A bright blue magic circle with the Sitri clan symbol in the middle before the three of them vanished from the student council room in a flash of blue light.
Sona didn't even have time to tell the rest of her peerage about what had happened to Momo. A second later, the flash of blue vanished, and the three of them landed in the Serafall Memorial Hospital.
The hospital didn't look that different from the hospitals of the human world. The moment they landed in the Serafall Memorial Hospital, everything broke into a panic.
Almost out of nowhere, the three of them were surrounded by nurses who were trying to see who was injured. Sona felt a twitch of anger at how they were looking over her before the two members of her peerage.
"I'm fine. It's Momo that is injured," Sona said in an authoritative voice.
The nurses soon went to look over Momo before placing her on a stretcher and rushing her off to heal her.
Sona lushed through the chaotic hallway looking for the head nurse. Finding her, Sona walked over to her.
"Use some Phoenix Tears for Momo," Sona ordered.
"Heiress, Phoenix Tears are very expensive," the head nurse said cautiously.
"Use them," Sona ordered.
Sona knew that the hospital kept a small supply of Phoenix Tears from the Phenex Clan, and her sister, who was the owner of the hospital, wouldn't care about her using some Phoenix Tears.
"Yes, Heiress Sitri," the head nurse said.
The head nurse gave a small bow. It wasn't a secret about how her sister, Satan Serafall, doted on her little sister. In fact, Sona expected that her sister would no doubt appear at the hospital very soon, no doubt in a panic and very angry.
Sona sat down as she waited for the nurses to do their job. Now that she had time with nothing to do, Sona used her family crest to have all of her peerage come to the hospital.
It was less than a minute before all of her peerages were in front of her looking very worried. It seemed that her queen had already caught them up with what had happened.
That was something that Sona had been grateful for ever since she had seen Momo. She had felt very guilty that she had sent her out on her own even after Tomoe had asked her if it was safe.
The time went by painfully slowly, and Sona was surprised that she hadn't seen her sister at any point in time. She knew that Serafall must know that she was here, given she was the owner of the hospital, even if she left it up to the director of the hospital to run.
As Sona was getting more worried, the head nurse walked out and over to Sona.
"Miss Hanakai is out of danger now, and you can go see her. Due to the use of phoenix tears, she is asleep at the moment," the head nurse reported to Sona.
"Thank you. Let's go in and see her," Sona said to the rest of the peerage that followed behind her into the room.
Momo was the only person in this room, and she seemed to be sleeping peacefully in her bed. Sona was glad to see that the blood that was in her hair had been washed out.
Sona was glad for that she didn't want the rest of the peerage to see her like that.
"Have you told Rias about the situation?" Tsubaki asked Sona.
"No, not yet. We are all going to go back in a minute. Once Rias knows her queen is in danger, she will rush to save her," Sona said to her queen as she watched her peerage talking to Momo even if she couldn't hear them.
"We are going to attack the person responsible?" Tsubaki asked, shocked.
"Of course, how can we forgive whoever attacked Momo and holding Rias Queen captive.
"Right, let's go. Next time we see her, we can tell her how we got justice for her," Sona said to her peerage, who all stood up, looking ready and eager to fight.
Tsubaki created a magical circle for everyone to step into, and they all vanished back to the school.
Kuro PoV
"How long should it take to check?" Kuro asked when she noticed that half of the lunch break had already gone by.
"Hmm, we should be hearing back soon?" Rias said, and Kuro could hear the worry in her voice.
"Do devils get ill?" Kuro asked, not sure if the supernatural could get ill.
"Some do but not in the same way as humans, and reincarnated devils almost never get human illness," Kiba told Kuro.
As the room fell silent, everyone jumped when the door to the club room slammed up with an angry-looking Sona walking into the room that, bringing a cold feeling to everyone in Rias's peerage.
"What happened?" Rias said, the worry in her voice clear to all.
"Momo went to check up on Akeno and was attacked and very badly injured. Whoever it was used a sword, so im guessing it's not the same person you ran into," Sona said, catching them up.
"What happened?" Rias said, the worry in her voice clear to all.
"Momo went to check up on Akeno and was attacked and very badly injured. Whoever it was used a sword, so im guessing it's not the same person you ran into," Sona said, catching them up.
