Had to make an edit due to a slight mistake. See bottom for details.
Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.
So, I screwed up again. This chapter came late and I don't have excuses this time, rather than the usual "I'm getting distracted", which in turn is getting very old.
This time, it was my Youtube channel. First of all, I couldn't find a chance to go home and upload while I was at my father's house. Secondarily, once I came back I decided to record like mad and do literally nothing else, as if to compensate for the week without videos even though this happened before.
The argument I'm trying to make here is, the incredible boredom I felt while I was away from the PC made me decide to do all kinds of things to make it go away: grab a book and *gasp* read an actual physical novel for once, have walks outside even though there's jack shit to do in my town, figure out what I wanted to do after I finished my current playthroughs, and as I said just now, record like mad when I got back, because I wanted to have a hand at the new stuff I wanted to try as soon as possible.
So we've gotten to the point where more than two weeks have passed. ...Whoops.
And it's not over yet: it looks like this coming week will be a little hectic for me too, although for more serious and compelling reasons this time.
I'm gonna try harder to push out a chapter next time. For now, have this one where I introduce some new stuff once again.
I'll see you at the bottom. Enjoy.
Arc 3 Chapter 6 - Primal
He couldn't see it until the very last moment.
Whatever had hit him was fairly small in size, but it had reached him with outstanding speed and power: in fact, it was the kind of speed and power that only an arrow or a bullet could achieve. It was an object that couldn't be distinguished until it was right in front of one's nose.
Fortunately, that amount of power was all derived from the object's momentum. Kokabiel was able to gather that much; the object's threat level was still very small, at most a touch higher than the rest of his opponents'.
He rose from the deep dent his body had made on the ground, barely damaged at all, and looked around in search for the harmful item that had managed to catch him by surprise.
He then heard some voices.
"That was stupid fast!"
"That's right, Raynare! That's what a Gespenst is supposed to look like if I just run in a straight line! Hahahahaha!"
"He's getting full of himself again..."
"By the way, Anya. Who did I kick to the ground just now?"
"Ah, that was Kokabiel himself actually. ...Wait, no! You simply decided to strike the first able body you could see, didn't you?! I bet you weren't even aiming just now!"
"..."
"I KNEW IT! YOU CAN'T BE TRUSTED WITH ANYTHING!"
"SHADDAP UNRYUU! I'M TRYING TO ENJOY THIS CHAIR!"
The screaming little shit that was hurting Kokabiel's ears with only his voice then turned his head in his direction. And for some reason, a blank expression appeared on that white-haired boy's face.
"...You..."
"What now? Surprised that you couldn't put the hurt on me?" mocked the Cadre.
"Y-You... P-pfffff..."
"?"
"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
And all of a sudden, Kokabiel was the one feeling mocked. The bastard had started to laugh uncontrollably out of nowhere, and the Cadre couldn't even begin to imagine why.
"What's so funny, human?!"
"T-That appearance of yours, hahaha... It-It's not natural, is it? HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"What about it?! It makes me all the more terrifying if you ask me!"
"For a n-normal person, maybe... But you, I know what happened to you!"
"...What?" asked Kokabiel blankly.
"You've obviously been struck by the Rioting Blood Curse!"
"!"
"I KNEW IT, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! It's written all over your face, your eyes, your skin! I bet you have a neck scar from where the rod stabbed you, although I can't see it from here! Really, the only thing that might be natural about that appearance of yours are those stupid elf ears!"
Kokabiel instinctively grabbed the side of his neck with one hand, his anger quickly approaching the boiling point.
"Nevermind my ears! How could you of all people know of that damn spell?!"
"Of course I do! It's one of my mother's custom incantations! Hahahahaha!"
The human found the situation so funny that he even rolled out of the chair, fell from 10-meters height, landed head-first and was still laughing after hitting the ground; meanwhile, every single person in that battlefield was observing him, multiple blank faces wondering what the hell was going on.
"Hahaha... phew... You, you must have tried to get the Goenitz household on your side for some reason, huh? I gotta say, my mother has answered just like I expected her to!"
"Are you saying that you come from that abominable family?!"
The smile on the human's face dropped. He got up.
