Draconian Fate Works - Volume 1

by Kratos1989

Honestly, I should have expected it. After all, my line of work would always be screwing with me when I don't need to. What I did not expect was getting myself into a world where Gods are alive and around, Angels and Demons are real, and the residents are really weird. I blame Zelretch for this. Rated T for the time being. (Yes, the title has been changed / Sporadic Updates)

9. Meeting with Higher Powers - Part 2

Disclaimer:

High School DxD is a Japanese light novel series written by Ichiei Ishibumi and illustrated by Miyama-Zero. The Fate series is owned by Type-Moon. I do not own any of the characters mentioned from both series. The only things I own are the ideas that popped into my head for this story and whatever original characters I would create for the story.

My main muses come from Gabriel Blessing and Marcus Galen Sands, authors of great works themselves. This story is meant to be a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life are purely coincidental and should not be taken seriously. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...

Root Damn It!

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Published: September 19th 2017

Chapter 8: Meeting with Higher Powers Part 2

Part 1

Seriously, one time. Just one time, where I do not have to get my ass attacked during a meeting, be it from poisoning, bombs, assassinations, decapitations, and bloody terrorists!

Just One. Root Be Damned. Time!

After letting my thoughts run wild on a heated rampage with a few chosen words not appropriate for kids, I got up from my spot and shook my head a little to rid myself of the ringing in my ears before I looked around me. Soon after another thought came into my head.

Sona and Rias were so going to murder the people attacking them right now.

The windows were completely unsalvageable and the walls were wrecked, revealing the courtyard from which I could there were several people standing around in dark cloaks. From there, I could sense the presence of a barrier that covered the entire academy and supposedly isolated us from the rest of the world. What little I could tell, the attack force seemed to consist mostly of humans, the remainder being Fallen Angels and supposedly Devils.

Great.

"Ah~ you are awake." I turned my head to find the leader of Grigori stretching his arms and cracking his neck. "That blast got us good~"

"Don't suppose you know who our party-crashers are?" I asked while wincing from some pains in my arm.

"I might have an idea or two." Azazel turned to look at the group outside. "Meet the Chaos Brigade."

"Seriously?" I turned to him with a deadpan expression. "Chaos Brigade?"

"I know, not the most original name in the block, but it is their name." Azazel shrugged as he pointed to the others. "Forget them for now. Could you check on our companions?" I turned to find some of them frozen in place, a couple of them were literally floating in the air, their expressions of surprise and fear stuck on their faces.

"What happened to them?" I quickly made my way to Sona and Reya, noting how the expressions were stuck in the transition of surprise to fear.

"My guess comes from the missing Bishop of the Gremory." Azazel supplied the answer as he pushed some of the rubble away from those frozen in place, watching them float away in the same position. "He has issues controlling that Sacred Gear of his and it tends to act up and freeze time sporadically. However in this case, I believe the enemy has located him and forcefully activated his Sacred Gear to create this field, hoping to disable us." He looked around with a raised eyebrow. "They did get some of us, so that would be a problem."

"Then how did you and I escape?"

The fallen angel pointed behind me that revealed the presence of [Hell's Trident], having come out in its true form to protect me from whatever the attack was. "The gear you procured activated automatically and created a small film of demonic energy to cover your body, protecting you from the blast and the time effect of the field."

"As for me, you can thank your magic sword for that." Azazel used his thumb to gesture at the Excalibur which I only just noticed. The item in question was hovering in the air to create a barrier of Holy Light on the leaders and some of the others, and from where I was I could tell that the devils were the most confused as to why they were not being affected negatively by the weapon. At me looking at it, the swords pulsed before bringing down the barrier, before coming at me quickly blade first, forcing me to dodge it before grabbing the handle as it passed.

"Why does every weapon that you meet wants to go back to you in such a rough manner?" Kiba asked as he looked at the sword as though it would bite his head off.

"If I ever know the answer, you will be the first to know." I glared at the holy sword in question as though it could answer my question, and the response, if it was one, was to glow brightly. I sighed before putting it back into the dimensional pocket. I should consider getting a scabbard for that.

Maybe a copy of Avalon? That might be suitable and safer than using the actual item, I don't want to know what would happen if the two got into contact with one another. Probably blow up in my face like one of Rin's experiments.

"This is so bad~" I turned to find Serafall Leviathan looking around with a pout on her face, more focused on her sister frozen in time. "Why do these guys have to ruin our meeting?"

"People don't want peace so easily." Michael spoke solemnly with a saddened expression and with a tone that spoke of his years. "Considering our factions had been at war for so long, some may feel that would be their only purpose in life. The Three Factions pushing for a disarmament and joining of hands would be an affront to them."

"Just like it did with Kokabiel." Azazel frowned as he remembered the fallen angel. I merely nodded at both of them, recalling my fight with the man. There was the underlying feeling that the angel of war was weary of peace and seek to battle with the strongest. That was why he came after me, to have someone fight him to the death.

"In any case, this is a problem." Azazel turned to Vali who was standing around with a bored expression. "Vali, I need you to deal with our guests until we can get the freezing effect removed."

"Very well, I was getting bored anyway." Vali activated his Sacred Gear and hovered off the ground, sparing a look at Ise before looking at me with a look that sent alarm bells ringing in my head.

"The both of you better be alive when I come back, because I will settle the score as the White Dragon Emperor." With that declaration, he activated the [Balance Breaker] ability that covered him in that white armor and flew out of the wrecked room. In no time, the courtyard was lit with explosions and one shooting star that kept flying all over the place.

Holy mother of the Root! That gear was seriously fast!

"Oh man…" Ise looked down in frustration, biting his lips while his eyes showed the tell-tale signs of self-loathing and worthlessness. I merely raised my arm and hit him hard on the head. "OW! What gives?!" Ise cradled his head while glaring at me.

"You are yourself, Vali is someone else. You do not need to compare yourself to him all the time." I looked at him with a steady eye. "Besides he is not the best role model for you to emulate. That guy has a brain hardwired for fighting only. You have some other goal, don't you?"

Ise looked at me with a stunned look before nodding slowly with a smile. "Yeah, that's right. I am going to become a harem king! I want to bed Buchou, not fight like a mad man!"

"While that goal is a little questionable, at least I do not need to worry of you being a fighting maniac." I smiled before adopting a more serious expression. "But I do need to say this, beware of him. I don't trust him that much."

"Oh, you don't trust us that much?" Azazel came to us with a raised eyebrow.

"I said Vali, not you or Grigori." I replied as I checked my circuits and charms to make sure they were still safe. "That guy is setting off every alarm bell in my head and I don't like it. And it is not just the fight from earlier."

"I see." Azazel nodded lightly. "That is a good thing I suppose." Turning to Ise, he handed him a very thin bracelet. "Here, you would need this."

"What is it?" Ise looked at it while moving it around his fingers.

"Something to help you achieve [Balance Breaker]. I figured you have yet to achieve it, so you would need something of the sort." Azazel paused before turning to me with another bracelet. "Speaking of which, I think you might need one as well."

"Me?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"You do remember having a Sacred Gear called [Hell's Trident], right?" Azazel pointed at the spear that was currently behind me, its body glowing in the presence of the enemies around me. "I will admit this to you, you have progressed quite a fair bit considering you have it for a little over 2 months and what I can tell, you are really close to obtaining [Balance Breaker] yourself. Faster than most users of other gears, but you might need to bring it out earlier if we are going to be going against some heavy-weights."

"But I believe there is a catch?" I narrowed my eyes as I examined the bracelet.

"For one, this bracelet can only help achieve [Balance Breaker] for a few minutes, and it is only achieving what could be considered as the default state of that ability." Azazel explained while gesturing outside where Vali was decimating the troops. "Also, I am only giving one because to use it multiple times could weaken the gear and likely hinder the growth of your true [Balance Breaker]."

"I see." I promptly handed him back the bracelet. "Thank you for the offer, but I think I can do just fine without either of them."

"Oh?"

"If what you say is true regarding the time limit, then I think we would need it more for those who already has some inking and control over their [Balance Breaker]." I looked to Ise with a finger pointed at him. "See if you can extend the one he has, because I think he would need the extra time considering Vali is out there. Something tells me that Ise's [Balance Breaker] would be the ace we need."

"You really have it against Vali huh?" Azazel asked as he did what I suggested and inspected the bracelet to Ise.

"I just don't trust him." I shrugged without caring about their feelings. Something about that fellow was really making me uneasy, and it was not just because the overall scent of power coming off of him. Something about him overall was reminding me a little of Illya for some reason.

"Very well. I can't stop your thinking." Azazel turned to those who were not frozen and were now gathered around us. "I think it is safe to say that we should get our friends out of the way before we can figure out a way to take down this time effect and the barrier."

"Half of us will deal with the intruders and the barrier." I looked to Ise, Kiba and Koneko. "You guys go and find that Bishop of yours. If he is really the one causing the time issue, you guys deal with that. I will take down the intruders that are closest to us."

"Mister Emiya, we will accompany you." Xenovia said with Irina nodding.

"No, I think you should stick with the leaders." I cut her off before she could argue. "It's not like I doubt your skills, but what little I have seen, we will need some assurance that no one decides to attack the leaders and those frozen. With you two here at least, the leaders can concentrate on attacks or reversing the effects of the frozen time."

"That is correct." Griselda spoke from her end.

"So that's settled." Azazel looked to all of us. "Let's roll out!" He smiled at our deadpan expressions, with the exception of the angels who looked confused. "I always wanted to say that!"

=()=

I had thought about it before, but the original academy was a little too big for my taste. Now?

It was humongous.

This damn academy now had too many corridors to cover and too many dead-spots that could be used for ambushes, and that was not counting the classrooms that littered the area. Thankfully I had assisted in the placement of the protection spells so I could tell if anyone was around, but this was a little too much for me. Especially the bit where I had to deal with multiple grunts while running in this area.

"Enemy spotted!"

Great, the seventh time in twenty minutes.

Without a glance, I projected two swords and sent them down the hallway, not pausing to see them slaughter the magicians that stood in my path, a part of my mind noting the groups I had encountered so far. They were mostly the magus from this world from what I could tell, and they were very abysmal in their tactics. There was hardly any type of planning whatsoever; it was as if they just got up and decided to wreck the academy and somehow kill us in the process.

That only meant one thing, they were sent to wear us out before the real fighters come out. If so, I would need to get rid of these people quickly and get back to the others. Who knows when these attackers would come for those who were frozen?

"We found one of them!"

Bah! This was getting ridiculous!

I stopped my running to face the latest group of intruders, noting the odd robes they had that covered the majority of their bodies and heads, but what little I could discern told me that they were all female magus, the first such group I had encountered so far. One of the taller ones seemed to be the leader as she stepped forward with her staff pointed at me before pausing.

"You are the magician who has been on the news recently." She said with a hint of intrigue while the others looked at me with increased intent. "The one who also recreated the Excalibur with that unusual magic."

"Mage-craft. Please get the terminology and associations right." I grimaced as I spoke those words. May not be the best time or place to say, but it was grating on my nerves when people kept referring to it as magic.

I feel for you, Rin Tohsaka, for having to deal with me.

"My apologies." The leader lowered her staff and her hood to reveal a rather beautiful woman in her mid-20s with lightly tinted green hair and amber eyes. "My name is Celina Mercio. A pleasure to meet a fellow magician of a different cabal."

"Pleasure is all mine." I bowed my head lightly while maintaining a close eye on her companions. "My name is…"

"Shirou Emiya, a very interesting magician." Celina answered with a smile on her face, while a few of the others behind her removed their hoods as well to reveal girls of varying ages, the youngest looking to be at least 14 years old, all whom were looking at me with rather unsettling eyes. "The one who had made a lot of waves on the information network."

Well that was concerning, the enemy already knowing me by sight.

"A question if you would. Why do you follow the devils? I see no contract markings on you." Celina gestured with her hand.

"I'm not really allied with them, if that is what you mean." I answered while preparing Kanshou and Bakuya in my hands. "I am neutral in this area. As for the so-called contract, it is more of a business deal. They want something, I want something, and we bring out the goods and see who can bargain the most."

"I see." The woman nodded her head lightly as she stepped forward with the others still looking intendedly at me, her hips showing a notable sway as she walked. "You may forgive our ignorance, but usually the devils would form a contract with a magician, and considering the duration you have stayed in this town, you seem quite content with your placement."

"A temporary stay at best. I am not planning a long vacation around here."

"I see." She stopped just a few centimeters away from me, a smile on her face as she raised her hand at me. "In that case, would you prefer our company?"

What?

"After all, since you are neutral, that would mean you are not truly allied to the devils or the other factions currently." Celina continued as she looked at me. "But I would think that as fellow magicians, we should stick together. Don't you agree?"

"A nice offer, Miss Mercio. I am afraid I would need to decline for the current time." I answered while completing my mental trigger. "There are some things that need to be handled personally and as it is, this invasion is getting in the way of my schedule."

"Shame." Celina lowered her hand while her smile seemed to shift from general kindness to one of controlled viciousness. "Sure you won't change your mind?"

"I might consider for a later moment." I readied my weapons as I watched the others tensing up for action. "But for now, I would like to ask you ladies to leave the premises in an orderly fashion. I really do not want to fight you right now."

"Hmm… Too bad." Celina raised her staff to shoot a fireball at me while the others conjured up their own spells of lightning, ice and fire to aid her. I slammed my foot down to summon a wall of steel, cutting off their vision and giving me time to plan my next attack. With a gesture that spoke of long hours of practice, I projected the weapons I needed and sent them at the invader without needing to see the targets.

Their shouts of surprise were enough to inform me that the Black Keys I created were successful in sealing their movements, leaving them open for my next of weapons in the form of daggers giving off sleeping gas to knock them out. I waited a bit longer before dispelling the protective wall to reveal the fallen bodies of the intruders, each one sleeping soundly with little to no injuries.

Wait, I am missing Celina and two others.

"BOOM!'

I cursed loudly as an explosion forced me back into one of the classrooms, wrecking the tables and chairs as I tumbled inside. Using the momentum to my advantage, I rolled to a large piece of the wreckage and braced myself against it, using it both as my defence and my next step of attack.

"Come out little magician~" Celina called out in a sing-along tone as she walked into the classroom with one of the other magicians. "You can't be done in so easily."

Here's something for you then.

I projected a small dagger before throwing it at her. As expected she threw up a barrier to block the knife, but did not anticipate the secondary ability it had in the form of a dark mist that issued from its blade and covered her together with the barrier, distracting the other two enough for me to leap from my cover and take them out swiftly with quick jabs to the sternum. I had hoped to get Celina as well but that did not happen as the mist dispersed too early and Celina had her staff pointed right at me.

"Fuego!" The woman summoned a ball of blue flames and fired them at me, and due to the short distance, I was forced to take on the full blast of the attack, forcing me back out of the classroom and slamming into the concrete wall. I shook my head to clear the ringing before I realized that my anti-fire charms were not doing a good job at keeping the flames off me. With a quick shrug I removed my jacket and tossed away in time for it to burn completely.

Man~ that was my only jacket for this type of occasion.

"So it is just you and me, my dear boy." Celina twirled her staff as she removed her cloak to reveal a slender body and a light red dress with a plunging neckline to reveal a fair amount of her considerable chest, with dark heels that lightly clicked on the ground. "At least I get to have you all to myself."

