Chapter 5:

"Talking."

'Thinking.'

Locations

Noises

Underworld- Mordith

"I gave you an order and you didn't even follow it. Hanibal this goes against everything that we had planned out, LISTEN to a direct order!" Issei was angry. Hanibal not following directions, the only reason was that it could potentially cost them victory.

"Chill out Issei, I had a job to do. If you haven't forgotten, then you know that me and Malpas are also being tested in this. We have the right to act on our own if we see fit." He then pushed Issei.

Issei then punched him across the face, causing Hanibal to fall to the ground.

"Don't you ever try something like that with me again you stubborn son of a bitch! I have been placed responsible for all of you, if I have to knock out numbers I will." Issei spoke in a cold tone, Hanibal looking at his friend with wide eyes.

For once he noticed how serious Issei could be when it came to being a leader, his figure was appearing dark as his aura took on an ominous feeling. His red eyes pierced through his body, the expression on his face was one of pure terror.

Issei didn't say another word, he casually walked away and flew towards the main force. Hanibal was still on the ground when Issei left, the fallen getting a hard check of reality.

This event had just played out between these two friends, Issei leaving out of anger. Hanibal still remaining in his spot from where he was knocked down. Unknown to either of them there was someone watching them from a faraway tower. The figure having a gnarly smile across their face.

(Scene Break)

Issei was flying back towards the main force that he oversaw, having left it in order to get a general idea of the area.

The one currently in charge of the men there was his left-hand man Malpas, a fallen that he had trusted with his life. Malpas was busy moving the men into position for invasion of the north sector as of Issei's order.

Malpas donned in his white armor had assembled the three battalions in such a way that an encirclement was easily obtainable.

Issei noticed the formation of the men as he flew over them. He then descended towards Malpas whilst looking back towards the city. Making sure that nothing was happening as he temporarily retreated.

After a few seconds he had come in contact with the ground. Using his wings, he dispersed of the dirt that he had kicked up.

"Issei, you have returned. I already moved everyone into position, and we are ready to begin our assault…" Malpas began looking around.

"Where's Hanibal?" he asked Issei who was going over something with his magic screen. Issei still seemed a little angered.

"I left him back in the city, he found something in one of the underground passageways." Issei turned away from Malpas as he put two things together.

"Why did you leave him?"

Issei looked back at Malpas with a blank expression.

"Hanibal said that he was busy, so I left him. The guy might be one of my only friends, but I'm not dealing with his shit during an offensive. Now let's get focused before I give the order." Issei then looked over towards an incoming officer.

"Sir! I have an urgent message from the Cadres!" the officer was running towards the two of them quickly.

Issei raised an eyebrow as he turned in the man's direction. An urgent message from the Cadre's was a rare occurrence, especially since he was taking control.

"You may speak." Issei took on a serious expression. The officer straightened himself out and handed Issei note.

"Due to unknown enemy presence the Cadres have ordered us to send orders by note. Sir, many scouting parties have discovered a strange presence underneath the city from the underground passageways. We have been issued orders to evacuate the city until this has been dealt with." The officer then bowed.

Issei looked towards Malpas, and he returned the look.

"Get the men out of here, I'll go look for Hanibal." Issei then spread his wings out and took off. Malpas looked over to the men and began to give out orders.

As Issei scanned over the city he noticed the strange feeling that he had felt earlier was more frequent, and more powerful.

'What the hell?' Issei continued flying until he spotted a something black on the ground, small amount of red could be seen.

A sense of dread overcame Issei as he dived down towards it.

Issei couldn't sense his friends power signature at all, the only thing that was present was the dreadful feeling that was being released into the air. Issei landed soon after, once he got a closer look on what he had spotted something inside him began going off.

It was a pile of black feathers covered in blood; this was an immediate trigger for Issei. He hadn't hit Hanibal hard enough to draw blood nor did he cause any feathers to fall out. As he looked around the spotted more blood around him on the walls of the surrounding buildings.

"Hanibal?" Issei now had a worried expression on his face. Issei looked towards the entrance of the passageway into the underground tunnels that he had left Hanibal by.

Issei looked towards the entrance and summoned a light sword.

Back with Malpas, it was well organized. He had moved everyone into a strong formation with well protected flanks.

He himself stood at the front, a light spear in his hand contrasting against his flawless white armor. For someone who seemed cowardly by nature Malpas looked like a firm leader, a symbol of power on the battlefield.

Malpas looked onward towards the city, he was worried about his friends that were still inside. Hanibal was his biggest worry, knowing him for the time he was things couldn't be good since they usually weren't far off from each other.

During the devil's surprise attack, he was busy aiding the wounded whilst the others fought somewhere else. That itself was a problem since they worked best when together, it was fun for them.

