Disclaimer: I don't own Fate Stay Night or High School DxD. They belong to Kinoko Nasu and Ichiei Ishibumi respectively. If I did, I would have already created an Ilya route in the VN with a fully-grown and matured Ilya as the heroine and make a badass protagonist for High School DxD instead of a pervert like Issei.
- Story Start -
"UOOOOOHHHHHHH!"
Deep in the mountains, Ise currently finds himself running for his life.
THWACK. THWACK. THWACK.
"GYAAAAHHHH." Three arrows were shot towards him, barely missing his arms and legs as he frantically evaded them as if his life depended on it.
"ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?" Ise screams with all the power in his lungs at his attacker.
"Yep."
"DON'T ADMIT IT LIKE IT'S GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU, DAMNIT!"
CRACK.
Suddenly, as he was running with all his might to escape from certain doom, his foot fell on a bundle of leaves that if looked closely, it could be easily discerned that it was put there to hide something. Also, the sound of his foot stepping on something and breaking it had clearly confirmed it.
"You should pay more attention to your surroundings. You've triggered another one of my traps."
Before his aggressor had even finished his line Ise already knew that he had inadvertently activated one of the traps that were spread out around the forest. It's not as if it was the first or second one either.
KROOM. KROOM. KROOM.
And as expected, giant boulders were heading his way, destroying everything in their path.
"FIRST THE PIT OF DEATH, THEN SWINGING BARBED TREES AND NOW THIS!? SHIROU! I'LL GET YOU FOR THIIIIIS!"
Archer just chuckled at Ise's predicament. He was currently watching Ise running for his life from a high tree that was a safe distance away from the carnage with a bow in his left hand and was communicating with Ise using an earpiece that Rias had given him.
As he continued his observation, he could see Ise escaping from being turned into a pancake by positioning himself between the small opening that existed between the boulders and timing his jump into the small gap. It was a reckless move but definitely an effective one as he had now positioned himself in an area where the boulders have made a clear path for him to move without having to worry about being caught in another trap. Any traps that were placed there were obviously already destroyed by the boulders.
"Alright, Ise. That's it for today. Let's head back."
"Huff...I'm alive...huff...hahaha...huff...I'm still alive."
Archer could see that Ise was currently at his limit as he immediately collapsed on his back after he informed him that the training session from hell was over.
"I'm not gonna carry you back to the mansion, so haul your own ass over there."
"Huff...you're a Devil...huff."
"We both are, idiot."
- Scene Break -
"So, how was it?"
"His reaction time has gotten better. Although barely, he managed to evade some of the arrows I shot at him. His stamina's also increased a lot. He lasted the whole hour compared to the 15 minutes when we first started."
"Good work."
Currently, Archer was back at the Occult Research Club giving his report to Rias on Ise's progress on his training. Ise had already left as there was nothing else for him to do. Archer gave him some packed sandwiches that he had made while waiting for Ise at the mansion with the Magic circle. Archer couldn't just leave Ise behind because apparently, Ise's Demonic Energy was so low that it wasn't even enough to use a Magic Circle by himself. Thus, Ise had to tag along with one of the club members in order to use a Magic Circle.
Around more than a week ago, shortly after he and Ise joined the club, Archer had volunteered to supervise Ise's training. The reason that he volunteered was because he saw how Rias was training Ise.
Rias was making Ise do basic training by making him run around the neighborhood while motivating him using his dream to become a Harem King. Fearing that one day Ise might really cause the world's instability with his libido if people like Rias kept enticing him with his perverted ambition, Archer volunteered to take up Ise's training instead.
At first, Rias was quite skeptical that Archer would be suitable for the job but after complying to his wishes to allow him the use of one of her mansions (Archer had asked if she had any properties in a place that's far from civilization), Archer had proven that he was quite a merciless trainer.
Archer's training methods that pushed Ise to his limits was very effective as it combined Ise's need for basic training to develop his body (which was very lacking) while making him more sensitive to danger. Both elements were important to Ise as his Boosted Gear saps his stamina with every 'Boost' and he will need to be able to avoid being defeated before he has 'Boosted' enough times to be able to overpower his enemies. Not to mention that the higher his base parameters were, the less 'Boosts' were needed to accomplish said feat.
"By the way, Yuuto asked if you were free today to spar with him and Koneko again. How about it?"
"I don't mind. He might have a few new swords for me 'steal' from him."
After Archer had revealed his abilities to create swords from thin air, Rias had deduced that he had most likely created them with the help of Structural Analysis to obtain the blueprints for his weapons. As such, the next day after their induction into the club, Rias had interrogated Archer for more specifics on his sword making ability.
Seeing that lying to her would just be bad in the long run, Archer finally explained his Projection Magecraft in more detail. By this point, everyone in the club already knew about his ability to Project any sword that he laid his eyes on. Of course, he never mentioned anything about his Reality Marble to them or what kind of weapons that were in his repertoire.
He was still reluctant to trust everyone in the club about that but it was pretty much a gamble because if he was unlucky enough (as usual), he'd be neck deep in a situation where he would have to use some of his more...uncommon weapons. If the club found out about his other Noble Phantasms, he would have to explain where he had seen them to be able to copy them and that would just open up another whole can of worms.
