The Exorcist cursed his luck as he ran through the dark hallways of… wherever the fuck he was. He had no idea what the place was, and how he got there. One moment he was in the basement of a church, led by a very unpleasant Fallen Angel, the next moment he was in a maze.

A deep dark maze that made him want to throw up, since he could smell the rotting carcasses wafting through the air and hear terrifying noises that didn't belong to humans echo from the walls.

Well, some of the noises at least.

Because he was certain that the last two screams, which were horrifying cut short both times, belonged to humans and were probably the other Rogue Exorcists that were being hunted down.

They had separated when the walls came up, some of the ones that were beside him had appeared behind walls that took ten turns just to reach the other side due to how absurdly complex the hallways were.

Where in the name of God was he?!

He turned another corner, this was probably his fifteenth now, and stopped in his tracks.

One reason he stopped was because of the body of a fellow Exorcist the ground in front of him, the glow from their lightsword was what helped him identify the corpse. The next reason, was the fact that he saw the one responsible.

Shrouded in shadow, with only a malevolent red glow at their head. If it had been floating on top of their head, instead of beside it, he'd think of it as some mockery of a halo.

The final reason, was that he had stepped into the pool of blood that belonged to the corpse of the exorcist. And in the near deathly silence of the maze, the sound of his foot stepping in the liquid was the loudest thing in the world.

He barely managed to bring up his gun, before the figure blurred towards him, and separated his head from the rest of his body.

[Scene]

Yuuto looked down at the corpse of the Exorcist disdainfully, he was tempting to flick the blood off of his sword to the ground, but paused. He crouched down and wiped it clean on the robes of the Exorcists.

Part of it was because of spite.

Another was to avoid himself from getting lost.

He lifted his free hand to the magic circle by his ear and spoke into it "President, I've found and killed two other Exorcists. That's four for now."

"Good going Kiba, have you found any traces of Raynare or Freed?"

Another voice, one that was familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, crackled through the open magical channel.

"I am with… Freed …. and five other Exorcists."

It even seemed like Asterios was having a harder time talking. Yuuto winced when he heard the sound of a splat.

"Four… Yuuto… Where are you?"

The blonde Devil looked around him, the darkness didn't bother him and his enchanced eyesight allowed him to see every little detail. He made sure to get everything around him, and answered.

"The walls have three pairs of… scratches, the ceiling has dried blood on it, and I see…" Yuuto stared down at half of a small child sized skull that simply lied there "Half of a skull."

"…Go left… you'll find a big room… rest."

The sound of gunshots should've worried the handsome Devil, but some part of him told him not to worry about it. What did worry him, was how complete Asterios had memorised the place. He seemed to know this place like the back of his hand.

He had told them that this was his home. Yuuto stared at the skull for a few seconds, before he moved.

Best not to think about why child skeletons were in his home.

[Scene]

"I have to admit Asterios," Akeno spoke past the screaming of the Exorcist underneath her "If this is an early birthday present, then I'm really enjoying it!"

She stopped casting her spell, letting silence fill the hallways. She stared down at the hooded figure, he was sobbing and crying with about a good half of his body burnt from her spell. Her hangs twitched and she fired another spell into his back.

"Don't play around too much Akeno," Rias' voice came from the magical circle by her ear "We need to finish this as fast as we can."

In any other circumstance, Akeno would've pouted and complained over her Master taking away her fun. But she could hear the sound of weak whimpering from Rias' end. She sighed and increased the power of her spell, and killed the Exorcist under her.

She looked around and smirked at the six bodies that she left in her wake. The fact that she had stalked them down a dead end was just the cherry on top to be honest.

The smirk fell when she heard a shudder with the whimper, following by quiet comforting words from Rias. Akeno couldn't really blame the reaction.

Even ignoring the bodies, the area around her was absolutely dreary. Even with her Devil eyesight making the darkness a non-problem, she could feel a weight pressing down on her the longer she was in this place.

Her eyes went to the ground, and she saw ten long scratches that started from the end of the hall and stretched for a couple of feet, before they vanished. Her eyes then flicked to the skeletal remains near the wall where the marks ended.

Akeno didn't want to say it out loud. But she could evil in this place.

Just being here was almost sickening for her.

She could only wonder how it was for Koneko.

Though, she kept a mental note to keep quiet around Asterios. Horrible as the place was, there was no reason to speak ill of it directly in front of him.

Speaking of…

"Hello Asterios?" She spoke into the magic circle "I need directions~"

She heard a grunt. If she hadn't seen, and heard, the Minotaur when he had assaulted the Fallen Angel that had tried to kill Issei in the park, she wouldn't had recognise the voice.

Past the grunt, she heard another woman scream. One that was silent with a rather harrowing crunch.

Faintly she heard the sound of Freed and whoever else was with him scream out in panic, through the magic circle.

"Ten scratch marks on the ground, long ones. The top of a skeleton on the right wall." She listed off what she could see, her eyes looked at the skeleton and then back at the wall "A crack skull and a blood stain about," she paused "ten feet off the ground."

