Here I am, another chapter out.
So, I basically decided to just try and write the 'Raynare arc' in one chapter, but it didn't exactly end up the way I thought it would as I tried to describe the general setting in a decent way. I tried to include every event I had in mind, because of course it's going to be different from canon. If you ask me, the whole thing was portrayed rather poorely, Issei questioned literally nothing, about both his date and the Devils, especially Rias. Mostly due to him being an boobs obsessed idiot. No worries, he will have a character development, I still have to come up with ideas, but I want to at least making him a... more decent being, let's just put it like that. (At least I'll try lol)
Hope you guys will appreciate this one! So yeah, have a nice reading.
/Crime Sorcière's residence, Kuoh Town/
The same evening, the trio of vigilant wizards gathered in their new house after their patrol in the afternoon. Jellal and Macbeth were sitting on the sofas, both had serious and scrupulous expressions, while Erik was standing leaning against the wall between the TV area and the modern sliding grill door that led to the balcony, his look was pretty much the same of his guildmates. Of course, once returned the Dragon Slayer seized the opportunity to tell his comrades about the Fallen Angels approaching Issei and about the Devils' plan to recruit and turn him into one of them right away, which would happen during the pervert's date with the Fallen Angel in a two days' time.
"What did you just say, Erik?" Jellal questioned, a slight tone of disbelief in his voice.
"Exactly what you heard. They don't look like they' re gonna tell Hyoudou about his date being a Fallen Angel with less than friendly intentions any time soon." Erik confirmed after starting explaining everything he heard.
"I thought Gremory was one of the guardians of this town. Shouldn't it be her job to ensure the safety of its citizens? Why would they do such a thing to an innocent civilian?" Jellal asked in a serious tone, not liking where this was going.
"Simple, they want his Sacred Gear period. That Devil, Rias Gremory, said she wanted him in her peerage so she might have a chance to break free of something I couldn't give a damn to hear." Erik informed them.
Macbeth narrowed his eyes in reaction to Erik's news. "So she's willing to sacrifice someone else's freedom to have her own and without their consent in addition… how hypocritical."
"Yeah…" The Dragon Slayer added as he winced. "According to what I've heard, Gremory's already been getting close to Hyoudou for a while, seems to me she's been putting a nice face-lift so she can butter him up and make him trust her from the start before 'recruiting him' in her peerage." Erik tched in irritation while thinking back at their discussion in the clubroom.
"That wouldn't surprise me considering how she's basically about to hand him over to the enemy's hands without his knowledge." Macbeth agreed as his frown became a bit deeper.
"Tch. Damn Devils." Erik grimaced while clenching his fist for a moment.
The Reflector Wizard mirrored the Dragon Slayer's expression, the former Wizard Saint had his own frown as his mind returned to what he saw inside the abandoned building that later revealed to be a Stray's hideout.
"Anyway…" Erik shook his head while regaining his focus. "Jellal, you've said you found the pervert half-dead inside a warehouse and he turned on his Sacred Gear next?" He asked while turning to Jellal.
"Precisely." Jellal nodded. "I suppose it was out of self-defence, that Stray Devil lured him into a trap and he fell for it, I think they engaged into a small fight and he could summon his Twice Critical right after it. Luckily, I was able to beat her down easily and save him just in time." The ex-Wizard Saint replied.
"Twice Critical?" The scarred Dragon Slayer lifted an eyebrow.
"Exactly, it's also called the 'Dragon's Hand', which doubles the user's power for a small amount of time. Twice Criticals are the most common types of Sacred Gears, and are considered low-class." Jellal explicated to them. "On the train, I got to flick through the Sacred Gear manual that Shemhaza and Azazel gave us, and I could see Issei's Sacred Gear, and indeed it does look like a Twice Critical, although there's a chance his Sacred Gear is still in a dormant state." He then pointed out.
"Hang on a sec… was that Stray a woman?" Erik asked gaining a confused nod from the tattooed mage. "And… did she have a nice pair?" The scarred wizard questioned making the other two look at him.
"Uh…" Jellal and Macbeth were left dumbfounded by their guildmate's sudden question.
"I mean… kind of? She was pretty well endowed as far as I could see." The blue-haired wizard responded while blinking his eyes. "Why are you asking me this?" He questioned bewilderedly.
"That explains it then…" Erik responded as he nearly facepalmed. "Hyoudou's a huge pervert." The Dragon Slayer cringed while telling them. "And apparently has an obsession with breasts…"
The other two wizards just looked at him with blank expressions.
"How do you…?" Macbeth slowly began to question.
"I was unfortunate enough to read his mind. That runt seems to think of nothing else." Erik said in annoyance as his eye twitched a bit.
Everything was clear now.
"Regardless of that particular…" Jellal slowly pronounced trying to brush it aside. "What more can you say about this Issei Hyoudou? His report was kind of vague."
"Despite him being a perverted moron?" Erik rhetorically asked.
Jellal only nodded.
"To be blunt, he's a twig. He didn't seem to have the slightest inkling of anything besides boobs nor the fact that Gremory's about to screw him over and probably turn him into a Devil against his will." Erik explained to them while waving his hand in the meanwhile. "And if that Fallen Angel is really up to what I heard, then he's doubly screwed."
"Couldn't you hear what were her intentions in particular?" Jellal inquired.
"I could..." Erik nodded frowning. "She's planning to kill him."
"Are you certain about that?" Jellal asked in shock.
"I can confirm that." Macbeth added. "I was able to infiltrate inside the church and I happened to hear their intentions, which means that Azazel's suspicions came out to be true, they're acting against orders within Devils' territory." He stated.
"Yeah. At least that's what we heard." The Dragon Slayer remarked.
"I wonder what reasons could she have to disobey orders and do something so reckless on the Devils' territory…" Jellal cupped his chin with a hand. "Is she even acting by her own will?"
"Guess we'll find out." Erik said with a shrug.
"In any case, the situation is quite complicated. We have to find a way to prevent Issei from dying, I think he's already seen experienced enough after he was about to get killed by that Stray, and the Fallen Angels from doing anything that would provoke a war." Jellal stated.
"What about that Freed prick of a priest?" Erik asked.
"Right, there's him too…" Jellal remembered as his voice got darker. "Was he with the other Fallen Angels, Macbeth?" He turned to the other wizard.
"Unfortunately I couldn't find Freed anywhere neither inside or outside the Church." Macbeth responded. "And I've looked everywhere."
"Damn." Jellal cursed. "Well he has to be hiding somewhere in town. Azazel's report says he's still here."
"Most certainly." Macbeth nodded. "The question is, how can we deal with all of these factors combined?
"Don't worry." The Dragon Slayer said while flashing a smirk. "I could come up with a plan while heading back here. Hear me out…"
His companions were now focusing their attention to him as the Dragon Slayer began to confide his plan to them.
-Sunday noon –
/Kuoh Centre/
It was bright sunny Sunday at Kuoh Town and probably the best day of Issei Hyoudou's life. He got a date with a cute girl. Him. The biggest pervert that ladies would always avoid. Never in his life would he have expected not to be rejected, spat on, or beaten up by a girl, let alone date one. This would also be his first date, and sometimes he'd even wondered why, why would all the girls avoid him... even though the whole being perverted thing was almost entirely his fault and his 'dream' of becoming Harem King and all. Not surprisingly, he himself was a proud member of the infamous 'perverted trio' at school, which was one of the most causes for him to get beaten up by the girls he usually peeped at.
Anyway, Issei was well dressed for the occasion, wearing a dark coloured shirt with a matching polo shirt underneath. He also sported elegant black jeans and dressy shoes. He obviously wanted to look presentable, it was his first date after all.
"She's a bit late, isn't she?" Issei murmured glancing around as he was waiting for his girlfriend to arrive. 'I hope she didn't run across any unanticipated issues... like I did two days ago.' He recalled with a terrified look on his face.
Although he was excited about his date, something else has been plaguing his mind... it was two days ago, right after meeting Yuuma, after having that encounter with that chimera-like woman who was about to take him out after luring him inside the abandoned warehouse that something seemed to have changed inside him, he himself couldn't come up with an explanation for it but at the very moment that strange device appeared all over his forearm he felt... stronger, somehow.
'I don't understand. How did I do that? I should've died but I managed to survive somehow… or at least that's what I remember.' The brown-haired boy winced in his thought. 'Damn that freak-like bitch… was she even real?' Issei placed a hand on his head as he tried to push those memories away. Did that really happen to him? Or was it just a bad dream? No, that couldn't just be a nightmare. But he asked his parents if they didn't appear to notice anything strange when he woke up… and yet, it felt so real.
'And that guy with that strange tattoo on his face…' The boy thought remembering Jellal's face before passing out. 'Was he real too? Was he there to save me...?' Issei was racking his brains. Nothing made sense.
"Here." Someone else made Issei snap out of his thoughts as he turned around to the voice he heard. "Take this flyer please." A woman handed him a strange flyer with an emblem he didn't recognise. Her attire was bizarre to say the least: she wore a short, vaguely Gothic-looking red dress, high glossy tights and black boots. She had short wavy brown hair like her eyes.
"Huh?" Issei took a better look at the flyer, not after noticing that strange symbol on it. 'Your wish will be granted?' 'I wonder what's this stuff about? Ah, probably superstition...' He concluded.
The oddly dressed girl only smiled at him and walked off without saying anything else. Issei just shrugged it off and pocketed the flyer.
After some other moments of waiting…
"Hey Issei!" Issei's date was approaching him from afar.
The brown-haired boy saw her approaching and couldn't help but stare as he fought the urge to drool. Yuuma was wearing a short, black dress with a small, light purple jacket on top with a cleavage that showed a bit of her large breasts. Issei had to admit that without the school uniform Yuuma looked much more beautiful.
Shaking his head back to reality, he managed to greet the approaching girl. "Hey Yuuma." Issei waved at her with a delighted smile.
