Chapter 5 - A holy paladin.

I gazed at Rias thoughtfully, all of the things I learned rushing at me once as something seemed to click in my head. Things seemed to make more sense, or, more sense than it had been for the past few days. The feelings of inferiority around Rias, my eyes acting up in the dark, hell, even the shit about the Sacred Gear might explain the gap in my memory between me standing up to confront the Fallen Angel and me laying on the ground, dying. Even though I had so many of them answered, I still had a lot more questions...

"Isn't this great? You two are finally like us.~" Akeno exclaimed, a pair of Devil wings springing from her back, a grin on her face as one by one, the same wings sprouted from everyone in the room, small gusts of wind filling the room as I felt my back begin to pulse, a cry of surprise escaping me as the leathery assets burst from me, I blinked, looking at my wings, my mouth agape for a moment.

"So... It's definitely official..." I looked towards the others, disbelief plain on my face. "...I'm a Devil." Issei was looking at his wings with horror, looking overwhelmed and fearful.

"We're glad to have you both here.~" said Rias with a somewhat smug expression, folding her arms. "Issei, Lyonette, welcome.~" for some reason, this felt...right. It was the sort of feeling you get when you come home after being away for a week, I could feel my disbelief turning to excitement at the thought of all of this, the thought of suddenly being thrust into something new.

"... I'm glad to be here." I said, smiling slightly, my wings flapping a slight bit as I looked at Rias. Issei's jaw dropped, a small croaking noise being heard from him.

"How are you being so calm about this?! We're freakin' Devils, Lyo!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. I looked back at him, putting a hand on my hip.

"And? So what?" I asked, tilting my head. "We were going to go to hell anyway, so what's the problem with reserving spots?"

"And...That's my obligatory one-liner for the day done."

"You seem rather pleased with this, Lyonette.~" Rias spoke, her arms still folded as she gazed between Issei and I.

"Eh... What's the point in fretting about it?" I responded rhetorically, blinking as it dawned on me that she said that we were 'revived and reborn'. "...Erm...If you don't mind me asking...How does this rebirthing humans into Devils thing work, anyway?" Rias smiled a little, sitting back down, looking at me.

"I'm glad you asked.~" she replied, crossing her legs as she did so. "The way this works is that we grant power to humans for a price we both agree on, then seal it with a pact,"

"...I don't think I agreed to this..." I said, looking at my wings, then back at Rias. "Not consciously, anyway..."

"Yeah! I don't think I agreed to being turned into a Devil, Rias!" Issei said, stepping forward, looking slightly angry, his wings tensing up. "I didn't agree to be your 'Devil Servant', either!" Rias looked slightly agitated by Issei's anger, which is a little ironic, now that I think about it.

"Why do you even need servants, anyway?" I asked, folding my arms. "Don't you lot work alone and answer summons and shit?"

"...We used to answer summons from magic circles, but that became too complicated and difficult, so we started doing house calls and things along those lines." she responded, looking at me as Akeno left the room. "We use servants to step in for summons which we can't attend ourselves, so...Think of it like how a substitute teacher works, how there's a substitute in reserve in case the normal teacher is sick or otherwise preoccupied." I blinked, smiling a little, finally making sense of it.

"Huh, neat! So, we're going to be taking jobs for you from this point on?" I questioned excitedly, looking forward to doing summons and getting to be a badass devil.

"I can be all dark and mysterious and shit...And use long words and cryptic as fuck sentences to scare people! Hell yeah!"

"...Well, not right now..." Rias said as Akeno entered the room, placing a large number of flyers on a table, all of them bound together. "...For now, you two are on flyer duty." I felt my heart sink a little as Rias beckoned us over. We both went up to the table.

"F-flyer duty...?" I asked, frowning a little as I stared at the flyers on the table. Rias directed her gaze to me.

"Yes, flyer duty." she stated bluntly as Akeno brought over a bag and placed it with the flyers. "Normally, we'd have a messenger demon make the run, but since you're both new here, I figured it would benefit you both to know what exactly goes into this job.,"

"...So, we're just going to deliver flyers to people...?" I asked quietly, as Issei began putting the flyers in the bag. "...That sounds..boring."

