Chapter 6

Before Akeno had even fully realized it, her hands had formed a lightspear and she was about to ramm it down into the body of the child before her.

It was simply a short moment of simple blind rage.

But before she could do it, someone grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"What do you think you are doing?" Griselda asked her sternly.

"I..." Akeno stammered, seeing what she had nearly done.

She had just been about to murder the creature´s innocent host-body, a young girl.

Actually they were not even sure if the girl could be saved at all. But there was a chance.

And Akeno might just have robbed the girl and her family of it, if Griselda had not stopped her.

"You are right. I am sorry," Akeno said.

The creature only continued to laugh through the girl´s mouth.

"Listen to me... you abomination," Griselda adressed the Wraith, "... we will drive you out of this body. And then we will find a way to get rid of you for good."

"That is something others had promised as well," it responded through the girl´s lips. "You can imagine how many have lived up to her words?" the creature asked.

"It were not many."

xxx

The two younger Exorcists had been witnessing the exchange between them.

Their names were Klaus and Carinne - both of them were members of the Catholic branch of the Church.

What the general public was not really aware of was that in secret the Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Churches of Christianity were, in face of the many threats from the Supernatural World, partly reunited and - closely networked together and under the guidance of Heaven - working as a single organization.

But that, as stated, was something only few people were aware of. Only the ones who knew of the Supernatural World.

The two Junior Exorcists had however not been quite sure when they heard that two Devils would come here to assist them. One of them even being the Fallen Angel Baraquiel´s daughter.

And being brought here by nobody else than the infamous Grigori Agent Slash-Dog on top of all. Even if they had already been informed them that Slash-Dog wouldn´t get involved directly in the Exorcism and had returned right after after escorting them here.

All of it still seemed bizarre to them.

Of course they were aware of the Peace Agreement and the following alliance against Khaos Brigade and similar threats.

But even if their Factions were allies now, years of living under the Church and it´s teachings before the Peace Contract was signed made it certainly not easier for these two to trust them.

Actually the entire concept of Devils - reincarnated ones or not - coming to help them with an Exorcism sounded somewhat absurd in itself.

Neither of the two claimed to be an expert for diplomacy or politics. The closest they came was normally the hunting of rogue members of the Supernatural Factions.

Like many others they had been trained to fight, to wear holy powers and to perform sacred rituals since they were children.

But in the time they were part of the Church, they had heard enough stories about atrocities, callous abuse of power and vile tricks by the Devils to lure other races into servitude that it was enough for two lifetimes.

Either way, none of them would say anything about it. Because they were told that it was a sign of the new cooperation between the Great Factions. And given the threats they were all currently facing they were told that cooperation was absolutely needed.

They had heard however that this `Spirit Wraith´ creature had been the being responsible for the death of the Devil heiress Rias Gremory and this two girls were former members of her Peerage.

So it was propably that the Devil´s presence here was just simply for revenge.

Why someone would go out to avenge their former slave-owner however was beyond them.

They were told often (in first line by members of the other Factions) that relationships between Pureblood Devils and their Peerage were often complex and some were even friends with their Servants.

But until now they had normally taken this claims simply as devious Devil propaganda.

Still - seeing Akeno´s reaction right now, they were not longer so sure. She actually seemed to have considered this Devil as a close friend and very hurt by her death.

They could not help to be curious.

"That one really seems to have cared about her Master," Carinne whispered to her Partner.

"Yes - maybe Rias Gremory wasn´t your typical Devil. Or maybe she was just really good in hiding her true nature," he answered. "Sadly exactly this has become a weakness here. This creature is using her grief."

xxx

"Let us continue," Griselda stated soberly.

And they did. The three Church members performed another line of Exorcism rituals... while the Devils were standing aside and watched.

At this part of the procedure were was not much they could do.

It were mostly Griselda and the other two Exorcists reciting lines from the Bible.

Akeno and Koneko kept themselves in a save distance during the Ritual. Just to be careful.

Normally they would keep themselves far away from anything like this. They might be reincarnated, but they were still Devils. So any kind of Exorsism could be harmful to them as well.

But their desire to take watch and if they could take part in the defeat of the Wraith was stronger than their fear of the ritual.

So far however it was not sure if they could even do anything to help here.

The Exorcism continued.

And once again, just like in some kind of movie, it went on with Griselda holding a crucifix right over the head of the possessed girl, while she and her two younger colleagues were reciting lines from the bible and the book centered around exorcism-rituals the three cleriks had with them.

As it went on, Akeno and Koneko could feel themselves growing frustrated more and more. Especially Akeno.

