Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path To Freedom.
It's been a while, sorry about that. I've already explained the reasons however, so let's talk a little about something else.
There's a good chance that Arc 4 will end up being really long. I'm writing a lot and I need everything: not a bad feeling, I'll be honest. Having content in bulk is not bad at all, and the train isn't friggin' stopping, let me tell you. In fact, before writing this new Chapter 5, I wrote not only Arc 4 Chapter 5, but also Chapter 6. Why? Because I didn't feel like writing this one right away, haha.
Such things tend to happen to me, probably because deep in my core I hate having to do certain things twice. No doubt it will happen again in the future, and the problem will surely become bigger than what it is now, since I'm visibly getting better at writing and the amount of content is increasing. I sure hope I'll be able to hold on and take it on the chin when it inevitably happens.
For now, I can promise that most of the rest of this arc shouldn't be going through the same problem. Some of it will, but I should have enough of a time margin to recover even if I decide to go back to the usual schedule now.
It still might be a little shaky for a bit, because I'll be stuck at my father's house next week, which means I'm not sure of when exactly I'll be able to come here to my PC and upload the next chapter. I'll make time, I swear. Just... I don't know which day I'll pick to do it. e.e
That should be enough for now. I'll see you at the bottom.
Enjoy.
Arc 3 Chapter 5 - Returners
Despite the time they had lost, the distinctive signature of an Excalibur fragment was enough to lead the three girls all the way to Kuoh Academy.
"...The school? Why here of all places? There's nobody here at this hour of the day." said Raynare, puzzlement in her tone.
"Raynare-san, is that you?"
For some reason Anya and her peerage had not gone home yet, and the High-class Devil had called out to her from the courtyard just in front of the school grounds.
"We saw that Freed person and some other old priest run into the school grounds from the club window. Are you girls okay?"
"Yeah, we're good."
"Speak for yourself, Fallen. My nose still hurts." protested Xenovia with a deep frown.
"I don't even want to know what happened, since Orochi-kun was involved. ...Speaking of which, where is he?" asked Unryuu.
"He has some things to gather and should be arriving soon, or so he told me." answered Raynare with a shrug. "More importantly, what's the situation?"
"We were unable to intercept them in time, but we managed to trap them in the area with Sona-sama's help."
"The student president? I see, she must be the other pure-blooded Devil I sensed when I first came here..."
"Yes. She and her peerage raised a barrier to prevent them from escaping, and to avoid damage to the surrounding areas-"
"Avoid damage, you say?! That's nowhere near enough! Our true enemy is-"
"That would be me."
The girls heard that voice from above.
It belonged to a man with pale skin and uncharacteristical pointy ears. He had bloodshot eyes and long flowing black hair, and wore a black robe with several gold accessories decorating it.
He was currently sitting on a fancy-looking floating chair, as if he was a king, and was looking down at them as he spoke. His gaze seemed especially focused on Anya.
"Greetings, Anya Adramelech. I am Kokabiel... and today I will take your life."
"Huh?"
"Your sacrifice, along with that of your friend, the little sister of one of the Satans, will bring about the change I seek."
"We won't let you do as you please, Kokabiel!" strongly declared Xenovia.
Hearing that, the Cadre started to actually pay attention to the people that were accompanying Anya. To his displeasure, there were only two exorcists.
"...What is this? Are my actions so irrelevant to Michael that he would dismiss me by sending only two people after me? Even after what I've done? How laughable. That was a mistake caused by eccessive arrogance."
"It's not like you have any right to speak on the matter, Kokabiel! You're arguably worse off!"
Kokabiel then moved his gaze onto Raynare in response to her words.
"...What was your name again? Raynare, if I recall. You were Azazel's most recent banishment from the Grigori. And your mother is a bit of a celebrity, isn't she?"
Raynare started to scowl the moment she heard those words.
"...You just had to go there, huh?"
"Ha! HAHAHA! To think that I would meet Obyzouth's daughter here of all places... This might actually turn out to be an interesting night, after all."
He snapped his fingers.
"Well, for now I will keep you all occupied. My subordinates are too busy right now, so you'll have to make do with these friendly pups."
Two portals opened a short distance from the group. From them, two monsters emerged.
They had three growling heads, and otherwise looked like gigantic dogs capable of breathing fire.
The Cerberi.