"I'm sorry, I hope I didn't keep you waiting for long." Yuuma said in an apologetic tone.
"Don't worry about that, I just got here." Issei once again shook his head.
"Shall we go now?" Yuuma questioned in a sweet tone as she took his hand.
"O-of course. Let's go." Issei nodded while returning the gesture with a blush on his cheeks.
The couple began to walk away, but unbeknownst to them, a figure was watching them from an alley across the street, after witnessing all of that he turned around as he vanished into the murk.
-Sometime later –
Surprisingly, the date was going actually rather well. Issei took Yuuma at various places and they seemed like having fun with one another. They did what exactly one would imagine to teens in love would do; going to amusement parks, shopping, arcade, taking selfies together, yada yada… honestly, the whole thing was actually getting boring to ones' eyes. Nothing dangerous nor interesting was happening so far, sometimes Issei would take the opportunity to peek at Yuuma's breasts and then pretend nothing was happening or come up with excuses that even an idiot wouldn't buy.
Anyway... at the moment the two teenagers were on their way to an ice-cream parlour, apparently Issei decided to play the gentleman, probably after 'accidentally' giving her one too many ogles while they were in the arcade.
As they were making their way to place, Yuuma cast a glance in his direction noticing that Issei sported an uneasy look on his face. True, he was having a good time but his mind briefly shifted back to that moment some days ago, when he was about to get murdered, somewhat fearing his life would be put at risk a second time.
"Are you alright, Issei?" Yuuma asked the boy with some concern in her voice.
The brown-haired boy turned his head to the girl and slowly shook his head. "I-I'm fine Yuuma..." Issei assured her.
"Are you, really?" The ravenette inquired again.
"Ye-yeah. I was just thinking about… stuff." Issei answered with a bit of a shaky tone. He certainly didn't want to tell her he had a near fatal encounter with a woman that almost cost him his life, which he himself doubted had really happened.
"Oh?" Yuuma hummed. "What kind?"
"Sorry Yuuma, I'd rather not tell." Issei responded as he half-closed his eyes. "It's something personal…"
"You know you're free to talk about that if it'll make you feel better." Yuuma insisted.
"I'll be fine, Yuuma." Issei denied. "Thank you for the concern though."
As soon as they kept pacing to the place, Issei stopped once he heard his phone ringing. What he found strange was that initially the number displayed seemed unknown to him, yet upon sharpening his eyesight, he noticed that it was his mother's number. Had something have happened? Surprisingly she had left messages saying that she needed to speak to him without prying eyes.
"I'm sorry Yuuma. Can you give me a minute?" Issei politely asked his date.
"Is something wrong Issei?" Yuuma rose a brow.
"Nothing you should worry about, really. My phone's ringing, it's my mum." Issei explained her.
"What? But I didn't hear…" Yuuma murmured.
"I'll be right back Yuuma." Issei interrupted.
It was strange indeed, not even with her supernatural hearing was she able to pick up any sound from the boy's phone.
"Alright. If you say so." She eventually accepted.
…
Yuuma was waiting patiently for Issei near the entrance of the ice-cream parlour. In the meantime, however, she couldn't help but think about his strange attitude. She knew that he was a pervert and had a fixation on girls' breasts, but strangely enough in the last few hours he didn't seem too much like his perverted self.
"Yuuma." The familiar voice called her.
"Is everything alright now?" Yuuma asked as she noticed Issei was spacing out for some moments. "Issei?"
"O-oh yeah." Issei immediately shook his head. "I'm fine now." He replied putting a smile.
"Are you ready to go?" Yuuma inquired.
"Sure." Issei nodded as he took her hands walking off with her.
From the distance someone else smirked at that sight.
'Well, that worked like a charm...'
-Early evening –
/Kuoh Park/
The sun was now sinking, crimson light from it illuminated Kuoh Park, making the atmosphere perfect for a happy ending date. The couple of teens was walking together at the centre of the town's park, they looked like a carefree pair and unfamiliar eyes could have identified them as two teenage lovebirds. What they failed to know was that from the beginning of their 'date' someone else was monitoring them from afar, and that they were ready to react if the situation got complicated.
As they were approaching their way to the park's fountain, Yuuma broke their silence.
"Hey Issei!" Yuuma chirped with a smile as she showed a flush on her face. "I really had fun today!"
"Y-you did?" Issei asked in embarrassment.
"Hmmhmm." Yuuma nodded as her smile brightened.
"I'm glad you did…" Issei replied with a blush. "I had fun myself."
Making their way to the main fountain, Yuuma walked up before stopping right in front of Issei.
"Say Issei, do you mind hearing me out for a second?" The girl inquired.
"Not at all Yuuma." The boy replied with a headshake.
"Issei..." Yuuma started while slowly walking towards him. "I enjoyed myself today with you. Even though you're a pervert, you're not a bad person. I'd be lying if I said I didn't appreciate your company…" Yuuma trailed off, her eyes darkened. "…truly a shame that things will have to finish this way…" Her voiced became lower.
"What do you mean by that, Yuuma?" Issei asked in confusion cocking a brow.
"Issei, I'm sorry but you'll have to..." She said in a low tone. But as she approached the boy's face, she prepared for her next move...
'Macbeth, now! She's making her move!' Erik exclaimed from a roof through telepathy.
'I'm ready!' The Reflector Mage immediately readied.
Yuuma approached Issei more closely, but the boy in front of her had no reaction from it, catching the Fallen Angel off guard. Given the short distance their bodies were, she expected the pervert to have some sort of reaction at least, but no he was staring at nothingness in an almost absent manner.
"Huh?" The ravenette wondered as she drew nearer and yet Issei still didn't move a muscle.
"Issei?" Yuuma rose a brow while waving a hand in front of his face. Taking a better look, she realised his eyes were hollow, his face was emotionless and his body was standing still.
"What in the world...?"
Before she could voice another world, the vision of the Fallen Angel in disguise suddenly froze as if time had stopped for a few seconds. Briefly shifting her gaze around, she noticed that everything in the surroundings seemed lifeless. Like she had lost contact with reality itself.
"W-what's going on here?" She wondered as she started to slowly panic. "I don't under... ugh." Yuuma suddenly grimaced.
Not having had time to utter another word, her vision began to crack like a shattering mirror almost like someone was slicing it into many pieces with a blade. Yuuma started to feel dizzy, as she felt a sharp pain on her shoulder, as if someone in the process had struck her from behind... in the meantime the image of "Issei" disappeared and her whole world broke into a thousand pieces. While slowly turning around she briefly glimpsed a hooded figure that looked like a man, presumably the one responsible for hitting her with what looked like a probable a karate chop.
"Who... are...y…?" The Fallen Angel could say nothing more as she slowly fell into a state of unconsciousness.
With his job done, Midnight dismissed his Nightmare spell, his Human Illusion to be more precise. It's been two years since he cast it, from the exact moment when he and his comrades, freshly released from prison, were confronted by Jellal. And it seemed he had not lost his grasp on this, far from it. And that could only be a result of the constant training he has undergone to improve his Reflector.
"Looks like my Nightmare is still much more useful than I remember." Midnight told to himself while looking at the park's entrance. "Good, I don't sense that Devil stalker. So Erik was right, they did lose track of Hyoudou... this makes things easier than expected."
'Erik, Jellal you read me?' The Reflector user spoke up through Jellal's telepathy.
'Yup.' The Dragon Slayer replied.
'Yes.' The former Wizard Saint followed.
'I got the Fallen Angel.' The Nightmare Wizard stated with a nod. 'Any Devil around the area, Erik?' He then asked just to make sure.
'Nope. They bought your illusions just fine. Even the white-haired shorty.' The scarred wizard responded.
'Good.' The Reflector Mage acknowledged. 'Jellal, you have Hyoudou and escorted him back home?' He then addressed to the tattooed wizard.
'I have. He's safe and sound.' Jellal answered.
'Great. I'm going back home with the Fallen Angel.' The ex-dark mage ended up.
Dismissing their conversation, the Nightmare Wizard turned towards Yuuma's lying figure.
"Time for to interrogate her." He said as he took her in his arms immediately afterwards.
Having done that, he cancelled the barrier around him by using his artificial Sacred Gear and apparently disappeared from the park.
-A while later –
/Crime Sorcière's residence/
'Yuuma' felt groggy, she had a hard time to wake up and to realise she was kidnapped as she slowly opened her eyes. Her vision was a bit fuzzy, but she was still able to view her surroundings. Gazing all around, she found herself sitting in a chair in a place she didn't recognise. It looked like a normal living room of a pretty large cosy house.
"W-where am I?" She asked herself in confusion. Trying to move her hands slightly she realised she couldn't... "What the?"
Looking over her shoulder, she quickly noticed that her hands were firmly cuffed behind her back, her legs were also tied together. Her sitting position made the movements even more difficult.
"Oh. Look who took her sweet time to finally wake up." Someone spoke up causing the Fallen Angel to halt.
"Uhm… Huh?"
Turning her face towards the source she noticed that the voice belonged to an unfamiliar man. Although she could say he was clearly human, somehow the female Fallen Angel could see the ominous expression on his face: he had pointed ears and a pronounced scar that blinded his right eye that somehow made him much more intimidating, almost inhuman, he seemed fairly muscular and at least 15 centimetres taller than her… the exact opposite of Issei. If the situation she was in wasn't like that, she would've admitted that the man was... rather handsome for her taste, but she of course wouldn't admit it out loud.
The raven-haired Angel shook her head to snap out of her state of confusion. "Who are you?!" She 'greeted' the man.
"Good evening to you too." Cobra greeted back his 'guest' in a sluggish tone while taking off a pair of earphones. 'Man, that Skrillex guy's music slaps.' He briefly thought putting them away.
"W-why can't I..." She questioned in a demanding tone as she struggled to free herself and summon her magic.