"I don't usually get this close to a lady until the third date." I quipped as I projected Kanshou and Bakuya and got into a stance. "Let's hope this does not end badly for either of us." Celina let out a light chuckle at my words as she hugged her staff rather suggestively with the body of it pressed firmly between her breasts.

"Do make this an enjoyable dance for me." With a quick motion of her hands she directed the staff at me and let loose a lightning bolt which I barely dodged by pushing my Reinforcement to its limits. She followed up with some time dilation spell that gave her speed that could make Lancer proud, using that momentum to try and stab me with the pointed end of her staff, but only succeeding in tearing a portion of my shirt.

Damn it, the charms on the shirt was not something I could stamp out easily like a newspaper machine!

Kicking her back to get some distance, I used the moment to project a few weapons to fire at her. As expected she conjured up a barrier to block them, but did not account for the detonation of the weapons and the force behind them, sending her away to the wall. I used that opportunity to get closer and deliver a slash at her, but she dodged at the last second, leaving a huge tear in her dress that threatened to drop off.

"Watch it!" Celina yelled as she tried to hold her clothes on with a spell. That provided me with the distraction to fire off a few arrows at her in the hopes of disabling her at best, but she quickly twirled her staff to knock them away.

"Oh no you don't!" She stabbed her staff at me, tearing away more of my shirt before following it up with a wind blast that sent me to the other side, causing one of my swords to cut one of the water pipes and depositing its contents over me and the floor.

"Now where are you, little magician?" Celina cooed while I got up from the wet ground, soaked to the bone while the pipe poured out blocking both our views. With a split-second decision and a reminder to replace my wardrobe, I tore off my shirt and projected a simple hanger to hold it in place before holding it in front of me, one hand ready to do what I knew she would try.

"There you are!" She took the bait and stabbed the staff forward to hit the shirt, only for her staff to be grabbed and pulled, and by extension herself, forward towards me. I took her surprise and delivered a hard punch to her diaphragm, causing him to double over in pain before using a spectral blade to seal off her circuits temporarily. In her haste to get away from me, the blade snagged on her dress and caused her dress to tear off, leaving her close to naked and soaking in the water as she went back through the downpour. Ignoring her cries of embarrassment, I ran through the blanket of water and tackled her to the ground, knocking her to the ground and herself to unconsciousness.

"Damn, that took a while." I stood up unsteadily and shook off some of the water from my body and my hair. I was getting a little careless there, and that cost me time and my good shirt and jacket. I projected one fire blade to dry myself off while using another blade to seal off the pipe to stop more water pouring around me. With that done, I looked around the area to make sure there were no more stragglers. There was no other people around, so at least I got everyone in this area, all I had to do was round up the ones I knocked out and secured them for deportation and interrogation. I nodded to myself as I turned to look at Celina before pausing at the odd sight.

Why was Celina sporting a red face with a smile, and was that blood coming out of her nose?

=()=

It took a little longer to get to the others than I needed considering I had to secure, immobilize and hide the mages in a separate shed that is protected with multiple layers of spells and hidden with even more spells. Then along the way I had encountered other enemies whom I have to kill or stun and move for interrogation later, thus extending the time needed to get back.

Though I was wondering about the health of those I caught. Most of them were females and they seemed to be stunned with some type of mental spell considering their red faces, rapid breathing and dilated eyes each time they looked at me. Four of them even started bleeding from their noses like Celina.

My thoughts got put on hold when the scent and feeling of the barrier changed and the noises of fighting paused for a moment before resuming. From the looks of it, I would guess that Ise and the others managed to defeat whoever held Gasper captive and got to hold back on his Sacred Gear. That was good, so now we would have the full strength to counter this assault.

It took a fair bit of backtracking due to destroyed portions of the building that made it difficult to get around, but I managed to get back to the Occult Club Building without too much issues. Along the way I spied the bodies and destruction around me, privately thinking this was a fool's errand on the attackers, getting slaughtered in such a manner. I stopped at the doorway to face the wreckage blocking my way in before looking up to where the room was. With a sigh, I reinforced my legs and jumped high into the air and slightly over the wrecked room, hovering lightly in the end before coming back down with a loud thump, alerting some of the people there.

"Ah, so the Steel Mage has returned?" Azazel called out from his end of the room. "Considering your state, I get that you met some of our unwanted guests?"

"Took a while to get back, there were a lot of enemies." I answered as I stood back up to look around, noting the few attackers who were bounded and set aside. "Are these your set of attackers?"

"Yup." Azazel motioned to Ise, Kiba and Koneko who just arrived with the recently freed Gasper. "They also encountered some of their own, but they were able to secure them safely."

"I see." I frowned at the smaller numbers. "Where are the rest?"

"Cleaning house." Azazel replied.

"Shirou." I turned to face Ise as he came up to us. "Are you okay? You looked like you just went through some crap."

"These attackers are very persistent." I nodded at Kiba and Gasper. "Nice to see you again, and how are you Gasper?"

"I... I am fine!" The little trap squeaked in a voice much higher and cuter than he should sound. "At least I am getting some control over my Sacred Gear, thanks to Ise-Senpai."

"Okay that is good. How about you Koneko?" I turned to the little girl only to blink at the odd manner she was looking at me. "Koneko, are you okay?"

"….." She was silently looking at me with wide eyes, a blushing face and her cat ears were standing up right, twitching every so often. And for some odd reason, her eyes became more animalistic and there was the odd feeling of me being hunted.

"Koneko?"

"We are back!" Xenovia called out as she, Irina and Mitelt came into view. "We are able to deal with the group at the hall, so we are good for GPHH!" Her tongue got caught as they stopped in front of me, their eyes going wide and their faces turning red.

What the, them too?!

"GABU!" I turned to find both the Gremory and Sitri Peerage having just returned from the respective fights, looking a little worse for wear, and were now standing still with open mouths, wide eyes and reddening faces.

Crap, the curse must be spreading!

"Are you girls okay?" I got closer to them to check for any symptoms of a curse on them, but that seemed to make their faces go redder. Ruruko and Meguri were lightly stuttering some odd gibberish, Tsubaki and Reya looked ready to faint any minute now, and scarily enough, Tsubasa and Momo were giving rather predatory stares at me.

Crap, what type of curse did they get hit with?!

"Erm, Shirou?"

"What is it, Ise?" I turned to him who had a complicated expression. "Do you know what it is they are cursed with?"

"Kind of." Ise scratched his face while looking to Kiba who let out a resigned sigh.

"You might want to put on a shirt." Kiba spoke while pointing at me. "I think they are getting distracted."

What?

"You want an indication, look at them." Sirzechs pointed to the female angel, Griselda and Akeno with a teasing smirk. I turned to face Emilia, noting how red-faced she was and how her wings were flicking between white and grey. Griselda on the other hand was blushing rather heavily and Akeno was letting loose a very scary smile while the scent of ozone and leather was at an all-time high. It took me a moment for me to connect the dots, but when I did, there was only one thing I could say.

"Oh~"

I was more or less aware of the type of responses my body would get from people. It wasn't just because of the scars that I wanted to hide from public view, it was also because of the type of physic I have obtained from training in order to maintain a level of strength that could help me deal with many of the Sealing Designates, the occasional Dead Apostles and on rare occasions during my dimensional travels, a Servant during one of the Grail Wars. Even when I arrived to this world and my body regressed back to that of a teenager, I was fit enough to maintain a certain amount of muscle and I got back to retraining after my wounds were healed, ensuring I would be in peak physical condition if I had to fight someone over the top.

The end result was me having a body that would not be too bulky or considered a body-builder, but with enough muscles obtained from swinging heavy weapons for hours on end and little body fat to be considered 'roguishly handsome' as Luvia and Rin had often said. It might be a tad narcissistic of me to say, but I felt that the eyes of the girls in this girl should not be encouraged if I were to expose both my body and scars to them.

Speaking of scars, I had better cover up before someone asked a question about them.

"Hey kid, one question?" Azazel pointed to the scar on my chest, "how on earth did you survive that attack?"

'Oh crap.'

"Emiya-kun, may I ask why do you have a scar directly above your heart?" Sona was the first one to recover and now asked in a tone that sent shivers down my spine. "One that seems to extend to your back through your heart, it would seem?" At that question, the others seemed to have awoken from their daze and were now looking at the scars adorning my body with mounting expressions of shock and a hint of fear.

"By the Maous, what the heck happened to you?!" Tsubasa exclaimed as she noted the long gash by the side of my body.

"You said that you had injuries, but this is going beyond that!" Momo pointed to the one particularly nasty scar on around my collar-bone. "How do you survive any of those?!"

"Well..." I looked to the side while scratching my cheek, panicking inwardly on explaining. This was really I did not to have at the moment.

It said something about my lifestyle that I was glad when someone interrupted with a large dose of killing intent.

I looked up to find Vali coming down at us, both the wings of his Sacred Gear and what looked to be devil wings opened wide and looking oh~ so menacing. I quickly projected a spear with [Hell's Trident] and fired it at him, who merely knocked it away with a punch before he sped up and slammed a fist into the ground, forcing the others away while I maintained my stance.

"It would seem that you managed to keep your end of the bargain by staying alive." Vali spoke as he stood up from the spot he landed. "It is a good thing that both of you are alive, now I can get to fighting."

"Shirou, be careful!" Ise called out from his side. "This guy is one of those from the Chaos Brigade, and somehow he is related to the old Maou group!"

"That explained the name you gave me back then." I remarked as I looked at the devil. "I had wondered how you were related to Rias and her brother, but after hearing the story of the old group, it did clear up some bits."

"I figured you would be able to guess some of it." Vali said as he spread his arms while the wings glowed brightly. "Shall we continue our previous bout? We were rudely interrupted last time." Before I could answer, something else decided to interrupt us again.

"RRROOOGBTGR!"

Part 2

"Come now, Shirou Emiya." The magus looked on from his vantage point at the horde of monsters swarming the academy. "Surely you can get out of this with a bit of effort."

Since his release of [Sammuel] fifteen minutes ago, the magus had been monitoring the battlefield with a bit of disjointed interest. There was not much to see though, his creation had multiplied a total of 25 times due to the amateurish extermination methods set by the magicians, and had set about devouring them to increase their numbers and to attack the academy, which much to his surprise, held up better than he expected from all the attacks set on it. It would seem that the devils placed a lot more protection on the academy since the Kokabiel incident.

At least this was not a complete loss. He was able to see the host of [Divine Dividing] use his gear to fight the magicians and fallen angels, allowing him to study his fighting style. He also watched the leaders attack the others with some of their special moves, paying close attention to the leader of Grigori who took on one of the supposed leaders of this attack with some sort of Sacred Gear. He had heard of the research the fallen angel was conducting some sort of research regarding these Sacred Gears made by the Christian God, but this was the first time he was seeing it in person.

Frankly speaking, he now desired the research.

The raw power that radiated from the armor the Grigori Leader donned was staggering to say the least, and what little he had gathered, this was a but a mere droplet of what it could achieve. Having seen the other types of Sacred Gear during his time in this world, the magus had come to appreciate the limitless potential that could be achieved if he could just get one to study. The annoying titbit of a gear immediately moving to the next host upon the current host's death was certainly an issue; not to mention the bit where hypnosis was not an ideal method for some of the gears in question. There were some gears that did not have such issues like that one Longinus that came from the magician's side, but they had quite a few conditions to fulfill.

This however was something that could be done. Creating a gear from scratch and in a type of configuration that could achieve the maximum effect from the get-go would be a most ideal situation for him, especially with the knowledge of Shirou Emiya having some weird talent to attract Sacred Gears like bees to honey. He needed that research in his grasp and away from the others who would likely have heard about Azazel's work.

His musings were halted when he smelled the scent of Shirou Emiya and sighted him in the area. Old emotions reared their heads as he watched him talk to the leaders, his eyes wandering over the scars that littered his body, one of which made him give off a sinister smile.

A small victory to mark Shirou Emiya, considering that man's ability to heal with no injuries visible.

He did not delve on it much as he watched Vali Lucifer fly over to likely taunt the party and challenge Shirou Emiya to a fight. The half-devil was well known for being a battle-hungry beast who wanted the strongest fighters to go against, and one did not need a PHD to see that the Sword Magus would be the next target.

Too bad, he would need to take a queue number.

With a gesture, he commanded the hounds to go to the spot where Shirou Emiya was before taking a seat on the ledge and watched the fireworks of chaos go off.

"Go forth, [Sammuel]. Take Shirou Emiya down."

=()=

You know, I believed the world has it out for me.

That thought was all I had as I jumped back to avoid the monsters that came upon us over the broken walls like a tsunami of tentacles and teeth, their eyes fixed on me with hunger and rage and teeth snapping for my flesh. With a gesture, I wrote a rune to transport the captives to a nearby shack that had my protection spells in need before I projected a couple of swords and set about eliminating their existence, and I made sure to get the right ones for the job.

Because unless I was much mistaken, this had the signs of someone I knew from before.

"What the hell are these things?!" Ise yelled as he fired off Dragon Shots like a shotgun, leveling a few of the creatures in front of him only to have several more taking their place.

"Butt-ugly, that is what they are!" Saji yelled as he tried to use his Sacred Gear on them, only for them to taken over by others whom consumed them and continued on.

"They just keep coming!" Tsubaki, Momo, Reya and Akeno were using whatever destructive arsenal they had at their disposal to destroy the creatures before us. "Their numbers are not dropping any time soon!"

"Creations from the magicians?" Michael answered as he waved a hand to blast the hounds away from him and his subordinates.

"If so, they did a fantastic job at fucking up." Azazel grabbed something from his robes and threw them at the creatures, creating small spheres that enveloped the creatures and sealed them inside before imploding spectacularly and blasting away close enemies.

"Oh shit!" Ise cursed as he got tackled to the ground by one of the hounds that was doing its hardest to bite his head off, only to be introduced to my sword as I stabbed it in the head and activated it passive ability of matter conversation, turning it into a pile of dirt within seconds with the unfortunate effect of dropping onto Ise.

"Stay sharp." I pulled him up and quickly dusted him off as I used the other sword in my hand to melt the hounds quickly. I took a quick look around to find Vali, but he seemed to have disappeared though I could feel his energy. I got the feeling he was watching us to see what we would do.

Damn it.

"Thanks, Shirou." Ise panted as he looked at my swords with a frown. "Hey how are you getting rid of them so quick?"

"These creatures you see stem from Judaism, the main ability is complete regeneration and resurrection. Each time you kill one, two will take its place." I traced a few more blades of similar nature to destroy the vanguard while creating a barrier between us and them for a brief respite. "The only way to get rid of them would be using weapons or abilities to wipe them out one shot."

"Old friends of yours?" Azazel called out from his side as he layered on light spears that pierced the hounds by the dozens.

"I wish." I poured my Prana to break the projection and threw it at the hounds to detonate it and take down a large portion of their numbers, giving a brief respite for those getting swarmed. "More like creatures of a past long forgotten and preferably remain that way."

"Well that is nice and all, but their nature limits our arsenal by a lot." Sona conjured up a huge wall of water to push the hounds back and attempting to drown a few, only to have them swim inside without any issues and forced their way out.

"The power of Destruction can eliminate them!" Rias threw a giant ball of darkness that disintegrated the hounds' bodies. "But there are way too many of them!"

