Chapter Thirteen: The Demon King Dances
The air crackled with power as energy rippled around the Devil Heiresses as they invaded the Demon King of Six Billion Worlds' personal space, fury burning in their eyes. What looked to be void licked at Rias's hair as she seethed, "Set the stage? Set the stage? How dare you call our territory a stage for Kokabiel, when he's going to try to slaughter the townspeople if we don't stop him!"
"All the world's a stage, little girl. It all depends on how we dance on it," Nobunaga retorted while casually slapping out a spark of nothingness. Reaching out with a single hand and tilting up the redhead's chin, she continued, "That just means we need to call the curtains on his performance before he can get anywhere."
Reddening at the closeness, Gremory jerked away as she hissed, "No! I will not just take your flippancy! These are my people, they're under my protection, and you've endangered them horribly!"
"Honestly, you act like I've burned most of it to the ground," the Avenger remarked, giving her own flame-crowned head a shake as she rolled her crimson eyes.
A hand landed on her shoulder, her Master standing behind her and looking completely haggard. "Nobu, I love you, you're great. But, you are so completely in the wrong here. If I didn't know for a fact that it would've required two Command Seals, I would've ordered you to shoot Kokopuffs down right there."
"Aye," Johan chimed in. "I might agree with most of your attitudes, but taunting Kokabiel to lay waste to the town and slaughter innocents?" The albino shook his head. "I can't abide that, even if nothing ultimately came of it."
The redhead looked to her fellow Servants, her brow creasing ever-so slightly as she asked, "The three of you understand, don't you? My reasons for doing this."
"Ah? Hell no. If you're gonna kill someone, then fucking kill them, don't make it complicated," Mordred answered immediately, crossing her arms as she watched the Avenger.
"While I would perhaps put it more tactfully than that," Ryoma added, "I concur with Saber. While civilian casualties may occur in war, such a thing is an undesirable tragedy, not an easily-dismissible necessity." He spread his hands. "Furthermore, this Japan is not the Japan you sought to conquer, Lord Nobunaga. Both the Moonlit World and the mundane world are in a time of peace, tenuous or not."
Oryou bobbed up and down behind the Rider, nodding. "It's better to finish your meal quickly so you can do other things."
"I mean, I get wanting to have a big cool, blowout of a fight, buuuut we can't just let him kill a bunch of innocent people, that's totally not heroic!" Astolfo exclaimed as he gathered his Master in his arms and spun about.
The redheaded Servant grunted and shook her head unsatisfied with how she'd been answered. "Not a single one of you are any help."
"Don't act put out! You've put so many people in danger," Rias roared, poking the taller redhead in the chest. There was a brief moment where she turned to look at Trent and demanded, "And what do you mean 'Command Seals?' What are those supposed to be, and why didn't you use them to make her kill Kokabiel if you believe she could have done it?"
Holding up his hand to showcase the skull and crossed guns emblazoned on the back of his hand, the blond answered, "These boys. Basically, you can use them to give an absolute order. But, depending on the will of the Servant and their skills, they can resist them pretty well."
"Then why didn't you use them?" Sona interjected, doing her very best to put on a facade of serenity.
"Because I only have three, and as I said, it would probably take two to have Nobu comply," Trent explained, carefully pointing to each part of his Seals. "And, if I did use them all, Nobu could then just rip my spine out for making her follow commands that she did want to follow."
"Worry not, Master, I would take your skull as a chalice, as you've amused me so," the Avenger remarked, raising a hand magnanimously.
Looking at her, her Master just shook his head and looked back at the Devils. "See, this is what I'm talking about. It'd happen. It wouldn't be great."
"And Assassin didn't tell us any of this." Grinding her teeth together, the Gremory Heiress looked about ready to go nuclear.
Trent and Johan shared a wry look, and the blond sighed, "That… that doesn't really surprise me. Okki is… well, in my own idiom, she's a nuggie. To clarify further she's kind of a knucklehead who just wants to live a quiet life."
"Yeah, she's a gremlin NEET who wants to avoid doing work for as long as possible, as much as possible," Johan added. "It's no wonder she wouldn't want you to know that you could make her clean up her Valley of Defilement with one simple trick."
"That—" Rias stopped, took a breath, counted to ten mentally, and then nodded. "Right, Okay. I will see to disciplining Assassin later. That and the fact that you apparently have one of Japan's most infamous historical figures as your familiar," she finished while pointing at Trent. Looking back over the group at large, the Heiress steeled her expression and ground out.
"Let's go kill one of the strongest Fallen alive."