Back with Issei, things were bad. He had found Hanibal but not in the best of shapes, due to the large gapping hole in his abdomen. The blood loss was bad, it was almost to the point when Issei had been blasted through the stomach.

"Don't worry man, I'll get you to Malpas and he'll heal you quickly." Hanibal was barely conscious and was fading in and out. Issei had found him at the bottom of the stairwell that led underground, surprisingly he didn't see what caused it.

As Issei flew threw the streets and object flew past him, Issei turned his head towards it as it stopped in front of him.

He stopped immediately as the thing in front of him revealed itself, a devil. Judging from the aura that surrounded him the devil had to be of an Ultimate-Class, perhaps High-Class. The devil himself had black hair and the eyes to match, the devil family it was from wasn't a good guess.

"Stop right there! You fallen angels have defiled this ancient city with your presence. My clan has spent thousands of years building this place up from the ground, making sure that all could live for us. Now you come here and cause them to flee, leaving nothing left for us." The devil then raised an arm toward Issei, instinctively he wrapped Hanibal in his wings and covered him.

The devil began summoning a black magic circle with an unidentified symbol within its runes. It took bit of time before he managed to see exactly what it was, the symbol for the House of Gäap.

Issei got into his fighting stance, his empowered light spear then formed in his arms. With Hanibal in his wings Issei couldn't be as mobile. The devil then aimed his magic circle into the air, A black beam shooting directly above them.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH

Issei looked at the devil as the ground began to shake violently, the devil smirked.

"You'll soon find out why invading us was a big mistake." The devil then flew into the air as cracks began to form in the ground.

Issei freed up one of his wings before taking back off towards friendly lines, he kept his eye on the devil though.

"That bastard must have sent a signal in order to attack, but why is the ground shaking?" Issei's question was answered as a ginormous monster looking hand broke through the ground, the force sending rocks and buildings flying across the city.

The ground around the hand began to collapse inward, devil soldiers began flying out of it towards the Gäap. Issei looked on in worry as the numbers changed from dozens to hundreds. They wouldn't be a problem for him if he was alone, but Hanibal being out of action meant that fighting anyone wasn't something he could do.

He turned his head away from the enemy, his focus shifting towards getting back to Malpas. Issei felt the blood of his friend dripping down his back, the cold feeling wasn't pleasant. The lifeless feeling was something that he didn't want to experience again.

"All I have to do is get him to Malpas and we can launch a counterattack on them." Issei weaved through the streets and finally broke through the city limit. Friendly lines were on the horizon and clear as day.

Issei could see Malpas looking towards him, but his face quickly turned to one of shock as a large shadow had casted over them.

Rooooooooooooooaaaaaaaarrrr

A cold feeling shot through issei, a sense of horror and dread flowed through his nerves. He slowly turned his head as a massive creature broke through the city. It was a Chimera at least Forty meters tall with a draconic appearance, black scales with white horns covered its boy along with its mishappen wings.

Issei made it friendly lines not soon after.

"Malpas!" Issei shouted, waiting for his friend to get down to ground level. Malpas descended quickly in order to reach Issei and Hanibal who he could see was bleeding badly.

Issei placed Hanibal on the ground gently. He turned his head to look at the blood that had stained his armor, along with a large portion that coated is wings. Anger began to overtake his current emotions.

Malpas landed shortly after Issei had gotten to the front line.

"Dear God, what happened?" Malpas dropped to his knees and put both his hands above Hanibals wound. A green glow began to emit from his palms, the magic floated over toward Hanibal. Hanibal was then coated in a green glow, his wound was quickly sealing itself up.

"I found him like this near one of the underground entrances, I don't know what happened to him though." Issei looked back towards the city, massive amounts of devils and fallen angels were battling against one another, the chimera was farther away fighting against what he would assume would be a cadre or two.

"Issei, did you do this?" Malpas looked at Issei with narrow eyes, this expression being a first for him. Issei looked back towards Malpas.

"What did you just say?" Issei looked back at him with anger.

"Did you do this to Hanibal?" Malpas finished healing Hanibal's wound, he wouldn't wake up anytime soon.

"Malpas think for a second, if I wanted to kill him then I would have left him in the city and not have gone to retrieve him." Issei pointed towards the swarm of devils that were heading towards them.

"We can discuss this later, for now get Hanibal to a safe zone so that we can fight them on the battlefield." Issei turned back towards the devils, a red-light spear began forming in his palm. Malpas kept his eyes peeled on Issei.

Issei threw his spear towards the incoming devils, his palm stayed out. The spear got closer until it was in the center of the enemy formation. Seeing this Issei closed his palm.

