavens are order to my call, let hell be too. I am he, the dragon who has stolen the principals of domination from God." Almost instantly, the air went electric. And the power of the fallen angels began to shift from their bodies. And the three invisible figures flickered for only a moment.
"Rivers of the fountain of life and youth, spring fourth across the sky and sever the links woven between life and death." The book to his side began to glow with a green power that was far more powerful than anything that anyone in the church had seen before. The girl's body he was directing the magic into began to glow as well, and plants began to glow through the cracks in the floor below her that were formed by him.
"Heed my call heaven above and hell below, at my command, breathe into her veins life anew. Cleanse her wounds and cleanse her heart, return her spirit to her vessel and let the waters of life heal her." The chant was needlessly complex, but each phrase left him with a new result. The plants that had seeped through the cracks, began to engulf the girl and wrap around her body, almost like they were trying to consume her. But the green glow told him what it was they were doing. They had made a bed under the girl and under him as well, and the sight was truly incredible from a distance.
"Let my voice echo across the deep, and heed me: live on and be healed!" the moon shined through the glass at the top of the church and shone down onto the girl, and just as Issei finished, the green glow grew more and more, before fading away, and leaving the girl breathing gently. Her eyes opened for only a few seconds.
"Issei? …I'm so happy." She fell back into her unconscious state once more, gently breathing as she did so. The plants that surrounded him and her began to die and turn black and grey, completely void of life. The plants had breathed life into her at the sacrifice of their own existence. Equivalent exchange, a life for a life.
But he saved her… he did it.
The happiness was something he couldn't put into words. He felt like jumping around in joy without caring about the three invisible intruders or what they thought. He had done it! HE had used his power to save someone's life.
Never again would he let his negative emotions cloud his mind. He knew better than to do that. And he would never let himself fall into the slough of instinct again. He wouldn't allow it; he wouldn't let himself fall into the state where he was no longer in control of his own actions ever again. He swore to himself all these things in that exact moment of success.
And just as his incredible display of power had vanished, his family and newly made Devil friends arrived, rushing in after him. The devils stopped as they saw the two fallen angels, who quickly rushed behind Issei and used him as cover. He didn't waste any time, as he pointed at the girl surrounded in the dead plants.
"Make her a Devil."
He knew she was alive. He made sure of that for a period, but he wanted the assurance she would have a long life of nothing but friends and good experiences. She deserved that and everything more.
Chapter 23: The Winds of Change
"If there is sadness where there is an ending, there is always happiness where there is a beginning."
The streets were mostly empty in the late hours of Kuoh, but through the streets walked a group of three, two of them female and one of them male. They were here merely to collect information, but neither of them could help their own curiosity as they had passed a store selling televisions of all sizes, playing news channels for all passersby's to watch.
'The facility located close to the Sakihama River in the Kochi Prefecture has been under careful investigation since its recent destruction and strange weather that happened over it last week. Police have found several ancient artifacts, all kept in pristine condition on the first floor. These artifacts, however, appear to have religious origin from multiple religions, and trace back to the earliest civilizations on earth.'
"That's Nilrem? How? All those magicians…" came the delicate of voice of one of the girls in the group. He long blond hair and blue eyes reflecting in the glass of the building. She had a slim body with shoulder-length blonde hair. She wore a huge hat with a black bow and yellow stars, and a matching cape with pink flowers and a white interior.
"Those magic weapons, Le Fay… normal humans have them. Which means they will learn how to use them…" spoke a beautiful young woman beside the blonde. She had a voluptuous figure, long black hair with split bangs and hazel-golden eyes with slit, cat-like pupils. She wore a black Kimono, a yellow obi and a set of golden beads and an ornately decorated headband. Her kimono features a red interior and was open at her shoulders, giving a decent view of her cleavage.
"Don't lose sight of the mission you two. We are simply here to gain information about my Rival and the devils that control this area. Let the rest of our group take care of the Nilrem incident, whatever that's about, I'm sure they can handle it. And, try to keep info about me working with you to a low minimum. It would be best if Azazel does not know about me working with the Khaos Brigade." Came the voice of the male. "Now, let's get moving."