"What about Akeno?" Rias asked, panicked and angry as she tried to contact Akeno again.
Kuro reached for her cardholder hidden on her thigh and pulled the cards out, and flipped through till she got to the Emiya card.
While she had many other 3 and 4-star cards to pick from and even a 5-star card to pick from, she would always default to the Emiya card in her times of need.
After all, she was born from the Emiya archer card, so all of the skills of the Emiya card were second nature to her. The only thing that she lacked was the experiences of Emiya.
Placing the rest of the card back into her holder for them, she got ready to install the card. Even though, as a magical girl, all of her stats were 1 rank higher as a pure human, there was a limit to how much power her body could actually handle.
And at the moment, her human body was limited to D rank or a middle-class devil. Kuro would need to train a lot more to break that limit and cross into the C rank level or High-Class devil thankfully, that wasn't true for her mana.
By installing a class card, she gained the body of a pseudo-servant, allowing her to be comparable to a high-class devil. Which is why she didn't bother thinking about using the 5-star card.
As the stats of that card were all above the C-rank so the 5-star card wouldn't be able to show its real power and would actually be capped a lot by her using it.
"I don't know about Akeno, and Momo was too injured to talk," Sona said.
"We need to go get her immediately, then," Rias said, standing up and looking frantic.
"We will need a barrier around the shrine so the humans don't notice," Tsubaki said, looking at Reya, the only bishop between the two peerages.
"I can do that and then join up with you all after," Reya confirmed to her queen.
"Then let's go," Rias said, a look of fury on her face that Kuro thought looked hot.
"Install," Kuro called out, activating her class card.
A large red magical circle appeared under Kuro and rose up, converting her into her Emiya form. The card replaced her school uniform with the red uniform of Emiya.
Kuro could see that Sona and her peerage were shocked at the change that Kuro had undergone as well as what spell she had used.
"Let's go," Kuro said before jumping out the window of the old school building and taking to the rooftops and quickly making her way towards the shrine.
"Can we teleport there?" Sona asked, looking at Rias.
"No, the magic circle at Akeno's isn't responding, maybe some kind of barrier. We can fly there quickly, though."
With that, all the devils reviled their wings and flew into the sky as Reya used her magic to place a barrier around them so none of the humans would be able to see them leaving.
Kuro made quick progress towards the shrine where Akeno lived as she started to pull up blueprints of weapons in her head so she could project them at a moment's notice.
The first was obviously Kanshou and Bakuya; they were the swords that she had the most experience in using as well as her own Noble Phantasm. The next blueprint she brought up was Caladbolg II, and Emiya's bow and the last blueprint was Gáe Bolg.
If it wasn't for Magical Ruby feeding her mana constantly, Kuro doubted she would be able to project more than 3 or 4 Gáe Bolg's or Caladbolg II.
Thankfully Kanshou and Bakuya didn't require much mana to project, which was good as it was her go-to swords.
Kuro soon saw the entrance to the hill on which the shrine that Akeno lived in and slowed down as she waited for Rias and Sona and their peerages to arrive.
It didn't take long before kuro could feel two medium size sources of demonic power making their way over to her with speed. Less than a minute later, they all landed in front of Kuro, putting their wings away.
"Reya go deploy a barrier and then meet up with us," Sona ordered as they all moved towards the entrance of the large hill.
The moment they crossed the entrance to the hill, Kuro felt a bounded field.
"We just crossed a magic barrier im guessing they know we are here," Kuro called out, to the surprise of Sona and Rias.
As they started to run up the stairs, a man appeared in their path. He was wearing a light purple Kimono and a purple haori, and a sword slung across his back with his long indigo hair tied into a traditional ponytail.
His appearance stopped everyone and put them on edge. Kuro could tell immediately that the man was a heroic spirit and was strong enough that she didn't think that any of the devils could fight him.
"I will fight him. You lot go on," Kuro said, stepping forward and projecting Kanshou and Bakuya as Kuro met eyes with him.
"Kuro.." Rias said, looking at her and then the man in their way.
"Go, you are wasting time," Kuro said as they stared each other down.
As the devils moved forward again, the heroic spirit drew his sword and slashed at Kiba.
Kuro quickly used mana burst to appear in front of Kiba, blocking the slash with Kanshou and Bakuya, sending sparks flying as their blads met.
