Chapter 8

The night that the two of them spent together was without a doubt one of the best they ever had. It wasn't even the sex that made it special but the simple act of them cuddling up afterwards, watching the sun set totally oblivious to the discomfort that lying naked in the sand caused. They held onto each other tightly, basking in their lover's warmth. Today would be the day that changed it all, it marked an escalation in their mission as it changed from a simple reconnaissance mission to ferreting out a traitor within the Grigori. Azazel had been briefed about the possibility of a traitor and how the group he had dispatched was receiving false orders. Already he had forwarded additional money as the mission went beyond what he had paid them to do.

They left the island refreshed and relaxed, ready for anything the world could throw at them. When they got back to the Azazel's house, Leo led his lover into his workshop and the two of them loaded themselves for war. Using their dimensional storage areas they set themselves up with a variety of healing items, weapons and support items effective against both dragons and devils.

"Do you think we should set this up?" Cornelia asked, gesturing towards the Ark of the Covenant that he had in a corner of the room. He grimaced, those weren't cheap to create and Heaven strictly regulated them. Technically he wasn't even supposed to have another one as he had used the one they gave him on the island to dispose of the Phenex member, but he decided to create one anyway. One of the problems was moving it around as the dense Holy Energy tended to cause any other magic it came in contact with to mutate into Holy Light. The only effective way to move it was to completely encase it in a magic absorbing box and use a forklift to load it into a vehicle.

"I don't think we need it right now." He said honestly. "While both Gremory and Sitri have potential, at this moment they are hilariously weak. Though if their siblings do show up, we'll need it to level the playing field. Either through threatening to kill their family or using it to weaken them."

"Then I'll set it up a remote detonation." Cornelia said, tinkering with it for a few minutes. In the time that it took for her to rig up the Holy Apocalypse Leo had gotten a flatbed cart, and positioned it by the Ark. With nothing but brute strength Lia tilted the massive gold bomb, allowing him to wedge the cart underneath. Using a couple straps and a winch they got the bomb positioned on the cart, Leo driving it out of him workshop and setting it up in Azazel's house. They weren't too worried about moving it to a certain location as its blast radius was more than enough to cover the entire city, not to mention the shielding on Azazel's home prevented it from being detected. Once that was all set they put on their uniforms and drove to the Academy.

As soon as the school gates were in sight, Leo knew something was off. Tsubaki, Reya, Momo and Sona were positioned at the gates, discretely casting spells on students at they entered the property. What are they doing? He thought, wishing he could pull out his glasses and observe whatever they were casting. While he wasn't sure of the specifics, he recognized the glazed look that some of the student had, while others seemed to have trouble keeping their mouth closed. Compulsions. He guessed, wondering what exactly Sona was hoping to achieve with this. Unable to do anything here in public he wandered into the classroom, mentally composing an application to submit to the club of his choice. He'd submit it at the end of the day, and afterwards would head to the Church.

Sitting at his desk, he couldn't help but smirk as he saw Issei Hyoudou walk into the room looking like death had warmed over. An odd saying as the Death deities he had met were not really that cold to begin with. The boy was moving sluggishly, doing his best to avoid direct sunlight, and had large bags underneath his eyes. When he finally got to his seat his head hit the desk, and nothing that the other members of the perverted trio did was able to stir him from his stupor. The smirk lasted until lunch time, when he finished making his application to hand in to the various club presidents.

Rejected.

His left eye twitched in anger as the club presidents rejected him for the most outlandish of reasons. No one rejected Leopold Asher Aurelianus. NO ONE!

Finding one of the next club presidents he discretely cast a ward around them preventing anyone from entering the area, as well as giving a slight compulsion to leave as fast as they could. Since it was so underpowered to avoid detection the effects weren't instantaneous like he was used to, and he found himself counting down the time it took for the area to be cleared. Once everyone but the president was gone he hit them from behind with a powerful stunner. The next 10 minutes were spent unashamedly ransacking the poor boy's mind as he searched for a reason for his application to be rejected. Should've started with his most recent memory. He grumbled, mentally face palming at his foolhardy mistake.

Fast forwarding through the boy's memories he arrived at the beginning of the day. Everything went well until he entered the academy, watching through the boy's eyes he saw Tsubaki place a hand on his shoulder, a faint tingling running down her spine. His vision became blurry for a moment, but quickly cleared and he continued his walk to his locker. Pulling out of the boy's memories, he shivered in discomfort. Trolling through memories was not something that he liked to do, as it was not only a violation of privacy but also because the more you did it the more likely you were to pick up stray thoughts of the person. Sooner or later all those thoughts would mesh and you would have an identity crisis, unable to tell who you really are and if that really happened to you. Not that he was out of the boy's memories he looked at the rest of his brain, finding exactly what he thought he would, a sliver of magic lodged in his brain, compelling him to follow the caster's order.

