Izuku sat in the main room of the "manor" they now owned, next to a pile of books and in front of the fire pit in the center of the room. His chainsaw was deployed on his left hand as he picked up books with the other and, after glancing to confirm they were racist, shredded them and tossed them in the fire to keep it going.
{Thoughts?} Raum asked.
They needed allies. The Pieces might not be the biggest arms dealers in the city, but between them, the ATK and the MLA holdout, they were outmanned and outgunned.
{We might be able to do it if you could use Ascension,} Raum observed, a two man strategy meeting, {but at this point, you'd be lucky to be able to maintain wings for twenty seconds. No offense.}
Nothing offensive about stating the truth.
{So, what's your plan?}
Church of Violence.
{Church of-? Ah, because they're arms dealers themselves. They're not gonna be happy about the Pieces pushing into their territory, especially with such a high value deal. They're the most likely faction to side with us against the Pieces, if not the other "buyers". Well thought.}
"Killer," Izuku rasped.
"Sup, boss?"
"Get ready for combat in the morning, I'm going to make a deal without gear. If you hear three sharp whistles in a row, charge in and help me get out of there."
"A deal?" Killer said, "not with the Pieces?"
"With the CoV," Izuku said, shredding another book.
"Sounds risky," Mana said.
"Everything about this job is risky," Izuku responded, watching the flames lash up and throw several red eyes at the edge of the light into focus, "I'll take first watch."
"Wake me at midnight," Killer said, "I'll take over."
Izuku quietly nodded, sitting back and watching the fire while his ravens watched out into the night.
- X Izuku X-
"I'm not gonna burst into flames the minute we walk in there, right?" Izuku asked, climbing the mountain towards the Church of Violence. A building closer to brutalist in architecture than what people thought about when you said church, a ruggedized mass of concrete and stained glass that was likely the single strongest place in all of Mos Eisley
{Would I be letting you do this if I even thought that was a possibility?}
Fair.
{...I miss Jericho, it didn't matter how right I was, he was ready with a barb.}
Sorry.
Izuku stepped towards the doors, knocking on them and folding his arms behind his back. Ravens landed on his shoulders, while more landed on the twisted metal keeping people from falling off the edge of the mountain. Finally, the door swung inwards, a… man? Woman? He couldn't tel- Raum.
{It's barely invasive}
Raum.
{...Non-Binary.}
RAUM!
{I'd already done it.}
So he'd already done it by the time the conversation started.
{Indeed}
You… you… arg!?
{It's barely a secret, they would have answered if you asked.}
Then let him ask!
"Are you alright," they asked, and Izuku rubbed his head.
"Just something irritating," Izuku grumbled, "I'm Midoriya Izuku, is this the Church of Violence?"
"I don't like that name much," they said, pulling out a cigarette.
"What name do you prefer," Izuku asked, shaking his head when they offered him a cigarette.
"The Rip-off Church," they said, causing Izuku to choke on air, "Nah, just kiddin', call us Iscariot, Demonspawn."
- X ESS X-
Iscariot, also called the Rip-Off Church or Church of Violence of Mos Eisley, or the Papal Assassins (though Pope Caius II has vehemently refused the notion that they're associated whenever it's been brought up) is the second pillar of the IoW, and together with the Sinners, makes up core of the phrase "Steel Sharpens Steel". Both leaders regularly duel to this day, and are all the more dangerous for it. The first time Midoriya used Red Wake, it's said, was during his first duel with the Father Judas.
Ever Sharpening Steel: a History of the IoW.
- X Henkel X-
Henkel Wolfe watched the demonspawn leap back from them, drawing their M1911s from their priest's vestments and angling them toward him. He landed on the pulpit like a bird while Yumie stepped from the shadows behind the door, slamming it shut. The demonspawn fumbled with his phone, "Killer, we're gonna need yo-"
Faster than they could blink, Yumie had launched herself across the gap with her Quirk, splitting the pulpit and phone in two while blood splattered across the ash grey skin and white coat. The loud of sizzling flesh came from his body, blisters rising up along the edges of the cut.
"{Silver…?}" The boy rasped as his ravens took flight.
"Special Silver," Henkel said, leading their shot and blowing one raven into red energy, "Meant to kill-"
Before they could finish, red lightning crackled from the boy's hands and jumped towards them like a buckshot. Yumie drew her sword, the lightning dying on it, while Henkel was forced to take it full on. Falling to one knee, the second raven ripped something ephemeral and red from their heart and dropped it into the demon's hand. He crushed it, sucking in the energy like air.
