Chapter 5: Demon Heart
{Are you sure you should be doing this Seras?}
Seras was sheathing 6 blades (all them being demonic like her first 2), getting ready to go out and save her 2 precious people.
'I'm sure.'
She took a final look at her house. In all honesty if she hadn't found this house when she was little she would have died by the hands of demons a long time ago. Apparently the house was built on spiritual ground that prevented lesser demons from getting close. Though apparently it did nothing to stop devils from entering. However this was the closest thing she had to an actual home.
'Besides my time is already coming.'
On that depressing note she closed the door.
It was already night by the time Seras arrived to the supposed abandoned church. Her Boosted Gear was out, she had two unsheathed knives, two strapped to her hips, and the last two inside her hoodie.
(BOOST)
Since her walk she's been boosting her power and strength and has managed to accumulate 12 boosts. The reason she has done that was that she could better prepare to face the fallen angels and the stray priest. Plus in-case her boosts were disrupted in battle she'd still have plenty of power from the previous boosts.
"You two can come out now. I know you're there."
Yumi and Koneko came out of the bushes. Seras noted that Yumi's sword was demonic like her knives and yet it felt like it was… lacking something for lack of better words.
"What are you two doing here?"
"Eh heh, about that…" Yumi was sheepishly rubbing the back of her head.
"… Buchou found out what you were about to do… She wanted us to stop you." Koneko replied.
Seras' eyes narrowed at that.
"No one will stop me from saving my friends… and nothing will stop me from dying tonight."
"…What?"
Hearing that last part Yumi and Koneko took battle stances ready to subdue her. Seras got ready to defend herself, until they heard loud explosions and gunshots coming from the church.
"What the-?"
Before anymore could be said Seras quickly used the confusion to run quickly into the church.
"Seras wait!"
Yumi and Koneko quickly ran to catch up with her, afraid of what she was planning to do to herself…
40 minutes ago…
"…Amen."
Asia opened her eyes, finishing her prayers.
She had been praying for some time, ever since she was forcibly brought back to the church. She had been praying that she would make it out alive not for herself or for her own desire to live but for Seras, wanting to keep her promise that she will stick by Seras' side. She wanted Seras to be free from her loneliness and pain. Yet she could do nothing for her first friend.
Creeeaaaaaaak
Hearing the wooden door open Asia was stricken with fear thinking it was time for the ritual.
"Asia! Are you alright?"
Asia was surprised by the question and was even more so when she saw who entered her room… A battered blood covered Raynare breathing heavily.
"Raynare-sama!"
"Hush! No one knows I'm here."
Raynare quickly started undoing the chain attaching Asia's leg to the wall.
"Come on let's go."
"Wait! Raynare-sama you're still hurt!"
"Not enough time. We need to get out before Seras comes here to rescue."
"Eh?! You mean Seras is coming here?!"
"Shhhhhh!"
Asia decided to keep quiet for the rest of the walk. The two ended up at the sacrificial chamber. There was large cross near the end of the room; at the centre of the cross was a large green spherical stone.
"Artifact Devourer…" Raynare whispered seeing the green orb.
Right now there were a couple of robed stray exorcists guarding the cross.
Raynare looked around the area trying to find any fallen angel guards and nodded in satisfaction when finding non. She unfurled her wings, which were strangely enough the only things unharmed from the rest of the body, and released some sort of purple mist that enveloped everyone except her and Asia. Just about every stray exorcist was seemingly knocked out, however when Asia took a good look she noticed that they were in fact still awake however they seemed to have a certain look that was best described as… retarded.
"Stay here."
Raynare flew towards the cross and started prying the Artifact Devourer from it.
"Got it." She said holding the orb in her hand.
She flew back to Asia, the two getting ready to leave.
"And just where do you two think are going?"
The two froze, terror filling their entire bodies. They both turned slowly expecting to see another group of Fallen Angels and stray exorcists. What they saw was 10 times worse. An army of demons in all shapes and sizes: Hellhounds, centipede/crocodile hybrids, large insects, zombified versions of the stray exorcists, and things that look like they came straight out of Cthulhu mythos. All their eyes glowing with nothing but hate and bloodlust and standing in front of them all was Dohnaseek.
"You… What have you done?"
"What? You like our new servants?" Dohnaseek gestured to all the demons who growled in impatience wanting to tear the two women apart. "I figured we needed better guards so our dear priest decided to get an old summoning book and well…" He gestured to the demonic horde who were all fidgeting.
