Vermilion Dragon of the Phenex

by Alek Sands

"Allow me to reintroduce myself, Gremory-san; my name is Hyoudou Issei, I am the Pawn of Eight to Lady Ravel of the House of Phenex, but today it is for Lord Riser, her elder brother whom I fight for. Upon my left arm, I wield the Longinus, {Boosted Gear}, and by this gauntlet, I proclaim myself as this generation's [Sekiryuutei] (Red Dragon Emperor)." AU. Rated M. etc. etc.

12. Attack on Kuoh Part 1

The following is a non-profit, fan-based AU story. [High School DxD] is owned by Ishibumi Ichiei, Miyama-Zero, Fujimi Shobo, TNK and Funimation. Please support the official release. I just found out that Serafall Leviathan's first name is supposed to be "Seraphoroux". Weird, right? I'm not changing my mind on it though.

Oh, and I have gotten a cover image now. There is that. Ok, moving on.

---

With a fallen angel in front, and an exorcist to my left, it was certainly not the situation that I, Hyoudou Issei, was expecting to find on this Saturday afternoon. Not with what I had planned to do this weekend either especially.

I had actually come across the situation by complete accident on my way passing the road towards Old Kuoh district, when I happen to see a human sized dent in the barrier on the road and a trail of black feathers scattered across the stairs. Least I say anymore toward my suspicion of what had occurred.

I had no idea what had happened, but being able to hear the sound of a light spear being thrown, I generally assumed that it was the worst situation possible. I ended up abandoning my bag at the pavement except for a bottle I was about to dispose of before descending down the hillside in that direction.

I just wish to illustrate that I in no way support the use of throwing rubbish at people, except at stray devils or rogue angels of course. In the shade of the trees with a passing cloud over the sun, it was certainly easier to find the scum's location with his back turned before a well-placed knock to his head caught him off guard.

Though, in hindsight, maybe getting involved with an exorcist wasn't the smartest of ideas. I had only assumed she was human when I arrived, but that light sword in her grasp spelled a bad decision when I realised.

Thank the Maou she was reasonable enough to see me as the lesser of two threats rather than making my careless intervention useless and time-wasting for me.

Dressed for summer in jeans that only just covered her knees and a white coloured zipped lightweight jacket over a reddish t-shirt. It was no surprise that she was covered in slight traces of mud and a few leaves sticking to her clothing from where she had fallen.

Her hair was light in colour. Blonde, but a very light and silvery kind, though I wouldn't say it was platinum. It appeared darker like a soft brown beneath the first layer, and the longest strands only reached as far down as her shoulder blades. Eyes like bright amber, which to be perfectly honest were a lot more human than the fallen angel's.

The fallen angel by comparison was a horrific sight. Only that much more human like than any stray devil I had encountered before; I wouldn't have said that it was black, but its hair was definitely a terribly dark colour. His eyes sclera matched perfectly with his hair, while his eyes were an eerie shade of bright yellow like his teeth. Both were also sharp and pointed like knives. He had wings, four in number but not in pairs.

He was also dressed head to toe in all black and long-sleeved clothing, jumper and slacks, with a hood now hiding the brow of his face after getting a hit on the noggin.

He made some grandiose speech about how he would be attaining status through war victories he had yet to obtain. My ears simply funnelled his rambling through one and out the other without so much of a syllable imprinting on my grey matter.

When he signalled his intention to attack, it came with a flash of light, and then all of our bearings were gone from sight. An obvious trick for beings to adept at using photonic energy as a weapon. What was worse was how much it stung, not only because it was holy energy infused into that light, but the heightened nocturnal eye sight in devils made the shift in brightness that much worse.

"{Promotion: Rook!}"

I changed my Evil Piece attribute in reaction to the situation; I suspected the first attack would come at me, the bigger threat and the one to whom the light based attacks would have the greatest advantage over. Prepping the Rook trait meant I had the best chances of defence should that have been the case, and the ability to utilise my preference for close ranged attacks when I had the opportunity to counter.

Fortunately for me, but not fortunate for my temporary ally, his lunge attack was directed at the exorcist.

*shi~ink*

I could barely see, but the sound of steel on light resonated through the air. I steered myself in that direction, but continued to hold my ground until my sight had returned.

The blades of the exorcist and the rogue angel continued to class while little by little my eyes tried to readjust to the surroundings again after suffering severe pains to my retina.

*shink*shink*Sssshh-rank* . . . *flick*shink*shink*shink*shink*sh-*flick*swoop*shink* . . . *flick*

By the time I had sight again, I could see the clash of blade against blade. Though it looked like the two were holding their own, it was evident that the fallen had the advantage in speed and power. The exorcist was barely managing to parry his attacks, but it was admirable to see her efforts.

Although a few cuts were present against her arm and legs, and one that lightly grazed her cheek, she hung in there. Her stance was still holding, but the obvious disadvantage of a human body would likely take its toll on her against one of the supernatural.

I wasn't doubting her training, nor her proficiency with a sword. But, there was the glaringly obvious difference between which of the two was using up more of her stamina to keep up with her opponents moves.

Catching her sword in two blades, he swung his wing around to knock her off balance. He kicked her in the gut with her guard temporarily down, before lunging towards me with the momentum from that kick-off.

I locked my arms in front of me, blocking my view whilst protecting my face. I knew that he was still armed with light spears, but opening my head up would have ended this bout without any protection. I could mentally picture Ddraig screaming to be released throughout the entire fight.

"Double skewering, coming your way!"

*Shlick!*Shlick!*

Striking his into my shoulders and then driving forward with his wings pushing me back, the pain was excruciating. Without the defence of the Rook, I might have had those spears cleanly slice through and lost both my entire arms without any form of a chance to fight back.

Maou knows where Ddraig would have appeared after that. I don't even think I want to imagi- . . . never mind.

With both his weapons now firmly stuck, but still driving the pain sensation through my body, I split apart my arms in forceful fashion. The action smashed both my arms against the fallen's, forcing his grip on the spears to cease as they shattered from the impact.

"Guh!"*thwack!*

Leaving him no time to react, I head-butted him before leaping from danger. I rolled across the ground before regrouping with the exorcist picking herself off the ground.

My wounds smoked for a while, but they ceased with a light patting, like putting out a small fire on your clothes.

He came at me again after ridding himself of the mild concussion I gave him. But this time, I had him; Instead of allowing the next attack, I timed the attack and caught his face again while he was stuck in his momentum. The idiot came at me for a poorly planned counter after being

Still, that pain to my shoulders really didn't utilise my arms strength to the best of this {promotion's} abilities. At the very least, the defence meant the damage had been as minimal as I could have done without a certain red scale mail covering me.

He went flying into the bushes with a couple of tumbles, but he had no time to recuperate with the exorcist back on her feet. She ran passed me with a few lunges; one clipped a few feathers, but the second just left her vulnerable when he simply whacked her into the tree behind.

The exorcist got back to her feet and lunged again, but misses short of a light spear blocking her attack. A second spear appeared, but only ripped the right sleeve from her shirt as she avoided it at the cost of her balance.

Not the wisest choice I made, but I decided to step in before she ended up impaled with a returning spear to her guts. I aimed for the head, however the time between the attack connecting was too long that he saw it coming. Instead of dodging, he pulled himself up a useful shield.

I would blame her for getting straight back up from her tree and attacking during my turn, but . . . I actually cannot think of a reason not to throw the blame back at her.

My hand made contact with her light sword. The obvious sign was the trail of smoke and pain that followed shortly after.

"Tsss!"

To say that the pain didn't hurt was an understatement; imagine the pain a superconductive wire that had a live current running through it, then imagine that said wire had been conducting for so long the the metal was reaching boiling point. Take said metal and think how it would feel to smack for closed fingers against. That kind of pain would be less than a quarter of the incurring irritation you get just by lightly grazing yourself against one of these light swords as a devil.

There was literal smoke emanating from both my hand and the blade. Had my skin remained there for much longer, I probably would have seen a bit more gore left over from the brief intermission of touching.

But, I had experience with holy silver before, and my body naturally flinched when it came into contact with a weapon of similar properties. Lord Alsiel's nets really do a number on your skin if you lay on them for so long.

With my hand writhing in pain I had not mentally prepared for, the fallen used her like a bat to knock the both of us deeper into the woods.

*twi~ish*twish*Crack!*Crack!*Cr-THUMP!*

After bursting through the bushes, and crashing through a couple of trees before the third one broke the speed at last. Half buried into its bark, I took most pf the damage, but the trait of the Rook as well as my devil physiology meant it did little more than bruise my back.

The exorcist should have considered her good luck having used me as a cushion throughout the entire ordeal. Her response however once she regained her bearings and fell to the ground was to immediately push me away.

"Hey! Watch it!"

She sung her sword in my direction of all things before I too got out of the tree. It creaks a little, which I then noticed was because more than half of the original tree was now splinters, hut it held itself together and didn't spontaneously fall the moment I dug myself free.

"You watch it, I nearly melted on that thing!"

"It's you- Guh!"

She fell to her knees gripping her side. Her clothes started dying red while the rest of the skin went purple and blue beneath her palm. Her right hand reached to her left side and plucked a stick buried into her hip before throwing it to the shrubbery. She slammed her blade into the ground and used it like a crutch to get herself to her feet without my assistance.

Not that I had offered to begin with, but her eyes glaring daggers, either from the pain or just because she didn't particularly want the touch of a devil against her skin. Something like that.

Regardless of the situation, she got back up and to her feet with enough balance. She took her zipped jacket she was wearing and wrapped the wound before double knotting it around her waist.

There were a couple of noticeable scars on each of her arms and her partially exposed torso, contrasting the new cuts and bruises that she had already received from our previous round with the rogue angel. Even without the obvious signs of having engaged in previous combat with string beings, the look of frustration and gritting willpower was written all across her expression. Not an inkling of novice fear could be found much to my surprise.

I brushed myself a little as I kept my ears firmly wide and turning in every direction when it went too quiet everywhere I looked.

"Hehehee. Kakaka-kakakakakaka-kakakaka-kakaka."

Only a voice could be heard as it cackled through the trees, leaving the two of us in complete isolation. It was enough to gouge your own ears over by how disgustingly drivelous it echoes in the greenery. Then the two of us, the exorcist and I, turned out back to each other as his equally revolting voice starting resonating after.

"Children, children. Let's stop all this pointless bickering. If you don't play nicely together, then none of us will have any fun."

I looked around trying to find him, but the consistent interference of light spear bombardments caught us both by surprise until he suddenly stopped.

He had vanished somewhere into the tree line, with more than just the wind now rustling the branches in all directions, leaving the two of us to watch from each other's backs as we awaited his next attack. The sound of bird chirping and cawing as they took flight in fright when a heavier set of wings bounded from treetop to treetop above our heads.

---

The weekend meeting was over. It was around 4:30 in the afternoon. Way too late for a meeting to have taken, but everyone arrived later than 12. But that was when everyone started packing up.

I, Toujou Koneko, wanted to just go home. I could have done better things that they then what we came here for.

It was a wasted Saturday to be honest. I just sat at my chair in the circle and munched away. None of the other girls even batted an eye the entire time.

I didn't even remember what they were discussing. But, I had no doubt that I wouldn't enjoy whatever they had planned.

My bag of snacks for the day was already empty. Down to my last packet of crisps, it was the lightly salted kind I had intended for distracting others if they started circling me. I was halfway through that packet. I never needed to use it. So, I was finishing it.

As I started walking away from the middle school hall, I needed to go to the clubroom when I remembered that I might had left a box of Pocky (Mikado) in one of the draws of Buchou's desk. It was for safe keeping. And for situations like this where I would be running out.

In this autumn sun, I was worried that it would be getting too hot that the entire packet would have melted. While the room was usually kept in the shade due to the dark being better suited for our eyes, I doubted that they had been left that way.

Making it unto the high school grounds using the short route over the fence, I half-ran towards the old school building. Up the stairs and across the corridor. I thought that I could have visited Gasper on the way, but that good-for-nothing-vampire was not worth the trouble of wasting time trying to make contact with. He was too jumpy. It would have been a waste of energy for the both of us.

