I felt as if someone had smashed a brick over the back of my head and, without doubting what had happened to me some time ago that came before this blank spot in my memory, that may as well be true. My head hurt, my throat was dry and it was hard to focus on the uncomfortably white roof that I was staring at.
I was in a hospital. That much was obvious, but I wasn't able to know anything else as my body felt too weak and painful to move an inch. The rising and falling of my chest as I struggled to breath hurt as much as when I tried to wiggle my fingers around, prompting me to groan every so often.
The beeping of a heart monitor was the only thing keeping me sane as my groggy mind started to clear, the monitor's incessant tones oddly disturbing as I managed to slip a grimace onto my face. I groaned once more from the pain of breathing, this one louder than the others, and felt the awakening of something or someone to my left.
In the corner of my vision, I could barely see them raise their head and, as their eyes widened in what I presume to be shock, I felt an intense sting run throughout my body as I tried to force myself to sit. I whimpered and lowered the arm I had been trying to raise onto the railing of the bed, letting my pain subside as I sunk into the soft mattress, "Miss Rias, are you awake?"
I could only groan in response as I attempted to force some words of confirmation out of my dry mouth. There was nothing but a squeak, what seemed to be a sigh following soon after as Grayfia Lucifuge rose to her feet.
"A-are you alright, Miss Rias? Do you need some water? Perhaps a doctor?" I tried to shoot Grayfia a dirty look that would have told her everything she needed to know, but I could barely blink. I ended up staring at Grayfia with what felt like fish eyes, the maid pursing her lips in response. "I see. That man – Issei Hyouou, was it? - seems to have injured you more than we thought…! No matter. I shall help you drink some water."
If I was able to move, I would have jumped out of this bed, grabbed Grayfia's hands and stared her dead in the eyes while saying, 'It wasn't Issei that did this to me.' Even though that man did look very similar to the human I have come to know over this past week, his personality and the atmosphere surrounding him is very different. Although Issei had seemingly lost his sanity at the abandoned cathedral at one point, he still didn't give off the feeling that this other man gave off, even if his insanity was concerning.
And as I thought of how I should injure my brother's maid and wife Grayfia, she, despite the pain she probably knew I was feeling at this moment, gently raised my head with one hand while using the other to position a glass of water to my lips.
"But there is no need to worry, milady, as your brother has gone with Azazel of the Grigori to arrest and potentially kill that wretched human."
Scratch that; if I was able to move, I'd launch myself out of this damned bed and punch Grayfia right in her pretty face and eternally regret doing that. Grayfia didn't deserve to be punched nor did Issei deserve to be arrested or potentially killed, but if Issei was going to be arrested, I may as well punch Grafyia.
"Not his…fault…" I could barely force myself to speak those three measly words once Grayfia gently lowered the glass and my head, but as they were muttered, a dark expression overcame Grayfia's face. She stared down at me, offering me her uncharacteristically pitiful eyes in an attempt to console me, and gripped the short railing of the bed as tightly as she could.
"It's not his fault? Oh, Rias, if only you knew how badly he has injured you! That man…he has…he has taken away your ability to walk." All of a sudden, my world had collapsed. All of a sudden, I found myself unable to respond to Grayfia's words that she had obviously struggled to say.
That man…that person that looked like Issei…he has paralysed me? Or is it more accurate to say that he had paralysed my legs? Despite my attempts to move my legs through the overwhelming pain I thought I would have felt, there was nothing. Not even the numbness that was usually associated with a lack of circulation to a body part.
"H-how…?" I managed to squeak with wide eyes. Grayfia, with her eyes downcast, let go of the railing and clasped her hands over one of mine.
"He severed your spine. We don't know what he used to do it, but there was a clean stab wound on your stomach with an exit wound parallel to that." I was flabbergasted. As I remember it, that man used his hand, didn't he? It was pointed and was shoved straight through me, all the way through my stomach and out the other side...
"So…magic can't fix it? Where's Asia?"
"She's already tried to fix you, Rias," I know Grayfia didn't want me to look at her and see the state she was in, but tears were streaming down her face without restraint, "And the only healer that can is missing."
Issei burst through the window with Chiharu in his arms as a multitude of magical attacks impacted the areas surrounding him. Although he had escaped unharmed, Chiharu was shocked by the sudden onslaught and what felt like teleportation as she suddenly found herself standing in the street. She looked to Issei for answers and found his grim smile as smoke billowed out of a hole in the school building, "A-are all of the students going to be okay?"
