When no new curveball came in the minutes after Vali was sent away, they finally started to relax. And all of the fatigue was finally starting to catch up.
So when Ruby showed up with a heavy frown on her face, nobody was much able to react in any reasonable way.
"Well? What do you have to say for yourself?" She calmly walked up to Sona and Rias.
The two devils shared a confused look, not understanding what was Ruby getting at. Kokabiel was dead, Excaliburs were recovered and even the surprising appearance of the white dragon was dealt with.
Ruby ignored her eye twitching. "Fine, I spell it out for you. Why the hell didn't you call for help? You know, like I told you."
Rias defended herself first. "And what? Were we supposed to leave our peerages just like that?"
"And what did you accomplish by coming back?" Ruby inquired. "If anything, you put them into more danger by making them protect you when all of them were exhausted." Still no effect, Sona and Rias weren't backing down from their decision. "Why do I even bother…" Ruby sighed. "Whatever, the show's over, time to clean up!" She seemingly rebounded. "Sona, call your sister and tell her about this whole thing so she can handle it on a higher level. Rias, get somebody to start rebuilding the place and organize some clean up crews for the city, I'm sure a lot of people will need to forget the mess."
There was a small bout of silence in which the two devils looked positively gobsmacked.
"Who the hell put you in charge?!" Rias protested loudly.
"Ruby, calm down. You are here as a guest to learn the proper customs of the underworld, not…whatever you are trying to do now." Sona tried to reason more calmly.
"Hmm." Ruby smirked and looked Sona in the eyes. "And tell me what is the most important rule of the devil society?"
It took only a couple of moments for the princesses to realize what she was referring to. As their eyes widened, Ruby continued. "Might makes right. I'm both stronger and more competent, so until this entire shitshow is properly cleaned up, I'm in charge." She announced. "You've had your chance to handle it yourself but-" she fixed them with a hard stare. "-you wiped your hands off the problem, you refused to ask for help beforehand and when everything went to shit, you still couldn't figure out how to call for backup. Well, I had enough and I'm not letting you keep screwing up until something irreversible happens." She finished. The devils simply gave her wide-eyed looks.
Meanwhile, the two exorcists were almost done with picking themselves up. This wasn't their problem, in all honesty, devils losing a grip on a territory was a good thing, even if these particular ones weren't 'that' bad. Still devils but tolerable and it would be preferable for them to stay in the underworld.
They were about to go look for the Excalibur fragments, because with the battle between Vali and Achilles, they had no idea where those could have been knocked off.
Soon, the point became moot, as the shards shot out of the ground, surrounded by the red glow and gathered near the girl that just finished giving the lip to the heiresses. A moment later, all of them disappeared in the same storage pocket Xenovia used for Durandal.
"Hey! We need it!" Xenovia shouted out.
Ruby gave them a blank once over. "Right…because I'm sure you can get them back to the Vatican without getting ambushed on the way, losing them and all of this idiocy repeating again someplace else."
"Our orders are to bring them back so that's what we will do! You taking them is just stealing them further." Irina pointed out.
"Well, then either try to take it-" Ruby answered with a shrug. "-or tell whoever is your superior that your mission went to hell and back and that they should send somebody who can actually keep the thing safe. Preferably somebody who can teleport. For now, I'm keeping it."
Xenovia, more or less recovered thanks to the former nun, lifted up Durandal and pointed the tip at the witch. "Oh really? You may have beaten Kokabiel but you are still a devil and I have a holy sword."
"Sure. Just answer me this first." Ruby continued like the sword didn't matter. "What are you pointing at?" Ruby wondered if they actually remembered her. They had only met briefly and she had her hood up. Surely Griselda had probably told them about her. Or at least they could have trained a bit more at dealing with illusions…
She felt a small sense of vertigo as Ruby roughly removed the illusion and Xenovia realized that she was pointing the sword at some boulder that was lying around. She turned around and scowled at Ruby. "We are not leaving without the Excaliburs!"
"I don't really care." Ruby brushed her off and started walking towards Pyrrha. "If you want to stick around until your babysitter arrives, feel free to do so. Just don't cause any trouble or I'll kick you out."
/
For some reason, Pyrrha asked her to take her not directly to her room, so she could knock herself out immediately, but just outside of the front door.
"Hey, could you set up a silencer?" She tiredly asked Ruby after they arrived.
Ruby gave her a brief questioning look but complied and promptly set up a small privacy field. After she was done, she started turning to Pyrrha. "Okay, so what did you wanted to ta-"
*smack*
Before she could finish, she received a slap across her face. It wasn't that painful, mostly because Pyrrha was really tired and also didn't want to actually hurt Ruby. Just get her point across.
"What the fuck?!" Ruby exclaimed after recovering from surprise.
Pyrrha huffed and crossed her arms. "Exactly! What the fuck was that?! Why did you tear into them like that? They already had a terrible day, you didn't have to add a cherry on top!"
"What? Was I supposed to leave the rest to them and wait for everything to go downhill again? Hell no! If I'm getting involved then I'm doing it properly!"
"Doesn't mean you had to be so mean to them! There is a difference between being a complete bitch and being helpful!"
"So what? You want me to go after them and beg them to solve it themselves without screwing up?"
Pyrrha sighed. "No… I want you to apologize. Yes, they didn't handle it all properly but-" She put her hand on Ruby's shoulder. "-they are just kids, Ruby. From what I understood, the whole Riser thing was Rias' biggest hurdle. You had Beacon, Haven and more. You can't just judge them by your standards."
For a couple moments, Ruby continued to glare at her with a deep frown on her face before finally turning away and relenting. "Fine… I'll go talk to them."
"And to the two other girls." Pyrrha added. "Sure, they couldn't handle their part of the mess but I think you can agree that they can't be held responsible for a bad superior."
"Ugh… maybe you should visit them? You know, with me being a devil, they might be more receptive to you."
Pyrrha rolled her eyes. "Alright, I'll go talk to them after I take a nap. And a shower."
In the end, Ruby waved her goodbye and teleported away, hopefully to have a talk with Sona and Rias.