"Say, Kokabiel. What did you offer to my mother? Money? A battlefield to fight in? Faithful puppet followers for her sect?"
The expression on his face had suddenly become incredibly cold.
"I bet you sought her out due to her fame as a cold-blooded murderer and top-class magician. But you clearly had nothing that she was interested in."
He started to walk up to him.
"That makes me wonder what she demanded out of you in exchange for her potential cooperation."
And stopped half a meter from him, eyes fixated on his own despite the difference in height.
"Was it my whereabouts? If it was, I might have to kill you."
Kokabiel, in respect of the human's courage to just walk up to him and demand explanations, and in part also because he still didn't believe him to be a threat at all, answered his questions calmly after simmering down himself.
"...Indeed, she had refused everything I had to offer, and asked me if I was able to track down her only son instead. Uninterested in such a task and focused only on reviving the Great War, I had refused her request back then, and asked her to think of something else. And as you can see, she did."
A smirk appeared on the Cadre's face.
"But to think that I would find her son here of all places... Quite the coincidence."
"Agreed. But I'm fine with this. I can finish what she started."
"My exact thoughts. Perhaps she will reconsider her position if I bring over her son's corpse."
"Hmph. Too bad for you: knowing you're afflicted by that curse makes this a lot easier for me."
"We'll see about that."
The two of them turned around and took their distance from each other, step by step.
"There you have it, folks. To anyone who might think of interfering, I will make sure you suffer if you do."
"I will personally smite on the spot whoever tries to step in. Focus on your own fights."
Satisfied with the measures they took, they stopped in their tracks. Orochi generated Himmelskugeln around his palms and feet while Kokabiel summoned a greatsword made of pure light.
"LET THE PARTY BEGIN!"
"LET THE PARTY BEGIN!"
And in a heartbeat, the two of them turned around and started clashing.
Everyone else took their actions as the final trigger.
And the all-out brawl finally exploded, under the gaze of a mysterious blue-haired woman.
Orochi and Kokabiel immediately took flight towards the reddened sky.
The Cadre's sword and Orochi's fist made contact for the first time, and bounced off of each other. The powerful shockwave following the clash shook the clouds away.
"Oh? I doubted you could withstand even one of my blows, but I take back my thoughts. You're not the completely worthless human I thought you were!"
Kokabiel made an horizontal swing, and Orochi had to duck underneath it due to having no time to back off at all.
"And you're a lot stronger than I gave you credit for! I was sure the curse would've left you a lot weaker than this!"
The boy made an uppercut, but it was easily parried with the blade.
"In fact, I feel like my hands will shatter every time I touch that thing you're holding!"
Despite saying that, Orochi had a wild grin on his face.
So did Kokabiel.
"Yeah, right. If that's the case then break down already!"
He swung down towards the human's head. Orochi blocked in time with his wrists but was knocked downwards by the sheer power behind the blow.
And then he disappeared.
'! He escaped my field of vision!'
Kokabiel retaliated by spreading his ten wings.
"Don't think outpacing me will be that easy!"
And literally fired the feathers from his wings as if they were projectiles.
He didn't even try to turn around. He just fired behind him, but it was enough.
Orochi found himself outsmarted, and had to put some effort into deflecting the feathers that threatened to hit him with his hands and feet, aided of course by the Wind Brand.
Neither of them had taken any damage yet, and Gespenst was not effective.
"That was interesting, Crowman. Those wings are not just for show, huh?"
"That's right. Want another dose?"
Kokabiel finally turned around and faced his target before sending another volley of projectiles.
"Sure, why not? It gives me the chance of showing you what I'm capable of!"
Before the feathers could reach him, Orochi made his four Himmelskugeln all burst. The air they were composed of took a different form, and wrapped itself around his wrists and ankles.
"Here goes! Rote Linie!" (1)
His speed rose once again.
Kokabiel didn't think much of it at first. He was still convinced that his opponent could achieve incredible levels of speed for only a moment at best.
However, he was left mildly surprised once again.
As he was shooting, he noticed that the human had become nothing but a blur. Only a strange, shining red line was distinguishable. But more importantly...
The boy was literally flying circles around his bullets.
