The Heir of the Western Lands
Chapter 8
Author's notes: Well, it's been a long time since I worked on this story, but the ideas are back. I'm warning you, I'm following the canon Arcs of High School DxD only as a vague guideline, not as much as a defined timeline. So I don't want any complaints about the fact that it doesn't happen like that in canon or other similar complaints. It's a fan fiction, not the visual novel or the manga, people. Since in this story Rias and Riser were not contracted to each others, I'm not going through the whole Rating Game Arc. The Asia's rescue Arc will be there though and it is a good part of this chapter.
I would like also to give Kudos to DisobedianceWritter for the permission to use his original spells. Now let's go take a look on the stats shall we? We have 38 Reviews, 343 Followers, 315 Favourites, 6 C2 Communities and 31 491 Views. Thank you very much for everything guys! Now let's get this show on the road!
Warning! There are some rather gruesome deaths and much gore in this chapter! You have been warned! I'd also like to apologize in advance for how lame Freed Sellzen is likely going to sound, I never was one for much vulgarity and obscenity.
Last Edit: May 26 2017.
Harry was feeling very amused today. His source of amusement was the Drama Queen named Hyoudou Issei. The younger teen had the most entertaining expressions passing on his face with each emotion he was feeling, be they positive or negative. If he hadn't known better, he would have sworn that Issei was a son or a legacy of Apollo or Aphrodite. Drama was seemingly in his blood! His face was priceless when he was told to distribute flyers. It was as if someone had told him that porn was now banned in the country. In resume, the Hanyō found it hilarious to see him mope around.
Harry was very glad to not have to go through that. It was one of the biggest reasons as to why he never allowed Rias to reincarnate him into one of her Evil Pieces. In fact, his redhead lover had once managed to con him into distributing a box of her flyers a few years ago and instead of doing as she told once he found out what they were for, he had used them as target practice for the energy attacks of Tessaiga. It was needless to say that the Gremory Heiress had not been amused by his antics. Akeno, on the other hand, had been very entertained.Kaze no Kizu (Wind Scar) was a very destructive technique and the flyers had been able to tank quite a few.
It was needless to say that after that time; Rias hadn't asked again. Now Harry was grumbling since he was stuck on his Physics homework. Seriously, who thought it was important in the curriculum to teach High school students how to balance a chemical equation? He would take History homework every day rather than Physics! At least all the stories the older Youkais of the Clan told him would have likely been useful. His grumblings and the regular activities of the others were interrupted by the arrival of a spacey Issei. Having learned his facial expressions by now, Harry could tell he had had a weird but touching experience and not the kind that get him and his friends chased around by hordes of angry girls.
In the end, it was quite a story. Issei had met a freshly arrived Nun around his age and in an act of good faith, had escorted her to the local Church, not knowing of the potential problem. Of course, the newly reincarnated Devil had been really affected by the place of cult once near enough and Asia Argento, for it was the Nun's name, had to finish the trek all by her lonesome while Issei retreated.
Oh and apparently she had some sort of healing power coming from rings on her fingers. Harry would bet his weekly allowance on a Sacred Gear. But something was fishy in all of this. The local church was abandoned and there was also the matter of a few Fallen still hanging around…
In the end, Rias had to say
"Issei, I forbid you to ever see and talk to her again. You aren't to go anywhere near Churches also. It's too dangerous."
When the boy went to protest
"But, Bouchou…!"
Rias, already fed up to hear him whining, let out a tiny bit of her Destruction aura to seems more imposing and loudly slapped both her palms on her desk before silencing him with a hard stare and a strong voice
"ENOUGH! Issei, going into the enemy territory without prior permission and valid excuse is reason enough for them to smite you without asking questions! If you get killed again, you won't come back this time! The Ceasefire between our Factions is paper thin; one wrong move could kick-start a new war!"
Cowed more by her outburst and the energy she let out than the reasons stated, Issei dropped his head, staring to the ground and excused himself before leaving, still feeling very dejected. That Devil gig was not as alluring as he thought it would be at first. It was already bad enough that he was forced to get up super early in the morning to exercise in the park rain or shine, even during the week-ends. And so far, he hadn't even seen any oppais! That was the worst in his opinion, his new Devil's duties kept him to go peep with his friends.
Koneko had been put in charge of whipping him into shape and while she may not be much of a talker, she was a harsh taskmaster. Her finger flicks of doom where no jokes! Who knew that such a petite girl could be so strong? Must be because she was a Rook…And now he somehow managed to find a girl who seems to like him for him and did not care a single iota about him being a pervert, but he couldn't see her ever again…Life was really unfair.
When the door closed behind Issei, Rias let out a loud sigh and let herself fall back in her chair. The situation was becoming really tense and Sona, with her stand of neutrality, wasn't helping making it easier. Dealing with Fallen Angels was always stressful at best and life threatening at worst. And now Issei just had to somehow manage to befriend a member of the Church.
He couldn't just have made a friend from the Shinto or the Youkai Factions? Those two weren't on such shaky stand-off against the Devils. No, her Pawn was a trouble magnet. Akeno then put her hands onto Rias' shoulders and started to massage them with dexterity and experience, the massage had soon the effect of calming the redhead.
Then Harry piped up, half serious, half joking
"Do you want me to bash him on the head with my sword, Hon'? If he's unconscious for a while, he won't be as troublesome as he is right now."
At the suggestion, Yuuto snorted with amusement. That big ass Youkai sword of Harry's packed one hell of a wallop when someone was hit with it! He should know since both Harry and he were sparring partners. They had managed to become friends by commiserating over the fact that they both had sadistic masters.