"As with us!" Azazel and Michael were flinging spears of light at the hounds' heads, impaling them before exploding them in glorious gore.

"We will manage our own way! Kiba!" I called out to the knight who was holding them back with fire attacks. "Think you can make a few swords that turn anything into ashes!"

"I think I can!" Kiba leapt back to get more cover before using [Sword Birth] to call forth several swords with dark ash handles. "Everyone grab one!" Without a moment's pause, everyone except the angels and exorcists grabbed them and started to attack the hounds. I took my copy and analyzed its structure, prepping the copy in my Reality Marble while the sword did its usual bit of becoming 'whole' and wanting to fight alongside me.

That I shall oblige.

I swung hard at the few in front of me and once again got the confirmation that I somehow augmented the swords that come from [Sword Birth] when the incoming swarm ahead of us all turned to ashes within moments of the attack. I kept up the momentum and kept on firing off multiple copies of my weapons that could wipe them out, but the numbers coming at us were staggering. It would seem that the original had a lot of time and grunts to feed on to multiply to these numbers.

"This is getting us nowhere!" Megumi cried out in desperation as the hounds started to push us back to the wall.

"Indeed, this is problematic." Michael let out a sigh that was equal parts resigned and equal parts something that suggested irritation as he showered dozens of light spears at the hounds. "I don't think our situation is improving that much."

That was true, the numbers were more than I anticipated. Even for me, this was pushing it. What we needed was a way to congregate into one spot so that we could wipe them out in one shot. That was what I did the last time by getting them into a desolate temple in the middle of the Sahara Desert before blowing them up with enough explosives and acidic material to be comparable to Hiroshima. But that was in the middle of nowhere, whereas here we were close to the town, so unless I want to blow up a good portion of Japan to kingdom come, I would need a different method of getting them into one spot. I needed…

My thoughts got an answer when I watched Rias throw another ball of darkness at the monsters, its round form and general swirling reminding me of a black hole as the hounds' heads got wiped out on mere contact of it.

That was it!

"Rias!" I called out to her while thinking about the plan I was to enact. "Whose power is stronger, you or your brother?"

"What?" Rias looked at me with a frown while her brother came to our side as he fired off smaller balls of demonic energy at the creatures.

"Who has better firepower with that whole 'power of destruction' thing?" I asked with a firmer tone as I called up a wall of steel to block the creatures for a while.

"That would be Rias." Sirzechs answered my query. "She has more power inherited from the blood."

"Okay then." I created a blank spear from [Hell's Trident] and handed it to Rias. "Pour whatever demonic power you could afford into this, as much as possible."

"What do you have in mind?" Sirzechs asked as Rias took the spear with a frown.

"A crazy idea. Tell everyone to get a spot ready where they can secure themselves properly and tightly." I then turned to locate Ise, which was simple since he was coming our way. "Good timing Ise, I need your help as well."

"What do you need!?" Ise said as he narrowly dodged one of the monsters' attacks.

"I would need that [Gift] Ability of yours when Rias is done pouring her demonic energy into the spear." No sooner had I said that, Rias pushed the spear towards me, her brow lightly covered in sweat and her notably breathing hard from the exertion. I took the spear noting the feeling and mentally cataloguing the spear in both my Reality Marble and [Hell's Trident], before handing it to Ise. "Use your ability to transfer the power into this."

"How much do you need?" Ise grabbed the spear with [Boosted Gear] and prepared to pour the power into it.

"As much as you can give me!" I reduced another swarm to ashes and fired off a few swords at Ise's direction to keep them away from him as he poured the energy into the spear. My plan was heavily reliant on Rias and Ise, we need to get rid of these guys as soon as possible!

"Got it!" Ise called out and threw the spear to me. I grabbed the spear and focused on the image I needed to make this plan work. With a nod, I created another spear and placed the two together, using my Tracing ability to bring together the idea I needed. With a bright glow that temporarily stunned the monsters away, the two started to merge upon contact, the features of both spears mixing together in some weird manner of swirls. It did not take too long until the weapon was complete, revealing a product that had the designs of the two spears merged perfectly and from what I could tell, the required abilities as well.

Now I just needed a target and a spot to get all those hounds together.

"You guys stand your ground and get ready! I am about to do some major spring cleaning!" I shouted as I slammed my fist into the ground, creating huge walls of steel blades that protrude from the ground and cut off the majority of the horde, ensuring that the others were protected. Once that was settled, I kicked off the next part of the plan by running into the horde and towards the open courtyard.

"Dude, are you nuts?!" Ise called out with his eyes as wide as dinner plates. "You are going to get your ass eaten out there!"

"Trust me!" I ran through the horde with [Aegis Type 2] deployed around me to ensure the hounds were forced back and swords flying around me to kill off those that got too close. As I neared the point I needed to get to, I used the spear to pierce one of the creatures, using the latent ability of aura absorption to sample the creature's prana and blood. The spear started to glow a deep red while vibrating wildly and I could feel the second ability acting up as the spear released the same type of energy that came from Rias's ability.

"Everyone hang on to something!" I raised the spear in one hand as I bend my legs in an awkward angle, then with a loud yell I twisted my body to throw the spear high into the air before calling forth a wall of steel around me and a particular long chain to anchor myself to. Through the open at the top, I watched the spear continued its trajectory before hovering in the air, then with a huge pulse of energy, the dark aura around it started to swirl and the ground around me started to get disturbed with the debris and bodies starting to come off the ground.

"What is happening?!" Ise yelled as he held on to Asia and maintained a firm grip on some iron rods that stuck out of the building.

"My solution to deal with the hounds!" I yelled as the hounds let out defying roars as they attempted to move away from the growing orb of darkness that was sucking them in. Their attempts were futile as one by one, the hounds got picked off the ground and sent hurtling towards the orb, their bodies smashing into one another and them trying to push themselves away by using one another as a stepping board.

"Whoa! Too much suction over here!" Tsubasa yelled as she used her body to buffer the others while hanging on to the wrecked pillars next to her. I looked around me, noting their positions and their struggles in getting a firm hold with the ground. With a fist slammed into the ground, multiple links of [Prometheus Chains] erupted from the group and wrapped themselves around them, anchoring them to the ground and leaving them free to take down any hounds that attempted to get close to them or flee the area. Thankfully they did not have to deal with them much, and so we treated ourselves to the sight of the hounds getting sucked up into the big ball of darkness, some of which got a bit of a front row seat to watching the creatures dissolving in a rather horrific fashion where half of their heads were removed to reveal the skulls and portions of the brain.

It took a while but soon the entire legion was sucked up into the black hole, displaying a particularly disturbing scene of a huge ball of mangled bodies slowly disintegrating as some of those that were still breathing tried their hardest to move only to get sucked into the vortex. It was so disturbing that some of the other combatants from the enemy's side balked at the sight.

Best to put them out of their misery.

I brought out my bow and [Hrunting] and took a good look at those creatures, remembering the last time they gave me this much trouble, before I notched the projectile and pulled the string. I held the tension for a bit, then I released the arrow and let it fly to the hounds.

"BOOM!"

It was quite a sight to see the ball of flesh erupt into flames and it was utterly terrifying to hear the sounds of the hounds roaring in pain as their flesh started to burn from the flames while getting disintegrated at the same time. The ball started to get smaller as the flames killed the outer most creatures first, letting their corpses get sucked into the vortex of darkness. Before long the ball of dire and darkness compressed on it, sending charred pieces of bones and flesh scattering all over the floor.

Well at least that was done. I could tell that my reserves were getting low and I hoped that things were more or less over with. Then again, I could not count too much on my E-Rank Luck. I dismissed my projections and made my way back to the others, pausing every now and then to make sure I did not miss any one of those hounds.

"Well, that was a thing." Azazel remarked as I finally got to them, with the others just arriving as well.

"Is everyone alright?" I asked while noting the states of some of the others.

"We are okay, although we have some heavily injured." Sona commented while looking at Saji and a couple of others who were sporting deep wounds. One of whom I took note seriously.

"Mitelt, your arm?" I pointed at the Fallen Angel's arm that sported a deep gash and revealed a bit of bone.

"I got hit by one of those things." She grimaced as she cradled it. "At least it did not bite me or use that creepy tongue on me, so I should be fine." That was good, from what little I could tell and sense, none of them got attack with its tongue, and that would mean the hounds were all truly dead.

"I will start healing, please make space." Asia said as she brought her hands together and the rings on her hand started to glow a light green. Those hurt badly were brought to her and we made some room for her to work her magic.

"Still, those creatures were odd, they kept multiplying no matter how many times we took them out." Sirzechs mentioned as we looked at Asia healing the injured group.

"Indeed, I must admit, such a creature has never been heard of. Immortality through numbers, a rather frightening concept." Michael spoke as his fellow angel stood next to him looking nothing worse for wear.

"I believe our companion here has encountered this creature before?" Sirzechs turned to me with a cursory glance, while Grayfia was not bothering to hide her hostility against me. Tough crowd.

"Yes, although the hounds seemed to be altered in some manner. I do not recall their ability to divide to be this quick." I answered his question. "Granted the last time I fought it, it was a few years back, and it was fewer numbers, so perhaps the reason for the earlier numbers may have been due to the attackers who were outside. They may have tried to attack them only to be consumed themselves."

"Sucks to be them." Azazel commented with a slightly off-hand manner that rubbed me wrongly, but I reigned in on my temper and focused on the situation. I knew that he probably meant nothing by it, but the way he commented set off some alarms.

"Well, I guess we got everyone right?" Ise asked while looking around him. "I mean we got the magicians after us, Azazel dealt with one of the leaders, and Shirou killed off a bunch of monsters. It is over, right?"

I was about to reply when my highly tuned battle senses went off like fire. My body moved on instinct and I found myself barely avoiding a kick to my abdomen as I swerved, but unfortunately, I did not anticipate the aftershock that came after which threw me off my feet and sent me crashing through a wall and free-falling towards the ground. With a curse, I quickly projected a chain to slow my descent enough to twist in the air and land on the ground.

"Shirou!" Ise called out from the wrecked room. "You still alive?!"

"Yeah!" I called out while wincing lightly from the pain. I was seriously getting too old for this bullshit happening all around me, but unfortunately, I was not given a reprieve as the glowing form of [Divine Dividing] appeared before me.

"Time for our rematch." With that, Vali swung hard with his armored fist. There was only one thought that went through my mind as the gauntlet came closer.

'I really hate my E-Rank Luck.'

'BOOVM!'

Part 3

Ise had to question whether the universe was against him or something.

He had just spent the past hour dealing with some magicians who had forced Gasper to use his Sacred Gear on wide scale, trying to give the vampire some motivation to control his abilities. After helping him in stopping the magicians (and getting a decent eyeful, he might add), he and the others went back to the leaders to find the others back on their feet and dealing with the magicians who came up to attack.

Things got tensed when one of the apparent leaders of the attack came out and challenged Azazel, alongside Vali who revealed his association with the Chaos Brigade. A very hot and mature woman that he would not mind ogling if not for her attitude towards him and the fact that she helped to usher the attack in. Azazel fought back using an artificial Sacred Gear that he created to achieve some type of forced [Balance Breaker] and was able to defeat her with the cost of his arm. Vali seemed to have disappeared at some point, so they did not know what happened.

Shirou soon came back to them, looking a little worse for wear without his jacket and shirt and revealing a body that inspired envy, fear and a bit of respect. Envy because Shirou was sporting a muscular body boasting a six-pack ready to grind meat and enough to make the females around blush heavily and one angel to almost fall. Fear because Shirou was sporting a lot of old wounds and scars that looked as though they should have killed him from the start, especially the one above his heart that appeared to be a true-and-through. And the respect part was because Shirou had to endure a lot to survive all of those attacks.

His observations got interrupted when Vali came along wanting to attack them, but got sidetracked when some weird monsters came along and swarmed the area, forcing them back quite a bit. It would seem that Shirou had fought them before but had issues to contain them, thus asking him and Rias for help in a creation of a spear he made to deal with them. After that he got the front row seat to seeing a rather graphic destruction of those creatures as they got sucked into a black hole of destruction and set on fire by Shirou. They did not get much respite as Vali came back and sent Shirou flying out of the clubroom and back to the grounds below.

Ise did not waste time and jumped out of the open wall, hitting the ground hard before going after Vali who was pushing Shirou away from them and into the open courtyard. At least by the time he got there, Shirou had enough of Vali and proceeded to use that magic of his to create several swords and fire at Vali like missiles. But the traitor merely raised his fists to punch them, breaking them in the process. Oddly enough Shirou smirked at that and raised his hand to snap his fingers.

"BOOMM!"

Ise got knocked off his feet as the shrapnel of the damaged swords glowed before exploding spectacularly, completely engulfing Vali in fire and smoke that continued for close to a minute before subsiding, during which Shirou used that chance to project some weaponry and stab them into the ground before calling out his bow. Ise used that chance to get close to him while keeping his head down.

"Hey there Ise, quite an evening for our meeting huh?" Shirou quipped as he notched one of the swords to his bow and pulled it back, the sword reforming itself into an arrow with a jagged arrowhead. He let fly into the smoke and let it explode, forcing Ise to the ground again while the explosion cleared the smoke enough to show Vali forced back with his armor damaged from the attack.

"I must say, you are certainly living up to some of the rumors on the network." Vali commented as his armor repaired itself. "Yet you are holding back on me, that is not good. You should not be doing that."

"Oh great, just what we needed. Another Kokabiel." Ise groaned in frustration while Shirou grunted and made an expression of resigned agreement. Clearly, the both of them would have preferred no one else to come to them with a battle-centric mindset.

Bummer.

"You want to know something funny? Destiny is a cruel mistress." Vali spoke again while directing his eyes at Ise. Shirou narrowed his eyes at Vali, likely wondering what was his angle while looking for a possible opening to attack.

"I can't help thinking how different the two of us are. We have me, the strongest existence one could perceived of with a Maou and a legendary dragon. And then we have you, someone who was once a regular human and just happened to possess the same dragon-type Sacred Gear." Vali started while folding his arms. "Both your parents are normal folk, along with any known relatives. There is literally no one in your bloodline or ancestors who are ability-users, practitioners with powers, let alone any connection with devils or angels. You have no special friends, not even a hint of a magical pet. Aside from getting [Boosted Gear], you are practically a boring and normal male high school student."

Vali laughed loudly while putting a hand to his head. "Honestly speaking, I was almost appalled at the truth that faced me when I was reading up on you. If your parents were magicians, then maybe I would have been a lot more interested, but this is so pathetic I can't help but laugh at the absurdity!" He slowly regained his breath as he looked back at Ise.

"Here's an idea for you. Why don't I kill your parents?" Ise's heart literally stopped and his mind went blank at Vali's words. He did not understand what he was talking about earlier but these he did perfectly well, along with the next set of words.

"Yes, the idea is quite appealing. After all, your parents will just live ordinarily, grow old ordinarily and die ordinarily. It is just so~ boring." Vali gestured with his arms as though he was trying to mime a scene. "But if your parents are killed by a valuable existence like me, your personal history would become more interesting. You would be devoting yourself to a solemn destiny of vengeance. Yes~ You can become an avenger, devoted to killing me for revenge over your parent's death. The setting I spoke of is much more brilliant than such a boring life, right?!"

"…"

Ise was not sure how to express the odd feeling that started from inside him, but he knew that this guy was to blame and that he was say something very unlike him. But before he could speak, Vali decided someone else should be given the speech.