'...Not bad. My curtain of feathers is thick enough that even the smallest and most agile of birds would be torn to shreds. And yet, this bastard is dodging everything with a speed only marginally inferior to the one he used earlier! And he's not stopping!'
That red line (which Kokabiel assumed came from the human) was currently performing acute yet precise movements, as if it was a ball thrown against a wall.
And suddenly it charged his position, zipping through the steel feathers as if they weren't even there.
He wasn't ready.
A single fist struck his stomach.
"GH!"
In the moment he was hit, however, the Cadre was able to discern what had just happened.
The colored line he was seeing came simply from the boy's red eyes.
But in those eyes, the pupils were currently as thin as a needle.
"Y-You... you have raised your focus, haven't you?!"
He swung sideways to get the boy away from him.
"Sure did." answered Orochi, his eyes going back to normal after gaining distance. "Ever heard of the expression "being in the zone"? Up to now, my burst of speed came from just mindlessly moving into your blind spot. Since it doesn't work, I decided to do the exact opposite and, like you said, raise my focus instead. And here we are: Rote Linie. A technique that lets me navigate easily through a torrent of harmful objects."
"Tch."
"Of course, it's incredibly unsafe unless I refine and sharpen my movements, and for that reason I changed the flow of the air in my Himmelskugeln into one that was less chaotic, right after making them pop. As such, I managed to create micro-tornadoes that I call Bohrer, which have the power necessary to easily launch me in any direction and at any moment." (2)
Instead of forcing his brain into a state of trance like when he used Gespenst, he had forced it into a state of hyperfocus.
And the compressed air, which was formerly bouncing around in the half-meter-wide sphere called Himmelskugel, was now circulating around his wrists and ankles, forming four small tornadoes covering his limbs that could act as propellers when needed.
"...Hmph. As expected of a Goenitz magician. I'll have to give you a little credit, human. Even so!"
Kokabiel pointed his sword at the boy.
"Even with this weakened state of mine, how much strain are you putting on your body and mind just to keep up with me? You won't last much longer!"
Holding the grip with two hands, Kokabiel moved in once more to attack.
"HA! Some backlash is exactly what I need to work my magic!" mocked the boy.
While Orochi was putting all of his strength into matching Kokabiel's blows, he reiterated his plan of attack in his head.
'I'm well aware, Kokabiel. I know that you're way out of my league. Everything I did up to now that had any effect was only a one-time thing; in other words, those surprise attacks won't work again because, all things considered, they aren't very hard to detect for someone like you if I use them a second time. I just don't have the necessary stats to beat this one boss comfortably.'
Dodging another volley of feathers with Rote Linie, the boy closed in and unleashed a flurry of punches, forcing Kokabiel into a defensive stance.
'You know all those things, and that's why you feel secure. All I need to do then is to overpower you for a single moment. One Bergschneider should be enough to catch you off guard at the very least. And after crushing that sword of yours, a second blow striking a vital spot will be enough to win!'
The two of them then started flying around at high speeds, exchanging blows all the while.
'In order to carry out that plan, I need to hold on for a little longer. My bones are creaking from the recoil of these Bohrer, and most importantly the clashes against that light sword, but Heaven's Gate is currently working on building up immunity. Just a little more, and I can secure victory!'
The collisions between sword and fist, along with the howling sound of the winds currently under Orochi's control, resounded throughout the battlefield.
Meanwhile, on Kuoh Acamedy's school grounds...
The Fallen Angel trio was currently facing off against Raynare.
The girl was unwilling to kill her former comrades. She could do that very easily the way she was now, but she still felt attached to the few people that didn't scorn her back when she was at Grigori.
Unsure about what she should have been doing, she was currently limiting herself to dodging and blocking the blows coming from the trio.
"Why did you leave us, Raynare?! More importantly, why did you leave us for that human?" shouted Mittelt.
"I simply chose a different path. What's so difficult to understand about that?"
"You came up with that plan to steal Twilight Healing in the first place!"
Two spears of light clashed, Raynare's transparent one and Mittelt's pink one.
"It was so that everyone at Grigori would stop looking down on you, your mother included! And as your friends we were ready to travel with you on that road!"
"...My friends would not have lamented the fact that I managed to achieve my goals on my own!"