Indeed, both Sesshomaru and Okita Souji (Sirzechs' Knight) took great pleasure into batting their students from one end of the training grounds to the other all the while teaching them. It was a very good thing that both had a regenerative factor higher than a regular human and access to a top notch healer to patch them up after training or else some training sessions would have left permanent disfiguring scars.
A side glare from a blue-green eye framed by red locks of hair was his answer. Harry fired back with an exaggerated pout that had for result of making Akeno giggle in amusement. Even in his human form, there was an air of a kicked puppy around him when he was doing those faces. Before going into the whole carnal activities, it was one of the girls' favourite pastimes to draw out his dog like mannerisms.
While Harry could always resist running after a thrown stick well enough, a launched tennis ball was another thing completely when he was a child. Oh, the fun they had had with that at his expense! It would have been great blackmail but in turn, he had surprised them into dressing as grown-ups and playing House a few times and managed to take photo evidence as counter blackmail. Rias dressed as her mother and Akeno dressed as Lady Phenex had been hilarious to see.
In exchange for their silence on his dog like mannerisms, he would not give the pictures to Sirzechs. Who knew that Maou Lucifer was a sis-con of the highest order? It turns out that Maou Leviathan was the same, if not more childish in her approach. Harry was very glad to be the eldest and that his sister Rosie and cousin Aquila (Sirius' Greek Demigod daughter) never stalked him like that. Sometimes, he really pitied the relatives of those two, seriously. It seemed that the more powerful a supernatural being became, the weirder they get! Well, except his grandfather. That man had too much self respect and seen too much in his lifetime to act like a fool or childishly.
In the end, the warning given to Issei to steer clear of any affiliate members of the Church fell into deaf ears. Or was it Fate that those two would meet once again? Issei had been attacked by a Stray Exorcist who had butchered one of his clients when he went to answer said summoner's call. The exorcist's name was Freed Sellzen and he was not a very pleasant person. Harry had not been there when the rest of the Club went to recue Issei from Sellzen's clutches and would only learn about it the next day.
In fact during that time, he was in the newly warded to hell and back Gym fighting against a rather vengeful Sona. She was taking great pleasure into launching tidal waves at him. Like any Devil, her negative emotions were much amplified, so she was passing her accumulated frustrations on an adversary who could take it. It also seems that she really hadn't liked his comments that she was all bark and no bite so she could stop pestering him about the school rules and that it was because she was as flat as a board in the chest area that the Perverted Trio wouldn't even peep on her.
Sona was also primary a Wizard type fighter, used to fight at distance and to keep her foes away from her. While Harry could fight like a Wizard too, what with being one and being taught Human magic by his parents, he preferred to get in a physical fight. Be it a hand to hand combat or a sword fight. He was not really picky. He always had strength and energy to burn one way or another. Hence it was why he could keep up with two very demanding girlfriends in bed or dodging Sona's attacks while criticizing her style with no big problem. Well, until he got fed up of playing keep away that is.
Thus he launched a quip at her with a very infuriating smile that he had inherited from his father. He was the son of a Marauder after all!
"Come on now So-so! Put some back into it! My six years old cousin is more a threat to me than you are right now!"
His answer was a very annoyed growl coming from Sona's throat, a flushed face at hearing the very annoying nickname Harry gave her based on the English expression "so so" and a cutting pressurized jet of hot water wanting to take a limb or two. She was more threatening than a six years old Demigod without training! She would show him!
"Yikes! Be careful with that, you nearly managed to cut something important So-so!"
That was what Harry said during and after dodging Sona's latest attack.
Getting rather fed up of being forced to constantly dodge and having his Fire rat robe totally soaked by So-so's water techniques, Harry then decided it was time to change that. Taking advantage of the delay between the waves, he unsheathed his sword and in a flash of golden youki, the battered katana became one of the Fangs of the previous Inu no Taisho. There was something you needed to know about the Fangs. They were both somewhat sentient and also had a semblance of personality. Tessaiga liked her new wielder well enough but she wasn't about to make things too easy for him either. It wouldn't do to let him become complacent after all.
She also categorically refused to obey any given commands in any other tongue than Japanese and only accepted to correctly channel his Human magic trough her once in two times. The sword seemed to find it quite funny to either redirect the spell on its wielder or to let it fizzle away without doing anything by voluntarily diminishing her supernatural conductivity. Strangely, it was very cooperative with any prank spells passing through its edge though. Like that time it let him charm his Grandfather's hair a golden blonde colour. But back to the fight, Harry channelled enough of his own Youki through the Fang, raised the sword over his head then strokes the ground with the edge, calling
"Kaze no Kizu!"(Wind Scar!)
Three sharp waves of golden coloured Youki formed at the impact point, roaring at high speed toward the Sitri Heiress. Undeterred even if the technique was admittedly a sight to behold, Sona conjured up enough water to make an excellent shield to endure the incoming blow. It wasn't her first bout against the Hanyō since he was deemed worthy of the Tessaiga and she knew that a single "Wind Scar" could be blocked. Then she mentally cursed, seeing as the technique had cut through the momentum of the waves she had sent after him.
But by blocking the technique and not dodging it, she had given him time to prepare something stronger or to try his hand at attacking in close quarters. It would take a certain time to make move that much water. Time he could use against her, damn it! She hated to be played like that! What was the most irritating was that half the time, Harry hadn't any plans. It was another example of Potter luck. Anyone else trying to fly by the seat of their pants would likely get hurt and missed his shot.