"Don't worry about it! You'll get a chance to do other things, just not right now! And besides..." Rias leaned in and smirked a little, taking Issei and I by surprise. "If you both do well enough, you could even get servants of your own.~" it was at this point that Issei's face turned to flustered joy as he looked up at Rias, chuckling a little.

"...Uh, so, let's say I do really well..." he grinned in his regular perverted fashion, seemingly getting excited. "Would my servants do anything I want?"

"Of course." Rias stated, seemingly happy that she finally got Issei to cooperate. Issei's eyes lit up, as he began to run to the door with the bag.

"Come on, Lyo! Let's go!" he yelled as he opened the door, laughing maniacally. "I'm gonna have a hareeeem!" I listened as he went into the courtyard, his perverted shouting echoing around it. I sighed, looking at the others.

"See you all...soon, I guess." I said as I walked out of the door, rolling my eyes as I heard Issei shouting more.

[Perspective of: Narrator]

The rest of the Occult Research Club watched Lyonette as she exited the room, the sound of Issei and her yelling being heard outside of the club room. Kiba sat back down, sighing a little.

"Those two are going to be a handful, I can tell..." he said, looking up at Rias.

"Issei's well known for being a pervert, and one third of us are girls..." Koneko said, her expression still as deadpan as ever.

"I don't think we should worry." Rias said, smiling slightly. "I see potential in both of them, even if they are a little...Pervy."

"Any idea of what their Sacred Gears are?" Kiba asked, curiously, standing up again.

"I have an idea about Issei's..." Rias said, beginning to think to herself. "...But, as for Lyonette...I can't even hazard a guess."

"You can't?" Akeno asked, looking a little surprised. "I'd have thought you'd have plenty to say about Lyonette, considering how she didn't even summon you when you brought her back..." Rias sighed, walking over to the window.

"I can only gather that whatever it is, it manifests on her arm..." she stated, looking at the other three. "That's all I can guess."

"Do you know if she even has one?" Akeno asked, tilting her head, walking over to Rias. "I mean...Sure, she may be a lot like Issei, but surely they can't both have Sacred Gears like that." Rias was quiet, thinking for a moment, before sighing once more.

"I know that she does. I just know it." she stated, gazing out of the window. "Something was going on with her arm when I found her, which was accompanied by a large amount of power coming from her, as if she'd used some kind of magic or..."

"So...You're saying that she tried to fight the Fallen Angel?" Kiba asked, raising an eyebrow. Rias looked at the rest of the group, her red hair swishing to the side.

"...She may have tried to, but I'm not sure..." she responded, folding her arms, a slight look of worry on her face. "...My hope is that it's something that doesn't negatively impact us...or her."

"I guess only time will tell." Akeno said, smiling and looking at the rest of the group. "With that being said, how about we all have a drink while we wait for the two newbies to come back?"

[Timeskip: Return, Perspective of: Lyonette Griffin]

"Issei! Get your ass back here!"

THUMP!

That was the sound of me running into a door that Issei swung into my way, in his haste to run and tell Rias that we'd completed the deliveries, he forgot about the fact that physics is very much a thing.

"ASSHOLE!"

"Rias! We finished the deliveries!" I heard Issei exclaim as I entered the club room, rubbing my face where it hit the door, frowning. The room smelled of tea and coffee, with all the other club members sat around the table, drinking out of mugs, as you do.

"Excellent. There's just one more job I need you to do tonight." Rias said, smiling, looking at us both. "...Well, two jobs, one for each of you."

"Yeah? Go on." Issei said, seemingly incredibly excited to be a step closer to 'having a harem'.

"Issei. Koneko's been double-booked with two summon requests, so we need you to take her place for one of them." Rias said, nodding at him as she directed her gaze to me. "Lyonette. I need you to attend a summoning for me. I remembered how excited you were about the concept of doing something like this, so I decided to let you take it rather than me." the sour mood which Issei's door-slamming antics had left me in had seemingly dissapaited, my expression turning to that of a smile.