Dispelling it would've been easy, as he took a magically formed scalpel to the metaphysical growth, but he didn't want to just dispel it, he wanted to know exactly what was planted in his head. Carefully cutting the foreign magic out of the boy's brain he removed it and brought it out into the open, feeding it his own power to continue its existence. A moment later a multicolored mercurial "thing" appeared in his hand. "Thing" was the best description as it shifted too fast for him to recognize, however one key feature that stuck out was the dark, dirty, oily feeling that holding onto it gave him. Such feelings were common characteristics of devil magic. Still though it didn't matter as how it looked wouldn't tell him what he needed to know.

"I hate this." He muttered lowering his mental barriers. Immediately the "thing" latched onto him, trying to burrow itself deep into his subconscious mind.

It began to whisper into his mind, not an overt whisper, but rather a subtle thing that wormed and nagged at the back of his mind. It was a repeating message, set to a certain beat like a song that you can't just get out of your head. "Reject Leo Aurelianus' application. Reject Leo Aurelianus' application."

He let the message repeat several more times, looking for anything new, but after several repeats with no new information he focused on getting rid of the compulsion. There were quite a few ways to get rid of it, but considering that it had been used on a regular human with little to no magical resistance, the compulsion was quite weak. He easily overpowered it by running his own mana through his body. He shook himself, happy that the foreign power had been purged from his body. Sending a bit of power into the boy at his feet, he dispelled the wards around them, before walking away. He'd have a splitting headache for the next few hours, but there should be no lasting effects. Still though you needed to break a few eggs to make an omelet, and the information that he gained had been worth a bit of discomfort. Walking away from the scene, he cast a spell to scramble the magic signatures in the area, preventing anything from being traced back to him.

Arriving back at the classroom he took his seat, pondering what he had just learned. Point 1. Sona did not want him to sign up for a club. The question was why? Did she want him isolated? To be an outcast from his peers? No that would never work, not without a mass compulsion spell, perhaps she would use something runic in nature? Possibly an array targeting reversing the feelings that everyone had towards a particular target, in this case him. No that would never work, too many variables to account for, not to mention that she might make the other boys in her school fall in love with him.

He paused and shuddered at the thought.

No she must have something else in mind. He thought grimly. Lack of information kills, and he really did not want to be unprepared when facing a tactical mind like Sona who planned ahead in advance. While she might be amateurish in live combat outside of rating games, even an amateur can kill a master with a lucky blow.

Then it hit him. "Game on Sona." He smiled sinisterly, thinking that he had worked out her current plan. He should've known that the suppressors wouldn't block out everything, the question was for how long did she know? What sort of contingencies did she make? Thinking about all these what if scenarios would've given him a headache, so instead he focused on what he was going to do. She doesn't want me to be accepted into any clubs. No club means disciplinary action. However she can swoop in and "save me" by offering a spot on her Council. Does she want me as a member of her peerage? Or to make a contract with me?

He didn't know exactly what she wanted, but doubted it would be good for him in the long run. Let's see. Escape would be trivial, as well as assassinating her if need be. But the latter would certainly leave a trail to follow and the former would confirm her suspicions. "Hmmm. What to do?" He wondered, the outline of a plan beginning to form in his mind. He spent the rest of the class periods going over the plan, until finally the last bell rang, and they were all dismissed.

He made his way to the room that the chess club used, and luckily managed to catch the President, before it got too crowded. Snapping his fingers he broke the compulsion spell that Sona had layered on his mind, transferred it to a small paper and instead replaced it with one of his own making. "Ah. Leo-dono." The club president said, turning to face him. "What can I do for you today?"

"Just looking through the various clubs to join."

The president's eyes lit up like the skyline during the US Fourth of July. "Really, why don't you come over to my desk, and we might discuss the benefits of joining us."

Leo was all but dragged over to the large desk the president had set up for himself. Ruefully he thought he might've overpowered the compulsion spell a bit too much, as the strength the president was displaying was abnormal. Compulsions were a double edged sword when it came to physical bodies, forcing the person to carry out the actions without care for their own bodies, he had once seen a person try to lift a stone pillar because a person compelled them, they did it, but afterwards their muscles had been ripped and torn, bones crushed, and their back broken. Yet they had lifted the stone pillar and done it with a smile on their face albeit spitting blood throughout the entire process.