"...use magic?" Cobra finished for her while taking a sit on one of the sofas. "Those handcuffs." He gestured pointing to back behind with hand and thumb up at the magic items. "They have the ability that prevents you from casting magic. They can be extremely effective especially during interrogations. And since you've been disobeying orders and acting on your own, I'd say it's only right for you to wear them." He concluded as he laid his phone on the coffee table.
The raven-haired Fallen Angel was a bit surprised. A human that knew about the Supernatural? Well, that wasn't the first time she witnessed that as there were plenty of humans who worked for Grigori or the Angel's faction, yet he didn't look like someone from the Church nor a Stray Exorcist on the loose if that was the case. So how could a random human know about her or what she was doing in Kuoh?
"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" Cobra questioned.
"Don't address me so casually!" The Fallen Angel argued certainly not appreciating his sarcastic tone. "Tell me how could a human like you know anything related to my mission in Kuoh?" She demanded narrowing her eyes. "I get it! You must be one an enemy faction's stooge. Well, if you think you'll get anything out me, you're well mistaken!"
"Oh I know quite a bit of you and what your mission was supposed to be, Raynare of Grigori." Cobra answered gaining an astonished stare from the Fallen Angel. "You're mid-ranked, have four wings and specialised in espionage missions."
Raynare was left shocked, her eyes were widened. "You… I…" She began to stutter. "What do you know about my mission?!" She exclaimed. "What right does a nobody like you have to interfere with my mission?! Who sent you here?! And most importantly, why did you bring me here?!" She continued to demand in a quick tone.
The Dragon Slayer clicked his tongue in irritation before retorting. "Will you just shut up for a second and let me fucking explain?!" Cobra exclaimed back in annoyance. "Jeez, now I can see how most of your kind can be annoying as hell at times."
"You were the first to start this by snatching me up and bringing me here without a reason. Not to mention the awful treatment…" Raynare paused while having a smirk on her face. "What? You have no idea on how to treat a lady?" She asked in a smug tone.
Cobra had a thick mark growing on his head, this woman was annoying. "A lady? Last time I checked, pigeons don't have a sharp tongue to spout shit."
Raynare frowned in response, her mocking smirk was gone. "What did you just say to me, you one-eyed creep?!" She protested indignantly.
"You've gone deaf too?" Cobra retorted.
"Just tell me why I'm here and what you want from me!" She rebutted.
"You're not really in the position to make demands, sweetheart!" He countered sharply. "I'm the one who asks questions here."
"Say that again and I'll…" Raynare started narrowing her eyes.
"You'll do what?" The Dragon Slayer interrupted. "You'll pluck out one of your fluffy feathers to tickle me in my sleep?" Cobra taunted as he couldn't hide his growing smirk, which irked Raynare's nerve to a great extent.
"You…" The Fallen Angel glared as she finally succeeded in standing up after freeing her legs, despite the fact that her hands were still cuffed behind her back.
The two were now confronting themselves while glaring at each other, the male wizard stood up in front of the female Fallen Angel looking down at her while she looked up at him straight in the eye.
After almost a minute, Cobra let out a sigh as he placed a hand on his forehead. Truth be told, if the 'him' of seven years ago had to go throw all of this crap, he would've not thought twice and beat some sense into her… but that wasn't the case now, he was much more thoughtful and definitely more reasonable. Even though the girl in front of him looked like to be petty and a bit of pain in the ass eventually. "Listen… Raynare. Can we just chill out so I can explain?" The Dragon Slayer offered as he tried to be or at least sound, reasonable.
Raynare didn't quit her stare, she still was reluctant to listen to the stranger human, normally she would just try to get rid of the person who wronged her and and look for a way out, but this man seemed to know more than he appeared to, so she decided to play along for now. So she nodded in acceptation.
"As I was saying before." Cobra began as he sat back on the sofa. "My group and I were assigned to stop you and your cronies from doing shit in enemy territory. Apparently your orders were just to keep a lookout for a certain brat with a Sacred Gear, but for some reason you got the brilliant idea of going off script and ambush him with the excuse of a date…"
"I pretty much figured that out, what's your point?" Raynare asked abruptly.
"I was getting to that." Cobra cut her off nearly immediately. "Me and the others have been involved with the supernatural stuff since we were youths..."
It was partially true, they've been involved with magic since they were children, just not in the way Raynare may think.
"About your second questions, we managed to stay out of the radars of the other factions for quite some time until your leaders got in touch with us and appointed us this mission." He went on.
"So what you're saying is that…" The Fallen Angel began.
"Yeah." Cobra nodded. "The reason we know about you and all is because your bosses told us about you and your little entourage going off scripts, and you know who I'm referring to…"
"No way! …it can't be!" Raynare exclaimed already knowing what she was about to hear.
"The likes of Azazel and Shemhaza." Cobra finished.
It was at that moment that Raynare's eyes almost popped out of their eye sockets. Had she misheard? Could it be that the human in front of her was bluffing? But if so, what reason would he have to? More importantly, how did he know Grigori's most important names? Sure, they were known names in biblical scriptural but he was speaking like he knew both of them personally.
"You're… you're obviously bluffing! You must be!" Raynare denied in astonishment. "There's no way in hell what you're saying is true!" Despite her tone, it was obvious she was starting to feel uneasy.
"Oh? Still doubting my words, huh?" Cobra smugly smirked at her as he picked up the phone on the coffee table. "Would you by any chance like to strike up a chat with Azazel himself?" He dared as his grin became wider.
Raynare unconsciously started to sweat and gulped loudly having the feeling that the Dragon Slayer was actually telling the truth. Despite, she tried so hard to believe the contrary. Before she could respond, Cobra already picked up his phone and selected the number until a not so unfamiliar voice answered.
("Yo Cobra.")
The raven-haired Angel literally went pale, her mouth was hanging open. She didn't want to believe her eyes or her ears, in this case, someone who looked like a regular human had just called the Governor General of Grigori as if it was nothing.
"Oi Azazel. What'cha been up to?" Cobra simply asked.
("Been fine. Long-time no see huh?") Azazel said.
"It's been literally less than three days since we saw each other." Cobra corrected him in a deadpanned tone.
("Uh… well, time passes quickly y'know?") Azazel laughed through the phone.
"Yeah…" The Dragon Slayer sighed tiredly. "Listen, is Asia with you?"
("Yep, currently I'm at Grigori with her.") The Governor General replied.
"How is she?" Cobra inquired.
'Asia? Does he know her too?' The ravenette wondered.
("She's alright, she's currently waiting for me outside of the lab with some of my employee. So something's up with your mission that needs my attention?")
"Not yet. Midnight and Jellal are out to look for Dohnaseek, Mittelt and Kalawarner. Raynare's here though, she's been pretty salty lately."
Raynare shot an unamused glare at him, but Cobra just ignored that as Azazel went on.
("I see, something she's done that requires my attention in particular?")
Raynare started to sweat nervously while beginning to tremble in fear as well as shock, here he was, a human talking to the strongest Fallen Angel in existence like it was a walk in the park. Cobra could hear her shivering and couldn't help but smirk a bit.
"Nah." The Dragon Slayer shook his head after giving her a quick look. "So far she hasn't screwed up. No imminent war, for now." Cobra answered.
("Phew.)" Azazel pronounced in a relieved tone. ("Nice to know. Now all you have to is look for the remaining Exorcists and Freed and you're golden.")
"About that… we've got no clue where that prick ran off to." Cobra informed.
("Not good. I'll try to send some spies in the surrounding territories and see if they can trace him. He can't be far gone.") The leader of the Fallen Angels decided.
"I see, thanks for that." The wizard nodded.
("Now as much as I like to chat with you, I'm afraid I'll have to get back to work. Catch you later.") Azazel finished.
"Yeah. See ya." Cobra said while ending the call.
The hard truth came to light, this man wasn't bluffing at all. And now Raynare knew it. She stood as still as a statue for a good minute.
Noticing the Fallen Angel's reaction, Cobra let out a sigh. "Alright… don't start shitting your pants, nothing'll happen to you as long as you don't fuck up. So now you'll speak?"
"Yes…" Raynare shook her head still a little nervous as she gulped a bit of her saliva. "Yes… I will"
The ravenette took her time to sit down the other sofa.
'Given the look on her face I doubt she'll lie, especially now that I talked to Azazel right in front of her face, so might as well hear her out on this one.' Cobra said in his thoughts deciding to not go for his Hearing Magic this once.
Raynare took a deep breath before beginning to talk.
"I guess I'll start from the beginning…"
/Elsewhere, Kuoh suburbs/
Jellal just closed his phone and put it back in his coat's inner pocket.
"Erik is interrogating the Fallen Angel right now." The tattooed mage said while turning to his comrade. "He'll make sure she speaks and comes clean about her motives."
"I hope he hasn't forgotten what Azazel told us about not harming any of them." The Nightmare mage stated.
"I'm certain he hasn't. Azazel was clear he prefers words over violence." Jellal assured.
"What about Hyoudou?" Midnight began to ask. "Did you have to knock him out or you were able to convince him to go back home?"
"The latter… I initially opted to come with a story about me being Yuuma's distant cousins and telling him her parents wanted her back home immediately, but…" The blue-haired mage replied.
"But what?"
"I decided to partially blow the whistle about Yuuma being in cahoots with someone who's after him, somehow I managed to convince him not to continue the date with Raynare, promising to explain everything to him later."
"I still can't believe he accepted a date from a girl he knew nothing about." Midnight shook his head with a sigh.
"Yeah... That boy would be better to watch his back before he bites off more than he can chew like last time." Jellal said. "Anyway what matters most is that he's safe and won't get involved with all of this."
"Don't you think he'll draw a lot more attention from now on? Especially now that he has activated his Sacred Gear." The Nightmare user pointed out while asking.