"Your opponent is me," Kuro stated firmly.
"You seem a little small to be playing with sharp objects," the man replied mockingly.
"Why did you go for Kiba? There were at least three girls stronger than him," Kuro asked, pushing his sword back and jumping forward, slashing at him.
The heroic spirit blocked every attack she launched at him while still managing to attack back.
Kuro narrowed her eyes as she looked at the swordsman. Kuro threw her two swords at the man before teleporting away from the man and projecting her bow and Caladbolg II and drawing it back.
A large amount of mana drained from Kuro and into Caladbolg II, taking a red glow before Kuro shot the arrow out at the man.
The arrow shot out the bow like a bullet hitting the man who tried to parry the sword away to no avail. The moment his sword touched the arrow, it exploded into a large blood-red explosion.
Kuro teleported up the stairs as she looked back, waiting for the explosion to end. She cursed when the Samurai rushed out of the flames and swiped at her with his long blade.
Kuro had really expected that Caladbolg II would be enough to beat the heroic spirit.
Kuro barely managed to evade before gasping as he quickly swung around again and went into a fluid motion of sword strikes that she barely managed to block and evade.
Cursing herself for being so out of shape since her battles in her last life.
Not that she thought it would have helped. This heroic spirit was far more skilled with the swords than she was. Kuro calmed herself down and analyzed her enemy closely.
She needed to find a way to defeat him and quickly. There was at least one more heroic spirit at the temple, and she doubted the devils would be able to beat them.
She gasped as a sword stab gave her a long cut on her right arm before a powerful kick to her chest caused her to fly back several metres and right through a tree that crashed over.
Coughing in pain, she spat out some blood. The fucker had probably bruised some organs of her with that kick, and her entire back would be a massive bruise tomorrow.
Still, Kuro smiled as she finally had seen enough of his fighting style to devise a way to deal with him.
The Samurai looked at her smile and returned it.
"Interesting. You seem to have a plan now, young one. I'm curious if you can manage to defeat this Sasaki Kojiro in a duel.
Kuro smiled at the man before summoning Kansho and Bakuya back from where they dropped from her hands.
"Who knows. Still, it's worth a try."
Taking a stance, she quickly teleported right in front of Sasaki, the man's long blade being unsuited to block her while she was so close to him.
Sasaki's eyes opened wide as she stabbed Kansho into his right shoulder while slashing Bakuya upwards, giving him a cut on his face from jaw to forehead that made the man grunt in pain while blood gushed from it.
Sasaki stumbled backwards, but Kuro didn't let up.
Running after him and always staying in his guard, she lashed out with her blades while smiling at her theory being correct.
Sasaki's long sword was COMPLETELY useless once she was inside his guard and with her small and quick body, hitting back was also difficult, with only the occasional lucky punch or kick connecting.
Finally, though, the fight ended when Kansho buried itself into Sasaki's chest right through his heart.
The man froze before looking down at his chest and then at his hand, which was already starting to dissolve.
Smirking at Kuro, he patted her head which confused her for a moment.
"Not bad, kid. That was a fun fight..."
Kuro frowned lightly before nodding.
Sasaki looked at the temple for a moment while a pitying expression appeared on his face.
"You should hurry and put Caster out of her misery. If she weren't so crazy right now, she would probably recognize that what she is trying to do is utterly foolish and impossible."
Kuro looked confused but nodded as Sasaki gave her a last smile before dissolving. Looking down at the card on the floor, she frowned before picking it up.
Kuro slipped it into the card holder on her thigh.
Feeling oddly annoyed, Kuro turned around and ran up the stairs where there were the remains of bones scattered all about, and Kuro guessed they must have been Dragon Tooth Warriors.
The person they had fought the other day had also used them, so Kuro guessed that she must be a Caster and somehow managed to get her hands on a class card.
Kuro quickly got to the top of the hill to where the shrine was to see the situation there.
The battle seemed to be going badly for everyone. Rias and Sona were fighting the robed person from the other night and seemed to be losing.
As for the rest of the devils, it was just chaos with them being attacked from all sides by Dragon Tooth Warriors, and Kuro also noticed some black-robed people launching sneak attacks.
It took a few seconds before Kuro was able to put a name to them, the servant Hassan of the Hundred Faces. Kuro projected her swords and threw them into the large group of enemies.