"Don't you know the consequence of summoning DEMONS of all things?! The likeliness of them tearing you apart is just as high as them tearing us apart!"
"Well that's why I have this."
He raised the palm of his hand, showing a summoning star that was seemingly drawn by blood.
"Even if they betray me this mark will prevent them from so much as touching me. Besides…" He snapped his fingers and strange markings appeared on their necks causing the demons to growl in indignation. "…these will make sure they will not go out of line."
'Goddamn it, what do I do?!'
She tried thinking of a way out though it seemed like their weren't any. They were truly stuck between a rock and a sharp place. Still looking for a way out her eyes landed on the stray exorcists that were still stoned.
'That could work, but if I do this I'll end up wasting all my energy…'
She turned to look at Asia who was shivering in fright.
"Asia when I say run, run away as fast as possible and don't look back."
"Eh?! Raynare-sama…"
Before she could say anymore Raynare gave her a hard look that told her not to argue.
'Alright here we go.'
Using all her reserves she reached out to all the Stray Exorcists.
'ATTACK!'
"Asia run!"
Sending out two different commands one at Asia and the other at the start exorcists, chaos ensued as they started attacking the surprised demons and Dohnaseek while Asia ran from all of it as fast as possible.
"Ignore them! Go after the-AHH!"
He was interrupted when a stray bullet, by sheer luck, hit his hand that had the mark that protected him from the demons. With the mark out of the way nothing protected him from all the collateral damage the demons were causing, although even with the mark with all bullets flying and the explosions caused by the grenades it wouldn't have made that much of a difference. Also with all roaring and screaming he couldn't usher out an order.
Raynare meanwhile was laying on the ground breathing heavily and was barely conscious. Yet she couldn't help but smirk at all the disaster she caused for Dohnaseek and his plans.
"You bitch!"
That was the last thing she heard before a light spear was plunged into her chest. Blood was seeping out, her life being drained away.
'It's a good thing I gave Asia that Sacred Armament before she ran off.'
She smiled bitterly thinking about Seras.
'I'm sorry Seras… Looks like we won't be hanging out anymore…'
Everything faded to black…
"Geez why the hell did we get stuck with guard duty?!"
Mittlet and Kalawarner were outside both sitting on a tree branch. Kalawarner looked bored while Mittlet looked irritated.
"Oh put a lid on it. Just be glad we're doing this instead of facing punishment for sparing her."
The two were lucky that Dohnaseek was too busy stemming the blood from his wound to actually notice them deciding to let Seras go. Otherwise he would have lashed out on them like he did with Raynare.
Thinking about Raynare the two's moods lowered even further.
"You don't think…"
"No, he wouldn't kill her. He's not suicidal."
Though when thinking about what he did to Raynare they had no doubt that when her mother finds out Dohnaseek would be lucky if he had any bones left unbroken.
A red glowing circle appeared on the ground causing the two to be instantly on guard. Stepping out of the circle was Rias and Akeno.
"So we're here." Rias stated.
"Just what the hell are two devils doing here of all places?"
"Ara ara, isn't it a bit pass your bedtime?"
Rather than answer Mittlet's question Akeno decided to mock her.
Kalawarner had to restrain a struggling Mittlet from trying to murder the two devils.
"Le me go big sis! I'm gonna strangle that big-boobed whore with my bare hands!"
Rather than being offended Akeno simply giggled while Rias simply looked exasperated.
"Akeno please don't insult her like that."
"Sorry I couldn't help it."
Kalawarner managed to calm Mittlet down before turning her attention back to Rias and Akeno.
"Just what's a devil heiress and her servant doing out here?"
Rias stepped forward.
"In all honesty we simply came here to pick up a suicidal friend of ours."
The two looked surprised by that answer.
"What are you… wait a minute, Seras is here?!"
Kalawarner turned to look back at the church with clear surprise.
"Eh? You mean that big-boobed albino that Raynare loves?"
Everyone gave her weird looks due to her odd way of describing Seras.
"What?"
Before anymore could be said some loud explosions, gunshots, yells, and inhuman roars could be heard from the church.
"What the hell?"
They could literally sense all the chaos that was happening. Even if they couldn't sense it they could tell that Seras was at the thick of it.
"Akeno let's go!"
Rias and Akeno ran towards the church, going past the Kalawarner & Mittlet.
"Should we… stop them?"
Kalawarner took a long look at the church.
"No… in fact we're going to help them. This time Dohnaseek went too far."
Mittlet nodded before the two flew off after the two devils.