"For now all we can do is avoiding him to get killed, so I guess we'll have to cross the bridge when we'll come to it." Jellal clarified.
"You're right." Midnight agreed with a nod.
As they kept strolling into the woods, Jellal noticed how the forest grew thicker and thicker, after all night had now fallen, causing their vision to become even more obscured.
"Are you sure this is the right way? This path doesn't seem very reassuring nor does it seem to lead somewhere in particular." Jellal lifted a brow while asking.
"Trust me, I'm more than sure." Midnight assured looking at his direction. "I remember Raynare landing somewhere around here when I checked on them the other day."
As soon as they saw an opening in the forest and the end of the path, Midnight came to notice a strange gate in the distance, the two stopped for a moment.
"We're here." The Reflector mage pointed at the gate.
Suddenly the two stopped walking once someone else spoke up from above.
"My my, what are two humans doing in our territory?" A voice that sounded like it belonged to a pre-teen girl wondered.
The voice indeed belonged to a young Fallen Angel, she had blonde hair which was styled into twin-tails and blue eyes. She wore a gothic attire which was made up of a black dress with white frills, a big bow in the front, a green gem sewn into the collar, white thigh-high stockings, and black shoes. She was sitting on a tree branch a few metres forward.
"You must be the Fallen Angel Mittelt, right?" Jellal asked.
Midnight gave a quick look at his phone as he took a look at the picture. "Yes. That's her." He confirmed as he read the report.
"Huh? You know about me?" Mittelt inquired making a quizzical look while pointing at herself.
"Apparently the weakest of the group, barely in her teens but still childlike in appearance... and I think the description provided is..." The Reflector Mage listed off, yet his tone suggested a hint of sarcasm in his words. "…rather accurate."
Mittelt frowned at his obvious mocking remark. "What do two humans want from me?" She questioned as she hopped off of the tree.
"Call your friends. We know you've been hiding inside that church for a while." Midnight put it bluntly with a stern stare making Mittelt to nearly snort.
"So coming here without saying hi, taking the piss and expect me to follow you around?" Mittelt asked with a developing smirk while forming a pink-coloured spear of light. "That's really rude. No humans tell me what to do!" She exclaimed as she dashed forward to the wizards.
'Macbeth.' Jellal telepathically called his friend.
'I know…' Midnight replied with a mental sigh.
As soon as Mittelt shortened the distance between her and them, she hurled her light spear towards the humans with all the accuracy she could muster. However, the spear made of light thrown by the blonde Fallen Angel stopped suddenly in the air as it reached a certain distance from the wizards.
"What the…?" The blonde-haired Angel gasped in disbelief.
Unable to finish her sentence, she noticed that his weapon of light distorted itself until disappearing into thin air. Although he could block her spear with his bare hands, Midnight made the decision not to start a fight that could be avoided, especially with a sassy little girl.
"What the hell?!" Mittelt yelled while forming another light weapon. "How are you doing this?!"
Although she tried to perform the exact same move as a few moments ago, the effect did not change; her spear of light had no effect. Midnight didn't say anything as he grew bored of this right away. So he decided to speed things up and put the brat in her place. Advancing faster than she could see, he appeared directly in front of her.
"How cheeky." The Reflector user only said bluntly.
To her surprise, Midnight stretched his hand up to her forehead, and with a flick of his finger on it caused her to fly off and crash into a nearby tree. A red lump could be seen on her brow.
"I guess I should've held back a bit more, huh?" Macbeth wondered.
Jellal glanced at Mittelt, who was writhing on the ground while stroking his head in pain.
"Ow! Ow! Ow!" Mittelt childishly whined with her eyes starting to water up.
"Just a little…" Jellal eventually nodded.
Trying to deny the pain, she managed to get up, her bump was growing redder and redder. "You'll pay for this you creep!" The small Angel announced as she pointed an accusing finger at the responsible. Despite how amusing all of this was, Midnight had no intention to waste any more time. But before he could retort, Mittelt apparently wasn't done.
"This time I'll hit you!" The blonde-haired girl exclaimed as she was about to summon another spear, seemingly not getting she won't go anywhere with that one.
Before the situation could degenerate, two more people made their appearance through magic circles.
"What's going on out here?" A masculine voice asked interrupting her.
The first was a middle-aged man with medium-length black hair, dark blue eyes. He wore a grey coat a fedora hat of the same colour, black trousers and shoes. The second was an attractive and voluptuous but slender woman with long dark blue hair that reached her legs. She wore a tan small-sized jacket that showed off her large chest, a matching miniskirt, a golden necklace and heeled shoes.
"What does it look like, Dohnaseek?!" Mittelt exclaimed at the man with the fedora. "Obviously I'm trying to chase away these pesky humans! Especially that frigging looking creep other there." She remarked while pointing once again at Midnight's direction.
"That's one noisy little girl." The Nightmare Wizard briefly commented while rolling his eyes.
"Hey! I heard you!" Mittelt protested.
Midnight just closed his eyes deciding to not waste his time responding her.
"Oh… Mittelt." Dohnaseek sighed tiredly somewhat agreeing with the other wizard. Taking his eyes off Mittelt, the tall Fallen Angel looked at the humans in front of him.
"Do I know you?" The male Fallen Angel asked while rising a brow.
"Not quite." Midnight replied shortly.
"Then mind telling me what's your reason for you two to be here and…" Dohnaseek began.
"That sicko came here all high and mighty thinking to order us around!" Mittelt cut them off as she pointed her fingers to Midnight once again. "So I was just getting rid of him and his other friend until you barged in, old man!" She exclaimed while stomping her foot on the ground repeatedly. Ignoring the fact all her attempts to attack the wizards went to waste.
"Please Mittelt…" Dohnaseek sighed wearily trying to hush the small Fallen Angel. "Just be quiet for a minute…" He said while fixing his fedora.
The Reflector Wizard hummed as he continued his explication while ignoring Mittelt's glare. "As we were about to tell you, we've come here to withdraw you from this 'mission' of yours at the behest of your superiors from Grigori." Midnight explained.
That definitely caught their attention, especially Dohnaseek's. Looking closely at the humans in front of them, he could perceive no lies coming from their words. Yet, he still chose to be cautious.
"Is that right?" Dohanseek asked.
"Yes. My name is Jellal Fernandes and this is my comrade, Midnight." Jellal spoke up as he introduced himself and his friend after gesturing to him. "And before you think otherwise, we are not here to antagonise you. We're here to talk, but most importantly to stop you from doing something you may regret eventually." The former Wizard Saint followed up.
The trio of Fallen Angels looked at him with different faces, Mittelt had still an indignant look on her face, Dohnaseek had a neutral gaze while studying the humans in front of him, while the voluptuous woman eyed them curiously, her lips exhibited a tiny smirk.
The navy-haired woman began to speak as she placed her hand on her hips. "Oh, is that so?" She asked in a slight seductive tone. "Well… I surely wouldn't mind having a chat with two handsome men like yourselves. Especially with you." She eyed Jellal with hungry eyes. The blue-haired wizard
"Kalawarner!" Mittelt called her out after stopping her snickers. "Are freaking serious now? Those two are"
"Enough Mittelt!" Dohnaseek finally scolded her. "And Kalawarner, don't you think this isn't the time or the place for your urgencies?" He asked.
"Such a killjoy." Kalawarner said with a shrug while stepping back.
Mittelt crossed her arms with a pouty expression as she looked away, not before childishly sticking her tongue out at Dohnaseek and Midnight.
"So, is that alright for us to talk you out of this pacifically?" Jellal inquired.
"Forgive my scepticism, but I find it difficult to believe how two foreign humans have any connection to our leaders... therefore I would like you to show me some evidence." Dohanseek reasoned as he crossed his arms.
"Understandable." The blue-haired wizard consented.
It didn't take long before the wizards showed actual proof of their connection to Grigori and its leaders, showing not only the private number of Azazel and his organisation, but also irrefutable proof; their artificial Sacred Gear developed by Azazel himself.
"Is this enough for you to satisfy your curiosity?" The ex-Wizard Saint asked.
Dohnaseek fought the urge to wide his eyes, while the other two Angels were still having their time to process the whole thing.
"Yes. I think it is." Donhaseek coughed a bit. "If that's the case, we're listening." He accepted Jellal's offer.
-A while later –
After having resolved the matter with the remaining Fallen Angels hidden at the abandoned church, Jellal and Macbeth were on their way back home to meet with their companion.
"Well, everything went smoothly in the end." Jellal commented their former encounter with the Fallen Angels.
"Sort of... I still have a slight headache from that Fallen Angel blonde brat." Macbeth sighed while closing his eyes.
"She wasn't that bad; the whole thing was kind of funny." Jellal quipped in amusement.
"Funny for you perhaps." Macbeth said drowsily. "That little girl was so tiring, and it seemed that even Dohnaseek agreed with me."
"You may be right. But at least you managed to maintain your demeanour." The blue-haired wizard nodded his head.
"Yeah… I bet even Erik would go crazy after conversing with her for even a minute." The Nightmare mage remarked as they were in front of their building's entrance.
"About that, do you think he succeeded to obtain any information out of Raynare? "Jellal asked as he picked the apartment's keys.
"I hope so, it would be troublesome to have him fighting inside our new home with a Fallen Angel. Luckily we still have those magic cuffs." Macbeth stated.
As Jellal and Macbeth entered the hall and made it in front of their door, they heard arguing voices muffled from the living room side. After sharing a look with one another, Jellal inserted the flat's keys in the locks and got inside only to find to people nearly butting their head one against the other.
"Famous last words." Macbeth commented.
"Hey, calm down you two!" Jellal intervened to stop them. "What on earth has been happening here?"
The two's argument came to a stop as the Dragon Slayer turned his head towards Jellal.
"I'm trying to pipe down this annoying pigeon over here." Erik snorted as he gestured to Raynare.
"What was that, you cyclops-creep?!" Raynare protested with a glare.