She had come here to help destroy this monster, not to stand-by, doing nothing.

xxxxxxx

Somewhere else - a remote location in the Underworld

It was a secret location where Rivezim and Lamia, together with their followers had taken residence after their attack on the Devil Capital a short time ago.

They had retreated here to discuss how to continue their plans.

Or rather they talked about how to continue Rivezim´s plans.

He was intending to awaken the Legendary Beast known as Trihexa and try to use it´s power to their advantage, to control it and conquer this entire world.

The other two so called Horsemen of the Apocalypse had agreed to assist in this agenda. Hades had suggested that they would have a better chance to control Trihexa if they worked together and Samael that his blood would work well as a safety measure if it went out of control.

They also agreed to have Hades and Rivezim´s followers run ongoing smaller attacks on the Three Faction´s territories as a distraction from their main purpose.

In truth both of them were sceptical about Rizezim´s idea to control Trihexa. But at the same time both were eager about the idea to unleash the monster on their enemies in the other Factions.

Samael knew that Trihexa would burn down Heaven and since God himself was dead, this was the best revenge on him he could hope for. And he didn´t really care what happened afterwards.

Hades on his part calculated that Trihexa, even if Rivezim´s intention to control it failed, would target the more prominent Factions first and he and his followers would be mostly ignored. And if things came hard to hard, they had Samael - no matter how powerful, Trihexa was still a Dragon, right?

They all had their own agendas.

The same acually went for Lamia as well. Or in her case you should rather say, the complete lack of any plans.

Her Masters from outside this universe had made their intentions quite clear when it came to this world. To them this entire reality was currently not much more than a testing ground.

They did not care if Rivezim´s plan to awake Trihexa succeeded or not. They did not care if Trihexa destroyed this planet or not. To them this entire universe was just one out of thousands. And for the time being they had decided to focus their concentration on other ones.

In particular one universe that had been identical to this one until a few months ago... till Rias Gremory died.

Lamia and her Peerage had orders to support Rivezim for so long until Trihexa´s awakening was at bay and then to draw back... to just leave this reality behind.

She admitted, to a great part she was incredible frustrated by this entire situation. Somewhere out there another version of her was actually fighting battles and waging the war she had been waiting for so long... and here was her current self - standing and waiting on the sidelines.

But on the other side, there were also advantages about this situation.

She remembered the converzation she had with Lord Faust a short time ago.

xxx

A few weeks earlier

"I know you don´t like it," the apparation of a being in the shape of a young man clad in a black cloak said to her.

Like always, he and the other Lords of the Dark Order did ot appear in this reality in person, but as a mental projection of themselves.

"But think about it from the other side. Your other self will soon be at the frontlines of a war. This universe and the other one had been identical until now - you and her are identical (until the point the universes had split at least, but that was just a few weeks ago).

So even if the other you should be killed, this you will still live."

Lord Faust was so much a smooth-talker that he could talk someone into nearly everything, she thought.

But she knew that he had a point. While she was a true believer in their cause, in opposite to some others she actually did mind dieing for it.

Something came to her mind. She realized that she actually had no sure way of knowing from what point in time Lord Faust was calling her from the world he currently was. While he made it sound like it was about the same date, it could actually be months or years in the future.

Could it be that her other self had actually already died and this was the true reason he said this?

She knew that he knew what she was thinking, reading her mind like a book. But he said nothing more.

"I will keep that in mind - thank you My Lord," she said.

xxx

Now

Yes - even if her other self would die, even if her other self actually had already died, she was still alive and she had every intention for it to stay that way.

In a way she guessed, you could call her a living failsafe for her counterpart.

But a part of her still didn´t like just staying here at the sidelines and doing nothing.

xxxxxxx

Back in the small US town

The Exorcism was still going on. The grip of the creature on it´s host had weakened by now.

"You know," the Wraith said, "I can leave this body whenever I want. And unless I am still inside of it when you end your little ritual, I fear your attempts to - well, send me to hell, will lead to nothing. So as soon as it looks like you might succeed, I can just leave. I will just move on and start all over again in another host and another."

The creature laughed hollowly with it´s distorted voice.

The three Exorcists just continued to recite their phrases and salms and orders to the evil spirit in the name of God, ignoring anything it said.

If their Exorcism-ritual came to it´s final conclussion the Wraith would be cut-off from this world forever. But as the creature itself had just hinted, it would have long left this body on it´s own accord by then.

This only caused Akeno´s anger to rise even more. She wanted this thing dead and destroyed and not just expelled from this body and then simply moving on to another one.