Present…
Seras stood stock-still staring at the massive hordes of demons standing in front of her. Though she had fought and killed demons before this was her first time facing this large amount of demons… Plus she was afraid. Ever since her first encounter with demon kind she had gained a great deal of fear of them, and it only grew when they decided to make her their personal toy. Even when she was strong enough to fight back, that fear never went away, only buried in ungodly amounts of hatred & sadness. However seeing an almost IMMEASURABLE amount of demons facing, it was enough for the fear to gain enough strength to leak out; just enough for her to be paralyzed.
"Kyaaaaaa!"
Hearing a scream Seras snapped out of it and saw Asia being held captive by some lizard-like demon.
"Asia!"
That fear soon lost strength and was once again buried. Seeing one of her very few precious people in danger she did not care that she was facing her greatest fear, all she cared about right now was saving Asia.
(EXPLOSION!)
All of the accumulated boosts were released enveloping her entire body, strengthening it beyond its limits.
'This power…'
For a brief moment black tiger-like marks appeared on her arms and two appeared on her cheeks; a sinister demonic aura leaked out of her body for a few seconds before it and the marks disappeared.
"All right let's do this."
As if that was the signal all the demons ran over to her intending to rip her apart. Seras met their charge with equal ferocity. Blood was spilled as Seras was slicing through them with her knives. Her path was blocked as some cockroach-like demons used their shells to block her strikes stoping her charge and rhythm. Now rather than forcing her way through she was forced to go on the defensive. Though she mostly blocked strikes she was able to slice some demons with her knives and punch others with her gauntlet. Countless bodies were scattered on the ground yet more just kept taking their place. Eventually they were able to get their hits in leaving large bleeding gashes that would have incapacitated even veteran devils, however Seras continued pulling through slicing and punching demons trying to block her way. Eventually their numbers were too much as they managed to pin her to the ground dropping her demonic blades . One of them stood menacingly near her, positioning a long bone spike near her neck, preparing to sever her head from her body.
"Go to hell." She spat some blood on her soon-to-be executioner.
The demon simply snarled before lifting its bone blade.
She looked defiantly at her killer.
Before the blade could be brought down a small fist slammed into the demon's face launching it into a nearby pillar.
Her as well as the demons were surprised by this however they were too late to regain their bearings as the demons were cut down by a pitch black blade.
Standing in front of her protectively were Koneko and Yumi facing off the demons.
"So you two decided to follow me."
"Well we couldn't very well let our friend march towards her death now can we."
Yumi said with a smile.
"Friend?"
"… Yes, friend."
Seras stood up shaking her head.
"If you guys intend to get in my way then I won't hesitate to cut you down."
"Don't worry. Considering the situation I think it'd be better if we help on this little rescue mission."
"… We won't let you do this alone."
Seras looked at them for a long moment before turning back to face the demons.
"Well I could use the help."
The two smiled at her.
The three charged at the remaining demons. This time the demons were on the defensive, facing against experienced warriors who were their betters in combat in every single way.
"Seras!"
Punching a demon's head off she turned to see the lizard demon letting her go and running away most likely smart enough to realize that it would die if it were to stay.
"Don't worry we'll handle this."
Seras nodded as she ran towards Asia. The two met and hugged each other tightly. Asia was crying tears of joy while Seras simply kept a hold on her afraid to let her go lest she was taken away from her once agin.
"Y-you came for me." Asia said.
"I'm your friend, of course I would have come for you."
Asia smiled before she frowned, remembering something.
"Seras; Raynare is still in trouble. S-she sacrificed herself to allow me to escape."
A fresh new wave of tears fell from her face.
"I'm such a coward, I left her to-!"
Seras stopped her from saying anymore.
"There was nothing you could have done. You're a healer not a fighter."
Seras stood up.
"Stay here and stay hidden. I'll get Raynare back."
"Eh?! Wait! Seras-!"
It was already too late as Seras ran off to find Raynare.
Seras was running down a corridor as fast as she could, yet the corridor just seemed to go on forever. She found it odd that she hadn't met any demons or stray exorcists though she figured that most of the demons went to the upper levels while slaughtering anyone that got in their way.
Finally she reached the end, coming across a door in front of her.
Kicking the door open Seras too a good look at her surroundings. She noticed that the ground was littered with the bodies of stray exorcists along with a very few demons.
'What the hell happened here?'
Seras knew that the only way a whole horde of demons could appear inside a church was that some idiot had to have summoned them. Judging from the leftover carnage the idiot tried to control them but failed.