"T-thank you, Rias!" I stuttered, not sure how to feel about the sudden responsibility being lumped on me.

"Hey, that's pretty cool! We both get to do summonings!" Issei said, my enthusiasm seemingly rubbing off on him as he patted my back.

"Hell yeah!" I shouted, thrusting my fist into the air and jumping up and down, like a little kid about to get a new toy. Rias seemed a little taken aback by my excitement, but seemed amused anyway.

"Well then...I suppose we should get you right into it." she said, looking over at Akeno, who nodded and raised her arms as a red glow manifested around of her, the glow slowly formed into a strange circle with various runes and symbols on it, the glow soon overtaking all light in the room. My eyes widened, as did Issei's as I gazed upon this strange glyph. "We call this a Transportation Circle. Just step into it after Akeno gets out and you'll be on your way.~" I blinked as Akeno slowly walked out of the circle, an empty space being made in the middle. I looked back at Rias, smiling.

"I'll try not to fuck this up!" I stated, running into the middle of the circle, stumbling a little as I felt my body begin to tingle slightly, simply standing in the middle of the circle, my right arm twitching a little. "Here goes nothing...!"

In a disorienting flash of light, I felt the atmosphere of the room I was in change drastically, from somewhat welcoming to dangerous and oppressive in an instant. I heard a quiet gasp as my eyes slowly made sense of the room around me, decorated with various different posters of knights, fantasy games, as well as a decorative sword on the wall which looked strikingly familiar to me...In front of me, was a girl, blonde hair, green eyes, wearing a white shirt with a blue bow on the front, staring back at me, it took me a moment, but I soon realised who I was looking at...

"...Tylia?" I asked in disbelief, any thoughts I had of being mysterious and edgy escaping me in an instant. Tylia's face was a picture of shock, her mouth agape and her eyes wide.

"...Lyonette?" there was a tone in her voice which I had never heard before, a strange mixture of spite, fear and surprise, the tone made me feel uncomfortable, uttered in the semi-endearing faux British accent of my sister's, it felt so...unatural.

"W-what are you doing summoning Devils?!" I exclaimed, stepping back a bit, looking at Tylia, bewildered. Tylia's expression changed from shocked to just plain grim.

"...When I instigated this summon, I expected to gaze upon the visage of a horrid creature, struck from God's light..." she said, looking at me, the look in her eyes changing to a look of slight anger, her eyebrows furrowing. "...What I did not expect, was for the face of my own kin to gaze upon me from an infernal circle of unholiness!" she raised her voice, standing up straight and gritting her teeth, an enraged expression on her face.

"...U-uh...Tylia..." I stammered, stepping back into the wall, a small bump being heard as I made contact with it. "...You're...kind of scaring me." it was true. I'd only ever felt this feeling of fear and confusion once before, that being when that Fallen Angel had killed me and Issei, yet here I was, feeling it yet again due to my own sister. Tylia slowly stepped towards me, dead silent for a moment, before suddenly crying out:

"Holy Lance!" it was a surreal sight, my sister, holding her right fist up, a small blue gauntlet forming around it, with a giant glowing double-sided lance sticking out of both ends of it, it truly was, and the very sight of this lance made my hair stand up on end.

"Now is not the time to stand about..." I heard Equinox's voice ring around in my head, her voice seeming to be slightly panicked. "Now is the time to run the fuck away!"

I quickly tried to bolt for the door, my escape cut off by Tylia's lance as she stabbed it into the wall.

"You dare try and run, coward?!" she growled, using her normal hand to push me away from the door, proceeding to stand in front of it, holding her lance aloft. "To think...My own sister would show such dishonor!" she charged at me, the blade of her lance narrowly missing my stomach as she rammed me into the wall, her eyes were alight with rage, her teeth gritted as she glared daggers at me, rearing her lance back.

"Tylia, stop this!" I cried out, beginning to panic more than I already was, my eyes wide with fear. "It's me, Lyonette, y-your sister!" Tylia sneered, kneeing me in the stomach, causing me to let out a loud grunt of pain.