"Dead end…" she heard the sound of a crash from his side "Turn around…" He growled as she heard him chase down the poor victims in front of him "Three lefts… then go straight… Lead you to Rias…"

Akeno had to pull the magic circle away from her ear when she heard the Minotaur roar.

Internally, she wondered if being in his home was having an effect on him as well. Regardless, Akeno turned and followed his directions.

[Scene]

Issei wasn't really doing anything.

Well that wasn't true. Issei was guarding both Rias and Koneko.

Though 'Guarding' was such an overstatement of what he was doing. The Pawn was just acting as a watch dog, watch Devil?, for his new Master and his fellow peerage member.

Having come to face Yuu- Raynare and face off against the Fallen Angel, Issei felt more than a little disappointed at the lack of action.

At least until he heard Koneko started to have a panic attack the longer that they were in here.

He thought that Asterios would've stand guard. But the Minotaur, he had charged and scattered the group that they were going after.

It was only through pure luck that Akeno had managed to put a spell on him so that they could communicate with them.

From what Issei could hear, apparently he was a master with directions and had the whole place around him memorised. Though hearing what the rest had used to describe their surroundings.

Issei gulped as he looked around him, it was pretty overwhelming that Issei had to keep breathing just to keep his spirit up.

There was honestly something shocking hearing the usually cheerful Yuuto Kiba say that a fork in the road had three childlike skeletons, as if they were just landmarks.

Issei didn't like that he was just standing here, even if part of him felt just a bit honoured at the fact that he was trusted to watch over Rias and Koneko, he knew that he'd like it less if he were to explore the place.

[Scene]

Freed watched as the massive hand of the Monster that had been hunting them down reached forward. He scrambled backwards, his boot scuffing the floor of whatever hell he was in, to try and get as far away as possible.

It wasn't possibly. It was going to reach him no matter how far he was backpaddling. The Monster was determined to catch him, or at least catch something.

With that though, Freed's hand shot out to the side and grabbed the last Exorcist that had followed him, for their safety, and tossed him into the direction of the massive hand.

The hood fell back, and he saw the absolute fear and betrayal on his face.

Before the massive hand clamped down and crushed his head alongside a good half of his torso.

The blood splattered on his face and that was the last straw, as Freed let out a curse and he fumbled and fell on his ass.

Almost disdainfully, the massive hand tossed aside the corpse in his hand. It splattered against the wall, and Freed was looking at a massive fucking Devil covered in blood of his fellow ex-Exorcists.

The hand that had crushed the poor sap that followed him fell to its side. The other hand moved and passed a long and huge ass axe into his hand. That half of the pair that the Monster was carrying still had the head of the Exorcist it killed.

Freed quickly pointed his gun forward and unloaded the entire clip. It wasn't his gun, gods no, that peashooter had run out of ammo the first couple of second. No this belonged to the first sap that had died when the Monster instead of him crushed him under his massive fucking foot.

At that point, fighting it seemed less of an option and they tried to run.

But they just couldn't.

If the fact that he had no idea where he was wasn't bad enough. The Monster knew how to follow him. And picked them off one by one.

He had smashed one of the ones following him into a wall, the only thing left of him was his legs. Another, he had just punched into red mist and gore. He killed two when he used those huge axes to bisect in two.

Freed kept firing, until he couldn't feel his finger anymore.

The Exorcist looked at his hand, and saw that the arm that it was connected with was spinning in the air. It was then he noticed that axe had chopped his hand clean off.

He wondered while he didn't just slice him in two. But from the annoyed look on the Monster's face, and the fact there were more than a few small nicks on his face, Freed felt that it was due to the feeble shots to its face throwing off its aim.

Course that didn't stop the hand from reaching out and grabbing him.

It wasn't gentle, and he pretty much felt all of his bones breaking when he grabbed him and brought him to his face.

For a moment he was afraid that he was going to get eaten, which was not his fetish, so the Exorcist did the last thing he could do.

"Wai- gakh!" He cried out, and inadvertently spat blood onto the Monster's face. He heard it growl, but Freed kept going "You can't," he winced in pain "Kill me!"

Those red eyes stared into his own.

Freed grinned at his face "Just look at me, we're practically brothers!"

As Freed felt his last moments arrive, signalled by the amount of blood going up his stomach and into his mouth from having every organ being squished into a pup, Freed's had only one regret.

And it was that he didn't die flipping something off.

[Scene]

Asterios dropped the corpse of the 'Freed Sellzen' on the floor after he had crushed the man.

The Minotaur looked around him and let out a grunt.

Silently he walked away from the pile of corpses, and fought back against a deep dark urge to eat.

He wasn't hungry.

He had a burger this morning with Koneko.

[Scene]

"Please don't hurt me!'

"Ah… AHHHHHH!"

"Mom, Dad, HELP!"

Koneko hated her lineage.

She hated how it made her sister insane, she hated how it tore apart her life, she hated how it had left her alone for a good number of years.

Some part of her felt happy for it, even if she just rationalised the feeling of the happiness being that it lead Koneko to Rias.