"And let's not forget about you, Shirou Emiya, the Mage of Steel." Vali turned his attention at him who was now sporting a hardened expression at his declaration to kill Ise's parents.

"At least you have the strength to prove yourself, but you are clearly born in the wrong type of world and time, having to tow amongst the weak sheep around you. You have to hold back a fair bit of your strength to fit in, too much in my opinion. What little I have gathered about your fight with Regeis, and what I recalled from your fight with Kokabiel, you do much better if something is at stake or when there is a sense of danger that brings out the inner beast. So why don't I extend the same courtesy to you?" He paused before continuing. "How about that old couple at the bar? They seemed close enough to you for a good reaction."

Ise's heart went cold a second time as he digested the words, remembering the old couple that arrived at the academy's reopening and accompanied Shirou during his lessons and visited the store where he acted as a butler. He recalled how Shirou actually showed a bit more emotions around the two, less guarded compared to their groups and how the old man talked with the both of them with a bit of boyish youth in his actions, while his wife acted like a kind grandma who was stern but gentle at the same time.

And Vali just threatened to kill them as well?!

The odd feeling from earlier grew even more, wanting to burst forth from his body and spill all over the area. Next to him, a shadow passed over Shirou's face as he looked down, likely trying to process what Vali just said blatantly to his face.

"I am going to kill you."

Ah, now Ise understood the feeling, it was the same with Shirou's when he fought against some of the Strays and Kokabiel.

The intent to kill with extreme prejudice.

"Yeah, so maybe I was an ordinary guy before being turned into a devil. My father is just an ordinary office worker who works from morning to evening for our family, while my mother is an ordinary housewife who makes delicious food for our family morning, noon and evening. However, they raised me up to this point. To me, they're the best parents." The bracelet on his wrist was glowing brightly while [Boosted Gear] was having all of its jewels flashing brightly.

"…Kill them? My father and mother, not to mention Kano-san and Kawako-san? Why should they have to be mixed up in the situation of someone like you and be killed? As if I know anything about things like valuable or destiny!"

"Exactly." At this point Shirou spoke in a tone that was almost void of emotion as he looked up at Vali, and for the first time, Ise saw what could only be described as pure fury on Shirou's face.

"Who gave you the right to try and drag innocents into this fight? What the hell goes into your mind thinking that you can target people we care for the sake of your god-damn lust for fights?!" Shirou spat while the aura around him was building and giving off the sensation of steel grating on his skin. "And who in FUCKING ROOT'S NAME do you think you are to threaten us that way!"

'SHING! CHING!'

Around the both of them, every type of sword, spear and other type of weapon known to history stabbed the ground hard, their holy auras or demonic auras going rampant in the fury of their master, while [Hell's Trident] appeared behind him, its frame glowing menacingly and giving off enough demonic energy to impose the sensation that he was about to get burned badly. And unless Ise was imaging it, some of the weapons were also getting affected by his rage as well.

That was fine, because he was officially pissed off.

"You can forget going after them." Ise gritted his teeth as the bracelet and [Boosted Gear] went ballistic with power.

"But you could start writing your will." Shirou lifted his swords while the other weapons glowed brightly and [Hell's Trident] started to give off some static electricity.

"Because we will be damned if we let them killed by the likes of youuuuu!"

[Welsh Dragon Over Booster!]

[Hell's Lances of Betrayal!]

As if responding to Ise's anger, the Sacred Gear started to release a strong bright red aura and in a flash, he was equipped in the [Balance Breaker] of the gear. For Shirou, the weapons around unleash a torrent of energy that shot up into the sky and alight the entire academy, while the demonic Sacred Gear glowed a crimson red before splitting into seven different forms that hovered around him. The both of them looked at each other and nodded with grim determination.

To quote Shirou's favorite words.

"It is time to go hunting."

=()=

'This fellow is going down!'

That was the only thought that rang through my head as I rushed forward with Kanshou and Bakuya while Ise activated his jets and flew at Vali first. He threw a straight right that Vali merely shifted his head to avoid his attack before he tried a kick that got blocked by Vali's arm. With a mere flick of his wrist, he blew Ise away to hit the ground hard. I took that opportunity to get in close and throw both blades at him while creating a new pair to follow up. I figured he would just use his armor to handle the attacks and that was fine.

His arrogance would be his own undoing.

I went for every opening and weakness I could spy in his guard and armor, but that armor of his was quite a hassle and he was a quick learner in dodging my attacks. But at least that gave Ise the chance to come in from behind and punched him hard in the back, shattering portions of his armor that gave the chance to stab Kanshou through.

"Gargh!" Vali let out a grunt of pain as he swiped at me, knocking me a few feet away as he tackled Ise to the ground. But that was when the two blades I threw earlier came back and slice through the wing joints, cutting off one of them and destabilizing him for a moment to let me come back and reinforced my arm to punch him straight through the chest and pushed him away while breaking his chest plate in the process. But he had a very quick recovery and made to grab me, only for one of the seven spears to get between us and let loose a torrent of demonic energy at him, seemingly eating his armor away and reducing his strength. I used that opportunity to grab a sword, flooded it with my Prana and threw it straight at his chest, exploding spectacularly and forcing him back.

"You doing okay, Ise?" I provided an arm for him to grab on.

"Aside from a headache and a wounded pride, I'm peachy." Ise said as he got up, his armor repaired in a blink of an eye. "But you have some serious luck, Shirou. I think you just obtained [Balance Breaker]!"

"I am not sure that is the case." I answered honestly while sparing a quick glance at the seven lances that hovered around me. It was a very odd feeling to say the least, like I had a blanket on me with seven creatures sleeping with me at the same time, each just waiting to be ordered to fight my enemies. And I could not shake the feeling that if this was [Balance Breaker], it felt somewhat incomplete.

"Well whatever you got, hopefully it helps." Ise remarked as we looked to where Vali landed hard. "Say Shirou, remember that thing you made me do with Kiba during the training camp, the one to deal with the Knights?"

"Yeah." I looked at Vali who was getting back up and his armor repairing before my eyes.

"Shall we do that here?" Ise gripped his fist with determination while the glow of his eyes intensified. "I want to give him the taste of the sonic boom." I merely smirked while gripping the swords.

"I got the sonic if you got the boom."

With that, I threw both blades at Vali again, letting them fly around with the previous set and keeping him distracted for me to grab one of the swords around me, a blade that allows me to go supersonic.

"[Silfarion]!" I rushed forward in an instant and delivered a few strikes to his armor, keeping him from seeing Ise come from behind and unleash a few of those dragon shots that hit him hard in the back. As he attempted to move, one of the seven lances flew into my hand and by instinct, I swung it hard to unleash a huge wave of energy that shaped itself into a tsunami of gold serpents that pounced onto Vali and bit deeply into his armor, the excess flowing all over him.

"Better get back!" I called out to Ise while jumping back as the snakes rose into the air and merged into one huge serpent which hissed at Vali who was still trapped by the ones biting into his armor. It opened its mouth wide and charged straight at him, swallowing him whole and clamping its mouth shut. But the creature soon showed signs of it being in pain before it exploded in front of us, leaving the being clad in armor hovering above us like some vengeful god.

Great.

"Get ready for it, Ise!" I called out to him while holding on to my sword.

"On it!" Ise decided to try out that new move I suggested to him before and slammed his gauntlet into the ground, creating a fissure that extended to below Vali before erupting in a spectacular display of energy shots that went straight at him like a shotgun. But rather irritatingly, Vali used that dividing ability to reduce the attack strength, making them a little more than small splatters of weak energy.

But that was merely the distraction.

From above, multitudes of demonic spears descended onto Vali like a torrential rain of needles, smashing into him and partially piercing his armor to destabilize him. That in turn caused him to lose focus and let the Dragon Shots hit him from below with the intended power, causing a few parts of his armor to break off. With a roar, he cast that dividing ability all around him, reducing the firepower or destroying my weapons completely and leaving him hunched over slightly.

And with that I could conclude a major weakness of his. He needed to see an attack in order to focus his ability, otherwise he could use that ability as a shield but would cost him Prana.

"Let's try this then." I opened one hand to allow another lance make contact with it and with a quick trace to understand it, I spun it to create a series of tornadoes to surround Vali and keep him there, before stabbing the ground with it to have vines shoot out of the ground and wrap themselves around his limbs, pulling him back and forcing him to endure the tornadoes converging on him and bashing him. The best of this was that none of the attacks were actively using any energy, this was pure natural attacks.

If this was really my [Balance Breaker], and each lance had a different ability, I was so going to enjoy finding out each one of their uses.

"Ise, are you ready for the boom!" I called out to him.

"Way ahead of you!" Ise placed his hands together and gathered as much of the Prana from his armor to build up a ball of energy that swirled between the palms of his hand. It grew steadily to the size of a grapefruit and continued as he drew his hands out.

'BBOOMM!'

I turned to find the tornadoes torn apart and Vali flying out of the attack straight at us. "Anytime now Ise!"

"Got it!" Ise held up the ball that was roughly a few sizes bigger than his head. Okay, now we can perform that move, just need to keep Vali facing one direction.

I call forth several holy weapons to rain down on him and forced his direction in a manner that he would be stuck in one area, before using the same lance to call forth a barrage of jagged rocks that made their way to him, keeping him distracted and away from Ise. Taking hold of the lance, I swung it upwards to call forth a thunderstorm to rain down bolts of lightning on him. Once I was convinced he was sufficiently contained, I reinforced my legs and jumped high into the air before turning to Ise. "Do it!"

"Here comes the boom!" Ise took up a pitcher's stance and threw the ball of energy hard to have it right between me and Vali. I took [Silfarion] into both hands and focused my Prana into it, breaking it slightly to get the required effect, then with a loud yell, I swung the blade multiple times to send a barrage of supersonic air blasts at the ball, cutting it apart and shooting off multiple dragon blasts at Vali at supersonic speeds.

"BBOBOMMM!"

The first explosion was immediately overtaken by others, completing covering the area in fire and smoke while the ground shook violently from the vibrations. I landed a little hard on the ground and dismissed [Silfarion] from my hand before calling forth another set of Kanshou and Bakuya. Ise on his side activated his boosters and flew straight into the smoke with his arm reared back. There was a loud clash of metal before the fire and smoke cleared from the resulting aftershock of the attack, revealing Vali who had suffered some armor damage but was largely unharmed, and was now holding Ise's fist in one hand.

Ise let out a roar and started to kick and punch the best he could. But Vali kept dodging and parrying the attacks while using that dividing ability to reduce his strength, and I was not going to let him take Ise out so quickly. I rushed forward to intercept and aimed for his neck, successfully gaining his attention and letting Ise lay in a good hit to the head. I then decided to show my rage for Vali's threats to the elderly couple by reinforcing my leg to the maximum and delivering it to the one spot I knew would get his attention.

'CLANK!'

"GARH!" ["AAAHHH!"]

Both Vali and Albion let out synchronized cries of agony as my leg smashed through the armor around the crotch and delivered the full force of my strength through it, distracting the both of them enough for Ise to deliver a barrage of punches to his back and limbs. I kept using my leg to kick him there while using one blade to stab through the joints of the armor and attempt to break it. But unfortunately, Vali grabbed my arm and pulled me away from him and using the strength to throw me a fair distance. With me out of the way, Vali managed to push Ise away before raising his arm at him.

[Divide!] With that declaration, Ise lost a fair amount of his speed while Vali's armor restored itself to full health. Lightly flexing his arm, Vali drew back his fist and punched Ise hard to send him flying at me. I braced myself as I caught Ise and got pushed back a fair bit before stopping. With a grunt, I let him down while looking at Vali with narrowed eyes.

This was bad, Vali just needed to keep using that ability of his to reduce our strengths and restore his, that power was so broken!

"Shirou, I might have a crazy idea." I turned to Ise who was holding on to one of the jewels broken off from Vali's armor. "Think you can give me some time?"

"What are you planning to do with that?" I asked.

["Something incredibly dangerous and outrageously stupid"] Ddraig answered with a tone that was both stern and amused. ["The lad wants to incorporate the powers of Albion into me"]

"Is that a good idea?" I looked at the devil with narrowed eyes. "From what little I gathered, both of your powers are pure opposites, the compatibility would be off by a huge margin."

"If you have better ideas to get past that, I am open." Ise clutched the jewel hard. "But I need to exceed that guy's strength in whatever way I can. I need this!" I looked at him while gaging his Prana patterns and found that he was genuinely agitated that he could not do more. I would have argued something but I could tell that he wanted to prove himself that he could go toe-to-toe with Vali, he just needed the push.

Curse my elderly heart... Errr, make that elderly mind.

"All right then, better stay alive." I turned back to Vali. "I will buy as much time as I can." With that, I pushed forward to meet Vali and get him to focus on me. Something that proved easier than I wanted as Vali had no problems chasing after me.

"My rival is such a sad existence, he cannot keep up with me." Vali taunted us both as he flew after me. "I am hoping you can keep me entertained, Shirou Emiya."

Let's give it a shot then.

With an image and a snap of my fingers, I had [Hell's Trident] create spears that surrounded us in a certain pattern and close to particular swords that I projected earlier in my anger. Cutting my finger on one of the blades, I drew a quick rune on my hand before reciting the spell. "Break his mind, his body and his spirit into the depths of Hades. Art of Deception, Number 8, [Mirror's End]!" The spears and swords glowed and hummed in harmony before projecting small pillars of light that soon grew in size and surrounded us. Within a few minutes, the pillars disappeared to show floating panes of mirrors around us.

"What is this, I wonder?" Vali looked around before looking back at me. "An illusion type spell-casting? I expected better." With a quick boost of speed, he appeared before me and laid a fist into my stomach.

Well, something that resembled me, as the projection broke and shattered around him.

"What?!" Vali let out a surprised tone as he watched the fragments surround him, creating more mirrors in the process.

'Gotcha~'

I was already moving to his back and slashing hard at his wings when he attacked my projected self, before jumping through one of the mirrors to go to another spot. With this spell that was based off [Graduation Air], I was able to create illusions and semi-teleport myself to other areas provided the mirrors were still standing, not a problem since each broken mirror would result in more being created. After taking a pot-shot at his legs, I went through another mirror and appeared above him, allowing me the necessary height to deliver an overhead slash that almost embedded itself into his shoulder. I continued the process at different sides, each time Vali tried to keep up but ended up destroying more mirrors and subsequently create new ones for me to go through and create more blank copies of myself.

"HAHA! Very sneaky of you, but can you really continue doing this?" Vali called out in the center of a large number of created mirrors. I merely raised my hand to call out the different weapons from the ground and directed them at the mirrors, firing at full speed and kept him guessing at where the weapons would go to. They accelerated in between mirrors before coming out directed at him at full speed.

"BBBOOMMMM!"

I held on to one of the spears as the explosion blew away the illusions and forced away the remaining weapons. I may have overdone it as I had a hard time hanging on and I ended up in the clutches of Vali as he came out of the smoke and grabbed me by the neck. "An interesting mix of illusions and displacement. Truly you are a unique magician." Vali said as he drew me closer. "But now you are in my hands, so what will you try next?" To that, I merely gave him a smile.

"Not me. Him."

[Divide!]