"{Henkel Wolfe,}" he rasped, the blisters popping to expose pink, new skin and the slash sealing shut, "{Born female, Quirk: Soul Sight… It's not, you know.}"
"Easier than being Quirkless," Henkel shrugged, "Secrets, eh?"
"{Hmm…}"
"Father," Henkel said, "He's got support incoming. Me and Yumie will deal with them, you deal with him."
"With pleasure," a Scottish brogue said from the rafters, and Secrets looked up and dove off the severed pulpit as several silver bayonets slammed into the spot when they were sitting. A grey, modified priest's douillette fluttered as the Father landed. Several more bayonets slid from the void as he stood, circular glasses blocking his eyes from sight as the morning light hit them, short blond-grey hair spiked "Ya know me, Henkel, I'm always happy to slaughter a heathen."
"Must have plenty of work," the demon said as two things shattered the stained glass of the church, followed by a man whose skin was a black as pitch. The demonspawn caught the gauntlets and slid them into place, sharp blades locking above his fist, "Most of Japan isn't Christian. Midoriya Izuku."
"Alexander Anderson," Anderson said, "and they ain't demons like you, so I'll leave their punishment to the Lord."
"Killer, deal with the other two," the Demonspawn said, "I don't want you interrupting me and Anderson."
"If you say so, Captain-Kid," Killer said, "How'd negotiations break down so quickly?"
"I'll tell you after," Izuku drawled, "and call Mana, I don't see any other members of this place around with my Ravens, meaning they're in Mos-"
He barely managed to swing his claws to deflect the thrown bayonet from Anderson.
"Have her make sure they don't show up and ruin the fun," he finished, business in his voice.
- X Izuku X-
"The fun", as Izuku had called it, lasted all of ten seconds. Then he was deeply glad he had his claws as he was forced to deflect a storm of slightly glowing bayonets. Just them so close to his skin caused it to itch uncomfortably, and Izuku backpedaled. Raum?
{It's not normal silver,} Raum said, sounding weaker than Izuku had heard them since that day in the underpass. Their heart quickened, and Izuku span as he realized he was about to be put against the wall. The dodged blade lodged into the concrete wall like a hot knife, and as Izuku finished the spin, Anderson was in front of him, swinging two more blades at him. Izuku swung up one arm to catch the blades, punching with the repurposed harpoon heads of his other claw, {They're like… no, she's dead and gone.}
Now wasn't the time for maybes, Raum!
{She's dead, Izuku, me and Jericho killed her ourselves!} Raum snarled while Anderson span one bayonet to catch the punch. Locked blades shook like a leaf in the breeze as the eyes of demonhost and priest met. Heterochrome stared into eyes so lightly blue they might as well have been grey, {Justice died before the Dragon of Stars brought an end to Targon! He is, at best, a distant descendant of hers.}
Well, distant descendant was still too much apparently.
"We don't have to do this," Izuku said, skidding back on his red shoes. Anderson leaned forwards, using his larger height to leverage himself into the advantaged position. Izuku fell to one knee, shaking.
He had an idea.
{No.}
They needed something, and he couldn't use Ascension.
{You barely know how to use magic,} Raum rasped.
No time like the present to learn.
{Don't you dare-!}
Mana began to build around them, building with each heartbeat.
"I don't particularly like heathens," Anderson said, "but I hate heathens that used demonology quite a bit more, lad."
"Then let's do this without that," Izuku said, kicking outwards. An echo of his leg slammed into Anderson's, causing a loud crack to echo and sent Anderson falling to his knees. Grabbing him by the shoulders, Izuku slammed his forehead into Anderson's face, blood splattering down from the broken nose as his glasses shattered.
In the time it had taken for Izuku to move his head back, the broken nose had healed and Anderson was snorting out a wad of blood and cartilage before returning the favor.
Super Regeneration? Yeah, they were going to have to try it.
Red energy collected around Izuku and his ravens like a shroud, following each motion as he shrugged off the jacket and stared down Anderson, who had risen from the kneeling position he was in.
"Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling," Anderson recited, raising a fistful of bayonets. He flung them at Izuku, who jerked a fist in their direction, the wave of energy coming out and shaking the world in its wake. The bayonets shattered.
"Amongst Heaven and Earth," Izuku said in turn as the Red Wake gathered. His fist pointed towards Anderson, fingers perfectly still.