She tried to be sneaky, not wanting to wake up her parents, in her tiredness not noticing her mother poking her head out of the kitchen with a coffee mug in hand. She finally reached her bed, barely managed to get out of her clothes and almost immediately went to sleep, not bothering to get her sleeping clothes.
Back in the kitchen, her mother finally shook herself out of her stupor. She of course woke up due to the loud explosion outside. Surprisingly, while the rest of the street had their windows shattered, their house looked as pristine as before.
But that didn't give her much comfort.
She knew about the hidden part of the world and was rather content to not have participated in it for almost two decades. And then the devils showed up. Thankfully, at that point she was out for a long time and nobody bothered her. Not that she was much good to begin with… But she did worry about her daughter going to the school, which devils used as their base. But at least Maria didn't show any signs of supernatural abilities, so she had mostly normal school life.
Up until the last couple of months when she started staying late after school all the time or going out almost every single day. During that time somebody had set up some sort of barrier around their house, which was probably the thing that protected them in the first place.
But the worst thing happened this morning. She woke up only to find Maria's room empty, right after an explosion came from the direction of the school. Her husband only grumbled, said something about kids growing up too fast and went back to sleep.
And when she saw her come back…while brimming with more energy than she had used in the last decade, beaten up, tired and barely able to reach her own room.
Once she processed that, she ran back to the bedroom and started to rummage through her old keepsakes. After a couple of minutes, she finally found the small pendant with a silvery owl on it.
"Wise goddess, please answer."
/
It was finally over.
They sent their peerages home and were now working through their sleep to write up their reports. Sona was writing a rather long letter to her sister, describing the situation in the city and asking her to contact both Grigori and the church to handle their parts. Rias on the other hand was focused on the issues on the ground. Organizing the repairs crew and especially contacting the local news agencies, so that they would report on a freak meteor falling on Kuoh.
They were also very careful as to not write too much about Ruby's involvement, or worse, admit to her 'takeover'. They did screw up, but nobody needed to know about it, right? If anything, Rias blamed Sona. She was the one who insisted that they handle everything themselves and, well, she also wanted to prove to her brother that she could also be a great ruler but compared to Sona, she wouldn't have minded if they were to find Excalibur fragments in some ditch outside of the city with three burnt lumps of flesh nearby. If she had to choose between risking her peerage or looking the other way, her choice was obvious. Still, they were in this mess together and both really didn't want to admit that they got strong-armed into following orders of some little girl. It wasn't like they were doing something different from their usual work but having a magical brat bitch at them was really uncalled for.
As for why they were doing it together in one place, which was Rias' clubroom. Well, the student council was located in the part of the building that didn't come out unscathed and right now, about a third of Sona's favorite place was rubble.
A red teleportation circle briefly appeared and their new self-appointed overseer was standing before them. They tensed up but, with an eye roll, Ruby raised her hands in a placating gesture. "Calm down. I'm here just to talk."
"And what is there to talk about?" Sona snidely replied.
Ruby sighed but still tried to give an apologetic smile. "Well… I may have been a bit…-"
"-of an ass?"
"Bitchy?"
"Unbearable?"
"-of an entitled cu-"
"Okay, okay!" Ruby shouted to stop them. "Shut up! Both of you! Ugh…why do I even bother… What I wanted to say, that I may have been a bit insensitive with my delivery." She tried to speak as calmly and evenly as she could manage. "I admit, we were probably all tired and angry and tense and…whatever else, with all of this thing going out of control, so… I apologize."
Rias and Sona shared a look. She seemed sincere enough.
"So…does that mean you will let us do our job and will not be making it worse?" Sona asked and linked her fingers on the table desk.
"Hell no!" Ruby exclaimed. "Until this thing ends, I'll be making sure that it doesn't get worse. And as we have seen, letting you two handle it will result in probably another dragon showing up. I've already put up new barriers-" mostly because she needed some time to cool off. "-and told Drei to keep an eye on everything that smells of magic and tries to go into Kuoh."
And immediately, she goes back to being an ass…
"Satans damn it! Are you really going to keep bitching about everything?!" Rias shouted out and slammed her hands on the table.
"What? You screwed up working on your own and even when I actually told you what to do, you still did the exact opposite!"
"Because if we didn't, that Vali guy would've hurt Issei by the time we came back!"
Py-Maria was there! She would have handled it! Dammit, she did handle it, because you couldn't do anything!" Ruby took a breath.
"Because how the hell anybody expected Albion to show up!? Or Achilles for that matter!" To be completely honest, Rias did expect Issei's 'fated rival' to show up at some point but, of course, he had to pick the absolutely worst moment. As for the other oldtimer…sure, reincarnations were a thing but when the hell did it start to mean that a ghost would possess the body completely and bring all of their power with them? "But what if it was somebody who wanted to help Kokabiel? They would kill everybody!"
"No they wouldn't. His goal was to kill you two. If anything, you being there would actually make it more dangerous for them. If somebody would come then, well, Maria was still there or they would leave looking for you without wasting time with your peerages!"
*Twenty minutes of various what-if scenarios later.*
On one hand I'm happy to be alive but… I'm starting to regret not getting stabbed by a lightspear…
"-etent princess and you put your own friends in danger because you 'cawed fow dem'." Ruby progressively regressed to the communication skills of a ten year old child.
"Well at least I still have somebody I care about!"
Sona momentarily froze and looked at Rias with wide eyes. Ruby and Rias had numerous arguments all the time but neither had ever crossed the line between the usual light insults and something actually harmful.
"I suppose that would be correct." The temperature in the room seemingly dropped as Ruby emotionlessly stared at Rias, her body glowing dark red. "That's why-" in an instant she was next to Rias, holding her up by the hair and glaring her in the eyes. "-you have no idea how much it pisses me off when you put your team in danger with your idiocy." She said, voice barely above the whisper and dripping with venom.
While Rias was frozen in shock, fear and pain, Sona finally shook herself off and quickly tried to intervene. "Ruby…let her go." She tried to sound confident but one glance from the furious silver eyes sent shivers down her spine. She dryly swallowed. "You said it yourself. We are tired, angry and tense. So don't be a hypocrite and let her go." Meanwhile, she created a couple magical circles behind the furniture, so that she could separate them herself if it became necessary.