Forced into a seat by the compelled president, who began to spout dozens of facts about the club, ranging from annual trips, large budgets, and the numerous competitions that they one to random reason to join such as we're better than the Shogi and Go clubs (death to the heretics!).

He had to clean his ears and blink a few times, before ultimately deciding to ignore the bloodthirsty look that the president gained when speaking about those two other clubs. "Well you see no one else…" Was all he managed to say, taking out his application, before it was snatched out of his hands.

The Chess president didn't do more than take a cursory look at the paper before he slammed his stamp on it, approving his application. "Don't worry about this, I'll send it up to the Student Council."

"Allow me." Leo smirked, taking the paper back from the President. His eyes flickered for a moment as he removed his compulsion spell and put the one that had originally been cast on the boy back on him. Hopefully being exposed to two powerful compulsion spells in such a short time would have no side effects on his mind.

Getting up he left the club room, and made his way to the Student Council Room, gently knocking on the door, taking a step back as he waited for a response.

"Enter." Tsubaki called from within the room.

Sliding the door open, he saw all of the members of the Student Council turn towards him. As expected of a group commanded by Sona, no one was absent and they were all busy with their work. "Ah, Leo-san. What can I do for you?" Inwardly she was smirking. The compulsions would've prevented anyone from even entertaining the notion of accepting him into their clubs. With nowhere to turn she'd swoop in like the proverbial guardian angel, and lift his spirits with her generous offer to join the Council.

Only she was a devil, the situation a perfect example of "Deal with the Devil", and if all went well she'd have his soul soon enough.

"I'm here to drop off some paperwork." He answered easily.

"Oh?" Sona asked raising a single elegant brow. "From who? I thought your Homeroom teacher already dropped off the daily reports."

"Nothing so important." He chuckled, pulling out his application and setting it on her desk. "Just dropping this off and then I'll be on my way."

She reached out and took the paper, her eyes going wide. Not that he saw as he had already turned around and walked out the door, chuckling and shooting her a dismissive wave.

"Tsubaki." Sona commanded.

"Hai." Her Queen said stepping closer to her.

"Get me the President of the Chess Club." She hissed staring at the paper in her hand hard enough that it was surprising it didn't spontaneously combust. "Being him to me now."

Tsubaki disappeared in a flash sensing her king's anger. The other members of the Student Council hunched further into their desks, none daring to draw their king's anger. A few minutes later Tsubaki returned with the Chess Club President trailing behind her.

"Sit down." It wasn't a request, as the sheer presence of her words set the boy back onto the seat faster than he could even properly think about his actions. "Did Leo Aurelianus come to you earlier today?"

"Yes." He said confused by the question.

"This is your stamp on his application?" She slid the paper to for him to examine.

"It is." He confirmed after a moment of looking it over.

"Why did you approve his application?" Sona asked pointedly, layering her voice with a powerful compulsion.

"Because I felt like it." The boy said slowly, his eyes glazed over, a bit of drool dripping from the corner of his mouth.

That was perhaps the last answer that she had expected, and it broke her concentration, and more importantly the compulsion she had been weaving.

"Wait…what?" Was all the boy managed to say before he was hit by a stunning spell. "Reya, Momo, Tsubaki, with me." Sona said approaching the unconscious boy.

She extended a probe, finding the spell still in place. Frowning she dug deeper, sifting through his memories, watching the entire scene from his perspective. She didn't understand, one minute the boy was set to reject anything Leo handed him, the next he was pretty much worshipping the ground that Leo walked on. It didn't make any sense! There were no traces of magic being performed on him other than what her peerage had implanted, yet somehow the boy had disobeyed her orders. For a moment she entertained the notion that he was strong willed enough to defeat the compulsion, but it was quickly dismissed. The idea that a normal human defeated her powers was laughable. She was a High Class Devil of the House Sitri bearing the rank of Prince of the 72 Pillars. No her pride would not allow her to think this. Leo must've done something. Some sort of untraceable magic! He must've had a way to defeat her. Now that she thought about it several things began to make sense! His untraceable magic was the cause of the problems she was experiencing

Calm yourself. Her inner voice said, slowing her thoughts. I can't let my paranoia overwhelm me. Think! Analyze! Act!

Taking a few deep calming breaths she spoke up to the other magic users. "So what did you find?"

"Nothing." Tsubaki answered.

"There's nothing wrong with the spells we placed." Momo answered.

"There's something wrong with them." Reya spoke up, flinching a bit as the three others turned their sharp gazes towards her.

"Explain."