"What the?! You would pull these creatures away from the Underworld to have them do your bidding?!" shouted Anya in protest.
"Correct." confirmed Kokabiel nonchalantly. "I firmly believe that one should go ahead and do something if he's even remotely capable of it."
He spread his arms wide.
"This stagnant world disgusts me, so let my summon of these Cerberi be my first official action towards the revival of the Great War! We will prove ourselves superior!"
"So that's his aim." realized Unryuu. "Indeed, killing Sona-sama would be in fact more than enough to easily drag Leviathan-sama into this war of his. And she doesn't have nearly enough regard about the human world to make sure that Japan isn't wiped off the map!"
"Agreed." said Anya. "So then, our duty is to hold this line, everyone! You're not allowed to die on my watch!"
"Yes, ma'am!" x5
Five people extracted their weapons of choice, while Asia stood by, ready to heal whoever got injured.
The Cerberi, having identified their enemy, started charging at them.
*ROAR!*
"I will keep one busy, Anya-sama. Please concentrate on the other!"
"I'm counting on you, Unryuu!"
The white-haired girl immediately grabbed one of the heads of the Cerberus that was approaching her, and started pushing it away.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!"
Leaving behind a trail of grass lifted by the beast's hind legs, she managed to drag it away from the other. Meanwhile the others were getting ready to attack the second Cerberus.
Xenovia, due to having a lot of pent-up stress to relieve herself from, was the first to meet the gaping maws of the demonic dog. Unraveling the cloth around Excalibur Destruction, she intercepted the teeth of one of the heads, easily matching its strength thanks to her sword. In fact, some teeth fragments flied out of its mouth the moment the sword collided with it.
While this wasn't enough to even make it flinch, his charge had been stopped nevertheless. Anya immediately jumped on its back, willing to take advantage of the demon's broken momentum, and readily stabbed one of her spears into its left head, piercing through its cranium.
With one of its heads becoming suddenly unresponsive, the Cerberus' reaction was brutal and sudden. Raising one of his forelegs, it swiped at Xenovia and knocked her away. It then shook off vigorously Anya from his back and roared in anger.
*RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!*
However, Raynare was not intimidated at all. Without even unfolding her wings, she dashed forward, and nailed both of the demon's forelegs to the ground with her spears of light. Howling in pain from the burning sensation, its central head tried to snap at the Fallen Angel, but she bended her body backwards to dodge, and kicked its jaw as she backflipped.
Distracted by Raynare, the demon didn't notice Excalibur Mimic's blade approaching its right head, and Soleil easily severed it from the respective neck.
Now with only one remaining head, the Cerberus was incredibly angry. It roared again, but this time a torrent of flames spewed forth from his mouth, scattering the group.
Soleil jumped in front of Asia with a huge smile, transforming Mimic into a shield, and protected her from the flames without hesitation.
"Ah! Soleil-san!"
"I'm fine! Stay focused, Maiden!"
Raynare was also ready to act. As she leaped away, she created a Fragment and fired it from her finger with precision. The segment of light disregarded the fire as it should have, and reached the deepest part of the dog's throat.
*BOOM!*
Nothing remained of the middle head. And just like that, one of the Cerberi was dead.
"...Phew."
Soleil huffed as she wiped the sweat from her forehead, no doubt caused by the heat of the flames.
Asia was just as sweaty, but she hadn't noticed. Instead, she was trying to find a reason in her head for Soleil to decide to shield her.
"Soleil-san... you protected me? I t-thought you-"
"That was my bad back then." The pink-haired girl interrupted her. "I've thought about it, and I've realized that this cowardly me had no right to say anything to you."
"But you're not a coward at all? Your smile just now was so wide!"
The belief in Asia's voice was so deep that she wasn't even stuttering. However, Soleil couldn't bring herself to agree.
"Hey, Maiden. Do you know why I smile on the battlefield?"
"?"
The on-going battle had suddenly lost importance. Asia, the benevolent girl that she was, had already forgiven the exorcist for belittling her current existence, and had her attention caught by that question instead.
Soleil was a strong girl, and Asia felt that she could have learned a thing or two from her. But she didn't expect the kind of answer that that question had.
"It's because I'm scared to my core. You are also afraid, right?"
"! Ah... Yes, quite."
"Yyyeah, well..."
The girl scratched her head in mild embarrassment.