Thankfully, she did let go of Rias, who then dropped right back into her chair, and briefly looked around the room.
And all of Sona's prepared spells shattered.
It wasn't that she countered each of them or siphoned the energy with mana drain. No, she simply flexed her own power and crushed all of the spells by oversaturating the place to the point it was hard to even breathe.
Then she scowled, although on Ruby it looked like a very angry pout. Following her line of sight Sona and Rias saw two specs flying above the battlefield. One was pitch black crow and the other was a light gray, almost white…owl? What was an owl doing out in the sky mid morning?
Ruby huffed and turned back to the girls. "Get back to work, I'll deal with the guests." And with a sound akin to a thunderclap and a bright flash of red light, she was gone.
-WoR-
Serafall smoothly entered Sirzechs' office and tiredly plopped down into an armchair. She ignored a random schmuck that told her to wait for Lord Lucifer to tell her to enter. She also ignored Sirzechs' pawn Beowolf practicing dogeza in the corner. He was already at it when she visited the place two days ago after her sister's report came in. He was getting away easy, anyway. The idiot was supposed to be in charge of Kuoh's outer perimeter and he somehow missed Kokabiel despite being told to be on the lookout.
Sirzechs should have let her freeze him for a couple days or maybe a week.
As for herself…
She had to get her hands on both Azazel and Michael so that they could move the summit from being next month to being the next week. Azazel agreed without troubles but Michael was, like always, bitching about low security.
Freaking overprotective siscon.
And then she got chewed out by Ametarasu.
Making it even worse, the relationship between the devils and Shinto was quite tense, to put it lightly. It was a small miracle that they managed to get Kuoh, a territory fully surrounded by that of a different pantheon and not exactly allied one at that, transferred but even then there was a small clause that Amaterasu was rather eager to use. It stated that should the devil territory prove detrimental to the surrounding areas or should they outright lose control of the area, they had full authority to intervene and pacify the area. And Susanoo was watching the place like a hawk at this point.
"Okay…I'm done! I hope you are not going to tell me that something happened on the ground." She finally addressed the man in whose office she was sitting.
"Well, nothing new happened so to speak." Sirzechs carefully answered. "On the other hand, we had two other gods taking a look." His bishop got some traces of their energies. And a photo of an enormous runic array, which led to a discovery that in the entire underworld, only about a dozen people knew what even were Celtic runes.
"Ugh, let me guess, that god of light I was looking for brought some friends and we now have three unknowns?"
"Thankfully no. Those two were in our archives." He paused for dramatic effect. "Athena and Morrigan."
Serafall remained quiet. For a really short while, before facepalming. "Of course! Achilles was there! Of course Greeks would want to get involved!" Especially in this case. Athena was one of the main instigators of Trojan war as a revenge for losing some stupid challenge, thus making her Achilles' patron, even if indirectly. "Although…why was Morrigan there?"
He slightly smirked. "Have you wondered where the little witch disappeared for five years after her faked death?" She had more knowledge about Celtic runes than the entire underworld (which wasn't saying much…) and from what Rias wrote to him, she was a spearmaster. Add to that that Morrigan and even Scathach were becoming more active…
"Hmm… It doesn't sound like Lugh, he is not a fan of this whole cloak and dagger business." Serafall lazily replied.
"Maybe they are doing it behind his back? Wouldn't be the first time."
"Meh, sounds like their problem." Serafall commented. "I'm just glad that they stuck to just watching instead of making things harder for So-tan. They have enough problems they need to handle as it is."
Sirzechs briefly looked away and cleared his throat. "About that… Their position as overseers might be more of a formality at this point." He finally addressed the elephant in the room, well, in Kuoh. "While girls didn't admit to it, all of the city's defenses were revamped and none of the new ones are bound to them. Someone's familiar, and we can take a wild guess who it belongs to, is chasing out every foreign magical signature, putting the area essentially on a lockdown. Add to that- Sera, sit down."
"Why? I'm just going on a quick trip to give the little brat a lesson about bullying!" Already on her feet, wand in hand and the fakest innocent expression on her face, Serafall stopped and turned back to her, supposed, superior.
"Because you want to go fight-"
"And? I can handle it. So what if they beat up a pair of Azazel's idiots?"
Sirzechs sighed. "I'm sure that you can handle it easily. I'm also certain that your 'lesson' will get out of control and the best case scenario would be three separate gods of war showing up." Worst case being Shinto, Olympus and Tuatha Dé Danann entering the conflict at full force and then dragging the rest of the Biblical faction along. "Why do you think I haven't sent Grayfia yet?" Aside from her wanting to spend the week with Milicas.
"Ugh… Then send Okita! He is the one who usually deals with things quietly."
He remained quiet.
"Are you kidding me…wait! You seriously think that he would lose?!" Serafall asked in surprise.
He looked down, badly hiding his bitter smile. "Honestly? No idea." He admitted. "We know that one beat White Dragon Emperor but we also know that neither were taking things too seriously. As to Kokabiel… We have no clue as to how exactly she killed him."
"So what? Are we going to sit on our asses and wait until it goes away? Do you know how humiliating it must be for the girls?"
"We will soon have an opportunity to go there." He reminded her about the Kuoh's academy family visit day. And Rias thought that he wouldn't find out… "As for the humiliation… For now, I might prefer to let it slide. We can then pretend that she was there upon my orders to keep the area secured during the crisis. Thanks to her lockdown nobody actually knows what's going on, except that Kokabiel brought Excalibur fragments and then got himself killed."
Serafall 'hmpf'-ed and angrily sat down.
"On a less severe note, I think we should have done a better job when we combed the area for the first time."
She rolled her eyes. "In our defense, spotting a reincarnated hero is hard unless you know that you have to look for one. Sure, she did have some potential in her but she was what? 14? 13? With no magical training whatsoever. I just slipped her into a potential peerage member."
"Something your sister seemed to agree with." He smiled and the two shared a knowing look. Did they really think they wouldn't check the history of every peerage member they had recruited? "But that's not about her, at least not entirely. I did some deeper digging-" His subordinates did. "-and her mother actually has some history that may be coming out right now."