Reya waved her hand, a magic circle appearing over the unconscious boy's head before a projection appeared over that. "This was supposed to be a short term compulsion spell."

The other three nodded observing the twisting cyclical structure of the spell.

"I see it." Sona said, glaring at it with the proverbial fury of a thousand suns. Internally she was slapping herself for not noticing it earlier, such a mistake had almost cost her and made her paranoid.

Reya nodded, before swiping her hand once more, zooming into section of the spell's structure. "Since this is a short term spell, only lasting a day, we should be seeing a gradual degradation of the spell structure, at least in theory. Instead what we have here it the structure of the spell in an almost-new state. Now while there is a number of reasons that this could've happened, the only one that really makes sense is that the compulsion spell made contact with a foreign magic power. Because it was cast with the intention of being short lived it was set to be powered by a combination of the power of the caster and drawing a bit on the host like a parasite. Since this person doesn't have any magic in them, the only source that the spell could've fed on was the original power that Tsubaki used to form the spell, thus shortening the duration of the spell even further. Since it looks like this leads me to believe that it fed off another source."

"And there's no way to tell what source this was?" Sona asked.

Reya shook her head. "All I can tell you is that someone tampered with the spell. I'm not sure what they did to it, it might've been nothing more than a few diagnostic charms, but whatever it was, was enough to power the compulsion spell for longer than it was designed for. I recommend that we manually break the spell now, as we don't know the side effects that the tampering might have."

"We'll do it before we release him." Sona nodded, looking at the image once more. "Reya, see if you can blow this part up here."

Her bishop did as she was instructed, a section of the projection growing even larger. A savage smile appeared on Sona's face, as she stared at one of the anchor points on the spell. Got you. "Look here." She said pointing to a certain spot. "There's a minor difference in the spell. It's almost as if someone had ripped it away only to put it back and use their power as a binder. The amazing thing is that the power is gradually being converted and shaped into the spell's structure, a few more hours and we would've never noticed it."

"That's also what's fueling the spell." Reya remarked. "It's not enough for a positive ID, but it can at least put us on the right path." Saying this she cast several diagnostic spells, each one gradually enhancing the image until finally she had a clear signature to the partial power.

"Anything you can tell us?" Sona asked, seeing her bishop begin to extract the foreign magic out of the spell. As soon as she succeeded it had a cascading effect that collapsed the entire spell, wiping out everything.

"Tch." Reya spat. The sample which had already been small enough had almost been ruined, and what little she had wasn't enough to do any invasive testing on. She was left with a sliver of the foreign magic, twisting in her hands it had countess facets and diffused the light that struck it into kaleidoscopic patterns. "Not much. Whoever did this had the entire spell structure self-destruct as soon as someone tried tampering with it. What I can tell you is that they're human."

"That's not much to go on." Sona said shaking her head in annoyance. "At least we learned that someone in our school is definitely a magician, and has a connection with Leo."

"Wait isn't Leo the magician?" Saji spoke up from his desk. "I mean isn't that what we all thought."

"We have no proof." Sona said. Though I have my suspicions and will be keeping a close eye on him. I can't remember the last time I had this much fun. If Leo was the magician responsible, then he surely knew who she was. The both of them were dancing around the issue, Leo leaving no proof of his abilities, all the while she attempted to ensnare him. And I will get him in the end. To her there was no other resolution. "For now though, I want to double the watch on Leo and Cornelia. The address that they have on their application is a front, follow them and find out where their real home is. Then, see what you can do about subtly breaching their defenses, if at all possible I want monitors set up inside the house itself."

"Ano." Saji spoke up shyly. "Don't you think you're going too far? I mean we don't even know if Leo-san is really even a magician."

"And we won't know unless we do this." Sona replied sharply. "Besides, he's wearing power restrictors, carries wands, has an unknown Sacred Gear, and is messing around in my territory. This is the least we should be doing as we know neither his allegiance nor his motives. We already have Fallen operating out of the abandoned church, and it's possible that he's working with them to destabilize my rule. Until we know more about him, we're operating under the idea that he's a potential hostile."

"Shouldn't we alert Gremory-san?" Tsubaki asked.

Sona shook her head. "Rias has enough on her plate training her new pawn and trying to escape her upcoming nuptials. We can handle a lone magician."

Seeing the hard look her Queen was shooting her she compromised. "But at the first moment that things spiral out of our control, I'll alert her and ask for her help." Tsubaki nodded.

"Aurelianus. Aurelianus." Momo kept repeating, rolling the name off her tongue. "I know that I've heard the name before, but I can't remember where."