The two girls began to strike up a conversation as they followed the male.
"I wonder what he is like, Kuroka?" Le Fay asked allowed, looking at the pass buildings and let her thoughts take over.
"The Red Dragon Emperor?" Kuroka asked in response, earning a small nod from the girl who had stars in her eyes. She really looked forward to meeting the red dragon for some reason. "Well… between you and me, I've heard that he is strangely strong. Extremely strong. Though, we don't know that for sure. And since he now belongs to the Youkai, the mission of getting to him is extremely difficult."
The girl didn't say anything else in response to that. She knew it wasn't going to be an easy task by any means, but she didn't particularly worry about that. She just wanted to see the power of the Red Dragon. She wanted to learn from experience, just like her ancestors before her. She had read about Merlin in the texts passed down from her family through the generations, and she had heard amazing things about Y Ddraig Goch and the power the dragon held in its name.
They stopped moving suddenly, following the male who had his attention focused off in the distance towards something they couldn't see. And then they felt the horrible power send a shiver down their backs in waves from the direction the male had been facing. Kuroka seemed to take that power horribly, she fell to her knees in a way none of them had ever seen before.
"Kuroka? What's wrong? Vali, what is that horrible power?" Le Fay asked the male, who turned with a smile.
"That's him. Le Fay, can you use your magic to make us invisible? Our plans have changed." Vali asked, and the girl nodded just as Kuroka recovered from her moment. She began to say her chant, just as the teachings of Merlin have taught her. It wasn't necessary but being able to turn the effects of a spell into words made it easier to remember, which made it easier to cast as a result. Almost immediately, their bodies began to fade as she finished her chant, but for them, they never fully faded away.
"There we go. People can still hear us talking, and we can still barely see each other, but other people can't see us." Le Fay explained to cure their confusion as they looked between one another. She didn't mean to boast, but her spells never failed.
"Excellent. Well, let us go. Follow me and try to keep up. We are only going to watch what happens, we will not engage unless we get exposed. We need to gather as much information from him as possible." Vali said, taking off as he summoned his wings. Le Fay jumped onto her witch's broom and used her magic to make it fly, just as Kuroka jumped on as well and they chased after their fellow dragon. They weren't going to battle the red one, but it would be a good gauge of his power to see it at first glance. And Le Fay was extremely excited to see it.
…
Almost immediately after Irina arrived, Yasaka jumped into action and wasted no time. She took everyone in her group and summoned a magic circle large enough for all of them to head to Kuoh. As she prepared for the teleportation, Irina explained the situation to them. She knew that Issei would be fine, but she couldn't help but worry for him. She didn't want him to be put in danger and it seemed like recently he kept finding ways to put himself into danger. First, it was picking a fight with Riser, and now it was walking into a hostile church in a three versus one situation without any help.
She wanted to yell at him… she didn't want him getting hurt, and she didn't want to lose him. But she knew getting angry at him wasn't the proper thing to do, especially since he was able to make his own choices. She wanted him to know how she felt about it… she at least wanted that much. But what would it even matter?
She feared the moment where he moved on and away from her and Kunou. She shook her head, removing the thought from her mind, just as she along with everyone else in her group were teleported away. When they reappeared, they were in the ORC club room along with all the Devils that Issei had come to practice with, and without wasting a single breath of air, Yasaka looked at Rias and asked the question that she needed to know more than anything.
"Where is Issei?"
Rias looked at Yasaka perplexed at the question and stood from her chair to greet the girl.
"You mean he isn't with you? He left us after our training, and then we sent Koneko after him shortly after to make sure he was safe." Rias explained, looked shocked that something could have happened. The worry slowly began to appear on her face as the realization hit her. Issei was missing, and if Issei was in danger, that meant Koneko was too, and she was even more in danger than Issei. How could anyone overpower Issei?
"He is at some church that is overrun with fallen angels, do you by any chance know where that is, and can you take us there now?" Yasaka said, rushing her words as Rias searched her mind for the church in question. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, the door to the room burst open and Koneko burst in, taking sharp intakes of air.