That sword of his was also rather vexing, in her mind. It had many capacities and one of them was to absorb anything that could make it stronger. She knew since she had seen it absorb Hydra venom during a monster hunt a while ago. But on the other hand, it was also a priceless artifact dating back centuries. Harry then showed his hand. Running at high speed towards her, he then stabbed his blade forward. But the Tessaiga was different than usual. The dull side of the blade was covered in greenish scales! Dragon scales if she wasn't mistaken! Sona had never seen all the powers of the Youkai blade and Harry wasn't very forthcoming on the subject, so she couldn't tell in advance what that particular form would do.
She knew that his go-to energy technique was called "Wind Scar" in English and that when the blade became a blood red colour that it could break through Barriers. (Harry had had great fun with it last year, once he had activated that power, into breaking the Barriers she erected around the student council room just to make her practice more…the annoying jerk…) Thus she was very surprised to see him plunge the blade into the water and almost immediately, she saw that her water shield was losing some of its cohesion! Worse, she felt the magic she was continually feeding the water vanish at a faster rate than usual. If the drain kept at this rate, her magic pool would be sucked dry. Magical exhaustion sucked big time.
Her genius mind then came to the conclusion that the Dragon Scaled Tessaiga could absorb and likely cut through all different sorts of energies. Deciding to up the ante before Harry could get his claws on her (While he was entirely faithful to Rias and Akeno, the young man had absolutely no qualms into slicing his close female friends' clothing during spars to leave them indecent to gain the advantage and to have a quick peek…) as she really wanted to make him eat his words and didn't feel like ending in her underwear or her birth suit, she called what was left of the water walls and with a simple movement of her right hand, she banished it on the other side of the gym, carrying away her surprised foe with it.
Sona had a hard time holding in her snickers when she saw Harry get out of the deluge she threw at him while coughing, threw her a baleful glare from his glowing green and golden eyes all the while shaking his body like a dog getting out of the water to get rid of it from his hair and robe. Sona also remarked that Tessaiga was no longer sporting the Dragon scales along the dull side of the blade. Thus she then theorized more or less correctly that after a certain time of inaction, the sword went back to its default setting automatically. The Youkai Smith who made that blade was a bloody genius. There wasn't anything quite like it today.
Deciding to chide him a bit, she said with a somewhat haughty tone because she knew it bothered him since Harry had an aversion to what he called "snooty people"
"Do you have enough now Potter? Are you willing to apologize for your comments and abide by the School Rules or do you need another lesson of Etiquette given by yours truly?"
Her answer was a loud snort, a pointed index and a bright bolt of blue light shooting toward her at high speed.
"Huh so he finally decided to use his brand of magic? It's about damn time. "
That was her thoughts as she was dodging what she knew to be a Reductor curse after having looked up Human magic rather recently. So Harry hadn't thrown the towel yet. No matter, she would get him back! The lout had no right to criticize her bust size in public! She knew he was doing it only to get a rise out of her, but he knew that she was sensible about that subject! What with every female in her entourage except Koneko with a stronger bust than her! It wasn't her fault that she was a late bloomer!
Her tendency to think too much to the point of getting distracted then played against her. Harry had taken advantage of it to take the offensive again. With his sword in one hand as a back up and the other with the index pointing toward her, he used a spell she wasn't familiar with.
"I got you now, So-so! Carpe Retractum!"
An orange beam of light coming from his palm caught her entirely off guard; it grabbed her (bypassing her defenses like they weren't even there!) then reeled her in toward him! Shocked, Sona could do nothing until she officially lost their bout when she felt herself stumble a bit upon the ground and then felt Harry's clawed hand close delicately around her throat. Even if she felt no pressure at all in his grip and also knowing that he would never willingly hurt her outside their little bouts, there was always some instinctual fear buried deep down. Her Hanyō comrade was very strong physically and when sufficiently angered, he could be downright savage.
She had seen it firsthand after all, like Rias and Akeno, just what those claws of his could do. The assassin employed by the Old Satan Faction that had attacked them, two Clan Heiresses and a Gremory House's ward, in the Human world during an outing in a mall in Osaka, had made the fatal mistake of not taking seriously their male friend because of his hybrid nature. It was the very last mistake he made once Harry had gotten his claws on him. The bloody aftermath was entirely unforgettable and a veritable bitch to clear with the Magical authorities that had first responded to the bursts of uncontrolled Youki and Devilish Energy.
They would have been kept into custody for as long as they legally could be kept detained without having official charges pressed as punishment for the mess caused but the Temple Guardians (The Japanese version of Aurors) had not planned for Serafall's grand entrance, in her real (and quite stunning) body for a change and dressed in a smart business suit, marching into the Guardians' Headquarters like she owned the place and showed the Human world's magical cops that she had more than once earned her Leviathan title.
Coming back to the present, she almost groaned out loud when she saw the mischievous smile and twinkling eyes on his face. He had something planned for her now that she was at his mercy and she was now dreading and anticipating it at the same time. No matter how the situation was like, that demonstration of his power had made her feel rather hot under the collar…
"Now what should my forfeit be…hum…let me think about it for a few seconds…"
Harry said to Sona.
In the end, the Sitri Heiress would have to wear a tasty little sundress on their next day outing in group or a sexy cocktail one that would show off her great legs the next time they'll go Clubbing. That was what he asked of her and even if she was a bit embarrassed, she was a woman of her word. She had lost the match fair and square and she would uphold her part of the bet. It was a standard one with forfeit they put in place every now and then to spice things up and to keep them on their toes.