The aura around Vali decreased drastically, catching him off guard and allowing Ise to bulldoze his way into his side, releasing his grip on me. Massaging my neck, I turned to him now sporting a white gauntlet on his right arm with Albion's Blue Jewel embedded in it.

"Good job, Ise." I congratulated him on the odd task.

"Thanks Shirou!" Ise replied while raising his arm. "Though honestly speaking, the design is a little awkward, having only white on one side is weird~" I snorted at his opinion on appearance as opposed to potentially having some incompatible power at his fingertips.

["The lad has done it all right, but at a price."] Ddraig called out from his end. ["He has significantly shortened his lifespan by a fair amount, and that is a lot for devils who could live almost endlessly. Furthermore, at his current level, he can only remove power and not use it as his own like Vali's"]

"Then we better make it count." I looked to where Vali got pushed away and found him coming back to us with Albion loudly exclaiming his disbelief at Ddraig taking his power. "For now, hang on to that but do not use it too early."

"Round 2?" Ise said as he clenched his fists.

"Bring it." I projected a new set of Kanshou and Bakuya and ran to the side while Ise rushed forward to attack Vali head-on. As practiced during his training for Raiser's match, we alternated our attacks on Vali, him laying on the close-range attacks while I provided both long-range capabilities and defence with my swords and [Hell's Trident], and it was largely effective as he was not expecting how random both of our movements were and dealing with both of our Sacred Gears was clearly messing with his timing.

Time to end this.

"Ise, get ready to move!" I reversed my grip and stabbed both blades into his back, making him yell out in pain as they plunged deep into his flesh while disabling the wing joints. I kicked hard away from him in order to get some distance while Ise use the opportunity to deliver a few more punches and kicks. I called forth another set of Kanshou and Bakuya and broke the two projections, just as the flying sets from earlier homed in on the ones stuck in Vali's back. I ran the moment Vali grabbed Ise and threw him away, making sure I got the timing right to hit him with the swords.

We definitely got him now!

[Half Dimension!]

That was the only warning I got before the Kanshou twisted and shrunk irregularly, causing the Prana within to prematurely explode and sending shards through my left arm and severing it through the elbow. Pain shot through my entire body and I barely held it in as I focused on swinging Bakuya at Vali, detonating it alongside the other sets to engulf him in explosion and steels shards, while using the concussive force to force me back to the ground and examine the damage.

And it was worse than I thought.

There were shards of Bakuya sticking out of the upper regions of the arm, and where the elbow used to be, was now reduced to a stump that had a part of bone sticking out of bleeding flesh. At a distance, I spied my torn-off limb still holding onto the handle. This was a bad situation for me, Asia was too far to get to and I doubt Vali would give me a chance to do that.

There was one option, I just hate having to do that again.

"Shit, Shirou!" Ise came to me and hesitated at placing a hand on me. "Oh man, your arm! We need Asia for this! What am I to do?!"

"Ise... Can you... Grab my arm please?" I panted lightly as I struggled to maintain some control on my pain and tried to stem the blood flow while using my head to gesture at the limb. Ise immediately flew to it, grab it and came straight back to hand it to me. Gingerly I took it and positioned it roughly where the joint would be, took a deep breath before concentrating on [Avalon].

"Trace on."

I nearly screamed in pain as blades pierced themselves out of the stump and pushed outwards to the severed limb, stabbing it lightly and forcing some Prana to it to get it recognized while the old shards got swallowed by my arm and used for the rebuilding process. The limb started to twitched and shudder as more blades build around the two ends and fold themselves irregularly to form an off-shaped elbow. Within a few moments, the process was complete and I was left with a loosely reattached arm with a nightmarish bladed caricature of an elbow to hang on to the cut-off limb. I panted hard as I lightly flexed the reattached arm before looking up to direct a glare at Vali who got back up to his feet sooner than I liked.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to heal an arm injury like this?!" I gritted my teeth as the bladed edges grated against each other unevenly, sending pain through the reconnecting joint and nerves. "It is not like I can just snap it back on you know!"

"What..." Ise drawled while looking at me, while at a distance I could spot some of the others looking at me with gob-smacked expressions, likely due to the method of healing. I was so glad that Rin and Luvia were not here to see this. Rin would certainly make a lot of noise regarding my healing issues while Luvia would have choice words at me.

"Considering the amount of fighting you have done, it is a small price to lose an arm." Vali replied, sounding both winded but excited as well. "But I suppose an apology is in place."

"What the hell type of attack was that?!" Ise demanded while stepping forward to shield me from whatever attack Vali might try next.

"Your ignorance is rather scary, Hyoudou Issei. It may not be a bad idea for you to die without knowing anything." Vali said in a mocking tone before swinging his arm around the area, then before our eyes, the trees reduced in both size and relative age in a blink of an eye.

You have got to be kidding me, that dividing ability was so bloody broken!

"What the heck just happened?!" Ise yelled as he looked around at the trees that shrunk.

"Sekiryuutei, Hyoudou Issei. Let me clearly explain it to you." Azazel called out from his side with an expression that was serious if not for that odd smile that set off some alarm bells. I had the feeling I knew what would be his choice of explanation.

"That ability halves everything in his surroundings. In other words, if the Hakuryuukou became serious, then Rias Gremory's bust will also be halved."

"…"

I sighed while palming my face in exasperation, thinking how the hell did my day turned out like this and knowing the likely reaction Ise would show.

Three... Two... One...

"Don't fuck with meee!" Ise roared out in rage as the armor started to give off a bright red aura and kept calling out 'Boost' rapidly. "I won't forgive you! You're the one person I absolutely won't forgive! I'll knock you down! I'll destroy you! Valiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!"

Called it.

"You have got to be kidding me! His dragon power is skyrocketing because of the possibility of his master's breasts becoming smaller by Albion!" Azazel let loose a loud laugh while I spied with my eyes the embarrassed or scandalized faces of the females around him. "Oh by the Gods, this is just perfect! HAHAHA!"

Gee, thanks for the humor.

"This is not a laughing matter! Buchou's wonderful breasts are on the line here, and this asshole thinks he can do all of that without a care in the world!" Ise yelled at the top of his voice as his Prana caused the ground to crack beneath him and formed a crater, while the more damaged walls of the clubhouse crumbled from the strain. "There is no way I am letting him get near Rias Gremory!"

By the Root, someone please~ end my suffering.

"Let's not forget, that this guy also wants to hurt my family and Shirou's grandparent substitutes, and then he hurts Shirou to this extent! I am going to murder this guy!" Ise clenched his fists tightly before turning to me.

"Before I forget," Ise placed a gauntlet on my shoulder, "you are going to need some energy to get better."

["Transfer!"]

That was the only indication I got before I felt a sudden influx of energy rushing into my body and flooding my circuits with unadulterated pure Prana. It was so sudden that I unconsciously rose to my feet and arched my back backwards as I tried to process all of the Prana entering inside, flushing out any old or poisoned Prana and spreading to every pore of my body, while feeding [Avalon] to the point of it going overtime and fixing whatever injuries I got.

So much power going through my circuits, it is almost agonizing and orgasmic at the same time!

Too much, there is too much of it! I need to release it quickly and efficiently!

And that allowed me one type of usage.

"Trace Overedge!" I gritted my teeth and bent over as the energy spread all over my body, reinforcing my joints, increasing my defense and raising my overall strength to at least A-rank. The sounds of grating metal filled the area as the steel on my arm shifted and grew to encompass my entire arm, while the heat on my body grew alongside the feeling of the hot rod pushing down my spinal cord. In the dizzying pain, I could feel my bones cracking and reforming themselves in my body and my sense of smell and hearing were going nuts.

After a few more seconds that felt like hours, the pain and heat subside to a somewhat manageable degree, allowing me to open my eyes slowly while lightly panting. With a light grunt, I placed my feet firmly on the ground and stood up slowly, feeling the joints popping from the ordeal. I did not need more confirmation since I could hear Ise and the others gasping, but seeing my left arm covered in a seamless mail of steel, while the skin tone on my upper body and my right arm having darkened significantly told me that the skill had worked, and the final confirmation was the reflection from the large piece of window pane next to me, from which I could see my height had increased a fair amount, my hair had turned white and my eyes had changed to the color of steel. I could not help but smirk at the familiar face in front of me.

Welcome back, Archer.

"Well, that is certainly a new thing." Vali commented from above as I looked up with dark eyes. "How about you, Albion?"

["Nay, this is a first for me as well."] The dragon inside his gear answered while the blue jewels glowed. ["There is something unusual about him, a power that I had not felt for a very long time. Foreign, yet familiar."]

"This feeling..." With my enhanced hearing, I could hear Azazel speak with a slightly confused tone. "It can't be..."

"You felt it too." Michael spoke with a similar tone. "It is similar to him."

["Yes."] Albion said with a definite tone, of what I was not sure. ["This feeling is just like the one who sealed us into the Gears, but at the same time, I am sensing the power of dragons and something else more ingrained and natural than the others."]

["Steel."]

I turned to Ise whose armor started to have its jewels glowing in tandem. ["There is the feeling of True Steel coming from him."] Ddraig spoke from the jewels with the same unknown tone as Albion. ["What are you, Shirou Emiya?"]

Okay, this was getting really weird.

"Does it matter?" I looked to Vali who merely banged his two fists together. "If he can fight better in that form, I will take it. I can take them both on."

"Don't' even try anything stupid, you halving ass maniac!" Ise called out while thrusting out his finger, the mere action creating an aftershock that shook the far-away trees violently. "Shirou and I are going to destroy your ass so hard, you would not be able to reincarnate again! And you would regret wanting to reduce Buchou's breasts!"

"Guess that is one way of putting it, even if it was for the weirdest choice of all." I quipped before considering my options. I do have plenty of Prana coursing through me, so I could just spam my attacks and sort through the different weaponry to get him, but this guy had proven to be a problem that could keep reducing both the power in the weapons and keep increasing his own strength. I needed a weapon to get past that power of the dragon to deal out real damage.

Wait, power of a dragon?

I turned to look at Ise, specifically the gear from which I could make out the presence of a dragon-slaying weapon. With a jolt, I recalled the story of Ise gaining a holy weapon from Michael that was famed to kill dragons. Regular dragons were fine, but to deal with the respective abilities were something that people from the past had trouble.

Except one type of slayers.

I let loose a smirk that would make some Dead Apostles nervous as I considered my artillery. There was one potential weapon that could deal with that pesky ability to divide and at the same time, take on a dragon. Normally I would have trouble calling it out, but thanks to Ise's [Gift] ability, I should have more than enough to call it out.

Let's put it to the test.

I dismissed the other weapons around us with a gesture and gave a mental command to [Hell's Trident] to be on standby. Then with a light crack of my neck, I started the chant to call out the one physical Noble Phantasm that I obtained from one of my templates during my travels.

"I call forth the symbol of Kabbalah that houses the 10 Sephirots. I call forth the pillars of the Judaism that governs the principles of its people. I call forth the [Tree of Life]." I chanted the spell before slamming my foot against the ground. From behind, the ground split to show what looked to be a glowing white plant sprouting from it. It quickly grew and towered above all of us, with branches and that stretched wide and leaves of white steel glowing above us. I raised my arm and focused for the item in question.

"Grant me the power from the angel that nurtures the energy that flows within the kingdom of the Lord. Grant me the prayer that allows the speech of the Lord to his people." I looked to Vali with a defiant glare and a light smirk on my face. "Grant me the fruit of [Sandalphon]!"

The tree glowed brightly in response as 10 orbs grew amongst the branches. The one closest to me grew bigger than the rest and detached itself from the tree, descending slowly to my hand. I gripped it tightly, causing the shell to break and the energy within to spill and reshape itself to its true form. With a hard swing, I directed the energy to the ground, causing it to crack deeply as the energy settled into a gigantic broad sword that was comparable in size to the Reformed Excalibur Blade and sported a dark edge with a pale body and a simple guard and handle.

"Impressive presentation." Vali commented while he raised his Prana levels. "But is it just that?" I merely answered by hefting the blade on my shoulders, causing small cracks to appear at the bottom of my feet due to the weight pressing down on me, and lifting one hand to give the one-finger gesture.

'Come get some.'

Vali disappeared before our eyes and reappeared a few feet away from me. Thankfully with the amount of Prana flowing within me, my sense could keep up and I dashed forward while subtly gripping the handle to activate the passive ability of [Sandalphon]. Vali raised his arm and tried that trick again.

[Half Dimen...]

The sound of glass breaking was the indication I needed to tell me that his attack was nullified and the distraction was enough for me to get up close and personal to Vali and swing the weapon hard, smashing into him and slicing through his armor easily.

"GARH!" From the mouth piece, blood spilt out and Vali made to grab his wound when I flipped the weapon and pulled it back, smashing his helmet into pieces and spilling more blood.

["Vali, get away from that weapon!"] Albion called out with a rare tone of fear and panic. ["That weapon is a dragon slayer and some sort of nullifier!"] Vali responded by jumping back a distance and conjuring up a barrier.

"Damn Shirou! You should have brought that out sooner." Ise said as he looked at it.

"I can't really call it out that often, the cost is too high." I replied back to his remark. "This guy is usually meant for last resorts type of issues, not to mention the fact that this is a dragon slayer should be of concern to you as well."

"What do you... oh wait." Ise palmed his gauntlet against his helmet. "Okay, got it."

"Figures you would forget in the heat of the moment." I took the moment to smile lightly before adopting a more serious expression. "I will deal with that dividing ability, but I might have issues with whatever powers he has, especially the devil powers. Still up for it?"

"Yup." Ise bashed his gauntlets a couple of times to pump himself up. "Ready when you are."

"Let's go." I pushed off and swung the blade hard, using the nullifying ability to cut through the barrier and forced him out, giving Ise a straight shot to hit him. Vali kicked him away before coming at me at high speeds and alternating his positions, likely thinking he needed to be out of my reach and to attack me at my blind spot, and it was likely due to his view of [Sandalphon] being a giant broad sword.

That would work if [Sandalphon] was just a giant broad sword.

I twisted a part of the handle to activate the locking mechanism, causing the blade to split down the middle and revealing a different handle near the base. I grabbed it and pulled hard to split the blade to reveal a single-edged blade that was half the length of [Sandalphon] and had runes glowing brightly in Vali's presence. Taking his momentary surprise to heart, I swung the blade to nick him at the side, causing the scratch to glow before electricity flowed from it and covered his entire body, electrocuting him in the process.

"GARRH!" Vali let out a yell as he kicked me away, but that merely gave the chance to switch my arsenal by resetting the configuration of [Sandalphon] and activating another lock to take out half of the blade and combine the two at the handle, creating a double-ended blade weapon. I spun the weapon around my neck as I got close, using the blade's momentum to keep spinning while using my hands to force Vali to use his arms to stop me. Not an easy thing for him to do since the electricity was affecting his motor movements and the duo abilities of dragon-slaying and nullification were working their stuff on his Sacred Gear, breaking his armor apart and leaving him open for the blade slashes.

And of course, Ise did not waste the opportunity given to him and flew straight in to deliver a series of punches and kicks. Between the two of us, we were breaking his armor a lot more than earlier. But our advantage got reduced when magic circles appeared around him and we got thrown back hard, forcing me to stab the weapon into the ground to anchor myself.