-x-x-x-
Kuoh Academy was essentially locked down through the sheer number of seals and barriers put up around it, which made sense to the group at large. They knew it would be necessary for the sake of keeping Kokabiel's devastation from spilling out into the town.
Things took a decidedly strange turn when they stepped into the barriers, to the sight of Kokabiel staked to the ground by spears of ice, parts of his body seemingly erased from existence. His one-resplendent obsidian wings were mangled beyond repair, the five on his left reduced to frozen stumps while the five on his right terminated in too-clean wounds that looked as if they'd been carved away on an atomic level.
As if to juxtapose the image; on either side of him were a short black-haired girl in a magical girl outfit with ice trailing off of her wand, and a tall redheaded man with pauldrons ripped straight out of the forty-first millenium. Even more concerning was the sheer rage etched into their faces as they menaced their hostage.
The magical girl slapped the Fallen hard enough to knock some teeth loose as she roared, "Where are the children?! Where are they?!"
Trent's lips pursed, completely unsure as to what to say as everything they'd been expecting had gone out the window. He looked to his compatriots and asked, "Has…has there been a spate of missing kids, or something?"
"N-not to my knowledge," Sona answered, blinking in surprise at the sheer level of violence that her sister was resorting to.
The rest of the Devils were just as confused, looking to each other for answers, to find none.
The two torturers turned at the realization that people had arrived, their expressions shifting from their rictuses of rage to concern. Using the distraction, Kokabiel broke free, lurching forward, past the duo in a blast of Light as he tried to charge Nobunaga.
Nothingness and ice ripped out behind him, aiming to cut him down, only to be burned away by crimson flames. The husk of Kokabiel's body had been snatched up in the hand of a giant flaming skeleton, and he made no noise as its grip slowly tightened and the fire consumed him.
Papiyas loomed behind Nobunaga, its titanic form shadowing the group, and she let out a sigh as the ashes of her would-be foe blowing away in a breeze. "So long, Watcher of the Stars, it seems that our battle wasn't meant to be."
Though he'd been surprised by what had just happened, the redheaded man strode forward, his expression carefully neutral. His expression lightened slightly at the sight of Rias, but he kept up his professional persona as he declared, "Ma'am, I'm rather cross with you, I must admit. Our interrogation of that man was not complete."
"Missing children, was it?" the Demon King of Six Billion Worlds replied, her summoned skeleton disappearing in a rush of fire. "That seems rather at odds with his plans and how he acted."
"Oh? What makes you say that?" asked the magical girl as she slid to her comrade's side on a rapidly-disappearing path of ice. "And just who are you, anyway?"
"Archer, the woman who had been planning to fight Kokabiel to the death here. Who are you two?" Nobu replied, contrition taking hold of her features as she turned to look at Trent. "You were correct, Master, I should have killed him when I had the chance."
"Glad to hear it, Archer. Maybe you'll remember next time," the blond shot back, exasperated by what was happening, and more than a little bit unhappy at having to look at the mangled Fallen. Sure, he'd seen worse when cleaning up after Carmilla had indulged herself in Reika, but it didn't make it any better.
The Archer shrugged. "Well, we'll see if it can be helped." She then turned back to the pair and declared, "So, you mentioned something about children. Tell us more."
At this, the man frowned and crossed his arms. "Of late, a number of children have begun to go missing from the Underworld. Never ones of high standing, mind you, but every child is a rare blessing to Devilkind." Gesturing to himself, he added, "Apologies for the late introduction, I am Rias's older brother and one of the four Satans, Sirzechs Lucifer."
"And I'm So-tan's wonderful beloved older sister, Magical Girl Miracle Levia tan!" The magical girl proclaimed with a peace sign and a wink that let out genuine glitter. After a moment, her countenance sobered.
"When we heard the big mean Cadre was coming to try and hurt our precious little siblings, we had to come and teach him a lesson."
"So, similarity in what was happening," Trent murmured, rubbing at his chin as he dissected the reasoning. "And they haven't turned up, anywhere?"
The woman shook her head, twintails bouncing. "Not a trace. Only commonality between the kidnappings was some strange gas stuff left behind. Aju-kun's still analyzing it."
"Dunno about any gas, but kidnapping children…" the blond Master trailed of a grimace taking hold of his face as he considered the options laid out before them. Looking to Johan, he asked, "You think it could be Greatest Cool? Or maybe his Magic Pimp?"
Johan shuddered. "Holy fuck, I fucking hope not. Kidnapped children are bad enough without involving That Which Man Was Not Meant To Know."
"Care to explain further?" Archer asked, only to be met with grimaces and shrugs.
Trent let out a heavy sigh.
"How familiar are you with the writings of H.P. Lovecraft?"