What Harry didn't knew or even suspected, was the fact that Sona had a big crush on him. She was way too much level headed to let that attraction detract her from running her Peerage and the Student council without forgetting her Devil duties and her regular studies though. But Akeno and Rias were in the know after a session of girl talk (*violent shudders*) and thus had given their permissions for her to share Harry's bed when she felt ready to lose her virginity, be it with or without them as spectators or participants for the event. Of course, Akeno had to make it awkward for the Sitri Heiress by saying
"I do wish you will choose to have us as participants when you will be ready! Adding one girl to the mix will bring on a few more possibilities in our games! Ufufufu…"
While Rias had been day dreaming with glassy eyes and Akeno giggling perversely, Sona had fled with a burning face. She had been so embarrassed! Damn those two!
While the clueless male had never made a move on the Sitri Heiress since he had always been too busy chasing after Akeno and Rias' skirts and had never recognized any subtle hints about the subject, in his mind she was part of his pack and he was still very protective of her. A few obnoxious young Devils had learned the hard way during Youths' Gatherings. Sesshomaru was a well known figure in the Underworld, thus he tended to allow his grandchildren to attend those events.
It was kind of hard to not fall head over heel for such a male specimen like Harry to be honest. She was a Devil for Morning Star's sake! Even if she seemingly seemed anal retentive about authority and rules, real power still turned her on and Harry had plenty! Since Devil society was not patriarchal, polygamy was rather common, so no there was no feeling of guilt over the fact that she was currently lusting over a man already twice spoken for.
If he was too dense to see what was in front of him this whole time, well that was his own problem. Sona was not going to enlighten him until she felt that she was good and ready, not a minute before. After cleaning the mess their fight left all over the place, they powered down the wards and left after extinguishing the lights. Then Harry decided to be the typical immature teenager male by slapping Sona on the ass as a joke, and then wisely decided to run for his life after seeing her now murderous glare.
"You'll never take me alive So-so!"
He declared all the while laughing and running away.
She answered with a tone of righteous fury in her voice
"I don't want you alive! I want you dead by drowning you irritating perverted mutt!"
Then Harry just had to make things worse, stupid testosterone…
Aw, come on now So-so! Don't be like that! Your fine ass was just begging to be spanked. I couldn't resist the invitation!"
His answer was a screech of sheer unadulterated feminine fury that made him wince due to his sensitive hearing, while she ran after him with the intention to at least throttle him. Unfortunately for her, he had too much advance on her and when he turned a corner of a building, she heard the telltale sound of displaced air signalling that he had apparated away. Huffing and coming to a stop, she swore she would get him back for that affront! She didn't know how or even when, but she would get him back for that! Mark her words!
The fire that was her fury would only get more stoked when she realized once she was back in her flat, that when Harry slapped her ass like a Macho, his claws had left tears in her skirt's fabric! That was her favourite school skirt! The mutt would pay dearly for those affronts!
A few days later, Issei saw Asia again, but this time it was while he was wandering around the town at random. He had gotten a few days off, because even if his flesh was healed after what Freed had done to him, it would still take a while longer to totally flush the Light/Holy element out of his now devilish system. As a newly reincarnated low class Devil, he was very vulnerable to the stuff, hence why he was still weakened even days after the fact. During their improvised date, Issei had learned more about his new crush. It turned out that Asia had been excommunicated from The Church after being found out healing a Devil and had been taken in by a few rogue Fallen Angels, ironically the same ones who where currently squatting in the abandoned church in town.
The Ring leader, a Fallen Angel called Raynare who also was Issei's stab happy ex-girlfriend, had spared him when Asia surrendered back to her custody without fighting when she had come to take her back. It was that event which had led to a currently pleading Issei and a conflicted Rias. The Fallen had dropped the bomb saying that she was going to extract Twilight Healing from Asia and keep it for herself, which obviously was not good for the excommunicated Nun's health.
While the redhead was the President of the club and the King of her Peerage, Harry was beholden only to his Lord Grandfather. The Maous and the Pillars Lords had absolutely no authority over him. So between the pleas of
"Please! Let me go save her!"
"I told you Issei, we just can't!"
And after a few series of various similar pleas and refusals, Harry piped up
"Hey listen, since I'm not a Devil, I could go and fetch Hyoudou's little Nun with him since she doesn't know me. You can all sit tight here and wait for our return. There's what, only four Fallen Angels? And they all have only one set of wings, so they are not that strong. I'm more concerned by the Stray Exorcist than the Crows to be honest. From what you told me Hon', he's a competent swordsman if he managed to hold back Yuuto. "
While Issei seemed rather happy with that plan, Rias was not very happy with it and was prompt to tell him
"Harry, that plan of yours is very risky. Even with your strength and speed you can be overwhelmed. And while your sword is a very powerful tool, that's the problem, it's too powerful. Your sword just doesn't do subtle and cause lots of collateral damage when you use its techniques."
The Hanyō shot her back a look that meant "So what?" He was not really the type of guy to concern himself very much with material damage. A few overpowered Reparos here and here would do for most things and for the most complicated restoration; well there was specialists on call for those. In the end, Rias' plan to manipulate Issei into going and make him realize the potential that Promotion had was shot to hell. Harry had not helped things along by wanting to go bash some heads with or without them, so they all decided to go together. If nothing else, it would be a good team exercise.
Once in front of the church, they were delayed by a powerful barrier that absorbed magical attacks to make it stronger. Rias could have likely overpowered it with a concentrated enough Orb of Destruction, but it would have taken too much time. If they wished to save Asia, they were on the clock. It was possible to extract a Sacred Gear from a user, but since they were an integral part of their souls, the extraction killed the previous holder without fault.
Seeing his cue for the barrier breaking, Harry unsheathed his sword and once it was transformed into its true form, he asked
"So, do you want me to break the barrier with subtlety or should I go with a devastating attack with hope to wound and/or weaken our foes?"