Putting strength into her arm, she swatted Mittelt away.
"I wanted them to stop looking down on me, that's true. But the definition of "people around me" has changed!"
She had not moved from her spot the whole time. Only in that moment she decided to unfold her six wings and engage actively her opponents.
"I have realized that I'm not obligated, nor free to impress anybody!"
Their spears clashed again, but Raynare was overpowering Mittelt without trouble, and was easily pushing her back despite her best efforts.
"That guy doesn't care! If I meet his expectations, that's great. If I don't, he mocks me for 10 minutes but then says, "Let's continue tomorrow, it's late now~ ." with the silliest sounding voice he can muster! He always puts pressure on me, but he does so only when he's sure I can handle it!"
With a wide swipe, Raynare knocked the blond into a window.
"HE HAS TRUSTED ME WITH HIS LIFE! HOW CAN I SAY NO TO THAT?!"
And fired a Fragment into it.
*BOOM!*
"What about those other humans, then?"
"!"
Raynare turned around just in time to block Kalawarner's yellow spear.
"What is their role in the equation, Raynare? Personally, I don't really care that you abandoned the original plan, and siding with that bastard is, I suppose, one of the choices you had. But that powerless woman and her kid? What could you possibly gain from them?"
The blue-haired woman gained distance and threw her spear at Raynare.
"It's not about gaining or losing something. Admittedly, they just happened to barge violently into Kamakura's life, and I was only dragged along for the ride. But!"
The Fallen managed to avoid harm by simply grabbing the yellow spear.
"They have accepted my presence! Even that kid did! She wasn't scared of me at all when she found out what I was, and she even calls me Sister. If I had to define their roles in my life right now, I would say that they are people that I feel I must protect!"
She spinned it around to make its tip face Kalawarner, and threw it back at her. She hurriedly dodged it by a hair's breadth, surprised by the sheer speed of the blow.
"He has many other things that afflict him, and can't spare time worrying about some absolutely normal humans."
"So you wish to lighten his burden?"
Raynare then faced Dohnaseek, while Mittelt had managed to recover from the blast and was floating slowly back into the air.
"Can't say I understand that wish of yours. He seems to have all the freedom he needs. Freedom to pick a fight with High-class Devils, to poke his nose into other people's affairs, or to tear off my fingers." (3)
"..."
"But sure, let's try to indulge him for a second here. Let's assume he really can't spare time and effort for those humans' safety. If that's really the case, surely he won't mind if I go into that house after this battle and kill that child you care so much about?"
And just like that...
Raynare had lost all the patience and mercy she had in her heart.
*CRACK*
"...I wOn'T lEt YoU lAy A fInGeR oN hEr, YoU hEaR mE?"
"! Wha-"
He was unable to finish what he was trying to say.
Not because he was silenced or anything.
But because the situation in front of him was escalating fast.
An oozy purple aura, was currently surrounding Raynare. The wind had also picked up, and for once it wasn't because of Orochi's presence.
No, it was the pure pressure emanated from the Fallen Angel in front of the trio that had caused the wind's direction to change.
Raynare's appearance was also changing. Her black hair was gradually whitening, and the six wings on her back were becoming translucent, as if they had started to lose their physical form.
And in her eyes, the iris was turning from brown to pure white, and the sclera was turning blood red.
Valper Galilei, who was currently observing the battlefield, noticed the change and immediately assumed an uneasy expression. As a man who loved legends and ancient history, he had heard of those kinds of creatures.
They were God's first attempt at creating beings that would follow His directives. Back when Angels and Devils didn't exist, in order to be able to face and defeat the primordial evils that were being born from the hearts of humanity, He had created those beings and used them as His soldiers in what was said to be a war even fiercer than the Great War.
They were only supposed to be weapons, and to counter the deep darkness emanated by those great evils, He had gifted those weapons with a fraction of His divine power.
A kind of power that boasted the highest purity among all the types of light ever utilized by Angels.
The Light of Order.
And those who wielded that light within their wings had been defined by the historians with the name "Primals".
It was only after the war was over, and the great evils were sealed away, that God realized his mistake. The Primals, having lost their purpose, weren't any different from wind-up dolls that had ceased to move. If other external forces were to take control of them, an easy task since they didn't have the means to resist, even minor evils could cause great havoc upon the world.