I reached the clubroom and went through Buchou's desk. I searched the lower draw, and found my Pocky. I was lucky they were still cool enough that they didn't melt in the heat. I then walked out of the building.

I thought about going back the way I came, but going through the high school entrance was quicker. I started walking around through the new building. But, by the time I had reached the front door, I realised I had walked in on a trap.

"Well, hello there, my little kitty cat."

I stood there, facing with a figure standing at the front entrance.

He had black bird wings.

Disgusting.

"I was expecting to see one of the girls from the student council, but you'll do just fine."

I dropped my packet of Pocky. It was empty anyways.

I jumped back and then readied myself.

"No need to get defensive so quickly."

He summoned a light spear in his right hand. He looked like he was about to throw it like a javelin.

"I just came to play. It's called 'play dead, and stay dead'."

He threw it, but I managed to avoid it.

I rolled to my right, but then had to jump. I nearly got hit again by a second light spear. Then a third came flying toward me.

He ripped a front part of my uniform.

. . . Pervert.

I huffed at the tear to my shirt. He just ogled at the sight of my bra beneath the rip.

. . . Super Pervert.

I had no time for him. I had to activate the alarm. To warn Buchou and Fukukaichou. It was Saturday, which meant no one else should have been in the building. So I start running for the Student Council room.

"Hey! The game's not over yet! Come back here!"

Ignored.

I just continued to run through the corridors. I reached the stairs and jumped. Not on then. I jumped straight to the next floor.

I kept running, while he cheated. He smashed through the floor and blocked my path.

"Nah-ah-ah~! That place is off bounds for now-"

"Toujou-san!"

I heard a voice call from behind. I looked and it was one of my classmates. Nimura Ruruko-san. I didn't talk with her much. I only sat next to her. She would occasionally borrow my books when she forgot her own. She was quiet in class other than that.

I didn't mind her.

"Toujou-san. What is-?"

"Found you!"

I had no idea why she was in this building to begin with. So, I ran in her direction and grabbed her by the arm. Then we started running as far as possible.

"Kyah!"

*Boom!*

The shock of it must have been hard. I didn't bother to correct the strength of my grip nor my dragging. It was an emergency situation after all.

She was still human. If she were to get caught up, she would die.

"Hey, wait! Where are you going now?"

*BOOM!*

The floor behind us was destroyed. But I kept on pulling us away from the fight. She screamed and almost shook herself from my grip. I have a strong grip though. She also knew it was better to run than stay.

"Casualties of war. Yes, that's what I'll call this! No, better yet! Let's finally bring the real humans into this! One girl is all it takes, and then we'll have total war to its finest."

*BOOM*

"Kyah!"

He threw another spear, but this time beneath our feet.

I pulled us to the side and broke into a classroom. But he was still hot on our trail. I broke a hole through the floor and jumped to both of us through to the ground floor.

---

*Hwoop!*"Arrch!"

My foot stumbled a little when I, the [Christibefürworten], tried to avoid an incoming heretic's light attack. The pain to my hip was unbearable, but in the face of a devil to my back and one of the watchers circling the two of us like a vulture waiting for the dying to become food, I would have gritted my teeth till they were fine powder before I showed either of them how injured I was.

*Chink!*"Shit!"

Another light spear came, but this time it caught the devil in his right calf. Having already sustained a few attacks to his right leg and one to his right hand to add to the two he allowed to his shoulders, the holy damage to his body was starting to take its toll as his stance was shaking and his words stuttered between choked exhales.

He kicked the spear to pieces with a clean swing of his shoe and then place his hand over it. I don't know what kind of cauterising magic he was using, but the wounds still looked pretty tender from my view, even after an orange magic circle appeared between his hand and the wound.

It's not that I cared whether another devil survived, but considering that fighting this fallen alone was a death sentence in itself, I would rather have it helping me rather than dying before that watcher.

He staggered back up, and then started talking while trying to hold to his breath with a strenuously angry face. Even from turning my back to him as his did to mine, we shot each other a few glances between conversations while we continued to watch our surroundings.

"Ok, *gasp* since we seriously cannot both attack him *gasp* in close quarters again, *gasp* and since coordinating *gasp* our attacks clearly don't work. *gasp* We *gasp* need another plan. Preferably one where *gasp* this guy *gasp* doesn't catch onto before we have time to-!"

*Shink*

Another spear came flying through the leaves, but this time he knocked it aside with the back of his hand. There was a slight hissing sound like melting, but it was cut short by a patting sound afterwards.

I didn't need to listen to the rest of his conversation to know what he was going on about; the memory of our combined assault at the same time still aches my hip remembering how I attained this wound in the first place. And, I can be certain he remembers the pain of my blade to his . Forget pure light, a light and silver combo must have been painful to his receptors by his reaction.

"Praise the Lord for his infinite mercy is giving this Fallen such an ego what he continues to toy with us."

"I'll let that slide because that pain is nothing compared to the potential of dying."

He stopped talking a whole when a couple more spears flew through the clearing and over our heads. A third I raised my right leg to avoid, when a fourth was deflected from my blade. A fifth brushed from behind my ears, but I was certain that it missed the both of us.

"So" he continued from his sentence earlier, "Since we're a Power-type and Technique-type, w-"

I cut him off.

"What?"

Power-type? Technique? I knew what the words meant, but I had no idea what they meant to this situation?

He caught on fairly quickly and tried to alter the words like a Thesaurus . . .

". . . Oh, right. Um, I'm more focused around using a Rook's abilities of attack and defence, while-"

. . . Not that it made any difference.

"What does chess have to do about real life and death situation?"

I could imagine his eyes rolling, which should have been my cue with all the complications he was making to get his point across.

"Ok; what are they teaching you at exorcist school? Seriously?"

I could have skewered him. I even told him so after how much this discussion was hurting my brain and just generally, Lord forgive, pissing me off.

"I have a light sword that is more than willing to geld you with if you insult me again."

*Thwack*Shink*shink*Shink*Thwomp*

A few more light spears emerged from the woods. Three came for me, with two coming before and after that were handled by the devil to my back. I deflected my three with my blade before they could even reach me, while I presumed he either punched or kicked his.

The smell of smoke was starting to build a little in the surrounding air. He coughed a little too, but I wasn't sure is he was spitting just his saliva, or if there was anything red coming out of it.

I wouldn't admit it to him, but my own mouth was already bleeding from how hard I was straining to continue standing, and my nose wasn't handling the pressure very well either.

"Ok" he finally said, "I'm just going to cut the middleman out of this sentence; do you have anything for long range? Guns, throwing knives? I'll take magically blessed stones if you have any on you."

I would have retorted how stupid he was for nit seeing that I didn't exactly have a bag on me where I could be hiding all these magical stones he thought I would be lugging around with me all day and all night. However, I was too exhausted to argue anymore and I was sick to death of continuing this fight.

"No, just the sword. I'm not a high enough ranking to be permissioned to wield firearms."

"Ok. Learned something new."

"Why do you need to know? Light weapons aren't very effective on angels, fallen or not."

*Thwack*

He knocked another spear with his hand. The shards fell over my view as it was carried briefly in the wind.

"As we already stated, both of us attacking in close range obviously doesn't work for multiple reasons. Therefore, it would be beneficial if one of us attacks from a distance while the other continues the counter from close-up."

"Can't you just summon a familiar or something?"

It wasn't unknown to the church that devils had familiars. Obviously there were jobs that they had that were either too dangerous for them to traverse, or too tedious for them to be majorly concerned with. Mundane things or things they could not do themselves would require something equally as demonic, but one subservient to them.

The number of familiars lurking in Europe was higher than you would think; animals with too much intelligence for common beasts. Shape-shifting creatures of the night. I'd seen plenty. Killed quite a few them as well. Some of them even nearly got me.

*Thwack*

He cracked his neck as he knocked down another spear.

"Believe me, if Karuka was old enough and big enough to take on a fallen by himself, I would have done it first thing."

Karuka? 'What under God's earth was a Karuka' I asked myself. I had no idea what kind of devilish being this 'Karuka' was, but that wasn't my biggest concern with his response.

"Who? What kind of name is that?"

"Diverging here. I can do some magic, but I was hoping that I wouldn't need to resort to using it."

"Why?"

*shink*shink*

I knocked away a couple of spears, but a third needed to be avoided when it nearly came for my head.

*thwack*

The devil got it. Not that was I was going thank him for it though.

"Though not very strong, it is fire."

I initially raised an eyebrow to his reply.

"And why is that-"

I had to stop myself before I realised just what he was on about; the numerous variety of highly flammable substances that made up this forest was the sudden big indication, as I slowly processed the result of lighting a few flames in here would cost as a toll.

"Oh, right. The trees and the bushes."

Leaving aside the burning smell of his flesh from those light spears he was punching away with his diabolic skin, a smoke that engulfed the entire woodland would be more than an uncomfortable smell. More so, it would have been worse than a simple choking hazard as well.

"Forget about a fallen angel massacring people in the urban areas. A little cauterising of wounds is fine, but a forest fire is the last thing we need to start."

"Can't you do anything else?" I asked.

He swung his head a little, but I couldn't see much lese to his expression.

"A little bit of air magic. Barely anything to brag about. Although considering we are out of options, I will consider it. Besides, having you as the main vanguard should be more effective than me who could be disintegrated if a light spear hits me in a wrong place."

"Not easy knowing a devil's got my back."

It almost sounded like I was trying to make a joke. I didn't initially see it that way, but after the devil started laughing a little to it between breathes, . . . I admit that it was a little humorous given the situation we had both found ourselves in.

Though we are at the core the worst of enemies by the bitterest default, laughing with an enemy isn't really something to be considered blasphemic.

"Better than a fallen devil parading the streets with both our heads."

There was another shuffling in the woods. A few spears came flying out, but rather than shoot directly at us, they appeared to have been carelessly tossed into the air and lightly embedded into the ground around us. Either the fallen was getting tired, or he was just not bothering anymore.

The worst part of the ordeal was his poem that he had apparently had time to compose the entire time he tried to kill the two of us. His mockingly horrid voice only made it that much more unbearable to stomach;

"There once was an exorcist fair.

Teaming with a devil, what a pair.

With spears, I releases

To tear them to pieces

Not leaving a strand of their hair."

Urgghh. That piece of-. I really wish I could express how much I want to sever this watcher's head from his body, but I would offend the Lord with so much cursing with or without his name being invoked.

The fallen stopped moving around. His attacks from all sides ceased with it. It grew quiet now, until his voice emerged from the drawing shadows again.

"You know, this had been fun. But I'm afraid the game must end. My partner will have dealt with the rest of the devils either now or very soon, and I have a lot of preparation to make. So, it's time for the final countdown!"

The Phenex servant didn't pay any attention. His heavy breathing was irregular in a different sort of sense. Like, he was preparing himself for something.

"{Demotion!}- Aaarrrgh!"

He fell to one knee. I had no idea what that spell he had used had done to him, but his strong stance had taken a hit. His wounds started bleeding a little more than they had done previously. So much that the clothes he was wearing were now turning red as the blood soaked into the fabric.

I had no idea what he was think about this 'demotion' thing he was doing, but I just had to trust him. But, his cough this time really was filled with his blood. Even after cleaning is mouth afterwards, there trail continued to leak forth like a small spring between his teeth. I pitied the sight of him.

Never thought I would be saying those words either.

I was shocked myself; devils weren't human. They were barely qualified as beasts, and yet I was empathising with one. I had to shake that thought from my head the moment I questioned it.

"{Promotion: Bishop!}"

A new light of sorts appeared but only for a while, and then he started treating his wounds again to close them. It was notably quicker this time, but I still had my eyes on the skies for the fallen angel set and ready to kill the two of us.

I readied my sword, touching the light wrapped around the silver blade with his right hand while my left stayed firmly to the hilt. I drew over my body as guard as I prepped myself for the do-or-die bout that was to come.

"I swear before Almight-"

I was interrupted by the devil, but for his own reasons. It was obvious by the way he was holding his face with his left hand while his right continued to cauterise the rest of his injuries.