Seeing that he had Sera's complete attention, he continued.
"She is a former priestess of Athena. I know, we should have learnt that sooner but by the time we were in the city, she was over a decade out of it and it's not like she was importanted to begin with."
"Ohkaaay… So she may have called her former patron goddess into the city. A dick move but not that big of a deal."
"Well, after spending some more time, and a lot of money, I've learned why she left in the first place."
Sera waved at him to continue.
"A quick question: what is the most important part for Olympus' workings?"
"Zeus sticking his dick into everything that has an uterus?"
Sirzechs gave her a flat look. "Aside from that."
"Ugh… the love for catastrophic self-fulfilling prophecies?"
"Almost. Sisters of Fate. Even Olympus' strongest consult with them over every semi-important issue. So imagine when a priestess of their strongest goddess births a true fatebreaker? They saw it as a very bad omen so they quietly encouraged her to leave and didn't raise a fuss over her leaving the country entirely."
Serafall gave him a slow nod, not exactly understanding where he was going with this.
"Now, I didn't know what a 'true fatebreaker' was. Mostly because in our culture we don't put that much weight into it. But guess who were the two only known true fatebreakers before Maria was born?"
Silence.
"The Great Red and Ouroboros Dragon. The term was actually created to describe their condition, when their very existence is completely separate from the fate of our world."
"And somehow the current reincarnation of Achilles has the same condition as the two of the strongest beings in the world?"
"Yes. I…I'm sure I'm missing something in this thing but-"
"But your job is to rule, not to play detective, Sirzechs. Shouldn't you actually be preparing for the summit, now that we are forcing it to be much sooner?"
/
Ajuka idly played with the small switchblade. His latest creation, something he spent much more time on than it deserved. Partly because it was something he decided to do on a whim and partly because it was a failure.
It all started when Ruby Rose explained how she managed to replicate the anti-healing properties of the light element by twisting the core of the devil's power back to that of an angel.
If she could do it, then why couldn't he?
Her result gave her 70% efficiency, so he guessed that he would manage some 80-85%. It would be a useless weapon for the most part but against some more powerful strays and maybe whatever remnants of the Old Satan faction decided to be annoying.
So the steps were to reach down into his very being, beyond the bloodlines, intermixing of different devil pillars and any other alterations to come back to the however small part of the Lucifer was somewhere in him. Then twist it. Essentially making the dark element behave in the rigid manner of the light.
…
23%
Alright, he was doing it only for the hell of it so he didn't exactly try that hard and may have cut plenty of corners.
Kankara Formula it was then! At least he had an excuse to use it.
…
29%
Okay…what the actual fuck? He did everything right and his Formula made sure that no power would be lost by whatever outside factors!
But he was a scientist. This needed a different sample. He couldn't use his peerage because the evil pieces would probably throw this thing out of order and especially for the reincarnated devils this experiment would be pointless. Their 'devility' came from him through the pieces to begin with.
Unfortunately, the girl who came up with it didn't answer his invitation so he could compare his results with hers. Although maybe it was better this way. She would definitely laugh at him.
But a sufficient test subject was found quickly. And Zeoticus Gremory didn't need much convincing when it came to replicating the weapon his daughter used to win her first Rating Game.
Aaaand…52%
So…there had to be some factor he was missing.
He started to look deeper into which parts of the process were responsible for power loss.
One was the conversion from 'devil' to 'pseudo-angel'. That was the same between the two samples, both making up around 20% and no amount of fiddling seemed to change that.
But then there was the 'path' to the origin. That was more promising. Zeoticus was not only older but also 'closer' to the original Lucifer, thus his path to the origin was shorter than Ajuka's, making the efficiency higher.
In that sense he would lose just over half of energy just by digging towards his own remnant of old Lucy.
Zeoticus was losing just shy of one third of the initial input.
And a hybrid, whose clan Sirzechs had definitely pulled out of his ass (really? Aim? They died out even before the civil war broke out…), somehow only lost 10% to reach the origin of all devils.
Those events led to Ajuka sitting in his office, playing with a toy that wasted way too much of his time, and contemplated whether he should tell Sirzechs about it. His experiment showed that the girl was very close to the original Satans and even Sirzechs had joked that she might be Lucifer's offshoot.
That would definitely make sense. He himself was betting on Asmodeus.
Beelzebub didn't have hybrid bastards, Leviathan's were accounted for and dead for a long time. Lucifer still had one hybrid son alive but the last time anybody caught a whiff of him was when he allegedly showed up during Queen Elizabeth's coronation. And knowing his character it was speculated that he may have done more than just watch.
Asmodeus on the other hand had so many bastards, hybrid and pureblood that some had definitely slipped through the cracks.
But in the end, would it even matter? Considering how apprehensive she was of the current devils, she would be outright hostile to anyone from the old regime. Add to that their views of reincarnated devils, hybrids and everything they saw as not pure, she would at best be a curiosity. Most likely a slave.
Regardless, he had his own things to worry about. For example helping angels develop their own reincarnation system.
Sirzechs could worry about politics, Ajuka wasn't paid to do that.
-WoR-
She softly knocked on the hotel door and patiently waited, hoping that at least one of the exorcists was there.
"-ank you, we don't need any extra servi- Oh. It's you. Maria, was it?" A minute later Xenovia, at least she hoped it was her and she didn't mix them up, opened the door.
"Yes, hi!" She gave her a small wave and a polite smile.
Xenovia crossed her arms. "What do you want? Did the witch come up with some new rules?"
Predictably, she wasn't very happy with being ordered around by somebody who wasn't even a part of the church.
"No! I just came to see if you are alright! You know, with all the things that happened…" She quickly apologized. "Sorry if I'm intruding."
"Whatever…" Xenovia turned around. "Come in if you want. There is nothing better to do anyway."
"Thanks." She looked around the rather basic hotel room. "And where is your friend?"
"Who knows?" She answered without even looking her way and went back to polishing Durandal. "Probably following the red dragon."
She briefly wondered whether her sword even needed to be polished before shaking it off and focusing on the girl. "I see… Is everything alright?"