"Try your best." Reya encouraged her fellow bishop.

"The results from the fingerprint test should be here tomorrow." Ruruko said. "We should be able to find out his real identity."

"That is unless his name is really Leopold Aurelianus, then we've wasted time following a dead end, learning only his name." Saji said.

"Now that I think about it, the name Aurelianus does sound familiar. Like something that I should know." Sona said to herself.

"Maybe we should ask your sister?" Tsubaki voiced.

"No." Sona replied curtly. "There's no need to worry her, we'll solve this ourselves."

Everything looks good. Leo thought, as he left the school. In a few hours the little patch that he inserted would fully bond with the compulsion spell, leaving no definite trace of his tampering. He smiled, laughing at the image of driving Sona up the wall in frustration. He'd get away clean and she'd never know someone messed with the spell.

Yes he was having a great time, and soon enough this job would be over and they could get back on the road doing more important things. Humming, he fired up a teleportation circle, allowing for the magic to whisk him away to the "abandoned" church.

Approaching the main door, he sent a tendril of magic through the wards, tripping the alert ward. It wasn't so much as an attack as a gentle knocking on the wards. A minute later the door opened a bit, enough for Mittelt to cutely stick her head out.

"Hello, Mittelt." Leo said raising a hand in greeting.

She squinted at him, trying to see past any glamours that he might've been wearing. When she was finally sure it was him, after about a minute, she opened the door fully and embraced him. "You're just in time."

"Good." Leo said playfully petting her head. "Is Lia here yet?"

She nodded, stepping back to allow him in. "She's downstairs with Kalawarner and Raynare."

"And Dohnaseek?"

"He's on patrol." Mittelt responded. "He'll be back later on tonight."

They went down the stairs and into the hidden area underneath the altar. Mittelt left him halfway through, making a quick turning and disappearing down another hallway. Homing in on his lover, he quietly opened the door to see Cornelia and Kalawarner lounging across from one another on comfortable looking sofas. A bottle of wine lay open on the table between them next to a stack of papers, the two of them gracefully sipping from a pair of glasses.

Cornelia discretely caught his eye and most importantly the finger over his mouth. She revealed nothing as she shifted her gaze back to the report that she was reading, Leo crouching as he crept up behind his navy azure haired lover.

He could feel her tense as his arms wrapped around her, but she melted into his embrace as he gently laid kisses on her neck.

"Mmmm." She purred, as his arms moved to her shoulder, firmly squeezing and rubbing the tension out of them. "I'd stop if I were you." She let loose a sensual moan as his fingers trailed down her spine. "My lover is quite possessive."

"Really?" He whispered, biting her earlobe. "I'm afraid of no man."

"You should be." She answered.

"Why don't you tell me about him, then?"

"You wouldn't think him a fighter at first glance." She said, thrusting out her chest, allowing his fingers to trail down her magnificent breasts. "But there's a cold and calculating side to him. He's cunning, and able to manipulate events far in advance. He kills with no remorse, and with efficiency unrivaled. Yet there's a fire within, a passion just under the surface waiting to be unleashed. He loves black wings more than white, and likes his scotch neat."

"Sounds like an amazing guy." He said, pointedly refusing to meet Cornelia's rolling eyes.

"Oh he is." Kalawarner moaned, his hand caressing taut stomach. "Lower."

"What would he say, knowing his woman was putty in the hands of another man?" He asked. "That she's nothing more than a bitch in heat."

"Grrr." She growled, before yipping as he grabbed her by her trench coat and ripped it wide open, revealing her black and lacy bra.

"Black…really?" He asked raising a brow. "Is it the uniform for Fallen women?"

"Shut up and take it off." She hissed, as his hand played with her nipples.

Before he could get to the best part, the door opened once more as Raynare and Mittelt walked in.

"Raynare." He hissed, sapphire eyes as cold as the arctic. "Don't you know how to knock?"

"Don't you know how to erect wards?"

"I did." Leo said glumly, before his eyes turned fierce once more. "If you keep cock-blocking me, I'm going to shoot you."

"You already did." Raynare snarled, her raven wings flaring behind her in anger, as a light spear formed in her hand.

"Now, now." Cornelia said, uncrossing her legs and getting up from her seat. "We're all allies here, so there will be no shooting of one another."

"Thank you."

"Even if Raynare is a cock-blocking exhibitionist." She deadpanned. "Don't look at me like that. Even for a species known for lasciviousness you're the only Fallen that wears string and a thong into battle."

"Anyways." Leo interrupted. "Mittelt are you ready?"