"I thought you would've had everything under control, Cobra." Jellal stated as he looked to his guildmate.
The scarred wizard tched in irritation upon hearing the Fallen Angel's retorting comment, but ignored it as he kept answering Jellal.
"What? The crow got snappy; I was just trying to put her in her place." The scarred wizard shrugged.
"I'd like to see you really try!" The Fallen Angel exclaimed.
"Wanna test me, you overgrowth turkey?" Erik dared making her clench her teeth.
"Oh, that's it!" The Fallen Angel exclaimed in anger as she was advancing toward him.
Before the whole matter escalated further, Jellal immediately stepped in between the two quarrels, his arms extended to separate both the Dragon Slayer and the Fallen Angel. Honestly, they looked like an old married couple arguing over a little issue.
"Let's just calm down, alright?" Jellal offered to both of them. "Now this isn't the time."
The human and the Fallen Angel were still glaring but hesitatingly they moved slowly away from each other.
"Who are you two?" Raynare questioned while turning to the other two mages.
"My name is Jellal and this is Midnight, and like Cobra he's a guildmate of mine." Jellal elaborated.
"Guildmate? What's that supposed to mean?" The ravenette asked.
"We will explain everything shortly, just what's happening here?"
"Your 'guildmate' over here is an asshole down to a T, that's what!" Raynare argued.
"What? I just asked a couple of questions but she got it all personal and started ranting out making my ears nearly go deaf." Erik complained sticking a finger in his ear.
"Alright…" Jellal said realising that asking who was guilty would be futile. At least they weren't trying to kill each other anymore. "Regardless of who started this, let's try not to do anything rash so we can explain calmly." The former Wizard Saint. reasoned which Raynare reluctantly nodded.
"I can handle with that." She said.
"Alright… Cobra?" The blue-haired wizard eyed his comrade.
"Tch… fine." Erik huffed in acceptance.
A few moments later, after pouring oil on troubled waters between the two and a brief introduction revealing who they were, of course without revealing their true origins, Raynare began to elaborate on what her orders was about and how it had been changed.
"Initially, we were assigned by Lord Shemhaza to keep an eye on Issei Hyoudou and his Sacred Gear in case it spun out of control… For the record, I had specific orders to not kill the boy, nor to bring any harm to the Devils here." Raynare explained to the wizards. "Obviously I wasn't about to do anything like that, I've been into the Devils' territories for two some weeks give or take, but some days ago…" She paused.
"But something's changed, hasn't it?" Erik asked as he crossed his arm.
"W-what are you trying to imply…?" Raynare voiced grudgingly.
"You weren't exactly into it while you were at it. It was in your voice. I could hear it." The Dragon Slayer claimed.
Raynare started to feel a bit nervous while looking away.
"Is it true?" Jellal asked.
The raven-haired Angel looked down before nodding in reluctance. "Yes… I admit wasn't too keen on the idea of killing the pervert to begin with. While it is true my missions are often about espionage, I still have my moral lines and I wouldn't kill someone who did nothing wrong." Raynare elaborated. "Anyway, this time it was more complicated, the person who sent me on the mission was quite convinced of what I was going to do until something happened."
"Here's where your orders were changed, right?" The Reflector wizard spoke up.
"That's right." Raynare responded nodding with a hesitant voice. "The same person who informed me of the change of orders also added that, not only did he want Issei alive, but he also intended to get his hands on his Sacred Gear, stating that it was not a simple Twice Critical, but something much more powerful and could be useful to him."
"Who was that?" Jellal asked.
"One of Grigori's ground commanders, he has three pairs of wings and is definitely among the closest to our leaders. His name is…"
Suddenly Jellal's phone began to ring and to their astonishment they noticed that the caller was none other than Azazel himself.
("Cobra! Midnight! Jellal!") Azazel practically cried the right moment the call started.
"Azazel, what's the matter?" Jellal asked rising an eyebrow.
("We got bad news! Like really bad news!") The Governor continued with the same tone.
"What? What happened?" Jellal asked persistently.
("It's Asia, she got kidnapped!") Azazel exclaimed in a clear worried tone.
As soon as the news was heard by the rest of those present, the atmosphere in the room became tenser, the wizards of Crime Sorcière were not at all happy about what they had heard, especially a certain Dragon Slayer. Erik's poisonous draconic aura started to glow out his body.
"What the fuck did you just say?!" Erik growled through Jellal's phone.
Raynare felt a chill down her spine. There was something wrong about that strange power emitted by him, even though Cobra was fully human, that aura felt inhuman, but she couldn't identify it just yet…
"Huh?" Raynare hummed too.
"You mean to tell us that one of Grigori double-crossed you?" Macbeth questioned.
"Mind tell us what happened from the start?" Jellal added.
("Kind of. Asia came with me to Grigori for that famous training session with her Sacred Gear. I was about to exit with her. But when I was done at my lab, I called her, but she didn't reply! As if vanished into thin air!") Azazel filled them as quick as he could. ("One of my co-workers then told me that he saw her leave with one of the guards, after which he never saw them come back!")
"How in the fucking hell did you let that slip?!" Erik shouted after baring his sharpened canines.
("I'm sorry… that was one of the most trusted assistants under Baraqiel. I have no clue of why he did this…") Azazel remarked.
"Who is it?" Jellal queried.
"Whoever this is, I'll go there to rescue her myself and beat the shit out of that prick." The Dragon Slayer growled with clenched fists.
"Shamsiel. It's him." Raynare spoke up. "He was the one who said my orders were changed, but he never told me who the name of his 'next target' was, he said it would be a nun, but he didn't specify who it was... apparently he was talking about Asia."
("Was he the reason you and the others haven't reported for weeks?") Azazel questioned, yet Raynare wasn't ablet to utter a reply. Azazel sighed. ("I take that as a yes. So he was planning all of this behind my back.")
"Yes… I'm sorry sir." Raynare murmured in shame.
("We'll talk about this later.") Azazel told her.
"Hold on… you know Asia too?" The Dragon Slayer asked the Fallen Angel woman.
"Yeah… sort of." The Fallen Angel revealed in reluctance. After some moments Raynare began to speak again. "That's right, the abandoned church! They're probably making the ritual!"
"Ritual?" Midnight asked.
"Yes, to extract a Sacred Gear from humans' souls, it's needed to perform a ritual with a Sacred Gear extractor. We had it placed there in that church's undergrounds. And it's now obvious Shamsiel decided to act alone." Raynare summarised.
"Are you sure about it?" Jellal questioned.
"Yeah, more than sure." She nodded quickly. "That's where he was to extract Issei's Sacred Gear from the beginning."
("I see now… he was the only one with them besides two other guards, so it must be him. This is bad, not only has he kidnapped one of my pupils, but he's operating in the Devils' turf with an old device stolen from the laboratory.") Azazel said. ("Listen, I can't obviously send you any enforcement, so you'll probably had to deal with him on your own. Raynare are you still there?")
"Yes sir." The ravenette replied.
("If he's ever making out of it alive, I want you to bring him back to Grigori so I can first interrogate and then imprison him for treachery.") Azazel instructed.
"Key words: if." Erik growled in anger. "'Cause he'll be lucky to be in one piece once I'm done with him."
("Just try to not kill him if that can be avoided. Now I need to talk about this to Shemhaza and Baraqiel. I'll talk to you guys later.") Azazel said in a grave tone concluding the call.
Jellal quickly put the phone away. "We should get moving now!"
"I can teleport us via magic circle outside the church." Raynare immediately offered.
Without wasting time, Jellal freed her from the handcuffs she still had. "Let's get moving then!" He then announced.
Everyone nodded while Raynare summoned a magic circle, a second later the room became empty as Crime Sorcière and the Fallen Angel teleported away.
/Abandoned church's underground basement/
Asia was literally shaking in fear as she was on the verge of tears. After being forcibly abducted, Asia was tied up and crucified to a strange device in the shape of a cross which was located above a staircase inside a large medieval-like underground chamber. Asia was there betrayed by a man who was part of Grigori himself. The traitor Angel looked like a tall handsome young man with pale skin, shoulder-length dark purple hair with bangs that covered a bit of his face, black eyes with red pupils, elf-like pointed ears that kind of reminded her a certain Poison Dragon Slayer and a jointed full black suit of armour. This was him…
"Why?... why are you doing this to me, Shamsiel?" The blonde nun asked in a shaky tone with teary eyes.
Shamsiel looked at her and merely chuckled tauntingly.
"Sorry Asia, but I always carry out a pact, especially when I get what I want in return."
"W-what are you planning to do?" Asia asked with a murmur.
"It's quite easy, dear." Shamsiel smirked. "All I'm going is extract your Sacred Gear with this handy contraption of mine. Obviously, I needed a decoy to distract Azazel about what I was planning with you, and Raynare was perfect for the job."
"But why? Why going this far? And what do you want to gain from all of this…?" Asia inquired.
"It's simple. For me to emerge unscathed, I needed to turn the tables and get rid of Raynare so she couldn't report my plans to Azazel and Shemhaza. So I ordered her first to abduct that brat with the Sacred Gear and then to kidnap you so I could take your Twilight Healing for my bidder. About your second question, I'd rather keep it a secret, you won't be around to know." Shamsiel grinned maliciously.
"Do I really deserve all of this…" Asia whispered to herself.
"Quite a shame, but that won't save you. After I'll deal with this, I'm going to extract Hyoudou's Sacred Gear and remove that other insolent worthless Fallen Angel." The traitorous Fallen Angel continued his explanation somewhat amused. Asia's emotions flowed out and tears began to roll down her cheeks. "Look at the bright side. You should feel honoured to sacrifice yourself for a higher cause."
Asia could only continue to sob feeling hopeless and despair.
"AARGH!" Some screams of pain could be heard from behind.
"What?" Shamsiel looked back and noticed his Exorcist grunts were flying left and right.