"Just peachy." Xenovia snapped back.
"You didn't get blamed for all of it, did you?" She worriedly asked. Ruby made her point clear, very harshly she might add, but she was here to help them calm down. "I know what Ruby said but she was just concerned that things got out of control."
Xenovia rolled her eyes and scoffed. "I don't care what that witch thinks!" She sighed. "As for being blamed for this shitshow… I don't know! The only response we've got from the Vatican was that we were kicked out!"
"What? But why?"
"Oh, I don't know! Maybe us, not only failing to get the fragments back, but also losing the two we were given?" Then she stood up, walked across the room, sat down at the chair and angrily glared out of the window.
"Well… you didn't lose them per se… You know where they are and it's not like she is using them for anything." She then remembered something Ruby told her. "Can't you call Griselda? Ruby told me that you worked under her and… She and Ruby had met so maybe things would go easier?"
Xenovia turned at her and she was sure she heard something snap in her neck. "What?! Why would mother Griselda ever associate herself with a witch?!"
She was slightly startled but was still able to answer. "Ruby said that she had met her during some vampire hunt in England. Apparently she also met you and Irina."
"Vampire hunt… Wait! That was her?" Xenovia asked in surprise. "Mother kept bringing her up for a week after that mission!" Mostly as a comparison when it came to berating her training. The girl was the same age as them but apparently much, much better and with a weapon that put everything except the church's best to shame. "Wait a second, should she have a holy scythe then?"
That was something that was slightly interesting to her. On Remnant almost everybody had some sort of hybrid weapon, mechashift or what not. It was rather funny watching Ruby trying to explain the concept to others when they asked why her scythe was also a gun.
But that would take way too long and compared to Ruby she simply didn't know the in-depth knowledge of the weapons. So she simply said that she already saw her scythe, just not fully deployed, and reinforced that fact by pulling out her own weapon and demonstrating the idea by switching it between the gun, spear and sword form.
In hindsight, maybe Ruby should have gone herself. Judging by the sparkling in Xenovia's eyes she was really into it.
Unfortunately it only lasted a couple moments, afterwards she came back to frowning and quietly staring outside.
"Is it really that big of a problem?" She gently asked. "I'm sure that after everything gets cleared they will ask you to come back and you will put this entire thing behind you."
Xenovia huffed. "It's just…they didn't even tell us why? I- I would get it if I was punished for my failure but there was nothing." She clenched her fists, her voice also slightly wavering. "Maria… Do you think Kokabiel spoke the truth? That our God really died and this is all for nothing?" That was on her mind since her excommunication. Their message wasn't nothing. They were both kicked out for heresy, the worst crime possible but weren't even given a record of their supposed heinous acts. And then it clicked.
Well, at least for her. Irina was coping by trying to reconnect with her childhood friends even if one of them was now a devil.
She on the other hand was wondering what could lead to her accusations, why hasn't mother Griselda called her and maybe, just maybe, the fallen angel was actually being honest.
"I honestly don't know." Maria admitted. "I was never that much into praying or gods." Until one literally inserted herself into her life. "As for what Ruby and Kokabiel were talking about… I haven't been listening that much. This kind of banter is used just like a distraction."
"I see…" Xenovia tiredly sighed. "I prayed, asked for answers… And got nothing. I know that He doesn't answer everything, wanting us to learn on our own but… damn it! This is important!" She loudly stomped.
A very bad idea crawled into her head. She could feel it. She could already see how much Ruby would tear into her.
But…she couldn't watch Xenovia just tear herself apart like that.
"Hey… I can understand that it can be hard to lose guidance like that but…" Deep breath. "If one light turns away, it doesn't mean that everything goes dark." Rhongomyniad might not be as powerful, kind or widely known but she was still a goddess.
So when Xenovia turned to her, question on her lips, she cupped her hands and concentrated. She needed to pull just a little, otherwise she would end up creating a full sized lightspear.
"That's..!" She didn't possess much magical knowledge, only the basics that would help her understand what was and wasn't witchcraft, but she still could recognize a divine power. If only by knowing it from wielding Durandal.
But it wasn't as warm and caring as the one she knew. Even if her sword was unruly, its power was still that of love. This light… it promised order, and retribution should it be threatened. Yet it was mesmerizing nonetheless.
She let Xenovia enjoy herself as she was staring into the wisps of light dancing in her palms as if she was hypnotized.
And then the spell was broken when her phone started blaring. Both of them jumped up and Maria momentarily fumbled with it before finally accepting the call.
"Ruby?!" She shouted into the device. "Uh, no, I'm not doing any-... Okay, half an hour at your place." … "At the mall? I thought you wanted to trai- No, I don't mind." … "Right, I'll be there."
"New orders, huh?" Xenovia asked after she was done talking over the phone.
"Just asked me to meet up with her." She put it back into her pocket. "And well, Ruby isn't the one who gives out orders unless she is fighting."
Xenovia bitterly smiled. "Didn't look like that a couple of days ago."
She sighed. "She was just angry, don't take it personally." She let out a small smirk. "Besides, you also weren't exactly a good guest yourself from what Sona told me."
"They are devils, if they want courtesy they can go back to the underworld!" Xenovia scoffed. "They are the guests here."
"Wouldn't the same apply to angels then?"
"It would. The difference is that angels are guests I would love to have."
She lightly chuckled at the exchange. The conflict between the church and the underworld looked a bit silly when experienced from outside and when both parties were guarded or indoctrinated teenagers.
Or it was just sad…
"Do you want to come? I'm sure Ruby wouldn't mind." She at least didn't sound like it was something serious. She did sound annoyed but that was the norm for the last couple of days. "I'm sure it would be more fun than sitting in your room all day."
/
Ignored by all the passing people, a thick purplish mist filled a small dark alley on the side of one of Kuoh's main streets. From there, three figures started emerging. Two of an average high and the last almost two heads taller.
Before the mist could start to recede, the one in the middle raised a hand, making the other two stop.
"Jeanne, Heracles." Georg called out. "Suppress yourself as much as you can. There is a permeation field all around."