More bayonets formed not just near Anderson but above them too, all aimed to skewer Izuku while he made a cross from two bayonets, "Kiss the Son lest he be angry, and you perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little!"
"We alone," Izuku intoned in a rush of pure adrenaline, crossing two blades in an inverted cross. He was blaspheming to two separate religions, he knew, but the energy gathering, the power at his fingers, like Kacchan and All Might, sent a rush of energy to his head, "Are the Honored One."
And then the church, for lack of a better world, exploded in a rain of magic and metal as Izuku snapped his hand open, after echoes of each finger tearing towards Anderson and shaking the world apart below them.
Sett had said they would need something for bombarding an area. Well, this was it…
-X Alexander X-
Alexander Anderson had grown up hating his own lineage. His father had been a bastard of a mercenary who had died when he was too young to remember anything but the most basic tenants of combat, while his mother…
They were directly descended from an angel who Fell willingly, they said. Who chained her black wings and lived alongside humanity for centuries before passing grey and content. Everything someone who had abandoned His light shouldn't have been gifted.
And then, he had been a man born in the first generation of Meta Abilities, now called Quirks. Maybe it was his heritage, maybe it was something else, but his eightieth birthday, and elevation to the rank of Cardinal Deacon in pectore, had come and passed twice over. He was an old man in a body so much younger than his age would be.
And as he watched the demonhost step forwards through the hail of holy blades, the one part of his ancestry he liked and regularly used, unlike his grand niece, he slid a pair of bayonets into his hands. The step shattered the ground below the boy's feet in a series of fault lines.
"How'd you become like this, child?" Alexander asked softly as the world shook with each step. The first punch came then, a feint that still struck home and shattered the bayonet he had moved to stop it.
"Now you ask?" The boy asked, slamming his chainsaw blade into Alexander's gut. Flesh regenerated as fast as blades chewed it away, bones repaired themselves as soon as micro tremors shattered them, magic and Meta Ability warred. Alexander flipped the other bayonet, driving it into the boy's-
One of the white birds dive bombed, another echo of red slamming into the metal and shattering it. Without missing a beat, Alexander generated two more, slamming one into the boy's gut and pushing him back while he led his shot to bring the bird down, shrieking and burning.
"I'm curious as to what would make someone so young damn themselves like this," Alexander said, aware that the church, built in brutalist fashion so it could survive anything from an earthquake to the ensuing tsunami, was cracking below the applied pressure. More bayonets appeared in his hands like claws, and Alexander threw them at the boy, catching two more and rushing forwards as fast as he could and weaved behind the boy.
The next feint punch was dodged, but sent spiderweb cracks along the wall it hit instead.
"It was that or die," the boy rasped, claws flashing before Alexander caught both weapons with reinforced blades. Spinning, a kick landed on the boy and sent him flying towards where Yumie and Henkel were fighting the boy's companion.
"Better to die a mortal than damn yourself as a demon," Alexander rebutted.
"We'll have to agree to disagree there," the boy said, "If we both survive the next ten minutes, you will hear my request."
"Then let's make them an amazing ten minutes," Alexander said, "I haven't fought something that didn't get destroyed in seconds in-"
Alexander span the bayonets, throwing them into two more ravens as they tried to ambush him.
The Father Judas and Red Wake tensed against each other…
And then they were on each other in a flash of mulching blades.
- X Izuku X-
Izuku had two things to thank for having any hope of lasting against Alexander Anderson long enough that they might be able to have that conversation about working together. The first, and more minor, was years of Kacchan accidentally burning him with his Quirk. The second was the regeneration as he tore off shards of Anderson's soul and drained them, flashes of memory flickering through his eyes. Otherwise, the backlash of Red Wake would have killed him.
It had been a technique he had just invented on the fly, and that meant all the bugs in it were hitting him for the first time. The recoil of each attack sent hairline fractures along his bones, or lacerated the muscles above.
But each fragment of Anderson's soul that was ripped off healed those injuries, the memories fluttering against his brain and reaching Raum while Izuku focused on the fight. Secrets gave a rasping mockery of a hum as he examined the memories, {They were sisters.}
Not now.
{You're killing yourself either way,} Raum deadpanned, {the Justice we killed, the woman who sealed me after the Crownguards, Lucian and the damned Yordle cut down Jericho-}
Not. Now.