"My sister is no Devil...Was, no Devil." she snarled, headbutting me, dropping me, then stamping on my leg, causing me to let out a shriek of pain. "You are no longer my sister, you are but a sick mockery of who she used to be!" if I was still human, I'd be praying for my life right now, wishing for God to save me from this nightmare of a scenario...But, now that I'm a Devil...What can I do?

"Think about the body part you feel is the strongest." Rias had told me, while talking about the Sacred Gears. "Focus on that strength." I blinked, trying to ignore the pain as I closed my eyes, focusing the thought of my right arm's strength.

"Focus...Ignore the pain..." I began to mentally repeat to myself, the burning sensation returning my arm, causing me to squeeze my eyes shut tighter, my cries becoming louder as I felt the pain in my arm slowly escalate. "Focus, focus, focus!"

"Sacred Gear!" I yelled as the pain suddenly stopped, as I felt a cold feeling envelop my arm, the weakness it had begun feeling from the pain becoming strength as I looked down at it, gasping at what I saw. My whole arm had turned black- no, it had something black on it. A gauntlet, reminicsent of the claw of some kind of mythological beast, a slight red glow it's edges as I stared at it.

"What?!" I heard Tylia exclaim as she stepped back, her eyes full of shock and horror. "You...have one too?!" I looked up at Tylia, my mind trying to process what she just said, before a smirk came to my face, confidence filling my heart as I stood up, grinning.

"You're damn right I do, sis!" I stated, pointing a clawed finger at my sister, still not 100% exactly what this gauntlet did, and at this point, just trying to throw her off and make it seem like I knew what I was doing. Tylia gritted her teeth, then let out a cry as she charged at me with her lance. I quickly threw my arm up, trying to block the strike with the gauntlet, a loud clang resounding as it was struck, trying to hide my mild panic. "H-ha! To-too slow!"

"Dare you mock me, Devil?!" she shrieked, stabbing her lance at me, another deafening clang resounding throughout the room as the lance made contact with my Sacred Gear, a grunt of pain being heard shortly after as I kicked Tylia to the floor, practically pouncing on her, holding her arms down and spreading my knees so that her legs with inbetween my own as I looked at her face, which seemed so full of spite and hatred...

"Now...How about you calm your non-existant tits and start explaining?" I demanded, glaring her in the eyes, my heart thumping with adrenaline. Tylia glared at me, squirming slightly and sighing.

"I should be asking you to do the same thing, sister..." Tylia responded, her emerald green eyes seeming a lot more...unfocused than normal, bothered, even.

"Well," I said, trying to smile as sincerely as I could. "...How about we take turns in explaining ourselves and not try and kill each other?" Tylia looked down, seemingly fidgeting a little, before sighing in defeat.

"...Very well..." she said, looking up at my face, blinking a little. "But...Only if you get off of me and explain first." I smiled, sighing in relief, seeming as she'd calmed down, I slowly got off of her, sitting next to her on the floor.

"...So, me first, right?" I asked, my gauntlet making a dull clanking noise as it made contact with the floor. Tylia nodded, the lance-gauntlet on her arm dematerialising as she sat up. "...Right...Where to begin..." I began recounting the events of the past couple days to Tylia, telling her of Yuuma, and how she had killed me and Issei after revealing that she was a Fallen Angel, and how Rias had brought us back as Devils, without mentioning any names, of course. By the end of it, Tylia looked a mixture of understanding and pissed off.

"...So...You're a Devil now?" she asked, pursing her lips in a disapproving fashion. "...How awful..."

"It's not as bad as you'd think, actually." I reassured her, smiling. "I know how we've been taught from a young age that demons and devils and shit are bad, what with them being unholy and all that, but I personally like being one." Tylia glared at me, looking like she was about to try and murder me again.

"Mm...To tell you the truth, that sort of ties into why I was attempting to summon a Devil..." Tylia stated, looking down and fidgeting a little. "...I...Wanted to see if Devils were truly as abhorrent as mother always said they were..."

"And...So you attacked me as soon as you did the summon?" I asked, tilting my head as I put a hand on her shoulder, blinking. "You're not making sense there."