"Maybe," Issei glanced down at Chiharu as he intently observed the smoke, "It depends on if there's actually a fire, you know?" Chiharu sighed.
"Well, what did you even do to make Sirzechs attack you like that?" Issei pursed his lips as he struggled to formulate his answer as he wasn't even sure himself. Sure, Sirzechs did leave the room to answer a phone call, but that didn't mean he suddenly had the rights to fire off his fatal attacks in the middle of a human school.
"I don't know and I don't care. Although, it kind of is my duty to stop Sirzechs, isn't it?" Chiharu slapped Issei over the back of his head with a frown, unable to believe her student's sudden lack of humanity and empathy.
"You're such a dolt, you know that?" Issei pretended to feel offended as he scoffed in response, turning around and stumbling backwards as he raised his hands in the air.
"Ugh, how could you call me such a thing? Actually, who even uses the word 'dolt' anymore!?" Chiharu's face flushed in embarrassment as a grin spread across Issei's face, "Anyway, if you move from here, you might die. So don't move, okay?"
Chiharu gave Issei a mock salute as she watched him disappear with the wind, almost as if he had never been there in the first place. "I'm supposed to be teaching this kid something…right?"
"Sirzechs, stand down!" Azazel's shout pierced the shrill cries of the students surrounding the pair as a small cloud of smoke slowly settled. Sirzechs, with a sinister crimson aura surrounding him, turned his head to stare at Azazel from over his shoulder. All of sudden, the wall behind Azazel disappeared in a flash as an orb of malice destroyed it upon contact.
"No, I cannot, Azazel. So I will not fight you, but I will not allow you to stop me!" Azazel ducked under a second orb that had been shot at him and was forced to push a student out of the way of the third, the orb missing their body by a few millimetres.
"Sirzechs, you…!" Azazel charged towards the Devil as a sword of pale light formed in his hand.
"What, Azazel!? Do you know what he's done to my sister? Do you know how much it hurts to know that she might never walk again!?" Azazel grit his teeth as he slid under an orb, twisting to the side in the middle of his recovery to dodge a second, third and then a fourth that forced him to try and deflect it with his sword.
The orb shot off in a random direction as Azazel's sword slowly crumbled away into dust, a grimace forming on his face. He tossed what remained of his sword to the side in favour of creating another one, "Sirzechs, I do know what it feels like to lose someone important to you and that's why we're both here! I'm not your enemy, so stand down before someone gets hurt!" Sirzechs' stare sent shivers down Azazel's spine as the essence of death had manifested itself in the pair of blue-green orbs.
"You know what? You're just an aloof, good-for-nothing porn addict that shouldn't be here. So what do you know about my pain? Is it the pain of falling from Heaven?" Azazel growled as he grit his teeth, his stance and centre of gravity lowering as an array of light spears formed in the air around him, all of them pointed at Sirzechs.
"You…I was a fool to have ever trusted a Devil like you so easily…! The bunch of you…you're all a bunch of assholes." The air surrounding the two supernatural beings became dense as their manifestations of incomprehensible power forced the composition of the environment to shift.
The wood of the building decayed, it felt harder to breathe and the air itself put a heavy weight on the bodies of the helpless students. The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife, almost as if the tension itself was a string.
And then the string snapped in two as two attacks of god-like strength clashed in a battle of endurance and strength, whittling away at the vitality of both attackers; sparks and smoke exploded throughout the room and was scattered as Azazel's attacks were destroyed by Sirzechs' Orbs of Destruction, windows shattering from the resonation of the glass-like substance against the gravity defying magic.
Sirzechs, surrounded by the screams of the powerless human students and a thick curtain of black smoke, rapidly twisted and turned as the sounds of the clash died down, "Where are you going to come from, traitor?"
Sirzechs dived to the side as he felt the air behind him shift, a giant blade of light forcing itself through the floor moments later, "Who's the traitor, you insane fuck?! You could have killed those students!" Azazel spun to the side to avoid a fist that Sirzechs threw at him, the Fallen Angel forming a sword in his hand in the middle of his movement.
Sirzechs jumped back to avoid the slash Azazel hastily performed, followed by a step to the side as Azazel lunged at the Devil. Sirzechs stepped into Azazel's defence, an orb of destruction magic forming in the blink of an eye, "I bid you farewell, Fallen Angel." Azazel grit his teeth and tilted his head to the side, the orb narrowly missing its target.