A certain raven-haired Fallen Angel was floating on air, her four black wings were unfurled. She was holding two giant purple-coloured jagged spears of light which she used to dispose of the Exorcists.
"Grr…"
"You bitch!" Two rogue Exorcists cried in unison as they assaulted her with their light weapons.
Raynare blocked their slashes with her own spears. Easily disarming the Exorcists with a rapid sweep, she impaled them both with her magenta spears. The same fate awaited another duo of Exorcists that attacked her from behind. Making her way through the Exorcists, she vaulted upwards, continuing to target the rest of the small army with her weapons. Although she was a mid-tier with four wings, she could certainly handle herself, her fighting skills were above average and her spears of light were much more powerful than a normal Fallen Angel. Even Shamsiel had to admit she would be a worthy opponent, in spite the fact he knew he would win.
'Miss Raynare?' Asia wondered as she slowly glanced up.
The male Fallen Angel noticed the intruder as well. 'Raynare? I suppose she found out about my scheme and came back to get revenge. I thought she fled away I would've to track her down.' Shamsiel pondered after acknowledging her presence. 'This will make things easier for me…'
His thoughts were interrupted by someone else.
"Let her go you scumbag piece of shit!" From above a voice shouted.
"What in the…" The Fallen Angel shot his eyes upward.
With no time to witness further, a hard fist was thrown at the Fallen Angel's face, the person twisted his body around, hitting him with a spinning kick which sent him flying to the wall creating a cloud of dust in the process.
"Huh?" Asia blinked her eyes for some seconds as she tried to scan her saviour.
However, Asia's vision became clear as she smiled with happiness.
"Cobra!" The nun voiced out in relief.
The Poison Dragon Slayer smirked at the girl in response, relieved to see his friend still in one piece. Striking the Sacred Gear's cross-shaped extractor device it was destroyed in seconds, freeing Asia from her captivity.
"Yo Asia. You ok?" Cobra asked as he helped Asia to stand up,
"Y-yes, I think I'm fine." Asia replied in a happy yet fatigued tone. "I'm glad you came. Thank you!" Noticing the female Fallen Angel fighting the rogue priests she voiced. "Miss Raynare. She's here too."
"So you do know each other." Cobra observed.
"Yes… we do. It's a long story." Asia nodded.
Cobra nodded at her understanding she may explain it later. He wouldn't want to pry in her thoughts. The Dragon Slayer shifted his head up at Raynare.
"Oi Raynare, take Asia with you and go upstairs to the others. I'll deal with this jerk." The scarred wizard instructed.
After throwing one more spear of light and kicking away another Exorcist, she vaulted towards him. "And who exactly put you in charge?" Raynare asked as she dodged another swing from another Stray Exorcist holding a light weapon. The same priest tried to fire with his holy gun, but the Fallen Angel kicked his gun away and jabbed him in the face shoving him away.
"Not even with a 'pretty please'?" Cobra's sarcasm was well evident in his question.
The raven-haired Fallen Angel wanted to retort but she paused for a second. After having decided that there might be better times to argue, Raynare decided it was better to follow Cobra's lead, albeit half-heartedly.
"…alright, fine." Raynare said somehow agreeing with him. "Are you alright Asia?" The raven-haired Fallen Angel asked addressing the nun.
"Y-yes, thank you for coming too, Miss Raynare." Asia pronounced with an honest smile.
"Just 'Raynare' is fine." Raynare sighed shaking her head. "Wait, what about all those Exorcists?"
"Those crappy wankers?" Cobra scoffed with sarcasm. Without adding anything else or waiting for a response, the Dragon Slayer turned his person towards the group of Stray Exorcists who were advancing in their direction. Holy weapons and guns in their hands ready to fire.
"That bastard's the one who harmed Lord Shemsial!" An Exorcist shouted pointing his gun at Cobra.
"Kill them!" One Exorcist cried while pulling out his weapon.
"They'll pay for sticking their noses in others' business!" One more followed up.
"For Lord Shemsial!" Another Exorcist shouted with blind obedience.
"Ass-kissers blindly following their scum-bag leader, déjà vu." Cobra muttered remembering a certain mission in Hell some days ago. Cracking his neck while smirking a bit. "It's trash-clean time." Suddenly a great wave of sound was released by the Dragon Slayer and swept over the entire group of Exorcists, sending them flying away through the entire dungeon as if they were nothing but bugs to dispose of. Knocking them out one by one as it happened.
"…w-w-what?!" Raynare couldn't help but stare at the whole scene open-mouthed, her eyes sprang open. A human releasing such power with ease? With just one single blow? She was also pretty sure the ground even shook a bit.
"That's amazing Cobra…" Asia whispered in awe. Even though she knew her friend was strong and could get rid of a group of Exorcists without breaking a sweat.
"Hmph. Too damn easy." Cobra commented.
"You're quite remarkable." Shamsiel commented rising back on his feet from his spot. "A normal human would've never had the capacity to unleash such strength, let alone ground a Fallen Angel." He complimented while walking toward him. "You successfully disposed of a small army of Stray Exorcists on your own. Not to mention that magic power of yours. Who are you?"
The Poison Dragon Slayer clicked his tongue. "The one who's saving Asia and who's gonna beat the living hell out of you." Cobra replied sharply. "Psych yourself up, cause you ain't walking out of this."
"A mere human challenging a Fallen Angel? Don't be too sure of winning just because you managed to defeat some weak Exorcists or to land just one hit on me. Meddling with affairs that don't concern you has already sealed your fate."
The male Fallen Angel looked over.
"It appears little Raynare already ratted out to Azazel after all, huh? I certainly didn't expect events would turn this way." Shamsiel noted while slowly shaping a smirk on his face. "But still joining forces with a human? That was surely unexpected."
"You traitor!" Raynare shouted from above with an accusing tone. "You lied to me and used me as a scapegoat, didn't you?! You told me to act under false orders and that Azazel had requested to go after innocent humans!"
"Yes, that is true, but it was strictly necessary to fulfil my goal." Shamsiel admitted without second thoughts. "At first I was convinced that you were the right person to carry out the task Raynare. After all, you're one of the young Fallen Angels who demonstrated the most promise during your missions. But it is more than evident that I was wrong, you're too weak. And I don't require weaklings' assistance." He told her in an arrogant, haughty tone.
"No… how can you be so cruel to one of your own...?" Asia asked.
"Asia, are you genuinely standing up for Raynare of all the people? It would appear you've forgotten what happened in the past between the two of you, haven't you?" Shamsiel asked glancing back to the nun.
Asia couldn't help but yelp a bit but remained silent, while Raynare looked away.
'What does he mean?' Cobra wondered trying to read their minds. 'Asia's trying to hide her thoughts about that… I can hear it. Guess it's a pretty hard matter for her.' He thought leaving that aside.
"But right now it's irrelevant…" The dark-haired Fallen Angel carried on while forming a dark purple trident-like light spear. "Because none of you will live after this, it will be just a matter of time before you perish by my hands! Starting by you, Raynare!" Shamsiel exclaimed while he was about to toss his weapon toward Raynare.
However before Shamsiel could hurl the spear of light at her, the Dragon Slayer sprang forward with inhuman speed and slammed the palm of his hand into the rib of the attacking Angel, unleashing a powerful wave of sound Shamsiel was blasted away.
"I'm your opponent, keep your eyes on me." Cobra said retrieving his fist.
'Incredible…' Raynare commented in her thoughts as she landed next to Asia. 'He shoved Shamsiel away like it was a child play and he's a six-winged Fallen Angel. I never thought he could be this strong. It's no surprise Azazel wanted his help…' She thought still processing everything. 'If he's this strong then I dread to imagine how strong Jellal and Midnight could be.'
'Cobra is always so strong.' Asia said in her thoughts.
"Asia." The Dragon Slayer called her.
"Huh?" Said nun turned to him.
"Go with Raynare and reunite with the others upstairs, I'm ending things here." Cobra assured as he cracked his knuckles.
"Are you sure it's good for you to fight him by…"
"Don't worry, I got this." The wizard assured as he dismissed her worries.
"Come on Asia." Raynare said while placing a hand on her shoulders.
Asia nodded as she followed Raynare out of the underground dungeon. As soon as they left the chamber, the Dragon Slayer and the Fallen Angel were staring at one another.
'So he's the guy who's behind all of this. He's got three pair of wings, making him a high-tier if I'm right. He'll pay for what he did to Asia.' Cobra said to himself.
"Do you really think you have the power to defeat me alone, human?" Shamsiel asked somewhat arrogantly.
"Why don't we find out?" The human wizard challenged while clenching on of his fists. "Now quit talkin' and more fightin'." Cobra retorted.
"Very well then." Shamsiel said in acceptance.
"Bring it on." Cobra told him while readying himself.
The Fallen Angel rushed to the scarred wizard with high speed, a spear appeared on his hand. Cobra briefly scoffed and avoided his swing with ease.
"Hmph." Cobra briefly grimaced.
Summoning another light weapon, the Fallen Angel continued his assault as he increased the speed of his blows, but no matter how fast he was swinging, not one of them hit the slayer. Clutching both his weapons firmly he swung his spear horizontally, but Cobra once again evaded the blow by jumping in mid-air. Before Shamsiel could react, the Dragon Slayer delivered a spinning kick to his face, sending him flying backwards. But the Fallen Angel regained his balance by bringing out his three pairs of black wings.
'What is this? Why can't I land a hit on him? Does he have some sort of Sacred Gear?' The Angel wondered in surprise.
'The first signs of doubts, I can hear them.' The Dragon Slayer thought.
Shamsiel soared through the air as he took careful aim and threw his two spears of light towards the human mage, Cobra dodged them both which caused both of the weapons to be struck on the field.
"I got you!"