Not only that, he had made one small blunder from his fight with the girls of the Kendo Club. It was due to habit from his days as a Servant in the Grail War but announcing himself as Archer had revealed some more of what he was capable of, thus it was no surprise that Rias had found out about it as well.
Deciding to just get on with it, he displayed his skills as an archer to hit any target within 4 kilometers with pinpoint accuracy using an Altered sword. It was an irrational decision made after having to figure out where the line was between how much he should reveal to avoid mistrust in the future and how much he should hide to not reveal his trump card in case his current companions turned on him even if all the evidence points to them being trustworthy.
They were Devils after all.
He almost cursed himself for letting his guard down too much around the club members but somehow he just couldn't help to want to trust them. Shirou's feelings were most definitely affecting Archer's choices. It didn't help that Rias was very affectionate to the members of her peerage.
Archer's previous display of swordsmanship and archery had also somehow aroused Kiba's desire for a spar with him. It was not something like him being a battle maniac but more how male youths desire to pit themselves against their peers to see where they would rate themselves when compared to them.
All in all, it was quite an interesting spar.
Kiba's agility as a Knight gave him the edge when it comes to pure speed but Archer was more skilled and experienced than him by a wide margin. As a result, the two were in a stalemate when both were using only Reinforced wooden swords and Archer didn't Reinforce his body. Kiba would always try to circumvent Archer's defenses with his agility and skill but Archer's superior ability to read his opponents would always thwart him, though having lower agility meant that he couldn't get a clean hit on Kiba.
It was later when they decided to take the spar up a notch that things started to escalate.
Kiba had revealed his Sacred Gear.
Sword Birth.
A Sacred Gear to make Demonic Swords according to the user's will and imagination. It was a Sacred Gear that was both superior and inferior compared to Unlimited Blade Works as Sword Birth completely depends on the user's ability to think up of what swords it could produce while Unlimited Blade Works can copy almost any kind of swords it had encountered no matter what kind of absurd ability it has.
In the right hands, Sword Birth might have the potential to create swords that might be on par with Archer's Noble Phantasms but without extensive research, Archer couldn't prove his hypothesis.
After pulling out his Sacred Gear, Kiba started to wield various types of Demonic swords against Archer which Archer countered using Projected copies of the Demonic Swords and his own skill with the sword. As the spar continued, Kiba started showing signs of exhaustion while Archer was less ragged.
The reason was simple.
Kiba had utilized more of his agility to get around Archer's defenses and so his stamina was used up faster while Archer minimized his movements and used up the barest amount of his stamina as needed. Not only that, Archer had more options on how to counter Kiba's offenses thanks to the various Demonic Swords that Kiba showed him. The Demonic Swords also cost less than some of the Noble Phantasms Archer had that had the same elemental attributes.
Thanks to that, Archer was able to slowly overpower Kiba using several tricks he knew using the Demonic Swords such as disrupting the footing around Kiba using an Ice element Demonic Sword or using a Wind element Demonic Sword to throw dust up in the air and impair Kiba's sight. Archer finally decided the sparring session when he Projected one of Kiba's Fire element Demonic Swords and overcharged it to make an improvised flash bang grenade.
Just as Archer had planned, the flash had temporarily blinded Kiba and he took this chance to disarm him and at the same time threw him to the ground using one of the Judo techniques that he learned during his life.
His spar with Kiba earned quite a lot of admiration from the other club members but to Archer, while it was interesting, he considered it as nothing special. After all, despite the heated spar, Archer didn't even resort to using Reinforcement on himself.
Ever since, he and Kiba would sometimes spar when they had some free time. Even Koneko started to join them. She would join Kiba and team up against him. It was only then that Archer started to resort to Reinforcing his body, albeit partially. Even so, Kiba's and Koneko's teamwork would sometimes cause his defeat. Although he was still holding back, Archer was still impressed with them.
So far, he's won 4 out of 6 sparring sessions with them.
On a side note, Koneko started being more comfortable with him when he admitted that his ability to analyze a woman's sensitive body parts using Structural Analysis was just a joke. Although it was true that his Structural Analysis was stronger in this world due to Gaia's weaker presence, it was only enough for him to identify whether a person was human or not and what kind of race they were from.
That said, he could easily discern a woman's BWH but he kept that piece of information to himself.
Ise and Akeno was disappointed after knowing the truth. It was easy to figure out that Ise was planning some perverted things with Structural Analysis. Akeno on the other hand, was probably hoping that Archer would use his Structural Analysis on her and apply any information he gleaned on her during the several times she sneaked into his bed.
After finding out that he was paying for his own rent, Rias had convinced him to move into one of the dorms that her family was supervising. Since it would cut his expense cost, Archer had easily agreed. Unfortunately, it made it easier for Akeno to come into his room at night as there was already a Magic Circle in the dorms for easy transportation and since he had no idea how to create a Bounded Field that doesn't allow entry to non-hostile personnel, Akeno could come into his room unhindered.
It was fortunate that both of them haven't lost their virginity yet but there were a few close calls, especially the night he won his first spar with Kiba. Akeno's sexual desire was at an all time high that night and it took all of Archer's self-control not to fall for her sensuality and just pop her cherry.
In the end he managed to make her masturbate 5 times that night using his mouth, tongue and fingers to finally sexually relieve her. He himself had ejaculated 4 times with Akeno's techniques with her hands, tits and mouth.