The Potter Scion really hoped that Rias would choose the latter. That technique was simply awesome! While Rias was undecided, both Issei and Akeno wanted to go in there with a bang. Asia would not be hurt, for she was needed to be unharmed physically for the ritual. Thus it was a certainty that she would be shielded from any and all harm until the end of the Sacred Gear Extraction ritual. In fact, everyone else present wished to a certain degree to see what his newest technique looked like.
While Koneko and Harry were only acquaintances, since the old feud between dog and cat was burned at a genetic level in the Supernatural world, even she was interested in her ally's prowess. Thus with a false sigh of annoyance, Rias folded to the majority vote and told him
"All right Harry-koi, the flashy way it is. But its better be worth the hassle or else… "
She left her threat hanging. Not that she would really cut him off for so little; Rias was in a serious need of a good fucking after those last few stressful days. But she had to save face in front of her Peerage and to make it look like that she was in charge of things.
After a quick peck to both of his girlfriends' cheeks, Harry had the entire group take a few steps behind him, just in case. Clearing his mind with the help of his Occlumency training, the young man then sent a powerful pulse of Youki down his blade and with a precise extension of his will; Tessaiga now knew what technique to get ready. The sword eagerly answered the mental request by a few deep pulses, like a heartbeat. Harry then brought his blade backward like he was preparing a big strike and after one more heartbeat like pulse from the sword and a growl of effort coming out from Harry's throat, the entire blade gradually but rapidly changed into diamond!
Feeding some more of his Youki to Tessaiga had the desired result of having innumerable and very sharp diamond shards growing at an alarming rate all over the blade! You could also hear them shifting and grinding against each other's during the accelerated growth process! When the now Diamond Tessaiga was glowing to the point that everybody else had to shield their eyes like they were watching the sun to his zenith, Harry slashed the Tessaiga horizontally into the air toward the barrier after calling the technique's name out loud
"Kongōsōha!" (Adamant Barrage!)
Once the name of the technique slipped past his lips, countless spears of diamond escaped the blade at an insane speed and collided against the barrier! It didn't take long for them to destroy it and continue its way toward the doors of the Church. Said doors were destroyed in a record time, and the technique continued its way without losing strength.
While Kalawarner managed to roll out of the way in the nick of time and thus came out unharmed, Mittelt wasn't as lucky since she was fatally impaled after being thrown into the wall behind the broken and desecrated Holy cross. With her vital organs impaled and shredded by the Youki empowered and sharpened diamond spears, she didn't suffer long before departing this world for the next.
Dohnaseek didn't get out unharmed, unfortunately for him, but was still alive. He had lost his left arm up to the elbow and his right leg had a diamond spear deep into the thigh. In fact, it was so deep that the other end was sticking outside of the said thigh; spilling his blood all over the no longer pristine floor. Was he lucky that the bone had been spared? All the while Mittelt's own blood was now starting to paint the wall behind the altar. Also there were now quite many diamond spears embedded into the walls, and also many having ended their flight outside, leaving the place of cult with a look of a Gruyere cheese.
Once the technique was over, the Tessaiga quickly returned to normal once Harry cut the Youki's flow since he didn't think that another salvo was needed. On the Devils' side, they were all in awe about the sheer destructive potential of the technique Harry just employed. While it wasn't exactly on par with the Power of Destruction from the Bael clan, it was more destructive than about anything else! From the Fallen Angels' side though, things were not as rosy.
Kalawarner flew into an apocalyptic rage when she realized Mittelt was now dead and wouldn't come back. Rias' party had to quickly take cover since she started to launch a veritable rain of Light Spears at them, all the while howling like a veritable Banshee!
Dohnaseek, on the other hand, was cursing loudly in multiple languages, many of them now dead. While he could do nothing for his missing arm except cauterizing the wound, if he managed to tear out the diamond spear embedded into his thigh, he could use his magic to heal himself. Admittedly his own healing was not as good as it would be with the help of Twilight Healing, but it would permit him to fight the Devil brats and to pay them back for his grievous wounds.
The problem in that was that no matter what and how hard he tried, the bloodthirsty Fallen Angel wasn't having any luck at pulling the damned spear out! He paid little mind to how Kalawarner went berserk due to Mittelt's demise. In his mind, the weak perished and the strong survived, it was as simple as that. Mittelt's death showed that she was weak. So it was good riddance to bad rubbish in his opinion.
He was about to start launching his own barrage of Light Spears when he heard a male voice call out loud
"Fulmenifer!"
From the blasted doors came a thick and forked bolt of blue lightning that slammed into Kalawarner, electrocuting her, making her lose her concentration thus dissipating her Light Spears and then crash to the ground hard, all the while convulsing violently. That spell threw Dohnaseek for a loop though since it was not Devil magic. Devils did not need incantations to use the Arcane Arts.
"Human magic?"
How come a party of Devils managed to cast a Human magical spell? There was no Magic Circle beforehand and the bolt had been blue, not yellow. Then an almost forgotten memory came back to him in full force, making the sole male Fallen in this Operation snarl in anger and sheer hatred loudly
"WIZARD!"
Dohnaseek loathed Wizards and Witches even more than anything else in the entire world, Heaven and Underworld included! Those faithless heathens denied God's very existence and replaced him with a Half Demon sorcerer (Demons were the ancestors of Devils and are as of now, entirely extinct. Youkais are often called Demons by Westerners but they aren't.) called Merlin, of all people! To add insult to injury, those Heathens had the sheer gall to worship Pagan Deities like the Greek Hecate and the Celt Gods instead of the God of The Bible! His multiple tentative to smite them all down to the very last innocent child was the reason he became a Fallen Angel in the first place.