Booooooooooooooooommm

An explosion was set off from the light spear. Devil soldiers continued to poor out of the smoke, but now there was a large gap in their lines.

"All forces on standby!" Issei flew up into the air, his soldiers right behind him.

Issei watched as the smoke cleared up, waiting for the enemy to get in the right position. Once he noticed that they had regathered Issei smirked.

'Heh, easy.' Issei began to summon two more light spears, both of them radiating the same chaotic power of the first one. Issei waited for the enemy to get slightly closer before throwing both of them.

As they flew into the air the broke through magic circles meant to hold them back, both impaling a devil soldier each. The devils around them halted and backed away from their fallen ally.

"Charge!" Issei shouted out as his forced began to attack the panicked devil lines. Issei himself was focusing on finding the commanding devil in the attack.

'Where's that Gäap at?' Issei was flying past devil soldiers on his hunt occasionally killing one or two that attempted to fight him.

'Last time I saw him he was with the Chimera, if he were still with it then there could be a chance that I can wipe out this part of the city without having to worry about a counterattack. Using scorched earth would drain me completely after detonating it, but there wouldn't be any enemies to worry about hopefully. I'll have to wait until Malpas returns, he's the only one that can withstand the heat after I use it.'

Issei flew into the air behind the devil front, seeing the chimera off in the distance engaging his uncles was enough for him to continue with this plan. Looking back at his forces they seemed to be winning, devil casualties appeared to be higher than that of his.

Something seemed off though, surely the garrison would be more numerous than a couple of hundred devils and a chimera.

'They could be diverting forces for another offensive, the loss against us as the Grigori along with the loss of a Leviathan would have devastated their morale. If that is the case, then a chimera would have been a failsafe in order to stall for time in order to gather a force for a counterattack.' Issei quickly turned towards his left as an iron spear nearly impaled him through his chest.

Issei rolled out of the way and summoned a light spear. He looked towards the source of the spear, the Gäap had returned in an ambush attack.

Issei gritted his teeth together.

"You again, I thought you would have run away." Issei narrowed his eyes on his opponent.

"I thought that you would have fallen just like that other disgusting crow I stabbed earlier. Seems like you're a slippery one." Issei paused, something in his mind snapped.

"You did that to Hanibal?" Issei lowered his head to where his eyes were covered, the red glow pierced through the darkness. His aura began rising, the heat being released was rising as well.

Gäap looked at Issei with a nasty smile.

"Sure did, he looked in the wrong spot and shank, my spear went through his stomach. Oh, are you upset? Did I hurt your buddy that you were arguing with?" The devil began laughing maniacally.

"Now you know what it is like to feel pain, you bastards invaded my city and killed my men."

Unknown to either of them the fallen soldiers had wiped out the remaining devil garrison in the sector, they decided to surround both Issei and Gäap. Light spears lined every hand that surrounded them.

"But you and your allies will pay once the Satan Leviathan arrives! She will kill all of you for the sake of all devi-" His speech was interrupted by Issei who punched him in the face, the forces causing the devil to fly into the ground.

Issei didn't say a word as he looked down at the devil with pity, his red orbs piercing through the soul of the devil.

"You think that a cheap shot will be enough to beat me? Ha, I've taken hits harder from the devil children!" Issei dropped down to the ground, putting his wings away in the process.

"Is that so? Let me try harder then." Issei began summoning a strong holy aura into his fists. He then rushed the devil.

"Blerh." The devil grabbed his stomach as Issei pulled his fists out of it, the holy aura that coated it seemingly caused significant damage to the devil.

The devil began throwing up blood as a searing pain could be heard.

"Hurts, doesn't it? Holy aura is dangerous towards devils, standing next to any that is highly focus is enough to vaporize a devil with ease. As a fallen our holy aura is tainted, but it is still there. My friend who has been a fallen for a short time has taught me how to draw out the pure holy aura within me, my father being immensely powerful also benefited on how much I have." Issei walked back over to the devil, dodging the spear that was aimed for his face and grabbing it.

"Along with the knowledge that the tainted aura is the result of time after falling, my friend has purer aura than my mother who had fallen relatively recently compared to the time that this war has been raging. This knowledge is new to most people, and something I plan on diving deeper into later on.

Issei pulled the spear closer to him and punched the devil in the face. This time the devil fell onto the ground, not a muscle moved after taking a enhance aura coated fist from Issei.

Issei walked over to the body of the devil and put a hand above its chest. A light spear then formed in his palm and was aimed downward towards the devil's heart.

"You however are nothing more than a devil, a creature that needs to be put down before causing unrepairable damage to something important!" Issei then stabbed his light spear through the devil's heart, this killing him instantly. The devil's corpse then vaporized, Issei stood in his spot still with his light spear impaled into the ground.