Ever since, Akeno would come to his room almost every night to have some more 'skinship', though it only escalated to a sensual night two other times. The other nights, they slept together in the nude. Well, at least Akeno was naked. He made sure to be wearing a full set of clothes every night.
Archer was amazed that he managed to keep their virginity in tact even after how far they had taken things. He will have to be mentally prepared for when Akeno finally managed to seduce him enough and they finally had proper sex. He was not deluded enough to think that he would be able to withstand Akeno's advances forever.
That girl was a sexual dynamite.
The fact that Akeno was serious in building a relationship with him only made it harder to discourage her. Apparently, Akeno had also managed to get support from Yukari after he gave her Yukari's cellphone number. The cellphone was something that Shirou managed to sneak to Yukari after he had asked one of Yukari's schoolmates to act as an intermediary to hand it to her. Of course, she kept it secret from their parents.
Basically, Archer was being slowly pushed into a corner.
Ever since those two had joined forces the number of times he was in a compromising situation had increased exponentially. Like the time Akeno ambushed him in the bath or the time she lured him to the gym equipment storage room or the time when she sneaked onto the bed in the infirmary where he was resting due to lack of sleep the other night from hunting Stray Devils that the Gremorys had missed.
Still, in addition to being able to reconnect again, both Yukari and Akeno seem to be hatching out a plot with a little help from Rias to get Yukari away from the Himejima clan. Although he wasn't sure why they're trying to keep it a secret from him, he couldn't really think that it was a bad thing.
If only Rias and Yukari would stop trying to encourage Akeno to do some more lewd things to him so that he would crumble to his desires sooner.
If Barakiel ever found out about some of the things that he and Akeno had been doing he was definitely going to be in a world of pain. What's worse was that he can't stop thinking that if that happened, it might actually be a form of divine punishment.
"It's good that Ise's training is going well. If only he's able to form a contract properly with his clients then there wouldn't be anymore problems."
Rias sighed.
"I'm amazed that he was able to get a good feedback from his clients without actually fulfilling the contract too." Rias said with a troubled expression.
After Archer and Ise's induction, they were at first sent to handout fliers to all the houses around the neighborhood. While Ise used his bicycle to travel to each house, Archer just went to the roof of Kuoh's main building and shot the fliers into the mailboxes with his arrows.
It was quite tricky to time his Projected arrow's dispersal back into prana so that it would disappear a split second before it hit the mailboxes. This was to make sure that only the fliers would get inside the mailboxes without any damages done to the mailboxes themselves.
Once they had finished, they finally debuted as Devils after being requested by some people to fulfill their wishes.
Archer's clients were mainly cafes or food stalls that found themselves in hard times and needed some new dishes that could attract more customers. Needless to say, he was successful in forming his contracts.
Ise on the other hand, failed to form the contracts he was supposed to but somehow his clients gave him a good feedback. Apparently, he had accompanied his clients in enjoying their hobbies.
"Don't think too much about it, Master. Weirder things have happened."
"You're probably right. I just hope he'll be able to form a proper contract soon."
"Well, Master. Since the time for our normal club activities are up, I'll just excuse myself for now."
"That's fine then. See you tonight." Rias said while smiling at Archer.
Despite Rias's smile, Archer could still see some hint of sadness she was trying to hide. Archer knew the reason was because of him. The truth was that, she and Akeno knew that he was keeping some secrets from all of them but both of them never pressed him for anything that he didn't want to reveal.
"I hope that one day, you would trust me enough to tell me what's troubling you." Said Rias with a sad smile.
"I don't care what secrets you have, just as long as we're together again." Akeno just hugged him with a smile that tolds him that she was content just to have him here with her.
Those were their very words to him and it caused his guilty conscience to resurface every time he recalled them. Rias and Akeno never brought up the subject again, content in earning his trust slowly until he was ready to share with them his secrets.
Despite his reluctance, it was times like these that Archer wished he could find a reason to trust those girls soon and just come clean. He knew that he was becoming soft for thinking like that but he couldn't really complain.
After all, after centuries of suffering under Alaya's contract, being able to even feel these kinds of emotions again made him feel...human.
"I'll bring some desserts. What would you like, Master?"
Rias immediately perked up at this. The small hint of sadness from before had completely disappeared. "How about a strawberry shortcake?"
"Will do." Archer smiled softly at Rias. It might have been only a temporary solution to cheer her up but Archer thought that he'll just take what he could get.
Exiting the clubroom, Archer began to make mental a list of ingredients for him to buy to make a strawberry shortcake.
- Scene Break -
Oh, you have got to be kidding me!
On the way to the nearest convenience store to buy the needed ingredients for a strawberry shortcake, Archer had coincidentally bumped into Ise at a park. The moment he saw Ise however, he was sure that the perverted boy was getting himself into trouble again.
The reason?
He was accompanying a nun.
They were both currently enjoying the egg and cheese sandwich that Archer had previously made for Ise but just a few moments ago, Archer had arrived at the park just in time to see the nun heal a young boy's scratched knee with a green light that Archer had guessed was most likely a healing type Sacred Gear.
It was a moment later that he recognized Ise's visage who was talking with the nun as Archer was too concentrated on the nun herself to realize Ise's presence sooner. A moment later, Archer recognized the nun's gestures as her being hungry.