"Please be aware that I can't concentrate properly if you start praying within proximity of me. I already have a headache from paying this black winged rat any sort of mind, I don't need the added pain on top of that."

I had no time to retort before his eyes shot around. His placed a hand over his left eye and began to survey around like he had attained his second wind.

"My front is twelve o'clock."

"What are you-

"Five!"

*shink*

A light spear shot through the shades, but the prior warning had alerted me and I cut it in half before it could strike.

Clockface directions. I had remembered the devil of Phenex stating his eye sight was better in the dark than it was in the light. I couldn't see as well, but it appeared based on this observation that he was able to see that attack coming before I could, he was faring better in that department. Whatever this 'bishop' thing was, and how chess seemed to be related to devils and their strategy appeared to be working in his, and by default my own, favour.

"Two."

*thwack*

"Guh!- Nine!"

*shink*

"Thr- no, Four!"

*shink*

"Again: Four!"

*shink*

"One! {Air Bullet!}"

*Pfoof!*

That was a new sound. I turned my head when a magic circle erupted from his right index finger. The attack itself was difficult to see, but the result was all the same. The spear broke upon impact more than ten paces away from striking zone.

He shot another one before turning to me.

"If you are going to do something, I suggest you do it at eight immediately."

I shot out of my daze when the words processed into my mind. I ran to my right, at his eight o'clock with my blade. He fired a couple of shots over my head in that direction beforehand, but there were obvious sound that they missed their target.

Brushing the blade in my hand with my free hand, I slowly drew it across my palm from hilt to tip across my hand. As the blood began to spill unto the silver metal encased in light, I chanted.

"Jerimiah 24-9 and 10: 'I will make them a terror and an evil for all the kingdoms of the earth, as a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse in all places where I will scatter them. I will send the sword, the famine and the pestilence upon them until they are destroyed from the land which I gave to them and their forefathers'. Amen."

Reciting the words of God, my light sword increased in strength, but it would only be temporary. This was usually reserved for dealing the finishing blow, but desperate times meant that all the strength I could muster needed to be utilised.

It works at its greatest when spoken in Hebrew, but the differences in tongue and pronunciation for someone like myself could mean the difference between a success and a failure. It was easier to invoke in my mother tongue without the complications of learning every single verse in its original words.

Two verses in one was going to be a heavy toll to pay, but again, it was a desperate situation.

I continued running, with the light from my blade burning into the darkness under the trees until I could see the fallen's black wings in the bushes.

I jabbed forward, but missed between his left arm and torso. Gripping with both hands, I swung to the left to catch him, but he jumped over my blade as I rolled forward and around behind him.

The light of my blade continued to illuminate the shade as I swung and swung at him with desperate measures. I used everything I had at him. Everything that I had left. Forget the pain in my side. Forget the blood spilling from my face. Forget the cuts and bruises littered across my body. I striked and striked and striked and striked with all that I had to give.

I clipped his clothes a little. A few feathers were sliced, and I managed to land a few good hits to either of his arms and once to his body. But, he continued to counter most of my attacks. A cowardly strike to my injured and bleeding hip was successful, but I got back up biting back the pain it delivered.

However . . . the light from my blade eventually died out. I had run out of energy to continue.

"Oopf!"

I fell face first in exhaustion. Terrified for an instant at the fallen's feet. I thank the Lord that I didn't attack so recklessly without back up though, or I might have lost my life crawling in the mud.

"{Air Bullet: Semi-Automatic!}"

*Puh-Ff-Ff-Ffph*Puh-Ff-Ff-Ffph*Puh-Ff-Ff-Ffph*Puh-Ff-Ff-Ffph*

A few rapid fire shot landed against the fallen, but his wing gave him the best shield. A few feathers where damaged, and pieces of black fluff dived into the open air, but no major damaged seemed to be incurred.

Instead of dodging, the fallen picked me up by the leg and tried to throw me at him, as he had before. I pulled up my sword and went to cut his arm, but then he dropped me abruptly as he rocketed through the trees until he was back in the sky above both our heads.

I lost sight of him, but as I looked to the devil, he appeared to still have sight on him. But then he covered his eyes as the watcher spoke again.

"I should have done this a long time ago!"

I couldn't see from my angle, but when I looked over to the Phenex devil, he had his hand over his right eye, and his left eye partially covered as he tried to align it with his free hand still holding the magic circle.

The Sun. The fallen was in path with the sun.

He said a devil's sight worked better in the dark, so looking in the Sun eliminated that advantage he had while he was still under the treeline. It was the afternoon, so the Sun was also beginning to sink below the horizon

*Puh-Ff-Ff-Ffph* . . . *Puh-Ff-Ff-Ffph*Puh-Ff-Ff-Ffph* . . . *Puh-Ff-Ff-Ffph*

None of his shots had the same sort of aim needed to hit by the look of frustration across his face. However, his disadvantage in sight also gave way to his defeat.

*Plunk*Plunk*Plunk*Plunk*

"Gah! Fuck!"

He collapsed in pain as a series of light spears struck him with no word of warning or taunt. He coughed up more blood, but he went to bite down on his right hand as he looked over himself when the light shattered into nothing again.

Two spears to his legs, one to his right ankle, and another through his left hand. That kind of damage all at once was too much on top of the other attacks he had incurred earlier. By the looks of things, he was smoking even more than before.

It had be something to do with that whole Rook and Bishop thing he was on about, but I couldn't quite guess what it was.

I had my own worries. In my distraction, a claw hooked itself into my neck and raised me up from the ground.

The disgustingly pale hand of the fallen pulled out another light spear and then cut my left arm underneath the elbow till I was nearly without an arm. The pain was so sudden that I dropped what remained of my hilt from my grip as I was lifted into the sky above the leaves.

I struggled of course. I tried punching his arm, and then I started to claw at it with only my right hand, but his skin was tougher than I had initially thought. Despite how bleached it was, like was like trying to scrap away at tough PVC plastic rather than skin.

He slapped me across the face with his free hand as he stopped ascending. I couldn't see how high I was from the ground, but the ledge which I fell from was now relatively level now to how high we were from the main battlefield.

"Seriously, this is why I pity you humans." He said, spitting the words from his mouth with what was supposedly a tone of contempt. But I didn't believe it through his saffron fangs. "You who are bred for nothing but warmongering on the behalf of stronger beings too lazy to lift a finger. And yet, it is you who hold all the power without even realising it. If the whole army just mutinied, then the whole system would crumble from within."

"Shut the- *ack*"

He gripped even tighter around my neck. I couldn't talk as much as I liked with the air being literally choked from my lungs. I clawed at his arm with both arms now.

My neck was close to snapping. His grip completely encircled my throat like an iron noose. Hanging here suspended in the air, the blood started building pressure in my toes, while my head was losing it. I continued to dig my nails into his hand, but he would not let go.

I wasn't even sure if the blood running from his hand was his or mine anymore.

Everything was starting to get fuzzy in my sights. Even his rotten yellow teeth were becoming a blur right before my eyes.

"Children should never be heard. Especially when they are about to curse. But, in all serious manners, you should be thanking me for sparing you the humiliation of serving a dead God."

"Wha-!"

Before I could finish my sentence, He swung me up till my body flailed higher than his shoulder, before threw me across the forest like a skipping stone on a lake. I can't remember, nor recall the number of times I smacked against something, nor do the sounds ring in my memories. I may have skipped across the ground as well, but I cannot be completely sure. Nothing springs to mind after that action.

None except for that last hit.

*Thunk!*

My head slammed into the side of the rocks, with a jarring edge pressing into the back just short of my spinal cord.

And then, I lost all consciousness. Broken, and exhausted.

---

Late into the afternoon while spending it at my apartment in New Kuoh, I Kiba Yuuto, was prepping for dinner.

I had laid out the table for three; though I hadn't invited anyone else to join us, I didn't want to make him feel uninvited, should he had chosen to come of his own volition. And if he chose not to, then I would have offered him leftovers the following day.

It wasn't at all healthy for him to stay in his room in the Old School Building by himself, nor could his particular eating habits. Though I cannot complain too much about the excessive sweet snacking of Koneko's, Gasper's meals were infrequent and completely devoid of any nutrition when left on his own.

With the two older members of the Peerage gone, it fell to me to ensure that my kouhais were well kept, so to speak.

I hadn't chosen a meal yet, but I never got a chance at all when the situation sudden drew me in unexpectedly.

["Kiba!"]

A voice suddenly called into my ear. I was so surprised by the sudden sound that I almost dropped a saucepan.

I reached a hand to my right ear.

"Hello?"

["Kiba! It's me."]

I recognised my kouhai's voice at the other end of the line.

"Koneko? What's the emergency?"

Her voice was out of breath, and full of more emotion that I had been used to hearing than normal. It didn't require one to be a genius to understand the gist of what this call was about.

["There's a fallen angel in the school. I've already sent the message to Buchou and Akeno-senpai. But we're all in danger!"]

So she was already in the Main School building. That meant she could have still been on site. What was the fallen angel thinking attacking at the school? If it had been a school day, there would have been a lot of casualties. Then again, a weekend attack sound much more preferable.

"Are any of the Sitri peerage nearby?"

["Yura-senpai, Hanakai-senapi, and Kusaka-senpai were all in the student council room. I think they got the message when the school started filling up with holes. I don't know when Meguri-senpai got here, but she's here somewhere too."]

"I'll be right there. Stay put."

[*Ka-BOOM!* "Easy for you to say!"]

The explosion's sound got caught in our communications line. My right ear went a little deaf and a slight ringing sound resonated.

"Go to the student council room, or to the clubroom if you're desperate-"

'No wait' I thought. If she went to the clubhouse, then that would put Gasper in danger. So where-?

"I'll be there, just-"

[*Ka-BOOM!* "Kyah!"]

"Koneko!"

The communications line went dead after that scream. I had never heard Koneko scream before, even if that was hers. Regardless, this was serious predicament we had on our hands.

I wasted no more time. Summoning a circle in the middle of my living room, I prepared to teleport straight to the school. Regardless of regulations, if a fallen angel was attacking the school, then teleporting in would be the least of the publics concerns should there be any witnesses.

*KA-BOOM!*

Arriving at the front of the school, I was there to witness the explosion. I cover my face with my arms as the shockwaves blasted a gust of wind through the entrance gate. It was a crazy strong current. The kind that might have knocked me back to the bridge had I not been prepared to receive it.

The wall broke free and two of the Sitri peerage went flying through the hole with great speed. Into the grounds.

I rushed into the school and around to them, when at the same time, Koneko hopped out following. She somersaulted and landed by bouncing off the trunk of a tree on the other end of the grounds.

*KA-BOOM!*

Several windows shattered behind her, but only after she had already made her escape from the building.

The sounds that continued ringing over the broken sound of the fire alarm were like that of a battle field in a global war. The explosions and debris that shattered and crumbled in the air. It was too numerous to have been faked. The kind of firepower needed were equivalent to heavy artillery.

That's when I saw the smoke through the school begin to part, and a shadow loomed through the large gapping whole right in the side of the school. Standing in that hole, was a twisted looking form of Sakuyama Daiki-san from my class, with a pair of black feathered wings outstretched to either side of the debris.

He was a fallen angel.

There had been suspicions about his identity, but we had not been allowed to act on it as there had been any formal word that he had gone rogue, nor that had been breaking any rules or trespassing against us since he had arrived.

He had come legally, and we were unable to do anything until then. But, now in this situation, he had caught us by surprise.

I looked to the two Sitri members, Yura Tsubasa-san and Meguri Tomoe-san, who were already injured all over with scratches and damages to their clothing that had left them nearly completely exposed.

Koneko was in a similar situation, however she had her arms full with another. She wasn't a devil, but her uniform was the same as Koneko's. Why she was here, and who she was, I couldn't focus on at the time.

The fallen angel, Sakuyama-san, held in his two hands another set of devils by the neck. The two Bishops, Hanakai Momo-san and Kusaka Reya-san, were both then thrown from the building. Dropped would probably have been more accurate to describe it.

They landed to their feet, but neither of them were able to stand having suffered injuries to their legs from light spear wounds. The smoking was still present despite having seen them already evidently treating their wounds with magic.