"As you probably know, it's a horrible feeling. It's something I don't wish anyone to experience if at all possible. But in such a hopeless situation there's no way that you, or even the others, aren't afraid."
"Soleil-san?"
"So I put the widest smile I can muster on my face. You can think of it as a way to give courage to the people around me, so that the entire group can readily recover from any mistakes I could make. And you know, this little gesture is an important part of me. It's something that my power can't influence, so only I can do it."
"..."
"Smile, Maiden. Smile in front of all adversities. It's really hard at first, but once you get the hang of it it'll be like second nature, and your Devil family will appreciate it for sure."
"Yes! I-I will try!" proclaimed Asia.
A burning determination to better herself had finally sprouted in her eyes.
...
In the meantime Unryuu was keeping at bay the other Cerberus on her own. She had enough strength to intercept that mass of animal muscle, and kept it from injuring her at all with her Adamantite Armor.
Fed up with its effort to try and eat her, the girl lifted the creature over her shoulder, by putting strength into her arms which were holding tightly the dog's jaws, and slammed it on the ground. Before it could regain its bearings and lift itself up, she then twisted with force the head she was holding, and broke one of its necks.
The Cerberus started rolling around and whining due to the pain, thus allowing Unryuu the few seconds necessary to finish it off. She first raised her arms and slammed them down on the writhing body to keep it from moving, then she jumped and covered in Armor her legs.
Finally, she proceeded to dive-kick the demon's ribcage.
*CRACK!*
Feeling something burst inside the dog's body, she leapt off of it and confirmed that, indeed, the Cerberus' heart had bursted and its body had stopped functioning.
The entire time, Kokabiel had observed everything from his position of privilege. The beasts he had summoned were defeated fairly quickly, but there was no sign of worry on his face.
"It wasn't bad at all for a first act. Well fought." he said in a low voice of fake admiration.
"Kokabiel... E-Everything is ready on our end."
Hearing the voice of one of his allies, Kokabiel made his flying chair turn around on itself slightly, and faced a fatigued Valper.
He was on the rooftop of one of the buildings. The Cadre figured it was a bit of a climb for an old human, and decided to cut him some slack out of pity.
"...Very good. Freed, it's your group's turn for this second act!"
Kokabiel called out to the other, mad priest, and Freed rapidly leapt from behind the building onto the same roof.
"Alright! Time to try this baby out then!"
He jumped off of it right away, landing a short distance from Anya and the others. His shoulder had apparently been healed.
And in his hand...
There wasn't Excalibur Rapidly like they had predicted.
Or rather, the sword he held definitely looked like it, but the power within was of a different level.
It was Valper who explained what was going on.
"While you were busy fighting the Cerberi, we have carried out a ritual in order to fuse the Excalibur fragments we possessed into a single sword. Now, the blade wielded by Freed has the capabilities of Excalibur Rapidly, but also of Nightmare and Transparency."
"Damn you... You won't get away again!"
Xenovia expressed her anger towards the priest. Being already in a bad mood, she took a stance and readied Destruction in order to challenge Freed's newfound might.
"And who wants to get away? There is no reason to do so this time. We will make a crater out of this city once we're done with you people! Speaking of which..."
Freed turned his head away from the group and called out.
"It's also your turn to play, Fallen Angels!"
Three figures flew upwards from behind the building Valper and Freed appeared from.
Raynare recognized them, and wasn't pleased at all.
"You gotta be kidding me..."
"Hello, traitor. How do you do?"
"Your human friend did a number on us."
"And we're going to collect that debt from you."
From the sky, those three people appeared before Raynare.
Kalawarner.
Mittelt.
Dohnaseek.
The latter of the three then changed his passive tone to one of anger.
"Look at this, Raynare! LOOK AT MY HANDS!"
Dohnaseek raised his hands and made a show out of them.
"Did you know about this?! It was him. My ring fingers couldn't be retrieved after he tore them off, so they're gone forever!"
He made a fist in his almost palpable rage, and a spear of light appeared in his other, open hand.
"IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOU, YOU BASTARD!"
"..."
Raynare was only mildly surprised by their appearance.
Was it expected? Absolutely not, and yet they were there, working for Kokabiel and aiding him in destroying the city that ruined them. And she certainly didn't know about Kamakura detaching fingers from a person's hands, although deep inside she didn't really put it past him to do so if provoked.