As Archer was at the opposite end of the park and was behind them, they never realized his presence as Ise offered the nun some of the packed sandwiches.
Since the scene looked like a date to another person's point of view, Archer would've normally just left them alone. Unfortunately, he and Ise are now both Devils that were the traditional enemies of the Church so he had to intervene in this situation before it got worse.
Not to mention that Archer could easily tell that Ise was smitten with the nun if his happy expression was anything to go by.
If this goes on, this will definitely end badly.
Archer had enough experience to know that love that blossoms between two enemy factions tend to end in tragedy most of the time. Akeno was the best example of said tragedy.
Unless the couple intended to make a revolution to seek peace between the two factions, their only other option was to flee but that will also mean that they will become fugitives fated to live a life on the run from the factions that they betrayed.
Considering that the two factions in question have been at war for millennia, the latter option is more likely what those two might choose. *Sigh* Why do these things always have to be so complicated?
Having made his decision Archer called out to Ise. "Ise, what are you doing?"
Startled at having his name being called suddenly, Ise turned around from his seat. "Shirou? What are you doing here?"
"I asked first." Archer said with an annoyed tone.
"Uhh...I'm guiding...hmm? Sorry, I didn't get your name." Ise asked the nun sheepishly.
"AH! I forgot to introduce myself!" Panicking a little, the nun immediately introduced herself.
"Pleased to meet you. My name is Asia Argento." Asia bowed a little while smiling at Archer and Ise.
Despite meeting her for only around ten seconds, Archer could already figure out Asia's personality from her smile. Asia's smile that was filled with happiness practically radiated kindness and naivety. There was no hint of any ulterior motive or ill intentions. She was the kind of person that would never wish any misfortune upon anyone even if they're Devils.
There were many times during his quest to uphold his ideal that Archer had defended these kind of people from harm. He even owed some of those people his life. Basically, he could easily tell that Asia was that kind of person.
"I'm Hyoudou Issei. You can call me Ise."
"Pleased to meet you too, Miss Asia. I'm Emiya Shirou. Please call me Shirou." Archer smiled using his most gentlemanly smile. "Now that we have introduced ourselves, care to tell me what you were planning to do to Miss Asia, Ise?"
"Why do you sound like I was going to commit a crime? I was just guiding Asia to the nearest church. She got lost because she couldn't read or speak Japanese." Ise narrowed his eyes at Archer.
"Yes! Ise-san was guiding me to the church that I was appointed to. Our meeting was definitely thanks to God!"
Looking at Asia who was currently praying, Archer could guess why Ise could easily become smitten with her. Asia had long blonde hair, a very cute face and green eyes that were filled with innocence. She was quite the beauty even for foreigners despite not being fully matured yet and her innocent aura would drive many people to have a strong desire to protect her whether male or female.
"Is that so? Well, once you two finish those sandwiches, I'll accompany you to the- Hm? Hold on... Ise, is the church you're talking about the one in the outer part of this town?"
"Yeah, that's the only one I know around here."
Archer frowned at Ise's reply.
"Is something wrong, Shirou-san?"
"The church that Ise's talking about was abandoned and has become a run-down building a long time ago. I don't think it's still operational."
"Ah, I believe that's the one. They did say that it was an old church."
Archer's suspicions were increased after hearing Asia's confirmation.
Could it be?...I'll have to investigate this.
"I see. Well, let's get going then. The sun's coming down and I don't think you want to be late."
"He's right. Come on, Asia."
"Yes, Ise-san!"
After that, the trio left the park and started heading to the church.
In the middle of their walk however, Archer whispered to Ise. "Ise, if anything happens get ready to fight or flee when I tell you so."
"W-What? Why?" Ise asked full of confusion.
"I'll explain later. Just get ready. Hopefully, I'm wrong and nothing happens."
"O-Okay." Ise still didn't understand their situation but decided to just follow his friend's lead.
After a few minutes, the trio arrived at the church. Just as Archer said, the church was run-down and very old but the light coming from inside meant that there were people currently residing in the church. Both Archer and Ise could feel some chill in their spines the moment they laid eyes on the building.
Asia sighed in relief at having arrived at her destination. "Yes, this is the-"
Before Asia could finish her sentence, a surge of killing intent was sent their way. It was so filled with hatred that even Ise and Asia could feel it despite not yet being trained to perceive it.
"E-Eh? W-What's-?"
Asia who was confused by the sudden change in atmosphere could only tremble in fear, thus she could not move away in time to dodge a spear of light that was suddenly shot at her from inside the church.
"ASIA!" Fortunately, Archer's warning to Ise made him shift into combat mode and he was able to pull Asia away from the attack before it hit her.
"Boosted Gear! Promotion: Queen!" The moment Asia was in his arms, Ise retreated behind Archer while activating his Sacred Gear and immediately used Promotion to increase his battle potential. All those training in the mountains with Archer was paying off.
Boost!
A voice came from the Boosted Gear, signaling Ise's first power up.
Archer who had already silently Promoted to Queen the moment he saw the church, Projected Kanshou and Bakuya in his hands when the surge of killing intent had hit them and was now deflecting a few more of the spears of light that was shot towards them.
From the church, more figures that were wearing hoods to hide their faces emerged from the church and were wielding swords that were made of light. Not only that, 4 figures with black wings, Fallen Angels, also appeared on the roof of the church.