When the fallen angel looked as going to attack them while they were injured in the most uncivilised and cowardly way, I stepped in to ensure that it was not possible.

"{Sword Birth!}"

Placing my right hand to the ground, I summoned my Sacred Gear, the [Demon Sword Creation], but I set it to run up and sprout from the building. Directly under the feet of the fallen angel. The blades protruded from the now unstable brick and plaster, and an array of demon swords jarred and penetrated in every angle possible from such a far vantage point.

Though Sakuyama was able to evade the worst of the attack, he was struck in several places. The smoke rising from his haggard body and the brief scream of pain he let out were evidence enough to support it. Just as a devil was inflicted heavy damage by a holy sword, an angel black or white was dealt equal amounts of pain when struck with a demonic sword.

Even if my Sacred Gear made swords on par with the mass produced blades that didn't hold a gun to the true demonic blades like Gram or Tyrfing, the damage was still going to be significantly more than a normal steel sword or bullet.

As he shook out his wings, dropping tears of steaming blood across the dirt as the Sitir peerage moved in to save their friends from the dangers of falling rubble, I drew out my Sacred Gear again.

"{Sword Birth!}"

The swords appeared all around in three complete circles around my position. I pulled for the two immediately close to my hands, Flame Delete and Ice Clearer. Dual wielding the ice and fire swords in each hand, I used their combined powers to send an attack in his direction to serve as a distraction.

Expectedly, he was able to block the attack and come out of it still in flight. He summoned his barrage of cyan coloured light spears and blitzed the area around me.

I survived the attack at the cost of my outer wall of swords, which I used as a makeshift shield to block the blast as they impacted and shattered the makeshift metal blades before they vanished into nothing as they always did. Flame Delete and Ice Clearer were also sacrificed to block a few stray spears that managed to break through the sword wall.

Instead of being annoyed by this turn out, Sakuyama was amused by my display.

"Now this, is a party!"

He summoned a light spear to his hand and held it like a sword, as I pulled forth my Holy Eraser to my side. While the girls took their injured comrades to the side, I readied myself for the showdown of the year with my soon to be former classmate.

---

In the ancient city of Kyoto, our group of four; Rias, Akeno, my queen Tsubaki, and I, Sona Sitri, were continuing our independent sightseeing tour through the old capital of Japan.

For a convoy of three coaches for six classes, it took us around six and a half hours before we reached Kyoto on the Friday, including an hour's ferry ride from Shoibu to Jokoji, give or take the waiting time to load. Thanks to some *ahem* prior arrangements, we managed to receive the allocated the hachijou room on the higher floor than the occident ones booked for the rest of the classes.

I will neither deny nor confirm that there was any outside interference to the decision of the staff over the delegation of the rooms in the hotel we were residing in.

"Can you believe it, Souna? This is Kyoto! Really Kyoto!"

Although we had been active on our feet for almost the moment the sun had risen from the horizon, the enthusiasm to take in all of the city had not dwindled to any sort of recordable degree for Rias. Event his late into the day, she was still as excited as a child who had discovered a zoo for the first time, whether it was by sight or by publication.

"Please don't drool across the pavement. I'm sure your mother would be telling you how un-ladylike it is to gup one's mouth like a goldfish in public."

Even after listening to the same down all the available sandou (roads leading to shrines), through close to every torii (Shinto gates). I even had to hold her by the hand at one point like a child just so she wouldn't walk up to the Maika performing.

I continued to amaze me just how she regressed ten years in behaviour just by being in this city. I had to make a note to never go on one of her trips to Akihabara if this was how she behaved in Kyoto. I'd hate to imagine her in Tokyo.

"Arara. It starting to sound like you're taking over those duties, Sona. Ufufu."

I doubted that Akeno really understood just how tedious it becomes. Or perhaps, I wondered, maybe she was encouraging it. I had seen the spoils of their rendezvous to Tokyo, and it was only fueling Rias' already terrible hoarding habit.

Just then, I felt a buzzing on my left wrist, and looked to the bell as it was vibrating with magical interference.

I printed a tiny seal onto the object. A charm I had bought from a store in Kuoh Central with less value than a couple of melon bread packets and a canned coffee from the cafeteria on school grounds. A small bell with a piece of string. Not the most elegant of items, but it only needed to serve its purpose for while we were away from our home territory in Kuoh.

Then it vanished. Tiny particles of blue light, and then nothing.

The signal had been sent.

The school, or at least our peerages were in immediate danger.

"Sona?"

Rias had finally stopped gawking at every sight and sound when she noticed I was no longer supervising her. I gave her no other indication by a single phrase for her to understand just what was happening at this moment;

"The moment has come."

Rias understood immediately. We had been preparing for this for over three months in advance. A simple signal that could only be activated by one of our peerage members from inside the Student Council room.

The physics of the designs didn't matter, only that by disabling it from the room, the small charm I kept around my wrist would disappear as well. The moment it vanished was the signal we needed.

"Akeno, we need a perimeter. Please keep guard and obscure the scene from outsiders."

"Tsubaki. Please do the same at the other end."

"Yes, Rias." "Certainly, Sona."

In a city as large and populous as Kyoto, thanks to its historical significance as well as it's modern, an isolated area was required. We chose a back alley away from the public eyes.

My more concern was with the barrier surrounding the city; not only were we about

That also raised a question whether the signal to us had been delayed at any time. The delay between the charm activating the seal and then disappearing was proof that we may in fact be late to receive it. But, thinking negatively would only distract us from our current duty.

With both sides covered, and an obscurity seal to keep then average minds of humans from looking this direction, we began to set up the teleportation circle. Well, more specifically, I assigned Rias to handle the circle, while I had to lead the teleportation path and feed it through the barrier.

I will not say that it was easy. It was definitely not something to crack in five minutes by mashing buttons on a keyboard. But, what I found was even more intricate and formulaically designed with a complexity that almost welcomed the challenge with open arms.

"How long will it take to crack?"

To answers Rias' question after she had done the final touches to the circle on the ground. It would stay for a while, and rightly so considering my response needed that amount of time.

"It's complex, but there are combinations between those made with Youkai magic, and other from Onmyouji and the Shinto faction also."

I was amazed to see so many contributions and variety in the design, but considering how sacred this city was, it would only make sense that so many factions would vie for its protection at any costs from external entities.

The Youkai magic focused on the use of spell art techniques that required the channelling of Qi, like Youjustu and Senjutsu. If Touki was involved, then it would have been immensely stronger at the cost of someone's very life energy. But, given how long the city has stood, it wouldn't be impossible to think that there is at least a few hundred, maybe thousand, lives worth of Touki wrapped in their portion somewhere.

The Shinto faction's magic was similar to the holy energy of the angel faction, like many godly factions across the globe. Not exactly as deadly to use devils, but it would still be a painful experience to touch directly. Though it would have been possible to take a crack at it, the gods usually create the most elaborate spell sequences that could take days to break, and that was too much time for us.

And then you had the layers made by the Onmyouji, which as I explained by saying;

"So, this is a seriously complicated barrier we're dealing with here. Though, I think I can make a crack at the Onmyouji sections. I don't think they'll be as easy as Exorcist or Magician circles. I'm betting my odds they will at the very least have some form logic to them."

Magicians, exorcist and onmyouji were, at their core, still human. A human mind required the knowledge of various academic fields like math, science, literacy and language, etc. On one hand, meant that an equal or greater amount of knowledge was required to break the ciphers and various other little traps that they often add into the sequence as a challenge. But, as a whole, it was the weaker made links in the harbour chain of this barrier.

It would be an understatement that I prided in my intelligence, even if it meant admitting it was a hubric sense of the nature. Then again, being prideful is good quality for a devil. I doubted quite highly that at the best result, I could be beaten out of breaking a seal forged by human mages.

As I started to work my way through the circles, piece by piece, Rias could only look over my shoulder as I continued to work.

"And that will be enough?"

"I don't need to break a hole. I just need the smallest crack to chip a single piece. It will repair itself, but I can at least guarantee a connection for five minutes."

"And how will you get back in?"

I sighed. "I'll take the long way through the front gate if I need to. Otherwise, one-ways will be good. If I am lucky, we might just be able to reverse the flow from the other end and get ourselves back within here with no problems."

"I knew it-shi!"

That was neither of our voices. I dropped what I doing as the two of us was looked to where Akeno was guarding. There was a youkai standing in front of her, unobscured by the veil held overt the area. I had feared that a think veil would have been too obvious and would have inquired an investigation effort on the Youkai's behalf, however it seemed that overly precautionary minimum had backfired as we were still visible to their eyes.

Standing a little under a foot tall in postural height from all four legs, there was a small fox with pale turquoise fur. At that size it wouldn't have looked like a big deal except for its colours. The one noticeable trademark to its power was the wagging of seven tails it had behind.

Despite being small, she showed genuine hostility towards us. Based on the number of tails alone, it was more than prepared to take us on and defeat us with power alone. Not that I was encouraging a fight in a city as large and populous as Kyoto. I doubted it would have helped our case if we took physical action right then and there.

"Devils opening a portal. I knew it was only a matter of time!"

Though the expression had been loud and exclaimed, the tone was without emotion, like the possessor had no understanding of changing her manner of speaking. Speaking from the mountain of source materiel Rias had insisted we watch before coming here, her tone would have been a kin to the character motif of a 'kuudere'.

Though I think that it was just simply 'kuu' in this situation to be politically correct.

I held off from breaking anymore seals. Not that hiding it would have helped that we had already been witnessed seeing and overheard what we had planned to do. I signalled Tsubaki in closer with a finger in place of a verbal order as the four of us continued to look on at the arrival with contempt.

I mean, three of us.

Rias' eyes however . . . *sigh*. Well, she didn't exactly take the youkai's words to heart. Her only interest was in that there was currently a real youkai now in front of her.

"I-I-I-It's a *gasp* kitsune! It's really here."

I almost slapped myself in this situation. I, however, didn't get the chance as the youkai herself protested the sudden labelling. But, not for the reasons you would have expected.

Shaking her head in a very overdramatically quick human way while still maintaining her stoic disposition, she replied "No. Not a kitsune. I am a hulijing-shi."

"A what?"

Before an endless string of confusion could erupt, I contributed to the explanation.

"She's saying that she is a fox youkai of Chinese origin, as opposed to the usual Japanese species we would have expected to encounter."

While it was easier to call the two the same race but with different names, that wasn't specifically the right word to use; compared to a kitsune or its grander evolution, the kyuubi, there was a big difference between the two. Unlike kitsune, which was bound to the physical realm with a body of its own, the hulijing were closer to spirits than beasts, and inhabited bodies of others rather than attain own themselves. Often or not, the bodies were forcefully inhabited after the soul was disposed of or consumed. Whether that made the one we encountered more dangerous than a native kitsune remained to be seen.

You could consider that it is assumed devils were soulless to begin with, but whether that's a real fact or just church propaganda is not exactly well known outside of the three factions.

Judging by how the jade coloured fox pronounced her sentence suffix '-shi', it belonged the Wu dialect of Chinese concentrated around the city of Shanghai, rather than it's more prevalent variation, Mandarin. You could say it was the equivalent to the Japanese 'desu', however it was definitely not a suffix used in China or Taiwan at all, so her inclusion of it was purely, artificially inserted.

"At least one of you can acknowledge my heritage-shi. However, you are acting in violation of your visitor passes. You are therefore to be detained-shi!"

I would have described a change in tone; smugness, pride, or something generally reflecting how please it was by my explanation. But, I did say 'kuudere' before, even if it completely lacked any sense of the 'dere' in the situation we had been caught effectively red handed in.

"Wait a mi-"

I placed a hand on Rias' shoulder before she could protest.

"Rias. Please read the situation with both your eyes everywhere."

The hulijing wasn't here to detain us alone, as the movements that had caught on from the corners of my sight had counted. There were a great many more that had mobilised for our apprehension;

Inugami, Tengu, Datsue-ba, Oiwa, Gashadokuro, Jorougumo. I could keep on naming quite a few different Youkai that suddenly began to swarm around us. I would have named it as an excessive showance of force, however precaution against four devils attempting to bypass a barrier was enough of a justification to mobilise a necessary proportion of a Hyakki Yakou (Hundred Demon Night Parade).