"Yes~" Vali let out a rather scary tone of excitement while he glared at me through his broken helmet, showcasing his rather bloody smile at me. "This is what I want, a real fight!" With a burst of speed that could be mistaken for that of light, he flew straight at me and threw a punch, which was only blocked by [Sandalphon] having been pushed before me. I grunted as I held on while removing the handle lock to detach the secondary blade, then with a quick leap, I used the handle to pivot myself and slashed at him before using both my momentum and weight to pull the first blade out of the ground and did an overhead slash to which Vali blocked with both hands.

[Divide!]

'PIWOH~'

The dragon's ability got nullified by [Sandalphon] again and I used that chance to thrust the other blade at him, forcing him to fly upwards and releasing his grip on my blade, right in time for Ise to come charging in with a kick to the face.

I could so imagine the look of satisfaction on Ise's face as his armored boot met Vali's face, making the devil spit out blood and what looked to be a tooth in the process.

Vali called forth two magic circles behind him that fired off energy blasts at us as he repaired his armor, forcing us to split up and run in different directions. I call forth [Aegis Type 2] to block off the majority of the attacks while using [Sandalphon] to take out those that bypass the defenses. Looks like he got some tactics for this, good thing I chose this weapon in advance.

I recombined the weapon and changed the configuration to bring out a 2-foot long boomerang with bladed edges and runes decorating it. I threw it with a fair about of strength and sent it flying at him, who tried to direct his fire power at it, but the weapon ignored all of his attacks and mowed through the circles, disrupting the energy flow and backfiring on him. With a roar, he flew straight up while backhanding Ise who tried to attack him by the side.

"Ise!" I called out to him as I rushed forward, grabbing the boomerang and resetting [Sandalphon] back to its large sword form. "Fastball special!" I gave the name to him who understood and jumped high as I swung my weapon around in huge arcs, letting him plant his feet on it and with a yell, sent him flying straight at Vali. With a loud yell, Ise activated his boosters and shot past Vali before flipping and came at him from above.

"Up high!" Ise raised a fist and smashed it into Vali's face, breaking the helmet again and causing him to spit a lot of blood. With a roar, Ise pushed his boosters to maximum and continued to punch and push Vali to the earth below him, right at the spot where I was waiting.

"Down low!" I split the weapon again to pull out an axe and spun in huge arcs to build up momentum. With a roar, I slammed the weapon into Vali at the moment he came to my level, breaking off a huge portion of his armor while digging into his flesh. Using my momentum, I swung the other portion of [Sandalphon] to crush the open portions of his armor and sent him skidding against the floor. I planted my feet hard and pushed forward just as Ise came to my side with his boosters. In a few seconds, we got to where Vali had stopped and was clearly having trouble orientating himself.

"Too slow!" As one we raised our armored arms and delivered a punch at him, Ise's punch smashing into his body and destroying the remaining portions of his armor while mine went straight for his face, giving me a bit of satisfaction as I felt bone shattering under my fist and he spit out more blood.

"Enough!"

The both of us got blown back by the huge torrent of energy unleashed from the wings, giving Vali the chance to fly away to get some distance away from us. At this point it was clear that he was actually getting both frustrated and a touch anxious of our fighting and wanted to take the chance to recuperate quickly.

Something that Ise did not appreciate as he proceeded to grab my collar and used his boosters to lift the both of us up, transferring whatever power he had to them to make the distance.

"Clench tight, Shirou!" With a loud yell, Ise threw me hard towards Vali, making me feel every bone in me creaking under the strain of his throw. I gritted my teeth while concentrating on activating the magic circle that would boost my speed for the final move I had planned. A sudden rush of power coursed through me and I almost had to shut my eyes from the extreme speeds I was going. But I made sure that they were open and focused on Vali.

I was going to make him regret threatening Kano and Kawako.

I pulled back the arm holding [Sandalphon] and swung hard as I activated the mechanism to separate all the weapons from the locks and released my hold on it. The sword ejected the fusion weapons upwards and surrounding Vali with magic circles right behind them, with the main body shooting past and above him. With a rune circle at my feet, I pushed off and headed for the axe first, grabbing it while twisting my body to plant my feet on the magic circle. It activated the projectile effect, thrusting me towards Vali and using the momentum to slash at him with the weapon and leaving a glowing gash at the side. I reached the next weapon and magic circle, and just like before, I got launched to stab the twin knifes into his legs.

I repeated this action four more times with the different fusion weapons of [Sandalphon], each action either slashing at his body or stabbing him, and each time leaving Vali bleeding heavily. After hitting him in the head with the saber attachement, I was propelled upwards towards the main weapon above him and grabbed it firmly. But Vali in a last bout of strength reached to grab my leg, forcing me back.

"I will admit, the both of you are strong!" Vali gave a bloody smile despite getting pummeled by me. "But I will prove that I am the strongest and I will still win!"

"Like hell you will, asshole!" Out of nowhere, Ise came charging in with a booster propelled punch straight into his back, before activating his stolen version of the dividing ability to steal Vali's strength away while causing him to cough out blood. "Now Shirou!" I nodded while tightening my grip on the main weapon.

Time to end this.

I pushed hard against him to get some altitude, activating the last magic circle to give the final boost I needed. Then with a loud yell, I pushed off the circle and slashed down at Vali, to whom Ise held on until the last second so that Vali would take the full blast to the chest. The energy released from the attack slammed into Vali and sent him straight to the earth, leaving him in a deep crater semi-conscious but no longer able to fight, with the fusion weapons stabbed into the ground around him. Ise and I landed soon after, both of us coughing out blood and heaving from the exertion.

It was done.

Part 4

The area around us went silent as we gathered around Vali, each of us bearing some faring some form of wounds or damage from the attacks. Grayfia, Emilia and Griselda were either directing their weapons or some dark power at Vali, waiting for any movement to unleash their fury. The leaders were on the outer side being protected by their respective guards but monitoring them to see the situation, Azazel sporting a sadden expression at Vali.

For me and Ise, we were a fair bit away from them, letting our bodies catch a break after all the excitement.

"Damn~" Ise groaned as he grabbed his side. "Think I will be asking for sick leave for the next few days."

"I might actually take you up on that offer." I remarked while wincing at a tender muscle on one side. "I am going to be feeling that in the morning."

"Ise! Emiya-kun!" The both of us turned to find the two peerages coming to us with great concern on their faces. Upon arriving, Asia started to use her gear on Ise while Reya and Momo used their healing spells on me.

"Are you two doing okay?" Sona asked while Rias was checking Ise.

"The both of us were thinking a few days of R-&-R would do wonders for us right now." I remarked as I slowly got up and stretched my arms, unintentionally showing my body to her Peerage and leaving the girls blushing hard. "If that is all right with you?"

"Cough! Yes, I think I can help with that." Sona coughed into one hand and gave her reply while maintaining a blush on her cheeks. "Emiya-kun, can I ask that you cover up please?"

"Take your time though." Tsubasa looked at me with a slightly disturbing look in her eyes. "I don't mind the view for a little longer~"

Okay, I really need to get a shirt.

"Well, glad that is over." Saji said as he looked around him and back at Vali. "I think we can just leave this to the leaders now. After all we kicked some butt, there should be nothing to hinder us now." At that, Ise and I turned to face each other, and even with his helmet covering his face, I could imagine him sporting an expression of disbelief and resigned frustration.

The dude just had to press our luck and say those words.

'BOOM!'

The sound of the explosion and the sight of the three women flying back a few feet was enough to tell me that Saji jinxed us big time. Being the closest to the circle, I was able to move fast enough to catch Griselda before she crashed to the ground.

"Are you okay?" I asked the woman who was dazed from the attack.

"I am fine, thank you for catching me." Griselda shook her head and thanked me before pausing at the state we were both in. "You can let me down now."

"Sorry." I let her down gently before turning to see where Vali was. Standing in front of him protectively, two teens looked at us while in a stance that seemed loose but had no openings to grab. One maintained a steady gaze on us while the other had a smirk that spoke of confidence.

The one on Vali's right was a teen with long blond hair that was lightly braided at one end and had one strand across his face. He had thin spectacles and wore a business suit that would make him look more like someone going for a business proposal or as a butler if not for the light armor worn around his legs and the two swords by his side.

The one on Vali's left looked like he was starring in a show for 'Journey to the West', with short colored black hair and ancient Chinese armor that showed off his arms and portions of his stomach. To add to that, there was the scent of monkeys and yokai around him.

Great, just our luck.

"Glad to see us Vali?" The monkey yokai looked to Vali with a cheeky grin. "Looks like you got your hands full."

"We got you covered." The other teen grabbed the handle of one of the swords and pulled it out. "Get him to safety."

"On it, Arthur." The teen grabbed Vali and pulled him away while the teen named Arthur stepped forward and brandished his sword that had an oddly familiar flavor to it. At that, Grayfia, Emilia and some of the others rushed forward to stop them.

"This will be a problem." The swordsman raised the sword to the side and swung it, unleashing a huge wave of holy energy that pushed them back and for some devils, to yell out in pain as their skins burned from the contact.

That would be a big issue for us.

"Ise, can you still move?" I turned to the devil.

"I am a little winded, but I can still go." He got up unsteadily but brought his fists together with a loud clanking of steel. "I am not letting our hard work go away." I smiled at his declaration and could tell that he too had a similar smile underneath the armor.

"Let's do this." I projected a spear and threw it at the monkey yokai who dodged the attack while shielding Vali. The resulting explosion separated them from Arthur, giving Ise the opportunity to fly towards them with his armor while I rushed forward to deal with the swordsman. With a might swing, both of our weapons met in the center.

'Ching!'

'Thump~ Bump~'

[Make us whole. Make us whole.]

My chest started having that familiar pain reminiscent of a hammer hitting me in the heart while the chant started to ring in my head. Shaking my head lightly, I turned to face the individual before me, his sword pulsing with energy in time with the chant.

"So, you are the one who has the remaining shards and forged them into one form." The teen before me remarked without giving any ground to me as we pushed each other's blades. "I will admit, I was a little skeptical when Vali described you to me, but maybe that is a good thing. I get to see the real deal in person, although you looked different from the photos. A side effect from a spell perhaps?"

"I am flattered that you are interested, but it will be nice to have a name to relate to." I finally overpowered him and pushed him away from me, giving me enough room to prepare the next weapon.

"My apologies. It is very rude of me to do so." The teen lightly bowed while maintaining his position. "My name is Arthur Pendragon, descendant of the Hero King of Britain." With that one sentence, despite everything else going on around me, I actually halted in both my movement and my thoughts while looking at him.

"... What?"

"Oh, you sound a little agitated. Why is that?" The teen lightly twirled his sword before getting into position.

"Nothing." I mentally shook my head and focused on him while doing my best to not show my frustration at the sounds of the chanting made by the sword in his hand or the familiar figure of a disembodied knight appearing behind Arthur with that glowing eye socket. "I am a little surprised that's all."

"I imagine so." Arthur spoke with a tinge of steel. "It is not every day one would encounter another with ideal compatibility with the Excalibur Shards."

"I take it that you are expecting someone else." I started to pace around him while keeping an eye for Ise who was dealing with the Monkey King look-a-like.

"Perhaps." The teen started to mirror my actions while maintaining a safe distance. "Do not mistake my words for being a racist or for arrogance, but I had to wonder how an Asian magician could get the attention of the Excalibur Shards. There have been a small handful of cases of one shard getting bonded to an Asian user, but not all to one before."

"Not something I can tell you." I replied as I gripped [Sandalphon] tightly while the Excalibur Blade inside my pocket dimension was making my head ache with its calls to the last shard.

"Well, then this is a predicament." Arthur stopped while gripping his sword tightly. "That means the only way to understand one another would be through our blades."

"Like there is any other way." The both of us looked at each other before leaping forward at the same time, the clashing of our weapons was hard enough to make the ground between us cracked from the pressure while some of the others close by got thrown off their feet. We ignored them and focused on each other, trying to find some opening to get a strike.

From the get-go, I could tell that this fellow was going to be an issue; while my style was to create openings to trick the opponent to go for and allow me to hit them, his style seemed to be a full guard against all strikes, making sure that the attacker in question has to face him head-on or attack from a blind-spot and preferably at a distance.

But before I could put that into practice, a flash of light alerted me to an incoming attack, forcing me to jump back to avoid a beam that tore up the ground between the two of us and separating us from one another.

"Arthur, as fun as it is, I think this is a good time to leave." The Monkey King look-a-like dropped to his side and commented while Ise came to my right, his [Balance Breaker] having just timed out and now showing how much he was burning through his reserves. I myself was feeling the burn of my circuits and I could tell from the oddly alternating patches of skin tones on my arm that I had ran out of time and was now drawing on my own reserves. "We are here to extract Vali out of here, not fight this whole lot."

"I suppose you are correct." Arthur gave a reluctant agreement and sheathed the shard he had, silencing the voice that called out to me. He turned to me with a steady gaze. "As much as I want to continue our fight, I will have to take my leave, but be assured that we will have a serious fight in the future."

"Wait!" Ise yelled as he tried to move but ended up kneeling down to take deep breaths, evidence of the consecutive fights taking a major toll on his body. I dismissed [Sandalphon] and focused on projecting a bow to fire a shot, but got sidetracked by the monkey who used his staff to disturb my aim.

"Sorry buddy, but I really do not want the business end of that weapon considering the amount of firepower you got there." The monkey yokai twirled his staff before laying it lightly on his shoulder. "Better luck next time."

Like hell there would be a next time!

Ise caught my eye and nodded, likely thinking the same deal. I projected [Black Lotus Custom] and summoned both the Hell's Locusts and Hounds to direct them at the pair while Ise charge up his energy for a quick shot. With my creations distracting Arthur and the monkey, Ise got a clear shot to fire at Vali who took the shot right to the face.

"VALI!" Arthur gripped the sword tightly and swung with all his might, decimating the astral projections with no effort, giving the monkey yokai the opportunity to check up on Vali. But for some reason he stopped a few meters away with an expression of fear, and I got the explanation when Vali lifted his face. One side was slightly burned and bleeding with the eye shut closed, but the expression on his face reminded me of Kokabiel when I removed his arm.

Euphoria.

"HAHAHA! Very good attempt to get back at me!" Vali's smile seemed ready to split his face into two as he looked at us both. "Since the both of you gave so much to fight me, it is only right that I returned the favor!"

"Vali, don't!" Arthur's call went unheeded as power poured out from Vali like a torrent, his wings answering his call with an almost blindingly dazzle of light as his armor started to reform and display sharper edges than normal, while the scent of dragon seemed to shoot through the roof. The monkey and Arthur got pushed back by the wind that gathered around him while everyone else besides Ise and I were forced to grab something to hang on to.

"I, who am about to awaken, in supreme justice..."

Vali started to chant something that sent chills down my spine as the power grew intensely. Whatever this was, it was reminding me a lot of Gilgamesh when he intended to release a bit more of his power than normal, and that usually ended badly for me and the others back home.

I got to stop whatever spell he was casting!

I dismissed almost all of my projections and call forth [Tree of Life] again, focusing on the item I would need for this idea. "Grant me the power from the angel that governs the light of its people through prayers and brings about enlightenment to the believers. Grant me the fruit of [Metatron]!" Raising my arm to catch the fruit, I swung hard to bring out its true form: a long and lanky two-edged blade with a silver guard adorned with two gold ornaments in the form of feathers, a silver handle with a green gem at the pommel and one symbol of a king's crown etched into the blade itself. With a little of Prana poured into it, the blade glowed before multiple feathers of light split off from the main body and hovered around it, reshaping themselves into thin blades.