And one of them was someone he had already met.
"YOU! How dare you show your insignificant self to me again!"
The person who was looking at him with utter hatred was none other than the Fallen Angel who had killed him and called herself Amano Yuuma.
"Oh? Is this the guy who cut off your arm Raynare?" A Fallen Angel with blonde hair styled in twin short side ponytails and blue eyes said. She also wore a Gothic Lolita attire.
"Hoh? He deflected our attacks like they were nothing. This might be good entertainment." This time, the only male Fallen Angel in the group gave his two cents.
"Hmph! Whatever. They're just insignificant Low-Class Devils. Let's just kill them." The fourth Fallen Angel was a tall and buxom woman with long, navy blue hair that obscured her right eye.
Damn! I knew it!
When he heard that Asia was appointed to an abandoned church, he already suspected that it might have been taken over by either Rogue Exorcists or Fallen Angels.
Archer had hoped that he was wrong and that Asia was just sent there to help them rebuild the church, in which case, he and Ise might not have been attacked by the Angels or Exorcists as he and Ise had been guiding one of their own without harming her which can be interpreted as an act of kindness.
Boost!
From behind him, Archer could hear Ise's Boosted Gear signaling Ise's second power up. However, Ise's powers were currently still not enough to handle their opponents. He would have to buy Ise more time to multiply his powers.
No time to hesitate!
Since they were outnumbered, Archer decided to use one of his most reliable attack method when handling large numbers of enemies.
Flooding his Magic Circuits with Demonic Energy, Archer Projected a dozen of Kiba's Demonic Swords that have different attributes in the air around him.
If this was his original world and body, this act would've already cut down Archer's Prana reserves by more than half but this current world had cut his Prana usage to a third of what he was used to when using Projection and he had more Demonic Energy than his original Od.
Not to mention his current Magic Circuits were of higher quality and his use of Promotion further increased his overall parameters. Add to that, the more abundant mana that exist in this world and the fact that they are currently on a Leyline, Archer's reserves were only cut down less than a twentieth.
"W-What the?"
"Are all those Sacred Gears?"
"How does he have so many?"
The Stray Exorcists that at first were trying to surround them had paused in their assault seeing his display of flying swords. Archer didn't miss this chance.
"Sword Barrel."
"Full Barrage."
"Fire!"
Not letting the chance for his enemies to compose himself, Archer bombarded the Stray Exorcists with all his Demonic Swords while at the same time, Projecting more when the ones he already Projected was launched.
"GYAAH!"
"T-THERE"S TOO MANY OF THEM!"
"HELP!"
"Y-YOU DAMN DEV- AAAGGHH!"
All the Stray Exorcists were in dire straits as they didn't have enough strength or skill to deflect or parry the Demonic Swords that were shot towards them at the speed of 320 meters/second which was the average speed of a .22 caliber bullet.
"SHIT! That was close!"
"What the hell Raynare!? Why didn't you tell us he could do that?"
"Shut up! He didn't use it last time!"
"GYAAHAHA! Now this just got more interesting!"
Of course, Archer had also shot his swords at the 4 Fallen Angels on the roof. Unfortunately, they had flew and scattered to different directions to evade his bombardment.
Despite the one sided bombardment however, Archer didn't even launch the swords at their maximum velocity yet. He was still trying to get a feel to this world's being's power levels. Archer felt that his sparring with Kiba and Koneko was still...lacking something, so he deemed that he shouldn't use Kiba's and Koneko's power levels as the only 'measuring stick'.
Boost!
That was Ise's 6th Boost. He had already Boosted 3 times during Archer's bombardment. Ise was holding Asia tightly in his arms while keeping an eye on the surrounding and powering himself up. He was determined to protect her from any harm so he was preparing himself for when his powers would be needed.
That said he was still amazed by Archer's one sided battle.
"Woah. I knew you were strong Shirou, but...I've never seen you do this before."
"That's because it's the first time I've ever used it in this life." This was technically true as after being reincarnated in this world, Archer had never used this ability yet. "Don't worry about me. Just concentrate on powering yourself up and keep Asia safe."
"I know. I'm not gonna let any of these scumbags lay even a finger on her!" In the past, he was forced to just watch as a friend died saving him because of his own affairs and he was powerless to do anything about it. Never again. This time, he will be the one doing the protecting.
Boost!
"I-Ise-san."
"Don't worry, Asia. We'll definitely protect you." Ise smiled reassuringly at Asia.
"Y-Yes. T-Thank you." She said softly while clinging to Ise's shirt. Her face was red and she was a bit flustered.
To Asia, this was the first time that someone had tried to protect her. Before this, she was treated as a saint and people worshiped her but none of them had really tried to befriend her. It was when she had healed a Devil using her Twilight Healing that she had lost even those bonds and ended up joining a group of Rogue Exorcists and Fallen Angels.
Now however, a Devil she barely knew (at least, she thought that he was a Devil since her colleagues had called him that) was currently trying to protect her at the risk of his own life even though by their beliefs alone, they were supposed to be enemies. Despite the carnage that was happening around her and the confusion she had about why her supposed colleagues were trying to kill her, she couldn't help but feel happy.
At long last, her prayers were answered.
Her life long wish had finally been granted.
She had made a friend.
Boost!