More and more started apparating from the walls, the concrete beneath our feet, and even some of the man-made objects like rubbish and street lamps. There were a great many species present to apprehend us, and quite a few that I could name that I would never have expected to be subservient to the Kyoto faction.

Our Queens returned to our sides. Though the two were ready to step into our defence, I lower my hand. Starting a war in this place was definitely not something we needed.

"What do we do now?" Rias whispered over my shoulder.

I pressed my glasses back into place before answering her question. Given the situation we were in, I really didn't like our options here.

"Our peerages will have to hold off for a while. Forget about the consequences of leaving them alone as the pretext for destroying the armistice, if we tried to escape in this situation we could be starting a war with the West Youkai faction as well."

It was the truth. The sad fact of the matter was that had neither of us been that significant as devils, we would be killed in the spot, but there wouldn't have been repercussions for our actions any further. But, our elder siblings were the Maou, and that had a lot of gravitas to our deliberate actions against the Youkai faction in Kyoto.

Forget a scandal, the actions that take place here could very well be the precursor to open war between the devil faction and the Kyoto youkai.

"I really hope you have a plan for this, Sona."

I hesitated to answer, which was a first for me. I was usually the one who had thought ahead in many situations, or had the necessary wisdom to decipher the correct path to tread. But, not at that moment unfortunately.

"I'm cracking my head around it. J- . . . Just, give me a few minute to think."

---

At the base of the great former volcano now known as Mouth Kuoh, I Father Willem Mertens began my ascent towards the former headquarters of the church on this island of Oyashi. I had waited till the sun was almost falling before I trod upon what was once holy land in the Orient.

While I did regret not telling my subordinate of my true intentions, it was not something I wished to worry her so much about. In these most troubled times with the potential of war coming about again, it was better to allow the children of God to remain childish and ignorant for a little longer if at all possible by his good graces.

With the two devil heiresses gone, I felt that it best to clear out a couple of pests that had been nesting on the Lord's sacred grounds. A cruel and devious ploy I was forced to commit. However in the sake retaining the status quo, I was ready to stain thy hands once again in the name of God almighty. I had also wished to spare her hands of the filth, and so my mission to that spot was kept a secret from her.

The atmosphere had been just as I feared; the stench of impurities that fogged the air was a wicked sight indeed.

A shadow moved slowly in the corner of the ruins, but I knew who it was. Call it an old man's intuition. We were certainly not old friends, but I recognised the figure crawling just away from my view.

"I assume you are the ringleader of this incursion. Am I right, Cimalon?"

That's right. I was familiar with this particular fallen angel. He was just a junior cadet when I first encountered him back in the 1950's. He had an operation in Albania I believed. I was young once as well, but I remember him cursing us and swearing revenge by his name after escaping alive with one comrade to his aid.

I think we met another two-, no th-. Five. It was five other encounters after that. I almost killed him twice as well, had it not been for foolhardy young crows trying to make a name by killing one known as the 'dragon slayer' wielder.

That name had very little precedence when I met him. Merely a courtesy title than one that described any achievement of mine. Well, that is to say until sixteen years ago I should say.

This was number six, but it would definitely be his last. I swear unto God almighty, I will ensure it will be so.

I drew my blade from my sheath to my left side and held it out in the looming darkness now taking its hold over the church of our Lord.

The inhuman being who had made residence in this place creaked its head, but I could only see his eyes and his teeth in what little light reflected. The dark drew back as my blade caught the early evening sun through the ruins of the church. He had certainty grown a bit since the last we had met. Six winged now, an impressive feat after very few years. I had known records of angels requiring close to a century to acquire their second pair alone.

Even if they were fallen, their strength would always show with the growth of another pair of wings. Uncommon, but not impossible. Though, I hardly think four more wings would have been enough to have changed the events that were to happen this day before nightfall.

"Dragon slayer?"

He crept back in fear. Ah, yes. I remember now; the scar to his face and to the neck where I drew my blade against both. He lost quite a bit of his speaking potential after that encounter, resorting to fewer words now, but I assumed his mind either remained or refined its wit during the long years of absence.

I would hate that our final confrontation would resort to nothing but hated violence on these hallowed grounds.

I understood also his confusion; though I had once been the proud owner of one of the finest holy swords ever crafted by God and bestowed upon mankind, the blade in my hand was not. I had long since parted with one of my longest ever partners in my younger days, but this sword I hold before me is one of the replicas granted to me as compensation to my once righteous service to our mother church.

"I am afraid that you will not be tasting that blade, this late afternoon. Not now, not ever. Just as I am no longer worthy to wield such a fine and magnificent blade, neither shall you taste its true steel. This replica I wield in my hands is a gift from the Heads of the branch in recognition of my continued efforts in duty."

While only a weaker blade than the one I had grown accustomed to once, its mirror imagery of gold and purple and red still reminded me of the same blade I was forced to surrender after many years. On top of resonating a stronger holy light that outclassed a basic mass-produced light sword, the blade also retains the same dragon slaying enchantments that made its precursor a legend and a scorn to dragonkind as a whole.

I pulled the blade before my eyes, and held my left hand behind my back. It was more than fair for a creature fallen to such depravity. A creation of the Lord God deserved that much in mercy's name.

"In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. O' Father who in art in heaven. In your name, I cleanse thee. May this lost soul find mercy in thy Kingdom. Amen."

He unfurled his wings to full length in all directions in an attempt. Quite a primitive and beastly intuition, but that is what one expects from a being who has lost its place beyond the pearly gates.

"Die! *gasp* . . . You will die!"

Most of his mouth had healed over itself, but he could still talk through a small corner of it. But, he also required it to breath as well, resulting in long pauses for air between speaking. A tragic fate for one who should have remained by the throne of heaven beyond this mortal plain.

His gasps, though frequent, were more in tune with the sound made by sucking the last contents of a carbonated drink through a straw. Nothing by a moist suckling noise which rather comes off as unpleasant to be perfectly reasonable.

He flew down on me, attempting to attack in a manner like some great bird of prey. He summoned his light spears to wield in either hand and came upon me in full flight before me.

He was quicker than last time, but I wouldn't say he was skilled enough in that regard that I needed both arms for this parrying session.

"A healthy humour to one's death is not what I expected. But, it shall lift your soul to the heavens, then I see no faults in your desire."

"You old fool *gasp*." He pressed his face closer and closer as if he would have tried to bite nose. "Get the memo? *gasp* . . . Only a blind and useless fool. *gasp* . . . Realised by now why this cruel . . . *gasp* . . . this is a cruel world. Why instead of peace . . . *gasp* . . . continue this, this triangle. *gasp* Heaven, Hell, *gasp* Grigori. We *gasp* . . . We all just fight and *gasp* fight. Nothing will change!"

I paid no kind to his words, and just allowed our weapons to speak. The only voice for me was the clashing and parrying.

I had to congratulate him on his sword art, for he has generally shown improvement. Even though I have slowed a little in my older age, I was pleased to see that his skills could match mine with some form of play and strategy without the necessity in power over technique.

Our blades, mine of silver-steel and his of light, danced and clashed a while. The night was not even in yet and there was still so much daylight to be used.

However, the differences in our skills became evident the moment I disarmed him and thrusted my sword through his chest.

He survived. I had missed his heart on accident. He coughed up blood from his little corner of the mouth that he also breathed through. A small trail strated forming in both his eyes like running tears, and another more clotted started trailing down the edge of my blade and dripped after contacting my hands at the hilt.

"*gasp*cough*cough* . . . What's the point . . . *gasp*"

He started speaking in gibberish. The moments of his life now flashing before his eyes as he leaned on the remaining edge of the sword, while his blood trailed out either end. His wings had also gave up the aggressive stance as they fell to the ground like a peacock having lost his pride in his tail feathers.

"*cough* I head from the top. *gasp*cough*cough* . . . The very top. God-*cough* Your God, our God, . . . *gasp* is d-."

I almost shushed him to silence after drawing out my blade again from his body. It was not in my plan to strike his lung, but accidents such as these were prone to happen. I only hoped I hadn't caused too much damage.

"Do not strain your tongue any further. Let thy Father be thy judge, and may you enter through the Gate of St Peter's without earthy tethers to keep you anchored."

To ease his now suffering, I struck him a final time, through the black crevasse where I had hoped he still had a heart that could be saved from the lake of fire. A tear fell from my cheek, not in sadness, but in pity, as the light spear in his hands dropped and vanished into the remainder of the day. His arms dropped and his eyes became darker.

I had hoped to end his suffering quickly, but I left him with too much time to expel the evils hat still plagued his mind. And insult was thrown my way, not that I found it any form offensive. I would never be offended by the words of a dying being.

The last words spoken on deathbed are the most truthful you will ever find in a man. With nothing more to hold him back, he will say what every truths you wish, even the ones that have been plaguing him. Rotting him from the inside a little by little every year until they reach this state of near death.

I like to think that in his last moments of life, that he may have found the inner peace he and all his kind have been searching for since falling from heavens. He smiled a little, even if it was only mostly a stitched up scar running from cheek to cheek now.

". . . *gasp* Y- . . . You . . . kn-n-now . . . *cough*cough* . . . *cough* . . . *gasp*gasp*n-nothing."

He body became lifeless at last, and I pulled my sword out of him slowly as not to desecrate the body. Even as a fallen, his form was a design bestowed by God, and so should still be treated as such.

I arranged his body to appear he was sleeping, shutting his eyes with my fingers with placing his to appear as if he was praying. His wings I folded over him like six individual shrouds that wrapped him in the approaching cold.

I drew the cross upon him and spoke his final rites.

"Rust in vred." (Rest in Peace)

I sheathed my blade looked around the room. I walked to the place where the altar once stood and I prayed. I spoke aloud a prayer from all to be well, and that Hanna would be survive her own ordeals.

---

With four newly opened wounds to the ones that I had already attained through an endless hours of torturous fighting at a disadvantage, I Hyoudou Issei, watched as the temporary ally of mine went flying into the rocks beneath the main road leading our of East Kuoh district high above.

The exorcist hit the rocks, after colliding with several trees beforehand, before a rock silenced her. I would have staggered to her side if I wasn't certain she had died. The impact alone would have broken most of her bones. If her spine had been one of them, on top of her skull, she was already dead.

"One down, and one to go."

The fallen slowly descended in front of me, but never touched the ground. I was still smoking all over from the wounds, and my blood was still spilling to the floor beneath me.

"You should say thank you, devil shit. I'm about to put an end to your miserable life, and start a glorious revolution that will shake the world with your death."

I was silent, on my knees, in the gathering mud beneath the remnants of grass. I was hurt, all over myself.

My black shirt was with two holes in my shoulders and bloodied all over. My trousers were the same, except with more holes and more blood. My left hand had a whole in it where skin and muscle once were. The bones nearly broken, but it was unmovable past my wrist.

I was in so much pain that my other senses couldn't read anything else in the area surrounding.

A light blade came inches to my neck, but I did not move, nor did I react to it. It was like I had no light left in my eyes.

"Be proud, sing aloud, and tell me how grateful you are that it will be over soon."

The fallen one made his proposition to me, and he heard my response shortly after. But before that, I had retreated into my own thoughts.

The heat from the blade my skin crawl near my neck. The hairs singed a little just from being within its presence. I coughed a few more times, all filed with my blood that could no longer be contained. I almost at that point

I had been seriously handicapped before this fight started, all to protect an identity that no many knew of. Even after surviving the likes of Tiamat by sheer luck and determination, I was going to die there in the mud by some fallen angle who didn't even have a name worth memorising.

The exorcist had been knocked out, maybe even killed by that attack. And I-

I . . . wasn't permitted to leave witnesses.

. . .

. . . That meant . . .

". . . He . . . he . . . he . . . he-he. . . . He-hehe. . . . Hehehe-hehe. Hehehehehehehe. Hehahahahahahaha Hahahahahaha. Hahahahahahahaha! Uahahahahahahahaa! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

I started laughing.