"Seal off the source of his evil and cleanse his soul, [Metatron]!" I directed a few of the blades at him while the remainder hovered in front of me to create a rotating cylinder with their sharp ends pointed at Vali. The blades I directed at him flew upwards before coming down hard, some striking his wings while the remainder struck the ground around him, forming a pattern around him. The blades that struck his wings glowed brightly and started to siphon power away from him and directing it to the others surrounding him.

["Vali, the power is being redirected! You need to cancel the chant!"] The voice of Albion echoed in the area. ["You should not be entering 'Juggernaut Drive' in the first place! In your current state, it is dangerous!"]

"I will succeed!" Vali let out that claim before giving out a roar of defiance, his wings responding in kind and glowing brightly and almost overpowering [Metatron's] blades embedded in his wings.

Emphasis on 'almost'.

"Bring forth the enlightenment of the faithful to bless my allies, bring forth the rage of the archangels to strike down my enemies, and bring forth the Holy Light of Jenovah to seal the power of the evil before me!" I chanted an original spell I created with this Noble Phantasm while holding the main body of [Metatron] parallel to the ground with the hovering blades spinning around it.

"The Destructive Art of Sealing Number 16, [Vines of Metatron]!"

The swords that were embedded in the ground around Vali glowed a bright silver, before light in the form of vines grew out of them and connected to one another to form a cage of glowing vines and thorns around Vali. With a shimmer, vines shot out from the cage and stabbed themselves into Vali and started to draw more of his power away and some portion of his life energy.

"GAH!" Vali spit out blood as the wings' glow dimmed drastically in contrast to the vines as they started to lengthen and entwine one another to the point they resembled a tree growing on top of Vali. I prepared for the next step while projecting a few more blades to form a wall around me and Ise to ensure the other two do not attempt to interrupt us.

'Just hold still.'

I directed a bit of Prana into [Metatron] to make the hovering blades glow and create a mage circle with a rune drawn in the center. "Artelif!" With that, I pulled back my arm before extending my arm and stabbing the rune, activating the second stage of the attack in the form of a huge beam firing off from the blades straight at Vali. Being constricted to the vines, and lacking both power and strength to move, Vali caught the full force of the attack and got blasted a fair bit before the vines snapped and released him from them, leaving him soaring through the air with the remains of his armor coming off of him.

"Ise!" I called out to him as I grabbed his collar. "Clench Tight!" With that, I threw him with my full strength at Vali, and this time he was prepared for it and called forth his wings to help stabilize his trajectory while pulling back his arm with [Boosted Gear] for what looked to be the hardest punch he would give thus far. Too bad I would not be able to see as I had to deal with Arthur and his buddy who were coming at the both of us.

"Hello again." I said as I created more blades and directed them at the two.

"Bikou, go and get Vali this instance!" Arthur called out to his companion who nodded and made his way to him. I tried to halt his attempts only to get pushed back by Arthur who had once again brought out the Excalibur Shard and swung once more to shatter the other blades.

"I would deal with Shirou Emiya." Arthur declared with a serious look on his face.

Great, just my luck.

Arthur leaped forward with an overhead slash, his sword gleaming bright in the area and almost blinding me if not for my own weapon that was countering it. I swung hard to block his move before sidestepping to get a clear shot of his back. But he blocked it with his sword and with a quick twist of his body, he made a deep cut into my abdomen.

"Tch!" I punched the ground to create a cascading wall of swords to push him back while checking the wound. It would seem that the shard held by Arthur lived up to the name of [Ruler] because it was able to bypass both my natural defense and the Prana shielding. This was certainly an issue if he was using that power against me.

And just like before, the swords inside my Reality Marble were starting to get agitated with the shard before me. Thankfully it was not so bad that I would expect the Knights of the Round Table to make an appearance, so I can still choose to bring out a weapon of my choice. Looks like I would need to dual wield [Metatron] with something else.

And I got just the blade in mind.

"You can come out now, [Chrysaor]." With a quick flick of my wrist, the golden blade of Sir Artegal came into my hand, the runes glowing brightly with the opponent in front of me.

"Interesting, that ability of yours to create any sword imaginable." Arthur said while raising his weapon. "But somehow a part of me feels insulted at the fact you can create weapons that seemed to be possible recreations of past heroes but are loyal to you."

'Join the club with Gilgamesh, I am sure he would give you a rousing speech of how much of a mongrel I was to him as a Faker.'

With a flourish, I created more silver blades to shoot at Arthur before rushing in with [Chrysaor] in hand. Arthur did not take long to banish the blades around him and swung with the shard, forcing my hand by using [Metratron] to block his attack and pushing him away before raising [Chrysaor].

I just prayed hard that the blade I have chosen could stand up to the task.

The runes on the golden weapon glowed a dark green as I brought down the blade, unleashing a beam of light in the form of an arc that went straight at Arthur who raised his sword to try and block the attack. But he did not expect the beam to break into several smaller beams that shot past his barriers and slammed into him with enough force to get him to the wall.

"Tch!" Arthur pushed himself off the ground and stabbed his sword into the ground, creating fissures that extended across the battlefield. With a further push, bright light filled the fissures before holy light spilled out from them like geysers.

"Ah come on!" I let [Metatron] float behind me while I gripped [Chrysaor] with both hands and did the same action as Arthur, creating a huge dome of energy that protected me from the attacks. With a twist, I summoned my own columns of gold light that surrounded me and pushed forward around me, two of which shot straight for Arthur.

"This is becoming a hassle, Shirou Emiya." Arthur swung his shard at the columns, shattering them completely and making it look like it was snowing gold around us.

Just as planned.

The gold flakes paused in their descent before pulling towards him and sticking to his body. Arthur attempted to remove them but only succeeded in speeding up the process as more of the flakes flew to him and stuck heavily. Before long a dome of gold encased him and lifted him off the ground, leaving him open for my next attack.

"Here we go." I pulled [Chrysaor] out of the ground and lifted it above my head, the blade now glowing brightly for all to see and creating a small beam of light that extended my weapon's reach. "Lustitiae Sustine!" I roared as I brought the blade down, the beam of light following and smashing into the dome, setting off an explosion that blew Arthur out of it and sent him crashing to the ground, burnt extra crispy.

Yummy.

"Arthur!" Bikou the monkey yokai tried to get to Arthur after getting Vali only to be rebuffed by Ise who was sporting a black eye and a bleeding lip, but looking very determined to keep him there. With him on monkey guard duty, I was able to leap forward to deal the final blow at Arthur.

This time, we would have prisoners to hang on to!

A brief flash of green light and I found myself pushed back by some type of force that sent me hurtling back a few feet. A yell brought my attention to Ison his back. I turned back to Arthur to find a little girl dressed in what looked to be a witch's cosplay clothing, certainly a lot more colorful than the ones I faced earlier.

"Erm..." The girl fidgeted slightly before bowing her head. "Sorry to disturb the fight you are having, but please don't hurt my brother. I would like to bring him back please."

What?

"Nya~ Morgan-chan, you really should be less polite about this type of situations." I turned to find what looked to be a black-haired cat-woman with one hell of a voluptuous body that was shown off with a black yukata worn loosely to showcase the cleavage of those huge breasts she had and the long legs that was bare for all to see. "We are only here to collect the idiots who do not know when to quit."

"Right!" The little witch promptly replied before pulling out a wand. "Sorry again, but I must go. Bye-bye!" Before I could react, she raised her wand to create a magic circle below her and Arthur, from which the circle glow brightly to the point I had to shut my eyes involuntarily. It was a few seconds before the light diminished to reveal the empty spot where they stood.

"Ah come on!" I turned to find Ise throwing a bit of a tantrum at the disappearance of the cat-woman, Bikou and more importantly, Vali. "We almost got him!"

Indeed, we nearly did get him. Instead we got a damaged academy, some magicians to interrogate, a bunch of corpses and lots of unanswered questions.

And now I was feeling unsatisfied with the conclusion of this fight.

Damn it.

Part 5

"So~ this is like what, another month's worth of repairs?" My question got answered by a symphony of groans and some glares at me from the devils. From behind, I could hear some chuckles from the person who came around to visit and was now walking with us back to my apartment.

"Thankfully, it is lesser." Sona answered while massaging her forehead, something that was turning into a habit to handle her stress. "It is only a few days, and considering the incident happened on a Friday night, the excuse can be that the portions that were still being fixed were insecure and needed to undergo more inspections before opening them to the public."

"But does everyone have issues with our academy?!" Rias scowled as she shook a fist. "What is it about our area that invites destruction to the buildings? It takes a lot of our money to fix!"

"Maybe you need better insurance coverage." The devils turned as one to direct their glares at Azazel who raised his arms in mock surrender while maintaining that joking smile of his.

"Maybe you can give us some of your money to fix the damage that Vali did!" Rias jabbed a finger at him. "You are supposed to be his guardian!"

"Yes~ Yes~" Azazel rolled his eyes while lazily shooing her away. "I will get the necessary amount to help with the repairs." Azazel chuckled lightly, "though that might take a while things are going to get seriously screwed up in the future." I merely nodded to show my agreement as we continued walking.

It was three days after the attack on the conference and the damage incurred on the academy was significant enough to close off portions of the school again. Thankfully a majority could be repaired due to gratuitous usage of mage-craft, with only some portions cordoned off that could be played off as areas still under renovation. On another note, the leaders were able to sign the treaty and the three factions were now in an alliance, and as a bonus slash compensation, Ise gained the possible strength to enter [Balance Breaker], I obtained a possible [Balance Breaker] myself and some materials on the side from the invasion, and we had some people we could interrogate about this Chaos Brigade.

Though to be frank on that last part, I was a little puzzled as to the reason the majority of the female magus I captured requested for me to talk to them, something that Azazel picked up on and teased me big time. Celina in particular made me her contact, saying that I should take responsibility or something.

Joy.

"Anything else we need to be wary of?" I asked while turning to the Fallen Angel.

"Not for the time being. I will however say that you guys might get called up for introductions to other factions or training. Especially the latter, there are a lot of folks out there that are stronger than you, and some of whom can definitely give me or Sirzechs a run for our money." Azazel spoke as he placed his hands in his pockets. "And then we have people who have Longinus like you Ise. They will likely come for you since you are an unknown player for the devils."

"Great." The boy in question grabbed his head in despair while Asia and Rias placed a comforting hand on his shoulders.

"Per chance one of those wielders happen to be a wizard named Georg?" I asked remembering the person who got between my tussle with Vali.

"Wait you know the kid?" Azazel turned to me with a raised eyebrow.

"Let's just say that he got into a tussle with me and Vali and he extended an invitation to join him." I answered while some of Sona's Peerage nodded remembering the magus in question.

"Hmmm~ this is going to get very weird." Azazel frowned as he lightly tapped his chin. "Then again, I should not be surprised, since the footage of you fighting Kokabiel was released, there has been chatter amongst the magic circles trying to find out who you are. It is not every day you have a magician who can lay claim to Excalibur and wield different items, let alone the creation of said weapons. Whatever is your magic style, it is certainly a rarity amongst the groups. In your case, I would not be surprised if more magicians decide to come out to find you." He then looked at me with an eye that reminded me uncomfortably of Rin when she decided to test a theory regarding my Reality Marble.

And usually the end result was me in the bed for a day or two with some tubes stuck into my arm.

"That's it. I am calling dibs right now." Azazel pointed his finger at me with a maniacal smirk. "While the others train, you will be coming to my lab so that I can study that magic style of yours and that weird ability to attract Sacred Gears. With any luck, I think I can improve on my research!"

"Erm…" I tried to think of something to say but he cut me off.

"No buts young man! I am so going to get every secret out of you to make my ultimate creation! MUAHAHAHA!" The guy let out a maniacal laugh as he walked away muttering several words regarding certain items that reminded me of Rin's research materials before disappearing in a magic circle. All of us stood there looking at where he disappeared for a moment before I broke the silence.

"Mitelt, be honest with me." I turned to look at her. "How screwed am I if I go to his lab?" In response, Mitelt put a hand on my arm and looked at me with a solemn expression.

"When you go there, can I have your apartment with all the equipment inside?" She asked with a serious tone and in a manner most convincing if not for the mischievous light in her eyes.

Cheeky brat she was.

"Well guess it is time for us to make a move." Rias remarked as she gestured down the street. "See you guys tomorrow."

"See you." I and the Student Council waved back at them as they made their way to Ise's house. After that we continued our way to my apartment, but somehow the silence was a little tensed. I was about to say something when Sona broke the silence first.

"Emiya-kun, is that offer to train us still valid?" Sona's question brought the group to a standstill and looked at her with wide eyes. I myself paused briefly to look at her expression.

"It is, but what is your motivation this time round?" I asked to gauge her reaction.

"I had wanted to be prepared for the Rating Games, to ensure that I could compete alongside Rias in the finals." Sona paused before letting out a loud sigh, "but with Kokabiel stealing the Excalibur Shards to bring them here, and with this recent attack on the academy and the leaders of the Three Factions, I realized that may have been a pipe dream. Seeing you and Hyoudou working together to fight against Vali is certainly an eye-opener and I cannot be placed on the side-lines like some damsel in distress!" She spoke with a bit of heat at the end. "I don't want to be a burden to anyone, and most certainly I do not want my Peerage to be in a situation where they can't properly prepare themselves for battle. Hunting down Strays is one thing, trying to handle paperwork is another, but dealing with the higher echelons of Heaven, the Vanishing Dragon and Chaos Brigade are not the same deal."

"Please, teach us to survive." She bowed her head down with clear frustration on her face.

I merely held back a tired sigh as I looked at her and the others who had adopted a similar position of bowing their heads at me, being reminded of that time with Rias and Ise begging for training to go against Raiser. It was weird of me to think about it, but a part of me did not want this to happen, having to train children to fight against overpowered monsters.

Damn it, I was getting too old for this shit.

"Well at least your mind-set is there, but are you sure?" I asked Sona with a firm tone. "This is more serious than Rias's case, I cannot have you stop halfway once we start the training."

"We are." Tsubasa spoke out from her end. "I still remember the issue I had with that creep that fought us with the Excalibur Shards. That guy was messing with us so much that I could not get that many hits on him, and he is supposed to be a mook!"

"And I need to get better myself." Saji looked at me with a closed fist. "I was converted before Hyoudou, yet he is surpassing me quickly. I need to be able to be on the same footing as him or I will not be able to look at him in the eye."

"Please help us." Ruruko begged while giving me that dreaded puppy dog eyes. I could only let out another sigh as I looked at them. At the least their priorities were there.

"Fine, I shall do it." I turned to Xenovia and Irina with an idea in mind. "Since we are doing that, would you two like to join us?"

"Can we?" The two of them blinked in unison.

"Sure." I shrugged back at them. "I have been meaning to do some training with you since you wanted to learn something from me, especially Xenovia. You keep wanting to learn some sword techniques and maybe try some new weapons from me, right?"

"Yes please!" Xenovia nodded her head eagerly. "I want to be able to fight as well as you."

"I am merely more experienced in some forms of combat than others. You are actually a lot better than me in using a big broadsword." I remarked while raising a finger. "But you do have a glaring issue of powering through your attacks as opposed to using strategy, so that is something we need to work on."