As Ise reached his 8th Boost, Archer's bombardment of the Stray Exorcists finally ended. The place was in ruins with dead bodies and craters everywhere with signs of scorch marks, slashes and even ice. This was the result of bombarding the Rogue Exorcists with Demonic Swords that had different elemental attributes.
"Tch! Those stupid humans weren't even good enough as canon fodder."
"That's why humans are so useless."
"Heh. We'll just have to settle this ourselves."
"Let's just kill these insects and extract Twilight Healing from the nun as planned."
Even if all the Rogue Exorcists were defeated, the 4 Fallen Angels were the real threat. All Fallen Angels possessed more magical power and base parameters than a normal human by a wide margin, thus they were a greater threat than the Rogue Exorcists. Not to mention that their spears of light are more lethal to him now since he was now a Devil who's weakness was the holy element.
Still, Archer was sure that he could easily take on all four of them at once with some of his Noble Phantasms but since he decided not to reveal those Trump Cards of his just yet, he'll have to make do with Kanshou, Bakuya and Kiba's Demonic Swords.
That said, Archer was also sure that he could still take them all on quite easily even with his current weaker armaments. After all, he was still holding back on them and they were already in dire straits.
Boost!
"Here they come. Get ready!" Archer warned Ise.
"Alright! Nine times is my current limit but it should be enough for this fight!"
Explosion!
"Asia. Stay behind me okay?"
"Y-Yes!"
"Ise! I'll take the male and the one in the Gothic Lolita dress. You alright with the other two?"
"Yeah. I have a score to settle with one of them."
As both of them had decided on their foes, Archer quickly launched a few more of his Projected Demonic Swords at the center of where the 4 Fallen Angels were gathered. His intention was not to hit them but to separate them.
As planned, the Fallen Angels divided into two groups consisting of the targets that both of them had agreed on. Archer headed to the right while Ise went to the left. Both of them had their bat wings out and was flying to their respective opponents.
Archer had Projected Kanshou and Bakuya in his hands while Ise was amassing his Demonic Energy in his gauntlet. With both of them having Promoted to Queen and Archer Reinforcing his body to the limit while Ise had Boosted 9 times, the duo's movement was too fast for each of their first victims to react in time.
SCHICK!
"Dragon Shot!"
As a result, Ise was able to shoot a concentrated form of his Demonic Energy that was strengthened to become 512 times stronger at point blank range to the buxom Fallen Angel and completely vaporized her while Archer had decapitated the Gothic Lolita Fallen Angel so fast that her face was still making a confused expression as if she didn't even realize that she was already dead as her head fell to the ground.
Both didn't even have time to scream in pain.
"MITTELT! KALAWARNER!"
As Raynare screamed the names of her former colleagues, Ise and Archer immediately engaged their next targets. Unfortunately, their foes were ready for them this time. Archer's and Ise's success in taking out their first opponents easily was because their foes were completely underestimating them. They had judged them as mere insects unworthy of their attention while feeling secured in their knowledge of outnumbering Archer four to one as they hadn't recognized Ise as a threat yet and it caused them to let their guard down.
This mistake despite Archer's show of power had led to the swift deaths of Mittelt and Kalawarner.
However, unlike their dead colleagues, the male Fallen Angel, Dohnaseek and Raynare, Ise's ex-girlfriend who used the alias Amano Yuuma, had already assessed Archer as a credible threat and now that Ise had shown that he had enough firepower to completely vaporize one of their own, the both of them had become incredibly dangerous in the eyes of the two Fallen Angels.
It was only due to this that Dohnaseek was able to block Archer's strike with the married blades by creating one spear of light in each of his hands while Raynare formed a spear of light in her right hand and used it as a close range weapon to keep Ise at a distance.
"How dare you! A lowly Devil like you! You'll pay for this!"
"Shut up! You're the one who started it! And don't think I've forgotten how you killed Shirou last time!"
Ise countered Yuuma, no, Raynare's accusations. He was angry at the memory of Shirou dying in his arms from blood loss after being stabbed by Raynare's spear of light and him not being able to do a single thing to save his savior. Ever since, he swore to become stronger so that the same thing would never happen again. That's why, despite his complaints, Ise never abandoned his training with Shirou in the mountains no matter how hellish it was.
Besides, if he wanted to become a Harem King, he would first have to make sure that he was strong enough to protect the girls in his harem when he finally receives the Evil Pieces needed to make his peerage.
For now, he will have to be content with being strong enough to defeat Raynare.
After they were reincarnated into Devils, Ise had already spoken in length with Shirou about his feelings concerning Raynare and her trying to kill him. As Shirou lost his life in that very incident, Ise thought that Shirou had the right to speak his mind about it. As a person who was directly involved, Shirou's advise to Ise to accept the reality that he was fooled by Raynare in order to get closer to him so that she could assassinate him was easier for Ise to swallow no matter how bitter it felt.
That's right.
It didn't matter that she had been his first girlfriend.
It didn't matter that he had planned their first date carefully to make sure it would become a great date.
It didn't matter that he had already made plans for Christmas so the both of them could enjoy it together.
It didn't matter that he had sworn to make sure that she was happy for choosing him.
It didn't matter that he had once been in love with her.