I first thought that I was just going crazy, or that my entire sanity had flipped like a coin being tossed. But that wasn't the case for me. I was laughing not to my grave. I was just laughing.

Laughing for my good fortunes.

'That's right. No witnesses.'

Tears, clean and without red, ran down my eyes, and I just continued laughing.

"Uahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahha~ahahahahahaha!"

Then, I just stopped. The fallen twitched a little, but he didn't move his blade. Before he could make his action to behead me, I said one word to him that really rattled his feathers.

"Kogaan."

My teeth bared into the biggest smile I could pull, and the light fading from my eyes reignited with a renewed fighting spirit in my guts. I reached out and grabbed the light spear with my right hand. My skin burned, but the excess of pain was already at my limit. Any more would do nothing else but blister my skin in less than a minute before it burns through.

My words and actions caused him to flutter back. He nearly lost his flight, but he continued to hover over like the vulture over scraps he was.

"W- . . . what the fuck are you even spouting? Have you sudden become broken?"

With my right hand I wiped the mess from around my mouth. The dirt, blood and saliva were swept away cleanly, as I pierced him with my eyes.

"My apologies, but the language of the dragons doesn't have a word for 'thank you'. So as substitute, I was merely expressing how blessed I was with this fortunate situation."

"D-d-Dragon?"

The look of fear in his eyes. Everyone who knew the supernatural, also knew to fear dragons. I started pulling on it as I shook and struggled to my feet. I could do nothing to the pain, except overcome it. I would overcome it, and I would dominate it.

["{Boost!}"]

I equipped my Sacred Gear, and smashed the spear with my left fist with little to no effort. The fallen stepped back. He nearly tripped over his own wing as he hit the ground.

The feel of the metal around my arm fit like a glove. Pardon the pun.

["{Boost!}"]

My left hand was now moving again. Painfully, but I was moving it by sheer force of will, just like my legs. The hole that was through it was not gone, only shielded now. At least the bleeding would be contained inside the metal cast.

The bleeding noticeably started slow in all exposed holes. The injuries themselves were still there, but they were not healing on their own. Neither was the recovery time being drastically sped up. I was having to tense every muscles I could muster to move pass the pain.

["{Boost!}"]

Another ounce of strength fuelled me as my legs stopped shaking a little. I was still hunched over from the pain in my shoulders, but I now had the strength to fuel daggers in my eyes. Eyes of the prey turning into the predator.

"N-n-N-n-No! T-t-That's impossible! Y-you have a Sacred Gear! N-n-No one fucking told me about this!"

His black wings were turning brown in the filth. Then again, compared to his kind, the mud was relatively the cleaner of the two.

["{Boost!}"]

"That's because it was a secret."

I straightened myself up, and spoke to him in the same sort of manner he had been speaking to me. I cracked my neck a few times as my back reflexed out of the crouched posture.

"Yes. You see, I was in a predicament where I couldn't touch my full potential."

["{Boost!}"]

I lifted a leg, my left leg, and moved it forward. I stomped the ground after nearly losing balance, but the quivering crown ion front of me was terrified by it. It must have looked like a zombie coming back to life before his eyes by how my movements became more fluid {boost} by {boost}.

"A secret is only a secret if no one else finds out."

["{Boost!}"]

"If I were to just use it without regards to the consequences of being seen, then everyone would know."

I clenched my right fist, and all the fingers cracked at the same time. I pushed my right leg forward, with evident ease compared to my left. I still stomped, but I just the way it made him sweat.

["{Boost!}"]

"Lucky for me, that is no longer the case, since I have no intentions of allowing you to live."

I rolled my shoulders, but held my teeth when the two wounds stung from the actions. All necessary. All needed to be working in my body before I pushed them.

["{Boost!}"]

Returning to my feet with the power of eight {boosts} already equipped, I was moving around like I hadn't even felt the pain running through my body. I hadn't been numbed no doubt, but the extra ounce of strength was fuelling me to push pass the pain and my mind numbed the instinct that told me to back off and recover.

No way was I going to stand down now that I finally had the chance to hit him with everything I had.

He threw a spear at me, not even caring that he was backward crawling through folded turf as he tried to counter.

I knocked it aside with my Sacred Gear like brushing aside a bubble. The spear made a small *tink* sound as it bounced off the metal gauntlet before it burst and broke apart.

He aimed for my legs, which were still bleeding, even if only a little. I didn't need to dodge this time. I stepped on the spear and it broke beneath my feet. My soles burnt a little even through shoes and socks, but the pain was largely ignored.

"Y-y-Y-You're bluffing" he squealed. "You'r-re a-at your last stick, dev-vil! I'll cleave you in half and drape your sk-skin across the rafters!"

["{Boost!}"]

He kicked his wings off the ground and tried to come at me from above, two spears in each hand. I didn't allow him to strike me again. I intercepted into his gut first, the force of which doubled by his momentum was strong enough to have broken something in his chest.

He spew blood and his hands dropped. I was tempted to punch him further away and let him feel the force of smashing through a few trees himself. Maybe even jab a few branches into his sides while I was at it.

But no. I caught him by the neck and suspended him off then ground as I high as I could lift my arm. He struggled to force my left hand to release him, but the claws at the ends of my fingers were digging deep enough into his neck to make them shed even more blood than what was still spilling through his disgusting teeth.

["{Boost!} . . . {Liberation!}"]

With ten {boosts} already, I activated my Sacred Gear's second form. The gauntlet changed while I still held grip of him. The look of his eyes widening as the red metal claw grew larger and much sharper looking that he had initially witnessed.

"I- *cack* I'll k-kill you!"

["I'd like to see you try, fallen one!"]

A green light erupted from the two emerald orbs as the dragon's voice broke the very sound of the wind blowing. The fallen was suddenly realising very quickly just how big his mistake in dealing with the exorcist over me was.

I relinquished the control of the left hand and allowed Ddraig to torment the fallen in his grasp. He was certainly pleased to be given so much liberty after being locked away with little prospect of being allowed free roam only when winter came.

That is, how much free roaming he gets when my Sacred Gear becomes active.

["I am more than just a gauntlet, filthy crow! Ready to show him the true power of the Heavenly Dragon, Partner!"]

"I've been ready since the first spear was thrown down. I think it's been long overdue."

I think if I had seen the my face reflected in the wide eyes of the fallen in front of me, it would have looked a very demonic indeed with the sudden

I tossed him aside to give him the full show. I was feeling pretty confident in myself, and the prospect of finally going all out in a real fight was fuelling my logic more than simply just killing him off. The pain that darted every inch of my body was screaming to crush him slowly and painfully.

And when I say all out, I was going to kill him. There was never any doubt about that. All the pain, the tormenting, and the sick notion of restoring war was going to be thrown back in his face hundred-fold. With everything I had.

I raised the [Red Dragon Emperor's Gauntlet} across my body as I gathered the strength in me, and then my form turned entirely red in light.

["{Welsh Dragon: Balance Breaker!}"]

He didn't stick around at the presence of

["{Boost!}"]

But I was not going to let the rat scurry back to his nest.

"{Transfer!} . . . {Maar Kein Zaan!}" (Terrorizing War Cry)

Placing my left gauntlet to my chest over both of my lungs, I transferred power into my voice. The resulting sound resonated across the air like a sonic boom. The waves struck the fallen in an instant and his wings went limp the instant the vibrations struck him.

Tumbling down, he crashed through the nearest tree, tearing himself through the branches that broke his fall to the ground.

His face twitched in pain and anger and panic, especially when I drew in closer. Walling in as slow as possible, he would have been more scared had the armour not covered my face. He realised very quickly that he was no longer able to retreat.

"Huh? I-I . . . I can't move!"

["Correction; you can't flee!"]

His eyes shot open to the point that the redness became prevalent. Though he squirmed and make all sorts of sounds that one makes when they try to exert more effort than they are capable of. It was quite laughable how such a weak attack left him in such a state.

The most that attack did to Bova was temporarily stall him.

["We dragons are prideful creatures, and nothing makes our blood boil worse than an opponent who refuses to fight after talking like a hot shot."]

I released the mask over my face to see him retreat all his fascial muscles with my own eyes. The look of hopelessness. It was soothing to every ounce of pain that were hungry for his blood.

"You spoke not so long ago about tearing me apart and using my entrails as decorations, did you not? You thought us too weak that we would hand you victory on a silver platter? Where did your will to fight go?"

"Nooo!"

I ripped out of the tree and held him by what was left of his collar; his black clothing was nearly torn completely to shreds. Rags would have been a kind description of what was left of wasted fabric.

["Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus! Never tickle a sleeping dragon! And especially don't try to get under one's skin either!"]

I flexed the left hand and then I pressed it against his chest while still holding onto him with my right.

"Well, now the dragon's woken up."

["{Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!} {Boost!}"]

"Wait."

I stopped before advancing further.

I contemplated either using {Dragon Shot} or {Hyper Smasher} to finish him. But, after all those {boosts} I had gathered together, It would have left a very nasty looking hole through the woods. If I made too much of a mess here, someone was going to be digging too deeply into the scene. And that someone might just find something too revealing for my benefit. No. It was the best solution to not use either of those attacks.

Oh, and it would killed him too quickly as well.

Instead, I dropped him.

["Oh, that is a good idea. An appropriate punishment."]

[{Blade!}]

From my Sacred Gear, I finally pulled out the sword I had kept stored within it for so long; It wasn't anything too special. It was just a simple nodachi with no added magic fused into the metal. The steel itself was forged from ores collected in the Phenex territory, and cooled in water collected from the River Styx, which gave it a stronger resistance to blunting, and more importantly to breaking or snapping in two.

Blades from the Underworld favoured using Damascus steel technique, but as I had learned swordplay from Eugene who fought using a katana, a Japanese styled blade was the appropriate gift for passing the intermediate stages of training.

He called it an early birthday present, despite having gifted me with it two months after.

It also suited me better than a katana, given that the nodachi was longer in length.

I swung it a few times lightly, like I was teasing the air as the current resonated off the blade cutting through it. The ringing of its metal was rather soothing after a long day of his terrible rhymes and flat singing. The song of that blade in my hand was comfort I had been longing to listen to.

"You stuck quite a number of hole in me. I think it's only fair that I return that favour while you're still conscious. No, while you're still breathing."

He made no sound. He didn't even move, not that he had the chance to escape the effects of the shout holding over his body. His mouth was open and it shook in fright, but not even his breath escaped past his lips.

It was nice to hear nothing but my sword as I drew it closer to his body.

"Forgive my sloppiness. I haven't had the chance to use my swordsmanship in a good long while in this state. So, prepare yourself."

["{Transfer!}"]

I places all the {boosts}, all twenty-five extra that I added before changing my mind, into my blade as I raised it above my head and cleaved downwards upon him.

---

"{Sword Birth: Thousand Blades!}"

As the battle raged on against the fallen angel that had invaded the school, I, Kiba Yuuto, continued to hold the frontline in this excursion.

The girls had been taking serious hits, with both the Bishops suffering from light spear wounds to their legs, so they were unable to do more than just act as medic at the risk incurring the wrath of the fallen who as still airborne.

Koneko, Yura-san and Meguri-san were all still in the fight, but had to rotate often after taking a few direct blows. I myself took a few as well, but it was my duty to protect them all at the cost of my life if need be.

We didn't move the fight from where it started, but I had hoped to draw him to the woods within the school grounds as a way to try and hide the onset of the battles from the public. However, Sakuyama was not falling for it. I should have expected it from someone who spent the last six months in the same class as me. He had probably been taking some notes on how we operated in secret without making it obvious.

I could only guess his thinking as I continued to send sword after sword attack at him. My demonic swords were the strongest attack we had, but at his distance from the ground, getting him down and within range had not been the easiest of tasks.

While he had initially appeared eager to settle this like gentlemen with a sword duel, he had quickly retreated and took back his advantage by staying far from any of my demonic swords.

I started an experimental attack with my Sacred Gear, which meant I was propelling my swords after summoning them. They flew through the sky, but more often or not were too slow and easily dodged or knocked aside. The school however took more a beating with the number of steel blade now striking it.