"Never say that until your victory is secured, you cocky piece of shit!" Sirzechs raised his hand and grabbed a light spear out of the air with a smirk on his face.
"And you shouldn't say that unless you know you'll escape with your life." Azazel offered a grin in response and watched as confusion spread across the Devil's face.
"I know. And, fortunately, I do know I'll escape with my life!"
"Wait, what the-!?" The light spear exploded into shards of light that embedded themselves in the Devil's body, the hissing of steam becoming audible as smoke came from the wounds on Sirzechs' body. Azazel, his grin still on his face, rose to his feet as his Devil foe fell onto both knees, blood slowly oozing out of his wounds as he gasped from an intense, burning pain that was quite unlike anything he had ever felt before.
"You know, you'd think that me being a scientist and all would tell you that I'd have some tricks up my sleeve, right?" Sirzechs glared at Azazel as he came to the realisation that he was at the Fallen Angel's mercy.
"Y-you bastard…!" Azazel folded his arms across his chest.
"Oh, you're calling me a bastard? Who's the one that indiscriminately used some of his most powerful attacks without putting up a barrier, huh?" Sirzechs growled as he slowly pushed himself to his feet.
"That boy…Issei Hyoudou deserves all of the pain my sister felt when he murdered her fiancé and crippled her!" Sirzechs raised a shaky fist, blood running down his wounded arm, and slowly extended it, softly hitting Azazel in the chest.
"Give up, Devil. You've lost if that's your strongest attack." Sirzechs pulled his head back as he summoned the last of his strength.
"But I haven't lost yet!" And, with a war cry, his head collided with Azazel's, forcing the Fallen Angel to stagger and lose his balance as he clutched his now bleeding nose. Sirzechs closed his fist, clenching it shut so tight so that he drew blood, and summoned his magic to produce a final crimson orb that would end the life of his foe.
"Dammit…! That hurt, you bastard!"
"Good. Because that's the last thing you'll be feeling before you cease to exist. So say your goodbyes, Azazel of the Grigori."
"Okay! Goodbye, Sirzechs Lucifer of the Underworld!" Sirzechs twisted to the side and fired off his Orb of Destruction into the lingering smoke as the familiar voice of an intruder was heard. "The World!
There was a shift in the air as the colour and gradient of the world changed, each colour becoming its opposite as time seemed to come to a stop, a short, distorted ringing echoing throughout the space.
"Wait…what the…what is this rip-off of a move?" Azazel muttered in confusion.
"How long can you move in the stopped time, Sirzechs?" The voice rang out as a figure swaggered through the smoke.
"Issei...Hyoudou…?" Sirzechs stumbled to the side as his vision started to become blurry.
"Yes?" A single crimson orb pierced the smoke, forcing the smoke to clear, revealing the object of Sirzechs' hatred.
Issei Hyoudou stood with his hands on his hips.
"So it really is you…" Issei jerked a thumb in his own direction, a grin on his face.
"Yes…it is I, Issei!"
"Finally! I'm going to make…you…!" Sirzechs fell onto his face in the middle of his sentence as he became unconscious, a laugh building up in the human's chest.
"Is…is that guy for real? He was trying to give me a death threat and he just collapses and knocks himself out…? Hehe…hahaha! What an idiot!"
"You're an idiot for creating a cheap knock off of a move that already exists! Not to mention it doesn't work properly!"
"Leave me alone, okay? I just saved your life!"
Hello, it is me here. Now, you might be wandering why this chapter took so long…well, in short, I found that writing in third person all the time is kinda boring. That's why the Rias segment is in first person. It inspired me to write the rest of the chapter as quickly as I could! Unfortunately, it hasn't inspired me to stop procrastinating…and it hasn't inspired me to stop comparing how bad I am to professional light novel authors like Nagatsuki Tappei and Natsume Akatsuki…but I will try and write some segments in first person to keep me engaged. Also to keep a balance in the story...somehow...
Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter. I worked very hard on it, so I'd appreciate it if you could leave a review, tell me that I'm utter crap at my hobby and then run off to never read this story again! Actually, don't do that. Just a normal review would do.
Also, did the end seemed a little…rushed? I'm not too sure myself, to be honest, so I'd appreciate some feedback on that.