A few seconds after the weapons hit the ground, an explosion of light was emitted from the light spears themselves. But, as the light died down, the scarred Dragon Slayer was still there standing in the middle of a smoking crater left by the blast with his hands pocketed without a single scratch on him.
"What? Is that all you can do?" Cobra mocked while adjusting his coat.
The Fallen Angel in armour began to get irritated by Cobra's behaviour. Was this human daring to consider him some kind of joke? Despite his comments, the dark-haired Angel still kept his self-composure.
"Impressive. You managed to survive both the explosion and the attack despite the latter's power. You clearly are no regular opponent." Shamsiel said. "However, I'm a being far above yours, you can never defeat me!"
Shamsiel immediately aimed at the Dragon Slayer, preparing for his next move.
'He finally figured out he's got to change strategy, huh?' Cobra briefly thought.
Only a few seconds later, Shamsiel lunged at the human at high speed, but this time he seemed to want to go into hand-to-hand combat. Cobra smirked and avoided blow after blow, kick after kick.
'How?!' The Fallen Angel exclaimed in his mind.
'Predictable. He's started to get tense; I can hear it.' Cobra was forming a smirk on his lips.
As much as he found his attempts to hit him amusing, the Dragon Slayer grabbed both fists and released his sound waves shooting him back. The Fallen Angel regained his balance and used the rocky wall of the chamber as a springboard to thrust himself back towards the Dragon Slayer with great speed, forming another of his dark purple spears of light to attempt to stab him at close range. Cobra wasn't frightened in the slightest by the move, leaning back and evading the blow with great ease.
"Tch." Shamsiel winced in irritation.
Cobra returned his glare with a mocking smirk, the dark-haired Fallen Angel slashed his spear backwards, but the weapon was clamped before it could reach him, Cobra's Sound Magic perfectly shielded him from his spear, despite the fact he could easily get rid of the spear without the use of magic. Unleashing the soundwaves, the Dragon Slayer was able to destroy the dark-purple spear and hit him away.
The Poison Dragon Slayer crossed his arm. "Sound Howling!" Cobra announced.
A vortex of sound was released from the Dragon Slayer directly towards the Fallen Angel, but Shamsiel at the last second managed to dodge it. Shamsiel flew back as he landed several meters away from his enemy.
"Come on, you were talking so big before. I at least hoped you could pull off something better than this." Cobra scoffed mockingly. "'Cause honestly this is lame."
The dark-haired Angel scowled at him as his patience was beginning to wear thin. Clenching his teeth a bit, Shamsiel decided play-time was over.
"I guess it's time for me to get serious, is it not?" Shamsiel announced trying to sound unfazed.
"Come and get me then." Cobra gestured to come at him while sharpening his gaze.
Shamsiel sprinted forward with two new light spears in hands. As he slashed downward, Cobra grabbed his right wrist blocking his imminent assault. The Angel used his free hand to perform another swing but the Dragon Slayer threw an uppercut at him, sending him soaring.
"Hgg..." Shamsiel groaned in pain as a trail of blood flowed from his lips.
With a leap in the air, Cobra brought his palm out. "Sound Palm!" He shouted.
Shamsiel recovered and quickly produced another trident-like spear slicing it down the Dragon Slayer to counter his attack. Cobra's sound spell collided with Shamsiel's spear but his spear of light was eventually shattered, however he was able to avoid the strike last minute. After landing at the other end of the chamber, the dark-haired Fallen Angel glared bleakly at the human who had now positioned himself near the steps.
"It's no use. I can hear it." Cobra muttered. "You're at the end of your rope, you might as well give up and go back to Grigori instead of risking to get a bad ass-kicking by me." The Dragon Slayer noticed the Fallen Angel's anger rose exponentially, his armour was damaged and he had cuts and bruises in his face and body.
"Be quiet!" Shamsiel commanded. "No humans tell a Fallen Angel what to do! I'll kill you this histant!" His voice echoed through the dungeon confirming the Dragon Slayer's guess. Creating multiple spears he tried to pierce him by throwing them, but it was pointless, no matter how hard he tried, no shot hit his enemy.
The six-winged Angel leapt up expanding his wings. Throwing his arms in the air, he conjured up a single large trident of light, as he grasped it, Shamsiel launched himself into an aerial assault towards the human. He brought his spear of light upwards, and a moment later attempted to slash the Dragon Slayer from above.
"What?!"
The Fallen Angel's eyes went wide in disbelief, the human he was about to take out literally grabbed his holy weapon's blades between his bare hands. What was even more absurd was that he didn't even look fatigued or in pain as he did so.
"How are you doing this?!" Shamsiel demanded with an intense glare. "How can you survive my light weapons?! You're just a human!" He shouted giving up his cool.
"Well, if a 'human' can slam you down this easily I'd question my own strength if I was in your shoes." Cobra snickered.
"Are you belittling me, human?" Shamsiel rebuked in an angry manner.
"Nah." Cobra then narrowed his eyes at him. "Just stating facts!" His smirk was replaced by a deep scowl.
Slowly, Cobra managed to gain the upper hand while gradually pushing Shamsiel back. No matter how hard he tried to pressure the blade to overpower him, the Dragon Slayer remained unfazed.
"This is ridiculous! You… you're no normal human… what are you?!" The Fallen Angel questioned as he tried to put more force into it.
"Sorry to disappoint you, douchebag but I am a human." The scarred wizard answered.
Despite all the strength he was applying to strike down the Dragon Slayer, Cobra's grip was like iron. The Fallen Angel shot a look and noticed something was starting to change in the human before him; the upper parts of the hands and forearms became covered in crimson scales, while the underside turned smooth and milky. The hands also turned into sharp, pointed claws.
"What in the world are you?! You're an anomaly! You must be!" Shamsiel cried out as he was starting to panic.
The Dragon Slayer ignored his demands as he started to speak. "You were about to kill one of my friends…" Cobra growled angrily while still holding Shamsiel's spear with his scaled hands. "And none's ever done that and walked out on their feet!" He shouted.
While both hands were still blocking the weapon made of light, Cobra brought up his right knee and in a downward sweeping motion abruptly hit the traitorous Fallen Angel in the face with a knee strike. Having his spears shattered, Shamsiel grunted in pain while losing his focus, Cobra immediately tackled with a side sweep and reverse side kick which threw him up in the air. Still in mid-air and too slow to dodge, Cobra dashed forward as he took the opportunity to punch him in the guts, followed by a straight hook in the face that sent him fly upper.
"Time to wrap this up!" Cobra decided loudly as he landed back.
Engulfing himself in his dark-crimson aura, he jumped up towards a wounded Shamsiel.
"Poison Dragon Gouge Horn!" Cobra's fists were now covered in his draconic poison.
-A couple of moments earlier –
/Upstairs/
"Honestly, that's disappointing. I at least expected them to put up some kind of a fight. But it seems like they're even weaker than the Devils we faced days ago." Midnight said in a deluded tone.
Another group of the remaining Exorcists rushed at him with their weapons brought out. But Midnight's Reflector repelled all their attacks. With a simple hand sweep, the Nightmare Wizard got rid of them with a smaller version of the Invisible Scythe.
Jellal blocked their swords with his fingers alone much like he did against Freed. "Freed was more skilled than them. They seem not to be top tier exorcists, just some henchmen." The blue-haired wizard observed. "They were probably being used as cannon fodder by Shamsiel."
"Clearly." Midnight agreed.
Needless to say, it was a one-sided battle, despite their obvious numerical superiority, the Stray Exorcists could not against the might of the two Crime Sorcière's duo.
"I'll hand this with one shot. Spiral Pain!" Midnight swept his arm to the right. His famous spell was cast as the last Exorcists were caught by the painful vortex of distorted air. It didn't take long before all of them dropped to the ground.
"Well, that was the last of them." The Reflector user stated dispelling his spell.
"Damn it, among all these Exorcists I still can't see Freed anywhere!" Jellal said while glancing at the unconscious Exorcists.
"We should interrogate at least one of them later." Midnight proposed rubbing his chin.
"No need. He's not here." A feminine voice informed them from behind.
Both wizards looked over, seeing a known Fallen Angel young woman approaching them with a nun they knew well. The came from the hidden stairs under the shrine.
"Raynare." Jellal said.
"He went missing several days ago." Raynare reasoned. "Currently I have no idea where he got to, and I don't think the others do either." She told them.
"I understand. That means we're back to square one." Jellal nodded as he turned to the blonde girl. "Asia, are you feeling alright?" He addressed the nun.
"Yes, thank you guys for coming." Asia answered with a smile.
"We're glad to see you're safe." Midnight stated.
In the meantime, the floor began to crumble only to collapse downwards where the underground room was located under the altar. The surprise of those watching increased when a dark red missile erupted skyward from the collapsing floor, destroying part of the church ceiling.
As the two wizards, Raynare and Asia looked up, the moonbeams contrasting with the two silhouettes of the combatants that seemed to float in the sky. Cobra's poisonous spell struck the Fallen Angel directly, brutally wounding him. Shamsiel could only gasp as he wasn't able to move a muscle anymore, his eyes went blank and a bubble of blood was splatted out his mouth. The Dragon Slayer dismissed his poison as he and the traitorous Angel slowly fell down on the church pavement. By now almost half the church was a pile of rubble.
Shamsiel was gravely injured as he was lying defeated near the large crater where the altar was, his armour was partially destroyed and his whole body was greatly injured, the Dragon Slayer on the other hand was unscratched. The female Fallen Angel couldn't help but eye all those lying Exorcists, Cobra's guildmates were no less of him, they too were able to defeat an entire army by themselves, although they were weaker than Freed, they still were outnumbered. She was now more than certain that the wizards' power far surpassed a high-tier Fallen Angel. She didn't know why but she got the feeling they could even rival a leader class level… if she only knew…
"Phew..." Cobra swept a hand over his forehead while stretching a bit. "That was too easy." He commented looking over the defeated Angel as he joined his guildmates.