The younger girl nodded, swinging a heavy silver briefcase onto the table and opening the lid. Inside were several crystals and a small TV like screen. "Don't say anything about me or Lia. If it's a fake, they won't know we're here and we can use that to our advantage."

She moved one of the crystals, activating the communicator. "Kuoh Recon to Base. Recon to Base."

"Base Actual receiving. Kuoh Recon Authenticate." A male voice said.

"Recon authenticating, using D26 card." Mittelt answered. "Confirm?"

"D26 Confirmed." The other person said. Mittelt reached into the case and pulled out a sealed clear plastic with a folded red sheet of paper in it. Snapping the plastic she unfurled the paper and read it.

"Base, this is Recon, authentication is "Foxtrot-Papa-Tango-Xray-Bravo." Mittelt said reading off half of the code on the paper.

"November-Alpha-Papa-Sierra." The person on the other side continued. "Authentication confirmed. Transferring you to Lord Azazel."

Leo shot her a thumbs up, as she beamed at him. The small screen crackled to life showing Azazel behind his desk. "Ah Mittelt, good. You're mission was just on my mind."

"Lord Azazel." Mittelt said bowing her head. "We're calling to deliver our weekly report." She continued after he waved at her. "Regarding the current mission status. We have suffered no casualties, and the detachment of Exorcists that you have assigned to us has reported 5 stray devils killed. None of exceptional reputation. We believe that the devils are aware of our presence but they have not moved against us, nor have they conducted any sort of intelligence gathering missions. What are your orders?"

'Azazel' was silent for a few moments, his hand rubbing his chin. "Continue as you have been, do not engage unless attacked, and do not fall prey to the taunts and jabs of those filthy devils. What's the status of the target?"

Mittelt hesitated, licking her lips nervously, before she answered her superior. "Target, Hyoudou Issei. Initial infiltration was successful and Raynare managed to lure him into a trap. However before she could deal a killing blow they were…interrupted."

"Interrupted?" 'Azazel' asked coldly. For the briefest of moments, such that Leo almost missed it, the man's eyes flashed red.

"An unknown party, struck Raynare down, before fleeing with the Target."

"Are there any leads on this party's identity?"

Mittelt shook her head. "We think that they might be a part of the Vatican. After one fled with the target, a partner lying in wait prevented anyone from following. Both Rias Gremory and her Queen Akeno Himejima were incapacitated suffering Holy Light poisoning from being shot by Blessed bullets."

'Azazel' was silent for a few minutes, looking over another report. "You said that they were incapacitated? What's their current status?"

"Recovering. Kalawarner, who at the time was acting as support for Raynare, was unable to determine why they were left alive."

"And the Target? Were you able to eliminate him?"

"Negative. We weren't able to without getting into conflict with the local Devils. The target was contacted the next day and was recruited into the Gremory peerage."

"That is…unfortunate." 'Azazel' drawled. "Continue to observe him closely, and if the opportunity presents itself eliminate him. For now though you have a new primary mission. A former nun is enroute to your position, I want you to protect her until she arrives at the Church and then contact me for follow-up orders."

"Understood. Can you provide a description for us to look for?"

'Azazel' nodded. "Asia Argento, Caucasian female, 5"1' no more than 100 lbs. Straight blonde hair reaching her waist and green eyes. She prefers wearing a modified nun's habit normally teal, and prominently displays a silver cross. She will be arriving by train within the next few days."

Mittelt wrote down the description. "Got it. This is the end of our report."

"You have your orders." 'Azazel' said, closing the line, the screen going black once more.

"Hooo." She sighed, letting out the tension that she hadn't realized she was keeping. Before she said anything else, she moved the crystal away and sealed up the briefcase once more. "So…that happened."

"That's not Azazel." Leo confirmed. "He's already aware of most of what you reported. And this deal with the nun, somethings off."

"I don't like this." Cornelia spoke up, a frown marring her face. "My instincts are telling me that we're about to be dragged into something larger than us."

"You too, huh?" Leo said sullenly. "For now we'll keep a lookout for the nun, and when we retrieve her report in as ordered. In the meantime, I'll get in contact with some people in the Church and see what I can dig up on this Asia Argento."

"And I'll report this development to Azazel." Cornelia said. "I need to go to the Underworld anyways."

Before they could say anything else, a crystal began glowing an angry red and letting off a klaxon like sound.

"What's that?" Leo asked, forcing his hand away from the holster of his Sacred Gear.

"Warning alarm." Raynare said, hurrying over to it. "It seems like Dohnaseek has run into some trouble and is requesting backup."