"The what?"
"Air is filled with energy, if any of us slips up in control, they will zero in on us. Dimension Lost is making us invisible for now but as soon as we leave they will know." He gave them a meaningful look. "Turn everything, any enchantment, strengthening spell or even translation spell."
Two affirmative grunts later he let the fog disappear.
"So… where do we go?" Jeanne asked after they spent the next ten minutes walking around the streets. Heracles only hummed in agreement.
"Ve are looking for a tall redhead in late teens. Ve can't go too close to the school because of the devils but ve can keep an eye on the streets. She can't be hard to miss." He was only slightly peeved about the security measures. He was more embarrassed about his accent. Yeah, he had plenty of time to learn english while in London but everybody, him included, were using translation spells. Jeanne was somehow perfect. Who would have guessed that church had a good education program. Herc on the other hand… Say hello, introduce himself and ask for a bathroom. Stupid magical beings and their language spell that was hardwired into their brains… Maybe it was for the better. They were here to talk and he was just a muscle.
"I hope we find her soon…" Jeanne wistfully commented. "I swear it's a complete sausage party with you guys." Sigh. "Too bad Mulan left. Actually, wha-?"
"Ve don't talk about it." Georg quickly stopped her. Long story short: Cao Cao and Mulan at one point started sharing a bed, then she kicked him in the balls and ran away. "Scheisse!" he muttered under his breath and quickly looked around.
"What is it?" Both of his companions noticed the change in his behavior.
"Teleport, about ten meters away." He couldn't point out anybody in the crowd and didn't want to simply start blindly attacking. "Quickly, this way." He urged them into a nearby alley and set up a persuasive field that would ward off the common people.
"Heh, let the fun begin!" Heracles was quite happy, at least he would get to stretch out.
"Hmm, just try not to blow up too many things." Jeanne nonchalantly commented and put her hand on her rapier.
Georg raised an eyebrow at that. "Jeanne…did you have that sword with you all day?"
"Yes, why?"
"And it is an enchanted sword made by your sacred gear?"
"Of course, why would I ever need a different-... oh… Sorry."
I'm surrounded by idiots… At this point, Georg was thinking about abandoning the whole operation and getting them all out and then going in by himself.
And then, to their surprise, a small fluffy corgi rounded the corner and came to stand directly in front of them.
"Identify yourself." It spoke in a deep voice.
Georg remained silent, trying to analyze the familiar instead of answering.
Jeanne was trying her best not to squeal at how cute it was.
Heracles snorted. "Really? A little mutt?"
"Identify yourself." It repeated.
"What is it gonna do if we don't? Start barking?" Herc commented with a laugh.
Suddenly, the dog started to glow red and…vibrate? They braced, feeling the magic swell around the little thing. Then in a flash of red light it changed. And now a giant metallic monstrosity, almost as tall as Heracles was staring down at them. Its single eye-like orb with a magical crest right in front of Georg.
"Last warning. Identify yourself." Its voice was now heavily tinted with mechanical echo.
"Holy shi- Georg! Do we fight it or not?!" Jeanne asked, ready to start summoning swords.
"Beat it of course! It's just a piece of junk!"
Georg meanwhile was staring into the crest with a large rose in the middle. He was sure he had seen it somewhere before.
And the magic that both bound and was spilling from the familiar was also somewhat familiar.
And the rumors surrounding Kokabiel's death, that moniker that was floating around.
"Georg of the Hero Faction." He finally announced. It was a gamble, if he was right then he would meet a perhaps friendly acquaintance. And if not… Well, they already were caught in the open.
"Acknowledged." It replied and continued to stand motionless. The emissary of the hero faction did the same. "Establishing uplink."
Georg raised an eyebrow at the wording. That was something from modern technology, not magical jargon.
The crest on the hound's head pulsed with light, the massive thing sat down, its tail circling around its legs. "Georg… It is really a small world we live in, don't you think?" Her voice sounded as if she was talking through a phone.
Georg smiled, his gamble paid off. "Ruby Rose, a pleasure to meet you again. Must have been fate."
There was a scoff. "I'd prefer it wasn't, usually when fate gets involved, it throws sticks under my feet." She sighed. "So, are you here to hound me again? I told you I would pay your merry band a visit once I was done with my own things."
"And how did you intend to find us?" He replied with a smirk.
"I have my-oh… You get rid of it…rude."
"I might not be that proficient with runes but I can recognize a tracking rune on my coat." A good idea but their faction relied on mobility and secrecy. Even if she was friendly enough, having a beacon transmitting his location was just a bad idea. "But no, we are not here for you. I didn't even know you were here until this…thing…showed me your crest. I think you can guess why we are here."
"Achilles…" Ruby tiredly answered. "Rumors must travel really fast."
"The interesting ones do. And considering that a cadre of Grigory died…" He chucked. "Suffice to say, a lot of people were looking for information. Don't you think it justified, Witch of Roses?"
Ruby produced a loud sound, a mix between a groan and a whine. "I swear! I shouldn't have! Who the hell came up with the whole last words idea?!"
"I think you are overreacting." He tried to placate her. "As far as monikers go, it's rather good."
"It's waaay too on the nose!"
"Still better than the other two he gave you." He shrugged. "Warden of Darkness is too vague. As for the other one.- There are so many king and queen-slayers that nobody would know who is meant by it."
"Whatever…" The hound's head swayed from side to side. "Mind introducing your friends?"
"Right." He turned to his right. "This is Jeanne," Then to his left. "And this is Heracles. Both are my companions in the Hero Faction."
"Let me guess, reincarnations? Are you using the names like codenames or are you that insecure that you need to flaunt your ancestry?"
The two bristled at it while Georg just sighed. "You still don't mince words, do you?"
"Sorry, just have a lot on my plate right now and you showing up is not helping."
"In that case let's finish this up." Georg wouldn't mind obliging. Especially if it would help them avoid dealing with devils. "We would like to speak with the reincarnation of Achilles and offer her to join our ranks."
"...Acknowledged." The voice went back to the deep and metallic. "Follow." In another flash of light, the dog went back to its corgi form and started walking away.