Well that and his lust of blood and battle. Calling to him his own Magic Circle, he sent what he had fondly called "The Death Beam" toward where he was sure the Abomination was. The Death Beam was a clever mix of Light/Holy Element and the Death energy wielded by the more common Killing Curse.
But while no magical shield in existence could hold back the Unforgivable Curses, Yuuto's newly imagined mirror blade and his skills as a swordsman were quite enough to reflect the Death Beam to the sender, thus sending him to his "Next great adventure". All the while, Akeno and Harry combined their Lightning spells to make a quite bigger and still forked green coloured bolt, piercing through Kalawarner's still convulsing torso, cauterizing the fatal wound and sending her meet her cohorts in the next world. Once the invading party was sure of the final defeat of their opponents, they did enter what was left of the church.
Koneko, the strongest of them physically, didn't take long to kick down the altar, revealing a secret staircase under it. Rias, wanting to do something worthwhile, conjured a globe of light and sent it ahead downstairs. Contrary to them, while Harry's vision was really sharp, he couldn't see in total darkness like it was daylight. And that way, they could be certain that nothing would be waiting in ambush somewhere. They were good true, but they were not invincible. In fact, their respective trainers were only just starting to take the kids gloves off now that they were nearly ready for some hardcore and intense training… Both Koneko and Harry, possessing the sharpest sense of smell and being the heavy hitters, took the lead.
What they found once arrived downstairs disgusted everyone, even Issei. Asia was strapped to a strange machine that was ironically in the form of a cross and was wearing only a quasi transparent and quite thin white robe that clung to her teenage curves. But before they could teach the sole remaining Fallen a lesson she would not forget anytime soon, they had to get through the legion of Stray Exorcists barring their way. In the end, it was decided to let Issei deal with Raynare as he saw fit and rescue Asia while the rest took care of the small fry. The more experimented members of the Party would only intervene on his behalf if things were about to go south while still keeping an eye on him.
Since they were in so close quarters, Harry couldn't use Tessaiga, it was one of the disadvantages to possess such a big ass sword. But his claws, Wizarding magic and Youki whip were more than enough to do the job. Then to try to lighten the mood somewhat, Akeno proposed something
"Hey everybody! Why not a little wager? The one who kill the most Stray Exorcists win!"
Rias, already reducing foes to ashes and dust with precise and quick marbles of Destruction, asked
"Oh? And what would be the prize for the winner?"
Before Akeno could somehow managed to rope him into being the prize at the end of the bet, Harry quickly said out loud
"Not it!"
And then he went back killing his share of foes with a golden Youki whip forming from the tip of his claws. Normally he wouldn't be killing so indiscriminately, but his foes were true Zealots and would not hesitate to cut him down if given half a chance. So he took them down permanently quickly and decisively.
Akeno pouted a bit, but had to concentrate to fry a few Stray Exorcists who tried to overwhelm her with their superior numbers. Her lightning spells make them see the error of their ways.
In the end, the contest/bet was abandoned. Nobody in their Party truly liked to kill. They had all been trained to do it quick and clean when it was necessary. They also all had been desensitized to the act to be able to hold their feelings about it until they could safely express them out of the battlefield. But even for Supernatural beings, starting to like the act of robbing a life not by sheer necessity or survival but for simple pleasure was a slippery slope that was bound to end very badly.
While dealing with the small fry was easy, Koneko was no doubt very unlucky when she was confronted by Freed Sellzen. He started his vulgarities filled spiel immediately once he was near her
"Oh, look at what we got there! It's the little pussycat! Come on sweetheart, you know you want a tumble with this man! Let me pet you kitty little pussy!"
He finished by taking hold of his crotch outside his pants and licking his lips in an attempt to replicate a sensual motion of some kind. It failed and horribly at that. Hell, even Raynare looked very disturbed by what she was seeing! When a Fallen Angel was disgusted by how a Stray Exorcist under her command acted, the guy had to be doing something very wrong somewhere!
Koneko had quite the difficulty in remaining impassive. That man was irking her to the highest degree! Their fight was not going into the Nekoshou's favour though. While she was strong enough to send him flying and sturdy enough to resist the Light Bullets of his Light Gun and also agile enough to dodge most swipes of his Light Sword, Freed was much faster than her, making him able to dance between the blows. The petite girl was currently cursing in her mind the fact that she didn't knew much magic outside of the Basics taught to every young Devils. And nothing in that lot would be fast enough to catch Freed off guard.
Basically, her fighting style of "Koneko Smash!" was not a very effective style against a more seasoned and swifter opponent. Thus after overextending herself with a punch that would have tore Freed's head from his shoulders if it had connected, the foul mouthed swordsman managed to knock her out. He was about to finish her off when he had to dodge a golden Youki whip that managed to open a thin trail of blood on one of his cheeks. Had he not dodged, he would have lost his head. Harry had managed to intervene in the nick of time since he had been the closest.
But the change of opponents didn't seems to faze him, since after liking some of his blood from his fingers, the psychotic Stray Exorcist launched into another diatribe
"Well, looky here! After the cat girl now it's the dog boy! What's with the ears man? Y'know Halloween is not for quite a few months yet. And what with the get-up you're wearing? An older design of Kimono or is it a pyjama? Did you just come out of the Warring States Era or a Renaissance Fair? Seriously, dressed like that you look gay. You, Dog boy, are a butt fucker!"