"URGH!" Xenovia gave an expression of reluctant agreement while the others looked on in amusement.

"Good luck with that, Mr Emiya." Irina patted Xenovia's arm with a smile that seemed to be filled with mischief. "She has a fair bit of issue when it comes to using her head for tactics and outsmarting the enemy. Lady Griselda has been doing this for some time and she cannot get her to accept it up to now."

"Irina~" Xenovia actually let out a whine as she showed an expression of light betrayal and embarrassment, making the others laugh out loud and me having an amused smirk. Their banter continued all the way to the apartment, from which the student council took a moment to look at the area. It was their actions that reminded me that this was perhaps the first time they visited me at the apartment.

"Are you strapped for cash?" Saji asked while noting the disparity between the rental building and the newer high-rises around it.

"Not really, this is more of me wanting privacy and making sure I got an address for anyone wanting to pop by." I remarked as we started to walk up the stairs. "It is simple for me and Mitelt since we are low maintenance, now the same can be applied for Xenovia and Irina as well."

"But wouldn't a better apartment building be better?" Tsubasa asked as she raised an eyebrow at the obvious looking cracks in the old woodwork. "This feels like the building is about ready to drop."

"If you remembered, I had a bucket load of hospital bills to work through and had to make sure I paid it off. I could afford a little more, but I just devoted the bulk of it for paying the hospital and paying back the police." I answered back. "I did use some mage-craft to fix the obvious ones, but I can't go too far otherwise the owner would start asking questions."

"Hmm~" Sona looked at the area with a discerning eye. "This building is under the person renting the apartment to you, correct?"

"Yup. This is his older building meant for single tenants. It is a little run-down but it suits my needs." I answered her query while noting the manner she kept her gaze on the surrounding area.

"Is he looking to upgrade?" Sona started to tap her chin as she looked to the other buildings, while the other members looked at her with curiosity present on their faces with the exception of Tsubaki who seemed to have guessed what she had in mind, and somehow took out a notebook from god knows where to start writing.

"I am not sure. Why?" I raised an eyebrow at her and Tsubaki.

"Call it a business idea." Sona gave a mysterious smile that got me slightly on edge as it reminded me of Rias when she was about to do one of her ideas to get me to her Peerage. Before I could say anything, a gasp drew our attention to Xenovia and Irina who had opened the door to their apartment and were gaping at something with an expression akin to horror on their faces.

"Xenovia, Irina. What's wrong?" I readied my mental trigger as I walked up to their side and looked into the apartment, only for my mind to lose its concentration and for my mouth to open wide in shock. The others came around and looked into the apartment as well, resulting in open mouths and for Saji's case, to have Sona turn him around with a death glare while his eyes were earnestly covered by Ruruko.

"Oh, you are back." Griselda remarked calmly as she came to the front door, her long hair still wet from the shower she must have taken and a towel that was barely big enough to wrap around her extremely bountiful body, thus revealing her long legs to the world. "Apologies for the sudden visit, but I had something I needed to discuss, but since you were in school I decided to let myself in and take a quick bath."

"What?" Irina squeaked as she seemed to be fighting some instinct to run.

"I will tell you more a bit later, but basically I will be staying around the area as part of an agreement made for our alliance with the three factions." Griselda continued speaking as she took a smaller towel and proceeded to dry her hair of moisture, her movements seemingly wanting to make the bigger towel come off her body. "I might end up staying here and working at the academy as well."

"What?" Xenovia croaked while Irina seemed to shrink in her spot. As for me, I was having a bit of an issue maintain my gaze on her face and not on her very considerable assets that was peeking out of her towel or the toned legs that was teasing me with the few droplets still on it.

Evil thoughts be gone, be gone!

"Please give me some time to dress myself. I will be back shortly." Griselda turned around and headed to the one of the rooms, her hips lightly swaying in a strangely hypnotic manner as she walked inside and closed the door. The sound of the door being locked was enough to knock me out of my daze and rethink the situation.

Why was Griselda in our apartment building? And what did she mean by her staying around?

"Emiya-kun~" I felt chills going down my spine as I turned my head slowly to find Sona, Reya, Meguri and Tsubasa looking at me with smiles reminiscent of Rin's when she was pissed, while Mitelt, Saji, Tsubaki, Momo and Ruruko edged away from them, fearful of the aura that was emanating from them. The student president even had that special glare that could only be achieved with glasses. "Care to explain what is going on here?"

'Help~'

"Oh~ someone is so~ going to get whipped~"

Part 6

"So how was your visit to the town? And what on earth is that you are eating?"

"The town isn't too bad, a little small but good. Plenty of Leylines with Prana running all over the area. As for what I am eating, this is a corn-dog. Want one?"

"No thanks, tell me about the meeting."

"Not much to say, the leaders got together and signed the treaty to get together. But as you can guess, some people don't like that and decided to voice them out very loudly."

"Chaos Brigade, I presume?"

"Yup~ but they sent in the grunts apparently. Mostly low-level magus that were meant to distract and tire out any opposition before the main strike force could take them on. They were very wasteful so I used them as fodder for my hounds. They certainly served that purpose well."

"I would imagine that. I believe that you end up having quite a number to fight with."

"Indeed, and it is compounding the fact that the folks around here don't know a lot of the stuff we do, even the leaders who are way older than any of us seemed to be handling it roughly."

"They could be holding back. If I recall correctly, one of them has that Destruction Power that supposedly reshaped the landscape of Hell and made it necessary to redraw the maps? And one of the others is one of the original Archangels?"

"True, and given the area, I guess they were trying to limit the damage zone. That can be their excuse, but the same can't be said for the younger devils there. It is rather appalling to say the least. But then again it is thanks to that incompetence I was able to verify the presence of Shirou Emiya."

"Oh, our mutual acquaintance. What did he do?"

"He used the Sacred Gear he obtained from Regeis to create a spear that wields the destructive power of the Gremory and creates a black-hole to suck up all the hounds so that they can be destroyed in one spot. I can safely say that this is a lot flashier than the last time he took on the hounds, he had trouble controlling the output."

"You did not do the last one?"

"Nope, I merely collected the sample to study. Emiya was the one who set off the trap and released the creature in the first place. Though he would probably think it was me considering the number of spells I had to throw out to deal with the one hound I fought just to get the sample."

"Hmmm~ what happened afterwards?"

"Vali Lucifer."

"Ah I guess that he wanted to fight our friend?"

"Yup, and it was enough to tear apart the area, but thanks to his little fighting obsession, he managed to force Emiya to show that technique that took a few of us down."

"You mean?"

"Yup, the move that changes his hair color, skin tone and makes his attack style more explosive. He did however get a major boost from the wielder of [Boosted Gear], so he pushed it further with one of the weapons from Jewish mythology."

"Did you get a good look at it?"

"A big-ass bifurcated sword called [Sandalphon]."

"Named after the archangel who gathers the prayers of the faithful and gives them to the supreme King of Kings. Quite the weapon."

"Indeed, and what little I had glimpsed, this is one of the few weapons that at first glance is mediocre compared to more esoteric versions he possesses, but the simplicity is what makes it so deadly and is quite likely a weapon that could take on most of us back home."

"I see. That is most… concerning."

"Yes, and as stated earlier, I did discover something that proves a theory regarding Sacred Gears that aim at increasing a person's strengths or reserves. The Longinus [Boosted Gear] certainly helped Emiya a lot on that regard. By the time the fight was over he still had a fair amount left inside and unless I am mistaken, he was close to getting Prana Poisoning."

"So it would depend on how many times we can afford to increase our strength with such a gear before we encounter Prana Poisoning, unless we use some of our more powerful attacks from the start."

"Exactly. Moving on, the fight ended with Vali running off and the leaders now in a pact. At the same time, Chaos Brigade is now known to them, so things will certainly get messy in the future."

"Okay, but what about our resident Magus Killer?"

"It seems that he will remain neutral in their politics, but considering his hero tendencies he is likely to interfere and possibly go against them if they decide to go after humans or any innocents get caught in the crossfire."

"Hmph, figures he would do that."

"Well as for now, we have confirmed the existence of Shirou Emiya as the one from our world. I can't say about the others but it is a safe bet that they think the same."

"Then I think I know who will be the next person to go after him."

"Oh?"

"Think about it, in the next few weeks, the devils are having that annual coming of age tournament where the young devils are to conduct the different Rating Games against one another. If I recall, the two heiresses are required to report there in order to register their new servants and to prepare for the competition."

"Ah! You mean our companion from that side."

"Granted, I don't know of anyone else who would take the time to watch all of these Rating Games those devils keep playing, but he is likely the next person to make a move. That or his partner."

"The guy who has that crazy pain fetish?"

"… Yeah, I guess that description fits. Anyway, that one guy is going to be around the devils a lot during that period, and if I recalled correctly, there were some rumors that Emiya had trained the Gremory Group. Chances are he would have trained the Sitri Group as well and that guy would know about it. He and his partner might work together to get those two teams in trouble in order to draw him out."

"Yup that sounds about right. Let's just hope that the other group back in Europe don't catch wind of this."

"Yes, Emiya's supposed allies from the past. I will keep an eye on the chatter to make sure they don't find out about him. I will take my leave then, before the stench of all that greasy oil gets up my nose."

"Are you sure you don't want a corn-dog for the road? They are not too bad."

"Like I would want to eat..."

'Growl~'

"… You sure you don't want one?"

"… Maybe I will try one."

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=====Author's Notes=====

'Peers head around the corner with a riot shield'

Hello, I have returned with a new chapter for this story. Sorry for the long wait, life is really getting screwed up on my end. The year 2017 seems to be an unlucky year for me so I don't get a lot of opportunities to write the story out fast enough. I have however aimed to get this done before my birthday, so at least this can be a personal gift to me. 'Brings out the party poppers before hiding behind the shield.' I have not been fully idle on fanfiction, read the announcement below for explanation.

I will admit, for this chapter, it took me a few revisions to get it right since this chapter covers the conference arc, and I will be frank, there was not much fighting to be done on Ise's side since Vali is supposed to be shown as the goalpost of sorts to him. So when it came to the fight, I tried to extend his portions while keeping him in tandem with Vali's. Also, it is hard for me to articulate the fight I had in mind for them. I had to type out the idea 5 times with several revisions in between just to get to this, and even now, I am not sure if it is good enough. Hopefully you guys like this and the possible appearance of [Hell's Trident] Balance Breaker.

For careful observers, you may have noted the disclaimers. I have included them based on advice from others, and I figured I should go for the safety route.

Now on to previous reviews.

To ahsoei, Primus1661, Sajuuk: Yup, I got the idea from Hellboy. It happened when I was writing some ideas out for the arc, and the show came on TV. I figured what would be a good way to show not to piss Shirou off without using UBW? Hope you enjoy the monster assault.

To Dragon Rider 66: Yeah, I have been trying to figure out how to show more development on his side. Look to below section for a little announcement.

To Zx (Guest): Glad you enjoyed all the different references, I wanted to see how many people could get them. XD

To Jason Wu: Yeah, the mystery of Sacred Gears going to Shirou, I love how it makes people think~ 'Evil chuckle' Also, the bit on lack of studying will be touched on in the next chapter I had planned.

To Kaiser Dragon / Thunder Dragon (Guest): You guys, seriously consider creating an account! Short comments are fine, but it is a bit problematic trying to sort through long comments, with an account you can write a long message and post it into PM and it will still be there. Then as for the requests, I will consider, but please let me write it out slowly. I do want to get some portions out, and I do have some plans regarding Julius's Crest.

To Agent Frank Underwood: Thank you for liking the Excalibur Arc, you have no idea how long it took to write something that does not involve UBW!

To RandomDude05: The Excalibur Design is mostly based on Prototype, with some design changes to fit the story. Shirou can use other shields, it depends on situations.

To kindasortastantheman: Yes~ my evil plan has worked, shipping has begun! MUAHHAHAHAH! Besides that, I am a little on the bench about big harems as well. I will take it slow and see how people like the flow.

To everyone else:

[Prometheus Chains] is sort of an original and at the same time, derived from Enkidu. So it is neither stronger nor weaker than Enkidu, it just behaves differently. I thought of how to have Shirou prove his worth to the leaders in a manner similar to Gabriel Blessing's Dresden did to Azazel, and Enkidu seemed both overkill, overused and somewhat unsuitable for what I had in mind. I wanted to keep Enkidu for a different story arc. (Bonus points to those who can guess which volume it will appear.)

Did I miss a volume or a side story? Because I have not heard of Artemis in the light novel and people want Shirou to meet/rescue her. Can someone point me to where she is?

Wow, I only made a possible reaction for Griselda and people are going in arms to get her and Shirou together. They really want her shipped with him O.o Hopefully that little bit towards the end sates you guys a little. 'Grabs a helmet for protection'

If I recall, the volume stated somewhere that Rias was evidently older than the others, and if I recalled from one of the side stories, Kiba looked older than her at one point but she was certainly older than him in years.

Now to some announcements, please be patient with me.

1) Volume Separations:

For those with a keen eye, I have altered the title slightly. My plans for this is to try going further through the volumes than the other authors and to where it has not been done. The issue for me is with the infrequent disruptions as of late, I do not know if I can go all the way or get stalled somewhere. So I decided to do the same by splitting this story into volumes so that I could write the chapters to a certain point, end it off, then write a new volume if I can get the chance. I hope you guys don't mind that.

2) Possible Omakes / Supplementary Notes:

I have been wondering for a while, and have been given suggestions by others. Would you guys like it if I were to create a separate 'book' for supplementary notes and possible omakes in the future, or I should put them together? For omakes, I was thinking of following the current style and keep them separate from the main story, since I figured the possibility of a good number of them likely not being canon to this. I also figured if I were to insert supplementary notes, perhaps I placed them elsewhere so as to avoid distractions? (which is partially why you don't see the details on the weapons used in this chapter currently, I want to see your opinions.)

3) Poll for possible stories:

As of this posting, the poll for the stand-alone/crossover stands as such:

Campione! - 215 votes
RWBY - 185 votes
Fate Grand Order - 136 votes
Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - 118 votes
Sekirei & Fairy Tail - 104 votes
Freezing - 68 votes
Queen's Blade - 50 votes

As of this posting, you guys will have 2 months to vote before I close it off. I might hold it off to the end of the year, but I will likely close it early. So start voting!

4) Secret Project on the side:

While I have been writing this story as fast as I could, I also started on a secret project of mine: creating some one-shot RWBY ideas to post. This is done under a different pen-name because I wanted to see how they fare without anyone knowing who I am, and I can say this. 'Takes a deep breath' It is HARD TO GET FOLLOWERS & REVIEWERS! But then again it is one of the most popular categories out there, so it is a good idea to try it out on my own.

'Pause at possible voices' You guys want to know my alternate pen-name?

Thing is, I want to stay a little anonymous, but I can give you this. As of this posting, I should be uploading a true RWBY story on that one channel in a few hours time, and that one alongside the one-shot ideas will have some clues to my identity. (although if you guys want to search through the stories before I upload, that is fine.) If you want to support me, I do not mind you guys tagging them and maybe following me on that account. If you want to clarify the name, I ask that you guys PM me just to keep the surprise.

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That is all the announcements for the time being. It is midnight where I am and I really need sleep! Hope you guys enjoy the story and pray I can get the next one out before the end of the year!

And I put my pen down for now.