She soon heard heavy breathing. Following the sound she was with the sight of a bruised and bloody Dohnaseek. She noted with satisfaction that his wings were torn off.
He finally noticed Seras. His pained face instantly changed into one of rage.
"YOU BITCH!"
He summoned a light spear and attempted to attack her.
She easily dodged the sloppy strikes.
This continued on for a while with her barely dodging and him missing all his strikes. She could EASILY put him out of his misery but she couldn't help but play around a bit.
"IF YOU HAD STAY DEAD THAN NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED! I WOULD HAVE GAINED TWILIGHT HEALING BY NOW AND RISE TO THE RANKS OF CADRE! BUT YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!"
At this point he was simply too tired to even maintain his light spear and so tried to attack her with her fist, key word 'tried'.
Feeling that she had enough fun she promptly bitch-slapped him with her gauntlet hand launching him into a wall before falling onto the ground.
She walked towards him. He shakily sat up staring at her with hatred in his eyes.
"I will-!"
Dohnaseek's words stopped. Seras jumped back in shock seeing a wide blade sticking out of his neck. With one slight movement his head was separated from his body. Standing behind him, blade at hand, was the old priest.
"You should have killed him from the beginning, his ranting was driving me crazy."
He stomped on the head causing it to explode in a shower of blood and gore.
"Why?"
The priest simply rose an eyebrow.
"Why join him if you were going to kill him in the end? And don't say you were after Asia's Sacred Armament; I can tell that was not what you were after."
He simply smirked.
"Well they were only a means to an end. In all honesty my real target… is you?"
"Me?"
He chuckled.
"I can tell that even though you are aware of the demon blood in your veins you are unaware of just WHOSE blood you have inside you."
"You mean Sparda's."
He smirked and gave her a patronizing look.
"Sparda was one of the most powerful of our kind however even his blood would not be enough for demons to catch your scent and attack you 24/7."
Seras looked at him stunned.
"You my dear carry the blood of a demon god in your veins."
Her face paled.
"… Demon god? Impossible, you're lying!""
Rather than answer the priest gained a thoughtful look. Suddenly a smile of pure sadism formed on his face causing Seras to back up in fear.
"You know I just remembered something. You were constantly trying to find your little fallen angel girlfriend weren't you?"
She didn't dignify him with a response.
He for some reason leaned and started searching through a pile of corpses.
Seras suddenly felt fear; fear of what he was doing yet she didn't know why.
Sparda and Ddraig were confused although after a few seconds Sparda seemed to realized what was about to happen.
{Seras-!}
However Sparda never got his chance.
What the priest pulled out caused complete and utter despair to be unleashed on all of Seras' being.
Held by the head was the pale, bloodless corpse of the fallen angel Raynare.
"Well… mission accomplished! You found her."
He, with a sadistic laugh, tossed the corpse at Seras who instinctively caught it.
Seras gently put Raynare's body down. Seras just sat there staring at the corpse with a seemingly emotionless gaze. Though outside she was emotionless, inside was a completely different story.
All forms of negative emotions stirred up inside her however there were two that she felt the strongest: Hatred and Despair.
She could vaguely hear Ddraig & Sparda trying to snap her out of it, however she was too far gone to understand or even care…
'It is ALWAYS like this… They always leave in the end.'
'Why do you delude yourself in thinking you can have friends… a family?'
'It is what everyone needs… It is the only thing that keeps us sane.'
'Look how that turned out. Now we are more broken than before…'
'You are wrong! We still have…'
'The nun is WEAK! Too fragile, and she promised she would not leave us. Look what happened.'
'…'
'We are also weak… Unless…'
'… No.'
'It is the only way.'
'We can't … Our humanity…'
'It was lost the second we took up blades. We can longer delude ourselves anymore.'
'...I'm sorry.'
'Do not worry. You will still exist, however you no longer will have any say in our way.'
It was then that Seras' humanity was cast aside… and the demon took its place.
Author's Notes
Whew! Got a chapter done. Sorry about the long wait and the short chapter. Had A LOT of load to deal with that involve going to Mexico for Christmas vacation. Hoped your Christmas was better because mine's SUCKED ASS!
Anyway yeah I basically killed off Raynare... deal with it.
Next chapter we get the end of Fallen Angel Arc and get to see some of Seras' new powers. Plus there's going to be a twist at the end that I'm pretty sure almost none of you will expect.
Anyway Merry Christmas!