"I see." Standing up from his seat he began to make his way up to the vestibule. "Aren't you coming?" He asked with a raised brow. His clothes shifted to that of an exorcist before 3 pairs of black wings emerged from his back. A quick charm shifted his features and turned his unique silver hair into a dull blonde.

Everyone but Mittelt followed him, as they took to the skies.

"You never told me you could fly." Kalawarner said, eyeing his wings.

He snorted. "You never asked. Though these wings are simply a minor application of transformative magics with a layered illusion to give them more of a Fallen look."

"How good's your control?"

"Perfect." He responded. It wasn't a boast or said cockily, just a simple statement of fact. "Why?"

She rolled her wings slightly, drawing herself closer. Shooting his a seductive look, she whispered just loud enough for him to hear. "It's been a fantasy of mine, to be taken in the air."

He was almost forced to eat his earlier words as he momentarily fell into a nosedive, dropping a dozen feet before recovering. He shot his lover a baleful glare, as she whistled innocently.

"There they are!" Lia pointed. As one the four of them dove to the ground, surprising Issei who was in the middle of attacking Dohnaseek. While Raynare and Kalawarner landed next to their comrade, and Cornelia landed several feet away poised to respond to any threats, it was Leo who got in the middle of it, as he drop kicked Issei across the fountain area.

"You okay?" He asked the older Fallen.

"Fine." Dohnaseek answered, landing softly against the ground, and picking up his fedora. Dusting it off he propped it back on his head. "He got in a lucky shot."

"It only takes one." Leo warned, carefully watching as Issei struggled to get back to his feet.

15 minutes ago.

Issei had left his friend's house and was walking home. Along the way, he felt his energy flowing, remembering what Rias had told him the day before about the gradual changes that would occur since he became a devil.

It was the complete opposite of his time during the day, instead of lethargic and depressed, he felt energized to a point he had never felt before. Another change was the increased acuity of his senses, everything from his fearing to his sight. Now even though there were few street lights he was still able to see in front of him as if they were perfectly illuminated.

As he left Motohama's house his feet gradually carried him to the park where his entire life had changed. He walked around the fountain slowly, his eyes looking for any confirmation about the battle that had taken place. A path of grass darker than the others drew his attention, and as he kneeled memories of that night assaulted him. He could feel himself gagging as the taste of blood flooded his mouth, the sharp pain of being stabbed by a spear of light. He remembered this patch, for it was the one that he bled out on. Standing up he moved to the fountain itself and took a seat on the edge, lost in his own thoughts.

Time passed, and soon the darkness took hold, the last of the day's rays drowned out. A chill ran down his spine, his instincts taking hold as he felt like he was being watched. His body shook in fear, as the feeling grew stronger, and a man appeared. He was dressed sharply in a suit and wore a fedora, but it was his eyes that stood out to Issei. Eyes that stared into his very soul, judging him, and finding him to be no more worthwhile than an ant.

The man walked closer, and the feeling in the air intensified. To Issei with every step the man took, it felt like Death was closing in. "This is unexpected." The man said, his voice a light bass. "I did not expect for our paths to cross so soon."

Fear took over, and his legs tensed ready to flee at a moment's notice. There was no fighting, he was untrained and more importantly had never fought someone before. "Trying to run away Issei Hyoudou?" The man smirked. "Truly, Raynare was right when she said you were weak and cowardly."

Raynare! The name struck a chord inside him, as he remembered his first love. She had manipulated him, played him for a fool, and tore his heart out.

"Where is she?" Issei growled, his anger taking hold of him.

"Raynare?" Dohnaseek asked tilting his head. "Pfft. Like I'd tell you, filth."

He snapped, a lifetime of being looked down upon by others finally caused his anger to boil over, and he launched a clumsy punch at the man while screaming.

"Amateur." Dohnaseek sneered, taking a step back to avoid the wild haymaker. Activating his alert seal, he called for the others to assist him. His hat unfortunately fell from his head, as he took to the air.

"You call me a coward, yet you stay there, refusing to fight." Issei yelled.

""Silence, mongrel!" Dohnaseek jeered. "This may be unfair but at the end of the day, when you're lying in a pool of your own blood and I'm alive, no one'll be able to dispute the effectiveness of my tactics."

Before Issei could say anything else, a black boot connected with the back of his head sending him flying.

"You okay?" Leo asked.

"Fine." Dohnaseek answered, landing softly against the ground, and picking up his fedora. Dusting it off he propped it back on his head. "He got in a lucky shot."

"It only takes one." Leo warned, watching as Issei struggled to get back to his feet.