The two swords buzzed as they cut threw the air before they hit Kuro's target, one of the Hassan's that was trying to sneak attack Tsubaki.
Kuro wasted no time in projecting another copy of her swords and jumped into the mess. Kuro started to cut down the Dragon Tooth Warriors while trying to find the Hassan's, which had left many nasty wounds on the rest of the devils.
Kuro wouldn't be surprised if the wounds were also poisoned, after all, the Hassan's were assassins.
Kuro was thankful she had the mind's eye skill which would let her know when she was in danger in advance, allowing her to only pick up a few more injuries.
Looking around, Kuro saw that both Reya and Tomoe had picked up far more injuries than anyone else and seemed to be tiring out under the constant attacks.
She arrived just in time to block the slash of the Dragon Tooth Warrior, sending Kanshou flying into the crowd. At that moment, Kuro saw 3 Hassan's jump out of the shadows, blades raised to kill.
"Rho Aias," Kuro called out instantly.
A bright pink 7 petaled flower appeared in front of the three of them, blocking the attack of Hassan's and Kuro projected her missing Kanshou and leapt at the three Hassan's, cutting off their heads without hesitation.
Landing, Kuro Rushed back over to Reya and Tomoe. "We need to break out of this encirclement," Kuro said.
"Easier said than done," Tomoe shouted back as she ducked under a sword that nearly cut her head off.
"Duck!" Kuro shouted, throwing Kanshou and Bakuya into the air and projecting Fake Nine Lives and twisting around in a large spin, destroying most of the Dragon Tooth Warriors near them.
"Fly," Kuro shouted as she slammed Fake Nine Lives into the ground.
Kuro lept up onto the Fake Nine Lives and grabbed the falling Kanshou and Bakuya, and used Mana Burst to rocket over to Kiba and Koneko. As for Tsubaki, she had somehow ended up on her own.
"We need to get into the air," Kuro said as she landed behind Kiba and Koneko.
"I have something that could give us time to get into the air," Kiba shouted back as he slashed down with a sword of fire.
As Kiba's swords touched the ground, a large magic circle formed before expanding, and a large number of blades erupted from the ground, smashing the Dragon Warriors into fragments.
Kiba and Koneko quickly spread their wings and jumped into the air. Kuro wasted no time and used Mana Boost to jump high into the sky. Looking around in the sky, she was glad to see that Tsubaki was also in the air.
Kuro projected her bow and drew her arrow, the sword Caladbolg II before pouring her mana into it. As she took aim, Kuro saw out of the corner of her eye that both Rias and Sona were injured and covered in blood.
In fact, she was sure if they were human, they would have passed out from blood loss with how their body was soaked in it, and even small pools of blood on the ground had been formed.
Kuro twisted and fired Caladbolg II at the robed figure, who noticed at the last minute and created a barrier to try and block the arrow. Kuro smiled at that there was no way a simple magic barrier could block a noble phantasm.
The robed person was engulfed in a scarlet red explosion that sent both Rias and Sona flying back, either injured or too weak to resist. Kuro winced and felt guilty they had been caught up in the blast, but there was no real option.
Kuro looked back at the ground and projected another copy of Caladbolg II, and fired it at the ground, wiping out the Dragon Tooth Warriors.
Kuro landed on the ground and looked over at Rias and Sona as the rest of the devils also landed on the ground.
Kuro took a quick look at all of the devils and knew they were at their limit and wouldn't be any help against Caster. Kuro didn't feel very confident about fighting Caster either.
So far, she had projected three copies of Caladbolg II and almost half of her mana was gone. And the rest of the devils would just be a hindrance, as Kuro, Rias, and Sona would have to spend time protecting them.
Kuro projected two more copies of her swords before she threw them at Caster, making them spin through the air and curve till they surrounded Caster from left to right and front and back.
Kuro jumped, used a mana burst to appear above Caster as a blur, and projected a third copy of Kanshou and Bakuya.
"Twin wings that overcome mountains, part seas, and never fall..."
"Triple-Linked Crane Wings!" Kuro called out as she brought her blades down on Caster.
Caster looked up at Kuro and formed a bright green barrier formed in front of Kuro as she brought her blades down.