"The abandoned church that overlooks Kuoh… Issei is in trouble!" The girl said, and Rias along with Akeno jumped to action, halting their game of chess and rushing away with Yasaka and everyone else following them. As soon as they were outside in the midnight air, they summoned their wings and prepared to take to the skies. Rias grabbed Yasaka, Akeno grabbed Irina, Kiba let Kunou on his back, much to the girl's discomfort, and Koneko grabbed Xenovia.
They took to the skies, using the darkness of nightfall to conceal their supernatural aspects. They flew over houses and buildings, letting Koneko guide them to the church, and just as it was within their view, the sound of rumbling filled their ears form the right, followed by the high-pitched squealing of a jet engine that shook their bodies. They faced the jet and paused, they had never seen a jet fly so far away from the base, and as came closer within their view they saw the red and white striped flag on the wing. It tilted on its side just as it passed them, and as soon as it was vertical of them, there came of series of flashing from the underside of the modified jet.
The flashing wasn't a good sign, but just as the jet passed them, it pulled back, and the thrust from the jet engine at full throttle blasted them backward with an incredible force. Rias knew exactly what that meant… it meant that everyone one of them had just been photographed by the American fighter jet. She hadn't learned much about human jets, she had learned a lot about cars because it had been a long time dream of hers to have a date in a nice car, but she knew enough about jets to know what it was. The F-15 fighter had found them… and now it was heading back to base at full speed to get away from them…
Their eyes all rung, and the small girl on Kiba's back held her ears from the pain of the noise, as did those who did not hold people. They quickly moved to the ground in front of the church to adjust themselves and moved to the door of the church in weary steps. The sight they saw was something incredible. Issei was covered in blood and talking to two fallen angels as if they were the best of friends. And in the center of the church, there was a blonde girl that was surrounded in dead plants.
"Issei?" Yasaka asked, moving over to him and hugging him, planting a kiss on his lips with no care at all about the others who looked perplexed that the nine-tailed fox had just made out with the Red Dragon Emperor. As they parted, Issei looked and Rias and pointed at the blonde girl on the ground.
"Reincarnate her… she has a healing sacred gear, I fear if you don't reincarnate her, my magic won't be enough to keep her here." Issei said, and Rias moved to the girl without any question. She summoned one of her magic pieces and hesitated for a second before she placed her last bishop piece on the girl's chest. She was going to make a nun a devil. There was a lot of irony in that.
She said her chant to reincarnate the girl, and just as she finished her sentence with 'live on as one of my servants, my bishop,' the room was filled with a bright red glow. Just as the glow of bright energy faded away, the piece was absorbed into the girl's chest, and the deed was done. The nun was now a devil.
Yasaka looked around at the blood covered walls and floor, as well as the cracks. She saw the fallen angel man, his missing arm, and his decapitated head resting on the floor. Thankfully, Kiba had covered Kunou's eyes to stop her from seeing the gruesome scene that she knew Issei had caused without any doubt in her mind. She looked towards the two fallen angels that Issei had clearly spared, and they stood ready as Akeno and Koneko stood ready for a fight against them.
Issei stood and moved between them.
"Stop fighting each other. The two fallen angels mean no harm." Issei said, trying to diffuse the situation.
"But Issei… they are fallen, look at everything they have done." Akeno said, gesturing to the destruction and dead man.
"They haven't done anything wrong, they were forced to obey that man before I came along. I will not let you to attack and kill each other after I just freed them." Issei said with just enough force to solidify is sternness and show Akeno he wasn't going to budge until both of them stood down. Koneko lowered her fists and took a few steps back, and Akeno developed a blush on her face.
"Aah, Issei is being assertive… that makes me feel hot." The girl said, rubbing her thighs together and pushing her bountiful chest together with her arms. Issei couldn't help but look at the girl as she did that.
"Issei!" Irina yelled from behind him, causing him to turn just as she collided with him in a hug. "Don't ever do something like that again!"
"It's okay-" Issei began, but was interrupted by Irina who yelled her frustration and sadness.