Harry's only answer to the taunting was the raising of his right eyebrow and faster than Freed could see, he was sent further away with a quick Banishing charm. When he jumped back on his feet, it was to receive a basketball sized orb of water into the face, drenching him from head to toe, making him stagger back drunkenly since Harry had put some oomph behind the last spell. Since he had cast it wordlessly, it was less powerful than if he had vocalized it, but it suited the Hanyō's purposes just fine. It wasn't his intention to finish his foe with the Mind's water globe spell anyway. With another jab of his palm and a whispered
"Fulmenifer…"
Another thick and forked bolt of blue lightning flew toward the soaked Stray Exorcist, who finally showed some survival instinct by cursing out loud and throwing himself successfully out of the way of the incoming lightning bolt.
After processing the fact that even the Lightning Bearer spell could be dodged, Harry decided to bust out the combat oriented spells. He would have to practice his non-verbal casting some more during his next training sessions. If there were not at risk of making the church's foundations collapse on their heads and risk killing everyone, he would have just cast a Chain Blasting Curse at Freed and be done with it. But Siege engines spells were not at all recommended in such closed locations. It was a pity, it was so attractively destructive and it got Akeno and Rias into the mood for some fun in no time at all as a nice bonus!
Seeing that his errant thoughts cost him the advantage of range, Harry decided to finish things up since his adversary was now charging rather recklessly at him while howling like a barbarian. All the while waving his Light Sword, since in dodging the Lightning Bearer Spell earlier, he had lost his Light Gun. When Freed was at a bit less than two metres from the Hanyō, he cast the Impediment Jinx with a bored tone of voice
"Impedimenta."
Freed was then slowed down to the point of moving in a very slow motion, like when you forward bit by bit scenes on a DVD. From there Harry could subdue or kill him quite easily. While Freed was admittedly a master swordsman, it seems he wasn't used to fight against Wizards. Harry didn't want Freed to dodge the finisher. Using a direct attack spell could have possibly resulted into his foe dodging at the last second.
So that was why he sent his clawed hand in a knife shape toward his foe's heart with the intention to finish the job while he was still immobilized by the Impediment Jinx. Freed was good, very good even. But even with all his training and experience, he was still human, even if that fact was rather debatable. One way or another, the Stray Exorcist was vulnerable to magic.
While Harry could have ended up the threat with a more lethal spell, he was more a hands on kind of guy. In a way, maybe it was Fate or Murphy who decided to screw the plan, since Freed was knocked away from Potter's claws by the released and uncontrolled energy of Issei's Sacred Gear. Seems the Red Dragon Emperor had managed to win against his stab happy ex-girlfriend. Somehow the energy made the Stray Exorcist tumbles all over a broken part of the nearest wall and fell through a hole there. Since the Impediment Jinx was no longer in effect, Freed decided to cut his losses and leave before someone decided to pursue him. He may be insane bur he wasn't suicidal!
Harry's reaction was thus
"Well, shit."
There goes his mark. He debated pursuing but in the end decided not to. Who knew what the guy had in store if he got the time to set it up? No, better wait for a new opportunity and next time, he would make sure to strike a decisive blow from the beginning. Returning his attention to the other situation, Harry struggled to palm his face in exasperation. Issei only wished for a chance at love and Raynare had no regrets into playing with the boy's heart and crushing it in her hand. It wasn't the emotions expressed out loud that were annoying the Hanyō, but rather the embarrassing display of tears and snot flowing from the Pawn's face. No dignity at all.
In the end, even if the victory was Issei's, they were too late to save Asia. There was only two ways to bring her back to the living and of those two, only one would let her keep her humanity. It was better to either let her became a Devil or to pass on to the next life though. The other way would take too much time. Tenseiga was not easy to access after all.
Rias was mad. No scratch mad, she was downright furious. That uppity Fallen Angel had the sheer gall to try and manipulate Issei into sparring her after everything she put him through! She had enough and was about to finish the job, when a certain sound made her loose her momentum. It was the sound of a phone ringing. And not any regular ringing, it was Highway to Hell from AC-DC.
"livin' easy
lovin' free
season ticket on a one way ride
askin' nothin'
leave me be
takin' everythin' in my stride
don't need reason
don't need rhyme
ain't nothin' that I'd rather do
goin' down
party time
my friends are gonna be there too
I'm on the highway to Hell
on the highway to Hell
highway to Hell
I'm on the highway to Hell…"
The song might have continued but Harry had the good sense of picking up his cell phone. When he was nervous, his parents' British accent made itself known, so he answered with a simple
"Hullo? This is Harry Potter, currently speaking. May I ask who is calling?"
Then his British accent evaporated like snow under the summer sun and with an amused smile he then said out loud when he learned who was on the other end
"Ah, it's you Ero-Datenshi! (Perverted Fallen Angel) What's up? I thought you had a private party at the Playboy Mansion with Hugh Hefner?"
There was only one person that Harry called by that nickname and it was Azazel, the Governor General of all Fallen Angels. Harry never really said how they became friends or at least acquainted enough to give the man an embarrassing but adequate nickname, no matter how Akeno and she tried to pry the information out of him. During School Breaks both Hanyō and Fallen Angel would go together for a few days in a fishing expedition. Snapping out of her thoughts after hearing Harry's voice, she heard next
"So you just learned that you had a few rogues who left the nest so to speak and are in direction of Kuoh? Well, I'm afraid your tip is no longer valid Ero-Datenshi. So did you just call for giving us a late warning or what?"
"What? You wished for us to catch them alive and detain them until you arrive to bring them back to Grigori HQ? You should have sent a SMS earlier this evening or something because as it is, you have a legion or two of dead Stray Exorcists and only your "little" Raynare is still alive. The rest are now in the next world."