The fallen around him were silent as Issei lifted his head up to look at them.

"Take this as an example to our enemy that we are not afraid to fight them! We will stain the underworld with the blood of our enemies!" The fallen around him began cheering with him. Issei looked on, his aura burning the ground beneath him.

"Issei!" A voice called out to him from a distance. Issei looked in the direction of the voice, he smiled seeing Malpas returning to the front.

"It's about time you came back, what the status on Hanibal?" Issei looked at Malpas who seemed panicked.

"He's safe in the reserve, if he can get some blood then he will be able to come back for the fighting. He's still unconscious though, the medical team said that he would be fine."

Issei smiled at the news, now that was enough to calm him down.

"Great, the men here have finished up the garrison. From what I could tell the devils are retreating toward the outskirts of the city, the chimera is up causing problems for us. If I am correct, then the enemy is preparing a counterattack." Issei and Malpas began walking in the city, the soldiers followed behind them.

"Do you think a counterattack is possible? I wouldn't think that they would have enough troops in order to do something so daring."

"Malpas the devil I had just killed confirmed my theory that they plan on doing a counterattack, and the leader is a Satan." Issei could hear Malpas stop walking.

He turned back and grabbed onto his shoulder pad.

"We don't have time to think about it right now, I already did all the thinking and turns out it fits. All I know us that they are coming, but I don't know when. I killed him before getting any other information out of him but knowing that they are coming is enough for the Cadres to prepare for it."

Issei looked over towards the soldiers behind him, the look of fear was evident on their faces.

"Don't worry about the Satan men, you will not be fighting them head on. I'll make sure of it that you all are safe, if not then my life is yours." Issei's solid expression had shown that he was serious about what he said, some of the men lost the fear to an extent.

"Issei you shouldn't be throwing your life around like that, what if you can't keep that promise?" Malpas looked worried for his friend.

"Then I will happily give up my life in the only way I know how to."

"Killing yourself in a suicidal move isn't the path you should be going down, what would the others think if they knew you did something that reckless?" Issei looked back at Malpas.

"Calm down, I don't plan on having to lose my life." Issei turned back to face the front, His expression was a serious one. Malpas looked over at Issei and sighed.

"let's move to meet up with the Cadres before we can do anything else, the devil army marching towards us has to be prepared for before we can advance any further into the devil territory."

They marched through the city, Issei kept his men from doing any ransacking since they would most likely use the city as a temporary base of operations before marching again. It didn't take long for them to meet up with Azazel who was resting alongside a couple of other cadres.

"Issei, where's Hanibal?" Azazel took notice that he was only with Malpas when they would usually be in the famous trio.

"He's in the reserve, a devil from the Gäap family had impaled him pretty badly. I found him nearly dead after you called for a temporary retreat, that's when everything turned to shit." Issei sat down next to his father on a log in front of a fire.

"Was the devil taken care of?"

"Like I would anyone live after doing something like that to my friends, I stabbed him through the heart before marching here." Issei looked over towards Malpas who was sitting on the adjacent log.

"Was the resistance hard to break?" Azazel leaned over and put his arm around Issei, much to the embarrassment of his son.

"No, but it was a little to easy to break. Which had me thinking and during my fight with the devil he mentioned that the Satan Leviathan was marching with her army towards us for a counterattack. He didn't say when, so I had to get here quickly to tell you."

The other cadres sat up and looked at Issei, worry in their eyes was detectable. Azazel donned a serious expression, this causing him to use a little more strength in his arm that was around Issei.

"There's a Satan and army marching towards us, are you positive?" Azazel was looking at Issei intensely, Issei could feel his eyes burning through him.

"It's the only explanation as to why the defense was weak, and this came from him when he was still sane. There is no doubt in my mind that they are marching towards us, but we cannot take them on until the city is captured." Issei removed Azazel's arm off him.

"Malpas and I will take our forces and continue to drive the devils out of here, once that is complete, we should prepare defenses for the incoming army." Issei stood up.

"Hold up there kiddo, we still haven't taken care of the chimera. Baraqiel, Shemhazai and Kokabiel are still fighting it to a point. Most of the remaining garrison have been dealt with the rest being captured for intel, from what I heard they are pushing it away until they can unleash their power in full."

"Then we should prepare a defense."

"The soldiers need time to recover from exhaustion, I bet your men need rest too. Take a few hours before moving out, I would rotate your men out with some in the reserves to keep them fresh." Issei looked back at his father.

"Alright dad." Issei was mad, but he had to keep his mind calm so that he could focus on what was soon to come.

That's it for this part of the battle. Poor Hanibal, it's just not his day. Anyway I hope you enjoyed.