*Kaboom*

There was a smoking crater between them and Issei, where the fountain used to be.

"How dare you harm my cute servant." Everyone turned to see a beautiful and curvaceous red head walking towards Issei's downed form.

"Crimson Hair. Gremory." Dohnaseek hissed.

"My name is Rias Gremory. How are you doing Fallen Angels? If you continue to harm my servant, then I'm afraid I won't be holding back." Saying that she let loose her violent aura, tainted with the power of destruction it began to erode the very earth around her.

"Weak." Lia said simply, taking a step forward. A brilliant magenta aura poured from her, smothering the power of Rias. The Gremory heiress was stunned at the display, though her resolve was quickly hardened when several footfalls approached them. Yumi Kiba, took her position at her left hand, a black arming sword in hand. Koneko stood in front of her, fingerless gauntlets equipped, ready to beat down any threat. Lastly Akeno was at her right, already dressed in her miko outfit, looking at the Fallen Angels with cold eyes.

"Ara, ara." It seems like there's quite a gathering of crows tonight."

"One might say that it's a murder." Raynare smirked, igniting a light spear in her hand, an action repeated by all the Fallen.

"How craven of you," Rias taunted. "Ganging up on a low class-devil like this. Though what else can you expect from weakling trash."

Raynare, Kalawarner, and Dohnaseek bristled at that. They might've only had two wings but they were veterans who had fought in the Great War. The same war which had claimed so many, they had survived through guile, ingenuity and strategy.

"Do not fall for their tricks." Leo spoke up. "You should know that devils have always relied on their silver tongues to ensnare others." His words managed to calm them down. "What arrogance, thinking that we are weak, only able to defeat a devil en masse."

At that Cornelia took a step back and unfurled 5 pairs of jet black wings. "It is you who is weak." She smirked, her light spear held casually in her right hand as a heater shield formed on her left arm. The tension was thick enough to cut, before the voice of reason finally spoke up. "We'll be leaving now." Dohnaseek said."

The Fallen faction plus Leo nodded, and stepped back, dismissing their weapons.

"Wait!" Issei said finally managing to stand properly. "Yuuma!"

Raynare stopped, and turned to stare at him coldly. "My name is Raynare. Yuuma was nothing but a cover to get closer to you."

"But I-"

"What?" Raynare interrupted. ""You love me?" She laughed cruelly. "Let me guess you thought that I loved you as well?" At his slight nod she laughed once more. "As if I could ever fall in love with a worm like you. Go crawl back into your hole and pray that I never see you again, for next time I do I'll make sure it's the last time."

Giving a cry of anguish the boy ran towards her. Faster than the others could react Leo put himself in the path and drew upon the Holy energy that flowed through him. "Submit yourselves, then, to God, Resist the Devil and he will flee from you!" At his words Issei dropped to his knees screaming in pain, as the verses of Scripture inflicted their damage. The pain from hearing the aria was just the tip of the iceberg as it drew upon his power and faith to enact a miracle. Issei was violently thrown back, landing in a heap at the feet of Rias. That was the straw that broke the camel's back as everyone summoned their weapons once more. "Raynare, Kalawarner, Dohnaseek retreat for now, we'll rendezvous with you later." Catching the eye of his lover he nodded. "Buy me a minute."

She was off like lightning, her first strike neatly deflecting Yumi's attack, while she angled her shield to deflect both Rias' Power of Destruction and Akeno's thunder.

"For thou art my lamp, O Lord: and the Lord will lighten my Darkness." With that said the beginning of a barrier sprang into existence. "For by thee I have run through a troop: by my God have I leaped over a wall." The golden shimmering barrier began to rise higher. "As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him." The barrier was complete, shielding him from all harm. "The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as Holy." Starting his next aria, he channeled his entire being into it, the Holy energy resonating within him and spreading to cover the entire park.

For the devils it was torture as they fell to their knees clutching their heads in pain. "He is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread." His aria instilled within them pure fear. "Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured." Cornelia retreated to his side, her weapons held in a relaxed grip. It might've taken some time for an Aria to complete their quotations, but once they were completed none could deny their effectiveness. Bands of holy light shackled them, forcing them spread eagle. "Bind up this testimony of warning and seal up God's instruction among my disciples."

He was sweating and panting in exhaustion. It had been a long time since he last channeled this much holy energy through his body, and his body for all its strength was still human and humans weren't meant to channel the power of the divine for long. Loudly he proclaimed, "EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED!" A gleaming golden sword materialized and hung suspended above each of the bound devils. "KYRIE ELEISON!"

The Swords descended.