All of these feelings would never reach Raynare as she had every intention of toying with his feelings from the very beginning. All of her smiles and cute gestures that was definitely faked in order to see him act stupidly in front of her was for her own amusement. She was definitely laughing in the cruelest ways in her heart at his foolishness.
Ise had already come to terms with these facts when he cried his eyes out after consulting with Shirou on how to deal with the knowledge that his most precious feelings were being toyed with and was discarded by the very woman he had fallen in love with like they didn't even matter. Shirou, who seemed to have decided to treat the subject seriously, only watched Ise in silence as he let all out of his pent up despair.
"Are you going to close your heart to everyone around you or stand up and move forward. To never give up searching for the person who would return your feelings?"
This was the question that Shirou had asked him after Ise had finished crying his heart out.
For the first time in his life, Ise had used all the capabilities of his brain, that until now was only used to think about perverted stuff, to find an answer to that question. It took him a while but he finally resolved himself to never lose to these feelings of despair. He would create a harem consisting of those who would sincerely return his feelings and for that, he would search for eternity if he had to.
He will never allow Raynare's deeds to cause him despair. To do so would be an insult to Shirou who had died for him. Thus, all the lingering feelings that he had for Raynare had vanished. There was no longer any hesitation in his heart for when he would confront her, so he never bothered to try thinking of a way to get his feelings across to her.
And now that he was finally confronting her, to him, there was only one thing in his eyes as Raynare was flying in front of him.
An enemy.
He no longer viewed her as his ex-girlfriend or his first love but an enemy that he had to defeat. This was not only for revenge for killing his friend or toying with his heart but for the sake of another friend that he had made just a few minutes ago.
Asia Argento.
She was a girl who he was immediately smitten with. A girl who's smile didn't have any ulterior motive or ill intentions unlike Raynare's that, once he compared them, he couldn't believe that he had once been fooled by those fake smiles that Raynare had. He would do anything, for Asia to be able to keep smiling that beautiful smile of hers.
"Take this!"
Raynare threw her spear of light at Ise's head.
At this, Ise coated his Boosted Gear with his Demonic Energy and punched the spear of light to the side while at the same time, he flew straight at Raynare with his current maximum speed.
Seeing this, Raynare formed another spear of light and made a slash at Ise, intending to use the same strategy as before to keep him at a distance but instead of evading it like before, Ise had instead blocked the slash with his gauntlet that was still coated with his Demonic Energy.
"Wha-?"
Before Raynare could even be surprised with Ise's stunt, he punched Raynare straight in the face using all his might and the momentum from his flight.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
Raynare was punched tens of meters away before she crashed into three trees in a forest at the back of the church. Her body was battered, her spine and neck was broken, her limbs were bent in unnatural ways and one of her wings were useless. She fell unconscious from the pain of her broken body.
She had clearly lost but Ise didn't want to take any chances.
"Dragon Shot!"
Ise had pumped all his Demonic Energy into his current strongest attack. As the ball of concentrated Demonic Energy hit the place Raynare's body was collapsed at, a strong explosion occurred.
BOOM!
As the smoke from the explosion subsided, Ise could see a 5 meter crater had formed. Everything that was caught in the blast turned to dust including Raynare's body.
Reset!
"Huff...huff...I did it...huff...huff."
"Yes, you did."
Ise spun around at the voice only to see Archer. There wasn't even a scratch on him.
"Did you...huff...beat him?"
"Yeah."
During Ise's clash with Raynare, Archer had beaten Dohnaseek by Reinforcing Kanshou and Bakuya to its limits until they formed into two wing like swords known as their Overedge Form. In this state, the swords become brittle and could easily explode to cause hundreds of slashes to the enemy from their fragments.
The hundreds of fragments from the explosion didn't manage to kill Dohnaseek even though it gave him some very fatal injuries despite Archer's purpose for the attack to only be a distraction. Archer used this opening to Project his bow and one of Kiba's Wind element Demonic Swords that he had specifically commissioned for Kiba to make for him.
Wind Piercer.
It had a similar design to Caladbolg II's drill like form since Archer needed it to have as much penetrating power as possible and with it's Wind element to increase it's speed, it was able to easily travel at the speed of Mach 10 to completely tear through Dohnaseek's heart and almost everything on his left chest.
"Come on. The others should've realized that something was happening here since we were quite...loud. They should be here any moment now."
"Ugh. We're gonna get scolded aren't we?"
Once they were on the ground, Asia used her Twilight Healing on both of them to heal their injuries even if they weren't much. A few moments later, the other members of the club appeared from a Magic Circle just like Archer said.
"What's going on here?" Rias was the one who interrogated Ise and Archer with a more serious expression than the one she usually had.
"Do you want the long version or the short version?"
"Give me the short version."
"We killed the Fallen Angel that tried to kill Ise."
Rias waited for a few moments for more details but figured that there probably wasn't anymore.
She sighed.
"All right. Give me the long version."
And so, Archer explained to Rias everything that had happened after he left the club room.
Rias sighed again after Archer had finished his tale.
"I expected this from Ise but why did you also have to get yourself in this situation?"
"In my defense, I was only intending to do some light reconnaissance since I thought that there might be Fallen Angels and Rogue Exorcists in the church so I wanted to report to you later but they attacked first."
"I see. The problem now is what to do with Miss Argento."
"Eh? Buchou, what do you mean?"