Izuku angled a hand towards Anderson as the priest landed on a pew. The underslung chainblade chewed air, sending wave after wave of quakes at the older man. He was off the quickly destroyed pew in a flash, throwing more blessed silver at Izuku. The demonhost was gone, two ravens flying at Anderson as Izuku skidded until he was back to back with Killer.
"How are you doing!?" Izuku called the duo spinning so Izuku could catch a slash from Yumie and Killer could deflect a bullet from Henkel.
"Wondering what you did to pisss them off so quickly!" Killer said, "Did you drink the blood of Christ?"
"Deal with a demon," Izuku laughed in spite of himself, "I'd- gurarara- probably light up like it was kerosene!"
"Huh."
"What?" Izuku said.
"You're laughin'. You only seem to laugh when we're in danger."
"..."
"Just noticin' that," Killer said, "if you're an adrenaline junkie, I ain't complaining. Means we'll have more jobs in the future."
"...It's fun," Izuku admitted reluctantly, deflecting a strike from Anderson.
"That's the spirit," Killer said, "we keep doin' this until it ain't anymore, Captain, that's how it is in our line of work. You don't normally get into it if it wasn't fun the first time."
"We should get back to fighting," Izuku said.
"Changing the subject?" Killer said, "that's fair."
- X Killer X_-
Killer wrapped one chain around Yumie's sword, coming as close to meeting her eyes as he could with his mask and her hair in the way. Then he swung his other scythe towards her neck. She wrenched her katana from the chain with the sound of protesting steel, flipping it over her head and deflecting the strike as best as she could.
"Quick question," Killer said.
"I'm not explaining why we're doing this," Yumie grunted.
"Since when have people in our work needed an excuse to want someone dead?" Killer asked, "Nah, I just wanted to know if you two minded taking this outside. Those two are kinda stealing our space."
"Those two" being the Kid and the Priest. Calling what they were doing a fight anymore was almost cheating the word, it was more of a Nagakabouros-damned hurricane of blades, magic and two men doing their absolute damnedest to make sure the other side stopped moving. Pews were launched at each, only to explode in showers of red or hails of silver. Those storms hit each other, sending shards of metal and wood straight into the heart of the shattered concrete around them. Fault lines had formed in the concrete, crawling up towards the ceiling.
That honestly was probably what worried Killer the most, he was damn sure the two of them were going to bring the entire church down around them without missing a beat. The howls of laughter from both, distorted by the tempest, just made him sure of that.
"Aye," Yumie nodded, "I can do that."
The next second, her foot struck Killer and hammered him out of the wooden double doors so hard they were knocked off their hinges. He span in the air, flipping his chain scythes and using them to break his movement, as Yumie charged him. Killer kicked out, black skin clashing with silver blade for a second before she was forced wide. Planting his hands, Killer pulled back and mule kicked her straight in the chest. Henkel's guns went off with a crack, striking his head and snapping it to the side as his mask cracked. One blue eye met theirs through the glasses.
"That," Killer gripped his chains, ripping the scythes they were attached to from the ground and sending them slamming towards Henkel, "Wasn't very nice…"
Yumie rushed into the way of the blades, taking a knee as they crashed onto her sword.
"There's no room for niceties on the battlefield," she said, and kicked off into Killer's guard. Instinct was the only thing that got his Quirk up in time to deflect the slash.
And then, behind them, the church began to cave in on itself.
-X ? X-
Alexander breathed in, the shadows clinging to him as he looked around furtively. His bayonets glowed, fighting the darkness for dominance.
"There is no God," Alexander whipped around, throwing the bayonets towards the voice only for them to vanish into the darkness, "There is no absolution for the sins you've performed, Alexander."
"Hold your tongue, demon," Alexander ordered, more bayonets sliding from his sleeves, "You don't belong here."
"On that, we agree," Alexander whipped around, catching the chitinous blades of the shadowy creature with both of his own. Drawing a third from his frock with his teeth, he lunged forwards.
{He banished Nocturne,} Raum breathed in horror seconds before a bayonet found its way into Izuku's shoulder and pinned him to the ground in the hissing of burning flesh.
Izuku bit back a scream, lunging up and trying to grab Anderson's face only for a second bayonet to find his other arm.
"Any last words, child?" Anderson asked, lifting a third bayonet.
"Yeah," Izuku croaked, gathering the entirety of Red Wake at the palms of his hands before he slammed them down and sent an earthquake tearing the building they were in apart like it was on a faultline.
"Let's go together."