Kuro smirked. Caster may have avoided the most dangerous pair of swords, but the other two pairs had reached her before she could block them, biting deep into their prey.
Caster teleported away just as the barrier she had made to block Kuro cracked, shattered into shards, and faded away.
Kuro took a look at Rias and Sona, who were both far more injured than Kuro had first thought. Now that Kuro could see their fronts, Kuro saw how badly they were both injured.
They both had what looked like gunshot wounds to the chest that Kuro could tell came from the Gandr rune, which was something the Rin used a lot.
"You two both okay to continue fighting?" Kuro asked as she kept her senses open in case Caster tried to sneak attack them.
"Barley," Rias said with a groan.
"You two focus on ranged attacks and keeping your peerages safe. They are too injured to fight," Kuro said, taking a tighter grip on her swords.
Kuro jumped to the side as she felt her mind's eye skill warn her of the danger. A second later, a blade of wind-based magic sliced through where Kuro was just standing.
Kuro looked where it came from to see the robed figure standing on the roof with two deep cuts at her waist.
Kuro wasted no time teleporting over to her and slashing at Caster with her swords. Caster avoided them nimbly before casting another wind-based spell at Kuro.
Kuro jumped to the side before throwing one of her swords at Caster, who teleported away, and Kuto did the same as she felt danger from behind her.
Landing on the ground again, Kuro grabbed her sword that had come spinning back to her. Kuro saw Caster teleporting around, avoiding the magic from Rias and Sona.
Kuro seeing that Rias and Sona were keeping her busy, brought up a new blueprint and projected her bow. A twisted black metal arrow formed in Kuro's hand, and she drew back her bow before firing the arrow.
It shot out of the bow with an ear-rattling bang and exploded, hitting the Caster instantly after leaving the bow, blasting her off the roof. Kuro projected another arrow in her hand and drew back her bow.
The arrow gradually ate up her mana as it was charging.
Caster jumped back up off the ground, her robe now tattered and her body dripping in blood as she glared at Kuro with hate in her eyes.
Kuro glared back as the arrow was almost charged up before her body froze. She felt the air being squeezed out of her body and felt as if her body was being crushed by a mountain.
Caster shot a spell at Kuro before teleporting away. Kuro wasn't able to move before she was hit by Caster's spell and sent flying back, feeling as if she was in a blender before the arrow she had projected exploded, sending her crashing into the ground.
Kuro crawled to her hands and knees as she tried to get air back in her lungs and started to cough up blood. Looking down at her arms and stomach Kuro saw that they were covered in tons of cuts.
A scream sounded throughout the shrine, making Kuro look up to see Akeno in the middle of some kind of magic circle. Her face showed that she was in incredible pain.
Kuro took a look at Caster and saw that most of her wounds had started to heal, and her mana had begun to rise. Caster must be using the magic circle to drain the mana from Akeno.
That must have been why she was taken in the first place.
Kuro got to her feet and reprojected her swords as she wiped the blood off her mouth. With a painful groan, Kuro used a mana burst to quickly make her way towards Caster.
She had to stop her before she absorbed too much mana from Akeno. Once she had done that, then Kuro and everyone else here would be sitting ducks.
"Overedge," Kuro called out, reinforcing Kanshou and Bakuya to the limit.
The magic changed them from shortswords into longswords and brought them down at Caster, who glared at Kuro before she teleported away.
The two long swords hit the ground before they exploded due to the reinforcement magic tearing up the ground from the shards of the longsword.
Kuro twisted around, looking for Caster, but as she checked all the roofs, Kuro couldn't see for find a trace of Caster. Kuro raised her guard as she had seen that this Caster was able to hide in shadows with some kind of Magecraft.
Kuro looked up as the sky started to glow bright pink. There Kuro saw Caster floating in the sky, holding a staff as magic circles started to form that sent goosebumps down Kuro's spine.
She was sure this wasn't Casters Noble Phantasm, but it was undoubtedly one of her trump cards.
Kuro jumped to the side as her instincts screamed for her to do so. Just where Kuro was stood, a beam of light crashed into the ground with horrific power, melting the stone into magma.
Again her instincts were telling her to move, and Kuro used mana burst to move away just like before; a beam of light hit the ground where she was stood. Kuro's instincts kept screaming at her making Kuro's mana burst away constantly as more beams of light cashed after her.