Was their anger justified? Without a doubt. They were humiliated and crushed under that boy's power, and she couldn't help thinking that if it had gone any other way, she would have been killed back then, or standing at their side now. She didn't like the idea of either of those scenarios unfolding in place of the one she was experiencing now.
But was it right for them to be angry at her?
No, it was not.
"...Yes, it should have been." admitted immediately the girl. "I was supposed to carry out the ritual, and Kamakura was supposed to tear off my fingers. But that didn't happen. Let me tell you why, Dohnaseek."
"..."
"It was only after I looked very carefully at my hand that I decided that the cards I was dealt could have been played in a different way. From there, things escalated and what used to be our plan was foiled. And I do in fact ask myself sometimes. What would have happened if I carried on with that plan? What if I never met that human? Would we have succeeded?"
"And? Did you come up with an answer, Raynare?!" shouted impatiently and sarcastically Dohnaseek.
"I did not. I don't do "conjectures", Dohnaseek. I may have asked myself those things, and I may have spent enough time on this side to gather the information needed to answer some of my doubts. But the only relevant truth I cared enough about to assemble was this: I merely abandoned a sinking ship, like I did once in the past, in accordance with my instincts. And as such, I owe you nothing."
Hearing that, Dohnaseek was apparently about to reach his boiling point.
"Everyone, I'm taking care of them. I'll leave Freed to you all!" shouted out Raynare to the rest of the group.
"Hahaha, that weak Raynare who was rejected by her outstanding mother back in Grigori intends to fight her three former comrades? This, this is just the best! Nothing could top this joke-"
As Kokabiel was gloating due to Raynare's seemingly absurd conceit, he suddenly heard a strange humming noise. With a frown, he turned his head towards the source, which was one random spot to his right in the crimson skies that colored Kuoh City's evenings at that time of the day.
He couldn't distinguish anything of importance, but the humming noise was definitely there, and seemed to be increasing in intensity.
Everyone else, intrigued by Kokabiel's sudden interruption, also decided to turn their heads towards the apparent source.
"...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
It came too quickly.
Kokabiel was caught unprepared. A pair of human feet planted themselves straight in his face, and knocked him to the ground with incredible force, sending him several dozens of meters away.
*CRAAAAAAAAASH!*
The cloud of dust that was lifted by his impact easily surpassed in height the tallest building of Kuoh Academy.
Meanwhile, the person that knocked him away had his momentum stopped by the kick he performed, and managed to back-flip straight into the floating fancy-looking chair.
As that person sat on Kokabiel's former privileged seat, everyone present was looking at him with a mix of contempt and hatred.
"..."
"...Um-"
Anya tried to say something after seeing that person's silence, but he beat her to the punch.
And the first thing he said was...
"RAYNARE, THIS CHAIR IS FUCKING AMAZING! I'M DEFINITELY TAKING THIS BABY HOME AFTER WE'RE DONE HERE!"
Orochi Kamakura had made his triumphant entrance in the battlefield once again.
Welcome to the bottom.
The opening of the battle is Orochi-less for obvious reasons, so for this "rewrite" I decided to add a little to the content by having Soleil and Asia briefly interact. It was a good chance to have you, the readers, explore the pink-haired girl's character a little bit. As I said before, I want to depict her as the kind of character who seems to be fighting bravely, but is actually really scared, and hides her true feelings behind a smile.
You could say that she is my first experiment at writing a true "character". Orochi, as you might have noticed, kinda goes with the flow most of the time (something I plan to try and fix in Arc 4 somewhat), and that's a fairly easy way to write a character. So, I want to try doing a little more with Soleil and see what happens. You're in fact going to see one more bit centered on her later in the arc. Although I think I already mentioned this before... *shrug*
At the same time this happens, however, I decided that I want Raynare to be a different kind of character. To be more precise, I want her to be someone who is defined by the bonds she has with other people. She is perfect for this second experiment, since she has no background to speak of, and I can dig one up very easily. This other little project will last until well past this arc, and into Arc 4, and will be mostly centered about her and her "fictional" mother Obyzouth. That's a name I've grabbed online (I'll let you look it up and make what you will of the significance behind it), and I'm really excited to write her since I have a few ideas already.
Anything else is mostly self-explanatory. Next time, the real battle starts.
Reviews are incredibly important for this chapter, since I've gone through the trouble of rewriting it.
Thank you for reading, see you soon.
Ciao!