I hoped to the Maou that there was no one still taking shelter. If more people were in there like the girl who was being guarded by Koneko, then this day was only going to turn out even worse.

I summoned out a second Holy Eraser and readied myself. I couldn't stay on the ground any longer if Sakuyama was going to remain airborne.

With Meguri-san taking a proto-type sword from my Sacred Gear, she charged up the side of the school and jumped at him. With her speed, she was able to make contact with him. However, her advantage ended with the clashing of their two blades.

The sword, Dragon Eater, my proto-type dragon slaying sword, shattered very quickly and she was left without a blade at hand. Her usual blade had been misplaced at home moments before and she had been boring exponentially from my {Sword Birth} in place of her own arms.

Without a sword, she was early knocked out of the sky, with a new wound to her left arm and cheek before hitting the ground.

Yura-san tried to attack again, this time by desperately jumping from below and intended to hit him with one of the fallen poles belonging to the tennis field. Sakuyama gave her no chance of reaching him by ascending even higher before slamming her with both his feet after she lost jumping momentum.

We were getting pretty desperate in this fight. Tired and exhausted, our energies were running on less than fumes at this point.

I hated to admit it, but we were all pretty much uselessly struggling with misdirection. Without either of our Kings to command this battle, we were as useful as headless chickens running around until we were evidently going to die.

"Stay back, it's dangerous!"

"What's going on?"

"It's nothing. Just stay back!"

Over my shoulder, Koneko was keeping her classmate, Nimura Ruruko-san from leaving her side.

I didn't think it was her intention to be constantly guarding her, but it seemed like she immediately assumed the role. Where she came from and why she was around was never asked at the time, and I had only assumed that she was caught up in it through no fault of her own.

Nevertheless, she was only human, and she would get killed where it would only hurt us. A light spear in her chest would be a one-way ticket across the other shore whereas it would only be a temporary wound to us. But, she didn't quite have a grasp of the situation from her point of view.

"No! Why is there a tenshi here? Why do tenshi exist? And why the hell is it trying to kill us?"

We assume by 'tenshi' she was largely ignorant of the Abrahamic religions, or of the idea of angels. Regardless, that was the least of our worries.

"Calm dow- Move!"

*Ka-BOOM!*

A light spear struck the ground between them. The resulting explosion knocked out the bicycle shed we had been using as a temporary base and hospital. Thank the Maou none of U had been killed in that explosion, but now the Bishops who had been healing us were exposed.

Sakuyama noticed this too. He continued at his attack, but not on the enemies to his front and sides, but to the ones that had been left quite alone for a while.

Hakanai-san and Kusaka-san gathered what little strength they had after expending so much of their magic to fix as many wounds they could, into shields to protect them from the blitz of light spears raining down on them. This was a battle of attrition more than anything.

After a long battle that had lasted for nearly a few hours since the first spear was thrown, all of us, especially the two Bishops, were at our absolute limits;

Myself; I had birthed so many swords that I could have recreated the Titanic in full outer exterior with the amount of metal I had thrown his way. In terms of injuries, I was the luckiest, with only a few small cuts and a gash on my forehead from a knock by flying debris.

Koneko; her uniform was torn to next to nothing. Not even her undergarments had really survived any form of damage. Most of her clothing consisted of her skin which was wrashed, blistered, burnt and cut in many different places already.

Yura-san; very much the same with the cuts and bruises, except her left arm was dislocated and so was her right ankle. Too many bad landings had also reduced visibility to her right eye after the swelling covered half of her upper brow.

Meguri-san; including the cut to her left side, her back had a very long and very deep gash as well running from the nape of her neck down to the right side of her hip. And that was only the worst of the cuts she had received trying to spar with Sakuyama in close quarters.

Hanakai-san and Kusaka-san were both still recovering from their initial bout before my arrival, but they were mostly fine if it wasn't for the fatigue in their excessive demonic magic consumption they had been constantly using over and over to heal everyone as well as themselves.

In fact, the only one who really hadn't been injured, except for Sakuyama who was slightly burnt from a few lucky shots, was Nimura-san.

The only thing we knew what to do, was wait for either Buchou or Fukukaichou to come. It was the one hope we were clinging to in this fight.

*Ka-BOOM!*

"Kyah!" "Urhh!"

A light spear struck at a tree just in behind Nimura-san and Koneko. The two had ducked in time, but splinters from the barks fell on them in large quantities that they had to cover their heads as well.

Sakuyama's eyes, showed only one or two emotions now; anger, and boredom.

"You know, I am rather disappointed in all this; I expected a fun little party with seven devils all ready and waiting more me to cut down. But, I find only six of you, and quite frankly I'm pissed off at how poorly you all are faring. Not even a shred of hop left. Not a scratch of strength eft. It bores me to no end."

And I'm one devil short. Do you know how ticked I am that I couldn't kick in his teeth in as well as yours. You sitting there in the classroom, pretending you're normal. All of you. Disgusting."

He spat to the ground, and I half expected it to be made of acid by how toxic his speech was getting.

"I watched all of you. You, former humans. Fucking disgusting how you just try to fade yourselves into the crowd. Humans."

He spat again.

"The worst species to ever exist; always so self-righteous. So needy. Always needing someone else's hand and then they bite that same hand like a spoilt child. Why the Lord ever thought of making them is beyond me. Weak, weed-like stick insects. I could crush this town beneath my feet like an insect beneath my boot and then have time to clean the muck from my sole."

*Ka-BOOM*

I covered my face as the light spear crushed my sword wall like it was tin foil.

"I should have just killed you all. It would have saved the embarrassment of having to pretend to be civil around those lower lifeforms. Kill all seven of you and then move on, now wouldn't that have been my ideal situation. But, no. I have you six here, and this is all I get. I am certaintly not entertained."

*Ka-BOOM!*

He threw down another light spear, striking the area in from to Yura-san after she tried to move forwards.

"One of you had the right idea of not coming. If this all I can expect from six devils, then I doubt one more would have made this anymore exciting. Unless, he met my friend. Heh. He could already be dead by now."

'What?' I thought. Another one. Another fallen angel was here. The six of us teaming up were struggling to deal with one angel, and now we had to worry about a second showing up. We were already half dead at this point. Bringing in reinforcements would have been overkill.

But, he also mentioned Issei-san. If there was a second fallen angel in this town, then what he was saying could also possibly be true.

"Say that again!"

I shouted up at him. If not for the information, I believed we were all willing to take a breather. I don't know what I was quite expecting of everyone else, but if his attention was on me, and me alone, then everyone else would be safer for it. I had hoped on that.

He did give me an answer, but his series of responses were more than I had expected. And, it wasn't a good one.

"Hmm? Oh, so you don't know? I'm not working alone. My partner is already working his way through the two priests in this town while I'm dealing with the six of you here. If he hasn't arrived, then I guess he must be enjoying himself too much."

He looked me straight in the eyes, and he was now smiling. He suddenly realised where he could hit at a nerve.

"No. You wanted to hear about your friend, Hyoudou-kun, no? I've been wondering that as well. Unless, he ran away. No. Would he? Or, what if he did meet my friend? Yes, I expect Caraviel to be playing with him for some time."

The six of us had only lasted for two hours and we were nearly dead. I had only heard a few words about his own fighting potential, but if he was alone against a fallen angel of similar strength, then he could have been right. Issei-san could have already been dead this whole time.

The look of Sakuyama's smile. It was invigorating. How he went on and on describing

"I expect to find a corpse with no head when I next meet him. A light spear in the chest and a head that goes 'pit~swoooooooooooooo. Kapow! Blood everywhere, oh wouldn't that be a-"

"{Sword Birth: Thousand Blades!}"

I had enough of his talk. I admit that I lost my cool there. But in the heat of the anger and the exhaustion, I lost myself to the hatred.

I hit him with everything I had. Another round of flying swords heading his way. I wanted to skewer him so badly. I used it multiple times. Over and over again.

"{Sword Birth: Thousand Blades!} {Sword Birth: Thousand Blades!} {Sword Birth: Thousand Blades!}"

I was already exhausted, but now I was throwing away energy I didn't have anymore. More swords propped up and fired at him from any direction that came from. But they were brittle. They were rusty or blunt. The reflection of just how little power I had left to spare was now forging these useless blades.

Sakuyama didn't even bother to dodge; his wings took care of the work like a feather duster clearing away a piles of dust. And that was just what happened to every one of my blades. Turned to dust and vanished. Not even the effects of a demonic blade making contact with his wings produced anything worthwhile to mention.

Koneko launched herself to the roof of the main school building, and then she was running. She sprinted across the rooftop before jumping again straight towards Sakuyama, who had not expected such a last minute assault to follow my barrage of swords.

*Pow!* "Ow!"

A punch

"Look out!"

I was too late. My words didn't reach her in time as Sakuyama came in from her side. Without the ground to support and utilise her strength, her small body was exposed to a direct hit from a light spear to the gut.

Blood flew from the wound, and from her mouth.

The blade didn't directly pierce her skin, thank the Maou, but the attack was a side swing, and the power behind the momentum sent her straight into the ground.

The fall from thirty feet made a crater, and even when the dust started to settle, after shock of the impact was still shaking the ground beneath our feet.

I called forth another round of swords to my side, and was prepared to send them soaring again.

"I don't think so, pretty boy."

I only just caught him for a second in my sights, but his voice appeared to my left. I turned my head, but a barrage of feathers cut across my body with one swing of his black wings. I was knocked aside so easily

With me out f the way, he turned hos attention back to Koneko, with a newly appearing light spear at hand.

"I should have ended you the moment you walked down that hall, little kitty cat."

He took a few paces toward her, while I tried to get back to my feet. I failed though. I was completely out and too injured to move. I couldn't even find the strength to shout a warning as I looked on in horror.

Koneko got back to her feet, but her stance was too unsteady. She had no chance to run if she wanted to.

"Stand all you want, but I am not missing."

Her legs were shaking, and I can say that every moment was being backed-up audibly with the sound of a heart beat. My heart beat

"Strike through, you're out!"

*thump*thump*

And then the spear flew from his hands.

*thump*thump*

Koneko fell to one knee as she tried to get away, and her eyes widened to the sight of a blade heading right between her eyes.

*thump*thump*

She was a sitting duck, unable to escape.

*thump*thump*

"Koneko-san!"

*thump*thump*

*Splank*

*thum-* . . .

*Thud*

. . .

A body was struck, and the spear went right through her.

Koneko, and the rest of us looked on in shock, toward the bloodied body of Nimura Ruruko-san.

She had jumped in the way, shielding Koneko. But now, a hole was running clean through where her stomach once was. She fell on top of Koneko, and we all went to silence, just staring at her.

There was nothing more we could all think of doing. But, receiving an attack like that, it was suicidal.

"Well" Sakuyama said looking on. "Isn't that a sight; trash saving trash. Hehehe. At least one of you had guts, not that hers exists anymore. Hahahahaha. Kuhahahahahahaha!"

He started laughing, like this was a game again. I was not one to resort to speaking foul language, but one words continued to ringing in my head at the sound of his laughter.

'You Bastard! You Bastard!' You Bastard!''

I gritted down my teeth and got back up again. I slammed my sword, Holy Eraser into the ground, with the last bits of strength in my body.

"{Sword . . . Birth!}"

I sent another barrage of swords his way, ground-ward this time. Meguri-san took hold of one and took the offense while Yura-san aided her. I was exhausted and bleeding. Reya-san tended to me immediately while I had the chance to rest, but I couldn't stop looking over to where Koneko was laying.

That girl. That poor human girl, who got herself severely injured trying to save her, was laying on the ground with her head being supported by Koneko's petite lap.

"Hold on. Nimura-san."

". . . I'm . . . so cold. Why am I . . . so cold?"

"Please, just hang in there. We can heal you. Please don't die on us. You weren't supposed to be here. You were so stupid."

It was rare to see Koneko with so much emotion. Despite a heavy wound to her own chest, she prioritized the classmate in her arms.

My head looked to Hanakai-san who was tending to her, but her eyes looked down, and her head shook without saying a single word.