Raynare had a constipated look at being called "little", well as much as the look could work while she was still deathly pale. The mission was off the books and Azazel shouldn't have been told. The Governor General was a very mellow type of guy generally, but when it came to dispensing discipline, he could be harsh to the extreme. Some of his punishments could make you beg for the sweet release of Death. Now she knew she was in very deep shit.
Back to the phone call, Harry kept talking
"No, I'm not shitting you, man. The other three are dead as nail and only your phone call saved Raynare's life. What she did to be in that situation? She seduced the Red Dragon Emperor when he was still a human not in the know, killed him on their very first date and he was then reincarnated as a Devil in Rias' Peerage. Ah, she also just finished to extract the Sacred Gear calledTwilight Healing from Asia Argento. Yes, that Rias Gremory, who else has that first name? What?! No! Go fuck yourself Ero-Datenshi! I'm not telling you her measurements! That info is for me alone!"
That tidbit of information made a now awake Koneko crack an amused smile, Yuuto snicker softly, Akeno smile in a raunchy manner, made Issei feel very jealous of his sempai's luck and then made Rias blush heavily. Why were her measurements a topic of conversation?! Ero-Datenshi indeed!
Harry was fed up of having to sort the few nuggets of good info in between of all the crap the twelve winged Fallen Angel was spewing for the sheer hell of it, so he cut to the chase
"Look, will you get to the bloody point? If you don't stop screwing around I'm hanging up right now and I'll send you your little Raynare's remains, if there's any, by Portkey! The girls are in a very sadistic mood right now, particularly Rias who was just about to use her Power of Destruction and it's only the curiosity caused by your phone call that makes them not kill your little pet yet. No, I can't tell them to back off; you know that I'm not the boss of them. "
Seriously, Azazel was more childish than Aquila sometimes and he was thousands of years old! It was hard to think that this crazy guy was the one who assembled those who fell with him and those that came after into an Organization he built with his trusted lieutenants, which became its own Faction. But he wasn't the Governor General for nothing, even if Baraquiel and Shemhazai had to pick the slack when he went into one of his tangents. Believe it or not, there was a method to his madness. Well, most of the time anyway.
"No Azazel, I'm not asking Akeno to do something like that for your entertainment. Yes, I agree with you, she's smoking hot, but my answer is still "no". If I ever ask her something like that, it would be for my eyes only! Seriously Baraquiel would give your balls the electro shocks treatment if you said such a thing in front of him! What? Huh nice. I can't say if she'll accept the deal or not. Okay I'll ask her, gimme a minute."
He then put his call on hold and said to Rias
"Azazel just called to warn us about the four rogue Fallens heading here. He wanted us to detain them until he could send someone trustworthy and strong enough to pick them up if he couldn't make it himself. I told him it's a bit late since everyone except Raynare here is already dead. As compensation for his Faction's mistakes and actions, he said that you could reincarnate Asia as a member of your Peerage once we gave her back herSacred Gear.
He won't even raise a stink since she's technically his by virtue of having being excommunicated by the Church. He wanted us to keep Raynare alive since she's the leader of this ragtag group and he wished to personally interrogate and then punish her as needed. Also he said that he would personally owe you one favour to be called in at anytime and the clean-up would also be on his dime if you accept his deal and don't file a complaint in Maou Leviathan's Office. He also said something about too much Magical Girl for his tastes, but that was more under his breath than anything else. There's something big going on behind his back and he doesn't like it one bit."
In the end, Rias accepted Azazel's deal after much deliberation. While she was busy reincarnating Asia as her new Bishopafter giving her back her Sacred Gear,Harry took things in hand by stunning Raynare, then for good measure he petrified her and also tied her up with conjured chains after enchanting them with a lock-down spell, making it impossible for the captive to use her powers. Magical Law Enforcement around the Globe used that spell or the runic equivalent on handcuffs. His father, having trained as an Auror before their leaving Britain, taught it to him.
The combination of spells on the Fallen Angel would do for transporting her until a more permanent solution could be arranged. Since Rias' Peerage's cover was a School Club, the Occult Research Club did not have prison cells.
So Harry went home to fetch a Draught of Living Death from his mother's stocks of potions and once back to the Club room via Apparition, he removed the Petrificus Totalus from Raynare but not the stunner nor the chains and then force fed her the Draught. Once he was assured that she would not wake up without the antidote, he set her up in one of the rooms his girls used before moving in with him. He almost considered stashing her in a wardrobe, but decided against it, thus he levitated her on the bed. Azazel or his envoy should be there in a day or two to pick her up.
And to be absolutely certain than his sweet and lovely Chibi-Miko Akeno wouldn't accidentally dispose of her due to her hatred towards Fallen Angels, he placed Shinto Holy charms around the door and Wizarding wards, just in case. Overkill yes, but Harry had learned the hard way to never underestimate very determined women. It was bad for the health and had a tendency to come back to bite you on the ass when you expect it the less. Once done, he went to the Magic Circle in the middle deserted Club Room and apparated from there after saying out loud
"Good night Gasper!"
When he arrived in his house and after moving to his bedroom, it was to find his two girlfriends naked as the day they were born, both displaying hooded looks and smiles that promised much, kissing and caressing each other's while lounging on their bed. Seeing the clear invitation, Harry was quick to discard his clothes and to join them. Just as Akeno was now engulfing his manhood for some oral pleasure and Rias straddling his head for her own stimulation, he said out loud to himself
"I absolutely love my life!"
Then he let himself be swept away on a wave of passion.