The question was, how could you even truly kill a spirit? Something that never actually possessed a physical form of it´s own. That had strictly seen by their definition, never really been alive?

That was the question.

"Griselda-dono," Akeno said, "can you tell me, do you know any possibly way to completely destroy a spirit-creature like this? To actually kill it?"

"There is none," the Spirit Wraith exclaimed in it´s distorted voice. "You can not kill what has no physical body." Not with your methods at least, the creature thought. "Whatever you do, I will survive, either in this dimension or in another."

"That´s what you want us to believe, isn´t it foul creature?" Griselda responded. "Maybe there are ways," she said to Akeno.

One answer, a pretty easy one, that neither Akeno or any of the others were fully aware of at that point, was quite simple.

To kill a spirit, the best way if you had nothing else, was if you had another spirit.

And as it was, Akeno and Koneko knew at least one person who knew one thing or two about being a spirit.

There was just one small problem... the fact who that person was.

xxxxxxx

A short time later

Akeno could not quite believe that she was actually doing this as she was making her call.

She had summoned a small magic circle in front of herself. One meant merely for communication.

The point however was who exactly she was contacting right not.

"Raynare," she said.

After a few moments she was getting a reply.

"Akeno - what can I do for you?" Raynare´s voice asked with some clear mockery lying underneath from the other side of the circle.

"I - me and Koneko have found the Spirit-Wraith," Akeno said after a short hesitation. "We are with three Exorcists from the Church, including Griselda, who are already performing an exorcism on him." She hated this. "But... we want to ask you if you have any idea about an way to kill it for good."

"Ah - I see, you want to see the creature not just banished but destroyed," Raynare replied.

"Yes."

"It must be quite uneasy for you, asking me of all people for help," Raynare commented.

"... and maybe a bit shameful too," she added playfully.

Akeno gritted her teeth.

"Look I don´t like you and I know you hate me. But that is nothing compared to how much I hate this monster and want to erase it from the world," she said.

"Now - have I ever given you a reason to dislike me?" Raynare asked mockingly.

"You have taken over the body of my best friend, pretending to be her for months," Akeno exclaimed. "And..."

"Given the fact that it was your `best friend´ who had blasted my original body away, after you two had killed my teammates based on the lie that we were in Kuoh without permission or knowledge of the Grigori... I would say we are barely just even here," Raynare replied casually.

"No - actually probably not even that," she remarked with a dark undertone, letting her true feelings leak out.

"You killed Asia and Issei," Akeno said.

"Oh please - are you serious?" Raynare actually chuckled. "We both know that you and your friend Rias could have easily prevented their deaths if you actually tried to. Instead you rather stood by and let it happen and let Rias resurrect them later," she stated.

"But you could raid my entire base and kill me and my entire team... based on faulty information."

xxxx

Akeno replied nothing for a few moments. What should she say? It was right that Rias justification for the attack on Raynare´s team had been entirely based on them admitting that they were removing Asia´s Sacred Gear without knowledge of their Leaders, that she had taken as confirmation of her claim that they had gone rogue and were in Kuoh unauthorized.

Only that Asia had never been the reason they were in Kuoh in the first place - Issei and his Boosted Gear were.

Looking back their actions had been in the best interpretation dangerously careless and irresponsible... in the worst criminal. Yet luckily nobody had ever called them out on that mess.

xxxx

"But that is all in the past, right?" Raynare commented sarcastically. "We all can be `friends´ now."

"Raynare..." Akeno pleaded.

"Fine - I will work with you," she said. "There is actually something I think could help you."

Or rather someone, Raynare thought.

`Issei,´ she thought to herself, `will you help us in this matter?´

She admitted that the Wraith was a threat and a loose end that she would liked to have removed. Even more than her personal agenda to keep the fact that Issei, well - not lived but still existed, away from Akeno and this other bitches.

Like the Lamia segment in this chapter demonstrates again, this story is not only an AU to the God of Darkness story, but an AU that knows that it is AU.

xxc

Note: Regarding the debatte between Akeno and Raynare. There is not actually much to say that wasn´t already in the chapter itself.

Rias claim that the Fallen Angel team was in Kuoh unauthorized, which was entirely based on the fact that they attempted to remove Asia´s Sacred Gear in secret, is contradicted by pretty much every other statement in canon.

And Asia is stated not to be the reason for their presence, but Issei´s Sacred Gear was. While taking her Sacred Gear was an unauthorized act, their presence was not.

The Azure Reaper had written a more in-depth comment about this situation at the end of chapter four of his story Stray Faction, where I am beta reader.