"You did it, Cobra!" Asia cheered happily.
"Well done." Midnight complimented as well as he placed a hand on his friend's shoulder.
"Definitely. Not only you saved Asia, but you even prevented a war from breaking out." Jellal added smiling.
"It's all thanks to everyone of you that I'm safe." Asia remarked with a bright smile. "Cobra?…" She attempted as she was about to walk toward him.
However, the Dragon Slayer had a stern look on his face that Asia failed to notice at first. "Do you get it now?" He questioned after dispelling his dragon sales.
"Huh?" The blonde-haired nun halted her steps perking up at the Dragon Slayer.
"You get it why I didn't want you to come with us?" Cobra questioned in a scolding tone.
A feeling of realisation began to sink in Asia's mind as she looked down in shame while getting emotional. "Cobra…" The nun began weakly. "I'm sorry… you were right about everything. Your worries were true and I apologise for causing you troubles."
Cobra was still staring at her, shaking his head he decided to not be too harsh with the nun. "Just don't weep too much about that." The Dragon Slayer told her. "After all, it wasn't your fault."
"Yes… but if I was able to defend myself, I wouldn't have been caught to begin with…" Asia repeated.
"One more reason for you to step up your game." Cobra stated gaining her attention. "Listen, much like ours, this world's full of power-hungry assholes who'd sell out their mothers for a little extra power. That's why it's always better to have as many aces up your sleeve as possible first."
Asia listened to what he was saying, after that she gave him a firm nod as she brushed off her few tears. "You're right Cobra. And I promise to you all and to myself that I will get stronger, I will sharpen my magic and my Sacred Gear. I'll be able to defend myself."
"Now you're talking, girl." Cobra nodded with an approving smirk.
Much to his displeasure, he was suddenly pulled into a thankful hug by Asia who whispered another 'thank you'. Cobra rolled his eye, but he would've lied if he said he didn't appreciate Asia's kind-hearted disposition.
Raynare said nothing still absorbing all that, while standing a couple of meters away with her arms crossed under her bust. Her dress had some cuts as well as her jacket, but she had other things in mind… never in her life would she have dreamt of seeing a full-blooded human literally dominate someone of the supernatural, this man, Cobra literally humiliated a high-ranking Fallen Angel as if it was nothing, the most astonishing thing was that he showed no signs of fatigue which meant he was holding back.
Despite all, something inside of her made her smile in relief, Asia was safe and she had a nice chance to explain herself to Azazel and it was all thanks to these humans, especially to Cobra.
The scarred Dragon Slayer sighed a bit in response, but he eventually patted Asia's head who smiled sheepishly. Jellal nodded with his own smile while Midnight sported a small smile.
"Oi, crow lady." Cobra called Raynare making her look at him with a not so pleasant look, her eye twitched a bit which made Cobra's smirk widening. "Thanks for the backup, if ya didn't pull that teleportation thing, we wouldn't have got here in time." He waved at the Fallen Angel.
Raynare had a hard time to believe her ears while staring at him. Was that man actually being nice to her? She was sure he was a mindless brute but apparently, he could be nice if he wanted. As she blinked her eyes, she felt a slight hue of pink forming on her cheeks. The ravenette immediately looked away in embarrassment. She tried to deny how that smirk of his made him even more attractive in her eyes.
"It… it was no problem. Asia was in danger and Shamsiel was a threat to everyone…" Raynare replied with clear uneasiness in her voice. "Besides, I kind of owed her this one... and even more." She perked down.
Much to her surprise Asia walked toward her with a smile of gratitude on her lips.
"Thank you so much for coming too, Miss Raynare." Asia said in a grateful tone as she bowed in front of the Fallen Angel.
"Asia…" Raynare pronounced slowly as her features softened up. "I… as I said before, it was nothing. I'm happy to see you're ok." She told her further.
The three mages were looking at the scene, Jellal and Midnight had small smiles on their faces while Cobra closed his eyes with his trademark smirk with his hands folded. However…
"You really think it's over, humans?" Shamsiel spoke up in the middle of some coughs.
Everyone turned their gaze at the injured Fallen Angel on the ground.
Shamsiel began to chuckle maliciously. "I still have a few tricks up my sleeve."
"Apparently the beating I just gave you wasn't enough you scum…" Cobra's reply was interrupted.
"It doesn't matter anymore. Because this is the moment where this place will cease to exist along with you and Devils of this town." The defeated Angel remarked.
"What do you mean by that?" Jellal questioned frowning.
"You see humans, in order for my plan to work, I had to use Raynare and her cohorts to infiltrate the Devils' territory to eliminate that human Hyoudou and take possession of his Sacred Gear later on, but to get what I really wanted, Asia had to follow the same fate so that I could deliver her to my bidder... and then eliminate the Gremory and the Sitri myself, as I originally planned." Shamsiel explained. "But this human harmed me even more than I imagined. That's why I needed to prepare a plan B beforehand if things had gone awry like this…"
"What do you mean by that?" The blue-haired wizard demanded.
Suddenly, a communication magic circle appeared over Shamsiel's ear.
"Freed… you may proceed." The dark-haired Fallen Angel instructed exhaustedly.
"Freed?!" The wizards of Crime Sorcière and Raynare exclaimed.
'Shit!' Cobra cursed in his mind.
"Yeah boss!" The psychotic priest's voice came out of the circle.
Before all of them could question any longer, a magic seal appeared beneath Shamsiel.
"This won't be the last time we'll face. Keep in mind I won't forget this…" Shamsiel told them especially to the scarred man who humiliated him no longer than five minutes ago. "Farewell for now, humans." He finished while vanishing from their sight.
'No… tell me it's not what I think it is.' Jellal thought as he was starting to realise.
-A few moments earlier –
/Old Kuoh Academy's building, Occult Research Club/
Rias Gremory was sitting alone in the dark club room, she put her pen down on the table as she finished and put away the last paperwork. However, her mind wasn't focused too much on the papers, but rather on what had been happening lately... someone very important to her was about to lose his life less than a few days ago, according to her sister in law he was saved by an unknown group of wizards, but that was all she knew as the boy couldn't immediately recognise their name... and that boy, Issei Hyoudou, right now she was practically abandoning him to his fate with that Fallen Angel.
'Am I really making the right choice…?' Rias thought reluctantly. 'I'm allowing him to take a grave risk, I know they were planning to kill him. Maybe I still can save him from…' Rias trailed off her thoughts trying to convice herself.
'No that's the only chance that I have left…' The redhead Devil thought as her eyes showed a clear sign of reluctance. 'A Gremory doesn't treat their members like slaves, they're family… Akeno, Koneko and Kiba, their lives have gotten better since they became part of my family. So the same will happen to Issei. Yes, I'll make sure nobody will hurt him once he'll be with us.' Rias decided shaking her head.
Because of his Sacred Gear, Issei would still attract enemy forces to the Kuoh territory, endangering the lives of other innocent people in the process... but wasn't she also doing the same thing by doing nothing and let him fall into the wrong hands? Her doubts slowly grew more and more intense. But once again, she attempted to deny them.
'…that's right, my family will welcome him with open hands.' Rias continued in her mind. 'And if he really has a powerful Sacred Gear like I think he does, then we could help him to get stronger so he can actually defend himself…'
Rias' train of thinking was abruptly cut off by a couple of knocks on the club room door.
The redhead shook her head and recollected herself. "Come in." She said.
"…President, I've got bad news." Her Rook, Koneko Toujou immediately notified her King.
"Koneko." Rias said as she regained her composure. "Is there something wrong? Are you alright?" The redhead Devil asked in a worried tone.
"…I'm fine President. It's just Hyoudou..." Koneko told her.
"Issei? What happened to him?" Rias inquired.
"I don't know how… but I suddenly lost track of him and the Fallen Angel too." The small Rook responded. "I tried to look for him, even at the park… he wasn't there."
"What do you mean by that Koneko?" The King asked.
"…At some time during their date, they split up, so I decided to follow him but instead he got back home for some reason." Koneko went on explaining.
Rias was silently waiting for her servant to finish her report, but from the look of her face, she could see Koneko's hints of sadness to disappoint her King. "…I'm sorry to let you down President."
Opening her mouth to say something more an immense pressure pushed both her and Koneko down on their knees as the ground began to tremble, as well as all the objects in the clubroom, sofas and tables included.
"What's going on?!" Rias shouted as she ran to the windows to look outside only to widen her eyes.
Koneko's monotone expression also twisted once she came to see what caused that earthquake.
"Humans! I shall come forth and bring despair! It is time to feat upon all your souls! HAHAH!"
"What the hell is that thing?!" Rias shouted as she witnessed the giant creature outside.
Holy shit, such a long chapter in such short time... I have to admit, this was absolutely NOT easy to write as I needed to be very careful not to write crap that contradicted what I had written before, not to mention fit the various events and the various new characters that have recently appeared.. But yeah, at last here it is, the LONGEST chapter of mine. Yep, I basically wrote a +16k words chapter in less than a month... I'm not sane.
Anyway, as you noticed I added an OC antagonist for this arc that of course replaced Raynare's role. And speaking of her, you may've noticed she's quite OOC, she's still rather petty, a bit sassy and somewhat competitive, but she's definetly more down-to-earth, self-conscious and responsible than her canon's counterpart as she showed her good side once our heroes rescued Asia with her. She's also stronger as she has four pair of wings making her a mid-tier in power.
Also, tried my best to describe in the details Midnight's Nightmare spell... I hope I did it correctly. If I didn't then let me know!
I tried to include more fighting this time, and I know I refocused again too much on Cobra and his fight against Shamsiel, but I promise you I'll include the others too in the future. And yes, I still have issue writing fighting scenes, trying to improve it with time of course.
Soooo, what do you think? I expect you let me know, leave some review etc...
As always, thanks for reading and see you the next chapter!