-WoR-
"Are we really going to do it in a cafe in the middle of the mall?" Heracles loudly complained.
Jeanne was alright with it. The barista was actually quite decent and made her a good latte.
Georg sighed. "It's for mutual safety. Neither us or them can start a fight in an area this crowded." Still, the time had already elapsed. He lightly stomped his foot, in the process releasing a weak pulse of energy.
The other two gave them a curious glance.
Two seconds later, a different one came. It was coming from the lower floor of the mall. And he recognized the energy.
"You two, be on your best behavior." He looked at Herc. "You better stay quiet completely." Then switched to Jeanne. "And you keep your urges under control."
Three minutes later they finally showed up. He recognized Ruby. Their target was also easy to guess simply by her height and the swaying red ponytail. The third and an unexpected guest on the other hand…
"Xeny! Is that you?!" Jeanne beat him to the punch. And he immediately set up a silencing field around them so that the non-magical folk wouldn't think too much of them.
"Laeticia! What is a traitor like you doing here?!" The girl summoned an opening of a pocket dimension and everybody felt a wave of light element wash over them.
"Xenovia." Ruby called out and sent her a glare. Then she looked at Georg. "So? Codenames or-?"
"I think it's not important at this moment." He also looked between Jeanne and Xenovia. "Seems like today is a day of reunions."
"And this is exactly why I don't like fate." Ruby rolled her eyes. "Regardless-" She turned to the redhead. "Your first impressions?"
"Are for me to know." She answered with a small smirk which then changed into a gentle polite smile as she stepped forward. "Maria Aetos. A pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise." Georg mirrored her smile and nodded towards the table. "Shall we?"
Georg's introduction of the Hero Faction went about the same way as all those months back at the plane, so Ruby just kept sitting quietly, only keeping an eye, and ear, out for some very obvious lies. She was certain that he was embellishing their greatness but it wasn't like she was expecting objectivity.
But one thing was clear. He truly believed in their ideals. It wasn't like Ozpin, who continued to preach about their mission to save Remnant, despite believing that there was no hope.
And so did Jeanne. She let Georg tak the stage but would occasionally chime in. And she was perhaps even a more fervent believer than Georg.
On the sidenote, for the sake of keeping the meeting organized, Xenovia and Jeanne were forbidden from talking about their time together in the church. Or comparing their sword skills. Seriously, it should be the boys who have dick measuring contests, not girls.
But at the end, the musclehead of the group finally lost his patience with Maria not giving a definitive answer and just digging for information. Slamming hands on the table he was up on his feet. "What's with all of this bullshit?! You've spent so much time talking and got nowhere with it! If she is a fellow hero of Greece, then she should act! Not talk!"
"Is that so?" Ruby opened her mouth as Georg and Jeanne stood by Heracles' sides, both to calm him down and cover if necessary. "I've heard Greece was quite famous for their philosophers."
Georg caught his wrist. "Sit. Down." He practically hissed out. Everything was going smoothly so far so why can't he simply stay quiet and let adults talk?
"Heh. Maybe." He ignored Georg's order and looked at the witch. "But we came looking for a warrior who would help us win! Not a scared little girl who can only move her tongue! Although I suppose that could be at least of some use…" He shrugged at the end.
This time Ruby had to hold her companion down, as Pyrrha already summoned her weapons and was very angry if the sneer was anything to go by.
"Then perhaps you'd show whether you can live up to yours." With her free hand, Ruby tapped her finger on the table and the large teleportation spell encompassed all of them. Right before it fully activated, Georg looked into her eyes, trying to convey that he was really, really sorry about this.
/
"So you brought us into a forest. What of i-"*clang* Heracles couldn't finish as a round bronze rebounded from his face.
Some distance away, the magicians were still trying to handle things diplomatically.
Keyword tried.
"You are just salty that I was more skilled!"
"Throwing holy swords around isn't a skill!"
"As long as it works…"
…
"This leader of yours really knows how to choose his negotiators…" Ruby commented as the talks broke up in pairs and each was doing whatever they wanted.
Pyrrha was beating the crap out of Heracles, who looked way too happy for someone who got stomped on the head.
The two apparently former nuns were arguing over the 'jack of all trades' versus 'specialist' approach.
And she and Georg were standing on the side, more or less ready to intervene but mostly just wondering how it all went sideways this fast.
"I once again apologize for his words." Georg slightly bowed. "On the bright side, they seem to be getting along just fine right now."
"Sure…" Eh, technically true.
"Can I ask something more professional?" When Ruby shrugged, Georg continued. "The permeation field over the city. How are you powering it? From what I can tell, even if all of us would put everything together, we would barely last a day."
"Oh that? Just some leftover energy from a project that I needed to safely discharge. Having it power the security system seemed like a good idea."
Georg chuckled. "If these are just leftovers, I fear what came of the main course."
"Hmm, how does that cliche go… Right! Hope you never have to find out."
"So a weapon then."
"Will be, I can't even pull it out of the forging chamber with how unstable the energy is."
They paused as Heracles' scream filled the place and his body flew across the woods.
"I'm honestly surprised that he hasn't started fighting seriously." Georg commented, seeing that he was yet to pull out his sacred gear.
"Neither does she." Ruby added. "At least they both have some common sense in this regard."
Another moment of relative silence passed.
"So, should I expect the two of you or..?"
Ruby shook her head. "It's not so easy. I suppose I could pay you a visit in a week or two." By that time she really hoped shenwould be able to get the stupid swords off her hands and the area would be somewhat stabilized. "But she can't move that easily. I'm an orphan. She has loving parents who have no idea about this side of the world." She gave him a weak glare. "And I'm not hypnotizing them!" She sighed. "Besides, would I really be welcomed with open arms?"
"Well, Cao Cao's earliest policy was that only humans with sacred gears could join but at this point it is mostly about how good you are in a fight than anything like that. I also tried to put your idea to use. Recovery and rehab centers for humans who were caught up in the fighting and any hands would help." He didn't see much in that idea so initially he only did it as an experiment, maybe a publicity stunt. But then the results came. Of all recovered, the vast majority wanted to join the ranks and had more fervor than any other new recruits. Then he brought this to Cao Cao and… He said that they couldn't waste resources. He was his friend but damn he could sometimes be an oaf. For example telling about a lack of resources to a man responsible for logistics.