"She's part of the enemy's forces. She can't stay here."
"B-But, those guys wanted to kill her. And I think they were talking about extracting the Sacred Gear from her."
"It doesn't matter. We are a Devils. And she is a servant of Fallen Angels. Our two races cannot coexist. Saving her means making the Fallen Angels your enemies. ...If that happened, we would also have to fight. Something like that could very well trigger another war."
Ise looked at Asia with a conflicted expression. He wanted to keep Asia from the Fallen Angels but doing so might cause a war to erupt between the two factions.
As Asia was hearing the proceedings between Ise and Rias, she smiled at Ise. "It's okay, Ise-san. I don't want to cause you more trouble, so I'll just go back to where I was originally appointed."
Hearing Asia say this, Ise started to have a serious expression on his face. "Are you sure about that?"
"Yes."
"Then," Ise put his hands on Asia's shoulders. "why are you crying?"
"Eh?"
Just like Ise said, tears were falling from Asia's eyes.
"T-That's funny. I-I'm not sad but," Asia's tears start to overflow like a dam releasing all of it's burdens. "why won't they stop?"
Ise hugged Asia to his chest. "You're really bad at lying, Asia."
At this, Asia started to earnestly cry on Ise's chest.
"What do you really want Asia?" Ise asked.
"I *sob* want to keep being *sob* friends with Ise-san." It was such a cruel thing to her. Her life long wish to have a friend was finally granted only to have her friend pried away from her as soon as they met.
Seeing Asia crying on Ise's chest, everyone of the club members excluding Archer looked at Rias with a pleading gaze.
"W-What? What do you want me to do?"
No one spoke, they just kept sending their pleading gaze to Rias.
At the club member's continuous gaze, Rias finally gave in.
She sighed. "Fine. I'll ask Onii-sama if there's anything he can do."
"Thank you, Buchou."
"Don't thank me yet. We still don't know if she can stay."
"Even so. Thank you."
Asia couldn't let this continue without expressing her own gratitude so she joined in as well. "Thank you very much, Buch-"
Before she finished her sentence however, she suddenly pushed Ise away.
"A-Asi-?"
BANG!
The sound of a gunshot rang throughout the whole clearing in front of the church. All the club members immediately went on guard but it was too late.
The shot had already claimed its prey.
"AASIAAAA!"
Asia had been shot. The bullet had went straight through her the chest.
"*Cough* *Cough*I...se...san*Cough*...I-"
Whatever Asia wanted to say while coughing up blood, she wasn't even able to finish it as life left her body. She didn't even have enough time to concentrate on her Sacred Gear to heal herself.
"No...no...this can't be happening..."
As blood dripped down from Asia's lifeless body, Ise screamed out his despair.
"UWAAAAHHHH!"
Ise's cry was so full of despair that everyone there could feel his sadness.
At least, everyone except the shooter.
"Tch! I missed. Oh, well. At least, I got the traitor. Hehehehe."
A foreign teenage boy with white hair was standing on the roof of the church. He wore a priest outfit and had a very maniacal evil smile on his face.
"Who are you?" Kiba asked in a menacing tone while holding his Holy Eraser in a ready stance.
"I'm a priest~ A boy priest~ I cut down devil-like people~, and I laugh at them~I cut the head of you Devils, and receive my meal~"
The priest starts to sing.
"My name is Freed Zelzan. I belong to the group that you just decimated but enough about that. Ah, just because I introduced myself doesn't mean you have to. I don't want to remember your name in my memory, so please don't. I just went out for an errand and come back to see the place trashed by a couple of shitty Devils! And then there was some tear jerking scene that made me wanna puke. So I thought, "Why not I just kill one of them?" Instead I ended up killing the traitor. Eh, whatever. I rea~lly want to kill all of you right now but since I'm outnumbered I'll have to retreat."
Saying this, Freed pulled out a round object from his coat.
Archer didn't even wait for Freed to activate the round object. Even without analyzing it, he could guess that Freed was planning to use something to help him escape so he Projected 5 of his swords as fast as he could and launched them the moment Freed reached into his coat.
Unfortunately, since Archer had to fire his swords in short notice, he didn't have enough time to concentrate on firing them and was only able to do it at a fraction of their highest speed which was even slower than his previous bombardment.
Also, Freed seemed to have better instincts and was more agile than the previous Rogue Exorcists as he quickly moved to get out of the way of the swords trajectory the moment Archer Projected them. Thus, Freed was already out of the way by the time Archer had launched his swords at the place Freed was standing at a moment ago.
"Hyahyahya! You missed!" Before anyone else could react, Freed activated the item in his hand by throwing it at the ground in front of the group. A sudden mixture of bright light and noise invaded their senses as apparently the round object was a strong flashbang grenade. As the light and noise disappeared, no sign of Freed could be seen.
"Damn. He got away." Archer was angry at himself for letting his guard down, thinking that all the enemies were already defeated. His momentary lapse in attention at the drama between Asia and Ise had cost them greatly.
Asia was dead.
Everyone watched as Ise continued to cry while hugging Asia's body. All of them had a mixture of anger and sadness on their facial expression. Even Koneko who was usually expressionless had tears flowing down her eyes. Akeno was especially murderous.
As the scene went on, Rias finally made her decision and pulled out a red Bishop piece from her skirt.
She knew what she had to do.