The wounds didn't close and the blood continued to stain the few white areas of her school uniform before spilling over to the ground. It was just one big whole. Sakuyama wasn't far off when he said she no longer had any guts, even if the wound could be fixed over.

It didn't take a medic to tell you that there was no hope left for her. It was too great a wound for a human to bear.

". . . I . . . I'm so . . . scared. I . . . want to go home."

"Nimura-san, please. Hang on. You will be ok. Ok?"

" . . . I want . . . to see my . . M- . . . M- . . . m~."

Her head fell back, and then her hand went limp. It was quite a haunting sight when her breathing stopped as well.

Her eyes, just so glazed and staring, didn't shut as they seemed to look into nothing but darkness.

"Nimura-san? Nimura-san!"

That girl, she passed away in Koneko's arms, despite her protests.

While the rest of us looked on black-and-blue at the fallen angel with hatred. Pure and unadulterated heated hatred for his very existence.

I stood again, ready to kill the fallen angel using the alias Sakuyama Daiki.

---

Many hours after the fight . . .

". . ."

. . .

". . ."

. . .

". . . Eh? . . . Huh?"

I don't know how long it was, before I finally woke up. All that I knew at the time that my conscious returned was that I, the [Christibefürworten], was atop of my bed.

I sat up from bed immediately, but then the sensation of the pain at the back of my head kicked in.

"Achh! . . . Tss! . . . Tss! . . . Tss-sss, ow."

I reached around and tried to touch it a few times, to check for any obvious signs of damage, like bleeding or something. But there was no stickiness despite how painful it was, so at most it was a bruising.

My head still ached, like that rock really did dig through the back of my head. The fatigue from the fight and the overexertion had taken its toll on my limbs and my body. The pain to my hop was still there as well before I forget to mention that as well.

It was noticeably dark in the house.

I wondered if Father Mertens had returned home. No, I wondered why I had returned home? I was on my bed, but I should have been outside. In fact, I should be dead.

I could only recall the last moments of the fight I had with the fallen. But, I should have been dead at that point. Unconscious and highly fatigued. I should have died soon after falling unconscious.

That was unless . . .

No. It couldn't have been.

There was this eerie aroma lingering all around the house. Don't tell me, he knew where I lived. How?

"That devil!"

Though my expression was loud, my voice was in fact still a whisper. If Father Mertens was home, then I didn't wish to wake him, nor the neighbours for that matter.

The smell in the air. It wasn't one I was familiar with, but my mind immediately shot to him, the one devil serving Phenex. Him. Why this smell made me think of him, I haven't a clue, but this was definitely his doing to say the least. It reeked all over the rooms with his smell.

I looked to my clothes. No, I was relieved that I had my clothes. Well, they were not the clothes I had been wearing earlier today. The shirt at least had been-

No. This wasn't my shirt. Mine was red . . . and lying on my chair in the corner of my room. The tear to its side was obvious along with other shredded areas to the corners and sleeves, as was my jacket with the huge blood stain running its white colour. The shirt I was black, and had two bloodied holes to the shoulders.

It was that devils. That was obvious. The first thing I did was take it off, quite surprised that I still had a bra on. I checked and sure enough the shirt was the only thing that wasn't mine that I was wearing. Everything else, I had put on myself.

The thought of having been unconsciously violated made me sick. But, I will not call it an overreaction. Not when it concerns a devil.

The wound to my hip had been cauterised largely, but there was also a makeshift bandage made of sheets of kitchen towel and a bathroom towel tied to my waist. There was no more blood, but it was almost certainty going to scar.

It wasn't the scarring that was affecting my mood. Just what had happened truly after I passed out? I hadn't even once turned my thought to what might have happened to the fallen angel, but he was the very least of my concerns at that point.

I finally got out of my room, to find some of those air fresheners or scented candles to cover up the diabolic musk in the air, only to find my equipment on the kitchen table. How it was there and not left on the remnants of the battlefield, I wasn't sure. I couldn't ask Father Mertens until morning if I was lucky, so I was left in the dark how this all returned home with me.

In the moonlight, I inspected them to be certain that there had been no tampering;

The light sword, well the hilt of it to be more accurate, was wrapped in a carrier bag from one of the shops in town, but there was no discernible label to identify where it came from. The blade of the sword itself was broken after the fight, but what remained of it was here.

I am going to have to get a deduction in my allowance to afford a new one. That will take a good few months before that's paid off. If I wasn't in need of the blade, that kind of cash would have taken me years to accumulate before they would even consider giving me a replacement.

But here in the 'doctrine's frontier', a light sword was needed at all times for members of the church off mission.

And, then there was my camera. The lens was probably broken from falling from my pocket-. Wait, how could it have fallen from my pocket? It was in my jacket, but the pocket was zipped, so it coul- it shouldn't have. No, it must have been beaten around during the fight. That made more sense.

I inspected it to see if the memory or battery were intact. The screen was digital, but the glass had an obvious cut across it. Apart from that, all was still functioning as it should have. Thank the lord for this good fortune. These items are expensive to produce, not to mention replace if they get broken.

The problem came when I saw how many photos were stored in its memory.

Ten? Ten photos.

No, there should have been only the nine of them. I counted myself. There were only nine devils that I took pictures of after excluding the high profile leaders of their clans here in this town:

Five under Sitri. Three under Gremory. And one under Phenex. So, why where there now Ten?

I first thought I might have been a 'pocket snap', but I recalled how the device worked and knew that it wouldn't be possible to take a picture without the use of fingers or a conscience selection of choices before taking a photo with it. It was a pretty stubborn device to use, but it was one of our vital assets.

I counted them again in my head. I was sure I only took one picture of each of them and deleted any that were useless before taking a replacement photo. But no, including the new servant of Sitri that sudden arose late in the last month, there should have been no other photos taken since then.

So, why was there one more than there should have been.

I opened the photo's section and the immediately I saw the first image to appear. The most recent of them all. What I saw was a large red dragon.

Not specially that I knew it at the time, but the image was that of a metal suit of armour all painted in bright Surinamese red.

I saw helm of red metal and green slits for the eyes. The left arm covered most of the shot, and that too was also covered in red coloured metal plating. It was all so sharp, and it was slightly blurred.

But-

"Wait! . . . Is that?"

. . . to be continued.

---

An unlikely team;

The devil and exorcist

Against the angel.

While the sparks still fly,

Sitri and Gremory try

To bypass Youkai.

By the Maou's name,

And of all things unholy,

The Dragon wakes up.

---

Omake XII: BDSM (Better to Die Soon, Mate)

Ravel: Two weeks you said. Two weeks tops. How many days has it been now since that deadline?

Alek: (voice offscreen) . . . ve days.

Ravel: I can't hear you.

Alek: (pulls back to see him rotating on a spit operated by a now male Issei) Five Days! Five Days! It got too big and I had to write a way to split it up! I lost track of the time! (crying, only for the tears to evaporate off his cheeks)

Ravel: (nods) Yes, that's right. It was good that we managed to get that sorted out. You only brought it on yourself.

Alek: (muttering) Says the one who tied me up and expected me to write without my hands free.

Rose: I've handled the reviews, but I'm not sure if I answered them alright.

Issei: Just do your best. It's all we can ask for.

Alek: (starting to feel queasy from being rotated) Can I have a bottle of something please. I'm going to be sick.

Ravel: We would, but we forgot where he hid those gifts. Sorry.

Alek: You're doing this on- (cheeks bloat, but then he swallows) . . . porpoise.

Rose: You mean "purpose". (clears her throat) Anyways;

『To User:DragonBolt21: I'll try to tell him to make it more cheery. But, I don't think it will work.

To User:Malhavoc_Shadowlord: Wow! How did you guess? And . . . Language! Please.

To User:UCCMaster: Wow, maybe we could do some research collaboration sometime. Eh, I mean; I'm sure he will grateful for this information.

To User:Dragon_Rider_66: Wait, you can't? I didn't like the play too. I have no idea where they get there ideas. I was in an opera, well my name was, but never mind that. We have made him clean it up, but he probably still has neglected a lot of it. Issei has got your gifts and he is eternally grateful. As far as I have seen from his plan, yes that seems to be the directions it's heading.

To User:Moikan_Yoloko: I know, I'm sorry on his behalf. Sorry also that he has made it this late, again! Don't worry, the order of events isn't going to be affected. The Excalibur arc isn't magically going to come before the Rating Game. I think I'm certain of that.

To User:desdelor97: I'll tell him, and he will probably say thank you.

To User:ferodile: We have it registered. Thank you very much. He won't thank you though, I'm sure.

To User:bk42bk42: Seriously, How did you get back in here? Also, I will make it my life's work to keep you sealed away from this place!

To Guest (1): Take it up with Alek, not me. But he has already said he won't change the way he writes. He has tried to cut down on his omake's length though at least.

To User:MIKE202303: It's supposedly meant to symbolise the inexperience in using a second language at a young age. First Ravel with her still learning Japanese, and then Issei with him learning Deftodiz. Don't worry, if you were on chapter 4, then that was the last of it.

To User:Dr4cul: We'll tell him you said hi. And, I think we've already rattled him enough.

To User:RangerElk76: Well make sure you keep to your health. And He would say thanks.

To Guest (2): I'm sure he will say thanks very much also.

To User:The_Rupture: We promise we will get him to finish it sooner. We have him on a literal leash now so to speak.

and to Userchunnin33: We are sorry, but it's too late to change it now.』

Ravel: I still have no clue how User:bk42bk42 keeps getting in here though. I was sure we double and triple checked the locks.

Issei: Yeah (shivers a little at the memory) Thanks to the pills User:Dragon_Rider_66 sent me, I'm finally back in my own body. But he still took pictures before that.

Alek: I see you didn't get enough responses to my impending torture. (feeling smug) I guess I'm just that popular.

Issei: Oh, don't say that. We came up with a Plan B. And we have brought someone special to handle it.

Alek: . . . (scared) No! You don't mea-

?: (voice appears out of now where)Arara, so this is the big extra dimension everyone is going on about.

Alek: (sweating, with his eyes completely white) No, no, no, no!

Akeno: (appearing out of the void) Well, I think it's time we take you to User:ferodile's suggestion of watching "Boku no Pico". I think I can get down with a little "boy's love" before the big session following. (grabs the spit and starts dragging it off screen)

Alek: (shaking and struggling to break free of Gleipnir) Urh! Urrrgh! No! No! NOOOOoooooooooooooo! (both disappear through the gate)

Ravel: (slightly disturbed) . . . Were we too harsh?

Issei: (rubbing his forehead) Let's . . . just finish this omake.

Ravel: R-right. (clears her throat) Thank you all again. This is a two-parter, but I can happily say that the wait shouldn't be too long- (signs of Alek's screams echo through the space) . . . em, maybe? It should be a week or two, but we'll have to see. Oh, and if you send more torture methods if you want to, I think . . . (stops over the scream) . . . I think Akeno will appreciate it the most.

Issei: (points his fingers out) Know that we are only two chapters away from canon now. I can be certain of that. So look forward to the beginning of the story we all know again. And until next time, we'll see you then.

Everyone: Bye-Bye!

Rose: ! . . . (Alek's screams still echo in the distance) . . . A-a-Are we going to stop it?

Issei: (shaking his heads as Akeno's sadistic laughter follows) . . . It's too late for him now.

---

Thank you for reading, and review at your nearest convenience.

Special thanks to 'DragonBolt21', 'Malhavoc Shadowlord', 'UCCMaster', 'Dragon Rider 66', 'Moikan Yoloko', 'desdelor97', 'ferodile', 'bk42bk42', 'Guest (1)', 'MIKE202303', 'Dr4cul', 'RangerElk76', 'Guest (2), 'The Rupture', and 'chunnin33' for their reviews, I really do appreciate it.

Starting from the last chapter, I stopped doing the "key" since after 10 chapters, people should be able to understand why I use certain motifs and what not. I will only bring it back if I decide to change or add a new one in the future.

Well, until next time everyone. Bye!

. . . No, wait! Ake- NOOOOOOOOOOO!

(Ufufu. See you again next omake, my adorable kouhais xXx ;Þ)