So he just told a bunch of newer trainees who showed absolutely no promise that they would be on helping duty. It was a win win. They wouldn't jeopardize actual missions with their incompetence while also feeling that their help matters.
"That's not what I meant but props to you." Ruby gave him a weak smile. "Ah, forget it, I intended to visit one way or another."
There was a small pulse of magic and Georg could see a tracking rune appear on Jeanne's clothing.
"Very well." He sincerely smiled, the mission was…reasonably successful and they would probably see each other again. "Then until we meet again." He started walking away. He still had to say goodbye to Maria.
And dig Heracles out of whatever hole she beat him into.
"Jaenne!" He called out.
"On my way, vice-boss!"
-WoR-
The last week was very hectic for Kiyomi Abe.
Not only the school got blown up but she couldn't even ask what was going on thanks to her parents forbidding her to talk to the devils.
Asking her parents and other contacts outside the city didn't help either. Kuoh was on the lockdown. Nobody from the outside could get anything concrete. But rumors still flew around. Kokabiel of the Grigory. White Dragon Emperor. Achilles. And a witch.
Like a summary of a bad fairy tale.
But she still went there. The school was only operating in a limited capacity due to a good portion of it being in need of repairs but that wouldn't stop Sona from punishing everybody who would use it as an excuse to not go to school.
But aside from that, things were rather peaceful and with the exception of an obviously magical dog occasionally showing up to watch her.
And now she had to worry about her parents. They were already worried about her being too close with the devils, now they couldn't even get into contact properly. But now they were coming here for Class Observation Day.
She would prefer for them to come for any other opportunity. That thing always turned into a giant mess. The first time it was fun. The second it started to become a bit annoying. And now for the third she honestly wasn't happy about it.
So there she was, standing outside of the train station, waiting for them to arrive.
And that magical corgi was also here… Whose was it anyway? If there was a fellow beast tamer, they could at least introduce themselves…
The dog approached a pair of people and… "Oh shit- Mom! Dad! Over here!" She started waving.
The two turned and started walking towards her with wide smiles on their faces, her father almost missing the dog that blocked their path.
"Identify yourself." And it was talking… Sure, why not?
"Kiyo-hime, is it yours?"
"Eh, no… It's been just roaming around the city for the last week." She replied with a shrug.
"I see." He rubbed his chin while his wife went to hug their daughter.
"Identify yourself." It repeated.
He snorted but nonetheless obliged. The city supposedly suffered an attack so the increased security was justified. He was even slightly pleased with it.
"Acknowledged." It just stood there for a couple seconds. "Entrance denied. Leave the area immediately."
"What?!" All three of them turned at it.
"Unauthorized entry. Leave the area immediately."
"Listen here you little mutt-!" He was about to summon his katana but in a flash of red light it disappeared, in its place now stood a metal monstrosity slightly taller than him and with a giant curved blade on its tail.
"Last warning. Leave the area immediately."
"You damned devils can't get anything right, can you?!"
"Dear, stop!"
"Wait! They are my parents! They are only here to visit me!"
"Engagi-... Override acknowledged."
And so the few seconds of chaotic screaming came to an abrupt end when the monstrosity stood down and transformed back into a corgi.
They started to slowly release their breaths. Confrontation avoided.
And then a large magical circle appeared with a scarlet rose in the middle.
A new person had appeared. She looked somewhat familiar to Kiyomi, which was strange considering the girl was obviously a foreigner.
Her gleaming silver eyes swept across them before settling on her.
The girl sighed. "Really, the only time I need nothing to go wrong, everybody decides to start showing up… At least youkai have enough sense to leave when told to do so." She shook her head. "So? What's going on, Kiyomi-...senpai? Am I using it right?"
"Senpai?" Her eyes widened. "You are from my school?" Her clothes weren't exactly uniform standard. Especially the red cloak.
"Elisabeth Jones, second year." She did the absolutely worst parody of curtsy any of them ever saw. "Or, considering we are talking magic, you can call me Ruby Rose."
"The Witch of Roses." Her father hissed and clenched his sword tighter.
Ruby's brow twitched. "I swear, if I could resurrect Kokabiel I would kill him again just for giving me that stupid nickname." She crouched down to pet, presumably, her dog. "I'm sorry about the scare. Things are a bit tense and I'm trying to keep all uninvolved people out of the city so that nothing becomes even worse."
Kiyomi poked her fingers together. "Well… I don't really know what's going on with all that but I hope it's okay for my parents to come for Class Observation Day."
"The what now?"
/
/
/
I remember when I was writing chapters that were at best 3k words long and could make one in 3 to 4 days. Good times.
Anyway,
Merry Christmas and happy new year guys. Sorry for the delay, I was enjoying the holidays and it took me a while to get back to writing.
/
Next chapter:
Sharing dreams, angry siblings and a small family reunion.
/
Now a message to whoever handles the tvtropes page for this fic:
First of all, you are a great person and it's really cool to read someone's take on my fic in that way 3
On the Crazy Prepared trope. It's not because of Cinder's grimm arm. Sure, an argument can be made but Pyrrha never knew about it and by the time Ruby could do magic, Cinder was dead. The spell to counter energy theft was mostly made bcs of Saji's Absorption Line and Ruby's own love for mana drain spell. I thought I should add this clarification.
/
Replies
To HatsuneRin: it's Pride/chosen Gluttony, which technically is an even bigger giveaway to her ancestry if you know who represents what out of the seven deadly sins. (I mean the whole demonology aspect)
To AznPuffyHair: Not commenting on the first and second part of the review, read on to find out. As for the teleportation, she intentionally sent him to the middle of Scathach territory, knowing that she would go investigate. If she was to send him on random, there would be nothing stopping him from simply teleporting back to Kuoh. With Scathach he would need to at least explain himself but most likely get roughed up bcs it's Scathach and she wouldn't pass an opportunity to test a little drake. For the last part. Ofc she will. In…idk 30 chapters? :D