But what she hated the most about it, was that often she could feel the negativity in the air. Sometimes it was from her classmates, sometimes it was from the enemies that Rias fought.

Now, she could feel it all around her.

And she was started to make her sick.

After Asterios had dragged them into this place, she nearly threw up. And when she thought she was fine, she started feeling the absolute wrongness around her.

The area in the maze, his 'Home' was also saturated with thick magical energy. It didn't help that despite the fact that she had locked away her Ears and Tails, she was still what she was. And the bad energy in the air made her sick.

It made her feel worse, thinking that the home of her friend was filled to the brim with malice that her kind had to worry about.

She supposed the only consolation was that Rias had been hugging her and patting her for the whole time, which was nice.

After a while, the voices, the feeling of death and wrongness around her, seemed to lessen as she got used to it.

The fact that it took only an hour, 50 minutes at most, wasn't at all a comfort for Koneko. The feeling lifted enough that she could lift her head and look around without feeling the need to pass out. The rest of her peerage was with her, and that stupid blonde hussy of a Fallen Angel who was off the side.

She had half a mind to hiss at her.

Her eyes met Rias' and her Master's look of worry morphed into relief "Feeling better Koneko?"

She nodded "Yeah," she muttered. Some part of her wanted to keep being hugged, but she supposed that a full hour was good enough for her. Those kind arms unwrapped around her, and Koneko got to her feet. She wobbled a bit, and shook her head.

"I… don't want to die…"

The negativity in the air was still haunting for her.

After she was stable, she looked up.

And saw Asterios.

As usual, covered in blood.

"hungry…"

"…hello… is… anyone… there…?"

"father… mother… please…"

Koneko shut her eyes. There was always some level of malice or 'negative' emotions around Asterios. But she had gotten used to is, just as how she got used to Yuuto's, or Akeno's, or even Issei's.

But here, it seemed to have grown tenfold. Just being around the place was digging up so much.

It didn't matter to her. As she did, she shut out the negative feelings, shut out the power she was born with.

And opened her eyes.

"Hey." She greeted with a strained smile "You have blood all over you."

"Exorcists…" his voice was raised into a growl. It still had that quiet quality, but she felt a harshness that she only saw when he fought "Killed them all… Ten of them… Dead."

"My, and I only got six." Akeno commented.

"Four here," Yuuto gave a shrug.

Issei let out a sigh "Zero…"

Asterios smiled, that scary smile that was only made worse with the blood dripping off him.

"Did any of you kill Raynare?" The only Fallen Angel of the group asked, the small blonde was standing as far as she could from the Minotaur, though he eyes kept glancing at him once in a while.

Yuuto and Akeno shook their heads, Issei and Rias didn't answer. Asterios was deep in though, before he turned to where the Fallen Angel had flown off to when he first charged at them. It was fork in the path where she and some of the Exorcists had first dropped in.

"She… Is lost…" He growled.

They heard a groan from the blonde, before she stomped her feet as if she was a child.

"I can… Find her…" Asterios continued "Different path… From others… All alone…"

Yuuto and Akeno had to look at each other. From how extensively both of them had explored their own paths lead by the Minotaur, the fact that the path that the Fallen Angel had taken, the deviated only being a left turn, was completely unconnected to their own paths spoke of how large this place was.

"I'll go with you Asterios," Rias stood up and dusted off her uniform "I feel bad having just sat on my butt while you all did all the work."

"Aww felt a little left out Rias?" Akeno joked.

"A little," She reached out and gave Koneko a pat on her head "But I couldn't just leave my poor cute little Rook alone now could I?"

Koneko blushed.

Then Rias turned to Asterios, her face set in stone "Asterios, can you please lead me to the Rogue Fallen Angel Raynare?" Her eyes glowed as her fingers flexed with power "It's time that a threat like her is handled with."

Asterios nodded.

"I'll be coming to!" Mittelt cheerfully spoke, her early frustration gone "I have to be there to confirm the death of that craaaaazy criminal. And I wanna see the look on her face."

Rias glanced at her, but said nothing.

"Prez!" Issei called out, having been quiet this whole time. "Take me with you, I wanna at least help out."

Rias turned to him, a look of surprise on her face.

Issei was shaking, his face more than a little flush "I haven't really done anything when I got here, and I want to stop Raynare as well. For what she did to me, and what she was going to do with Asia." He stepped forward "So please, let me follow you!"

Rias smiled "If you wish Issei, how could I not let my adorable Servant get what he wants?"

The boy's smile grew.

As they were about to leave, Asterios paused and turned to Koneko.

She shook her head "I'd be useless," she informed him "I can't…" She paused and corrected herself "The air here is making me sick" She said instead.

Asterios nodded. Then he bowed his head "Sorry… Koneko…" He started "I killed… Freed… But I forgot…"

Koneko blinked, before a small smile grew on her face, one that threatened to break into a grin. She stopped it, she didn't know how she would react with such malice and magic in the air.

But she allowed herself a small laugh.

"Don't worry," She told him "Next time you see an asshole like him, you'll get the chance again."

After that they left, to kill their main target.