So, He gathered all of the Primals and gifted them with "self-awareness". Upon receiving that gift that allowed them to form their own thoughts and opinions, the absolute purity that was held in their light was immediately tainted.
Yes, it could be said that even the oldest Angels, people like Michael and Gabriel, were not completely pure beings.
And yet, a Primal had appeared right in front of his eyes.
That girl was definitely not an old Angel: she was in fact one of the youngest Fallens in the Grigori.
For her to become a Primal at will, she should have found a way to somehow purify her soul completely.
Such a thing was impossible even for beings like Azazel and Michael.
It had to be an external factor, but even that conclusion was preposterous.
God had specifically made sure that no Primal would stay the way it was. He had bound the secret to that legendary Light to his very being, so that it would be impossible to replicate it or steal it.
A Primal appearing now was simply impossible, unless...
"! Could it be? ...No, right now I should be focusing on the battle. I shall ponder quietly the events that have unfolded here today once this town is destroyed."
After throwing a glance at the great magic circle that was hidden behind the building he was standing on, the old man returned his gaze to the battle.
Due to the distance, he was unable to hear that girl's parting words.
"BeFoRe I lEt ThAt HaPpEn, I'D RATHER KILL YOU ALL!"
(1) "Red Line". Of course, the red glare comes from Orochi's eyes, since it's accentuated by the shrinking pupils to the point where their brightened color is the only thing visible to the enemy when he moves.
(2) "Drill". This one's easy and self-explanatory to boot, although Orochi mostly uses it as a propeller. The German term for "turbine" would've made more sense but, you know... it ended up being translated as "Turbine". While it is easier, it also kinda screws with the "giving your attacks a cool name" trope. XD
(3) Small reference to DmC: Devil May Cry. The semi-final boss, Mundus, and Dante are having a confrontation and Dante tells him that they're fighting for freedom. The guy tells him, though, that he already has plenty, seeing that Dante has killed his unborn heir. The game itself could be a little better in terms of story, but this was a quote that stuck with me.
Welcome to the bottom.
The new stuff is gonna come into play with great numbers and intensity from here. First of all, the "revelation" was originally something that, as you might know, originates from Kiba becoming essentially Kaiba (not much of a step-up as it turns out :|) and say "screw the rules", which instates the seed of doubt in Valper if you can recall. The God of the bible and his past actions are and have always been a vital part of DxD's plot, and this was something that I wanted to keep. At the same time, I've been building up Raynare up until now, so it's time to cash in, so to speak. For her sake, I introduced an original event happened in the very, VERY distant past: a war between God and the Primordial Evils, that required adequate weapons to fight. Hence, the Primals. As for why she turned into one of these things, we'll get there.
Next, let's talk about why I made Kokabiel weaker than he should be. You see, the fact that he's for the most part very different in appearance from other Fallen Angels has always struck me as kinda weird. It might be because of how the anime has been handled, now that I think about it. Anyway, I decided to expand that a little bit, and briefly throw Annabelle back into the story just to screw with him. As you saw, of course, him being affected by a curse doesn't give Orochi much of an advantage. He still struggles, a lot, but he can handle him better than he actually should. Fortunately, Orochi already has a plan, and he will set it in motion soon enough.
More new concepts will appear, both original and borrowed, as the arc progresses. Just like in Arc 2, the one relevant battle of this arc ended up occupying the whole second half of my draft! XD
Well, as I write Arc 4 I am trying to address this, but I can't guarantee I'll get the desired results since I'm still nowhere near writing the final battle for that arc. An unknown future awaits, which is kind of intriguing even when I know that I'll want some specific stuff in that arc no matter what!
Review, damn you. I revised this damn chapter three times before publishing it, I think I deserve it! e.e
EDIT: Apparently three times is not enough, because the "next time" paragraph below this one is inaccurate. As it turns out, I miscounted the chapter numbers even in the draft, hahaha. Now it's fixed.
Next time, the "revelation". You know which one I'm talking about, this is the damn Kokabiel arc e.e.
Thank you for reading, see you soon!
Ciao!