"...Force of habit. I see something unholy, I immedietly get tilted and...well, you saw how I was." she answered, shrugging my hand off of her shoulder. "...And, from what mother has told us about Devils, they don't seem like the sort of things that would show any mercy when faced with something holier than themselves."

"Yes, but mom also said that God will smite us if we masturbate." I said, grinning cheekily. "I mean...I don't know about you, but I think if that were the case, I'd be dead already." Tylia seemed to take a moment to process what I just said, then proceeded to wince in disgust. I giggled, crossing my legs. "The point I'm trying to make is that I don't think everything mom has told us is true. Sure, chances are she's probably right about many things, but...Either way, us Devils aren't as bad as they say we are, or, at least not from what I've seen."

"...You...bring up a valid point there, Lyonette." she said, slowly nodding, looking down, her eyes seemingly watering slightly. "...But...It just feels wrong, you being a Devil...It, scares me..." I patted her on the head and gave her a hug, giggling a bit.

"Just remember sis, I might be a Devil now, but...I'm not going to hurt you. not properly, anyway." I reassured her, rubbing her back. "I'm sorry that you had to find out about it like this, but...hey, it was gonna come out eventually." I released Tylia from the hug, grinning at her. "And...hey, you wanted to see whether Devils were as bad as mom said they were...Maybe I could bring you to the ORC sometime, then you can meet my friends?" Tylia sniffed a little, smiling ever so slightly.

"...As much as it pains me to say it..." Tylia began, looking up at me, small tears rolling down her face. "...I'd like that." I stood up, smiling down at her.

"Speaking of...I need to get back to them." I said, looking over at the door, then back at Tylia. "...So, I'll see you later, sis."

"...I'll see you later, Lyonette." with those words from my sister, I exited the room and exited the house, a small smile on my face as I embarked on my journey back to the school, so I could go back to the rest of the club.

[Timeskip: Return]

I slowly opened the door, peeking inside the room, where Rias, Kiba, Koneko and Akeno were all sat down, all eyes being directed to me.

"Welcome back." Rias said with a smile, gazing over at me. "How did the summon go?"

"It went...good." I responded, thinking of a way to word it. "...I have many questions, though..."

"...And what might those questions be?" she questioned, folding her arms. I fidgeted a little, thinking of the best way to approach Rias about having my sister come and meet them all.

"...Could I bring someone into the club at some point?" I asked, my voice more or less a whisper. Rias looked at me, seemingly a little taken-aback.

"...I'm afraid not, we can't risk an outsider knowing about this club's true nature..." she answered, looking at me curiously. "Why? Who were you going to bring?"

"...I was wanting to bring my sister." I responded, looking down. "...She wanted to see if Devils were as bad as our mom always said they were..."

"You told your sister that you're a Devil?!" Rias suddenly interjected, her eyes widening. I squeaked, holding my hands up defensively.

"I-in my defence! That's because she was the one who put in a summon request! Y'know, the one which I just did for you..." I stated in a panic, trying to diffuse the situation before Rias started yelling at me. "She put in the summon resquest because she wanted to see if we were as bad as our mom said we were, then she saw that I was the one who was summoned and put two and two together!" Rias was quiet for a moment, before putting her hand on her face and sighing.

"...Alright. That's fine..." she said, rubbing her face. "...As long as you didn't tell her about us as a club, it's all good..." I felt my heart sink slightly, as I remembered what I had said to her.

"Maybe I could bring you to the ORC sometime, then you can meet my friends?"

"...Well, you see, the thing about that is-" I was interupted by the sound of the door to the room being bust open, nearly falling onto my front as Issei crashed through the door, a panicked look on his face.

"Rias! Rias! I just saw another Fallen Angel!" he said, panting, out of breath.

"A Fallen Angel?!" Rias said, looking at Issei. "Are you hurt? What happened?"

"She tried to corner me when I was leaving the place where I was doing the summon!" Issei responded, flailing his arms around in even more of a panic. "She was crazy strong! Nearly hacked my damn head of with a light scythe!" he continued to rant. "I swear, I don't know how she could even move so quickly, what with all those wings she had..."