The beams of light kept raining down on Kuro with such speed that Kuro was forced to constantly keep jumping from place to place as she avoided the beams of light.
Kuro didn't even have time to see if Rias and Sona were okay and could only hope that Caster was focusing on her.
After Kuro dodged the 10th beam of light, she was able to guess that there was no way that Caster was powering this spell alone. Kuro took the risk to look over at Akeno and saw that the magic circle was active and was draining her mana.
Kuro let out a gasp of pain as she was slightly too slow in avoiding the beam of light from Caster's spell, leaving a horrible burn on her leg.
Kuro kept jumping around as she thought of the best way to deal with the magic circle that was draining Akeno's mana.
This left Kuro with a problem as she didn't really know much about magecraft, and none of what she knew would be useful for destroying a magic circle.
It was then that Kuro remembered one of the weapons inside her Unlimited Blade Works. Rule Breaker a dagger capable of dispelling and destroying any magecraft.
Kuro brought up the blueprint to her mind before using a mana burst to rush over to Akeno. A move that Caster seemed to be expecting as three beams of light bombarded Kuro.
Kuro gritted her teeth and used reinforcement on her body to make her more durable as the beams of light bombarded her.
Kuro came out the other side of the beams of light with burns covering her body, but she paid no mind to that as she projected the blueprint inside her mind.
An iridescent and jagged dagger appeared in Kuro's hand as she landed just next to the magic circle. The dagger itself was thin, brittle, and blunt all over, apart from the tip.
"How do you have my dagger!" Caster shouted out with fury and confusion.
"Sever the bonds! Rule Breaker!" Kuro called out its true name, making the blade glow as she stabbed the magic circle.
The moment the tip of Rule Breaker touched the magic circle, it exploded into shards, and Kuro grabbed Akeno before teleporting away, consuming a large chunk of her remaining mana.
Kuro let out an annoyed sound at how little mana she had left as she put Akeno down.
"Why must you get in the way of my wish," Caster asked coldly while glaring at Kuro.
Kuro knew that she would only be able to project Caladbolg II or Gáe Bolg one, and then she would be out of mana. Knowing she had no time to waste, Kuro teleported away from Akeno, hoping to draw Caster's fire.
"Your wish involves hurting my friend," Kuro replied, ignoring how Caster glared at her eye filled with hate and malice.
Kuro was a little surprised that a laser hadn't fired at her when she was a sitting duck with Akeno but chalked it up to Caster, not wanting to lose her mana source.
A guess that she was sure was right, as once she left Akeno's side, a beam of laser exploded where Kuro was.
Kuro was able to avoid it but noticed that the spell seemed much slower and weaker than the lasers before making Kuro smile that her plan had indeed worked.
Kuro pondered what to do next: attack Caster with all the mana she had left or try to wear her down and hope her own mana would last longer than Caster would.
It only took Kuro a second to think through both of her options and come up with the best option.
Kuro used Mana burst to dodge the next beam of light that appeared. Kuro then appeared in the sky instantly, projected Kanshou and Bakuya and threw them at Caster. Which got a sneer from Caster, who created a magic barrier to block the shortswords.
Kuro used another Mana Burst to appear even higher in the sky behind Caster. Kuro projected her bow and a blood-red spear as she pulled back on her bow.
"Fly and pierce the heart, Gáe Bolg!" Kuro called out as she poured every last ounce of her mana into the Noble Phantasm.
Crimson mana erupted across the spear like fire as Kuto shot the arrow, creating a red beam of light in its wake. Caster turned around, feeling the significant build-up of mana behind her.
A look of shock formed on her face as Gáe Bolg streaked across the sky before it impaled Caster in the chest. A moment later, the spear exploded into an enormous fireball ripping up the ground and setting the trees on fire.
"Nooo," Kuro heard Caster whisper in desperation.
The heat of the fire made Kuro wince before it imploded in on itself, vanishing as if it was an illusion.
Kuro landed on the ground with a painful groan, her legs giving way under her from her overuse of mana. Looking over at where Caster was, Kuro could see two cards floating above the ground, and she painfully crawled over to them.
Picking them up, Kuro was too worn out to even look at them. Instead, she uninstalled the Emiya card and put all three of them in the cardholder on her thigh before she passed out.