"No, it's not okay! You always say that! It's not okay, you were in danger and you sent me away! Do you know how horrible I felt? Not knowing what would happen to you in that situation, I know you are strong, but I can't let you do things alone! Not again! I won't leave you!" she yelled at him, burying her head into his chest and hitting his shoulders gently with her fists.
Issei listened intently to his childhood friend. He knew exactly how she felt… but he sent her away anyways because he thought it was the right thing to do. But he supposed the right thing to do wasn't always what was needed to be done. He returned her hug just as she stopped attacking him with her fists, and looked at Yasaka, whose eyes shined at him a pure sparkling gold. She seemed sad too.
She didn't show it, but he could see it in her eyes, exactly like how he saw into the eyes of Ddraig the night he met him in the corridors. She was scared. She was scared of losing him. She was afraid to be alone. She didn't want him putting himself in the way of harm for other people, and she didn't want him to run off into danger because it brought her own heart pain every time.
He should have saw that before. He should have just known. But he couldn't just let Asia go alone into the church. He couldn't let her be alone. No one deserved to feel alone. No one deserved to feel what he felt the night he lost his parents, and no one deserved to be told their first love never existed.
"You're right… I can't imagine how it makes you, Kunou and Yasaka feel. And I'm sorry. But I couldn't let Asia walk in here alone. No one deserves to feel alone, Irina. She has been alone her whole life, she was ostracized by the church she gave her life to, yet she always tried to stay happy. She doesn't deserve to be alone, to have that feeling. So, I sent you out of harm's way to bring back help, and you did exactly that." Issei began, just as Irina looked up at him as an expression of realization came to her
"Issei… how about we do not worry about it anymore and go home?" Yasaka asked, moving over to the two and hugging Issei as well. "We are just worried, we don't want to lose you, and sometimes that's a fear we struggle to overcome. You've changed our lives in so many amazing ways, we just don't want you to leave."
"I won't be going anywhere Yasaka… I promise. Let's go home." Issei said, moving away from the two devils and two fallen angels. He looked at the fallen angels. "Do you two have a place to stay? We don't have any room, but I wouldn't feel good leaving you outside alone."
"Yes… we have a place to go. We will clean up here and leave… will we meet again Issei?" Mittelt asked, which earned a nod form Issei. A smile formed on the girl.
Issei then averted his attention to Rias, who looked at him in return with a smile.
"Rias… take good care of her, okay? She deserves more than she has been given. Make sure she knows that. I'll be coming by tomorrow to check on her and train, alright?" Issei asked her, and she responded with a nod of her own as she looked down at the girl now in her lap. Issei continued, "Also… thank you for helping her. It means a lot to me… and it means even more to her."
And in a flash of gold, Issei was gone. And for the first time in centuries, the Fallen and Devils worked together inside a house of the teachings of God. History had been made, and the supernatural world as everyone knew it was going to change. And even the human world was going to change form the events of tonight… humans had magical weapons… they had photos of devils flying in the night skies, and soon… they would learn themselves how to use magic.
For better or worse.
End of Chapter 23: The Winds of Change
So here it is. Chapter 23. One of all sorry for how long it took, I've been really busy… why? Well… turns out I'm going to Japan.
And I'm so damn excited. But I've got so much stuff to do before I head over, and so much stuff to figure out.
Anyways, Mittelt is extremely OOC, mainly because she had to be. Asia is a devil because… I don't know why, but I'll come up with a clever reason in the next chapter, I swear. Sorry if things were a little rushed.
But now, the human world is changing as a wave caused by the ripple Issei started. Humans will discover magic, and now they have photos of the Devils and their wings. What do you think will happen next? Any guesses?
So, next chapter is going to be a very interesting one. I'm going to try a different way of writing, and seeing if I can give you a more direct transition to get my point of the chapters across better without squeezing moments out for two long.
I'll give you another lemon because it's been a while, and my next thing I want to ask is…. (Please leave me a review) and tell me some of the things you would like to see happen in this story. Anything. Please, it really helps me out.
Stay awesome guys, once again, I'll try better next chapter to tie loose ends.