"...Did she have more than one pair of wings?" Rias asked, going pale, gazing at Issei with a serious look on her face. Issei looked at her, seemingly trying to remember, before answering.

"...Yeah, she had six wings..." Issei responded, looking back at Rias. The other club members seemed to go pale, in addition to Rias.

"...You...encountered a six winged Fallen Angel?" Rias asked, folding her arms and walking over to Issei. Issei nodded slowly.

"...Is that...bad? Like, more bad than encountering one with two wings?" he asked, looking up at Rias intently.

"The amount of wings a Fallen Angel has denotes their power level." Akeno answered, a concerned look on her face. "...In other words. That Fallen Angel you encountered was even more powerful than the one that attacked you and Lyonette last night..." I looked at Issei, blinking, who simply looked back at me.

"...Looks like Yuuma may have some friends..." I joked, chuckling nervously before coughing awkwardly. "...So, in other words, we've got another Fallen Angel to worry about..." There was an awkward silence as everyone simply stood there, seemingly thinking.

"Ehhh...Either way, that aside, I got the summon done!" Issei said, awkwardly trying to change the subject, holding up his arm, it was at this point I noticed that his arm had something on it...A bracer, red with a green gemstone in the top. "I also unlocked that Sacred Gear thing, I think."

"...Indeed you have." Rias said, a troubled smile crossing her face. "I notice that you also unlocked yours, Lyonette." I squeaked at the sound of my name being mentioned as I looked down at my own arm, where the black gauntlet from earlier was still clasped on from the elbow down.

"...Oh...I didn't know that was still out." I responded, holding my hand up in front of me as Issei leaned over to look.

"Whoa...It looks like it's glowing, kinda." he stated, gazing at it curiously. "Do you know what it does?" I looked at Issei, putting my arm down and thinking.

"...No clue..." I said, gazing at my Sacred Gear curiously, flexing my hand, noticing how heavy, yet natural it felt on my arm.

"I don't know what mine does either..." Issei said, looking at his Sacred Gear and frowning a bit. Rias chuckled a bit and walked over to us, putting her hands on our shoulders.

"Well, at least you've both managed to activate your Sacred Gears." she reassured us, patting us on the shoulders. "Now that you've activated them, all you'll need to do from now on is decide if they should be on or off." a slow flicker of green light came from Issei's Sacred Gear as it disappeared from his arm, a small gasp being heard from him as it happened.

"Thank god...It was really gonna slow me down in my alone time." he commented, looking back up at Rias. I stared at my Sacred Gear, getting another look at it before I demanifested it.

"...Sorry to go back to this topic, but, you said that the more wings a Fallen Angel has, the more powerful they are, right?" I asked, looking up at Rias, who looked at me confused for a second, before nodding. "...If they're sending a six wing after him...Does that mean that they're pulling out all the stops just to see Issei dead?"

"It certainly seems that way..." Rias responded, looking at me quizzically. "...And, chances are, they probably know what Devil family he's serving now too...Which is certainly going to make things more difficult around here..."

"Yeah...I'm...so sorry." Issei said, looking down at the ground dejectedly, sighing slightly as he did so.

"...I can forgive you for it, after all, you're new to this, so you don't know many of the dangers and what-not..." Rias reassured us once again, before glaring at us both sternly. "But...Both of you, remember, even though you've both unlocked your Sacred Gears, you can't afford to be reckless, and considering my...plans, with you two." Rias looked down at the ground for a moment, seemingly pondering something, before looking back up. "...I really don't want to lose you two this early on."

"...I can't speak for Issei, but..." I spoke and smiled solenmly as I held my formerly gauntleted hand out to Rias. "...I'll try my hardest not to make things worse for you, miss Gremory." Rias smiled and shook my hand, her sight lingering on my Sacred Gear for a moment, before she looked me in the eyes.

"...Anyway, Lyonette..." she said, retracting her hand and folding her arms. "...What were you going to say before Issei came in?" I felt my heart sink as my eyes shot open, as I remembered what we were talking about in the first place.

"...Dear lord, fucking save me from this situation..."

"Don't bother saying anything like that, darling. God isn't listening."